Bharat Ratna for Sachin Tendulkar and CNR Rao

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and eminent scientist Prof. CNR Rao have been chosen for Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award on November 16, 2013. Sachin gets the top honour on the day when he bids an emotional adieu to his record-breaking cricket career lasting 24 years after playing record 200 Test matches. Sachin is the first sports person selected for the Bharat Ratna.

                     Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, currently head of the Scientific Advisory Council to PM Manmohan Singh, is the third scientist, after C.V. Raman and the former President A.P.J Abdul Kalam to be awarded Bharat Ratna. Prof. Rao is a renowned international authority in the solid state and material chemistry. He is credited with 1400 research papers and 45 books. Mr. Rao is the only scientist and among handful in the world with close to 50,000 citation.

Mr,. Rao was also honoured with China top science award for his contribution in boosting Indo-China scientific cooperation in January 2013. ‘Transition Metal Oxides’, Understanding Chemistry, Climbing the Limitless Ladder and “Nan crystals: Synthesis, Properties and Applications’ are some noted books by Prof. CNR Rao.

Both Sachin and Prof. Rao are also recipients of Padma Vibhushan – the second highest civilian award of India.

Both Sachin and Prof. Rao join a list of 41 great personalities to get Bharat Ratna given in recognition of exceptional service of the highest order since it was established in 1954

03:20 - By Unknown 0

Dr. Raghuram Govind Rajan New RBI Governor

Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Dr. Raghuram g. Rajan took over as the 23^rd Governer of reserve bank of India on September 4, 2013 for three years. Dr. Rajan, who was also the chief economic advisor to the government of India, succeeded Dr. D. Subbarao. At 50, he is one of the youngest to become RBI Governor. His appointment came as one of the few bright spots amid the economic gloom that has pervaded the country presently. The optimism stems from the fact that Dr. Rajan is truly a world-class economist who had correctly predicted the global turmoil of 2007-09.

Dr. Rajan is set to take over the mantle of the central bank at a time when the economy is faced with multi-pronged crisis of high consumer price inflation, industrial slowdown, a free fall of the rupee and a widening current account deficit (CAD)

After assuming office, Dr. Rajan set out a list of his priorities. These included measures to deepen securities markets, and improve financial inclusion including for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector. Vowing to preserve the value of Rupee, he announced that the RBI would take steps to establish the Rupee as an international currency. Highlighting the importance of inflation targeting, he said that the main role of the RBI was to ensure monetary stability by sustaining confidence into value of rupee.

Other salient measures that Dr. Rajan set out include liberalised branching for the scheduled domestic banks, for which licenses will be issued by January 2014. Also, foreign banks will be persuaded to move to wholly-owned subsidiary structure.

03:19 - By Unknown 0

INS VIKRAMADITYA

 A new era has dawned in India’s naval combat capabilities as the Aircraft carrier. INS Vikramaditya was commissioned into the Indian Navy at a Russian shipyard on November 16 after a transfer deed signed by Igor Sevastyanov, the deputy director of Russian arms exporter Rosoboron-export and Commodore Suraj Berry, the commanding officer of Vikramaditya, ending a five-year delay to the $2.33 billion project. The 44,570-tonne carrier, which will operate supersonic MIG-29K fighters from its deck, is the largest-ever warship to be inducted by India, as also the most expensive single military platform ever bought. India’s solitary carried till now, the 55-years-old INS Viraat, will now be a poor second at 28,000-tonne. Earlier called Admiral Gorshkov, INS Vikramaditya was commissioned at the Sevmash Shipyard in northern Arctic at a ceremony attended by defence minister A K Antony, Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin and senior officials of the two countries. The warship, with its array of fighters, helicopters and other weapons systems, will go a long way in bolstering the Navy’s blue-water capabilities, and is already being described as “a game-changer” in the region. The ship is likely to set sail for India within a fortnight and reach its home port of Karwar in January 2014, following which the Navy will operationalise it in a few weeks with the first landing of its MIG-29K aircraft.

