India Society

Top Five Programmes Launched by Modi:

       It was on May 26, 2014, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi took charge of the Government of India. Since the time he has taken office, certain important decisions have been taken by the Cabinet. Just as the year 2014 is about to end, let us try to recollect the important programmes and projects that our new Government announced during the year for the development and welfare of the country.

 1. Digital India:

On August 21, 2014, the “Digital India” campaign was launched. The idea is to change India into an electronically empowered economy. According to this programme, the Government of India wants all Government departments and the people of India to connect with each other digitally or electronically, so that there is effective governance. It also aims at reducing paperwork by making all the Government services available to the people electronically. There is also a plan to connect all villages and rural areas through internet networks.There are three major components of Digital India: Digital infrastructure, digital literacy and digital delivery of services. The Government plans to complete this project in five years. That is, by 2019, the Digital India project is expected to be fully functional.

 2. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana:

On August 28, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. This scheme was announced when he gave his first Independence Day speech on August 15 , 2014. This is a prestigious financial inclusion programme. On the very first day of the launch of the programme, 15 million bank accounts were opened and each of the account holders was given Rs 1,00,000 insurance cover. By September 2014, 3.02 crore accounts were opened and around Rs 1,500 crore were deposited. According to the yojana, anyone can open new bank accounts with zero balance too.

3. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan:

On 24 September 2014, Prime Minister approved the Swachh Bharat campaign, which was a modification of the Nirmal Bharat Programme, launched by the previous Government. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched formally on October 2, 2014, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The objective is to make India a clean India by 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The plan is to provide toilet and sanitation facilities in all rural and remote areas, to create public awareness of cleanliness, to clean roads, streets, encroachments and make India one of the cleanest countries of the world.

4. Make in India:

This was basically a slogan, coined by Narendra Modi on September 25, 2014 to attract the global world to invest and manufacture in India. It then became an international marketing campaign. “Make in India” campaign was initiated so that India has ample job opportunities and the economy gets a boost. ‘Make in India’ seeks to make India a self-reliant country. It also aims to allow FDI in the country as well as bring back to health the loss-making Government firms. The Make in India campaign is completely under the Central Government, in which the Government has identified 25 major sectors which have the potential of becoming a global leader.

5. Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana:

On October 11, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. According to this yojana, each MP will take the responsibility of developing three villages by 2019. The idea is to make India’s villages to be fully developed with physical and institutional infrastructure. There are certain guidelines for this scheme, which has been formulated by the Department of Rural Development. The Prime Minister released the guidelines on October 11, 2014 and requested all MPs to develop one model village by year 2016 in their constituency and two more by 2019.

Leaked! Nokia tablet with Windows RT Photo:

Nokia, which is trying to make a mark in the smartphone market with its Lumiarange, has long been rumoured to be working on a tablet. Now, a report suggests that the company's first tablet will be launched soon. A leaked photo of the alleged device also adds weight to the rumour.

Chinese website Digiwo has leaked an image of rear panel of the Nokia tablet, which is said to have a 10.1-inch screen. The image shows the logos of the Finnish manufacturer Nokia, US telecom service provider Verizon and Microsoft's Windows RT operating system. The image also suggests that the upcoming tablet will be compatible with 4GLTE networks.

Tech news website The Verge, citing sources, has reported that the tablet will be launched at an event in New York "tentatively scheduled for September 26." It also says that the tablet, which has beencodenamed Vanquish, will be powered by Snapdragon 800 chipset and will be available on AT&T in the US.

Microsoft last year launched its Surface RT tablet to take on Apple tablet iPad. This device did not receive much traction in the market and recently received a price cut.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has earlier said that the company is looking at tablet market "very closely." Jo Harlow, the manufacturer's executive vice president of smart devices division, has also said that it is "very interested" in the tablet segment.

In the past, it has been reported that Nokia was planning a tablet with two batteries - one in the main body and the other in the keyboard cover. Other rumoured features of the Nokia tablet include HDMI as well as USB ports and mobile connectivity.

Recently, leaked images of a Nokia phablet with 6-inch screen and a phone with 5.2-inch display have hit the internet.

In 2013, the physical and digital worlds will fuse

   

 In 2013, the physical and digital worlds will fuse. From the RFID tags on a runner’s bib to the real-time camera feed from traffic lights that informs driving routes, the physical world is becoming an information system. Icreon has been working on cutting-edge apps and solutions for 2013 that are using IT to instill everyday “things” and gadgets with a flow of information and an overall sense of intelligence.

Google Glass 'comes to' contact lens

Researchers have created a Google Glass-like device on a contact lens. 

According to Technology Review, the team developed a "transparent, highly conductive, and stretchy mix of graphene and silver nanowires" that it then attached to an off-the-shelf soft contact lens to give it Google Glass-like features, Fox News reported. 

