ICICI Bank phishing fraud case

The Adjudicator of Tamil Nadu jolted Indian Bankers out of their cozy slumber by his decision on April 12, 2010 in the case of Umashankar Sivasubramaniam Vs ICICI Bank. In this case, the adjudicator PWC Davidar held ICICI Bank liable to pay damages to the extent of Rs 12.85 lakh on an alleged "phishing" fraud incident involving fraudulent transfer of an amount of Rs 6.46 lakh. In the ICICI Bank phishing fraud case, the Adjudicator clearly documents reasons why he considers it necessary to hold the bank liable not only to repay the involved amount, but also interest and other expenses.

In my opinion, ICICI Bank should be glad that it escaped with only a financial liability instead of also being held liable for criminal liabilities under several sections of the Information Technology Act 2000 (ITA 2000) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). There was (and still is), a possibility that criminal liabilities would have stuck onseveral officials of the bank for this phishing fraud incident, including Managers of two of its branches, the CISO, the Directors and the Chairman of the Bank, as well as resulted in jail sentence for the officials.
 
The ICICI Bank phishing fraud case judgment is a landmark judgment in India for several reasons, some of which can be highlighted here.

1. It is a revelation for many in India to realize that there is a judicial office called the "Adjudicator", which it can deliver such decisions. Though Adjudicators are in place for every State and Union Territory in India since March 25, 2003, few have recognized their presence and role. There have been hundreds of phishing fraud cases involving banks over the past few years in India, and a few customers have tried to take legal action for recovery of their losses. However, most phishing fraud victims have approached the Banking Ombudsman or consumer courts in the past. The ICICI bank phishing fraud case was the first instance when a victim recognized the correct jurisdiction for such disputes, and approached the Adjudicator.

Read the complete article here.

How to capture data from remote Computer?

Wireshark Remote Capturing


This short tutorial is without screenshots but a slightly more advanced usecase of Wireshark, namely doing the capture on one box and visualize the captured data in realtime on another box.


Preliminary


The following article describes the way I installed and used the software, I do not issue any guarantee that the same way works for you. You should have some basic knowledge doing things in a shell. As Wireshark runs on a wide variety of platforms, this should work on nearly every platform which are supported by Wireshark and Open-SSH. In my case Debian and Ubuntu were involved.


1. The Problem


It happened that we had some subtle problems regarding DNS, namely regarding Reverse-DNS. Our setup is simple, we have local DNS Servers which forward all queries they can not resolve to an uplink DNS, which should take care for the further nameresolution. The uplink DNS is administrated by another organisation, which led to the usual fingerpointing "we are no guilty, our equipment performs well, we have to invoice you the costs, blabla ...". Sigh. So I thought about how this problem could be further analyzed, and quickly remembered my system described in http://www.howtoforge.com/trafficanalysis-using-debian-lenny. Perfect I thought, the box is already sitting next to the uplink, and it should easily be possible to monitor all traffic which rushes over the uplink, and to have a look on all DNS related traffic, to see what happens.


My first idea was to install Wireshark directly on this box, and with the help of a little X11-forwarding to see whats going on on the uplink. But there was not enough diskspace to install Wireshark and the whole X11 related libraries.


2. The Solution


My next idea was to capture the traffic on the probe into a file, copy this file to my normal box, and read it into Wireshark. But how cumbersome, long-winded, copying files around or at least mount drives over the net. But the solution is so simple. Install tshark (the textmode related little brother of Wireshark) on the probe, call it remotely with the help of ssh, and directly pipe the output of tshark into Wireshark! This solution is from the Wireshark Wiki, but the simplicity enthused and amazed me to write this short Tutorial.


* Setup passwordless ssh login on the probe like described for instance in here, and check that it's working.
* On your local box where your Wireshark sits and waits to do something beneficial simply call it by


wireshark -k -i <( ssh -l root IP-of-probe /usr/bin/tshark -i eth0 -w - port 53 )


and enjoy. The traffic is filtered on the probe, so that you are not knocked down by the vast amount of packages which may travel over your uplink. The captured traffic is transported over a safe, encrypted ssh connection from the probe to the visualization box and you can see in real time whats going on on the uplink.


In my case I did not need to filter out the ssh traffic (as in the example in the Wireshark Wiki), because the sniffing is done on eth0, and the ssh traffic runs over eth1.There are other methods described in the Wireshark Wiki using named pipes, but this method using ssh looked like the easiest to set up to me.


