What is stuxnet ?

STUXNET is a window specific coputer worm ,it was first discovered in July 2010 by VirusBlokAda, a security firm based in Belarus. It is the first discovered worm that spies on and reprograms industrial systems, and the first to include a programmable logic controller rootkit. What’s crucial is that having affected the controls, the virus can transfer the effective command of these installations to a remote location – mostly overseas. The Stuxnet can shut down or transfer control of any installation as long as it has an intelligent electronic control systems. The authors of the virus are capable of monitoring inputs and changing outputs. This implies that this malware could lead to system shutdowns, explosions or inability to control important attributes like pressure and temperature — critical to power plants and process-driven installations. India is the third largest infected nation, after Iran and Indonesia.

new upsc sample question paper

new upsc sample question paper

What is TRP?

 TRP is the criterion that indicates the popularity of a channel or programme and this data is very useful for the advertisers
Presently, INTAM (Indian Television Audience Measurement) is the only electronic rating agency functioning in India. INTAM uses two methodologies for calculating TRP. First is frequency monitoring, in which 'people meters' are installed in sample homes and these electronic gadgets continuously record data about the channel watched by the family members. 'People meter' is a costly equipment, which is imported from abroad. It reads the frequencies of channels, which are later, decoded into the name of the channels and the agency prepares a national data on the basis of its sample homes readings. But there is a drawback in the technique, as cable operators frequently change the frequencies of the different channels before sending signals to the homes. It may be very misleading to read a channel according to a particular frequency even if the down linking frequency is same all over India.

Second technique is more reliable and relatively new to India. In picture matching technique people meter continuously records a small portion of the picture that is being watched on that particular television set. Along with this agency also records all the channels' data in the form of small picture portion. Data collected from the sample homes is later on matched with the main data bank to interpret the channel name. And this way national rating is produced.

CSAT Syllabus for UPSC by Dept. of personnel and training available here.

much awaited CSAT syllabus has come..click here.CSAT syllabus .

Genetically Modified (GM) Trees

A new National Forest Policy is being debated behind closed doors  it is expected to give a thrust to genetically modified (GM) trees for boosting the paper industry as well as improving the quality of by-products of wood.”


Genetically modified trees have the potential to radically and permanently change the world’s forests. As with GM crops, a major issue is gene escape, but the effects are more far-reaching due to the central role played by trees in the ecosystem.

The purpose of GM trees deployment in India is to boost the paper industry, then it is likely that one trait that will be genetically modified is the amount of lignin in the trees. Reducing the amount of lignin, which provides rigidity and strength to plant cell walls, is potentially a money-saver for the pulp and paper industry, which has to remove less lignin during processing of wood fibre.

What is an E-SKIN ?

>acronym of Eelectronic skin.
>It is made by javey's team comprises a matrix of nanowires made of geranium and silicon rolled onto a sticky polyimide film .
>electronic skin(E-skin) that can sense touch,will helpful in developin nexgen robots,artificial arms with smarter, touch-sensitive upgrades.



The Science Book: Everything You Need to Know About the World and How It Works (National Geographic)

RASHTRIYA SWASTHYA BIMA YOJANA(RSBY)

1. It was launched in 2008 for BPL family to get medical care. RSBY offers the so-called cashless medical insurance facility in which payments are made directly by the insurance company to the hospital.
2. health insurance scheme for the poor ,NOW OPEN FOR  for all sections of society, even those above the poverty line.

What is SWAVALAMBAN?

The scheme launched by the Centre for the unorganised sector workers. The scheme was launched as part of a broader plan for financial inclusion.

1. As per the scheme, the central government will contribute Rs. 1,000 a year for four years to every Swavalamban account holder who can deposit up to Rs. 12,000 a year into his pension account.

2. Reportedly only about 13% of the working population in our country is eligible for some kind of retirement pension.

INDIAN STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVES LTD (ISPRL)

To ensure energy security, the Government of India has decided to set up 5 million metric tones (MMT) strategic crude oil storages at three locations namely, Visakhapatnam, Mangalore and Padur (near Udupi). These strategic storages would be in addition to the existing storages of crude oil and petroleum products with the oil companies and would serve as a cushion in response to external supply disruptions. The construction of the proposed strategic storage facilities is being managed by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL), a Special Purpose Vehicle, owned by Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB).

8-point initiative to end the unrest in kashmir valley.

• will appoint interlocutors to begin dialogue with all sections .
• has called for immediate release of youth held for stone pelting.
• want state to review cases of detenues under public safety Act.
• has sought rellook at deployment of security forces in valley with a view to reducing it.
• has announced Rs 5 lakh relife to families of all 108 people killed.
• has asked state to reopen all school,colleges
• grant of Rs100 crore to improve education infrastructure
• will constitute Special Task Forces for jammu and Ladakh to examine their development needs.

Minimum Alternate Tax

The  Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) was introduced in the direct tax system to make sure that companies having large profits and declaring substantial dividends to shareholders but who were not contributing to the Govt by way of corporate tax, by taking advantage of the various incentives and exemptions provided in the Income-tax Act, pay a fixed percentage of book profit as minimum alternate tax.

In other words,its a tax that has to be paid by the companies that are enjoying tax benefits or tax exemption under various schemes.It is mostly targetted to the R&D companies and Export oriented units which enjoy tax emptions.Under this they have to pay a particular amount of MAT, so they come under the tax net.
AT present it is 2% in new Direct tax code.

What is Sevottam framework?

The Sevottam framework has basically three modules - Citizen Charter, Public Grievance Mechanism and Service Delivery Capability. Each of the modules is further divided into three criteria and eleven elements each. The framework helps Government Departments towards improving their public service delivery.

