Friday, 02nd August, 2013

NATIONAL NEWS

• Nod for new pricing of railway fares
  • The Centre on Thursday approved the constitution of the Rail Tariff Authority (RTA) to develop and implement an integrated and dynamic pricing mechanism for its passenger and freight services. The subsidy component would be phased out in 10 years.
  • The RTA, as cleared by the Union Cabinet, will be at arms’ length with the government and its decisions will be binding on the government though it retained the power to modify it. A lower rate could be adopted through a special or general order, provided the budgetary impact was at best neutral but in no case negative.
  • The authority to be instituted by a legislation enacted by Parliament will comprise a chairman and four full time members with a five year term or maximum age of 65 years.
  • They would be chosen by a four- member selection committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary with Chairman Railway Board, Secretary Department of Economic Affairs, and an expert to be nominated by Railway Minister.
  • The chairman and members of the authority will be chosen from experts in economics, finance and accountancy and law and management and fields of operating and commercial working of railways including pricing of its services and financial services.
  • The government has made it clear that the pricing of goods and passenger services would have to in tune with its plan and non-plan requirement of funds and the investments required for future expansion, replacement of assets and enforcing safety measures, among other considerations.

OPINION/EDITORIALS

• Article on judicial appointments
• Article on the food security bill
• Editorial on land reforms bill
• Editorial on vehicle recall policy

Thursday, 1st august, 2013

HEADLINES

• Telengana triggers demands for more state
• Zimbabwe votes in historic elections
• GI tags for Nagpur oranges, Dharmavarm sarees and Kerala's kaipad rice

NATIONAL NEWS

• Tulu in the eigth schedule: state to submit new report
  • Minister for Kannada and Culture Umashree told the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that a detailed proposal will be submitted to the Centre seeking inclusion of Tulu in the Eight Schedule to the Constitution
  • Nearly 1 crore people speak Tulu, a language dominate in Dakshina Kannda and Udupi districts.

• Government to dilute FDI retail norms
  • Yielding to pressure from multinational retail giants and worried at not a single proposal having come through in the past nine months, the Manmohan Singh-led government is set to “dilute” various conditions, including effecting a change in the definition of investment in backend infrastructure and the 30 per cent sourcing clause, brushing aside opposition from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Ministry.
  • Furthermore, with the Commerce and Industry Ministry at the spearhead, the government proposes to increase the number of cities to be covered under the policy for 49 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail trade.
  • This will be done by amending the clause to permit cities or States with less than 10 lakh population to allow opening frontend stores.
  • Under a new policy, medium-scale industries, with a total investment not exceeding $2 million, will be made eligible for sourcing of manufactured/processed products.
  • However, in its comments on the Cabinet note, the MSME Ministry has said it does not favour an open-ended engagement of MSMEs with their retailers under the provision for 30 per cent procurement even if they outgrow the investment limit. “The Ministry is of the view that a three-year period from the day a micro/small/medium enterprise outgrows the investment limit of $2 million would provide the required space to equip itself independently to make supplies to the retailer without being covered under the 30 per cent procurement.

• Social justice ministry moots a commission for denotified tribes
  • Left untouched by the Centre’s welfare juggernaut, the denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes (DNTs) that comprise about 10 per cent of the country’s population can finally look forward to education, health care and economic empowerment among other benefits.
  • The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is all set to seek the Cabinet’s approval for implementation of the recommendations that were made by the Balkrishna Renke Commission in 2008 and by the National Advisory Commission (NAC) in 2011.
  • The Renke Report, which has 76 recommendations, included designating the DNTs as a “scheduled group”, with a special quota of 10 per cent.
  • According to a senior ministry official, there is a proposal to establish a separate National Commission for the denotified tribes for an initial period of two years, a separate division in the Ministry, constitution of corporations at the national level with an initial equity of Rs.200 crore and access to free education and scholarships
  • The Ministry is also looking at utilising ‘Aadhar’ for identifying and reaching out to the DNTs. Once the nomadic communities are identified they will be able to benefit from the welfare schemes wherever they are.

