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Cu r r en t A f f ai r s

June 2013

National Events

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1 June 2013 Current Affairs National Events

For previous months current affairs pdf magazines visit us at

www.Gr8AmbitionZ.com

erala has reported the season's first death due to H1N1 virus ahead of the onset of southwestmonsoon as various types of viral fever

spread in the state, including a large number ofdengue cases. A 27-year-old woman died of H1N1

at Maranadu in Kollam district on Friday, whichwas the first such case of the season, sources said.

According to Health Department sources, over 60dengue cases have been reported in the last two days

alone, as the public health sector is struggling tocope with the situation with hundreds of fever cases

being reported from various districts.

ndia will remain on top in medical tourism for at least a decade despite attempts from countries

like China and Japan to tap into theflourishing business as Indian hospitals haveEnglish language and skilled manpower

advantages, a leading Indian cardiac surgeonhas said. "India's biggest advantage is the

language and human technology which cannotbe easily replaced", Dr K M Cherian, who is a

regular invitee of the Chinese government toaddress the medical faculties of hospitals as

well as to operate in different facilities.

he Union Cabinet of India approved the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill 2013 to

set up a regulator for the real estate sector in the country on 4th June. This was done with theobjective of protecting home buyers from

dishonest builders. The bill seeks to make itmandatory for developers to launch

projects only after acquiring all the statutoryclearances from relevant authorities. It also has

provisions under which all relevant clearances forreal estate projects would have to be submitted to the

regulator and also displayed on a websitebefore starting construction work. A real

estate regulator will be set up in every state. It will ensure that private developers get all theirprojects registered with it before sale and only after obtaining all necessary clearances.

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The commercial real estate is not covered under the purview of the proposed bill. However, it willapply to residential buildings. The bill has a provision for mandatory public disclosure of all project

details such as lay out plan, land status and credentials of promoters etc. An adjudicating officer inthe state will be appointed by the authority for fast tracking settlement of disputes. There will be

Real Estate Appellate Tribunal as per the bill. It will hear appeals from orders, decisions ordirections of regulator and adjudicating officer.

he Central Information Commission (CIC) brought political parties under the ambit of the Right

to Information (RTI) Act on 3rd June. The CIC recognized the need for bringing the partiesunder public scrutiny in view of benefits like allocation of land at throwaway prices and tax

exemption enjoyed by them. The CIC decision may usher in an era of transparency in thefunctioning of the parties. A full bench decision of the apex transparency panel rejected the

contention of major political parties like the Congress, BJP, CPI, CPM, BSP and the NCP that they

could not be described as public bodies.

he Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh on 7th June has launched

a new skill development scheme called Roshni for rural

youth from 24 most critical left-wing extremismaffected districts in the country. Briefing the

media, Ramesh said that the initiative aims atskilling and placement of fifty thousand youth

from these districts. Six districts each from

Jharkhand and Odisha, five from Chhattisgarh,two from Bihar and one each from AndhraPradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya

Pradesh and Maharashtra have been chosen forthe scheme, which will be implemented at a cost

of Rs 100 crore over the next three years.

The Minister said, the projects shall be funded

jointly by the central and state governments in theratio of 75:25 and the national level agencies shall be designated

to act as monitoring and coordinating agencies for Roshni. Ramesh said that at

least 50 percent of the candidates covered under the scheme shall be women and special efforts willbe made to proactively cover Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups on a priority basis.

He said, beneficiaries aged between 18-35 years with requisite aptitude depending upon the trade or

job requirements are to be selected as per the Participatory Identification of Poor. Training will be

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imparted through public-private and public-public partnerships. Educational institutions, corporateentities, entities that train and place for improved public service delivery, commercial and not for

profit training providers will be roped in for implementing this scheme.

n a major step towards improving the quality and safety of ambulances on Indian roads, National

Ambulance Code AIS:125 (Automotive Industry Standard) recommended by Central Motor

Vehicles Rules-Technical Standing Committee (CMVR-TSC) has been approved by the Ministry ofRoad Transport & Highways on 7 June. This Code puts in place minimum standards and guidelines

regarding the constructional and functionalrequirements of road ambulances in India.

Drafted in line with the global best practices inthe field of ambulance design, the code has been

suitably adapted to factor in the special

requirements of the Indian sub-continent,including traffic conditions, need for economyand industry maturity.

