Shri Santosh D Vaidya (AGMUT 1998) presently posted as Director- PMO, Government of India has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Government of India.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes Shri Vaidya the best best.
S D Vaidya appointed as Joint Secy – Ministry of New & Renewable Energy
Women’s Day Award function by Railway Women’s Welfare Central Organisation
Railway Women’s Welfare Central Organisation is the apex body of the chain of women’s welfare organisations spread over all Indian Railways engaged in the task of welfare of railwaymen and their families through various need-based socio/welfare activities.
The organization started its activities in 1962 after Indo-China War, and while the primary concern of the Organisation is the welfare of Railway employees and their families, it has always risen to the call of the society and the nation- be it environmental awareness, family welfare drives, disturbances on the borders or the natural calamities. It is one of the fore-runner voluntary Organisations in the country today.
RWWCO also honours the services of selected women employees of Group-C & Group-D for their outstanding services. The purpose was to boost up the morale of those women, who show exemplary dedication, integrity and courage in discharge of their duties and who also work quietly in any other social field viz. Hospital, School, Sports, Blood Donation, Family Welfare Programme, Scouts & Guides etc. This year 30 such women employees were felicitated in a function held at National Rail Museum Auditorium, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. During the function, Shri A.K.Mital, Chairman, Railway Board, as Chief Guest, distributed merit certificates & cash awards to outstanding women employees in the presence of Smt. Rashmi Mital, President/RWWCO and Railway Board Members and senior officers from rail fraternity.
Later, a play named ‘Court Martial’ written by Swadesh Deepak was presented by Asmita Theatre.Shri Arvind Gaur is the Director of this theatre and is known is known for his contemporary and thought-provoking plays.
Distributes of Scholarship Cheques
Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh distributed about 300 scholarship cheques to the school going children of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) personnel who sacrificed their lives in the service of the nation.
Shri Rajnath Singh said that he had a long pending desire to do something for the families of the jawans and when he met Shri S.D. Shibulal, Co-founder and former CEO, Infosys Limited last year, they discussed the possibilities in this regard. The Home Minister felt extremely happy when Shri Shibulal extended the help of Sarojini Damodaran Foundation (SDF) which identifies students in need of financial assistance during schooling.
The Ministry of Home Affairs carried out an exercise and identified 295 children (CRPF-229, BSF-33, CISF-11, ITBP-3, SSB-5 and Assam Rifles-14) from different CAPF’s families and decided about these scholarships in consultation with the SDF. Shri Rajnath Singh distributed cheques of Rs.6000/- per annum for students in classes from 1st to 4th standard, Rs.9000/- per annum for 5th to 7th standard students and Rs.12000/- per annum for 8th to 12th standard and SDF has agreed to continue this assistance in subsequent years. The assistance will also be extended for needy children for their higher studies in due course.
The Union Home Minister appealed to the corporate world to join hands in assisting the families of Police, CAPFs and Defence personnel. Shri Rajnath Singh said though the amount is meagre but it is a good beginning and he will ensure to increase it. Shri Rajnath Singh mentioned that these small children are like flowers who will bloom in due course.
Shri Rajnath Singh said that no help could be better than that of education or ‘Vidyadhan’ as it is mahadhan and it will help these children to perform better in their lives. The Home Minister said that it is not obligation but our duty to assist the families as our jawans leave no stone unturned for the security of the country even by sacrificing their lives.
Shri Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary, Minister of State for Home Affairs, heads of CAPFs, Senior Officers of MHA, Smt. Kumari Shibulal, Patron and Sh.S.D.Shibulal, Managing Trustee, Sarojini Damodaran Foundation (SDF) and family members of CAPF personnel attended the function.
Ease of Doing Business & MakeInIndia main themes for all Budget Proposals
Ease of Doing Business and Make in India are the two pillars running through all Budget proposals, said Mr Ram Tirath, Member (Budget), Central Board of Excise & Customs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. MrTirath was addressing the audience at the Post Budget Interactive session with the Ministry of Finance organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Delhi.
