India’s Food Safety Issue

The Indian parliament lately announced a bill called the Food Safety Act. As the name suggests, the bill offers with achieving food security for the country.

It is rather surprising to know that a country that aims for a superpower standing in the next 40 years is nevertheless discussing and enforcing food safety now, even soon after 63 years of independence.

India is a nation with a population of more than one.17 billion and counting. Supplying food for the one.17 billion residents of India is no joke. The story of India’s food security throughout the historical past of India is prolonged and interesting. The scenario has not altered, but evolved.

In 1947, when the British left India, India was in a genuinely poor position. It was an agriculture-based mostly economic system, it had very small dollars left in the treasury, really couple of had been literate, poverty was as large as 60%, there had been hardly any industries, unemployment was higher and there was hardly any infrastructure.

India had to rely on wheat imports from the USA to sustain its population. The USA exported surplus wheat to India. India produced a fantastic marketplace for USA due to the fact USA had a lot of surplus wheat which wasn’t selling quickly and India was in dire need of food. The issue with the imports was that India kept importing food with the very little dollars it had. India couldn’t even retain stocks of food. There would be food for about 2 weeks and then practically nothing else in the pipeline. So if the ships wouldn’t come from the USA on time, then several Indians would be starving. As the population grew, the folks began top what is acknowledged as a “Ship-to-Mouth” existence. The government was extremely slow in generating a thing take place.

A single might wonder that if India is an agricultural based economic climate, then why would there be a shortage of food. The problem was that when the British ruled over India till August 15th 1947, the British focused on growing cash crops and crops that have been advantageous to them financially. The grave food shortages for the Indian men and women were not the concern of the British. Whatever happened, the British by no means stayed hungry. Food came all the way from England if necessary.

The British, in the course of their rule of India till August 15th 1947, utilized colonies to supply their factories in England with raw materials. Because textile was the most significant market in England, a constant source of cotton was needed. The British grew cash crops like cotton, indigo, jute and other fibers in order to supply their factories back in England. The British would acquire massive areas of fertile land and grow cash crops. Very massive plantations were used to cultivate these crops.

The British did not care about the food predicament of the nation. The British usually had sufficient food for themselves. During the British rule, some of the greatest famines struck India. In fact, famines had been really common in many parts of India. The dry regions have been the ones which suffered the most.

The British gave incentives to those farmers who grew cash crops. Most Indian farmers have been poor and they had to shift to cultivating cash crops in order to survive. As a result, several Indian farmers too, turned to cultivate cash crops. It came to a scenario exactly where very handful of cultivated food crops. The British were least bothered because they did not want to disrupt their supply of raw materials and simply because they basically did not care about the food shortages for the Indians.

Independent India inherited the country in this definitely pathetic predicament. Before something could be done, the individuals had to be fed.

India had to handle the immediate difficulty of extreme food shortage. India decided to import wheat from the USA. India encouraged more and a lot more farmers to shift to food crops from money crops. But clearly, the alter would be slow. India did not have the capability at that time to drastically increase production.

This scenario continued till the 1960’s. Of course, there was a tiny improvement on the home front, but not good adequate. Then came the Green Revolution of the 60’s. This programme aimed at attaining self-sufficiency in terms of food. India was fed up of spending valuable dollars in importing large quantities of food.

The green revolution was aimed at empowering the farmers and production shot up. The Green revolution aimed at modernizing agriculture by utilizing contemporary tactics and tools to maximize the output of food. The Green revolution is one of the greatest triumphs of India. Inside of a decade, India totally stopped any wheat shipments from abroad. India no longer was dependent on food help from abroad. Even if there were food shortages in parts of the nation, it never ever resulted in a famine.

When you search at the food predicament in India right now, you see that not only there is no shortage of food, but there is also a really cozy surplus. There is sufficient surplus to ensure food safety in instances of an emergency and also sufficient surplus which can be utilized for export.

India is now in a position to export food grain to other countries and also provide food aid to numerous nations. It has not only shaken off any form of dependence on other nations for food, but also offered food to other countries. All this inside 60 years of independence.

But India does face a fresh issue.