The Performance Management Division of the Cabinet Secretariat has included two modules of the Sevottam framework as mandatory success indicator in the Result Frame Document (RFD) 2010-11 for 62 Ministries/Departments approved under Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) by Hon’ble Prime Minister. These success indicators are called “Sevottam compliant system for citizens / client charter” and “Sevottam compliant system for public grievance redress”.

The Second ARC in – “Citizen Centric Administration – The Heart of Governance” – has recommended that Union and State Governments should make the Seven Step Model outlined  mandatory for all organizations having public interface which was accepted by the Government of India. The ARC had made the recommendations after studying the Sevottam model which the Commission felt was a step in the right direction.

What is Sevottam


Sevottam literally is the combination of Hindi words ‘SEWA + UTTAM’, meaning uttam sewa i.e. excellence in services. The Sevottam model was developed with expert support after studying international best practices, stake-holder consultations and field validity. It has basically three modules - Citizen Charter, Public Grievance Redress Mechanism and Service Delivery Capability.  Each of the modules is further divided into three criteria and eleven elements each. The framework helps Government Departments towards improving their public service delivery.

Sevottam as Pilot Project

Initially, Sevottam framework was undertaken from April 2009 to June 2010 in ten Departments of the Government having large public interface. These are, Department of Post, CBEC, CBDT, Railways, Passport office, Pensions, Food Processing, Corporate Affairs, Kendriya Vidyalaya Schools and EPFO. All these organizations have declared standards and implemented in pilot locations.  The Project is now being extended to 62 ministries of the Government.

Sevottam in Operation
The Seven Steps to Sevottam are - Define all services which a department provides and identify clients; Set standards and norms for each service; Develop capability to meet the set standards; Perform to achieve the standards; Monitor performance against the set standards; Evaluate the impact through an independent mechanism and Continuous improvement based on monitoring and evaluation results.
Seven Steps to Sevottam Compliant Grievance Redress System are - Well established system of receipt of grievances; Convenient for all users and its wide publicity; Timely acknowledgement; Time norm for redress; Communication of action taken on redress; Platform for Appeal and Analysis of grievance prone areas for making systemic improvements.

Preparing more departments for Sevottam

 The  Department  of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances organised between August 30 and September 21, 2010 four workshops, each of two day duration, for officers responsible for implementing the Sevottam compliant citizen charter in 62 ministries/departments of the Government. The aim of the workshops was to facilitate preparation of Sevottam Compliant Citizen Charters and Grievance Redress Mechanism for Ministries/Departments of the Government and its Organizations for modernizing governance through better and enhanced results oriented Public Delivery System to the Citizens/Clients/Stakeholders.
The Agenda of the workshops was: Sevottam Compliant Citizens’ Charters and Grievance Redress Mechanism; Modernizing Governance through Strategic Commitment, Awareness and Outreach and Enhanced Performance and Result in Outcome. It included sessions on the concept of Sevottam, Sevottam Compliant Citizen’s/Client’s Charter, Sevottam Compliant Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM), and linkages between Sevottam, Strategy and Results Framework Document (RFD).
The participants in these workshops included two officers of Joint Secretary/ Director level from each of the 62 Central Ministries included in the Results Framework Document for 2010-11, and one or two representatives from  select Training Institutions such as Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi; Institute of Secretariat Training and Management, New Delhi; State Administrative Training Institute, Jaipur; State Administrative Training Institute,  Chandigarh; Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad and Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad. As such a total of about 250 officers participated and were trained through these four workshops.
The first workshop was inaugurated by Shri Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions. These workshops were organised in collaboration with Performance Management Division of Cabinet Secretariat and FICCI Quality Forum as Consulting Partner. Cabinet Secretary, Shri K.M. Chandrasekhar, Member planning Commission Shri Sam Pitroda and UIDAI chairman, Shri Nandan Nilekani took part in the workshops.

Implementation of the Concept
The Performance Management Division of the Cabinet Secretariat has included two modules of the Sevottam framework i.e. Citizen Charter and Public Grievance Mechanism, as mandatory success indicators in the Results Frame Document (RFD) 2010-11 for 62 Ministries/Departments approved under Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) by the Prime Minister. The four workshops held would facilitate these Ministries/Departments in achieving the Sevottam compliance success indicators under Results Frame Document. December 30, 2010 has been fixed as the target date for the formulation of Sevottam Compliant Citizen’s / Client’s Charter. To facilitate meeting  the target date, a Helpdesk for Sevottam related queries has been made available at sevottam@nic.in.
Sevottam in States
Four States namely, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa have adopted Sevottam for capacity building for poverty reduction pilot projects of quality management system.
The Government of Himachal Pradesh selected Municipal Corporation Shimla for the first QMS Sevottam pilot project in 2008 - 2009. As a result, processes in issue of Electricity and Water Bills have been streamlined resulting in timely receipts and enhancement in the collection of revenue. Operations of water bills, property tax, registration of births and deaths, and other services provided are being integrated through a common digital database.
The Grievance Redress Mechanism has been improved. Improvements have been made in functioning and monitoring of the Solid Waste Management Plant and financial arrangements have been made for procuring 33 new vehicles. A ‘User Manual’ for the sector has been created that will facilitate the replication of the process in other municipalities. The User Manual has been uploaded on DARPG website www.darpg.nic.in.
The capacity of Himachal Pradesh Institute for Public Administration (HIPA) Shimla, has been built in this regard and funds have been provided for opening of a new ‘Training Centre on Sevottam’ in HIPA.
The Government of Karnataka selected the Department of Women and Child Development with vertical chain  of service delivery for the Integrated Child Development Services in 7 Anganwadi centres in two villages of Badanaguppe in Chamrajnagar district and Mudlapura in  Raichur district.  The pilot project was started there in December 2008 and  concluded  in February 2010.  This has been a very successful Sevottam pilot project. As part of capacity building a Sevottam training cell has been established in ATI, Mysore to train personnel for extending the service delivery framework in other organizations of Government of Karnataka.
The Madhya Pradesh Government has selected the Public Health and Family Welfare Department with vertical service delivery chain in J.P. Hospital, Bhopal; Community Health Centre, Gandhinagar; in Phanda Block of District Bhopal; Community Health Centres in Bairsia Block and Health Centre Tehsil Bairsia with  PHFW service delivery units in 5 to 6 village clusters therein. Simultaneously, capacity building for training in QMS Sevottam model of the Madhya Pradesh State Administrative Training Institute is involved. Started in August 2009, the project is due to conclude in December 2010.
The Government of Orissa has selected the Food, Supplies and Consumer Welfare (FSCW) Department and its vertical chain of service delivery in Balipatna Block of Khurda District and simultaneous capacity building of State ATI, Bhubaneswar. The project begun in September 2009 and  is due for conclusion in December 2010.

