Our rising energy needs

Call given to utilize renewable energy resources

The Bharat Jan Gyan Vigyan Jatha (BJGVJ) Distt. Ludhiana organized an interactive session cum demonstration on energy conservation under the National Environment Awareness Campaign today at GMT College of Education Ludhiana. Highlighting the need of energy conservation President of the Jtaha Maj.Sher Singh Aulukh called upon the students and the faculty members to develop habits not to waste the energy which is so important for a developing country like India. The Jatha will organize lectures cum demonstrations on this issue in several institutions. Dr.Arun Mitra – General Secretary said that renewable energy resources should be utilized to meet our energy needs. India has abundant of solar, wind, biomass, urban and industrial waste and microhydel resources which can be tapped with more Research and Development. Taking a critical view of the pursuit of nuclear energy, he said that this is neither economical nor safe any nuclear accident can lead to havoc as has been seen in Three Mile island, Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents. On the other side renewable resources are transparent and non hazardous. Sh.Anupam Nanda in charge Punjab Energy Development Authority Ludhiana held a quiz among the students and ask them to use renewable energy resources. He informed about various subsidy schemes by the government. Er.Gurvant Singh – General Secretary Small Scale Industries and Traders Association gave a live demonstration on production of electricity through renewable resources.
Principal of the college Dr.Shikha and Teacher in charge Mrs.Bhupinder Kaur lauded the role of jatha in promoting healthy environment.

Writers’ Meet

The Vice-President, Sahitya Akademi, Shri Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari addressing at the Writers’ Meet, in New Delhi on February 15, 2012. {PIB photo}15-February-2012

The Mock Drill was conducted most efficiently

KIIT World School: A report of Delhi wide Mega Mock Drill

KIIT World School, Pitampura was a part of the Delhi Wide Mega Mock Drill on Disaster preparedness, which was conducted at 11:30 a.m. on 15th February, 2012.The Students, Teachers, Office staff and others had been briefed about the evacuation process in advance. The evacuation plan was placed at prominent places in the school. Also, graffiti walls were placed on each floor where students displayed their creativity to create awareness on disaster preparedness. On hearing the fire hooter, 1600 students of classes 6 to 12, along with their accompanying teachers gathered in the school ground in just 1 Min. Visitors, external examiners present in the school also became a part of the drill and evacuated the building along with the others. A head count was taken both by the accompanying teachers and group monitors immediately after the drill.            The Mock Drill was conducted most efficiently and there was perfect synchronization between one and all. The students moved in multiple lines along the corridors, as per instructions given.The school takes pride in stating that such drill forms a regular feature of the school activities and are conducted on a monthly basis.The School Principal Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia addressed everyone and sensitized them about preparedness at all times for eventualities and disasters.  

44th session of Indian Labour Conference

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh addressing the 44th session of Indian Labour Conference, in New Delhi on February 14, 2012. The Union Minister for Labour and Employment, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge is also seen.
{PIB photo}14-February-2012

Environment Ministers calling on the PM

BASIC’s countries Environment Ministers calling on the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi on February 13, 2012.  PIB photo 13-February-2012

Environment Ministers calling on the PM

BASIC’s countries Environment Ministers calling on the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi on February 13, 2012.  PIB photo 13-February-2012

Tripura Agriculture Plan Bears Fruit

sole winner of Krishi Karman Award
Success Story                                                      Subhasis K. Chanda*

All photographs Courtesy: Agriculture Department of Tripura

Kumud Behari, a Tripuri hill man, is a traditional jhuming farmer.  He is happy this year as he yielded double crop. A similar record was set by Mohammed Abdul Gafar who adopted the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and increased the yield to 3.3 tons per hectare from 2.3 tons per hectare produced earlier by traditional methods. These inspiring instances, in contrast to the prevailing scenario in agriculture sector across the country, are outcome of a comprehensive plan initiated by Tripura Agriculture Department, which has emerged as the sole winner of Krishi Karman Award in the category of States with a high overall foodgrain production. Giving away this award the Union Agriculture Ministry recognized the States’ contribution towards increasing the foodgrain production in the country. 

It sounds a miracle, yet, the answer seems hidden into the present agricultural dynamics steered by the State’s ten year term perspective plan, reinforced by two centrally sponsored programme, namely, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and Agricultural Training and Management Agency (ATMA) projects .       

State Agricultural Setting
The land mass of Tripura is mixed in character in six hill ranges – plain land is lesser in area than hilly land. According to an estimate, amid different land forms available for uses, high hilly area accounts for 4000 sq. km, tilla land or hillocks account for 2300 sq. km, whereas valley land accounts for 2249 sq. km and plain area at 2042 sq. km only. Most of the farmers are small and marginal, approximately 96 per cent of the community occupy 0.5-1.25 hectares of land. Their investment for crop and the yield are very less. The net sown area is about 24 per cent of the State’s total geographical area accounting 10,49,169 hectares as against the all India figure of 43 per cent.