The National Ambulance Code classifies roadambulances into four types (A, B, C & D) that is

First Responder, Patient Transport, Basic LifeSupport and Advanced Life Support, respectively. The category of First Responder, which also

includes two wheeled ambulances, has been specially introduced for the first time in India to cater tothe need for providing prompt medical care in congested by-lanes and high traffic areas.

Special care has been given to Care Ergonomics, Patient Safety, Oxygen System Design, InfectionControl, Crash Rescue, etc. in the Code. Once implemented, this Code will ensure uniformity andstandardization in ambulance design and a minimum level of patient care as per the ambulance

designation when appropriately staffed and equipped. So far no guidelines were available forhospitals and other procuring agencies for floating tenders and for industry outlining required

specifications. The Government would now consider bringing the Ambulance Code within themandatory framework of Central Motor Vehicles Rules.

June is World Environment Day. 5th June was declared as the World Environment Day on

the recommendations made by UN Conference on Human Environment in 1972. The UnitedNations Environment Programme (UNEP) through the celebration of World Environment Dayspreads awareness and gets citizens support for environment protection across the globe. The theme

for this years World Environment Day (WED) is -Think. Eat. Save- Reduce our Foodprint. Thecampaign calls for minimizing waste of food at all stages of the food chain, from farm to fork. This

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is to raise awareness about the environmental consequences of our food choices and find ways toreduce our environmental foodprint, as food production has profound impact on environmental

resources.

Agriculture is responsible for 70% of fresh water consumption, 80% of deforestation, and 30% ofgreenhouse gas emissions. It is the cause of land-use change, biodiversity loss, and responsible for

large-scale soil, water and air pollution. The campaign is also to remindeach one of us that despite producing enough food for

everyone, 90 crore people still go hungry world over. Onthis day we take a pledge to make a difference,

individually as well as collectively, to reduce foodloss or wastage and move towards a world where

everyone has enough to eat and no one ismalnourished or undernourished.

Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister for Environment &Forests presided over the function to celebrate WorldEnvironment Day organized by the Ministry of Environment &

Forests in New Delhi on 5 June. As the part of the celebrations, Fivepublications namely, Animal Discoveries- 2012, Plant Discoveries 2012, Coastal Zones of India,

National Wetland Atlas: High Altitude Lakes of India and National Wetland Atlas and Wetlands ofInternational Importance under Ramsar Convention were released by the dignitaries for spreading

awareness and sensitizing the citizens. On the occasion, Smt. Natarajan, presented this yearsYoung Environmentalist of the Year Award - 2013to Ms. Arundhati Srivastava, from New Delhi.

he President of India, Pranab Mukherjee laid the foundation stone of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hindi

University on June 6, 2013 at Bhopal. Speaking on the occasion, the President said that

language has an important role between theGovernment and people. Success of social

welfare and development programme dependson language. Therefore, we should encourage

Hindi and other regional languages. Hindi hasalways played an important role in the national

integration. It is symbol of Indias social andcultural unity. The President said that decade of

2010-20 has been declared as the decade ofinnovation. He said that recently, he had opened

Innovation Clubs in two Central Universities inUttar Pradesh and Assam and attended

innovation exhibitions organized in these universities. He called upon the University to take the

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initiative to build a strong innovation culture. A newsletter Atal Samvad was released on theoccasion and its first copy was presented to the President.

ndia got its 8th Telecom Centre of Excellence in New Delhi on 5 June, with RailTel Corrporation

signing an MoU with IIT Roorkee for establishing RailTel IIT Roorkee Centre of Excellence inTelecom (RICET). The MoU was signed in the presence of Kapil Sibal, Minister of

Communications & Information Technology and Law & Justice. RailTel shall fund the TCOEthrough 100% budgetary support over 5 year period for doing Research & Development in the field

of ICT & Broadband Applications.

RailTel Corporation, which is a Mini Ratna (Category I) PSU of the Ministry of Railways, is one of

the largest telecom infrastructure providers in the country having country wide optic fiber networkalong Railway right of way. Already 7 TCOEs are working in the country established by all major

Telecom operators in partnership with premier institutions like IITs & IIMs. Over 28 innovationsand products have been developed in various fields of telecommunication by existing TCOEs which

are available for commercial roll out. With the establishment of the 8th TCOE, north India also gotits first TCOE in the region. RICET will work upon R&D in the field of development of

applications, services and technology in the domain of broadband & ICT for providing affordableservices to the citizens with high network availability.

he Indian Railways is all set for a long-term engagement with Japan with the Dedicated Freight

Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) granting a Rs.6,700-crore contract for

construction of 640-km twin-track line betweenRewari and Palanpur of Western Dedicated FreightCorridor to an Indo-Japanese consortium. L&T-Sojitz, a joint venture comprising L&T of India and

Sojitz Corporation of Japan, has won the contractthrough an international bidding process. The

contract is likely to be completed in four years, apress release said on 8 june.