What is women reservation bill?



1. The women reservation bill will reserve the 33 percent seats in Parliament and state legislatures for the females.


2. The bill is pending from the year 1996 proving that Indian politicians are not ready to accept this bill so every time we see the new drama, new demand from political parties.


3. The women reservation bill will provide Reservation for women at each level of legislative decision-making, starting with the Lok Sabha, down to state and local legislatures.

4. If the Bill is passed, one-third of the total available seats would be reserved for women in national, state, or local governments. And this number will be 181 . The Bill seeks to reserve for women 181 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha and 1,370 out of a total of 4,109 seats in the 28 State Assemblies.


5. The reserved seats will be rotated. So the seats will be reserved only once every 3 election.


6. Currently 33.3 percent seats in panchayat elections have been reserved for women already.


7. In the May 2004 general election, 539 candidates were elected to the 14th Lok Sabha. Only 44 of them are women.


8. Women have less than 10 percent representation in India’s parliament even though they make up 44 percent of the voting population.


History of Women Reservation bill in India –


1. 1996 — The Deve Gowda government introduces the women’s reservation bill as 81st Constitutional Amendment Bill.


2. 1998 — the bill is re-introduced in the 12th Lok Sabha as the 84th Constitutional Amendment Bill by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government headed Atal Bihari Vajpayee.


3. 1999 — The NDA government re-introduces the bill in the 13th Lok Sabha.


4. 2002 — the bill is introduced in parliament but fails to sail through.


5. 2003 — Bill introduced twice in parliament.


6. 2004 — The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government includes it in the Common Minimum Programme.


7. 2008 — the government tables the bill in the Rajya Sabha so that the legislation does not lapse.


8. 2010 — the cabinet clears the bill for taking it up in the Rajya Sabha. And on 8th March mother India was again made to cry by some political parties, just like Draupadi of Mahabharat. The house was adjourned for the sixth times and congress failed to punish the law breakers and kept silence like the they also wanted the bill be treated like Draupadi and enjoyed the drama when mother india was insulted.


Update 9th March 2010


The women’s reservation Bill was finally passed in the Rajya Sabha with 186 members voting for it and only one voting against it.


Trinamool Congress Members remained absent when the Bill was put to vote.


The Bahujan Samaj Party Members boycotted the voting


Now the bill will be introduced in the Lok Sabha

New Wholesale price Index,2010

The new series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for August ,2010 with additional 241 items and change in the base year from 1993-94 to 2004-05.Its few features are :

• WPI will measure a total of 676 items against the existing 435.

• Readymade food, computer stationery, refrigerators, dish antenna, VCD, crude petroleum and computers would also be part of the new series.

• Under the primary article group of the new WPI, there would be 102 items against the existing 98 while the fuel and power category would remain static at 19.

• There is a substantial increase in the number of items in manufactured products. In the new series, there would be 555 items compared to 318 items at the moment, according to the official.

• At the same time, the weight of manufactured products would go up to 64.9 per cent compared to 63.7 per cent while the weight of primary articles group, including food, has come down to 20.1 per cent against existing 22.02 per cent. The data release would accompany inflation numbers with old base year (1993-94) as well for comparison

• The new series of WPI is based on the recommendations of the Working Group headed by Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen.

Wholesale Price index

First we should know that what is price index?

A price index is a normalized average of prices for a given class of goods or services in a given region, during a given interval of time


The Wholesale Price Index is the price of a representative basket of wholesale goods. Some countries use the changes in this index to measure inflation in their economies, in particular India - The Indian WPI figure is released every 10 days and influences stock and fixed price markets. The Wholesale Price Index focuses on the price of goods traded between corporations, rather than goods bought by consumers, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index. The purpose of the WPI is to monitor price movements that reflect supply and demand in industry, manufacturing and construction. This helps in analyzing both macroeconomic and microeconomic conditions.



Calculation of Wholesale Price Index

The wholesale price index consists of over 2,400 commodities. The indicator tracks the price movement of each commodity individually. Based on this individual movement, the WPI is determined through the averaging principle. The following methods are used to compute the WPI:



Laspeyres Formula (relative method):It is the weighted arithmetic mean based on the fixed value-based weights for the base period. The formula is as follows:

Ten-Day Price Index: Under this method, 'sample prices' with high intra-month fluctuations are selected and surveyed every ten days through phone. Utilizing the data retrieved by this procedure and with the assumption that other non-surveyed "sample prices" remain unchanged, a "ten-day price index" is compiled and released.

