ECONOMY AT A GLANCE

Enactment Of Budget:

In the Indian Constitution, nowhere the founding fathers have mentioned the word " Budget". The word which they have used for budget is "Annual Financial Statement". The Art-112 of Constitution provides for all the provisions to enact a Annual Financial Statement.

The Annual Financial Statement is the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India in a financial year, which begins on 1st April and ends on 31 st March of the following year.

The Budget has the following elements included.,

1. Estimates of Revenue and Capital receipts

2. ways and Means to raise revenue.

3. Details of Estimates of expenditure.

4. Details of the actual receipts and expenditure of the closing financial year and the reason for any deficit or surplus in that year, and

5. Economic and Financial policy of the coming year, that is taxation proposals, prospects of revenue, spending programme and introduction of new schemes/ Projects.

Separation of Railways Budget:

The central Government of India maintains the Railway Budget and the General Budget separately. The Railway Budget consists of estimates of receipts and expenditure of Ministry of Railway only. But the Union budget consists of the estimates of receipts and expenditure of all the Ministries of the Government of India.

The Railway Budget was separated from the General Budget in 1921 on the recommendations of the Acworth Committee. The reasons are as follows.,

1. To introduce flexibility in railway finance

2. To facilitate a business approach to the railway policy

3. To secure stability of the general revenues by providing an assured annual contribution from railway revenues.

4. To enable the railways to keep their profits a fixed annual contribution to the general revenues.

Stages In Enactment:

1. Presentation Of Budget:

The Annual Financial Statement is presented on the last working day of February. The finance Minister presents the General Budget with a speech known as the " Budget Speech". At the end of the speech in Lok Sabha, the budget is laid before the Rajya sabha in which the members can only discuss it but has no power to vote on the demands for grants or resend the Bill for reconsideration of the President.

2. General Discussion:

The general discussion on Budget begins a few days after its presentation. It takes places in both the houses of Parliament and lasts for three to four days. In this stage, the Lok Sabha can discuss the budget as a whole or on any question of principle involved therein but no cut motion can be moved nor can the budget be submitted to the vote of the House. The finance minister has the general right of reply at the end of the discussion.

3. Scrutiny by the Departmental Standing Committees:

After the general discussion on the annual financial statement is over, the House are adjourned for about three to four weeks. During this period of time, 17 standing committees of Parliament thoroughly examines and discuss in detail about the demands for grants of the related Ministries. Then it prepares reports on them. These reports are submitted to both the houses of Parliament for consideration. It is a inbound financial control over the administration in the country.

4. Voting on Demands for Grants:

After the report is submitted by the Standing Committees, the Lok Sabha takes up the voting process of demands for grants proposed on the scrutinized light of the report. The demands are presented ministry wise . The demands become a grant after it has been duly voted. The sole power to vote on grants are vested in the hands of Lok sabha only. More, the voting is confined to the votable part of the budget. It means , the expenditure charged on the consolidated fund of India is not submitted to the vote but rather it is only discussed.

When the Budget is voted, the members can even discuss the details of the budget. They can also move motions to reduce any demand for grant. Such motions are called as "Cut Motion".

i) Cut Motion: By using this the members can disapprove the policy underlying the demands. It states that the amount of the demand be reduced to Re.1. The members can also advocated an alternative policy.

ii) Economy Cut Motion: It shows the Eco0nomy that can be affected in the proposed expenditure. It states that the amount of the demand be reduced by a specified amount. This could be a lumpsum reduction in the demand or ommission or reduction of an item in the demand.

iii) Token Cut Motion: It mirrors a specific grievances that is within the sphere of responsibility of the Government of the demand be reduced by Rs.100. This motion represents two purposes., 1. Facilitating the initiation of concerned discussion on a specific demand for grant and 2. Upholding the principle of responsible government by probing the activities of the government.

Totally, there are 26 days are allocated for the voting of demands. On the last days the speaker puts all the remaining demands to vote and disposes those demands whether they have been discussed or not . This process is know as " Guillotine". This is also criticized as the Erosion on the Constitution of India.

5. Passing Of Appropriate Bill:

As per the Constitution of India, No Money can be withdrawn from the Consolidated fund of India except under "Appropriation Made By Law". In order to appropriate the fund from the Consolidated Fund Of India, the Appropriation Bill is introduced in the session to meet the required money of 1) Grants voted by Lok Sabha and 2) Expenditure charged on the consolidated fund of India.

In fact, no any amendments can be proposed to the appropriation bill in either house of the parliament that will have the effect of varying the amount or altering the destination of any grants voted or varying the amount of any expenditure charged on the consolidated fund of India. The appropriation bill becomes Appropriation Act after it is assented by the President. Now only the payment is authorized or legalized to withdraw money from the Consolidated fund.

6. Passing Of Finance Bill:

The finance bill as a finance proposal of the Government of India for the following year, it is subjected to all the conditions of a money bill(Art-110). Unlike in Appropriation Bill, the amendments that seeks to reject or reduce a tax) can be moved in the case of finance bill. According to the Collection of Taxes Act of 1931, the Finance Bill must be enacted within 75 days. Now, the Finance Bill of that year legalizes the income side of the budget and complete the process of enacting the Budget.

Finance Commission Of India:

Finance Commission of India is formed by the Art-280 of Indian Constitutional as a quasi judicial body of planning or staff agency. This is formed by the President of India once in 5 years or at such earlier time as he/she considers necessary for the purpose of devolution of non-plan resources.

Composition Of Finance Commission:

The Commission consists of One Chairman and Four other members who are appointed by the President Of India. The parliament is given the power to determine the qualifications of the Members.

Functions of Finance Commission Of India:

1. The Distribution of the net proceeds of Taxes to be shared between the center and states and the allocation between the states of the respective shares of such proceeds.

2. The Principles that should govern the grants in aid to the states by the Center.

3. The measures needed to augment the consolidated fund of a state to supplement the resources of the Panchayats and the municipalities in the states on the basis of the recommendations made by the state finance commission.

4. Any other matter referred to it by the president in the interests of sound finance.

5. The Commission submits its report to the president. He lays it before both the houses of Parliament along with an explanatory memorandum as to the action taken on its recommendations.

6. The advise made by the Commission are advisory only in nature but not binding on the government. It is up to the Union Government to implement its recommendations on granting money to the states.

Qualifications of the Members:

The Chairman shall be a person with experience in public affairs, and the four other members shall be selected as follows.,

1.Have been, or are qualified to be appointed as Judges of a High Court or

2.Have special knowledge of the finances and accounts of Government or

3.Have wide experience in financial matters and in administration or

4.Have special knowledge of economics

On the Following Basis a member is disqualified:

1.Unsound mind

2.Undischarged debts

3.Convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude

4.Financial or other interest as is likely to be prejudicial to his functions

The Finance Commissions Of India Formed so far and so far appointed Chairmans:


What is Measuring National Income:

Measures of national income and output are used in economics to estimate total economic activity in a country or region, including gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), and net national income (NNI). In nutshell it is a measure how much output, spending and income has been generated in a given time period.

Methods:

1. Output Method:The total value of the output of goods and services produced in India. It is finding the total output of a nation by directly finding the total value of all goods and services a nation produces. In this method only the final value of a good or service is included in total output.

2. Income Method: The total income generated through production of goods and services. It is finding the total output of a nation by finding the total income received by the factors of production owned by that nation.

3. Expenditure Method:The total amount of expenditure taking place in the economy. It is finding the total output of a nation by finding the total amount of money spent. GDP = C + I + G + (X - M).

National Income:

" A National Income estimate measures the volume of commodities and services turned out during a given period counted without duplication." Thus National Income measures the net value of goods and services in the country.The following are the importance of Calculating National Income.,

• To see the economic development of the country.
• To assess the developmental objectives.
• To know the contribution of the various sectors to National Income.

Concept Of National Income:

The following are the various concepts of National Income.,

1. Cross National Product(GDP):

It refers to the money value of total output or production of final goods and services produced by the nation of a country during a given period of time say for example 1 Year. From this definition let us find the calculation of GNP.,

GNP = Money Value of total output or production of final goods and services produced.

= GDP + (X-M) where GDP = Total money value of all Goods and services produced
within the boundaries of the nation(C+I+G).

so, = Consumer spending(C) + Investments on Assets(I) + Government Spending(G) +(
X(Income earned and received by nationals within boundaries) - M(Money paid by
India or Income received by Other nationals from the country))

= GNP

As GNP stands for Gross figure of national income in must include all the capital investments(GDP) and also revenue incomes(X) and the relevant revenue payments too to be deducted out of the total figure of GDP and X. Now the Gross figure of national income is derived.

Net National Product:

Net National Product is a mostly Revenue nature of Income which will show the net income after the expenses and losses on the capital goods.

NNP = GNP - Depreciation on Capital Stock Consumption

National Income:

Now, let us calculate National Income.,

National Income = NNP - Net Indirect Taxes

= NNP - (Indirect Taxes - Subsidies)

= National Income.

The National Income above derived is nothing but NNP only, but after the above calculation the NNP is at its Factor cost. Before the calculation it is at Market Cost. When NNP is derived at Factor Cost then it becomes National Income.
Public Debt:

It is an instrument of resource mobilization by the modern government. It simply denotes the "Borrowing of Government from People, RBI, Financial Institutions and so on". The following are the classification of Public Debt.,

1. Internal Debt:

When government borrows within the country, it is called internal debt such as borrowings from individuals, business establishments, financial institutions, commercial banks and central bank. Internal debt also includes Loans raised by the government in the open market through treasury bills and special securities issued to the RBI, Rupee securities(non-interest bearing) issued to international such as the IMF and the world Bank and most importantly various bonds like the oil bonds and fertilizer bonds ect.,

2. External Debt:

When government borrows the money from out side the country it is known as External Debt such as borrowings from Foreigners, foreign Banks, Foreign governments and international institutions. Unless the internal debt, the External debt has material loss to the debt country. The following are the some of examples.,

* Long term external debt which is the bulk part
* NRI deposit and multilateral loans
* Commercial borrowings
* Bilateral loans and
* Negligible amount from Export Credit

3. Voluntary and Compulsory:

When the Government borrows by issuing securities to which people are free to subscribe, it is called voluntary debt. When the government on the other hand, enforces borrowing through legal contexts or compulsions , then it is Compulsory debt.

4. Productive and Unproductive:

Productive debt is one which is incurred for those projects which yields income to the government. For example the debt incurred to meet expenditure on power projects, irrigation, public enterprises an railways. Whereas Unproductive debt neither yields any income not creates any assets. Debts incurred for Budgetary deficit, war, natural calamities ect.,

5. Funded and Non-Funded:

Funded debt is a long term debt payable after a year, while unfunded debt is a short term debt, payable within one year.

6. Redeemable and Irredeemable:

When the government borrows the money with a promise to pay off in future at a specified date then it is Redeemable debt. Whereas the government has no such agreement to redeem the money in future then it is irredeemable debt.
Zero Based Budgeting - An Introduction:

ZBB originated and developed in the USA. It was created by Peter A.Phyrr, a management private industry. The then President Jimmy Carter introduced this Budgeting system in USA.

ZBB is a rational system of Budgeting. Under this system, every schemes should be reviewed critically and readjusted totally from Zero)or scratch) before being included in budget. Thus the ZBB involves a total reexamination of all schemes afresh (from base Zero) instead of following the incremental approach to budgeting which begins with the estimation of current expenditure.

Advantages of ZBB:

1. It eliminates the low or lesser prioritized programs.

2. Improves the program effectiveness dramatically.

3. Makes the high impact programs to obtain more finances.

4. reduces the Tax increase.

5. It facilitates critical review of schemes in terms of their cost-effectiveness and cost benefits.

6. It provides for quick budget adjustments during the year.

7. Allocates the scarce resources rationally

8. It increases the participation of line hierarchy bureaucrats in the preparation of budget.

9. It detects Inflated Budget

10. It increases the responsibility in financial decision making in a greater extent.

11. Identifies the absolute source for outsourcing.

12. In India it was introduced in the Department of Science and Technology in 1983 and in all other departments in 1986-87.

