Paramilitary Forces in India

TODO

New Countries of the world

In February 2011, the official results of a referendum in South Sudan indicated that South Sudan would likely become the world's newest country. However, the declaration of independence is not expected for South Sudan until July 9, 2011. At that point, this page will be updated.

Since 1990, 33 new countries have been created. The dissolution of the USSR and Yugoslavia in the early 1990s caused the creation of most of the newly independent states.

You probably know about many of these changes but a few of these new countries seemed to slip by almost unnoticed. This comprehensive listing will update you about the countries which have formed since 1990.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Fifteen new countries became independent with the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Most of these countries declared independence a few months preceding the fall of the Soviet Union in late 1991.

1. Armenia
2. Azerbaijan
3. Belarus
4. Estonia
5. Georgia
6. Kazakhstan
7. Kyrgyzstan
8. Latvia
9. Lithuania
10. Moldova
11. Russia
12. Tajikistan
13. Turkmenistan
14. Ukraine
15. Uzbekistan

Former Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia dissolved in the early 1990s into five independent countries.

1. Bosnia and Herzegovina, February 29, 1992
2. Croatia, June 25, 1991
3. Macedonia (officially The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) declared independence on September 8, 1991 but wasn't recognized by the United Nations until 1993 and the United States and Russia in February of 1994
4. Serbia and Montenegro, (also known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), April 17, 1992 (see below for separate Serbia and Montenegro entries)
5. Slovenia, June 25, 1991

Other New Countries

Thirteen other countries became independent through a variety of causes.

• March 21, 1990 - Namibia became independent of South Africa.
• May 22, 1990 - North and South Yemen merged to form a unified Yemen.
• October 3, 1990 - East Germany and West Germany merged to form a unified Germany after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
• September 17, 1991 - The Marshall Islands was part of the Trust Territory of Pacific Islands (administered by the United States) and gained independence as a former colony.
• September 17, 1991 - Micronesia, previously known as the Caroline Islands, became independent from the United States.
• January 1, 1993 - The Czech Republic and Slovakia became independent nations when Czechoslovakia dissolved.
• May 25, 1993 - Eritrea was a part of Ethiopia but seceded and gained independence.
• October 1, 1994 - Palau was part of the Trust Territory of Pacific Islands (administered by the United States) and gained independence as a former colony.
• May 20, 2002 - East Timor (Timor-Leste) declared independence from Portugal in 1975 but did not became independent from Indonesia until 2002.
• June 3, 2006 - Montenegro was part of Serbia and Montenegro (also known as Yugoslavia) but gained independence after a referendum.
• June 5, 2006 - Serbia became its own entity after Montenegro split.
• Febraury 17, 2008 - Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.

Electromagnetic Spectrum: Cell Phone

Electromagnetic (EM) radiation is a stream of photons, traveling in waves. The photon is the base particle for all forms of EM radiation.

But what's a photon?

It's a bundle of energy -- of light -- always in motion. In fact, the amount of energy a photon carries makes it sometimes behave like a wave and sometimes like a particle. Scientists call thiswave-particle duality.

Low-energy photons (such as radio) behave like waves, while high-energy photons (such as X-rays) behave more like particles.

EM radiation can travel through empty space. This differentiates it from other types of waves, such as sound, which need a medium to move through. All forms of EM radiation reside on theelectromagnetic spectrum, which ranks radiation from lowest energy/longest wavelength to highest energy/shortest wavelength. The higher the energy, the stronger, and therefore more dangerous, the radiation. The only difference between a radio wave and a gamma ray is the energy level of the photons

How Cell Phone works:

One of the most interesting things about a cell phone is that it is actually a radio -- an extremely sophisticated radio, but a radio nonetheless.

Cell-phone Codes

Cell Phone Codes Electronic Serial Number (ESN) - a unique 32-bit number programmed into the phone when it is manufactured Mobile Identification Number (MIN) - a 10-digit number derived from your phone's number System Identification Code (SID) - a unique 5-digit number that is assigned to each carrier by the FCC While the ESN is considered a permanent part of the phone, both the MIN and SID codes are programmed into the phone when you purchase a service plan and have the phone activated.

All cell phones have special codes associated with them. These codes are used to identify the phone, the phone's owner and the service provider.

Let's say you have a cell phone, you turn it on and someone tries to call you. Here is what happens to the call:

• When you first power up the phone, it listens for an SID (see sidebar) on the control channel. The control channel is a special frequency that the phone and base station use to talk to one another about things like call set-up and channel changing. If the phone cannot find any control channels to listen to, it knows it is out of range and displays a "no service" message.

• When it receives the SID, the phone compares it to the SID programmed into the phone. If the SIDs match, the phone knows that the cell it is communicating with is part of its home system.

• Along with the SID, the phone also transmits a registration request, and the MTSO keeps track of your phone's location in a database -- this way, the MTSO knows which cell you are in when it wants to ring your phone.

• The MTSO gets the call, and it tries to find you. It looks in its database to see which cell you are in.

• The MTSO picks a frequency pair that your phone will use in that cell to take the call.

• The MTSO communicates with your phone over the control channel to tell it which frequencies to use, and once your phone and the tower switch on those frequencies, the call is connected. Now, you are talking by two-way radio to a friend.

• As you move toward the edge of your cell, your cell's base station notes that your signal strength is diminishing. Meanwhile, the base station in the cell you are moving toward (which is listening and measuring signal strength on all frequencies, not just its own one-seventh) sees your phone's signal strength increasing. The two base stations coordinate with each other through the MTSO, and at some point, your phone gets a signal on a control channel telling it to change frequencies. This hand off switches your phone to the new cell.

As you travel, the signal is passed from cell to cell.

Let's say you're on the phone and you move from one cell to another -- but the cell you move into is covered by another service provider, not yours. Instead of dropping the call, it'll actually be handed off to the other service provider.

If the SID on the control channel does not match the SID programmed into your phone, then the phone knows it is roaming. The MTSO of the cell that you are roaming in contacts the MTSO of your home system, which then checks its database to confirm that the SID of the phone you are using is valid. Your home system verifies your phone to the local MTSO, which then tracks your phone as you move through its cells. And the amazing thing is that all of this happens within seconds.

The less amazing thing is that you may be charged insane rates for your roaming call. On most phones, the word "roam" will come up on your phone's screen when you leave your provider's coverage area and enter another's. If not, you'd better study your coverage maps carefully -- more than one person has been unpleasantly surprised by the cost of roaming. Check your service contract carefully to find out how much you're paying when you roam.

Note that if you want to roam internationally, you'll need a phone that will work both at home and abroad. Different countries use different cellular access technologies. More on those technologies later. First, let's get some background on analog cell-phone technology so we can understand how the industry has developed.

Along Comes Digital

Digital cell phones are the second generation (2G) of cellular technology. They use the same radio technology as analog phones, but they use it in a different way. Analog systems do not fully utilize the signal between the phone and the cellular network -- analog signals cannot be compressed and manipulated as easily as a true digital signal. This is the reason why many cable companies are switching to digital -- so they can fit more channels within a given bandwidth. It is amazing how much more efficient digital systems can be.

Digital phones convert your voice into binary information (1s and 0s) and then compress it (see How Analog-Digital Recording Works for details on the conversion process). This compression allows between three and 10 digital cell-phone calls to occupy the space of a single analog call.

Many digital cellular systems rely on frequency-shift keying (FSK) to send data back and forth over AMPS. FSK uses two frequencies, one for 1s and the other for 0s, alternating rapidly between the two to send digital information between the cell tower and the phone. Clever modulation and encoding schemes are required to convert the analog information to digital, compress it and convert it back again while maintaining an acceptable level of voice quality. All of this means that digital cell phones have to contain a lot of processing power.