Calculation Method: Monthly price indexes are compiled by calculating the simple arithmetic mean of three ten-day 'sample prices' in the month.


The WPI comprises of the following indices:

1-Domestic Wholesale Price Index (DWPI)

2-Export Price Index (EPI)

3-Import Price Index (IPI)

4-Overall Wholesale Price Index (OWPI)

The WPI covers five commodity groups - agriculture; manufacturing; quarrying; import and export; and mining.





Features of Wholesale Price Index:

-It captures the price movement extensively and is, therefore, taken as an indicator of inflation.

-The index is published weekly, with the shortest possible time gap of only two weeks.

-WPI is used to analyze market activity and monetary conditions in an economy.

-It focuses on the changing nature of the economy of different kinds of services, such as the railways, road transportation, telecommunications and banking.

-These features highlight the utility of this index in monitoring ongoing changes in an economy in order to suggest the need for any adjustment.

Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act 2007

-came into force in 7 may 2007,This Act amends the Land Acquisition Act to abolish the use of a statutory date in determining the basic compensation for land that is compulsorily acquired on or after 12 February 2007 and to provide that the basic compensation will instead be the market value of the land as at the date of its acquisition.


However, the market value of the acquired land cannot exceed the price which a bona fide purchaser might reasonably be willing to pay for the land. The market value of the land is to be arrived having regard (but not only) to the zoning and density requirements and any other restrictions imposed by or under the Planning Act at the date of acquisition, and any restrictive covenants in the title of the acquired land. However, no account is to be taken of any potential value of the land for any other use more intensive than what is permissible by or under the Planning Act as at the date of its acquisition.


The Land Acquisition Act is also amended so that when accessing the market value of acquired land, it will no longer be prohibited to take into account any increase in value arising from any improvement to the land within two years before the date the land is declared to be required for a public purpose, or from development in the neighbourhood by the provision of roads, drains, electricity, water, gas or sewerage or social, education or recreational facilities within seven years preceding that date.


The special compensation provisions for acquired land which is used as a burial ground and acquired land that is devastated or affected, directly or indirectly, by fire, explosion, thunderbolt, earthquake, storm, tempest, flood or any act of God, have also been abolished. Such land, if acquired, will be assessed no differently from other acquired land.


The compensation for land acquired before 12 February 2007 continues to be governed by the existing law.


The Act also makes improvements and establishes new procedures for the compulsory acquisition of land to simplify the acquisition process.




The Spam Control Bill 2007 (the 'Bill') has been passed in Parliament on 12 April 2007. The Bill was introduced in Parliament on 12 February 2007 following two public consultations in 2004 and 2005 which were jointly conducted by the Info-communications Development Authority of Singapore and the Attorney-General's Chambers. The Bill regulates the sending of electronic messages per se as well as the sending of 'spam', defined in the Bill as the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages in bulk.


The Competition (Amendment) Bill 2007 (the 'Bill') was introduced in Parliament today (9 April 2007). The Bill will amend the Competition Act (the 'Act') for, amongst others, the following purposes:


1 To extend Part III of the Act to an anticipated merger which, if carried into effect, will result in the occurrence of a merger, as defined in the Act. The amendments will permit voluntary statutory notifications of certain anticipated mergers to be made to the Competition Commission of Singapore (the 'CCS') for decision.


2 To remove notifications for guidance in respect of the section 54 prohibition and to remove the provision that allows the CCS to re-open a non-infringement decision on a merger due to a material change in circumstances.






3 To clarify when a merger occurs, the test for control for the purposes of determining when a merger has occurred, and who is a party involved in a merger for the purposes of notification, decision and appeal.






4 To replace the criterion for a joint venture to be considered as a merger.






5 To clarify, in respect of the three prohibitions in the Act, that when the CCS gives guidance or makes a decision that one prohibition is unlikely to have been, or has not been, infringed, this will not preclude an investigation by the CCS into a possible infringement of the other two prohibitions.






6 To exclude from the section 34 prohibition and the section 47 prohibition, mergers and ancillary ?restrictions (additional arrangements not integral to the merger, but which are directly related and necessary to its implementation).






7 To exclude from the section 54 prohibition, mergers where the resultant economic efficiencies outweigh any adverse effect from the substantial lessening of competition arising from the mergers, and to clarify the ambit of the exclusion in respect of mergers approved under any written law.

Census 2011

   1. It's not only population that Census 2011 will gauge. Being described by government officials as possibly the biggest demographic exercise in the history of mankind — involving 25 lakh census officers and 11,631 metric tonnes of paper — the latest census will also measure the usage of mobile phones & computers, reach of internet & banking services as well as availability of potable water in Indian households.
   2. However, the census will avoid going into parameters such as caste and subcaste.
   3. Census 2011, which gets underway on April 1, will start with President Pratibha Patil becoming the first citizen to be enumerated at 10 am, followed by Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who will get listed at 11 am.
   4. The census will have two phases. The first phase involving house-listing and housing Census will be conducted between April and July, with each state/UT getting 45 days to complete it. The second phase, involving population enumeration, will be conducted simultaneously all over the country from February 9 to 28 next year.
   5. India has held Censuses uninterruptedly since 1872, every 10 years, through the freedom struggle, Partition, World Wars and natural calamities.

Importants Facts .

#Macraes Mine, in East Otago is New Zealand's largest gold mine,  owned by 

OceanaGold Corporation, which consists of a large scale opencast mine.
The gold bearing rocks were formed by the orogenic processes that 

created the Otago Schist belt.


#The Venetia Diamond Mine is South Africa's largest producer of diamonds. It 

is situated close to the South African town of Alldays in the Limpopo  

province and is located within the 360 km² Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve.


