CENSUS OF TREES: As necessary as human census, and they are doing it with GPS/GIS Technologies

With the occurrences of illegal cutting of trees unceremoniously increasing day by day, it becomes very necessary, at least, to have a scientific count or census of trees, at least in India where the forest area is on decline. By saying 'scientific', I mean that tools of latest technology, i.e. GPS/GIS to be used in order that the data could be collected less error-prone and be with more and more informative fields.

The organization that is working in this direction is 'Terracon Ecotech" of Mumbai (Maharashtra), and projects as having been done by this organization are highly commendable. In fact, Terracon and its associates is the single largest tree Census conducting organization in the country with the highest number of projects successfully completed. They have incorporated tree inventory/ census with the most modern gadgets such as GIS & GPS, which makes the results more accurate. Each project involves physical survey and recording of individual trees in the defined area with relevant details such as latitude and longitude, botanical name, common name, approx age, height, girth, canopy etc. The Partial List of such commenced and / or completed projects (as on 01.01.2010) may be seen at http://www.terraconindia.com/projects-completed.htm

The credit goes to Dr. Ramesh Madav, Chairman, Enbitech and CEO of Terracon Ecotech Pvt Ltd, who have successfully tested the most modern Tree Census Methods, using GPS and GIS. This was for the first time in India that such sophisticated technology was used on such a grand scale. Having completed Tree Census for Municipal Corporations of Thane, Nanded, Mira Bhayendar, Kalyan Dombivali, Navi Mumbai, Nashik and Greater Mumbai, Dr. Madav has become synonymous with Tree Census in India. {Source: http://hamaraphotos.com/news/business/dr-ramesh-madav-successfully-tests-gpsgis-enabled-tree-census.html}

Another organization involved in these activites and doing commendably is The Morton Arboretum  http://www.mortonarb.org/tree-census.html.

Smart Grid: Smart Meter is not an electronic meter, it is eMeter

It was probably in 1889 when Thomson came up with his recording wattmeter, the first true mechanism of measuring consumption of electricity. Thus we can say that the device we call (electricity) meter is more than a century old, but definitely the journey of gradual upgrade in (electricity) meter technology is not a long one. In fact, before the introduction of electronic meter (in India), probably 15-20 years ago, same traditional meters were on vogue, and probably no state electricity board ever provoked any thought on any upgrade thereof, or of infusing any (electronic) technology element in it. But we may say that when even the electronic technology itself was at its very inception 15-20 years ago, such a thought process, if it could have been initiated somewhere, it would have been very awesome to bring it into real practical being.

But the electricity metering has undergone strategic transformation by leaps and bound in last 10 years. The nostalgia compels me to write this piece of blog. The one very important interesting part of such a transformation I see is that the profile of meter-reader who communicates between a household coparcener and the state electricity board local office has changed drastically. I remember that in old days, one meter reader used to have come to every locality anytime in the first week of the month carrying a notebook. He used to note down the reading of the meter in his notebook, and on one card stuck with a pin on the wall near place of meter.  He was well greeted too with water and tea and sometime with snacks too. After such recording of meter reading, we used to have received the manual bill, which was paid manually, in the queue capable of making the common man understand fully that he had committed the most heinous crime by taking an electricity connection from electricity board, and who after submission of such dues feeling busted fully would come back home totally broken. That was the meter-reader, the only connection between a common man and the electricity board local office.

Now the same person turns up, but with one handoff. He will punch in some data (actual reading of meter), will give you a long piece of paper, where so much of data will be embossed on it that even the highest officer in electricity board office is unable to make out some meaning therefrom, and probably some slogan like 'Save Energy' and the like imprinted on it, though the same office will be wasting electricity like anything by keeping a large number of tube lights on in its premises with heavy curtains drawn on the windows so that no natural light could ever ever enter the room. What an irony?

Electronic meter of electricity was introduced probably to check the increasing incidences of meter tempering. The adjective 'electronic' in Electronic meter was not 'electronic' the way it was and it is used in email or eBanking or in eGovernance. This way, the newer generation of electricity meter, i.e. Smart Meter is truly electronic meter or eMeter' the alphabet 'e' being the acronym for 'electronic'.

