The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Paban Singh Ghatowar has flagged off a Pilot Scheme “Youth to the Edge” yesterday in Tinsukia, Assam.

On the occasion, Shri Ghatowar said that the North Eastern Region (NER) is identified as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots for its natural resources as it hosts variety of species, rich tropical rain forests supports and diverse flora and fauna having abundance in mineral wealth, forests and water resources. This region has yet to harness the vast developmental potential of these resources for the benefit of its inhabitants.

The Minister stressed that Youth from NER are physically fit, good in sport but lack proper infrastructure to achieve greater excellence. Adventure activities have potential of overall development which can create discipline, team spirit and comradeship. These activities have the potential to help in skill development, leading to self employment like promotion of adventure and tourism which has vast potential in the region.

Shri Ghatowar opined that the successful conduct of the pilot scheme and experiences gathered will be efficiency of proposed scheme for 12th Plan. The function concluded with remarkable enthusiasm shown by the youth of the area and expression of interest for holding of such more activities in future which will prove to be a potential connect between the youth of North Eastern Region and the youth of the rest of the India.

Pilot scheme is being funded by the Minister of DoNER through North East Council. Administrative approval for Rs.2.87 crore has been accorded and first installment of Rs.2.00 crore has been released by the North East Council (NEC) to the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports. The scheme is executed by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports (MYA&S) through National Service Scheme (NSS).

National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) is a World Bank and Government of India funded project being implemented by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India (GOI). The project was originally scheduled to close on December 31, 2012. The first stage of the project took about 18 months extra time due to the fact that innovative research projects were to be submitted. The second stage will take time as envisaged and the project will be able to achieve objectives by completing approved technical programme by June 30, 2014.

The Union Cabinet today approved the proposal of Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Research and Education for Extension of Closing Date of National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) up to June 30, 2014 with no cost escalation. The project has spent about Rs.800 crore till now and balance of about Rs.400 crore will be utilized for remaining project period including extended period.

Started in September 2006 the project has been making positive changes in organizational efficiency, effectiveness, agricultural value chains, livelihood security in disadvantaged areas, capacity building and basic and strategic research. The project will be implemented as per the approved technical program.

The project is contributing to sustainable transformation of Indian agricultural sector from an orientation of primary food self-sufficiency to more of a market orientation in support of poverty alleviation and income generation. During the extension period the project will achieve its development objectives.

The Planning Commission (PC) has given an investment clearance of Rs 14.89 crore for Rudrasagar Drainage Development Scheme of Tripura to be implemented by next one year, restoring the lost glory of only water palace of eastern India-Neermahal. Human activities around the Rudrasagar Lake in the past 50 years have shrunk the waster body by more than 40 per cent in the last half a century.

The state government had submitted a project detail for development of Rudrasagar following heavy siltation and pollution from the six brick kilns around and Rudrasagar became a pale shadow of its former self, and the palace is in disrepair. There were only 12 families living in the vicinity of the lake when Martin and Burn handed over the palace to the maharaja in 1930 and now more than 200,000 people are dependant on the lake for fishing and cultivating along the water-bodies, which prompted the state government to seek fund.

The implementation of the scheme would restrict water spread area of the lake during monsoon and maintain water level of 13 metre during winter, tourism officials here on Sunday said, adding water level of 11 metre would also be maintained for boosting the ecology of the area. An area of 2200 hectares with a population of 1000 will benefit from the scheme, they said.

The officials further said the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) had set up North East Cultural Centre in Delhi to promote dissemination of the rich cultural heritage of the north eastern region to the people of national capital region. It was aimed to facilitate expansion of awareness about the cultural heritage as well as modern expression of creativity of the north eastern states and to provide a platform for youth from the region and other states of India to share creative ideas and other cultural forms.

Karnataka has emerged as the 1st state to deploy Special Tiger Protection Force (STPS). Giving away Awards for best performance to various Tiger Reserves of the country in the national capital the Minister of State (I/C) for Environment & Forest Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan said that field protection continues to remain very high on our tiger agenda. The states are supported in a big way to deploy local workforce for protection. Besides, we are persuading the States to raise, arm and deploy of the Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF). This needs to be expedited by the States. Despite, 100% central assistance to four States (Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Orisa), the deployment of STPF has not taken place.

The Minister was addressing All India Meeting of Field Directors of Tiger Reserves. Smt. Natarajan said that since last year, we have sharpened our focus on the tiger. The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger was revised in August, 2011. Its allotment was stepped up to Rs. 1216.86 Crores, especially to support the States for securing inviolate space for tigers. Several additional components have also been included: (i) Change in the funding pattern in respect of North Eastern States (90:10), (ii) Raising compensation for man-animal conflict to Rs. 2 lakh, (iii) Acquisition of private land for making the core/critical tiger habitat inviolate, (iv) establishment of Tiger Safari, interpretation/awareness centres under the existing component of ‘co-existence agenda in buffer/fringe areas’, and management of such centres through the respective Panchayati Raj Institution, and (v) Re-introduction of Cheetah.

