1
EDITORS NOTE
Dear Civil Services Aspirants,
Essay, General Studies and Optional
are the three areas of your studies for the
preparations of the Mains examination. You
do not have to make any separate preparation
for the Essay, because the four GS paper
covers the entire gambit of topics thats
covered in the Essay paper. So you have to
concentrate on Optional and GS papers for
Mains preparation.
Since, you are already acquaintance
with your optional paper in your studies at
undergraduate level; you need to do a deep
brush up of the topics given in the UPSC
syllabus of the optional paper. Its the General
Study papers that should be your major
concern. Here the importance of group
discussion has to be emphasized so that you
can cover the reading pat of the entire
syllabus quickly.
Each person can prepare one segment
and make a presentation to the group; the
group then discuss it over and each takes
notes of important points. After having a
general feel of the syllabus, one can
individually do further reading to strengthen
the preparation. After that the next step
should be to practice writing answers.
Remember, reading makes one
knowledgeable, writing makes him perfect.
Mains exam is all about testing your writing
skills. So hone this skill by writing; clear,
coherent, logical and precise answers.
Civil Service India wishes each of you
Best of luck!
1
ESSAY OF THE MONTH
What it takes to deliver Mid-Day meal
The tragic loss of 23 young lives because of
contaminated food in a Bihar school is
unacceptable. But it is also a fact that the Mid
Day Meal Scheme, under which cooked food
is compulsorily provided to children in
government schools, is too important and
critical to give up on. The only questions that
matter are: why does the scheme not work as
well as it should and what can be done to fix
it?
The answers are complicated. Providing
nutritious food to children in schools helps
address two key problems; hunger and
education. Progressive political leaders found
the answers in their states. In 1982, M G
Ramachandran, the then chief minister of
Tamil Nadu, set up the nutritious meal
programme. It is legendary that he took deep
interest in the working of the scheme. Former
district officials will tell you of his surprise
trips to schools and his fury if anything was
found out of order. This was top priority, so it
worked.
In the mid-1990s, the Central government
adopted these ideas coming from different
states and framed a national midday meal
scheme. But nothing much happened. In
2001, the Supreme Court directed all
governments to provide cooked food to all
children in primary schools. Since then the
scheme has evolved. The Central government
agreed to provide free grain (rice and wheat)
and funding for transport, cooking cost and
recently even an honorarium for the cook.
The state government is required to top up
this funding; pay for vegetables and pulses;
provide infrastructure in schools and manage
affairs.
Be in no doubt that this is a big and complex
affair. It is estimated that some 117 million
children studying up to standard 8 are fed
cooked meals every day in some 1.26 million
schools and other such centres. The scheme,
according to government figures, provides
employment to some 2.6 million cooks and
helpers. The operations are complicated.
Money comes from the Centre in four
instalments to states; it then reaches districts
and individual schools based on enrolment,
off-take and spending. Grain is procured from
the storehouse of the Food Corporation of
India, transported to districts and then to
schools. There are detailed guidelines on how
this will work and who will oversee it and
even taste the food before serving. It would
be difficult to find a parallel in the world for
the scale and deployment under this scheme.
But the question remains. Children died in
Bihar. There is evidence from many other
places that food is not hygienic or nutritious.
More seriously, persistent malnutrition
continues to shame the country. So what is
wrong?
Let me point out the
directions in which
we should not look
for answers. One, we
should not look for
more schemes or
new schemes to replace the old. Two, we
should not stop cooking food and replace it
with what is considered to be more feasible to
supply biscuits and packaged food that comes
from large and small corporate. There is a big
2
push for this. It is not surprising since many
eyes the Rs 10,000 crore annual budget for
meals under the scheme.
The solution is to get down to fixing what is
broken. First, focus on what is now called old-
fashioned governance, which prioritised the
deliverables and then obsessed about how it
was being done. It is clear from the states
where the programme is working successfully
that it requires attention to detail; it needs
involvement of those placed the highest in the
land surprise visits, inspections and reports.
This will send the signal to the system
however much in disrepair that food for
children is priority.
This also means
that state
governments
ministers and
chief ministers
must have greater reputational advantage of
getting the delivery right. In the current
system nobody gets the kudos for doing it
well, but everybody is running away from the
blame.
Second, focus on the paraphernalia of
delivery. We put every conceivable scheme in
the hands of the hapless (and now
increasingly corrupt) local panchayatseach
sarpanch manages some 80 different accounts
and some 150 different schemes. But there is
absolutely no effort to invest in the
management support functions of these
bodies. If we believeas we mustthat the
best institutions for governance are
communities then it is time to fix their office.
Stop thinking, that it is low-cost and
voluntary. Management takes money and
people. Invest there.
Third, focus on money itself so that we can
achieve the change we desire. The Central
government pays close to Rs 3 for each
primary school child and a little more than Rs
4 for older kids. This is in addition to transport
costs (at 2006 rates) and Rs 1,000 per month
for cooks and helpers. In Tamil Nadu, the
midday meal organiser gets Rs 7,000 per
month and the cook and helper are paid Rs
5,000 each. Clearly, this is what it takes.
Instead, we short-change our programmes.
This is also because we have inefficient
delivery and we then have to spread what is
available so thinly that it does not really make
a difference.
It is ironical that two decades after Rajiv
Gandhis famous and oft-quoted statement
that out of every Rs 1 spent on development
only 15 paisa reaches the poor, we know
nothing more about where it goes and why.
Instead, all we have done is to create new
schemes. Not just every new government but
every new minister now wants his or her own
programme. All derived from the top, while
the bottom is hollowed out.
By Sunita Narain
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HISTORY NOTES
Syllabus: Early Structure of the British Raj:
The early administrative structure; From
diarchy to direct control; The Regulating Act
(1773); The Pitts India Act (1784); The
Charter Act (1833); The voice of free trade
and the changing character of British colonial
rule; The English utilitarian and India.
Early Structure of the British Raj
The early structure of British rule was based
on twin objectives; to have the East India
Company's monopoly of trade with India and
the control over financial resources of India,
through taxation policy. Both these objectives
were fulfilled without having to disturb the
existing institutions and administrative
apparatus in India. In fact, the nature of
British rule at this stage was no different from
that of traditional rulers of India. At this stage
the British rule was mainly based on the
appropriation of agricultural surplus. In the
field of administration some changes were
made at the top and were linked to the
objective of smooth revenue collection.
The early administrative structure; from
diarchy to direct control
The East India Company territories at the very
initial stage consisted of the presidency towns
of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay and were
governed by the autonomous town councils
that mostly comprising of merchants. The
councils hardly had enough powers for the
effective management of their local affairs. It
was after Clive's victory at Plassey, that the
East India Company was granted the diwani,
or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and
Bihar. Since then the issue of governance in
India gained importance. As Companys
operations in India was run by its servants and
allies there was a grave abuse of power and
maladministration. The East India Company
showed huge losses in its ledger books, even
though its servants returned to Britain with
huge fortunes. The East India Company
requested the British government for loans to
stay afloat. This led to the British government
to step in and formulate rules for the better
management of the affairs of the East India
Company. The British Parliament in 1773
came up with Regulating Act and
subsequently with Pitts Act of 1784. Even
though the Charter Act of 1813 extended the
Company rule in India, the powers of the East
India Company was drastically curtailed. The
nature of British rule in India from 1813 to
1858 was diarchy, after that India came under
the direct control of the British crown.
Regulating Act of 1773
The East India
Company in 1770s was
in deep financial crisis.
The Company
approached the British
Parliament to bail it
out from the crisis. The
British Parliament at
this moment decided to overhaul the
management of the East India Company and
passed the Regulating Act of 1773. The Act set
up a system whereby British Parliament
supervised (regulated) the work of the East
India Company.
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Provisions of the Regulating Act
The Act limited Company dividends to 6%
subject to payment of the loan and restricted
the Court of Directors to four-year terms. It
prohibited the servants of company from
engaging in any private trade or accepting
presents or bribes from the natives. The Act
elevated Governor of Bengal, Warren Hastings
to Governor-General of Bengal and subsumed
the presidencies of Madras and Bombay
under Bengal's control. The Act named four
additional men to serve with the Governor-
General on the Calcutta Council. A supreme
court was established at Fort William at
Calcutta where British judges were sent to
administer the British legal system.
Pitts Act of 1784
The Regulating Act of 1773
proved to be a failure and
so the British government
decided to take a more
active role in the affairs of
the Company. It passed the
Pitt's India Act in 1784 envisaging a joint
government of British India by both the
Company and the Crown with the government
holding the ultimate authority.
Provisions of the Pitts Act
A governing board was constituted with six
members, two of whom were members of the
British Cabinet and the remaining from the
Privy Council. The Board also had a president,
who controlled the affairs of the East India
Company. The Act stated that the Board
would henceforth "superintend, direct and
control" the Companys possessions, in effect
controlling the acts and operations relating to
the civil, military and revenues of the
Company.
The governing council of the Company was
reduced to three members, and the governor-
general, a crown appointee, was authorised to
veto the majority decisions. The governors of
Bombay and Madras were also deprived of
their independence. The governor-general
was given greater powers in matters of war,
revenue and diplomacy.
A supplementary Act was passed in 1786
whereby Lord Cornwallis was appointed as
the second governor-general of Bengal. He
became the effective ruler of British India
under the authority of the Board of Control
and the Court of Directors. The constitution
set up by Pitt's India Act did not undergo any
major changes until the end of the company's
rule in India in 1858.
Charter Act of 1813
The Charter Act of
1813 was an Act of
the British
Parliament that
renewed the charter
issued to the British
East India Company to rule in India. The
Company's charter had previously been
renewed by the Charter Act of 1793. The
Charter Act of 1813 asserted the Crown's
sovereignty over British India and the
Company's commercial monopoly was ended,
except for the tea trade and the trade with
China. The Act allotted Rs 100,000 to
promote education in India. Its first time
Christian missionaries were allowed to come
to British India and preach their religion. The
power of the provincial governments and
courts in India over European British subjects
was also strengthened by this Act. Financial
provision was also made to encourage a
revival in Indian literature and for the
promotion of science. The next Charter Act
was renewed by the Government of India Act
of 1833.
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The voice of free trade and the changing
character of British colonial rule
The nature of colonial rule in India changed
after the renewal of the Charter Act of 1813.
The British interests in India were represented
now by the Industrial capitalist class in Great
Britain. These industrialists raised voice for
free trade. They demanded a market for their
manufactured industrial good. They also
demanded a source of raw material for their
industries and items for exports. All this
required a greater control of Indian economy
and trade. This could be done only through
reforming the administrative institutions of
India. A uniform administrative structure and
modern judicial system for India were
necessary for the fulfilment of British
objectives.
These developments led to the change in
character of British rule in India. It also led to
the beginning of the reform process in
administration and judiciary in India. Since
then the entire administrative and legal
structure was overhauled to promote modern
business, create a market economy, free
commercial relations and to smoothly
regulate various economic transactions in
India.
The English utilitarian and India
The administrative and
legal system introduced
by the British after 1813
did not take shape up
overnight. It had its
intellectual current that
was provided by
'utilitarianism.'
Utilitarianism prescribed a modern machine
of government. Its major exponents were
thinkers like James Mill, Jeremy Bentham
David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill. All of
them showed a special interest in the India
and were largely responsible for the
administrative and judicial reforms in India. It
was Macaulay, who pushed the idea of
utilitarianism with great zest. He took up the
codification of laws with vigour. It was the
idea of English utilitarianism that transformed
India into a modern society.
NATIONAL NEWS
Mid-Day meal tragedy at Bihar school
Tragedy struck
at a primary
school in the
village of
Dharmashati
Gandaman in
the Saran district of Bihar on 16 July 2013. At
least 23 students died and dozens more fell ill
after eating a Midday Meal contaminated
with pesticide. The meal cooked at the school
that day consisted of soya beans, rice and
potato curry.
Children aged between four and twelve years
complained that their lunch, served as a part
of the Midday Meal Scheme, tasted odd.
Thirty minutes after eating the meal the
children complained of stomach pain and
soon after were taken ill with vomiting and
diarrhoea.
According to the official count, 23 children
died as a result of the contaminated food.
Parents and local villagers said at least 27 had
died. Sixteen children died on site, and four
others were declared dead upon arrival at the
local hospital. Others died in hospital. Total of
48 students fell ill from the contaminated
food
Initial indications were that the food was
contaminated by an organophosphate, a class
of chemicals commonly found in insecticides.
Officials stated that he cooking oil was placed
6
in a container formerly used to store
insecticides. Police said the forensic report
confirmed the cooking oil contained "very
toxic" levels of monocrotophos, an
agricultural pesticide.
According to state officials, the schools
headmistress Meena Kumari had bought the
cooking oil used in the food from a grocery
store owned by her husband. She is arrested
for criminal negligence. The Bihar
government promised a thorough
investigation and offered 2 lakh rupees
compensation for families of the dead
children. At the time of the incident, 89
children were registered with the school.
The United Nations Health agency, the World
Health Organisation (WHO) suggested India in
2009 to consider a ban on Monocrotophos,
the pesticide blamed for the poisoning of mid
day meal in Bihar on 16 July 2013.
The pesticide that killed 23 schoolchildren in
Bihar's Chhapra district was banned in many
countries as per the directions from the WHO,
because of its high acute toxicity. However in
India, Monocrotophos is widely used and
easily available pesticide.
According to WHO, swallowing just 120
milligrams of Monocrotophos can be fatal to
humans? Initial symptoms of taking chemical
are sweating, vomiting, blurred vision and
foaming at the mouth.
WHO had also warned that in India, against
strong International health warnings? Many
pesticide containers are not thrown away
after use but recycled and used for storing
water, food and other consumables items.
Committee to look into Mid Day Meal
quality
The HRD Ministry
on 18 July 2013
announced setting
up a new
committee to look
into the quality
aspect of the Mid
Day Meal Scheme nationwide. The decision
was taken by the Ministry while responding to
the queries of the media on death of children
in Bihar after taking Mid Day Meal in schools.
The Mid Day Meal Scheme is important for
promoting primary education in the country.
Bihar was alerted about unsatisfactory quality
of food served in government schools in 12
districts and the worst affected Saran district
was one of them.
The Mid Day Meal is the worlds largest school
feeding programme reaching out to about 12
crore children in over 12.65 lakh schools/EGS
centres across the country. It aims to fight
widespread poverty, improve children's
school attendance and health, as a large
number of India's children suffer from
malnutrition. The National Programme of
Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-
NSPE) was launched as a Centrally Sponsored
Scheme on 15 August 1995, initially in 2408
blocks in the country.
Telangana, the 29th State of India
announced
The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the
highest decision-making
body of Congress Party,
on 30 July 2013 decided to
recommend to the Central
Government to form the
29th State which will comprise of 10 districts.
The districts that will be a part of the new
7
State are Hyderabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar,
Khammam, Mahaboobnagar, Medak,
Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and
Warangal.
Hyderabad, the central point of the
Telangana, will be the common capital of the
newly proposed State and the other regions,
Rayalaseema and Andhra for a period of 10
years. A new capital for Andhra will be
identified in Seemandhra region within this
period. Telangana State will have a
geographical area of 10 of the 23 districts of
undivided Andhra Pradesh. Out of 42 Lok
Sabha seats and 294 Assembly seats in Andhra
Pradesh, Telangana is likely to have 17 Lok
Sabha seats and 119 Assembly seats.
Bharat Mobile Scheme to be launched
The Union government of
India on 30 July 2013
planned to launch Bharat
Mobile Scheme under
which one member of
every rural household
who has completed 100 days of work under
MGNREGA can get free mobile device. The
new scheme is aimed at empowerment. The
mobile may be provided per household
preferably to a woman and the handset will
come with a three-year warranty.
The mobile device for The Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
workers will be non-transferable as it will also
be customized for transfer of benefits of
different government programmes like direct
cash transfers scheme.
According to initial proposal, selected telecom
operators will be asked to provide mobile
devices. Distribution would be done by the
service providers in coordination with district
administration. The mobile numbers in the
device is expected to work as first level
authentication to identify and inform the
beneficiary of scheme, sources said. Around 5
crore households have been provided work in
year 2012-13.
The proposal for Bharat Mobile Scheme was
mooted by Planning Commission of India.
Political Parties out from the ambit of
RTI ACT
The Union Cabinet of India on 2 August 2013
cleared an amendment to the RTI Act to keep
the political parties out of its ambit. The
cabinet also approved a move to seek a
review of the decision of Supreme Court
barring convicted legislators from holding
their seats pending a hearing on their appeals.
The introduced amendment can be cleared in
the Parliament by simple majority and will
clarify that term, Public Authorities, will not
include the political parties.
Earlier on 3 June 2013, the Central
Information Commission ruled out that the
political parties namely Congress, BJP, BSP,
CPM, NCP and CPI are public authorities as
per RTI Act as these parties are funded
indirectly by the . The Commission also
directed the six political parties to share the
details of their funding with public as the
Public Authorities are answerable to citizens
under the RTI Act. It also asked the political
parties to appoint a appoint Public
Information Officers to respond to RTI queries
and adhere to all the legal provisions.
8
The RTI Act is the flagship Act introduced by
the Congress in 2005 to increase
transparency.
Indefinite suspension on Genetically
Modified Crops
A Technical Expert
Committee (TEC)
appointed by the
Supreme Court of
India
recommended an indefinite suspension on
open field trials of genetically-modified (GM)
crops till the deficiencies in the regulatory and
safety systems are effectively addressed.
In the final report submitted to the court on 3
July 2013, the panel did not mention 10-year
suspension on field trials as suggested in the
interim report in October 2012. Instead, it
imposed four conditions for meaningful
consideration for allowing trials.
The Panel suggestions were:
Setting up of a think tank to look into Bio-
safety issues.
Housing the new Bio-technology regulatory
in either Union Environment or Health
Ministry.
Identification of specific sites for conducting
tests and mandatory stakeholder participation
as part of risk management strategy.
On successful following of the recommended
conditions, the Technical Expert Committee
(TEC) suggested that the trials should be only
allowed on land owned by GM crop
application and not on leased land.
In TEC interim report submitted to the
Supreme Court on October 2012, the panel
recommended a ban on field trials of GM
crops until the regulatory system was
completely overhauled.
 Panel also called for a 10-year suspension
on field trials of BT food crops (which are
modified with the Bacillus thuringiensis gene,
such as the proposed Bt Brinjal), and a
complete ban on field trials of transgenic in
crops which originate in India.
National Land Reform Policy Draft 2013
gives Land Rights to Women
The Union
Government of
India proposed land
reforms for
acknowledging the
women rights and
giving the
ownership to rural
poor women, according to the National Land
Reform Policy Draft 2013 formulated by Union
Ministry of Rural Development released on 18
July 2013.
Highlights of the Draft
In all Government land transfers, womens
claims should be directly recognized.
According to the new policy, all new land
distribution among landless poor families will
be in the womens name.
In all land distribution schemes (land related
to surplus land, custodial land, or under the
land ceiling act), the land should be
distributed to rural landless women workers.
The policy recommends 50 percent of land
holdings given to forest communities should
go to women.
Under the policy, elderly women and
widows too would gain title to land.
The policy advises the states to consider the
adoption of a group approach in land
cultivation. Thus, group titles to womens
group should be granted.
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The policy also asked the state to assess all
uncultivated arable land with the
Government, and give womens groups such
land in the long term for group cultivation.
Integrated Action Plan helped to reduce
Naxal violence: IAP Data
The Integrated Action Plan
data for 2012-13 revealed
that violence related to
Left-Wing extremism
decreased in 82 Naxal-
affected Districts due to
successful implementation of IAP projects.
The Integrated Action Plan (IAP) started in
2011 with 6090 crore Rupees allocation and
74 percent of the money was utilised with
roads, drinking water facilities, and social
infrastructure like schools and Anganwadi
centres.
Around 1.10 lakh projects were taken up and
77 percent of them were completed by the
end of June 2013. The IAP was monitored by
the Planning Commission through regular
video-conferencing with the district collectors
authorised to use funds as per the local needs
of villages.
About the Integrated Action Plan
The Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for Selected
Tribal and Backward Districts under the
Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF)
programme covers 82 districts.
The IAP has been implemented (2010-13)
with a block grant of 25 Crore Rupees and 30
Crore Rupees per District during 2010-11 and
2011-12 respectively.
A Committee headed by District
Collector/District Magistrate and consisting of
the Superintendent of Police of the District
and the District Forest Officer was responsible
for implementation of this Scheme.
The Committee is responsible for drawing
Plan consisting of concrete proposals for
public infrastructure and services such as
School Buildings, Anganwadi Centres, Primary
Health Centres, Drinking Water Supply, Village
Roads, Electric Lights in public places such as
PHCs and Schools etc.
Cyber Crime offenders of younger age
group rising
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)
Data between 2008 and 2011 depicted that
around 60 percent of the people arrested for
cyber crimes belonged to the age group of 18
to 30 years. The cyber crimes include activities
such as forgery, obscene publications as well
as hacking.
The NCRB data revealed that from 2008 to
2011, 1184 people were arrested in context
with the cyber crimes and that this number
was on the rise. Additional Deputy
Commissioner (Economic Offences Wing) SD
Mishra explained that most of the offenders
came from the younger generation age group
and that these people were aware of various
means and methods which can be used for
exploiting the cyber space.
Hacking- The records, in the meanwhile, also
revealed that the cases of hacking increased
considerably from 2008 to 2011. There is an
increase from 56 cases of hacking to 826
cases. Almost half of the people arrested in
hacking cases belonged to the age group of 18
to 30 years.
10
Obscene Publications - The cases under the
obscene publications reached to 496 in the
year 2011 and 63.6 percent offenders came
from 18-30 years of age group. It is important
to mention here that the cases of obscene
publications have increased tremendously,
but still there hasnt been any case of child
pornography.
Forgery - The
cases of forgery
increased by
more than 400
percent between
2008 and 2011. There was an increase in
number of such reported cases over the time
because of rising awareness. The number of
reported cases in forgery increased, especially
in case of financial losses. Most of such cases
dealt with credit card frauds as well as
Internet banking.
Cyber Security Arms- In those cases, where
the involvement of unique data storage
system as well as certain encryption code is
required, the law enforcement agencies often
make use of private security firms like
Pyramid Cyber Security & Forensics.
International Multilateral Partnership against
Cyber Crime (IMPACT) is the Non-Profit
organisation which has 195 countries as its
members. IMPACT acts like the cyber security
arm of UN and also helps in dealing with the
cyber threats.
Cyber Security can be under threat because of
mobile devices, cloud adoption as well as
malware without the signatures.
Union Government approved a Free
Trade LPG Scheme
The Ministry of
Petroleum and Natural
Gas on 24 July 2013
approved a Free Trade
LPG (FTL) Scheme for selling five Kg LPG
cylinders through Company Owned Retail
Outlets (COCO) of Oil Marketing Companies
(OMCs). Under the scheme, COCO Retail
Outlets will sell 5 kg LPG cylinders at Non-
domestic (commercial) prices. The LPG sold
under the scheme will be called as Free Trade
LPG (FTL). A five-kg cylinder will cost between
362 rupees and 375 rupees.
The scheme will be launched on a pilot basis
in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and
Bangalore where these cylinders will be sold
with or without domestic pressure regulator
(DPR).
The decision was taken in view of the fact that
over the years, a new category of consumers
have emerged especially in big cities that are
mobile and do not want a permanent LPG
connection but still require LPG for their
needs. Such customers need flexibility for
getting the LPG cylinders as per their
convenience and their needs can also be
fulfilled by smaller quantities of LPG.
The prospective customer at the time of first
sale would only be required to give a copy of
Voter I-Card, Driving license, Pan Card,
Aadhaar Card, Bank Pass book, Employees ID,
Passport, Student ID or any other such
document that can act as a proof of identity.
At the time of first sale cost of equipment
(DPR plus cylinder), cost of product at
prevailing Non- domestic 5kg cylinders price
and administrative charges will be payable.
At the time of subsequent refill only the cost
of product will be payable.
The government scheme would make LPG
available for those citizens who are always on
the move because of their professional needs.
11
Cyber Security Initiative put on fast track
In a bid to counter
cyber attacks in
economic and social
infrastructure
development, the
Government of India on 19 July 2013,
released the Guidelines for Protection of
National Critical Information Infrastructure.
The first version of the guidelines was
released on 19 July 2013 by National Security
Adviser, Shivshankar Menon.
The detailed document was prepared by the
National Critical Information Infrastructure
Protection Centre (NCIIPC) that functions as a
specialised unit under the National Technical
Research Organisation (NTRO). Indias new
guidelines are an extension of a legislative
recognition under the IT Act 2000.
Guidelines coverage
In India, the guidelines would initially
include information and communications,
transportation, energy, finance, technology,
law enforcement, security and law
enforcement, Government, space and
sensitive organizations.
The guidelines present 40 controls for
protection of critical information
infrastructure across sectors. These are
generic and guiding controls, with each
individual sector being left to evolve their own
sector-specific controls.
Guidelines have been formulated through a
multi-stakeholder Joint Working Group (JWG)
consisting of representatives from the
Government, academia and private sector.
Joint Working Group was created under the
National Technical Research Organisation
(NTRO)
 The JWG held wide consultations with
sector experts and regulators across the key
sectors before finalising the guidelines.
The cyber-security initiative is unique since
given the vast ownership of the private sector
of networks, infrastructure and consumers in
telecom, Internet, banking, civil aviation,
energy and transport sectors.
All owners of different networks and users
will need to actively collaborate with the
NCIIPC, as well as participate to ensure
effective implementation of the guidelines.
Government made Photo Identity
mandatory for purchase of Acid
The Union
government of India
on 16 July 2013
proposed to make
production of Photo
identity card
mandatory for purchase of acid. The
government filed an affidavit in the Supreme
Court in which it listed a number of measures
to curb the sale of acid in the open market.
The shopkeepers will also require licence to
sell the acid. The move comes after Supreme
Court asked the government to submit
guidelines to check open sale of acid, thereby
checking acid attacks on women.
It is estimated that one thousand acid attacks
take place in India every year. The apex court
order came on a PIL seeking framing of a new
law or amendment in the existing laws to deal
with acid attack effectively.
Person in Jail or Police Custody cannot
contest elections: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court in its
landmark Judgement on 11
July 2013 barred Persons in
12
Jail or Police Custody from the contesting
election for legislative bodies. The Supreme
Courts decision would help in bringing an end
to the era of the under trial politicians, who
contest elections from behind the bars.
The Supreme Court ruled that only an elector
can contest the polls and the elector ceases
the right to cast vote due to confinement in
prison or being in custody of Police. The court,
however, made it clear that disqualification
will not be applicable to person subjected to
preventive detention, under any law.
The Supreme Court Bench that comprised
Justice AK Patnaik and Justice SJ
Mukhopadhayay, while referring to the
Representation of Peoples Act said that the
Act (Section 4 & 5) lays down the
qualifications for membership of the House of
the People and Legislative Assembly and one
of the qualifications laid down is that he must
be an elector.
The court passed the order on an appeal filed
by the Chief Election Commissioner and
others challenging the order of Patna High
Court that barred people in Police custody
from contesting polls. The Judgement of the
Supreme Court has confirmed 2004 ruling of
the Patna High Court that said if - a jailed
person cant vote, than a jailed person cant
contest election.
The Apex Court supported the decision of
Patna High Court by quoting We do not find
any infirmity in the findings of the High Court
in the impugned common order that a person,
who has no right to vote by virtue of the
provisions of sub-section (5) of section 62 of
the 1951 Act is not an elector and is,
therefore, not qualified to contest the
election to the house of the people or the
legislative assembly of a state,.
The SC Bench in its Judgement cited Section
62(5) of the Representation of People Act,
1951 (Acts of Parliament) that no person shall
vote in any election if he is confined in a
prison, whether under a sentence of
imprisonment or transportation or otherwise,
or is in the lawful custody of the police.
Reading sections 4, 5 and 62(5) together, the
apex court came to the conclusion that a
person in jail or police custody cannot contest
election.
for all MGPSY subscriber who save between
1,000 rupees and 12000 rupees per year in
NPS-Lite.
An additional government contribution of
1000 rupees per annum by MOIA for the
overseas Indian women workers who save
between 1000 rupees to 12000 rupees per
year in NPS-Lite.

