Daily News Notes: 20th April, 2012

· The Prime Minister has expressed the hope that the 750 Megawatt Bongaigaon power project would be completed in 2013. He also said that the centre has taken new initiatives to strengthen relations with Bangladesh and Myanmar as part of its Look East policy. Dr. Singh stated that he will visit Myanmar next month with a view to increase opportunities for trade, economic cooperation and connectivity to the larger ASEAN region, and Assam and other Northeastern states can play a leading role in the country’s effort to fulfill its Look East policy.
· Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will inaugurate a function to celebrate the 7th Civil Services Day in New Delhi tomorrow. He will also present the “PM’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration” for the year 2010-11.
· Production commenced in the first uranium mining and processing plant of Andhra Pradesh, at Thummalapalli in YSR District. Results from a research conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission of India in 2011 made the analysts conclude that this mine might have one of the largest reserves of uranium in the world. This finding substantially increased India’s capability of producing energy from nuclear plants. As of 2011, India was producing about 3% of its energy from nuclear plants. These findings suggest that this output can be increased to more than 30% by 2050.
· Finance Minister of Kerala said that the State government would introduce e-stamping, instead of non-judicial stamp papers, within six months in the State. The Minister said this was being done with a view to weeding out fake stamp papers and making the registration process more transparent, thus bringing down the revenue loss to the government.
· According to a study or Maternal Death Reviews (MDR) conducted on pregnancy-related deaths, a large number of women die (approx. 90%) during transit to a health facility or returning home after a delivery. Experts believe such deaths could possibly have increased because of an emphasis on institutional deliveries and a lack of corresponding clinical infrastructure — the Janani Suraksha Yojana gives women financial incentives for delivering at a health facility, but are often taken to the health facility as a mere formality and often asked to go home immediately after delivery because of lack of infrastructure to deal with the heavy patient load, which puts the life of the child and mother at huge risk. The MDR was rolled out in 2010 under the Reproductive and Child Health programme as an important strategy to improve the quality of obstetric care and to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity. It also said, while haemorrhage, sepsis, abortion, obstructed labour and hypertensive disorders are the major medical causes of maternal deaths in the country, delay in initiating treatment, substandard care in hospital, lack of blood, equipment and drugs in hospitals coupled with lack of staff at health facility are other factors that often lead to the death of a young woman. At the community level, absence of ante-natal check ups, delay in seeking care, referral, getting transport, mobilising funds and not reaching the appropriate facility in time are some other factors of maternal deaths, besides prevailing beliefs and customs that prevent women from going to a health facility at the appropriate time.
· Expressing concern over the reported comments of the Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia that Right to Information queries were impeding the working of Judges, the Chief Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi had written to the CJI to lend his powerful voice to increasing the effectiveness and reach of RTI and not support those who seek to curb it. “Conceding that there were people who use the RTI in a trivial manner, Mr. Gandhi said that it applied to all rights and, in fact, to all actions of human beings in society. Similarly, it would be possible to show that various progressive laws — such as the Dowry Act, the Atrocities Act, etc. — may have been used in a trivial manner or to harass innocent people. But all of us recognise the beneficial results of these, and do not talk of constricting them.” The CIC contended that limits to the RTI could only be set by Parliament, which had already done this by coding the RTI Act. He maintained that the RTI Act was just beginning to make a small difference in the power equation between the citizens and government. Mr. Gandhi said that the average citizen's interactions with government were usually humiliating and annoying and against that backdrop, the RTI was showing hopes of bringing correction, and perhaps had a potential of “making our nation a true democracy which recognises the sovereignty of the Indian citizen.”
· Ashim Ahluwalia, who directed Miss Lovely , is representing India at Cannes this year and the film will be screened as a part of the Un Certain Regard section of the festival. The film is a Hindi feature film set in the lower depths of Bombay's ‘C' grade film industry.
