The first complete 'quantum computer'
Ion trap Sustained quantum information processing on a chip
For decades physicists have dreamed of building a quantum computer that could solve certain problems faster than a conventional counterpart. Actually building such a thing has proven extremely difficult, but in August Jonathan Home and colleagues at NIST unveiled the first small-scale device that could be described as a "quantum computer". The chip can perform a complete set of quantum logic operations without significant amounts of information being lost in transit.
Over the past few years, Home's team has used ultracold ions to demonstrate separately all of the steps needed for quantum computation. But in 2009, the group made the crucial breakthrough of combining all these stages on a single device, which was, in our view, such a significant piece of work that we felt compelled to pick it as our "breakthrough of the year".
The device even looks a bit like an early computer chip – but don't expect it to be running a quantum version of Windows any time soon. Its overall accuracy of 94% is impressive for a quantum device, but this must be boosted to 99.99% before it could be used in a large-scale quantum computer comprising many such processors.
What do the quantum computing experts have to say? "A great step forward and most impressive," said Hans Bachor, at the Australian National University. "A tour-de-force," said Boris Blinov of the University of Washington.
Home was back in the news in November, when he teamed up with David Hanneke and others at NIST to create a quantum computer from two trapped ions. The device can perform at least 160 different quantum-computing operations.
Much more work must be done before quantum computers become a commercial reality – but real progress was made in 2009.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Current affairs
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E-Gram Vishwa Gram was launched by the government of Gujarat in February 2009. This e-village project is being implemented by the Department of Panchayat and Rural Development under the e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).
· The project opens up new horizons for the three-tier Panchayati-Raj Institutions. The scheme envisages the functioning in the state by enabling CommunicationBroadband Connectivity.
· Till now, as many as 13,695 villages have been given broadband connectivity under e-Vishwagram scheme. ( statement of State Panchayat Minister Narottam Patel)
Update: The state government is planning to issue e-ration cards to all citizens and provide services such as telemedicine and online police complaints in the coming days. For this purpose village computer entrepreneurs are being appointed to provide computer services in rural areas under the e-Vishwagram sc
Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises is operational under Credit Support Programme for Micro Small & Medium Enterprises.Through this scheme, the guarantee cover is provided for collateral free credit facility extended by member lending institutions (MLIs) to the new as well as existing small enterprises on loans up to Rs. 100 lakh. In another component of Portfolio Risk Fund’ (PRF) under this programme, Government of India provides funds for Micro Finance Programme to SIDBI which is used for security deposit requirement of the loan amount from the MFIs/NGOs. The Programme also covers Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD) Scheme for Women under which assistance is provided for economic empowerment of women through development of their entrepreneurial skills in non- farming activities.
Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI)
SFURTI is the first comprehensive initiative for focused regeneration of the khadi and village industries sector, based on the cluster development methodology.SFURTI has been introduced in October 2005 with a view to developing around 100 traditional clusters from khadi, village industry and coir sectors for comprehensive development over 5 years. KVIC and Coir Board are the nodal agencies for the scheme .The Scheme Steering Committee (SSC) has approved 118 clusters (32 khadi, 60 village industries and 26 coir) with additional clusters serving as a reserved cluster against any possible ‘dropout’.17 National level institutions have been identified as Technical Agencies under this programme for providing technical support to these clusters.Diagnostic Study Reports (DSR) and Annual Action Plans (AAP) for 96 clusters have been approved by the SSC.69 KVI clusters (29 Khadi and 40 VI) have been operationalized with the distribution of tools, equipments and inauguration of common facility centres. Complementary activities have been intiated in 25 coir clusters.
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Integrated Wastelands Development Programme
The Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP), Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) and Desert Development Programme (DDP) have been consolidated and renamed Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP).
The modified scheme of IWMP is scheduled to be implemented as per the Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects, 2008.The cost norm of this centrally sponsored scheme will be Rs. 12,000/- per hectare for the plains and Rs. 15,000/- per hectare for the hilly and difficult areas. The cost will be shared in the ratio of 90:10 between the Centre and the States. New components for dedicated institutions at State, District and Village level relating to livelihood activities for landless people have been incorporated in IWMP. The watershed projects sanctioned upto Xth Plan will continue to be implemented as per the existing guidelines. In Union Budget 2010-11 a provision of Rs. 2,458 crore has been made for IWMP, including Rs. 245.80 crore for North Eastern Region and Sikkim.
National Agricultural Insurance Scheme
NAIS is in operation since Rabi 1999-2000 season with a view to provide financial support to farmers in the event of crops failures. due to natural calamities, pests and diseases. Presently, the scheme is being implemented in 25 States and 2 Union Territories. An outlay of Rs. 950 Crores have been made in Union Budget 2010-11 for this scheme
Devendra Pandey Committee has been constituted jointly by two ministries of Government of India viz. Environment and Forest Ministry, and the Tribal Affairs Ministry to study and assess the impacts of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (recognition of forest rights) Act, 2006, with regards to the Sustainable Management of Forest Resources.
Study Area:
Committee will study in detail the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and its impact on Forest Management. The deadline of 3 months has been given to this committee for submitting its findings.First Meeting: On February 11, 2010 the first meeting of this committee was held and chaired by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.Members of the Committee: Devendra Pandey who heads this committee is Former DG, Forest Survey of India. Other members of the committee are DG, ICFRE, Dehradun; Dr H S Pabla, PCCF(WL), M P, Bhopal, IGF(EAP); Dr A K Jha, Commissioner, Tribal Research and Training Institute, Pune; A K Srivastava, Director, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, New Delhi, Ashish Kothari, Director, Kalpavrikash, Harini Nagendra, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore; DIG (FP), MoEF; R K Dogra, ADG (E), ICFRE, Dehradun(Member Secretary).Functions of This committee:
· This Committee will study in detail the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and its impact on Forest Management.
· Apart from this the committee has also to identify the role of stakeholders and beneficiaries in the conservation, restoration and regeneration of forests.
· The committee will give its recommendation on measures and guidelines to involve these stake holders in forest restoration and regeneration.
· The committee will also identify opportunities for and recommend measures to ensure convergence of various beneficiary oriented programmes for the forest rights holders taken up by various departments in the states.
· The committee has also to define a new role for the Forest Department vis-a-vis the Gram Panchayat for forest conservation and regeneration.
