2050 Airbus see through transparent plane

Airline passengers in 2050 will be able to read their children a bedtime story at home or attend virtual business meetings at 35,000 feet thanks to the creation of an “intelligent cabin interior”.

Airbus, who unveiled its vision of the future ahead of next week’s Paris Air show, painted a picture in which everyone on board would be pampered irrespective of how much they paid for a ticket.

In fact cabin classes will be consigned to history. Instead there will be personalised zones, tailored to individual passengers.

No longer will they feel trapped in a darkened tube, instead they will enjoy panoramic views of the skies above and the world below.

Flying fatigue will be a thing of the past, instead a “vitalising zone” will enable people to recharge their batteries so they arrive refreshed rather than exhausted at their destination.

The sense of well being will be enhanced by the use of aromatherapy, with stale cabin air being replaced by aromatherapy scents complete with antioxidants and vitamins being wafted across the plane.

Mood lighting will be used to make passengers feel better and instead of being squeezed into a one-size fits all seat, they will be enveloped in one which moulds to their body.

The seat will not only apply acupuncture but use the heat generated by the passenger to provide some of the power needed to fly the aircraft.

Airbus also believes that the plane of the future will no longer be isolated from the ground below, instead an interactive zone will use holograms to make it possible to play a game of virtual golf or even try on clothes in a virtual changing room.

The plane will, thanks to the use of new materials, be lighter, consume less fuel and have a far lower carbon footprint than aircraft in the skies today.

“Our research shows that passengers of 2050 will expect a seamless travel experience while also caring for the environment,” said Charles Champion, Airbus Executive Vice President Engineering,

“The Airbus Concept Cabin is designed with that in mind, and shows that the journey can be as much a voyage of discovery as the destination.”

Maran owns shares inRIL, RCom Ambani cos

Dayanidhi Maran, the Union Textiles Minister now under fire for allegedly favouring Malaysian telecom company Maxis with licences and spectrum and for running an illegal, free telephone exchange in Chennai for personal or family benefit, has declared assets  worth a meagre Rs 2 crore apart from significant shareholdings.

The disclosures follow a reminder from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) asking Cabinet ministers to declare their assets and business interests in the interests of transparency. Apart from Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, AK Antony, Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar, Murli Deora, Kapil Sibal, Kamal Nath, SM Krishna and Salman Khursheed, Maran is the other minister to disclose his assets so far, says a report in The Indian Express.

Maran and wife hold shares in companies owned by both the Ambani brothers. Reuters

The shareholdings declared by Maran are interesting. Maran and wife hold shares in companies owned by both the Ambani brothers, among them Reliance Industries, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd  and Reliance Communications (RCom), according to details given in the newspaper.

If Dayanidhi Maran is now under pressure to quit for his alleged sins when he was Communications and IT Minister from 2004-07, they largely relate to his actions in the telecom licensing and spectrum space.

It is not known whether he owned shares in RCom when he was minister, but if it’s true, that sends it own message of potential conflicts of interest.

Meanwhile, Maran’s misstatements and obfuscations are beginning to catch up with him. In a fresh disclosure on the free telephone exchange he gave himself when he was Communications Minister, the New Indian Express nailed him for claiming he had only one line.

Thursday’s story in the NIE quotes internal notes from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) as disclosing as many as 323 lines, which were allegedly used by Maran and his brother’s Sun TV group illegally.

Maran’s days as Textiles Minister are numbered.

popular indian painter MF Husain is dead

MF Husain, arguably India's most celebrated painter, died in London late last night. He was 95, and had been unwell for some time

Sources close to the family told MiD DAY that his body would not be brought to India for burial, and that his last rites would be conducted in London.

Husain, who came under intense criticism following his controversial paintings on Hindu goddesses, had been on a self-imposed exile since 2006, and had vowed to never return to India. He had been living in Dubai and London, and was offered citizenship by Qatar in January 2010. He had accepted the offer.

One of India's greatest masters on the world art stage, Husain's paintings regularly fetched over $1 million at auctions around the world. His career began in the mid-1940s when he started painting film posters, but armed with prodigious talent, he was quickly accepted by the art community in Mumbai (then Bombay). In 1947, he joined the Progressive Artists' Group, headed by another art legend, FN Souza.

One of his most controversial paintings was the depiction of Mother India in the nude and was superimposed on a map of India. After a series of sustained protests by Hindu groups, he withdrew the painting from an exhibition, and later apologised.