PHOENIX MARS LANDER

PHOENIX MARS LANDER

Overview

Mars is a cold desert planet with no liquid water on its surface. But in the Martian arctic, water ice lurks just below ground level. Discoveries made by the Mars Odyssey Orbiter in 2002 show large amounts of subsurface water ice in the northern arctic plain. The Phoenix lander targets this circumpolar region using a robotic arm to dig through the protective top soil layer to the water ice below and ultimately, to bring both soil and water ice to the lander platform for sophisticated scientific analysis.

The complement of the Phoenix spacecraft and it scientific instruments are ideally suited to uncover clues to the geologic history and biological potential of the Martian arctic. Phoenix will be the first mission to return data from either polar region providing an important contribution to the overall Mars science strategy "Follow the Water" and will be instrumental in achieving the four science goals of NASA's long-term Mars Exploration Program.

1) Determine whether Life ever arose on Mars

2) Characterize the Climate of Mars

3) Characterize the Geology of Mars

4) Prepare for Human Exploration

The Phoenix Mission has two bold objectives to support these goals, which are to (1) study the history of water in the Martian arctic and (2) search for evidence of a habitable zone and assess the biological potential of the ice-soil boundary.

Image Below: This map centered on the north pole of Mars is based on gamma rays from the element hydrogen -- mainly in the form of water ice. Regions of high ice content are shown in violet and blue and those low in ice content are shown in red. The very ice-rich region at the North Pole is due to a permanent polar cap of water ice on the surface. Elsewhere in this region, the ice is buried under several to a few tens of centimeters of dry soil. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/UA

Objectives

Objective 1: Study the History of Water in All its Phases

Currently, water on Mars' surface and atmosphere exists in two states: gas and solid. At the poles, the interaction between the solid water ice at and just below the surface and the gaseous water vapor in the atmosphere is believed to be critical to the weather and climate of Mars. Phoenix will be the first mission to collect meteorological data in the Martian arctic needed by scientists to accurately model Mars' past climate and predict future weather processes.

Liquid water does not currently exist on the surface of Mars, but evidence from Mars Global Surveyor, Odyssey and Exploration Rover missions suggest that water once flowed in canyons and persisted in shallow lakes billions of years ago. However, Phoenix will probe the history of liquid water that may have existed in the arctic as recently as 100,000 years ago. Scientists will better understand the history of the Martian arctic after analyzing the chemistry and mineralogy of the soil and ice using robust instruments.

Objective 2: Search for Evidence of Habitable Zone and Assess the Biological Potential of the Ice-Soil Boundary

Recent discoveries have shown that life can exist in the most extreme conditions. Indeed, it is possible that bacterial spores can lie dormant in bitterly cold, dry, and airless conditions for millions of years and become activated once conditions become favorable. Such dormant microbial colonies may exist in the Martian arctic, where due to the periodic wobbling of the planet, liquid water may exist for brief periods about every 100,000 years making the soil environment habitable.

Phoenix will assess the habitability of the Martian northern environment by using sophisticated chemical experiments to assess the soil's composition of life-giving elements such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and hydrogen. Identified by chemical analysis, Phoenix will also look at reduction-oxidation (redox) molecular pairs that may determine whether the potential chemical energy of the soil can sustain life, as well as other soil properties critical to determine habitability such as pH and saltiness.

Despite having the proper ingredients to sustain life, the Martian soil may also contain hazards that prevent biological growth, such as powerful oxidants that break apart organic molecules. Powerful oxidants that can break apart organic molecules are expected in dry environments bathed in UV light, such as the surface of Mars. But a few inches below the surface, the soil could protect organisms from the harmful solar radiation. Phoenix will dig deep enough into the soil to analyze the soil environment potentially protected from UV looking for organic signatures and potential habitability.

Image Below: Three-dimensional image of the Martian arctic created using data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) aboard Global Surveyor.

Launch Coverage

Spacecraft: Phoenix
Launch Vehicle: Delta II
Launch Location: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Launch Pad: Space Launch Complex 17-A
Launch Date: Aug. 4, 2007
Launch Time: 5:26:34 a.m. EDT


Perfect Early Morning Liftoff for Phoenix
Sitting atop a Delta II rocket, the Phoenix spacecraft experienced a successful early-morning liftoff for the beginning of its journey toward Mars. After a flawless countdown with perfect weather conditions, the rocket roared to life as it lit up the dark morning sky.

