Hyperloop
We’re not selling transportation, we’re selling time
That’s what the CEO of Hyperloop says.A while back we published the idea of Metrino pod and Talgo train – Click Here
Now the transport ministry is toying with the idea of Hyperloop.
The travel time between Mumbai and Pune, about three hours by train now, would be cut to 25 minutes if Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has its way.
The Los Angeles-based company, which has designed a new way to move people, has asked the transport ministry for land to run a pilot project of its high-speed transportation service.
Hyperloop is a concept where a pod-like vehicle travels through a near-vacuum that’s contained within a tube. It can theoretically touch top speeds of close to 1,200 km an hour even when not running on full steam, using less energy than conventional modes of transportation. It is being heralded as the future of high-speed passenger and freight transportation the world over, with futurists such as Elon Musk backing the concept.
“We use a custom electric motor to accelerate and decelerate a levitated pod through a low-pressure tube. The vehicle will glide silently for miles with no turbulence,” says its website. “We tested our motor in May, 2016, and will test the full system in early 2017. We’re developing routes in five countries. The goal is to be moving cargo by 2020 and passengers by 2021.”
Bipop Gresta, chairman and chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, says he met Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and made a formal proposal to set up a pilot project in the country. “We’re not asking for money right now, we’re asking for land. If they want to put money, we can do a public-private partnership. But if they don’t want that, we have private investors. In the second case, we need to have land that is meaningful and not something in the middle of nowhere.”
If the proposal goes through, Gresta says he estimates it will take eight months to do a feasibility study. It might take an additional 28 months from the time all the permits are acquired to roll out the transportation service.
Unlike traditional high-speed rail networks that need vast stretches of land for arrow-straight tracks, Hyperloops can be built alongside highways. The technology consumes much less energy owing to the lack of air resistance within the tubes.
Gresta says the concept will be an ideal fit for India, which lacks high-speed rail and air connectivity. “India is a country that has a very particular situation. It has a high density of population, lacks infrastructure and a political environment that is willing to invest in innovation,” Gresta had said on the sidelines of Carnegie India’s Global Technology Summit in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
Hyperloop Transportation Technology already has a 25-member team in India that is working on technology, mechanical engineering and other roles for its global ambitions. Further, the company is looking to partner with Indian educational institutes to have them solve engineering problems.
The company is also in talks with at least two Indian firms for outsourcing some part of its manufacturing and other technology services. Gresta did not divulge the details on the companies.
“We’re not selling transportation, we’re selling time,” says the company’s website.
Andaman and Nicobar: Navy deploys ships to evacuate 800 tourists stranded in Havelock Island
Four ships of the Indian Navy were sailed on Wednesday morning to evacuate about 800 tourists from Havelock Island in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an official said. The sudden evacuation mission was initiated at the request of the Andaman and Nicobar disaster management, which speculates that a “cyclonic storm” might struck Havelock, an island about 36 km from capital Port Blair.
C-sec births altering course of evolution
Regular use of caesarean sections to deliver babies is affecting the human evolution, according to a new study. An increasing number of mothers now need surgery to deliver a baby due to their narrow pelvis size, researchers said.
Researchers estimate cases where the baby cannot fit down the birth canal have increased from 30 in 1,000 in the 1960s to 36 in 1,000 births today . Historically, these genes would not have been passed from mother to child as both would have died in labour.
According to Dr Philipp Mitteroecker from the University of Vienna, there is a long standing question in the understanding of human evolution. “Why is the rate of birth problems, in particular what we call fetopelvic disproportion -basically that the baby does not fit through the maternal birth canal -why is this rate so high?” he said.
“Without modern medical intervention such problems often were lethal and this is, from an evolutionary perspective, selection. Women with a very narrow pelvis would not have survived birth 100 years ago. They do now and pass on their genes encoding for a narrow pelvis to their daughters,” said Mitteroecker.
It has been a long stan ding evolutionary question why the human pelvis has not grown wider over the years. The head of a human baby is large compared with other primates, meaning animals such as chimps can give birth relatively easily , `BBC News’ reported.
Researchers devised a mathematical model using data from the WHO and other large birth studies. They found opposing evolutionary forces. One is a trend towards larger newborns, which are more healthy . However, if they grow too large, they get stuck during labour, which would have proved disastrous for mother and baby , and their genes would not be passed on.”One side of this selective force -namely the trend towards smaller babies -has vanished due to caesarean sections,” said Mitteroecker.
