Consistent with the federal structure of the country, the GST will have two comp onents: one

levied by the Centre (hereinafter referred to as Central GST), and t he other levied by the States (hereinafter referred to as State GST). This dual GST model would be implemented through multiple statutes (one for CGST and SGST statute for every State). However, the basic features of law such as chargeabili ty, definition of taxable event and taxable person, measure of levy including va luation provisions, basis of classification etc. would be uniform across these s tatutes as far as practicable. The Central GST and the State GST would be applicable to all transactions of goo ds and services except the exempted goods and services, goods which are outside the purview of GST and the transactions which are below the prescribed threshold limits. The Central GST and State GST are to be paid to the accounts of the Centre and t he States separately. Since the Central GST and State GST are to be treated separately, in general, ta xes paid against the Central GST shall be allowed to be taken as input tax credi t (ITC) for the Central GST and could be utilized only against the payment of Ce ntral GST. The same principle will be applicable for the State GST. Cross utilisation of ITC between the Central GST and the State GST would, in gen eral, not be allowed. To the extent feasible, uniform procedure for collection of both Central GST and State GST would be prescribed in the respective legislation for Central GST and State GST. The administration of the Central GST would be with the Centre and for State GST with the States. The taxpayer would need to submit periodical returns to both the Central GST aut hority and to the concerned State GST authorities. Each taxpayer would be allotted a PAN-linked taxpayer identification number with a total of 13/15 digits. This would bring the GST PAN-linked system in line wit h the prevailing PAN-based system for Income tax facilitating data exchange and taxpayer compliance. The exact design would be worked out in consultation with t he Income-Tax Department. Keeping in mind the need of tax payers convenience, functions such as assessment, enforcement, scrutiny and audit would be undertaken by the authority which is c ollecting the tax, with information sharing between the Centre and the States. About Tropical Cyclone The word 'cyclone' comes from the Greek word 'cyclos', meaning 'coiling of a sna ke'. It was coined by Heary Piddington who worked as a rapporteur in Kolkata dur ing the British Raj. Tropical cyclones over the Atlantic are called hurricanes; those over the Pacific are called typhoons. What is a tropical cyclone? A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a low-pressure centre, whi ch produces strong winds and flooding rain. A tropical cyclone feeds on heat rel eased by the condensation of moist air. The latent heat gets converted into kine tic energy and feeds the strong winds emerging out of it. Cyclonic storms have c

ounterclockwise rotation in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Souther n Hemisphere. Developed over warm water bodies ocean and seas they lose their st rength once they move over land. They also help in the global atmospheric circul ation mechanism by carrying heat and energy away from tropics towards temperate latitudes. Tropical cyclone has a central cloud-free region of calm winds, known as the eye o f the cyclone, with a diameter varying from 10 to 50 km. Surrounding the eye is the wall cloud region characterised by very strong winds and torrential rain, whic h is about 10-150 km wide. Winds over this region rotate around the centre and r esemble the coils of a snake . Wind speed falls off gradually away from this core r egion. The height of the cyclone is about 15 km. A mature cyclone releases energ y equivalent to that of 100 hydrogen bombs. What are the different types of tropical cyclones? Tropical cyclones are formed in eight basins Northern Atlantic, Northeastern Pac ific, North Central Pacific, Northwestern Pacific, Northern Indian Ocean, Southw estern Indian Ocean, South and Southwestern Pacific and Southeastern Indian Ocea n. Each basin has a different naming system. In the North Atlantic Ocean, Northw est Pacific Ocean east of the International Date Line and South Pacific Ocean, t hey are called hurricanes. Typhoon is the name given to a tropical cyclone forme d in the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline. In the southwest Pacific Ocean and southeast Indian Ocean, it s called a severe tropical cyclone. Similarly , tropical cyclones in the north Indian Ocean and southwest Indian Ocean are cal led severe cyclonic storm and tropical cyclone respectively. What is the process of naming cyclones? The regional body responsible for monitoring a tropical cyclone in a particular basin makes a list of cyclone names for the particular basin. There are five suc h bodies which keep 10 pre-designated lists of cyclone names. The names are prop osed by the member countries. For instance, the names of cyclones in the norther n Indian Ocean are contributed by Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pa kistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. India's Look East Policy India's Look East Policy of 1991 was inclined towards improving and strengthenin g her relations with neighbouring South East Asian countries which had been negl ected for a long time and explore the economic opportunities in the region by ac cess to its growing markets where China had already penetrated. It was developed and enacted during the Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao and rigorously pursued by the successive administrations of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. The policy came specifically at the time of economic liberalization reforms and the post cold war phase of non-existent rival political alliances. It was the fi rst time when India took recourse to improving her relations with the neighborin g South East Asian countries of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and making a p lace in the emerging global economy by going beyond the confines of SAARC. In her bid to improve the bilateral and multilateral relations with the South Ea st Asian region, it was conducive and pertinent for India to forge strong ties a nd co-operation with the biggest association and Bloc of the South East Asian co untries i.e. the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian countries) formed in 196 7 for geopolitical and economic organization. Some of the major areas where Indi a and ASEAN proposed and worked together have been Political and security Issues with forums such as India and ASEAN Regional Forum(ARF) Of 1996, Mekong Ganga P roject(MGC) of 1997, Free Trade Agreement(FTA) of 2008 as the first multilateral Trade agreement by India for co-operation in Information Technology, ASEAN Indi

