Shaurya (missile)

The Shaurya missile is a canister launched Hypersonic surface-to-surface tactical missile developed by the Indian Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) for use by the Indian Armed Forces. It has a range of between 750 to 1900 km  and is capable of carrying a payload of one ton conventional or nuclear warhead.It gives the potential to strike in the short-intermediate range against any adversary.The Shaurya missile provides India with a significant second strike capability

The Shaurya missile is speculated to be the land version of the under-water Sagarika K-15 missile, although DRDO officials have reportedly denied its connection with the K-15 program Shaurya is stored in a composite canister, which makes it much easier to store for long periods without maintenance as well as to handle and transport. It also houses the gas generator to eject the missile from the canister before its solid propellant motors take over to hurl it at the intended target.

CERN claims faster-than-light particle measured

• A fundamental pillar of physics that nothing can go faster than the speed of light appears to be smashed by an oddball subatomic particle that has apparently made a giant end run around Albert Einstein's theories.
• Scientists at the world's largest physics lab said Thursday they have clocked neutrinos travelling faster than light. That's something that according to Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity the famous E=mc2 equation just doesn't happen.
• "The feeling that most people have is this can't be right, this can't be real," said James Gillies, a spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, outside the Swiss city of Geneva.
• CERN says a neutrino beam fired from a particle accelerator near Geneva to a lab 454 miles (730 kilometres) away in Italy travelled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. Scientists calculated the margin of error at just 10 nanoseconds, making the difference statistically significant. But given the enormous implications of the find, they still spent months checking and rechecking their results to make sure there was no flaws in the experiment.
• The CERN researchers are now looking to the United States and Japan to confirm the results.
• A similar neutrino experiment at Fermilab near Chicago would be capable of running the tests, said Stavros Katsanevas, the deputy director of France's National Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics Research. The institute collaborated with Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory for the experiment at CERN.
• Scientists agree if the results are confirmed, that it would force a fundamental rethink of the laws of nature.
• Einstein's special relativity theory that says energy equals mass times the speed of light squared underlies "pretty much everything in modern physics," said John Ellis, a theoretical physicist at CERN who was not involved in the experiment. "It has worked perfectly up until now."

Central Civil Services Authority

ARC 2 recommends 

• In posting officers in Government of India, the primary consideration should be to select the most suitable person for the post that is on offer.
• Domains should be assigned by the Central Civil Services Authority (the Commission has recommended the constitution of this Authority in 10th report) to all officers of the All India Services and the Central Civil Services on completion of 13 years of service.
• The Central Civil Services Authority should invite applications from all officers who have completed the minimum qualifying years of service, for assignment of domains. The applications should specify the academic background of officers, their research accomplishments (if any) and significant achievements during their career, relevant to the domain applied for. 
• A consultative process should be put in place where the offi cers should be interviewed and their claims to specific domains evaluated. The Authority should thereafter assign domains to the officers on the basis of this exercise. 
• In case some domains do not attract applicants, the Authority should assign these domains to officers with the relevant knowledge and experience.
• All vacancies arising at the level of Deputy Secretary/Director during a financial year should be identified well before the beginning of that financial year, by the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT). The Ministries concerned should also give a brief job description for these positions. All these posts and their job description should be notified to the cadre controlling authorities of the concerned All India Services and Central Services. On receipt of nominations from the cadre controlling authorities, the DOPT should try to match the requirements of various positions with the competencies of the officers in the 'offer list'. The DOPT should then seek approval for the entire list from the Competant Authority.
• The Central Civil Services Authority should be charged with the responsibility of fixing tenure for all civil service positions and this decision of the Authority should be binding on Government.
• Officers from the organized services should not be given 'non-field' assignments in the first 8-10 years of their career.
• State Governments should take steps to constitute State Civil Services Authorities on the lines of the Central Civil Services Authority.

STAGES IN PUBLIC POLICY PROCESS

1. Policy formulation is the first stage in public policy process. Through this process the dernands of the system are converted into policies. But before this it has to be clearly established as to which demands require to be converted into policies.
2.  At the policy interpretation stage, the formulated public policy is further clarified and interpreted in order to make it fully understandable.
   
3. The next stage in public policy process is policy education. The government through various channels of mass-media attempts to make the masses aware of the formulated policies.
   
4. After this comes the stage of policy implementation, when the policies are systematically executed by the different administrative agencies at the central, state and local levels. To ascertain the impact of policies, it is very essential to keep an eye on the implementation process,
   
5. To see that expenditure does not exceed the resources available and to see that policies are positively affecting those for which they are being made. For this proper monitoring of policy implementation has to be done. and
   
6. Policy evaluation stage is the final stage in policy process. Proper and appropriate administrative and adjudicative functions are needed for keeping a conlplete control over the public
   

Palestinian President Abbas vows to pressure UN to recognize UN membership

• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas vowed to pressure the United Nations Security Council to recognise U.N. membership for the state of Palestine — a step that the U.S. President has consistently warned Mr. Abbas' government against.
• With Mr. Abbas promising to take the matter to the highest U.N. body on Friday, the U.S. now risks having to make good on its promise to use its Security Council veto — a move that is likely to be highly unpopular throughout the Middle East.

