UNFCCC

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) created because of the Rio Summit/ Earth Summit of 1992.
It is an international treaty for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Now nearly every country on Earth is a party to the UNFCCC with few major exception like USA, Canada.

*So what was Rio Summit/ Earth Summit -
It was a United nations summit, held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 1992.
It led to creation of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The nations, who’ve signed UNFCCC convention, meet every year to discuss climate change strategy.
These meetings are called Conference of the Parties (COP)

Some notable COP :
COP 1 - held in Berlin ( Berlin Roadmap ).
COP 3 - held in Kyoto, Japan ( Kyoto Protocol ).
COP 7 - Marrakech, Morocco ( Marrakech accord ).
COP 8 - Delhi.
COP 13 - Bali, Indonesia ( Bali action plan ).
              -  Adopted REDD+
COP 17 - Durban, S.Africa in 2011.
COP 18 - Doha, Qatar in 2012.
              - Extended Kyoto Protocol for phase 2.
COP 19 - Warsaw, Poland
              - Warsaw international mechanism on loss and damage.
COP 21 - Paris
               - Paris Agreement.

RLV-TD

Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD)

India’s first winged body aerospace vehicle, called the Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) was successfully launched from ISRO’s first launch

pad in Sriharikota 80 km off Chennai on the east coast at 7.00 am on Monday. The RLV-TD shuttle shaped like an aircraft was launched aboard the HS9 a seven-meter rocket with a booster, weighing 17 tons with nine tons of solid propellants. The rocket and shuttle made a successful flight of 91.1seconds and the burnout of HS9 followed.

The development of reusable launch vehicle has opened new gateways in conducting space experiments using conventional rockets. One major significance of reusable vehicle is its cost effectiveness. The new vehicle has the potential to cut down the actual cost of launching the rocket by ten times.

With the launch of reusable launch vehicle India has demonstrated the world that what India is capable of. Even though the launch vehicle is just a prototype, there is lot to be done in developing a fully fledged space shuttle.

In this flight, critical technologies such as autonomous navigation, guidance & control, reusable thermal protection system and re-entry mission management have been successfully validated.

With this successful mission India has joined the elite club of space-faring nations. The other countries are the USA, Russia and Japan, that developed and used RLVs for their space missions. This mission has enabled ISRO to successfully collect data and validate such critical technologies and systems as hypersonic speed, autonomous navigation, guidance and control, reusable thermal protection system, powered cruise flight using air-breathing propulsion and re-entry mission management. According to experts, the reusable vehicle technology will reduce the costs of launches in the future by 80% percent.

ESE-17 - Sample Paper

Model questions in General Studies & Engineering Aptitude for Engg. services examination - 2017

http://www.upsc.gov.in/exams/Rev_Syllabus/ese/2016/Model_Q_Paper_ESE_2017_GS_Enggg.pdf

Differences between Bernoulli and S.F.E.E. ?

Well, Bernoulli's equation is a very simplified form of the actual energy equation derived by using control volumes around the fluid flow considering all possible variations including time and space. 

1) Bernoulli's equation doesn't account for any other form of work or energy other than potential energy, kinetic energy and pressure energy. For example, the fluid can flow through a pump doing work on it or a furnace heating a column of air. In these cases, you can't use the simple Bernoulli equation, as points before the area where work is being done on the fluid  and points after it have different Bernoulli's constants.

2) Moreover, Bernoulli's equation between two points is valid along a streamline only. This is because different streamlines have different Bernoulli's constant (although, this is rare and is not true when the flow is irrotational) 

3) For energy equation to be valid, the flow field need not be incompressible or non-viscous as is needed for Bernoulli's equation (unless you are using compressible Bernoulli flow equation and also adding the friction head to take care of viscous effects at the wall)

4) Further, the Bernoulli equation is generally used for steady and laminar flow. Energy equation written in its full glory takes care of variations in viscosity, density, pressure and velocity variation with respect to time and space. Written along with Navier Stokes equation, even turbulence can be accounted for.

Highlights of Union Budget 2016-17

Union Finance Minister has presented NDA government’s second budget.

