Important Species of India - Cats

The Tiger (Panthera tigris) :

The Tiger (Panthera tigris)

• The subspecies found in India is Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris).
•  It is classified as endangered by IUCN.

Distribution : 

• The bengal tigers inhabit tropical moist evergreen forests, tropical dry forests, tropical and subtropical moist deciduous forests, mangroves, subtropical and temperate upland forests, and alluvial grasslands.  
• The major tiger conservation units in India are Manas-Namdapha, Hazaribagh National Park, Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Kanha-Indravati, Panna National Park, Melghat Tiger Reserve, Ratapani Tiger Reserve,  Kaziranga-Meghalaya, Kanha-Pench, Simlipal, Indravati Tiger Reserves, Periyar, Kalakad-Mundathurai, Bandipur and Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Press Council Of India

The Press Council Of India was established as a statutory body to preserves the freedom of the press, and to maintain and improve the standards of print media. It was set up in 1966 by an act of parliament. The present Council functions under the Press Council Act 1978.

It is a statutory, quasi judicial body which acts as a watchdog of the press. It adjudicates the complaints against and by the press for violation of ethics and for violation of the freedom of the press respectively. It may either warn or censure the errant journalists on finding them guilty.

• A retired judge of Supreme court of India acts as the Chairman of the Press Council of India. The present Chairman is Justice Markandey Katju.
• The council also consists of 28 members.
• 20 represent the press and are nominated by the press organisations/news agencies recognised and notified by the Council as all India bodies of categories such as editors, working journalists and owners and managers of newspaper; 
• 5 members are nominated from the two houses of Parliament and 
• 3 represent cultural, literary and legal fields as nominees of the Sahitya Academy, University Grants Commission and the Bar Council of India. 

The members serve on the Council for a term of three years.

The Council is funded by revenue collected by it as fee levied on the registered newspapers in the country on the basis of their circulation.

What is Malware and spyware ?

Malware is a malicious unwanted software often take control of users' computers for black-market exploitation. 

Malware infected computers are called "zombie computers" and can be used for many malicious purposes like sending email spam, hosting offensive material and for conducting denial of service attacks.

A Malware can be a computer virus or trojan horse or spyware or adware or any other type of malicious programme. A Malware can be used to gain personal information or sensitive government data. The rise of the broadband internet led to the proliferation of profit oriented malwares.

Spyware is a type of malware which monitors user's web browsing data. Then the spyware displays advertisements based on the browsing data and fetch advertisement income to the spyware creators.

Section 66A of the Information Technology Act of India 2000

Section 66A. Punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service etc. 

Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device.- 

(a) any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character; or

(b) any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device; or
 

(c) any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine.

Airports and Seaports Map of India

Factors responsible for the Gold price increase

Gold prices have reached a record level. The factors responsible for increase in gold price are

• Purchase of Gold by Central banks: The Reserve bank of India recently purchased 200 tonnes of Gold, which led to the price increase in the international and indian gold markets. Other central banks of Asia and Latin America are also buying gold.
• Demand for Gold in developing countries like China and India: The rapid GDP growth rate, emergence of middle class in the rapidly developing countries is leading to the demand for Gold in international market. The cultural affinity towards gold also plays a major role in demand from India.
• Slowdown in World Economy: As most western economies including USA, UK and EU are facing economic slowdown, more number of investors are looking for safer alternatives like gold.
• Gold is inflation proof, which makes it as a prime investment option.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_as_an_investment#Factors_influencing_the_gold_price

 

What is a hawala transaction ?

Hawala means transfer in arabic language. Hawala is an informal alternative foreign remittances transfer system based on the trust of a huge network of money brokers.

It is not a legal method of money transfer, because it evades foreign exchange rate regulations, tax, currency control, immigration, and other concerns. The hawala brokers charge less commission than the banks, which makes it attractive to the common people.