Image above: The Delta II rocket with the Phoenix spacecraft onboard lifts off. Image credit: NASA/Sandra Joseph and John Kechele

The Rocket
The Phoenix spacecraft began its journey toward Mars aboard a Delta II rocket. The Delta II is designed to boost medium-sized satellites and robotic explorers into space. NASA selected a model 7925 for this mission, which is a three-stage rocket equipped with nine strap-on solid rocket boosters and a 9.5-foot payload fairing to protect the spacecraft during launch.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander uses its Meteorological Station and its Robotic Arm at the same time in this artist's concept of the spacecraft on the surface of Mars.

The other instruments in the spacecraft's science payload are the Surface Stereoscopic Imager; the Microscopy, Electro chemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer; the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer; the Mars Descent Imager; and the Robotic Arm Camera.

The dark "wings" to either side of the Lander’s main body are solar panels for providing electric power.

The Phoenix mission is led by Principal Investigator Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership with Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. International contributions for Phoenix are provided by the Canadian Space Agency, the University of Neufchatel (Switzerland), the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), the Max Planck Institute (Germany) and the Finnish Meteorological institute. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

In this artist's concept illustration, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander begins to shut down operations as winter sets in. The far-northern latitudes on Mars experience no sunlight during winter. This will mark the end of the mission because the solar panels can no longer charge the batteries on the lander. Frost covering the region as the atmosphere cools will bury the lander in ice.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona

This artist's concept depicts NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander a moment before its 2008 touchdown on the arctic plains of Mars. Pulsed rocket engines control the spacecraft's speed during the final seconds of descent.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona

Why global oil prices are rising

Why global oil prices are rising

Oil is a major source of energy the world over. When energy (read oil) is available at low prices, the outlook towards growth is optimistic and vice versa. Crude oil prices have been rising continuously since 1998, when the price was $10 a barrel.

Since the death of the King Fahd of Saudi Arabia on August 3, crude oil prices have crossed $60 a barrel. Recently, crude prices crossed $70 a barrel as the hurricane Katrina hit the United States and brought production in the Gulf of Mexico to a halt.

All this has led to talk of sustained high prices in the days to come. But, as history tells us, oil is a cyclical business: prices go up only to come down again. So the question that needs to be asked is: why have oil prices been going up and will this increase continues in the days to come?

The oil cartel

Since the mid-eighties, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been acting as a swing oil producer of the world. That is, OPEC produces only to fill the gap between global oil demand and production by non-OPEC countries.

Over the years, the swing production arrangement resulted in OPEC having a lot of idle capacity. This helped OPEC to gain control over oil prices. Whenever the inventory level of oil stocks in industrialized nations, particularly the members of Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) went up, OPEC reduced output.

This artificial scarcity that OPEC manages to create did not allow oil prices to fall.

The same idle capacity has been used to pump extra oil into the market to prevent dramatic price rises during times of unexpected supply interventions. Most of this idle capacity is in Saudi Arabia, the largest member within OPEC.

The country has effectively used its idle capacity in the past to prevent any price increase during the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War and the recent Venezuelan crisis.

But that situation seems to be changing now, with OPEC unable to control the surging global oil prices. OPEC members have been pumping oil as fast as they can with hardly any idle capacity left. Saudi Arabia is the only country that has some spare capacity left. The idle capacity stands at just 0.5 million barrels per day (mbpd) as against 3 mbpd few years back.

So even though there is no shortage of crude oil, the fact that there is no safety net, has made the oil traders jittery. This has led to them demanding a risk premium and so the high price.

Political instability

Most of the known oil reserves are in one part of the world, i.e. West Asia (or the Middle East). The other major petroleum exporting countries are Russia, Nigeria, Indonesia and Venezuela. These countries have been politically unstable in the recent past and this has also led to the oil traders demanding a premium.

Global demand led to oil shock

The main reason, however, for the oil price hike is surge in global oil consumption. The global consumption of oil went up by 3.4% last year. Most of this increase has come from China. China's oil demand grew by almost 16% last year. Although demand has not grown at the same rate this year, as China progresses and more and more people buy cars, China's demand for oil will go up.

And the fact that China is a net oil importing country, its demand for oil will add to the world demand for oil.

