Friday, November 4th, 2011

HEADLINES

• Butt,Asif, Amir Jailed along with bookie Majeed in spot fixing scandal
• Yeduyurappa gets bail in one case, while the 2G scam inmates including Kanimozhi were refused bail.
• Petrol prices rise up by 1.82 /- rs per litre.
• Sonia, Manmohan in the list of world's top 20 powerful people on earth.

NATIONAL NEWS

• Governor gives assent to Lokhayukta in uttrakand
  • Two days after it is passed in the state assembly, Governor Margaret Alva gave assent to the Lokhayukta bill,2011.

• Here is what PM spoke on in the Cannes G20 summit
  • PM's meet with french prime minister was rescheduled. He met with leaders from Brzil, South Africa, China and Russia.

• Team Anna seeks 34 amendments.
  • Team Anna met the parliamentary standing committee on Personnel and law and put forth their demands on the government's lokpal bill to bring it in line with the Jan Lokpal and the Uttrakand Lokhayukta bill.

• CAG Justifies estimate of loss.
  • The office of the Comptroller and Auditor general rejected the allegations that it discouraged the former director general audit on his work in the 2G- spectrum scam.
  • The audit calculated presumptive loss based on the market indicators of the spectrum value.

• India – Japan to step up defence ties.
  • India and Japan have planned to increase their defense ties by launching naval operations together and also to step up interaction between air force and army.
  • The two sides also expressed views on the regional and international security.
  • As per the agreement the vessels and the aircrafts of the Navy would pay mutual visits during which bilateral excersices would be conducted.
  • So far India and Japan joined with US to conduct trilateral 'Malabar' excercises.

• IIM's to face social audit every three years.
  • The IIM's will face social audit and peer review of their performance so that government can identify aberrations and take corrective actions said the union HRD minister.
  • The B- schools have also agreed to share admission information to the new IIM's to fill the seats.
  • They will also post individual admission criteria on their websires.
  • In another new initiative IIM faculties will be shared through the National Knowledge Network.

• New national policy for senior citizens.
  • This policy is based on the recommendations of the Giri committee's report.
  • This include extension of the Indhira Gandhi National Old age scheme to all senior citizens below poverty line to Rs.1000/-
  • The senior citizens could be given additional pension in case of disability or loss of adult children.
  • The social justice and social welfare ministry envisages a department of senior citizens which will be the nodal agency for implementing programmes and services.

• Jairam for action plan to combat encephilities.
  • The union ministry for drinking water and sanitation would work in concert with the union health ministry to prepare an action plan to subdue the menace of Japanese encephilities.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• A crucial landmark for China
  • china hailed its first ever docking exercise in space when the unmanned space craft shenzhou -8 docked with the Tiangong-1 space laboratory module.
  • China now is the third country to do the docking exercise after US and Russia.

• Greek Prime minister cancels call for referendum after EU threats
  • The referendum had been replaced by a assent.
  • Markets rose steadily after the danger of a total greek default receded with the cancellation of the referendum.
  • The EU bailout plans include a debt relief for Greece, a recapitation of european banks and a leveraging of the bloc's rescue fund
    
    
• Russia clears barrier to Join WTO.
  • Russia has cleared the last barrier by reaching a bilateral trade agreement with Georgia.
  • Russia had been the largest GDP nation outside the WTO.
  • Russia's entry with the WTO would enable India to sign the CECA, a free trade agreement signed long back but could not be sealed because of Russia not present in WTO.
  • This CECA pact is expected to give a boost to bilateral trade between India and Russia by providing greater market access for the partners which could rise to $20 billion by 2015.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• An interview with Bill gates about the G20, global scenario, Indian expertise, etc
• An editorial on how war impacts woman.
• Bail vs Jail – An editorial on the recent happenings of bail denials.
• An opinion on the latest economic downturn and steps to overcome it.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY NEWS

• Food inflation spurts to 12.2%
• India – China on the way to reach $100 billion by 2025
  • A chinese company with sme Indian colloboration plans to pump in 2500 crores in green energy.
  • India is also concerned about the massive trade deficit for the Indian side. A balance of trade is needed for a long term sustainable environment.
  • An MOU is signed between the Gujarat Government and TBEA ltd for a 500 crore green energy park in Gujarat
  • At present the bilateral trade is only $35 million