The food security of India is handled by a governmental agency identified as the Food Corporation of India (FCI). Farmers sell their produce to the FCI and the FCI stores it and distributes it all above the country.

The issue is that there is a lot of food stored in the FCI warehouses and they aren’t currently being distributed fast adequate. FCI complains that a lot of food gets spoilt due to the fact they weren’t consumed quickly sufficient. This implies that a great deal of food gets wasted prior to it reaches the plates of the widespread man.

It is a truth that even though India produces sufficient food, there are nonetheless millions of folks in India who don’t have access to food. Folks nonetheless die of malnutrition and starvation. India is obviously not in a position to waste any food. In reality, India is nevertheless food insecure.

The problem lies in the distribution of food, not its production. India creates adequate to feed its folks. But the availability to the individuals is where the dilemma lies.

The network of distribution of food should be widened. New schemes require to be introduced exactly where the poor will have straightforward access to the food at low cost rates or even free of expense. The food really should be utilized effectively.
The government of India has taken many steps to attempt and counter the issue. These actions include the plan of mid-day meals in schools. They use food as an incentive for young children from poor backgrounds to come and research. There is the food-for-work system in which labour is exchanged for food grains. This appeals to the poorer sections of society where their standard requirement is food.

There is the require for more vigilance in the distribution technique. India’s system has a great deal of flaws. There has been several reports of black marketeering of food and that has risen simply because of the lax vigilance of the distribution technique.

As a substitute of insisting on enhancing the production, what the government wants to do is enhance the distribution of the food grain. Inevitably, the production of food grain is going to improve. What can make the task of distribution much more daunting is the reality that India has the responsibility of feeding one.two billion men and women.

India can not afford wasting any food when millions of Indians are starving and dying of malnourishment.

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Composters ? An Benefit to Green Revolution

Indeed men and women are now well-armed with data essential to decrease, reuse and recycle. This kind of phrase is not just a battle cry any longer for these eco-friendly people but also a way of life. The popularity of solar panel, rain barrels and are powerful proof adequate that people are now committed in preserving Mother Nature.

Just envision those everyday leftovers from our kitchen. Rather of directly throwing it into trash bins it can be turned into one thing helpful. Fruit peelings, food leftovers and other biodegradable materials are excellent for composting. Composting is a method wherein natural matters are strategically decomposed to produce a fertile humus or soil suited for gardening. Wherein purchasing of commercial fertilizers can be completely avoided.  Commercial fertilizer posses’ hazards to the atmosphere and to the health of the individuals who consumes chemically treated fruits and vegetables.

Natural gardening and natural food had been the existing trend of today’s person who are committed to nutritious lifestyle. Farm owners slowly adapting to their client’s preference of selecting organically grown fruits and vegetables by utilizing in their farms.

Customers on the other hand can’t be blamed from the switch of preference since of the overwhelming advantage of organic food compared to chemically grown fruits and vegetables well being and ecologically. Organic food is made up of higher level of nutrients and vitamins. As for the influence of the environment, chemical fertilizers when utilized in the run can strip off prime soil nutrients thereby creating the soil acidic and when soil erosion happens the chemical present in commercial fertilizer can be dangerous to lakes and rivers exactly where aquatic creatures reside.

are a massive help to farmers, to consumers and to the nature as complete. Climate transform is the collective result of man’s abuse of natural resources, composting may possibly be just present a speck of aid but when accomplished collectively, in the prolonged run it can have a wonderful effect in the setting.

Composters ? An Benefit to Green Revolution

Certainly men and women are now nicely-armed with information essential to lessen, reuse and recycle. This kind of phrase is not just a battle cry any longer for those eco-friendly people but also a way of life. The reputation of solar panel, rain barrels and are powerful proof enough that individuals are now committed in preserving Mother Nature.

Just picture those daily leftovers from our kitchen. Instead of straight throwing it into trash bins it can be turned into a thing valuable. Fruit peelings, food leftovers and other biodegradable materials are excellent for composting. Composting is a approach wherein organic matters are strategically decomposed to produce a fertile humus or soil suited for gardening. Wherein acquiring of commercial fertilizers can be completely avoided.  Commercial fertilizer posses’ hazards to the atmosphere and to the wellness of the men and women who consumes chemically treated fruits and vegetables.

