The Gist September 2012 Www.upscportal.com

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OCT 2012 : GIST OF YOJANA 51

KURUKSHETRA

1. S ARVA SHIKHA A BHIYAN

• Sarva Shikha Abhiyan (SSA) (2001) isa flagship centrally sponsored schemefor universalization of elementaryeducation being implemented on asharing arrangement basis between thecentre and the state in the ratio 75: 25This programme aims at :

• Mandatory recruitment of at lest 50%female teachers under sarve ShikshaAbhiyan

• Separate launching of a National

programme for Education of Girls atElementary Levels (NPEGEL), under SSA in educational backward Blocks,

• Launching of residential schools for girlsunder Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayacomes for out of school girls,

• Mahila sanhas under Mahila samkhyascheme for women’s empowerment,

• Sceme of free education for girl child atelementary level.

I MPACT SARVA SHIKSHA A BHIYAN -AT A G LANCE

• 96.7% of all-14 year olds in rural Indiaare enrolled in school. This number hasheld steady since 2010.

• Nationally, private school enrollment hasrisen year after year for the 6-14 agegroups, increasing from 18% in 2006 to

25.6% in 2011. These increases arevisible in all states except Bihar

• Nationally, reading levels are estimatedto have declined in many states across

North India. The All India figure for the proportion of children in STD V able toread a STD 2 level text has dropped from53.7% in 2010 to 48.%2 in 2011 Suchdeclines are not visible in the southernstates.

• Basic arithmetic levels estimated inASER 2011 show a decline. For example,nationally, the proportion of STD IIIchildren able to solve a 2 digit subtraction

problem with borrowing has droppedfrom 36.3% in 2010 to 29% in 2011.Among STD V Children, the ability todo similar subtraction problems hasdropped from 70.9% in 2010 to 61% in2011.

• At the All India, children’s attendanceshows a decline from 73. %4 in 2007 to70.9% in 2011 in rural primary schools.

• Nationally for rural government primaryschools, data suggests that over half of all classes visited are multigrade. For example, all India standard 2 was sittingwith one or more other classes in 58.3%of STD 2classes in primary schools weresitting with another class. This figure is53% for std 4

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• Between Fy 2008-9 and Fy 2010-11 theflow SSA grants to Schools improvedsignificantly. However, this improvementoccurred largely between Fy 2008-9 and-10 In fact a marginal decrease in the

proportion of schools receiving grants isobserved between Fy 2009-10 and 2010-11 The data suggest that schools tend toget their grants during the second half of the fiscal year,

• At the All India level, there has been amarginal improvement in the proportionof schools complying with RTE normson pupil- teacher ratio, from 38.%9% in2010 to 40.7% in 2011

• Nationally, the proportion of schools withno provision for drinking water remainedalmost the same -17.0% in 2010 and16.6% in 2011.

(a) Strengthening school infrastructure byconstru cting new building and

upgrading the existing building(b) providing teacher and also building

their capacities through training,(c) Seeks to provide quality education

including life skills,

(d) Promoting community participation in primary education by formulatingVillage Education Committees andinvolving them in planning and raisingcommunity contribution for primaryeducation,

(e) It aims at bridging social, regional andgender gaps in literacy and primaryeducation,

(f) It focuses on girl’s education to bridgethe digital divide.

(g) Development on the lines of SSA is

expected to bring in the desiredinvestments The Rashtriya Madhymik Shikha Abhijan (RMSA), designed byministry of Human Resource insecondary Education and facilitate the

process of universalizing secondaryeducation in the country

(g) It seeks to provide computer educationto bridge the digital divide.

2. CABE & THE I MPORTANCE ON VEC

The central Advisory Board of Education(CABE) set up a committee on decentralizedmanagement in 1993 to formulate the guidelineson decentralization reforms in education in thecontext of the 73 rd amendment of the constitution.According to these guidelines, the three tires

panchayati Raj Institutions would form Committee(VEC) being the lowest at the village levels.

The village Education Committee(VEC),the lowest at the village levels Committee

on elementary education was first set up in 1998(West Bengal) under the West BengalGovernment notification. It was required under the District primary Education programme(DPEP), sponsored by the Department of International Development, of the BritishGovernment, which initially covered five districtof west Bengal. It took another six years for thestate Government to initiate VECs Through outthe state as part of the sarva Shikha Abhijan(SSA) programme (2003).

After launching of the SSA in 2001, VillageEducation Committee (VEC) were sought to beintroduced in every Gram Sansad (VillageCouncil) area of all the districts of the state andre constituted in view of the changes in objectivesand the target group of universal elementaryeducation. The composition of the VEC was:











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10. No child shall be subjected to physical punishment of mental harassment.

11. Screening procedure shall be punishablewith fine.

12. To constitute a school managementcommittee consisting of the electedrepresentatives of children.

13. No teacher shall be deployed for anynon- educational purposes.

14. No teacher shall engage him self of herself in private tuition.

Right to Education Act (2009) is a landmark initiatives of Govt. for strengthening educationsystem In India. Under this Act it is mandatoryto complete elementary education of all children.

Now Education is fundamental Right of everyIndians at primary level.

At present 96.5% of children in the 6to age group in rural India are enrolled inschool 71.1 percent of these children are enrolled

in private schools. The proportion of girl students,who are out schools, has declined rapidly. The

percentages of five years olds enrolled in schoolsincreased 54.6 percent to 62.8 percent in 2010.

During the last six decades, India’s per capita GDP increased three times, while literacyrates increased 3.5 times and Gross EnrolmentRatio (GER) at elementary education levelincreased 2.5 times, while India has madetremendous progress in improving its literacyrates than countries in south Asia and sub sanaranAfrica, It is still below the world and developingcountry’ average.

With the Right to Education Act Coming intoforce, India has joined the league of over 130countries which have legal guarantees to providefree and compulsory education to children.According to the UNSCO’s Education for All

Global Monitoring Report 2010’, about 135countries have constitutional provisions for All inIndia the Right to Education LAW, providing freeand compulsory schooling to schooling to childrenin the 6-14 year age bracket, came into force withthe new education act now, 1 st April, 2010 withthe new education act Now, India has joined some20 other countries Including Afghanistan, Chinaand which have laws guaranteeing free andcompulsory education for eight years of

elementary education4. I NTERNATIONAL R ECOGNITION OF

E DUCATION AS A H UMAN R IGHT :

The right to education is marked priority onthe agenda of the international community sinceit is quintessential for the exercise of all other human rights. A number of human rights treatiesaccepted and recognized internationally, identifiesright to education as a fundamental aspect for development and social transformation.

The right to education is clearlyacknowledged in the United Nations’ UniversalDeclaration of human Rights (UDHR), adoptedin 1948, which states:

“Everyone has the right to education shall be Fr ee, at least in the elementary andfundamental stages. Elementary education shall

be compulsory. Technical and pr ofes siona leducation shall be made generally available andhigher education shall be equally accessible to allon the basis of merit” (Article 26).

5. C ONSTITUTIONAL

PROVISION F OR G ENDER E QUALITY

Article 15(1) States: “the shall notdiscriminate against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth of any of them”









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Article 15(3 ) states’ nothing in this articleshall prevent the state from making any special

provision for women and children”Article 16(1) States: “there shall be

equality of opportunity for all citizens in mattersrelating to employment or appointment of nayoffice under the state”

Article 39(a) States: “the citizens, men andwomen equally have the right to an adequatemeans of Livelihood”

SOME C AUSES OF E DUCATIONAL I NEQUALITY

Studies across the globe pointed out that themain causes are slower economic growth, rising

poverty and budget pressure in this respect.• Poverty• Conservative outlook of the parents• Early marriages of girls and purdah

system

• Parents’ preference for boy’s education

to girls’ causation.• Unwilling to educate under male

teachers etc• Lack of qualified women teachers• Lack of proper security measures for girl

students and women teachers• Lack of awareness of the necessity of

education for girls in rural areas:• Inadequate means of communication in

rural areas:

• Girls Involvement in the household work • Poor quality of instruction in school• Corruption at all levels and at all places

is root cause of it. Out of hundred rupeesallocated to any Scheme, only twentyrupees reaches the target level.

SOME M EASURES FOR

R EMOVING E DUCATIONAL INEQUALITY

• Awareness for educating the girls should be developed in the parents specially inthe conservative ones

• Facilities like- Flexibility in the timetable provision of uniforms, midday meals, book, incentives and scholarship, meansof transport etc.

• Government should try to establishschools in every village.

• Non-formal education facilities may be provided to suit the convenience of thegirls.

• Trained lady teachers should beappointed

• Mass media like television and radioshould broadcast programmers whichhelp in creating a conducive atmospherein favors of girls’ education in the rural

villages.• Efficient ladies may be appointed in the

administrative field of women’s educationunderstand the problems of girls.

• Ensuring safety of girl students andwomen teachers.

• Providing better service condition andresidential facilities for teachers in ruralareas

• More special arrangements and provisions should be made for The proper education of the disabled girl child

6. T HE E DUCATION SYSTEM IN I NDIA

In India, Education is a concurrent subjectgiving the power of legislation to both the centraland state governments. This implies that any

policy in Education will be a concerted effort







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between the two centers of power. This alsoforewarns that the progress made in this sector

by different states may be sometimes drasticallydifferent considering the peculiar cultural

background, size, economic development and possibility of penetration of each state. The programmers are implemented by the ministry of Human Resource Development along with thestate Education Departments with the assistanceof National and state councils of Education

Resarch and Training (NCERT & SCERT).They are aided by the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET), Block resourcecentres in the urban aresas and by VillageEducation Committees, panchayati Raj institutionsand Non Governmental organizations in ruralareas.

India follows the British system of Education with its own specific variations.Broadly school Education in India is classified aslower primary (class-V-VII), secondary (classVIII-X) and higher secondary (class XI-XII). The

board area of combining primary and secondaryeducation (children from age 6-14 constitute classI-X and is defined as elementary education.Elementary Education in India is offered by four kinds of schools which vary considerable in costand quality of education they provide.

i. Government schoolsii. Private schools aided by the governmentiii. Private schools unaided by the

governmentiv. Private schools not recognized by the

government

According to a study by the National Centreon Education and economy (2006), India has thesecond largest education system in the world after China with 6,00,000 primary school with 115

million students and 2 million upper primaryschools with 45 million students.Access and Quali ty of Rur al Educati on

According to the India infrastructure Report2007, 87% of the schools in India are in thevillages An assessment of the vision eschewedin the Eighth Five year plan was to universalAccess, Universal Retention and only by takingthe massive population of the rural areas intoaccount. The Data collected on following criteriagives us a picture of the quality and access of theIndian rural education as opposed to its objectivesGross Enr olment Rati o (GER):

India has an elementary elementaryenrolment ratio of 93.4% but a closer analysisreveals that the enrolment in secondary insecondary education is considerably lower thanits primary counterparty. In the age group of 11-14 (secondary education), the GER is only 47%the statistics also shows inter-state and gender

variations.According to World Bank Report 2006,

Kerala and West Bengal are states with maximumenrolment and minimum gender disparity asopposed to Bihar, Uttar pradesh of Rajasthanwhich are the last performing states in the sector .Whereas Kerala and Tamilnadu have pro-femalesecondary enrolment rates, girls in Bihar andRajasthan were only half as likely to receivesecondary education as boys.

7. T HE C ASE OF THE G IRL C HILD

The Indian Human Development Report2011 states that 19% of the Children in rural Indiadrop out in the 6-17 age groups. However, theofficial statistics of the primary level dropout rateof the rural girl child is 6.9% according to the 52 nd

round of National sample survey. The gender gap









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in rural drop out of 20% unfavorable to the girlChild Still persists. A majority of the families areengaged in unorganized doctor for employmentwith a low level of education accessed by the

parents This had an adverse impact on theenrolment and retention of the girl child. Thereasons analyses for the girls dropping out aregiven below. Interestingly, 37% of the totaldropouts said that the reason for their absence Athat they were no longer interested in studies. A

small percent opted out to take up work. A surveyconducted in the rural districts of Madhya

pradesh to study about at the reasons for girl dropout at the primary and secondary levels revealedsome important results. The top reasons why girlsdropped out of school were:

i. sibling Care and Household Choresii. Weak financial condition and Earning

for the Householdiii. Migration

iv. Social and gender Discriminationv. Poor condition of school infrastructure,

such as unavability of separate toilet for girls even in co- educational middle&High schools including locking up of toilets during school hours

vi. Lack of attention due to absence of teachers in school

8. H URDLES WITH

W OMEN P ARTICIPATION IN H IGHER E DUCATION

The status of the girl child has been a subjectof much argument and debate. There are stilloverwhelming cultural and economic reasons inIndia, which keeps female children from notreceiving educational attention as their malecounterparts in the rural areas, the girl child ismade to perform household and agricultural

chores; This is one of the many factors limitinggirl’s education. Cleaning the house, preparingfood, looking after their siblings, the elderly andthe sick, grazing the cattle and collecting firewoodare some of the key tasks they have to perform.Households are therefore reluctant to Spartathem for schooling physical safety of the girls,especially when they have to travel a longdistance to school and fear of sexual harassmentare other reasons that impede girls’ education

Another constraint was lack of access to decentand product ive rural employment and non-agriculture in come generating activates. Mostof the rural women are employed in low

productivity jobs, working on small farms as paidof unpaid laborers, of running small enterprises.They could not become involved in non-agricultural income0generating activities as therewere policies legal and cultural barriers, includingcustomary law that prevented women from,accessing credit.

Access to education for girls also does notrely on proximity of schools only. It is part of alarger structural concern, including thediscriminatory practices. Education initiativeshence cannot relay solely on building educationalinfrastructure but also need to assess some of theroot causes of discrimination against women andgirls which affect the decisions made by parents(Reecha, Upadhyay) in the urban areas, however,there is a discernible difference in the

opportunities that girls get ford education andemployment. There is an element of awarenessof gender issues in the more educated sectionsof society in certain regions. Moreover, urbanspaces permit personal autonomy to girls (Higher Education for Women in India: Choices andchallenges.









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Institutional and cultural barriers deny ruralwomen’s right to land, Land not only is aneconomic and productive resource, but also asource of position and recognition in the societythe extent to which women were involved intechnology, research and development, and hadaccess to new technologies, is another challengeUNESCO articulated the close relationship

between educa tiona l development and theincorporation of women’s issue within the

educational process more explicitly. It states:” theexclusion of the and emancipation form the arenaof scientific and intellectual discussion hascontributed to their continuation a and hasfacilitated the perpetuation of false rationalizationof justifications of subordination as resulting formnatural of biological causes such. Facilegeneralizations continue to education andresearch including special sectors that carryweight, prestige and power, such as science andtechnology: there are only few institutionsaddressing the social, political and economicstructures limiting the empowerment of ruralwomen in was therefore necessary to achieveinstitutional change.

9. I NDIA ’S L ATEST

APPROACH TO C HILD L ABOUR : 12 TH PLAN

The strategy for dealing with child Labour during the 12 th Five year plan period has beenformulated based on the suggestions given by themembers of the working group in the twomeetings conducted on 27 th May and 8 th July 2011the broad highlights of the suggestions are:–

• The Child Labour (prohibition andRegulation) Act should be strengthenedand amended.

• The problems of working Children of themigratory families should be addressed.

Child Labour survey should specificallycapture migration of children Residentialschools should be opened in each Metroand Mega Cities and also in every district.

• It is important to run residential schoolfor rehabilitation of child Labour.

• The NCLP (National Child Labour Project) Scheme should expand further to a large geographical coverage.

• Emphasis should be given to themonitoring and tracking of NCLP Schoolchildren.

• The NCLP scheme should be realignedin the light of Right to Education Act2009. The teachers of the NCLP specialschools should be properly trained.

• Three tier Monitoring Committee at theDistrict, State and National level should

be made for effective implementationand monitoring of the NCLP scheme.

The NCL P Scheme The NCLP Scheme (National Child Labour

project), which began with a modest number of only 12 districts, has been progressively extendedto various parts of the country with the coverageof 271 districts in 21 states of the country. It isfunctioning in 18 districts of Tamilnadu also.

There have been demands from variousstates for expanding the coverage of NCLPScheme to more districts, there is, therefore, aneed to expand the scheme in all the 600 districtsin the country.

10. W ORLD D AY A GAINST C HILD L ABOUR 2102

The National Commission for protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is Commemorating worldDay Against Child Labour here on 12 june, 2012the theme for this years-”JUSTICE FOR









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CHILDREN-END CHILD LABOUR “ Theaim of commemorating this day is to highlight theneed to protect the rights of the child andeliminate child rights of children in all forms.

The world Day Against Child Labour waslaunched by the international Labour Organization(ILO) in 2002 to generate awareness about the

practice of child Labour in different sectors. ILOestimates that there are 21.8 crore child laborersworldwide. The Government of India’s 2001census estimates that 1.27 crore child labour. Thismeans that about 3.6%of the total labour forcein India is constituted by children! By enteringthe labour market prematurely, they are exposedto physical, psychological of education andtraining that can help to lift them, their familiesand communities out of a cycle of poverty. Aschild laborers they are exposed to physical,

psychological of moral suffering that can causedlong term damage to their lives.

This year the world the world Day Againstchild Labour will provide a spotlight on the rightof all children to be protected from child labour and from other violations of fundamennntal humanrights. In 2010 the intenational communityadopted a Raadmap for achieving elimination of the worst forms of child labour is an impedimentworld Day Against Child Labour 2012 willhighlight the work that needs to be done to makethe roadmap a reality.

11. ICDS AT A G LANCE

ICDS project is the land mark in the historyof nutrition in India. It is the mother to all the foodnutrition and all insurance policies. This projectwas start with the noble objectives and loftyactivities of Anganwadi However itsachievements are of mediocre, and lacks rudder.It gave birth to many projects like NHRM etc.

Now it has attached the attention of people of every organization for reaping good and quick results.

Facts 47% of India’s children below the ageof three years are malnourished (underweight)

47% of Indian children under five arecategorized as moderately or severelymalnourished children in the world.

