Assorted articles and Information

So, finally the much awaited day is here! Finance Minister P Chidambaram presented the Union Budget 2008-2009. Chidambaram presented his seventh full budget.

Union Budget Highlights 2008 - 09

• Debt waiver scheme and relief to small and marginal farmers

• Agri loans disbursed by rural banks, RRBs and Cooperative banks before March 2007 and overdue on Dec 2007 waived

• Overdue agri loans amount to Rs 50,000 cr under the waiver and 10,000 cr under the OTS

• Implementation of waiver to be completed by June 2008

• Farmers eligible for fresh agri loans post the waiver or one time settlement

• National Agri Insurance scheme get Rs 640 cr

• Tea Research association gets Rs 20 cr

• 500 soil testing labs to be set up in the 11th plan, govt to give 1 time budgetary assistance of Rs 75 cr to agri ministry for setting up mobile soil testing facilities

• National Horticulure Mission to get Rs 1,100 cr

• Govt sets up irrigation and water resource finance corp with an initial corpus of Rs 100 cr

• Schedule Commercial Banks farm credit 75%

• Micro irrigation scheme gets Rs 500 cr to cover 4,00,000 additional hectares

• Rs 12050 cr for strengthening rural health services

• 24 pct allocation hike for women, child development

• Inflation will be kept under check

• Jawaharlal Navoday Vidyalaya to be set in 20 new districts for SC/STs

• Healthcare allocation to be raised by 15%

• Bhopal and Tripura to get one IIScR each and 2 colleges of art

• 3 IITs to be set up in Bihar, AP, Rajasthan

• 288 public sector bank branches to be opened in areas with concentration of minorities

• Irrigation outlay increased

• National Minority Development and Finance Corp to get Rs 75 cr

• Special attention, more funds for North East

• 54 gender budgeting cells set up

• Agriculture share in total investment up from 10.2% in 2003-04 to 16% during the 11th Plan

• Agri credit target to be Rs 2,80,000 cr for 2008-09

• LIC to cover all woman SHGs linked to the bank

• Mobilisation of additional resources of Rs 10,000 cr as planned capital expenditure under Plan-B

• Allocation for ministry of minorities doubled to Rs 1,000 cr

• Schemes for woman to get Rs 1,460 cr this fiscal

• Child related schemes to get Rs 33,434 cr

• 54 departments to be set up gender budgeting divisions

• Rajiv Gandhi drinking water mission to get Rs 7,300 cr

• Rs 3,966 cr for SC/STs schemes

• Allocation of Rs 75 cr for 2008-09 for the Rajiv Gandhi felicitation programme

• Sanitation to get Rs1,200 cr

• Rs 200 cr for providing portable water system in each school in areas of water scarce regions

• IT industry gets Rs 100 cr for connecting knowledge institutions

• NREGS to be extended to 596 rural distt with an outlay of Rs 16,000cr

• The remuneration Angan Bari workers has been increased from Rs 1000 to Rs 1500 per month

• Women entitled to equal share and equal say

• Science scholarships for young learners

• 16 Central universities to be set up

• 6000 model high schools to be started

• Science scholarships for young learners

• Inflation will be kept under check

• More allocation for polio and AIDS

• Health covers of Rs 30000 for workers in unorganised sectors

• Education sector gets a boost

• Agri credit doubled in first two years

• Bharat Nirman allocation to go up to Rs 31,280 cr from Rs 24,603 cr

• Gross Budgetary support to be Rs 24,3386 cr about Rs 38,286 cr more than 2007-08

• Agriculture credit to touch 2,40,000 cr in 2008

• Focus on achievement of self-sufficiency in food grain

• Soyabean output to be 9.45 mn tonnes

• Maize production to be 16.78 mn tonnes

• Rice production to be 94.08 mn tonnes

• Total agri production to be 219.32 mn tonnes at all time high

• Agriculture disappointing at average annual growth of 2.6%

• Keeping inflation under check to be on focus

• Focus on management of supply side of food, market, capital inflows next year

• India has registered a growth of over 8%$ for 12 successive quarters till Dec 2007

