Courts of Tomorrow

Technology adoption for delivery of timely justice

Background

The Government is implementing a project for computerization of District & Subordinate Courts in the country and for up gradation of ICT infrastructure of the Supreme Court and the High Courts under the e-Courts Mission Mode Project (MMP).

Under the project, 12000 courts in 2100 court complexes are expected to be computerised by 31.3.2012 and 2249 courts in 969 court complexes are expected to be computerized by 31.3.2014. The total estimated cost of phase I of the project is Rs. 935.00 crore. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is the implementing agency of the project.

An E-Committee of the Supreme Court was constituted which is chaired by the Chief Justice of India to give overall policy directions to fulfilment of e-court programme. An Empowered Committee has been constituted in the Department of Justice to provide strategic direction and guidance to the e-courts Mission Mode Project. This Committee also has representative from the E-Committee of the Supreme Court.

Courts of Tomorrow

To give effect to the extensive computerisation plan as laid down by the e-courts MMP, the Courts of Tomorrow initiative will assist the judges and the registrars to obtain the best in-class ICT tools, to aid them in the dispensation of justice and administration of courts. The initiative seeks to act as a force multiplier to the on-going ICT enablement initiatives of the Judiciary, Courts and the Government.

The ‘Courts of Tomorrow’ initiative suggests the following ten interventions based on the study and analysis of existing initiatives in the Indian courts and with inputs from Judges and Registrars of the Delhi and Bombay High Court. These recommendations are directed towards technology adoption for delivery of timely justice.

1. Information Infrastructure for the Courts: Broadband Network and National Data Centre

2. Interconnection of Courts, Prisons and Police Stations

3. ICT enabled Court Rooms

4. Integrated Case and Document Management System

5. Digitisation, E-filing and E-service

6. E-orders, E-copies and E-cause lists

7. E‐administration

8. E-library

9. Provide Citizen Centric Services

10. Managed Services Model for the Judiciary

1) Information Infrastructure for the Courts: Broadband Network and National Data Centre

The on-going ICT enablement of the Indian Courts is bringing forth the emerging need for a highly secure, reliable and high speed network connecting all the courts in the country. It is suggested that all courts should be brought on to a unified network and a national data centre be made available exclusively for the courts. A disaster recovery plan also needs to be put into place.

2) Interconnection of Courts, Prisons and Police Stations

All Courts, Prisons and Police Stations should be connected on a unified, highly secure, reliable and high speed network. Apart from a high bandwidth network, suitable facilities for video conferencing and for audio-video deposition of evidence should be made available. This will allow witnesses (especially high‐risk witnesses, child witnesses, old and infirm witnesses) to be present via video conference in the court. It will also encourage audio-video depositions of evidence (supplemented by digital transcriptions; authenticated by the witness and the judge using digital signatures/bio‐metric devices such as signature pads and fingerprint readers). Video conferencing can also be used to bring in experts from the forensic sciences lab, hospitals, etc.

3) ICT enabled Court Rooms

ICT enabled court rooms will revolutionise the way justice is delivered in the country. It will not only decrease the hassles of the court staff, the litigants and the lawyers but also increase the efficiency of the Judges. It will also seamlessly connect the Judiciary with the Police Stations and the Prisons. The following steps need to be taken to realise the vision of the Courts of Tomorrow.

The courtroom to be fully equipped with computers and other courtroom technology which may include:

I. One computer for the judge with LCD touch‐screen display monitor – large enough for reading pages one at a time. The Judges, depending on their requirements and the provisions made by the court, may be provided 2-3 screens, each used for a different purpose. One of these computers may be loaded with case search and retrieval software.

II. One computer for the typist/reader/court master. The output of this computer could also be relayed to the Judge’s additional screen so that the Judge can view and/or modify the same.

III. One computer or provision for one computer for the arguing lawyer/advocate.

IV. Facility for video‐conferencing along with audio/video‐recording of oral evidence and large LCD panel for display of evidence. If the Judge and/or the court permits, audio/video recording of the entire proceedings could be done and made available to the Judge and to the court archives.

4) Integrated Case and Document Management System

a. The document management system has to be integrated with the case management system. This integrated solution may be hosted at the National Data Centre for each court.

b. The system will also provide an inbuilt Case Tracking and Monitoring system along with a time table for each case. These additional features may be used as per the need of the respective Judge or the court.

5) Digitisation, E-filing and E-service

I. Digitisation: A dedicated effort towards digitisation is required at the courts, as a first step towards paperless E-courts. As detailed under recommendation no. 10, providing of trained manpower and machines to the courts to accelerate the digitisation efforts should be done by means of a managed services model. All existing cases and court records must be digitised in a phase wise manner as decided by the respective court. The digitised records must be search friendly and should be indexed by key parameters for easy retrieval.

II. E-filing: While the old and existing cases must be digitised, the next obvious step for E-courts is to move towards E-filing, so that new cases need not undergo the tedious task of digitisation and the process of filing is simplified for the litigant and the lawyers. The following must be done to ensure a move towards paperless filing:

a. Filing of the plaint, petition, appeal, application etc., in electronic form

b. On‐line via internet or via e‐kiosks in the court premises; or

c. On other media such as CDs, DVDs, USB pen‐drives, SD or Micro SD cards etc.

d. Digital authentication of Affidavits, Vakalatnams, paper documents with physical signatures through suitable bio‐metric devices or through digital signatures.

e. On‐line payment of court fees, process fees etc.; State Governments have to make provision of e‐stamps for court fees.

f. Generation of e‐filing receipt.

g. On‐line scrutiny and verification of the e‐filed documents by the court registry.

h. Preparation of the e‐case file/placement of a new document in the e‐case file utilising the document management system.

III. E‐service:

a. Service of summonses, notices, warrants can be done through email/SMS for those who have provided their email IDs/mobile phone numbers.

b. In cases where recipients do not have email IDs or do not have access to the internet, a hybrid system could be used whereby e‐mails would be sent to the nearest post‐office/courier office where it would be printed out and served on the recipient locally (Ahmed, 2009). The digitally authenticated service report would be transmitted to the court registry via e‐mail.

c. To create an authentic proof of the delivery of the notices and summons, hand-held devices can be put to use to tag the delivery location via GPS and also photograph the location/individual. The use of hand-held devices will make the entire process more effective, transparent and will also cut down the time taken in completion of service which is a major contributor to delay in court cases.

6) E-orders, E-copies and E-causelists5

I. E‐orders: Order and judgments dictated in open court or in chambers are keyed in by the typists onto their computers which can be accessed by the Judge and corrected without requiring any draft being printed on paper. The finalized orders/judgments would be signed by the judge using his digital signature and would be added to the relevant e‐case files.

II. E‐copies: Digitally signed copies of orders and judgments would be uploaded instantly onto the court website. E‐copies of entire e‐case files would also be made available on‐line to the parties or authorized personnel. Certified copies either in paper form or digital form would be provided by the court registry.

III. E‐causelists: The courts should move towards online cause lists which would be made available through the court website and kiosks in the court complexes. Parties and their advocates could be alerted of their next dates via e‐mail or SMS.

7) E‐administration

The court administration will also need to be ICT enabled along with the use of ICT in the courts. To turn the administration into paperless would need a document management system and digitisation efforts to convert the existing documents. Further, e-meetings should be encouraged, where members could participate virtually via video-conferencing and all meeting documents, agendas, etc. could be circulated online. Authentication of documents would be done by using digital signatures. The e‐meetings could be fully archived in an indexed database for easy search and retrieval.

8) E-library

National and international judgements, law journals, and databases etc. must be made available to the Judges and their affiliates. This E-library should be made accessible to all courts in the country and other relevant institutions such as the law schools, Judicial training academies, etc.