He further reiterated that a number of small procedures have been eliminated in the Budget, which were so far resulting in increased cost of compliance to the Industry, while not resulting in major revenue generation for the Government. The ease of paying taxes has been enhanced, procedures cut down drastically and the Cenvat Credit Rules have been simplified and rationalised. These steps are expected to make it easier for the industry to concentrate on business and thereby generate more revenue in the long run.
In the past one year, the Government has addressed a number of areas which are prone to litigation, and issued clarifications and circulars wherever needed. The Dispute Resolution mechanism has been simplified and rationalised to a large extent, which will bring down the cost of administration to the Government, and the cost of compliance to industry, stressed Mr Tirath.
While welcoming the audience to the session, Mr Rajiv Memani, Chairman, CII National Committee on Taxation and Chairman – India Region, EY appreciated the Government for delivering a conservative and balanced Budget in times of global volatility.
“The Budget, with its prime focus on rural development, is the need of the hour, not only for the social fabric of the country, but also from a business standpoint”, said Mr Memani.
Mr Memani further applauded the Central Board for Direct Taxes as well as the Central Board of Excise and Customs for coming out with a large number of circulars and clarifications, during the last six months, which go a long way in simplifying taxes and reducing litigation. There have also been clarifications in the entire refund process, which have not happened before in recent times.
While Mr Memani appreciated the Government for accepting a lot of suggestions of the Justice R V Easwar Committee Report in the Budget, and laying down the road map for phasing out of incentives, Mr Memanisuggested that the road map for reduction in the Corporate tax rates also needs to be identified in advance, so that industry can plan its activities accordingly.
The Interactive session was also addressed by Mr V Anandarajan, Joint Secretary, TPL-II, CBDT, Mr Alok Shukla and Mr Amitabh Kumar, Joint Secretary, TRU, CBEC in the Technical session, where a number of queries raised by the audience were addressed by Ministry officials.
Transforming Law for Cybercrime Prevention
The government will soon provide secure mobile phones to soldiers along the international borders and in naxal affected areas, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary at an ASSOCHAM.“You would be surprised to know that even today our soldiers do not have a mobile phone, as such on a short-term period basis, we are planning to provide mobile phones to army personnel in the border areas and naxal affected zones so that they can keep in touch with their family via 3G mobile connection,” said Mr Chaudhary while inaugurating ‘8th International Security Summit,’ organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
“The mobile phone would not be intercepted as we would be having the telephone exchange with us that can be carried by the battalion wherever it goes,” said Mr Chaudhary.
“I had recently met a delegation of US-based company that claimed to provide us with telephone exchange in a box and instantly start over 1,000 secure mobile phone connections specifically for army personnel,” he added.
The Minister further informed that he had recently met another delegation of US-based company providing blood testing equipment that could process blood samples in just a few minutes thereby saving invaluable time of the army personnel.
Highlighting the lack of a proper law aimed at cybercrime prevention in the country, Mr Chaudhary said, “We have started a judicial process to transform the law in accordance with the technological advancement.”
“We are fully prepared to thwart all types of security challenges, be it cybercrime for which we have constituted a high level committee of IT (informational technology) experts headed by Union Home Minister, Mr Rajnath Singh,” said the Minister. “Besides, we have also constituted a committee to combat the hackers.”
He also said that about 18 countries had signed MoU (memorandum of understanding) with Gujarat Forensic Sciences University at the recent DG Conference held at Kutch and the government had as such decided to develop it as the world forensic university.
“We are training judges and IPS officers in forensic lab, we will also make smart police stations,” said Mr Chaudhary.
Highlighting that India has been importing third-grade quality of AK-47 rifles, the Minister said that there is an urgent need to manufacture military security equipment indigenously be it the firearms, night vision cameras and others.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the initiative the very best.