Noted Tamil writer S. Rangarajan, popularly called by his feminine pen name Sujatha, who was also one of the designers of the electronic voting machine, has died here. He was 72.
The prolific writer suffered form renal disorder and died Wednesday night at a private hospital. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
Born May 3, 1935 as S. Rangarajan, he grew up in the temple town of Srirangam and studied at St. Joseph’s College in Tiruchirapally. A contemporary of former President A P J Abdul Kalam in Tiruchi St Joseph’s College.
He was an engineer and worked as a government servant in New Delhi for a long time. He later worked for Bharat Electronics.
He adopted his wife Sujatha’s name as pen name when he began writing fiction. He authored more than 100 books, penned popular columns in Ananda Vikatan and Kanaiyazhi magazines.
A versatile writer of short stories, novels, screenplays and dialogues, Sujatha pioneered science fiction in Tamil. In fact, the genre owes his existence in Tamil to Sujatha.
His science books have been released as separate publications called “En”, “Etharku”, “Eppadi” and “Athisaya Ulagam”.
His ability to explain science in simple terms to lay readers was unparalleled. He brought freshness to Tamil writing on diverse subjects like archaeology, astrophysics, biotechnology and ancient Tamil literature.
Sujatha wrote about 100 novels and 200 short stories, essays, stage plays, and popular articles on science. His columns in well-known Tamil journals like Ananda Vikatan and Kumudam were widely read. He was editor of Kumudam for sometime.
Sujatha’s novel Srirangathu Devathaigal (Angels of Srirangam) was a famous series based on the life in the temple town in the 1950s.
His short stories Kakida Sanghilgal (Paper Chains) brought out the emotions of a family drama.
He also wrote screenplays for the films “Uyire” and “Pirivom Sandhippom“.
Sujatha wrote the screenplay and dialogues for Rajnikanth-starrer Sivaji and under-production film Dasavatharam featuring Kamal Haasan in 10 roles. He also wrote the story for Kandukonden Kandukonden, the critically acclaimed Tamil film directed by Rajiv Menon.Among the award-winning films that he wrote dialogue for were Mani Ratnam pics such as 2002’s “A Peck on the Cheek,” 1998’s “From the Heart” & 2004’s “Ayitha ezhuthu”.
Sujatha also gave a rebirth to the long lost tradition of short stories in Tamil by penning about them, and also them.
He also tried his best to infuse some fresh air into the moribund Tamil theatre by his daring and different dramas (made primarily for Poornam Vishwanathan).
Ninaithaley Inikkum, Karaiyellam Senbagpoo,a murder mystery set deliciously amidst the swirls of folksy limericks, Vikram, Roja, Kannathil Muthamittal, Kandukondein Kandukondein, Mudhalvan, Anniyan, down to Sivaji (and he was also working on Dasvatharam, Robot) were some of his popular works that readily come to mind.
And after 90s, when Sujatha perhaps ran out of literary steam, he chose to re-invent himself as a honest and humour-filled diarist by falling back on his vast experience and vaster exposure.
Though enigmatic and open-ended about his views on God, Sujatha’s writings on Vaishnavite literature and a few other religious texts are treasures of these times.
A knowledge and information fiend of sorts, his Why, What for, How (En, Etharku, Eppadi), catechistic column in a Tamil magazine, proved to the google for Tamilians in the pre-google days.
He provided a window through his columns to up and coming writers and also help spread the gospel of technology good things in life.
And perhaps these small human blips added to his overall charm. But even when he was writing on politics, he was devoid of politics or malice that can somehow creep in when writing about contemporary affairs.
Sujatha borrowed his wife’s name for his writing career. But nothing else was borrowed about him. He was a pioneer par excellence.
Sujatha disabused the sense of high-brow exclusivity of both Tamil and technology and amicably introduced each to the other. Kamban and kanipori can co-exist happily ever after. More importantly, if the common man identified with Sujatha the writer, Sujatha himself, with his regular servings of luscious slices of literary pies, helped bring out the writer in many common men.
Himself an electronics engineer from IIT-Madras, Sujatha was General Manager (Research and Development) in BEL and instrumental in designing the Electronic Voting Machines extensively used in Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
A couple of decades ago when there was suspicion about the fool-proof nature of the EVMs, Sujatha took great pains to explain the efficacy of the machines.
It was as a writer of class that he made his name in Tamil literary circles.
It is interestingly tempting to think how ‘Sujatha‘ Rangarajan, who passed away last night at the age of 73, would have worded his own obituary.
And there cannot be a greater tribute to him, and there cannot be a better and lasting legacy than this. Sujatha, maybe dead. But many Sujathas are alive. In that sense, in his death, Sujatha may possibly have become his best sci-fiction offering ever!