Organic gardening and organic food had been the present trend of today’s individual who are committed to healthy life-style. Farm owners gradually adapting to their client’s preference of deciding on organically grown fruits and vegetables by employing in their farms.

Customers on the other hand can’t be blamed from the switch of preference since of the overwhelming advantage of organic food compared to chemically grown fruits and vegetables health and ecologically. Natural food includes larger degree of nutrients and vitamins. As for the impact of the atmosphere, chemical fertilizers when utilised in the run can strip off prime soil nutrients thereby producing the soil acidic and when soil erosion happens the chemical present in commercial fertilizer can be dangerous to lakes and rivers exactly where aquatic creatures reside.

are a enormous assist to farmers, to buyers and to the nature as entire. Climate change is the collective outcome of man’s abuse of normal resources, composting may well be just supply a speck of aid but when carried out collectively, in the extended run it can have a wonderful impact in the setting.

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Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution

• Blends the best of Action and RPG: the perfect mix of combat, stealth, hacking, and social game-play
• Customize and upgrade your character with more than 50 unique augmentations that support your style of play
• Over 20 available weapons, each with their own customizable elements to fight enemies and engage in epic boss battles
• Play in an open-ended world where there are always multiple solutions to every challenge
• Discover a unique world that blends near future and Renaissance elements while visiting multiple unique locations

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Fiddler's Green: Fin's Revolution: Book II (Fin's Revolution (Rabbit Room))

Profit from the green revolution

Post by Byron H Dysen

Green is the word, these days we hear and see it attached to virtually every thing, “Green Power, Green Energy, Green Fuels, and Green Belt” but what does it all suggest? Are we getting invaded by tiny green guys from otter space? What does this word “Green” imply? Well… to place it as basically as feasible “Green” is the “buzz word” utilised by science and industry to describe technologies and goods which are non-detrimental to the Eco-method.

“All well and excellent”, one might say. “We are all concerned about the atmosphere but what can I do to be ‘Green’? I am not a scientist of a captain of market, how can I be a contributor? It all sounds quite pricey to me”. In reality the excellent news is you can, as a private citizen, not only take and active element in helping to clean up the atmosphere and battle the effects of excessive carbon emissions, you can actually profit from your efforts, one more good use of the word “Green”… you could place some “Green” back in your pocket in other word you could “Fire Your Electrical power Company“.

When ever I mention the chance of turning a “Profit” the response is generally “Where do I sign up”? My reply to this is constantly “Whoa! Hold on a minute… very first we need to establish if you are a great candidate for a program which aids you produce ‘Green Energy’”, for instance, if you live in a high rise apartment creating in the middle of a crowded metropolis, you are unlikely to be in a position to participate in the generation of “Green Energy” but do not despair there are other techniques you can “Profit” from electrical power created by other producers for far more information on how, go to Profiting from Green Energy but if you live in a rural community or on a farm them you could be a prime candidate to turn out to be a producer of “Green Power”. The up coming location we want to explore is which of the generation technologies is most applicable to you particular circumstance, if you reside in a climate in which the sky is cloudy most of the time then you will most probably want to look at systems other than solar panels.

So what are your possibilities now that you have produced the selection to grow to be a “Green Energy Generator” let’s appear at what technologies are at present offered to the private producer…

Solar Panels… Current advances in “Photovoltaic Cell” technology have created this a extremely reasonably priced and viable alternative for all form of applications, even some enterprising apartment have found approaches to take benefit of this program to at least decrease their electrical power bill. Photovoltaic Cells convert visible light into straight into electricity, every single cell generates a tiny amount of electrical energy but when combine in what are referred to as “Solar Arrays” they have the ability to generate sufficient power to electrical power an total residence.

