Bharat Ratna recipients
Bharat Ratna Award Information Type Civilian Category General Instituted 1954 Last Awarded 2001
Total Awarded 40 Awarded by Government of India
Description: An image of the Sun along with the words "Bharat Ratna", inscribed in Devanagari script,
on a peepul leaf.
First Awardee(s) Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Last Awardee(s) Ustad Bismillah Khan, Lata Mangeshkar
Bharat Ratna recipients
1. Aruna Asaf Ali - (16 July 1909 - 29 July 1996) (born Aruna Ganguli), was an Indian independence fighter. She is widely remembered for hoisting the Congress flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan in Bombay during the Quit India Movement, 1942.
2. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (April 14, 1891 — December 6, 1956) was an Indian jurist, Bahujan political leader and a Buddhist revivalist, who is the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, also known as Babasaheb. Born into a poor Untouchable community, Ambedkar spent his life fighting against the system of Chaturvarna, the Hindu categorization of human society into four varnas and the Indian caste system. He is also credited for having sparked the Dalit Buddhist movement. Ambedkar has been honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, given for the highest degree of national service.
3. Abul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed (11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was a Muslim scholar and a senior political leader of the Indian independence movement. He was one of the most prominent Muslim leaders to support Hindu-Muslim unity, opposing the partition of India on communal lines. Following India's independence, he became the first Minister of Education in the Indian government. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name.He would become the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress in 1923.
4. Vinoba Bhave,born Vinayak Narahari Bhave (September 11, 1895 - November 15 1982) often called Acharya (In Sanskrit and Hindi means teacher), is considered as a National Teacher of India and the spiritual successor of Mahatma Gandhi.In 1958 Vinoba was the first recipient of the international Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1983.
5. Bidhan Chandra Roy (July 1, 1882 Bankipore in Patna, Bihar – July 1, 1962) [1] was the second Chief Minister of West Bengal, India. He remained in his post for 14 years as a Congress Party candidate, from January 14, 1948 until his death in 1962. He was a respected physician and a renowned freedom fighter.The nation honored Dr. Roy with the Bharat Ratna on February 4, 1961.
6. Gopinath Bordoloi (1890-1950) was the first Chief Minister of the Indian state of Assam, and also a leading Indian freedom-fighter. He was a follower of the Gandhian principle of non violence as a political tool.He was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1999.
7. Bhagwan Das (January 12, 1869 - September 18, 1958) was an Indian theosophist and public figure. For a time he served in the Central Legislative Assembly of undivided India. He became allied with the Hindustani Culture Society and was active in opposing rioting as a form of protest. As an advocate for national freedom from the British rule, he was often in danger of reprisals from the Colonial government and was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1955.
8.Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (February 29, 1896 – April 10, 1995) was an Indian independence activist and the Prime Minister of India from 1977-79. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who did not belong to the Indian National Congress. He is the only Indian to receive the highest civilian awards from both India and Pakistan, namely the Bharat Ratna and Nishaan-e-Pakistan.
9. Rajiv Gandhi , born in Bombay, (August 20, 1944 – May 21, 1991), the elder son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi, was the 7th Prime Minister of India (and the 3rd from the Nehru-Gandhi family) from his mother's death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on December 2, 1989 following a general election defeat. He was the youngest Prime Minister of India (at the age of 40).
10. Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (19 November 1917 - October 31, 1984) was the Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was India's first and to date only female prime minister.He received India's highest civilian decoration, the Bharat Ratna, in 1975.
11. Dr. Zakir Hussain (February 8, 1897 - May 3, 1969) , was the third President of India from May 13, 1967 until his death on May 3, 1969.He was awarded the highest Indian national honour, the Bharat Ratna in 1963. He is the first Indian President to die in office on the 3rd day of May, 1969.
12. Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane (pronounced Kaa-nay) (1880-1972) was a notable Indologist and Sanskrit scholar. He was born in a conservative Chitpavan Brahmin family in the Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra, India.The highest accolade bestowed upon him was the Bharat Ratna in 1963.
13. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam , born October 15, 1931, Tamil Nadu, India, usually referred as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam^ , was the eleventh President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007.Due to his unconventional working style, he is also popularly known as the People's President. Before his term as India's president, he distinguished himself as engineering visionary and was awarded India's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna in 1997 for his work with DRDO and his role as scientific advisor to the Indian government. He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work and is considered a progressive mentor, innovator and visionary in India.
The Government of India has honoured him with the nation's highest civilian honours: the Padma Bhushan in 1981; Padma Vibhushan in 1990; and the Bharat Ratna in 1997.
14. Kamaraj Kumarasami,(15 July 1903 – 2 October 1975) was an Indian politician widely considered to be the only kingmaker in Indian politics, and known for his honesty, integrity and simplicity.
He was involved in the Indian independence movement and was a close ally of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. He was instrumental in bringing to power two Prime Ministers, Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1964 and Indira Gandhi in 1966. He was affectionately known as the Gandhi of the South.
15. Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve (April 18, 1858 - November 9, 1962) was a preeminent social reformer of his time in India in the field of welfare of womankind.
* 1942 - Awarded Doctor of Letters (D. Litt.) by Banaras Hindu University
* 1951 - Awarded D.Litt. by Pune University
* 1954 - Awarded D.Litt. by S.N.D.T. University
* 1955 - Awarded Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India
* 1957 - Awarded LL.D. by University of Mumbai
* 1958 - Awarded Bharat Ratna by the Government of India
16. Ustad Bismillah Khan Sahib (March 21, 1916 – August 21, 2006) was a shehnai maestro from India. The term "Ustad" or "Pandit" in relation to Indian classical music implies Master or Guru.
He was the third classical musician to be awarded the Bharat Ratna (in 2001), the highest civilian honour in India.
17.Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan -(b. at Hashtnagar in Utmanzai, Peshawar, North-West Frontier Province, British India, c. 1890 – d. in Peshawar, NWFP, Pakistan, 20 January 1988) was a Pashtun Indian political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule in India. A lifelong pacifist, a devout Muslim, [1]and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, he was also known as Badshah Khan (also Bacha Khan, Urdu, Pashto: lit., "King of Kings"), and Sarhaddi Gandhi (Urdu: lit., "Frontier Gandhi"). In 1985 he was nominated for the Nobel peace prize. In 1987 he became the first non-citizen to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.
18. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela -(born 18 July 1918) is a former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in fully representative democratic elections. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress and its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. He spent 27 years in prison, much of it on Robben Island, on convictions for crimes that included sabotage committed while he spearheaded the struggle against apartheid.
19. Gulzārilāl Nandā (July 4, 1898 - January 15, 1998) was an Indian politician and an economist with specialization in labor problems. He was the interim Prime Minister of India twice for thirteen days each: the first time after the death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964, and the second time after the death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966. (His both terms had ended after the ruling Indian National Congress party procedurally elected a new prime minister.)
Nanda was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi's principles.
The Government of India honored Nanda with a Bharat Ratna award in 1997.
20. Lata Mangeshkar , born September 28, 1929) is a singer from India. She is one of the most well-known playback singers in the Indian Hindi movie industry. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six decades. She has done playback singing for over 980 Hindi (or "Bollywood") movies, and has sung songs in over twenty regional Indian languages, primarily Marathi. She is the elder sister of the equally accomplished singer, Asha Bhosle.Lata is the second vocalist to receive "Bharat Ratna", India's highest civilian honour.
Mangeshkar was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for "most recordings" in the world.
21. Jayaprakash Narayan ( October 11, 1902 - October 8, 1979), widely known as JP, was an Indian freedom fighter and political leader, remembered especially for leading the opposition to Indira Gandhi in the 1970s and for giving a call for peaceful Total Revolution.
22. Govind Ballabh Pant (September 10, 1887 - March 7, 1961) was a statesman of India, an Indian independence activist and one of the foremost political leaders from Uttarakhand (then in United Provinces) and of the movement to establish Hindi as the national language of India.
23. Vallabhbhai Patel (31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950) was a political and social leader of India who played a major role in the country's struggle for independence and guided its integration into a united, independent nation. In India and across the world, he was often addressed as Sardar , which means Chief in many languages of India.
24. Dr. Rajendra Prasad (December 3, 1884 – February 28, 1963) was the first President of India.
Rajendra Prasad was an independence activist and, as a leader of the Congress Party, played a prominent role in the Indian Independence Movement. He served as President of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the constitution of the Republic from 1948 to 1950. He had also served as a Cabinet Minister briefly in the first Government of Independent India.
25. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (November 14, 1889 – May 27, 1964) was a major political leader of the Congress Party, a pivotal figure in the Indian independence movement and the first Prime Minister of independent India. He was also a key figure in international politics in the post-war period (in which he was considered the leader of third world interests) and patriarch of the Nehru-Gandhi family, one of the most influential forces in Indian politics. He is popularly referred to as Panditji (Scholar) and Pandit Nehru.
26. Purushottam Das Tandon (August 1, 1882 – July 1, 1962), was a independence fighter from Uttar Pradesh in India, of Khatri descent. He is widely remembered for his efforts in achieving the Official Language of India status for Hindi. He was customarily given the title Rajarshi.
27. Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan , (September 5, 1888 – April 17, 1975), was an Indian philosopher and statesman.He was the first Vice President of India (1952-1962), and the second President of India (1962-1967). His birthday is celebrated in India as Teacher's Day.
28. Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari (December 10, 1878 - December 25, 1972), known as or Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian lawyer, writer, statesman and a devout Hindu . He was the second Governor-General of independent India. Later he became the Chief Minister of Madras State, and was one of the first recipients of India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (in 1954).
29. Amartya Kumar Sen (born 3 November 1933), is an Indian economist, philosopher, and a winner of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences (Nobel Prize for Economics) in 1998, "for his contributions to welfare economics" for his work on famine, human development theory, welfare economics, the underlying mechanisms of poverty, and political liberalism.
30. Maruthur Gopala Ramachandran Menon (January 17, 1917–December 24, 1987), popularly known as MGR , or Puratchi Thalaivar (Tamil: Revolutionary Leader), was a leading actor in Tamil films and Chief Minister of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death.Bharat Ratna was conferred by the Government of India posthumously.
31. Bharat Ratna Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist, who was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the molecular scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect, which is named after him.
32. Satyajit Ray (2 May 1921–23 April 1992) was a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema.The Government of India awarded him the highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna shortly before his death
33. Lal Bahadur Shastri (October 2, 1904 - January 11, 1966) was the third (second, and acting, being Gulzarilal Nanda) Prime Minister of independent India and a significant figure in the Indian independence movement.qutoes -
# "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" ("Hail the soldier, Hail the farmer")
# "If one person gives up one meal in a day, some other person gets his only meal of the day", spoken during the food crisis to encourage people to evenly distribute food.
34. Pandit Ravi Shankar , born April 7, 1920, in Benares, United Provinces, British India is a Bengali Indian sitar player and composer. He is a disciple of Baba Allauddin Khan, the founder of the Maihar gharana of Hindustani classical music.The Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, was awarded to him in 1999.
35. Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi , popularly known as M.S. or M.S.S.) (September 16, 1916 - December 11, 2004) was a renowned Carnatic vocalist. She was the first musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor
36. Chidambaram Subramaniam (commonly known as CS)(January 30, 1910 - November 7, 2000), was the man who ushered in an era of self-sufficiency in food production in India. He hails from an agricultural family in Pollachi near Coimbatore. He was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 1998.
37. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (July 29, 1904–November 29, 1993) was a pioneer aviator and important businessman of India. He was one of the few people who were awarded Bharat Ratna during their life time.
38. Mother Teresa ( (August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997) was a Albanian Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata (Calcutta), India in 1950. For over forty years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries.
By the 1970s she had become internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary, and book, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work.
39. Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya,15 September 1860 - 14 April 1962) was an eminent Indian engineer and statesman. He is a recipient of the Indian republic's highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He was also knighted by the British for his myriad contributions to the public good. Every year, 15th September is celebrated as the Engineer's Day in India in his memory and is a public holiday in some places, especially his birth state Karnataka.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Current Affairs 2009
Sheikh Hasina chosen for Indira Gandhi Peace Prize (19th Nov 2009) Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been chosen for the prestigious Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development this year for her "outstanding contribution to the promotion of democracy and pluralism". After her re-election in December last year, Hasina embarked on her "Vision 2021", aimed at transforming Bangladesh into a middle-income country by 2021, by eliminating poverty and inequity, the Trust said. The award, which carries a cash prize of Rs. 25 lakh and a citation, would be presented to her at a function to be held at a later date.
India retains 84th position among the world’s most corrupt nations (17th Nov 2009) Transparency International has released their annual corruption index, and has ranked China as 79th and India 84th out of 180 countries. The evaluation of the extent of corruption is based on opinion from country experts – resident and non-residents – and business leaders. The corruption index measures perceived levels of public sector corruption in a country. New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland are the top five least corrupt nations.
India second worst terror-hit country, says NGO (14th Nov 2009) India is the second worst terrorism-afflicted country - behind only war-ravaged Iraq - facing eight terror attacks in 2008 alone and losing over 3,500 lives in the last few years. Quoting a recent United States (US) report, city-based NGO "Bombay First", said India follows Iraq in the number of lives lost in terror attacks last year.
K.R. Narayanan Award for the Hindu Chief Editor N. Ram (13th Nov 2009) N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of Hindu has been chosen for this year’s K.R. Narayanan Award for his outstanding contribution to journalism in India. Instituted by the K.R. Narayanan Foundation in memory of the late President, the award is to honor individuals who have excelled in various fields. It carries a statuette, citation and a ‘ponnada.’
Madhu Koda discharged, summoned by ED (9th November 2009)
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda was discharged from a hospital and will be questioned by the Income Tax department in a money laundering case on Nov 10 while the Enforcement Directorate summoned him to appear before Nov 13 who is in the Rs 2,000 crore alleged Hawala and illegal investments case.
India, Sweden to sign MOU on environment (5th November 2009)
India and Sweden are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on environment as Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeld visits India on Thursday for the 10th India-EU summit.The MoU will cover climate change, clean technology, clean development mechanisms, environmental protection, environmental governance and air-water quality.
Brave Rukhsana appointed as special cop (2nd November 2009)
Rukhsana, the valiant and determined Jammu and Kashmir girl, who took on Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists who barged into her house in September, has been appointed special police officer (SPO), a temporary job which will fetch her Rs 3,000 a month. Rukhsana is currently in Delhi. Her brother, Aijaz, too has been appointed SPO
Radhakrishnan takes over as new ISRO chief (31st October 2009)
Radhakrishnan, one of the key persons behind India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission, on Saturday took over as the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. Dr Radhakrishnan, also director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, succeeds Dr G Madhavan Nair. Dr K Radhakrishnan is an accomplished technocrat with a distinguished career of more than 38 years in the fields of space technology, applications and space programme management.
Dorjee Khandu became new chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh (25th October 2009)
Dorjee Khandu, who led the Congress to a two-thirds majority in the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly elections, was sworn in as the fifth Chief Minister of the state. All the newly-elected MLAs were present at the oath-taking ceremony. Khandu, a former army intelligence officer rewarded for his exploits during the Bangladesh war, had turned a social activist before joining politics in 1980.
A.R.Rahman wins Ghent Award (23rd October 2009)
Oscar winner musician A. R. Rahman's 'Jai ho' has again won laurels at prestigious World Soundtrack Academy awards in Ghent (Belgium).This song from SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE won "best original song written for film" category at the ninth World Soundtrack Awards announced at Ghent.
Test fires nuclear-capable Prithvi-II missile(12th October 27, 2009)
India successfully test fired the nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Prithvi-II missile twice from a test range in Orissa, officials said. The missiles were fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Balasore district, some 230 km from state capital Bhubaneswar first at 10.28 a.m. and then again five minutes later at 10.33 a.m.
The tests were described as part of a "user trial”. Two naval ships tracked and monitored both the missiles hitting the targets accurately. All the radars and other sensors along the east coast monitored the missiles' trajectory parameters. The missiles have a striking range of about 350 km.Prithvi is India's first indigenously built ballistic missile. It is one of five missiles being developed under India's Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).Two versions of the missiles have already been deployed with the Army and the Air Force. According to defense officials in the national capital, Prithvi missile has the capability to carry 500-kg of warhead.
India can hold 2010 Games: CWG Officials (10th October 2009)
The Commonwealth Games Federation officials have expressed buoyancy over India's capability to host the 2010 event, after completing the second day of inspection.
Visiting shooting range in Tughlaqabad, Jamia Milia complex, the Rugby 7s facility in Delhi University and Siri Fort Complex where the badminton event is scheduled to take place, the delegates were convinced that the country could hold 'great' Games in 2010. In the press release released by the committee, Australia's Don Stockins has been quoted as saying "So far it's good. The block that we visited in the Games Village was good; if all end up like that it will be great. Delhi will be a great host and it is a very pretty city." Jamaican Olympic Association Vice-President Donald Anderson has also expressed confidence in India's facility to host the games next year.
US announce $100,000 aid for India's flood victims (8th October 2009)
Heavy rain and floods have inundated many parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra killing over 200 people and leaving millions homeless. The US announced $100,000 aid for the victims of recent floods in parts of southern and western India.'The heart-breaking personal loss, the destruction of homes and property, and the loss of cattle and crops have been devastating,' US ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer said while announcing the aid.
Dolphin is national aquatic animal (5th October 2009)
Dolphin is now India’s national aquatic animal. The decision was taken following a suggestion by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at a meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said the new status for the dolphin would help save the rare freshwater species from disappearing from the country’s aqua map.
Major Floods in Andhra and Karnataka (4th October 2009)
Five days of torrential rain have left at least 205 people dead and 750,000 displaced in southern India, authorities said. Floods submerged villages, severed transport and communication links and raised fears of disease spreading in relief camps. Large parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states – which weeks ago were suffering a severe drought – have been inundated. Air force helicopters dropped food and drinking water packages to hundreds of cut-off villages. The flooding worsened after authorities released water from rain-swollen reservoirs to prevent them from bursting their banks.
Air India Strike (29th September 2009)
Air India cancels over 20 flights, pilots agitation continues. With the agitation by Air India Executive pilots entering the fourth day, the airlines cancelled over 20 flights, including 15 from the national capital, and suspended bookings for the next 15 days.
Talks between the management and the striking Executive pilots failed to break the deadlock over the issue of cut in perks. The agitation by the pilots, who are protesting against the cut in the Productivity Linked Incentives (PIL), is likely to intensify as the executive pilots working with the airlines before its merger also joined them.
Chandrayaan-1 Not A Failure, Finds Water on Moon (24th September 2009)
India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 has found evidence of large quantities of water on the lunar surface, before the project was terminated by ISRO. This discovery is credited to the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), an imaging spectrometer, was one of the 11 instruments on board Chandrayaan-I. M3 was aimed at providing the first mineral map of the entire lunar surface. Lunar scientist’s debate for possibility of water repositories came to an end. Chandrayaan-1 was India's first unmanned lunar probe which was launched by ISRO on 22 October 2008. After suffering from several technical issues including failure of the star sensors and poor thermal shielding, Chandrayaan stopped sending radio signals on 29 August 2009 shortly after which, the ISRO officially declared the mission over. Chandrayaan operated for 312 days as opposed to the intended two years but the mission achieved 95 per cent of its planned objectives.
Six European satellites launched by India (23th September 2009)
India successfully launched a cluster of six European micro-satellites into low-earth orbit after deploying its 960 kg remote sensing satellite Oceansat-2 in the polar sun-synchronous orbit. Of the six micro-satellites, four are from Germany and one each from Switzerland and Turkey, with a combined weight of 20 kg. The first four tiny spacecraft, named Cubsats, are educational satellites from European universities weighing around 1 kg and developed to perform technology demonstration in space. The other two spacecrafts are named Rubin-9.1 and Rubin-9.2 weighing 8 kg each, are primarily used for the automatic identification system for maritime applications.
Earthquake in North Eastern Region of India (21th September 2009)
An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale felt by people in parts of Assam, other north-eastern states of India, West Bengal and neighboring Bhutan Monday afternoon causing damage to various properties in both the countries. The duration of this earthquake was around 5 seconds. The epicenter was plotted in Munggar in Bhutan. Munggar, is located along the India-Bhutan border, 125 km northwest of Guwahati where the abnormal movement of earthquake was observed.
Problems in BJP party (4th September 2009)
The BJP seems to be in the docks after the Lok Sabha defeat. BJP has expelled Jaswant Singh, Sudheendra Kulkarni, Khanduri from the party. Also BJP has decided to break ties with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana. BJP president Rajnath Singh also asked senior Rajasthan leader Vasundhara Raje to resign as leader of opposition. In the party meet it has been decided that Advani will resign as party opposition leader and will not be primeministerial candidate for the next election. Seems like a lot of “Manthan” or churning within the party.
Andhra CM YSR died in a chopper crash (3rd September 2009)
The Dynamic Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh is no more. Mr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy was on his way to Chittoor from Hyderabad in a Helicopter. After sometime in flight, the chopper went missing in the dense forest area of Nallamalalla hill range. A massive hunt for the missing aircraft was launched. Three Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters from Bangalore were involved in finding about the helicopter and the missing YSR. After a day, the missing chopper was found in a mangled state along with five burnt bodies. About 100 people died of shock after hearing the news of YSR’s death.
Almost all the state ministers, about 22 MPs and several Congress legislators have pitched for Jaganmohan Reddy, son of Late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to be the next CM of Andhra Pradesh. The Congress meanwhile is waiting for the euphoria to settle before deciding.
Mumbai TV actress arrested for abusing minor (22th August 2009)
A Mumbai actress has been arrested for allegedly abusing her 10-year-old maid. The TV actress, Urvashi Dhaanorkar who reportedly brought the minor girl to Mumbai in the pretext of adoption and education and kept her captive and tortured her. She had received burns and injuries. The girl told reporters that she was roughed up by the actresses. The case came to light when one of the neighbours found the girl in a bad condition and decided to go to the police. The police who rescued the girl from the Raheja Classic Society in Andheri arrested the actress under the Child Abuse Act.
Indian Navy jet crashes, pilot feared dead (21th August 2009)
An Indian Navy fighter jet crashed into the Arabian Sea and the pilot is presumed dead. The jet, a British-made Sea Harrier, plummeted into the sea 15 kilometers off Goa's coast. The cause of the crash was not immediately known.
Bhindra honored with Rajiv Gandhi Award (20th August 2009)
India's first Olympics gold medalist Abhinav Bindra, Bollywood actors Shahid Kapoor and Katrina Kaif and other young achievers were felicitated with prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Award.
Businessman buys Gandhi's home, plans for museum (30th July 2009)
Mahatma Gandhi's Johannesburg house, has been bought by a Bandra businessman, Pradeep Bhavnani for about Rs 2.25 crore on July 30. Mahatma Gandhi lived in this house from 1908 for three years while he fought against the racial discrimination in South Africa as a lawyer. The house that was designed by artist Hermann Kallenbach is called 'The Kraal'. Pradeep Bhavnani, who is senior BJP leader L K Advani’s nephew and a self-professed Gandhian is planning to turn it into a museum. After buying the house, he intends to buy 34 souvenirs and photographs from the Aditya Birla Group to install them in the museum. After inaugurating the museum on Oct 2, Gandhi’s birth anniversary, it will be handed over to Government of India on the same day.
Rajmata Gayatri Devi laid to rest (28th July 2009)
Rajmata Gayatri Devi passed away after a prolonged illness at the age of 90. The people of the city gave their daily routines a miss to catch a glimpse of the Queen's last journey. They grieved the fact that the only person who really cared about their grievances had passed away. The Queen was cremated with State Honours and the event was graced by the presence of the Rajasthan Governor Shailendra Kumar Singh and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, along with several members of the State Cabinet.
Class X girl selected for NASA training (26th July 2009)
Palak Agarwal, is one of the two school girls selected from India for NASA training in space shuttle designing. She is a student of 10th class in a school in remote Karnal dist. She was selected under a student programme under which a few students across the globe get an opportunity to get training in NASA.
PM launches India's first nuclear submarine (26th July 2009)
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife Gursharan Kaur launched the country's first nuclear powered attack submarine, INS Arihant in Vishakhapatnam. The INS Arihant will be commissioned in the Indian Navy after extensive outfitting and sea trials. It is the first of three such vessels to be built in the country. Its length is 112-metre-long. India has achieved a 'historic milestone in the country's defence preparedness' with the launch of the submarine.
Bill Gates to receive Indira Gandhi Peace Prize (23th July 2009)
Bill Gates has received the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2003, the foundation launched Avahan, a 10-year initiative to support India's efforts to reduce the spread of HIV.
India's first sea bridge (30th June 2009)
The Congress president Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the Bandra Worli sea link in Mumbai. The 5.6 kilometers long cable-stayed bridge has been designed to allow for speedy road travel between Bandra and Worli. It costs Rs. 50 to take a trip on the link, and will cost Rs. 75 for a round trip. It would be nothing compared to the Rs 100 crore per year that the link will save in the vehicle operating cost alone. The link is equipped for traffic monitoring, emergency support and an automated toll system. The construction of the sea link would save people's time.
Union minister threatens HC judge to grant bail (30th June 2009)
R Regupathi, a Madras High Court judge has threatened to write to the central government and the prime minister about a Union Minister seeking to influence him to release a medical student petitioner and his father, a doctor on anticipatory bail. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked both of them in connection with a forged mark sheet case.
Government to make class X examination optional (25th June 2009)
Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) has suggested that the government may make class X examination optional for students. He said that the examination system would be reformed in accordance with the National Curriculum framework-2005. This will permit students to continue in the same school. Schools may take an internal assessment test instead. This he says, will be done in 100 days.
Air Force AN-32 aircraft Crash (10th June 2009)
Indian Air Force, Army and paramilitary forces made a search for missing Air Force AN-32 aircraft which crashed over Arunachal Pradesh. The IAF began aerial reconnaissance to trace the transport aircraft while Army and paramilitary forces too have been pressed into the search operation. There were 13 people on board including six IAF officers and seven Army personnel and all of them are feared dead. The aircraft had taken off from Machuka in Arunachal Pradesh on a supply sortie and was on its way to Mohanbari in Assam when it went off radar due to bad weather and crashed. The last radio contact with the missing aircraft was 35 miles from Machuka. Top-level sources in IAF say that the flying crew of the AN-32 was highly experienced and bad weather is suspected to be the reason for the crash.
Family donates their dead son's organs to 7 people (9th June 2009)
A family in Andhra Pradesh mourning the loss of their 19-year-old member Ganpati in a road accident has ensured his legacy by donating his organs and transforming the lives of seven people. Johnson, a six-year-old boy, was suffering from the dangerous blue baby syndrome but now a critical heart surgery has ensured he would live healthily. It's not just Johnson but six other people, too, who have received vital organs including the kidneys and liver donated from Ganapati’s body. Ganapati had met with an accident and was brought to hospital brain dead. Doctors counselled with the family. Though it wasn't an easy decision for Ganapati's family to donate his organs, Ganapati's elder brother Pradeep went ahead, believing that his brother will live on by this deed. Ganapati's family is unaware of the identities of any of the seven people who have benefited from his organs. But they do find solace in the thought that Ganapati continues to live on.
Dream Houses / Mumbai Flats on rent for Rs. 800/- (3rd June 2009)
The common people of Mumbai may now dream of affordable homes. An ambitious low-cost housing programme promises to provide flats on rent for as less as Rs 800. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) announced that they are going to construct 133,000 flats near the city. The MMRDA, in collaboration with real estate giant HDIL, will construct the flats on 525 acres in Virar suburb in Thane district north of Mumbai. The project aims to house around 2 lakh people in the flats. The rent for the flats will range from Rs 800 to Rs 1,500 per month. Each flat measures 160 sq ft and will be given on lease for a period of five years. The Metropolitan Commissioner told that 90,000 (flats) are made for free-sale components and 43,000 are purely rental housing tenements of 160 sq feet each. Only people with a minimum monthly income of Rs 5,000 will be eligible to apply for houses. Applicants should preferably be residing in Maharashtra but it isn't a compulsory requirement. The MMRDA also announced eight other low-cost housing projects in the city to house 5 lakh families in the next few years. The authority will earn Rs 5,000 crore in rent and builders will benefit as they would be allowed to construct taller buildings with more flats.
Oz Racial attack: AP student battling for life ( 28th May 2009)
Shravan Kumar, a 25-year-old student was attacked by teenagers in Australia is battling for life after he and three of his friends from Andhra Pradesh were attacked on May 26. Doctors are not 'very optimistic' about chances of his recovery. Shravan was critically injured after one of the boys attacked him with a screwdriver. The other three identified as A Krian, Subhash and Sandip escaped with minor injuries. The attackers abused the Indian students and asked them to leave Australia. While Shravan is still in hospital, the other three moved out of the house. This is the second attack on Indian students in a week. Meanwhile there are reports that the house where Shravan and his friends were staying is apparently robbed by some miscreants.