Just made a bad decision? Perhaps Anxiety is to Blame
Summary:Scientists have discovered a mechanism for how anxiety may disrupt decision making. They report that anxiety disengages a region of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is critical for flexible decision making.
Most people experience anxiety in their lives. For some, it is just a bad, passing feeling, but, for many, anxiety rules their day-to-day lives, even to the point of taking over the decisions they make.
Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered a mechanism for how anxiety may disrupt decision making. In a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, they report that anxiety disengages a region of the brain called the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which is critical for flexible decision making. By monitoring the activity of neurons in the PFC while anxious rats had to make decisions about how to get a reward, the scientists made two observations. First, anxiety leads to bad decisions when there are conflicting distractors present. Second, bad decisions under anxiety involve numbing of PFC neurons.
The data indicates that anxiety has an exquisitely selective effect on neuronal activity that supports decision making, says Bita Moghaddam, the lead author of the study and a professor in the Department of Neuroscience within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Up to now, scientists have mostly studied anxiety in animal models in the context of fear and measured how brain cells react to a threatening situation. But human anxiety is devastating, not merely because of how the person feels, but also because it can interfere with nearly all aspects of daily life including decision making, Moghaddam says.
Pitt researchers studied this aspect of anxiety by monitoring the activity of a large number of neurons as rats made decisions about which choice was most optimal for receiving a reward. They compared behavior and neuronal activity in two groups: one group that had a placebo injection and another that got a low dose of an anxiety-inducing drug.
As with many people who suffer from anxiety but go through day-to-day life and make decisions, the anxious rats completed the decision-making task and, actually, did not do too badly. But they made far more mistakes when the correct choice involved ignoring distracting information. “A brain locus of vulnerability for these anxiety-induced mistakes was a group of cells in the PFC that specifically coded for choice. Anxiety weakened the coding power of these neurons.
“We have had a simplistic approach to studying and treating anxiety. We have equated it with fear and have mostly assumed that it over-engages entire brain circuits. But this study shows that anxiety disengages brain cells in a highly specialized manner.”
Perhaps, down the line, this better understanding of the brain mechanics behind anxiety and decision making, she says, could lead to better treatment of anxiety in people and, subsequently, better outcomes in the treatment of psychiatric disorders.
Source:University of Pittsburgh(science)
Indian Railways & ISRO Sign MoU
With a view to use best technologies in many areas of its operations for the benefit of its passengers, in the august presence of Union Minister of Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh and Union Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding “Effective Use of Space Technology in Remote Sensing and Graphic Information System (GIS) based Governance Application for Indian Railways”was signed yesterday.
Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A.K. Mital, Chairman ISRO and Secretary Department of Space, Shri Kiran Kumar Alur Seelin, Member Staff, Shri Pradeep Kumar and other Board Members, and other senior officials from both the sides were also present on the occasion. The MoU was signed by Shri Shobhan Chaudhuri, ED/Tele (Dev) on behalf of Railways whereas it was by Dr. P.G. Diwakar,Dy. Director, ISRO.
The MoU was signed in the context of Railway Minister’s special mention in his Budget Announcement regarding geospatial and enhanced use of Space technology in various sectors of governance. The MoU aimsfor developing applications in the field of Remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) for remote sensing at unmanned railway crossing including ,all geospatial solutions and customized software solutions for providing reliable, efficient & optimal solutions to Railways in it various areas of operation thereby benefiting the rail user.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that the signing of this MoU with the ISRO is of a great importance which will solve all the day to day problems of Indian Railways by using best technology provided by the ISRO. He said that Railways core activity is to run trains thus Railways has to become partner with the great organizations like ISRO for its important activities. He said that it is a big challenge for the Indian Railways to keep pace with the latest technology and Railways is nowready to adopt new technologies. He said that Railways want to keep itself modernized with the new technological innovations and some of the most difficult solutions could be found by using latest technology.