The project is funded by the Japan International

Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Japanese

government arm for providing technical andfinancial aid to developing countries, which is alsoDMRCs lending agency. Earlier in January, DFCCIL had awarded the Rs.3,300-crore contract for

343-km-long Khurja-Kanpur section of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, funded by the WorldBank. The length covered under the new contract is more than 40 per cent of the entire western

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corridor. Land for almost the entire stretch has already been acquired. The Western DedicatedFreight Corridor, which will cover a length of about 1,500 km from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port

(Mumbai), is being funded by the JICA, which has pledged a special terms for economic partnershiploan of 677 billion yen for the entire Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. As per the loan

conditionalities, the lead partner for any contract has to be from Japan.

ifteen MLAs of the Congress and the Telugu Desam were disqualified on 8 June, from the

Andhra Pradesh Assembly for openly defying the whips issued by their respective parties during

voting on the no confidence motion in March this year. Announcing his verdict in Hyderabad,Speaker Nadendla Manohar said these MLAs nine of Congress and six TDP -- stood disqualified

from the 13th Legislative Assembly for violating their party whips.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti had moved a motion of no confidence against the Kiran Reddy

government and was supported by Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddys YSR Congress on March 15. TheCongress had asked its members to vote against the no-trust motion while the TDP instructed its

MLAs to remain neutral. But 18 MLA of both these parties stepped out of line, following whichdisqualification petitions were moved against them.

In his judgment, the Speaker said he was of the opinion that respondents had exercised their vote on

the no confidence motion on the floor contrary to the whip issued, attracting provisions of the XSchedule to the Constitution read with the AP Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on the ground

of Defection) Rules 1986.

ndira Gandhi Institute of Technology has been upgraded to a state university and will now be

known as Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University. Inaugurated on 14 June, it is the firsttechnical institute for woman in the country. Formerly under Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha

University, it shares its Kashmere Gate campus with Ambedkar University, and like it, will be a non-affiliating university."I hope this will outshine all the technical institutes in Delhi," said chief

minister Shiela Dikshit who inaugurated it. The upgrade takes the number of state universities inDelhi to five. Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology was established in 1998 as the first engineering

college for women in Delhi. The university is launching M Tech programmes in five courses for the2013 round of admissions. This includes information security management, VLSI design, mobile

and pervasive computing, robotics and automation and electronics and communication - the last

being a weekend programme.

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ccording to latest UN Report, the current world population of 7.2 billion will increase by 1million over the next 12 years and reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Report points out that growth will

be mainly in developing countries, with more than half in Africa. The report, World PopulationProspects: the 2012 Revision, notes that the population of developed regions will remain largely

unchanged at around 1.3 billion from now until 2050.The report notes that India is expected tobecome the worlds largest country, passing China around 2028, when both countries will have

populations of 1.45 billion. After that,Indiaspopulation will continue to grow and Chinas is

expected to start decreasing. Meanwhile,Nigerias population is expected to surpass that

of the United States before 2050.The 49 leastdeveloped countries are projected to double in

size in 2050.According to report while there hasbeen a rapid fall in the average number of

children per woman in large developing countries

such as China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Braziland South Africa, rapid growth is expected tocontinue over the next few decades in countries

with high levels of fertility such as Nigeria, Niger,the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and

Uganda etc. Europes population is projectedto decline by 14 per cent, the report states. It warned

that the continent is already facing challenges inproviding care and support for a rapidly aging population. Overall, life expectancy is projected to

increase in developed and developing countries in future years. At the global level, it is projected toreach 76 years in the period 2045-2050 and 82 years in 2095-2100. By the end of the century, people

in developed countries could live on average around 89 years, compared to about 81 years indeveloping regions.

he Geographical Indication (GI) certificate for unique Toda embroidery of hilly Nilgiris Districtin Tamilnadu has been handed over to a representative of the tribal community. The GI

accorded in March would insulate the embroidery from being duplicated besides ensuring uniformpricing for the products. Nearly 400 Toda tribals are actively involved in the embroidery

business and produce a wide range of products like shawl, table mat, wall hangings, bags andshopping bags and the certificate allowed the products to display the specific geographical location

or origin. GI is a name on goods to indicate their specific geographical location or origin.Geographical Indications of Goods are defined as that aspect of industrial property which refer to the

geographical indication referring to a country or to a place situated therein as being the country orplace of origin of that product.