#The Treadwell gold mine was the largest mine of the Alaskan Panhandle and, in its time, the largest gold mine in the world



#The Grasberg Mine is the largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine 

in the world. It is located in the province of Papua in Indonesia  near Puncak Jaya, the highest mountain in Papua, and it has 19,500 employees.


#Rabbit Lake is the second largest uranium milling facility in the western world, and is the longest operating uranium production facility in Saskatchewan.


#The Catoca diamond mine is the fourth largest diamond mine in the world, and is located in Angola.


#world's largest diamond mine is located in Orapa, a town in the Boteti Sub-District of Botswana  about 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of the city of Francistown. Orapa ("resting place for lions") is owned by Debswana, a partnership between the De Beers  company and the government of Botswana. It is the oldest of four mines operated by the company, having begun operations in July 1971.Orapa is of open pit construction and is the largest diamond mine in the world by area.



#The Hull-Rust-Mahoning Mine in Hibbing, Minnesota, is the largest open pit iron mine in the world. The mine, located in the Mesabi Range, supplied as much as one-fourth of all the iron ore  mined in the United States during its peak production years of World War I and World War II



#The Cigar Lake Mine is the largest undeveloped high grade uranium  deposit in the world, located in the uranium rich Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan, Canada.



#Mina Proaño an underground silver mine located in central Mexico, is one of the world's largest and most profitable silver mines. The mine is located just outside the city of Fresnillo, Zacatecas; as a result the mine is also known as Mina Fresnillo



#The McArthur River mine is one of the world's largest zinc, lead and silver mines, situated about 70 kilometres southwest of Borroloola, near the Gulf of Carpentaria in the northeastern Northern Territory, Australia.



#The largest coal mine in the US is the Black Thunder Coal Mine near Gillette, Wyoming. It produces more coal annually than many states.



#Serra Pelada (English: "Bald Mountain") was a large gold mine in Brazil 430 kilometres (270 mi) south of the mouth of the Amazon River.



#Corta Atalaya is the largest open-pit mine in Europe and was at one time the largest in the world.[citation needed] It is located within the city limits of Minas de Riotinto in the province of Huelva, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain.



#Panasqueira is a one of the largest tungsten  mines in the world. It is located in Castelo Branco, Portugal.



#Four Mile is a proposed uranium mine in Australia.The proposed mine is sited in the far north of the state of South Australia, around 600 kilometres (370 mi) north of the state capital, Adelaide



#Four Mile will be Australia's first new uranium mine in nearly ten years and it is claimed it will be the tenth-largest uranium mine in the world.



#Tara Mine is a zinc and lead mine near Navan, County Meath, Ireland. In the Navan ore body Tara is an underground mine where the orebody lies between 50 and 900 metres below surface.t is the largest zinc mine in Europe and the fifth largest in the world.



#Chiria is a census town in Pashchimi Singhbhum district in the state of Jharkhand, India. India's largest iron ore mine with reserves of 2,000 million tonnes of iron ore is located here. It is operated by Steel Authority of India Limited.



#The silver mines of Kongsberg, in Buskerud  county in Norway, constitute the largest mining field in Norway, with over 80 different mines.



#The Climax mine, near Climax, Colorado, United States, was a major molybdenum mine.It was the largest molybdenum mine in the world.The mine is currently inactive.



#As of October 2009, the largest photovoltaic (PV) power plants in the world are the Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park (Spain, 60 MW), the Strasskirchen Solar Park (Germany, 54 MW), the Lieberose Photovoltaic Park (Germany, 53 MW), the Puertollano Photovoltaic Park (Spain, 50 MW), the Moura photovoltaic power station (Portugal, 46 MW), and the Waldpolenz Solar Park (Germany, 40 MW)



#Xikuangshan mine contains the world's largest deposit of antimony.It is unique in that there is a large deposit of stibnite  (Sb2S3) in a layer of Devonian  limestone.



#Boron is home to California's largest open-pit mine, which is also the largest borax  mine in the world.


#Tanzanite is a rare gem. It is found mostly in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. The mineral is named after Tanzania, the country where it was first discovered.One of the most famous large tanzanites (242 carats) is the "Queen of Kilimanjaro"



#Asbestos is a town in southeastern Quebec, Canada on the Nicolet River.It is the site of the Jeffrey Mine, the world's largest asbestos mine, which has long been the town's largest employer.



#The Athabasca Basin is a region of Northern Saskatchewan  and Alberta  Canada that is 

best known as the world's leading source of high grade uranium. It currently supplies about 20% of the world's uranium


#Key Lake (canada)is the site of the largest uranium mill in the world. It was initially developed as the site of open pit uranium mining at two sites: the Gaertner deposit and the Deilmann deposit. Production of original ore ceased in the late 1990s, and the Key Lake mill is currently processing uranium ore from the McArthur River mine .


#The McArthur River Uranium Mine, in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, is the
world's largest high-grade uranium deposit.


#Mir Mine also called Mirny Mine was an open pit diamond mine located in Mirny, Eastern Siberia, Russia.It is the second largest excavated hole in the world, after Bingham Canyon Mine. The airspace above the mine is closed for helicopters because of a few incidents in which they were sucked in by the downward air flow.


#The Red Dog mine is a zinc and lead mine located in a remote region of the Arctic, within the boundaries of the Red Dog Mine census-designated place in the Northwest Arctic Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska.The mine is the world's largest producer of zinc and has the world's largest zinc reserves


#Chingola is a city in Zambia's Copperbelt Province,It is the home of Nchanga Open Pit Mine, the second largest open cast mine in the world.