Rural Business Hubs is an initiative by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry started in 2007. (ref)Rural Business Hubs is a first-of-its-kind Public, Private and Panchayat Partnership which aims to foster and permeate economic growth into and for rural India.The concept of Rural Business Hubs is based upon synnergically link rural products, skills and produces with the marketing and professional skills of the industry to overcome the impending factors which hinder economic growth from reaching rural India. Such impediments are Poor market linkages , weak Infrastructure , Fragmented farms and farming , Many layers of intermediaries , Lack of standardisation and grading etc.Current Situation: Till February 2010, Government has identified 35 districts for Rural Business Hubs intervention programme in consultation with State Governments. So far 26 district RBH workshops have been organised and champion products identified. In addition, financial assistance to 49 projects throughout the country has been extended for establishment of RBH.
Public Health Foundation of India is a response to redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health. PHFI is an autonomously governed public private partnership initiative launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2006. The Foundation is managed by a fully empowered, independent, governing board that has representatives from multiple constituencies. The Board includes senior government officials, eminent Indian and international academic and scientific leaders, civil society representatives and corporate leaders.In the series of Indian Institute of Public Health, the institutes were established in Hyderabad, Gandhinagar, Shillong and Delhi which shall be made operational in this year. Besides Centre of Excellence for Chronic Diseases at IIPH Delhi will augment PHFI’s capacity for research in chronic diseases in India.The next in the series is world-class institute of Public Health which will be set up at Kumarabasta village near Bhubhneshwar, which shall be completed by 2012. A memorandum in this regard is signed by Health and Family welfare Secretary Anu Garg and PHFI president K Srinath Reddy. Please note that IIPH had already signed an MoU to establish eight institutes of Public health in different parts of the country.
Internationalized domain name Research at CDAC
An awareness raising national workshop on IDNs for Indian languages was organized on February 10, 2010 at New Delhi by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), under the aegis of Department of IT, Ministry of Communications and IT.What is Internationalized domain name? An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name which contains at least one label in the software application (such as browsers) containing a language specific alphabets. Internationalized domain names are stored in the Domain Name System as ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange ) strings.
Internationalized domain name & CDAC: To ensure that India and Indian languages have their rightful place in this age of Information Technology (IT) with the entire Globe being integrated into a web-linked village with the knowledge as the sole differentiator, development of convivial Access Technology , CDAC GIST (Graphics and Intelligence based Script Technology) undertook research and study of various IDN related RFCs and their applicability vis-à-vis Indian Languages.Objectives:
1. Primarily to ensure that a user can create and access URL’s in his own language and
2. Closely associated with the above, to ensure that the average user who is little aware of spoofing or phishing or pharming does not suffer financial loss or identity loss.
3. Thus an average user doesn't care about a seemingly trivial URL string unless he comes across it inadvertently and gets robbed. For him, वीत्त.भारत and.वीत.भारत look the same.
4. By clicking on the worng URL, (s)he could be phished or pharmed.
To prevent such spoofing and phishing attacks in IL scenario, a careful study of some scripts is done by CDAC GIST, especially in the area of homographs: characters and their combinations which look alike but are different in reality, as in the example given above..The research is focused on Domain Names in Indian languages for Hindi, Gujarati, Oriya, Urdu, Gurumukhi etc. and includes the following :NamePrep and StringPrep Profile - RFC-3492PunyCode: Bootstring encoding - RFC-3454Variant tables accompanied by the normalization tables were prepared which would help reducing vulnerability of an IDN against homograph attacks.A single all script font (on the line of Sakal Bharati font) is also developed. In this font a special care of code-point wise different but visually similar characters is taken to help them being distinguished visually in the address bar of a browser.
National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)
Government of India is setting up a national intelligence grid called NATGRID.It is a brainchild of Home Minister P Chidambaram. This NATGRID will be fully set up by May 2011 where each individual's data ranging from land records, Internet logs, phone records, gun records, driving license, property records, insurance, and income tax records would be available in real time and with no oversight.
NATGRID & UID:
The government believes that UID project may not be enough to eliminate the risks of terror on the domestic front. NATGRID is currently awaiting the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security.With a UID from the Unique Identification Authority of India being given to every Indian from February 2011, the government would be able track people in real time. A national population registry of all citizens will be established by the 2011 census, during which fingerprints and iris scans would be taken along with GPS records of each household.Basic Idea: The basic idea of the government is to network 21 available databases across government and private agencies to 'flag potential terrorist threats.
How it will work?
These databases will be linked to enable security and intelligence agencies get any information at the press of a button under the National Intelligence Grid. Only 11 selected government agencies will be able to access the grid and a special mechanism will prevent any leakage of data. As such, the raw data will reside with the provider agencies and will be readily available to NATGRID, as it will only take abstracted and approved subsets of information from the original databases.The eleven agencies who will have access to the database include the Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Military Intelligence, Revenue Intelligence, National Intelligence Agency and National Security Council. Personnel from these agencies will be work with NATGRID to liaison with their parent organisations and guide them in usage of the data generated.The new system is being designed to help the government agencies combat terror and threats to internal security by generating "actionable" intelligence through search and retrieval from the networked databases. The grid will have a command centre that will double up as an anti-terror hot line and will have an international connect to network with data available in other countries that is useful to keep a tab on suspects.Who is Captain Raghu Raman: In 2009 Mahindra Special Services Group CEO Captain Raghu Raman had been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) project to strengthen the intelligence sharing and analysing mechanism in the country.He has been hired on a 18 month contract and enjoys the perks of a joint secretary.Captain Raghu Raman is a Former Soldier and during his 10 year stint with the forces he spent time battling counter-insurgency in Punjab, leading troops in active operations in Siachen Glacier, as a UN Peace Keeper in Angola and finally as an instructor teaching tactics and leadership to young officers in the School of Armored Warfare
Action Plan to Enhance Forestry Science
Action Plan to Enhance Forestry Science addresses the issues regarding upgrading the scientific capabilities of India’s forestry establishment include the establishment of the following:
· Forestry Fellowship Programme which will recognise outstanding contributions to forestry sciences, a forestry fellowship programme is being introduced.
· National Forestry Knowledge Forum: A platform where expert knowledge in various issues in forestry will be shared is being developed. This forum will facilitate virtual interactions of experts in forestry. It will be physically located in Delhi and will be open for national and international experts in the field of forestry science.
· National Forestry Information Network: A network is being established with a robust foundation using remote sensing, GIS and MIS. All land based forestry interventions will be geo-mapped and monitored on a time scale, and will be put in the public domain. The process is being guided by a core group of forestry professionals.