Congress' victory, credit to Sonia's inner voice ( 18th May 2009)
The amazing victory of the Congress Party and the pathetic defeat of the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls 2009 has come as a surprise. Nobody expected that the Congress will bag over 200 seats on its own and cross 260 with its allies. All political Pundits and Sephologists were predicting highly fractured result on 16 May 2009, the day of counting. But May 16 became a 'black Saturday' for the Bharatiya Janata Party with an astonishing victory for the Congress. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi once again made it clear that she is not in race for the PM post of India. Ms Gandhi had made her point clear that Manmohan Singh is the Prime Ministerial candidate of Congress. This cleared a long standing doubt in the minds of many Indians who are not happy to see a foreigner as India's Prime Minister. This worked and converted into votes.
UPSC results: Women on top, 791 succeeded (5th May 2009)
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam results for the year 2008 were announced. A higher number of women have topped these numbers. The top three ranks have been grabbed by women for the first time. The Rank 1 holder, 30-year-old Shubhra Saxena from Ghaziabad has become the talk of the country. She told the media that the risk of quitting her job to serve the rural masses was worth it.
River Ganga still reels under Pollution (4th May 2009)
The river Ganga remains highly polluted even after being declared the 'National River' by the Central Government. Filled with chemical wastes, sewage and even the remains of human and animal corpses, it poses major health risks to around 400 million people living by its side and all others who benefit from it. The Ganga also suffers from another major problem called silting which results into chocking of its flow.
People believe that constructing dams on the Ganga could be the cause of low water level in the river. The residents say no steps have been taken to improve the condition of the Ganga. The condition of the Ganga is deteriorating by the day. There is more sand in it. Though it is declared a 'National River', no efforts are being made to clean it. If water is released from the dam, then only the water level will increase in the river. Efforts have always made to clean up the Ganga since a long time but none have been proved successful.
Satyam bidding Completed: Tech Mahindra wins bidding (13th April 2009)
In the Satyam Computers bidding process, three huge companies namely Tech Mahindra, Engineering L&T, and Wilbur Ross had participated. Tech Mahindra has won in the Satyam bid by paying Rs. 1757 crore and now has 31% stake in Satyam. Tech Mahindra will pay Rs 58 per share; L&T had offered to pay of 49 Rs per share and so lost out.
Girl dies due to asthma in Delhi School (22nd April 2009)
Aakriti Bhatia of class 12 student of the Modern School in Vasant Vihar of Delhi died due to an asthma attack. Her parent’s alleged negligence by the school resulting in her death. It seems while taking Aakriti to hospital the school authorities removed the oxygen provided to her, also instead of calling an ambulance they waited for Akriti's father's car to take her to hospital, which could have lead to the death. However the school claims that they did everything possible to save her. Other parents and people are demonstrating against the school.
Parents protest fee hike in schools (April 2009)
Hundreds of parents opposing the fee hike in schools protested at various places in Delhi and demanded its immediate rollback. The parents association of Guru Nanak Public School staged a demonstration and criticized the school authorities over the fee hike. All India Parents Association (AIPA) also extended its support to the demonstration. The children also shouted slogans from the classrooms. The matter of fee hike has been challenged in the Delhi High Court. The court would hear the case on April 29.
Tata Nano The People's Car Launched (23rd March 2009)
People's car 'Nano' launched amidst much waiting and expectation.
Tata Motor's 'Nano' was commercially launched in Mumbai on 23/3/09 promising to meet the expectations of people under some circumstances which is likely to bring about a change in the auto market in the nation
Modi minister held in post-Godhra riot case (March 2009)
As prime ministerial candidate L K Advani and chief minister Narendra Modi on 27/3/09 launched the BJP’s campaign at the Kankaria lakefront, a few kilometres away, in Gandhinagar, Maya Kodnani, a minister in Modi’s cabinet, was arrested in one of the post-Godhra riot cases of 2002.
Minister of state for women and child welfare and higher education, Kodnani was arrested after the Gujarat high court cancelled her anticipatory bail on Friday in the Naroda Patia and Naroda Gam riots case. A trained gynaecologist, she resigned from the ministry and surrendered before the SC-appointed Special Investigation Team in Gandhinagar with VHP leader Jaideep Patel.
Varun guilty; EC asks BJP not to field Varun (March 2009)
The Election Commission has found the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Varun Gandhi guilty of making remarks against Muslims in an election rally in Pilibit and in the wake, violating polls laws. The EC has also declared that the CD was not doctored and said that it will initiate criminal proceedings against him.
The EC has also asked BJP not to give a ticket to contest polls in Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh.
"The commission considered the speeches as a grave violation of the model code of conduct, apart from amounting to promoting feelings of enmity and hatred between different classes on the ground of religion, outraging the religious feeling of a particular community, and promoting hatred and ill-will between two classes of citizens and provoking a section of the citizens to indulge in violence."
"Any sponsorship of his candidature by the BJP, or any other political party at this election, would be perceived as endorsing his unpardonable acts of inciting violence and creating feelings of enmity and hatred between different classes of citizens of India, destroying the social, democratic and plural fabric of the country," it said.
SATYAM FRAUD
The fraud at Satyam may well turn out to be the biggest of all scams unearthed from corporate India. Through multiple routes involving a large number of related companies and myriad transactions, the promoters of Satyam Computer Services, led by the company's Chairman Ramalinga Raju, are alleged to have siphoned out a huge quantity of money from the firm. To cover that up, the accounts were manipulated and documents were forged to declare nonexistent cash reserves and understate liabilities.
The money that was taken out may have been used, among other things, to acquire large quantities of land in what seems to be a set of speculative real estate ventures that could enrich the family. The Maytas companies that had titles that spelt Satyam in reverse were important conduits in this process, but there were clearly many more. According to reports, the Registrar of Companies has found that ''Satyam's annual report reveals several transactions with subsidiaries and other group companies by way of investments, purchase of assets and other receivables'' that point to the concealed transfer of funds out of the company.
Shockingly, one of the allegations made by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Andhra Pradesh is that the company had only 40,000 employees on its rolls as compared with the 53,000 claimed by it and the remaining 13,000 were mere fake salary accounts through which as much as Rs. 20 crore a month were taken out of the company over a period of five years. If true, this involves descent to a level of manipulation and fraud that could spell the end for Satyam.
MANGALORE PUB ATTACK
Activists of a self-styled pro-Hindu moral brigade called Sri Rama Sene barged into a pub in the coastal city of Mangalore in january and bashed up a few young girls for 'violating traditional Indian norms'.
At least two girls were punched and their hair pulled by the activists 4 p.m. Saturday at the pub Amnesia - The Lounge in Mangalore, about 350 km from Bangalore. The young men accompanying the girls to the pub on the busy Balmatta Road were also assaulted when they tried to protect their friends.
Following this shocking incident, at least 10 of the activists have been arrested by Mangalore police. From the accounts given by the eyewitnesses, who did not want to be identified, the girls were the target of attack. About 40 men forcibly entered the pub claiming unethical activities were on inside and pushed their way inside. They began assaulting the young men and women who ran for safety. At least two of the girls started screaming for help and managed to flee from the attackers.
The ugly incident has a murky dimension also with leaders of Sri Rama Sene and Bajrang Dal, another pro-Hindu organisation fighting to take credit for the attack in the name of punishing those going against 'traditional Indian norms'.
RAILWAY BUDGET 2009
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav Friday presented his sixth rail budget in February.He is the first Railway Minister to introduce the low fare air-conditioned trains known as "Garib Rath". Fifteen such trains are already running and five more are expected to start in the near future.
The Railways minister cut rail fares across ticket categories by 2% and announced plans for 43 new trains on Friday.
The fare cut will bring down rail fares on air-conditioned travel the most, mounting further pressure on low-cost airlines, while fares for second-class, second-class sleeper, and general compartments will also go down for tickets worth more than Rs 50 per passenger. Suburban commuters who use express or mail trains will also see their ticket costs get Rs 1 cheaper.
The fare cuts, announced in the government’s interim railway budget for 2009-10, are expected to set the Indian Railways back by only around Rs 700 crore but will make little difference to its cash pile of Rs 90,000 crore. In any case, Mr Prasad said a cut in fares would not necessarily lead to a loss of revenues. The Railways has cut fares four times in as many years, lowering AC first class and AC two-tier rates by 28% and 20%, respectively and taking the competition straight to the doors of the low-cost airline sector.
The Minister also proposed starting 43 new trains during 2009-10, and said the Railways would extend services of 14 existing trains. The frequency of various Rajdhani and other express trains will also be increased taking into account the rise in the number of passengers.
DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST VALENTINE'S DAY
Activists of the Hindu fundamentalist political party Shiv Sena on Wednesday staged a token protest at Central Delhis Jantar Mantar against St.Valentines Day celebrations in the capital. The activists said that they viewed celebrations of St.Valentines Day contrary to Indian ethos and a proof of the growing influence of western culture on rest of the world. Besides, the protestors said that the St.Valentines Day was corrupting the Indian youth, as most of the youth on this day take advantage of the occasion and indulge in immoral behaviour at public places.
Such protest were undertaken at quite a few places in India like Bhopal, Bangalore etc. In Uttar Pradesh, Right-wing Hindu activists beat up young couples during Valentine's Day protests across the country. Shiv Sena said it was holding protests across the country against Valentine's Day celebrations which were against Indian culture and had a "corrupting influence" on Indian youth.
Protests by Hindu and Muslim groups were reported from the national capital Delhi, central Bhopal and southern Hyderabad cities.Fifty activists of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party's student wing attacked a shop selling Valentine's Day gifts in Hyderabad and set fire to the greeting cards. They carried saffron flags and chanted slogans such as "Save Culture" and "Death to Valentine's Day." Muslim groups also campaigned against Valentine's Day and displayed posters at public places asking youth to refrain from celebrating the day.
In central Bhopal city, another Hindu right-wing group the Bajrang Dal held protests threatening to marry off lovers found "misbehaving" in public places. Other Hindu religious organizations held protests in the western Gujarat state distributing handbills to college students asking them to shun western culture.
Valentine's Day has become popular in India over the past decade with shops selling romantic cards, heart-shaped balloons, cuddly toys and other gifts. But the day has also seen regular protests by Hindu and Muslim hardliners who claim the celebrations threaten Indian culture and social norms.
India retains 84th position among the world’s most corrupt nations (17th Nov 2009) Transparency International has released their annual corruption index, and has ranked China as 79th and India 84th out of 180 countries. The evaluation of the extent of corruption is based on opinion from country experts – resident and non-residents – and business leaders. The corruption index measures perceived levels of public sector corruption in a country. New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland are the top five least corrupt nations.
India second worst terror-hit country, says NGO (14th Nov 2009) India is the second worst terrorism-afflicted country - behind only war-ravaged Iraq - facing eight terror attacks in 2008 alone and losing over 3,500 lives in the last few years. Quoting a recent United States (US) report, city-based NGO "Bombay First", said India follows Iraq in the number of lives lost in terror attacks last year.
K.R. Narayanan Award for the Hindu Chief Editor N. Ram (13th Nov 2009) N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of Hindu has been chosen for this year’s K.R. Narayanan Award for his outstanding contribution to journalism in India. Instituted by the K.R. Narayanan Foundation in memory of the late President, the award is to honor individuals who have excelled in various fields. It carries a statuette, citation and a ‘ponnada.’
Madhu Koda discharged, summoned by ED (9th November 2009)
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda was discharged from a hospital and will be questioned by the Income Tax department in a money laundering case on Nov 10 while the Enforcement Directorate summoned him to appear before Nov 13 who is in the Rs 2,000 crore alleged Hawala and illegal investments case.
India, Sweden to sign MOU on environment (5th November 2009)
India and Sweden are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on environment as Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeld visits India on Thursday for the 10th India-EU summit.The MoU will cover climate change, clean technology, clean development mechanisms, environmental protection, environmental governance and air-water quality.
Brave Rukhsana appointed as special cop (2nd November 2009)
Rukhsana, the valiant and determined Jammu and Kashmir girl, who took on Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists who barged into her house in September, has been appointed special police officer (SPO), a temporary job which will fetch her Rs 3,000 a month. Rukhsana is currently in Delhi. Her brother, Aijaz, too has been appointed SPO
Radhakrishnan takes over as new ISRO chief (31st October 2009)
Radhakrishnan, one of the key persons behind India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission, on Saturday took over as the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. Dr Radhakrishnan, also director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, succeeds Dr G Madhavan Nair. Dr K Radhakrishnan is an accomplished technocrat with a distinguished career of more than 38 years in the fields of space technology, applications and space programme management.
Dorjee Khandu became new chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh (25th October 2009)
Dorjee Khandu, who led the Congress to a two-thirds majority in the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly elections, was sworn in as the fifth Chief Minister of the state. All the newly-elected MLAs were present at the oath-taking ceremony. Khandu, a former army intelligence officer rewarded for his exploits during the Bangladesh war, had turned a social activist before joining politics in 1980.
A.R.Rahman wins Ghent Award (23rd October 2009)
Oscar winner musician A. R. Rahman's 'Jai ho' has again won laurels at prestigious World Soundtrack Academy awards in Ghent (Belgium).This song from SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE won "best original song written for film" category at the ninth World Soundtrack Awards announced at Ghent.
Test fires nuclear-capable Prithvi-II missile(12th October 27, 2009)
India successfully test fired the nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Prithvi-II missile twice from a test range in Orissa, officials said. The missiles were fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Balasore district, some 230 km from state capital Bhubaneswar first at 10.28 a.m. and then again five minutes later at 10.33 a.m.
The tests were described as part of a "user trial”. Two naval ships tracked and monitored both the missiles hitting the targets accurately. All the radars and other sensors along the east coast monitored the missiles' trajectory parameters. The missiles have a striking range of about 350 km.Prithvi is India's first indigenously built ballistic missile. It is one of five missiles being developed under India's Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).Two versions of the missiles have already been deployed with the Army and the Air Force. According to defense officials in the national capital, Prithvi missile has the capability to carry 500-kg of warhead.
India can hold 2010 Games: CWG Officials (10th October 2009)
The Commonwealth Games Federation officials have expressed buoyancy over India's capability to host the 2010 event, after completing the second day of inspection.
Visiting shooting range in Tughlaqabad, Jamia Milia complex, the Rugby 7s facility in Delhi University and Siri Fort Complex where the badminton event is scheduled to take place, the delegates were convinced that the country could hold 'great' Games in 2010. In the press release released by the committee, Australia's Don Stockins has been quoted as saying "So far it's good. The block that we visited in the Games Village was good; if all end up like that it will be great. Delhi will be a great host and it is a very pretty city." Jamaican Olympic Association Vice-President Donald Anderson has also expressed confidence in India's facility to host the games next year.
US announce $100,000 aid for India's flood victims (8th October 2009)
Heavy rain and floods have inundated many parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra killing over 200 people and leaving millions homeless. The US announced $100,000 aid for the victims of recent floods in parts of southern and western India.'The heart-breaking personal loss, the destruction of homes and property, and the loss of cattle and crops have been devastating,' US ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer said while announcing the aid.
Dolphin is national aquatic animal (5th October 2009)
Dolphin is now India’s national aquatic animal. The decision was taken following a suggestion by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at a meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said the new status for the dolphin would help save the rare freshwater species from disappearing from the country’s aqua map.
Major Floods in Andhra and Karnataka (4th October 2009)
Five days of torrential rain have left at least 205 people dead and 750,000 displaced in southern India, authorities said. Floods submerged villages, severed transport and communication links and raised fears of disease spreading in relief camps. Large parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states – which weeks ago were suffering a severe drought – have been inundated. Air force helicopters dropped food and drinking water packages to hundreds of cut-off villages. The flooding worsened after authorities released water from rain-swollen reservoirs to prevent them from bursting their banks.
Air India Strike (29th September 2009)
Air India cancels over 20 flights, pilots agitation continues. With the agitation by Air India Executive pilots entering the fourth day, the airlines cancelled over 20 flights, including 15 from the national capital, and suspended bookings for the next 15 days.
Talks between the management and the striking Executive pilots failed to break the deadlock over the issue of cut in perks. The agitation by the pilots, who are protesting against the cut in the Productivity Linked Incentives (PIL), is likely to intensify as the executive pilots working with the airlines before its merger also joined them.
Chandrayaan-1 Not A Failure, Finds Water on Moon (24th September 2009)
India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 has found evidence of large quantities of water on the lunar surface, before the project was terminated by ISRO. This discovery is credited to the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), an imaging spectrometer, was one of the 11 instruments on board Chandrayaan-I. M3 was aimed at providing the first mineral map of the entire lunar surface. Lunar scientist’s debate for possibility of water repositories came to an end. Chandrayaan-1 was India's first unmanned lunar probe which was launched by ISRO on 22 October 2008. After suffering from several technical issues including failure of the star sensors and poor thermal shielding, Chandrayaan stopped sending radio signals on 29 August 2009 shortly after which, the ISRO officially declared the mission over. Chandrayaan operated for 312 days as opposed to the intended two years but the mission achieved 95 per cent of its planned objectives.
Six European satellites launched by India (23th September 2009)
India successfully launched a cluster of six European micro-satellites into low-earth orbit after deploying its 960 kg remote sensing satellite Oceansat-2 in the polar sun-synchronous orbit. Of the six micro-satellites, four are from Germany and one each from Switzerland and Turkey, with a combined weight of 20 kg. The first four tiny spacecraft, named Cubsats, are educational satellites from European universities weighing around 1 kg and developed to perform technology demonstration in space. The other two spacecrafts are named Rubin-9.1 and Rubin-9.2 weighing 8 kg each, are primarily used for the automatic identification system for maritime applications.
Earthquake in North Eastern Region of India (21th September 2009)
An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale felt by people in parts of Assam, other north-eastern states of India, West Bengal and neighboring Bhutan Monday afternoon causing damage to various properties in both the countries. The duration of this earthquake was around 5 seconds. The epicenter was plotted in Munggar in Bhutan. Munggar, is located along the India-Bhutan border, 125 km northwest of Guwahati where the abnormal movement of earthquake was observed.
Problems in BJP party (4th September 2009)
The BJP seems to be in the docks after the Lok Sabha defeat. BJP has expelled Jaswant Singh, Sudheendra Kulkarni, Khanduri from the party. Also BJP has decided to break ties with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana. BJP president Rajnath Singh also asked senior Rajasthan leader Vasundhara Raje to resign as leader of opposition. In the party meet it has been decided that Advani will resign as party opposition leader and will not be primeministerial candidate for the next election. Seems like a lot of “Manthan” or churning within the party.
Andhra CM YSR died in a chopper crash (3rd September 2009)
The Dynamic Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh is no more. Mr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy was on his way to Chittoor from Hyderabad in a Helicopter. After sometime in flight, the chopper went missing in the dense forest area of Nallamalalla hill range. A massive hunt for the missing aircraft was launched. Three Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters from Bangalore were involved in finding about the helicopter and the missing YSR. After a day, the missing chopper was found in a mangled state along with five burnt bodies. About 100 people died of shock after hearing the news of YSR’s death.
Almost all the state ministers, about 22 MPs and several Congress legislators have pitched for Jaganmohan Reddy, son of Late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to be the next CM of Andhra Pradesh. The Congress meanwhile is waiting for the euphoria to settle before deciding.
Mumbai TV actress arrested for abusing minor (22th August 2009)
A Mumbai actress has been arrested for allegedly abusing her 10-year-old maid. The TV actress, Urvashi Dhaanorkar who reportedly brought the minor girl to Mumbai in the pretext of adoption and education and kept her captive and tortured her. She had received burns and injuries. The girl told reporters that she was roughed up by the actresses. The case came to light when one of the neighbours found the girl in a bad condition and decided to go to the police. The police who rescued the girl from the Raheja Classic Society in Andheri arrested the actress under the Child Abuse Act.
Indian Navy jet crashes, pilot feared dead (21th August 2009)
An Indian Navy fighter jet crashed into the Arabian Sea and the pilot is presumed dead. The jet, a British-made Sea Harrier, plummeted into the sea 15 kilometers off Goa's coast. The cause of the crash was not immediately known.
Bhindra honored with Rajiv Gandhi Award (20th August 2009)
India's first Olympics gold medalist Abhinav Bindra, Bollywood actors Shahid Kapoor and Katrina Kaif and other young achievers were felicitated with prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Award.
Businessman buys Gandhi's home, plans for museum (30th July 2009)
Mahatma Gandhi's Johannesburg house, has been bought by a Bandra businessman, Pradeep Bhavnani for about Rs 2.25 crore on July 30. Mahatma Gandhi lived in this house from 1908 for three years while he fought against the racial discrimination in South Africa as a lawyer. The house that was designed by artist Hermann Kallenbach is called 'The Kraal'. Pradeep Bhavnani, who is senior BJP leader L K Advani’s nephew and a self-professed Gandhian is planning to turn it into a museum. After buying the house, he intends to buy 34 souvenirs and photographs from the Aditya Birla Group to install them in the museum. After inaugurating the museum on Oct 2, Gandhi’s birth anniversary, it will be handed over to Government of India on the same day.
Rajmata Gayatri Devi laid to rest (28th July 2009)
Rajmata Gayatri Devi passed away after a prolonged illness at the age of 90. The people of the city gave their daily routines a miss to catch a glimpse of the Queen's last journey. They grieved the fact that the only person who really cared about their grievances had passed away. The Queen was cremated with State Honours and the event was graced by the presence of the Rajasthan Governor Shailendra Kumar Singh and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, along with several members of the State Cabinet.
Class X girl selected for NASA training (26th July 2009)
Palak Agarwal, is one of the two school girls selected from India for NASA training in space shuttle designing. She is a student of 10th class in a school in remote Karnal dist. She was selected under a student programme under which a few students across the globe get an opportunity to get training in NASA.
PM launches India's first nuclear submarine (26th July 2009)
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife Gursharan Kaur launched the country's first nuclear powered attack submarine, INS Arihant in Vishakhapatnam. The INS Arihant will be commissioned in the Indian Navy after extensive outfitting and sea trials. It is the first of three such vessels to be built in the country. Its length is 112-metre-long. India has achieved a 'historic milestone in the country's defence preparedness' with the launch of the submarine.
Bill Gates to receive Indira Gandhi Peace Prize (23th July 2009)
Bill Gates has received the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2003, the foundation launched Avahan, a 10-year initiative to support India's efforts to reduce the spread of HIV.
India's first sea bridge (30th June 2009)
The Congress president Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the Bandra Worli sea link in Mumbai. The 5.6 kilometers long cable-stayed bridge has been designed to allow for speedy road travel between Bandra and Worli. It costs Rs. 50 to take a trip on the link, and will cost Rs. 75 for a round trip. It would be nothing compared to the Rs 100 crore per year that the link will save in the vehicle operating cost alone. The link is equipped for traffic monitoring, emergency support and an automated toll system. The construction of the sea link would save people's time.
Union minister threatens HC judge to grant bail (30th June 2009)
R Regupathi, a Madras High Court judge has threatened to write to the central government and the prime minister about a Union Minister seeking to influence him to release a medical student petitioner and his father, a doctor on anticipatory bail. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked both of them in connection with a forged mark sheet case.
Government to make class X examination optional (25th June 2009)
Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) has suggested that the government may make class X examination optional for students. He said that the examination system would be reformed in accordance with the National Curriculum framework-2005. This will permit students to continue in the same school. Schools may take an internal assessment test instead. This he says, will be done in 100 days.
Air Force AN-32 aircraft Crash (10th June 2009)
Indian Air Force, Army and paramilitary forces made a search for missing Air Force AN-32 aircraft which crashed over Arunachal Pradesh. The IAF began aerial reconnaissance to trace the transport aircraft while Army and paramilitary forces too have been pressed into the search operation. There were 13 people on board including six IAF officers and seven Army personnel and all of them are feared dead. The aircraft had taken off from Machuka in Arunachal Pradesh on a supply sortie and was on its way to Mohanbari in Assam when it went off radar due to bad weather and crashed. The last radio contact with the missing aircraft was 35 miles from Machuka. Top-level sources in IAF say that the flying crew of the AN-32 was highly experienced and bad weather is suspected to be the reason for the crash.
Family donates their dead son's organs to 7 people (9th June 2009)
A family in Andhra Pradesh mourning the loss of their 19-year-old member Ganpati in a road accident has ensured his legacy by donating his organs and transforming the lives of seven people. Johnson, a six-year-old boy, was suffering from the dangerous blue baby syndrome but now a critical heart surgery has ensured he would live healthily. It's not just Johnson but six other people, too, who have received vital organs including the kidneys and liver donated from Ganapati’s body. Ganapati had met with an accident and was brought to hospital brain dead. Doctors counselled with the family. Though it wasn't an easy decision for Ganapati's family to donate his organs, Ganapati's elder brother Pradeep went ahead, believing that his brother will live on by this deed. Ganapati's family is unaware of the identities of any of the seven people who have benefited from his organs. But they do find solace in the thought that Ganapati continues to live on.
Dream Houses / Mumbai Flats on rent for Rs. 800/- (3rd June 2009)
The common people of Mumbai may now dream of affordable homes. An ambitious low-cost housing programme promises to provide flats on rent for as less as Rs 800. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) announced that they are going to construct 133,000 flats near the city. The MMRDA, in collaboration with real estate giant HDIL, will construct the flats on 525 acres in Virar suburb in Thane district north of Mumbai. The project aims to house around 2 lakh people in the flats. The rent for the flats will range from Rs 800 to Rs 1,500 per month. Each flat measures 160 sq ft and will be given on lease for a period of five years. The Metropolitan Commissioner told that 90,000 (flats) are made for free-sale components and 43,000 are purely rental housing tenements of 160 sq feet each. Only people with a minimum monthly income of Rs 5,000 will be eligible to apply for houses. Applicants should preferably be residing in Maharashtra but it isn't a compulsory requirement. The MMRDA also announced eight other low-cost housing projects in the city to house 5 lakh families in the next few years. The authority will earn Rs 5,000 crore in rent and builders will benefit as they would be allowed to construct taller buildings with more flats.
Oz Racial attack: AP student battling for life ( 28th May 2009)
Shravan Kumar, a 25-year-old student was attacked by teenagers in Australia is battling for life after he and three of his friends from Andhra Pradesh were attacked on May 26. Doctors are not 'very optimistic' about chances of his recovery. Shravan was critically injured after one of the boys attacked him with a screwdriver. The other three identified as A Krian, Subhash and Sandip escaped with minor injuries. The attackers abused the Indian students and asked them to leave Australia. While Shravan is still in hospital, the other three moved out of the house. This is the second attack on Indian students in a week. Meanwhile there are reports that the house where Shravan and his friends were staying is apparently robbed by some miscreants.
Congress' victory, credit to Sonia's inner voice ( 18th May 2009)
The amazing victory of the Congress Party and the pathetic defeat of the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls 2009 has come as a surprise. Nobody expected that the Congress will bag over 200 seats on its own and cross 260 with its allies. All political Pundits and Sephologists were predicting highly fractured result on 16 May 2009, the day of counting. But May 16 became a 'black Saturday' for the Bharatiya Janata Party with an astonishing victory for the Congress. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi once again made it clear that she is not in race for the PM post of India. Ms Gandhi had made her point clear that Manmohan Singh is the Prime Ministerial candidate of Congress. This cleared a long standing doubt in the minds of many Indians who are not happy to see a foreigner as India's Prime Minister. This worked and converted into votes.
UPSC results: Women on top, 791 succeeded (5th May 2009)
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam results for the year 2008 were announced. A higher number of women have topped these numbers. The top three ranks have been grabbed by women for the first time. The Rank 1 holder, 30-year-old Shubhra Saxena from Ghaziabad has become the talk of the country. She told the media that the risk of quitting her job to serve the rural masses was worth it.
River Ganga still reels under Pollution (4th May 2009)
The river Ganga remains highly polluted even after being declared the 'National River' by the Central Government. Filled with chemical wastes, sewage and even the remains of human and animal corpses, it poses major health risks to around 400 million people living by its side and all others who benefit from it. The Ganga also suffers from another major problem called silting which results into chocking of its flow.
People believe that constructing dams on the Ganga could be the cause of low water level in the river. The residents say no steps have been taken to improve the condition of the Ganga. The condition of the Ganga is deteriorating by the day. There is more sand in it. Though it is declared a 'National River', no efforts are being made to clean it. If water is released from the dam, then only the water level will increase in the river. Efforts have always made to clean up the Ganga since a long time but none have been proved successful.
Satyam bidding Completed: Tech Mahindra wins bidding (13th April 2009)
In the Satyam Computers bidding process, three huge companies namely Tech Mahindra, Engineering L&T, and Wilbur Ross had participated. Tech Mahindra has won in the Satyam bid by paying Rs. 1757 crore and now has 31% stake in Satyam. Tech Mahindra will pay Rs 58 per share; L&T had offered to pay of 49 Rs per share and so lost out.
Girl dies due to asthma in Delhi School (22nd April 2009)
Aakriti Bhatia of class 12 student of the Modern School in Vasant Vihar of Delhi died due to an asthma attack. Her parent’s alleged negligence by the school resulting in her death. It seems while taking Aakriti to hospital the school authorities removed the oxygen provided to her, also instead of calling an ambulance they waited for Akriti's father's car to take her to hospital, which could have lead to the death. However the school claims that they did everything possible to save her. Other parents and people are demonstrating against the school.
