current affairs material for ias/ips examination

7/30/2019 CURRENT AFFAIRS material for IAS/IPS EXAMINATION

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CURRENT FINAL [email protected] PAGE 1

Direct Benefits Transfer will cover:scholarships, pensions, NREGA wages, etc.directly to the Bank or Post Office Accounts ofidentified beneficiaries under the DirectBenefits Transfer (DBT) programme. In thefirst phase 43 districts in 16 States have beenidentified for Direct Benefits Transfer under 26selected schemes. By the end of 2013 the directcash benefit transfer will be rolled out in alldistricts of the country.

Initially beneficiaries will be able to withdrawfrom their own bank branches or ATMs orBusiness Correspondents (BCs) wherever theyexist. The system of micro-ATMs and multipleBCs will roll out subsequently with fullinteroperability gradually. Banks have alsobeen asked to expand their reach to providebanking services to every 1000-1500households through a BC or CSC.

India is expected to miss the crucial UNMillennium Development Goals (MDG),including those related to reduction inpoverty, hunger and infant mortality. Thepoverty ratio is likely to be 26.7% by 2015 asagainst the target of 23.9%, while infantmortality rate (IMR) would be 43 per 1,000 livebirths against the milestone of bringing itdown to 27. India was supposed to halve thepercentage of population below the nationalpoverty line by 2015 over the 1990 level. In1990, poverty ratio was 47.8% that came downto 37.2% in 2004-05. India was also required toreduce the mortality rate for childrenunderfive years to 42 per 1,000 live births by2015. However, the current estimates suggestthat it would be around 52 when the MDGdeadline lapses. While India is expected to lagbehind on health indicators, the performanceis up to the mark on education front.

The National Curriculum Framework (NCF),2005 provides the framework for makingsyllabi, textbooks and teaching practiceswithin the school education programmes inIndia. It is based on the guiding principles ofthe Constitution and speaks of educationinculcating value attitude and skills requiredfor living in harmony with oneself and others.

The Crime and Criminal Tracking Networkand Systems (CCTNS) aims at creation of a

nation-wide networking infrastructure forevolution of ITenabled sophisticated trackingsystem around 'investigation of crime anddetection of criminals'. It will help in effectivepolicing and sharing data of crimes andcriminals among 14,000 police stations acrossthe country. The broad objectives of theCCTNS project are streamlining investigationand prosecution processes, strengthening ofintelligence gathering machinery, improvedpublic delivery system and citizen-friendlyinterface, nationwide sharing of informationacross on crime and criminals and improvingefficiency and effectiveness of policefunctioning.

The Committee on Reforms of the CriminalJustice System was constituted by theMinistry of Home Affairs of the Governmentof India in November 2000 and headed byformer Chief Justice of Kerala and Karnataka,and former member of the National HumanRights Commission (NHRC) Justice V.S.Malimath. A decade after Justice MalimathCommittee had submitted its report; thegovernment is considering implementation ofat least 75% of the remainingrecommendations of the panel to reform thecriminal justice system.

The working group constituted for studyinggold and goal loans by Non-Banking FinanceCompanies (NBFCs), under the chairmanshipof KUB Rao, Advisor, Department ofEconomics and Policy Research hasrecommended that banks and NBFCs put thepledged gold to productive use and has alsorecommended tough guidelines for gold loancompanies. Some key recommendationsinclude having banks design innovativefinancial instruments to provide real returns toinvestors; conversion of both rural and urbandemand for gold into investment in gold-backed financial instruments throughdematerialization of gold, and introduction oftax incentives on instruments that couldimpound idle gold. To prevent themushrooming of gold loan firms, the panel hasrecommended that activities of gold loanNBFCs be monitored continuously and theinterconnectedness of gold loan NBFCs withthe formal financial system be reducedgradually. It has also suggested measures toreview the current guidelines pertaining to


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gold loan NBFCs raising resources throughNCDs.India is expected to start building the world'slargest solar telescope on the icy heights ofLadakh to study the sun's atmosphere andunderstand the formation of sun-spots andtheir decay process. The Rs 300-crore project isexpected to come up at either Hanle or Merak,which is very near to the Ladakh's Pangonglake along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)with China.

Chandrayaan-2 (an India-Russiacollaboration), which was to take off in 2013,has been delayed by the failure of RussianMars mission Phobos-Grunt. Therefore Indiahas decided to go ahead with Mars missionand hope to set off for the red planet onNovember 26-27. The mission if successful willpropel India into the elite club of four-the US,Russia, Europe and Japan. India's Marsmission will look for signs of life and reasonswhy the red planet lost its atmosphere. UnlikeChandrayaaan-2, Mangalayaan is entirely anIndian mission. ISRO's trusted warhorse, thePSLV-XL, will launch the Mars explorer. TheRs 470-crore Mars mission will not onlydemonstrate India's capability to launch aspacecraft that has to travel 55 million km to400 million km (depending on the planets'orbital positions) over 299 days, fiveinstruments on board will probe Mars'atmosphere, records of water on the planet'ssurface and look for methane hotspots.

The Key features of the STI policy 2013 are1. Promoting the spread of scientific

temper amongst all sections of society.2. Enhancing skills for applications of

science among the young from allsocial sectors.

3. Establishing world class infrastructurefor R&D for gaining global leadershipin some select frontier areas of science.

4. Positioning India among the top fiveglobal scientific powers by 2020(byincreasing the share of global scientificpublications from 3.5% to over 7% andquadrupling the number of papers intop 1% journals from the currentlevels).

5. Linking contributions of ScienceResearch and innovation system withthe inclusive economic growth agenda

and combining priorities of excellenceand relevance.

6. Creating an environment for enhancedprivate sector participation in R &D.

7. Enabling conversion of R & D outputwith societal and commercialapplications by replicating hithertosuccessful models, as well asestablishing of new PPP structures.

8. Seeking S&T based high riskinnovation through new mechanisms.

9. Fostering resource optimized cost-effective innovation across size andtechnology domains.

10. Triggering in the mindset & valuesystems to recognize respect andreward performances which createwealth from S&T derived knowledge.

11. Raising Gross Expenditure inResearch and Development (GERD) to2% from the present 1% of the GDP inthis decade by encouraging enhancedprivate sector contribution.

12. Increasing the number of Full TimeEquivalent (FTE) of R&D personnel inIndia by at least 66% of the presentstrength in 5 years.

13. Increasing accessibility, availabilityand affordability of innovations,especially for women, differently-abled and disadvantaged sections ofsociety.

14. Aligning Venture Capital andInclusion Innovation Fund systems.

15. Modifying IPR policy to provide formarching rights for social good whensupported by public funds and for co-sharing IPRs generated under PPP

16. Triggering ecosystem changes inattitudes, mindset, values andgovernance systems of publiclyfunded institutions engaged in STIactivities to recognize, respect andreward performances which createwealth from S&T derived knowledge.

Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, the first Hinduever to be a member of the US House ofRepresentatives, has been named to two keyCongressional committees through which shewould play an important role in the country'sforeign policy and homeland security. She hasbeen named to be a member of the House


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Foreign Affairs Committee and HouseHomeland Security Committee, the twopowerful Congressional committees.

GOI has launched new IT/web-enabledinitiative, 'Lakshya' to enable consumers bookand track refills online as well on mobilephone. It would enhance transparency indistribution of cylinders. Under the newinitiative, customers can rate their distributorson service and anybody found wanting couldpossibly face termination of dealership.

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa in theUnited States under the Immigration andNationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H). Itallows US employers to temporarily employforeign workers in specialty occupations. AnH-4 visa is a visa issued by the U.S.Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)to immediate family members (spouse andchildren under 21 years of age) of the H-1Bvisa holders.

The TAPI pipeline will run from theTurkmenistan gas fields to Afghanistan. It willstart from the Dauletabad gas fields and runinto Afghanistan alongside the highwayrunning from Heart to Kandahar and then viaQuetta and Multan in Pakistan. The finaldestination of the pipeline will be Fazilka nearthe India-Pakistan border.

CDMA spectrum :For CDMA in India, the frequencies are:824 - 844 MHz for the uplink (handset to basestation) 869 - 889 MHz for the downlink (basestation to handset)

The 100th Session of Indian ScienceCongress[ kolkota] concluded with a call tobring forward the youth to work for thepromotion of science as the youth leadershipis a key to the objective of shaping the futureof India.

The goal of the Kepler mission, which beganin 2009, is to determine how many stars in theMilky Way galaxy have an Earth-sized planetorbiting in so-called habitable zones, wherewater can exist on its surface. Earth-sizedplanets located about where Earth orbits the

sun would take 365 days to circle their parentstar. Those located closer, in Mercury-like 88-day orbits, transit more frequently.

The Mars Orbiter Mission will carry fiveexperimental payloads with a total weight of14.49 kg. The Methane Sensor for Mars, whichwill be capable of scanning the entire Martiandisc within six minutes, will weigh 3.59 kg.Earlier missions to Mars had detectedMethane in the thin Martian atmosphere, butthe discovery is yet to be corroborated.Methane is known to be released by somemicrobes as part of their digestive process.

