Bengaluru Gears up to Host Aero-India 2013

Aero India,
the largest Air
Show in Asia and
one of the world’s
most important
military aviation
exhibitions, is all
set to kick start at
Air Force Station
Yelahanka,
Bengaluru from
the 06 th February
to 10 th February
2013. This
biennial air show
and aviation
exhibition which
is organised by
the Defence
Ministry of India
along with the
Indian Air Force,
Defence Research
and Development
Organisation,
Department of
Space and the
Union Civil
Aviation Ministry
aims at
showcasing the
range of products
and services
offered by the
Indian Defence
Industry in the
international
market. It also
provides an
exposure to Indian
Armed Forces, R &
D personnel and
young engineers,
to the latest
technologies and
advancements in
the Aviation and
Aerospace
Industries.

National Awards on e-governance

< National Awards for E-Governance The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India, in association with the Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India and the Department of Information Technology & Communication, 16 th Government of Rajasthan, is organizing National Conference on e-Governance on 11 - 12 February, 2013 in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The National Conference on e-Governance has been providing a platform to policy academia and leaders industry recommend actionable strategies. In this scenario, the 16th National Conference on e-Governance based on the theme of “Towards an Open Government” seeks to explore social, financial & digital governance through innovation and technology. To recognise and promote excellence in implementation of e-Governance initiatives, the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India, presents National Awards for e-Governance every year. A) Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering B) Exemplary Horizontal Transfer of ICT-based Best Practice C) Outstanding Performance in Citizen-Centric Service Delivery D) Innovative Usage of Technology in e-Governance E) Exemplary Usage of ICT by PSUs F) Best Government Portal G) Sectoral Award (Focus Sector – Social Sector Programs) Gold, Silver and Bronze icons will be awarded in each category. State-wise award are as follows: Assam-01, Karnataka-01, Gujrat-04, Jharkhand-01, Andhra Pradesh -02, Odisha- 02, Rajasthan-01, Madhya Predesh-02., Jammu & Kashmir -01, Bihar-01, Govt. The list of initiatives being awarded this year in various categories is Category 1 - Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering " Computerisation of Registration (Panjeeyan) Project in Assam”, Revenue and Disaster Management Department, Government of Assam “Transformation of Mineral and Administration through e-Governance (Geology and Mining)”, Department of Mines and Geology, Government of Karnataka “Online Voting System (OVS)”, State Election Commission, Gujarat Category 2 - Exemplary Re-Use of ICT Based Solutions “XLN–Xtended Licensing & Laboratory Node of SALES”, Food & Drugs Control Administration, Gujarat “Electronic Benefit Transfer Jharkhand Agency for Promotion Jharkhand “IT enabled services in Gurukulam institutions”, APTWREIS (Gurukulam), Tribal Welfare Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh Category 3 - Outstanding performance in Citizen-Centric Service Delivery “Students Academic Management System (SAMS)”, Department of Higher Education, Government of Odisha “Mail Network Optimization Project”, Department of Posts, Government of “Use of ICT for Delivering Mechanized Agricultural Implements” & “Effective Monitoring of Input Delivery System through ICT”, Directorate of Agriculture & Food Production, Government of Odisha Category 4 - Innovative use of Technology in e-Governance “iBHUGOAL”, Information Technology Department, Government of Bihar and National Informatics Centre, Bihar “Measuring Physical Accessibility to Healthcare Network and Population Coverage Modeling in J&K State using Geo-informatics”, Directorate of Environment & Remote Sensing, Government of J&K “MAGIC: Mineral Administration and Governance Using ICT”, Commissionerate of Geology and Mining, Government of Gujarat Category 5 - Innovative use of ICT by PSUs for Customer’s Benefits “Integrated System for Online Generation of Electrical Specifications for Transformers”, Informatics Center (IFX), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Bhopal “EPIMRS”, IT Wing, Eastern Power Distribution Company of A.P. Limited. “iMINE (IT Intervention for Managing Integrated Networked Enterprise)”, Information Technology Department, Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Limited (GMDC) Category 6 - Best Government Portal “RPSC e-Governance”, Rajasthan Public Service Commission, Ajmer Category 7 - Specific Sectoral Award - Focus Sector – Social Sector Programmes “SPARSH – Special Project for Assistance, Rehabilitation & Strengthening of Handicapped – A healing touch for disabled, old age and destitute”, Directorate Social Justice, Government Informatics Center, Madhya Pradesh

Water 4 Crops

India and European Union have jointly launched an innovative project that
could transform into a good green business in the near future. The project,
named as ‘Water 4 Crops – India’ was formally launched here at the
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
The project is aimed at recycling and reuse of waste water that would be
collected from industries and households. Under the project, the ICRISAT,
along with its consortium partners - 22 partners from EU, 12 partners from
India and two investment partners - will be embarking upon recycling
treated waste water (grey water), stretching to a period of four years,
including two years of experimentation and validation.

The Union Department of Bio Technology and six EU countries contributed
Rs 40 crore each for the four-year project.
The Indian consortia include The Energy Research Institute (TERI), National
Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Euro India Research
Centre, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, SABMiller and Jain
Irrigation Systems Ltd.
“The consortium will be working on three types of industrial waste water
mainly from the Charminar Breweries of SABMiller in India in Andhra
Pradesh; Onion and Fruit Processing Plant at JISL, Jalgaon in Maharashtra;
and the sugar factory from Ugar Sugar in Karnataka,” Suhas P. Wani of
ICRISAT, who is leading the Indian consortium, told reporters here on
Tuesday.

