Shri R.K. Chaturvedi, IAS (MP:1987) has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Implementation Cell, Seventh Central Pay Commission under the Department of Expenditure, for a period of five years.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.
Mobile Courts
Union Minister of Ministry of Law & Justice, Shri D. V. Sadananda Gowda has informed that under the provisions of the Constitution, the primary responsibility for establishment of subordinate courts in the States rests with the respective State Governments. The Central Government provides financial assistance to State Governments for setting up Gram Nyayalayas which may hold mobile court outside their headquarters in terms of the provisions contained in the Gram Nayalayas Act, 2008.
As per information available, 194 Gram Nyayalayas have been notified by 10 States, including 16 Gram Nyayalayas notified by the Government of Odisha. Year-wise and State-wise details of Gram Nyayalayas notified by the State Governments during last three years are given below.
| Sl. No. | Name of State | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
| 1. | Maharashtra | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 2. | Jharkhand | 6 | – | – |
| 3. | Odisha | 6 | 2 | – |
| 4. | Goa | 2 | – | – |
| 5. | Punjab | – | 2 | – |
| 6. | Haryana | – | 2 | – |
| 7. | Uttar Pradesh | – | – | 12 |
The issues affecting operationalization of the Gram Nyayalayas were discussed in the Conference of Chief Justices of High Courts and Chief Ministers of the States on 7th April, 2013. It was decided in the Conference that the State Governments and High Courts should decide the question of establishment of Gram Nyayalayas wherever feasible, taking into account their local problems. The focus is on setting up Gram Nyayalayas in the Talukas where regular courts have not been set up.
Neela Manjunath appointed as MD- Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation
Ms Neela Manjunath SCS/IAS (Karnataka 2004) presently posted as Special Deputy Commissioner-2, Revenue Department, Bangalore (Urban), has been appointed as Managing Director, Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation (KSIC), Bengaluru in Government of Karnataka.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes her the very best.
Home Minister to chair 26th Southern Zonal Council in Vijayawada
The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh will chair the 26th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council to be held in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh on 12-12-2015. The Southern Zonal Council comprises of the States of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana and Puducherry. The Chief Ministers of all these states and senior officers from both Central and State Governments are expected to participate in this meeting.
The Zonal Councils, created under the State Reorganization Act, 1956, are advisory bodies that discuss and advise the Central and State Governments on matters of common interest pertaining to a gamut of subjects, viz., infrastructures, health, security, social welfare, linguistic minorities, border disputes, etc., on the action to be taken in such matter. There are five Councils, one for each Zone viz., Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern, and Central. The secretarial functions of the Zonal Councils have been transferred to the Inter State Council Secretariat with effect from 1 April, 2011. The North-East Council set up under a separate Act of 1971 is under the administrative ambit of the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER).
The meeting of each Zonal Council needs to be held once in a year to iron out the differences between the governments on issues of development concerning regional interest and national programmes. However, meetings of most of the zonal councils were quite infrequent during the past.
Given the great potential of these institutions in resolving regional and interstate issues through their consultative mechanism, the present Government immediately after coming to power decided to revive and further strengthen these fora. Inter State Council Secretariat, which looks after the work of Zonal Council since 2011, was instructed to take on the preparatory work to complete meetings of all Zonal Councils, pending for years, by the end of 2015.
It was a challenging task as it mandatorily required holding of all the meetings of Standing Committees of these Zonal Councils prior to the Councils’ meetings. It called for immense coordination and networking to have all the states to meet on the table under the Chairmanship of Union Home Minister for each of these Zonal Councils.
State elections, natural calamities, law and order problems and such other pressing situations, more often than not, stymied the execution of this task but the government machinery rose to the occasion and pulled it off. With completion of this meeting of Southern Zonal Council which is last in the series of the Councils’ meetings this year, all the meetings of the Zonal Councils will be completed as committed by the Government.
The 8th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Southern Zonal Council was held at Hyderabad on 19th November, 2014 to scrutinize the agenda for deliberation and resolution for this meeting.
Issues of Inter-State and Centre-State cooperation and coordination have been flagged for this meeting, such as coastal security, peninsular region industrial corridor, introduction of peninsular tourism trains, finalization of inter-state reciprocal transport agreement, curbing the use of unacceptable levels of pesticides in fruits and vegetables, maintaining uniform standards of nursing courses, etc. Some other substantial issues of Centre State and Inter-State matters are also likely to be raised by Member States in the Council.
Law Ministry’s New Initiative: Application for Notaries to Become Online
The Ministry of Law & Justice has brought a major change in receiving applications for appointment of Notaries. Henceforth all applications for appointment of Notaries shall be received online, including the supporting documents. The new system will become operational from 1st January, 2016. Receipt of online applications is expected to result in reducing delay on account of postal delays, missing documents and queries due to incomplete applications. This will also facilitate the applicants to know the status of their applications online.