BPL families are covered under the RashtriyaArogya Nidhi (RAN), where financialassistance is provided for treating life-threatening diseases and medical aid isreceived in government hospitals. Thefinancial assistance is released in the form of a"one-time grant".Health Ministry has reducedthe eligibility criterion for poor people who donot fall under the Below the Poverty Line(BPL) category to avail themselves of theHealth Minister's Discretionary Grant(HMDG). The annual income has been raisedfrom Rs. 75,000 to 1,00,000. The UnionMinistry has also expanded the list of diseasesfor treatment of which financial help is given.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairsapproved the continuation of the JawaharlalNehru National Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM) to sanction new projects andcapacity building activities till 31st March,2014 under Urban Infrastructure andGovernance (UIG) and Urban InfrastructureDevelopment Scheme for Small and MediumTowns (UIDSSMT) components of JNNURM.The proposal would enable provisioning ofcreation of urban infrastructure, particularly insmall and medium towns, in all States andUTs. These projects would be subsumed in thenext phase of the JNNURM for the 12th FiveYear Plan.

The Kachin encompass a number of ethnicgroups speaking almost a dozen distinctlanguages belonging to the Tibeto-Burmanlinguistic family who inhabit the same regionin the northern part of Burma on the borderwith China, mainly in Kachin State. More than


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half of the Kachin people identify themselvesas Christians while significant minoritiesfollow Buddhism and some also adhere toanimism. Kachin state is also known as theland of jades and gold.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairshas authorized the National Investment Fund(NIF) to buy shares of public sectorundertakings (PSUs), including banks andinsurance companies. As per the string ofapprovals given by the CCEA at its meetingchaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singhthe disinvestment proceeds with effect fromthe fiscal year 2013-14 will be credited to theexisting "public account" under the headNational Investment Fund (NIF), and theywould remain there until withdrawn/investedfor the approved purposes.[The NationalInvestment Fund was constituted by theCabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on27th January 2005. The objectives structureand administrative arrangements, investmentstrategy were notified in November, 2005, andthe NIF started functioning from October,2007. As on 31st August 2012 the corpus in theNIF consisted of Rs.1814.45 crore, comprisingthe disinvestment proceeds of Power GridCorporation of India and the RuralElectrification Corporation Limited doneduring 2007-08. This corpus is presentlyinvested through three Public Sector fundmanagers (SBI, LIC and UTI Mutual Funds).]

The controversial amendment on taxavoidance norms; the general anti-avoidancerules (GAAR), which created a lot ofuncertainty among foreign investors, will nowbe implemented from April 1, 2016. Under thefinal draft - GAAR will be applied only incases of tax avoidance. Further the anti-avoidance rules will kick in only where the taxdepartment is convinced that avoiding taxeswas the main reason for coming through a taxhaven or an arrangement. The currentprovision is that the rules will operate even iftax avoidance is only one of the mainprovisions. FIIs and participatory notes whichdo not apply for benefits under a doubletaxation avoidance agreements (DTAA) thatIndia has with Mauritius will not come underGAAR.

Scientists have identified a star, at least 13.2billion years-old. The Big Bang is calculated byscientists to have taken place about 13.77billion years ago and the star, known as HD140283, was among the earliest stars to formand it is just 186 light years away from Earth.Observations from the Hubble Telescopehelped experts fix the distance of the star fromthe Earth with unprecedented accuracy whichallowed them to make more accuratemeasurements of how brightly it shines. Onceits brightness was established they were ableto work out how rapidly its hydrogen is beingexhausted and so determine its age.

Researchers at the Universities of York andLeeds found that the gas released from theoceans on Earth may play a significant role inthe destruction of ozone layer. The principalsource of iodine oxide can be explained byemissions of hypoiodous acid (HOI) - a gas notyet considered as being released from theocean - along with a contribution frommolecular iodine (I2). Since the 1970s whenmethyl iodide (CH3I) was discovered asubiquitous in the ocean, the presence of iodinein the atmosphere has been understood toarise mainly from emissions of organiccompounds from phytoplankton - microscopicmarine plants. The new research showed thatreactive iodine, along with bromine, in theatmosphere is responsible for the destructionof vast amounts of ozone around 50% morethan predicted - in the lower atmosphere overthe tropical Atlantic Ocean.

After its successful operation of cancerregistries for the last 20 years, the governmenthas taken the plunge to start a stroke registryat Bangalore - National Centre for DiseaseInformatics and Research. Registries forcardiovascular diseases and diabetes would bestarted in the future.

The Apparel Training & Design Centre (ATDC) in collaboration with Juki India,launched India's first Technology InnovationResearch Centre at the ATDC-Training ofTrainers' Academy, Gurgaon to demonstratetechnologies in apparel manufacturing andundertake applied research. The ATDC-JUKITECH Innovation Centre is an importantinitiative to strengthen the Apparel Industry,especially the SMEs, to adopt new


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technologies for increasing productivity,efficiency and quality for better pricerealisation and better global competitiveness.

London-based Indian researcher MahaveerGolechha has been selected for a 'YoungInvestigator Scholarship Award' for his workon a drug to cure Alzheimer's. He has beenrecognized for his outstanding research on'naringin', a bioflavonoid found in grape fruitsand citrus fruits. In his study, he found thatnaringin possesses significant "anti-Alzheimeractivity" and will form the basis of furtherresearch to develop as a cure for thedegenerative disease in old age, whichworsens as it progresses.

In 1988, India joined the global movement forpolio eradication - at a time when we had noteven succeeded in bringing polio undercontrol. Control status required at least 95 percent reduction. In 1978, India launched theExpanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI)with BCG and DPT vaccines. The oral poliovaccine (OPV) was introduced the next year.Natural polioviruses are called 'wild' todistinguish them from vaccine poliovirusesthat constitute OPV. Vaccine viruses are'attenuated' from wild viruses - which meanthey have lost most of their 'virulence,' theability to cause paralysis and the ability tospread fast among children. These two are thedreaded qualities of wild polioviruses. By1988, diphtheria, whooping cough andneonatal tetanus had declined to control levelsas a result of EPI's efforts. But polio did notcome under control - showing that OPV wasnot as effective in India as in the West or inChina. From 1994, India began nationwideOPV campaigns (called pulse immunisation) -two per year - to give additional doses to allunder-five children irrespective of the numberof doses already given. That resulted ineffectively controlling polio by 2000. One ofthe three types of polioviruses, wild type 2,was even eradicated by October 1999 when theaverage number of OPV doses had reached sixper child. The type 2 component of OPV wasnot only more effective against that type, but italso inhibited the effect of types 1 and 3.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directedall scheduled and commercial banks as well as

other lending institutions to adopt the disasterresilience norms of the National DisasterManagement Authority (NDMA) and insist onthe loan applicant to comply with the disasterresistant features laid down by the authoritybefore sanctioning a loan.

The Centre has proposed crucial changes inthe Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956to quickly resolve water sharing disputesbetween basin States and to give a tribunal'saward the force of an order/ decree of theSupreme Court.It has proposed to appoint anagency to maintaina data bank at the nationallevel for each river basin.For the first time, theUnion Water Resources Ministry unfolded itsdraft amendments to the Actthat provides fora single tribunal in place of multipletribunalsto adjudicate on inter-State water disputesin afixed time-frame of two years, which may be extended by one year. It is proposed that thesingle tribunal shall have eight members,including a chairperson and vice chairperson,and initially the members of the existingtribunals who are below (the new upper agelimit of) 70 years would constitute thetribunal. The tribunal shall comprise threebenches and once a dispute is referred to it,the chairman shallassign it to a Bench. If thereis a vacancy on a Bench then, a member ofanother shall hear the matter tillthe vacancy isfilled. In other words, disputes shall not bekept pending and allowed to go unresolved onaccount of a vacancy.

The Reserve Bank of India has made it easierfor foreign institutional investors (FIIs) toinvest in the domestic equity and debtmarkets. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hasnotified the enhanced limit of investing ingovernment securities(G-Secs) by foreigninstitutional investors (FIIs) and long-terminvestors by $5 billion to $25 billion from $20billion. Long-term investors include SEBIregistered sovereign wealth funds (SWFs),multilateral agencies, endowment funds,insurance funds, pension funds and foreigncentral banks. The RBI has also relaxed someinvestment rules by removing the maturityrestrictions for first time foreign investors ondated G-Secs. Earlier it was mandated that thefirst time foreign investors of G Secs must buysecurities with at least three-year residualmaturity. But such investments will not be


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allowed in short-term paper like TreasuryBills.

Till date, India has signed BIPAs with 82countries. Out of which, 72 treaties have beenenforced. The first BIPA was signed in 1994with the U.K. Besides, India has signed 17 FreeTrade Agreements, Comprehensive EconomicPartnership Agreement (CEPA),Comprehensive Economic Co-operationAgreement (CECA) and Preferential TradeAgreements (PTAs).

In September, the government had allowed 51per cent foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail in India. In the winter session ofParliament, allegations WalMart had indulgedin lobbying inIndia to gain entry into themarket had stalled proceedings.WalMart hadentered the Indian market in 2007. It operates50:50 joint venture with Bharti Enterprises,which runs 17 modern wholesale stores andprovides back-end

India enjoys a high rating when it comes tobudget transparency practices. It ranks 14thamong the 100 countries that were surveyed.Its open budget index score of 68 out of 100 ismuch higher than the average score of 43 forall countries covered in the Global OpenBudget Survey 2012.The results of the surveywere released by The International BudgetPartnership (IBP). According to IBP, India'scurrent score indicates that the governmentprovides significant information on itsbudgetand financial activities during the year,enabling Indian citizens to hold thegovernment accountable for management ofpublic money.