· IT for fire monitoring: A programme to use satellite data for early transmission of fire signals to the mobile phones/ PDA’s of field officers is being undertaken. The University of Maryland has agreed to share all active fire data obtained from TERRA and AQUA satellites of NASA every six hours for this. This will not only help in quick fire detection and reducing the response time, but has also helped in identifying fire sensitive areas. This was originally conceived by the MP forest department, which a national e-Governance Award for the initiative.
· National Bureau for Forest Germplasm: A Forest Genetics Resource network is being established along the lines of the Plant Genetics Resource Bureau. The objective would be to identify, characterise, preserve the valuable germplasm of a wide number of forestry species in the country. This will protect our valuable genetic resource against extinction and exploitation.
Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) for modernisation of forestry research was give a special grant of Rs. 100 crore in Budget 2009- 10
National Tobacco Control Programme
On 28 January 2010, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP).Objective:This programme aims to build the capacity of the States and Districts to facilitate effective implementation of the Tobacco Control Laws and to bring about greater awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco.Componets:The proposed NTCP has 3 componets as follows:(A) National level:
1. Public awareness and media campaigns for awareness building and for behavioural change;
2. Establishment of tobacco product testing laboratories, to build regulatory capacity, as required under COTPA, 2003;
3. Mainstreaming the programme components as a part of the health delivery mechanism under the NRHM framework;
4. Mainstreaming Research & training on alternate crops and livelihoods with other nodal Ministries;
5. Monitoring and Evaluation including surveillance such as the Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS).
(B)State level:
1. Dedicated tobacco control cells for effective implementation and monitoring of Anti Tobacco Initiatives;
(C) District level:
1. Training of health and social workers, NGOs, school teachers and the like;
2. Local IEC activities;
3. Provision of tobacco cessation facilities;
4. School Programmes.
Total Outlay:The total financial outlay for the National Tobacco Control programme in the Eleventh Plan is Rs 182 crore.Implemetation:The implementation of the NTCP will increase the awareness of the community about the harmful effects of the tobacco use, make the public aware of the provisions under COTPA, establish tobacco product testing labs and also provide baseline estimates of tobacco prevalence and status of implementation of the Tobacco Control Law. The components of the NTCP at the National level covers the entire country, while the pilot phase will focus on 42 Districts of 21 States. The NCTP is to be implemented in the remaining years of the Eleventh Plan in 42 Districts of 21 States within the NHRM framework from 2010-11.State governments are to work out State and Districts specific Plans in their Programme Implementation Plans (PIPs), depending on their priority. These would include training, sensitisation workshop on awareness building and implementation of the law. The funds for tobacco product testing labs are to be released in a phased manner, so that the labs are set up by 2010-11. The initial recurring expenditure for these labs will be met up to three years, an official release said here. The Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS) is to be completed in April 2010 and the evaluation of pilot phase of NTCP currently under implementation in 42 Districts of 21 States will also be taken up in 2010-11.
e-PRI is a a unique scheme of Panchayati Raj Ministry that proposes to provide a whole range of IT related services to Panchayati Raj Institutions as part of the Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) under NeGP (National E Governance programme).
It has been launched by Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India on January 28, 2010. It would provide the services like Decentralised Database and Planning, PRI Budgeting and Accounting, Implementation and monitoring of Central and State sector schemes, Citizen-centric Services, Unique codes to Panchayats and Individuals, Essential GIS-based applications, On-line Self-learning medium for elected representatives and official functionaries. E PRI also envisages providing computing facilities along with connectivity to all the 2.36 lakh panchayats at a tentative cost of Rs 4,500 crore over a three-year period. Panchayats being the basic unit for planning and implementation of Cenral/States programmes and schemes, 'e-PRI' would be the umbrella MMP where Information and Service Needs Assessment, Business Process Engineering and Detailed Budget Reports for 27 States were ready for access.Objective of e-PRI MMP
· Enabling Panchayats to better deliver its mandated services to the Citizens through IT.
· Enabling PRIs to use IT as a tool for transparency, disclosure of services to Citizens and social audit
· Improving internal management processes and decision making in Panchayats
· Enabling PRIs to use IT for electronic tagging and tracking of funds transferred to Panchayats, including rapid bank transfer of funds, tracking fund transfers to, expenditures of the Panchayats
India's largest non-profit organization Pratham is working in the area of primary education. With a Mission " Every child in school and learning well”Pratham focuses its programs on pre-school and primary education. Seeded by UNICEF in 1994, Pratham was founded in the slums of Mumbai by Dr. Madhav Chavan and Farida Lambay. Pratham serves underprivileged children across 21 states in India. Pratham has has supporting organisations in the US and UK. Pratham USA has been awarded the 2010 Henry R Kravis Prize in Leadership last week. This is a $250,000 (approximately Rs 1.1 crore) award . Madhav Chavan is Pratham's co-founder and chief executive officer.About the Prize:The prize is presented and administered by the Claremont McKenna College and Marie-Josée and Henry R Kravis. Mrs Kravis, an economist, is a senior fellow, Hudson Institute, while Henry Kravis, founding partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, is an alumnus and trustee of the Claremont McKenna College.Past Winners:Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and James D Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president are the past winners of this award
First Tagore Literature Awards 2009
January 25, 2010
First Lady of the Republic of Korea Kim Yoon-ok presents the first Tagore Literature Awards to eight Indian experts for their contributions in eight Indian languages -- Bengali, Bodo, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Punjabi and Telugu.About this award:Instituted by Sahitya Academy in collaboration with Samsung Electronics.This award recognises the best literary contributions in eight different Indian languages every year, with 24 languages being covered by the end of the third year. The same cycle of eight languages being rewarded every year will continue thereafter. Since this was the first year, veterans were awarded first. The awardees were honoured with a trophy, a cash prize of Rs 91,000 and a shawl.Following are the winners:
1. Alok Sarkar : Bengali 'Apapabhumi' (poetry)
2. Naseem Shafai kashmiri 'Na Tshay Na Akas', (Poetry)
3. Bhagwandas Patel: Gujarati 'Mari Lokyatra' (Autobiography)
4. Jaswant Singh Kanwal: Punjabi 'Punya Da Chanan' (Autobiography)
5. Brajendra Kumar Brahma: Bodo: 'Raithai Hala', (Essay)
6. Kovela Suprasannacharya: Telugu : 'Antharangam' (Essay)
7. Rajee Seth: Hindi 'Ghame-Hayat Ne Mara', (Short Story )
8. Chandrasekhar Kambar: Kannada : 'Shikara Soorya' (Novel)
Action Plan to Enhance Forestry Science
Action Plan to Enhance Forestry Science addresses the issues regarding upgrading the scientific capabilities of India’s forestry establishment include the establishment of the following:
· Forestry Fellowship Programme which will recognise outstanding contributions to forestry sciences, a forestry fellowship programme is being introduced.
