Friday, 13th January, 2012

HEADLINES

• Sreedharan to handle Kochi Metro Project
• India leads the world in recognizing right to food says Nobel Laureate Stiglitz

NATIONAL NEWS

• Connectivity will generate economic vibrancy : Sheik Hasina
  • Bangladesh PM Sheik Hasina has said that the connectivity with India and Bangladesh, particularly with north eastern states will generate tremendous economic vibrancy, leading to people's empowerment and overall development of the region
  • Bangladeshi PM was conferred a honourary D.Litt (honoris causa) degree by the Tripura university.
  • Initiatives with Tripura
    • Akhaura Agartala rail link which will reduce the Agartala – Kolkata distance by a third
    • Operation Ashuganj as multimodal transhipment point under the protocol on inland water transit and trade for transportation of Indian goods to Agartala
    • Transportation of over dimensional cargo for paltana power plant
    • The bridge over the feni river from Sabroom in Tripura to Ramgarh Bangladesh. This is the only land connectivity between India's eastern states and the north eastern states other than through Assam
    • Use of Chittagong and Mondla port by India, Nepal and Bhutan
    • Operation of the Ramgarh – Sabroom land custom station
    • Four new border haats(Markets)

• Copter stimulator cockpit gets highest certification
  • Bangalore based Helicopter Academy to Train by Stimulation of Flying(HATSOFF) has developed a simulator cockpit and has got certified by the DGCA and the European Aviation Safety Agency
  • The Simulator cockpit was for the European AS365N3 Dauphin Helicopter and was certified to level D
  • Three more simulator cockpits installed at its training centre also received Level 2(Joint Aviation Regulation)/ Level 6(Federal Aviation Administration)
    
    
• How Polio cases has been reduced from 741 to Zero in India
  • Poliomyelitis is viral disease that can affect the nerves and can lead to partial or full paralysis, which can spread from direct person to person contact, contact with infected mucus of phelgm, contact with infected feces
  • It started off with the extension immunization programme in the late 70s and universal immunization programme in 1985
  • A significant milestone in the journey was the launch of the national pulse polio vaccine(PPI) in 95-96 targetting coverage of every child under 5 in the country with OPV to be given on 2 national immunization days, followed by a more focussed state level immunization campaigns through out the year
  • India has spent more than 12,000 crore on PPI and nearly $149 million spent by the Rotary international in India
  • Mobile and transit vaccination teams immunize children in bus stand, railway stations,market areas and construction sites.
  • Government targeted 107 high rish areas in UP and Bihar were people either refused to partake or the the place being very interior, help of influencers including religious leaders were sought.
  • India needs three years of polio free period to get the certification
  • The greatest concerns are the polio being carried across the border from Pakistan or Afganistan by migrating populations
    
    
• Tamil Nadu urged to give impetus to Titanium dioxide project
  • Chemical Industries Association has urged TN government to declare a Titanium dioxide project as the country is facing huge shortage and TN has plenty of raw material namely limonite
• Modi declared 2012 youth power year in Vivekanandan's memory
  
  
• Cabinet clears counter tourism centre
  • The cabinet has cleared the proposed National Counter Tourism Centre(NCTC), which will gather and give intelligence to state and central security agencies to strengthen the country's security architecture
  • The NCTC will have a director and core team of officers; director will report to the IB
  • The NCTC's functions include drawing up plans and coordinating all actions to counter terrorism, integrating all intelligence agencies to ensure the perpetrators of crime are brought to justice, maintaining a comprehensive database of terrorists, their associates and supporters and ensure all the agencies receive the support of all intelligence agencies
    
    
• Phase 3 of the National AIDS Control Organization's red ribbon express launched
  • The first phase focussed on information dissemination, the second phase added the element of treatment and councelling services on board
  • The third phase focusses on micro planning with exhibitions and folk troops, particularly in Rajastan, MP, Bihar, Jharkand, Odisha, and Chattisgarh
• Get tough with killers on wheels says the supreme court
  • Supreme court has called for revisiting the sentencing policy to ensure harsh punishment for 'killers on wheels'.
  • The world health Organisation in the global status report on road safety has pointed out that speeding and drunk driving are the major contributing factors in road accidents, according to NCRB the total number of deaths due to road accidents in India is over 1,35,000
  • India has the dubious distinction of registering the highest number of deaths in road accidents

• Medical Council's verdict must not be bypassed; supreme court tells high courts
  • The supreme court has strongly deprecated the practice of high courts passing interim orders on writ petitions filed by medical colleges for increasing the number of seats in cases when the Medical Council of India has not granted approval for such increase.