But the consumption of oil in the United States remains the biggest reason for this sustained growth in the global oil demand. The US, which has just 5% of the world population, consumes one quarter of the global produce. The oil efficiency of vehicles in the US has now fallen to a 20-year low. Its energy policy does very little to ensure greater fuel economy in cars or sports utility vehicles.

Further, as developing countries keep improving their standards of living (China's oil consumption per person is around one-fifteenth that of America), and automobiles remain a symbol of aspiration, there is only one way where the oil price is headed: upwards.

Also what needs to be understood is the link between oil prices and interest rates. Interest rates the world over have been very low and this, in turn, has led to increased consumption. This, in turn, has led to an increased demand for oil and thus the increase in oil prices. If the prices are high because of high demand they will stay there for much longer.

This was not the case when the world went through supply-led oil shocks, where once the supplies were restored prices fell.

Speculation

Another reason for the northward movement of oil prices is speculation. Some oil experts have recently talked about oil prices touching even a high of $100. If something like this does happen, it will create havoc in the equity markets.

As oil prices go up, energy costs will rise and the cost of doing business will go up. This, in turn, will affect the profit of companies. So big equity funds the world over are investing in oil futures (buying oil futures to buy oil) to hedge against the risk of the value of their other investments falling.

Pension funds have also made a beeline and have poured in a lot of money into securitized investments in oil. This has led to sustained high prices of oil. The fact that OPEC has reiterated time and again that it will not allow prices to fall has helped these speculators.

All the above reasons seem to suggest that oil prices are on their way up. How many dollars a barrel, only time will tell.

The counter argument

Oil revenue is the major source of income for West Asian countries, particularly Saudi Arabia. Also there are the huge oil reserves in Saudi Arabia as well as West Asia. Given this, the Saudis will not want oil prices to stay high for too long. A continuous surge in oil prices may affect their revenue as it might lead to investors putting their money into non-OPEC oil and other alternative fuels.

The assumption in this logic is that West Asia is sitting on huge oil reserves. But there are numerous oddities about the estimates of the West Asian oil reserves.

Even though a lot of production of oil has happened, year-on-year figures of oil reserves have been constant. For example, Saudi Arabia, reported insignificant changes in its oil reserves during 1980-89. Then in 1990, the reported figures showed that its oil reserves had grown by 90 billion barrels (equivalent of 3 North Seas -- one of the biggest non-OPEC oil reserves in the world).

Similar is the case with Iran and Iraq. Why does this happen? This is because of the way OPEC operates. The production quotas for OPEC members are determined by their production capacity and the production capacity is determined by reserves the member country has. So it might turn out to be that OPEC has a lot less oil left than it claims it has.

Alternative fuels

It is said that transportation is the only sector still critically dependent on oil. But that dependence might come down in the decades to come with the development of other technologies like fuel cells. Most of these alternative fuels are not commercially viable as of now. But they might be if oil does touch $100 a barrel, as is predicted.

Besides, with development in the oil extraction technology, the reserves, which were earlier considered to be too expensive to be drilled, may become economically viable. Oil majors are investing in these technologies. After all they need to survive in the market.

The Road Ahead

Governments, the world over, need to put in place energy policies that curtail the demand for oil. Also alternatives to oil need to be seriously encouraged. Brazil has seen an interesting experiment where ethanol mixed with petrol is used.

Oil prices have certainly reached a point that was not even dreamt of a few years back. In the short run, oil prices -- as the current evidence suggests -- will remain high and what happens after that, well your guess is as good as ours.

GROWING FOOD CRISIS- A WORLD-WIDE CONCERN

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (third from left) chairs the inaugural meeting of a high-level task force seeking to devise a strategy to tackle soaring food prices. The plan will encompass both short and longer-term measures – including food aid and social protection – to alleviate the impact of the crisis on the hardest hit. (12 May 2008)

GROWING FOOD CRISIS- A WORLD-WIDE CONCERN

The dramatic rise in world food prices has once again forced hunger to the top of the humanitarian agenda. Aid groups have long been warning about the consequences of trade imbalances and climate change, but food riots in Africa and Asia have finally brought the issue into the limelight. The United Nations said this week that 100 million people are now urgently at risk of not having enough food to eat -- and that includes people on every continent of the world.

