Must test your progress regularly:

Dear students, if you want to improve your performance in the upcoming preliminary examination, you must take tests regularly. It has several advantages.
1. It keeps you timely informed if you're going in the right direction. If not, you could take timely corrective measures. One stitch on time save nine.
2. Good or bad performance has motivation implications. Bad performance gives you challenge to prove your competence. Good performance enhances your confidence and motivate to remain ahead. In both cases, you start reading more and more.
3. Consistency in efforts comes as a side benefit.
4.practise for CSAT IN TIME bound manner,solve all the three year papers of csat,will help you complete csat in exam hall.
And many more benefits .....

New algae species could provide valuable biofuel

The discovery of a new species of macro algae along the coast at south Goa could open up vast reserves of biofuel besides providing raw material for anti-cancer drugs.

A variety of macro algae was last discovered some 45 years back in the coastal region of Chennai.

"Such macro algae can be a rich source of biomass," said Felix Bast, principle investigator and scientist at the Centre for Biosciences, Central University of Punjab. "Macro algae or seaweed changes its morphology frequently and hence it is extremely tough to record or find out about various species," Bast said.

Algae larger than 100 micrometre in size is termed a macro algae, or seaweed, in layman's language. The new species has been named Cladophora goensis Bast after the researcher who found it. Green marine algae is responsible for the phenomenon of the massive green tides occurring in Goa, due to the explosive growth of seaweeds.

"This is a rapidly growing algae which cultivates in marine areas only and in water with salinity greater than 30ppm," said Bast. "Apart from the possibility of this being used as a raw material for biofuel, it can be cultivated and used in the production of FDA-approved anti-cancer drugs," he added.

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Putting up a better defence

The NDA government has put in motion the proposal to increase FDI in the defence-industrial sector from the existing limit of 26 per cent to maybe even 100 per cent. This is breathtakingly bold and quick, but may not be the only measure required to galvanise our defence industry.
We must simultaneously address other equally important reforms to achieve our objective of adequate self-reliance.
The first major reform introduced to galvanise the domestic defence industry was in 2001, when then defence minister George Fernandes opened up our defence industry to the private sector and also introduced 26 per cent FDI. The next step was to promulgate a defence offset policy in 2005. Unfortunately, in the implementation of these reforms, the ministry of defence (MoD) faltered gravely.
Our private sector greeted the reforms with enthusiasm. A number of companies created new divisions, made investments in manpower and infrastructure, but when they came to the crucial business-end, they hit a solid wall of resistance from the MoD. Generally, orders would only go to the defence PSUs or the foreign defence multinationals. So, the first mission of the new government should be to address the issue of giving the private sector a fair and level playing field. Admittedly, such a measure may impact the business of the defence PSUs. But the government’s primary agenda must be greater indigenisation, and not the profitability and survivability of the PSUs.
The bigger challenge, however, lies in the transformation it must bring about in our Ordnance Factories Board (OFB), defence PSUs and DRDO. These undertakings together produce everything the armed forces require. The problem is with technology, quality as well as cost and delivery schedules.
In terms of real estate, infrastructure and manpower numbers, our defence production establishments can compare with the best in the world. In contrast, our production and efficiency indices would be amongst the worst.
Most problems are fixed by starting at the top. The Department of Defence Production (DDP) controls all defence PSUs and the OFB.
Since the DDP is part of the MoD, we have a situation where the designer (DRDO), manufacturer (PSUs and OFB) and the customer (captive) are all rolled into one entity. The bureaucrats posted to the DDP have no knowledge of the defence sector. Ironically, they choose to learn their trade from the establishments they control and not from the armed forces they are meant to serve. Hence, the first step would be to review the corporate control of the PSUs and the OFB.
Concurrently, the functioning of each defence production establishment must be subjected to close scrutiny. R&D, currently the preserve of the DRDO, must shift in great measure to the production units —a recommendation made many times but not implemented. The OFB requires a serious overhaul.
On the technology induction and assimilation front, we have failed to adequately exploit the benefits of our “offset policy”. We did not fully comprehend the gritty battle we would have to fight to fully extract the benefits of the offset policy. No country or company will easily part with technology. While they seek our business, which is incomparably huge, they also engage in furious lobbying against our offset policy — claiming primarily that our existing industrial base is not yet advanced enough to absorb even 30 per cent business of the large orders we are placing. The irony is that we listen to them and also allow Indian partners to fudge.
In order to derive benefits from our defence offset policy, we have to put in place an effective organisation. The government should consider setting up a “Department of Defence Offset Implementation”, with representatives from the industry, the scientific community (DRDO) and the defence forces, backed by a strong legal and financial team. Perhaps the current DDP could be reorganised to discharge this function.
While we weigh the merits of increasing FDI to boost our defence industry, the aforementioned steps must also be given equal consideration.