The Minister said that Project Tiger is one of the most important flagship programmes of my Ministry. Soon after taking over as Minister, I have been addressing the State Chief Ministers on various issues, besides supporting new initiates to strengthen the cause. Tiger conservation is a collective responsibility between Government of India, State Governments and Civil Society. Today tigers need support form one and all.

The Minister revealed that the 2010 country level snapshot assessment of such assessment in 2006. However, the outcome has highlighted the need for restoring the fringe areas of tiger reserves and the connecting forest linkages. The independent Management Effectiveness Evaluation of tiger reserves has also underlined the actionable points. Both these finding should be factored in our tiger conservation strategy by reflecting them in the Tiger Conservation Plan of tiger reserves.

Electronic government (e-Gov) essentially refers to the utilization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for delivering government information and services to citizens (G2C), businesses (G2B), employees (G2E), and governments (G2G). The most obvious benefit of e-government from an organisational perspective is to improve the efficiency of the current system so that, in turn, it can save money and time. For example, moving away from a heavily paper-based system to an electronic system can reduce the need for manpower, that results in a reduction in operational costs. From the citizens’ perspective, one of the most important benefits of e-government (in comparison to manual systems) is the ‘anywhere and anytime’ availability of government services to citizens. Other benefits of e-Government for citizens include: the provision of multilingual information content, disabled-friendly navigation and accessibility of content and regular updates on the latest changes in government-related information, services and schemes. Furthermore, eGov services would reduce the need for printed paper; hence, they contribute to a greener planet and a sustainable ecosystem. Using the Internet makes finding information easier by means of a “look and feel” approach. Poor governance (which contributes to problems such as autocracy, corruption, a lack of transparency and accountability) is considered to be one of the major issues of many developing countries. Effective eGov implementation would enable e-Governance, which, in turn, has the potential to reduce autocracy and corruption and to create better transparency and accountability through citizen engagement and participation in government decision-making. Therefore, e-Governance could be considered to be one of the ultimate desirable outcomes of eGov implementation.

India has made rapid strides in the area of ICT in recent decades. The Government of India has also acknowledged that ICT has played a pivotal role in bringing government services to the doorsteps of the people in the last few years. E-governance is significant in the Indian context due to the fact that the effective use of ICT has enabled the delivery of government services to a large base of people across different segments and geographical locations and, therefore, marks a step forward towards creating a more inclusive society. The effective use of ICT services in government administration has significantly improved efficiency, driven down communication costs, and increased trans-parency in the functioning of different departments. Keeping in mind the various positive impacts of e-Governance, in May 2006 the Government of India approved the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) with the vision to, “Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, throughout common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man”.
However, there seems to be numerous issues and challenges on the road to the successful realization of e-Government in the Indian context. These issues can be divided into three main categories: technical, economic, and social issues. Technical issues include interoperability, privacy, security, and multimodal interaction. Economical issues are mainly concerned with a return on investment and the safeguard of technical issues, including costs, maintainability, reusability, and portability. Whereas most significant issues in terms of growth and the widespread adoption of eGov are social issues, they include a lack of awareness, and the adoption and use of government services offered electronically by a larger community. Another set of challenges lie in extending the reach of e-Government services to rural communities. Overcoming such challenges requires the evaluation of local needs and the customization of eGov solutions to meet those needs, the provision of connectivity to rural and remote populations, the development of web content in local languages, and building a human resources knowledge force.

For more details visit : http://employmentnews.gov.in/E-government.asp

There are a number of professions in sports and related to it, but to excel in them one has to go though professional training and education. If looking for education and training as a sportsperson, one way to approach training is to start early and get admission in one of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centers at the State level and then gradually move up.

Physical Education

The basic course for trainers and coaches is formal education in Physical Education that is also graded from the basic level and moving up to the Doctorate level. Even otherwise, a degree in Physical education comes very handy for those seeking a long career in sports and affiliated fields.
A number of government colleges also run full time courses in physical education right up to the doctorate level.
A basic structure of sports education in India may look like as under
(i)   NIS Diploma
(ii)  Bachelor in Physical Education (B P ED)
(iii) Masters in Physical Education (M P Ed)
(iv) M Phil Physical Education
(v)  Doctorate in Physical Education

Sports Management

There are options available in Sports management too, with the PG Diploma in Sports Management being the course offered most widely. However, after getting the PG Diploma in sports management, it’s still not possible to get MBA in Sports management which one can get from a number of universities in the western countries.
The broad areas covered under courses in sports management are as under

Sports Administration

Managerial Principles
Organizational Behaviour and Sports Psychology
Theory, Philosophy and Sociology of sport
Sports Economics
Sports Finance
Sports Marketing
Business and Government including monetary and fiscal policy
Sponsorship and Broadcasting
Sports Science
Entrepreneurship
Communication
Sports Journalism and Public Relations
Sports Law
Quantitative Methods, Research Methodology and Sports Statistics
Project Work  and Practical Training and Development of Sporting Talent

For more details please visit : http://employmentnews.gov.in/Sports-Education-In-India.asp

Padma Vibhushan Award 2012

Padma Bhushan Award 2012

Note: * indicates awardees in the category of Foreigners / NRIs/ PIOs/ Posthumous.