Wednesday, 28th march, 2012

HEADLINES

• Anit nuke protestors call off indefinite fast
• Bribe conversation tape with CBI now as investigation begins
• PM, Gilani meet, seek result oriented talks, as they meet on the side lines of the Nuclear security summit
• Lok Shabha condemns team Anna for lowering the dignity of the Parliament

NATIONAL NEWS

• Australia keen to help on vocational training front
  • Apart from helping Tamil Nadu realise its Vision 2023, the Australian government is willing to provide its expertise in building low-cost houses and on vocational training education.
  • Australia would launching the ‘Ozz Fest', a four-month cultural festival, in six to eight cities in October.
    
    
• One more national award for NLC
  • Neyveli Lignite Corporation has bagged the National Environment Management Award (Silver shield) for its Thermal Power Station-I Expansion for the year 2010-2011.
  • It noted that the 420-MW capacity TPS-I Expansion plant is a pride and model plant of the NLC and is also known for its environment friendly working atmosphere
    
    
• Dog named Beyonce could be the world's smallest dog
  • An abandoned dog named Beyonce, a female dachhund who could fit comfortably inside a tablespoon after being born, could be the world's tiniest puppy.
    
    
• AI to directly import aviation turbine fuel
  • Ailing national carrier Air India has decided to go in for direct import of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) in a bid to curb the escalating cost.
  • The AI board, which approved the direct import on Tuesday, also gave a go-ahead to the state-owned carrier to soon appoint a service provider who would source the supply as well as provide the necessary infrastructure for storage and distribution of the same for in-plane fuelling.
  • The government would provide support in respect of the non-convertible debentures of Rs. 7,400 crore.
  • AI is expecting an equity infusion shortly in the financial year 2012-13, which would not only improve its operating and financial parameters but would also give considerable comfort to the institutional lenders in the form of better net worth.
  • As part of the risk management strategy, the board approved the hedging of fuel up to 20 per cent of the total international uplifts and allotted a specific amount in its budget.

• India will achieve sanitation goals only by 2054
  • Going by the present pace of progress, India will achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) on sanitation only by 2054. While some States had already achieved the target and some are close to it, other populous States such as Madhya Pradesh and Orissa will reach the target only in the next century, according to WHO and UNICEF's Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMPWSS)
  • Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh are some States that will meet the MDG target in the coming 25 years, while Madhya Pradesh is expected to achieve the goal in 2105 and Orissa in 2160 unless special strategies are adopted to speed up the progress, the report has said
  • The world has pledged to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015 from 1990 figures.
  • India has seen an improvement in the sanitation figures from 1990, when 75 per cent people defecated in the open as against 51 per cent in 2010.
  • But this improvement is seen only in the urban settings, where 28 per cent had no access to toilets in 1990 as against 14 per cent in 2010. In the rural areas, 91 per cent had no access to sanitation in 1990 as against 67 per cent in 2010, indicating that it was the rich who had more access to sanitation.
  • In India, 251 million people gained access to sanitation between 1990 and 2010 but the percentage continues to be low because of the annual increase in the population.
    
    
• India contests WHO figures for multi drug resistant TB
  • The government contested the WHO figures that put the number of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cases in India at 63,000, saying there were only 10,267. As many as 38,287 suspected cases were examined till the end of 2011 and of them, 10,267 have been diagnosed with MDR-TB and 6,994 put on treatment, according to TB India-2012 — the annual status report of the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNCTP) brought out by the Health Ministry.MDR-TB prevalence.
  • The World Health Organisation, in its report released on the eve of World TB Day, said India had an estimated 63,000 cases of notified MDR-TB in 2010, the highest in South East Asia.
  • It also put the MDR-TB prevalence estimates at 2.3 per cent among new cases and 12-17 per cent among re-treatment cases. However, due to the size of the population and the number of TB cases reported annually, India ranks second among the 27 MDR-TB high-burden countries worldwide after China.

INTERNATIONAL

• Assad accept Kofi Annan's peace plan
  • The Arab League is set to recant its advocacy of regime change in Syria and support the diplomatic initiative of United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan during its summit hosted by Iraq.

• Seoul summit pleges to make the world safer
  • World leaders called on Tuesday for strong steps to combat nuclear terrorism, wrapping up a 53-nation summit overshadowed by North Korea's planned rocket launch.
  • The leaders from 53 nations called in a communique for steps to minimise civilian use of highly enriched uranium (HEU), which can be used to make bombs.
  • They also called for safeguarding world stockpiles of HEU and plutonium, and tightening security of radioactive material that could be used to create a “dirty” bomb.

• Amnesty report records executions world wide
  • In its report Death Sentences and Execution 2011, Amnesty says at least 20 countries are known to have carried out executions. Even the world's newest country, South Sudan, is on the list.
  • While this is a reduction from 2010, when 23 countries were reported to have implemented death sentences, and from a decade ago when 31 countries were known to have carried out executions, there has been an increase in the number of executions.
  • Regarding India, the report notes that for the seventh consecutive year the country did not carry out any execution, though at least 110 new death sentences were imposed in 2011, putting the total number of people believed to be under sentence of death at the end of 2011 between 400 and 500.
  • While India carries out death sentences in the “rarest of rare” cases, the report suggests that Indian laws are being tightened so that more crimes are becoming punishable by death.
  • “In December 2011, the Indian Parliament approved legislation making acts of terrorism aimed at sabotaging oil and gas pipelines punishable by death, in cases where the act of sabotage is likely to cause death of any other person. During the same month in the western state of Gujarat a law making the production and sale of toxic alcohol punishable by death came into force,” said the Amnesty report.
  • Absence of reporting from China has made Amnesty report it as “Thousands” while Iran with 360+ executions lead the pack otherwise.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• An article on the BRICS
• A nice article on the Indo – Pak trade relations
• Editorial on international criminal court