Saturday, June 9, 2012

HEADLINES

• Sanjay Joshi quits BJP as Modi has his way
• IIT Kanpurdecides to hold a separate entrance test from 2013 if the Centre does not annul its decision to conduct a joint entrance examination for undergraduate engineering courses

NATIONAL NEWS

• NCERT textbook cartoon strokes anger in Tamil Nadu
  • Just as the controversy over a cartoon on B.R. Ambedkar in a textbook prepared by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is settling down, another row has erupted over a cartoon in a class XII Political Science text book of the NCERT. The cartoon relates to the anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 in Tamil Nadu and politicians here say it depicts the student protagonists of the agitation in a poor light;
  • Political parties have demanded the removal of the cartoon drawn by R.K. Laxman from the textbook as it gives an impression that the student agitators knew neither English nor Hindi. The cartoon appears in the Political Science book.
• Bhopal toxic waste to be sent to Germany
  • A Group of Ministers (GoM) on Friday gave its approval to the Madhya Pradesh government for disposing of 350 tonnes of Union Carbide toxic waste in Germany. The Centre will pay Rs. 25 crore towards the cost of airlifting the waste which will be removed within a year. The entire operation is being carried out by GIZ IS, a German agency.
• UNICEF report says diarrhoea and pneumonia are top killers of children
  • India is listed among the top five countries across the world which lose a majority of the two million children worldwide who die each year to easily preventable diseases -- pneumonia and diarrhoea – states a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report. The report adds that nearly 90 per cent of all these deaths are due to unsafe water and poor hygiene;
  • About half of childhood deaths in the world due to diarrhoea or pneumonia take place in five countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Ethiopia, said the report;
  • Poverty is a major factor in the spread of both diseases, with Pakistan, India, and several countries in sub-Saharan Africa making up the worst-hit nations. “Simple steps like washing hands with soap and water can dramatically reduce the incidence of both pneumonia and diarrhoea in children,” noted UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake in a release;
  • Pneumonia is responsible for 18 per cent of childhood deaths worldwide each year and diarrhoea is linked to 11 per cent. In contrast, AIDS is responsible for two per cent of global childhood deaths annually and malaria for seven per cent, according to the report.
• The People's Education Society, founded by Ambedkar in 1945, has become the seat for a high-voltage power struggle to wrest control of the trust's governing body between the Ambedkar family and other members of the governing body

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Forced marriages, criminal offence in Britain
  • The British government is to crack down on forced marriages, reported to be widely prevalent among families from the Indian subcontinent, by making them a criminal offence under a new law to be introduced in England and Wales. Parents found guilty of forcing their children into a forced marriage could be jailed.
• Nepal's opposition parties have launched a ‘movement' seeking Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai's resignation to pave the way for a ‘national unity government'

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this very well-written article on the issue of India's rush be tagged a 'regional power' while it still cannot address the basic issues in the country
• Read this article on election petitions and the law relating to the same
• Read this editorial on the diesel de-control dilemma
• Read this editorial on the EU-Russia relations