India Puts Remote Sensing Satellite RESOURCESAT-2A Into Orbit
According to ISRO, Resourcesat-2A is a follow on mission to Resourcesat-1 and Resourcesat-2, launched in 2003 and 2011 respectively.
The new satellite Resourcesat-2A is intended to continue the remote sensing data services to global users provided by it two predecessors.
The RESOURCESAT-2A carries three payloads which are similar to those of the earlier two Resourcesat’s.
They are a high resolution Linear Imaging Self Scanner (LISS-4) camera operating in three spectral bands in the Visible and Near Infrared Region (VNIR) with 5.8 m spatial resolution and steerable up to 26 degree across track to achieve a five day revisit capability.
The second payload is the medium resolution LISS-3 camera operating in three-spectral bands in VNIR and one in Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) band with 23.5 m spatial resolution.
The third payload is a coarse resolution Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) camera operating in three spectral bands in VNIR and one band in SWIR with 56 m spatial resolution.
The satellite also carries two Solid State Recorders with a capacity of 200 Giga Bits each to store the images taken by its cameras which can be read out later to ground stations.
The mission life of Resourcesat-2A is five years.
Measures to meet targets for Nuclear Power
The Government has taken measures to ensure availability of fuel in required quantity (from both domestic and imported sources) and to expedite ongoing projects.
In addition, the Government has taken the following measures to facilitate nuclear power capacity addition:
• In principle approval of sites to locate nuclear power plants in future.
• Creation of India Nuclear Insurance Pool to cover the Operator’s Liability as prescribed under the provisions of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act, 2010.
• Amendment to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 to facilitate establishment of Joint Venture Companies (JVC) by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) with other Central Public Sector Undertakings to set up nuclear power plants.
• Budget speech announcement (2016-17) on augmenting investment in nuclear power.
A focussed approach directed towards research and development with identified goals are being carried out in various fields like advanced reactor development, nuclear fuel cycle, thorium fuel utilisation, reactor safety studies, life cycle & ageing management studies, electronics and instrumentation, high efficiency energy conversion, advanced materials and remote handling and robotics.
The research and development activities in NPCIL are being carried out for development of technology, tools, testing facilities etc. aimed at enhancement of nuclear and radiation safety, reliable operation of nuclear power plants and development of equipment/ components/ systems for current and future nuclear power reactors.
Progress of Chandrayaan-2 Mission
Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the Moon, is a totally indigenous mission comprising of Orbiter, Lander and Rover. The Orbiter and Rover flight systems are in advanced stage of realisation. Payloads are under development at various ISRO Centres / laboratories. Realisation of indigenous Lander is in progress. Special tests for new systems in Lander have been identified and a Lander Sensors Performance Test (phase-1) over artificial craters created in Chitradurga district in Karnataka has been conducted. Lunar Terrain Test facility is ready for Lander drop test and Rover mobility tests.
The Orbiter carrying six payloads will orbit around the Moon in 100 km lunar orbit. The payloads will collect scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice.
ISRO is working towards the launch of Chandrayaan-2 during the first quarter of 2018.
UNESCO inscribes Yoga in the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
Yoga, India’s one of the ancient practices has now been inscribed as an element in the UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of humanity during the 11th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. During this session, India’s proposal for inscribing Yoga as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity was unanimously supported by all the 24 members of the Intergovernmental Committee.
Yoga has become the 13th intangible cultural heritage that has been listed from India so far with UNESCO. Previous ones includes the Chhau dance( Inscribed in 2010), the Buddhist chanting of Ladakh ( inscribed in 2012), Sankirtana –the ritual singing, drumming, and dancing of Manipur( inscribed in 2013), the traditional brass and copper craft of utensil making among the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, Punjab(inscribed in 2014) and Ramlila– the traditional performance of the Ramayana ( inscribed in 2008)
Impact of Administrative Reforms implemented by Government
Several administrative reforms are implemented by the Government post 2014 to make administrative process efficient, transparent and accountable. Some of the major reforms are as under:
(i) e-Samiksha- A real time online system for monitoring and follow up action on the decisions taken by the Government at the apex level in respect of implementation of important Government’s programmes / projects.
(ii) e-Office– e-Office Mission Mode Project (MMP) has been strengthened for enabling Ministries/Department to switchover to paperless office.
(iii) Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) payment, e-Payments – All payments to the beneficiary
is to be made directly to their bank account through electronic mode under DBT.
(iv) Aadhaar enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) –AEBAS was introduced in the Central Government Offices located in Delhi to monitor punctuality of government officials. This has improved the punctuality of the Government servant in offices.
