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Bhuvan ISRO Bhuvan Earth Map Bhuvan ISRO NRSC bhuvan.nrsc Website Download.

The Space Applications Centre (SAC) of ISRO has made another significant invention named as ‘Bhuvan’ – the first Indian satellite mapping tool. The term Bhuvan, which literally means ‘earth’ is quite similar to Google Earth. The most it will give you an image from only 10 meters away. Another added feature of Bhuvan is that it would focus only on the Indian sub-continent.

The chairman of ISRO, Dr. Nair while addressing media said that Bhuvan will provide local information, specifically of major towns and cities of India. Several local problems like floods, famines, infrastructure development, education and administration would be addressed in a better way through this mapping system.

Some of the Basic features of Bhuvan are:

• Access, explore and visualize 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on Soil, wasteland, water resources etc.
• Visualize multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data
• Superpose administrative boundaries of choice on images as required
• Visualization of AWS (Automatic Weather Stations) data/information in a graphic view and use tabular Weather data of user choice
• Fly to locations (Flies from the current location directly to the selected location)

For more information about ISRO Bhuvan just log onto to http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/about.html

RBI proposes for a new subject on financial management in schools.

Financial management will soon be taught in schools. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recommended the HRD ministry to ask the school boards to commence a subject on financial management in the school curriculum which will further increase students’ understanding about the field. But the final decision is yet to be taken by the HRD ministry.

The financial management subject will cover all the aspects of finance/money as well as provide fundamental ideas on the same so that students can develop interest in the subject and pursue higher studies in future. RBI had sent the proposal to MHRD through Finance Ministry.

The HRD Ministry has also discussed about the proposal with National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) that publishes textbooks and prepares broad curriculum for school students. But NCERT did not like the idea. It said that schools already have subjects like commerce and economics that covers various aspects of financial management. There is no special need to start a new and separate subject for the students.

So let’s wait and watch for the final decision…..

For better management of the widely spread and vast academic coverage of these educational bodies, it is not being considered by the Maharashtra government to split the Pune and Mumbai universities. This is being undertaken in wake of the suggestions given by the National Knowledge Commission or the NKC.

This is a big step which is being thought of in order to improve the levels of teaching and research in the universities and to facilitate better management. Bifurcation or even trifurcation of these universities may take place since the decision has not been taken yet. Only in five districts, the Mumbai University has hundreds of colleges which make it very difficult to administer and control. Similar is the case with the Pune University which has under it three districts and numerous colleges. These proposals however are yet to be approved by the central government. Such decisions could really work to improve the standards of universities and therefore are being considered.

The NKC or the National Knowledge Commission was formed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The main purpose of formation of the NKC was de-linking the undergraduate colleges and establishing their own administrations rather than their being dependent on the universities. This was done to make it possible for universities to focus on researching and also on teaching in a better way.

Yoga is a regular subject that is taught at the secondary level of the school curriculum. However, it requires support to bring it at equal level with the other subjects of the curriculum. To provide assistance in this task, NCERT now has a plan at the formative stage through which they will provide financial assistance to the yoga training centres and will also provide skilled teachers of yoga so as to train school students.

It is already acknowledged that overall development of the child is the main focus of education and learning. The contribution of Yoga to the physical aspect of development has been recognised already but it has not been give the due importance and some assistance is required to promote it in schools. For this, it is being considered to provide lump sum grant to teachers for undergoing the grooming of teachers at yoga institutes.

The joint director of NCERT will chair the grant-in-aid committee which is to consider this proposal. The main task of this committee will be consideration and approval of the proposals which will then aid for the release of funds to institutions on decided criteria. For follow up, the monitoring of the execution of this scheme will also be taken up by this committee.

Teachers will be trained in the yoga skills according to the specifications that have been made in the National Curriculum Framework, 2005. It would be the respective states that would take up the responsibility of routing the proposal of yoga institutes. The check or monitor will be kept by a committee which will be specially created for this task by the regional institutes of education which will also monitor the functioning of the training programme.

This scheme would be seen to initiate in August 2009 and around 30 teachers will be a part of a single training program. The deputation of teachers for the purpose will also be done by the state governments. The actual programme of training may stretch over to one month. Also, according to the need of the teachers, refresher courses can also be arranged for duration of 21 days.

