Saturday, March 24, 2012

HEADLINES

• PM reaches out to opposition; promises amended Lokpal Bill soon; Anna Hazare demands withdrawal of the current Lokpal Bill
• India agrees to Pakistan’s request to supply petroleum to Pakistan
• Petroleum and natural gas minister rules out decontrol of diesel prices anytime soon
• Kanimozhi challenges the framing of charges against her in the 2G case before the Delhi HC
• Students at the Lanzhou University, China, will stage the first-ever Chinese language production of Tagore's playChitrangada (Tagore visited Shanghai, China in 1924)

NATIONAL NEWS

• Green signal for credit guarantee fund for urban poor housing
  • The Union Cabinet cleared the setting up of a credit risk guarantee fund trust with an initial corpus of Rs.1,200 crore to help give a push to housing for low-income groups in the country. The Initial corpus would be made up of a contribution of Rs. 1,000 crore from the Central govt and the balance of Rs.200 crore from State govts. The fund is part of the Rajiv Awas Yojana scheme for providing housing for the urban poor;
  • The trust will be set up under the Indian Trust Act and the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation will be its settler. It would be managed and administered by a Board of Trustees with cross-sectoral composition; and serviced by the National Housing Bank;
  • The key principle of the scheme is that the lender shall secure loans to construct and upgrade low-income housing purely on the assets financed, without any other collateral. The trust will guarantee the housing loans made by the lending institutions to new or existing individual EWS (economically weaker section)/LIG (low income group) borrowers and eligible borrowers forming a group or housing society of at least 20 members;
  • These loans can be available for a wide range of purposes — home improvement, construction, acquisition, and purchase of new or second-hand dwelling units of size up to 430 sq ft carpet area and involving an amount not exceeding Rs. 5 lakh;
  • The guarantee cover available under the scheme would be to an extent of 90 per cent of the amount in default, subject to a ceiling of 90 per cent of the sanctioned housing loans up to Rs. 2 lakh and 85 per cent of the amount in default, with a ceiling of 85 per cent for sanctioned housing loans between Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh.
• Indian Neutrino observatory work to begin in April
  • Preliminary work on the India-based Neutrino Observatory in Theni district, is set to start in April. The country's first underground experimental laboratory spread over 26 hectares, which will detect and study neutrinos, the smallest particles known to humans, will come up at Pottipuram village in Bodi West Hills. The huge project is being undertaken jointly by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology with the participation of 25 leading research institutions in the country.
• Amended Marriage laws Bill cleared by Cabinet
  • Making marriage laws more women-friendly, the Cabinet on Friday approved the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 seeking to give a woman a share in her husband's property after divorce. The quantum of share, however, will be decided by the courts on a case-to-case basis;
  • The Bill also provides that while a wife can oppose a husband's plea for divorce under the new “irretrievable breakdown of marriage” clause, the husband will have no such rights to oppose if the wife moves the court on the same grounds. The bill will leave the waiting period between the marriage and the filing of divorce to be decided by the Courts;
  • Apart from giving women the right to their husband's property, the bill, also aims at giving rights to adopted children on a par with biological off-springs in case the parents go for a divorce. The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha two years ago and then referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice and Personnel.
• New International Air routes
  • In a bid to provide some relief to the overly stressed airlines sector, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry has decided to open 11 new international sectors under Bilateral Air Services Agreements to Air India as well as other Indian scheduled carriers. The new sectors include Mumbai-Dar-es-Salaam, Delhi-Guangzhou, Delhi-Yangon, Delhi-Tashkent, Delhi-Ho-Chi-Minh City, Delhi-Hanoi, Delhi-Almaty Delhi-Macao, Delhi-Addis Ababa, Delhi-Melbourne and Delhi-Sydney.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• After the UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka, the US has called for the speedy implementation of the lessons learned committee report
• Protests in Colombo after the US-led resolution against Sri Lanka is passed. Calls for boycott of American goods

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Today, March 24, is TB day. Read this article which discusses the status of TB prevention and care in India
• Read this article which discusses why India should consider restarting a non-alignment approach in its foreign policy
• Read this editorial on the mistakes made in the experiment which concluded that neutrinos travel after than the speed of light
• Read this editorial on the recent proposal from the budget which seeks to incentivise persons with tax benefits so that they invest in the equity markets