The UN ranks India in the bottom quartileof countries by under-1 infant mortality (the 53 rd

highest), and under-5 child mortality (78 deaths per 1000 births.)

At least half of Indian infants deaths arerelated to malnutrition, often associated withinfectious diseases,

The most damaging effects of under-nutrition occur during pregnancy and the first twotears of child’s life.

These damages are reading of availablestatistics shows the problem to be far fromUniform.

A close reading of available static’s showsthe problem to be far from uniform.

Vitamin A supplementation coverage rate(6-59 months). 2004 UNEF statistics.

The decrease in the children population by2011 census in India is not a bench mark victory.Much of the government nutritional expenditurein India is on the ICDS program. The empirical

results Further indicate that the (inverse)association between child malnutrition and levelsof government than in the non poor states.However, neither public spending on familywelfare per capita GDP in the Childs state of residence has a significant association with childunderweight rates.











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purpose of UID as a means of empowering themarginalized.

Moreover, UID Many just be adding another potentia l charge of authentication instead of removing the problem UID counters this criticism

by claiming that It is only for 0.23% only for o.23%of population that both forms of authentication (finger prints &iris scan) fail.

Further, many people will get denied accessto MNREGA on account of having UID. Thiswas witnessed during the transition to bank Payment the process of issuing bank accounts toevery job card holder was denied network. Thiswould also set a dangerous precedent of arbitrarily experimenting with the basic rights of

people. A Transparency wall’ which is a better

local solution to the problem of corruption inMNREGA successfully allows the localcommunity to see when funds were received and

who was paid. This leaves the power in the handsof the local community and block level officers.As opposed to UID which puts the power in thehands of the centralized authority which isinaccessible to the beneficiaries.

IT would appear that MNREGA is notready to handle an over haul like UID more sogiven that UID still has malfunctions to fix,especially when simple localized solutions handlethe problems. Better.

13. G OVERNMENT PLAN

1. RaJiv Gandhi scheme forEmpowerment of adolescent Girls(SABLA): The RaJiv Gandhi Schemefor Empowerment of Adolescent Girls(SABLA) was launched in November 2010.The Scheme are to addressnutritional problems and improving the

health status of adolescent girls in theage group of 11-18 years, equipping themwith Knowledge on family welfare,health and hygiene, providing informationand guidance on existing public servicesand mainstream out of school girls intoformal or non-formal education. Themajor activities that would take place inthe next five years from 2011 till 2016would mainly be implementation in 200

districts to begin with, followed byevaluation and further expansion acrossthe country. The deliverables envisagedfor the country. The major activates to

be performed between 2011 till 2016, areto ensure that nutrition and non-nutritioncomponents of the scheme are deliveredto adolescent girls. Utilization of fundstakes place as per norms, and evaluationof pilot is conducted.

2. Indira Gandhi Matritva sahyogYojana (IGMSY):

Indira GandhiMatritva sahyog yojana (IGMSY) has been approved by the Government of India in October 2010 the objectives of the Scheme are to Improve the healthand nutrition status of pregnant, lactatingwomen and infants by the promotion of appropriate practices, care and serviceutilization during pregnancy, safe deliveryand lactating encouragement of womento follow(optimal) Infant and young childfeeding (IYCF) practices Including earlyand exclusive breast feeding for theimproved health and nutrition to pregnantand lactating mothers.

3. National Commission for protectionof child Rights (NCPCR): The nationalcommission for protection of child Rights(NCPCR) was set up in March 2007









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under the commissions for protection of child Rights Act, 2005 the commission’smandate is to ensure better protectionof the rights of the child through themonitoring of constitutional and legal rightof children, review of safeguards, reviewof existing laws, looking into violationsof the constitutional and legal rights of children, and monitoring programmersrelating to the survival protection,

participation and development of childrenthe commission also has to ensure thatall national laws, policies, programmers,and administrative mechanisms areinformed by a with the child- rights

persp ective as enshrined in theConstitution of India and the Unconvention on the Rights of the child.

4. National Institute of publiccooperation and child Development(NIPCCD): National Institute of public

cooperation and child Development(NIPCCD)/ is an autonomousorganization under the ministry of womenand child Development the objectives of the Institute are to develop and promotevoluntary action, research training anddocumentation in the overall domain of

women and child development. NIPCCDtakes a comprehensive view of childdevelopment and promotes programmersin pursuance of the National policy for Children and evolves a framework and

perspective for organizing children’s programmers through government andvoluntary efforts.

The current Thrust areas of the instituterelating to child development are maternal and

child health, nutrition early childhood education, positive mental health in children and child caresupport service the institute conducts researchand evaluation studies: organizes training

pr ogrammer s, seminars, workshops andconferences: and provides documentation andinformation services in priority areas in publiccooperation and child development the Institutefunctions as an apex body for training of functionar ies of the Integrat ed ChildDevelopment services (ICDS) programmer theInstitute as a nodal resource agency has also beenentrusted with the responsibility of training andcapacity building of functionaries at the nationaland regional level, under the Integrated child

protection scheme (ICPS).









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OCT 2012 : GIST OF PIB 63

PRESS INFORMATIONBUREAU

FOREIGN T OURIST A RRIVALS AND F OREIGN

E XCHANGE E ARNINGS IN S EPTEMBER 2012Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) during the

Month of September, 2012 were 4.15 lakh ascompared to FTAs of 4.02 lakh during the monthof September 2011 and 3.70 lakh in September 2010. There has been a growth of 3.2 % inSeptember 2012 over September 2011 ascompared to a growth of 8.7 % registered inSeptember 2011 over September 2010. FTAsduring the period January-September 2012 were

46.33 lakh with a growth of 5.9%, as comparedto the FTAs of 43.75 lakh with a growth of 9.9 %during January-September 2011 over thecorresponding period of 2010. Foreign ExchangeEarnings (FEE) during the month of September 2012 were Rs. 6652 crore as compared to Rs.5748 crore in September 2011 and Rs 4678 crorein September 2010. The growth rate in FEE inrupee terms in September 2012 over September 2011 was 15.7% as compared to 22.9 % inSeptember 2011 over September 2010. FEEs

from tourism in rupee terms during January-September 2012 were Rs. 66061 crore with agrowth of 22.9%, as compared to the FEEs of Rs.53761 crore with a growth of 16.6 % duringJanuary- September 2011 over the corresponding

period of 2010. FEEs in US$ terms during themonth of September 2012 were US$ 1219 million

as compared to FEEs of US$ 1208 million during

the month of September 2011 and US$ 1015milion in September 2010. The growth rate inFEEs in US$ terms in September 2012 over September 2011 was 0.9% as compared to thegrowth of 19 % in September 2011 over September 2010. FEEs from tourism in terms of US$ during January- September 2012 were US$12492 million with a growth of 5.1%, as comparedto US$ 11886 million with a growth of 18.7 %during January- September 2011 over thecorresponding period of 2010.

Press Information Bureau Governmentof India Ministry of Labour &

Employment

28-September-2012 17:42 IST

C ONSUMER PRICE INDEX FOR INDUSTRIAL

W ORKERS (CPI-IW), A UGUST , 2012

The All-India CPI-IW rose by 2 points inAugust, 2012 and pegged at 214 (two hundred andfourteen). On 1-month percentage change, it

increased by 0.94 per cent between July andAugust compared with 0.52 per cent between thesame two months a year ago.

The largest upward contribution to thechange in current index came from food priceswhich rose by 1.24 per cent, contributing 1.31

percentage points to the total change. At item









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level, largest upward pressure came from Sugar,Arhar Dal, Wheat & Wheat Atta, Rice, Potato,Mustard & Groundnut Oil, Milk Buffalo, Banana,Goat Meat, Onion, Medicine (Allopathic) andPrivate Tuition Fee. The largest downwardcontribution to the change in current index camefrom Vegetables and Fruits with a decline of 2.72

per cent, contributing (-) 0.42 percentage pointsto the total change. The main downward pressurecame from Tomato, Fish Fresh, Chillies Green,

Cabbage & Lady’s Finger.The year-on-year inflation measured by

monthly CPI-IW stood at 10.31 per cent for August, 2012 (over August, 2011) as comparedto 9.84 per cent for the previous month and 8.99

per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year. Similarly, the Food inflation stoodat 12.20 per cent against 11.27 per cent of the

previous month and 7.33 per cent during thecorresponding month of the previous year.

At centre level, largest increase of 9 pointshas been recorded in Giridih followed by Ludhiana(8 points), Asansol and Rourkela (7 points each)and Bhopal and Chhindwara (6 points each).Among others, 4 centres have recorded rise of 5

points followed by 4 points in 8 centres, 3 pointsin 13 centres, 2 points in 10 centres and 1 point in15 centres. Mysore centre reported a decline of 6 points followed by Bengluru centre with 5 points,Guwahati with 2 points and 7 centres registereda fall of 1 point each. Rest of the 12 centre’s

indices remained stationary. The indices of 39centres are above All-India Index and 37 centre’sindices are lower than national average. Twocentres viz. Vijaywada and Tiruchirapally are at

par with all-India index. The next index of CPI-IW for the month of September, 2012 will bereleased on Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

Turnaround in Exports by September-October, says Anand Sharma Reviews

Export Performance with IndustryChambers and EPCs

The union Minister of Commerce, Industry& Textiles Shri Anand Sharma today reviewedthe export performance with the ExportPromotion Councils and leading Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the backdrop of avisible slow down in exports. The Minister notedthat the performance in July 2012 has beenworrisome as exports have dipped by 14.8% ascompared to last year. The first four months of the current financial year have seen exportsreaching US$ 97.6 billion as compared to US$102.8 billion during the same period last year. Asectoral assessment was made on the sectorswhich are facing critical slow down and clearlythe labour intensive sectors like handicrafts,textiles and gems & jewellery have beenadversely affected by this slow down. Today’sinteraction brought out the fact that the prolongedcrisis in the Euro Zone has cast a long shadowon the exports and the measures have been takenin June are likely to have an impact beginningSeptember. “I have said earlier that the variousincentives that we have announced and the sector-specific thrust, the support that has been given tothe SMEs and some major sectors, which arelabour-intensive, handloom, handicraft,readymade garments, through interest subvention

and other support measures. We hope that therewill be a turnaround by the month of October,September-October, by the time we enter October, we hope that we will be able to bringabout a positive improvement and enter a strong

positive ter ri tory,” the Minister added. TheMinister explained that efforts are on to bring









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“down the transaction cost. All the major portsand airports will be functioning 24X7 when itcomes to exports. We have discussed this withthe Central Board of Excise and Customs.” Theissue of procedural simplifications was alsodiscussed. Commerce Secretary, DGFT and thesenior officers of Commerce Department have

been directed to hold regional consultations withthe State Governments and the exportingcommunity and the process of consultations be

initiated. Commerce Secretary has already heldconsultations in Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad andChennai and similar consultations have already

been held in Ahmedabad and Cochin. “There will be monthly trade facilitation meetings between theCommerce Secretary, DGFT, our regional DGFToffices and the export councils. We will bemonitoring this very closely,” added the Minister.

TRAI Direction for ProvidingInformation to Broadband Consumers

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) had issued direction on 27th July 2012 toTelecom Service Providers for delivering

broadband services in a transparent manner by providing adequate information to the broadbandconsumers about various plans offered under Fair Usage Policy (FUP). Through this direction,telecom service providers have been directed,inter-alia, to ensure that speed of broadbandconnection in all broadband tariff plans is notreduced below the minimum speed specified andto provide alerts to consumers when their datausage reaches 80% and 100% of the data usagelimit bundled with the plan. TRAI receivedcomplaints from consumers and consumer organizations saying that service providers are notdelivering broadband services in a transparentmanner as they are not providing adequate

information to the consumers regarding broadbandservices including broadband plans with Fair Usage Policy (FUP). Some of the service

providers have started providing the informationto their consumers as per the tariff planssubmitted to TRAI. Service providers have alsostarted providing the information through their website. Telecom Service Providers have tocomply with the provisions of reportingrequirement specified by Telecommunication

Tariff Order wherein all service providers arerequired to report to the TRAI any new tariff for telecommunication services and /or any changestherein within seven days from the date of implementation of the said tariff. The Minister of State for Communications & InformationTechnology Sh Milind Deora gave this informationin Rajya Sabha today.

Integration of Ayush in Health CareSystem under National Rural Health

MissionAfter the launch of NRHM, the Ministry of

Health and Family Welfare has taken severalsteps for strengthening health care facilities byintegrating AYUSH systems in national healthcare delivery systems. The integration isfacilitated by appointing or co-locating AYUSHdoctors & supporting staff and creatinginfrastructure according to local needs. Therewere 640 districts, 6431 blocks and 638588villages incorporating 605 District Hospitals(DHs), 4535 Community Health Centres (CHCs)and 23673 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) tillMarch 2011. Out of these, AYUSH facilities had

been co-located with 416 District Hospitals, 2942Community Health Centres and 9559 PrimaryHealth Centres during 2011. About 68.76%District hospitals had been co-located with









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AYUSH facilities till 2011. All the Districthospitals existing in the states and union territoriesof Goa, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra,Mizoram, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura,Lakshadweep and Puducherry had been co-located with AYUSH facilities, whereas, thestates having more than 50% of the Districthospitals co-located with AYUSH facilities wereChhattisgarh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, andUttarakhand., There had been no co-location of

AYUSH facilities in the Districts hospitals of theremaining 12 states and union territories. Nearly65% Community Health Centre’s had been co-located with AYUSH facilities till 2011. All theCHCs existing in the states and union territoriesof Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Nagaland, Orissa,Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Andaman & Nicobar Islands,Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman &Diu, Lakshadweep and Puducherry had been co-located with AYUSH facilities., whereas, thestates having more than 50% of the CHCs co-located with AYUSH facilities were Chhattisgarh,Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Meghalaya,Punjab, Tripura and West Bengal. The stateshaving more than 25% but less than 50% of theCHCs co-located with AYUSH facilities wereArunachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Thestates having less than 25% CHCs co-located withAYUSH facilities were Madhya Pradesh only.

No co-location of AYUSH facilities had beenobserved in CHCs in the remaining 8 states andunion territories. About 40.4% Primary HealthCentre’s had been co-located with AYUSHfacilities till 2011. All the PHC existing in theUnion Territory of D&N Haveli, Daman & Diuand Puducherry, Jammu and Kashmir, A& NIslands, and Lakshadweep have been co-located.The States/ Union Territories having more than

50% of the PHCs co-located with AYUSHfacilities were Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat,Manipur, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu andTripura, States having more than 25% but lessthan 50% of the PHCs co-located with AYUSHfacilities, were Karnataka, Meghalaya WestBengal, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. The states and unionterritories having less than 25% of the PrimaryHealth Centres co-located with AYUSH facilities

were Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, HimachalPradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

NATIONAL F AMILY B ENEFIT SCHEME

The Ministry of Rural Development isimplementing, through State Governments and UTAdministrations, a scheme namely NationalFamily Benefit Scheme (NFBS). Under thisscheme, earlier a provision of grant of Rs. 5,000/- was made in case of natural death of BPL

primary bread winner. The primary BPL bread

winner specified in the scheme, whether male or female, had to be a member of the householdwhose earning contributed substantially to thetotal household income. The death of such primary

bread winner occurring whilst he/she was in theage group of 18 to 64 years. In the year 1998, theamount of benefit has been raised to Rs. 10,000/- in case of death due to natural causes as wellas accidental causes. The funds are released toState Governments and UTs by Ministry of Finance as Additional Central Assistance. The

National Family Benefit Scheme is a sub-schemeof the National Social Assistance Programme(NSAP) and details of funds released sub-scheme wise to State/UTs are not maintained.These sub-schemes are only for BPL families.This was stated by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development, in a written









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reply to the Lok Sabha today. SolarCharkha Khadi and Village IndustriesCommission (KVIC) in c ollaboration withMahatma Gandhi Institute for RuralIndustrialization (MGIRI) has introduced solar

power operated charkhas in 6 clusters on a trial basis in Gujarat, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Nagaland. Cotton

spinning solar charkhas have been developed byMGIRI by attaching solar panels, battery andmotor with the New Model Charkha (NMC)developed by KVIC. This information was given

by the Union Minister for Micr o, Small andMedium Enterprises, Shri Vayalar Ravi in awritten reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.









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OCT 2012 : GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER 46

Q . B lu etooth

Bluetooth is a short-range wirelesstechnology that allows computers, phone and other devices to talk to each other over short distances(up to 100 meters). Bluetooth uses radio waves(in the 2.4 Gigahertz range) and is designed to bea secure and inexpensive way of connecting andexchanging information between devices such asmobile phones, laptops, PC’s, PDAs, printers,digital cameras, mouse and keyboards. Wi-Finetworks and Bluetooth are the wireless hotspotsin today’s time and are almost 20 times faster thanthe earlier versions. With the latest technology of Bluetooth (version 2.0), devices can henceachieve data transfer speeds up to 2 or 3 Mbps(megabits per second).

Why the name Bluetooth? The name comesfrom the ancient King Harald Blatan of Demark (Blatan in Danish translates to “blue tooth” inEnglish). Sweden-based telecom companyEricsson developed the technology and was co-founder in 1998 of the Bluetooth Special Interest

Group Governing body ( www.bluetooth.com) .Bluetooth is also standardized as an IEEE wireless

personal area network.Q. What is Global Positioning System?

Global Positioning System, or GPS, is oneof the most widely used technologies in thecommunication world. GPS navigational systems

are supported by a network of 27 satellites, which

orbits the Earth in acyclic pattern every twenty-four hours. At any given time, signals from aminimum of four satellites are accessible to anyone point on Earth. Whenever a receiver deviceis activated, radio waves are sent out. Areceiver’s exact location is determined througha process called triangulation where threesatellites work together to track down possiblelocation points, while a fourth satellite compilesthe data ad picks out the exact location. Distancecalculations are made based on how long it takesthe radio signals to travel back and forth betweenthe receiver and the satellites.