Parents protest fee hike in schools (April 2009)
Hundreds of parents opposing the fee hike in schools protested at various places in Delhi and demanded its immediate rollback. The parents association of Guru Nanak Public School staged a demonstration and criticized the school authorities over the fee hike. All India Parents Association (AIPA) also extended its support to the demonstration. The children also shouted slogans from the classrooms. The matter of fee hike has been challenged in the Delhi High Court. The court would hear the case on April 29.
Tata Nano The People's Car Launched (23rd March 2009)
People's car 'Nano' launched amidst much waiting and expectation.
Tata Motor's 'Nano' was commercially launched in Mumbai on 23/3/09 promising to meet the expectations of people under some circumstances which is likely to bring about a change in the auto market in the nation
Modi minister held in post-Godhra riot case (March 2009)
As prime ministerial candidate L K Advani and chief minister Narendra Modi on 27/3/09 launched the BJP’s campaign at the Kankaria lakefront, a few kilometres away, in Gandhinagar, Maya Kodnani, a minister in Modi’s cabinet, was arrested in one of the post-Godhra riot cases of 2002.
Minister of state for women and child welfare and higher education, Kodnani was arrested after the Gujarat high court cancelled her anticipatory bail on Friday in the Naroda Patia and Naroda Gam riots case. A trained gynaecologist, she resigned from the ministry and surrendered before the SC-appointed Special Investigation Team in Gandhinagar with VHP leader Jaideep Patel.
Varun guilty; EC asks BJP not to field Varun (March 2009)
The Election Commission has found the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Varun Gandhi guilty of making remarks against Muslims in an election rally in Pilibit and in the wake, violating polls laws. The EC has also declared that the CD was not doctored and said that it will initiate criminal proceedings against him.
The EC has also asked BJP not to give a ticket to contest polls in Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh.
"The commission considered the speeches as a grave violation of the model code of conduct, apart from amounting to promoting feelings of enmity and hatred between different classes on the ground of religion, outraging the religious feeling of a particular community, and promoting hatred and ill-will between two classes of citizens and provoking a section of the citizens to indulge in violence."
"Any sponsorship of his candidature by the BJP, or any other political party at this election, would be perceived as endorsing his unpardonable acts of inciting violence and creating feelings of enmity and hatred between different classes of citizens of India, destroying the social, democratic and plural fabric of the country," it said.
SATYAM FRAUD
The fraud at Satyam may well turn out to be the biggest of all scams unearthed from corporate India. Through multiple routes involving a large number of related companies and myriad transactions, the promoters of Satyam Computer Services, led by the company's Chairman Ramalinga Raju, are alleged to have siphoned out a huge quantity of money from the firm. To cover that up, the accounts were manipulated and documents were forged to declare nonexistent cash reserves and understate liabilities.
The money that was taken out may have been used, among other things, to acquire large quantities of land in what seems to be a set of speculative real estate ventures that could enrich the family. The Maytas companies that had titles that spelt Satyam in reverse were important conduits in this process, but there were clearly many more. According to reports, the Registrar of Companies has found that ''Satyam's annual report reveals several transactions with subsidiaries and other group companies by way of investments, purchase of assets and other receivables'' that point to the concealed transfer of funds out of the company.
Shockingly, one of the allegations made by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Andhra Pradesh is that the company had only 40,000 employees on its rolls as compared with the 53,000 claimed by it and the remaining 13,000 were mere fake salary accounts through which as much as Rs. 20 crore a month were taken out of the company over a period of five years. If true, this involves descent to a level of manipulation and fraud that could spell the end for Satyam.
MANGALORE PUB ATTACK
Activists of a self-styled pro-Hindu moral brigade called Sri Rama Sene barged into a pub in the coastal city of Mangalore in january and bashed up a few young girls for 'violating traditional Indian norms'.
At least two girls were punched and their hair pulled by the activists 4 p.m. Saturday at the pub Amnesia - The Lounge in Mangalore, about 350 km from Bangalore. The young men accompanying the girls to the pub on the busy Balmatta Road were also assaulted when they tried to protect their friends.
Following this shocking incident, at least 10 of the activists have been arrested by Mangalore police. From the accounts given by the eyewitnesses, who did not want to be identified, the girls were the target of attack. About 40 men forcibly entered the pub claiming unethical activities were on inside and pushed their way inside. They began assaulting the young men and women who ran for safety. At least two of the girls started screaming for help and managed to flee from the attackers.
The ugly incident has a murky dimension also with leaders of Sri Rama Sene and Bajrang Dal, another pro-Hindu organisation fighting to take credit for the attack in the name of punishing those going against 'traditional Indian norms'.
RAILWAY BUDGET 2009
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav Friday presented his sixth rail budget in February.He is the first Railway Minister to introduce the low fare air-conditioned trains known as "Garib Rath". Fifteen such trains are already running and five more are expected to start in the near future.
The Railways minister cut rail fares across ticket categories by 2% and announced plans for 43 new trains on Friday.
The fare cut will bring down rail fares on air-conditioned travel the most, mounting further pressure on low-cost airlines, while fares for second-class, second-class sleeper, and general compartments will also go down for tickets worth more than Rs 50 per passenger. Suburban commuters who use express or mail trains will also see their ticket costs get Rs 1 cheaper.
The fare cuts, announced in the government’s interim railway budget for 2009-10, are expected to set the Indian Railways back by only around Rs 700 crore but will make little difference to its cash pile of Rs 90,000 crore. In any case, Mr Prasad said a cut in fares would not necessarily lead to a loss of revenues. The Railways has cut fares four times in as many years, lowering AC first class and AC two-tier rates by 28% and 20%, respectively and taking the competition straight to the doors of the low-cost airline sector.
The Minister also proposed starting 43 new trains during 2009-10, and said the Railways would extend services of 14 existing trains. The frequency of various Rajdhani and other express trains will also be increased taking into account the rise in the number of passengers.
DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST VALENTINE'S DAY
Activists of the Hindu fundamentalist political party Shiv Sena on Wednesday staged a token protest at Central Delhis Jantar Mantar against St.Valentines Day celebrations in the capital. The activists said that they viewed celebrations of St.Valentines Day contrary to Indian ethos and a proof of the growing influence of western culture on rest of the world. Besides, the protestors said that the St.Valentines Day was corrupting the Indian youth, as most of the youth on this day take advantage of the occasion and indulge in immoral behaviour at public places.
Such protest were undertaken at quite a few places in India like Bhopal, Bangalore etc. In Uttar Pradesh, Right-wing Hindu activists beat up young couples during Valentine's Day protests across the country. Shiv Sena said it was holding protests across the country against Valentine's Day celebrations which were against Indian culture and had a "corrupting influence" on Indian youth.
Protests by Hindu and Muslim groups were reported from the national capital Delhi, central Bhopal and southern Hyderabad cities.Fifty activists of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party's student wing attacked a shop selling Valentine's Day gifts in Hyderabad and set fire to the greeting cards. They carried saffron flags and chanted slogans such as "Save Culture" and "Death to Valentine's Day." Muslim groups also campaigned against Valentine's Day and displayed posters at public places asking youth to refrain from celebrating the day.
In central Bhopal city, another Hindu right-wing group the Bajrang Dal held protests threatening to marry off lovers found "misbehaving" in public places. Other Hindu religious organizations held protests in the western Gujarat state distributing handbills to college students asking them to shun western culture.
Valentine's Day has become popular in India over the past decade with shops selling romantic cards, heart-shaped balloons, cuddly toys and other gifts. But the day has also seen regular protests by Hindu and Muslim hardliners who claim the celebrations threaten Indian culture and social norms.
Companies and their Tag Lines
Companies And Their Taglines
BANKING AND FINANCE
DEUTSHE BANK--- A person to perform
AXA Life insurance---- Be life confident
Citi Bank ------ Your citi never sleeps
Citi Bank ------ Come to Citi and let's get it done
Citi Bank ------ Live richly
American Express----- Membership has its privileges
American Express----- Don't leave home without it
Franklin Templetion Maryland-Gain from our perspective
Prudential Insurance------- Get a peice of the rock
Prudential Securities------ Rock solid market wise
Bank of America----- Higher standards
Chichago Mercantile Exchange-Ideas that changes the world
Prudential Securities--- Knowing the investor
ABN AMRO------ Making more possible
Master Card----- The heart of commerce
Alliance Capital---- The investment professionals choice
Punjab National Bank---- The name you can bank upon
Sun F&C Mutual Funds---- The value of experience
PNB Gilts----------- Having money the gilt Age
TATA AIG Insurances------ With you always
LIC Mutual Fund---------- With you all the time
Life Insurance Corporation-- We cove you at every step in life
LIC ---- We know india Better
Punjab and Sindh Bank--- Here service is the way of life
SBI----- with you all the way
Centurian Bank----- We value your time
JM Mutual------ Your friend in the world of Risk
GIC mutual fund------ Your trusted treasury Manager
WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER-The fastest way to recieve money worldwide
MAX NEWYORK LIFE-------------Your partner for life
Power finance----- Financing the brighter tommorow
Reliance-------- Growth is Life
Tata AIG------ Improving the quality of life
HSBC--- The World's Local Bank
Citigroup------ Thinking for Generations
Capital one---- what's is in your Wallet
Global Trust Bank-------- Experience a New Way
HDFC Mutual Funds-------- Continuing a Tradition of Trust
IDSI------- Bonding through safety and securities
SBI Mutual Fund--- A Partner For Life
SBI Card------ Makes Life Simple
GIC Mutual Fund------ Serve to prosper
OIL & ENERGY
BP Speed------ Not just Petrol
GULF---------- Your local Global Brand
HP------------ Future Fuel of Energy
COMMUNICATIONS
AIRTEL------- No matter where you are,stay in touch
IDEA ------- An idea can change your life
CNN International----- Essential for Business
AIRTEL------- Express Yourself
Vodafone----- How are you
The Washington Post----- If you don't get it,You don't get it
Yellow Pages------------ Let your finger do the walking
Vodafone------- Make the most of how
HUTCH---------- Wherever you go,our network follows
Nokia----- Connecting People
Siemens Mobile ---- Designed for Life
Motorolla---- Hello moto
Seimens Mobile------ Be inspired
Bharti--------- Building Telecom,Building partnership
MTNL---------- Life line of Delhi and Mumbai
CNN------ The world's News Leader
Business India------- The magazine of the corporate world
Business Standard-------- When you are sure
The Newyork Times-------- Expect the world
Ten Sports--------- Entertainment Guranteed
Business Today---- For Managing Tomorrow
HINDU------ India's National Newspaper
BBC World----- Knowing is Everything
CNBC India---- Perform from it
India Today----- Making sense of india today
Outlook----------- The most exciting weekly News magazine
COMPUTING
Apple Computer------ 1000 songs in your pocket
Apple Computer------ 5000 songs in your Hand
Apple Computer----- Rip,Mix,Burn
Apple Computer----- Multimedia you can use
Apple Computer------ I think ,therefore Mac
Apple Computer------ Every thing is easier on Mac
Apple Computer------ For the best of us
Apple Computer----- Think outside the Box
Apple Computer------ Think Different
Lenove Think Pad------ New thinking,New think Pad
Lenovo--------- New World,New Thinking
Infosys------- Power by intellect,Driven by values
HP------ The Computer is personal again
eBay------ The world's online market place
HEWLETT PACKARD-------- Invent
WIPRO ------ Applying Thoughts
Amazon.com----- And you are done
TCS--- Experience Certainity
eBay----- Buy it ,Sell it,Love it
Sun Microsystems ----- We are the dot in .com
Satyam computer services----What Business Demands
Microsoft---- Where do you want to go today
Microsoft----- Your potential,Our Passion
Wikipedia---- The free Encyclopedia
You tube----- Broad cast yourself
Dell Computer---- Easy as Dell
IBM---- Think
IBM--- Helping Business solutions
IBM---- Solutions for small planet
Compaq---- Inspiration Technology
Oracle------ Software powers the Internet
MonsterIndia.com ---- The best job for the best mind
INTEL--- Intel Inside
BANKING AND FINANCE
DEUTSHE BANK--- A person to perform
AXA Life insurance---- Be life confident
Citi Bank ------ Your citi never sleeps
Citi Bank ------ Come to Citi and let's get it done
Citi Bank ------ Live richly
American Express----- Membership has its privileges
American Express----- Don't leave home without it
Franklin Templetion Maryland-Gain from our perspective
Prudential Insurance------- Get a peice of the rock
Prudential Securities------ Rock solid market wise
Bank of America----- Higher standards
Chichago Mercantile Exchange-Ideas that changes the world
Prudential Securities--- Knowing the investor
ABN AMRO------ Making more possible
Master Card----- The heart of commerce
Alliance Capital---- The investment professionals choice
Punjab National Bank---- The name you can bank upon
Sun F&C Mutual Funds---- The value of experience
PNB Gilts----------- Having money the gilt Age
TATA AIG Insurances------ With you always
LIC Mutual Fund---------- With you all the time
Life Insurance Corporation-- We cove you at every step in life
LIC ---- We know india Better
Punjab and Sindh Bank--- Here service is the way of life
SBI----- with you all the way
Centurian Bank----- We value your time
JM Mutual------ Your friend in the world of Risk
GIC mutual fund------ Your trusted treasury Manager
WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER-The fastest way to recieve money worldwide
MAX NEWYORK LIFE-------------Your partner for life
Power finance----- Financing the brighter tommorow
Reliance-------- Growth is Life
Tata AIG------ Improving the quality of life
HSBC--- The World's Local Bank
Citigroup------ Thinking for Generations
Capital one---- what's is in your Wallet
Global Trust Bank-------- Experience a New Way
HDFC Mutual Funds-------- Continuing a Tradition of Trust
IDSI------- Bonding through safety and securities
SBI Mutual Fund--- A Partner For Life
SBI Card------ Makes Life Simple
GIC Mutual Fund------ Serve to prosper
OIL & ENERGY
BP Speed------ Not just Petrol
GULF---------- Your local Global Brand
HP------------ Future Fuel of Energy
COMMUNICATIONS
AIRTEL------- No matter where you are,stay in touch
IDEA ------- An idea can change your life
CNN International----- Essential for Business
AIRTEL------- Express Yourself
Vodafone----- How are you
The Washington Post----- If you don't get it,You don't get it
Yellow Pages------------ Let your finger do the walking
Vodafone------- Make the most of how
HUTCH---------- Wherever you go,our network follows
Nokia----- Connecting People
Siemens Mobile ---- Designed for Life
Motorolla---- Hello moto
Seimens Mobile------ Be inspired
Bharti--------- Building Telecom,Building partnership
MTNL---------- Life line of Delhi and Mumbai
CNN------ The world's News Leader
Business India------- The magazine of the corporate world
Business Standard-------- When you are sure
The Newyork Times-------- Expect the world
Ten Sports--------- Entertainment Guranteed
Business Today---- For Managing Tomorrow
HINDU------ India's National Newspaper
BBC World----- Knowing is Everything
CNBC India---- Perform from it
India Today----- Making sense of india today
Outlook----------- The most exciting weekly News magazine
COMPUTING
Apple Computer------ 1000 songs in your pocket
Apple Computer------ 5000 songs in your Hand
Apple Computer----- Rip,Mix,Burn
Apple Computer----- Multimedia you can use
Apple Computer------ I think ,therefore Mac
Apple Computer------ Every thing is easier on Mac
Apple Computer------ For the best of us
Apple Computer----- Think outside the Box
Apple Computer------ Think Different
Lenove Think Pad------ New thinking,New think Pad
Lenovo--------- New World,New Thinking
Infosys------- Power by intellect,Driven by values
HP------ The Computer is personal again
eBay------ The world's online market place
HEWLETT PACKARD-------- Invent
WIPRO ------ Applying Thoughts
Amazon.com----- And you are done
TCS--- Experience Certainity
eBay----- Buy it ,Sell it,Love it
Sun Microsystems ----- We are the dot in .com
Satyam computer services----What Business Demands
Microsoft---- Where do you want to go today
Microsoft----- Your potential,Our Passion
Wikipedia---- The free Encyclopedia
You tube----- Broad cast yourself
Dell Computer---- Easy as Dell
IBM---- Think
IBM--- Helping Business solutions
IBM---- Solutions for small planet
Compaq---- Inspiration Technology
Oracle------ Software powers the Internet
MonsterIndia.com ---- The best job for the best mind
INTEL--- Intel Inside
Global Tobacco Epidemic
Global Tobacco Epidemic
100 million dead in the 20th century. Currently 5.4 million deaths every year. Unless urgent action is taken: By 2030, there will be more than 8 million deaths every year. By 2030, more than 80% of tobacco deaths will be in developing countries. One billion estimated deaths predicted during the 21st century.
The above statistics are scary, indeed. "Reversing this entirely preventable epidemic must now rank as a top priority for public health and for political leaders in every country of the world," according to Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General.
Tobacco is the only legal consumer product that can harm everyone exposed to it–and it kills up to half of those who use it as intended. Yet, tobacco use is common throughout the world due to low prices, aggressive and widespread marketing, lack of awareness about its dangers, and inconsistent public policies against its use. Most of tobacco’s damage to health does not become evident until years or even decades after the onset of use. So, while tobacco use is rising globally, the epidemic of tobacco-related disease and death has just begun.
The global consensus that we must fight the tobacco epidemic has already been established by more than 150 Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Now, the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic gives countries a roadmap that builds on the WHO Framework Convention to turn this global consensus into a global reality through MPOWER, a package of six effective tobacco control policies.
To support MPOWER, WHO and its global partners are providing new resources to help countries stop the disease, death and economic damage caused by tobacco use. When implemented and enforced as a package, the six policies will prevent young people from beginning to smoke, help current smokers quit, protect non-smokers from exposure to second-hand smoke and free countries and their people from tobacco’s harm.
The MPOWER package entails:
Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies. Assessment of tobacco use and its impact must be strengthened. Currently, half of countries – and two in three in the developing world – do not have even minimal information about youth and adult tobacco use. Data on other aspects of the epidemic, such as tobacco-related disease and death, are also inadequate. Good monitoring provides information about the extent of the epidemic in a country, as well as how to tailor policies to specific country needs. Both global and country-by-country monitoring are critical to understanding and reversing the tobacco epidemic.
Protect people from tobacco smoke. All people have a fundamental right to breathe clean air. Smoke-free places are essential to protect non-smokers and also to encourage smokers to quit. Any country, regardless of income level, can implement smoke-free laws effectively. However, only 5% of the global population is protected by comprehensive smoke-free legislation. In most countries, smoke-free laws cover only some indoor spaces, are weakly written or are poorly enforced. Once enacted and enforced, smoke-free laws are widely popular, even among smokers, and do not harm businesses. Only a total ban on smoking in public places and workplaces protects people from second-hand smoke and helps smokers quit.
Offer help to quit tobacco use. Most of the world’s more than one billion smokers – about a quarter of all adults – are addicted. Many want to quit, but few get the help they need. Services to treat tobacco dependence are fully available in only nine countries, with 5% of the world’s population. Countries must establish programmes providing low-cost, effective interventions for tobacco users who want to escape their addiction.
Warn about the dangers of tobacco. Despite conclusive evidence, relatively few tobacco users understand the full extent of their health risk. Comprehensive warnings about the dangers of tobacco can change tobacco’s image, especially among adolescents and young adults. Graphic warnings on tobacco packaging deter tobacco use, yet only 15 countries, representing 6% of the world’s population, mandate pictorial warnings (covering at least 30% of the principal surface area) and just five countries, with a little over 4% of the world’s people, meet the highest standards for pack warnings. More than 40% of the world’s population lives in countries that do not prevent use of misleading and deceptive terms such as “light” and “low-tar”, even though conclusive scientific evidence – which has been known to the tobacco industry for several decades – shows that such products do not reduce health risks. This first report has not assessed public education campaigns, which, if hard-hitting, sophisticated and sustained, are highly effective.
Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. The tobacco industry spends tens of billions of dollars world-wide each year on advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Partial bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship do not work because the industry merely re-directs its resources to other non-regulated marketing channels. Only a total ban can reduce tobacco consumption and protect people, particularly youth, from industry marketing tactics. Only 5% of the world’s population currently lives in countries with comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. About half the children of the world live in countries that do not ban free distribution of tobacco products.
Raise taxes on tobacco. Raising taxes, and therefore prices, is the most effective way to reduce tobacco use, and especially to discourage young people from using tobacco. It also helps convince tobacco users to quit. Only four countries, representing 2% of the world’s population, have tax rates greater than 75% of retail price. And although more than four out of five high-income countries tax tobacco at 51–75% of retail price, less than a quarter of low- and middle-income countries tax tobacco at this rate. A 70% increase in the price of tobacco could prevent up to a quarter of all tobacco-related deaths world-wide. A 10% price increase may cause a 4% drop in tobacco consumption in high-income countries and an 8% drop in low- and middle-income countries, with tobacco tax revenue increasing despite reduced consumption. Higher taxes can provide countries with funding to implement and enforce tobacco control policies and can pay for other public health and social programmes.
For 3.8 billion people living in the low- and middle-income countries for which information is available, total national tobacco control expenditure was only US$ 14 million per year. In contrast, tobacco tax revenue for these same countries was US$ 66.5 billion. In other words, for every US$ 5,000 in tobacco tax revenue, these countries spent about US$ 1 for tobacco control. Per capita expenditure on tobacco control in low- and middle-income countries with available information was less than one tenth of one cent and about a half a cent, respectively.
The MPOWER package provides tools to take action. What is needed now is the resolve by political leadership, governments and civil society in every country to adopt and enact these six policies that have been proven to reduce tobacco use and its resulting burden of disease and death. Citizens strongly support tobacco control measures, even in countries with high levels of tobacco use. In China, for example, the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco, a recent survey found that most urban residents support establishing smoke-free public places, banning tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and raising tobacco taxes.
Tobacco control is not expensive. Tobacco taxes increase government revenues. Enforcement of smoke-free laws and advertising, promotion and sponsorship bans do not require large expenditure. Cessation services can be integrated into the general health-care system.
To counteract the tobacco epidemic, countries must have the political will to adopt and enforce MPOWER. Despite strong evidence of effectiveness of and public support for tobacco control measures, only about one in five countries has fully implemented any of the key five policies – smoke-free environments, treatment of tobacco dependence, health warnings on packages, bans on advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and tobacco taxation – at a level that provides full protection for their populations, and not a single country has implemented all six at the highest level. If countries implement and enforce MPOWER, they can prevent millions of people from being disabled or killed by tobacco.
Economics of Tobacco
Although the tobacco industry claims it creates jobs and generates revenues that enhance local and national economies, the industry’s overriding contribution to any country is suffering, disease, death – and economic losses. Tobacco use currently costs the world hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
Tobacco-related deaths result in lost economic opportunities. In the United States, these losses are estimated at US$ 92 billion a year. Lost economic opportunities in highly populated, developing countries – many of which are manufacturing centres of the global economy – will be severe as the tobacco epidemic worsens, because half of all tobacco-related deaths occur during the prime productive years. The economic cost of tobacco-related deaths imposes a particular burden on the developing world, where four out of five tobacco deaths will occur by 2030.1 Data on tobacco’s impact on global health-care costs are incomplete, but it is known to be high. In the United States, annual tobacco-related health-care costs are US$ 81 billion, in Germany nearly US$ 7 billion and in Australia US$ 1 billion.
The net economic effect of tobacco is to deepen poverty. The industry’s business objective – to get more customers addicted – disproportionately hurts the poor. Tobacco use is higher among the poor than the rich in most countries, and the difference in tobacco use between poor and rich is greatest in regions where average income is among the lowest.
For the poor, money spent on tobacco means money not spent on basic necessities such as food, shelter, education and health care. The poorest households in Bangladesh spend almost 10 times as much on tobacco as on education. In Indonesia, where smoking is most common among the poor, the lowest income group spends 15% of its total expenditure on tobacco. In Egypt, more than 10% of household expenditure in low-income homes is on tobacco. The poorest 20% of households in Mexico spend nearly 11% of their household income on tobacco. Medical costs from smoking impoverish more than 50 million people in China.
The poor are much more likely than the rich to become ill and die prematurely from tobacco-related illnesses. This creates greater economic hardship and perpetuates the circle of poverty and illness. Early deaths of primary wage earners are especially catastrophic for poor families and communities. When, for example, a 45-year-old Bangladeshi man who heads a low-income household dies of cancer from a 35-year bidi habit, the survival of his entire family is at stake. His lost economic capacity is magnified as his spouse, children and other dependants sink deeper into poverty and government or extended family members must take on their support.
Helping the addicts
People who are addicted to nicotine are victims of the tobacco epidemic. Among smokers who are aware of the dangers of tobacco, three out of four want to quit. Like people dependent on any addictive drug, it is difficult for most tobacco users to quit on their own and they benefit from help and support to overcome their dependence.
Countries’ health-care systems hold the primary responsibility for treating tobacco dependence. Treatment includes various methods, from simple medical advice to pharmaco-therapy, along with telephone help lines known as quit lines, and counselling. These treatment methods have differing cost efficiencies, and do not have a uniform impact on individual tobacco users. Treatment should be adapted to local conditions and cultures, and tailored to individual preferences and needs.
In most cases, a few basic treatment interventions can help tobacco users who want to quit. Three types of treatment should be included in any tobacco prevention effort: (i) tobacco cessation advice incorporated into primary health-care services; (ii) easily accessible and free quit lines; and (iii) access to low-cost pharmacological therapy.
Integrating tobacco cessation into primary health care and other routine medical visits provides the health-care system with opportunities to remind users that tobacco harms their health and that of others around them. Repeated advice at every medical visit reinforces the need to stop using tobacco.
Well-staffed quit lines should be accessible to a country’s entire population through toll-free phone numbers and waivers of access charges for mobile phone users. Quit lines are inexpensive to operate, easily accessible, confidential and can be staffed for long hours; many tobacco users may be unable or unwilling to call during business hours. Quit lines also can help introduce users to other tobacco dependence treatment, such as counselling and nicotine replacement therapy. Additionally, quit lines can reach individuals in remote places and can be tailored to specific population groups. For example, the United Kingdom’s Asian Quit Line receives 20 000 calls a year and reaches 10% of all South Asian tobacco users in that country.
In addition to medical advice and quit lines, effective treatment can also include pharmacological treatment such as nicotine replacement therapy in the form of patches, lozenges, gum and nasal sprays, and prescription medications such as bupropion and varenicline. Nicotine replacement therapy is usually available over-the-counter, whereas other drugs require a doctor’s prescription for them to be dispensed.
Nicotine replacement therapy reduces withdrawal symptoms by substituting for some of the nicotine absorbed from tobacco. Bupropion, an anti-depressant, can reduce craving and other negative sensations when tobacco users cut back or stop their nicotine intake. Varenicline attaches to nicotine receptors in the brain to prevent the release of dopamine, thus blocking the sensations of pleasure that people can experience when they smoke.
Pharmacological therapy is generally more expensive and considered to be less cost effective than physician advice and quit lines, but it has been shown to double or triple quit rates.
Cessation programmes provide a significant political advantage by enabling governments to help those most directly affected by the epidemic at the same time that they are enacting new restrictions on tobacco. They generally encounter few political obstacles and help foster a national policy of opposition to tobacco use, an important step in creating a tobacco-free society. Governments can use some tobacco tax revenues to help users free themselves from addiction.
New Zealand provides a good example for government action. Following a lobbying campaign by the tobacco control community, the country went from offering virtually no tobacco cessation treatment to one of the world’s most advanced initiatives in only five years, with government spending on smoking cessation rising from almost zero to US$ 10 million per year. The initiatives include a national quit line that is now one of the busiest in the world, subsidized nicotine replacement therapy and quit services focusing on the minority Maori population.
Implementation status
Only 86 of 193 Member States have recent, nationally representative data for both adults and youths. More than half of the world’s population lives in areas that lack even minimally adequate recent information on tobacco use. Monitoring systems are particularly weak in low- and middle-income countries; high-income countries are more likely to collect at least minimally adequate monitoring information (73% of countries) than are middle- (43%) or low-income (24%) countries. However, basic monitoring need not be expensive, and is within reach of virtually all countries.
In 44 of the 127 countries with recent and representative adult surveys, data were collected through international survey tools such as the World Health Survey or WHO’s STEPwise approach to Surveillance (STEPS). Out of these 127 countries, 25 have sub-national Global Youth Tobacco Survey data and 68 have national Global Youth Tobacco Survey data.
Smoke-free environments are crucial for protecting the health of smokers and non-smokers alike, as well as for sending a clear message that smoking in public places is not socially accepted. Smoke-free laws protect workers from chemicals that cause cancer and change the way blood clots and flows to the heart, and they provide a strong incentive for smokers to quit. Only completely smoke-free places, without any indoor smoking areas and with effective enforcement, can protect workers and the public and also encourage smokers to quit. Exceptions make enforcement difficult and negate the effectiveness of smoke-free laws.
Although an increasing number of countries have passed legislation mandating smoke-free environments, the overwhelming majority of countries have no smoke-free laws, very limited laws or ineffective enforcement.
