Friday, 9th March 2012

HEADLINES

• Mining mafia mows down young IPS officer Narendra Kumar in Morena district Madhya pradesh
• Dravid likely to call it a day
• Medicos in Kerala boycott work against the compulsory one year rural posting after each medical course of MBBS, PG and super speciality
• Massive solar storm(Largest in 5 years) hits the earth; Charged particles from the storm could disrupt power grid, satellite navigation and flights
• HPCL resume fuel supply to Kingfisher

NATIONAL NEWS

• Vaidhyanathan to head commission of inquiry to probe the violence that exploded in the Bangalore city court complex between the lawyers and the media
  
  
• Scientists in the Kerala university has developed a type of seedless watermelon
  
  
• Investigation in to the mid sea collision ends
  • The three-day probe into m.v. Prabhu Daya, which was suspected to be involved in a mid-sea collision with a fishing trawler off the Kerala coast on March 1, came to an end
  • According to the investigators, the probe team has collated information from the Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) and other electronic devices.
    
    
• Across the board frieght hike will fetch Railways Rs.20,000/- crore
  • The Railways intend raking in about Rs. 20,000 crore during 2012-13 from the across-the-board freight hike it effected, to ensure a 30 per cent growth in earnings under this head.
  • The abrupt increase was made, also in a desperate bid to balance the budget for the current financial year what with revenues not matching the targets
    
    
• DoT clears distribution of 50 Lakh tablet PCs in schools and colleges
  • In a move that will give a big push to broadband penetration in the country, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has cleared an ambitious plan to distribute 50-lakh tablet PCs (personal computers) to students in the next financial year (2012-13)
  • The DoT has declared that the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), the research and design wing of the Department of Information Technology, will be the nodal agency for successfully implementing the Aakash-2 project.It will be assisted by the Indian Institute of Technology-Mumbai.
  • The DoT has decided to rope in two PSUs — Bharat Electronics Ltd and ITI Ltd — for manufacturing and procuring the tablet PCs that will be priced between $55 and $70 (around Rs.2,750 and Rs.3,500).

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• An article on urban development
• Editorial on increased funding for health
• Editorial on the conditions prevailing in Iran

ECONOMICS

• TRAI issues consultation paper on Spectrum auction
  • Inching closer towards auction of spectrum, sector regulator TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has issued a consultation paper on auction of spectrum to seek views of various stakeholders and then give its recommendations to the Department of Telecom.
  • The key issues raised in this paper are: amount of spectrum to be auctioned, liberalisation and reframing of spectrum in 800/900 MHz bands, structure of auction, spectrum block size, eligibility criteria for participating in the auction, reserve price, roll out obligations, spectrum usage charges and trading.
  • The consultation paper shows 60 MHz and 413.6 MHz of spectrum will be vacated in 800 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum bands, respectively, from the cancellation of 122 2G licences by the Supreme Court.

SPORTS

• Three time grandslam champion, Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten has been included in the Tennis hall of fame.