11th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas meet kicked off in Kerala

The three-day 11th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) kicked off in Kochi on 7 January 2013. 

The event saw delightful response from the people with more than 2000 registrations. 

The distinctive feature of this year's Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is that this is the first time that there is going to be an exclusive session on Middle East. The organizing partner of this year summit is Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC).

Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi is leading the day-long Middle-East session along with Chief Minister of Kerala Oommen Chandy and Joseph. The whole day event of 7th January 2013 would see discussions on problems that people from Kerala face in the region.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the annual flagship event on 8 January2013   and President Pranab Mukherjee will deliver the valedictory address on 9 January 2013and also confer the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awards.

About Pravasi Bharatiya Divas:

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) is celebrated on 9th January every year to mark the contribution of Overseas Indian community in the development of India. January 9 was chosen as the day to celebrate this occasion since it was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest Pravasi, returned to India from South Africa, led India’s freedom struggle and changed the lives of Indians forever.

PBD conventions are being held every year since 2003. These conventions provide a platform to the overseas Indian community to engage with the government and people of the land of their ancestors for mutually beneficial activities. These conventions are also very useful in networking among the overseas Indian community residing in various parts of the world and enable them to share their experiences in various fields.

During the event, individuals of exceptional merit are honoured with the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award to appreciate their role in India’s growth. The event also provides a forum for discussing key issues concerning the Indian Diaspora.

Narendra Modi inaugurated 6th Vibrant Gujarat summit

Chief Minister  of Gujarat Narendra Modi on 8 January 2013 inaugurated the biennial(held every second year) Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors meet by throwing open a mega trade exhibition that has over one thousand firms from as many as 16 countries displaying their products.

The highlight of the sixth edition of the summit is an international conference of academic institutions with expected participation of 200 delegates from 130 institutions from 50 countries.

The six-day global trade show spread across over 1 lakh square metres is supposed to receive a whopping 15 lakh visitors and has 13 domes, 14 pavilions, over a thousand stalls and over 25000 products on display and is going to be one of the largest of its kind in the country.

Unique and interesting displays from various companies are a centre of attraction at the Global Trade Show: like a unique Solar Aircraft model from Solvay Group, Craft Village by Industrial Extension Cottage, Solar Village by Gujarat Energy Development Agency and Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd. 

About Vibrant Gujarat summit:

Vibrant Gujarat is the name given to a biennial investors' summit held by the government of Gujarat.The Global Trade Show is an integral component of Vibrant Gujarat Summit. This platform offers a unique opportunity to corporate houses, institutions and industrial giants to showcase their innovations, products and services to a large gathering of Indian and global summit delegates and also allows having meaningful business-to-business interactions resulting in serious business and trade opportunities. 

Apart from Partner Countries Japan and Canada, various other countries like USA, UK, Australia, Netherlands, Rwanda, Israel and Mozambique etc., have marked their presence at the event.

N.A.K. Browne inaugurated a Medium Lift Helicopter Complex at Phalodi

The Chief of the Air Staff, N.A.K. Browne inaugurated the Medium Lift Helicopter Complex on 7 January 2013 at Phalodi, near Jodhpur. The complex has been developed with the purpose of raising the new Mi-17 V5 helicopter Unit. 
The Hanger Complex inaugurated by the Chief is one of the biggest pre-engineered hangers of its type and in the Indian Air Force. This unit would add up to the operational capabilities of the new Air Base. The new air base would be utilized by the Air Force in the forthcoming exercises namely Iron Fist scheduled for 22 February 2013 and Live Wire in March 2013.

Indian Institute of Astrophysics to Develop World’s Largest Solar Telescope

The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore in the first week of January 2013 informed about its decision to come up with world’s largest solar telescope in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. The project would commence by the end of year 2013 and the telescope is likely to be placed at Hanle or Merak village near Pangong Lake in Ladakh. The telescope would be a 2-metre class, state-of-the-art National Large Solar Telescope (NLST). It’s expected that the project would complete by 2017. The project has been planned with a budget of 300 crore rupees and after installation, it would help the astrophysicists capable of practicing day and night astronomy. This telescope would help the researchers to understand the process of creation and decay of sunspots along with other fundamental processes that takes place on the surface of sun. This telescope would also help in filling the longitudinal gap between Europe and Japan. The telescope with its innovative design and backend instruments would also provide crucial information on nature of magnetic fields due to its unprecedented spatial resolution.

