Wednesday, 4th April, 2012

HEADLINES

• US Bounty on Lakshar Chief Hafiz saeed draws Indian praise
• Top Myanmar official hails election verdict; Says it is time for a change
• ISRO to launch french satellite ATRIUM SAS under a deal worth 100 crores

NATIONAL NEWS

• WHO calls for greater attention to aging India
  • The World Health Organisation (WHO) in partnership with the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has called for greater attention to the aging of India's population, its implications for health policy and for promotion of a society where the elderly can live full, enriching and productive lives.
  • It is estimated that the population aged 60 years and above will grow from 77 million (7.4% of the total population) in 2001 up to 300 million (17%) by 2050
    
    
• Punjab extra judicial killings : NHRC chief orders releif
  • The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which went through 2,097 cases of killing of youth and mass cremation of their bodies by the Punjab police during the peak of militancy in the State, has ordered a relief of Rs.27.94 crore to the families of 1,513 victims of such extra-judicial killings. The remaining bodies were not identified.
  • The Commission held that for the violation of human rights of a total of 194 victims admittedly in police custody immediately prior to their death and their cremation, their kin were entitled to monetary compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh each. For the remaining cases, the families were paid Rs.1.75 lakh each.
    
    
• Editors guild wants discussions not guidelines
  • The Editors' Guild of India on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to refrain from laying down any guideline for reporting court proceedings and suggested that it instead call editors for discussing the issue.
    
    
• Reliance plans largest solar power hub
  • Within the next two years Rajasthan will become the world's solar power hub as Reliance Power plans to take up the generation capacity of its newly-opened 40-MW plant at Dhursar village in Pokhran to 300 MW by 2014
  • “The Dhursar plant has been set up in a record time of five months that uses new, efficient technology like thin film. It is estimated that the clean energy generated from the plant will displace over 70,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year that is equivalent to taking 25,000 cars off the road. It will generate more than 70 million kilowatt hours of clean and green energy enough for consumption of 75,000 households
    
    
• Battle against calcium carbide
  • Farmers from time immemorial have been using industrial-grade calcium carbide to ripen the fruit that is harvested raw.
  • Packets of calcium carbide are put in the midst of the raw mango while loading. This serves double purpose for the farmer, as he saves costly packing material needed for fully ripe ones to withstand the handling stress and ripens at the right time when it arrives at the destination.
  • Calcium carbide reacts with moisture and produces acetylene gas. The gas ripens the fruit just like ethylene gas used in the scientific ripening chambers.
  • Ripening chambers required for the handling of such a huge quantum of fruit is not available. Ripe fruit need refrigerated trucks to transport them. All this will push up the price of the fruit and impact the market negatively

• INS chakra to be commissioned today
  • India's first nuclear powered submarine, INS Chakra, will be commissioned
  • With this milestone of the Navy, India will join the elite league of nuclear submarine owning countries, the others being the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France and China.
  • INS Chakra is the new name for the Russian-built Nerpa, which has been brought here on a 10-year lease for giving a boost to India's underwater warfare capability at an estimated cost of $920 million
  • India last had a Russian-built Chakra submarine with nuclear capability in 1988. It was brought to Visakhapatnam for imparting training to Indian naval personnel. Visakhapatnam is the headquarters of Indian Navy's submarine arm.

INTERNATIONAL

• Islamists gain ground in troubled Mali
  • Islamists gained ground in northern Mali, jostling with Tuareg rebels for control of the vast desert region as the troubled nation's military rulers faced fuel and money shortages from sanctions
  • A band of low-ranking soldiers ousted the democratically-elected government for its alleged incompetence in dealing with a Tuareg rebellion in the north, however more than half of Mali's territory has fallen to insurgents since the coup.
  • Frozen out by the international community, the junta has been slapped with sanctions from its neighbours which could bring it to its knees.
  • The total embargo announced by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also cuts the putschists off from the regional central bank in Dakar, affecting their ability to pay public wages.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• An article on the India's defense preparedness and war against China
• A nice article on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO)
• Editorial on India – Pakistan relationship.
• Editorial on NRHM and its free medicines

ECONOMICS

• Cairn Energy's second discovery in KG block
  • Cairn Energy India Pty Ltd. (CEIL),said it had discovered oil in Nagayalanka-SE-1 well in the onshore block of Krishna-Godavari Basin.
  • CEIL, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Cairn India Ltd. (CIL), has notified the management committee — comprising Director-General of Hydrocarbons, ONGC and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas — of the discovery in the onshore block KG-ONN-2003/1.
  • A gross 57m hydrocarbon column in Cretaceous sandstone between the depths of 4369.2 and 4426mMD had been interpreted from data to be oil bearing. Further testing is ongoing and an appraisal will be required to establish the commerciality of the Nagayalanka-SE discovery