Thursday, April 19th, 2012

HEADLINES

• It is time to resolve siachen says kayani
• Agni V launch rescheduled due to lighting and thunderstorm
• Haryana government has banned the use of the expression handicapped saying it violates and undermines the dignity of the person with disability

NATIONAL NEWS

• It is time to resolve siachen says Kayani
  • Calling for demilitarisation of the Siachen glacier for the development of Pakistan and environmental reasons, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Wednesday advocated peaceful coexistence with India
    
    
• Centre may allow greater sugar exports
  • Even as the government is yet to notify export of one million tonnes of sugar, for which the decision has already been taken, Union Minister of State for Food K.V. Thomas said that permission might be given for more exports.
  • The production estimates had been revised upwards to 25.5 million tonnes from the earlier 24.67 million tonnes this year, against an estimated domestic demand of 22 million tonnes.
    
    
• AP gets the country's highest plan outlay
  • The plan outlay for Andhra Pradesh for 2012-13 has been fixed at Rs.48,935 crore, which is 13.8 per cent higher than that given for 2011-12 (around Rs.43,000 crore). This is the highest outlay for any State in the country
  • The Planning Commission had been asked to help the government to get Central funds for organising the forthcoming bio-diversity convention which needed Rs.1,000 crore for infrastructure development. Being the biggest programme to be organised in India with the participation of 8,000 delegates from 144 countries, the money that might be given to A.P., a la Delhi for Commonwealth Games, could be used for beautification of Hyderabad and improving security infrastructure.
    
    
• Supreme court uphelds election commission criteria for recognition of political parties
  • The Supreme Court upheld the Election Commission rule mandating a State political party to garner at least six per cent of votes in an Assembly election and win at least two seats for getting recognition
    
    
• Thousands of Oliver Ridley's born, but not all are lucky in sea ward march
  • At daybreak, thousands of olive ridley hatchlings emerged from sand pits on an islet located at the Rushikulya river mouth and one after another crawled into the Bay of Bengal.
  • However, with few volunteers and Forest Department employees at work, the tiny turtles struggled to get into the water and, when the sun became harsh, were left high and dry on the sand. As a result, hundreds of hatchlings were grabbed by crows and kites which had been hovering around.
  • Many other hatchlings were found dead on the islet and nearby beaches, having got entangled in rejected fishing nets.

• Kalmadi, Bhanot allowed to travel to kazakhstan to attend the 73^rd meeting of the Asian Athletics Association council

• Sharukh khan and Vidhya Balan to be the brand ambassadors to fight open defecation, propogate sanitation and appeal to people to get clean. This is an initiative of the ministry of drinking water and sanitation

INTERNATIONAL

• Breivik quizzed on extremist contacts
  • The extreme-Right terrorist, Anders Behring Breivik appeared reluctant to discuss his contacts with other “militant nationalists” he said he had met in London and which led to the creation of the “Knights Templar”, a nebulous organisation to which he has said he belongs.

• Suu Kyi to collect her 1991 Nobel in Norway
  • After years of house arrest, Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi plans to make a trip to Oslo in June to accept in person the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize she won for her peaceful struggle.
  • Ms. Suu Kyi was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize “for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights”, according to the citation
  • Her now-deceased husband, Michael Aris, and her two sons accepted the Nobel medal, diploma and prize money on her behalf at the official ceremony held at Oslo City Hall in 1991.
  • Norway announced that it had lifted economic sanctions against Myanmar following the recent reforms. A weapons embargo remains in place.

• The fish that nearly sank Newton
  • A 300-year-old drawing of a flying fish that nearly scuttled Isaac Newton's world-changing opus on modern physics will be showcased in the Royal Society's online picture library
  • The engraving was first published in 1686 in a lavishly-illustrated book A History of Fishes by John Ray and Francis Willughby
  • Newton's work,Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica(Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) sets down the principles of the laws of motion and gravity.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• Editorial on the rapid decline of the female children

ECONOMICS

• RIL moves supreme court seeking arbitration on KG basin
  • Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), on Wednesday, approached the Supreme Court, seeking appointment of an arbitrator on behalf of the government to decide its dispute over recovery of cost in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin.
  • The petition, filed through advocate Sameer Parekh, said that as per the contract, the government could not reduce the recovery amount.
  • The Petroleum Ministry had proposed to restrict the cost of around Rs.6,343 crore, which the company had sought to recover for developing the KG D6 field.

• India needs to accelarate reform to achieve higher growth :IMF
  • The International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Wednesday, said India would need to accelerate economic reforms to achieve its ‘potential' growth rate even as it expressed concern over high inflation.
  • “A major challenge will be to bring growth back to potential and ensure its inclusiveness, while further lowering inflation... This will require a reinvigoration of structural reforms and fiscal consolidation,” the IMF said after its annual discussion with the Indian government, termed as Article IV Consultation
  • Indian economy was growing at over 9 per cent before the global financial crisis in 2008, pulled it down to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09. The growth rate in 2011-12 touched a 3-year low of 6.9 per cent on account of factors such as high commodity prices, slowdown in domestic demand and RBI's tight money policy.
  • The IMF also called for rationalisation of fuel and fertilizer subsidy and encouraging tax reform, especially the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is hanging fire.
  • The Indian government has not been able to push through long pending reforms in insurance, pension, banking and the retail sector because of political reasons.