Wind Turbines… Most of us have at least noticed photos of this technologies, typically rows and rows of massive windmills resembling substantial airplane propellers stuck on top of a tall pole turning slowly and majestically in the summer time breeze. Farmers and ranchers have utilised wind electrical power for generations to drive pumps to draw well water for drinking by individuals and livestock also to assist with soil irrigation throughout dry climate. Nevertheless modern “Windmill Technologies” is now offered to the regular rural dweller which can let them to produce adequate power to meet their personal demands and in some situations to profit by selling surplus power produced, back to the electrical power firm, without having possessing to turn above acres of precious food producing land to the huge “Wind Farms”

Water Electrical power… The third and for the purposes of this post the last option is “Water Electrical power” or “Hydro Electric Generation” this technology, is nevertheless fairly restricted in its applications, normally a source of rapidly moving water such as a swift river or waterfall is necessary to turn the power generating turbines which have a tendency to be very high-priced to purchase and install. So it is for these good reasons that we do not consider a genuinely viable choice for most men and women in search of to create their personal “Green Energy”.

Other Technologies… There are a number of other methods of electrical power creation which might be utilized to alleviate the ever escalating fiscal burden of powering our houses, these contain “Geothermal Power” and “Biomass Gas Generators” but I will leave the discussion of these for the following article, far more information on all of these technologies and “Green Energy” in general in available at “Be Your Personal Electrical power Company“.

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Kyocera Revolution Series 4-1/4-Inch Utility Knife, Green Handle

• Unrelenting Sharpness: The strength and density of advanced ceramic or Zirconium Oxide, allow grinding to microscopic precision by diamond wheels
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Geopolitics and the Green Revolution: Wheat, Genes, and the Cold War

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Revolution in Computer Design After dr John Von Neumann’s Design And After Invention of Transistor

The main ” thinking part” of  the modern computer is  called ” microprocessor”. It   is just  of the  size of a shirt button and is  encased in a postage stamp- size frame and  contains millions of submicroscopic  parts called transistors. These transistors can conduct electricity only in one direction and so can be used to switch on or switch off currents  a million times per second. Such a “superfast”  speed is required in modern computers.  Due to logic circuits(mathematical circuits) constructed with these transistors  a computer  can  solve  problems like 2+3=?,10-7=?, 4×5=?,30/8=? at the speed of a million problems in one second!  The newest  computers can do about a thousand million operations per second!

 The reason for such speed is this. Electric currents which flow at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second do the mathematical work in the computers at such terrific speed. A computer’s brain  needs a superfast clock and a superfast switch. The transistor  is that switch   and is also used to assemble tiny ” clock circuits” which can produce extremely accurate clock signals. In coordination with the clock signal which  divides a second into a hundred  million tiny time units  all the mathematical  operations inside computer take place.  The step by step operations  going on in the  electronic parts inside computer fall in line with the pulses of the clock signals  like the movement of soldiers in a military drill( The pulses are produced at the rate of millions of pulses per second).  The transistor can work as a perfect switch because it alows current in one direction only  and stops current when it enters in reverse direction.

 Just as we use bricks to build  walls,rooms, canals,cupboards and  then entire multistoreyed houses we use” transistor” as the brick  to build all the” thinking parts” of the computer. First the parts called “logic gates”  using 20 or 30 transistors are built. . In each logic gate  a ” voltage”(current at a certain fixed level)  designated as “  0 ” or “  1 “  level   can  stay for a long time. This is made possible  by making  the tiny electric  currents circle indefinitely inside the logic gates like water in a  whirlpool.  These “logic gates” are used to build   very fast data- forwarding parts called “registers”.The register contains a row of 8,16,32 or even 64 logic gates like police barracks. If  number of logic gates in a “register”  is large the calculating  power of computer also is large.  The primmary  unit for data storing has eight serial chambers . Millions of such data storage units exist in a  most important part called “main memory” inside the computer..”Main memory “is  like a big township with serial numbers for each data storage unit just like house numbers .                                                    

We have noted that the” register” is the smallest unit of data processing and exists in side the “processors”. The processors are the   real decision taking parts and are just big groups of registers .Each register  specalizes in processing a certain category of data  There are many processors inside the “microprocessor” each working like an office or bank .doing specialized service. the registers  dispose off incomoing and outgoing data  within a processor very fast. The register is  like a clerk  in a  bank or office.  In contrast a” processor” containing a few dozen registers  inside  is actually a specialized logic circuit.  It is is like a government office, bank.post office ,hospital,police station etc where a citizen can get a particular type of service. There is   chief   processor called the” microprocessor” overseeing work of all the other processors inside the computer.. This is  just like  a princpal  of a college guiding and controlling other proffessors.Thus we have one ” processor”  for mathematical work,  one for networking of  computers and one for  monitoring the  internal electric circuits of computer every second  etc.