• All CNG vehicle drivers in Delhi to get insurance cover
  • Within the next three to four months, all the 2.5 lakh CNG vehicle drivers in the Capital will be covered by insurance policies with provisions for relief in case of accident, partial disability and permanent disability.
  • Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M. Veerappa Moily on Wednesday launched the IGL Suraksha Yojana in which CNG drivers need not make any payments towards the premium or registration.
  • The Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) will steer the implementation of the scheme and would be making annual payment of Rs. 35 lakh to Oriental Insurance Company for this purpose. The drivers have been advised to contact CNG stations in Delhi along with their relevant documents to obtain insurance certificates.
  • Accord- ing to the policy, the nominee of the policy holder will receive a sum of Rs. 1.5 lakh in case of death of a driver in an accident while driving the vehicle and an amount of Rs. 25,000 per child (maximum of Rs. 50,000 for two children) will be granted as education allowance.
  • In case of an accident requiring treatment for fracture, a maximum sum of Rs. 10,000 would be paid to the driver. In case of permanent disability that leads to loss of employment, a lump sum equal to 100 per cent of the treatment cost would be payable to the insured person. In case of partial disability, a graded compensation from Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 75,000 would be paid to the driver.

OPINION/EDITORIALS

• Article on food security by Jean Dreze
• Article on caste discrimination in the UK

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

• India russia help bust potash cartel
  • India and China played a key part in bringing down a giant Russia-Belarus potash cartel, and will reap the fruits of the coming crash in prices for the key crop nutrient
  • The Belarusian Potash Company (BPC) venture, owned by Russia’s Uralkali and Belaruskali, collapsed on Tuesday after the Russian partner walked out of the marketing venture.
  • The downfall of the cartel, which accounted for 40 per cent of global potash sales, was triggered by a decree signed by Belarusian President Alex

Wednesday, 31 july, 2013

HEADLINES

• Congress declares telengana a reality; To be India's 29^th state
• BCCI probe panel illegal rules court
• No grand prix in india in 2014
• Irish president signs abortion bill in to law

NATIONAL NEWS

• India to restore gas supply to Bhutan
  • India will restore the supply of subsidised gas to Bhutan from August 1, a month after it was halted and became a campaign issue in the Himalayan Kingdom’s second national elections.

• India cautions a reclusive North Korea against further isolating itself
  • An official delegation comprising three MPs on Monday concluded a rare visit to North Korea, which took place amid unusually heightened diplomatic activity between New Delhi and the reclusive Pyongyang.
  • The delegation, led by CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, was in Pyongyang to attend the elaborate celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the armistice agreement to end the Korean War — an affair celebrated by both the North and South.
  • Mr. Choe the chairman of the supreme people's assembly expressed thanks for India’s continuing support of food aid to the North, with around $1-million-worth of aid being routed through the World Food Programme
  • The North Korean regime’s focus on its military, coupled with continuing sanctions on account of the country’s controversial nuclear programme, has left the economy crippled — there have been reports of widespread food shortages.
  • Earlier this month, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid held rare talks with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun in Brunei on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting. Mr. Khurshid said he had, at the meeting, stressed India’s principled stand against nuclear proliferation.

• A project to map exclusion in higher education
  • What makes a low-income student from a migrant community suffer alienation in classrooms in centres of higher education in India and the U.S.? What can be done to correct processes that discriminate against students from marginalised communities in and outside the classroom?
  • These and many more such questions will be taken up in a new partnership between the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the University of Pune. The research is aimed at mapping experiences of exclusion in higher education through different methodologies to arrive at a richer narrative of disadvantaged students on campuses in the two countries.
  • ‘Inclusive Universities: Linking Diversity, Equity and Excellence for the 21st Century’ is the project proposal selected under the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative and will receive $2,50,000 over three years.

