Amazon plans it big with India Post network to ramp up its delivery mechanism

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(The government has sought…)

NEW DELHI: E-commerce giant Amazon wants to do in India what Alibaba did in China. Amazon's India head Amit Agarwal on Tuesday met telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and urged him to allow the use of new technologies such as real-time tracking and monitoring devices on the India Post network to develop a delivery mechanism based on smart logistics.

The government has sought a detailed proposal from Amazon, to which it will respond, a person familiar with the details of the meeting told ET. Amazon wants to leverage an improved India Post network to ramp up its delivery mechanism to within 24 hours anywhere within the country.
Agarwal was accompanied for the meeting by Monique Meche, Amazon's vicepresident for international public policy. In an emailed response to ET's query, Amazon said that it is "looking for ways to deepen" its relationship with the Indian postal service which started last year. It currently uses the Indian postal services as a delivery channel, but it is looking to deepen this further, in line with what Alibaba did in China.
Alibaba was the first e-commerce company to tie-up with a government postal agency in China. Right before it hit the capital markets with a multi-billion dollar issue, Alibaba tied up with China Post to share warehouses, processing centres and delivery resources, all part of a smart logistics network providing easier and faster delivery services to online sellers. Prasad also discussed prospects for pushing trade and commerce in rural parts of the country in a big way and how e-commerce websites such as Amazon could play a big part in giving a platform to small-time retailers and entrepreneurs in the hinterland through its market place models.

With over 1.6 lakh post offices throughout the country with the lion's share of 1.4 lakh in rural areas, India Post claims to have the largest postal network in the world, according to its website. On an average, a post office serves an area of 21.2 sq km and a population of 7,175 people.
"Speed of the last mile delivery to a customer will be the most decisive factor in an already price competitive e-commerce landscape and Amazon wants to leverage on the well-penetrated postal network," a second executive who did not want to be identified told ET.
Interestingly, Amazon's proposal comes in the wake of the special task force constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October to enhance the role of India Posts in financial inclusion and trade. The committee headed by former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian will submit its report by the year end. India Post had also tried to get a banking licence but had failed, and is now looking to become a 'payment bank', one which can accept deposits and remittances but cannot lend.
"The government would obviously review any proposals made by Amazon under the light of the recommendations made," the second official said. On a lighter note at the meeting, Prasad referred to Amazon's arch-rival, homegrown e-commerce major Flipkart, and asked Agarwal who would win the e-commerce war between the two majors in India. "The consumer," Agarwal responded.

Surging growth of the e-commerce sector in India has led to a fund-raising spree by companies in the sector. Most recent being Japan's Softbank Corporation's $627-million investment in Snapdeal, which was preceded by $1-billion fund raising by Flipkart. A day after Flipkart concluded its fund raising, Amazon committed investment of $2 billion in India. In the meeting, Agarwal further discussed setting up of a data centre in India for which the company readily agreed to put up a server. Microsoft was the first technology giant this year to announce the setting up of three data centres in the country.
These data centres will enable access to customers in banking and financial services as well as the central and state governments. Many such services are currently legally restrained as they require data to be hosted within the country. Owing to which Amazon put forth the proposal to set up a server within India.

Starting tomorrow, ATM use over 5 times per month will attract fee of Rs 20

NEW DELHI, 31, Sep 2014 : Using ATMs to withdraw money or for other purposes like balance enquiry beyond five times in a month will attract a levy of Rs 20 per transaction from Saturday.

As per the Reserve Bank's new guidelines that comes into force from Saturday, bank customers in six metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore — are allowed to withdraw money and/or carry out non-financial transactions like mini-statements at ATMs of banks, where they hold saving/current accounts, free of charge only five times a month.

Every transaction beyond this threshold will be charged Rs 20 per use.

Bangalore, 11 other cities will get new names

BANGALORE: Karnataka got a festival gift on Friday when the Centre approved renaming 12 cities, including Bangalore and Belgaum.