Rising fuel costs, erratic weather patterns, and the conversion of land to grow crops for biofuels are all factors. Rising incomes in poorer countries have also increased food demand in recent years, diminishing global reserves. To protect their citizens, some food exporting countries have now limited what they send abroad. And aid groups can't provide as much as they used to.

But the biggest concern may be that these changes are not temporary, since they result largely from fundamental shifts in the global economy and environment.

Groups Working on Food Security

1) ACADEMY FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

AED believes that nutrition is an essential component of human and national development. AED supports nutrition activities, ranging from comprehensive programs to short-term technical assistance, product research and marketing, and evaluation in more than 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, as well as the United States.

2) ACDI/ VOCA

ACDI/VOCA recognizes that in order to succeed in its mission of promoting economic opportunities, we must first ensure that beneficiaries can meet their basic household needs and that vulnerability to future crises is reduced. Through the development of open markets and income-generating activities aimed at the rural poor, ACDI/VOCA increases availability of food in local markets as well as consumer access to food. Furthermore, as needed, ACDI/VOCA and its partners directly provide food rations to vulnerable populations.

3) ACTION AGAINST HUNGER

At Action Against Hunger, our food security programming forms a continuum with the work we do in nutrition. While our feeding centers restore to health individuals suffering from severe and acute malnutrition, our food security programs help prevent future outbreaks of it.

4) ACTIONAID U.S.A.

ActionAid brings the voices of hungry people to the halls of power, where the policies that control the distribution of food and resources are made. We couple insight from our on-the-ground work in Africa, Asia, and the Americas with solid research to craft policy proposals that will bring food to the hungry. We then take these solutions to congress, agency leaders, and other decision makers here in the United States to fight for fair policies that will improve access to food for all.

5) AMERICAS POLICY PROGRAM

The Americas Policy Program is publishing analysis from throughout the hemisphere on how the food crisis is affecting real people. Our first two articles in this series are "Haitian Food Riots Unnerving But Not Surprising" and "The Real Crisis of Argentina's Agricultural Sector." We also have a series called Fueling the Debate: Agrofuels, Biodiversity, and Our Energy Future. Please visit www.americaspolicy.org for our latest analysis.

6) ASIA AMERICA INITIATIVE

Asia America Initiative (AAI) believes that in order to promote peace and community-based economic development in communities living in areas of severe poverty, terror, and armed conflict, we must first ensure their basic human needs are addressed. Our nutrition and agricultural livelihood programs provide health assistance to children and their families suffering from malnutrition and water-borne diseases and our farming programs empower agricultural communities to not only be food-sufficient but provide surplus through international agencies to other communities in desperate need.

7) CENTRE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

"Rising food prices may signal the onset of a new kind of Malthusian era, in which elevated food prices are a long-term reality driven....If that is the case, the world ought to focus on boosting the long-term global supply of food -- including via food-friendly trade policy. A new deal on hunger requires that trade help rather than aggravate food shortages around the world," says the Center for Global Development in an Apr. 21 policy analysis.

8) COPTIC ORPHANS

Coptic Orphans works through a network of over 250 grassroots volunteers in Egypt, where the food crisis has caused riots. Our highly-trained volunteer "Reps" identify children and families who have lost a father and provide access to basic rights such as literacy, food, health, and adequate housing. The BBC reports on the food crisis in Egypt: "20 percent of the country's population lives below the poverty line. Another 13 percent are just above it and for them, any wobble in consumer prices means they go under." In a nation where an estimated 45 percent of children suffer from iron-deficient anemia, with rates much higher for rural female-headed households, access to nutritious food is critical.

9) CORPORATE ACCOUTABILITY INTERNATIONAL

The growing concentration of agricultural production is endangering small farms. In 2002, just 8 percent of American farms accounted for 72 percent of sales. In the developing world, where 70 percent of the people make their living off the land, the situation is even worse. This is why Corporate Accountability International is working internationally to challenge three of the biggest food and agribusiness corporations in the world -- Monsanto, Cargill and Dow -- for poisoning our environment, bankrupting small farmers, and turning basic fruits, vegetables, and meat into luxuries we can't afford.

10) EARTH POLICY INSTITUTE

"Business-as-usual is no longer a viable option. Food security will deteriorate further unless leading countries can collectively mobilize to stabilize population, restrict the use of grain to produce automotive fuel, stabilize climate, stabilize water tables and aquifers, protect cropland, and conserve soils," says the Earth Policy Institute in its latest policy analysis on the global food crisis.

