Starting with the unification hypothesis of mixings of quarks and leptons and small quark-like mixings at the see-saw scale, we find that two large mixings for ν_e —νx03BC; andv_μ—v_τ at the weak scale are obtained as a result of renormalization group evolution and radiative magnification if the three neutrinos are quasi degenerate in masses and possess the same CP parity. We also find thatU_e3 remains small and well within the CHOOZ-Palo Verde bound since the correspondingV_ub for CKM mixing is very small. Several testable pedictions are pointed out.

This is the report of neutrino and astroparticle physics working group at WHEPP-8. We present the discussions carried out during the workshop on selected topics in the above fields and also indicate progress made subsequently. The neutrino physics subgroup studied the possibilities of constraining neutrino masses, mixing and CPT violation in lepton sector from future experiments. Neutrino mass models in the context of Abelian horizontal symmetries, warped extra dimensions and in the presence of triplet Higgs were studied. Effect of threshold corrections on radiative magnification of mixing angles was investigated. The astroparticle physics subgroup focused on how various particle physics inputs affect the CMBR fluctuation spectrum, and on brane cosmology. This report also contains an introduction on how to use the publicly available code CMBFAST to calculate the CMBR fluctuations.

This is the report of the neutrino physics working group at WHEPP-X. We summarize the problems selected and discussed at the workshop and the papers which have resulted subsequently.

The possibility of the unexplained Kolar events, recorded in the 1970s and 1980s, being due to the decays of dark matter particles of mass in the range of 5–10 GeV, is pointed out.

After a brief history, we focus on the present status of HEP and its possible future. Ideas to ensure a healthy growth of HEP in India are discussed. This involves a few major experimental projects in fundamental physics. None of these projects can succeed unless the crucial problem of manpower is solved. A few suggestions are offered towards this aim.

This paper is based on a paper written by M V N Murthy and G Rajasekaran, Pramana–J. Phys. 82, L609 (2014); arXiv:1305.2715. The possibility of the unexplained Kolar events, recorded in the 1970s and 1980s, being due to the decay of dark matter particles of mass in the range of 5 – 10 GeV is pointed out.