Daily News Notes: 23rd & 24th July, 2012

· Pranab Mukherjee has made history by becoming the first person from West Bengal to be elected as the President of India. He defeated his opponent, former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma, with a huge margin of about 70 per cent to be elected as the 13th President of the country. The Ceremony of assumption of office by the President-elect will be held at the Central Hall of Parliament House. The Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Mohammed Hamid Ansari, the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the Chief Justice of India, Justice S H Kapadia, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Mrs Meira Kumar, Members of Council of Ministers, Governors, Chief Ministers, Heads of Diplomatic Missions, Members of Parliament and Principal Civil and Military Officers of the Government of India will assemble in the Central Hall for the ceremony.
· In order to conserve the big cat, the Supreme Court has directed that there shall be no tourism activity in any of the core zones of tiger reserves across the country. The Apex court has also warned of contempt proceedings and imposition of exemplary costs on states which failed to notify the buffer zones in their respective tiger reserves.
· The Government has set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee (headed by Rajiv Agarwal, Secretary in the Department of Consumer Affair) to consider the issues of necessary enactment of legislation to regulate the Direct Selling and Multi-level Marketing companies. It will also discuss the guidelines for the companies on the lines of Kerala guidelines, besides, organizing an awareness campaign under ‘Jago Grahak Jago’ to protect the interest of the consumers. The committee will submit its report by the end of next month.
· Cairn Energy has touched 10 Crore barrel this year from the oil wells in Rajasthan. Mangla and Bhagyam are two oil wells in Barmer district of RJ. Oil producing from Thar desert is now fulfilling about 25 percent of countries oil requirement and it has reduced the expenditure on oil import by 9 billion US dollars. The Government has also received 3 billion USD as royalty and tax from this company. Now Rajasthan Government, ONGC and Cairn are planning for a detailed joint survey for search of hydrocarbon in Barmer basin. Oil from Barmer to refineries of Gujarat is being supplied by a 590 kms heated pipe line. According to Cairn, one more oil well Aishwarya will also start production in this financial year.
· Captain Lakshmi Sehgal (age: 97yrs), a very close aide of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in the Indian National Army, passed away after prolonged illness. Captain Lakshmi Sehgal was born in 1914 in Madras and qualified as a doctor from Madras Medical College. She met Subhash Chandra Bose in Singapore in 1943 and joined the new regiment called Rani Laxmi Bai Regiment of the Indian National Army. She was awarded of Padma Vibhushan in 1998. In 2002, left parties made her their candidate for the Presidential election.
· The Planning Commission Working Group on Natural Resources has recommended the setting up of a “Green Fund” during the 12th Plan period, by imposing 5% forest development tax on sale of forest products and 3% forest conservation tax on sale of petroleum products and coal mining and similar taxes like Eco-Tax in Himachal Pradesh. The sub-group working on Environment has also recommended the introduction of a Goods & Services Tax (GST) regime that is well integrated with environmental tax reforms; to bring about an economy-wide green tax regime.
· Aiming to infuse young talents to higher judiciary, the government has prepared a Cabinet note to introduce the Indian Judicial Service (IJS) — an all-India service on the lines of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS). The proposal is likely to be brought before the Union Cabinet next week for its approval. The move will also ensure that High Courts and Supreme Court would have younger and bright judges who are promoted to higher judiciary at a much younger age compared to the existing system where recruits join as magistrates and take at least 10 years to become district judge. Introduction of IJS has been in a limbo for close to four decades as many of the states had expressed their reservation citing several reasons. Language issues for judges coming from varied linguistic backgrounds have been cited as one of the reasons behind states' reluctance. States also fear it will be an intrusion on their rights since at present most of them select members of the subordinate judiciary.
· The Ministry of Rural Development has offered to fit all new railways coaches with DRDO built bio-toilets and to share half the cost of retrofitting all existing 50,000 coaches with green toilets. The measure will not only prevent the corrosion of tracks but will also provide odourless toilets to passengers. At present waste is dumped directly on to the tracks because of the existing toilet system in trains. Many passengers ignore requests to not use toilets when trains halt. Apart from the unbearable stench it creates, the practice leads to clogging of rail lines at busy stations. Shri Ramesh has also requested the Railways Ministry to run Nirmal Bharat Express on the model of Red Ribbon Express to spread the message of cleanliness and sanitation.
· Minister of State for Ministry of Communications and Information Technology presided over a meeting of the Hindi Salahkar Samiti (Consultative Committee) of Department of Telecom. During the course of the meeting, Samiti members offered several suggestions pertaining to dissemination of Hindi, its pervasive usage in Government offices and implementation of Rajbhasha policy.
· Mukta Vidya Vani, a pioneering initiative of the National Institute of Open Schooling, (NIOS) for using Streaming Audio for educational purposes, was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Human Resource Development. Mukta Vidya Vani on the World WideWeb is a modern interactive, participatory and cost effective programme, involving an academic perspective along with the technical responsibilities of production of audio and video programmes, which are one of the most important components of the multi channel package offered by the NIOS. This will enable a two way communication with any audience having access to an internet connection, from the NIOS studio situated at its Headquarters in NOIDA. The new NIOS website which has been designed in such a way that it not only meets the needs of its learners but is also disabled-friendly, was also launched on the occasion.