One little problem I had while doing this, that ending Wireshark did not end tshark on the probe, but a
kill tshark
on the probe helped, or, if you are not logged in into the probe


ssh root@probe pkill tshark
should also work.


Regarding our DNS problem I could immidiately see whats going on. ;-)
Find the updated article Here

How to create and use Live USB - Fedora 11 / Fedora 12

How to Make a bootable USB Drive to Install Fedora 11/ Fedora 12 instead of using a physical DVD

Why would I want to make a usbkey installer from the DVD instead of the LiveCD?

If you are installing to a netbook, or otherwise do not have an optical drive (or burner, or media), and you want the extra flexibility of using the regular DVD installer instead of the Live image, then this method will give a useful install medium. You are then free to customize package selection, choose which filesystem you prefer for your rootfs (ext3 OR ext4, btrfs, etc), and rescue mode is available.

Preparing the usbkey

The easiest setup method is to install and use unetbootin, since Fedora's own liveusb-creator and livecd-tools' livecd-iso-to-disk.sh (except for an unofficial patched version) currently do not support putting the DVD installer on USB.

The manual setup method follows:

Firstly download the iso file Fedora-11/12-i386/x86_64-DVD.iso () from a Fedora mirror. Then loop mount the iso on a local mount point such as /mnt/tmp

# mount -o loop /path-to-iso/Fedora-11/12-i386/x86_64-DVD.iso /mnt/tmp

Now plug in the usbkey and then copy the main iso file as well as the images directory from the /mnt/tmp/ directory to the root directory of the usbkey.

# cp /path-to-iso/Fedora-11/12-i386/x86_64-DVD.iso /media/usbdisk/<br /># cp -r /mnt/tmp/images /media/usbdisk/<br />

Next download the boot.iso file from a rawhide mirror from the development/i386/os/images/ directory on the mirror and store it on your computer's hard drive.

From your running F11/F12 system (including an F11/F12 livecd) make sure you have the livecd-tools package installed by doing:

yum install livecd-tools 

Use the "mount" command to find where the usbkey is (e.g. /dev/sdb1) or look at /var/log/messages to find where the key was mounted. Next umount the usbkey either from the desktop icon or using the umount command - but keep a note of where the usbkey is e.g. /dev/sdb1

Now as root run:

# livecd-iso-to-disk path-to/boot.iso /dev/sdb1 

If the key is not bootable then refer to the information below to make it bootable otherwise this command will fail.

Now you should have a bootable usbkey which will run an F11/F12 install. When you boot the key select a hard drive install and select the drive as /dev/sdb1 (or your usbkey drive) and the path should be /

The remainder of the install should be the same as for using a DVD in an optical drive, but when you select options make sure that you select your disk partitioning carefully if you are doing custom partitioning and also make sure that the bootloader is installed on the correct drive (by default it will be installed on the usbkey so you will need to change it to the master boot record on the hard drive.

Intel Core Duo vs. Core 2 Duo

 Intel Core Duo vs. Core 2 Duo : What's the Difference between Intel Core Duo and Core 2 Duo


Core Duo is Intel's first dual-core CPU. It's a whole new architecture for Microsoft, using two cores on a single die, which, put simply, gives you two chips in one package. Running at lower speeds than the old Pentium line, the Core Duo conserves substantial power vs. ratcheting up clock speed while offering what was, at the time, record-breaking performance.

Now there's Core 2 Duo. In many ways Core 2 is the same as Core: The chips are built using the same production process and fit in the same sockets as Core Duo chips. Putting aside Core 2 Extreme (a fancy version of the Core 2 Duo), you won't see many spec changes: Both chips have the same frontside bus speed of 667MHz, but Core 2 Duo is now available at somewhat faster clock speeds (as I write this, 2.67GHz chips are available). The frontside bus communicates between the CPU and RAM (and other components), and it's a notorious performance bottleneck for computers. The Core 2 also has the same L2 cache that the Core has. However, there are architecture changes to the silicon that give the Core 2 more sophisticated processing abilities. Both chips exist in desktop and laptop versions.

