CURRENT EVENTS FOR ALL EXAMS

International (Political & Economy)

Content:

1. New Franco-Russian rapprochement
2. India set to unveil green pavilion as Shanghai readies for World Expo
3. Ian Paisley steps down as MP
4. ETA chief held in France, says Spain

Brief Description:

New Franco-Russian rapprochement

• French President Nicolas Sarkozy has clearly decided to forget his earlier strident and principled declarations about Russia, Chechnya and human rights and cosy up to Moscow.
• During Russian President Dimitri Medvedev’s visit to Paris the two countries took their relationship to a new level of understanding, with Paris opening exclusive negotiations for the sale of four French Mistral warships to Russia and Moscow agreeing to be more cooperative on sanctions against Iran.
• Paris underlined the importance of Mr. Medvedev’s three-day visit by receiving him with unusual pomp. The Russian leader arrived in the French capital by helicopter, landing on the vast esplanade in front of the Invalides museum, where Napoleon is buried. Scores of golden-helmeted Republican Guards on horseback led his limousine across the Alexandre III bridge, named for the second-to-last Tzar.
• The message to Washington was clear — Paris is a major player on the international scene and France is determined to carve out a foreign policy niche for itself with or without the active cooperation of Washington. Paris decided to go ahead with the sale of the warships despite opposition openly expressed by U.S. President and Congress as well as by the Baltic States.
• Mistrals, They are in fact amphibious combat tank and helicopter carriers. Such an arms sale would be the biggest ever by a NATO country to Russia. The purchase, each ship can carry up to 16 attack helicopters, would allow Russia to land hundreds of troops quickly on foreign soil. The possibility has alarmed Georgia as well as the three Baltic countries in NATO — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
• In return a key business deal signed during the visit will give France’s GDF Suez a 9-per cent stake in the Nord Stream gas pipeline project run by Russia’s Gazprom. Once again, this runs counter to efforts by U.S. and other European countries to lessen Europe’s dependence on Russian pipelines and gas. The pipeline also competes with Nabucco, a proposed pipeline backed by the U.S. and the European Union that would bring natural gas to Europe from the Caspian Sea region.
• It will be more difficult for Washington and Paris to get the newly renewed U.N. Security Council to commit to a resolution calling for even tougher sanctions against Iran, a prime goal for the French. Besides China, a permanent member that opposes sanctions against Iran, the new U.N. Security Council includes recalcitrant non-permanent members like Brazil, Turkey, Nigeria or Lebanon where the pro-Iranian Hizbollah is a major force in politics. Although as rotating non-permanent UNSC members, none of these states has a veto, their votes against sanctions would greatly undermine the credibility of any resolution.
• From Moscow’s point of view it would be giving nothing away by agreeing to fresh sanctions against Iran. With western impatience growing over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, Mr. Medvedev said his country is ready to consider targeted new sanctions against the Islamic Republic. “Russia is ready, with other partners, to consider sanctions,” he said.

India set to unveil green pavilion as Shanghai readies for World Expo

• Even on Chinese New Year’s day, when all of the country comes to a standstill, the hammering does not stop along the banks of the Huangpu river.
• At a sprawling 1,200-acre site, construction workers toil round the clock, carrying bricks, laying steel pipes and furiously drilling, all to ensure that Shanghai is ready for its big show.
• Come May, this site will host what is being billed as the biggest fair in history, when more than 70 million people from at least 190 countries descend on Shanghai for the World Expo.
• Just as the 2008 Olympics in Beijing was seen as announcing China’s arrival on the world stage, the Expo is being perceived here as making an equally significant statement — declaring the coming of age of the country’s commercial capital.
• Since Shanghai won the bid to host the World Expo 10 years ago, the city has spent more than $45 billion on a spectacular infrastructure makeover, part of its quest to become a global financial capital by 2020 — this exceeds even Beijing’s spending in the lead-up to the Olympics.

Ian Paisley steps down as MP

• Ian Paisley bowed out of the House of Commons announcing he would not stand again in the forthcoming general election, while defending his decision to go into a power-sharing government with Sinn Fein.
• The 83-year-old former Northern Ireland First Minister said he had done the deal with Sinn Fein because the public wanted a compromise. He said he had no regrets about entering the power-sharing arrangement with former IRA members.
• The securing of the deal at St. Andrews in 2006 led to Mr. Paisley serving as First Minister and Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland.
• They were so often pictured together joking, they were nicknamed the “Chuckle Brothers”, which stuck until Mr. Paisley stepped down in 2008.
• The announcement draws to a close the career of a man who dominated Ulster politics throughout the Troubles, as a fundamentalist, firebrand and, latterly, peacemaker. Mr. Paisley was a key player in the Ulster workers’ strike of 1974, which brought down the first power-sharing government between unionists and nationalists, and condemned Northern Ireland to decades of political stasis. The move was critical to the formation of the province’s present assembly government. However, his influence has waned in recent years amid declining health.

ETA chief held in France, says Spain

• The leader of the armed Basque group ETA was arrested in France , said officials, in another setback for the separatists, who have seen five of their commanders taken into custody in the last two years.
• ETA chief Ibon Gogeascoechea and two other suspected separatists were arrested in a joint French-Spanish police operation in the village of Cahan, France, following a long surveillance operation on a cottage that had been rented using false identity papers, said Spanish Interior Minister Alferdo Perez Rubalcaba.
• Gogeascoechea (54) is wanted for allegedly helping to place 12 explosive devices around the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, northern Spain, in 1997 on the eve of the gallery’s inauguration by the king of Spain.

Obama pushes for energy-saving homes

• U.S. President Barack Obama announced a new multi-pronged policy to reduce the United States’ dependence on oil consumption and create new jobs after the worst recession in a generation.
• Mr. Obama described the policy, called HOMESTAR, as aiming to create jobs by encouraging American families to invest in energy-saving home improvements.
• Building supplies and systems that would save energy over time would be identified. Any homeowner putting in new windows, replacing a heating unit or redoing a roof would be eligible to claim from the store or the contractor 50 per cent of the cost of each upgrade up to $1,500, said Mr. Obama.
• The scheme mirrors the Cash for Clunkers initiative launched last year — a $3-billion federal programme that created incentives for people to purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Ukraine- Cabinet voted out

• Ukraine’s newly-elected President Viktor Yanukovych has won his first victory in Parliament forcing out his rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
• The Ukrainian Parliament on Wednesday passed a no-confidence motion sending the Prime Minister and her Cabinet packing. Mr. Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions, which controls only 172 seats in the 450-seat Parliament, mustered the backing of 243 deputies for the no-confidence vote as the majority “orange” coalition comprising supporters of Ms. Tymoshenko and the former President, Viktor Yushchenko, collapsed.
• Mr. Yanukovych beat Ms. Tymoshenko in a presidential election runoff last month with a 3.5 per cent margin.
• To appoint a Prime Minister of his choice, Mr. Yanukovych has to build up a new majority coalition. If he fails, the country will face snap parliamentary elections.

Ex-tycoon slams Russian justice

• The former oil tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is in prison for fraud and tax evasion.
• The former CEO of the now-defunct Yukos oil company.

Hillary in Latin America to boost U.S. image in the region

• Hillary Clinton is midway through a week-long tour of Latin America, as she seeks to rescue the United States’ flagging image in the region. The Secretary of State will wrestle with a host of thorny issues during her trip, most of which offer but a slim chance of success.
• Starting out in Uruguay, where Ms. Clinton attended the inauguration of President José Mujica, she may well have bumped into co-attendee and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of the most vocal critics of U.S. foreign policy in all of the Southern Cone.

UAE blocks infected sheep, goat shipment

• The United Arab Emirates has blocked an Indian shipment of 950 goats and sheep after a number of animals were found to be infected with foot and mouth disease.
• The owners of the shipment attempted to enter the country at night through Ras Al Khaimah, but were prevented by the quarantine and customs authorities, the UAE’s official news agency WAM reported.

Trial on in Da Vinci theft case

• A solicitor has been accused along with four other men of threatening to destroy a stolen Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece unless they were paid £4.25 million, in a conspiracy allegedly hatched in the offices of one of Glasgow’s leading law firms.
• Marshall Ronald (53), a lawyer from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, has gone on trial for allegedly helping to organise a plot to extort the money from the Duke of Buccleuch for the safe return of Leonardo’s Madonna of the Yarnwinder.
• The painting was recovered in October 2007 after police raided the offices of the law firm, HBJ Gateley Wareing, in Glasgow. The duke, a keen fine art collector, had died aged 83 a month before it was recovered.

