The President of India has appointed Dr. Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister of India.The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has appointed the following as members of the Council of Ministers :-

CABINET MINISTERS

 

 

 

Shri Pranab Mukherjee

 

 

Shri Arjun Singh

 

 

Shri Sharad Pawar

 

 

Shri Lalu Prasad

 

 

Shri Shivraj Patil

 

 

Shri Ram Vilas Paswan

 

 

Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad

 

 

Shri Jaipal Reddy

 

 

Shri Sish Ram Ola

 

 

Shri P. Chidambaram

 

 

Shri Mahavir Prasad

 

 

Shri P.R. Kyndiah

 

 

Shri T.R. Baalu

 

 

Shri S. Vaghela

 

 

Shri Natwar Singh

 

 

Shri Kamal Nath

 

 

Shri H.R. Bhardwaj

 

 

Shri P.M. Sayeed

 

 

Shri Raghubansh Prasad Singh

 

 

Shri P.R. Dasmunsi

 

 

Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar

 

 

Shri Sunil Dutt

 

 

Smt. Meira Kumar

 

 

Shri K. Chandra Shekhar Rao

 

 

Shri Shibu Soren

 

 

Shri A. Raja

 

 

Shri Dayanidhi Maran

 

 

Dr. Anbumani Ramdoss

 

MINISTERS OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE)

 

 

Shri Santosh Mohan Dev

 

 

Shri Jagdish Tytler

 

 

Shri Oscar Fernandes

 

 

Smt. Renuka Choudhury

 

 

Shri Subodh Kant Sahai

 

 

Shri Kapil Sibal

 

 

Shri Vilas Muttemwar

 

 

Kumari Selja

 

 

Shri Praful Patel

 

 

Shri Prem Chand Gupta

 

 

MINISTERS OF STATE

 

 

Shri E. Ahamed

 

 

Shri Suresh Pachauri

 

 

Shri B.K. Handique

 

 

Smt. Panabaka Lakshmi

 

 

Dr. Dasari Narayan Rao

 

 

Shri Shaqeel Ahmed

 

 

Shri Rao Inderjit Singh

 

 

Shri Naranbhai Rathwa

 

 

Shri Rehman Khan

 

 

Shri K.H. Muniappa

 

 

Shri M.V. Rajashekharan

 

 

Shri Kantilal Bhuria

 

 

Shri Manik Rao Gavit

 

 

Shri Sri Prakash Jaiswal

 

 

Shri Prithviraj Chavan

 

 

Shri Taslimuddin

 

 

Smt. Suryakanta Patil

 

 

Shri Md. Ali Ashraf Fatmi

 

 

Shri A. Narendra

 

 

Shri R. Velu

 

 

Shri S.S. Palanimanikkam

 

 

Shri S. Regupathy

 

 

Shri K. Venkatapathy

 

 

Smt. Subbulakshmi Jegadeesan

 

 

Shri E.V.K. Elangovan

 

 

Smt. Kanti Singh

 

 

Shri Namo Narayan Meena

 

 

Shri Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav

 

 

Shri Akhilesh Singh

The President administered the oaths of office and secrecy to the above members of the Council of Ministers at a ceremony held in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, today.

Health Conscious

THE IMPORTANCE OF NUTRITION

National development is a consequence of both economic growth and human resource development. Both these factors must operate together to achieve the high levels of growth, rid the people from poverty and improve their quality of life. A nation needs full productivity from all to achieve progress. A well-nourished, physically and mentally active populace can largely speed up the nation’s economic growth. In India large sections of the country’s population in both rural and urban settings do not have the requisite amounts of calories or nutrients in their diets. This causes various forms of malnutrition which in turn impairs their intelligence, strength and energy. Malnutrition is also responsible for the rising infant mortality rate. Besides productivity loss, this affects the nation’s economy by burdening its public health system. Malnourished children and women are more likely to fall ill compared to the well nourished ones. Education cannot be beneficial unless the children in school have intelligence and motivation to learn.