Why does all of this matter? Performance, pure and simple. In my tests, Core 2 Duo computers outperform Core Duo computers on tasks across the board, from rendering graphics and video to spell-checking documents. The speed improvement varies widely, but on average it's about 30 percent. That's significant in an industry that thrives on tiny, incremental improvement. Better yet, there's not an appreciable difference in battery life on notebooks, as power consumption for both chips (at the same clock speed) is about the same.

Now let's consider pricing. Initially, Core 2 chips were more expensive than Core, but that has changed, as Core is practically gone from the desktop market now. Surprisingly, you can now get a 2.13GHz Core 2 CPU for less than the price of a 1.66GHz Core CPU. Still, expect to see some systems still on the market that use the Core CPU, especially in laptops. Performance is still very good with Core, so don't feel like you're getting second-class goods if you buy a Core Duo notebook, but remember you are buying a chip that Intel is no longer actively selling, and prices for Core 2 systems aren't really any different than they were for Cores. If it was my money, I'd hold out for a Core 2 system unless you got a great deal on a Core... which will be all but vanished from the market in a matter of months.

Chandrayaan-1 Not A Failure, Finds Water On Moon!

India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 was not a failure indeed. Despite of premature end, Chandrayaan-1 has reportedly found water on the lunar surface -- one of the main mission of the spacecraft. According to The Times newspaper, India's first lunar mission has found evidence of large quantities of water on its surface, before the project was called off.

"It's very satisfying," the newspaper quoted Mylswamy Annadurai, the mission's project director at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru, as saying.

This discovery is credited to the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), an imaging spectrometer, was one of the 11 instruments on board Chandrayaan-I. M3 was aimed at providing the first mineral map of the entire lunar surface.

Both ISRO and NASA, as of now, have refused to reveal anything on this. A spokesman for Brown University had also declined to comment, saying there was an embargo. "It will be a major announcement of a major discovery and is something great for Chandrayaan. It will mark a major leap for India's space programme," he told The Times Of India.

Lunar scientists have for decades contended with the possibility of water repositories. They are now increasingly confident that the decades-long debate is over, says a recent report published by Nature News. "The moon, in fact, has water in all sorts of places; not just locked up in minerals, but scattered throughout the broken-up surface, and, potentially, in blocks or sheets of ice at depth." The results from the NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter are also "offering a wide array of watery signals."

The breakthrough is expected to be announced by NASA on 24 September 2009. According to NASA website, "NASA will hold a media briefing at 14:00 p.m EDT on Thursday, September 24, to discuss new science data from the moon collected during national and international space missions."

Chandrayaan-1 was India's first unmanned lunar probe which was launched by ISRO on 22 October 2008. After suffering from several technical issues including failure of the star sensors and poor thermal shielding, Chandrayaan stopped sending radio signals on 29 August 2009 shortly after which, the ISRO officially declared the mission over. Chandrayaan operated for 312 days as opposed to the intended two years but the mission achieved 95 per cent of its planned objectives.

Top 10 Ways to Unblock WEBSITES...

Top 10 Ways to Unblock Websites

How to unblock websites? These days, Internet filtering and controlled access is the new trend. More business owners are implementing filters within their companies with the purpose of blocking websites. Their intention is understandable but, on the other side, people love freedom and sometimes they feel mistreated. However, here are some things you can do that will help you bypass filters and unblock websites.

1. Use web proxies.
Many free online services allow you to access blocked websites through a proxy server. A proxy server is an intermediary between the user and the server where the request was send. Here is a list with the most known resources of web proxies: Proxy.org, HideMyAss.com, Kortaz.com, KProxy.com and Anonymouse.org 



2. Use VPN connections.
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is like a tunnel over the public network. The advantage of using VPNs over web proxies is that VPNs are more secure because they are using advanced encryption and allow you to access all the applications (mail, chat, browser etc) in complete anonymity and not only the web sites. The most known free VPN is Hotspot Shield.

3. Use Hide IP software.
These are easy to use and even if the main functionality is to hide IP address and unblock websites, there are applications that can provide you more than that – like cleaning online tracks, testing proxies, manually adding proxy etc. Usually if you choose a free software, then this will provide you a minimal number of proxies and no other features than hiding IP address. Not My IP is one of the latest free hide IP address software that has already gained a large market followed by the old UltraSurf which is already very popular. Regarding paid applications that provide more features and have a complex structure, my recommendations are IP Privacy and Hide My IP.

