Weekly Current Affairs October 24 to 30, 2010

[Prabhu nath singh]

Weekly Current Affairs update

October 24 to 30, 2010

(for UPSC General Studies)

 

Section A: INDIA

Newsmakers

Govt lists Shunglu committee’s terms of reference

The Union government on October 25, 2010 approved the constitution of a High Level Committee (HLC) headed by V.K. Shunglu, the former Comptroller & Auditor General of India, to look into the organization and conduct of the Commonwealth Games – Delhi 2010 and also to draw lessons from it. The second member of the Committee will be Shantanu Consul, Secretary, Department of Personnel & Training, upon his retirement on October 31, 2010. Shunglu has been given the status of a Supreme Court judge. The HLC will submit its report within three months. It will decide its own procedures and mode of enquiry.

From financial irregularities to wasteful expenditure, role of foreign advisers to weaknesses in management, wrongdoing

to coordination lapses — the Shunglu Committee will investigate the entire gamut of issues pertaining to the conduct of the Commonwealth Games. Government has approved the terms of reference for the Committee as under:

• The role and responsibilities of the signatories to the Host City Contract and the overall implications of the obligations

entered into through the Host City Contract;

• The planning and execution of development projects related to the Games and contracts for service delivery, with

reference to time, cost and quality;

• The issues relating to the effectiveness of the organizational structure and governance for organization, preparation and conduct of the Games at all levels, including the Organising Committee and it’s Key Functional Areas;

• Examination of weaknesses in management, alleged misappropriation, irregularities, wasteful expenditure and wrongdoing in the conduct of the Games, and, recommending action on the same;

• The issues relating to financing the Games, including estimates of revenue and expenditure;

• The issues concerning coordination amongst various agencies involved in the development of infrastructure and conduct of the Games;

• The role of international/national advisors/consultants/officials of the Organising Committee in the conduct of the Games;

• The overall impact of the Games including legacy for city infrastructure, sports infrastructure and sports development;

• The lessons learnt for the future, on each of the above, including establishment of a mechanism for laying down timeframes and effective monitoring, creation of a legally sustainable framework for hosting similar international sporting events, appropriate financial management and internal audit, media interaction and communication;

• Any other areas considered relevant by the Committee.

• Probe by other agencies: The Comptroller & Auditor General of India (C&AG), Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and other agencies will independently carry out their audit and investigations, in accordance with their respective mandates. All complaints referred to various agencies will be looked into and action taken immediately by the agency concerned. The HLC will recommend action on any matter that comes to its notice involving alleged misappropriation, irregularities, wasteful expenditure or wrongdoing, and, they will take immediate action as warranted under the law.

 

• Lt Gen Shankar is the new Director General Border Roads: Lt Gen S Ravi Shankar on October 27, 2010 took over as the Director General of Border Roads Organisation (BRO). The BRO is spread across the length and breath of the country, operating in 22 States including the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and developed a network of over 48300 Km of roads and 36000 meters of permanent bridges, over the last 5 decades.

 

• Narsingha Mishra is part-time member in the 19th Law Commission of India: The 19th Law Commission of India was constituted for a period of three years w.e.f. from September 1, 2009 to August 31, 2012. At present, Justice P. V. Reddi, retired Judge, Supreme Court of India, is the Chairman and Dr. B. A. Agarwal, is the Member-Secretary of the Commission. The Government on October 27, 2010 approved the appointment of Narsingha Mishra (Senior Advocate, High Court of Orissa) as a Part-time Member in the Commission.

 

• Lt Col S. Verma sets record for first BASE jump in India: Lt Col Satyendra Verma, captain of the Army's skydiving team, on October 29, 2010 undertook a record feat by successfully completing the first-ever 'BASE' jump in India by leaping from the 235-metre-high Pitampura television tower in New Delhi. This advanced form of free fall jump is a major adventure sport around the world and BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span (bridge) and Earth (mountain cliffs).

 

• Row as J&K interlocutor says Pak role must for peace: The interlocutors on Kashmir have started their stint by triggering a controversy with the BJP taking a strong objection to Dileep Padgaonkar’s comment on October 23, 2010 that Pakistan’s involvement was crucial to resolution of the Kashmir issue. The BJP accused Padgaonkar of “internationalizing” what India considers to be its internal matter and sought an explanation from the PMO on whether

the interlocutors had strayed from their brief. The Congress distanced itself from Padgaonkar’s comment, saying it was

for him to explain what he meant by the formulation.

 

• Freedom fighter Satyawati passes away: Satyavati, mother of late Vice-President Krishan Kant, passed away on

October 27, 2010. At 105, she was the oldest freedom fighter. In 1925, Satyavati married Lala Achint Ram, a Gandhian and one of the founders of Servants of the People Society. Son Krishan Kant was elected to Parliament in 1967 and went on to become the Vice-President of India.

 

• ‘Makers of Modern India' on the stands: Writer Girish Karnad on October 28, 2010 released “Makers of Modern India” edited and introduced by noted historian Ramachandra Guha. It chronicles works of 19 thinkers of modern India.

 

News round up

‘Food Security Act to cover 75% population’ – NAC The National Advisory Council, chaired by Sonia Gandhi, has worked out a compromised formula for the National Food Security on October 23, 2010. The Council has acknowledged the twin constraints of the budget and the availability of foodgrains by stopping short of “universalisation” of the government–guaranteed right to subsidised food. Instead, it has proposed “near universal with differential entitlements” food security programme. It has recommended to the government that the programme be rolled out from the next financial year. All beneficiaries will be covered by March 31, 2014. A “reformed” public distribution system will be the vehicle for rolling out the programme.

Coverage: The Council was of the view that at least 75% of the country should get subsidised grain. Scaling down its previous recommendations, it has decided to go for subsidized foodgrains for 46% of the rural population and 28% of the urban population. This is further broken down as

90% of all households in rural India, and the poorest 50 per cent of the urban population.

New categories: The entitled population is to be divided into two groups: priority and general households (the new terms for the “BPL/APL” categories.) The priority group is to be entitled to 35 kg of cereals a month at low prices (Rs. 3 for a kilo of rice, Rs. 2 for wheat, and Re. 1 for millet). The general group is to be entitled to 20 kg of cereals a month at no more than 50 per cent of the Minimum Support Price, which is to say around Rs. 5.50 to Rs.6 per kg at current prices.

Grain requirement: The two categories together would require 62.1 million tonnes of foodgrain, annually, Agriculture & Food Minister Sharad Pawar had said on October 27, 2010. That is more than the record government procurement of 56.83 million tonnes in 2009-10.

Opinions

Does not include all Some critics say the NAC recommendations has missed a historic opportunity to introduce a universal system. They say a universal coverage is the only way for India to ensure that no needy person is excluded from the public distribution system (PDS).

Unviable Many agricultural analysts and economists are questioning the viability of the food security legislation recommended by NAC. “It would be difficult to produce such huge quantities and the government will have to crowd out the entire private sector from procurement. That is going to be a major challenge,” said Ashok Gulati, Asia director of the International Food Policy Research Institute.

If the government begins to procure foodgrain to feed 75 per cent of Indians, very little may remain in the open market, driving up general price levels. What is perhaps most worrying though is that a massive quantity of foodgrain acquired through massive spending by the government will still pass through the very leaky and completely unreformed public distribution system (PDS) to reach the beneficiaries. The NAC has made some suggestions to overhaul the PDS, but these may take longer than the suggested roll-out of the Food Security Act in the next financial year. In the interim, there could be significant leakages, more even than in the present system. This concern needs to be addressed.

 

India signs Convention on nuclear damage

• India on October 27, 2010 signed the convention on supplementary compensation (CSC) for nuclear damage at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna. Indian Ambassador to Austria and Resident Representative to the IAEA Dinkar Khullar signed the Convention.

• The US has been insisting that India join the CSC as it had

committed during the nuclear deal negotiations. Part of the urgency on this has been prompted by Washington’s discomfiture with India’s liability legislation. In particular, the problem is with the clause providing right to recourse to operator against the supplier for providing compensation. New Delhi hopes signing of the convention will allay some of the fears of US companies about the nuclear liability law passed earlier by the Parliament.

What is CSC?

• The convention sets out the parameters of financial liability for the operator of a nuclear reactor. It provides for

compensation in case of transnational implications of a nuclear accident. The convention will establish a uniform global legal regime for compensation to victims in the event of a nuclear accident. It provides for establishment of an international fund to increase the amount available to compensate victims and allows for compensating civil damage occurring within a state's exclusive economic zone, including loss of tourism or fisheries related income.

• So far, 14 countries including India have signed the CSC but only four countries including the US have ratified it. For

the CSC to come into force, at least five countries with 400,000 units of minimum combined installed nuclear power capacity should ratify it.

Three stages

• There are three stages to joining the convention — signing, ratification and the final entry into force. At present, India is

only going to sign into the convention through the depository, which is the IAEA in this case. This stage does not require India to provide any specific documents including a copy of the civil nuclear liability legislation.

• Even at the ratification stage, India will only have to provide a declaration along with the letter of accession, which has to state that its national law is in line with provisions of the convention. The final copy of the law will have to be provided only at the time of the entry into force, said sources. However, questions can be raised by member countries at the time of ratification when this declaration is made.

How CSC differs from Indian legislation?

• According to the CSC, the operator will be fully responsible for all liability in case of a nuclear incident unless, of course, the damage is caused by war, military conflict or natural disasters.

• The convention does state that national law can provide the operator with the right to recourse only “if it is expressly provided for by a contract in writing” or if the incident “results from an act or omission done with an intent to cause

damage”.

• The Indian legislation, however, goes beyond this. It also states that the operator can exercise this right if “the nuclear

incident has resulted as a consequence of latent or patent defect, supply of sub-standard material, defective equipment or services or from the gross negligence on the part of the supplier of the material, equipment or services”.