11) GLOBAL GIVING

GlobalGiving connects you to over 450 pre-screened grassroots charity projects around the world. It's an efficient, transparent way to make an impact with your giving.

12) GRASSROOTS INTERNATIONAL

Resource rights, particularly the rights to land, water, and food, are critical for human dignity and survival. Today these are under assault by corporate-led globalization. There is an alternative -- in the vibrant global social justice movement demanding and defending resource rights as basic human rights. That's why we are focusing our efforts to support the work of the different movements and groups that are part of this global phenomenon, primarily small producers such as peasants, small farmers, fishers, farm and forest workers, women, and indigenous peoples. As part of this, we provide support for community-led, sustainable development projects to help secure the human rights to land, water, and food.

13) INDIA RESOURCE CENTRE

India Resource Center believes that "achieving food security will involve consciously planning for the needs of the farmers in India, not abandoning them as has been the case since 1991 when the Indian government began to liberalize the economy. It will also involve guaranteeing genuine land reforms for most Indians, especially in the light that land holding size has been steadily declining over the years." India Resource Center provides a platform internationally for social movements in India.

14) INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES/ FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS

Foreign Policy In Focus is a "Think Tank Without Walls" connecting the research and action of more than 600 scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the United States a more responsible global partner. It is a project of the Institute for Policy Studies. Their articles on food and agriculture policy date back to 1996.

15) InterAction

InterAction members and their local partners are responding through a variety of mechanisms in communities where they have worked for decades, camps that shelter vulnerable populations, and countries where the needs are acute.

16) INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI is committed to providing global food policy knowledge as an international public good; that is, it provides knowledge relevant to decision makers both inside and outside the countries in which it undertakes research. New knowledge on how to improve the food security of low-income people in developing countries is expected to result in large social benefits, but in most instances the private sector is unlikely to carry out research to generate such knowledge.

17) LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF

LWR's programs focus on eliminating the root causes of hunger and poverty, making people self-sufficient and less vulnerable to price shocks. By addressing long-term food security, we enable communities to withstand price fluctuations. In situations of dire need, we may also include immediate food aid along with long-term programming to enhance food security.

18) MADRE

MADRE provides humanitarian aid to communities suffering from acute hunger and malnutrition as a result of economic and political violence and supports projects that ensure a reliable, long-term source of food, potable water, and income for women and their families. MADRE also offers trainings that empower women to advocate for their social and economic rights, including the right to food as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Rome Declaration on World Food Security.

19) MERCY COPS

Mercy Corps' food programs, whether responding to large-scale emergencies or ongoing poverty, concentrate on those who are most vulnerable -- children, the elderly, pregnant women and the homeless.

20) PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK NORTH AMERICA

The Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) works to replace pesticides and industrial agriculture with just, ecologically sound alternatives worldwide. A central challenge we face today is how to strengthen the resilience of our food systems, rural communities, and agro ecosystems in the face of environmental crises. The good news is that achieving sustainable and profitable agriculture is possible in our lifetimes. Accomplishing this transition will require concerted action at both the global and local levels, and from both public and private sectors.

21) WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE

The Worldwatch Institute is an independent research organization known around the world for its accessible, fact-based analysis of critical global issues. Its online feature on food looks at eating local, factory farming, and the nexus of food, climate change, and community health.

TEEN Suicide Mounting in INDIA

Teen suicides Mounting in India

Deep inside the U-shaped complex of Delhi’s premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the clock clacks against the heavy silence in psychiatrist Manju Mehta’s chamber.

A mother sits huddled in front of her. “I want to say sorry for not listening to you,” she stutters as she talks and searches for words, her eyes welling with tears. Neither she nor her husband had accepted Mehta’s diagnosis that behind her son’s falling grades and temper tantrums, lay learning disability and severe depression. “Conduct disorder is his way of gaining self-respect,” Mehta had told them.

The parents, more interested in improving his school performance, had not heeded the advice, “Don’t put pressure on him.” Just before the annual exams, he had suddenly turned over a new leaf: he was nice to everyone, listened to everything his parents said, met up with people he was fond of.

Finally, one afternoon, he took his own life. “I quit,” read the chit lying on his bed.

Being a teenager has never been easy. But in the new millennium, amidst unprecedented prosperity, growing up seems to have become more trying than ever for Indian teens.