Bangalore's new name will be Bengaluru. Mangalore will be renamed Mangaluru, and Mysore will become Mysuru. Bellary will be called Ballari in official records, while Belgaum will be renamed Belagavi. Hubli will become Hubballi. The new names of other cities are Tumakuru (Tumkur), Vijapura (Bijapur), Chikkamagaluru (Chikmagalur), Kalaburagi (Gulbarga), Hosapete (Hospet) and Shivamogga (Shimoga).

Union home ministry officials said the Karnataka government, Survey of India, railway ministry, department of posts, ministry of science and technology and Intelligence Bureau gave their clearance to the proposal. Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju, too, gave his approval, which will now be followed by a final clearance from home minister Rajnath Singh.

The NDA government waited for the Maharashtra assembly elections to conclude because the decision to rename Belgaum could have cost theBJP votes in villages bordering Karnataka.

Sources said chief minister Siddaramaiah spoke to Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday. Things moved fast afterSiddaramaiah, at a meeting with Kannada litterateurs on October 10, announced that Belgaum would be renamed Belagavi.

The issue of renaming Belgaum was triggered by Jnanpith awardee U R Ananthamurthy at a meeting to discuss celebration of Karnataka's golden jubilee in December 2005. He suggested to then chief minister N Dharam Singh that Bangalore be renamed Bengaluru to mark the celebrations. Even as Singh readily agreed, demands from other quarters cropped up — and it became a list of 12 cities.

The state government mooted renaming the cities nine years ago, but the UPA government put the issue on the back burner. The proposal got stuck as the Maharashtra government filed a counter appeal before the Centre stating that the proposal to rename Belgaum had a motive to hurt the sentiments of Marathi-speaking people.

The UPA-I government cleared the names with the rider that Belgaum be dropped from the list as it did not want to antagonize Maharashtra over the Mahajan Commission report. The issue went into cold storage as successive governments did not pursue the matter.

Source :The Times of India

Central employees attendance can be monitored by public also

Not only is Big Brother watching the pen pushers, even the public can now keep a tab on them through a web portal, attendance.gov.in.

It tells you which babus reported for work on any given day, how punctually they arrived, if some of them left midway and where. It even provides a graph on each employee’s attendance trends to reveal how often he tends to take leave.

The portal went live quietly on September 30, covering 50,233 employees across 149 offices in Delhi. The idea is to enrol the capital’s one lakh-odd central government employees on the scheme before bringing the rest of the country under it, a senior official said.

A senior official at the National Informatics Centre, the agency for e-government initiatives, said the idea had come personally from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July. The source insisted that there had been “no complaints” from the babus about the scheme being intrusive.

At 6.45pm today, the attendance dashboard on the portal showed a figure of 26,951, which means less than 54 per cent of those enrolled had turned up to work.

The system is based on the Aadhaar biometric identity card, launched by the previous government, that now covers 68 crore people.

Every employee who has such a card has to enter the last six or first six digits of his Aadhaar number into a device at the entrance to his office, and then undergo an iris and fingerprint scan. Senior civil servants can do it without queuing, using devices attached to their workstations.

The process is repeated while leaving. If a babu goes to some other government office on an assignment during work hours, his arrival and departure is marked there too.

The National Informatics Centre source said the idea was not just to improve punctuality but to “weed out ghost employees and proxy attendance and instil a sense of equality among staff”.

Not everyone is happy.

“I can’t understand how the number of leaves I take is a matter of public interest,” said a senior bureaucrat who didn’t want to be named.

Another bureaucrat pointed out loopholes. One, if an employee wants to slip out for a while, there’s no way of ensuring that he records his departure in the machine at the gate.

Two, as a bureaucrat said: “If I have a meeting with the home secretary and go to North Block, everyone will know I was there but can anyone guarantee that I actually met him? So, how can this guarantee better output?”

He regretted the “move to have control over the bureaucracy” through a “weird public display at an increasing cost of governance, with expensive biometric devices and what not”.

Once the portal receives cabinet approval and is formally launched, all central government employees will have to register themselves with it. Those who lack an Aadhaar card will have to get their biometrics done.

As of now, the Prime Minister’s Office is not enrolled, though sources said it had approached the National Informatics Centre to get registered with the portal.

Neither cabinet secretary Ajit Seth nor foreign secretary Sujatha Singh is registered yet. The highest number of enrolments is from the Planning Commission, which is on its way to extinction.

