I miss those days

Hi all,
Dont know why I am writing this post. Just missing those preparation days.
Let me begin with a beautiful story I heard from Maskeen sahib (Bhai Sahib Bhai Sant Singh Ji Maskeen). Once a poor fellow got to know that there is someone called Guru Nanak who fulfills everybody wishes. He started doing Bhagti day and night. One day, Guru Sahib came in front of him. Guru ji asked, What did you want, my son? Do you want money?
He replied, "No, My Guru Ji"
Guru Ji  " then you want good living conditions"
He replied : No, my lord"
Guru Ji " then, you want to assimilate in me and get rid of this life and death again and again or Moksha"
He replied "No, Guru Ji, I just want to remain like this because I get assimilation, I will get everything but the enjoyment in the path to meet you is immense and can not be compared. So, remain me like this only.
वोह रस जो तेरी इबादत में है
वो शायद तुजे पाने में नहीं
वो आनंद जो तेरी चाहत में है
वो तुजमें समा जाने में नहीं
वो अश्रु जो छलके तुजको याद करते
या जो छलके सजदा फ़रियाद करते
कसम तेरी उसका मज़ा इस ज़माने में नहीं
I remember my preparation days till date. My joining a coaching institute at Patiala for GS prelims after B.Tech, Living in a small room in PG, classes at 5.30 am, everything new, the history, the geography, the toughest economics, reading hindu with dictionary, making notes, studying everything as if this will come in mains, meeting those who have written mains with a lot of praise for them, asking for notes, asking time for those who cleared the exam, going at their places, sometimes helpful sometimes not, sleeping exhausted, coming home in december, studying late, mom giving tea at 2 am in night, then came the failure in Prelims, heart broken, thinking of leaving the preparation and this IAS dream,cursing myself for taking this path, went to Vodafone for a job after 1 year of B.tech, took me as GET, working with juniors, getting humiliated for doing a minor mistake, taking lessons from mistakes committed in prelims, starting preparation with new zeal but in limited time after job, saving every minute from job, cutting away from family, friends, getting up early and sleeping late night, study-study-study, from zero to becoming a walking encyclopedia, taking prelims test again and declaring to clear it, Leaving job after prelims result, taking mains but shattered after chemistry paper, leaving hope for becoming anything in life, taking a lecturer job in LPU for a month, mains result coming and my passing, preparation for interview and leaving job again, Failing the interview, second attempt+ one year gone again, Heart broken, Going to Gurudwara, Praying in front of Guru ji with tears in eyes, Taking a strateigic decision, changing chemistry for which maximum time given since last two years,to Punjabi literature, staying at home doing no job this time, preparing for new subject, going to tuition in early morning for Pb classes, studying MA level in 2 months, studying in June July with no fan in hot summer and power cut in Punjab,taking prelims and clearing, taking mains head on with full confidence of clearing, after exam getting two offers of job as SDO in PSEB or as Scientist in ISRO, joining ISRO thinking it may help in interview casting a good image, going to Ahmedabad with single aim taking all the books for next prelims, Getting every bit of knowledge of the city and visiting Bapu Ashram as interview people may ask, studying everything of Gujrati culture, call of interview coming and going to UPSC for interview, working of Luck and Guru ji Blessings, questions on Bapu, ISRO and Ahmedabad coming, Coming out of Board with a smile and at last the result coming and getting selected. Calling parents, Going to Gurudwara to say thanks to Waheguru ji, having small party with ISRO friends, leaving ISRO to join training......
I remember those days...
I cherish those days....
Thank you Waheguru ji...
If I have thousands and thousands of tongues with which I speak thousand times Tera Shukar Hai, even then I can not express my thanks to you O Guru Nanak....
Waheguru ji, thanks for this success and bless me to help those poor and downtrodden in whose lives, if I am able to bring even a single ray of hope, i will think myself really worthy of this job....

One month of Posting

 Some of my activities during 1st month of my posting: This job is undoubtedly the best on this planet.

 

My First Posting

Dear All
I have got my 1st posting as SDM Ellenabad, District Sirsa. It is an extremely beautiful place and people here are very nice and polite.
(Brief history at http://ellenabad.com/historyofellenabad.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellenabad). 
Now, I am feeling the difference on being the other side of table.
I must say that the power as well as associated responsibility is immense.
With the blessing of Waheguru ji, I am enjoying my job.
May Waheguru g make you an IAS officer.
Prabhjot Singh

Re-uploading of notes

Dear all, After receiving a lot of mails about the problems to download my Punjabi notes from uploading.com, I have reloaded the notes in pdf format, please check and let me if any problem still persists...
Thanks

My Training part 1: Some Thoughts Worth Sharing....