• Health insurance for more unorganised sectors
  • The Rashtriya Swasthya bima Yojana to provide health insurance cover is likely to be extended among the vulnerable sections.
  • The scheme has already been extended to MGNREGS beneficiaries, street vendors, domestic workers, beedi workers, and those working at building and construction sites.
  • The beneficiaries are entitled to smart card based, cashless health insurance cover of Rs.30,000/- per family per annum on a family floater basis.
  • The centre contributing 75% and the states sharing 25%. For the northeast and J&K the centre contributing 90%.
  • The beneficiary has to pay only Rs.30 as registration and renewal fee. The administrative cost is borne by the states.

• Cabinet approval for new narcotics policy
  • The union cabinet has approved a policy on narcotic drugs to check illicit production of psycotropic substances, curb drug abuse, and halt trafficking of such items as they constitute the major chunk of black money proliferation
  • This will lead to reduction of crime, improvement in public health and upliftment of the social milieu
  • The policy attempts to curb drug abuse, contains provisions for treatment, rehabilitation and social integration of victims of drug abuse.
  • Under the current policy, the private sector may be allowed to produce alkaloid(Chemical substance used in pharmaceutical industry) from opium and products from poppy straw. Hitherto the alkaloids from opium are made only in government owned opium and alkaloid units
  • To check illicit cultivation of poppy and cannobis, the government will use satellite imageries to detect and eradicate such crops. The policy also lays emphasis on alternative means of livelihood for growers

• Objectionable content cannot be filtered says google
  • The search engine google has submitted saying that it had no liability or system to filter objectionable content as it is not a website and the primary liability to filter it was of the websites where such materials are posted.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• China, India to work for largest telescope
  • China and India has decided to join as partners in building a hawaii telescope, which will be the world's largest
  • China and India will pay a share of the construction cost, expected to top $1 billion, for the telescope at the summit of the mauna kea volcano.
  • The thirty metre telescope's segmented primary mirror, will be 100 feet long and will give it nine times the light collecting area of the largest telescope's used today.
  • The telescope known as TMT will be able to observe planets that orbits stars other than the sun and enable astronomers to watch new planets and stars being formed.
  • The university of california system, the california institute of technology, and the association of canadian universities for research in astronomy founded the telescope, which is expected to be completed by 2018.
  • China joined in 2009, india in 2010. Japan which has its own large telescope in Mauna kea is also a partner.
  • European countries are planning to build the extremely large telescope which will have 42 metres and a 138 metre mirror.
    
    
• Russian mars probe to fall in Indian Ocean
  • Russian stricken Mars probe Phobos grunt is likely to fall in to the Indian Ocean west of Indonesia
  • The place of fall could change depending on the atmospheric conditions, solar activity and probe rotation
  • The 13.5 tonne space craft was launched on a mission to phobos, the larger of the Mars two moons. It was to deploy a chinese mini probe in martin Orbit and bring back a sample of the phobian soil. However the probe stuck in earths orbit as it failed to fire.
  • A former Russian missile defence commander has said that powerful electro magnetic radiation emitted by US radars in Alaska may have wrecked the phobos - grunt

• Myanmar, Karen rebels sign pact
  • Myanmar government has signed a ceasefire agreement with the countries most prominent ethnic rebel group after decades of fighting, in the country's apparent bid to reform
  • They signed the pact with the Karen National Union (KNU) in hpa -an, the capital of eastern Karen state, scene of one of the world's longest running civil wars.
  • The group has promised to appoint a delegate to talk to the government within 45 days
  • Vast number of Karen state people have been forced to flee and live as refugees in Thailand

• Vartanyan, legendary soviet spy, who foiled Nazi Germany's plot to murder Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in Tehran dead

• Kim Jong il to be embalmed and laid in next to his father – North Korea's founder Kim il sung in Phongyang. The north Korea's ruling party has already called him an eternal star and has announced february 16 as the shining star day (His birthday) similar to April 15, the day of the sun to celebrate his father's birthday

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• Opinion on Polio eradication
  • India having a polio free year is a shot in the arm for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative(GPEI)
  • The year 2000 was the target year set by the GPEI in 1988
  • Of the three types of polio viruses, type 2 was eradicated in 1999 but the other two type1 and type 3 are still continues in India, Pakistan, Afganistan and Nigeria
  • The OPV used is called trivalent OPV(tOPV) to curtail all three types
  • After the eradication of Type 2, a new monovalent Type 1 OPV was initiated and later a bivalent one with both type 1 and type 3 was initiated.

• New SEBi regulations
  • SEBI has authorized to additional methods of accessing the capital market – Institutional placement programme and the offer of sale of shares through the stock exchanges
    
    
• A good write up on the current economic situation in the world
• Opinion on Polio eradication
• Editorial on the new SEBI regulations
• Editorial on the row between scotland and UK