(v) Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW) –Annual Performance Appraisal Report of All India Service Officers and some other services are being submitted online in the SPARROW portal. The system ensures timely submission and easy access of APAR.
(vi) Legal Information Management Based System (LIMBS) – This is an online court case monitoring system to ensure speedy disposal of disputes.
(vii) Online application system for notaries– This system helps the interested persons in getting themselves registered as notaries.
(viii) Discontinuation of Interview in recruitment of Junior Level Posts – Government has taken a decision to dispense away with the interview in recruitment of all Group ‘C’, Group ‘B’ (Non-gazetted post) and other equivalent post from 01.01.2016 in all Government of India Ministries/Department/Attached Offices/Subordinate Offices/Autonomous Bodies/Public Sector Undertakings to curb malpractices and for bringing objectivities to the selection process.
(ix) Introduction of conducting examination by Staff Selection Commission (SSC) through Computer Based Mode. Group ‘B’ and Group ‘C’ posts recruitment conducted by SSC made through Computer Base Mode.
(x) ‘JeevanPramaan’ – The system provides authenticity to Digital Life Certificate without the necessity of the pensioner being present in person before his/ her Pension Dispensing Authority (PDA).
(xi) The Government has undertaken several initiatives to introduce new IT products and technologies and to strengthen existing ones in its various e-Governance projects. Some of major initiatives are as under:
(a) National Scholarship Portal: It provides a centralized platform for application and disbursement of scholarship to students under any scholarship scheme.
(b) GeM–An online procurement of Goods & Services required by various Government Departments / Organizations / PSUs, Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has been developed to enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement.
(c) UMANG – Unified Mobile App for New – age Governance is an initiative to build a common, unified platform and mobile app to facilitate single point of access for government services through mobile.
(d) e-Sign– This framework has been developed as an integrated service, which facilitates issuing a Digital Signature Certificate and performing signing of requested document by authenticating the Aadhaar card holder.
(e) Digital Locker-This provides an ecosystem with collection of repositories and gateways for issuers to upload the documents in the digital repositories. It will eliminate the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of e-documents across agencies.The System serves as a platform to enable citizens to securely store and share their documents with service providers who can directly access them electronically.
(f) e-Hospital– Online Registration Framework (ORF) is an initiative to facilitate the patients to take online OPD appointments with government hospitals. This framework also covers patient care, laboratory services and medical record management.
(g) Mobile Seva – Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has implemented a countrywide initiative on mobile governance, called Mobile Seva, to provide government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets.
(h) National Centre of Geo-informatics (NCoG)– Under this project, Geographic Information System (GIS) platform for sharing, collaboration, location based analytics and decision support system for Departments has been developed. Currently, 8 applications across various domains are operational.
(xii) Following initiatives are taken up to ensure farmers’ welfare as well as consumers’ satisfaction:
(a) M-Kisan Portal – All Central and State Government organizations in agriculture and allied sectors to give information/services/advisories to farmers by SMS in their language, preference of agricultural practices and location.
(b) Kisan Call Centres – Government setup call centres to respond to the queries of farmers on all seven days a week from 6.00 AM to 10.00 PM through toll free telephone No. 1XXX-XX-1551.
(c) KisanSuvidha Mobile App – on five critical parameters – weather, input dealers, market price, plant protection and expert advisories.
(d) e-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) – Connecting 21 wholesale markets (Mandis) in eight states.
Surging methane emissions imperil climate goals
A decade-long surge of the potent greenhouse gas methane threatens to make the fight against global warming even harder, top researchers warned.
“Additional attention is urgently needed to quantify and reduce methane emissions,” they wrote Monday in the Environmental Research Letters journal, summarizing the findings of a consortium of 81 scientists.
After rising slowly from 2000 to 2006, the concentration of methane in the air climbed 10 times more quickly the following decade, according to that study, which was published in the peer-reviewed Earth System Science Data.
The unexpected and largely unexplained increase was especially sharp in 2014 and 2015.
“Keeping global warming below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is already a challenging target,” they said, referring to the goal set in the 196 nation Paris climate pact, which entered into force last month.
“Such a target will become increasingly difficult if reductions in methane emissions are not also addressed strongly and rapidly.”
With only 1 degree Celsius (1.8 F) of warming above pre-industrial era levels so far, the world has seen an uptick in extreme weather, including droughts, superstorms, heat waves and coastal flooding boosted by rising seas.