· A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Government of India and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for scaling up computerization of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) within the country. Modernisation including computerisation of TPDS in the country is enabling timely allocation of foodgrains, biometric identification of beneficiaries, recording of transactions at the fair price shops, tracking of foodgrains, etc. This has brought about a perceptible change in targeting of PDS, elimination of over 2.48 crore bogus/ineligible ration cards and resultant saving of foodgrains.
· In a move to help the ailing aviation sector of its immediate financing concerns, the Government has allowed the aviation sector to raise one billion dollars to manage its working capital through External Commercial Borrowing, ECB route. (An ECB is an instrument used in India to facilitate the access to foreign money by Indian corporations and PSUs. ECBs include loans, buyers' credit, suppliers' credit, securitised instruments such as notes and fixed rate bonds.) The official release said that the rapid growth of the aviation sector in India has generated demand for additional finance for working capital and capacity expansion. High operating costs, particularly on account of high fuel costs, have put additional stress on the airline industry.
· The Government is planning to set up 14 innovation universities to establish global benchmarks for excellence in higher education and build an ecosystem of innovations and research. The Human Resource Development Minister said that these universities will be autonomous in designing their own knowledge disciplines, admission criteria, academic programmes and merit system. He said these universities will have to work to attain highest standards of quality and provide manpower in the form of professionals and scientists needed to support the National Innovation Council. Besides this, cluster innovation centres are also being planned in this area. The Minister sought collaboration from UK in both the proposed innovation universities and clusters during India-UK Round Table on Innovation in New Delhi. He said that the period between 2010 and 2020 has been declared as the 'decade of innovation' to contribute towards realising the Vision of India as an Innovation Hot Spot.
· The President of Myanmar, Thein Sein, has arrived in Japan. This is the first visit to Japan by a Myanmar Head of State in almost three decades. Reforms have been underway in Myanmar since elections in November 2010 brought a transition from military to a nominally civilian government. President Thein Sein will hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda. The two leaders will discuss a solution to Myanmar's debt to Japan and open the way for Tokyo to resume financing for much needed infrastructure. Japanese companies are also keen to invest in Myanmar which is rich in resources.
· The International Monetary Fund has hit a roadblock as it seeks to double its resources, with Brazil demanding more power for emerging economies as a condition for lending extra cash. IMF Chief, Christine Lagarde, wants the Fund's power boosted to 800 billion US dollars. As the IMF and World Bank hold their biannual meetings in Washington, Brazilian Finance Minister laid out the terms for a deal after a meeting with representatives from the BRICS group of top emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The IMF had already rolled back its earlier target of 500 billion US dollars after the United States confirmed it would not contribute, so support from China, Russia and Brazil is critical.
· Columbia University on Monday announced the winners of the 96^th yearly Pulitzer Prizes, among the most esteemed recognitions for achievement in US journalism and the arts. Some major awardees are: [1.] POETRY-"Life on Mars," by Tracy K. Smith; [2.] PUBLIC SERVICE-The Philadelphia Inquirer; [4.] INTERNATIONAL REPORTING-The New York Times.
· Practice sessions will take place today for Sunday's Formula 1 Grand Prix in Bahrain as the controversy surrounded the event continues. The authorities have tightened security after a car carrying members of the Force India Team was caught in a street battle between police and anti-government demonstrators.
· The U.S. and its allies in NATO have finalised agreements to wind down the war in Afghanistan, paving the way for President Barack Obama to announce at a NATO summit meeting in Chicago next month that the nearly 11-year-old conflict is close to an end. “After a day of meetings at NATO headquarters here in Brussels (capital of Belgium), the allies had formalised three crucial commitments: [1.] to increasingly move the Afghans into a lead combat role; [2.] to keep some international troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, the year all U.S. forces are supposed to be home; [3.] to pay billions of dollars a year to support the Afghan security forces.” But many of the most critical details remained unresolved, chief among them who would pay billions of dollars a year to support the Afghan security forces. Besides this, major concerns also remain over attacks like those mounted by the Haqqani network of the Taliban.