This decision of the Supreme Court would bar An Indian overseas workers who save 4000
the criminal elements from entering the rupees or more per annum will get an
Parliament and State Assemblies and keep the additional government contribution from the
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs of 900
house clean.
rupees towards their Return and
MGPSY Scheme for Indian workers in Resettlement
Gulf launched
The objective of MGPSY is to encourage and
Union Government of India enable the overseas Indian workers by giving
on 4 July 2013 announced to government contribution to:
launch Mahatma Gandhi
Save for their Return and Resettlement
Pravasi Surakhsa Yojna
(R&R)
(MGPSY), a pension scheme
for blue-collar Indian workers Save for their old age
in the Gulf. The Yojna would
be launched in August 2013. The Pension and Obtain a Life Insurance cover against natural
Life Insurance fund scheme, is applicable for death during the period of coverage
the Overseas Indian workers having
The government contribution available under
Emigration Check Required, ECR passports.
the MGPSY is for a period of five years or till
The announcement was made by the Rajiv the return of subscribed worker back to India,
Mehrishi, Secretary of Ministry of Overseas whichever is earlier.
Indian Affairs in Riyadh. This pension and life
President signs Ordinance on Food
insurance fund scheme would benefit a large
Security
number of oversees Indian Workers. The
MGPSY is aimed towards helping the overseas
Indian workers in saving money for their
retirement, re-settlement in India after their
return and a life insurance that will cover
them against natural death during the period
of coverage.

Benefits of Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Surakhsa

Yojna (MGPSY)
Government contribution of 1000 rupees
per annum in line with Swavalamban platform
President Pranab Mukherjee signed the
ordinance on food security on 5 July 2013
which seeks to give legal rights to 67 per cent

13
of the population over subsidised grains every
month.
Now, with the presidential consent, the bill
will be presented before the Parliament when
it convenes for the Monsoon Session.
The Government had issued the ordinance to
give nation's two-third population the right to
get 5 kg of food grains every month at highly
subsidised rates of 1-3 Rupees per kg amid
political opposition.
The food security arrangements will be the
largest in the world after implementation,
with the government spending estimated at
one lakh 25 thousand crore rupees annually
on supply of about 62 million tonnes of rice,
wheat and coarse cereals to 67 per cent of the
population.
The Food Security Bill was tabled during the
budget session of Parliament, but was not
taken up for discussion because of opposition-
led disturbances of proceedings arising out of
scam-related allegations.
An Ordinance implements Food Bill Approved
by the Union Cabinet.
PEOPLE AND PLACES
Durga Shakti Nagpal
Durga Shakti Nagpal
is an IAS officer of
the 2010 batch
from Uttar Pradesh
cadre. She came
into public view
after taking action
against corruption
and launching a massive drive against illegal
sand mining within her jurisdiction of Gautam
Budh Nagar. She was later suspended by the
government of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly
demolishing an illegal mosque wall. Her
14
suspension resulted in a large backlash
against the government's order, which was
perceived to be based on flimsy grounds and
there is a growing demand by internet social
media, opposition political parties and IAS
Officers' associations for her suspension to be
revoked.
Durga Shakti Nagpal belongs to Chattisgarh
and has a B.Tech in computer engineering
from Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological
University for Women. She secured an All
India Rank (AIR) of 20 in the Union Public
Service Commission (UPSC) examinations in
2009. She served for over two years in Punjab
as an Assistant Commissioner (Under Training)
with the Mohali district administration.
Sujata Singh is India's new Foreign
Secretary
Prime Minister of India,
Dr. Manmohan Singh on
1 July 2013 approved
the appointment of
Sujata Singh as the Next
Foreign Secretary of India. Sujata Singh of 59
years at present is serving as the envoy to
Germany. She will succeed Ranjan Mathai as
Foreign Secretary, who is due to retire on 31
July 2013. Due to retire in July 2014, Singh has
got an extension of two year in her service
period.
About Sujata Singh
Sujata Singh is the IFS officer of 1976 batch
She is the third women to head the foreign
services after Chokila Iyer and Nirupama Rao
She has served as an under-secretary to
Nepal from 1982-1985 and was later posted in
Europe that includes Italy and France
She is the daughter of T V Rajeshwar, the
former Intelligence Bureau chief and wife of
Sanjay Singh, former secretary (east), who
retired in April 2013
Justice Palanisamy Sathasivam Sworn in
as the Chief Justice of India
The President of India,
Pranab Mukherjee on
19 July 2013
administered the oath
of the office of Chief
Justice of India (CJI) to
Justice Palanisamy
Sathasivam. Justice Sathasivam, 64, is first CJI
from Tamil Nadu and the 40th CJI of India.
The term of his office will be till 26 April 2014.
Justice Palanisamy Sathasivam succeeded CJI
Altamas Kabir who left the office on 18 July
2013.
The oath taking ceremony of CJI Palanisamy
Sathasivam was held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in
New Delhi.
The Supreme Court is the highest court of
appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of
the Indian Constitution and Article 124 to 147
states about the composition of Supreme
Court of India. Supreme Court of India
consists of one Chief Justice and 31 judges.
It is important to note that P. Sathasivam on
29 June 2013 was appointed as the next Chief
Justice of India after he justified the
Collegiums System of appointment of Judges.
Veteran Biologist Obaid Siddiqi dead
National Research
Professor at the
National Centre for
Biological Sciences, Tata
Institute of
Fundamental Research (TIFR) Obaid Siddiqi,
died in a Bangalore hospital on 26 July 2013.
15
He was 81. Siddiqi, met with a road accident
which caused him severe brain injuries.
Siddiqi was honoured with several awards,
including Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan,
and BC Roy Award for Biomedical Research
and Firodia Award for Basic Sciences.
Life Sketch of Obaid Siddiqi
He was born in 1932 in Uttar Pradesh and
was educated at Aligarh Muslim University
and the University of Glasgow.
He carried out post-doctoral research at the
Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, University of
Pennsylvania, and the MRC Laboratory in
Cambridge.
At the invitation of Homi Bhabha, he
established the Molecular Biology Unit at the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in
Bombay in 1962.
Thirty years later in 1992, he became the
founding director of the TIFR National Centre
for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, where he
continued to do research until his last days.
He mapped the fine genetic structure of the
pay A gene and found polarised negative
interference in crossing-over. Later he showed
that recombinant bacteria inherit labeled DNA
of biparental origin.
Tamil Film lyricist Vaali died at the age of
82
82 Years old Veteran
Tamil film lyricist Vaali
died at a private
hospital in Chennai on
18 July 2013. Vaali was
not well and was undergoing treatment at a
private hospital for respiratory problems for a
month and was on ventilator support. A brief
insight into Vaalis Career
 Vaali was born as T S Rangarajan in the
temple town of Srirangam.
Vaali penned lyrics for stars across
generations, from the veteran M G
Ramachandran (MGR), Kamal Haasan to
present day heroes like Dhanush.
He worked with star composers of Tamil
cinema like M S Viswanthan and AR Rahman.
He started his career in the mid-60s and had
penned nearly 10000 songs in his 50 years
long career.
He had also acted in a few movies which
includes veteran K Balachander-directed
Poikal Kuthirai and Kamal Haasans Hey Ram
He has written two songs in Bharat Bala
directed film Mariyan, starring Dhanush,
which is scheduled for release on 19 July
2013.
He was honoured with the Padma Shri,
Indias fourth highest civilian honour in year
2007.
He has also written a number of books
including Naanum Indha Nootrandum, his
autobiography.
He was also a theatre enthusiast, and had
directed many plays in Tiruchi and Srirangam
and worked for All India Radio as a part-time
employee, before making a foray into the film
world.
16
Himachal declared as the first Smoke-
free state of the country
Himachal Pradesh on 2 July 2013 was declared
as the first Smoke-free state of the country.
The declaration was made in compliance to
Section 4 of the Cigarettes and other Tobacco
Products Act (COTPA) 2003.
Himachal Pradesh achieved 85.42 percent
compliance with the relevant parameters to
be declared as the smoke-free state.
To eliminate use of tobacco products in the
state, taxes on bids and cigarettes in the state
was raised from 11 and 18 percent to 22 and
36 percent, respectively in the 2013 and 2014
State Budget.
Government grant for Kole Land
Development
A sum of 176.98 crore
Rupees has been
sanctioned for
development of kole
land, announced by P.
C. Chacko, MP and head
of the Thrissur-Ponnani
Kole Development Council.
Kole wetlands cover an area of 13632
hectares in Thrissur and Malappuram districts.
It is a Ramsar site, a wetland of international
importance, designed under the Ramsar
Convention. It accounts for about 40 per cent
of the States rice production. They extend
from the Chalakudy River in the south to the
Bharathappuzha in the north.
The financial package is directed toward
doubling rice production in kole land. It is
important here to note that at present
farmers are engage in oruppoo which is one
year harvest farming. This should be changed
to iruppoo (two harvests a year) cultivation. In
order to make Iruppoo farming possible new
bunds will be constructed along a 126 km
stretch.
Thrissur-Ponnani Kole Development Council is
working hard to eradicate the traditional
irrigation systems in kole land such as petti
and para which had been found to be
inefficient because of their high power
consumption. Around 1000 such systems
should be replaced by vertical flow pumps.
Bangalore Airport is now Kempegowda
International Airport
The Union Cabinet of India on 17 July 2013
gave approval to rename the Bangalore
International Airport as Kempegowda
International Airport. The demand to rename
the airport was pending since a long time. The
demand came from people of Karnataka along
with the State Government of Karnataka.
Hiriya Kempegowda, who was popularly called
Kempegowda was a ruler under the
Vijayanagar Empire. He ruled almost all the
parts of Karnataka during 16th century. He
moved his capital from Yelahanka to the new
Bangalore. He is said to be the founder of the
city of Bangalore. He built Bangalore Fort.
Bangalore International Airport (BIA) is the
first and foremost Greenfield Airport in South
India.
17
It was commissioned as well as became
operational on 24 May 2008.
Bangalore International Airport is said to be
the fifth busiest airport of India.
It has been built over the area of 4000 acres.
National Aviation University at Rae
Bareli, UP
The Union
Cabinet of India
on 11 July 2013
approved the
proposal for
setting up of a
National Aviation University (NAU) in the
name of Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation
University at the District of Rae Bareli in the
State of UP as a Central University for
providing aviation training.
The Cabinet also approved the proposal to
introduce the Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation
University Bill, 2013 in the Parliament; to
create a post of Vice Chancellor (with pay
scales on the pattern of Central Universities)
by selection through a Search and Selection
Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary with
members representing Ministries of Civil
Aviation, Personnel & Training and Human
Resource Development and for creation of a
temporary post in the grade of Joint secretary
to Government of India for the position of
Project Director which would be filled up on
deputation basis.
Clean India Campaign launched at Taj
Mahal
The Union Minister
of State for Tourism
K. Chiranjeevi on 24
July 2013 launched
the Clean India campaign at world heritage
site Taj Mahal, Agra.
The Clean India Campaign is an initiative of
Union Ministry of Tourism under the 12th Five
Year Plan with the objective to increase
tourist arrivals to the country and to improve
the quality of services and provide a hygienic
environment in and around tourist
destinations across the country.
At this launching ceremony as a part of
Corporate Social Responsibility, ONGC has
taken up the maintenance of the Taj Mahal
complex.
Taj Mahal is the second site to adopt under
this project. The first one was Qutub Minar in
the Delhi which was adopted by the India
Tourism Development Corporation in June
2012.
ONGC will take care of providing drinking
water facilities, cleaning, providing uniform
signage in and around the premises, placing of
garbage bins, various repair and replacement
work, management and garbage clearance,
landscaping, tourist help-desks and
deployment of volunteers for better
management.
over for its architecture and aesthetic beauty.
Built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in
memory of his late wife Mumtaz Mahal, the
white marble mausoleum in the northern
Indian city of Agra is also a symbol of enduring
love.
In 1983, it became a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. The Taj Mahal attracts 2-4 million visitors
annually, with more than 200,000 from
overseas. It shares the latest honour alongside
Petra World Heritage Site in Jordan and Bayon
Temple in Cambodia, which are ranked fourth
and fifth respectively in the list of 25 top
landmarks in the world.
INDIAN ECONOMY
Poverty Ratio of India declined to 21.9
per cent in 2011-12

