Sunday, August 19, 2012

HEADLINES

• Home Secretary blames Pakistani elements for uploading inflammatory and objectionable content on the Internet that painted an exaggerated picture of the recent violence in Assam
• Over 5000 people arrive in Guwahati from different cities in India
• Olympics heroes, shooter Vijay Kumar and wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt being recommended for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the country’s highest sporting honour
• Miss China, Wen Xia Yu, crowned Miss World

NATIONAL NEWS

• Suggestions sought on protecting good Samaritans in accident cases
  • The Supreme Court has sought suggestions from the government, the National Highways Authority of India and others for framing guidelines for protection of good Samaritans rendering assistance to accident victims;
  • The Court said “It is not insufficiency of law but its implementation which is a matter of concern. Different guidelines including guidelines for an ambulance code, emergency care and appropriate directions to hospitals on the highways for handling trauma patients as a top priority are stated to have been issued” but were not being implemented;
  • The petition heard by the Court said the identity of the person helping to bring the victim to hospital should not be revealed and he/she should not be compelled to visit the police station. Counsel appearing for the Centre, said this plea would require an amendment to laws which only the legislature could bring in.
• Supreme Court cautions High Courts not to meddle with tender terms unless malafide
  • The Supreme Court has cautioned High Courts against interfering with policy decisions and in matters challenging the award of contracts by the state or public authorities unless it is contrary to the public interest, discriminatory or unreasonable;
  • Giving this ruling, the Court said: “The basic requirement of Article 14 of the Constitution is fairness in action by the state, and non-arbitrariness in essence and substance is the heartbeat of fair play. These actions are amenable to judicial review only to the extent that the state must act validly for a discernible reason and not whimsically for any ulterior purpose. If the state acts within the bounds of reasonableness, it would be legitimate to take into consideration the national priorities.”
• Steps taken to improve safety record of Indian nuclear reactors
  • The Indian nuclear power establishment has over 345 reactor years of accident-free operation and it has fully geared itself up to meet any contingency likely to be caused by factors other than the design basics;
  • A reactor year is a measure used by countries across the world to calculate the probable period for which they will have not have any nuclear incident. For example, the U.S says that it expects over 10000 reactor years of accident free operations;
  • Post-Fukushima, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has taken a re-look at the safety aspect of nuclear reactors and made some modifications in them to avert possible disasters;
  • All nuclear reactors are since being fitted with passive re-combiners that prevent explosions involving hydrogen by converting it into water and passive decay heat removers for containing radiation in the event of a meltdown. These measures are bound to further improve the safety record of Indian nuclear reactors;
  • Incidents beyond the scope of reactor designs have also to be factored in and that is being done in a comprehensive manner under the supervision of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). Besides, NPCIL has enlisted the cooperation of the World Association of Nuclear Operators for enhancing the safety and reliability of nuclear reactors in the country.
• CAG says that the cabinet note on the Delhi Airport was changed
  • Accusing the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) of allowing “undue favours” to GMR-run Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has also said in its report that an “important condition” which was part of the Cabinet note was changed later on to provide DIAL the right to operate Delhi airport for 60 years without any scope for review;
  • Further, it noted, the reply by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on the issue was “factually incorrect”;
  • The Cabinet note on DIAL, dated September 2003, talked about initial concession period to DIAL for 30 years, which could be extended by another 30 “subject to mutual agreement and negotiation of terms.” However in the draft of the agreement signed between AAI and DIAL, which was part of the bidding documents, the “important condition” of “subject to mutual agreement and negotiation of terms” was omitted.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Myanmar to probe sectarian violence
  • Myanmar’s government has formed a commission to investigate the causes of recent sectarian violence in which at least 83 people were killed. President Thein Sein announced the commission on Friday, more than two months after the June clashes between Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas that displaced tens of thousands of people;
  • Mr. Thein Sein has rejected calls from the United Nations and human rights groups for independent investigators, saying the unrest was an internal affair. The 27-member commission will be headed by a retired Religious Affairs Ministry official.
• US facing embarassment in the Organisation of American States over Julian Assange
  • The Organisation of American States, an apex hemispherical body for the Americas, said a meeting of its Foreign Ministers next Friday would focus on the diplomatic row between Ecuador and the U.K. over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (41), who was granted political asylum by Quito while holed up in the country’s London embassy;
  • The outcome of the OAS meet might embarrass both the U.K. and the U.S., especially since U.S. will be the venue of the discussion. However, the U.S. has thus far refrained from interjecting itself into the controversy relating to Ecuador granting Assange asylum.
• A flotilla of boats carrying Japanese nationalists, including parliamentarians, has set sail for islands at the heart of a bitter dispute with Chin - known as Senkaku in Japan and as Diaoyu in China. The islands have disputed between Japan and China over time
• Russia has launched a new initiative to end the conflict in Syria, calling for a time-bound ceasefire that should be guaranteed by main outside powers

EMINENT PERSONS IN THE NEWS

• Philippe Croizon
  • Quadruple amputee Philippe Croizon swam between islands in the icy Bering Strait on Friday to cross from America to Asia in the final part of a quest to link all continents. The Frenchman braved strong currents and near-freezing temperatures in a roughly four km swim between the U.S. island of Little Diomede and Big Diomede in Russia that he said took about one hour and 20 minutes;
  • Mr. Croizon had all four limbs amputated in 1994 after being struck by an electric shock of more than 20,000 volts as he tried to remove a TV antenna from a roof. He uses flippers attached to prosthetic limbs to swim;
  • Over the past three months, he has swum from Papua New Guinea to Indonesia, crossing from Oceania to Asia; across the Red Sea from Egypt to Jordan between Africa and Asia; and from Spain to Morocco, between Europe to Africa.

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• Offer affordable equated monthly installments (EMIs), Finance Minister tells banks
  • Having energised market regulator SEBI to take swift decisions to pep up mutual funds and other market segments a couple of days ago, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who is on a mission mode to arrest the economic slowdown, on Saturday directed public sector banks to cut interest rates and provide cheaper credit at lower EMIs to consumers so as to induce spending on durable goods, kick-start the manufacturing growth engines and help revive investment across the board;
  • Mr. Chidambaram also asked the chief executives to reschedule the short-term loans to farmers in drought-affected States to long-erm debt in view of the deficient monsoon and called for revision in sanction norms of education loans to ensure that eligible students are not turned back;
  • Alongside, in a bid to ensure that the surplus cash available with the people gets channelised into the banking system, the Finance Minister directed the PSB chiefs to double the number of ATMs (automated teller machines) in two years from the current 63,000 and also provide the facility of cash acceptance so that the funds do not lie idle in the hands of the people.