Chile death toll over 700

• Police fired tear gas and imposed an overnight curfew to control looters who sacked virtually every market in this hard-hit city as Chile’s earthquake toll surpassed 700.
• President Michelle Bachelet promised imminent deliveries of food, water and shelter for thousands living on the streets.

Waves reach Japan, Russia

• The tsunami from Chile’s devastating earthquake hit Japan’s main islands and the shores of Russia but the smaller-than-expected waves prompted the lifting of a Pacific-wide alert. Hawaii and other Pacific islands were also spared.
• Hundreds of thousands of people fled shorelines for higher ground after the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii warned 53 nations and territories that a tsunami had been generated by magnitude-8.8 quake.
• In Japan, the biggest wave hit the northern island of Hokkaido.
• The tsunami raised fears Pacific nations could suffer from disastrous waves like those that killed 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean in December 2004, which happened with little-to-no warning and much confusion about the impending waves.

Storm claims 60 lives in Europe

• The weather bureau and radio stations across France had posted warnings of gale force winds and a storm to come.
• But what hit France’s western Atlantic coastline in the early hours was no ordinary storm and no one foresaw the mayhem it would bring in its wake.
• Winds at 160 km per hour combined with unusually high tides pounded small, unprotected fishing villages and seaside tourist havens. Entire rural communities were inundated and nearly 50 lives were lost, most of the dead caught unawares by the swiftly mounting wall of water.
• The storm, called Xynthia, flooded ports, destroyed homes and left one million households without electricity.
• It also battered Belgium, Portugal, Spain and parts of Germany. The death toll across Europe was 60 although a dozen persons are still missing and feared dead.

Pro-government demonstrations in Turkey

• Tens of thousands of Turks took to the streets in support of an ongoing investigation related to a 2003 coup plot and to create awareness against military takeovers of democratically-elected governments in their country.
• The countrywide demonstrations were organised on February 28 to mark the thirteenth anniversary of the “post-modern” coup, when the Turkish military forced the resignation of the religiously-inclined government of Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan.

U.S. denies nuclear deal, power plant to Pakistan

• The U.S. has told Pakistan that it will not get any atomic power plant or civilian nuclear deal, similar to the one it signed with India.
• “The United States is working closely with Pakistan to help meet its growing needs. Nuclear power is not currently part of our discussions,” a senior official told PTI.

Suu Kyi’s appeal dismissed

• Aung San Suu Kyi, celebrated democracy campaigner and Nobel Peace laureate, will continue to remain under house arrest in Yangon, following the Myanmar High Court’s dismissal of her appeal for freedom.
• Also known as Supreme Court, this apex judicial forum pronounced only the operative portion of the judgment, without reading out the reasons.

Italy oil spill termed eco-terror

• As sludge from an oil spill began polluting the Po, Italy’s longest river, raising fears of contamination of specialised farm products such as Parma cheese, ham or the famous arborio rice used in making risotto, central authorities in Rome struggled to find answers who could have deliberately set off the oil leak from an abandoned refinery near the town of Monza.

Gul seeks to ease civil-military tensions

• Amid growing tensions following Monday’s arrest of more than 40 military officers in connection with an alleged 2003 coup plot, Turkish President Abdullah Gul has held a summit with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armed Forces Chief General Ilker Basbug.
• The meeting was prompted to ease civil-military tensions after the arrest of more than 40 officers for their suspected role in the alleged “sledgehammer” plot.

Dylan, Eastwood get White House awards

• U.S. President Barack Obama honoured actor and director Clint Eastwood and singer Bob Dylan with arts awards.
• The White House called Mr. Dylan “an icon of youthful rebellion and poetic sensitivity” and said Mr. Eastwood’s films and performances are “essays in individuality, hard truths and the essence of what it means to be American.”

Rigi’s arrest should worry U.K., U.S.: Iran

• The dramatic arrest of Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of a high-profile anti-Iran militant group based in Pakistan, should worry the intelligence agencies of the United States, Britain and a number of “regional states,” a senior Iranian official has said.“The information that he [Rigi] has is more important than his trial and punishment.
• Iranian officials say Rigi, head of the militant group Jundallah, worked closely with the intelligence services of the U.S, Britain and Israel.
• Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency (FNA).

India & World

Current Affairs on National and Social Issues

Content:

1. Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to Saudi Arabia
2. 3,500 pilgrims from India take part in Kachchatheevu festival

Brief Description:

Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to Saudi Arabia

1. India signs extradition treaty and a few other agreements with Saudi Arabia
   • India and Saudi Arabia have vowed to jointly combat terrorism and money laundering as they signed an extradition treaty and several agreements to raise their cooperation to a strategic partnership covering security, economic, energy and defence areas. The extradition treaty enhances existing security cooperation and will help in apprehending wanted persons in each other’s country.
   • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Saudi King Abdullah signed the Riyadh Declaration outlining the contours of a new era of strategic partnership between the two countries. Both sides emphasised the importance of strengthening the strategic energy partnership in line with the Delhi Declaration of 2006, including meeting India’s increasing requirement of crude oil supplies and identifying areas of new and renewable energy.
   • India and Saudi Arabia also signed four other agreements relating to transfer of sentenced persons, cultural cooperation, memorandum of understanding between Indian Space Research Organisation and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology for cooperation in peaceful use of outer space and joint research and information technology.
2. Analysis
   • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to Saudi Arabia, though long overdue, ended on a high note. As a result of his discussions with the top leadership here for the past three days, both India and Saudi Arabia have agreed to upgrade their relationship to “strategic partnership.The Prime Minister said the strategic partnership would cover issues relating to security, cooperation in dealing with terrorism and arrangements for information and intelligence sharing.
   • Dr. Singh and King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz covered substantial ground and managed to pin down specific areas for further collaboration. Determined to go beyond their traditional buyer-seller energy relationship, the two leaders opened up a much wider common agenda, including such exciting areas as outer space, renewable energy, and advanced computing.
   • Four years after King Abdullah made a pioneering visit to India, the vision of a comprehensive political, security, and economic relationship, anchored in the Riyadh Declaration signed during Dr. Singh’s visit, now stands firmly established. The Riyadh Declaration, which came four years after the 2006 Delhi Declaration, said the two leaders noted that tolerance, religious harmony and brotherhood, irrespective of faith or ethnic background, were part of the principles and values of both countries.
   • The Prime Minister’s visit to Saudi Arabia, which is not only the world’s largest oil producer but also a regional heavyweight, is also likely to leave its stabilising imprint on other areas in West Asia. These include the neighbouring oil rich countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which are encountering serious security challenges.
   • Significantly, the visit has added a prominent security dimension to bilateral ties. Saudi Arabia and India fully appreciate that they are common victims of terrorism. They are both targeted by the forces of global jihad, entrenched in the rugged mountain ranges on either side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. If Mumbai was India’s terror nightmare, Riyadh too faced a string of devastating bombings in 2003, when al Qaeda operatives blew up prominent residential compounds. Saudi Arabia continues to remain in the cross-hairs of the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which operates out of neighbouring Yemen.
   • The signing of an extradition treaty during Dr. Singh’s visit therefore needs to be welcomed as a major breakthrough. From an Indian perspective, there is now hope that outfits like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), whose operatives reportedly visit Saudi Arabia for various purposes, will be captured by Saudi authorities and sent to face the law in India.
   • Further, the shared focus on safeguarding the “sovereignty and independence” of Afghanistan must be welcomed.
   • In a visit that otherwise went so well, New Delhi’s hardly concealed interest in seeking Riyadh’s “good offices” to moderate Pakistan’s behaviour has struck a jarring note. The suggestion appeared quite unnecessary as serious discussions on the Pakistan situation are expected to be integral to the fast-developing India-Saudi security relationship. By overtly drawing Saudi Arabia into the India-Pakistan equation, the United Progressive Alliance government has needlessly opened itself to the charge of diluting the principle of bilateralism that has, by virtue of a national consensus, governed New Delhi’s engagement with Islamabad.(-ve)
   • the Shura Council – Saudi parliament
3. Controversy -BJP wants Manmohan, Tharoor to explain remarks on Saudi Arabia
   • The latest controversy over Shashi Tharoor’s remarks,the junior minister’s reference to Saudi Arabia being a “valuable interlocutor for [India]” as assigning Riyadh a mediatory role between New Delhi and Islamabad.
   • ‘Interlocutor’ means a person or entity or country involved in a conversation. And the Minister of State for External Affairs was clearly talking about the value of Saudi Arabia as a dialogue partner for India on the subject of Pakistan.
   • The Bharatiya Janata Party indicated that it would ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet colleague Shashi Tharoor to “explain” what they meant by saying India should talk to Saudi Arabia about Pakistan-inspired terrorism.
   • Was this the start of the end of bilateralism in India-Pakistan dialogue?
4. Riyadh ‘worried’ about Pakistan situation
   • While terming Pakistan a “friendly country,” Saudi Arabia on Sunday said it was “worried” about the prevailing situation and spread of extremism there and appealed to political leaders in Pakistan to unite and meet the challenges.

