Tuesday, March 6, 2012

HEADLINES

• UP braces itself for election results
• Italian marines responsible for shooting Indian fishermen are moved to Trivandrum central prison
• The Supreme Court will soon get one more judge from Tamilnadu — Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court F. M. Ibrahim Kalifulla — with the collegium of judges clearing his name for elevation
• Pakistan on Monday test-fired Hatf-II surface-to-surface ballistic missile, which can carry nuclear warheads. The Hatf—II or Abdali has a range of 180 km
• Thousands of Tamils from across Europe protested in front of the U.N. headquarters in Geneva on Monday, demanding the creation of an international tribunal to try “war crimes” committed in Sri Lanka

NATIONAL NEWS

• Differently abled people seen as threat by aviation security
  • The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) regulations say that there is high probability of differently-abled people carrying weapons, explosives and other dangerous materials with them, and therefore, there is ample reason to be more alert and wary;
  • the regulations say that screeners should be thoroughly briefed that the possibility of carrying weapons/explosives and other dangerous materials through disabled passengers is higher than a normal passenger, and therefore checked with care;
  • The Disabled Rights Group (DRG) has described the regulations as “disability insensitive and outright insult and violation of the human rights of persons with disability.”
• Delay in 2G licence cancellation leads to diplomatic spats
  • India today is facing diplomatic pressure from Norway, Russia and the United Arab Emirates (Dubai) — all of whom have invoked bilateral treaties to stave off the cancellation of telecom licences for Telenor, Sistema and Etisalat respectively;
  • The Department of Telecom's (DoT) failure to act on fraudulent applications and licence violations by these firms even 14 months after these were highlighted by the CAG and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is largely to blame for the current situation;
  • This is because the failure to meet rollout obligations was that of the joint-venture company which held the licence, and occurred after the foreign investor had come in as a partner. Any licences cancelled on account of licence violation do not allow recourse of the kind that the governments and foreign partners are demanding on the plea that they are innocent victims of an illegal act by a Cabinet Minister of the Indian government;
  • Under the terms of the licence, these companies were required to cover at least 10 per cent of district headquarters in non-metro service areas, and full coverage in metro areas within one year of the date of allocation of start-up spectrum. These companies fell short of the roll out oblications in most of the regions, but the DoT refused to take action.
• With introduction of alien seeds, Antarctica no longer pristine environment
  • Antarctica is no longer the “most pristine environment on earth.” Visitors are introducing invasive plant species alien to Antarctica at a much higher level, says a study;
  • Of all the regions in Antarctica, it is in the Antarctic Peninsula, the Ross Sea region and several landing places in East Antarctica where alien plant seed introduction has been the highest. Introduction of species not normally found in a region is one of the “primary causes of biodiversity change globally,” says the study;
  • The seeds were introduced by visitors — scientists and tourists. Though nearly 33,000 tourists visited the ice continent every year as against 7,000 scientists.
• India urges Sri Lanka to allocate oil exploration blocks
  • India is persuading Sri Lanka to allocate oil exploration blocks in the waters that separate them as it considers the location too strategically important to allow companies from other nations to base themselves in this area;
  • Diplomatic sources said the two countries were trying to set up a meeting between the Petroleum Ministers this month to discuss the issue afresh, now that Cairns India has struck oil in one of the blocks. If the talks make progress, the two Ministers could meet again in October;
  • India plans to step up its efforts in view of the international interest in the area after the war ended. Russian, Vietnamese and Malaysian companies have held meetings on the subject with senior Sri Lankan officials while China has also expressed its desire to get involved. India would be particularly concerned by Chinese involvement in the region.
• Renovation of sites associated with Tagore assessed
  • The Central team which had travelled to Shillong to assess the progress on renovation of sites there associated with Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore as part of the celebrations of his 150th birth anniversary have taken stock of the work done so far;
  • The poet had a close association with Shillong. His novel Shesher Kabita (The Last Poem) is set in Shillong. He also wrote his play Raktakarabi (Red Oleanders) during a visit to the hill town. The Central Govt is taking many initiatives to preserve Tagore's legacy.
• PM for greater cooperation between Asia and Africa on climate
  • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday appealed to Afro-Asian countries to work together for best outcomes at the climate change negotiations and the coming Rio+20 conference;
  • Dr. Singh appealed to the member-countries to work together to build a favourable international regime to access funds and green technologies for rural growth. “I believe that in future, we need to tackle the short-term and long-term environmental challenges that our economies face”;
  • In pursuing the common goal, the member-countries would have to draw upon their knowledge, tradition and wisdom, while scientists and experts would have to reflect on technologies and processes that were most suitable for the rural conditions.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Russia, China step up diplomatic role in Syria
  • Russia and China have stepped up their diplomatic intervention to find a home-grown non-prescriptive solution to the crisis in Syria — contrary to the call by the Arab League and the western powers for the Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to step down;
  • Few days ago, the Chinese unveiled a detailed 6-point plan that could lead to the easing of tensions in Syria, and facilitate the search for an internationally backed, internal solution to end conflict in Syria. Russia is also actively involved in bring the Syrian Govt for dialogue with the Arab League. UN has reported a large influx of refugees from Syria into Lebanon.
• Clear victory says Putin, amidst doubts
  • Russian PM Vladimir Putin has trumped his four rivals to win presidential elections on Sunday but his victory was tainted by opposition complaints of numerous violations;
  • With almost 100 per cent of the votes counted, Mr. Putin received 63.6 per cent, with the next runner-up, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, trailing with less than 18 per cent. More than 65 per cent of 108 registered voters took part in the election. Mr. Putin scored almost 100 per cent of votes in economically most depressive regions, such as Chechnya and Dagestan, which depend on federal subsidies for their survival;
  • Moscow, the epicentre of recent anti-Putin rallies triggered by evidence of fraud in the December parliamentary poll, was the only one of the 83 regions where Mr. Putin failed to won half of all votes.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this editorial on the agreement between India and China to cooperate on maritime matters
• Read this article on the issue of malnutrition in India
• Read this article on the final leg in establishing the democratic process in Nepal
• If you have time, then read this article on the Vedanta advertisement which has been flashing on televisions across the country

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• USD 2 billion infrastructure fund finalised
  • Four private and public financial institutions — ICICI Bank, Citi Financial, Bank of Baroda and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) — on Monday joined hands to set up India's first $2 billion (about Rs.10,000 crore) Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) to meet the financing needs of infrastructure projects in the country. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up the IDF was inked here in the presence of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee by the top executives of the four lending agencies.
• The Directorate General of Foreign Trade has banned cotton exports in light of increased domestic usage
• EGoM to free 700 Mhz spectrum for 4G
  • An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), on Monday, decided to allocate 700 MHz spectrum for offering fourth-generation or 4G telecom services. “There were about four issues which came up for resolution before the empowered committee and three of them have been resolved fully. Basically, the issues relating to the 700 MHz band have been resolved,” Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters;
  • This particular band (700 MHz) is considered to be very efficient and could fetch the government revenues more than it got through auctioning of 3G spectrum last year;
  • In other major issue, on the vacation of 1700 MHz to 2,000 MHz spectrum band between Defence and Telecom Ministry, Mr. Sibal said that most of the matters related to it had been resolved and expressed the hope that it would be completely resolved in the next meeting of EGoM scheduled for the coming week. “Then there were some issues relating to 1,700 MHz to 2,000 MHz band. We have had a full discussion and hopefully it will be resolved next week,” he said.