Saturday, January 28, 2012

HEADLINES

• Violience erupts in Yanam, an enclave of Pondicherry in Andhra Pradesh as workers go on rampage and also kill a trade union leader
• Court issues fresh summons to Essar's Ruias and Loop Telecom's Khaitans after they fail to appear in the 2G case
• A study be Yale and Columbia universities in the US ranks India the last for air quality for human health. The situation was almost the same for water quality in the report. This report will be submitted at the World Economic Forum in Davos

NATIONAL NEWS

• UIDAI mandate expanded
  • To end the conflict between the UIDAI under the planning commission, and the Home Ministry's National Population Registry, a cabinet committee has worked out a compromise formula that will result in the biometric data of all residents being captured by June 2013;
  • UIDAI has been given permission to enrol another 40 crore people in 16 states. The National Population Registry will continue to collect its own data and will receive the biometric data from the UIDAI. In return, the UIDAI has assured the Home Ministry that all security concerns will be addressed in the next 2 months. Its earlier mandate was 20 crore by March 2012;
  • Both the bodies do not expect there to be over a 5% overlap. While UIDAI is a voluntary exercise, the National Population Registry is mandatory. In case of discrepancies between the two, the population registry data will prevail.
• Visa on arrival to be offered at Bangalore International Airport soon
  • Visa on arrival for tourists from 11 countries is restricted to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai airports. A ministerial committee meeting decided to extend the facility to airports in Bangalore, Goa, Hyderabad and Kochi. This is awaiting approval of Home Ministry;
  • Once approved, tourists from Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, Philippines, Indonesia, Luxembourg, Finland, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia can secure visa on arrival at all the airports of these cities for a maximum of 30 days on payment of $60 (or equivalent amount in rupees).
• Jairam Ramesh proposes big role for Gram Sabhas in tribal land acquisitions
  • Having introduced the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill in Parliament, Mr. Ramesh now is focusing on another aspect of land reforms;
  • If his proposal goes through, then the State Govts which play an important role on land acquisition will now have to leave all issues on forest and tribal land to be decided by the gram sabhas. Also to monitor land ceiling breaches the Govt is proposing amendments to the Benami Transactions (Prohibition of the Right to Recover Property) Act, 1989 and also put a ban on the alienation of property for SEZs etc.
• Lakshya – II, an advanced version of a pilotless target aircraft, has been test fired from the Integrated Test Range at Orissa

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Solid support for expansion of the United Nations Security Council
  • A proposal resolution to expand the UNSC, which is tabled by India, Germany, Japan and Brazil has received solid support from across the world in the form of 85 signatures, 53 expressions of support and 10-15 in the pipeline;
  • Pakistan has opposed the resolution says that it only benefits the G4 nations.
• Chile wants to partner with India in the renewable energy sector especially wind and solar
• Kepler has found 11 solar systems
  • NASA's Kepler telescope has discovered 26 new planets spread among 11 solar systems. “Prior to the Kepler Mission, we knew of perhaps 500 exoplanets across the whole sky. Now in just two years staring at a patch of sky not much bigger than your fist, Kepler has discovered more than 60 planets and 2,300 planet candidates.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Here is an editorial on the President's address to the country on republic day (January 26)
• Here is an article on the fears between India and Pakistan on water scarcity and the Indus Water Treaty between both the countries