AGNI - V; A marvel on Engineers Day of India

On Sep 15, 2013 on which Engineers day is celebrated, India successfully test fired its inter-continental ballistic missile Agni - V (read as Agni 5) for the second time. Its maiden launch took place in April 2012. The following  are the major specifications of Agni V.

• Missile Type - Intercontinental surface- surface ballistic missile (ICBM)
• Strike Range - 5000 km ( 5000 Km - 8000 km)
• Nuclear Payload - over one ton
• Launching base - Wheelers Island, Orissa
• Dimensions - ( 17m * 2m)
• Launch Weight - around 50 ton

Agni V, developed by Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was tested on a predefined path of 5000 Km and it accurately hit the destination with expected precision. The missile is powered by three-stage solid rocket motors and has flawless auto mode launch. Gyro-based Inertial Navigation System (RINS) and Micro Navigation System (MINS) which are most advanced navigational systems used ensured its accuracy. The navigation systems are also aided by high speed onboard fault-tolerant software. Avinash Chander, Secretary of Dept of Defence R&D guided the launch while R K Gupta, project director guided the personnel of DRDO.

Missile Range of Agni Series (click to enlarge)

By this, India has joined the club of countries having long range weapons; America, China, Russia, France , Britain and Israel. On the Occasion, DRDO chief Avinash Chander said that India already has ability to produce 10000 Km missile but accuracy aspect has yet to be worked out. Trails will be run next year on INS Arihant, India's first indigenously developed Nuclear Submarine. Two years from now, the production of Agni V will be completed and will be supplied to Indian army. Behold! Entire china comes under its target range.

The success of Agni V is no doubt a great milestone in the long range weapons of  India

Made in Hyderabad by India for India

It's a proud moment for Hyderabadis since 90% of Agni V development took place in Hyderabad  based Research centers. Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Advanced System Labs (ASL), Defence Research Development Labs(DRDL) have contributed immensely towards missile development. Many small and significant jobs are outsourced to more than 100 private industries in and around the city.

Khairatabad Ganesh 2013

Happy Vinayaka Chavithi (Ganesha Chaturthi) to all :)

Here goes this year blueprint of Khairatabad Ganesh. 

Shri Go-Naga Chaturmukha Maha Ganapathi 

Khairatabad circle which occupies core place in Hyderabad, capital city of Andhra Pradesh is famous for its conduct of Ganesh Festival. Sri Ganesh Utsav Committee, Khairatabad organizes this sacred Hindu festival every year with a unique theme. This year vinayaka chavithi falls on 9th Sep. The Ganesh idol made under the supervision of this committee is usually the biggest and tallest in the state having an average height of 50 feet and above. This year idol is made 59 feet high as its been 59 years since the formation of this committee.

The concept of this year Ganesh idol is 'Sri Go-Naga Chaturmukha Maha Ganapathi'. Here, 'Gonaga' signifies animals Cow(Govu) and Cobra snake(with 5 heads), 'Chaturmukha' translates to having four faces which can be clearly seen in above picture. This theme is chosen in belief that, to protect cattle and to protects us from evil.

The foundation ceremony(Ankurarpana), the initial pooja for the Khairatabad Ganesh idol was performed on the 4th June'13. Since then nearly 120 workers have worked for 50-60 days to complete it. The chief sculptor of this project is 'Chinna Swamy Rajendran'. Total cost of making it is around Rs. 40 Lakh /-

Another interesting thing about Khairatabad Ganesh is its Maha Laddu prasadam, a traditional sweet in India. This year the Laddu is made in Tapeswaram near Kakinada by Suruchi foods which weighs over 4 ton. The festival is celebrated for 11 days and its attracts huge crowd of devotees throughout the period. At the end, the idol will be immersed in Hussain Sagar Lake.

Sri Ganesh Utsav Committee, Khairatabad, Hyderabad was founded in 1954 by Late Mr.S.Sankarayya, a freedom fighter. The idol is made taking support of Sankaraiah building which is 60 feet high.