13. It is also regarded as a greater legislative control over the executives.

14. Maharashtra government renamed and used it as Development based budget.

What is Fiscal Policy:

It is the use of government expenditure and revenue collection that directly and indirectly influences the economy of the nation. The following are the features of the Fiscal Policy.,

1. It can be contrasted with the other main types of economic policy, monetary policy, which attempts to stabilize the economy by controlling interest rates and supply of money.

2. The Two main instruments used in Fiscal Policy is i) Government spending and ii) Taxation.

3. It refers to the over all effect if the budget outcome on economic activity. In regards with this following are the three stances of Fiscal Policy.,









Fiscal system deals not only with the quantity but the quality of public finance as well. In other words, not merely how much is raised and spent but how has it been raised in the form of

i) Taxes -- Within Direct and Indirect Taxes
ii) Disinvestment proceeds.
iii) Borrowing from market and RBI

The Following are the Instruments are traded in Indian Money Market:

1.Call Money:The money market is a market for short-term financial assets that are close substitutes of money. The most important feature of a money market instrument is that it is liquid and can be turned over quickly at low cost and provides an avenue for equilibrating the short-term surplus funds of lenders and the requirements of borrowers. The call/notice money market forms an important segment of the Indian money market.

2. Commercial Papers:Commercial Paper is short-term loan that is issued by a corporation use for financing accounts receivable and inventories. Commercial Papers have higher denominations as compared to the Treasury Bills and the Certificate of Deposit. The maturity period of Commercial Papers are a maximum of 9 months.

3. Treasury Bills: The Treasury bills are short-term money market instrument that mature in a year or less than that. The purchase price is less than the face value. They have 3-month, 6-month and 1-year maturity periods.The security attached to the treasury bills comes at the cost of very low returns. Treasury bills began being issued by the Indian government in 1917.

4. Commercial Bills: It enhances he liability to make payment in a fixed date when goods are bought on credit through a short term, negotiable, and self-liquidating instrument with low risk.
It may be a demand bill or a usance bill. A demand bill is payable on demand, that is immediately at sight or on presentation by the drawee. A usance bill is payable after a specified time.

5. Certificate Of Deposit: The certificates of deposit are basically time deposits that are issued by the commercial banks with maturity periods ranging from 3 months to five years.The bearer of a certificate of deposit receives interest. The maturity date, fixed rate of interest and a fixed value - are the three components of a certificate of deposit. It was in 1989 that the certificate of deposit was first brought into the Indian money market.

6. Repo Instrument: The Repo or the repurchase agreement is used by the government security holder when he sells the security to a lender and promises to repurchase from him overnight. Repo transactions are allowed only among RBI-approved securities like state and central government securities, T-bills, PSU bonds, FI bonds and corporate bonds.

7. Banker Acceptance: It is a short-term credit investment. It is guaranteed by a bank to make payments. The Banker's Acceptance is traded in the Secondary market. 90 days is the usual term for these instruments. The term for these instruments can also vary between 30 and 180 days.

Structure Of Indian Money Market:

The Main Classification Of Indian Money Market:









1.Organized Sector Of Indian Money Market:


















2.Unorganized Sector:









3. Cooperative Sector:

1. Call Money Market:

* The rate in this market is "Call money Rate"
* The market for extreme short period of loans
* Money at call and short notice is primary tool.
* rate is determined by Demand and supply
* Money is lent to Money Brokers and stock exchange dealers.

The most important feature of a money market instrument is that it is liquid and can be turned over quickly at low cost and provides an avenue for equilibrating the short-term surplus funds of lenders and the requirements of borrowers. The call/notice money market forms an important segment of the Indian money market. Under call money market, funds are transacted on overnight basis and under notice money market, funds are transacted for the period between 2 days and 14 days.

2. Acceptance Market:

*Conditional transactions in which a good or service satisfies the needs and demands of a sufficiently large number of customers to continue or increase its production or availability.
* Acceptance of Trade Bills are main theme.
* The main operators are " Acceptance Houses and Commercial Banks"
* Promotes the operations of Discount Bills.

3. The Bill Market:

* The market where the commercial papers are transacted into money or notional money transactions.
* Market that deals for short term papers or bills., say for 6 months or extended.
* Main activity is buying and selling Short term papers and bill that have commercial transactions already done.
* It also includes the Commercial money market transactions and Treasury Bill market which are directly and indirectly connected with Commercial Banks and Acceptance houses.

4. Collateral Loan Market:

* The market where the asset which can be pledged as a security to the creditor by the borrower.
* All the assets to be made securities are transacted in the terms of monetary papers.
* It is very important section of money market in which the capital money and money value of the assets are brought into account. So, it fetches a heavy cash bunch and heavy cash picture both in monetary flow.
* It takes the form of loans over draft, cash credits ect.,
* The loans and advances are covered by collaborates like government securities, gold silver, stock and merchandises.

Money Market - Meaning by RBI:

" Money Market is the center for dealing mainly of short term character, in money assets, it meets short term requirements of borrowers and provide liquidity or cash to the lenders".

The Followings are the Components of Money Market(money channel that distributes the Money):

1. Central Bank : By regulating all the money flows in all the channels and institutions.
2. Commercial Banks: main nodal points for distributing and redistributing the money through various rates of transactions(CRR, SLR, Repo, Reverse Repo and ect.,)
3. Discount House : the institutions that rediscount all the Bills of Exchange.
4. Acceptance House:They are merchant bankers who accept the Bills of Exchange. They act as a second signatory of the bills of exchange.
5. Bill Brokers: They know their customers and act as intermediaries between the sellers and buyers of bill for a small commission.
Credit Control of RBI(briefly)

Need:

1.To encourage the priority sectors for overall growth
2.Fecilitate the flow of adequate volume of bank credit to its industry, agriculture and trade
3.To keep Inflation pressure under check
4.To ensure that Credit is not diverted to undesirable purposes
5.To fecilitate the Development of Indian economic growth

Types of credit control :

1)Quantitative Method

1.Bank rate policy: by controlling the ways and means advances to the govt.
2.Open Market operation: by controling Short term liquidity in the market.
3.variation of cash reserve ratio: by increasing or reducing CRR or SLR.
4.fixation of lending rate: control by Increasing or reducing the rate of primary or secondary lending rates
5.Credit sequeenze: by controlling the amount of bank credit at a certain limit and fixing maximum limit for commercial borrowings.

2)Qualitative Method

1.Fixation of Margin Requirement
2.Regulation of consumer credit
3.Rationing of credit
4.Prior authorisation of schemes
5.Moral sausion
6.Direct Action
RBI - Reserve Bank Of India:

Establishment:

The Reserve Bank of India was established on April 1, 1935 in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

The Central Office of the Reserve Bank was initially established in Calcutta but was permanently moved to Mumbai in 1937. The Central Office is where the Governor sits and where policies are formulated.

Though originally privately owned, since nationalisation in 1949, the Reserve Bank is fully owned by the Government of India.

Functions Of RBI in brief:

Fuctions:

The fuctions are classified into three heads,viz.,

A) Traditional functions
B) Promotional functions and
C) Supervisory functions. lets see the detailed accont in these heads.,

A) Traditional functions

1.Monopoly of currency notes issue

2.Banker to the Government(both the central and state)

3.Agent and advisor to the Government

4.Banker to the bankers

5.Acts as the clearing house of the country

6.Lender of the last resort

7.Custodian of the foreign exchange reserves

8.Maintaining the external value of domestic currency

9.Controller of forex and credit

10.Ensures the internal value of the currency

11.Publishes the Economic statistical data

12.Fight against economic crisis and ensures stability of Indian economy.

B) Promotional functions

1.Promotion of banking habit and expansion of banking systems.

2.Provides refinance for export promotion

3.Expansion of the facilities for the provision of the agricultural credit through NABARD

4.Extension of the facilities for the small scale industries

5.Helping the Co-operative sectors.

6.Prescribe the minimum statutory requirement.

7.Innovating the new banking business transactions.

C) Supervisory functions

1.Granting licence to Banks.

2.Inspects and makes enquiry or determine position in respect of matters under various sections of RBI
and Banking regulations

3.Implements Deposit insurence scheme

4.Periodical review of the work of the commercial banks

5.Giving directives to commercial banks

6.Control the non-banking finance corporation

7.Ensuring the health of financial system through on-site and off-site verification.

These are all the functions which are protective to the Indian Economy, thats why RBI is considered as the head of all banks.

Structure Of Indian Banking:

1.Scheduled Banks:

Scheduled banks in India constitute those banks which have been included in the Second Schedule of Reserve Bank of India(RBI) Act, 1934. RBI in turn includes only those banks in this schedule which satisfy the criteria laid down vide section 42 (6) (a) of the Act. In 1999, there were 300 scheduled banks in India having a total network of 64,918 branches. The scheduled commercial banks in India comprise of State bank of India and its associates, nationalised banks , foreign banks , private sector banks , co-operative banks and regional rural banks.

2. Non-Scheduled Banks:

Non-scheduled bank in India" means a banking company as defined in clause (c) of section 5 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (10 of 1949), which is not a scheduled bank.

3. Regional Rural Bank(RRBs):

State Bank Of India has the directive control over the RRBs which has spread in 13 states across the country. Till date in rural banking in India, there are 14,475 rural banks in the country of which 2126 (91%) are located in remote rural areas. The main purpose of the RRBs is to develop the rural growth and employment. The Following are the main RRBs presently located in some states.,

1) Andhra Pradesh:

*Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank
*Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank
*Deccan Grameena Bank
*Chaitanya Godavari Grameena Bank
*Saptagiri Grameena Bank

2) Bihar:

*Madhya Bihar Gramin Bank
*Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Uttar Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Kosi Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Samastipur Kshetriya Gramin Bank

3) Chattisgarh:

*Chhattisgarh Gramin Bank
*Surguja Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Durg-Rajnandgaon Gramin Bank

4) Gujarat:

*Dena Gujarat Gramin Bank
*Baroda Gujarat Gramin Bank
*Saurashtra Gramin Bank

5) Haryana:

*Harayana Gramin Bank
*Gurgaon Gramin Bank

6) Himachal Pradesh:

*Himachal Gramin Bank
*Parvatiya Gramin Bank

7) Jammu and Kashmir:

*Jammu Rural Bank
*Ellaquai Dehati Bank
*Kamraz Rural Bank

8) Punjab:

*Punjab Gramin Bank
*Faridkot-Bhatinda Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Malwa Gramin Bank

9) Assam:

*Assam Gramin Vikash Bank
*Langpi Dehangi Rural Bank

10) kerala:

*Narmada Malwa Gramin Bank
*North Malabar Gramin Bank

11) Jharkand:

*Jharkhand Gramin Bank
*Vananchal Gramin Bank

12) Tamil Nadu:

*Pandyan Grama Bank
*Pallavan Grama Bank

13) Mahdya Pradesh:

*Narmada Malwa Gramin Bank
*Satpura Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Madhya Bharath Gramin Bank
*Chambal-Gwalior Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Rewa-Sidhi Gramin Bank
*Sharda Gramin Bank
*Ratlam- Mandsaur Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Vidisha Bhopal Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Mahakaushal Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Jhabua Dhar Kshetriya Gramin Bank

14) Maharashtra:

*Marathwada Gramin Bank
*Aurangabad -Jalna Gramin Bank
*Wainganga Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Vidharbha Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Solapur Gramin Bank
*Thane Gramin Bank
*Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Gramin Bank

15) Karnataka:

*Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank
*Pragathi Gramin Bank
*Cauvery Kalpatharu Grameena Bank
*Krishna Grameena Bank
*Chikmagalur-Kodagu Grameena Bank
*Visveshvaraya Gramin Bank

16) Rajasthan:

