Daily News Notes

· Christmas celebrations are in full swing across the country and abroad to mark the joyous occasion of arrival of Lord Jesus in Bethlehem, Jerusalem. A large number of tourists have arrived in Goa to celebrate Christmas. Even non-Christian families decorate their homes and work places with multi-coloured stars and fascinating Christmas trees further strengthening the rich secular tradition of the state.
· Ganjam district of Odisha has been adjudged the best districts in the country for their "The Window of Hope" programme and bagged national award for empowering persons with disability by Union Social Justice Ministry.
· The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy has suggested that Power Ministry should devise some fair and transparent mechanism and prepare some suitable guidelines to facilitate bilateral exchange of power between power surplus and deficit States as some power surplus states selling electricity at exorbitant rates during peak times to the deficit ones. Also, as part of efforts to address acute power shortage in the country, the Power Ministry has facilitated connectivity and long-term access to Independent Power Producers, IPP through Power Grid which propose to add a capacity of 1,16,000 MW.
· In Rajasthan, the medical and health services are showing signs of improvement as a result of alternate arrangements (Army, BSF, Railways, private and retired doctors, and pre-final students) made by the state government as in-service doctors continued with their strike for 5^th day. The government has also decided to recruit more doctors (nearly 1000) by tomorrow.
· The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will arrive in Chennai to attend 125th birth Anniversary of noted Mathmatician Ramanujam and to discuss the Mullaiperiyar issue.
· The electoral rolls in five states (UP, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarkhand and Goa) going for polls next year are under quick revision. A large number of first time voters are expected to be added.
· The government is considering to set up a Crisis Management Group, CMG to deal with the impact of global financial turmoil. Apart from RBI, CMG will have representatives from other regulatory bodies like, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority and Finance Ministry. It will be headed by the Deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India.
· National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Fedration of India Limited or NAFED, principal agency that grants no-objection certificate for onion export, said that onion exports from India dropped by nearly 37 per cent. In fact, lowering of onion export prices to 250 USD a tonne has failed to boost its outbound shipment with China and Egypt continuing to dominate the international market by selling it at less than 200 USD a tonne.
· Senior officials of India and Pakistan will hold two-day talks from tomorrow on conventional and nuclear confidence-building measures - CBMs in Islamabad. The two sides are also expected to discuss an agreement for removing weapons along the LoC and exchange notes on their war doctrines and implementing the cross-Kashmir trade.
The United Nation member countries, after a series of negotiations, have agreed to cut the global body's budget (2012-13 budget set at 5.15 billion dollar, down from 5.41 billion dollar in 2010-11) only for the second time in the past 50 years. The United States and crisis-stricken European countries had fought for cuts while developing countries had demanded spending be kept up.