Daily News Notes: 21st July, 2012

• ·         Commissioning stealth frigate INS Sahyadri into the Indian Navy, Defence Minister has asked the Navy to maintain all time readiness for guarding national interest. The 4900 tonne INS Sahyadhri is equipped with same of the most advanced surface and air to air missile and can carry two helicopters including Dhru. Along with the capability to launch offensive on enemy vessels, the warship is also equipped with advanced electronic surface capability and torpedees to detect and neutrilize  enemy submarines. The warship will aslo carry Breamos, antiship cruise missile. The heel of INs Sahyadhri was laid in 2003 abd it was taken out for sea trial earlier this year.
• ·         The Union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles announced ninth National Investment and Manufacturing zone(NIMZ), a third for Maharashtra in Nagpur. The first 7 Investment Regions under NIMZs were: [1.] Ahmedabad-Dholera Investment Region, Gujarat; [2.] Shendra-Bidkin Industrial Park city near Aurangabad, Maharashtra; [3.] Manesar-Bawal Investment Region, Haryana; [4.] Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemrana Investment Region, Rajasthan; [5.] Pithampur-Dhar-Mhow Investment Region, Madhya Pradesh; [6.] Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad Investment Region, Uttar Pradesh; [7.] Dighi Port Industrial Area, Maharashtra; [8.] Later, Jodhpur-Pali Region was added to the list.
• ·         The union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles has also inaugurated the National Institute of Intellectual Property Management (NIIPM) building at Nagpur and named it “Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Intellectual Property Management”. The Minister also announced the decision to establish the India Intellectual Property Foundation which DIPP will set up in collaboration with CII and WIPO at NIIPM, Nagpur. NIIPM will fulfil the needs of IP ecosystem by education, training, research, policy formulation and awareness. In the light of increasing workload of patent application Indian Intellectual Property Office (IPO) recently recruited a batch of 257 examiners. Of patents and designs who will undergo a comprehensive one year training at NIIPM.
• ·         In the direction of effectively arresting the falling sex ratio at birth in the country, the Government has made it compulsory for MBBS doctors to go through training at recognized centres before opening up a sonography centre. The govt will monitor the efforts to curb the menace of foeticide at all levels, including the district level.
• ·         The Governor of RBI, D. Subbarao has mooted for a Producer Price Index (PPI) to measure the average change over time in the sale prices of domestic goods and services. Currently, it uses Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Wholesale Price Index (WPI) to aid in measuring inflation. It measures price changes from the perspective of the seller. WPI does not capture price movements of services, while CPI captures the prices of significant commodities at retail level but not at producer level, hence opened the gate for PPI to come forward. As PPI will not include hidden costs like shipping, taxes and other levies thus provides a much clear picture of inflation. Also, it will give a view of the economy’s efficiency in transferring goods and services from first level of transaction to other level.
• ·         European Union has offered ailing Spain more time and 30 billion euro to save the country's banks and protect Europe from more debt crises. EU finance ministers have also agreed to provide the funds with 100 billion euro ($123 billion), and extend a deadline for Spain to reduce its public deficit to the EU’s 3 % limit by 1 year to 2014.
• ·         Eminent motivational author Stephen R Covey (79) passed away. He authored “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change”, printed in 1989, sold about 20 million copies in 40 languages globally. It is still an international bestseller. Covey came to India on many times. In his 2008 visit he addressed government and business leaders. He quoted Mahatma Gandh, who was his idol, in many of his works.
• ·         The U.S. Food and Drug Administration showed green signal to an anti-HIV drug, Truvada, by pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences. It can now be used as prophylactic drug. It is a fixed-dose combination of 2 antiretroviral drugs (Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and Emtricitabine) used for the treatment of HIV. By blending the 2 antiretroviral drugs into one tablet, it cuts down the pill load and enhances conformity with antiretroviral therapy. However, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is skeptic that if Truvada is used as a preventive medicine by infected individuals who have not yet been tested, it could result in formation of drug resistant strains. These strains might spread to their partners.
• ·         Punjab born world's oldest marathon runner, Fauja Singh is to carry the Olympic torch during the Olympic Torch Relay ceremony in London. Earlier, it was in Athens Olympic where he carried the torch in the relay. Born in Punjab in 1911, Fauja Singh came to the UK to stay with one of his son's in 1992. He began running at the age of 86 just to keep himself occupied. He participated in the first marathon at the age of 89.
• ·         Jeev Milkha Singh and Anirban Lahiri made it a red-letter day for India at the 141st Open Championship at Royal Lytham in England as they became the first two golfers from the sub-continent to qualify for the weekend rounds at the same Major. While Jeev became the first Indian to make a cut in all four Majors, his younger teammate Anirban Lahiri became only the second from the country to make the cut on his Major debut, the first being Jeev at the 2002 US Open.