. The   different processors  containing highly specialized registers  can do complcated  mathematical work, move data between different locations, process data for printing , rearrange words ,sentences and paragraphs in a page , adding color and editing color,searching for particular data in a big database etc.   Any of these works is done step by step extremely  accurately at terrific speed at the rate of  millions of steps per second. . The set of standardised  software instructions prepared by expert software enginners  in coded computer languages  are recorded on magnetic and optical discs.Such recorded discs are also sealed inside computer at time of manufacture. Such a bundle of discs sealed inside computer is called   “hard disk”.

These instructions written on discs in specially coded computer language run into tens of thousands of lines or even hundreds of thousands of lines.When we switch on the modern personal computer  and give a special command(i.e. coded language instruction) to it the software which we want is automatically copied from the hard disk to the “main memory”.   The “microprocessor” is the heart and brain of  the modern  computer. It is made of millions of transistors  and is actually a huge city of thousands of  smaller processors( the  decision making units) and millions of data storing units( like houses in a city where data are stored in unit sizes for further processing). This entire “city” exists on a single thin silicon chrystalof the size of a shirt button!

. The tiny transistors on the silicon crystal are  invisible to the naked eye and exist in three dimentional layers in geometrical patterns. Most  of them are interconnected by submicroscopic “wires” which are themselves not real wires but electronic designs also printed in neat geometrical patterns . The “inhabitants” in the rooms(logic gates) of these “memory houses” are the millions and billions of 0′s and 1′s.  (The 0′s and 1′s stay for only a limited time and new 0′s and 1′s come in their place in the next instant.) The “memory houses” too  like real houses have “house numbers” which are recognised by the computer programme .

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But let us think of the times which we can call the” stone age” of computers i.e the period of  the very first electronic computers ( built with  about twenty thousand hot filament diode valves in each calculator)  I used the word “stone age” with great regard and affection for these old electronic wonders which did the mathematical work at hitherto unheard of speeds..The first electronic computer like  ENIAC( 1946),  the EDSAC(1946),  UNIVAC(1951) were no doubt very efficiet giants but were  very   clumsy compared to the cute  little  personal computers  of today. The old computers  faltered every few hours  due to fusing of  dozens of  diodes every hour. Twenty four hour airconditioning was required.

As already mentioned the total  equipment  in each such computer required a dozen or more almirahs and required  a big airconditioned hall  for each computer. But they were magical machines which proved the scientific theory behind electronic computers and could do complicated mathematical calculations in  less than  thousandth of a second. There were hardly half a dozen such huge experimental installations each costing tens of millions of dollars.research on them was commissined only by the U.S.Defence department . The U.S.Army required almost  instantaneous mathematical data for sending american missiles in to the sky to attack incoming enemy rockets and destroy them in the skies.

( Of course radar signals were sent continuosly day and night every day to detect incoming enemy rockets by studying the reflected radio signals.Then the computer calculated within fraction of second the trjectory of incoming rocket,the required trajectory for the outgoing american rocket ,required quantity of fuel,engine speed etc  in thousandth of a second!)  

.The diode is the first  electronic devise which could be used as a very fast switching devise required in computers of first generation.. The diode could switch on or switch off small electric currents million times per second! It proved by its fast  switching power that electric currents  can be used to create fast mathematical machines. Each of these electronic giants perhaps looked like the famous  ” Time Machine” of H.G.Wells in science fiction with  hundreds of  switches,red/green/yellow indicator bulbs ,kilometers of  connecting wire,the  beep beep sounds  and blinking lights

. All the inputting of data(sending data to computer’s brain) was  perhaps done with the help of  rows of electric switches  and the outputting  (getting answers out of computer) was done perhaps by decoding with help of photo electric detectors The  output  data punched on  fast rotating paper tape .both the input and output were  in the form of long rows of 0′s and 1′s.  Only expert engineers and mathematicians could decode them. The  bizarre endless strings of “0”  and “1″s confused even the best electrical engineers and mathematicians sitting at the computer..