In his speech, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh signing of MoU is a breakthrough for the ISRO, Department of Space to extend technological help to the Indian Railways. He said that it is a common misperception that ISRO works only in the field of Satellite and Space etc. He said that Department of Space through ISRO has been extending its help to various organizations in wide sphere for example recent agreement by ISRO with the Ministry of Urban Development in developing smart cities. He said that ISRO can even find out suspicious activities on the Railways Stations. Thus, ISRO services can not only be taken in disaster management but also can be taken in normal course. He said that its technology is cost-effective as well as accurate. He hoped better coordination and fruitful result with this MoU.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Railways said that this is a historic day for the Indian Railways to be partner with ISRO. He said that Indian Railways is committed to provide best passenger services by using the best technology and for this purpose partnering with the different organization is most important. He said that Railways is deeply concerned to find solution of late running of trains due to fog and advised ISRO to find some solution.
BACKGROUND :
Indian Railways is one of the preferred mode of transportation. Indian Railways provides safe, efficient, affordable, customer focused and environmentally sustainable integrated transportation solutions. It aims to be a modern vehicle of inclusive growth, connecting regions, communities, ports and centers of industry, commerce, tourism and pilgrimage spread over across the country. In this regard, Indian Railways envisages use of the state of art technology in day to day operations & maintenance to ensure optimum benefit to all rail users.
The vision of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is to harness Space Technology for national development while pursuing Space science research and planetary exploration.
To leverage this, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is being signed between Ministry of Railways & Indian Space Research Orgnisation (ISRO) under Department of Space on 17th March 2016 at RailBhawan, New Delhi for developing applications in the field of Remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) for all geospatial solutions, including customized software solutions for providing reliable, efficient and optimal solutions to Railways in it various areas of operation thereby benefiting the rail user .
Currently, Indian Railways is using Space technology for providing connectivity to Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters and Unreserved Ticketing System at remote and non-rail head locations, Emergency Communication using Satellite phones from disaster sites, Global Positioning System (GPS) for various applications like Remote Monitoring of Locomotives, Passenger Information System in Mumbai Sub-urban trains and synchronized clocks & WiFi facility in selected Rajdhani Express trains.
Further as per the MoU, Ministry of Railways proposes to use space technology tools in providing passenger information system in all trains indicating the next station / stoppage, real time train tracking, survey of new rail route alignments particularly in hilly and difficult terrains, conduct track vulnerability studies, mapping of assets and introducing web enabled rail user centric services.
CISCO Chairman meets PM
Mr. John Chambers, Chairman, CISCO called on the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. and explained to the Prime Minister the elements of CISCO’s Country Digitization Acceleration Programme, and how it is aligned to the Prime Minister’s vision and initiatives including Digital India, Skill India, Make in India, Start-up India, Smart Cities and Cyber Security initiatives.
The Prime Minister appreciated this initiative of CISCO, and emphasized its benefits in areas such as long distance education. He said that use of digital technology has been useful in eliminating leakages in subsidy. He also discussed possibilities of cooperation in the area of cyber security.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.
Preliminary Report on Assessment of Cleanliness Standards at Major Railway Stations
In the august presence of Union Minister of Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh and Union Minister of State Shri Manoj Sinha a “Preliminary Report on Assessment of Cleanliness Standards at Major Railway Stations”. Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A.K. Mital, Member Staff and Member Electrical, Shri Pradeep Kumar and other Board Members, and other senior officials were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Railways said that to know the real progress/assessment of any organization is to call for feedback from the users. He said that the survey which was conducted to assess the efforts taken by the Railways towards cleanliness at Railway Stations will work as a mirror to the Railways which will show the real picture of the Railways in order to decide further steps to be taken to improve cleanliness drive. He said that the Railways has established a new Cleanliness Directorate in Rail Bhawan to closely supervise the cleanliness campaigns launched by Railways.