Indian Civil and Administrative Service (Central) Association given suggestions for dealing crimes against women

The Indian Civil and Administrative Service (Central) Association submitted their suggestions and recommendations to the J S Verma committee, constituted to suggest changes in the law to deal with growing incidents of crime against women.

The association’s recommendations include adding a separate section in the IPC to define aggravated rape, including gangrape and violent assault with the intention to cause bodily harm, as well as acid attacks; amending the law to ensure rape proved to be committed by a juvenile attracts the same punishment “after the convict attains majority”; and defining honour killing and punishing it with death.

It has, however, opposed castration of rapists as punishment, terming it as “repugnant to a civilised society”.

The association has supported a Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems but suggested access to a database, while available to all citizens, should be through due process on individual request. It should not be publicly available. Specifically, the idea of keeping a public naming-and-shaming database of rape convicts or other criminals is strongly rejected by them because it will be a source of undeserved punishment to family members of such convicts.

The association’s other suggestions to the Verma panel include: make marital rape a punishable offence and rape gender neutral; punish public remarks derogatory to women at par with a statement derogatory to SCs and STs; make gram panchayats responsible for reporting crimes against women in their jurisdiction and tie their funding to their performance in this area. Giving directives on behaviour of individuals by khaps and similar extra legal bodies should be made punishable if these are illegal or contravene fundamental rights.

Lionel Messi won the FIFA Ballon d’Or Award for fourth time

Lionel Messi, the Argentine footballer won FIFA Ballond’Or Award on 7 January 2013 as a reward to his 91-goal in a year for Barcelona and Argentina, in the year 2012. Messi voted to be the best player for the fourth year in a row managed to beat his close competitors, Cristiano Ronaldo of Spanish champion Real Madrid and Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta. 

To win this award, Messi won 41.60 percent votes and was followed by Ronaldo, who won 23.68 percent votes and Andres Iniesta, who won 10.91 percent votes of all the votes casted. The votes were casted by National Team Coaches and Captains as well as journalists invited. All these people, helped in selecting the top three from a huge list of 23 nominated players. With this win for the fourth time, Messi has left behind the three time FIFA winners namely Zinedine Zidane of France and Ronaldo of Brazil. 

The FIFA Ballon d’Or Award:

FIFA Ballon d’Or Award was started in the year 2010 after merging the two, France Football's Ballon d'Or and the men's FIFA World Player of the Year Award. It is the association’s football award that is awarded to the year’s best performer. The player is selected via voting process and the votes are casted by the captains and coaches of the International Teams as well as the journalists from across the world.

National Electric Mobility Mission Plan Launched

The Hon'ble Prime Minister has unveiled the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020.

The Plan seeks to support the creation of necessary eco system for promoting electric mobility, a frontier technology, so as to make it a self-sustaining business in the future. The National Electric Mobility Mission Plan envisages new sales of 6-7 million units of a range of electric vehicles, which would result in liquid fuel savings of 2.2 – 2.5 million tonnes by 2020. This will also result in substantial lowering of vehicular emissions and decrease in carbon di-oxide emissions by 1.3% to 1.5% in 2020 as compared to a status quo scenario.

However with respect to the barriers in this sector government is aiming to adopt following measures which include - providing initial impetus through demand support measures that facilitate faster consumer acceptance of these expensive newer vehicles. In addition, the government will also facilitate automotive R&D and put in place charging infrastructure.

NMEM is amongst the most significant interventions of the Government that promises to transform the automotive paradigm of the future by lessening the dependence on fossil fuels, increasing energy efficiency of vehicles and by providing the means to achieve ultimate objective of cleaner transportation that is compatible with sustainable renewable energy generation. This Intervention will also help encourage the Indian Automotive Industry to shift to newer, cleaner technologies so that it builds its future competitive advantage around environmentally sustainable products, high end technologies, innovation and knowledge.

The implementation and roll out of the NEMMP 2020 will be done through various specific schemes, interventions, policies that are currently under formulation and will be considered by the Government in the near future.

