Daily News Notes: 28th March, 2012

· Making a statement in the Rajya Sabha on the letter by the Army Chief General V K Singh to the Prime Minister, Mr Antony said the issue raised by General Singh is being examined by his ministry. He said such issues cannot be discussed in the public domain. Mr Antony, however, said after consulting the Prime Minister and Cabinet colleagues, he will take action against those responsible for the leakage of confidential communication.
· Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, inflows from individual NRIs in India increased between April and December, 2011. There was a decline in the two proceeding years. Private transfer receipts and Overseas Indians' deposits have been increasing over the years.
· Minister of State for Communications has informed that the Core Banking Solution (CBS) platform will be introduced in all departmental Post Offices in the country. He said ATM facility will also be provided in selected Post Offices in Metros and Non Metro cities. Mr. Pilot however said that at present there is no proposal to introduce ATMs in the rural areas.
· In Maharashtra, the police and other security agencies are continuing the joint combing and search operations in Gadchiroli district following the naxal attack in which 12 CRPF jawans were killed and thirty one injured. The minibus carrying the police personnel was devastated in the landmine blast and the Naxals managed to flee from the spot immediately despite the efforts of the security agencies to nab them. Maharashtra Home Minister, while speaking to reporters asserted that there was no intelligence input with regard to the Naxal attack. He called for suitable amendments to the relevant laws in order to facilitate the police and security agencies further to control the menace. [Photic News#1, Photic News#2]
· Surface-to-surface cruise missile, BRAHMOS was successfully testfired from the Interim Test Range, Chandipur from Balesore district of Odisha. Carrying 200-300 kg of conventional and nuclear warheads, this 3 ton weight supersonic cruise missile can hit the enemy target up to 300 km distance. Brahmos has been deployed to the Army and Navy Wing of Indian Armed Forces. It was last testfired on 4th of this month from Pokhran in Rajasthan.
· The Government has declared 14th April, 2012 as Closed Holiday on account of the birthday of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, for all Central Government Offices including industrial Establishments throughout India. The above holiday is also being notified in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.
· Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions informed that in order to promote good governance, the Central Vigilance Commission has prepared a draft “National Anti-Corruption Strategy” and placed it on the website of the Commission. The proposed Strategy aims at systematic and conscious reshaping of the country’s national integrity system. Drive against black money/tax evasion is a continuous and ongoing process. Information technology is used in a systematic way for collection and collation of information to take anti-evasion action against tax evaders. Benami transactions already stand prohibited under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 to the effect that no person shall enter into any benami transaction. The rules under that Act could not, however, be formulated due to inherent infirmities in the Act. Therefore, a comprehensive legislation in place of the existing Act has been introduced in Parliament on 18.8.2011 in the form of Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill, 2011 in order to prohibit holding property in benami, restrict right to recover or transfer property held benami and to provide a mechanism and procedure for confiscation of property held benami. The Bill is currently being examined by the Standing Committee on Finance.
· The major achievements have been development of indigenous nuclear power reactor and associated fuel cycle technologies for the country’s three-stage nuclear power program in an international isolation and technology denial regime that lasted from 1974 to 2008. Today India is recognized globally as a country having advanced technology with impeccable non-proliferation record. Giving further details, Minister of State in PMO informed that in the last three years, three nuclear power reactors (3x220 MS) have been commissioned successfully. Construction of 4 indigenously designed Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors of 700 MW each have been started. Bilateral cooperation agreements have been signed with several countries. The Minister stated that as per the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 foreign equity investment in nuclear power projects is not permitted. Therefore, foreign funding can only be in the form of debt. Currently, the Kudankulam project is being set up with Russian state credit of Rs. 6416 crore. In respect of future projects, foreign debt either as state credit, banks or multilateral funding agencies is envisaged. Revealing further on the matter he said that the Central Government has signed fuel supply contracts with Russian Federation, Kazakhsthan and France.
· Indians have emerged as the second most confident people about their economy across the world on easing inflationary pressure and increased foreign investments, says a report. According to global research firm Ipsos, India's economic confidence jumped by 9 points to 74 per cent in the month of February compared to the previous month, becoming the second most economically confident country after Saudi Arabia which tops the chart with 90 per cent. Sweden is the third most economically confident country, where 73 per cent are optimistic about their economy, followed by China (72 per cent), Germany (71 per cent), Australia (66 per cent) and Canada (65 per cent). India’s economic growth is expected to remain robust in 2012 and 2013, despite likely headwind of double-dip recessions in Europe and the US. More than half of Indian citizens (51 per cent) believe their local economy, which impacts their personal finance is good and 56 per cent people expect that the economy in their local area will be stronger in next six months.Further, it said that the inflationary pressure eased as the wholesale price index fell, making daily consumption items relatively affordable and giving hopes that Reserve Bank of India will ease its monetary policy stance by reducing the policy rates in the coming months which will further fuel economic growth of the country.