An interesting fact is that the calculating power of a pocket calculator of today is more than that of any of these ” first generation”  computers! The reason why they are classified as the first generation is that they used the “electronic parts” called  diodes (as in radio and tv)  and not the electro- mechanical parts like mechnical wheels  rotated by electric motors..

But still the computer was a very mysterious scientific device whose secrets were known only to big army generals,proffessors and seniormost engineers. Untill the great “transistor ” was invented and its great potentialities to replace the diode valves in computers were proved by engineers and scientist the computer did not  attract  the attention of ordinary citizens ,college and university students etc

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The invention of” transistor” was indeed a great event in history of computors.It is also the basic buiding block in radios,tvs,recording devices,radars etc.  The transistor is nothing but a tough solid semiconductor chrystal of the size of a sand particle.  After its electronic properties and great potentiality became known it almost entirely replaced the diode volve in computers,radios,tvs and all other electronic eqipment. The  lilliputian Transistor became  the ” brick” and basic building block for the assebly of logic circuits,registers and processors . It completely drove out the big hot filament diode valve in a few years. By 1955 thousands of transistors were connected into the electronic circuits of the computer and they performed exactly like the big hot filament diode valve .

The tiny transistor simply revolutionized the architecture of electronic computers. In the first days single individual transistors were used  to construct the logic circuits,registers and processors in computers just as in radios,tvs and other electronic eqipment.Individually and singly. the “  transistors”  were  connected into the electric circuits  of computers by means of thin wires called “cat’s whiskers” firmly attached to the  transistor and outwardly visible.

Perhaps ten thousand to twenty thousand  big size individual transistors  were used in a computer with outwardly visible wire connections. These  clumsy fully transistorised computers are called the ” second generation computers”. These computers were also quite big  in size though not so big as the unwieldy” first generation” computers of 1950s made from diode valves     We can say that only since the second  generation  the  shape and  standard basic architecture of  the computer became clear and its  great potentiaities   were properly understood. The second generation machine soon attracted the attention of engineers,technicians,mathematicians,  businessmen etc. But it was a clumsy machine by modern standards.

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 At about  1965  other extremely significant and path breaking developments took place in transistor technology.  Entire sets of  transistors along with the electrical parts called  resistances and capacitors  required in every electronic eqipment like radio, tv  and computer were “grown” on a single thin silicon crystal  by chemical and heating processes.Even the electric leads (in place of wire connections) were also “grown” on the silicon crystal base.  This technology is called “integrated circuit” technology. In the begining only a group of ten or twenty transistors arranged in a particular logic circuit and its  electric connections ,resistances,capacitors etc were   ” grown” on a single silicon chip. Such basic units were used to assemble registers,processors etc.

Later  far  bigger sized “integrated circuits “  were grown on a single silicon crystal  successfully   The computers built using  the “integrated circuits”  were very sturdy and also quite small  resembling a  big size tv set. Such computers consumed only low quantities of electrical energy because like telephones they worked on low voltages like 10 volts and 15 volts.They did not heat up during functioning and worked for hours together without any break . What is more , the computing speed and memory capacity increased many times and cost decreased .( because silicon chrystals were very cheap  compared to the hot filament diodes.) . The  technologies  of today can “grow”  upto twenty million  transistors on a sigle silicon chip. This resulted in  increasing the processing capacity hundreds of thousands of times. The new technology showed the potential of a modern transistor based computer.