A GPS tracking system uses the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) network.This network includes a range of satellites thatuses microwave signals that are being transmittedto GPS devices to give information on location,vehicle speed, time and direction. So, a GPStracking system has a potential to provide the real-time and past navigation data on any kind of

journey.Location tracking by providers in case of anemergency and giving navigation directions areother uses of this technology in mobile phones. Amobile phone also work like a two-way radiowhen communicating with the cell phone towersand the GPS capability of phones simply extends

SCIENCE REPORTER




http://www.bluetooth.com%29/


http://www.bluetooth.com%29/





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the radio signals to reach out to the spacesatellites.

The receiver device can be located insidethe phone itself, or the user can use a wirelessconnection like a Bluetooth connection. Mobile

phones work on Java-based programs and havedatabase access to their provider’s system. Themapping capabilities are displayed on the phone’sscreen via the cellular provider’s database. Theaccuracy of these maps depends on howfrequently your provider updates the database.Q. W h at d o yo u u n der st an d b y I M E I

Number?

IMEI Number is something all mobile usersshould be aware of. IMEI is the acronym for International Mobile Equipment Identity. Thiscode is a unique number associated with everymobile phone and can help us to find our stolencell phone easily. We can find our mobile phone’sIMEI number by dialing the sequence *#06# into

the phone. The unique 15-digit IMEI code of themobile phone will be displayed instantly. Note thisnumber down and keep it in a secure place so thatyou can find it in case your phonies misplaced or stolen. You can also find the IMEI number bychecking the metallic plate under the battery, after making sure that power is switched off.

In case your mobile phone gets lost or stolen, you can inform yours network provider who can then put the IMEI number on a shareddatabase. This will prevent that particular phonefrom being registered on any network. Thus, it will

be useless for a thief even if the mobile phone’sSIM card is changed. And then, by the use of GPS,the phones could be tracked. This IMEI number is also required to unlock the mobile phone andget it working once it is found.

In case your mobile phone doesn’t have the

IMEI number then you are in trouble! TheDepartment of Telecom (DOT), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology,Government of India has direct cell phoneoperators to disconnect mobile phone handsetswithout legitimate International Mobile EquipmentIdentify (IMEI) number from 1 December 2009.This has been done to counter threats to nationalsecurity, as many crimes have been aided by

phones that cannot be easily tracked. So check

that cannot be easily tracked. So check your cell phone and replace it if it does not have a proper IMEI number to prevent misuse of your phone.Q. Write a short note on Composite Gas

Cylinders

Metals, plastics, ceramics are consideredmaterials with different distinguishingcharacteristics and composite materials aremixture of two or more of these. Bones, woodetc are naturally occurring composite materials.

Reinforced cement concrete is the modernincarnation of the composite material concept. Inmodern scenario, composite materials are fastgetting introduced as aircraft structures, car-

bodies, railway coaches, boat construction, navalcrafts, storage tanks and vessels, engine pistons,sewer pipes, polymer concretes for dams, roof-light sheets, electrical mats and spars, chairs,tables, implants, sport-goods, cooking utensils,

personal armours, etc.A composite material offers several

advantages over conventional metalliccounterparts. It has very high strength (or stiffness) to weight ratio. It has excellentcorrosion resistance and good fire retardant

properties can be introduced by incorporatingspecial additives. Higher internal damping, lesscatastrophic burst failure, better dimensional









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stability due to low coefficient of thermalexpansion, lower file cycle cost, improvedappearance and smooth surface make compositematerials an obvious choice for variousapplications.

A see-through, lightweight, safe, eye-catching, environmental friendly cooking gascylinder made of fiberglass will be an asset for kitchens of the future. Composite gas cylindersapart from imparting maximized strength andoptimized safety, also offer additional advantagelike non-corrosive construction, high strength toweight ratio, weight, and explosion-proof fabrication making this an obvious alternatives for domestic cooking gas cylinders. This type of technology needs adaption for many other reasonsalso.

In India, LPG supply is highly subsidized(50%) and is theft prone also. Some distributerstake out the LPG from the cylinders by filling

water up to 2 kg and the water remains in thecylinder even at the time of refilling at bottling plants. Additionally, wide variation in weight of LPG cylinders (15.5 kg to 18.5 kg), erroneous tareweighment during bottling, black during bottling,

black-marketing are some of the menace for which composite domestic gas cylinder isconsidered a panacea.

In a LGP bottling plant, automatic LPGfilling system called carousal is adopted. It has 24nozzles and can undergo one rotation in 65

seconds giving a time of 2.5 seconds per cylinder to the operator for tare neutralization. Thisfrequently leads to erroneous for fareneutralization. This frequently leads to erroneousgas weight in the cylinder and the specifiedvariation of ± 150 g over 14.2 kg gas in seldommaintained. The plastic seal costs too less for any

malpractices. The use of gadgets like Bansuri,etc. has been reported widely to take out cookinggas from etc. has been reported widely to takeout cooking gas from filled cylinders beforeresealing it. Cases of filling the cylinders with 1-2 kg of water displacing LPG gas has beenreported from many parts of the country. A see-through visible gas level will put an end to all suchmalpractices.

The major problem with use and propagation of composite cylinder is high cost of fabrication. The cost is prices at around Rs 3,500

per cylinder in comparison with Rs. 950 for steelcylinders. However, the cost is largely justified inview of enhanced safety, correct and justifiedreturn on investment, higher buying capacity of domestic LPG gas users, prior intimation of available gas level, light weight and nextgeneration tag.Q. New Cloud Physics Laboratory in India

A High Altitude Cloud Physics Laboratory,the first of its king in India, has been establishedat the famous hill station of Mahabaleshwar in theWestern Ghats range near Pune. It will startcollecting data in the current monsoon season.

Perched 1438 meters above mean sealevel, the Rs. 35 crore laboratory of the Ministryof Earth Science (MOES) will have state of artinstruments for observations including a “skyimager” with an additional installation of an X-

band radar at the nearby Mandhar Devi hill for continuous monitoring of “growth and decay” of clouds under different environmental conditions.

The bases of clouds in India in the monsoonseason are between 1000-1500 m above sea level.However, Mahabaleshwar being about 1,400meters high, the clouds are at the surface. This

provides a unique opportunity for observations. An









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additional advantage is that the monsoon cloudsformed over the Arabian Sea arrive first over Mahabaleshwar.

Dr. G. Pandithurai, scientist working at thePune based Indian Institute of TropicalMeteorology (IITM) is the project-in-charge.IITM will also manage the laboratory. Thelaboratory is being described by IITM scientistsas a “milestone in the history of atmosphericsciences in India”.Q. D i abet es

Diabetes can be of type- 1or type-2 (thethird kinds know as gestational diabetes affectsonly women during pregnancy). The first one setsat an early age, as it is hereditary and is relatedto chromosomes 6 and 11. Such patients arecompletely insulin dependent, as they fall tosecrete this hormone adequately. On the other hand, type-2 the most prevalent one is generallyseen in adults and elderly people. Its susceptibility

is also hereditary, but is termed as insulinindependent, as it can be controlled by adoptinghealthy food habits, regular exercises and use of medicine. However, this is one that is nowspreading like an epidemic.

While sedentary life style is mostly blamedfor the dreadful scenario, unhealthy food, andothers of the kind rich in refined starch, fat saltand sugar containing very little natural ingredientslike dietary fibre, minerals and vitamins also havea major share in it, To make the situation morealarming, a recent research finding published inthe British Medical journal (16 march 2012) haslinked polished White rice, the staple food of mostthan half of the people of the world, with type-2diabetes. According to it, each serving (nearly160g) of such rice a day increases the risk by 11%and more the consumption greater in the risk.

Q. Water – Wastewater Systems

Water is a basic human need. Theindispensability of water and the water conservation a necessity, nations have gone to war over water in the past and may do so in the futureif water resources are not wisely managed.

However, water is taken for granted byconsumers who deem clean water access as their right. Most people are only vaguely aware of theconsumption of energy and materials associatedwith water treatment, pumping and wastewater treatment downstream in urban water-wastewater networks. Cycle indirectlycontributes to global warming, while excessivematerials consumption may lead to their quick depletion While water cuts are sources of ire andfrustration, the challenges shouldered by the cityand town authorities tend to go unheededDevelopment of new. Water resources areinvestment-intensive, and so is the maintenance

of pipelines in order to people better, themunicipalities are in need of more finances.Subsides will not help for too long and loons fromlending institutions. Are unaffordable most of thetime. Raising the price of water for consumerswill create unrest among the poor customers,which form a significant percentage of

populations in cities of the developing world.People are not they are used to receiving cheaply.

Thus, it behooves consumers to supportcash- strapped municipalities by being willing to

pa y a li ttle mor e and cont rib ut e to water conservation by taking reducing consumption,retrofitting the plumbing in their houses toaccomplish reuse by cascade, harvestingrainwater etc. To understand what consumer attitudes and their potential role in water conservation. On e-mail survey of water









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consumers in Asia carried out. The cities includedin the survey were Singapore, Vadodara Mumbai,

New Delhi, Kolkata, Jullundur, Noida, Gurgaon,Ahmedabad, Bangalore, chongging (China), Seoul(south Korea) and Tsukaba ( Japan), Indiansaccount for a significant percentage of therespondent, as not only place, but also greater

percentage of those contacted responded to thequestionnaire. The male-female ratio among therespondents is 3:2 the figures below give more

Information about the respondent sample.Q. C u r i o si t y L an ds o n M a r s 4 I n d i an

M ission

Curiosity about Mars has always been highin the minds of humans. Earthlings have always

been at the receiving end of attacks from highlyadvanced Martians in science fiction movies andstories Life on mars has always been acontentious and hotly debated topic in scientificcircles too. And so, when curiosity NASA’s Mars

science rover, landed on the martin surface on 6August 2012, a collective cheer went out at NASA’s Jet propulsion Laboratory The rover Landed in the Gale crater on Mars after completing an eight month long journey across 355million miles. And immediately thereafter it sentin its first photographs of the Martian surface.

The $2.5 billon curiosity project, formallycalled the Mars science Laboratory, is indeedspace on engineering marvel and one of the mostcomplex robotic space flights. With only about

40% of mars missions having tasted success theodds were stacked against the NASA engineers.However, the car- sized rover was guided on tothe surface of Mars with almost near precisionand without any major mishap surviving what hasnow come to be popular billed as the “sevenminutes of terror” these were the seven minutes

during which curiosity was expected to completea series off high-risk automated maneuversslowing if from an entry speed of 20,000 km/h toallow it soft landing. In the two years that therover a is expected to be operational, curiosity willscoop up samples of soil and pieces of rocks andnanalyze them in its onboard laboratory to searchfor chemical building blocks of life (e.g. forms of carbon) on Mars. It will also try to find out whatthe martian environment was like in the past andwhether conditions have been favorable for microbial life Apart from curiosity three is another rover- opportunity-on the surface on Mars

beaming signals back to Earth and there orbiterscurrently surveying the planet (Mars OdysseyMars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance orbiter.

Meanwhile, prime Minster Manmonan singin an address to the nation on the occasion of thecountry’s 66 th independence Day announcedIndia’s own Mars mission The cabinet has

approved the Mars orbiter Mission that will involvesending a spaceship to Mars making it the sixthcountry to launch a mission to the Red Planetafter the U.S. Russia, Europe Japan and China.

The Rs. 450 corer Mars orbiter Missionmight be lunched in November next year a 25 kgscientific payload. To be lunched from sriharkotain Andhra pradesh by an extended version of the

po la r sa telli te Lunch vehicl e (P SLV), thespacecraft would take nearly 300 days to reachthe Martian orbit the orbit will be placed in an orbit

of 5000×80,000 Km around Mars. Thespacecraft will study the Climate, geology origin,evolution and sustainability of life on the plant.

If the Indian Mars orbiter Mission issuccessful, India will be the first Asian countryto do so as probes sent by China and Japan hadto be abandoned en route.









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OCT 2012 : GIST OF THE HINDU 1

Q. Some facts about 114 th Constituti on

Amendment Bi l l 2010.• Constitution (114th Amendment) Bill

2010 to raise the retirement age of onlythe High Court judges from 62 to 65,which was tabled in Parliament inDecember 2011 but not as yet passed.

• One factor deterring a competent lawyer from accepting judgeship is the retiringage at 62. Increasing it to 65 may inducecompetent lawyers to seek appointmentas judges of the High Court.

• Secondly, with a larger tenure, judges mayacquire more maturity, learning andexperience so necessary for a judge.

• Thirdly, with retirement at 65, a judge may be less anx ious about looking for employment after retirement, by way of an appointment to a Tribunal or Commission by governments.

• Fourthly, today the Chief Justices andmost senior judges of the High Courts,

nearing their retirement at 62, sometimesaspire unbecomingly to being selected judges of the Supreme Court not only for the prestige of the post but also to obtainanother three-year stint in the SupremeCourt.

• If the retirement age is increased to 65on a par with that of Supreme Court

judges, senior judges may be content with

remaining in their own High Court rather than seek an additional three-year stint,in the Supreme Court.

Supreme Courts abroad, the retirement age is above65. In the High Court of Australia (which is the apexcourt there) it is 70, in the Supreme Court of Canada75, in the Supreme Court of Ireland 70, in theSupreme Court of Israel 70, in the Supreme Court of

New Zealand 68, in the Constitutional Court of South Africa 70 or after 12 years of service, and inthe U.K. Supreme Court 75.

Q. Coal Block Scam.The Rs.1.86 lakh crore coalgate scam exposed bythe Comptroller and Auditor General of India(CAG), which has dragged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh into its centre, shut downParliament and stirred up a raging national debate,will now be examined by the Public AccountsCommittee (PAC). The report has led to Dr. Singhfinally taking full responsibility for the decisions of the Coal Ministry, but only after rebutting theCAG’s observations as “clearly disputable andflawed.”

• (Moher, Moher-Amlohri Extension &Chhattrasal) allocated to ReliancePower for their Sasan UMPP were de-allocated from Northern Coalfields Ltd,a subsidiary of CIL.

• For end-user projects (EUP) for whichcaptive coal blocks are allocated, besides

THE HINDU











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countries — Europe, Canada, Brazil, Thailand,Mexico, to name a few. But one cannot ignorethe reality of the private health sector or the factthat it can and ought to be made to play its part inthe move towards universal health coverage.

At present, private facilities, under a veneer of respectful treatment, can be hugely expensive,and often do not provide appropriate or highquality clinical services. Ensuring that pr ivatehealth providers play a responsible role requiresthat we move away from ad hoc and unregulated

public-private partnerships (PPPs) and also awayfrom the practice of giving subsidies and freebieslike land and tax-breaks to the private sector without any effective mechanisms to ensureaccountability.

An important recommendation of theHLEG is to set up independent and effectiveHealth Regulatory and Development Authoritiesat both national and state levels that would

supervise the quality of services delivered by both public and private sector providers. These bodieswould ensure among other things that standardtreatment guidelines form the basis of clinical careacross both sectors, with adequate monitoring toimprove the quality of care and control costs.

They would also ensure grievance redressmechanisms by linking up with measures to ensurecitizen participation and accountability. This has

been done very effectively in countries that areat the forefront of the move towards universal

health care such as Thailand and Brazil, and must be implemented in India.

Q. Recommendation of Shome Panel about GARR.

Advocates abolition of capital gains tax ontransfer of securities

In wide-ranging recommendations aimed atsoothing the hackles of investors and revive theinflow of foreign capital, the expert committee onGeneral Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR), headed

by Pa rtha sa rathi Shome, ha s advocated

postponement of the controversial tax provision by three years till 2016-17 along with abolition of capital gains tax on transfer of securities.

In a further reassurance to foreigninstitutional investors (FIIs) operating through theMauritius route, the expert panel, in its draftreport submitted to the government on August 31and put in the public domain by the FinanceMinistry on Saturday for comments fromstakeholders, has suggested that the GAAR

provisions should not be invoked to examine thegenuineness of the foreign investor entities’residency in the island nation.

T HRESHOLD OF T AX B ENEFIT

Among its other major recommendationsfor amendment in the Act, for guidelines to be

prescribed under Income-Tax Rules, 1962, and









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for clarifications and illustrations through circular,the Shome panel has suggested that GAAR should be made applicable only if the monetarythreshold of tax benefit is Rs.3 crore and more.

Alongside, while comments from allstakeholders have been sought by September 15for drawing up the final guidelines on GAAR, theFinance Ministry has also expanded the terms of reference of the expert panel which was set up

by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July,

mainly to bring about tax clarity and address theconcerns of foreign investors. Instead of only FIIs,the panel has been told to look into issues pertainingto all non-resident tax payers. On the need for

postponing implementation of GAAR, the Shome panel in its draft report said: “The implementationof GAAR may be deferred by three years onadministrative grounds. GAAR is an extremelyadvanced instrument of tax administration — oneof deterrence, rather than for revenue generation

— for which intensive training of tax officers,who would specialise in the finer aspects of international taxation, is needed… Hence GAAR should be deferred for three years. But the year,2016-17, should be announced now. In effect,therefore, GAAR would apply from AssessmentYear 2017-18. Pre-announcement is a common

pr ac tice interna tionally, in today‘s globalenvironment of freely flowing capital.”

M AURITIUS I SSUE

Of particular concern for FIIs was the Mauritiusissue. To address their concerns, the expert panelsaid that while the provisions of GAAR should not

be invoked to “examine the genuineness of theresidency of an entity set up in Mauritius,” thegovernment should retain the provisions of theCBDT circular issued in the Year 2000 onacceptance of Tax Residence Certificate (TRC)issued by Mauritius. “...if the government cannotaccept it (proposal to abolish capital gains tax ontransfer of listed securities) on political economy

grounds, a second best alternative would be toretain...the Circular accepting Tax ResidenceCertificate issued by the Mauritius authorities,” itsaid. In this regard, the Shome panel said: “Thegovernment should abolish the tax on gains arisingfrom transfer of listed securities, whether in thenature of capital gains or business income, to bothresidents as well as non-residents. In order to makethe proposal tax neutral, the government mayconsider to increase the rate of SecuritiesTransaction Tax (STT) appropriately.”