*Baroda Rajasthan Gramin Bank
*Marwar Ganganagar Bikaner Gramin Bank
*Rajasthan Gramin Bank
*Jaipur Thar Gramin Bank
*Hodoti Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Mewar Anchalik Gramin Bank

17) Orissa:

*Kalinga Gramya Bank
*Utkal Gramya Bank
*Baitarani Gramya Bank
*Neelachal Gramya Bank
*Rushikulya Gramya Bank

18) West Bengal:

*Bangiya Gramin Vikash Bank
*Paschim Banga Gramin Bank
*Uttar Banga Kshetriya Gramin Bank

19) Meghalaya:

Ka Bank Nogkyndong Ri Khasi- Jaintia

20) Arunachal Pradesh:

Arunachal Pradesh Rural Bank

21) Nagaland:

Nagaland Rural Bank

22) Manipur:

Manipur Rural Bank

23) Tripura:

Tripura Gramin Bank

24) Mizoram:

Mizoram Rural Bank

25) Uttar Pradesh:

*Purvanchal Gramin Bank
*Kashi Gomti Samyut Gramin Bank
*Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank
*Shreyas Gramin Bank
*Lucknow Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Ballia Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Triveni Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Aryavart Gramin Bank
*Kisan Gramin Bank
*Kshetriya Kisan Gramin Bank
*Etawah Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Rani Laxmi Bai Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Baroda Western Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank
*Devipatan Kshetriya Gramin Bank
*Prathama Bank
*Baroda Eastern Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank

26) Uttaranchal :

*Uttaranchal Gramin Bank
*Nainital Almora Kshetriya Gramin Bank

Banks In India:

Nationalization Of Banks:

Nationalization of Banks in 1969 has been one of the significant economic, political and social events of Post Independent India. Apart from the fact that it had the imprint of the personality of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, it has several significances which merit attention. The Indian banking industry had become an important tool to facilitate the development of the Indian economy during this time. Jayaprakash Narayan, a national leader of India, described the step as a "masterstroke of political sagacity." Within two weeks of the issue of the ordinance, the Parliament passed the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertaking) Bill, and it received the presidential approval on 9 August 1969.
Reasons for Nationalization:

1. Reasons by the then PM Smt.Indira Gandhi:

1. The removal of unnecessary control over money flow
2. For adequate credit facilities to agriculture, small industry and exports
3. Professional bent to Bank Management
4. Encourage Entrepreneurial Development
5. Adequate training and terms for banking staff.

2. Monetization of government transactions for the purpose of welfare state.

3. Overall Monetary Integrations.

4. Socialization of issues of Government for the purpose of welfare activities.

5. Preventing concentration of economic powers.

6. Giving social control over monetary behaviors.

7. Channeling for planning and priority sectors.

8. Greater mobilization of funds.

9. Greater agricultural concentration.

10. balanced regional development.

11. Greater control by central Bank(RBI).

12. Small stake of shareholders.

13. Greater stability of Banking structure.

14. Greater socialism activities.

15. Better service conditions to staffs.

16. New schemes to be implemented easily.

The Nationalized Banks in India:

*Nationalised Banks
* Allahabad Bank
* Andhra Bank
* Bank of Baroda
* Bank of India
* Bank of Maharashtra
* Canara Bank
* Central Bank of India
* Corporation Bank
* Dena Bank
* Indian Bank
* Indian Overseas Bank
* Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC)
* Punjab and Sind Bank
* Punjab National Bank (PNB)
* Syndicate Bank
* UCO Bank
* Union Bank of India
* United Bank of India (UBI)
* Vijaya Bank

State Bank of India and Associates

* State Bank of India (SBI)
* State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ)
* State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH)
* State Bank of Indore (SBIR)
* State Bank of Mysore (SBM)
* State Bank of Patiala (SBP)
* State Bank of Saurashtra (SBS)
* State Bank of Travancore (SBT)

Other Public Sector Bank

* IDBI Ltd.
Various Committees On Taxation Reforms In India:

1. Taxation Enquiry Committee:

i) It was established in 1953 chaired by Dr.John Mathal.

ii) To examine the incidents of Central, State and Local taxation on various classes of people.

iii) To examine the suitability of tax system to remove inequalities.

iv) To examine the effect of taxation on income and capital formation.

v) To explore fresh avenues of taxation

2. Indian Tax Reforms Committee:

i) Made in 1956

ii) Chaired by Prof.Kaldor

iii) Measures to widen the basis of Taxation on the following items.,

* Wealth Tax
* Capital Gains Tax
* Gift Tax
* Expenditure Tax
* Reforming
* Commercial Tax
* Tax Evasion

3. Boothalingam Committee:

i) main report was on " Rationalization and Simplification of Direct Taxation in India.

ii) Recommended 10% advalorem on all products.

iii) Simplification of Customs rates.

iv) Raising of exemption limit to the Income tax.

v) Abolition of Dividend Tax.

4. Direct Taxes Enquiry Committee:

i) Made in 1970 and Chaired by Mr.K.N.Wanchoo.

ii) Main concern of the committee was on Black Money.

iii) Extent of Black Money

iv) Causes of Tax Evasion

v) Measures to unearth Black Money

vi) Fighting Tax Evasion.
Value Added Tax:

The VAT belongs to the family of Sales Tax(one of the Indirect Taxes). It can be defined as " A Tax to be paid by the manufacturers or traders of goods and services on the basis of value added by them". It is not on the total manufactured or sold products but on the Value added by the manufacturers and producers.

VAT = Tax Base(Value Added by the manufacturers) * rate of tax

Highlights Of VAT:

1. Recommended by Empowered Committee of state Finance Ministers, in its meeting in 2004.

2. Now, all the states have agreed upon VAt and the last state which added VAT was Uttar Pradesh

3. The states level VAT being implemented presently has replaced the Sales tax.

4. Central Government acts as a facilitator to successful implementation of VAT.

5. Rate of Tax mainly is 4% on declared goods or goods commonly used and 10%-12% on goods called revenue neutral rates.

6. Two special rates imposed - 1% on silver or Gold and 20% on liquor.

7. Tax on Petrol, diesel or aviation turbine fuel are proposed to be kept out of from VAT system as they would be continued to be taxed as presently applicable by the CST Act.

8. With out the rate discrimination, VAT provides the Uniform Rates which helps to reduces the tax evasion and black money.

9. Tax concession to new industries is done away with in the VAT system.

10. All the tax paid on the goods purchased within the states would be adjusted against the tax, payable on the sales, whether within the state or in the course of interstate.

11. This helps to avoid the Trade Diversion of any states that has trade transaction with some other states which may have different tax system that may discourage the neighbor states to avoid or deviate such trades with those states.

12. As VAT levies tax on the value added by the producers, it completely avoids the Cascading effect(the tax is levied on the total amount that includes the amount of tax alreday paid in some other different stages of VAT.

Advantages:

1. Easy to Administer
2. Effective and Efficiency
3. Neutrality
4. Reduce Tax Evasion
5. Possibility of Cross Checking
6. Less Tax Burden
7. Encourage Exports.
8. Improved Productivity
9. Burden of Tax is shared by all Factors.
10. Major Source of revenue is possible due to encouraged tax payers.

Disadvantages :

1. Not as simple system to adopt in under developed country
2. Requires an advanced and wide economic structure
3. Possibility of Tax avoidance
4. High cost of maintaining
5. May cause to inflation
6. Regressive nature of operation.
Tax:

Tax is a particular rate of amount or portion of income of the above average income people which will help the functioning of the government for the nation's welfare development. Tax is an important source of Government that plays a vital role in budget corpus and financial management.

Tax System In India:

India has two types of Taxes., namely i) Direct Taxes and ii) Indirect Taxes. India as a semi federal government, all the state governments too have been permitted to levy tax. But the states are restricted in the the sphere of Indirect taxes like Sales Tax, VAT or MODVAT ect., BUT THE SOLE POWER TO LEVY AND COLLECT THE DIRECT TAXES IS FETCHED IN THE HANDS OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT ONLY. As the quasi federal, Central shares the Direct Taxes collected, with the state governments as "GRANDS IN AID". Apart from that, States and Central governments are allowed to levy and collect Taxes in some classified regards by the Constitution of India. But there are no taxes which are levied by both the Governments after 80th Constitutional amendments.

Tax Income Sharing between Center and States:

1. Art-268A - Service Taxes levied by Union and collected and appropriated by Union and states.

2. Art-269 - Taxes levied and collected by Union but assigned to the States.

3. Art-270 - Taxes levied and distributed between Union and States.

4. Art-271 - Surcharges on certain duties and taxes for purpose of the Union

5. Art-272 - Taxes levied and collected by Union and may be distributed between Union and States.

6. Art-273 - Grands in lieu of export duty on jute and jute products.

Direct Taxation In India:

Direct Taxation in India is based on proportional rate system which will be progressive base levied on the Income slab that shows the gradual and relevant progress of the income of the tax payers which gets such progress in accordance with progress of the Indian Economy.

The 2010 and 2011 Tax proposal is an best example for this.,

Up to 1,60,000
Up to 1,90,000 (for women)
Up to 2,40,000 (for resident individual of 65 years or above) - Nil

1,60,001 – 5,00,000 - 10%

5,00,001 – 8,00,000 - 20%

8,00,001 upwards - 30%

Let us see the Types of Direct Taxes one by one.,

1. Tax on Income or Personal Tax:

Personal Tax is levied on the Personal Income gained by the above average income earner which is fixed by the finance ministry. This tax is levied on the income of the individuals , Hindu families, unregistered firms and others associations of peoples. The marginal rate for income tax in India was 97.75% which was the highest in the world. On the direction of the DIRECT TAX ENQUIRY COMMITTEE the marginal rate of tax was reduced to 77%.

2. Corporate Tax:

It is levied on the Income of registered companies and corporations. As the companies are regarded as the separate legal entity, the income of the companies and corporates are also taken as individual income. Like the individual tax provisions, parliament also establishes Corporate Tax too separately.

In India, Zero Tax companies requires handling. This has done by levying a Minimum Alternate Tax(MAT). The current base of MAT is book profits. This is easily manipulates by various companies to generate zero tax.

3. Wealth Tax:

*It is levied on excess of net wealth of an individual or corporate, Joint Hindu Family. For the purpose of assessing the net value of the wealth , the market value is taken as base value.

* Certain wealths like Agricultural lands, Agri assets, Balance of Provident Fund, Life insurance are exempted from the wealth tax .

* Productive assets like share bonds and bank deposits are exempted from wealth tax after the recommendations of Raja Chellaiah committeee.

4. Estate Duty:

It was levied on total property passing on the death of a person. It was abolished in 1985 by Indian Government.

5. Gift Tax:

It was leviable on all donations except the ones given by Charitable institutions, government companies and private companies. It was abolished in 1998.

The world's 10 fastest supercomputers

1.

The world's first fastest supercomputer is Cray XT5, also known as “Jaguar”. Located at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for achieving another supercomputing milestone. With a peak speed of 2.33 petaflops (over two thousand trillion calculations per second),

The new 1.64-petaflop Cray XT Jaguar features more than 180,000 processing cores, each with 2 gigabytes of local memory. The resources of the ORNL computing complex provide scientists with a total performance of 2.5 petaflops. Which beating IBM's Roadrunner, who has been holding the top crown since past 18 months.


2.

Roadrunner is a supercomputer built by IBM at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA.

Currently the world's second fastest computer. The supercomputer was designed and developed for the DOE and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) under the DOE/LANL project name "Roadrunner."

In November 2008, it reached a top performance of 1.456 petaflops, retaining its top spot in the TOP500 list.


3.

Cray XT5 system, also known as "Kraken" was ranked as world's 3rd fastest supercomputer. Located at the National Institute for Computational Sciences (University of Tennessee), Kraken supercomputer achieved a speed of 832 teraflop/s. A teraflop/s is a trillion calculions per second. Both Kraken and Jaguar are Cray XT5 supercomputers.


4.