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being set for the excise department have increased. If targets have to be met, more people have tospend more on liquor," social scientist C Ramchandraiah said. The excise department revenue in the

last financial year had crossed the Rs 10,000 crore mark, earning the state more than 10% of its totalrevenue. The excise revenue has grown more than ten-fold in the last decade.

espite a sharp slowdown in the economy which led to an increase in unemployment, India's

consumption story remained intact, the latest data on households' consumer expenditure in2011-12 conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) revealed on 23 June. In

fact, the average rural monthly per capital expenditure went up by 35.7% in the two year periodbetween 2009-10 and 2011-12. Of the total expenditure, rural households spent less than half on

food items, suggesting rise in wages. The average monthly per capita expenditure during 2011-12stood at around 1,430 for rural India, a 35.7% increase compared to the 2009-10 survey and 2,630

for urban India, a 32% jump. The average urban monthly per capita expenditure was 84% higher

than rural areas. The share of expenditure on food declined substantially from 53.6% to 48.6% inrural areas and from 40.7% to 38.5% in the urban areas. The faster rise in share of non-foodexpenditure in rural areas suggest a rise in wages. The rural wages went up from 231.59 a day in

2009-10 to 299 a day in 2011-12, a 29% increase. This could again be explained by the rural urbanmigration, as semi-skilled or unskilled workers in the urban areas would send home higher wages

back home, an analyst said."As MGNREGA has led to increase in wages, people in rural areas arespending more on non food items", said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, CARE Ratings. Urban

wages went up to 450 a day from 354.95, according to the 68th round of the NSSO survey. Themonthly per capita expenditure on food totaled 756 against 1,121 in the urban areas. Within food,

the share of protein based items went up in the consumption basket. The share of milk and milkproducts went up from 8.6% in 2009-10 to 9.1%. Among non-food items, the share of durable goods

in the consumption basket of rural areas went up from 4.8% to 6.1%.

he Union Cabinet on 20 June, decided to restructure the existing centrally Sponsored Scheme

(CSS)/ Additional Central Assistance (ACA) schemes in the Twelfth Five Year Plan into 66schemes, including Flagship programmes. This includes 17 Flagship programmes with significant

outlays for major interventions required in health, education, irrigation, urban development,infrastructure, including rural infrastructure, skill development, etc. To suit the requirements of the

States, the Cabinet has also approved that a scheme may have state specific guidelines which may berecommended by an Inter-Ministerial Committee constituted for this purpose. Besides, the financial

assistance to the States in these schemes would be provided through the Consolidated Funds of thestates. Further, to bring in desired flexibility, the Cabinet has approved that 10% of the outlay of the

Schemes be kept as flexi-funds. For each new CSS/ACA/Flagship scheme, at least 25 per cent offunds may be contributed by the General Category States and 10 percent of funds by the Special

Category States including J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Earlier, the National

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Development Council (NDC), while approving the 12th plan in its meeting in December 2012 hadalso recommended building flexibility in the schemes to suit the requirements of the State

Governments.

ndia has witnessed a work force (activity status determined on the basis of reference period of one

year) growth of 13.9 million in just two years, between 2010 and 2012.As per the NSS 66 th round

survey, as on January 2010, the workforce at the all-India level, was about 459 million (rural men -231.9, rural women - 104.5; urban men - 99.8 million and urban women - 22.8 million) . As on

January 2012 (present survey), it has increased to 472.9 millions (rural men - 234.6, rural women -101.8 million; urban men -- 109.2 million and urban women - 27.3 million). The current workforce

at the all-India level is 47.2 crore. More than half the population (52%) is self-employed, while 18%work as regular wage/salaried employees and 30% as casual laborers. More people are self-

employed (56%) and work as casual laborers (35%) in rural India. In Urban India, it is the

waged/salaried (43%) who constitute a majority. They are followed by the self-employed (42%) andcasual laborers (15%). Nearly half the population (49%) is engaged in agriculture, while 24% areworking in secondary sector and 27% in tertiary sector.