• For the moment, New Delhi is not that concerned about any possible incongruity between its legislation and the CSC

because it does not need to enter into this argument just yet. By signing into the CSC before US President Barack Obama’s visit, India will be fulfilling one of the key demands placed by Washington to assure its suppliers that any legal action will be in line with norms set out in the CSC.

 

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to visit India

• India raised the issue of “stapled” visas as well its other core concern – China's claims over Arunachal Pradesh –when the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, met his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, on the sidelines of the ASEAN-East Asia Summit in Hanoi on October 29, 2010. The Chinese PM also announced his intention to visit India in December.

• National Security Adviser, Shivshankar Menon, said that “the talks covered the entire range of difficult issues” – diplomatic code for India bringing up its core issues with the Chinese leader. A meeting between the two nation’s special representatives (Menon and the Chinese state councillor, Dai Bingguo) will also take place before the end of November to resume talks on the lingering boundary dispute.

• Jiabao’s forthcoming visit to Delhi opens up the scope for a full-fledged dialogue on all the core issues that bedevil Sino-Indian relations, particularly China's calculated policy shift on Kashmir, its issuance of stapled visas, construction

activity in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and its claims over the state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China describes as a

part of Tibet. China remains concerned over India's Dalai Lama card, and has taken a tougher line on the Tibetan leader despite India's efforts to see it does not upset Beijing.

 

India wants action to follow intent

• Wen said he would like a “consensus” on all outstanding issues before he visits New Delhi. His remarks marked a significant contrast from the way China has been flexing its muscles in East Asia in recent times. However, India has made it clear it would like to see tangible results rather than the professed intent. This much was evident when the NSA reiterated that some of the high-level defence engagements would continue to be on the “pause” mode. These engagements were called off recently after Chief of the Army's Northern Command, Lt Gen BS Jaswal, was denied a visa to visit Beijing on the ground that he was working in the “sensitive state” of Jammu & Kashmir.

• Prime Minister Singh is learnt to have conveyed the unease over Beijing’s increased footprint in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). India has been taking up with Beijing the presence of Chinese troops in PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan region and the growing interests of Chinese companies in the region.

• On trade imbalances, the Indian prime minister stressed the need to correct the present situation where China enjoys a large trade surplus. Singh is learnt to have told the Chinese premier that there was a need for China to lower its import barriers, both tariff and non-tariff, especially with respect to Indian exports of pharmaceuticals.

 

Karnataka HC upholds BJP rebel MLAs’ disqualification

• The first BJP government in the south had reasons to rejoice as the Karnataka high court on October 29, 2010 upheld the disqualification of 11 rebel BJP MLAs, saying the legislators, by withdrawing support, had made it clear that their intention was to give up party membership. The court upheld the October 10, 2010 order of Speaker K.G. Bopaiah that disqualified 11 BJP rebels from Assembly membership.

• Reading out the operative portion of the judgment, Justice V.G. Sabhahit said he concurred with the views of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar upholding the disqualification. He ordered that the judgment be placed before the Division Bench, which gave a split verdict on October 18, for pronouncement.

• The case was referred to Justice Sabhahit after the Bench of Justices Khehar and N. Kumar differed on the disqualification issue. While the Chief Justice held that the Speaker had the power under Section 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth

Schedule to disqualify the rebels, Justice N. Kumar set aside the Speaker's order.

• Disagreeing with Justice Kumar, Justice Sabhahit said the letters given by the rebels to the Governor indicated that they intended to voluntarily give up their BJP membership. “Their conduct is incompatible with the continuance of their

membership in the BJP.”

• Justice Sabhahit said he agreed with the Chief Justice that the MLAs could not contend that they had no confidence in

the Chief Minister, even while remaining members of the party, especially when they had unanimously elected Yeddyurappa leader of the Legislature Party.

• CM Yeddyurappa had won the confidence motion twice on the floor of the assembly. The first time he won on October 11, by voice vote amid bedlam. He won it again on October 14 by a division of votes, with 106 in favour and 100 against the motion, in a reduced house of 209 members, including one nominated and two legislators abstaining from the special session.

• The fate of five independent MLAs is to be heard by the HC on November 2. With the BJP backed by 106 MLAs, even if the membership of the independents is restored, the opposition numbers add up to 103—not enough to pull down the government. The rebel BJP MLAs are expected to approach the Supreme Court for justice.

 

Japan willing to discuss nuclear deal with India

• India on October 25, 2010 made significant progress in its efforts to enter into a civil nuclear deal with Japan. A joint statement issued after detailed discussions between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan in Tokyo said the two leaders welcomed the commencement of negotiations between India and Japan on an agreement for cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in June 2010. Considering the sensitivities of Japan on the nuclear issue, the development marks a major upgrade in the ties between the two nations.

Japan’s reservations

• But a civilian nuclear deal, similar to the one India has with US, appears unlikely in the near future as the Japanese

political establishment is vehemently against nuclear commerce with a country that is a declared nuclear power but not a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

• The memories of the devastation atom bombs wreaked on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II hold back Japan from concluding an agreement with India. Japan wants India to sign the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and eschew further nuclear weapon tests both of which are against New Delhi’s national security interests. Tokyo has been using every conceivable international forum to appeal unrecognized nuclear power like India, Pakistan and Israel to give up their nuclear weapons programme.

Japanese cos pushing for nuclear deal

• There has been considerable pressure from Japanese entrepreneurs for a successful conclusion of the talks for nuclear cooperation as it offers huge opportunities for Japanese companies. The Indian prime minister said that his

government will not push Japan on the subject. “Co-operation in this area will enable Japanese companies to participate in India’s ambitious nuclear energy programme,” Singh had said while acknowledging that a deal with Japan on the issue was not all that easy. In hindsight, this was an astute pitch to make, considering that Japanese majors in nuclear technology — Marubeni, Mitsui, Toshiba, Mitsubishi and Hitachi — are keen on slices of the pie of Indian nuclear commerce and have been pushing their government to conclude a deal with India.

• But commerce may triumph over ideology as Japanese companies have been losing business of their government’s

rigid position. And the competition has come from South Korea. The Koreans are proving to be quite a challenge, with Doosan Engineering threatening to undercut Japan Steel Works’ claim to be the most accomplished in building the core of nuclear reactors. The Koreans signalled their intent when they stole a contract to build nuclear reactors in UAE from right under the nose of the Japanese.

 

RTI logo & portal launched

• The Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Prithviraj Chavan launched the Logo on RTI and the RTI portal on October 28, 2010 in the presence of Chief Information Commissioner, A. N. Tiwari.

• In the last five years the RTI regime has heralded a regime of transparency and accountability and strengthened the democratic structure of the country. Success stories of citizens using the RTI Act abound. The Act has achieved great success in empowering the citizens of India. However it was felt that the core values of the RTI regime – Empowerment, Transparency and Accountability – need to be given a shape in the form of a logo.

• The Right to Information Portal – A Gateway on RTI – was also formally launched on this occasion. The portal is one stop knowledge bank for information seekers, information providers, trainers, Information Commissions, students and academicians. It provides for a digital library, discussion fora, e-newsletter and a blog. Latest judgments of the High Courts and Information Commissions; reports, articles, guides, manuals, handbooks for various stakeholders; online certificate course are also available on this portal. There is facility for stakeholders to interact through dedicated and open discussion forum and register as resource persons. The web URL for the Portal is www.rtigateway.org.in.

 

UIDAI to help curb fake marksheets, loan default

• All school children will soon have unique identification numbers (UID) which will help in tracking their movement in educational institutions and academic records. This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Union Human Resource Development Ministry and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on October 27, 2010.

• The system will help in tracking students' mobility by creating an electronic registry, right from the primary level through secondary and higher education, as also among institutions. Imprinting of the UID number on the performance records of students, including mark-sheets, merit certificates and migration certificates, will be helpful to prospective employers and educational institutions.

• The UID number will also help in dealing with problems such as fake degrees. It could be utilised while dematting academic certificates, as also education loans and scholarship schemes. These digitised certificates will also mention the outstanding loan amount a student has to repay under the subsidised education loan scheme of the HRD Ministry.

• UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani noted that the UID would be particularly helpful in tracking school dropouts and migrant students, thereby making access to education possible.

 

SC declines to review TN’s 69% quota order

• The Supreme Court has declined to review its order granting protection to the Tamil Nadu government for continuing for one more year the 69 per cent quota law for Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes in jobs and education.

• A three-judge Bench consisting of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar after a brief discussion in the chambers dismissed as

“no merits” the review petition filed by Voice Consumer Care Council against the July 13 order.

• By its July 13 order, the Bench had asked the State Backward Classes Commission to revisit the reservation issue on the basis of the quantifiable data in respect of the communities in question. If the Commission wanted to exceed the 50 per cent ceiling while re-fixing the quota, it could take into consideration the parameters laid down by the Supreme Court in the Mandal case judgment: compelling circumstances based on local conditions.

• The State had maintained that the 50 per cent cap would not apply to Tamil Nadu as in the same Mandal case judgment an exception had been provided for peculiar facts and circumstances. Prescribing a rigid 50 per cent ceiling in the matter of reservation would be contrary to the very spirit of the Constitution and the objectives sought to be achieved by the Constitution.

• Seeking a review of this order, Voice said when the validity of the law was before the court, the case ought not to have been sent back to the authorities, viz to be decided by the Backward Classes Commission on such quantifiable data among other things.

• The petitioner also pointed out that in the Mandal case there was a specific direction to identify the creamy layer, but for the last 18 years Tamil Nadu had not identified the creamy layer. Unless the July 13 order was reviewed and corrected there would be gross injustice regarding the reservation in the State which exceeded 50 per cent limit and

only the Supreme Court had the power to decide the quantum of reservation.

