Monday, February 13th, 2012

HEADLINES

• Former RSS activist Kamal chauhan held in the Samjahuta bombing
• Whitney Housan the American pop singer dead
• New Maldivian national unity government sworn in.

NATIONAL NEWS

• Viable oil reserves in Nagapitinam
  • From the exploratory drills sunk by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation in the Nagapattinam Depression it is learnt that the area has viable hydrocarbon reserves (oil) and efforts are on to tap them
    
    
• Commonwealth to examine transfer of power
  • Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) has decided to send a team to Maldives “urgently to ascertain the facts surrounding the transfer of power.”
  • The Ministerial team is being sent since the Commonwealth Heads of Government had given the Group an enhanced mandate at their meeting in Perth, Australia, in 2011 “to consider situations of concern in member countries in a proactive, engaged and positive manner.”
    
    
• Kerala project to take centre stage in WIPA project
  • A benefit-sharing agreement between a research institute and a tribal community in Kerala is set to come under the spotlight at the 20th session of the Intergovernmental Committee (IGC 20) on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore to be held at Geneva.
  • The theme of the panel is “Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, and Associated Traditional Knowledge: Community Perspectives on Access and Benefit Sharing.
  • In a project spanning eight years, a team headed by the then director P. Pushpangadan harnessed the traditional knowledge of the tribal folk to develop a compound drug named Jeevani with immuno-enhancing, anti-stress, liver protective, and anti-fatigue properties.
  • The initiative was recognised by the U.N. Environment Programme and the World Trade Organisation as a global model in benefit-sharing and recognition of the intellectual property rights of tribal people.

INTERNATIONAL

• Turkmenistan's president reelection almost certain
  • Turkmenistan voted in a token presidential election that is certain to extend the rule of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov for another five years.

• Nelson Mandela's image published on South Africa's new currency notes to mark the anniversary of the anti – apartheid icon's release from prison.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• An article on India – Pakistan relationships
• India's role in the ongoing power struggle in the Maldives
• Facebook's IPO venture