HEADLINES

• Lokpal bill cleared by cabinet and to be tabled in Parliament; to be taken up for discussion and consideration on December 27. To be introduced with 2 other bills – a constitutional amendment to give the Lokpal constitutional status as well as the whistle blowers bill
• The Pension Regulatory and Development Authority Bill and the Companies Bill shelved due to dissent by the Trinamool Congress
• Madurai based Tamil writer Su Venkatesan awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2011 for his novel Kaval Kottam which traces the 600 year history of Madurai. Details of other awardees provided below
• P.K Iyengar, eminent nuclear physicist, who played a leading role in the first peaceful nuclear test in 1974, passes away

NATIONAL NEWS

• Lok Sabha passes two bills
  • The Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (111th) Bill, 2009 which provides the right to form cooperative societies as a fundamental right along with the right to set up a specialised agency like the Election Commission to conduct elections of the cooperative societies;
  • The objective of this constitutional amendment is to ensure that the cooperative bodies functioned in a democratic, professional, autonomous and economically sound manner. The bill will widen the scope of Art. 19 of the constitution to include cooperative societies besides touching upon the directive principles of state policy as well;
  • The Lok Sabha also approved, by a voice vote, the Export-Import Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2011 which increases the authorised capital from 2000cr to 10000cr and also introduces 2 more whole-time directors.
• National Commission for Scheduled Tribes seeks tax concessions for SCs and STs
  • The NCST has issued a notice to the Union Finance Secretary on the issue of concessions in levying income-tax on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes;
  • The NCST has requested that since women and senior citizens were provided a special concession in income-tax the same should be extended to the ordinary Scs, STs also. The finance secretary has been asked to respond on the proposal within 15 days by the NCST.
• CAG fears over Navy's aging ship may have come true
  • The apprehensions of the CAG over the Navy's acquisition of the old US ship USS Trenton which was rechristened INS Jalashwa seem to have come true;
  • Just a few years after induction, the warship has been undergoing heavy refurbishment for the last six months. The Navy had got the ship for10% of the cost and spent an additional USD 36 million for getting things fitted to it. The CAG had highlighted that the ship had outlived its service life. It had recently even killed sailors due to toxic leaks from its pipes.
• After the comments from the parliamentary committee against the UID Bill, the Govt may now set up the UID Aadhaar Project as a technical arm under the Ministry of Home Affairs which also looks after the National Population Registry, the parent project of the UID project

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Collective Security Treaty Organisation tightens foreign base norms
  • Russia has won the right to vetor the establishment of new foreign military bases in the member states of the CSTO, the defence bloc consisting former USSR states;
  • At a meeting of the CSTO the leaders agreed that the deployment of foreign bases in their terriory is only possible with the approval of all partners of the CSTO. The decision gains importance with the US planning to deploy from of its Afghan troups in other parts of central asia.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this lead article on issues relating to international arbitration awards in India. This is very important for students with the law optional; others can just glance through it
• Read this editorial on the space science museum being set up in Kerala

EMINENT PERSONS IN THE NEWS

• Read this article about P.K Iyengar, eminent nuclear physicist, who played a leading role in the first peaceful nuclear test in 1974
• Read this article on Su. Venkataraman who won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his debut novel, Kaaval Kottam. Details of other awardees are found in this article
• Read this article on the book, The Wandering Falcon which was written by Jamil Ahmed, a Pakistani writer and recently got the Shakti Bhatt First Book prize

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

• Read this article on protecting an anti-malarial drug from developing resistance
• Read this article on new ways being studied to create a drug for HIV
• Reach this article on the recent two earth like planets which have been discovered with the Kepler telescope