• India's first private DNA forensics lab in Gurgaon
  • Global biotechnology company Life Technologies has launched India’s first private DNA forensics laboratory here, which is expected to accelerate sampling process, thus reducing the burden on existing forensic laboratories
  • Till the beginning of 2013, there was a backlog of 862 crime cases in the DNA division of the Delhi State Forensic Science Laboratory alone, Ohri said, adding that for a country of the size and population of India, the number of labs ideally should be about 400.

• Bhramos air version to be tested before year end
  • The aerial version of BrahMos cruise missile with reduced weight would be fitted with deep fighter aircraft Sukhoi-30MKI to undergo the first flight trial before this year end
  • Dr. Pillai said BrahMos Aerospace was currently having an order book worth Rs. 25,000 crore for Navy, Army and Air Force versions of the missile.
  • Asked about the export of the missile, he said 14 countries had evinced interest and it was for the government to take a decision on it.
  • Referring to public-private industrial consortium established for BrahMos, he said it needed to become a national model for the country to become self-reliant and strong in defence technology

• Kurshid keen on roping in industry to push economic policies abroad
  • The External Affairs Ministry may open up for short-term deputations from industry and trade bodies to supplement its efforts to push the country’s economic and commercial policies abroad.
  • “We are looking at innovative methods by which people will come on deputation. Hopefully, one day we will have more people coming from industry, join us for a few years, spend postings abroad and return to their careers,

OPINION/EDITORIALS

• An article on Telengana and the statehood
• Article on the shelved NPDS bill
• article on low cost migrants to the UK
• Editorial on RBI's monetory policies

Tuesday, 30th July, 2013

HEADLINES

• Telengana in fast forward mode; CWC decision today

NATIONAL NEWS

• Article 371 – J : State issues notification
  • The State government has issued a notification to delegate the powers of framing the rules for the implementation of Article 371 (J) of the Constitution to the Governor and forwarded it to the Union government for Presidential assent.
  • The State Cabinet has also given its approval to the recommendations made by the Cabinet subcommittee headed by Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H.K. Patil on fixing the quantum of reservation in educational institutions, government departments, boards and corporations and the constitution of a statutory development board for the Hyderabad Karnataka region

• Tribals “no” to mining in niyamgiri hills hailed
  • Vedanta Aluminium Limited belonging to London-listed Vedanta Resources Plc appears to have received a setback on Monday with the rejection of the proposal by tribal people at all gram sabhas held in Odisha to find out whether mining bauxite ore in Niyamigir hills was an infringement of religious, community, cultural and individual rights of Dongria Kondhs, primitive tribal group and other traditional forest dwellers.
  • The gram sabhas are being conducted on a directive by the Supreme Court on April 18. The Centre is disputing the Odisha government’s decision to restrict the number of gram sabhas to 12 villages whereas the Naveen Patnaik government strongly defended its decision
  • “The overwhelming rejection, by Dongria Kondh Adivasi (indigenous) communities, of a proposal to mine their sacred lands is an unprecedented victory for indigenous rights in the face of business interests

• Urban households have shown overall improvement says study
  • As the government gears up to meet the overall housing shortfall of nearly 18.7 million in the urban areas, a statistical compendium of households with basic amenities, including water, electricity and sanitation, better building materials, more rooms and assets, has shown an overall improvement.
  • Also, households that have access to sanitation and drainage facilities, too, have registered an increase, though States like Bihar, Odisha and Chhattisgarh have shown the lowest improvement in terms of households with improved sanitation.
  • Issues of sanitation, open defecation, provision for closed drains have been targeted through several schemes, including the Union Urban Development Ministry’s flagship programme -- the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
  • Households that use solar energy have risen sharply by over 30 per cent, while the use of kerosene for lighting has fallen by 18 per cent
  • The condition of dwellings has shown an increase, with the households that have been described as “good” registering a growth of 56.59 per cent and the “liveable” ones, too, having gone up from 17.31 million in 2001 to 22.61 million 2011.
  • The data sourced from the Census of 2011 shows more people now own houses than before; there is a 69 per cent increase in the number of households that are “owned” with “rented” accommodations marking a dip of 21.72 per cent. Availability of drinking water and water from taps within the household has gone up as have assets like television and telephones.