· National Forestry Knowledge Forum: A platform where expert knowledge in various issues in forestry will be shared is being developed. This forum will facilitate virtual interactions of experts in forestry. It will be physically located in Delhi and will be open for national and international experts in the field of forestry science.
· National Forestry Information Network: A network is being established with a robust foundation using remote sensing, GIS and MIS. All land based forestry interventions will be geo-mapped and monitored on a time scale, and will be put in the public domain. The process is being guided by a core group of forestry professionals.
· IT for fire monitoring: A programme to use satellite data for early transmission of fire signals to the mobile phones/ PDA’s of field officers is being undertaken. The University of Maryland has agreed to share all active fire data obtained from TERRA and AQUA satellites of NASA every six hours for this. This will not only help in quick fire detection and reducing the response time, but has also helped in identifying fire sensitive areas. This was originally conceived by the MP forest department, which a national e-Governance Award for the initiative.
· National Bureau for Forest Germplasm: A Forest Genetics Resource network is being established along the lines of the Plant Genetics Resource Bureau. The objective would be to identify, characterise, preserve the valuable germplasm of a wide number of forestry species in the country. This will protect our valuable genetic resource against extinction and exploitation.
Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) for modernisation of forestry research was give a special grant of Rs. 100 crore in Budget 2009- 10.
Update on Polavaram Project
Polavaram Project is located in East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. There is a proposal of Government of India to accord national status to Polavaram project.The project will be the first National Project in South India, if it gets the national status.
Please note that beloved Former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy laid foundation stone for the project during 2005, with an intention to complete the project within five years.
Recently the country also came up with a new demand to name this project as Indira-YSR Sagar Project. A high-level Central team comprising officials of Water Resources, Central Water and Planning Commission etc. had visited the project site in May 2009. Now, On February 12, 2010 , Union Minister of State for Defence M M Pallamraju says that Centre's nod to Polavaram declaring it as a National project is expected very soon as almost all the hurdles had been removed and the central leaders were convinced of the importance and the benefits from the project.This project will bring in 7.2 lakh acres under assured irrigation besides stabilizing the existing ayacut. It would generate 960 Megawatts of power and supply 24 TMC of water to Visakhapatnam city. The project would be of great benefit for Rayalaseema and Telangana regions also.
===============
E-Gram Vishwa Gram was launched by the government of Gujarat in February 2009. This e-village project is being implemented by the Department of Panchayat and Rural Development under the e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).
· The project opens up new horizons for the three-tier Panchayati-Raj Institutions. The scheme envisages the functioning in the state by enabling CommunicationBroadband Connectivity.
· Till now, as many as 13,695 villages have been given broadband connectivity under e-Vishwagram scheme. ( statement of State Panchayat Minister Narottam Patel)
Update: The state government is planning to issue e-ration cards to all citizens and provide services such as telemedicine and online police complaints in the coming days. For this purpose village computer entrepreneurs are being appointed to provide computer services in rural areas under the e-Vishwagram sc
Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises is operational under Credit Support Programme for Micro Small & Medium Enterprises.Through this scheme, the guarantee cover is provided for collateral free credit facility extended by member lending institutions (MLIs) to the new as well as existing small enterprises on loans up to Rs. 100 lakh. In another component of Portfolio Risk Fund’ (PRF) under this programme, Government of India provides funds for Micro Finance Programme to SIDBI which is used for security deposit requirement of the loan amount from the MFIs/NGOs. The Programme also covers Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD) Scheme for Women under which assistance is provided for economic empowerment of women through development of their entrepreneurial skills in non- farming activities.
Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI)
SFURTI is the first comprehensive initiative for focused regeneration of the khadi and village industries sector, based on the cluster development methodology.SFURTI has been introduced in October 2005 with a view to developing around 100 traditional clusters from khadi, village industry and coir sectors for comprehensive development over 5 years. KVIC and Coir Board are the nodal agencies for the scheme .The Scheme Steering Committee (SSC) has approved 118 clusters (32 khadi, 60 village industries and 26 coir) with additional clusters serving as a reserved cluster against any possible ‘dropout’.17 National level institutions have been identified as Technical Agencies under this programme for providing technical support to these clusters.Diagnostic Study Reports (DSR) and Annual Action Plans (AAP) for 96 clusters have been approved by the SSC.69 KVI clusters (29 Khadi and 40 VI) have been operationalized with the distribution of tools, equipments and inauguration of common facility centres. Complementary activities have been intiated in 25 coir clusters.
--
Integrated Wastelands Development Programme
The Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP), Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) and Desert Development Programme (DDP) have been consolidated and renamed Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP).
The modified scheme of IWMP is scheduled to be implemented as per the Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects, 2008.The cost norm of this centrally sponsored scheme will be Rs. 12,000/- per hectare for the plains and Rs. 15,000/- per hectare for the hilly and difficult areas. The cost will be shared in the ratio of 90:10 between the Centre and the States. New components for dedicated institutions at State, District and Village level relating to livelihood activities for landless people have been incorporated in IWMP. The watershed projects sanctioned upto Xth Plan will continue to be implemented as per the existing guidelines. In Union Budget 2010-11 a provision of Rs. 2,458 crore has been made for IWMP, including Rs. 245.80 crore for North Eastern Region and Sikkim.
National Agricultural Insurance Scheme
NAIS is in operation since Rabi 1999-2000 season with a view to provide financial support to farmers in the event of crops failures. due to natural calamities, pests and diseases. Presently, the scheme is being implemented in 25 States and 2 Union Territories. An outlay of Rs. 950 Crores have been made in Union Budget 2010-11 for this scheme
Devendra Pandey Committee has been constituted jointly by two ministries of Government of India viz. Environment and Forest Ministry, and the Tribal Affairs Ministry to study and assess the impacts of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (recognition of forest rights) Act, 2006, with regards to the Sustainable Management of Forest Resources.
