Monday, .August 6, 2012

HEADLINES

• Shooting in Wisconsin Gurudwara by unknown gunmen leaves 6 dead and several injured
• Andy Murray beats Roger Federer to win the Gold medal in Tennis at the Olympics

NATIONAL NEWS

• Luck with rain runs out as drought stares States in the face
  • The country’s lucky run in the last two years with a normal southwest monsoon has ended, with at least four States — Karnataka, Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra — now declaring themselves drought-hit. Gujarat too is severely affected as the sluggish monsoon has not reached its crucial sowing areas;
  • In the northwest, where monsoon has been 35% deficient, farmers in Punjab and Haryana have had to incur higher input costs to pump groundwater for saving the standing paddy crop. The two States are irrigated but water releases from depleted reservoirs have been restricted to conserve supply for drinking and power generation purposes;
  • In another adverse development, at the Himalayan foothills and in the eastern and northeastern sectors, orchards, paddy crop, and horticulture plantations have been hit by cloudbursts and floods;
  • The average 19% monsoon deficiency in the country so far may not be as crippling as it was in 2009 when rice production alone fell by more than eight million tonnes over the previous year. But it is bad enough for the water levels in dams and wells to dip, and the acreage of paddy, pulses and coarse cereals to decline. In Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Gujarat the problem of drinking water and fodder availability for livestock is severe.
• Article 371: Karnataka Govt to do all to ensure smooth passage of Bill
  • Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar will lead the request of the people’s representatives to ensure a smooth passage of an amendment to Article 371 of the Constitution in Parliament, not withstanding the head start that the Congress has obtained with the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs clearing the various features of the amendment, which on receiving the assent of the President will be classified as Article 371 (J);
  • It is common knowledge that political parties over the past four decades have appealed to the Union govt to confer special status on the districts of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region which have, by and large, remained backward since the reorganisation of States in 1956. While the D.M. Nanjundappa committee report has made certain special recommendations for the overall development of the region, with funds drawn from the State’s coffers, but a special provision made under the Constitution will mean a whole lot of difference;
  • The special status to Gulbarga, Yadgir, Bidar, Raichur, Koppal and Bellary districts will translate into better employment opportunities for the local people, reservation in education and a special board to monitor the overall socio-economic development of the region;
  • An amendment to the Constitution calls for a majority support of both the Houses of Parliament, with at least two-thirds of the members present during voting extending their support.
• TRAI seeks to ban import of phones with fake IMEI numbers
  • Telecom regulator TRAI is planning to approach the Commerce and Industry Ministry to ban imports of mobile phones carrying inauthentic unique IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers, which help the authorities track users. The move aims to check proliferation of mobile handsets with duplicate or cloned IMEI numbers, which are dangerous for national security;
  • The GSM Association and Telecommunications Industry Association are global bodies that provide unique numbers to mobile handset companies. An IMEI comprises 15-digit codes assigned to a handset and it appears on the operator’s network whenever a call is made. Concerns had been raised over their usage after terror attacks in India;
  • Cloning issues in the case of CDMA handsets are negligible but rampant in the case of GSM handsets. The government has banned services on mobile handsets with fake IMEI numbers after November 30, 2009.
• India's cotton problems
  • It is a strange thing for a country that is the second largest producer of cotton in the world to do. Yet, India is now importing a large quantity of cotton using precious foreign exchange, and exerting what could have been an avoidable pressure on the trade deficit. And, it does this after exporting large quantities in the same season just a few months ago;
  • In the ongoing cotton season (October 2011- September 2012), India exported 120 lakh bales, significantly higher than the Cotton Advisory Board’s (CAB) estimated exportable surplus of 80-85 lakh bales. And now, together, the mills are likely to import more than 15 lakh bales. Incidentally, the current season’s exports and imports are the highest in the last seven years;
  • With production going up steadily in the country during the last decade, cotton exports also increased from 2005-06. Since then, almost every year, raw material security and stability in prices have been a challenge for the textile industry. Prices may not have fluctuated as sharply as in 2010-11, yet, for the Indian cotton sector, 2011-12 has been another year of extreme volatility and uncertainties;
  • India has emerged as a major cotton producing and exporting country, and yet, a long-term road map eludes the sector. This has, during the last five years, resulted in frequent instances of price fluctuations and fears of shortage in availability. Cotton is the source of livelihood for thousands of farmers; more than half of Indian textile industry is cotton-based; the domestic textile mills consume over 60 per cent of the Indian cotton; and, globally, India is the second largest cotton exporter;
  • India first needs to strengthen its data collection and monitoring system. The Ministry of Textiles is working on a National Fibre Policy targeting 6-8 per cent increase in cotton production a year, and has circulated a draft Cabinet note on Cotton Distribution Bill and mooted a Cotton Distribution Policy. However, what is imperative is a comprehensive policy at the earliest that will help all stakeholders. It should also focus on schemes that will encourage efficient operations and avoid speculation rather than controlling the prices.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• The Non-Alignment Movement's Palestine meet cancelled
  • A meeting of NAM committee that includes India to support a Palestinian bid for upgraded U.N. membership was cancelled at the last minute after Israel refused to allow representatives of five countries to enter West Bank;
  • The meeting of 12 representatives of the committee with Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership was scheduled for evening. Ministers and representatives were to meet in the West Bank city of Ramallah and sign a declaration in support of a fresh Palestinian bid, seeking upgrading of its status from observer to non-member state;
  • Ministers and representatives from Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cuba and Malaysia were denied permits by Israel to enter Ramallah. Officials at the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that permits were denied to representatives of five countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel;
  • Besides India, ministers and officials from Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Cuba and Colombia were expected to attend the meeting.
• China summons US diplomat over South China sea row
  • China said on Sunday it had summoned the U.S. embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission to lodge “serious representations” over a statement from Washington accusing Beijing of risking escalating tensions in the disputed South China Sea;
  • The U.S State Department had said, on Friday, that China’s move to upgrade the administrative level of Sansha city — on Woody Island in the disputed Paracels — and establish a new military garrison there ran “counter to collaborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences” and risked “further escalating tensions in the region”;
  • China has in recent months had run-ins with both the Philippines and Vietnam, which, along with at least eight other countries, hold competing claims over the disputed South China Sea and its islands.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article about judicial activism and the risks it poses. Important for law and political science students
• Read this editorial on the drought situation in India
• If you have time, read this article on the recent violence in Assam and the poor response from the administration and Govt
• If you have time, read this article on the political trends in the Anna Hazare movement and the hints of the janata movement of the 1970s