Friday, August 17, 2012

HEADLINES

• Exodus of people back to the North-east of India continues mainly from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra; BJP asks centre to protect north-east people and says outsiders are responsible for violence against Assamese
• Caught in the eye of the storm, Mamata Banerjee now says her comment on corruption in the judiciary was distorted by the media; meanwhile a petition for contempt has been filed in the Supreme Court on the ground that her statement undermines the judiciary

NATIONAL NEWS

• Ganga Authority makes little progress on power project
  • The second meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority’s inter-Ministerial group in Delhi on Tuesday could not make much headway on the contentious issue of the under-construction hydro-electric project on the Alaknanda at Srinagar in Uttarakhand;
  • The group, headed by Planning Commission Member B. K. Chaturvedi, heard the builders of the project and the campaigners for the protection of the Dhari Devi temple on the river, but there appeared to be no convergence;
  • The first meeting of the inter-Ministerial group, held on July 26, had the presentations of reports prepared by a consortium of seven IITs entrusted with the responsibility of preparing the Ganga River Basin Environment Management Plan;
  • Dhari Devi temple, some 15 km from Srinagar on National Highway 58, is along the pilgrim route to Badrinath. The ministerial group however made it clear that their priority was protecting the river and the focus was not only on the temple. At present the main concern is the fact that work on the project has continued despite an order against it.
• Karnataka opposes tiger reserve tag for Kudremukh National Park
  • Much against the wishes of the Karnataka State Govt, Union Minister for Environment and Forests (MoEF) Jayanthi Natarajan on Tuesday announced in Parliament that final approval had been accorded to declare Kudremukh National Park as a tiger reserve;
  • The Karnataka Govt is against declaration of the Kuderamukh National Park as a tiger reserve, and heritage tag accorded to 10 sites of the Western Ghats. The Karnataka Govt is contending that nearly 1500 tribal families in the Kudremukh National Park and 4000 families living on its borders would be affected if the park becomes a tiger reserve. In fact, many tribal people were affected after the Park came into existence in 1987;
  • With the Union government’s final approval, the Kudremukh National Park has become the fifth tiger reserve in Karnataka and 41st in the country. The National Tiger Conservation Authority, an organisation working under the MoEF, had earlier given in-principle approval for declaring six national parks, including the Kudremukh National Park, as a tiger reserve;
  • With the Kudremukh National Park becoming a tiger reserve, the Centre will provide funds to the State under the Project Tiger for relocating families in the vicinity.
• The West Bengal Govt will soon roll out an investment policy which will also outline the contours of the government policy on non-resident Indians, industry and software development
• Delhi looks all set to have a new parking policy meant to regulate parking on the roads while placing a restraint on use of public space by private vehicles, thus creating an incentive to use public transport. More on this once the details of the policy are final and made public

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Showdown looms as Ecuador grants Julian Assange asylum
  • In a high-wire political act, Ecuador granted asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, ignoring a threat from the British government to strip it of its diplomatic status and storm its embassy in London to arrest Mr. Assange for breaching his bail conditions;
  • Assange has been holed up at the embassy in London since seeking refuge there in June to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of sexual assault after his appeal against the extradition was dismissed by the highest court in United Kingdom;
  • Assange fears that if extradited to Sweden he could be handed to the American government which wants to prosecute him for publishing secret official documents on Wikileaks. The stand-off is likely to continue for sometime as the UK has made it clear that Assange will be arrested the minute he steps out of the Ecuadorian embassy;
  • At the same time, a decision by the UK to invoke an obscure domestic law to threaten to strip the Ecuadorian embassy of its diplomatic status over the Julian Assange asylum row has caused surprise and is seen as setting a dangerous precedent internationally;
  • The Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 allows the British Govt to revoke the diplomatic status of an embassy under certain circumstances - this paves the way for the police to enter the Ecuadorian embassy to arrest Assange for breaching his bail conditions. If you have time, read this article which discusses why Ecuador is granting Assange asylum.
• People's Liberation Army holds ground-air combat military drill in Tibet
  • The PLA on Monday carried out an integrated ground-air combat military drill on the Tibetan plateau, the fourth such exercise held by the Chinese military in Tibet since March to test its capabilities in the region’s challenging high-altitude terrain;
  • The newspaper said the drills were part of recent plans by the Chengdu Military Region — one of seven military administrative districts — to “continuously make innovations in the plateau training modes”;
  • The PLA has held four major drills in the Tibetan plateau since March, carried out by the Chengdu Military Region’s Tibet Military Command, which is primarily tasked with guarding the eastern and middle sections of disputed border with India, and the Lanzhou Military Region in Xinjiang;
  • In early July, the Lanzhou Military Region had carried out a high-altitude drill with a new surface-to-air missile on the Tibetan plateau. This followed live-fire drills for anti-tank units in June and a ground attack training drill for the PLA Air Force’s J-10 fighters in March. Indian strategic analysts have seen the spate of military drills as a move to test capabilities as a possible response to recent Indian plans to boost deployments in border areas;
  • The Chengdu Military Region last month hosted a military delegation from India on a rare visit to Tibet — the PLA has, in the past, only hosted Indian delegations in other military regions viewed as less sensitive. The delegation visited a military facility near Lhasa. A similar delegation from China to India is to be discussed in September.
• At the sidelines of the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Iranian President Ahmadinejad has rapped the Gulf Arab monarchies for seeking reforms in Syria without applying the same standards of openness for themselves
• X-51A Waverider, an unmanned U.S. military jet designed to fly at hypersonic speeds and travel from London to New York in just 45 minutes has failed during a trial as it crashed into the Pacific Ocean within seconds of its launch. The project is mainly to facilitate future hypersonic missiles. DRDO, India is also developing a Hypersonic Missile called AVATAR (Aerobic Vehicle for Hypersonic Aerospace TrAnspoRtation)
• Russia has demanded that the U.S. honour the agreed peace plan for Syria and warned that the withdrawal of an observer mission would have grave consequences

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this editorial on why the planning commission should focus on universal health coverage
• Read this editorial on the exodus of north-east people from Bangalore due to rumours and how political parties have infact not aided the situation
• Read this article about how even infrastructure in Mumbai ultimately is based on the rich-poor divide
• If you have time, read this article on how the CAG report on coal blocks can be a bigger issue for the Govt than the 2G matter. Not important to read if you don't have time

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

• Moon Mission will pave way for tapping energy rich Helium-3
  • The manned mission to moon by 2020 will pave way for tapping energy-rich helium-3 available in abundance on the satellite, said A. Sivathanu Pillai, Distinguished Scientist and Chief Controller, Defence Research and Development Organisation;
  • Energy generated through fusion process using helium-3 will be several fold higher than the fission method in vogue. Helium-3 (He-3, also called tralphium) is a light, non-radioactive isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. It is rare on the Earth, and it is sought for use in nuclear fusion research. On Earth it is found in small quantities in gas pockets;
  • Helium-3 is proposed as a second-generation fuel for nuclear fusion in hypothetical fusion power plants, but such plants are still very early in their development -- especially since the first generation has not entered service anywhere. Helium-3 can be used in instruments for the detection of free neutrons, such as neutrons leaking from nuclear reactors.