Study Area:
Committee will study in detail the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and its impact on Forest Management. The deadline of 3 months has been given to this committee for submitting its findings.First Meeting: On February 11, 2010 the first meeting of this committee was held and chaired by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.Members of the Committee: Devendra Pandey who heads this committee is Former DG, Forest Survey of India. Other members of the committee are DG, ICFRE, Dehradun; Dr H S Pabla, PCCF(WL), M P, Bhopal, IGF(EAP); Dr A K Jha, Commissioner, Tribal Research and Training Institute, Pune; A K Srivastava, Director, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, New Delhi, Ashish Kothari, Director, Kalpavrikash, Harini Nagendra, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore; DIG (FP), MoEF; R K Dogra, ADG (E), ICFRE, Dehradun(Member Secretary).Functions of This committee:
· This Committee will study in detail the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and its impact on Forest Management.
· Apart from this the committee has also to identify the role of stakeholders and beneficiaries in the conservation, restoration and regeneration of forests.
· The committee will give its recommendation on measures and guidelines to involve these stake holders in forest restoration and regeneration.
· The committee will also identify opportunities for and recommend measures to ensure convergence of various beneficiary oriented programmes for the forest rights holders taken up by various departments in the states.
· The committee has also to define a new role for the Forest Department vis-a-vis the Gram Panchayat for forest conservation and regeneration.
Rural Business Hubs is an initiative by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry started in 2007. (ref)Rural Business Hubs is a first-of-its-kind Public, Private and Panchayat Partnership which aims to foster and permeate economic growth into and for rural India.The concept of Rural Business Hubs is based upon synnergically link rural products, skills and produces with the marketing and professional skills of the industry to overcome the impending factors which hinder economic growth from reaching rural India. Such impediments are Poor market linkages , weak Infrastructure , Fragmented farms and farming , Many layers of intermediaries , Lack of standardisation and grading etc.Current Situation: Till February 2010, Government has identified 35 districts for Rural Business Hubs intervention programme in consultation with State Governments. So far 26 district RBH workshops have been organised and champion products identified. In addition, financial assistance to 49 projects throughout the country has been extended for establishment of RBH.
Public Health Foundation of India is a response to redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health. PHFI is an autonomously governed public private partnership initiative launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2006. The Foundation is managed by a fully empowered, independent, governing board that has representatives from multiple constituencies. The Board includes senior government officials, eminent Indian and international academic and scientific leaders, civil society representatives and corporate leaders.In the series of Indian Institute of Public Health, the institutes were established in Hyderabad, Gandhinagar, Shillong and Delhi which shall be made operational in this year. Besides Centre of Excellence for Chronic Diseases at IIPH Delhi will augment PHFI’s capacity for research in chronic diseases in India.The next in the series is world-class institute of Public Health which will be set up at Kumarabasta village near Bhubhneshwar, which shall be completed by 2012. A memorandum in this regard is signed by Health and Family welfare Secretary Anu Garg and PHFI president K Srinath Reddy. Please note that IIPH had already signed an MoU to establish eight institutes of Public health in different parts of the country.
Internationalized domain name Research at CDAC
An awareness raising national workshop on IDNs for Indian languages was organized on February 10, 2010 at New Delhi by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), under the aegis of Department of IT, Ministry of Communications and IT.What is Internationalized domain name? An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name which contains at least one label in the software application (such as browsers) containing a language specific alphabets. Internationalized domain names are stored in the Domain Name System as ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange ) strings.
Internationalized domain name & CDAC: To ensure that India and Indian languages have their rightful place in this age of Information Technology (IT) with the entire Globe being integrated into a web-linked village with the knowledge as the sole differentiator, development of convivial Access Technology , CDAC GIST (Graphics and Intelligence based Script Technology) undertook research and study of various IDN related RFCs and their applicability vis-à-vis Indian Languages.Objectives:
1. Primarily to ensure that a user can create and access URL’s in his own language and
2. Closely associated with the above, to ensure that the average user who is little aware of spoofing or phishing or pharming does not suffer financial loss or identity loss.
3. Thus an average user doesn't care about a seemingly trivial URL string unless he comes across it inadvertently and gets robbed. For him, वीत्त.भारत and.वीत.भारत look the same.
4. By clicking on the worng URL, (s)he could be phished or pharmed.
To prevent such spoofing and phishing attacks in IL scenario, a careful study of some scripts is done by CDAC GIST, especially in the area of homographs: characters and their combinations which look alike but are different in reality, as in the example given above..The research is focused on Domain Names in Indian languages for Hindi, Gujarati, Oriya, Urdu, Gurumukhi etc. and includes the following :NamePrep and StringPrep Profile - RFC-3492PunyCode: Bootstring encoding - RFC-3454Variant tables accompanied by the normalization tables were prepared which would help reducing vulnerability of an IDN against homograph attacks.A single all script font (on the line of Sakal Bharati font) is also developed. In this font a special care of code-point wise different but visually similar characters is taken to help them being distinguished visually in the address bar of a browser.
National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)
Government of India is setting up a national intelligence grid called NATGRID.It is a brainchild of Home Minister P Chidambaram. This NATGRID will be fully set up by May 2011 where each individual's data ranging from land records, Internet logs, phone records, gun records, driving license, property records, insurance, and income tax records would be available in real time and with no oversight.
NATGRID & UID:
The government believes that UID project may not be enough to eliminate the risks of terror on the domestic front. NATGRID is currently awaiting the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security.With a UID from the Unique Identification Authority of India being given to every Indian from February 2011, the government would be able track people in real time. A national population registry of all citizens will be established by the 2011 census, during which fingerprints and iris scans would be taken along with GPS records of each household.Basic Idea: The basic idea of the government is to network 21 available databases across government and private agencies to 'flag potential terrorist threats.
How it will work?
These databases will be linked to enable security and intelligence agencies get any information at the press of a button under the National Intelligence Grid. Only 11 selected government agencies will be able to access the grid and a special mechanism will prevent any leakage of data. As such, the raw data will reside with the provider agencies and will be readily available to NATGRID, as it will only take abstracted and approved subsets of information from the original databases.The eleven agencies who will have access to the database include the Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Military Intelligence, Revenue Intelligence, National Intelligence Agency and National Security Council. Personnel from these agencies will be work with NATGRID to liaison with their parent organisations and guide them in usage of the data generated.The new system is being designed to help the government agencies combat terror and threats to internal security by generating "actionable" intelligence through search and retrieval from the networked databases. The grid will have a command centre that will double up as an anti-terror hot line and will have an international connect to network with data available in other countries that is useful to keep a tab on suspects.Who is Captain Raghu Raman: In 2009 Mahindra Special Services Group CEO Captain Raghu Raman had been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) project to strengthen the intelligence sharing and analysing mechanism in the country.He has been hired on a 18 month contract and enjoys the perks of a joint secretary.Captain Raghu Raman is a Former Soldier and during his 10 year stint with the forces he spent time battling counter-insurgency in Punjab, leading troops in active operations in Siachen Glacier, as a UN Peace Keeper in Angola and finally as an instructor teaching tactics and leadership to young officers in the School of Armored Warfare
Action Plan to Enhance Forestry Science
Action Plan to Enhance Forestry Science addresses the issues regarding upgrading the scientific capabilities of India’s forestry establishment include the establishment of the following:
· Forestry Fellowship Programme which will recognise outstanding contributions to forestry sciences, a forestry fellowship programme is being introduced.