On current trends, average global temperatures are on track to jump by more than 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 F) by 2100, even if national carbon-cutting pledges annexed to the Paris Agreement are honoured.
NDRF teams pre-positioned in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for cyclone Vardah
In view of development of cyclone Vardah over Bay of Bengal, 19 flood rescue teams of NDRF have been prepositioned in coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu as a proactive deployment.
NDRF:-
The Disaster Management Act has made the statutory provisions for constitution of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for the purpose of specialized response to natural and man-made disasters.
Two national calamities in quick succession in the form of Orissa Super Cyclone (1999) and Gujarat Earthquake (2001) brought about the realization of the need of having a specialist response mechanism at National Level to effectively respond to disasters. This realization led to the enactment of the DM Act on 26 Dec 2005.
How the Cyclones are named:-
The naming of tropical cyclones is a recent phenomenon. The process of naming cyclones involves several countries in the region and is done under the aegis of the World Meteorological Organization.
For the Indian Ocean region, deliberations for naming cyclones began in 2000 and a formula was agreed upon in 2004. Eight countries in the region – Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand – all contributed a set of names which are assigned sequentially whenever a cyclonic storm develops.
Why name a Cyclone?
It’s easier and less confusing to say “Cyclone Phailin” than remember the storm’s number or its longitude and latitude. It’s also easier when you have more than one storm to track.
Tirupati laddu – Geographical Indicator , also needs safety licence, says food safety authority
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) now has to obtain a food safety licence like any other Food Business Operator (FBO) for the famed Tirupati laddu.
The applicability of the Act is not affected whether the food is purchased or distributed free of cost. TTD therefore has to obtain a licence and fulfil all responsibilities of an FBO as stipulated in Section 23 of the FSS Act
What are the different parts of a cyclone’s structure?
The eye
The eye of the storm is the centre. It’s a relatively calm space. When the eye passes over an area, winds slow down and everything feels like it has cleared up. But this is the proverbial calm before the storm, as the part that comes after the eye usually inflicts the most damage.
The eyewall
This is where the most effective part of a cyclone rests. The eyewall houses extremely high wind speeds, causing damage to both lives and property. It is a ring of thunderstorms, and changes in the eye or the eyewall affects the storm’s intensity.
Rainbands
These are the outer parts of a cyclone where sudden bursts of rain happen. There can also be gaps betwen rainbands where no rain or wind occurs.
Hurricane or cyclone?
The only difference between a hurricane, a cyclone and a typhoon is the location in which they occur. Storms in the Atlantic and the Northeast Pacific oceans are known as hurricanes, those in the Northwest Pacific ocean are called typhoons, and the same systems in the South Pacific and Indian oceans are cyclones.
Rs. 12.44 lakh crore in demonetised notes collected at banks
Banks have issued Rs 4.61 lakh crore to the public since November 9 through ATMs and bank counters.
The Reserve Bank of India said on Tuesday that Rs 12.44 lakh crore in demonetised notes have been collected at banks.
Cancel illegal salt pans in Sambhar Lake: NGT
The central zonal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Rajasthan government to cancel allotments of salt pans in the Sambhar Salt Lake that fall within the wetland and run contrary to the mandate of Wetland Rules, 2010.
NGT has also directed the State government to not to make any further allotments or permit new salt pans within the wetland areas or in the ‘no construction zone’ identified for the said purpose in accordance with the Wetland Rules, 2010.
It has further asked the authority to examine the sensitive issue in light of observations and recommendations made by the two expert committees in the year 2010. The bench gave six months’ time to implement the recommendations which should not be later than the 2017 monsoon.
Sambar lake:
The Sambhar Salt Lake is India’s largest inland salt lake and the only aeolian lake. The lake encircles historical Sambhar Lake Town located 96 km south west of the city of Jaipur in Rajasthan. It is the source of most of Rajasthan’s salt production. It produces 196,000 tonnes of clean salt every year, which equates to around 9% of India’s salt production.
Sambhar has been designated as a Ramsar site. The wetland is a key wintering area for tens of thousands of flamingos and other birds that migrate from northern Asia.
Cabinet approves Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) for cooperation in the Exchange and use of U.S. Land Remote Sensing Satellite Data
ISRO of Department of Space is actively pursuing civilian space cooperation with many US organisations including National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and United States Geological Survey (USGS). Data from Landsat series of satellites operated by USGS was used by Indian scientists during the inception of Indian remote sensing programme. ISRO received Landsat data during 1984 to 2001 through its ground station at Shadnagar. USGS has launched Landsat -8 satellite in February 2013. ISRO expressed interest in direct reception of the Landsat-8 data in India, while USGS expressed interest in obtaining data from ISRO’s RESOURCESAT-2 satellite.