India has suggested for winding up of theUnited Nations Military Observer Group inIndia and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) as its role hasbeen overtaken by the Simla Agreement of1972 between India and Pakistan whereasPakistan has denied the Indian claim that theSimla Agreement of 1972 has overtaken themandate of the UNMOGIP. Since the 1971Agreement Indian position on this issue hasbeen that the UNMOGIP's role was tosupervise the ceasefire line, which wasestablished in Jammu and Kashmir as a resultof the Karachi Agreement of 1949. This line nolonger existed and a new line came into

existence on December 17, 1971 which wasand is called the Line of Control (LoC).Following the Simla Agreement, the twocountries resolved to settle their differences bypeaceful means through bilateral negotiations.

A high-level Environment Ministry panelformed a formula to identify "inviolate" forestareas where mining and other harmful non-forestry activities will be completely banned.Inviolate zones will include: Wildlifesanctuaries, tiger reserves, national parks - aswell as a buffer zone of one km around suchprotected areas - compact patches of verydense forest, the lastremnant of a forest typeand forests very near perennial rivers. Theformula calls for scoring of forest areas basedon six principles: forest type, biologicalrichness, wildlife value, forest cover,landscape integrity and hydrological value.Thecountry will be divided into grids of onesquare kilometre each, which will be scored,mostly using existing data. An average scoreabove 70, out of a possible 100, will also bedeclared inviolate.

The Centre has constituted three new HighCourts in the northeast - Meghalaya, Manipurand Tripura- taking the total number of HighCourts in thecountry from 21 to 24. The Bill toestablish separate High Courts in these threeNorth-eastern States was approved by the LokSabha by amending the North-Eastern Areas(Reorganisation) Act, 1971 and other relatedlaws

A next generation network (NGN) andspecific absorption rate (SAR) lab has beeninaugurated in telecommunicationengineering centre (TEC) in New Delhi. TheTEC SAR lab has been commissioned at a costof Rs 2.5 crore. This is the first lab in thecountry for independent audit of SAR value,selfcertified by mobile handset manufacturersand importers in India. The lab is capable ofmaking SAR measurement for CDMA, GSM2G and 3G mobile handsets in the frequencyband of 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and

The National Communal Harmony Awardswere instituted in 1996 by the NationalFoundation forCommunal Harmony (NFCH),an autonomous organization set up by the


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Government of India, Ministry of HomeAffairs, for promoting communal harmonyand national integration.

K-15 is part of the family of underwatermissiles being developed by the DRDO for the Indian strategic forces' underwater platforms.DRDO's Hyderabad-based Defence Researchand Development Laboratory (DRDL) havedeveloped this ballistic missile. This is the firstmissile in the underwater category to havebeen developed by India.

The 2009 Suresh Tendulkar Committee'sview was that a person is poor if he spendsless than Rs19 daily in a city, or Rs15 in thevillage area at 2004- 2005 prices. Thecommittee set the poverty figure at about 37per cent. The NC Saxena Committee saidthat50 per cent people were poor. The ArjunSengupta Committee on Unorganised Workersinferred that there were 77 per cent poor orvulnerable Indians. The cut-off amount forpoverty was Rs20 per day. The Commissionlater revised its own figures for 2011-2012,pegging the poverty lineat Rs22.65 per day forthose in rural environs, andRs28.42 for urbandwellers. A more realistic poverty surmisewas furnishedby the National Sample Surveyfor 2009-2010. As per its findings, based onaverage monthly consumption expenditure,necessary for survival, thepoverty line wouldbe Rs66.10 for urban areas and Rs35.10 forrural areas. An estimated 65 per cent of thecountry's population is below this marker. TheCommission must understand that success ofwelfare schemes depends on correct estimatesof poverty.

Salient features of amendments to lokpaland lokayuktas bill 2011 approved by thecabinet are as below:-

1. Collegium for Selection of Lokpal:The Bill provides for selection ofMembers of Lokpal by a SelectionCommittee comprising the PrimeMinister, Speaker (Lok Sabha), Leaderof Opposition (Rajya Sabha), Cheif

Justice of India or a Supreme Courtjudge nominated by CJI and aneminent jurist nominated by thePresident. The Select Committee hasrecommended that the fifth memberof the Selection Committee (i.e.,

eminent jurist) may be nominated bythe President on the basis ofrecommendation of the first fourmembers of the Selection Committee.Government has accepted thisrecommendation.

2. Jurisdiction over bodies receivingdonations from public: The SelectCommittee has recommendedexclusion of bodies and institutionsreceiving donations from the publicfrom the purview of Lokpal.Government has decided to exemptonly such bodies or authoritiesestablished, constituted or appointedby or under any Central or State orProvincial Act providing foradministration of public religious orcharitable trusts or endowmentsorsocieties for religious or charitablepurposes registered under thesocieties Registration Act. Other nongovernmental bodies receivingdonation from the public would thusremain within the purview of Lokpal.

3. Power to order investigation straightaway: Select Committee hasrecommended that the Lokpal shouldbe given power to order aninvestigation straightaway (withoutfirst ordering a preliminary inquiry) incase Lokpal finds that a prima faciecase exists. Government has acceptedthis recommendation subject to themodification that the Lokpal should,before coming to a conclusion thatthere exists a prima facie case forentrusting the matter for investigation,call for the explanation of the publicservant and then decide whether thereexists a prima facie case for orderinginvestigation.

4. Opportunity of Hearing to publicservant: The Select Committee hasrecommended that the seeking ofcomments from the public servantduring the preliminary inquiry by theinvestigating agency should not bemandatory [clause 20 (2)]. Committeehas also recommended that theopportunity of hearing by Lokpalbefore ordering investigation may bedispensed with [clause 20 (3)]. Theaffording of an opportunity to the


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public servant and to thegovernment/competent authority atthe preliminary inquiry stage andbefore ordering formal investigationwould help clear doubts in severalcases and would substantially reducethe number of cases going for regularinvestigation. Therefore, Governmenthas decided not to accept thisrecommendation of the SelectCommittee and move an officialamendment for the purpose.

5. Power to order prosecution of publicservants: The Select Committee hasrecommended that the power to grantsanction for prosecution of publicservants could be shifted to the Lokpalin place of the Government. The SelectCommittee has also recommendedthat Lokpal may be required to seekcomments of the competent authorityand the public servant before takingsuch decision. Government hasdecided to accept thisrecommendation of the SelectCommittee.

6. Strengthening of CBI: The SelectCommittee has recommended anumber of amendments in the Bill forstrengthening the CBI. These include-

7. The setting up of a Directorate ofprosecution headed by a Director ofProsecution under the overall controlof Director, CBI;

8. The appointment of the Director ofProsecution on the recommendationof the Central Vigilance Commission;

9. Maintenance of a panel of advocatesby CBI, other than the GovernmentAdvocates, with the consent of theLokpal for handling Lokpal referredcases;

10. Provision of adequate funds to CBI forinvestigating cases referred by Lokpal;

11. Transfer of officers of CBIinvestigating cases referred by Lokpalwith the approval of Lokpal.Government has decided to accept allthese recommendations except the lastone, i.e., seeking approval of Lokpalfor transfer of officers of CBIinvestigating cases referred by theLokpal, which is proposed not to be

accepted as it would affect the smoothfunctioning of the CBI.

Other salient features of the Bill1. Powers of supervision over CBI : The

Bill confers powers ofsuperintendence on the Lokpal overthe Delhi Special Police Establishment(CBI) in respect of matters referred bythe Lokpal for inquiry/investigation.

2. Appointment of Director, CBI: Ahigh powered Committee chaired bythe Prime Minister will recommendselection of the Director, CBI.

3. Attachment/confiscation of ill-gottenproperty: The Bill contains provisionsfor attachment/ confiscation ofproperty acquired by corrupt means,even while prosecution is pending.

4. Enhancement of punishments underPrevention of Corruption Act: TheBill proposes to enhance punishmentsunder Prevention of Corruption Act:

5. Maximum punishment from 7 years to10 years

6. Minimum punishment from 6 monthsto 2 years.

Gwadar port would be ideal as a stagingground for Chineseships. China already has asteady presence in Sri Lanka's Hambantotaport, it is wooing Maldives, though no portpresence is planned yet. China isalso buildinga port in Chittagong, Bangladesh, as well asSonadiya, near Cox's Bazar. From thesecuritypoint of view, India could find itself considerably constrained.

Iran has unveiled its newest combat jet theQaher-313, or Dominant-313, a domesticallymanufactured fighter-bomber that can evenevade radar. The Qaher is one of severalaircraft designs rolled out by the Iranianmilitary since 2007. Qaher-313 is a fullyindigenous aircraft designed and built by ouraerospace experts. This is a radar-evadingplane that can fly at low altitude, carryweapons, and engage enemy aircrafts andland at short airstrips The Islamic republiclaunched a self-sufficiency militaryprogramme in the 1980s to compensate for aWestern weapons embargo that banned exportofmilitary technology and equipment to Iran.Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks,


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armored personnel carriers, missiles,torpedoes, drones andfighter planes.

