India Ranked Low on Gender Inequality Index: UN Human Development Report 2013

The UN Human Development Report 2013 was released on 14 March 2013, according to which India has poor Gender Inequality Index, apart from the overall poor Human Development Index (HDI). 

Apart from Afghanistan that got a rank of 147 in comparison to 132 of India, all the countries in the region of South Asia were ranked higher on Gender Inequality Index. China was also ranked very high on Gender Inequality Index. This Gender Inequality Index measures the inequality in terms of achievements between males and females in three main aspects namely, labour market, reproductive health and empowerment.

Women Representation in Parliament

Women representation in Parliament in India is only 10.9 percent. The only worse country than India is Iran with 3.1 percent. The country that has best representation of women in Parliament is Nepal with 33.2 percent. 

Maternal Mortality Ratio

India ranks badly on the Maternal Mortality Ratio as well. Maternal Mortality Ratio measures the ratio of the number of maternal deaths to the number of live births in a given year. It is expressed per 100000 live births. In India, for every 100000 births, 200 women die during the childbirth or due to complications in childbearing. The only countries to have higher Maternal Mortality Ratio than India are Bangladesh (240), Pakistan (260) and Afghanistan (460). The countries with lowest Maternal Mortality Ratio are Sri Lanka (35) and Iran (21).
 
What is Human Development Index (HDI)?

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a combined index which measures the average achievements of the countries in three main human development dimensions. These dimensions are decent standard of living, knowledge and long and healthy life. 

In the 2013 Human Development Index (HDI) report, analysis of the 40 developing countries in South Asia was done.

Union Cabinet cleared Bill to Tackle Crimes against Women

The Union Cabinet on 14 March 2013 cleared a Bill providing for severe punishment for rape, acid attack, stalking and voyeurism more to the point reducing the age of consent for sex to 16 years. 

The bill which was named the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 lowers the age of consent for sex from 18 to 16 years with making of rape as a gender-specific offence under which men only can be charged for it. The Bill is brought in line with the Indian Penal Code, but at variance with the Child Protection Act, 2012, which raised it to 18. 

The bill brought against the milieu of the 16 December 2012 Delhi gangrape, provides for minimum jail term of 20 years for rape which may be extended to natural life of the convict in jail. There is also provision for death sentence if the victim dies or is left in a 'persistent vegetative state'. Stalking, voyeurisms have been defined as criminal offences in the bill. Sustained stalking will be a non-bailable offence.

As per the bill there is replacement in more general expression sexual assault used in the ordinance. It also provides for the death sentence if the rape victim dies or ends up in a vegetative state. 

The approval of the Cabinet paves the way for introduction of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 in Parliament before it goes into recess on 22 March 2013.

The bill also proposes a punishment of not less than 10 years to a maximum of life imprisonment Defining acid attack as a separate IPC offence. Repeat offences of voyeurism, inappropriate touch, gesture and remarks have been recommended as non-bailable offences.

Tan Twan Eng Declared Winner of 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize

Tan Twan Eng on 14 March 2013 was announced as a winner of the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize. With this, he became the first Malaysian author to win the most prestigious literary prize of Asia.
 
Tan Twan Eng won the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel The Garden of Evening Mists. This is only a second time that the prize has been given to the novel written originally in English. The previous winners had won the award as English translations. 

The Garden of Evening Mists set during aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Malaya won 30000 US Dollars from the shortlist of five novels which spanned over the Asian continent. 

The five shortlisted novels from longlist of 15 were as follows:

• Between Clay and Dust - Musharraf Ali Farooqi (Pakistan)
• The Briefcase – Hiromi Kawakami (Japan)
• Silent House - Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)
• The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng (Malaysia)
• Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil (India)

The judging panel of the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize was award-winning literary critic and journalist Dr. Maya Jaggi, novelist Vikram Chandra and Vietnamese-American novelist Monique Truong. 

About The Garden of Evening Mists

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng is a novel about traumatic aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Malaya. It also covers the post-war insurgency against British rule. The novel covers themes such as love and atonement, disturbing co-existence of cultural refinement, barbarism and personal and national honour. 

Previous years’ winners

The previous years’ winners are as follows:

• South Korean writer Kyung-sook Shin- 2011
• Bi Feiyu- 2010
• Su Tong-2009
• Miguel Syjuco-2008
• Jiang Rong-2007

About Man Asian Literary Prize

The Man Asian Literary Prize laid its foundation in 2007. The literary award is given annually to best novel by an Asian writer. The novel can be written in English or translated into English. It should have been published in previous year.
 
For selecting the winner, the judges select the longlist of 10 to 15 titles announced in December, which is then followed by the shortlist of 5 to 6 titles. The winner of the award is declared in March every year. 

The winner is given 30000 US Dollars. The translator, if exists, is given 5000 US Dollars. The submissions for the best novels are invited by the jury through publishers in any country.

New Zealand Declared Worst-Ever Drought in 30 Years in North Island

The New Zealand Government in the third week of March 2013 declared the worst-ever drought in 30 years in the entire North Island of the country. 