Government of Madhya Pradesh identified and declared 17 Eco-Sensitive Zones in the State

The Government of Madhya Pradesh in the first week of January 2013 declared that it has identified 17 eco-sensitive zones across the wildlife sanctuaries and parks of the state. It also cleared that illegal mining and commercial activities around these eco-sensitive zones would be prohibited. The move of identifying the eco-sensitive zones across the state came up in response to the last-chance offered to the State Government by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for identification of such zones and provide a site specific proposal before 15 February 2013. The notice was issued to the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on 11 December 2012, which directed the state government to submit the proposal within the stipulated timeframe. If there would have been any delay in identification and declaration of these Zones, then the Ministry would have declared an area of 10 kilometers as eco-sensitive zones of the National Parks and Sanctuaries and this declaration would have barred the commercial and associated activities which had an impact on the environment. All these things would have happened following the norms of the ministry. 
Madhya Pradesh at present has twenty-five wildlife Sanctuaries and eight National Parks. The state Forest Department identified and approved the eco-sensitive zones across Pench National Park, Kanha National Park, Panna National Park and Kuno Palpur sanctuary, Bandhavgarh National Park and others.

China launched its Postage Stamp on Year of Snake

China in the first week of January 2013 launched a Postage Stamp for the upcoming Year of snake. The snake depicts a reptile that carries a bright pearl in its mouth in form of a gratitude for the man, who was a savior of its life. This stamp carries a face-value of 1.20 Yuan i.e. 19 cents. 
The stamp depicts a flowery and auspicious look and acts as a contrast to the fearsome dragon on the running stamp in the current Year of Dragon. The stamp along with its booklet worth 9.60 Yuan would be available at different post offices of the country. Wu Guanying is the designer of this Snake Stamp and has taken the idea of offering it a flowery and auspicious look from Ancient Chinese Story. 
Of the 12 Zodiac signs in Chinese Mythology Snake are the sixth Zodiac sign and is often considered to be an evil but at times as calm, flexible, cautious and wise also. The latest stamp has featured a colourful snake that holds a golden pearl in its mouth, with a pink peony flower on its head, which signifies honour and riches. The body of the snake represents all the four seasons by the peach blossom, lotus, plum blossom and chrysanthemum engraved on its body. The shape of the snake’s tail symbolises Ganoderma – a Mushroom auspicious in China.

International Tourism Mart at Guwahati

The Union Ministry of Tourism will organise an International Tourism Mart at Guwahati from 18th to 20th of January. Union Tourism Minister Shri K. Chiranjeevi said that this will not only be the first ever International Tourism event to be organised in the north-eastern region, but also the first International Tourism Mart to focus on a specific region of India.
The Minister informed that about 100 delegates including tourism Ministers, Tourism Secretaries, Tour operators, Hoteliers and Media Representatives from Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Combodia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America and Vietnam will be attending the mart. He said these delegates will engage in one-two-one meetings with sellers from the north eastern region and West Bengal. Shri Chiranjeevi said this will enable tourism product suppliers from the region to reach out to international and domestic buyers and promote tourism in the region. 

Second National Conference on IVFRT

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and National Informatics Centre (NIC) conducted the second National conference on Immigration, Visa and Foreigners’ Registration and Tracking (IVFRT) in New Delhi on 10th January. Over two hundred participants from Foreigners Regional Registration Offices (FRROs)/ Foreigners Registration Offices (FROs), Immigration Check Post and NIC officers participated in the conference. Senior officers from MHA, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Bureau of Immigration also participated. Three technical sessions were conducted to brief the officers about various modules of the IVFRT like integrated Online Visa issuance system, C-FRO system, Advanced Passenger Information System, Immigration Control System etc. 

Amendment to Section 15M of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act, 1992

The Cabinet  approved the proposal of the Department of Economic Affairs for amendment to Section 15M of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act, 1992, to enlarge the field of selection for the post of Presiding Officer (PO) of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), by including sitting or retired judge of a High Court with a minimum seven years of service, as a Judge of a High Court as one of the qualifications. Amendment to the SEBI Act, 1992 will be done on the lines of the approved Ordinance and a Bill will be introduced in the ensuing session of Parliament to replace the Ordinance with such modifications of drafting or consequential nature, if any, in consultation with the Legislative Department. 