Prevailing cropping pattern of the State is characterized mainly by two systems, settled cultivation in the plains and the shifting cultivation in the hills. The majority farmers practicing either of these systems have hitherto shown conservativeness in adopting modern technology, which resulted in a very low cropping intensity. Amidst the orthodox agricultural pattern of the farmers, availability of cultivable land is shrinking. Added to this, erection of barbed wire fencing along the Indo-Bangla international borders has also slashed 27,000 acre land from cultivation. Gradual loss of soil from hilly land, which is considerably larger in size compared to plain land, has been posing a real threat. An official estimate recorded that about 30 lakh tons of top soil from the steep land goes as run-off in rain every year.    

Reinforcing Conventional Program
Given this backdrop, it appeared a great challenge initially before the State Agriculture Department to think of attaining self sufficiency in foodgrain production. Having embarked on the ongoing agricultural programmes, the State Agriculture Department, designed a ten year term perspective plan giving impetus on expansion of irrigation coverage to 1,16,867 hectare as against 51,000 hectare in 1999-2000. Similarly, in order to enhance cropping intensity to 283 per cent from 169 per cent, various approaches have been initiated. Improved method of shifting cultivation has also been introduced so as to enhance the productivity to 1000 Kg rice from 600 kg rice per hectare till 1999-2000. These apart, the propagation of uses of HYV rice varieties, growing rice varieties having potentials of at least 3500 Kg per hectare, integrated pest management, enhancing consumption of plant nutrients and incorporation of bio fertilizers in conjunction with inorganic fertilizers have been accorded top most priority.

Perspective Plan & Innovative Approaches
Despite all sorts of oddities and rigours, agriculture, however, appears to be the only option left open before its people for economic sustenance. For, the State is pitted into the vortex of sylvan valley and terrain and affected vigorously with communication bottlenecks and natural vacuum of industrialization. 

To cope up with the inherent challenges, the State Agriculture Department has introduced added strategies on propagation of extension services, technology campaign and exposure visits of farmers, conducting farmer training schools, use of high yielding varieties of rice, bio-fertilizers, organic manure and agro-based implements and lastly increasing flow of credit to farmers through Kisan Credit Card Scheme. Hopefully, when 27,000 acre land has remained cut off from cultivation because of border fencing, the State has, however, witnessed an increase of production of foodgrains by two lakh tones in 2011, lending credit to the ongoing agricultural efforts.

In fact, the 10 year term perspective plan formulated in 2000 has achieved remarkable success with the foodgrain production reaching 7.12 lakh tons in 2010-11 as against the production of 5.13 lakh tons in 1999-2000.  However, compared to the projected requirement of 8.22 lakh tonnes in 2010-11, the shortfall was 1.10 lakh tonnes. Meantime, irrigational coverage has been extended upto 1,16,867 hectare. The cropping intensity standing at 172 per cent in 1999-2000 has gone up to 184 per cent in 10 years. Most interestingly, hill cultivators who yielded only 600 kg per hectare from jhum land having the crop cycle of seven years, presently can produce double crops every season by using bio-fertilizers and organic manure and have been able to bring down the crop cycle to every season.  

RKVY, ATMA & Participatory Communication
With the inception of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) in 2007-08 the State’s agriculture and allied fields found an avenue to increase public investment in the sector. The State, considering the RKVY as a boon towards attainment of self sufficiency in food production, has taken up 41 projects under stream -1 of the program primarily aimed at increasing production and productivity. Under the program, it has undertaken some major projects such as cultivation of paddy following SRI techniques, cent per cent seed treatment, hybrid paddy cultivation, hybrid maize cultivation, reclamation of acidic soils, minor irrigation, farm mechanization, production of certified vegetable seeds, promotion of True Potato Seed (TPS) – tuberlet technology for production of table potato etc. So far, through all such projects, RKVY has drawn to the State an investment of Rs. 177 crore.

