Washington, Sept 25 : Low-cost biological sand (biosand) filters can help provide safe drinking water to people in rural and peri-urban areas in developing countries, who are being forced to drink contaminated water due to lack of safer access, suggest experts.

Nearly 1.1 billion people have been drinking contaminated water, with approximately 2.2 million people without safe access dying each year, and most of them are children under 5 years of age.

The biosand filters are capable of dramatically improving the quality of drinking water and has also gained acceptance by the World Health Organization as a viable household water treatment technology,

Satyam Computer Services Limited, spread over an area of 475,000 sq ft, at Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park, Hinjewadi, Pune, promises to provide employment to some 4,750 people. Speaking on the occasion Virendra Aggarwal, Head of Satyam's APAC and MIEA regions said "It is an indication that Pune is becoming India's next IT Hub”. Satyam with 30 development Centers in India and 19 in other parts of the world, aims at helping the global automotive companies and financial services institutions to enhance their customer care via enterprise application and business intelligence optimization projects.

Tuesday saw the Mobile Phone Company Sony Ericsson, making the announcement that a new music service called PalyNow Plus will soon be launched, which will let the users download unlimited music. 

A press release issued by the company said that this new service will be powered by British music-download firm Omnifone. The music will be featured from all four of the largest recording labels. 

The Motorola’s latest mobile phone named MOTORAZR VE20 has been launched by Alltel Wireless. The new RAZR is a very sleek and attractive flip handset with exciting features.

It has touch-sensitive controls. Other than this, the handset has Bluetooth function, 2 mega pixel camera with video, MP3 player with 3.5mm headset jack capabilities, GPS capabilities and an expandable memory slot. 

London, Sept 24 : You can now create your own lab-on-a-chip device by just writing on a piece of paper. All you need is the right paper, ink, and sunlight to create a microfluidic device that can not only test water quality but identify pathogens also.

The new method, developed by George Whitesides and colleagues at Harvard, could help developing countries access the latest lab techniques.

The researchers have found that the pores naturally present in paper can carry liquids just like standard chips.

In order to make impermeable "walls" to confine the fluids into narrow channels, they use a polymer liquid that sets hard when exposed to UV light called photoresist, which is used to etch designs onto silicon chips.

London, Sept 24 : Detecting contamination in water will now take just thirty minutes and thirty dollars, thanks to a new test developed at Australia''''s Environmental Biotechnology Cooperative Research Centre near Sydney.

While natural disasters such as tsunamis or floods often leave local water sources tainted with harmful bacteria, the existing tests for contamination take almost three days to produce a result.

But, the new test takes just half an hour and makes the testing process a lot faster and economical, reports New Scientist.

For detecting the contaminants, antibodies attached to tiny magnets are added to the water.