Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram Unveiled Cash Transfer Rollout Plan

The government is going to roll out its ambitious scheme of transferring cash to beneficiaries of select schemes in 20 districts on 1 January 2013, but food, fertiliser and fuel subsidies will not be covered in the initial phase.

As per the roll-out plan, more and more districts and schemes would be covered under the scheme during the course of 2013.

All 26 schemes are ready for rollout. On 1 January 2013 the seven schemes in which payout is due in the (20 selected) districts, the money will be transferred through the direct benefit transfer system using the UIDAI platform.

However, Government clarified that subsidies relating to cooking gas (LPG), kerosene, diesel, food and fertilizers will not be included in the first phase of the roll-out.

The scheme is going to be rolled out in 43 districts by 1 March 2013 — 20 districts from January 1, 11 districts from February 1 and 12 districts from March 1.

By end of 2013, the direct cash benefit transfer will be rolled out in all the districts of the country.The subsidies would be transferred to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts if they do not have an Aadhaar number.

Muthunayagam and Saraswat to be awarded with Aryabhatta Award by the ASI

The Astronautical Society of India (ASI) in the last week of December 2012 announced names of former secretary of the Department of Ocean Development, Dr. A.E. Muthunayagam and Dr. V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister for prestigious Aryabhatta Award for the year 2010 and 2011 respectively. The two have been selected for the achievement in rocketry.

Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy an associate Director of Research Centre Imarat Hyderabad and P. Kunhikrishnan of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Thiruvananthapuram would receive ASI Awards for rocket and rocket related technologies for the year 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Dr. A.E. Muthunayagam Served as a director for the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, ISRO He served the Department of Atomic Energy as head of a committee to look into safety issues related to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu in 2011

Dr. V.K. Saraswat Director-general of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and was an architect for the interceptor missile Agni and Prithvi programme

G. Satheesh Reddy He is a specialist in navigation system and is the person who developed Avionics, with ring laser gyroscope based navigation system as well as the fibre-optic gyroscope-based inertial navigation system

P. Kunhikrishnan He has served as a Mission Director for different Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)

Scientist Venkatesh Mannar honoured with Order of Canada Award

Venkatesh Mannar a Channai-born Scientist of Indian Origin and President, Micronutrient Initiative, Canada was awarded with Canada’s Highest Civilian Award – the Order of Canada in the last week of December 2012. Mannar, a Graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a post graduate in chemical engineering from Northwestern University, US, was honoured with the award for his forty years long contribution working towards reduction of debilitating micronutrient deficiencies among the worlds most vulnerable.

Micronutrient Initiative

The not-for-profit organization, Micronutrient Initiative is dedicated towards ensuring the world’s most vulnerable, the children and the women mainly in the developing countries get a proper amount of minerals and vitamins (supplements) that they require for survival and it tries to thrive the same through food fortification programme. The organization works for identifying, development, implementation and monitoring the cost effective solutions for hidden hunger. The Support offered by Canada to the organization allows it to improve lives of more than 500 million people in 70 different countries, annually. All this is being done through different programs of the organization and they are child health, child survival, growth and development, and women’s and newborn survival and health programs.

Order of Canada Award

The Order of Canada instituted by Queen Elizabeth II in the year 1967 is a Canadian National Order and is the second highest honour of merit in the Country. It is placed next to Order of Merit. The order is given to people with lifetime outstanding achievements and their dedication towards the community and service to the nation and people in Canadian Society in all the sectors.

Syed Asif Ibrahim Took Over as the Director of Intelligence Bureau

Syed Asif Ibrahim, the 1977 Madhya Pradesh cadre IPS officer took over the office of Intelligence Bureau as a director on 1 January 2013 from Nehchal Sandhu. Alok Joshi, the Haryana cadre IPS officer on the other hand took over the office of RAW as the director on 31 December 2012.

The names of the head of IB and RAW were cleared in November 2012 by the cabinet committee which was headed by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Syed Asif Ibrahim was appointed as officer on special duty in the Intelligence Bureau after his name was cleared from appointments panel. With this, Ibrahim became the first Muslim to acquire such a prestigious post in the IB.

Nehchal Sandhu retired as the head of IB on 31 December 2012 after which Asif Ibrahim took over. Before holding the position of head of IB, Asif Ibrahim served as a special director in IB. He became the special director after returning from London where he held the designation of Minister (Coordination) in the Indian high commission.

India and Pakistan Exchanged Nuclear Units List as a Part of the Agreement

India and Pakistan exchanged their nuclear units’ lists on 1 January 2013, as it is customary since 20 years. The list which contains the names of nuclear units of two countries, are exchanged between India and Pakistan as a custom and part of an agreement which prevents them from aiming the nuclear installations of each others’ nations.

The exchange of the list of nuclear units has been going on, on 1 January every year since 1992. This is a customary action as a part of Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities which was signed in December 1988.

The external affairs ministry of India announced that the two countries exchanged the list of nuclear installations through their diplomatic channels at Islamabad and New Delhi.

Apart from this list, the two nations, as a part of another bilateral agreement signed back in 2008, share the list of each others’ prisoners in the jails of two countries. The bilateral agreement was signed between India and Pakistan in May 2008, according to which a complete list of the citizens of both the countries living in the jails of other country should be exchanged two times every year on 1 January and in July.