#Obuasi is a city in southern Ghana, lying south of Kumasi. It has a population of 115,564 (2000 census) On the railway line from Kumasi to Sekondi, it is known for its gold mine, now one of the ten largest in the world,


#Yanacocha is a gold mine in northern Peru, considered to be the second largest gold mine in the world, producing


#Bougainville Copper Ltd is an Australian copper, gold, and silver mining company that operates the Panguna open cut mine on the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It was one of the world's largest open-pit mines. The Panguna mine dominated the economy of the island during the 1970s and 1980s


#Cerrejón is a coal mine located in the Guajira department in the north of Colombia. It is the largest mining operation in Colombia and among the largest open-pit coal mines in the world.

Highest point of the few nations..

Bangladesh        —  Keokradong 1,230 M
 Burma              -- Hkakabo Razi 5881 m (19294.62 feet)
Pakistan            —  K2 (MT. Godwin-Austen) 8,611 M
Bhutan               —  Kula Kangri 7,553 M
Sri Lanka          — Pidurutalagala 2,524 M
Malaysia           —  Gunung Kinabalu 4,100 M
Singapore          —  Bukit Timah 166 M
Thailand             — Doi Inthanon 2,576 M
Cambodia          — Phnum Aoral 1,810 M
Vietnam             —  Fan Si Pan 3,144 M
Laos                  —  Phou Bia 2,817 M
Philippines         — Mount Apo 2,954 M
Indonesia           —  Puncak Jaya 5,030 M
Kazakhstan       —  Khan Tangiri Shyngy (Pik Khan-Tengri) 6,995 M
Uzbekistan         — Adelunga Toghi 4,301 M
Kyrgyzstan        —  Jengish Chokusu (Pik Pobedy) 7,439 M
Afghanistan       — Nowshak 7,485 M
Mongolia           — Nayramadlin Orgil (Huyten Orgil) 4,374 M
Ukraine            —  Hora Hoverla 2,061 M
Chile                 — : Nevado Ojos del Salado 6,880 M
Haiti                 — Chaine de la Selle 2,680 M
Saudi Arabia     —  Jabal Sawda' 3,133 M
Israel               — Har Meron 1,208 M
Egypt                —  Catherine 2,629 M

Bentley Motors Limited

It is a British manufacturer of automobiles  founded on 18 January 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley .




Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I,

the most famous being the Bentley BR1 as used in later versions of the Sopwith Camel. Since 1998,

the company has been owned by the Volkswagen Group of Germany.

 

 

 

 

 Headquarters: Crewe, England, UK

Bavarian Motor Works(BMW)

It is a German automobile, motorcycle  and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. 

It also owns and produces the MINI brand, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. 

BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands. BMW is known for its performance and luxury vehicles.

Its H.Q. is in Munic(germany).

Kathryn Bigelow

Become the first women in the history to achieve an Oscar for best director for the movie THE HURT LOCKER(2008) which also won the best movie award.

>Her best-known films are the horror film Near Dark (1987), Point Break (1991).. She was the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures

Saclay

saclay(france) became one of the early foreign atomic energy establishments where the first generation of indian scientists learnt  their lessons in practically.The others were HARWELL(UK),CHALK RIVER(CANADA),ARGONNE(Oak Ridge ,U.S.)

Companies and their founders..

Yahoo        -Jerry Yang and David Filo(january 1994 & inc. in march 1995)
Mozilla       -Jamie Zawinski
Twitter       -Jack Dorsey & Evan Williams
Google       -Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Facebook  -Mark Elliot Zuckerberg
Linkdin      -Reid Hoffman( present CEO-Jeff Weiner)
Paypal       -Max Levchin,Thiel
Wikipedia  -Jimmy Donal Wales
MySpace   -Tom Anderson
Rediff.      - Ajit Balakrishnan
Youtube    -Chad Hurley,Steve Chen,Jawed Karim
Hotmail    -Shabeer bhatia
Apple        -Steven Paul  Jobs
Microsoft   -Bill gates

scirocco cup

>world first echo friendly race.
>Aditya patel will become first Indian to participate in this tournament it is going to held in Germany,in April 2010.

Some facts about Communication & Information technology of India.

The ministry of communication & information technology has three departments
.
1.Department of posts
2.Department of Information technology
3.Department of Telecommunication

1. India Post

India post is world largest postal network in the world.One post office serving 7174 people and covering an area of approximately 21.2 sq. kms.FROm 23,344 post offices at the time of independence to 1,55,035 post offices as on 31.3,2008.

a). Project Arrow

Department of posts has launched a pilot project "project arrow" to lay the information for a comprehensive,long term transformation of India post.

b)IT induction

>>Imo :An online web based domestic money transmission services called Imo was launched in january 2006 which enables the customer to recieve money from any of the post office providing this service.

>>eMoney Order(eMO) :The electronic  money order,which has been launched in October 2008,facilitates transmission of ordinary money orders through electronic media without any extra charge.

>>ePayment :It is 'many to one' service through which bills  are paid by customers in post offices.

2.Information Technology

Department of Information technology(DIT} for reaching and serving the masses. the National e-governance plan (NeGP) ,approved by the Government on may 18,2006.The NeGP comprise of 27 mission mode project.NeGP is implemented at the central,state and local levels.

Under NeGP, the Government has approved the Scheme for establishing State Wide Area Networks(SWAN) across the country in 29 states/6 UTs at a total outlay of Rs.3,334 crores

>e-District,under the NeGP,aims at to target computerization of district.In january 2009 ,the pilot project went live in 6 district of Utter pradesh
>e-Samadhan,it is an online public grievance redressal system has been developed and implemented by national informatics center for the state of Himachal Pradesh
>"Prajavani" a web based petition monitoring system enabling citizens to submit their petitions through kiosk and redressal from the District collectorate has been successfully implemented and extented to 14 district of Andhra Pradesh.