· National Forestry Knowledge Forum: A platform where expert knowledge in various issues in forestry will be shared is being developed. This forum will facilitate virtual interactions of experts in forestry. It will be physically located in Delhi and will be open for national and international experts in the field of forestry science.
· National Forestry Information Network: A network is being established with a robust foundation using remote sensing, GIS and MIS. All land based forestry interventions will be geo-mapped and monitored on a time scale, and will be put in the public domain. The process is being guided by a core group of forestry professionals.
· IT for fire monitoring: A programme to use satellite data for early transmission of fire signals to the mobile phones/ PDA’s of field officers is being undertaken. The University of Maryland has agreed to share all active fire data obtained from TERRA and AQUA satellites of NASA every six hours for this. This will not only help in quick fire detection and reducing the response time, but has also helped in identifying fire sensitive areas. This was originally conceived by the MP forest department, which a national e-Governance Award for the initiative.
· National Bureau for Forest Germplasm: A Forest Genetics Resource network is being established along the lines of the Plant Genetics Resource Bureau. The objective would be to identify, characterise, preserve the valuable germplasm of a wide number of forestry species in the country. This will protect our valuable genetic resource against extinction and exploitation.
Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) for modernisation of forestry research was give a special grant of Rs. 100 crore in Budget 2009- 10
National Tobacco Control Programme
On 28 January 2010, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP).Objective:This programme aims to build the capacity of the States and Districts to facilitate effective implementation of the Tobacco Control Laws and to bring about greater awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco.Componets:The proposed NTCP has 3 componets as follows:(A) National level:
1. Public awareness and media campaigns for awareness building and for behavioural change;
2. Establishment of tobacco product testing laboratories, to build regulatory capacity, as required under COTPA, 2003;
3. Mainstreaming the programme components as a part of the health delivery mechanism under the NRHM framework;
4. Mainstreaming Research & training on alternate crops and livelihoods with other nodal Ministries;
5. Monitoring and Evaluation including surveillance such as the Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS).
(B)State level:
1. Dedicated tobacco control cells for effective implementation and monitoring of Anti Tobacco Initiatives;
(C) District level:
1. Training of health and social workers, NGOs, school teachers and the like;
2. Local IEC activities;
3. Provision of tobacco cessation facilities;
4. School Programmes.
Total Outlay:The total financial outlay for the National Tobacco Control programme in the Eleventh Plan is Rs 182 crore.Implemetation:The implementation of the NTCP will increase the awareness of the community about the harmful effects of the tobacco use, make the public aware of the provisions under COTPA, establish tobacco product testing labs and also provide baseline estimates of tobacco prevalence and status of implementation of the Tobacco Control Law. The components of the NTCP at the National level covers the entire country, while the pilot phase will focus on 42 Districts of 21 States. The NCTP is to be implemented in the remaining years of the Eleventh Plan in 42 Districts of 21 States within the NHRM framework from 2010-11.State governments are to work out State and Districts specific Plans in their Programme Implementation Plans (PIPs), depending on their priority. These would include training, sensitisation workshop on awareness building and implementation of the law. The funds for tobacco product testing labs are to be released in a phased manner, so that the labs are set up by 2010-11. The initial recurring expenditure for these labs will be met up to three years, an official release said here. The Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS) is to be completed in April 2010 and the evaluation of pilot phase of NTCP currently under implementation in 42 Districts of 21 States will also be taken up in 2010-11.
e-PRI is a a unique scheme of Panchayati Raj Ministry that proposes to provide a whole range of IT related services to Panchayati Raj Institutions as part of the Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) under NeGP (National E Governance programme).
It has been launched by Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India on January 28, 2010. It would provide the services like Decentralised Database and Planning, PRI Budgeting and Accounting, Implementation and monitoring of Central and State sector schemes, Citizen-centric Services, Unique codes to Panchayats and Individuals, Essential GIS-based applications, On-line Self-learning medium for elected representatives and official functionaries. E PRI also envisages providing computing facilities along with connectivity to all the 2.36 lakh panchayats at a tentative cost of Rs 4,500 crore over a three-year period. Panchayats being the basic unit for planning and implementation of Cenral/States programmes and schemes, 'e-PRI' would be the umbrella MMP where Information and Service Needs Assessment, Business Process Engineering and Detailed Budget Reports for 27 States were ready for access.Objective of e-PRI MMP
· Enabling Panchayats to better deliver its mandated services to the Citizens through IT.