Let's take a good look inside a digital cell phone.

Inside a Digital Cell Phone

On a "complexity per cubic inch" scale, cell phones are some of the most intricate devices people use on a daily basis. Modern digital cell phones can process millions of calculations per second in order to compress and decompress the voice stream.

The parts of a cell phone

If you take a basic digital cell phone apart, you find that it contains just a few individual parts:

• An amazing circuit board containing the brains of the phone
• An antenna
• A liquid crystal display (LCD)
• A keyboard (not unlike the one you find in a TV remote control)
• A microphone
• A speaker
• A battery

The circuit board is the heart of the system. Here is one from a typical Nokia digital phone:

The front of the circuit board

The back of the circuit board

In the photos above, you see several computer chips. Let's talk about what some of the individual chips do. The analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion chips translate the outgoing audio signal from analog to digital and the incoming signal from digital back to analog. You can learn more about A-to-D and D-to-A conversion and its importance to digital audio in How Compact Discs Work. The digital signal processor (DSP) is a highly customized processor designed to perform signal-manipulation calculations at high speed. ­

The microprocessor handles all of the housekeeping chores for the keyboard and display, deals with command and control signaling with the base station and also coordinates the rest of the functions on the board.

The microprocessor

The ROM and Flash memory chips provide storage for the phone's operating system and customizable features, such as the phone directory. The radio frequency (RF) and power section handles power management and recharging, and also deals with the hundreds of FM channels. Finally, the RF amplifiers handle signals traveling to and from the antenna.

The display and keypad contacts

The display has grown considerably in size as the number of features in cell phones have increased. Most current phones offer built-in phone directories, calculators and games. And many of the phones incorporate some type of PDA or Web browser.

The SIM card on the circuit board

The SIM card removed

Some phones store certain information, such as the SID and MIN codes, in internal Flash memory, while others use external cards that are similar to SmartMedia cards.

The cell-phone speaker, microphone and battery backup

Cell phones have such tiny speakers and microphones that it is incredible how well most of them reproduce sound. As you can see in the picture above, the speaker is about the size of a dime and the microphone is no larger than the watch battery beside it. Speaking of the watch battery, this is used by the cell phone's internal clock chip.

What is amazing is that all of that functionality -- which only 30 years ago would have filled an entire floor of an office building -- now fits into a package that sits comfortably in the palm of your hand!

In the next section, we'll get into the cell-phone networking methods.

Cell Phone Network Technologies: 2G

There are three common technologies used by 2G cell-phone networks for transmitting information (we'll discuss 3G technologies in the 3G section):

• Frequency division multiple access (FDMA)
• Time division multiple access (TDMA)
• Code division multiple access (CDMA)

Although these technologies sound very intimidating, you can get a good sense of how they work just by breaking down the title of each one.

The first word tells you what the access method is. The second word, division, lets you know that it splits calls based on that access method.

• FDMA puts each call on a separate frequency.
• TDMA assigns each call a certain portion of time on a designated frequency.
• CDMA gives a unique code to each call and spreads it over the available frequencies.

The last part of each name is multiple access. This simply means that more than one user can utilize each cell.

FDMA
FDMA separates the spectrum into distinct voice channels by splitting it into uniform chunks of bandwidth. To better understand FDMA, think of radio stations: Each station sends its signal at a different frequency within the available band. FDMA is used mainly for analog transmission. While it is certainly capable of carrying digital information, FDMA is not considered to be an efficient method for digital transmission.

In FDMA, each phone uses a different frequency.

TDMA
TDMA is the access method used by the Electronics Industry Alliance and the Telecommunications Industry Association for Interim Standard 54 (IS-54) and Interim Standard 136 (IS-136). Using TDMA, a narrow band that is 30 kHz wide and 6.7 milliseconds long is split time-wise into three time slots.

Narrow band means "channels" in the traditional sense. Each conversation gets the radio for one-third of the time. This is possible because voice data that has been converted to digital information is compressed so that it takes up significantly less transmission space. Therefore, TDMA has three times the capacity of an analog system using the same number of channels. TDMA systems operate in either the 800-MHz (IS-54) or 1900-MHz (IS-136) frequency bands.

TDMA splits a frequency into time slots.

Unlocking Your GSM Phone Any GSM phone can work with any SIM card, but some service providers "lock" the phone so that it will only work with their service. If your phone is locked, you can't use it with any other service provider, whether locally or overseas. You can unlock the phone using a special code -- but it's unlikely your service provider will give it to you. There are Web sites that will give you the unlock code, some for a small fee, some for free.

GSM
TDM­A is also used as the access technology for Global System for Mobile communications (GSM). However, GSM implements TDMA in a somewhat different and incompatible way from IS-136. Think of GSM and IS-136 as two different operating systems that work on the same processor, like Windows and Linux both working on an Intel Pentium III. GSM systems use encryption to make phone calls more secure. GSM operates in the 900-MHz and 1800-MHz bands in Europe and Asia and in the 850-MHz and 1900-MHz (sometimes referred to as 1.9-GHz) band in the United States. It is used in digital cellular and PCS-based systems. GSM is also the basis for Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (IDEN), a popular system introduced by Motorola and used by Nextel.

GSM is the international standard in Europe, Australia and much of Asia and Africa. In covered areas, cell-phone users can buy one phone that will work anywhere where the standard is supported. To connect to the specific service providers in these different countries, GSM users simply switch subscriber identification module (SIM) cards. SIM cards are small removable disks that slip in and out of GSM cell phones. They store all the connection data and identification numbers you need to access a particular wireless service provider. ­

Unfortunately, the 850MHz/1900-MHz GSM phones used in the United States are not compatible with the international system. If you live in the United States and need to have cell-phone access when you're overseas, you can either buy a tri-band or quad-band GSM phone and use it both at home and when traveling or just buy a GSM 900MHz/1800MHz cell phone for traveling. You can get 900MHz/1800MHz GSM phones from Planet Omni, an online electronics firm based in California. They offer a wide selection of Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson GSM phones. They don't sell international SIM cards, however. You can pick up prepaid SIM cards for a wide range of countries at Telestial.com.

CDMA
CDMA takes an entirely different approach from TDMA. CDMA, after digitizing data, spreads it out over the entire available bandwidth. Multiple calls are overlaid on each other on the channel, with each assigned a unique sequence code. CDMA is a form of spread spectrum, which simply means that data is sent in small pieces over a number of the discrete frequencies available for use at any time in the specified range.

In CDMA, each phone's data has a unique code.

All of the users transmit in the same wide-band chunk of spectrum. Each user's signal is spread over the entire bandwidth by a unique spreading code. At the receiver, that same unique code is used to recover the signal. Because CDMA systems need to put an accurate time-stamp on each piece of a signal, it references the GPS system for this information. Between eight and 10 separate calls can be carried in the same channel space as one analog AMPS call. CDMA technology is the basis for Interim Standard 95 (IS-95) and operates in both the 800-MHz and 1900-MHz frequency bands.

Ideally, TDMA and CDMA are transparent to each other. In practice, high-power CDMA signals raise the noise floor for TDMA receivers, and high-power TDMA signals can cause overloading and jamming of CDMA receivers.

2G is a cell phone network protocol. Click here to learn about network protocols for Smartphones.

Now let's look at the distinction between multiple-band and multiple-mode technologies.

Radiation from Cell Phone:

When talking on a cell phone, a transmitter takes the sound of your voice and encodes it onto a continuous sine wave (see How Radio Works to learn more about how sound is transmitted). A sine wave is just a type of continuously varying wave that radiates out from the antenna and fluctuates evenly through space. Sine waves are measured in terms of frequency, which is the number of times a wave oscillates up and down per second. Once the encoded sound has been placed on the sine wave, the transmitter sends the signal to the antenna, which then sends the signal out.