Dear All
When I was preparing for services, whenever I used to meet some successful candidate, I become curious as to how and what kind of training do they get after clearing the exam.Today, I am gonna write about it so that you get an idea of life post clearing the exam.


My result came (If I remember exactly) on 06th May 2010 and my roll no. was 018114. Ok, let me tel u an interesting story. The day I was expecting result, i was sitting on internet in my lab in ISRO. Suddenly UPSC site became heavy and it was clear that result has come. My heart beat was maximum and I remember I hate to use to Ctrl+F button to find/search but there was no alternative. As soon as I entered my roll no. my rank mentioned was 16. I could not realize it and checked again and same result. I firstly thanked Waheguru G for the result. I closed the window and opened it again, same result and then even I shut down the PC and checked it again. You can imagine the kind of anxiety and then I asked my fellow scientist to recheck. I took a print out and went to meet my boss, a scientist 'SG' level officer. There was a meeting going on, but that was the level of happiness, that I went straight into his room, my shirt was out and I was having no words, there were tears in my eyes. I told him the result and suddenly all my lab was enjoying my success.   We had a small party at my home there.
Next morning, when I woke up I thought I had a wishful dream, I immediately checked my pant pocket and yes, the printout taken was there which has the result my 16th rank. So, that's about the day when Waheguru G changed my life.
Now coming to training, I joined my Foundation course (FC) at mussoorie on 30th August 2010.In FC there are IAS, IFS, IPS (except those who didnt join in order to improve their rank) and IFS(Indian Forest Service). The biggest challenge that remains till today is reaching Mussoorie from Dehradun as I am blessed by Lord to have motion sickness in mountains. Suddenly after reaching in Mussoorie, the day starts at around 5.15 am and morning PT at polo ground which is located around 1.5 km downhills. Then after coming back to room ( which we share with other service guys) we get ready for class rooms. The class begins at sharp 9 am and goes on till 5 pm with 1 hour lunch break and 1/2 hour tea break. Mostly people sleep in the class. I was habitual sleeper too. Sometimes, the speaker even wont mind. In  the evening we go to play games (badminton (my fav game)). The biggest positive thing in FC is it provides an opportunity to meet so many people from all around the country. The friends made in FC stands forever. FC is also filled with too many activites viz there is India day where all OTs (officer trainees) show there respective culture, fair, plays, village visit for around 10 days, mountain treks (on weekends local treks in Mussoorie and 10 day long trek in mountains of Uttrakhand, u can imagine my situation during the bus journey for those 10 days) etc. FC ends in December. Then comes the Bharat Dharshan of IAS, the best part of the service. In that we are divided into groups. Fortunately, the itinery of my group was very good. We travelled from LoC in Kashmir ( Tithwal village, Kishamganga/ neelam river etc.), Jharkhand (Chaibasa), Odisha( puri, bhuvneshvar etc.), Banglore, Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam, Tirupati, Chennai, Andamans and Nicobar, Kolkata, N. Delhi etc. 
Then starts the phase 1 of training from Jan end to mid june. Phase 1 is very monotonous and boring, because its very lengthy and class room study is very high in content. Further, I will write in 2nd part..........

Congratulations

My heartiest congratulations to those who cleared this year CSE. Now, this is the time to thank GOD and your parents for your success and to enjoy your success. 

 Those who could not clear this year, do not be demoralised. Although it is easy to say, but I myself have faced failure twice so I can tell you every single minute you waste on mourning this failure, will take you millions step backward from this year prelims. In short, this is time to start with a new zeal and energy for this year's prelims which is altogether a new exam. So, do not lose your heart and have faith on God. The almighty has decided for all of us and no one can get anything before time.

My best wishes to all the aspirants

Your Queries

Dear Aspirants,
My Warm Regards to All of You
I just wanna request you all to
1. Please write your questions pointwise.
2. Please be specific and dont ask too general questions.
3. Please give a brief overview of yours education so that I can 
    reply accordingly.
4. Please give me 24 hours to reply before sending reminders.
5. Please read what I have written on the concerned question like 
   my views on interview or choosing optional or GS etc.
These are my humble requests because these days I am too busy.
TC
Keep Doing Hard Work, Because Only That Will Pay You.
May Waheguru G Make You an IAS Officer.

‘Antrix-Devas deal'

ANTRIX DEVAS DEAL: By N.Gopal Raj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It wasn't just that the ‘Antrix-Devas deal' was iniquitous and deeply flawed. Reports from two government appointed committees that probed the deal tell a startling tale of how Indian space officials set about securing some Rs.800 crore in public funding in order to implement the agreement, evading scrutiny at key points in the approval process.

