Civil Services' Surgicals

The Parliamentary Consultative Committee of Water Recources Ministry today held its meeting under the chairmanship of Union Water Resources Minster Shri Harish Rawat. The meeting was centred on the National Water Mission established under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.  In his address the minister said water is essential for sustaining life & environment and is an important component for almost all developmental plans. He said various programmes for development of water resources for beneficial use of the society have been taken up since the time immemorial. There is a considerable progress in respect of water resources development in India after independence through various Plans. Total created irrigation potential at pre-Plan period was about 22.6 million hectares (Mha) which now has increased to 108.2 Mha with almost five fold increase. There has also been appreciable development in the areas of drinking water supply and other uses. However, growing population,...

Youth of North-East India: Demographics and Readership (Highlights) Union Human Resource Development Minister Dr M  M   Pallam   Raju ,  will release a report  Youth of North-East India: Demographics and Readership  in New Delhi tomorrow,  20 th  November, 2012. Ministers of State for HRD,  Sh   Jitin   Prasada  and Dr  Shashi   Tharoor  would also be present on the occasion. This focused Report attempts to give an analytical and detailed account of the reading habits of the literate youth in the north-eastern states and their exposure to different forms of media, and how diverse socio-economic and motivational factors impact their reading habit. The reading of ‘leisure or non-text books’ among the literate youth is the special focus of the study. The Report is a follow-up study of the  National Youth Readership Survey  (2009-10) assigned to National Council of Applied Economic Resea...

FEATURE IFFI Pic courtesy : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ IFFI-2012 is an ideal opportunity for filmmakers and film lovers to watch, appreciate and learn the art of film making in sylvan surroundings and a relaxed creative environment of Panaji, Goa. The Festival also provides a platform for networking with some of the best film industry professionals from India and abroad. This year IFFI-2012 will be inaugurated by Cinestar, Shri Akshay Kumar in the presence of Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Shri Manish Tewari, the Minister of Culture for Republic of Poland and Chief Minister of Goa, Shri Manohar Parrikar. Started in 1952, the International Film Festival of India has evolved into a major forum for Cinema from across the world. From Satyajit Ray to Akira Kurosawa, from Marcello Mastrioni to Roman Polanski and Gurinder Chadha to Mira Nair, the International Film Festival of India has become a landmark destination for established and ...

In The 2012 edition of the World Energy Outlook (by The International Energy Agency) was released on 12 November 2012 and there were a lot of lessons for India in it. Drawing on the latest data and policy developments the report presents analytical insights into trends in energy markets and what they mean for energy security, environmental protection and economic development. It sets out updated projections of energy demand, production, trade, investment and carbon-dioxide emissions, broken down by country. According to the report, taking all new developments and policies in to account, the world is still failing to put the global energy system onto a more sustainable path. Global energy demand grows by more than one-third over the period to 2035. Despite the growth in low-carbon sources of energy, fossil fuels remain dominant in the global energy mix, supported by subsidies. Emissions in the New Policies Scenario correspond to a long-term average global temperature increase of 3...

Pic Courtesy: sciencedirect.com The Indian Diabetes Consortium (INDICO), a Pan-India initiative led by CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) with AIIMS as a principal clinical partner, has recently brought to light an entirely novel candidate gene, TMEM163 implicated in Type 2 Diabetes.  TMEM163 encodes a probable vesicular transporter in nerve terminals; and the study established a plausible mechanism of action for TMEM163 through impaired insulin secretion. This lends an unprecedented ‘neural angle’ to diabetes that needs to be explored further and holds immense potential in understanding new pathogenetic mechanisms involved in diabetes causation  The study currently accepted for publication in the ‘DIABETES’ (American Diabetes Association’s flagship journal), authored by 37 researchers, is the first and the largest ‘Genome Wide Association Study’ (GWAS) conducted for any complex disorder conceived and executed entirely in the developing world....

Pic Courtesy : indiainfoline.com The Government gives very high priority to agriculture and specially to the prosperity of farmers. It is implementing a number of large schemes and providing funds to State governments for taking new initiatives for increasing farmers’ incomes. Some of the major actions taken in the recent past are given below:  • Government has raised MSP in recent years by huge margin. MSP for wheat and rice has been more than doubled in last 8 years. MSP for some pulse crops has gone up three times.  • Government has doubled the sugarcane support price in four years. It stands at Rs. 170 per quintal now.  • Record foodgrain production of 257 million tonnes last year, supported by massive increase in MSP to farmers. It is more than thrice of foodgrain production 45 years back.  • Government subsidises farm loans considerably. Crop loans upto Rs. 3 lakh are available at 4% interest. Other farm loans too are available at a subsidised rate of 7%....

Pic Courtesy: shaktivahini.org Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister of State (I/C), Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) chaired the meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Parliament here today.  Speaking at the occasion, Smt. Tirath said that the increased number of sexual offences against children in the country necessitated an Act which would address this issue. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012, which came into force on 14 November 2012 with notification of its rules, has been able to address most of the issues. Addressing the members, she said that the existing laws such as the IPC were insufficient and deficient to deal with the specific requirements regarding children as they do not distinguish between an adult and a child victim. Moreover, these laws are not gender neutral and the definition of ‘rape’ is also restrictive. The new Act, she said, is gender neutral and covers all persons below the age of 18 years of age. Cl...