Indian’s maiden unmanned spacecraft — Chandrayaan-1 is expected to touch upon the Moon’s surface anytime on Friday, 14^th November, 2008. The mission is bound to make a detailed study about the minerals present in the Moon’s crust. The Moon Impact Probe — MIP is supposed to land on the Moon anytime on Friday, 14^th November 2008. It is equipped with a lander and rover, making it easier to collect samples to be sent back.

All the top officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation — ISRO are keeping their fingers crossed as everyone wants the Chandrayaan-1 to complete its mission and bring glory to the nation. Even as the nation awaits the reports forwarded by the nation’s most progressive lunar expedition spacecraft, already there are reports of Chandrayaan-2 being launched in 2012.

The Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, sent a message from Tokyo and Indians around the world felt proud when the nation’s maiden mission to moon, the launch of Chandrayan I was accomplished. This is considered as India’s first foray into a mission solely centred around the Moon. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C11 helped to successfully launch the Chandrayan 1 satellite. India can now boast of technology good enough to enter the sphere of outer space exploration and the people working at ISRO should feel proud of their efforts.

It is believed that the launch of Chandrayan 1 would lay the foundation for better cooperation between USA and India. America too has contributed to this successful launch as the Raytheon Technology being used in Chandrayan 1 is being supported by NASA.

The Indian Institute of Science, IISc, Bangalore is planning to set-up a new centre which will be called the Tata Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, TCIR. The Institute plans to set-up the new centre within the existing IISc campus by 2009. The cost of this new R&D centre has been approximated at Rs.2000 crores.

The proposal would most probably receive nearly Rs.400 to 500 crores from Sir Ratan Tata Trust. The new centre would be spread on nearly 300,000 square feet. The emphasis would lie in creating services for emergency diagnosis including services for the elderly and the disabled and research on bio-molecular engineering.

Jawahar Lal University (JNU) has installed hi-tech sophisticated facilities in its University Science Instrumentation Centre (USIC).

The university has spent about Rs. 16.5 crores for buying various hi-tech instruments for its branches of science department. Following hi-tech instruments are installed in various science departments:

Laser Confocal Microscope
Transmission Electron Microscope
Circular Dichroism Spectrometre
Liquid Nitrogen Plant

These instruments will be useful for students of Life Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Bio-Technology.

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIU) has announced the Doctoral and Post Doctoral Research Fellowship for the session 2008-2009.

Doctoral And Post Doctoral Research Fellowship 2008-2009 (Admission Guidelines)

Last date of submitting the completed application form is 12th September, 2008.

Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with Washington University Law School and John Hopkins University for academic exchange program.

The tie up will enable all 3 universities to exchange valuable research and study material with each other. Under the exchange program students, faculties will visit other universities and research material will be shared among all 3 universities. The program will be implemented from next academic session.

AMU is planning to sign similar kind of MoU’s with 5 more American universities to broaden the research and standard of Aligarh Muslim University.

Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry is planning to set up National Police University (NPU) in Delhi. Keeping in view of future requirements and to create a research workforce for law enforcement agencies, HRD plans to start a university with state of the art facilities and equipments, for training law enforcement personals in subjects like Biological Warfare, Conflict Resolution, Forensic Science and Terrorism.

The university is expected to start its first academic program from the year 2010. The undergraduate and postgraduate courses offered by the university will include research and study of subjects like organized crime, economic crime, terrorism, investigation, cyber crime, VIP security, law and order.

Students passing out from NPU will be given special weightage in various recruitment processes in law enforcement agencies.

Famous US based combat aircraft manufacturing giant – Lockheed Martin has decided to invest a whopping $300,000 for research project in bio and nano-technology at IIT – Delhi.

The project duration is of one year and on successful completion, follow up projects may start. Research team will include eight professors from IIT and five experts from Lockheed Martin. The key research areas will be:

Nano-technology-enabled biological sensors
Biodegradable nonmaterial for medical treatment
Bio-filters for pollution detection

The patent issues are yet to be finalized, and IIT Delhi will reserve the right to publish the results of the research.