Maternal nutrition, low birth weight and infant malnutrition can cause loss of concentration in them. This could lead to their poor performance in school and eventually dropping out. One-quarter of children in our country are born with low birth weight, half the children suffer from protein energy malnutrition, one-third of the adults suffer from chronic energy deficiency and three quarters of the population suffer from various nutritional and micronutrient deficiencies. India has a high infant mortality rate of 67 per thousand live births and a high maternal mortality rate. Women and children are the worst sufferers of malnutrition. Their nutritional needs are more than what they get. The achievements in sectors like agricultural production, food sufficiency and industrial capabilities do not seem to have helped their nutritional needs. Low literacy levels, lack of awareness about nutrition and health and poverty are largely responsible for this. Throughout their life cycle nutrition of women is not only important for their own health but determines the health of the future generations as well. A female infant born with a weight of less than 2.5 kg is already malnourished. Hence she starts her life with a disadvantage.

Gender discrimination at home and inferior quality of food provided to the girl children as compared to their male counterparts in the childhood also cause malnuturtion. The effects of years of neglect become visible during their adolescence. A female child generally grows into a malnourished adolescent girl. The diets of school-going children have been found to be deficient in important nutrients like energy, protein, vitamin A and iron. One of the reasons of their poor health is their long hours of schooling without adequate food intake during school hours. The packed lunches carried by them are usually not adequate enough in quantity and quality.

Those who can afford to eat junk foods like pizzas, burgers and noodles with cold drink also do not eat a proper, nourishing meal. The adolescent population faces a series of serious nutritional challenges not only affecting their growth and development but also their livelihood as adults. Yet adolescents remain a largely neglected, difficult to measure and hard-to-reach population. The needs of adolescent girls in particular are often ignored. Adolescence is the second and the last growth spurt in the life of human beings. It provides a chance to improve the nutritional status in case there had been a deficiency during childhood. While both boys and girls during adolescence have increased nutritional requirements, the girls’ nutrition generally suffers because of ignorance, lack of awareness and widespread gender discrimination. Only a proper education can correct the imbalance. (KM News Features)

Huge Gas Reserves Found in Syria, Shell Egypt Announces New Oil Discovery

KM News

DAMASCUS -Gas field with estimated reserves of 15 billion cubic metres (530 million cubic feet) has been discovered in central Syria, the director of the Croatian company INA Nafta announced here on Thursday. "We have handed the Syrian oil ministry a report on the discovery of a gas field near Palmyra," Tomislan Dragicevic said at a joint press conference with Syria's Oil Minister Ibrahim Haddad. He said the field, named Jihar, was the third discovered by his company in Syria since 2002 but declined for technical reasons to give an estimate of its daily output capacity. Syria's gas reserves are estimated at 240 billion cubic metres (8,475 billion cubic feet).

Shell Egypt announces western desert oil discovery 20/05/2004 Shell Egypt NV (Shell) announced today that its Sheiba 18-3 discovery well in the Northeast Abu Gharadig (NEAG) Concession successfully tested up to 1,600 barrels of 36 degree API oil per day and 0.9 million cubic feet of gas per day. The well flowed from perforations between 2,114 and 2,134 metres in the Bahariya Sandstone. Sheiba 18-3 is the first commercial oil discovery in the Eastern part of the NEAG concession in the Western Desert. The well significantly extends Shell’s recent highly successful Abu Gharadig Basin exploration effort. Shell (operator, 52%) and Apache (48%) have identified potential offset locations and follow-up prospects. A proposed plan for further exploration of this area has been reviewed, and supported by, the Egyptian General Petroleum Company (EGPC).

The Sheiba 18-3 discovery could be put into production quickly through nearby field facilities operated by Shell. Early production plans are currently being investigated. Iman Hill, Country Chair of Shell Companies in Egypt, said: “Shell Egypt is very pleased with the results from our recent test at the Sheiba 18-3 well. We have received strong support from EGPC for our exploration and development program in the area around the Sheiba discovery and look forward to continued cooperation and successful activity in the area with our business partners - EGPC and Apache.

