Beating retreat 2015

Curtain Raiser – Beating Retreat Ceremony 2015

This year the Indian tunes will be the flavour of the ‘Beating the Retreat’ ceremony here, tomorrow. As many as 20 out of 23 performances have been composed by Indian musicians. 

This year some ‘desi’ new tunes are being played for the first time like ‘Vir Bharat’, ‘Chhana Bilauri’, ‘Jai Janam Bhumi’ and ‘Athulya Bharat’. 

Other tunes are ‘Deshon Ka Sartaj Bharat’, ‘Cutty’s Wedding’, ‘Piper O’ Drumond’, ‘Gorkha Brigade’, ‘Ocean Splendour’, ‘Blue Field’, ‘Battle of the Sky’, ‘Anandloke’, ‘Dashing Desh’, ‘Flying Star’, ‘Glorious India’, ‘Bhupal’, ‘Indian Soldiers’, ‘Hathroi’, ‘Salam to the Soldiers’, ‘Giri Raj’, ‘Drummers’ Call’, ‘Abide With Me’ and lastly the ever-popular ‘Sare Jahan Se Acha’. 

The ceremony at the Vijay Chowk on January 29th every year marks the culmination of the four-day-long Republic Day celebrations. This year, 15 Military Bands, 18 Pipes and Drums Bands from Regimental Centres and Battalions are participating in Beating the Retreat Ceremony. 

‘Beating the Retreat’ has emerged as an event of national pride when the Colours and Standards are paraded. The ceremony traces its origins to the early 1950s when Major Roberts of the Indian Army indigenously developed the unique ceremony of display by the massed bands. ‘

Beating Retreat’ marks a centuries old military tradition, when the troops ceased fighting, sheathed their arms and withdrew from the battlefield and returned to the camps at sunset at the sounding of the Retreat. Colours and Standards are cased and flags lowered. The ceremony creates a nostalgia for the times gone by. 

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=115013

Modi's view

"He was of the view that she lacked the imagination to take India to the next level globally. She could not play several equations at the same time as the PMO wanted on the external affairs front, 

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/46060063.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Modi’s alliteration and acronyms, staccato as military commands, echo the beat of a triumphal march: 
‘Make in India’;
 ‘Swachh Bharat’;

The four Ps for progress — People, Private, Public, Partnership; 

The five Ts to revive brand India — Talent, Tradition, Tourism, Trade, Technology; 

The ‘Road’ to revival — Responsibility, Ownership, Accountability, Discipline.

http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-commentary/india-needs-a-dynamic-pm-like-narendra-modi/?intenttarget=no

Pakistan electricity

The power failure, one of the worst Pakistan has experienced, caused electricity to be cut in 80% of the country, including major cities and the capital Islamabad.

The whole of Pakistan just produces 7000 MW!!!! I am shocked. It's eastern neighbour , the Punjab state of India has an installed capacity of 7500 MW and produces at least 6000 MW. This state has a population of only 2.7 Crores against 20 Crores of Pakistan

compare with india,toal capacity 2,55,000 MW with many states having surplus power.only solar power generation to reach 1,00,000 MW in 2-3 years.

Pakistan's electricity distribution system is a complex -- and delicate -- web and a major fault at one section often leads to chain reactions and breakdowns of power generation and transmission

official pan supplier to Rashtrapati Bhawan

Madhuri paan from North Avenue’s Pandey Paan Bhandar.

The tiny shop in the capital’s North Avenue is the official supplier to Rashtrapati Bhawan and has the honour of serving paan to many famous political leaders as well as celebrities. It has in the past served paan to former US Presidents such as Obama, Bill Clinton and George Bush.

The shop offers 50 interesting varieties such as fresh fruit paan, black forest paan, strawberry, brownie walnut paan, cranberry sweet paan, wild blueberry, custard apple, kiwi, muskmelon and sweet paan with dried fruit.

