Ministry of Communications has three departments: Posts, Telecommunication and IT.
Posts in India were introduced by Lord Clive in 1766 and consolidated by Lord Hastings by starting the GPO. The uniform rate of postage by Lord Dalhousie made it the common mode of communication accessible to all Indians.
Postal Service board is the apex controlling authority of Indian posts. It has six members and a chairman. Deputy secretary and financial advisor to the department are permanent invitees. The Secretary of Dept of Posts provides implementation of the decisions.
Indian post is the largest post organisation in the world. 90% of its branches are in rural areas. The post offices in hilly areas are subsidised by 85% and in normal rural areas by 67%. One post office covers an area of 21 sq. km and 7800 people approx.
Schemes
Project Arrow: To improve look and feel and to improve service quality of post.
National Postal week on Oct 9-15 with Philately day on October 13.
Currently 52% of World’s outsourcing market is captured by India. Although it is export driven but IT services, domestic software products and business process management are the main sectors with high domestic demand in that order
Schemes
e- Bharat: Improving availability of basic services to common man in his locality using the online mode
MeghRaj: Government of India’s cloud computing environment to act as a repository for various applications and services.
Bodies:
Software Technology Parks of India:
It is an autonomous society under the DEITy [Dept of Electronics & IT ] ministry. Main objective is promotion of software exports of India.
Media Labs Asia
To provide benefits of ICT to common man this was setup as a not-for-profit company under DEITy.
India has the second largest telecom network in the World after China. 100 crore telephones are existing with 2 crore landlines and 98 crore mobiles. The tele – density of India is 80% with 150% in urban areas and 48% in rural areas.
Telecom Commission:
The commission has a chairman, 4 full time members and three part time members. The full time members are secretaries in the Dept of Telecom and part time are secretaries in other departments. The chairman is the secretary of the Dept. of Telecom.
Functions:
Universal Service Obligation Fund:
It is created by an Act of Parliament to provide subsidy support to providing telecom services of all types in rural areas.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India:
Established by an Act of Parliament in 1997.
Functions:
Q.The term ‘IndARC’ sometimes seen in the news, is the name of? (UPSC CSAT 2015)
an indigenously developed radar system inducted into Indian Defence
India’s satellite to provide services to the countries of Indian Ocean Rim
a scientific establishment set up by India in Antarctic region
India’s underwater observatory to scientifically study the Arctic region
Ans . D
IndARC, the India’s first underwater moored observatory, has been deployed in the Kongsfjorden fjord, half way between Norway and the North Pole. It will collect real- time data on seawater temperature, salinity, ocean currents and other vital parameters of the fjord.
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Q1: The uniform rate of postage by ___ made it the common mode of communication accessible to all Indians.
1.dalhousie
2.Clive
3.Hastings
4.Ripon
Q2:Project Arrow is for
1.To improve look and feel and to improve service quality of post.
2.speeden delivery of mail
3.web portal of posts
4.none
Q3:e- Bharat is for Improving availability of basic services to common man in his locality using the
1.online mode
2.Government of India’s cloud computing environment to act as a repository for various applications and services.
3.both
4.none
Q4:Media Labs Asia is
1.film studio
2.Scientific lab
3.Under Ministry of Finance
4.To provide benefits of ICT to common man
Q5:Universal Service Obligation Fund is
1.It is created by an Act of Parliament
2.provide subsidy support to providing telecom services of all types in rural areas.
3.both
4.none