HEADLINES

• Banks say no to Kingfisher Airlines bailout package; Govt also sings the same tune
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says that the Pak army is on board with the peace process being discussed between India and Pakistan; says that peace process will however depend on Pakistan doing justice in the mumbai terrorist attack
• Silvio Berlusconi resigns as the Italian Prime Minister
• Arab league suspends Syria as it fails to implement the deal agreed to end violence in Syria

NATIONAL NEWS

• New found bacteria gets India nomenclature
  • Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) have discovered various bacteria over the pat decade including 5 in the past year that are named in honour of India. Ost of these microbes are considered unique because of their ability to survive at temperatures below the freezing point of water. They could provide a system to understand molecular basis for cold adaptation. They could be used to generate enzymes or bio-molecules for the biotech, pharma and agricultural industries. Here are a list of such microbes:
    • Indibacter Alkaliphilus – bacteria isolated from the ancient Lonar lake from a water sample collected at a depth of 3.5 m from Lonar Lake, Buldhana district, Maharashtra (alkaliphilic bacterium isolated from a haloalkaline lake)
    • Pedobacter Himalayensis – bacteria from the Hamta glacier located in the Himalayan mountain ranges
    • Bacillus Aryabhattai – bacteria located in the air collected from the upper stratosphere and named ater Aryabhatta, ancient indian astronomer and India's first satellite. Resistant to UV radiation
    • Bacillus Isronensis – named to recognise the contribution of ISRO in the balloon experiments which led to its discovery. Resistant to UV radiation (another called Janibacter hoylei, named after the distinguished astrophysicist Fred Hoyle also has same properties as Bacillus Aryabhattai and Bacillus Isronensis. Read more here)
    • Sphingobacterium Antarcticus - a psychrotolerant / psychrotrophic bacterium from the soils of Schirmacher Oasis, Antarctica. Read more here
    • Bacillus Cecembensis - isolated from the Pindari glacier of the Indian Himalayas. Named after CCMB
    • Anthrobacter Gangotriensis - isolated from an Antarctic marine sediment. Named in memory of Dakshin Gangotri, the first Indian research station set up in Antarctica.
    • Bhargavaea Cecembensis – microbe found in the Indian ocean. Named in honour of the founder-director of CCMB, P.M Bhargava
• Govt mulls rewriting the Forest Rights Act
  • After recommending changes on the land acquisition act and the food security bill which were accepted by the Govt, the NAC has now sent a list of changes recommended on the Forest Rights Act. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs and MoEF are opposed to the changes;
  • The changes proposed by the NAC are the following:
    • More authority to gram sabha over Forest Depts in issues relating to forest rights;
    • Higher committees should not reject a claim or modify it unless an appeal is filed;
    • Suo Moto transfer of power to manage community forest resources to gram sabha;
    • A rule should to be introduced giving collectors the freedom to sell and transport minor forest produce, subject to regulation by the gram saha.
• Lack of clarity on offsets mars defence deals
  • Offsets policy is one which mandates that all purchases made by India from foreign suppliers should result in the foreign supplier entering into a counter-trade arrangement with an Indian supplier so that technology / investment is ploughed back;
  • The current defence offset clause was included in the defence procurement policy formulated in 2006 and is revised each year with specific reference to particular purchases being made by the Indian Govt;
  • At present it mandates that 30% of the value of all purchases exceeding Rs.300 million should be put back in the Indian defence sector. In the case of the upcoming medium multi-role combat aircraft deal the offset has been set at 50% but the policy hasnt been finalised yet. Lack of clarity on offsets means that foreign suppliers are sneaking through with only investing in low-end technologies and transferring technologies to india which are outdated;
  • The 11th five year plan set a target of $10 billion but till now only $ billion has come in and further these are of very unimportant and outdated technologies. With defence purchases expected to be over $100 billion in the next 10 years the Govt has to quickly set a clear offset policy.
• Afforestation to attract more birds to Bahour Lake, Puducherry
  • In a move to attract more migratory birds to Puducherry, the Forest Dept is planning to set up another lake apart from the existing one which forms the bird sanctuary at Ousteri, Bahour Lake. The officials hope that birds will also return once they stop the deforestation in the area.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• India to give $100 million standby credit facility to Maldives
  • You will remember standby credit facilities as the latest records that the CAG has requested the Govt to review. They are basically loans given by India to other countries to do trade with India;
  • PM Manmohan Singh announced the giving of $100 million facility to Maldives apart from agreements for initiatives such as capacity building of Maldivian security forces, joint combating terrorism, trans-national crime, disaster management and coastal security;
  • The standby credit facility given will significanly enhance infrastructure and capacities in Maldives. PM Singh addressed the Maldives parliamet (known as People's Majlis) and became the first foreign head to do so in 78 years.
• India and Sri Lanka agree to step up the working of the Fishermens Joint working group which was set up earlier this year

EMINENT PERSONS IN THE NEWS

• Har Gobind Khorana, an Indian american biochemist and a Nobel laureate in Medicine recently passed away. Here is a good article about him

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• Read this article on the recently cleared National Manufacturing Policy which aims to increase manufacturing and the GDP in the country.