Friday, March 30, 2012

HEADLINES

• BRICS one day summit in Delhi ends; members – hint at backing an alternative candidate for the head post in the world bank; discussions of establishment of a bank for development activities in their territories; and a call to western nations to commence talks with Iran and end the standoff

NATIONAL NEWS

• Water Ministry mulls review of court order on linking of rivers
  • Grappling with the Supreme Court order to set up a special committee for implementation of the rivers inter-linking project, the Water Resources Ministry is consulting the Law Ministry on seeking a review of the order, particularly the committee set up by the court;
  • The Court had said that the committee should have on board secretaries of each of the ministries concerned, four experts to be nominated by each Ministry, one from the Planning Commission, Irrigation Ministers of each of the concurring States, the Chief Secretary or nominee of each of the State involved directly or indirectly, two social activists to be nominated by each of the ministries concerned and an amicus curiae. This would end up with a committee as large as 70-80 members;
  • The Ministry is particularly concerned about the two social activitists being on the committee. However, this stand of the ministry is contrary to the proposal in the new National Water Policy about “people's participation,” to limit displacement and to go in for rehabilitation and resettlement of project-affected families;
  • The rivers inter-linking programme that envisages 16 links in the Peninsular component and 14 in the Himalayan component is embroiled in controversies with several riparian States objecting to the project and civil society groups warning against large-scale uprooting of people and destruction of flora, fauna and biodiversity.
• $200 million green loan to Himachal Pradesh
  • Himachal Chief Minister ddisclosed that the World Bank has agreed to provide a $200 million loan to the State in order to enable it become the country's first ‘carbon-neutral State' by 2020;
  • The project aims at sustainable management of natural resources and heritage, with focus on forests, wildlife, wetlands, livestock, mining, fisheries, waste disposal, and architecture and cultural heritage. Himachal had signed a pact with the World Bank last year for harnessing carbon credits to generate carbon revenue amounting to Rs. 20crore for 20 years under the “Bio Carbon Projects” in 10 districts of the State;
  • The Rs. 365-crore Himachal Pradesh Mid-Himalayan Watershed Project, co-funded by the World Bank, is the first Indian project registered for carbon credits.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Undettered Pakistan knocks on Russia's door to finance Iran-Pakistan pipeline
  • Undeterred by the U.S. threat of sanctions on the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, Pakistan has decided to explore the Russian option to render financial services to the project after the Chinese state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) backed out;
  • Local media reports suggest that Russia has offered to fully finance the project, estimated to cost $1.5 billion, if Pakistan awards it to Russian Company, Gazprom without bidding;
  • Russia has also evinced interest in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and CASA-1000, the Central Asia-South Asia electricity bridge.
• Srilankan minister suggests joint patroling between India and Sri Lanka to prevent clashes between fishermen of both countries

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article about the selection of a new president for the World Bank and the role that India can play
• Read this editorial about the coup in Mali
• If you have time, read this article about the guidelines which may be issued soon by the Supreme Court to regulate the media