The Smart Meter or eMeter is at the forefront of and is an integral part of the total strategy of policy makers of ushering the total reforms in strengthening the structure of energy sector, paving its ways forwards ensuring Smart Grid program. The Smart Meter has a specific role to play when key benefits of Smart Grid program are reckoned and a seamless control of overall energy value chain becomes the core issue of delivering clean and affordable power to the last consumer coupled with emancipating him of large and long queues on one hand and timely revenue collection by the distribution company on the other.

The Smart Meter has replaced the traditional meter reader particularly in communication with electricity office. But simultaneously I see a greater role of Mobile / PDA and RFID technology in moving towards the state of Smart Metering when I find that despite the meter-reader having a hand-hold device while taking reading of my electricity meter (at Bhopal, India), and further despite giving me an on-the-spot electricity bill, I am not able to pay it instantaneously online on http://www.mponline.gov.in/ (precisely on https://www.mponline.gov.in/Portal/Services/mpeb/citizen/billpay/Default.aspx?langid=en-US&Dist=BPL), and I am made to wait for 5-6 days or till the time the data from such hand-hold device of such meter-reader is loaded into some server (probably manually or by transferring electronically, I don't know), I feel somehow sick of the system. But it is definitely a lack on the part of the concerned energy distribution company, and not on the part of mponline. We must agree that mponline has done a wonderful job in ensuring i-services to the citizens of Madhya Pradesh by providing such a robust portal for interacting with various departments of GoMP/GoI. I think if somehow a PDA along with a small printer could be used for meter-reading. The use of PDA shall ensure that the data in server of electricity Distribution Company has been updated just at the time the print was given to consumer, and such PDA will be an integral part of smart meter or eMeter. The same could be done by using RFID technology too. The electricity Distribution Company will have to ponder over not only how the revenue collection could be increased, but could be collected Just In Time.

Pune Model of Captive Power Generation – A truly replicable model in cities with high scarcity of electricity

The industrial growth depends upon three basic parameters – Investment, Infrastructure and Interest (willfulness). In any industrial scenario, there are three groups of persons, three stakeholders, having their own share of concerns and lookout, having their own definitions of gains and returns. These groups comprise of – entrepreneur, government and people. 
The investment part lies in the central repository of thought process of entrepreneur. I am saying central repository, because all other issues regarding arranging and managing funds revolve round this core issue. Needless to say, providing infrastructure is a matter of concern for government. The derivability of third parameter, i.e. of infrastructure, is strongly a function of two most basic variables – i.e. Electricity and Road. The third parameter of industrial growth, i.e. interest (willfulness) is strikingly governed by achievement received on the performance of the other two parameters. And it is the third parameter, where the ingenuity has to come out from both, the government and the entrepreneur, in most distinguished and unequivocal terms to turn various ingredients of governance – nay – good governance into growth accelerators. 
But on the whole, electricity is the most basic and most important infrastructural requirement for all governed, let it be public or be industry. Being strong and committed on ensuring this very basic infrastructural support, i.e., electricity, can bring about a revolutionary jump in balance sheet of any state government. 
With this idea on backdrop of starting this blog, I want to express here on the issue of attempting, most willfully and wonderfully on bridging the gap between demand and supply of electricity and thus tackling the issue of power deficit by Maharashtra Energy Regulatory Commission (MERC), thanks to the wonderful idea of Mr Pradeep Bhargava, Managing Director, Cummins Generator Technology (CGT).
This 'No Load Shedding" model was initiated probably in 2006 in Pune, replicable in other industrial towns of Maharashtra. With the idea mooted by Mr. Pradeep Bhargava, the initiation was taken by experts from Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The idea arose out of a situation of severe electricity crunch. In Pune, the industry deemed to have had the demand of electricity upto 35 percent of total power demand against a national average of 25 percent, which definitely resulted in load shedding in various areas of Pune. Under Pune Model, several industries were called upon to have their own captive power generation plants, with a support from the domestic power users. The installation and operation of captive power plants reduced drastically the load on power distribution agencies, which resulted in more supply of power to domestic areas. It was estimated that the overall reduction on load was upto 90 MW, against a peak demand of 900 MW, which was considerably appreciable. Against this effort, the citizen of Pune had to bear a very meager sum, i.e. 40 paisa only per unit. It is learnt that MERC, so enthused by the success of this model, got it replicated in other industrial towns of Maharahtra, with reliability charge fixed by the MERC ranging from 21 paise (Pune) to 75 paise (Aurangabad).
No doubt, the deliverables have been marvelous. The Pune model is required to be studied with all its pros and cons, and replicated in other industrial towns of the country as well. The model has achieved citizens' satisfaction and come up with a solution with no more expenditure on government exchequer for mitigating the load shedding problem. Though the quantum of electricity thus generated and thus added to the overall supply for domestic users may be small, but, even if it is 10 percent total demand, it may be taken as a small leap towards a big and brighter goal.