IBM's BlueGene/P was ranked as world's 4th fastest supercomputer. Located at the Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany. The BlueGene/P is the fastest computer outside United States. It achieved 825.5 teraflop/s.


5.

Tianhe-1 supercomputer, and was ranked as world's 5th fastest supercomputer. Tianhe-1, which means River in Sky, is located at the National Super Computer Center in Tianjin, China. The system is used for research in petroleum exploration and simulation of large aircraft designs.

Tianhe-1 achieved a speed of 563 teraflops in the tests, but it is capable of 1.042 petaflops, and is a hybrid design with Intel Xeon and AMD graphics processors used as accelerators. Each node consists of two AMD GPUs attached to two Intel Xeon chips. Tianhe-1 runs an operating system based on the Linux kernel.


6.

SGI Altix supercomputer known as Pleiades, was ranked as world's 6th fastest supercomputer. The supercomputer is located at NASA's Ames Research Center (NAS).


7.

The seventh fastest supercomputer in the world is again from IBM, BlueGene/L. The supercomputer is located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Terascale Simulation Facility. After an upgrade in 2007 the performance increased to 478.2 trillion floating operations per second (teraFLOPS) on Linpack.
BlueGene/L had been used widely for materials science calculations such as assessing materials at extreme temperatures and pressures.


8.

IBM BlueGene/P was ranked as world's 8th fastest supercomputer. The supercomputer was installed in 2007 in US-based Argonne National Laboratory.


9.

Sun Microsystem's Ranger was ranked as world's 9th fastest supercomputer. The Ranger supercomputer belongs to Sun's Blade System family. The supercomputer is located at Texas Advanced Computing Center. Running on AMD x86_64 Opteron Quad Core 2300 MHz processor, Rangers main memory is a mammoth 125952 GB


10.

Juropa was ranked as world's 10th fastest supercomputer. Companies from Europe and the United States have joined hands with Forschungszentrum Jlich research centre in Germany, to enter the future of high-performance cluster computing.

The system was designed by experts of the Jülich Supercomputing Center and implemented in conjunction with partner companies Bull, Sun, Intel, Mellanox and ParTec. Es besteht aus 2208 Rechenknoten mit einer Gesamtrechenleistung von 207 Teraflop/s. It consists of 2208 compute nodes with a total computing performance of 207 teraflop / s.

FACTS OF GEOGRAPHY

Coldest Place in India

Drass in western Ladakh is the coldest place in India. It is also the second coldest place in the world after Siberia. Temperatures drop down to about -40 degrees Celsius in winters. However, summers in Drass are balmy and many trekkers and campers visit Drass during the summer time. Drass has an altitude of 3230 m and lies 60 km west of Kargil on the road to Srinagar. The Drass valley starts from the base of the Zojila pass, the Himalayan gateway to Ladakh. Drass is a convenient base camp for treks to Suru valley. Inhabitants of Drass are of Dard descent, an Indo-Aryan race believed to have originally migrated to Ladakh from Central Asia.

Easternmost Point of India

Kibithu is the easternmost point of India. Kibithu is a tiny village located at an altitude of 11,000 feet in Arunachal Pradesh's Lohit District, bordering China's Tibet region. Kibithoo is nestled on the right bank of the mighty Lohit River. It is the first settlement along the banks of Lohit River in Arunachal Pradesh after the river enters the Indian Territory from China. The climate of Kibithu is cool and salubrious. The whispering pine forests, wild rash berries, beautiful flowers and majestic waterfalls set against tall blue hills add to the abundant natural beauty of Kibithu.

Kibithu witnessed some of the fiercest fights by Indian Soldiers against the Chinese in 1962. But with the passage of time, after Nathu La, Kibithu is fast emerging to be a new melting point of Indo-China friendship. It offers relatively easy travel up to Chinese side.

Geographical Area of India

India has an area of 3,287,240 sq. km. It is the seventh largest country of the world after Russia (1,70,75,000 sq. km), Canada (99,76,132 sq. km), China (99,76,132 sq. km), the U.S.A. (90,72,340 sq. km), Brazil (85,11,965 sq. km) and Australia (76,82,300 sq. km). India accounts for about 2.4 per cent of the total surface area of the world. India is nearly twenty times as large as Great Britain. Many of the Indian states are larger than several countries of the world.

Highest Mountain Peak in India

Kanchenjunga is the highest mountain peak in India. Kanchenjunga has an altitude of 8,586 metres (28,169 feet). It is engirdled by three territories: Sikkim in the south and east, Nepal in the west, and Tibet in the north. The name Kanchenjunga is derived from the Tibetan words, 'Kanchen' and 'Dzonga', meaning 'Five Treasuries of the Great Snow', as it contains five peaks. The treasures represent the five repositories of god, which are gold, silver, gems, grain, and holy books. The five ridges are named according to their respective directions with reference to the main peak to which they are attached.

The five peaks of Kanchenjunga are:

• Kanchenjunga Main: 8,586 m
• Kanchenjunga West: 8,505 m
• Kangchenjunga Central: 8,482m
• Kangchenjunga South: 8,494m
• Kangbachen: 7,903m

• Largest Alluvial Plain of the World

  The Great Plain of North India also known as Indo-Gangetic-Brahmaputra Plain is the largest alluvial plain of the world. This arcuate plain extends for a length of 3200 km from the mouth of the Indus to the mouth of the Ganga. The plain lies partly in Pakistan and partly in India. The length of the plain in India is around 2400 km. The average width of the plain varies from 150 to 300 km. It is widest in the west where it stretches for about 500 km. Its width decreases in the east. It is about 280 km wide near Allahabad and 160 km near Rajmahal Hills. The plain widens to about 460 km in Bengal but narrows down in Assam where it is only 60-100 km wide. The plain covers a total area of 7.8 lakh sq km. The northern boundary of the plain is well defined by the foothills of the Shiwaliks but its southern boundary is a wavy irregular line along the northern edge of the Peninsular India.

• Largest Delta in India

  Sundarban is the largest delta in India. The Sundarbans are a part of the world's largest delta formed by the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna. They are vast tract of forest and saltwater swamp forming the lower part of the Ganges Delta, extending about 260 km along the Bay of Bengal from the Hooghly River Estuary in India to the Meghna River Estuary in Bangladesh. Sunderban covers an area of 4262 sq. km in India.
  
  Sunderban is a unique ecosystem dominated by mangrove forests and gets its name from the Sundari trees. Sunderban is spread over 54 islands and two countries. It is one of the last preserves of the Bengal tiger and the site of a tiger preservation project.

• Largest District in India

  Kachchh (also spelled as Kutch) in Gujarat, with an area of 45,652 sq km is the largest District in India. The administrative headquarters of Kachchh is in Bhuj. The district's five main towns are Gandhidham, Bhuj, Anjaar, Mandavi and Mundra. There are 966 smaller villages in the area.
  
  Kachchh literally means something which intermittently becomes wet and dry. Rann of Kachchh, a significant region of Kachchh district is shallow wet-land which submerges in water during the rainy season and becomes dry during other seasons. Kachchhi and Gujarati are the dominant languages of the area. Kachchhi draws heavily from its neighbouring language groups: Sindhi, Punjabi and Gujarati.

Largest Glacier in India

Siachen Glacier is the largest glacier in India. In fact, it has the distinction of being the largest glacier outside the polar and the sub-polar regions. Siachen glacier is 75.6 km long and 2.8 km wide. It is the source for the 80km-long Nubra River, a tributary of the Shyok, which is part of the Indus River system.

The Siachen Glacier lies south of the great watershed that separates China from the Indian subcontinent in the extensively glaciated portion of the Karakoram. The word 'Siachen' means "the place of wild roses". Siachen also has the dubious distinction of being the highest battleground on earth. India and Pakistan have fought intermittently since April 13, 1984. The volume of the glacier has been reduced by 35 percent over the last twenty years. Global warming and military activity have been cited as the main reasons for the receding of the glacier.

Largest Physiographic Unit of India

India is divided into five physiographic divisions. These are:

• The Himalayan Mountains
• The Great Plains of North India
• The Peninsular Plateau
• The Coastal Plains
• The Islands

Among these five physiographic units, The Peninsular Plateau is the largest physiographic unit of India. The entire plateau measures about 1,600 km in the north-south and 1400 km in east-west direction. It covers a total area of about 16 lakh sq km which is about half of the total land area of the country. The Peninsular Plateau is roughly triangular in shape with base coinciding with the southern edge of the great plain of North India and its apex is formed by Kanyakumari in the southern extremity.

Largest River Island in India

Majuli Island in Assam is the largest river Island in India. Majuli is in the Brahmaputra River, and is about 200 kilometres east from Guwahati, the capital of Assam. Majuli was formed due to course changes by the river Brahmaputra and its tributaries, mainly the Lohit. The total area of the island was 1250 sq.km but due to erosion its present area is 557 sq km.

Majuli is inhabited mainly by tribals. Major tribes are: Mishing, Deori, and Sonowal Kacharis. Major languages spoken in Majuli are Assamese, Mishing, and Deori. The island has twenty-three villages with a population of 150,000 and a density of 300 persons per square km.

Largest State in India

Rajasthan with an area of 342,239 sq km is the largest state in India. Before the formation of Chattisgarh as a separate state in the year 2000, Madhya Pradesh was the largest Indian state in terms of area. Rajasthan is located in the western part of India and has two distinct geographical regions with desert on one side and thick forest on the other. Aravalli the oldest mountain chain is the dividing line between the two climatic zones of the State. Western Rajasthan encompasses most of the area of the Great Indian Desert (also known as Thar Desert). The eastern region of the State has thick vegetation of Sal, Axlewood, Dhak and Mesquite.

Largest Union Territory in India

Andaman & Nicobar Islands with an area of 8,249 sq km is the largest union territory in India. The Andaman & Nicobar Islands are situated between 6^o and 14^o North Latitude and 92^o and 94^o East Longitude. The group of 572 islands / islets is located in the Bay of Bengal, 1,255 km from Kolkata and 1190 km from Chennai. The entire chain of island consists of two distinct groups of islands. The Great Andaman group of islands in the north is separated by the Ten Degree Channel from the Nicobar group in the south. The Andaman group of islands is divided into three main groups viz., North Andaman, Middle Andaman and South Andaman. Little Andaman is separated from the Great Andamans by 50 km wide Duncan Passage. The Nicobar group of islands consists of 7 big and 12 small islands together with several tiny islands. The Great Nicobar is the largest of all the islands.

Length of Coastline of India

Length of coastline of India including the coastlines of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshwadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea is 7517 km. Length of Coastline of Indian mainland is 6100 km. Coastline of Indian mainland is surrounded by Arabian Sea in the west, Bay of Bengal in the east, and Indian Ocean in the south. length of total coastline of India. The long coast line of India is dotted with several major ports such as Kandla, Mumbai, Navasheva, Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Tuticorin, Vishakapatnam, and Paradip. For the effective defence of Indian Coastline, a separate force known as Indian Coast Guard was formed on February 1, 1977.

Longest River of India

Ganga is the longest river of India. The total length of the Ganga river from its source to its mouth (measured along the Hughli) is 2525 km of which 1450 km is in the Uttar Pradesh, 445 km in Bihar and 520 km in West Bengal. The remaining 110 km stretch of the Ganga forms the boundary between Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The Ganga originates as Bhagirathi from the Gangotri glacier in Uttar Kashi District. It is joined by the Alaknanda at Devaprayag and the combined flow of the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda is known as Ganga. After traveling 280 km from its source, Ganga enters plains at Haridwar. At Allahabad, about 770 km south-east of Haridwar, Ganga is joined by Yamuna, which is its most important tributary. After Farraka in West Bengal, the river ceases to be known as the Ganga. It bifurcates itself into Bhagirathi-Hughli in West Bengal and Padma-Meghna in Bangladesh. After traversing 220 km further down in Bangladesh, the Brahmaputra joins it at Goalundo and after meeting Meghna 100 km downstream the Ganga joins the Bay of Bengal.