9) Provide Citizen Centric Services

a) IVRS System for public queries regarding case status and any other details.

b) Informative Website6 which should provide

a. General Court information

b. Cause lists

c. Roster

d. Display Board

e. Court fees

f. Case status

g. Orders and judgments

h. Online forms for applications for urgent listing, inspection, process fee etc.

i. Certified copies

j. Online filing

k. Office circulars

l. E-Library

m. Virtual tour, Map and Directions

n. Webcasts of Court functions and special events or cases

o. FAQs Section for Litigants

10) Managed Services Model for the Judiciary

It is suggested to turn to a managed services model under the functional control of the Courts to increase the efficiency of the system and speed up certain processes. The following human resource needs of the courts could be serviced:
a. For Digitisation (man and machine)
b. For encouraging and supporting e-filing
c. IT Manpower for maintenance, troubleshooting and support
d. Judges Support Centre
i. Secretariat Support
ii. Research Support (for Judges or their affiliates for legal research)

India Ballistic Missile Defence

India has signaled that it is ready to deploy a home-grown Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system in the near future with a successful testing of an advanced interceptor missile, prompting the defence scientists to claim a shield could be thrown over Delhi skies by 2014.

The big fireworks over the Bay of Bengal when India tested its experimental BMD system resulted in elation as the trial turned out to be "bang-on accurate".

The interceptor missile destroyed an incoming target missile in a direct hit at an altitude of nearly 15 km over the Bay of Bengal, demonstrating the efficacy of the system.

DRDO officials said the electronically simulated target, which mimicked a missile coming from a distance of 1,500 km, was electronically hit at an altitude of 120 km.

Within minutes of the launch of the real attacker missile, a modified surface-to-surface Prithvi from Chandipur, Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile, the actual interceptor, took off from Wheeler Island and destroyed the 'hostile' missile at an altitude of 15 km in the endo-atmospheric mode at 12.52 p.m.

Missile technologists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the first time tested the configuration for destroying an incoming actual missile and another electronically simulated missile. The score: BMD - 2, Enemy Missiles - 0.

Celebrations broke out at Wheeler Island following the success of the mission, which was the eighth ballistic interceptor missile test. So far seven missions have been successful and one of them, the first one was conducted in exo-atmopshere at an altitude of 48 km in November 2006.

This was the seventh time the BMD system has been tested successfully over the last six years and promptly, the DRDO declared a missile shield could be deployed for New Delhi by 2014.

American missile defence systems like Patriot Advanced Capability-3, Aegis BMD-3 and THAAD (terminal high-altitude area defence), as also Russian and Israeli ones, are not fully fool proof as of now and further efforts are on to perfect them.

As soon as the target missile was launched, the Long-Range Tracking Radars and the Multi-Functional Radars traced it and passed on the data to the guidance computer to launch the AAD, which homed on to the target missile and pulverised it.

In the latest BDM test, only one of the incoming missiles was real: a modified Prithvi missile mimicking M-9/M-11 class of Chinese Dong Feng short-range ballistic missiles. The other was an electronically simulated missile of a longer range of 1,500km.

But both the 'enemy' missile launches were, however, conducted "in the same window" to test the BMD system's capability to handle "multiple threats" simultaneously.

"This has been done only by the two superpowers (US and Russia) till now. The real missile was destroyed at an altitude of 14.7-km by the interceptor missile with a direct hit,"

Meanwhile, DRDO has also begun work on adding a third tier to the BMD system.

The existing two-tier system is designed to track and destroy ballistic missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth's atmosphere. The third layer is planned to tackle low-flying cruise missiles, artillery projectiles and rockets in the line with the overall aim to achieve "near 100% kill or interception probability".

"Look what is happening in the Middle-East (Hamas firing rockets at Israeli cities before the recent ceasefire)...hence, protection against low-cost, very close range threats is also needed. We have begun some initial work on the third-tier. We will try to integrate it with the BMD system once it fructifies.

At present, the BMD system's phase-1, under which interceptors fly at 4.5 Mach high-supersonic speeds to intercept enemy missiles, is meant to tackle hostile missiles with a 2,000-km strike range.

Under DRDO's plans, the BMD phase-2 will take on 5,000-km range missiles, virtually in the class of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), with interceptors at hypersonic speeds of 6-7 Mach.

During the present test, Long Range Radar and MFC Radar located far away could detect the enemy missile from take-off and tracked it through its entire path. The total trajectory of the incoming Missile was continuously estimated by the guidance computer and subsequently the AAD Missile was launched at an appropriate time to counter and kill the ballistic missile.

"The Ring Laser Gyro-based navigation system in target, Fibre Optic Gyro based INS in Interceptor, on board computers, guidance systems, actuation systems and the critical RF Seekers used for the terminal phase have performed excellently.

"The AAD Missile system, initially guided by Inertial Navigation system, was continuously getting update of the target position by the radar through a data link. The Radio Frequency (RF) seeker tracked the missile and on board computer guided the missile towards the target missile and hit the target. The Radio Proximity Fuse (RPF) exploded the warhead thereby destroying the target missile completely.

In this mission, a special feature of intercepting multiple target with multiple interceptor was demonstrated successfully.

"An electronic target with a range of 1500 km was launched and the radars picked up the target missile, tracked the target missile subsequently and launched an electronic interceptor missile. This electronic interceptor missile destroyed the electronic target missile at an altitude of 120 km.

"All the four missiles were tracked by the radars and all the guidance and launch computers operated in full operational mode for handling multiple targets with multiple interceptors. All the four missiles were in the sky simultaneously and both the interceptions took place near simultaneously.

"This has proved the capability of DRDO to handle multiple targets with multiple interceptors simultaneously. The complete Radar Systems, Communication Networks, Launch Computers, Target update Systems and state-of-the-art Avionics have been completely proven in this mission.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

ESTABLISHMENT

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Brunei Darussalam then joined on 7 January 1984, Viet Nam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999, making up what is today the ten Member States of ASEAN.

AIMS AND PURPOSES

As set out in the ASEAN Declaration, the aims and purposes of ASEAN are:

1. To accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region through joint endeavours in the spirit of equality and partnership in order to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian Nations;
2. To promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries of the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter;
3. To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest in the economic, social, cultural, technical, scientific and administrative fields;
4. To provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities in the educational, professional, technical and administrative spheres;
5. To collaborate more effectively for the greater utilisation of their agriculture and industries, the expansion of their trade, including the study of the problems of international commodity trade, the improvement of their transportation and communications facilities and the raising of the living standards of their peoples;
6. To promote Southeast Asian studies; and
7. To maintain close and beneficial cooperation with existing international and regional organisations with similar aims and purposes, and explore all avenues for even closer cooperation among themselves.

History

The Founding of ASEAN

On 8 August 1967, five leaders - the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. By virtue of that document, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was born. The five Foreign Ministers who signed it - Adam Malik of Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore, and Thanat Khoman of Thailand - would subsequently be hailed as the Founding Fathers of probably the most successful inter-governmental organization in the developing world today. And the document that they signed would be known as the ASEAN Declaration.

ASEAN Motto

The motto of ASEAN is "One Vision, One Identity, One Community"

ASEAN Day

8^th August is observed as ASEAN Day.

ASEAN Member States

Brunei Darussalam Capital : Bandar Seri Begawan

Cambodia : Capital : Phnom Penh

Indonesia : Capital : Jakarta

Lao PDR : Capital : Vientiane

Malaysia : Capital : Kuala Lumpur

Myanmar: Capital : Nay Pyi Taw

Philippines : Capital : Manila

Singapore : Capital : Singapore

Thailand : Capital : Bangkok

Viet Nam : Capital : Ha Noi

e-Bank Realisation Certificate

In exercise of powers conferred under the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14, the Director General of Foreign Trade introduces an electronic procedure of filing of Bank Realization Certificate (BRC).

What is Bank Realisation Certificate?

Bank Realisation Certificate (BRC) is issued by a bank after realisation of export proceeds in the country. It is an important document required for claiming benefits under various FTP schemes. In addition, BRC data is used by VAT, Income tax and Drawback departments. Moving towards paperless trade and with a view to reduce transaction cost, DGFT, with effect from August 17 this year, has introduced eBRC and stopped accepting physical copy of BRC. The eBRC module developed by DGFT enables electronic transmission of foreign exchange realisation from banks to DGFT server. This process is made secure by use of digital certificate.

eBRC is available for Chapter 3, DEPB and DFIA. It will be extended to Export Obligation Discharge Certificate (EODC) within a month. “DGFT is aiming to be the most digital friendly department in the government and adoption of electronic means will strengthen transparency, speed and responsiveness of the department while bringing down the transaction cost for everyone

At present, for claiming benefits under various schemes of Foreign Trade Policy, exporters have to obtain Bank Realisation Certificate (BRC) from banks in the existing formats prescribed at Appendix 22A (physical exports) and 22B (deemed exports) of Handbook of Procedure -Vol.1(Appendices and Aayaat Niryaat Forms) and submit the same to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) manually. With the introduction of electronic BRC system, banks will issue and transmit BRC’s electronically to DGFT’s server replacing the manual mode of obtaining and submitting BRC. The revised process flow with technical guidelines are available on the DGFT’s website dgft.gov.in under the ‘e-BRC’ icon.

