Tuesday, April 24, 2012

HEADLINES

• Indian children who were taken away by Norwegian authorities have been handed into the custody of their uncle
• Abhishek Singhvi resigns as Congress Spokesperson and Chairperson of Parliament's Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law in light of the CD controversy
• Maoists name negotiators for discussions with the Govt for the release of the collector abducted in Chattisgarh
• China has allowed imports of basmati rice from India. It had banned the import because of issues of pest control
• WB Govt asks Centre to restructure the State's debt which is over 2 lakh crore

NATIONAL NEWS

• Sign return bond and go to US, doctors told
  • Any doctor travelling to the US for higher medical studies from this year onward will have to sign a bond with the Government (Health Ministry announced) promising to return to India after completing his studies. This has been done to prevent doctors from leaving the country on the pretext of higher studies and eventually settling down there;
  • From this year onwards, the United States is insisting on a government NOC from every student enrolling with an American institute.
• Mullaperiyar panel report to be submitted tomorrow
  • The five-member Empowered Committee (EC), headed by former Chief Justice of India A.S. Anand, on Monday finalised the report on the safety of the Mullaperiyar dam. The 250-page final report will be submitted to the Supreme Court on April 25. The committee's term ends on April 30;
  • The committee after examining the reports it had received from various agencies constituted by it on the strengthening measures as well as on the safety and security of the dam, gave finishing touches to the final report which has eight chapters.
• India accounted for 47% of global measles deaths in 2010
  • “Delayed implementation of accelerated disease control in India” has led the country to account for “47 per cent of estimated measles mortality in 2010” stated a paper published today (April 24) in The Lancet . At 36 per cent, even the World Health Organisation (WHO) African region accounted for lesser mortality than India;
  • The high number recorded in India stands out, as the global measles mortality had decreased by 74 per cent in 2010. Except for the Southeast Asia WHO region, all the other WHO regions recorded a reduction in mortality by more than three-quarters during 2000-2010. Even in the case of WHO Southeast Asia region, except for India, the other countries in the region had reported a reduction;
  • Though India achieved 26 per cent reduction in measles mortality between 2000 and 2010, its contribution to the percentage of global measles deaths increased from 16 per cent in 2000 to 26 per cent in 2010;
  • Africa is a study in contrast. The mortality reduction during the same period, 2000-2010, was 85 per cent. The effect of this decline gets reflected in the continent's contribution to the global measles deaths — 63 per cent in 2000 to 36 per cent in 2010.
• Longest countdown to PSLV – C19 launch
  • The countdown for the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C19) commenced at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota, at 6.47 hrs here on Monday. The 71-hour countdown is considered the longest, with enough breaks for the comfort of the scientists;
  • The launch vehicle carries India's first Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-1) weighing 1,858 kg, said to be the country's heaviest satellite till date. The precise launch of PSLV-C19/RISAT-1 mission is now set for 5.47 a.m. on Thursday (April 26).
• Boeing Transonic Wind Tunnel facility in Hyderabad
  • Global aircraft major, Boeing will be setting up a Transonic Wind Tunnel, which is estimated to cost Rs .450 crore, in Hyderabad under the offset clause obligation. As per offset policy of the Defence Ministry, foreign companies entering into a major contract would have to source a minimum of 30 per cent of its value from India;
  • The Transonic Wind Tunnel would be utilised by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for conducting tests relating to missiles and aircraft projects;
  • Right now, DRDO was depending on the only such facility in the country at National Aerospace Limited (NAL). Besides, for hypersonic wind tunnel facility, the tests were being carried out abroad, either in Israel or Russia. As a result, lot of projects were in queue.
• India has overtaken USA to become the leading country which sends out spam emails

