India votes against UNGA resolution on nuclear weapons

India, along with the US and Pakistan, has voted against a provision in a UN resolution calling on to "promptly" accede to the NPT as non-nuclear- weapon nation "without conditions" and to place all its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards.

A draft resolution on achieving a nuclear weapon-free world and accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitments was adopted in the UN General Assembly session on Tuesday by a recorded vote of 169 in favour to 7 against with 5 abstentions including by Bhutan and China.

Prior to the passage of the draft as a whole, a separate vote was also taken on operative paragraph 9, which stressed the fundamental role of the NPT (non-proliferation treaty) in achieving nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and urged India, Israel and Pakistan to accede to it as non-nuclear-weapon States promptly and without conditions and to place all their nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

The provision was retained by a recorded vote of 165 in favour with India, Israel, Pakistan, the US voting against and Bhutan, France, the UK abstaining.

India, Isreal and the US also voted against the preambular paragraph 24, which emphasised the importance of a successful 2015 NPT Review Conference.

The provision was retained by a vote of 166 in favour and three abstentions from France, Pakistan and the UK.

The Assembly also retained operative paragraph 11, which urged all States to work together to overcome obstacles within the international disarmament machinery and immediately implement the three specific recommendations from the 2010 Review Conference Action Plan, by a recorded vote of 167 in favour to 3 against and 4 abstentions including India.

India, Isreal and the US also voted against a provision which would emphasise the importance of a successful 2015 Review Conference.

The provision was retained by a recorded vote of 166 in favour with 3 abstentions (France, Pakistan and UK).

The general Assembly also took up the draft resolution, 'Towards a nuclear weapon-free world: accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitments' and adopted by a recorded vote of 169 in favour with India along with Israel, the UK, the US voting against the resolution.

India improves rating on global corruption index, ranks 85th Denmark retained its position as the least corrupt country in 2014

India has showed some improvement in addressing corruption this year, ranking 85th among 175 countries as against 94th last year, graft watchdog Transparency International India (TII) said today.

Denmark retained its position as the least corrupt country in 2014 with a score of 92 while North Korea and Somalia shared the last place, scoring just 8, it said.

In India's neighbourhood, China moved to 100th place, down from 80th last year, while Pakistan and Nepal were at 126th position. Bangladesh was 145th and Bhutan 30th in the ranking. Sri Lanka was ranked 85th with India.Afghanistan was at a bleak 172.

According to the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report by TII, "the CPI score for India increased by 2 points in 2014 from its 2013 score, helping India's rank move up to 85 in 2014 from 94 in 2013". India's score stood at 38 as compared to 36 last year.

The improvement in CPI for India was driven primarily by two data sources -- from the World Economic Forum and World Justice Project's (WJP) index.

"A score increase on WEF suggested businesses in India were viewing the environment favourably with regards to their perception of corruption and bribery in the country".

The WJP score also went up reflecting the perceptions of public sector corruption coming down slightly in India, the report said.

The report noted that in terms of the new government, the CPI possibly captured the anti-corruption mandate on which the new government was elected and the possibility of some new reforms in this area.

"However, the data used for CPI mostly was collected prior to the change of government and therefore this will not reflect directly into any of the CPI sources," it said.

To calculate India's position this year, 9 out of 12 independent data sources specialising in governance and business climate analysis were also used.

These included Bertelsmann Foundation, World Bank and World Economic Forum. They helped in measuring perceptions of corruption in public sector and cross country comparability.

In his reaction, Chairman of TII S K Agarwal, said the "new Government has got fully majority on agenda of good governance and now it's high time to act and pass all pending anti corruption bills including the right of citizens for time bound delivery of goods and services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill".

Welfare Schemes for Unorganised Workers

The Minister Of State (IC) for Labour and Employment, Shri Bandaru Dattatreya has said that according to the survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) in 2009-10, the total employment in both the organized and the unorganized sectors in the country was 46.5 crore, of which 43.7 crore were in the unorganized sector. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today, Shri Bandaru Dattatreya said that with a view to providing social security to unorganized workers, the Government had enacted the “Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008”. The Act provides for the constitution of National Social Security Board at the central level to recommend social security schemes viz. life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, old age protection and any other benefit as may be determined by the Government for unorganized workers. The Minister said that Government has already taken various steps to provide social security for the unorganized workers. Some of these schemes are listed as under: 1. Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, (Ministry of Rural Development). 2. National Family Benefit Scheme, (Ministry of Rural Development). 3. Janani Suraksha Yojana, (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare). 4. Handloom Weavers’ Comprehensive Welfare Scheme, (Ministry of Textiles). 5. Handicraft Artisans’ Comprehensive Welfare Scheme, (Ministry of Textiles). 6. Pension to Master Craft Persons, (Ministry of Textiles). 7. National Scheme for Welfare of Fishermen and Training and Extension, (Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries). 8. Janshree Bima Yojana and Aam Admi Bima Yojana, (Department of Financial Services). 9. Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, (Ministry of Labour and Employment).