· Enabling PRIs to use IT as a tool for transparency, disclosure of services to Citizens and social audit
· Improving internal management processes and decision making in Panchayats
· Enabling PRIs to use IT for electronic tagging and tracking of funds transferred to Panchayats, including rapid bank transfer of funds, tracking fund transfers to, expenditures of the Panchayats
India's largest non-profit organization Pratham is working in the area of primary education. With a Mission " Every child in school and learning well”Pratham focuses its programs on pre-school and primary education. Seeded by UNICEF in 1994, Pratham was founded in the slums of Mumbai by Dr. Madhav Chavan and Farida Lambay. Pratham serves underprivileged children across 21 states in India. Pratham has has supporting organisations in the US and UK. Pratham USA has been awarded the 2010 Henry R Kravis Prize in Leadership last week. This is a $250,000 (approximately Rs 1.1 crore) award . Madhav Chavan is Pratham's co-founder and chief executive officer.About the Prize:The prize is presented and administered by the Claremont McKenna College and Marie-Josée and Henry R Kravis. Mrs Kravis, an economist, is a senior fellow, Hudson Institute, while Henry Kravis, founding partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, is an alumnus and trustee of the Claremont McKenna College.Past Winners:Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and James D Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president are the past winners of this award
First Tagore Literature Awards 2009
January 25, 2010
First Lady of the Republic of Korea Kim Yoon-ok presents the first Tagore Literature Awards to eight Indian experts for their contributions in eight Indian languages -- Bengali, Bodo, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Punjabi and Telugu.About this award:Instituted by Sahitya Academy in collaboration with Samsung Electronics.This award recognises the best literary contributions in eight different Indian languages every year, with 24 languages being covered by the end of the third year. The same cycle of eight languages being rewarded every year will continue thereafter. Since this was the first year, veterans were awarded first. The awardees were honoured with a trophy, a cash prize of Rs 91,000 and a shawl.Following are the winners:
1. Alok Sarkar : Bengali 'Apapabhumi' (poetry)
2. Naseem Shafai kashmiri 'Na Tshay Na Akas', (Poetry)
3. Bhagwandas Patel: Gujarati 'Mari Lokyatra' (Autobiography)
4. Jaswant Singh Kanwal: Punjabi 'Punya Da Chanan' (Autobiography)
5. Brajendra Kumar Brahma: Bodo: 'Raithai Hala', (Essay)
6. Kovela Suprasannacharya: Telugu : 'Antharangam' (Essay)
7. Rajee Seth: Hindi 'Ghame-Hayat Ne Mara', (Short Story )
8. Chandrasekhar Kambar: Kannada : 'Shikara Soorya' (Novel)
Action Plan to Enhance Forestry Science
Action Plan to Enhance Forestry Science addresses the issues regarding upgrading the scientific capabilities of India’s forestry establishment include the establishment of the following:
· Forestry Fellowship Programme which will recognise outstanding contributions to forestry sciences, a forestry fellowship programme is being introduced.
· National Forestry Knowledge Forum: A platform where expert knowledge in various issues in forestry will be shared is being developed. This forum will facilitate virtual interactions of experts in forestry. It will be physically located in Delhi and will be open for national and international experts in the field of forestry science.
· National Forestry Information Network: A network is being established with a robust foundation using remote sensing, GIS and MIS. All land based forestry interventions will be geo-mapped and monitored on a time scale, and will be put in the public domain. The process is being guided by a core group of forestry professionals.
· IT for fire monitoring: A programme to use satellite data for early transmission of fire signals to the mobile phones/ PDA’s of field officers is being undertaken. The University of Maryland has agreed to share all active fire data obtained from TERRA and AQUA satellites of NASA every six hours for this. This will not only help in quick fire detection and reducing the response time, but has also helped in identifying fire sensitive areas. This was originally conceived by the MP forest department, which a national e-Governance Award for the initiative.
· National Bureau for Forest Germplasm: A Forest Genetics Resource network is being established along the lines of the Plant Genetics Resource Bureau. The objective would be to identify, characterise, preserve the valuable germplasm of a wide number of forestry species in the country. This will protect our valuable genetic resource against extinction and exploitation.
Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) for modernisation of forestry research was give a special grant of Rs. 100 crore in Budget 2009- 10.
Update on Polavaram Project
Polavaram Project is located in East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. There is a proposal of Government of India to accord national status to Polavaram project.The project will be the first National Project in South India, if it gets the national status.
Please note that beloved Former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy laid foundation stone for the project during 2005, with an intention to complete the project within five years.
Recently the country also came up with a new demand to name this project as Indira-YSR Sagar Project. A high-level Central team comprising officials of Water Resources, Central Water and Planning Commission etc. had visited the project site in May 2009. Now, On February 12, 2010 , Union Minister of State for Defence M M Pallamraju says that Centre's nod to Polavaram declaring it as a National project is expected very soon as almost all the hurdles had been removed and the central leaders were convinced of the importance and the benefits from the project.This project will bring in 7.2 lakh acres under assured irrigation besides stabilizing the existing ayacut. It would generate 960 Megawatts of power and supply 24 TMC of water to Visakhapatnam city. The project would be of great benefit for Rayalaseema and Telangana regions also.
Friday, March 26, 2010
NANOWIRE
A nanowire is a nanostructure, with the diameter of the order of a nanometer (10−9 meters). Alternatively, nanowires can be defined as structures that have a thickness or diameter constrained to tens of nanometers or less and an unconstrained length. At these scales, quantum mechanical effects are important — which coined the term "quantum wires". Many different types of nanowires exist, including metallic (e.g., Ni, Pt, Au), semiconducting (e.g., Si, InP, GaN, etc.), and insulating (e.g., SiO2, TiO2). Molecular nanowires are composed of repeating molecular units either organic (e.g. DNA) or inorganic (e.g. Mo6S9-xIx).
The nanowires could be used, in the near future, to link tiny components into extremely small circuits. Using nanotechnology, such components could be created out of chemical compounds.
Uses of Nanowire
Nanowires still belong to the experimental world of laboratories. However, they may complement or replace carbon nanotubes in some applications. Some early experiments have shown how they can be used to build the next generation of computing devices.
To create active electronic elements, the first key step was to chemically dope a semiconductor nanowire. This has already been done to individual nanowires to create p-type and n-type semiconductors.
The next step was to find a way to create a p-n junction, one of the simplest electronic devices. This was achieved in two ways. The first way was to physically cross a p-type wire over an n-type wire. The second method involved chemically doping a single wire with different dopants along the length. This method created a p-n junction with only one wire.
After p-n junctions were built with nanowires, the next logical step was to build logic gates. By connecting several p-n junctions together, researchers have been able to create the basis of all logic circuits: the AND, OR, and NOT gates have all been built from semiconductor nanowire crossings.
It is possible that semiconductor nanowire crossings will be important to the future of digital computing. Though there are other uses for nanowires beyond these, the only ones that actually take advantage of physics in the nanometer regime are electronic.
Nanowires are being studied for use as photon ballistic waveguides as interconnects in quantum dot/quantum effect well photon logic arrays. Photons travel inside the tube, electrons travel on the outside shell.
When two nanowires acting as photon waveguides cross each other the juncture acts as a quantum dot.
Conducting nanowires offer the possibility of connecting molecular-scale entities in a molecular computer. Dispersions of conducting nanowires in different polymers are being investigated for use as transparent electrodes for flexible flat-screen displays.
Because of their high Young's moduli, their use in mechanically enhancing composites is being investigated. Because nanowires appear in bundles, they may be used as tribological additives to improve friction characteristics and reliability of electronic transducers and actuators.