• Rubber board proposes extending development through MGNREGS
  • Keeping in mind the scope for convergence, the Rubber Board has formulated a proposal for extending plantation development activities through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). This collaboration will be undertaken as pilot projects in Kerala and Assam in accordance with convergence guidelines.

• India pins hope on Bali meet for WTA doha round talks to move forward
  • Pinning hopes on the Bali Ministerial meet in December for further progress of the WTO Doha round trade negotiations, India on Monday warned that if no progress was made on the G-33 proposal of developing countries like India to deal with food security issues, the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) progress could also stand stalled.
  • The G-33 proposal, mooted by developing countries like India and China, is for food security and flexibility in their public stock holding operations for public distribution system

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Myanmar pipeline to diversify china energy supply
  • China has started receiving natural gas from Myanmar through an 800 km-long pipeline project.
  • The gas pipeline, which can transport 12 billion cubic metres annually, runs from Kyaukpyu to Ruili in southwestern Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar. China is also building an oil pipeline that will bring 22 million tons annually to Yunnan when completed
  • the opening of the gas pipeline had “substantially changed the strategic map of China’s energy supply channels” by alleviating what officials have described as the “Malacca dilemma” of being dependant on an energy route through the narrow straits
  • “At present, as many as 80 per cent of China’s oil imports depend on the supply line going through the Malacca and Singapore straits, while the maritime route is patrolled by fleets headed by the U.S. Navy,”

• Gulf of thailand oil spill affects tourist spot
  • A major oil spill triggered by an offshore pipe leak in the Gulf of Thailand has reached a popular tourist destination on the eastern coastline, forcing Thai navy to launch a clean-up operation
  • The oil reached Ao Phrao beach on the Samet Island where hundreds of navy personnel.

OPINION/EDITORIALS

• A brilliant article on poverty estimation by Utsa patnaik
• Article on Russia – China relations
• Editorial on India – Bangladesh relations
• Editorial on SEBI ordinance

Monday, 29th July, 2013

HEADLINES

• BCCI's probe gives clean chit to srinivasan

NATIONAL NEWS

• ISRO to the rescue after red flag over thai satellite for CCTNS
  • Warned by intelligence agencies that using a foreign satellite in the proposed nationwide Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) could make a critical database vulnerable to eavesdropping by other countries, the Union Home Ministry has decided to take the help of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to make the project fully indigenous.
  • Despite high bandwidth charges being proposed by the ISRO — almost three times that of the IPSTAR satellite managed by Thaicomm of Thailand — the CCTNS will get half of its 800-odd VSATs (two-way ground satellite systems) from the BSNL (network agency) while the remaining VSAT requirements will be met by the ISRO.
  • When fully operational, the much-delayed CCTNS project will connect 14,000 police stations across all the 35 States and Union Territories, thus creating a nation-wide networking infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled sophisticated tracking system around ‘investigation of crime and detection of criminals’.

• Indian fishermen may go to Sri lanka for talks
  • In an attempt to find a solution to the issue of Indian fishermen allegedly engaging in illegal fishing activity in Sri Lankan waters, a group of Indian fishermen may go to Sri Lanka to hold talks with their counterparts.
  • Fishermen in the north - primarily Tamils - are just about returning to their fishing trade after struggling for survival during the 30-year-old ethnic conflict. According to them, often trawlers from India are spotted very close to the Sri Lankan coast.