In addition to Taj Mahal, ONGC would adopt

five other monuments are the Ellora and
Elephanta Caves in Maharashtra, Red Fort in
Delhi, Golkonda Fort in Hyderabad, and
Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, Travellers Choice Attractions
Awards ranked India's Taj Mahal among the
top three landmarks in the world. Taj Mahal
was ranked third in the list of Top 25
landmarks. The top two places were taken by
Machu Picchu in Peru and Angkor Wat in
Cambodia respectively. The winners of
Travellers Choice Attractions awards were
determined based on the quality and quantity
of traveller reviews of attractions.
Taj Mahal, listed among the new Seven
Wonders of the World, is renowned the world
Poverty Ratio in India declined to 21.9 percent
in 2011-12 from 37.2 percent measured in
2004-05 on the basis of the increase in per
capita consumption. The Planning
Commission of India on 23 July 2013 released
its report on the Poverty Estimates for 2011-
12. The report was based on the Large Sample
Surveys on Household Consumer Expenditure
conducted by the National Sample Survey
Office (NSSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation.
Poverty Ratio in India
The National Poverty Line estimated for rural
areas during 2011-12 was 816 rupees per

18
capita per month, whereas, for urban areas it Odisha, Bihar showed biggest decline in
was recorded at 1000 rupees per capita per percentage of poor
month. Thus, for a family of five, the all India
poverty line in terms of consumption
expenditure would amount to about 4080
rupees per month in rural areas and 5000
rupees per month in urban areas. These
poverty lines would vary from State to State
because of inter-state price differentials.

The percentage of persons below the Poverty

Line in 2011-12 has been estimated as 25.7
percent in rural areas, 13.7 percent in urban
areas and 21.9 percent for the country as a
whole. The respective ratios for the rural and
urban areas were 41.8 percent and 25.7
percent and 37.2 percent for the country as a
whole in 2004-05. It was 50.1 percent in rural
areas, 31.8 percent in urban areas and 45.3
percent for the country as a whole in 1993-94.
In 2011-12, India had 270 million persons
below Poverty Line as compared to 407
million in 2004-05, that is a reduction of 137
million persons over the seven year period.
The ratio is based on the methodology that
was suggested by the Suresh Tendulkar
Committee that suggests the factors in money
spent on health and education besides calorie
intake to fix a poverty line. As per Tendulkar
Methodology, the poverty line has been
expressed in terms of MPCE based on Mixed
Reference Period.
Since several representations were made
suggesting that the Tendulkar Poverty Line
was too low, the Planning Commission, in
June 2012, constituted an Expert Group under
the Chairmanship of Dr. C. Rangarajan to once
again review the methodology for the
measurement of poverty. The report on the
recommendation on poverty line made by
Tendulkar Committee from the Rangarajan
committee is likely to be submitted by mid
2014.
As per the latest data released by
Government on 23 July 2013, Odisha and
Bihar registered the sharpest decline in
poverty levels between 2004-05 and 2011-12.
The proportion of the poor in these states
remains well above the national average.
The government data reveals that in Odisha,
the proportion of people below the poverty
line (BPL) in total population came down from
57.2% in 2004-05 to 32.6% in 2011-12,
marking decline of 24.6 percentage points.
The state of Bihar witnessed a reduction of
BPL by 20.7 percent. In year 2004-05 Bihar
had a BPL share of 54.4% percent in its total
population which drastically came down to
33.7% in year 2011-2012. So, keeping the
statistics as parameter Bihar registered the
fastest growth rate during the 11th five-year
plan (2007-12).
At national level, the share of the BPL
population was estimated at 21.9%, which is
almost 270 million in a population of 1.241
billion which means that every fifth Indian
lives below the poverty line.
On the other hand, the government has set
the bar low and had defined that anyone who
earns 27.20 rupees or less in rural areas as