 

Govt not to pursue Bhopal compensation case in US courts

• The Union government has decided against pursuing the case of Bhopal gas tragedy compensation in US courts, Law

Minister M Veerappa Moily said on October 27, 2010.

• He was responding to a question on the opinion of the Attorney General that India should not become a party in compensation-related cases in the United States. In an advice to the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Bhopal tragedy, the AG had asked the Union government not to pursue the Bhopal gas tragedy case in US courts. The GoM, which had

delved into various aspects of the Bhopal gas tragedy, had sought legal opinion on the possibility of filing cases in US courts to enhance the $ 470 million compensation extracted from Union Carbide in 1989.

• Set up to re-examine the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, the GoM, headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram, had recommended the central government give additional compensation worth Rs 1,500 crore to the victims and petition the Supreme Court for a review of its judgment that diluted charges against the perpetrators among other things.

 

New naval bases approved at Tuticorin & Paradip

• The government has approved the creation of two new forward naval bases at Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu) and Paradip

(Orissa). This was announced by Defence Minister A. K. Antony at the Naval Commanders’ Conference in New Delhi on October 27, 2010. The two new bases will have facilities to refuel and service naval vessels as well as stocking of ammunition and will be created over the next two years. The Navy will use them for operating smaller vessels. While a decision has not yet been taken to permanently deploy warships at the new bases, with several new vessels on order, the ports will be used for future operations of the expanded fleet.

• Antony also said that creation of “operational and administrative infrastructure” in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep & Minicoy Islands will be accorded “due priority”. With the approvals, the Navy will start construction of support infrastructure like refuelling facilities and stores for ration and ammunition.

• The Defence Minister has also asked the Navy to step up its interactions in the littoral countries of the Indian Ocean

and has emphasised that deployment of ships and aircraft for enhanced surveillance off the coast of Maldives and

Seychelles need to continue. Antony also emphasised that anti-piracy missions need to continue.

 

• West Bengal legalises street vending: The West Bengal government on October 25, 2010 announced its new street vendor and hawker policy, legalising street vending and entitling vendors to various social security and poverty alleviation schemes of the Centre and the State government. Under the draft proposals of the policy, each municipal area will be divided into restriction-free, restricted and no vending zones in consultation with the Municipal Vending Committee (MVC). Hawkers will get representation in this committee. The policy stipulates that hawkers will occupy only one third of the pavements and foothpaths while the remaining will be left for pedestrians. Hawkers and vendors

will also have to occupy only one side of the pavement.

 

• India doubles funding for Partners in Population Development: The Annual Executive Committee and Board

meeting of Partners in Population Development (PPD), an inter-governmental alliance of 24 countries was held at Yogyakarta, Indonesia from October 26-28, 2010. India is the Chairman of PPD while China is the Co Chair of the organisation. Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad announced enhanced annual contribution of India for the PPD from the current level of $ 40000 to $ 80000. He also announced 10 scholarships for the PG Diploma Course in Public Health Management for one more year at the National Institute of Health & Family welfare, Delhi. India had offered these scholarships last year for which 9 students from the participating countries enrolled for the course. The PPD alliance provides the mechanism to promote partnership and cooperation between the member countries, to achieve the objectives of the International Conference on Population Development (ICPD). PPD was launched during ICPD meeting in Cairo in 1994 and its member countries represent more than 57% of global population

 

• India, S Korea reach nuclear cooperation pact: India and South Korea have reached an agreement on civil nuclear

cooperation, marking the ninth such pact that New Delhi has finalised since getting the NSG waiver in 2008. This announcement was made after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit at Hanoi on October 29, 2010. Korea will be the ninth country with which India will be signing the nuclear agreement after it got the waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) in 2008. The others are

the US, France, Russia, Canada, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Argentina and Namibia.

 

• ‘Phool Walon Ki Sair’ celebrated in Delhi: ‘Phool Walon Ki Sair’, meaning “procession of the florists” is an annual celebration by the flowers sellers of Delhi. It is a three-day festival, held just after the rainy season in the region of Mehrauli, Delhi. This secular festival involves a procession, led by shehnai players and dancers, and bearing large floral fans, pankha, to Yogmaya Temple, the shrine of Devi Jog Maya, and winds though Mehrauli bazar, to reach the dargah of 13th century Sufi saint, Khwaja Bakhtiyar Kaki. President Pratibha Patil received ‘pankha' from office bearers of the Anjuman Sair-e-Gul Faroshan, the organisers of the “Phool Walon ki Sair” on October 26, 2010.

 

• 1st coastal surveillance station in Tarapore: The country’s first station for the Coastal Surveillance Network (CSN), proposed in the wake of the 26/11 attacks, would be inaugurated at Tarapore in Maharashtra this year, defence minister A K Antony said on October 25, 2010 while inaugurating the 29th annual Coast Guard Commanders Conference in New Delhi.

 

• Yale University partners IIT Kanpur, IIM Kozhikode: US-based Yale University has partnered with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode, and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, to develop academic

leadership development programmes for higher education leaders in India from January 2011. This partnership will entail two new Centres of Excellence for Academic Leadership to be established at IIM Kozhikode and IIT Kanpur.

 

• Vigilance Awareness Week observed: The Vigilance Awareness Week was observed from October 25 to November 1, as suggested by the Central Vigilance Commission.

 

Section B: WORLD

Newsmakers

• Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner is no more: Argentina's former President, Nestor Kirchner, passed

away at the age of 60 on October 27, 2010. His wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is the current president of the country. N. Kirchner served as president from 2003 to 2007, and was being tipped to stand for election again in 2011. The couple had faced some criticism within Argentina for appearing to get around presidential term limits by stepping aside for each other. A lawyer by training, Kirchner was elected president after Argentina had seen a series of presidents come and go following a major financial crisis in 2001

 

• Michael Jackson is top dead celebrity earner: Michael Jackson has come top of the annual Forbes magazine list of top-earning dead celebrities unveiled in October 2010. The King of Pop earned $275m in 2009, according to Forbes - more than any other dead celebrity. Elvis Presley came second, making $60m, followed by JRR Tolkien. The estate of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ author generated $50m. Peanuts illustrator Charles Schulz was third in $33m, while former Beatle John Lennon was fifth on the list, earning $17m. Jackson's estate was paid $60m for ‘This Is It’, a film of the rehearsals for his ill-fated comeback concerts at the O2 arena in London. His debts were estimated at $500m (£315m) when he died aged 50 in June 2009.

 

News round up

WikiLeaks releases secret US documents on Iraq war

• In the “largest classified military leak” in the US history, whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks in October 2010 released nearly 400,000 secret American documents on Iraq

war detailing graphic accounts of torture, killing of over 66,000 civilians and Iran's role in the conflict. Earlier this year, WikiLeaks had released 92,000 Afghan war-related documents which made similar revelations.

• US under-reported deaths: WikiLeaks, which released the documents despite Pentagon's warning that it could endanger informants and reveal war strategy, called it the “the largest classified military leak in history.” The whistle blower group said the documents detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, encompassing 66,081 civilians, 23,984 insurgents, 15,196 Iraqi government forces and 3,771 coalition forces, according to the classifications used by the US military.

• US condoned abuse: According to WikiLeaks, U.S. forces often failed to follow up on evidence that Iraqi forces tortured and killed their captives. The logs show how US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and generally unpunished, a report in the British daily Guardian said. The Pentagon strongly condemned the unauthorised disclosure of classified information contained in the documents.

• Role of Iran: The revelations also throw new light the involvement of Iran. Iran's military, more than has been generally understood, intervened aggressively in support of Shia combatants, offering weapons, training and sanctuary and, in a few instances, directly engaging U.S. troops.

• Involvement of mercenaries: The war in Iraq spawned a reliance on private contractors on a scale not well

recognised at the time and unknown in U.S. wars. The documents describe an outsourcing of combat and other duties once performed by soldiers that grew and spread to Afghanistan to the point that there are more contractors there than soldiers.

• Iraqi govt. actively involved: WikiLeaks' revelations have put Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki in a tight spot with his administration facing allegations it had permitted the abuse of prisoners and other misuses of power. His opponents called the records an indictment of his administration, and some compared the accounts of whippings and beatings of prisoners by Iraqi guards, often under the gaze of Americans, to the tactics of the former President, Saddam Hussein.

Analysis

• The Wikileaks revelations form a detailed chronicle of systematic abuse, torture, and concealment on the part of the

invading forces and their Iraqi counterparts. The documents throw light on the sordid way the invasion and occupation have been conducted. The admitted tally of deaths, especially civilian ones, is shockingly off the mark. The military logs show beyond doubt that extensive and calculated torture was an integral part of the invaders' strategy. It was carried out by the coalition forces, by the Iraqi forces and police, and by the mercenaries with the tacit support of the U.S. military.

• The governments that planned the invasion claimed, with much help from influential sections of the international media, that they were bringing democracy and freedom to Iraq. The truth, as shown by the invaders' own documents, is that the U.S. and its allies created a reign of terror indistinguishable from that of the tyrant they overthrew.

About Wikileaks

WikiLeaks is an international organization that publishes submissions of otherwise unavailable documents from anonymous sources and leaks. Its website, launched in 2006, is run by The Sunshine Press. WikiLeaks has won a number of awards, including the 2008 Economist magazine New Media Award.

In June 2009, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange won Amnesty International's UK Media Award for the 2008 publication of

“Kenya: The Cry of Blood – Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances”,[6] a report by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights about police killings in Kenya. In May 2010, the New York Daily News listed WikiLeaks first in a ranking of “websites that could totally change the news”.

