{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.