DNA 21 Aug

Ghantasala to get 70-ft Buddha statue  

• To develop Ghantasala village in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh as one of the prime Buddhist tourist spots in the State, decks have been cleared for construction of a Rs. 1.5-crore project here.
• The new facility will be themed on Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha. A two-storied structure in Buddhist architecture resembling a pedestal with a 100-ft wide and 70-ft high Budha in Mahaparinirvanaposture will be a major highlight.
• It represents the historical Buddha during his last illness, about to enter the mahaparinirvana.
• It shows Buddha lying on the right flank, his head resting on a cushion or on his right elbow, supporting his head with his hand.
• This pattern seems to have emerged at the same time as other representations of the Buddha in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara.
• The two floors will house a Buddhist library, a meditation centre, an auditorium for spiritual classes, an exhibition hall for digital replicas of the Buddhist antiques exhibited in the Paris museum and monasteries.
• In Buddhism, mahaparinirvanameans the ultimate state - everlasting, highest peace and happiness - entered by an Awakened Being (Buddha).
• Ghantasala, known as Katakasila in the ancient times, was a renowned Buddhist centre located near the coast.
• Ptolemy, the Greek geographer, had made a specific mention of an emporium of Kontakossyla in the region of Misolia (present Machilipatnam).
• The maha stupa was once encased with well decorated sculptured slabs like that of Amaravathi and had an ornate railing also.
• Initially, the archaeological significance of Ghantasala was reported by Boswel in 1870-71 and the site was subsequently subjected to excavations by Alexander Rea which brought out the stupa architecture in detail.

Army to get only six Apaches

• The Army’s request for 11 Apache attack helicopters was cut down to six by the Defence Ministry after objections from the Finance Division .  
• The MoD Finance had red-flagged the proposal for 11 [helicopters]. They said if these helicopters go to the Army, it will be a duplication of assets as the Indian Air Force is already in the process of acquiring 22 of them
• Last week, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, had approved the procurement of six Apache helicopters along with associated equipment at a cost of Rs.4,168 crore. 
• These would be procured under optional clause in the $3-billion deal signed with Boeing of the U.S. in November 2015 for 22 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and 15 CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. 
• The optional clause is for 11 helicopters, which would be available at the same price. However, the validity of the clause expires next month. “MoD Finance was not in favour of going for the option clause
• The Army has for long pitched for its own dedicated attack helicopter fleet integrated with its Strike Corps and has expressed a need for 39 Apaches. It had even sparred with the Air Force for control of the 22 helicopters which was rejected by the government. However, the government had stated that future acquisitions would go to the Army 

Yawning gaps in communication and track safety

• A High Level Safety Review Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Anil Kakodkar to review the safety of the Indian Railways and recommend improvements
•  Passenger fares have not been increased in the last decade and the infrastructure is severely strained. All safety margins have been squeezed. This has led to a neglect of infrastructure maintenance.
• In the present situation, the three vital functions (rule making, operations and the regulation) are all vested in the Railway Board. There is need for an independent mechanism for safety regulation. The Committee recommends the creation of a statutory Railway Safety Authority with enough powers to have a safety oversight on the operational mode of Railways.
• The Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO), the apex technical wing of the Railways, is highly constrained. This has hampered the ability of the system to internalize emerging technologies. The Committee recommends restructuring of RDSO for greater empowerment. It also recommends that a Railway Research and Development Council (RRDC) be set up directly under the government.
• The Committee recommends the adoption of an Advanced Signalling System (akin to the European Train Control System) for the entire trunk route length of 19,000 km within 5 years. This is estimated to cost Rs 20,000 crore.
• Committee recommended monitoring of all the bridges in terms of scientific measurements of deflections/displacements, water level and flow velocity on a continuous basis and data should be communicated to the office of the concerned Chief Bridge Engineer for monitoring.
• Panel notes that Railways had classified at least 3,000 bridges to be 100 years old or more and 32 bridges as distressed structures, wanted vulnerable bridges fitted with water level gauges and turbine flow meters to measure flow which should be interlocked in a way to warn the driver of the approaching train.
• The Kakodkar committee’s analysis of data for the last five years showed that in the Indian Railway system spread across 64,000 route kilometres, derailments accounted for nearly half the total accidents followed by accidents at unmanned level crossing gates (36 per cent). 
• Level crossing incidents contributed to 59 per cent of the deaths and 42 per cent of casualties.

Corporate governance: focus on SEBI

What is Corporate governance ?

1. Corporate governance is the system of rules, practices and processes by which a company is directed and controlled
2. Corporate governance essentially involves balancing the interests of a company’s many stakeholders, such as shareholders, management, customers, suppliers, financiers, government and the community
3. Since corporate governance also provides the framework for attaining a company’s objectives, it encompasses practically every sphere of management, from action plans and internal controls to performance measurement and corporate disclosure

SEBI had constituted a committee on corporate governance under the chairmanship of Uday Kotak in June this year. The committee is expected to submit its report within four months

‘Subjective views’ 

• In India, corporate governance continues to see subjective interpretation.
• While India is moving towards internationally accepted norms of corporate governance, we are bound to see this kind of volatility
• This is a fight between modern, freemarket capitalism on the one side and the forces of ‘compassionate capitalism’ on the other . 
• The governing board or a supervisory board would be an important top layer setting the direction for such companies

Zip past toll barriers

What is FASTag?

• It is a device that uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for making toll payments directly from the prepaid account linked to it. It is affixed on the windscreen of your vehicle and enables you to drive through toll plazas without waiting as you would for a cash transaction. The tag has a validity of 5 years and after purchase, it only needs to be recharged or topped up. The service is applicable to all kinds of vehicles but use of the service is currently voluntary.  
• The tag can be linked to the MyFastTag mobile app. Purchase and top ups can be done through the app. If your car manufacturer has prefixed an RFID sensor, the same can be linked to the app for use at toll plazas. All lanes in 371 toll plazas in the country will be FASTag-enabled by October 1. All these plazas will have a dedicated FASTag lane by September 1. 

How is it beneficial?

• It helps quicken your passage through toll barriers and helps avoid use of cash. Long queues of vehicles waiting while cumbersome cash transactions happen at the counter can be avoided. 
• Here, it helps reduce use of fuel and pollution due to high waitingtimes at the barriers. 
• It can also help the government identify the quantum of road use and types of vehicles passing through, aiding budgets for road widening and other infrastructure expenses
• It could help increase accruals to the government as some operators managing toll plazas have, in the past, have been suspected of under reporting their revenues.   

‘New state of matter’ discovered 

• Scientists have discovered a potential new state of matter that may help explain phenomena like superconductivity. 
• Superconductivity is extensively used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), particle accelerators, magnetic fusion devices, and microwave filters. 
• Researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the U.S. showed that among superconducting materials in high magnetic fields, the phenomenon of electronic symmetry breaking is common.

Superconductivity

• Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance and expulsion of magnetic flux fields occurring in certain materials, called superconductors, when cooled below a characteristic critical temperature.
• It was discovered by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911.
• Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum mechanical phenomenon.
• The electrical resistance of a metallic conductor decreases gradually as temperature is lowered. In ordinary conductors, such as copper or silver, this decrease is limited by impurities and other defects.
• An electric current flowing through a loop of superconducting wire can persist indefinitely with no power source.[

Superconducting magnets are some of the most powerful electromagnets known. They are used in MRI/NMR machines, mass spectrometers, the beam-steering magnets used in particle accelerators and plasma confining magnets in some tokamaks.