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has successfully attempted to make his fifth and last Budget of this Lok Sabha a please-all exercise, which should stand him in good stead as many states and the country go to polls in the near future.

Budget Highlights

Be it with respect to passenger fares, freight rationalization, wooing senior citizens and women with discounts, regularizing licensed porters as gang-men or taking steps to give the Railways a makeover of sorts through use of state-of-the-art technology, internet and television on trains, green toilets, ATM-style ticket booking and a host of others measures, Lalu has managed to do it all.
Lalu managed to cheer up every class of passenger by giving sops to upper class passengers, women, senior citizens and students. What’s more, Lalu also proposes a seven-bogey Mother-Child Health Express to extend medical facilities.

One sector that has failed to get the attention it deserved is the safety on trains, which has assumed urgency in view of the increasing incidence of crime on trains. Apart from usual measures such as providing more CCTVs metal detectors and baggage-scan and a routine announcement about better equipping the RPF, Lalu doesn’t offer any concrete strategy to tackle the issue.

The proposal for a Rail coach factory in Kerala is largely a victory more for Defence Minister A K Antony who has been pressing for the project. In addition, he also announced a slew of measures to upgrade existing facilities of the Railways.

Fare Reduction

• Sleeper fare would be reduced by 5%,

• 5% deduction in 2nd class fares beyond 50 km, coming to about reduction of Rs. 50

• AC-I fares would be step down by 7%

• AC-II fares reduced by 4%

• AC-III fares brought down by 3%

Ticketing reforms

• UTS counters would be increased to 15,000 and ATVM s to 6000 in two years

• Information technology would be introduced at ticket counters

• Planning of ticket confirmation through mobile phone

• Arrival time would be printed on tickets

• E-ticket booking to increase from 1Lac to 3Lac annually

• Ticket reservation would be made possible from anywhere

• Multi department innovation promotion group in railway boards

• Auto ticket sale machines will be increased to 6,000 in 2 yrs

• Automated ticket vending machines will be 250 now

• Plans of doing away with long queues at ticket counter in next 2 years

Special Discounts and Concessions

• Railway BudgetDiscounts on development of bulk and non-bulk goods terminals

• Boys studying in class 12 to get special confreightcessions to visit their home towns via trains