ISRO and USGS, considering their mutual interest in data exchange of each other satellites, signed the MoU
Cabinet approves replacement of ‘Major Port Trusts Act, 1963’ with ‘the Major Port Trust Authorities Bill, 2016’
With a view to promote the expansion of port infrastructure and facilitate trade and commerce, the proposed bill aims at decentralizing decision making and to infuse professionalism in governance of ports. The new Major Ports Authority Bill, 2016 would help to impart faster and transparent decision making benefiting the stakeholders and better project execution capability. The Bill is aimed at reorienting the governance model in central Ports to landlord port model in line with the successful global practice. This will also help in bringing transparency in operations of Major Ports.
The salient features of the Major Ports Authority Bill are as under:
- The Bill is more compact in comparison to the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 as the number of sections has been reduced to 65 from 134 by eliminating overlapping and obsolete Sections.
- The new Bill has proposed a simplified composition of the Board of Port Authority which will comprise of 11 members from the present 17 to 19 Members representing various interests. A compact Board with professional independent members will strengthen decision making and strategic planning. Provision has been made for inclusion of representative of the State Government in which the Major Port is situated, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Defence and Customs, Department of Revenue as Members in the Board apart from a Government Nominee Member and a Member representing the employees of the Major Ports Authority.
- The role of Tariff Authority for Major Ports [TAMP] has been redefined. Port Authority has now been given powers to fix tariff which will act as a reference tariff for purposes of bidding for PPP projects. PPP operators will be free to fix tariff based on market conditions. The Board of the Port Authority has been delegated the power to fix the scale of rates for other port services and assets including land.
- An independent Review Board has been proposed to be created to carry out the residual function of the erstwhile TAMP for Major Ports, to look into disputes between ports and PPP concessionaires, to review stressed PPP projects and suggest measures to review stressed PPP projects and suggest measures to revive such projects and to look into complaints regarding services rendered by the ports/private operators operating within the ports would be constituted.
- The Boards of the Port Authority have been delegated full powers to enter into contracts, planning and development, fixing of tariff except in national interest, security and emergency arising out of inaction and default. In the present MPT Act, 1963 prior approval of the Central Government was required in 22 cases.
- Empowers the Board to make its own Master Plan in respect of the area within the port limits and to construct within port limits Pipelines, Telephones, Communication towers, electricity supply or transmission equipment. The Board is empowered to lease land for Port related use for upto 40 years and for any purpose other than the purposes specified in section 22 for upto 20 years beyond which the approval of the Central Government is required.
- Provisions of CSR & development of infrastructure by Port Authority have been introduced.
European Organisation for Nuclear Research
In recent years, Indian scientists have been involved in all pioneering activities at CERN. India has made significant contributions to the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in the areas of design, development and supply of hardware accelerator components/systems and its commissioning and software development and deployment in the machine.
India is one of the leading partners in the ALICE experiment, which is on a quest to unearth the physics of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and to get a glimpse of how matter behaved within a few microseconds after the birth of the Universe.
The discovery of the Higgs Boson at the LHC is the most talked about scientific discovery in recent memory.
Indian scientists have played a significant role in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments, which is one of the two large experiments that have led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson.
Indian scientists have been named as part of this historic discovery. This helps India in participating in the high end technology related to high energy accelerators. It is noteworthy to mention the involvement of Indian scientists in high-tech particle detectors and electronics research, ISOLDE (Isotope Separator On Line Device) and n-TOF (neutron Time of Flight) experiments, and various application oriented programs including medical imaging.
In the field of large-scale computing, India has made major contributions in terms of designing, developing and deploying software for the Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid (WLCG).
It is worth mentioning that the grid Tier-2 centres established at Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkata and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai have provided the pledged resources and are operating with 96% uptime, thereby facilitating running of computational jobs by various CERN collaborations.
An agreement has been signed between India and the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) concerning the granting of the status of Associate Member at CERN.
Associate Membership entitles Indian industry to participate directly in all CERN related activities. This will lead to enhancement of high technology development expertise in the country, which will in turn be beneficial to DAE and other scientific departments in the country for their future programmes in the related areas.
About Quark–Gluon plasma (QGP)
A quark–gluon plasma (QGP) or quark soup is a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) which is hypothesized to exist at extremely high temperature, density, or both temperature and density.
