Daily News Notes: 30th July to 1st August, 2012

· Making its electoral ambitions clear, Team Anna said its mission was to ensure new and able people came to power in 2014. The statement comes close on the heels of Gandhian Anna Hazare toughening his approach by rejecting talks with the government and instead offering to campaign for “credible’’ candidates. The statement from Hazare came on a day when his close aides, Arvind Kejriwal and Gopal Rai, rejected doctors’ advice for hospitalization after their fast entered the seventh day. [Anna tum aage badho, hum tumhare saath hai]
· Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde has taken over as Union Home Minister. Mr. Shinde said, he is the second dalit to hold this portfolio. Mr. Veerappa Moily who has been given additional charge of power also took charge of the new ministry. Mr. P Chidambaram took over charge of the Finance Ministry.
· In Andhra Pradesh, 35 persons have been charred to death and 26 injured when the Chennai bound Tamil Nadu express caught fire. The fire engulfed the sleeper coach as the train sped at 80km/hour. It spread devastatingly fast through the overcrowded S11 coach, giving the 72 reserved passengers and an unknown number of additional travellers in the bogie virtually no chance to escape. Railway officials said the preliminary probe indicated that a short-circuit had sparked the fire. But railway minister Mukul Roy, speaking in Kolkata, said a gateman at the Vedayapalem level crossing had heard a loud sound before the blaze broke out, suggesting an act of sabotage. According to reports, while the train was passing Nellore Station, Gateman of Level Crossing Gate noticed the fire in S-11 coach and informed Dy. Station Superintendent of Nellore who managed to stop the train after the Old South Cabin of Nellore Station. As a result of the fire, this coach got completely burnt. Railway Minister Mukul Roy has announced an ex-gratia payment of five lakh rupees each for the next of the kin of those killed in the accident. The cause of the incident is yet to be ascertained. The General Manger of all Zonal Railways are being instructed to exercise extra vigil as well as launch a special safety drive regarding precautions to be taken to avoid recurrence of such accidents.
· In Punjab, four school going children were killed and about a dozen seriously injured when a single coach local train rammed into their school bus at an unmanned railway crossing.
· The electricity supply to the northern, eastern and north-eastern states of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir were disrupted causing complete power failure. It is the first power grid failure during the last ten years. Power Minister said, measures are being taken to prevent these type of faults. These include inter connectivity of different power grid zones in the country by 2014. Northern Grid caters to about 28 per cent of the country's population, covers nine regions -- Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh. Also, it’s estimated that India has energy deficiency of more than 9% which lags GDP by 1.2%.
· In the wake of the nationwide power outages over the last two days, a section of the media has reported that one of the main reasons for the failure of the power grades have been power projects, which are said to have been “stalled” due to want of Environmental Clearance (EC). Justifying above as factually incorrect, Government has issued the following power project status: [1.] NTPC Bijapur Karnataka is said to have been stalled due to lack of environmental clearance. The fact is EC was granted on 25 January 2012; [2.] Essar Madhya Pradesh is said to have been stalled due to lack of EC, but EC was granted as early as 20 April 2007. The same applies to Reliance Power Chitrangi Madhya Pradesh where EC was granted on 28 May 2010; [3.] NHPC Dibang valley has been violently opposed by the local people, and public hearing has been postponed 5 times due to public unrest, although initial Terms of Reference (TORs) were issued on 17 August 2009. Further Dibang involves diversion of 5056 hectares of forest land-a massive extent of land which has to be carefully studied; [4.] NPCIL Mithvirdi Gujarat far from being stalled due to lack of EC, even the application for EC has not been received at MoEF; [5.] The Cheemei gas based TPP by Kerala State Industrial Corporation was considered for EC but postponed, because the promoters were not even sure about the blend of natural gas and RLG which they proposed to use for the plant; [6.] With regard to environment and forest clearances for power plants, the following are the facts, as brought out by an independent study done by the Centre for Science and Environment in 2011. The 11th Five Year Plan has projected a target of 50,000 MW of additional thermal power capacity; the 12th Plan asks for 100,000 MW. In the past 5 years, upto 2011, the MoEF has granted environmental clearance to 210,000 MW of power- that is 60,000MW more power than has been proposed until 2017. In most cases including coal and thermal power projects, clearances given by MoEF far exceed targets, and even capacity projected for the future; [7.] Further, MoEF has reviewed existing procedures to ensure that in cases where clearances are granted, there is no undue delay hardship or loss caused to the economy. It has been directed that both forest and environmental clearances should be simultaneously processed, in order to avoid delay. However, the actual EC is only handed over after the final forest clearance and wildlife clearance where necessary are given. With regard to forest clearance, upto 40 ha forest land may be cleared at the regional level itself, and it is only for much larger tracts of forest land that the matter is processed at MoEF.
