Daily News Notes: 21th March, 2012

· Attorney General G E Vahanvati, on the be-half of the government, clarified its stand on homosexuality before the Supreme Court, saying it is in favour of decriminalisation of gay sex and the Delhi High Court verdict is acceptable to it. Vahanvati also said that the recent goof up in the apex court where Additional Solicitor General opposed gay sex was a result of lack of communication between the law officers and the Home Ministry.
· Environment Minister today inaugurated Global Compact Network National Convention in New Delhi. Inaugurating the event, the Minister said “Economic growth, social development and environment protection are the three pillars of Sustainable development. Sustainability has different meanings for different contexts. For example, while developed countries are grappling with lifestyle sustainability, the developing countries are tackling issues of livelihood sustainability. For example, one cannot lecture a starved man on the virtues of Aitkens diet, or a villager with no electricity on wood conservation.” The theme for this year’s convention was ‘Corporate Perspective on Sustainable Development: Rio+20 and Beyond’. This Convention strived to deliberate on 3 issues which are: - [1.] Green economy in context of sustainable development; [2.] Equity and human wellbeing; [3.] Enabling framework for action through innovation, partnerships and best practices. The findings of this convention shall be discussed at Mumbai Sustainability Summit in April and also presented at the Rio +20 sustainability forum to be hosted by United Nations Global Compact prior to the Rio+20 or the ‘Earth Summit 2012’ in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.
· Union Minister of Rural Development, Drinking Water and Sanitation has called for making India an open defecation free country in the next ten years, and said that all should work in a mission mode to achieve the target of making all the village panchayats a nirmal one. Shri Ramesh said, Nirmal Gram is not only about the construction of toilets, but it is intrinsically linked with the security and pride of the women folk. Lamenting over the fact that 60 percent of the world’s open defecation happen in India, the Minister admitted that the government alone cannot achieve success and there is a need for a social revolution to remove this blot from the society. Total Sanitation Campaign will be completely overhauled and a new national policy will be launched by next month, where the focus will be to move away from individual toilet construction to community based toilet projects through the Gram Panchayats.
· Plastic Waste Management Centres will be set up in different parts of the country, depending upon the availability of land and interest shown by states. One such centre has been set up in Guwahati at a cost of 8 crore rupees.
· President today gave away the 2011 Nirmal Gram Puraskar Awards to the Panchayati Raj institutions that have attained the goals of the Total Sanitation Campaign. 2857 Panchayats were honoured including three districts, and 15 blocks. President who spoke on the occasion said, Sanitation and good hygiene practices reflect the quality of life and determine the social parameters of a nation. She said lack of sanitation in rural areas in one of the major causes of child and adult mortality and morbidity. She also said, consumption of unsafe drinking water and improper sanitation facilities, are the root cause of diseases like, diarrhea, polio and typhoid.
· Home Minister informed that the government is in the process of amending the criminal law to arrest the rising crimes against women including Honour Killings. To a specific question, the Home Minister said road rage is a new phenomenon. He, however, ruled out a separate law to deal with the cases of road rage. Underlining the need for speedy trial in the cases, the Home Minister said the there is a need for having more number of judges, courts and police forces. The Judges-Population ratio is among the lowest in the world, and even against sanction post of the judges, many posts remain vacant, both at the High Court level & at the level of the district & the subordinate judiciary. These are matters which the state govt must pay greater attention. We must have more judges per population.
· Minister for Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises Mr. Praful Patel informed that the Department of Public Enterprises has written to concerned 25 Ministries/Departments requesting them to inter-alia, ensure that the Miniratna Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) under their respective administrative control, continue to fulfil the laid down criteria for grant of Miniratna status on the basis of their performance during last three years. Since CPSEs fulfilling the laid down criteria are eligible to be considered for grant of Miniratna status, it has to be ensured that CPSEs once granted Miniratna status continue to fulfil the criteria laid down in this regard.
· Minister of Defence informed that the project for development of aero-engine "Kaveri" was taken up in 1989 by Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) with a Probable Date of Completion (PDC) of 1996. The cost of the project was increased with PDC of December 2009. Now govt. has approved further continuation of Kaveri project beyond the PDC. Although there has been delay in this project due to certain reasons but for the first time Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) ventured to initiate engine development programme and achieved many milestones, like Official Altitude Testing, Phase-I flight trials in the Flying Test Bed, etc. Kaveri (K9) Engine was integrated with IL-76 Aircraft. This flight test envelop covered 12 Km altitude and a speed of 0.7 Mach No. This has been a great achievement in the aerospace community of the country, when the first ever indigenously developed fighter aircraft engine was subjected to flight testing. Kaveri spin-off engine can be used as propulsion system for Indian Unmanned Strike Air Vehicle (USAV). The Minister further informed that the flight trial of the BrahMos Missile was recently carried out. The BrahMos Missile System with launchers, mobile command post with its control and communication systems have been fully deployed by the Army in operational mode and the missile was fired. With this test firing BrahMos Missile System is fully operational with two Regiments of the Army. He also informed that the cases of unauthorized sharing of information by naval personnel on social networking sites have come to light. These are under investigation by naval authorities. Indian Navy has issued exhaustive policy guidelines on this subject.
