Kalraj Mishra inaugurates the Centre of Excellence in Indian Institute of Science (IISc) campus, Bengaluru

Shri. Kalraj Mishra, the Union Minister for MSMEs, inaugurated the “Centre of Excellence” located in Indian Institute of Science (IISc) campus, Bengaluru today. The Centre of Excellence is a joint initiative of Ministry of MSME and IISc, Bengaluru under an MOU signed between them. With its vast repository of knowledge of researchers, professors, and intellectuals, IISc would contribute to innovation, competitiveness and growth in MSME sector through this centre.

The Centre will act as a platform for process & product design and development by identifying and providing comprehensive solutions for indigenization and value engineering to industries. The concept was initiated after detailed deliberations, and eight departments within IISc were identified for the purpose. These are Computer Science and automation, Electrical Engineering, Electrical Communication Engineering, Electronic Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Material Engineering.

While congratulating the efforts made by the Ministry and IISc in taking this initiative forward, where government and academia jointly extending the services through a dedicated Centre of Excellence, the minister added that this will take manufacturing sector particularly MSMEs to greater heights.

An unsafe world

India has voted itself a stable government which will last the full term of five years. The Prime Minister has made a good beginning by inviting the Subcontinental neighbours to his swearing-in, making a bid for peaceful relations. Yet elsewhere, ever since May 16, the world has been getting more unstable. The financial markets are registering one of the lowest reading for the volatility index, Vix. But that may be, as we used to say, a lagging indicator or one which looks only at stock markets.

Events in Iraq confirm what has been shaping up for the last five years at least. There is a massive and prolonged civil war going on between the Shi’a and Sunni Muslims in the territory of the old Ottoman Empire. The Western powers, at the end of the First World War, drew arbitrary borders and demarcated Syria, Iraq, Jordan, etc. The centre of the Empire became Turkey which has tried to maintain its position as a secular Republic. Yet the reality is that we have Shi’a, Sunni and Kurds co-habiting uneasily within that vast territory.

For years, the dream of Arab countries was to reunite the various separate regions. After the Second World War and the establishment of Israel, their desire was refuelled by the determination to drown Israel in the sea. Pan-Arab unity did not, however, deliver military victory. After three defeats in 1948, 1967 and 1973, the dream of a United Arab Republic collapsed. Since secular socialist regimes had been at the forefront of that promise, both the ideologies—secularism and socialism—lost hold on the peoples of the Middle East.

What we have had since is the rise of Muslim orthodoxy. The oil price rise of 1973 and 1979 enriched the Saudis and the Iranians and other Middle Eastern oil exporters. Saudis sponsored Wahabbism which was their own local sect. Iranians had their revolution which put the Ayatollahs in power and created a strong Shi’a state. During the 1980s, both the big Cold War powers got humbled in the region. The US backed Saddam Hussein in his ten-year-long war against Iran, but that proved to be a war with no victors. The Soviet Union went into Afghanistan and again withdrew after a humiliating defeat.

The stage was thus set for the rise of Islamism with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Few people who associate them with terrorism realise that the primary fight of these groups is against Muslim states. They want to purify Muslim states along orthodox lines before they engage with the infidel enemy. It was Osama bin-Laden’s anger with the Saudis that triggered his war with the US. The US fought the Al-Qaeda and at least got bin-Laden killed though the Al-Qaeda has survived. The Taliban has once again seen the US out of Afghanistan.

The real battle ground has now shifted to Syria and Iraq. Assad may have won temporarily but he does not control all his old territory. Syria is partitioned as between Assad, his West- supported liberal enemies and the Al-Qaeda. It is the Al-Qaeda who have now spilled over into Iraq and threaten to take it over. Iraq is the only country with a Shi’a majority among the Arabs and has been a sort of democracy for the last ten years. It faces annihilation at the hands of the Al-Qaeda. It remains to be seen if the USA will step in with armament assistance or if Iran will come to the rescue of its

Shi’a brethren. But there is also the resurgent. Kurdistan movement. Kurds spread across Iraq, Syria and Turkey and have long dreamt of their own nation-state. The chaos which is emerging may give them the best chance of combining bits of Syria and Iraq as the first instalment of Kurdistan. Turkey is stable enough to resist any incursion into its territory. Jordan and Lebanon are already caught up in the turmoil as they have Syrian refugees among them. The conflict could spill over into Israel and then there would be a total War.

The airport attacks in Karachi tell us that the entire region from Pakistan up to the western edge of Turkey is now at risk of unravelling under the attack of Islamist forces. This entire region, with India included, was where, until a century ago, the Sunni Muslims looked towards Istanbul as the seat of the Khilafat, offering in their Friday prayers their allegiance to the Ottoman Emperor who was also the Khalifa. This region is being unscrambled into a new shape.

