Civil Services' Surgicals

Internet has evolved itself into a powerful, ubiquitous, empowering and liberating medium, even though only a fragment of its full potential is known and has been exploited by us so far. In its borderless cyberspace, internet provides limitless opportunities for freedom of speech and expression.  Internet, perhaps is the nearest approximation to the utopian world of freedom, envisioned by one of our greatest poets, Dr Rabindranath Tagore. He said and I quote: “Where the mind is without fear, Where the head is held high, Where knowledge is free, Where the world has not been broken into fragments by narrow domestic walls, …..” Internet is greatly significant for India  and, we believe,  India is greatly significant for the Internet .

In an  endeavor  to create a roadmap for the next five years for innovative technologies and policies for biofuels  development in India, the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India along with The Energy and Resources Institute(TERI) launched a two day International Summit on ‘ Bioenergy : Algae  Biofuel  & Synthetic Biology 2012’ here yesterday.  Shri   Jaipal  Reddy, Minister of Science and Technology & Earth Sciences inaugurated the Summit.

Eram toilets A new kind of  portable toilet  has been created by Eram Scientific Solutions Ltd based in Thiruvananthapuram.  It is already in use in Kerala, and could serve as a model for such toilets all over the country.  What are its features? Built with stainless steel/fibre to withstand corrosion, it can be programmed to accept either Re 1, Rs 2 or Rs 5 denominations. After payment, the door of the unit unlocks and the light and exhaust fan are switched on automatically. After the user enters it, the closet is doused with 100 ml of water. In case it isn’t flushed after use, the system automatically does the cleaning. This is an intelligent toilet too. If the usage is for less than three minutes, the system flushes with 1.5 litres of water. If used for more, it flushes four litres. “There are plans to reduce this to less than three litres,” says Varghese. Normal toilets consume seven litres for a single flush. The water tank can store up to 500 litres o...

It seems UFOs (Unidnetified Flying Objects) are  being sighted  by the Indian Army units near the China border. An ITBP unit based in Thakung, close to the Pangong Tso Lake, reported over 100 sightings of luminous objects between August 1 and October 15 this year. In reports sent to their Delhi headquarters in September, and to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), they described sighting ”Unidentified Luminous Objects” at day and by night. The yellowish spheres appear to lift off from the horizon on the Chinese side and slowly traverse the sky for three to five hours before disappearing. Image courtesy  Indian Today Some thought that they might be drones from China, which btw are very common. The Army has reported 99 sightings of Chinese drones between January and August this year: 62 sightings were reported in the western sector, the Ladakh region, and 37 in the eastern sector in Arunachal Pradesh. Three of these drones intruded into territory c...

In a  major win  for Indian drug companies which manufacture generic drugs for major ailments, the India’s Intellectual Property Appellate Board revoked Swiss giant Roche’s patent for a hepatitis C drugs.  This means that the patent that could have prevented the Indian companies from copying this formula have a free hand.

  FEATURE MSME                                                                                  Jacob Abraham*             All over the world hard wood becomes a scarce commodity.  The furniture manufacturers are vigorously searching for an ecofriendly alternative to wood.  The National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) at Thiruvananthapuram, a constituent laboratory of CSIR has developed the technology to make wood substitute from natural fibre polymer comp...

FEATURE Science He is about as close as it gets for humans to being a batman or a superman.  He has jumped off the Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur and even flown across the English Channel, with the help of carbon fibre wings. Meet Fearless Felix – the Austrian sky-diver, who has just set a world record to become the first man to break the sound barrier.

Agartala , June 8 — Northeast India's first IIIT (Indian Institute of Information Technology) will be set up in Tripura, a minister said here Friday. Tripura Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty told reporters: "Union Human Resource Development and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal informed at a meeting in New Delhi Tuesday that northeast's first IIIT would be set up in Tripura." "The HRD ministry has decided to establish 20 more IIITs in the country in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. In the first phase, five IIITs would be set up in different parts of India, including one in Tripura," he said quoting Sibal. Currently, there are four IIITs in India -- Allahabad, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Kanchipuram. These autonomous institutions are providing undergraduate as well as postgraduate technical education. "The central government has decided to provide more financial aid to the northeastern states than the other parts of the cou...

