MoU Signed Between CPWD And IIM Tiruchirappalli For Construction of A Permanent Campus

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and IIM Tiruchirappalli (IIM Trichy) on 24 October 2013 at New Delhi. The MoU was signed for undertaking the Project Management Consultancy for the construction of its permanent campus. This includes planning, designing and construction of the campus.
                                                     

                                                               
The MoU was signed in the presence of V.K. Gupta, DG, CPWD and Dr. Prafulla Agnihotri, Director, IIM, Trichy. The permanent campus will come up in 68 hectares site which has been allotted by the Government of Tamil Nadu.

About the Permanent Campus

• The permanent campus will come up in 68 hectares site which has been allotted by the Government of Tamil Nadu.

• The campus which will accommodate 1500 students and 300 faculty and staff members would be fully self-sufficient for its residents and shall comprise of academic facilities, world class hostels for the students, residences for the faculty and staff, recreational facilities and a well-equipped Management Development Centre for the students and faculty.

• The master planning and designing of the campus has been entrusted to a firm of leading architects.

• The construction of this 450 crore Rupees (approximately) project will begin during March-April 2014 and is expected to be completed by March 2016.

• IIM Trichy aims to have a green campus and would be self-sufficient in terms of its water requirements in 5-7 years of its operations.

• IIM Tiruchirappalli (IIM Trichy) is the eleventh IIM which began its activities in 2011.

The US Comedian Carol Burnett Honoured With The Mark Twain Prize For American Humor

The US comedian Carol Burnett was on 20 October 2013 honoured with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Three artists- Dame Julie Andrews, Tony Bennett and Tina Fey performed specifically in the honour of Carol Burnett at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
                                                   

The variety shows of Carol Burnett started in 1960s. These shows ran continuously for 11 years and fetched around 30 million viewers in a week. Carol Burnett received her first break for the Ed Sullivan Show. Thereafter, she also acted on Broadway and appeared on The Garry Moore Show.

She also sung for 10 years with CBS. In the year 1967, she launched the Carol Burnett Show along with the guest stars such as Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Stewart and Lucille Ball. The show won 22 Emmy Awards. Carol Burnett was most prominently known for the Tarzan yell.

About the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

• The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is the foremost award for humour in America.

• It was first awarded in the year 1988 by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

• The award is named after the essayist and humorist Mark Twain, who belonged to the 19th century and was a renowned novelist as well. Mark Twain made significant contribution to American humour.

• Every year, the prize is presented in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington DC.

• The recipients of the Twain Prize receive an 1884 bronze portrait bust of Mark Twain sculpted by Karl Gerhardt.

Nobel Prize 2013

Nobel Prize, considered the most prestigious and coveted awards on the planet, have been declared in all categories for the year 2013.                                  

The Winners

Economics 

• US trio Lars Peter Hansen, Eugene Fama and Robert Shiller "for their empirical analysis of asset prices".
• Such is the extent of US domination in this category of Nobel that 17 out of the last 20 laureates in the past 10 years have come from the US Nobel Prize 2013.

Peace

• Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons”.
• It is the only Nobel award given in Norway (Oslo) and not in Sweden (Stockholm).

Literature

• Canadian writer Alice Munro, regarded as a modern Chekhov, wins 2013 Literature Nobel Prize.     
• She is the first Canadian (second Canada-born) and 13th female literature laureate and 44th female winner overall in the 112-year history of the Nobel Prizes.

Chemistry

• Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel for development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems.
• Their model allowed chemists to use computers instead of test tubes to understand chemical processes, and helped in the creation of new drugs as well as more efficient industrial products.

Physics

• Belgium's Francois Englert and Britain's Peter Higgs for theorizing the 'god particle' Higgs Boson. 

Medicine

• James Rothman, Randy Schekman (both Americans) and Thomas Sudhof (Germany-born) for mapping how cells transfer vital materials such as hormones and brain chemicals to other cells. 

Interesting facts about Nobel Prizes

• Prizes can only be awarded to individuals, except the Peace Prize.
• Each award can be given to a maximum of three people per year.
• Each prize constitutes a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money.
• If there are multiple winners of one subject, the award money is split equally among the winners.
• The Literature and Peace Prizes are considered to be controversial as the award criteria is subjective.
• Someone cannot be nominated posthumously. Yet, if someone was alive when nominated but died before the award was given, they may be awarded posthumously.