Radiation in cell phones is generated in the transmitter and emitted through the antenna.

Cell phones have low-power transmitters in them. Most car phones have a transmitter power of 3 watts. A handheld cell phone operates on about 0.75 to 1 watt of power. The position of a transmitter inside a phone varies depending on the manufacturer, but it is usually in close proximity to the phone's antenna. The radio waves that send the encoded signal are made up of electromagnetic radiation propagated by the antenna. The function of an antenna in any radio transmitter is to launch the radio waves into space; in the case of cell phones, these waves are picked up by a receiver in the cell-phone tower.

Bahrain

Bahrain
Bahrain, officially Kingdom of Bahrain, is a small island country located near the western shores of the Persian Gulf and ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. Bahrain is an archipelago of thirty-three islands, the largest is Bahrain Island.
Bahrain is known for its oil and pearls. The Qal’at al-Bahrain (The Ancient Harbour and Capital of Dilmun) has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
GOVERNMENT
Bahrain is an absolute monarchy headed by the King, Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa; the head of government is the Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalīfa bin Salman al Khalifa, who presides over a cabinet of twenty-five members, where 80% of its members are from the royal family. Bahrain has a bicameral legislature with a lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, elected by universal suffrage and an upper house, the Shura Council, appointed by the king. Both houses have forty members
Shia - Sunni Relations
Bahrain’s Shia majority has often received poor treatment in employment, housing, and infrastructure, while Sunnis have a preferential status. The government of Bahrain even imports Sunnis from Baluch tribal areas and Syria in an attempt to increase the Sunni percentage

Bahrain

Bahrain
Bahrain, officially Kingdom of Bahrain, is a small island country located near the western shores of the Persian Gulf and ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. Bahrain is an archipelago of thirty-three islands, the largest is Bahrain Island.
Bahrain is known for its oil and pearls. The Qal’at al-Bahrain (The Ancient Harbour and Capital of Dilmun) has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
GOVERNMENT
Bahrain is an absolute monarchy headed by the King, Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa; the head of government is the Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalīfa bin Salman al Khalifa, who presides over a cabinet of twenty-five members, where 80% of its members are from the royal family. Bahrain has a bicameral legislature with a lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, elected by universal suffrage and an upper house, the Shura Council, appointed by the king. Both houses have forty members
Shia - Sunni Relations
Bahrain’s Shia majority has often received poor treatment in employment, housing, and infrastructure, while Sunnis have a preferential status. The government of Bahrain even imports Sunnis from Baluch tribal areas and Syria in an attempt to increase the Sunni percentage

Talk with ULFA

Will Talks with Ulfa Go Anywhere?
VED MARWAH PROFESSOR, CENTRE FOR POLICY RESEARCH Yes, Because Ulfa is Under Pressure Two essential preconditions for the success of the talks are: one, the Ulfa has genuinely come to the conclusion that continuation of violence will no longer serve its purpose, and two, it as well as the government are serious about the talks and not entering into them for their short-term objectives. If the insurgents’ main aim is to buy time to arm and regroup and the state government is only interested in deluding the electorate on the eve of the state assembly elections, then the current talks would also end the same way as the previous ones. Last time too, driven out of the Bhutan forests, Ulfa cadres wanted a breathing space to recover and regroup. The much-publicised talks through some well-known and wellintentioned interlocutors came to nothing and we later saw a wave of fresh violence in Assam. This time, too, the timing of the talks and trumpeting them as a great achievement of the Gogoi government raise doubts about their sincerity. It would be a pity if the government were to squander this opportunity that has come primarily because of close cooperation of the Bangladesh government which hitherto was providing open sanctuary to Ulfa leaders there. The Ulfa leadership is under great stress and the ground situation in Assam has greatly improved. The outfit has lost much of its sheen and no longer enjoys much public support. It is finding it difficult to get fresh recruits. There is strong desire for peace and great public revulsion against extortion by Ulfa cadres in the state. But there also the negative side: there are reports of renewed Chinese interest in India’s northeast and its promised support to Ulfa. Pakistan’s ISI is also active in this region. The government should not read too much into the present lull. The situation could deteriorate in the foreseeable future. These talks are important and the government should not see them through the prism of partisan politics. A successful end to Ulfa and Naga insurgencies could play a major role in defeating the other hundred-odd insurgencies that are raging in the north-east.
HIREN GOHAIN CHIEF SPOKESMAN, SANMILITA JATIYA ABHIBARTAN (SJA) Only if Government Shows Wisdom One must realise that the failure or sabotaging of such talks at an opportune moment, with the public in Assam keen for a resolution of the conflict, especially in a strategically sensitive region, is bound to have costly consequences for the country. The climate is now favourable as never before. The General Council of Ulfa had decided overwhelmingly in favour of peace, and for the moment the few dissidents who did not attend have no power to weaken their resolve. The moot point is whether the government has the wisdom and political will to listen and make more than cosmetic changes in the status of Assam. The Ulfa leadership is now ready to give up the demand for sovereignty provided in return the people of Assam are empowered to shape their own future in accordance with their needs and aspirations. The Centre has earned in the last 60 years a lot more from the resources of Assam than it has cared to invest here, and the pattern of development too has not deviated much from that of colonial times. Pouring money in through thoughtless ‘packages’ only encourages plunder and loot by the privileged few. A thorough structural reform is the need of the hour. The people of Assam are raising that demand, and they must be heard. Some critics point to ethnic differences, but those are partly the result of skimpy handouts from the Centre that the Assamese elite were loath to share, and now that ethnic groups are awake and Ulfa leaders are sensitive to their rights, an equitable solution is possible. The SJA is preparing the framework, broadly covering different aspects and the Ulfa leadership is ready to listen to expert advice. In spite of provocations and temptations, the leadership has kept aloof from the ongoing electoral adjustments and manipulations and has not identified with any political group. P C Haldar, the interlocutor appointed by the government, has so far done everything in his power to remove bottlenecks on the road to a dialogue. Therefore, there isn’t any reason to be pessimistic about the talks. But the decision-makers must put the good of the country above narrow sectional interests and goals.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

The consumer price index, aka. CPI, is the key gauge for inflation; it measures price increases and decreases on common group of consumer goods and services on a monthly basis. The CPI is calculated by taking a weighted average of price change for a pre-determined group of goods. The goods are weighted in order of their importance. The consumer price index is very similar, but not to be confused with, to the cost of living index which allows for substitutions of the items as prices move higher or lower.

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Wholesale Price index
WPI is the index that is used to measure the change in the average price level of goods traded in wholesale market. Wholesale Price index (WPI) is compiled and released on weekly basis at national level by the Ministry of Industry.
The WPI series, on base 1981-82, covered in all 447 commodities. With a view to revise the base year (1981-82) of WPI, a Working Group was set up by the Ministry of Industry. The Working Group submitted its report to the Government and the same has been accepted. The Working Group has recommended for shifting the base year (1981-82) of the series to 1993-94. The Ministry of Industry started releasing the WPI series on base 1993-94 from April, 2000. The series covers in all 435 commodities.
Consumer Price Index
In principle and practice, a Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures changes over time in the general level of prices of goods and services that a reference population acquire, use or pay for consumption. There are four Consumer Price Indices (CPI) released at national level. These are CPI for Urban Non-Manual Employees (UNME), CPI for Industrial Workers (IW), CPI for Agricultural Labourers (AL), and CPI for Rural Labourers (RL)). While the first one is compiled and released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the rest three are compiled and released by the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour.
The Central Statistical Organisation has been compiling Consumer Price Index Numbers for Urban Non-Manual Employees [CPI(UNME)], on monthly basis, since 1961. Using the weights, derived from the data collected through middle class family living survey (MCFLS) conducted during 1982-83, the current CPI(UNME) series on base 1984-85, is being compiled and released since November, 1987. The Index numbers are compiled using Laspeyres' Index formula.
The Labour Bureau compiles Consumer Price Index Numbers for Industrial Workers [CPI(IW)], on monthly basis, using the retail prices collected from 261 markets in 76 centres by the officials of various State Governments, Labour Commissioners, etc. The number of items in the consumption baskets of different centres generally varies between 120 to 160, depending upon the prevailing situation in each centre and the consumption pattern of the centre. The various items of goods and services are classified into six main groups namely: (i) food, (ii) pan, supari, tobacco & intoxicants, (iii) fuel & light, (iv) housing, (v) clothing, bedding & footwear, (vi) miscellaneous. The base year of the index is 1982.
The Labour Bureau also compiles Consumer Price Index Numbers both for Agricultural Labourers [CPI(AL)] and Rural Labourers [CPI(RL)], on monthly basis, using the retail prices in respect of 260 items of goods and services, collected by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) from fixed markets in 600 sample villages in 20 states spread over the country. The base year of both the indices is 1986-87.