· The Supreme Court has refused to stay Gujarat High Court order directing state government to repair religious places damaged in 2002 Godhara riots. Around 500 shrines had been destroyed in the riots. The High Court had pulled up the state government for its inaction and negligence, which resulted in the destruction of religious structures.
· Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has constituted a Committee (headed by the former CBDT Chairman N. Rangachary) to review the taxation of development centres & IT sector, and finalise the Safe Harbour provisions announced in Budget 2010 sector-by-sector. The Prime Minister had earlier set up an Expert Committee on General Anti Avoidance Rules, GAAR under the Chairmanship of Dr. Partho Shome to engage in a widespread consultation process and finalise the GAAR Guidelines. Background: “In India many Multi National Companies, MNCs carry out activities such as product development, analytical work and software development through captive entities. They exist in a wide range of fields including IT software, IT hardware , Pharmaceutical R&D and other scientific R&D which are popularly called Development Centres. Over 750 MNCs have such centres at over 1100 locations in India. Since it is a highly competitive field with other countries wanting to grab a share of the pie, the government wanted clarity on their taxation.”
· The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to keep all key rates unchanged in its first quarter review of monetary policy 2012 - 2013. Cash Reserve Ratio (money parked by banks with the RBI) unchanged at 4.75%, repo rate (rate at which RBI lends to banks) unchanged at 8%, reverse repo rate (rate at which RBI borrows from banks) will remain unchanged at 7% and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 9%. However, RBI have announced a cut in SLR (proportion of deposits that banks invest in government bonds) by 1% (24% to 23%). The cut in SLR will enable banks to shift money from low-yielding bonds to retail loans, resulting in some loans getting cheaper. Governor of RBI, D. Subbarao said "Let me now spell out the three broad contours of the Monetary Policy stance. First, to contain inflation on anchor inflation expectations. Second, to support a sustainable growth path over the medium term and third, to continue, to provide liquidity to facilitate credit availability to productive sectors.” Explaining why the rates have been kept unchanged, the RBI governor said that lowering policy rates at this stage would have aggravated inflationary impulses without necessarily stimulating growth. The RBI has termed Euro zone crisis, uncertainties on commodity prices, deficient monsoons, current account and fiscal deficits as major risks to monetary policy. The RBI has also advised the government to take immediate steps to control fertilizer and fuel subsidies and keep them under 2% of GDP. Further, Chief Economic Advisor, Kaushik Basu has said that India's inflation is much less in comparison to other countries, and he further expects it to go below 7 percent by the end of September. He said, India can also hope to eradicate poverty in ten years time. Mr. Basu also ruled out that India is facing the problem of stagflation (Stagflation basically means growth coming to a halt).
· MiG-29KUB, a Russian-built fighter jet made the first landing on the INS Vikramaditya during sea trials. INS Vikramaditya is the rechristened name of former Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, which has been procured by India. Russia sold the carrier to India after it became too expensive for the soviet nation to operate it on a post Cold War budget. It has been extensively refurbished and upgraded to a light aircraft carrier in Russia. It is expected to be inducted for service in the Indian Navy by December 2012.
