{Current Affairs} Daily News Notes: 17th to 28th Feb, 2013
- Ahead of the next general elections in 2014, the Congress-led United
Progressive Alliance government has proposed constitution of a high-power
committee to review and assess the implementation of Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee’s recommendations and Prime
Minister’s 15-Point Programme. Background: The Rajinder
Sachar Committee, appointed in 2005 by the Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan
Singh, was commissioned to prepare a report on the latest social, economic and educational condition of the Muslim
community of India. The committee was headed by the former Chief
Justice of Delhi
High Court Rajinder
Sachar. The committee prepared a report of 403 pages, and presented
in the lower
house (Lok
Sabha) of the Indian Parliament on 30 November 2006. The report is first of its kind
revealing the backwardness of Indian Muslims, according to Sachar Committee
report some of the major concers are: [1.] The status of Indian
Muslims are below the conditions of Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled
Tribes; [2.] The overall
percentage of Muslims in bureaucracy in India is just 2.5% whereas Muslims
constitute above 14% of Indian population. On 16 August 2011 Sachar was arrested in New Delhi during
protests over the detention of Anna
Hazare and his supporters.
- The government has decided to create a national pool of trainers comprising 25 officers across the country
to conduct leadership development programme at LBSNAA, the premier academy that
trains senior bureaucracy including IAS. The
trainers need to have a “comprehensive understanding of the environment in
which civil servants work and challenges thereof”, and must possess an
“excellent standard of written and verbal skills to explain the subject” among
others to qualify for the job. What’s also asked for is “sensitivity,
open-mindedness and flexibility.” A private person however is not eligible to
be a trainer. The applicant needs to work as a civil servant for 12 years to
qualify for the job. Unlike the
corporate trainers who receive over lakhs of rupees for just a couple of days,
the professional fee under LBSNAA’s current policy is Rs 1,000 for every 1.5
hours of training. The institute will however bear the trainers' expenses of
air-fare, accommodation etc. It
is also proposed to integrate modules on leadership skills from foundation
course to various mid-career training programmes at LBSNAA, for which it is now
partnering with an international leadership development agency called Centre for Creative Leadership.
- Growing at a rate of 40
per cent, the online retail market
is expected to double in the next two years to Rs. 7,200 crore as social media
and mobile phones are driving growth in online sales. The e-retailing market
has grown from the size of Rs.1,800 crore in 2011 to Rs.2,500 crore in 2012 and
is about to touch Rs.3,600 crore in 2013. The study expects the market to grow
to Rs.5,100 crore next year and Rs.7,200 crore by 2015. Online browsers have
become more confident about paying online. Factors that are helping the growth
are increasing number of internet users, increasing time spent on internet and
positive impact of social media and mobile applications. At present, there are
more than 137 million users. Indians spend 13 hours on browsing, 10 hours on
socialising and six hours on emails every week. The country has 40 million
online shopping website visitors per month and this number is increasing at the
rate of 45 per cent annually. Among categories, apparel has been growing
fastest reaching 15 per cent online users in India. Books, music and apparel
accessories are other categories showing tremendous growth. InfoGraphic
- Firms which own the broadband wireless access (BWA) airwaves can provide
voice services along with high-speed Internet if they pay a fee of Rs.1,658
crore, a senior government official said on Monday, a move likely to boost
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd. Reliance is the only company with
nationwide fourth-generation
(4G) broadband airwaves. Voice accounts for almost 85 per cent
of Indian carriers’ revenues, while data is still at a nascent stage. Data
services contribute just about 5-6 per cent of the total mobile service
revenues as fewer people browse the Internet on phones.
- GAIL (India) commenced delivery of gas through its 1,000 km-long Dabhol (MH)-Bangalore (KA) pipeline on Monday. The
pipeline, built at a cost of Rs.4,500 crore, has a total capacity of 16 mmscmd. The 1,000 km Dabhol-Bengaluru pipeline is set to change the
energy scenario of the region as it will feed industries in Belgaum, Dharwad,
Gadag, Bellary, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Tumkuyr, Ramanagaram and Bengaluru
which have been using costlier and polluting liquid fuel like diesel as
feedstock. The Dabhol-Bengaluru pipeline has a capacity to carry 16 million
standard cubic meters of gas per day. Additional 73-km of line have been laid
in Bengaluru city to supply CNG to automobiles as well as piped cooking gas to
households. GAIL is planning a massive expansion of its 10,000 km of pipeline
network with 3,000 km of lines under execution and another 2,000 km on drawing
board, which would take up the transmission capacity to 350-400 million
standard cubic meters per day.
- Two days after Afzal Guru’s
execution, the Supreme Court took judicial notice of his hanging, and
dismissed his pending writ petition, seeking his transfer from Tihar Jail to Srinagar Central Jail, as
infructuous. Afzal filed this petition early in 2011, through the Supreme Court
Legal Services Committee, (SCLSC) after the Delhi government rejected his
request to transfer him to Srinagar Central Jail in view of the fact that the
Jammu and Kashmir government had not given its consent for the transfer, and
also that his mercy petition was pending before the President.