In April 2010, WikiLeaks posted video from a 2007 incident in which Iraqi civilians were killed by U.S. forces, on a website called Collateral Murder. In July of the same year, WikiLeaks released Afghan War Diary, a compilation of more than 76,900 documents about the War in Afghanistan not previously available for public review. In October the group released a package of almost 400,000 documents called the Iraq War Logs in coordination with major commercial media organisations.

 

Nagoya Biodiversity Summit concludes

Some 18,000 participants representing the 193 Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) closed the Nagoya Biodiversity Summit on October 29, 2010 at Nagoya, Japan by adopting historic decisions that will permit the community of nations to meet the challenges of the continued loss of biodiversity compounded by climate change. The parties agreed on a 20-point plan that aims to protect fish stocks, fight the loss and

degradation of natural habitats and conserve larger land and marine areas. Commitments of greater financing from rich

nations were made. Laws for the sharing of genetic resources between governments and companies, such as drug and agri-resources firms were also agreed upon.

• COP-11, the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties, will take place in 2012 in India. COP 10 was held from 18 to 29 October 2010 at the Nagoya Conference Centre, in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

The meeting achieved its three inter-linked goals. These include:

• Adoption of a new ten year Strategic Plan to guide international and national efforts to save biodiversity through enhanced action to meet the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

• A resource mobilization strategy that provides the way forward to a substantial increase to current levels of official development assistance in support of biodiversity.

• A new international protocol on access to and sharing of the benefits from the use of the genetic resources of the planet.

• The Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity or the “Aichi Target”, adopted by the meeting includes 20 headline targets, organized under five strategic goals that address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, reduce the pressures on biodiversity, safeguard biodiversity at all levels, enhance the benefits provided by biodiversity, and provide for capacity-building.

Among the targets, it is important to note that Parties:

• Agreed to at least halve and where feasible bring close to zero the rate of loss of natural habitats including forests.

• Established a target of 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas and 10 per cent of marine and coastal areas.

• Through conservation and restoration, Governments will restore at least 15 percent of degraded areas.

• Will make special efforts to reduce the pressures faced by coral reefs.

• Parties also agreed to a substantial increase in the level of financial resources in support of implementation of the Convention. The Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, announced 2 billion US dollars in financing, the Minister of

Environment of Japan announced the establishment of a Japan Biodiversity Fund. Additional financial resources were announced by France, the European Union and Norway. Some 110 million US dollars were mobilized in support of projects under the CBD LifeWeb Initiative aimed at enhancing the protected-area agenda.

• Parties adopted the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Utilization. The agreement creates a framework that balances access to genetic resources on the basis of prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms with the fair and equitable sharing of benefits while taking into account the important role of traditional knowledge. Poorer nations want greater controls to protect their environment and to potentially earn billions of dollars in extra revenue from the benefits of trees to fungi, insects to frogs.

• The Nagoya Protocol is expected to enter into force by 2012, with support from the Global Environment Facility of one million United States dollars to support early entry into force.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

Opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and entering into force in December 1993, the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. With 193 Parties, the Convention has near universal participation among countries. The Convention seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, including threats from climate change, through scientific assessments,

the development of tools, incentives and processes, the transfer of technologies and good practices and the full and

active involvement of relevant stakeholders including indigenous and local communities, youth, NGOs, women and the business community. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, a supplementary treaty to the Convention, seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. To date, 159 countries and the European Union have ratified the Protocol. The Secretariat of the Convention and its Cartagena Protocol is located in Montreal.

 

G20 agrees on IMF reforms at Gyeongju meeting

• The rich among the G-20 nations agreed to give emerging countries slightly greater representation on the board of the

International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the just-concluded G-20 finance ministers' and central bankers’ meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea on October 22, 2010. The socalled BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — saw their voting shares rise, and Europe will see a decline in its share as well as its representation on the Fund’s board.

• India will improve its IMF rank by three notches to 8th position as G20 decided to increase quota of emerging markets in the lending agency by over 6%.The quota share of India in the IMF will improve to about 2.75% from the present level of 2.44%. Similarly, China will see an improvement in its ranking to the third position from the present sixth. Quota represents the relative position of members of the IMF. It is based on various parameters like country’s GDP, openness, forex reserves etc.

• India and other emerging market economies have been demanding reforms in the IMF to give more powers to them in line with their share in the global economy. Emerging market economies contribute around 47.5% to the global economy in terms of purchasing power parity, but have only 39.5% share in the IMF. Their share will now increase to over 45.5% in the 187-nation body IMF. Also, Europe will give up two of the eight or nine seats it controls at any given

time on the IMF’s Executive Board, which will continue to have 24 members, as per the agreement. Now next phase of

reforms will start in 2013.

Other issues

• Apart from the IMF reform, the Gyeongju communiqué also renewed global concern on the following issues:

• Persistent uncertainties about the sustainability of economic growth in the advanced industrial economies

• The need to eschew protectionism and protectionist trade and exchange rate policies

• The need for fiscal correction in developed market economies

• The need to ensure price stability and prevent volatility of capital flows

• The importance of structural reforms and employment generation

• The critical importance of financial sector regulation and reform

 

China’s exchange rate policy under the scanner

• Analysts view the G20 communiqué as an achievement of sorts given the sharp differences that have come to surface between China, on the one hand, and the developed market economies, on the other. While China may take heart from any specific reference to its policies, it cannot ignore the consensus view expressed by G20 finance ministers that all countries must “move towards more marketdetermined exchange rate systems that reflect underlying economic fundamentals and refrain from competitive devaluation of currencies”. A devalued currency makes exports competitive and imports expensive. China’s depreciated yuan makes Beijing’s exports to the West competitive while imports becoming expensive. Developed countries, especially the US, have long demanded that China allow the yuan to appreciate.

 

Road ahead for G20

• By pushing through IMF reform, the G20 countries have also given themselves a new status as a global executive committee. If more such important decisions on global economic governance and policy are taken by the G20, and

seen to be implemented by all countries, the G20 can evolve into a new institution of global governance.

• For the G20 to acquire global credibility and a unique personality, it must at once ensure consensus among its own

membership and their collective ability to influence the behaviour of multilateral institutions and national governments. South Korea can feel satisfied with the outcome of the finance ministers’ meeting. This will help create an enabling environment in which G20 leaders can take next steps in the direction of financial stability, regulation and reform.

 

India ranks 87th on 'Corruption Perception Index'

• India has slipped to 87th spot in Transparency International's latest ranking of nations based on the level of corruption, with the global watchdog asserting that perceptions about corruption in the country increased in the wake of the scam-tainted Commonwealth Games.

• Transparency International's 'Corruption Perception Index' report covering the public sector in 178 countries shows that India fell by three positions from its ranking of 84th in 2009.

• The rankings, on a scale of 0 to 10, are based on the extent of corruption and each government's ability to punish and contain corrupt activities, among other criteria. A score of zero is perceived to be highly corrupt while 10 would indicatethe lowest level of corruption.

• The report is based on 13 surveys conducted throughout the year by various international bodies, including the World

Bank, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the Freedom House Foundation.

Integrity Score: The criteria used to arrive at the score include perception-related questions like the government's capacity to punish and contain corruption; transparency, accountability and corruption in the public sector; extent of corruption; implementation of anti-corruption initiatives; and encouragement of corrupt officials.

• With an integrity score of 3.3, India is now ranked 87th in the world in terms of corruption. Neighbouring China is ahead of India in the list at 78th place, with a score of 3.5. According to the report: “The perception about corruption in India seems to have increased primarily due to alleged corrupt practices in the recently held Commonwealth Games

(CWG) in Delhi.” As many as four investigating agencies – the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax Department and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) – are looking into allegations of corruption against the organisers of the CWG.

• The top three countries with the lowest level of corruption globally, as ranked by Transparency International, are Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore. Denmark was ranked first in the report, with an integrity score of 9.3, while New Zealand and Singapore came second and third with a similar score. Unstable governments plagued with a legacy of conflict continue to bring out the rear of the corruption as Afghanistan and Myanmar share two places at the bottom with a score of 1.4 with Somalia occupying the last slot with a score of 1.1.

• The countries in the South Asian region have performed miserably with Bangladesh at 134, Pakistan at 143 and Nepal at 146. Bhutan is the sole exception, scoring a creditable 5.7 and ranked 36th in the world.

• Transparency International is organising Anti-Corruption Day on December 9 to sensitise the public on this issue.

 

A fifth of world's life at extinction risk

• Red List unveiled: A fifth of the world’s mammals, birds,

amphibians, reptiles and fishes are in imminent danger of going extinct, says this year’s edition of the benchmark IUCN Red List. The percentages of threatened invertebrates and plants are similar. Releasing the findings at the Oct. 18-29 UN biodiversity summit, being attended by 192 countries, at Nagoya (Japan) on October 27, 2010, Simon Stuart, chair of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said their findings on vertebrates showed that “nature’s backbone is at risk”. For this year’s study, scientists used data for 25,000 species from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, to investigate the status of the world’s vertebrates (mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fishes) and how this status has changed over time.

• The IUCN Red List: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data List), founded in 1948, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species. The IUCN Red List is set upon precise criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies. These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of the world. The aim is to convey the urgency of conservation issues to the public and policy makers, as well as help the international community to try to reduce species extinction.

• Findings: The results show that, on average, 50 species of mammal, bird and amphibian move closer to extinction each year due to the impacts of agricultural expansion, logging, over—exploitation, and invasive alien species. The scientists found that 25 percent of all mammals, 13 percent birds, 41 percent amphibians, 22 percent reptiles and 15 percent fishes risk extinction, mostly due to loss of their habitats and some due to over-hunting. Southeast Asia has experienced the most dramatic recent losses, largely driven by the planting of export crops like oil palm, commercial hardwood timber operations, agricultural conversion to rice paddies and unsustainable hunting.