• INS vikramaditya sea trials successful
  • India’s second aircraft carrier, the 45,000-tonne INS Vikramaditya — a retrofitted Russian carrier formerly named Admiral Gorshkov dating back to the 1980s — has successfully completed sea trial of achieving top speed of 32 knots
  • It will now head for the White Sea where aviation trials will be conducted

OPINION/EDITORIALS

• Article on why NFSB is affordable
• Article on manual scavenging
• Article on the use of drones
• Article on the reasoning behind the new mountain strike corps
• Editorial on death sentences

Sunday, 28th July, 2013

NATIONAL NEWS

• India offers vietnam credit for millitary ware
  • In a first, India has offered a $ 100 million credit line to Vietnam to purchase military equipment. It will be used for purchasing four patrol boats.
  • The credit line was agreed upon around the time India once again expressed its resolve to remain involved in oil exploration activity in the Phu Kanh basin of the South China Sea. Vietnam says it is within its rights to invite India to explore for oil in this area.
  • But China claims that this basin is within the “nine dotted line” or its zone of influence
  • There has been a heavy two-way traffic of high level visitors between the two countries that has led to a $ 45 million credit line for a 200 MW hydel project built by BHEL, offer of export of the Param supercomputer and a breakthrough for the Indian corporate sector though its Vietnamese counterparts have struggled
  • The sources pointed out that India was beefing up security ties with all countries beyond its eastern flank as one of the vital components of its Look East policy.

• Agreement on master partnership signed for giant optical telescope
  • the Master Partnership Agreement (MPA) for the construction of the $1.5-billion Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT), what would be the world’s largest optical and infrared telescope, was signed by the five partner countries — Canada, China, India, Japan and the U.S. — in Hawaii, the site for the proposed telescope.
  • Besides the Indian Institute of Astra , the other participating institutions in the TMT-India Programme are the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCCA), Pune, and the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital. While the IUCAA functions under the UGC, the other two are under the DST.
  • With the signing of the MPA, India will be moving from its current observer status to a full-fledged partner in the project and will be a member of what is called the TMT Collaborative Board. This Board will eventually be replaced by a Governing Board, which will manage the TMT International Observatory on behalf of its partners
  • The main promoters of this international project are Caltech and the University of California in the U.S. and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA), with China, India and Japan providing additional financial and technical support in return for participation in its construction and observation time.
  • India is a 10 per cent partner in the project, which implies a financial commitment of about Rs. 1,000 crore. Much of India’s contribution will be in-kind. Indian institutes and the industry are collaborating to build much of the telescope’s control systems, whose estimated value is about Rs. 600 crore
  • At present, India has three 2 m class optical-IR telescopes and a 3.6 m telescope waiting to be commissioned. The apertures of the current ground-based large optical-IR telescopes are in the 8-10 m range, though other bigger ones like the TMT are also on the anvil, the 39 m European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in particular. Though the Indian astronomical community has been using the existing 8-10 m class telescopes, such usage has largely been limited to individual efforts.
  • The TMT, which belongs to what are called the “new technology” telescopes, was proposed after the enormous success of the first new technology telescope, the twin 10 m Keck telescope on Mauna Kea. The TMT will also be a segmented mirror telescope with its primary 30 m mirror made up of 492 hexagonal segments of 1.44 m each. Precisely aligned, these segments will work as a single reflective surface of 30 m diameter. The TMT has a collecting area of 650 sq. m. and will have observational windows from UV to mid-IR wavelengths (310 nanometres to 28 micrometres). Its large collecting area makes it 81 times more sensitive (measure of the faintest signal that it can detect) than the current largest ground-based telescopes.
  • Like all ground-based observatories, TMT is limited in spatial resolution by the atmospheric turbulence. While the 30 m primary mirror builds on the technological and operational experience of the Keck Telescope, it will be the first ground-based telescope to incorporate the technology of Adaptive Optics (AO) as an integral component of the telescope. AO refers to systems designed to sense atmospheric turbulence in real time, make the appropriate corrections to the beam and enable true image on the ground limited only by optical diffraction. The AO capability will enable the TMT resolve objects by a factor of 3 better than the 10 m-class telescopes and 12 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