The existing system of physical BRC along with the new system of ‘e-BRC’ will however, run concurrently for a period of one month from the date of issue of this Public Notice for ensuring smooth transition. Thereafter, issuance and transmission of ‘e-BRC’ to DGFT in electronic form would be mandatory.

For Banks:-

1. Uploading of BRC data by banks can be done at any time and it should be electronically transmitted on a daily basis.

2. Electronic issuance of BRC has started with effect from 05.06.2012. Physical submission of BRC would continue concurrently for one month from 05.06.2012. BRCs which have been issued manually after 01.04.2012 shall be converted in the digital (XML) format by the banks and uploaded on DGFT server. This exercise may be completed by 31.07.2012.

3. Banks shall upload the rupees equivalent of the realised foreign exchange, based on the monthly exchange rate notified by Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). In case the realisation is in a denomination other than the notified currency, the rates given by RBI shall be adopted. In case exchange rate is not available from RBI then banks will do currency conversion as per their present existing practice.

For exporters:-

e-BRC details available in the DGFT server will not contain the details of amount of commission paid. This amount has to be provided by the exporter at the time of filing online application.

For RAs:-

The net foreign exchange earnings (in foreign currency) reflected in e-BRC, transmitted by banks would indicate FOB value (as per valuation made by custom authorities on the shipping bill). While granting Chapter 3 benefits, RA shall consider the net foreign exchange earnings. In case of shortfall in foreign exchange realization with respect to the shipping bill FOB value, pro rata distribution of realized foreign exchange against each export item will be made by the system itself.

Commissioning of Indian Coast Guard Ship H-189

Indian Coast Guard Ship H-189, the third of the series of twelve Air Cushion Vehicles (ACVs) designed and built by M/s Griffon Hoverworks Limited (GHL), UK

The 21 metres long Air Cushion Vehicle with 31 tonnes displacement can achieve a maximum speed of 45 knots. The ACV is capable of undertaking multi-farious tasks such as surveillance, interdiction, search and rescue and rendering assistance to small boats/craft in distress at sea. With the commissioning of H-189, the force level of ICG has gone up to 77 ships & boats and with the planned inductions the force level would be doubling by 2018.

The Air Cushion Vehicle H-189 will be based at Okha under the Administrative and Operational Control of the Commander Coast Guard Region (North-West).

‘Super-Jupiter’ planet found orbiting massive star

Astrophysicists at the University of Toronto have discovered a new, huge exoplanet, 13 times bigger than Jupiter. It's in orbit round the massive star Kappa Andromedae, which is part of the constellation Andromeda.

If Kappa And b is confirmed as a planet, the image captured by the scientists is the first direct picture of an exoplanet in two years. If more planets are found, it will be the first new exoplanet system discovered in four years. 

Kappa Andromedae is 2.5 times the size of our own sun, and at 170 light years away can be seen with the naked eye. The researchers used infrared images from the Subaru telescope in Hawaii to gather the faint images of the new planet.

"This planetary system is very different from our own.

"The star is much more massive than our sun, and Kappa And b is at least 10 times more massive than any planet in the solar system. And, Kappa And b is located further from the star than any of the solar system planets are from the sun. Because it is generally much harder to form massive planets at large distances from the parent star, Kappa And b could really be a challenge for our theories about how planets form."

Direct imaging of planets outside our solar system is exceptionally rare, because the brightness of the host star nearly always obscures the planet from view. The team used a technique known as angular differential imaging to remove the overwhelming glare of  Kappa Andromedae. The resulting infrared image shows a tiny point of light that is Kappa And b.

The discovery was a collaboration between astrophysicists at the University of Toronto and other institutions across the United States, Europe and Asia, as part of the Strategic Explorations of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru (SEEDS) program

India, Maldives Hold Joint Army Exercise

India and its Indian Ocean neighbour Maldives have begun a joint army training exercise that is aimed at enhancing the close military ties between the two nations.

The fortnight-long exercise, codenamed Ekuverin-2012, is being held at Belgaum in Karnataka.

A total of 45 personnel from the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) are taking part in the fourth edition of the exercise along with an equal number of personnel from the Indian Army.

Ekuverin series, which began in 2009 in Belgaum, are alternately held in India and Maldives.

"The aim of the exercises is to enhance the close military cooperation between the two countries.

Defence ties between India and Maldives have continued to expand and strengthen over the years.

In April 2012, both countries, along with Sri Lanka, held joint coast guard/naval exercises -- Dosti-XI -- off the coast of Male, Maldives capital, to strengthen the bonds of friendship and enhance mutual operational capability and cooperation in the region.

Antony held talks with his Maldivian counterpart, Colonel (retired) Mohamed Nazim, in the capital Male and discussed a host of security-related issues, including counter-terror cooperation. In this regard, the two sides had then agreed to hold the next joint army exercise, Ekuverin, in November 2012.

Antony also conveyed India's readiness to position the Indian Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv helicopter, operating in Maldives since 2010, for another two years.

There were also proposals in the area of training. India will be sending a team of qualified flying instructors to train Maldivian Air Wing personnel and provide simulator training to Maldivian helicopter pilots at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., Bangalore.

Antony's three-day visit to the Maldives acquires an added significance in view of China's enhanced forays into the strategically-located island nation. In November last year, China opened a grand embassy in Male, signalling Beijing's strategic intent to intensify relations with the Maldives.

Having realised its responsibility for peace, security and stability in the Indian Ocean region, India had already initiated measures such as a coastal radar chain in the Maldivian atolls, linking it up with the Indian radar chain, so that a comprehensive security could be provided to the nation that is close to Indian island territory of Lakshadweep.

National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS)

The Government of India has constituted the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) on 20.9.2004 to examine the problems being faced by the enterprises in the unorganised, informal sector. The Commission is to make appropriate recommendations to provide technical, marketing and credit support to these enterprises. The term of the Commission which was initially fixed at one year has now been extended up to 30th September 2008.

THE TERMS OF REFERENCE OF THE COMMISSION

i. Review of the status of unorganized/informal sector in India including the nature of enterprises, their size, spread and scope, and magnitude of employment;

ii Identify constraints faced by small enterprises with regard to freedom of carrying out the enterprise, access to raw materials, finance, skills, entrepreneurship development, infrastructure, technology and markets and suggest measures to provide institutional support and linkages to facilitate easy access to them;

iii Suggest the legal and policy environment that should govern the informal/unorganized sector for growth, employment, exports and promotion;

iv Examine the range of existing programmes that relate to employment generation in the informal/unorganized sector and suggest improvement for their redesign;

v Identify innovative legal and financing instruments to promote the growth of the informal sector;

vi Review the existing arrangements for estimating employment and unemployment in the informal sector, and examine why the rate of growth in employment has stagnated in the 1990s;

vii Suggest elements of an employment strategy focusing on the informal sector;
viii Review Indian labour laws, consistent with labour rights, and with the requirements of expanding growth of industry and services, particularly in the informal sector, and improving productivity and competitiveness; and

ix Review the social security system available for labour in the informal sector, and make recommendations for expanding their coverage.