The agreement signed in January 2005 between Antrix Corporation, the marketing wing of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and a private Bangalore-based company, Devas Multimedia, was intended to introduce novel satellite-based services to the country. These “satellite digital multimedia broadcast” services would be delivered to fixed, portable and mobile receivers.

The agreement was, however, heavily loaded against Antrix and ISRO. Much of the upfront costs as well as the risks of building, launching and operating two specially designed satellites fell on them. Another important consequence of the deal was that it allocated a considerable swath of S-band spectrum to Devas for 12 years, with the possibility of extending the lease by another 12 years. (For more details, see “Delhi, we have a problem,” The Hindu, January 31, 2012.)

The Hindu exposé

The Hindu group brought this agreement into the public domain in an expose in February last year. Later that month, the Union government annulled the deal. It also appointed a high powered Review Committee consisting of B.K. Chaturvedi, a member of the Planning Commission and former Cabinet Secretary, and Roddam Narasimha, a distinguished academic and member of the Space Commission for many years, to examine the technical, commercial, procedural and financial aspects of the agreement.

After this committee submitted its report in March 2011, the government set up a five-member high-level team headed by Pratyush Sinha, former Central Vigilance Commissioner, to identify “acts of omission and commission” by officials.

Parts of the two reports were released earlier this month. The entire report of the Chaturvedi-Narasimha committee, barring the annexures that appear to contain various internal documents, has been made public. But in the case of the Sinha committee report, only the chapter, “Conclusions and Recommendations,” has been released.

The Antrix-Devas agreement required ISRO to provide two custom-built satellites, with 90 per cent of the capacity on the satellites being leased to Devas. The satellites came to be called GSAT-6 (also known as Insat-4E) and GSAT-6A. ISRO would, as the report of the Chaturvedi-Narasimha committee noted, have to invest about Rs.800 crore on the two satellites and their launch.

In May 2005, four months after the agreement with Devas was signed, the Department of Space (DoS) approached the Space Commission, a body that helps formulate the country's space policy and oversees the space programme, with its GSAT-6 proposal.

The budgetary support of Rs.269 crore sought for GSAT-6, however, did not include the launch cost. Moreover, on the subject of the satellite's utilisation, the Commission was merely told that a significant portion of the spacecraft's capacity would be committed for lease to a service provider on appropriate commercial terms and that the DoS had already been approached by a service provider who had undertaken to lease the capacity over the life period of the satellite, according to the report of the Chaturvedi-Narasimha committee.

“There was no mention in the background note [to the Space Commission] that [an] agreement had already been signed with Devas, which envisaged earmarking 90 per cent of the capacity for them,” the report observed.

Nor was the DoS more forthcoming when, after getting the Commission's nod, the GSAT-6 project went for the Union Cabinet's approval.

The report quotes part of the note sent to the Cabinet in November 2005: “ISRO is already in receipt of several firm expressions of interest by service providers for utilisation of this satellite capacity on commercial terms. Part of the capacity will also be utilised by ISRO for experimentation and demonstration of new satellite based mobile communication techniques and technologies.”

The report pointed out that “the impression given to both the Space Commission and the Cabinet was as if there was no agreement yet and Antrix/DOS had been approached by several potential customers.” The GSAT-6 proposal was cleared by the Cabinet in December 2005.

Nor did matters improve when the Rs.147-crore proposal for the second satellite, GSAT-6A, was placed before the Space Commission in October 2009. The proposal included neither insurance nor launch cost. “It was, hence, below the financial ceiling of Rs.150 crore above which Cabinet approval [is] required,” the report noted. Once again, there was no mention of any agreement signed with any service provider. This proposal too got the go-ahead.

The deal had allocated about 60 MHz of S-band spectrum to Devas. This, the Chaturvedi-Narasimha committee remarked, seemed “disproportionately large,” considering that 20-25 MHz of spectrum in this band had reportedly been used for similar services in the U.S., Korea and Japan. Moreover, “this left very little spectrum with ISRO for any strategic or societal use in future or other multimedia mobile service operations.”

The allocation of spectrum was carried out without clearance from the Insat Coordination Committee (ICC), an inter-departmental body established in 1978. Under the Satellite Communications Policy approved by the government, the ICC was a key institution in allowing the use of Insat capacity by non-government users.

No ICC clearance

But the ICC had not met since 2004. The proposal for utilising GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A for the Antrix-Devas project was never placed before the ICC. As a result, none of the aspects of the agreement could be considered by it, noted the Chaturvedi-Narasimha committee. “Earmarking of GSAT capacity for the Antrix-Devas project was thus a clear violation of government policy,” the report said. Besides, utilisation of a large part of the S-band spectrum by one private user also went against the “non-exclusive” policy for the Insat system.