ONLINE SERVICES UNDER e-GOVERNANCE PLAN

Income Tax

passport/Visa 

company affairs

central excise 

pensions 

land records

road transport

property registration

e-courts 

agriculture

National Internet Exchange of India(NIXI)

>establish as a not-profit Organization under section 25 of the companies Act 1956 and was registered in July ,2003The NIXI is the neutral meeting point of the Internet service providers(ISPs) in the country.It manage the .IN registry for the country code top level domain name in the country.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI)

>established under the Telecom Regulatory  authority of India Act ,1997 to regulate the telecommunication services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.(BSNL)

>established on October ,2000,it is world' 7th largest telecommunications company providing comprehensive range of telecom services in India.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.(MTNL)

>establish in Feb 28,1986 under the companies Act as a wholly owned Govt. company.In April 1986,MTNL assumed responsibility for the control,management,operation of the Telecommunication servics in two metro cities of Delhi & Mumbai.

Indian prime minister visit to Saudi Arabia.

Indian prime minister has said that Saudi Arabia is a "reliable partner" in meeting Indian's energy needs

.
>Both the countries are lookin for establish new partnership in the area of new and renewable energy through sharing of clean technologies and joint collaborations.

>India wants saudi arab investment in construction,manufacturing,pharmaceuticals,health,agriculture,energy,telecom,tourism and other service sectors.
>Both the countries paving way for Educational and skill development cooperation.
>S.Arabia wants cooperation in Sc. & Tech. and space technology from India.

How will India reduce its fiscal deficit in near future.?

The Budget 2010-11  estimates the fiscal deficit number to go down to 5.5 per cent by the end of the next financial year.This is sought to be achieved by:

>reduction in total expenditure by 0.6 percent of GDP,
>Increase in gross tax revenue by 0.4 percent of GDP
>Increase in non-debt capital receipt by 0.6 percent of GDP

Natinal knowledge Network

THE Union Cabinet on Friday will have on its agenda the launching of the Rs 5,000-crore ‘National Mission in Education in ICT’ project, which envisages the creation of a National Knowledge Network across institutes through a 15 Gigabit broadband connectivity.

A key recommendation of the Sam Pitroda-led National Knowledge Commission (NKC), this project first mooted in 2007 envisages networking across some 15,000 colleges and universities, putting learning material online and sharing the expertise of centres of excellence with institutes spread across the country. With the Cabinet nod for the project, this will be one of the few NKC proposals which has found favour with the Arjun Singh led-HRD Ministry.

The Ministry will be tying up with the Department of Telecom for creation of a countrywide broadband access network by utilising its existing optical fibre network. The Mission is expected to cover some 18,000 colleges eventually and make available facilities like e-books and e-journals in digital libraries.

Natinal knowledge commission

The National Knowledge Commission is a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India, with the objective of transforming India into a knowledge society. In its endeavour to transform the knowledge landscape of the country, the National Knowledge Commission has submitted around 300 recommendations on 27 focus areas during its three and a half year term. While the term of the NKC has come to an end, the implementation of NKC's recommendations is currently underway at the Central and State levels.

some rare facts about planets..!!

Ganymede

Largest moon in the universe.It belongs to Jupiter and it is larger than mercury.Second largest one is Titan(saturn) .It is the only moon in the Solar System to possess a significant atmosphere.

Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism
The Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism is an astronomical process that occurs when the surface of a star or a planet cools. The cooling causes the pressure to drop and the star or planet shrinks as a result. This compression, in turn, heats up the core of the star/planet. This mechanism is evident on Jupiter and Saturn and on brown dwarfs whose central temperatures are not high enough to undergo nuclear fusion. It is estimated that Jupiter radiates more energy through this mechanism than it receives from the Sun, but Saturn may not

.

Puffy"cork" planet could float on water

Astronomers call it HAT-P-1b, but maybe we should call it Puff Daddy. A new study has spotted the puffiest planet anywhere, orbiting a star in another solar system.

Mercury

Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System,orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about the axis for every two orbits .Mercury can only be viewed in morning or evening twilight.The first of two spacecraft to visit the planet was Mariner 10, which mapped only about 45% of the planet’s surface from 1974 to 1975. The second is the MESSENGER spacecraft, which mapped another 30% during its flyby of January 14, 2008. A final flyby took place in September 2009. MESSENGER is scheduled to attain orbital insertion around Mercury in 2011, and will then survey and map the entire planet.
Venus

Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun.Earth's "sister planet" because they are similar in size, gravity, and bulk composition. Venus is covered with an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light. Venus has the densest atmosphere of all the terrestrial planets, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide, as it has no carbon cycle to lock carbon back into rocks and surface features, nor organic life to absorb it in biomass.It is the solar system's brightest planet -- yellow clouds of sulfuric acid reflect the sun's light brightly.Ishtar Terra,the highest mountain on Venus, lies on Ishtar Terra.A long-standing mystery of Venus observations is the so-called Ashen light—an apparent weak illumination of the dark side of the planet, seen when the planet is in the crescent phase

Earth

Earth (or the Earth) is the third planet from the Sun, and the fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest, most massive, and densest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to as the World, the Blue Planet,or Terra.
Home to millions of species, including humans, Earth is the only place in the Universe where life is known to exist. The planet formed 4.54 billion years ago

Mars

Mars has approximately half the radius of Earth. It is less dense than Earth, having about 15% of Earth's volume and 11% of the mass. Its surface area is only slightly less than the total area of Earth's dry land The red-orange appearance of the Martian surface is caused by iron(III) oxide, more commonly known as hematite, or rust.The shield volcano, Olympus Mons (Mount Olympus), at 27 km is the highest known mountain in the Solar System .It is an extinct volcano in the vast upland region Tharsis."Olympus Mons", the largest volcano found in the solar system.,

Ceres

Between Mars and Jupiter, is a Dwarf Planet known as Ceres.  It was discovered in 1801.  It is the smallest dwarf planet discovered in our universe (so far) and is the only one found in the asteroid belt.