REPORTS SUBMITTED BY THE NCEUS

The National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) has submitted the following reports in respect of the Unorganised Sector during the current year except those at i) & ii) which were submitted in 2006-2007:-

i National Policy on Street Vendors;

ii Unorganised Sector Workers’ Bill;

iii Comprehensive Legislation for Minimum Conditions of Work and Social Security for Unorganised Workers;

iv Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihood in the Unorganised Sector;

v Financing of Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector; and

vi Creation of a National Fund for the Unorganised Sector (NAFUS).
Whereas,

Report (i) is being considered by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA),

Reports (ii), (iii) & (iv) are under the consideration of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

The reports (v) & (vi) are presently under the consideration of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

PILOT GROWTH POLES PROJECT FOR THE UNORGANISED SECTOR

The Commission has proposed establishment of “Growth Poles” in different parts of the country with a view to integrating, within a geographical location, a number of clusters of production units engaged in manufacturing, services and non-farm activities and facilitating the expansion of production and employment in micro and small enterprises.
The Commission had pursued the formation of Growth Poles and requested the Chief Ministers and Chief Secretaries of all the States and UTs for identification and selection of pilot projects of Growth Poles in the States. In response, six State Governments have identified and submitted proposals for Growth Pole Pilot Projects, i.e., Janjgir-Champa in Chhattisgarh, Kollam in Kerala, Dausa in Rajasthan, Chamoli in Uttarakhand, Howrah in West Bengal and South Western Kamrup in Assam. Out of the above, five State Governments have already submitted their Detailed Project Reports to the Commission

VATSALYA MELA

‘Safety and Protection of Women’ and ‘Child Rights’: theme for this Year’s VATSALYA MELA

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is celebrating the Vatsalya Mela from 14-19 November 2012 at the Dilli Haat in New Delhi.  The theme for this year’s Mela is ‘Safety and Protection of Women’ and ‘Child Rights’. The inauguration of the Mela coincides with the ‘Children’s Day’, celebrated in memory of the birth anniversary of the first Prime of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru whose love and affection for children is well known.

As the name suggests, this Mela is organized in recognition of the love of the mother for the child. The Mela provides an opportunity to the Ministry and its attached organizations to showcase their activities and programmes and policies to the public. As many as 400 artisans, craftsmen and NGOs from different parts of the country who are working with the Ministry or its attached organizations are showcasing their activities this year. In addition, different activities are planned for all the six days of Mela. These activities have been arranged in cooperation with partner-NGOs working with this Ministry.

National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NSDAP)

Large volumes and different types of data, including some of scientific and technical relevance are generated and compiled by various arms of the Government of India and various State Governments for meeting their specific requirements.   Scientific organizations generate data and develop scientific data bases deploying huge public funds.   Since such data are not generated under any standardized format, inter-operability of both scientific and technical data poses a serious challenge.   Global experience has demonstrated convincingly that access to data leads to breakthroughs in scientific understanding as well as to economic and public good, in addition to several benefits to civil society.   Given the deployment of substantial level of investment of public funds in collection of data and the untapped potentials of benefits to social society, it has become important to make available non-sensitive data for legitimate and registered use.

            Keeping in view the emphasis of the Government on engaging citizens in Governance Reforms, placing of non-strategic data in public domain and the provisions of RTI Act 2005 for empowering the citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authority leading to the transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority, the National Policy on Data Sharing and Accessibility (NPDSA) is being brought out.   The National Policy will increase the accessibility and easier sharing of non-sensitive data amongst the registered users and their availability for scientific, economic and social developmental purposes.   Detailed Policy document will be prepared within six months.   All the data holding organizations will be re-classifying their data and prepare a negative list of sensitive data, keeping in view, the broad guidelines delineated in the RTI Act 2005.   This list will be periodically reviewed to see whether the data should remain in the restricted category or not.   Efforts will also be made to convert the analogue data into digital domain within the set time frame.

            Department of Science & Technology (DST) would be the Nodal Department for all matters connected with overall co-ordination, formulation, implementation and monitoring of the policy.   For Geospatial Data, existing National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) mechanism involving both Department of Space and Department of Science & Technology would be used for any conflict resolution.   Ministries/Departments of Government of India while releasing funds to State Governments and other Institutions including Central/State Universities put down a condition, the data generated using such funds would come under the purview of this Policy.

UIDAI launches Public Data Portal for Aadhaar

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched its ‘Public Data Portal’ (data.uidai.gov.in) for the Aadhaar project in line with the National Data Sharing & Accessibility Policy (NSDAP) 2012. The portal will enable the public to access several anonymised datasets generated in the UIDAI ecosystem. The public data portal is in consonance with the larger vision of the Government of India to make data available through data.gov.in.

The UIDAI has also been sharing information about the latest developments of the project in the public domain through it’s website www.uidai.gov.in. Apart from adhering to the requirements of the Right to Information Act of providing information suo-moto to the public at regular intervals through the Internet, the UIDAI proactively puts out quarterly statements of its expenditure, various technical documents related to biometrics, proof of concept studies and working papers in the public domain.

The public data portal is a major step in enabling transparency for improving UIDAI’s operations. Using data to enhance decision making capabilities and informed decision making is at the core of the rationale for the public portal”. The Government of India notified the National Data Sharing & Accessibility Policy (NSDAP) 2012 on 17th March, 2012. The NDSAP policy is designed to promote data sharing and enable access to central government-owned data for national planning and development.

The public data portal will enable big data analysis using crowd sourcing model for the benefit of the society at large.”

UIDAI is currently releasing five data sets pertaining to Aadhaar Enrolment and another five data sets pertaining to Aadhaar Authentication.These datasets provide insights on enrolment and authentication request processed by UIDAI distributed by geography, by ecosystem partner and by certain demographic characteristics.

Data sets are available in human and machine-readable formats. Programmatic access to the data sets is also provided for the convenience of researchers. The datasets only provide compiled anonymised information. Due care has been taken to maintain privacy of personal information of individuals.

Missing gamma rays were abducted by light from the first stars

Strong indirect evidence for the formation of the first stars in the cosmos.

The first stars in the Universe were evidently cosmic hooligans, knocking electrons off atoms, making much of the hydrogen gas in interstellar space ionized. This reionization happened between the formation of the first atoms (about 380,000 years after the Big Bang) and some point roughly a billion years later. However, observations of this era are challenging, so the precise conditions of reionization are not well understood.

Now a study using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has used the light emanating from supermassive black holes known as blazars to measure the diffuse light produced by reionization. When high energy gamma rays interacted with the ultraviolet photons produced by early stars, they were converted to particle/antiparticle pairs, and this creates a drop off at a specific point in the blazar spectrum. This absorption was evident in a sample of 150 blazars, and the data can help constrain models of the very first stars in the Universe.

The first stable atoms formed about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, in an event called recombination. This primarily means that electrons joined with protons to form hydrogen. Subsequently, many of those atoms were broken apart again in an event cosmologists refer to as reionization.

The era of reionization included the period when the first stars and galaxies must have formed. Hot, young stars pump out a lot of ultraviolet (UV) light, which is perfect for ionizing hydrogen and helium gas, so the general consensus is that the earliest stars must have powered reionization. The UV light from these stars is known as the extragalactic background light (EBL). However, the details of this light are hard to come by, since UV light is easily absorbed and scattered by other objects, including the gas in the Milky Way.

This new Fermi study sidesteps that problem entirely, by looking for the indirect evidence of the EBL's presence, rather than trying to detect the UV light itself. A high-energy gamma ray photon passing through the radiation from young stars could interact with a UV photon, producing an electron-positron pair. (This is essentially reversing the process of an electron and positron annihilating each other.) A precise exchange of energy is required for such an event, since the electron and positron have a joint mass that requires the equivalent energy to form (according to Einstein's famous formula         E = m c²).

What is Blazars?

Blazars are excellent sources of high-energy gamma rays. When matter falls onto a supermassive black hole, the result is often a bright jet,  a blazar results when that jet happens to point directly at Earth. Since blazars generally have no intrinsic absorption from surrounding gas, the light typically reaches us without interruption.

However, if a gamma ray from a blazar above the energy limit passed through the EBL, it would vanish from the blazar's output. The researchers took a sample of 150 previously identified blazars and correlated their spectra. While data from any single black hole was ambiguous, the large number of black holes under consideration gave them a better statistical power. The analysis showed a clear cutoff: some photons that should have been present were missing, and they corresponded to the amount we'd expect if the EBL was there.

 

Dengue Fever

Dengue Fever is an acute infectious disease induced by the propagation of dengue viruses via mosquitoes ( Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus) and its primary symptoms are high fever, strange aches in the head, muscles, bones and joints, and the posterior orbital ache as well as eruption.  