Longitudinal & Latitudinal Extents of India

India lies wholly in the northern and eastern hemispheres. The main land of India extends from 8^o 4' 28" N to 37^o 17' 53" N latitudes and from 68^o 7' 53" E to 97^o 24' 47" E longitudes. The latitudinal and longitudinal extent of India is approximately the same i.e. 30^o. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands extend further southwards and add to the latitudinal extent of India. The southernmost point known as the Indira Point in the Great Nicobar Island is at 6^o 45' N. The latitudinal extent of India from Kashmir in the north to Kanyakumari in the south is 3,214 km. India's longitudinal extent from the Rann of Kutch in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east is 2,933 km.

Northernmost Point of India

Northernmost Point of India is disputed. The Siachen Glacier in the State of Jammu & Kashmir is the northern most point under Indian control. India claims the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of Instrument of Accession signed in 1947, which inter alia includes Gilgit, Baltistan, and Kanjut. Gilgit, Baltistan, and Kanjut are presently under the control of Pakistan. The northern most point if we take the whole state of J&K in consideration is Dafdar in the Taghdumbash Pamir near Beyik Pass in Kanjut.

Smallest District in India

Mahe is the smallest district in India. It has an area of 9 sq. km. Mahe is geographically located in the state of Kerala, where as administratively it comes under the control of Union Territory of Pondicherry. Mahe has the official name of Mayyazhi in the local Malayalam language.

Mahe has a population of about 36,000 according to the 2001 census. The population density of the town is 4091 per sq. km. Males constitute 47% of the population and females 53%. Mahe has an average literacy rate of 85%. Mahe has two members in the Pondicherry Legislative Assembly, representing Mahe and Palloor.

Smallest State in India

Goa with an area of 3702 sq. km is the smallest State in India. Goa was a Portuguese colony and was liberated from Portuguese rule on December 19, 1961. After its independence Goa along with Daman & Diu was accorded the status of Union Territory. On May 30, 1987, the Union Territory was split, and Goa was elevated as India's 25th state, with Daman and Diu remaining Union Territories. Goa is one of the most developed states of India. Tourism is the mainstay of Goa. Panaji is the capital of Goa and Vasco is its largest town. The main language of Goa is Konkani.

Smallest Union Territory in India

Lakshadweep with an area of 32 sq km is the smallest Union Territory in India. Lakshadweep islands lie in the Arabian Sea and extend from 8^o N to 12^o 20' N and 71^o 45' E to 74^o E. The islands north of 11^o N are known as Amindivi Islands while those south of this latitude are called Cannanore Islands. In the extreme south is the Minicoy Island. The Laccadives, Minicoy and Amindivi group of islands were renamed as Lakshadweep in 1973. All the islands are of coral origin. The islands consist of 12 atolls, three reefs and submerged sand banks. Of the 27 islands, only 11 are inhabited.

Southernmost Point of India

Indira Point, the southernmost tip of the Great Nicobar island is the southernmost point of land in the territory of India. It is at 6^o 45' N latitude. Indira Point was formerly known as Pygmalion Point and it was so named by the late Rajiv Gandhi after his mother on a visit to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. A large part of the Indira point was submerged under the sea due to the tsunami generated by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The sea is now slowly retreating back to its original position. Indira Point is also a favourite nesting site for exotic sea animals.

Southernmost Point of Indian Mainland

Kanyakumari is the southernmost Point of Indian Mainland. Kanyakumari, also known as Cape Comorin, is located in the state of Tamil Nadu. Kanyakumari has great geographical significance as it is the confluence of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal meet. The place is famous for its spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Kanyakumari has been associated with great men such as Swami Vivekanada and Mahatma Gandhi. Swamy Vivekananda visited Kanyakumari during 24th, 25th and 26th December 1892 for deep meditation and enlightenment. To commemorate the visit, a monument known as Vivekananda Rock Memorial, has been built which attracts a large number of tourists. Mahatma Gandhi visited Kanyakumari twice in 1925 and 1937.

Westernmost Point of India

West of Ghuar Mota in Gujarat is the westernmost point of India. Its Latitude/Longitide is 23.67 N/ 68.52 E. Ghuar Mota is in the Kutch region of Gujarat. Other cities located near Ghuar Mota are: Koteshwar, Mudia, Panadra, Pipar, Ber Mota, Ber, Lakhpat, and Lakhpal.

Kutch was one of the princely states of India during the British rule. During the monsoon season the region becomes virtually an island resembling a tortoise "Katchua", surrounded by seawater. Kutch has an extreme climate and the temperature ranges from 20^o C in winter to 45^o C in summers.

Wettest Place in India

Wettest Place in India is Cherrapunji. In fact, Cherrapunji is the wettest place on the earth. The place receives an annual rainfall of over 1200 cm. Cherrapunji is situated at 56 kms from Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, in one of the heaviest rain-belts in the world. However, off late, a ding-dong battle has been on between Cherrapunji and the neighbouring village of Mawsynram for the crown of "Wettest Place in the World". Sometimes, it is Cherrapunji which records highest annual rainfall in the world and sometimes it is Mawsynram. However, meteorologists question the genuineness of the data obtained from Mawsynram. Unlike Cherrapunji, there is no meteorological office at Mawsynram and the readings there are taken by a peon of the Meghalaya Public Works Department posted there.

State with Least Number of Districts in India

Goa is the state with least number of districts in India. It has two districts: North Goa & South Goa.

The North Goa District has an area of 1736 sq. Km. Geographical position of Goa is marked by 15^o 48' 00" N to 14^o 53' 54" N latitudes and 73^o E to 75^o E longitudes. North Goa shares its boundaries with the Sawantwadi & Dodamarg, of Ratnagiri District and Kolhapur District of Maharastra state and with South Goa District shares the southern boundary.

South Goa is situated between the latitudinal paralles of 15^o 29' 32" N and 14^o 53' 57" N and longitudinal parallels of 73^o 46' 21" E and 74^o 20' 11" E. Arabian Sea is to the west of district, North Goa district to the North and Uttar Kannada district of Karnataka in the East and South. The total geographical area of the district is 1966 sq km.

State with Maximum Number of Districts in India

Uttar Pradesh is the state with maximum number of districts in India. It has a total of 70 districts. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous and fifth largest state of India. Only five countries of the world, China, the United States, Indonesia, Brazil and India itself have populations larger than that of Uttar Pradesh. Kanpur is the largest city of Uttar Pradesh and as per the 2001 census six cities of Uttar Pradesh, namely, Agra, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi have population of over million.

The 70 districts are as follows:

Agra Aligarh Allahabad Ambedkar Nagar Auraiya Azamgarh Baghpat Bahraich Ballia Balrampur Banda Barabanki Bareilly Basti Bijnor Budaun Bulandshahar Chandauli Chitrakoot Deoria Etah Faizabad Farukkhabad

Fatehpur Firozabad Gautam Buddha Nagar Ghaziabad Ghazipur Gonda Gorakhpur Hamirpur Hardoi Hathras Jalaun Kannauj Website Kanpur Dehat Kanpur Nagar Kaushambi Kushi Nagar Lakhimpur Kheri Lalitpur Lucknow Maharajganj Mahoba Jaunpur Jyotiba Phoole Nagar Mainpuri

Mau Mathura Meerut Mirzapur Moradabad Muzaffar Nagar Pilibhit Pratapgarh Raebareli Rampur Saharanpur Sant Kabir Nagar Sant Ravidas Nagar Shahjahanpur Shravasti Siddharth Nagar Sitapur Sonbhadra Sultanpur Unnao Varanasi

PROVISION OF URBAN AMENITIES IN RURAL AREAS (PURA)

Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India has re-launched the scheme “Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas” (PURA) as a Central Sector scheme during remaining period of the XI Plan. MoRD with support from Department of Economic Affairs and the technical assistance of Asian Development Bank intends to implement the PURA scheme under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework between Gram Panchayat(s) and private sector partners. The scheme envisages twinning of rural infrastructure development with economic re-generation activities and is the first attempt at delivering a basket of infrastructure and amenities through PPP in the rural areas. It is an effort to provide a different framework for the implementation of rural
infrastructure development schemes and harness private sector efficiencies in the management of assets and delivery of services.

The scope of the scheme is to select private partners to develop livelihood opportunities, urban amenities and infrastructure facilities to prescribed service levels and to be responsible for maintenance of the same for a period of ten years in select Panchayats/cluster of Panchayats. Private sector entities having experience in development and management of community-oriented infrastructure projects shall be selected through an open competitive bidding process based on rigorous qualifications and evaluation criteria. The selected private partners would be required to provide amenities like water supply and sewerage, roads, drainage, solid waste management, street lighting and power distribution and undertake some economic and skill development activity as part of the PURA project. The private partners may also provide ‘add-on’ revenue-earning facilities such as village linked tourism,
integrated rural hub, rural market, agri-common services centre and warehousing etc. in addition to the abovementioned amenities. Where the PURA project spans several Panchayats in a cluster, the private partner would propose sub-projects with the PURA elements for each of the Panchayats.
The leveraging of public funds with private capital and management expertise for creation and maintenance of rural infrastructure is the essence of the PURA scheme, which is envisioned to act as the catalyst not only for convergence between different infrastructure development schemes but also for the new model for the management of urbanisation of rural areas.

Lack of livelihood opportunities, modern amenities and services for decent living in rural
areas lead to migration of people to urban areas. There are wide gaps in the availability of physical
and social infrastructure between rural and urban areas. To address these issues, the President of
India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam highlighted a vision of transformation of rural India through launching a mega mission for Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA). During his address to the nation on eve of Republic Day 2003, Dr. Kalam visualized
providing four connectivities: physical connectivity, electronic connectivity, knowledge connectivity
leading to economic connectivity of rural areas. PURA was envisaged as a self-sustainable and viable
model of service delivery to be managed through an implementation framework between local people,
public authorities and the private sector. The Government support would be in the form of finding
the right type of management structure to develop and maintain rural infrastructure, empowering such management structure and providing initial economic
support. Subsequently, Prime Minister of India also announced implementation of PURA scheme in his Independence Day speech on 15th August 2003.

Seven pilot projects were implemented during the 10th Five Year Plan in Basmath (Maharashtra),
Bharthana (Uttar Pradesh), Gohpur (Assam), Kujanga (Orissa), Motipur (Bihar), Rayadurg (Andhra
Pradesh) and Shahpura (Rajasthan). An evaluation study of these pilot projects by National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) identified the necessity of community and private sector participation,
need for factoring infrastructure development with lead economic activities and livelihoods creation,
requirement of project site selection on the basis of growth potential and need for convergence with other schemes of rural development or other Departments. Based on the findings of the evaluation study by NIRD, comments of various Ministries/Departments, feedback received during consultations with private sector representatives and officials of State Governments,
and the recommendations of the consulting team of Asian Development Bank (ADB), the scheme of PURA has been restructured for implementation on pilot basis during 11th Five Year Plan as a Central Sector scheme.

Mission and Objectives of the PURA Scheme:

Mission:
Holistic and accelerated development of compact areas around a potential growth centre in
a Gram Panchayat (or a group of Gram Panchayats) through Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework for providing livelihood opportunities and urban amenities to improve the quality of life in rural areas.
Objectives:
The primary objectives of the scheme are the provision of livelihood opportunities
and urban amenities in rural areas to bridge the rural – urban divide.

Strategy:

Public Private Partnership (PPP) – the Distinguishing Feature: The objectives of PURA
are proposed to be achieved under the framework of PPP between Gram Panchayats and private sector partner. Core funding shall be sourced from the Central Sector scheme of PURA and complemented by additional support through convergence of different Central Government schemes. The private sector shall also bring on board it’s share of investment besides operational expertise. The scheme would be implemented and managed by the private sector on considerations of economic viability but designed in a manner whereby it is fully aligned with the overall
objective of rural development. To attract the private sector, there is a need to design the scheme that
would be ‘project based’ with well defined risks, identified measures for risk mitigation and risks
sharing among the sponsoring authority (Gram Panchayat), Government of India, State Government
and the Private Partner.

