Daily News Notes

• ·         BJP urged all members of Parliament to give an undertaking that they have no foreign bank account having black money, which they have already done, and strongly advocated for making an effective Law to deal with black money issue as the same has been used as a Hawala channel for financing terror activities. While Ruling Congress charged the BJP of relaxing the rules that made taking money outside the country easy via Mauritius route leading to outflow of money to other countries.
• ·         Dr. Manmohan Singh said New Delhi is working out with Beijing to have the 15th round of India-China border dialogue and by and large this border remain peaceful since long time. China while expressing concern over Dalai Lama organizing global Buddhist congregation in India wanted either to prevent him from participating in the conference or cancel it, India informed Beijing that the government will not interfere in the conference which is a religious convention and such an event will not have any impact on government to government interaction.
• ·         The Congress today said that it is moving forward on the Lokpal draft which is acceptable to all the political parties, but team Anna should refrain from using harsh language on the Lokpal issue as Congress has never used derogatory words against any of their members..
• ·         Addressing a function to mark the National Energy Conservation Day, Prime Minister asserted that for achieving 9% GDP growth in the 12th Five Year Plan, the energy needs of the country are bound to increase with enhancing energy efficiency. National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency will lead to annual fuel savings of equivalent to 23 million tones of oil, coal, gas and other petroleum products. Dr. Singh said the focus is on energy savings by consumers and industrial units accounting for 35% of the total energy consumption.
• ·         The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has registered the custodial deaths, this year, of 1426 people in judicial custody, 146 in police custody and two people in defence and paramilitary custody. Criminal Procedure Code has been amended to provide that in cases of death or disappearance of a person or rape of a woman while in custody of the police, there shall be a mandatory judicial inquiry.
• ·         The government is planning to bring in a bill in Parliament to check sexual assault on women and reclaim that it is not true that crimes against Christians and other minorities are rising in the country, particularly in Karnataka, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat but has gone down from 204 in 2010 to 170 in 2011.
• ·         Government today said shortage of coal due to mining scams and low availability is one of the reasons responsible for slowdown in Industrial growth, thus it is planning to organize an investors and corporate meet in the six mega cities in the country to boost investment in the country. It is also Working on a competition policy, which will help bring down inflation.
• ·         Finance Minister said that the lack of external demand is the major reason behind the declining value of the Indian rupee of all-time low of 53 rupees 80 paise against dollar in the international market. But still Indian economy is in a much better position than many developed economies of the world, he added.
• ·         In Manipur, at least three persons including a woman have been injured in a powerful bomb blast at Imphal this afternoon.
• The Oil Ministers of 12 OPEC countries are meeting in Vienna today to decide on the output for the next year.