{DNN} Daily News Notes: 31st Oct, 2012

· 93 percent digitisation of cable TV has been achieved so far in the four metros Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. The deadline for digitisation ended this evening. The digitisation includes Direct to Home, DTH, services also. Information and Broadcasting Ministry said the level of digitization has touched 97 per cent in Delhi, 100 per cent in Mumbai and 85 per cent in Kolkata. In Chennai 86 percent digitization has been achieved. The release further added exclusive teams have been set up for physical verification of the progress made in digitisation. The teams will visit head-ends of Multi System Operators - MSOs, a master facility for receiving television signals for processing and distribution over a cable television system in the metros to cross check and see their preparedness for switchover. Analog signals will become a thing of the past from midnight of October 31 and only digital signals for cable TVs will be allowed to be pass through first the broadcasters, then multi-system operators (MSOs) and finally local cable operators (LCOs), who distribute signals to subscribers in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai & Kolkata. Cable operators won’t be able to hide subscribers from distributors, so it will increase revenues and bring transparency. Customers will get more channels of choice, improved clarity and value added services. OCTOBER 31, 2012: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai; MARCH 31, 2013: Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur, Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Patna, Indore, Bhopal, Thane, Ludhiana, Agra, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Vadodara, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Rajkot, Meerut, Kalyan-Dombivli, Varanasi, Amritsar, Navi Mumbai, Aurangabad, Solapur, Allahabad, Jabalpur, Srinagar, Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Howrah, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Mysore and Jodhpur; SEPTEMBER 30, 2014: All other corporation, municipality areas.
· The Supreme Court-appointed three member Central Empowered Committee, CEC, headed by Mr P V Jayakrishnan visited over a dozen places in the South Goa district to inspect illegal mining as pointed out by Justice M B Shah Commission. The Committee found out major discrepancies and has sought clarification from the mining companies operating the mines.
· The Union finance ministry has finalised a cabinet note for creation of the National Investment Board (NIB) to expedite infrastructure projects. Big projects across sectors where investment is Rs. 1,000 crore or upwards will come under the direct monitoring of the board after it is set up. The board will be headed by the prime minister and empowered to set time-frames to be followed by the respective ministries for achievement of milestones in various projects. If the ministries fail to achieve the time-bound targets such as grant of licences, permissions, and approvals, such projects will be taken over by the board. The NIB is also empowered the body to deal with representations from the aggrieved parties. Bidding for public-private partnership (PPP) projects in power, transport and highways, and coal blocks have seen widespread litigations in the last couple of years. For instance, almost Rs 9,000 crore payment to highway work contractors is pending owing to arbitration with the National Highways Authority of India over the last 10 years. Also, in most cases, the interest is now more than the principal. The NIB will be supported by a dedicated secretariat that will be supervised by the finance ministry or the prime minister’s office. The administrative control of the NIB will rest with the PMO as the cabinet ministers are all equal.
· Ministry of Consumer Affairs has launched a National Transparency Portal for Public Distribution System. The portal has been developed with the objective of providing all PDS related information through a single platform in the public domain. The portal contains information relating to Fair Price Shops (FPSs) and ration cards attached to the FPSs. Information on FCI and State storage godowns with capacity utilization and data on Central Pool stocks is also published on the portal. The portal further hosts information like the monthly allocation orders, State-specific commodity sale prices, lifting position, etc. for public view.
· “SHILPOTSAV-2012” will be inaugurated by the Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment on 1st November, 2012. This is the sixth year of Shilpotsav. The Shilpotsav was started during the year 2007-08 by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, with an objective to provide a platform to the beneficiaries assisted under the developmental schemes of various Finance & Development Corporations and National Institutes to showcase their art & craft. The event also provides opportunity for publicity of Ministry’s schemes with live examples of success and triumph over the poverty and unemployment among the target group with assistance from the Ministry’s schemes. The space is given in Dilli Haat free of cost to the participating artisans.