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The great American scientist and mathematicia  Dr.John  Von Neumann  can be called father of modern computer. It was he  who proposed in 1946 construction of “stored program” electronic calculators and proposed a detailed internal architecture consisting of a “main memory” from  which data and instructions(formulas) would go to the registers inside the main processor and necessory mathematical circuits would be switched on and answers  flowed back to a section of main memory.  Every  register played a predesignated role inside the processor. The main processor  processed  data only as per the instruction set loaded by the programmer on the main memory

.After  the incorporation of a seperate part called “main memory” in  the giant electronic calculators of those days,we can say that the modern electronic computer was born. But the entire computer was constructed only with hot filament diode valves. It is wonderful to note that even the latest computers  still  follow the  basic architecture proposed byDr.Von Newmann. The world should be greatly indebted to him. The “main memory” in computer is  a data storing part like a city with millions of buildings and neat streets with each house being alloted a specific house number.  It is also like the black board in a class room used by the maths teacher  to write the formulas,the maths problem,working steps and the answer. When the next group of students come  the teacher  rubs away all that is written for the previous group  on the black board. Then he writes new formula,new problem,new working steps and answer. When this group goes he repeats the procedure for next group.

 In the class room the mathematics problem has generally about ten steps in its working. But in the tough mathematical problems solved by computers there wiill be hundreds or even thousands of working steps. They are collectively called the “stored program” and are written on the part called”main memory” by computer engineers( by typing in data through punched tape or keyboard )in a coded form . The code is in the form of  rows and rows of  0′s and 1′s   and can be understood only by the computer engineer and the ” processors” of the computer. 

To understand the meaning of ‘stored program” computer we should first understand  the difference between a computer and a tv (or radio). In radio/TV the far away   programmes are recieved through  radio waves from the far away  radio/TV station.  At the very instant after we hear/see those programmes   the signals disappear from radio/TV  without trace just as water poured into a bucket with a gaping hole flows  out from bottom( as soon water is poured at top).  The data of the just concluded programme disappears from the radio or TV .  But in Von Neumann model  of the computer,   the” computer programme” which is a set of   a few hundreds  mathematical steps  (just like working steps which  the teacher writes on the black board )is recorded in advance  on the black board  called “main memory” .

The” main memory” can also be compared to the white paper  note book which the student uses to write down the steps dictated by the teacher. The student  can read the matter even   a few  months after it is written as it is recorded. In ordinary language the word memory means our brain’s remembering capacity. But incomputer matters the word “memory” represents  ” the device like black board , white paper note book,  we use to record any matter  permanantly  so that we can utilise that  data  at a later time “.

Similarly we can also read old data in computer  even days or months latter by  cheking the part called “main memory” .  However in modern computers all the data lying on “main memory” is copied to files in the hard disk by giving the “save” command on key board. “Save” means “preserve permenantly”.. The main memory is automatically ” wiped clean” when  we switch off the computer.  Next time when we switch on the computer we can give command to computer to bring a particular file to main memory.

   “The commanding and controling part in computer”(the CPU) studies whatever”instructions” from human operator/engineer are recieved (as found on the part called “main memory”) and processes them. The “instructions “given by an engineer to computer are in a  highly coded computer language like “c” or “c++”  with not even an extra comma or full stop permitted. They are actually a kind of mathematical code with “reserved words” which can acess and activate huge central electric circuits inside computer. We can bring  hundreds or even thousands of commands or instructions onto the main memory  from the files in the hard disc  by giving proper commands

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   As already said even before arrival of first generation computers there were a few dozen electricity based calculating machines. They also performed well but could not store any data (like radio/tv )as explained above. What was the idea behind construction of  those old calculators which existed before the first generation machines? Many electrical engineers and mathematicians had  for many decades pursued  an exciting idea. Electricity travels in wires at speeds of 200,000 kilometers per second or more. Electricity has two states i.e “switch on current” and  “switch off current”.  Let us represent “switch on state ” of an electric bulb as “1″ and” switch of state” as “0″. 

The electric engineers and mathematicians argued  as follows . Suppose  we  represent  all numbers in a 8-digit code  having different combinations of  “1″s  or “0″s  only.  We have eight independant parallel electric circuits in which only two specified levels of current can flow and these levels are represented as “1′ or “0″. All the eight currents (in only two varieties either “0″ or “1″) are controlled by a single switch i.e.  they start or stop at the same moment . Then can we   make numbers” flow” through electric wires  by giving each number a 8-digit code like “11010101″?.