The nine-day-old online register shows that home secretary Anil Goswami has not visited his North Block office the past four days.

Suhaib Ilyasi, editor of Bureaucracy Today — a magazine for and about the country’s bureaucrats — said the response had been positive.

“People like it even though they have to be punctual,” he said. “There is no sense of intrusion.”

But a bureaucrat asked why the scheme didn’t cover the ministers.

“Politicians, who call themselves public servants, have kept themselves out. If attendance is so important to this government, why have half the cabinet ministers skipped work to go camping in poll-bound states?” he said.

It isn’t clear whether Modi would be enrolled.

Source : The Telegraph

Soon, attendance of govt staff to be tracked online

 

 

 

A search for any registered employee yields complete details, along with the employee’s attendance/leave status. (Source: PTI)

Summary

The Modi government had recently directed all central government offices to introduce Aadhaar-based biometric attendance systems.

In what could be a revolutionary step towards monitoring and tracking the work of government officials, the NDA government has launched an “attendance website” to serve as a centralised database for all central government employees.
Though the website, attendance.gov.in, is still in the process of being developed, officials said it is expected to be modelled on the lines of similar websites of the Jharkhand government and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology.
To illustrate, the home page of the Jharkhand government’s attendance website gives the total number of employees present on the given day, along with graphical representations of “real-time attendance” and statistics on the percentage of people logging into office during different time slots, giving an idea of how many officials come to office during the designated timings. Further, a search for any registered employee yields complete details, along with the employee’s attendance/leave status.
Officials said the Centre’s website is likely to emulate most of these features and is expected to be as open to the public. “This level of open tracking takes transparency to another level, a key focus of this government,” said an official.
The Narendra Modi government had recently directed all central government offices to introduce Aadhaar-based biometric attendance systems. Officials said this website is the next step in that direction. The attendance record entered on the biometric devices in government offices will feed the data to this website, which will act as a centralised management information system (MIS) for attendance.
The database for all central government staff will be maintained centrally with a unique six digit ID provided for each employee, based on either the last six or first six digits of the Aadhaar number. Currently, the website has over 16,000 registered users, spread across 113 organisations. The maximum number of officials registered currently are from the Planning Commission. There are no active users or active devices yet.
For an organisation/ department to be registered, the nodal officers of that department will have to login to the website and create a master list of locations of their offices, designation of their offices and divisions/ units/ groups within their organisation. Following this, each employee can start registering online by submitting the relevant details along with Aadhaar numbers.

Prime Minister to Launch Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana Tomorrow: To Dedicate Mobile Banking Facility on Basic Mobile Phones to the Nation

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Finance

27-August-2014 17:58 IST

Prime Minister to Launch Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana Tomorrow: To Dedicate Mobile Banking Facility on Basic Mobile Phones to the Nation  

            The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi will launch the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) tomorrow at a function in the national capital. On this occasion, an exhibition on Technology and Financial Literacy will be organized. The Prime Minister will visit this exhibition. A film on ‘Financial Inclusion’ will also be screened. The Prime Minister will unveil a Logo and a Mission Document on Financial Inclusion.  He will also distribute awards to the winners of the Logo contest and the ‘account opening kit’ to five beneficiaries on this occasion. He will dedicate the mobile banking facility on the basic mobile phone (USSD) to the nation. 

The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of State for Finance, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Cabinet Secretary and Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be present on this occasion among other dignitaries. 

Under PMJDY, Comprehensive Financial Inclusion based is proposed be achieved under the six pillars as under: 

Phase I (15^th August ,2014-14^th August,2015)- 

v     Universal access to banking facilities

v     Providing Basic Banking Accounts with overdraft facility of Rs.5000 after six months and RuPay Debit card with inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh and RuPay Kisan Card

v      Financial Literacy Programme 

Phase II (15^th August 2015-15^th August,2018)- 

v     Creation of Credit  Guarantee Fund   for coverage of defaults in overdraft  A/Cs

v     Micro Insurance

v     Unorganized sector Pension schemes like  Swavlamban  

In addition, in this phase, coverage of households in hilly, tribal and difficult areas would be carried out. Moreover, this phase would focus on coverage of remaining adults in the households and students. 

