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tune in with UPSC: Daily News Notes: 10th Feb, 2012
- · The Supreme Court today said it was not in favour of entertaining Army Chief General V K Singh's petition on the age controversy and gave him option to withdraw it. The Apex court said Gen Singh has to abide by his commitment and honour his letters of 2008 and 2009 accepting the date of birth as May 10, 1950. While Gen. Singh has maintained that his date of birth is May 10, 1951 (), the Defence Ministry has insisted that it should be treated as May 10, 1950. Thus he had moved the apex court in January this year accusing the government of treating him in a manner reflecting total lack of adherence to procedure and principles of natural justice in deciding his age.
- · India today successfully conducted trial of indigenously developed surface-to-surface ballistic missile ‘Prithvi’ from the Integrated Test Range in Chandipore in Odisha for the endo-atmospheric test of the interceptor. The trial was conducted as part of the country's plan to deploy a reliable two-layer ballistic missile Defence, system. The last interceptor trial was successfully conducted from the same site on the 6th of March last year.
- · A three-day International Conference on Scientific Developments and Technical Challenges in the Progressive Control of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) begins. The conference will discuss the likely roadmap to eradicate FMD from South Asia. The importance of a (1. comprehensive assessment of epidemiology and impact of control measures in the design of improved FMD control programmes), (2. science and the monitoring and evaluation of Regionally Coordinated FMD programmes) and (3. the growing FMD scientific output from Eurasia) will also be discussed during the Conference. South Asia is one of the seven major areas affected by FMD. FMD is an acute, highly contagious and economically important disease of cloven-hoofed animals and wild ungulates. The direct loss of this disease is Rs 20,000 crore per year due to loss in milk production, apart from indirect losses. The immediate objective of ICAR is to develop technologies for control of FMD in India with ultimate goal of eradication of FMD by 2030.
- · The Election Commission, has censured Union Minister for Law and Minority Affairs, Salman Khurshid for his remarks on sub-quota for minorities finding them to be a violation of the model code of conduct for elections. [Law minister is doing this!! :-( ]
- · In order to expand the outreach of rehabilitation services for differently-abled persons, two new Composite Regional Centres (CRCs) have been setup at Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Kozhikode in Kerala. There are six CRCs functioning at Sundernagar, Srinagar, Lucknow, Guwahati, Patna and Bhopal.
- · The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued strict guidelines for the citizens of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and China who wish to set up branch or liaison offices in India should seek prior permission from RBI. The central bank had in 2000 barred citizens from the six neighbouring countries from opening any place of business in India under the Foreign Exchange Management (Establishment in India of Branch or Office or other Place of Business) Regulations, 2000.
- · National Thermal Power Corporation, NTPC has paid an interim dividend of around 2,886 crore rupees for the current fiscal. It is the highest ever interim dividend paid by this company. Interim dividend is a payment made before a company's final financial statements.
- · The Ministry of Panchayati Raj has been implementing a Central Sector Scheme of Rural Business Hubs (RBHs) for promoting manufacturing of products using raw materials / skills available in the rural areas. The scheme works on a 4-P (Public-Private-Panchayat-Partnership) model and is applicable in all the BRGF districts and all the districts in the North-Eastern Region. RBH is a demand driven scheme and, therefore, no targets can be fixed under the scheme. There is no State-wise allocation of funds.
- · The National Human Right Commission, NHRC today said that it is strongly in the favour of having Rights of Patients Act in the country as it is in other countries. The Act will enable the patients to know not only about their ailments but also about diagnosis and treatment by the doctors. It has also expressed the need about the availability of a mechanism where in a patient is not denied admission and treatment by any hospital or doctor.
- · Following one on one talks between the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and the visiting European Council President, Mr. Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President, Mr. Jose Manuel Varroso in New Delhi, India and European Union today signed two agreements in the field of Research and Innovation Cooperation and Statistical Cooperation. Dr. Singh exuded confidence that the long pending broad based bilateral trade and investment agreements (FTA) will be arrived at soon. The Prime Minister said bilateral trade has gone up to 170 billion US dollars in 2011 and it will be enhanced further.
- · The deposed President of the Maldives Mohammed Nasheed has urged his successor to hand over power to the Speaker in Parliament and allow fresh elections within 60 days as he was threatened at gun point and forced to resign. President Hassan has denied allegations about his involvement in the coup. Meanwhile, a United Nations special envoy has arrived in the Maldives to try to resolve the political deadlock which has resulted in several days of violence.
- · The head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Amman said, the number of Syrians taking refuge in Jordan, had risen sharply and put the number of Syrian refugees at the UN agency at 3,500. Amidst the diplomatic offensive, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for the 'Friends of Syria' to form a group to work together for an end to the bloodshed in Syria. Germany expelled four Syrian diplomats, on suspicion of spying on exiled Syrian dissidents in Germany. Libya asked its embassy staff in Damascus to leave the country. Turkey is pushing for an international conference involving all the major players, to be held in Turkey or in another country in the region. Meanwhile, Israeli warned that sophisticated weapons could be transferred from Syria to militant group Hezbollah and to Lebanon if the regime of Bashar al-Assad falls.
- · Greek lawmakers say they have reached an accord on austerity measures demanded by international lenders so that the country can secure another bailout. But European finance ministers say the job and spending cuts are not enough and added new conditions before Greece gets the group's approval to secure a new 172 billion dollars bailout package. Firstly, Greek parliament must approve the current package of austerity measures on Sunday; Secondly, Greece needs to reduce spending another 430 million dollars this year to meet its deficit targets; and, Thirdly, Greek political leaders must assure the austerity measures implemented will remain in place after the April elections.
