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Rising share of diesel vehicles
- The subsidy on diesel had led to a situation where consumption by private vehicles — passenger cars and SUVs — exceeded consumption by the public transport and agricultural sectors.
- the continued hike in petrol prices was unreasonable as the government was ignoring the severe public health impacts of dieselisation of cities which are reeling under rising levels of killer particles, NOx and ozone.
- diesel cars are already 36 per cent of new car sales in India; the figure is expected to touch 50 per cent soon.
- Cars use up 15 per cent of the total diesel in the country compared to 12 per cent by buses and agriculture each, 10 per cent by industry, and 6 per cent by the railways
- It said various expert reports of the government have recommended additional taxes on diesel cars to neutralise the effect of low-tax diesel.
Blame Internet for pesky SMS: Sibal
- A month after new guidelines on telemarketing calls came into force, pesky SMSes are still bothering mobile phone users, thanks to the Internet on which companies are offering free or cost-effective solutions to send bulk SMS.
- We have no control over the Internet as the servers of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are situated abroad…we have no solution for that
- Mr. Sibal is correct when he says the government has no control over ISPs…but mobile operators can definitely block pesky SMS by filtering messages that generate from the Internet. Subscribers are receiving Internet-generated SMS as the operators are allowing it to be routed from their system…they should strengthen their network security to block such SMS
- Referring to the issue of allowing only 100 SMSes per subscriber per day, Mr. Sibal said youth, representatives of companies, schools and other organisations had pointed to practical difficulties in limiting the number of messages.
TOEFL scores to be accepted for Australian student visas
- Students can now apply to colleges in Australia on the basis of their TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) scores.
- The Australian migration office has approved the acceptance of TOEFL, Pearson's PTE test and Cambridge English Advanced test, in addition to the IELTS (International English Language Testing System).
- This move is expected to benefit students from so-called high-risk countries, such as India and China. Before this, only IELTS scores used to be accepted from applicants of these countries.
MAS-GMR MRO facility to be launched
- MAS-GMR Aerospace Engineering Company (MGAE), a joint venture between Malaysian Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL), a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure, is expected to be launched during this month.
- The Directorate of Civil Aviation is completing the audit of the joint venture facility paving the way for airline operators to consider it for their maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) needs.
- The joint venture is a third party airframe MRO facility, the first of its kind located in the special economic zone at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.
GM crops have not lived up to their promises, say NGOs
- The so-called miracle crops, which were first sold in the U.S. about 20 years ago and which are now grown in 29 countries on about 1.5bn hectares of land, have been billed as potential solutions to food crises, climate change and soil erosion
- The report claims that hunger has reached “epic proportions” since the technology was developed. Besides this, only two GM “traits” have been developed on any significant scale, despite investments of tens of billions of dollars, and benefits such as drought resistance and salt tolerance have yet to materialise on any scale.
- the greatly increased use of synthetic chemicals, used to control pests despite biotech companies' justification that GM-engineered crops would reduce insecticide use.
- In China, where insect-resistant Bt cotton is widely planted, populations of pests that previously posed only minor problems have increased 12-fold since 1997.
- Additionally, soya growers in Argentina and Brazil have been found to use twice as much herbicide on their GM as they do on conventional crops, and a survey by Navdanya International, in India, showed that pesticide use increased 13-fold since Bt cotton was introduced.
- Consequently, farmers are being forced to use more herbicides to combat the resistant weeds
- The companies have succeeded in marketing their crops to more than 15 million farmers, largely by heavy lobbying of governments, buying up local seed companies, and withdrawing conventional seeds from the market
- Last year the National Research Council, of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, issued a report, The Impact of Genetically Engineered Crops on Farm Sustainability in the United States, which concludes that U.S. farmers growing biotech crops ‘are realising substantial economic and environmental benefits — such as lower production costs, fewer pest problems, reduced use of pesticides, and better yields — compared with conventional crops
New green building rating system launched
- The upgraded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design 2011(LEED 2011 for India) rating system for green buildings was launched by the Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Dr Farooq Abdullah
- Dr Abdullah urged the delegates to develop new technologies and materials at lower prices so that green homes become accessible for the common man.
- The green building movement needs to be seen in the context of the overall response to climate change and the challenges in energy security.