· Minister of Law & Justice informed that the Government is conscious of the need to recruit talented and experienced persons including lawyers as Judges. The Constitution was amended in 1977 to provide for an All India Judicial Service (AIJS) under Article 312 of the Constitution. There has been overwhelming support in favour of AIJS later also by the Law Commission in its Reports, the First National Judicial Pay Commission, Committee on Centre State Relations and Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee. The State Governments and the State High Courts have been consulted on this subject. But, the consensus on having an AIJS has not been possible as 7 out of 20 States and 11 out of 17 State High Courts from whom comments were received, have not supported the proposal. This has delayed the execution of the decision.
· Minister of State for Human Resource Development informed that the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) is envisaged to provide connectivity to over 25000+ colleges and 2000 polytechnics in the country and to 419 universities/deemed universities and institutions of national importance. Connectivity to the universities are provided on optical fiber and to the colleges are provided on copper cable. Up to another 400 universities fall under the ambit of National Knowledge Network (NKN) for connectivity. Till now, around 400 universities and more than 15000 colleges in the country have been connected under NMEICT. By obtaining synergy between NMEICT and NKN, a lot of cost reduction and bandwidth enhancement has taken place for the universities.
· Minister of State in PMO Shri V Narayansamy informed that the Thorium plays a pivotal role in Indian Nuclear power program, in fact, right at the beginning of our nuclear power program, use of thorium as an energy source has been contemplated during the third phase of our nuclear power program. Right from the inception of Indian nuclear power program, work has been carried out on various aspects of thorium utilization-mining and extraction of thorium, fuel fabrication and irradiation in rectors, reprocessing and refabrication. In addition studies are underway for utilization of thorium in different types of reactors. The Minister said that India has vast reserves of Thorium. Total estimated reserves of monazite in India are about 10.7 million tones (containing about 0.84 million tons of thorium metal) occurring in beach and river sands in association with other heavy minerals. Stating further he revealed that the third stage of Indian nuclear power program contemplates making use of Uranium-233 to fuel Uranium-233 –Thorium based rectors, which can provide energy independence to the country for several centuries. This will avoid the dependency on coal and natural gas. The Minister also informed that there is a proposal in the Ministry of Home Affairs to amend the Indian Penal Code, 1860 to make bribery in private sector a criminal offence. Since Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure fall in the Concurrent List of Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India, taking a view on the proposal is subject to receipt of comments from all the State Governments. He said that 19 State Governments and 5 UTs have agreed with the proposal while 1 state and 1 UT have conveyed their disagreement with the proposal.
· The Union Labour & Employment Minister Shri Mallikarjun Kharge has informed that Reliable estimates of employment and unemployment are obtained through quinquennial (5 year) labour force surveys conducted by National Sample Survey Office. Last such survey was conducted during 2009-10. As per two most recent rounds of surveys; about 23.4 per cent (in first round) and 25.3 percent (in second round) of persons were estimates to employ in services sector. Against these estimates persons employed in social sector comprising education, health and social work and other community, social and personal service activity combined together were 6.0 per cent and 5.3 percent, respectively during the corresponding period.
