Saturday, August 4, 2012

HEADLINES

• Union Home Minister Shinde said that both the Centre and the State Govt want development in the Darjeeling hills and assured all help to the GTA and its chief executive officer Bimal Gurung
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Friday gave Air India the go-ahead for inducting the much-awaited Boeing 787 Dreamliner into its fleet
• India’s 7,500 km-long coastline will soon be equipped with security radars at vantage points to detect movement of suspicious vessels along the country’s maritime boundary

NATIONAL NEWS

• Cabinet clears Mars Mission
  • The Union Cabinet cleared the ISRO’s mission to Mars next year. The project, which comes on the heels of the Chandrayaan mission to the moon, envisages putting a spacecraft in Mars' orbit to study its atmosphere, with the help of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle;
  • With this move, India joins the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and China in undertaking such an effort. NASA is also said to be working on a Mars mission for November 2013;
  • The launch is slated for November 2013 from Sriharikota. The Space Commission gave its clearance in December 2011. November 2013 was chosen, as the planet would be closest to the earth that time. The next such opportunity will come only in the summer of 2018;
  • The mission is estimated to cost about Rs.450 crore. An initial provision of Rs.125 crore was made in this year’s budget to kick-start the work.
• Rs.14000 cr fixed as base price for 2G spectrum auction
  • The Union Cabinet on Friday fixed a reserve (minimum) price of Rs. 14,000 crore for 5 MHz of pan-India 2G spectrum in the 1800-MHz GSM band for auctioning spectrum to be vacated by companies whose 122 licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012;
  • The reserve price for 5 MHz of CDMA spectrum has been put at Rs. 18,200 crore, 1.3 times the price of GSM spectrum. Only two slots of 5 MHz each will be put on the block, though spectrum will be available for bidding in multiple blocks of 1.25 MHz;
  • Taking a bold political decision, the government shaved $750 million, or roughly Rs. 4,100 crore, off the roughly Rs 18,000-crore reserve price recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI);
  • Winners in the auction are required to make an upfront payment of just one-third of the total bid amount for GSM spectrum and one-fourth for CDMA spectrum, with the rest to be paid after a two-year moratorium in 10 equal, annual instalments;
  • However, the pace at which the auction preparation and the auctioneer’s appointment are proceeding suggests that the Centre will miss the Supreme Court-approved second extension of the August 31 deadline too, pushing the auction to October- December.
• Zaidi set to become Election Commissioner
  • Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi (61), a 1976 batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, is all set to become an Election Commissioner. A formal notification is expected from President Pranab Mukherjee. Prime Minister Singh has already approved his appointment;
  • The vacancy in the three-member Election Commission arose after Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi retired on June 10. V.S. Sampath was appointed in his place. H.S. Brahma is the other Commissioner;
  • He was earlier the Director General of Civil Aviation and last ended as the Civil Aviation secretary.
• Centre to revisit procedure for judges appointment
  • The Centre is planning to revisit the 1993 Supreme Court judgment providing for the collegium system of judicial appointments. Law Minister Salman Khurshid said the Centre would soon bring in a Constitution amendment Bill to revisit the judgment, giving primacy to the judiciary over the executive in the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary;
  • Under the collegium system, the executive has no say in appointments as the recommendations of the collegium of judges are final and binding on the government. With the criticism growing of the lack of transparency in the appointments and transfer of judges, the Centre was also in the process of implementing the demand for establishing a National Judicial Commission for judicial appointments, he said;
  • As for the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, which was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee, Mr. Khurshid said former Chief Justices of India and of High Courts expressed certain apprehensions over certain provisions. The government would amend these provisions without diluting the thrust of the Bill, which lays down judicial standards to ensure accountability on the part of judges;
  • Mr. Khurshid said it was proposed to introduce an All-India Judicial Service for the subordinate judiciary, on the lines of civil services. Though amendments were made, the Rajya Sabha had to pass a resolution before the proposal could come into effect.
• Survival of bustards is in danger
  • The Centre has asked the States to come up with plans to raise the number of bustards as the survival of these birds is in danger. The Environment Ministry has suggested species recovery action plans in the States to save the birds of the species, including Great Indian Bustard, Lesser Florican and Bengal Florican, whose numbers have dwindled drastically;
  • Habitat loss, poaching and overgrazing on grasslands mostly contribute to the decline. Just 300 Great Indian Bustards are alive now, with no known breeding flocks outside India. Fewer than 350 Bengal Floricans are left in India, the Ministry says;