3,500 pilgrims from India take part in Kachchatheevu festival

• Around 3,500 pilgrims from India on Saturday and Sunday took part in the St. Antony’s Church festival in Kachchatheevu after a gap of 27 years.
• Sri Lankan pilgrims at Kachchatheevu.

Content:

1. Women’s Reservation Bill
2. Navy plane at Hyderabad air show crashes

Brief Description:

Women’s reservation bill

1. Cabinet nod for Women’s Reservation Bill

• The Union Cabinet approved the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2008, that seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
• The Parliamentary Standing Committee has approved the 108th Constitutional Amendment Bill in its original form with minor changes.
• The Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha in 2008 and was subsequently referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Personnel, which in its report submitted in December last year had recommended its early passage in the present form saying that the decision should not be left to the discretion of parties.

2. Women’s quota bill set to sail through in Rajya Sabha

• With the numbers stacked in its favour, the women’s reservation bill, which seeks to reserve 33% seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, is set to get the Rajya Sabha’s nod on Monday.
• The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Rajya Sabha, which met on Thursday evening, allotted four hours to debate and vote the legislation. The bill, which has been approved afresh by the Union Cabinet, will be tabled in the House the same day.

Navy plane at Hyderabad air show crashes

• An Indian Navy aircraft participating in an aerobatic display as part of the India Aviation 2010 exhibition at the Begumpet airport crashed into a building in the densely populated Bowenpally.
• The Navy announced the grounding of all HJT-16 Kiran MK-II aircraft which form part of the Sagar Pawan Aerobatic Demonstration Team. It ordered an inquiry.
• This naval aircraft crash in Hyderabad is the fourth fatal incident involving aerial display teams in the last four years.
• The IAF operates the Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team (SKAT) and the Sarang helicopter display team, while the Navy has the four-aircraft Sagar Pawan Aerobatic Team (SPAT).
• The SKAT and the SPAT perform aerobatics with the HAL-built HJT 16 Kiran Mk-II aircraft and the Sarang team performs aerial displays using indigenously built ALH Dhruv choppers.
• the SPAT, formed in 2003,The first fatal accident involving the SKAT took place near its home base in Bidar, Karnataka, on March 18, 2006.In February 2007, the Sarang team had its first fatal accident when one of its ALH Dhruv choppers crashed in Bangalore during a rehearsal before the Aero India show there.

Arunachal Pradesh-specific project

• A World Bank document says external affairs minister SM Krishna has stated that “India will not pose any Arunachal Pradesh-specific project” to the Bank, and that the Chinese executive director at the Bank is pressing for the operationalisation of this statement.
• This amounts to conceding China’s persistent claims of Arunachal Pradesh being a “disputed territory” and runs contrary to the stated opinion that the state is “an integral part of India”.
• It may be recalled that it was only eight months ago that the Indian government had sharply attacked Beijing for criticising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh and his reference to the state as “our land of the rising sun”. During the verbal skirmishes with Beijing at that time, India had said China has no business to interfere in the affairs of a territory that is an integral part of India.

Demand for Nagaland sovereignty rejected

• The Union government and the NSCN (IM), a Naga insurgent group, continued talks for the second day.
• The Centre rejected the outfit’s demand for sovereignty for Nagaland and its territorial claims to portions of neighbouring States.

Advanced Technology Vehicle successfully flight-tested

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully flight-tested its new-generation, high-performance sounding rocket at the spaceport in Sriharikota.
• The Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV- D01), weighing three tonnes at lift-off, is the heaviest sounding rocket developed by the ISRO.
• It carries a passive scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine combustor module as a test-bed for a demonstration of the air-breathing propulsion technology. An ISRO release said the rocket successfully flew at a velocity of more than Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound) for seven seconds.
• These conditions were required for a stable ignition of active scramjet engine combustor module planned in the next ATV flight.

New generation Airbus A320 joins Air India fleet

• The first of the new generation Airbus A320 joined the Air India fleet . It has a host of latest facilities, including advanced Weather Radar System, Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) and an LCD cockpit display system.
• The 140-seater aircraft is also equipped with the latest digital cabin management system. The aircraft, the 74th of the 111 ordered by the national carrier as part of its fleet acquisition, will be on display at India Aviation 2010.

Stampede in a UP ashram kills 65

• At least 65 people — nearly all of them women and children — were killed and 28 others injured in a stampede on Thursday in a local ashram after a collapse of its gate triggered panic among about 10,000 people who had converged for a ritual. Thirty seven women and 26 children were among those killed after they were trampled over by the crowd that had gathered at Kripalu Maharaj’s ashram.
• Stampedes at temples and other religious places in India have claimed nearly 700 lives in the past eight years.
• On September 30, 2008, nearly 150 devotees were killed and over 60 injured in a stampede at Chamunda Devi temple in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur city. The incident took place when there was a rumour of a bomb going off. More than 10,000 people had turned up at the famous temple for a darshan. Such a tragedy at the Hindu temple of Naina Devi in Himachal on August 3, 2008, had claimed 150 people, mainly women and children, and injured about 230.

SIT Special Public Prosecutor, deputy resign

• The Special Public Prosecutor and his deputy, appearing for the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team before the special court trying the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre case, have submitted their resignations, throwing the entire proceedings haywire.
• R.K. Shah and his deputy Nainaben Bhatt sent in their resignation papers to SIT chairman R.K. Raghavan.

Concern over delay in mass nesting of Oilve Ridley turtles

• The mood and pattern of nesting of Olive Ridley turtles still continues to be a mystery.
• Although there was a large congregation of these endangered turtles in the sea near the Rushikulya rookery for mating, they are yet to come over to the beach for mass nesting.
• Sporadic nesting of Olive Ridley turtles is on at Rushikulya river mouth coast and Devi river mouth coast. But mass nesting of these turtles is on at Gahirmatha coast.

Panel moots age limit for kids on reality shows

• The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has recommended that children below the age of seven years be not allowed to participate in reality shows on television channels.
• NCPCR chairperson Santha Sinha.
• The recommendation would be forwarded to the Union government within the next two weeks. The NCPCR has been working on violation of child rights on reality shows for the past two years.

India upset with Holbrooke view on Kabul attack

• Indian officials have described as “absolutely incorrect” the statement by Washington’s AfPak envoy, Richard Holbrooke, that India was not the target of last week’s terrorist attack in Kabul.

Admiral Gorshkov deal to be finalised

• The long-pending deal to finalise the price tag on aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov) could soon be taken up by the government as the Defence Ministry prepares to take the case to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).
• That the Centre had finalised a price was announced last year during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Russia, but the negotiations concluded towards the end of December 2009.
• The contract negotiation committee gave its final verdict on the acquisition of the aircraft carrier, which is currently undergoing repairs and refit at the Sevmash shipyard in Russia.
• The initial agreement of $974 million went up to $1.5 billion to include 16 MiG-29K aircraft for the carrier. The Russians increased the demand from $2.2 billion to $2.9 billion, even as the Comptroller and Auditor-General made critical observations regarding the deal.

Sikhs rescued from Taliban’s clutches

• Two Sikhs, abducted for ransom by the Taliban in the troubled Khyber tribal region bordering Afghanistan, were on Monday rescued by Pakistani security forces, a week after a Sikh trader was beheaded by the militant captors.
• The operation was conducted in a remote area along the boundary between the Khyber and Aurakzai tribal regions on a tip-off from intelligence sources, a spokesman from the Inter-Services Public Relations said.

