Saruday, June 23rd, 2012

HEADLINES

• Calcutta high court strikes down Singhur land act
• PPP loyalalist Raja parvez Ashraf elected as Pakistan's prime minister
• The Defence Ministry on Friday cleared proposals worth over Rs. 20,000 crore for procuring air defence missile systems for the Army and other equipment.

NATIONAL NEWS

• Will western ghats make the world heritage list?
  • The campaign for the nomination of 39 serial sites of the Western Ghats as a world heritage site will be renewed at the 36th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) which will begin at Saint Petersburg.
  • A decision on the nominated sites will be taken by a 21-nation panel including India. The task of the panel will be to “identify the cultural and natural properties of Outstanding Universal Value which are to be protected under the Convention and inscribe them properties on the World Heritage List.”
  • In its report, the IUCN had suggested that India “review and refine the scope and composition” of the sites and consider the recommendations the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP). It was asked to “further refine the boundaries” of the sites to ensure the “exclusion of disturbed areas” and “enhance the contiguity and buffer zones of the nomination” based on the WGEEP recommendations.
    
    
• Tendency to give women secondary status responsible for female foeticide
  • Spurred by alarming reports of female foeticide continuing unabated across the State, the Rajasthan Government has initiated the process for adoption of a new girl child policy with emphasis on saving the female foetus as well as newborn girls
  • In addition to the specific emphasis on saving girls, the policy will also address the important issue of child rights. It would comprise a chapter devoted to the role, contribution and responsibilities of civil society organisations.
    
    
• Now an LPG portal to stop black marketing
  • In a bid to bring in transparency in the booking, consumption and delivery of LPG cylinders, and prevent diversion to the black market, the government, launched a website aimed at empowering nearly 14 crore consumers in the country.
  • The “LPG transparency portal” carries details of booking and delivery date, usage patterns, subsidies, particulars of distributors, and information affecting consumers. It can be accessed through the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry’s website, www.petroleum.nic.in.
    
    
• In a bid to end bloody LOC sirmishes, Indian and pakistani commanders to meet
  • Brigade-level Commanders of India and Pakistan will meet on the Line of Control in Poonch on, hoping to defuse 10 days of bloody skirmishes which have left six soldiers dead and led to artillery deployment close the Line of Control (LoC) for the first time in a decade.
  • Islamabad has not offered any official comment on the clashes. However, Pakistan shut down the Chakan-da-Bagh border outpost for local trade this week and suspended the weekly bus service from Poonch to Rawalakote
  • No clear account has emerged of what led to the skirmishes, which came as Indian troops were engaged in rebuilding counter-infiltration fencing that runs across the LoC
    
    
• Unified telecom licenses get a big no from the consumers industry
  • The government’s proposal under the New Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012 to shift to one-nation, one licence or a Unified Licence (UL) for telecom has received a thumbs down from consumers and the industry alike. In addition, the proposed UL is in conflict with several of NTP 2012’s own objectives.
  • The UL, which will combine international and domestic long distance, ISP, V-SAT, GMPCS (Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite), international private line resale, and fixed line licences — far from the pro-consumer move it is being made out to be, will raise the cost of telecom services, and thereby, tariffs.
  • Additionally, in spite of multiple recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that only a 6% uniform licence fee should be charged, the DoT has finalised an 8% levy. This hike will be directly borne by customers in their monthly bill. Costs for Internet and broadband users who currently pay 0% will also increase.
  • Raising the entry fee barrier to Rs. 15 crore is a blow to small and medium-sized companies who could be serious niche and efficient providers of services such as ISP, IPLC, ISD or fixed line at a State level. It also means that the cost at which existing licences are renewed will be multiple times higher since in future, service-specific and circle-specific licences will decline sharply

• Refund excess tax despite four year limit
  • Giving relief to taxpayers, the Income Tax Department has asked its officials to refund excess tax even if such applications are hit by the limitation period of four years.
  • “After due verification of any such claim on merits, the assessing officer shall issue refund of the excess amount, if any, so adjusted by CPC [Central Processing Centre at Bangalore] due to inaccurate figures of arrear demand uploaded by the assessing officer,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has said.
  • The circular will also help tax officials in resolving disputes regarding arrear demands shown as outstanding against them in the records of assessing officer and refund the excess tax collected from them
  • Under the existing provisions of the Income Tax Act, the assessing officer cannot look into refund cases which are more than four years old.

INTERNATIONAL

• At Rio +20 a compromise document evolves from consensus
  • The outcome document or the Rio+20 text — adopted after an informal and protracted debate by 191 member-nations, — took shape on the basis of consensus for its adaptation, even as the leading spirits behind the document conceded that it was a “compromise.”
  • Yet the much fought-over document, ‘Future we want,’ carries hope for the humanity and an assurance not to go back on the principles agreed upon in the historic Earth Summit of 1992.
  • While Algeria, Chair of G-77, and China termed it the “optimum possible” document, the U.N. and Canada appreciated the “hard work” put in by the host nation. Denmark and the European Union, while saying the document could have been better, accepted it in its entirety.
  • It was interesting that Bolivia, Venezuela and Argentina — known for their defiance of the policies of liberalisation — termed the document a recognition of the rights of Mother Earth and a finely balanced text for collective future action. It acknowledged the right to safe drinking water and sanitation, and the rights of indigenous peoples, but the absence of any commitment from the developed countries to finances and technology transfer was a drawback,
    
    
• Consumption levels in the industrial world unsustainable : Manmohan
  • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday once again admonished the West for living a high life and not paying for it.
  • In a brief statement, he told the Plenary of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) on Thursday that “current consumption levels in the industrialised world are unsustainable.”
  • The Prime Minister’s speech in many ways was a reiteration of the long established Indian stand — development, social inclusion and environmental sustainability are all equally critical.

• US fights plea on drone attack data
  • The U.S.’ troubled relationship with Pakistan again occupied centre-stage on multiple fronts this week, as the Obama administration refused a legal plea to release documents on drone strikes, despite sharp criticism of such attacks by a top United Nations official.
  • At the same time, U.S. went public with stinging complaints of Pakistani “harassment” of its diplomatic staff in Islamabad.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• An article on the latest developments on Pakistan
• Editorial on road safety
• A nice article on the much needed reforms in the Railways