Wednesday, 20th June, 2012

HEADLINES

• Supreme court strips Gilani of prime ministership
• Manmohan pledges $10 billion to eurozone
• Sekhar Basu takes over as BARC director

NATIONAL NEWS

• Microsoft scratches the surface
  • Microsoft has done something that it never has in all its 37-year history of existence — create a computer.
  • Called the Surface, the company unveiled its home-grown line of tablet computers
  • The new tablet line will comprise two different models, a thinner casual consumer device and a larger tablet that is aimed at competing with ‘ultrabook' class of computers.
    
    
• UNHCR helps refugees stitch up a livelihood
  • Official figures peg the number of refugees in India at more than 2,00,000, majority of them Tibetans and Sri Lankans. There are 17,380 refugees, 3,710 asylum seekers, and some from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan, according to the UNHCR.
  • As on date, about 300 refugees benefit from a livelihood programme spread over four production centres in West and South Delhi.
    
    
• Electronic systems in Toll plazas by 2014
  • Delays at toll plazas on national highways, which inflict a heavy loss on the economy, may be a thing of the past by 2014 if electronic toll collection (ETC) systems are installed.
  • According to a survey conducted by the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta and the Transport Corporation of India, delays at toll plazas and poor roads cost the exchequer a whopping Rs. 87,500 crore during 2011-12.
  • A pilot project of the ETC based on the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID), developed on the lines suggested by Unique Identification Authority of India Chairman Nandan Nilekani, is currently operational at Chandimandir near Panchkula on the Delhi-Parwanoo highway
  • The RFID would read the chip in the sticker on the windshield and deduct the specified toll allowing the vehicle to pass through without having to wait for its turn to pay the levy
    
    
• Jairam tells Cm's to include the forest tribals in the BPL list
  • Almost a year after Saranda was wrested out of Maoist control by security forces, large numbers of tribal families living in the dense forests of the Jharkhand district have found themselves left out in the cold when it comes to government assistance.
  • Mr. Ramesh has written to all Chief Ministers to “correct the huge injustice that has been done to the forest-dwelling tribal families who should really be automatically included in any BPL list.” In the letter dated June 18, he asked the Chief Ministers to direct their Collectors to use the 2002 BPL census questionnaire and criteria to determine the socio-economic status of such families.

INTERNATIONAL

• China holds live fire drill in Tibet to test strike capability
  • The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last week conducted a live-fire drill in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) for anti-tank units to “test their precision strike capability”.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• Article on Dalit empowerment
• Another article on Rio + 20
• Article on the rising Iraq
• Rising of the new world order
• Article on the Greek mandate
• Editorial on AP setting a new example in dealing with child labour