Google launches new Search engine for scientific community
San Francisco, Sep 6: Google on Thursday launched a new search engine for the scientific community that will help them make sense of millions of datasets present online.
The service, called Dataset Search, will help scientists, data journalists and geeks find the data required for their work and their stories -- or simply to satisfy their intellectual curiosity.
The new search engine will work like Google Scholar, the company's popular search engine for academic studies and reports.
"Dataset Search lets you find datasets wherever they're hosted, whether it's a publisher's site, a digital library, or an author's personal web page," Natasha Noy, Research Scientist, Google AI, said in a blog post.
To create Dataset search, Google developed guidelines for dataset providers to describe their data in a way that the company (and other search engines) can better understand the content of their pages.
"These guidelines include salient information about datasets: who created the dataset, when it was published, how the data was collected, what the terms are for using the data, etc," Noy said.
Google then collects and links this information, analyses where different versions of the same dataset might be, and finds publications that may be describing or discussing the dataset.
"We encourage dataset providers, large and small, to adopt this common standard so that all datasets are part of this robust ecosystem," said Google.
People can find references to most datasets in environmental and social sciences, as well as data from other disciplines including government data and data provided by news organisations, such as ProPublica.
Dataset Search works in multiple languages with support for additional languages coming soon, said Google.
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CM Siddaramaiah writes to CMs of 8 states on unfair devolution of taxes by Centre
Bengaluru, Sep 11: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said he has written to the Chief Ministers of eight states regarding the "unfair" devolution of taxes by the Union government, and has invited them to a conclave in Bengaluru to collectively deliberate on the issues of "fiscal federalism".
He said he has written to the Chief Ministers of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, and Punjab.
"States with higher GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) per capita, like Karnataka and others, are being penalised for their economic performance, receiving disproportionately lower tax allocations. This unjust approach undermines the spirit of cooperative federalism and threatens the financial autonomy of progressive states," he said in a post on 'X' with "#OurTaxOurRight" hashtag.
"I have invited them to a conclave in Bengaluru to collectively deliberate on the issues of fiscal federalism at a juncture when the Finance Commission needs to make a directional shift & create incentives for growth and better tax mobilisation," he said.
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Siddararamaiah has also posted the letter written to CMs of other states on 'X'.
"As you are aware the 16th Finance Commission has begun its deliberations. The previous Finance Commissions have laid excessive emphasis on equity at the cost of efficiency and performance. As a result, states with higher GSDP per capita and higher contribution to the gross tax revenues of the union are progressively receiving lower shares of the central fiscal transfers," he said.
Stating that during the visit of the 16th Finance Commission to the State of Karnataka, during 29-30, August 2024, he underscored the need to carefully examine the impact of high emphasis given to equity on resource devolution to well performing states, he said, "I have emphasised that the reduction in central financial transfers to well performing states is placing severe limitations on their ability to invest in physical and human infrastructure."
The taxpayers of states, which are net donors to the divisible pool, also expect a fair share of their taxes to come back to them, he said, adding that the Finance Commission therefore needs to carefully balance equity with efficiency and performance.
Pointing out that states with a strong contribution to the country's GDP and Gross Tax Revenue, help build the nation in more ways than one, Siddaramaiah said, therefore, there is an urgent need to balance equity with efficiency and performance for a stronger Union, both politically and economically.
"It is, therefore, important that states which are receiving smaller shares in horizontal devolution, compared to their contributions to the Gross Tax Revenues of the Union, need to articulate a coordinated set of proposals before the Commission," he said.
"It is my pleasure to invite you to a conclave in Bengaluru to discuss these issues further. I will send a separate invitation indicating the dates once we firm up the schedule," he added.
I have written to the Chief Ministers of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, and Punjab regarding the unfair devolution of taxes by the Union government.
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) September 11, 2024
States with higher GSDP per capita, like Karnataka and others, are being penalized… pic.twitter.com/SLqpNwVPDA