• Government plans training programme for cooks and helpers
  • Shaken by the Bihar mid-day meal tragedy that killed nearly 30 children, the government plans to start a training programme for cooks and helpers to educate them about hygiene and the nutritional value of food
  • The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has sought the support of the Tourism Ministry for the purpose.
  • The Tourism Ministry will train about 24.58 lakh cook-cum-helpers engaged in the world’s largest noon meal programme in various training institutes under it.
  • The cook-cum-helpers will be imparted knowledge about the calorific and nutritive value of the mid-day meals, best cooking practices so that the nutritive value of ingredients gets retained, and to create awareness on issues such as malnutrition
  • They will also be trained in hygienic practices and communication skills.
  • The cooks will trained at the Institutes of Hotel Management (IHMs) and the Food Craft Institutes (FCIs) designated by Tourism Ministry. The Ministry plans to train 600 persons in the current financial year
  • The cooks will be nominated by the HRD Ministry, which will make efforts that each person nominated for the 10-day full time course is capable of training fellow cooks-cum-helpers.

Saturday, 27th July, 2013

HEADLINES

• Hung parliament predicted as both UPA, NDA fall short
• Distinguished molecular biology research scientist obaid siddiqi dead
• Russia not to extradite snowden

NATIONAL NEWS

• India, China trying to evolve effective mechanisms to check LAC face off's
  • “Till the final settlement of the border issue, we are trying to find out more effective mechanisms to prevent occasional incidents. There are many points in the LAC that are disputed and they are patrolled by both sides. So, sometimes it leads to some face-off,’’ Mr. Antony told

• Centre Odisha lock horns over mining in Niyamgiri
  • The Centre and the Odisha government are at loggerheads over the implementation of the environmental referendum being conducted in Odisha over bauxite mining in Niyamgiri hills on a directive by the Supreme Court.
  • The fifth gram sabha held at Palberi on Thursday also adopted a resolution opposing mining
  • The Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Odisha government are engaged in war of words over restricting palli (gram) sabhas in the hill villages of Rayagada and Kalahandi districts.
  • The Supreme Court had set a three-month deadline for the State government to conduct gram sabhas. The government has sought an extension of the deadline. The court wanted the gram sabhas to find out whether mining in Niyamgiri – considered the abode of their ‘ista debta’ (presiding deity) ‘Niyamraja’ for several centuries – was an infringement of the religious, cultural, individual and community rights of Dongria Kondhs and other traditional forest-dwellers as per law

• New metsat to add edge to reading weather
  • Insat-3D, the country’s latest satellite put in orbit on a European rocket early on Friday, is expected to sharpen weather observation and forecasting and also enhance land and sea surface monitoring over the sub-continent and the Indian Ocean region.
  • The scientists will ‘push’ the spacecraft’s initial elliptical orbit into a circular one that will be nearly 36,000 km above the ground at 82 degrees East longitude. (It was first placed in a 249 km x 35,888 km ellipse.) Insat-3D will then have a period matching the Earth’s 24-hour rotation and will look fixed or geosynchronous over the sub-continent.
  • In the making for over seven years, the metsat supplements the decade-old and fading Kalpana-1 and Insat-3A with four sophisticated payloads.
  • The six-channel imager takes weather pictures of the Earth with better resolution than its predecessors. The 19-channel sounder is the first such over the region and gives layered vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone.
  • The data relay transponder picks and relays met, moisture and sea related information from automatic data collection platforms placed at remote uninhabited locations on to a processing centre for generating accurate forecasts.
  • A search and rescue device picks up and relays distress alert signals from users on sea, land and air to an ISRO centre in Bangalore and enables speedy detection and rescue of such people.