In India, women are more self-employed than men.The share of self-employment in total workforceis 55 % for rural men, 59 % for rural women, while it is 42 % for urban men and 43 % for urban

women. Men work more as casual labourers. when it comes to agriculture, it is again the womenwho dominate. In the rural areas, 59% men work in agriculture, but the figures are 75% for women.

The involvement of women in the agriculture sector is more even in the urban areas. It is 11% asagainst the 6% for men. When it comes wages, obviously, the urbanites are paid more than their

rural counterparts. Men are paid more than women. At the national level, average wages earned by

regular wage/salaried employees is Rs 396 per day (Rs 299 in rural areas and Rs 450 in urbanareas). In the rural areas, wages earned per day by a regular wage/salaried employee is Rs 322(men) and Rs 202 (women). In the urban areas, this is Rs 470 for men and Rs 366 for women.

nemployment rate in India has increased. It is 2% in rural areas and 3% in urban India. Theunemployment rate per 1,000 population is at 27, while it was 25 two years ago. As on January

1, 2010, the number of unemployed was 9.8 million. By January 1, 2012, it has increased to 10.8million.--In rural areas, the unemployment rate for both male and female is almost at the same level,

2%. But, in, urban areas, women are more unemployed than men. The rate is 5% for women and 2%

for men. These are some findings of the 68th Round Survey by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), ministry of statistics and programme implementation, which was released on23 June.

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he Ministry of Women and Child Development has constituted a Committee to finalizemodalities for media campaign against

indecent portray of women in mass media. TheCommittee will be headed by Additional Secretary,

M/o WCD, Smt. K. Ratna Prabha. The terms ofreference of the Committee are as follows:-

1)Finalize modalities of a media campaign, throughprint and electronic media, to instill a sense of

respect for women in all spheres of life. 2) Suggestinnovative campaign/ strategy to project women in a

more positive, proactive and empowered manner,which can have maximum impact on the society and

bring about an attitudinal/ behavioral change ofpeople towards women. 3)Draw up national

campaign to sensitize families regarding the values of girls, through depicting women achievers,

abhor civil practices like female foeticide, dowry, child marriages, etc. 4)Identify areas ofcorporation between M/o WCD and M/O I&B on all such issues that demand sustained publicinterest campaigns in print, electronic as well as social media.

NESCO has recognized an ancient Jain manuscript

Shantinatha Charitra as one of the rarest documents in theworld and has registered it in its Register as Heritage

Documentary. Shantinatha Charitra is a text in Sanskrit written inDevanagari script. It describes the life and times of Shantinatha, the

16th Jain Tirthankara. This work was composed and written in thelate fourteenth century 1396 C.E. (1453 Vikram Samvat). Thisunique manuscript contains as many as 10 images of scenes from the

life of Shantinatha in the style of Jain paintings from Gujarat.UNESCOs Memory of the World Programme is an international

initiative launched to safeguard the documentary heritage ofhumanity against collective amnesia, neglect, the ravages of time and

climatic conditions, and willful and deliberate destruction.

he Union Cabinet on 28 June, gave its approval to the proposal of signing of a headquartersagreement between the Ministry of External Affairs and Nalanda University. This agreement

would confer on the University and members of its academic staff privileges and immunitiesconsidered necessary to provide an overall framework for the efficient functioning and operation of

the University, and allow it to obtain talent from across the globe. The Agreement will come into

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force immediately upon signing and notification. The signing of the headquarters agreement willfacilitate hiring of the best academicians from across the world, well before the commencement of

the first academic session. Recruitment of the Universitys faculty cannot take place without fixingtheir terms and conditions, for which the conclusion of the headquarters agreement is essential. The

University will serve as an international centre of excellence in higher learning. It would integratemodern, scientific and technological knowledge and skills with basic human values and promote

universal friendship, peace and prosperity through the spiritual awakening of the individual andsociety. At the 4th East Asia Summit (EAS) held in Thailand in October, 2009, member States

issued a Joint Press Statement which supported the establishment of Nalanda University as a non-State, non-profit, secular and self-governing international institution with a continental focus, that

would bring together the brightest and most dedicated students from all countries of Asia.

overnment has set up an investment target of Rs. 1.15 lakh crore for Public Private Partnership

(PPP) projects in infrastructure sector in the next six months. The proposals include Mumbaielevated rail corridor of Rs. 30,000 crore and two international airports in Bhubneswar andImphaland power and Transmission projects.

