Daily News Notes

• ·         Addressing Public Private Partnership Summit 2012, the Railways Minister has called for a National Policy on Railways so that it can add to the country’s GDP and generate employment. Calling for automation of railways system to avoid accidents, the Minister said that accidents happen mostly due to human error. He said that as about one trillion US dollars investment has been envisaged in next five years for infrastructure development in the country, all allocation under PPP mode must be in a transparent manner and once the terms of allocation are fixed, it should not be changed.
• ·         The Prime Minister has asked the officials of concerned departments to speed up the country's first International Container Trans-shipment Terminal project at Vallarpadam in Kerala which once completed will become a major hub for cargo. The project will help reducing the number of days taken to export or import consignments by seven days apart from cutting down the transportation cost of each container. Currently Indian importers and exporters use hubs in Colombo, Salalah, Singapore and Dubai for shipments adding to their costs.
• ·         The Dharmadhikari Committee (headed by Justice D.M.Dharmadhikari, former Judge, Supreme Court of India) submitted its repot to the Civil Aviation Minister, Shri Ajit Singh here today. The Committee was assigned the task of examining the principle of integration across various cadre and determination of level and seniority of post-merged Air India. The Committee was also entrusted to examine the principle of pay and wage rationalization and restructuring between all the employees of the erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India.
• ·         The Government revised the economic growth rate (GDP at factor cost base year: 2004-05) for 2010-11 financial year, slightly down to 8.4 per cent from the earlier estimate of 8.5 per cent. It said that the major source of growth in the GDP has been from the services sector, which has grown at the rate of 9.3 per cent. The agriculture sector growth has also been impressive at 7 per cent during the year 2010-11. The growth of secondary sector, which includes manufacturing and construction sector, stood at 7.2 per cent.
• ·         Assam has been ranked third among all major states of the country in terms of the rate of progress in Human Development Index (HDI) revealed by the Planning Commission report. The HDI reflects three main components of human development, that is, education, health and per capita income. Assam has shown highest rate of progress in income index and third highest rate of progress in health index, while still lagging behind the national average in education index. Assam is 'doing better than the so-called developed States with high per capita income namely, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat', the report says.
• ·         Some of the important recommendation of the Working Group on MSMEs Growth for 12^th Five Year Plan, which aims at giving a new thrust to the MSME sector are: • Operationalization of SME exchanges for enabling access to Equity Finance. • Scheme for acquisition and up-gradation of technology. • Developing clusters of excellence. • Procurement policy for Goods/services from MSEs by the Government Deptts. and Central PSUs. • B2B International portal. • Leveraging Defence Offset Policies in favour of MSMEs. • Revamped Skill Development & Capacity Building Programme. • Application of E-tools in promotional and regulatory matters for facilitating easy entry. The Working Group recommends 6 umbrella schemes – (i) Credit and Finance, (ii) Technology and Innovation, (iii) Infrastructure, (iv) Marketing, (v) Skill and Entrepreneurship Development, (vi) Institutional Structure.
• ·         An Exhibition of Tagore Paintings was inaugurated in Paris as part of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. Paris is one of the nine international venues where Tagore Exhibitions are being held and it holds a special place as Gurudev Tagore had held his first-ever international exhibition of paintings in Paris in May 1930. Currently Tagore Paintings Exhibitions are being held in London and Chicago, besides Paris. In the Joint Statement issued by the two Cultural Ministers (India and France) after the meeting, they expressed satisfaction at the cultural relations between the two countries, particularly the festivals ‘Bon Jour India’ and ‘Namaste France’ held in the recent past. The first formal arrangement, a Memorandum of Understanding relating to expertise and capacity enhancement, exchange of professionals for sharing of experiences, and holding of collaborative exhibitions in India and France, was initialled between the two sides. A Cultural Exchange Programme for the period 2012 to 2014, is likely to be signed between the Ministries of Culture of the two countries in the coming weeks.
• ·         India and France have expressed keenness for an early closure of the India-EU Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) negotiations. This agreement will lead to increase of opportunities for market access in both goods and services for both sides. The Union Minister for Commerce Industry and Textiles of India invited French investment in Automobile, fashion industry, IT, pharmaceuticals and energy.
• ·         Heavy snow and a severe cold snap have killed at least thirty six people across eastern Europe. 18 people died of hypothermia and nearly 500 people sought medical help for frostbites and hypothermia in just three days last week. At least 10 people froze to death in Poland as the cold reached minus 26 degrees Celsius.
• ·         US President Barack Obama has confirmed that unmanned drones regularly strike suspected militants in Pakistan's tribal areas. Mr. Obama called the strikes a targeted focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists. The US does not routinely speak publicly about drone operations. Meanwhile, Pakistan said the drone attacks are unlawful, counterproductive and hence unacceptable. 
• ·         Ministry of Tourism has presented a Progress report of Tourist Visa on Arrival Scheme (December, 2011). Maximum visitors were from New Zealand (473) and minimum are from Laos (14). During the year 2011, the maximum number of VoAs were issued at Delhi airport ( 7340) while minimum from Kolkata (657). During 2011 , a total number of 12761 VoAs were issued. As a facilitative measure to attract more foreign tourists to India, The Government launched a Scheme of “Visa on Arrival” (VoA) in January,2010 for citizens of five countries, viz Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore, visiting India for tourism purposes. This scheme was further extended for the citizens of six more countries, namely, Combodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Myanmar from January, 2011.
• ·         Speaking on the occasion of 20 years of diplomatic relations between the India and Israel, Israeli Ambassador to India said that two countries will hold another round of negotiations, by the end of March, on signing of the Free Trade Agreement, FTA to achieve a bilateral trade figure of 10 to 15 billion US dollars per year. Israel would soon open a Consulate in Bangalore to focus on activities such as homeland security and high tech agriculture.
• ·         The Indian Consulate in Jeddah is working out arrangements to send back home the Indian citizens who overstayed their Haj and visit visas. According to estimates, around 10,000 Indian overstayers are living in the region. Last year 15,000 overstayers were repatriated to India by the Consulate in Jeddah. Earlier, the Saudi Government announced amnesty for those who overstayed beyond their visa for a period of one year from September 2010 to September 2011.