There is no alternative to technology.

Evolution never retreads back. The people, who have enjoyed the classic advantages of eGovernance, are not ready to accept even the smallest waver in any eFacility or any relaxation in any eService from the government. Once you have used the portal of IRCTC (http://www.irctc.co.in/), you are no longer ready to stand in queue for railway reservation; and if you have used the latest beta version of IRCTC with a faster and simpler planner, you will discard the old version of IRCTC like anything, for howsoever it was so close to your heart only 10-15 minutes ago.

A technology savvy person foresees the future. His presentiments about something newer evolutions in coming future keep him ahead of space and time (परिस्तिथि एवं काल). He is the one who reposes faith in himself. I wonder. I wonder how come one could have foreseen in 1995 like this:

“Over the next decade, business worldwide will be transformed. Intranets will revolutionize the way companies share information internally, and the Internet will revolutionize how they communicate externally. Corporations will redesign their nervous systems to rely on the networks that reach every member of the organization and beyond into the world of suppliers, consultants, and customers. These changes will let companies be more effective and often smaller. In the longer run, as broadband networks make physical proximity to urban services less essential, many businesses will decentralize and disperse their activities, and cities may be downsized too."

Yes, you are right, it is none other than Bill Gates, the Tao of computer technology who set off information age and macadamized the way for information era. What was perceived by Bill Gates, is happening actually. There are so many such other issues of 'foreseeing' in his book "The Road Ahead".

Advancements in technology are never utopia in the truest meaning of the word. Let us divert for a few minutes from our topic, or rather give it a new direction. No body had even thought 20 years ago of co-generation (generation of additional electricity using the same process, using the same fuel 'bagasse'), or a very few sugar mills were pioneer in steering through launching the co-generation projects in sugar mill. Now the time has come, when no sugar mill is practically economically viable without generating additional electricity and to sell it. Almost all plants of sugar (having the minimum capacity of 2500 MT of sugar cane crushing per day) are going for co-generation. Now sugar production is becoming a secondary thing, the primary production is of electricity. The sugar plants had to say in earlier day - We produce sugar only (हम चीनी ही बनाते हैंSa), have now to say – We produce sugar too (हम चीनी भी बनाते हैंa). That is all due to tremendous advancement in technologies related with boilers, turbine, sugar boiling system over the last 20 years.

Mahatma Gandhi was a great leader, not only of politics, but also of humanity. He spent all his life for eradicating the system of carrying human excreta on their heads by manual scavengers. But he was not that successful. In fact, the success came, of whatever magnitude, when the technology of flush toilet emerged. Technology ensures the transformation in the society, and the emergence and outbreak of technology can be in any field, electronic or mechanical or any other field.

To be continued………..

क्योंकि दूरियों का मतलब फासले नहीं होता

The present society is knowledge society. What actually differentiates between present society from the traditional society is accessibility to information and knowledge for anyone who wants to have it, or who has the resources, irrespective of his societal position, rather than keeping the information only in the hands of a few only, and that of only privileged and sophisticated class of the society. Social taboos don't deprive anyone of learning. Definitely, ICT has been the biggest enabler for such a transformation of society.

eGovernance is an speaking execution of government desire to ensure citizen empowerment, timely and cost-effective delivery of citizen services, public participation in governance reducing the distance between the government and governed, having ICT at its core. Through this, the government wants to proclaim loudly - क्योंकि दूरियों का मतलब फासले नहीं होता.

eGovernance is a means to achieve good governance. Needless to say that freedom of information and effortless accessibility to citizen services are the core issues for enjoining citizens' faith in governance cutting across the centuries old barriers between the government and governed. It is step towards paving the way for trust the government bestows upon the citizens. It is a whole-hearted effort for ridding the citizen of the fear of 'being governed' he has had in his heart since long and with which he has been accultured right from his childhood.