a business summits of 2002 and 2009 which addressed the six key areas of economi c integration, people to people contacts, agriculture, human resource developmen t, education, science and technology and information and communication technolog y, Bay of Bengal initiative for Multi Sectoral technical cooperation (BIMSTEC) o f 2008 and East Asia Summit (EAS) of 2009. All about Dengue Fever Dengue fever, also known as breakbone fever, is a mosquito-borne infection that causes a severe flu-like illness. There are four different viruses that can caus e denguefever, all of which spread by a certain type of mosquito. Dengue can var y from mild to severe; the more severe forms include dengue shock syndrome and d engue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). Patients who develop the more serious forms of de ngue fever usually need to be hospitalized. Symptoms Symptoms of typical uncomplicated (classic) dengue usually start with fever with in 4 to 7 days after you have been bitten by an infected mosquito. These symptom s include: high fever, up to 105F, severe headache, retro-orbital (behind the eye ) pain, severe joint and muscle pain, nausea and vomiting, and rash. The rash ma y appear over most of the body 3 to 4 days after the fever begins, and then subs ides after 1 to 2 days. There may be a second rash a few days later. Symptoms of dengue hemorrhagic fever include all of the symptoms of classic deng ue plus bleeding from the nose, gums, or under the skin, causing purplish bruise s, which results from damage to blood vessels. This form of dengue disease can c ause death. How is Dengue Diagnosed and Treated? Dengue can be diagnosed by doing two blood tests, 2 to 3 weeks apart. The tests can show whether a sample of your blood contains antibodies to the virus. Howeve r, in epidemics, a health care provider often diagnoses dengue presumptively by ty pical signs and symptoms without waiting for lab results. There are currently no vaccines for Dengue fever. The best way to prevent the disease is to avoid bein g bitten by mosquitoes altogether. The first outbreak of Dengue fever/DHF was reported from Kolkata in 1963. All th e four serotypes of dengue are prevalent in India. The most affected areas are West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kar nataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. As there is no specific treatment for Dengue, the emphasis is on avoidance of mo squito breeding conditions in homes, workplaces and minimizing the man-mosquito contact. Community awareness and participation as well as intersectoral collabor ation are crucial for effective control of Dengue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO): a) Approximately 2.5 billion people, or two-fifths of the world's population, ar e now at risk from dengue. b) The disease is now endemic in over 100 countries. c) Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a leading cause of serious illness and death amon g children in some Asian countries. d) In 2007, there were over 890,000 reported cases of dengue in the Americas, of which 26,000 cases were DHF. e) Dengue infection rates among people who have not been previously exposed to t he virus are commonly 40% to 50% during epidemics, but may sometimes reach 80% t o 90%.