- The government on Thursday announced setting up of ‘One Stop Crisis Centres’, a specialised facility for providing all
necessary services for women subjected to violence. The National Mission for
Empowerment of Women will implement this pilot project in public hospitals in
100 districts. For ensuring a safe and secure environment for women in
workplaces (unorganised and organised sectors including
the private sector), the government introduced the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and
Redressal) Bill, 2012 in Parliament. The Bill has been passed by the Lok
Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and forwarded it to the President for his consent. It
says that the cases of sexual harassment of women at workplace will have to be
disposed of by in-house committees (that must be set up) within a period of 90
days failing which a penalty of Rs. 50,000 would be imposed. Earlier, the
Ministry of Home Affairs sent a detailed advisory to the States and Union
Territories on September 4, 2009, carrying instructions to deal with cases of
rape. Most important among these was the setting up of Rape Crisis Centres
(RCCs) and specialised Sexual Assault Treatment Units (SATUs). The RCCs were to
be set up by the Health Departments to help rape victims and facilitate
coordination between the police and health department facilities for medical
examination to establish forensic evidence and to treat the after-effects of
trauma. The specialised Sexual Assault Treatment units were to be developed in
government hospitals having a large maternity section. However, the proposal did not move forward.
- Department of Telecom, on orders from various courts, issued as many as
three different lists to Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecom service
providers (TSPs), asking them to block access
to URLs,
Facebook pages and YouTube videos. On these two days alone, the number of
blockings and takedown items totalled 164. The first list on February 14
included 55 Facebook pages almost entirely linked to Afzal Guru. The second
list was divided into two parts: The first part ‘A’ included 72 https, of which
the first item related to content on the UGC website. The remaining 71 included
news items, blog spots, critiques and articles on Faking News, Rediff, First
Post, Outlook , The
Caravan , Indian
Express , The
Times of India , The Economic
Times , and others, mostly
related to IIPM. Additionally, 5 URLs in the second part were linked to courts
and justice-related information, including two related to the Bombay High
Court. However, a deeper analysis reveals that the ordering of such
wide-ranging blocking was a tad hurried — without notice being served on either
the DoT/DIT or the parties concerned who could have opposed it. The legal
procedure requires that once a court order is served, the DoT and CERT-IN will
have to implement it unless it is appealed and stayed. Investigation reveals
that blocking of URLs, pages and websites in the past too occurred because
courts passed orders in or without the presence of the affected parties. These
orders are then posted by lawyers of companies to individual ISPs without
informing the DoT or CERT-IN, circumventing established procedures. An analysis
of the recent court orders shows a mix of reasons leading to blockings and
takedowns — ranging from genuine national security and civil order concerns to
those related to copyright, privacy and defamation. Currently courts do not
follow a nuanced yet uniform countrywide legal procedure to distinguish among
various types of appeals.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Friday, issued final guidelines for
setting up of new banks in the private
sector, including corporate houses and non-banking finance companies
(NBFCs), through a wholly-owned Non-Operative
Financial Holding Company (NOFHC). Public sector companies are also
eligible to apply. The new banks
should open at least 25 per cent of its branches in un-banked rural centres
(population up to 9,999 as per the latest census).The last time a new player
entered the business was Yes Bank in 2004, as the RBI had kept barriers high to
the sector to protect depositors and to ensure the stability of the financial
system. However, the RBI does not exclude any companies from speculative
sectors such as real estate and brokerage houses from entering the banking
sector. In its draft guidelines, earlier, the RBI had excluded companies from
these areas from getting new banking licences. InfoGraphic: 1, 2
- The postal department plans to enter the banking business (‘Post Bank’) with the Reserve Bank of
India deciding to grant new bank licences to entities with credible
track-record. Of the 1.55 lakh post offices in the country, around 24,000
district offices may be ready to offer banking services in the next two years. The
DoP is in process of setting up 1,000 ATMs. As per data shared with Parliament,
there were over 26 crore operational small savings accounts in post offices as
on March 31, 2012, having deposits worth Rs.1.9 lakh crore.
- The skies of Pokhran (at Chandan Range near Jaisalmer) came alive on
Friday with the Indian Air Force’s first ever day-night full combat and fire
demonstration, named “Iron Fist.” More
than 200 fighter and transport aircraft, including Sukhoi 30, Mirage 2000,
Jaguar, MiG 27, MIG 21, MIG 29, unmanned aerial vehicles and the Awacs,
participated in the demonstration. Indigenous aircraft like Light Combat
Aircraft Tejas and Light Combat Helicopter Rudra also proved their calibre at
the show.
- The President
of India presented the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and
Development for the year 2011 to Ms. Ela
Ramesh Bhatt of Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). The Indira
Gandhi Prize or the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize or
the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development is
the prestigious award accorded annually by India to individuals
or organizations in recognition of creative efforts toward promoting
international peace, development and a new
international economic order; ensuring that scientific discoveries are
used for the larger good of humanity, and enlarging the scope of freedom. For
2012, it was awarded to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia.
- Ministry of Health has
informed that the Govt. of India through the Indian
Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has been offering scholarships to foreign
students to pursue Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and
Homoeopathy courses in India since 2005. The resurgence of AYUSH at
international levelhas resulted in growing demand from foreign students to
study in Indian Institutions.
- The Union
Cabinet today gave its approval for allotment of a MIG flat, free of cost by
DDA to the family of the victim of
sexual violence, in an incident on 16.12.2012, in Delhi. This will be done
in relaxation of the existing policy / guidelines of DDA for allotment of
houses on out of turn basis.
- The Union
Cabinet today gave its approval for merger
of Bharat Heavy Plate & Vessels Ltd. (BHPV) Vishakhapatnam with Bharat
Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), New Delhi. Background: Bharat
Heavy Plate & Vessels Ltd. (BHPV) is an engineering / heavy fabrication
company established in 1966 in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Due to various
factors, there were heavy losses and the company was declared sick by the Board
for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in October, 2005. Bharat
Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) took over BHPV as its 100 percent subsidiary
in 2008. However, the company`s performance was not upto the mark, as it
remained a separate company and it could not derive full benefits of synergy
with BHEL.