19
BPL, while one who earns up to 33.30 rupees
a day in urban areas are classified as poor,
though these standard vary from state to
state.
Some facts to be known
Bimaru, (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
and Uttar Pradesh) state still remain home to
the maximum number of poor people in the
country.
Uttar Pradesh has just fewer than 30% of its
population in the BPL group, the number adds
up to almost 60 million.
Bihar, ranks second in poverty level despite
the improvement, and has 35.8 million poor,
followed by Madhya Pradesh where 23.4
million or 31.6% of the population is BPL.
Among the Bimaru states, only Rajasthan
has managed to do better than the national
average with the share of BPL in total
population estimated at 14.7% in 2011-12,
compared to 34.4% in 2004-05.
Rajasthan is enhanced performer than
Gujarat, popular for its rapid growth and good
infrastructure. Gujarat had 16.6% people
below the poverty line.
On National level, there were 217 million
poor in rural areas and 53 million in urban
areas in 2011-12, as against 326 million and
81 million, respectively, in 2004-05.
Central Data to identify beneficiaries of
Food Security Scheme
The Planning
Commission of India
decided to prepare a
comparative data for
the Department of
Food in order to roll
out the National
Food Security Ordinance in all the States. The
20
comparative data will be based on NSSO
Statistics, which covers the food consumption
patterns and differential pricing in rural and
urban areas in different States.
This step would help the Union Ministry of
Food and Public distribution to take an
immediate call on the basis of which, it will
allocate food grain to different States for
coverage of 75 percent of the rural population
and 50 percent of the urban population under
the National Food Security Ordinance.
The aim of the Central Government is to
protect the current allocation to States under
the Targeted Public Distribution System,
which will be based on the average lifting of
food grains by States in the last three years.
Identification of beneficiaries
The work of identification of eligible
households is proposed to be left to the
States/Union Territories.
The States will have to decide on how to
identify eligible households so that they may
frame their own criteria or use the Social
Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data 2011.
Poverty levels were de-linked from food
benefits after the controversy over the plan
panels 28 Rupees per capita per day spending
definition of rural poverty.
According to authoritative sources, although
the SECC was not meant for the purpose of
identification of beneficiaries under the food
security legislation, anything else will be
arbitrary as there is no comparable data for
identification of eligible beneficiaries.
Reserve Bank of India imposed
restrictions on imports of Gold
The Reserve Bank of India on 22 July 2013
imposed certain restrictions on the import of
various forms of gold by nominated banks,
agencies, premier or star trading houses, SEZ
units, EoUs which have been permitted to
import gold for use in the domestic sector. In
order to narrow down the Current Account
Deficit - CAD and to arrest the fall of rupee,
the Reserve Bank decided to rationalise the
import of gold including import of gold coins
into the country.
In the revised scheme for gold imports, RBI
asked nominated banks and agencies to
ensure that at least one fifth of every lot of
gold imported - in any form or purity - is
exclusively made available for the purpose of
export. They have been asked to sell gold for
domestic use only to entities engaged in
jewellery business or bullion dealers supplying
gold to jewellers.
Further, these banks and agencies will be
required to retain 20 per cent of the imported
quantity of gold in the customs bonded
warehouses. Fresh imports will only be
permitted only after the export of at least 75
per cent of the retained quantity that lies in
the customs bonded warehouse.
The Reserve Bank of India has brought down
the period of realisation and repatriation for
exporters of goods and software to nine
months from earlier 12 months. This move
could shore up foreign exchange inflows. Last
November, RBI had increased the time limit to
21
bring in export earnings to 12 months, from
six months at that time, in view of global
slowdown. Industry experts said this step has
been taken by the Apex bank as the country is
facing a worsening Current Account Deficit
and the weakening of the rupee against the
US dollar. The rupee has depreciated by over
12 per cent against the dollar since the
beginning of this fiscal.
The Reserve Bank of India has started scrutiny
of nearly 3 thousand companies which could
be carrying out non-banking finance
operations without requisite registration. The
step has been initiated by the Apex Bank in
the wake of concerns about their actual
business activities.
The Reserve bank's move comes against the
backdrop of the government efforts to
crackdown on entities that are illegally raising
large amounts of money from the public. The
Reserve bank has sought details from the
companies about their financials, including
balance sheets, for the last three years,
among others.
Government raised FDI in Telecom Sector
to 100 percent
The Union
Government of India
on 16 July 2013
raised the FDI limit in
Telecom Sector from
74 per cent to 100
per cent. Government also cleared that the
FDI in the Insurance and Telecom sectors will
be up to 49 per cent through automatic route.
The Union Government also mentioned that
FDI the single brand retail would be up to 49
per cent through automatic route and
remaining investments would be directed
through Foreign Investment Promotion Board
(FIPB) route. FDI in asset reconstruction
companies will be up to 49 per cent through
automatic route. FDI in Credit Information
Companies has been raised to 74 per cent
from 49 per cent.
The Government also confirmed that the FDI
in Defence Production will continue to be 26
per cent. However, it will be directed through
FIPB route for state of art technologies, and
investment beyond that will go to Cabinet
Committee on Security.
The decision was taken in a meet chaired by
Prime Minister and attended by the Cabinet
Ministers. The decisions were made to boost
the Foreign Direct Investment in the country.
RBI announced slew of measures to curb
Rupee volatility
The Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) on
15 July 2013
announced
measures to deal
with rupee
volatility which
includes lifting of two interest rates by 200
basis points each and a planned sale of 120
billion rupees (2 billion dollars) of government
bonds on July 2013.
RBI has also adjusted the Marginal Standing
Facility (MSF) and the Bank Rate to 10.25%
each which were 8.25% previously. The repo
rate was kept unchanged at 7.25%. It is worth
mentioning here that the rupee in second
week of July 2013 hit a record low of 61.21 to
the dollars.
The RBI also hiked the lending rates for banks
and had absorbed 12000 crore Rupees in
order to make the currency more high-priced.
22
What is Marginal Standing Facility (MSF)?
The Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) which
was introduced during the 2011-12 period is
the rate at which banks can borrow from the
central bank at an increased rate against
government securities during times of tight
cash. The bank rate is a linked to the MSF.
RBI in second week of July 2013 BI had asked
over oil firms to source all of their 8-8.5 billion
of dollar needs every month for import of oil,
from a single public sector bank. It also
banned banks from trading in currency
futures and exchange-traded currency options
market on their own.
India achieved a record production of
Pulses
India achieved
a record
production of
18.45 million
tonnes of
pulses in the
2012-13 crop year ended June 2013. This
augurs well for the country which is
dependent on imports to meet the shortfall of
around 3 to 4 million tonnes. Higher support
price prompted farmers to grow pulses.
According to the 4th advance estimates
released today, overall food grain production
is projected at 255.36 million tonnes, which is
lower than the record 259.29 million tonnes
achieved in the previous crop year.
In food grains category, rice production has
been revised upward to 104.4 million tonnes
from 104.22 million tonnes and coarse cereals
to 40.06 million tonnes from 39.52 million
tonnes in the third estimates. However,
wheat output has been revised downward to
92.46 million tonnes from 93.62 million
tonnes.
INDIAN DEFENCE
INS Trikand commissioned into Indian
Navy
INS Trikand, a
frigate built in the
Russian Federation,
was commissioned
into the Indian Navy
Saturday at
Kaliningrad in Russia
by Vice Admiral R.K. Dhowan, vice chief of the
naval staff, an official release said.
The commissioning of INS Trikand marks the
culmination of a three ship contract for
"Follow On Talwar Class" ships built in Russia
and was a milestone in the Indo-Russian
military-technological cooperation, said the
release issued here.
"Her sister ships INS Teg and INS Tarkash were
commissioned last year and are now
undertaking operations as part of the Western
Fleet," the release said.
INS Trikand carries a state-of-the-art combat
suite which includes the supersonic BRAHMOS
missile system, advanced surface-to-air
missiles Shtil, upgraded A190 medium range
gun, electro-optical 30 mm close-in weapon
system, anti-submarine weapons such as
torpedoes and rockets and an advanced
electronic warfare system.
The ship is powered by four gas turbines and
is capable of speeds in excess of 30 knots, it
said.
INS Trikand has a complement of about 300
personnel including officers. The ship will
soon undertake her maiden passage to India
to join her sister ships of Western Fleet, the
release said.
23
Creation of Strike Corps along China
border gets approval
The Cabinet
Committee on
Security (CCS) on
17 July 2013 gave
an approval to the
proposal of Army to
raise a Mountain Strike Corps along the entire
Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. The
committee also gave its go ahead to
deployment of 50000 additional troops along
the border with China at an expense of 65000
crore rupees.
The Cabinet Committee on Security headed by
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cleared the
proposal after a meet. The proposal got the
clearance from CCS after the return of
Defence Minister, A.K. Antony from Beijing.
This would be the fourth Strike Corp of India
and has been designed mainly for offensive
operations into enemy land, whereas, the
mountain corps is the first dedicated strike
corps for offensive mountain warfare. The
other three strike corps in existence is based
close to border of Pakistan and is armed to
fight land battle. The existing Strike Corps in
the force include the 1, 2 and 21 Corps.
As per the proposed plan, the Mountain Strike
Corps will have its headquarters at Panagarh
in West Bengal with two of its divisions in
Bihar and Assam and other units from Ladakh
in Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh.
For the first time, this strike corps would
provide India the capability to launch
offensive action into the Tibet Autonomous
Region (TAR). For rapid reaction, the corps will
have two high-altitude divisions also.
In 2009-10, two new infantry divisions at
Lekhapani and Missamari were raised in
Assam and are tasked for defending
Arunachal Pradesh. To enhance the missile
and fighter capabilities along the borders of
China, India is looking forward for
development of infrastructure to match-up
with the military capabilities of China.
Whereas, China by now has developed five
fully-operational airbases, 58000 km of roads
an extensive rail network along the Indian
border and.
Following the provisions of plan, Indian Air
Force (IAF) would deploy assets of force
multiplier mid-air refuelling tankers, C-130J
Super Hercules Special operations Aircraft at
the headquarters of Strike Corps at Panagarh.
The Army will also get a number of new
armoured and artillery divisions along with it
to be deployed along the Northeast region.
Apache attack choppers for Strike Corps
The mountain strike corps sanctioned for the
Army for deployment along the China border
will have an aviation brigade that may include
the Apache attack choppers.
The corps was sanctioned by the Cabinet
Committee on Security (CCS) yesterday at a
cost of Rs 65,000 crore and would involve
rising of around 50,000 troops for it.
The new corps may have the Apache attack
choppers as the Defence Ministry has given
permission to the Army for having a separate
case for procuring the American-
manufactured helicopters, sources told PTI
here.
24
The Army and the IAF were engaged in a
tussle for control over the attack helicopter
fleet in which the government decided in
favour of the former.
The two forces then contested for the 22
Apache attack choppers being procured from
the US by the IAF but the Defence Ministry
decided that they would remain with the IAF
and the future assets would be given to the
Army.
The government has given permission to the
Army for pursuing a separate Foreign Military
Sales-route procurement on the issue, they
said.
Under the plans, the new strike corps will
have two Mountain Infantry divisions
including around 18 infantry battalions along
with independent brigades of artillery, air
defence and elements of combat engineers
and mechanised forces.
The corps will take around six years to be
raised along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)
and new formations would be raised from
Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh.
Women officers to be inducted in BSF
The government
of India for the
first time in
Month of July
2013 has given
its nod for
recruitment and commissioning of women
officers in BSF, the border guarding force.
As per the BSF, Young women under and up
to the age of 25 years will be recruited as
direct entry officers in the rank of Assistant
Commandants (ACs), and these officers are
expected to be posted to lead their troops
along the two most crucial borders the BSF
guards at present-- Pakistan and Bangladesh.
To the present time women could only get
into the combat uniform in the officer cadre
in two other central security forces, the
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the
Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) which
are tasked to carry out a variety of duties in
the internal security domain and not along
Indian frontiers as these forces are not
mandated for border guarding duties.
It is important to mention here that, at a time
when India has so many women troops in
these forces there were no women combat
commanders. Though, having male officers
was not a problem but deputing women as
leaders surely sends the message that they
are second to none and can do any task given
to them.
This first batch of women officers will be on
ground by late 2014 and their recruitment will
be completed by December 2013.
Two other border guarding forces, the Indo-
Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Sashastra
Seema BAL (SSB) also do not have women
officers in combat roles although they have a
good number of women personnel in their
constabulary.
The Border Security Force had first inducted
women constables for regular security duties
in 2009 and at present it has about 700 such
personnel.
The force is also the second largest
paramilitary of the country with two lakh
personnel in its ranks.
The government will recruit a total of 110
fresh officers in BSF this year while sanction
has been given to induct 138 such ranks in the
CRPF and 56 in CISF.
There is no cap on the number of women
taking up these posts as the selection is based
25
on merit under the recruitment exam
conducted by the UPSC.
After being recruited and commissioned as
ACs, these women officers can rise and get
promotions to become Deputy Commandants
and Commandants of an operational company
(about 100 personnel) or a full battalion
(approximately 1000 personnel) in the BSF.
IAF's C17s Globe master-III takes maiden
flight to Andaman & Nicobar Islands
The IAFs latest
acquisition C-17
Globe master-III
made its maiden
flight to the
Andaman &
Nicobar Islands on 30 Jun 2013. Climbing an
altitude of 28000 feet with an unrefueled
range of 2400 nautical miles, the aircraft
landed at Port Blair to induct the rotational
Infantry Battalion into the Andaman &
Nicobar Islands.
Manufactured by Messrs Boeing of the United
States, the C-17 Globe master-III is a heavy-lift
transport military aircraft, developed for the
United States Air Force (USAF). India has
become the largest customer, of this
sophisticated aircraft, after the United States.
C-17 Globe master-III is 174 feet in length,
with a wing span of 170 feet. The maximum
all up weight is 265350 kg, with an ultra
modernized palletized cargo handling
capability.
India's Prahaar missile to be tested by
DRDO
A prototype Prahaar tactical-range
surface-to-surface missile was sent for flight
testing at Site III at the Integrated Test Range
(ITR), Chandipur, Orissa, on 19 July, according
to local press reports.
Prahaar (Sanskrit: Strike) is a solid-fuelled
surface-to-surface guided short-range tactical
ballistic missile developed by DRDO of India. It
will be equipped with Omni-directional
warheads and could be used for striking both
tactical and strategic targets.
The 150 km range Prahaar looks similar to
India's Advanced Air Defence interceptor
missile and is probably a derivative of the
latter missile.
It is designed to be fired from a wheeled
launch vehicle that carries six ready-to-fire
missiles, and requires two to three minutes to
prepare to launch. Designed to deliver
conventional warheads, Prahaar could enter
service later this year or some time in 2014.
BrahMos bags orders worth Rs 25,000
crore
BrahMos, the world's
first supersonic cruise
missile developed by
the Indo-Russian joint
venture BrahMos
Aerospace, has
already bagged orders worth Rs 25,000 crore
from the Indian defence forces.
26
Having started deliveries to the Indian Army
and Navy, the joint venture is slated to
commence deliveries of a slightly modified
version to the Indian Air Force from 2015.
It has attracted world attention mostly
because of the flexibility of using multiple
platforms to launch the 290-km- range missile
and low cost.
There is lot of export opportunity, with about
14 countries showing interest. However, there
are issues like the countrys security interests
and what model (of the missile) that can be
exported, A. Sivathanu Pillai, CEO and
Managing Director of BrahMos Aerospace,
told mediapersons on the sidelines of an
industry consortium meet here today.
Russia, which holds 49.5 per cent stake in the
joint venture, has already indicated its
willingness to allow for export of the missile
to some countries, while India is yet to take
any decision.
Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, speaking
at the consortium meet, also said that many
countries were showing interest in it. He felt
that India and Russia should explore
possibilities of using this opportunity to
export the system to select and friendly
countries.
He was optimistic that the production order
for BrahMos would rise from $7 billion to $10
billion by 2015.
The joint venture is currently working on a
slightly modified version of the missile to suit
the needs of the Indian Air Force. It is being
fitted to the Air Forces deep-strike Sukoi
aircraft.
Because of the size and weight of the missile,
we are fitting the aircraft with one missile
each. By this year-end, we will conduct flight
trials with weight simulated missile (not
having propellant) and by mid-next year we
will have the live flight trials. We will be ready
for induction with the Air Force by 2015,
Pillai said.
The joint venture will later start work on new
versions of the missile such as a hypersonic
model.
Trials of indigenous Arjun Mark II tank in
final stage
The advanced
version of the
indigenous
Arjun Mark II
main battle
tank would go
for final trials
in the first week of August in the Mahajan
ranges of Rajasthan where its missile-firing
capabilities and other upgrades would be put
to test by the Army.
The Army had asked for 93 improvements to
the tank which include the capability of firing
the anti-tank LAHAT missile, laser protection
suite and improved armoured protection for
the vehicle, they said.
After the trials are completed successfully, the
tank would be ready for induction into the
force by the beginning of next year.
Army officials said of the 124 Arjuns ordered
by the force, 120 have been inducted and are
part of armoured regiments deployed in the
borders with Pakistan.
The Army had asked the DRDO to carry out
further upgrades on the next order of another
124 tanks which will be named as Arjun MikII.
The second order for 124 tanks was placed by
the Army after comparative trials between
the Arjun and the Russian-origin T-90 tanks in
the Pokhran testing range couple of years ago.
27
As per DRDO, Arjun Mark II can fire missiles,
has advanced Explosive Reactive Armour
panels, mine plough, Automatic Target
Tracking, Advanced Land Navigation System,
digital control harness and advanced
commander panoramic sight among other
features.
Arjun will have a better gun barrel with an
Equivalent Firing Charge (strength of the
barrel to sustain firing) of 500 rounds against
the T 72's 250 rounds.
The Chennai-based Combat Vehicle Research
and Development Establishment had designed
the Mark II version of MBT at its facility there.
DRDO to conduct Nag missile test trials
soon
The missile complex of Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO) here has
been working on making Nag, a third-
generation 'Fire-and-Forget' anti-tank missile
for the past few years. It was almost a year
ago when the Anti Tank Guided Missile
(ATGM) failed in its user trials by the Indian
Army in Rajasthan.
DRDO blamed it upon the high temperatures
in the desert where the tests were conducted
to bring the target temperature to the same
level as that of the ambient temperature.
V G Sekaran, chief controller R&D (Missiles &
Strategic Systems) and programme director,
Agni, told TOI that trials for Nag with new
more sensitive and higher resolution
seekers being developed by the Research
Centre Imarat (RCI) of DRDO here will be
conducted by this month end. Nag is the
baby of Defence Research and Development
Laboratory (DRDL) of DRDO.
According to G Satheesh Reddy, DRDL
director, the new seekers would perform well
even in extremely hot temperatures with
more efficiency and accuracy in hitting targets
with new improved detectors on the missile
tip for sensing heat or infra red signals.
Dwelling into the reasons for the past failures,
Avinash Chander scientific advisor to raksha
mantra and secretary Defence Research &
Development and director general DRDO
(Defence R&D Organisation), the high
temperatures during the peak day hours in
the desert resulted in heating up of the
targets to the extent that it was the same as
the surroundings.
As such, the seekers, which worked well
otherwise till up to four kilometres or so,
could not differentiate between the target
object and the surroundings. Accuracy under
such conditions worked well only till a limited
range and now we are working on developing
more sensitive and higher resolution seekers,
he said, adding that the Indian Army will also
participate in the development trials this
month-end.
The DRDO chief claimed that once developed
as per specifications, other foreign ATGMs
currently being used by India shall be no
match to Nag. DRDO reportedly is also
working on making the future versions of the
missile lighter even though it is fired from a
special Russian origin Infantry Combat Vehicle
BMP-2 (named as Namica or the Nag Missile
Carrier) in its terrestrial version. Meanwhile, a
couple of months after these user trials failed,
the government which so far has spent Rs
1,700 crore on Nag, had to give its nod for
procuring second generation 10,000 Russian
Konkurs-M, Anti Tank Guided Missiles at a
cost of Rs 1,200 crore for infantry formations
28
of the Indian Army. Though DRDOP has
shelved its plans to build a wire-guided
system for Nag, it continues to work on
Helina, the helicopter or air launch version of
Nag.
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
Rice for Olive Ridley conservation
scheme
The Government
of Odisha in July
2013 announced
Rice for Olive
Ridley
Conservation
(ROrC) scheme for the year 2013 in order to
help the fishermen families affected by seven-
month ban on marine fishing at Odisha
coastal areas.
The identification of beneficiaries under Rice
for Olive Ridley Conservation (ROrC) Scheme
was announced on 22 July 2013.
The main aim of the ROrC scheme is to help
the fishermen families who are affected by
seven-month ban on marine fishing as an
Olive Ridley turtle protection measure.
ROrC is a livelihood supported package for
poor fishermen communities to ensure them
food security.
Under the scheme, each family will be
provided with 25 kg of rice at subsidised rate
of Re 1 per kg every month.
The fishermen will be provided with special
eligibility cards to avail the subsidised rice.
The cards will entitle them to get the rice
from PDS retailers of Food Supplies and
Consumer Welfare Department each month.
Out of the 10133 identified beneficiaries,
6255 families are from Kendrapara district.
The rest of the targeted families are from
Puri, Ganjam and Bhadrak districts.
Due to prohibition of fishing from 1 November
to 31 May each year, the fishing communities
are adversely affected with depletion of
income sources.
The bulk of the affected families are from
Kendrapara as the coastal district is home to
the restricted sea corridors of Gahirmatha
Marine Sanctuary. The coast of Orissa in India
is the largest mass nesting site for the Olive-
ridley turtle.
The Central Empowered Committee of the
Supreme Court had passed directions in April
2004 for protection of endangered Olive
Ridley turtles.
Polluter Pay Principle on the Yamuna
River
The National
Green Tribunal
(NGT) bench
headed by
Swatanter Kumar
on 22 July 2013
invoked the Polluter Pays Principle to deal
with the problem of pollution and dumping of
debris on the Yamuna bank. The NGT orders ;
Any person found dumping debris on the
river bank at any site will have to pay 5 lakh
Rupees for causing pollution. The offender
will also have to remove the debris.
The fine so imposed shall be recovered from
the person who is responsible for dumping of
debris- truck owner as well as person to
whom the debris belongs - by whose property
demolition the debris have been created.
Even the contractor who is carrying on the
business of dumping of debris shall be equally
responsible.
29
The Tribunal directed all concerned
authorities, including the Delhi Development
Authority, East Delhi Municipal Corporation
and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to
ensure that all debris is removed by 15 August
2013.
The Tribunal gave the time till August 2013
to the Secretary of the Ministry of
Environment and Forests to constitute an
Expert Committee to finalise the Yamuna
preservation and beautification plan.
The Tribunal order came on the backdrop of a
petition filed by Manoj Misra of the Yamuna
Jiyo Abhiyan, which has opposed the dumping
of debris and construction waste on the banks
of The Yamuna River.
Kisaan portal for sending SMS to farmers
launched
President Pranab Mukherjee on 16 July 2013
launched a Kisaan Portal for sending SMS
through mobile phones to the farmers across
the country.
The SMS initiative is an instant and non-
intruding medium communication enabling
the farmers to take informed decision relating
to different aspects of farming and weather
forecasts
The Kisaan Portal directly aimed at spreading
information, advisories and services through
SMS to more than 12 crore farmers across the
country. Farmers will need to register for this
service by calling Kisaan Call Centre on the toll
free number 1800-180-1551 or through the
web portal.
Advantages of the SMS Advisories
The SMS advisories and alerts is supposed to
help farmers in taking informed decisions
relating to different aspects of farming
including crop production and marketing,
animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries.
The farmers can opt to receive SMS
messages customized to their specific
requirements.
Weather forecast SMS and alerts will enable
farmers in planning, farming operations
effectively and taking the best suited action to
deal with adverse weather conditions.
Advisories on disease/pest outbreak will
also help the farmers immensely to take
immediate actions to secure their crops and
animals. Advisories on best practices, such as
selection of better suited crop variety/ animal
breed, will lead to better farm productivity
and higher income to the farmers.
Timely market information will be provided
through SMS ad will give the farmer better
bargaining power which in turn assist farmers
in taking better decisions about sale of his
produce.
SMS advisories will also include soil test
results, selection of fertilizer and its dosage,
and also information on various programmes
so that farmers can make the best use of
assistance and know-how being made
available by the Government.
30
Global Warming will make Indian
monsoon worse and unpredictable
Scientists of the
Potsdam Institute
for Climate
Impact Research
in the month of
June 2013 have found that the pattern of the
Indian monsoon is supposed to change under
global warming in the future.
Research supported with Computer
simulations and a comprehensive set of 20
state-of-the-art climate models shows that
Indian monsoon daily variability might
increase. The ongoing ups-and-downs of
Indian monsoon rainfall are likely to increase
under warming.
It is found by the Scientist that a 4% to 12%
variability change of daily monsoon rainfall in
India is to be expected with 1 degree Celsius
of warming. There is also a chance of 13% to
50% change in variability will take place if
greenhouse gases continue to be emitted
unabated.
As per the analysis if global warming would be
limited to the internationally acknowledged
threshold of 2 degrees Celsius of global
warming, this would bear the risk of
additional day-to-day variability between as
8% to 24%.
It is important here to note that about 80% of
annual rainfall in India occurs during the
monsoon season from June through
September. Factors that could disturb rainfall
regularity include the higher holding capacity
of moisture of the warmer air, but also more
complex phenomena like cooling in the higher
atmosphere which changes current pressure
and thereby rainfall patterns.
The researchers focused on the 10 models
with the most realistic monsoon pattern - a
conservative approach, as these 10 models
yield generally lower rates of change. The
other 10 models showed higher rates of
change.
Sethusamudram canal will benefit future
generations
DMK president M.
Karunanidhi
Monday said his
demand for
implementation of
the
Sethusamudram
Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) is for the benefit
of the future generations and not for his own
publicity.
Leading the party's state-wide protest at
Nagapattinam, 320 km from here,
Karunanidhi said: "We are demanding the
project for the future generations."
Karunanidhi said he or his party cadres would
not benefit from the project.
The DMK held the protest demanding that the
Tamil Nadu government withdraw its
submission to the Supreme Court opposing
the project and early implementation of the
scheme.
Karunanidhi said former chief minister and
DMK founder C.N. Annadurai and the founder
of AIADMK M.G. Ramachandran were in
favour of the project while the current state
government is against it.
According to him, the project would bring
economic prosperity to the state.
Various DMK leaders led the agitation in
different parts of the state.
The Sethusamudram project envisages
dredging of a channel across the Palk Strait
between India and Sri Lanka to allow ships to
31
sail between the east and west coasts of India,
instead of circumventing the island nation.
The project hit a road block with petitions
filed in the apex court to stop demolition of
Ram Sethu/Adam's Bridge in the Palk Strait as
Hindus believe it was built by Lord Rama to
reach Sri Lanka to rescue his wife Sita from
the clutches of demon king Ravana.
The Tamil Nadu government under
Jayalalithaa demands the Ram Sethu/Adam's
Bridge be called a national monument and
contends that its demolition would impact
marine ecology in that region.
SC seeks status report on ' Tiger
conservation plans
New Delhi, July 11
(IANS) Making it
clear that there
would be no let
up in efforts to
save tigers, the Supreme Court Thursday
asked the National Tiger Conservation
Authority (NTCA) to file a status report on the
states that have submitted conservation plans
for approval following a direction last year.
"We have assumed jurisdiction on behalf of
tigers as nobody is interested in them," a
bench of Justice A.K.Patnaik and Justice M.Y.
Eqbal said.
The court asked Additional Solicitor General
Indira Jaising to file a status report on which
state governments had complied with its Oct
16, 2012, directions for preparing a tiger
conservation plan (TCP) for the NTCA's
approval.
By the order, the court, while lifting ban on
tourism-related activities in core areas of tiger
reserves, had asked the concerned state
governments to prepare conservation plans
within six months.
As some applicants wanted to make
submission in respect of the guidelines issued
by the NTCA Oct 15, 2012, Justice Patnaik
then said that anyone who is aggrieved by the
said guidelines can move the court
challenging them.
Meanwhile, the court gave Madhya Pradesh
government another six months time to
prepare a TCP for its Panna Tiger Reserve.
Appearing for the Madhya Pradesh
government, senior counsel Vivek Tankha told
the court that tigers were reintroduced in
Panna and entire wild life department staffs
including its field director were involved in the
protection of grown-up cubs and the
reintroduced tigers.
The court was told that it was "very difficult"
for the field director to prepare a meaningful
TCP for the reserve - spread over 1578.551
square km that includes core as well as buffer
zones -within the stipulated time period.
Since it was a time consuming exercise, the
state government urged the court to grant it
another six months time. The court was
informed that Madhya Pradesh government
had already submitted TCPs for its other five
tiger reserves.
Agartala going green with piped cooking
gas, CNG vehicles
Agartala, July 8
(IANS) Tripura's
capital city is
planning to go
green in a big way.
Households would be provided piped cooking
gas connections and thousands of vehicles
would switch over to CNG from petrol or
diesel by next year, a minister said Monday.
"Our aim is to make Agartala a green city
(and) first of its kind in eastern India,"
32
Industries and Commerce Minister Jitendra
Chowdhury told reporters here.
"By next year, all the households in Agartala
would be covered by piped natural gas (PNG)
connections for cooking. Already 12,200
households are connected with PNG," he said.
He said a large number of industrial units,
hotels and crematoria were already running
on PNG.
"In issuing vehicle permits, priority is given to
those running on CNG (compressed natural
gas) which is cost-effective and extremely
environment-friendly," he said.
Agartala is home to about 400,000 people and
has around 100,000 vehicles.
Flanked by officials of Tripura Natural Gas
Company Ltd (TNGCL), the minister said about
4,000 auto-rickshaws and over 1,100 other
vehicles had already been fitted with CNG
kits.
The TNGCL, a joint venture of GAIL (India)
Limited and the Tripura and Assam
governments, has been supplying PNG and
CNG in the city.
The TNGCL has three CNG supply stations in
the city and four more would be
commissioned soon, officials said.
According to an official, TNGCL was set to
execute a Rs.57-crore business plan over the
next five years to develop infrastructure for
the green initiative.
"Agartala is the only city among 415 cities and
small towns in the eight north eastern states
where CNG and PNG are being used in a big
way," the official added.
According to TNGCL managing director M.C.
Deogam, after Maharashtra, Tripura ranks
second in the rate of CNG-conversion of
vehicles.
States fail to implement E-Waste
handling rules, says study
Most of India's
states have failed
to implement e-
waste rules in the
country which
came into being in
2011, according to a study released.
The study 'E-waste Management in India -
Role of State Agencies' by Toxics Link exposes
the lack of effort and action by most state
pollution control boards and committees.
"The implementing agencies have failed to
put any systems in place, even two years after
the rules coming into force," the study said.
The union environment ministry has come out
with rules to address issues of health and
environmental damage caused by improper
recycling and disposal of rapidly mushrooming
e-waste.
"This deficiency is reflective of lack of
application and commitment to improve
environmental management in the country
and the need for some stringent measures to
change this situation," said Ravi Agarwal,
director, Toxics Link.
According to the rules, state pollution control
boards were required to undertake inventor
inaction of waste in their respective states but
only a couple of states have completed this.
The state pollution control boards and
committees are the agencies responsible for
monitoring the implementation of E-waste
Management and Handling Rules, 2011.
However, with no initiatives to create
compliance mechanisms and no action taken
33
against violators, large electronic brands have
been continuing to brazenly defy the letter
and spirit of the rules.
Management of e-waste is critical in India,
owing to its exponential growth and the
rudimentary recycling practices prevalent in
the unorganized sector.
Studies so far indicate that 8 lakh tonnes of e-
waste is generated in India annually, a figure
expected to go up 500 times by 2030.
The study also exposes the absence of any
public information on most pollution controls
boards with as many as 15 of the 35 boards
do not even have any information related to
e-waste on their websites, their key public
interface point.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
INSAT-3D, Advanced Weather Satellite
launched
INSAT-3D, the
advanced
meteorological
satellite of India
was launched
successfully by
the European rocket, Arianespace's Ariane 5
rocket, from the spaceport of Kourou in
French Guiana on 26 July 2013. The satellite
will give a push to the weather forecasting as
well as help in facilitating disaster warning
services.
Features of INSAT-3D
The new satellite, INSAT-3D will be
operational for next seven years, i.e., up to
2020.
The aim of the satellite is to make a crucial
difference to the disaster warning systems as
well as weather forecasting of India.
 INSAT-3D will also provide monitoring of the
ocean as well as land areas, apart from
providing meteorological observation.
INSAT-3D will facilitate new dimension to
the weather monitoring because of its
atmospheric sounding system. The
atmospheric sounding system provides the
vertical profiles of integrated ozone, humidity
as well as temperature, from top of the
atmosphere.
It is important to note that the imaging
system and mechanism of INSAT-3D has a lot
of improvement in comparison to INSAT-3A as
well as KALPANA.
The satellite has the lift-off mass of 2060 kg.
It will facilitate continuity to the previous
missions as well as also help in increasing the
capability of providing meteorological and
search and rescue services.
INSAT-3D carries the newly developed 19
channel sounder, which is the first payload of
this kind to be flown to the ISRO satellite
mission.
INSAT-3D has the facility of Search and
Rescue payload which catches as well as
relays the alert signals that originate from
distress signal of maritime, aviation and land
based users to the Indian Mission Control
Centre located at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking
and Command Network in Bangalore.
The primary users of the Satellite Aided
Search and Rescue service in India include
Directorate General of Shipping, Defence
Services, fishermen, Indian Coast Guard as
well as Airports Authority of India.
The alert services include a wide area of
Indian Ocean region, as well as covers Sri
Lanka, Tanzania, India, Bangladesh, Nepal,
Seychelles, Bhutan and Maldives.
34
The information of oceanographic,
hydrological as well as meteorological data
from the uninhabited locations over the
coverage area from Data Collection Platforms
(DCPs) such as Agro Met Stations, Automatic
Rain Gauge and Automatic Weather Station,
as well as remote locations will be collected
by the Data Relay Transponder (DRT).
First Navigational Satellite IRNSS-1A
Launched
India on 1 July
2013
successfully
launched its
first dedicated
navigation
satellite,
IRNSS-1A from Sriharikota. With this launch,
India has stepped into the new era of its space
applications. The data collected by the
satellite would help the country in a series of
fields like disaster management, fleet
management, vehicle tracking and marine
navigation.
About the Satellite
IRNSS-1A is the first of the seven satellites
constituting the space segment of the Indian
Regional Navigation Satellite System. The
entire IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is
planned to be completed by 2015-16.
IRNSS-1A is designed to provide accurate
position information service to users in the
country as well as the region extending up to
1500 km from its boundary, which is its
primary service area.
IRNSS-IA is among the first seven satellites
that constitutes the Indian Regional
Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) Space
Segment. The mission has a life of 10 years.
 The satellite was launched into the satellite
was placed satellite in its Geosynchronous
Circular Orbit at 55 deg East longitude.
The navigational payload of the IRNSS-1A
will transmit the service signals of navigation
to users with its operations in L5 of 1176.45
MHz and S Band of 2492.028 MHz The
Rubidium atomic clock and the ranging
payload of the C Band transponder would
facilitate accurate determination of the range
of IRNSS
IRNSS Applications
Mapping and geodetic data capture with
precise timing
Visual and voice navigation for drivers,
Integration with mobile phones and
terrestrial
Aerial and marine navigation,
Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and
travellers.
First Hydrogen-Powered Fuel Cell Bus
developed
Tata Motors Limited
(TML) and Indian
Space Research
Organisation, in
collaboration,
developed the first
Hydrogen-powered automobile bus of India,
after various years of research. The first
hydrogen fuel-fitted bus of India was put on
demonstration at the ISRO facility- Liquid
Propulsion Systems Centre in Mahendragiri in
Tamil Nadu on 28 July 2013.
Primary features of the Hydrogen-powered
automobile bus
The Hydrogen-powered automobile bus is
the CNG kind of a bus.
35
A top the bus, the Hydrogen in bottles at
high pressure is stored, which would lead to
zero pollution.
These hydrogen bottles or cells were a by-
product of the cryogenic technology and ISRO
had been working on the development of this
since past few years.
The technology used in Hydrogen-powered
automobile bus is not exactly like the
cryogenic technology. It is actually the liquid
hydrogen handling, where ISRO has expertise.
The bus would lead to zero pollution
because the product of cold combustion
would be just water.
The entire project is a team work of Tata
Motors and ISRO specialists along with the
contribution from PESO (Petroleum and
Explosive Safety Organisation) and DSIR
(Department of Scientific and Industrial
Research)
ISRO to improve Transponder allocation
norms
The Indian Space
Research Organisation
(ISRO) has planned to
revisit the SatCom Policy
2000 to improve the
guidelines related to allocation and pricing of
satellite transponders for public and non-
government users. A revisit to the allocation
norms has been increasingly felt in recent
years as ISROs user groups have far
outgrown, both in public and private sector.
By improving the guidelines of SatCom Policy
2000, ISRO will be able to allocate to different
users by percentages and charge, for capacity
on its INSAT/GSAT satellites in a much more
rational way than present procedure.
From the 2007 onwards, the space agency
was surprised by the increased demand of
commercial DTH, high-definition (HD) TV
broadcasters and VSAT operators.
ISRO is the sole provider of transponders for
broadcasters and other public and private
users of space applications in the country.
Software to control outbreak of
Mosquito-borne diseases
A software tool that
can control and reduce
the outbreak of
Mosquito-borne
diseases by data mining
(Knowledge Discovering) has been developed
by scientists of the CSIR-Indian Institute of
Chemical Technology (IICT) Hyderabad.
This IT tool has been validated by the Central
Government and taken up for implementation
by health authorities in five States of States
Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Assam
and Mizoram in the initial phase which will be
extended to all other States in a phased
manner.
This technology has been developed by Dr.
U.S.N. Murthy, Chief Scientist, Biology
Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical
Technology (IICT) and his team by improvising
and customising Self Organising Map (SOM), a
cluster technique in data mining.
SOM technology would enable health officials
to prioritise control parameters in endemic
zones at village level and initiate measures to
minimise morbidity and mortality, caused by
the onset of vector-borne diseases.
SOM technology can help to alert health
authorities to take up larval and adult
spraying before the transmission of parasite
by the mosquito.
36
The technology works on two ways -one
relating to the names of the villages and the
second focusing on mosquito density,
infection, infectivity and parasitic load.
Based on these parameters, a complete
mapping of the villages could be done in
terms of prioritising control parameters.
CSIR set to launch its Fastest
Supercomputer
Council of
Scientific and
Industrial
Research (CSIR) in
month of July
2013 declared
that, it is all set to
launch its fastest
supercomputer at Indias first ever big data
science institute in Bangalore.
The launch of Super Computer by CSIR will
mark its entry into the new field of data
intensive scientific discovery. The
supercomputer is supposed to have a speed
of 360 tera flops, which will make it the fourth
fastest country in the country and will be
housed in by the CSIR Fourth Paradigm
Institute (CSIR-4PI).
With the launch of Supercomputer, CSIR is
deciding to re-position its Bangalore-based
Centre for Mathematical Modelling and
Computer Simulation to deal with data
intensive scientific discovery, which has come
out as the fourth paradigm of science.
The supercomputer situated in the Bangalore-
based 4PI will form the backbone of the new
venture which will connect CSIR laboratories
located in Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Srinagar,
Chennai, Chandigarh, and Nagpur.
The laboratories based at these centres will
have computing facilities between 10 and 50
tera flop capacity and is going to be linked to
the supercomputer using the National
Knowledge Network thus connecting 200
scientists and over 1000 students in the
identified domain areas.
Indian IPv6 Lab got approval from
International Body
Internet Protocol
Version 6 (IPv6) Lab
setup by
Telecommunication
Engineering Centre
(TEC), technical arm of Department of
Telecommunications, Ministry of
Communications & IT on 25 June 2013 was
approved by the IPv6 Ready Logo Committee
under IPv6 Forum, an International body.
This achievement is significant for TEC and the
country as only five other labs in the world
have achieved this milestone. India has thus
joined Europe and a select group of countries
which include USA, Japan, China and Taiwan
having IPv6 Ready Logo test lab facilities.
TEC has setup the IPv6 Ready Logo test lab as
per standards prescribed by IPv6 Ready Logo
Committee and addresses Conformance as
well as Interoperability testing has various
equipment in IPv6 implementation. The
approval process additionally involved the
evaluation of the competence of TEC team to
not only test the equipment but also the
ability to correctly examine the test results
from other international labs.
The internet and the internet facing devices
are moving to new addressing scheme IPv6
since IPv4 addresses are no longer available.
The Government has taken several policy
initiatives so that the service providers,
content providers and the customer premises
equipment vendors are encouraged to move
to IPv6 address implementation. Setting up
37
testing infrastructure is one of the objectives
of NTP-2012. Establishment and designation
of TEC lab as IPv6 Ready Logo lab is one such
step which shall enable indigenous
vendors/developers to avail the facility of
internationally recognized test lab in India.
Availability of approved TEST BED shall
promote end-user confidence in using IPv6
Ready Logo approved products.
TEC will play an instrumental role in the
Interoperability and testing of IPv6 products
as a major piece of the India IPv6 Strategy
roadmap announced by the India Government
in building the New Internet infrastructure as
interoperability creates genuine end-user
confidence in new technologies.
The establishment of IPv6 Ready Logo Lab in
India, expecting a huge growth in the
deployment of IPv6 in the world, is very
welcome, and we expect their contribution to
the world-wide IPv6 deployment. We really
appreciate the great efforts of Indian team for
their success, including the future success.
INDIA AND NEIGHBOURS
India to supply subsidised Cooking Gas to
Bhutan
India on 29 July 2013 decided to restore the
supply of the subsidised cooking gas and
kerosene to Bhutan from 1 August 2013.
Before the parliamentary elections in Bhutan,
the Indian Oil Corporation discontinued the
supply of the subsidized fuel, on technical
grounds with officials here maintaining that
Bhutan's 10th Plan of under which India was
providing such assistance expired on 30 June
2013.
India's subsidy cut to Bhutan gave rise to
reports that the decision was taken in view of
government's unhappiness with former Prime
Minister and chief of ruling political party
Druk Phuensum Tshogpa Jigme Thinley's
proximity with China.
The Ambassador also conveyed government's
invitation for the Prime Minister's visit to
India which was accepted, and assured that
he would make a visit to India at the earliest.
The People's Democratic Party (PDP) won a
landslide victory in Bhutan's second national
elections held on July 13. The PDP defeated
Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) party by
winning 32 seats out of the 47 in the National
Assembly.
During the campaigning, the rival parties tried
to impress upon voters that concerns like
India's withdrawal of subsidy on kerosene and
cooking gas would be resolved once they form
the government.
India and Afghanistan signed MoUs
under SDP Scheme
India and
Afghanistan on
30 July 2013
signed
memoranda of
understanding
(MoUs) in Kabul
for implementing 60 projects in ten Afghan
provinces under the Small Development
Projects (SDP) scheme.
The MoUs signed by Afghan Minister of
Economy Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal and Indian
Ambassador Amar Sinha in Kabul are related
to the third phase of the SDP scheme and will
be completed in the next four years.
100 million dollar SDP scheme was announced
during Prime Ministers visit to Afghanistan in
38
May 2011. The first two phases of the scheme
with a total outlay of 20 million dollars are
nearing completion.
The scheme has been designed by Indian
government to address the developmental
needs of mainly rural communities in far-flung
areas of Afghanistan.
India & China focus on additional
Confidence Building Measures
India and China
focussed on
additional
confidence
building
measures in the two-day talks between the
representatives of the two countries that
ended in New Delhi on 24 July 2013. The two
nations reviewed the recent developments in
the border areas to enhance peace and
tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control.
India and China discussed additional
confidence building measures between them.
They consulted on measures to improve the
functioning of the working mechanism and to
make it more efficient. Finally the two
delegations further discussed the possibility of
introducing an additional route for the Kailash
Mansarovar yatra.
The meeting on working mechanism for
consultation and coordination on India-China
border affairs was led by Joint Secretary in the
Ministry of External Affairs Gautam
Bambawale and senior officials of the Defence
and Home Ministries from the Indian side. The
Chinese side was represented by a composite
delegation of its officials. The next meeting
will be held in China at a mutually convenient
date and time.
Parliament to Ratify Indira-Mujib Pact of
1974
The Government of India informed the
Bangladesh regarding the ratification of 1974
Indira-Mujib pact, during the home secretary-
level talks on 19 July 2013.
Indian Government informed that it wanted
to ratify the 1974 Indira-Mujib pact for
demarcation of boundaries and for exchange
of 161 adversely held enclaves with a
population of about 50000 people.
For implementation of Indira-Mujib pact,
Indian Government will have to introduce a
Constitutional Amendment Bill in parliament
according to Indian Constitution.
The Government of India is planning to bring a
constitutional amendment Bill during the
forthcoming monsoon session, beginning
August 5 2013, for implementation of the
Indo-Bangla land boundary agreement.
Bangladesh Parliament has already approved
the land boundary deal, India needs to
introduce a constitutional amendment bill
because its implementation involves territory
swap.
Indira-Mujib Pact 1974
In 1974, India and Bangladesh entered into
an agreement on borders. Popularly known as
Indira-Mujib Pact, the two signatories of the
pact were the Indian Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi and the Bangladesh Prime Minister
Mujib-ur-Rehman.
39
This agreement sought to cover the
demarcation of the land boundary between
the two countries and other related issues.
Article 5 of the Agreement stipulated that:
This agreement shall be subject to ratification
by the Governments of India and Bangladesh
and Instruments of Ratification shall be
exchanged as early as possible.
The Agreement shall take effect from the
date of the exchange of the Instruments of
Ratification.
On 28 November 1974 Bangladesh
Parliament had passed the Constitution (Third
Amendment) Act, 1974 ratifying the Indira
Mujib Accord.
Myanmar Navy seeks arms from India
In a sign of growing proximity in military
sphere, Myanmar on Monday sought naval
arms assistance from India. The request came
from Myanmar Navy's Commander-in-Chief
Vice Admiral Thura Thet Swe, who began a
four-day visit to New Delhi by meeting with
Navy Chief Admiral D K Joshi and Defence
Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur.
Vice Admiral Swe also met Army Chief Gen
Bikram Singh and Indian Air Force vice Chief
Air Marshal Arup Raha. Among others,
Myanmar sought help in building offshore
patrol vessels and supply of naval sensors and
other military equipment to build a
formidable navy.
Vice Admiral Swe discussed with Admiral Joshi
various proposals for strengthening the navy-
to-navy cooperation in operations, training
and material support. He also proposed to
take the existing relationship to another plane
and promote capacity building and capability
enhancement, an Indian Navy release said.
In a media interaction during a Guard of
Honour for the visiting dignitary in the South
Block forecourt, Admiral Joshi described
Myanmar as one of the closest neighbours.
We share a land border as well as a maritime
border with them. On the navy-to-navy front,
we have had extremely cordial relations, he
said. He also noted that the Indian Navy was
looking forward to taking the existing
excellent interaction to the next level. Vice
Admiral Swe stressed the special ties between
the navies of the two countries.
In the second leg of his trip, he will visit the
Kochi-based Southern Naval Command on
Tuesday and inspect various training schools
and facilities there. On Wednesday, he will
visit the Visakhapatnam-based Eastern Naval
Command also.
Indian Navy has been assisting Myanmar to
better its capacity in the maritime warfare
domain for several years now. India has given
Myanmar four Islander maritime patrol
aircraft in the last decade, despite threats
from the UK of sanctions as Yangon, which
was then ruled by the military junta, was a no-
go area for the western powers.
Myanmar has in the recent years sought help
in building offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), but
the Indian Government is yet to approve
supply of these naval warships. India is also
yet to receive the exact requirements of the
Myanmar Navy for the OPVs, be it design or
capability specifications.
Indian Navy already trains around 50
Myanmar Navy personnel of all ranks at its
training institutions.
40
During the meetings, Vice Admiral Swe gave a
list of naval equipment his country might
require in the near future, including items
indigenously developed by India such as
maritime sensors.
Earlier this year, the navies of both countries
for the first time launched coordinated patrols
along their maritime borders in the Bay of
Bengal against poachers, smugglers and other
sea criminals.
Both navies regularly hold joint exercises in
the maritime domain, including the one held
off Visakhapatnam in March, when a frigate
and a corvette from Myanmar visited the
Indian port. Naypyidaw also sent at least one
of its warships to Port Blair for the biennial
Milan joint exercise of navies.
India's proposed dams worries Pakistan
India's plan to build
60 hydroelectric
power projects on
the Chenab river
basin is giving nightmares to Pakistan.
Pakistan is on the brink of being water
insecure. "This scarcity is choking to death the
country's agricultural output, and so it has
every reason to be worried about India's
intentions.
According to the Indus Water Treaty, Pakistan
was given control of the Indus, Chenab and
Jhelum rivers but India was allowed to use
them for irrigation and power generation, as
long as it did not deprive Pakistan of its
rightful share.
According to the news daily though a single
power project does not have the capacity to
store enough water to deny Pakistan its
rightful supply, "India will soon reach the
stage where it has enough dams to seriously
affect our water supply should it choose to do
so". "Were the two countries ever to engage
in hostilities, that is exactly what India would
do," the daily said.
The two countries have also to deal with
climate change. The shrinking glaciers will
reduce the flow of rivers by as much as 10
percent in the next 30 years; India and
Pakistan are likely to fight even harder for
access to it.
The daily alleged that India has an advantage
as "most of its power generation projects are
constructed without first carrying out any kind
of environmental impact assessment".
Willingness to negotiate and compromise is
the only way forward.
Nepal sees remarkable rise in tiger
numbers
The tiger population
has zoomed by more
than 50 percent in
Nepal but the big cat
still faces plenty of
dangers. The government came out with its
latest tiger census, putting their number
across the country at 198. This is a rise of 63
per cent compared to 2009 when the last
count was taken.
Although Nepal had vowed to double the tiger
population by 2022, illegal trade with China
and India, uncontrolled poaching, habitat
disturbance and conservation are the major
concerns.
Nepals results are an important milestone to
reaching the goal of doubling the number of
wild tigers by 2022, a official said.
Tigers are a part of Nepals natural wealth,
and we are committed to ensuring these
magnificent wild cats have their prey,
protection and space to thrive.
41
Tigers are found in the Terai arc stretching
some 960 km across 15 protected area
networks in Nepal and India.
Nepal and India embarked on the first ever
joint tiger survey using a common
methodology in January this year that has
been successful.
ARTS AND CULTURE
Amjad Ali Khan to get 21st Rajiv Gandhi
National Sadhbhavna Award
Sarod maestro
Amjad Ali Khan was
chosen for the 21st
Rajiv Gandhi
National
Sadhbhavna Award
for his contribution towards promotion of
communal harmony and peace. It will be
conferred on Amjad Ali Khan on 20 August
2013, the birth anniversary of former Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award
(Rajiv Gandhi National Communal Harmony
Award) is an award given for outstanding
contribution towards promotion of communal
harmony, national integration and peace. The
award was instituted by All India Congress
Committee of the Indian National Congress
Party (INC), in 1992 to commemorate the
lasting contribution made by the former
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The award
carries a citation and a cash award of five lakh
rupees.
The award is given on 20 August every year,
the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, which is
celebrated as Sadbhavna Diwas (Harmony
Day).The former recipients of the award
comprise Mother Teresa, Bismillah Khan,
Teesta Setalvad, Swami Agnivesh, Harsh
Mander, Sunil Dutt, Dilip Kumar, Mohammed
Yunus, Maulana Wahiuddin Khan and K R
Narayanan.
North-East of India has highest per capita
language: Survey
The People's Linguistic
Survey of India (PLSI)
on 17 July 2013
reported that the
North-East of India has
the highest per capita
language in the whole World. As per the
survey, Arunachal Pradesh is a State that
speaks 90 different languages.
Survey highlights
There are over 780 languages and 66
different scripts in India.
Arunachal Pradesh is the richest among the
States with 90 languages and West Bengal has
the highest number of scripts at nine.
In terms of languages spoken, researchers
found that with 90 languages Arunachal
Pradesh is by far the richest among States,
Assam with 55 languages; Maharashtra with
39, Gujarat with 48 and West Bengal with 38
are among the most linguistically-diverse
States of India.
As per the 2011 census, there were about
122 languages spoken by more than 10000
people. Of them 22 were the scheduled
languages.
The survey has come up with languages that
are spoken by less than 10000 people many of
whom are from tribal areas, nomadic
communities and from the interiors of North
Eastern part of the Country.
This is the biggest linguistic Survey in this
Century. Irish linguistic scholar George
Abraham Grierson had conducted the
Linguistic Survey of India from 1898 to 1928.
42
The survey revealed that the North-Eastern
parts of India have one of the highest per
capita language densities in the World.
According to the report, the difficult
topography of the region and the history of
the tribal communities could have led to such
a situation.
Jagdish Raj, the most type-cast actor of
Bollywood Dies at 85
Jagdish Raj, the
Bollywood actor who
held the Guinness
World Record for being
the most type-cast
actor, died on 28 July
2013 at Mumbai. He
was 85 years of age. He
died because of
respiratory arrest. He is survived by his
daughters Roopa Malhotra and Anita Raj as
well as a son.
Life-Sketch of Jagdish Raj
Jagdish Raj was born in the year 1928 in the
town of Sargodha, British India (now in
Pakistan).
He is accredited with the Guinness World
Record for being the most type-cast actor.
Typecasting in acting is a term used wherein
an actor is identified strongly for playing a
specific role or character or trait. Jagdish Raj
held the world record of playing the role of a
policeman 144 times on the silver screen.
He started off his filmy career in the year
1960.
He retired from his acting career in the year
1992.
He has a range of films credited to his career
and some of these include Aaina, Besharam,
Gopichand Jasoos, Deewar, Don, Shakti,
Mazdoor, Imaan Dharam and Silsila.
Despite playing the role of a villain as well as
a judge in certain films, he was best known as
the Bollywood Cop.
Veteran actor Pran died due to prolonged
illness
The winner of
Dadasaheb Phalke
Award and a veteran
actor Pran died on 12
July 2013 in a
Hospital at Mumbai.
He died at the age of 93 due to multi-organ
failure after prolonged illness and is now
survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
Pran Kishan Sikand was admitted to Lilavati
Hospital, Bandra, after being diagnosed with
pneumonia.
Pran served the Bollywood for a career span
of more than six decades in more than 350
films and is known for his brilliant
performances in films like Ram aur Shyam,
Aansoo Ban Gaye Phool, Half-Ticket,
Madhumati, Purab aur Paschim, Karz, Zanjeer
and Amar Akbar Anthony and many more.
Zubin Mehta named for Tagore Award
for Cultural Harmony 2013
Zubin Mehta, an Indian-Parsi maestro of
western classical music on 10 July 2013 was
named for the second edition of Tagore
Award for Cultural Harmony for the year
2013. He was named for the award because of
his outstanding contribution to cultural
harmony.
43
His name was selected by a high level four-
member Jury that was led by Prime Minister
of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh and it
comprised the Chief Justice of India Altamas
Kabir, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha,
Sushma Swaraj and Public Intellectual
Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
The first Tagore Award was conferred on Pt.
Ravi Shankar, the Indian Sitar Maestro in 2012
IIFA 2013: Vidya Balan bags Best Actress
Award
Vidya Balan on 6 July
2013 got the Best
Actress award at 14th
IIFA (International
Indian Film Academy)
awards 2013 held in Macau for her portrayal
of a pregnant woman in search of her
husband in Kahaani while Ranbir Kapoor was
named Best Actor for Barfi.
Barfi also bagged the award for best film. In
fact, it won 9 awards in technical category-
Best Cinematography (Ravi Varman I.S.C.),
Best Background Score (Pritam), Best
Screenplay (Anurag Basu and Tani Basu), Best
Production Design (Rajat Poddar), Best Song
Recording (Eric Pillai), Best Sound Design
(Shajith Koyeri), Best Sound Mixing (Debajit
Changmai), Best Costume Designing (Aki
Narula and Shefalina) and Best Make-Up
(Uday Serali). Barfi is a romantic comedy
about a mute and deaf man and his
relationship with two women.
Ranbir, who played a deaf-mute boy in Barfi
was not present at the ceremony and the
award was accepted on his behalf by the
film's director Anurag Basu.
Other highlights of IIFA 2013
Gangs of Wasseypur won two awards, one
for Best Action (Shyam Kaushal) and the other
for Best Dialogue (Zeishan Quadri, Akhilesh,
Sachin Ladia and Anurag Kashyap) was shared
with Juhi Chaturvedi for Vicky Donor.
The award for Best Editing was won by
Kahaani (Namrata Rao) and Best
Choreography went to Ganesh Acharya for
Agneepath.
Ek Tha Tiger won the award for Best Special
Effects (Pankaj Khanopur, Sherry Bharda and
Vishal Anand).
ASI entrusted with the restoration of
Kedarnath Temple
Culture Ministry of India on 2 July 2013
entrusted ASI (Archaeological Survey of India)
with the restoration of the Kedarnath Temple
in Uttarakhand which was damaged due to
the recent floods. Kedarnath Mandir
(Kedarnath Temple) is one of the holiest
Hindu temples dedicated to the God Shiva
and is located on the Garhwal Himalayan
range near the Mandakini River in Kedarnath,
Uttarakhand in India. Due to extreme weather
conditions, the temple is open only between
the end of April (Akshay trutya) to Kartik
Purnima (usually November,the autumn full
moon) every year.
Kedarnath was the worst affected area during
the 2013 flash floods in North India.
44
Book: An Uncertain Glory: India and its
Contradictions released
An Uncertain Glory: India
and its Contradictions
authored by Jean Dreze and
Amartya Sen were released
in the third week of July 2013. The book has
been published by Penguin Books India.
Jean Drze, the development economist and
Amratya Sen, an economist, a philosopher
and a Nobel Prize winner together have
presented a far reaching analysis of the
conditions of contemporary India with a
compilation of the wealth of illuminating data.
The book includes achievements of India since
independence and the successful
maintenance of the worlds largest
democracy. The authors have also argued
about the prevalent flaws in the development
strategy of the nation. In particular, it
overlooks the central role of human
capabilities - both as an end in them and as a
means of further progress.
WORLD NEWS
India, Pakistan will play significant roles
in Afghanistan: US
As a new US defence department report
suggested that the "zero option" in
Afghanistan - a complete pullout of US troops
- is unrealistic, a Pentagon official said India
and Pakistan would play significant roles there
in future.
Peter Lavoy, the Pentagon's top policy official
on Afghanistan thinks both Pakistan and India
ought to play very important, significant roles
going forward in Afghanistan.
"Those countries and other immediate and
nearby neighbours of Afghanistan are affected
by the security conditions in Afghanistan."
Lavoy said there will need to be some level of
US involvement in the country even after the
2014 withdrawal and the Pentagon has
developed a number of plans for that based
on the current situation on the ground.
He did not give a recommendation for a
specific number troops or funding amount
that will be needed, but did call the "zero
option," where the United States would pull
out completely, unrealistic.
"There's a fear in India that there will be what
is called as a surplus terrorism. After there is
some stability in Afghanistan, where will these
terrorists go? Will they target India?" Lavoy
acknowledged.
But suggesting that "They have the exact
same fears in Pakistan," he said: "They're
concerned that if there is further instability in
Afghanistan, this could heighten the
insurgency, be motivational or provide some
safe haven for insurgents to come over into
Pakistan."
Lavoy suggested a harmonising of the policies
of the "countries in the region to try to
achieve a common end purpose, a common
situation of peace and stability in Afghanistan
and, more broadly, throughout the region."
No brokering on Kashmir, says John Kerry
As Secretary of State John Kerry flew into
45
Pakistan, American officials said the US was
very supportive of recent moves by India and
Pakistan to normalise relations, but there was
no change in its hands off Kashmir policy.
"There's no change in policy in terms of where
we are on that," a senior administration
official accompanying Kerry said.
We do not see ourselves or seek to be in the
middle of any conversation between India and
Pakistan on Kashmir," he said.
But certainly we are very supportive of the
moves that both India and Pakistan have
made to normalise relations," the official
added.
The new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he
noted had "already begun the outreach to
India and with good cooperation on the Indian
side as well in trying to jumpstart the
normalisation process."
The official said "the great strides in
normalisation on the economic side have
been very important the last few years and
have really paved the way for better and
more constructive conversations on the
political side."
"So we'll see where that continues to lead,"
he said recalling that during his India visit last
month, Kerry had "called on the Indians to
continue that process of facilitation, as well as
the Pakistanis to do things like provide MFN
(Most favoured nation) status to the Indians."
"And I'm sure that that will be part of the
conversations that we continue to have," the
official said. "But we are external actors in
this. We are in no way seeking to broker any
sort of conversation on Kashmir."
India-EU FTA could soon be inked
India could seal a free trade agreement with
the 28-nation European Union soon, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh said despite the
differences harboured by both sides on crucial
issues.
Launched in 2007, negotiations for the
proposed India-EU Broad based Trade and
Investment Agreement (BTIA) have been
hobbled by serious differences on issues like
higher FDI cap, taxes and market access.
The EU wants India to open up its banking and
insurance sectors and raise the FDI cap to 49
per cent in insurance. India has said it is
unable to do so without an approval from
Parliament. It is also demanding significant
duty cuts in automobiles, tax reduction in
wines and spirits, and dairy products and a
strong intellectual property regime (IPR).
India, on the other hand, is asking the EU to
accord the data secure nation status to it.
Such a allowance is necessary for Indian IT
companies seeking greater business
opportunities.
India is among nations not considered data
secure by the EU. The EU law mandates that
European countries doing outsourcing
business with countries that are not certified
as data secure have to follow stringent
contractual obligations which increases
operating costs and affects competitiveness.
India is also wants liberalised visa norms for
its professionals and market access in services
and pharmaceuticals sector.
Once concluded, the proposed trade deal
would cover more than 95 percent of tariff
46
lines and encompass a market of over 1.7
billion people.
A new spring for Indo-Arab ties
The next India-Arab
conference would be
held in 2014 in New
Delhi that promises
larger participation of investment agencies
and the private sector. Of Indias total
international trade, Arab countries account
for over 20 per cent.
Within the Arab world, Indias trade with the
Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, nations
rose to $118.90 billion and within the GCC,
the trade with the UAE increased to $67
billion making it Indias largest trading partner
after China and the US.
Investments by the GCC countries in India
have increased sharply in the last couple of
years and are now an estimated $125 billion.
Moreover, India is expected to be the worlds
third-largest consumer of oil in 2030 and its
reliance on the Gulf is bound to increase
sharply.
The capital-rich Gulf region can also be a
substantial source of investment in
developing infrastructure in India for which
this country has estimated a requirement of
$1 trillion over the next decade. With India
opening its doors to public-private
partnerships, there is a big window of
opportunity for investors from the Gulf.
Most of the six-million expatriate Indians in
the Arab countries are in the Gulf countries.
Together they remit annually close to $20-$30
billions almost half of the $60 billion in total
yearly remittances by Indian workers abroad.
This is an important fillip for Indo-GCC
economic links.
For the Arab world, there is much to be
gained from Indias proven capabilities in
information technology, biotechnology,
pharmaceuticals, health and environmental
protection and conservation. Indias role in
developing scientific and technological
capabilities, especially in the knowledge-
based industries, can also be duly harnessed.
Investors from India have already identified
several of these sectors for investment.
Vietnam pitches for India's greater role in
ASEAN
Vietnam pitched
for Indias greater
presence in South
East Asia politically
and economically.
Welcoming Indias
commitment and engagement with ASEAN,
Vietnams Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh
said we all want to see more of Indias
presence in South-east Asia, not only
politically, but also economically.
India, he said, has a formidable presence in
the Indo-Pacific by virtue of its size, its
economy and its willingness to assume a
greater role on the world stage.
Addressing a gathering at a leading think-tank
Indian Council of World Affairs, Mr. Binh Minh
referred to territorial disputes between China
and a number of countries straddling South
China Sea and East China Sea and stressed on
freedom of navigation in the area which
Beijing views as its own backyard.
Mr. Binh Minh welcomed Indias stand
opposing use of force to settle territorial
disputes in the region and said East China sea,
with its natural resources like oil and fisheries,
is of utmost importance to global
commons as is the sovereignty of countries
in the region.
47
With a more active India in cooperation with
ASEAN, we can dream of a vast Indo-Pacific
with strong linkages, efficient connectivity and
after all, with shared prosperity and peace,
he said.
He said Indias Look East policy has played a
constructive role in ASEAN though security
initiatives and economic cooperation and
expressed the desire to work closely with it in
tapping potentials between ASEAN and India.
China building worlds highest altitude-
airport near Tibet
China is building the world's highest altitude
civilian airport close to Tibet as part of a plan
to develop infrastructure in the strategic
Himalayan region.
The 4,411-metre-high Daocheng Yading
Airport is under construction in Garzi Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province,
state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
It will surpass the Bangda Airport in Qamdo
Prefecture in southwest China's Tibet
Autonomous Region which has an elevation of
4,334 metres above sea level.
So far, China has built five airports at Gonggar,
Lhasa, Bangda, Xigaze and Ngari in Tibet
Autonomous Region.
The rapid
development of
air infrastructure
in Tibet coupled
with rail and road
development
raised concerns
in India as it provides massive advantage to
China to move its troops and equipment
overcoming the geographical problems in the
remote region of the world.
Meanwhile, the Bangda Airport, which was
closed for repairs, is expected to resume
operations tomorrow.
The airfield closed on June 22 so that its 19-
year-old runway could be repaired, the Tibet
branch of the Civil Aviation Administration
said.
The airport has two routes in service, one
linking Qamdo and Lhasa, capital of Tibet, and
another linking Qamdo and Chengdu, capital
of southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Its record high altitude airport will eventually
be topped by the Daocheng Yading Airport,
which is under construction, the report said.
SPORTS NEWS
India retained its top position in ICC ODI
ranking
India's back-to-
back title wins
helped the world
champion team
retain its top
position in the ICC
ODI rankings. The
latest update was announced on 12 July 2013.
India is now atop the table with 122 rating
points, ahead of Australia 114 and England
112. After a successful ICC Champions Trophy
campaign in England, India also emerged
victorious in the just-concluded tri-series in
the West Indies.
India has been in the number one position
since February 2013, when they beat England
3-2 in the Champions Trophy to regain the top
place.
48
India won West Indies Tri-Nation Series
final defeating Sri Lanka
India on 11 July 2013 won the West Indies Tri-
Nation Series 2013 Final after defeating Sri
Lanka with 1 wicket at Queen's Park Oval, Port
of Spain in Trinidad. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
captained the Indian Side in the tri-nation
series, whereas, AD Mathews was the captain
of the Sri Lanka.
Kohli captained the Indian side in the second,
third and fourth match after Dhoni suffered
from a hamstring injury in the first match
against and was out from the series in second,
third and fourth match.
Marion Bartoli of France lifted Women's
singles Wimbledon title
In the Women's
Singles category of
Wimbledon,
Marion Bartoli of
France on 6 July
2013 won her
maiden Grand
Slam title. 23rd seed Sabine Lisicki of Germany
failed to match Bartoli and lost in title clash in
straight sets, 1-6, and 4-6. Lisicki was the first
German woman since 1999 to reach a Grand
Slam final. The tournament was played in
London.
Marion Bartoli is a top-10 French professional
tennis player and presently French no. 1. She
has won one singles major; seven other
Women's Tennis Association singles titles and
three doubles titles.
Marion Bartoli is 28 years old. She had played
her previous Wimbledon final in 2007 which
she had lost to Venus Williams. She is the fifth
oldest woman to become a first time major
winner in the Open Era.
India defeated Nepal to lift under-16
SAFF Football title
Indian boys defeated Nepal 1-0 in final to lift
the South Asian Football Federation Under-16
Championship title in Kathmandu on 30 July
2013.The match was played at the Dashrath
stadium. It was the second edition of the
championship.
The early and spectacular goal by defender
Jerry Lalrinzuala through a long ranger turned
out to be the match winner. India was
represented by All India Football Federation's
Regional Academy. India scored its first goal in
the 18th minute.
The early goal, which stunned the home
crowd to silence, turned out to be the match-
winner. India remained unbeaten in the
biennial tournament.
The Indian lads, who led 1-0 at halftime,
maintained the pressure on the opposition
team. Bangladesh won the third place,
defeating Afghanistan 1-0 in the other match
played for the third position.
49
World Games: Aditya Mehta bag Gold
Medal in Snooker
India's number
one snooker
player, Aditya
Mehta on 31
July 2013
clinched the
gold medal in the World Games, beating
China's Liang Wenbo, 3-0, in the final of the
quadrennial event at Cali, Columbia. Aditya
Mehta hails from Mumbai.
Mehta had earlier defeated Thailand`s
Dechawat Poomjaeng 3-1 in the semifinal.
Poomjaeng defeated another Indian and
eight-time world champion Pankaj Advani 3-1
in the quarterfinals.
Poomjaeng won the bronze medal after
securing a 3-2 win over Brazil`s Igor
Figueiredo in his third-place play-off match.
K Jennitha Anto won IPCA World Chess
Championship
India's K Jennitha
Anto on 24 July
2013 won the 13th
IPCA World
Women's Individual
Chess
Championship title.
In the event organised by the Interntional
Physically Disabled Chess Association, at Velke
Losiny in the Czech Republic, she competed in
a combined group with men and became the
highest scorer among the women players with
four and a half points.
For Jennitha, who hails from Tamil Nadu, the
win came along with the Woman
International Master title. The WIM title
would allow her direct entry too many of the
National events for women except the
premier.
The IPCA event attracted 49 physically
challenged players of fifteen countries.
Jennitha being a wheel chair player
participated in Fide A category and almost all
the players are international rated players.
Abhijeet Gupta won Commonwealth
Chess Championship
Grandmaster and
former world junior
champion Abhijeet
Gupta on 14 July
2013 won the
Commonwealth Chess Championship.
Abhijeet Gupta settled for a draw with Indian
national title holder G Akash in the 11th and
final round that concluded at Boardwalk in
Port Elizabeth.
Abhijeet scored nine points out of a possible
eleven and had the best tiebreak score to win
the gold medal in the championship that also
incorporated the South African International
open.
Gupta was tied for the top spot along with top
seed Sergey Fedorchuk of Ukraine and Sergei
Tiviakov of Holland and had the best Bucholz
among the three toppers to not only win the
Commonwealth but also the overall title.
Among the women, WGM Soumya
Swaminathan won the silver medal while
national women's champion Mary Ann Gomes
won the bronze. The gold in this category
went to International Master Jovanka Housak
of England.
The junior section was also swept clean by
Indians as G Akash won the gold Sahaj Grover
getting the silver and Rakesh Kulkarni ending
with the bronze medal. Kulkarni also won the
South African open blitz championship held
during the course of the championship.
50
World Cup: Lajja Goswami won Silver in
shooting
Lajja Goswami on 9
July 2013 won silver
medal in women's
50-metre Rifle 3
Position event at
the ISSF World Cup
in Granada, Spain.
She shots 584 in the qualification round and
454 in the finals to bag the silver to lead
Norway's Malin Westerheim, who shot 443.9
in the finals.Petra Zublasing of Italy won the
gold after scoring 459.1 in the medal round.
Goswami totalled 152.4 over three series in
kneeling. She has scored 154.8 in prone and
146.8 while standing to win the country's first
medal in the tournament.
MAIN SUPPLEMENTS
India Nepal bilateral relations and issues
of mutual interests
India is committed
to the success of
Nepals peace
process and
institutionalization
of democracy in
Nepal. As its
corollary, India is encouraging the successful
conduct of free and fair election for the
Constituent Assembly-cum-Parliament in
Nepal to be held on 19th November 2013.
India wants that a constitutional and multi-
party framework takes firm root in Nepal.
Indias External Affairs Minister, Salman
Khurshid, visited Nepal on 9th July 2013. He
held official level talks covering all feature of
bilateral relations and issues of mutual
interests.
Highlight of India Nepal bilateral relations and
issues of mutual interests
Logistics for Constituent Assembly-cum-
Parliamentary Election
India has agreed to provide all the logistical
support for the security agencies and Election
Commission of Nepal as requested by the
Government of Nepal.
This comprises 764 different types of
vehicles costing approximately NRs 800
million. The vehicles will be delivered to the
Government of Nepal by October 2013. The
two sides exchanged Letters to this effect.
Water resources
The Ministers reviewed the joint efforts
against flood-related disasters, including the
repair and
maintenance works at
major border rivers,
especially Kosi and
Gandak.
India has committed grant assistance of
181.37 million NRS under the bilateral Small
Development Projects for flood protection
works along Trijuga, Lkahndehi, Sunsari,
Kankai, and Kaligandaki rivers and NRs 95.2
million along Gagan River.
Besides activating all the existing bilateral
consultative mechanisms and maintaining the
embankments of Kosi and Gandak under the
respective bilateral agreements, India has
provided grant assistance of Nepali 2.543
billion Rupees during the past three years for
protection works on the Kamala, Lalbakya,
Khando and Bagmati rivers.
For the current year, Indian announced an
amount of 256.94 NRS million for this
purpose, and a further amount of 374.47
million NRs will be made available later in the
year.
51
Augmenting electricity supply
It is important
to recall that to
augment
electricity supply
from India to
Nepal,
particularly during the lean season, India has
already implemented short-term grid
connectivity projects (grant assistance of NRs
124.6 million), and resulting in Nepal
importing an additional 80 MWs of electricity
through 14 different upgraded exchange
points in the last lean season.
A further medium-term grid up gradation
project (amounting to grant assistance of NRs
464 million) has been tendered which will
enable a further drawing of between 120
175 MWs of electricity from India, whenever
required. To supplement financing of the
long-term cross-border grid connectivity from
Muzaffarpur to Dhalkebar, Indias Eximbank is
contributing U.S. 13.2 million Dollars.
Eximbank Line of Credit
Specific approvals
have been obtained in
June 2013 for Phase II
of the Rahughat
Hydroelectric Project,
220 KV Kosi Corridor
Transmission Line
Project, 132 KV Solu Corridor Transmission
Live Project, and the 132 KV Modi Leknath
Transmission Line Project, for utilising 175
million Dollars or NRs 15.8 billion out of the
existing 250 million Dolars Exim banks Line of
Credit for Nepal. Approvals for utilisation of
the balance amount, for the construction of
roads within Nepal, are in the pipeline.
Trade and economic cooperation
It is worth mentioning here that India
accounts for nearly two-thirds of Nepals
foreign trade, 70% of Nepals exports, and
almost half of its foreign direct investments.
The Government felt the need to continue
consultations on measures to promote trade
bilaterally and with third countries to optimize
opportunities for Nepals economic growth,
including on finalising legal and administrative
arrangements for additional transit routes,
revision of the Rail Services Agreement to
enable the implementation of the long-
standing Nepalese request for the movement
of open box wagons and transit of bulk cargo
movement on flat wagons, finalisation of the
Motor Vehicles Agreement, energy banking
and power trading, currency conversion
facilitation, new routes for increased air-
connectivity, and strengthening Nepals
capacity for certification for food and
agriculture products exports by establishing
testing and lab facilities along the India-Nepal
border.
Development partnership
The Ministers reviewed progress of the
bilateral development partnership
programme, which includes large, cross-
border connectivity and infrastructure
projects, as well as community and grass-
roots oriented Small Development Projects
(SDPs) in the key areas of education, health
and rural infrastructure.
52
India partners Nepal in capacity building and
human resource development. This year, the
number of scholarships offered to Nepalese
students has nearly doubled to 3,000. The
number of training programmes under India
Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) &
Colombo Plan has also gone up to 230 from
100 last year.
The infrastructure projects include
construction of four Integrated Check Posts
(ICPs) for trade promotion and facilitation,
1450 km of Terai Roads, and cross-border rail
links at five locations. In the first phase, works
have been taken up in two of the four ICPs
(grant assistance of NRs 4.32 billion for the
segment falling in Nepal), six segments of
Terai Roads Project (totalling 605 km entailing
grant assistance of NRs 11 billion) and two of
the five rail connections (grant assistance of
NRs 10.4 billion). Under SDPs, of the 425
projects undertaken, 218 have been
completed. The current years outlay for these
development projects is NRs 6.08 billion.
Defence cooperation
India-Nepal
defence ties
include military
educational
exchanges, joint
exercises, and supplies of military stores and
equipment, as required by Nepal.
Following the successful completion of
integration of former Maoists combatants
into the Nepal Army (NA) and the decision of
the Government of Nepal to resume imports
of stores and equipment for NA, these
materials, identified in the Bilateral
Consultative Group on Security Issues, will be
supplied to Nepal over the coming months
(the immediate supplies sought are valued at
NRs 1.76 billion).
Telangana - The 29thstate of India different areas of the State of Andhra Pradesh
and for the Constitution of an Administrative
Tribunal with jurisdiction to deal with
grievances relating to public services. It also
empowered Parliament to legislate for the
establishment of a Central university in the
State.