Such a combination of eight 0′s and 1′s will circulate through the parallel paths seperately but will together represent a number like   0,1,2,3,4,…..9.. If numbers are sent through such binary code (i.e. the 0 and 1 code) and special mathematical circuits are developed  then electricity can be made to solve mathematical problems at speed of flow of electrons through wires i.e. at about 200,000 kms per second. The answer after about six,seven decades of research was the eletronic calculators invented in 1950s.

 (A)Let us consider an example of how a computer  makes mathematical calculations.

Example 4×1000 =?

It is solved by computer as 4+4+4+4+4+…1000 times.

it is done as follows 

4+4=8

8+4=12…

12+4=16..and so on for 1000times. At the end it looks as below.

 3988+4=3992

3992+4=3996

3996+4=4000

For us it is a tedious way but for computer it is  a most easy thing. It can do million sums like   8+4=12 in just one second.

(B)  we can  represet numbers(1,2,3,4…etc)  by different combinations of “1″ and “0″ taken in a  groups of eight “1″ or “0″ symbols

ex:    0000 0001=1      

        0000 0010=2

         0000 0100=4

         0000 1011=11 and so on

(C)  we can also suggest a code to represent alphabets like a,b,c,d etc or symbols like ?,+, %,& etc.To represent alphabets add two more “0″ or “1″ s to each eight group as a specially coded prefix( indicating a special electric circuit.)

ex:    01  0000 0000=a

         01  0000 0010=b

         01  0000 0100=c   and so on

(D)To represent ” special symbols “  we can add another type suffix(i.e.”10″ instead of “01″)

ex:  10 0000 0001 =”+ ”

      10 0000 0010=” ?”

       10 0000 0100=”%” and so on       

(note: The examples are hypothetical but computers follow only very similar logic)

The first computers  needed only binary codes(i.e. the 0,1 code)  for numbers.They did not use alphabets (a,,b,c,d .etc)or symbols like( +,-, ?.) They had only electric circuits  for  doing addition,subtraction,multiplication.division etc . They had no need for alphabets and special symbols. We should clearly understand that the first computers were only very fast  mathematical  calculators having no need for alphabets and any other symbols. Only later for electronic printing of textual data by computers and not for any mathematical work the above sbinary codes were standardized.

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 Modern computers  are thousands of   times more powerful than the 1st generation  “stored programs ” computers invented by Dr John Von Neumann. This is because the processor speed , memory capacity,data access speed and data transfer speed all have increased many fold after the silicon chip containing millions of transistors came into use. Modern computers can perform many other tasks like preparing engineering drawings for designing cars,airplanes,ships etc, composing and printing  pages of matter,composing and printing text books, taking a photo or vedeo and printing it instantly, playing films from recorded CDs  etc.Computers connected to Internet can upload or download printed pages, printed text books, photograpphs, audio and vedeo,lengthy  cinema films etc.

 What are calculators?The pocket calculator everbody now uses is   a most advanced  Von Neumann  model computer  doing only mathematical work. A big computer  of  1940s costed millions of dollars but the small calculator avalable with high scool students  costs only a few dollars and has more calculating power!

.What is a cell phone? It is  a very powerful network computer as powerful as personal computers used in banks and offices. It can connect to any cell phone or digital land phone or networked computer any where in world  in a second with the help of  very powerful softwares like TCP/IP.

What is a robot? It is one of the ultimate marvels  in “stored program” computers. It would take  at least three or four  years to load its brain with whole dictionaries,encyclopedias,formulas of mathematics and engineering.Some modern robots can  pour tea into cups,walk a few feet and serve the tea most carefully with out spilling a drop. Some can fight duels on a stage  falling,rising and balancing their bodies and fight.as long as you want.Some dance to recorded music which a guest from outside brings . Some can recieve guests,greet people and give answers . Robots have intelligence of two year old children ,

Note: this essay is only for lay persons who do not know the basics of computer. so the statistical data is also  given in a rough way  without going to  extremities of  accuracy.                                                                    ****************************