• New national antibiotics policy on the anvil.
  • The Union Health Ministry is considering a new National Antibiotics Policy to handle increasing antibiotics resistance.
  • That policy had recommended a ban on across-the-counter sale of antibiotics and specified that high-end antibiotics could be used only in tertiary care centres.
  • Experts claim that a policy is of vital importance to ensure that further obstinate strains do not develop. Most hospital administrators are concerned about treating a growing percentage of patients with strains of bacteria that are resistant to carbapenem — powerful third line antibiotics. This is especially so in corporate and private hospitals, where the use of expensive antibiotics is more common, explains Abdul Ghafur, infectious diseases consultant, Apollo Hospitals.
  • In 2010, Timothy Walsh, professor of medical microbiology at Cardiff University, Wales, described in an issue of The Lancet , the emergence of a new enzyme that made bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics. The enzyme NDM1 was named after the city in which it was found, Dr. Walsh explained. India took objection to naming the bacteria after the country and some of that objection was rooted in the potential threats to medical tourism in the country.
  • The Chennai Declaration (chennaideclaration.org), known since as a milestone event, was held in August 2012, and brought together representatives of various specialist groups to put their heads together and draw up a road map to tackle antimicrobial resistance in the country
  • The Chennai Declaration pushed for the creation of a national antibiotics policy, this time, one that would be implementable. It also suggested the possibility of adopting a “liberal approach.” To start with, they suggested that restriction be placed on across-the-counter-sale of an initial list of antibiotics, and that additional drugs could be added to the list in a phased manner. They also recommended that a national antibiotic resistance surveillance system be established with representation from all regions in the country, government and private hospitals.

• India offers stake to Dhaka in Tipaimukh hydel project
  • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday offered Bangladesh a stake in the Tipaimukh hydel project, which has been a bone of contention ever since it was conceived in the mid-1980s.
  • Assuring that India would not do anything inimical to Bangladesh’s interests in the area of common water bodies, Dr. Singh suggested to visiting Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni that Dhaka could join the yet-to-take-off project in Manipur as a stakeholder.
  • Opposition to the project ebbed in Bangladesh after India took Dhaka into confidence on all aspects of the dam, including providing it with techno-economic feasibility reports, holding more surveys and lowering the height of the dam. It still remains an emotive issue.
  • Partnership in Tipaimukh could also lead to a partnership between the two countries in Bangladesh, for nine hydel projects under construction, or being planned in the north-east, including Teesta III and IV, and Subansiri. Though both countries have resolved a large number of bilateral issues, India has been unable to resolve outstanding issues relating to the land boundary agreement (LBA) and the Teesta river.

• India – france agree to deepen defence ties
  • India and France on Friday discussed their ongoing military cooperation during the Defence Minister-level talks, stressing it was an important pillar of the strategic partnership between them.
  • Negotiations are in final stages for the Rs. 50,000-crore deal for procuring 126 Rafale combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force. The two sides are also holding negotiations on a Rs. 30,000-crore project for co-developing the Maitri surface-to-air missile defence system.
  • France has emerged as a key player in defence cooperation with India, bagging several big contracts including the deal for building six Scorpene submarines for the Navy, though it has been further delayed.
  • The Navies of both countries are working towards finalising the schedule for the conduct of Exercise ‘Varuna’ off the coast of India and also that the next Air Force exercise ‘Garuda’ would be held during the first half of 2014.”

• India calls for banning e-ciggaretes and curtailling the use of hookas
  • India has proposed a total ban on e-cigarettes and regulating proliferation of hookah (water pipes) use to prevent adverse impact on human health.
  • The recommendation made at the regional meeting of WHO-Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) that concluded here on Friday, was backed by all 11 members of South-East Asian region countries with the nations committing themselves to take measures to their use, including imposing a ban. The issue would be taken up at the next meeting of the Conference of Parties
  • E-cigarettes and hookahs are much in fashion and received promotion following the implementation of stringent anti-smoking laws. Both are unlicensed products and e-cigarettes are being illegally smuggled into India.
  • The recommendations are in line with the obligations under Article 5.2(b) of the WHO-FCTC to prevent and reduce nicotine addiction including through banning E-cigarettes or Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems.