• Conservation Success: But it’s not all bad news. IUCN has found 64 species that have improved their status in the

Red List, moving from the critically endangered to the endangered category, for example. The successes include three species that were extinct in the wild and have since been re—introduced back to nature: the California condor and the black—footed ferret in the US, and Przewalski’s horse in Mongolia.

• Save Our Species (SOS) launched: The Global Environment Facility, the World Bank, and IUCN on October 29, 2010 announced they had established the Save Our Species (SOS) initiative with more than $US10 million in financing commitments and called on businesses to help build the biggest global species conservation fund by 2015. The initiative is in response to thousands of animals and plants around the world facing extinction, with species currently disappearing at a rate of up to 1,000 times higher than normal. This loss of wild plants and animals threatens basic human economic security and way of life. Healthy biodiversity is essential to human wellbeing, sustainable development and poverty reduction.

 

East Asia Summit begins

• The fifth East Asia Summit (EAS) opened in Hanoi, Vietnam on October 30, 2010. Leaders of ASEAN and six dialogue partners have gathered to discuss strategic issues of relevance to the region.

• The six dialogue partners include China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand and ASEAN member countries – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were invited to attend this year's EAS as special guests. The participating leaders adopted ASEAN's proposal of inviting Russia and U.S. to join the EAS starting from next year.

• Since its inception in 2005, the EAS, or the so-called ASEAN plus six, has served as a forum for dialogue on broad strategic issues of relevance to East Asia as well as other regional and global issues, with the focus on areas such as international terrorism, energy, infectious diseases, sustainable development, poverty reduction and others.

 

Stephen Schwebel to head Kishanganga arbitration court

• Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, former President of the International Court of Justice, will head the Court of Arbitration being constituted to resolve the Kishanganga hydroelectric project dispute between India and Pakistan. Judge Schwebel is an expert on international law and dispute settlement. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Judge Schwebel as chairman on October 29, 2010.

• As per the provisions under the Indus Waters Treaty, signed between India and Pakistan in 1960 under the aegis of the World Bank, the arbitration court has to have seven members, including the chairman. Already India and Pakistan have named two international experts each to represent them.

• The dispute is over India's 330 MW hydroelectric project on Kishanganga, a tributary of the Jhelum in Jammu and Kashmir. According to India, the treaty allows it to divert Kishanganga waters to the Wullar Lake. Pakistan has objected to this saying India's plans to divert waters will obstruct the flow of the river affecting its Neelam-Jhelum project downstream.

• The matter could not be resolved during the Permanent Indus Water Commission-level bilateral talks and Pakistan decided to take the issue to a court of arbitration.

 

People’s Daily rejects PM Jiabao’s reform overtures

• China's main Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily has rejected the PM’s comments that the country’s progress

threatens to be stalled without reforms for an independent judiciary and polls.

• The Communist Party mouthpiece bluntly rejected calls for speedier political reform on October 27, 2010, publishing a front-page commentary that said any changes in China's political system should not emulate Western democracies, but “consolidate the party's leadership so that the party commands the overall situation.” It later added: “In promoting political reform, we shouldn’t copy the Western political model; shouldn’t engage in something like multiparty coalition government or separation of powers among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. We should stick to our own way.”

• The opinion article appeared obliquely aimed at the Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, who has, in recent times, argued in speeches and media interviews that China's economic progress threatens to stall without systemic reforms, including an independent judiciary, greater oversight of government by the press and improvements in China’s sharply limited form of elections.

• It also may have been directed at countering recent demands for democratic reforms by Chinese liberal intellectuals and Communist Party elders, spurred in part by Wen’s remarks and timed to this month’s award of the Nobel peace prize to an imprisoned Chinese democracy advocate, Liu Xiaobo.

• Wen’s comments have fuelled a debate among analysts over whether he is advocating Western-style changes in China’s governing system or merely calling for more openness inside the ruling Communist Party.

 

China unveils world’s fastest supercomputer

• A Chinese scientific research center has built the fastest supercomputer ever made, replacing the United States as maker of the swiftest machine, and giving China bragging rights as a technology superpower. The computer, known as Tianhe-1A, has 1.4 times the horsepower of the current top computer, which is at a national laboratory in Tennessee, as measured by the standard test used to gauge how well the systems handle mathematical calculations, according to Jack

Dongarra, a University of Tennessee computer scientist who maintains the official supercomputer rankings – TOP500.

• The Tianhe-1 machine housed at the National Center for Supercomputing in the northern port city of Tianjin is capable of sustained computing of 2.507 petaflops, the equivalent of 2,507 trillion calculations, per second. If verified, Tianhe-1 would be significantly faster than the current title holder, the US Department of Energy’s Cray XT5 Jaguar in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which topped the list issued in June at 1.75 petaflops per second.

• The race to build the fastest supercomputer has become a source of national pride as these machines are valued for their ability to solve problems critical to national interests in areas like defense, finance and science. Modern supercomputers are built by combining thousands of small computer servers and using software to turn them into a single entity.

• Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems involving quantum physics, weather

forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling (computing the structures and properties of chemical compounds, biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals), physical simulations (such as simulation of airplanes in wind tunnels, simulation of the detonation of nuclear weapons, and research into nuclear fusion).

Top 5 Supercomputers in the world: June 2010 rankings

Name/Vendor Site Operating System

1 1.759 (Tflops) Jaguar/Cray Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US Linux (CLE)

2 1.271(Tflops) Nebulae/Dawning National Supercomputing Centre, Shenzhen, China Linux

3 1.042(Tflops) Roadrunner/IBM Los Alamos National Laboratory, US Linux

4 0.831(Tflops) Kraken/Cray National Institute for Computational Sciences, US Linux (CLE)

5 0.825(Tflops) JUGENE/IBM Jülich Research Centre Germany Linux (SLES)

 

China unveils world's fastest train

• China on October 26, 2010 unveiled what it described as the world's fastest bullet train, which will connect two of the

country's industrial hubs travelling at an average speed of 350 km per hour. The rail link between Shanghai and Hangzhou, the latest addition to China's fastexpanding high-speed rail network that is already the world's largest, covers the 200-km distance in only 45 minutes, reducing the travelling time from 78 minutes.

• China's high-speed rail network now stretches over 7,431 km. The government plans to expand the network to over 16,000 km by 2020. Investment in the highspeed rail network has gathered pace since the first line, connecting Beijing with the port city Tianjin, opened in 2008. China is investing an estimated $300 billion on its high-speed rail network. The investment has divided opinion — some planners have cautioned that local governments will struggle to recoup the investment. Others have argued the rail network will spur economic development by boosting connectivity.

• China has also begun work on a 1,318-km high-speed rail line linking the country's two most important cities — Beijing and Shanghai. The $33-billion line will open in 2012, reducing the travel time between the capital and the financial centre in half, to just five hours.

 

EU-US fear shortage of rare earth minerals as China tightens supplies

• The US and the EU, in October 2010, have warned that a shortage of rare earth metals from China could harm their economies. Industrialists in developed countries say the shortage of minerals, 90% of which come from China, would have severe repercussions. The 17 different rare earths are found in everything from magnets to hybrid cars and computer monitors. The metals are essential for making many hi-tech products and some are used by the US weapons industry.

• China says it is cutting production to protect the environment and preserve its own supply. It has denied it is using its near-monopoly improperly and says there will not be drastic cuts in exports.

• Rare earth metals are scarce minerals that have particular properties, such as being magnetic or shining in low light. This makes them particularly useful in some new technologies, such as solar panels or electric cars or light-weight batteries.

• German companies have lobbied the government to say that they are now finding it hard to access these essential minerals, because China produces virtually all of them. The concerns about a monopoly are now being echoed in Washington. In the US, efforts are being made to increase production, but this cannot be done in the near future.

 

• Iran loads fuel into the Bushehr nuclear reactor: Iran, on October 26, 2010, began loading fuel into the core of its first nuclear power plant. It marks a key stage in the firing-up of the Bushehr plant, which is set to produce electricity from 2011. Russia will operate the facility in southern Iran, supplying its nuclear fuel and taking away the nuclear waste. Experts say that as long as the Bushehr plant is Russian-operated and supervised by the UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there is little chance of proliferation. The uranium fuel Bushehr will use is well below the enrichment level needed for a nuclear weapon. Weapons-grade uranium must be enriched by more

than 90%. In contrast, the uranium at Bushehr is enriched by 3.5%. Iran's separate uranium enrichment programme has alarmed Western nations, who distrust Iran's claims it is solely for peaceful purposes. Iran has been subject to four rounds of UN sanctions because of its nuclear programme.

 

• India ranked 88th in Global Prosperity Index: India is ranked 88th, out of 110, on the 2010 Global Prosperity Index, created by the London-based Legatum Institute as a measure of “wealth and well-being”. The Index presents a broad view of wealth, happiness and prospects of the world’s nations and citizens captured in eight sub-indexes. The index, unveiled in October 2010, claims to comprehensively rank the level of prosperity in 110 countries by taking into account both economic growth and citizens’ quality of life. The institute said that India’s ranking dropped 10 places from 2009 primarily due to a drop in personal freedom coupled with poor rankings on measures of health and entrepreneurship.

 

• France’s Parliament approves pension reform: France’s Parliament granted final approval on October 29, 2010 to a

bill raising the retirement age from 60 to 62, a reform that has infuriated the country’s powerful unions and touched off

weeks of protests and strikes. The National Assembly approved the final text of the bill in a 336-233 vote, marking its final hurdle in Parliament. It was a victory for conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has stood firm despite the protests — an unpopular stance that has resulted in his lowest approval ratings since he took office in 2007.

