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tune in with UPSC: Daily News Notes: 6th Feb, 2012
- · The Supreme Court sought Centre's response on a PIL seeking inquiry into alleged illegal clinical trials of untested drugs in various states. The PIL filed by an NGO, seeks appointment of an expert committee to regulate the clinical trials done by many multi-national pharmaceutical companies. It pointed out several cases of illegal drug trials going on in the country and says such trials must be stopped immediately. [example of NGO activism]
- · The Planning Commission has given investment clearance of scheme “Restoration of rivers Dibang and Lohit to their original courses at DhollaHatiguli”. The project shall be completed by the financial year 2011-12 and Plan accounts would be closed by 31st March 2012. Project may accordingly be executed as per the approved outlays in the currents financial year. Location of the proposed works be decided after actual survey as per requirement and got sanctioned as the site conditions change every year.
- · Human Resource Development Minister announced 5 point agenda of the government to rejuvenate Social Science research in the country. Firstly, we need to attract bright minds to social science research in the country. To that end, Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) shall proceed to develop a Fellowship scheme for embedding young scholars in the universities interested in pursuit of social science research; Secondly, ICSSR can create a network of eminent academics to collaborate on creation of academic content including publications of texts, digests and manuscripts in specific areas in social sciences. The manuscripts could be delivered electronically leveraging on the gains of the National Knowledge Network which aims to interlink all institutions of higher learning with an information super-highway; Thirdly, ICSSR could take the lead to develop a Social Sciences Knowledge and Research Network as an open source, virtual assembly of research papers of quality; Fourth, in order to develop capacity in new and frontier areas of trans-disciplinary research, ICSSR could establish a National Social Science Research Innovation Centre; Fifth, while the field of sciences recognises advances through research through the Bhatnagar Awards, there is no comparative recognition to high quality research in social sciences. We propose to institute ten annual awards to recognise advancement of knowledge in social sciences. The government is focusing on enhancing the Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education so that by 2020 it becomes 50 per cent, which is at present is merely 16 per cent.
- · The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare (in India Bio-2012 conference in Bangalore) said that a regulatory mechanism in Biodiversity sector will be in place after the recommendations by a task force are firmed up to safeguard public health and protect environment. He also disclosed that the Quality Control lab in Delhi has been asked to bring wider range of bio-technology products under its ambit to ensure that they are safe and meet the prescribed standards. He expressed happiness over country’s capabilities in manufacturing diagnostic kits for testing bird flu. The Central Government has approved the Bio-Connect Centre for Bangalore, which is one of its kind in the country, will help mould young scientists as leaders in their specific fields of specialization.
- · A two-day International Conference on Climate Change, Sustainable Agriculture and Public Leadership begins here tomorrow. The main objective of this conference is to bring scientists, teachers, researchers, economists, managers and policy makers from around the world on a single platform to discuss various aspects of climate change, sustainable agriculture and public leadership and develop a consensus containing a set of valuable recommendations, as a way forward for addressing the issues related to the future climate scenario, Indian agriculture and food security. According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and World Meteorological Organization, climate change can adversely impact global environment, agricultural productivity and the quality of human life. Developing countries, India in particular, are vulnerable to climate variability and climate change as farming depends largely on the variability of rainfall. International efforts to address the issue of climate change began with the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992.
- · Addressing the 2nd Global Agri Business Incubation Conference, Former President APJ abdul Kalam has stressed the need to increase the agricultural productivity and growth to meet the growing demand of food across the globe. He called for networking and connectivity of the farmers including physical and economic connectivity for the robust economic growth especially in the rural agricultural sector. He said that networking farmers can communicate and interact with global agri community and sort out their problems. Expressing concern over the meagre land size for the poor rural farmers, he said it is the cause of low profitability and production in the country. Dr. Kalam advocated for use of hybrid crops for the sustainable growth of production in agriculture. Dr. kalam appreciated the entrepreneurship in the agri sector to play an pivotal role to promote the productivity and growth.
- · Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution has convened a meeting of State Food & Agricultural Ministers to discuss reforms in PDS. Improvement in Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), procurement of food grains and enhancement of storage capacity in view of proposed National Food Security Act are also in the agenda of the meeting. The Government is working on improving procurement infrastructure and optimization of storage and transportation cost and losses. It is also considering committed transportation system for speedy movement of food grains to consuming states from procurement centers. Direct payments to the farmers to encourage procurement are also being adopted. The Government has launched computerization of PDS end to end, some pilot projects have already been completed successfully and in some States significant progress has been made in issuing of biometric cards, identification of beneficiaries for various categories and elimination of bogus ration cards. The Conference will discuss further strengthening these efforts and linking it with UIDAI.
- · The Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), based at Visakhapatnam, a unit of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed an affordable cochlear implant (also known as a bionic ear), which will cost around 1 lakh rupees which is similar to imported device which costs about 8 lakh rupees. It is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing due to loss of sensory hair cells in their cochlea. There are nearly 1 million people in the country who need cochlear implants. Every year nearly 10,000 children are born with this impairment. The DRDO device will go for clinical trials within next four months. After trials at five centres in the country, the indigenous cochlear implant will go into production. India is now the fifth country besides US, Austria, Australia and France in the world to produce such a complex device.
- · A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the National Institute for Entrepreneurship & Small Business Development (NIESBUD), an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, for jointly undertaking different Projects relating to entrepreneurship development in India. The ultimate objective is to create a cadre of Master Trainers who would, in turn, replicate the model to impart training for MSME Sector in a much bigger way. The Pilot Programme(s) will be organized for the selected Trainers from across the 5 identified States/U.Ts. The Programme(s) shall involve the use of the Business Edge Training of Trainers methodology of IFC which has been rolled out in 29 countries so far. The methodology is a learning platform for small businesses that includes a comprehensive and effective approach to equip trainers with key facilitation skills.
- · Google India told the Delhi court that it has removed certain web pages from the Internet on which objections were raised by the petitioners. Meanwhile, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft told the court that they have no role to play in the case and there is no cause for action against them in the matter. Earlier, Court in an ex-parte order issued summons to 22 social networking websites asking them to remove anti-religious or anti-social content in the form of photographs, videos or text which might hurt religious sentiments.
- · The rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah (during meeting between Palestinian Authority President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Chief Khaled Meshal in Doha) have agreed to hold the Presidential and Legislative elections quickly. Fatah controls West Bank while Hamas rules Gaza. The two rival factions signed an agrrement in April 2011 which called for holding polls simultaneously in West Bank and Gaza stripes by May 2012. However, differences persist between the two factions on who will head the transitional Government and detention of political prisoners. The last Palestinian elections were held in 2006.