The Labour Bureau started releasing CPI(RL) series for all-India and 20 states since November, 1995. The indices for all-India and 20 states are released, on a monthly basis, with a time lag of 3 weeks. The CPI(AL) and CPI(RL) for all-India are based on the respective indices in respect of 20 states only.
Uses of Price Indices
Changes in prices, both absolute and relative, influence a wide range of economic activities, and a constant watch on prices becomes necessary for the operation and regulation of current economic policies as well as for planning and policy formulation. Temporal changes in prices are gauged by using price indices. The WPI helps in understanding the movement of prices relating to bulk transactions or purchases, which are usually for further sale. WPI is used for a wide spectrum of economic management needs, including policy formulation, deflating macroeconomic aggregates, forecasting of variables for which prices are prime indicators, and working out escalation costs of projects. Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Planning Commission, and other government agencies use WPI extensively as a major macroeconomic indicator for varied purposes. In socioeconomic research, the indices find ready use.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) plays an important role in national policy making, both in the economic and in the social sphere. It is used for a wide variety of purposes. The CPI is the best and most well known indicator of inflation. It is the barometer of the performance of the economy and a key indicator in evaluating the results of the monetary and fiscal policy in a country. A popular function is the use of CPI for indexation of wages and social security allowances like dearness allowance. CPI for Industrial Workers is utilised mainly for Wage & Dearness allowance regulation of workers and employees. CPI is also important for formulation of social policy measures and in the area of social security and welfare allowances. Beside these, CPI is used as a deflator in national account estimates for converting values at current prices to values at constant prices.
CPI(UNME) is one of the primary indicators of price movement in the urban segment of population in India. The users of CPI(UNME) are many and varied including public, private and governmental agencies. Specifically for regulating Dearness Allowance (DA), CPI(UNME) series are used by State Governments & Public/Private Sector Undertakings/Agencies/Companies.
The official measure of inflation in the Indian economy is based on WPI. WPI measures the general level of price changes at the level of either the wholesaler or the producer; and does not take into account retail margins. As such, WPI can be said to essentially measure price changes from the production side, and not from the consumption side. Moreover, price changes in the service sector are not duly accounted for in WPI, even though they are largely influenced by inputs from the industrial sector. In contrast to a CPI, the WPI thus measures price changes at an early stage of the distribution system. This difference makes the WPI a flexible price index, and one that signal changes in the general price level. From the viewpoint of a consumer, inflation concerns the purchasing power of his money. Inflation estimates given by a CPI are considered more representative of temporal changes in consumer prices.
There are many structural differences in the WPI and CPIs released at national level, which account for the difference in the point-to-point inflation rate. These are as given below:
(i) The WPI is designed to measure the temporal price changes of wholesale transactions of all the commodities in the country whereas the CPI measures the changes in consumer (retail) prices in respect of items in the consumption basket of goods and services, on which an average family of industrial worker/urban non-manual employee/household of agricultural/rural labourer spends its budget. While the former is production/output oriented, the latter has orientation towards the family/household budget of the target population.
(ii) Not only the composition of the baskets of the WPI and the CPI is different, but the weights of items in the basket are also different. The weights of items in the WPI have been assigned in proportion to their share in the total value of transaction (output) in the economy. In case of CPI, weights are in proportion to their share in the total consumption expenditure of the family of industrial worker/urban non-manual employee/household of agricultural/ rural labourer in a selected centre/state.
(iii) The WPI is a single national index compiled at the national level. The basis of inclusion of items in the basket for WPI, is their importance in the national economy. The basis of selection of items in the consumption basket for CPI is their relative consumption expenditure and their popularity among the families of industrial workers/urban non-manual employees/households of agricultural/rural labourer in a selected centre/village.
(iv) CPIs take into account the retail margins which have a direct bearing on retail price movements.
(v) The services like health, education etc. are not included in the WPI. As such, the WPI leaves out of its scope yet another area where consumers are increasingly spending more money.
(vi) Housing is one of the broad groups both in CPI(IW) and CPI(UNME), for which the data on shelter cost (rent cost) is collected regularly from a fixed sample of tenements. A chain base index are compiled on half-yearly basis for this group, which, in turn, is integrated into the general CPI. No such group exists in WPI, CPI(AL) and CPI(RL).

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India on Friday adopted the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) that will reflect the actual movement of prices at the micro-level. As per the new series, the CPI has increased to 106 in January from a base of 100 in 2010 (inflation of 6 per cent), but the government has chosen not to mention the inflation figure, pointing out that the exact level could be arrived only next year.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, has introduced the new series of consumer price indices for all-India, and States and union territories separately for rural, urban and combined for the purpose of intra temporal price comparison with effect from January, 2011, with 2010 as the base year.
“Indices for some States/UTs are not being released since adequate number of schedules for these States/UTs could not be received. These indices will be revised at the time of release of provisional indices for March 2011. Therefore, for one year this practice will be continued till the series gets stabilised and adequate timely receipt of price data is achieved. Since these indices are being introduced for the first time, annual inflation rates have not been compiled,” an official statement said.
The initial data showed that retail inflation stood at 6 per cent in January this year. However, inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index — which remains the top benchmark — stood at 8.23 per cent in January. India is one of the few countries in the world using the WPI as benchmark. Experts say the new CPI is likely to help policymakers like the Reserve Bank of India in better framing of decisions.
The consumer indices have been released for five major groups — food, beverages and tobacco; fuel and light; housing; clothing, bedding and footwear; and miscellaneous.
As per the new data, food, beverages and tobacco went up to 108 on a national basis in January, while fuel and light were at 106. Clothing, bedding and footwear in the month under review stood at 107 while housing remained constant at 100. The miscellaneous items went up by six points to 106.
As per the new data, inflation has been the most in Kerala, Orissa and Meghalaya, where CPI overall stood at 108 in January from a base of 100 in 2010 (inflation of 8 per cent). Even richer states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi and Punjab reported a rise of only 4-6 per cent in CPI on an annual basis during the month under review.