For further details please visit- http://www.lawmin.nic.in/
Kavitha V Padmanabhan appointed as Dy Secy in DoPT, GOI
Ms. Kavitha Vaibhav Padmanabhan IAS (Assam- Meghalaya 2006) presently posted as Joint Secretary, GAD, Government of Assam, has been appointed as Deputy Secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes her the very best.
Elastic Gastric Device : to allow Diagnosis, Monitoring & Drug Delivery
Summary:Researchers have developed a swallowable device engineered for stability in the stomach, allowing for potential extended drug release or physiological monitoring and subsequent degradation in the small intestine for safe passage out of the body.
Researchers funded in part by the NIBIB have developed a device engineered for stability in the stomach, allowing for potential extended drug release or physiological monitoring and subsequent degradation in the small intestine for safe passage out of the body. Elastic qualities of the material used to make the device allow it to be squeezed into a capsule so it can be swallowed and then expand to reside in the stomach, where it could release a medication over time. In addition, the system could provide simplified and safe delivery of ingestible devices and electronic sensors that have a range of functions including weight control, prolonged drug release, and disease diagnosis and monitoring.
The team engineered the capsule to be responsive to pH levels so it remains stable in the acidic stomach environment but degrades in the neutral pH of the small intestine. From there it is easily passed out of the body, as demonstrated in experiments in pigs. This engineering feat is significant because a single pill releasing a medication over several weeks has the potential to provide a remedy to the problem of patient failure to adhere to long-term therapies, which costs the US $100 billion in avoidable hospitalizations every year.
There are currently a number of medical devices designed to reside in the stomach for applications that include long-term drug delivery and weight-loss. For weight-loss, intra-gastric balloons are inserted in the stomach for several months to curb appetite. However, intra-gastric balloons and long acting drug release devices must be eventually removed, and if they break and/or move into the intestines they may cause life-threatening blockages.
In work published in the October issue of Nature Materials, senior authors Giovanni Traverso, MBBCh, Ph.D., at Massachusetts General Hospital, Robert Langer, Ph.D, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and their colleagues report on a polymer gel bioengineered for efficient long-term delivery to the stomach, while eliminating the potential dangers of creating intestinal blockages.
“The potential uses of this system are enormous,” says Traverso. “Our team has developed a system that opens the ‘gastrointestinal frontier,’ enabling simple, long term delivery of medications that can be engineered to be released for days, weeks or months in the stomach.”
Langer elaborates on the practical applications of the system. “Medications only work if people take them. The failure of patients to follow instructions for taking their medications is staggering, with adherence in developed nations reaching only 50%. It is even lower in patients taking multiple medications and in developing countries with poor access to healthcare. This technology directly addresses that issue. For example, a week long course of antibiotics could be given in one visit to the doctor with the patient swallowing a single pill that releases the drug for a week and then harmlessly dissolves.”
The researchers also point out that single-administration delivery systems for malaria and other infectious diseases could significantly improve treatment of these prevalent diseases in remote or developing areas with limited healthcare access.
“The combined expertise of the research team in gastroenterology and bioengineering is an excellent example of how interdisciplinary collaborations can result in technologies that break new ground,” adds Jessica Tucker, Ph.D. Director of the NIBIB Program for Delivery Systems and Devices for Drugs and Biologics. “The gastric and elastic qualities of this new polymer system have the potential to solve multiple problems that have been barriers to simple and safe oral delivery of medications for extended periods. The technology is also a significant step towards eventual delivery of ingestible electronics to the stomach for real-time collection of metabolic data in patients.”
Source:National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
Guidelines to Banks on Refinancing Infrastructure Projects
Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance has informed that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines are already in place on refinancing existing infrastructure and other project loans. As per extant guidelines, banks are allowed to refinance such loans by way of take-out financing, even without a pre-determined agreement with other Banks/Financial Institutions (FIs) and fix a long repayment period, without treating the same as restructuring if the following conditions are to be satisfied:
i) Such loans should be ‘standard’ in the books of the existing banks and should not have been restructured in the past,
ii) Such loans should be substantially taken over (more than 50% of the outstanding loan by value) from the existing financing Banks/FIs, and
iii) The repayment period should be fixed by taking into account the life cycle of the project and cash flows from the project.
Vide RBI circular dated August 7, 2014, the above criteria of 50% of outstanding loan to be taken over was reduced to 25% of outstanding loan in respect of existing project loans with minimum aggregated exposure of Rs. 1000 crore from all institutional lenders. Banks may refinance such loans by way of full or partial take-out financing, even without a pre-determined agreement with other banks/FIs, and fix a long repayment period and the same would not be considered as restructuring in the books of the existing as well as taking over lenders, subject to certain other conditions.
