This year Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been chosen for the prestigious Indira Gandhi Peace award for her “outstanding contribution to the promotion of democracy and pluralism, her determined drive to alleviate poverty and secure social and economic justice for her people through inclusive and sustainable development, and her consistent commitment to peace,” .

The selection was made by an international jury, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust on Thursday.

The Indira Gandhi Prize or the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize or the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development is the prestigious award accorded annually by India to individuals or organizations in recognition of creative efforts toward promoting international peace, development and a new international economic order; ensuring that scientific discoveries are used for the larger good of humanity, and enlarging the scope of freedom. The prize carries a cash award of 25 lakh Indian rupees and a citation.

Indira Gandhi Peace Recipients are:

Year	Name	Recipient Description
1986	Parliamentarians for Global Action	International Organisation of Parliamentarians
1987	Mikhail Gorbachev	Former Soviet Union Leader
1988	Gro Harlem Brundtland	Former Prime Minister of Norway
1989	UNICEF	United Nations Children's Fund
1990	Sam Nujoma	First President of Namibia
1991	Rajiv Gandhi	Former Prime Minister of India (posthumous)
1992	Saburo Okita	Japanese Economist
1993	Václav Havel	1st President of the Czech Republic
1994	Trevor Huddleston	Anti-Apartheid Activist
1995]	Olusegun Obasanjo	12th President of Nigeria
1996]	Medicins Sans Frontieres	Voluntary Organisation
1997	Jimmy Carter	39th President of the United States
1998	Muhammad Yunus	Nobel Peace Prize Winner, 2006
1999	M S Swaminathan	Indian Agricultural Scientist
2000	Mary Robinson	7th President of Ireland
2001[	Sadako Ogata	Former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
2002	Shridath Ramphal	2nd Commonwealth Secretary-General
2003	Kofi Annan	7th United Nations Secretary General
2004[	Maha Chakri Sirindhorn	Princess of Thailand
2005	Hamid Karzai	1st President of Afghanistan
2006	Wangari Maathai	Environmental and Political activist
2007	Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation	Charitable Foundation
2008	Mohamed ElBaradei	4th Director General of the IAEA
2009	Bill Gates	Non- Executive Chairman of Microsoft

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi_Prize

Change in the prlims pattern of Civil Service Examination

The UPSC has put forward the proposal for using Aptitude Test instead of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination so that the candidates could be measured in terms with the demanding nature of civil nature.

"UPSC is convinced of the need for important changes in the method of recruitment to the higher civil services that are the vehicle for public service delivery. One of the recommendations made by the commission to the government is that a Civil Service Aptitude Test replace the existing Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination," said the UPSC chairman Prof D P Agrawal.

According to UPSC, there would be two objective type papers for all the candidates. UPSC has put forward the proposal for aptitude tests so that the ability of the candidate for meeting the demands of civil service could be measured more efficiently. Te aptitude tests will also ensure that the decision making skills of the candidate on an ethical and moral level could also be measured.

"It has also been proposed that the structure of the Civil Services (Main) Examination may remain the same till a committee of experts that may be appointed by the commission, goes into various aspects," said Agrawal while inaugurating the UPSC lecture series on governance in New Delhi.

The UPSC chairman said, "Careers in public service have become more attractive in the context of a better emoluments regime, as also on account of the changes in the global economic scenario. This places a responsibility on the government system to tailor procedures and careers to suit the newer vistas."

UPSC has also plans for lowering the age of entry to the civil services.

"A reduction in the number of attempts allowed at the examination, as proposed by the Second Administrative Reform Commission (ARC), is however called for, so as to remove the premium on cramming and memorisation that a large number of attempts provides," Agrawal informed.

National Rural Health Mission

This artice seeks to examine the enabling environment opertionalised by the NRHM and identify the Key center stste partnership that have rejuvenated the Public Health Delivery system in India in recent past.

The main aim of NRHM is to provide accessible,affordable.accountable,reliable primary health care facilities especially,to the poor and vulnerable sections of the populations.It also aims at bridging the gap in Rural Health care services through creation of cadre of Accredited Social Health Activities(ASHA) and improved hospital care decenteralisation of programme to district level to improve intra and inter social convergence and effective utilization of resources

Key changes that took place in Health Sector are:

1. Maternal Mortality rate is down from 301 to 100,00 live births.
2. IMR down from 58 to 1000 live birth as per SRS.
3. TFR down to 2.7 according to SRS
4. Over 84.26 lakh women have benefited under Janani Surkasha Yojana during 2008-09

Refrence:Yojana October2009 issue by Tarun Seen

NCERT Books

Now you easily download all NCERT books from here:
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and reference of Books to be downloaded from above link are given here

Books Guide

Enjoy and No need to say thanks :)

India and SAARC nations

The South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation(SAARC) is established when its charter was formally adopted on DEC 8,1985 by the head of state of Government of India,Bhutan,Maldives,Pakistan,Nepal and Srilanka.The main objective of SAARC is to provide the platform for south east nations to work together in a environment of friendship,trust and understanding.Its main aim is to accelerate the process of economic and social development in member states.
The SAARC Secretariat is based in Kathmandu. It coordinates and monitors implementation of activities, prepares for and services meetings, and serves as a channel of communication between the Association and its Member States as well as other regional organizations. The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary General, who is appointed by the Council of Ministers from Member Countries in alphabetical order for a three-year term. Mr. Q.A.M.A. Rahim from Bangladesh is the current Secretary General. The previous Secretaries General were from Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The next Secretary General is to be from Bhutan.
According to the ministeral decleration "The International financial institutions (IFIs) have a critical role to play in encouraging and assisting developing countries, particularly Least Developed Countries and Land Locked Developing Countries. This includes changes to policies and practices which are detrimental to the growth prospects of these countries. Substantial structural reforms in IFIs should reflect the current realities and provide due representation to developing countries".

India buys IMF Gold

The International Monetary Fund(IMF)has sold 200 tones of gold to reserve bank of India for $6.8 billion that is about 1/8 of its total stock.The deal will increase India gold holding to tenth largest among central banks.
Gold prices has jumped as high as $1077,a record in future trading.Under the Fund's Articles of Agreement, all gold sales must be conducted at prices based on market prices, including direct sales to official holders as in the case of this transaction with India, the IMF said.
According to IMF the money collected through this will be used to concessional lending to the world poorest nations.