Because of their high aspect ratio, nanowires are also uniquely suited to dielectrophoretic manipulation.[4]
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Unique Identification Project
Unique Identification Project
==========================
This is the step taken by Union goverment to give unique identity proofs to residents of India. This identity will have basic information of the residents of india. When the resident enrolls, basic information of will be collected and will be give a number( not a card). However, this number will not have any intelligence/sensitive information,thus avoids any identity thefts.
BENEFITs
=========
(1) Obtaining the address proofs for Driving License,passports etc will be easy
(2)This will help in improving the delivery of Cental and state flagship program. As lack of identity proof results in harrassement and some case denial of services
(3)It will save Gov. Exchequer by avoiding leakages in Govt programmes.
This is to be noted that one such programme has already been introduced by Election Commission in 1993 and planned to provide Photo Identity card to voters. This programme resulted large burden on Government cosidering the population of india.
This is right step taken from Goverment to give unique no,s which has multiple benefits.But the programme needs to be executed professionally and in phased manner.
==========================
This is the step taken by Union goverment to give unique identity proofs to residents of India. This identity will have basic information of the residents of india. When the resident enrolls, basic information of will be collected and will be give a number( not a card). However, this number will not have any intelligence/sensitive information,thus avoids any identity thefts.
BENEFITs
=========
(1) Obtaining the address proofs for Driving License,passports etc will be easy
(2)This will help in improving the delivery of Cental and state flagship program. As lack of identity proof results in harrassement and some case denial of services
(3)It will save Gov. Exchequer by avoiding leakages in Govt programmes.
This is to be noted that one such programme has already been introduced by Election Commission in 1993 and planned to provide Photo Identity card to voters. This programme resulted large burden on Government cosidering the population of india.
This is right step taken from Goverment to give unique no,s which has multiple benefits.But the programme needs to be executed professionally and in phased manner.
C-DOT
C-DOT
The Centre for Development of Telematics is an Indian Government owned Telecom Technology development Centre. It was established in 1984 with initial mandate of designing and developing digital exchanges. Today, C-DOT has expanded itself in the area of Telecom. C-DOT is now a Next Generation Technology Centre developing various intelligent software applications.
=====================================================================================
The Centre for Development of Telematics is an Indian Government owned Telecom Technology development Centre. It was established in 1984 with initial mandate of designing and developing digital exchanges. Today, C-DOT has expanded itself in the area of Telecom. C-DOT is now a Next Generation Technology Centre developing various intelligent software applications.
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Bhuvan, is satellite mapping tool
Bhuvan, is satellite mapping tool similar to Google earth and wikimapia. This is designed by ISRO. Bhuvan uses Indian Remote Sensing satellites and gives exceptionally superior quality picture of India compared to any other visual globe tool.
This gives better resolution of India and cleared of all sensitive details for security concern. Along with this has other tools such as weather monitoring, disaster mapping-flood and draught affected area mapping and also helps in district administration as it maps the district boundaries of all states of India.
National Remote Sensing Agency played an important role in the creation of this product. ISRO has used data provided by satellites including Resourcesat-1, Cartosat-1 and Cartosat-2 to get the best possible imagery for India both in 2D and 3D view.
=====================================================================================
This gives better resolution of India and cleared of all sensitive details for security concern. Along with this has other tools such as weather monitoring, disaster mapping-flood and draught affected area mapping and also helps in district administration as it maps the district boundaries of all states of India.
National Remote Sensing Agency played an important role in the creation of this product. ISRO has used data provided by satellites including Resourcesat-1, Cartosat-1 and Cartosat-2 to get the best possible imagery for India both in 2D and 3D view.
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Monday, June 22, 2009
Globalisation and Growing Inequality
====================================
World is going through its severe economic downturn since the great economic downturn of 1930's. The ILO report says that the root of this crisis lies in 1990's economic reforms. Throgh this reforms, the world economic order took a turn and headed for different direction and is the main reason for contemporary economic inquality, social security concerns and labour relations.
Recent report of ILO clearly highlights the growing inequality among different section of workers and decrease in the unemployment after the globalization. - Main reason is due to the extinctions of many domestic industries which are affected by the global factors.
Although the 1990s economic reforms were accompanied by “substantial economic development across most regions" there were variation in labour market performance between and within the countries. Moreover, increase in employment also occurred, alongside a redistribution of income " away from labor"
Statistics indicated the share of wages in National Income declined over the past 2 decades. This means that workers gained very less from the economic growth. The rich poor gap also widened.
Nearly two thirds of the countries experienced an increase in income inequalities. Yet another finding is that this rich poor gap is doing so at increased pace.
Financial Globalization has not lived upto its promises. Another problem that it has eroded the Bargaining power of employees and contributed to decline in wage share over and above any effect resulting from trade integration or sectorial change.
The continuing economic slowdown coupled with rising food prices will accentuate the income inequality and affect the employment opportunities of low income group..
Although in line with the economic thinking since the advent of globalization, the report argues that income inequalities could be a good thing as it rewards work quality, talent, and innovation. It strikes a serious note of caution that “there are instances where income inequality reaches excessive levels, in that it represents a danger to social stability while also going against economic efficiency considerations.”
====================================
World is going through its severe economic downturn since the great economic downturn of 1930's. The ILO report says that the root of this crisis lies in 1990's economic reforms. Throgh this reforms, the world economic order took a turn and headed for different direction and is the main reason for contemporary economic inquality, social security concerns and labour relations.
Recent report of ILO clearly highlights the growing inequality among different section of workers and decrease in the unemployment after the globalization. - Main reason is due to the extinctions of many domestic industries which are affected by the global factors.
Although the 1990s economic reforms were accompanied by “substantial economic development across most regions" there were variation in labour market performance between and within the countries. Moreover, increase in employment also occurred, alongside a redistribution of income " away from labor"
Statistics indicated the share of wages in National Income declined over the past 2 decades. This means that workers gained very less from the economic growth. The rich poor gap also widened.
Nearly two thirds of the countries experienced an increase in income inequalities. Yet another finding is that this rich poor gap is doing so at increased pace.
Financial Globalization has not lived upto its promises. Another problem that it has eroded the Bargaining power of employees and contributed to decline in wage share over and above any effect resulting from trade integration or sectorial change.
The continuing economic slowdown coupled with rising food prices will accentuate the income inequality and affect the employment opportunities of low income group..
Although in line with the economic thinking since the advent of globalization, the report argues that income inequalities could be a good thing as it rewards work quality, talent, and innovation. It strikes a serious note of caution that “there are instances where income inequality reaches excessive levels, in that it represents a danger to social stability while also going against economic efficiency considerations.”
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