{Current Affairs} Daily News Notes: 5th Nov, 2013

· For the first time, the government is doing a headcount of businesses run by members of the transgender community. The exercise is a part of the sixth economic census that counts the number of establishments in the country. The issue had cropped up during national level discussions where some states and activists sought this data. The aim was to get a gender dimension of entrepreneurship, said a government official. Besides counting the number of establishments in the country, the economic census also collects data on the identity of the owner of the establishment. These include parameters such as gender, social group or caste — Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, OBC and others — as well as the religion of the owners. The results of the sixth economic census started last year are likely to be released early next year. The results of the economic census will help in analysing the economy for policy planning as well as planning to revisit the structure and parameters of national accounts, annual survey of industries, etc. The last such exercise was carried out nearly a decade ago in 2005.

· India is placed seventh out of 37 in a list of countries ranked in terms of expat quality of life, according to a a research commissioned by HSBC Expat. Thailand tops the list which is dominated by Asian countries with mainland China, Singapore and Taiwan are ranked 3rd, 6th, and 8th places respectively. Others in the top 10 include Bahrain (2nd), Cayman Islands (4th), Australia (5th), Spain (9th) and Brazil (10th). With a record number of them participating this year, the Expat Explorer survey provided an even more comprehensive picture of life abroad, the challenges they faced and the idiosyncrasies that make the their experience unique. Further, about 47 per cent of expats compared to a global average of 26 per cent said adjusting to the weather was difficult and 39 per cent compared to a global average of 20 per cent said the same about food. Interestingly, a significantly higher percentage (25 per cent) compared to global average (7 per cent) were sent to live in India by their organisations, suggesting that MNCs are eager to expand their operations outside developed nations. "Many are making the most of the relocation and see India as an up-and-coming destination, with nearly three quarters (73 per cent) reporting that the country is improving as a place for expats to live and work," the survey said.

· Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has released the latest telecom subscription data as on 30th September 2013. As per this data, the total number of subscribers was ~890 million, showing a monthly decline of 0.70%. Out of the total subscriber base, ~540 million are from the urban areas and the remaining ~350 million are the rural subscribers. Broadband subscription reached 15.36 million in September 2013. [Full Report: Click Here]

· The Supreme Court clarified that the jurisdiction of the High Court while issuing a writ of quo warranto is a limited one and can be issued only when the person holding the public office lacks the eligibility criteria or when the appointment is contrary to the statutory rules. Keeping this in view, the apex court directed the High Courts that if the candidate had the qualifications and fulfilled the requirements of the post, quo warranto should not be entertained on Public Interest Litigation (PIL). Quo warranto is a writ or legal action requiring a person to show by what warrant an office or franchise is held, claimed, or exercised.

· The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dr M Veerappa Moily has approved a proposal to extend the scope of the Scheme for sale of non-subsidised 5 KG LPG cylinders from Petrol Stations(Petrol Pumps/Retail Outlets) of Oil Marketing PSUs (OMCs) in other parts of the country subject to the Election Code of Conduct. The Scheme was earlier launched by Dr Moily on October 5, 2013 at Bangalore for sale of these cylinders from select Company Owned and Company Operated (COCO) Petrol Pumps in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. Traditionally, OMCs have been marketing LPG filled cylinders to various customers through LPG distributor network all over India from their own LPG bottling Plants supplied to the Distributors godown. All such customers are being enrolled by collecting Proof of Identity (POI), Proof of Address (POA) and a deposit for the cylinder and regulator and in turn issuing a Subscription Voucher thereby loaning the equipment to the customer in lieu of the deposit received. Such customers are registered into OMC database as customers and subsequent refills are issued to only such customers who place their booking against the above customer number. Thus, there is an emerging segment of new consumers like IT professionals, BPO employees who want LPG but in absence of proper proof of address (POA) cannot access the same. Further, because of their highly irregular work timings, they may not be able to visit the distributor or be at home to receive cylinders during normal working hours. This initiative allows sale of 5 kg LPG cylinders at market price with merely any Proof of Identity (POI) through Petrol Stations to attend to demand of such consumers. This scheme is expected to be a boon to migratory population such as students, IT professionals, BPO employees and persons with odd duty timings as it would provide them the flexibility to pick up cylinders and obtain subsequent refills at time of their choice as Petrol Stations are open for longer hours.

· The Department of Public Enterprises deeply condoled the untimely demise of Dr. Nitish Sengupta (81), Chairman, BRPSE (Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises). He was Chairman of BRPSE since 2007 and played a stellar role in the turnaround and financial upkeep of a number of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) in the recent years; and had given away the ‘BRPSE Turnaround Award 2013’ to 4 CPSEs only the last Thursday.

· The new Integrated Processing Development Scheme (IPDS) aimed at addressing the environmental concerns faced by textiles units has been given approval by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). Under this scheme, four to six brown field projects and three to five green field projects would be established to address the environmental issues faced by textile processing units. The IPDS will help the textiles industry to become competitive on the global scale by adopting environmentally friendly processing standards and technology and by setting up new processing parks. It will support the upgradation of existing processing clusters/centres specifically in the field of water and waste water management and also promote research and development work in the textiles-processing sector.