  • The Great Indian Bustard was once distributed throughout the western half of India — from Punjab and Haryana in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south and from Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west to Orissa in the east, spanning 11 States;
  • Lesser Florican was once abundant in the grasslands of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Now they are restricted to a few pockets in western and south central India. Fewer than 2,500 of these birds are alive now, the Ministry says;
  • The IUCN has categorised the Great Indian Bustard and Bengal Florican as Critically Endangered and Lesser Florican as endangered in the 2012 version of the Red List. Houbara Bustard, another species found in India, has been categorised as vulnerable.
• Mongolia-India joint military exercise in Belgaum
  • Aiming at sharpening counter insurgency skills and enhancing training infrastructure for U.N. peacekeeping missions, the Mongolian Army will participate in joint exercises with its Indian counterpart at Belgaum in Karnataka from August 6;
  • Codenamed as “Nomadic Elephant”, the exercise will focus specially on the needs of peacekeeping missions under the U.N. flag and will help in increasing the coordination and understanding between troops of the two nations.
• August and September rain could also be below par
  • There is more bad news on the monsoon front. The India Meteorological Department has forecast that rainfall during the second half of the season is also likely to be below par. As a result the season could end up with a deficiency of more than 10 per cent;
  • In a Press release , the IMD has said rainfall over the country during August-September is likely to be below normal, at just 91 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA) with a model error of plus or minus eight per cent. “Based on the rainfall distribution over the country till date and the outlook for the second half of the season, the rainfall in the entire southwest monsoon season [June-September] is likely to be deficient [less than 90 per cent of LPA]”;
  • Considering that the cumulative rainfall at the end of the first half of the season (July 31) was 13 per cent below normal, the forecast of nine per cent deficiency during the second half meant that the season could end up with an overall deficiency of 15 per cent, said scientists at the IMD.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• UNGA condemns Syria violence
  • The U.N. General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly adopted a Saudi-drafted resolution on Syria that expressed “grave concern” at the escalating violence but India was among the 31 nations that abstained;
  • The 193-member General Assembly passed the resolution that denounced Syria’s crackdown on its people and demanded that the country lockdown its chemical and biological weapons. The resolution also deplored “the failure of the Security Council to agree on measures to ensure the compliance of Syrian authorities with its decisions”;
  • The resolution got 133 votes in favour, while 12 countries voted against. Thirty one countries, including India, abstained.
• Ex-Fiji Prime Minister jailed
  • Former Fiji Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, the last democratically elected leader in the coup-plagued South Pacific nation, was sentenced to 12 months jail on Friday after being found guilty of corruption;
  • Mr. Qarase, who became prime minister in 2000 and was ousted in a military coup six years later, was convicted on nine charges of abuse of office and failing to discharge his duty when he was a public servant in the 1990s;
  • The charges related to his time as a director of a government investment company called Fijian Holdings from 1992 to 1995, when prosecutors said he put the interests of his family and home village before the public;
  • High Court judge Priyantha Fernando said the 71-year-old — who pleaded not guilty — had breached the public trust and must serve a custodial sentence. The conviction means Mr. Qarase will not be eligible to contest elections which the military regime that deposed him in 2006 plans to hold in 2014.
• Guyana’s Parliament plans to investigate the $15,000 monthly pension that lawmakers earlier approved for the former President, Bharrat Jagdeo. Opposition wants the pension slashed

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this editorial on the need to disseminate the basics of finance in the country
• If you have time, read this article on the reasons why increasing FSI (floor space index) in Mumbai is not advisable

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• NBFC-MFI norms modified
  • All registered Non-Banking Financial Companies intending to convert themselves into the specific category for microfinance institutions which was recently created by the RBI must seek registration with immediate effect and no later than October 31;
  • The NBFC's have to maintain net-owned funds of Rs.3 crore by March 2013 and Rs.5 cr by March 2014 failing which their microfinance loans cannot exceed 10% of their total assets. The requirements for net owned funds has been reduced for MFIs operating in the North-eastern region;
  • To allow operation flexibility, the RBI has asked these NBFCs to ensure that the average interest rate on loans during a financial year does not exceed the average borrowing cost during the financial year + the margin;
  • The RBI has also decided that the cap on margins as defined by the Malegam Committee may not exceed 10% for MFI's where the loan portfolio exceeds 100 cr and 12% for all the rest.
• India will help Sri Lanka establish a special economic zone to manufacture auto components in Trincomalee. The SEZs will promote exports to the production chains in India