According to the budget, the nine priority areas of the government are:

1. Agriculture and farmer welfare
2. Rural sector
3. Social sector
4. Education skills and job creation
5. Infrastructure investment
6. Financial sector reforms
7. Governance reforms and ease of doing business
8. Fiscal discipline
9. Tax reforms to reduce compliance burden

The government has also proposed rename Dept. of Disinvestment as Dept. of Investment and Public Asset Management. And fiscal deficit target has been retained at 3.5 per cent of GDP for next fiscal year in a big boost for stocks, currency and bond markets.
Who will get what?
Banks:

• Banks get a big boost: Rs 25,000 crore towards recapitalisation of public sector banks.
• Banking Board Bureau will be operationalised.
• More resources will be raised for additional capital if required.

Farmers:

• Farmers’ incomes to be doubled in five years by 2022. Total allocation for agriculture sector has been hiked to Rs. 35,984 crore.
• Big focus on rural distress: Government will spend a record Rs. 38,500 crore on rural jobs programme (MGNREGA).
• Rural road development schemes will get Rs. 19,000 crore, while another Rs. 20,000 crore will be used to fund irrigation schemes.

Infrastructure:

• Continued push for infrastructure development: The finance minister allocated Rs. 2.21 lakh crore for building road and rail infrastructure.
• Proposes to levy infrastructure cess of 1-4 per cent which will make cars costlier.
• 300 urban clusters to be set up under Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission.

Black money:
A new amnesty scheme for those holding unaccounted money and assets has been announced. Those declaring undisclosed income under this scheme will have to pay 45 per cent tax.
Taxation:

• The government will not resort to retrospective taxation in future, while proposing a one-time tax dispute resolution for retrospective taxation.
• General anti avoidance tax rule (GAAR) will be implemented from April 1, 2017.

Vulnerable section:

• Target of disbursement under MUDRA increased to 1,80,000 crore.
• A “Krishi Kalyan” cess of 0.5 per cent has been proposed on all services effective June 1, 2016. This will make most of services (such as eating out, buying property, etc.) more expensive.
• Income tax relief for small taxpayers, more taxes for super-rich: Those earnings less than Rs. 5 lakh per annum will get additional relief of Rs. 3,000 on income tax, but the surcharge on super-rich (income of over Rs. 1 crore) has been hiked from 12 per cent to 15 per cent.
• Pollution cess of 1 per cent on small petrol, LPG and CNG cars; 2.5 per cent on diesel cars of certain specifications; 4 per cent on higher-end models.
• Government is launching a new initiative to provide cooking gas to BPL families with state support.
• LPG connections to be provided under the name of women members of family: Rs 2000 crore allocated for 5 years for BPL families.

Railway Budget special 2016

Railway Budget special:

Theme of the Budget

• Overcoming challenges – Reorganize, Restructure Rejuvenate Indian Railways: ‘Chalo, Milkar Kuch Naya Karen’
• Three pillars of the strategy i.e. Nav Arjan – New revenues, Nav Manak – New norms, Nav Sanrachna – New Structures. 

Four new categories of trains announced

Four new categories of trains have been announced in the budget— one for unreserved passengers and three for reserved passengers.

The four new categories of trains are- Humsafar, Tejas, Antyodaya Express and Uday.

1. Humsafar would be fully air-conditioned third AC service with an optional service for meals.
2. Tejas on the other hand will showcase the future of train travel in India. Operating at speeds of 130 kmph or more, it will have on-board services such as entertainment, local cuisine, Wi-Fi etc.
3. Utkrisht Double-Decker Air-conditioned Yatri (UDAY) Express will be introduced on the busiest routes, which has the potential to increase carrying capacity by almost 40%.
4. Antyodaya Express is a long-distance, fully unreserved, super-fast train service, for the common man to be operated on dense routes.

The railway minister has also announced that two to four Deen Dayalu coaches would be added in some long distance trains for unreserved travel. These coaches will also have facility for potable drinking water and a higher number of mobile charging points.

Seven missions to improve functioning

To make the functioning of railways more efficient, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has announced seven missions, including activities to increase the average speed of superfast mail trains by 25 kilometres per hour in the next five years.
The seven missions are ’25 Tonne’, ‘Zero Accident’, PACE (Procurement and Consumption Efficiency), ‘Raftaar’, ‘Hundred’, ‘beyond book-keeping’ and ‘capacity utilisation’.