· Maharashtra is planning three new hydroelectric projects in the Western Ghats to reduce peak-hour power shortages. The stations will use the ‘pump storage method’ to generate a total of 2,900 megawatts (MW) of power.The state already has one such 250MW project in Ghatghar, near Thane. In the ‘pump storage method’, water used for the generation of electricity is stored in a lower dam and then pumped out to an upper dam for running turbines when needed. This cycle is repeated. [Click here for Infographic]
· The carcass of a full grown tiger was found in the core area of Tadoba tiger reserve in the eastern part of Maharashtra, around 180 km from Nagpur. The carcass was noticed by a group of tourists roaming the area in a vehicle. They informed the forest department that led senior wildlife wing officials to rush there. This is the eight death of a big cat in the district and particularly in the vicinity of Tadoba tiger reserve since January this year. The state witnessed 13 tiger deaths, including five due to poaching this year. Tadoba, one of project tiger reserves in the state, is spread over 623 sq kms of core area and around 1102 sq kms of buffer zone of high hills and lush valleys under dense teak and bamboo forests. The reserve is also a home to rare wildlife like wild dogs, leopards, bisons, and hyena and jungle cat, along with 69 tigers. [Click here for Infographic]
· Jharkhand announced the constitution of a Displacement Commission to look into the grievances of displaced people and ensure social security for them. The Jharkhand government is not in favour of any projects at the cost of the state’s people. People displaced by roads, irrigation, industries and other projects should get compensation, social security and other things. More than 20 lakh people have been displaced in the state over the years for steel, mining, irrigation and other industrial projects.
· The country’s specialised snoop department, National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) has set up its first base in a naxal hotbed in Chhattisgarh to monitor the movement of armed Maoist cadres and fly ten Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to help security forces to track them. The station will act as a gateway for acquiring satellite data and pass them on to ground patrol parties. The UAVs can then be operated in specified areas. The centre also has the facility to analyse information about geographical features, weather, available troop reinforcements and logistics before the on-field commanders undertake an operation. The facility, which is manned by NTRO-trained CRPF ’Signals’ officials, will also share intelligence and geographical information with the NTRO headquarter in Delhi. The activation of the five V-SAT terminals for NTRO is expected to provide an edge to security force operations in difficult terrains where Maoist ambushes and IED blasts are a major threat to the troops.
· Delivering inaugural address at the International Conference on ‘Strengthening Green Federalism: Sharing International practices’, the Vice President of India has said that culturally, legally, morally and existentially we need to move to a deeper understanding and recognition of the fact that human wellbeing and even economic growth are underpinned by a clean and healthy environment.
· The state of Uttarakhand tops the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) list of being best-performing States and Union territories in terms of environmental well-being released by Planning Commission. Uttarakhand is followed by Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Sikkim, and Andhra Pradesh. Environmental well-being is one of the considerations for decentralization of funds to the States under the Gadgil formula. Mizoram, Kerala, Goa, Sikkim, Tripura, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar, with an average score of 1, were ranked as the best States in terms of air quality. Amazingly, except for Uttarakhand, all the States met the prescribed national ambient air quality standard in respect of the sulphur dioxide which is of 20 micrograms per cubic metre.
· A three decades-old official order, issued for restricting targeted sterilisation of the primitive tribal groups (PTGs) in Chhattisgarh to check their dwindling numbers, appears all set for a re-look. This follows a Planning Commission directive to the State government to issue clarificationsto ensure that desirous PTGs will not be denied sterilisation facilities. The order was issued on December 13, 1979 by the undivided Madhya Pradesh government during the time when targets were set to achieve population control. However, an exemption was made for 26 blocks, which had a high population of PTGs, now re-named Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), as the infant mortality rate was very high in the tribal areas and their numbers were fast decreasing. These groups are Behor, Pahari Korvas, Abhujmadias, Kamar and Baiga. However, recently Sulakshana Nandi of the Public Health Resource Network, which took up the issue as a violation of women’s reproductive rights, said studies showed that the fertility rates of these groups were the same and even higher than the rest of the population. But, their mortality rates were several times more than others.
· A recent drive by Karnataka government, revealed that more than one in four domestic LPG connections in the State were fraud. Similarly, the country today has around 14 crore LPG connections and nearly one-fourth of all domestic cooking gas connections in the country are fake. The Central government has unearthed as many as three crore “ghost” domestic cooking gas connections (out of a total of 14 crore) following the launch of the transparency portal by the Petroleum Ministry. These connections caused a subsidy leakage of about Rs 12,000-15,000 crore every year which will now be plugged saving precious money for the government. Assuming an average consumption of 7.5 cylinders per connection every year, there has been a diversion of more than 22 crore domestic subsidised cylinders for commercial purpose every year. The huge difference in the price of domestic LPG vis-à-vis commercial/auto LPG is one of the main reasons for pilferage of domestic LPG. It has also been seen that the domestic cylinder is used with industrial burners by using a spring loaded fitting, which allows unrestricted flow of LPG vapour for commercial burners or even for use in automobiles. The oil industry has been looking for a device which can be installed on domestic cylinders so that the pilferage of LPG from domestic cylinders could be prevented. The device is proposed to have the provision to restrict the flow of LPG so that it becomes unviable to use domestic cylinders for commercial burners/auto LPG.