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• European Union keen to further strengthen relations with India
  • With a 1.12 billion-plus population and being the largest democracy in the world, India has emerged as an important trade partner for the European Union (EU), which appears keen to further strengthen its partnership with India in a variety of areas, including counter-terrorism and cyber security;
  • Realising that cooperation in a globalised and interconnected world is essential, the EU — after forging strategic relations with India in 2005 and persisting with negotiations since 2007 for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) — has been widening the scope for partnership with India while having consultations on counter-piracy, convoy coordination, support to regional maritime capacity building, joint approaches within the U.N. and exploring exchanges with other regions such as Afghanistan, North Africa and West Asia;
  • Senior officials of the EU and its External Action Service told a group of visiting Indian journalists here last week that the EU had a “rich agenda” with India to which security and counter-piracy had also been added;
  • Officials connected with defence and security said the EU was maintaining contacts with India on counter-terrorism, and EUROPOL engagement was also “operational.” They said recent interactions of EU officials with India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) were “impressive and fruitful.” They were also in touch with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) through channels of Interpol, the international police organisation headquartered in Lyon, France;
  • A decade-old Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) of the EU has identified key threats such as terrorism, proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), regional conflicts, state failure, organised crime, energy security and climate change and, while addressing them, is trying to build security in the neighbourhood and striving for an international order based on effective multilateralism;
  • Two-way trade in goods and services between the EU and India reached €86 billion in 2010. Clearly, the EU is keen to do “more together,” firmly believing that the only direction of its ties with India is “forward.”
• Iceland ex-Premier is convicted but faces no punishment
  • Geir Haarde, the leader of Iceland's government when the nation's banking system collapsed was convicted on Monday of one criminal charge, cleared on four others and faces no punishment, a special court announced;
  • Iceland's banking sector ballooned to nine times the tiny nation's annual gross domestic product in a decade of boom, before collapsing under the weight of debt in October 2008. The country's three main banks collapsed in a single week;
  • Mr.Haarde said that neither he nor regulators knew the actual situation of banks and did not expect the turn of events in 2008.
• Watching Shakespeare in 37 languages
  • In a unique experiment to mark Shakespeare's 448th birth anniversary, the RSC on Monday launched a festival, which will see his 37 plays performed in 37 different languages from Swahili to sign language;
  • People will be treated to Twelfth Night in Hindi, All's Well That Ends Well in Gujarati, King Lear in Belarusian, Hamlet in Lithuanian and Othello re-interpreted through hip-hop;
  • Globe To Globe, which got under way at London's Globe theatre where Shakespeare's work was first staged more than 400 years ago, is part of an ambitious summer-long London-2012 Festival, which ties in with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the Olympic Games. Globe To Globe is part of a bigger World Shakespeare Festival to be held across Britain through the summer with theatre companies from 50 countries, including India, performing Shakespeare's plays in their native languages.

EMINENT PERSONS IN THE NEWS

• Renowned Malayalam movie director and producer Appachan (88) died in a private hospital in Kochi on Monday. Mr. Appachan was born in 1924, in Pulincunoo, a village in Alappuzha, Kerala. He is credited with producing the first 3-D film in the country, ‘ My dear Kuttichattan ', in 1984. It was dubbed in several languages. In Hindi, it was released as ‘ Chota Chetan '. He was also the founder of Navodaya Studio and Kishkinta, the amusement park near Tambaram in Chennai;
• Mr. Appachan also introduced several stars, notable among them, Mohanlal, who later went on to become a Malayalam superstar. Early this year, the Kerala government honoured him with the JC Daniel award for his outstanding contribution to Malayalam cinema. Navodaya introduced digital film editing in 1989. It also made the first television serial of the south, “Bible ki kahaniyan” a Hindi serial on Dooradarshan during 1990-91.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this editorial on TB
• Read this article on the role of India and US at the global level
• Read this article which contrasts the growth of BRICS and other similar summits / groupings
• If you have time, read this article on microfinance

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• Industry cries foul over TRAI's 2G auction recommendation
  • Telecom regulator TRAI on Monday released its recommendations on auction of spectrum brought back to the government pool through the cancellation of 122 licences by the Supreme Court in its February 2, 2012 judgment;
  • Within hours of its release, the recommendations were unanimously labelled “arbitrary, regressive and inconsistent” by the entire telecom industry for calling for a reserve price of Rs. 14,422 crore/per MHz for the 700 MHz band, Rs. 7,244 crore/MHz for the 800/900 MHz band and Rs. 3,622 crore for the 1800 MHz band. This translates into a reserve price of over Rs. 18,100 crore for a block of 5 Mhz in 1800 Mhz band;
  • The TRAI has also unsettled the public sector firms by recommending immediate withdrawal of excess spectrum of 2x2.4 MHz from MTNL. It has further quoted its earlier recommendations of May 2010, which says excess spectrum from both BSNL and MTNL should be withdrawn;
  • With the industry jointly up in arms, the government will be forced to re-examine the issue which requires a mandatory reference back to the TRAI. This could push the entire schedule ahead by months as the TRAI chairman is set to demit office, which means the entire issue will have to be addressed afresh by the new TRAI chairman.
• Telecom giant Vodafone, on Monday, said it had reached an agreement to buy British firm Cable and Wireless Worldwide (CWW) for about 1.04 billion pound (about $1.67 billion or Rs.8,800 crore). Tata Communications was also in fray to acquire the British firm, but had pulled out of the race after failing to reach an agreement on the offer price.