The Competition World

“The Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011” is a step forward towards good governance.  The salient features of the Bill are: Right to Citizens It confers right on every individual citizen to time bound delivery of goods and provision for services and Redressal of grievances. Publication of Citizens Charter It requires every public authority to publish, within six months of the commencement of the proposed legislation, aCitizens Charter specifying therein the category of goods supplied and services rendered by it, the time within which such goods shall be supplied or services be rendered the name and addresses of individuals responsible as designated officers for the delivery of goods or rendering of services. Information and Facilitation Centre It requires every Public Authority to establish information and facilitation centre for efficient and effective delivery of services and redr...

Gross external debt, at a point in time, is defined as “the outstanding amount of those actual current, and not contingent, liabilities that require payment(s) of principal and/or interest by the debtor at some point(s) in the future and that are owed to non-residents by residents of an economy” (External Debt Statistics -Guide for Compilers and Users, International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2003). Original and Residual Maturity                           Original maturity is defined as the period encompassing the precise time of creation of the financial liability to its date of final maturity. Debt by residual maturity (or remaining maturity) includes short term debt by original maturity of up to one year, combined with medium to long term debt repayment by original maturity falling due within the twelve month period following a reference date. External debt is commonly expressed in terms of original maturity. ...

By - Dhiraj  Singh,  Director (M&C), P.I.B T he Government has decided to allow Foreign Direct Investment   ( FDI)  upto  51% in multi brand retail. This means that global retailers can come to India with a local partner and set up stores in the country.  Till now FDI was not allowed in multi brand retail.  However, there were big multi brand retail outlets owned by Indian entities.  This decision is an enabling policy that will open up new windows of opportunity to modernize the retail sector particularly for agricultural products and the small-scale sector. The benefits would be for all : The farmer  will get a better price for their produce as middlemen will be removed   and retailers will buy directly from farmers.  Farmers’ losses from wastages specially   in  vegetables and fruits will come down. The small scale sector  will find new buyers and cheap and better quality source for their product...

E very single atom in the universe carries an unimaginably powerful battery within its heart, called the nucleus. This form of energy, often called Type-1 fuel, is hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than the conventional Type-0 fuels, which are basically dead plants and animals existing in the form of coal, petroleum, natural gas and other forms of fossil fuel. Imagine a kilometre-long train, with about 50 freight bogies, fully laden with about 10,000 tonnes of coal. The same amount of energy can be generated by 500 kg of Type-1 fuel, naturally occurring Uranium, enough to barely fill the boot of a small car. When the technology is fully realised, one can do even better with naturally occurring Thorium, in which case the material required would be much less, about 62.5 kg, or even less according to some estimates. Energy and economy   Today, India finds itself going through a phase of rapid ascent in economic empowerment. Our focus for this decade will be on t...

Since its establishment in 1985, Indira Gandhi National Open University IGNOU has contributed significantly to the development of higher education in the country through the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode. Known as the 'People's University' IGNOU follows a learner-centric approach and has successfully adopted a policy of openness and flexibility in entry qualifications, time taken for completion of a programme, and place of study. The University, at present, offers 338 programmes of study through over 3,500 courses to cumulative student strength of over 30 lakh students. The programmes The University offers various programmes at the following levels: ·          Doctorates ·          Masters and Bachelors degree programmes ·          Post-graduate and Under-graduate Diplomas ·          Certificates. The education is diss...

Nirendra Dev* The provision of drinking water supply is an imperative need of the society. Ensuring adequate and effective supply of drinking water in rural areas is one such important priority area and was thus incorporated as one of the six key components of Bharat Nirman programme under the UPA government in 2004. During the Bharat Nirman Phase – I period itself, over 55,000 un-covered and about 3.31 lakh slipped-back habitations were covered with provisions of drinking water facilities. In addition over 2 lakh quality-affected habitations were to be addressed for water quality problem.   The Planning Commission documents say, the national goal of achieving universal access of the mammoth rural population to adequate potable drinking water at a convenient location at all times is truly a daunting task. Thus it is not without good reason that a national water supply and sanitation programme was introduced in the social welfare sector way back in 1954. Essentially, provisio...

As our lifestyles become more 'developed' by the day, so does the damage we do to the environment. Our every move, from watching television, to working at a computer, to taking a flight to our favourite holiday destination harms the environment in one way or the other. Air and water pollution levels are increasing world over by the day. Never before has the need to use alternative resources, such as wind, solar and nuclear energy been so high. India is one of the largest petroleum consuming and importing countries. India imports about 70 % of its petroleum demands. The current yearly consumption of diesel oil in India is approximately 40 million tones constituting about 40% of the total petro-product consumption. Bio-diesel can be the major replacement in terms of petro-product consumption by India which is eco-friendly too. Bio-diesel is a clean burning, eco-friendly natural fuel obtained from tree born oil by a chemical transformation process called “Transesterifi...