Tuesday, January 31, 2012

NATIONAL NEWS

• Verdict today on Subramaniam Swamy's plea
  • The Supreme Court will give its verdict today on Subramaniam Swamy's application pertaining to the letters he wrote to the PM seeking sanction for prosecution of the former Communications Minister, A. Raja, key accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case;
  • It was the stand of the Centre that the complaint sent by Dr. Swamy was not proper and only a bunch of letters. No sanction was required for the petitioner to file a complaint in the court. The condition precedent for the court to take cognisance of the complaint was to obtain sanction at the stage of investigation or at the stage of filing charge sheet.
• Globally threatened Bustard to be surveyed
  • The critically-endangered grassland species, the Great Indian Bustard, will be counted in the desert terrain of Rajasthan in the second week of February;
  • Rajasthan, specially its desert region, accounts for maximum population of the bird which is globally threatened and listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The great Indian Bustard is the state bird of Rajasthan;
  • The Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps), whose number is estimated to be less than 500 in India, is found in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat besides Rajasthan where the main population is located. Instances of hunting, habitat loss, change in land use and urbanisation are cited as reasons for the decline in their numbers;
  • The birds are to be counted in the desert by volunteers astride camels and the methodology to be adopted in counting would be of line tangent — from one point to another point, in straight line.
• Jairam Ramesh seeks tribal cooperation to combat Naxalism
  • The political endeavour under the Saranda Action Plan (SAP) — not just to bring the government closer to the local tribal population but also to give them a stake in the democratic set-up and unfetter the control of the Naxalites who infest the dense forests — seems to have made some progress. The Saranda region is in Jharkhand and covers many tribal families and also envisages setting up a Saranda Development Authority;
  • The objective of SAP is to get the government near to the people and correct the historical mistake of 50 years of neglect of the tribal and rural people. Mr.Ramesh asked the people to repose faith in the Govt so that their interests could be best taken care of by the government and not the Naxalites.
• India-Japan coast guards show their might
  • A mock drill on the deep seas by the Indian and Japan Coast Guard units over the weekend demonstrated the two forces' inherent capabilities to jointly counter a range of maritime threats in the Asia-Pacific region;
  • The Indo-Japan Coast Guard Joint Exercises, named Sahyog-Kaijin-XI, which alternates between India and Japan every year, was organised off the Bay of Bengal where fleets headed by the newly-commissioned Indian Coast Guard vessel Vishwast and the Japanese ship Settsu simulated a range of search-and-rescue, pollution control and anti-piracy operations.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Russia invites Syrian Govt and opposition forces for talks for ending the violence
• Afghan-Taliban peace talks in Saudi Arabia
• Iran tells International Atomic Energy Authority that it can extend trip if it wishes
  • Iran has said that an IAEA delegation visiting Iran could choose to extend its stay beyond the three days originally planned if it wished. Iran also urged the European Union and the United States to “replace their policy of sanctions with interaction” with the Islamic republic.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this editorial on the state on Indian museums
• Read this article on the Antrix-Devas spectrum deal

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• Tata to brew Starbucks in India
  • Starbucks, the iconic american coffee brand, will be setting up shops across India in a 50:50 joint venture with Tata Group. The shops with be branded as Starbucks Coffee 'a Tata Alliance'. The news of discussions between Starbucks and Tata have been in the open for a long time now.