While recommending that GAAR shouldapply “only in cases of abusive, contrived andartificial arrangements”, the Shome panelsuggested that the I-T Act may be amended to

provide that only arrangements which have themain purpose (and not one of the main purposes)of obtaining tax benefit should be covered under GAAR. Highlighting that the objective of GAAR should be deterrence rather than revenue, the

panel has recommended that the Approving Panel(AP) for purposes of invoking GAAR provisionsshould consist of five members, includingChairman, who should be a retired judge of theHigh Court. Besides, two members should befrom outside government and persons of eminence drawn from the fields of accountancy,economics or business, with knowledge of matters of income- tax, and two members should

be chief commissioners of income-tax or oneChief Commissioner and one Commissioner.

It also suggested that GAAR can beinvoked only with the approval of theCommissioner.

• China confidently coped with the globaleconomic crisis in 2008, and in 2010 it became the second largest economy inthe world. China’s per capita income rosefrom $1000 in 2002 to over 2500 now.Many events such as the BeijingOlympics and astronauts in spacemissions were major achievements.









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⇒ ABC of NA M & I ndia’s point of view in the context of 16 th Summit .

• Non Aligned Movement attracted moreinterest than before with its 16th summitin Tehran last week.

It must have been disappointed. Iran’s biggest international conference in several yearsdrew a full house, including Egypt’s firstdemocratically elected President MohammedMorsi; Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states also sentrepresentatives. And despite pressure by the U.Sand Israel not to attend, the United NationsSecretary-General was present too. It’s another matter that both President Morsi, who describedthe Assad regime as an “occupation” of Syria, andBan-ki Moon, who asked Iran to comply withU.N. demands or face isolation, did not play musicin President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad’s ears. StillIran came out looking better than it had before.For an Israel straining at the leash, this should besufficient discouragement against anyadventurism. Further, while western efforts toeffect regime change in Syria have divided theworld, and NAM’s members hold independent

positions on the situation there, this did not affectthe summit’s determination to press for equitable‘global governance’ — diplomatic argot for aninternational order more representative than the

present Security Council.For India, the summit was an important

occasion to send out two timely messages. Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh’s assertion thatexternal intervention in Syria would only lead tomore problems for that country, and that a solutionhad to come from within, was New Delhi’sclearest statement of differences with the U.S.on this issue. India had voted for a UNSCresolution calling for sanctions against Syria in

July, but abstained from a General Assemblyresolution that included a reference to an ArabLeague demand for President Assad to stepdown. Second, Dr. Singh’s meetings with theIranian leadership were an opportunity todemonstrate that New Delhi’s relations withTehran would not be dictated by the U.S. Ever since the U.S stepped up its pressure on thenuclear front by threatening sanctions againstcountries buying Iranian oil, India has walked a

fine balance between the two countries.The talks focussed on improving economic

relations; Iran recommitted to facilitating theChabahar route for India-Afghan trade. Foreignrelations are not the zero sum game some powerswould like it to be. India and Iran must now followup with quick action on the ground.⇒ TB Control: T he Road Ahead.

India, with the highest TB burden in the world,even more serious, requiring urgent attention and

novel methods of intervention. It is within thiscontext that two major policy initiatives — to makeTB a notifiable disease and to ban serological tests

— taken by the combined effor ts of sever algovernment agencies are noteworthy, timely andlaudable.

The second policy decision to banserological diagnostic tests for TB is no lesssignificant. Serological or blood tests are basedon the successful detection of certain molecules(antigens) from the pathogen, or detection of the

body’s immune response to the pa thogen(antibody response mostly). These are routinelyused for diagnosis of diseases like HIV/AIDS,malaria and hepatitis. In principle and in practice,when effective, these tests are economical, easyto use and quick in diagnosis of a diseasecondition.









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SEROLOGICAL T ESTING

However, it has not been possible to developan accurate serological test for TB so far. Themain reason for this is that in disease endemiccountries like India, where most of the populationhas been exposed to TB, these serological testsare completely ineffective. Although healthy, withno symptoms of pulmonary disease, most of usare likely to test positive for TB and ininexperienced hands will perhaps be started onTB treatment. The dependence on such unreliabletests can only do harm, especially serious, in caseof TB, because many will end up undergoing TBtherapy without any need for it. Several scientificstudies have clearly shown that serological testsfor TB are not only of no value but also add tothe gravity of the problem by resulting in multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB. The World HealthOrganisation has already advised all TB control

programmes against the use of any of these. Thus,

the ban by law in India has come not a day toosoon. However, it should be emphasised that the ban is only on the serological tests that are usedcurrently for TB and not for serological tests per se. If in future, a reliable and accurate serologicaltest is developed, it will certainly be allowed to

be used once its efficacy is proved.

DETECTING G ENETIC M ATERIAL

The obvious query in any thinking person’smind would be: does this ban on serological tests

in any way hamper doctors from diagnosing andtreating those suffering from TB and requiringurgent attention? The short answer is a definite“no” because these tests are of no value.Moreover, highly efficient tests based on detectinggenetic material from the TB bug are nowavailable and in use in many TB endemic

countries. These tests are highly reliable, quick and, more significantly, also address the problemof detection of most forms of drug-resistant TB.The challenge seems to be the price of thetechnology.

There is hope that in the future, home-grownand locally manufactured technologies will bediscovered and made available for public use.

These two landmark decisions indicate the positive energy that gets generated when variousagencies manage to work in harmonioussynchronisation. It is difficult to imagine that suchvital decisions could have taken place withoutcare, consultation and the coordinated efforts of all stakeholders in the public sphere involved inthe control of TB, along with government agencieslike the office of the Drugs Controller General of India, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare(Revised National Tuberculosis ControlProgramme), Ministry of Communications &

Information Technology and Indian Council of Medical Research. All these and several othersinvolved in advocacy to control the disease needto be congratulated. These efforts also reflect theseriousness with which government and health

providers in the country have decided to approachone of the most serious health problems in thecountry. There is hope and every reason to

believe that with the combined efforts of publicand private health providers, TB and MDR-TBcan be effectively managed.⇒ Bi ll of Sexual har assment.

• The Sexual Harassment of Women atWorkplace (Prevention, Prohibition andRedressal) Bill 2012, recently passed bythe Lok Sabha.

• Supreme Court that resulted in alandmark 1997 judgment which, relying

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heavily on international conventions, laiddown the so-called Vishaka guidelines — a framework for dealing with sexualharassment at the workplace.

• A drafting initiative by the NationalCommission for Women, and pressurefrom civil society that we are close tohaving a full-fledged law that attemptsto strengthen the right of women to asecure and non-threatening environment

at the workplace.• The legal framework of the Bill is erected

on the mandatory constitution of InternalComplaints Committees in offices andthe creation of Local ComplaintsCommittees in every district, twinmechanisms for redressal of complaints.Its ambit is wide as it covers, in keepingwith the Vishaka guidelines, theunorganised sector, which in relation toa workplace means an y enterprise

engaged in the production of goods or providing service of any kind includingthose that employ less than 10 workers.The definition of the sexual harassmentis expansive as well, including sexually-coloured remarks and any non-verbalgesture of a sexual nature. Setting upInternal Complaints Committees, whichmust include one member from a NGO,in all offices and branches with morethan 10 employees will take some doing.

• And it remains to be seen how thesecommittees, which have been vestedwith the powers of a civil court, willfunction.

• The proposed law may have missed atrick in not being gender-neutral.

• Protection of Children from Sexual

Offences Act, 2012.The identity and privacy of the child will have to be protected and emergency treatment willhave to be given in the presence of the

parent or guardian or any other personin whom the victim has trust andconfidence. The rules, drafted by the

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and put up for comments by the Ministry of Women and

Child Development, make it mandatoryfor any medical practitioner of a healthfacility to attend on an abused child for treatment of cuts, bruises and other injuries, sexually transmitted diseases,treatment for exposure to HIV, including

prophylaxis for HIV after consultationswith experts.

• The special court may, in appropriatecases, order an interim compensation tomeet the immediate needs of the child

for relief and rehabilitation at any stageafter registration of the First InformationReport. It shall be adjusted against thefinal compensation, if any.

• Compensation is to be paid by the Stategovernment, within 30 days of the courtorder, from the Victim CompensationFund or any other scheme or fundestablished by it for rehabilitating victims.

Q. H iggs Boson Particle

Rolf Heuer, director general of the EuropeanOrganisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) saidhere on Monday that he believed that Satyendra

Nath Bose, the physicist in honour of whom a familyof particles in the Standard Model of particle

physics is named, should have been given the Nobel Prize.

• “Higgs boson-like particle” in July this











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• South Sudan unilaterally stopped oil production after a dispute over the transitfee demanded by the North for use of its pipelines.

• The stalemate has affected bothcountries; the International MonetaryFund estimates that oil accounts for about90 per cent of Sudan’s exports and 98

per cent of South Sudan’s state revenues.• In August this year, the two countries

arrived at an agreement on oil transit fees pursua nt to a broader agr eement on border security along a 10 km widedemilitarised zone.

• A referendum on Abyei has been postponed indefinitely as both sidesdisagree over who should be allowed to

participate in the referendum.

80% OF H UMAN

G ENOME HAS AN ACTIVE R OLE OR F UNCTION

• The ENCODE project has found that notone per cent but 80.4 per cent of thegenome has an active role or function.For instance, it could be “promoter”regions where “proteins bind to controlgene expression” or “enhancer” regionsthat “regulate the expression of distantgenes.”

• The most important part is that genescomprise only 2 per cent of the genome.

• The regulatory regions are scattered in

the 98 per cent of the genome.• A paper in Nature explains the important

features of organisation and functioningof the human genome. It states that in95 per cent of the cases, the genes arein close proximity to the regulatoryswitches.

• To their amazement, the researchersfound that most genes are not controlled

by just one switch. Instead, the genesare regulated by more than a dozenswitches. In other words, there is no one-to-one relationship between a gene anda switch.

• Genes are copied (transcribed) into RNAmolecules

• The ENCODE team found that 76 per

cent of disease-associated variants in thenon-gene regions are linked to theregulatory DNA.

• “ENCODE is a foundation data set for understanding the human genome.”

• ENCODE is a truly internationalcollaborative effort — 442 scientistsfrom 32 laboratories in the U.K., U.S,Spain, Singapore and Japan wereinvolved.

• They generated and analysed over 15terabytes (15 trillion bytes) of raw data.True to its international team effort, allof the data from the project is freelyavailable to the public.

• The study included 8 people who hadnever smoked and 24 smokers, 11 withnormal lung function and 13 people witheither chronic obstructive pulmonarydisease (COPD) or asthma.

PROPOSAL FOR S INGLE W OMEN IN 12 TH P LAN

• The Planning Commission is pushing for special dispensation for single women,

par ticularly those who are single bychoice, under various governmentschemes in the 12th Five Year Plan.

• In addition to reserving a certain percentage of jobs for single women










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under Centrally sponsored schemes, thePlan panel has proposed promoting andstrengthening federations of singlewomen at the block and district levels.

• So far the recognised categories of singlewomen are widows and divorcees. Sofar the recognised categories of singlewomen are widows and divorcees. Sofar the recognised categories of singlewomen are widows and divorcees.

• So far the recognised categories of singlewomen are widows and divorcees.

⇒ Russia to Auction its Largest Gold-f ield

• Russia will auction its largest unminedgold deposit in the nearest future despitethe prohibitive cost of reaching theremote eastern Siberian field.

• Sukhoi Log’s estimated reserves of 2,000tonnes and 3,000 tonnes (64.3 million to96.4 million troy ounces) of gold and asmaller amount of silver make it into oneof the world’s largest untapped depositsof the precious metal.

• The field, located in the vast Irkutsk region of eastern Siberia, has beenlabelled ‘strategic’ by the RussianGovernment, and is not subject to bidsfrom foreigners.

• But Russia is now undergoing a new privatisation campaign, and the businessdaily cited First Deputy Prime Minister

Igor Shuvalov as saying the auction termswould be announced ‘shortly’.• Sukhoi Log (meaning ‘dry ravine’ in

English) suffers from a series of drawbacks that have been under studyfor some 50 years. Studies show that itsore has a low gold concentration, andneeds to be enriched.

• It also remains inaccessible by road, andhas no independent or outside supply of the water required for processing.

• The government’s own estimates say the project would take 12 years to developat a cost of 49 billion rubles ($1.5 billion).

• The government’s own estimates say the project would take 12 years to developat a cost of 49 billion rubles ($1.5 billion).

Q. Afr ica’s I niti ative for Space Research

• The space shuttle Icarus 13, with itsslender spires and massive flared base,is parked by the seafront a few blocksfrom downtown Luanda, the capital of Angola.

• But the shuttle will never leave the oil-rich west African country for theweightless serenity of space — Icarus13 is not really a space ship, it is amausoleum, an art project, aconstructivist gesture in concrete.

• The Soviet-funded mausoleum of Antonio Agostinho Neto, Angola’s firstPresident and Kremlin ally, became“Icarus 13” — a spaceship that wouldtake an all-African crew on a fantastical

journey to the sun.• At present, the entire continent has less

bandwidth than Norway; almost all of which comes from 20-oddcommunication satellites, positioned over

Africa, that are owned by non-Africancompanies. “Space technologies… provide commercial opportunities andstrategic advantages for a tiny minorityof countries controlling them,” claims anAfrispace working paper.

• Space technologies can be divided intothe rocket science needed to put a










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satellite in space, and the earth stationknow-how necessary to make full useof the satellite once it is in orbit.

• “No African nation has the ability tolaunch a satellite even though Africa hasa massive advantage having land on theequator, meaning lower costs for gettinginto orbit,”.

• At present, countries like Ghana, SouthAfrica, and Nigeria are investing in

ground stations rather than rockets.While Ghana has set up the Ghana Spaceand Technology Centre that hopes to

become a regional focal point for remotesensing, meteorological andcommunication technologies, Nigerialaunched three satellites last year.

• The NigComSat-1R communicationsatellite was built with Chinese support,while a British company built the

NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X imaging

satellites.• Afrispace must build institutions to

leverage scientific infrastructure intodevelopment gains, or metaphorically risk

becoming a mausoleum like Icarus 13.• A pan-African space programme may

have its detractors but the continent’s policymakers believe that its benefits,including access to satellite data and

better communications, far outweigh thecosts

Q. Aviation Sector opened up.

The Cabinet Committee on EconomicAffairs, on Friday, approved 49 per cent foreigndirect investment (FDI) in the aviation sector,allowing foreign carriers to pick up stake indomestic airlines. This is likely to pave way for the much-needed equity infusion into domestic

carriers, including loss- making Kingfisher Airlines, which are passing through turbulenttimes as majority of them are crying for funds tosupport their operations. “Though FDI of up to49 per cent, 75 per cent and 100 per cent wasthere in the aviation sector, foreign airlines werenot allowed,’’ Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh toldreporters after the Cabinet meeting.

C URRENT NORMS

• Current FDI norms allow foreigninvestors, not related to airline business,to directly or indirectly own an equitystake of up to 49 per cent in an Indiancarrier. Allowing foreign airlines to pick up stakes in Indian carriers has been along-pending demand of the aviationsector.

• The Indian aviation industry and thedomestic carriers are suffering losses

because of high taxes on jet fuel, high

airport fees, costlier loans, poor infrastructure, and cut-throatcompetition. Except IndiGo, all airlineshave posted losses in the financial year ending March 31.

• Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines, whichis burdened with a debt of over Rs.7,000crore, and is operating with a bareminimum fleet, has been the most vocalsupporter of allowing FDI in the sector.

• The opening of the sector to foreign

airlines may, however, bring good newsfor passengers who would benefit frommore competitive fares, better productand services and better internationalconnectivity.

• Foreign carriers such as British Airwaysand Virgin Atlantic Airways have









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expressed interest in investing in Indiancarriers.

• However, Lufthansa Airlines said it hadno plans to make further investments inIndian carriers.

Q. 11 Countr ies to Strengthen Capacities to address aut ism.

Bringing hope to families with autisticchildren, 11 countries from the WHO SoutheastAsian Region at a recent meeting adopted aresolution on the distinct brain damage disorder that produces a range of behaviouralabnormalities. The countries resolved tostrengthen national capacities and help mobiliseresources in Southeast Asia to address this issue.

Autism is a severely incapacitatingdevelopmental disability that happens in the firstthree years of life, but can be better dealt with if detected early. Statistics show that one in every150 births is autistic. India has over one crore

autistic children, but treatment and rehabilitationfacilities are virtually non-existent.

The resolution impressed upon the member states to give appropriate recognition to autismspectrum disorders (ASD) and other developmental disabilities in policies and

pr ogrammes related to ea rly childhooddevelopment, and asked them to develop andimplement policies and plans — including publicawareness, stigma removal campaigns, supportedwith adequate human, financial and technicalresources — to address the issue.

The meeting called for development of strategies for early detection and community-

based interventions for such children, therebyleading to the creation of appropriateinfrastructure for care, support, intervention,service and rehabilitation.

The WHO expressed deep concern over the dramatic rise in the number of children withautism and developmental disabilities, and thegrowing cost involved in managing suchdisabilities in addition to the challenges of stigma,isolation and discrimination faced by familiesdealing with autism.

To begin with, the 11 countries have agreedto support the activities of autism-relatednetworks, including the South Asia Network (SAAN) — a concept that emerged from theDhaka Declaration on Autism SpectrumDisorders and Developmental Disabilities,adopted at the end of a conference organised lastyear by Bangladesh Prime Minister SheikhHasina’s daughter Saima Hossain, to discuss theneeds and challenges of the autism community inBangladesh and South Asia. The conference wasattended by United Progressive Alliancechairperson Sonia Gandhi.Q. World Divided, India Undecided As 193

Nati ons Gear t o Decide the F utu r e of Net & M obile

In December this year, representatives of 193 governments will meet in Dubai to vote oncritical proposals that will decide how the Internetis governed from now on.

