Daily News Notes: 5th April, 2012

· In Madhya Pradesh, state’s Calamity Management Authority has taken a decision to constitute a State Calamity Emergency Force in every district of the state for tackling all kinds of calamities. It will be constituted among Home Guard jawans. The force will be used for relief and rescue works in event of any kind of disaster and will be suitably equipped. Outlines for relief and rescue works would also be chalked out by ensuring participation of government departments, social workers and voluntary organizations.
· In Uttar Pradesh, the norms for implementing the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana have been relaxed for Naxal infested districts. The villages having a population of over 250 people, will now be connected to main roads in naxal areas under the scheme while for the rest of the state, the norms will be a population of over 500 people.
· “Featherweights” is Celebrating its 26th Anniversary. It was raised at Chandigarh on 15 May 1986.The unit was established to fly the Mi-26 helicopter, the largest and heaviest helicopter in the world, a very formidable machine capable of versatile roles in the highest and coldest battlefield in the world, the Siachen Glacier. The flight lives by the motto ‘Aaptsu Mitram’ which means a friend who is always around to help when tragedy strikes. The flight has undertaken flood relief operations in different parts of the country as well as relief operations during the Orissa Supercyclone of 1999. The flight played a major role in avoiding a Bhopal like gas tragedy at Paradeep Phosphates Ltd where the Ammonia gas tanks needed to be cooled at the earliest to prevent the gas from leaking out. The flight has played a major role by airlifting various aircraft - fighters, helicopters and even a civilian passenger plane. The flight also regularly undertakes air maintenance sorties to the highest Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) at an elevation of 15,500 feet above mean sea level. The flight was instrumental in making the ALG at DBO fit for use by the fixed wing transport aircraft by airlifting heavy machinery like dozers and rollers to DBO.
· India is all ready for the launch of its indigenously built satellite Radar Imaging Satellite or RISAT-1. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed it after continuous efforts of 10 years. It has the ''unique'' capability (with a microwave satellite) to capture images in all-weather conditions (also during day and night) that can be helpful in agriculture and disaster management. The satellite can even ''penetrate'' the ground and throw light on soil moisture up to a few centimeters. It will be Heaviest satellite lifted by a PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle). It will carry a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload, operating in a multi-polarisation and multi-resolution mode to provide images with coarse, fine and high spatial resolutions. At present, India is dependent on images from a Canadian satellite as Indian domestic remote sensing spacecraft cannot take pictures of the ground during cloud cover.
· Mahavir Jayanti is being celebrated with religious ferver in various parts of the country today. Mahavir Jayanti was also celebrated in some parts of the country including Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh yesterday.
· The nation pays homage today to veteran freedom fighter and former Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram on his 105th birth anniversary. The day is also being celebrated as Samata Diwas.
· Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the repatriation of Bru migrants will continue and the Centre will give all possible assistance to the Mizoram government for this. He futher said, there is no human dignity for Bru people, living in refugee camps in northern Tripura. He said, for successful repatriation, better coordination between Bru people and the Mizoram government is very important. Bru Coordination Committee also submitted their demands to the Home Minister. The Bru people (also referred to as Reangs), were inhabitants of Mizoram who were displaced from Mizoram in 1997 on account of ethnic conflicts. Most of the Brus (Reangs) were originally resident of about 100 habitations in Mammit Sub-Division of Aizawl District. Reang or Riangare are one of the 21 scheduled tribes of the Indian state of Tripura. Dance is an integral part of Reang life. The Hojagiri folk dance of Riang sub tribe is rather well known all over the world.
· Recent excavations at Moghalmari, a Buddhist monastery complex in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district, reveal a historically strong presence of Buddhism in the State which dates as far back as the sixth century AD. This has so far remained largely unnoticed by historians. The western wall of the central temple complex has revealed in situ stucco figures of Buddhist deities and gana images. The monastery complex measures 60 metres by 60 metres, the largest so far discovered in West Bengal. Also, on one of the wall panels in decorative bricks and stucco animal figures (lime mixed with marble dust and sand) have been exposed.
· Releasing the book, “R. Venkataraman – A Centenary Tribute,” the former President, R. Venkataraman, remembered as a multi-faceted personality, a Constitutionalist and a believer in egalitarianism at a book release function.
· After witnessing a boom in mobile phone connections, it is now time for a 3G and broadband explosion in India. The GSM Association, the global body of mobile operators, has said 3G mobile connections in India are expected to grow to more than 10 crore by 2014 — the highest in the world -- while India would become the second largest mobile broadband market globally within the next four years. India will also have 36.7 crore mobile broadband connections by 2016, overtaking the US, which will then account for 33.7 crore mobile broadband connections. However, India will still be second to China, which will have reached 63.9 crore connections by then. India today has over 90 crore mobile subscribers, where some cities have over 100 per cent tele-density. According to a recent study by GSMA's Wireless Intelligence service, despite a large rural population, mobile growth in India is being largely driven by more affluent communities in cities. Net additions in urban areas reached 8.5 crore last year compared to 5.7 crore in rural areas, with mobile penetration increasing by 20 percentage points in urban areas to 161 per cent, against a 6.5 percentage point rise in rural areas to 36.6 per cent.
· Govind Narain (95-year-old Padma Vibhushan awardee), one of the last surviving Indian Civil Service (ICS) officers and Home Secretary (from 1971 to 1973) during the Bangladesh war, has passed away. He was appointed Karnataka Governor in 1977 and was in Raj Bhavan till 1983. In the early days of his career, Narain was tasked by Pandit Nehru to build up ties with Nepal and he was adviser to the Nepal King between 1951 and 1954.
· Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday directed the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to suitably address the ‘suicidal competition' among insurers as undercutting each other by offering policies at low premium for a bigger market share finally impacts their balance sheet. Mr. Mukherjee said that the protection level, as measured by level of sum insured to GDP (gross domestic product) at 55 per cent, is still low and pointed to the need for promoting long-term savings and protection. Moreover, the insurance market is structurally challenged in terms of profitability.
· The government, on Wednesday, sought to assure foreign institutional investors (FIIs) that while their concerns on short-term capital gains tax would be addressed, clarification on GAAR (General Anti-Avoidance Rule) would be issued after approval of the Finance Bill by Parliament. In particular, the FIIs sought clarification on the activities that would be permitted while remaining outside the purview of GAAR. Besides, they viewed that certain aspects of the proposed law were not transparent and would provide discretionary powers to tax officials.
· ‘Secrets of Wild India', a three-part series highlighting the diversity of Indian wildlife, recently won the ‘Best Television Series' award at the International Wildlife Film Festival held at Montana in the U.S.A. ‘Secrets of Wild India' was commissioned by National Geographic and is currently being shown in India. The first Series was about the grassland ecosystems of Kaziranga with elephants as the main subject. The second, ‘Tiger Jungles' was filmed in Tadoba, Maharashtra, and is about the central Indian forests with the tiger as its principal character. The third episode, ‘Desert Lions', was filmed in western India, in the arid lands of Gujarat and Rajasthan.
· A rich source material on the origins of Indian railways will be lost to historians for ever as the British government is set to scrap a large chunk of the colonial legislation relating to the construction and maintenance of the vast railways network across the subcontinent. The move is part of a massive “spring cleaning” to get rid of more than 800 “obsolete” laws cluttering up the statute book. In a report, the U.K. Law Commission on Wednesday said it had identified as many as 38 Acts dating back to 1849 and 1942 and concerning the various railway companies that operated in colonial India and “in the wider East Indies”. Obsolete or not, they provide a rare glimpse into the origins of the Indian railway system, arguably one of the few beneficial legacies of the Raj. The first regular train service between what was then Bombay and Thane was established by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company in 1854 under an Act passed in 1849 Act. This Act is now on the chopping block as is a 1942 legislation enabling liquidation of the Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway Company after its operation had been sold to the government. Other provisions proposed to be repealed include the Assam Railways and Trading Company's Act, 1897; Oude Railway Act, 1858; Scinde Railway Act, 1857; and the Great Southern of India Railway Act, 1858.
· The three day Global Dubai Tea Forum 2012 meet comes t o close in Dubai today. It is intended to display the leading Indian tea brands and explore the new markets in the Middle East and North Africa region. Focus is on the South Indian tea, winner of the Golden Leaf awards in India. Among them the tea brands from Nilgiris, Karnataka, Travancore, Annamali and High ranges are on display at the Global Dubai Tea Forum. These varieties have already marked their presence in the international markets along with the world famous Darjeeling tea.
· India will pay a heavy price for exploring oil in the disputed areas of South China Sea, said a leading Chinese official a day after China lost political ground on the issue at the ASEAN summit that ended in Cambodia. It was referring to joint exploration project by ONGC-Videsh and a Vietnamese oil company in South China Sea. Three ASEAN members — Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines — are in a bitter dispute over the ownership of the 52 islands in South China Sea. It added that the Chinese government will not dilute its claims over the disputed islands because “nationalism prevails strongly in China.” China directly controls only seven of the 52 islands in the Spratly Islands area of the sea. But it claims ownership of 90% of the area.
· Sudan and South Sudan have agreed on an immediate ceasefire and securing the border and oil-rich areas during their talks in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. The two sides would discuss remaining differences at the level of a political committee. Military clashes erupted last week in the South Kordofan State on the border. Sudan and South Sudan have failed to demarcate the border and rivers in many areas.
· The authorities in Vietnam have charged 18 people with plotting to overthrow the Government for which the highest punishment is the death penalty. State media gave very few details of the plot which is said to have been uncovered in February in the Central Province of Phu Yen.
· In Greece, protesters have clashed with riot police in the capital, Athens, hours after a 77-year-old pensioner shot himself dead outside Parliament accusing the government of cutting his pension to nothing. Flowers have been laid at the spot where he died and tributes have been paid online. Depression and suicides are reported to have increased in Greece as the country introduces tough austerity measures to deal with huge debts.
· China has announced plans to broaden the financial sector reforms by allowing private capital financing. This is the first time China has acknowledged the monopoly of state-owned banks following last month's announcement of a pilot project to reform the financial sector in Wenzhou, an eastern coastal city with a tradition of entrepreneurship. Analysts say, the move to open up financial capital was aimed at increasing investment and competition in financial and banking sectors of the world’s second largest economy, giving more scope for its currency Yuan to play bigger role. Economists have long complained about a lack of progress in reform of the state-dominated banking and financial industry and of inadequate service for the country's large number of small and medium-sized enterprises.
· The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has announced easing of sanctions against Myanmar. Her announcement comes within days of the National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi winning a seat in Parliament and her party sweeping the by-elections. Hillary Clinton said some travel and financial sanctions would be eased. Senior Myanmar officials will now be able to visit the United States and US will open a development office in Myanmar. The EU is also considering a similar package.
· Israeli security officials say that a Grad rocket has landed in the southern city of Eilat, but has caused no damage or injuries. The District police chief said the rocket had been fired from Egypt's Sinai peninsula. The blast took place as thousands congregated in the resort town for the Jewish holiday of Passover.