India ranks a poor 132nd among 185countries in the International FinanceCorporation's Ease of Doing Business index.Smaller countries, including Bangladesh, SriLanka and Nepal have ranked higher in theindex. To improve the business environment,India has launched its first Government-to-business portal to provide a round-the-clock,secure, one-stop-shop for all investment andbusiness related information under theNational eGovernance Plan. This missionmode project will mark a paradigmshift in theGovernment's approach to providing G2Bservices for India's investor and businesscommunities. The portal has been developedby Infosys in a Public Private Partnership(PPP) model. The project aims to create abusiness and investorfriendly ecosystem inIndia by making all business and investmentrelated regulatory services across Central,State and local Governments available on asingle portal, thereby obviating the need for aninvestor or a business to visit multiple officesor a plethora of Web sites.

What is CRR?Cash reserve Ratio (CRR) is the amount offunds that the banks have to keep with RBI. IfRBI decides to increase the per cent of this, theavailable amount with the banks comes down.RBI is using this method (increase of CRRrate), to drain out the excessive money fromthe banks.

What is SLR?Statutory Liquidity Ratio is the amount ofliquid assets, such as cash, precious metals orother approved securities, that a financialinstitution must maintain as reserves otherthan the Cash with the Central Bank

What is Repo and Reverse Repo rate?A repurchase agreement is the sale ofsecurities together with an agreement for theseller to buy back the securities at a later date.The repurchase price should be greater thanthe original sale price, the differenceeffectively representing interest, called therepo rate. The party that originally buys thesecurities effectively acts as a lender. The

original seller is effectively acting as aborrower, using their security as collateral fora secured cash loan at a fixed rate of interest.A reverse repo is simply the same repurchaseagreement from the buyer's viewpoint, not theseller's. Hence, the seller executing thetransaction would describe it as a "repo", whilethe buyer in the same transaction woulddescribe it a "reverse repo". So "repo" and"reverse repo" are exactly the same kind oftransaction, just described from oppositeviewpoints. The term "reverse repo and sale"is commonly used to describe the creation of ashort position in a debt instrument where thebuyer in the repo transaction immediatelysells the security provided by the seller on theopen market.

The CST will be phased out totally after theintroduction of GST, which was originallyscheduled to be launched from April 2010. TheGST rollout has missed several deadlines onaccount of differences over contentious issueof CST compensation and design of the GSTstructure between the states and the Centre.Introduced in the Lok Sabha in March 2011,GST Constitution Amendment Bill is with thestanding committee on finance.

Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) is aninitiative funded and led by the Council ofScientific and Industrial Research. OSDD is ateam India consortium with global partnershipwith a vision to provide affordable healthcareto the developing world to solve the complexproblems associated with discovering noveltherapies for diseases like Tuberculosis,Malaria and Leishmaniasis.

Chickpea or gram is the second largest pulsecrop in the world, grown in about 11.5 millionhectares. It is grown mostly by poor farmersand in dry areas. It is highly nutritious. WhileIndia is the largest producer (also importerand consumer) of chickpea, it is grown in anumber of African countries includingEthiopia, Tanzania and Kenya. Chickpea isalso an important component of the pulseindustry in Australia, Canada and USA. Theresearch milestone was the result of years ofgenome analysis by the International ChickpeaGenome Sequencing Consortium led by theInternational Crops Research Institute for theSemi-


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Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The project team had49 scientists from 23 organizations in 10countries, including ICAR from India

Cells containing DNA have emerged as thefirst evidence of life in a subglacial lake inWest Antarctica. A U.S. research teamretrieved water from Lake Whillans, whichsits 800 meters below the ice surface.

A Taiwanese tycoon has launched Asia'sNobel Prizes for outstanding achievements innatural and social sciences. The award hasbeen named as Tang Prize Foundation with aninitial endowment of $103 nmillion (618-907AD Tang Dynasty is revered by Chinese for itscultural and scientific achievements). Theprizes will be awarded every other year tointernational leaders in biopharmaceuticalscience, sustainable development, the study ofChina and the rule of law. Winners willreceive $1.7 million, compared to $1.2 millionthat comes with a Nobel prize. The Tang Prizewinners will be nominated and screened byspecial committees set up by the AcademiaSinica, Taiwan's most prestigious researchorganization.

The first of the 75 Swiss Pilatus traineraircraft procured by the IAF under Rs 2,800crore to train itsrookie pilots has been landedat Jamnagar in Gujarat.The fleet of 75 aircraftwill help in replacing thefleet of HPT-32 basictrainers which were grounded after a fatalcrash in 2009.The IAF is procuring the aircrafttogether with an integrated ground basedtraining system and acomprehensive logisticssupport package. The IAF is also planning toseek more Pilatus trainer aircraft from theSwiss firm which could see another 100aircraft being procured from there.Accordingto the contract, Pilatus will also do a transferof technology to the Hindustan AeronauticsLimited (HAL) for maintenance of the fleet forthenext 30 years. Pilatus will also do offsets tothe tune of 30 per cent of the deal whichwould be close toaround Rs 800 crore

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board(AERB) has entered into an agreement withtwo State authorities of Maharashtra andOdisha for formationof State level Directorateof Radiation Safety for strengthening theregulator control on medical diagnostic X-ray

facilities. With these, AERB has signed MoUswith a total of 10 States (Kerala, Mizoram,Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab,Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat,Maharashtra and Odisha) of which DRS inKerala and Mizoram are already functioning.Government of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar andAndhra Pradesh are in the process of signingMoUs shortly.

A dedicated Sub-Mission on AgriculturalMechanization has been proposed for theXIIth Plan which includes custom-hiringfacilities for agricultural machinery as one ofits major components. The Sub-Mission aimsat catalyzing an accelerated but inclusivegrowth ofagricultural mechanization in India.Its focus is on increasing the reach of farmmechanization to small and marginal farmersand to the regions where availability of farmpower is low.

For conservation of lakes and wetlands, theMinistry of Environment and Forests ispresently, implementing two separateCentrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), namelythe NWCP and the NLCP. To avoid overlap,promote better synergies and to ensureconservation and management works, theCabinet Committee on Economic Affairsapproved the proposal for the merger ofNational LakeConservation Plan (NLCP) andNational Wetlands Conservation Programme(NWCP) into a new scheme called the`National Plan for Conservation of AquaticEco-systems` (NPCA). The principal objectivesof the new scheme will be holisticconservation and restoration of lakes andwetlands for achieving desired water quality enhancement, besides improvement inbiodiversity and the ecosystem, through anintegrated and multidisciplinary approachwith a common regulatory framework, Thescheme would contribute to reduction ofpollution loads and improvement in goodsand services provided by these water bodiestostakeholders. The new scheme will haveconservation and management of lakes andwetlands in the country within its scope, toinclude inventory and information system onlakes and wetlands national level directive oncriteria for lakes and wetlands, regulatoryframework, capacity building at stategovernment and local body levels, evaluation


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etc. The merged scheme shall be operationalduringthe XII Plan Period at an estimated costof Rs.900crore on 70:30 cost sharing betweenthe Central Government and respective StateGovernments(90:10 for North-East States).

TAPI Pipeline: The 1,680 km pipeline willcarry 90 million cubic metres a day (mmcmd)of gas and is scheduled to become operationalin 2018. India and Pakistan will get 38 mmcmdeach, while the remaining 14 mcmd will besupplied to Afghanistan. TAPI will carry gasfrom Turkmenistan's Galkynysh field, betterknown by its previous name South YoiotanOsman that holds gas reserves of 16 trillioncubic feet. From the field, the pipeline will runto Herat and Kandahar province ofAfghanistan, before entering Pakistan. InPakistan, it will reach Multan via Quettabefore ending at Fazilka (Punjab) in India. Inall, the pipeline would travel 735-km inAfghanistan and another 800-km in Pakistan.

Rajiv Gandhi Equity Saving Scheme: TheRGESS is exclusively meant for first-time retailinvestors so the new didn't come as a welcomesurprise to the existing investors. Further, onlythose people whose annual income is below Rs10 lakh are eligible are eligible to invest in thescheme. The objective of the Scheme is toencourage the flow of savings and to improvethe depth of domestic capital markets. TheScheme aims at widening the retail investorbase in the Indian securities markets and alsofurthers the goal of financial stability andfinancial inclusion.

Agni-VI with multiple nuclear warheads,whichcan reach targets 6,000 km away, is allset to be developed by the Defence Researchand Development Organisation (DRDO). InApril last, it carried out the maiden launch ofAgni-V, whichhas a range of more than 5,000km.So far, all the strategic missiles developedbythe DRDO - Agni-I, II, III, IV and V, and the submarine-launched K-15 and its land-basedversion Shourya - can carry only singlenuclear warhead. The DRDO's tactical missilesand supersonic cruise missile BrahMos cancarry one conventional warhead each. DRDOhas started working on the multipleindependently targetable re-entry vehicles[MIRV] version [Agni-VI]. It will carry four or

six warheads depending upon their weight,the constraint is the vehicle's mass.

Advanced Light Helicopter Mk-IV armyversion `Rudra` was handed over by Dr RKTyagi, Chairman, Hindustan AeronauticsLimited (HAL) to Lt Gen Narendra Singh,Deputy Chief of Army Staff (P & S), IndianArmy during AERO India 2013 at YelahankaAir Base, Bangalore. Rudra, first armouredhelicopter - is the Mk IV variant of theAdvanced Light Helicopter (ALH) designedand manufactured by HAL. This helicopter isfitted with Day and Night Targeting systemsand can carry a mix of weapons (70 rockets,anti-tank missiles, air to air missiles and 20mm turret gun), providing the requiredcapability to search and destroy any targets".