4. Use Toolbars and Firefox add-ons.
Toolbars and Firefox add-ons are in fact software applications that work on specific browsers and with a simple click you can enable or disable online anonymity.

5. Use translation services.
Introduce the link of the blocked website in the translation field (for example in Google Translator) and choose a random language to translate from because translation from English to English is not supported.

6. Use Google cache.
In the Google search field type cache: before the URL of the blocked website. For example type cache:http:/ /www.domain. com

7. Use Internet Archive.
Internet Archive allows you to view blocked websites through the Wayback Machine. This will retrieve all pages of a specific website indifferent if the website is blocked.

8. Use Web2Mail service.
Web2Mail it is a free email service that can sent to your email address specific web pages. You sign up for an account and get set to receive specific websites by email.

9. Change the http of an URL into https
This is the  easiest way to access blocked websites. Of course, this might not work every time but you have many other solutions also. This is the fastest one.

10. Use IP address of the website instead of URL.
To use the IP address of a website instead of URL, you must first find its IP. To do this open command prompt and type: "ping domain.com".

open internet plan

            THE top US communications regulator plans to unveil proposals on Monday for ensuring Web traffic is not slowed or blocked based on its content, sources familiar with the contents of the speech said on Friday. Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski will announce plans to ask his fellow commissioners to adopt as a rule net neutrality and four existing principles on internet access issued by the agency in 2005, one of the sources said.
            Net neutrality pits open internet companies like Google against broadband service providers like AT&T, Verizon Communications and Comcast, which oppose new rules governing network management.    Advocates of net neutrality say internet service providers must be barred from blocking or slowing traffic based on its content.
           But service providers say the increasing volume of bandwidthhogging services, like video sharing, requires active management of their networks and some argue that net neutrality could stifle innovation. “He is going to announce rulemaking,” said one source familiar with the speech due to be delivered at the Brookings Institution, a public policy think tank. The rule proposal will also try to seek greater clarity into what constitutes “reasonable” network management by internet providers. The FCC could formally propose the rule aimed at both wireless and landline internet platforms at an open meeting in October.
         Because of the implications for applications such as internet phone calling services, like those provided by eBay’s Skype and Google, agency staff are expected to propose setting a lengthy public comment period before any final action.
          The Monday speech coincides with a deadline for the FCC to file a court brief in a case against Comcast, which is challenging whether the agency has the authority to regulate actions involving the internet. The FCC is expected to defend its position by arguing that the agency has broad authority under the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Public interest groups praised Genachowski for moving forward with a rule that would protect speech and commerce, predicting the policy move would be a big win for consumers.
         “It will be a big win for consumers if the FCC delivers strong net neutrality rules that apply across all technologies,” Ben Scott, policy director at Free Press, said in a statement. 

Time to Bid Goodbye to VoIP

Just as the Department of Telecom, or DoT, has taken a call to bury IMEI-less handsets that could play into the hands of terrorists, reports suggest that your untraceable Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP services may not live very long too.

Reportedly, India's Intelligence Bureau (IB) has instructed the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to block all Internet telephony services in and out of India till DoT can devise a method to track such calls.

According to the report, "In the absence of Caller Line Identification (CLI) parameters of calls landing from abroad, it's next to impossible to identify the country of location of the caller. The calls passing through the VoIP/IP route contain inadequate parameters rendering it impossible to trace the actual callers. As DoT had conveyed that it is not possible to mandate transmission of CLI from abroad, IB has approached DoT to block such calls till a technical solution is found."

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended the lifting of restrictions on Internet telephony in the country in August 2008.

As per TRAI, there are around 34 companies providing VoIP services in the country. If the block is implemented, it is likely to disrupt the habits and businesses of many.
Source of information is: http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Is_it_Time_to_Bid_Goodbye_to_VoIP/551-106383-613.html
S

Look of top 10 website at Launching

Today few of the websites are very popular in the world of internet. But these very popular website's look when they were launched were totally different. Almost all of those websites have entered with very simple layout. And later on as demand of users is increased they have done changes to make website more and more user friendly.

So, lets see top 10 website, how were they when they launched.