The Union Cabinet today approved setting up of an Autonomous Organization named `North East Centre for Technology Application and Reach` (NECTAR) at Shillong, Meghalaya as a Society under the Societies Registration Act 1860, under the Department of Science & Technology w.e.f 2012-13. The total expenditure involved will be Rs.292 crore during the 12lh Plan period. The Ministry of Science and Technology proposes to establish a nodal centre in the North Eastern Region in the form NECTAR as a society under the Societies Registration ACT 1860. NECTAR would promote deployment of carefully selected technologies, emanating from the public funded research institutions under Government of India and State Governments, in consultation with the respective state governments, after assessing their application potentials. Source  : Press Information Bureau

From children to elders in all sections of society witnessed today the Transit of Venus which is among the rarest of predictable celestial  phenomena.  The Transit of Venus began at 5:22 am and finished at 10:22 am. In the early morning hours there were heavy clouds but as the sun started to rise it was a spectacular view when the planet Venus appeared as a small, dark disk moving across the face of the Sun. There were around 300 viewers at the office campus and they all enjoyed it.  The next pair of transits will occur on December 2117 and December 2125. Scientists, students, media and general public they all enjoyed the rare celestial event in full volume.

                                                                                                                                               Today, the traditional communication networks are undergoing a big change and are converging into packet based Next Generation Networks (NGN) which run on Internet Protocol (IP). The Internet Protocol is basically a communications protocol   used for relaying   packets   of data across a network. The current version of the Internet Protocol IPv4 is about 27 year old l having many limitations. It is to be replaced by  ...

The Central Government has taken a no. of measures for strengthening S&T and Innovation Infrastructure in the country. The Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research Bill, 2011 was passed by both Houses of the Parliament during the winter session and received assent of the President of India on 6th February, 2012. The Academy will focus on research and training in areas not ordinarily provided by the existing universities in the country. The curricula, pedagogy and evaluation will be innovative and directed towards creating highest quality personnel in trans-disciplinary areas. 

The Secretary of Department of Biotechnology, Government of India today claimed to have made a significant stride in the field of improving public health with biotech researches. Speaking to Press he said that a revelation of a recent study by DBT will help in saving the new born children provided its outcome is put into proper application. He said treating young children with suspected serious bacterial infection with zinc in addition to standard antibiotics significantly reduces the likelihood of treatment failure (measured as the need for secondary antibiotic treatment within 7 days, need for intensive care, or death within 21 days), according to new research published  Online First  in The Lancet. In 2010, worldwide, infections were responsible for nearly two-thirds of deaths in children under 5, with around two-fifths of deaths occurring within the first month of life. Of the 1 million neonatal deaths that occur in India every year, more than a quarter are attributed ...

The Union Cabinet today approved the National Telecom Policy -2012 (NTP - 2012). The Cabinet also approved introduction of Unified Licence and authorised the Department of Telecommunications to finalise the new Unified Licensing regime with the approval of Minister of Communications & IT. The salient features of the National Telecom Policy-2012 are as follows:

India  is recognised as one of the megadiverse countries, rich in biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge. With just 2.4% of the land area,  India  accounts for nearly 7% of the recorded species even while supporting almost 18% of human population.  India  has a long history of conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and is a party to many international environmental conventions including UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The current decade (2011-2020) has been declared as the  United Nations Decade on Biodiversity  and United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification .

Akash test fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, about 15 km from Balasore in Odisha coast. Akash :

A verdict on where to site the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope will be taken soon. The choices under considerations are: South Africa Australia and New Zealand The SKA will be built in the southern hemisphere, in South Africa or Australia and New Zealand, where the view of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is best and radio interference least What is “Square Kilometre Array Project”?

What is Dragon?

(Note : Solutions are subject to review. Please use the comments section below for your inputs and discussions) 1. With reference to National Rural Health Mission, which of the following are the jobs of 'ASHA', a trained community health worker? 1. Accompanying women to the health facility for antenatal care checkup 2. Using pregnancy test kits for early detection of pregnancy 3. Providing information on nutrition and immunization 4. Conducting the delivery of baby Select the correct answer using the codes given below: (a) 1, 2 and 3 Only (b) 2 and 4 Only (c) 1 and 3 Only (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4 Answer: (A)

GPS aided Geo Augmented Navigation system (GAGAN) : A satellite-based facility aimed at enhancing safety and efficiency of aircraft operations Expected to be installed in all airports in the country by June 2013. Joint venture b/w AAI and ISRO. Will improve air traffic management via timely information on aircraft movement. Once it is implemented, India would be the 4 th nation in the world to have a satellite-based navigation system after USA, Japan and European Consortium. Human intervention will be minimized or eliminated for navigational leading both at Air Traffic Control room and aircraft cockpit, by virtue of this system. The system would raise safety and effectiveness of aircraft operations via better situational cognizance and safety alerts/tools for the Air Traffic Controllers. Under ISRO's guidance, AAI had installed ground reference stations in 15 strategic locations all over India and all airports would be networked via them. The national GAGAN Centre wou...