The Inside Look Presenting the first look at the insides of the carrier, the Navy showcased the bridge from where the mammoth vessel would be commanded. Outfitted with the latest in navigation, communication as well as combat management systems, the bridge is a technological leap for the Navy. The crew quarters are also impressively roomier. The flight operations control room is part of the additions and has a live video link in monitor the aircraft

AIRCRAFT CARRIER

·        284 metres– the length of the “floating airfield” or the length of 3 football fields put            together.

·        Stands 20 storeys tall.

·   Can carry over 30 aircraft MIG-29K/Sea Harrier, Kamov 31, Kamov 28, Sea- King, ALHDhruv and Chetak helicopters.

·     Capacity to carry 8,000 tonnes of fuel.

·     Generates on-board 18 MW of power.

·     Has surveillance radius of almost 500km.

03:18 - By Unknown 0

Launch of Mars Orbiter Mission

India’s first Mars orbiter was successfully placed in orbit by an Indian rocket on November 5, 2013 in  a copy book style, becoming the first Asian country and the fourth in the world going for a mission to the red planet, a staggering 408 million km away.

Exactly at 2:30 p.m., the rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle–C-25 (PSLV-C25) standing at Sriharikota around 44 metres tall and weighing around 320 tonnes rose from its launching pad slowly, and then gathered speed as it climbed into the skies on  a tail of orange frames.

The expendable rocket, costing around ` 110 crore, had a single but important luggage, 1,340 Mars Orbiter costing around ` 150 crore. Around ` 50 crore have been  spent on augmenting the ground support tracking system.

India began its space journey in 1975 with the  launch of Aryabhatt, using a Russian rocket and till date it has accomplished over 100 space missions. In 2008 India expended its space exploration with its maiden Moon mission-Chandrayaan-1. The mission led to the discovery of water on the Moon. The country is planning another Moon mission in two years’ time.

According to Indian Space Research organisation (ISRO) officials, the Mars orbiter will orbit the Earth till Nov. 30 and then its motors will be fired to push it towards the red planet. For nearly 300 days the motor will be off while the spacecraft floats through the inky void towards Mars. When the space craft near Mars, the motors will be restarted and fired again to carry out manoeuvres to put it in Marlian mission orbit around September 2014, following that, the on-board instruments would carry out their job.

The Mars mission blasted off from the first launch pad at the Satish  Dhawan Space Centre here, around 80 km from Chennai, and went up amidst the cheers from ISRO-scientists and the media team assembled at the rocket port.

Space scientists at ISRO mission control room were glued to their computer screens watching the rocket escaping the Earth’s gravitational pull. At round 44 minutes into the flight, PSLV-C25 spat out the Mars orbiter.

03:18 - By Unknown 0

LOKPAL BILL

After eight failed attempts to pass a Lokpal bill in the past, Parliament finally gave its seal of approval to a powerful ombudsman in December 2013. The bill has been drafted and redrafted by two parliamentary committees and now enjoys strong bi-partisan support. The Lokpal will be empowered to probe complaints against the highest political authorities including the PM Main provisions of the Lokpal Bill are as under –

·                    Lokpal will consist of a chairperson and a maximum of 8 members, 50% of who would have judicial background, 50% on the whole would be from SC, ST, OBC, minorities and women.

·                    Selection of Lokpal members will be by a committee comprising the PM, speaker, leader of Opposition in LS, CJI and an eminent jurist.

·                    It will have jurisdiction over all levels of public servants, including PM. But Lokpal can’t initiate any probe against PM without consent of two-thirds of its members. There can be no probe against PM on complaints relating to international relations, security, public order, atomic energy & space.

·                    No prior sanction required for launching prosecution in cases probed by Lokpal or investigated at its instance. Lokpal will be empowered to attach provisionally any ill-gotten wealth even by court.

·                    Lokpal will have its own inquiry wing for preliminary enquiry. If a prima facie case is established, Lokpal can refer the case for investigation to any agency, including the CBI. It will have power of superintendence and direction over any investigation agency for all cases referred by it.

·                    Lokpal will have an independent prosecution wing. Once the investigation is completed, Lokpal may direct its prosecution wing or the agency concerned to initiate the prosecution.