Air pollution is the fifth leading cause ofdeath in India after high blood pressure,indoor air pollution, tobacco smoking andpoor nutrition, with about 620,000 prematuredeaths occurring from air pollution-relateddiseases. Like China, India faces anunprecedented public health crisis due to air pollution, the Centre for Science andEnvironment's (CSE) analysis of governmentdata and the GlobalBurden of Disease report'sdata on India has shown.The green think tankreleased its own assessment and the globalstudy's India specific data recently warningthat the number of premature deaths due toair pollution had increased six fold over thelast 10 years. Air pollution is now theseventhleading cause behind the loss of about 18million healthy years of life in India due toillness. It comes after indoor air pollution,tobacco smoking, high blood pressure,childhood underweight, lownutritional status,and alcohol use. CSE's ownassessment of theair pollution data generated by thegovernment painted the grim facts that areleading to the public health crisis.Close to halfof cities are reeling under severe particulatepollution while newer pollutants likenitrogenoxides, ozone and- air toxics are worseningthepublic health challenge. Half of the urban population breathes air laced with particulatepollution that has exceeded the safetystandards. As much as one third of urbanpopulation is exposed to critical level ofparticulate pollution. Smaller citiesare amongthe most polluted in the country.


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One in five of the world's 10,000 species ofreptiles, including many from India are facingextinction. The Indian crocodile (mugger),King cobra, the South Andaman krait, fourtypes of turtle - Bengal Roof Turtle, Red-crowned Roofed Turtle, Hawksbill turtle and

Jagged shelled turtle - along with theSikkimese Bent-toed Gecko have beenidentified to be in great danger of disappearing forever. What's even moreworrying is that there is no availableinformation on the conservation status ofnearly one in three reptiles in India. Thelargestever analysis of the state of the world'sreptiles bythe Zoological Society of London inconjunction with the IUCN species survivalcommission hasfound that 19% of the world'slizards, snakes, turtles, crocodiles and otherreptiles are threatened with extinction.Around 15% of the reptiles are threatened inthe Indo-Malayan realm. In a sample of 1500species, 112 species are listed from India, ofwhich 12.2% are threatened with extinction. Itwas found that a large number of reptiles inIndia have been listed as data deficient (27%).These species have to be targeted for furtherresearch

Nasa's nearly one tonne Curiosity rover hasjust made history when for the first time itused a drill, located at the end of its roboticarm, to bore into a flat rock on Mars andcollect samples from its interior. Curiositylanded on Mars on August 6, 2012 at GaleCrater. Nasa states that this was the first timeany robot has drilled into a rock to collectsamples from Mars. The hole drilled into therock is 1.6cm wide and6.4cm deep. The rock isnamed "John Klein", in memory of MarsScience Laboratory's deputy project managerwho died in 2011.

On the directions of the Supreme Court, theCentre has notified the final award of theCauveryWater Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) onsharing the waters of the Cauvery systemamong the basin States of Karnataka, TamilNadu, and Kerala and Union territory ofPuducherry. The Cauvery includes the mainriver, all its tributaries and all other streamscontributing water directly or indirectly to it.The award authorizes theBoard/Authority tomonitor the monthly releaseswith the help ofthe States concerned and the Central Water

Commission for five years. Thereafter, ifanymodification/adjustment is needed in theschedule,it may be worked out in consultationwith the party- States with the help of theCWC "without changingthe annual allocationamong the parties". After the issuance of thenotification, the Cauvery River Authoritychaired by the Prime Minister and the CMCwill cease to exist. New organisations like theCauvery Management Board and the CauveryWater Regulation Committee will beconstituted which will have representativesfrom all the co-basin states, experts inhydrology and agriculture. They will beheaded by an officer of the central governmentand will be under the control of the Centre.The Tribunal's award will come into effectwithin 90 days of its notification by the Centre.As per law, the award comes into being afterbeing notified by the Centre through itspublication in a gazette.

Partnership for Action on Green Economy(PAGE): PAGE is a direct response to theoutcome document of the UN Conference onSustainableDevelopment (Rio+20), which washeld in June inBrazil. The document, entitled"The Future We Want," calls on UN agenciesto support countries that want to acceleratetheir transition to an inclusivegreen economyto reduce poverty and achieve sustainabledevelopment. This is the first time that fourUN agencies the UN EnvironmentProgramme (UNEP), the International LabourOrganization (ILO), the UN IndustrialDevelopment Organization (UNIDO) and theUN Institute for Training and Research(UNITAR) - join forces to coordinate theirexpertiseand resources at a national level.

Bilateral trade between India and the GulfCooperation Council (GCC) rose to above$145 billion in 2011-12 from $67 billion fiveyears ago. The GCC is a political and economicalliance of six Middle Eastern countries - SaudiArabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates,Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. India is targeting a$175 billion bilateral trade figure with theGCC. The UAE is India's top partner amongthe GCC countries and the second largesttrading partner for India in the world afterChina.


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Founder of the Self-Employed Women'sAssociation of India (SEWA) Ela R Bhatt hasbeen conferred with the Indira Gandhi Prizefor Peace,Disarmament and Development forthe year 2011.

Eminent Hindi litterateur Narendra Kohlihas been selected for the prestigious VyasSamman, Instituted by the K. K. BirlaFoundation in 1991, the award is givenannually for an outstanding literary work inHindi published during the past ten years.

Some of the world's best-known technologytycoons, including Google co-founder SergeyBrinand Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg,launcheda $15-million annual prize to rewardgroundbreakingachievements in life sciences.

The idea behind the Breakthrough Prize forLife Sciences is to generate excitement andfinancial reward for outstanding scientificachievement, similar to those generated byathletes. In the inaugural year, prizes of $3million each were awarded to 11 scientists inthe field of cancer and genetic research.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)was signed between Indian Railways andBharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) forsetting up of Greenfield MEMU coaches

manufacturing facility by BHEL atBhilwara inRajasthan.

NASA's Van Allen Probes mission hasdiscovered a previously unknown thirdradiation belt around Earth, revealing theexistence of unexpected structures andprocesses within these hazardous regions ofspace. Previous observations of Earth's VanAllen belts have long documentedtwo distinctregions of trapped radiation surrounding ourplanet. The new high-resolution observationsby the Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope(REPT) instrument, part of the EnergeticParticle, Composition, and Thermal PlasmaSuite (ECT) aboard the Van Allen Probes,revealed there can be three distinct, long-lasting belt structures with theemergence of asecond empty slot region, or space, inbetween. The belts, named for their discoverer,

James Van Allen, are critical regions formodern society, which is dependent on manyspace-based technologies. TheVan Allen beltsare affected by solar storms andspace weather

and can swell dramatically. Whenthis occurs,they can pose dangers tocommunications andGPS satellites, as well ashumans in space. TheVan Allen Probes are the second mission inNASA's Living with a Star Program to exploreaspects of the connected sun-Earth system thatdirectly affect life and society. Goddardmanages the program. The Applied PhysicsLaboratory built the spacecraft and managesthe mission forNASA.

The RBI's definition of financial inclusionmandates a bank to offer at least four services:savings account with an overdraft facility,business loan, remittance facility and aninsurance-cumretirement benefit product.Today, for the purposeof cash transfers, banksare offering merely a bankaccount. Mostly, it'sa no-frill account: this does not burden anaccount holder with a minimum-balancerequirement, but also places restrictions like amonthly cap on number of withdrawals.

Tata Strategic Management Group whichanalyzed multiple government sources andsurveys to publish its 2013 edition of WellBeing Index (WBI)and Female Security Index(FSI) for India hasrevealed that Punjab, Delhi,Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have beenranked at the top of the Well Being Index(WBI). On the FSI, Hyderabad and Delhi werethe lowest-ranked amongst the metro cities,whileChennai and Bangalore were at the top.Southern states, Gujarat and most of the north-eastern statesemerged as the most secure forwomen, while Haryana, MP, Punjab, Delhiand Rajasthan states had the lowest rankingon FSI.

Traditional brass lamps from Nachiarkoil inThanjavur district, silky 'Pattamadai pai' matsfrom Tirunelveli and Chettinad Kottans(baskets) from Kanadukatthan are the newproducts that have obtained the geographicalindication (GI) tag. The production of theornamental lamp is mainly done by localartisans who have domicile in and aroundNachiarkoil, a town in Kumbakonam taluk.The craftsmanship is not found anywhere else.The lamps made for temples are artisticallyused in SouthIndia.

The Centre has decided to release a reliefpackage of more than Rs 2,892 crore for seven


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states, including Maharashtra, to help themtackle the impact of droughts, floods andlandslides faced last year. Rs 1,207.84 crore hasbeen approved for Maharashtra, Rs 864.71crore for Gujarat and Rs 66.61 crore for Keralato tackle drought. The EGoM also approvedRs 54.49 crore relief packages to Kerala thatsuffered floods last year. Besides, Rs 417.12crore has been approved for Andhra Pradeshin the wake of cyclone Nilam, Rs 115.32 crorefor Himachal Pradesh, Rs 93.76 crore forSikkim and Rs 72.76 crore for Uttarkhand dueto cloud burst, floods and landslides. Therelief package, to be released under theNational Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF), will beimplemented from March 1, 2013. This is thethird time that Maharashtra has been givenassistance to tide over the prolonged droughtin Marathwada and western Maharashtraregions. Earlier, it was sanctioned Rs. 778 croreand Rs. 500 crore before kharif of 2012 alongwith other drought hit States.

