permission to government servent to work as Arbitrator and accept fee/ honorarium therefore GOI OM Dt 21/10/2008

Inclusion of following items in the list of specilized works

Notification on TDS and TCS -PIB Release

The Board has amended the rules relating to Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) and Tax Collected at Source (TCS) vide Notification No. S.O.858 (E) dated 25th March 2009.

In this context, taxpayers are informed that the new Form 17 (the challan for payment of TDS and TCS) is applicable only for payment of tax deducted or collected at source on or after 1st April 2009. Therefore, in respect of any TDS or TCS made before the 1st April, 2009, the payment will continue to be made to the credit of the Central Government by using the challan in Form No. 281 (i.e. the old challan form) even after 31st March 2009.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes will shortly issue a detailed circular on the amended rules relating to TDS and TCS.

Nehruvian bravado haunts IAF’s vistas - Part I (Natteri Adigal)

“THE SARAS project will continue, we will not shelve it.” The heroic announcement of SK Brahmachari, Director General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has cheered faithful patriots, ever ready to puff up their chests in pride.

The announcement came shortly after the second prototype (PT-2) of the light transport aircraft (LTA) Saras crashed on the outskirts of Bangalore in early March. The 14-seater multi-role plane is being developed by ’expert’ science research VIPs at National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a CSIR outfit.

More than the monstrous sums squandered in the development, which has been going on since the early 1990s, the real tragedy was the loss of three young IAF officers. Test pilots Wg. Cdr. Praveen, Wg. Cdr. Deepesh Shah, and Test Engineer Squadron Leader Ilayaraja, who were on board the pre-doomed aircraft, died in the crash.

NAL chief AR Upadhyaya had taken the considered view that the accident must not hamper the program in India’s quest for beating the big names in the business. If Brahmachari, who met NAL ’scientists’ and relatives of the deceased pilots, is to be believed, the father of one of the pilots told him that completion of the Rs 200 crore project would be a fitting tribute to his son.

Whether it was true or not, it is this suicidal mindset - not just being prepared to become a martyr if needed but actually dying due to the ineptitude and criminal negligence of top bosses and utter mismanagement - that is being promoted by fake experts living in a Nehru era time warp.

A high-profile science babu who has dedicated his entire career (pushing files) to the country in one of the 37 research institutes governed by CSIR paid a typical homage saying, “These young officers have supported the test flying of the LTA, knowing fully well the risks involved with the experimental production. No great success can be achieved without paying the price.”

What he did not mention explicitly was that the price involved in fitting emergency equipment like ejection seats, mandatory when test flying unproven stuff, was too high compared to the cheap lives of passionate IAF officers in India!

This attitude came to the fore just one month previously in case of LTA’s compatriot LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) named Tejas. Air Commodore Rohit Varma, who heads the LCA flight testing at the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC), said, “Unlike other countries where test pilots are retired airmen, our test pilots are all serving pilots, bringing in contemporary experience of our operating environment!”

Countries which really want to develop such machines are idiots by implication because they believe that only highly experienced pilots will be able to take split-second decisions, often needed while facing situations that could not have been predicted! Apparently, the dare devilry or agility of pilots who have hundreds of flying hours left in them are not the attributes needed for this job.

NFTC bosses incidentally boast, “This centre has been set up entirely indigenously.” This is a sick Nehruvian mindset obsolete in an age when the concept ’global hubs’ is in vogue. Even far richer countries prefer to source such items in other countries in order to keep pace with advancements and to ensure quality and cost-effectiveness, rather than sink money in indigenization.

Rapid fire experts of India have come out with a brilliant idea to cut down the likely setback due to the fate of the PT-2, which was completely destroyed in the accident. The PT-1 aircraft will be modified and touted as the PT-3 by fitting the higher thrust Pratt and Whitney engines! Bring a donkey, present it as a horse and get a willing jockey to ride it! After all, any number of suckers are available to test-fly such make believe machines and become martyrs.

Of note, the PT-1 that had its first flight in May 2004, exceeded its empty weight target by almost a tonne. That is 25 per cent. Therefore, the PT-2, which first flew three years later than the PT-1 did (and crashed now), was fitted with the 1200 shp version of the original 850 shp engines, imported from Pratt & Whitney, Canada.

The PT-3 was supposed to be a ’production-standard prototype’, targeting a 500-kg weight reduction, using advanced materials. It was expected to fly by 2009-end, pushing certification into 2010.

Courtesy: Merinews

Formation of Anamoly commitee at CSIR

ADOPTION OF GREEN BUILDING PARAMETERS (TERI) BY CPWD

Amendment in GCC 2008 dt 28.01.2009

Pay fixation of Medical officers in PB-4 MOF revised illustration

Grant of DR to pensioners w.e.f. 1/1/2009

Medical Checkup of canteen employees - Regarding.