·                    Separating the CBI’s investigation and prosecution functions, the Bill creates a directorate of prosecution linked to the agency. The directorate will be headed by a prosecutor reporting to the CBI director.

·                    The Bill enhances the maximum punishment for corruption from 7 years to 10 years. The minimum term for any conviction to a corruption case will be 2 years.

·                     The Bill makes it mandatory for every state to set up within a year a Lokayukta, the corresponding ombudsman for public servants in states.

03:15 - By Unknown 0

High Court of Gujarat Peon Call Letters available now

High Court of Gujarat Peon Call Letters available now : 

Click Here

Exam Date : 06-04-2014

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Study Materials : Click Here

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04:24 - By Unknown 0

NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY BILL

   The National Food Security Bill, promulgated by President Pranab Mukherjee on July 5 aims to give right to subsidised food grain to 67 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people, and will ensure food and nutritional security.

    The salient features of the bill are:

·  Up to 75 percent of the rural population and upto 50 percent of the urban population will have uniform entitlement of five kg food grain per month, at highly subsidized prices of Rs.3, Rs.2 and Rs.1 per kg for rice, wheat and coarse grains, respectively.

· The poorest of poor households would continue to receive 35 kg food grain per household per month under the Antyodaya Anna Yojna at subsidized prices of Rs.3, Rs.2 and Rs.1.

·  State-wise coverage will be determined by the central government. The work of identification of eligible households has been left to the states/Union Territories, which may frame their own criteria or use Social Economic and Caste Census data, if they so desire.

· There is a special focus on nutritional support to women and children. Pregnant women and lactating mothers, besides being entitled to nutritious meals as per the prescribed nutritional norms, will also receive maternity benefit of at least Rs.6000 for six months. Children in the age group of 6 months to 14 years will be entitled to take home ration or hot cooked food, as per prescribed nutritional norms.

·  The central government will provide funds of state/UTs, in case of short supply of food grain from central pool.

·  In case of non-supply of food grain or meals to entitled persons, the concerned state/UT governments will be required to provide such food security allowance to the beneficiaries as may be prescribed by the central government.

·  The central government will provide assistance to the states towards cost of intra-state transportation, handling of food grain and fair price shop (FPS) dealer’s margin, for which norms will be developed.

·  The bill also contains provisions for reforms in the Public Distribution System (PDS)  through doorstep delivery of food grain, application of information and communication technology (ICT) including end-to-end computerization, leveraging ‘Aadhaar’ for unique identification of beneficiaries, diversification of commodities under the Targeted PDS (TPDS) for effective implementation of the bill.

·  The eldest woman in the household, of 18 years of age or above, will be the head of the household for the issue of the ration card. If the eldest woman is not available, the eldest male member is to be the head of the household.

·  There will be state and district level redressal mechanism with designated officers. The states will be allowed to use the existing machinery for District Grievance Redressal Officer (DGRO), State Food Commission, if they so desire, to save expenditure on establishment of new redressal set-up. Redressal mechanism may also include call centers, helping etc.

·  Provisions have also been made for disclosure of records relating to PDS, social audits and setting up of Vigilance Committees in order to ensure transparency and accountability.

·   The bill provides for penalty to be imposed on public servants or authority, if found guilty of failing to comply with the relief recommended by the District Grievance Redressal Officer (DGRO).

“ SHORTCOMINGS OF THE BILL”

·  The Industry Chamber FICCI has stated that implementation of the food security bill will bring additional fiscal pressure and push up the fiscal deficit to five percent of GDP in the current financial year.

· There are doubts on how effectively the bill will tackle all factors perpetuating malnutrition in India. Government touted the bill as their chief means to tackle malnutrition in the country. But data on the nutrition problem suggested that the bill is inadequate to deal with certain facets of the issue. The bill currently stipulates five kg of food grain, classified as “coarse grain” (including rice, wheat and millets) per person per month. However, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines stipulate at least 16 kg for adults and seven kg for children.

· The bill also fails to provide access to the entire basket of nutrients necessary to effectively improve the nutrition status of the target population. The bill is “too focused on calories” and not on diet diversity.