The Epidemiology of Dengue Fever

Dengue Fever primarily occurs in the tropical and subtropical countries where Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus exist, especially in areas with abundant vectors of Aedes aegypti, e.g. Asia, Latin America, Africa and Australia, as well as some islands in the Pacific region, also inclusive of Taiwan.

Mode of transmission

Infection is a result of bites via vectors of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. After bitten by vectors, viruses will enter human blood from the saliva of the vector and infect the host. About 5 to 8 days after the naïve patients were infected, viruses cause viremia via substantial proliferation and result in an attack once. If the patients are further bitten by non-vectors, these non-vectors will become pathogenic, and spread dengue viruses to other people via bites.

Treatment of Dengue Fever

There is no specific drug for Dengue Fever at present, and supportive treatment can only alleviate the patient's discomfort temporarily.

Prevention of occurrence of Dengue Fever

The methods are primarily classified into two large categories; the first is to prevent the vector bites and the second is to eliminate the larva「wigglers」of vectors

November 10 to be celebrated as Malala Day

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has announced that November 10, 2012, will be celebrated as Malala Day the world over, as it marks the 30-day anniversary of the Taliban attack on the 15-year-old education campaigner from Pakistan.

Ki-Moon hoped that observing Malala day will build on the momentum of UN's Education First initiative and show that education is a right of everyone, and not a privilege for a few.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had shot Malala in the head and neck while she was returning home from on October 9. She was attacked for speaking up against the Taliban and advocating girls' education. She is now recuperating at a hospital in Birmngham, UK, and is said to be making good progress.

Fermi gamma ray space telescope

The Universe is home to numerous exotic and beautiful phenomena, some of which can generate almost inconceivable amounts of energy. Supermassive black holes, merging neutron stars, streams of hot gas moving close to the speed of light ... these are but a few of the marvels that generate gamma-ray radiation, the most energetic form of radiation, billions of times more energetic than the type of light visible to our eyes. What is happening to produce this much energy? What happens to the surrounding environment near these phenomena? How will studying these energetic objects add to our understanding of the very nature of the Universe and how it behaves?

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, formerly GLAST, is opening this high-energy world to exploration and helping us answer these questions. With Fermi, astronomers at long last have a superior tool to study how black holes, notorious for pulling matter in, can accelerate jets of gas outward at fantastic speeds. Physicists are able to study subatomic particles at energies far greater than those seen in ground-based particle accelerators. And cosmologists are gaining valuable information about the birth and early evolution of the Universe.

Here is a list of features that explain the different things Fermi will explore.

Blazars and active galaxies

Gamma-ray bursts

Neutron stars

Cosmic rays and supernova remnants

The Milky Way galaxy

Gamma-ray background radiation

The early universe

Our solar system

Dark matter

Fundamental physics

Electromagnetic Spectrum Basics

The electromagnetic spectrum is the basis for the observations Fermi undertakes.

Image above: Measuring wavelengths.

To be able to understand how Fermi works, you need to understand the electromagnetic spectrum.

What we call "light" is actually just a tiny fraction of the broad range of radiation on the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. The entire span stretches from very-low-energy radio waves through microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, X rays, and finally to very-high-energy gamma rays. The processes producing photons (single particles of electromagnetic radiation) of each type of radiation differ, as do their energy, but all of the different forms of radiation are still just part of the electromagnetic spectrum's family. The only real difference between a gamma-ray photon and a visible-light photon is the energy. Gamma rays can have over a billion times the energy of the type of light visible to our eyes.

In fact, gamma rays are so energetic that they are harmful to life on Earth. Luckily, Earth's atmosphere absorbs gamma rays, preventing them from affecting life on the ground. But this poses a problem if you want to observe the Universe in gamma-ray light. The very atmosphere that protects us from gamma rays prevents us from directly observing them from the ground. Astronomical observations of gamma-ray sources in the Fermi energy range are therefore done with high-altitude balloons or satellites, above the protective blanket of Earth's atmosphere.

The high energy of gamma rays poses another problem: they can pass right through any lens or mirror, making it very difficult to focus them in a telescope. Astronomical observations, therefore, must rely on a different technology to view the gamma-ray universe. Scientists must make use of methods developed by particle physicists, who have long understood techniques for measuring high-energy particles. Fermi's specialized astronomical instruments will therefore employ detectors used and perfected by physicists interested in the interactions of subatomic particles.

Government Revises MSP Prices of Cotton

Government of India has revised MSP prices for

Medium staple cotton from Rs. 2800/ qtl to Rs. 3600/ qtl and for

Long staple cotton from Rs. 3300/ qtl to Rs. 3900/ qtl for cotton season 2012-13.

The Cotton Advisory Board has estimated cotton production in the country at 334 lac bales, consumption at 260 lac bales and an exportable surplus at 70 lac bales. Although domestic consumption is showing increasing trends, the sharp decline in global trade and increase in world stocks have imposed a downward stress on cotton prices, which is reflected in Indian cotton markets also. Domestic prices have touched MSP levels in some places of the State of Andhra Pradesh and are close to MSP levels in Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Cotton Corporation of India will operate 20 procurement centers in Punjab, 14 procurement centers in Haryana, 28 procurement centers in Rajasthan, 47 procurement centers in Gujarat, 55 procurement centers in Maharashtra, 17 procurement centers in Andhra Pradesh, 13 procurement centers in Karnataka and 7 procurement centers in Orissa. The criteria for selection of a procurement center include expected arrivals of 50,000 quintals, existence of a functional market yard, availability of a weighbridge in the market yard, availability of ginning and pressing factories and availability of fire fighting facilities. Three procurement centres have already become operationalised in Andhra Pradesh.

Over 100 Unidentified Flying Objects seen along China border

The Army troops deployed along the China border from Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh in northeast have reported more than 100 sightings of "Unidentified Flying Objects" (UFOs) in the last three months.

Agencies including the Army, DRDO, NTRO and the ITBP have not yet been able to identify these luminous flying objects. The 14 Corps, which looks after military deployment along Kargil-Leh and looks after the frontiers with China, has sent reports to the Army Headquarters about the sightings of UFOs by an ITBP unit in Thakung near the Pangong Tso Lake,

Reports suggested that these yellowish spheres appear to lift off from the horizon on the Chinese side and slowly traverse the sky for three to five hours before disappearing. The officials confirmed that these UFOs were not Chinese drones or satellites.

They said Army had also moved a mobile ground-based radar unit and a spectrum analyser to verify the identity of the object but could not detect the object that was being tracked visually, indicating it was non-metallic. Army officials expressed concern over the inability of agencies to identify the object which some believed could be a Chinese surveillance equipment.

Sources said similar reports had emerged about five-six years ago about sighting of such objects but the matter was not taken up at higher levels. Reports suggested that a group of mountaineers had seen a UFO in 2004 in Lahaul and Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh and investigations were launched into the incident by various agencies.

All India Lokayuktas Conference 2012

 

Eleventh All India Lokayuktas Conference which brings together Lokayuktas of different States to discuss ways and means of enhancing effectiveness of Lokayuktas. These All India Lokayukta Conferences, bring different stakeholders together so that views can be shared on the challenges and best practices. With such a wide range of experienced participants, I am sure the discussions will bring forth concrete suggestions and initiatives for strengthening Lokayuktas and making them more effective.

In recent times, there has been concern over the need to ensure that the corridors of power remain untainted by corruption or nepotism and that there is optimum utilization of resources and funds for their intended purposes. This national conference is therefore timely. For the successful working of democracy, people should be confident that Government policies are formulated and implemented with honesty, transparency and fairness.

Background

As all of you are aware, Lokayukta or the Ombudsman was originally conceived in Scandinavian countries as a watchdog of the administration as well as protector of the “common man”. Despite having minimal power to implement decisions, the Ombudsman played a very useful role in these countries by bringing humanism in governance. In India, Sh. M. C. Setalvad, the distinguished lawyer, in his speech at the All India Lawyer’s Conference held in 1962, suggested the idea of establishing an institution similar to that of an Ombudsman. This idea was extensively investigated by the First Administrative Reforms Commission in 1966 and while recommending setting up of Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in the States, this Commission advocated ‘Ombudsmanic’ institutions as a means for redressal of citizens’ grievances, containing corruption and removing discontent amongst citizens.

