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    The Railways have completed computerisation of claims work in all the Zonal Railways to ensure expeditious settlement of claims. The scheme of mobile claims offices have been re-activated in Zonal Railways to receive and settle claims on the spot at important cities.

    Full powers have been delegated to General Managers of Zonal Railways for settling time barred claims cases. Earlier, cases beyond Rs.50,000 were required to be approved by the Railway Board. Not Received Cells on Zonal Railways are operating to ensure expeditious tracing and connecting the consignments which could not reach the destination within a reasonable transit time.

    Full financial powers upto Rs.4 lakhs have been delegated to Chief Claims Officer of Zonal Railway for settlement of accident compensation cases. Rates of compensation paid to the victims of train accident have been doubled and these rates have also been made applicable to the victims of untoward incidents. The notice of claims can be accepted at the station and goods shed to which the goods are booked. Rules and procedures for settlement of claims have been simplified.
 
 

    Over 30 lakh women have benefited under the DWCRA scheme so far. DWCRA stands for Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas. The programme has been extended to all the districts of the country. The Central outlay for the programme during 1996-97 was Rs. 65 crore.

    DWCRA's objective is to raise the income level of women of poor households and involve them in social development. Achieving economic self-reliance for them is another goal. The primary thrust of the programme is on formation of groups of 10-15 women from poor households at the village level for delivery of services like credit and skill training and cash and infrastructural support for self-employment. The strategy of group formation is aimed at improving the women's access to basic services such as health, child care, nutrition, water, sanitation and education.

    The one-time grant of Rs.25,000 shared equally by the Centre and the State governments forms the capital of each group for purchasing raw materials, marketing and child care. Linkages are also established with activities of other departments to provide support to DWCRA. There is a provision for setting up a district supply and marketing society exclusively for selling products manufactured by women.
 
 

    The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has offered Key Language Technology Software Products free on Internet for non-commercial use. This would go a long way in promoting use of Indian Languages on Computers. Announcing this in the TDIL (Technology Development for Indian Languges)Annual meeting here today, C-DAC executives Director Dr. V. P. Bhatkar said that in continuation of the Bhasa Programme under which a few fonts was available for the public, ALP word processor under DOS, LEAP word proceessor under Windows 95 and two fonts in each Indian Language developed by C-DAC would now be made available free on Internet. In his address he traced the history of computing facilities in Indian Languages beginning with GIST (card word processing and Desk TOP publishing under C-DAC initiatives.

    Inagurating the annual meeting the Electronics Secretary Shri Shymal Ghosh complemented C-DAC on taking iniative by putting software products in public domain. In his speech he referred to the initiatives taken by the Deppartment of Electronics in the area of devepopment and use of IT in Indian  languages. Recently a project on Development of Internet Tools and technologies for Indian Languages has been started which would initially focus on the development of such tools for Hindi, he said . He also highlighted the efforts of the Department to make available the complete environment of computer to be localised in Indian Langugages which has resulted in the availability of Hindi PC-DOS from IBM. He mentioned that National Centre for Software Technology, a society of DOE has undertaken joint development work with Microsoft for enabling Indian Languages support on WINDOWS NT.

    The Meet is designed to further the interest of IT companies to take up the development which will help in addressing the requirments of a large non-English speaking community in India to work on computers. This will also create an awareness among the new users to join the umbrella of computer - literate population by working on computers in their own languages.
 
 

    An Exhibition of the works of Russain Artists Nicholas & Svyatoslav Roerichs was inaugurated here today by Dr. R.V.V. Ayyar, Secretary, Deptt. of Culture, Government of India and Mr. Albert S.Tchernyshev, Ambassador of the Russian Federation. One hundred paintings by these two renowned Russian Artists from the collection of the State Musuem of Oriental Arts in Moscow are on display. Nicholas Roerichs and his son Svyatoslav Roerichs were representative of that part of the Russian intelligensia and dedicated their lifes to the service of humanity.

    In Nicholas Roerichs, the role of great artists and of philospher of plenary thinking were harmonously united. In Svyatoslav the poly phony of the life of India was expressed. Both artists gave a considerable part of their lives to social activities having established many cultural centres such as the Chitra Kala Praishad Cultural Centre in Bangalore.

    A great contribution of the Roerichs family to humanity was their enormous work on the promulgation of art pact for the preservation of cultural treasures of all Nations. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. R.V.V.Ayyar recalled the contribution of contemporary artists from both the countries in forging a cultural renaisance in each others land. He said that the people share a common ancesstory. Mahatma Gandhi and Tolystoy are well known for their commonness.

    The Russian Ambassador said that this exhibition also marks the celebrations of 50th anniversary of establishments of political diplomatic relations between the two countries. He said both the languages have orign in sanskrit and informed that there are over 2000 sanskrit words in Russian lanuguage. He expressed hope that such exhibitions will go a long way in binding both the people into friendship and cooperation. The Russian Ambassador also presented a computer copy of a painting on Pt. Nehru made in 1942 by the Russian artist Svyatoslav. The exhbibition is open to the public till 25th January, 1998 from 10.00 A.M to 5.00 P.M.