HEADLINES

• Chidambaram, Pranab call on Sonia Gandhi to discuss the issues in relation to the 2G case;
• CBI slaps an additional charge of criminal breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code upon the 17 accused in the 2G case;
• Pakistan's foreign minister calls the Haqqani network the CIA's 'blue-eyed boy' referring to the earlier close relations between the CIA and the network;
• Heavy rains in north and east India causes flooding and leaves thousands of people marooned.

NATIONAL NEWS

• TRAI's new telemarking regulations come into force from today
  • The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010 will come into force from today and customers will be given greater control over telemarketing calls they receive;
  • Unlike the earlier regulations the new regulations have increased fines on telemarketers to Rs.2.50 lakhs and operators for non-compliance with the regulations along with blacklisting;
  • Customers will have the option to between the 'fully blocked' category or 'partially blocked' category where they can receive promotional smses from particular telemarketers;
  • To prevent unsolicited smses from unregistered mobile numbers, the TRAI has set a limit of 100 smses a day from any mobile number.
• Prominent economists argue for delinking food entitlements from the poverty line
  • With the several debates on the inaccurate Tendulkar poverty line for India which is backed by the Planning Commission, many economists are suggesting delinking it from food entitlements;
  • These economists say that the targetted Public Distribution Stystem introduced in 1997 has done more harm to the country and that a universal PDS should be restored in the country.
• Prithvi-II, a missle with a range of 350kms was sucessfully test fired from Chandipur, Odisha, by the DRDO.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• India and China to open up their markets
  • The countries agreed to boost economic cooperation, open up their markets and improve the investment conditions for the other's companies at the first ever Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED) held in Beijing;
  • Also agreed on was a closer cooperation for the railway networks between the two countries and this may also pave the way for Chinese involvement in development of six high-speed railway corridors in India as it has the best experience in this area. They also discussed learning from each other on improving energy efficiency;
  • SED was set up to increase macro-economic policy coordination and to leverage common interests and share developmental experiences. The next SED is scheduled for April 2012 in Delhi;
  • A separate dialogue group is being set up between the commerce ministers to tackle trade issues.
• French Socialists party wrestle control of the Senate from the UMP party which is in power
• The end of Spanish bullfights
  • Bullfighting is being banned in Spain on grounds of cruelty to animals and the last bullfight is expected to take place today in madrid;
  • The sport traces its roots back to 711AD and many people feel the ban is arbitary.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this interesting debate on the criminalisation of attempts to suicide under the Indian Penal Code. The law commission of India has called for its decriminalisation as early as 1971 and again in 2008 but the Government has not acted on the same. The Supreme court has in the past held that the act of suicide is not a manifestation of base criminal instinct.
• Read Paul Krugman's column on the European debt crisis.

EMINENT PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

• Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist who started out by paying women a few shillings to plant trees who went on to become the first African woman to get the Nobel peace prize passed away on Sunday after battling cancer. She was 71 years old.
• Ms.Maathai toured the world speaking out against environmental degradation and poverty – which she believed was closely linked.
• She was born in Nyeri, Kenya in 1940. She was a star student and won a scholarship to study biology at Mount St.Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas. She went on to become the first woman in Central and easy Africa to hold a doctorate in veterinary anatomy. She formed the Green Belt Movement in 1977 which planted trees across Kenya to fight erosion and create a source of firewood and jobs for women.
• She was awarded the French Legion d'Honneur and Japan's Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun. The Nobel committee hailed her for taking a holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human and women's rights.

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• Proposal to remove Securities transaction tax
  • The boost the falling stock market, the Govt is considering a cut in the Securities Transaction Tax and a uniform stamp duty on securities transactions;
  • STT is imposed on the sale and/or purchase of shares, equity oriented mutual funds and derivatives in securities. It was introduced in the 2004-05 budget;
  • In case of buying or selling stocks or equity oriented mutual funds, the STT is 0.125% of the total transaction value. This is what most people end up paying and this rate applies for stocks that you will take delivery of;
  • In case of squaring off daily positions or not taking delivery, the STT is 0.025%. In case of derivatives, the tax is only on the seller and is calculated at 0.017%;
  • The proposal is an outcome of a discussion between the Finance Ministry and stock exchanges.
• RBI hikes the limit for external commercial borrowings
  • To attract more foreign exchange the RBI has increased the limit for the industrial and infrastructure sector to USD750 million under the automatic route from the existing USD500 million limit. 75% of the borrowings should be used for capital expenditure towards new infrastructure projects;
  • Hotels, hospitals and software companies can raise upto USD200 million under the automatic route, up from the existing limit of USD100 million;
  • Further, the RBI has indicated that proposals for loans to Indian companies from existing foreign direct or indirect equity holders will also be considered for approval upon applications. Provided however, that all outstanding loans from foreign equity holders do not exceed 7 times the holding.