Saturday, 27th July, 2013

HEADLINES

• Hung parliament predicted as both UPA, NDA fall short
• Distinguished molecular biology research scientist obaid siddiqi dead
• Russia not to extradite snowden

NATIONAL NEWS

• India, China trying to evolve effective mechanisms to check LAC face off's
  • “Till the final settlement of the border issue, we are trying to find out more effective mechanisms to prevent occasional incidents. There are many points in the LAC that are disputed and they are patrolled by both sides. So, sometimes it leads to some face-off,’’ Mr. Antony told

• Centre Odisha lock horns over mining in Niyamgiri
  • The Centre and the Odisha government are at loggerheads over the implementation of the environmental referendum being conducted in Odisha over bauxite mining in Niyamgiri hills on a directive by the Supreme Court.
  • The fifth gram sabha held at Palberi on Thursday also adopted a resolution opposing mining
  • The Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Odisha government are engaged in war of words over restricting palli (gram) sabhas in the hill villages of Rayagada and Kalahandi districts.
  • The Supreme Court had set a three-month deadline for the State government to conduct gram sabhas. The government has sought an extension of the deadline. The court wanted the gram sabhas to find out whether mining in Niyamgiri – considered the abode of their ‘ista debta’ (presiding deity) ‘Niyamraja’ for several centuries – was an infringement of the religious, cultural, individual and community rights of Dongria Kondhs and other traditional forest-dwellers as per law

• New metsat to add edge to reading weather
  • Insat-3D, the country’s latest satellite put in orbit on a European rocket early on Friday, is expected to sharpen weather observation and forecasting and also enhance land and sea surface monitoring over the sub-continent and the Indian Ocean region.
  • The scientists will ‘push’ the spacecraft’s initial elliptical orbit into a circular one that will be nearly 36,000 km above the ground at 82 degrees East longitude. (It was first placed in a 249 km x 35,888 km ellipse.) Insat-3D will then have a period matching the Earth’s 24-hour rotation and will look fixed or geosynchronous over the sub-continent.
  • In the making for over seven years, the metsat supplements the decade-old and fading Kalpana-1 and Insat-3A with four sophisticated payloads.
  • The six-channel imager takes weather pictures of the Earth with better resolution than its predecessors. The 19-channel sounder is the first such over the region and gives layered vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and integrated ozone.
  • The data relay transponder picks and relays met, moisture and sea related information from automatic data collection platforms placed at remote uninhabited locations on to a processing centre for generating accurate forecasts.
  • A search and rescue device picks up and relays distress alert signals from users on sea, land and air to an ISRO centre in Bangalore and enables speedy detection and rescue of such people.

• New national antibiotics policy on the anvil.
  • The Union Health Ministry is considering a new National Antibiotics Policy to handle increasing antibiotics resistance.
  • That policy had recommended a ban on across-the-counter sale of antibiotics and specified that high-end antibiotics could be used only in tertiary care centres.
  • Experts claim that a policy is of vital importance to ensure that further obstinate strains do not develop. Most hospital administrators are concerned about treating a growing percentage of patients with strains of bacteria that are resistant to carbapenem — powerful third line antibiotics. This is especially so in corporate and private hospitals, where the use of expensive antibiotics is more common, explains Abdul Ghafur, infectious diseases consultant, Apollo Hospitals.
  • In 2010, Timothy Walsh, professor of medical microbiology at Cardiff University, Wales, described in an issue of The Lancet , the emergence of a new enzyme that made bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics. The enzyme NDM1 was named after the city in which it was found, Dr. Walsh explained. India took objection to naming the bacteria after the country and some of that objection was rooted in the potential threats to medical tourism in the country.
  • The Chennai Declaration (chennaideclaration.org), known since as a milestone event, was held in August 2012, and brought together representatives of various specialist groups to put their heads together and draw up a road map to tackle antimicrobial resistance in the country
  • The Chennai Declaration pushed for the creation of a national antibiotics policy, this time, one that would be implementable. It also suggested the possibility of adopting a “liberal approach.” To start with, they suggested that restriction be placed on across-the-counter-sale of an initial list of antibiotics, and that additional drugs could be added to the list in a phased manner. They also recommended that a national antibiotic resistance surveillance system be established with representation from all regions in the country, government and private hospitals.

• India offers stake to Dhaka in Tipaimukh hydel project
  • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday offered Bangladesh a stake in the Tipaimukh hydel project, which has been a bone of contention ever since it was conceived in the mid-1980s.
  • Assuring that India would not do anything inimical to Bangladesh’s interests in the area of common water bodies, Dr. Singh suggested to visiting Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni that Dhaka could join the yet-to-take-off project in Manipur as a stakeholder.
  • Opposition to the project ebbed in Bangladesh after India took Dhaka into confidence on all aspects of the dam, including providing it with techno-economic feasibility reports, holding more surveys and lowering the height of the dam. It still remains an emotive issue.
  • Partnership in Tipaimukh could also lead to a partnership between the two countries in Bangladesh, for nine hydel projects under construction, or being planned in the north-east, including Teesta III and IV, and Subansiri. Though both countries have resolved a large number of bilateral issues, India has been unable to resolve outstanding issues relating to the land boundary agreement (LBA) and the Teesta river.