While self-inflicted deaths among adolescents in the West are leveling off, India is topping the world in teen suicides. If drugs, alcohol and firearms are the favorite routes to self-destruction in the West, it’s exam stress and inability to cope with disappointments here.

Every 90 minutes a teenager tries to commit suicide in India. Many of these attempts are half-hearted cries for attention, help and love. But every six hours, one succeeds.

More adolescents die of suicide than AIDS, cancer, heart disease, obesity, birth defects and lung disease. In 2006-07 5,857 students took their own life, which works out to a stunning 16 suicides a day, says the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

While the global teen suicide rate is 14.5 per 100,000, a 2004 study by the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, reported 148 for girls and 58 for boys in India.

If globally, suicide is the fourth leading cause of teen deaths, in India it is at number one in some pockets and is the third largest killer all across. Over 150 students ended their lives across the country last month.

The grim epithet to their tormented lives is the suicide note. Sometimes they express an inability to cope with pressure, as in the case of a Delhi student who hanged himself from a ceiling fan by his mother’s sari. “Goodbye,” he wrote.

“I can’t take the pressure any longer. I love my family and I hope they will understand.” Ever so often there is helplessness: “I am not doing well in exams,” wrote a girl from Chandigarh to her parents before she took her life, “I can’t even manage my own affairs. I’ve frittered away my college fees on trivia. No one’s responsible for my death.”

At times, there’s self-reproach. “I couldn’t make it because of the exam backlog that I need to clear,” jotted down a student of IIT-Powai while his friends made merry at a campus fest, adding, “But I want to thank my professors and I am sorry for doing this.”

Often there is anger: “I’ll come back as a ghost to haunt my teachers,” read the last note of a student from Bangalore who shot himself in the head.

But what makes teenagers decide that adulthood is not worth waiting for? Until recently, such questions would not have had easy answers.

Lookout for warning signs 90% teens show extreme reluctance to go to school—a classic symptom. Over 70% show depressed, irritable mood, ill-temper, feelings of worthlessness, sadness, or self-hatred; inappropriate guilt and acting-out behavior (missing curfews and unusual defiance). Around 40-50% report headaches, loss of appetite and interest in daily activities and distinct weight change. Over 30% have persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep, excessive daytime sleepiness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating and preoccupation with self. About 48% think about suicide, have obsessive fears or worry about death and plan to commit suicide or actually attempt one.

Source: Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic, AIIMS

“The idea of children becoming clinically depressed is still relatively new,” says Mehta. “Until the 1980s, doctors tended to hold the Freudian view that children are incapable of experiencing depression in the true sense because they don’t yet have a developed superego".

What tips a troubled teen over the edge 43% examination fear 40% sibling rivalry 36% issues at school 33% warring parents 20% fear of punishment 17% death of a loved one 17% distressed parents Source: Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic, AIIMS

“Faster-paced lives with parents absorbed in their own lives and careers, often provoke feelings of alienation, rejection and emotions that can lead teenagers to suicide,” says Dr Rajesh Sagar of AIIMS

Talking to teens Build up rapport in six stages Start with generic experiences—the last holiday, what they like or don’t like. Discuss specific experiences— arguments, exam tension, etc. Thrash out the context in which the above occur—home, school and neighborhood. Talk about the institutions within these contexts, say, friendship and marriage. Experiences and feelings within these institutions—love, attraction and romance Hammer out issues like sexuality, depression or even suicidal ideas. Family matters 90% of depressed teens who respond to treatment have no perception of family discord— parental fights, with other family members or with themselves. Those who respond well report two hours of extra attention from parents, compared to those who do not. 52% of those who get better have parents encouraging sport, recreation and other cultural activities. 46% of depressed teens have pushy and achievement-oriented parents. 50% of depressed children have parents who control every aspect of their lives. Source: Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic, AIIMS

Top Engineering Colleges Of India

TOP ENGINEERING COLLEGES OF INDIA

Rank wise Listing

Why do we need these rankings?

College ranking is a controversial yet a useful guide for many.

Consider this:

• For college-entering students to decide the best option available.
• For colleges to know what they need to improve and where they stand in the pecking order.
• For recruiters and human resource managers to decide the college they would visit for campus interviews and negotiates pay packages.
• For the teaching faculty to decide which colleges to aspire to teach in.
• For students and alumni, for whom it is a matter of pride.