 

• 'Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarships' for Cambridge scholars: A leading college of the Cambridge University, St John College on October 15, 2010 announced three prestigious 'Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarships' for PhD and MPhil students, each carrying 35,000 pounds for upto three years. The programme, launched in 2007, was set upexclusively for Indian students who are currently based in India and intends to support those who wish to pursue PhD and MPhil degrees at St John's in areas such as science and technology, economics and social sciences. Singh studied economics at St John's College in the late 1950s. Organizations like Rolls-Royce India, BP Foundation and others have agreed to sponsor this scholarship.

 

• United Nations Day observed: October 24, 2010 was observed as the United Nations Day. In 1947, the UN General Assembly declared 24 October, the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, as the United Nations Day. The Day is part of United Nations Week, which runs from 20 to 26 October.

 

• Tsunami hits Sumatra: A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake triggered a three-metre tsunami that pounded remote island villages in western Indonesia, killing at least 113 people and leaving scores more missing. The fault that ruptured on October 25, 2010 on Sumatra Island's coast also caused the 2004 quake and Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire — a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

 

• US-Russia conduct joint anti-narcotics raid in Afghanistan: Russian and U.S. special forces have carried out their first joint anti-narcotics operation in Afghanistan that marked the first time Russian security personnel set foot in that country in more than 20 years. In a joint raid on four heroin laboratories near the border with Pakistan, Russian and U.S. forces seized $250-million worth of narcotics, informed Russia's anti-narcotics agency chief in a press conference in Moscow on October 29, 2010. The operation marked Russia's return to Afghanistan for the first time since the Russian Army pulled out from the country in 1989 after a 10-year war. So far Moscow has consistently rejected sending its troops to Afghanistan, limiting assistance to supply of helicopters and provision of transport corridors.

 

• Finland grants asylum to Iranian diplomat: A senior Iranian diplomat who quit his job at his country's embassy in

Helsinki was on October 28, 2010 granted political asylum by Finland. Hossein Alizadeh said he stepped down because of the Iranian government's crackdown on those protesting the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year, calling the election as fraudulent.

 

Section C: AWARDS

Winners of Infosys Prize 2010 announced

• The Infosys Science Foundation, established by Infosys Technologies Ltd., on October 25, 2010 announced the winners in the five categories of the Infosys Prize 2010. The six winners were drawn from 201 nominations. Each prize carries a cash award of Rs. 50 lakh, which would not be taxed in the hands of the prize winner. The award ceremony

will be held on January 6, 2011 in Mumbai.

• The prize for excellence in Mathematical Sciences was awarded to Chandrashekhar Khare, Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He won the prize for his “fundamental contribution” to number theory, particularly the solution he found for the Serre conjecture, stated the citation of the jury.

• Professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Sandip Trivedi, won the prize in the Physical Sciences category for “finding an ingenious way” to solve two of the most outstanding puzzles of superstring theory —

what is the origin of dark energy and why there is no mass-less scalar particle — simultaneously.

• Ashutosh Sharma, Chair Professor and Principal Investigator, Centre of Nanosciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, won the prize in the Engineering and Computer Science category for his “fundamental contributions” in materials science.

• The winner in the Life Sciences category was Chetan E. Chitnis, Principal Leader, Malaria Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi. The citation of the jury stated that Professor Chitnis' work had provided the basis for development of a viable malarial vaccine.

• Amita Baviskar, sociologist at the Institute of Economic Growth in New Delhi and Nandini Sundar, Chairperson of

the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, were declared joint winners of the prize for excellence in Social Sciences. While Professor Baviskar won the prize for her work on social movements in contemporary India, Professor Sundar was awarded the prize for her contribution to the understanding of social identities. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen headed the jury for the prize, which will be shared by the two winners.

 

Jamnalal Bajaj awards conferred

• President Pratibha Patil on October 28, 2010 presented the Jamnalal Bajaj Awards for 2010 for outstanding contributions in social development.

• Chewang Norphel, a 74-year-old civil engineer from Ladakh, was presented the award for application of science

and technology for rural development. His ‘artificial glacier' has helped farmers in the dry and difficult region of

Ladakh get water supply in April and May — the most crucial period of sowing.

• Chunibhai Vaidya, a nonagenarian from Ahmedabad, was given the award for outstanding contribution in the field of constructive work.

• Shakuntala Choudhary, a nonagenarian from Assam, won the award for development and welfare of women and children.

• Lia Diskin from Brazil won the award for promoting Gandhian values outside India.

 

• Tendulkar gets Lebara People's Choice Award: Indian batting icon Sachin Tendulkar was presented with the ‘Lebara People's Choice’ honour at the inaugural Asian Awards in London on October 27, 2010. The Asian Awards

2010 honoured achievers in business, sports and the arts. Oscar-award winning music director A. R. Rahman won the award for outstanding achievement in music, while Yash Chopra received the outstanding achievement award in Cinema. Liquor-baron Vijay Mallya was chosen as the 'Entrepreneur of the Year' while Bharti-Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal was named the 'Philanthropist of the year'. Amitabh Bachchan got the 'Lifetime Achievement award'. Other recipients of the awards were: Ratan Tata (Business Leader of the Year, Zarin Patel (Public Servant of the year), Prof Muhammad Yunus (Social Entrepreneur of the year), Abu Jani & Sandeep Khosla (Outstanding achievement in Arts and Design) and George Alagiah OBE (Outstanding achievement in Television).

 

• Indian origin professor wins FT book award: A book analysing the flaws in economy that led to the current financial crisis by an Indian-origin professor of finance at the University of Chicago has won the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award for 2010. The 30,000 pounds prize was awarded to Raghuram G Rajan, for his book, ‘Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy’. Rajan is also the economic advisor to the Prime Minister of India.

• Shortlist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature announced: Writer and academic Amit Chaudhuri's novel ‘The Immortals’ is among the six books shortlisted for a new major $50,000 literary prize - the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature - announced at the 10-day festival of South Asian writing in London in October 2010. Others shortlisted are Musharraf Ali Farooqui (‘The Story of a Widow’), H. M Naqvi (‘Home Boy’), Manju Kapur (‘The Immigrant’), Neel Mukherjee (‘A Life Apart’), and Tania James (‘Atlas Of Unknowns’). The winner will be announced at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival in January.

 

• Ravi Shanker wins Cultural Legacy Award: Legendary sitar maestro Ravi Shankar has been chosen for Cultural

Legacy Award by Asia Society in recognition of his role in bringing classical music to the US. The award was

presented to him on November 1, 2010.

 

• Ratan Tata gets leadership award: Yale University President Richard Levin presented ‘The Legend in Leadership Award’ to Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, in Mumbai on October 25, 2010.

• ‘Pink Saris’ bags top honour at UAE film festival: British director Kim Longinotto's India-based ‘Pink Saris’ bagged the best documentary at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival on October 29, 2010. Longinotto shared the prize money of $100,000 with director Patricio Guzman whose film ‘Nostalgia For The Light’ was also declared the best documentary simultaneously. ‘Pink Saris’ depicts the evils of child marriage and the caste conflict in the interiors of northern India—and a woman's fight to bring about change.

• Yash Chopra wins Swiss Ambassador's Award-2010: Swiss Ambassador to India Philippe Welti presenting the Swiss Ambassador's Award-2010 to film-maker Yash Chopra in recognition of his rich contribution to Indo-Swiss

friendship in New Delhi on October 25, 2010.

 

Section D: ECONOMY & CORPORATE

News round up

Core Sector growth falls to 18-month Low

• The six infrastructure industries that account for more than a quarter of industrial production grew by 2.5 per cent in September, the slowest pace of expansion in 18 months, according to data released by the government on October 28, 2010. This was the fifth straight month of deceleration for the index of six infrastructure industries, based on the production of crude and refined petroleum, coal, steel, electricity and cement.

• The index had grown by 3.9 per cent in August 2010 and by 4.3 per cent in September 2009. This September, the growth was dragged down by a decline in refining of petroleum products and coal production

• Economists had expected a moderation in the core sector growth and the industrial production but the sharp decline is being seen as a cause for concern. As the core sector has 26.68 per cent weight in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), the overall industrial growth could be affected in September.

 

CIL to be 7th largest listed co. in India

• Price finalised: Retail investors in the Coal India IPO will get shares at Rs 233 apiece as they would avail of a 5% discount to the price of Rs 245 set by the government on October 25, 2010. At Rs 245, the PSU giant is now valued at

about Rs 1.55 lakh crore ($35 billion), making it the seventh most valued company (by market capitalisation) in India behind RIL, ONGC, TCS, SBI, Infosys and NTPC.

• Largest IPO: The shares of Coal India, which accounts for nearly 80% of coal output in the country, will be listed on November 4. The government offloaded 63.2 crore shares, or 10% of its stake in the world’s largest coal miner, through this IPO, the largest in the Indian market. Till now, R-ADAG company Reliance Power’s IPO in January 2008, which mopped up Rs 11,700 crore, was the country’s largest IPO.

• Largest Disinvestment: The amount of money that will accrue to the government, i.e. about Rs 15,000 crore, is also

the largest sum ever garnered in India through divestment. CIL is the largest coal producer in the world with 64 billion tonne of reserves as of April 2010.

 

India, Japan agree on landmark trade pact

• India and Japan on October 25, 2010 declared the conclusion of talks on an ambitious agreement for opening trade, investment and movement of professionals across the two countries. The conclusion of negotiations on the bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was declared in a joint statement after a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan in Tokyo.

• Benefits for India: From India’s point of view, the CEPA would give a big boost to the country’s services sectors, such as information technology, since it would become easier for professionals to work in Japan. It would also help Indian pharmaceuticals gain access to the highly regulated Japanese health market.

• Benefits for Japan: For Japan, grappling with a long slowdown, India offers a huge market, whose economy is growing in the region of 8.5-9 per cent annually. In the first six months of the current financial year, India’s global imports were $63 billion (Rs 2.8 lakh crore) more than its exports, indicating huge consumption in the country, which

Japan would like to take advantage of.

