Sunday, April 22, 2012

HEADLINES

• Maoists abduct a district collector in Chhattisgarh
• Opinion polls show that Hollande has a slight advantage over Sarkozy in the upcoming French presidential elections

NATIONAL NEWS

• Tea to be declared national drink
  • Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Saturday that tea would be declared the national drink by next year. It would be accorded the national drink status by April 17 next year to coincide with the 212th birth anniversary of the first Assamese tea planter and Sepoy Mutiny leader Maniram Dewan;
  • The other important reason is that half of the labour in the tea industry comprises women and it is the largest employer in the organised sector. India is the largest producer and consumer of black tea in the world;
  • According to ORG-India Tea Consumption Study, 83 per cent households in India consume tea and it is the cheapest beverage in the world after water.
• IMO yet to get India's response on rights of armed guards on ships
  • Even as the authorities continue to grapple with the case of killing of two fishermen, allegedly by armed guards aboard Italy-flagged tanker Enrica Lexie off the coast of Kerala, India appears to be dragging its feet on the position it should take on the rights of armed guards of merchant ships;
  • The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) elicited the views of 170 member-countries through a three-page questionnaire sent six months ago on certain issues that should be addressed in regard to the use of Privately Contracted Armed Security Personnel (PCASP) on board ships in the high-risk areas for protection against piracy;
  • The questionnaire deals with a range of issues, including the kind of information member-countries want, and by when, about ships intending to enter or depart from its ports, anchorages of off-shore terminals; similar activity for the purpose of embarking or disembarking firearms and/or security-related equipment; and reporting of security-related incidents in territorial seas. The deadline for submission was November last year.
• Jairam Ramesh says 'no' to foodgrain as part payment
  • Opposing the Union Finance and Food & Civil Supply Ministries' proposal for providing foodgrains as part payment of wages under the MGNREGA, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh holds that the best way to solve the problem of surplus foodgrains is to roll out the food security law and take care of the needy;
  • Acknowledging receipt of a letter from Food & Civil Supplies Minister K. V.Thomas, Mr. Ramesh told The Hindu that he would respond and convey his opposition to the proposal to ease the surplus foodgrain stock and lack of storage space through part wage payment in kind to MGNREGS workers;
  • Mr. Thomas in his letter pointed to the accumulating foodgrain stocks due to high production and increased procurement and suggested distributing surplus rice or wheat to workers under MGNREGS as part of their wages. Pointing out that foodgrains as part wages were provided for under programmes like Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana and the National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP), Mr. Thomas argued that a similar arrangement under MGNREGS would provide additional food security to the most vulnerable population;
  • Mr. Ramesh was apprehensive that such an arrangement would leave scope for corruption and defeat government efforts to ensure full payment of wages to workers through bank accounts. There were chances of less foodgrains being paid to the workers once again which would mean denying full wages to the already disadvantaged people. Also middlemen would again emerge in such a situation which is what is being prevented through cash transfers.
• INS Vikramaditya to join Indian Navy by December
  • The Indian Navy will take charge of the much-awaited aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov), by December 4 this year, but it will be early 2013 by the time the warship reaches home;
  • The induction of the Kiev-class aircraft carrier will allow the Navy to have two such platforms for a while; a third indigenous aircraft carrier is under construction at the Kochi shipyard. At the moment INS Viraat is the only Aircraft carrier and it may be decommissioned once INS Vikramaditya is inducted;
  • While there are concerns over the price and the age of the carrier being procured, the final price tag agreed is $2.34 billion.
• Pranab presses for IMF reforms, clarifies on tax controversy
  • Making his presence felt during a round of rapid-fire meetings at Washington with the G-20, G-24 and Bretton Woods institutions, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee kept up the pressure on what he described as the “disappointing” pace of reform on quota and governance issues at the International Monetary Fund and also went to lengths to clarify India's position on certain tax amendments in the 2012-13 budget;
  • Seeking to pin them down to the time line for the next steps in the quota and governance reform, Mr. Mukherjee said at the G-20 that India would continue to contribute towards a comprehensive review of the IMF quota formula by January 2013 and the completion of the next general review of quotas by January 2014;
  • On the tax measures introduced in India's latest budget, the Finance Minister admitted that he was aware of a “sense of despondency among U.S. businessmen,” alluding specifically to “their misapprehensions about certain legislative amendments that we have proposed.”
• TB claims 1000 lives a day in India
  • India stands at the top of the list of countries considered ‘highly-burdened' by TB, with an estimated 2.3 million affected people contributing to 21 per cent of the world's affected population and China second in the list with about 15 per cent of those suffering from it.
• Civil socierty activists seek new communal violence bill
  • Seven months after the National Integration Council (NIC) meeting in September “discussed and dumped” the National Advisory Council (NAC)-drafted ‘Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparation) Bill, civil society activists from across the country representing more than 50 organisations came together to pronounce the Bill as “dead”;
  • They also demanded that the Union government come up with a new draft of the Bill focused on “making public servants accountable and criminally liable for the acts of omission or commission in relation to their duties” during any communal and targeted violence.
• GIS-based system to assess disaster damage
  • The Union Territory of Puducherry is the first in the country to incorporate a GIS-based Decision Support System to help simulate the damage that could occur during a natural disaster;
  • The online decision making system also has the capability to estimate the quantum of damage that a natural disaster would produce;
  • The idea was to bring in a bottom-to-top approach. Each ward and village has a base plan and training on disaster risk management group. The main aim is to concentrate on disaster mitigation and preparedness, he said. Committees have been set up at village and block levels and each village and block would have a search and rescue team along with other emergency units.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Japan foregoes Myanmar's $3.7 billion debt
  • Japan said on Saturday it will forgive about 300 billion yen ($3.7 billion) of Myanmar's debt and resume development aid as a way to support the country's democratic and economic reforms;
  • The government made the announcement after a meeting between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Myanmar President Thein Sein following a summit with leaders from the five nations of the Mekong River region;
  • The Japanese government said in a statement that it will cancel 127.4 billion yen in loans due after April 2003. It will also forgive 176.1 billion yen in overdue charges accumulated over the past two decades after one year's time as the two countries jointly monitor reforms. Japan does not have sanctions on Myanmar.
• 300 UN observers for Syria
  • The Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Saturday expanding the number of U.N. ceasefire observers in Syria from 30 to 300 and demanding an immediate halt to the violence that has been escalating since the government and opposition agreed to end hostilities over a week ago;
  • The resolution gives Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon authority to decide when to deploy the additional observers, based on developments on the ground including “the consolidation of the ceasefire”;
  • The resolution establishes a United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria, to be known as UNSMIS, “comprising an initial deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers as well as an appropriate civilian component” for an initial period of 90 days;
  • Syria has welcomed the United Nations Security Council's latest resolution and said the world body's observers have been able to access all the trouble spots that they wished to visit;
  • India discerned an improvement in the situation in Syria and in its explanation of vote noted to all parties to walk back from violence so that an impartial supervision and monitoring of the ceasefire can contribute to observing and upholding the commitment of the parties.