With this objective in mind, the immense potential of ICT cannot be undermined to seek solution for achieving eGovernance. Let us not forget the Moore's Law in connection with the advancement of technologies of Information and Communication. In 1965, Gordon Moore predicted that the capacity of a computer chip would double every year. With the revolutionary growth of ICT seen everywhere, both vertically and horizontally, cutting across all boundaries of cast, creed, religion, land etc, it is hoped that service delivery mechanism will also gain momentum, resulting in more quality element interwoven in it coupled with association of more and more masses of common citizen. It will impact various other core issues of eGovernance too, and activities on such issues would get further ameliorated with a one to one harmonious relation with technology improvement. Once the information highway is further macadamized, more and more services with tremendous speed of data transfer would stand delivered at the door, i.e. at the PC of a common citizen.

EXPERIMENT 002

EXPERIMENT 002: Invoking of 'SHELL' function; shows exact address of an Excel file on one of the cells on one of the sheets AND opens the folder of current location of this file as the file loads.

The Shell Function: This function is well equivalent to 'Run' item on the Windows start menu. This VBA Shell function can be used to start an external program or perform any operation. This page describes a procedure named mRunCal that will call the Shell function and then invoke the executive file of Calculator from Windows.

Public Sub mRunCal()

Dim aShell

aShell = Shell("calc.exe")

'The function will search the executive file of calculator,

'otherwise you may give complete address of the file also.

End Sub

Assign this procedure to any command button on excel sheet. This button when clicked, will run the calculator.

You can run any programme on excel sheet using this function.

Given below are two formulae. Copy and paste these two in two different cells. But before doing it, your file must have been saved.

1. This will display the address of current location of the file.

=MID(CELL("filename"),1,FIND("[",CELL("filename"))-1)


2. This changes into a hyperlinked text and when clicked, opens the folder in which the file lies.

=HYPERLINK(MID(CELL("filename"),1,FIND("[",CELL("filename"))-1),"CURRENT LOCATION")

If you want, you can lock this file, so that no body has opportunity of seeing the formula.

EXPERIMENTS 001

All experiments will start the way as shown and written below.

Open MS Excel. Save it as 'Book1'. Press Alt + F11. Following screen appears:

Right click 'VBAPROJECT (Book1).  Select Insert à  Module. A module in the name of 'Module1' opens.  The codes are to be written on this module. You can start another module by repeating the step at written above. After you have written down the code, come out of Visual Basic window by closing it.

The command button is created by right clicking menu bar, clicking 'Forms'. 'Forms' window opens. Click 'Button' and drop onto the excel sheet. It appears with its default caption 'Button 1' or 'Button 2'. Double click the caption, edit the name the way you like and as you do in MS Word. A prompt window will appear asking you to 'Assign Module' to this button. If you have already some corresponding module written in MS Visual Basic window, you can assign the same to it. The click of button will run it.

EXPERIMENT 001: CREATING LIST OF SERIAL NUMBERS AGAINST ANOTHER LIST.

Please see the given figure. The names are given in 'Name' column. The first column is 'No,' we have created a command button, which when clicked, fills the serial number against each name starting from 1.

Open MS Visual Basic window by pressing Alt + F11. Write the code given below:

Obviously the line of code starting with a single quote i.e. ' is the remark where the coding has been explained.

Public Sub pCountF()

'pCountF is the name of the procedure.

Dim P As Integer, I As Integer

Range("B3").Select

While ActiveCell.Value <> ""

ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select

P = P + ActiveCell.Count

Wend

'The code written above works like this.

'The cell 'B3" is selected, where first name appears.

'All the cells down this cell are selected one by one.

'An integer 'P' created for this work, stores the value

Range("C1").Select

ActiveCell.Value = P

'The cell 'C1" is selected, where the value of P is written.