· India and the United Kingdom have signed a protocol amending the 1993 bilateral convention on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion related to taxes on income and capital gains. The amended protocol would provide tax stability to the residents of the two countries, and facilitate mutual economic cooperation besides stimulating flow of investment, technology and services between the two countries. The protocol incorporates in the convention, provisions for effective exchange of information between the tax authorities of the two countries in line with latest international standards, including exchange of banking information and supplying of information irrespective of domestic interest. It now also provides for sharing of information to other agencies with the consent of the supplying state.
· Senior officials from India, U.S. and Japan discussed trilateral cooperation in maritime security and a route through middle or north of Myanmar leading up to Hanoi for over five hours. The third trilateral which met till late in the night also exchanged proposals on doing projects together in Africa as well as cooperating on the economic side in Afghanistan with reliable sources asserting that “China was not really discussed in great detail except as part of the region.” While presentations by India and the U.S. covered a wide swathe from the Gulf of Aden to the South China Sea, the Japanese briefing was narrower with the focus primarily on its dispute with China over the Senkaku islands. Further, discussions on Myanmar were of great interest to India. While India has taken up a trilateral connectivity initiative with Myanmar and Thailand, this meeting touched on a route through upper Myanmar that would lead into Vietnam. While the U.S. and India have already taken the first steps to join hands in select African countries and India has been raising the issue bilaterally with Japan, the trilateral appreciated India’s solo efforts in the continent and felt all sides could collaborate on some projects to ensure their money was better spent. With this meeting, the three countries completed a cycle of talks that began with the first meeting in Washington in December last year followed by the next one in Tokyo this April. However, the Communist Party-run Global Times , and strategic analysts have expressed wariness at the India, Japan and the U.S. trilateral meet held in New Delhi describing it as aimed at exerting pressure on China over its regional ambitions. Japan — embroiled in a dispute with China over East China Sea islands — was seen as driving the trilateral initiative, being the “most anxious” of the three countries about China’s rise. The newspaper said the U.S. was “trying to ensnare China in the Asia-Pacific region”, even as the business community in Washington was becoming increasingly “integrated” with China.
· Cyclone 'Nilam' was hit to some coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh this evening bringing in heavy rain, with tide levels in the sea reaching 1.5 meters. The beautiful marina beach in Chennai has been swallowed by rising high tides in some places. Squally winds with speeds of 55 to 65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph would prevail along north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and coastal Andhra Pradesh. The wind speed would gradually increase thereafter to touch 80-90 kmph as the system moves closer to the coast at the time of landfall. The North-East monsoon which set in over Tamil Nadu on the 19th of this month, has been very active and has already brought in copious rainfall in several parts of the state.
· More than 50 people have been reported dead so far in the biggest storm (Sandy) that hit the north-eastern United States. At least 18 of the victims were killed in New York city, where the subway system suffered the worst damage in its one-hundred-and-eight-year history. Forecasters say the storm was expected to turn towards western New York State during the evening before moving into Canada. The New York Stock Exchange is resuming business today after remaining closed for two days.
· Water: Asia’s New Battleground by Brahma Chellaney has won the 2012 Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Book Award. Dr. Chellaney will be honored at a special event to be held at Asia Society’s headquarters in New York City on January 23, 2013. The Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Book Award is the only award that recognizes nonfiction books for their outstanding contributions to the understanding of contemporary Asia or U.S.-Asia relations, as well as potential policy impacts relating to the region. “Water: Asia’s New Battleground” was selected from nearly 90 nominations submitted by U.S. and Asia-based publishers for books published in 2011.
· South Africa indicted that it was ready to host a planned development bank for the BRICS grouping of five emerging economies, including India. Officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are working on feasibility studies for the creation of a BRICS bank expected to mobilise resources for infrastructural development projects in developing nations.