Pilot-testing and Upscaling:

Through the implementation of proposed pilot projects, the unique features of this scheme would be tested on the ground that will provide lessons for upscaling in the future. Besides, the entire process shall help strengthen the institutional ability of a Gram Panchayat to undertake PPP and help pilot-test the viability of PPPs in rural infrastructure development. Based on the experience
of the pilots, the scheme would be suitably modified for scaling up in future.

Menace of corruption

The most menacing social element - corruption – has entered the realm of socio-economic and political being of our nation with a sense of naked realism. It has, now, come to rule the crust of the social, political, economic, administrative and moral existence of Indian democratic set up. It has become all-pervasive and normal way of our daily routine. No body is satisfied with what he already has; he is always in the look out to grab the other peoples’ possessions; he is willing to go to any length to get it. He wants to hoard all and go on amassing till his death. If the laws of the land are enforced three quarters of our most respected citizens would be in our country’s jails.


The politicians and administrators (civil servants), in India, have forgotten the basic dictum of democracy that power involves responsibility. They all have simply turned themselves into power mongers and given the Indian administrative and political infrastructure shape wherein they themselves can wield power without responsibility. This sense of power without responsibility has corrupted them. They forget the fact ill-gots do not bring peace and prosperity either to them or to the nation. The politician-criminal-bureaucrat nexus is like a blood-sucking monster that lives off everything around it. There are plenty of bookies, shylocks, and criminals. They are the people; most of us want to be.


Corruption has destroyed, prevented and corrupted just about everything that exists. Everyone is in competition. All are in a bloody race to lay hands on as much as is possible before it is all our. Corruption has become an established welfare and development funds are being cleverly and at times, openly, siphoned to personal and private accounts in and abroad.

We pay serious attention to the meance of raging corruption which, along with poverty, inequality, civil conflict, discrimination and violence, is a major issue that has not been adequately addressed. Corruption is lack of integrity, which could be financial, intellectual or moral. In the context of public life, we are primarily concerned with the lack of financial integrity. The corrosive negative impart of corruption is being increasingly realized. The World Bank defined corruption as use of public office for private gain. It is increasingly, therefore, in the context of public affairs and governance of the country that the issue of corruption is being discussed and highlighted.

Particularly after the end of the cold war, the corrosive impact of corruption is being increasingly realized. It is seen to be anti economic development, anti national and anti poor. The need for checking corruption in global business also emerged more or less simultaneously after the end of the cold war because, in the globalised economy, the need for ensuring good corporate governance was soon realized. Globalization has intensified corruption to the utmost.

We are therefore living in a world where when it comes to public governance,the need for integrity and checking corruption is increasingly realized as very valuable. Even in business, the need for honesty is being underlined by the focus on the principles of corporate governance. Ultimately, corporate governance depends on the two elements of transparency and accountability. Because, without transparency accountability cannot be enforced, and accountability in the case of an enterprise is to ensure that the interest of the shareholders and stakeholders are protected. the smart-ones, the heroes; and mod But the challenges facing the anti-corruption movement have changed markedly over the last decade. When the Transparency International was formed in 1993, national and international leaders wilfully ignored calls to tackle corruption. The Transparency International is an NGO based in Berlin, which annually publishes the grading of the countries on the basis of what is called Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Now the body of evidence is too large, and the pervasive impact of corruption recognised as too great, to ignore.

Arguments are advanced to justify corruption on the grounds of:

1. No country is immune to graft. As New Zealand and Finland demonstrate in the Global Corruption Report 2006, even countries that are consistently ranked in the top 10 in Transparency International's CPI experience lapses in accountability. Corruption affects all sectors of society, from construction, education and police, to p a r l i a - ment, and the judiciary. Corr u p t i o n continues to be an obstacle to investment, impedes effe c t i v e management of natural resource revenues and can lead to misappropriation of disaster relief funds.

2. While commenting on the inevitability of corruption in the revenue department, the great Kautilya in his Arthasastra said that expecting a revenue official to be dry honest was like expecting a person with honey on his tongue not to lick it. Thus, corruption is seen by several people as not only
inevitable but also natural.

3. Though corruption is a global phenomenon, there is a lot of difference in the degree of corruption among countries. From the ranking of India in the Transparency International's CPI, it is obvious that India is one of the more corrupt countries in the world.

4. On the other hand, citizen users of public services themselves are responsible for corruption. In fact, there is no active and sustained civil society movement against corruption. The efforts are sporadic, localized and short-lived and have never acquired the character of a large movement.

5. We can identify seven key factors that stand out as responsible for the widespread corruption in the system. These include: Lack of transparency and accountability in the system; lack of an effective corruption reporting mechanism; lack of honesty in official in the Government; acceptance of 'Bribe' as a way of life, custom and culture; ineffective ti-corruption institutions, including Police and Judiciary; poor economic policies; inadequate training and orientation of Government officials.


The exposure of several scandals highlight the increasing role played by civil society and the media in monitoring public funds and holding public officials to account. Corruption is no longer tolerated in some countries, and in others the media has played a key role in exposing it.

Another key question currently being asked is the kind of impact various 'standard' anti-corruption policy remedies have on corruption levels. Attempts are made to evaluate the extent to which asset declaration by public officials affects levels of corruption in countries around the world. They find that the longer such laws have been in place, particularly where there is a credible threat of prosecution for violating the law, and the more the information can be accessed publicly, the greater the link between asset declaration and less corruption.

India can certainly become a corruption-free country. There have been several countries with high rate of corruption, but have been able to turn around and tackle corruption effectively. Hong Kong was once notorious for corruption. In 1974, the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) was set up and that organization has been able to bring a dramatic change in bringing down corruption in Hong Kong. Hence the first thing to be realised is that corruption can be tackled, as other countries have done it.

Corruption in India is the result of the vicious cycle starting with political corruption leading to bureaucratic corruption, business corruption, corruption in NGOs and finally the criminalization of politics. Corruption in India owes a lot to the fact that the democratic system we have adopted involves political parties collecting funds for election and other purposes. All political parties collect funds in cash. This is black money. Black money is the oxygen for corruption and corruption is oxygen for black money. Hence a political system which is dependent on black money can never take the initiative to fight corruption. It is the political corruption which lies at the starting point of the vicious cycle
of corruption in our country.

Bureaucratic corruption results from a number of factors. The permit licence raj for more than four decades after independence was a breeding ground for corruption and the root cause of corruption in the licence era were scarcity of goods and services, lack of transparency, the bureaucratic red tape and consequent need for speed money, the legal cushions of safety that was exploited by the corrupt and finally the tribalism among the corrupt. The business corruption flourish because in the permit licence raj, the only way of influencing the politicians and bureaucrats was by corrupt means. The recent phenomenon of the NGOs also shows that even this sector is not free from corruption. This all pervasive corruption has resulted in the loss of the legitimacy of the state institutions giving rise to criminalization in politics.

We have to think in terms of a systematic approach to tackle the issue of corruption by breaking the vicious
cycle starting with political corruption. For checking political corruption,the starting point should be the attack on black money and reform of the campaign funding laws. To reduce the elements of black money, laws like the Benami Transaction prohibition Act which were designed to check the use of black money must be vigorously implemented. The transaction laws like the Income Tax, Customs, and Excise should be made almost zero exemption laws so there is no question of exemption and the transparency element is enhanced. To prevent criminalization of politics, it is necessary to ensure that those candidates against whom criminal charges have been framed in court, should be prevented from contesting elections till they are cleared by the courts. The very delay in the judicial system needs to be tackled and made to work against the criminals in politics. These measures will go a long way in reducing the scope of corruption at the political level.

Bureaucratic corruption can be tackled if the following three point strategy is adopted. First, there is a need for simplification of rules and procedures so that the scope of corruption is reduced. Simple rules can be the first step forward. In fact, one problem we have in our country is the lack of the sunset clause in our laws, so that laws continue to be one the statute book long after their relevance has passed. These broad measures should go a long way in cleaning up our system. Secondly, there should be transparency and empowerment of the public. Fortunately, the current UPA government has passed the Right to Information Act. The very right to information can be a powerful tool for empowering citizens to ask questions and bring greater transparency in the system. This combined with widespread application of information technology can result in significant reduction of corruption. IT application and e-governance will bring in greater transparency, easier access for citizens for their rights to infor mation and in the way help in bringing down corruption. The third important aspect is prompt punishment of the guilty. The disciplinary authorities should take immediate action. Corruption might mean the difference between life and death for the poor and the needy. It is invariably the poor in society who are affected most by corruption because they often cannot afford bribes.

If we are serious about protecting human rights, as members of civil society we need to take into account the issue of corruption. The challenge is immense, and can only be tackled if we work together, making use of the moral and legal arguments provided by the international human rights framework, as well as the practical tools and strategies.

A pervasive challenge is to ensure that lessons on how to fight corruption a r e a d o p t e d with rigour and commitment by the people entrusted with power. Too often anti-corruption rhetoric is not followed up with action. Another challenge is to build stronger ties between the anti-corruption movement and movements concerned with other aspects of good governance. Though money lost directly to corruption is the most obvious and immediate cost, the negative effects of corruption in terms of quality of government and the well-being of a population are much longer term. The potential gains from fighting corruption are immense.

Corruption is a powerful force, but it is not inevitable or unavoidable. Diminishing its impact restores diverted resources to their intended purpose, bringing better health, nutrition and education to victims of corruption around the world, and with them, opportunity and hope.

The Supreme Court has forced the candidates to declare their criminal background, educational qualification and wealth details and this is the first step to bring in greater transparency in the political system. The Right to Infor- mation Acts is another good step taken and this combined with the initiative for e-governance should go a long way in improving transparency in our system and empowering the people.

The corrupts should realize that greed can destroy more than one person's life; it can ruin the lives of their loved ones. Corruption is that monster which needs to be destroyed or it will destroy the whole nations. Its elimination is not a thing to be undertaken lightly. This is the desperate situation and desperate situation requires desperate action. At present, only good governance can handle the situation properly. But a gross misconception of the concepts of rights and duties as well as that of the Government and governance have led the concept of good governance into a chaotic situation and narrowed its very image. The undue and misleading concepts of rights have thrown the concept of duties in the background. At the same time, the prevailing lop-sided concept of honesty has also harmed the cause of good governance. The dictum "honesty is the best policy" has narrowed down the scope and purpose of the honesty. In fact, the honesty should not be taken as a policy; it should be made a way of life.

Members of Parliament and state legislature should come from the people with fuller knowledge of grass-root realities; should make laws accordingly to suit the need and redress the ailments. For this elections, should be transparent, free and fair. The selection of contesting candidates should be based on their sound social footings; persons of criminal background, believers of corrupt practices and money-mongers should be kept at bay.

Political interference as well as politician-criminal-bureaucrat triangle should be put an end to. Much of the corruption is due to this triangular nexus. It is high-time that strict laws be passed in the Parliament to punish such pressure-groups and wipe them out of the mainstream of social and administrative circles. This is very unfortunate to note that the media-the forth estate of democracy has derailed and lost its pious and well-defined goal. It has taken a shape of booming industry and is hankering after power and wrongful gains. For corruption, it is not just the Government to blame; the people too are equally to be blamed. We have become selfish, have little respect for social obligations and can harm the nation and fellow-citizens for our petty gains. The so-called elite of society must be prepared to share the blame for rising corruption. They feel the stink of corruption; they criticize corrupt politicians and officers but never come out in the open. On the contrary, they show their respect to such corrupt people, where they are in their presence. Now, they should change themselves or be bold to openly decry the corrupt section of persons.

All concerned should join hands and make it a point to weed out corruption at any cost. There should be a staunch will to this effect. It is high time that we stand as rock to face and dismantle the edifice of the corrupt people, or they will lead the nation and the entire people to the ruinous end.