More than half of countries, accounting for nearly two thirds of the population of the world, allow smoking in government offices, workplaces and other indoor places. Consequently, most office workers worldwide are forced to breathe other people’s tobacco smoke. Only 24 (13%) of the 179 countries and 1 territory protect restaurant workers from tobacco smoke; although any country can implement smoke-free laws, the proportion of high-income countries with smoke-free restaurants (12 of 41, 29%) is more than three times higher than the proportion of low- and middle-income countries (and one territory) with similar measures (12 of 139, 9%).
Of the countries reporting smoke-free laws that are moderate or complete, only one third have even moderate levels of enforcement documented (scores of 3 or higher out of 10). Only four countries achieved a score of 8 or higher (out of 10 possible points) and only two countries – Uruguay and New Zealand – had both comprehensive smoke-free laws and an enforcement score of 8 or higher. Many countries with completely smoke-free environments are in Europe.
Some countries have made great strides protecting citizens from second-hand smoke. In March 2004, Ireland became the first country in the world to create and enjoy smoke-free indoor work-places and public places, including restaurants, bars and pubs. Within three months, Norway’s smoke-free legislation entered into force. Since then, these examples have been followed by many countries including Italy and Uruguay, along with many cities across the globe. Most people in Canada, Australia and the United States are protected by State or local smoke-free legislation.
Conclusion
In summary, only around 5% of the world’s population is covered by any one of the key interventions of effective advertising, promotion and sponsorship bans, smoke-free spaces, prominent pack warnings, protection from deceptive and misleading advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and cessation support. Governments collect more than US$ 200 billion in tobacco tax revenues and have the financial resources to expand and strengthen tobacco control programmes. Further tobacco tax increases can provide additional funding for these initiatives.
The number of people killed each year by tobacco will double over the next few decades unless urgent action is taken. But just as the epidemic of tobacco-caused disease is man-made, people – acting through their governments and civil society – can reverse the epidemic.
Tobacco is unique among today’s leading public health problems in that the means to curb the epidemic are clear and within our reach. If countries have the political commitment and technical and logistic support to implement the MPOWER policy package, they can save millions of lives.
Because the tobacco industry is far better funded and more politically powerful than those who advocate to protect children and non-smokers from tobacco and to help tobacco users quit, much more needs to be done by every country to reverse the tobacco epidemic. Unless urgent action is taken, more than one billion people could be killed by tobacco during this century.
100 million dead in the 20th century. Currently 5.4 million deaths every year. Unless urgent action is taken: By 2030, there will be more than 8 million deaths every year. By 2030, more than 80% of tobacco deaths will be in developing countries. One billion estimated deaths predicted during the 21st century.
The above statistics are scary, indeed. "Reversing this entirely preventable epidemic must now rank as a top priority for public health and for political leaders in every country of the world," according to Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General.
Tobacco is the only legal consumer product that can harm everyone exposed to it–and it kills up to half of those who use it as intended. Yet, tobacco use is common throughout the world due to low prices, aggressive and widespread marketing, lack of awareness about its dangers, and inconsistent public policies against its use. Most of tobacco’s damage to health does not become evident until years or even decades after the onset of use. So, while tobacco use is rising globally, the epidemic of tobacco-related disease and death has just begun.
The global consensus that we must fight the tobacco epidemic has already been established by more than 150 Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Now, the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic gives countries a roadmap that builds on the WHO Framework Convention to turn this global consensus into a global reality through MPOWER, a package of six effective tobacco control policies.
To support MPOWER, WHO and its global partners are providing new resources to help countries stop the disease, death and economic damage caused by tobacco use. When implemented and enforced as a package, the six policies will prevent young people from beginning to smoke, help current smokers quit, protect non-smokers from exposure to second-hand smoke and free countries and their people from tobacco’s harm.
The MPOWER package entails:
Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies. Assessment of tobacco use and its impact must be strengthened. Currently, half of countries – and two in three in the developing world – do not have even minimal information about youth and adult tobacco use. Data on other aspects of the epidemic, such as tobacco-related disease and death, are also inadequate. Good monitoring provides information about the extent of the epidemic in a country, as well as how to tailor policies to specific country needs. Both global and country-by-country monitoring are critical to understanding and reversing the tobacco epidemic.
Protect people from tobacco smoke. All people have a fundamental right to breathe clean air. Smoke-free places are essential to protect non-smokers and also to encourage smokers to quit. Any country, regardless of income level, can implement smoke-free laws effectively. However, only 5% of the global population is protected by comprehensive smoke-free legislation. In most countries, smoke-free laws cover only some indoor spaces, are weakly written or are poorly enforced. Once enacted and enforced, smoke-free laws are widely popular, even among smokers, and do not harm businesses. Only a total ban on smoking in public places and workplaces protects people from second-hand smoke and helps smokers quit.
Offer help to quit tobacco use. Most of the world’s more than one billion smokers – about a quarter of all adults – are addicted. Many want to quit, but few get the help they need. Services to treat tobacco dependence are fully available in only nine countries, with 5% of the world’s population. Countries must establish programmes providing low-cost, effective interventions for tobacco users who want to escape their addiction.
Warn about the dangers of tobacco. Despite conclusive evidence, relatively few tobacco users understand the full extent of their health risk. Comprehensive warnings about the dangers of tobacco can change tobacco’s image, especially among adolescents and young adults. Graphic warnings on tobacco packaging deter tobacco use, yet only 15 countries, representing 6% of the world’s population, mandate pictorial warnings (covering at least 30% of the principal surface area) and just five countries, with a little over 4% of the world’s people, meet the highest standards for pack warnings. More than 40% of the world’s population lives in countries that do not prevent use of misleading and deceptive terms such as “light” and “low-tar”, even though conclusive scientific evidence – which has been known to the tobacco industry for several decades – shows that such products do not reduce health risks. This first report has not assessed public education campaigns, which, if hard-hitting, sophisticated and sustained, are highly effective.
Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. The tobacco industry spends tens of billions of dollars world-wide each year on advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Partial bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship do not work because the industry merely re-directs its resources to other non-regulated marketing channels. Only a total ban can reduce tobacco consumption and protect people, particularly youth, from industry marketing tactics. Only 5% of the world’s population currently lives in countries with comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. About half the children of the world live in countries that do not ban free distribution of tobacco products.
Raise taxes on tobacco. Raising taxes, and therefore prices, is the most effective way to reduce tobacco use, and especially to discourage young people from using tobacco. It also helps convince tobacco users to quit. Only four countries, representing 2% of the world’s population, have tax rates greater than 75% of retail price. And although more than four out of five high-income countries tax tobacco at 51–75% of retail price, less than a quarter of low- and middle-income countries tax tobacco at this rate. A 70% increase in the price of tobacco could prevent up to a quarter of all tobacco-related deaths world-wide. A 10% price increase may cause a 4% drop in tobacco consumption in high-income countries and an 8% drop in low- and middle-income countries, with tobacco tax revenue increasing despite reduced consumption. Higher taxes can provide countries with funding to implement and enforce tobacco control policies and can pay for other public health and social programmes.
For 3.8 billion people living in the low- and middle-income countries for which information is available, total national tobacco control expenditure was only US$ 14 million per year. In contrast, tobacco tax revenue for these same countries was US$ 66.5 billion. In other words, for every US$ 5,000 in tobacco tax revenue, these countries spent about US$ 1 for tobacco control. Per capita expenditure on tobacco control in low- and middle-income countries with available information was less than one tenth of one cent and about a half a cent, respectively.
The MPOWER package provides tools to take action. What is needed now is the resolve by political leadership, governments and civil society in every country to adopt and enact these six policies that have been proven to reduce tobacco use and its resulting burden of disease and death. Citizens strongly support tobacco control measures, even in countries with high levels of tobacco use. In China, for example, the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco, a recent survey found that most urban residents support establishing smoke-free public places, banning tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and raising tobacco taxes.
Tobacco control is not expensive. Tobacco taxes increase government revenues. Enforcement of smoke-free laws and advertising, promotion and sponsorship bans do not require large expenditure. Cessation services can be integrated into the general health-care system.
To counteract the tobacco epidemic, countries must have the political will to adopt and enforce MPOWER. Despite strong evidence of effectiveness of and public support for tobacco control measures, only about one in five countries has fully implemented any of the key five policies – smoke-free environments, treatment of tobacco dependence, health warnings on packages, bans on advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and tobacco taxation – at a level that provides full protection for their populations, and not a single country has implemented all six at the highest level. If countries implement and enforce MPOWER, they can prevent millions of people from being disabled or killed by tobacco.
Economics of Tobacco
Although the tobacco industry claims it creates jobs and generates revenues that enhance local and national economies, the industry’s overriding contribution to any country is suffering, disease, death – and economic losses. Tobacco use currently costs the world hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
Tobacco-related deaths result in lost economic opportunities. In the United States, these losses are estimated at US$ 92 billion a year. Lost economic opportunities in highly populated, developing countries – many of which are manufacturing centres of the global economy – will be severe as the tobacco epidemic worsens, because half of all tobacco-related deaths occur during the prime productive years. The economic cost of tobacco-related deaths imposes a particular burden on the developing world, where four out of five tobacco deaths will occur by 2030.1 Data on tobacco’s impact on global health-care costs are incomplete, but it is known to be high. In the United States, annual tobacco-related health-care costs are US$ 81 billion, in Germany nearly US$ 7 billion and in Australia US$ 1 billion.
The net economic effect of tobacco is to deepen poverty. The industry’s business objective – to get more customers addicted – disproportionately hurts the poor. Tobacco use is higher among the poor than the rich in most countries, and the difference in tobacco use between poor and rich is greatest in regions where average income is among the lowest.
For the poor, money spent on tobacco means money not spent on basic necessities such as food, shelter, education and health care. The poorest households in Bangladesh spend almost 10 times as much on tobacco as on education. In Indonesia, where smoking is most common among the poor, the lowest income group spends 15% of its total expenditure on tobacco. In Egypt, more than 10% of household expenditure in low-income homes is on tobacco. The poorest 20% of households in Mexico spend nearly 11% of their household income on tobacco. Medical costs from smoking impoverish more than 50 million people in China.
The poor are much more likely than the rich to become ill and die prematurely from tobacco-related illnesses. This creates greater economic hardship and perpetuates the circle of poverty and illness. Early deaths of primary wage earners are especially catastrophic for poor families and communities. When, for example, a 45-year-old Bangladeshi man who heads a low-income household dies of cancer from a 35-year bidi habit, the survival of his entire family is at stake. His lost economic capacity is magnified as his spouse, children and other dependants sink deeper into poverty and government or extended family members must take on their support.
Helping the addicts
People who are addicted to nicotine are victims of the tobacco epidemic. Among smokers who are aware of the dangers of tobacco, three out of four want to quit. Like people dependent on any addictive drug, it is difficult for most tobacco users to quit on their own and they benefit from help and support to overcome their dependence.
Countries’ health-care systems hold the primary responsibility for treating tobacco dependence. Treatment includes various methods, from simple medical advice to pharmaco-therapy, along with telephone help lines known as quit lines, and counselling. These treatment methods have differing cost efficiencies, and do not have a uniform impact on individual tobacco users. Treatment should be adapted to local conditions and cultures, and tailored to individual preferences and needs.
In most cases, a few basic treatment interventions can help tobacco users who want to quit. Three types of treatment should be included in any tobacco prevention effort: (i) tobacco cessation advice incorporated into primary health-care services; (ii) easily accessible and free quit lines; and (iii) access to low-cost pharmacological therapy.
Integrating tobacco cessation into primary health care and other routine medical visits provides the health-care system with opportunities to remind users that tobacco harms their health and that of others around them. Repeated advice at every medical visit reinforces the need to stop using tobacco.
Well-staffed quit lines should be accessible to a country’s entire population through toll-free phone numbers and waivers of access charges for mobile phone users. Quit lines are inexpensive to operate, easily accessible, confidential and can be staffed for long hours; many tobacco users may be unable or unwilling to call during business hours. Quit lines also can help introduce users to other tobacco dependence treatment, such as counselling and nicotine replacement therapy. Additionally, quit lines can reach individuals in remote places and can be tailored to specific population groups. For example, the United Kingdom’s Asian Quit Line receives 20 000 calls a year and reaches 10% of all South Asian tobacco users in that country.
In addition to medical advice and quit lines, effective treatment can also include pharmacological treatment such as nicotine replacement therapy in the form of patches, lozenges, gum and nasal sprays, and prescription medications such as bupropion and varenicline. Nicotine replacement therapy is usually available over-the-counter, whereas other drugs require a doctor’s prescription for them to be dispensed.
Nicotine replacement therapy reduces withdrawal symptoms by substituting for some of the nicotine absorbed from tobacco. Bupropion, an anti-depressant, can reduce craving and other negative sensations when tobacco users cut back or stop their nicotine intake. Varenicline attaches to nicotine receptors in the brain to prevent the release of dopamine, thus blocking the sensations of pleasure that people can experience when they smoke.
Pharmacological therapy is generally more expensive and considered to be less cost effective than physician advice and quit lines, but it has been shown to double or triple quit rates.
Cessation programmes provide a significant political advantage by enabling governments to help those most directly affected by the epidemic at the same time that they are enacting new restrictions on tobacco. They generally encounter few political obstacles and help foster a national policy of opposition to tobacco use, an important step in creating a tobacco-free society. Governments can use some tobacco tax revenues to help users free themselves from addiction.
New Zealand provides a good example for government action. Following a lobbying campaign by the tobacco control community, the country went from offering virtually no tobacco cessation treatment to one of the world’s most advanced initiatives in only five years, with government spending on smoking cessation rising from almost zero to US$ 10 million per year. The initiatives include a national quit line that is now one of the busiest in the world, subsidized nicotine replacement therapy and quit services focusing on the minority Maori population.
Implementation status
Only 86 of 193 Member States have recent, nationally representative data for both adults and youths. More than half of the world’s population lives in areas that lack even minimally adequate recent information on tobacco use. Monitoring systems are particularly weak in low- and middle-income countries; high-income countries are more likely to collect at least minimally adequate monitoring information (73% of countries) than are middle- (43%) or low-income (24%) countries. However, basic monitoring need not be expensive, and is within reach of virtually all countries.
In 44 of the 127 countries with recent and representative adult surveys, data were collected through international survey tools such as the World Health Survey or WHO’s STEPwise approach to Surveillance (STEPS). Out of these 127 countries, 25 have sub-national Global Youth Tobacco Survey data and 68 have national Global Youth Tobacco Survey data.
Smoke-free environments are crucial for protecting the health of smokers and non-smokers alike, as well as for sending a clear message that smoking in public places is not socially accepted. Smoke-free laws protect workers from chemicals that cause cancer and change the way blood clots and flows to the heart, and they provide a strong incentive for smokers to quit. Only completely smoke-free places, without any indoor smoking areas and with effective enforcement, can protect workers and the public and also encourage smokers to quit. Exceptions make enforcement difficult and negate the effectiveness of smoke-free laws.
Although an increasing number of countries have passed legislation mandating smoke-free environments, the overwhelming majority of countries have no smoke-free laws, very limited laws or ineffective enforcement.
More than half of countries, accounting for nearly two thirds of the population of the world, allow smoking in government offices, workplaces and other indoor places. Consequently, most office workers worldwide are forced to breathe other people’s tobacco smoke. Only 24 (13%) of the 179 countries and 1 territory protect restaurant workers from tobacco smoke; although any country can implement smoke-free laws, the proportion of high-income countries with smoke-free restaurants (12 of 41, 29%) is more than three times higher than the proportion of low- and middle-income countries (and one territory) with similar measures (12 of 139, 9%).
Of the countries reporting smoke-free laws that are moderate or complete, only one third have even moderate levels of enforcement documented (scores of 3 or higher out of 10). Only four countries achieved a score of 8 or higher (out of 10 possible points) and only two countries – Uruguay and New Zealand – had both comprehensive smoke-free laws and an enforcement score of 8 or higher. Many countries with completely smoke-free environments are in Europe.
Some countries have made great strides protecting citizens from second-hand smoke. In March 2004, Ireland became the first country in the world to create and enjoy smoke-free indoor work-places and public places, including restaurants, bars and pubs. Within three months, Norway’s smoke-free legislation entered into force. Since then, these examples have been followed by many countries including Italy and Uruguay, along with many cities across the globe. Most people in Canada, Australia and the United States are protected by State or local smoke-free legislation.
Conclusion
In summary, only around 5% of the world’s population is covered by any one of the key interventions of effective advertising, promotion and sponsorship bans, smoke-free spaces, prominent pack warnings, protection from deceptive and misleading advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and cessation support. Governments collect more than US$ 200 billion in tobacco tax revenues and have the financial resources to expand and strengthen tobacco control programmes. Further tobacco tax increases can provide additional funding for these initiatives.
The number of people killed each year by tobacco will double over the next few decades unless urgent action is taken. But just as the epidemic of tobacco-caused disease is man-made, people – acting through their governments and civil society – can reverse the epidemic.
Tobacco is unique among today’s leading public health problems in that the means to curb the epidemic are clear and within our reach. If countries have the political commitment and technical and logistic support to implement the MPOWER policy package, they can save millions of lives.
Because the tobacco industry is far better funded and more politically powerful than those who advocate to protect children and non-smokers from tobacco and to help tobacco users quit, much more needs to be done by every country to reverse the tobacco epidemic. Unless urgent action is taken, more than one billion people could be killed by tobacco during this century.
National Current Affairs
CURRENT NATIONAL AFFAIRS
BANKING & FINANCE
E-payments to be credited directly to merchants
In what would make online commerce faster for customers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has mandated that all payments for such transactions be credited directly to merchants, instead of getting cleared by intermediaries such as CC Avenue and Paypal.
Currently, until a payment is authorised and processed by intermediaries, a transaction is not completed. For instance, online retailers such as eBay do not ship goods purchased online unless funds are credited to their account, after being routed through an intermediary. CC Avenue, BillDesk, Direc-Pay, ICICI PaySeal and Paypal are among major payment gateways in India.
Under the new system, all payments to merchants shall be effected within a maximum of three days from the date of transaction. From now on, no payment other than the commissions at the pre-determined rates/frequency shall be payable to the intermediaries. The existing system has some pitfalls. Often, there is a delay in transferring money to the merchant; at times it is more than seven days.
SEBI allows auction of shares in follow-on offer
SEBI has allowed companies to go for pure auction of shares (offered at bid price) in a follow on public offer for pricing of issues for institutional investors. However, the companies will have to offer shares to retail investors, including employees, at the floor price, fixed before start of the auction process and the existing system of public offerings of shares at an uniform price in a band through book-build method will also continue.
To encourage small and medium firms to come out with public issues, SEBI has also allowed existing stock exchanges to set up a separate trading platform and relax the criteria like track record on profitability for listings. On the issue of trading hours, the board has left it on exchanges to decide between 9 am and 5 pm.
Giving more choices to listed companies in pricing shares via book-build route, SEBI introduced an additional method, called Dutch auction, in which the companies making public issues will fix only floor prices. Institutional bidders will have to submit bids above the floor prices. The bidders will be allotted shares on the basis of their bid prices. The highest bidder will be offered shares first, followed by the second-highest.
If the demand for the highest bidder is equal to the total issue size, second-highest bidder will get nothing. However, if the issuer wants to put a cap on allotting shares to a single bidder, it can do so.
Under the present system, known as French auction, companies fix a band of prices for public offers. The maximum difference between floor and ceiling prices in the band is 10%. A bidder has to bid in the given band only. On the basis of demand at various price points, the offer price is fixed and applied uniformly to all investors. The new methodology of pricing is likely to be used by government while divesting its stake in REC and NTPC.
COMMISSION
Liberhan inquiry commission
It took 17 years and 48 extensions for the Liberhan Commission, probing the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, to submit its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in June 2009. One of the country’s longest running inquiry commissions, it has cost the government nearly Rs 7 crore.
During the entire tenure, the one-judge probe was dogged by procedural delays, non-cooperation from key witnesses and even constant transfers during the early days of the commission’s functioning. The commission’s lawyer, Anupam Gupta, dissociated himself from the one-man panel after eight years because of differences with Justice Liberhan.
The commission recorded statements of scores of politicians from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including senior leaders Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Singh and now Bharatiya Jan Shakti party chief Uma Bharati. Several members of the Congress and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were also questioned.
Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and ex-UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh are among the 68 persons severely indicted by Justice M.S. Liberhan Commission for their role in the Babri Masjid demolition 17 years ago, which led the country to a “brink of communal discord.”
The commission, surprisingly, is soft on Congressman and the then Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao for his perceived ‘inaction’ in deploying Central forces or imposing President’s Rule in then BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh to protect the 16th century structure, purported to have been built during the reign of Mughal emperor Babar. The commission refers to it as the Ram Janam Bhoomi-Babri Masjid structure (RJBM) and has clarified that its role was not to study if the structure was a mosque or a temple or even its history.
In his 1,029-page report, Justice Liberhan, a former Chief Justice of Madras High Court, indicts the perpetrators for having reduced “the oldest civilisation to stark intolerance and barbarianism, all for petty political gains.”
Coming down heavily on the troika of Advani, Vajpayee and Joshi, Justice Liberhan calls them “pseudo-moderates" and refers to them as “icons” of the movement. The commission also indicts Uma Bharti, RSS ideologue K. Govindacharya and Shankar Singh Vaghela, along with Kalyan Singh, who are no more connected with the BJP or the RSS.
Silent on punitive action against those indicted for the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, government’s Action Taken Report (ATR) on the much-delayed Liberhan Commission findings agrees to enact the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill to punish those who misuse religion for politics, and set up special tribunals to prosecute related offences.
In the name of action against perpetrators of the demolition, all the ATR promises is expediting the hearing of cases registered 17 years ago. These include the case at Lucknow special court against lakhs of unknown karsewaks; case against eight accused (politicians also named by Liberhan) in Rae Bareli special court and 47 other cases in the Lucknow special court.
The ATR, however, is non-condescending to Liberhan’s major recommendation of a statutory national commission of cultural experts to determine the historical legacy of monuments, like those in question. The government plainly rejected this proposal saying the ASI could handle the job. It also declined Liberhan’s idea to confer statutory status on the National Integration Council, though it accepted in part his recommendation that political leaders and holders of public offices should not simultaneously hold positions in religions organisations.
ECONOMY
India climbs to tenth slot among top gold holders
India is the world’s largest private gold consumer, but the government’s holding of gold as an asset is modest. Even so, the latest purchase of 200 metric tonne from IMF puts it at number ten among the list of top 10 gold-holders in the world.
For India, the purchase, apart from signalling that its economy has come full circle, is a way of spreading its assets which are said to be currently over-weighted with foreign currency, mainly in the form of sovereign US Treasury bonds. In other words, it is a hedge against a falling dollar.
Of India’s current foreign exchange reserves of nearly $285 billion, foreign currency assets account for more than 90% ($268.3 billion), followed by gold ($10.3 billion), IMF’s Special Drawing Rights ($5.2 billion) and a reserve position in the IMF of $1.59 billion.
While India’s current gold holdings are said to be historically low, buying 200 tons in addition to the 358 tons it already holds is expected to bump up the gold reserves to more than 6%.
India’s gold trauma occurred in the summer of 1991, when faced with dwindling foreign exchange reserves and a possibility of a default on payments, the government mortgaged 47 tons of gold to the Bank of England and 20 tons of gold to the Union Bank of Switzerland to raise $ 600 million. The move helped tide over the balance of payment crisis, and also kick-started the reforms process.
Food prices biting buyers
Even as the overall inflation rate remains at around 1.5%, prices of food articles have gone up 13.4% in the last one year. That statistic is bad news for the common man, but details of specific commodities like potatoes, onions and pulses are even more disconcerting.
According to the latest data, prices of potatoes have doubled over the last 12 months; onions are 50% more expensive and the prices of pulses have gone up by over 23% on average. It’s another matter that the price of some specific pulses like arhar and moong have risen to all-time highs of around Rs 90 per kg.
Contributing to the spike in food prices has been a weak monsoon in 2009, which is expected to lead to foodgrain production falling by around 21 million tonnes in the current kharif season compared to kharif 2008. Rice production is estimated to fall by over 15 million tonnes and the output of coarse cereals by 5.5 million tonnes.
All-weather roads jack up rural income by 100%
All-weather roads in the villages of the country has doubled the income of rural households, raised literacy rate by 10%, and appreciated land prices by up to 80%, says the World Bank. “In 2000, about 40% of India’s 825,000 villages lacked all-weather roads ... With access to roads, incomes have soared. Household incomes rose by 50% to 100% on average.”
World Bank has been supporting India’s rural connectivity programme—Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). It aids projects in several places like Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. Over the years, World Bank’s concessionary lending arm International Development Association (IDA) has supported many rural roads projects, both standalone and components of larger projects. The year-round connectivity has narrowed gender gap with access to education for girls and raised job opportunities, IDA said adding every Rs 10 lakh spent on rural roads has helped lift 163 people out of poverty.
The World Bank has said "a second project of $1 billion is under preparation". It would aim to improve maintenance, weak capacity, governance and accountability, and would introduce several efficiency measures. Meanwhile, for two-laning of 6,372-km of the total of 19,702 km single lane highways in the country, the finance ministry has requested the World Bank for a loan of $3 billion.
India’s GDP beats all forecasts
India's economy gave yet another indication of its rapidly improving health, prompting greater ambition from policy-makers still chary of withdrawing the stimulus medicine responsible for the recovery. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by a surprisingly strong 7.9% during the July-September second quarter, its fastest pace in a year and a half. The growth was driven largely by a pick-up in manufacturing, increased government expenditure, robust investments and modest growth in farm output despite the drought.
The growth in the first half of the year is now a respectable 7% as against 7.8% during the same period a year ago. In the fiscal year ended March 2009, the economy grew by 6.7%, its weakest in six years and way below rates of 9% or more in the previous three years.
The strong growth may put pressure on RBI to hike policy rates sooner than March 2010 as worries about inflation grow. Bond yields firmed up to 7.25%, six basis points up, as traders see a 25-basis-point hike in key policy rates by January 2010.
There will also be pressure on the government to cut expenditure and roll back stimulus measures such as the cut in indirect rates. The fiscal deficit between April and October 2009 was 61% of the target for the year, but slower-than-expected tax collections suggest the government could overshoot the target of 6.8% of the GDP for the year.
ENVIRONMENT
Tougher air quality norms unveiled
India has revised its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), discontinuing the old practice of different air quality standards for different land-use classes like residential and industrial areas. The country will now have uniform health-based NAAQS with uniform standards for all areas, whether residential or industrial.
Revised after a gap of 15 years, new air quality standards also provide legal framework for controlling air pollution and protecting public health, meaning that any citizen can now approach the court demanding better air quality. The revised standards include initiatives that had been developed in consonance with globally best practices and in keeping with latest advancements in technology and research.
The big question, however, is of enforcement, which could prove to be a difficult task.
The standards have brought two new deadly pollutants, PM 2.5 and ozone, within the ambit of regulation. The standard for nitrogen oxide has been made more stringent, from the existing 60 micro-gm per cubic metre, it has been tightened down to 40 micro-gm per cubic metre. Suspended particulate matter (SPM) as parameter has been replaced by fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), which is more relevant for public health.
HEALTH
India's children stunted, undernourished, wasted: UN
India has the largest number of stunted children below the age of five in the world, according to the latest United Nations Children's Fund report.
Approximately 200 million children, under the age of five, suffer from stunted growth in the developing world. The report 'Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition' found that stunting is primarily caused due to childhood under-nutrition, which contributes to more than a third of all deaths in children under five.
India also has one of the highest numbers of underweight children, below the age of five, and one third of 'wasted children'—those facing a greater chance of death—in the world.
Out of a total of 19 million new-borns per year in the developing world that are born with low birth-weight, India has 7.4 million low birth-weight babies per year—the highest in the world. The report finds that 80 per cent of the developing world's stunted children live in 24 countries.
India, however, does not have the highest prevalence of stunted children as the high numbers was due to its large population. In terms of prevalence, Afghanistan was first while India was 12th. In 17 countries, underweight prevalence among children under 5 years old is greater than 30 per cent. The rates were highest in Bangladesh, India, Timor-Leste and Yemen,` with more than 40 per cent of children being underweight.
The study also found that 13 per cent of children, under 5 years old, in the developing world were wasted, and 5 per cent were severely wasted (an estimated 26 million children).
A number of African and Asian countries have wasting rates that exceed 15 per cent, including India (20 per cent) Bangladesh (17 per cent), and Sudan (16 per cent). The country with the highest prevalence of wasting in the world is Timor-Leste, where 25 per cent of children under 5 years old are wasted.
In Asia, the prevalence of stunting dropped from approximately 44 per cent in 1990 to an estimated 30 per cent in 2008, while in Africa it fell from approximately 38 per cent in 1990 to an estimated 34 per cent in 2008. Unless attention is paid to addressing the causes of child and maternal under-nutrition today, the costs will be considerably higher tomorrow.