The SAT was set up under Section 15K of the SEBI Act, 1992 to adjudicate upon the appeals against the decisions of SEBI. The SEBI Act 1992, inter-alia, under Section 15M specifies that a person shall not be qualified for appointment as the Presiding Officer of Securities Appellate Tribunal, unless he is a sitting or retired Judge of the Supreme Court or a sitting or retired Chief Justice of a High Court. The existing prescribed qualifications made selection to the post of PO, SAT difficult. As a result, filling up the post of PO, SAT had been pending for quite some time.

2nd BRICS Health Ministers’ Meet

The second BRICS Health Ministers’ Meet will begin with a two-day programme in New Delhi on 10th January. 

While the programme of first day will be held at Dr. Ramalingaswamy Auditorium, AIIMS, New Delhi, the second day programme will be at Banquet Hall, Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. 

The first day’s programme will be participated by the Health Secretaries and Senior Advisors of BRICS countries. The second day’s programme will be participated by the Health Ministers of BRICS countries. 

It may be mentioned that the first BRICS Health Ministers’ Meeting was held at Beijing, China on 11th July, 2011 following a decision taken by Heads of BRICS countries in the Sanya Declaration of 14th April 2011. 

8th North East Business Summi

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Shri Paban Singh Ghatowar has inaugurated two-day 8th North East Business Summit at New Delhi on 9th January. Addressing on the occasion, Shri Ghatowar reiterated that it is the most opportune time for North East to capitalize on the growing trade relation with the bordering nations and emerge as a crucial enabler to enhance economic and cultural tie-ups with these neighbouring countries. He emphasized that the time has come for an effective hand-holding from all the stakeholders so that North-East India can reach next level of growth and economic prosperity and the Look East policy find its true meaning. 

The two-day Summit organised jointly by the Ministry of DoNER and the Indian Chamber of Commerce is likely to see participation from investors and experts from the North Eastern Region and neighbouring country. 

Chairman of the 20th Law Commission Appointed

Justice D. K. Jain, Judge, Supreme Court of India, will be the Chairman of the Twentieth Law Commission of India. According to the Notification issued here today, the appointment of Justice Jain will be effective from any day after 24^th January 2013 on his retirement from the Supreme Court.       

The Twentieth Law Commission was constituted through a Government Order with effect from 1^st September, 2012. It has a three-year term ending on 31^st August, 2015.

The Terms of Reference of the Twentieth Law Commission include the following:

A.  Review/Repeal of obsolete laws: i).    Identify laws which are no longer needed or relevant and can be immediately repealed; Ii) Identify laws which are not in harmony with the existing climate of economic liberalization and need change; iii) Identify laws which otherwise require changes or amendments and to make suggestions for their amendment; iv) Consider in a wider perspective the suggestions for revision/ amendment given by Expert Groups in various Ministries/Departments with a view to coordinating and harmonizing them; v) Consider references made to it by Ministries/ Departments in respect of legislation having bearing on the working of more than one Ministry/Department; vi) Suggest suitable measures for quick redressal of citizens grievances, in the field of law.

    B. Law and Poverty: i)   Examine the Laws which affect the poor and carry out post-audit for socio-economic legislations; ii)  Take all such measures as may be necessary to harness law and the legal process in the service of the poor. 

C. Keep under review the system of judicial administration to ensure that it is responsive to the reasonable demands of the times and in particular to secure: i) Elimination of delays, speedy clearance of arrears and reduction in costs so as to secure quick and economical disposal of cases without affecting the cardinal principle that decision should be just and fair; ii)  Simplification of procedure to reduce and eliminate technicalities and devices for delay so that it operates not as an end in itself but as a means of achieving justice; iii)  Improvement of standards of all concerned with the administration of justice.

D.  Examine the existing laws in the light of Directive Principles of State Policy and to suggest ways of improvement and reform and also to suggest such legislations as might be necessary to implement the Directive Principles and to attain the objectives set out in the Preamble to the Constitution.

E.  Examine the existing laws with a view for promoting gender equality and suggesting amendments thereto. 

F.  Revise the Central Acts of general importance so as to simplify them and to remove anomalies, ambiguities and inequities. 

G. Recommend to the Government measure for making the statute book up-to-date by repealing obsolete laws and enactments or parts thereof which have outlived their utility.

H. Consider and to convey to the Government its views on any subject relating to law and judicial administration that may be specifically referred to it by the Government through Ministry of Law and Justice.