In China's battle against newborn deaths, lessons for India

• China has reduced deaths among newborn babies by almost two-thirds in little over a decade — an unprecedented success rate that a new study says holds lessons for countries like India still struggling with high neonatal and maternal mortality rates.
• Deaths among newborn babies fell from 24.7 per 1,000 in 1996 to 9.3 in 2008 — a 62-per-cent decrease — according to a paper published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday.
• At the heart of China's success, the paper found, was a vast improvement in access to obstetric care in rural areas, and a nationwide programme that specifically targeted increasing the number of hospital births.
• The study found that less than half of all women in China gave birth in hospitals in 1988. By 2008, however, hospital births had almost become universal.
• Other countries, the study said, could learn from China's focus on improving access to health care in rural areas, with the findings proving "a great impetus for countries to increase demand for and quality of facility-based intrapartum care."
• Five countries account for more than half the world's newborn deaths — India, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

• India accounts for the highest number of newborn deaths in the world — over nine lakh in 2009 — despite a 33-per-cent drop from 1990, according to a recent study released by the World Health Organisation. Newborns account for 41 per cent of all child deaths.
• According to UNICEF, India's Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) in 2009 was 34 per 1,000 live births — more than three times higher than China's NMR, which UNICEF estimated at 11 in 2009. India's NMR in 1990 was 49.
• India's Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), which is closely tied to NMR figures, is also far higher than China's. In 2008, India's MMR, or the deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes, was 230 per 100,000 live births. China's, that same year, was 38.
• China's controversial one-child policy, which reduced the risk of child and maternal deaths by limiting the number of children for each family, has also been cited as bringing down infant mortality rates.

EAM visits Vietnam for 14th JCM

Held discussions covering the entire gamut of bilateral, regional and global issues. Expressed satisfaction that the Strategic Partnership was developing well and agreed to add greater content to bilateral relations in the fields of Defence & Security, Trade & Investment, Education & Culture and other areas. 

Co-chaired the 14th India-Vietnam Joint Commission Meeting on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation at the end of which they signed the agreed minutes. 

Reviewed implementation of activities for 2007-10 under bilateral cooperation and agreed to a plan of activities for 2011-13. Focus areas for cooperation include political, defence and security, trade and investment, credit and banking, energy including oil and gas exploration, agriculture, animal husbandry and aquaculture, science and technology, information and communications technology, health, civil aviation, education, human resources development, capacity-building and cultural and media exchanges. 

EAM also inaugurated the Vietnam-India Advanced Resource Centre for Information and Communication Technology. 

This project, the largest so far under bilateral assistance, has been set up under a US$ 2 million grant by India to Vietnam. The hi-tech Centre will provide a wide range of training in Information & Communication Technology (ICT), application of e-learning technology in education, infrastructure for web portal creation, service infrastructure for GIS application development, turn key support for e-governance applications and digital library infrastructure for use by libraries. It is expected to train more than 2000 government officials and students in various IT related areas. 

The Centre will train students and professionals aspiring to make a career in the field of ICT and serve as a hub for the training of the trainers as well as, help teachers to learn fundamentals of IT and IT based teaching tools. It will also offer specially designed training programme to increase IT literacy amongst the officials working in the Government of Vietnam. The project will also provide specialized assistance in identifying e-governance solution for various departments in Government of Vietnam. 

An Article on Biotech Regulation Act

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/raghuvansh-prasad-singh-brai-bill-bulldozing-public-opinion/449406/

Trickle Down Economic Theory

An economic theory which states that investing money in companies and giving them tax breaks is the best way to stimulate the economy.

Proponents of this theory believe that when government helps companies, they will produce more and thereby hire more people and raise salaries. The people, in turn, will have more money to spend in the economy.

Denmark to get 1st female Prime Minister

• Denmark has elected its first female prime minister, ousting the right-wing government from power after 10 years of pro-market reforms and ever-stricter controls on immigration.
• Near complete official results showed on Thursday that a left-leaning bloc led by Social Democrat Helle Thorning-Schmidt would gain a narrow majority in the 179-seat Parliament.
• Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen conceded defeat, saying he would present his Cabinet's resignation Friday to Queen Margrethe, Denmark's figurehead monarch.
• The result means the country of 5.5 million residents will get a new government that could roll back some of the austerity measures introduced by Loekke Rasmussen amid Europe's debt crisis.
• A majority for the "red bloc" also deprives the anti-immigration Danish People's Party of the kingmaker role it has used to tighten Denmark's borders and stem the flow of asylum-seekers.
• The opposition won 89 of the mainland seats compared to 86 for the governing coalition, according to preliminary results with 100 per cent of votes counted. The "red bloc" was expected to win at least two of the four seats allocated to the semiautonomous territories of Greenland and the Faeroe Islands.