Over the years, as India witnessed rapid growth, the extent of public spending has steadily increased. For example, the first Revenue Budget of independent India presented by then Finance Minister Shri Shanmukhom Chetty was of Rs. 197.39 crore comprising of Revenue receipts of Rs.171.15 crore and Revenue Expenditure of Rs.197.39 crore, thereby leaving a Deficit of Rs.26.24 crore. Whereas, the last budget presented by me in March of this year was nearly Rs. 12 lakh crore. The first five year plan outlay was Rs. 2000 crore while public investment during the 11th Plan period was around Rs. 11 lakh crore.

As the political economy grows in size and depth, institutions conceived and established under Constitution face unique challenges. Ensuring sustainable growth, eliminating poverty, raising the quality of life, promoting industrialization, providing jobs etc. requires quick decision making by the Executive on whom our Constitution vests the responsibility of governance. If the Executive has to deliver results and demonstrate efficient governance, it needs to have substantial financial powers. At the same time, provision of such financial powers and the use of administrative discretion in governance gives rise to opportunities for nepotism and corruption. It is in recognition of the need for a mechanism which would investigate corruption amongst public persons and help bring probity in governance that Lokayuktas have been set up across the country and a Lok Pal is under consideration at the center.

At present 19 Lokayuktas have been set up by State Governments.

In the States where Lokayuktas have been set up, different Acts govern their establishment and the provisions relating to the eligibility of Lokayukta, its jurisdiction, procedures, powers and infrastructure widely vary. There is no uniformity in the functioning of Lokayuktas of different States and their effectiveness differs from State to State. The fact that Lokayuktas only have recommendatory powers and no power to enforce their decisions, what should be the extent of their jurisdiction, should government servants be under their ambit or only public persons, should they have independent investigation agencies of their own or should they use existing official agencies etc. all are issues which have engendered significant debate in society. I am sure this conference will discuss these issues threadbare.

The Second Administrative Reforms Commission, in its Fourth Report on “Ethics in Governance”, recommended uniformity in the general principles regarding the structure, power and functions of Lokayuktas in all the States. Justice Manmohan Sarin in his remarks has referred to the preparation of a Model Mukhya Lokayukta and Upalokayukta Bill for the reference of State Government. It is a welcome step. The Lokayuktas may also like to discuss this Model Bill with the Ministry of Law and Justice and see how the matter can be taken forward expeditiously.

It is imperative that Lokayuktas, who are currently in office inspire confidence of the people by conducting impartial and independent inquiries in pursuit of truth. State Governments must facilitate the Lokayuktas in the full implementation of the legislative mandate entrusted upon them and not see them as a nuisance or interfering in governance. Lokayuktas must be provided adequate financial and administrative autonomy.

The Lokayuktas must at the same time remember that their duty is not just to indict public functionaries when they are guilty but also to protect them when nothing is found wrong with their conduct and to correct wrong perceptions about them with equal force and earnestness. It must be ensured that in the name of checking corruption, vilification campaigns are not carried out to defame or destroy reputations. False allegations aimed at impugning reputations are bad. The institution of Lokayukta is an ally to good governance not an obstruction to development.

Finally, let me repeat what I said in my Independence Day address to the nation earlier this year. Anger against the bitter pandemic of corruption is legitimate as is the protest against this plague. But, this should not become an excuse for an assault on our democratic institutions.

Institutions are the visible pillars of our Constitution, and if they crack then the idealism of our Constitution cannot hold. Our institutions may have suffered from the weariness of time. The answer is not to destroy what has been built, but to re-engineer them so that they become stronger than before. Institutions are the ultimate guardians of our liberty.

The judiciary of our country is the ultimate sentinel of justice and arbiter of truth and the Parliament is the custodian of the people’s aspirations and the architect for implementing their dreams. Over and above the Constitutional scheme of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, we have, in recent times, given ourselves the Right to Information, Legal Aid, Autonomous Investigation Agencies and a host of beneficial legislation. The Lok Pal Bill is before the Parliament. New laws for imposing sanctions for bribery by foreign agents, transparency in public procurement, citizens’ grievances redressal etc are also under consideration. All these must strengthen existing institutions of accountability not displace them or undermine them. We must also distinguish bonafide errors of judgment from graft and corruption, civil wrong from criminal intent and the need to have swift and effective sanctions against corruption from the imperative of protecting the innocent.

Hair found in Russian cave 'belonged to unknown mammal closely related to man

Astonishing claims were made in Russia today that DNA tests on suspected 'Yeti hair' reveals the existence of 'an unknown mammal closely related to man'.

The 'tests' were conducted on samples of hair found in a Siberian cave during an international expedition last year.

Nor did the hair belong to any known animal from the region such as a bear, wolf, or goat, he claimed.

Analysis was conducted in the Russia and US and 'agreed the hair came from a human-like creature which is not a Homo sapien yet is more closely related to man than a monkey', said the Siberian Times, citing claims made on a regional government website in Russia in the area where the hair samples were allegedly found.

It stated that long-awaited scientific tests were conducted on their hair at two institutions in Russia and one in Idaho in the US.

'All three world level universities have finished DNA analysis of the hair and said that the hair belongs to a creature which is closer by its biological parameters to Homo sapiens than a monkey. The Yeti's DNA is evidently less than one per cent different to that of a human.

STILL AT LARGE - A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE YETI

The first accounts of Yetis emerged before the 19th century from Buddhists who believed that the creature inhabited the Himalayas.

They depicted the mysterious beast as having similarities to an ape and carrying a large stone as a weapon while making a whistling sound.

Popular interest in the creature gathered pace in the early 20th century as tourists began making their own trips to the region to try and capture the Yeti. They reported seeing strange markings in the snow.

The Daily Mail led a trip called the Snowman Expedition in 1954 to Everest. During the trip mountaineering leader John Angelo Jackson photographed ancient paintings of yetis and large footprints in the snow.

A number of hair samples were also found that were believed to have come from a Yeti scalp. British mountaineer Don Whillans claimed to have witnessed a creature when scaling Annapurna in 1970.

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library

Since time immemorial, India has possessed a rich traditional knowledge of ways and means practiced to treat diseases afflicting people. This knowledge has generally been passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. A part of this knowledge has been described in ancient classical and other literature, often inaccessible to the common man and even when accessible rarely understood. Documentation of this existing knowledge, available in public domain, on various traditional systems of medicine has become imperative to safeguard the sovereignty of this traditional knowledge and to protect it from being misappropriated in the form of patents on non-original innovations, and which has been a matter of national concern. India fought successfully for the revocation of turmeric and basmati patents granted by United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and neem patent granted by European Patent Office (EPO). As a sequel to this, in 1999, the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy-(AYUSH), erstwhile Department of Indian System of Medicine and Homoeopathy (ISM&H) constituted an inter-disciplinary Task Force, for creating an approach paper on establishing a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL).The project TKDL was initiated in the year 2001.

TKDL provides information on traditional knowledge existing in the country, in languages and format understandable by patent examiners at International Patent Offices (IPOs), so as to prevent the grant of wrong patents. TKDL thus, acts as a bridge between the traditional knowledge information existing in local languages and the patent examiners at IPOs.

TKDL is a collaborative project between Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology and Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and is being implemented at CSIR. An inter-disciplinary team of Traditional Medicine (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Yoga) experts, patent examiners, IT experts, scientists and technical officers are involved in creation of TKDL for Indian Systems of Medicine.

The project TKDL involves documentation of the traditional knowledge available in public domain in the form of existing literature related to Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Yoga, in digitized format in five international languages which are English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish. Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification (TKRC), an innovative structured classification system for the purpose of systematic arrangement, dissemination and retrieval has been evolved for about 25,000 subgroups against few subgroups that was available in earlier version of the International Patent Classification (IPC), related to medicinal plants, minerals, animal resources, effects and diseases, methods of preparations, mode of administration, etc.

MiniFlame

Kaspersky Lab has discovered a cut-down version of the infamous Flame cyber-espionage weapon.

