Daily News Notes: 4th March, 2012

• ·         In Assam, security forces have launched a massive search operation in Singhasan hills of Karbi Anglong district to rescue abducted Chief Conservator of Forest Abhijeet Rabha (an Indian Forest Service officer) and the Range Forest Officer Ranjan Baruah from the militants. Suspected Karbi Peoples’ Liberation Tiger, KPLT ultras waylaid the officers blocking the road by blazing some trees and kidnapped both of them at gun-point. Along with them two Japanese experts and other forest officials were also went to the Singhasan hills to conduct survey of some medicinal plants, but other members of the group, however, returned safely.
• ·         The Indian Army today successfully launched BrahMos missile and destroyed the pre-selected target in the field firing ranges in Rajasthan. The second BrahMos unit of Indian Army has been operationalised at an undisclosed location in the western sector. BrahMos has the capability of attacking surface targets by flying as low as 10 metres in altitude. It can gain a speed of Mach 2.8, and has a maximum range of 290 kms.
• ·         Following the footsteps of National Disaster Management Authority, Kerala government is organising an international workshop and exhibition on disaster risk reduction and contingency planning. Aimed at acquiring international know-how on disaster management, the work shop will be attended by experts from six countries including US and Japan. Thirteen specific topics including dam safety, flood and river management are to be covered in the workshop.
• ·         Piqued at the Centre's intransigence over the issue of Central Sales Tax (CST) compensation to States, the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers sought either an adequate cash relief to States for the revenue loss incurred on account of the reduction in levy from four per cent to two per cent or else a rollback to the earlier rate. Offering a choice to the Centre on the CST issue, the empowered panel, at its meeting here, also finalised a negative list of 35 services which should be kept out of the purview of the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST). As a precursor to roll-out of the GST — a unified indirect tax regime in lieu of excise, service tax, sales tax and octroi — the CST payable on inter-State sales of goods was brought down to two per cent from four per cent.
• ·         Aiming to provide food security to the poor, the Centre’s has introduced the food security bill in parliament that will give legal entitlement of cheaper food grains to 63.5 percent of the country's population. Noted Agricultural scientist Prof M.S.Swaminathan has strongly pitched for integrated approach to meet the overall nutrient requirements of the people, and says the step will go a long way in helping both the farming community and also meet the nutritional needs of the people. He said the inclusion of bazra and jawar would not only enlarge the food basket but also ensure that there are no strains in implementing the land mark food security bill which would ensure a hunger free India. He added by saying that we have to go not only for protein calorie under nutrition but also the micro nutria mall nutrition. Hidden hunger as it is called vitamin A, B, B₁₂, zinc, iron, and so on. That can be done only by both integrating horticulture once we have a Food Security Bill over a period of time we will go to the concept of the nutrition security.
• ·         In Gujarat, under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan Programme of the Union Government, a unique tent school project has yielded good results for the kids of salt workers in Kutch district. The salt pen workers, who have come from Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, U.P and West Bengal, for their bread and butter, have now schools at their door step and in their mother language also.
• ·         In Assam, Village Health Outreach programme Sanjeevani has achieved success in providing health care facilities in this far uncovered riverine area. On a specified date every month, outreach initiative is taken up under National Rural Health Mission aiming at early identification, screening and referral services for effective chronic disease management (chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, defective vision, asthma, TB and epilepsy). Assam is the second state to implement (since March, 2011) the programme.
• ·         While there is agreement on the need for environmental taxes, there is a need to carefully calibrate the level of taxation on polluting industries in targeting a reduction in environmental pollution, C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said on Friday. Mr. Rangarajan said though eco taxes have had some effect in reducing industrial pollution in countries like the U.K., the important question that arises is what should be the level of taxation. Integration of eco taxes into the GST framework has the advantages: polluting and non-polluting goods and services could be taxed differentially, non-rebatable taxes would enable producing States to retain the tax revenue to tackle pollution, the State autonomy could be preserved in managing its environmental concerns and the revenue from these taxes could be used to bring the overall GST rate down to, say, about 14 per cent. Pointing out that eco taxes were not envisaged as revenue-augmenting interventions, the idea rather was to change the structure of taxation without putting additional burden on tax payers —in fact, they reduce the use of resources and pollution by making them more expensive and at the same time facilitate reduction of distortionary taxes on labour and capital and make them cheaper.
• ·         India and the Arab League held extensive discussions on Syria, but have been unable to chart out a common route that would end the crisis in the strife-torn nation. The Arab League, citing the Syrian Constitution itself as the basis, says it has called upon Mr. Assad to step down and hand over power to his Vice President and a national unity government. In contrast, India's view is non-prescriptive: It is up to the Syrians themselves to internally decide how they need to resolve their crisis. Foreign intervention of any kind was both unhelpful and unnecessary. Foreign office spokesman clarified that the resolution on Syria, which India had supported but China and Russia vetoed at the United Nations Security Council, did not call for the exit of Mr. Assad from the Presidency.
• ·         In Poland, at least 14 people have been killed and more than 60 injured as two trains collided head-on when running on the same track.
• ·         The United States Embassy in Colombo has denied a report attributed to the Pentagon, which said the U.S. had Special Forces stationed in Sri Lanka. It said members of the U.S. military are assigned to work in the U.S. Embassy in Colombo as part of the bilateral engagement between the United States and Sri Lanka. In a separate statement, Sri Lanka too denied the presence of U.S. troops on its soil.
• ·         Oil major BP has agreed to pay $7.8 billion in a settlement reached with claimants affected by the spill from one of its wells in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. The latest settlement comes in the wake of a string of filings and counter-filings between BP and the other corporations associated with the operation of the Deepwater Horizon rig, whose explosion in 2010 killed 11 workers and spewed four million barrels of oil into the Gulf. [Compare it with the compensation paid by US to 5,74,375 Bhopal gas tragedy victims]