f) Approximately half-a-million people with DHF are hospitalized each year, of whom many are children. About 2.5% of these patients die. DHF fatality reads may exceed 20% if untreated. If there is access to medical ca re with health care professionals trained in treating DHF, the death rate may be less than 1%. Sevottam model Sevottam is a Service Delivery Excellence Model which provides an assessment-imp rovement framework to bring about excellence in public service delivery. The nee d for a tool like Sevottam arose from the fact that Citizens Charters by themselv es could not achieve the desired results in improving quality of public services . Besides, the absence of a credible grievances redressal mechanism within organ izations was also becoming a major impediment in improving service delivery stan dards. Thus, it was felt that unless there is a mechanism to assess the outcomes of various measures, the reform initiatives would not yield the desired results . The Sevottam model works as an evaluation mechanism to assess the quality of i nternal processes and their impact on the quality of service delivery. The model has three components, and in addition to this overarching objective, t here are intermediate outcomes expected from compliance of conditions designed f or each of these three components. The first component of the model requires effective charter implementation there by opening up a channel for receiving citizens inputs into the way in which organ izations determine service delivery requirements. Citizens Charters publicly decl are the information on citizens entitlements; making citizens better informed and hence empowering them to demand better services. The second component of the model, Public Grievance Redress requires a good grieva nce redress system operating in a manner that leaves the citizen more satisfied with how the organization responds to complaints/grievances, irrespective of the final decision. The third component Excellence in Service Delivery , postulates that an organizatio n can have an excellent performance in service delivery only if it is managing t he key ingredients for good service delivery well, and building its own capacity to continuously improve delivery. The Bureau of Indian Standards came up with an Indian Standard for Quality Manag ement Systems under IS 15700:2005 of. The standard itself stipulates that a Qual ity Management System helps an organization to build systems which enable it to provide quality service consistently and is not a substitute for service standard s . In fact, they are complementary to each other. The Sevottam model seeks to ass ess an organization on (i) implementation of the Citizens Charter, (ii) implement ation of grievances redressal system and (iii) service delivery capability. There are four broad ways in which this model can be used: (1) as a self-assessm ent tool by organizations already motivated to improve service delivery, (2) as a requirement standard, (3) as a benchmark assessment process to be established, (4) as a rating model to recognize and reward organizations that are doing comm endable work in service delivery. The Seven Steps to Sevottam proposed by ARC are: Define all services which you provide and identify your clients. Set standards and norms for each service. Develop capability to meet the set standards. Perform to achieve the standards Monitor performance against the set standards.

Evaluate the impact through an independent mechanism. Continuous improvement based on monitoring and evaluation results. National Investigating Agency Over the past several years, India has been the victim of large scale terrorism sponsored from across the borders. There have been innumerable incidents of terr orist attacks, not only in the militancy and insurgency affected areas and areas affected by Left Wing Extremism, but also in the form of terrorist attacks and bomb blasts, etc., in various parts of the hinterland and major cities, etc. A l arge number of such incidents are found to have complex inter-State and internat ional linkages, and possible connection with other activities like the smuggling of arms and drugs, pushing in and circulation of fake Indian currency, infiltra tion from across the borders, etc. keeping all these in view, it was felt that t here was a need for setting up of an Agency at the Central level for investigati on of offences related to terrorism and certain other Acts, which have national ramifications. Several experts and Committees, including the Administrative Refo rms commission in its Report, had made recommendations for establishing NIA. The Government after due consideration and examination of the issues involved, p roposed to enact a legislation to make provisions for establishment of a Nationa l Investigation Agency in a concurrent jurisdiction framework, with provisions f or taking up specific cases under specific Acts for investigation. The Agency has been empowered to deal with terror related crimes across states w ithout special permission from the states. It can investigate any crime which ha s an implication with terrorism, left wing extremism, narcotics and similar type of offences. When a case is registered in the local police station, according to the gravity of the reports, it will be sent to the state government and further from state g overnment to the NIA. NIA is also authorized to investigate a matter suo motu an d is also allowed to reject a case forwarded to it by the state government. NIA has concurrent jurisdiction which empowers the Centre to probe terror attacks in any part of the country, covering offences, including challenge to the country' s sovereignty and integrity, bomb blasts, hijacking of aircraft and ships, and a ttacks on nuclear installations. Other than offences of terrorism, the Agency wi ll also deal with counterfeit currency, human trafficking, narcotics or drugs, o rganised crime (extortion mobs and gangs), plane hijacking and violations of ato mic energy act and weapons of mass destruction act. Some of the salient features of the NIA are: NIA is to be applicable to whole of India, citizens of India outside India and p ersons on ships and aircraft registered in India; Officers of the NIA to have al l powers, privileges and liabilities which the police officers have in connectio n with investigation of any offence; A state government shall extend all assista nce to NIA for investigation of terror-related offences; Provisions of the Act w ith regard to investigation shall not affect powers of the state government to i nvestigate and prosecute any terror crime or other offences; The Centre shall co nstitute special courts for trial of terror- related offences. Special Courts may sit at any place for any of its proceedings; For speedy and f air trial, the Supreme Court may transfer any case pending with the special cour t to another special court in the same state or any other state, and the High Co urt may transfer such cases to any other special court within the state; Offence s punishable with imprisonment for less than three years may be tried summarily. Some other features of NIA are: Special court to have all powers of the court of sessions under CrPC for trial of any offence under the Act; Proceedings to be h eld 'in camera' if special court deems it necessary; Trial to be held on day-to-

day basis on all working days and to have precedence over the trial of other off ences; State governments empowered to constitute one or more special courts; and No appeal shall be entertained after the expiry of 90 days.