·        All the rural & semi urban areas of the country is proposed to be mapped into Sub Service Area (SSA) comprising 1000-1500 households with an average 3-4 villages with relaxation in NE/ Hilly states.

·        It is also proposed that looking to the viability of each centre around 74000 villages with population more than 2000 which were covered by Business Correspondents under Swabhiman Campaign will be considered for conversion into full fledged Brick & Mortar branches with staff strength of 1+1/1+2 in the next three years.

·        All the 6 lakh villages across the entire country are to be mapped according to the Service Area of each Bank to have at least one fixed point Banking outlet catering to 1000 to 1500 households, called as Sub Service Area (SSA). It is proposed that SSAs shall be covered through a combination of banking outlets i.e branch banking and branch less banking.Branch banking means traditional Brick & Mortar branches. Branchless bankingcomprises of fixed point Business Correspondents agents, who act as representative of Bank to provide basic banking services.

·        The implementation strategy of the plan is to utilize the existing banking infrastructure as well as expand the same to cover all households. While the existing banking network would be fully geared up to open bank accounts of the uncovered households in both rural and urban areas, the banking sector would also be expanding itself to set up an additional 50,000 Business correspondents (BCs), more than 7000 branches and more than 20000 new ATMs in the first phase .

·        The comprehensive plan is necessary considering the learnings from the past where a large number of accounts opened remained dormant, resulting in costs incurred for banks and no benefits to the beneficiaries.  

v     The plan, therefore, proposes to channel all Government benefits (from Centre/State/Local body) to the beneficiaries to such accounts and pushing the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme of the Union Government including restarting the DBT in LPG scheme. MGNREGS sponsored by Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD, GoI) is also likely to be included in Direct Benefit Transfer scheme.

·        Keeping the stiff targets in mind, in the first phase, the plan would focus on first three pillars in the first year starting from 15^th August, 2014.

·        The target for setting up additional 50,000 BCs is quite challenging given the constraints of telecom connectivity.

·         In order to achieve this plan, phase wise and State wise targets for Banks have been set up for Banks for the period 15^th August, 2014 to 14^th August, 2015. 

·        In order to achieve a “demand” side pull effect, it would be essential that there is Branding and awareness of Business Correspondent model for providing basic banking services, Banking Products available at BC outlets and RuPay Cards. A media plan for the same is being worked out in consultation with banks.

·        A Project Management Consultant/Group would be engaged to help the Department implement the plan.

·        It is proposed to launch the programme simultaneously at National level in Delhi, at every State capital and all district headquarters.

·        A web-portal would be created for reporting/monitoring of progress.

·        Roles of various stakeholders like other Departments of the Central Government, State Governments, RBI, NABARD, NPCI and others have been indicated.

·        Gram Dak Sewaks in rural areas are proposed as Business Correspondent of Banks.

·        Department of Telecom has been requested to ensure that problems of poor and no connectivity are resolved. They have informed that of the 5.93 lakh inhabited villages in the country (2011 census) only about 50,000 villages are not covered with Telecom connectivity.

New Schemes announced in Union Budget 2014

Friends... Here is the list of new schemes announced in the Union Budget 2014 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Lok Sabha on 10 July 2014. We have prepared this on the prespective of competitive Examination. This will be helpful. You can download this article as PDF by clicking the print friendly button below.

1) Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana

2) Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission

3) Soil Health Card Scheme for Every Farmer

4) Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan

5) Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana

6) A Dedicated TV Channel ‘Kisan TV’ to be Launched for Farmers

7) Multi Skill Programme – Skill India

8) Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) Re-Introduced

9)  Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission ‘Namami Gange’

10) Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana Launched

11) Digital India Programme

12) Housing for All by 2022

 Details of each scheme is given below

1) Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana

“Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana” for feeder separation will be launched to augment power supply to the rural areas and for strengthening sub-transmission and distribution systems. Its long term aim is to provide 24×7 uninterrupted power supply to all homes. A sum of Rs. 500 crores has been set aside for this scheme.

2) Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission

Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission will be launched to deliver integrated project based infrastructure in the rural areas. The scheme will also include development of economic activities and skill development. The preferred mode of delivery would be through PPPs while using various scheme funds. It is based on the example of Gujarat that has demonstrated successfully the Rurban development model of urbanization of the rural areas, through which people living in the rural areas can get efficient civic infrastructure and associate services.

3) Soil Health Card Scheme for Every Farmer

The deteriorating soil health has been a cause of concern and leads to sub optimal utilization of farming resources.  The Government will initiate a scheme to provide to every farmer a soil health card in a mission mode. A sum of Rs 100 core for this purpose has been kept aside by the government. An additional Rs 56 crores have been allocated to set up 100 mobile soil testing laboratories across the county. There have also been growing concerns about the imbalance in the utilization of different types of fertilizers resulting in deterioration of the soil.

4) Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan

The Government intends to cover every household by total sanitation by the year 2019, the 150th year of the Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

5) Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana

The Government has proposed to initiate the scheme “Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana”. It is proposed to meet the need to provide assured irrigation to mitigate risk to the farmer since bulk of the farm lands are rainfed and depend on monsoon. This scheme would facilitate access to irrigation. A sum of Rs.1,000 crores is being set aside for this scheme.

Prepared by: www.currentaffairs4examz.com

6) A Dedicated TV Channel ‘Kisan TV’ to be Launched for Farmers

 Kisan TV, dedicated to the interests of the agriculture and allied sector will be launched in the current financial year. This will disseminate real time information to the farmers regarding new farming techniques, water conservation, organic and farming etc.

7) Multi Skill Programme – Skill India

The Government has announced the launch of a national Multi-Skill programme called Skill India. This programme would skill the youth with an emphasis on employability and entrepreneur skills. It will also provide training and support for traditional professions like welders, carpenters, cobblers, masons, blacksmiths and weavers etc. Convergence of various schemes to attain this objective is also proposed.

8) Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) Re-Introduced

Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) is being re-introduced to encourage people, who may have banked and unbanked savings to invest in this instrument. Kisan Vikas Patra is a saving scheme that doubles the money invested in eight years and seven months. The Directorate of Small Savings Government of India, sells these saving bonds through all Post Offices in the country so that the scheme can be accessed by citizens from all over the country. A KVP can be encashed after two and a half years from the date of issue at the value it has been bought and the interest accrued for the period.

9) Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission ‘Namami Gange’

The Government has proposed to set up an Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission called (Namami Gange). An amount of Rs. 2037 crore has been set aside for the Mission in the current Budget. The Mission is being launched because a substantial amount of money has been spent in the conservation and improvement of the river Ganga but the efforts have not yielded desired results because of the lack of concerted effort by all the stakeholders. To harness the enthusiasm of the NRI Community to contribute towards the conservation of the river Ganga, an NRI Fund for Ganga will be set up which will finance special projects.

10) Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana Launched

Government has introduced a new scheme called Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, which will help in generating awareness and improving the efficiency of delivery of welfare services meant for women with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore. The  government would focus on campaigns to sensitize people of this country towards the concerns of the girl child and women. The process of sensitization must begin early and therefore the school curriculum must have a separate chapter on gender mainstreaming.

11) Digital India Programme

Centre has proposed to launch a pan India Programme called “Digital India” to further bridge the divide between digital “haves” and “have-nots”. This would ensure Broad band connectivity at village level, improved access to services through IT enabled platforms, greater transparency in Government processes and increased indigenous production of IT hardware and software for exports and improved domestic availability. Special focus would be given on supporting software product startups. The  Government has also proposed to set-up A National Rural Internet and Technology Mission for services in villages and schools, training in IT skills and E-Kranti for government service delivery and governance scheme with an initial corpus of Rs. 500 crore. A programme for promoting “Good Governance” will also be launched and a sum of Rs.100 crore will be set aside for this.

12) Housing for All by 2022

Government has proposed to set up a Mission on Low Cost Affordable Housing to be anchored in the National Housing Bank. A  sum of Rs 4,000 crore has been earmarked for National Housing Bank with a view to increase the flow of cheaper credit for affordable housing to the urban poor/EWS/LIG segment. The Government has already outlined some other incentives such as easier flow of FDI in this sector and is willing to examine other positive suggestions. The government has included slum development in the list of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities to encourage the private sector to contribute more towards this activity.