MiniFlame, like its big brother, is also an information-slurper well suited to cyber-spying. The malware, also known as SPE, was found by Kaspersky Lab’s experts in July 2012, and originally labelled as a Flame module.

All these advanced threats come from the same “cyber warfare” factory, the Russian anti-virus firm concludes.

At least six versions of miniFlame were created between 2010 and 2011, with some variants still being active in the wild. Development of the malware may have started as early as 2007.

Mini Flame operates as a backdoor designed for data theft and direct access to infected systems. The number of infections related to mini Flame is much smaller than the volume attributable to either Flame or Gausss. Kaspersky Lab estimates mimiFlame racked up just 50 to 60 infections worldwide.

The number of infections combined with miniFlame’s info-stealing features and flexible design indicate it was used for extremely targeted cyber-espionage operations, and was most likely deployed inside machines that were already infected by Flame or Gauss," .

The original infection vector of miniFlame is yet to be determined. Once installed, miniFlame creates a backdoor that allows any file to be extracted from a compromised machine. The malware is also capable of making screenshots on infected PCs.

miniFlame uploads stolen data to its C&C server (which may be unique, or ‘shared’ with Flame’s C&Cs). Commands to control servers allow miniFlame to gain access to a module which "infects USB drives and uses them to store data that’s collected from infected machines without an internet connection".

miniFlame is a high precision attack tool. Most likely it is a targeted cyberweapon used in what can be defined as the second wave of a cyber attack. First, Flame or Gauss are used to infect as many victims as possible to collect large quantities of information. After data is collected and reviewed, a potentially interesting victim is defined and identified, and miniFlame is installed in order to conduct more in-depth surveillance and cyber-espionage. The discovery of miniFlame also gives us additional evidence of the cooperation between the creators of the most notable malicious programs used for cyber warfare operations: Stuxnet, Duqu, Flame and Gauss."

FLAME 100 TIMES MORE COMPLEX THAN TYPICAL HACKING VIRUS

Financial Development Report 2012

Financial systems across the world are stagnating, leading to challenges for a global economic recovery, according to the fifth edition of the World Economic Forum's Financial Development Report 2012

The Financial Development Report shows that financial systems in advanced and emerging economies are stalling. "Macroeconomic uncertainty, as well as concerns related to regulation, contributes to inhibiting the financial industry from funding much-needed growth."

India's ranking went down four places to 40th in 2012, compared with the previous year in an index compiled by the World Economic Forum to track financial development of 62 countries because of poor enforcement of contracts and lack of liberalisation.

The break-up of Financial Development Index showed that India ranked 9th in non-banking financial services and capital markets tracked by the index, but the country lost out in terms of banking financial services standing at 45th place

The WEF report said that though quite a few emerging market banks engage in foreign adventures, they tend to focus on small acquisitions, often to service local customers abroad or to offer services to migrants.

In this concern, it cited State Bank of India and ICICI Bank for having undertaken expansions in Asia, Africa, and West Asia.

The reason behind these expansions are to facilitate increasing trade and investment flows between India and other countries, to provide foreign currency denominated loans to the overseas affiliates of Indian companies, and to provide remittance and retail credit

Weak results in the institutional and business environment pillars continued to be driven by an inability to enforce contracts, a low degree of financial sector liberalization, inadequate infrastructure, and a high cost of doing business -- these were largely responsible for the decline in India's ranking in the Index.

Hong Kong topped the index for the second consecutive year, followed by the US, the UK, Singapore, Australia, Canada.

There was no change in the ranking of the first six places this year as against last year.

The Financial Development Report shows that financial systems in advanced and emerging economies are stalling,"

Macroeconomic uncertainty, as well as concerns related to regulation, contributes to inhibiting the financial industry from funding much-needed growth," Bruno added.

The report came a few days after the Doing Business Report 2013 by the World Bank ranked India at a low position of 132 out of 185 countries in 2013 report, same as 2012.

Its ranking came down in 7 of the 10 parameters

Neutrinos

What are neutrinos?

Neutrinos are tiny, neutral, elementary particles which interact with matter via the weak force. The weakness of this force gives neutrinos the property that matter is almost trans- parent to them. The Sun, and all other stars, produce neutrinos copiously due to nuclear fusion and decay processes within their core. Since they rarely interact, these neutrinos pass through the Sun, and even the Earth, unhindered. There are many other natural sources of neutrinos including exploding stars (supernovae), relic neutrinos (from the birth of the uni- verse), natural radioactivity, and cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere of the Earth. For example, the Sun produces over two hundred trillion trillion trillion neutrinos every second, and a supernova blast can unleash 1000 times more neutrinos than our Sun will produce in its 10-billion year lifetime. Billions of neutrinos stream through our body every second, yet only one or two of the higher energy neutrinos will interact with you in your lifetime.

The neutrino was proposed by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930; but it took another 26 years for it to be actually detected. In 1956 Reines and Cowan found evidence of neutrino interactions by monitoring a volume of cadmium chloride with scintillating liquid near to a nuclear reactor. Reines was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995 in part for this revolutionary work. We now know that not just one but at least three types or flavours of neutrinos and their anti-particles exist in nature. They have a tiny mass whose value is still not known. Moreover, they exhibit a quantum-mechanical phenomenon in which one type of neutrino oscillates into another as it propagates in space; this is called neutrino oscillation and this observation has generated immense excitement in the particle physics community

Why detect them ?

From recent experiments we know that the mass of the neutrino is non vanishing, but we are unsure how large the masses of the three individual neutrino types are because of the difficulty in detecting neutrinos. This is important because neutrinos are by far the most numerous of all the particles in the universe (other than photons of light) and so even a tiny mass for the neutrinos can enable them to have an effect on the evolution of the Universe through their gravitational effects. There are other recent astrophysical measurements that provide information on the evolution of the Universe and it is crucial to seek complementary information by direct determinations of the masses of neutrinos and their other properties. In a sense, neutrinos hold the key to several important and fundamental questions on the origin of the Universe and the energy production in stars. We have some partial answers but many details are still awaited from future experiments.

Yet another important possible application of neutrinos is in the area of neutrino tomography of the earth, that is detailed investigation of the structure of the Earth from core on wards. This is possible with neutrinos since they are the only particles which can probe the deep interiors of the Earth

Why should the laboratory be situated underground?

Neutrinos, as mentioned before, are notoriously difficult to detect in a laboratory because of their extremely weak interaction with matter. The background from cosmic rays (which interact much more readily than neutrinos) and natural radioactivity will make it almost

impossible to detect them on the surface of the Earth. This is the reason most neutrino observatories are located deep inside the Earth’s surface. The overburden provided by the Earth matter is transparent to neutrinos whereas most background from cosmic rays is substantially reduced depending on the depth at which the detector is located.

One of the earliest laboratories created to detect neutrinos underground in the world was located more than 2000 m deep at the Kolar Gold Field (KGF) mines in India. The first atmospheric neutrinos were detected at this laboratory in 1965. This laboratory has been closed due to the closure of the mines. Most underground laboratories around the world are located at a depth of a km or more. There are two types of underground laboratories: either located in a mine or in a road tunnel. There are now four major laboratories around the world: in Sudbury in Canada, Kamioka in Japan, under the Gran Sasso mountains in Italy and in Soudan mines in the USA. Several others are planned including INO which is an attempt to recapture the pioneering studies on neutrinos at KGF.

What is INO?

The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is a proposed pure-Science underground laboratory. Its primary goal is to study the properties and interactions of weakly interacting, naturally occurring particles, called neutrinos.  There is world-wide interest in this field due to its implications for several diverse and allied fields such as particle physics, cosmology and the origin of the Universe, energy production mechanisms in the Sun and other stars, etc.

In fact, other neutrino labs, also underground, have been running for several years in places such as Japan, Italy, and Canada. The experiments proposed at INO will be complementary in nature to the existing ones. While many experiments have studied neutrinos from the Sun and other stars, INO will study atmospheric neutrinos that are naturally produced by the interaction of cosmic rays in Earth's own atmosphere.

Several groups belonging to different Universities, IITs and research Institutes in India are part of the collaboration working on the research & development of all components of INO. This is an open collaboration and interested people are welcome to join. The current proposal focuses on neutrino detection with static detectors, to be placed deep underground at a suitable site.