Chinese takeaway: Panchsheel Blues

Vice President Hamid Ansari is travelling to Beijing this week to join the official celebrations of the five principles of peaceful existence, or Panchsheel, unveiled 60 years ago. A discerning observer, however, might ask why the celebrations are all in Beijing and barely any in New Delhi. The answer, put simply, is that India has long been ambivalent about Panchsheel. Many Indians view Panchsheel as a remarkable “discovery” of new principles of international relations — non-intervention in internal affairs of nations and peaceful coexistence. For some others, Panchsheel is the best example of Jawaharlal Nehru’s idealist folly.
The five principles first made their appearance in Indian diplomacy as a preamble to an agreement that Delhi signed with Beijing in April 1954 on transborder trade and cultural engagement between India and the Tibet region of China. For its part, India had to come to terms with the changed political conditions in Tibet. In the decades before China gained control over Tibet, it was the British Raj that exercised primacy in the region. For centuries before the Raj, India and Tibet were bound by a shared culture and commerce.
The 1954 agreement came at the peak of the “Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai” phase in bilateral relations. Five years later, Delhi and Beijing began to squabble over Tibet and fought a brief war in late 1962. Nehru was unwilling to renew the 1954 agreement, which lapsed after eight years in early 1962. Speaking a few years after Nehru’s death, his close confidant and defence minister Krishna Menon criticised the deification of the five principles. He insisted that Panchsheel “was not a revelation. It was not a creed or part of the formulation of our foreign policy”.
Beijing’s Five
If Panchsheel, in Menon’s words, became “a mantra, slogan and a prop” for India, it was very central to communist China’s worldview. The essence of the five principles figured prominently in Mao Zedong’s proclamation of the new republic on October 1, 1949. Mao was cautioning the West against intervention and reassuring them that the new China would not destabilise Asia.
When it came to India, the five principles had great salience, for Mao had no reason to accept Delhi’s special relationship with Tibet and the multiple privileges that the government of India had inherited from the Raj. For Mao and his able premier, Zhou Enlai, the Panchsheel was about getting India to accept Chinese sovereignty in Tibet. So long as Tibet remains restive, China will put Panchsheel at the heart of its diplomacy towards India. The latest celebrations in Beijing are a mere reflection of that.
Himalayan Bridge
Ironically, China and India may have adhered to Panchsheel more in breach rather than in observance. Beijing has often accused Delhi of meddling in Tibet and Delhi frequently fulminated at Beijing’s support to secessionist movements in the Northeast and beyond.

other’s internal affairs today is political prudence and not high principle. Delhi and Beijing know they can hurt each other by playing the secessionist card; therefore, both of them have the incentive to keep their involvement below the other’s threshold of tolerance.
While rhetoric is common in diplomacy, Ansari might want to look beyond Panchsheel formalism and explore the prospects for expanding overland commerce and contact with China. After all, the 1954 agreement allowed customary transborder intercourse between India and Tibet. It permitted local traders and pilgrims to travel across the border without passports and visas. Those positive elements of the 1954 agreement have long been forgotten amidst the hype on Panchsheel.
To its credit, China today is proposing substantive transborder cooperation with India under new conditions. Beijing’s ambassador in Delhi, Wei Wei, has called this week for a “Trans-Himalaya Economic Growth Region”, powered by China and India. Instead of being defensive, Delhi must seek more details on this very interesting idea and offer a vision of its own for a productive engagement with Beijing all across the Tibetan frontier.
For one, Delhi and Beijing could agree to modernise the infrastructure at the Nathu La pass connecting Tibet and Sikkim and initiate full-fledged trade. They could also find ways to expand the current limited opportunities for Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims who want to visit places of worship on both sides of the border. The Narendra Modi government should be particularly interested in a significant expansion of Indian access to the holy sites of Kailash Manasarovar.