Also read highlights of union budget 2014 from here. 

Courtesy : http://www.currentaffairs4examz.com/

  

Passport delivery to become hassle-free, no police verification in case of renewal

The ministry is set to waive a
second police verification
 in case of passport renewal  provided
the previous police verification was clear. 

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The passport delivery system could soon become hassle-free and quick. On the directions of the chief passport officer in the ministry of external affairs, Mumbai may lead the way to do away with cumbersome processes that currently delay the issuance of a passport.

The ministry is set to waive a second police verification in case of passport renewal provided the previous police verification was clear. Fresh guidelines have been issued so that a renewed passport is delivered at the quickest possible time by no longer treating the application for renewal as a fresh one, as is the case till now.

Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria and regional passport officer T D Sharma have put into action a plan that seeks to do away with police verification for other categories of applicants. "Minors, government servants and senior citizens can now go without verification," Muktesh Pardeshi, chief passport officer in MEA, said.

READ ALSO: Get French visas in 48 hours from next year

"I had a long meeting with passport officials on time-bound delivery of passport. We found that on occasions, the police department was blamed for delay in submitting verification certificate. I have drafted a comprehensive action plan. The entire exercise of police verification will be completed within seven working days," Maria told TOI.

Maria said specific bottlenecks in the police verification process have been identified and stringent measures taken to ensure that the entire exercise is completed in a time-bound period. "It was bringing a bad name to Mumbai Police. In addition, there were charges of corruption too. I am sure, once the new system comes into force, passport delivery will be hassle-free," Maria said.

Pardeshi told TOI, "We have directed that there should be three categories for police verification in the passport issuance process. First, there is a pre-police verification, which is mandatory for first-time passports. Second, the post-police verification, where the verification can be done after the passport is issued."

According to a senior official there was delay at several levels — from the newly set up passport seva kendra to the police station. "The delay was not deliberate, but there was lack of proper guidelines, as a result of which there was delay in submitting the police verification documents to the passport office. In the entire process, the special branch of the police station was blamed. We have worked out a comprehensive action plan, there will be no more delays and passport will be delivered within the stipulated period," he said.

Secondly, on the renewal of passports too, the ministry of external affairs has issued fresh guidelines to ensure that the passport is delivered in the shortest period. So far the convention was that if an application for renewal of passport is submitted, it was treated as a fresh application and there was police verification of residential address and all the documents. Now, it has been made clear that if the earlier police report is clear and the photograph of the applicant is attached in the original police report, there would be no need for fresh police verification. "The revised guidelines will help us in the expeditious delivery of passports, particularly those submitted for renewal," he said.

However, Pardeshi said the passport issuing officer had some discretionary powers. "If he/she feels police verification is necessary, it will be done."

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

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Kejriwal announces anti-corruption helpline

Kejriwal announces anti-corruption helpline

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced a helpline, which he said will help trap government employees who demand bribes.

Mr. Kejriwal told the media that anyone who is asked to pay a bribe by any official in the capital should seek help on 2735 7169.

“This is a helpline number, not a complaint number,” he said.

Once the details of the complainant is taken down, the anti-corruption wing of the Delhi administration will explain how to do a sting operation vis-a-vis the corrupt using the recording device of one’s mobile phone.

“The idea is to inject fear among bribe seekers,” Mr. Kejriwal said. “Now an officer demanding bribe won’t know if you are recording him on your mobile phone or not.”

The vigilance department has deployed a sufficient number of employees for this task, the chief minister said. If necessary, Delhi Police personnel would also chip in, he added.

“Every citizen is now an anti-corruption crusader (in Delhi),” he said.

The helpline would function from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Mr. Kejriwal had announced after taking oath Dec 28 that he would announce a helpline soon to trap bribe takers.

