Saturday, July 14, 2012

HEADLINES

• The Central government asks the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) not to facilitate Suresh Kalmadi’s visit to London to attend the Olympic Games
• Bharat Bhushan is removed as Director-General of Civil Aviation a few days ago and is posted in the Steel Ministry; New DGCA, Prashant Sukul on Friday asked all airlines to strictly adhere to prescribed safety standards
• The Delhi HC removed the 200-SMS ceiling put by the TRAI on sending SMSes per SIM per day vis-à-vis non-commercial messages. Commercial messages will still have to comply

NATIONAL NEWS

• Note sends out warning against misuse of subsidised fertilizers
  • In the backdrop of complaints of diversion of subsidised fertilizers meant for farmers to industrial use, Agriculture department has circulated a note among district officials advising them to take strong action against those found misusing such fertilizers;
  • Pointing out that the government of India has been extending heavy subsidy for fertilizers to benefit the farming community, the note observes that apart from farmers, physical and granulation mixture manufacturers only are eligible to utilise subsidised fertilizers as raw material for preparing standard mixtures notified by the State government;
  • The note draws the attention of officials to the fact that urea is being utilised as raw material in paper industry, sugar factories, PVC industry, steel plants, cattle feed manufacture units, and effluent treatment plants. The Central government note further counsels the need to sensitise industrial users to purchasing technical grade urea meant for industrial use rather than using farm grade urea that is tagged with subsidy. Other subsidised fertilizers such as Di Ammonium Phosphate and Potash could be obtained from industrial dealers at full cost.
• Funding delays for India's Afghan project may prove costly
  • One of India’s showpiece projects in Afghanistan is in trouble mainly due to procrastination on the part of New Delhi. Unable to approve the revised cost for the Salma Dam, the Indian Government faces the risk of a deteriorating security situation which might worsen after the bulk of the NATO forces withdraws from the war-ravaged country in 2014;
  • The Salma Dam is one of the two big projects India undertook in Afghanistan, the other being the Parliament building. The dam was to have been completed by 2010 but the timeline has been pushed back by two years. This time frame has caused perturbation in South Block because even before the NATO withdrawal, the area around the dam site in western Afghanistan has begun witnessing frequent gunbattles between the project security detail and the Taliban;
  • Following intelligence inputs, the Indian consulate fears that the dam, a symbol of benign Indian aid, is also in the cross-sights of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, said senior officials privy to the meeting which took stock of the progress of the project. The dam has the potential to irrigate 75,000 hectares and generate 42 MW of electricity.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• DR Congo border region rich in rare minerals
  • Kivu, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich eastern border region, has for years been the focus of armed conflict that has often drawn in neighbouring countries;
  • Divided into the provinces of Nord- and Sud-Kivu, the region is rich in natural resources — but it is not so much its fertile farmland that is coveted by the rival armed groups as the rare minerals to be had from its lucrative mines;
  • Sharing borders with Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania, Kivu’s volatile political mix is in part due to the way that the violence in some of these neighbouring countries has spilled over into its own territory;
  • The region has been constantly faced with internal conflict. Many a time it has been due to external influence due to the varied tribes that inhabit this region. It is a measure of how unstable the region is that two recent wars in DR Congo — between 1996 and 1997, then from 1998 to 2003 — both started in Kivu.
• Approval of repressive Russian bills
  • The Russian Parliament wound up its spring session with the approval of several “repressive” bills designed to help the Kremlin crack down on a growing civic protest movement, according to opposition leaders;
  • Before going on a summer recess on Monday, the State Duma — the Lower House of Parliament — rushed through three controversial laws. These include: one that could result in censorship of the Internet; another that imposes tough rules on foreign-funded non-governmental groups and one more that makes defamation a criminal offence;
  • Opposition leaders condemned the bills as “repressive” and aimed at silencing protests against the authoritarian political system in Russia which has brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets of Moscow and other cities in the past few months.
• Another massacre of more than 150 persons in Syria

EMINENT PERSONS IN THE NEWS

• Read this article about Venkitaraja Puninchithaya, a noted Tulu scholar and literateur who passed away yesterday

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article on the UNESCO recognition for the church of Bethlehem which is located in Palestine
• Read this article on universal healthcare in the Indian context