JUDICIARY
Finally, SC judges declare assets
In a move that will enhance the image of the judiciary, 21 out of the 22 Supreme Court judges—including Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan—have declared their assets and of their wives by posting the details on the court’s website—supremecourtofindia.nic.in.
The step is expected to end months of controversy over the apex court's refusal to place in public domain such details, maintaining that it was not bound to part with these under the Right to Information Act (RTI).
The details, provided under the heading “Assets of Judges,” however, did not have the total assets of each judge and his wife. Also, the value of a number of properties owned by them is not given. Most of the judges had provided such details to the CJI at the time of their elevation to the apex court, but these were not placed in public domain.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
Visit of Australian PM to India
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visited India in November 2009 with a message to India that Australia remained a safe destination for Indian students. Mr Rudd said his government was committed to using the “full force” of law to protect Indian students.
During his visit, in an attempt to upgrade bilateral ties, both countries agreed to elevate the relationship to a strategic partnership. Discussions between Mr Rudd and Mr Singh covered all aspects of the bilateral relationship—from trade to climate change. On climate change, Mr Rudd said: “Indian Prime Minister and I discussed the great challenge of climate change. We must have a good ambition for Copenhagen.” The two sides agreed that it is an issue of concern for both countries, with the Indian side reiterating its position on climate change.
The two sides have also decided to expedite the feasibility study to look into the impact of an FTA between the two countries. In fact, the Australian side has made no secret of its interest in an FTA, with Mr Rudd saying that he expects the study to recommend an FTA.
Iran seeks help to combat terror
Notwithstanding the US pressure, India has unequivocally conveyed to Iran its commitment to participating in the 7.4 billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project. This reassurance was given by both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna at separate meetings with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in New Delhi.
At the delegation-level talks between the two foreign ministers, Iran sought greater cooperation with New Delhi in fighting terrorism emanating from Pakistan. Like India, Iran has also been affected by terrorism sponsored from the Pakistani soil. A horrific suicide attack in south-east Iran in October 2009 targeted the country's Revolutionary Guards and was blamed on Pakistan-based Jundallah, a Sunni extremist outfit.
This was the first high-level contact between the two countries since the UPA government returned to power in New Delhi and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was re-elected as the President of Iran in June 2009.
Mottaki renewed an invitation to Manmohan Singh to visit Iran. The invitation was accepted and dates of the visit would be finalised in consultations through diplomatic channels.
The two sides also agreed to convene an early meeting of the joint working group (JWG) on energy cooperation between them to resolve issues connected with the pipeline project. An Iranian team would be visiting India soon for the purpose. As Iran and India share common interests in Afghanistan, they also discussed joint infrastructure projects like the deep sea port of Chabahar and a rail link to provide better connectivity for Afghanistan to Central Asia.
Visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to USA
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s deliberations with US President Barack Obama in end-November 2009, as his first State guest, did not result in any dramatic announcements but New Delhi was satisfied that it was able to persuade Washington to acknowledge that India was being inflicted by terrorism from neighbouring Pakistan.
Washington went a step further by calling for the defeat of terrorist “safe havens” in Pakistan and Afghanistan and agreed to enhance collaboration in this effort.
The joint statement was prefaced with a commitment by both leaders to expand and deepen their relations. President Obama described India as a “rising and responsible global power” to assure India that it was very much on the US radar and that any impression to the contrary was incorrect.
The two countries signed a new memorandum of understanding on counter-terrorism cooperation to help each other in information and intelligence sharing related to terrorism, which institutionalised an arrangement which has been in place since the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
President Obama’s commitment on the implementation of the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement during his press conference also found mention in the joint statement, which also acknowledges India as a responsible nuclear power. Taking note of the Obama administration’s sensitivities on non-proliferation, India was quick to reaffirm its unilateral and voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing and agreed with US to start early negotiations on a multilateral, non-discriminatory and internationally verifiable Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty. On its part, the US committed to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) at an early date. There are fears that such a development would encourage the US to pressurise India to sign the CTBT, which has not been accepted by New Delhi.
President Barack Obama assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the US-China joint statement issued on his visit to Beijing earlier in November was not an endorsement of Chinese mediation in the India-Pakistan dispute. Mr Singh said Obama told him that the intention of that statement was not to support any “third-party intervention in issues in South Asia.” He said he was “very satisfied” with Obama’s assurance on an issue that caused much heart-burn in New Delhi. India opposes third-party mediation in the dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir.
On Afghanistan, Prime Minister Singh said Obama told him that the US “highly values” India's role in reconstruction and development of the war-ravaged country. Manmohan, who met several Republican Democratic as well as Republican lawmakers while in Washington, said there was bipartisan support for India’s role in Afghanistan. This role is viewed with suspicion by Pakistan.
Visit of Canadian PM to India
India and Canada have entered into an agreement for enhancing energy security. Yet another deal has been inked between the two nations to kick off negotiations between the two with respect to free trade area. This happened during the meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in November 2009, on a range of bilateral issues, including trade and investment, civil nuclear cooperation, the global financial crisis, terrorism and climate change.
The energy security pact will enable better cooperation between the nations in areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency, oil and natural gas, power generation, transmission, distribution and end-use, energy research and development.
The FTA deal will enable the formation of a joint study group for exploring the chances for developing a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, with the first meeting slated to be held in December.
The two nations have also decided to cooperate for tackling global terrorism.
India reaches nuke agreement with Canada
On November 28, 2009, India reached a civil nuclear agreement with Canada. The agreement was firmed up during a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterpart Stephen Harper on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Summit.
Canada has become the eighth country with which India has reached civil nuclear agreement since the NSG lifted a 34-year-old ban on India to join global nuclear trade in September last year. The other countries with which India has already signed the civil nuclear deal are the US, France, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Argentina and Namibia.
China protests against Dalai Lama’s Tawang visit
The Chinese rhetoric against India for the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh in November 2009 picked up again with a State-run newspaper running a report that said the Tibetan spiritual leader undertook the Arunachal visit under pressure from New Delhi. India rubbished the assessment and took the opportunity to remind China that the Dalai Lama was free to travel anywhere in the country.
Though the Chinese government has refrained from directly attacking India since the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, it is significant that China’s state-run media ran a report attacking India over the visit of the Dalai Lama.
“India may make use of the Dalai Lama to solve the decades-long territorial conflict by encouraging his visit to southern Tibet (Arunachal Pradesh),” Hu Shisheng, a researcher of southern Asian studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, was quoted as saying. China calls Arunachal Pradesh southern Tibet.
“The Dalai Lama went to southern Tibet at this critical moment probably because of pressure from India... By doing so, he can please the country that has hosted him for years,” Mr Hu said. He added: “India may have forgotten the lesson of 1962, when its repeated provocation resulted in military clashes. India is on this wrong track again...When the conflict gets sharper and sharper, the Chinese government will have to face it and solve it in a way India has designed,” Mr Hu said.
China had protested against the visit of the Dalai Lama to Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh, but India had dismissed the protests by pointing out that the Dalai Lama continues to be a guest in India.
Responding to that attack, the Dalai Lama dismissed China’s claim that his visit was anti-China and had said that Arunachal was an integral part of India.
Genisis of the dispute: In 1913-14, China, Tibet and Britain tried to hammer out the Shimla Accord—a deal defining borders between Inner and Outer Tibet, and between Outer Tibet and British India. Henry McMahon, a British administrator, drew up 550 miles of the boundary demarcating British India and Outer Tibet. China walked out of the talks, rejecting the line between Inner and Outer Tibet, but the Accord nonetheless ceded Tawang and other Tibetan areas to the British Empire. Since then, China has declared the line invalid, citing the absence of its signature on the Shimla Accord. After the collapse of Chinese power in Tibet, the McMahon line was, de facto, accepted as official, and Britain established administrations in the area. However, Tibet and later the People’s Republic of China claimed Tawang district after India's independence. With China all set to take over Tibet, India declared the McMahon line the official boundary in 1950.
The North East Frontier Agency was created in 1954. The Tibetan uprising was suppressed by China and its self-ruling government abolished in 1959. The Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala, and maps published by the Tibetan government-in-exile now show McMahon Line as the southern border of Tibet.
During the 1962 war, China acquired large parts of NEFA but voluntarily withdrew to the McMahon line. It was only in 1985 that China declared its ownership claims on the eastern tract roughly corresponding to Arunachal Pradesh. Until then, it was prepared to cede this land to India if it was given the cold western desert of Aksai Chin in Ladakh, of strategic importance to China. India rejects China’s claims over both, and post-1985 China has insisted that Arunachal Pradesh is theirs.
India, EU ink atomic energy pact
On November 6, 2009, India and the European Union (EU) signed a major accord for cooperation in the civil atomic energy field and pledged to conclude an ambitious free trade agreement (FTA) between them within a year. The atomic energy agreement is aimed at facilitating India’s participation in the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) project for fusion research.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the Indian side at the 10th India-EU summit while the EU was represented by Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, in his capacity as chairman of the EU Council and EU President Jose Manuel Barroso.
The ITER project on fusion energy is said to be the costliest experiment of its kind that will cost some 10 billion euros. The first fusion reactor is expected to be operational in Cadarche in southern France by 2016.
India and the EU have been negotiating an FTA since 2007 but have not been able to firm up the accord due to differences over EU’s attempts to link trade with climate and other extraneous issues. Both sides are of the view that a political push was need for the agreement to be wrapped up by 2010.
In a joint statement the two sides shared the understanding that the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes should take place in conformity with the highest standards of safety, security and non-proliferation. The joint statement further said India and the EU welcomed the renewed momentum in global disarmament talks while reaffirming their shared interest in working together for disarmament and for countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. In this context, they stressed the importance of strengthening national export control laws.
On terrorism, the EU condemned the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 and reiterated the need for intensifying global cooperation in combating international terrorism. Without any reference to Pakistan, the two sides emphasised the utmost importance of bringing the perpetrators of the crime to justice.
On international financial crisis and global economy, the two sides reiterated their commitment to continue to sustain a strong policy response until the recovery was secured, to prepare internationally coordinated and cooperative exit strategies to be implemented once the recovery has taken hold, to strengthen and reform financial regulatory and supervisory systems to ensure global financial stability and prevent further crises, and to ensure that the international financial institutions reflect contemporary economic realities.
French Parliament ratifies N-deal with India
Even as India and the United States iron out their differences over the reprocessing of the spent nuclear fuel under the 123 agreement, the French Parliament has ratified the India-France nuclear accord, paving the way for French nuclear giants to build nuclear plants in India.
The French National Assembly adopted a law authorising the ratification of the agreement signed between the two countries on September 30, 2008, during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Paris. This is subsequent to the adoption of the same law by the Senate on October 15, 2009.
It will enable the early entry into force of the agreement. It now paves the way for strengthening relations between French and Indian partners and for more concrete developments in the industrial field.
France was the first country to sign a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with New Delhi days after India secured a waiver from the nuclear suppliers’ group (NSG) to undertake nuclear commerce in 2008. Since then, India has signed nuclear deals with the US, Russia, Namibia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Argentina.
French nuclear supplier Areva has been allocated the nuclear project site at Jaitapur in Maharashtra to initially build two power plants.
The Indo-French nuclear agreement allows reprocessing of the spent nuclear fuel from French nuclear reactors under safeguards, and gives an assurance of lifetime supply of nuclear fuel for these reactors. It does not bar the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies. With the ratification of the agreement by the French Parliament, France becomes the second country after Russia to give unconditional rights to reprocess spent nuclear fuel to India.
The agreement makes it mandatory that reprocessing be done under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
SCANDALS
CBI pegs Satyam fraud at Rs 14,000 cr
Seven months after its first charge sheet in the Satyam scam, CBI on November 24, 2009, filed a supplementary charge sheet against disgraced Satyam founder B. Ramalinga Raju and nine others, pegging the Satyam fraud at Rs 14,000 crore instead of the Rs 7800 crore that Raju had owned up to in January 2009.
The additional charge-sheet, however, fails to nail Raju and aides on siphoning of funds from Satyam Computer, instead saying that the investigating agency was planning to file a separate chargesheet on the allegations of funds diversion and income-tax frauds within the next few days.
The 200-page charge-sheet filed in the CBI court charged the accused of forging board resolutions and unauthorisedly obtaining loans worth Rs 1220 crore from banks as well as inflating Satyam revenues to the tune of Rs 430 crore by creating fake customers and generating fake invoices.
The charge-sheet also identifies 1065 properties with a documented value of Rs 350 crore that were acquired by the Rajus with the spoils of the fraud. These include 6,000 acres of land, 40,000 sq yd of housing plots and 90,000 sq ft of built-up property.
CBI has also slapped charges of criminal breach of trust and falsifying accounts by inflating the acquisition price of Nipuna Services Ltd, the ITeS arm of Satyam. It also slapped a criminal breach of trust on them in the declaration and disbursal of dividends of Satyam Computers.
Meanwhile, the Rs 1,220 crore unauthorized loans detailed by CBI in the charge-sheet are not reflected in the company's books and are over and above the Rs 1,230 crore that Raju confessed to Satyam having received from various Raju family owned companies including Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties.
Madhu Koda arrested for mining and money laundering
The Jharkhand Vigilance Bureau has arrested former Chief Minister Madhu Koda in the multi-crore mining and money laundering case. A joint team of Jharkhand Police and State vigilance bureau arrested Mr Koda after he repeatedly refused to respond to summons from the Enforcement Directorate for questioning. Mr Koda described his arrest as part of Congress’ conspiracy to keep him away from election campaigning.
Mr Koda is alleged to have laundered thousands of crores during his stint as the Chief Minister between 2006 and 2008. ED’s probe into the money laundering operation, which is spread from Singapore to Thailand and from Dubai to Liberia, is set to balloon into one of the biggest bribery and corruption scandals in the country.
NAGALAND
Assembly hails rebel groups
The Nagaland State Legislative Assembly has extended ‘recognition’ to the Naga undergrounds for having “selflessly worked, fought and sacrificed” for the aspirations and rights of the Naga people. This ‘recognition’ as a resolution was adopted in the State Assembly on November 29, 2009, even as talks between the government of India and the NSCN(IM) have yet to reach a conclusive stage. The resolution was passed unanimously with members cutting across party lines to support it.
The State Assembly also reiterated its earlier stand on integration of all Naga-inhabited areas in the region, an issue that also figures prominently on the NSCN agenda.
The Nagaland Assembly has so far passed four resolutions in favour of integration of Naga areas—first on December 12, 1964, followed by August 28, 1970, September 16, 1994 and December 18, 2003. The 60-member House in the resolution also appealed the negotiating parties of the Naga political dialogue to expedite the political process and bring about an early resolution through a negotiated settlement which was honourable and acceptable to the Naga people.
The State Assembly, through its resolution, also appreciated the government of India, particularly Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram for their “renewed sincerity” towards finding a permanent solution to the decades-old “Indo-Naga” political problem.
The resolution also appreciated the civil society, churches, NGOs and the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) for their all out efforts towards reconciliation, understanding and oneness of all sections of Naga society. The resolution also hailed the sincerity of the underground groups, especially their commitment towards peace and understanding by signing the “Covenant of Reconciliation” earlier at Chiangmai in Thailand on September 23, 2009.
The resolution further decided to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Naga political issue comprising members from all political parties. This committee would carry the voice of the House to all concerned sections including the Centre and the Naga rebel groups.
TERRORISM; LAW & ORDER
Centre ready with anti-Naxal plan
Home Minister P. Chidambaram announced on November 1, 2009 that the Union government is a ready to launch the much-awaited full-fledged anti-Naxal operations in three different areas, considered tri-junctions of Maoist violence.
The tri-junctions, which have been identified for the offensive against the ‘Red Rebels’, are: Andhra Pradesh-Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh; Orissa-Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh and West Bengal-Jharkhand-Orissa.
Around 40,000 paramilitary personnel would assist the respective State police forces during the operations. Almost 7,000 specially trained troops in jungle warfare are also part of the total strength of the Central forces to be deployed for the task.
The anti-Naxal plan also includes Rs 7,300 crore package for unleashing developmental works in areas cleared off the Left-wing extremists. Officials feel that the Naxal menace, which has now spread to 40,000 sq km area across the country, can be wiped out in a period of 12 to 30 months.
Around 25 lakh people live in areas where Maoists are now having a free run. The Naxalites have killed more than 2,600 people, including civilians, in 5,800 incidents in last three years.
CURRENT INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
AFGHANISTAN
Karzai elected President
On November 1, 2009, Afghanistan's Presidential challenger announced he would not participate in the run-off election because his demands for measures to prevent fraud were rejected. He stopped short of calling on his supporters to boycott the balloting.
Abdullah made no mention of agreeing to take part in any future unity government with President Hamid Karzai, which the US and its international partners believe is the best hope for curbing the Taliban insurgency.
In an emotional speech, Abdullah said he did not believe a free and fair election was possible without changes in the leadership of the electoral commission, which ran the fraud-marred first-round ballot on August 20, 2009. Abdullah said the Afghan people should not accept results of a ballot run by the current group.
A run-off was ordered after the UN auditors threw out nearly a third of Karzai's votes in the first round ballot, dropping him below the 50 per cent threshold for victory in the 36-candidate field.
Afghanistan's election commission declared Hamid Karzai elected as President on November 2, 2009 after it called off a run-off following the withdrawal of his only rival, Abdullah Abdullah. With this move the political uncertainty in Kabul came to an end.
US officials hope to help restore legitimacy to Karzai's government by encouraging him to build a reform-minded government that is ethnically representative and includes Abdullah's followers. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton released a statement that hinted at Abdullah's group having some voice in the government. She praised Abdullah for running a "dignified and constructive campaign that drew the support of Afghan people across the nation. We hope that he will continue to stay engaged in the national dialogue and work on behalf of the security and prosperity of the people of Afghanistan."
Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second term as Afghan President on November 19, 2009. The 51-year-old has pledged to fight corruption and take control of his country's security before his five-year term ends.
His inauguration came against the backdrop of an ever more deadly Taliban insurgency, doubts over his legitimacy after the tainted election, and demands from Western donors that he address rampant corruption and mismanagement.
BANGLADESH
Hindu property confiscated during 1965 war to be returned
On November 2, 2009, the Bangladesh cabinet approved a proposed law to return Hindu property, which were confiscated during the 1965 Indo-Pak war, when the country was eastern wing of Pakistan, ending a major violation of the rights of minorities in the country.
The proposed law is meant to redress the long-disputed law of the Pakistani era, which was widely criticised as a major violation of the minority rights. During the Pakistan period, the law was called as the Enemy Property Act.
The then Pakistani regime enacted the law to confiscate the property of the Hindu families who fled the country when the India-Pakistan war broke out in 1965 while the post-independent Bangladesh government renamed it as the Vested Property Act 1974.
Officials familiar with the process said under the amended proposal, the government would publish lists of “returnable and non-returnable vested property” within a certain period of times while the claimants could also seek review about “non-returnable” property. Under the law, government committees at district and upzila or sub-district levels would settle disputes regarding the disputed property.
The Awami League had enacted the law to return the minority property at the fag end of its previous 1996-2001 tenure setting a two-year implementation deadline but the subsequent Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) sat on it exposing it to a natural death. The 2001 law stipulated that land that was seized be returned to its original owners, provided that the original owners or their heirs remained resident citizens.
Mujib’s murderers convicted after 34 years
On November 19, 2009, Bangladesh's Supreme Court rejected the appeals of five former army officers and confirmed death sentence on seven others, who are living abroad, for killing the country's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members 34 years ago.
A five-judge bench of the apex court delivered the judgement amid tight security on the court premises and key establishments across the country, bringing to an end a long court battle on an emotive issue.
Sheikh Mujib, officially referred to with the honorific Bangabandhu, who was then the country's President, was killed in a coup on the morning of August 15, 1975, less than four years after he led a movement that culminated in the emergence of Bangladesh after its violent separation from Pakistan.
In its judgement, the apex court ruled that the incidents of August 15, 1975, were “a simple murder and it was not a result of mutiny”. Also gunned down or bludgeoned in three separate attacks were most of Mujib's family members, close relatives, political associates, Mujib's security chief and personal staff.
Referred to as “killer majors”, since most of them were junior officers, the condemned men had later openly claimed to have carried out the killings in what they described as national interest.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Mujib's elder daughter and one of the two survivors, revived the court trial after she returned to power in January 2009. Sheikh Rehana, the other surviving daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in her reaction, said it was important that the verdict had been upheld by the Supreme Court.
EUROPEAN UNION
Belgian PM chosen first President
On November 19, 2009, European Union leaders have named Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the bloc’s first President and appointed Briton Catherine Ashton as its foreign affairs chief.
A consensus was reached at a summit in Brussels after Britain dropped its insistence that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair should become President, ending weeks of deadlock and opening the way to agreement on Van Rompuy.
The appointments are intended to bolster the EU’s standing and help it match the rise of emerging powers such as China following the global economic crisis.
Van Rompuy, 62, and Ashton, 53, are low-profile compromise candidates little known outside the EU and at least initially will not have the clout in foreign capitals that an established statesmen such as Blair would have had.
PAKISTAN
Zardari hands over ‘nuke button’ to Gilani
Pakistan's embattled President Asif Ali Zardari has transferred control of the country’s nuclear arsenal to Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani and said he intended to strip the Presidency of more powers soon.
The President gave up his control over the nuclear arsenal by re-promulgating the National Command Authority Ordinance and amending it, a move described as a “giant leap forward to empower the elected Parliament and the Prime Minister.”
Zardari also said in an interview with a TV news channel that the 17th Constitutional amendment which gives President sweeping powers to dismiss the Premier and dissolve Parliament will also be done away with soon.
Meanwhile, a controversial law which scrapped graft cases against Asif Ali Zardari and his key allies expired on November 28, 2009, but the Pakistan President felt it will not affect him as the Constitution provides “indemnity” to the person holding the top post in the country.
PHILIPPINES
Emergency imposed after massacre
On November 24, 2009, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed two southern provinces and a city under emergency rule after 24 people were killed in the worst-ever election related violence in the country.
The orders were issued as troops, using shovels and bare hands, dug up hastily covered graves on a grassy hillside in Maguindanao to recover the victims of the massacre. Some of the dead men had their hands tied behind their back and one of the women was pregnant. Eight of those found dead were local journalists. They were part of a group of 40 people abducted by gunmen when on their way to file a candidate's nomination to contest the governorship in elections May 2010.
Elections in the Philippines are usually marred by violence, especially in the south, where security forces are battling communist rebels, Islamic radicals and clan rivalries.
SWITZERLAND
Voters approve ban on minarets
Swiss voters approved a ban on construction of new minarets on November 29, 2009, a surprise result that is certain to embarrass Switzerland’s neutral government and could also damage its economic ties with Muslim States.
About 57.5% of voters and all but four of the 26 cantons approved the proposal in the nationwide referendum, which was backed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP). The government said it would respect the people’s decision and declared construction of new minarets would no longer be permitted. “Muslims in Switzerland are able to practise their religion alone or in community with others and live according to their beliefs just as before,” it said in a statement. Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the outcome of the vote reflected a fear of Islamic fundamentalism, but the ban was “not a feasible means of countering extremist tendencies”.
Both the government and Parliament had rejected the initiative as violating the Swiss constitution, freedom of religion and the nation’s cherished tradition of tolerance. The UN human rights watchdog had also voiced concerns.
The SVP, Switzerland’s biggest party, and Federal Democratic Union gathered enough signatures to force the vote on the initiative opposing the “Islamisation of Switzerland”. The move has stirred fears of violent reactions in Muslim countries and an economically disastrous boycott by wealthy Muslims who bank and vacation in Switzerland.
The right-wing campaign to outlaw minarets on mosques has received an unlikely boost from radical feminists arguing that the tower-like structures are “male power symbols” and reminders of Islam’s oppression of women. Julia Onken, a prominent feminist, warned that failure to ban minarets would be “a signal of the State’s acceptance of the oppression of women”.
WORLD ECONOMY
G-20 launches framework to boost global economy
The finance ministers of G-20 nations have agreed on a timetable for the new framework for balanced and sustainable growth of the global economy, but made a little progress on financing efforts to reduce global warming.
The world’s leading developed and emerging economies committed to have peer review and “more specific policy recommendations” in place by November 2010. The Finance Ministers, during the two-day meeting at St Andrews in Scotland, on November 8, 2009, hoped that if all countries put political weight behind the negotiations over the next year, the world can recover without developing the huge trade and financial imbalances of the past decade.
But there was no agreement on a specific set of common objectives, nor a mechanism to resolve disputes. On the climate change issue, the Finance Ministers agreed only to keep working for an ambitious outcome at meeting in Copenhagen but could not agree on the amount of money developed countries will offer to poorer countries to help them reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.
The meeting was also overshadowed by a dispute about the possibility of a global tax on financial transactions. Addressing the meeting, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown floated the idea of such a tax would help banks to pay for the insurance they receive from taxpayers. Within hours of the suggestion, the idea appeared still-born when US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said: “A day-to-day financial transaction tax is not something we are prepared to support.” But some of the other measures mentioned by Brown—an insurance fee to reflect the risk of some banks, a pre-funded pool of money to support orderly bank bankruptcies and contingent capital arrangements-have more international support. The US is supportive of efforts to ensure banks cannot rely on taxpayers to bail them out in future.
Eurozone pulls out of recession
Europe's deepest recession since the second world war has officially ended after the world's biggest single trading bloc joined Japan and the United States in returning to growth. Both the 16-nation eurozone, and the 27-nation European Union as a whole, expanded their economies in the third quarter, with a 0.4 per cent increase in the single currency area and a 0.2 per cent rise across the bloc as a whole.
But despite exiting five quarters running of economic retreat, analysts said that the improvement is unlikely to be robust enough to allow governments to end State support measures, particularly with unemployment continuing to rise.
The eurozone economy had shrunk by 0.2 per cent between April and June after a record collapse of 2.5 per cent in the first three months of 2009. But growth of 0.7 per cent in Germany, Europe's most powerful economy, and 0.3 per cent in France, in the third quarter lay behind the improvement.
Britain, with a 0.4 per cent contraction and Spain, with a 0.3 per cent decline, contributed to the lower figure for the EU as a whole.
The European figures compare with a 0.9 per cent improvement in third-quarter economic output in the United States, with Japan having already exited from recession in the second quarter with 0.6 per cent growth.
Hoarwd Archer, the chief economist at IHS Global Insight, poured some cold water on the news when he said the the emergence into daylight came "at a trot rather than a canter". Cautioning that "consumer spending likely saw little or no growth," Archer warned that the recovery "could well lose momentum for a time in 2010 before growth starts to gradually pick up again".
But he forecast overall eurozone growth of one per cent in 2010. Clemente De Lucia of BNP-Paribas, a French bank, said the rebound was due mainly to the industrial sector and warned that the recovery "might fade in 2010" once the impact of schemes, such as help for boosting new car sales, was fully withdrawn. He also pointed to high unemployment, running at more than 22 million at the last count across the EU, acting as a brake on expansion for some time yet.
OECD doubles 2010 forecast
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has doubled its growth forecast for the leading developed economies in 2010 and predicted a further acceleration in 2011 as China powers a global recovery.
The economy of the group’s 30 member countries will expand 1.9% in 2010 and 2.5% in 2011, the Paris-based organisation said in a report. Output will contract 3.5% in 2009. The OECD, which advises members on economic policy, forecast 2010 growth of 0.7% in June.
But the recovery will be marred by high unemployment and huge government debt across the industrialised countries, the OECD said. Central banks and governments in major Western economies should prepare for a gradual upwards shift in ultra-low interest rates and for fiscal consolidation once recovery is stronger, but they will only need to move in late 2010 at the earliest given that inflation is so low.
Output in the OECD economies will only return to the level achieved in the first three months of 2008 in the third quarter of 2011, underlining the damage done by the banking crisis.
The OECD gave 2011 growth forecasts for the first time. The US will grow 2.8%, the euro area 1.7% and Japan 2%. The Chinese economy will expand 9.3%, it said. The global growth forecast includes emerging giants China, Brazil, India and Russia with the mostly industrialized economies of its own 30-country membership and in all covers some 80% of world output.
The OECD said it expected world trade to grow 6.0% in 2010 and 7.7% in 2011 after a plunge of 12.5% in 2009. China and India are poised to accelerate due to strong stimulus measures, the OECD projected.
The Paris-based group hiked its growth forecast for China to 9.3% in 2009 and 10.2% in 2010. In March, it projected China's growth at 6-7% in 2009. For India, the OECD boosted its growth forecast to 6.1% in 2009 and 7.3% in 2010, rising to 7.6% the following year. The OECD, in March, projected 4.3% expansion for India in 2009. India's recovery appeared to be only “modestly hampered” by the driest monsoon in nearly four decades and economic data suggested the growth “momentum is strengthening,” the OECD said. But a resurgence of inflationary pressures pose a “key challenge” to Indian policymakers in deciding when to withdraw stimulus in order to tackle the large public deficit, it said.
Dubai rattles global scrips with its woes
Global markets from Sydney to Sao Paulo trembled on November 26, 2009, on fears that Dubai’s attempts to reschedule loans might trigger a fresh round of financial troubles in a world just emerging from the worst economic crisis since the 1930s and which may be amplified in India as thousands of expats stare at job losses and reduced trade.