· Minister of State, Communication and Information Technology informed that [1.] Mobile phones, particularly Smart phones, are vulnerable to certain malware/virus/botnet, which are capable of stealing data, sending unauthorised SMS and making unauthorised calls from such phones. He said that the Government has been regularly issuing alerts / advisories regarding vulnerabilities and malware affecting mobile phones. Awareness Short Messages Services (ASMS) alerts were also initiated by Telecom Service Providers. [2.] The Government is aware of the nature of the threats in Cyber Space and accordingly, an integrated approach is being followed. Specific steps in this regard relate to actions such as periodic scanning of cyber space, close watch on critical infrastructure networks & variety of threats and imminent attacks; training of manpower engaged in operation of critical networks to protect their systems and networks; carrying out periodic security audits on sample basis; conducting mock cyber security drills involving critical sector organisations and providing a platform for the personnel of critical sector organisations to share their experiences. In support of this approach, the Information Technology Act 2000 has adequate provisions for protection of critical information infrastructure and cyber security incident response in the country. [3.] The Government is implementing the National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) scheme for providing backhaul connectivity to village Panchayats by extending the existing optical fiber network utilizing the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). Backhaul technology is used in telecom and information technology sector including mobile and broad band services. It uses optical cable, radio and satellite system, and presently operates in different frequency bands such as, 6,7,11,13,15,18 & 22 GHz etc. [4.] The Government has decided to establish a Pan-India Secure Network for Intra Governmental communications, which will be less vulnerable to attacks and would provide secured communications. Government has decided to establish the network initially at Delhi and thereafter, it will be scaled up for Pan-India communications. [5.] The Government has assessed the requirement of electronic hardware in the country by 2025, to stimulate the growth of IT, ITES and electronic hardware manufacturing industry. For this a Task Force was set up by the Government in August 2009. As per the report of the Task Force, the demand for electronics hardware in the country has been projected to increase from USD 45 Billion in 2009 to USD 400 Billion by 2020. Some measures which the Govt. has taken to stimulate the growth in this sector are (a.) Approvals for all foreign direct investment upto 100% in the IT, ITES and electronic hardware manufacturing sector are under the automatic route. (b.) Software is exempted from basic customs duty. (c.) Government has constituted an Empowered Committee (EC) for identifying technology and investors for setting up Semiconductor Fabrication facilities in the country. (d.) Under Software Technology Park (STP) and Electronics Hardware Technology Park (EHTP) Schemes, approved units are allowed duty free import of goods required by them for carrying on export activities, CST reimbursement and excise duty exemption on procurement of indigenously available goods, as per the Foreign Trade Policy. (e.) 235 IT-ITES specific Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have been notified across the country. Income tax benefit is available for units located in SEZs.
· Minister of State for Commerce & Industry informed that India has reduced its Sensitive List for Least Developed Countries (under South Asian Free Trade Area Agreement) from 480 items to 25 items and granted zero basic customs duty access on all the items removed. Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives and Nepal are the LDCs while India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are the Non-Least Developed Countries. Other SAFTA member countries are being urged at both the bilateral and multi-lateral levels, to progressively liberalise their trade and investment policies, so that overall trade and commerce is strengthened amongst all SAFTA members. The Minister has further informed that the Tobacco Board (an autonomous body under the Government) has participated in various Exhibitions across the world and exchanged trade delegations to promote the Brand image of Virginia tobaccos, its cost competitiveness among the similar tobaccos produced elsewhere and building trust among the overseas customers for product integrity and consistent supply of the same for future requirements. Government has also sent many trade delegations to various countries (including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Thailand, South Korea and Tanzania) under the aegis of Tobacco Board to promote the exports of unmanufactured tobacco and the tobacco products.
· Minister of State for HRD informed that the Tri-Valley University (TVU) near San Francisco, California was shut down on January 19, 2011 by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on charges of immigration fraud. More than 1800 Indian students were affected by this fraud perpetrated by the TVU. As per current statistics furnished by the US authorities, 766 cases of Indian students of the TVU were approved for transfer to other universities, 480 cases are pending for scrutiny and 281 were denied transfer. He said that the Indian Government has strongly conveyed to the U.S. agencies that the students, themselves a victim of fraud, should not be penalized and held responsible for the violations committed by the University. Government has requested that there should be no mass termination of visas of the affected students, so that they do not go out of status, and the affected students should be given adequate time for transfer to other Universities: or voluntarily return to India, without prejudice. It is also told that a few students who required consular services were immediately helped by the Embassy of India at Washington DC.
· India and Malawi have expressed happiness that after decline in bilateral trade in Fiscal Year 2010-11, bilateral trade has shown a strong growth in the current fiscal year. Bilateral trade growth of more than 85 % has been registered during April to November, 2011, which is US $ 113 mn. Referring to the recent commitment of revising the trade target with Africa to US$ 90 billion by year 2015, Shri Sharma said that “there is a need to strengthen the trade relationship between the two sides through building of trade-related capacity”.
· In Russia, a court today dismissed a petition seeking a ban on a translated version of Bhagwad Gita for being extremist.
· The government has ascertained that construction activity on the Brahmaputra River at Zangmu on the Chinese side is a run-of-the-river hydro-electric project which will not adversely impact the downstream areas in India. External Affairs Minister said changes in river flows are caused by natural factors like hydro-meteorology and climate changes. There has neither been any abnormal rise nor fall in the flow of the river on the Chinese side.
· U.S. State Department warned India, along with other nations importing oil from Iran, could face sanctions by July if it did not “significantly” reduce imports of petroleum products and oil from Iran. The remarks raised brows here as sanctions against countries such as India, China, and South Korea appeared more imminent following the White House's push for upping the ante against Iran through its 2012 National Defence Authorisation Act. NDAA provisions gave nations 180 days from the start of this year to attain levels of oil import cuts similar to those of Japan, which was said to have decreased its imports of Iranian crude by between 15 and 22 per cent.