Wednesday, April 18, 2012

HEADLINES

• BJP beats Congress in Delhi Municipal polls
• Scientist arrested in Kolkata for protests against slum eviction gets bail
• RBI cuts policy rates by 0.5 percentage points
• 
  

NATIONAL NEWS

• Petrol price hike can't wait any longer say Oil Marketing Companies
  • Fed up with the Centre's “indecision” on allowing an increase in fuel prices in the face of rising international crude prices, the oil marketing companies threatened to increase petrol prices by Rs.8.04 a litre. They said the government should either cut the excise duty on petrol and give them Rs. 49cr a day in compensation or face a sharp price hike;
  • In a joint representation, they asked the government to bring petrol back under the regulated regime. Petrol prices were deregulated in June 2010. With a 20 per cent value-added tax, the price, if an increase is effected, will go up by Rs. 9.60 in New Delhi;
  • The last price revision was effected on December 1, 2011. Then, IOC cut the price by Rs. 0.65 on top of an earlier reduction of Rs.1.85 on November 16 last.
• More incentives for ASHAs
  • The accredited social health activists — the first port of call for health care under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) — will be entrusted with additional responsibilities, albeit with better monetary incentives, as the Mission Steering Group – the highest decision making body of the NRHM — has approved the proposal for involving them in activities such as spacing between births, promoting iodised salt and village sanitation;
  • The ASHAs will now have a major role to play in counselling newly-married couples and those with one child to have their first child after two years of marriage and space their children for at least three years. For this, the ASHAs would be paid an incentive of Rs. 500 per couple she manages to convince for spacing between births;
  • And, as part of the communitisation strategy of the NRHM, it has been decided to involve ASHAs in organising the monthly village health sanitation and nutrition committee (VHSNC) meeting for which she will be paid an incentive of Rs. 150 a month. This meeting will be followed by the meeting of women and adolescent girls where the health and sanitation needs of adolescent girls would be discussed. There are 5 lakh VHSNCs but frequency and performance of these meetings and involving ASHAs could help in streamlining this;
  • Importantly, it has also been decided to further incentivise ASHAs by providing an additional Rs. 100 for every child who receives complete first year immunisation and Rs. 50 for every child who further completes two years of immunisation as per the stipulated schedule. As of now, ASHA gets Rs. 150 for mobilising children to immunisation session sites.
• AGNI-V to soar today
  • Agni-V, which can take out targets 5,000 km away, is all set to soar from a road mobile launcher on Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast, today or tomorrow;
  • Agni-V has three stages, all of them powered by solid fuel. The 17-metre-long and 50-tonne missile can carry a 1.1-tonne nuclear warhead. However, in this mission, it will carry a dummy payload simulating the weight of the warhead;
  • The missile's three stages have been integrated horizontally and it will be made vertical a couple of hours before the launch. Many new technologies will be tested in this mission, including navigation and guidance systems. About 60 per cent of the missile is made of carbon-carbon composites, making it lighter in weight;
  • Agni-III is the building block on which Agni-V has been built. With the addition of a third upper stage, the two-stage Agni-III has metamorphosed into Agni-V.
• Time running out for the Ganga: Prime Minister
  • Addressing the third meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) here on Tuesday, Dr. Singh expressed unhappiness over the States' efforts in sewage treatment, and asked the states to take action against polluting industries as time was running out for the Ganga;
  • He asked the State governments to send proposals for new sewage treatment plants, for which adequate funding was available with the Centre. Over 2,900 million litres of sewage was discharged into the river daily;
  • Last month, three non-official members of the Authority — Ravi Chopra, Rajendra Singh and R.H. Siddiqui — put in their papers, charging the Prime Minister with being indifferent to the cause;
  • Pointing out that the State Pollution Control Boards should monitor the compliance with effluent discharge standards and take action against defaulting industries, Dr. Singh said industrial effluents, though only 20 per cent of total effluents, were a cause for major concern as they were toxic and non-biodegradable;
  • Dr. Singh said in order to formulate long-term policies and actions, the Ministry of Environment and Forests commissioned a consortium of seven Indian Institutes of Technology to prepare a comprehensive River Basin Management Plan for the Ganga. The plan would recommend measures to restore and maintain the ecological health of the river, giving due regard to the competing water uses.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• EU demands release of former Mali Prime Minister
  • The EU on Tuesday demanded the immediate release of former Malian prime minister Modibo Sidibe and several other prominent figures arrested overnight by a junta that seized power last month.
• Jim Yong Kim selected as president of World Bank; seeks new alignment
  • Korean-American physician Jim Yong Kim, who has been selected as new President of the World Bank, has said he will seek a new alignment of the body with a rapidly changing world;
  • The World Bank picked Seoul-born Kim over Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala;
  • Mr. Kim is president of Dartmouth College. A U.S. national, Mr. Kim is a co-founder of Partners in Health (PIH) and a former director of the Department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization (WHO). Mr. Kim (52) will take over at the beginning of July, after Robert B Zoellick, steps down at the end of his five-year term.
• Will start all over: Norway killer
  • On the second day of his trial in Oslo, Anders Behring Breivik, proffered the same Nazi salute he had executed the day before, a deeply repugnant gesture, since it inevitably brings up horrific memories of the Holocaust. The proceedings also held a few shockers for Mr. Breivik's victims and their families as he solemnly declared he was prepared “to start all over again”;
  • The man who killed 77 persons in a bomb blast in Oslo and firing at a Labour party youth camp on Utoya island last year was smiling, unperturbed, as he read out a long declaration. The court this morning permitted him to read out a statement he had written. He said he had “toned down the rhetoric” in his paper out of “consideration” for his victims. He said he had perpetrated the attacks “as an urgent measure in order to save my people, my country, my culture”;
  • Breivik began by declaring that the adolescents killed on Utoya were “not innocent children”. Instead, he said, said they were naïve and indoctrinated. “They were not young innocents; they were political militants,” he said. “Killing 70 persons can avert a civil war,” Breivik declared. The self avowed killer said that to die or go to prison for his people was for him a “great honour”;
  • Families of the victims expressed shock and outrage that he had been allowed so much time to air his views. “After everything he has done, killed our children, it is wrong to allow him to speak this way in public. He will attract more followers that way and besmirch the memory of those who died,” said a distraught father outside the courtroom.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article on Agni-V
• Read this article about educational loans and the role of the state
• If you have time, quickly look at this article on the enhanced trade between India and Pakistan

