Foreseeing a large potential in Flash storage, IBM on Thursday announced its plans to invest $1 billion in Flash research and development.

Increasing popularity of smartphones and tablets has lead to an unprecedented rise in demand for storage over the past few years, and IBM sees a solution in Flash memory that is capable of processing the data faster, more reliably, while consuming less energy than a hard disk drive (HDD).

Google Inc's video-sharing site YouTube has announced that the number of unique users visiting it every month has cross 1 billion.

Announcing the new milestone, the YouTube team said that nearly half of all Internet users are visiting YouTube every month to watch everything from small clips of cute puppies to depressing scenes of social unrest around the globe.

In other words, 1 in every 7 people on the plant or 14.7 per cent of the whole world population is visiting YouTube every month.

The Indian arm of German luxury auto giant Mercedes Benz has declared that it supports industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers' (SIAM's) position on not including automobile sector in the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with European Union.

Mercedes Benz India said it might opt to make its Chakan-based facility as an export destination in case the proposed FTA with European Union takes effect for the automobile sector.

India is experiencing a rise in abortions despite the law becoming stringent and to top it all these abortions are unsafe.

The percentage of unsafe abortions was 66 out of the total number of abortions recorded in 2008.

The central and south Asia recorded about 10.5 million abortions and out of these about 6.5 million had taken place in India.

While doing abortions, women died and the total number of women who died in one lakh abortions was 200. The World Health Organization alongwith New York's Guttmacher Institute released these figures.

India, with 2.4 million HIV patients out of which 1.2 lakh added up last year, is at third position after South Africa and Nigeria. Though evidence proves the decline in the rate by 50% in the last decade still the HIV prevalence in the country is as low as 0.31%, down from 0.36 % in 2006.

The Times of India and Beat Diabetes launch their annual walkathon initiative this Sunday and invite interests Indians to raise Diabetes awareness. Every participant can receive a free diabetes checkup.

Participants will start the walk at Bangalore's Kanteerva Stadium and will lead through the beautiful Cubbon Park. The event is accompanied by entertaining live performances.

In line with the discovery of fake drugs from India, Pakistan and Singapore worth P25 million by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), a suspicious businessman has been arrested.

As the illegal medications were confiscated after surveillance by the NBI, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identified the pharmaceutical products. The agency approved that the drugs are not registered in the Philippines and do not possess necessary labels for approval.

A total of 77 cases of NDM-1 superbug infections have been detected in 13 European countries since 2008, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). A senior health expert says that an effective preventative is prudent use of antibiotics.

The NDM-1 superbug refers to the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, an enzyme that, when carried by bacteria, makes them resistant to almost all known antibiotics. The first reported cases originated in New Delhi, and have since spread out to Australia, Canada, Singapore, the US, Britain and several other countries.

On Thursday, Mumbai-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries announced that it received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to market generic versions of Clarinex tablets and Tiazac capsules. The FDA approval will allow Sun Pharmaceuticals to market the generic drugs in the US.

Organisations all over the world are increasingly realising the importance of education outreach programmes for HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS Alliance recently collaborated with the Indian Government, UN agencies and several NGOs to organise an event aimed at facilitating interaction between children and families living with or affected by HIV.

Contact lenses, which have been giving thousands of people improved eyesight for years, are now being hailed as the latest fashion trend. Many young people are now opting for colored lenses to give themselves a radically different look.

Lenses come in a variety of colors, from green, violet, hazel and blue to black, brown and grey. Preferred Look, a survey conducted by Bausch & Lomb, an international eye health company, found that 50% of Indian youth associate contact lenses with a glamorous look. The survey also showed that students prefer their dates to look glamorous.

A programme that targets HIV+ children is facing cancellation after its global funding agencies decided to pull the plug. The progamme, which was being implemented by Chaha, an NGO, was structured along the strategic priorities of India's National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).

The programme was launched in July 2007 with the goal of improving the welfare of 64,000 children through such provisions as shelter, education and household generation.

In line with Barak Obama’s visit to India, deliberations on the public health sectors represent an important issue in the partnership agenda of India and the US. President Obama recently announced to support India’s effort to launch campaigns in the fight against diseases like HIV or tuberculosis.

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) has just launched its South Asia regional office, at the SL Raheja Hospital, in Mahim, India. The choice of location was strategic, says the hospital's Chief Executive Officer, Ann Keeling; India is quickly become a global epicentre of diabetes.

A recent survey of 10,000 students in Delhi and the NCR region has found that 12-16% suffer from Type 2 diabetes. The unhealthy eating habits and changes in lifestyle among this demographic has been blamed for the early development of the disease. 10 years ago insulin resistance was found in the 40-and-above age group; today it is found among children as young as 12.