Current Affairs January 6, 2010

Events / Happenings/ Observations
20th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) concludes:
20th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) has concluded. Around 250 delegates participated in the CSPOC and these included 34 Speakers and presiding officers of elected parliamentary and legislative bodies and allied officials such as Secretary Generals.

Geluk Monlam Puja
Hundreds of Buddhists and followers of the Dalai Lama converged at the Kaal Chakra Maidan (Wheel of Time Ground) in Bodh Gaya, the place where Buddha attained enlightenment and this marked the beginning of ‘Geluk Monlam puja, which is a five days long celebration. This celebration will attract approximately 50,000 people from across to hear the Dalai Lama’s discourses.

Buddha Historic Park
In memory of 2550th year of salvation of Lord Buddha, the Bihar govt. has come come up with a plan to build Historic Park in Patna wiuth facilities for devotees for meditation. The idea behind this Rs. 150 crore project is to drive tourism from Buddhist countries too.

200th Birth Anniversary of Luis Braille
200th Birth Anniversary was celebrated all around the world on January 4, 2009. Himachal Pradesh has come up with a plan of launching Two Braile libraries. Braille Library system for use by visually challenged people and having a number of novel features had been designed, made and supplied to the State Government, by Pune based companies Modular Infotech Private Limited and Automatic Control Equipments. Shimla and Surendranagar of Mandi have been selected for this purpose.

Awards:
First Pravasi Film Festival Awards:
Sharmila Tagore-Soha Ali Khan starrer ‘Life Goes On’ has bagged the Best Feature Film Award at the first Pravasi Film Festival in New Delhi.
D K Krishna and Raj Nidimoru’s ‘Shor’, a short fiction film, received the Best Short Fiction award.
Navdeep Kandola’s ‘Flying Sikh’, a history of Sikh fighter pilots in the first and the second World Wars, won the Best Short Non-Fiction Award. The festival also honoured veteran actor Saeed Jaffry with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Books

National Updates:
Maharastra: Controversy Over liquor-from-foodgrains policy
In 2007, the Maharastra Government had announced a liquor-from-foodgrains policy. Liquor is mainly produced from molasses which is a by product of Sugar. Since the molasses was being diverted to prepare ethanol, which would further used to mix with the petrol, The govt. of Maharastra came up with the idea to announce a permission to make liquor from foodgrain. This policy also included a subsidy grant of Rs. 50 crore per factory. Jowar, Bajra and Maize were to be used for liquor production. The application were receievd till August 2009, and till then 35 application had been received from the politically affluent people of the state.

A petition was launched in Bombay Highcourt and now the court has asked the government , weather the foodgrains or liquor is an essential commodity, and weather the state has funds for the subsidy grants. The petition was filed on the basis that food grain output is declining and govt policy is against the people’s welfare.

Web based Rubber Clinic:
On January 9, 2009, The rubber board will start a web based Distance Diagnostic System which will be able to help the farmers in crop disease management by accurate and timely diagnosis of diseases/pests and timely adoption of suitable control measures. The Ruber Research Insitute of India (RRII) had identified and developed suitable control/management strategies for each pest and disease.Rubber is a cash crop and requires to maintain and improve the productivity of the trees and to increase the income of the farmers.

Tele-Audiology Screening Programme of Sri Ramachandra University (SRU)
Under the Tele-Audiology Screening Programme of Sri Ramachandra University (SRU), new born babies in rural areas of a Tamilnadu District, will undergo tests for hearing faculty so that on early diagnosis of hearing problems the treatment can be taken up. This is called Newborn Hearing Screening (NHS).
This programme has been launched by APJ Abdul Kalam , our former president.
The prgoramme also included the tele-van units and free medicine facility for which ISRO had assisted SRU.

Government of India introduced the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness in 2006 for prevention, early identification, treatment, referral and rehabilitation of persons with hearing impairment.

SRU is also running tele-consultation and tele-education programme to 53 African Countries under the ”Pan African e-Network Project”

What are Vyomnauts?
India’s First space mission is scheduled for 2015. In this mission three-person vehicle will initially carry two astronauts into 275-kilometre low-Earth orbit. The ISRO is in process of choosing four astronauts from a pool of 200 fighter pilots. the media has coined a new term for Indian astronauts – Vyomnauts. Vyoma is space. The correct sanskrit term is Vyomagami yet, Vyomnauts is more fashionable , isn’t it?

Tamil Nadu Environment Protection Fund:
TN Governemnt will set up an “Envrionment Protection and Renewable Energy Development Fund” to protect the environment and promote clean energy to combat climate change.

“It Can Be done”
“It Can Be done” is the title of the public lecture of former president APJ Abdul Kalam in the 97th Indian Science Congress. Some points:

1. Scientists should start considering earth, moon and mars as an economic complex for future habitat expansion of human beings.
2. Indian scientists should look forward to celebrating the socio-economic development of India in 2020.
3. He proposed his vision of transition of Indian Science from 2020 to 2050, saying that the vision for 2050 is one of dynamic growth. A global knowledge society backed by value system and spirit of compassion would be the backbone of the vision.
4. Proper water management, sustainable agriculture development using organic farming practices, energy consumption and sustainability, customized healthcare for promoting enhanced longevity, balancing the greenhouse gas budget and emergence of new global leaders focussing on multi-disciplinary action are some of the key elements of the vision.
5. There is a need to develop and promote connectivity and collaboration among universities and organizations like ISRO, DAE, CSIR as well as industries.
6. Improving science infrastructure in schools and colleges, bringing a fundamental change in Indian universities and institutions based on both academic and research performance and focusing on challenges of human needs are other issues that require urgent attention.
7. There is a need to ignite the creativity of children from pre-school level and to inculcate interest in research from school to university level.

Next ISC in Chennai
The next session of the Science Congress will be held in Chennai, to be hosted by SRM University, Chennai. some 2000 papers were presented in the five-day event and it was the largest in the history of ISC, in 14 plenary sessions. a Children’s Science Congress was also organised for the first time.

E-Dog of IIT Mumbai
IIT Mumbai is developing an electronic device that will sniff out explosives like RDX which remain undetected by existing security equipments. The government has entrusted the electrical engineering department of the IIT to develop the high-tech device in collaboration with the High Energy Materials Research Lab of the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at Chandigarh and the Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam near Chennai.

A prototype of the e-device is under development to smell explosives from a distance by a sensor coated with nano materials. (Mint)

Article : Professional Education Development Project

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