· India has asked Sweden to provide greater market access to its products to bridge the widening trade deficit. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma conveyed the concerns of the industry on the regulatory regime in Sweden, which prevents market access for India's industrial goods. Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at 2.81 billion Dollars during the last fiscal. India's imports from Sweden were 2 billion Dollars whereas exports were merely 825 million Dollars. Mr Sharma said both the countries can increase cooperation in sectors like infrastructure, modern technology, tele-communication, bio-technology, environment and renewable energy. He also stressed on increasing collaboration in skill development and invited Swedish firms to set National Manufacturing and Investment Zones, which are integrated industrial townships and manufacturing enclaves.
· Wildlife experts have spotted at least 18 Royal Bengal tigers in Trans-Boundary Manas Conservation Complex area. It is a joint effort of India and Bhutan to conserve bio-diversity of Manas and Royal Manas National park. In both the national parks, there was a combined record of 60 species of mammals such as Bengal tigers and Clouded Leopard. Over 500 species of birds and 1000 plant species were also recorded. Nature lovers from both the countries urged for a joint conservation and management plan for Manas and Royal Manas parks.
· Researchers working for the United Nations say that bananas could become a critical source of food for millions of people because of global warming. The fruit might replace potatoes in some developing countries. The authors of the UN report say that the world's three biggest crops in terms of calories provided - maize, rice and wheat will decrease in many developing countries. They suggest that the potatoes, which grow best in cooler climates, could also suffer as temperatures increase and weather becomes more volatile. As a result, in some countries, bananas may make a suitable alternative. The report says that other crops substitutions could include Casava for wheat in South Asia.
· Sri Lanka’s ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance coalition plans to move an impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Ms Shirani Bandaranayake. Over 100 MPs have signed an impeachment motion that will be presented to the Speaker. Dr. Bandaranayake was first appointed to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in 1996, becoming the first female Supreme Court Judge in Sri Lanka. Through the next 14 years, she served as the acting Chief Justice during a number of occasions. Following the mandatory retirement of Justice Asoka de Silva in May 2011, Dr. Bandaranayake was sworn in as Chief Justice of Sri Lanka before President Mahinda Rajapaksa. She was never a Judge at any level of the court system in Sri Lanka, she had gone into academia and had never practiced as a lawyer either until she was controversially appointed to the Supreme Court by then President Chandrika Kumaratunga in October 1996.
· The covert war between Iran and Israel, being fought along a broad front, has again escalated with Tehran again drawing international attention to the aerial bombardment of a weapons manufacturing unit in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Sudan’s Information Minister had accused Israel of using its warplanes to attack the Yarmouk Complex where weapons were being manufactured. Two people died in the attack. The Sudanese side raised the principle of national sovereignty, when it urged the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israel for bombing the factory. Analysts say the alleged strike by Israel, which Tel Aviv has neither confirmed nor denied, contained a bigger message for Iran. If Israeli planes could target a facility 1,900 km away with no one raising an alarm, they had the ability to strike Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, which is around 1,600 km away. After the strike, sections of Israeli media are talking about their country’s advancement in mid-air refuelling that allowed their planes to travel such a long distance undetected. The Iranians rejected the allegation of connivance between Khartoum and Tehran in building weapons. Israeli media have alleged that the factory was being used to build additional stocks of the Iranian Shihab missile that has the range to attack Israel. Sending a strong message of support for Sudan, Iran docked two of its warships — the helicopter carrier Kharg and destroyer Admiral Naqdi — at a Sudanese port on the Red Sea.
· Indian women lifted the title of Asian Cricket Council Women's Twenty-20 Asia Cup cricket tournament by defeating their arch rival Pakistan by 18 runs in the final match at Guangzhou in China.
· Hamid Rahimi has won the first professional boxing championship in the history of Afghanistan by defeating Said Mbelwa of Tanzania.
· Barcelona forward Lionel Messi was presented with his second Golden Boot award in recognition for scoring the most goals in Europe’s domestic football leagues last season. The 25-year-old Messi scored a Spanish-league record 50 goals for Barcelona, edging out fellow Spanish league star Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid by four goals. The Argentina international won his first Golden Boot in 2010 for his 34 goals that helped Barcelona win the league title. He is also just two goals away from equalling Brazil great Pele’s feat of 75 goals for club and country in one calendar year, set in 1958.