Daily News Notes: 17th March, 2012

• ·         The Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee today said that the global economic situation is still fragile as Eurozone crisis is yet to be contained and this may impact India also. He said the task ahead of him is to bring subsidy down to 2 per cent of GDP and subsequently to 1.75 per cent. The subsidy remains at 2.5 per cent of GDP currently. The Finance Minister said that he has pegged fiscal deficit for the next year at 5.1 per cent which has gone upto 5.9 per cent this year. Meanwhile, Pre- school and school education, vocation education, renting of residential dwelling, public transportation and health care are among the 17 services that are proposed to be exempt from service tax in the budget.  Charities, religious and sports persons, performing artists, advocates providing services to non-business entities, independent journalists and services by way of animal care and car parking are also in the negative list which will not attract service tax.  Service tax, to be levied on all service not in the negative list is expected to yield 1.24 lakh crore rupees in the next financial year.
• ·         The Scheme to create National Population Register (NPR) is likely to be completed within the next two years. The Government is also considering a proposal of issuing Resident Identity Cards bearing the Aadhar numbers to all residents who are of age 18 years and above to help in the e-governance initiatives. The first phase of this scheme is under implementation in 3331 coastal villages and Port Blair Town (Andaman and Nicobar Islands) in 13 coastal States/UTs. This was announced in the 2012-13 Budget. Under the NPR project, the demographic data of more than a billion people has been completed through a house to house enumeration. The scanning of all the filled-in NPR schedules has been completed. The details required for the NPR has therefore been collected. The work of creation of the digital database and collection of biometrics is now going on. The entire biometric enrolment is also expected to be completed by mid-2013. The NPR database consisting of demographic and biometric data will be sent to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for de-duplication and issue of UID Numbers (Aadhaar). After this, the Local Register of Usual Residents (LRUR) alongwith Aadhaar number would be published in the local areas for inviting objections and claims. The LRUR would also be placed before the Gram Sabha/ Ward Committee for social vetting. The claims and objections would be dealt with by revenue officials like Patwari, Tehsildars and Collectors/ DMs who are designated as the Local Registrars, Sub-district Registrars and District Registrars, respectively.
• ·         In a first in the world, scientists at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Kashmir have successfully cloned a rare Himalayan Pashmina goat, hoping to help increase the number of animals famed for Pashmina wool, or cashmere. Named Noori, the animal was born on March 9 and is doing well so far, said Doctor Riaz Ahmad Shah, who heads the cloning project at SKUAST. Pashmina goats, which grow a thick warm fleece, survive on grass in Ladakh where temperatures plunge to as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius. Experts say their numbers are dwindling. In recent years, Kashmir has started importing cashmere from neighbouring China to keep up with orders for the region’s hand-woven shawls. Shah and six other scientists took two years to clone Noori, using the relatively new ‘handmade’ cloning technique involving only a microscope and a steady hand.
• ·         The annual budget of Chhattisgarh was presented in the Assembly today. The Chief Minister, Dr. Raman Singh who also holds the finance portfolio presented more than 37,000 crore rupees budget. One of the highlights of this year's budget is the separate budget for the agriculture sector in the state. [imp. for CPSC]
• ·         Assam Government has taken initiative to rehabilitate erosion-affected families by setting up the Rehabilitation Authority for Erosion Affected Families. Assam has 44 erosion prone river in Brahmaputra valley and 11 in Barak valley. The state has lost an area of 6 lakh bighas of land due to erosion by the Brahmaputra since 1971.In a bid to prevent erosion, Assam government had taken up 47 schemes under 11th Five Year Plan. Another 12 projects have been submitted to the Central Water Resource Commission for approval.
• ·         A multi-mission general aviation aircraft, developed jointly by National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) and Mahindra Aerospace Private Ltd, is expected to go into production early next year. Christened as NM5-100, it is basically a five-seater and can be used for different missions such as air taxis, training, tourism, executive transport, and also for cargo. With some modifications, the aircraft could also be used as an ambulance. SLYBIRD, the mini UAV is a lightweight, Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). It could be used for rapid deployment for both military and civilian applications, requiring high and low altitude reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition. Black Kite 300 is a small unmanned micro air vehicle with high manoeuvrability and could be deployed quickly.