Gender Inequality Index (GII). The GII isdesigned to measure gender inequalities asrevealed by national data on reproductivehealth, women's empowerment and labourmarket participation. The Netherlands,Sweden and Denmark top the GII, with theleast gender inequality. The regions with thegreatestgender inequality as measured by theGII are sub- Saharan Africa, South Asia andthe Arab States.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)examines factors at the household level thattogether provide a fuller portrait of povertythan income measurements alone. The MPI isnot intended to be used for national rankings,due to significant differences among countriesin available household survey data. In the 104countries covered by the MPI, about 1.56billion people are estimated to live inmultidimensional poverty. The countries withthe highest percentages of 'MPI poor' are all inAfrica: Ethiopia (87%), Liberia (84%),Mozambique (79%) and Sierra Leone (77%).Yet the largest absolute numbers ofmultidimensional poor people live in SouthAsia, including 612 million in India alone.

The Reserve Bank of India has signed thefirst Currency Swap Agreement with theRoyal Monetary Authority of Bhutan. TheRoyal Monetary Authority of Bhutan canmake drawals of US Dollar, Euro or IndianRupee in multiple tranches up to a maximum of US$ 100 million or its equivalent. This isexpected to further economic co-operationbetween the two countries.

The Copyright Rules, 2013 has been notifiedby the Copyright Division, Department ofHigher Education, Ministry of HumanResource Development on 14th March, 2013.The amendments to the existing provisions ofthe Copyright Act, 1957 and introduction ofnew provisions under theCopyright(Amendment) Act, 2012, which

came into the force on 21st June, 2012,necessitated amendments to the CopyrightRules, 1958.. The Copyright Rules, 2013provide new rules for statutory licence forcover versions and broadcasting of literaryand musical works and sound recording;compulsory licences for works withheld frompublic, unpublished and publishedworks, forbenefit of disabled; registration of CopyrightSocieties and Performer's Right Societies;storage of transient or incidental copies ofwoks; making or adapting the work byorganizations working for the benefit ofpersons with disabilities; importation ofinfringing copies and technologicalprotectionmeasures.

Nepal: President Ram Baran Yadav hasenacted an ordinance on transitional justice.The "Investigation of Disappeared Person,Truth and Reconciliation Ordinance - 2013"will form a truth commission to investigatethousands of human rights abuses committedduring the decade-long Maoist "People's War"that ended in 2006.The truth commission wasa part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreementthat ended the war as well as the interimconstitution.

The Unified Financial Agency (UFA), assuggested by the Financial Sector LegislativeReforms Commission (FSLRC), wouldsubsume thefunctions of key agencies such asthe Securities and Exchange Board of India,the Insurance Regulatory and DevelopmentAuthority, the Pension Fund Regulatory and


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Development Authority and the ForwardMarkets Commission. Banking operations,monetary policy and payment system wouldcontinue to be regulated by the RBI. TheFSLRC, headed by Justice B. N. Srikrishnaalsosuggested doing away with the multipleagency architecture for scanning foreigncapital inflows. At present, the FDI policy isframed by theDepartment of Industrial Policyand Promotion (DIPP), while FDI proposalsare cleared by the Foreign InvestmentPromotion Board (FIPB) after getting dueclearances from various agencies such as theEnforcement Directorate, the Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI) and the RBI.The reportalso suggested setting up of a debtmanagement office (DMO) for raisingresources for government expenses. Atpresent, the government raises funds byissuing bonds through the RBI.

Abel Prize Belgian mathematician PierreDeligne, who is regarded as one of the mostcelebratedmathematicians of the 20th century,has been chosen for this year's prestigiousAbel Prize in Mathematics. He has beenawarded for his "seminal contributions toalgebraic geometry and for theirtransformative impact on number theory,representation theory andrelated fields."

Physics Journalism Prize AnilAnanthaswamy has won the inauguralPhysics Journalism Prize - a prize designed toinspire the next generation of physicists byencouragingjournalists to grapple with oftencomplex topics and help spread excitementabout the subject.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) isall set to review the Establishment of andMaintenance of Standards in PrivateUniversities Regulations, 2003, to make rulesgoverning private universitiesmore stringent.The UGC has set up an expert committee toreview the existing Regulations under Prof. P.N. Tandon and co-chair M. Anandakrishnan,both of whom were associated with thedrafting of the UGC (Deemed to beUniversities) Regulations, 2010. However,private universities had been left out of thepurview then. The draft Regulations of 2010,prepared by a Ministry-appointed committee,had also said that a higher education

institution could be approved as a universityonly if it had been in existence for 15years andfulfilled the laid down criteria of land,facultyand other infrastructure and had generatedIPRights and produced enough quality research.Violation of any of the provisions wouldattract heavy penalty. Private universitieswere brought in for the first time through the2003 Regulations under UGC's quality control.The Supreme Court had upheld UGC'scompetence to regulate private Stateuniversities, saying that entry 66 of the UnionList in 7th Schedule of the Constitutionpermitted the Centre to legislate on standardsof higher education even if State legislatureshad jurisdiction under entry 32 of the StateList to establish universities.

Cyprus avoided bankruptcy and potentialturmoil across the Euro zone, by securing alast- minute $13-billion bailout with promisesto sharply cut back its oversized bankingsector and make large bank account holderstake losses to help pay much of the bill.Without a bailout deal, the tiny Mediterraneannation would have faced the prospect ofbankruptcy, which could have forced it tobecome the first country to abandon the eurocurrency.

Fiscal deficit touched 97.4 percent of thebudget estimates According to the datareleased by Controller General of Accounts(CGA) the government's fiscaldeficit touched97.4 percent of the budget estimates(BE) in theApril-February period of the current fiscal. Inabsolute terms, the fiscal deficit, or gapbetween expenditure and revenue receipts,stood at over Rs 5.07 lakh crore at the end ofFebruary. The Government has estimated thefiscal deficit for current fiscal at Rs 5,13,590crore, or 5.1 percent,of GDP in the budget for2012-13. However, in the revised estimate, itpegged the deficit to be at 5.2 percent for thefiscal ending 31st March. The fiscaldeficit rosefrom the budgeted levels due to the risingsubsidy outgo. In monetary terms, CADwidened in the October-December quarter to$32 billion, markedly up from $20 billion (4.4per cent of GDP) in thesame quarter of 2011-12, mainly on account of asignificant increasein oil and gold imports at atime when exportshave remained particularly subdued in thewake of an uncertain globalenvironment and


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recessionary conditions prevailing in the U.S.and Europe

New Saudi law related to 'Nitaqat'(naturalisation) South Asian workers - amajority of whom arefrom India employed in

the small and medium enterprises in SaudiArabia - are likely to be hit hard as theKingdom goes ahead with its plans toexpandemployment avenues for its own nationals inthe backdrop of the Arab Spring. Saudi Arabiahas proposed the policy of reserving 10 percent jobs for locals. A study by the SaudiCentral Department of Statistics andInformation, fixed the unemployment rate inthe country last year at 12.2 per cent. Thatmeant that more than 588,000 people werewithout jobs. Other estimates suggest that analarming 39 per cent of the youth in the 15-25years old category, are unemployed.Consequently, the Kingdom has adopted theNitaqat programme - a plan to push itsnationals into employment in companies thatare colour coded to deter expatriates frommonopolizing their workforce. Thus, firmsfalling into the red zone are the worstoffenders as they have, according to theKingdom's grading criteria, failed to employthe minimum quota of Saudi nationals in theirworkforce. Those in the yellow slot have alsofallen short of their targets, but, despite theirpoor showing, have been recognized for theireffort to employ Saudi nationals. Companiesin the green zone fall in the blue chip categoryas they have fully complied with theKingdom's latest labour laws. As a result theyare allowed to expand their workforce byemploying a larger number of expatriates. TheSaudi Arabia government's decision hascaused much worry among the Indianexpatriates there, particularly those fromKerala. As many as 5 lakh people from theState were working in Saudi Arabia alone, hesaid, adding that job losses could cause greatsocial unrest in the State. The issue would getmore complicated if other Middle Easterncountries start following the Saudi model.

India ranks first among the 27 MDR-TB highburden countries. The RevisedNational TBControl Programme (RNTCP) hasdeveloped aplan to scale up the services considerably inorder to treat at least 40,000 MDRTB patients

annually by 2017, supported by the GlobalFund Round Single Stream Funding, Unit aid and domestic funds. India achieved a successrate of 88 percent in treatment of tuberculosis- higher than theglobal treatment success rateof 85 per cent but HIV-TB co-infectioncontinues to be a cause of major concern, asthe percentage of people infected with thetwin infection increased substantially between2010 and 2011. The percentage of TB patientstested for HIV increased nationally from 32per cent to 45per cent.The GeneXpert test has98 per cent sensitivity (ability to detect everypositiveTB case) in smear-positive cases. Andspecificity (ability to correctly diagnose onlythe positive cases) is 99 per cent. Themolecular test can provide reliable results in

just about two hours.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI)has been nominated for 'Global CompetitionReview (GCR) Awards 2013' under thecategory of "Agency of the Year-Asia-Pacific,Middle East & Africa". It isvery first time thatthe CCI has been nominated for thisinternationally prestigious award. Otheragencies nominated in this category are

Japan's Fair Trade Commission, Pakistan'sCompetition Commission and Turkey'sCompetition Authority. GCR is the world`sleading antitrust and competition law journaland news service.