Award Scheme for writing original books/reviews in Hindi on subjects pertaining to Income Tax, Excise and Customs, Service Tax and Narcotics

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Subject: Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue Award Scheme for writing original books/reviews in Hindi on subjects pertaining to Income Tax, Excise and Customs, Service Tax and Narcotics from 01.10.2008 to 30.09.2009

Books pertaining to Income Tax, Excise and Customs, Service Tax and Narcotics written or reviewed originally in Hindi during the period from 01.10.2008 to 30.09.2009 will be accepted for consideration in the Department of Revenue upto 20 October, 2009 for the following prizes:-

Scheme for Books written originally in Hindi

First Prize (one) - Rs. 25,000/-(Rupees twenty five thousand)

Second Prize (one) - Rs. 15,000/-(Rupees fifteen thousand)

Scheme for Book-review in Hindi

First Prize (one) - Rs. 8,000/-(Rupees eight thousand)

Second Prize (one) - Rs. 6,000/-(Rupees six thousand)

Eligibility

1) Should be a citizen of India.

2) The books should be written/reviewed during the period from 01.10.2008 to 30.09.2009.

General Terms

Persons participating in these schemes shall observe the following conditions and they will be governed by the following:-

I. Published books as well as manuscripts will be accepted under the scheme. The published books/manuscripts should have been published written during the prescribed period only.

II. Persons who are willing to send their books for consideration under the above-mentioned scheme are requested to send six copies of their books and two passport size photographs along with the enclosed proforma duly filled by 20 October, 2009 at the following address:-

Director (OL),

Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue,

Room No. 264-A, North Block,

New Delhi – 110001

III. The books/manuscripts received in the Department shall not be returned.

IV. The books/manuscripts received after the last date shall not be entertained. The Department of Revenue shall not be responsible for any loss of book or delay in post.

V. The copyright of the awarded book shall remain with the writer.

VI. Only those books that have been written originally in Hindi will be accepted under this scheme.

VII. The book should not have been written under any other Government Scheme.

VIII. The book should not be a Hindi translation of book written in any other language or published earlier by the writer.

IX. In case the book has been awarded earlier by the Government of India or a Union Territory/State Government, a mention to this effect should be made in the application form.

X. In case the book/manuscript has been written by more than one person, the amount of prize money would be divided equally amongst them.

XI. The Department of Revenue has the exclusive right in the selection of person for the award.

XII. No correspondence regarding awarding of the prize or its process would be entertained.

XIII. The Department of Revenue has the exclusive right to make any change in the Scheme.

XIV. The Additional Secretary (Revenue)/Joint Secretary (Revenue) may forward the book to the Evaluation Committee for consideration.

XV. The awarded persons would get the prize money and a citation, which will have to be printed in the next edition of the book.

XVI. Information regarding the prize would be given well in advance by the Director (OL)

(Madhu Sharma)

Director (Official Language)

Telephone- 23095365

264-A, North Block, New Delhi

आयकर, उत्‍पाद शुल्‍क एवं सीमा शुल्‍क, सेवा कर तथा नारकोटिक्‍स से संबंधित विषयों पर हिन्‍दी में मौलिक पुस्‍तक लेखन योजना एवं पुस्‍तक समीक्षा योजना

(01 अक्‍तूबर,2008 से 30 सितम्‍बर, 2009 तक)

1. (क) लेखक का नाम:

(ख) पदनाम:

2. पुस्‍तक का नाम:

3. पुस्‍तक का विषय:

4. प्रकाशक का नाम, पता व प्रकाशन का वर्ष:

5. पुस्‍तक लिखने का कार्य सम्‍पन्‍न करने की तिथि(माह-वर्ष):

6. मैं एतद्द्वारा प्रमाणित करता/करती हॅू कि:-

(1) ------------------------------- पुस्‍तक मेरी मौलिक रचना है ।

(2) उक्‍त पुस्‍तक--------------------------------- के बीच में लिखी गई/प्रकाशित हुई है ।

(3) मेरी उक्‍त पुस्‍तक का विषय मेरे द्वारा किए जा रहे/किए गए कार्य से संबंधित है।

दिनांक:- लेखक के हस्‍ताक्षर

Rate of DA increased by 10 % in Pre-revised scale w.e.f 1/1/2009

CSIR Purchase Rules of Goods & Services-2008 & CSIR & Purchase Manual of Best Practices-2008 (now avaliable on website)

Open access conference seeks to free research : Amulya Gopalakrishnan

New Delhi: When Newton famously remarked that if he had seen further than others, it was by “standing on the shoulders of giants”, he wasn’t just being modest. He was stating the simple fact that knowledge builds on previous knowledge, that the back and forth of ideas is vital for scientific achievement. Though the current proprietory publishing model is stacked against scholars, an emerging open access movement across the world aims to free scientific content - and India has big stakes in it.

A conference in New Delhi brought together open access evangelists including Prof. John Willinsky of Stanford University, Prof Leslie Chan of the University of Toronto, Prof Surendra Prasad of IIT Delhi, Dr D K Sahu of MedKnow Publications, and Narendra Kumar of CSIR.