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• RBI brings cheer to common man; cuts rates
  • For the first time in two years, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has brought direct cheers to many a common man on the streets. The cut in the short-term repo rate (the rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks) by 50 basis points to 8 per cent from 8.50 per cent has set the stage for a drop in interest rates on home and car loans. Banks have already gone into a huddle mode to work out their rate cut strategy;
  • While borrowers can have a sigh of relief, senior citizens who rely on interest income from savings deposits for their living may feel a sense of let down. Not long ago, banks vied with one another to hike short-term deposit rates. If the benefit of the RBI action has to percolate down, the deposit rates need to be aligned with the new reality. Re-adjustment of deposit rates will have to happen sooner than later if banks were to heed the RBI signal and cut the lending rates;
  • Though the RBI has punctuated the rate cut with clear cut warning on the persistent ‘upside risk' to the economy, the move is sure to perk up the sentiment all around;
  • The Monetary Policy Statement of 2012-13 also has some significant common man-centric initiatives. The high interest rate regime has seen home loan takers shelling out more every month. As though this isn't enough, banks put hefty penal charge for pre-closure of loans. The apex bank has now said that there cannot be any foreclosure or pre-payment penalties on home loans extended on a floating interest rate basis. A penal charge on pre-closure of a floating rate loan is simply unexplainable;
  • At a time when personal banking has gone mostly impersonal, thanks to the invasion of technology, the RBI has asked banks to offer a “basic savings deposit account” with certain minimum common facilities. This should be done to all customers without insisting on the need for a minimum balance. The RBI has also advised banks to initiate steps to allot unique customer identification code number to all customers.
• Welspun asked to submit revised offer for Vizhingam port
  • The State Government has sought a revised offer from the Welspun consortium, the sole bidder for the Vizhinjam deepwater seaport and international container transhipment terminal project. The bid-negotiating committee, constituted by the government, has asked the consortium, led by Welspun Infratech, to rework the financial bid and submit the best offer within a week;
  • The consortium was the only bidder in fray for the port operator after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs denied security clearance to Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd., the other contender that had made it to the penultimate stage of bidding;
  • Under the “landlord model” on which the Vizhinjam seaport is based, the government will retain ownership and control of the port land and infrastructure. The government will invest Rs.3,040 crore in creating the basic port infrastructure, including the construction of a breakwater and reclamation of land for the port terminals, quay walls, and berths;
  • The infrastructure and assets will be leased to a private operator who will have to invest Rs.970 crore on building the superstructure and installing equipment such as cranes and lifts. During the lease period of 30 years, the revenues from the port operation will be shared by the operator and the government. The government's plan is to commission the first phase of the project by 2015.
• Vodafone serves notice to centre on tax dispute
  • Engaged in tax dispute with the Indian government, British telecom operator Vodafone, on Tuesday, served the Centre with a ‘Notice of Dispute' regarding tax proposals on international deals with retrospective effect in the Finance Bill, 2012;
  • After losing the legal battle with Vodafone in the Supreme Court over taxing its deal for buying Hutchinson's share on erstwhile Hutchinson-Essar in 2007, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has proposed to amend the Income Tax Act so that such deals could be taxed from retrospective effect. The Centre had asked Vodafone to pay Rs.11,000 crore in taxes;
  • Alleging that the Finance Bill, 2012, violates the international legal protections granted to Vodafone and other international investors in India, Vodafone said its Dutch subsidiary — Vodafone International Holdings BV (VIHBV) — has served the notice, which is “the first step required prior to the commencement of international arbitration under the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) between India and the Netherlands”;
  • Under the BIT, the Indian government is obliged, among other things, to accord fair and equitable treatment to investors; provide full protection and security; not breach the legitimate expectations of investors in making investments; not deny justice or breach, previously provided assurances; and not take steps to indirectly expropriate the investment.
  • In a regulatory filing to the London Stock Exchange, Vodafone has asked the Indian government to abandon or suitably amend the retrospective aspects of the proposed legislation as Vodafone would prefer to reach an amicable solution to this matter. “However, if the Indian government is not willing to do so, Vodafone will take whatever steps are necessary to protect its shareholders' interest, including investment treaty arbitration proceedings under the BIT against the Indian government,” Vodafone said in a statement.