'Though it is not necessary to take the value of P on excel sheet.

'In big programmes, you may need to use it at later stage, hence taken.

Range("A2").Select

For I = 1 To P

ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select

ActiveCell.Value = P - (P - I)  '=I

Next I

'The code written above works like this.

'The cell 'A2" is selected, below which the counts have to begin.

'All the cells down this cell are selected one by one.

'The serial numbers starting from 1 to P are written one by one

'on empty cell below one another.

Range("A2").Select

Exit Sub

End Sub

Assign this procedure to command button. The click of button will run it.

DATA COLLECTION BY A SUGAR MILL FOR SUGAR CANE MANAGEMENT WITH PDA FORMS

In so far as the disposal of sugarcane crop is concerned, sugar mills are the one of best examples of PPP (Public Private Partnership) application, since only the sugar mills buy cane crop, and not any other system of agricultural marketing can do it. In this context, we have further to remember that agricultural produce, after harvesting, other than sugarcane, can be stored, and later sold at some more remunerative prices.

Such agricultural produce can be marketed directly to a consumer

Obviously, for other agricultural produce, the government, apart from ensuring crop protection, has various means of their disposal from providing mandis' facilities in the block area upto the government procurement of various crops coupled with ensuring timely payment to the farmers finally, Cane growers grow sugarcane, and it is the sugar mill only, which ensures not only the timely disposal of sugarcane, but its proper care also.

Hence a bond between sugarcane producer and sugar mill is not only a family type of one-one relation, it is a very amazing PPP arrangement too,

But this arrangement demands something else too.

For a good and entrepreneurial sugar factory, the need to integrate all levels of the manufacturing and process environment in order to optimize production and meet key business metrics cannot be undermined. Rather it is key tactic in the present highly competitive environment. By establishing means of having closed feedback, time to time, of cane growers and of their crop and produce, the management ensures to meet the critical goals of increasing throughput, particularly recovery of sugar from cane, reducing time that takes in bringing the cane from the field to factory and ensuring efficiency in cultivation and harvesting programmes.

An efficient and robust Cane Management (ICT based) System of a Sugar Mill offers a great possibility of comparatively a greater production of sugarcane by extending well-organized coverage to the entire cane development cycle from sugarcane cultivation, crop management and finally harvesting and transportation. The timely treatment of sugarcane with fertilizers and pesticides etc. coupled with regular monitoring of taking care for various diseases and pests, and finally acquisition of sugarcane is primary job of any sugar mill; since it is the availability of cane, nay, of healthy cane which decides the balance sheet of a sugar mill.

In this whole exercise, the strong field work, manual as well as of information gathering, is core issue of the subject. The fieldworker will have to gather and submit multiple kind of information on various papers and format and finally process it for reaching certain conclusion and chalk out the plans and strategies in order to have the cane development management system. And here comes the role of technology, and that is ICT (Information and Communication Technology), which seeks a paradigm shift in the traditional methods of cane management, i.e. a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions.

The activities involved in a sugar factory particularly for cane management are in stark contrast to that in most other industries, as it is the sugar mill that has to cater for ensuring good and profound supply of cane. Needless to say, the production activities are very much seasonal in nature, and the long off-season is dedicated for plant maintenance on one side, and cane crop management on the other. A sugar mill cane management system involves elaborated study and documentation of many crop related issues. This system includes comprehensively a plan to transform these typical manual processes into an all-inclusive ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution. This may, inter-alia, include:

• Nutrient and Pest management
• Continuous crop monitoring
• Adopting latest technologies
• Diffusion of labor for harvesting and
• Arranging labour for harvesting.
• Cane procurement
• Crop Insurance and Crop loans

In this connection, the data collection and other field work which is associated with having a recorded history of cane crop development of any plot is concerned, the role of PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) i.e. of Wireless Connectivity cannot be undermined in the presence scenario of overall role of ICT in planning and finally coming up with workable strategies. Further , the installation and use of Personal Digital Assistants and wireless communication technologies, linked to demonstrate real-time transfer of information of harvest, transport and a live one to one connection between harvester and mill to improve operations and relationships between growers and millers. This is based on one simple thought: How Can I Manage My Time Better?