The worst-hit section of the society is the farmers. Losses from agriculture will put pressure on the economy, which in turn would cut off 1 percent of the economic growth of New Zealand. Farmers of New Zealand, who are said to be a crucial factor of the economy of the country, estimated that drought had cost them earnings of 1 billion New Zealand Dollars already. 

The capital of NZ, Wellington is left with just 18 days of water. Drought will hit parts of the South Island soon. 

However, it was forecasted that first rainfall in the duration of two months would come by 16-17 March 2013. The drought conditions in New Zealand were apparent through the satellite images from space. 

Drought hinting towards climate change 

According to a few scientists, dry climatic conditions hint towards an overall climate change. Climate scientists from Victoria University of Wellington forecasted that more summers and drought conditions like these were on their way in New Zealand because of global warming. 

The scientists explained that dry subtropical weather, which leads to the formation of deserts in countries like Australia and Africa, was inching closer towards the poles of the world. 

There were increasing risks of drought in the country, leading to stretching of water resources.

Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi Sworn-In As the Prime Minister of Nepal

Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi was sworn-in as the new Prime Minister of Nepal on 14 March 2013. Khil Raj Regmi will be the head of interim government which will have its elections by 21 June 2013. He took over the office from Baburam Bhattarai.
 
Khil Raj Regmi, 63, took oath of the office and secrecy from the President Ram Baran Yadav. In the meanwhile, Madhav Ghimire was chosen as the Home Minister as well as the External Affairs Minister. Hari Prasad Neupane was chosen as the Law Minister as well as Labour Minister. Regmi will head the 11-member interim government. 

It is for the first time in the political history of Nepal that any sitting Chief Justice was named as Head of the Government.

Welspun Energy commissioned Asias largest solar Power Projec

Welspun Energy, the countrys biggest developer of solar projects on 12 March 2013 commissioned Asia’s largest solar power project of 50 MW at Jodhpur district in Rajasthan.

The solar power project commissioned is being counted among the largest solar project developed by Welspun Energy till date and is also the largest photovoltaic (PV) power plant in India. The project is known by the name utility-scale solar project and was commissioned just an astonishing five months; well ahead of schedule, creating a new benchmark for the industry.

Welspun Energy won the 50 MW solar projects through a competitive bid under Batch-2, Phase-1 of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.Welspun, earlier in year 2013 started a 15 MW unit at the site, and with short span of it now has commissioned two more units of 15 MW and 20 MW solar generators. The PV project is supposed to generate total electricity of 90 million kWh or units annually and supply clean energy to power 25 million families. It is estimated that with the commissioning of this project, an approximation of 83220 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions will be mitigated each year.

Three top private banks accused of money laundering

Three top private banks have been accused of running a nationwide money laundering racket by an investigative news website and production house, based on a sting operation that they said spanned some five months. Stating that it was a pan-India undercover investigation, Cobrapost 14 MarcH claimed to have caught on tape several officials of these banks indulging in "brazen criminal activity" by channelizing vast amounts of ill-gotten money into the regular banking system as laundered white money. "Our investigation, conducted across dozens of branches of these banks and their insurance affiliates revealed that the money laundering practices are part of a standard set of procedures within these banks," said Cobrapost. Speaking to the agency, editor of Cobrapost, Aniruddha Bahal, said: "These banks and their managements are violating several provisions and policies of the government with utter disregard to consequences to boost cheap deposits and increase profits." The banks rake in vast amounts of black money in the form of illegal deposits, insurance and investment products, sold by them “The interaction between officials of the banks and our reporter clearly brings out the connivance of senior management of these banks in facilitating money laundering and other illegal transactions," said Cobrapost."The senior management has compromised all standards of governance and brazenly broken the law by offering money-laundering services practically as a nation-wide product," it added.

Prof. Veer Bhadra Mishra, the Noted Environmentalist Died

Prof Veer Bhadra Mishra, the noted environmentalist as well as the acclaimed Hero of the Planet of TIME Magazine in 1999, died at Sir Sundarlal Hospital of Banaras Hindu University on 13 March 2013. He was aged 75 years.

World's largest space observatory opens in Chile

world's largest ground-based observatory opened in northern Chile, wielding unprecedented power to peer into the remotest regions of the universe. 
 

The ALMA space observatory was inaugurated on Wednesday on a desert plateau some 5,000 meters above sea level, at a ceremony attended by President Sebastian Pinera and other dignitaries. 

"ALMA is a huge telescope 16 kilometers (10 miles) in diameter," said the facility's director Thijs de Graauw, as it was declared officially opened. Amid excited applause, 59 of the 66 antennas slowly began to rotate and point toward the interior of the universe.

By October, all the antennas will be fully installed and operational. Gianni Marconi, an astronomer at the massive ground array of telescopes, recently proudly proclaimed to AFP that ALMA is "the largest observatory that has ever been built."

ALMA -- short for the Atacama Large Millimeter- submillimeter Array, an acronym which means "soul" in Spanish -- is a joint effort among North American, European and Asian agencies.

