Civil Services' Surgicals

    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

Educational backwardness being one of the reasons for the backwardness among Muslim community, the Government has taken following steps to eradicate the same: In order to improve literacy rate amongst Muslims, which is 59% as per 2001 Census, the Ministry of Minority Affairs is awarding Pre-matric Scholarship, Post-matric Scholarship, Merit-cum-means Based Scholarship and Maulana Azad National Fellowship exclusively to Minority students. The Ministry of Human Resource Development has undertaken schemes for Providing Quality Education in Madarsas (SPQEM), Infrastructure Development of Minority Institutions (IDMI), Establishment of Residential Coaching Academies for Minorities/ SC/ ST and Women, Establishment of Urdu Academy/ Centre for Professional Development of Urdu Teachers, Establishment of a satellite campus of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad, Establishment of Model Degree Colleges and Establishment of Women Hostels in Minority Concentrated Districts. G

The general and sector-wise inflation  interims of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) since October 2011 is  given below: Wholesale Price Inflation (Year-on-Year in per cent) All Commodities Primary Articles Fuel and Power Manufactured Products October- 2011 9.87 10.96 14.79 8.05 November – 2011 9.46 8.90 15.48 8.17 December- 2011 7.74 3.59 14.98 7.64 January – 2012 6.89 2.76 14.61 6.71 February-2012 (P) 6.95 6.28 12.83 5.75 March – 2012 (P) 6.89 9.62 10.41 4.87       P-Provisional Overall inflation in March, 2012 for all major groups was lower compared to the rate of inflation in October, 2011.  In case of primary articles, however, inflation after declining to 2.76 per cent in January, 2012 increased to 9.62 per cent in March, 2012.  Apart from the base effect, increase in the inflation of primary articles was largely on account of persistently high inflation for protein rich items like milk

The indigenously built Light Combat Aircraft Tejas LCA Navy NP1 today made its maiden flight in Bangalore when Commodore JA Maolankar, Test Pilot and Wg Cdr Prabhu, Flight Test Engineer completed a 22 minutes flight. During the flight the aircraft was put through various manoeuvers including low speed handling and even undertook a close formation flying at slow speed with another aircraft. Earlier the LCA Navy NP1 had completed various intensive Ground testing regimen including Low Speed Taxi Trials (LSD), High Speed Taxi Trials (HSD), Ground Vibration Test (GVT), Structural Coupling Test (SCT) and extensive system integration tests with power plant using State-of-the-Art facilities at Bangalore HAL airport. With this India has crossed a major milestone in Design, Development, Manufacturing and Testing of a “four plus” generation Carrier Borne Fly-by-Wire STOBAR aircraft. LCA Navy aircraft is the first attempt in the country to provide a complete marine force multiplier that will g