A PDA is a computer that fits in a field worker's hand. A web and PDA-based software application is fitted into it that enables field worker to collect data on pre-defined forms on that software, take pictures, record various historical events like fertilizer or pesticides dosing, This collected data can be viewed, aggregated and analyzed quickly and easily on any server attached to this device through wireless network of any service provider. A compatible software, having the facility of preparing various reports, charts and further analyzing and helping the management to work out plans and strategies can be loaded in the server.

Most modern PDAs have Bluetooth wireless connectivity, an increasingly popular tool for mobile devices. It can be used to connect keyboards, headsets, GPS* and many other accessories, as well as sending files between PDAs. Many mid-range and superior PDAs have Wi-Fi/WLAN/802.11 connectivity, used for connecting to Wi-Fi hotspots or wireless networks.

*GPS (Global Positioning System) refers to a well organized system of satellites and receivers that allow electronic devices to identify their location on the earth very precisely. The system comprises of 24 satellites that orbit the earth twice per day. Devices that are equipped with GPS equipment receive transmissions from at least a few of the satellites and are able to provide very precise positioning data. Each of these solar-powered satellites circles the globe at about 12,000 miles (19,300 km), making two complete rotations every day. The orbits are arranged so that at any time, anywhere on Earth, there are at least four satellites "visible" in the sky.

The use of this technology ensure the data transfer from the field 'just in no-time', with minimum of the scope of any paper work. The system facilities transfer of pictures of crop to the factory, thus giving an opportunity to the factory to come up with some solution and convey the same to the farmer, thus ensuring a timely treatment to the disease or any other problem with the plant within no time. Further, it shall facilitate the management with a real time detailed survey information to serve as the basis for cane procurement planning. In the crushing season, the factory shall use this data to schedule the issuance of daily permits to growers thereby guaranteeing regular and regulated supply, and optimising plant utilization and yield, and on the top of all, recovery of sugar.

The system can be implemented as an individual application or as a fully integrated set of solutions. The system is scaleable at both the plant and field level. The operational efficiencies can be optimized and made compatible with the latest technologies in this are coming up with the time. 

Further the benefits of ICT can be percolated down to the rural society by a big leap of sugar factory of that area. A sugar factory should possess an embodiment of a very senior member of a large family, who takes care of all other members of that family in all their affairs. The diffusion of ICT in a farming community can touch upon many areas directly related with socio-economic arena, like:

1. Latest information regarding agriculture and best practices as being evolved.
2. Dairy farming and poultry.
3. Farmyard manure
4. Welfare schemes of government.
5. Information regarding NGOs working in the area.
6. Weather forecasts.

Thus the use of ICT in general shall prove enhancing the efficiency of the sugar cane growing and harvesting process, both in terms of time saved by the factory on field data collection and transactions as well as in terms of monetary gains. It should prove to be a win-win situation both for sugar factory and cane growers.

ActiveX WITH ONE EXAMPLE

The problem is that the casual user does not typically understand what an ActiveX control is, or what the consequences of allowing an ActiveX control to run might be. First of all, an ActiveX is a set of object-oriented programming (OOP) technologies and tools. Programmers writing for ActiveX create components, self-sufficient programs that can be run by the Windows operating system. The components, which are known as ActiveX controls, are roughly equivalent to Java applets.

One of the main advantages of ActiveX components is that they can be re-used by many applications.

Look at the following example of a component, a DLL file.

In India, and in most of its States, the retirement age for the government servant is 60 years. The person, after he or she completes his 60 years, retires on the last day of the month in which his or her date of birth falls.

It has one stipulation. If the date of birth falls on first of the month, he or she will retire on the last day of the preceding month.

This will be clear from the following example:
Date of Birth                                    Date of Retirement
15-04-1950                                        30-04-2010
01-03-1950                                        28-02-2010
01-03-1948                                        29-02-2008
01-01-1952                                        31-12-2011
15-02-1950                                        28-02-2010
15-02-1948                                        29-02-2008
I have created one 'component' i.e. one DLL file to solve this problem of calculation which can be used in any MS Excel file or MS Access file through a very small piece of code in VBA, or can be embedded in any other Visual Basic or some other programming platform. 
Take it from me at sanjaymohanb@yahoo.com
Open MS Excel. Save it as 'Book1'. Press Alt + F11. Following screen appears:

Right click 'VBAPROJECT (Book1).  Select Insert à  Module. A module in the name of 'Module1' opens.  Click Tools (on Menu bar) à References. Following window appears.