India-Malaysia CECA

India-Malaysia CECA
The India-Malaysia CECA is a comprehensive and ambitious agreement that envisages liberal trade in goods and services and a stable and competitive investment regime to promote foreign investment between the two countries. The goods package under the CECA takes the tariff liberalization beyond the India-ASEAN FTA commitments on items of mutual interest for both the countries. Under the agreement, India will get market access in the Malaysian market for goods including fruits such as mangoes, banana and guava, basmati rice, two wheelers and cotton garments. At the same time, protection continues to be provided for the sensitive sectors. Under the services agreement, India and Malaysia have provided commercially meaningful commitments in sectors and modes of interest to each other which should result in enhanced services trade. Sectors such as accounting and auditing, architecture, urban planning, engineering services, medical and dental, IT & ITES, Management Consulting Services etc. would get Malaysian market access.
Agreement Current Status

1. SAFTA Agreement on South Asia Free Trade Area Operational since January 2006

2. APTA Asia Pacific Trade Agreement or Bangkok
Agreement Operational since September 2006

3. CECA between The Republic of India and the
Republic of Singapore Operational since August 2005

4. India Chile PTA Operational since September 2007

6. India Afghanistan PTA Framework Agreement (FA) signed in March 2003

7. ISLFTA India Sri Lanka FTA Operational since March 2000

8. India MERCOSUR PTA Operational since June 2009

9. Bhutan-India Agreement on Trade, Commerce and
Transit Original version operational sinceJanuary 1972. Crrent version operational since July 2006.

10. Indo-Nepal Treaty of Trade Original version operational in 1992.
Current version operational since
March 2002. Renewed in March 2007

11. India-Thailand Free Trade Agreement Operational since September 2004

12. Bangladesh- India Amended Trade Agreement Operational since April 2006

13. India-Maldives Trade Agreement Operational since April 1981

14. ASEAN- India FTA Operational since 2010

15. India-South Korea Comprehensive Economic
PartnershipAgreement (CEPA)
Negotiations completed.

16. India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Cooperation
Agreement (CECA) Negotiations completed.

17. India- Sri Lanka Comprehensive Economic
Partnership Agreement (CEPA) Negotiations completed.

18. India- Thailand Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreement (CEPA)
Under negotiations (negotiations on
trade of goods completed)

19. India- Malaysia Comprehensive Economic
Partnership Agreement (CEPA)
Negotiations completed.

Black Money

What is Black Money?

Income on which tax is evaded is black money. For example, when a seller of property receives part of the sale proceeds in cash, and doesn’t show it in its tax accounts. Or, when a company shows fictitious expenses to pay less taxes. All this is illegal, unaccounted wealth.

How is it Created?

There are ways and ways. Two are mentioned above. Here are two common tax and accounting tricks employed by businesses -- the most prolific creators of black money.

UNDER-INVOICING OF SALES:

Company X sells Rs 100 worth of goods to Dealer Y. Company X invoices Rs 80 to the dealer, the remaining Rs 20 it takes in cash and siphons it off. Dealer Y sells goods to a customer for Rs 120 in cash; shows Rs 100 in his books, but conceals Rs 20.

FICTITIOUS VENDORS:

Promoter of Company X floats Vendor Y. Except Vendor Y exists only on paper. Company X shows it is paying the vendor for goods supplied. Money goes to promoter via vendor.

How Much of it is There and Where is it?

Given the secrecy behind such Also, Dev Kar, lead economist with transactions, it is next to impossible Global Financial Integrity, a proto estimate the quantum of black gramme of a think-tank, estimates money with any degree of accuracy. that about $462 billion of black mon-By one estimate, half of India’s ey has moved out of India between economy was the shade of black. In 1948 and 2008, much of which has 2008, that would be $640 billion. gone into tax havens.

What are Tax Havens?

These are territories that provide ‘an easy and safe’ environment for money. Easy because they have very liberal tax rates, which incentivises the world’s biggest corporations and richest individuals to host their wealth and direct their investments from there. Safe because such territories neither ask depositors questions on where their money came from nor do they easily share account information with other countries, which is a big draw for black money. In 2000, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a 34 member group consisting mainly of developed nations, classified 37 territories as tax havens. This was based on its four-point definition of a tax haven:

• No or nominal taxes

• No effective exchange of information with other countries

• Lack of transparency

• No substantial economic activities

OECD has since pared down the list of 37 to nil -- there are no tax havens now! That reading of OECD draws from a technical definition rather than an operational one. In 2002, to combat illicit capital flows to tax havens, OECD released a tax standard, endorsed by the United Nations and G20, on exchange of information. Its crux was that, under certain conditions, if a government seeks specific information from these territories on a depositor, they should provide it. All 37 locations have agreed to share information and are on a signing spree with countries. India has signed 10 such agreements. However, the information sharing is not a blanket one. So, India cannot ask, say, Mauritius for all information on accounts held by Indian depositors. What it can ask for is information on a particular individual, that too after establishing to the authorities in Mauritius that it has good reason to ask -- for example, a tax evasion probe against the person. The limited scope of information sharing means the locations remain a tax shelter, both for accounted and unaccounted wealth.

How Does Black Money go From India to Tax Havens?

Again, there are ways and ways. Here are two -- one internal and another external. First, the internal route. Say, a promoter has siphoned off Rs 10 crore from his company. He sets up several shell companies and opens many bank accounts in their names. He starts depositing cash in these accounts; the size of the deposits is small enough to escape regulatory attention. These are then wired to accounts in the tax havens. Then, the external route, which is also called the hawala route. A parallel foreign exchange market works to enable such conversions. The promoter gives Rs 10 crore to a hawala operator in India. Through his links with operators in other countries and a series of transactions, foreign currency gets deposited into the promoter’s bank account in a tax haven. The hawala operator charges 2-3% of the transaction amount as his fee; more if the transaction is complex.

How Does it Come back To India?

The money lodged in tax havens is invested in India, either in stocks, real estate, business or other assets. The circle is complete. Black has become white, without paying a penny in tax (otherwise, they would have paid the peak rate of 30% for individuals and 35% for companies). Even on subsequent earnings, this money won’t pay any tax. That’s because most of these tax havens have a double tax avoidance agreement (DTAA) with India – their income can be taxed only in one country. So, this money doesn’t pay tax on its earnings in India. It is accounted for in its resident tax haven, where the tax rate is, typically, zero. So, in the worst case, that sum of money evades the 30-35% tax in India on its creation (black) and avoids the 10-35% tax in India on investment (white). Now that they money is white, it can be freely repatriated. Sub-accounts of participatory notes (PNs), created by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), are said to be rampant carriers of black money. In a paper, titled, ‘tax havens can destabilise our financial markets’, R Vaidyanathan, professor of finance, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, wrote: “The sub-accounts created by FIIs for nameless entities are fraught with dangerous consequences and security risk. The sources of these funds are unknown; the investors are nameless; and billions of dollars invested through PNs are address-less.” Last year, FIIs invested $35 billion in India.

What is The Government Doing?

It’s doing things here and there, but the results are hardly a reflection of the magnitude of the black money menace. India amended the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in 2009, which criminalises money laundering, and allows enforcement authorities to seize funds obtained from illegal activities. So far, the government says, it has recovered Rs 15,000 crore from India. Outside India is a different story. The government was handed details of 20-odd accounts held by Indians in Liechtenstein, in Europe. This happened when Germany bribed an official in LGT Bank in Liechtenstein to reveal details of account holders. India lobbied with Germany to access details of the Indians in that list. The matter is stuck there. After OECD put an informationsharing standard in place, countries have signed about 500 tax agreements. India has prioritised the signing of tax information exchange agreements with 22 tax havens; 10 agreements have been signed and four more are under negotiation. According to an OECD presentation in December, subsequent to signing information exchange agreements, Italy has collected 5 billion euros and Germany 4 billion euros. These are just two instances. The onus is on governments, including India’s, to make a case and demand information from the tax havens.

Which are The Prominent Tax Havens?

The graphic outlines details of 14 prominent tax havens Indians take shelter in. Four things are endemic to these havens. One, several have a British connection, either as its colony in the past or as its territory in the present. Two, their economy runs on two things: tourism and banking. Three, their banking assets are a disproportionate multiple of their GDP, which shows their popularity as offshore banking destinations. Four, their tax rates are nil or minimal, and secrecy of clients is a declared objective, though it is being chipped away at.