1) Google.com -1996

2) Facebook.com - 2004

3) MySpace.com - 2003

4) Yahoo.com -1994

5) Youtube.com - 2005

6) Wikipedia.org - 2001

7) Msn.com - 1995

8) Apple.com - 1987

9) Drudgereport.com - 1997

10) Amazon.com - 1995

open multiple Gmail/Yahoo Mail accounts in different tabs

          Hi, there. Today we are going to talk about one of the main limitations of our browser. What is you ahev got two gmail / yahoo accounts, and you want to check mails of both of them simultaneously? You cant do in one browser, if you have got two browser then only this is possible. But wait, there is a firefox extension which let you allow this. This extection manages cookies, and so you can loging to as many account of single service provider as you want at  once in single browser in different tabs or windows.

           CookiePie is a Firefox extension enabling you to maintain different cookies storage in different tabs and windows. You can open multiple Gmail/Yahoo Mail accounts in different tabs and windows simultaneously. Developers can use CookiePie to test their Web software with different application users without the need to open different browsers.
Check it here. http://www.nektra.com/products/cookiepie-tab-firefox-extension
See the demo of the extension:

Reserve price for 3G auction at Rs 3,500cr

               India is set to hold spectrum auctions in November following a speedy resolution of linked issues by the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) in its second meeting on Thursday. According to DoT sources, auctions for 3G, Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) and EV-DO spectrum will be held after a preparation of 90 days.  The EGoM has decided to auction four 5X2 MHz slots of pan-India 3G spectrum at a reserve price of Rs 3,500 crore. TOI was first to report about the Rs 3,500 crore reserve price in its August 19 edition. It is additionally putting three 20 MHz slots of BWA spectrum at areserve price of Rs 1,750 crore and one 2X1.25 MHz slot of EVDO spectrum at a reserve price of Rs 875 crore on the block. “The EGoM has supported practically all the Telecom Commission’s recommendations of December,” DoT secretary Siddharth Behura told ToI.

           Both MTNL and BSNL have already been allotted 3G spectrum and have launched services. However, these two public sector firms too, will eventually have to match the highest bid that emerges in the upcoming auctions.  The spectrum auctions are critical as this year’s Union Budget targets a 6.8% fiscal deficit after accounting for Rs 30,000 crore of auction revenue. The reserve price chosen by the EGoM promises to safely net the government upwards of this budgeted figure.

          The decision is also significant as it will permanently alter spectrum pricing, including for 2G, by moving from a government-controlled price to a market-determined one. In 2006, the Trai had recommended a reserve price of Rs 1,010 crore for 3G spectrum. This was later raised by the DoT to Rs 2,020 crore and subsequently doubled to Rs 4,040 crore by the finance ministry. The GoM has chosen a middle path by settling for a reserve price of Rs 3,500 crore.

         The EGoM’s decision is important considering that industry association Auspi has been attempting to convince the government to increase the number of slots placed for auctions, thereby lowering its price by tinkering with the demand-supply equation. Auspi’s secretary general, S C Khanna was quick to accuse the government of spectrum hoarding by deciding to restrict the number of slots. “The reserve price is too high. They should have followed Trai’s recommendation of Rs 2,020 crore,” he said. It is expected that Auspi and its members will explore all its legal options to challenge this decision.

         However, CEO & JMD Manoj Kohli of market leader Bharti Airtel said, “Bharti Airtel is looking forward to participating in the auctions”, he confirmed. According to senior DoT officials, the EGoM is also taking into consideration the Department of Space (DoS) arguments that the auction of spectrum in the S band should be restrained on account of the Defence and Railways critical mobile satellite network requirements and fear of interference between private WiMax players and secret inter-agency government communications. It is learnt that the approval for BWA spectrum has been given conditional to the assurance that it will not cause any interference with the Defence forces satellite network.

Challenger Dip

Here starts the golden era of Naval Research: Nereus

Which is the deepest place of See? I bet, you dont know that. We all know about the highest place on earth, but our General knowleged goes to zero. The deepest are of ocean world is 'Mariyana French', and the deepest place in this deep area is known as 'Challenger Dip'.  The name itselft carry an interesting story.

Swiden scientist named James Pecard, has changed a fish hunting boat into a naval laboratory and given name 'HMS challenger'.  Using this challenger he finds the deepest place in see, and on name of challenger this place is known as challenger dip. After finding the deepest place in ocean,  James pecard also saw dream of reaching there, and he also fulfils the dream. On 23rd january 1960, James pecard and american navy's Don Walse, went to challenger dip in a specially designed submarine by pecard, and since that none has ever managed to reached into such deep.