- Students with
Disabilities will now be trained in the Hospitality Industry under ‘Hunar Se Rojgar Scheme’. This is a
pro-poor scheme aimed to bridge the gap of skilled manpower in the hospitality
sector. The scheme consists of six/eight weeks full time training programmes in
services like, Food & Beverage, House Keeping Utility and Back office jobs
etc.
- Minister of
State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries has informed that the
farmers are being educated under Integrated pest Management Programme
(IPM) through Farmers Field schools on safe, judicious and need based use of
approved pesticides besides IPM skills and pest control techniques to be
adopted by them in their crop fields, thereby making them self-reliant in
decision making. Further, he said that with a view to conserve top soil and
prevent soil erosion and land degradation. Ministry of Agriculture is
implementing various watershed development programmes, namely National
Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas, Soil Conservation in
Catchments of River Valley Project and Flood Prone River and Reclamation and
Development of Alkali & Acid Soils across the country. Ministry of Rural
Development is also implementing a major Integrated Watershed Management
Programme for restoring ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and
developing degraded lands in the country. As per available estimates of Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR-2010), out of total geographical area of
328.73 million hectare, about 120.40 million hectare (~36%) are affected by
various kind of land degradation across the country. Soil formation and its
erosion are a natural phenomena occurring simultaneously. Such soil erosion
leads to land degradation in upper reaches of the river system, whereas when
deposited at various locations of river systems, it may increase the soil
fertility.
- Minister for
Women and Child Development has informed that the Government has adopted Gender
Budgeting and establishes a ‘Gender
Budgeting Cell (GBC) in 2004. The GBCs have been formed with the objective
of influencing and effecting a change in the Ministry’s policies, programmes in
a way that could tackle gender imbalances, promote gender equality and
development.
- The pre-budget Economic Survey
2012-13: [1.] It says GDP growth is going to pick up from this
year’s 5% to range between 6.1% and 6.7% in 2013-14;
[2.]
Wholesale price inflation will fall to 6.2-6.6% by March despite hike in diesel
prices and higher rail fares and freight rates, and the medium-term price trend
is distinctly downward, especially for nonfood manufactures. Even better, the
World Bank predicts that global commodity prices (including oil but excluding
metals) will keep falling in 2013 and 2014. This should facilitate interest
rate cuts by RBI; [3.] The
Survey says fiscal deficit is being brought under control, combating both
inflation and current account deficit. Recent reforms and fast-track clearances
will help revive infrastructure and industrial production. And agricultural
output, hit by a bad monsoon last year, should revive with normal rainfall;
[4.]
The Survey emphasises that India must tackle its twin deficits, fiscal deficit
and current account deficit. Dependence on global finance has gone up because
of the high current account deficit. But this carries risks of insufficient or
even reverse flows. Sputtering growth in rich countries is worsening the risks,
and the hung election in Italy raises fresh misgivings about the future of the
Euro zone; [5.] Oil prices remain a risk.
Export growth will remain muted if the global economy remains muted. To reduce
dependence on foreign inflows, India must improve economic management,
especially fiscal management; [6.] Fiscal
consolidation is the need of the hour. It is the key to restoring investor
confidence, improving credit available for the private sector, curbing
inflation, improving the savings rate, and improving the trade balance by
curbing import demand; [7.] The
Survey notes that efforts are finally in place to cap the subsidy on fuel,
disinvestment of government stakes in public sector undertakings is proceeding,
and targeting of welfare measures will improve with the proposed Direct Benefit
Transfers (using Aadhar, biometric identification and universal bank accounts
through banking correspondents); [8.] After
reaching a peak of 11.9% of GDP in 2007-08, the tax to GDP ratio has fallen and
needs to return to the old level. The Survey says this will be better achieved
by broadening the tax base than by increasing tax rates;
[9.]
The Survey is clear that record imports of gold should not be blamed for
current account deficit. In our inflationary environment, gold has provided an
average annual return of 27% since 2007, against just 7.3% for the Nifty and
8.2% in savings deposits. So, the rising demand for gold is a rational response
to economic incentives, not a sign of black money run amuck. Indeed, rising
gold imports are symptoms of more fundamental ailments that have caused high
inflation and sluggish growth. The solution lies in curbing inflation and
reviving GDP growth, not in quick fixes to try and lower gold imports;
[10.] Structural reforms are needed to ensure higher
productivity, better returns for savers, and higher investment. This means
shrinking wasteful and distortionary subsidies; speeding up clearances of every
sort; increasing the access of people to finance and decent infrastructure;
improving the quality of regulation, including the reduction of corruption; and
reducing barriers to the entry of new business, not just foreign investment but
also small and medium enterprises; [11.] In
a special chapter on “Seizing the Demographic Dividend”, the Survey highlights
both India’s coming advantage in having a high share of the population of
working age, as well as the steps needed to maximum this advantage. The
proportion of people studying has risen considerably, and this is welcome
although it has delayed an increase in labour-force participation. This
phenomenon has also occurred in other countries passing through a demographic
transition. Policies must help accelerate the shift of workers from agriculture
to industry and services, where productivity is inherently higher. Industry is
creating new jobs, but most of these are in the unorganised sector, offering
low incomes and little social protection. Service jobs have relatively high
productivity, but these are not being created fast enough. The big shift seen
so far is out of agriculture into construction. To harness the demographic
dividend, India needs to lower barriers to investment and growth;
[12.] Too many firms stay small because they lack access to
finance or infrastructure, or because they want to steer clear of the
regulatory burden of entering the formal sector. Rigid labour laws discourage
employment (although some economists have argued that these are less formidable
in practice than they appear at first sight). Skill development is key to
harnessing demographic dividend, implying better education. It also requires
rapid growth of formal apprenticeship schemes. This will mean converting
industrial enterprises into training grounds — the best training is done on the
job;
[13.] India has already recorded substantial gains in total
factor productivity, more than Korea or Indonesia at a similar stage of
development.