The salient features of the report are as under : –
Indian Railways is the third largest rail network with 66,000 route kilometre stretch covering more than 8000 stations. Consequent to the launch of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ on 2nd Oct’2014 by Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi, Indian Railways had also launched ‘Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ to achieve the vision of ‘Clean India’ by 2nd Oct’ 2019, which shall be the 150th Birthday of father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi.
In the Rail Budget presented in Feb’2015 and 2016, series of measures to improve the cleanliness on stations were announced to take forward the momentum of ‘Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat’. One of the measures given in Feb’2016 Budget is ranking of A1 and A category stations based on regular periodic third party audit and feedback from passengers. Ministry of Railway (Environment and Housekeeping Management Directorate, Railway Board) commissioned a passenger feedback survey on cleanliness at major railway stations. The task of survey was entrusted to Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), who engaged M/s TNS India Pvt. Ltd. for undertaking this work.
75 A1 category and 332 A category stations (407 stations in all) were taken up for survey on cleanliness of stations based on passenger feedback. Additionally, feedback from the non-railway survey providers at stations and Railway officials who are part of the Service Improvement Group (SIG) at stations were also captured in the survey.
The survey was conducted through interviews with respondents on the questionnaire on cleanliness indicators, which was done face to face by survey teams by visiting each of the 407 stations across 16 Zonal Railways. Every passenger was asked to rate the cleanliness of stations objectively on 40 different cleanliness parameters.
Purely based on the passenger feedback on the cleanliness of stations and the analysis there-of, 407 major stations have been given rankings in the Preliminary Report submitted by the survey agency through IRCTC to Ministry of Railways for scrutiny and further action.
Final report is expected to be submitted by IRCTC shortly, after the scrutiny of which Ministry of Railways will take further action for improving the cleanliness standards at major stations of Indian Railways.
8 crore plus LED Bulbs distributed under Ujala Scheme
Indian households are rapidly adopting LED bulbs in a bid to make their homes energy efficient.Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) distributed over 8 crore LED bulbs in a year across 125 cities in the country under the Government of India’s UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for all) scheme. The milestone was achieved today afternoon. This achievement is reflective of the citizens’ contribution to becoming more energy efficient.
Efficient domestic lighting is one of the largest contributors to energy savings globally. Distribution of 8 crore LED bulbs – achieved over a period of 12 months – has led to daily savings of over 2.84 crore kWh – savings capable of lighting over 20 lakh homes for 365 days. Alongside the savings in units, the country has also benefitted from daily CO2 emission reduction of 23,000 tonnes.
Currently, the UJALA scheme is fully operational in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttrakhand. More states and UTs will be launching the national programme shortly.
The UJALA scheme – being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) – has been widely accepted across rural and urban areas of the country. The primary reason for this mass adoption is the capability of LED bulbs to give consistent luminosity even in low voltage, where incandescent and CFL bulbs usually fail. Also, the LED bulbs distributed under the UJALA scheme is one third the market price and these superior quality bulbs also come with a three-year free replacement warranty.
As of 18th March the state wise distribution of LED bulbs are –
| States | Distribution Numbers |
| Himachal Pradesh | 51,98,831 |
| Uttrakhand | 20,35,770 |
| Haryana | 50 |
| Delhi | 60,06,744 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 91,70,140 |
| Rajasthan | 96,69,301 |
| Bihar | 1,45,817 |
| Jharkhand | 39,37,279 |
| Chhattisgarh | 8,17,512 |
| Maharashtra | 1,15,55,894 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 1,83,87,213 |
| Karnataka | 46,40,109 |
| Puducherry | 6,09,251 |
| Kerala | 55,99,139 |
Lighting sector accounts for about 20 per cent of the total consumption in India. Currently, most of the lighting need in domestic and public lighting sector is met by inefficient, conventional, incandescent bulbs.