The discussion, to be held at the WorldConference on International Telecommunications(WCIT), will impact nearly six billion mobile

phone users and two billion Internet users. These

include 700 million mobile phone and 100 millionInternet users in India.

The subject has assumed controversial proport ions for two reasons: the countries aredivided in their positions; and the issues have splitnational governments vis-à-vis their own telecomand Internet industry, civil society and academia









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in many cases. In that sense, the global divideamong nation states is worsened by the yawningdivide among stakeholders.

Between December 4 and 13, thegovernments will review a treaty known asInternational Telecom Regulations (ITRs) under the aegis of a lesser known U.N. bureaucracy — the International Telecommunications Union(ITU). The ITRs were last reviewed in 1988,when phone companies worldwide weregovernment-owned and the Internet was notavailable for consumer use.

Today, a vast majority of networks andsubscribers are under private companies, and theInternet, which started with 16 million subscribersin 1995, has more than two billion users; nearlyhalf-a-million are added every day.

Under discussion are several proposals,including cybersecurity, data privacy misuse,fraud and spam, which could give the states more

control over content and access to networks; new peering arrangements and impact on costs of Internet traffic, which may increase the cost of users, especially in developing countries; “newtechnologies” regulation, which may open the wayfor censorship through technologies, like DNSfiltering, that fragment the global Internet; areview of Internet addresses leading to changein the global address registry and how usersaccess websites today; and, finally, government-regulated international mobile roaming tariffs

which may impact the use of international SIMcards, like Matrix, to lower costs.Q. An Excessive Remedy

The Supreme Court order on theappointment of Information Commissioners hashad an unsettling effect on the working of theRight to Information Act, an elegant seven-year

old law that has immeasurably empowered theaverage citizen. What was designed as an easy-to-use legal tool for the poor and weak may now

be at risk of getting tangled in a web of complexity.The Court has, inter alia , ruled that thecompetent authority should prefer a person whois or has been a judge of the High Court for appointment as Information Commissioners, whilethe head of the Information Commissions at theCentre or State shall only be a person who is or

has been a Chief Justice of a High Court or aJudge of the Supreme Court.

The reasoning is that these bodies perform judicial and quasi-judicial functions and suchqualifications are essential to meet the ends of

just ice. The decision comes in the wake of complaints that the system of appointingInformation Commissioners lacks transparency.That is true. Some States follow a closed-door appointments process, packing Commissions withfavoured bureaucrats and political loyalists. Yet,the scale of the remedy is excessive. Byspecifying qualifications for appointments andinstituting new working methodologies for Commissions, which it wants legislated, the courtclearly intrudes into executive privilege.

The RTI Act has escaped many attempts by the Centre to whittle down its scope, with civilsociety rising to its defence each time. Given theculture of secrecy and pervasive corruption, thelaw is a nightmare for many in authority. But it

has weathered the test of judicial scrutiny. Major questions on its scope have been decided by thecourts, including high profile issues such as the

judges’ assets case. Also, the majority of appeals before Information Commissions are those filed by citizens seeking simple information. Theexceptions on disclosure under Section 8 of the









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RTI Act are clear, and the law leaves all other information held by public authorities open — there is little scope there for judicial interpretation.In any case, several orders of the Commissionsin favour of citizens are challenged by officials inregular courts. So far, the appellate process has

been refreshingly uncomplicated, as the applicantcan appear in person, without the need for advocates, and the proceedings are in plainlanguage. If poor citizens have to appear before

a bench that has a judicial member and facelawyers employed by public authorities, theresulting asymmetry of power would clearlydefeat the purpose of the law. The Supreme Courtis correct in calling for due advertisement and arational basis for appointments to Commissions.But it should leave that task to Parliament toexecute.Q. Pakistan Tests Nu clear Capable Babur

Missile

Pakistan on Monday said it had successfullytest-fired an indigenously developed multi-tubecruise missile that can carry both nuclear andconventional warheads over a range of 700 km.According to the Inter Services Public Relations,the Babur (Hatf-VII) cruise missile can striketargets on land and at sea with “pinpointaccuracy”.

Armed with stealth features, Babur is low-flying and terrain-hugging. It is equipped withmodern cruise missile technology of Terrain

Contour Matching and Digital Scene Matchingand Area Co-relation. It was launched from aMulti Tube Missile Launch Vehicle in the presenceof the senior hierarchy of the Strategic PlansDivision.

In Monday’s test, the National CommandAuthority’s fully automated Strategic Command

and Control Support System was employed. Itenables robust command and control capability of all strategic assets with round the clock situationalawareness in a digitised network-centricenvironment to decision makers at NationalCommand Centre (NCC), a statement put out byISPR said. “The system has the added capabilityof real time remote monitoring of missile flight

path”, it added.Q. Agni-I V Scores a Hi t Yet again

• India on Wednesday successfully flight-tested the surface-to-surface Agni-IVmissile for its “full range of 4,000 km.”

• In a flawless flight that lasted 20 minutes,the nuclear-capable missile blasted off at 11.48 a.m. from a road-mobile launch

pad on Wheeler Island off the Odishacoast and traced a parabolic path acrossthe sky. As its re-entry systems worked

perfectly, the missile then plunged intothe Indian Ocean with its payload of onetonne of conventional explosives eruptingspectacularly.

• The payload systems withstood a searingtemperature of more than 3,000 degreesCelsius during the re-entry phase.

• This is the second consecutive successof Agni-IV: the missile scored a hit in

November 2011, after the very first flightfailed in 2010.

• The Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation (DRDO) hasdesigned and developed Agni-IV, whichis 20 metres long and weighs 17 tonnes.The two-stage vehicle, which uses solidfuel, can carry a one-tonne nuclear warhead.

• Wednesday’s triumph caps a series of successful flights of Agni-V, Agni-I, Agni-









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II and Prithvi-II missiles, beginning fromApril this year.

• India’s missile technological programmehas become mature, and we can nowdesign any missile for any mission,depending on the threat profile.Technologically, today, we are on a par with the best in the world.”

• “All the events, from the lift-off… to theexplosion of the payload” took place with

textbook accuracy. “The data shows thatthe missile stuck to its pre-determined

path with an accuracy of less than 100metres,” he said. “The terminal accuracyof the Agni-IV systems has beenrecorded by the ships located downrange,and the explosion of the payload has

been video-graphed. The video confirmsthe successful completion of a copybook launch.”

• Dr. Saraswat was confident that “the

missile will be inducted into the Servicesafter one more launch.” The secondconsecutive success of Agni-IV “provesthat the missile can be launched ondemand in a very short time.” India’sindustrial infrastructure that contributedto the Agni-IV development had alsomatured.

• Agni-III would be flight-tested onSeptember 21, he said.

• There would be one or two more flightsto prove its consistency. “But the designhas already been proven, and this has

been va lida ted by the excellent performance of the miss il e, ” Mr.Chander, who is also Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO.

• Tessy Thomas, Programme Director,

called it an “excellent launch” which metall the parameters till the final event.

• G. Satheesh Reddy, Associate Director,Research Centre, Imarat, Hyderabad.

Q. I R D A I s su es D r a f t I P O N or m s f o r General I nsurance Companies

General insurance companies will beallowed to tap the capital market only if they havecompleted 10 years in business. Also, they needto get prior approval from the insuranceregulatory.

“No general insurance company shallapproach SEBI (Securities and Exchange Boardof India) for public issue of shares and for anysubsequent issue, by whatsoever name called,under the ICDR (Issue of Capital and DisclosureRequirements) regulations without the specific

pr evious writ ten ap pr ova l of the aut hor ityconcerned,’’ said the Insurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority (IRDA) in its draft

guidelines for IPO (initial public offer) by generalinsurance companies. Titled the “IRDA(Issuance of Capital by General InsuranceCompanies) Regulations, 2012’’, these will comeinto force on the date of their publication in theofficial gazette.

The guidelines will cover divestment by promoters either through the issue of capital under ICDR Regulations or via divestment of equity byone or more of the promoters through a publicoffer for sale under the ICDR Regulations.

According to the draft guidelines, theapproval granted by IRDA for an IPO will havea validity of one year. The applicant company hasto file the draft red herring prospectus with theSEBI within that one year.

The IRDA will also “reserve the right notto accord its approval if, in its opinion, the












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NOT WITHOUT

“Universal access will not be achievedwithout private sector involvement,” it notes. Andits participation has to become effective for realising the goal of getting every detected casenotified and “obtain information on treatmentsuccess rate.” The government in all probabilitywill try different innovative models to “extend [its]services” to the private sector for both diagnosisand treatment.

It concedes that RNTCP has to learn fromother programmes that have successfullydeveloped and scaled-up their involvement withthe private sector and community services. It willnot come as a surprise if the TB control

programme adopts and even replicates the best practices of other programmes in engaging withthe private sector during 2012-2017.

Till date, RNTCP’s engagement with the private sector has been limited to sensitization and

referrals.“The strategic vision of RNTCP is to

develop and deploy engagement models that willovercome the past barriers of mutual mistrust[emphasis added]... [and] to accept, encompassand improve TB care provided by the privatesector,” notes the draft.

The intent is to go beyond private practitioners and involve clinics, nursing homes,small and corporate hospitals, chemists and

private laboratories.The TB control programme intends tosubsidise diagnostic services offered bylaboratories and actively discourage them fromusing serological testing for diagnosing TB. Thegovernment had recently banned this practice.Since this will be first attempt to involve the

pr iva te sector, severa l “new and innovat ive

approaches” will be “piloted” and the successfulones “scaled-up” to meet “universal access to TBcure and control.”

The compulsion to involve the private sector arises as nearly half of three lakh patients whoare retreated every year have been previouslytreated by private practitioners — half of TBdrugs sold in India are to patients who are treated

by private practitioners.This is because, as a norm, the private

sector provides “sub-optimal treatment.” Addingto it is the poor record keeping and follow-up of

patients till they complete the treatment.Though doctors, both private and public, are

not supposed to start treating patients unless theyare willing to follow-up till treatment completion,“there is neither commitment nor capacity in the

private sector to fulfil this responsibility,” the draftnotes.

But with treatment being sub-optimal, many

patients end up with drug resistance. “Diagnosisand treatment of TB in the private sector is botha problem and an opportunity for the RNTCP,”the draft reads.

Medical colleges have been playing a pivotal role in diagnosing TB patients. In 2011alone, about 15 per cent of patients werediagnosed and referred for treatment by medicalcolleges.”Systematic involvement of medicalcolleges…has been a huge success story,” itnotes.

But other than medical colleges, thecontribution of the private sector in detecting TBcases has been a mere 5 per cent and casemanagement at about 9 per cent.

The goal is therefore to “achieve promptreporting” of TB cases diagnosed in privatesector, “increase the number of TB cases










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referred” to RNTCP and “improve the quality of care” in private sector.

Involving the private sector will be achievedthrough Private Provider Interface Agencies(PPIA). The PPIA will be responsible mainly for effective notification of TBG cases diagnosed bythe private sector and ensuring treatmentcompliance. The focus will initially be on urbanareas.Q. ‘ Super- sp reading , ’ Key in Dengue

Transmission

Super-spreading, where one infected person passes on a disease to lots of others, could be an important fa ct or dr iving denguetransmission in places where the mosquito Aedesaegypti carries the virus, according to research

pu bl is hed recently. The World Healt hOrganisation has termed dengue as “the mostimportant mosquito-borne viral disease in theworld.” Incidence of the disease has jumped 30-

fold in the last five decades.Aedes aegypti , the mosquito that is

principally responsible for spreading the virus thatcauses dengue, has proved adept at making useof human habitation. The female mosquito feedson human blood and subsequently lays her eggsinside containers holding water that are found inand around homes. The eggs hatch into larvae,which grow and turn into pupae, finally maturinginto adults. Studies have found that most of themosquitoes in each locality typically come from

just a few containers and houses, termed ‘super- producers.’

In the course of their research, which has been published in the journal PLOS NeglectedTropical Diseases , Harish Padmanabha of YaleSchool of Public Health in the U.S. and hiscolleagues modelled how dengue would spread,

given such an aggregation of mosquitoes andvariations in the density of people in a place. Thesimulation was based on the distribution of mosquito pupae and humans in houses in tworesidential neighbourhoods of Armenia, a city inColombia in South America where the disease isrife. Since mosquitoes were concentrated in onlya couple of homes in each locality, an infectedindividual in those houses or in their immediatevicinity was likely to get bitten and pass on the

virus to a large number of mosquitoes. Thosemosquitoes, in turn, would go on to bite other

people, thus spreading the disease.The study indicated that dengue

transmission “depends heavily on events wherean infected person infects many mosquitoes,” Dr.Padmanabha told this correspondent. Such peoplewere the super-spreaders. In contrast, most peoplewith the virus would not infect many mosquitoes.

Moreover, “human density amplified the

effect of A. aegypti super-production on denguerisk,” the paper noted. Increased human densityled to more possibilities for disease spread through

both human-to-mosquito and mosquito-to-humantransmission. Also, greater human density in a

particular area would increase the frequency of dengue-infected visitors.

“We found that even small variations inhuman density can have a very big effect,” Dr.Padamanabha said. “A mosquito where you havelow human density has much less capacity to

transmit [the disease] than in an area where thereis high human density.”

Targeting control measures in areas of highhuman density could reduce the epidemic potential

by decreasing the abundance of mosquitoes inareas were dengue was most likely to beintroduced, the paper pointed out.











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Mumbai or Delhi is even greater.Gangtok’s longitude is 88°0’E and, at theother end, Kohima’s is 94°20’E.

• The sun rises and sets in all these Statesin northeast India at least an hour earlier than the rest of the country.

• The seven States in northeast India havemany political, ideological and ethnicdifferences. However, the one thing theyall agree on is that the clock there must

be advanced by one hour during summer and more during the winter months of October to February.

PLUS P OINTS

• Some advantages of advancing the clock would be:

1. Increased productivity: An earlystart would have more energetic

people in the offices.2. Reduced power consumption:

Starting and closing an hour earlier would result in a saving an hour of electricity in offices. In homes, shopsand restaurants about two hours would

be saved as people would wake upand go to bed earlier, thus using moreof the available daylight hours. Aconservative estimate shows thatstarting the day an hour earlier wouldresult in a saving of about 550 MW of

power in northeast India alone.

3. Curbing alcoholism: With five to six“available extra hours” after work andwith little else to do most people fall

prey to alcoholism.

R EVISIT D ECISION

• The Department of Science &Technology (DST) which examined the

feasibility of setting up dual time for Indiain 2007 turned down a proposal toadvance the clock in northeast India byan hour in as it felt it would cause acuteadministrative challenges.

• It is time for the DST to revisit their 2007decision. The DST should examine the

possibility of introducing the new timezone not only for northeast India but for all of eastern India.

T HE I NTERNATIONAL P ICTURE

• Singapore is an example of a country thathas kept their clock an hour ahead of the standard time longitude.

• While Singapore’s longitude is 105°Ethey have kept their time on 120°E,keeping the country permanently onehour ahead.

• This could be one of the reasons for theSingaporean’s greater productivity and

prosperity of the island state.• China too follows the longitude of 120°E

as their time zone, keeping almost theentire country to the west of their timemeridian.

• Bangladesh, which is to the west of thenortheast States (Dhaka: longitude90°25’E), keeps its time 30 minutesahead of India.

• In addition, Bangladesh advances itsclocks by one hour during the winter months. Thus for five months of the year Bangladesh Standard Time is one-and-a-half hours ahead of India. Could it bethis that is helping the country’s steadyeconomic growth?

• Since Independence, the States ineastern, especially north-eastern, India









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have fallen behind the rest of the countryand the bedrock of the backwardness isthe poor productivity of the people. Thereare many practical steps to change thisand a separate time zone is one.

Q. C h i n a Co mm i ssi o n s F i r s t A i r cr a f t Carri er Li aoning

• In a reflection of China’s increasingmaritime ambitions, the countrycommissioned its first aircraft carrier on

Tuesday in an event hailed by top officialsas being of “far-reaching significance”and coming amid rising regional tensions.

• The unveiling of the 300 metre-longLiaoning, a refurbished and upgradedversion of the Soviet carrier Varyagwhich China purchased from Ukraine,came after years of sea trials and teststo fit the carrier with weapons andengines.

• The Liaoning was commissioned by thePeople’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)in the port city of Dalian — the capitalof the north-eastern province after whichthe carrier is named.

• Premier Wen Jiabao, who presided over the commissioning along with PresidentHu Jintao and top PLA officials, saidChina’s first aircraft carrier would “beof great and far-reaching significance ininspiring patriotism, national spirit anddriving national defence technologies,”the official Xinhua news agencyreported.

• Defence analysts were quoted as saying by state media that the Liaoning was,however, not yet close to being put intoactive service with China needing to train

pilots.

• The PLA said the carrier would continueto serve “for scientific research

purposes” besides military training.• The commissioning of the Liaoning

makes China the tenth nation to have anaircraft carrier. The development comesamid rising strains between China andJapan over the disputed Diaoyu or Senkaku islands in East China Sea.

DEFENCE T IES

• Several of China’s south-east Asianneighbours have, in recent months, alsosought closer defence ties with theUnited States after tensions in the SouthChina Sea, where Chinese vessels havehad run-ins with those from the Vietnamand the Philippines.

• “An aircraft carrier will give the Navydefence capacity far beyond land-basedaviation force’s combat radius,” Fang

Bing, a scholar at the PLA’s NationalDefence University, told Xinhua.⇒ I SRO Scores a Centu m

A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C21) blasted off from here on Sunday and placedtwo foreign satellites in orbit, accomplishing theIndian Space Research Organisation’s 100 th

mission, a milestone in the country’s space journey.

After a 51-hour countdown, the PSLV liftedoff at 9.53 a.m., two minutes behind schedule, toavoid any collision with space debris.