India cannot remain passive to what is happening but nor can it do anything actively. For India, it is the stability and the survival of Pakistan which is the most vital issue. India needs a stable Pakistan ruled by sane politicians, inimical though they may be, rather than the fanatical Taliban with whom there is no negotiation except by arms.

The Reserve Bank of India will soon come up with India’s first payments bank, which will offer deposit and payment services but not provide loans. 

This idea is in line with the recommendations made by the Nachiket Morcommittee. The central bank sees huge potential for financial inclusion with focus on remittances by involving payment system product.

As per the RBI, while full-service banks require an entry capital of Rs.500 crore, payments banks can start operations with a capital of just Rs.50 crore since all their money will be invested in safe government securities.

They will be required to comply with all RBI guidelines for commercial banks.

According to the recommendations of Nachiket Mor committee:

• Permission should be given to existing banks to create subsidiaries to operate payments banks.
• Payments banks may be created by converting prepaid payment issuers (PPIs). These companies provide cards that customers can use to make payments with the money stored in them. There are 27 PPIs in the country, including Itz Cash Card Ltd, Oxigen Services (India) Pvt. Ltd and Airtel M Commerce Services Ltd.

A long wait for India ended when the country became a permanent member of theWashington Accord, an esteemed international treaty on engineering studies and mobility of engineers across signatory countries including the US, the UK and Australia. Permanent membership reflects on the country’s stature in the technical education space. Until now, India has been just a provisional member since 2007.

The meeting of the International Engineering Alliance of WA member nations met in Wellington, New Zealand and gave India the signatory status to join the select group of nations who are permanent signatories to the Washington Accord (WA). This will ensure highest quality assurance standards to be implemented in our technical and engineering programmes and provide global mobility to our engineering graduates​. It will significantly enhance their employment opportunities around the world.

The Washington Accord:

It is an international accreditation treaty for professional engineering academic degrees, between the bodies responsible for accreditation in its signatory nations. Initially when the Washington Accord came into force in 1989, only 6 developed countries were its members.

As of 2014, the signatories are: Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Hong KongChina, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The accord acknowledges that there is significant uniformity of programs accredited by those signatories. Every signatory countries recognizes the graduates of accredited programs by every other signatory countries as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering. Recognition of accredited programs is not retroactive but takes effect only from the date of admission of the country to signatory status.

The treaty covers undergraduate engineering degrees under Outcome-based education approach. The accord doesn’t take into account engineering technology and postgraduate programs, although some engineering technology programs are covered under the Sydney Accord and the Dublin Accord. Only qualifications granted after the signatory country or region became part of the Washington Accord are recognized. The pact is not directly responsible for the licensing or registration of Professional Engineers and Chartered Engineers, but it does cover the academic prerequisites that are part of the licensing processes in countries party to the accord.

Indian origin scientist Rasik Ravindra has been elected as member of theUnited Nations Commissionon the Limits of Continental Shelf (CLCS) asIndia’s candidate for member of the Commission. 

Rasik, an alumnus of the Jammu and Kashmir University, is one of India’s eminent scientists. He has a rich experience of over four decades in different spheres of geosciences that include geological studies in Antarctica, India andBhutan.  He has been honored with many prestigious awards including the National Award for Polar Sciences and Cryosphere in the year 2013 and National Mineral Award in the year 1990. He has wide global experience and has also held coveted positions that included negotiations in policy, technical and scientific issues.

United Nations Commission on the Limits of Continental Shelf (CLCS):

• The CLCS has 21 members, who are experts in the domains of geophysics, geology, or hydrography, and are elected for a term of 5 years by the nations who are party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) among their nationals. It is the UN body that is empowered to allocate new seabed territory to countries

Lt Gen Amit Sharma (58) has been appointed as the new Commander-in-Chief of Strategic Forces Command (SFC) which guards the nuclear weapon store of the country. He takes charge from Vice Admiral S P S Cheema as the latter has moved to Kochi to head the Navy’s Southern Command based there. Previously, Sharma was the Chief of Staff of Japiur-based South Western Command of the army and had headed its elite 21 Strike Corps.

The SFC is responsible to implement the directives of the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA). It has the sole responsibility of starting the process of delivering nuclear arsenal after receiving approval from NCA.

Government-owned power equipment manufacturer Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) commissioned 68 MW Unit at the Rampur Hydro Electric Project in Himachal Pradesh. With this, BHEL has commissioned four units of the 412 MW hydro power plant of SJVN Limited.

Rampur hydel project has been built on River Satluj in Himachal Pradesh – 120 km from Shimla. In this project BHEL contributed in supply, construction and commissioning of turbines, generators, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA), associated station auxiliaries, Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) and other electrical and mechanical machinery.