The lenses were tested on rabbits because of similarities with the human eye and were found to be fully functional. 

The researchers noted that the rabbits didn't attempt to rub their eyes nor did they grow bloodshot after five hours of testing. 

"Our goal is to make a wearable contact lens display that can do all the things Google Glass can do," research leader Jang-Ung Park, a chemical engineer at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, said. 

True smart contacts with heads-up displays are still quite a few years out, however - the "display" on the tested lens was only one pixel.

Samsung launches Galaxy S4 variant with 16MP camera

Just a week after launching a waterproof version of its flagship Galaxy S4,Samsung has unveiled another iteration of the handset, this time with an upgraded camera. The new device, named Galaxy S4 zoom, features a16MP rear camera with 10X optical zoom with xenon flash on the back. This new phone's camera boasts of optical image stabilization as well as 24mm wide lens and can record 1080pvideos at 30fps. 
Key specs: 

The all-new Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom has a 4.3-inch SuperAMOLED screen with 960x540p resolution with 256ppi pixel density. The device is powered by Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) with TouchWiz UI on top, and runs on a dual-core 1.5GHz processor. It has 8GB internal storage, 1.5GB RAM and supports microSD cards with capacities up to 32GB. 

Galaxy S4 zoom will be available in two variants, one that is compatible with 4G and the other that works on 3G networks. Other features of the connectivity suites of this smartphone are 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, infrared port and microUSB 2.0. This handset has a 2,330mAh battery and features a 1.9MP front camera. At 208gram, it is heavier that the likes of Samsung Galaxy Note II and Nokia Lumia 920. 

Display: 4.3-inch SuperAMOLED screen with 960x540p resolution with 256ppi pixel density;

Operating system: Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) topped with TouchWiz UI;

Processor & RAM: Dual-core 1.5GHz processor with 1.5GB RAM;

Camera: 16MP rear camera with 10x optical zoom, xenon flash and 1.9MP front camera;

Connectivity: 2G, 3G, optional 4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, infrared, microUSB 2.0;

Battery: 2,330mAh; and

Weight: 208gram 

Apple's biggest announcements at WWDC 2013

Apple began its product showcase by announcing a new operating system for the Mac called Mavericks, moving away from its penchant for naming its computer software after big cats. The new OS can now handle multiple display and tagging of documents, among other new features. Tim Cook kicked off Apple's 24th annual developers conference in San Francisco. 

"The MacBook has continued to define the future of the notebook. It's the number one notebook in the US, " Apple CEO Tim Cook claimed. "The annual average growth rate for Mac is 15% versus 3% for PCs," he added.

In an unusual move, the company also shared the stage with little-known startup Anki, which was given the opportunity to show off a game. 

Craig Federighi, the company's senior vice president for software engineering, announced the latest version of its OSX operating system, named Mavericks. Some of the new features of this update are improved document finding capability called Finder, tagging, support for multiple displays and improved battery life and processor performance. 

Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller unveiled the refreshed Macbook Air. The laptops, available with 11- and 13-inch screens, are powered by Intel's new Haswell processor, with 2X graphics processing unit, have up to 3TB hard disk and come with 128GB flash memory. The smaller model lasts nine hours on a single charge, whereas its bigger sibling offers battery life of up to 13 hours. The former has been priced at $999, whereas the latter costs $1,099. 

Cook, who has seen Apple's stock fall 37% after it touched a high of $705 in September as competition in the key smartphone market escalated, began by describing the growth of Apple's app store. 

The CEO told the audience of developers at the Moscone Center in San Francisco that its app store now has 9,00,000 apps, which have been downloaded a total of 50 billion times. 

The conference, tickets to which sold out in just over a minute when it opened up in April, comes as South Korean rival Samsung Electronics has solidified its lead in the smartphone market with a 33% share followed by Apple with 18% during the first quarter, according to market research firm IDC. 

Cook is under pressure to show that the company that created the smartphone and tablet markets is not slowing down as deep-pocketed competitors such as Samsung and Google encroach on its share. Investor concerns now center around whether Apple will be able to come up with more groundbreaking products as smartphone and tablet market gets more crowded.

Google Maps brings live traffic coverage to 13 European countries

The next time you head out for a leisurely Sunday drive along the autobahn, you might wanna take a minute to consult Google Maps' live traffic feature, now available in Germany and 12 other nations across Europe. 

Announced earlier this week, the new addition offers regularly updated coverage of all highways and major thoroughfares in countries like Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland, while bringing more detailed street-level data to users in the UK. 

Europe's road warriors will also be able to use a legend to learn about traffic patterns at specific times or days of the week, making it even easier for you to micro-manage your summer getaway to the Swiss Alps. Learning how to fit all your luggage into the back of a Twingo, however, is another matter altogether.

Do you want to talk about this? Please, go to the comments section below and let your opinion be known to the author and everybody else.