This state is thought to consist of asymptotically free quarks and gluons, which are several of the basic building blocks of matter. It is believed that up to a few milliseconds after the Big Bang, known as the Quark epoch, the Universe was in a quark–gluon plasma state.
In June 2015, an international team of physicists produced quark-gluon plasma at the Large Hadron Collider by colliding protons with lead nuclei at high energy inside the supercollider’s Compact Muon Solenoid detector. They also discovered that this new state of matter behaves like a fluid.
Nanocraft
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to send two nano satellites into space namely INS-1A & INS-1B, weighing 10 kg each including payload mass of 5 kg. These nano satellites are meant for technology demonstration. Mission life is expected to be six months to one year.
Recognition of Products under GI Classification -From North-East
260 products have been registered as Geographical Indications (GIs) since 2003.
Geographical Indications are covered as an element of Intellectual Property Rights under the TRIPS Agreement. The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property does not mention Geographical Indications; however, Appellations of Origin, which are a particular kind of Geographical Indications, are covered under the Paris Convention.
There is no Geographical Indication registered in the name of Bhut Jolokia green chillies. A list of products from North Eastern States registered as Geographical Indications are : –
| Geographical Indications | State |
| Muga Silk of Assam | Assam |
| Naga Mircha | Nagaland |
| Assam (Orthodox) – A type of tea | Assam |
| Shaphee Lanphee – Shaphee Lanphee is a traditional textile fabric woven and embroidered, usually as a shawl, with embroidered motifs with cotton threads generally by Meetei women of Manipur. The fabric was, in the past, presented as a gift of honour (Mana Phee) to the soldiers for their bravery in a successful war, and to the praise-worthy chiefs of the Nagas of Manipur by the king of Manipur. | Manipur |
| Wangkhei Phee – Wangkhei Phee is a textile fabric made of white cotton. It is a product which is protected under the GI registration and is made throughout the Indian state of Manipur and is woven by women. The fabric is transparent, has many designs on its body, and is popularly worn by women of Manipur for marriage ceremonies and other festive occasions | Manipur |
| Moirang Phee – is a textile fabric having origin in Moirang village | Manipur |
| Naga Tree Tomato
|
Nagaland |
| Arunachal Orange | Arunachal Pradesh |
| Sikkim Large Cardamom | Sikkim |
| Mizo Chilli | Mizoram |
| Assam Karbi Anglong Ginger | Assam |
| Tripura Queen Pineapple | Tripura |
| Tezpur Litchi | Assam |
| Khasi Mandarin– Khasi Mandarin of Meghalaya, a rare and unique citrus species | Meghalaya |
| Kachai Lemon | Manipur |
| Memong Narang | Meghalaya |
New Monuments under ASI
After survey, 22 numbers of monuments (list is given below) have been identified to include under list of centrally protected monuments. Conservation work of the protected monuments is a continuous process.
List :-
| Name of Monument | State |
| Badarpur Fort, District Karimganj | Assam |
| Rock Painting at Chintakunta Muddanur Mandal, District Y.S.R. Kadapa | Andhra Pradesh |
| Ancient Site, Khirsara, District Kacchh | Gujarat |
| Budhist Monastery at Lahaling District Lalaul and Spiti. | Himachal Pradesh |
| Zimskhang Gongma along with village remains | Jammu & Kashmir |
| Ancient Caves Saspol/Gon-Nila-Phuk Meditition Caves Saspol, Leh-Laadakh | Jammu & Kashmir |
| Rock Art site Murgi, Leh-Laadakh | Jammu & Kashmir |
| Trilochana Temple | Jammu & Kashmir |
| Trisher Stupa along with adjusting remains and prehistoric site around Holy Lake (Slob Phan Rso), Leh-Laadakh | Jammu & Kashmir |
| Navratana Garh Fort | Jharkahand |
| Janardana Temple, District Thrissur | Kerala |
| Vishnu Temple (Visnugudi) Nadavyal Sultanbatery Taluk, Wayanad, District Thrissur | Kerala |
| Dhurabarao (Putalibarao) | Maharashtra |
| Monument at Ranipur Jharial | Odisha |
| Zawar, Zinc Protection Centre | Rajasthan |
| The four Mughal Gardens | Uttar Pradesh |
| Haveli of Agah Khan | Uttar Pradesh |
| Haveli of Khan-i-Duran | Uttar Pradesh |
| Hathi Khana | Uttar Pradesh |
| Someshwar Mahadeva Temple Char, District Chitrakut. | Uttar Pradesh |
| Ancient Brick Temple (Tundare Baba), Deokalia (Unchagaon) in District Sitapur. | Uttar Pradesh |
| Sanauli | Uttar Pradesh |
Security infrastructure to plug cross border infiltration
*There was question on border management in this years mains exam.