Pic Courtesy: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrOTVJmDDOR42jyho-ZD_OJsqOX2NOEL8YYskO_4tGx64Tt6lrgnucZN1UTt4F9shjjozuFVop2wKpd6ZpceKWsGnqyP62OnbuVmF0RZWAyffu3lbMU4S4tY8ZdS3V-lvjJFGgpjVN2D83/s1600/narang.jpg The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari  presented the  “Moortidevi Award for 2010”  to eminent Urdu scholar Prof. Gopi Chand Narang for his outstanding work ‘Urdu Ghazal aur Hindustani Zehan wa Tehzeeb” at a function organized by Bhartiya Jnanpith here today. He congratulated Prof. Narang for receiving this award which he so rightly deserves. He also lauded the Selection Board which has chosen a litterateur whose work fully reflects the purpose and objectives for which the award was instituted.  Shri Ansari said that Prof. Narang revived Urdu language in our country through his writings and he is one of the foremost theorist, literary critic and Urdu scholar of our country. His perceptive writings have helped Urdu cr...

India is a land of diverse cultures and traditions. Each region of the country has a unique culture, which is also prominently visible in its various art forms. Almost all the regions of the country have their specific folk music and dance, which proves to be a wonderful way of expression of their community and its traditions. Though these folk dances are not as complex as the classical dance forms, they are very beautiful, because of the essence of rawness in them. Be it the Bihu of Assam, Dol-Cholom of Manipur, Hikal of Himachal Pradesh or Chhau of Bihar, each of the Indian folk dance forms comes across as a reflection of the deep sited beliefs and traditions of a particular culture. The folk dances of any community are performed on almost every special occasion and festival, to express elation and joy. These dances are also considered to be auspicious by many of the tribal communities in the country. Many folk dances are dedicated to the presiding deity of the specific commu...

Economic Freedom is a new measure of where an economy is headed. Based on  work done  by renowned economists – Milton Friedman and Michael Walker – an Economic Freedom of Indian states index was developed to understand where that state was headed.

The Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari has  said that the size and diversity of the Indian landscape adds to the difficulty of finding solutions. A population of 1.25 billion dispersed over 4,635 communities 78 percent of whom are not only linguistic and cultural but social categories. The human diversities are both hierarchical and spatial. ‘The de jure  WE, the sovereign people is in reality a fragmented ‘we’, divided by yawning gaps that remain to be bridged.’ Around 30 per cent of our people live below the official poverty line and the health and education indicators, for the population as a whole, despite recent correctives, leave much to be desired. Delivering the Annual Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture on ‘Physical Integration and Emotional Inconsonance’ organized by All India Radio (AIR) here yesterday, he said that there are, in addition, problems arising out of Naxalism and insurgency in some areas where the writ of the State runs in name only, demands for a...

(Arranged chronologically) 1. Aircel Chennai Open Singles - Milos Raonic beats Janko Tipsarevic Doubles - Leander Paes & Janko Tipsarevic beats Jonathan Erlich & Andy Ram 2. Qatar Exxonmobil Open Singles - Jo-Wilfred Tsonga  beat Gael Monfilis Doubles - Filip Polasek & Lukas Rosol  beat Christopher Kas & Philipp Kohlschreiber 3. Australia Open Singles - Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal Doubles - Leander Paes & Radek Stepanek  beat Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan

(Article originally posted on BookAdda blog  ) And The Winner Is…! By  RIDHI MALHOTRA  |  Published:  OCTOBER 22, 2012 This literary award season was officially launched with the declaring of Chinese author Mo Yan as the winner of Nobel Prize for Literature. At BOOKADDA, we’ve reviewed the literary award winners of 2012. The creative works have been judged the best of their kind. What is your take on their win? Tell us in the comments! 1. The 2012 Man Booker Prize The winner of the Man Booker Prize is chosen from a shortlist of six books authored by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Each of the six shortlisted writers is awarded £2,500 and a specially commissioned beautifully hand-bound edition of his/her book. The winner receives £50,000. The judges took nine months to come to a conclusion. This definitely wasn’t easy. The scrutiny involved hard work, reading and re-reading of books at least three times by the judges and waiting...

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Parts of the speech delivered by the Union  Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Shri  Ghulam   Nabi  Azad, here today on the occasion of the Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony by the Prime Minister, Dr.  Manmohan  Singh, for the Redevelopment of Lady  Hardinge  Medical College:

Civil Services (Main) Examination - 2012 GENERAL STUDIES Paper I  Time Allowed : Three Hours Maximum Marks : 300    Candidates should attempt all questions strictly in accordance with the instructions given under each question.   1. Answer any five of the following in about 250 words each :                                         25*5=125       (a) What do you understand by the term "innovation" ? Discuss the need for launching a national innovation policy in India.       (b) Keeping in view the informal sector's share in the total workforce of the country, critically examine the relevant inclusive measures initiated by the Government of India and their effectiveness.      ...