Assam Rifles soldiers for Haiti

• The Government of India has decided to send a group of Assam Rifles soldiers as part of a police unit to Haiti under the aegis of the United Nations mission, keeping in view the good work done by the paramilitary force in the past.
• He was speaking after reviewing a special attestation parade held at the Assam Rifles Training Centre and School here to mark the 175th anniversary the force.

Expert committee on Kolleru size’

• Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh promised to appoint a five-member expert committee to go into the plea for reduction of the size of wildlife sanctuary at Kolleru.

Funds for biotechnology research increased

• Even as the controversy over Bt brinjal continues, the Union budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee provides for a 32 per cent increase in the allocation for the Department of Biotechnology in the Ministry of Science and Technology.
• the budget provides for a concessional excise duty of four per cent for the solar-powered cycle-rickshaw developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
• In addition, the key parts and components of the environment-friendly rickshaw, named ‘Soleckshaw,’ would be exempted from customs duty.

Iceberg-glacier collision could trigger climatic changes

• An iceberg about the size of Luxembourg, which struck a glacier off Antarctica dislodging another massive block of ice, could lower oxygen levels in the world’s oceans, Australian and French scientists said.
• The two icebergs are now drifting together about 100 to 150 km off Antarctica, following the collision on February 12 or 13, said Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young.

Tiger census begins in Buxa

• The first phase of the tiger population census in West Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve has started. A Wildlife Institute of India estimate suggests that there may be just 10 tigers left in the reserve.
• The National Tiger Conservation Authority has identified the reserve as one of the seven reserves, where the tiger density is critically low.

Manipur strike: ESMA may be invoked

• The Manipur government is planning to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against leaders of the striking government employees as those in the essential services have also joined the indefinite strike.
• The government hospitals are paralysed and the out-patient departments closed. Reports say that paramilitary troopers may also join the strike.
• The employees have been on strike since January 16 demanding payment of salary and allowances as per the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

SEWA’s Ela Bhatt chosen for Niwano Peace Prize

• Social worker Ela Bhatt has been chosen for the Niwano Peace Prize this year for her contribution to the uplift of poor women in India.
• Ms. Bhatt, recognised as one of the pioneers in the development of the most oppressed and poorest women of India for more than three decades, will receive the award here on May 13.
• The award, which recognises the significant contribution of an individual to inter-religious understanding and cooperation leading to world peace, comes with a certificate, a medal and prize money worth ¥20 million.
• She set up the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a trade union, in 1972. Now, it has over 1.2 million members. In 1974, she established the SEWA cooperative bank, which now reaches out to around three million women.

Award for filmmaker Yavar Abbas

• Veteran British-Asian filmmaker Yavar Abbas will be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the South Asian Cinema Foundation (SACF) here on March 4 for making films like India! My India!
• The 90-year-old has documented the Partition years and delved into both Hinduism and Islam in his works.
• In 1963, he started out as an independent filmmaker and set out on a filming safari, going overland from London to New Delhi shooting for India! My India!

Violence mars Santiniketan festival

• Violence and boycott marked the “Basanta Utsav” (Spring Festival) on the Vishva-Bharati campus at Santiniketan.
• The tradition of celebrating Basanta Utsav at Santiniketan was started by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore himself and it is one of the two occasions that draws thousands to the university to witness and participate in the colourful festivities, including several cultural functions.

International (Political & Economy)

Content:

1. What is the issue between Google and China?
2. Drug menace: Hillary heads for Mexico
3. Zoffany’s The Last Supper to be restored
4. Agenda for road safety
5. Eastern Europe, Central Asia warned of energy crunch
6. U.N. recognises Russia-led bloc
7. Marital trouble for Bullock, Winslet
8. Narrow lead for Maliki
9. U.S., Pakistan to hold dialogue
10. Zuma wins trust vote
11. Accord to cancel Afghan debt
12. Head of Irish Church apologises for coverup
13. Left-green revival in France
14. Ban goes ahead with Sri Lanka panel
15. Washington-Tel Aviv row escalates
16. 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, in Doha
17. Shortest man dead
18. india-born MP found dead
19. Youngest solo across the Atlantic
20. Saudi Arabia not to influence China on Iran
21. Panic over fake news in Georgia
22. A fraud of an election
23. Surging global weapons transfers raise concerns
24. Panel to study cause of conflict in Sri Lanka

Brief Description:

What is the issue between Google and China?

• Google has been operating google.cn, a search engine meant for Chinese speaking people since 2006.
• China requires Internet operators to block words and images the ruling Communist Party deems unacceptable.
• China demands that Google should respect its censorship laws. But Google accuses China of hacking its sites with an intent to bully the search engine giant.
• Google in January said it may exit China pending talks with the government on a plan to stop censoring search results in its Google.cn site, after claiming it was targeted by cyber attacks from within the country.
• The height of this tiff is that China demands that Google should respect its censorship laws even if it exits China.

Drug menace: Hillary heads for Mexico

• At a time of heightened concern over drugs-related bloodshed in Mexico — some of it affecting American citizens — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced plans to hold discussions with authorities there next week.
• The talks come close on the heels of the killings in Ciudad Juarez, by suspected drug gangs, of three persons associated with the U.S. consulate there. Last weekend, an employee of the consulate, her husband and the husband of a Mexican employee were gunned down.

Zoffany’s The Last Supper to be restored

• A 10×12 feet canvas depicting The Last Supper that took German neoclassical painter Johann Zoffany six weeks to paint, will take a team of six conservators five months to tend to the 47 tears and holes it has suffered in the 223 years since its creation.
• Started in February, the project will cost about Rs.15 lakhs.
• The painting, acknowledged to be among the finest representations of the Biblical scene in India, was presented to the St. John’s parish on June 24, 1787, for the consecration of the first church built by the British.

Agenda for road safety

• The resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly urging all nations to launch a decade of action on road safety from 2011 resonates with India’s vulnerable road users.
• The Global Status Report on Road Safety, published by the World Health Organisation in 2009, reveals that the country leads a group of 10 countries with an appalling record.

Eastern Europe, Central Asia warned of energy crunch

• Eastern Europe and Central Asia may face an energy crunch by 2030 due to rising consumption unless massive investments are made to unlock capacity, the World Bank has warned in a report released.

U.N. recognises Russia-led bloc

• A Russia-led defence bloc of ex-Soviet states signed a cooperation pact with the United Nations that is likely to pave the way for the alliance’s greater involvement in Afghanistan.
• U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon signed the document in Moscow along with General Nikolai Bordyuzha, head of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). The CSTO includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
• The agreement amounts to a recognition of the CSTO as a full-fledged international security organisation. Two years ago the U.N. signed a similar pact with NATO. The Atlantic Alliance has consistently refused to sign a cooperation agreement with CSTO, which is often described as a counterbalance to NATO in Central Asia.

Marital trouble for Bullock, Winslet

• Just days after celebrating her first Oscar win, Sandra Bullock’s marriage to Jesse James seems to be nearing an end as she has moved out of the family home after reports of infidelity on his part.
• It looks like Ms. Bullock will join the long line of Oscar-winning women actors whose marriage ended soon after they won the coveted award, including Kate Winslet, Halle Berry, Angelina Jolie, Hillary Swank and Kim Bassinger.

Narrow lead for Maliki

• Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition is facing a stiff electoral challenge from Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc as counting for the Iraq’s tightly fought parliamentary elections enters its final phase.
• Trailing behind the Iraqiya bloc on Tuesday by 9,000 votes, Mr. Maliki’s State of Law (SOL) formation has recovered to establish a narrow lead. With nearly 85 per cent of the votes counted, the State of Law had recorded 2,260,483 voted against Iraqiya’s 2,220,443.
• Mr. Allawi, riding on strong nationalist agenda has managed to draw the Sunni and secular votes, analysts say. However, Mr. Maliki backed by the Shia vote bank may in the end triumph if his coalition is joined by another Shia formation, the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), which is running third in the contest.
• Observers, however, caution that in the numbers game that lies ahead, the Kurdish vote coalesced under the Kurdistania Alliance could also be significant.
• In the last elections, the Kurds had sided with the Shia formations, and the Shia-Kurdish alliance had decisively outflanked the Sunnis and their allies.
• Some analysts are of the view that if the present trend continues, Mr. Maliki’s SOL and the Iraqiya bloc could each end up with 85 to 90 seats in the 325-member Parliament.
• The INA could manage around 67 seats, while the Kurdistania alliance could notch up around 38.