Click Browse. Find your DLL file. Select by pressing 'Open' command button. The file will be available in the window as shown above. Select it by clicking its check box. Press 'OK'. The VBA has accepted your DLL file and set a reference to it.
We shall write a little code, but before this, please remember (From VB 6 Help):

–        After you set a reference to an object library (i.e. DLL file in this case) by selecting the check box next to its name, you can find a specific object and its methods and properties in the Object Browser.

–        If you are not using any objects in a referenced library, you should clear the check box for that reference to minimize the number of object references Visual Basic must resolve, thus reducing the time it takes your project to compile. You can't remove a reference for an item that is used in your project.

–        If you remove a reference to an object that your are currently using in your project, you will receive an error the next time you refer to that object.

–        References not in use are listed alphabetically.

–        You can't remove the "Visual Basic For Applications" and "Visual Basic objects and procedures" references, because they are necessary for running Visual Basic. 
Write down following code in module. Please remember at various places the intelli-sense as build in VBA will work, and drop down menus will open automatically.

Public Function fDtRetirement(DoB As Date) As Date
'Dob stands for Date of Birth
Static A As dlPrjDOR.clsDOR
Set A = New dlPrjDOR.clsDOR
fDtRetirement = A.CalDOR(DoB)
End Function

Close the Microsoft Visual Basic window. Go to MS Excel sheet; use this 'User Defined' function. The windows given below are self-explanatory.

India needs its electronic product industry.

The demand for electronic products is increasing with an enormous acceleration. India does not have a, 'industry type' electronic product industry.

According to a recent report by Ernst & Young, the Indian domestic demand for electronics products is expected to reach $125 billion by 2014, up from the current level of $45 billion annually. The primary demand drivers are sectors like telecom, defence, IT and e-governance, automotive, consumer electronics, and energy.

This may result in sidelining petroleum products in so far as the foreign trade deficit is concerned. On the other hand, if this unique opportunity is utilized, it can create a large industry catering to domestic consumption, which will help achieve self reliance in strategic sectors like telecom and defence, while leading to large exports.

Electronic products contribute to over 22 percent of GDP of Israel and over 15 percent for Korea and Taiwan. Also, as a global player, U.S. has over 40 percent share of global electronic products markets and China has 15 percent, whereas the share of India is close to nil.

Given these ingredients of huge domestic demand coupled with availability of highly talented technical and managerial workforce, not to talk of venture capitalists that have the financial resources to provide the necessary funding for capable product startups, what is missing and why don’t we have the likes of Cisco, Apple, Nokia, etc. etc. from India? 

CORE BANKING – JUST NOT SUFFICIENT

Central Bank of India–one of the largest public sector banks in India—plans to make huge Information Technology (IT) investments to the tune of Rs 500 crores. As part of this IT investment, the bank plans to computerize more than 2000 branches using a core banking system (CBS) by end 2010. Currently, the Bank has 3600 branches across India, out of which only 1400 branches have been covered under CBS. The Bank wishes to connect all their branches using CBS. The technology partner is TCS.


Important to note, the Bank has seven regional rural banks (RRBs). As per Reserve Bank of India's guideline, implementing CBS is the sponsoring bank's responsibility. The Bank has already floated the tender and completed technical evaluation. There are 1800 branches, out of which 25 branches are targeted to be covered in the first phase. This way, the Bank has a task of computerizing more than 4000 branches. Ernst & Young has been appointed as bank's consultant for this project, whereas the technology partner is yet to be decided.

It is needless to say that, in the present scenario of banking, IT is the backbone for a banking company, and Indian public sector banks are fast accepting this reality. With immense competition from private players, there is a strong need to offer 24/7 services to customers. To a good banker and willing to expand its business by heaps and bounds, the decision to make IT investment should not take much time, as it is the need of the hour. All banks are moving towards 24/7 services. The competition is tough, and service providers don't have an alternative.