Improve fuel quality, implement emission norms: TERI

To curb growing vehicular emissions and poor air quality in Indian cities, environmentalists have called for immediate implementation of vehicular emission norms and improvement of fuel quality.

Participating in a workshop organised earlier this week by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in collaboration with the International Council onClean Transportation (ICCT), participants discussed the roadmap to control emissions and improve efficiency in the transport sector. The workshop titled ‘Reducing Vehicular Emissions and Improving Fuel Efficiency’ was supported by the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation.

TERI Director-Deneral Dr. R.K. Pachauri said: “Motor vehicles have provided human society with a convenient and almost ubiquitous opportunity to travel anywhere at will. However, with the unconstrained growth of motor vehicles in recent years these have become a major source of pollution, which not only affects air quality adversely wherever vehicles ply but also add to emissions of greenhouse gases at the global level. Reducing vehicular emissions and improving fuel efficiency are essential directions for India to take with a sense of urgency. This workshop, which involves scientists and experts from other countries, would help develop a roadmap for India by which the negative impacts of vehicular transportation can be limited.”

Stating that India is rapidly motorising and this was resulting in the increase in criteria pollutants like PM 2.5 and NOX, which have an adverse impact on human health especially of the vulnerable who are most exposed to vehicular pollution, TERI fellow Mr. S. Sundar noted: “It also perpetuates our dependence on oil imports, raising concerns about our energy security. We cannot become a modern automobile nation merely by producing a variety of modern vehicles. We need to ensure that our vehicles, not only when new but also when in use, conform to the prescribed emission standards and are fuel efficient.”

Experts at the workshop agreed that India should immediately move towards Euro VI norms once 10 PPM ultra-low sulphur fuel is available. The workshop assumed significance in the wake of the Auto Fuel Vision Committee developing a roadmap for further advancement of vehicular emissions and fuel quality norms, and has now come up with a report.

India yet to ratify land border pact

The LBA with Bangladesh involves exchange of 17,000 acres for 7,000 acres of land

India is yet to ratify the Land Border Agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh that involves the exchange of about 17,000 acres for about 7,000 acres of land, which would put to rest a decade-old dispute.

The UPA government was unable to muster support from the Opposition, most notably the BJP, when it tried to bring the agreement to Parliament in February this year, and it is hoped that NDA government’s control of the majority in Parliament will help push for an early ratification.

Sources say that in the run-up to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit, Bangladeshi High Commissioner Tariq Karim also met with Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti to discuss the LBA and Teesta agreement respectively.

During her visit, Ms. Swaraj is expected to talk about increasing power supply on the new transmission grid from Tripura to Bangladesh, bettering trade relations, as well as focussing on border management issues. While Indian forces have claimed Bangladeshi forces aren’t doing enough to check illegal infiltration, officials in Dhaka say they are worried about the increase in civilian casualties from alleged firing by the BSF on the India-Bangladesh border.

There is still uncertainty over whether Ms. Swaraj will meet BNP leader Begum Khaleda Zia, who had abruptly cancelled her meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee when he visited Dhaka last year.

On Tuesday, the BNP criticised the deferment of a War crimes tribunal verdict, saying it had been done in order to avoid public outcry during Ms. Swaraj’s visit. “Everything in Bangladesh now is controlled from the neighbouring country, from South block,” said BNP leader Hannan Shah.

Ms. Swaraj will also deliver a lecture on ‘Bangladesh-India relations’ when she meets with think tanks, and is expected to meet officials of the Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

India’s bilateral trade with Bangladesh stands at $6.6 billion, a figure that could double to more than $10 billion by 2018, said industry body CII on Tuesday.