In the textbook launch, it carried SPOT-6,a 712-kg French earth observation satellite andinjected it into an orbit of 655-km altitude, inclinedat 98.23 degrees to the equator. Proiteres, a 15-kg Japanese microsatellite, was put into orbit asan additional payload. The 44-metre tall PSLV









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accomplished its task, reinforcing the fact that itis the ISRO’s workhorse, with 21 successfulmissions in a row.

The four-stage ignition and the injection of the satellites into the orbit took 18 minutes and 37seconds. As Proiteres separated at the finalmoment, the scientists erupted into joyousapplause.

SPOT-6, an optical remote-sensing satellitecapable of imaging the earth with a 1.5-metreresolution, is built by Astrium SAS, a Europeanspace technology company.

Proiteres is meant to study the powered-flight of a small satellite by an electric thruster andto observe Japan’s Kansai district with a high-resolution camera.⇒ Getting Ready for the

New Law against Chil d Labour

The Union Cabinet’s green light to theamendments in the existing law against child

labour is encouraging. When it comes into force,all forms of child labour under the age of 14 yearswill be banned, the employment of children in the14-18 age group in hazardous occupations

prohibited and child labour a cognisable offence.This would also mean scaling up the state’s effortsand responsibilities, enhanced expenditure andmore involvement of the police and judiciary, if the government is serious about the enforcementof the newly tagged Child and Adolescent Labour Prohibition Act.

First, the preparedness to enforce deterrentsenshrined in the law: the legislation that we havenow stipulates for imprisonment up to one year and a penalty up to a maximum of Rs.20,000. Butthe reality is that while 13,60,117 inspections werecarried out under the child labour law since itsinception in 1986, barely 49,092 prosecutions

were launched and merely 4,774 employersconvicted. Most appallingly, a meagre sum of 200to 400 rupees was imposed as penalty in most of the cases. In some, the penalty was as low asRs.20- 25. Is this not a ruthless and cruel joke

played on the children of our nation? What it callsfor is sensitivity, capacity building andaccountability of the enforcement machinery atall levels including in supervisory andrecommendatory agencies and bodies like Child

Welfare Committee (CWC), National and StateCommissions for Protection of Child Rights, etc.The quickest disposal of cases must be ensuredthrough fast track courts. Framing andimplementing rules and standard operating

procedures (SOPs) by State governments, other innovative and participatory measures likeforming and empowering people’s vigilancecommittees as well as engaging panchayati rajinstitutions will be effective steps towards lawenforcement. The amendment makes child labour a cognisable offence. Therefore the enforcementwill not be confined to the domain of labour inspectorate only, but also bind the police. Thiswill require sensitisation and training of police

personnel and systematic coordination between bo th agenc ies. The endemic corrup tion,insensitivity and indifferent attitude of the“inspector class” is not a secret.⇒ Not Reflective of Reali ty

Second, the government must have the

courage to correctly assess the magnitude of the problem that it is confronted with. If not a pre-condition, accurate data is mandatory for planningand implementation of any scheme. According tothe government, the number of child labourers hasalready nosedived from 1.25 crore (Census 2001)to 90.75 lakh in 2004-05 and recently to 49.6 lakh









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(National Sample Survey Office). Are thesefigures truly reflective of the reality? Thesefigures were arrived at on the basis of a samplesize of approximately 70,000 across the nation?

NGOs and some U.N. agencies estimate thenumber of child labourers to be as high as four tosix crore. Children are falsely listed in schoolregisters while in reality, they have already fallen

prey to child trafficking, bonded labour, sexualexploitation and forced beggary thousands of

miles away from their homes. The most pertinentquestion that arises here is that if only negligible

prosecutions and convictions were made so far,how were such a large num ber of childrenrescued or withdrawn? Where have theyultimately gone if merely six lakh children are

presently benefitted under the Nat ional ChildLabour Project (NCLP) scheme? Is it not aglaring dichotomy?

Can’t India, which conducts the largestgeneral elections every five years and which islaunching an ambitious Unique ID scheme,accurately assess the number of child labourers?While the government must strive for acountrywide survey, as an immediate start it could

begin with intense identification of child labourersin industries like carpet, glass, garments, brick kilns, stone quarries, fire crackers and the districtswhere they are mostly situated like in Mirzapur,Bhadoi, Aligarh, Firozabadh, Sivakasi, Tirupur,Virudunagar, Delhi National Capital Region

(NCR), Jalandhar, Ludhiana, etc.A F UTURE FOR L ABOURERS

Lastly, while on the one hand an ambitious,realistic, time bound, well resourced andcomprehensive rehabilitation scheme must be putin place, on the other, coordination between childlabour elimination agencies, Sarva Shiksha

Abhiyan (including the mid-day meal scheme),Mahatma Gandhi National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Act and all other schemes and flagship

programmes pertaining to underprivileged childrenand their families must be ensured. The presentscheme for rehabilitation and provision of bridgeeducation to the rescued child labourers isminiscule. This flagship programme, NCLPcovers merely six lakh children in 266 districts.The government is currently revising and

restructuring this scheme. In the light of thedecision to bring in the amendments, the entiregovernment and not just the Ministry of Labour and Employment must demonstrate superior leadership by using the time available betweennow and the enactment of the new law. A scaled-up and well-resourced national scheme should bedevised to cater to at least 50 lakh child labourersup to the age of 14, going by the government’sown statistics. The biggest challenge would be torehabilitate 15-20 lakh children in the age-group14 to 18 who are employed in hazardous work.They cannot be absorbed in the conventionalschooling system or any existing specialeducational schemes. Hence a completely new

programme with the essent ial components of vocational skills, employability andentrepreneurship must be taken up on priority.⇒ I ndian Ports Caught in Shallow Waters

Petroleum and oil products (POL) have thehighest share in port traffic, followed by coal,

container and iron ore. In 2011-12, while POLtraffic was more or less steady, iron ore exportsslumped by around 25-30 per cent due to multiplefactors such as a ban on illegal iron ore mining inKarnataka, higher freight costs (because of sustained rate increases by the railways) and anincrease in export duty on iron ore fines from 20









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per cent to 30 per cent in December 2011. Portswith large iron ore handling capacity have beenseverely impacted due to the slump in iron oreexports. Global iron ore prices are down by nearly24 per cent so far in 2012, due to slowdown inChinese steel production (which is also impactingexports).

Ports in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh arethe worst-affected by the sharp fall in iron oretraffic, followed by Orissa and West Bengal. Boththe iron ore terminal projects of Sical Logisticsat Ennore Port and New Mangalore port areseverely hit.

Krishnapatnam port, which has a 10 MTPAcapacity for iron ore, is also presently not handlingany iron ore traffic.

STEADY GROWTH ? C OAL

By contrast, traffic of coal is expected togrow at a steady pace in 2012-13. Thermal coalwill continue to be imported in large quantities dueto the severe shortage of domestic coal. Coaltraffic would receive a boost if a new governmentinitiative termed “pooling” is implemented. Under the proposed “pooling” arrangement, importedcoal would be supplied to private sector coastal

power plants at a price that would be the averagecost of cheap domestic coal and costly importedcoal. This would lower the cost of coal for these

power plants and make their operations viable ata time when international coal prices are high.

With global economic growth likely to be subdued,container traffic growth in 2012-13 is likely to bemodest, as reflected in a 3 per cent growth (atmajor ports) in the year till date. In future, we

believe that container traffic at non-major portswill grow faster than that at major ports onaccount of better operation efficiencies.

Container capacities at non-major ports suchas Mundra, Pipavav, Hazira, and Dighi would

primarily drive the higher growth in container traffic at non-major ports.

Going ahead, non-major ports are expectedto account for a higher share of the total traffic

pie as compared to major ports. This is due to thecapacity expansion plans by non-major portscoupled with better efficiencies and soundinfrastructure at these ports. In addition, plans for

port-based power projects and special economiczones (SEZs) near non-major ports, andimprovement in infrastructure such as road andrail connectivity will drive traffic growth at non-major ports.

In the long run, port traffic growth will be boosted by the rebound in GDP gr owth.Significant investments, a bulk of it from the

pr ivate sector, be required to keep capacityutilisation rates at optimum levels, so that the ports

have less congestion and healthy turnaroundtimes.Over the next 5 years, investments of

around Rs. 1 trillion are expected in the portssector of which Rs. 440 billion would be directedtowards major ports and the rest towards non-major ports. Investments are expected in green-field projects as well as expansion of existingfacilities. Apart from increasing nutrition of schoolchildren, the move will help to boost

production

The Agriculture Ministry has asked theStates to include millets in the mid-day mealscheme to increase the demand for the cereal and,thereby, enhance farm incomes.Millet crops or coarse cereals are known for their high nutritionalvalue and are effective in controlling diabetes andobesity. But the area under millets has been









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steadily declining though they are suited for aridand semi-arid regions, besides adaptability tomoisture stress.

The commonly cultivated millets under rain-fed conditions are sorghum (jowar), finger millet(ragi or mandwa), pearl millet (bajra), foxtailmillet, barnyard millet, proso millet, kodo millet andlittle millet.

In his letter to the Chief Secretaries of theStates, Union Agriculture Secretary AshishBahuguna said introduction of millets in the mealscheme would go a long way in increasing thenutritional standards of schoolchildren. He said theDepartment of Food and Public DistributionSystem had agreed to facilitate supply of millets

but the response from the States for allocation for the meal scheme was not very encouraging.

The Agriculture Ministry last year introduced a scheme — Initiative for NutritionalSecurity through Intensive Millet Promotion

(INSIMP) to boost cultivation. But it has not picked up mainly due to a lack of adequa tedemand for millets.⇒ I A EA Safety Team to visit Rajasthan

Plants

Even as protests continue at Kudankulam,sources here said the government had for the firsttime agreed to allow an International AtomicEnergy Agency (IAEA) team to conduct safetyreview of two atomic power plants located inRajasthan.

“Public confidence has to be built bytransparency. We are getting legislation tostrengthen regulatory bodies and as a relatedmeasure the IAEA’s Operational Safety ReviewTeam [OSART] will visit Rajasthan in November.India will study its report and take on boardsuggestions. The government’s position is that

more needs to be done on safety aspects,’’ addedthe sources. The OSART, set up 30 years ago,will conduct a follow-up review after about twoyears to find out how many of itsrecommendations were accepted andimplemented by the authorities, and the findingswill be made public. Following the March 11, 2011Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown in Japan, Indiavoluntarily decided last year to allow the OSARTto inspect units 3 and 4 of the Rajasthan Atomic

Power Station at Rawatbhatta, one of which haddeveloped a leak that affected four workers.

The sources expect the team to share itsexperiences of reviewing safety at other plantsacross the world. Another IAEA team, theIntegrated Regulatory Review Services (IRRS),has not yet been invited and could come after India tightens up laws related to regulatory bodies.

I MPACT OF FUKUSHIMA

The sources admitted that the post-Fukushima debate on nuclear safety has had adeep impact on global public discussions onnuclear energy. It was not appropriate tounderestimate the breadth of concerns, but it wasequally important to put the debate in perspectiveand not mix views on two or three interrelatedissues.

While Germany has decided to wean itself off nuclear energy due to the consistent standtaken by the Green Party, and Italy and

Switzerland are also backing off due to relatedreasons, the government here believes there is noalternative to nuclear energy. “So the three stage

programme continues. But that doesn’t meanIndia won’t take additional steps to build andrestore public confidence in safety issues relatingto nuclear energy,’’ they said.









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SCIENTISTS C REATE M AP OF H UMAN B RAIN

A comprehensive atlas of the adult human brain that reveals the activity of genes across theentire organ has been created by scientists.

The map was created from geneticanalyses of about 900 specific parts of two“clinically unremarkable” brains donated by a 24-year-old and 39-year-old man, and half a brainfrom a third man.

BASELINE

Researchers at the Allen Institute for BrainScience in Seattle said the atlas would serve as a

basel ine against which they and others cancompare the genetic activity of diseased brains,and so shed light on factors that underlieneurological and psychiatric conditions.

“The human brain is the most complexstructure known to mankind and one of thegreatest challenges in modern biology is to

understand how it is built and organised,”. It givesus essentially the Rosetta stone for understandingthe link between the genome and the brain, andgives us a path forward to decoding how geneticdisorders impact and produce brain disease.” The

power of the brain arises from its neural wiring,its variety of cells and structures, and ultimatelywhere and when different genes are switched onand off throughout the 1.9kg lump of tissue.

DETAILED A NALYSIS

From more than 100 million measurementson brain pieces, some only a few cubic millimetres,the scientists found 84% of all genes are turnedon in some part of the organ. Gene activity in nextdoor regions of the cortex, the large wrinklysurface of the brain, was similar but distinct fromthat in lower parts, such as the brain stem.

More detailed analysis of the cortexrevealed patterns in gene activity thatcorresponded to regions with specific roles in the

brain, such as movement and sensory functions.The atlas revealed no major divide in gene activityon the left and right sides of the brain, suggestingthat expertise generally handled by onehemisphere, such as language, comes from moresubtle differences than the study could spot.

Although the brains came from men of similar age and ethnicity, the pattern of geneactivity was so similar that researchers suspectthere may be a common blueprint.

G REATER C HALLENGE

Scientists have constructed similar geneticatlases for rodents in the past, but the shortageof donated human brains, their size and thedestructive nature of the tests meant a humanequivalent was more of a challenge.

Writing in the journal Nature , the scientistsdescribe how they scanned the donated brainsand then chopped them into tiny pieces. For each

piece, they measured activity levels for all of the20,000 or so genes in the human genome.

The atlas, which overlays the genetic resultson to a 3D image of the brain, is freely availablefor researchers to use online.

Grant said that future studies would look toconnect the genetic brain atlas with other geneticstudies or brain scans of abnormal or diseased

brains. That could highlight genes that play a rolein brain conditions and point the way to drugtreatments.⇒ Sayonara Nuclear Power

The much needed big push towards low-cost, highly-efficient, cutting-edge renewableenergy technologies was lacking till recently. Even









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the compulsion to cut down carbon dioxideemission levels by 2020 failed to overcome theinertia. But the landscape has squarely anddramatically changed following the 9 magnitudeearthquake and killer tsunami waves that resultedin the catastrophic accident in the Fukushimanuclear reactor units in Japan. In what mayappear as well co-ordinated announcementsmade very recently, Japan and France, both major nuclear power champions, have announced their

departure from nuclear energy dependence. If March 11, 2011 has gone down in history as a dark day for Japan, the government’s September 14decision to end its reliance on nuclear power by2040 by closing down all 50 reactors will forever

be remembered as a defining moment. This will,in all probability, mark the beginning of arenewable energy technology revolution. If after World War II, the Japanese people transformedtheir nation into one of the world’s mostindustrially developed ones, the possibility of thecountry producing an encore with alternativeenergy technology developments cannot be ruledout.

Japan is not alone. The Fukushima shiver has had its reverberations in France as well. By2025, France will cut its reliance on nuclear energy by 25 per cent from the current level of 75 per cent by shutting down 24 reactors. Sixmonths after the Fukushima catastrophe andfollowing Germany’s decision to get out of nuclear

energy by 2022, Siemens had made public itsdecision to exit nuclear power business. Theengineering giant intends to shift its focus toalternative energies. By 2020 Germany intendsto derive 35 per cent of its energy needs fromrenewable sources. While critics decry Japan’s

pl an to wait another three decades beforeswitching off its last nuclear plant, the decision is

not without basis. Some 30 per cent of thecountry’s power requirement is met by these

plants. Decommissioning operating plants thathave not completed their lifetime will meaneconomical suicide. This period also gives Japanthe time to develop and scale up revolutionarytechnologies that are better adapted to harness

power from even very low wind speed, and low-intensity sunlight for the better part of the year incountries situated in higher latitudes. The focus

will also be on developing technologies for harnessing wave energy. To begin with, the costof production using these alternative technologiesmay be higher than even nuclear. But costs are

bound to fall over time and wider acceptance isinevitable.

E ASES A PPROVAL

NORMS FOR F OREIGN B ORROWINGS

In a further impetus to reform initiatives of the UPA government, approved the operational

features of the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Equity SavingsScheme’ (RGESS) to attract first time investorsto the stock market through a tax savingmechanism so as to provide an alternative toinvestment in gold assets and thereby suppressdemand for the yellow metal.

Government’s decision to grant approval toall foreign borrowings — as a measure of easingof norms instead of case-by-case approvals —

by way of loan agr eement and long-t er minfrastructure bonds that “satisfy certainconditions” so as to enable Indian companies to

procure low-cost bor rowings abroad in thecurrent global environment of low interest rates.

Briefing the media here on the twoinitiatives, which have come a day after notification on rolling out foreign direct investment(FDI) in multi-brand retail, aviation and other









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sectors, “The Rajiv Gandhi Equity SavingsScheme will encourage more first time retailinvestors to invest in stock market. Secondly, theeasing of tax is to encourage overseas borrowing.Interest rates are low abroad and these low costfunds can come to India.”

Incidentally, both schemes were announcedin the Budget for this fiscal which are now beingset in motion for implementation. The RGESS,

proposed by the then Finance Minister PranabMukherjee in his Budget speech, would providea 50 per cent tax deduction on investments up toRs 50,000 to investors whose annual taxableincome is below Rs.10 lakh.

Stocks listed under the BSE 100 or CNX100, or those of public sector undertakings (PSUs)which are ‘Navratnas’, ‘Maharatnas’ and‘Miniratnas’ would be eligible for the tax benefit.Follow-on public offers (FPOs) of these PSUs asalso IPOs which are getting listed in the relevant

financial year and whose annual turnover is notless than Rs.4,000 crore for each of the immediate past three years, would also be eligible to avail of the incentive. “Exchange traded funds (ETFs) andmutual funds (MFs) that have RGESS eligiblesecurities as their underlying and are listed andtraded in the stock exchanges and settled througha depository mechanism have also been broughtunder RGESS,” an official statement said.