He said the project got delayed as he found the anti-corruption department was badly understaffed.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/

ആം ആദ്മിക്ക് കേരളത്തിലും വേരോട്ടം തുടങ്ങി

 ഇന്ത്യയുടെ ഹൃദയം പിടിച്ചെടുത്ത ആപ് ഇന്ത്യക്കാരുടെ ഹൃദയങ്ങളും പിടിചെടുക്കുവാന്‍ ഒരുങ്ങുന്നതായി റിപ്പോര്‍ട്ട്‌. ഇന്ന് കോണ്‍ഗ്രസിന്റെ നെഞ്ചത്തു കൂടിയും, ബിജെപിയ്ക്ക് ചങ്കിടിപ്പുണ്ടാക്കിയും അവര്‍ കടന്നു വരുമ്പോള്‍ ആം ആദ്മി എന്ന കേവലം ഒരു വര്‍ഷം മാത്രം പ്രായമുള്ള പാര്‍ട്ടി ജന ഹൃദയങ്ങളില്‍ കടന്നു കൂടുകയാണ്. സോഷ്യല്‍ മീഡിയയില്‍ അടക്കം വന്‍ ജന പിന്തുണയാണ് ആം ആദ്മി നേടിയിരിക്കുന്നത്.

അഴിമതിയില്‍ മുഴുവനായി മുങ്ങി കുളിച്ച്, പല അഴിമതികളെയും ന്യായീകരിച്ച് കഴിഞ്ഞ അമ്പതിലധികം വര്‍ഷങ്ങളായി ഇന്ത്യന്‍ ഉപഭൂഖണ്ഡത്തെ കൊള്ളയടിച്ച് ഭരണത്തിന്റെ പേരില്‍ വിഴുപ്പലക്കുന്ന മുഖ്യധാര രാഷ്ട്രീയ പാര്‍ട്ടികള്‍ക്ക് ഈ വിജയം നെഞ്ചിടിപ്പ് ഉണ്ടാക്കുന്നതാണ്. നമ്മുടെ കൊച്ചു കേരളത്തിലടക്കം വന്‍ പിന്തുണയാണ് ആം ആദ്മിക്കുള്ളത് എന്ന് കാണിക്കുന്നതായിരുന്നു ഇന്നലെ മലയാളികളുടെ ഫേസ്ബുക്ക് പ്രൊഫൈലുകള്‍ നോക്കിയാല്‍ മനസ്സിലാവുക.

 ഇന്നലെ പലരുടെയും പ്രൊഫൈല്‍ ചിത്രങ്ങള്‍ അടക്കം ചൂലോ കേജ്രിവാളിന്റെ ചിത്രമോ ആയിരുന്നു. തങ്ങളുടെ ചിഹ്നത്തെ അന്വര്‍ത്ഥമാക്കുന്ന പ്രകടനം നടത്തിയ ഒരു പാര്‍ട്ടി പിന്നെങ്ങിനെ ജനങ്ങളുടെ മനസ്സില്‍ കയറി കൂടാതിരിക്കും ?

കേരളത്തില്‍ അടക്കം വന്‍ സാധ്യതയാണ് ആം ആദ്മിക്ക് മുന്‍പിലുള്ളത്. പരസ്പരം അഴിമതി ആരോപണങ്ങളും പെണ്ണുകേസുകളിലും പെട്ടുലയുന്ന കേരള രാഷ്ട്രീയത്തെ ശുദ്ധീകരിക്കുവാന്‍ കേരളത്തിലെ യുവ ജനത ഒരു പക്ഷെ ആം ആദ്മിയെ വിളിച്ചേക്കാം.

 കേരളത്തിലെ വലതുപക്ഷവും ഇടതു പക്ഷവും ഇനിയും തങ്ങളുടെ കുടുംബ സ്വത്താണ് രാഷ്ട്രീയം എന്ന് ചിന്തിച്ചു പ്രവര്‍ത്തിച്ചാല്‍ കേരളം മറ്റൊരു ഡല്‍ഹിയാകും എന്ന കാര്യത്തില്‍ സംശയം വേണ്ട.

ആസ്ത്മ സുഖപ്പെടുത്തുവാന്‍ വേണ്ടിയുള്ള ചില യോഗ മാര്‍ഗങ്ങള്‍ !