- Railway Budget 2013-14 and Issues: [1.] The
government has raised freight charges by 5% while leaving
passenger fares untouched after raising them just a month ago;
[2.]
But the 5% hike in freight rates, largely on the back of the move to link
tariffs with fuel rates, will raise transport costs of commodities such as
coal, cement and fertilisers, although officials played down fears this would
lead to higher prices in an inflationary economy, saying the impact on
inflation was likely to be a marginal 0.35%; [3.] Pointing
out that rising diesel prices have already undone all the gains from the
January passenger fare increase, Railway Minister pressed for insulating the
railways’ finances in an era of deregulated fuel prices by introducing a Fuel Adjustment Component (FAC) in
freight tariffs from April 1, 2013. The FAC will be dynamic and move in tandem
with global oil prices; [4.] Bansal
expects Rs.6,000 crore to flow into the railways’ kitty this year through
so-called PPPs to build freight terminals, modern stations, new rail lines and
the signalling equipment facility in his constituency, Chandigarh. The minister
is betting that the railways will be able to attract Rs.1,00,000 crore of PPP
investments over the next five years in projects such as the dedicated freight
corridors, Mumbai’s elevated rail corridor, and power plants;
[5.]
Bansal unveiled a slew of passenger-friendly initiatives with specific steps to
woo the young travellers such as offering Wi-Fi Internet access on trains,
ticket booking via mobile phones, and a faster portal to process online
bookings. He also committed to improve amenities at stations and in trains for
the disabled while promising additional safety for women passengers;
[6.]
Indian Railways, long used by successive ministers to dispense patronage, has
been sitting on a mountain of losses, unable to invest in its upkeep and
modernisation. This year, it is expected to lose around Rs.24,600 crore largely
because of subsidised passenger fares.
- General Budget 2013-14:
[1.]
Youth got a large allocation for improving skills, a new public sector bank was
created for women and the emerging middle-class got breaks on income tax and
home loans; [2.] For the first time in
nearly a quarter of a century, Industry Sector has been given a generous tax
break on capital expenditure. To spur investment, Chidambaram introduced a 15%
investment allowance for companies investing Rs.100 crore in plant and
machinery, over and above depreciation. And he unveiled other growth-oriented
measures like industrial corridors between Chennai and Bengaluru and between
Bengaluru and Mumbai; [3.] With
a view to leaving the emerging middle-class with a little more to spend,
Chidambaram offered tax exemptions to those who earn between Rs.2 lakh and Rs.5
lakh a year, a move that will benefit 18 million taxpayers, or about half of
the country's tax base; [4.] First-time
home buyers will get an additional deduction on interest of Rs.1 lakh for home
loans up to Rs.25 lakh; [5.] Chidambaram
also increased the excise duty on most sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and
customs luxury cars, superbikes and yachts, making these goods costlier but
earning the exchequer precious revenue; [6.] An
added surcharge on local firms with incomes of more than Rs.10 crore and a 10
per cent surcharge on individuals with taxable incomes topping Rs.1 crore
rupees - a level of earnings currently declared by just 42,800 people - will be
put in place for one year. However, there was little relief for the man on the
street and Chidambaram said there was no case to revise either income tax
brackets or rates since the current slabs were introduced last year.;
[7.]Infographic; [8.]Infographic
- With two ambitious
dedicated freight corridors under implementation, Railways is planning to build
five new freight corridors to ensure
faster transportation of goods. The proposed corridors — East-West Corridor
(Kolkata-Mumbai), North-South Corridor (Delhi-Chennai), East Coast Corridor
(Kharagpur-Vijayawada) and South Corridor (Goa-Chennai) — are being considered
to increase transportation capacity, reduce unit costs of transportation and
improve service quality. Out of the 10,703 hectares to be acquired for the
project, 7,768 hectares, or 73% have been awarded under the Railway Amendment
Act (RAA) 2008. The project will segregate the passenger traffic from freight
that will lead to faster movement of goods, making railways more competitive
with road transportation.
- Chief Justice of India
(CJI) Altamas Kabir has written to all chief justices of high courts, asking
them to strongly take up the matter with state governments regarding doubling the strength of the judiciary.
The letter also asked the chief justices to take urgent steps at high courts to
ensure that existing vacancies are filled up. In a meeting of the National Court Management System (NCMS),
CJI has set a target of taking the strength of the judiciary from the current
18,871 to more than 30,000 in the next five years to hasten setting up of fast
track courts and reduce pendency of cases. A senior law ministry official said
the government has started the process and has called a meeting of all the
chief ministers and chief justices of high courts on April 5-7 to formulate a
comprehensive strategy and put the targeted recruitment on fast track. This
would be one of the biggest recruitment
drives of judges so far. An allocation of Rs.2,800 crore has already been
earmarked by the law ministry for this purpose. The NCMS was set up by the SC
last year, and it was decided to make the judicial system five-plus free, or
free of cases more than five years old. SC has estimated that the number of
cases will expand to 15 crore over the next three decades requiring at least
75,000 judges. Currently, there are over 3.20 crore pending cases in various
courts. Of this, nearly 2.76 crore are in subordinate courts, while 44 lakh are
pending in various HCs and nearly 60,000 in the SC. To expedite the appointment
of judges, the government has also given final shape to a proposed eight-member
Judicial Appointments Commission. This proposed commission will comprise, apart
from the existing collegiums, the law minister, a jurist and opposition leader
from the Lok Sabha. Currently, a collegium of SC and HC judges are responsible
for appointment of judges. Their recommendations are final and binding on the
government. To make the proposed judicial commission operational, the
government will have to bring the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill in
Parliament.