• Under Mission Raftaar, the railways would target doubling average speeds of freight trains and increasing the average speed of superfast mail/express trains by 25 kmph in the next 5 years.
• On Mission 25 Tonne, railways will augment the carrying capacity to realise the goal of revenue enhancement. A critical step in that direction is making our infrastructure suitable to carry 25-tonne axle load. It is proposed to introduce 10-20% freight loading through 25-tonne axle-load wagons in 2016-17 and target movement of 70% of freight traffic on high axle load wagons by FY 19-20.
• Among others, Mission Hundred would focus on sidings and freight terminals.
• Under ‘Beyond Book-keeping’, Indian Railways will establish an accounting system where the outcomes can be tracked to inputs.

Each of the missions would be headed by a director reporting directly to the Railway Board Chairman.

 

Three freight corridors to be built on priority

The country will get three new dedicated freight corridors, according to the Railway Budget 2016, in addition to the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata freight corridors that are due to be commissioned in 2019.

• The new projects are a North-South corridor, from Delhi to Chennai, an East-West corridor from Karaghpur to Mumbai and an East Coast corridor, from Karaghpur to Vijayawada.
• These projects will be financed through a PPP (public private partnership) mechanism and rolled out on a high priority basis.

Superman memory crystal

The 'Superman memory crystal' could hold the future of data storage

 

"Coined as the ‘Superman memory crystal’, as the glass memory has been compared to the 'memory crystals' used in the Superman films, the data is recorded via self-assembled nanostructures created in fused quartz. The information encoding is realised in five dimensions: the size and orientation in addition to the three dimensional position of these nanostructures."

Scientists at the University of Southhampton have developed a 5D glass disc that can store 360 Terabytes of data for billions of years. The discs are made out of nanostructured glass, and the data is stored and retrieved using femtosecond laser writing. These discs can store data for up to 13.8 billion years, that's over twice the estimated age of the Earth, and about equal to the estimated age of our universe. Essentially, the discs are made by a laser that can make microscopic etchings in nanoglass. 

Some famous documents lasered into 5D discs

So what exactly do they mean by 5-dimensional? Traditionally, we think of our universe in terms of the 4 known and easily perceptible dimensions. The first 3 dimensions are our directions of movement or an XYZ axis; the 4th dimension is traditionally thought of as time. These 4 dimensions combined are referred to as spacetime. Unfortunately, this can cause quite a bit of confusion. The 5-dimensional discs made by the University of Southhampton are not time traveling devices that can view parallel universes, but instead tiny patterns printed on 3 layers within the discs. Depending on the angle they are viewed from, these patterns can look completely different. This may sound like science fiction, but it's basically a really fancy optical illusion. In this case, the 5 dimensions inside the discs are the size and orientation in relation to the 3-dimensional position of the nanostructures. The concept of being 5-dimensional means that one disc has several different images depending on the angle that one views it from, and the magnification of the microscope used to view it. Basically, each disc has multiple layers of micro and macro level images.

A laser burning microscopic images into 3 layers

 

Since glass is plentiful and inexpensive, this technology has a very good chance to become widely available in the future. People are already thinking of uses for this technology, everything from storing an immense library of video games to storing the entirety of human history and culture for future civilizations. Professor Peter Kazansky is very optimistic about the technology's potential, he elaborated in an interview with the University of Southhampton's news publication:

"It is thrilling to think that we have created the technology to preserve documents and information and store it in space for future generations. This technology can secure the last evidence of our civilisation: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten."

By using 5-dimensional shapes that are laser-etched into glass discs at a microscopic scale, the University of Southhampton has developed the highest storage efficiency in a data storage device to date. The discs also have the longest life-span of any data storage device to date. With all of the amazing things that they can do, people all over the world are excited to get their hands on one. If you're one of those people, you're in luck; the team at Southhampton is currently looking for partners to invest in this technology in hopes that it can be commercialized in the future. It could only be a matter of time before this kind of data storage is the norm.