The Government has adopted multi-pronged approach to curb the infiltration from western front, which include construction of fence, floodlight, Border Out Posts (BoPs), induction of latest surveillance equipments like Hand Held Thermal Imager (HHTI), Long Range Recce Observation System (LORROS), Night vision Goggle/devices, etc.
Government of India has also decided to deploy technological solutions in the form of Comprehensive Integrated Border Management (CIBMS), on a pilot basis to begin with, in different terrains on Indo-Pakistan border.
It is based on integration of manpower, underground, under water sensors, networks, intelligence and command & control solutions, including options such as Electro-Optic Sensors (high resolution day & night cameras), Radars and other devices. As per procurement schedule, technical evaluation of offered technologies is in progress and deployment of CIBMS in Jammu on pilot basis is likely to be completed by 31st August, 2017.
Predatory Journals:
Recent Posts
Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.
Globally, around 80% of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused, according to the United Nations.
This can pose a significant environmental and health threat.
In the absence of cost-effective, sustainable, disruptive water management solutions, about 70% of sewage is discharged untreated into India’s water bodies.
A staggering 21% of diseases are caused by contaminated water in India, according to the World Bank, and one in five children die before their fifth birthday because of poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, according to Startup India.
As we confront these public health challenges emerging out of environmental concerns, expanding the scope of public health/environmental engineering science becomes pivotal.
For India to achieve its sustainable development goals of clean water and sanitation and to address the growing demands for water consumption and preservation of both surface water bodies and groundwater resources, it is essential to find and implement innovative ways of treating wastewater.
It is in this context why the specialised cadre of public health engineers, also known as sanitation engineers or environmental engineers, is best suited to provide the growing urban and rural water supply and to manage solid waste and wastewater.
Traditionally, engineering and public health have been understood as different fields.
Currently in India, civil engineering incorporates a course or two on environmental engineering for students to learn about wastewater management as a part of their pre-service and in-service training.
Most often, civil engineers do not have adequate skills to address public health problems. And public health professionals do not have adequate engineering skills.
India aims to supply 55 litres of water per person per day by 2024 under its Jal Jeevan Mission to install functional household tap connections.
The goal of reaching every rural household with functional tap water can be achieved in a sustainable and resilient manner only if the cadre of public health engineers is expanded and strengthened.
In India, public health engineering is executed by the Public Works Department or by health officials.
This differs from international trends. To manage a wastewater treatment plant in Europe, for example, a candidate must specialise in wastewater engineering.
Furthermore, public health engineering should be developed as an interdisciplinary field. Engineers can significantly contribute to public health in defining what is possible, identifying limitations, and shaping workable solutions with a problem-solving approach.
Similarly, public health professionals can contribute to engineering through well-researched understanding of health issues, measured risks and how course correction can be initiated.
Once both meet, a public health engineer can identify a health risk, work on developing concrete solutions such as new health and safety practices or specialised equipment, in order to correct the safety concern..
There is no doubt that the majority of diseases are water-related, transmitted through consumption of contaminated water, vectors breeding in stagnated water, or lack of adequate quantity of good quality water for proper personal hygiene.
Diseases cannot be contained unless we provide good quality and adequate quantity of water. Most of the world’s diseases can be prevented by considering this.
Training our young minds towards creating sustainable water management systems would be the first step.
Currently, institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) are considering initiating public health engineering as a separate discipline.
To leverage this opportunity even further, India needs to scale up in the same direction.
Consider this hypothetical situation: Rajalakshmi, from a remote Karnataka village spots a business opportunity.
She knows that flowers, discarded in the thousands by temples can be handcrafted into incense sticks.
She wants to find a market for the product and hopefully, employ some people to help her. Soon enough though, she discovers that starting a business is a herculean task for a person like her.
There is a laborious process of rules and regulations to go through, bribes to pay on the way and no actual means to transport her product to its market.
After making her first batch of agarbathis and taking it to Bengaluru by bus, she decides the venture is not easy and gives up.
On the flipside of this is a young entrepreneur in Bengaluru. Let’s call him Deepak. He wants to start an internet-based business selling sustainably made agarbathis.
He has no trouble getting investors and to mobilise supply chains. His paperwork is over in a matter of days and his business is set up quickly and ready to grow.