In order to motivate farmers to adopt HYV cropping, help them protect crop from loss and diseases, increase soil energy and also to propagate traditional and innovative knowledge to farmers centrally sponsored Agricultural Training and Management Agency (ATMA) has been accorded impetus so as to play a big role through its branches in all districts. With a comprehensive design and route compared to the extension service, ATMA has taken up an effective two-way participatory communication model accommodating experts from agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and forestry and on the other end the farmers and through training programme, demonstration and group meetings-on-field. Cohesive to this model, State Agriculture Department launched in the current financial year another programme, called Technology Extension Campaign – a one day programme in every agri sub-division - with the inclusion of plant clinic, demonstration of organic and bio-fertilizers, soil testing laboratory and workshop under one umbrella. Preceded to this campaign in November-December last year, the Department conducted exposure visits of the farmers across the State. Each exposure visit worth Rs. 5 lakh was sponsored by the Union Agriculture Ministry - that seemed to be a complete educational and motivational exercise amalgamating several kinds of communication tools. 
One Harendra Nath, participant in the exposure visit looked cheerful. He says the visit benefited him manifold. It has helped him recognizing useful insects. He also came to know the uses of new implements such as thrashing machines.  These programs should continue at least for two seasons, said a shifting cultivator, named Anada Debabrma attending such a technology campaign held at Chhailengta in Dhalai district recently. The officials of the State Agriculture Department told that the programs like exposure visits of the farmers and the technology campaign would continue in coming years, so as to motivate farmers adopt modern technology and knowledge. This would ensure increase in productivity and earning of farmers and help change their stereotype mindset so as to take up agriculture as a business deal. (PIB Feature) 09-February-2012 18:07 IST  ****

*Media & Communication Officer, PIB, Agartala.

Journey into History of Bank of the Bankers

RBI: A long and tough journey of evolution
FEATURE RBI                                                              Sameer Pushp*

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) did not become the ‘Bank of the Bankers’ in a day. It’s been a long and tough journey of evolution, consolidation, policy changes and reforms that shaped it to be an institution with a difference. Legislation to set up the RBI was first introduced in January 1927, and after seven years in March 1934, the enactment became an accomplished fact. It is one of the oldest central banks in the developing countries. Its formative years have been eventful. Its efforts to adapt central banking functions was neither deep-rooted nor widespread, the special responsibilities including those of exchange control to shoulder with the outbreak of World War II was a great responsibility thrust upon in the very first decade of its existence. Its transformation from a privately owned institution to a nationalized undertaking and its new role in the economy with the advent of independence was formidable.  Over the years when RBI embarked upon the path of its growth there are many anecdotes that are wrapped in the footprints of time.
Prior to the establishment of the RBI in 1935, the principal functions of a central bank were performed by the Government of India primarily, and to a smaller extent, by the Imperial Bank of India, since its establishment in 1921. The regulation of note issue, the management of foreign exchange and the custody of the nation are metallic and foreign exchange reserves were the responsibilities of the Government of India. The Imperial Bank acted as banker to Government and to a limited extent as a bankers’ bank, in addition to its primary functions as a commercial bank. By the time the Reserve Bank came to be established, organized banking in India had developed to an extent and an important element of this sector which comprised foreign banks were generally referred to as Exchange Banks.
In 1941, Karachi office was mainly a currency office having a small strength of about 75 staff members. At that time currency notes, which were mostly in the domination of Rs. 100 and Rs. 1000 were issued circle wise; they were a legal tender throughout undivided India. Names of circles of issue, viz; Mumbai, Kanpur, Calcutta, Madras, Karachi, Lahore; used to be printed on the notes. Each circle has to maintain member- wise record of notes issued and cancelled from time to time. If issued notes of Karachi circle were collected in Calcutta, they had to be brought to Karachi and brunt there after noting the cancelled numbers in the issue ledgers. The ledgers containing individual number of notes issued & cancelled. In any case any note having the same number as the one on the cancelled note was detected, an inquiry used to be conducted.
In 1946, when Rs. 1000 notes were demonetize some people exchanged their notes for Rs. 500 to Rs. 600 per piece, which were individually exchanged at the RBI counters- one or two pieces to the income-tax department. Banks and other corporate bodies had changed their higher denomination notes with smaller denomination. Thus, they could oblige their customers and acquaintances by exchange of notes in their names.   In those days, one-rupee silver coins used to be examined by cashiers for their genuineness by striking them on the wooden counter or wooden tables at a very fast speed. They could identify counterfeit coins just by listening to the sound of each coin. The RBI was truly musical those days.