NTPC Limited, India's largest power utilityhas been awarded as the most EfficientMaharatna-inManufacturing for the year 2012

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumarannounced 50 per cent of the seats in allcooperatives; primary agricultural cooperativesocieties will be reserved for women. From thequota, two seats each will be reserved for theScheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,Backward Classes and EconomicallyBackward Classes.

Academician Gury Marchuk, the architect ofa unique and highly successful programme ofIndo- Russian cooperation in science andtechnology, died in Moscow. Marchuk was themoving spirit behind the Integrated Long-Term Programme (ILTP) of Cooperation inScience & Technology set up in 1987 at the


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initiative of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi andSoviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Prime Minister approves expansion of DirectBenefits Transfers (DBT) Prime MinisterManmohan Singh has approvedthe extensionof the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) schemeto 78 more districts taking the total number ofdistricts to be covered under the scheme to 121since January one. The scheme will now coverone fifth of the country. The scheme waslaunched in 43districts on January onePhase II of the scheme will include:

1. DBT will now be expanded to NPRstates where biometrics are beingcollected under the NationalPopulation Register. These includeOdisha, West Bengal, UP,Uttarakhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.The collection biometrics in selecteddistricts here will be accelerated tohave a coverage of 70-80% by June2013 and DBT will be rolled out from1.7.2013.

2. DBT now covers 26 schemes. Thethree Pension Schemes managed byMoRD (old age, disability andwidows) will now be covered underDBT in all the covered districts. DBTfor pension schemes would beintroduced from 1.7.2013 along withthe rollout of Phase-II.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a fundwithin the framework of the UNFCCCfounded as a mechanism to transfer moneyfrom the developed to the developing world,in order to assist the developing countries inadaptation and mitigation practices to counterclimate change. In a meeting of the UN fundheld in Berlin, the US and other developedcountries refused to discuss a burden-sharingformula for contributions or set any calendarto schedule the initial funding. By December2012, only $5.7 million was committed by therich world to the fund. During the meet Indianrepresentative stated that the fund was not adonor programme or a charity but acommitment made under the UN climatechange convention. He warned that therecould not be a voluntary approach tocontributions.

The term Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs)refers to primary cooperative banks located inurban and semi-urban areas. These banks, until1996, could only lend for non-agriculturalpurposes. However, today this limitation is nolonger prevalent. While the co-operative banksin rural areas mainly finance agricultural basedactivities including farming, cattle, milk,hatchery, personal finance, et cetera, along withsome small scale industries and self-employment driven activities, the co-operativebanks in urban areas mainly finance variouscategories of people for self-employment,industries, small scale units and home finance.Co operative Banks in India are registeredunder the Co-operative Societies Act. Thecooperative bank is also regulated by the RBI.They are governed by the Banking RegulationsAct 1949 and Banking Laws (Co-operativeSocieties) Act, 1965. These banks provide mostservices such as savings and current accounts,safe deposit lockers, loan or mortgages toprivate and business customers. For middleclass users, for whom a bank is where they cansave their money, facilities like Internetbanking or phone banking is not veryimportant. In order to promote lending topriority sectors and to provide impetus to theobjective of financial inclusion it has beendecided that urban co-operative banks (UCBs)fulfilling the following conditions may, withthe prior approval of the Reserve Bank, grantunsecured loans (with or without surety) upto25% of their total assets

The Department of Industrial Policy andPromotion (DIPP) released the latest edition ofconsolidated FDI policy incorporating thechanges made in the regulations over the pastone year. This is the sixth edition ofconsolidated FDI policy. The guidelinesincorporated changes with regardto inflows inmulti brand retail and allowing Pakistannationals and companies to invest in thecountry.Besides, it has included policy changesin sector like single brand retail, assetreconstruction companies (ARCs), powerexchanges, civil aviation, broadcasting andnon-banking financial companies(NBFCs).Thegovernment has permitted foreign investmentof up to 49 per cent in the power tradingexchanges in the country.


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India and Azerbaijan has signed a treaty tocooperate with each other in dealing withvarious crimes, including terrorism. The pactis one of the significant legal instruments toimprove and facilitate effectiveness of thecontracting states in investigation andprosecution of transnational crime includingterrorism by providing the necessary legalframework for rendering or receiving legalassistancein criminal matters. The Treaty aimsto benefit the citizens of the respective Statesseeking Legal Assistance in Civil andCommercial Matters in the requested Stateirrespective of any gender, class or incomebias. This Treaty will open the avenues ofcooperation between both the countries inother sectors/spheres also.Similar Treaties onCivil and Commercial Matters have alreadybeen signed with France, U.A.E., Russia,Bahrain, Kuwait, Mongolia, Bulgaria andKazakhstan.

The goal of World Health Day 2013 is toreduce heart attacks and strokes. Specificobjectives of the campaign are to:

1. Raise awareness of the causes andconsequences of high blood pressure;

2. Encourage people to changebehaviours that can lead tohypertension;

3. Persuade adults to have their bloodpressure checked regularly;

4. Increase the number of health facilitiesoffering blood pressure checks; and

5. Encourage national and localauthorities to create enablingenvironments for healthy behaviours.

The Tagore Centre for Global Thought hasbeen officially inaugurated at King's CollegeLondon. It has been established to engageaudiences with India's intellectual traditionswhilst addressing a number of contemporaryglobal questions and dilemmas. The Centrewas founded in partnershipwith the Ministryof Culture, Government of India as part ofcelebrations to mark the 150th anniversary ofTagore's birth, taking inspiration from hiswork to enhance academic, intellectual andphilosophicalwork globally.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Ruth Prawer Jhabvala,the German-born screenwriter and novelistwho, as the writing member of the Merchant

Ivory filmmaking team, won two AcademyAwards for adaptations of genteel, class-conscious E. M. Forster novels, died atthe ageof 85. Jhabvala wrote a dozen novels, 23 screenplays and eight collections of shortstories and was made a CBE in 1998 andgranted a joint fellowship by BAFTA in 2002with Ivory and Merchant. She is the onlyperson to ever have won both a Booker Prizeand an Oscar.

Vienna convention codifies traditionalimmunities and privileges given to diplomatsto enable predictable diplomatic interactionbetween states. Immunities are essential fordiplomatic interaction. They also provide asafety net for intelligence officers postedunder cover in Embassies. The identity of suchofficers is known or discovered by hostcountries. Whenever their activities cross theacceptable line, they are declared persona nongrata and are publicly expelled. Reciprocalaction is taken in such cases by the othercountry. Diplomats caught in unbecoming actsincluding criminal acts such as smuggling orbribing are withdrawn quietly at the demandof the host country or suo moto. Reciprocalaction is seldom taken in such cases. Inherentto the Vienna Convention is the practice ofreciprocity. Reciprocity can be applied if adiplomatic privilege is restricted or denied byone country, even if it is applied uniformly toall diplomats stationed there. The problem liesin uneven situations where on account of theirpower and economic clout some countries canget a better deal for their diplomats.

India is a major vaccine producer that has 12major vaccine manufacturing facilities. Thesevaccines are used for the national andinternational market (150 countries), whichmakes India a major vaccine supplier acrossthe globe. More than 70% of all measlesvaccines used globally are produced in India.Dengue, the world's most rapidly spreadingmosquito-borne viral disease, is taking a farbiggerhuman toll than was believed. As manyas 390million people across the globe could befallingvictim to the virus each year. Accordingto the World Health Organisation (WHO),incidence of denguehas shot up 30 fold in thepast 50 years. Its estimate has been that


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globally there were 50-100 million dengueinfections taking place annually.

Nonperforming assets: NPAs are a debtobligation where the borrower has not paidany previously agreed upon interest andprincipal repayments to the designated lenderfor an extended period of time. Thenonperforming asset is therefore not yieldingany income to the lender in the form ofprincipal and interest payments.

Indo -German Joint Declaration of Intent forEstablishment of Green Energy Corridors Itaims at fostering increased use of renewableenergy in India through technical and fanaticalcooperation by way of integrating additionalrenewable energy generation capacity with thenational grid. The Technical cooperationwould be implemented through the GermanAgency for International Cooperation (GIZ)and KfW intends to provide concessionalloans of up to Euro one billion over the nextsix years Under pacts signed, both Germanyand India have committed to Euro 3.5 millioneach towards working on joint research andinnovation programmes.

Global warming, siltation, release ofuntreated raw sewage into the water bodiesand overgrowthof algae were stated to be thethree important reasons for the possibledisappearance of coral colonies and itsassociated organisms from the Palk Bay area.A recent study taken up by a team ofresearchers from the Zoological Survey ofIndia (ZSI), Chennai, brought to light theserious threat of extinction the coral reefcolonies and mangrove forests in the PalkBayare facing.

The Barren Island stands in the midst of avolcanic belt on the edge of the Indian andBurmese tectonic plates. It is the northern-most active systemof the Indonesian volcanicarc. Though forming part of the UnionTerritory of Andaman and Nicobar, itis totallyuninhabited. It is accessible only to the CoastGuard and naval ships which monitor theisland on a regular basis for any eruption. The eruption in 1991 lasted for about six months.

INS Vagli, the decommissioned submarine,will be converted into Tamil Nadu Maritime

Heritage Museum in Mamallapuram byMarch 2015.