Multiple Laureates

• Four people have received two Nobel Prizes
• Marie Curie: 1903 (Physics), 1911 (Chemistry); only laureate in two different sciences
• Linus Pauling: 1954 (Chemistry), 1962 (Peace) ;only laureate of two unshared prizes
• John Bardeen: 1956 and 1972 Prizes for Physics
• Frederick Sanger: 1958 and 1980 for Chemistry

Most awarded

• Red Cross- Thrice, in 1917, 1944 and 1963

Female Laureates

• 44 women in total (45 times) have been awarded the Nobel Prize so far; with Marie Curie twice 

Laureates who declined the award

• Jean-Paul Sartre and Le Duc Tho are the only two in history to have rejected their Nobel prizes in Literature and Peace respectively. 

The oldest recipient

• 90 year old Leonid Hurwicz, who won it in 2007 for his contributions to economics.

The youngest recipient

• 25 years old Lawrence Bragg who won the prize in 1915 for his contributions to the field of physics. 

Urbanization And New Cities In India

Population of India has reached 121 crore but there has not been the same increase in the number of cities i.e Urbanisation. This article discusses the issues and government efforts to help growth of new cities.

CENSUS 2011                                                    

                                   

Census 2011 came up with idea of census cities/ towns. Urbanization And New Cities In India Areas with following Criteria are called as census cities (according to Census 2011) :

• More than 5000 inhabitants
• 400 people per square meter
• 75% of male population not engaged in agriculture

From 2001 to 2011 census towns have increased from 1362 (2001) to 3894 (2011). It has been due to following reasons:

• Many areas are coming in conformity with India’s development program.
• Migration has increased from rural to urban areas.
• Rural areas have found many vocations in non-agricultural operations.
• Increase in communication & educational activities.

Some helpful part has also been played by Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) providing cash benefits by giving them assured employment.

GOVERNMENT EFFORTS

• 12th plan has come up with proposal of investing Rs. 1500 crore for these census cities and it will be done via Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. Investment is being made because of uncontrolled growth of these cities & not being covered under various schemes of government.
• PURA: It stands for “Providing Urban amenities to Rural Areas”. This strategy has been given by former president Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam. It gives four types of connectives

1. Physical connectivity in the form of roads, bridges, etc.
2. Electronic Connectivity in the form of communication network
3. Knowledge Connectivity in the form of educational and technical institutions.
4. Economic connectivity which will automatically happen because of the previous three connectivity’s.

• Need to involve communities in this development process – Expressed by Government
• Problem of local officials: They consider local community initiative detrimental to their selfish interest & violation of their rights thus rejecting them on unreasonable grounds.

ISSUES INVOLVED

• Transition: They are currently being managed by Panchayat Raj System. But after this census, there are chances of municipalities to be set up in these areas. But it is up to them whether to opt for it or not considering the fact that these people would need to pay new taxes under municipalities which didn’t exist for now under Panchayats.
• Increase in the cluster towns: More number of towns are coming up around present prosperous cities forming clusters primarily due to shrinkage in land & the avenues the main city has to offer to these cluster units.
• Need of transitional system for these areas so that they can transform to towns.
• Political vs. Bureaucratic indifference about the programs remain on the paper & nothing happens in reality & community looses faith.
• Probability of one town collapsing into another. (particularly in the areas in Delhi-Mumbai Corridor)
• Haryana model should be followed for development of new cities in India. As post-independence India has not seen increase in the number of new cities but has just seen the increase in the extent of the original cities.

MEGA CITIES

• India has planned to make 5 new mega cities by 2015.
• All are along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
• These include :

1. Dholera City in Gujrat
2. Manesar-Bawal in Haryana
3. Indore-Mhow in Madhya Pradesh
4. & 5. Dighi and Nasik-Igatpuri in Maharashtra

Related Subjective Questions :

1. Enlist and explain the problems coming in the way of development of new cities in India.
2. Analyze the solutions available for the problems encountered in the creation of new cities.

Modernization And Security Challenges Before Indian Railways

Indian Railways is a wonder in itself. It is one of the world’s largest rail networks in terms of trains and the passenger it carries. To carry more number of passengers & that too with safety is the biggest concern. E.g. in Mumbai suburban area, railways alone carry 6 million passengers daily.

SAM PITRODA COMMITTEE                          

Sam Pitroda committee was appointed last year for giving recommendations for modernization of Indian Railways. Some key recommendations:

1. Modernization of 19000 tracks
2. Circling of 11250 bridges
3. Eliminating all level crossings
4. introduction of high hall freight bogies
5. Focused on 15 areas such as tracking bridges, signaling, rolling stock station, freight corridors, high speed trains, revive proposed and existing projects and various other things

Cost required: For modernization, it recommends a funding in the order of 5 lakh crore to 8 lakh crore expanding over next ten years. 71% of it is to be spent during the 12th plan.