JPC

Know and understand what is Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)?
Let us understand what is Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)?

In India we got many types of inquires, methods are good but final aim of this committees is that
No Punishment but these inquires are good to expose corrupt people or for entertainment.



Joint Parliamentary Committee is appointed to look, inquire into particular matter or subject or fraud, something which is important for nation.

How Joint Parliamentary Committee is formed?
What is the procedure to form Joint Parliamentary Committee?

Joint Parliamentary Committee is formed when motion is adopted by one house and it is supported or agreed by the other house.

Another way to form a Joint Parliamentary committee is that two presiding chiefs of both houses can write to each other, communicate with each other and form the joint parliamentary committee.

How many persons can be members of Joint Parliamentary committee?

The rule is simple -
The Lok Sabha members are double compared to Rajya Sabha.
Example –

If Joint Parliamentary committee has 10 Lok Sabha Members then 5 members will be from Rajya Sabha and total member of JPC will be 15.

The strength of a JPC may be different each time.

When the first Joint Parliamentary committee was established?

On August 6, 1987 the first JPC was instituted to inquire into the Bofors contract
on a motion moved by then defence minister K C Pant in the Lok Sabha.
The JPC submitted its report on – 26 April 1988
India got nothing after JPC in this case.
In this JPC inquiry opposition parties boycotted this inquiry and report was tables but again opposition parities rejected the JPC committee report.
Indian tax payer’s money and time was wasted.

The 2nd JPC was formed to inquiry into Harshad Mehta scandal.
The recommendations of the JPC were neither accepted in full nor implemented by the government of India.
Again 2nd time Indian tax payer’s money was wasted and time was wasted.

3rd JPC was set up to inquire into Stock Market Scam.
Chairman of this committee – BJP member Lt Gen Prakash Mani Tripathi
Report Submitted on – 19 December 2002
What happened after this JPC report?
Report was not implemented
Again tax payer’s time and money was wasted.

4th last JPC was formed to inquire into pesticide residues in soft drinks, fruit juice and other beverages and to set safety standards.
Committee Head was NCP chief Sharad Pawar
Submitted Report on 4th February 2004
Committee found soft drinks got, contain pesticides.

But again we Indians got nothing again waste of time and waste of money and again we demand JPC without demanding changes in JPC working and JPC powers.

Please remember the laws are made in such a way that today or tomorrow or day after tomorrow any JPC or PAC may be formed we Indians will get nothing.
The rules are made in such a way that criminals should enjoy them.
And honest people should fear them, without doing anything land up in jail.


What are the powers of Joint Parliamentary committee?

1.JPC can collect oral or written evidence from the experts.

2.The proceedings of parliamentary committees are confidential. Please note in majority nations this type of committees work in open and day to day there work is available for public. Only corrupt nations need confidentiality.

3.Normally ministers are not called to give evidence

4.SM – Ministers are gods how can they cheat the nation? Even if they cheat it is there birth right to cheat the nation.

5.JPC can inspect all documents related with the inquiry.

6.JPC can invite interested parties for inquiry.

7.JPC can send summons to people to appear before them, if person does not obey summons it is considered as contempt of House.

8.The Speaker has the final word on any dispute over calling for evidence

9.Against any individual or production of a document, even government can deny access to documents if government feels it is related with safety of state. What is safety of state? Only God knows.

I feel that following new powers should be given Joint Parliamentary Committee
Following new laws or amendments or sections should be added to the powers of JPC.

1.JPC should work openly

2.JPC should put all documents and evidence daily on internet.

3.JPC should finish inquiry in 1 month.

4.It should be compulsory on government to follow recommendations given by JPC.
If government wants they can approach to Supreme Court. It should be compulsory for SC to give judgment in 1 week in this type of cases.

5.JPC should get power to arrest any Minister exception should be Prime Minister.

6.During JPC probe no political party should be allowed to withdraw support of Government if they do so the party should get automatically banned forever without any appeal and they should be debar to contest any public or private elections for next 25 years.

Resisting a JPC probe into 2G spectrum

Parliament has been stalled for 21 working days by an angry opposition demanding a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum scam, making it one of the most unproductive sessions ever.

The Congress is unbending in its stance that the investigation into the 2G scam through the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), headed by a member of the opposition, is adequate. Telecom minister Kapil Sibal only concedes to a parliamentary debate, which he says will allow for “doodh ka doodh aur pani ka pani”.

One of the worst outcomes of this stalemate is that it is tarnishing India’s reputation as a long-term investment destination. There is no discounting the value of parliamentary debate, but the truth is that a JPC can work just as well in parallel with a parliamentary debate as a PAC can. So why is the Congress using all its firepower to resist a JPC probe?

The most important reason is that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is linked to the controversy. The PM initially made an attempt to point former telecom minister A Raja towards auctions and market benchmarking of spectrum prices. However, subsequent correspondence between the two reveals that Raja informed the PM in detail about his spectrum allocation policy, which he subsequently implemented without any resistance from the PM.

Raja’s legal advisers have accentuated this omission by the PM by filing an affidavit in the ongoing PIL in the Supreme Court, stating that the PM knew about every single development and there was no difference in opinion between the PM and Raja on how spectrum was to be allocated.

First, since the scope of a JPC is far larger than that of a PAC, this could lead to the PM being asked to explain why he eventually did not restrain Raja. This by itself is the biggest threat that a JPC poses to the Congress.

Second, the PM’s culpability is compounded by the culpability of the Cabinet. On December 26, 2007, just before allocating 122 LOIs for spectrum at 2001 prices in 2008, Raja wrote his last letter to the PM briefing him about his discussion with senior Cabinet colleague Pranab Mukerhjee and former solicitor general, Goolam Vahanvati (now attorney general). A JPC, unlike a PAC, would cross-examine Mukherjee on the nature of this discussion and whether the allocation of spectrum on a first-come-first-served basis using an illegal cutoff date for applications was with his explicit agreement as Raja claims. Since Mukherjee was additionally head of the GoM that was looking into spectrum issues, his culpability is accentuated further.

Third, a letter from former finance secretary and present RBI governor, D Subbarao, in November 2007 expressing shock over Raja’s proposal to distribute spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices and asking him to hold off the process of spectrum allocation, implies that he could not have written this letter without the knowledge of then finance minister, P Chidambaram. So in addition to Singh and Mukherjee, Chidambaram could also be questioned on how this instruction was reversed on his watch.

Fourth, a JPC would question why the law ministry refused to give an opinion to Raja on the policies he sought to implement and on November 1, 2007, recommended instead that the matter be sent to a GoM for consideration. However, Raja told the PM in his letter of December 26, 2007, that he did have legal opinion, or “advice” as he called it. DoT’s affidavit in the SC confirms that legal advice was received. How did the solicitor general give him legal advice against the specific advice of the law minister who had denied him any legal opinion?

Finally, there is the issue of the JPC taking on the job of supervising investigating agencies. The SC is well equipped to supervise the CBI investigations, but a JPC in the supervisory role would be far more potent.

This is because, while the SC is dependent on facts presented by lawyers, the JPC can source information from a variety of sources, including experts, lawyers and the media. The 2G scam includes issues of illegality, policy formulation, equity, corruption and procedural violations that may or may not be presented to the SC. The JPC will, however, have endless powers and resources to accumulate this information and to direct depositions/investigations.

From the Congress point of view, a JPC even with Congress chairmanship is an uncontrollable beast, as it will also include members from the AIDMK, BJP and Left parties, who will diligently persevere to expose Raja’s wrong doings.

Clearly, a PAC is by far the softer option while a JPC can expose the government beyond repair by bringing the heat on several Cabinet ministers and law officers. That’s why it is so important for the government to scuttle the demand for a JPC at any cost. For the Congress to push the softer option could also be a worrying indicator of its intent to sweep the scam under the carpet. This could be crippling for a country making feeble attempts to fight corruption and tyranny.