Hawala is also used to circulate black money and to terrorism funds, drug trafficking and other illegal activities. The Governmentt of India made, FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) 2000 and PMLA ( Prevention of Money Laundering) Act 2002 to curb these activities.

Hawala brokers transfer money without moving it physically.

Steps involved in Money Transfer in a Hawala Transaction:

1. A customer approaches a hawala broker in one city and gives a sum of money that is to be transferred to a recipient in a foreign country.
2. The hawala broker calls another hawala broker in the recipient's city, and gives instructions about the funds.
3. The recipient collects the money from the hawala broker in his city. 
4. Settlements of debts between hawala brokers can take a variety of forms, such as goods, services, properties, transfers of employees, etc. and need not take the form of direct cash transactions.

Index of Eight Core Industries - India

Index of Eight Core Industries (Base: 2004-05=100). 

The Eight core industries have a combined weight of 37.90 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in may 2012.

During April-May 2012-13, the cumulative growth rate of the Core industries was 3.4 % as against their growth at 5.0% during the corresponding period in 2011-12.

The eight core industries are

1. Coal
2. Crude Oil
3. Natural Gas
4. Refinery products
5. Fertilisers
6. Steel
7. Cement
8. Electricity

Electricity has a maximum weight of 10.32%.

Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management FRBM Act 2003

The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management FRBM Act 2003 aims to achieve financial discipline, reduce fiscal deficit, improve macro economic management.

The main purpose of FRBM Act 2003 was to eliminate revenue deficit(RD) and bring down the fiscal deficit (FD) to a manageable 3% of GDP by march 2008.

The FRBM Act 2003 provides for making rules to specify the annual targets for reduction of fiscal deficit and revenue deficit, contingent liabilities and total liabilities.

The main objectives of the act were

1. to introduce transparent fiscal management system
2. to introduce a more equitable and manageable distribution of the country's debts over the years
3. to aim for fiscal stability for India in the long run

Along with the budget and demands for grants, the government of India should submit the following documents to the parliament.

1. Medium-term Fiscal Policy Statement – It should present a three-year rolling target for the fiscal indicators.
2. Fiscal Policy Strategy Statement – This should enumerate strategies and policies for the upcoming Financial Year including strategic fiscal priorities, taxation policies, key fiscal measures
3. Macro-economic Framework Statement – This report should contain forecasts enumerating the growth prospects of the country - GDP growth etc.

The Act provided that the Central Government shall not borrow from the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) except under exceptional circumstances where there is temporary shortage of cash in particular financial year.

Rationalisation of Numbering system of national highways

All national highways in India are rationalised based on the US Highway numbering system. All highways are numbered based on their orientation from North to South and from East to West directions. Highways which are running from north to south are given even numbers and those running in the east-west direction are given odd numbers.

The Primary National Highways which are in N-S and E-W directions are given double digits for better identification by commuters (from 1 to 99). The numbers of the Primary National Highways increase from N-S and E-W. The Secondary National Highways are given three digit numbers.

As per the new scheme, multiple highways are merged into one new Highway. After the renumbering single longest national highway is NH 44 which will run from Srinagar to Kaniyakumari. The shortest Highway is NH-36. The distance is 3.0 km only. Some popular highways are truncated into multiple segments like the Chennai-Bangalore Old Madras Road via Chitoor (NH4) becoming N48-N40-N73-N75.

Rationalisation of Numbering system of national highways

References : 
http://dorth.gov.in/writereaddata/sublinkimages/finaldoc6143316640.pdf
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arunganesh/4996257774/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Highways_in_India#Rationalization_of_Highway_numbers

Indian Space Vision 2025

Indian Space Vision 2025

• Satellite based communication and navigation systems for rural connectivity, security needs and mobile services.
• Enhanced imaging capability for natural resource management, weather and climate change studies.
• Space science missions for better understanding of solar system and universe.
• Planetary exploration.
• Development of Heavy lift launcher.
• Reusable Launch Vehicles - Technology demonstrator missions leading to Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO).
• Human Space Flight