- The first nuclear weapon test carried out by India in 1974 was a “near
failure”, claimed a secret US assessment made in 1996, but it does not explain
the reasons for it to arrive at such a conclusion. The National Security Archive (NSA), which obtained these documents
from the state department under the Freedom of Information Act and made it
public on Friday, noted that such an assertion by the US intelligence community
may be a reference to the very low explosive yield of the 1974 nuclear tests. The
nuclear tests codenamed ‘Operation Smiling Buddha’, tested a thermonuclear
device in the Pokhran firing range in Rajasthan. Though the yield of the device
has been debated since then, it is believed that the actual yield was around
8-12 kilotons of TNT.
- The pan-India GSM subscriber base last month stood at
657.56 million, a tiny 0.06% rise over the December ’12 level. The country’s
top three GSM operators — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, who
collectively account for nearly 67% of the sector’s revenues — jointly added a
shade over 4.96 million subscribers last month, according to latest customer
numbers released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the
industry lobby representing GSM operators.
- Maharashtra would have
maximum urban population by 2026,
followed by Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Quoting the population projection by
the Census of India, the Union urban development ministry stated that country’s
urban population will reach 53.48 crore in another 13 years. As per the
projection, India’s total population would reach 140 crore by 2026 with over
38% of total projected population will be living in urban areas. According to
the Census of India, urban population in Maharashtra would be 8.13 crore, while
in UP it would cross 6.75 crore. The other states that make up the top five
states are Tamil Nadu (5.37 crore), Gujarat (3.67 crore) and West Bengal (3.53
crore). Lakshadweep will have the least number of urban population at around
24,000. Among cities, Mumbai would have the highest population of at least 2.63
crore, followed by Delhi (over 2.24 crore). Kolkata would slip to third slot
with a little over 2 crore population. In 2001, Kolkata was the second most
populated city in India after Mumbai. In its bid to improve the infrastructure
in 65 big cities, the government has been implementing several projects under
the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), while there is
another project to cater to the needs of small and medium towns.
- First Meeting
of India-UAE High Level Task Force on investments held in Abu Dhabi. The Union Minister for Commerce, Industry & Textiles Shri
Anand Sharma, while delivering his keynote address at the India Business Meet
in Dubai, said that despite of the fact that UAE is India’s top partner amongst the GCC countries and the second
largest trading partner for India in the world after China, “the bilateral
trade does not reflect the full potential and can be further exploited to
mutual advantage of both the countries.” Highlighting the fact that India is a
major exporter of textiles, Shri Sharma also hoped that the UAE Government
would give a special concessional treatment to textile imports from India. Shri Sharma also expressed the desire
of Indian companies to invest in UAE in energy intensive manufacturing, infrastructure,
services, tourism and hospitality, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, financial
services, agro-based value chain and education.
- Thanks to India’s intervention, the crisis
in Maldives has blown over with the former President, Mohamed Nasheed,
emerging out of the Indian High Commission in Male on Friday. Fearing arrest,
he had sought refuge at the High Commission office on February 13.
- The Supreme Court on Friday permitted Italian marines Massimilano
Latorre and Salvatore Girone (on an application from the marines and the
Italian government), accused in the case of the killing of two fishermen in Kerala, to visit their country to vote
in the February 24 and 25 elections and they would have to return to India. The
Bench, in a brief order, noted that under the Italian law, the marines were not
entitled to cast their votes through postal ballot.
- The U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), representing top of the line
U.S. companies, has pitched for hiking the foreign
direct investment (FDI) in the defence sector from 26 per cent to 74 per
cent to allow greater investment and transfer of technology by global
companies. Moreover, the move would help modernise India’s military amid an
increasingly unstable security environment. However, on the eve of budget
session of Parliament Defence Minister A.K. Antony lamented that corrupt
practices (3,600-crore VVIP chopper deal scam) were taking place despite the
government taking precautions and blacklisting six major defence firms,
including four foreign vendors. He said that indigenisation of military hardware was the “ultimate answer” to
avoid controversies such as the VVIP chopper scam and asked the armed forces to
change their mindset of relying on imports to meet operational requirements. Referring
to the arms middleman Abhishek Verma, who remains in jail after the Defence
Minister referred to the probe agencies allegations about his involvement, Mr.
Antony said that even after this “there are people who are not learning
lessons.” Mr. Antony said the government would have a “second look” at its
defence production policy as well as the procurement policy so that
indigenisation could be speeded up in “mission mode.”
- Allowing corporates to run banks may be “a risky move,” said the former Chief
Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Union Government, Arvind Virmani. “The history of
banking tells you the probability of related
lending when banks are owned by industrial houses, as is illustrated by the
Robber baron period in the U.S.” Dr. Virmani, who stepped down as Executive
Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October, 2012, said
although regulatory systems had improved since then, “weaknesses of our
institutions, which are reflected in the pulls and pressures from political and
financial interests, pose significant risks.”