Sadly, this Parliament session may end without a JPC or even a decent debate, giving an apathetic India exactly what it deserves.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

list of countries of the world sorted by their gross domestic product (GDP)

Rank Country GDP (millions of USD)

— World 61,963,429

— European Union 16,106,896

1 United States 14,624,184

2 China 5,745,133

3 Japan 5,390,897

4 Germany 3,305,898

5 France 2,555,439

6 United Kingdom 2,258,565

7 Italy 2,036,687

8 Brazil 2,023,528

9 Canada 1,563,664

10 Russia 1,476,912

11 India 1,430,020

INDIA'S civil nuclear agreement

INDIA'S civil nuclear agreement

The countries with which India has signed similar pacts are Russia, the United States, France, Mongolia, Argentina, Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom and Canada. Some are pure fuel supplies pact while others include all aspects of the relationship such as fuel supply, R&D and setting up of civil nuclear plants. The pact with South Korea will focus on the last two aspects.

The civil nuclear pact was a result of the all-round comprehensive relationship being forged by India with East Asian and South East Asian countries. India has signed a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CEPA) with South Korea which, in the first full year of operation in 2010, led to a 46 per cent growth in trade.

Supreme Court: How to get strong judiciary

New Delhi: “No government wants a strong judiciary,” said the Supreme Court on Friday after it held that meagre budgetary allocations by the Centre and states impeded setting up additional courts and infrastructure needed to speed up justice delivery system. It said, “Budgetary allocation to judiciary is less than 1% by the governments. This shows their commitment towards the judiciary.” The anguished remark from a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly came when it was told that in the adjournmentmarred Amar Singh phone tapping case trial only one witness had been examined in the last four years. “This case should have been over in three months. Adjournments have become a cancer to the institutions,” said the bench, while discussing with Solicitor General the delay in justice dispensation and the urgent need for increasing the number of courts and infrastructure. “The system has already become sick. What can be the expectation of the common man for speedy justice? Even in Supreme Court, a special leave petition takes eight years to reach final hearing,” the bench said. “We all give sermons. We go to National Judicial Academy and give lectures to judicial officers asking them to speed up disposal of cases. But where is the infrastructure. They are already under heavy burden. There are only lectures, committees and commissions, but no solutions,” it said. In the 10th Five-Year Plan (2002-07), the allocation for judiciary was Rs 700 crore, 0.07% of the total outlay. Most states provide for less than 1% of the budgetary allocations towards judiciary and have not implemented the SC-approved salary hike for judicial officers. Seven years ago, then Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti had said, “The governments are under an obligation to provide an adequate machinery for justice, to appoint more judges and to give them better emoluments and facilities.” Afzal Guru wants to stay in jail nearer home New Delhi: Five-and-a-half years after he was sentenced to death for the terrorist attack on Parliament, Mohammad Afzal Guru on Friday requested the Supreme Court to ask the Centre to shift him from Tihar Jail in Delhi to one nearer to his home in Srinagar. Afzal had filed a petition to shift him from Tihar Jail to a jail in J&K citing his family members’ inability to meet him at Delhi because of poor financial conditions. He was awarded capital punishment which was upheld by the Supreme Court on August 4, 2005. He had filed a mercy petition on January 4, 2006, with the President. TNN

National Information Utilities (NIUs)

Independent Policy & Strategy Analyst Yes, it will herald a new era in governance
THE Nandan Nilekani-headed Technical Advisory Group, set up by the finance ministry, has made some path-breaking recommendations, including the creation of National Information Utilities (NIUs) as for-profit entities with investment from both government and private industry. Like the Bernard Shaw and Marilyn Monroe story, will this off-spring of the government elephant — huge, potentially people-friendly, but slow-moving — and the private-sector leopard — fast, flexible but carnivorous — inherit the virtues of each rather than their drawbacks? While precedents of such private-public joint ventures are rare, the one example from a similar field — the National Institute of Smart Governance (promoted by the government and Nasscom) — has done rather well.
With flexibility to offer market-level compensation, combined with the intellectual stimulation of their task, NIUs should be in a better position to attract, retain and motivate talented professionals, as compared to official organisations. The government shareholding ensures strategic control and access into ministries, while its minority nature should free the NIUs from the constraints and strait-jacket of bureaucracy and governmental procedures.
The report rightly emphasises the need for
strong support from top leadership within the government. Also, it is not enough to have a dedicated mission leader. It is essential that this person — and, indeed, all core personnel in the team — stay in the job for a few years at least. In such projects, the turnstile approach for key people is a sure recipe for disaster. Guidelines will have to be explicitly worked out for transparent selection of appropriate, well-qualified, private-sector investors in the NIUs.
Clearly, such companies cannot then bid for work in the same field. Also, these NIUs must function as independent, board-run companies and not as appendages of the ministry. Finally, data security and privacy concerns must be addressed. If these issues are taken care of, the NIUs could help to bring in new efficiency and transparency to governance, and be a breath of fresh air.

Board Member Infosys Technologies But the government should not have equity
THE TAGUP report has clearly broken away from the adhoc strategy to a single cohesive one for governance. The challenges of governance in IT projects, of conceptualisation, selection of partners, governance structure and execution are sought to be met by the creation of NIUs as an intermediary. This is a workable model, save that they should be capitalised by public institutions, without any equity from the government, which does create conflict and lack of flexibility. From the government side, reforms are essential in internal governance and the idea of a dedicated mission manager with assured tenure, incentive plans and flexibility for onboarding laterals should solve the challenge of lack of full focus. But terms should be set for a faster approval process through an empowered committee mechanism.
An MoU structure would work between the government and the NIU with start-up funding grants to create workable plans. Any system touching the citizen is best done by having user charges, as then there is a selfcorrecting mechanism of user reactions. In other cases, outcome-based pricing is possibly the best method. Success would also depend on the selection of service providers for execution. These projects are complex and need partners with deep pockets. Careful selection based on track record rather than L1 needs to be done. The stress on open standards and transparency is certainly welcome. India is fortunate that it has the institutional framework of institutions like NSDL and CDSL, and some of the world’s best IT companies to execute these projects at an incredibly low cost. The TIN could never have been executed at the speed and cost it was done anywhere in the world.
The GST will be the game-changer for India and hopefully create asingle national market. The report lays out the structure for the IT infrastructure. But this will be more complex due to a larger number of stakeholders. Overall, the report is path-breaking and can accelerate governance. But the government will have to dramatically change it's internal processes and financial rules to make it work.

Indian Artic Program

Indian Artic Program
Himadri Stationis India's first Arctic research station located at Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway. It is located at the International Arctic Research base, Ny-Ålesund. The station is operated by National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research. The station was inaugurated in 2008 by Minister for Science & Technology.
Indian Antarctic Program
The Indian Antarctic Program is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional program under the control of the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. It was initiated in 1981 with the first Indian expedition to Antarctica. The program gained global acceptance with India's signing of the Antarctic Treaty and subsequent construction of the Dakshin Gangotri Antarctic research base in 1983, superseded by the Maitri base from 1990. Under the program, atmospheric, biological, earth, chemical, and medical sciences are studied by India, which has carried out 27 scientific expeditions to the Antarctic as of April 2008 and is currently planning to build an additional research station in the region named "Bharati".
Ministry of Earth Sciences
The Ministry of Earth Sciences formed in 2006. It is one of the youngest ministries of the Government of India.
The Ministry’s mandate is to look after Atmospheric Sciences, Ocean Science & Technology and Seismology in an integrated manner.
The various Units under the Ministry of Earth Sciences are: India Meteorological Department (IMD), National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune, and Earthquake Risk Evaluation Centre (EREC) under the Atmospheric Sciences and Seismology sector; National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) Chennai, National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR) Goa, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) Hyderabad, Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management Project Directorate (ICMAM-PD) Chennai, and Centre for Marine Living Resources & Ecology (CMLRE) Kochi under the Ocean Science & Technology sector.
MoES aims to create a framework for understanding the complex interactions among key elements of the Earth System, namely ocean, atmosphere and solid earth, by encompassing national programmes in Ocean science, meteorology, climate, environment and seismology.