Jupiter

Jupiter is so big that you could fit all the other planets in the solar system inside it.  The red spot of Jupiter is the biggest, most violent storm in the known universe -- that spot is at least three times the size of earth! Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Together, these four planets are sometimes referred to as the Jovian planets.

 Saturn

Saturn is the second biggest planet, but it’s also the lightest planet.  If there was a bathtub big enough to hold Saturn, it would float in the water!The ring that surrounds Saturn could be the remnants of a moon that was shattered by Saturn's gravity.
Uranus

Uranus’ axis is at a 97 degree angle, meaning that it orbits lying on its side!  Talk about a lazy planet
Neptune

Neptune was discovered in 1846 (over 150 years ago).  Since that time it has still yet to make a complete orbit around the sun, because one Neptune year lasts 165 Earth years!

Like Jupiter, Neptune has a dark spot caused by a storm.  Neptune's spot is smaller than Jupiter's -- it is only about the size of the planet earth.

Pluto

Pluto’s orbit sometimes brings it closer to the Sun than Neptune.  It jumped ahead of Neptune on September 5, 1989 and remained there until February, 1999 when it went back to being the farthest.

Note:  Pluto is no longer considered a planet -- instead, astronomers call it a dwarf planet or planetoid.  Whatever the name, our solar system isn't the neat model we once thought it was.  It takes a bit for grown-ups (like me!) to adapt to the changes in our understanding (I now understand a bit better how folks felt when someone started telling them the earth was round not flat!)

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In January 2005, astronomers in the United States discovered a new body orbiting the sun in our solar system.  They named this planetoid, Eris after the Greek goddess of strife. 

Eris takes approximately 550 earth years to orbit the sun.  The majority of the time, it is further from the sun than Pluto, but for a short time, it is closer.

Eris is actually larger than Pluto (it is the ninth largest object orbitting our sun discovered so far!)

Makemake and Haumea are dwarf planets just like Pluto, but a little further out in our solar system.  Because their orbits are not perfect circles, they trade places in terms of which is closer and which is further from the sun.  

Both were discovered in late 2004/early 2005.

Haumea has a squished egg shape -- thought to be the result of a collision from an asteroid or meteor at some time.

 

 

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In 2004, astronomers in universities in the United States discovered a new body orbiting the sun in our solar system.  They named this planetoid, Sedna after the Inuit goddess of the Ocean.  This is the furthest orbiting body identified in our solar system to date.

Sedna is about three times further from our sun than Pluto.  It takes between 10,500 and 12,000 earth years for Sedna to make one orbit around the sun (we haven't quite figured out exactly how long it takes).

Important committees in India

BHASKAR GHOSH COMMITTEE

• to review and restructure the cultural schemes.
• committee was setup by  Union Culture Ministry.

RAGHVAN COMMITTEE

• monitering the measures to prevent ragging in higher educational institutions.
• appointed by the Supreme Court.

M.M.PUNCHI COMMISSION

• appointed to review centre -state relations,setup in 2008.
• M.M.Punchi is former CJI.

YASH PAL COMMITEE

• committee on Higher education.
• submitted its report on " Renovation and rejuvenation of higher education in India".

JUSTICE LIBERHAN COMMISSSION

• for probing events thet led to Babari Masjid demolition in Ayodhaya on December 6 1992 .
  
• set up on 16 December 1992,submitted its report on june 30,2009 to P.M. Dr.Manmohan Singh.

SAMBASIVA RAO COMMITTEE

• to examine possibility of introducing compulsory rural service for medicos.
• recommended one year mandatory rural service for medicos.

DAVE COMMITTEE 

• to recommend on mutual fund industry
• submitted its report to SEBI(securities and exchange board of India)

ASHOK JHA COMMITTEE

• set up by Ministry of Housing  and Urban poverty alleviation
• to suggest measures and wages to uplift HUDCO's financial position
  

Right to Information Act 2005

The Indian Parliament had enacted the “Freedom of Information Act, 2002” in order to promote, transparency and accountability in administration. The National Common Minimum Program of the Government envisaged that “Freedom of Information Act” will be made more “progressive, participatory and meaningful”, following which, decision was made
to repeal the “Freedom of Information Act, 2002” and enact a new legislation in its place. Accordingly, “Right to Information Bill, 2004” (RTI) was passed by both the Houses of Parliament on May, 2005 which received the assent of the President on 15th June, 2005. “The Right to Information Act” was notified in the Gazette of India on 21st June,
2005. The “The Right to Information Act” became fully operational from 12th October, 2005.

This new law empowers Indian citizens to seek any accessible information from a Public Authority and makes the Government and its functionaries more accountable and responsible.During the period of the implementation of the RTI Act i.e. October 2005 onwards, it has become evident that there are many anticipated and unanticipated consequences of the Act. These have manifested themselves in various forms, while some of the issues pertain to procedural aspects of the Government; others pertain to capacity building, and soon. The most important aspect to be recognized is that there are issues to be addressed at various ends for effective implementation of the Act.

K.G.Balakrishnan

• he is the thirty seventh and current chief justice of India.
• judge K.G.Balakrishnan was born at Thalayolaparambu, near Vaikom, in Travancore which will be in present day Kottayam district, Kerala, into a poor famil.
• First schedule caste Chief justice of India.