The observatory is located near Pedro de Atacama, a desert town popular with tourists. With almost no humidity or vegetation to block its view of the heavens, ALMA's antennas range in diameter from seven meters to 12 meters. 

De Graauw told reporters recently that ALMA's ultra-precise equipment would be used to seek answers to big questions -- star formation, the birth of planets and how the system was created after the Big Bang. Unlike optical or infrared telescopes, ALMA can capture the faint glow and gas present in the formation of the first stars, galaxies and planets in an extremely cold region of the universe. 

Xi Jinping takes over as China's President

Xi Jinping took over as China's new president and head of the military succeeding Hu Jintao, completing a generational transition of power in the world's most populous country. 
 

China's parliament formally elected Xi, 59, as president, four months after he took charge of the Communist Party.

Besides being the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which effectively rules the country, Xi has been appointed as the Chairman of the Powerful Military Commission, when he was elected as the new leader of the party in November Last.

According to an official announcement, Xi was elected as President by 3000-strong National People's Congress, which also endorsed his appointment as the Chairman of the Military Commission.

His election a formality as the NPC, dominated by the CPC functionaries completed the once-in-a-decade power transfer from the administration headed by Hu, 70, who along with team of leaders including Premier Wen Jiabao formally retires.

Indore to host SAARC journalists' summit

Journalists from India and abroad will deliberate over the role of media in public movement and other issues during a three-day SAARC journalists' convention that Indore will host beginning from 28th March.
 

"Besides SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) member countries, delegates from USA, Germany and Dubai will take part in the deliberations in different sessions," Indore Press Club president Praveen Khariwal said.

As many as thirty media experts from abroad and 100 experts from different parts of the country will take part in five main sessions devoted to Youth, Social Media and Nation Development, Role of Media in Public Movement, Pressures of Market Forces on News, Literature in 21st Century, and Crisis due to repeated elections in the country, Khariwal said.

He said the Indore Press Club will present "Media Awards" to fifteen scribes of TV and print media, hailing from Madhya Pradesh but working outside the state.

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari will inaugurate the convention on March 29.

Tibetan blogger gets Women of Courage Award

Tsering Woeser, Tibetan author, poet and blogger was honoured with the prestigious International Women of Courage Award but the activist was unable to attend the ceremony as China denied her a passport necessary for her to travel to the US to receive the prize.
 

"For courageously striving to improve human rights conditions for China's Tibetan citizens by illuminating their plight through her writings, and thus giving eloquent voice to those whose stories might otherwise never be heard, Tsering Woeser is a woman of courage," Secretary of State John Kerry said reading her citation at the awards ceremony held at the State Department.

Tibet, Kerry said, has become increasingly identified with self-immolations and protests against the deteriorating human rights condition for China's Tibetan citizens. 
Others who received the award in absentia include Razan Zeitunah, human rights lawyer and Founder, and Ta Phong Tan a blogger from Vietnam.

Indian-American scientist appointed president of US varsity

An eminent structural engineer, Dr. Vistasp M Karbhari, joined the small but expanding league of Indian-Americans heading educational institutions in the US as he was approved as president of the reputed University of Texas at Arlington.
 

Dr. Karbhari, who completed his higher education from University of Pune, is at present the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

"UT Arlington is an incredible institution, and I am committed to advancing it towards Tier One status, while maintaining and strengthening excellence in both research and education and ensuring the success of our students," he said upon his approval.

Dr. Karbari had earlier served as professor and vice chairman of the structural engineering department at University of California-San Diego.

He is a noted researcher and scholar and has into his account more than 200 published scientific papers.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents yesterday named him as university president with effect from 1st June.

Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad airports among top 5 in the world

Airports of Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad are among the top five airports in the world providing international standard services. 
 

Airports Council International (ACI), a global body of airports, has adjudged Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport as second best after Seoul's Incheon airport in the category of airports handling 25-40 million passengers per annum (MPPA) for their service quality for the year 2012.

Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport was adjudged the third best in this category, an ACI statement said.

Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International airport (RGI) has bagged the second position for their service quality in the category of five to 15 MPPA. Japan's Nagoya airport was adjudged the best in this category.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Delhi airport was adjudged as fourth in the 'Best Airports by Region' across all categories.

Seoul's Incheon ranked first, Singapore's Changi second and Beijing was placed at the third spot.

The annual service quality passenger survey undertaken by ACI, an autonomous and independent body, measures customer feedback on a range of service delivery parameters that track the customer experience at an airport from the moment of arrival to the departure gate.

Analysis of this "real-time" data, recorded on the day of travel, serves as a guide for better aligning service provision with customer expectations The ASQ Awards have become the world's leading airport passenger satisfaction benchmark.

Peter Banks, the Original Guitarist for Rock Band Yes Died

Peter Banks, the original guitarist for rock band Yes, died in London on 7 March 2013. He was aged 65 years. Peter Banks died due to heart failure. Yes band was established in 1968.

He played guitar on two main albums of his life- Yes (1969) and Time And A Word (1970). Later he pursued his own band called Flash.

Peter Banks released his three albums with the band Flash from 1972-73. Banks was born in Barnet on 15 July 1947.