· Violence News from States: In Bihar, eight extremists of proscribed CPI (Maoist) including one self-styled area commander of the outfit were arrested. An American-made semi-automatic rifle, a regular rifle and a pistol besides 57 rounds of cartridge were recovered from them. In Jharkhand, four persons have lost their lives due to increase in naxal violence since last night. While two CRPF jawans- were killed, and five others injured in firing. In Jammu and Kashmir, one person was killed and eight others seriously injured when some explosive material exploded in the premises of Police Station. The blast was so powerful that four vehicles of CRPF and J&K Police parked outside the police station were damaged while window panes of various houses also were broken due to the impact of the blast. In Uttar Pradesh, heavy police patrolling is on and curfew imposed in Barielly city following incidents of violence. In Assam, security forces have intensified patrolling in the violence hit districts. Shoot-at-sight order has already been issued and indefinite curfew clamped in some districts. In Tamil Nadu, the two day strike by Rameswaram fishermen was called off after state Fisheries officials gave assurance to make efforts for the release of 23 Tamil fishermen apprehended by Sri Lankan Navy. In Haryana, Police has acquired non-bailable arrest warrants against 12 absconding Union leaders of Maruti Suzuki who could not be traced till now. Meanwhile, the Mahapanchayat of 50 villages situated around Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant on Monday, demanded a CBI inquiry into the incident instead of the Special Investigation Team of the state police. The economy of these villages is largely dependent on the plant.
· US President Barack Obama has named four Indian-American scientists among 96 researchers as recipients of the prestigious Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers. The awards bestowed on Sridevi Vedula Sarma, Pawan Sinha, Parag A Pathak and Biju Parekkadan. Established in 1996, the awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology.
· Arab League has urged the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to give up power as the Syrian troops launched offensive to flush out rebels from Damascus and Aleppo. In return they have promised that he and his family would be offered a safe exit. The Arab League also called on the Free Syrian Army rebels and the opposition to form a transitional government of national unity along with what it called a de facto national authority.It didn’t spell out who would be the authority. The Arab nations also called for an extraordinary meeting of the U.N. General Assembly to work towards creating security zones and humanitarian corridors in Syria.
· Marissa Mayer has been appointed as the new president and CEO of Yahoo - world’s 2nd largest search engine by query volume. Prior to her appointment, she served as the top executive at Google. Mayer will lead the product innovation in distressed internet company by introducing new perspective. Mayer played significant role in several projects at Google including Google Search, Google News, Google Images and Gmail. Yahoo has been facing stiff competition from Google and Facebook. The user base of the company has significantly reduced over the past few years. According to a 2009 data, Yahoo’s share in global internet business contracted to 6.42 % while its main competitor Google gained 85.35 % of the query volume on the internet.
· As per the report “Trends in global CO2 emissions”, there is a 3% surge in the global carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in 2011. The 3 % increase took the total amount of CO2 in air at an all-time high of 34 billion tonnes. As per the the report: [1.] The U.S. emits 17.3 tones per capita of CO2 . It is still one of the top emitters;[2.] China with an average of 7.2 tonnes per capita emission saw an increase by 9% in CO2 emission; [3.] The per capita emission of 27-nation European Union was 7.5 tonnes; [4.] The 34-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries was responsible for only 1/3rd of global CO2 emissions in 2011.
· According to the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), cutting back on salty foods such as bacon, bread and breakfast cereals may reduce people's risk of developing stomach cancer. The WCRF said too much salt is bad for blood pressure and can lead to heart disease and stroke, but it can also cause cancer.
· The origin of the Olympic Games dates back to 8th century BC. Until 393 AD, the Games were organized as religious festivals in Greece. During that period, a series of athletic competitions were held for representatives of Ancient Greece in honor of Zeus, believed to be the 'King of Gods and Men' in the Greek Mythology. Due to this centuries old connection, even today Athletes from Greece are the first ones to enter the stadium at both the opening and closing ceremonies. London will become the first city in the world to host the games for the third time. Making an exception this time around, the Olympics will see female athletes from every nation vying for glory. This was made possible when Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei decided to send female athletes to compete in this summer’s London Games. With enthusiasm, expectations and enjoyment, the world eagerly awaits the biggest sports extravaganza, the 2012 London Summer Olympics. This time at London, 14 Indian athletes (read name and participating game of athletes) would perform to viw for glory. In the Men’s Track and Road events, Basanta Bahadur Rana will participate in the 50 km walk; Baljinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Irfan Kolothum Thodi in the 20 km walk; And, Ram Singh Yadav in the Marathon event. In the Men’s field events, Vikas Gowda will represent India in the Discus Throw category; Om Prakash Karhana in Shot Put; And, Renjith Maheshwary in the Triple jump event. In the Women’s Track and Road events, Tintu Luka in the 800 meter section, while Sudha Singh in the 3000 meter steeplechase category. In the Women’s Field events, Seema Antil and Krishna Poonia will take part in the Discus Throw competition; Mayookha Johny in the Triple Jump section; And, Sahana Kumari in the High Jump category.