• 50 per cent concessions for women senior citizens

• For AIDS patients 50% concession in railway fare

• Staff benefit fund to be increased 10 times in 2009

• Free Rajdhnai, Shatabdi journey for Ashok Chakra winners

• Free season tickets would be made available for girl student till graduation

• Decorated soldiers would get special concessions

Profits Railways made during Previous Years

• Rs. 68,778 crore cash surplus in four years

• Railways earned profit because of UPA govt policies

• Surplus Rs 20 bn earned on freight services

• Attained 790 tonnes pay-load target

• Railways registered Profit of Rs 25,000 last year

• Operating ratio of railways at 76.3 per cent in the year 2006-07

Introduction of New lines

• Introduction of 10 new Garib Raths, 53 new trains

• Ranchi-Bhagalpur new train would be run thrice in a week

• Indore-Udaipur via Ratlam new train to be introduced thrice in a week

• Introduction of new weekly Puri-Darbhanga express

• Khajuraho-Delhi new train to run thrice in a week

• Coming up of new weekly Varanasi-Rameswaram express

• Machhlipatnam-Bangalore new train to be run thrice in a week

• Amravati-Mumbai express new train to run twice in a week

• New Delhi-Jammu Tawi train to run daily

• Salsa-Amritsar Garib Rath thrice in a week

• Bagalkota-Jaswantpur train now would be run daily

• Kurla to Howrah train twice in a week

• Mathura-Lucknow train would be extended to Patna

• Varanasi-Ranchi via Rourkela train up to Sambhalpur

• Bangalore-Coimbatore train extention to Ernakalum

• Special train between Pune-Delhi for Commonwealth to be started in Oct

• New train Saharsha- Janasebharan Expess would be run weekly

• New train Malda-Patna Express thrice in a week

• New train Amritsar-Kochuveli Express to be run weekly

• Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani to start

• New Itarsi-Katni passenger train to be run daily

• New daily Ahmedabad-Patan express to be introduced

• New daily Ahmedabad-Patan express to come up

• Chennai-Salem new train on a daily basis

• Special train between Pune-Delhi for Commonwealth to be started in October

Infrastructural Reforms, Safety and Technology

• Introduction of discharge-free green toilets in all 36,000 coaches in XI Plan Period at a price of around Rs 4,000 cr.

• Call centers would be introduced for inquiries which would be reachable at local tariff

• Long-distance trains would have a system to display next station

• Introduction of multi level parking on few major stations
• Public address systems to be introduced in all trains
• Anti-collision system to be improved to prevent rail accidents
• Mother Child Health Express would be started

• Multi department innovation promotion group in railway boards
• NDLS, Mumbai Cent, Secund’bad, Patna will become world-class

• Close circuit cameras at major railway stations

• Metal detector for checking of luggage
• Signaling system to be introduced for improving line capacity

• Enhanced security system would be in operation at railway stations

• Television and Internet systems in trains

• Touch screen, color TVs would be installed at railway stations

• Rs.500 crores would be spent for the improvement of railway stations

• A multiple purpose card called Go- Mumbai card would be introduced for Mumbai trains

• On boat system for maintaining sanitation at railways

• Escalators would be introduced at 50 new stations.

• High level upgradation of 203 mid level platforms

• Introduction of High-level platforms in 135 stations

• Upgradation of 281 low level platforms to mid level 195 stations will have foot overbridge

• Plan to have SMARTCARD-based ticket system

• Low level platform would be upgraded to high level railways

• 560 platforms to be increased for long-distance trains

• Divisional railway hospitals in Jaipur, Hubli would be upgraded

• A new divisional hospital at Ranchi, and an OPD block at ICF would be set up

• N Railway hospital in Delhi would be turned into fully AC

• 13 new works at a price of about Rs 101 cr has been sanctioned for enhancing health services.

New Railway Developments

• Arranged execution of capacity augmentation involving dedicated freight corridors, doubling, third and fourth lines, bye passes, flyovers, automatic signaling works etc in the next 7 years at cost of around Rs 75,000 cr.

• Top attention would be given to port rail connectivity projects.

• Production of an all-time high of 20,000 wagons, 250 diesel and 220 electric locomotives.

• Railways to promote Door to Door Logistics services

• Vision 2025 would involve the setting up of the road map for coming 17 years - customer centric and market responsive strategic initiatives and action plans.

• Public Private Partnership plans would be introduced for pulling investment of Rs 1,00,000 cr in the next five years for the development of world class stations, rolling stock manufacturing, multi modal logistics parks, running of container trains etc.

• More passenger trains would come up in peak season.