A steering group is also being set up to monitor the award and implementation of infrastructureprojects. The decisions were taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh

with key infrastructure Ministers in New Delhi on 29 June. The meeting was convened to finalizethe infrastructure targets for the current financial year.

According to an official release, Government has also decided to put in place new policies for

ramping up coal production in the country. The Prime Minister also set the target to build eight

Greenfield Airports in PPP mode this year. An Inter-Ministerial Group will be formed to work out acreative financing-cum-implementation mechanism in two months for clearing the large backlog ofsanctioned projects of over two lakh crores rupees in a time-bound manner.

The flagship projects of railways, including the two Loco Manufacturing Projects, Elevated RailCorridor, the Dedicated Freight Corridor and station redevelopment will be closely monitored for

awarding the contract in the next six months. The Power Ministry has been asked to work withPlanning Commission and Finance Ministry to resolve remaining issues in the power sector and

improve generation and transmission capacity. The award of road projects should get expedited withfocused attention on Expressways. The two new PPP ports at Sagar in West Bengal and

Durgarajapatnam in Andhra Pradesh approved by Cabinet will be awarded.

he Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh dedicated the newly constructed railway line between

Banihal (Jammu region)-Qazigund (Kashmir valley) section to the nation by flagging off the

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first DEMU train from Banihal through the Pir Panjal tunnel- the longest transportation tunnel ofIndia, from Banihal Railway station in Jammu & Kashmir on 26 June.

Ircon International Ltd., a PSU under the Ministry of Railways, has been the principal executing

agency for Northern Railway to execute the work of Dharam-Qazigund Section of USBRL Projectwhich includes Banihal-Qazigund section and Pir Panjal Tunnel.The Kashmir Valley railway

(Qazigund-Baramulla section) is a 119 km long modern railway line that became completelyoperational in October 2009.

So far it is an island railway, not yet connected to the Indian Railway network. It connects Baramula

in the western part of Kashmir to Qazigund at the other end of the Valley, via Srinagar. With thischallenging project which is dedicated to the nation, the extension of this railway line beyond the Pir

Panjal Mountains in to the Jammu region has been achieved with trains running on the new railwaysection of Qazigund-Banihal. The 17.7 km long rail link paves way for the future railway

connectivity of Kashmir region with the national railway network.This section mostly consists of a

11.2 km long, Tunnel T-80 which pierces through the Pir Panjal range, providing a direct railconnection between the Kashmir Valley and Jammu region.

n recognition of the contributions by Late Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in the fields of

economic planning and statistical development, the Government of India has designated 29th Juneevery year, coinciding with his birth anniversary, as the Statistics Day in the category of Special

Day to be celebrated at the national level. The objective of this Day is to create public awareness,specially the younger generation for drawing inspirations from Late Prof. Mahalanobis about the role

of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy formulation. The Ministry of Statistics and

Programme Implementation has been celebrating the Statistics Day every year since 2007. Thetheme for the Statistics Day 2013 is Labour and Employment Statistics.

he Union government on 26 June 2013 has banned three major medicinesthe widely

prescribed anti-diabetes drug pioglitazone, painkiller analgin and anti-depressant deanxit. Thedecision to ban the drug was taken in wake of health risks associated with them. It was taken after

strong stand by the government on suspending marketing of all drugs prohibited for sale in othercountries like the US, the UK, EU and Australia. Pioglitazone is widely believed to cause heart

failure and increases the risk of bladder cancer, analgin has been discarded the world over on

grounds of patient safety.