ആസ്ത്മ എന്ന രോഗം വ്യാപകമായി കാണപ്പെടുന്ന ഒരു രോഗമാണ്. അന്തരീക്ഷ മലിനീകരണവും മറ്റും കാരണമായി ഈ അസുഖമുള്ളവരുടെ എണ്ണം ഇപ്പോള്‍ ഇരട്ടിയായിരിക്കുകയാണ്. സമാരാ ചോപ്ര എന്ന ഈ യോഗ ഇന്‍സ്ട്രക്ടര്‍ നമ്മള്‍ നിന്നും ആസ്ത്മ അകറ്റുവാന്‍ വേണ്ടിയുള്ള ചില യോഗ സ്റ്റെപ്പുകള്‍ പഠിപ്പിക്കുകയാണിവിടെ.

കള്ളനോട്ട് എങ്ങനെ തിരിച്ചറിയാം?

Posted on: 12 Jul 2012

 

ആരുടെ കൈവശവും കള്ളനോട്ട് വന്നുപെടാം. അതു കൈവശം വച്ചാലുള്ള ബുദ്ധിമുട്ടുകള്‍ വളരെ വലുതാണ്.

റിസര്‍വ് ബാങ്ക് ഓഫ് ഇന്ത്യ കള്ളനോട്ട് തിരിച്ചറിയാന്‍ സഹായിക്കുന്ന വെബ്‌സൈറ്റ് ആരംഭിച്ചിരിക്കുകയാണ് - http://www.paisaboltahai.rbi.org.in/.

പൈസ സംസാരിക്കുന്നു എന്ന് അര്‍ഥം വരുന്ന ഈ സൈറ്റില്‍ 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000 രൂപ നോട്ടുകളെക്കുറിച്ചുള്ള വിവരങ്ങള്‍ നല്‍കിയിട്ടുണ്ട്.

കള്ളനോട്ടിനെക്കുറിച്ച് അവബോധം ഉണ്ടാക്കുന്ന പോസ്റ്ററുകള്‍, വീഡിയോ ചിത്രങ്ങള്‍ എന്നിവയും പൈസാബോല്‍ത്താഹേ വെബ്‌സൈറ്റിലുണ്ട്.

10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000 രൂപ നോട്ടുകള്‍ പരിശോധിക്കേണ്ടത് എങ്ങനെ?

Tags: How to detect fake currency notes

സുന്ദരമായ16 റോഡുകള്‍

നിങ്ങള്‍ മരിക്കും മുന്‍പേ ഡ്രൈവ് ചെയ്യേണ്ട 16 റോഡുകള്‍

ഈ റോഡുകളില്‍ കൂടി മരിക്കും മുന്‍പേ ഒരു തവണയെങ്കിലും നിങ്ങള്‍ ഡ്രൈവ് ചെയ്തില്ലെങ്കില്‍ അതൊരു നഷ്ടം തന്നെയാകും എന്ന് പറയട്ടെ. കാരണം അത്രയും സുന്ദരമാണ് ഈ റോഡുകള്‍ . ലോകത്തിന്റെ വിവിധ ഭാഗങ്ങളില്‍ നിന്നുമുള്ള ചിത്രങ്ങള്‍ ഒന്ന് കണ്ടു നോക്കൂ.
1. Rohtang Pass — Himachal Pradesh, India


2. Great Ocean Road — Victoria, Australia

3. Beartooth Highway — Montana and Wyoming


4. Atlantic Ocean Road — Averøy, Norway


5. Hana Highway — Maui, Hawaii


6. Highway 99 “Sea to Sky Highway” — British Columbia, Canada


7. Los Caracoles “Snails Pass” — In the Andes between Argentina and Chile


8. Øresund Bridge — Denmark and Sweden


9. Going-to-the-Sun Road — Glacier National Park, Montana


10. Guoliang Tunnel — Taihang Mountains, China


11. White Rim Road — Canyonlands National Park, Utah


12. Transfăgărășan Road — Sibiu, Romania


13. Highway 101 and Pacific Coast Highway — California Coast


14. Yungas Road — La Paz, Bolivia


15. Stelvio Pass — Eastern Alps, Italy


16. Millau Viaduct — Millau-Creissels, France

   Sources:boolakam