Civil Services' Surgicals

FEATURE Home Ravinder Singh*     The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), in the year 2006, approved ‘in principle’ the setting up of Integrated Check Posts at 13 locations and Land Ports Authority of India as a statutory body. Integrated Check Posts are being constructed as a Plan scheme with an initial outlay of Rs. 635 crore during the 11 th   Five Year Plan. In the initial phase, 13 Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) were envisaged at major designated entry/exit points along   India ’s international land border. Of these, 7 ICPs are to be constructed in Phase I and 6 ICPs in Phase II. ICP Attari is the first to be completed. The other six ICPs planned in the first phase are, Raxaul and Jogbani in     Bihar, Agartala (Tripura), Petrapole ( West Bengal ), Dawki (Meghalya) and Moreh (Manipur). Need for ICPs Existing designated entry and exit points on the international borders are characterized by unplanned growth leading to delays and traffic jams. The need to de

FEATURE Science & Technology Kalpana   Palkhiwala * Nano Technology is acknowledge-intensive and ‘enabling technology’ which will influence a wide range of products and processes. It will have far-reaching implications for national economy and development. The Department of Science and Technology (DST)  launched many initiatives over the period of time and Nano was one of them. DST launched a modest programme called Nano Science and Technology Initiative (NIST) in 2001 in Nano  Sciences.  The Nano Mission is successor of this programme. The Government approved this as Nano Mission in 2007 with an allocation of Rs 1000/- crore for 5 years. The Nano Mission has been structured in a manner to achieve synergy between the national research efforts of various agencies in this field and launch new programmes in a concerted fashion. Today India has emerged 6 th  worldwide in terms of scientific publications. An active research community of about 1000 researchers has e

    FEATURE Energy M.V.S. Prasad*   World's production and use of energy over the past two decades have shown striking changes.  Use of electricity has risen phenomenally resulting in a remarkable difference in the pattern of energy consumption. The initial options that we had for switching fuel resource presented larger challenges in terms of global warming coupled with almost dwindling fossil fuel resources. When we look at the world's energy resources, oil, natural gas and coal seem to be still riding the crest and the contribution of renewable seems marginal at this juncture.          Solar energy seems to enjoy a better edge over the others at this juncture due to vigorous pursuit to transform it into an attractive and economic option. Power consumption in  India  has been increasing fast due to population growth and economic development.  India  has tremendous energy needs and faces an uphill task in meeting these requirements through tradition

    The Government has formulated a project namely e- Panchayat  Mission Mode Project (MMP) for e-enablement of all the  Panchayats  which will make their functioning more efficient and transparent. The Project received in principle approval from the Planning Commission in August 2007. Out  of  130.39   crores  only that have been allocated for the Project so far, 23  crores  and 24  crores  were allocated during 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively without any disbursement to States. However, during 2011-12, 40  crores   was  allocated of which the releases to States/Union Territories as under: i )               1.5  crores  for incentivizing the adoption of  PRIASoft ; and ii)            38.5  crores  for setting up of Programme Management Units at State and District levels for rollout of e- Panchayat  MMP. iii)           The budgetary allocation during 2012-13  is  40   Crores . e-Governance  in  Panchayats  is sought to be achieved through the e- Panchayat  MMP under th