U.S., Pakistan to hold dialogue

• The United States and Pakistan will hold their first strategic dialogue at the ministerial level in Washington DC on March 24, it was announced here. The talks will be co-chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
• Additionally, deputy spokesman at the State Department Mark Toner, said: “Obviously, we’re talking about … Afghanistan, the situation there, the spill-over into the FATA [Federally Administered Tribal Areas] and how to really better engage. And in fact, we’ve seen some successes on that front in recent weeks on terrorism.”

Zuma wins trust vote

• South Africa’s ruling party says it used its overwhelming majority in Parliament to throw out a no-confidence vote in President Jacob Zuma.
• The African National Congress says the motion was baseless. Supporters of the motion say Mr. Zuma, who has three wives, recently acknowledged fathering an illegitimate child and his behaviour set a poor example, particularly in the fight against HIV/Aids.

Accord to cancel Afghan debt

• The United States and other countries belonging to the Paris Club of creditors agreed to cancel Afghanistan’s debt.
• While the U.S. said lifting the debt burden inherited by the Afghan government marked a crucial step in Afghanistan’s road to economic sustainability, the Paris Club added that Afghanistan had committed to allocating resources freed by the debt relief to priority areas identified in the country’s poverty reduction strategy and to achieve Millennium Development Goals.
• With the accord signed, Afghanistan, a member of the enhanced Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, would see the implementation of “completion point treatment,” said the State Department. This implies the cancellation of an estimated $1.6 billion in debt from the Paris Club, as well as the IMF, World Bank and other creditors. As per the debt relief plan, this process will ultimately result in a “96 per cent reduction of the debt inherited by Afghanistan’s government,” which was estimated at $11.6 billion in 2006.
• The breakthrough for Afghanistan comes after years of careful debt and macroeconomic management — since 2002 technical advisors have been working with the Afghan Ministry of Finance to streamline the budget process, improve the payment system for government employees, restructure Afghanistan’s debt, and establish a Debt Management Unit within the Ministry of Finance, according to official reports.
• The Paris Club was formed in 1956 as an informal group of industrialised countries.

Head of Irish Church apologises for coverup

• Head of Irish Catholic Church Cardinal Sean Brady was under growing pressure to resign after he was forced to apologise for his role in the child abuse scandal that has hit the church.
• His apology came after victims’ groups said he had “unclean hands” following revelations that as a priest in 1975 he tried to hush up cases of sexual abuse involving another priest, Brendan Smyth, who then went on to commit more offences and was finally convicted many years later.
• Cardinal Brady acknowledged that he was present at a meeting where two victims — aged 10 and 14 — were asked to sign oaths of secrecy while the offending priest was sent to another parish.
• The Church has failed to explain why the police were not informed.

Left-green revival in France

• The first round of the elections for the 26 French regional assemblies, which took place on March 14, has resulted in a thumping win for the Socialist Party (PS), led by Martine Aubry, over the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative party.
• The UMP trails in almost all 22 regions of metropolitan France, namely the mainland plus Corsica. Interior Ministry figures show the PS as having gained 29.5 per cent of the vote, well ahead of the UMP’s 26.2 per cent and the environmentalist Europe Ecologie’s 12.5 per cent.
• The campaign was marred by acrimony and racist and sexist diatribes as Mr. Sarkozy’s colleagues followed his lead (in previous elections) with tough positions on crime, immigration, and the national identity. Yet that strategy has been rejected by habitual conservative voters. It has even failed to attract support from Jean-Marie Le Pen’s hard-right anti-immigrant National Front (FN), which tallied 11.55 per cent. The second round takes place on March 21; despite some confusion over the announcements, the PS and Europe Ecologie have announced that their party lists will be combined in all but three regions.

Ban goes ahead with Sri Lanka panel

• United Nation’s Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is going ahead with his proposal for a panel of experts on Sri Lanka despite objections from Colombo that the panel would infringe on the country’s sovereignty.
• The U.N. News Centre website quoted Mr. Ban as saying the panel was in line with a joint statement he issued with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his visit to the country in May 2009, days after the military defeat of the LTTE.

Washington-Tel Aviv row escalates

• Israelis and Palestinians have drifted further away from indirect talks after the special envoy of the United States to West Asia, George Mitchell decided to postpone his visit to the area and violence gripped parts of volatile East Jerusalem.
• The postponement is yet another step marking the sudden downslide in diplomatic interaction between the Americans and the Israelis. The deterioration began during last week’s visit to Israel and the West Bank by U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden. During the course of his visit, Israel announced its decision construct 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem, illegally occupied by Israel during the 1967 war.
• European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, also said in Cairo that the Israeli decision had “endangered and undermined the tentative agreement to begin proximity talks”.
• Notwithstanding the diplomatic row, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not budged from his position of constructing new homes in occupied territory. In an address to Parliament on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu said that construction “will continue in Jerusalem as this has been the case for the past 42 years”.
• Meanwhile, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful U.S. based Israeli lobbying group, has gone on the offensive and asked the American administration “to take immediate steps to defuse the tension with the Jewish state”.
• Amid escalation of the war of words, clashes have broken out in East Jerusalem over Israel’s decision to restore the Hurva synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s walled Old City.
• The Palestinians have said the restoration endangered the revered Al-Aqsa mosque situated around 400 metres away.

15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, in Doha

• Efforts to control n trade have failed
• Governments across the world have “failed miserably and… are continuing to fail” to halt the growth of illegal poaching and trade in tiger body parts, says Willem Wijnstekers, Secretary-General, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
• At the Doha meet, representatives of nearly 150 nations will vote on over 40 proposals on restricting trade in endangered species.
• Pointing out that 2010 was the Chinese Year of the Tiger and the International Year of Biodiversity, Mr. Wijnstekers said the trend must be reversed this year.
• The World Bank, which leads the Global Tiger Initiative, has reportedly found that the trade is spurred by privately-run tiger farms in Asian countries such as China. Further, scientific studies in India have demonstrated that most wild tiger populations will not be able to withstand even small increases in poaching over time. While China banned trade in tiger bones and products in 1993, illicit sales continue. In a 2007 report titled Taming the Tiger Trade, the WWF said any easing of the Chinese ban would be a death sentence for the endangered cats. The report warned that Chinese business owners who stand to profit from tiger trade were pressuring the Chinese government to lift the ban.

Shortest man dead

• The world’s shortest man has died in Italy.
• Guinness World Records said in a press release that he was born in 1988 with a form of primordial dwarfism. He was officially measured in March 2008.

india-born MP found dead

• Mystery surrounds the “accidental” death of an India-born Labour MP whose body was found in his home in Middlesbrough, north-east england.
• Police said Ashok Kumar (53), MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, suffered a “sudden accidental” death but declined to comment on a possible cause saying it was too early to say whether there was anything suspicious about it.

Youngest solo across the Atlantic

• Katie Spotz completed her mission becoming the youngest person to row an entire ocean solo, and the first American to row a boat without help from mainland to mainland. After 70 days five hours 22 minutes in the Atlantic, Ms. Spotz (22), arrived on Sunday in Georgetown, Guyana, in South America.

Saudi Arabia not to influence China on Iran

• American efforts to build momentum for a fresh round of sanctions against Iran have hit a snag following the visit to Riyadh by U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
• China has so far been firm in proposing that instead of sanctions, negotiations should be way forward in addressing concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear programme.

Panic over fake news in Georgia

• Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been assassinated, Russian tanks are advancing on Tbilisi, and opposition leaders have seized power in the country, a Georgian television station reported causing panic and then angry protests when people realised it was a fake report.
• In a brief announcement before airing the report, the Imedi Television said it was a “simulation” of what might happen if Georgian society is not consolidated against Russia’s aggressive plans. However, many viewers missed the warning and watched in horror the 30-minute hoax report broadcast in the 8 p.m. prime time news bulletin.

A fraud of an election

• The Political Parties Registration Law, enacted by the military junta in Myanmar ahead of general elections to be held later this year, is aimed at keeping the popular leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi out of the electoral process.
• Only portions of the law have been released and they are outrageous. There cannot be a greater fraud on the electoral process, the sole aim of which is to keep the military junta in power.
• The international community, led by the United Nations, was hoping against hope that the military rulers would see some reason and make the forthcoming elections an inclusive process.