Once again after so long, a special robotic vehicle designed by nereus group of scientist has reached to challenger dip. Team who developed nereus believes that nereus will start second golden period in the history of naval research.

Nereus is developed by woods Hall osenographic institution. Experts believe that USA have made a robotic vehicle which can touch the bottom part of sea, other contries of the world will start a new race in naval research. Nereus is the name of Sea god's son. Whose half body is of fish and remainig half is of human. Susan humfris says that though today robotic vehicle has touched sea bottom, within upcomming 5 years human included robotic vehicle will be able to go to deep in sea. Using the contemporary technology we can reach upto 60% deep of sea, but using nereus we can reach to the bottom of almost every ocean.

On 31st may, 2007 nereus creates a world record by reaching 10,902 meter deep into the see connected using fible optic cabel with ship named Mono. This distance is 2 kilometers more that the distance between sea level to mount averest.

Mariyana trense in pecific ocean, is a part of 'pecific ring of fire'. It includes world most active volcanos. In the bottom of sea, many on such volcanos became active time by time, which creates tsunami and earthquake. Apart from naval geology, earthquake and tsunami can be studid in deep using nereus.We can study the chemistry of materials available at such deep in sea. Naval world's products can be used for medical purposes.

With the initial experiments of nereus, university of hawai has gathered such an extra ordinary samples that have never been found. That includes strange fluid samples at bottom level of sea and naval live creature world's samples.

Bhuvan : ISRO's answer to Google Earth

Bhuvan : ISRO's answer to Google Earth : Bhuvan Vs Google Earth

In what appears to be a challenge to Google Earth and Wikimapia, the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of ISRO has come up with 'Bhuvan', bringing India's name into the limelight yet again. Bhuvan, which literally means 'earth', is a web-based tool like Google Earth, but it promises better 3-D satellite imagery of India than what is currently being offered by other Virtual Globe software. Moreover, it brings you a host of India-specific features such as weather information and even administrative boundaries of all states and districts.

Bhuvan is equally capable of offering images of the globe, but the best resolution area is India, at least for the time being. "Bhuvan will be able to give you an image from only 10 meters away", an ISRO spokesman said; which means in the Indian subcontinent even a commuter moving on the road can be easily spotted. Bhuvan uses images taken at least a year ago by ISRO's seven remote-sensing satellites in orbit including Cartosat-1 and Cartosat-2.

Unique features

1. Bhuvan allows users to access, explore and visualize 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on soil, wasteland, water resources etc in the Indian subcontinent.

2. It displays multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data.

3. Users can superpose administrative boundaries of choice on images as required.

4. It allows visualization of AWS (Automatic Weather Stations) data in a graphic view and use tabular weather data of user choice.

5. Fly to locations (Enables users to fly from the current location directly to the selected location)

6. It features a Heads-Up Display (HUD) navigation controls (Tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider)

7. Allows navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu (Fly-in, Fly out, jump in, jump around, view point)

8. 3D Fly through (3D view to fly to locations, objects in the terrain, and navigate freely using the mouse or keyboard)

9. Drawing 2D objects (Text labels, polylines, polygons, rectangles, 2D arrows, circles, ellipse)

10. Drawing 3D Objects (placing of expressive 3D models, 3D polygons, boxes)

11. Snapshot creation (copies the 3D view to a floating window and allows saving to an external file)

12. Measurement tools (Horizontal distance, aerial distance, vertical distance, measure area)

13. Shadow Analysis (it sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects of the lighting on the terrain)

14. The Bhuvan portal is designed to run on slow Internet connections.

Bhuvan's edge over Google Earth

Google Earth Bhuvan
Zoom levels up to 200 mt Zoom levels up to 10 mt
Single layer information Multi-layer information
Images upgraded every 4 years Images upgraded every year
No alternate viewing options Options of viewing on different dates
Uses international satellites Uses Indian satellites

Thus, Bhuvan represents, in essence, the whole India on your computer. The next version of Bhuvan is expected to be called Bhuvan ChandraBhumi, which will feature both earth and moon in resolution up to 347 m maximum in near side and 432 m far side which is taken by Chandrayaan. The Bhuvan project demonstrates the country's expertise in both information and space technology.

The Bhuvan can be downloaded from http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/.

Collated by Clint Thomas, Yahoo! India News