Wednesday, May 2, 2012

NATIONAL NEWS

• Supreme Court transfers Rajiv Gandhi's assasination convicts case to itself
  • The Supreme Court exercised its power under Art. 139(1) of the Constitution and directed that the writ petitions filed by three convicts facing the death sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case — Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan — be transferred to itself from the Madras High Court based on a petition which argued that the atmosphere in the Madras HC was not conducive for the hearing;
  • The three convicts had filed the writ petitions challenging the rejection of their clemency plea by President Pratibha Patil after 11 years. The High Court on August 30, 2011 stayed their execution;
  • The transferred cases would be listed for July 10 for final disposal. Notice should be issued to the writ petitioners that their case would be taken up for hearing by this court on July 10.
• Bad weather holds up trade through Nathu La
  • This year's trade between India and China through Nathu La in Sikkim, which was to have begun on Tuesday, could not come off because of inclement weather;
  • Trade through Nathu La, located at an altitude of 14,140 feet, resumed in July 2006, after 44 years. According to an agreement between the two countries, 29 items can be exported from India and 15 imported from China;
  • Among the items allowed for export are agriculture implements, copper products, tea, rice and wheat. Those that can be imported include goatskin, wool, raw silk, butter and yak tail.
• Marriage Law Amendment Bill is discriminatory says AIDWA
  • The All India Democratic Women's Association has expressed unhappiness over the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 and the amendments made to it, as reintroduced in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, that make irretrievable breakdown of marriage a ground for divorce, giving women the right to marital assets, including the marital home. However, there is no provision for strengthening maintenance laws;
  • In its letter, the AIDWA has appealed to Rajya Sabha members to prevent the “perpetration of injustice against women by the highest law making body of our country, and to oppose the law in its present form” as there was no move to strengthen maintenance laws;
  • The amendment seeks to make irretrievable breakdown of marriage a ground for divorce, and proposes that the court may give the wife a share in the property acquired during the subsistence of marriage. Unfortunately, whether a share should be given at all and the quantum of the share in marital property is left to be decided by the courts on a case to case basis. Many people feel that courts can be traditional and tight fisted in such cases;
  • The AIDWA demands that the amendments be introduced only after a law has been enacted for giving women equal rights in marital property. This law should allow for equal division of the marital property upon separation and not merely on divorce. They also argue that a provision should also be made for women and children to get more than half the share if the children are living with their mother. The laws relating to maintenance for women and children must be strengthened to ensure that women/children receive an adequate amount of maintenance.
• Court directive to frame guidelines on pesticides
  • The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed a six-member committee of experts to frame guidelines to deal with the presence of pesticides' residue in vegetable and fruits across the country by August 17;
  • The committee has been set up by the Union Government. Headed by agriculture scientist Sarita Bhalla, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India director Dhir Singh, scientist N.K. Sharma, Delhi Government's food analyst S. M. Bhardwaj, Vipin Bhatnagar, an official of the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Processing Industries, and advocate V.K. Rao are the other members of the committee;
  • Besides these members, the Court also allowed to include the name of Sandhya Kulshreshtha, an Assistant Director-General, Directorate-General of Health Services of the Union Government, in the committee as a non-government expert in the field so that she could get feedback from the public on the issue to the attention of the committee;
  • The report quoting a study on use of banned pesticides by the farmers conducted said that the amount of pesticides used in India is as much as 750 times the European standards. Out of five internationally banned pesticides, four were found to be common in vegetables and fruits, the report said. These pesticides caused headache and affect fertility and can damage kidney and liver, the report said.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• No deadline for Uranium sales to India, says Australia
  • No timeframe or deadline could be set for Australia to start uranium exports to India. But Australia's decision to export to India is firmly in place, despite opposition in some quarters, and both nations are discussing the issue to seal a deal, Australia's Resources & Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said and also added that exports would only be for civilian use;
  • The exports would come about only after the formalities in respect of issues pertaining to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Supplies Group (NSG) were fulfilled by India, he said. On December 4, 2011, the Labor Party of Prime Minister Julia Gillard decided to end the ban on uranium sales to India;
  • Officials say India and Australia are negotiating a bilateral safeguards treaty. Ms. Gillard has made it clear that Australia will apply the same standards to India as it does to all countries to which it exports uranium. These are strict adherence to the IAEA's arrangements, strong bilateral undertakings and measures to ensure that the uranium will be used only for peaceful purposes;
  • Interestingly, India and Australia are also negotiating a Free Trade Agreement, which is expected to boost trade and services. India has refused to sign the NPT, arguing that the treaty is discriminatory, allowing a handful of countries to retain nuclear weapons;
  • Australia is the world's third largest producer and exporter of uranium, after Kazakhstan and Canada. Over the past 10 years, Australia's production has averaged out at 8,500 tonnes a year, around 20 per cent of the world's production from 2000 to 2010. Australia has the world's largest known reserves of uranium, amounting to 23 per cent of the world's total reserves.
• Fiji fairly moves towards elections
  • Pacific leaders on Tuesday said they were encouraged by moves taken by the military-led government in Fiji to return the island nation to a parliamentary democracy with elections by September 2014. The international community would closely watch the public consultation process leading to the establishment of a new constitution, said the leaders;
  • Fiji has been subject to Pacific-wide sanctions after a military-led coup in 2006. Fiji's new constitution is expected to be adopted in March 2013. In January 2012, the New Zealand welcomed the lifting of emergency regulations, which Fiji government had used to rule since 2009.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article on regulation of the media
• Read this article on the intent behind presidential elections in the constitution

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• A ministerial panel, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, on Tuesday, approved starting of the spectrum auction process. The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) gave the approval to the process for selecting an auctioneer, who will conduct the fresh round of bidding for spectrum as mandated by the Supreme Court
• Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata will be conferred ‘The Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun' title by Japan for his contribution in strengthening economic relations between Japan and India