8,sept 2003

Failure of Railway staff causes train accident

Preliminary report of a statutory inquiry by the Commissioner of Railway Safety, Northern Circle, Shri G.P. Garg, into the side collision of 1 TR Up Tilak Bridge—Rohtak passenger train with shunting engine in Shakurbasti yard on New Delhi—Rohtak section of Northern Railway in the evening of August 23, 2003, has revealed that the accident occurred due to Failure of Railway Staff.

As a result of the accident, three passengers lost their life, nine received grievous injuries and 13 sustained simple injuries.The preliminary report has been forwarded to the Government for necessary action Railways to use new devices to curtail level crossing accidents

Indian Railways will install 100 Train Actuated Warning Device (TAWD) at selected level crossings spread across the country to give audio-visual warning to road users about an approaching train. Field trials of the new device to prove its reliability and fail-safe features and suitability have been carried out recently. Further installation of the device at more crossings will be considered after observing its performance and effectiveness.

During the last five years, 490 unmanned level crossings have been manned and funds for manning 2,145 numbers of level crossings already sanctioned. The policy of manning unmanned level crossings of railways is under review. Indian Railways
require approximately Rs. 2,450 crores to man its 21,792 unmanned level crossings.

Anti Collision Device (ACD), a satellite-based technology developed by the Konkan Railway Corporation to prevent collision between trains, will give additional safety shield at manned and unmanned level crossings through an audio-visual indication to
road users. Provision of ACD and necessary survey for provision of the device on different sections of Indian Railways is already on. The overall cost of providing ACD on the entire railway network is estimated at Rs. 1,600 crores.

B.P.Mishra will be the new Executive Director IMF

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the posting of Shri B.P. Mishra, IAS (AGMU:69) as the new Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund. Shri Mishra presently working as Additional Secretary in the Department
of Economic Affairs has been posted in place of Dr. Y.V. Reddy, who has taken over as the new Reserve Bank Governor.

National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination(II), 2003

The Union Public Service Commission will hold the National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination (II), 2003 on September 14, 2003 as scheduled. There is no change in the Examination schedule.

Development of compressing machines

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi has developed compressing machines for convenient transport and storage
of fodder. The machine is being supplied on cost basis. The details of the feed block formation machine are as follows:

Capacity of the machine
200-250 kg/hour
Electric power Required
25 hp.
Feed block size
20 x 20 cm x variable thickness
Feed block density
400 kg/ cubic metre
Price
Rs.5.50 lakh
Cost of operation
Rs. 380/ton.
Area Required
200 sq. m (covered)
Number of persons needed

to operate the machine
one

Salem Steel for AIROLI Rail Platform roof

Salem Steel Plant of the Steel Authority of India Ltd. has supplied 50 tonnes of stainless steel for the roof of AIROLI Railway Station Platform. The new station has got a copper tan shade on the exterior, crafted out of SS-304 grade stainless steel in 0.50
mm thickness, supplied by Salem plant. M/S Teknowroks (India) has completed the erection of this stainless steel roofing in a record time.

The Thane to Turbhe expressway is right now the epicenter of a technological revolution. Strength, durability, freedom from periodic maintenance and aesthetics have been the logic for this valuable engineering experience. Close on heals of the
Koparkhairane Railway Station, the City Administration and the Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd. (CIDCO) have implemented their second railway station platform at AIROLI with stainless steel roofing.

President launches Portal of Digital Library

The President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam today launched the Portal of Digital Library of India. The Portal will have about 27,000 books in a digitised form. Speaking on the occasion, the President called upon the people to bridge digital divide. He said
that it will contribute to economic upliftment of the people. Lauding the project, Dr. Kalam said efforts should be made to digitise our traditional knowledge. Stressing the need to take knowledge bank to every nook and corner of the country, the President said
that one lakh books digital library should be available in every college of the country. Highlighting the positive aspects of a digital library, Dr. Kalam said it will be useful to everybody irrespective of economic and social status. They can be in touch with the
research in various fields.

The Minister for Information Technology, Communications and Disinvestment, Shri Arun Shourie said that this project will spur to work on technology leading to economic development. Citing example of the good work done by the Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) in the field of traditional knowledge, he said it will help in patenting and greater use of our traditional knowledge. Mr. Shourie offered his books for digitisation for the free references by the readers.

The Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the Director of Universal Digital Library, Dr. Raj Reddy suggested that advantages of Advancement of Communication Technology should be availed which has increased the capacity of the bandwidth
by 1000 times at 1/10th of the cost. He also wanted that bandwidth connection should be provided free to the potential user. Dr. Reddy also suggested change in patenting and copyright laws to remove barrier for having a good digital library.

The Information Technology Secretary, Shri K.K. Jaswal reminded the audience that this project at the initial stages was encouraged by the President himself when he was the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government.