The Chaturvedi-Narasimha committee also criticised the way the Space Commission and the Cabinet were left uninformed about the spectrum allocation. When placing the proposal for GSAT-6 before the Space Commission in May 2005, “it was important that a mention be made that the bulk of the S-band spectrum available with DoS” was being committed. No such mention was made even when the proposal for GSAT-6A came before the Commission in October 2009. “This left the Commission completely in the dark.” The question of spectrum allocation and its implications were not analysed at all. “Absence of full facts clearly weakened the decision-making process in [the] Space Commission and the Cabinet.”

The committee, however, took the view that “concerns on short-selling of spectrum or selling it cheaply are not substantiated and have no basis.” The space spectrum and terrestrial spectrum had to be considered and priced differently, it observed. Besides, for operationalising its full service, Devas was required to obtain other licences for the terrestrial segment of its business. The terrestrial segment would be subject to government procedures for allocation and associated charges.

But this does not take into account the possibility of spectrum allotted for the space segment being subsequently diverted partly or wholly for providing terrestrial services. Nor is this a purely hypothetical possibility. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has, for instance, been showing increasing leniency in allowing such a switch. Last year, it issued a waiver that allowed the company, LightSquared, to use its satellite spectrum for 4G terrestrial wireless broadband services. (However, that waiver was recently revoked over concerns that such a terrestrial network would interfere with GPS signals.)

In such a situation, the S-band spectrum allotted to Devas could easily have become very valuable, given the explosion of mobile services in the country and, indeed, around the world. The potential value of this spectrum would also explain why a group like Deutsche Telekom Asia was willing to a pay a huge premium to acquire shares in Devas.

The Sinha committee, in its report, concluded that “there have been not only serious administrative and procedural lapses but also suggestion of collusive behaviour on the part of certain individuals.” Based on the reports of the two inquiry committees, the government barred four former space officials, including the then ISRO chairman, G. Madhavan Nair, from holding any government post.

But the fallout from the deal could seriously impact the space programme itself. Its structure involving the Space Commission, the Department of Space and ISRO was put in place with the intention of minimising bureaucratic hassles that tie down other government bodies. Now, there is a danger of increasing bureaucratisation that can delay and impede the country's space efforts.

Another important news:Paes-Stepanek clinch Australian Open

Veteran star Leander Paes on Saturday created history by becoming the first Indian to complete a career Grand Slam by winning the Australian Open men’s doubles title with Radek Stepanek, taming the dangerous top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan in straight sets, here.

The unseeded Indo—Czech pair played tremendously to win 7—6(1) 6—2 in the summit clash, which lasted one hour and 24 minutes.

Paes had reached the Australian open final three times but lost on all ocassions - twice to the Bryan brothers.

This title has eluded Paes since the late 90s, when he along with former partner Mahesh Bhupathi dominated the doubles tennis and reached the number one spot as a team in 1999.

In their quest to complete their slam tally, Paes and Bhupathi had joined hands in 2011 after a gap 11 years, but the title slipped out of their hands as they lost to Bryan brothers.

Paes and Bhupathi broke their partnership again with the latter choosing Rohan Bopanna as partner on Tour for the 2012 season.

Paes began the season by winning the Chennai Open with Serbian Janko Tipsarevic.

This is the 13th Grand Slam title for Paes, with seven men’s doubles trophies and six mixed doubles titles, and is India’s most succesful doubles player in majors. Bhupathi has won 11 Grand Slam titles.

Paes has won the French Open thrice (1999, 2001, 2009) and Wimbledon (1999) and US Open (2006) once each.

Paes now has a chance to repeat the rare success of winning both the men’s and mixed doubles titles in the same Grand Slam tournament as he is due to play the mixed doubles final on Sunday with Russian partner Elena Vesnina.

In the 1999 Wimbledon, Paes had won both the titles, the men’s doubles with Bhupathi and mixed doubles with America’s Lisa Raymond.

As expected, it was a keenly fought match. The opening set went with serve with Paes and Bob saving breakpoints on their serves in the fourth and fifth games respectively.

Stepanek attacked Bob’s serve in the fifth game, unleashing tremendous returns and thrilling netplay and earned a breakpoint. But the American brothers saw off the threat comfortably.

Some of the Stepanek shots were so stunning that once Paes even bowed his head, acknowlegding the winner.

Eventually, the issue was stretched to tie—breaker and then Indo—Czech pair dominated the Bryan brothers right after earning break in the first point.

There was no stopping Paes and Stepanek after that first point and they comfortably took the lead, letting the rivals take just one point.

The Bryans lost steam in the second set with Paes and Stepanek dicating terms. Just once they faced anxious moment when Brayns earned a breakpoint in the seventh game but failed to convert.