The Government of India is committed to achieving its target of replacing all the 77 crore inefficient bulbs in India with LEDs. This will result in reduction of 20,000 MW load, energy savings of 100 billion kWh and Green House Gas (GHG) reduction of 80 million tonnes every year. It is estimated that this is equivalent to establishment of roughly 5 large format thermal generation plants in the country. The country also stands to save Rs. 40,000 crore in electricity bills of consumers.
Consumers can visit www.delp.in to locate the closest distribution kiosk to their place. Every person who switches to LED bulbs will help lighting up someone’s home through the energy savings.
IAF’s Fire Power demonstration at Pokhran
The Indian Air Force is demonstrating its combat and firepower at Rajasthan’s Pokhran firing range in the presence of the Hon’ble President Shri Pranab Mukherjee and the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. During the event, the IAF would showcase its capability delivering firepower both by day as well as by night.
Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of the Air Staff would be welcoming the Hon’ble President and the Hon’ble PM at Pokhran. The primary objective of this exercise is to demonstrate the IAF’s capability to safeguard our national interests. During the exercise, the IAF would also project its transformational state-of-the-art combat potential for meeting challenges be it from the air, land or sea.
The event comprises six packages depicting six themes in which more than 180 fighters, transport aircraft and helicopters are participating.
First on the show, would be a flypast showing IAF’s journey over eight decades, with the aircraft of yesteryears like Tiger Moth flying along with the with the latest acquisitions of the IAF. The flypast by a mixed formation comprising MiG-21, MiG-27, MiG-29 and the mighty Su-30, would represent the transformation of the IAF over the decades.
Next package would comprise net-enabling operations aircraft. This would commence with fly past by the indigenously developed Airborne Early Warning and Control System aircraft, which would then be followed a synchronized weapon delivery demonstration comprising precision based bombing at simulated targets by Mirage-2000, Su-30, MiG-27 and the Jaguar.
After demonstrating offensive capabilities, the IAF would showcase its multi-layered Air Defence operations. It will comprise fly-past by Flight Refuelling aircraft, IL-78 FRA along with two Su-30 aircraft which will demonstrate the ability to extend on-station endurance and strategic reach of fighter aircraft. This phase would also include Surface to Air Guided Weapons like the IGLA shoulder-fired missile system and the OSA-AK missiles striking down airborne targets. Capability demonstration of the indigenously developed ‘Tejas’ aircraft to deliver Laser Guided Bomb and fire a Air-to-Air Missile and the capability of the indigenous Light Combat Helicopter to carry out rocket firing would be carried out for the first time. This would be followed by a spectacular simulation of a Combat Search and Rescue operation carried out by the IAF’s versatile helicopters such as MI-35 and Mi-17V5. The firing of Akash Missile would be undertaken for the first time in the IAF’s history of Fire Power Demonstration.
The next phase would highlight the important role played by the Indian Air Force in support of the ground forces. This phase involves striking of targets that would simulate the enemy’s vital assets which would be engaged from the air by a variety of aircraft in the IAF’s inventory. In addition, the assault landing capability of the versatile C-130J aircraft and the fire fighting capability of the Mi-17V5, would also be displayed.
After the demonstration of live weapons, an array of aerobatic displays by the Sarang Team, the Suryakiran Team and the Su-30 would add fervour to the evening. The Air Warrior Drill Team and Air Force Symphony Orchestra would then enthral the audience with their performances on Terra Firma.
As night draws down upon the desert skies, the night capabilities of the IAF would come to fore. A number of targets would be engaged in this phase by fighters, transport aircraft and helicopters using rockets as well as bombs. The Combat Free-Fall jumps during the night would showcase, how the IAF could take on insertion of troops deep into the enemy territory, undetected.