·  Free meals to children, especially adolescent girls, can also increase their weight-for-age and allow them to have healthy pregnancies and infants. But the success of free Anganwadi meals is questionable especially after the deaths of 22 children in Bihar who consumed a mid-day meal.

Food Security act deadline extended:

The union Cabinet on October 30 extended the deadline for implementing the National Food security Act to one year from six months. The Cabinet also gave its nod to another proposal to protect the current food grains allocations. The government is apparently seeking more time for the roll out of the National Food Security Act in the light of a lot of preparations needed to be done by the state government. 

03:13 - By Unknown 0

New Land Acquisition Law

New Land Acquisition Law 

Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 replaced the vintage Land Acquisition Act, 1894 from January 1, 2014. As many as 13 existing Central pieces of legislation have to be amended within the year to bring their R & R and compensation provisions on a par with those of the new regime on buying land across the country.

Union Minister for Rural Development Mr. Jairam Ramesh announced the roll-out of the new law. He said that the clock had started ticking for 10 Ministries of which three ¾Railways, Power and Home ¾ have to amend two laws each accordingly. The Minister flagged the Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition and Development Act, 1957, the National Highway Act, 1956, and the Land Acquisition (Mines) Act, 1885 in particular. The Coal and mining-related laws have assumed significance in view of the agitations in Jharkhand and Odisha. The other laws that have to be amended are: the Atomic Energy Act, 1962; the Indian Tramways Act 1886; the Railways Act, 1989; the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958; the Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Act, 1962; the Damodar Valley Corporation Act, 1948; the Electricity Act, 2003; Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property Act, 1952; the Resettlement of Displaced Persons (Land Acquisition) Act, 1948 and the Metro Railways (Construction of Works) Act, 1978.

Meanwhile, the Rural Development Ministry also notified the Rules to the new Act. These Rules are still open for change as the law mandates that 45 days be provided for factoring in comments from the public. However, Since all key stakeholders were consulted before drawing up the Rules, the Ministry did not foresee any hitch in this regard and was hopeful of placing them before Parliament by mid-February.

03:12 - By Unknown 1

Rupee Depreciation

REASONS OF RUPEE SLIDING

Domestic Factors

·        Widening current account deficit means demand for dollars higher than supplies.

·        Policy paralysis and slowing economic growth had already made foreign investors jittery about India.

·        Political uncertainty ahead of 2014 polls added to fears.

·        RBI curbs on dollar outflows seem to have backfired. Investors see it as possible precursor to capital controls, rush to take out dollars while they can.

·        Foreign investors nervous that profits may get offset by rupee depreciation. Hence they exit while they can still book a profit or trim losses.  Speculators add to volatility by buying up dollars, expecting to sell the US currency when it appreciates further.

Global Factor

·        As Us economy started recovering, It prompted investors who has filed to emerging markets to re-invest to US assets.

·        Foreign investors rattled by US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bemanke’s indicating that Fed’s bond buying programme could be tapered off.

·        Ironically, fears of possible end to US growth stimulus triggered anxiety about impact on global economy, including India.

RBI STEPS TO CHECK RUPEE SLIDING

·        TIGHTENS HEADING RULES FOR FIIs.: To strengthen the rupee, the RBI on August 1 made it mandatory for foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to obtain the consent of holders of participatory notes (P-Notes) and derivative instruments before hedging.

·        PUTS CURBS ON OVERSEAS INVESTMENTS: The Reserve Bank of India on August 14 rolled out the big guns in a bid to protect the rupee. For individuals–Annual limit under Liberalized Remittance Scheme cut from $ 200,000 to $ 75,000 per individual. This can’t be used to buy immovable property overseas, such purchases now need RBI nod. Even gifts to relatives abroad can’t exceed $ 75,000, unless RBI clears them. For Companies– Companies will now need RBI nod to invest overseas beyond 100% of their net worth. Earlier limit was 400%. Navratna PSUs, oil and gas exploration exempted. For Gold–Ban on import of coins and medallions. Import norms, for export and jewellery included, tightened further.

·        EASES CRR NORMS FOR SOME DEPOSITS: The RBI said in a statement on August 14 that incremental three-year foreign FCNRB and NRE deposits with reference base dates of July 26 and above will be exempted from the cash reserve and statutory liquidity ratios. The Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) is the proportion of cash deposits banks have to keep with the central bank in cash.