Surging global weapons transfers raise concerns

• Surging global weapons transfers are raising concerns about arms races in tension-fraught areas of the globe, a leading peace research group warned.
• New data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute showed that transfers of major conventional weapons rose by 22 per cent in 2005-2009, compared to the previous five-year period.
• The U.S. remains the biggest arms supplier, accounting for 30 per cent of weapons exports, while China and India are the biggest importers of conventional weapons, SIPRI said.
• It added that Singapore and Algeria had both made the top-10 list of major weapons importers for the first time.

Panel to study cause of conflict in Sri Lanka

• Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to appoint a “committee” to study the root cause of the ethnic conflict, lessons learnt since sections of Tamils took to militancy to gain their rights in the mid-seventies and challenges faced since the military defeat of the LTTE in May last year, said Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe here on Friday.
• Asked if the committee would cover the circumstances leading to the deployment of the IPKF and the 1989 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) second insurgency, the Minister said: “Yes, it would be a comprehensive study covering all aspects.”
• The announcement on the committee coincided with the controversy over the decision of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a panel of experts to advise him on Sri Lanka and the vociferous objections raised by Colombo to the proposal. In the course of a telephone conversation with Mr. Ban, Mr. Rajapaksa termed the move uncalled for and unwarranted.
• Mr. Samarasinghe pointed out that the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) comprising 124 member states had condemned Mr. Ban’s move.
• Since the defeat of the LTTE, the government has been countering demands for a commission to investigate alleged human rights violations in the 34-month long Eelam War IV and repeatedly pointed to the resolution by the Human Rights Commission lauding Sri Lanka on the issue.

Economy (National)

Content:

1. Forbes lsit
2. RBI buys $10 b worth IMF notes
3. Why favour FTAs?
4. Wind power in the country
5. Govt to reduce stake in SBI
6. What is the ideal debt to GDP ratio?
7. Essar buys Trinity Coal for $600 million

Brief Description:

Forbes lsit

• India has the second largest number of billionaires in Asia
• India is home to 49 billionaires, up from 24 last year, but a few shy of the 53 billionaires the year before. China stands first with 89 billionaires.
• India has the most number of billionaires after the US, China, Russia and Germany.
• The US is home to 40% of the world’s billionaires, but it is declining. Last year, it was 45%.
• Pakistan just got its first billionaire — Mian Muhammad Mansha of the Nishat Group, which has interests in textiles and banking.
• Fifty-twoyear-old Mukesh Ambani, with an estimated fortune of $29 billion, and 59-year-old Mittal, with a net worth of $28.7 billion, rank four and five, respectively, in a list of 1,011 billionaires with an average net worth of $3.5 billion. Apart from Mr Ambani and Mr Laxmi Mittal, only four Indians rank in the top 50. With a fortune of $17 billion, Wipro’s Azim Premji ranks 28. Mr Ambani’s estranged younger brother Anil Ambani ranks 36 with a fortune of $13.7 billion.
• India’s 49 billionaires have a combined wealth of $222.1 billion —about 17% of India’s GDP. They have an average net worth of $4.5 billion. India’s per capita GDP is about Rs 46,000. Mukesh Ambani and Lakshmi Mittal account for 25% of the total Indian billionaire wealth of $222.1 billion.
• Carlos Slim of Mexico has overtaken Bill Gates as the richest person in the world. His net worth is reportedly $53.5 bn

RBI buys $10 b worth IMF notes

• The Reserve Bank of India has entered into an agreement with the International Monetary Fund to buy up to $10 billion (over Rs.45,000 crore) worth notes to help the multilateral agency shore up its resources for assisting countries hit by the global financial meltdown.
• The IMF said it signed an agreement with the RBI, under which the apex bank would purchase up to $10 billion worth notes, which are denominated in SDRs (special drawing rights), the Fund’s unit of account, with a maximum maturity of five years.
• The agreement offers India a safe investment instrument at the same time as boosting the Fund’s capacity to help its members weather the global financial crisis, and to facilitate an early recovery from the worldwide economic crisis.

Why favour FTAs?

• As of 2008, 421 RTAs had been notified to the WTO mostly under article XXIV of GATT.
• Including RTAs not yet notified, being negotiated or at proposal stage, about 400 FTAs would come up for implementation in 2010.
• About 90% of RTAs are proposals for free trade among members but do not extend to customs unions (CUs). The difference is that in CUs at least some country would have to lower its existing global (MFN) tariff levels.

Wind power in the country

• It is Tamilnadu which leads wind power capacity in the country with about 3,900 MW.
• Maharashtra’s wind power capacity stands at around 1,800 mw at present, earning it the second rank. Most of Maharashtra’s existing wind farms are located in Dhule, Satara and Sangli districts.
• The state is also home to an incomplete 1,000-mw power project currently managed by a private company in Dhule district. The state’s estimated wind power potential has been pegged at 4,584 mw.

Govt to reduce stake in SBI

• At present the Government of India is holding 59.41% stake in SBI. While the government already has Parliament’s approval to bring down its stake to 55% in SBI, this gives the bank limited space in fund-raising. Hence the government is thinking of reducing it further to 51% so as to facilitate SBI in mobilizing additional capital.

What is the ideal debt to GDP ratio?

• 90% is considered the threshold point after which debt begins to seriously drag down long-term growth.
• At 180%, Japan has the world’s highest level of public debt as a share of GDP whereas in countries such as Greece and Italy, the ratio is around 120%. Public debt in the US will be at 90% of GDP by the end of this year.
• Economists Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart write in their paper ‘Growth in a time of debt’ that when government debt as share of the economy exceeds 90%, median growth rates fall by 1% and the mean levels of growth decline by an even more substantial 4%.

Essar buys Trinity Coal for $600 million

• The Essar Group, through its subsidiary Essar Minerals, Delaware, and Denham Capital, an energy and commodities-focussed global private equity firm, announced that they had signed a definitive agreement by which Denham would sell its ownership of Trinity Coal Partners LLC to Essar for $600 million.
• Trinity is a leading U.S. coal producer with operations in the Central Appalachian region. Among the top 10 U.S. coal producers, it owns and operates mines in Kentucky and West Virginia and has a proven resource base of about 200 million tonnes of coal — split equally between metallurgical coal and steam coal. It now produces about 7 million tonnes of coal annually and plans to ramp up production to 10 million tonnes annually.

Sports/Science/Environment etc

Content:

1. Ice deposits on moon
2. Sachin creates history

Brief Description:

Ice deposits on moon

• Scientists have detected more than 40 ice-filled craters in the moon’s North Pole using data from a NASA radar that flew aboard India’s Chandrayaan-I.
• NASA’s Mini-SAR instrument, lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, found more than 40 small craters with water ice. The craters range in size from 2 to 15 km in diameter.
• It is estimated that there could be at least 600 million metric tons of water ice in the craters.
• The new discoveries show that the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than previously thought.

Sachin creates history

• Sachin created history in cricket by scoring a double century against South Africa in the 2nd ODI at Gwalior. This is the first ever time that somebody scored a double century in ODIs.
• The previous best mark was shared by Zimbabwean Charles Coventry (194 not out) and Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar (194).
• One Day International cricket, since its 1971 inception, had to wait nearly four decades to see a batsman score 200.
• Tendulkar’s double century steered India to a massive 401 for three against South Africa in the second cricket ODI. India ofcourse went on to win the match by 153 runs.
• His sublime unbeaten 200 came off just 147 balls and was bejewelled with 25 fours and three sixes.
• Tendulkar’s previous best was an unbeaten 186 against New Zealand made at Hyderabad in 1999.

Whale will stay on despite trainer’s death

• Despite calls to free or destroy the animal, SeaWorld said it would keep the killer whale that drowned its trainer, but would suspend all orca shows while it decides whether to change the way handlers work with the behemoths.
• Also, visitors who occasionally were invited to pet the killer whales would no longer be allowed to do so.
• a 5,440-kg killer whale named Tilikum dragged a trainer into its pool and thrashed the woman to death as audience members watched in horror.
• Talk-radio callers, bloggers and animal activists said Tilikum — which was involved in the deaths of two other people over the past two decades — should be released into the ocean or put to death.

