Thursday, February 9, 2012

HEADLINES

• Karnataka Advocate General resigns saying he is being pressured to do so in the Jayalalithaa disproportionate asset case; to continue as the special public prosecutor in the case
• 62% turnout at the first phase of UP elections
• Gujarat HC raps the Modi Govt for inaction post-Godhra riots and issues compensation for the damage to religious structures
• Lakshya-1, India's indigenously developed micro-light pilotless target aircraft was successfully test flown from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur
• Social activist Medha Patkar refuses the Karnataka government's Basava Puruskar 2010 on grounds of “disagreement with certain State policies and inability of the government to deal with mining scam and other scandals”
• Violence in Maldives spreading; India was approached by the Govt to prevent a military coup but had indicated that it would not interfere in the internal matters

NATIONAL NEWS

• Conservation reserve status for Jawai forest
  • Rajasthan will soon accord the bio-diversity rich Jawai Bandh forests in Pali district the status of a conservation reserve under Section 36 of the amended Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The reserve is fifth in the category in the State. The conservation reserves, a concept introduced in the Act through the amendments, replaces the “closed area” concept;
  • The rich forests and the water bodies along the Jawai dam in Sumerpur tehsil have a large presence of crocodiles. The wildlife census in 2011 had put their number at 288.
• The ongoing Pula Subaiah Veligonda project set for expansion
  • The Veligonda project, an engineering marvel with tunnels below the Nagarjunasagar tiger sanctuary, is all set for expansion to provide water for irrigation to an additional two lakh acres in Andhra Pradesh;
  • The Rs. 5,150-crore project has been designed to draw 43.5 tmcft flood waters from the Krishna to irrigate 4.47 lakh acres in Prakasam, Nellore and Kadapa districts and provide drinking water to 15 lakh people.
• Navy, Air-Force stage network centric exercise
  • The Navy on Wednesday staged a network-centric exercise off the Southern coast and displayed cooperation with the Indian Air Force in its annual TROPEX (Theatre-level Readiness and Operational Exercise);
  • Against the backdrop of the Indian Ocean, two broad but well-networked fleets provided a glimpse of the Forces' prowess and proficiency in operating their latest acquisitions in a dense electronic environment;
  • The exercise was to test new platforms, weapons sensors, communication systems and tactics in order to optimise the network combat power of the fleet, which included over 40 surface combatants of various classes, submarines and a large number of aircraft, including unmanned aerial vehicles.
• Chidambaram tells CRPF to develop intel-based approach to deal with the Maoists
• The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve has been nominated for the prestigious Michael Batisse Award under the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme of the United Nations Educational, Science and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)
• The Central Board of Secondary Education's international curriculum (CBSE-i), until now restricted to around 25 schools abroad, will now be available to nearly 50 schools in India as well

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• UK-Argentina war of words over Falkland Islands
  • The tension between the UK and Argentina escalated with the Argentinian President saying she would approach the United Nations over the 'militarisation' of the Falkland Islands. Both the countries claim the islands and had gone to war over it in 1982;
  • The move comes in light of UK deploying more of its warships into the region and Prince William being sent there for training as a search and rescue helicopter pilot. UK said these were just routine actions and that the people of the islands were britishers by choice. The population of the islands is only about 3000.
• Pakistan, Afghanistan and International Security Assistance Force resume coodination
  • The Pakistan Army resumed border coordination with the ISAF stationed in Afghanistan and the Afghan National Army after a two-month freeze in relations following the NATO air strike on Pakistani border outposts.
• Russia says that the Syrian Vice-President will lead talks between the Govt and the Opposition
• India played neutral as Nasheed's men sought military intervention
  • Fearing for the personal liberty of the deposed Maldives President, Mohd Nasheed, close aides said some of his Ministers had sought Indian military assistance when the “coup” was under way on Tuesday but none came. Indian gunships were in the vicinity but did not intervene. Sources say that India made it clear that it was for the Maldivians to sort out the issue internally;
  • Memories of operation Cactus of 1988 came up when the Indian Army and Navy intervened when a Maldivian businessman paid Tamil mercenaries from Sri Lanka to depose off the then president;
  • Mohd Nasheed was said to have been made to resign at gunpoint.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article on the India-EU Free Trade Agreement being negotiated

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• Jet fuel import may hit an infrastructure snag
  • Domestic private airlines' attempts to save cost are likely to run into roadblocks with state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) unwilling to share their massive infrastructure facilities to facilitate aviation turbine fuel import, for which the Group of Ministers has given its nod on Tuesday. Aviation Turbine Fuel accounts for 40% of the costs of airline companies.
• IT-BPO business set to cross $100 Billion
  • The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) expects export revenue for 2012-13 to grow by 11-14 per cent. The domestic revenue is expected to grow by 13-16 per cent. Nasscom on Wednesday released the key findings of the Indian IT-BPO sector performance for 2011-12;
  • Terming 2011-12 a ‘landmark year', Nasscom expects the aggregate revenue for the Indian IT-BPO sector to cross $101 billion. Exports are expected to be in the vicinity of $ 69 billion, growing by 16.3 per cent over the last fiscal year.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

• India's mangrove cover rises
  • India recorded a net increase of 23.34 sq. km of mangrove cover between 2009 and 2011, thanks to efforts of one of the most industrialised states, Gujarat, in planting and regenerating the ecosystem rich in biodiversity;
  • The new biennial assessment report by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), an arm of the MoEF has commended Gujarat's contribution in planting and regenerating the mangroves, a salt tolerant plant community, which harbours a number of critically endangered flora and fauna species;
  • Mangroves in India account for about three per cent of the world's mangrove vegetation. The report says mangrove cover in India is 4,662 sq. km, which is 0.14 per cent of the country's total geographical area. Sundarbans in West Bengal accounts for almost half of the total area under mangroves in the country;
  • Mangrove forests are regarded as the most productive wetlands in the world on account of the large quantities of organic and inorganic nutrients released in the coastal waters by these ecosystems. They also act as nurseries for fin fish, shell fish, crustaceans and molluscs.
• Lake Vostok, an antartic sub-glacial lake reached
  • A Russian team has succeeded in drilling through four kilometres (2.5 miles) of ice to the surface of a mythical subglacial Antarctic lake which could hold as yet unknown life forms;
  • Lake Vostok is the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica and scientists want to study its eco-system which has been isolated for hundreds of thousands of years under the ice in the hope of finding previously unknown microbiological life forms;
  • Exploring environments such as Lake Vostok would allow scientists to discover what life forms can exist in the most extreme conditions and thus whether life could exist on some other bodies in the solar system. There has long been excitement among some scientists that life theoretically could exist on Saturn's moon Enceladus and the Jupiter moon Europa as they are believed to have oceans, or large lakes, beneath their icy shells;
  • The hidden lakes of the Antarctic are seen as one of the final frontiers in exploring the Earth and several teams from other nations are also engaged in similar projects. There is still controversy over the methods used by Russia, with Western scientists expressing concern that the kerosene that has been used to prevent freezing ice from closing the borehole risks contaminating samples;
  • The next mission is to drill to a Lake called Ellsworth using a different technique known as hot water drilling.