• ·         The Supreme Court will examine the constitutional validity of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, which limits the liability of an operator in the event of a nuclear disaster to Rs. 1,500 crore. The petitioners said: “The Act channels all the liability to the nuclear operator [now the government itself], and the victims are not allowed to sue companies supplying reactors and other materials. The Act, under Section 6, also limits the liability of the operator to Rs. 1,500 crore, which is quite low, and states that the remaining damages may be made good by the government at the cost of the exchequer. The Act also excludes the liability of the operators in certain circumstances.” Moreover, the Act did not protect the right of a person to a clean, healthy and safe environment, which is also part of Article 21. It indemnified the supplier, regardless of the cause of the accident. In the absence of financial liability, the supplier would not want to invest in safer technology as there would be no incentive for doing so.
• ·         In one of the sharpest-ever interest rate cuts, the Employees Provident Fund Organization has slashed the returns on statutory savings to 8.25% for the current fiscal from 9.5% last year, on cues from finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. A notification on the reduction in rates for the 4.72 crore EPFO subscribers was issued earlier this week. In the present structure, the returns will be lower than the 8.6% paid for public provident fund (PPF) deposits, a popular voluntary savings scheme. Banks, too, are offering 9%- 9.5% deposits that are of much shorter duration. But compared to banks, the returns on EPF are better since the annual contribution and the interest on the balance are tax free. The EPFO’s investment committee had said that even at 8.25%, there would be a deficit of Rs 24 lakh. The labour ministry had suggested a payment of 8.6%, in line with the PPF returns, while asking the finance ministry to take the final call. It was for the first time that North Block was asked to decide instead of the usual practice of the finance ministry notifying the rate suggested by EPFO.
• ·         The Chief Election Commissioner of India, Dr. S. Y. Quraishi today left for Amman at the head of a four-member delegation, in response to an invitation by the Prime Minister of Jordan, Dr. Awn Al Khasawneh, to explore modalities of supporting Jordan’s electoral process against the backdrop of political reforms taking place in Jordan and in the West Asian region. The visit is a part of the Election Commission’s preparedness to share its professional and technical expertise with the developing countries, particularly the Arab world, in the light of developments in the region for electoral reform.  In the recent past, ECI has responded promptly and positively to requests for technical and professional assistance from its sister bodies in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries bilaterally and also under requests from UNDP in the spirit of South-South cooperation. The offer of the Commission’s experience and expertise to these countries is taking place through ECI’s new training Institute, the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM).
• ·         The Union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles of India and the African Trade and Industry Ministers met in New Delhi today for the 2^nd meeting of the India-Africa Trade Ministers. During the meeting, the Ministers launched the India-Africa Business Council (IABC). The IABC is co-chaired by Mr.  Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Group from India side and Mr. Alhaji Aliko Dangote, GCON, President, Chief Executive, Dangote Group, Nigeria from African side. The core sectors of cooperation which will be explored by IABC are Agriculture, including Agro-processing, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Textiles, Mining, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Information Technology and Information Technology Enabled Services, Gems and Jewellery, Banking, Financial Services (including microfinance), Energy, Core Infrastructure including Roads and Railways. During the meeting, the Cotton Technical Assistance Programme in the C-4 countries (Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad, Mali ), Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda was also launched. The Technical Assistance Programme in the cotton sector is an initiative of the Government of India under the umbrella of the ‘India-Africa Forum Summit’ towards helping the above-mentioned cotton growing countries of Africa to build capacity, technical expertise and thereby competitiveness in the field. During the meeting, the Indian and African Ministers set the target of India-Africa bilateral trade as US $ 90 bn by 2015. In the year 2011, India-Africa bilateral trade has reached US $ 60 bn.
• ·         The U.S. has reacted angrily to reports of North Korea's plan to launch a rocket-mounted satellite to mark the birth centenary of its former President, the late Kim Il-sung, with the State Department describing the move as “highly provocative”. It said North Korea's announcement was in direct violation of its international obligations, specifically United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874, which “clearly and unequivocally prohibit North Korea from conducting launches that use ballistic missile technology”. Diplomatic ties were strained significantly following similar launches by Pyongyang in 2009. North Korea at the time had said it was only engaged in a peaceful space programme.