- Malaysia’s no-frills carrier
AirAsia has sought the approval of the Indian Government to join hands with
the Tata Group to enter the aviation sector. This would be the first investment
in the sector by a foreign airline after the Government hiked the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit
from 26 per cent to 49 per cent last year. This move also marks the return of
Tata Group to the aviation sector. State-owned Air India had grown out of Tata
Airlines, which began flights in 1932. The next attempt was in the mid-nineties
when the Tata Group joined hands with Singapore Airlines to bid for a stake in
Air India which never took off. The statement by AirAsia said the proposed
joint venture would operate from Chennai, and would focus on providing domestic
connectivity to Tier-II and Tier-III cities. As per current rules, a carrier
must complete five years of domestic operations before becoming eligible for
starting overseas flights. InfoGraphic
- ONGC is in talks to buy Videocon’s 10 per cent stake in a giant gas field off Mozambique and plans to
ship the fuel in liquid form to a proposed LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal
at Mangalore.
- The Top 10 companies benefiting from H-1B visas are offshore outsourcers, a U.S. publication reported on
Tuesday, prompting an eminent American engineering organisation to seek a
review of the ongoing immigration reforms. “The analysis comes at a time when a
bill before Congress, the “Immigration Innovation Act,” would expand the H-1B
visa programme from 85,000 visas to more than 400,000 annually. This confirms
that H-1B visas facilitate the transfer of high-skill, high-paying American
jobs to other countries. Among the top companies to have received the H-1B
visas in 2012 are Cognizant (9,281 H-1B visas), Tata (7,469), Infosys (5,600),
Wipro (4,304), Accenture (4,037), HCL America (2,070), Mahindra Group (1,963),
IBM (1,846), Larsen and Tourbo (1,832), Deloitte (1,668), Microsoft (1,497),
Patni Americas (1,260) and Syntel (1,161), the report said. The top 10 H-1B
users received 40,170 H-1B visas in fiscal 2012 and applied for just 1,167
employment-based (EB) green cards.
- For many who had hoped for a full and formal apology for the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre, UK Prime
Minister David Cameron’s floral tributes at the martyrs’ memorial and his comments
in the visitors’ book did not go far enough. Mr.
Cameron later said that the incident had happened 40 years before he was born
and it will not be “the right thing to reach back into history and to seek out
things you can apologise for”. In April 1920, several hundreds were killed and
more than 1,200 injured at Jallianwala Bagh when British troops led by
Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer fired on a peaceful gathering. Many, including
in the British media, recalled that Mr. Cameron had said sorry for the official
handling of a football disaster at Hillsborough stadium in 1989 and the 1972
killings in Northern Ireland known as “Bloody Sunday,” in which 26 unarmed
protesters were killed by British soldiers. Meanwhile, Cameron also
rejected a demand for the return of the Kohinoor diamond, saying, “I certainly
don’t believe in returnism.”
- The U.K. is keen to woo Indian
investors and is looking forward for enhanced bilateral trade. British
Prime Minister David Cameron, leading a 100-member delegation, wants to
position his country as the gateway of Europe for Indian companies intending to
do business there. His visit assumes significance at a time when large British
companies like Vodafone and Shell
are vehemently contesting tax claims by Indian revenue authorities. But the
question here is whether he will be able to meet New Delhi’s request for more
information on Anglo-Italian conglomerate AgustaWestland’s involvement in the VVIP chopper bribery scandal. For
sources in South Block, stonewalling by Britain on information about
Finmeccanica’s subsidiary AgustaWestland is not a major surprise. British
companies have been at the centre of several misgivings harboured by countries
to which they have sold equipment. These include the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Romania, Chile, Tanzania and South Africa. And in the famous al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia,
a British Prime Minister closed down investigations that were threatening to
singe Margaret Thatcher, whose son Mark was the alleged conduit for bribes
estimated to be one billion dollars.
- In a major decision, the Court of
Arbitration at The Hague (Netherland) has allowed India to go ahead with
the construction of the Rs. 3600 crore Kishenganga
hydro-electric project (KHEP) in North Kashmir, rejecting Pakistan's plea
that this was a violation of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. However, the court
restrained India from adopting the drawdown
flushing technique for clearing sedimentation in the run-of-the river
project designed for generation of 330 MW power. India may have to adopt a
different technique for flushing. Pakistan had objected to the drawdown
flushing apprehending that it will affect flows at its downstream Neelam project.
- Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has
emphasised need to find solutions to major bilateral issues, including Teesta water sharing between India and
Bangladesh without further delay. Faced
with stiff opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, New
Delhi failed to sign the Teesta agreement when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
visited Dhaka in 2011. Further, Bangladesh has been demanding that the BSF use non-lethal weapons to deal with
suspected criminals and smugglers. On this issue, India’s External Affairs
Minister said India was making efforts to reduce the number of killings along
the India-Bangladesh border to “zero level.”
- The White House is drafting an immigration plan that would allow illegal immigrants to become legal
permanent U.S. residents within eight years. The estimated 11 million
illegal immigrants in the United States could also apply for a “Lawful
Prospective Immigrant” visa, the report said. Once approved, they would be
allowed to reside in the United States legally, work, and leave the country for
short visits without losing their status.
- Nepal’s four major political parties on Monday agreed to hold the
elections for a new Constituent Assembly by mid-June. This follows agreement on
Saturday to let the Chief Justice (Khil
Raj Regmi) head an election government.
The taskforce comprises members from the four major parties — the Nepali
Congress (NC), United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Communist Party of
Nepal-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and the United Democratic Madhesi
Front. However, General Secretary of the Nepal
Bar Association warned that “Appointing the Chief Justice as the Prime Minister
goes against constitutionalism, the Interim Constitution and the principle of
separations of power.” Also, many middle-ranking leaders from the opposition
parties, however, rejected the idea.