Bbutterscotch paan and kiwi paan for Obama when he had visited in 2010, this time we will offer Madhuri paan, choco layer paan, custard apple paan and also butterscotch paan, among others.” Interestingly, Madhuri paan, made with honey and rose, 

Security arrangements x,y,z

There are five categories of security the police provide on receiving inputs of specific threat to VIPs. They are X,Y, Y-plus, Z and Z-plus depending on the threat assessment of the person.

X category security has only a few police personnel posed as PSOs while Z plus is the highest level of security that could comprise at least 100 police personnel.

Perks of Inda's Jammu & Kashmir legislators

The Jammu & Kashmir elected legislators

1. gets out on government accommodation in Jammu and Srinagar, 
2. a salary of Rs 90,000 a month, 
3. free fuel and medical cover, 
4. a liberal travel allowance,
5. Rs 5 lakh as interest-freehousing loan, 
6. Rs 1 lakh for an annual family trip
7. access to a constituency development fund of Rs 1.5 crore a year.
8.  can claim is a pension of Rs 29,000 a month if fresh elections are held. 

ref:http://www.kashmirtimes.in/newsdet.aspx?q=40500

Peace is not the absence of violence

Quoting Martin Luther King, he said, “Peace is not the absence of violence, but the presence of justice”

Task of a patriotic or humanistic government?

Periyar wrote in 1969 (Viduthalai): “The foremost task of a patriotic or humanistic government, public service organisation or individuals with social consciousness is to make the people of this country intelligent and awaken their rational thinking.”

On religious and scriptures, he had said: “Religion and scriptures are instruments solely created for the purpose of destroying intelligence and freedom and making people a set of fools and slaves. These came into vogue when people were living as savages, leading an animal existence. Just as the people were terrorised by tales of ghosts, ghouls and spirits, so were they instilled with fear by religion and scriptures.”

ref:http://www.firstpost.com/living/shame-perumal-murugan-tragedy-exposes-dmk-aiadmks-empty-politics-2045397.html

Polonium poisoning

One of the poisons experts suspect may have caused Sunanda's death is polonium-210, a toxin thousands of times more deadly than cyanide. Discovered in 1898 by Marie Curie, it was not known much outside the nuclear power and arms industry.

Two famous cases of polonium poisoning are

1. One was that of Yasser Arafat, the legendary Palestinian leader who died in 2004.
2. A Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, who had fallen foul of Russian authorities and fled to London, was murdered after he drank tea laced with polonium. 

This radioactive element is produced as a by-product in nuclear fission reactions (in reactors) and occurs in very minute quantities in nature, including in tobacco. It is estimated by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission that only about 100 grams is produced in a year in the world's nuclear reactors. It is very tightly regulated and experts believe that it will be virtually impossible for a lay person to either make it or acquire it.

Polonium is 250,000 times more deadly for humans than hydrogen cyanide. It's mode of action is not chemical interaction but rather the fact that it emits a steady stream of alpha particles, that is, doubly charged particles that destroy organs and tissue.

It doesn't have the capacity to cross the outer layer of human skin. But if inhaled or ingested or absorbed, it will generate the lethal alpha radiation inside the body, progressively destroying everything. If taken in, polonium can exist in human bodies for 30 to 50 days. All this while, it will keep burning up organs, tissues, vessels and so on, causing a rapid and painful decline to death.

Since cases of polonium poisoning are rare, not much is known about treatment although some successful experiments have been done with mice.

Science 7000 yrs back

Captain Anand Bodas and Ameya Jadhav. "The knowledge of aeronautics is described in Sanskrit in 100 sections, eight chapters, 500 principles and 3,000 verses. In the modern day, only 100 principles are available," stated the paper.. He mentioned 97 reference books for aviation."