·        TO BUY ` 8,000 CRORE BONDS TO EASE LIQUIDITY: The Reserve Bank of India moved in on August 20 to ease up availability of cash in the markets. The RBI will buy government bonds for Rs 8,000 crore as may be warranted by the evolving market conditions. RBI has now permitted banks to retain

03:11 - By Unknown 0

TELANGANA ISSUE

The Union Cabinet on December 5 approved a Bill for creation of a Telangana State with 10 districts, paving the way for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to give birth to the country’s 29 State. Some of the highlights of the Bill are

1. Telangana will have 10 districts and the rest of Andhra Pradesh will have 13 districts

2. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area will remain the common capital for both states for a period not exceeding 10 years

3. An expert committee will identify an alternative capital for Telangana within 45 days of gazette notification. 

4. The Governor of Telangana will have a special responsibility for security of life, liberty and property of all those who reside in the common capital area.

5. Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council will have 50 seats, Telangana will have 40. 

6. There will be seven Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana and 11 from Andhra Pradesh. 

7. There will be 17 Lok Sabha MPs from Telangana and 25 from Andhra Pradesh.

8. Telangana will have 119 assembly seats and Andhra Pradesh 175.

As soon as the news about the Centre’s decision regarding the formation of Telangana broke, all the 10 districts that are supposed to constitute the new State erupted in joy. But the Telangana Rashtra Samithi camp did not express as much joy as it could have due to the fact that Hyderabad was decided to be the shared capital for 10 years. 

It could lead to unrest and long concerted agitations in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam and West Bengal, where people have been demanding the formation of new States, i.e. Harit Pradesh or Paschim Pradesh and Bundelkhand; Vidarbha; Bodoland; the Gorkhaland, respectively. Significantly, the Home Ministry has already received a resolution passed by the Uttar Pradesh Assembly for division of the State into four parts– Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Avadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh. The other such demands raised in the recent past include Saurashtra in Gujarat, Coorg in Karnataka, Koshalanchal in Odisha, and Mithilanchal in north Bihar. Several seasoned leaders have expressed their opposition to the recent decision, as it would give birth to a dangerous trend and lead to the fragmentation of India. 

03:11 - By Unknown 0

Test-Fires Agni-V

 India on September 15, 2013 successfully test-fired its inter-continental surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni-V, with a strike range of 5,000 km and capability of delivering a nuclear warhead with high precision, from a base off Odisha coast.

The missile had its maiden launch last year. “A symbol of DRDO’s technological excellence and India’s strength, Agni-V missile took off majestically from the launch complex of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheeler’s Island,” a DRDO official said.

Describing the second trial of Agni-V, developed by the Defence Reasearch and Development Organisation, as fully successful, the official said the missile flew on a predefined path and reached its destination with expected precision.

The indigenously developed missile, which can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne, is capable of striking its target more than 5,000 km away. It is about 17 metre long with a launch weight of about 50 tonnes.

The missile, powered by three-stage solid rocket motors, had a flawless launch in auto mode and followed its entire trajectory in textbook manner, dropping three motors at predefined stages into the ocean, the release said. Ships located in mid-range and at target point tracked the vehicle and witnessed the final event.

AGNI TAKES INDIA INTO BIG LEAGUE

·  Agni-V is India’s first long range missile capable of reaching deep into China and as far as Europe

·     Developed by the DRDO, the Agni-V weighs 50-tonnes and is 17–metres high

·     The missile is designed to deliver nuclear warheads of 1000 kg at a range of 5000 km

·     Only China, France, Russia, the United States and Britain have long-range missiles like Agni-V

·      It was first tested in April 2012.

MORE TO GO

·      The DRDO is expected to conduct at least three more tests before declaring the ballistic missile operational and ready for being inducted into the military. That may take two to three years.