- A landslide second re-election secured, President of Ecuador Rafael Correa immediately vowed to
deepen the “citizen’s revolution” that has lifted tens of thousands of
Ecuadoreans out of poverty as he expanded the welfare state. Mr. Correa (48)
has brought surprising stability to an oil-exporting nation of 14.6 million
with a history of unruliness that cycled through seven Presidents in the decade
before him. Since Mr. Correa took office in 2007, the United Nations says
Ecuador’s poverty rate has dropped nearly five percentage points to 32.4 per
cent. With the help of oil prices that have hovered around $100 a barrel, he
has raised lower-class living standards and widened the welfare state with
region-leading social spending. Mr. Correa dedicated his victory to his
cancer-stricken friend President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who some analysts
have suggested he could succeed as the standard-bearer of Latin America’s left.
- A group of aspiring
women civil servants in China recently staged a protest in the city of
Wuhan holding banners saying: “What does your menstrual history have to do with
becoming a civil servant?” Future civil servants were protesting against the
detailed medical examination on a range of health issues including the state of
a woman’s uterus, cervix and vagina. The gynecological examination report even
runs into over 100 pages that includes queries like when they first began
menstruating, how long they menstruate for, how much blood is lost and whether
it is painful. The protestors say they don’t mind undergoing a normal
gynecological examination, but the way it’s conducted is a violation of women’s
rights in China. The doctors even examine the state of one’s womb, and for the
unmarried women, they go through the anus to check the womb, “to avoid going
through the vagina”.
- China on Monday took control of Pakistan’s Gwadar Port located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf just outside
the strategically important Strait of Hormuz. The official transfer of
Concession Agreement from the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) to the China
Overseas Port Holding Company was carried out in the presence of President Asif
Ali Zardari. About the project’s strategic importance, the President said
nearly 60 per cent of China’s crude oil was imported from the Gulf countries.
The proximity of the Gulf countries to Gwadar would facilitate the oil flow to
it, he pointed out. Though China — which had invested in the construction of
the port — had been a contender for running the port, PSA bagged the contract
for 40 years during the Musharraf era. While PSA won the bid, the widely held
perception is that former President Pervez Musharraf awarded the contract to
the Singapore entity to keep the U.S. happy as Chinese control over the port on
a major shipping route not only facilitates access to oil producing countries
but also provides a major gateway for Chinese goods. In August last year, the
federal government announced that PSA had been allowed to quit the 40-year
management, operation, maintenance and development contract, making China to
take its control.
- A shadowy Chinese military unit has been named as the source of cyber-attacks on hundreds of organisations
around the world, after a Virginia-based security company (Mandiant) traced
the “Advanced Persistent Threat” to a nondescript building (Unit 61398) in
Shanghai. The company mapped the wide-range of victims of Unit 61398’s alleged
cyber-attacks, including three organisations in India. Countries that faced
attacks included Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium,
Luxembourg, Israel, Switzerland, South Africa, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan. The
report on the alleged cyber-attacks comes exactly a week after U.S. President
Barack Obama’s State of the Union remarks on the need to bolster
cyber-security. On the role of the
Chinese government, Mandiant added that in a January 2010 report it had
said: “The Chinese government may authorise this activity, but there’s no way
to determine the extent of its involvement.” However, three years later the
security firm said it had obtained evidence to change its assessment and “The
details we have analysed during hundreds of investigations convince us that the
groups conducting these activities are based primarily in China and that the Chinese Government is aware of them.”
- Six underground tanks holding radioactive
waste are leaking at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in eastern Washington.
Hanford was built in the 1940s for the Manhattan Project and then continued on
for decades through the Cold War as a manufacturing site for the nuclear
arsenal.
- Park Geun-hye, sworn in as South Korea’s first woman President. As leader of Asia’s fourth-largest
economy, Ms. Park (61), faces significant challenges, including a belligerent
regime in the North; a slowing economy; and soaring welfare costs, in one of
the world’s most rapidly ageing societies. “North Korea’s recent nuclear test
is a challenge to the survival and future of the Korean people, and there
should be no mistake that the biggest victim will be none other than North
Korea itself,” she said.
- Cuban President Raul Castro
(81), elected on Sunday to a second and final five-year term. In a surprise
move, the new Parliament named a rising young star as his first Vice-President,
Miguel Diaz-Canel (52), a member of
the political bureau who rose through the party ranks in the provinces to
become the most visible possible successor to Mr. Raul Castro. He would succeed
Mr. Raul Castro if he cannot serve his full term. Mr. Raul Castro was in charge
of the security apparatus and its armed forces during his brother Fidel’s rule.
But after succeeding the ailing Cuban revolutionary leader, he embarked on a
reformist course in order to secure Communism’s survival.
- The Centre has informed
the Supreme Court that it intends to go ahead with the Rs.25,000 crore Sethusamudram shipping channel project,
which raised a political storm after it was revealed that the mythical Ram
Sethu would face dredging. After the controversy over the Centre’s affidavit in
2007 doubting the existence of Ramayana and Ram, PM Manmohan Singh had
appointed an expert group led by environmentalist
R K Pachauri to study the economic and ecological viability of the planned
shipping route and the alternative alignment. The expert panel said that
“neither alignment 4A (the alternative one) nor alignment 6 meet the benchmark
Internal Rate Return of 12% for the range of scenarios examined”. It said it
would be difficult to rule out oil spills, even with stringent measures. “In
conclusion, the Pachauri committee has found the project unviable both from the
economic as well as the ecological angles,” the Centre said in its affidavit.