Climate change: wetlands play an important role

• Experts said that wetlands can greatly help Vietnam cope with the impacts of climate change.
• The remarks were made at a conference on wetland conservation held here by the Vietnamese General Department of Environment under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, with the participation of many Vietnamese and foreign experts. At the conference, the experts said mangrove forests growing in wetlands are able to accumulate carbon dioxide which can reduce green house effect, the main factor of climate change.
• Being one of the worst affected countries by climate change in the world, Vietnam needs international assistance in establishing the programme for the conservation and sustainable development of wetlands to reduce the climate change impacts, said the experts.

Two concepts about cyber warfare

• Acupuncture warfare: The Chinese call their pursuit of information warfare (IW) and other hi-tech means to counter the overwhelmingly superior conventional military capabilities of the western alliance ‘acupuncture warfare’. Acupuncture — or paralysis — warfare is described as “paralysing the enemy by attacking the weak link of his command, control, communications and information as if hitting his acupuncture point in kung fu combat”.
• Informationisation: Soon after the Gulf War in 1991, China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) had called for a detailed study of the concept of people’s war under conditions of informationisation, implying increasing attention to the application of IT to the conduct of conventional conflict.

India & World

Current Affairs on National and Social Issues

Content:

1. Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to Saudi Arabia
2. 3,500 pilgrims from India take part in Kachchatheevu festival

Brief Description:

Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to Saudi Arabia

1. India signs extradition treaty and a few other agreements with Saudi Arabia
   • India and Saudi Arabia have vowed to jointly combat terrorism and money laundering as they signed an extradition treaty and several agreements to raise their cooperation to a strategic partnership covering security, economic, energy and defence areas. The extradition treaty enhances existing security cooperation and will help in apprehending wanted persons in each other’s country.
   • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Saudi King Abdullah signed the Riyadh Declaration outlining the contours of a new era of strategic partnership between the two countries. Both sides emphasised the importance of strengthening the strategic energy partnership in line with the Delhi Declaration of 2006, including meeting India’s increasing requirement of crude oil supplies and identifying areas of new and renewable energy.
   • India and Saudi Arabia also signed four other agreements relating to transfer of sentenced persons, cultural cooperation, memorandum of understanding between Indian Space Research Organisation and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology for cooperation in peaceful use of outer space and joint research and information technology.
2. Analysis
   • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to Saudi Arabia, though long overdue, ended on a high note. As a result of his discussions with the top leadership here for the past three days, both India and Saudi Arabia have agreed to upgrade their relationship to “strategic partnership.The Prime Minister said the strategic partnership would cover issues relating to security, cooperation in dealing with terrorism and arrangements for information and intelligence sharing.
   • Dr. Singh and King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz covered substantial ground and managed to pin down specific areas for further collaboration. Determined to go beyond their traditional buyer-seller energy relationship, the two leaders opened up a much wider common agenda, including such exciting areas as outer space, renewable energy, and advanced computing.
   • Four years after King Abdullah made a pioneering visit to India, the vision of a comprehensive political, security, and economic relationship, anchored in the Riyadh Declaration signed during Dr. Singh’s visit, now stands firmly established. The Riyadh Declaration, which came four years after the 2006 Delhi Declaration, said the two leaders noted that tolerance, religious harmony and brotherhood, irrespective of faith or ethnic background, were part of the principles and values of both countries.
   • The Prime Minister’s visit to Saudi Arabia, which is not only the world’s largest oil producer but also a regional heavyweight, is also likely to leave its stabilising imprint on other areas in West Asia. These include the neighbouring oil rich countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which are encountering serious security challenges.
   • Significantly, the visit has added a prominent security dimension to bilateral ties. Saudi Arabia and India fully appreciate that they are common victims of terrorism. They are both targeted by the forces of global jihad, entrenched in the rugged mountain ranges on either side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. If Mumbai was India’s terror nightmare, Riyadh too faced a string of devastating bombings in 2003, when al Qaeda operatives blew up prominent residential compounds. Saudi Arabia continues to remain in the cross-hairs of the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which operates out of neighbouring Yemen.
   • The signing of an extradition treaty during Dr. Singh’s visit therefore needs to be welcomed as a major breakthrough. From an Indian perspective, there is now hope that outfits like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), whose operatives reportedly visit Saudi Arabia for various purposes, will be captured by Saudi authorities and sent to face the law in India.
   • Further, the shared focus on safeguarding the “sovereignty and independence” of Afghanistan must be welcomed.
   • In a visit that otherwise went so well, New Delhi’s hardly concealed interest in seeking Riyadh’s “good offices” to moderate Pakistan’s behaviour has struck a jarring note. The suggestion appeared quite unnecessary as serious discussions on the Pakistan situation are expected to be integral to the fast-developing India-Saudi security relationship. By overtly drawing Saudi Arabia into the India-Pakistan equation, the United Progressive Alliance government has needlessly opened itself to the charge of diluting the principle of bilateralism that has, by virtue of a national consensus, governed New Delhi’s engagement with Islamabad.(-ve)
   • the Shura Council – Saudi parliament
3. Controversy -BJP wants Manmohan, Tharoor to explain remarks on Saudi Arabia
   • The latest controversy over Shashi Tharoor’s remarks,the junior minister’s reference to Saudi Arabia being a “valuable interlocutor for [India]” as assigning Riyadh a mediatory role between New Delhi and Islamabad.
   • ‘Interlocutor’ means a person or entity or country involved in a conversation. And the Minister of State for External Affairs was clearly talking about the value of Saudi Arabia as a dialogue partner for India on the subject of Pakistan.
   • The Bharatiya Janata Party indicated that it would ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet colleague Shashi Tharoor to “explain” what they meant by saying India should talk to Saudi Arabia about Pakistan-inspired terrorism.
   • Was this the start of the end of bilateralism in India-Pakistan dialogue?
4. Riyadh ‘worried’ about Pakistan situation
   • While terming Pakistan a “friendly country,” Saudi Arabia on Sunday said it was “worried” about the prevailing situation and spread of extremism there and appealed to political leaders in Pakistan to unite and meet the challenges.

3,500 pilgrims from India take part in Kachchatheevu festival

• Around 3,500 pilgrims from India on Saturday and Sunday took part in the St. Antony’s Church festival in Kachchatheevu after a gap of 27 years.
• Sri Lankan pilgrims at Kachchatheevu.

Content:

1. Women’s Reservation Bill
2. Navy plane at Hyderabad air show crashes

Brief Description:

Women’s reservation bill

1. Cabinet nod for Women’s Reservation Bill

• The Union Cabinet approved the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2008, that seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
• The Parliamentary Standing Committee has approved the 108th Constitutional Amendment Bill in its original form with minor changes.
• The Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha in 2008 and was subsequently referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Personnel, which in its report submitted in December last year had recommended its early passage in the present form saying that the decision should not be left to the discretion of parties.

2. Women’s quota bill set to sail through in Rajya Sabha

• With the numbers stacked in its favour, the women’s reservation bill, which seeks to reserve 33% seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, is set to get the Rajya Sabha’s nod on Monday.
• The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Rajya Sabha, which met on Thursday evening, allotted four hours to debate and vote the legislation. The bill, which has been approved afresh by the Union Cabinet, will be tabled in the House the same day.

Navy plane at Hyderabad air show crashes

• An Indian Navy aircraft participating in an aerobatic display as part of the India Aviation 2010 exhibition at the Begumpet airport crashed into a building in the densely populated Bowenpally.
• The Navy announced the grounding of all HJT-16 Kiran MK-II aircraft which form part of the Sagar Pawan Aerobatic Demonstration Team. It ordered an inquiry.
• This naval aircraft crash in Hyderabad is the fourth fatal incident involving aerial display teams in the last four years.
• The IAF operates the Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team (SKAT) and the Sarang helicopter display team, while the Navy has the four-aircraft Sagar Pawan Aerobatic Team (SPAT).
• The SKAT and the SPAT perform aerobatics with the HAL-built HJT 16 Kiran Mk-II aircraft and the Sarang team performs aerial displays using indigenously built ALH Dhruv choppers.
• the SPAT, formed in 2003,The first fatal accident involving the SKAT took place near its home base in Bidar, Karnataka, on March 18, 2006.In February 2007, the Sarang team had its first fatal accident when one of its ALH Dhruv choppers crashed in Bangalore during a rehearsal before the Aero India show there.