Never mind that the business is built on aggregation of small sellers who will not see half the profit .
Is this scenario really all that hypothetical or emblematic of how we think about entrepreneurship in India?
Between our national obsession with unicorns on one side and glorifying the person running a pakora stall for survival as an example of viable entrepreneurship on the other, is the middle ground in entrepreneurship—a space that should have seen millions of thriving small and medium businesses, but remains so sparsely occupied that you could almost miss it.
If we are to achieve meaningful economic growth in our country, we need to incorporate, in our national conversation on entrepreneurship, ways of addressing the missing middle.
Spread out across India’s small towns and cities, this is a class of entrepreneurs that have been hit by a triple wave over the last five years, buffeted first by the inadvertent fallout of demonetization, being unprepared for GST, and then by the endless pain of the covid-19 pandemic.
As we finally appear to be reaching some level of normality, now is the opportune time to identify the kind of industries that make up this layer, the opportunities they should be afforded, and the best ways to scale up their functioning in the shortest time frame.
But, why pay so much attention to these industries when we should be celebrating, as we do, our booming startup space?
It is indeed true that India has the third largest number of unicorns in the world now, adding 42 in 2021 alone. Braving all the disruptions of the pandemic, it was a year in which Indian startups raised $24.1 billion in equity investments, according to a NASSCOM-Zinnov report last year.
However, this is a story of lopsided growth.
The cities of Bengaluru, Delhi/NCR, and Mumbai together claim three-fourths of these startup deals while emerging hubs like Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, and Jaipur account for the rest.
This leap in the startup space has created 6.6 lakh direct jobs and a few million indirect jobs. Is that good enough for a country that sends 12 million fresh graduates to its workforce every year?
It doesn’t even make a dent on arguably our biggest unemployment in recent history—in April 2020 when the country shutdown to battle covid-19.
Technology-intensive start-ups are constrained in their ability to create jobs—and hybrid work models and artificial intelligence (AI) have further accelerated unemployment.
What we need to focus on, therefore, is the labour-intensive micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME). Here, we begin to get to a definitional notion of what we called the mundane middle and the problems it currently faces.
India has an estimated 63 million enterprises. But, out of 100 companies, 95 are micro enterprises—employing less than five people, four are small to medium and barely one is large.
The questions to ask are: why are Indian MSMEs failing to grow from micro to small and medium and then be spurred on to make the leap into large companies?
At the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME), we have advocated for a National Mission for Mass Entrepreneurship, the need for which is more pronounced now than ever before.
Whenever India has worked to achieve a significant economic milestone in a limited span of time, it has worked best in mission mode. Think of the Green Revolution or Operation Flood.
From across various states, there are enough examples of approaches that work to catalyse mass entrepreneurship.
The introduction of entrepreneurship mindset curriculum (EMC) in schools through alliance mode of working by a number of agencies has shown significant improvement in academic and life outcomes.
Through creative teaching methods, students are encouraged to inculcate 21st century skills like creativity, problem solving, critical thinking and leadership which are not only foundational for entrepreneurship but essential to thrive in our complex world.
Udhyam Learning Foundation has been involved with the Government of Delhi since 2018 to help young people across over 1,000 schools to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
One pilot programme introduced the concept of ‘seed money’ and saw 41 students turn their ideas into profit-making ventures. Other programmes teach qualities like grit and resourcefulness.
If you think these are isolated examples, consider some larger data trends.
The Observer Research Foundation and The World Economic Forum released the Young India and Work: A Survey of Youth Aspirations in 2018.
When asked which type of work arrangement they prefer, 49% of the youth surveyed said they prefer a job in the public sector.
However, 38% selected self-employment as an entrepreneur as their ideal type of job. The spirit of entrepreneurship is latent and waiting to be unleashed.
The same can be said for building networks of successful women entrepreneurs—so crucial when the participation of women in the Indian economy has declined to an abysmal 20%.
The majority of India’s 63 million firms are informal —fewer than 20% are registered for GST.
Research shows that companies that start out as formal enterprises become two-three times more productive than a similar informal business.
So why do firms prefer to be informal? In most cases, it’s because of the sheer cost and difficulty of complying with the different regulations.
We have academia and non-profits working as ecosystem enablers providing insights and evidence-based models for growth. We have large private corporations and philanthropic and funding agencies ready to invest.
It should be in the scope of a National Mass Entrepreneurship Mission to bring all of them together to work in mission mode so that the gap between thought leadership and action can finally be bridged.