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New coal pricing norm
- The Ministry of Coal is migrating to gross calorific value (GCV)-based grading system for non-coking coals from the existing useful heat value (UHV)-based system with effect from January 1, 2012, which is an international practice
- However, the new system in not likely to lead to any significant change in pricing
- The new system will incentivise improvement in quality, resulting in better quality of coal to consumers and commensurate revenue realisation for coal firms
- The new system is being introduced based on the recommendations of the Integrated Energy Policy Committee and the Expert Committee on Road Map for coal sector reforms.
Avoid sensationalism, Ansari tells the media
- Inaugurating the two-day World Urdu Editors Conference, Mr. Hamid Ansari asked the editors to develop methodologies for retaining the demarcation between journalism, public relations, advertising and entertainment.
- Quoting American journalist Walter Lippmann, Mr. Ansari said mediapersons should avoid being “captured and captivated by the company they keep, their constant exposure to power.
- A good newspaper, however, should cater both to public demand and to the need to shape this demand. Only then would it be in a position of opinion maker. News coverage needs to move away from the purely sectional interest to what would satisfy a wider audience.
Security agencies plan complete tab on mobile, Internet communication
- The next five years could change the way how security agencies keep a tab on your phone calls and flow of content on the Internet as the government has proposed a Rs.900-crore corpus for setting up a ‘Centre for Communication Security Research and Monitoring' to give law enforcement agencies a free hand to intercept calls and monitor the worldwide web.
- It has been prepared by the working group on the telecom sector for the 12{+t}{+h}Five-Year Plan (2012-17).
- At present, the entire monitoring of phone calls and Internet content is done, after manually taking authorisation at multiple places on the premises of the telecom service providers (those giving phone and Internet services).
- But this system is “time consuming and fraught with dangers of loss of secrecy” and “there is hardly any analytical capability in the system” to assist law enforcement agencies