The Digital Libraries are a form of Information Technology in which users can effectively search within the interspace of a billion repositories. The basic goal of digital library is to digitise and index the heritage knowledge and to provide a test bed that will
support other research areas. It will also help in creating a knowledge based society and have collaborative relationship with other such projects. It is a part of the Universal Digital Library Project which aims at creating a free to read, searchable collection of 1
million books by 2005 and making available to everyone over the internet.

IIT intake up by 10,000 in five years

Basic research should be integral to IIT - Dr. Joshi

The student intake in IITs has gone up by nearly 10,000 in the last five years. From 14,906 in 1997-98, it has increased to 24,828 in 2002-03. The substantial increase has taken place in post-graduate education and research. This was disclosed by the Minister of Human Resource Development, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi while chairing a meeting of the Council of IITs here yesterday.

Dr. Joshi also said that there has been a near five-fold increase in grants to IITs. From Rs.51.75 crore in 1997-98, it went upto Rs.224.75 crore during 2002-03. Non-plan funding also more than doubled from Rs.172.76 crore to Rs.449.02 crore during the
period. Out of non-plan funding about 30 per cent went towards research giving it higher weightage.

Laying emphasis on basic research Dr. Joshi told the Council that fundamental science should become integral to IIT curriculum. Without basic research we cannot be masters of technology. Hence, the IITs should develop a culture for fundamental research
which is core to the development of science and evolvement of technology. For this, the IITs should have more interaction with the Industry. There has to be a better synergy between the two, he said.

Expressing dissatisfaction over both the quality and quantity of research papers produced by IITs, Dr. Joshi called for fixing a norm for both quality and quantity. The research papers published by IITs over the years have remained not only stagnant but
also suffered in quality. The Minister was also not happy about IITs lagging behind in patent filing. He said technical research must result in patents, as a natural corollary. If it is not so, it means the research is not focussed and will not be contributing to
commercialisation of the technology. The IITs research and development of technologies, must be relevant to our requirements, Dr. Joshi added.

The meeting was attended among others by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Dr. R. Chidambaram; DG, CSIR, Dr. R.A.Mashelkar; Chairman, AICTE, Dr. Natarajan; UGC Vice Chairman, Prof. Nigavekar and Secretary,
Ministry of Information Technology, Shri K.K.Jaswal.

The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has appointed the following as members of the Council of Ministers :

Cabinet Ministers

1. Kum. Mamata Banerjee Minister without portfolio

Minister of State

1. Shri Gingee N. Ramachandran Minister of State in the Ministry of Textiles

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 Bhawan, today.

Bandaru Dattatraya takes charge as Urban Development Minister

Shri Bandaru Dattatraya today took over as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation. Earlier he was Minister of State for Railways and also held the charge of MoS for Urban Development & Poverty
Alleviation.

After assuming charge he told media persons that his top priority would be to implement urban reforms and focus on good governance in urban bodies. He also said that he would give thrust to the Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana meant for slum
dwellers and his effort would be for in situ development of slums.

Urban Development Secretary Shri N.N. Khanna, Secretary for Urban Employment & Poverty Alleviation Shri L.M. Mehta and other senior officials of the Ministry welcomed the Minister.

Shri Ram Naik condoles the death of Shri Bharali

Shri Ram Naik, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas has expressed profound grief on the sudden demise of Shri B. Bharali, Advisor (Exploration) in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Sending his condolences to the bereaved family, Shri Naik described Shri Bharali as a person extremely dedicated to his work, a man with sound technical knowledge and with tremendous amount of perseverance. He prayed the Almighty to give peace to the departed soul and to provide strength to the bereaved
family to be able to bear the irreparable loss in the death of Shri Bharali.

A meeting was held in the Ministry to condole the death of Shri Bharali. The officers and the staff joined Shri Ram Naik in paying tribute to Shri Bharali. A two minutes silence was also observed in honour of the departed soul.

Born on 2.1.1952 Shri Bharali was a Gold Medalist in M. Tech. (applied Geology) and worked for about 25 years in Oil India Limited and rose to become General Manager after joining as a Geologist. He took over as Adviser (Exploration), in the Ministry
of Petroleum & Natural Gas in January 2000. Shri Bharali had vast experience in planning, executing and advising on different geological, geophysical, geochemical and reservoir engineering studies and surveys and other exploration & production
operations.

Shri Bharali put in extensive effort to make implementation of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and the process of awarding Coal Bed Methane (CBM) blocks under CBM policy, a success.

