Daily News Notes

· Price rise, black money issue, scrapping the minimum support price for onions, carving out a separate Telangana State several and many other issues have led to the adjournment of both the Houses of Parliament. The Left parties also said that they will not allow Parliament to function till the government agrees to take up discussion on price rise under a rule which entails voting. As many legislations of public concern which need to be passed makes every the duty of every political party to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament.
· The government today ruled out any third party role in resolving the boundary issue either with Pakistan or with China. Pakistan is in illegal and forcible occupation of about 78000 sq. kms. of Indian territory in J&K since 1948 while Chinese occupation since 1962 is nearly 38000 sq. kms. Also, under China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963, Pakistan illegally ceded 5185 sq. kms. of Indian territory in POK to China. There are some pockets of land along the India-Bangladesh border which were have traditionally been under the possession of people of one country in the territory of another, and were known as Adverse Possessions.
· The government said that it has not taken a final view on the dilution of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) now in force in J&K. It also said that there is no proposal, at present, to permit Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the farm sector. It explained that as per extant policy, FDI is not permitted in the agriculture sector except floriculture, horticulture, apiculture and cultivation of vegetables and mushrooms under controlled conditions, development and production of seeds and planting material, services related to agro and allied sector and tea sector including tea plantations.
· The Government today ruled out any threat of spread of radio activity from the existing nuclear plants in the country as these plants have sufficient safeguards and regulatory controls against any major leakage of radiation. There is only one nuclear reactor at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan which has remained closed to meet the regulatory requirements. Radioactivity around the nuclear power plants is monitored in the water bodies, ground water, food chain including milk, animal products, fruits, vegetables and fish to keep its levels under check.
· The government has constituted an inter-ministerial group to consider the demand of special status to Bihar. There are 11 special category states namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand, while Odisha, Goa and Rajastan's had also requested for special category status but were not given as reports was not feasible to grant them the same.
· Planning Commission had constituted a sub committee to study the social welfare schemes which recommended rationalization of 147 centrally sponsored schemes into 59 schemes so as to enable more effective implementation of it. The report had been submitted to all CM’s of the states.
· The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stated that it will shortly issue new 100 rupees denomination currency notes incorporating the ‘Rupee’ symbol, date:2011 and signature of RBI governor, Dr. D Subbarao. Other designing features will be similar to that of Mahatma Gandhi Series -2005.
· India and United Arab Emirates,UAE, signed agreements in New Delhi today on security cooperation and transfer of sentenced persons (1200 Indian prisoners) which will facilitate collaboration to fight international crimes including terrorism, money-laundering and cyber security by sharing intelligence and training facilities.
· A joint Indo-Arabic project on translating major Indian works (modern and ancient Indian written works) into Arabic would be undertaken by the Indian Embassy to UAE. Some of the books include "The Argumentative Indian" by Amartya Sen, "The Shade of Swords: Jihad and the Conflict between Islam and Christianity" by M. J. Akbar, "Moderate or Militant: Images of India’s Muslims" by Mushirul Hasan, "Being Indian" by Pavan Varma and "Nehru: The Invention of India" by Shashi Tharoor.