Tag: #system

Drip Irrigation System

Micro Irrigation has gained attention during recent years because of its potential to increase yields and decrease water , fertilizer and labour requirements if managed properly.

Principal characteristics distinguishing the micro Irrigation with other pressurized technologies are:

  • Low flow rate
  • Localized , partial wetting of the soil volume
  • Frequent water application due to the limited wetted volume
  • Low operating pressure ,compared to sprinkler irrigation

Drip Irrigation involves technology for irrigating plants at the root zone through emitters fitted on a network of pipes( mains ,sub-mains and laterals). The emitting devices could be drippers ,micro sprinklers, mini sprinklers ,micro jets, misters ,fan jets, micro sprayers, foggers and emitting pipes, which are designed upon specific requirements , which may vary from crop to crop . Water requirement, age of plant spacing ,soil type , water quality and availability are some of the factors which would decide the choice of the emitting system .

In cases where the water sources is an open well or tubewell / borewell , then for assessment of water availability and pumping power requirement it is necessary to compute the following:

  • Depth of the water table
  • Discharge of the well
  • Total pumping level
  1. The depth of water level below the ground level, before pumping begins ,is the depth of the water table . It can be measure by a simple procedure using a rope with a stone tied at one end .
  2. The discharge of the well / tubewell is measured after running the pump for a period of 30 minutes to 1 hour . It can be measure by adopting volumetric measure.Under this method , the discharge is emptied into a ditch of container of know dimensions for a certain length of time . the rate of discharge is calculated by dividing the total volume of water discharged by the time taken. This method works for low discharge say upto 5 litres per second. For higher discharges volumetric measurement may be difficult and therefore standard devices like water meter/c.notch/flume may be used.
  3. Total pumping level includes the depth of the water level, drawdown and height of the outlet above the ground level. To measure the drawdown the pump installed over the well/tubewell is run for a period of 30 minutes to one hour so that constant water level is attained in the well/tubewell. The new depth of the water level is measured. The difference between the depth and level above the ground level is also to be measured . Once the total pumping level is determined , the horsepower .

HP= Q*H/75*n

where Q = Discharge ,Ips

H=Total head ,m

n = Efficiency of the pump and motor

Depending up on the water availability and water requirement of the crop (as given in the table ) for the entire area in calculated .Then the piping network and number of sections will be decided accordingly.

Structure of banking system in India

Introduction

Banking in India in the mdern sense originated in the last decades of the 18th century . The first banks were Bank of Hindustan (1770-1829) and the General Bank of India established 1786. The largest bank and the oldest still in existence, is tge State bank of India, which originated in the Bank of Calcutta in June 1806 , which almost immediately became the bank of Bengal. This was one of the three presidency banks , the other two being The Bank of Bombay and The bank of Madras , all three of which were established under charters from the British East India Company. The three banks merged in 1921 to form the Imperial Bank of India , which , upon India’s independence became the State Bank of India in 1955. For many years the presidency banks acted as quasi-central banks , as did their successors until the reserve Bank of India was established in 1935 .

Reserve bank of India (RBI)

The Reserve Bank of India is India’s central banking institution, which controls the monetary policy of the Indian rupee. It commenced its operations on 1 April 1935 during the British Rule in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act,1934 and in 1949 it was nationalized.The central office of the Reserve Bank was initially established in Calcutta but was permanently moved to Mumbai in 1937. The central office is where the Governor sits and where policies are formulated. Sir CD Deshmukh is the first Governor of RBI. The RBI has four zonal offices at Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and 20 regional offices mostly located in the state capitals and 11 sub-offices. Reserve Bank of India Act,1934 is the legislative act under which the Reserve Bank of India was formed. This act along with the Comapnies Act, which was amended in 1936, were meant to provide a framework for the supervision of banking firms in india.

Scheduled and non-scheduled banks

Scheduled banks in India refer to those banks which have been included in the second schedule of Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. Banks not under this schedule are called non-scheduled banks. In other words, Banks with a reserve capital of less than 5 lakh rupees qualify as non-scheduled banks. Unlike scheduled Banks , they are not entitled to borrow from the RBI for normal banking purposes, except, in emergency or ‘abnormal circumstances’. Coastal local Area Bank Ltd. (Vijayawasa,AP), Capital Local Area Bank Ltd. (Phagwara, Punjab), Krishna Bhima Samrudhi Local Area Bank Ltd. (Mehbubnagar, Telangana), Subhadra Local Area Bank Ltd. (Kolhapur, Maharashtra) are the only non-scheduled banks in India.

Scheduled banks are further internally classified into commercial banks and cooperative banks.

Public Sector Banks

Public sector banks (PSBs) are banks where a majority state (ie., more than 50%) is held by a government . The shares of these banks are listed on stock exchange. There are a total of 21 PSBs in India and State Bank of India group.

  • In 1969, the Indira-Gandhi headed government nationalised 14 major commercial banks ( Allahabad Bank , Bank of Baroda , Bank of India , Bank of Maharashtra , Canara Bank , Central Bank of India , Dena Bank , Indian Bank , Indian Overseas Bank , Punjab and Sindh Bank , Punjab National Bank, Sindicate Bank , UCO Bank , United Bank of India)
  • In 1980 , a further 6 banks were nationalised (Andhra Bank , Cooperation Bank , New Bank of India , Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab and Sindh Bank , Vijay Bank )
  • IDBI Bank is an Indian government-owned financial service company, formarly known as industrial Development Bank of India , headquartered in Mumbai , India .It was established in 1964 and nationalised in year 2005 .