• Sitting companies will be given railway licenses

• 5% step down in petrol and diesel freight

• Rs 17.3 bn to be spent on new lines regarding Kurla to Howrah train bi-weekly Proposal

• Plans to spend Rs 6.5 bn on metro transport projects

• 155 km new lines would be endeavored to be completed in FY08

• Rs. 2000 crores to be earned from 3000 bogies

• Jansadharan seva to be extended to every zone

• Renewal of 16,548 old rail tracks

• Staff benefit fund to be upgraded to10 times in 2009

• New rail coach manufacturing unit to come up in Kerala

• Staff benefit fund to be increased 10 times in 2009

• Freight services raises additional 20,000 cr

• NDLS, Mumbai Cent, Secund’bad, Patna will become world-class

• New policy would be introduced for wagon leasing
• Pvt cos would be able to make terminals on rail land

• Rs.500 crores would be spent for the improvement of railway stations

• New coaches in all Rajdhani trains would be introduced by 2010

• New coaches would come up Shatabdi trains by 2011

• Plans to come up new wagon designs through foreign cos

• 8.2 per cent growth in freight loading till December 2007

• Shelter would be offered at Rs 500 crores in the next two years

• Rail Plan raised from Rs 11,000 cr to 33,000 cr

• New projects will have Rs 49,250 crores investment.

• New policy would be introduced for wagon leasing

For Internal Railways Operating System

• 5700 vacant posts for constables and 993 vacant posts for sub-inspectors would be filled up.

• 5% posts for constables and 10 % of sub-inspectors in the above vacancies would be booked for women.

• 973 additional posts have been created.

• Urdu would also be introduced as a medium of examination for group D posts in the areas where Urdu is the second official language.

• Per-capita contribution to Staff Benefit Fund would be by ten times from Rs 35 to Rs 350 for 2008-09.

• Coolies would be promoted to gangmen

• Staff benefit fund to be upgraded to 10 times in 2009

• Level crossings to be manned by Gangmen

• Container train operators to be up to 50-55 train

• SC,STs to be given more jobs than quota alloted to them

• Multi department innovation promotion group in railway boards.

• 5 per cent reservation for women in railway jobs

• Employees in Indian Railways at 1.4 mln in the year 2007-08.

• Previous service tenure of employees working previously in any public sector enterprise, autonomous body or any other agency under State Government or Central Government, whose prior service has been counted for pensionary benefits, would be eligible for post-retirement complementary passes as per the norms being set.

The budget contains something for everyone. Fares have been cut across the spectrum, technology is being used extensively, passenger ameneties are being added.

The Railways Ministry posted Rs 25,000-cr cash surplus last year, said Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, while presenting his fifth Rail budget. Modernisation, technology are key words in Railway Minister Lalu Prasad’s fifth budget

“This budget will mark the beginning of our vision for Indian Railways over the next 25 years. We will take Indian Railways to new heights - make it the world’s best,” Lalu Prasad had said a few hours before his scheduled speech.

“Everybody is happy with our performance,” he said at one stage, adding at another: “Customers are our god.”

This remark, in itself, is indicative of the new thinking in the Indian Railways that have seen a dramatic turnaround in the last five years.

Underwater missile “Sagarika” will be test-fired from a submerged pontoon off the coast of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, 26 Feb, morning.
Indicating that another test of the country’s most advanced nuclear-capable Agni-III missile is in the offing, top defence scientist M Natarajan on Sunday said the DRDO was close to developing a supersonic fighter trainer.
“Along with undertaking full development of the air force and naval versions of the LCA, DRDO have developed the capability of making in the shortest time of next 10 years a supersonic fighter trainer“. The second test of the Agni-III was in the offing. The first launch of the missile last year was a failure.
A multi-mode radar had been mounted on the LCA for the first time. A breakthrough had been made in installing a phased array radar on the LCA and a beyond visual range air-to-air missile was also in the final stages of development.
“The LCA will give India a platform to develop a medium combat aircraft of 20 tonnes soon,” he said while facing a barrage of questions on the huge time and cost over-runs in the DRDO’s strategic weapons programmes.
The pontoon will simulate the conditions of a submarine. The test-firing is a forerunner to the launch of the missile from a submarine in a few years from now, and later from the indigenously-built nuclear-powered submarine, which is under development.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has been developing the missile for about 14 years.

