Tuesday, June 12, 2012

NATIONAL NEWS

• Standard & Poor: India risk losing investment grade rating
  • In an unprecedented broadside at the UPA-II government's style of functioning, global rating agency S&P pointed to the operational roles of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and “unelected” Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister for the current economic impasse and threatened to downgrade India's sovereign credit rating to ‘speculative' from the lowest notch of ‘investment' grade.
• Supreme Court refuses to stay AP High Court order on sub-quota
  • The SC on Monday refused to stay the Andhra Pradesh High Court order that quashed 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities in central educational institutions such as the IITs, and ticked off the government for the way it had handled the “complex” and “sensitive” issue;
  • The Bench wanted to know as to what was the basis and how did the government determine 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities. The Bench said it cannot stay the High Court order “unless the government produces material to show a detailed exercise was undertaken to carve out the sub-quota.”
• Siachen talks are on
  • The Defence Secretaries of India and Pakistan on Monday began talks on the military standoff in Siachen, against the backdrop of calls from Islamabad to demilitarise the world's highest battlefield after an avalanche killed 139 people at a Pakistan Army camp on April 7.
• Majuli monks to perform unique dance drama in France, Switzerland
  • A Sattriya dance troupe from Majuli river-island will perform an innovative dance drama in France and Switzerland based on the tales depicted on Vrindavani Vastra. Vrindavani Vastra is a unique tapestry woven by skilled Assamese weavers in the sixteenth century under the supervision of the medieval Vaishnavite saint, social reformer and creative genius Srimanta Sankardeva and his chief disciple Madhavdeva. It depicts scenes from Krishna's childhood home of Vrindavan;
  • The ten-member dance troupe of bhakats (monks) of Uttar Kamalabari Sattra (a Vaishnavite monastery) of Majuli, led by noted Sattriya exponent and research scholar Bhabananda Barbayan, will give 22 performances — 12 in France and ten in Switzerland — from June 14 to July 15 based on this unique textile masterpiece that depicts the life of Krishna at Vrindavan;
  • She said that while other Indian classical dance forms were reconstructed through the revival of a tradition that no longer existed, Sattriya was a living tradition, practised, preserved and performed consistently in the Sattras of Assam.
• Now Sikhs to register marriages under the Anand Marriage Act
  • Now Sikhs will be able to register their marriages under the Anand Marriage Act instead of the Hindu Marriage Act, with President Pratibha Patil giving her assent to a Bill passed by Parliament in the Budget session;
  • Although the Anand Marriage Law was enacted in 1909, there was no provision for registration of marriages and they were registered under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. “The Anand Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2012, after having received the assent of the President on June 7, 2012, has been published as corresponding Act in the Gazette of India”;
  • Sikh groups have maintained that members of the community face problems abroad as their certificates are issued under the Hindu Marriage Act. Besides Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists are issued certificates under the Hindu laws.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• U.S exempts India and six others from Iran sanctions
  • The U.S. on Monday said it would exempt India and six other countries from financial sanctions because they have significantly cut purchases of Iranian oil;
  • “Today I have made the determination that seven economies -- India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan -- have all significantly reduced their volume of crude oil purchases from Iran,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement.
• Mexican Presidential elections enter final stage
  • Mexico's presidential race entered a critical phase on Monday after the four candidates clashed in a second debate as some 90,000 people protested in the capital against the frontrunner;
  • The televised debate, held in Guadalajara in the violence-torn state of Jalisco, could help decide the tight race for the vote to be held on July 1;
  • The top two rivals — Enrique Pena Nieto of the long-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who lost by a narrow margin in 2006 — hoped to get a boost that could take them over the top.
• Pressure on Libya to release ICC delegates
  • Libyan authorities have jailed four members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on suspicion of spying after they had been allowed access to Saif al-Qadhafi, son of the slain Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi, who is being held by a local militia in Zintan;
  • The ICC has issued a strong statement to Libya on the issue.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this editorial on the ancillary issues to be addressed by the Right to Education Act
• Read this article on India-Pakistan ties in light of recent initiatives by both sides
• Read this article which discusses the problem with the entrance exam for the IITs