RBI has informed that Banks have been representing that they are unable to provide long tenor financing (25-30 years) owing to asset-liability mismatch issues. Accordingly, in terms of RBI circular dated 15.7.2014, banks were specifically allowed to extend structured long term project loan with certain features: a) the tenor of the project loans may extend upto 80% of the initial economic life of the project; b) the loan amortization may be extended/changed upto 85% of initial economic life (subject to certain conditions) if there is a delay in project implementation or after DCCO (Date of Commencement of Commercial Operations), once during the life the project if the project cash flows are at variance with initial assumptions: c) periodic refinancing to avoid ALM (asset-liability management) issues subject to certain conditions; and d) variable pricing depending upon risk at each stage of the project. Subsequently, vide circular dated 15.12.2014, RBI have extended the above framework of flexible structuring of long term projects loans to existing loans to project, in which the aggregate exposure of all institutional lenders exceeds Rs. 500 crore, in the infrastructure sector and in the core industries sector.
National Prizes conferred on Winners of Kala Utsav – 2015
Felicitating winners of Kala Utsav-2015, Union Human Resource Development Minister Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani in New Delhi said that all students should have ‘One Aim, One Life, under One constitution and the one Nation’. Expressing her sincere thanks to the Prime Minister she said that Hon’ble Prime Minister had dedicated ‘Kala Utsav’ to nation with a vision of promoting national integration and preserving our cultural heritage by associating the students of country with Kala Utsav. She also extended thanks to all teachers, parents and state governments who inspired and motivated students to participate in ‘Kala Utsav’. She reiterated her earlier call to participants that they would go back with spirit of cooperation and brotherhood although they came here with a competitive spirit.
The Union Minister expressed her confidence that India can prove its leadership on the global front in the field of cultural heritage as it has established its supremacy in science and technology as well. She saluted all the jury members who in their own right are experts in the field of art and culture. She said that Kala Utsav provides a national platform to express artistic talents to those who until now lagged behind because of non-availability of any such platform despite having necessary talents. Paying homage to Bharat Ratna Pandit Ravi Shankar whose death anniversary coincides today she said that dedication to arts with the feeling of national integration as has been displayed during Kala Utsav will be a true tribute to him.
Nobel Laureate Shri Kailash Satyarthi felicitating participants said that if the power of art, artists and children of the nation comes together, India’s daughters will not only be saved and educated, but won’t be behind any other daughter in the world. Kala Utsav – 2015 was founded upon theme of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’.
Famous Dance exponent Smt Sonal Mansingh on this occasion said that one should not compromise with one’s self respect while facing challenges of life and should channelize all the creative energy to achieve one aim in a life.
The Minister gave away national prizes for ‘Kala Utsav-2015’ in four categories – Visual arts, Music, Theatre and dance.
Under Visual arts category 1st prize was bagged by Andman and Nicobar Islands, 2nd Prize jointly by Delhi and Haryana, and 3rd prize by Tamil Nadu.
Under Music category 1st prize was won by Delhi 2nd by Chattisgarh, and 3rd prize jointly by Assam and Maharashtra.
Under Theatre category, 1st prize was bagged by Haryana, 2nd by Assam and 3rd by Maharashtra.
Under Dance category 1st prize was taken by Assam, 2nd by Dadra Nagar Haveli and 3rd by Karnataka.
First prize, Second prize and Third prize carry cash component of Rs. 1,25,000/- , Rs. 75,000/- , Rs. 50,000/- respectively for each of the above mentioned categories.
Ms. Stuti Singh Parihar, from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh was given prize for national level logo design
Pushing the limits of Solar Cells
Summary:Scientists have introduced a new strategy for generating more efficient solar cells.
Florida State University researchers are striving to make solar cells more effective at trapping and using light.
They’re one step closer.
In a new paper in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Kenneth Hanson and his team have introduced a new strategy for generating more efficient solar cells. The team is composed of post-doctoral researcher Tanmay Banerjee and graduate students Sean Hill and Tristan Dilbeck.
“We’re looking not only for new materials but also new light harvesting processes to make solar cells better,” Hanson said.
Though solar cells have grown in popularity, they are still not widely used by the general public as an energy source due to their high cost and low efficiency. A typical solar cell, at maximum, converts less than 33 percent of light into electricity, so researchers have been working to find ways to surpass this limit and make cells more efficient.
In the past, scientists have put an extra photon upconversion filter before or after the cell to catch the low energy, unused light and convert it into usable, high-energy light. But, Hanson wanted to integrate this process directly into the cell.
The researchers were able to do that by using self-assembly. Through a soaking procedure, they assembled two molecules, an acceptor and sensitizer, on a surface. Once assembled, these molecules work in concert to perform photon upconverion, combining two low energy, green photons to generate a higher energy, blue photon, which can then be used to generate electricity.