· The Naval Air Station at Campbell Bay on Great Nicobar Island, was today commissioned as Indian Naval Ship ‘Baaz’ by Admiral Nirmal Verma, Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Chief of the Naval Staff. INS Baaz is situated at a distance of about 300 nm from Port Blair and is the southernmost air station of the Indian armed forces. Speaking on the occasion Admiral Nirmal Verma said that “the archipelago, separated as it is by more than 650 nm from our mainland, offers a vital geo-strategic advantage to India. Not only do they provide the Nation with a commanding presence in the Bay of Bengal, the Islands also serve as our window into East and South East Asia”. Emphasizing upon the strategic location of INS Baaz Admiral Verma reminded that INS Baaz, overlooks the Strait of Malacca, while also dominating the “6 degree channel”. INS Baaz is currently equipped to operate light to heavy aircraft capable of short field operations from the runway of about 3500 feet. Further, he said “One of the primary functions of INS Baaz will be to provide information, based on ‘airborne’ maritime surveillance”. Admiral Verma added that airborne surveillance using aircraft and UAVs remains invaluable to building Maritime Domain Awareness. Also, pivoted around the Andaman and Nicobar Command, headquartered at Port Blair, co-operative maritime engagement with South East Asian and East Asian countries is also being constantly enhanced through initiatives like the MILAN series of exercises, co-operative patrols with countries like Indonesia and Thailand and other Navy-to-Navy linkages with ASEAN countries as distant as Vietnam.
· With the aim to accelerate the ambitious high speed corridor project, the government will establish a corporation to exclusively deal with aspects like its tendering process and execution. The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC) will be created very soon to focus on execution of the bullet train project, including tendering, pre-feasibility study and awarding contracts etc. There is a plan to build 8 high speed rail corridors. Priority will be given to Mumbai-Ahmedabad track. The train will have a speed of 300km/hour. These projects are flagship infrastructure project which have been given approval by PM’s office. The seven other corridors will be: [1.] Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar; [2.] Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad; [3.] Hyderabad- Dornakal-Vijayawada-Chennai; [4.] Howrah-Haldia; [5.] Chennai-Bangalore- Coimbatore-Trivandrum; [6.] Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Allahabad-Patna; [7.] Delhi-Jaipur-Ajmer-Jodhpur
· TRAI ( Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) released the “Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report” for the Quarter ending March 2012. The Report provides a broad perspective of the Telecom Services as well as Cable TV, DTH & Radio Broadcasting services in India. The following are the highlights of the Report : [1.] The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 926.53 million at the end of Dec-11 to 951.34 million at the end of Mar-12, registering a growth of 2.68%; [2.] Subscription in Urban Areas grew from 611.19 to 620.52 million, while Rural subscription increased from 315.33 to 330.82 million; [3.] The overall Tele-density in India has reached 78.66; [4.] Urban Teledensity has reached from 167.85 to 169.55, while Rural Teledensity increased from 37.48 to 39.22; [5.] Share of Rural areas in total subscription has increased from 34.03% to 34.77%; [6.] Wireline subscriber base further declined from 32.69 million to 32.17 million, bringing down the wireline Teledensity from 2.71 to 2.66; [7.] Internet subscribers increased from 22.39 to 22.86 million, registering a quarterly growth rate of 2.10%. Top 10 ISPs together hold 94.94% of the total Internet subscriber base; [8.] Number of Broadband subscribers increased from 13.35 to 13.81 million, registering a quarterly growth of 3.44%. Share of Broadband subscription in total Internet subscription decreased from 59.6% to 60.4%. 85% of the Broadband subscribers are using Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology; [9.] Apart from All India Radio, Prasar Bharti – a public broadcaster, there are 245 private FM Radio stations. Total number of permitted private satellite TV channels registered with Ministry of I&B is 831, while there are 168 pay TV channels in existence.
· Chairing the 11^th Meeting of Consultative Committee of Members of Parliament on the topic “Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contract”, the EPC mode of execution shall ensure implementation of the road project to specified standards with a fair degree of certainty relating to costs and time while transferring the construction risks to the contractor. The EPC contract document specifies the required design and performance standards and allows the Contractor to design and construct the project using best practices and innovation to optimise on efficiency and economy as compared to the rigidity of the item rate contract that relies on the specific design provided by the Government.
