Wednesday, Feb 1st, 2012

HEADLINES

• Don't sit on sanction for prosecution in corruption cases says supreme court; Has set a three month deadline for governments to decide whether or not to sanction for prosecution under section 19 of the prevention of corruption act.
• Rafale edges out eurofighter

NATIONAL NEWS

• French fighter Rafale edges out eurofighter typhoon.
  • French Fighter Rafale over the Eurofighter Typhoon in a multi-billion dollar contract for the supply of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) — the country's largest defence deal to date
  • The product was picked up on the basis of it being the Lowest Bidder (L1), a decision arrived at after complex calculations, including the life-cycle costs.
  • The two aircraft were chosen from a list of six, including U.S. Boeing (F/A18) and Lockheed Martin (F-16), Russian MiG-35 and Swedish Saab (Gripen)
  • The deal is estimated to be worth $10.2 billion (Rs.54,000 crore).
  • The plan includes acquiring 126 aircraft, 18 of them in fly-away condition and the rest to be made in India at the Hindustan Aeronautics facility under transfer of technology.    

• Surfing while waiting for the train in Bangalore
  • The Bangalore Division of the South Western Railway (SWR) is all set to launch Blue-Fi, a combination of Bluetooth application as well as Wi-Fi connectivity at the station, facilitated by RailTel Corporation of India, the Railway Ministry's telecom arm.
  • Passengers can access unlimited data for free through Bluetooth as data transfer takes place very quickly
    
    
• Delhi high court has set norms for admission under new RTE quota
  • Schools should adopt four distances -- 1 km, 3 km, 6 km and beyond that -- for admitting poor children and those belonging to the disadvantaged groups.
  • Schools will give first priority to children who stay within 1 km of the institutions, then to those who reside within 3 km, thereafter to the ones within 6 km, and last to those who stay beyond that, depending upon the availability of seats
    
    
• President Rajapaksa makes 'U' turn; After promising to go beyond the 13^th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution to find a solution to the Tamil ethnic problem, now has said the parliamentary select committee(PSC) would now have to suggest a solution.
  
  
• Procedural issues should not drag ICTT:Manmohan
  • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh instructed different departments to ensure that procedural issues did not come in the way of India's first International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam, near the Kochi port, becoming a global cargo hub.
  • Full-fledged operations of the terminal, which has advanced cargo handling facilities, will reduce the number of days taken to export or import consignments by seven and reduce the transportation cost of each container by $300 giving a boost to international Indian trade making it more competitive.
  • At present, Indian importers and exporters use Colombo, Salalah, Singapore, and Dubai hubs for shipments adding to their costs.
    
    
• CRIS is India's new rating agency
  • ‘Comparative Rating Index of Sovereigns' (CRIS) on the basis of sovereign ratings of various countries compiled through rating data of Moody's and GDP (gross domestic product) data of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has been made the new rating agency of India.
  • In terms of CRIS, which takes into account the GDP and rating data of 101 nations, India's rank moved up from 61st position in 2007 to 55th in 2011.
  • As per CRIS, Paraguay, Indonesia and Peru were the countries that posted the maximum increase in their ratings between 2007 and 2011 while Portugal, Ireland and Pakistan witnessed the biggest fall in the index.

INTERNATIONAL

• US nuclear reactor loses power, venting steam.
  • A nuclear reactor at a northern Illinois plant was shut down after losing power, and steam was being vented to reduce pressure
  • The steam contains low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, which the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has declared as an “unusual event”, the lowest of four levels of emergency.
  • A failed piece of equipment at a switchyard caused the shutdown. The switchyard is similar to a large substation that delivers power from the plant to the electrical grid.

• A good article about the US – Russia high octane clash over Syria
  
  
• Japan has put a 40 year cap on the operational life of the reactors

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• A must read article on the Artics and the Antartic and the world politics over them
• R.K Raghavan on the requirement of sanctions for prosecution of authorities
• A nice article on the Kerala's novel way of moving from food security to food justice
• Editorial on the problems faced by the Libyan national Transitional council
• Editorial on the issue of getting sanction for prosecuting public servants.

BUSINESS/ECONOMICS

• Australia invites more indian investments and colloborations
  • Indian corporate sector having committed heavy investments in Australia in the mining, mineral and other sectors, bilateral trade is likely to touch Rs.2-lakh crore (Australian $40 billion) in the next three years from Rs.1.10-lakh crore (Australian $22 billion).
  • “Australia is an important source of India's gold, chickpea, coal, copper ores, lead and wool requirements, as well as a significant source of education and skills based training, and a collaboration partner in research and innovation including in the automotive, manufacturing and agricultural sectors,” .
  • Indian investments in Australia are concentrated around the mining and resources, information technology, infrastructure and the financial services sector.
  • Over the past three years there has also been a growing interest from Indian investors to invest in renewable energy, tourism infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, as well as to carry out cutting edge research and development in Australia.

• CPSU's will invest Rs. 1.40Lakh crore next year – PM
  • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a massive investment of Rs.1.40-lakh crore by 17 blue chip government undertakings in the forthcoming financial year (2012-13) in a bid to cope with the adverse global economic environment.

• Rengarajan for reducing subsidies to a bare minimum.
  • The Centre has hinted at the possibility of reducing the overall level of subsidies in a bid to contain fiscal deficit
  • Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C. Rangarajan stressed on the need to focus on reducing the overall level of subsidies as a proportion to gross domestic product (GDP) through an appropriate road map to reach the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) target of 3 per cent of GDP
  • The targeted fiscal deficit is 4.5% for the present year.

• An article on “How China has unfairly limited raw material exports” according to WTO.