HEADLINES

• Kapil Sibal says that hate speech online should be blocked. Says that internet companies such as google, facebook, etc are not cooperating with the Govt and that the Govt may have to issue guidelines; Internet companies say they wont remove material just because of controversial nature
• Govt puts FDI proposals in the retail and aviation sector on hold
• Opposition says that only rollback of the FDI policy will be acceptable, not holdback – says keeping the policy in abeyance is only a ploy to bring it back
• Lokpal panel undecided on inclusion of PM under the act; Parliament to decide it
• Protests in Russia against the elections which people claim is rigged

NATIONAL NEWS

• “Sudarshan Shakti” aims to transform the armed forces
  • The president, Pratibha Patil, Supreme Commander of the armed forces, on monday witnessed one of the largest military exercises in recent times – Sudarshan Shakti;
  • The exercise, held in the Thar desert, is aimed to transform the force into a modern, lean and agile fighting combination capable of leveraging new-age technologies;
  • The exercise is the outcome of a study undertaken by the army on how to initiate transformation and maintain continuous offensive capabilities with a networked headquarters supported by intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance acting as the nerve centre of operations;
  • The improvements in weaponry had also given an added impetus to revising existing military doctrines.
• Army modernisation quest set to take off after long delay
  • The Army's long wait to buy light utility helicopters and ultra-light field guns appears to end as the Govt has cleared a move to alter a key provision in the requirement and referred the issue to the field guns division of the DRDO;
  • While guns have not been purchased since the procurement of the Bofors units, the field trials of 197 light utility helicopters (to replace the aging Cheetah / Chetak helicopters) were completed recently. However due to a condition that the helicopters be able to park overnight at the height of 5000 metres and restart the field trials were held up – as India did not have any air base at that height where it could be tested;
  • Eurocopter and Kamov of Russia are contending for this bid after the US pulled out;
  • They are also looking at procurement of howitzer guns from the US.
• Reporting of Wildlife intrusions on airport runway's are to be reported says DGCA as this impacts operations of airports
• Jayanthi Naratajan, the minister of environment in India said that equity was the central requirement in the climate deal at Durban
• NHRC says huge sums of money siphoned off from the NREGA scheme

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Stepping up the pressure, China blames Dharamshala for self-immolations
  • China has for the first time, laid fdirect blame on the Dalai Lama and said that the 11 self-immolations of tibetan buddhist monks and nuns in recent past has been because of the Dalai Lama's influence;
  • China's says all these actions are part of an overseas plot and points to exiled head, who now lives in Dharamsala. China has been asking India to restrict the Dalai Lama's political activities. However, recent events have shown that China is trying to ask India to stop the leaders activities in non-political fields also.
• Indonesian parliament endorses accession to Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
  • The list of countries outside the CTBT thinned by one more with Indonesia's parliament voting to ratify the country's accession to the treaty;
  • The CTBT has been signed by 182 countries and 156 countries have ratified it. India, China, North Korea, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and US have not signed;
  • Annex 2 of the CTBT states that it comes into force only when all 44 nuclear states in the world have signed it. US, India, China, North Korea and Pakistan are declared as nuclear states but have not signed the treaty and therefore it is not in force. Israel neither confirms nor denies that it has nuclear weapons. Egypt and Iran have linked their accession to the demand for a Middle East Nuclear Weapon Free Zone. China says it wants US to ratify the treaty first, and India says that China should ratify it first, and Pakistan says that India should ratify it first :)
• France and Germany push for EU treaty change
  • The leaders of France and Germany said that they would push for the EU treaty change by March to introduce closer fiscal union and sanctions for countries flouting deficit limits to shore up confidence in the euro zone. The proposal will oblige all countries in the single currency to write a golden rule to balance their budgets into their constitutions;
  • It would also bring forward the introduction of the bailout fund for the euro zone by the year 2012, allow it to take decisions by a qualified majority and modify its statues to make clear tha a debt write-down of Greece was a one off incident and not to be repeated.
• New planet which may host life discovered – Kepler 22b
  • A planet which is similar to earth has been discovered with the Kepler Telescope. The plant revolves around a star nearly the same size as our sun and is located in what is called the goldilocks zone– the zone where any planet is neither too far from a sun or too close to it;
  • The temperature is expected to be around 72 degree Farenheit and the planet takes 290 days to revolve around its sun and is likely to have water and rocks. The only problem that scientist's say is that the planet is too large (around 2.9 times the size of earth) and therefore may not sustain life.
• Kuwait Emir dissolves parliament for the 4th time in 6 years stating a threat to the supreme national interests

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article on the perils of over-fishing
• Read this editorial on the protection of Libya's heritage