HEADLINES
- Dinesh Trivedi presents his first railway budget; fare hiked for the first time in 8 years; TMC not happy with hike and wants roll back; TMC asks PM to drop Dinesh Trivedi
- DMK and AIADMK put pressure on Govt to support the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lankan atrocities
- West Bengal Government issued a gazette notification here on Wednesday for setting up the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) following the Presidential assent to the GTA Bill
- Kingfisher Airlines to cut overseas flights in a bid to contain further losses
NATIONAL NEWS
- Railway budget 2012-13
- Increasing the fare for the first time in eight years, the Railway budget for 2012-13 also envisages 113 new trains and promises to focus on safety. The increase in fare is seen to bring about Rs.7000 cr during the year;
- The lowest fare of Rs.2 for travel up to 10km in a non-suburban train has been raised to Rs.5. The Railways have planned to increase fares in kilometre terms, starting with 2 paise for the lower classes and increasing it gradually to 30 paise for air-conditioned first class. Most hikes do not go above 30%. Future fares are likely to be fuel-linked;
- The budget promises to increase the strength of the Railway Board by taking in two more members — one for safety and the other for public-private participation and marketing;
- To deal with the issue of safety, a Railway Safety Authority will be set up as a statutory regulatory body. The conditions of track, bridges and signalling and telecommunication systems will also be improved. To avoid accidents at unmanned level crossings, a rail-road grade separation corporation will be put in place. The other safety measures include increasing the number of trains to be escorted by RPF/GRP personnel to 3,500 and integration of the RPF helpline with the All-India Passenger Helpline;
- The budget also proposed to employ at least 1 lakh persons to the Railways during the year. As part of the Railways' green initiative, 2,500 coaches will be equipped with bio-toilets, 200 remote stations will be powered by solar energy, solar-lighting systems will be installed at 1,000 manned level crossing gates, and two bio-diesel plants will be commissioned at Raipur and Tondiarpet.
- Tipu Sultan's treaty, as reported in 1792
- When Tipu Sultan lost the Third Anglo-Mysore War to the allied forces in 1792, the old Mysore region did not have a newspaper to report it. But, thousands of kilometres away, readers of the Philadelphia-based The Mail; or, Claypoole's Daily Advertiser read the details of the war and the treaty that was signed subsequently;
- A copy of the four-page newspaper, having survived for nearly 220 years in different hands, reached a Bangalore-based document collector. The September 8, 1792 edition of The Mail… carries details of the treaty signed between Tipu and allied forces commander Lord Cornwallis. The war came ended on February 6, 1792, and the treaty was signed on February 22, 1792. It was notified in the July 5 issue of London Gazette;
- Following the treaty, Tipu had to cede half of his dominion and pay 3.3 crore sicca rupees in pagodas, or gold mohurs, or its worth in gold or silver bullion. He was forced to hand over two of his sons as hostage till he made the payment.
- Air India seeks $500 million from Boeing
- Air India is negotiating for more compensation from Boeing Co for delayed aircraft delivery, after the aircraft manufacturer agreed to pay the cash-strapped airline more than $500 million. Sources say that Air India is seeking around $1 billion from Boeing;
- Deliveries on the Air India's 2005 order for as many as 50 long-range Boeing jets worth about $6 billion have been delayed by more than three years, disturbing Air India's plans. It expects to take delivery of seven Boeing 787 Dreamliners in the next fiscal year – this delivery has been the most awaited in the industry and has been greatly delayed.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
- China develops cold feet over funding Iran-Pakistan pipeline project
- The state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) seems to have backed out of its offer to provide financial advisory services to the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project that is being stiffly opposed by the U.S. and faces the threat of sanctions owing to the stalemate over Tehran's nuclear programme;
- The ICBC had been leading a consortium which was to sign a contract with the Inter-State Gas Systems in January. Though the other members of the consortium — Habib Bank and Ernst&Young Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder — signed up, ICBC had not signed the contract till date, as a result of which the other two companies had developed cold feet;
- China is also being cautious after its experience in Libya where many Chinese companies suffered huge losses following the unrest in the last year.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica updates its format
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc.(EBI) announced it will stop publishing print editions of its flagship encyclopaedia for the first time in more than 200 years. The focus will now be on the online version. The emergence of Wikipedia has changed the entire market for such products. EBI on its part said that the move was in line with the digitisation of its products;
- The top year for the printed encyclopaedia was 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold, Mr. Cauz said. That number fell to 40,000 just six years later in 1996, he said. The company started exploring digital publishing in the 1970s. The first CD-ROM edition was published in 1989 and a version went online in 1994. From now on all the content will be free on their website.
- Congo warlord convicted in 1st International Criminal Court
- The ICC on Wednesday convicted Congolese militia chief Thomas Lubanga of war crimes for conscripting children into his army, the tribunal's first ever verdict;
- Lubanga (51) was found guilty in The Hague of enlisting child soldiers as young as 11 to fight during a bloody four-year war in a gold-rich region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC);
- Rights groups hailed the verdict, saying it sent a strong message to other warlords still using children — including fugitive Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony.
- Wen warns of 2nd cultural revolution
- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao marked the start of his last year in office by warning that the failure to bring about continued political and economic reforms could result in a second Cultural Revolution in China, in remarks seen as a strong push back against newly ascendant conservative forces within the Communist Party;
- He also accused the exiled Tibetan religious leader, the Dalai Lama, and the “government-in-exile” in Dharamsala, of trying to “separate Tibet and Tibetan inhabitants away from China”, in his first comments on recent protests in the region.
EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS
- Read this article which summarises the discussions at the Global Food Security Forum from Rabat, Morocco
- If you have time, read this article on procedure and guidelines in relation to armed guards on merchant ships
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
- Read this article on the increase in leprosy cases in India
- If you have time, read this article on some new developments in the agriculture sector
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