India-based Neutrino Observatory

The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is an effort aimed at building a world-class underground laboratory to study fundamental issues in science. It is a mega-science project under the XII five-year plan of Government of India with an investment of about 1350 crores, jointly funded by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The ambitious INO proposal has already drawn the worldwide attention of both national and international scientists. Once completed it will be the largest basic sciences project in India.

At present, nearly 26 institutions and about 100 scientists are involved in the INO collaboration with Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, being the host institution. This large collaboration is the first of its kind in the country and is expected to grow further.

The laboratory is to be located in Tamil Nadu as the steep slopes of the western ghats provide ideal and stable rock conditions for building a large underground cavern,

The primary goal of the laboratory is the study of neutrinos from various natural and laboratory sources using an iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector. It is envisaged that such an underground facility will develop into a centre for other studies as well, in physics, biology, geology, etc., all of which will make use of the special conditions that exist deep underground.

The ICAL detector that will be installed in the INO laboratory will be the world's most massive detector. Such an effort will involve INO-Industry interface in a big way, in issues related to mechanical structure, electronics and detector-related technology. It is being developed completely indigenously.

Apart from pursuing neutrino physics goals, the laboratory itself will greatly aid the development of detector technology and its varied applications (which have so far been in the areas of medical imaging).

Students of science and technology within the country, particularly those residing in Tamil Nadu or neighbouring states, will have the opportunity to involve themselves in research involving cutting-edge science and technology.

INO has no strategic or defence applications. Its operation involves no radioactivity release or toxic emission

What are the highlights of the proposal?

The INO proposal consists of creating two underground laboratory caverns with a rock cover of more than 1000 metres all around to house detectors and control equipment's. An access tunnel of length 2 km (approximate) to reach the underground laboratory will be driven under a mountain to reach the laboratory caverns. The surface facilities near the portal will consist of a laboratory and some housing for the scientists, engineers and operating staff. There will be no other tunnels and hence no disturbance on top or the sides of the mountain; the only entrance to the underground cavern will be at the bottom of the mountain.

What will be the detector that will be housed at INO?

The detector housed in the INO laboratory initially will be a magnetised iron calorimeter detector (ICAL). It is a static device without moving parts. Just as a telescope observes the sky through visible light, the ICAL will observe the sky through neutrinos.

Charged particles produced in the rare interactions of neutrinos with the iron (constituting the 50 kton, 1.3 Tesla magnet) will be detected in glass based detectors called RPCs sandwiched between successive iron layers. The penetrating ones, such as muons, will be tracked in space and time to identify their charge (+/−) and momentum. In addition to ICAL, several small experiments may also be housed in INO.

What were the factors in deciding the location of the project?

Since the laboratory cavern needs to be more than 1000 m underground (so that there is at least 1000 m cover all-round to absorb/reduce natural cosmic radiation), the choice of site is primarily dictated by the rock quality, in order to obtain a stable safe environment for such long-term activity. Geologically, southern Indian mountains have the most compact, dense rock (mostly gneiss) while the Himalayas are mostly metamorphic sedimentary rock with pockets of gneiss. A considerable area of peninsular India, the Indian Shield, consists of Archean gneisses and schists which are the oldest rocks found in India. While the Karnataka region has more schistic type rocks, the rock found in BWH is mainly Charnockite, which is the hardest rock known. The mountains of Tamil Nadu, in general, are the most attractive possibility, offering stable dense rocks with maximum safety for locating such a laboratory. Apart from this, availability of water and power and easy access to the site for maximum work efficiency are other factors.

Where is the project located?

The proposed site for INO is located in the Bodi West Hills region, about 2 km from the nearest village Pudukottai in Pottipuram Panchayat, Theni District of Tamil Nadu. The nearest major city is Madurai about 110 km away. It is also the nearest airport and a major railway station.

The portal is proposed to be located outside the RF boundary in puramboke (revenue) land along with surface facilities. This land, about 26.85 Ha in area, has now been acquired for INO. The Cavern will be located about 1300 metres deep under the 1589 peak.

The proposed site for INO is located in the Bodi West Hills region, about 2 km from the nearest village Pottipuram, Theni District of Tamil Nadu.  The portal (entrance to tunnel), the lab complex and the surface will be in Theni district.

A vision for INO and the challenge

INO has been conceived on a scale that no other basic sciences project in India has attempted. The MoU signed by seven institutions, that brought the Neutrino Collaboration Group into existence, is already the first of its kind. It is a testimony to the enthusiasm and collaborative spirit shown by the scientific community in India.

In the first phase of its operation a magnetised iron calorimeter detector, weighing about 50,000 tons, will be used for studying neutrinos produced from cosmic rays in Earth’s atmosphere. The aim is to make precision measurements of the parameters related to neutrino oscillations. An exciting possibility is to determine the ordering of the neutrino masses which is not very well known at present. This is one of the fundamental open questions in neutrino physics and no other detector either existing or planned except perhaps NOνA may be able to provide an answer in the next 10 years. Because of its ability to distinguish the positive and negative muons, this detector can settle this question.

This detector can also be used as the far-detector of a long-base-line (6000 to 11500 km) neutrino experiment using the neutrino beam from a neutrino factory in Japan, Europe or USA. These are neutrinos that will be produced in a future accelerator facility which are beamed towards the detectors situated in a different part of the Earth. This is envisaged as the second phase of the INO activity, and is a long-term goal, since neutrino factories are yet to become a reality. However, there is considerable interest in this possibility not only for the rich physics potential but also because the proposed detector at INO will be capable of charge identification, which is crucial for this mode of operation.

INO will have an impact on the emerging high energy physics scenario in the country. People trained at INO will not only participate here but also have the expertise to contribute to other high energy and nuclear physics projects around the world. Over the long term INO is expected to develop into a world class underground science laboratory straddling many fields like physics, biology, geology and allied engineering fields.

Members of INO are acutely aware that the laboratory is likely to be located in an environmentally and ecologically sensitive environment. During its normal operation phase, the laboratory is not expected to cause any damage to the environment. All efforts will be made to minimise the disturbance during the construction phase.

INO is looking for scientists and engineers who will enjoy the challenge of setting up an entirely new facility to do world class research. Now is the right time to join us and make a difference!

INO Highlights

The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is an effort aimed at building a world-class underground laboratory to study fundamental issues in science. It is a mega-science project under the XII five-year plan of Government of India with an investment of about 1350 crores, jointly funded by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The ambitious INO proposal has already drawn the worldwide attention of both national and international scientists. Once completed it will be the largest basic sciences project in India.

At present, nearly 26 institutions and about 100 scientists are involved in the INO collaboration with Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, being the host institution. This large collaboration is the first of its kind in the country and is expected to grow further.

The laboratory is to be located in Tamil Nadu as the steep slopes of the western ghats provide ideal and stable rock conditions for building a large underground cavern, safely, for long-term use.

The primary goal of the laboratory is the study of neutrinos from various natural and laboratory sources using an iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector. It is envisaged that such an underground facility will develop into a centre for other studies as well, in physics, biology, geology, etc., all of which will make use of the special conditions that exist deep underground.

The ICAL detector that will be installed in the INO laboratory will be the world's most massive detector. Such an effort will involve INO-Industry interface in a big way, in issues related to mechanical structure, electronics and detector-related technology. It is being developed completely indigenously.

Apart from pursuing neutrino physics goals, the laboratory itself will greatly aid the development of detector technology and its varied applications (which have so far been in the areas of medical imaging).

Students of science and technology within the country, particularly those residing in Tamil Nadu or neighbouring states, will have the opportunity to involve themselves in research involving cutting-edge science and technology.

INO has no strategic or defence applications. Its operation involves no radioactivity release or toxic emissions.

Benefits of Neutrino Project?

Neutrino research has immense physics potential and societal value as well. The research will have implications for astrophysics, phenomenology and particle physics. Neutrinos hold the key to several fundamental questions on the origin of the Universe and the energy production in stars. Neutrinos can be used for tomography of the earth and human body also and they are less hazardous than X-rays. Neutrinos may tell us more about dark energy and dark matter and ultimately help us exploit them as the earth is getting depleted of its material and energy sources.