CRYING NEED TO CUSTOMISE AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGIES FOR HOMELAND SECURITY

Current Affairs Technology :

As low intensity conflicts, terrorism and Insurgency take centrestage as the wars of the future, there is a crying need to customize technology and products already on the shelf to meet the needs of homeland security. New R&D initiatives in collaboration with the academia and industry with the government (user) need to be taken expeditiously to bridge the technology gaps to counter the emerging threats, Dr. V K Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri & Secretary, Defence R & D, declared.

Current Affairs Government

As per information maintained/received from Cadre Controlling Authority of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Foreign Services (IFS), the number and percentages of IAS, IPS & IFS officers in various categories are given below:-

Current Affairs econamy

The 11th Five Year Plan envisages generation of 58 million new work opportunities. The actual achievement of employment generation with reference to the 11^th plan target would be known after the results of the next round of quinquennial survey of NSSO become available during 2011. Accordingly, the target set for employment generation may be re-visited on the basis of these results.

Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives which are directly or indirectly rooted in the business of an organization were the key to promote equitable economic development of the country.

The role of CSR, especially from the point of view of IT Companies, was extremely important in bridging the digital divide prevalent in the country and help the local economy. “However, the challenge lay in making the efforts more sustainable in the longer run and keep the momentum going”, emphasized Mr Niraj Prakash, Director, Public Sector Marketing, Microsoft India.

Superstitious beliefs are nowadays being propagated through the most modern medium of Internet and social networking sites like the Twitter and Facebook were recently being used to mobilise millions of followers for or against St Paul, an octopus. Leaders of even very advanced nations like Spain and Germany joined the game. Leading television channels across the globe were busy cashing in on the craze that had gripped the football lovers in different parts of the world, to propagate the octopus related humbug. Wasn’t it that a new form of match fixing was being put in place?

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford University launched a new index to measure poverty levels which they said give a “multidimensional” picture of people living in hardship, and could help target development resources more effectively said the United Nations.

The new measure, the Multidimensional Poverty Index, or MPI, was developed and applied by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) with UNDP support, the two institutions said in a joint press release.

India ranks 63rd in the new poverty index, after Togo, before Haiti

Quarter of the world lives on $1.25 a day or less: World Bank estimate

New U.N. index builds up fuller picture of poor lives; Madhya Pradesh ‘comparable to Congo.’ There are more poor people in eight states of India than in the 26 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, a study reveals and reports by Hindu.

More than 410 million people live in poverty in the Indian States, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, researchers at Oxford University, England, found. The “intensity” of the poverty in parts of India is equal to, if not worse than, that in Africa.

The Maoist leadership claims that it had nothing to do with the Jnaneshwari Express accident that killed 150 persons. I am willing to take their word for it. But this also means that those who caused the sabotage, while nominally belonging to the ranks of the Maoists, were acting on their own. Nobody commits such a heinous crime against innocent people, unless the person is psychologically distanced from the victims, i.e. unless the victims are perceived as belonging to ”the other”, an amorphous mass against whom one is supposedly antagonistically arrayed. And it was not one or two individuals who were involved in the crime, but a whole organized group. We are, in short, in the presence of ”identity politics” of the most violent kind. Underneath the veneer of ”Maoism” we are witnessing a particularly vicious form of ”identity politics”

THE Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) decided in its meeting on June 25 to increase the prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas. In fact, the decision had been taken earlier but its announcement had been kept in abeyance. The meeting of the EGoM was clearly an exercise in match-fixing. Its conclusion was pre-determined. It was arranged beforehand that minister so-and-so would not attend the meeting and later pose to be angry with the decision in public. It was a totally pre-settled affair. Partners of UPA-II are all fruits of the same tree. A poison-tree that can only yield toxic fruits!

The government’s decision of hiking the prices of petro products – petrol by Rs 3.50 per litre, diesel by Rs 2 per litre, gas cylinder by Rs 35 and kerosene by Rs 3 –  will automatically lead to a rise in transport fares. Bus, taxi, auto-rickshaw fares are all set to go up. Naturally, the whole of transport sector will be badly affected. People depending on public transport will suffer due to the hike. And the decontrolling formula adopted by the empowered group of ministers will make their suffering perpetual! But this is only the direct impact. There is more.

Two workers were killed in a mine in Singareni Collieries are at  in Godhavari Khani Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh. The mishap occurred when the cable of a man-riding trolley broke down.As a result the trolley fell down killing two miners and injuring 15 others.

This mine accident illustrates how mine safety is sacrificed at the altar of reforms in a public sector mining industry. Singareni Colleries is a major source of employment in the backward North Telangana region as it is spread over for four districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam district .There are huge unexploited deposits of coal in the entire Godavari belt in the Telangana region.

The government has increased the price of petrol by Rs 3.50 a  litre,diesel by Rs 2, kerosene by Rs 3 and a cylinder of cooking gas by Rs 35. Worse, the   government has announced that it shall proceed to fully deregulate the prices of all petroleum products indicating that future hikes are imminent.

This cruel attack comes on top of the relentless rise in the prices of all essential commodities, which currently is around 17 per cent. A few months ago, these prices were rising at a rate of over 20 per cent.  This hike in the prices of petroleum products is bound to increase the overall inflation rate further as transportation cost across the board will rise steeply.  The overall rate of inflation in the economy is already more than double of what the Reserve Bank of India had anticipated at 5.5 per cent for this time of the year.

THE ministry of petroleum and natural gas, governmnet of India has given an advertisement in the newspapers soliciting support of the people for the price hike of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene. It is a document of deceit and deception published with public money to befool the people.  It says “80 per cent of the country’s requirement of products is met by imports.  This naturally impacts prices due to volatility in international oil markets”.