But it said the government approved and commenced implementation of the project
based on well researched technical studies. It cited favourable reports of the
National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and Committee of
Eminent Persons.
- The recent chemical wash of Mecca Masjid, which
was done after a gap of over a decade, would keep the nearly 400-year-old
mosque in good condition for the next seven years, state department of
archeology and museums officials claimed. The chemical washing of the masjid
that started in 2010 overshot its deadline by several months owing to technical
and other unforeseen difficulties. The work that got completed in December 2012
was held up due to delay in release of funds by the government while the sheer
expanse and the height of the structure posed problems of a different nature.
Ultimately vegetation was cleared, iron stairs cleaned and fungus removed,
besides chemical restoration of the mosque, the Azan tower and the mausoleum on
the premises costing Rs.37 lakh. The vagaries of weather had caused water
seepages from the roof, cracks on the wall and vegetation and fungus growth on
the historic structure.
- India is poised to take on a significant role in international efforts
to establish the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The
facility is to be constructed in two phases and currently scheduled for
completion in 2024. Last year,
after an acrimonious tussle over where the telescope should be located, the SKA
Organisation decided to split the project and build it in South Africa as well
as in Australia. The project is estimated to cost about 1.5 billion Euros. India
has been actively involved in the SKA planning process from the very beginning. India, has, however, remained an
associate member while Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden and the U.K. became full members
of the SKA Organisation with voting rights.
“With an unprecedented large radio wave collecting area, the SKA will be 50
times more sensitive, and be able to survey the sky 10,000 times faster, than
any imaging radio telescope array previously built.”
- A group of scientists from Norway, Germany, South Africa and the U. K.
have discovered a submerged continent in
the Indian Ocean. Their measurements predict that the continent, which they
have named Mauritia, lies under
Mauritius and extends more than 1,000 km northwards till Seychelles. The
discovery was sparked when they found crystals called zircons on Mauritian beaches. Zircons are resistant to erosion or
chemical change and some of the ones they found were almost two billion years
old, much older than any of the regular soil or sand samples found on nearby
islands. Such old crystals, they thought, could only belong to a submerged
continent, and may have perhaps been pushed up on the surface by underwater
volcanoes.
- In a multiple launch mission, a Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C20) on Monday put India-French satellite SARAL and six others into their precise
orbits after its successful launch from the Sriharikota spaceport. The other
satellites to go into orbit one after the other were SAPPHIRE, NEOSSAT, AAUSAT,
BRITE, UniBRITE and STRand, all from abroad. This was the 22nd consecutive
successful PSLV mission by the Indian Space Research organisation (ISRO). SARAL: SARAL
stands for Satellite for Argos-3 and Altika. While these two payloads are from
French space agency CNES, a third payload, a solid state C-band transponder, is
from the ISRO. SARAL is a unique
satellite that will cater to the research community and it has practical applications
as well. It will help in oceanographic studies. It will study the ocean
currents and sea surface heights. While ARGOS-2 will collect the data, the
Altikameter will measure the height of the sea surface. ARGOS provides
scientists with a tool to increase their understanding of environment and helps
industry comply with environmental protection regulations. SARAL will help
researchers to study the development of climate. It has practical applications
in continental ice studies, coastal erosion, protection of biodiversity, study
of marine animals’ migration and so on. SARAL’s mission life is five years.
- The good news is that the fall of vultures
in South Asia, particularly India, has stopped and is even reversing in the
case of some species such as the white-backed vulture. A research paper says
the 2006 ban on manufacture, import and sale of painkiller diclofenac for veterinary use, a cause for vulture
mortality, and the timely response of the governments in India have helped.
- Hundred years after Victor Hess discovered cosmic rays in 1912, astronomers have finally found proof of what
they had always suspected — but could not find direct evidence — that these
highly energetic particles, which are constantly bombarding the Earth’s
atmosphere from all directions, originate in the aftermath of exploding stars,
or supernovae as they are called, which are the most energetic events in the
galaxy. Cosmic rays mostly comprise protons (about 90%), electrons and other
nuclei. Supernovae occur in our galaxy 2 to 3 times a century when a
massive star explodes. While the star’s core remains as a neutron star, or a
black hole, the rest is ejected into the space in the form of rapidly expanding
debris behind a powerful shockwave. As the remnant expands, it gathers the low
density interstellar gas (about one particle/cm3) and gradually decelerates but
the imprint remains in the sky for thousands of years which is what astronomers
study to solve the mystery of cosmic rays.
- After Earth getting buzzed by an
asteroid and meteorite on February 15, astronomers are preparing for more
celestial flybys: two comets, including a wanderer last seen by the forerunners
of mankind, blaze across the sky. First up is Comet 2011 L4 (Panstarrs), whose name comes from the telescope at
the University of Hawaii which spotted it in 2011. Panstarrs could be at its
brightest from March 8 to 12. The biggest excitement is being reserved for Comet ISON, named after the
International Scientific Optical Network, whose telescope was used by Russian
astronomers to make the find last September. Right now, it is unclear how
bright ISON will be, but by some calculations it could become visible to the
naked eye by late November.
- Australia beat the West Indies by 114 runs in
the final to win the 10th edition of the ICC
Women's World Cup at the Brabourne
Stadium in Mumbai. Australia won the tournament for the sixth time. The 2013 Women's Cricket World Cup was hosted by India for the third time.
India previously hosted the World Cup in 1978 and1997.