In 1956 Gentlemens
Agreement was signed
by Bezawada Gopal
Reddy, CM of Andhra
State and Burgula
Ramakrishna Rao, CM
The Telangana region was a part of erstwhile
of Hyderabad State for safeguarding
Hyderabad State which was merged into
Indian Union on 17 September 1948. The Telangana people.
Hyderabad State was merged with Andhra The Telangana agitation began in 1969 as
State with the passing of the States people protested the failure of
Reorganisation Act 1956 and so the united implementation of Gentlemens Agreement
Andhra Pradesh state came into being on 1 and other safeguards In 1969 Marri Chenna
November 1956. Reddy launched the Telangana Praja Samithi
by demanding separate Telangana State.
Andhra State was the
first state formed on The separate State movement came in to
linguistic basis, was limelight again when a new political party
created in 1953 from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was formed
out of the erstwhile by K Chandra Shekhar Rao on 27 April 2001.
Madras Presidency with
Kurnool as the capital. The Hyderabad State The UPA
was then merged with Andhra State with the Government on 9
passing of the States Reorganisation Act 1956, December 2009
so the united Andhra Pradesh state came into took the decision
being on 1 November 1956. Hyderabad was of formation of
also selected as the capital of the united Telangana State, in
states of Telugu-speaking people. the backdrop of indefinite fast by TRS leader K
Chandrashekhar Rao.
There was some
special Constitutional This decision had ignited street protests in
provision made for the non-Telangana regions and opposition
Andhra Pradesh State. from Ministers, MLAs and leaders from within
Article 371 (D) and (E) the party that forced the Central Government
were inserted by the and the Congress leadership to put the issue
Constitution (Thirty-Second Amendment) Act, on hold. The Centre held rounds of meetings
1973. This Act provided the necessary with all the parties from the State and set up a
Constitutional authority for giving effect to Commission under the chairmanship of
the provision of equal opportunities to