India, which gets nearly a quarter of its remittances from the United Arab Emirates and has lakhs of labourers working in the region, may be worse off than most other nations if the crisis escalates into a full-blown one like the Russian or Argentinian crises of the past.
Indian shares and the rupee fell in sync with the rest of the global markets where investors are fleeing for safety after Dubai World, the government investment company with $59 billion of liabilities, sought to delay repayment on much of its debt. Investors believe that there could be more trouble spots in emerging markets after Vietnam devalued its currency and raised rates. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex fell 2% to 16,854.95, and the rupee fell 24 paisa to 46.55 against the dollar. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index lost 1.4%.
Dubai, which borrowed $80 billion in a four-year construction boom to transform its economy into a regional tourism and financial hub, suffered the world’s steepest property slump in the global recession. Home prices fell 50 percent from their 2008 peak, according to Deutsche Bank AG. Banks around the world have written off more than $1.7 trillion as the credit crisis trashed the value of their assets.
Dubai World’s lenders include Credit Suisse Group AG, HSBC Holdings, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
ENVIRONMENT
China announces ambitious emission caps
Green NGOs were elated after China announced ambitious cuts in the carbon intensity of its economy by 2020 in a major boost to the global effort to tackle climate change. China announced a 40-45 percent reduction in the carbon intensity from the business-as-usual scenario by 2020. Carbon intensity measures the amount of carbon dioxide—the main greenhouse gas that is causing global warming—emitted per unit of industrial output. India's carbon intensity is one of the lowest among emerging economies.
International NGO Greenpeace also welcomed China's announcement but said it was not enough. "Given the urgency and magnitude of the climate change crisis, China needs stronger measures to tackle climate change," said Ailun Yang of Greenpeace China. "This is a significant announcement at a very important point in time. But China could do more."
Since 2007, China is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, though almost all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now has been put there by developed countries since the start of the Industrial Age.
Yang noted that the announcement by China is yet another commitment for the climate coming from a major developing country ahead of the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit. "This is another challenge to the industrialised world, particularly the US, which has just announced an inadequate emissions reduction target of only 4-5 percent by 2020."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—a grouping of over 2,500 scientists from around the world—has said the developed world should cut emissions by at least 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce 80-95 percent by 2050.
For China, a low carbon path is a national priority and a sure way to keep up its economic tempo. China can ill-afford to let ‘invisible’ carbon denominated process and production methods (PPMs) standards shackle its export offensive.
More than India, it is China that should be worried about the current efforts to re-interpret Article XX (e) of GATT to keep out ‘goods based on carbon intensive processes’. In reality, China has been under greater pressure to stave off the ‘climate related threat’ from the WTO window. By sending a ‘concrete’ signal of commitment to emission intensity reduction, the People’s Republic is doing its best to keep the trade dragon from getting into the FCCC fold.
There could be an interpretation that the Chinese concession is an implicit acceptance of NAMA. Given the fact that China is still coal dependent and looks towards safe and cost-effective carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, it does not make sense for it to accept NAMA commitments without quid pro commitments on the technology transfer front. It is important that India and China have a concerted position on this issue.
Earlier in the month of November, Brazil had offered to reduce its emissions if it was provided international funding to control deforestation of the Amazonian forests. The move was interpreted by some as a sell-out to industrialised countries. And, now India faces the challenge of how to escape being seen as a global hurdle.
The Chinese move came a day after the US administration, that held out for long, announced that it would offer a target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions "in the range of" 17% by 2020 as compared to 2005 levels. When converted to benchmarks set under Kyoto Protocol, this works out to 4% reduction below 1990 levels—almost seven times less than what the EU has offered and less than 1/10th of what the UN IPCC requires industrialised countries to do to check catastrophic climate change.
One senior official said: "China’s offer are not absolute reductions, please note, and they are purely voluntary, China has not offered them as a commitment towards international compact. This is along lines that China had informed us of. But they leave a positive impression internationally." In fact, the Chinese are aiming to earn goodwill without doing much. The industrialized countries are obliged under the existing UN treaty to reduce their emissions by absolute levels below a fixed benchmarked year. China, in comparison has offered a purely voluntary reduction in its carbon intensity. The carbon intensity target also provides enough leverage for ‘creative accounting’ in measuring success of targets.
NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION
Chinese N-shopping mall helped Pakistan
China supplied Pakistan with enough weapons-grade uranium for two atomic bombs in 1982 and continued to help Islamabad out with its nuclear programme, according to a report in The Washington Post.
Outing China as a nuclear proliferator, the report, which sourced the narrative from accounts written by disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, said that a Pakistani military C-130 left the western Chinese city of Urumqi with the “highly unusual cargo" in 1982.
That China supplied Pakistan with nuclear know-how has always been suspected, but this is the first time that a detailed account of how it took place has come out and that too straight from the accounts of A.Q. Khan. The uranium transfer was reportedly part of a secret nuclear deal approved years earlier by Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the 1976, four years after India tested its first nuclear weapon.
But it was realised only during the time of Zia ul-Haq, who after taking power and hanging Bhutto was struggling under rumours of a pre-emptive strike by India. So Khan and a Pakistani general were sent to Beijing "to borrow enough bomb-grade uranium for a few weapons." Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping gave the approval and Khan and his team flew aboard a Pakistani C-130 to Urumqi where Khan says they enjoyed barbecued lamb while waiting for the Chinese military to pack the small uranium bricks into lead-lined boxes to be flown to Islamabad.
“Upon my personal request, the Chinese Minister . . . had gifted us 50 kg [kilograms] of weapon-grade enriched uranium, enough for two weapons,” Khan wrote in an 11-page narrative of the Pakistani bomb programme that he prepared after his January 2004 detention. “The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50 kg enriched uranium,” he said in a separate account sent to his wife several months earlier. China in effect supplied a "virtual do-it-yourself kit that significantly speeded Pakistan’s bomb effort."
Even before that, China sent Pakistan 15 tons of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), a feedstock for Pakistan’s centrifuges, whose designs Khan has stolen. But it was also a give and take with Khan sharing Europe’s best centrifuge technology in the 1980s with the Chinese in an effort to help China’s uranium-enrichment programme.
India votes against Iran on IAEA resolution
On November 27, 2009, India joined 24 other countries at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to vote against Iran on its nuclear programme. India’s censure was based on IAEA director-general Mohammed El Baradei’s report on Implementation of the NPT safeguards agreement in Iran which said all efforts to negotiate with Iran to address the international community’s concern over its ‘clandestine enrichment programme’ has reached a “dead-end.”
This was the third time that India has voted against Iran’s alleged clandestine nuclear weapons programme at the IAEA, the last two occasions being in September 2005 and February 2006. This decision had kicked off a massive political storm in the country. The Left parties, which were offering critical outside support to the UPA government at that time, had come down heavily on the ruling combine and accused it of being arm-twisted by the US into voting against Iran.
The vote had also raised serious concerns within the ruling Congress, which feared that this vote would erode its minority support base. Explaining New Delhi’s third vote on the governing body resolution Vienna, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said: “Our support for the resolution was based on the key points contained in the Report of the Director General.”
The IAEA has come to the conclusion that Iran was not transparent about its nuclear programmes and concluded that it was pursuing clandestine nuclear weapons programme. In September, Iran confirmed the doubts about its weapons programme when it disclosed the existence of a second uranium enrichment plant in Fordo, not very far from Tehran.
India, on its part, has been doing a tightrope walk on the sensitive issue. It has consistently opposed Tehran on this issue in multi-lateral forums but continued to engage with Tehran bilaterally. The reasons for this were explained by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he pointed to the ancient civilization links between the two countries, New Delhi’s dependence on Iran for energy and the presence of five million Indians living in Iran.
Continuing with its balancing act, India was quick to strike a conciliatory note after its censure of Iran at Vienna. It pointed out that this resolution should not be used to renew punitive action or new sanctions against Iran.
The latest resolution was backed by all five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The three countries that opposed the anti-Iran IAEA resolution were Cuba, Venezuela and Malaysia, while Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa and Brazil abstained from voting.
Iran to build 10 new enrichment plants
On November 29, 2009, Iran announced plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants in a major expansion of its nuclear programme—a clear show of defiance after the UN nuclear watchdog rebuked Tehran over secret such work. The decision by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government will further aggravate tensions between the Islamic Republic and major powers seeking a diplomatic solution to a long-running dispute over Iranian nuclear activities.
It may speed up discussions in the West about possible new sanctions on Iran over its repeated refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which the US and its allies suspect is part of a covert bid to develop nuclear bombs. Iran denies this.
The new enrichment facilities would be the same size as Iran's main enrichment complex at Natanz.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Visit of US President to China
On November 17, 2009, in a delicate balancing act during his visit to China, US President Barack Obama supported early resumption of talks between China and the Dalai Lama’s representatives while describing Tibet as part of this country. Taking note of the sensitivities of China and the exiled Tibetan leader, Obama, during his maiden visit to China as President, said: “We did note that while we recognise that Tibet is part of the People’s Republic of China, the US supports the early resumption of dialogue” between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and Beijing.
Obama’s remarks came after his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao during which the two sides discussed a host of issues including India-Pakistan relations, Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, Afghanistan, terrorism and climate change.
The US and China agreed to work together to bring about stable and peaceful relations in all of South Asia, Obama said during his joint briefing with Chinese president Hu Jintao in Beijing. Hu, who spoke first, didn’t mention Pakistan or South Asia. This was a rare occasion when a US president acknowledged that Beijing has a role to play in the India-Pakistan relationship. The move, if serious, runs counter to predictions of US foreign policy experts that the US would not acquiesce in a future Chinese hegemony in the region.
While the joint statement was met with silence by New Delhi, it infuriated officials in the foreign office because it brought back nasty memories of another US-China joint statement by Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin on June 29, 1998. Then too, it was Clinton and Jiang, in what India considered “offensive” language, scolding India and Pakistan for their nuclear tests. India had reacted sharply then, buffetted by general international condemnation after the tests.
But latest statement cut at the heart of an Indian effort to build a relationship with the US without China complicating the issue. The reality is perhaps that the joint statement was drafted by Obama’s China officials who don’t read India’s sensitivities. But that it was allowed to go through signals to many Indian strategists that Obama may be more than pliant to China, giving it a role in a region where it’s bound to come into conflict with a country Obama says is a strategic US partner, India.
SUMMITS
CHOGM
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) was hosted in the city of Port of Spain in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on November 27-29, 2009. The Opening Ceremony of the Meeting included an address by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth.
The CHOGM is the supreme body of the Commonwealth. It is convened every two years to review global, political and economic developments and to conduct a strategic overview of the Commonwealth’s work in support of the interests of member countries.
The objective of this Summit was to engage leaders of the Commonwealth in discussing global and Commonwealth issues and to agree upon collective policies and initiatives.
The leaders agreed to admit Republic of Rwanda as the 54th member of Commonwealth.
Climate change was a major topic of discussion at 2009 CHOGM, due to the proximity of the meeting to the Copenhagen climate change summit, but also because many Commonwealth States are particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
The 53 member States of the Commonwealth called for an “internationally legally binding agreement” on climate change to be agreed at the Copenhagen conference in December 2009. Leaders also pledged support for a fund to help poorer countries tackle climate change.
Heads of government endorsed the Report of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), covering the Group's deliberations in the period since last meeting in Kampala in November 2007. They commended CMAG's work, which has contributed significantly to the protection and promotion of the Commonwealth's fundamental political values in member countries.
Heads of government also welcomed the reinstatement of Pakistan in the Councils of the Commonwealth following the conduct of credible elections in the country in February 2008 and the assumption of office by an elected, civilian government in April 2008. However, they expressed deep concern at the further deterioration of the situation in Fiji Islands with regard to its adherence to fundamental Commonwealth values, including the abrogation of the Constitution in April 2009, ongoing restrictions on human rights, including freedom of speech and assembly, and the Interim government’s decision to further delay elections until 2014. They noted that these actions had led to the full suspension of Fiji from the Commonwealth on September 1, 2009.
Heads of government once again acknowledged the threats posed by weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, and reaffirmed their commitment towards ridding the world of these weapons. Recognising that the ultimate objective is general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control, Heads reaffirmed their commitment to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, which should be achieved in accordance with the United Nations Charter. Heads reaffirmed the rights of States to nuclear energy for peaceful uses in conformity with their international obligations. They also noted the ongoing efforts towards the negotiation of a comprehensive Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in respect of conventional weapons, and the proposed ATT conference to be held in 2012. They called for the finalisation of a robust and comprehensive ATT based on consensus.
CHOGM reaffirmed unequivocal condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes, as criminal and unjustifiable. They reiterated that acts of terrorism cannot be justified or legitimised by any cause or grievance whatsoever.
Continuing need for comprehensive efforts at all national and international levels to counter terrorism, including efforts to build respect and understanding among peoples was stressed. The Heads also emphasised the need to conclude negotiations on a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism on a priority basis, preferably during the Sixty-Fourth Session of the UN General Assembly and called upon all member States to accede to the UN Counter-Terrorism Conventions and Protocols, and to effectively implement these as well as the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and relevant Security Council Resolutions, and to prevent the use of their territories for the support, incitement or commission of terrorist acts in other States.
Recognising that corruption in its various forms undermines good governance, public security, respect for human rights and economic development, CHOGM urged member States which had not already done so to consider becoming parties to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), and to implement its provisions, including those addressing asset recovery, to help them combat systemic corruption at both national and international levels.
Heads expressed their support for the commitment to avoid protectionism, and to strengthen financial supervision and regulation. They emphasised the importance of renewing the contract between financial institutions and the society they serve, and the need to ensure the sector bears the full cost of the risk associated with their activities. They encouraged the IMF to consider the full range of options in their review and welcomed the steps taken by many countries to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis, and the fragile signs of growth in the global economy. They expressed concern, however, that the social and economic impact of the crisis would continue to affect a vast majority of the developing countries, particularly the smallest and most economically vulnerable members of the Commonwealth, including LDCs and SIDS.
Australia will host the 2011 CHOGM. Sri Lanka and Mauritius will host the 2013 and 2015 CHOGMs, respectively.
INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
Italy arrests two for aiding 26/11 attacks on Mumbai
Tracing new links to the Mumbai carnage, a Pakistani father-son duo were arrested from Italy for allegedly managing money transfer to finance phone communications of the attackers following leads from Indian and US investigators.
The two men, who ran a money transfer agency, were arrested in an early morning raid from the northern Italian city of Brescia, police said. The duo have been identified by the police as Mohammad Yaqub Janjua, 60, and Aamer Yaqub Janjua, 31. They have been accused of aiding and abetting international terrorism as well as illegal financial activity.
On November 25, 2008, a day before the attacks, they transferred $ 229 to activate an internet phone account that was used by the attackers and their accomplices, said Stefano Fonzi, the head of anti-terror police in Brescia.
The funds that enabled the terrorists to be in touch with their handlers in Pakistan were transferred under the identity of another Pakistani man who had never been to Italy and was not involved in the attacks, reports from Italy said. The two managed a money transfer agency where it is reported to be a common practice to transfer funds using false identities. The Italian police arrested the two men in an early morning raid in Brescia, the police said in a statement.
Italian police started their investigation the following month after being alerted by Indian authorities and the FBI that funds had been transferred from Italy.
Pak court names Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as 26/11 mastermind
In what is being seen as a clever move by Islamabad to bury LeT founder and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed’s role as the prime strategist behind the 26/11 attacks, a Pakistani trial court, while framing charges against seven accused on its soil, has instead named Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as the mastermind.
Exactly a year after the Mumbai assault, on November 25, 2009, the special anti-terror court set up in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi framed charges against all the seven accused in Pakistan’s custody, reportedly confirming Lakhvi as the mastermind and Zarar Shah, Abu al-Qama, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum as handlers/facilitators. All seven had pleaded not guilty. They have been reportedly charged under the anti-terrorism act and the Pakistani penal law. The charges include providing training, financial support, accommodation, equipment and communication gear to the 10 terrorists who had attacked Mumbai, including the lone survivor Ajmal Amir Kasab, who is now in India’s custody.
Interestingly, the dossier submitted by India on the 26/11 investigations to Pakistani names JuD chief Hafiz Saeed as the mastermind behind the Mumbai plot. Zaki-ur-Rehman, Zarar Shah, Abu Qama and others, now facing trial in Pakistan for their involvement in the 26/11 attacks, were only acting under the instructions of Saeed. Saeed is alleged to have personally overseen the preparations and events leading up to the major assault on India’s financial capital. Senior officials of the security establishment are obviously disappointed over the absence of any reference by the Pakistani court to Saeed’s role in the 26/11 conspiracy. The assessment in India is that the Pakistani court’s move, timed to coincide with the eve of the 26/11 anniversary, was essentially to exhibit to the world its “commitment” to punish the attacks’ perpetrators on its soil while ensuring a complete cover-up of Hafiz Saeed’s role as the key conspirator.
INTERNATIONAL TREATY
Arms Trade and Transfer Treaty
On November 1, 2009, even as the crucial global Arms Trade and Transfers (ATT) treaty, which seeks to regulate the $55 billion arms trade and promote democracy, found overwhelming support from 153 member countries at the UN. India was among the 19 who abstained from the meet. These 153 countries—including top arms suppliers like US, Britain, Germany and France—supported a UN disarmament committee resolution which will lead into negotiations for the treaty starting 2010.
While India may still take part in negotiations, the treaty in its present form was not in India’s interest. Certain binding clauses on social issues like violation of human rights and restrictions on arms sale expanding into controls on export of advanced technologies could work against India.
The US under George Bush in 2006 had opposed the treaty but it came round to supporting it under Barack Obama. The fate of the UN sponsored treaty still hangs in the balance as the list of 19 who abstained includes China and Russia, as also Pakistan.
The proposed treaty calls upon States involved in arms trade to not violate human rights, promote democracy and refrain from getting into any armed conflict. It also calls for ban on sale of arms to countries which promote terrorism.
The fact that India is still dependent on conventional weapons and imports a large number of these is another major concern. The proposed treaty will seek to set up export controls on transfers of advanced weapons, thereby extending the present Western-inspired controls on export of advanced technologies. This could impinge on the interests of India.
The Reserve Bank of India’s gold stock has shot up by more than 55 per cent with the purchase of 200 tonnes of IMF gold at an estimated cost of $6.7 billion. RBI, which pledged gold during 1991 crisis with the Bank of England to raise resources to meet external obligations, said it has purchased 200 tonnes of gold from International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The minimum support price (MSP) of wheat has been increased by the Union government by Rs 20 a quintal to Rs 1,100 a quintal. The MSP for barley has been fixed at Rs 750 per quintal and chana at Rs 1,760 per quintal.
Sachin Tendulkar holds the world record for most number of fifties in One day matches (91). He also holds the world record for most tons (9) in a calendar year (1998), as also world record for most runs in a calendar year (1894 in 34 matches).
Objective
National Cancer Awareness day is observed on November 7.
“Sesame Street” is a landmark children’s TV show that for last 40 years has taught generations of children to count, countless parents how to teach, and is seen in 125 countries.
Objective
Phyan was the name of the cyclone that hit Arabian Sea off the coast of Maharashtra-South Gujarat.
July 18 has been declared as Nelson Mandela International Day by the Un General Assembly to mark the South African anti-apartheid leader’s contribution to peace.
Caccine Vial Monitor (VVM) is a measurement of heat exposure to vaccine. Potency of a vaccine is judged by VVM indicator present on the ampule.
Four Indians, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, have made it to the Forbes list of the world's most powerful people topped by US President Barack Obama, who is followed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Among the four Indians, Manmohan Singh has been ranked highest at 36th position, while the country's top corporate house Reliance Industries' chief Mukesh Ambani finds himself ranked 44th ahead of Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata (59th). Ranked very next to Manmohan Singh is al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden at 37th place, while Indian underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is at 50th position.
The Union government has said it would soon launch two more schemes to improve the health status of adolescent girls and mothers. When rolled, the “Rajiv Gandhi Abla Scheme” and the “Indira Gandhi Matritva Scheme” would be additions to the eight government schemes already in place to fight undernourishment among children aged 0 to six years and pregnant women. These eight schemes include: Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), Midday Meal Scheme, Targeted PDS Scheme, National Maternity Benefit Scheme, Antodaya, Annapurna and National Old Age Pension Scheme. All schemes are closely monitored by the Supreme Court under the Right to Food verdict.
India’s public officials and politicians continue to be perceived as “highly corrupt” by global experts and business surveys, says the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by the Transparency International. With “Integrity Score” of 3.4, the CPI 2009 has ranked India 84th among the 180 countries surveyed, below other developing economies like Brazil (3.7) and China (3.6). The 2009 edition analysed 180 countries, the same number as the 2008 CPI. In 2008, India scored 3.4, dropping from 3.5 in 2007.
Pakistan, with a score of 2.4, is ranked 139th on the list, followed by Bangladesh (2.4), Nepal (2.3), Maldives (2.5) and Sri Lanka (3.1). Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar and Somalia have recorded the score of less than 1.5, while leaders of the pack are New Zealand (9.4), Denmark (9.3) and Singapore and Sweden (9.2).
Transparency International’s Corruption Index has ranked India 84 out of 180 countries. However, with an integrity score of 3.4, India is the least corrupt country in South Asia, excluding Bhutan.
With a fortune of $32 billion, industry leader Mukesh Ambani has topped the list of richest Indians, where his estranged brother Anil figures at number three with nearly half the wealth. Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, who lives in London but holds an Indian passport, is sandwiched between the Ambani brothers in the list at number two with a net-worth of $30 billion, according to the US business magazine Forbes. The list of India's richest 100 people included 52 billionaires, nearly double from 27 in 2008 and just short of 54 in November 2007, but there were only six women.The collective wealth of these 100 is $276 billion (nearly Rs 13 lakh crore), which corresponds to almost one-fourth of the country's GDP.
India’s first LTTD (Low Temperature Thermal Desalination System) plant—with a capacity of 1 lakh litres fresh water a day—was developed and commissioned in May 2005 at Kavaratti.
84-km Mughal Road, is a dream project under construction that will connect the Kashmir valley through Shopian with Bafliaz-Poonch in the Jammu region. Mughal emperors used to ride into the valley using this historic road which runs through high mountains. The centrally-sponsored Rs 640-crore road project, taken up in 2006, would be thrown open to public by July 2010.
India joined China, Brazil and South Africa to prepare a joint front for tough negotiations with rich nations at the Copenhagen Climate talks. The four countries, seen as the “BASIC” block, agreed to a strategy that involved walking out of the conference together if western nations try to force terms on the developing world.
Kisan Vision Yojna is ambitious project of Indian Railways to set up cold-chain facilities across the country for fresh fruit and vegetables. The pilot project has been started at Singur in West Bengal.
Continuing the commendable trend of the past decade, India’s forest cover increased by 728 sq km during 2005-07—a marginal rise of 0.03%. Overall, 21.02% of the country’s geographical area is now under green cover. In the past 10 years, forest cover has increased by 3.31 million hectares, showing an average 0.46% increase every year. These figures are contained in the State of Forest Report 2009. The biennial report is based on satellite imagery up to 2007. India’s increasing forest cover deserved praise, especially compared to the loss of 2.5 million ha of forests in Brazil every year. India, however, lagged behind China’s achievement of gaining 4 million ha of forests annually. While India seemed to be doing well in protecting dense forests, the report indicated that moderately dense forests weren’t faring too well.
The world’s largest atom smasher, Large Hadron Collier, broke the record for proton acceleration on November 30, 2009, previously held by a US lab, Fermilab, since 2001, sending beams of particles at 1.18 trillion electron volts around the massive machine.
BANKING & FINANCE
E-payments to be credited directly to merchants
In what would make online commerce faster for customers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has mandated that all payments for such transactions be credited directly to merchants, instead of getting cleared by intermediaries such as CC Avenue and Paypal.
Currently, until a payment is authorised and processed by intermediaries, a transaction is not completed. For instance, online retailers such as eBay do not ship goods purchased online unless funds are credited to their account, after being routed through an intermediary. CC Avenue, BillDesk, Direc-Pay, ICICI PaySeal and Paypal are among major payment gateways in India.
Under the new system, all payments to merchants shall be effected within a maximum of three days from the date of transaction. From now on, no payment other than the commissions at the pre-determined rates/frequency shall be payable to the intermediaries. The existing system has some pitfalls. Often, there is a delay in transferring money to the merchant; at times it is more than seven days.
SEBI allows auction of shares in follow-on offer
SEBI has allowed companies to go for pure auction of shares (offered at bid price) in a follow on public offer for pricing of issues for institutional investors. However, the companies will have to offer shares to retail investors, including employees, at the floor price, fixed before start of the auction process and the existing system of public offerings of shares at an uniform price in a band through book-build method will also continue.
To encourage small and medium firms to come out with public issues, SEBI has also allowed existing stock exchanges to set up a separate trading platform and relax the criteria like track record on profitability for listings. On the issue of trading hours, the board has left it on exchanges to decide between 9 am and 5 pm.
Giving more choices to listed companies in pricing shares via book-build route, SEBI introduced an additional method, called Dutch auction, in which the companies making public issues will fix only floor prices. Institutional bidders will have to submit bids above the floor prices. The bidders will be allotted shares on the basis of their bid prices. The highest bidder will be offered shares first, followed by the second-highest.
If the demand for the highest bidder is equal to the total issue size, second-highest bidder will get nothing. However, if the issuer wants to put a cap on allotting shares to a single bidder, it can do so.
Under the present system, known as French auction, companies fix a band of prices for public offers. The maximum difference between floor and ceiling prices in the band is 10%. A bidder has to bid in the given band only. On the basis of demand at various price points, the offer price is fixed and applied uniformly to all investors. The new methodology of pricing is likely to be used by government while divesting its stake in REC and NTPC.
COMMISSION
Liberhan inquiry commission
It took 17 years and 48 extensions for the Liberhan Commission, probing the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, to submit its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in June 2009. One of the country’s longest running inquiry commissions, it has cost the government nearly Rs 7 crore.
During the entire tenure, the one-judge probe was dogged by procedural delays, non-cooperation from key witnesses and even constant transfers during the early days of the commission’s functioning. The commission’s lawyer, Anupam Gupta, dissociated himself from the one-man panel after eight years because of differences with Justice Liberhan.
The commission recorded statements of scores of politicians from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including senior leaders Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Singh and now Bharatiya Jan Shakti party chief Uma Bharati. Several members of the Congress and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were also questioned.
Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and ex-UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh are among the 68 persons severely indicted by Justice M.S. Liberhan Commission for their role in the Babri Masjid demolition 17 years ago, which led the country to a “brink of communal discord.”
The commission, surprisingly, is soft on Congressman and the then Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao for his perceived ‘inaction’ in deploying Central forces or imposing President’s Rule in then BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh to protect the 16th century structure, purported to have been built during the reign of Mughal emperor Babar. The commission refers to it as the Ram Janam Bhoomi-Babri Masjid structure (RJBM) and has clarified that its role was not to study if the structure was a mosque or a temple or even its history.
In his 1,029-page report, Justice Liberhan, a former Chief Justice of Madras High Court, indicts the perpetrators for having reduced “the oldest civilisation to stark intolerance and barbarianism, all for petty political gains.”
Coming down heavily on the troika of Advani, Vajpayee and Joshi, Justice Liberhan calls them “pseudo-moderates" and refers to them as “icons” of the movement. The commission also indicts Uma Bharti, RSS ideologue K. Govindacharya and Shankar Singh Vaghela, along with Kalyan Singh, who are no more connected with the BJP or the RSS.
Silent on punitive action against those indicted for the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, government’s Action Taken Report (ATR) on the much-delayed Liberhan Commission findings agrees to enact the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill to punish those who misuse religion for politics, and set up special tribunals to prosecute related offences.
In the name of action against perpetrators of the demolition, all the ATR promises is expediting the hearing of cases registered 17 years ago. These include the case at Lucknow special court against lakhs of unknown karsewaks; case against eight accused (politicians also named by Liberhan) in Rae Bareli special court and 47 other cases in the Lucknow special court.
The ATR, however, is non-condescending to Liberhan’s major recommendation of a statutory national commission of cultural experts to determine the historical legacy of monuments, like those in question. The government plainly rejected this proposal saying the ASI could handle the job. It also declined Liberhan’s idea to confer statutory status on the National Integration Council, though it accepted in part his recommendation that political leaders and holders of public offices should not simultaneously hold positions in religions organisations.
ECONOMY
India climbs to tenth slot among top gold holders
India is the world’s largest private gold consumer, but the government’s holding of gold as an asset is modest. Even so, the latest purchase of 200 metric tonne from IMF puts it at number ten among the list of top 10 gold-holders in the world.
For India, the purchase, apart from signalling that its economy has come full circle, is a way of spreading its assets which are said to be currently over-weighted with foreign currency, mainly in the form of sovereign US Treasury bonds. In other words, it is a hedge against a falling dollar.
Of India’s current foreign exchange reserves of nearly $285 billion, foreign currency assets account for more than 90% ($268.3 billion), followed by gold ($10.3 billion), IMF’s Special Drawing Rights ($5.2 billion) and a reserve position in the IMF of $1.59 billion.
