THE PRIEST

The Union Cabinet recently approved a scheme for creation of a National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) for providing Broadband connectivity to Panchayats. The objective of the scheme is to extend the existing optical fiber network which is available up to district / block HQ’s level to the Gram Panchayat level initially by utilizing the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). The cost of this initial phase of the NOFN scheme is likely to be about Rs.20,000 crore. A similar amount of investment is likely to be made by the private sector complementing the NOFN infrastructure while providing services to individual users. In economic terms, the benefits from the scheme are expected through additional employment, e-education, e-health, e-agriculture etc. and reduction in migration of rural population to urban areas. As per a study conducted by the World Bank, with every 10% increase in broadband penetration, there is an increase in GDP growth by 1.4%. NOFN will also facilitate implemen...

The Cabinet recently approved the revised proposal of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry to put in place a National Manufacturing Policy.The main points of the policy are as follows :

The Union Cabinet on 25th october approved the increase in India’s quota in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a result of the Fourteenth General Review of Quotas.

Believe in yourself - in the power you have to control your own life, day by day,

Only few days are remaining for the preparation and without doubt everyone must be busy with last stage of revision .It is the time generally when people feel anxiety,oscillating confidence and try to revise as quickly as possible.

At the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, held in Nagoya, Japan from 18 to 29 October 2010, Parties adopted the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity .

 The exercise, named “Ex Eastern Bridge - 2011” is the second of the series, the first was held in Oct 2009 ,of joint exercise between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) .It held in Jamnagar.

SIMRAN,developed by IIT-Kanpur,is a satellite imaging software for rail navigation system which is expected to bring the number of train accidents down.The software has been developed, as part of the Railway Safety Technology Mission, by an IIT-led consortium of academic institutions, companies, and R&D outfits.

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme was launched in 1975 with the following objectives: to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years; to lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child; to reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout; to achieve effective co-ordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and to enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education. The above objectives are sought to be achieved through a package of services comprising: supplementary nutrition : This includes supplementary feeding and growth monitoring; and prophylaxis against vitamin A deficiency and control of nutritional anaemia. immunization : Immunization of pregnant women and infants protects childre...

Ujjawala Scheme The objective of the scheme is to prevent trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation through social mobilization and involvement of local communities, awareness generation programmes, generate public discourse through workshops/seminars and such events and any other innovative activity and to facilitate rescue of victims from the place of their exploitation and place them in safe custody.

Dennis Ritchie was a programming expert .He wrote the popular C programming language and helped develop the Unix operating system.

The Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pensions Scheme (IGNOAPS) is one of the components of National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP).Under this scheme monthly pension are provided to person fulfilling following criteria

A comprehensive Social Security Agreement (SSA) was signed between two countries in Berlin. The Agreement which subsume the earlier Indo-German agreement on Social Security on 8th October 2008 will enhance cooperation on social security between the two countries. The Agreement with Germany will provide for the following benefits to Indian nationals working in Germany:

This is the first visit by the Vietnamese President outside the ASEAN region and thus reflects the importance attached by both sides to the relationship.During the visit of President Truong Tan Sang following six agreements were signed between two countries :

Nag is a "fire and forget" anti-tank guided missile with a range of 4 to 6 kilometers. Nag can be mounted on an infantry combat vehicle known as"NAMICA" or on the advanced light helicopter. It has been developed by DRDO as a part of IGMDP (Integrated Guided Missile Development Program).It will be used by both army and airforce . It claimed to be first anti-tank missile which has a complete fiberglass structure.Also a smokeless nitramine based propellant has been developed for the Nag , which makes its detection by enemy tougher. The missile was named as NAG(Snake) because of its trajectory path. Rather than following the elliptical path as other missiles, it hits the target as a snake hits its enemies. The missile goes near to target in elliptical path and suddenly raises upwards and then bends at a certain angle and hits the target.

PSLV-C18 today launched successfully and put four satellites in orbit on Wednesday. The satellites were:

SHAKTI- 2011 is Indo-French joint military exercise, aimed at enhancing various combat skills, promoting mutual understanding and inter-operability between the two armies.

As per the existing policy the monuments are declared protected under “The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958 (24 of 1958)” as amended by “The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010 (10 of 2010)”. The protected monuments are maintained and conserved by the Archaeological Survey of India as per archaeological norms and principles depending upon the availability of resources and needs of intervention. The policy of Archaeological Survey of India is to protect and preserve monuments and sites declared as of national importance without compromising their authenticity and integrity.

These trying times demand it, No halcyon days ahead. But all hard work brings profit, Stand up and refuse to dread.

Megha-Tropiques is a satellite jointly developed by ISRO and France’s space agency CNES to be launched soon by PSLV-C18 .

 Askash is claimed to be world's cheapest tablet with price $49 . It is to be manufactured in India by UK based company Datawind. The price is expected to go further down after its launch and go as low as $10.

ADaRSH, Association for Development and Research of Sustainable Habitats, is an independent platform for the interaction on scientific and administrative issues related to sustainable habitats in the Indian subcontinent. It was founded jointly by TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi) and MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India) along with a handful of experts in the sustainability of built environment from across the country. ADaRSH promotes GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment) as a design & evaluation tool for Green Buildings and Habitats.

In last article i wrote about the reading material which are needed for preparation of civil services .But knowing the source material is not enough , one has to go intelligently and smartly through these material otherwise he will feel overburdened at the time of exam.

वैष्णव जन तो तेने कहिये जे पीड़ा पराई जाने रे पर दुख्खे उपकार करे तोये मन अभिमान न आने रे

Civil services exam , popularly known as IAS entrance exam is considered to be toughest exam of the nation . After interaction with many aspirants i felt that almost everyone have the same set of questions like how to start preparing and which book to refer and how many hours i need to give etc etc .So i thought to write an article and will try to answer these question  in this article . For the preparation of civil services first thing one should do is to become regular with news paper and read it as text book and if possible start making notes of it . I will suggest either The Hindu or Indian Express. Next step will be to start reading NCERT books of Geography,History and polity .Normally it is recommended to read books from class 6 to class 12 , but i feel reading books of class 11th and 12th is more than enough. Once you are through these books , you need to go through following materials : History - Indian struggle for independence ...