Feature on Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray – The Father of Indian Chemistry

One often wonders if there is any other manner to start this piece on Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, more popular as P C Ray. Some years a community or country’s life span is blessed specially. So was the circa 1861 when Bengal and India gave birth to two illustrious sons, Rabindranath Tagore and Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray. Born on 2 August, 1861, P C Ray turned out to be a pioneer of chemical education, chemical research and chemical industries in India.

Introducing e-governance in Panchayats

It is an accepted position that Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) as units of local self government, are the constitutionally mandated third tier of governance and as per Article 243G of Indian Constitution are required to perform the functions of - preparation of plans for economic development and social justice; Implementation  of schemes for economic development and social justice as may be entrusted to them including those in relation to the matters listed in the Eleventh Schedule. In addition to the above, Panchayats are required to levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, toll and fees;and manage the grants-in-aid received from Central and State Governments.

Govt gives a big push to nuclear safety

The govt on Tuesday decided to go ahead with the Jaitapur nuclear project with plans of a new compensation package as a decision to this effect was taken in a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Pushing ahead with the controversial Jaitapur atomic power plant, government today said it has decided to have a stand-alone safety system in the designs of each reactors, two of which are expected to be operational by 2019 and announced a bill would be brought to create an autonomous nuclear regulatory body.

Enabling Participative Decentralized Planning at Grass Root Level

Many efforts have been made by the Government to strengthen and decentralize the planning process so that the development funds consumed by the Plans result in effective outcomes. However, the efforts have not sufficiently fructified. Some of the reasons are that the plans are prepared for each scheme separately resulting in lack of convergence of funds and sectoral integration; planning has traditionally been done at the district level, which is physically removed, from the citizens resulting in Plans that do not reflect the needs and aspirations of the people; there is no tight coupling between the Planned outlay and the actual expenditure incurred and there is no integration between plans of different local governments.

Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques Act, 1994 - Feature

The Pre-conception & Pre-natal Diagnostics Techniques (PC & PNDT) Act, 1994 was enacted in response to the decline in Sex ratio in India, which deteriorated from 972 in 1901 to 927 in 1991. Female infanticide had been prohibited through legislation in pre-independence period and certain provisions were included in the Indian Penal code, 1860 for punishing causing miscarriages and other such offences but with the advent of diagnostic technology to detect the sex of the foetus very early on in pregnancy, a need was felt for a specific law to prevent the misuse of technology which could lead to female foeticide.

Increase in India’s Tiger Population Needs to be Sustained

It was like a whiff of fresh air to hear about increase in endangered tiger population in India. The latest Census figures put the number at 1,706 against 1411 in the previous census undertaken in 2006- a clean increase of 295. The increase looks more impressive when we take into consideration the fact that this growth has been registered after consistent fall in tiger population. The report suggests that the Tiger population in India is stabilizing and in fact thriving in some areas.

India-Pak trade talks today

On the eve of Indo-Pakistan trade talks, New Delhi on Tuesday said "possible doables" to upgrade bilateral economic engagement would be clear after the Commerce Secretaries complete their discussion in Islamabad. Describing the India-Pakistan commerce secretaries' talks, beginning tomorrow, as "a positive development," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said that, “after these talks, there would be greater clarity about possible doables on ways to upgrade economic ties".