Arunachal Pradesh-specific project

• A World Bank document says external affairs minister SM Krishna has stated that “India will not pose any Arunachal Pradesh-specific project” to the Bank, and that the Chinese executive director at the Bank is pressing for the operationalisation of this statement.
• This amounts to conceding China’s persistent claims of Arunachal Pradesh being a “disputed territory” and runs contrary to the stated opinion that the state is “an integral part of India”.
• It may be recalled that it was only eight months ago that the Indian government had sharply attacked Beijing for criticising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh and his reference to the state as “our land of the rising sun”. During the verbal skirmishes with Beijing at that time, India had said China has no business to interfere in the affairs of a territory that is an integral part of India.

Demand for Nagaland sovereignty rejected

• The Union government and the NSCN (IM), a Naga insurgent group, continued talks for the second day.
• The Centre rejected the outfit’s demand for sovereignty for Nagaland and its territorial claims to portions of neighbouring States.

Advanced Technology Vehicle successfully flight-tested

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully flight-tested its new-generation, high-performance sounding rocket at the spaceport in Sriharikota.
• The Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV- D01), weighing three tonnes at lift-off, is the heaviest sounding rocket developed by the ISRO.
• It carries a passive scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine combustor module as a test-bed for a demonstration of the air-breathing propulsion technology. An ISRO release said the rocket successfully flew at a velocity of more than Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound) for seven seconds.
• These conditions were required for a stable ignition of active scramjet engine combustor module planned in the next ATV flight.

New generation Airbus A320 joins Air India fleet

• The first of the new generation Airbus A320 joined the Air India fleet . It has a host of latest facilities, including advanced Weather Radar System, Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) and an LCD cockpit display system.
• The 140-seater aircraft is also equipped with the latest digital cabin management system. The aircraft, the 74th of the 111 ordered by the national carrier as part of its fleet acquisition, will be on display at India Aviation 2010.

Stampede in a UP ashram kills 65

• At least 65 people — nearly all of them women and children — were killed and 28 others injured in a stampede on Thursday in a local ashram after a collapse of its gate triggered panic among about 10,000 people who had converged for a ritual. Thirty seven women and 26 children were among those killed after they were trampled over by the crowd that had gathered at Kripalu Maharaj’s ashram.
• Stampedes at temples and other religious places in India have claimed nearly 700 lives in the past eight years.
• On September 30, 2008, nearly 150 devotees were killed and over 60 injured in a stampede at Chamunda Devi temple in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur city. The incident took place when there was a rumour of a bomb going off. More than 10,000 people had turned up at the famous temple for a darshan. Such a tragedy at the Hindu temple of Naina Devi in Himachal on August 3, 2008, had claimed 150 people, mainly women and children, and injured about 230.

SIT Special Public Prosecutor, deputy resign

• The Special Public Prosecutor and his deputy, appearing for the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team before the special court trying the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre case, have submitted their resignations, throwing the entire proceedings haywire.
• R.K. Shah and his deputy Nainaben Bhatt sent in their resignation papers to SIT chairman R.K. Raghavan.

Concern over delay in mass nesting of Oilve Ridley turtles

• The mood and pattern of nesting of Olive Ridley turtles still continues to be a mystery.
• Although there was a large congregation of these endangered turtles in the sea near the Rushikulya rookery for mating, they are yet to come over to the beach for mass nesting.
• Sporadic nesting of Olive Ridley turtles is on at Rushikulya river mouth coast and Devi river mouth coast. But mass nesting of these turtles is on at Gahirmatha coast.

Panel moots age limit for kids on reality shows

• The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has recommended that children below the age of seven years be not allowed to participate in reality shows on television channels.
• NCPCR chairperson Santha Sinha.
• The recommendation would be forwarded to the Union government within the next two weeks. The NCPCR has been working on violation of child rights on reality shows for the past two years.

India upset with Holbrooke view on Kabul attack

• Indian officials have described as “absolutely incorrect” the statement by Washington’s AfPak envoy, Richard Holbrooke, that India was not the target of last week’s terrorist attack in Kabul.

Admiral Gorshkov deal to be finalised

• The long-pending deal to finalise the price tag on aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov) could soon be taken up by the government as the Defence Ministry prepares to take the case to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).
• That the Centre had finalised a price was announced last year during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Russia, but the negotiations concluded towards the end of December 2009.
• The contract negotiation committee gave its final verdict on the acquisition of the aircraft carrier, which is currently undergoing repairs and refit at the Sevmash shipyard in Russia.
• The initial agreement of $974 million went up to $1.5 billion to include 16 MiG-29K aircraft for the carrier. The Russians increased the demand from $2.2 billion to $2.9 billion, even as the Comptroller and Auditor-General made critical observations regarding the deal.

Sikhs rescued from Taliban’s clutches

• Two Sikhs, abducted for ransom by the Taliban in the troubled Khyber tribal region bordering Afghanistan, were on Monday rescued by Pakistani security forces, a week after a Sikh trader was beheaded by the militant captors.
• The operation was conducted in a remote area along the boundary between the Khyber and Aurakzai tribal regions on a tip-off from intelligence sources, a spokesman from the Inter-Services Public Relations said.

Assam Rifles soldiers for Haiti

• The Government of India has decided to send a group of Assam Rifles soldiers as part of a police unit to Haiti under the aegis of the United Nations mission, keeping in view the good work done by the paramilitary force in the past.
• He was speaking after reviewing a special attestation parade held at the Assam Rifles Training Centre and School here to mark the 175th anniversary the force.

Expert committee on Kolleru size’

• Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh promised to appoint a five-member expert committee to go into the plea for reduction of the size of wildlife sanctuary at Kolleru.

Funds for biotechnology research increased

• Even as the controversy over Bt brinjal continues, the Union budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee provides for a 32 per cent increase in the allocation for the Department of Biotechnology in the Ministry of Science and Technology.
• the budget provides for a concessional excise duty of four per cent for the solar-powered cycle-rickshaw developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
• In addition, the key parts and components of the environment-friendly rickshaw, named ‘Soleckshaw,’ would be exempted from customs duty.

Iceberg-glacier collision could trigger climatic changes

• An iceberg about the size of Luxembourg, which struck a glacier off Antarctica dislodging another massive block of ice, could lower oxygen levels in the world’s oceans, Australian and French scientists said.
• The two icebergs are now drifting together about 100 to 150 km off Antarctica, following the collision on February 12 or 13, said Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young.

Tiger census begins in Buxa

• The first phase of the tiger population census in West Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve has started. A Wildlife Institute of India estimate suggests that there may be just 10 tigers left in the reserve.
• The National Tiger Conservation Authority has identified the reserve as one of the seven reserves, where the tiger density is critically low.

Manipur strike: ESMA may be invoked

• The Manipur government is planning to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against leaders of the striking government employees as those in the essential services have also joined the indefinite strike.
• The government hospitals are paralysed and the out-patient departments closed. Reports say that paramilitary troopers may also join the strike.
• The employees have been on strike since January 16 demanding payment of salary and allowances as per the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

SEWA’s Ela Bhatt chosen for Niwano Peace Prize

• Social worker Ela Bhatt has been chosen for the Niwano Peace Prize this year for her contribution to the uplift of poor women in India.
• Ms. Bhatt, recognised as one of the pioneers in the development of the most oppressed and poorest women of India for more than three decades, will receive the award here on May 13.
• The award, which recognises the significant contribution of an individual to inter-religious understanding and cooperation leading to world peace, comes with a certificate, a medal and prize money worth ¥20 million.
• She set up the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a trade union, in 1972. Now, it has over 1.2 million members. In 1974, she established the SEWA cooperative bank, which now reaches out to around three million women.

Award for filmmaker Yavar Abbas

• Veteran British-Asian filmmaker Yavar Abbas will be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the South Asian Cinema Foundation (SACF) here on March 4 for making films like India! My India!
• The 90-year-old has documented the Partition years and delved into both Hinduism and Islam in his works.
• In 1963, he started out as an independent filmmaker and set out on a filming safari, going overland from London to New Delhi shooting for India! My India!

Violence mars Santiniketan festival

• Violence and boycott marked the “Basanta Utsav” (Spring Festival) on the Vishva-Bharati campus at Santiniketan.
• The tradition of celebrating Basanta Utsav at Santiniketan was started by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore himself and it is one of the two occasions that draws thousands to the university to witness and participate in the colourful festivities, including several cultural functions.