Current affairs:

India and the US have agreed to expand their cooperation in civil space activities ranging from weather and monsoon forecasting to cooperative space exploration work, including future missions to the moon and Mars. The agreement between the two countries space agencies, Indian Space Research Organisation and National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) was announced Friday after a meeting of the US-India Civil Space Joint Working Group (CSJWG). Building on NASAs collaboration in Indias highly successful Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission in 2008, NASA and ISRO agreed to explore further cooperative space exploration work, including future missions to the moon and Mars, a joint statement issued after the meeting said. To this end the CSJWG agreed to continue discussions in planetary science and Heliophysics to identify areas of potential cooperation, it said. Continued progress is also being made in promoting compatibility and interoperability between the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), the statement said. Further work in this area will take place bilaterally and in multilateral bodies such as the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems, it said. The two sides exchanged information on a range of space and other policy issues and noted ongoing efforts to open up new opportunities for collaboration. Both sides confirmed the significant programmatic interest in, and scientific merit of, moving forward with the proposed NASA-ISRO cooperation in the L & S-Band SAR mission, or remote sensing techniques, the statement said.

At the opening of the meeting NASA Administrator Charles Bolden highlighted the impressive growth of US-India cooperation on a range of cutting edge projects from deep space exploration to the use of Earth observing satellites to promote sustainable development.

CSJWG is a vital pillar in the US-India partnership, Indian Ambassador to the US NirupamaRao said suggesting that both sides should continue to search for new areas of cooperation noting that there is no final frontier in this relationship. This dialogue architecture should pave way for enhanced space applications for societal benefits, she said. Endorsing expanded work in a number of areas, the working group noted that existing cooperation, in the use of US and Indian earth observation satellite data, has produced information yielding a broad range of societal benefits. These include improved weather and monsoon forecasting, disaster management and response, improved agricultural and natural resource use and better understanding of climate change.

Through expanded cooperation between their technical agencies that operate earth observing satellites, the two sides agreed on a number of measures that will improve the use of this data to promote sustainable development.

Arunachal Pradesh in the month of March 2013 became the first state to introduce eGPF or electronic GPF. The state Finance Department facilitated the online access to 34000 GPF accounts through its redesigned Web site, which was launched by Chief Minister of Arunachal PardeshNabamTuki.

Features of the websites : The Web site is meant to help the public in accessing all updated fiscal information including 34000 GPF accounts besides pensioners, who from anywhere in India could get information on their hard earned pension and fastest disposal of RTI cases.

 The Web site www.arunachalfinance.in has a number of features to make it citizenfriendly and to bring in more transparency and accountability in respect of works in the Finance Department. With all the information available on the Web site, citizens as well as government employees would not need to visit the Finance office for each and every work. Also, he felt applications seeking information under RTI would come down as all information needed are available on the site. The Web site is developed by the department with technical assistance from NIC. It is interactive with facilities to download forms such as medical reimbursement, GPF Final Payment, which would be quite beneficial for Government employees, particularly pensioners.

World Water Day is celebrated across the world on 22 March every year. This day was first celebrated back in the year 1993. World Water Day is an initiative of United Nations for celebrating the value of freshwater in the world. Some Facts It is important to note that 45 percent of the land surface of the world is covered by river basins. 75 percent of all the countries of the world have the boundaries within shared river basins. Across the globe, world events have been organised for celebrating the World Water Day and for creating awareness about the importance of water in the world. The purpose of the day is celebration of freshwater as well as promotion of its sustainability. Theme for 2013 World Water Day

Every year there is a different theme for celebrating the World Water Day. For the year 2013, the theme is Water Cooperation.