· The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) has completed the Field work of NSS 68^th round on 30^th June 2012. This round was devoted mainly to Household Consumer Expenditure and Employment and Unemployment and its distribution separately for the rural and urban sectors of the country, for States and Union Territories, and for different socio-economic groups. These indicators are amongst the most important measures of the level of living of the respective domains of the population and are crucial inputs for estimation of prevalence of poverty by the Planning Commission. The detailed results on consumer expenditure of NSS 68^th Round are expected to be brought out by the NSSO during the year 2013. The results compiled are based on a measure termed as “Monthly Per capita Consumer Expenditure with Uniform Reference Period” (MPCE_URP). Some salient findings of the survey in terms of MPCE_URP are as follows: [1.] The average MPCE_URP in 2011-12 was estimated at Rs.1281.45 in rural India and Rs.2401.68 in urban India. Thus the per capita expenditure level of the urban population was on the average about 87.4% higher than that of the rural population; [2.] The poorest 10% of India’s rural population had an average MPCE_URP of Rs.503.49. The poorest 10% of the urban population had an average MPCE_URP of Rs.702.26; [3.] The top 10% of the rural population, ranked by MPCE_URP, had an average MPCE_URP of Rs. 3459.77, about 6.9 times that of the bottom 10%. The top 10% of the urban population had an average MPCE_URP of Rs. 7651.68, about 10.9 times that of the bottom 10%; [4.] In rural India, half of the population belonged to households with MPCE_URP below Rs.1030 (median value) and nearly 40% of the rural population of India had MPCE_URP below Rs.922. About 60% of rural population had MPCE_URP below Rs. 1162. About 10% had MPCE_URP above Rs.2054; [5.] In urban areas of India, half of the population was living with MPCE_URP below Rs.1759, about 70% of population had MPCE above Rs1295, nearly 30% had MPCE above Rs. 2464, and 20% had MPCE above Rs.3077. [source: http://www.mospi.gov.in]
· Today is the 92nd death anniversary of India's beloved freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Reverently addressed as Lokmanya, Tilak was an Indian nationalist, social reformer and freedom fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian independence movement. He joined the Indian National Congress in 1890 and issued a call for banning of child marriage and welcomed widow remarriage. He is considered as the Father of the Indian National Movement. Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it! This famous quote of his is very popular and well-remembered in India even today.
· Chief Minister of Kerala, Mr. Oommen Chandy, has demanded that the centre should permit relaxation in norms for the state’s attempt to launch its own airline (Air Kerala) so as to provide adequate travel facilities for Keralites in the Gulf countries. “The state has already initiated steps to float the new company titled Air Kerala. The matter has not gone forward due to two norms – that only a company owning a fleet of 20 flights will be allowed to operate international services and a minimum of five years domestic operation was necessary before international operations,” Minister said. The chief minister also said that the state was not aware of a move to shift the headquarters of Air India Express, the low-cost subsidiary of Air India from Kochi.
· Uttar Pradesh government took a step towards e-governance as the Chief Minister have inaugurated State Service Delivery Gateway. Now people can get certificates etc. from Panchayati Raj, Revenue, Labour, Urban development, social welfare and food and civil supplies departments.
· Policeman-turned-rebel Champion R Sangma, who co-founded Garo National Liberation Army in Meghalaya has been arrested by the state Police. GNLA, a Garo Hills-based outfit, was declared a terror organisation for killing security personnel and civilians, besides incidents of abduction and extortion.
· In Uttar Pradesh the government has decided to keep Lokayukta out of purview of the Right to Information Act RTI.
· Even as Anna Hazare continues to sit on an indefinite fast demanding the Lokpal Bill, the Maharashtra government has announced constituting a committee of senior bureaucrats to suggest measures to strengthen Lokayukta in the state. The panel will submit its detailed report suggesting more powers for the anti-graft watchdog before the next winter session commencing in Nagpur in December. The decision was taken by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan following a meeting to discuss a private-member’s bill moved by BJP MLA. MLA has demanded separate police machinery, designated court and staff to tackle corruption cases. In its present state, the draft private bill said, Maharashtra’s anti-graft watchdog has no teeth to take action or to seek clarification from the state on compliance.
