NATIONAL NEWS

• Census 2011: India's urban population goes up by more than the rural population
  • For the first time since 1921 (i.e.after the 1918 influenza epidemic), urban India has added more numbers to its population than rural India. India's rural population is 90 million higher than it was in 2001 while the urban population has increased by 91 million
  • Census 2011 has citied three possible causes for this: (i) migration; (ii) natural increase; and (iii) inclusion of new areas as urban. However, these factors are applicable to the census of previous decades as well
  • This shows a sudden movement of people from the villages to the cities due to the collapse of millions of livelihoods in agriculture and related occupations. More about this issue in Sainath's article.
• Modern shipping repair facility being set up in Tamilnadu
  • L&T and TIDCO (Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation) are jointly setting up a modern day ship repair facility at Kattupalli near Chennai in Tamil Nadu. At present the closest ship repair facilities in Asia are at Singapore and Colombo.
  • The proposal is to build defence and highly specialised commercial ships to compete with Japanese and Korean shipyards and also handle container and chemical ships in the next phase.
• Kishen ganga hydel project
  • It is a 330 MW project along the river of Kishenganga on the border of India and Pakistan and has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty
  • The 7 member international court of arbitration has barred India from undertaking any permanent works at the Gurez site of the Kishenganga hydel power plant
  •  But India can go ahead with construction of powerhouse, tunneling works, constructing coffer dams, temporary bypass tunnel and concretisation under the riverbed for the dam
  • But the risk remains, if after building all the other accessories the case is lost, it will be a case of wasted money and effort.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• India for greater role to 'SCO plus' nations in Afghanistan
  • The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is an inter-governmental mutual security organisation formed by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. At present India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan (invitee) have observer status
  • The SCO is seen as a good platform for the development of Afghanistan and members of the SCO are already involved with US and NATO in projects in Afghanistan.
  • India has been trying to join this organisation and is being backed by Russia. India has also played and is playing key role in Afghanistan.
• Voting rights for women in Saudi
  • King Abdullah of Saudi, who is seen as reformer since he became defacto ruler in 1995 (as his father, the king fell ill; became king in 2005), proclaimed that women will also have the right to vote and run as candidates in the 2015 election.
  • The announcement was made before the Shura Council, his advisory assembly. More details here.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article on the declining child sex ratio
• Read this discussion on the rise and role of the League of Arab States
• For those of you wondering about the Haqqani network which is causing the current stand off between the US and Pakistan there is this article in today's paper
• A good article on the latest Jan lokpal revolution is here
• A good article on privatisation of education is here

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• Rupee free fall: Importers worry has the pay more and exporter's celebrate as they earn more
  • The rupee has weakened 11.4% against the dollar since the beginning of this quarter.
  • IT firms which are export focused will have a benefit that these times. However, steel makers who depend on coking coal may suffer when their import bills are to be paid. Also borrowers who have borrwered in dollars will have to wait and watch how the dollar does over the long repayment terms that they have.
• Telenor open to new Indian partner if Unitech does not subscribe to the Rs.8,200 crore rights issue in the Indian telecom operator, Unitech Wireless.
• 600 million to have Aadhaar cards by 2014; De-duplication will be the key to the functioning
• An interesting case in relation to the India Mauritus DTAA is summarised in today's papers
• A FICCI survey on the impact of India-ASEAN FTA for goods (signed in August 2009) on Indian industry has shown that greater market access is available to Indian companies now.