53
former Supreme Court Judge Justice
Srikrishna.
The Government of India constituted a five
member Committee headed by Justice Sri
Krishna for consultations on the Situation in
Andhra Pradesh (CCSAP) on 3 February 2010
to resolve the Telangana issue. The Sri Krishna
Committee submitted its report to the Union
Home Ministry on 30 December 2010 and
suggested six options.
The six options are;
1. Maintain status quo
2. Bifurcation of the State into Seemandhra
and Telangana with Hyderabad as a Union
Territory- the two states in due course
develops their own capitals.
3. Bifurcation of State into Rayala-Telangana
and coastal Andhra regions with Hyderabad
being an integral part of RayalaTelangana.
4. Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into
Seemandhra and Telangana with enlarged
Hyderabad Metropolis as a separate Union
Territory.
5. Bifurcation of the State into Telangana and
Seemandhra as per existing boundaries with
Hyderabad as the capital of Telangana and
Seemandhra to have a new capital.
54
6. Keeping the State united by simultaneously
providing certain definite
Constitutional/Statutory measures for socio-
economic development and political
empowerment of Telangana region creation
of a statutorily empowered Telangana
Regional Council.
Brooding over all the options, the ruling
Congress party on 30 July 2013 finally decided
to recommend to the Central Government for
the creation of the 29th State of India called
Telangana.
The Constitutional
procedure for creation
of New States gets
direction from Article
3 of the Indian
Constitution that vests the power to form new
States in Parliament. Article 3 states:
Parliament by Law, a) Form a new State by
separation of territory from any State or by
uniting two or more States or parts of States
or by uniting any territory to a part of any
State; b) Increase the area of any State; c)
Diminish the area of any State; d) Alter the
boundaries of any State; e) Alter name of any
states.
The bill for this purpose can be introduced in
either House of Parliament on the
recommendation of the President. The
President shall, before giving his
recommendation, refer the Bill to the
Legislature of the
State which is
going to be
affected by the
changes proposed
in the Bill, for
expressing its views on the changes within the
period specified by the President. The
President is not bound by the views of the
State Legislature, so ascertained. By a simple
majority and by the ordinary legislative
process Parliament may form new States or that this case cannot be compared with any
alter the boundaries of existing States and other. This assertion comes against the
there by changes in the political map of India. backdrop of demands for creation of separate
States of Vidarbha and Gorkhaland.
Facts about Telangana
National Cyber Security Policy 2013
The population of
Telangana is 35.19 The Union
million (2011 Census). It Government
includes seven million of India on 1
population of Hyderabad, which emerged as a July 2013
major IT hub during the past two decades. launched the
National
The region has geographical area of 1.14
Cyber Security Policy 2013 at New Delhi with
lakh sq km.
an aim to protect information and build
The districts which are a part of Telangana capabilities to prevent cyber attacks. The
region are Hyderabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar, National Cyber Security Policy 2013 to
Khammam, Mahaboobnagar, Medak, safeguard both physical and business assets of
Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and the country.
Warangal.
The Policy has outlined the roadmap for
Hyderabad and creation of a framework for comprehensive,
Warangal are the two collaborative and collective responsibility to
largest cities in the deal with cyber security of the country. The
Telangana region. policy has ambitious plans for rapid social
transformation and inclusive growth and
Warangal city was India's prominent role in the IT global market.
declared as a World It will cater to the cyber security requirements
Heritage City by UNESCO in March 2013. of government and non-government entities
at the national and international levels.
The two major Rivers Krishna and Godavari
flew through the region. The policy will help in safeguarding the critical
infrastructure like Air Defence system, nuclear
The decision on Telangana is also to the
plants, banking system, power infrastructure,
fulfilment of the announcement made by the
telecommunication system and many more to
then Home Minister P Chidambaram on 9
secure country's economic stability.
December 2009 for creation of Telangana.
The National
This is the first
Cyber Policy in
decision of the UPA to
order to create a
form a new State in
secure cyber
the last nine years.
ecosystem has
The Congress party
planned to set-up a National Nodal Agency to
however made it clear
coordinate all matters related to cyber
that no demand for
security in the country. The nodal agency has
creation of any other
clearly defined roles and responsibilities. The
State would be considered as it emphasised