The entire event would showcase more than 22 types of platforms and Weapons systems. Frontline fighter aircraft including Sukhoi 30, Mirage 2000, Jaguar, MiG-29, Attack helicopters, Remotely Piloted Aircraft(RPA) and high tech AWACS would display their potential during the show. Light Combat Aircraft ‘Tejas’ and LCH the prestigious indigenous projects, would also be a part of air display. Transport aircraft like the An-32, Embraer, IL-76, IL-78 and C-130J would participate in all their glory while medium lift helicopters(Mi-17, Mi-17 1V. Mi-17V5) and attack helicopters(Mi-25, Mi-35) would also showcase their capabilities.
FCI Food Grain Management and Distribution Online launched
Online System to automate all the operations of FCI depots launched by Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.Capturing data online on a real time basis, the system will bring total transparency in the working of FCI. It would help in better monitoring and supervision to reduce leakages and losses. The system will provide various types of data regarding stock position, movement, quality and quantity on line. It will generate SMS alerts to depot officials, area manager and other decision making authorities. All the data will be available on dashboard also for top management to monitor centrally and help in automatic reconciliation and generating of MIS reports about foodgrain management.
Launching the “Online Depot System” Shri Ram Vilas Paswan said that sustain efforts by the Government have resulted in significant reforms in PDS. He said bringing depots online is a historic step towards improving functioning of FCI. He said by July this year operations of all the FCI depots will be online and by March, 2017 remaining Depots which include CWC, SWC and hired one will also be online. Shri Paswan said his Ministry is in touch with the State Governments also to bring operations of their procurement agencies and distribution network online so that from procurement to delivery of foodgrains to the fair price shop become online.
Highlighting recent initiatives to make the foodgrain management more efficient, Shri Paswan said that almost 100% cards have been digitized and about 80,000 Fair Price Shop (FPS) have been provided with bio-metric “Point of Sale Device” for distributing subsidized foodgrains. Such devices will be installed at 3 lakh FPS by March 2017 and by March 2019 all the ration shops in the country will have these devices to make Public Distribution System totally leak proof. He said 45% ration cards have been seeded with a Aadhar cards and in next 2 years remaining cards will also be seeded with the Aadhars wherever available.
Shri Paswan announced that all the labours working in FCI, including contact labours, will be given free uniform and masks. He said welfare of workers and labours is very high priority for his Government.
FCI is engaged in procurement and storage of more than 600 LMT of wheat and rice and movement of 450 LMT of food grains across the country through almost 1900 Godowns.
“Depot Online” is an important project under Digital India initiative of Government.
Highlights of the Depot Online System
- The system will automate/streamline all the activities during the stock inflow/outflow by road.
- The system will provide an efficient way to monitor & track the movement of items by rail.
- Godown operation such as dumping management, stack management, spillage management, stack suggestion, storage loss calculation etc. will be automated. Stock position/occupancy of the shed will also be available on real time basis.
- The application will integrate with the weighbridge installed within the depot.
- The system will track chemical spraying, fumigation & procurement quality check.
- The system will keep track of all the millers/Agency that are associated with the depots. Miller/Agency will be able to log in into the system & enter required details.
- System will provide Dash board for managerial staff along with basic MIS reports such as daily stock receipt, daily stock issue, quality related reports etc.
- Facilitate the depot management for FCI, help in speeding up operations, Free up manpower from laborious data collation and report preparation. Thus, saving operational costs by proper planning & optimizing the administrative.
- Integrated view of end to end processes, use of workflow, notification and alerts and seamless connection between depots and district/regional offices of FCI.
- Capture data at source and in real time through Handheld Devices, reduce redundancy.
- SMS alerts will help field staff to take timely action.
- Will help save costs and prevent leakages.
“Depot Online” project is an important milestone in the overall modernization of FCI and improvement of Food Supply Chain.
Important Links:
https://fcidepotonline.gov.in/login
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuFtbl6d3zQFfxIKzfyVMgQ
https://mygov.in/sites/default/files/master_image/Food%20Corporation%20of%20India.pdf