 

Photonic Propulsion

NASA researchers are working on a technology that could harness the power of light and reduce the time taken to reach mars from the current five months to just three days.

Which is that technology?
The technology is known as ‘Photonic Propulsion’ system.

How it operates?

This technology uses lasers to propel the spacecrafts with giant sails. The system operates on photons particles of light to move forward.

Current practice:
Currently, when a spacecraft is launched, the thrust comes from burning a chemical, such as rocket fuel. This fuel weighs down the spacecraft.

Why Photonic Propulsion is better than the old one?

Current technology is an inefficient system when compared to using light or other electromagnetic radiation to accelerate objects. It is because Electromagnetic acceleration is only limited by the speed of light while chemical systems are limited to the energy of chemical processes.

Revised Scheme of The Engineering Services Examination ( ESE ) 2017

UPSC has revised ESE Exam pattern along with the Syllabus and it will be implemented from the year 2017, since then it is going to be a Three Stage examination as Preliminary, Main and Personality test. 

• Only candidates qualifying in stage-I (preliminary) to be permitted to appear in stage-II (main).
• Only candidates qualifying in stage-II (main) to be permitted to appear in stage-III (personality test).
• Final Merit List to be prepared after stage-III (personality test).

Stage-I – Preliminary Exam- (Objective Type Papers)

Papers	Subject	Maximum Marks	Duration
Paper-I	General Studies and Engineering Aptitude Paper	200 Marks	02 hours
Paper-II	Engineering Discipline-specific Paper	300 Marks	03 hours
	Total	500 Marks	05 hours

Stage-II- Mains Examination- (Conventional Type Papers)

Papers	Subjects	Maximum Marks	Duration
Paper-I	Engineering Discipline- Specific Paper-I	300 Marks	03 hours
Paper-II	Engineering Discipline- Specific Paper-I	300 Marks	03 hours
	Total	600 Marks	06 hours

Stage-III – Personality Test

Personality Test is to be conducted of 200 marks.  
**Final list of selected candidates to be prepared after the counting of marks secured in all the III stages.

New crop insurance scheme

A new crop insurance scheme was approved by the Union cabinet on 13 jan 2016. Ever since the NDA formed the govt at the centre, it has launched a number of welfare schemes for various areas such as banking, pension, employment and insurance to the poor people of the country. Every thing was right but without the welfare of farmers India can’t go ahead, we know, agriculture employes nearly half of the employed people in the country. Thus the security and well being of farmers is of prime importance to the progress of the country. Having these facts in mind Pradhan Mantry Fasal Bima Yojana was launched on 13 jan 2016, perfect at timing, just ahead of Makar Sankranti – one of the main harvest festival celebrated in india.

This new scheme seems to have a lot potential, Government has launched a new crop insurance scheme - Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana with considerable improvement over the existing National Agriculture Insurance Scheme. If implemented well, it could help delink agriculture from the associated uncertainties.

Design:

1) lo premium at a max of 2 per cent for foodgrains and oilseeds and up to 5 per    cent for horticulture/cotton crops.

2) Centre - State :: 50-50  equal subsidy burden.

3) The government will adopt modern technology to assess crop damage for early settlement of the claims. 

4) Farmers will get claim against full sum insured without any capping or deduction.

5) Smart phones will be used to capture and upload data of crop cutting to reduce the delays in claim payment to farmers.

How will the scheme Benefit Farmers:

1) With Low Premium rates and Total Coverage of Insurance of Crops, Farmers will benefit financially.

2) Widening of the term Disaster(like Flooding of Crops and Damage after Harvest) ,will widen the Protection base and hence beneficial to farmers.

3) Post Harvest Losses are also Included, So it will provide safety and confidence to the Farmers.

4) Time Bound Payment of Losses will prevent delays and further worsening of Farmers's Distress.

5) Will Reduce Farmers' Suicide (Since Crop Failure and Financial Distress earlier was undressed but now ensured).

6) Easy usage of technology like mobile phone, quick assessment of damage and disbursement within a timeframe.

The Scheme is a Laudable measure taken by Govt., as it is focussing more on Crop Insurance which is the most vulnerable part of agriculture. The scheme is Inclusive and will surely help the farmers of our country at the time of distress.