55
policy will also establish a mechanism for
sharing information as well as identifying and
responding to cyber security incidents and for
cooperation in restoration efforts.
The National Cyber Security Policy has been
prepared in consultation with all relevant
stakeholders, user entities and public.
This policy aims at facilitating creation of
secure computing environment and enabling
adequate trust and confidence in electronic
transactions and also guiding stakeholders
actions for protection of cyber space.
The National Cyber Security Policy
document outlines a road-map to create a
framework for comprehensive, collaborative
and collective response to deal with the issue
of cyber security at all levels within the
country.
The policy recognises the need for
objectives and strategies that need to be
adopted both at
the national level
as well as
international
level.
The objectives
and strategies outlined in the National Cyber
Security Policy together serve.
I. Articulate concerns, understanding and
priorities for action as well as directed efforts.
ii. To provide confidence and reasonable
assurance to all stakeholders of the country
(Government, business, industry and general
public) and global community, about the
safety, resiliency and security of cyber space.
iii. Adopt a suitable posturing that can signal
to resolve and make determined efforts to
effectively monitor, deter & deal with cyber
crime and cyber attacks.
56
Salient features of the policy
The National Cyber Security Policy covers the
following aspects
A vision and mission
statement aimed at
building a secure and
resilience cyber space
for citizens, businesses and Government.
Enabling goals aimed at reducing national
vulnerability to cyber attacks, preventing
cyber attacks & cyber crimes, minimising
response & recover time and effective cyber
crime investigation and prosecution.
Focused actions at the level of Govt., public-
private partnership arrangements, cyber
security related technology actions,
protection of critical information
infrastructure and national alerts and advice
mechanism, awareness & capacity building
and promoting information sharing and
cooperation.
Enhancing cooperation and coordination
between all the stakeholder entities within
the country.
Objectives and strategies in support of the
National cyber security vision and mission.
Framework and initiatives that can be
pursued at the Govt. level, spectral levels as
well as in public private partnership mode.
Facilitating monitoring key trends at the
national level such as trends in cyber security
compliance, cyber attacks, cyber crime and
cyber infrastructure growth.
Earlier, the Government of India on 8 May
2013 approved the National Cyber Security
Policy with an aim to create a secured
computing environment across the country.
Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products
Act (COTPA)
There are approximately 120 million smokers
in India. According to the World Health
Organization (WHO), India is home to 12% of
the worlds smokers. Approximately 900,000
people die every year in India due to smoking
as of 2009.
The Union Government has brought
Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act
(COTPA, 2003) to control tobacco industry,
which is responsible for the deaths of
thousands annually in India. The Act is
applicable to all products containing tobacco
in any form and it extends to whole of India.
The act is comprehensive however there are a
few loopholes that have been discussed
below.
Prohibition on smoking in public places -
Section 4 of Tobacco Control Act, 2003
Smoking in all Public Places is Prohibited - The
term public place is vaguely defined and
refers to any place, where public have access,
whether as of right or not, and includes
auditorium, hospital buildings, railway waiting
57
room, amusement centres, restaurants, public
offices, court buildings, educational
institutions, libraries, public conveyances and
like which are visited by general public but
does not include any open space.
Creation of Smoking
Areas - In restaurants,
hotels and airports
smoking areas are to be
physically segregated in such a manner that
the air from these areas does not circulate to
the non- smoking areas.
Display of Prominent Non Smoking Signs e.g.
"Smoking here is strictly prohibited" is
mandatory at all public places.
Prohibition of Advertisement, Promotion and
Sponsorship of all Tobacco Products- Section 5
of Tobacco Control Act, 2003
Both direct & indirect advertisement of
tobacco products prohibited in all forms of
Audio, Visual and Print Media.
Total ban on sponsoring of any sport and
cultural events by cigarette and other tobacco
product companies
No trade mark or
brand name of
cigarettes or any
tobacco product to
be promoted in
exchange for sponsorship, gift, prize or
scholarship.
No person, under contract or otherwise, to
promote or agree to promote any tobacco
product.
Prohibition on Sale to Minors - Section 6 (a) of
Tobacco Control Act, 2003
Sale of tobacco products to persons under
the age of 18 is prohibited.
 The seller (shopkeeper) should ensure that
the person who is buying the tobacco product
is not a minor.