Krishna River Water Disputes

Krishna River & Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal

The Krishna River is the second biggest river in peninsular India. It originates near Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra from the statue of a cow in a temple. It then runs for a distance of 303 km in Maharashtra, 480 km through the breadth of North Karnataka and the rest of its 1300 km journey in Andhra Pradesh before it empties into the Bay of Bengal.

The river basin is 257,000 km², and the States of Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh contributes 68,800 km² (26.8%), 1,12,600 sq.k.m. (43.8%) and 75,600 km² (29.4%) respectively.

Due to the inter state nature of the river and the multiple parties concerned, disputes arose between the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh over sharing of the waters. The Government of India constituted the Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal in 1969 under the Inter State Water Disputes Act of 1956. This was headed by R. S Bachawat a former judge of the Supreme Court.

The Bachawat commission went over the matter in detail and gave its final award in 1973. While the Tribunal had in its earlier report detailed two schemes, Scheme A and Scheme B, the final award only included Scheme A and Scheme B was left out. Scheme A pertained to the division of the available waters based on 75% dependability, while Scheme B recommended ways to share the surplus waters.

The KWDT in its award outlined the exact share of each state. The award contended based on 75% dependability that the total quantum of water available for distribution was 2060TMC. This was divided between the three states in the following manner :

Maharashtra 560 TMC

Karnataka 700 TMC

Andhra Pradesh 800 TMC

The tribunal also made it clear that in case any one of the states were not to co-operate in sharing surplus water in the above ratio, Parliament should take a decision to distribute the surplus water through an enactment.

However, Scheme B involved the constitution of an authority(Krishna River Valley Authority) to ensure the implementation of the scheme. The constitution of such an authority, though, was outside the powers of the tribunal under the Inter State Water Disputes Act of 1956. As a result, Scheme B was left out of the Tribunal’s final award and Scheme A alone was presented to the government for final notification in the Gazzette.

Therefore, for the time being, Andhra Pradesh has been given permission to make use of any surplus waters though it cannot claim any rights over the same.

Review of the Award

The KWDT provided for a review of its award after 31 May, 2000. However no such review was taken up for more than 3 years after that.

In 2004, the second KWDT, KWDT-II was constituted by the Govt of India following requests by all three states.

TRIBUNAL'S DIRECTION

The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar, permitted Karnataka to raise the storage level in the Almatti dam to 524.256 metres from 519.6 metres, a measure seen by Andhra Pradesh as depriving its lower Krishna delta region of water supply.

The tribunal asked the Centre to set up a `Krishna Water Decision-Implementation Board' with representation from all the three States.

The tribunal directed the three States to contribute for Chennai city drinking water supply 3.30 tmcft distributed in equal quantity in July, August, September and October, and 1.70 tmcft in four equal instalments in January, February, March and April.

In its order, announced in an open court, the tribunal allocated a total share of 1,001 tmcft to Andhra Pradesh, 911 tmcft to Karnataka and 666 tmcft to Maharashtra with certain restrictions imposed on each State in keeping with the dependable flows of the rivers on which the allocations have been made.

KWDT-II freshly assessed the yearly yields in the Krishna and determined the award on the basis of the yearly yield at 65 per cent dependability which was assessed at a total of 2,293 tmcft.

The total allocation under the award includes the allocations made by KWDT-I at 75 per cent dependable yields plus return flows assessed at 2,130 tmcft. The allocation under the first award was 734 tmcft for Karnataka, 585 tmcft for Maharashtra and 811 tmcft for Andhra Pradesh.

Since the decision of the tribunal has the force and decree of the Supreme Court, no appeal against the award can be filed in any court except before the tribunal itself. The order of the tribunal can be reviewed or revised after May 31, 2050.

Krishna River

The Krishna River is one of the longest rivers in central-southern India, about 1,300 kilometres. It rises at Mahabaleswar in Maharashtra in the west and meets the Bay of Bengal at Hamasaladeevi in Andhra Pradesh, on the east coast. It also flows through the state of Karnataka.

Sangli is the largest city on the river Krishna in Maharashtra state while Vijayawada is the largest city on the River Krishna.

Ecologically, this is one of the disastrous rivers in the world, in that it causes heavy soil erosion during the monsoon season. It flows fast and furious, often reaching depths of over 75 feet.

Its most important tributary is the Tungabhadra River, which is formed by the Tunga River and Bhadra River that originate in the Western Ghats. Other tributaries include the Venna River, Koyna River, Bhima River (and its tributaries such as the Kundali River feeding into the Upper Bhima River Basin), Malaprabha River, Ghataprabha River, Yerla River, Warna River, Dindi River, Paleru River, Musi River and Dudhganga River.

The rivers Venna, Koyna, Vasna, Panchganga, Dudhganga, Ghataprabha, Malaprabha and Tungabhadra join Krishna from the right bank; while the Yerla River, Musi River, Maneru and Bhima rivers join the Krishna from the left bank.

Sangameswaram temple is now drowned in the Srisailam reservoir and visible for devotees only during summer when the reservoir's water level comes down.

There are many dams constructed across the Krishna river.

* Basava Sagar Dam

* Almatti Dam

* Srisailam Dam

* Nagarjuna Sagar Dam

* Prakasham Barrage

* Jurala Dam

* Dhom Dam

* Narayanpur Dam downstream of Almatti Dam

* Amar Dam

* Pulichitnthala Dam is under construction.

Almatti Dam

The Almatti Dam is a dam project on the Krishna River in North Karnataka, India. It was completed in July 2005.

Almatti dam is the main reservoir of the Upper Krishna project, an irrigation project. The 290 MW power project is located on the right toe of Almatti Dam. The project, when allotted for private initiative was estimated to cost Rs.1470 crores. Subsequently, KPCL took up the project at an estimated cost of Rs.674 crores and completed the project at a cost of Rs.520 crores in a period of 40 months by July 2005.

Upper Krishna Project

The Upper Krishna Project, across the river Krishna, provides for irrigation to the drought prone areas of Bijapur, Bagalkote, Gulbarga, Raichur and Koppal Districts.

This project has been taken up in stages, as detailed below:

STAGE-1

The I-Stage, of the Project comprises of the following:-

a) Dam across the river Krishna, near Almatti village in Bagewadi taluk of Bijapur district for providing irrigation to an extent of 0.16 lakh ha. and

b) Another dam across the river Krishna, at Narayanapur (downstream of Almatti Dam).

STAGE – II

The II-Stage of the project envisages the raising of FRL of Almatti Dam to 524.26 M (1720 ft) to utilise further quantum of 1907 Mcum (54 TMC) for providing irrigation to an additional extent of 1.972 lakh ha.

WORLD BANK ASSISTANCE

The first phase of the project has been implemented, with World Bank Assistance to the tune of $ 117.65 million (U.S) and the credit is fully utilised.

The second phase of the project, estimated to cost Rs. 1552.30 Crores was taken up with the financial assistance from the World Bank during 1988 and the assistance extended by the Bank is 160 million dollars (U.S) in the form of credit and 165 million dollars (U.S) in the form of loan. The loan was reduced from 165million US dollar to 45 million US dollars, due to appreciation of dollar value. World Bank Assistance was closed during 1997 and balance works have been completed out of State funds.