Private Sector Banks

The ‘Private- Sector’ banks are baks where greater parts of share or equity are not held by the government but by private shareholders . There are many Indian and Foreign Banks in India . HDFC Bank , ICICI Bank , Axis Bank , Kotak Mahindra Bank , Yes Bank , IDFC Bank , RBL Bank , Federal Bank , City Union Bank are the major private banks in India.

Regional Rural Banks

Regional Rural Banks were formed on October 2,1975 upon the recommendations of M. Narsimham working group during the tenure of Indira Gandhi’s government. The object behind the formation of RRBs was to serve large unserve population of rural areas and promoting financial inclusions . They have been created with a view to serve primarily the rural areas of India with basic banking and financial services. However, RRBs may have branches set up for urban operations and their area of operation may include urban areas too.

Cooperative Banks

The cooperative banks are furtger classified into:

  • State cooperative banks: These are small financial institutions which are governed by regulations like Banking Regulations Act , 1949 and Banking Laws Cooperative Socities Act ,1965 . At present there are about 33 state cooperative banks of which 19 are scheduled.
  • Urban/ Central cooperative banks: The term urban cooperative banks (UCB) refers to primary cooperative banks located in urban and semi-urban areas . These banks till 1996 , were allowed to lend money only for non-agricultural purposes. This distinction does not hold today . They essentially lent to small borrowers abd business . There are about 2,104 UCBs of which 56 were scheduled Banks. About 79 percent of these are located in 5states- Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu .
  • Primary credit Socities: Primary Credit Societies or primary agricultural credit society (PACs) is a basic unit and smallest cooperative credit institutions in India. It works on the grassroot level (Gram panchayat and village level ) . It virtually function like banks , but whose net worth is less than Rs. 1 lakh; who are not members of the payment system and to whom deposit insurance is not extended .

Indian Postal Service

The Department of Posts (DOP),trading as India Post, is a government-operated postal system in India, which is a subsidiary of the Ministry of Communications. Generally called “the Post Office” in India, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Founded in 1854 by Lord Dalhousie who laid the foundation for the modern Indian postal service. Dalhousie introduced uniform postage rates (universal service) and helped to pass the India Post Office Act 1854 which significantly improved upon 1837 Post Office act which had introduced regular post offices in India. It created the position Director General of Post for the whole country.

It is involved in delivering mail (post), remitting money by money orders, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance coverage under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and providing retail services like bill collection, sale of forms, etc. The DoP also acts as an agent for Government of India in discharging other services for citizens such as old age pension payments and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) wage disbursement. With 155,015 post offices, India Post has the most widely distributed postal network in the world.

The country has been divided into 23 postal circles, each circle headed by a Chief Postmaster General. Each circle is divided into regions, headed by a Postmaster General and comprising field units known as Divisions. These divisions are further divided into subdivisions. In addition to the 23 circles, there is a base circle to provide postal services to the Armed Forces of India headed by a director-general. One of the highest post offices in the world is in Hikkim, Himachal Pradesh operated by India Post at a height of 14,567 ft (4,440 m).

Many a times we use essential services of an organization without knowing details of source. MBA Aspirants are expected to have curiosity to know even the known but unknown organization like Indian Postal service.   

The Indian Postal Service, known as India Post, was founded in 1774 and today, it has over 100,000 post offices all over the country. In fact, India has the largest postal network in the world, with close to 90% of the post offices located in rural areas. The Indian Postal Service comes under the Department of Posts, which is a part of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

India Post offers both retail and financial services to over one billion people in India. Apart from providing bill mail, direct mail and retail mail services, India Post also provides the e-Payment service through which organizations can collect their bills and other payments from customers across the country.   

India Post has changed the way people look at post offices – in the past, a post office was simply a place for people to post letters; however, today, India Post has partnerships with other organizations such as the Indian Railways and HDFC Bank to provide other services too. Now, people can book train tickets at selected post offices through the India Post Passenger Reservation System and purchase foreign currency and travelers cheques with the India Post Forex Service. Gone are the days when organizations would only provide a service or two. To stay ahead of the competition and to provide better service to the public, both government organizations and private companies are diversifying their services, and India Post is no stranger to this business model.   

Some of the popular financial services offered by India Post are the Post Office Savings Schemes and the Postal Life Insurance. In fact, the Post Office savings bank is the oldest and the largest banking system in the country, providing services to both rural and urban dwellers.   

Financial services at India Post are offered as an agency service for the Ministry of Finance and they have helped millions of people nationwide. India Post keeps up with the trends in the industry and has come up with remittance schemes to help people living in India to transfer money to their family and friends abroad and vice-versa.   

The business of Indian Postal Service is growing by leaps and bounds, which is why the organization is keen on establishing the “Post Bank of India”, an independent entity with complete focus on financial products and services. With the advent of technology, many people, especially those in urban areas, have started sending electronic mails, which not only saves time but also money. This is one of the reasons why majority of the post offices are located in rural parts of India. However, this does not mean that the demand for postal services in India is decreasing.   

In fact, with the diversification of services, the Indian Postal Service has managed to increase its customer base and enhance its revenue significantly. Today, the Indian Postal Service employs over 450,000 people and generates revenue of over Rs 70,000 million on an annual basis. With greater investments in IT infrastructure and diversification of its product portfolio, the Indian Postal Service will be able to cross the Rs 100,000 million mark in a few years.