Daily News Notes

· Congress has issued a three-line whip to its members in Lok Sabha, asking them to be present during proceeding. This has been done not for any particular issue but keeping in view the possibility of some important business.
· Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has sought immediate deployment of Central Industrial Security Force, CISF, at the Mullaperiyar dam to "avert man-made catastrophic consequences and mob vandalisation". On Saturday, a mob of 2000 people damaged the gate at the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board Facility at the dam. Meanwhile, The empowered committee appointed by the Supreme Court agreed to hear the arguments of both Kerala and Tamil Nadu on the Mullaperiyar dam issue.
· Income Tax Department is using advance techniques of investigation to unearth unaccounted money in the country. Department is conducting scrutiny of tax returns and other documents to keep a track on such money.
· The Gigabit Passive Optical Network, G-PON, technology which is required for broadband connectivity over optical fiber, indigenously designed and developed by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), was formally tranasferred to its manufacturers by the Telecom Minister. It is targeted for fiber expansion in the country to fulfill the requirements of major national programmes like National Optical Fiber Network, State-Wide-Area Network connectivity, Broadband connectivity in Rural, North-East, Tribal areas, as well as expansion of networks of Defence, Railways Networks on optical fiber and many other strategic networks. It can also be used to provide a broadband solution to village panchayats and take the benefits of e-Education, e-Governance, e-Commerce and e-Medicine.
· State Communication Officer of Operation Smile India have said that the organization in association with Assam government has taken the initiative to make the state free from cleft lip and palate deformities and around 4500 cleft lip and palette deformity surgeries have been successfully conducted in the last 3 years. It daily conducts at least 10 surgeries free of cost. WHO’s report said that one in 700 live births with cleft lip and palette deformity problem have been detected across the globe.
· Sports Minister has asked the Indian Olympic Association, IOA, to raise the Dow Chemical’s sponsorship issue in upcoming London Olympic games with the International Olympics Committee. Meanwhile, the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy are also demanding that India should pull out of the Games if Dow continues to be the sponsor of the event.
· The future of Afghanistan after the pullout of international troops in 2014 is being discussed at a major international conference in the German city of Bonn. But Pakistan has boycotted the talks in protest at a NATO air strike on a border checkpoint. The Bonn conference is expected to address three key areas, including the transfer of security responsibilities from international to Afghan forces, reconciliation with the Taliban, and long-term prospects for international aid.
· Using a new methodology, a Swiss team has calculated that about three-quarters of the warming seen since 1950 is down to human influences. They also said that the glacier loss in parts of the Himalayas is accelerating and has confirmed that emissions have soared despite the global financial crisis.
· The United Russia Party (founded by the PM Vladimir Putin) which used to control more than two-thirds of the Duma (Russian Parliament) has secured just under 50 per cent of the vote, thus suffered a significant setback in Russia's Parliamentary elections.
The 11th International Youth Volunteerism Day is being observed today. It was approved to by UN after the proposal made by the government of Japan in 2001. Planning Commission of India on this day has called for strengthening the campaign of Volunteerism. Sunderlal Bahuguna’s Chipko Movement was the world’s earliest volunteer effort in the field of Climate change. The spirit of volunteerism has been taught to Indians by none other than ‘the Father of Nation’ Mahatma Gandhi. The United Nations has also acknowledged the Indian volunteers’ efforts “Teach the Poor India campaign” in the field of education and women empowerment. Sweden earmarks more than 5% of its GDP share to promote this initiative for better implementation of schemes and programmes whereas India’s share is around 1%.