Power Vocab - August 13 Issue

As mentioned earlier, I have put together this month vocab, words that have appeared  in various Newspapers, Journals etc. As these words are used in various articles that have published this month, they most likely used in describing some current event. Knowing the below words will help you to speak aptly among your peers when relevant topic comes up for discussion. 

1. Apartheid - An official policy of racial segregation involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites (formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa).
2. Hullabaloo - a clamorous noise or disturbance, commotion, uproar  (that usually occurs in protest).
3. Teetotaler - a person who refrains himself from alcoholic or intoxicating drinks. 
4. Valedictorian - usually the student with the highest academic rank in a class who delivers the valedictory(relating to an occasion of farewell) at graduation.
5. Dormant - Alive but not active, as if asleep (dormant audience in a class).
6. Reverberate - repeatedly reflected; recoil, rebound, reecho (of Sound/light/heat energy etc).
7. Vagabond - a person with no fixed home; nomadic, wanderer.
8. Urchin - a mischievous child (roguish & playful), homeless children who live on street.
9. Superfluous - being more than sufficient; excessive, needless, unnecessary.
10. Procrastinate - to postpone or delay needlessly.

It isn't over yet. Do the following Exercise at your own pace.

• Write the noun forms, verb/ adverbs formed by above words.
• Write them in sentences and pronounce them correctly.
• Know their synonyms, antonyms and usage.
• Make sure to notice and recollect these words when they come across in your readings.

also refer to Power vocab - July 13 issue, keep visiting my blog :)

Tips for Effective Writing

The first thing I was taught in my Technical Communication and Business communication classes during my graduation is to use simple and short sentences in formal writing. Though it is widely recommended, its need not to be always necessary. Too many short, simple sentences will suck the essence of  a writing, giving a choppy effect on readers. So, here are few suggestions to help you write better.

Vary the sentence length, type, and beginning

Like it was said earlier short sentences can be forceful. Say, 'Bob is 22. He lives in London. His friend Mike also lives in London...'. Each sentence when considered individually looks fine but fails to make a fair impression when read cummulatively. Sentence length and type can be varied by saying 'Bod and his friend live in London'.

Usually, sentences used in Active voice have subjects at its beginning so that subjects get stressed. Sometimes vary beginning of middle sentences in a paragraph by starting with adverb/adjective clauses, shiting word order etc. Instead of saying, 'Assembly session has been extended to pass pending bills.', where extending assembly is stressed, one can say 'To pass pending bills, the Assembly has been extended', where stress is given to pending bills. So choose among possible variations that best fits the context.

Use Coordination

Combine related independent sentences with coordinate conjunctions to form compound sentences. 

Ex: 'The factory shut-downed. Its licence has to be revoked' can be changed to 'The factory shutdowned , for its license to be revoked'

One longer sentence reads more smoothly than the two shorter ones. But using too many conjunctions in a single sentence nullifies the improvement that one get over avoiding short sentences.

Use Compounding

Sentences having same subjects or same verbs can be combined into a sentence having compound subject/predicate. 

Ex: 'He left Microsoft last month. He now works at Google' can be changed to 'He left Microsoft last month and now works at Google'

Use Subordination (important)

While combining sentences, we can emphasize one sentence by subordinating the other, reducing it to a dependent clause. This helps us to represent the relation between ideas more clearly than by coordination or compounding. Subordinating can be done with adjective clauses, adverb clauses, or noun clauses.

Ex: 

(weak)        - They signed an agreement. This agreement ended their partnership.
(Moderate) - They signed an agreement and ended their partnership.
(Strong)   - They signed an agreement which ended their partnership. (stresses act of signing agreement) or The agreement that they signed ended their partnership. (stresses ending agreement)

Above example is strengthened by adjective clause subordination. Subordinating is considered as one of the important skills required for good writing.

Raghuram Rajan; Next RBI Governor

Raghuram Rajan

Duvvuri Subbarao, 22nd Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is going to complete his prescribed term on 04 September 2013. He assumed service as Governor on 05 SEP 2008 and was appointed for 3 years. In 2011, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh extended his service for 2 more years which comes to an end by this month. Raghuram G Rajan, Chief Economic Advisor, is soon going to replace D Subbarao as new Governor of RBI.