• India – france agree to deepen defence ties
  • India and France on Friday discussed their ongoing military cooperation during the Defence Minister-level talks, stressing it was an important pillar of the strategic partnership between them.
  • Negotiations are in final stages for the Rs. 50,000-crore deal for procuring 126 Rafale combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force. The two sides are also holding negotiations on a Rs. 30,000-crore project for co-developing the Maitri surface-to-air missile defence system.
  • France has emerged as a key player in defence cooperation with India, bagging several big contracts including the deal for building six Scorpene submarines for the Navy, though it has been further delayed.
  • The Navies of both countries are working towards finalising the schedule for the conduct of Exercise ‘Varuna’ off the coast of India and also that the next Air Force exercise ‘Garuda’ would be held during the first half of 2014.”

• India calls for banning e-ciggaretes and curtailling the use of hookas
  • India has proposed a total ban on e-cigarettes and regulating proliferation of hookah (water pipes) use to prevent adverse impact on human health.
  • The recommendation made at the regional meeting of WHO-Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) that concluded here on Friday, was backed by all 11 members of South-East Asian region countries with the nations committing themselves to take measures to their use, including imposing a ban. The issue would be taken up at the next meeting of the Conference of Parties
  • E-cigarettes and hookahs are much in fashion and received promotion following the implementation of stringent anti-smoking laws. Both are unlicensed products and e-cigarettes are being illegally smuggled into India.
  • The recommendations are in line with the obligations under Article 5.2(b) of the WHO-FCTC to prevent and reduce nicotine addiction including through banning E-cigarettes or Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems.

• Support for centralised rehabilitation plan for endosulfan victims gains momentum
  • Even as the families of endosulfan victims here continue efforts to get themselves enlisted in the rehabilitation packages, a strong plea for a centralised rehabilitation of the victims to find a reasonably lasting solution to their social and economic concerns is gaining momentum.
  • Leading activists, who have been fighting for the cause of the victims reeling under serious health hazards attributed to endosulfan use in the State-owned cashew estates in the district, feel that the rehabilitation initiatives now on would not help address their insecurity within the family and society.
  • They firmly believe that only a pragmatic centralised rehabilitation package could address the social stigma and financial and health concerns, and help bring the distraught families back to the mainstream as the current packages seldom help them lead a life of dignity

• Congestion tax a possibility in metros
  • If the Union Urban Development Ministry has its way, Delhi and other metros could soon go the London and Milan way and charge motorists congestion tax.
  • The move will serve a twin purpose: reduce traffic in crowded parts of the city and control greenhouse gas emission levels. The Ministry is particularly impressed by the manner Milan was able to control pollution. In 2008, the world’s fashion capital was one of the most polluted cities in Europe.
  • The Italian city then introduced a pollution-linked congestion pricing system called ‘ecopass’. It charged drivers on the basis of the engine emission to enter earmarked zones. The higher the emission level, the more the drivers were made to shell out. Extremely high polluting vehicles were banned completely in the restricted areas. The result of the graded congestion tax system was phenomenal, with air quality improving significantly.
  • Milan has since moved to the conventional congestion pricing system wherein all vehicles, irrespective of the emission levels, have to pay to enter restricted areas.
  • The Urban Development Ministry wants to combine the features of ‘ecopass’ and the congestion tax method of London, Singapore and Stockholm and implement it in metros such as Delhi.

• Now Indians abroad can access information through RTI
  • The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has written to the heads of all Missions directing them to create awareness regarding the facility of Electronic Indian Postal Order (e-IPO) for payment of Right to Information fee abroad under the Act.

• Monsoon deficiency in east and north east raises kharif concerns
  • Overall sowing of kharif crops is higher this season so far than in a normal year, but still there is disquiet in the Agriculture Ministry over the 37 per cent deficiency in the southwest monsoon in East and North-East India. Rainfall was ‘scanty’ in Bihar and Jharkhand

• Urban poor to be alloted flats soon
  • The Delhi Cabinet has decided to initiate the process of allotment of flats to the urban poor under the Rajiv Ratna Awas Yojana
  • The contribution of the beneficiaries will come to Rs.60,000 and the remaining cost will be borne by the Delhi Government and Union Government.
  • The share of the Scheduled Caste beneficiaries will be borne by the Delhi SC/ST/OBC/Minorities Corporation. Hence, the SC allottees would get flats for free

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Dhaka keen on India voting bill to approve settlement
  • The Bill, if passed, will put the final seal of approval on the settlement negotiated by the two countries during the tenure of the Awami League led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The introduction of the Bill, which requires two-thirds of members present to vote in favour, therefore needs bipartisan support.
  • Dr. Moni expressed Bangladesh’s desire to settle the outstanding land boundary issues with India and said it would be an election issue in her country along with the Teesta Treaty, which could not be signed due to opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

OPINION/EDITORIALS

• Article on the egyptian problems and its repercussions in that area
• Article on India – Japan ties
• Editorial on RBI's policy changes with respect to the recent downturn in economy
• Editorial on IGNOU's decision to close the sign language centre of learning