"Indians had developed 20 types of sharp instruments and 101 blunt ones for surgeries, which largely resemble the modern surgical instruments. Vaikrutaapaham, retaining the original colour and texture of the skin after a surgery, is one of the seven post-operative treatment steps for abscess.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Heard-at-science-meet-Ancient-Indian-planes-flew-to-planets/articleshow/45754349.cms

Bullets

ref:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/BJP-Congress-war-of-words-on-terror-boat/articleshow/45754360.cms

IT companies are not covered by the Industrial Employment Act

Currently, IT companies are not covered by the Industrial Employment Act. This disallows IT employees from forming any labour union or association and put them in the same category as casual workers, who could be laid off without any reason.

What go unnoticed are occasional blips - the layoffs - that are not statistically not as significant, but are imbued with sad stories of people.

Compenies claim it as nothing extraordinary and it’s only part of “workforce optimisation”

The seniors, who cannot be inducted into leadership or project management roles - probably due to lack of vacancies and competencies - add no better value than a new entrant. This “workforce optimisation” is seemingly about “cost optimisation”.

 If the employees keep doing it without constantly upgrading their skills, they become no better than the new wave of recruits that enter the companies every year. After a while, the earlier ones make no sense cost-wise because the same job can be done by cheaper hands. The company, then talks of poor performance. 

 Employees are made to work at an average 14-16 hours a day..EOD concept means that end of day deadline is always the next day morning when others come to office

 Karnatakagovernment's recent decision to exempt the information technology sector from an onerous labour law - theIndustrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 - for another five years.

Industry representatives in India's technology capital had welcomed the decision to extend the exemption from the Industrial Employment Act. According to them, the Act was archaic and not relevant to a modern, services industry such as theirs. 

In the absence of exemption, IT firms would have had to define wages, number of contract employees, average work hours and other conditions of employment and display it prominently near the main entrance. For over a decade, software companies in Bangalore enjoyed exemption from the law, 

Now Indian IT industry has lost Pyramid structure, now it has got Cylinder structure

“The company currently has about 90,000 staff with more than eight years of experience. The plan is to bring it down to 30,000 and hire more juniors,” he said.

FITE is an organisation that tries to work against what it calls illegal re-trenchment of employees
Vinod, a co-ordinator of Chennai-based Forum for IT Employees (FITE)


http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-11-07/news/43776157_1_manufacturing-sector-labour-law-outsourcing-sector

http://www.firstpost.com/business/alleged-lay-offs-tcs-time-unionise-sector-2027195.html

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Capital City How to?

A city to be accessible from all corners of the state. Ideally, it should be at a centrally located area.

• The location must have 6-km radius and development must be possible up to 6 km on all sides, as the new capital will have its own Secretariat, Assembly, High Court and other important buildings.
•  If the capital city is 12 km long, then it must be feasible for development across 144 sq km.
• if we convert the same into acres, then 30,000 acres will be required for the development of a new capital city.

Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s outrageously grandiose ghost capital. Here, the challenge may well be to regulate growth rather than trying to populate the newly-built city. Amita Desai, Director of a German cultural organisation and a witness to the German unification, hopes “the new city would be inclusive, environmentally conscious and aesthetically fertile and, above all, provide spaces for women where they feel safe.”

Just being an attractive administrative capital — a la boring Gandhinagar — is not enough to pull people in and make a vibrant city

Delhi spread across 3,66,000

Mumbai spread across 1,49,000

Chennai spread across 1,05,000

Hyderabad spread across 1,54,000

Jaipur spread across 1,60,000

Proposed Amaravathi core capital 40,000  

Deciding on a capital is never easy and it is tougher still when the population of the top pick is just a little more than 13,000, or one-five hundredth of Hyderabad’s. 

Established as the capital of the expansive Satavahana Empire, which ruled most parts of central and southern Indian from 230 BCE to 220 CE, Amaravathi was once a prosperous centre. 

 The master plan for Andhra Pradesh proposes to develop Guntur, Nandigama and Gudivada into pharma, textile and agro centres, while pitching Amaravathi as the culture figurehead.

“Amaravathi has got more of a historical legacy and less of a living cultural legacy,”

modi cabinet!!

 He has included at least 19 senior RSS members as ministers in the federal cabinet
ref:http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=39841