D Subbarao

D Subbarao preceded by Dr Y V Reddy(Yaga Venugopal Reddy), 21st Governor of RBI. Interestingly, both are Telugu's hailing from Andhra Pradesh. Together they held the post of RBI Governor for 10 consecutive years, a remarkable and prideful feat to achieve which should be embraced by all of us Telugu people. 

Few Remarkable Achievements of D Subbarao 

• B Sc Hons, IIT Karagpur, Gold Medal
• topped Civil services exam in 1972
• Joint Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs (1988-1993), Govt of India
• Lead Economist in world bank (1994-2004)
• Finance Secretary in 2007
• Governor of RBI since 2008

IDRBT - Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology

The need for Computerization and Automation of services in Indian Banking and Financial Sector was first felt during the first phase of economic reforms. In the years 1984 and 1989, two reports were submitted by committee's  both headed by Dr RanjaRajan which elevates the strong need of using IT enabled banking operations/services. Various guidelines and appropriate architectures have also been formulated during the same time.

In 1994, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) formed a committee on "Technology Up-gradation in the Payment Systems". The following were the two important recommendations made by the committee;

1. Variety of Payment Applications that can be implemented with technology up-gradation and through developing a reliable communication network.
2. Setting up an Information Technology Institute for the purpose of Research & Development and Consultancy in the application of technology to the Banking and Financial sector of the country.

As per above recommendation, IDRBT was established by the RBI in March 1996 as an Autonomous R & D center for Banking Technology. 

Location: Hyderabad, India.

IDRBT Vision

To be the premier and preferred Research and Development Institution on Financial Sector Technology and its Management, working at the intersection of Banking and Technology for the Indian Banking.

It also functions as an Academic institute offering various research oriented programs; IDRBT Post Doctoral Fellowship (IPDF), Ph.D Programme in Computer Science and Information Technology, IDRBT Research Project Scheme (IRPS), M.Tech. in Information Technology (with specialization in Banking Technology and Information Security), IDRBT Project Trainee Scheme (IPTS).

IDRBT is an associate institute of University of Hyderabad(UoH), a central university and has MoU's with IIT Kanpur, ISACA, C-DAC.

To know more about their academic programs, Visit their official website by clicking here 

Recently IDRBT held an event on 2nd August to distribute BT Excellence Awards. To know more, check my earlier post by Clicking here.

IDRBT - Banking Technology Excellence Awards 2012-13

** IDRBT - Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology **

IDRBT, a banking research institute located at Hyderabad made a few important contributions to Indian Banking Sector in an event held on 02 August 2013. On this particular event, different technological frameworks that will immensely help Banking & Finance Sector have been formulated. BT Excellence Awards (Banking Technology) have also been awarded to recognize and honor the banks that put best use of IT enabled Banking Services.

Event Highlights

1. Center for Information Assurance and Management (CIAM) has been launched

With the advent and rapid expansion of cyber delivery channels, in form of Internet banking, Mobile banking , ATMs etc have made them prone to various risks such as identity theft, hacking attacks, security treats. In-order to focus and carryout R&D activities on above mentioned issues, CIAM has being set-up in collaboration with State University of New York, Buffalo, USA. Its functions also include cyber forensics, mentoring BFSI sector, Employee development programs etc.  

Dr. D. Subbarao, Governor of RBI and Visitor, IDRBT, formally launched CIAM on the ocacasion.

2. IDRBT Cloud Security Framework for Indian Banking Sector

IDRBT recognized that cloud computing technology has potential to help banks to cut time and resources in setting, deploying, configuring new systems. It also helps in efficient use of hardware resources and network bandwidth thereby improving quality and availability. Its direct implication is less capital upfront and reduced IT overheads. A framework has been made which essentially covers various topics on Cloud Security such as Cloud Security Management, Data and Information Security, Application and Process Security, IT Infrastructure Security, Physical and Logical Security.

Click here to view/download the Cloud Security Framework, released by Dr. D. Subbarao, Governor of RBI and Visitor, IDRBT.