news related to ISRO

Cooperation with China

India has not signed any agreement with China to develop remote sensing satellites for disaster management and preparedness.               However, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and China NationalSpace Agency (CNSA) on cooperation in the peaceful use of outer space was signed on September 18, 2014 at New Delhi. As per this MoU, the Cooperative activities may include the following areas: (i)             Research and development of scientific experiment satellites, remote sensing satellites and communications satellites. (ii)           Launch, tracking and control services for satellites including in-orbit operation and management. (iii)          Research, development, utilization and applications of satellite ground systems.                                  (iv)   Material processing in space, atmospheric sciences, radio astronomy,                                  astrophysics and microgravity testing; and other mutually agreed areas.                         ISRO is pursuing cooperation with other countries on peaceful uses of outer space. Cooperative agreements are signed with 35 countries. The areas of cooperation include (i) Remote Sensing of Earth, (ii) Satellite Communication, (iii) Launch Services, (iv) Telemetry & Tracking Support, (v) Space Exploration, (vi) Space Law and (vii) Capacity Building. ISRO is currently working with space agencies of: (i) USA, to realize Dual frequency (L& S band) Synthetic Aperture Radar mission for Earth observation and (ii) Canada,to realize Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) to be accommodated in India’s ASTROSAT satellite. Achievements of ISRO The Government has taken a number of steps to popularise ISRO`s prowess in the field of space launches. Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), from 1999 onwards - till date, has successfully launched 40 satellites of foreign customers from 19 countries, using ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Further, contracts have been finalized to launch 16 satellites from 6 countries in the coming years. The ISRO has undertaken space launch services of developing countries in Asia and Africa. The ISRO, through its commercial arm Antrix, has already launched one satellite for developing countries in Asia namely, Indonesia and contract has been finalized for launching two more satellites of Indonesia. One satellite has also been launched for developing countries in Africa namely, Algeria. The space projects undertaken by Antrix Corporation Limited, the commercial arm of ISRO, till date, include: (i) establishment of ground stations for reception of data from Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites along with processing facilities at 20 locations outside India; (ii) building two contemporary communication satellites for European customers, and one communication satellite for Indian strategic user; (iii) providing tracking support for over 70 spacecraft missions of foreign customers; (iv) provisioning of satellite transponder capacity from Indian communication satellites for telecommunication, TV broadcasting, Direct-To-Home (DTH) services and VSAT applications; (v) launching of 40 foreign satellites on-board ISRO’s PSLV; (vi) establishment of ground terminals for tele-education, tele-medicine, disaster mitigation and Village Resource Centres; and (vii) consultancy services to domestic and foreign clients. Indian Space Telescope At present, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) does not have any plan for developing an Indian Space Telescope similar to Hubble Space Telescope. ISRO intends to launch following projects for space exploration in the next three years.             1. A multi-wavelength astronomy satellite ‘ASTROSAT’ aimed at studying the celestial sources over a wide spectral region covering Visible, Ultraviolet, Soft X-rays and Hard X-ray bands.              2.  Chandrayaan-2 mission comprising of an Indian Orbiter, Lander and Rover. The Orbiter with scientific payloads will orbit around the moon.  The scientific payloads onboard the Orbiter, Lander and Rover are expected to perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface.              3. A scientific mission ‘Aditya’ for solar studies to understand the physical processes that heat the solar corona.

UKPCS-2012 MAINS NEW PATTERN DETAILED ANALYSIS ,SAMVEG IAS DEHRADUN

UTTARAKHAND PCS WILL FOLLOW UPSC PATTERN IN MAINS,SAMVEG IAS DEHRADUN

http://ukpsc.gov.in/files/QAB_notification_in_pdf.pdf

CANDIDATES  HAVE TO WRITE THE ANSWER IN GIVEN LIMITED SPACE.SEE THE ABOVE NOTICE.

UKPCS-2012 PAPER ANALYSIS,SAMVEG IAS DEHRADUN

NOTE:PAPER ONE 100-110 QUESTIONS WILL BE GOOD SCORE.WHILE IN CSAT PAPER 55-65 QUESTION WILL BE ENOUGH TO QUALIFY THE PRE.DUE TO NEGATIVE MARKING SCORING HIGH IS DIFFICUT IN PCS EXAM.