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India'shighest award in cinema given annually by theGovernment of India. The Award is given to aprominent personality from the Indian filmindustry, noted and respected for significantcontributions to Indian cinema. Pran has beenawarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (2012)

Margaret Thatcher was awarded thePresidential Medal of Freedom, the highestcivilian honour awarded by the US. MargaretThatcher, Britain's first woman Prime Ministerwho led the Conservative party for more thana decade through one of the most tumultuousperiods in modern British history and becamea deeply divisive political figure, died.

Robert Geoffrey Edwards a Britishphysiologist and pioneer in reproductivemedicine and in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) inparticular. Edwards successfully pioneeredconception through IVF, which led to the birthofthe first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, on 25

July 1978. He was awarded the 2010 NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine "for thedevelopment of invitro fertilization". In 2011,Edwards was knightedby Queen Elizabeth II"for services to humanreproductive biology."

The State of the Urban Youth India 2012:Employment, Livelihoods, Skills published byIRISKnowledge Foundation (IKF), Mumbai incollaboration of UN-HABITAT states thatevery third person in an Indian city today is ayouth. In about seven years the median age inIndia will be 29 years, very likely of a city-dweller, making it theyoungest country in theworld. It is a first attempt to pull together adata and knowledge base on and of youth inurban India.The focus of the Report is youthemployment and youth livelihoods in urbanIndia. Through a three citysurvey the Reportincorporates a youth perspective on thesituation of urban youth that is revealed bydata and literature. By 2020, India is set tobecome the world'syoungest country with 64per cent of its population in the working agegroup. With the West, Japan and even Chinaaging, this demographic potentialoffers Indiaand its growing economy an unprecedentededge that economists believe could


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add a significant 2 per cent to the GDP growthrate. A closer analysis of the urban youthsuggests that greater political participation,engagement at a policy level and urgentattention to improving their quality of life canensure that India enjoys the benefits of thisdividend While India is undergoing ademographic transition, regional disparities ineducation mean the benefits will not be evenlyspread across the country. The report says thesouthern and western States will be the first toexperience a growth dividend as theyaccounted for 63 per cent of all formallytrained people. The largest share of youth withformal skills was found in Kerala, followed byMaharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradeshand Gujarat. Among those undergoingtraining, Maharashtra had the highest share,Bihar the lowest.

Area expansion under the NationalHorticulture Mission (NHM) will be linked toavailability of quality planting materialthrough accredited nurseries and tissueculture units. Importance will be given forcovering more area under vegetable hybridsand export-oriented varieties of crops suchasginger, turmeric and chillies. High densityplanting and tree canopy management oforchards, right from establishment stage, willbe given focus to derive better yields. Anintegrated approach will be encouraged for taking up drip irrigation/mulching and othersupport systems required for cultivation offruit andplantation crops.Rejuvenation of oldand unproductive orchardswill continue to bea focus area for enhancing productivity,profitability and sustainability. Major thrustwill be on protected cultivation,particularly ofhigh value crops, in green houses, shade nethouses, plastic mulching, etc. Creation of infrastructure for post-harvest managementsisanother thrust area. Value addition will alsocontinue to be a high priority area with focuson creatingcold chain networks.Setting up ofmarkets infrastructure will be linked withreforms in APMC Act, for permitting directmarketing of horticulture produce.Mobilization of farmers into producer groups/organizations is another priority area aimed atstrengthening their negotiating power, besidesfunctioning as viable farmer groups involvedin production and marketing of horticultureproduce.For better implementation of various

developmental programmes on horticulture,the existing schemes of NHM, HMNEH, NHB,Coconut Development Board, Central Instituteof Horticulture and National Bamboo Missionare being subsumed in the NHM.

India hosted the fourth Clean EnergyMinisterial (CEM4) in New Delhi on 17-18April 2013. TheClean Energy Ministerial is theannual forum for energy ministers from 23major economygovernments to come togetherand collaborate to drive accelerated cleanenergy market development, via 13technology and policy-focused initiatives.Thediscussions focused on identifying smartpolicies, programs, and innovative strategiesto increase energy efficiency, enhance cleanenergysupply, and expand energy access.

According to the latest edition of the WorldBank's Migration and Development Brief,officially recorded remittance flows todeveloping countries grew by 5.3 per cent toreach an estimated USD 401 billion in 2012.India topped the list of countries receivingremittances, followed by China (USD60billion), the Philippines (USD24 billion),Mexico (USD23 billion)and Nigeria and Egypt(USD21 billion each). Other large recipientsinclude Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, andLebanon.

Russia has launched an 'orbital Noah's Ark'to space - a bio-satellite packed with an arrayof 45mice, eight Mongolian gerbils, 15 geckos,snails, fish eggs, micro-organisms and plantsblasted off aboard the modernized Soyuz 2rocket from the Baikonur launch pad inKazakhstan to study the effects of long flightson living organisms. The bio capsule carriedby the powerful Soyuz 2rocket is the world'sonly returnable satellite.Bion-M1 scheduled toorbit space for 30 days will conduct variousphysiological, biological and geneticexperiments regarding the future possibilityofflights to Mars and other planets.

Telugu writer Ravuri Bharadwaja wasselected for the prestigious Jnanpith award forthe year 2012.He has written 37 collections ofshort stories, seventeen novels, four play-lets,and five radio plays.


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UK bans caste bias Dalits in the UnitedKingdom have recorded a landmark victoryafter the British parliament finally agreed tooutlaw caste discrimination. The House ofCommons, which had earlier trashed anamendment to include caste among otherforms of discrimination, finally voted for legalprotection for the four lakh dalits living in theUK. This makes the UK the first countryoutside South Asia to legislate against castediscrimination. The amendment is part of theEquality Act 2010. Till now, the Act prohibitedrace discrimination, harassment andvictimisation in the workplace. The definitionof "race" within the Act includes colour,nationality, ethnic or national origin but doesnot specifically refer to caste.

The Kazakh pipeline, proposed by India, willoriginate from the former Silk Roadcaravanseraicity of Shymkent, an oil refininghub, and head into Uzbekistan. From there itwill snake its way to Afghanistan and thenfollow the route to be takenby TAPI pipelineinto India.This pipeline will, like TAPI, be ona north-south axis, providing a new route toSouth Asia for hydrocarbons extracted fromCentral Asia.[ The 'Heart of Asia' meeting isthe third ministerial-level meeting of theIstanbul Process and around 14 countries inthe neighborhood and 16 others participatedin the conference.]

GSLV-D5, powered by indigenous cryogenicupper stage. GSLV-F06, launched in December2010 and powered by a Russian cryogenicstage engine, failed.Before that, the GSLV-D3,flown with a home-grown cryogenic stageengine, also failed in April 2010. Since then,ISRO has made many modifications andcorrections in the engine. It has conducted 35 ground tests and a simulated high-altitude testtillas recently as March.An Indian GSLV thatcan lift communication satellites weighing upto two tonnes into orbit is badly needed tokeep up the satellite capacity for differentusers and the country's self-reliance inlaunching its own communication satellites.After a review next week, the spacecraftwouldbe moved to Sriharikota. This would befollowed by launch of meteorology satelliteINSAT-3D and advanced communicationspacecraft GSAT-7 from Kourou, FrenchGuiana.

On the occasion of the National PanchayatiRaj Day, "Panchayat Empowerment andAccountabilityIncentive Scheme" (PEAIS) and"Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar"(RGGSP)) were conferred upon the bestperforming States and Panchayats. 18 topranking Gram Panchayats were awardedwith"Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Purskar. 193Panchayats were also received awards for bestperformance.The Panchayat Strengthening Index Awards(PSI) were given to States this year. Under theCumulative PSI Awards 1st Prize is won byMaharashtra, while 2nd Prize is bagged byKarnataka, 3rd Prize Kerala and 4th PrizeTripura.Under the Incremental PSI Awards 1st Prize iswon by Karnataka, 2nd Prize Rajasthan, 3rdPrize Maharashtra and 4th Prize is won byOdisha. The prize money for "RashtriyaGaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar" award is Rs. 10lakhs. The Award money will be utilized bythe Panchayats for public purposes such asaugmentation of civic services like primaryeducation, primary health care, safe drinkingwater, public utilities; provision ruralinfrastructure in the Panchayat jurisdiction.

Highlights of Annual Health Survey (AHS)1.Uttarakhand continues to perform well andUttar Pradesh poorly on key health indicators.

2. Shravasti district of Uttar Pradesh recordedthe highest Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) - thenumber of deaths of children less than oneyear of age per 1000 live births - of 100, threedistricts of Almora, Pithoragarh andRudraprayag in Uttarakhand recorded acomparatively low IMR of 20.

3. Uttarakhand also recorded the lowestMaternal Mortality Rate (MMR) (162) andAssam the highest of 347 among these States.

4. Garhwal HQ (155) in Uttarakhand had thelowest MMR and Faizabad Mandal (437) inUttar Pradesh the highest MMR which isdefined as the ratio of the number of maternaldeaths per 100,000 live births. e) Pithoragarhdistrict in Uttarakhand recorded the lowest of766 while Moradabad district of Uttar Pradeshrecorded the highest of 1,050.Among theStates, Chhattisgarh recorded the highest SRB


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of 951 and Uttarakhand the lowest of 866.Assam recorded the highest rise in SRB.

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