{Current Affairs} Daily News Notes: 7th, 8th & 9th Dec, 2013

· Goa Crime branch of police has pressed additional charges against Tehelka founder editor Tarun Tejpal, accused of sexually assaulting a woman colleague. The officials interrogating Tejpal said that additional charges were invoked after statements of the victim, witnesses and going through the CCTV footage of the hotel where the alleged incident took place. Shoma Chaudhary, the former Managing Editor of the weekly magazine, recorded her statement yesterday before the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Goa in connection with the case.
· With the results of four state assembly elections out, political parties are taking stock of the post poll scenario. While the BJP says, the election results reflect the national mood, the ruling Congress has made it clear that Assembly elections are fought on local issues and will not have any bearing on the Parliamentary elections. BJP registered impressive win in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and managed to retain power in Chhattisgarh in a nail biting finish. Though the BJP has emerged as the single largest party in Delhi no group is in a position to form the government.
· The Central Statistics Office recently released GDP data for the second quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal. The economy grew by 4.8 per cent, up from the 4.4 per cent clocked in the first quarter (April-June), but below the 5 per cent, the rate for the whole of 2012-13. Agriculture grew by 4.6 per cent in the second quarter as against 2.7 in the first quarter. However, agriculture has a relatively small share in the GDP, and it is the other two — industry and services — that one should look to. There was a mild upturn in industry, increasing by 2.4 per cent in the second quarter, up from a mere 0.2 per cent in the first quarter. The services sector, normally the star performer, was down in the second quarter, growing by just 5.9 per cent. An important sub-sector — community, social and personal services — slowed significantly to 4.2 per cent from 9.4 per cent in the previous quarter.
· Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy dared the Centre to introduce the Telangana bill in Parliament and vowed to defeat it in the state Assembly. He said there was no politics in his support for united Andhra and insisted he was “only concerned with the people’s welfare’’. The chief minister accused Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime minister Manmohan Singh of being “deaf and dumb” to the agitation for united Andhra Pradesh without naming them. This is the first time he has publicly criticized the central leadership.
· India’s first indigenously designed and developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas successfully launched an infrared seeking air-to-air missile that hit its target with precision. With the success achieved in the test, the plan to induct the aircraft in the Indian Air Force has moved further. The LCA was christened Tejas (Radiance) by Prime Minister AB Vajpayee in June 2004. The Indian Light Combat Aircraft (LCA – sometimes called Last Chance Aircraft) is the world’s smallest, light weight, multi-role combat aircraft. The aircraft is designed to meet the requirements of Indian Air Force as its frontline multi-mission single-seat tactical aircraft to replace the MiG-21 series of aircraft. The LCA is constructed of aluminium-lithium alloys, carbon-fibre composites, and titanium and it integrates modern design concepts and the state-of-art technologies such as relaxed static stability, flyby-wire Flight Control System, Advanced Digital Cockpit, Multi-Mode Radar, Integrated Digital Avionics System, Advanced Composite Material Structures and a Flat Rated Engine. The LCA program was launched in 1985. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is the Principal Partner in the design and fabrication of LCA and its integration leading to flight testing.
· The demand to create Inner Line Permit (ILP) system in Meghalaya has been rejected by the Union Government on grounds that the Constitution does not provide for extending the special provision to new areas. The Government clarified that it was bound by Article 19 (D) of the Constitution which allows any Indian citizen to move freely throughout the territory of the country. ILP is an official travel document issued by an empowered State government to permit inward travel of an Indian citizen into a protected or restricted area for a limited period. It is issued under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. At present, ILP is active in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. In context of Meghalaya, various organizations in the state have been demanding ILP system claiming the demography of the State is changing due to the intense inflow of people.