·       Agni-V is part of Agni series of missiles developed by DRDO which includes Agni-1 with a 700 km range, Agni—II with 2,000 km, Agni-III with a  3,000 km range and Agni-IV with 4,000 km  range

03:09 - By Unknown 1

THE US SHUTDOWN

THE US Congress passed a Bipartisan Bill Which was signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 17 to end a 16-day government shutdown and avert a historic debt default by the world’s largest economy that could have global repercussions. The Bill will fund the government through January 15 and allow the US Treasury to increase the Nation’s borrowing authority through February 7, 2014.

       The crisis began on October 1 with the partial shutdown of the US federal government after House Republicans refused to accept temporary funding measures unless President Barack Obama agreed to defund or delay his healthcare overhaul law. It escalated when House Republicans also refused to move on needed approval for raising the amount of money the Treasury can borrow to pay US bills, raising the specter of a catastrophic default. The 16-day long shutdown of October 2013 was the third longest shutdown in US history after the 18-day shutdown in 1978 and the 21-day shutdown in 1995-96.

WHAT IS THE US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?

It is a political situation in which government stops providing for all but essential services. Unless Congress raises federal borrowing cap, government will shutdown.

WHY THE SHUTDOWN?

The US government’s fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. So the budget year ends on September 30. Government needed approval from the Congress for fresh spending for financial year 2014. This didn’t come because of differences between Democratic-led Senate and Republican controlled House over Obama’s healthcare law. House Republicans refused to pass the spending Bills (their Budget) that fund the government without provisions that would stop, delay Obamacare. Senate Democrats refused to link healthcare law with spending bill. Therefore Budget has not been passed till date.

WHAT WAS SHUTDOWN?

·         Tourist sports and national parks were closed.

·    The latter’s closure means loss of 750,000 daily visitors, an economic loss of minimum $30 million for each day.

·         No federal loans disbursed.

·         No passports, gun permit-All offices that issue licences were shut.

·         All military personnel continued normal duty, but civilian employees furloughed.

·         Federal Reserve and other financial agencies stay mostly opened.

·         Criminal litigation continued.

·         Civil litigation curtailed.

·         Supreme Court was functioning.

·         Government research hospitals took no new patients.

THE PREZ IS ESSENTIAL!

·         The president gets his salary during shutdown.

·         His salary-$400,000 p.a, mandatory spends.

·         House and Senate members get paid.

·         President’s staff of 1265 at White House dwindles to 436.

EFFECTS OF SHUTDOWN

·    During the shutdown most non-exempt government employees were furloughed. This put about 800,000 public servants on unpaid leave. The White House estimates that a one-week shutdown could cost the US Economy $10 billion.

·     Small businesses faced delays in receiving loans from the Small Business Administration. Many of these companies might need to turn to alternative funding sources that charge much higher interest rate. One alternative source of credit charged interest rates of between 40 per cent to 100 per cent.

·    Since US Customs and Border Protection, the agency which regulates trade and inspects cargoes has not shutdown, imports and exports continued. However, many products required approval from other agencies before they can be brought into or out of the country. With many of these regulators furloughed, importers and exporters experienced delays.

·  The shutdown has interrupted Federal funding to Native Americans-especially tribes including programmes that involve health, nutrition and foster care. Some of them have had to suspend programmes immediately.

·    According to the Los Angeles Times a two-week shutdown would reduce GDP growth in the fourth quarter by 0.3 to 0.4 percentage point. By comparison, the GDP has grown by less than 2 per cent in 2013.

·    President Obama’s trip to Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, where he was scheduled to attend the 2013 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Bali would be cancelled due to the government shutdown. In addition, the Obama administration’s efforts to push forward the proposed Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership trade pact with eleven other countries including Japan, Australia and Chile were compromised.

·     The shutdown has undermined American strategic plan to protect its interests from rising Chinese Influence.

03:07 - By Unknown 0

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10:38 - By Unknown 0

Some Important Points You Need To Know About Bitcoins

In this post, we attempt to identify some Important Points  about Bitcoins to give you a clearer understanding of what it is, what it does and how you can use it to buy products or services online.

This article was written in an attempt to create awareness to readers about this technology.

1. What Are Bitcoins?

The Bitcoin is a form of currency without notes and coins, it is a digital currency.