Sources that can be used for this huge funding :

1. Budgetary support
2. Internal revenue generation by Railways
3. Monetization of blocked assets such as surplus land available with the Railways, and Public Private Partnerships
4. Fund raising from financial institutions and markets

EXPERTS VIEW ON SAM PITRODA COMMITTEE

Some of them may not be as essential as stated in the reports. So may not require the huge funding urgently. Therefore needs careful observation & prioritization of our needs. Some priority areas are :

1. Strengthening of tracks. Use of high capacity rails & long welded panels.
2. Rehabilitation of all the bridges particularly which are distressed.
3. Improvement of signaling technology. It will improve speed and safety of trains.
4. Use of higher capacity trains to carry more traffic.

ANIL KAKODKAR COMMITTEE

Anil Kakodkar committee was appointed by government to review the safety of Indian Railways and recommend improvements. Total expenditure that will be incurred during 12th plan will be Rs. 1,00,000 crore.

• Organizational changes are needed.
• Government should stop announcement of laundry list of new train services.
• Indian railways suffer from poor infrastructure and resources.
• Safety margins squeezed due to inadequate funds especially due to the practice of not raising tariffs.
• Need for independent Railway Safety Authority. All the three vital functions (rule making, operations and the regulation) are all vested in the Railway Board.
• The Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO), the apex technical wing of the Railways, is highly constrained.
• Recommends that a Railway Research and Development Council (RRDC) be set up directly under the government.
• Recommends adopting use of Advanced Signaling System.
• All level crossings (manned and unmanned) should be eliminated over 5 years.
• Recommends switching over from ICF design coaches to the much safer LHB design coaches.
• 
  

EXPERTS VIEW ON ANIL KAKODKAR COMMITTEE

• Irrespective of the cost involved, safety measures should be implemented in a phased and prioritized manner. That will provide “acknowledgement benefit” to the system.
• Level crossings have to be focused and many level crossings have been eliminated already by over bridge or underpasses but total elimination is not possible as replacement of every level crossing is not cost-effective. (In case of manned level crossings responsibility lies with the man in charge at such crossings and in case of unmanned level crossings it is the responsibility of road users).
• People need to be educated about level crossings & lessons have already been incorporated in school lessons.

SOME RELATED QUESTIONS:

1. Discuss modernization of Indian Railways in the light of Pitroda Committee.
2. Analyze the safety recommendations given by Anil Kakodkar Committee for the Indian Railways. 

Haryana Government To Conduct Survey of Manual Scavengers

The Haryana Government on 27 August 2013 decided to conduct a survey of Manual Scavengers in 76 towns of the State by 30 September 2013, and the data collected would be compiled by 31 October 2013.
                                                         

                                                                                         
Haryana Government would conduct a survey to know the number of Manual Scavengers in 76 towns of the State. The survey would be carried out by Local Bodies in the area falling under municipal limits and in case of area outside municipal limits the survey would be carried by Panchayat and Development Department.

National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) would provide funds for this activity. Notably, Haryana is among eleven States where the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India has nominated NSFDC as nodal agency to co-ordinate in the activity of survey.

Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Bill 2012

The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012 is still pending in the Parliament. (The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 3 September, 2012 by the then Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Mukul Wasnik).

The Bill prohibits the employment of manual scavengers, the manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks without protective equipment, and the construction of insanitary latrines.  It seeks to rehabilitate manual scavengers and provide for their alternative employment.

According to the Bill, a manual scavenger is a person who manually cleans or disposes of human excreta in an insanitary latrine, an open drain, or a railway track. An insanitary latrine requires human excreta to be cleaned manually.

Fourth India-US Economic And Financial Partnership Meeting Held

The fourth annual meeting of the India-US Economic and Financial Partnership was held at the IMF headquarters in Washington DC on 13 October 2013. During the meeting, India and the US agreed to further strengthen bilateral economic ties and work towards a greater understanding of investment related issues. India and USA Financial Partnership in a joint statement released after their meeting in Washington stated that India has become one of the fastest growing sources of investment into the US.
                                       
                                                     

The joint statement stated that despite a challenging global economy, US-India bilateral trade in goods and services grew from 59.9 billion dollars to 92.5 billion between 2009 and 2012. The two nations also agreed to continue to cooperate on deepening capital markets and strengthening financial regulation.