13/10/2011

US eyes more sanctions on Iran central bank

• A senior Treasury Department official said Thursday the United States is considering further sanctions against Iran's central bank in response to an alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador on US soil.
• In prepared testimony, sanctions czar David Cohen said that additional measures against the Central Bank of Iran were on the table and that the country is now facing unprecedented levels of trade isolation.

Law Minister's statement was "spontaneous", Government to Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court was  told by the Government that Law Minister Salman Khurshid's controversial statement that locking up businessmen will hamper investments was "spontaneous" and not to influence anyone.
• The apex court had also made known its disapproval of reports that CBI would not oppose the bail pleas of the 2G spectrum scam accused including DMK MP Kanimozhi which prompted the investigating agency to refute such speculation.

Delhi, Ambala police foil major terror plot

• The Delhi and Ambala police  averted a major terror plot after finding a car full of explosives at the Ambala cantonment.
• Investigations show that the plot could have been a possible tie up between the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Babbar Khalsa International to strike in Delhi.

Burmese President Visits India as Ties Between Neighbors Deepen

• The Burmese president is in India for a bilateral visit aimed at deepening a relationship that has been growing steadily in recent years.
• New Delhi wants to nurture ties with its neighbor, whose new, nominally civilian leadership has made tentative moves toward political reforms.
• Burmese President Thein Sein visited Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India before arriving in New Delhi to hold talks with senior Indian leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Quake shakes Indonesia's Bali, tourists run from hotels

Indonesia's resort island of Bali was struck by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake on Thursday, injuring dozens and sending tourists running out of hotels.
The Red Cross said 44 people in the south of the island suffered injuries, some with head injuries and broken bones from falling ceilings, with one person in a critical condition. It said one school and house collapsed .

PSLV-C18 puts four satellites in orbit

 

Black Death Is 'Grandmother' of All Modern Plagues

• The bacterium blamed for the Black Death that wiped out more than a third of Europe's population within about five years of the 14th century looks an awful lot like the modern versions of the plague-causing bug, new genetic research indicates.
• By taking the now-powdery black pulp out of the teeth of plague victims buried in London's East Smithfield Cemetery — a cemetery established solely to handle the onslaught of the Black Death once it arrived in the city in 1348 — researchers have managed to reconstruct the entire genetic blueprint, or genome, of the bacterium blamed for the devastation.

• Since science already has the same information for modern strains of plague bacteria, this gave the researchers the chance to explore perplexing questions about plague.
  
• When they compared the different genomes — from the Black Death, modern plague, and that of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis from which all plague evolved long ago — they found no unique mutations in the medieval genome. All the differences matched up either to those of modern strains or to the soil bacterium that is the ancestor of all plague bacteria.

12/10/2011

AFSPA may go in parts of Jammu and Kashmir

The controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which gives unlimited powers to security forces to search, seize and arrest without any warrant in disturbed areas, may soon be withdrawn from some parts of Jammu & Kashmir. 

Telecom policy draft allows free roaming, unrestricted Net telephony

• The Communications and IT Minister, Mr Kapil Sibal,  announced a slew of initiatives for the telecom sector, including free roaming, unrestricted Net telephony and a new licensing regime for operators under a draft New Telecom Policy 2011.
• The policy gives specific emphasis to push broadband uptake and increase local manufacturing of telecom equipment.
• The biggest gain would be for those who travel a lot, as roaming charges are set to be abolished. This means that subscriber will get free incoming calls and outgoing calls at local tariffs anywhere in the country.
• Introduction of inter-circle Mobile Number Portability will enable users to carry their phone number from one State to another. For example, an Airtel user in Delhi can shift to Vodafone's network in Chennai and retain the phone number. Currently, MNP is allowed only if the user wants to change operator in the same circle.
• The other major gain for consumers will be on the proposal to allow unrestricted Internet Telephony. This will allow subscribers to use the Internet to make local and STD calls to a fixed or mobile user. Under the existing rules, consumers are allowed to make only PC-PC calls on the Internet.
• For the operators, the NTP brings some relief in terms of permitting them to share and trade spectrum. This will not only open up new revenue streams but also enable operators to utilise spectrum efficiently.
• The policy also envisages giving infrastructure status to the sector which could result in tax breaks for the operators. Mr Sibal said that he will convince the Finance Ministry to rationalise taxes and levies.
• “The proposals are progressive, which will provide much needed capacity augmentation to this vital sector. This will help in further expansion of networks thus realising the Government's vision of providing connectivity and affordable telecom services to all,” Bharti Airtel said.
• But operators face loss of revenue due to abolition of roaming charges in the short term. “The downside due to the removal of roaming charges will be short term as I expect usage to increase,” said Mr Romal Shetty, National Head - Telecom, KPMG.
• For new players, the policy talks about an exit route which, on the one hand, will help beleaguered operators to surrender licences and, on the other, free up spectrum for those who remain.
• “For us, the Government's intention to bring out an exit policy that allows non-serious operators to vacate spectrum, provision for spectrum sharing, and according infrastructure status to telecom are the highlights,” said Mr Rajiv Bawa, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Uninor.
• Operators can also hope to get airwaves more freely as the policy envisages about 300 Mhz of 3G spectrum by 2017. Mr Sibal also said that future spectrum allocations will be based on market linked pricing mechanism.
•  
• The new policy comes at a time when the telecom sector is reeling under the multiple impact of the 2G spectrum scam, falling revenues for the operators and the resulting tariff hike.
• The policy is being seen as an attempt by Mr Sibal to give a broad direction for the sector in a bid to bring it back on track. But the proposals miss out on key aspects, including 2G spectrum pricing and detailed mergers and acquisition guidelines.
• “There is a lot of uncertainty in the sector and this policy gives some sense of the broad direction which the Government wants to take.
• “But how and when the policy will be implemented is important,” said Mr Prashant Singhal, Telecom Industry Leader, Ernst & Young.