Now, all research papers published from CSIR labs will be made open access, either by putting the full text on freely available institutional repositories or publishing directly in open access journals. Meanwhile, across the world, MIT has become the first university to throw open all its research papers through the online repository software DSpace.

Globally, academic tenure and promotion is traditionally linked to research published in reputed, peer-reviewed journals. These journals are owned by commercial behemoths like Springer and Reed Elsevier, who own stables of journals in various disciplines, and dictate terms to university libraries. But in recent years, journal prices have shot through the roof.

Now, after years of weary negotiation, and empowered by new digital infrastructure, universities are teaming up via free institutional repository systems, to pool and circulate their collective research. In India, institutes like NIT Rourkela have adopted super-archives like DSpace for another reason — to showcase their scientific output to global peers. “NIT doesn’t have the research legacy of IIT or IISC — they needed the visibility,” says NIT director Sunil Kumar Sarangi.

Such a knowledge commons is especially valuable to developing countries — for instance, in agricultural research or public health, it is inexcusable that countries which could benefit most from the scientific debate are left out of the loop, simply because of prohibitive pricing (some journals cost up to 20,000 dollars, annually). This only widens the gulf between the state of research here and the US or Europe.

Even research produced in India with our taxpayer money is sent to big-name commercial journals and all copyright signed away, putting it out of reach for the Indian scholarly community. But all that could change if open access journals become the norm. S K Sahu, who runs MedKnow publications (over 80 open access journals), also busted claims that content on such journals tends to vanish into the ether after a few years online.

Courtesy : Indian Express

Pension Anomaly- representation thereof

Interest on Sixth CPC arrears clarified

Interest on arrears of Sixth Central Pay Commission deposited by Government servants in their General Provident Fund (GPF) account has been clarified. The OM dated August 30, 2008 contained the guidelines on fixation of pay and payment of arrears apart from the instructions allowing employees to deposit the arrears in the GPF account. It was, however, not clear whether such arrears so deposited will earn interest or not.
In this connection, it is clarified that the OM dated August 30, 2008 does not specify otherwise and as such the amount of arrears deposited in the GPF account will earn interest. Such interest will be payable from the date of deposit in the GPF account. (Department of ExpenditureOMF. No. 1 / 1/ 2008 IC dated December 30, 2008)

SpecialCLto Central employees with disabilities granted

Special dispension in the form of Special Casual Leave granted to the Central Government employees with disabilities have been revised. According to the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission, the number of casual leave (CL) available for employees with disabilities should be 12 days as against 8 days for other employees. The government has decided that the additional benefit of 4 days leave is to be granted in the form of Special CL.
Accordingly, the Central government employees with disabilities as defined in the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opport-unities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 are to be granted Special CL for four days in a calendar year for specific requirements relating to the disability of the official.
This order takes effect from September 1, 2008. (Department of Personnel and Training OM No. 25011 / 1 / 2008 Estt. (A) dated November 19, 2009)

Date of Next Increment - Clarification Dated 13th March 2009

Subject: Date of next increment in cases where Government servants are not able join posts in a particular grade pay on promotion/appointment on 1st of January of a year due to Sunday or Gazettd holiday -clarification rega:ding.

Safe in USA, but not okayed in India ,Lalit Mohan ,Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, March 22

All that is safe and good for the USA need not be good for India. While the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA) of the USA has declared ‘Stevia sweetener’ safe for use in food and beverages and cleared the way for its use by Coca Cola and Pepsi in the USA, Government of India is yet to approve it as a food additive. If scientists at Palampur are to be believed, it is because the sugar daddies of India are not eager to encourage organic alternatives to sugar emerge in the market.

As a result, it is still being used as a herbal product here. Scientists believe it is the resistance from the sugarcane lobby that has prevented the promotion of the leaves which potentially can replace sugar. Curiously, the South American herb is said to be 300 times sweeter than conventional sugar but does not increase glucose level in the blood, making it safe for diabetics.

Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology ( IHBT), a CSIR ( Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) center at Palampur has successfully used the organic product for preparing sweets, bakery products like pastries and ice-cream.

Stevioside, extracted from the leaves of stevia plant, is the first zero-calorie plant-based sweetener developed in the country, claimed scientists at IHBT. Dr. Anil Sood said that the only difference between stevioside and sugar extracted from cane is that the latter is sticky and can be used for making pastes and binding other ingredients. Stevioside cannot do that and hence cannot be used to make jalebi or laddoo, he informed.

IHBT director Dr P S Ahuja informed that the processing technology has already been patented by the institute. Technology has been transferred to three or four companies and the institute has entered into agreements to upgrade technology and set up processing plants.

Non Practicing Allowance @25% of their basic pay to Scientists Gr. IV

DG, CSIR has been pleased to approve to extend the benefit of Non Practicing Allowance @25% of their basic pay to Scientists Gr. IV having the qualification of full time degree in BAMS & MD (Ayurveda), subject to the condition that Basic Pay + NPA does not exceed Rs. 85000/- per month. The benefit will be available with effect from Date of issue of this order.