Current Affairs

Current Affairs: India to have certified technology commercialization specialists Consultancy Development Centre ( CDC ) has launched a project for training and certification of Technology Commercialization Specialists in the country. As part of this project around 200 experts/specialists/consultants will be trained on various aspects of technology commercialization, beginning with technology assessment to technology transfer, leading to mass manufacturing. The proposed training process will expose the pool of experts and scientist/engineers from R&D Institutions to commercialization process for few model technologies having potential for commercialization. The training process will also deal with various aspects of technology Commercial viability; organizational set up; transfer process; technology transfer package; legal issues for commercialization; field support and marketing technology/products/solutions. The project, expected to be completed in six months would train and certify Technology Commercialization Specialists across technologies – biological, chemical, mechanical and electronics. These Technology Commercial Specialists will subsequently work with R&D engineers in the lab to facilitate transfer of technologies from the lab to the manufacturers for bulk production, thus reaching out the benefits of public funded R&D institutions to the masses. With the training of lab personnel on technology commercialization process, the success of R&D efforts would be visible in tangible parameters, leading to greater credibility for indigenous R&D efforts. This pioneering initiative launched by the Consultancy Development Centre will fill a long standing gap of technology commercialization know how faced by public funded labs in Science and Technology, Defence, Telecom, Space, Agriculture, Medicine and other fields. Consultancy Development Centre (CDC) is an autonomous institution of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, set up as a nodal organization for promotion, development and strengthening of consultancy skills and capabilities. CDC has a network of more than 20000 consultants/consultancy organizations/experts representing Technical, Engineering and Management disciplines spread across the country. CDC is also the secretariat for promotion of Consultancy among 15 countries of Asia Pacific Region under TCDPAP. More information is available on www.cdc.org.in Current Affairs: UK Bansal appointed Special Secretary (IS) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved he appointment of Shri U.K. Bansal, IPS (UP:74) as Special Secretary (Internal Security), Ministry of Home Affairs in the vacancy of Shri Raman Srivastava, IPS. The competent authority has approved the continued assignment of additional charge of the post of DG

& Mission Director, Unique identification Authority of India to Shri R. Bhattacharya, IAS (AP:78), Senior Adviser in the Planning Commission beyond 30th June, 2009 and until the successor to the post of DG & Mission Director, UIAI joins. Current Affairs: Telecom sector directly contributes more than 1.5% to India’s GDP SHRI KAMAT LAUNCHES TATA GSM MOBILE SERVICE IN MUMBAI The contribution of Indian telecom sector to the growth of India’s economy is immense. It is directly contributing more than 1.5% GDP of the country, has a multiplier effect on growth because of connecting the people and business around it. This was stated today by the Minister of State (Communication & Information Technology) Shri Gurudas Kamat in Mumbai at the Launch function of Tata’s GSM Mobile Service. The Indian telecom Industry is the 2nd largest wireless market in the world with a total wireless subscriber base of 435 million at present, it is targeted to reach 771 million by 2013. In addition to this, we have nearly 37.66 million landline subscribers. India has one of the cheapest cell phone rates in the world. “Connecting rural India” for both voice and data connectivity is the main target of India’s telecom industry. Expressing satisfaction over the fact that the 74% of new wireless subscribers are now coming from our rural areas as compared to 42% from urban, the Minister said that we also mandated the Government owned telecom providers to accelerate rural broadband wireless deployment this year. Talking about the India’s telecom equipment manufacturing sector the Minister said that this sector is also set to become one of the largest globally by 2010. These manufacturing facilities, apart from making India self reliant, generate a lot of secondary employment. Sustained Government efforts in this area have yielded results and have enabled to achieve the objective of making India as a leading manufacturing hub for electronics, IT and telecom, he added. Shri Kamat said that the government is working on many more initiatives to further improve the telecom sector. These new initiatives include to bring inclusive connectivity to both rural and urban India; mobile number Portability which will not only give more choices to customers but also lead operators to further improve their services to retain their customers and auctioning spectrum for 3G and WiMAX within this financial year. Complimenting efforts of Tata Tele Services Maharasthra Limited the Minister said “Digital Mumbai”- a vision for broadband anytime, “anywhere in Mumbai” is a vision to create a digital infrastructure to enable Mumbai to take its rightful place among world cities. Source: PIB