· Google, on Monday, celebrated mathematics wizard Shakuntala Devi's 84th birthday with a doodle. She is dubbed as the world's fastest 'human computer' who made complex mental calculations. Shakuntala Devi figured in the Guiness Book of World Record for her outstanding ability and wrote numerous books like 'Fun with Numbers', 'Astrology for You', 'Puzzles to Puzzle You', and 'Mathablit'. In 1977, Shakuntala Devi extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number mentally. In the same year in Dallas, she competed with a computer to see who gives the cube root of 188138517 faster and she won. On June 18, 1980 she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She answered the question in 28 seconds flat. This event is mentioned in the 1995 Guinness Book of Records. Shakuntala Devi died at Bangalore Hospital on April 21, 2013 at the age of 83.

· Foreign direct investment inflows into the services sector declined by 47.5 per cent to USD 1.19 billion during the April-August period. The services sector, which includes banking, insurance, outsourcing, R&D, courier and technology testing, had received FDI (foreign direct investment) worth USD 2.28 billion in the same period last year. The services sector contributes over 60 per cent to India's GDP. Thus, the government is considering raising the FDI cap in the insurance sector to 49 per cent from 26 per cent.

· Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs announced that the 12th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention to be held in Delhi from 7th to 9th January 2014 will have ‘Engaging Diaspora: Connecting Across Generations’ as its theme. One of the focus areas of the PBD this year is a Youth PBD. The purpose of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is to have meaningful interaction with overseas Indian that would address their issues ans concerns. The PBD Convention provides a unique platform for overseas Indian to interact among themselves and with the Government of India and the Government of Various Indian States. It is a forum where the Government of India showcases investment opportunities in India and its potential in various sectors. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) is celebrated on 9th January every year to mark the contribution of Overseas Indian community to the development of India. January 9 was chosen as the day to celebrate the role of Overseas Indians since it was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest Pravasi, returned to India from South Africa to lead India’s freedom struggle and to change the lives of Indians forever.

· India and the US to start their next round of “Malabar” naval war-games in the Bay of Bengal on November 5, 2013. The US Navy will deploy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS McCampbell and P3C maritime patrol aircraft, etc. While, the Indian Navy will deploy its stealth frigate INS Shivalik, guided missile destroyer INS Ranvijay and TU-142M maritime reconnaissance aircraft, etc. “Malabar” is on a regular basis planned bilateral naval field training exercise between Indian and US Navy. The exercise has grown in both scope and complexity over the years and it will feature both ashore and at-sea training.

· The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad will attend the third BRICS Health Ministers Meeting from 6th to 7th November at Cape Town, South Africa. The Health Ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will attend the meeting. The BRICS Meeting will deliberate the issues of Governance Reform including Risk & Accountability, Finance and Human Resources; Programmatic and Finance Reform including support to Member States; and a Progress Report on the Delhi Action Plans. The first BRICS Health Ministers Meeting was held at Beijing, China in July, 2011 where the Beijing Declaration was adopted. It emphasized the importance and the need of technology transfer as a means to empower developing countries; the important role of generic medicines in the realization of the right to health and to establish priorities in research and development as well as cooperation among BRICS countries including support to transfer of technologies and innovation in a sustainable way to foster cooperation among BRICS countries to make available and improve technology. The 2nd BRICS Health Ministers Meetings was held in New Delhi in January 2013, joint action plans were agreed upon for the thematic areas and a joint Delhi Communiqué was released.

· The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has condoled the passing away of Sri Lankan economist Gamani Corea. Gamani was an outstanding international civil servant and diplomat and a brilliant economist. His contribution to the world of UNCTAD during his time as its Secretary General was particularly important in ensuring that the voice of developing countries was heard and that their developmental priorities were not lost sight of. He lent his influential voice in support of some of the most important international initiatives aimed at the welfare of developing countries, such as the Integrated Program for Commodities, and the Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative.

· The Government of Bangladesh has given nod to the commercial cultivation of transgenic Bt brinjal, making it the first South Asian country to cultivate the genetically modified food crop. Bt brinjal is a genetically modified transgenic variety of brinjal. It contains a foreign ‘Cry1Ac’ gene derived from a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). This gene synthesises a protein toxic to the fruit and shoot borer (FSB), a damaging pest. The gene endows the crop a “built-in” resistance to FSB, reducing dependence on spraying pesticides. There are apprehensions among the environmentalists in India who fear that, given the porosity of Indo-Bangladesh border, the transgenic crop could leak into India’s environment. They have requested the Government to take all measures to safeguard food and seed supply, apart from bio-diversity.

· Yuki Bhambri on Monday won his first ATP Challenger level singles title of the season and second of his career after humbling top seed American Bradely Klahn in the rain-hit summit clash of the Traralgon event in Australia. Playing his second Challenger final of the season, the Indian youngster held his nerves to emerge winner against a player, who was ranked 149 places above him. Yuki had won his first singles title on the Challenger tour last year in Fergana, Uzbekistan. Following his title win in the Traralgon, Yuki Bhambri leapfrogged 73 places to 204 in the singles rankings even as Rohan Bopanna dropped out of the top-10 in the doubles chart.