· Set to be operational within 4 months, the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) has been saved from an untimely end like the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) project. Among the key projects announced by the home ministry after the 26/11 terrorist attack, NATGRID, the data linking and mining project, will start providing “some information” before the end of the UPA-II term. The initial stage could involve the “real-time linking” of data between various agencies through the NATGRID platform, the official said. The project may link Central databases with the crime records available with the police to kickstart operations and later proceed with analysing the data to detect and act against terrorist activities. Various ministries and departments, called provider agencies, that hold 21 citizen databases like bank account details, telephone records, passport data and vehicle registration details, are supposed to link and share their databases in real-time through the NATGRID with the 11 intelligence and investigative agencies, termed as user agencies. NATGRID was set up as an attached office of the Home Ministry on December 1, 2010 and further the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approved 1002.97 crore in June 2012 for implementation of Foundation, Horizon-I and some elements of Horizon-II of the NATGRID Project.
· Facing intense heat from cane growers, the poll-bound government has proposed Rs. 7,200 crore interest-free loan to bail out sugar industry with an informal Group of Ministers (GoM) recommending it as part of other measures to assist farmers and mill owners. The loan can be availed of by sugar mills to pay cane farmers. The proposal will be placed before the Cabinet which will take the final decision on it over the next two weeks. However, it may take another two to three months when the farmers receive the payment for their fresh produce and arrears after the financial institutions disburse the loan. The payment to farmers is likely to be timed keeping in mind the dates of general elections. The sugar industry is facing a financial crisis due to higher cost of production and dipping prices in domestic market. It led to cane arrears of Rs.3,400 crore from 2012-13 marketing year that ended September. The other measures, recommended by the GoM, include assistance for producing raw sugar up to 4 million tonnes, setting up buffer stock and increasing the share of ethanol-blending in petrol from existing 5% to 10%.
· To safeguard the financial system from any possible crisis situation where large financial institutions faltered due to loss of confidence in the financial system, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the draft report to introduce increased capital requirements by 2016 for banks regarded as too-big-to-fail (or, D-SIBs) and make them subject to greater regulatory oversight. It outlines the methodology to be adopted for identifying the D-SIBs and regulatory policies for them. The sample of banks for D-SIBs will be selected when its’ size is more than 2 % of GDP. Banks classified as systemically important will be required to hold additional capital in the range of 0.2 % to 1 % of their risk weighted assets. Large banks such as the SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Canara Bank, BOB, PNB etc. were likely to fall under this category of systemically important banks (D-SIBs) or too large to fail. These are large and highly interconnected financial institutions—whose failures failure might trigger a financial crisis or can impact the orderly functioning of the financial system and harm the economy.
· The Finance Ministry has asked the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry to formulate a proposal for inter-Ministerial consultations on the revenue sharing arrangement suggested by the Rangarajan Committee for the oil and gas sector. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its report in 2012, had strongly pitched for shifting to a revenue-sharing formula, stating that the current production-sharing contracts (PSCs) provided for explorers to first recover all of their capital and operating expenditure before sharing profits with the government under a specific formula. However, gas producers have strongly opposed to the new formula. But the Finance Ministry is keen that the new formula should be adopted for the oil and gas blocks offering under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) Round X, expected early next year. Under the revenue-sharing model, there is no element of cost-recovery, and the government and the operator will share revenues according to a pre-determined formula.
· Sh. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, has informed that the Government of India has taken many steps to reduce the shortage of doctors and other health professionals in the country which include: [1.] Relaxation in the norms for setting up of a medical college in terms of requirement for land, faculty, staff, bed/ bed strength and other infrastructure; [2.] Enhancement of maximum intake capacity at MBBS level from 150 to 250; [3.] Relaxation in teacher - student ratio to increase the seats at Postgraduate level; [4.] Enhancement of age limit for appointment/extension/re-employment against posts of teachers/dean/principal/ director in medical colleges from 65-70 years; [5.] Establishment of eight AIIMS-like institutions (six in first phase and two in secondphase) in the country under PMSSY; [6.] Establishment of 6 colleges of nursing at sites of AIIMS like institutions being set up under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yozana (PMSSY); [7.] Establishment of one National Institutes of Paramedical Sciences (NIPS) at Najafgarh, Delhi and eight Regional Institutes of Paramedical Sciences (RIPS) at Chandigarh,Coimbatore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Lucknow and in Bihar under a Centrally Sponsored Scheme; [8.] Admission for Nursing allowed for married candidates. Further, he said that the doctor-population ratio is inadequate due to huge population and less availability of doctors in the country.The proposal for Bachelor of Science (Community Health) course has been prepared in consultation with MCI. Nonetheless, in order to address the serious concern of shortage of availability of human resources in health sector in rural areas, the Government is committed to introduce the course, with inbuilt safeguards. The introduction of the proposed B.Sc. (CH) course has been approved by the Cabinet in its meeting held on 13.11.2013 and course is likely to be introduced from the academic year 2015-16.