A display board
to be put up at
Producers of tobacco products must ensure
the point of sale
that these harmful contents are within
declaring that
maximum permissible limits as prescribed by
"sale of tobacco
the rules
products to minors is prohibited"
The testing of tobacco products to measure
Prohibition on Sale to Minors - Section 6 (b) of
nicotine and tar contents to be done only at
Tobacco Control Act, 2003
Govt. recognized laboratories.
In order to restrict access of youth for
QUICKLY- QUICKLY!
tobacco products, the sale of the tobacco
products is prohibited within a radius of 100 Some facts about Nuclear Reactors
yards of any educational institution.

A display board has to be put up outside the

educational institutions declaring the same.

Health warnings on tobacco products packs -

Section 7 of Tobacco Control Act, 2003

All tobacco product packages need to carry

prominent and legible health warnings.
These warning shall
also be pictorial in
nature.
The warnings will
be given in the
same language as given on the pack.
All imported tobacco products should also
carry the specified warnings.
The Koodankulam nuclear power plant in
Tamil Nadu on 13 July 2013 went critical. The
plant will start full-fledged power generation
in a month. With the dilution of boric acid in
primary coolant water, the neutron
multiplication process is being done in reactor
core.
What is a Nuclear Reactor?

Regulation of contents of Tobacco Products -

Section 11 of Tobacco Control Act, 2003

The Nicotine and Tar contents of all tobacco

products must be clearly displayed on the
packs.

A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and

control a sustained nuclear chain reaction.

58
Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power
plants for generating electricity. A reactor
consists of an assembly of nuclear fuel (a
reactor core), surrounded by a neutron
moderator such as regular water, heavy
water, graphite, or zirconium hydride and
control rods that control the rate of the
reaction. Most nuclear reactors use a chain
reaction to induce a controlled rate of nuclear
fission in fissile material, releasing both
energy and free neutrons.
When it is said to be critical?
In a nuclear reactor, the neutron number at
any instant is a function of the rate of neutron
production (due to fission processes) and the
rate of neutron losses (via non-fission
absorption mechanisms and leakage from the
system). When a reactors neutron population
remains steady from one generation to the
next (creating as many new neutrons as are
lost), the fission chain reaction is self-
sustaining and the reactor's condition is
referred to as critical. When the reactors
neutron production exceeds losses,
characterized by increasing power level, it is
considered supercritical, and when losses
occur, it is considered subcritical and shows
decreasing power.
Some facts about Bimaru states
Bimaru, (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
and Uttar Pradesh) state still remain home to
the maximum number of poor people in the
country.
59
Uttar Pradesh has just fewer than 30% of its
population in the BPL group, the number adds
up to almost 60 million.
Bihar, ranks second in poverty level despite
the improvement, and has 35.8 million poor,
followed by Madhya Pradesh where 23.4
million or 31.6% of the population is BPL.
Among the Bimaru states, only Rajasthan
has managed to do better than the national
average with the share of BPL in total
population estimated at 14.7% in 2011-12,
compared to 34.4% in 2004-05.
Rajasthan is enhanced performer than
Gujarat, popular for its rapid growth and good
infrastructure. Gujarat had 16.6% people
below the poverty line.
On National level, there were 217 million
poor in rural areas and 53 million in urban
areas in 2011-12, as against 326 million and
81 million, respectively, in 2004-05.
What is Marginal Standing Facility (MSF?)
The Marginal
Standing
Facility (MSF)
which was
introduced
during the
2011-12 period is the rate at which banks can
borrow from the central bank at an increased
rate against government securities during
times of tight cash. The bank rate is a linked to
the MSF.
What is the RTI ACT? March 2010 to 412 million in March 2011 and
485 million in March 2012.
Right to
Information Act According to 2013 figures, India is second only
2005 mandates to China in the number of devices connected
timely response to to the Net.
citizen requests for
government
Facts about Mid-Day Meal scheme
information. It is an
initiative taken by Department of Personnel
and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public
Grievances and Pensions to provide a RTI
Portal Gateway to the citizens for quick search
of information on the details of first Appellate
Authorities, PIOs etc. It promotes
transparency and accountability in the
The Mid Day Meal is the worlds largest school
working of every public authority. It extends
feeding programme that reaches out to about
to the whole of India except the state of
12 crore children in over 12.65 lakh
Jammu and Kashmir. In order to ensure
schools/EGS centres across the country. Mid-
greater and more effective access to
Day Meal in schools has had a long history in
information, it was decided to repeal the
India. In 1925, a Mid-Day Meal Programme
Freedom of Information Act, 2002 and enact
was introduced for disadvantaged children in
another law for providing an effective
Madras Municipal Corporation. By the mid,
framework. To achieve this object, the Right
1980s three States viz. Gujarat, Kerala and
to Information Bill was introduced in the
Tamil Nadu and the UT of Pondicherry had
Parliament and was passed by the Lok Sabha
universalized a cooked Mid-Day Meal
on 11 May, 2005 and by the Rajya Sabha on
Programme with their own resources for
12 May, 2005 and it received the assent on 15
children studying at the primary stage By
June, 2005.
1990-91 the number of States implementing
Facts and Figures on Cyber Security the mid-day meal programme with their own
resources on a universal or a large scale had
increased to twelve states. The aim of the
scheme is to enhance enrolment, retention
and attendance and simultaneously improve
the nutritional levels among children, under
the National Programme of Nutritional
Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) that
The Government figures revealed that India
was launched as a Centrally Sponsored
was the 10th most intensely cyber-attacked
Scheme on 15th August 1995, initially in 2408
country in 2010-11. However in 2013 India
blocks in the country.
stood second only to the U.S.

In India internet users and mobile phones are

rising dramatically -from 202 million users in

60
Facts about Paradip Port communications and in location, identification
and navigation systems.
Paradip Port was
conferred with History of Space Journey of India
the Major Port of
the Year award
for its excellent
performance in the year 2012-13.

Paradip Port Trust (PPT) handled

56.55 million tonnes of traffic in the year
2012-13. There is an increase from 54.25
million tonnes of traffic in 2011-12. During
2012-13, the port also added 22 million
tonnes of capacity, thus bringing the total to The Space Journey of India was started with
102 million tonnes. the launch of Aryabhatta in 1975 using a
Russian rocket. Till date, India has successfully
Paradip Port is one of the major
completed its 100 space missions. India aims
Indian ports that serve the Eastern and
to place the seven-satellites of the IRNSS
Central parts of the country. Its vicinity
space segment in orbit by end of 2014 with a
extends to the states of Odisha, Jharkhand,
position accuracy of 20 meters in the primary
Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh
service area at an investment of 1420 crore
and Bihar. The port primarily deals with the
rupees. The PSLV C 25 that will carry the mars
bulk cargos as well as clean cargos. From the
orbited would be launched any day after 21
past 10 years, there has been an exceptional
October 2013. The Chairman of ISRO Dr.
growth in the traffic handled by the Paradip
Radhakrishnan on the day of launch of IRNSS-
Port. The port carries out the operations
1A announced that India will step into its first
24x7x365. Paradip Port is equipped with latest
Mars mission by November 2013.
equipments as well as technology.

What is Transponder?

Transponders are wireless communications

device usually attached to a satellite. A
transponder receives and transmits radio
signals at a prescribed frequency range. After
receiving the signal a transponder will at the
same time broadcast the signal at a different
frequency. The term is a combination of the
words transmitter and responder.
Transponders are used in satellite

61
MODEL QUESTION PAPER
5 - Veteran actor Pran died due to prolonged
1 - Who has been chosen for the 21st Rajiv
Illness became famous in roles as
Gandhi National Sadhbhavna Award?
A - Comedian
A - Wilayt Ali Khan
B - Police Officer
B- Amjad Ali Khan
C - Villain
C- Zakir Hussain
D - Elderly Character
D - Hari Prsad Chaurasia
6 - Who is named for Tagore Award for
2 - Which is the State of India that speaks 90
Cultural Harmony 2013?
different languages?
A - Amjad Ali Khan
A- Andhra Pradesh
B- Zubin Mehta
B- Himachal Pardesh
C -Zakir Hussain
C- Madhya Pradesh
D - Hari prsad Chaurasia
D- Arunachal Pradesh
7 - Who bagged the Best Actress Award at
3 - How many different scripts are there in
IIFA 2013?
India?
A - Priyanka Chopra
A - 66
B - Katrina Kaif
B - 77
C - Sushmita Sen
C - 88
D - Vidya Balan
D- 99
8 - Which organization is entrusted with the
4 - Jagdish Raj, the most type-cast actor of
restoration of Kedarnath Temple?
Bollywood who died recently was mostly
seen in what role A - Archaeological Survey of India

A - Police Officer B - Uttrakhand Tourism department

B- Villain C - National Disaster Management

C- Comedian D- Home Ministry

D - Elderly Character

62
9 - Who is the co-author besides of Jean C - Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Dreze of the book 'An Uncertain Glory: India
and its Contradictions' D - St. Mary's Islands

A - Rajmohan Gandhi 14 - Prahaar and Nag are indigenously

developed weapons that come under what
B - Bhawanisengupta category

C - Amratya Sen A - Submarine

D - Natwar Singh B - Missile

10 - India has created a strike corps to C - Satellite

manage its border with which country
D - None of the above
A - Pakistan
15 - Indigenous Arjun Mark II tank in whose
B China trials are in final stage is designed at

C- Nepal A - Coimbatore

D- Myanmar B - Hyderabad

11- What is the size of the strike corps to C - Bangalore

manage its border with neighbouring
country? D - Chennai

16 - BrahMos world's first supersonic cruise

A - 50,000
missile is a joint venture between India and
B - 75,000 which country

C - 100,000 A - Germany

D - 15,000 B - France

12 - Which paramilitary force of the country C - Russia

has decided women into its services?
D - Israel
A - ITBP
17 - INS Trikand commissioned into Indian
B - CISF Navy is a joint venture between India and
which country
C - CRPF
A - Russia
D - BSF
B- France
13 - The newly acquired IC17 Globe master-III
by the Indian Air Force made its maiden C- Germany
flight to which place
D- Israel
A - Lakshadweep Islands

B - Maldives Islands

63
18 - Olive Ridley Conservation scheme is 22- Name the bridge that has to be removed
launched in which state for the completion of Sethusamudram
Shipping Canal Project (SSCP)
A - Tamil Nadu
A - Adams Bridge
B - Orissa
B- Pamban Bridge
C - Andhra Pradesh
C- Howarh Bridge
D - Kerala
D- None above
19 - What order the National Green Tribunal
passed to tackle pollution and dumping of 23 - SC has sought status report from states
debris on the Yamuna? on conservation plans of which animal

A - Jail for polluter A - Lion

B - Planting of saplings B - Elephant

C - Polluter Pay Principle C - Cheetah

D - None of the above D - Tiger

20 - President Pranab Mukherjee launched a 24 - 'E-waste Management in India suffers

Kisaan Portal for sending information to the from lack of
farmers through what medium
A - Implementation of rules
A - Mobile phone
B - Formulation of rules
B - Internet
C -Lack of knowledge of the subject
C - TV
D - None above
D - Radio
25 - India to supply Subsidised Cooking Gas
21 - Scientist have predicted that the pattern to which country
of Indian monsoon would become worse and
unpredictable due to A - Maldives

A - Change in weather B - Myanmar

B - Global Warming C - Bhutan

C- Low Pressure D - Nepal

D- None Above

64
26 - India signed MoUs under Small 30- What is the status of Poverty Ratio of
Development Scheme with which country India in 2011-12?

A - Bhutan A - Declined

B - Myanmar B - Increased

C - Bangladesh C - Static

D - Afghanistan D - None Above

27 Parliament is to ratify Indira-Mujib Pact 31 - Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and

that was signed in which year Uttar Pradesh are called by the name

A - 1974 A - Lag

B- 1973 B - Drag

C- 1972 C - Bimaru

D 1971 D - None above

28 - Which neighbouring country's Navy has 32 - Which states in India has showed biggest
sought arms from India? decline in percentage of poor

A - Bangladesh A - Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh

B - Myanmar B - Bihar and Odisha

C - Sri Lanka C - Uttar Pradesh and Bihar

D - Maldives D - None above

29 - India's proposed dams worry which 33 - Reserve Bank of India imposed

country restrictions on imports of which metal

A - Pakistan A - Gold

B- Bangladesh B - Silver

C - Nepal C - Copper

D - Bhutan D - None above

65
34 - Government has raised FDI in Telecom D - Leyland
Sector to what per cent
39 - ISRO revisited the SatCom Policy 2000 to
A - 100 improve what norms

B- 59 A - Satellite allocation norms

C- 69 B- Satellite launches norms

D- 99 C - Transponder allocation norms

35 - India achieved a Record Production of D - None above

which crop
40 - Which organization is set to launch its
A - Rice Fastest Supercomputer?

B - Wheat A - Council of Scientific and Industrial

Research (CSIR)
C - Pulses
B - Council of Historical Research
D Maize
C - Council of Industrial Research
36 - India has successfully launched INSAT-3D
which is D- None above

A - Advanced communication satellite 41 - Which city in India is going green with

piped cooking gas, CNG Vehicles?
B - Advanced Weather Satellite
A - Agartala
C - Search and Rescue Satellite
B- Gawuhati
D - None Above
C- Imphal
37 - India successfully launched IRNSS-1A
which is D - None above

A - Navigational Satellite 42 - Which country holds top position in ICC

ODI ranking
B - Weather Satellite
A - England
C - Communication satellite
B - Australia
D - Remote Sensing satellite
C - India
38 - Indias first hydrogen-powered fuel cell
bus is developed by D - South Africa

A - Tata Motors 43 - India won West Indies Tri-Nation series

final defeating which country?
B - Mahindra
A - Sri Lanka
C - Bajaj
B - Australia

66
C - England 48 - Who is Durga Shakti Nagpal

D - South Africa A - IAS officer of UP Cadre

44- Marion Bartoli lifted Women's Singles B - Member of Womens Hockey team
Wimbledon 2013 title belongs to which
country C - Associate of Anna Hazare

A - France D - None above

49 - Sujata Singh is India's new Secretary at

B - England
which ministry
C - Spain
A - Secretary Ministry of Environment
D - Portugal
B - Secretary Home Ministry
45 - China building worlds highest altitude-
airport near which city C - Secretary Ministry of External Affairs

A - Shanghai D - None above

B - Beijing 50 - Justice Palanisamy Sathasivamis sworn

in as the
C - Lhasa
A - Chief Justice of India
D - Tianjin
B - Chief Justice of Madras High Court
46 - Which country has pitched for India's
greater role in ASEAN? C - Chief Justice of Allhabad High Court

A - Vietnam D - None Above

B - Laos 5 1 - Obaid Siddiqi who died recently in

Bangalore was a scientist in which discipline
C - Thailand
A - Physicist
D- Singapore
B - Anthropologist
47 - Which country has ruled out brokering
on Kashmir? C - Biology

D - None of the above

A - USA
52 - Vaali who died at the age of 82 was
B - England
lyricist associated with which language films
C - China
A - Tamil Films
D - None above
B - Bengali Films

C - Punjabi Films

D - None of the above

67
53 - Which state in India is declared as the 57 - Which state is going to become the 29th
first Smoke-free state of the country? State of India?

A - Andhra Pradesh A - Telengana

B - Arunachal Pradesh B - Vidharb

C - Madhya Pradesh C - Gorkhaland

D - Himachal Pradesh D - Bodoland

54 - Kempegowda International Airport is in 58 - Open field trials of Genetically Modified

which Indian city Crops is suspended for what period

A - Bengaluru A - Temporarily

B - Madurai B - Indefinitely

C - Coimbatore C - For five years

D - Vishakapatnam D - None above

55 - Clean India Campaign at world heritage 59 - What has been made mandatory for
site Taj Mahal is taken up by which company purchase of Acid?

A - ONGC A - Ration card

B - NTPC B - Adhar card

C - Reliance C- Photo Identity

D - TATA D - Any of the above

56 - National Aviation University is going to 60 - MGPSY Scheme thats launched for

be set up in which place Indian workers working in which place

A - Lucknow, UP A - Australia

B - Amethi, UP B - USA

C - Rae Bareli, UP C - Canada

D - Allhabad, UP D - Gulf

68
 31. C
ANSWER KEY
32. B
1. B 33. A
2. D 34. A
3. A 35. C
4. A 36. B
5. C 37. A
6. B 38. A
7. D 39. C
8. A 40. A
9. C 41. A
10. B 42. C
11. A 43. A
12. D 44. A
13. C 45. C
14. B 46. A
15. D 47. A
16. C 48. A
17. A 49. C
18. B 50. A
19. C 51. C
20. A 52. A
21. B 53. D
22. A 54. A
23. D 55. A
24. A 56. C
25. C 57. A
26. D 58. B
27. A 59. C
28. B 60. D
29. A
30. A

69