· India’s largest ever industrial solar plant in Ludhiana district of Punjab started functioning. This unit has been built to perform dual functions of producing solar power besides and providing permanent solution of disposal of large quantity of industrial waste water by evaporating it which was caused by the chemical mixed water released by the units.
· Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, on visit to Japan, has expressed his wish to develop Dholera SIR (Special Investment Region) as a model port city just like Kobe city in Japan. Dholera is a town in Gujarat. It is an ancient port-city in Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay), 30 km. from Dhandhuka village of Ahmedabad district. Kobe is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyogo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshu, approximately 30 km (19 mi) west of Osaka. It is also an ancient port established in 812 AD.
· Government of India signed a revised Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with the Government of the Republic of Indonesia for the avoidance of double taxation and for the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes. It’s Highlights: [1.] The revised DTAA gives taxation rights in respect of capital gains on alienation of shares of a company to the source State; [2.] The revised DTAA further incorporates provisions for effective exchange of information including banking information and sharing of information without domestic tax interest; [3.] The revised DTAA also provides for assistance in collection of taxes between tax authorities; [4.] The revised DTAA will provide tax stability to the residents of India and Indonesia and facilitate mutual economic cooperation as well as stimulate the flow of investment, technology and services between India and Indonesia.
· Government of India and Government of Principality of Monaco have signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA). Salient features of this agreement are: [1.] It is based on international standard of transparency and exchange of information;[ 2.] Information must be foreseeably relevant to the administration and enforcement of the domestic laws of the Contracting Parties; [3.] The requesting State has to provide some minimum details about the information requested in order to justify the foreseeably relevance criteria; [4.] Information is to be treated as secret and can be disclosed to only specified person or authorities.
· Indian govt. has reviewed the Foreign Direct Investment policy, permitting investments from Pakistan. Presently, investment from a citizen of Pakistan or an entity incorporated in Pakistan is not permitted. Thus revising the policy by making an amendment in “Consolidated FDI Policy”, decided to permit a citizen of Pakistan or an entity incorporated in Pakistan to make investments in India, under the Government route, in sectors/activities other than defence, space and atomic energy.
· Union Minister for Commerce, Industry & Textiles Anand Sharma will lead a high-level ministerial delegation to Sri Lanka. The aim of the visit is to double the bilateral trade between India and Sri Lanka from current 4.5 billion dollar to 9 billion dollars by 2017.
· The U.S. State Department in its 2011 Country Reports on Terrorism has warned that terrorists including the Lashkar-e-Taiba, LeT, have long planned to derail any progress in India-Pakistan relations by launching new attacks. Lauding India for increasing its counter-terrorism capabilities and expanding its coordination with the U.S., the State Department, however, emphasised that the loss of over 1,000 lives over the years still made India one of the world’s most terrorism-afflicted countries and one of the most persistently targeted countries by transnational terrorist groups such as LeT.
· US has announced fresh stiffer sanctions against foreign banks that help Iran sell its oil. The fresh sanctions are aimed at measures circumventing the payment mechanisms for Iran oil trade. Obama's order also targets China's Bank of Kunlun and Iraq's Elaf Islamic Bank for providing services to Iranian banks. The sanctions will also apply in case of transactions of Iranian oil through informal means or barter in addition to those by the banks and financial institutions. It also brings under its ambit any person or entity engaged in the purchase or acquisition from Iran's petrochemical industry. Oil and Petrochemical industry account for nearly 80 percent of Iran’s revenues. The new executive order carries forward the waiver to countries that have cut the purchases of Iranian oil significantly.
· A Thai study reveals that supplements containing a compound found in the curry spice may help prevent diabetes in people at high risk.
· Researchers from Toronto have developed the most efficient Colloidal Quantum Dot (CQD) solar cell ever from inexpensive materials and it is certified at world-record 7.0 % efficiency.
· The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has congratulated Shri Gagan Narang on his winning the Olympic bronze medal in London.