· The Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dr. M. Veerappa Moily informed that Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have recently floated a new tender for procurement of ethanol, covering the period December 2013 to November 2014. He added that the Government has decided on 3.7.2013 (OMCs) will procure ethanol ( Produced from molasses route only) from domestic sources to achieve the requirement of 5% ethanol blending with petrol by October 2013 in areas/parts of country where sufficient quantity of ethanol is available. In other parts of the country, blending of ethanol may be increased progressively depending upon the availability of ethanol to reach the 5% level. The Minister stated that the Government launched Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme w.e.f. 1.11.2006 in the entire country except the North Eastern States, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. The Minister further informed that as per the Report of the Committee on Development of Bio-fuels, published by Planning Commission of India in 2003, by the end of 12th Five Year Plan (2013-17) the demand for ethanol in India by the transport sector at 5 percent level of blending was project at 1,039.27 million litres.
· In view of its growing cyber security concerns, India has decided to challenge the U.S. government’s control over the Internet and ensure that the trio of the U.S., Russia and China does not ignore India’s concerns while developing an international regime for Internet governance. India will also push for storing all Internet data within the country, besides ensuring control and management of servers. Notably, the key function of domain name system (DNS) management today is in the hands of the U.S. National Telecommunication and Information Administration and the Department of Commerce. Though after persistently putting pressure on companies, India managed to get root servers installed in the country, it wants a say in management of these servers. India is also seeking a key role in policy making on Internet governance at the international level, said a senior government official engaged in India’s cyber security preparedness. India is also concerned about the proximity of the U.S., Russia and China while deciding on issue of Internet governance.
· The government will finally sign a Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement (BIPA) with the UAE next week, signalling an end to its freeze on signing such pacts after its several run-ins with foreign companies, including Vodafone, over investment issues. Earlier this year, in January, the government had decided to put all discussions over BIPA with foreign countries on hold. The government said it was going to work on a new model for BIPA before signing the agreement with any country. India has already inked BIPA with over 80 countries.
· To help global efforts to ensure gender equality and empowerment of women, India contributed $1 million to the UN as the fourth installment of India’s multi-year pledge to provide USD 5 Mn to UN Women (United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women). UN Women is a United Nations entity working for the empowerment of women and girls. It became operational in January 2011 with headquarters at New York, USA. UN Women’s Office based in New Delhi covers four countries: India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Mr. Asoke K Mukerji urged UN Women to focus on increasing the use of information and communication technology for empowerment of women.
· Mauritius and India agreed on the principle of including a Limitation of Benefit (LOB) or Anti-Treaty Shopping Law clause in the revised tax treaty to ring-fence its jurisdiction from any attempts of round-tripping and money laundering activities. The LOB clause limits treaty benefits to those who meet certain conditions including those related to business, residency and investment commitments of the entity seeking benefit of a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA). LoB is having an anti-abuse provision that sets out where residents of the Contracting States are entitled to the treaty’s benefits, or it limit the ability of third country residents to obtain benefits under the said treaty.
· The 159 World Trade Organization (WTO) members overcame last-minute jitters and managed to get Cuba and three of its allies on board for the century’s first trade agreement which has the potential to add $1 trillion to the global economy. Cuba, along with Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela, had blocked the WTO’s move to adopt a deal that will allow developing countries to continue offering subsidies for their food procurement programme.