While India’s current gold holdings are said to be historically low, buying 200 tons in addition to the 358 tons it already holds is expected to bump up the gold reserves to more than 6%.
India’s gold trauma occurred in the summer of 1991, when faced with dwindling foreign exchange reserves and a possibility of a default on payments, the government mortgaged 47 tons of gold to the Bank of England and 20 tons of gold to the Union Bank of Switzerland to raise $ 600 million. The move helped tide over the balance of payment crisis, and also kick-started the reforms process.
Food prices biting buyers
Even as the overall inflation rate remains at around 1.5%, prices of food articles have gone up 13.4% in the last one year. That statistic is bad news for the common man, but details of specific commodities like potatoes, onions and pulses are even more disconcerting.
According to the latest data, prices of potatoes have doubled over the last 12 months; onions are 50% more expensive and the prices of pulses have gone up by over 23% on average. It’s another matter that the price of some specific pulses like arhar and moong have risen to all-time highs of around Rs 90 per kg.
Contributing to the spike in food prices has been a weak monsoon in 2009, which is expected to lead to foodgrain production falling by around 21 million tonnes in the current kharif season compared to kharif 2008. Rice production is estimated to fall by over 15 million tonnes and the output of coarse cereals by 5.5 million tonnes.
All-weather roads jack up rural income by 100%
All-weather roads in the villages of the country has doubled the income of rural households, raised literacy rate by 10%, and appreciated land prices by up to 80%, says the World Bank. “In 2000, about 40% of India’s 825,000 villages lacked all-weather roads ... With access to roads, incomes have soared. Household incomes rose by 50% to 100% on average.”
World Bank has been supporting India’s rural connectivity programme—Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). It aids projects in several places like Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. Over the years, World Bank’s concessionary lending arm International Development Association (IDA) has supported many rural roads projects, both standalone and components of larger projects. The year-round connectivity has narrowed gender gap with access to education for girls and raised job opportunities, IDA said adding every Rs 10 lakh spent on rural roads has helped lift 163 people out of poverty.
The World Bank has said "a second project of $1 billion is under preparation". It would aim to improve maintenance, weak capacity, governance and accountability, and would introduce several efficiency measures. Meanwhile, for two-laning of 6,372-km of the total of 19,702 km single lane highways in the country, the finance ministry has requested the World Bank for a loan of $3 billion.
India’s GDP beats all forecasts
India's economy gave yet another indication of its rapidly improving health, prompting greater ambition from policy-makers still chary of withdrawing the stimulus medicine responsible for the recovery. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by a surprisingly strong 7.9% during the July-September second quarter, its fastest pace in a year and a half. The growth was driven largely by a pick-up in manufacturing, increased government expenditure, robust investments and modest growth in farm output despite the drought.
The growth in the first half of the year is now a respectable 7% as against 7.8% during the same period a year ago. In the fiscal year ended March 2009, the economy grew by 6.7%, its weakest in six years and way below rates of 9% or more in the previous three years.
The strong growth may put pressure on RBI to hike policy rates sooner than March 2010 as worries about inflation grow. Bond yields firmed up to 7.25%, six basis points up, as traders see a 25-basis-point hike in key policy rates by January 2010.
There will also be pressure on the government to cut expenditure and roll back stimulus measures such as the cut in indirect rates. The fiscal deficit between April and October 2009 was 61% of the target for the year, but slower-than-expected tax collections suggest the government could overshoot the target of 6.8% of the GDP for the year.
ENVIRONMENT
Tougher air quality norms unveiled
India has revised its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), discontinuing the old practice of different air quality standards for different land-use classes like residential and industrial areas. The country will now have uniform health-based NAAQS with uniform standards for all areas, whether residential or industrial.
Revised after a gap of 15 years, new air quality standards also provide legal framework for controlling air pollution and protecting public health, meaning that any citizen can now approach the court demanding better air quality. The revised standards include initiatives that had been developed in consonance with globally best practices and in keeping with latest advancements in technology and research.
The big question, however, is of enforcement, which could prove to be a difficult task.
The standards have brought two new deadly pollutants, PM 2.5 and ozone, within the ambit of regulation. The standard for nitrogen oxide has been made more stringent, from the existing 60 micro-gm per cubic metre, it has been tightened down to 40 micro-gm per cubic metre. Suspended particulate matter (SPM) as parameter has been replaced by fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), which is more relevant for public health.
HEALTH
India's children stunted, undernourished, wasted: UN
India has the largest number of stunted children below the age of five in the world, according to the latest United Nations Children's Fund report.
Approximately 200 million children, under the age of five, suffer from stunted growth in the developing world. The report 'Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition' found that stunting is primarily caused due to childhood under-nutrition, which contributes to more than a third of all deaths in children under five.
India also has one of the highest numbers of underweight children, below the age of five, and one third of 'wasted children'—those facing a greater chance of death—in the world.
Out of a total of 19 million new-borns per year in the developing world that are born with low birth-weight, India has 7.4 million low birth-weight babies per year—the highest in the world. The report finds that 80 per cent of the developing world's stunted children live in 24 countries.
India, however, does not have the highest prevalence of stunted children as the high numbers was due to its large population. In terms of prevalence, Afghanistan was first while India was 12th. In 17 countries, underweight prevalence among children under 5 years old is greater than 30 per cent. The rates were highest in Bangladesh, India, Timor-Leste and Yemen,` with more than 40 per cent of children being underweight.
The study also found that 13 per cent of children, under 5 years old, in the developing world were wasted, and 5 per cent were severely wasted (an estimated 26 million children).
A number of African and Asian countries have wasting rates that exceed 15 per cent, including India (20 per cent) Bangladesh (17 per cent), and Sudan (16 per cent). The country with the highest prevalence of wasting in the world is Timor-Leste, where 25 per cent of children under 5 years old are wasted.
In Asia, the prevalence of stunting dropped from approximately 44 per cent in 1990 to an estimated 30 per cent in 2008, while in Africa it fell from approximately 38 per cent in 1990 to an estimated 34 per cent in 2008. Unless attention is paid to addressing the causes of child and maternal under-nutrition today, the costs will be considerably higher tomorrow.
JUDICIARY
Finally, SC judges declare assets
In a move that will enhance the image of the judiciary, 21 out of the 22 Supreme Court judges—including Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan—have declared their assets and of their wives by posting the details on the court’s website—supremecourtofindia.nic.in.
The step is expected to end months of controversy over the apex court's refusal to place in public domain such details, maintaining that it was not bound to part with these under the Right to Information Act (RTI).
The details, provided under the heading “Assets of Judges,” however, did not have the total assets of each judge and his wife. Also, the value of a number of properties owned by them is not given. Most of the judges had provided such details to the CJI at the time of their elevation to the apex court, but these were not placed in public domain.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
Visit of Australian PM to India
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visited India in November 2009 with a message to India that Australia remained a safe destination for Indian students. Mr Rudd said his government was committed to using the “full force” of law to protect Indian students.
During his visit, in an attempt to upgrade bilateral ties, both countries agreed to elevate the relationship to a strategic partnership. Discussions between Mr Rudd and Mr Singh covered all aspects of the bilateral relationship—from trade to climate change. On climate change, Mr Rudd said: “Indian Prime Minister and I discussed the great challenge of climate change. We must have a good ambition for Copenhagen.” The two sides agreed that it is an issue of concern for both countries, with the Indian side reiterating its position on climate change.
The two sides have also decided to expedite the feasibility study to look into the impact of an FTA between the two countries. In fact, the Australian side has made no secret of its interest in an FTA, with Mr Rudd saying that he expects the study to recommend an FTA.
Iran seeks help to combat terror
Notwithstanding the US pressure, India has unequivocally conveyed to Iran its commitment to participating in the 7.4 billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project. This reassurance was given by both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna at separate meetings with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in New Delhi.
At the delegation-level talks between the two foreign ministers, Iran sought greater cooperation with New Delhi in fighting terrorism emanating from Pakistan. Like India, Iran has also been affected by terrorism sponsored from the Pakistani soil. A horrific suicide attack in south-east Iran in October 2009 targeted the country's Revolutionary Guards and was blamed on Pakistan-based Jundallah, a Sunni extremist outfit.
This was the first high-level contact between the two countries since the UPA government returned to power in New Delhi and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was re-elected as the President of Iran in June 2009.
Mottaki renewed an invitation to Manmohan Singh to visit Iran. The invitation was accepted and dates of the visit would be finalised in consultations through diplomatic channels.
The two sides also agreed to convene an early meeting of the joint working group (JWG) on energy cooperation between them to resolve issues connected with the pipeline project. An Iranian team would be visiting India soon for the purpose. As Iran and India share common interests in Afghanistan, they also discussed joint infrastructure projects like the deep sea port of Chabahar and a rail link to provide better connectivity for Afghanistan to Central Asia.
Visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to USA
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s deliberations with US President Barack Obama in end-November 2009, as his first State guest, did not result in any dramatic announcements but New Delhi was satisfied that it was able to persuade Washington to acknowledge that India was being inflicted by terrorism from neighbouring Pakistan.
Washington went a step further by calling for the defeat of terrorist “safe havens” in Pakistan and Afghanistan and agreed to enhance collaboration in this effort.
The joint statement was prefaced with a commitment by both leaders to expand and deepen their relations. President Obama described India as a “rising and responsible global power” to assure India that it was very much on the US radar and that any impression to the contrary was incorrect.
The two countries signed a new memorandum of understanding on counter-terrorism cooperation to help each other in information and intelligence sharing related to terrorism, which institutionalised an arrangement which has been in place since the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
President Obama’s commitment on the implementation of the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement during his press conference also found mention in the joint statement, which also acknowledges India as a responsible nuclear power. Taking note of the Obama administration’s sensitivities on non-proliferation, India was quick to reaffirm its unilateral and voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing and agreed with US to start early negotiations on a multilateral, non-discriminatory and internationally verifiable Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty. On its part, the US committed to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) at an early date. There are fears that such a development would encourage the US to pressurise India to sign the CTBT, which has not been accepted by New Delhi.
President Barack Obama assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the US-China joint statement issued on his visit to Beijing earlier in November was not an endorsement of Chinese mediation in the India-Pakistan dispute. Mr Singh said Obama told him that the intention of that statement was not to support any “third-party intervention in issues in South Asia.” He said he was “very satisfied” with Obama’s assurance on an issue that caused much heart-burn in New Delhi. India opposes third-party mediation in the dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir.
On Afghanistan, Prime Minister Singh said Obama told him that the US “highly values” India's role in reconstruction and development of the war-ravaged country. Manmohan, who met several Republican Democratic as well as Republican lawmakers while in Washington, said there was bipartisan support for India’s role in Afghanistan. This role is viewed with suspicion by Pakistan.
Visit of Canadian PM to India
India and Canada have entered into an agreement for enhancing energy security. Yet another deal has been inked between the two nations to kick off negotiations between the two with respect to free trade area. This happened during the meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in November 2009, on a range of bilateral issues, including trade and investment, civil nuclear cooperation, the global financial crisis, terrorism and climate change.
The energy security pact will enable better cooperation between the nations in areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency, oil and natural gas, power generation, transmission, distribution and end-use, energy research and development.
The FTA deal will enable the formation of a joint study group for exploring the chances for developing a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, with the first meeting slated to be held in December.
The two nations have also decided to cooperate for tackling global terrorism.
India reaches nuke agreement with Canada
On November 28, 2009, India reached a civil nuclear agreement with Canada. The agreement was firmed up during a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterpart Stephen Harper on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Summit.
Canada has become the eighth country with which India has reached civil nuclear agreement since the NSG lifted a 34-year-old ban on India to join global nuclear trade in September last year. The other countries with which India has already signed the civil nuclear deal are the US, France, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Argentina and Namibia.
China protests against Dalai Lama’s Tawang visit
The Chinese rhetoric against India for the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh in November 2009 picked up again with a State-run newspaper running a report that said the Tibetan spiritual leader undertook the Arunachal visit under pressure from New Delhi. India rubbished the assessment and took the opportunity to remind China that the Dalai Lama was free to travel anywhere in the country.
Though the Chinese government has refrained from directly attacking India since the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, it is significant that China’s state-run media ran a report attacking India over the visit of the Dalai Lama.
“India may make use of the Dalai Lama to solve the decades-long territorial conflict by encouraging his visit to southern Tibet (Arunachal Pradesh),” Hu Shisheng, a researcher of southern Asian studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, was quoted as saying. China calls Arunachal Pradesh southern Tibet.
“The Dalai Lama went to southern Tibet at this critical moment probably because of pressure from India... By doing so, he can please the country that has hosted him for years,” Mr Hu said. He added: “India may have forgotten the lesson of 1962, when its repeated provocation resulted in military clashes. India is on this wrong track again...When the conflict gets sharper and sharper, the Chinese government will have to face it and solve it in a way India has designed,” Mr Hu said.
China had protested against the visit of the Dalai Lama to Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh, but India had dismissed the protests by pointing out that the Dalai Lama continues to be a guest in India.
Responding to that attack, the Dalai Lama dismissed China’s claim that his visit was anti-China and had said that Arunachal was an integral part of India.
Genisis of the dispute: In 1913-14, China, Tibet and Britain tried to hammer out the Shimla Accord—a deal defining borders between Inner and Outer Tibet, and between Outer Tibet and British India. Henry McMahon, a British administrator, drew up 550 miles of the boundary demarcating British India and Outer Tibet. China walked out of the talks, rejecting the line between Inner and Outer Tibet, but the Accord nonetheless ceded Tawang and other Tibetan areas to the British Empire. Since then, China has declared the line invalid, citing the absence of its signature on the Shimla Accord. After the collapse of Chinese power in Tibet, the McMahon line was, de facto, accepted as official, and Britain established administrations in the area. However, Tibet and later the People’s Republic of China claimed Tawang district after India's independence. With China all set to take over Tibet, India declared the McMahon line the official boundary in 1950.
The North East Frontier Agency was created in 1954. The Tibetan uprising was suppressed by China and its self-ruling government abolished in 1959. The Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala, and maps published by the Tibetan government-in-exile now show McMahon Line as the southern border of Tibet.
During the 1962 war, China acquired large parts of NEFA but voluntarily withdrew to the McMahon line. It was only in 1985 that China declared its ownership claims on the eastern tract roughly corresponding to Arunachal Pradesh. Until then, it was prepared to cede this land to India if it was given the cold western desert of Aksai Chin in Ladakh, of strategic importance to China. India rejects China’s claims over both, and post-1985 China has insisted that Arunachal Pradesh is theirs.
India, EU ink atomic energy pact
On November 6, 2009, India and the European Union (EU) signed a major accord for cooperation in the civil atomic energy field and pledged to conclude an ambitious free trade agreement (FTA) between them within a year. The atomic energy agreement is aimed at facilitating India’s participation in the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) project for fusion research.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the Indian side at the 10th India-EU summit while the EU was represented by Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, in his capacity as chairman of the EU Council and EU President Jose Manuel Barroso.
The ITER project on fusion energy is said to be the costliest experiment of its kind that will cost some 10 billion euros. The first fusion reactor is expected to be operational in Cadarche in southern France by 2016.
India and the EU have been negotiating an FTA since 2007 but have not been able to firm up the accord due to differences over EU’s attempts to link trade with climate and other extraneous issues. Both sides are of the view that a political push was need for the agreement to be wrapped up by 2010.
In a joint statement the two sides shared the understanding that the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes should take place in conformity with the highest standards of safety, security and non-proliferation. The joint statement further said India and the EU welcomed the renewed momentum in global disarmament talks while reaffirming their shared interest in working together for disarmament and for countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. In this context, they stressed the importance of strengthening national export control laws.
On terrorism, the EU condemned the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 and reiterated the need for intensifying global cooperation in combating international terrorism. Without any reference to Pakistan, the two sides emphasised the utmost importance of bringing the perpetrators of the crime to justice.
On international financial crisis and global economy, the two sides reiterated their commitment to continue to sustain a strong policy response until the recovery was secured, to prepare internationally coordinated and cooperative exit strategies to be implemented once the recovery has taken hold, to strengthen and reform financial regulatory and supervisory systems to ensure global financial stability and prevent further crises, and to ensure that the international financial institutions reflect contemporary economic realities.
French Parliament ratifies N-deal with India
Even as India and the United States iron out their differences over the reprocessing of the spent nuclear fuel under the 123 agreement, the French Parliament has ratified the India-France nuclear accord, paving the way for French nuclear giants to build nuclear plants in India.
The French National Assembly adopted a law authorising the ratification of the agreement signed between the two countries on September 30, 2008, during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Paris. This is subsequent to the adoption of the same law by the Senate on October 15, 2009.
It will enable the early entry into force of the agreement. It now paves the way for strengthening relations between French and Indian partners and for more concrete developments in the industrial field.
France was the first country to sign a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with New Delhi days after India secured a waiver from the nuclear suppliers’ group (NSG) to undertake nuclear commerce in 2008. Since then, India has signed nuclear deals with the US, Russia, Namibia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Argentina.
French nuclear supplier Areva has been allocated the nuclear project site at Jaitapur in Maharashtra to initially build two power plants.
The Indo-French nuclear agreement allows reprocessing of the spent nuclear fuel from French nuclear reactors under safeguards, and gives an assurance of lifetime supply of nuclear fuel for these reactors. It does not bar the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies. With the ratification of the agreement by the French Parliament, France becomes the second country after Russia to give unconditional rights to reprocess spent nuclear fuel to India.
The agreement makes it mandatory that reprocessing be done under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
SCANDALS
CBI pegs Satyam fraud at Rs 14,000 cr
Seven months after its first charge sheet in the Satyam scam, CBI on November 24, 2009, filed a supplementary charge sheet against disgraced Satyam founder B. Ramalinga Raju and nine others, pegging the Satyam fraud at Rs 14,000 crore instead of the Rs 7800 crore that Raju had owned up to in January 2009.
The additional charge-sheet, however, fails to nail Raju and aides on siphoning of funds from Satyam Computer, instead saying that the investigating agency was planning to file a separate chargesheet on the allegations of funds diversion and income-tax frauds within the next few days.
The 200-page charge-sheet filed in the CBI court charged the accused of forging board resolutions and unauthorisedly obtaining loans worth Rs 1220 crore from banks as well as inflating Satyam revenues to the tune of Rs 430 crore by creating fake customers and generating fake invoices.
The charge-sheet also identifies 1065 properties with a documented value of Rs 350 crore that were acquired by the Rajus with the spoils of the fraud. These include 6,000 acres of land, 40,000 sq yd of housing plots and 90,000 sq ft of built-up property.
CBI has also slapped charges of criminal breach of trust and falsifying accounts by inflating the acquisition price of Nipuna Services Ltd, the ITeS arm of Satyam. It also slapped a criminal breach of trust on them in the declaration and disbursal of dividends of Satyam Computers.
Meanwhile, the Rs 1,220 crore unauthorized loans detailed by CBI in the charge-sheet are not reflected in the company's books and are over and above the Rs 1,230 crore that Raju confessed to Satyam having received from various Raju family owned companies including Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties.
Madhu Koda arrested for mining and money laundering
The Jharkhand Vigilance Bureau has arrested former Chief Minister Madhu Koda in the multi-crore mining and money laundering case. A joint team of Jharkhand Police and State vigilance bureau arrested Mr Koda after he repeatedly refused to respond to summons from the Enforcement Directorate for questioning. Mr Koda described his arrest as part of Congress’ conspiracy to keep him away from election campaigning.
Mr Koda is alleged to have laundered thousands of crores during his stint as the Chief Minister between 2006 and 2008. ED’s probe into the money laundering operation, which is spread from Singapore to Thailand and from Dubai to Liberia, is set to balloon into one of the biggest bribery and corruption scandals in the country.
NAGALAND
Assembly hails rebel groups
The Nagaland State Legislative Assembly has extended ‘recognition’ to the Naga undergrounds for having “selflessly worked, fought and sacrificed” for the aspirations and rights of the Naga people. This ‘recognition’ as a resolution was adopted in the State Assembly on November 29, 2009, even as talks between the government of India and the NSCN(IM) have yet to reach a conclusive stage. The resolution was passed unanimously with members cutting across party lines to support it.
The State Assembly also reiterated its earlier stand on integration of all Naga-inhabited areas in the region, an issue that also figures prominently on the NSCN agenda.
The Nagaland Assembly has so far passed four resolutions in favour of integration of Naga areas—first on December 12, 1964, followed by August 28, 1970, September 16, 1994 and December 18, 2003. The 60-member House in the resolution also appealed the negotiating parties of the Naga political dialogue to expedite the political process and bring about an early resolution through a negotiated settlement which was honourable and acceptable to the Naga people.
The State Assembly, through its resolution, also appreciated the government of India, particularly Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram for their “renewed sincerity” towards finding a permanent solution to the decades-old “Indo-Naga” political problem.
The resolution also appreciated the civil society, churches, NGOs and the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) for their all out efforts towards reconciliation, understanding and oneness of all sections of Naga society. The resolution also hailed the sincerity of the underground groups, especially their commitment towards peace and understanding by signing the “Covenant of Reconciliation” earlier at Chiangmai in Thailand on September 23, 2009.
The resolution further decided to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Naga political issue comprising members from all political parties. This committee would carry the voice of the House to all concerned sections including the Centre and the Naga rebel groups.
TERRORISM; LAW & ORDER
Centre ready with anti-Naxal plan
Home Minister P. Chidambaram announced on November 1, 2009 that the Union government is a ready to launch the much-awaited full-fledged anti-Naxal operations in three different areas, considered tri-junctions of Maoist violence.
The tri-junctions, which have been identified for the offensive against the ‘Red Rebels’, are: Andhra Pradesh-Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh; Orissa-Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh and West Bengal-Jharkhand-Orissa.
Around 40,000 paramilitary personnel would assist the respective State police forces during the operations. Almost 7,000 specially trained troops in jungle warfare are also part of the total strength of the Central forces to be deployed for the task.
The anti-Naxal plan also includes Rs 7,300 crore package for unleashing developmental works in areas cleared off the Left-wing extremists. Officials feel that the Naxal menace, which has now spread to 40,000 sq km area across the country, can be wiped out in a period of 12 to 30 months.
Around 25 lakh people live in areas where Maoists are now having a free run. The Naxalites have killed more than 2,600 people, including civilians, in 5,800 incidents in last three years.
CURRENT INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
AFGHANISTAN
Karzai elected President
On November 1, 2009, Afghanistan's Presidential challenger announced he would not participate in the run-off election because his demands for measures to prevent fraud were rejected. He stopped short of calling on his supporters to boycott the balloting.
Abdullah made no mention of agreeing to take part in any future unity government with President Hamid Karzai, which the US and its international partners believe is the best hope for curbing the Taliban insurgency.
In an emotional speech, Abdullah said he did not believe a free and fair election was possible without changes in the leadership of the electoral commission, which ran the fraud-marred first-round ballot on August 20, 2009. Abdullah said the Afghan people should not accept results of a ballot run by the current group.
A run-off was ordered after the UN auditors threw out nearly a third of Karzai's votes in the first round ballot, dropping him below the 50 per cent threshold for victory in the 36-candidate field.
Afghanistan's election commission declared Hamid Karzai elected as President on November 2, 2009 after it called off a run-off following the withdrawal of his only rival, Abdullah Abdullah. With this move the political uncertainty in Kabul came to an end.
US officials hope to help restore legitimacy to Karzai's government by encouraging him to build a reform-minded government that is ethnically representative and includes Abdullah's followers. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton released a statement that hinted at Abdullah's group having some voice in the government. She praised Abdullah for running a "dignified and constructive campaign that drew the support of Afghan people across the nation. We hope that he will continue to stay engaged in the national dialogue and work on behalf of the security and prosperity of the people of Afghanistan."
Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second term as Afghan President on November 19, 2009. The 51-year-old has pledged to fight corruption and take control of his country's security before his five-year term ends.
His inauguration came against the backdrop of an ever more deadly Taliban insurgency, doubts over his legitimacy after the tainted election, and demands from Western donors that he address rampant corruption and mismanagement.
BANGLADESH
Hindu property confiscated during 1965 war to be returned
On November 2, 2009, the Bangladesh cabinet approved a proposed law to return Hindu property, which were confiscated during the 1965 Indo-Pak war, when the country was eastern wing of Pakistan, ending a major violation of the rights of minorities in the country.
The proposed law is meant to redress the long-disputed law of the Pakistani era, which was widely criticised as a major violation of the minority rights. During the Pakistan period, the law was called as the Enemy Property Act.
The then Pakistani regime enacted the law to confiscate the property of the Hindu families who fled the country when the India-Pakistan war broke out in 1965 while the post-independent Bangladesh government renamed it as the Vested Property Act 1974.
Officials familiar with the process said under the amended proposal, the government would publish lists of “returnable and non-returnable vested property” within a certain period of times while the claimants could also seek review about “non-returnable” property. Under the law, government committees at district and upzila or sub-district levels would settle disputes regarding the disputed property.
The Awami League had enacted the law to return the minority property at the fag end of its previous 1996-2001 tenure setting a two-year implementation deadline but the subsequent Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) sat on it exposing it to a natural death. The 2001 law stipulated that land that was seized be returned to its original owners, provided that the original owners or their heirs remained resident citizens.
Mujib’s murderers convicted after 34 years
On November 19, 2009, Bangladesh's Supreme Court rejected the appeals of five former army officers and confirmed death sentence on seven others, who are living abroad, for killing the country's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members 34 years ago.
A five-judge bench of the apex court delivered the judgement amid tight security on the court premises and key establishments across the country, bringing to an end a long court battle on an emotive issue.
Sheikh Mujib, officially referred to with the honorific Bangabandhu, who was then the country's President, was killed in a coup on the morning of August 15, 1975, less than four years after he led a movement that culminated in the emergence of Bangladesh after its violent separation from Pakistan.
In its judgement, the apex court ruled that the incidents of August 15, 1975, were “a simple murder and it was not a result of mutiny”. Also gunned down or bludgeoned in three separate attacks were most of Mujib's family members, close relatives, political associates, Mujib's security chief and personal staff.
Referred to as “killer majors”, since most of them were junior officers, the condemned men had later openly claimed to have carried out the killings in what they described as national interest.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Mujib's elder daughter and one of the two survivors, revived the court trial after she returned to power in January 2009. Sheikh Rehana, the other surviving daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in her reaction, said it was important that the verdict had been upheld by the Supreme Court.
EUROPEAN UNION
Belgian PM chosen first President
On November 19, 2009, European Union leaders have named Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the bloc’s first President and appointed Briton Catherine Ashton as its foreign affairs chief.
A consensus was reached at a summit in Brussels after Britain dropped its insistence that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair should become President, ending weeks of deadlock and opening the way to agreement on Van Rompuy.
The appointments are intended to bolster the EU’s standing and help it match the rise of emerging powers such as China following the global economic crisis.
Van Rompuy, 62, and Ashton, 53, are low-profile compromise candidates little known outside the EU and at least initially will not have the clout in foreign capitals that an established statesmen such as Blair would have had.
PAKISTAN
Zardari hands over ‘nuke button’ to Gilani
Pakistan's embattled President Asif Ali Zardari has transferred control of the country’s nuclear arsenal to Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani and said he intended to strip the Presidency of more powers soon.
The President gave up his control over the nuclear arsenal by re-promulgating the National Command Authority Ordinance and amending it, a move described as a “giant leap forward to empower the elected Parliament and the Prime Minister.”
Zardari also said in an interview with a TV news channel that the 17th Constitutional amendment which gives President sweeping powers to dismiss the Premier and dissolve Parliament will also be done away with soon.
Meanwhile, a controversial law which scrapped graft cases against Asif Ali Zardari and his key allies expired on November 28, 2009, but the Pakistan President felt it will not affect him as the Constitution provides “indemnity” to the person holding the top post in the country.
PHILIPPINES
Emergency imposed after massacre
On November 24, 2009, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed two southern provinces and a city under emergency rule after 24 people were killed in the worst-ever election related violence in the country.
The orders were issued as troops, using shovels and bare hands, dug up hastily covered graves on a grassy hillside in Maguindanao to recover the victims of the massacre. Some of the dead men had their hands tied behind their back and one of the women was pregnant. Eight of those found dead were local journalists. They were part of a group of 40 people abducted by gunmen when on their way to file a candidate's nomination to contest the governorship in elections May 2010.
Elections in the Philippines are usually marred by violence, especially in the south, where security forces are battling communist rebels, Islamic radicals and clan rivalries.
SWITZERLAND
Voters approve ban on minarets
Swiss voters approved a ban on construction of new minarets on November 29, 2009, a surprise result that is certain to embarrass Switzerland’s neutral government and could also damage its economic ties with Muslim States.
About 57.5% of voters and all but four of the 26 cantons approved the proposal in the nationwide referendum, which was backed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP). The government said it would respect the people’s decision and declared construction of new minarets would no longer be permitted. “Muslims in Switzerland are able to practise their religion alone or in community with others and live according to their beliefs just as before,” it said in a statement. Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the outcome of the vote reflected a fear of Islamic fundamentalism, but the ban was “not a feasible means of countering extremist tendencies”.