New water desalination method

Desalination is hardly a new idea, but the current methods
such as reverse osmosis (RO) and flash distillation are
energy intensive and require extensive infrastructure, thus
making them expensive. While investigating a new carbon
aerogel for using it as capacitors for energy storage, Michael
Stadermann and Ted Baumann at the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory (LLNL), United States, realised that it
was promising for capacitive water desalination.
Aerogels, a special class of ultralow-density materials, have
a complicated, cross-linked internal structure that gives
them the highest internal surface area per gram of any
known material.

Anand Sharma Launches eBiz Portal Portal to Provide Secure one Stop Shop for all Investment and Business Related Information and Services 24X7

The Union Minister
for Commerce,
Industry & Textiles
Shri Anand Sharma
launched an eBiz
portal at the CII
Partnership Summit
in Agra today. The
portal is India’s
Government-to-
Business (G2B) portal
developed by Infosys
in a Public Private
Partnership (PPP)
Model. “This Mission
Mode Project will
mark a paradigm shift
in the Government’s
approach to providing
Government-to-
Business (G2B)
services for India’s
investor and business
communities,” said
Shri Sharma while
launching the portal.
In order to enable
businesses and
investors to save time
and costs and in order
to improve the
business environment
in the country, an
online single window
was conceptualised in
the form of the eBiz
Mission Mode Project
under the National
eGovernance Plan.
Shri Sharma said that
the “project aims to
create a business and
investor friendly
ecosystem in India by
making all business
and investment
related regulatory
services across
Central, State and
local governments
available on a single
portal, thereby
obviating the need for
an investor or a
business to visit
multiple offices or a
plethora of websites.”
Shri Sharma further
said that the core
value of the
transformational
project lies in a shift
in the Governments’
service delivery
approach from being
department-centric to
customer-centric.
“eBiz will create a
24x7 facility for
information and
services and will also
offer joined-up
services where a
single application
submitted by a
customer, for a
number of
permissions,
clearances, approvals
and registrations, will
be routed
automatically across
multiple
governmental
agencies in a logical
manner.” “An inbuilt
payment gateway will
also add value by
allowing all payments
to be collected at one
point and then
apportioned, split and
routed to the
respective heads of
account of Central /
State / Para-statal
agencies along with
generation of challans
and MIS reports. This
payment gateway is
the first of its kind
designed in India and
can become a
universal payment
gateway for all
eGovernance
applications,” added
Shri Sharma.
The Department of
Industrial Promotion
& Policy, Ministry of
Commerce & Industry,
Government of India,
is the Nodal
Government Agency
responsible for the
implementation of the
eBiz Project. Infosys
Technologies Ltd. has
been selected as the
Concessionaire/
Project
Implementation
Partner and is
responsible for the
design, development,
implementation and
maintenance of the
eBiz Solution.
Shri Sharma said that
the government is
“firmly committed to
wide-ranging
initiatives aimed at
fostering the business
environment in the
country in a holistic
manner. Our
approach includes
leveraging technology
to bring transparency,
improve efficiency
and promote
convenience. eBiz is
an important step in
this direction and we
are pleased to work
in partnership with
Infosys on this
project, which we
hope will become a
benchmark for
successful Public
Private Partnerships
(PPPs) in the
country.”
Speaking on the
occasion, Shri
Saurabh Chandra,
Secretary, Department
of Industrial Policy
and Promotion,
Ministry of Commerce
and Industry observed
that “the eBiz Project
is the first of its kind
ever implemented in
the country. It marks
the highest level of
maturity in web-
based eGovernance
applications as it
strives to achieve
horizontal integration
across various
verticals of Central
government, State
governments and
Para-statal agencies”.
The first phase of the
project, which was
being launched today,
provides an
interactive tool that
helps investors assess
the Licenses and
Permits requirements
while setting up and
operating a business
in India. The License
& Permit Information
wizard will provide
authentic information
24X7 to investors and
businesses by
providing answers to
questions in an
interview style
format.

Global Research Team Decodes Gene Sequence of Chickpea Will lead to fast development of varieties with higher yield, drought tolerance and disease resistance

In a scientific
breakthrough that
promises improved
grain yields and
quality, greater
drought tolerance and
disease resistance,
and enhanced genetic
diversity, a global
research team has
completed high-
quality sequencing of
not one but ninety
genomes of chickpea
(=gram / chana).
Nature Biotechnology,
the highest ranked
journal in the area of
biotechnology, has
featured the research
in its latest issue,
dated 27 January
2013.
The research
milestone was the
result of years of
genome analysis by
the International
Chickpea Genome
Sequencing
Consortium led by the
International Crops
Research Institute for
the Semi-Arid Tropics
(ICRISAT). The project
team had 49 scientists
from 23 organizations
in 10 countries,
including ICAR from
India.
The global research
partnership succeeded
in identifying - 28,269
genes of kabuli
variety of chickpea.
Re-sequencing of
additional 90 chickpea
types provided
millions of genetic
markers. This has
great potential in
developing drought
tolerant and disease
resistant varieties of
this important pulse
crop.
Chickpea or gram is
the second largest
pulse crop in the
world, grown in
about 11.5 million
hectares. It is grown
mostly by poor
farmers and in dry
areas. It is is highly
nutritious. While
India is the largest
producer (also
importer and
consumer) of
chickpea, it is grown
in a number of
African countries
including Ethiopia,
Tanzania and Kenya.
Chickpea is also an
important component
of the pulse industry
in Australia, Canada
and USA.

3rd National Voters’ Day Celebrated Across the Country

3rd National Voters’ Day Celebrated Across the Country 2.32 Crore New Electors Registered and Handed over Voter ID Cards National Awards Presented for best Electoral Practices

The Election Commission of India celebrated the 3rd National Voters’ Day across the country today. The theme for the 3rd NVD is ‘Inclusion’.