Using this process in an optimized solar cell can increase the maximum efficiency from 33 percent to more than 45 percent. The team is also confident they can generate even better numbers in the future.
“It’s definitely a stepping stone toward making more efficient solar cells,” Hanson said. “Our current work demonstrates a feasible method.”
Scientists worldwide have been working on how to make more efficient solar cells through a variety of mechanisms and different materials. The solar market has grown considerably over the past few years, and as emphasis on clean energy grows, more resources will likely be devoted to creating better solar options.
A recent Department of Energy study estimates that solar energy, which is 0.05 of the current power supply, will grow to 14 percent by 2030 and 27 percent by 2050.
Hanson is a part of the Energy and Materials Strategic Initiative with the mission of producing high tech materials for new generation, energy sustainable technology. Members of the initiative are working on a variety of high-tech materials including solar cells, light emitting diodes and photoactive molecules.
Source:Florida State University
Health Minister invites Private Sector to contribute in Health Sector of India
“In spite of several challenges in the health sector in the country, our vision is to provide universal health coverage i.e. ensure universal access to quality healthcare that they need without financial hardship for our citizens”. This was stated by Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare at the 12th India Health Summit, an annual flagship event on healthcare, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Speaking on the occasion, the Health Minister stated that today’s event gives us an opportunity to strengthen partnerships to move towards our common goal of providing equitable and affordable healthcare of quality to all. The Health Minister announced setting up of a Special Task Force comprising the of Ministry and the private sector representatives to further deliberate on the further contours of such partnership. He said, “We have been in constant dialogue with the industry on health issues for so many years and now the time is ripe for us to move forward. I assure the Government’s commitment to promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience, expertise and mutual trust. I also look forward to this Summit throwing up concrete suggestions and action plans towards collaborating with government to achieve out health goals.”
Shri Nadda highlighted some challenges in the health sector such as like variation in health facilities between urban and rural areas, variation between public and private health services and issues of regulation regarding health activities. Concentration of health services in the southern and western parts of the country don’t match in terms of health delivery system as well as health infrastructure with the northern and central regions. The North-Eastern and the Central tribal areas also need attention, he added. The Health Minister said generally the focus lies on secondary and tertiary but primary healthcare also needs more attention. Paucity of human resource in health, inadequate infrastructure, poor logistics and supply chain arrangements to ensure essential drugs and supplies continue to be areas of concern, the Health Minister added.
Shri Nadda said, “We need stronger partnership to achieve the target under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all by 2030. The country is broadly on track to achieve the three MDGs related to the health Sector.” Enumerating the recent notable achievements of the Ministry, the Health Minister said that with “Mission Indradhanush” (which is the world’s largest immunization programme) the full immunization cover has increased to 65% while the aim is to extend this 90% by 2020. Shri Nadda stated that the National Health Mission (NHM) and Mission Indradhanush have very significantely contributed to strengthening health systems in the country. Since inception, a total of over Rs. 1, 34,000 crores have been released under NHM. The Health Minister further stated that the India Newborn Action Plan (INAP) aims to will bring down newborn deaths and still births in single digit by 2030. The recently launched IPV as part of Routine Immunization Programme will also play a major role in preventing child mortality. The Health Ministry is planning to launch vaccines like for Adult JE, MR and Rotavirus soon, he added.
The Health Minister informed that the Government has taken some major policy decision in its fight against HIV-AIDS. He said that in view of the growing need for treatment services, the Ministry has decided that the cut-off level for initiation of Anti Retrieval Therapy (ART) will henceforth be a CD4 count of 500. With this decision an additional 1 lakh persons will start getting benefit of treatment.
Shri Nadda invited suggestion from the private sector for the draft National Health Policy. These suggestions will enable it to become holistic and truly meaningful, he said.
Also present on the occasion were, Dr. Naresh Trehan, Chairman, CII Healthcare Council and Chairman and Managing Director, Medanta-The Medicity, Shri Malvinder Mohan Singh, Executive Chairman, Fortis Healthcare Limited and Shri Rahul Khosla, Co-Chairman, CII Healthcare Council and Managing Dirctor, Max India Limited.
POWERGRID & POSOCO bag 4 awards at India Today PSUs Awards 2015
POWERGRID has bagged the ‘Most Valuable Company Award’ and ‘Best Performing Company Award’ in the Navratna category at the India Today PSUs Awards 2015.
POWERGRID’s subsidiary company, POSOSCO also bagged ‘Best Performing Company Award’ and the ‘Best R&D Innovation Award’ under Other PSUs category.
The award was received by Shri I. S. Jha, CMD, and Shri R.T. Agarwal, Director (Finance) for POWERGRID and Shri S. K. Soonee, CEO, POSOCO received the award for POSOCO from Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology and Shri Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Hon’ble Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy at a function held in Delhi.