In early 40’s, senior officials posts in RBI were filled up by the promotions from the existing staff and/or taking staff in deputation from the Imperial Bank of India. The final interview used to be held at central board of Directors at Calcutta.  After partition officers from Karachi were asked to report to Mumbai office in 1947. When it came to women staff, there were hardly any on the Bank’s rolls on that time. The few who joined being mainly telephone operators. The first lady to be taken up for a clerical work joined in early forties and the first to be recruited directly as an officer was Miss Dharma Venkatraman who joined in March 1949. Gradually the numbers increased. According to a data women formed less than 8 per cent of the total staff in January 1968; which is around 18 per cent.
Pages of history tell us that there were in fact very few Europeans recruits other than those who originally came from the Imperial Bank. This was mainly due to the efforts of Deputy Governor Nanavati who wanted the maximum opportunities to be given to the Indians. In the matter of staff he stood for Indianisation of as much as buying India made articles. In this connection, it is of interest to know that when the office raised objections to buying of India made clocks on the ground that they stopped working frequently. Shri Nanavati remarked that, “it did not matter even if all clocks in the bank come to a standstill.”
However, it is very interesting to learn that the Secretary of State for India favored a leisurely time-table, for several reasons for the enactment of RBI as an institution. First, apart from the time necessary to make the preliminary arrangements, some of the pre-conditions envisaged for the establishment of the Bank, such as, improvement of the budgetary position of the Government and the return of the normal export surplus, required to be fulfilled. These preconditions were time consuming and burdensome. Further, the Secretary of State was of the view that ‘ it would be unfair to hasten the opening of the Reserve Bank until he (the new Finance Member) has had an opportunity of acquainting himself personally with the situation on the spot and been able to form his own judgment on matters.  A suggestion put forth by the Government of India that the Bank should start without the function of currency regulation was rejected by the Secretary of State. In the end, a compromise emerged in that the Bank started functioning not as early as the Government of India had desired but not as late as the Secretary of State had envisaged.
One of the important agreements was ‘British Debt Pact with India’ which was signed on the 15th August, 1947. The Government of UK & Government of India signed an interim agreement, to cover the period up to the end of 1947, relating to India’s sterling balances that time. After the meeting of officials from both sides reviewed on economic and financial problems between two countries and probable requirements of India was taken. In the meeting it was agreed that a sum of £ 35 million should be available from India’s existing balance for expenditure in any currency, to be arranged up to December 31st, 1947. In addition, a working balance of £ 30 million will be at the disposal of Reserve Bank of India. In particular both the Governments also agreed that no restrictions will be placed by either Government on the remittances of savings belongings to persons of UK origin who are proceedings to UK to take up permanent residence or a voluntary repatriation of Investments in India by persons resident in UK. 
Today, RBI is an institution with a difference which works with the objective of ensuring monetary stability, monetary management, foreign exchange, reserves management, government debt management, financial regulation and supervision. It core duties also entails: currency management and operating the credit system to India’s advantage. In addition, since inception the bank has played an active developmental role, particularly for the agriculture and rural sectors. These are the snap shots from pages of history which I could snatch from the long and distinguished journey of the Bank of the Bankers. (PIB Feature).08-February-2012 16:30 IST
*******

Disclaimer: The writer is a freelance journalist and the views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of PIB.

* Sameer Pushp is a freelance writer.

India Show Begins at Lahore

Over 400 exhibitors will be participating
“India Show” being organized by Government of India from 11-13 February, 2012, showcases the best of the Indian industry, cuisine and culture. Over 400 exhibitors will be participating in this Show which is intended to increase future trade opportunities, B2B meetings and direct buyer-seller interaction.

The objective of India Show Exhibition is to raise awareness of Indian products in Pakistan. Hon’ble Commerce Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Makhdoom Amin Fahim, will inaugurate the India Show on 11th February, 2012 at 10.30 A.M. in Lahore Expo Centre. Mr. Anand Sharma, Hon’ble Commerce, Industry and Textile Minister will preside over the closing ceremony of the ‘India Show’ on 13th February 2012. High powered Indian CEOs delegation led by Mr. R.V. Kanoria, President, FICCI is accompanying the Minister to Lahore for this show. 

More than 50 prominent Indian companies will exhibit their products spread around 110 stalls in Hall No. 2 of Lahore Expo Centre. Products will range from manufacturing services, chemicals, engineering, textiles & apparels, consumer durables, gems & jewellery cosmetics, handicrafts, auto components, healthcare etc. Three hours in each of the days will remain open for general visitors while morning hours will remain dedicated to business visitors. B2B meetings during the days of the exhibition are being organized by TDAP in collaboration with Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Onetime permission has been granted by Government of Pakistan to exhibit Indian goods and services beyond the normal import of goods from India being allowed as per ‘Positive List’ and counter sale of products. The Indian CEOs delegation will comprise of more than 100 business delegates from wide cross section of Indian corporate sector will have business meetings at Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. 

The realization that trade could play a major role in improving overall relations has seen many encouraging developments taking place in the recent past. Year 2011 witnessed breakthrough developments in India-Pakistan bilateral relations. The positive atmosphere being created by both India and Pakistan to improve human lives by enhancing trade and commerce has been welcomed by business community in both countries. In this context, ‘India Show’ presents an opportunity to project the various trade and cultural opportunities that exists between the two countries. This ‘India Show’ provides a platform for the business entrepreneurs to enhance their interactions that will lead to our mutual quest for forging new paths of friendship and partnership on both sides.(PIB)  ****
12-February-2012 15:13 IST