• Support for centralised rehabilitation plan for endosulfan victims gains momentum
  • Even as the families of endosulfan victims here continue efforts to get themselves enlisted in the rehabilitation packages, a strong plea for a centralised rehabilitation of the victims to find a reasonably lasting solution to their social and economic concerns is gaining momentum.
  • Leading activists, who have been fighting for the cause of the victims reeling under serious health hazards attributed to endosulfan use in the State-owned cashew estates in the district, feel that the rehabilitation initiatives now on would not help address their insecurity within the family and society.
  • They firmly believe that only a pragmatic centralised rehabilitation package could address the social stigma and financial and health concerns, and help bring the distraught families back to the mainstream as the current packages seldom help them lead a life of dignity

• Congestion tax a possibility in metros
  • If the Union Urban Development Ministry has its way, Delhi and other metros could soon go the London and Milan way and charge motorists congestion tax.
  • The move will serve a twin purpose: reduce traffic in crowded parts of the city and control greenhouse gas emission levels. The Ministry is particularly impressed by the manner Milan was able to control pollution. In 2008, the world’s fashion capital was one of the most polluted cities in Europe.
  • The Italian city then introduced a pollution-linked congestion pricing system called ‘ecopass’. It charged drivers on the basis of the engine emission to enter earmarked zones. The higher the emission level, the more the drivers were made to shell out. Extremely high polluting vehicles were banned completely in the restricted areas. The result of the graded congestion tax system was phenomenal, with air quality improving significantly.
  • Milan has since moved to the conventional congestion pricing system wherein all vehicles, irrespective of the emission levels, have to pay to enter restricted areas.
  • The Urban Development Ministry wants to combine the features of ‘ecopass’ and the congestion tax method of London, Singapore and Stockholm and implement it in metros such as Delhi.

• Now Indians abroad can access information through RTI
  • The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has written to the heads of all Missions directing them to create awareness regarding the facility of Electronic Indian Postal Order (e-IPO) for payment of Right to Information fee abroad under the Act.

• Monsoon deficiency in east and north east raises kharif concerns
  • Overall sowing of kharif crops is higher this season so far than in a normal year, but still there is disquiet in the Agriculture Ministry over the 37 per cent deficiency in the southwest monsoon in East and North-East India. Rainfall was ‘scanty’ in Bihar and Jharkhand

• Urban poor to be alloted flats soon
  • The Delhi Cabinet has decided to initiate the process of allotment of flats to the urban poor under the Rajiv Ratna Awas Yojana
  • The contribution of the beneficiaries will come to Rs.60,000 and the remaining cost will be borne by the Delhi Government and Union Government.
  • The share of the Scheduled Caste beneficiaries will be borne by the Delhi SC/ST/OBC/Minorities Corporation. Hence, the SC allottees would get flats for free

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Dhaka keen on India voting bill to approve settlement
  • The Bill, if passed, will put the final seal of approval on the settlement negotiated by the two countries during the tenure of the Awami League led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The introduction of the Bill, which requires two-thirds of members present to vote in favour, therefore needs bipartisan support.
  • Dr. Moni expressed Bangladesh’s desire to settle the outstanding land boundary issues with India and said it would be an election issue in her country along with the Teesta Treaty, which could not be signed due to opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

OPINION/EDITORIALS

• Article on the egyptian problems and its repercussions in that area
• Article on India – Japan ties
• Editorial on RBI's policy changes with respect to the recent downturn in economy
• Editorial on IGNOU's decision to close the sign language centre of learning