• Merchandise trade between the two countries amounted to $10.36 bn (Rs 45,850 crore) in 2009-10. The CEPA will not

only increase trade in merchandise, but will also boost investment. India needs huge investments in its infrastructure sector and Japan, already with major stakes in projects here, can offer more resources as well as expertise to develop anything from transport connectivity to urban amenities.

• Reducing dependence on China: The two countries have also indicated bilateral keenness on jointly developing rare earth minerals and metals. Japan is over-dependent on China for supplies crucial for high technology manufacturing. India, with about 3 per cent of the planet’s reserves, can help out while itself accessing technology to aid exploration and production.

 

India-Malaysia sign Economic Cooperation Agreement

The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Tun Razak and the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh met in Kuala

Lumpur on October 27, 2010. They recalled their decision during the visit of the Prime Minister of Malaysia to India in

January 2010 to expand and deepen India-Malaysia bilateral relations by establishing a strategic partnership between the

two countries. Several MoUs/agreements were signed to facilitate trade and investment and strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. They are as follows:

• Agreement towards implementing Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Malaysia on 1st July 2011. The CECA is envisaged to lead to growth in bilateral trade and investment resulting in economic benefits to both India and Malaysia. Malaysia is the 3rd largest trading partner of India amongst ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) countries. India – Malaysia trade increased from US$ 3.38 billion to US$ 8.01 billion between 2004-05 and 2009-10 after reaching a peak of US$ 10.60 billion in 2008-09. India and Malaysia are parties to the India-ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement signed in August 2009 and both countries have implemented it with effect from 1st January 2010. In trade in goods, the India-Malaysia CECA envisages being more liberal compared to the commitments under the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement. In trade in services, the Agreement envisages that, under the CECA, trade in services will be progressively liberalized on a preferential basis, with substantial sectoral coverage, including Movement of Professionals and Skilled Persons, Cross-border Supply, and Telecommunications Services to provide commercially meaningful market access to both parties.

• MOU on cooperation in the field of Traditional Systems of Medicine

• MOU for cooperation in the field of Tourism

• MOU for Cooperation in the field of IT & Services

• Agreement between CSIR of India and UNIK of Malaysia on Research and Development Collaboration

• Cultural Exchange Programme for 2010-13

Govt. committee favours overseas farm investment

• A high-level working group on agricultural production constituted by the Prime Minister has favoured overseas direct investment (ODI) by Indian companies in the sector.

• Headed by the Haryana chief minister – it also has the CMs of West Bengal, Bihar and Punjab on it, apart from experts – it has recommended this for boosting production of crops, especially pulses and oilseeds. The panel was appointed to review a set of recommendations made by a sub-committee formed by the Union ministry of agriculture.

• According to the recommendation, Indian companies may be allowed to invest and buy land in countries such as Canada, Myanmar, Australia and Argentina for producing pulses under long-term leases from government-canalising

agencies. Similarly, it said these companies could also buy land in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) bloc for securing a supply of oilseeds.

• The committee has suggested the Indian government and private agencies could enter into a long-term supply contract with farming bodies or trading companies in foreign countries to enhance production of crops. At present, pulses and oil seeds are the main concerns, as production is short of the total demand in the country.

• The report has further highlighted that pulses and oilseeds present the biggest challenges in India. Domestic production is short by about 25 per cent for pulses and about 50 per cent for oilseeds, compared to the overall domestic demand. According to a recent estimate, these two commodities cost the country Rs 30,000-40,000 crore in annual imports.

• All districts of states under the Accelerated Pulses Production Programme have been included under the National Food Security Mission in the remaining period of the 11th five-year plan.

 

Terms of reference for Malegam panel on MFIs announced

The Y H Malegam committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India to probe the way microfinance institutions (MFIs) function and suggest reforms in this sector will have a wide ambit. Apart from Malegam, an eminent financial expert, the others on the panel are all on RBI’s board of directors. Four of them have been named: industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former space research organisation chief U R Rao, Shashi Rajagopalan, who has a background in promoting credit cooperatives and agro-processing, and K C Chakrabarty, deputy governor at the RBI. The terms of reference of the committee announced by the RBI on October 29, 2010 include:

• The committee would review lending, interest rate and recovery practices in the micro finance sector

• It will review the definition of micro finance and the institutions to regulate finance companies engaged in this activity

• It will examine the applicability of money lending legislations to finance companies.

• It will recommend a mechanism to redress grievances in this regard.

• It will enlist conditions under which credit to MFIs can be classified as priority sector lending.

• Andhra follow-up: Meanwhile, in the wake of its controversial ordinance to control MFIs, the government of Andhra Pradesh announced formation of four committees on the subject — for implementation, legal issues, capacity building and information technology use. These panels would work to improve credit flows to self-help groups (SHGs) and also put in place a system for efficient implementation of the ordinance.

SEBI doubles retail limit, tightens IPO Norms

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on October 25, 2010 increased the application limit for retail investors in initial public offers (IPO) to Rs 2 lakh, from Rs 1 lakh at present. SEBI Chairman C B Bhave said this was in response to complaints from the general investing public and the issuers that the retail quota is not being subscribed fully. The regulator, however, did not make any changes in the quota of shares reserved for retail investors in public issues.

• Currently, in IPOs, applications above Rs 1 lakh are categorized under the HNI (high networth individual) segment, where an investor could not get the benefit of a 5 % discount reserved for retail investors. Besides, once categorized as HNIs these investors had only 15 % of the shares at their disposal, as against 35 % reserved for the retail players. The remaining 50% is set aside for institutional investors (banks, financial institutions, mutual

funds, etc.) also known as Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs)

• Usually, the HNI and QIB portions are subscribed much more that the retail part, so the chances of getting allotment if one applies under the retail category is much higher than in the other two.

• The SEBI decision will have several positive outcomes for public offers. For one, from now on all investors applying for shares worth up to Rs 2 lakh will be eligible to get shares at up to 5% discount. This will also lead to broader retail investor base for companies. Besides, chances of the retail part in an offer getting oversubscribed could also go up.

• Market players were divided in their opinion on the raise in the retail investor limit. While some analysts have welcomed the move, others such as Prithvi Haldea, chairman of Delhi-based Prime Database, felt only the rich would benefit and would now take away more shares at the expense of small investors.

Other decisions announced by SEBI include:

• The market regulator approved an additional set of disclosures for life insurance companies, based on the recommendations of the SEBI Committee on Disclosures and Accounting Standards.

• Insurance companies which want to take the initial public offer route will have to disclose the risk factors specific to life insurance entities and provide a glossary of terms and disclosures specific to the sector.

• Insurance funds set up by the Department of Posts, such as Postal Life Insurance Fund and Rural Postal Life Insurance Fund, have been accorded the status of qualified institutional buyers (QIBs).

• All listed companies have to mention a fixed date for dividend payment. The regulator directed them to mention the fixed date for payment of dividends and credit of bonus shares.

• Promoters who had subscribed to warrants of their companies but failed to exercise these would be ineligible for any kind of preferential issue for one year. The one-year period would commence from the date of expiry of the currency/cancellation of the warrants.

SEBI Decisions

􀂙 Retail application limit enhanced to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 1 lakh across all issues

􀂙 Disclosure of risk factors specific to IPOs by insurance companies made compulsory

􀂙 Preferential allotment framework for promoters tightened

􀂙 Companies will have to pre-announce dates for dividend payment and bonus shares

􀂙 Insurance funds set up by Department of Posts accorded QIB status

Haryana first in line to dial mobile number portability

• Haryana will experience India’s first mobile number portability (MNP) on November 25. MNP allows mobile subscribers to change their service providers without changing phone numbers. It has been delayed thrice in less than a year, with the deadline now being December 20 for pan-India rollout. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will begin MNP testing for the Haryana circle on November 8 and go live on November 25. For the rest of the circles, it will be implemented in phases.

• The DoT had earlier given licences to Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions, a 74:26 joint venture between US-based Telcordia and Deepak Talwar Consultants Pvt Ltd to implement MNP. However in March 2009, the Ministry of Home Affairs revoked the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval to Telcordia, citing security concerns. DoT has now asked Syniverse to get ready to implement MNP across the country, as it may have to withdraw the licence to Telcordia. Another reason for the delay has been the inability of the telecom operators to get their network ready for the service.

• A subscriber will pay a maximum of Rs. 19 to change his mobile operator. He will be allowed to change his service provider under the MNP only if he has completed 90 days with it. MNP is expected to increase competition between the service providers and compel them to improve their quality of service. The implementation of the MNP is likely to hit big players as new telecom operators will try to poach their high end customers.

 

Govt. fact-finding committee on POSCO submit report

• Composition of the committee: Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on July 29, 2010, set up a fact-finding committee comprising of Meena Gupta, a former Environment Secretary; Devendra Pandey, a retired Indian Forest Service officer; Urmila Pingle, a noted expert on tribal issues; and V Suresh, a PUCL activist and lawyer at the Madras High Court.

• Purview: The committee was asked to investigate, among other things, whether the implementation of Forest Rights Act (FRA) had taken place and whether the company had been complying with existing environmental laws and the conditions laid down in the clearances granted to it.

Findings:

• The committee submitted its report on October 18. Its findings were split and Meena Gupta issued a dissent note. So the committee submitted two reports, one by Meena Gupta, and the second by the three other members. The majority made the following observations:

• The voters list showed the existence of 21 tribals in the area, contrary to claims made by the company and the state government. An unspecified number of Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) are also believed to be living in the area. Since their rights had not been settled as per the

FRA, the forest clearance was invalid.