Investments are allowed to be made ininstalments in the year in which tax claims are

made and the total lock-in period for investmentsunder the scheme would be three years, includingan initial blanket lock-in period of one year,commencing from the date of last purchase of securities under RGESS.

It will act as alternative financial instrumentand encourage more people to invest in this

instrument rather than gold, which is a deadinstrument.

The Department of Revenue is to notify thescheme shortly and market regulator Securitiesand Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will issuethe relevant circulars to operationalise RGESS inthe next two weeks.

FOREIGN B ORROWINGS

As for the easing of approvals for foreign

borrowings, the Finance Act, 2012, had amendedthe Income Tax Act, 1961, to lower the tax on such

borrowings. Amendment to Section 115A andinsertion of Section 194LC in the I-T Act providethat the interest income of a non-resident investor will be taxed at the reduced rate of 5 per centinstead of the existing rate of 20 per cent.

Further, the liability of the Indian companyto withhold tax on such income has also beenreduced to 5 per cent. The lower rate of taxationwill apply to interest paid to a non-resident by anIndian company for money borrowed in foreigncurrency from a source outside India either under a loan agreement or by way of long-terminfrastructure bonds. “This is also subject to thecondition that the borrowing is made during the

period from July 1, 2012 to Jun3 30, 2015, andsuch borrowing and the rate of interest areapproved by the Central Government,” an officialstatement said.⇒ Wetland Wonder land

Subjected to plunder and deforestation for years, people are finally waking up to the rolemangrove forests play in containing erosion, de-

polluting air and maintaining a healthy marineecology Just as the Olympics are conducted oncein four years, environmentalists across the globealso hold their mega meeting once in four years.











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richest biodiversity treasure banks inIndia.

• The slogan of the Hyderabad CBD CoP-11, inscribed on the logo, in Sanskrit,“Prakruthi: Rakshathi Rakshitha,”

• Those who argue that CRR should goare of the view that it curbs their abilityto lend more. According to them, fundsget unnecessarily blocked. They yield noreturn also. Further, compared to mutual

funds, non-banking finance companies(NBFCs) and insurance companies,which are not under any compulsion tofollow CRR norms, banks are placed ina disadvantageous position. From thereform perspective, the NarasimhamCommittee-1 mandated a sharp reductionin the CRR and SLR.

• Yet, according to many, the time to doaway with these statutory pre-emptionshas not yet arrived.

• It fulfils an important regulatory functionin countries such as India where theOpen Market Operations (OMO) thatcentral banks use to check liquidity facesome structural rigidities. Central banksrely on CRRs to check inflation byvarying money supply.

• An increase in CRR lowers the multiplier,and, hence, the growth of money supply.

⇒ Sti l l Relevant after all These Years

What was most significant about the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit that was heldin Tehran recently was that almost all of its 120members gathered there in the face of U.S., alliedwestern nations and Israeli attempts to pressureand isolate Iran to abandon parts of its nuclear

programme. Great pressure was even brought onUnited Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

by Washington and Tel Aviv not to attend, but themild and generally pliant Ban could not bringhimself to abandon the precedent set by his

predecessors and skip the event.

C ONFIDENCE B OOSTER

The attempt to isolate Iran failedcompletely. Hosting the summit was a greatconfidence booster for Tehran which was able to

present its case to the la rgest internationa l

organisation of developing nations. It showcasedthe lethal attacks on its scientists, suspected to be by Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad. In its finaldeclaration the Summit unanimously supportedIran’s right to develop all aspects of its nuclear

programme for peaceful purposes within theframework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty andcriticised attempts to isolate Iran and punish it withunilateral sanctions. Even though NAM may nothave the political, economic or military strengthto successfully resist those powerful nations, it

cannot be doubted that its support undermines thelegitimacy of sanctions, especially those outsidethe U.N. framework, as well as diverse forms of undercover sabotage and killings by Israel withor without U.S. involvement, including any militaryattack if it were to take place.

It is in this context that the decision of PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh to resist U.S. pressureand attend the Summit himself has to be seen.Even though he made no mention of the Irannuclear issue at the Summit, his very presencewas seen as expressing the Indian government’ssupport for Iran and for NAM more generally.Further, there was considerable warmth in hismeeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader AyatollahKhamenei. Besides, the Indian Foreign Minister met his Iranian counterpart ahead of the Summitto develop bilateral economic ties.









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On the other issue on the internationalagenda, the Prime Minister spoke out forthrightlyagainst “external intervention” in the Syrian crisis,which, he said, would “exacerbate the sufferingof ordinary citizens.” He added that “NAMshould urge all parties to recommit themselves toresolving the crisis peacefully through a Syrian-led inclusive political process.” This was directlyin opposition to the U.S. stand and actions on theissue. But NAM could not come out with a clear

stand because of many internal differences,especially among the Arab and Islamic nations,and the final declaration made no mention of theissue. This showed some of the limitations of

NAM in areas involving conflicts between andwithin its member nations.

Is NAM still relevant in the post-Cold War world, in an era where the U.S. and its allies are

politically, economically and strategically moredominant than ever? NAM is routinely derided bythe western media and policymakers as anirrelevant “relic of the Cold War.” U.S.

policymakers have explicitly stated that theywould like to see India out of NAM altogether andeven abandon the concept of non-alignment in itsforeign policy thinking. Alternatively, they wouldlike India to join their alliance of democraciesagainst non-democracies, which in their opinionis the defining agenda in the present globalscenario. Another idea is “multi-alignment” —

participation in diverse international groupings of

nations like G 20, G 77, IBSA, RIC, Brics, Basic,among others, for promoting different interests.The reasons are not far to seek. Even from

its pre-origins in the Bandung Conference of former colonial nations in 1955, NAM has meantmuch more than not being aligned with the twoCold War blocs. It was also conceived as the

voice of the former colonies and poor nations ina world overwhelmingly dominated by the richwestern nations. The G 77 which takes up thecause of the developing countries in internationalfora on economic and development issues wascomplementary to NAM. Solidarity within NAM

provides strength to its member nations. Hence, NAM has that flavour of anti- imperia lismassociated with its origin and history which therich and powerful nations would like to see

forgotten.In such a context what should NAM’s role

be in Indian foreign policy? The Prime Minister in his address reaffirmed the continuing relevanceof NAM. And he emphasised that NAM wasimportant “to preserve our strategic space.” Arecent policy perspective document developed bythe a panel of “independent thinkers,” someclosely linked to the Indian Government, titled

Non-Alignment 2.0: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the Twenty First Century ,argues that the objective of non-alignment is to

preserve and enhance the nation’s “strategicautonomy.”

Interestingly, the phrases “Non-AlignedMovement” and “G 77” do not find any place init. Non-alignment has been redefined inexclusively Indian national terms to enhance itsindependence or sovereignty and provide roomfor manoeuvre amidst diverse pressures to

promote its ambitions and interests.

What has been decisively abandoned isIndia’s solidarity with the developing countries andthe aim of mobilising them on the basis of commoninterests and agenda. This perspective has

become more influential in Indian policy circlesespecially after the collapse of the Soviet bloc andthe initiation domestically of radical economic









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private sector oriented reforms at the start of the1990s. However, the founding fathers of NAMsaw the two objectives — national independenceand the solidarity of developing countries — as

profoundly interdependent for the former colonieswhich were embarking on the path of development in a deeply unequal world. Can they

be sepa rated in an age when there is nocommunist bloc to provide a countervailing forceto the almost complete dominance of the rich and

powerful nations?In recent decades, the Indian government

seems to have more faith in the U.N. as a forumto protect its independence and interests. Butafter the collapse of the Soviet Union and itscommunist allies, that institution has almostcompletely been dominated by the powerfulnations. The U.S., long hostile to many of itsassociated organisations, has been openlysceptical if not downright contemptuous of it,even though its West European allies are keener to work within its framework. Whether in thecontext of lack of solidarity among the developingnations, the U.N. will be able to provide a check on those powerful nations is doubtful.

C HANGE IN P ERSPECTIVE

This change over the last quarter centuryin the Indian perspective on NAM has to be seenin the context of its revised foreign policy agenda

being almost exclusively focused on transformingthe nation into a great power. The way towardsthis objective, it is felt, is to start thinking big, jointhe rich man’s club and enter into friendly relationswith the rich and powerful nations for economic,hi-tech and military benefits and a place at the hightable where the great powers decide the fate of humankind. Hence, one of its chief priorities is to

become a permanent memb er of the U.N.

Security Council. Another, to be allowedhegemony in the South Asian region. To advancethis agenda, friendship with the mosttechnologically and economically advanced andmilitarily powerful nation, the United States, isseen as the most promising path.

But India wants to also maintain its“strategic autonomy,” “to preserve our strategicspace.” Hence, the continuing ambivalence andshifting stands. India voted against Tehran earlier

but has since resisted additional sanctions by theU.S.-led western nations. Also, it tried to resistattempts to restrict its oil purchases from Iran,

before ultimately succumbing to U.S. pressure.It has also actively tried to increase its bilateraltrade and economic ties and maintain morefriendly political relations with Iran.

Even if building better relations with the richand powerful nations has benefited India in recentdecades, abandoning the solidarity with other

developing nations within NAM may well end upadversely affecting the nation’s economic, political and strategic interests.⇒ No, I cann

The impending sanction of generic Top-Level Domains by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers poses seriousquestions on equity and competition. Theimportance of domain names to digital commercecannot be overstated, and the power of the .comor .net is well understood. What Icann proposesto do is to add several hundred gTLDs, startingnext year, including those that encompass a widerange of activity in the creative arts, publishing,lifestyle and even community activities. Any entitythat is assigned a domain becomes the equivalentof a landlord in cyberspace, with the ability toextract rent from other users. Such control may









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not pose problems where corporates such asGoogle are assigned domains that are specific totheir companies or brands, .google or .android, for instance. But giving companies monopolisticcontrol over generic words such as .book, .site,.news, .beauty or .app even through an auction

pr ocess would dist or t the openness tha tcharacterises the Internet. A more equitablearrangement would be to keep such resourcesaccessible in a non-discriminatory way. It is such

a broad open culture pioneered by Tim Berners-Lee and others that aided the growth of theInternet in the first place, and not one thatnarrowly focused on profits.

Internet gTLDs are affected by the digitaldivide, as the pattern of applications with Icannindicates. Most are from the developed world, and

North America dominates ; Africa is at adisadvantage due to the complexity and cost. Notmany have the resources to pay the $ 185,000 feefor registration and the hardware andinfrastructure necessary to run the domain. Eventhe concessional fee for public interest applicantsin the ‘supported’ category remains too steep for most organisations. Governments in suchcountries could consider aiding nationalcorporations, cities and public institutions toacquire the gTLDs that are of domestic concern.This can prevent monopolies. Equally importantis the possibility of fraud. Unless Icann cancredibly ascertain ownership of a top level domain,

it could be hijacked and used to commit onlinefraud. Clearly, the more contentious issue is thatof domains that are truly generic, such as .book.They require some anti-monopoly safeguards,such as a “no refusal” clause to be incorporatedinto the registration to protect the interests of all

players in the field. In general, a set of predictableconsequences for anti-competitive practices

should be worth considering for inclusion. Moreso, since Icann has the stated objective of

promoting competition in the gTLD scheme.Where there are credible objections to thedistribution of important domain names, Icannwould do well not to award them in haste.⇒ Residency Cer tif icate a M ust for F oreign

I nvestors to get Tax B enefi t

The government has mandated that fromApril 1, 2013, all foreign investors desirous of claiming benefits under the double taxationavoidance agreements (DTAAs) will have to

produce tax residency certificates (TRC) of their base country in which they are located.

According to a notification issued by theCentral Board of Direct Taxes on September 17,2012, the amendments to the Income Tax Act,1961, will take effect from April 1, 2013, andapply in relation to assessment year 2013-14 andsubsequent years. The notification, in effect,

amends Section 90 and Section 90A of the I-TAct dealing with taxation of foreign investmentand tax benefits under DTAAs. Till date, India hasinked DTAAs with 84 countries. Under Section90 (4) of the Act, as inserted by the Finance Act,2013, with effect from April 1, 2012, it is providedthat an assessee, not being a resident, to whoman agreement referred to in sub-section (1) of Section 90 applies, shall not be entitled to claimany relief under a DTAA unless a certificate,containing such particulars as may be prescribed,

of his being a resident in any country or specifiedterritory outside India is obtained by him from thegovernment of that country or specified territory.

A similar provision has been inserted in sub-Section (4) of Section 90A of the Act and

pursuant thereto, the CBDT notification seeks toinsert Rule 21BA and Forms 10FA and 10FB









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specifying the manner in which the TRC should be obtained.

Accordingly, the TRC to be obtained by anassessee for availing himself of tax benefits shallcontain the name of the assessee along with status

— whether it is an individual or a company — the nationality (in case of individual) and thecountry wherein the company or firm is registeredor incorporated. This apart, the TRC should havethe tax identification number (TIN) of theassessee, its residential status for the purposes of tax, the period for which the TRC is applicableand the address of the assessee for that period.Also, the certificate shall be duly verified by thegovernment of the country or the specifiedterritory of which the assessee claims to be aresident for the purposes of tax. A clause in thevarious DTAAs that India has entered into, theassessee can take the advantage of paying capitalgains tax in either of the two nations, wherever the rate of the levy is lower. Thus, the interplayof treaty and domestic legislation ensures that ataxpayer, who is resident of one of the contractingcountries to the treaty, is entitled to claimapplicability of beneficial provisions either of treatyor of the domestic law.⇒ 12 th Plan Pr iori ty for Rabies Control

Acknowledging that rabies is a major publichealth challenge in India, the government

proposes to make it a priority disease for controlunder the 12th Five Year Plan.

A viral zoonotic disease primarily infectingdomestic and wild animals, rabies spreads to

people through close contact with infected salivavia bites and scratches. There is no treatmentavailable globally after the disease develops. Anestimated 20,000 deaths occur annually in Indiadue to rabies.

While dogs are the main host andtransmitters, others responsible for the disease arecat, mongoose, monkeys and such other warm-

blooded animals.Strategies to prevent death due to rabies

were developed through a pilot project during the11th Plan and these strategies are proposed to beimplemented countrywide in the 12th Plan. The11th Plan targeted reduction of rabies deaths inhumans by at least 50 per cent by the end of thePlan period in the pilot project that coveredAhmedabad, Bangalore, Pune, Madurai andDelhi.

As of now, India does not have acomprehensive national rabies control

programme. Various organisations are involved incontrol activities without any inter-sectoralcoordination. The existing prevention activities are

being carried out by municipal bodies, but notangible results have been achieved.

Experience gained from the implementationof the pilot project indicates that the strategy isfeasible, reproducible and implementable. It isnow proposed to roll out a comprehensive controlstrategy for both human and animal componentsin the 12th Plan. All 35 States/UTs will be coveredfor the human component and the animalcomponent will be piloted in selected 30 cities.

The programme will include training health professionals to deal with animal bites, awarenesscreation and minimising animal bites. On theveterinary side, the focus is on sterilisation andvaccination of dogs, with a larger involvement of civil society and municipal bodies.

Advocating the need for greater awarenessof the disease, the World Health Organisation(WHO) says children and poor people are

particularly vulnerable.









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The disease claims 55,000 human livesacross the world every year, mostly in Africa andAsia. The number of animal bites in India,however, is not reliably known, though somestudies have estimated it to be as high as 17.4million a year. The last survey conducted by theAssociation for Prevention and Control of Rabiesin India in 2003 was supported by the WHO andit put the number of deaths at 20,000. About 90

per cent of the mortality and morbidity here is

associated with dog bites.Modern, safe and effective anti-rabies cell

culture vaccines are being used for post-exposuretreatment in India after the government bannedthe production and use of nervous tissue vaccinein December 2004. Intradermal rabiesvaccination has been promoted at the State levelin designated rabies clinics.

The WHO says prevention of human rabiesis possible through mass dog vaccination,

promotion of responsible dog ownership and dog population control programmes with a partnershipapproach. Many countries in South America andAsia have successfully used this strategy toeliminate transmission of rabies.

However, this is a challenge for India as ithas a large population of dogs (around 25 million)and very low vaccination coverage.⇒ Sudans I ron out deal on Oi l ,

Demil itar i sed Zone

The Presidents of Sudan and South Sudansigned agreements to implement a demilitarisedzone that paves the way for resumption of oilexports after a five-day summit in the Ethiopiancapital.

“Today is a great day in the history of our region … as you witness the signing of thecooperation agreement that brings to an end the

long conflict between our two countries,” saidSouth Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit.

“This agreement stands as a living modelfor the ability of the Sudanese and African peopleto resolve their issues and problems throughdialogue and negotiations,” said Sudan’sPresident Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. Oil salesaccount for 98 per cent of South Sudan’s revenueand 90 per cent of Sudan’s exports. Theresumption of oil trade is imperative for both asthey rebuild their cash-starved economies after the 2011 secession of the South granted it controlof most of the oil reserves but gave Sudan controlof the pipelines.

The centrepiece of Thursday’s agreementsis a 20-km wide demilitarized zone, to bemonitored and patrolled by international forces,which will serve as a buffer as the neighboursdemarcate an acceptable international border.Last year, tensions along the 1,800-km border

sparked an armed conflict.The Presidents also signed agreements toaddress post-secession issues, includinginstitutional frameworks for cr oss-border cooperation, central banking and the status of citizens in one country working and residing in theother.

UNRESOLVED I SSUES

The two countries were unable to resolvethe status of Abyei, a disputed territory. The region

serves as the traditional grazing grounds for theMisseriya tribes allied to the North, but is hometo a settled population of the Ngok Dinka peoplewho consider themselves South Sudanese.

Under the Comprehensive PeaceAgreement of 2005, the status of Abyei must bedecided through a referendum, but the two sides









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are unable to agree on criteria to determine voter eligibility.

“My government and I acceptedunconditionally the proposal of the African UnionHigh-level Implementation Panel [AUHIP] to theresolution of the conflict in Abyei,” said Mr. Kiir,adding “unfortunately my brother [Mr.] Bashir and Sudan totally rejected it.”