Judicial Reforms

The Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Act, 2008, which provides for sweeping changes in the criminal justice delivery system, came into effect from December 31, 2009. The Act, got President’s assent in January last year, but was kept in abeyance for about a year. It incorporates the recommendations of the Law Commission, the Justice Malimath Committee’s report and the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court from time to time to prevent overcrowding of jails with undertrials. Lawyers stoutly opposed the amendments relating to arrest, notice of appearance before a police officer and adjournments, and urged the government not to notify the amended law. So the Centre decided not to notify Sections 5, 6 and 21 (b). Under the new law, statements can be recorded through audio/video or other electronic means. In a bid to check witnesses turning hostile in important cases, an amendment to Section 275 provides that evidence of all witnesses in warrant cases — where the punishment is two years or more — may also be recorded by audio-visual means in the presence of the advocate of the accused. Right now, in all warrant cases, evidence of each witness is taken in writing either by his dictation in open court or, where he is unable to do so owing to a physical or other incapacity, under his direction and superintendence, by an officer of the court appointed by him in this behalf. This evidence has to be signed by the magistrate and forms part of the record. In Section 164, the amendment proposes that any confession or statement made under it may also be recorded by audio-video electronic means in the presence of the advocate of the person accused. Similarly, in Section 167 an amendment authorises a magistrate to extend further detention in judicial custody of an arrested person on production of the accused either in person or through the medium of electronic video linkage.


To deliver gender justice some amendments pertaining to women have been added. With the permission of court, a rape victim can engage an advocate to help the prosecution. Any victim’s statement will have to be recorded at the victim’s home or in a safe place or a place of her choice. As far as practicable, the statement should be recorded by a woman police officer in the presence of the victim’s parents or guardian or near relatives or social worker of the locality. Investigation of rape/child sex abuse must be completed in three months from the date when information was recorded by the officer in charge of the police station. An amendment in Section 173 proposes that the investigation in relation to rape of a child may be completed within three months from the date on which the information was recorded by the officer-in-charge of the police station. The amendment also proposes that rape victims shall be interrogated at the place of their choice be it at home or her relative’s place. Trial of rape cases shall also be held, as far as possible, by a woman magistrate and preferably in a fast track court and as far as possible, rape cases be investigated by female police officers only. Another important amendment states that if a pregnant woman is given death sentence, the High Court would automatically commute the death sentence to life. At present, death sentence awarded to a pregnant woman is not implemented till the time she has given birth to the child. The police officer will also need to inform the arrested person that he has a right to have a relative or a friend named by him or her informed of his arrest. When any person is arrested and interrogated by the police, he/she shall be entitled to meet an advocate of his or her choice during interrogation, though not throughout interrogation. The amendment in Section 54 makes it mandatory for the police to conduct examination of an arrested person by a medical practitioner.

Section 372 of the CrPC, as amended, stipulates that the victim will not need the nod of the law enforcement or prosecuting agency to appeal against a court order. Under the present arrangement, an appeal can be filed only after the prosecution gives the go-ahead. It will enable the victim to go on appeal against any order passed by the court acquitting the accused or convicting him of a lesser offence, or awarding inadequate compensation. Such appeal shall be made in the court where an appeal is ordinarily made against the order of conviction. The move comes against the backdrop of a raging controversy over the minor punishment handed out to former Haryana DGP S P S Rathore for molesting Ruchika, and abetting her suicide.

In a bid to make the police more accountable and transparent in the procedures, another amendment makes it mandatory for the State governments to display on the notice board kept outside the control rooms of every district, the names and addresses of the persons arrested and the name and designation of the police officers who made the arrests. The Act mandates the police officer making an arrest to bear his identification badge or tag. A memorandum of arrest shall be prepared, witnessed and countersigned. The person arrested shall be told that he/she has the right to inform a relative or friend. To protect the interests of the accused, it stipulates that an arrested person be examined immediately by a medical officer.

The law provides for compensation to victims for illegal arrest and police harassment. In coordination with the Centre, every State should prepare a scheme for providing funds for compensation to the victim or h i s / h e r d e p e n d a n t s who suffered loss or injury as a result of the crime and who require rehabilitation. Whenever a recommendation is made by a court for compensation, the District Legal Service Authority or the State Legal Service Authority shall decide the quantum of compensation. If the trial court is satisfied that the compensation awarded under Section 357 of the Cr. PC is not adequate, or the cases end in acquittal or discharge or the victim has to be rehabilitated, it may recommend compensation. Under Section 309, an amendment makes adjournment of cases in the court more difficult.

By far the most significant amendment is proposed in Section 41 of the Cr.PC which lays down certain conditions on the police officer for arresting a person accused of committing a cognisable offence that carries imprisonment that can be extended up to seven years. The IPC provides for punishment up to seven years for offences including attempt to commit culpable homicide, robbery, attempt to suicide, kidnapping, voluntarily causing grievous hurt, cheating, outraging a woman’s modesty and death caused by negligence and dowry harassment. The amendment provides that the police officer may, instead of arresting the person concerned, issue a notice of appearance, asking him to cooperate with the police officer in the probe. No arrest will be made in a non-cognisable offence except under a warrant or order of a magistrate. The amendment provides that the reasons for arrest should be sound and recorded in writing by the police officer. Where such a notice is issued to any person, it shall be the duty of that person to comply with it and arrest can be made only if the person fails to do so. The new amendment can be misused over its discretionary powers to shield the culprits by the police department as well as politicians and could give a free hand to scamsters, unscrupulous elements and other offenders without any fear of being arrested. It would remove fear from the minds of criminals, who will misuse the provisions under the garb of personal liberty. But it aims at ending arbitrary arrests and detention by police. The amendment is expected to reduce corruption and extortions in police stations and will also decrease the number of false complaint. The police (investigating officers) is required to give reasons and record those reasons in writing for making an arrest. It is not like if compliance in a case is there, the person should be arrested. Independent studies indicated that upto 60 per cent of the arrests made in the country were needless since the detained persons did not prove to be useful for the purpose of investigation or trial. Amongst the many concerns, a consistent stand has been the negative image of the police in the mind of the ordinary citizen. The main reason for this is the high incidence of arbitrary arrests and custodial abuse — even for minor offences. More often than not, it is poorer people who are more likely to be arrested, detained and mistreated, even in the course of routine investigations.

Experience shows that worst violations of human rights take place during the course of investigation, when the police with a view to secure evidence or confession often resorts to third degree methods, including torture, and adopts techniques of screening arrest by either not recording the arrest or describing the deprivation of liberty merely as a prolonged interrogation. The amendments are “forward looking and humane,” which, would ease pressure off the police, courts and jails.

National Policy on Bio-fuels

The Government has approved the introduction of “Maharatna” category for Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs). The current criteria for grant of Navratna status are size neutral. Over the years, some of the Navratna companies have grown very big and have considerably larger operations than their peers. It was felt that these CPSEs which are at the higher end of the Navratna category and have potential to become Indian Multinational Companies (MNCs), can be recognized as a separate class, i.e. ‘Maharatna’. The proposed higher category will act as an incentive for other Navratna companies, provide brand value and facilitate delegation of enhanced powers to CPSEs. The six-eligibility criteria and procedure for grant of Maharatna status may be enumerated as:

a) Having Navratna status;
b) Listed on Indian stock exchange with minimum prescribed public shareholding under SEBI regulations;
c) An average annual turnover of more than Rs.25,000 crore during the last 3 years;
d) An average annual net worth of more than Rs.15,000 crore during the last 3 years
e) An average annual net profit after tax of more than Rs.5,000 crore during the last 3 years
f) Should have significant global presence/international operations The procedure for grant of Maharatna status as well as their review is proposed to be similar to that in vogue for the grant of Navratna status. The introduction of the above scheme will not entail any additional expenditure on the part of the zGovernment.

Enhanced powers to Maharatna CPSEs The Boards of Maharatna CPSEs in addition to exercising all powers to Navratna CPSEs, will exercise enhanced powers in the area of investment in joint ventures/subsidiaries and creation of below Board level posts. The Boards of Maharatna CPSEs will have powers to
(a) make equity investment to establish financial joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries in India or abroad and
(b) undertake mergers and acquisitions, in India or abroad, subject to a ceiling of 15 per cent of the net worth of the

concerned CPSE in one project, limited to an absolute ceiling of Rs.5,000 crore (Rs.1000 crore for Navratna CPSEs). The overall ceiling on such equity investments and mergers and acquisitions in all projects put together will not exceed 30% of the net worth of the concerned CPSEs. In addition, the Boards of Maharatna CPSEs will have powers to create below Board level posts up to E-9 level.

Implications: The main objective of the Maharatna Scheme is to empower mega CPSEs to expand their operations and emerge as global giants. With the introduction of Maharatna Scheme, the Department of Public Enterprises has achieved one of the three tasks identified to be completed within first 100 days programme in respect of their Department. It will ensure greater autonomy and decision-making. Background: The Government had introduced the Navratna scheme, in 1977, to identify Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) that had comparative advantages and to support them in their drive to become global giants. The Boards of Navratna CPSEs have been delegated powers in the areas of (i) capital expenditure, (ii) investment in joint ventures / subsidiaries, (iii) mergers and acquisitions, (iv) human resources management, etc. At present, there are 18 Navratna CPSEs. Of the 18 existing Navratnas six are likely to be elevated to the Maharatna status. These are the three integrated petroleum companies — Indian Oil, Hindusthan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum — NTPC, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Steel Authority of India.


e-Gazette
NIC developed e-Gazette (digital RajPatra at http://himachal.nic.in/ egazette) for Government of Himachal Pradesh, which is a first Online Digital Gazette and is not printed on paper. The State Government has discontinued the paper Gazette. This initiative is ecofriendly, cost effective,prompt and increasing efficiency at the Controller of Gazette level and provides online search based Gazette to general public. The initiative has won the National e-Governance Award too in Feb 2009 for process-reengineering. The e-Samadhan (Onilne Public Grievance Redressal system at http://esamadhan.nic.in) has been developed and implemented by NIC for the State of HP with the twin objectives of providing the citizens with an anywhere, anytime grievance redressal mechanism and at the same time ensuring its better monitoring at all levels of the Government.
“PRAJAVANI” a web based Petition Monitoring System enabling citizens to submit their petitions through Kiosks and redressal from the District Collectorate has been successfully implemented and extended.

Politics of reorganization of states Needs complete revaluation

The Centre’s decision to create a separate state of Telangana has caused outright uproar in theThe opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu changed his stand over Telangana after 40 of his MLAs bowed out disapproving his views.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that there should be a reorganisation of States again and favoured the constitution of a second States Reorganisation Committee (SRC). While favouring both bifurcation as well as unification according to developmental demands, Nitish Kumar suggested that “larger States like Maharashtra, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh should be reorganised”, but added that “there should not be any State smaller than Bihar.” It has to be noted that the demand for Telangana has renewed the demand for regional trifurcation of Bihar into Mithilanchal, Seemanchal and Bhojpur. In fact, the demand for a separate State of Seemanchal, which proposes to in- clude 7 districts of Eastern Bihar, arose immediately after the division of Bihar. Former Union Minist e r Mohd. Taslimuddin,who first raised the demand for Seemanchal in 1992, said that the “time was ripe for raising the issue of smaller States.”

The proponents of a separate State of Bhojpur desire a State to be carved out from 23 districts of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, ostensibly for the development of the 12 crore Bhojpuri– speaking population, with Varanasi as its Capital.

The BJP is apparently in a state of confusion over her demands for the separate states in UP because of the party’s stand against further division of Madhya Pradesh to pave the way for Bundelkhand.

In UP Mayawati had never prominently figured with the demands for the creation of smaller states before her victory in the 2007 Assembly elections. After the formation of her current government, Mayawati spoke in favour of the division of UP into smaller states. In October 2007, she had publicly supported the demand for the creation of Purvanchal and even tried to make it an election plank during her campaign in the last Lok Sabha elections. Mayawati stands a good chance to woo the traditional SP voters of eastern UP in the name of a separate Purvanchal. “If the Samajwadi Party’s base shrinks in eastern UP, it would be a benefit of the BSP.