• Three of the members have recommended that since Posco is in violation of existing laws, all its clearances should be revoked. Such a step would mean that Posco, if it is still keen on the project, would have to start all over again, put in a fresh application and get the clearances again. The fourth member, Meena Gupta, in her separate report, has taken the line that Posco should be asked to make course correction, and that there was no need to cancel the clearances already given.

Project history

• In June 2005, South Korea’s Pohang Steel Company (Posco), the world’s fourth largest producer of steel, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government for setting up India’s largest iron and steel plant to date. The project — to be located in Jagatsinghpur district and completed in three phases — envisaged production of 12 million tonnes of steel every year. Despite the project being passed more than five years back, no progress has been made on the ground, largely because of protests from the local population and delay in the grant of clearances.

• The project had received a major part of the clearances in 2007 but the approval for the use of forest land came only in

December 2009. The company began acquisition of land in July this year but soon thereafter the Environment Ministry ordered Posco, on August 6, to stop all work till further directions. This followed complaints alleging that the claims

made by the company and the state government — that there were no tribals in the project areas for instance — were not correct.

 

• ‘Bengal Wagon Industry’ inaugurated: A state-of-the-art wagon manufacturing factory called ‘Bengal Wagon Industry’, will be set up at the premises of SAIL Growth Works (SWG), Kulti in Bardhaman district, West Bengal.

The objective is to meet ever increasing requirement of new wagons of Indian Railways. The Union Minister of Railways, Mamata Banerjee commenced work for the factory on October 30, 2010. This factory is a follow up to the announcement made by the Minister in her Railway Budget-2010-11 that such wagon factories would be set up in joint ventures/public private partnership (PPP) at select locations. The Railway Ministry’s PSU namely RITES and the Ministry of Steel’s PSU namely, SAIL entered into a joint venture agreement in September 2010 for setting up this factory.

 

• Delhi International Renewable Energy Conference 2010 organised: The Delhi International Renewable Energy

Conference (DIREC) 2010 concludes on October 29, 2010. The conference saw the participation of ministers, energy experts and government representatives of 71 countries. The conference outlined the need for global leadership to ensure that the potential of renewable technologies are realized, dependence on fossil fuels is reduced and energy needs of countries across the globe are met at affordable rates.

 

• International Conference Petrotech 2010 from Nov 1: The 9th Petrotech International Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition, is being organised under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas at New Delhi from November 1 to 3, 2010. ‘Global Energy Equilibrium’ is the theme for PETROTECH–2010 with five technical sub – themes i.e. i) Exigent Hydrocarbon, ii) Greening the Hydrocarbon Value Chain, iii) Managing Uncertainty in the Hydrocarbon Business, iv) Energy Next and v) Non–Conventional Hydrocarbon. It aims at sharing of knowledge and expertise

within the global oil industry.

 

• World Wide Web Conference in Hyderabad: The global annual World Wide Web Conference (WWW2011), where thinkers converge to take stock of new developments and trends shaping the web, will be held at Hyderabad during March 28 to April 1, 2011. The theme for the conference will be ‘Web for all', which aims to promote the all-inclusive aspect of the Web. The event is being hosted by the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, in cooperation with International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

 

• Govt. task force set up for Universal Design and Barrier-Free Environment: The Union government on October 29, 2010 constituted a Task Force to work out the details for establishment of the proposed National Centre for

Universal Design and Barrier-free Environment (NCUDBE). The NCUDBE was envisaged in the Eleventh Five Year Plan as a national body to facilitate and support the development of universal design and barrier-free environment. The Task Force is headed by Prof. Samir K. Brahmachari, Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and will have members from the National Institution of Design, Ahemdabad and School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi. Earlier, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had invited proposals from the States for central assistance to provide barrier free environment in public buildings including State Secretariat, Collectorates, Main Hospitals, Universities and other important State level offices to ensure that these are accessible to the People with Disabilities.

 

• Warehousing Regulatory Authority set up: The Union government, on October 25, 2010, notified the setting up of

the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority under the Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2007. The Authority, comprising a chairperson and not more than two members, will register and accredit warehouses intending to issue negotiable warehouse receipts, and put in place, a system of quality certification and grading of commodities to protect the holders of receipts against malpractices and fraud. This will not only help farmers avail

better credit facility and avoid distress sale, but will also safeguard financial institutions by mitigating risk inherent in

credit extension to farmers.

 

• India improves score on open budget index (OBI): The Indian budgetary system has become more transparent over the years, with the government providing significant information on the Budget, a survey has said. According to the Open Budget Survey 2010, released by the International Budget Partnership, India’s open budget index (OBI) score improved from 53 in 2006 to 67 in 2010. The survey is released every two years and India’s OBI score in 2008 was 60. The survey showed South Africa, with an OBI score of 92, provided the most information on its Budget, followed by New Zealand (90), the UK and France (87 each), Norway and Sweden (83 each) and the US (82).

 

• BlackBerry to allow access to Messenger service by Jan 2011: The government on October 30, 2010 permitted BlackBerry to continue operations beyond December 31 after the company promised to allow legal interception of its

Messenger service by January 31 next year. Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian manufacturer of the popular smartphones, informed the Home Ministry that it is working on allowing a legal automated interception system as is being provided by mobile services operators in the country. For this, RIM could have to set up a server in India The government had set a year-end deadline for RIM to give access to security agencies to its Messenger and Enterprise services. As of now, voicemail, SMS and BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS) are accessible to law enforcement agencies. There are around a million BlackBerry subscribers in India.

 

• Gujarat wins Power India Excellence Award 2010: Gujarat has won the Power India Excellence Award 2010. The award, constituted by India Tech Foundation, was given to Minister of State Saurabh Patel by President Pratibha Patil in Mumbai on October 27, 2010. The award is given after a comparative study of the power sector across Indian

states.

 

• US approves world's biggest solar energy project: The United States on October 25, 2010 approved the largest solar energy project in the world – four massive plants at the cost of one billion dollars each in southern California.

The Blythe solar power plant will consist of four, 250-megawatt plants, built on public lands in the sunny Mojave

Desert. The total capacity will be roughly equal to the turbine output of a nuclear power plant or a large modern coalfired power plant, according to Solar Millennium, the company developing the facility.

 

Section E: SPORTS

Newsmakers

• Federer equals Sampras's haul of 64 titles: Switzerland’s Roger Federer beat Germany's Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-3 to win the Stockholm Open tennis tournament on October 24, 2010 and equal Pete Sampras's haul of 64 ATP titles. Meanwhile at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Viktor Troicki of Serbia won the Men’s title beating Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. The women’s title was won by Viktoria Azarenka of Belarus who beat Russia’s Maria Kirilenko 6- 3, 6-4 in the final.

 

• Chautala named India's chef-de-mission for Asian Games: Indian Boxing Federation President Abhay Singh Chautala was on October 27, 2010 appointed the chef-de-mission of the country's contingent for next month's Asian Games in China. The Asian Games are scheduled to be held from November 12 to 27 in the city of Guangzhou.

 

• Bhaichung Bhutia Football School launched: The Indian football captain Bhaichung Bhutia has started a footballschool in his name, which will teach the sport among underprivileged children free of cost, in the national capital. The Bhaichung Bhutia Football School was started on October 30, 2010. It has tied up with the Carlos Queiroz academy in Portugal, which will provide coaches to train the children.

 

• Alonso wins Korean GP: Ferrari's Fernando Alonso won the Korean Grand Prix to seize back the Formula One World

championship lead on October 24, 2010. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Felipe Massa (Ferrari) were in second and their positions respectively.

 

News round up

• Team Kochi gets 30-day reprieve from BCCI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India has given the Kochi IPL team 30 days to resolve its ownership issues or risk being dropped from the league. The bone of contention that has split the franchise owners relates to the sweat equity structure. Rendezvous Sports World, controlled by the Gaekwads, owns 25 per cent in the form of sweat equity and one per cent paid equity. The remaining 74 per cent ownership is held by five businessmen, including Anchor Earth, Parinee Developers, Rosy Blue and Film Wave. This group wants Rendezvous to reduce its sweat equity to 10 per cent.

 

• Tendulkar in all-time Test World XI: Sachin Tendulkar is the only current cricketer named in ESPN-cricinfo's all-time Test World XI unveiled in October 2010. Tendulkar has been chosen at No. 4 batting position. Four Australians, three West Indians, two Englishmen, an Indian and a Pakistani make up the XI. World XI: Jack Hobbs, Len Hutton, Don Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, Viv Richards, Garry Sobers, Adam Gilchrist, Malcolm Marshall, Shane Warne, Wasim Akram and Dennis Lillee.

 

Recent Books

Book Author

Hampi: Discover the Splendours of Vijayanagar        Subhadra Sen Gupta, Claire Arni

Brihadisvara Temple-Form and Meaning                   R. Nagaswamy

Destination Moon — India's quest for the Moon, Mars and Beyond                                                                  Pallava Bagla

Jawaharlal Nehru: ‘Civilizing A Savage World’        Nayantara Sahgal

Riding The Tiger: Leading Through Learning in Troubled Times                                        Priscilla Nelson and Ed Cohen

Tales From The Bench And The Bar               Vicaji J Taraporevala

Mumbai Political Economy Of Crime And Space      Abdul Shaban

Press, Politics & Public Opinion in Bihar (1912-1947)         Sudhir Kumar Singh

War, Neogtiation and Peace - US and Vietnam Odyssey          Sarat Kumar Nanda

Towards Freedom - Documents and the Movement for Independence in India 1940 (Part 2)                          K. N. Panikkar

Brand New World - How India, China, Russia & Brazil are Reshaping Business                                                 Max Lenderman

Panorama of Indian Economy                                      S. Manickam

Life                                                                             Keith Richards

Arming without Aiming: India’s Military Modernization                                                                                   Dr Stephen Cohen

Challenging the Injustice of Poverty: Agendas for inclusive development in South Asia                                   Rehman Sobhan

 

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