Type of rankings

There are basically three types of rankings:

Government rankings: The central government carries out a survey of engineering colleges every few years. The survey, conducted by the World Bank, is used to arrive at a funding formula for financing colleges under United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and to monitor the progress of the colleges receiving funding.

The government survey is highly respectable and includes comments/suggestions for the improvement needed by the colleges. These are generally not available in public domain.

Academic rankings: These are carried out by leading institutions around the world and sometimes by academic and scientific magazines. The survey is authentic and unbiased, but is of limited use. It is used mainly to boost the ego of a college among similar colleges, to attract talented faculty and to keep flow of money from its patrons.

The Asian Technology Information Program, Tokyo, is a prestigious, non-profit think-tank, which monitors research programs from universities/institutes across Asia and classifies some of the leading universities in a specific research area.

For example, according to ATIP, Indian Institute of Science is among the world leaders in the field of nano-crystal technology research. Similarly, it puts Banaras Hindu University among the leading research universities in the world in the field of application of hydrogen energy to two-wheeler vehicles.

Magazine rankings: Also known as popular rankings, these are the ones that are mostly read by common folk. These are carried out by national magazines as a guide for students and faculty and for the college themselves.

Table A: Overall Rankings

The Top 20
Overall Rank	College	Composite Score
1	IIT Kanpur	77.5
2	IIT Bombay	75.6
3	IIT Madras	73.8
4	IIT Kharagpur	73.1
5	Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi	72
6	IIT Guwahati	71.6
7	NIT Warangal	70
8	NIT Trichy	67.6
9	Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala	66.7
10	Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (DIT), New Delhi	64.5
11	NIT Suratkal	64.2
12	Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad	62.1
13	Punjab Engineering College, Chandigadh	60.3
14	International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad	60.2
15	Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani	59.9
16	IIT Roorkee	59.2
17	NIT Rourkela	58.5
18	NIT Kurukshetra	57.5
19	Indian Institute of information Technology, Allahabad	57.1
20	Delhi College of Engineering, New Delhi	57.1

Table B: Top 5 on Parameters

The Top 5 On Parameters

Placement Rank College Score 1 IIT Chennai 31.2 2 IIT Kanpur 31 3 NIT Suratkal 27.1 4 NIT Warangal 26.4 5 Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (DIT), New Delhi 25.9

Intellectual Capital Rank College Score 1 IT-BHU, Varanasi 11.8 2 IIT Guwahati 9.3 3 Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala 8.3 4 IIT Bombay 8.2 5 IIT Kharagpur 8.2

Infrastructure Rank College Score 1 IIT Kanpur 14.8 2 IIT Bombay 14.8 3 IIT Kharagpur 14.8 4 IIT Guwahati 14.8 5 Krishna Institute of Engineering And Technology, Ghaziabad 14.8

Industry Interface Rank College Score 1 IIT Kharagpur 3.2 2 IIT Bombay 3.1 3 NIT Trichy 2.4 4 Jadavpur University, Calcutta 1.8 5 IT-BHU, Varanasi 1.6

Table C: The Perception Factor

The Perception Factor Rank College Score 1 IIT Kanpur 25 2 IIT Bombay 25 3 IIT Chennai 24.5 4 IIT Kharagpur 24.5 5 IT-BHU, Varanasi 22.4 According to the HR heads' perception, IIT Kanpur and IIT Bombay topped the list

Table D: Performance region-wise

How They Stack Up

N o r t h S No College Overall Rank 1 IIT Kanpur 1 2 IT-BHU, Varanasi 5 3 Thapar Institute of Engg & Technology, Patiala 9 4 Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology, New Delhi 10 5 MN-NIT, Allahabad 12 S o u t h 1 IIT Madras 3 2 NIT Warangal 7 3 NIT Trichy 8 4 NIT Suratkal 11 5 IIIT Hyderabad 14 E a s t 1 IIT Kharagpur 4 2 IIT Guwahati 6 3 NIT Rourkela 17 4 Jadavpur University, Calcutta 25 5 SIT Kolkata (Formerly IIIT) 27 W e s t 1 IIT Bombay 2 2 Government College of Engineering, Pune 24 3 Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Bombay 26 4 International Institute of Information Technology, Pune 34 5 Bharatiya Vidyapeeth's College of Engineering, Bombay 42