Current Affairs India - 1 January 2013

1. The license of Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) expires today but it will have another 2 years time to renew the license, otherwise it will be lapsed forever. Also at the same time the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has set five conditions for Kingfisher Airlines to fly again which includes

 paying all salary dues to employees before renewing the license and getting written confirmation from the UB group regarding necessary funding.

2. The Astronautical Society of India (ASI) has chosen the former secretary of the Department of Ocean Development, A.E. Muthunayagam, for the prestigious Aryabhatta award 2010 and Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, V.K. Saraswat, for the prestigious Aryabhatta award 2011. Both of them have been selected for their achievements in rocketry.

3. The Astronautical Society of India (ASI) has chosen G. Satheesh Reddy, associate director of the Research Centre, Imarat, for the 2010 ASI award for rocket and related technologies. P. Kunhikrishnan of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will receive the same for 2011.

4. The Astronautical Society of India (ASI) has chosen P. Chakraborty of the Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS), ISRO and Yateendra Mehta, ISRO Satellite Centre for the awards for spacecraft and related technologies for the year of 2010 and 2011 respectively.

5. The Hockey India League has signed a multi-year deal with Hero MotoCorp, India’s largest two wheeler manufacturing company for the title sponsorship of the event. After this deal, the tournament will be called as “Hero Hockey India League”.

6. State Bank of India has launched mobile wallet service MobiCash Easy in Mumbai and Delhi. This prepaid service will allow its customers to transfer money to any bank account or to any wallet issued by State Bank of India, pay bills, recharge mobiles, and pay for digital TV and broadband connections. Both SBI and non-SBI customers can use this facility.

7. Deepali Pant Joshi has been promoted as the Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India. The RBI has total nine Executive directors. Before that she was the Regional Director of the RBI’s Rajasthan regional office and she will succeed V. K. Sharma.

India’s manufacturing growth drops to nine-month low; PMI drops to 52.8 in August

India’s manufacturing sector growth dropped to nine-month low in August as the HSBC compiled manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), an important parameter to judge the performance of the sector, dropped marginally to 52.8 in August compared to 52.9 in July. Any reading higher than 50 indicates growth in the respective sector.

In spite of global slowdown and negative export growth, India’s manufacturing sector still managed to grow though at the lower rate. Current worsening euro zone debt crisis and dismal global economic outlook have affected its manufacturing sector significantly during recent months. India’s last quarter GDP growth dropped to 5.5% due to almost zero growth in the manufacturing sector. Now all eyes are on the RBI whether it will cut rates or not during its next policy review meet on 17^th September.

Meet the New Deputy Governor of RBI - Urgit Patel

The Indian government today (2nd Jan 2012 -Wednesday) has appointed Renowned Economist and public finance expert Urjit Patel as a Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), putting an end to weeks of speculation over who would fill the position left vacant by the exit of Subir Gokarn, whose term ended Monday. "Urjit Patel's name has been finalised," department of financial services secretary D K Mittal said.

Initially RBI announced in a statement Tuesday that the Department of Economic and Policy Research, Department of Statistics and Information Management and Monetary Policy Department which earlier were under the control of Mr Gokarn would report directly to Governor D. Subbaro till further orders. Now, Mr Patel, will handle monetary policy department at the central bank. Patel presently is working as a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a US-based think-tank. He is also a consultant to the Boston Consulting Group.

Download interview call letter for CWE PO/MT-II

Friends, the Common Interview Call Letters link for IBPS Probationary Officers / Management Trainees II is activated now. The Interviews will be start from 14th January 2013. The results will be declared by the 2nd week of February 2013. The Banks will announce notifications according to the ranks of the candidates by 3rd Week of February. The Registration process will start by the last week of February and you will get the job by March 2013. Inorder to downoad  your Call Letters for IBPS PO/MT II Common Interview, you should Enter your Registration Number / Roll Number and Password. Please mention your Interview Date and Venue below in the Comments Section.... All The Best Friends

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Age of Internet -- 30 years

The Internet, a revolutionary and cheap communications system that has transformed the lives of billions of people across the world, turned 30 on Tuesday. The computer network officially began its technological revolution when it fully substituted previous networking systems on January 1 1983.

Known as "flag day", it was the first time the US Department of Defence (DoD)-commissioned ARPANET network fully switched to use of the Internet protocol suite (IPS) communications system.&nbsp;Using data "packet-switching", the new method of linking computers paved the way for the arrival of the World Wide Web.<br />

"I don't think that anybody making that switch on the day would have realised the importance of what they were doing," the Daily Telegraph quoted Chris Edwards, an electronics correspondent for Engineering and Technology magazine, as saying.&nbsp;"But without it the Internet and the World Wide Web as we know them could not have happened."

Commenting on the historic event's impact on the world, Edwards said: "The Internet means there is nowhere and no one in the world you can't reach easily and cheaply.''&nbsp;Based on designs by Welsh scientist Donald Davies, the ARPANET network began as a military project in the late 1960s.

It was developed at prestigious American universities and research laboratories, such as the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Stanford Research Institute.&nbsp;Starting in 1973, work on the powerful and flexible IPS and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) technology which would change mass communications got under way.&nbsp;The new systems were designed to replace the more vulnerable Network Control Program (NCP) used previously, making sure the network was not exposed to a single point of failure.

This meant a single attack could not bring it down, making it safer and more reliable, the report said.&nbsp;By January 1 1983, the substitution of the older system for the new Internet protocol had been completed and the Internet was born.&nbsp;British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee was then able to use it to host the system of interlinked hypertext documents he invented in 1989, known as the World Wide Web.<br />