Indian Rural Development

India is a country of villages and about 50% of the villages have very poor socio-economic conditions. Since the dawn of independence, concerted efforts have been made to ameliorate the living standard of rural masses. So, rural development as an integrated concept of growth and poverty elimination has been of paramount concern in all the consequent five year plans. Rural Development (RD) programmes comprise of following:

* Provision of basic infrastructure facilities in the rural areas e.g. schools, health facilities, roads, drinking water, electrification etc.
* Improving agricultural productivity in the rural areas.
* Provision of social services like health and education for socio-economic development.
* Implementing scheme for the promotion of rural industry increasing agriculture productivity, providing rural employment etc.
* Assistance to individual families and their Self Help Groups (SHG) living below poverty line by providing productive resources through credit and subsidy.

NASA Maps Shed Light on Carbon Dioxide's Global Nature

A NASA/university team has published the first global satellite maps of the key greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in Earth's mid-troposphere, an area about 8 kilometers, or 5 miles, above Earth. The team's study reveals new information on how carbon dioxide, which directly contributes to climate change, is distributed in Earth's atmosphere and moves around our world.

A research team led by Moustafa Chahine of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., found the distribution of carbon dioxide in the mid-troposphere is strongly influenced by major surface sources of carbon dioxide and by large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, such as the jet streams and weather systems in Earth's mid-latitudes. Patterns of carbon dioxide distribution were also found to differ significantly between the northern hemisphere, with its many land masses, and the southern hemisphere, which is largely covered by ocean.

The findings are based on data collected from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft between September 2002 and July 2008. Chahine, the instrument's science team leader, said the research products will be used by scientists to refine models of the processes that transport carbon dioxide within Earth's atmosphere.

OBAMA ECONOMIC PLAN

Democratic US presidential candidate Barack Obama has unveiled an "economic rescue plan for the middle class".At its heart is a $60bn expansion of spending to help individuals, companies and states hit by the slowdown.

These benefits include:

• Temporary tax credits for firms that create jobs in the US
• A 90-day moratorium on foreclosure for homeowners who are making "good faith" efforts to keep up their payments
• Temporary elimination of tax on unemployment benefits
• A new body to lend to state and city governments who are finding it hard to get access to credit markets
• Penalty-free withdrawals of up to $10,000 from people's retirement savings plans

These proposals are additional to the $115bn in tax cuts to households earning under $250,000 that Mr Obama has already proposed.Senator Obama's plan follows the approach adopted by Congress in its earlier economic stimulus package, which gave temporary and targeted, rather than broad-brush help.The Democrats would like to call Congress back into an emergency lame-duck session immediately after the election in November to pass the new emergency stimulus package.Mr Obama also has a number of longer-term spending plans, including investing $15bn a year in renewable energy and a big programme of rebuilding US infrastructure, such as bridges and roads.

He says that these plans will create seven million new jobs over 10 years.

Indian IT Honchos Shrug Off Obama Threat To Outsourcing

Bangalore, Sep 4 (IANS) The Indian IT industry remains unfazed by the threat to outsourcing sounded by US Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. 'Companies that ship jobs overseas will not get tax breaks,' he said in his nomination address at the Denver democratic national convention last week.

Having survived the campaign of former US Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry four years ago on jobs being 'Bangalored' because of outsourcing, head honchos of leading IT firms here say: 'Don't read much into what Obama said in a poll campaign. He didn't say either that firms creating jobs in America will get tax breaks.

'The reference may have more to do with the loss or lack of jobs in sectors like manufacturing than IT services,' Som Mittal, chairman of Indian software services' trade body Nasscom, told IANS.

Though the US market remains the best bet for the Indian IT services sector, contributing over 60 percent of the total revenue for bellwethers such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Satyam, Obama's passing reference against outsourcing does not rattle them as it did in the past due to changing market/industry dynamics and advent of globalisation.