Sudan has rejected the AUHIP proposal onthe grounds that it does not allow for voting rightsof the Misseriya people.

The agreement insists on “permanent abodewithin the Abyei area” as a precondition for voting, according to letter written by the

Sudanese negotiating team and published by theSudan Tribune newspaper.

Western diplomats welcomed the cessationof hostilities, but some felt the resumption of oiltrade could mean that pressing humanitarianissues could be swept under the carpet.

U.N. Security Council resolutions mandatethat Sudan negotiate with the Sudan People’sLiberation Movement-North [SPLM-N] — arebel force that controls large parts of Sudan’s

border with South Sudan — to allow humanitarianaid to thousands of civilians displaced by the war.However, the two sides did not even meet at thesummit.









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Q. Electronics System Design M anufacture

6 Poin t.1. The demand for electronics hardware in

the country is projected to increase fromUSD 45 billion in 2009 to USD 400 billion

by 2020. Electronics System Design andManufacturing (ESDM) hub to meet thedomestic as well as the globalrequirements. Most of India’s domesticdemand is presently being met throughimports.

2. India produces just about 45 percent of the demands.

3. The domestic production growth ratestands at 16 percent and holding on tothis growth rate would give India a total

production of USD 104 billion creating atrade imbalance of USD 296 billion inthe year 2020.

4. The electronics manufacturing sector isone of the very few sectors that can

provide high employments across alleducation levels.Sector of National import once• Major investments are expected in 3

major areas of strategic importanceto India; Defense. Avionics and

Nuclear sector. Estimates state thatIndia is going to the 3 rd largest market

YOJ ANA MAGAZINE

for defense equipment by the year

2015.• India’s nuclear power is expected to

contribute 25 percent to 50 percent of power generated by 2050, a massiveleap from the current 3 percent.

Q. National Policy on Electronics

• The draft National Policy on Electronicswas released in October 2011. Parts of the policies such EMC (ElectronicsManufacturing Cultures) and M-SIPS(Modified Special Incentive Package)has already been approved in principle.

• The Policy will provide a clear road mapfor the development of electronics sector in the country for the coming decade.

• The draft National Policy on Electronics(NPE) proposes to achieve a domestic

production of about USD 400 Billion by2020 in the ESDM sector by creating anindustry friendly policy framework and

ecosystem which provides a level playingfield for the domestic industry.• This will involve investment of about

USD 100 billion and provide employmentto around 28 million by 2020.

• This inter-alia includes achieving aturnover of USD 55 Billion of chip design









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and embedded software industry andUSD 80 Billion of exports in the sector.

• Moreover, the policy also proposessetting up of over 200 ElectronicsManufacturing clusters.

• The draft NPE also proposes to set uptwo semiconductor wafer manufacturingfacilities and to create and sustain avibrant research and development andinnovation eco-system in the ESDM

sector.• Another important objective of the policy

is to significantly upscale high-endhuman resource creation to 2500 PhDsannually by 2020 in the sector.

• Vide Gazette Notification dates 1-thFebruary, 2012, the Government has laiddown the policy for providing preferenceto domestically manufactured electronics

pr oducts, in procur ement of thos eelectronics products which have securityimplication for the country and inGovernments procurement not with aview to commercial resale or with a viewto use in the production of goods for commercial sale.

• The policy is expected to strengthen thecyber security ecosystem in the countryas well as provide a boost to the domesticmanufacturing.

Q. M odif ied Special I ncent ive Package Scheme

The Union Cabinet on 12 th July, 2012approved the proposal to provide a specialincentive package to promote large-scalemanufacturing in the ESDM sector. The schemeis called the Modified Special Incentive PackageScheme (M-SIPS). The main features of M-SIPSare as follow:

1. The scheme provides subsidy for investments in capital expenditure – 20

percent for investments in SEZs. It also provides for reimbursement of CVD/excise for capital equipment for the non-SEZ units. For high technology and highcapital investments units, like fabs,reimbursement of central taxes andduties is also provided.

2. The incentives are available for

investments made in a project within a period of 10 years from the date of approval.

3. The incentive are available for 29categories of electronic products and

pr oduc t components includ ingsemiconductor chips and chipcomponents. The scheme also providesincentive for relocation of units fromabroad.The scheme is open for three years from

notification. Approvals for incentives notexceeding Rs. 10,000 crores will begranted during the XII Plan period. The

projects with incentives of Rs. 10,000crores have potential to createemployment for nearly 0.5 million

persons.• The policy is expected to create an

indigenous manufacturing eco-systemfor electronics in the country.

• The projected requirement to reach tothe target of USD 400 billion is 28million people.

• The Department is also strengtheningcapacities in NIELIT (formerly knownas DOEACC) and CDAC to t rainlarge number of students in electronicsdesign and production technology.









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Q. Future of Manufacturing

• The share of ICT & electronicshardware manufacturing has beenstagnating at a low 17 percent of GDPfor over tow decades now. With an aimof taking this to around 25 percent by2025,

• By 2014 the import of electronics products will reach $ 125 bn.

• By 2015, India,s consumer market is bound to emerge as world,s 8 th largestand eventually escalate to the 5 th positionin 2025.

• With a target of issuing Aadhar numbersto 600 mallion by 2014, the UID

programme hould huge• Establishing a , Natinal Electronhics

Misson –a ndal agency for theelectronics industry within DIT and withdirect interface to the prime Minister sOffice (PMO).

• Infosys and wipro. These companiesused the” quality route “to grow their

business Indian IT companies folled thefive levels of the software EngineeringInstitute,s certification mare then anyother country ,including US.

• For the 2012 financial year (which endedMarch 2012), annual business crossedUS$100 billon in sales revenue, with ITcontributing to 7.5 percent of India s

GDP.Q. National E—Governance Plan

1. The National E—Governance plan(NEGP) is the most significant initiativetaken in India during the last decade tomainstream ICT in governance at bothcentral and state levels. It lays emphasis

on creating the right governance andinstitutional framework within the country,establish the core IT infrastructure, andimplement a number of Mission Mode

projects at the central, integrated levels.The original vision of NEGP was to“Make all Government servicesaccessible to the common man in hislocality through common service deliveryoutlets and ensure efficiency,

transparency and reliability of suchservices ay affordable costs to realizethe basic needs of the common man”The plan, consisting originally of 27Mission Mode projects (M MPs) and 8components, was approved in May 2006.subsequently, during july 2011,four newMMPs on Hialth, system (PDS) and

posts were added. The respect iveministries and departments inGovernment of India are responsible for overall formulation, financial approvalsand implementation of the MMPs.

Q. I ntegrated Approach to I mplementation

The overall strategy for implementationenvisaged an integrated approach focusing on sixkey aspects and seven guiding principles (Chauhan 2009). The six key aspects includedconnectivity capacity building. Content creationcyber law, citizen interface, and capital. Theseven guiding principles included the following:centralized initiative and decentralized

implementation: delivering public value:thing big,start small, and scale fast: change management”common core and support infrastructure: capacity

building: and public private partnerships (PPPs.)Q. Governance stru cture under

NeGP has conceptualized a well—definedgovernance structure to ensure its implementation









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as a comprehensive and integrated plan cuttingacross various central line ministries and stategovernments. At the highest level, there is aCommittee headed by the prime Minster to

pr ovide the overall leadership for theimplementat ion of the NeGP. A Nat ional e-Governance Advisory Group headed by theMinister of Communications and IT has beenconstituted to seek views of the stakeholders andinterventions needed to mainstream ICT in

governance in the country. An various ApexCommittee on NeGP chaired by the Cabinetsecretary has also been constituted to monitor itsimplementation, provide policy directions andresolve any inter-ministerial issues. For the actualconceptualization, financial approvals, andimplementation of the MMPs, the respective lineministries and departments are responsible. Deityserves as the secretariat for the Apex Committeein managing the NeGP and provides technicaladvisory and appraisal services to the variousdepartments implementing the MMPs. IT is thecore infrastructural and other technical supportcomponents of the plan.Q. Components under NeGP

Area Networks (SWANs), state Datacentre’s (SDCs), and Common service centers(CSCs) All The NeGp consists of eightcomponents. The three main core components.Consist of State Wide these three projects beingimplemented by Deity. The other five components

communication, capacity building assessment, andresearch and development Deity plays pivotal rolein these areas as wellQ. M ission Mode projects under

The 31 MMPs under the NEGP consist of 11 central, 7 integrated and 13 state projectsThe11 central MMPs are as follows:

1. Banking: This MMP has been led bythe banking industry and aims atintegrating the core banking solutionsacross various banks in the country.

2. Insurance: This is another industry ledinitiative that focuses on services in theinsurance sector being provided by the

public sector insurance companies.3. MCA21: This project provides various

services of the Ministry of Corporate

Affairs such as registration of documents, etc. through a secure portal.IT has 8 service categories.

4. Income Tax: It aims at providing allincome tax related services to citizensand businesses under 18 servicecategories.

5. Central Excise: It provides excise andcustoms related services such as onlinefiling of services tax and excise returns,e-payment of customs duties, etc under 16 service categories.

6. National ID/UID: It aims at providingunique identification numbers to all theresidents in the country.

7. Passports: It offers all passport relatedservice categories including applicationsfor new passports, renewal of passports.Tracking of status of applications. Etc.

8. Immigration and Visa: it providesimmigration and visa related services

under 9 service categories at the IndianMission abroad.9. Pensions: It provides pension related

service to pensioners under 2 servicecategories.

10. E-Office: It aims at automating allinternal file management processes










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within government departments.11. Po st: This new MMP focuses on

providing all postal savings accounts and postalOut of the 11 central MMPs mentionedabove, 10 have gone live and are offeringservices to their stakeholders. However,not all services under their definedservice categories may be operational.The 13 state MMPs are as follows.

Q. National Land Records M odernization program me ( NL RM P):

1. It aims at comprehensivecomputerization of land records,integration of recitation and mutation of land records, etc under 16 servicecategories.

2. Commercial Taxes: It provides onlinefiling of returns and taxes, automaticrefunds, etc. under 22 service categories.

3. Transport: It includes services likevehicle registration and driving licensesunder 18 service categories.

4. E-District: It provides district and tensile/ block level G2C services such asvarious certificates. Welfare services.Etc.under 10 services, categories. Whilefive categories are defined. States canadd five categories specific to their requirements. An E-District pilot projecthas been implemented across 41 districts

in 16 states and now the project all thestates.

5. Treasuries’: It includes all paymentrelated services through tarries under 13services categories.

6. Municipalities: It provides municipallevel G2B services such as birth and

death certificates, payment of taxes andfees, licenses, etc under 8 servicecategories.

7. Police crime and criminal Trackingand Networking system (CCTNS): Itaims at comprehensive automation of

police and criminal administration systemin the country with 23 service categories.

8. Agriculture: IT provides services suchas market prices, crop diseases and

management best practices andmanagement, best practices inagriculture, horticulture, sericulture ,etcunder 12 service categories.

9. Gram panchayats: s It includes serviceslike house taxes, trade licenses,certificates, etc, under 12 servicecategories.

10. Employment Exchange: It includesservices such as registration of jobseekers and guidance to them, potentialemployers and online registration of vacancies, etc. under 6 servicecategories’.

11. Health, Education and PDS: Thesethree MMPs nave been added in july2011and aim at providing a comprehensiverange of services in their respectivesectors,

Out of the13 state MMPs four MMPs I.e., NLRMP Transp ort, e-Distri ct (p ilot), and

commercial Taxes have gone live and aredelivering , various services. Tow MMPsTreasuries and Municipalities, have become live

pa rtia lly. Thr ee MM Ps CCTNS Gr am pa ncha ya ts, and Agricult ur e are under implementation and Employment Exchange MMPis yet to be launched. The three new MMPS areunder conceptualization stage.









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Q. 7 I ntegrated M M Ps are as follows:

1. India portal: IT aims at priding a singlewindow access to all to all governmentservices under various departments.Departments at both central and statelevels.

2. National service Delivery Gateway(NSDG) : It is a messaging middlewareroute intelligently and securely all servicerequests to the relevant backend

databases and the processed services tothe services to the service seeker. Itfacilitates exchange of informationacross various backend databases of different departments. It has 6 definedservice categories.

3. Common service Centers (CSC) ; it provides ICT enabled front end kiosksfor delivering various G2 and G2Bservices to citizens in rural areas,

4. E- Courts ; it aims at automating courtrelated services such as e –filing of cased, online availability of judgment, etc.under four service categories.

5. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) :It enables import and export documents,online payment of charges and fees andexchange of documents among differentgovernment departments and agenciessuch as ports, customs, etc. It has four service categories.

6. E- Biz: It aims at providing integratedservices through a single window for

businesses and investors rela ted to payment of various fees though one lumpsum payment, etc. under 29 servicecategories’

7. E- procurement: it provides all procurement all procurement related

services to various governmentdepartments and agencies’.Except the e-Biz MMP, all the other MMPs listed above have gone livethough not all the services under variouscategories might be operational .E-BizMMP is expected to go live shortly.

I NDIAN M ISSION TO M ARS IN 2013

India will send an unmanned probe to the

orbit of Mars to study its upper atmosphere as wellas the “chemical and mineralogical” features of the Red. Planet. Recently, the Cabinet approvedthe Mars orbiter mission under this mission, our spaceship will go near Mars and collect importantscientific information. This spaceship to Mars will

be a huge step for us in the area of science andtechnology, Prime Minister Man Mohan Singhsaid in his Independence Day address from theramparts of ramparts of the Red fort.

The orbiter will study the upper atmosphereand effects of solar wind and radiation on Martianspade weather. The on –board sensors will alsoinvestigate the chemical and mineralogicalfeatures of the planets.

The total project cost is around Rs 450crore. Including the cost of rocket as well as thatof the ground segment, out of which Rs 125 crorewas sanctioned in the 2012-2013 Union budget.

The 25- kg Mars payload will be carried byISRO’s polar satellite launch binnacle (PSL-XL).

It will be placed in an orbit of 500*80,000 kmaround the planet. The space probe will takealmost 10 months to reach Mars that has becomea subject of several exploratory studies in the lasttow decades.

ISRO’ first launch target date is November 2013 if the space agency failed to ready the probe









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by that time’ the next window for the launch willcome in 2016 followed by another window in2018 when the Mars will be closest to the earth.“The mission will be a technology demonstrator.A successful mission will prove that we havecapability to reach the far away technology andorbit around Mars. This will pave the way for more intense exploratory missions in future”former ISRO chairman and planning Commissionmember Kasturiangan has said.

India will be the sixth country to launch amission to the Red planet after the US, Russia,Europe, Japan and China.

“It is a natural progression for India to try amission to Mars so far all nation,. Except the USand European Space Agency (ESA). Have failedto full off a successful Mars mission If successful,It would be a very big achievement for ISRO andIndia “commented Amitabh Ghosh, an Indian – origin national Aeronautics and SPame

Administratio n (Nasa) scientisy.Q . 6 M o bi l e P h on e a n d C o mp on en t Manufacturing

• Nokia Today operates the world’s largestmobile manufacturing facility from Sri

perumbudur near Chennai• Mn of which almost 75 percent is

currently utilized for both the Indianmarket as well as exports.

• India is the second largest subscriber market in the world with more than 750mn subscribers

DO YOU KNOW

W HAT IS M OBILE G OVERNANCE ?

Mobile Governance (m- Governance) is astrategy and its implementation to leverage

available wireless and new media technology platforms mobile phone devices and applicationfor delivery of public Information and services tocitizens and business.

W HAT IS M OBILE

SERVICES D ELIVERY G ATEWAY (MSDG)?

MSDG is the core infrastructure for enabling the availability of public services throughmobile devices The prime objective of creating

the MSDG is to put in place government-wideshared infrastructure and services to enablerap id development mainstr eaming anddeployment of m Governance services It willenhance interoperability across various publicservices as reduce the total cost of operation of M- Governance services by providing a common

pool of resources aggregating the demand for communication and e- Governance services, andact as a platform for various GovernmentDepartments and Agencies to test, rapidly deploy

and easily across the countryW HAT IS THE

PURPOSE OF S ETTING UP THE MSDG?

The purpose of setting up the MSDG is to provide a one stop ecosystem for enabling thedelivery of various electronic government servicesthrough mobile devices in an efficient manner withminimum effort for the participating GovernmentDepartments and Agencies MSDG will also helpin enhancing the interoperability of mobile based

services and content in a network and deviceindependent manner to the extent possible andfeasible MSDG is proposed to be used as a sharedinfrastructure by the central and stateGovernment Departments and Agencies atnominal costs for delivering public servicesthrough mobile devices.










W HAT IS THE D ELIVERY ?

MSDG will support will support thefollowing delivery Channels for development anddeployment of mobile based applications services

• SMS (Short Message service)• IVR (Interactive voice Response)• WAP (Wireless Application protocol)• CBC ( Cell Broadcast)• SIM Toolkit (STK)/ Dynamic STK 3G-

Video• Other (Wi Fi/ W/ LAN)

The Department of Information andTechnology (DIT) outlined its objective to “makeall government services accessible to the commonman in his locality through common servicedelivery outlets, and ensure efficiency.Transparency and reliability of such services ataffordable costs to realize the basic needs of thecommon man.

Besides, the plan is for the websites of allgovernment departments and agencies to bemade mobile- compliant: open standards will beadopted for mobile- application across variousoperating systems, and uniform pre-designatednumbers shall be used for mobile based servicesto ensure convenience. It will be one WebApproach enabled this implies that all GovernmentWeb sites should be devices to enable users of such devices to access the same information and

services as availableW HAT STEPS WILL DIT TAKE TO

PROMOTE THE M - G OVERNANCE I NITIATIVE ?

DIT, or/ any of its designated agencies, willundertake awareness creation and capacity

building exercises for according grater visibilityto the Mobile Governance Initiative amongststakeholders and Government Industry, and CivilSociety.




Documents

The Gist September 2012 Www.upscportal.com