PURVANCHAL
UP’s former planning minister Shatrudra Prasad, former Union minister Kalpnath Roy, Shyamdhra Mishra, Satya Prakash Malviya and Shyam Lal Yadav demanded the separate state under the banner of Purvanchal Banao Manch (PBM), which was formed on November 3, 1996 and is active in Varanasi region. Another organisation, Purvanchal Rajya Sthapana Samitee (PRSS), has been active in Gorakhpur region. P K Lahiri, PRSS convener, said the organisation had approached Gandhian leader Subba Rao to support the demand. A political party, Purvanchal Banao Dal, was launched in 1994.

BUNDELKHAND
The struggle for a separate Bundelkhand is more than two decade old. Although there are smaller organisations in favour of the demand, it is the Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha (BMM).KODAGU
Kodagu is one of the most famous hill station in India proudly nicknamed as "Kashmir of South"/ "Switzerland of India" etc.

Argument in favour of the a separate state:

(1) Kodagu was a separate Part C state at one time. This was because we had a separate identity with regard to geography, culture and ethnicity. Even though Kodagu was merged with Karnataka in 1956, we have a right to demand, and the Government has a duty to ensure that our culture and ethnicity is protected. This is only possible by ensuring that the indigenous communities are not separated from their lands.

(2) In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, most of the land is not available for purchase for people from outside the Union Territory. This has been done to protect the indigenous communities such as the Onges, Jarawas and Sentinels that are heading towards extinction. Even the relatively larger communities of Gowdas and Kodavas are just a couple of lakhs.

(3) Kodagu is the birthplace and the cachment of River Cauvery. And Cauvery is the life line that sustains millions of people in South India. Protection of the environment and ecosystems of Kodagu is therefore in the National Interest, and generally, it is only the indigenous communities who have the genuine love for the land and who will protect the ecology and environment of Kodagu, while outsiders who have come in with solely commercial interests will soon devastate Kodagu by mindless exploitation of its natural resources.

HARIT PRADESH OR PASCHIMANCHAL

The demand for Harit Pradesh is more than a decade old. Sources in the BSP said Mayawati had supported the demand 12 years back at a public meeting in Mathura. In 1955, the State Reorganisation Committee had nodded for the division of UP into two parts. So, we won’t take rest before getting our demand fulfilled.”

SONANCHAL
There is also a demand for the creation of Sonanchal comprising Mirzapur, Sonbhadra and Chandauli. In 2005, Sonanchal Sangharsh Samiti had organized meetings in support of the demand. This organisation is headed by Hariram Chero.

GORKHALAND

The demand for a separate administrative set-up for Gorkhas of India was first voiced in 1907. But it was revived on full scale in 1986 by the Gorkha National Liberation Force (GNLF). The main demand was to have a separate state because under the West Bengal Government, this area has been neglected and regional disparities have been increased. The formation of DGHC led to peace for some time in area. Under the DGHC fair amount of autonomy was given to deal with welfare and general administration. The GJM was formed by Bimal Gurung, a close associate of Subhas Ghising, president of the Gorkha National Liberation Force (GNLF). He was a councillor of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC). The relations between them became worse in 2007 over the attempt to extend 6th Schedule status to Darjeeling. Under the 6th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, certain tribal-majority areas are given autonomy in administration. While the GNLF wanted the 6th Schedule status with enhanced powers for the DGHC, the GJM desired full statehood. The GJM has not only intensified the movement but also has expanded area of the proposed Gorkhaland by not only incorporating the three hills subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, but also Siliguri and parts of the Dooars that fall in Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts in North Bengal, extending up to the River Sunkosh on the border with Bhutan. By expanding the areas, the GJM has not only managed to get the support of the Gorkhas but also of the Adivasis, who form a substantial percentage of the population of the Dooars. They are not Gorkhas, yet many Marwaris, Bengalis, Biharis and others who have lived in the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal for decades have been braving the rains and the government's ire to publicly express support for the movement for Gorkhaland. The Gorkhaland movement has also found support among many Muslims, who are a religious minority in the hills.

TELANGANA
Why statehood for Telangana?

(a) Due to unemployment and failure to implement promises of development, dissatisfaction grew among people, agitations spread and regional imbalances, due to uneven development, continued.

(b) The agreement at the time between Congress leaders of both the regions on safeguards and for development of Telengana and later six point formulae were not implemented.

(c) The Andhra state was formed in 1953 with its capital in Kurnool. In 1956, ten districts of Telangana of the former Hyderabad state, were merged with Andhra and an integrated state of Telugu people, Andhra Pradesh, was created. The capital was shifted to Hyderabad by way of compensation since the people of Telangana favoured a separate existence – this was supported by the State Reorganisation Committee that had recommended linguistic states. Telangana was the only exception it made to the linguistic principle.
(d) Telangana was a bastion of feudal landlordism and was, compared to coastal Andhra, backward in educational and infrastructural facilities.

(e) The most vocal are the middle classes and educated sections who are now rallying behind the demand for a separate state.

(f) The acute problems of unemployment, lack of irrigation and education facilities and socio-economic backwardness are all caused by bourgeois landlord policies which have distorted priorities.

(g) The growing disparity between Telengana region and Andhra region has become more palpable. The extreme rural-urban disparity has been manifested in the form suicides of farmers in Telangana region and cyber-growth in Hyderabad.

CENTRAL TRAVANCORE

The proposed Central Travancore Union Territory should carve from today's Kerala state. The Union territory contains today's Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam districts, and parts of Kollam, and Idukky district. Alappuzha, Kottayam, or Tiruvalla can designate as Capital of this Union Territory. Central Travancore region is one of the most advanced regions in India. This region is a Congress- Kerala Congress citadel. Peoples are mostly Right-wing Conservatives (Syrian Christians, Nairs, Ezhavas, etc). Central Travancore does not want to suffer because of the misdeeds of the peoples in other parts of Kerala.

Hence, we want a separate State or Specially Administered Territory. Central Travancore is a better destination for Smart City. Central Travancore government will encourage IT, ITES, BPO, Biotech, Food Processing, Tourism, Financial Services, Insurance, and Medical sector to invest in this region.

HISTORY OF REORGANISATION OF STATES

(1) In 1948, S.K.Dhar Commission was constituted to re-examine the reorganization of states on linguistic basis. The Commission preferred reorganization for administrative convenience rather than on linguistic basis.

Various Committees:

(1) S.K. Dhar Commission: 1948: to examine the case for the reorganization of states on linguistic lines

(2) Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabha Bhai Patel, and Sitaramayya (JVP) Committee: 1948: to reassess the situation: too did not favour a linguistic basis.

(3) Fazl Ali Committee with Pd. H.N.Kunzru and K.M.Pannikar: 1953: to examine the case for the reorganization of states on historical basis. In 1953, the first linguistic state came into being Andhra Pradesh, creating by separating the Telugu speaking areas from the state of Madras.

(4) State Reorganization Commission (SRC): 1956: on linguistic basis: Andhra Pradesh became the first State on this basis.

By 7th Amendment Act. By this time 14 states (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, MP, Madras, Mysore, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP, West Bengal) and 6 UTs (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, HP, Laccadive, Mincoy

and Amandivi, Manipur and Tripura).

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS

India started its post independence days with 14 states and today it has 28 states. The makers of the Indian Constitution empowered the Union Parliament to recognize a new state by a simple procedure, as provided in Article 3 of the Constitution. The Part I and Article 1-4 exclusively deals with these provisions. The provisions may be enumerated as:

(1) No Bill for the purpose can be introduced in either House of Parliament except on the recommendation of the President; (Article 3)

(2) As per the 5th Amendment Act, 1955, the period of the Bill referred by the President to the Legislature of that State for expressing its view will be specified by him (President) - Article 3

(3) As per 8th Amendment, 1966, the Bill may be introduced even though the President has not received the views of that State

(4) As per Supreme Court verdict in Ramkishore v Union of India, 1966, the term ‘State’ include Union Territory also.

(5) As per Babulal v State of Bombay, 1960 once the original Bill is referred to the State or States, no fresh reference shall be required every time an amendment to the Bill is moved.

(6) In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, no Bill can be introduced in Parliament without the consent of the Legislature of the State.

ADVANTAGES OF A SMALL STATE

Performance of newly created states It is important to note that all three new states have grown fabulously fast. Uttarakhand has averaged 9.31 per cent growth annually, Jharkhand 8.45 per cent, and Chattisgarh 7.35 per cent. At the same time, it has to be referred that all three states belong to what was historically called the BIMARU zone. This has encouraged the demand to create new states in India.

(1) After independence, the role of Government has changed: from a pure law and order-maintaining agency to a development sponsoring organization. This requires more elaborate Government machinery. The smaller states would be more viable in this regard.

(2) The smaller states would be more effective for the fiscal management.

(3) The popular needs, demands and the problems of the people in this region could be articulated and paid attention by the Government, much more than the past.

(4) If the North-East have not shown better results than the Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have definitely shown better results.

(5) Even with the creation of 3 new states, India still has just over half as many states as the USA, with 4 times population.

(6) This allows for the greater competition among States as well as for more experimentation and innovation.

(7) The smaller states will have relatively more homogeneous preferences.

(8) In fact, India’s problem of centralization lies not between Centre and the State government but between State Government and the Local Bodies. This problem would be less in the smaller states.

(9) The quality of governance would be better: vertically, there are likely to be fewer hierarchies in the administrative structures, which improve the quality of information that decision makers receive; and horizontally, the span of control is smaller, allowing for greater focus.

DISADVANTAGES OF A SMALL STATE

(a) It will further lead to regional imbalances in terms of infrastructure facilities:

(i) Vananchal would means a state with no agricultural land, but full of forest and minerals and it would make Bihar only with agricultural land with no minerals and forests;

(ii)Chhattisgarh is backward, there is lack of basic facilities like communication, education, etc, with virtually no industry;

(iii) Uttarakhand would have tourism as the only source of income.

(b) In a heterogeneous society, creating new states would lead to the unlimited demand of states: demands for Eight states are already in the offing: Purbanchal, Harit Pradesh and Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh; Bodoland in Assam; Gorkhaland in West Bengal; Telangana in Andhra Pradesh; Vidarbha in Maharashtra; Saurashtra in Gujarat.

(c) It will add additional wasteful ad- ministrative expenses in making of capitals and buildings.

(d) Only by creating new states is no panacea for India’s problems and evidence from the Northeast could be cited to demonstrate that smaller states do not necessarily result in better economic performance.

(e) It may give rise to new friction between state and central power too.

BALANCED APPROACH

There are no perceptible relations between functioning and the size of the state. It depends on a combination of factors. The most important factor is the techno-economic feasibility of the area. There should be a balance between the existing resources and optimum utilization of those resources. Any disbalance may lead to regional disparity and a state of relative deprivation. Since India is a classic plural society, therefore, there should not be any fixed basis for reorganisation of states. Article 3 of the Indian Constitution must be amended in order to make it compatible to meet new conditions. The hasty process of reorganisation should be done away. Before going for a change, there should be complete survey of the affected area. All the repercussions must be calculated. Its impact on the economy, culture, and ethnicity should be analysed. Therefore, a proper techno-economic survey of the area, social-cultural homogeneity and political manageability of the area should be simultaneously be considered. There should be holistic survey at the grass-root level. If the basis of reorganisation is properly determined then the size does not matter at all. At the same time, Indian legislators must realize that there is an imperative need to evaluate the sensitive issues of internal security and the time is running out. In democracy, certain decisions are delayed because consensus is every time not possible. But in certain important issues, decisions are to be taken immediately to ward off intractable situations. This may be the reason of the incorporation of Article 123. Each any every demand of the separate state must be calculated on the basis its merit and requirement. After all, good governance is the top priority of every political system. If it fails, then no body at the helm of accountability can be excused.