In select league

If the test-firing is successful, it will place India in the select league of Russia, the U.S., France, the U.K. and China, which have missiles that could be launched from submarines and it would considerably enhance the country’s nuclear deterrence as sea-launched missiles will form crucial part of the country’s second strike nuclear capability.
“Sagarika”, The missile K-15 which has a range in excess of 700 km, is about 6.5 metres long and weighs about seven tonnes.
Powered by solid propellants, it has a booster that will propel it into the air from underwater. Another booster will ignite it in the air and carry it over a distance of more than 700 km.
The missile, which can carry a payload of 500 to 600 kg, is designed to carry both conventional and nuclear warheads.
A successful test-firing of ‘Sagarika’ will complete the triad of the country’s minimum, credible nuclear deterrence from land, air and sea.
DRDO would need just one test to ratify the missile systems and the parameters which would form the main armament of the country’s indigenous nuclear submarine expected to enter sea trials late next year.
DRDO had almost perfected the dry-run trials on the key missile and it would be integrated with the advanced technology vehicle.

Two-day strike:

Employees of the public sector banks in the country would go on a two-day strike from February 25 to protest the Centre’s move to merge associate banks of the State Bank group with the State Bank of India and press other demands.
The union has been opposing merger of State Bank of India’s associate banks with the parent, outsourcing of work and extension of option to provident fund optees to join pension scheme, United Forum of Bank Employees.
Besides employees from all public sector banks, the staff of the bulk of scheduled commercial banks would also join the stir, they said.
The demands of the unions include stoppage of outsourcing, revival of compassionate appointment scheme and filling of vacancies and services and early settlement of wages revision.
Announcing this at a press meet here today, leaders of SBI Staff Union and SBI Officers Association said the strike was a follow-up of the one-day all-India “stay-away” of bank employees on January 25.
Last month, the union went on nation-wide strike after the conciliation meeting held in the office of Chief Labour Commission between Indian Banks Association and the employee association failed to yield any positive result.
Boards of SBI and State Bank of Saurashtra have already given in-principle approval for the merger and is awaiting government’s nod.
Other associate banks are State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Indore and State Bank of Patiala.
Bank work will come to a stop on Friday when over a million employees of public sector banks, including 17,000 bank officers, embark on yet another strike to press their demands. The employees are opposed to the merger of banks that they believe would lead to the shutting down of branches. At the moment, there is one branch for every 16,000 people; the bankmen’s unions say that ratio should be 1: 8,000 in a country where half the population is outside the banking net.
The striking bankmen are also demanding the lifting of the freeze on recruitment of new workers in the banking sector. The unions believe that the banks would need over 500,000 new recruits in the next three years. But the government is apparently talking of retiring 300,000 employees. The public sector bank unions say private banks and foreign banks are also expected to down their shutters in solidarity with their demands.
The employees would go on an indefinite strike towards the end of March if the managements and the government continued to reject their demands, SBI Staff Union (Kerala circle) President K Raja Kurup and Officers Association leader K Rajeevan said.

Functioning of ATMs affects:

Functioning of ATMs of nationalised banks and many private banks in State are expected to be affected as the two-day strike.
“Since money in ATMs is usually filled up on day-to-day basis, the machines might not be able to meet the demand for three days as Sunday is also holiday for most of the banks”.

ATMs MAY RUN OUT OF CASH. HERE’S WHY:
* Most ATMs are maintained by private agencies.
* Rs 25 lakh is the average capacity of an ATM.
* That amount may not be enough to last for two days.

It is the first time in the last three decades that a strike was declared for two consecutive days while on earlier ocassions it was only for one day.

Are bank men and women right in striking work so regularly and inconveniencing customers?
Or is biting the hand that feeds the only way of bringing their demands to the notice of the powers that be?
Is there no other way in which public sector employees can drive their point home instead of conveniently striking work on the monday, effectively turning it into a three-day holiday?
Are the public sector banks still caught in the socialist mindset in opposing merger of banks which is the only way to take on the private sector giants?

WHO ARE ON STRIKE:
All nationalised banks and about a dozen private banks, including Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Federal Bank, Centurion Bank and Lakshmi Vilas Bank.

WHO ARE NOT:
Private banks like ICICI, HDFC and Axis Bank.