“The significance of this, and other recent Shell discoveries in NEAG, is that the wells were drilled in an area that has been extensively explored by many operators. With the implementation of new technology, Shell Egypt has been able to unravel the subsurface complexities of the basin and deliver results.” Shell has operations in the Western Desert and Nile Delta offshore, including the ultra deepwater Northeast Mediterranean Deepwater Concession (NEMED). The company is the third largest producer of liquid hydrocarbons in the Western Desert with operated production of approximately 30,000 barrels per day, and the largest producer of natural gas with operated production of approximately 600 million cubic feet per day.

THE ROLE OF INDIAN MONSOONS

Inputs* 16:12 IST Monsoon in India is usually expected in June. It is awaited by everyone. The advent of monsoon is heralded by dark clouds, violent squalls and thunderstorms. Initially, the monsoon comes laden with water vapour and brings relief from the extreme heat with light rains. The climate changes during the pre-monsoon period. In large areas of Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand thunderstorms cool the atmosphere. The summer monsoon winds are believed to originate somewhere in the southern hemisphere. They race across the Arabian Sea to hit the west coast in Kerala and Maharashtra. The Earth’s rotation pulls up the monsoon after it passes the Equator. The southwest monsoon progresses from the Arabian Sea to northern India.

The huge rainfall which almost the entire country gets from the monsoon is attributed to the presence of a semi-permanent east-west pressure zone close to the Equator in the northern Indian Ocean region. This brings about an atmospheric change which generates high velocity winds that beget rains. This explains how during its journey from the Arabian Sea to northeast India, the south-west monsoon retains its strength to give the country its much-awaited copious rains. The monsoon has two branches: the Arabian Sea branch and the Bay of Bengal branch. The Arabian Sea branch normally touches the Kerala coast in the last week of May or the first week of June and advances northwards to reach Mumbai by June 10 or 12. The monsoon from the Bay of Bengal moves northwards from its central area and rapidly covers most of Assam and Bengal by the second week of June. On reaching the southern periphery of the Himalayan barrier, it is deflected westwards and moves towards the Gangetic plains rather than towards Myanmar (Burma) Hills.

The monsoon arrives in Kolkata slightly earlier than in Mumbai. Normally it reaches Kolkata by the second week of June. By mid-June the speeding Arabian Sea monsoon spreads all over the central part of the country. Thereafter, the deflected currents from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea tend to merge into a single current. Uttaranchal, Haryana, Punjab and east Rajasthan experience the first monsoon showers by the end of June or in the first week of July. Mountains’ Role Mountains have a profound influence on the Indian monsoons. After crossing the coast, the Bengal branch of monsoon comes under the influence of the hilly curve of the eastern ranges of the Himalayas. As a result, the southern slopes of Assam hills and Meghalaya experience heavy rainfall. The rest of the monsoon current is deflected eastward by the high barrier of the Himalayas. The southern slopes of the barrier extending from Sikkim to Kashmir have rains almost every day during the monsoon months. In the peninsular India, the hills in the Western Ghats abruptly rise from the coastal plain to an altitude of 1 to 2 km.

They are undulating rocky ranges running parallel to the west coast. The monsoon winds, after hitting these ranges, advance towards the Deccan Plateau, Madhya Pradesh and the Bay of Bengal. Since they have already shed their moisture at the seaward side of the Western Ghats, the quantity of rainfall on the other side of the Ghats is much less. Impact Indian agriculture largely depends on the monsoon. Besides, hydel power and industries, particularly the ago-industries, are heavily dependent upon the monsoon. Failure of monsoon can cause a serious crisis for them. Scientists have no remedy for a failed monsoon. However, early forecasts about its likely pattern help in facing the consequences. For the last fifteen years India has been receiving normal rainfall during the southwest monsoon season. Thanks to the advanced technology acquired in 1988, the India Meteorological Department has made accurate predictions of the monsoon rainfall every year. It has predicted that this year too the monsoon will be normal all over the country. *Inputs from Radha Kant Bharati (KM News Bureau)