Monday, November 7th,2011

HEADLINES

• Kudankulam plant safe says Former Indian president Abdul Kalam
• Hospitals in UP to have dedicated ward for Encephilities
• Hazarika to be cremated along the banks of Bhramaputra as India and Bangladesh mourns his death

NATIONAL NEWS

• New policy will force the operators to pay for spectrum hoarding
  • The new policy will ensure the government gets more profit as the operators will have to pay for the entire spectrum.
  • This will also ensure optimum utilisation of the radio waves.
  • The companies will have to pay for the idle spectrum through the Presumptive Adjusted Gross Revenue(AGR) mechanism.

• Health ministry launches measles vaccination drive
  • To cover the large number of measles death this year the government has launched a massive measles vaccination drive where 13 crore children will be given vaccination irrespective of their previous status of measles vaccination.
  • States told to set up steering committee's to collaborate with schools. No door to door drive will be done.
  • 14 states have been selected for this drive.
    
    
• Parliament should debate on the agricultural crisis says farmer organisations
  • A delegation of farmers from across the country led by the consortium of Indian farmers association (CIFA) are planning to meet the prime minister to have discussion on having a special parliamentary debate on the agricultural issues.
  • The delegation will demand debates on the reports submitted by the M.S Swaminathan committee and other parliamentary committees.
  • The primary recommendations of the committee is to have the price of the farm produce fixed by discussions with the local famers
  • Though the agricultural output may have increased the productivity of every farm produce has decreased says the farmers union.

• High spending on medicines, health push Indians into poverty says WHO
  • Due to out of pocket spending of their income for medicines and health almost 3.5 % of indians will come below poverty line
  • The out of pocket spending on medicines for Indians is up to 70% while for other Asian countries it is only 30%.
  • WHO also stressed the need for effective monitoring system and expressed her concern at the lack of drugs and theraputic committee(DTC) and the pharmacy and therapeutics committee(PTC).

• India more than doubled its queries to tax havens
  • According to a global financial body India has more than doubled its request to obtain classified funds information from Tax havens and other countries in the two years.
  • The report also covers the steps taken by G20 member countries to end banking information secrecy.

• Innovation universities to come up in 14 place
  • The new concept of innovation university is drafted and the work will take place in the 12^th five year plan says the planning commission
  • Innovation universities are model universities with platforms for globally accepted best practices and innovations. They will have a cluster based approach to spur innovation.
  • The proposed universities may become model universities for PPP programmes

• Wikipedia focussing on India this year
  • As a part of their expansion strategy Wikipedia has turned its focus on India
  • Jimmy wales the founder, said his organisation is doing pilot studies in India and it intends to use the learning experience gathered from other regions as well.

• Landscape immersion ideal design for zoo's says zoo design guru Cole
  • If the purpose of the Zoo is to encourage the public to see the animals and learn, then it is important not to learn the factual stuff but also the illusive emotional learning which can be done when the animals are in their own environment.
  • He was the guest speaker at the “Designing of enclosure,landscape planning and master plan for zoo's” attended by all the zoo directors.
  • He had a word of praise for the Indian zoos, though he said many changes are required here and there.
  • Animal abuse in India has come down rapidly

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• India presses for new global internet governance mechanism
  • India has proposed a new proposal to the UN to establish a Committee for Internet Related Policies(CIRP)
  • This committee will help to frame international policies on issues relating to internet governance.
  • This follows an initiative made under the aegis of the IBSA.
  • There is a tussle between the multi stake holders approach and the CIRP proposed by India. The internet society says that such an approach without getting all the stake holders together will have immense effect on the internet users. But the Indian group dismissed such fears.

• Shangai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to meet in St. Petersburg.
  • The major discussion point is the expansion of the group by giving permanent seat to India and Pakistan and grant observer status to Afganistan and affliate Turkey as the dialogue partner.
    
    
• Wrangling in Greece and uncertainity in Italy
  • Mr. Papandreou won the vote of no confidence motion, but the wrangling in the Athens continue and a deadlock could push Greece in to bankruptcy. The leader of the opposition has rejected this outrightly and has proposed for a snap election.
  • While Italian Prime minister faces no confidence motion, political observers say he might lose this

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• An opinion on India – Japan relationships.
• An editorial on India's disinvestment policy.
• An editorial on the petrol price rise.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY NEWS

• A write up on the need for sustainable wealth creation
• Central tribunal a viable alternative says supreme court judge
  • The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) is a viable alternative to the high courts in order to reduce the pending cases.
  • The CAT was established in 1985 for adjudicating complaints and service related matters relating to the employees of the central government and notified public sector undertakings and organisations.