Political and Social Issues:

Assembly Speaker G. Karthikeyan, on Monday, said subject committees of Parliament and legislatures had an important role in a democratic system as they ensured good governance and accountability of the executive.
He was inaugurating the 27th International Parliamentary Internship Programme, organised jointly by the Secretariats of the Lok Sabha and the Kerala Legislature here.
State Assembly was the first in the country to introduce the committee system. This was later adopted by Parliament.
This is the second time that the Kerala Legislature is hosting the internship programme.
Over 40 delegates from Afghanistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Botswana, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Ghana, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Niger, Tanzania, and Myanmar are participating in the three-day programme.

The All-India Bar Association (AIBA) has urged the Union government to consider increasing the retirement age of judges of the Supreme Court and High Court by three years.
They wanted the retirement age of Supreme Court judges to be increased from 65 to 68; High Court judges from 62 to 65 and for lower courts from 60 to 62.
The AIBA asked Dr. Singh to make it compulsory for every new entrant in the legal profession to work for two years as a law clerk with judges — those graduating from national law schools with judges of the Supreme Court and those from State-level law schools and Central Universities with those of High Courts and district courts.
This would help reduce the arrears of cases in courts as the judges would get proper assistance and the budding lawyers would also get necessary experience.
The Bar thanked Dr. Singh for implementing Section 30 of the Advocates Act, providing the opportunity to lawyers to practise in all courts in India.

The Kerala government on Monday gave an undertaking to the Centre that it would continue to provide the same quantum of water to Tamil Nadu, as is being given now, if a new dam was constructed in the place of the existing 116-year old Mullai Periyar dam in the Idukki district. Besides, the State would construct the dam from its own funds.
Earlier in the day, MPs from Kerala, cutting across party lines, took up the issue in both Houses of Parliament and stalled the proceedings seeking the Centre's immediate intervention.

The 7{+t}{+h}plenary session of the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) has urged the government to set up a media commission and consult representatives of all stakeholders in the media to frame its terms of reference.
Considering the explosion of the broadcast media (television channels), it was imperative that the proposed media council (replacing the Press Council of India) be renamed as media commission, bringing the broadcast media into its regulatory framework and enforcing a code of ethics.
Union demanded enactment of a law to protect working journalists and payment of compensation to their families in the event of a tragedy.
Expressing concern over the tardy progress of investigation into the killings of journalists - a total of 47 such incidents were reported since 1992 - the IJU demanded that all cases be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Former legislators will get their pensions directly deposited in their accounts through electronic mode
the website aplegislature.org would be hosted on the net by January 15.
The decision to give access to pension account details to members was taken in view of instances of irregularities in pension payment
Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy said due priority would be given to the former legislators in all the government programmes.

As Sudarshan Shakti gradually approaches its peak, thousands of soldiers are readying themselves to perform manoeuvres in tanks and fighter jets to showcase the final phase of the desert sector exercise before President Pratibha Patil
Some 50,000 troops, along with T-90, T-72, Arjun Tanks and BMP fighting vehicles, will carry out simulated assaults on their objectives, with the artillery and the Air Force providing support in the endeavour, the test bed for the Integrated Theatre Concept.
The exercise is seen as a trendsetter as the Army is transforming itself into a more agile, versatile, lethal and network-centric force.

Several men, women and children performed ‘made snana', a ritual in which people roll on plantain leaves containing leftovers of lunch served to Brahmins at the Kukke Subrahmanya temple
administrator of the temple, was reported to have said on Sunday that the ritual would not be allowed to be performed this year.
he had not issued an order, but had only made a request.
a man from the Malekudiya community, said that the temple's “ancient tradition” must be continued.
Legend has it that the Malekudiyas, a tribal community, were the ones who originally installed the temple deity.

In a bid to push through power reforms and unlock the power sector, UPA-II Government has set up an expert group to suggest restructuring of power utilities of seven major States, including UP, TN and Rajasthan.
initiating a major reform in the shape of open access allowing consumers of above 1 MW to choose their preferred electricity supplier.
This comes in the backdrop of a recent government report that revealed that the accumulated losses of the power utilities across the country ran into Rs.1.50-lakh crore and annual losses were around Rs.55,000 crore putting a severe strain on the financial health of the distribution utilities.
The expert group headed by Planning Commission member (Energy) B. K. Chaturvedi is already looking into the issue and is expected to submit its report by March 2012.
State power utilities should provide power to open access consumers at negotiated rates and not regulated rates.
State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) should specify reasonable tariffs to be charged by distribution companies for providing standby supply