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.