Future of construction is in pre-cast methods

06/08/2011 0 Comments read Environment & Development

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 06.08.2011 (The Business Times, Singapore): Tom Lane has combined his childhood fascination with building blocks and savvy business acumen to establish Quicksmart Homes that designs, manufactures and supplies prefabricated building modules for high-end readily available accommodation.

“It is the big boys Lego kit. The modules, designed in Sydney and manufactured in China, come complete with plumbing and electrical fittings, carpet and furnishings. They are quick to install, cost effective, and 30 to 50 per cent cheaper than a traditional building”, says Lane, who founded the company in 2007 with just an architect as partner.

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Australia an ideal home for leading U.S. ICT companies

01/06/2011 0 Comments read Business and Trade, Features, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 01.06.2011 (AMCHAM Australia): With growth in Internet and Globalisation, American Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies have been quick to clinch business, trade and investment opportunities that Australia offers.

A significant research infrastructure, highly skilled and experienced workforce, technology-hungry and solutions-driven customer base, strategic geographical position offering proximity to Asia-Pacific, and an English-language base with multi-lingual capability make Australia an attractive destination for U.S. ICT companies.

Major Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft, Alcatel-Lucent, IBM, Dell, AT&T and Google, amongst others, have set up offices and built research and product development facilities in Australia.

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India, Australia must build thorium based N-reactors: Dr Kalam

20/05/2011 0 Comments read Diaspora, Nuclear Disarmament

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 20.05.2011 (IANS): India and Australia should work together in building Thorium-based nuclear reactors to meet the growing energy needs, said former Indian President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, during his recently concluded four-day (May 17-20) visit to Sydney.

He said, “Thorium-fuelled reactors are supposed to be much safer than uranium-powered ones, use far less material (1 metric ton of thorium gets as much energy as 200 metric tons of uranium, or 3.5 million metric tons of coal), produce waste that is toxic for a shorter period of time (300 years as against uranium’s tens of thousands of years), and is hard to weaponize. In fact, thorium can even feed off of toxic plutonium waste to produce energy. And because the biggest cost in nuclear power is safety, and thorium reactors can’t melt down, they will eventually be much cheaper, too”.

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