Daily News Notes

• ·         The government has approved the proposal of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion for allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Multi-Brand Retail Trading and 100 per cent FDI in Single-Brand Retail Trading. Thus fresh agricultural produce including fruits, vegetable, flowers, grains, pulses, fresh poultry, fishery and meat products may be unbranded. Also, At least 50 per cent (with min 100 million USD) of the total FDI shall be invested in backend infrastructure like investment in processing, manufacturing, distribution, design improvement, quality control, packaging, logistics and storage; and at least 30 per cent of the procurement of the manufactured and processed products shall be sourced from small industries which have a total investment in plant and machinery not exceeding one million US Dollars. Also the foreign investor should be the owner of the brand.
• ·         Both the Houses of Parliament were adjourned for the day today on the FDI and Telangana issue. UPA said that all parties must keep national interest in mind and not raise objection (over FDI) merely on political grounds as the global economy is facing a crisis and all efforts should be made to boost investment in the country’s economy. While one of the members from UPA said that "there is a large number of small farmers as well as traders in the country. Who will lose, who will benefit the common people should benefit the most."
• ·         A security alert has been issued by the Union Government all along the Western coast (Gujarat to Kerala) following the tracking of two illegal satellite phones by the security agencies and are trying to identify a possible terror link.
• ·         70 more districts (presently 30 districts) across the country are to be covered under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke or NPCDCS before March, 2012. The programme aims at screening of all persons above 30 years of age including pregnant women for diabetes and hypertension. It also envisages awareness generation on healthy life style and management of non-communicable diseases. The Centre has also initiated a health check-up programme on a pilot basis for slum dwellers in Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. As per an estimate of the International Diabetes Federation or IDF, the number of people with diabetes in India is over five crore which is expected to go up to nearly nine crore by 2030.
• ·         Government has framed a comprehensive five-pronged strategy to bring back the country’s money illegally stashed abroad which includes joining the global crusade against black money, creating an appropriate legislative framework, setting up institutions for dealing with illicit funds and training of officials to take effective action. Over 66,000 crore rupees has been detected in the last two years while Directorate of International Taxation has collected taxes of 33,784 crore rupees from cross-border transactions. Also, many countries are willing to share banking information in specific cases with India under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement and India has such an agreement with 81 countries.
• ·         The Supreme Court today refused to declare as unconstitutional the impeachment proceedings that had been initiated against former Calcutta High Court judge Soumitra Sen as he resigned five days before the matter was to be taken up in Lok Sabha.
• ·         In Egypt thousands of protesters (death toll raises to 41) have gathered around Cairo's Tehrir Square amidst call for a million march. They are demanding the immediate exit of the military rulers and handing over power to a civilian transitional authority and rejected the nomination of Kamal Ganzouri as the new interim Prime Minister to form a new Government.
• ·         India and Ukraine are poised to further boost bilateral partnership to realise the full potential of economic relations as its Foreign Minister is on a 3 days visit to India. Several agreements are scheduled to be signed as both countries have agreed to open new vistas of co-operation in the fields of metallurgy and power. Ukraine is the second largest trade partner of India in the CIS region with the bilateral trade target of 5 billion US dollars.
• ·         People in Morocco are voting today for a new lower house of Parliament, the first election in constitutional reforms (which will give more power to Parliament and PM) which were introduced by King Mohammed in the wake of uprising throughout the Arab world.
• ·         National Women Right Commission Chairman Mamta Sharma has said that proper education and skill development are the vital tools to curb violence against women and males have to change their mentality to stop such violence while has to take effective measures to deal with this problem.
• ·         The Government today said that overseas Indians are contributing significantly to the country's development with their remittances reaching about 56 billion US dollars last year. Community welfare fund has been set up at all the Indian missions to help needy Indians. Also, the frame work agreement, known as Human Resource Mobility Partnership (HRMP), facilitate migration of Indian workers to countries where they are in demand. Many such agreements with several countries in this area have been signed and HRMP pact is being negotiated with France, Australia and European Union. As the heads of the abroad missions are very significant in building a strong partnership between India and the overseas Indian community, thus the Ministry of Overseas Affairs has urged the Indian missions heads to ensure participation of overseas Indians in the Parvasi Bhartiya Divas being held in Jaipur this year.