One of the worst disasters in the world which accounted for over 20,000 lives and maiming for the entire life of lakhs of others occurred in Bhopal on 3rd December 1984. The entire world was shocked at the ghastly tragedy, but the powers that be in India were concerned with the safety of the perpetrator of the genocide, Warren Anderson when he visited Bhopal on 7th December 1984 he was arrested but within hours released and sent to Delhi by the special plane of the Chief Minister. Within 2 days, he was allowed to go to USA under heavy protection after meeting the President and Home Minister of India.

The Congress governments at the Centre and Madhya Pradesh were totally unconcerned at the violation of safety norms. The leakage of tonnes of deadly Methyl Iso Cyanate gas was not a problem for the Congress Government; protection to Anderson was a more important task than attending to sufferings of the working class population living around the Union Carbide factory.

The Nuclear Liability Bill introduced in parliament is meant to safeguard the interests of the US companies who will supply reactors to India.  In the event of a nuclear accident, they are to be exempted from any liability to pay compensation for the damages caused. What Westinghouse and General Electric want is that even the limited liability which accrued to Union Carbide  in the case of Bhopal ($470 million as per the settlement approved by the  Supreme Court) should not fall on them. The Congress-led government has obliged the United States by bringing this shocking piece of legislation which makes it near impossible to hold foreign suppliers of nuclear reactors to account in the case of an accident.

The government of India has deregulated the prices of petroleum products. This means the prices of petroleum, diesel, etc., will continue to increase with the increase in the price of crude in the international market. The government has once again increased the prices of petrol, diesel. This time even the kerosene and cooking gas were also not spared. The fresh increase comes close on the heels of tax hike in the Union Budget in February. The deregulation would affect further increase in the prices.

For instance, the Kirit Parikh committee which the government is eager to implement has recommended the increase of Rs. 100 in the price of cooking gas. The all round increase in the prices of petroleum products comes at time when the people are reeling under sky racketing prices of essential commodities. The food inflation has touched historical levels. The petro price hike will have a cascading effect on the prices of almost all commodities as the transport prices shall go up. It is ridiculous that Rangarajan claims that petro price hike would only result in the only one percent rise in inflation. But, the inflation in fact does not have any relationship with the actual prices in the market.

The decision of the UPA government to inflict a steep rise in the prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene oil and cooking gas is a cruel blow against the people who are already suffering due to the runaway increase in the prices of food and essential commodities. The price of petrol has gone up by Rs. 3.50 per litre, diesel by Rs. 2 per litre, kerosene oil by Rs. 3 per litre and cooking gas by Rs. 35 per cylinder.

This callous decision of the government has come at a time when the food inflation rate is around 17 per cent and the general inflation rate has reached double digits. India has the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of consumer price inflation in the world.

The Group of Ministers constituted to look into the measures to be taken on the Bhopal gas leak accident has finalized its recommendations. Some of the steps suggested such as the curative petition against the order of the Supreme Court of March 1997, the restarting of the unit of the Indian Council of Medical Research and the takeover of the Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust are welcome.

However, there are two serious problems regarding the recommendations. Firstly, the compensation package offered is based on flawed estimation of deaths and injuries and the amount of compensation offered remains meager. Secondly, there is no serious effort to make the Dow Chemical Company, which took over the Union Carbide, liable for the damages and compensation. The entire expenses for the remediation and environmental clean up at the Bhopal factory site should be borne by the Dow Chemical Company.

The recent court verdict on the Bhopal gas tragedy delivered after 26 years is a classic story of how India as a nation succumbs to the mighty corporate power of the Multi National corporations. The tragic episode also reveals the double standards of the United States government and the multi national corporation’s .The Indian government, judiciary, political system, large sections of civil society    could only further the interests of the MNC’s at the cost of the poor victims of the horrifying gas tragedy.

The Bhopal gas tragedy has been described as the world’s largest industrial disaster. The actual estimates suggest that at least 20,000 people died due to the leakage of highly poisonous Methyl Iso Cyanate gas leaked from the fertilizer unit of Union Carbide, the subsidiary of US based MNC. About 40,000 kgs of this deadly gas leak causing perennial injuries to nearly six lakh people.  Even today, around 6000 people go to hospital everyday. The US and the MNCs and their supporters often describe this as industrial accident .But, this is certainly not an accident. It was designed for a disaster. The safety norms were ignored.

26 years after the world’s worst industrial disaster in the city of Bhopal killed over 20,000 people and caused serious disability to hundreds of thousands of others, a Bhopal Court on 7th June 2010 finally found Union Carbide Corporation of India (UCIL) and 7 senior officials of UCIL guilty of criminal negligence. The convicted include the venerable Keshub Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra and Mahindra conglomerate and one of the doyens of Indian industry. All of whom were sentenced to a mere 2 years imprisonment, the maximum permissible for this crime, and a fine of a paltry Rs.100,000. To the horror of victims and activists gathered outside the courtroom, all the convicted walked out on bail minutes afterwards the sentencing.

After the findings of the Sachar Committee and the Ranganath Mishra Commission, now the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), a central government body, has reconfirmed the deplorable socio-economic conditions of the Muslims in our country.

The NSSO which is attached to the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, in its report titled “Education inIndia, 2007-08: Participation and Expenditure”, says that of 100 Muslims in the education system, just 10 are enrolled in high school and above. Similar ratio for Scheduled Tribes (STs) is 11, Scheduled Castes (SCs) 12 and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) 14. The Muslims in India are the most backward community on the educational front. Muslims’ ratio in higher education is lower than even Scheduled Tribes (STs), who are considered most backward.