Political Arena

“Move ahead never look back” may be a one philosophy working well in many cases but some time it's better to look back. There are many areas in which a reform with view to make it better is working extremely well but at the same time in many cases such reform is leading a system in very dangerous  situation and it could be easily verified for recently conducted election in U.P. for gram panchayats.

Why ? Yes why ? What was the problem in this election? State election commission has conducted it successfully and it was the dream of Mahatma Gandhi, he advocated panchayati raj as the foundation of India’s political system and current formulation of panchayati raj is based on ideas given by various committees headed by various notable personalities such as,

1. Balwant Rai Mehta : Estd 1957

2. V.T.Krishnammachari : 1960

3. Takhatmal Jain Study Group: 1966

4. Ashok Mehta Committee : 1977

5. G.V.K Rao committee  :1985

6. Dr.L.M.Singhvi Committee:1986

Which was formalized in 1992 by the 73^rd amendment to the Indian constitution. By looking these facts it seems a flawless structure but it's not, it's completely out of the way as dreamed by Mahatma Gandhi, He dreamed for a decentralized Local Self Government for a village by the  people of that village which has no outer influence. Our system failed here , now it has taken a complete centralized form, completely in the influence of big political parties.

On paper our system looks independent and working fair but in reality we know the current tradition of election in India and it has completely polluted our Panchayati Raj system. Money power has turned around  the basic moto of this system, now political partis has taken this system under their sphere. It dosen’t matter what you think about your people, what is your character how deep you understand your village. There is only one factor and that is money, if you have money power, you are supreme with the help of political parties.

That’s why it seems better to get rid of this system and follow the decades old system in which there was no influence of big bulls. It was the time when people of a village selects their Panch with their accord. They were respected person, well accepted person and well acquaint by their people.

Of course there are problems in every system and one always try to make it better but by various reforms we have reached to a very dangerous system.We have to break this Political Arena to fulfill the dream of Mahatma Gandhi. We have to look for the remedy of this system as soon as possible other wise it is going to make a unrecoverable loss. 

   

Engineering Examinations

Engineering and medical are two top profession opted by indian and no doubt india is performing as a top player in the world in these fields. We grow-up with a dream of being an engineer or doctor but due to the indian population ( god gifted :-) ) there is a stiff competition in these areas an everyone's wish can't be realised. In india , govt job is still on top, everyone has a wish for govt job but in competitive examination seats are limited just for few digits and appearing candidats number is huge. So there is a stiff competition for govt job in india.

Population growth α Competition 

When we talk about engineering there are some prestigious job like Civil services ( with engineering stream ), Indian engineering services ( IES ), State engineering services ( SES ) and some PSUs but due to limited seats every ones wish can't be full-filled. So one have to watch out for some other career backup option  while preparing for these examinations and when we talk about some good backup option we can think about SSC-JE, SSC-CGL and other examination which are based on common engineering aptitude and other subjects which are included in various engineering examinations such as general studies and english.

Error Type - ||

There were a lot buzz about the changes which has been encountered in last few decades especially in term of technology. Every country in the world accept it except the few including India but it was interesting that the decibel scale was on top in India among the others.

As an student/learner/researcher one try to innovate but it was pathetic that our law maker ( education expert ) was not interested in innovation or may be they don't get time to think abut the syllabus which were being taught in our colleges or the worst one may be that they were not able to understand the changes which were occurring  rapidly i think so, yes i think so because it may be the one reason due to which they continue 4-5 decade old syllabus.

It may be a biased view. So, what about the other view ? I think to whom we are blaming they were not able to understand the changes, they were thinking that everything is running perfect but in reality there was nothing aligned with time , It was Error Type - || ( a term used in engineering management , when one thing that noting has changed but in reality world has changed ) . Yes it was. Now it has been understood and they have started to revamp the loss. It can be seen with a new syllabus of Engineering Services Examination (ESE). A much awaited decision which must be welcomed.

Any how there is a long way to go... there are lots of debates going on the education system from hard copy to soft copy from mugging to open book examination 

We hope it will not end just as a chaos.