· India will outpace China to become the world’s largest economy by 2050, boasting a Gross Domestic Product (PPP) of $86 trillion, forecasts a report by global property firm Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank. Leading the elephant’s charge will be Mumbai and New Delhi, which will feature in the list of top 20 cities globally within the next ten years. China will overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy by 2020, which in turn will be overtaken by India in 2050. The Indian economy will reach a size of $85.97 trillion in terms of purchasing power parity by 2050 while the Chinese GDP would be $80.02 trillion during the same period. The US—currently the world’s largest economy—is expected to have a GDP of $39.07 trillion by 2050. In terms of growth from 2010-2050, India would be the second fastest, with its economy growing at a rate of 8% annually during the period after Nigeria which will grow at 8.5%.
· Close proximity to Nepal has turned Uttarakhand into a hub for tiger poaching with 49 to 54 tigers -one fourth of the total big cats in the state -killed in less than a year (2010-11), an internal government memo had revealed. The memo was based on confession of three tiger poachers -Tota, Balram and Balku Bawaria -caught in separate raids in the state. According to NGO Wildlife Protection Society of India, 61 tigers were killed in 2011 and 18 till end of February 2012 in the country. This does not take into account the alleged killing of tigers by these poachers. The three reportedly hired locals to kill tigers in different forest ranges of the state, including in Corbett Tigers Reserve, which has the highest density of big cats in the world.
For each tiger, R20,000 to R30,000 is paid to these poachers. Though the poachers operated separately, their modus operandi was similar. All the tiger body parts were smuggled to a woman named Aarti in Nepal, who ensured it reached possible clients in Tibet.
· Minister of State for Urban Development informed that the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) was launched on 3rd December, 2005 for seven years beginning from 2005-06 to 2011-12 with the objective of reforms driven and fast track development of cities across the country with focus on bringing about efficiency in urban infrastructure, service delivery mechanisms, community participation and accountability of Urban Local Bodies and Parastatal agencies towards citizens including municipal solid waste management. The JNNURM has two sub-missions namely Urban Infrastructure Governance (UIG) and Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small & Medium Towns (UIDSSMT). Till now 65 Cities, on the basis of population as per census 2001, and State Capitals and other cities/Urban Agglomeration (UAs) of religious/historic and touristic importance have been included in Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) Sub-Mission of JnNURM. [JNNURM is Imp. For Prelim 2012]
· The spirit of self-reliance and national pride will come alive in vibrant colours with the display of state-of-the-art military systems and technologies by DRDO during the DefExpo India 2012. The star attractions of the Expo will be a “Missile Interceptor Simulator” and a “3D Virtual Reality Theatre”. The Explosive Detection Kit (EDK), and the Swine Flu diagnostic kit are among over 70 products and technologies developed for defence applications with potential civilian applications that have been identified for commercialization under the DRDO-FICCI ATAC (Accelerated Technology Assessment Commercialization) programme. These two products will be launched during a function on Saturday March 31, 2012. The Swine Flu diagnostic kit, developed by Defence Research and Development Establishment, Gwalior, can detect H1N1 virus within an hour.
· Certain quarters in the media in recent days have highlighted the expenses incurred on the State visits of the President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil to some of the countries abroad. These reports also compare the number of visits undertaken by the current President with those of her predecessors. The rising global profile of India on account of its dynamic economy, strategic importance, democratic governance and ancient civilisational links has led to enhanced engagements with countries across the world. As part of these engagements, it is necessary for the President of India to visit various countries to deepen bilateral cooperation. For example, the President's visit to Latin American countries emphasized the growing importance attached to this region, where a Presidential visit had not taken place for almost a decade. The number of countries visited by various Presidents have varied. For instance, Dr. Kalam visited 17 countries, Shri Narayanan visited 13 countries, Shri Venkataraman visited 21 countries and Shri V.V. Giri visited 22 countries during their tenure. While undertaking visits abroad, the President is accompanied by an Official Delegation comprising of Ministers, Members of Parliament and senior functionaries of the Government besides supporting and security staff constituting part of the Accompanying Delegation. All Presidents have been accompanied by family members and Presidential Guests besides media contingent. The composition of delegation during the time of President Patil has also been on the same pattern as followed in the past and, therefore, to say that President Patil was "mostly" accompanied by family members is a distortion of facts.