Centre gets Supreme Court notice on drug prices

• The Supreme Court  wanted to know how serious the Centre was in bringing essential medicines, used by poor patients to fight ailments like tuberculosis, diarrhoea, heart diseases and malaria, under ambit of price control. 

• The National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) has 348 drugs, of which the prices of only 37 medicines are controlled by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority.

• that poor patients were not getting the essential medicines because of spiralling prices.

• The bench noted that a 2010 parliamentary standing committee report as well as a 2005 standing committee report of the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers had admitted that essential medicines were not available to the poor at reasonable prices. 

• In the last two decades, the number of essential medicines under price control dropped from 347 to 76.

New PCI chief asks Centre to defer action on channels' license

• Press Council of India Chairman Justice(retd) Markandeya Katju  asked the union government to defer it move to amend the rules relating to renewal of license for TV news channels for violating the broadcasting code. 
• "No doubt, if the media proves incorrigible, harsh measures may be required but in my opinion that should be resorted to only as a last resort and in extreme situations. Ordinarily, we should first try to resolve the issues by discussion, consultation and self-regulation.
• Katju said that in compliance with the directions of the Chief Information Commissioner, the 71-page report of the Press Council Committee of Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Sreenivas Reddy had been uploaded on the website of the PCI, with a disclaimer that the regulatory body had rejected the report. 
• The PCI chairperson cautioned the media against plant of mischievous news by vested interests to whip up communal passion in the country. 
• He faulted media reports citing e-mail claims of the Indian Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed or Harkatul-jihad-e-Islam for recent Delhi High Court blast.

I acted like a robot and was brainwashed: Kasab to SC

Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab facing death penalty for the 2008 Mumbai terror attack claimed in the Supreme Court he was brainwashed like a "robot" into committing the heinous crime in the name of "God" and that he does not deserve capital punishment owing to his young age.
Though at the outset claiming innocence, Kasab posed a rider that even assuming he was guilty, death penalty cannot be awarded to him as he was brainwashed into committing the crime and was not beyond reform owing to his young age.
In his special leave petition challenging the death penalty, Kasab through counsel Gaurav Agrawal claimed that he was innocent and his so-called confessional statement had no evidentiary value as there was no corroboration.
The 24-year-old lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai carnage that left 166 persons dead submitted that he had retracted the disclosure statements, but the same was relied upon by the trial court and the high court for handing down the death penalty.

Nippon may buy 26% in R-Cap MF arm

Reliance Capital​ Asset Management Ltd, the mutual fund arm of the Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Group, may sell a 26% stake to Japan’s Nippon Life Insurance Co. Two Reliance Group officials said that the companies are in advanced talks and the transaction may be clinched at a valuation of up to Rs4,000 crore, which would be a record for a mutual fund stake sale.

Libyan forces on verge of claiming Sirte

Libya's new regime forces are on the verge of claiming full control of Muammar Gaddafi's hometown Sirte after seizing its showpiece conference centre and university from his diehards.
In their advance, fighters of the National Transitional Council (NTC) also seized control of the Mediterranean town's hospital and university campus.

The fortress-like Ouagadougou conference centre, constructed to host pan-African summits, has been a major objective of the NTC forces since they launched a September 15 offensive on the city.

Hazare above Parliament, says Kejriwal

Riding the wave of popularity generated by its movement for a strong anti-corruption Lokpal Bill, Team Anna on Sunday said its leader, Anna Hazare, was above Parliament.

“Of course, he (Hazare) is putting himself above (Parliament). Every citizen is above Parliament…. The citizen has every right to say Parliament has not done the job,” Team Anna’s Arvind Kejriwal said in a TV interview, justifying Hazare’s fast to get the bill passed by Parliament.