In addition, a new agreement on trade facilitation to ease controls over flow of goods and services through ports and airports will be in place soon. Cuba had red flagged its concerns over the trade facilitation agreement, which took nearly 15 hours to resolve, and members had to finally accommodate its concerns in the text. The historic WTO deal in Bali was stitched together after four days of marathon negotiations. The talks were on the brink of collapse at one stage, with India sending a clear message that the issue of food security was “nonnegotiable.” For India, the victory at WTO on food security for developing countries was particularly sweet as it managed to have its way despite major players China and Brazil backing out, leaving South Africa as the only major ally along with Argentina and some large African countries such as Kenya and Nigeria. The Bali package, as it is being called, is the first success in the Doha Round of negotiations that started 12 years ago with a view to help developing and poor countries.
· The Prime Minister of Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra has announced that she is dissolving Parliament after a wave of anti-government protests in the capital Bangkok. Ms Yingluck said, she will hold new elections as soon as possible.
· Jordan has been elected as a non-permanent member of United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Jordan has replaced Saudi Arabia which was recently elected for the position but rejected the seat in protest at the UN council’s failure to end the war in Syria and act on other Middle East issues. Jordan is the latest entrant on the UNSC as its non-permanent member. Besides, Lithuania, Chile, Nigeria and Chad will also join as new members of the council, replacing Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Pakistan, Morocco and Togo. The other five temporary council members that will remain next year are Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, South Korea and Rwanda. The UNSC is one of the six key organs of the United Nations and is entrusted with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization of military action through Security Council resolutions; it is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states.
· At the 18th Session of the Conference of State Parties, Mr. Ahmet Uzumcu was re-appointed as the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) Director General. It is an independent, international body established in 1997 headquarters at The Hague, Netherland. OPCW is currently working in destroying Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles which marks as the first time the OPCW is working in a war zone.
· It was the first global Ponzi scheme, a slow-motion crime wave that began in the Manhattan offices of a stockbroker named Bernard L. Madoff, spread to wealthy enclaves in Palm Beach, Florida, and Southern California, and reached as far as the Persian Gulf. It carried a breathtaking price: $64.8 billion in paper wealth and at least $17.5 billion in cash losses. Those affected ranged from carpenter-union pensioners to French aristocrats. Early on December 11, 2008, Madoff was arrested at his Manhattan penthouse. Madoff’s fate was quickly settled. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a 150-year prison term, which he is now serving.
· South Korea on Sunday said it had expanded its Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) for the first time in six decades, in an apparent response to China’s November 23 decision to set up its first such zone over disputed parts of the East China Sea. China’s announcement angered both Japan and South Korea, because the zone includes the disputed Diaoyu or Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, which are contested by Japan and China, and the submerged Leodo reef, which is under South Korea’s control. Both countries have made clear they would contest China’s zone by dispatching aircraft to carry out patrols through the area. China last week said it had scrambled jets to intercept at least 12 Japanese and U.S. aircraft. An ADIZ is not a territorial claim, but a defined area in international space within which countries monitor and track aircraft that are heading towards territorial airspace.
· The U.S. has approved a breakthrough therapy for treatment of chronic hepatitis C that is expected to offer a more palatable cure to millions of people infected with the liver-destroying viral disease. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the pill, Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) is the first drug that has demonstrated safety and efficacy to treat certain types of HCV infection without the need for co-administration of interferon, an official announcement said on Friday. Sovaldi is marketed by Gilead, based in Foster City, California. Olysio is marketed by Raritan, New Jersey-based Janssen Pharmaceuticals.
· International Anti-Corruption Day is being observed today to raise awareness of corruption and what people can do to fight it. This year, the theme is "Act Against Corruption Today". UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged governments, private sector and civil society to take a collective stand against corruption, saying the complex social, political and economic disease affects all countries.
· Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived bullet-injury inflicted by the Taliban for championing girls’ education has won the UN Human Rights Prize 2013.
· Sports goods manufacturer Adidas unveiled the new ball for 2014 World Cup – called the “Brazuca,” in honor of Brazil at a ceremony in Rio de Janeiro. Adidas has been following the tradition of providing the official ball for every World Cup tournament since 1970. The ball will be introduced in the inaugural game of FIFA World Cup 2014 on June 12, 2014 in Sao Paulo, and will be played with until the final on July 13, 2014 in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Previously, Adidas manufactured a ball named “Jabulani” for the FIFA World Cup 2010 in held in South Africa.