Daily News Notes

· Prime Minister has approved the constitution of a National Council for Senior Citizens. The Council would advise the Central and State Governments on issues related to welfare of senior citizens and enhancement of their quality of life with special reference to (a) policies, programmes and legislative measures; (b) promotion of physical and financial security, health and independent and productive living, and (c) awareness generation and community mobilization. The Council would be chaired by the Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment.
· In West Bengal, the State government plans to withdraw the full Trade Union Rights of its employees. The Service Conduct Rules of the government employees of 1981 will be amended for this purpose. If the clause is withdrawn by the cabinet decision, government employees will not be able to launch agitation, dharna, hunger strike or other forms of movements to press their demands.
· The Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation has envisaged launching a National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM). This will replace the existing SJSRY from the beginning of the 12th Five Year Plan. NULM would be target-oriented with specific focus on the primary issues pertaining to urban poverty such as skill up-gradation, entrepreneurship development and employment creation through wage employment and self-employment opportunities opened up by the emerging markets in urban areas. According to the concept note NULM will establish Service Centres or Aadhar Kendras, which will act as “one-stop shop” for those seeking services from the informal sector as well as for the urban poor promoting their services and products. Aadhar Kendras can also act as information, facilitation and counselling centres, where the poor can access information on market demand/placement opportunities and skills training programmes offered by reputed institutions, including IITs, NITs, industry associations. To start with, Aadhar Kendras may be established in cities with a population more than 300,000 as per the 2011 Census.
· Reserve Bank Governor D Subbarao cautioned the government that government borrowing is not bad per se, but excessive borrowing is bad and urged to put a cap on the public debt as it would hurt growth as there is an inflexion point beyond which fiscal deficits militate against growth.
· As per the latest Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin, December 2011 released by the Registrar General of India (RGI), it is noted that Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has dropped further by 3 points from 50 to 47 infants deaths per 1000 live births during 2010. State of Goa still has the lowest IMR of 10 infant deaths followed by Kerala, while Madhya Pradesh has the highest IMR of 62/1000 followed by UP. The Sample Registration System (SRS) is a large-scale demographic survey for providing reliable annual estimates of birth rate, death rate and other fertility & mortality indicators at the national and sub-national levels.
· The Union Government has formulated a strategy for use of natural rubber in roads as recommended by experts. The use of natural rubber modified bitumen has been specified by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways for binder courses and wearing courses laid on National Highways. Accordingly to the findings of the study, natural rubber modified bitumen improves the durability of roads by reducing susceptibility towards temperature variations and improving the desirable properties of bitumen thereby giving overall better performance.
· Union Minister for Corporate Affairs Mr. M. Veerappa Moily today asked private sector to come forward for corporate social responsibility as the Public Sector Companies are already providing 2 per cent of their profit towards CSR. Mr. Moily said that the Planning Commission has mooted the idea of Public Sector Units setting up higher education hubs as part of their CSR. The move will help the government in achieving its target of gross enrolment ratio in Higher education sector.
· The Indian Coast Guard is celebrating the 35th Anniversary of its Raising Day today. It was on this day in 1977, the Indian Coast Guard came into existence for keeping maritime safety and security of the nation. However, over the years it has evolved to perform various tasks like law enforcement, disaster management and environment protection out at sea in territorial waters of the country.
· The Government has taken an initiative to patent the indigenous knowledge of tribals and products manufactured by them with the help of natural resources under the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Products which are natural or have been gifted by nature cannot be included in this list.
· The Planning Commission has given its investment clearance for a 116-crore rupees flood and erosion control project in Majuli, the world's largest river island, in Assam. The scheme is aimed to ensure economic development and social upliftment of the local population after reconstruction of roads and bridges usually destroyed during floods.
· The 5th Session of the India-Belarus Inter-Governmental Commission (IBIGC) for Economic, Trade, Industrial, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation was held in Minsk on 31 January, 2012. In his opening statement PM of the Republic of Belarus said that “Belarus attaches quite a significant importance to bilateral and especially economic relationship with India. Trade relationship was only the beginning. It should expand from trade to investment and from investment to innovation.” MoS Mr. Scindia then spoke of cooperation at multilateral fora and said that Belarus can push for faster negotiation on Comprehensive Economic Agreement (CECA) with Russia. In view of the Customs Union, Belarus can play an important role in expediting finalization of CECA. The meeting indicated keen desire on part of Belarus Government to have Indian investment in Pharmaceutical sector, potash fertilizers and IT sector. Though Belarus has come out of their immediate cash-crunch situation, they still value engagement with a prominent economic power house like India.
· In Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a biennial congregation of Navies featuring fourteen countries- MILAN-2012, began at Port Blair.
· A Mini Pravasi Bharatiya Divas would be organized in October this year in Dubai. It is aimed at bringing together the large NRI Community in Dubai, UAE and the West Asia region to recognize their efforts in nation building. The Captains of Industry from the NRI community who have completed 50 years in Dubai were felicitated on this occasion. The NRI community in Dubai has grown up from 8304 in 1968 to over 1.75 million in 2011.
· Voicing its opposition to the use of force to resolve the crisis in Syria, India today asked all sides to cooperate with the Arab League and start a political process that should respect Damascus' sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity. China and Russia have also reiterated their opposition to the use of force to resolve the crisis in Syria.