Deanxit is made up of harmful combination, which has been long banned even in Denmark, its

country of origin. Analgin is known to cause a steep decrease in the count of white blood cells,which can lead to a potentially fatal state. The drug was thus taken off the shelves in many countries

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including Sweden, Japan, France, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Earlier in year 2010-11 DrugController General had banned various drugs which include painkiller Nimesulide, anti-diabetes

medicine Rosiglitazone and antibiotic Gaifloxacin.

he Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 28 June, approved the proposal of the

Department of Health Research under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the settingup of 10 regional labs, 30 State level labs and 120 medical college level labs under the scheme for

establishing a network of laboratories for managing epidemics and natural calamities. The scheme isestimated to cost Rs. 646.83 crore during the 12th Five Year Plan. The expenditure on the

establishment of the labs at the State level and at medical colleges would be shared between theCentral Government and State Governments in the ratio of 75:25 (90:10 in North-Eastern, Hill

States, including Sikkim and Jammu and Kashmir). Expenditure on the regional labs would be fullyborne by the Central Government.

his major initiative taken by the Government for establishment of a 3-tier network oflaboratories across the country will greatly help in building capacity for handling viral diseasesin terms of early and timely diagnosis, development of tools to predict viral disease outbreaks

beforehand, continuous monitoring and surveillance of existing as well as new viral strains andhandling viruses with a potential to be used as agents of bio-terrorism.

The initiative shall also help in smooth data flow from across sites of epidemics, creation of efficientknowledge management network for policy interventions such as quick deployment of resources and

measures like introduction of preventive strategies, new vaccines, etc. Currently only national apexinstitutes like NCDC, New Delhi and NIV, Pune are mandated to undertake investigations. This

leads to creating a heavy burden and affect their real referral role. The resultant delay in

diagnosis/detection and inadequate/incomplete data during outbreaks significantly impacts onresponse time for interventions. All the laboratories will work under the overall guidance of apexinstitutions like NIV and NCDC through appropriate linkages and networking. The States/UTs

which do not currently have any government medical colleges will be linked with the nearby State'slaboratories.

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nion health ministrys ambitious schemes of providing free generic drugs at government health

care centres have been launched on 17th June, after being put on hold last year due to financial

constraints. The initiatives, called 'Free Drug Service' and 'Free Diagnostics Service' under theNational Health Mission, are aimed at sprucing up health care facilities in the country. The Health

Ministry has written to the states to take advantage of this scheme under which they can access fundsfrom the central government by following certain guidelines laid down by it. The guidelines include

appropriate systems for procurement, logistics, and quality assurance, among others.

The scheme was one of the government's keystone projects of the 12th Five Year Plan. Almost 33%

people suffer from poverty due to their medical expenditures," an official said. The directions for

accessing the funds make it mandatory for a state to have a clearly notified policy of providing freeessential drugs and diagnostics to all patients coming to public sector facilities at least up to district

hospital level. The state should have a robust procurement, logistics and supply chain system that is

backed by Information technology.

The state should have adopted Standard Treatment Guidelines and provide for prescription audits toensure rational use of drugs and it should name the initiative as 'National Health Mission-Free Drug

Service' or 'National Health Mission-Free Diagnostic Service' or its translation in Hindi or regionallanguage. The free generic drugs scheme was proposed after a 2011 report of the High Level Expert

Group which stated that 76% of the out-of-pocket expenditure on health is on drugs.

he Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Kumari Selja inaugurated the 12th

National Meeting of the State Commissioners for Persons with Disabilities to reviewimplementation of PwD Act here today. The Ministerin her address said that a meeting of this kindprovides an important forum for exchanging views

and experiences. The meeting will also helppromoting a culture of shared learning and

understanding of critical issues aroundimplementation of the PwD Act, 1995.

The Minister expressed satisfaction that the

disability rights discourse is now getting

institutionalized in the larger legal and policyframework of India. The ratification of theUNCRPD and the setting up of a dedicated

Department of Disability Affairs in the Ministry ofSocial Justice & Empowerment, are glaring illustrations of Governments commitment towards

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persons with disabilities. The Government is also working at replacing the old PwD Act of 1995 forproviding more respect to individual dignity and protecting fundamental freedoms of PwDs. The

proposed Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill contains elaborate and comprehensive provisionswhich are in harmony with the UNCRPD.The Bill will be a distinct improvement on the existing

PwD Act, 1995.

ravelers from across the globe have ranked India's TajMahal among the top three landmarks inthe world, a leading travel website has announced. According to TripAdvisor's 2013 Travellers

Choice Attractions Awards, Taj Mahal was ranked third in the list of Top 25 landmarks. The top twoplaces were taken by Machu Picchu in Peru and Angkor Wat in Cambodia respectively. "The

winners of Travelers' Choice Attractions awards were determined based on the quality and quantityof traveler reviews of attractions," said a company statement. Taj Mahal, listed among the new

Seven Wonders of the World, is renowned the world over for its architecture and aesthetic beauty.

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