In this era of Internet and digitization, we’ve moved from phone to VoIP calls, face-to-face meeting to video conferencing, fax to email, cable television to IP TV, and the list goes on.

2. Who Developed The Idea Of Bitcoins?

The concept of Bitcoins was developed by Satoshi Nakamoto, who resides in total anonymity. He is said to be from Japan but his mail ID was from Germany, plus the bitcoin software was not available in Japanese.

He developed the system and the Bitcoin software (that is used to run the system) in 2009 but disappeared into thin air in 2010. The other developers of the system stopped hearing from him in 2010, and plenty of speculation turned up about his real identity.

Some even suggested that his name was just a mash up of popular Japanese companies — Samsung, Toshiba, Motorola. But what he created was definitely the fantasy of every tech guy in the world.

3. What Is So Special About The Bitcoin System?

The Bitcoin is a system which allows you to do anonymous currency transactions and no one will come to know about the payment or about all other info related to the payment, including who sent it, who received it, etc.

Satoshi did it by making the system – a peer-to-peer network – controlled by no central authority but run by a network of contributors and freedom enthusiasts, who donated their time and energy to this innovation. Essentially, people can do money transactions and no authority or organization will come to know about it.

4. What Is Double Spending?

We can make many copies of digital data, e.g. people copy software and sell it as counterfeit or pirated copies. We may face the same problem with digital currency – one can copy the digital currency (let’s suppose USD10) and use it as many time as he/she like (as many notes of USD10).

Satoshi solved this problem by showing all transactions in a public list. Whenever a new transaction is made, its validity is checked by confirming from the list that the digital currency was not used before. This way, no one can copy the currency and use it for more than one time. It’s a simple but effective idea to stop double spending of the same bitcoin.

5. How Does A Public Listing Make Things Anonymous?

The public listing only shows the transaction ID and the amount of currency transferred. You will be anonymous in the system because you don’t need to provide any of your personal details like your name, address, email, phone number, etc. In comparison, when you use payment gateways like Paypal you have to give up all these personal details.

6. How Do You Use Bitcoins Then?

Bitcoins are kept in a digital wallet which you can keep in your computer, or on a website online,which will manage and secure your wallet for you. You can have as many wallets and bitcoin addresses (where you receive money from others) as you like.

What’s more, you can use Bitcoin software on top of Tor to prevent anyone from tracking your IP address – total anonymity guaranteed!

7. How Many People Are Using This?

At this very moment, 10.71 million Bitcoins are in existence, which is like 207.929 million USD worth! In fact, the Canadian government is working on their own crypto-currency, named MintChip. (a glance:)

In one day, more than 45,000 transactions of a total of BTC 2.5 million (worth of USD48.5 million) is handled by the bitcoin network.

8. How Do I Acquire Bitcoins?

Using and getting Bitcoins is really easy. There are various ways to get Bitcoins:

i. ‘Mining’

ii. Currency exchange (bitcoin in return for Dollars or Euros) via bitcoin provider services likeMt.Gox

iii. Providing services to others in return of Bitcoins

9. What’s Mining?

Mining is a process of extracting Bitcoins currency. Bitcoin mining is a business – most people mint Bitcoins to gain profit. Bitcoins are minted using a special software (known as Bitcoin Miner) which tries to find a new block in the chain of Bitcoin network.

Whenever a new block is found, its owner is gifted with 50 Bitcoins. Technically, a computer has to perform long and tough hash calculations to find a new block.

10. How Do You Spend A Bitcoin?

Spending Bitcoins is a bit easier. You can send Bitcoins to a person, buy goods, or donate to non-profit foundations who accept it, such as Wikileaks, P2P Foundation, Operation Anonymous,Free Software Foundation, Archive.org.

You can send Bitcoins to anyone once you know their bitcoin address.

Wrap Up

The Bitcoin system is being quickly adopted. BTC1 having a worth of USD6 a year ago is now worth of USD19+. Security experts and digital freedom enthusiasts praise Bitcoin system for being a one-of-the-kind system that opens doors to possibilities. 

Because of its guaranteed anonymity feature, it’s used by people who are concerned of their privacy. As no authority can trace the transactions, this also lead to misuse of the system for example, in illegal work.

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