International Literacy Day to be celebrated on 8TH September

Special awards to be given for Accelerated Female Literacy Program in regions of Bihar and U.P.Special awards have been instituted this year for the commendable work undertaken in regions of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where female literacy had been shown to be very poor in the 2001 census. This programme is known as the Accelerated Female
Literacy Program (AFLP). Commendation Certificates will be given to 31 selected Volunteer Teachers and three NGOs (Ashadeep Gramodyog Sewa Sansthan, Rampur, Chetna Sewa Sansthan, Rampur and Anan Mahila Kalyan Samiti, Rampur) in
Uttar Pradesh for their outstanding work in the AFLP. Commendation Certificates will also be given to 5 District Magistrates (Araria, Kishanganj, Supaul, East Champaran and West Champaran) in Bihar for their outstanding work in mobilizing and
motivating women learners in their districts to attend literacy programmes under AFLP.

According to 2001 Census, 45 districts in the country have female literacy below 30%. Most of these districts are concentrated in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. Special innovative projects are being taken up to raise the level of female literacy in
these areas. Since this problem is acute in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, to begin with eight Low Female Literacy Districts in Uttar Pradesh have been brought under an Accelerated Female Literacy Programme (AFLP) which has been implemented through a
network of about 97 NGOs. Approximately, 20 lakh women have undergone literacy classes in about 1.25 lakh centres. In Bihar, a different model has been adopted to cover the 15 Low Female Literacy Districts with the involvement of Panchayati Raj
Functionaries, women volunteer teachers and women self-help groups. Approximately, 30 lakh non-literate women in 2.5 lakh centres in Bihar are under this Programme.

The National Literacy Mission (NLM) has instituted a literacy award in memory of the eminent Adult Educationist, late Satyen Maitra of the Bengal Social Service League, Kolkata. The award is given every year to the best performing districts in the country
in the field of Total Literacy Campaign, Post-Literacy Programme and Continuing Education. The performance is judged on the basis of the evaluation conducted by reputed Social Science Research Institutes on the norms and guidelines laid down by the
Mission. This year, the districts selected for the award are Muzaffarpur (Total Literacy Campaign), Ballia (Post Literacy Programme) and Guntur and Barddhaman (Continuing Education).

In order to encourage the institutions working in the field of literacy and adult education, the NLM, in collaboration with UNESCO New Delhi instituted NLM – UNESCO Award in the year 1998. The award includes a cash prize of Rs.50,000/- and a citation. This year, Jan Shikshan Sansthan, Mysore, State Resource Centre, Thiruvananthapuram and Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Srinagar (Garhwal) have been selected for the award.

The 37th International Literacy Day is celebrated on September 8, 2003. The key aspect of the observance of International Literacy Day is the need to mobilize the public opinion in favour of the struggle against illiteracy. This gives an opportunity to the Member States of the United Nations and other non-governmental organisations to inform and mobilize public opinion and make available national and international resources to combat illiteracy.

The National Level Function in India is being organised in New Delhi. Shri Manohar Joshi, Speaker, Lok Sabha will be the Chief Guest. Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Union Minister for Human Resource Development will preside over the function. Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu and Shri Narendra Modi will be the Guests of Honour.

Ordinance amending Section 206-C of IT Act promulgated

The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2003 has been promulgated today to amend certain provisions of the Income-tax Act, the Wealth-tax and the Expenditure-tax Act. The said Ordinance has, inter alia, amended the provisions of section 206C also. The amendments to the said section will take effect from today.

Section 206C of the Income-tax Act provides for collection of tax at source by sellers of certain specified goods. Finance Act, 2003 made certain amendments to the said section. Subsequent to these amendments, representations were received from various quarters, including State Government authorities, in the matter of various consequences flowing from the above amendments. It had been decided to postpone the coming into effect of the amendments made to section206C in the matter of collection of tax at source by sellers of country liquor, Indian made foreign liquor, scrap and timber till a final decision was taken in the matter by the Government.

Last date for filing of TDS Returns extended to 30TH NOV. 2003

CBDT has further extended the last date for filing of TDS Returns to 30th November, 2003 in respect of tax deducted in previous year i.e. 2002-2003. The last dates for filing of annual returns was earlier extended uniformly to 30th September, 2003 in order to give effect to certain proposals contained in the Finance Act, 2003 relating to filing of return of TDS.

As per the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961, the annual returns for tax deducted at source under various Sections of the Act are to be furnished by the persons responsible for such deduction at the end of April, May or June of the financial year following the previous year in which the tax was deducted at source.

Mata Prasad takes over as UPSC Chairman

Shri Mata Prasad has taken over as the UPSC Chairman. The Oath of Office and Secrecy was administered to Shri Mata Prasad by Shri P.C. Hota, the outgoing Chairman of the Commission. Shri Mata Prasad who continued as a Member of the UPSC is a
retired IAS Officer of UP Cadre has held various important positions in his career spanning for more than 41 years. He was a Member of the UPSC since April 23, 1998 and succeeds Mr. Hota.