Saturday, January 14, 2012

HEADLINES

• Facebook, Google and 19 other internet operators face prosecution for hosting offensive content
• Central Govt directs the Lt.Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to take action against the exploitation of Jarawa tribal women, who were made to dance for tourists

NATIONAL NEWS

• Digitisation helps weed out 2.96 cr bogus ration cards
  • A move by the Centre to encourage states to digitise ration cards has helped weed out a large number of bogus cards from the public distribution system. Bogus ration cards as well as diversion of food grains have been the bane of the PDS. Some studies have shown that over 40% of the PDS has been diverted in the past. At present the estimate is 20%;
  • The centre is going ahead with an end to end computerisation of the PDS for which Rs.4000 cr is sanctioned.
• Centre to launch spoken web service for Ryots
  • Soon farmers across the country can get their agreiculture and weather related queries answered quickly. The Govt is planning to launch a spoken web service that will provide an interactive medium for the farming community;
  • The Ministry of Earth Sciences has approached IBM to design such a service for farmers. The company has recently launched a similar service for farmers to connect them to Amul Diary. In 2009, the ministry already provides SMS & IVR services for farmers with farming, weather and climatic details to help them meet agricultural targets. The new service will provide for farmers to phone a toll free number and get their queries answered.
• Second nuclear submarine headed for year end launch
  • The construction of the second Arihant-class nuclear submarine, INS Arindaman, is moving fast at the Shipbuilding Centre in Visakhapatnam. It is slated for launch end of this year or first quarter next year;
  • Unlike surface vessels, submarines are to be completely fitted before launch and therefore needs to be tested and ready well in advance. INS Arihant was launched in July 2009 and has just completed its harbour acceptance trials and is set to undergo the crucial sea acceptance trials in February. This will then be followed by the weapons acceptance trials in 2013 before it is formally inducted into the Navy;
  • Concurrently, INS Chakra borrowed from Russia on loan for 10 years will be inducted into the Navy in the later half of 2012;
  • The nuclear missiles used on these submarines are developed under the Sagarika Program;
  • These developments for the Indian Navy comes at a time when the Navy finds itself with only 14 submarines, of which 75% are very old for operations.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Myanmar frees political prisoners
  • Myanmar pardoned a number of prominent dissidents, journalists and a former premier under a major prisoner amnesty, as part of the sudden reforms being undertaken by the Army-backed regime;
  • This move was lauded by the Suu-Kyi' opposition party as a positive sign. About 650 inmates were freed as part of a national reconciliation and inclusion in the political process. Earlier in October 200 inmates were freed. Activitists estimate that there are still between 500 to 1500 political prisoners in Myanmar's dilapidated jails.
• Pakistan's PM Gilani addresses the parliament and says they have to choose between democracy and dictatorship. Army backs the Supreme Court on its ultimatum to the Govt to reopen old corruption cases against persons in the Govt including President Zardari
• EU bloc likely to delay the Iran oil embargo by 6 months so that they can find alternative suppliers

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article which looks at the situation in West Asia / the middle east one year after the revolutions overturned Govts there
• Read this article which discusses the issue of draping of statues in UP as ordered by the Election Commission

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• Telecom Tribunal sets aside penalties on new operators
  • The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) set aside all penalties imposed by the Govt on new telecom operators for delay in meeting roll out obligations of services;
  • The TDSAT said that the DOT did not follow principles of natural justice and did not give the operators an opportunity to be heard before imposing penalty or liquidated damages. The Tribunal also directed the DOT to refund the penalties collected with 12% interest.
• QFIs not allowed to issues Participatory Notes (PNs)
  • The SEBI said that QFIs (who have recently been permitted to invest directly in the Indian stock exchanges) should not issue offshore derivatives instruments / Pns. A declaration to this effect should be taken by the Depository Participants from the QFIs;
  • SEBI also stipulated that the total shareholding held by a QFI in and Indian company should not exceed 5% of the paid-up capital of the company at any point in time. Further, in companies which have different classes of shares, the SEBI has told depository participants to ensure that QFI holdings do not exceed 10% of all classes at any point.
• Govt to review Miniratna status for 67 companies and if criteria does not remain fulfilled some of them may lose the status as well