Both the government and Parliament had rejected the initiative as violating the Swiss constitution, freedom of religion and the nation’s cherished tradition of tolerance. The UN human rights watchdog had also voiced concerns.
The SVP, Switzerland’s biggest party, and Federal Democratic Union gathered enough signatures to force the vote on the initiative opposing the “Islamisation of Switzerland”. The move has stirred fears of violent reactions in Muslim countries and an economically disastrous boycott by wealthy Muslims who bank and vacation in Switzerland.
The right-wing campaign to outlaw minarets on mosques has received an unlikely boost from radical feminists arguing that the tower-like structures are “male power symbols” and reminders of Islam’s oppression of women. Julia Onken, a prominent feminist, warned that failure to ban minarets would be “a signal of the State’s acceptance of the oppression of women”.
WORLD ECONOMY
G-20 launches framework to boost global economy
The finance ministers of G-20 nations have agreed on a timetable for the new framework for balanced and sustainable growth of the global economy, but made a little progress on financing efforts to reduce global warming.
The world’s leading developed and emerging economies committed to have peer review and “more specific policy recommendations” in place by November 2010. The Finance Ministers, during the two-day meeting at St Andrews in Scotland, on November 8, 2009, hoped that if all countries put political weight behind the negotiations over the next year, the world can recover without developing the huge trade and financial imbalances of the past decade.
But there was no agreement on a specific set of common objectives, nor a mechanism to resolve disputes. On the climate change issue, the Finance Ministers agreed only to keep working for an ambitious outcome at meeting in Copenhagen but could not agree on the amount of money developed countries will offer to poorer countries to help them reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.
The meeting was also overshadowed by a dispute about the possibility of a global tax on financial transactions. Addressing the meeting, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown floated the idea of such a tax would help banks to pay for the insurance they receive from taxpayers. Within hours of the suggestion, the idea appeared still-born when US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said: “A day-to-day financial transaction tax is not something we are prepared to support.” But some of the other measures mentioned by Brown—an insurance fee to reflect the risk of some banks, a pre-funded pool of money to support orderly bank bankruptcies and contingent capital arrangements-have more international support. The US is supportive of efforts to ensure banks cannot rely on taxpayers to bail them out in future.
Eurozone pulls out of recession
Europe's deepest recession since the second world war has officially ended after the world's biggest single trading bloc joined Japan and the United States in returning to growth. Both the 16-nation eurozone, and the 27-nation European Union as a whole, expanded their economies in the third quarter, with a 0.4 per cent increase in the single currency area and a 0.2 per cent rise across the bloc as a whole.
But despite exiting five quarters running of economic retreat, analysts said that the improvement is unlikely to be robust enough to allow governments to end State support measures, particularly with unemployment continuing to rise.
The eurozone economy had shrunk by 0.2 per cent between April and June after a record collapse of 2.5 per cent in the first three months of 2009. But growth of 0.7 per cent in Germany, Europe's most powerful economy, and 0.3 per cent in France, in the third quarter lay behind the improvement.
Britain, with a 0.4 per cent contraction and Spain, with a 0.3 per cent decline, contributed to the lower figure for the EU as a whole.
The European figures compare with a 0.9 per cent improvement in third-quarter economic output in the United States, with Japan having already exited from recession in the second quarter with 0.6 per cent growth.
Hoarwd Archer, the chief economist at IHS Global Insight, poured some cold water on the news when he said the the emergence into daylight came "at a trot rather than a canter". Cautioning that "consumer spending likely saw little or no growth," Archer warned that the recovery "could well lose momentum for a time in 2010 before growth starts to gradually pick up again".
But he forecast overall eurozone growth of one per cent in 2010. Clemente De Lucia of BNP-Paribas, a French bank, said the rebound was due mainly to the industrial sector and warned that the recovery "might fade in 2010" once the impact of schemes, such as help for boosting new car sales, was fully withdrawn. He also pointed to high unemployment, running at more than 22 million at the last count across the EU, acting as a brake on expansion for some time yet.
OECD doubles 2010 forecast
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has doubled its growth forecast for the leading developed economies in 2010 and predicted a further acceleration in 2011 as China powers a global recovery.
The economy of the group’s 30 member countries will expand 1.9% in 2010 and 2.5% in 2011, the Paris-based organisation said in a report. Output will contract 3.5% in 2009. The OECD, which advises members on economic policy, forecast 2010 growth of 0.7% in June.
But the recovery will be marred by high unemployment and huge government debt across the industrialised countries, the OECD said. Central banks and governments in major Western economies should prepare for a gradual upwards shift in ultra-low interest rates and for fiscal consolidation once recovery is stronger, but they will only need to move in late 2010 at the earliest given that inflation is so low.
Output in the OECD economies will only return to the level achieved in the first three months of 2008 in the third quarter of 2011, underlining the damage done by the banking crisis.
The OECD gave 2011 growth forecasts for the first time. The US will grow 2.8%, the euro area 1.7% and Japan 2%. The Chinese economy will expand 9.3%, it said. The global growth forecast includes emerging giants China, Brazil, India and Russia with the mostly industrialized economies of its own 30-country membership and in all covers some 80% of world output.
The OECD said it expected world trade to grow 6.0% in 2010 and 7.7% in 2011 after a plunge of 12.5% in 2009. China and India are poised to accelerate due to strong stimulus measures, the OECD projected.
The Paris-based group hiked its growth forecast for China to 9.3% in 2009 and 10.2% in 2010. In March, it projected China's growth at 6-7% in 2009. For India, the OECD boosted its growth forecast to 6.1% in 2009 and 7.3% in 2010, rising to 7.6% the following year. The OECD, in March, projected 4.3% expansion for India in 2009. India's recovery appeared to be only “modestly hampered” by the driest monsoon in nearly four decades and economic data suggested the growth “momentum is strengthening,” the OECD said. But a resurgence of inflationary pressures pose a “key challenge” to Indian policymakers in deciding when to withdraw stimulus in order to tackle the large public deficit, it said.
Dubai rattles global scrips with its woes
Global markets from Sydney to Sao Paulo trembled on November 26, 2009, on fears that Dubai’s attempts to reschedule loans might trigger a fresh round of financial troubles in a world just emerging from the worst economic crisis since the 1930s and which may be amplified in India as thousands of expats stare at job losses and reduced trade.
India, which gets nearly a quarter of its remittances from the United Arab Emirates and has lakhs of labourers working in the region, may be worse off than most other nations if the crisis escalates into a full-blown one like the Russian or Argentinian crises of the past.
Indian shares and the rupee fell in sync with the rest of the global markets where investors are fleeing for safety after Dubai World, the government investment company with $59 billion of liabilities, sought to delay repayment on much of its debt. Investors believe that there could be more trouble spots in emerging markets after Vietnam devalued its currency and raised rates. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex fell 2% to 16,854.95, and the rupee fell 24 paisa to 46.55 against the dollar. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index lost 1.4%.
Dubai, which borrowed $80 billion in a four-year construction boom to transform its economy into a regional tourism and financial hub, suffered the world’s steepest property slump in the global recession. Home prices fell 50 percent from their 2008 peak, according to Deutsche Bank AG. Banks around the world have written off more than $1.7 trillion as the credit crisis trashed the value of their assets.
Dubai World’s lenders include Credit Suisse Group AG, HSBC Holdings, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
ENVIRONMENT
China announces ambitious emission caps
Green NGOs were elated after China announced ambitious cuts in the carbon intensity of its economy by 2020 in a major boost to the global effort to tackle climate change. China announced a 40-45 percent reduction in the carbon intensity from the business-as-usual scenario by 2020. Carbon intensity measures the amount of carbon dioxide—the main greenhouse gas that is causing global warming—emitted per unit of industrial output. India's carbon intensity is one of the lowest among emerging economies.
International NGO Greenpeace also welcomed China's announcement but said it was not enough. "Given the urgency and magnitude of the climate change crisis, China needs stronger measures to tackle climate change," said Ailun Yang of Greenpeace China. "This is a significant announcement at a very important point in time. But China could do more."
Since 2007, China is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, though almost all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now has been put there by developed countries since the start of the Industrial Age.
Yang noted that the announcement by China is yet another commitment for the climate coming from a major developing country ahead of the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit. "This is another challenge to the industrialised world, particularly the US, which has just announced an inadequate emissions reduction target of only 4-5 percent by 2020."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—a grouping of over 2,500 scientists from around the world—has said the developed world should cut emissions by at least 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce 80-95 percent by 2050.
For China, a low carbon path is a national priority and a sure way to keep up its economic tempo. China can ill-afford to let ‘invisible’ carbon denominated process and production methods (PPMs) standards shackle its export offensive.
More than India, it is China that should be worried about the current efforts to re-interpret Article XX (e) of GATT to keep out ‘goods based on carbon intensive processes’. In reality, China has been under greater pressure to stave off the ‘climate related threat’ from the WTO window. By sending a ‘concrete’ signal of commitment to emission intensity reduction, the People’s Republic is doing its best to keep the trade dragon from getting into the FCCC fold.
There could be an interpretation that the Chinese concession is an implicit acceptance of NAMA. Given the fact that China is still coal dependent and looks towards safe and cost-effective carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, it does not make sense for it to accept NAMA commitments without quid pro commitments on the technology transfer front. It is important that India and China have a concerted position on this issue.
Earlier in the month of November, Brazil had offered to reduce its emissions if it was provided international funding to control deforestation of the Amazonian forests. The move was interpreted by some as a sell-out to industrialised countries. And, now India faces the challenge of how to escape being seen as a global hurdle.
The Chinese move came a day after the US administration, that held out for long, announced that it would offer a target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions "in the range of" 17% by 2020 as compared to 2005 levels. When converted to benchmarks set under Kyoto Protocol, this works out to 4% reduction below 1990 levels—almost seven times less than what the EU has offered and less than 1/10th of what the UN IPCC requires industrialised countries to do to check catastrophic climate change.
One senior official said: "China’s offer are not absolute reductions, please note, and they are purely voluntary, China has not offered them as a commitment towards international compact. This is along lines that China had informed us of. But they leave a positive impression internationally." In fact, the Chinese are aiming to earn goodwill without doing much. The industrialized countries are obliged under the existing UN treaty to reduce their emissions by absolute levels below a fixed benchmarked year. China, in comparison has offered a purely voluntary reduction in its carbon intensity. The carbon intensity target also provides enough leverage for ‘creative accounting’ in measuring success of targets.
NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION
Chinese N-shopping mall helped Pakistan
China supplied Pakistan with enough weapons-grade uranium for two atomic bombs in 1982 and continued to help Islamabad out with its nuclear programme, according to a report in The Washington Post.
Outing China as a nuclear proliferator, the report, which sourced the narrative from accounts written by disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, said that a Pakistani military C-130 left the western Chinese city of Urumqi with the “highly unusual cargo" in 1982.
That China supplied Pakistan with nuclear know-how has always been suspected, but this is the first time that a detailed account of how it took place has come out and that too straight from the accounts of A.Q. Khan. The uranium transfer was reportedly part of a secret nuclear deal approved years earlier by Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the 1976, four years after India tested its first nuclear weapon.
But it was realised only during the time of Zia ul-Haq, who after taking power and hanging Bhutto was struggling under rumours of a pre-emptive strike by India. So Khan and a Pakistani general were sent to Beijing "to borrow enough bomb-grade uranium for a few weapons." Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping gave the approval and Khan and his team flew aboard a Pakistani C-130 to Urumqi where Khan says they enjoyed barbecued lamb while waiting for the Chinese military to pack the small uranium bricks into lead-lined boxes to be flown to Islamabad.
“Upon my personal request, the Chinese Minister . . . had gifted us 50 kg [kilograms] of weapon-grade enriched uranium, enough for two weapons,” Khan wrote in an 11-page narrative of the Pakistani bomb programme that he prepared after his January 2004 detention. “The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50 kg enriched uranium,” he said in a separate account sent to his wife several months earlier. China in effect supplied a "virtual do-it-yourself kit that significantly speeded Pakistan’s bomb effort."
Even before that, China sent Pakistan 15 tons of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), a feedstock for Pakistan’s centrifuges, whose designs Khan has stolen. But it was also a give and take with Khan sharing Europe’s best centrifuge technology in the 1980s with the Chinese in an effort to help China’s uranium-enrichment programme.
India votes against Iran on IAEA resolution
On November 27, 2009, India joined 24 other countries at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to vote against Iran on its nuclear programme. India’s censure was based on IAEA director-general Mohammed El Baradei’s report on Implementation of the NPT safeguards agreement in Iran which said all efforts to negotiate with Iran to address the international community’s concern over its ‘clandestine enrichment programme’ has reached a “dead-end.”
This was the third time that India has voted against Iran’s alleged clandestine nuclear weapons programme at the IAEA, the last two occasions being in September 2005 and February 2006. This decision had kicked off a massive political storm in the country. The Left parties, which were offering critical outside support to the UPA government at that time, had come down heavily on the ruling combine and accused it of being arm-twisted by the US into voting against Iran.
The vote had also raised serious concerns within the ruling Congress, which feared that this vote would erode its minority support base. Explaining New Delhi’s third vote on the governing body resolution Vienna, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said: “Our support for the resolution was based on the key points contained in the Report of the Director General.”
The IAEA has come to the conclusion that Iran was not transparent about its nuclear programmes and concluded that it was pursuing clandestine nuclear weapons programme. In September, Iran confirmed the doubts about its weapons programme when it disclosed the existence of a second uranium enrichment plant in Fordo, not very far from Tehran.
India, on its part, has been doing a tightrope walk on the sensitive issue. It has consistently opposed Tehran on this issue in multi-lateral forums but continued to engage with Tehran bilaterally. The reasons for this were explained by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he pointed to the ancient civilization links between the two countries, New Delhi’s dependence on Iran for energy and the presence of five million Indians living in Iran.
Continuing with its balancing act, India was quick to strike a conciliatory note after its censure of Iran at Vienna. It pointed out that this resolution should not be used to renew punitive action or new sanctions against Iran.
The latest resolution was backed by all five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The three countries that opposed the anti-Iran IAEA resolution were Cuba, Venezuela and Malaysia, while Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa and Brazil abstained from voting.
Iran to build 10 new enrichment plants
On November 29, 2009, Iran announced plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants in a major expansion of its nuclear programme—a clear show of defiance after the UN nuclear watchdog rebuked Tehran over secret such work. The decision by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government will further aggravate tensions between the Islamic Republic and major powers seeking a diplomatic solution to a long-running dispute over Iranian nuclear activities.
It may speed up discussions in the West about possible new sanctions on Iran over its repeated refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which the US and its allies suspect is part of a covert bid to develop nuclear bombs. Iran denies this.
The new enrichment facilities would be the same size as Iran's main enrichment complex at Natanz.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Visit of US President to China
On November 17, 2009, in a delicate balancing act during his visit to China, US President Barack Obama supported early resumption of talks between China and the Dalai Lama’s representatives while describing Tibet as part of this country. Taking note of the sensitivities of China and the exiled Tibetan leader, Obama, during his maiden visit to China as President, said: “We did note that while we recognise that Tibet is part of the People’s Republic of China, the US supports the early resumption of dialogue” between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and Beijing.
Obama’s remarks came after his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao during which the two sides discussed a host of issues including India-Pakistan relations, Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, Afghanistan, terrorism and climate change.
The US and China agreed to work together to bring about stable and peaceful relations in all of South Asia, Obama said during his joint briefing with Chinese president Hu Jintao in Beijing. Hu, who spoke first, didn’t mention Pakistan or South Asia. This was a rare occasion when a US president acknowledged that Beijing has a role to play in the India-Pakistan relationship. The move, if serious, runs counter to predictions of US foreign policy experts that the US would not acquiesce in a future Chinese hegemony in the region.
While the joint statement was met with silence by New Delhi, it infuriated officials in the foreign office because it brought back nasty memories of another US-China joint statement by Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin on June 29, 1998. Then too, it was Clinton and Jiang, in what India considered “offensive” language, scolding India and Pakistan for their nuclear tests. India had reacted sharply then, buffetted by general international condemnation after the tests.
But latest statement cut at the heart of an Indian effort to build a relationship with the US without China complicating the issue. The reality is perhaps that the joint statement was drafted by Obama’s China officials who don’t read India’s sensitivities. But that it was allowed to go through signals to many Indian strategists that Obama may be more than pliant to China, giving it a role in a region where it’s bound to come into conflict with a country Obama says is a strategic US partner, India.
SUMMITS
CHOGM
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) was hosted in the city of Port of Spain in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on November 27-29, 2009. The Opening Ceremony of the Meeting included an address by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth.
The CHOGM is the supreme body of the Commonwealth. It is convened every two years to review global, political and economic developments and to conduct a strategic overview of the Commonwealth’s work in support of the interests of member countries.
The objective of this Summit was to engage leaders of the Commonwealth in discussing global and Commonwealth issues and to agree upon collective policies and initiatives.
The leaders agreed to admit Republic of Rwanda as the 54th member of Commonwealth.
Climate change was a major topic of discussion at 2009 CHOGM, due to the proximity of the meeting to the Copenhagen climate change summit, but also because many Commonwealth States are particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
The 53 member States of the Commonwealth called for an “internationally legally binding agreement” on climate change to be agreed at the Copenhagen conference in December 2009. Leaders also pledged support for a fund to help poorer countries tackle climate change.
Heads of government endorsed the Report of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), covering the Group's deliberations in the period since last meeting in Kampala in November 2007. They commended CMAG's work, which has contributed significantly to the protection and promotion of the Commonwealth's fundamental political values in member countries.
Heads of government also welcomed the reinstatement of Pakistan in the Councils of the Commonwealth following the conduct of credible elections in the country in February 2008 and the assumption of office by an elected, civilian government in April 2008. However, they expressed deep concern at the further deterioration of the situation in Fiji Islands with regard to its adherence to fundamental Commonwealth values, including the abrogation of the Constitution in April 2009, ongoing restrictions on human rights, including freedom of speech and assembly, and the Interim government’s decision to further delay elections until 2014. They noted that these actions had led to the full suspension of Fiji from the Commonwealth on September 1, 2009.
Heads of government once again acknowledged the threats posed by weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, and reaffirmed their commitment towards ridding the world of these weapons. Recognising that the ultimate objective is general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control, Heads reaffirmed their commitment to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, which should be achieved in accordance with the United Nations Charter. Heads reaffirmed the rights of States to nuclear energy for peaceful uses in conformity with their international obligations. They also noted the ongoing efforts towards the negotiation of a comprehensive Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in respect of conventional weapons, and the proposed ATT conference to be held in 2012. They called for the finalisation of a robust and comprehensive ATT based on consensus.
CHOGM reaffirmed unequivocal condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes, as criminal and unjustifiable. They reiterated that acts of terrorism cannot be justified or legitimised by any cause or grievance whatsoever.
Continuing need for comprehensive efforts at all national and international levels to counter terrorism, including efforts to build respect and understanding among peoples was stressed. The Heads also emphasised the need to conclude negotiations on a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism on a priority basis, preferably during the Sixty-Fourth Session of the UN General Assembly and called upon all member States to accede to the UN Counter-Terrorism Conventions and Protocols, and to effectively implement these as well as the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and relevant Security Council Resolutions, and to prevent the use of their territories for the support, incitement or commission of terrorist acts in other States.
Recognising that corruption in its various forms undermines good governance, public security, respect for human rights and economic development, CHOGM urged member States which had not already done so to consider becoming parties to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), and to implement its provisions, including those addressing asset recovery, to help them combat systemic corruption at both national and international levels.
Heads expressed their support for the commitment to avoid protectionism, and to strengthen financial supervision and regulation. They emphasised the importance of renewing the contract between financial institutions and the society they serve, and the need to ensure the sector bears the full cost of the risk associated with their activities. They encouraged the IMF to consider the full range of options in their review and welcomed the steps taken by many countries to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis, and the fragile signs of growth in the global economy. They expressed concern, however, that the social and economic impact of the crisis would continue to affect a vast majority of the developing countries, particularly the smallest and most economically vulnerable members of the Commonwealth, including LDCs and SIDS.
Australia will host the 2011 CHOGM. Sri Lanka and Mauritius will host the 2013 and 2015 CHOGMs, respectively.
INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
Italy arrests two for aiding 26/11 attacks on Mumbai
Tracing new links to the Mumbai carnage, a Pakistani father-son duo were arrested from Italy for allegedly managing money transfer to finance phone communications of the attackers following leads from Indian and US investigators.
The two men, who ran a money transfer agency, were arrested in an early morning raid from the northern Italian city of Brescia, police said. The duo have been identified by the police as Mohammad Yaqub Janjua, 60, and Aamer Yaqub Janjua, 31. They have been accused of aiding and abetting international terrorism as well as illegal financial activity.
On November 25, 2008, a day before the attacks, they transferred $ 229 to activate an internet phone account that was used by the attackers and their accomplices, said Stefano Fonzi, the head of anti-terror police in Brescia.
The funds that enabled the terrorists to be in touch with their handlers in Pakistan were transferred under the identity of another Pakistani man who had never been to Italy and was not involved in the attacks, reports from Italy said. The two managed a money transfer agency where it is reported to be a common practice to transfer funds using false identities. The Italian police arrested the two men in an early morning raid in Brescia, the police said in a statement.
Italian police started their investigation the following month after being alerted by Indian authorities and the FBI that funds had been transferred from Italy.
Pak court names Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as 26/11 mastermind
In what is being seen as a clever move by Islamabad to bury LeT founder and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed’s role as the prime strategist behind the 26/11 attacks, a Pakistani trial court, while framing charges against seven accused on its soil, has instead named Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as the mastermind.
Exactly a year after the Mumbai assault, on November 25, 2009, the special anti-terror court set up in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi framed charges against all the seven accused in Pakistan’s custody, reportedly confirming Lakhvi as the mastermind and Zarar Shah, Abu al-Qama, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum as handlers/facilitators. All seven had pleaded not guilty. They have been reportedly charged under the anti-terrorism act and the Pakistani penal law. The charges include providing training, financial support, accommodation, equipment and communication gear to the 10 terrorists who had attacked Mumbai, including the lone survivor Ajmal Amir Kasab, who is now in India’s custody.
Interestingly, the dossier submitted by India on the 26/11 investigations to Pakistani names JuD chief Hafiz Saeed as the mastermind behind the Mumbai plot. Zaki-ur-Rehman, Zarar Shah, Abu Qama and others, now facing trial in Pakistan for their involvement in the 26/11 attacks, were only acting under the instructions of Saeed. Saeed is alleged to have personally overseen the preparations and events leading up to the major assault on India’s financial capital. Senior officials of the security establishment are obviously disappointed over the absence of any reference by the Pakistani court to Saeed’s role in the 26/11 conspiracy. The assessment in India is that the Pakistani court’s move, timed to coincide with the eve of the 26/11 anniversary, was essentially to exhibit to the world its “commitment” to punish the attacks’ perpetrators on its soil while ensuring a complete cover-up of Hafiz Saeed’s role as the key conspirator.
INTERNATIONAL TREATY
Arms Trade and Transfer Treaty
On November 1, 2009, even as the crucial global Arms Trade and Transfers (ATT) treaty, which seeks to regulate the $55 billion arms trade and promote democracy, found overwhelming support from 153 member countries at the UN. India was among the 19 who abstained from the meet. These 153 countries—including top arms suppliers like US, Britain, Germany and France—supported a UN disarmament committee resolution which will lead into negotiations for the treaty starting 2010.
While India may still take part in negotiations, the treaty in its present form was not in India’s interest. Certain binding clauses on social issues like violation of human rights and restrictions on arms sale expanding into controls on export of advanced technologies could work against India.
The US under George Bush in 2006 had opposed the treaty but it came round to supporting it under Barack Obama. The fate of the UN sponsored treaty still hangs in the balance as the list of 19 who abstained includes China and Russia, as also Pakistan.
The proposed treaty calls upon States involved in arms trade to not violate human rights, promote democracy and refrain from getting into any armed conflict. It also calls for ban on sale of arms to countries which promote terrorism.
The fact that India is still dependent on conventional weapons and imports a large number of these is another major concern. The proposed treaty will seek to set up export controls on transfers of advanced weapons, thereby extending the present Western-inspired controls on export of advanced technologies. This could impinge on the interests of India.
The Reserve Bank of India’s gold stock has shot up by more than 55 per cent with the purchase of 200 tonnes of IMF gold at an estimated cost of $6.7 billion. RBI, which pledged gold during 1991 crisis with the Bank of England to raise resources to meet external obligations, said it has purchased 200 tonnes of gold from International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The minimum support price (MSP) of wheat has been increased by the Union government by Rs 20 a quintal to Rs 1,100 a quintal. The MSP for barley has been fixed at Rs 750 per quintal and chana at Rs 1,760 per quintal.
Sachin Tendulkar holds the world record for most number of fifties in One day matches (91). He also holds the world record for most tons (9) in a calendar year (1998), as also world record for most runs in a calendar year (1894 in 34 matches).
Objective
National Cancer Awareness day is observed on November 7.
“Sesame Street” is a landmark children’s TV show that for last 40 years has taught generations of children to count, countless parents how to teach, and is seen in 125 countries.
Objective
Phyan was the name of the cyclone that hit Arabian Sea off the coast of Maharashtra-South Gujarat.
July 18 has been declared as Nelson Mandela International Day by the Un General Assembly to mark the South African anti-apartheid leader’s contribution to peace.
Caccine Vial Monitor (VVM) is a measurement of heat exposure to vaccine. Potency of a vaccine is judged by VVM indicator present on the ampule.
Four Indians, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, have made it to the Forbes list of the world's most powerful people topped by US President Barack Obama, who is followed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Among the four Indians, Manmohan Singh has been ranked highest at 36th position, while the country's top corporate house Reliance Industries' chief Mukesh Ambani finds himself ranked 44th ahead of Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata (59th). Ranked very next to Manmohan Singh is al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden at 37th place, while Indian underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is at 50th position.
The Union government has said it would soon launch two more schemes to improve the health status of adolescent girls and mothers. When rolled, the “Rajiv Gandhi Abla Scheme” and the “Indira Gandhi Matritva Scheme” would be additions to the eight government schemes already in place to fight undernourishment among children aged 0 to six years and pregnant women. These eight schemes include: Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), Midday Meal Scheme, Targeted PDS Scheme, National Maternity Benefit Scheme, Antodaya, Annapurna and National Old Age Pension Scheme. All schemes are closely monitored by the Supreme Court under the Right to Food verdict.
India’s public officials and politicians continue to be perceived as “highly corrupt” by global experts and business surveys, says the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by the Transparency International. With “Integrity Score” of 3.4, the CPI 2009 has ranked India 84th among the 180 countries surveyed, below other developing economies like Brazil (3.7) and China (3.6). The 2009 edition analysed 180 countries, the same number as the 2008 CPI. In 2008, India scored 3.4, dropping from 3.5 in 2007.
Pakistan, with a score of 2.4, is ranked 139th on the list, followed by Bangladesh (2.4), Nepal (2.3), Maldives (2.5) and Sri Lanka (3.1). Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar and Somalia have recorded the score of less than 1.5, while leaders of the pack are New Zealand (9.4), Denmark (9.3) and Singapore and Sweden (9.2).
Transparency International’s Corruption Index has ranked India 84 out of 180 countries. However, with an integrity score of 3.4, India is the least corrupt country in South Asia, excluding Bhutan.
With a fortune of $32 billion, industry leader Mukesh Ambani has topped the list of richest Indians, where his estranged brother Anil figures at number three with nearly half the wealth. Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, who lives in London but holds an Indian passport, is sandwiched between the Ambani brothers in the list at number two with a net-worth of $30 billion, according to the US business magazine Forbes. The list of India's richest 100 people included 52 billionaires, nearly double from 27 in 2008 and just short of 54 in November 2007, but there were only six women.The collective wealth of these 100 is $276 billion (nearly Rs 13 lakh crore), which corresponds to almost one-fourth of the country's GDP.
India’s first LTTD (Low Temperature Thermal Desalination System) plant—with a capacity of 1 lakh litres fresh water a day—was developed and commissioned in May 2005 at Kavaratti.
84-km Mughal Road, is a dream project under construction that will connect the Kashmir valley through Shopian with Bafliaz-Poonch in the Jammu region. Mughal emperors used to ride into the valley using this historic road which runs through high mountains. The centrally-sponsored Rs 640-crore road project, taken up in 2006, would be thrown open to public by July 2010.
India joined China, Brazil and South Africa to prepare a joint front for tough negotiations with rich nations at the Copenhagen Climate talks. The four countries, seen as the “BASIC” block, agreed to a strategy that involved walking out of the conference together if western nations try to force terms on the developing world.
Kisan Vision Yojna is ambitious project of Indian Railways to set up cold-chain facilities across the country for fresh fruit and vegetables. The pilot project has been started at Singur in West Bengal.
Continuing the commendable trend of the past decade, India’s forest cover increased by 728 sq km during 2005-07—a marginal rise of 0.03%. Overall, 21.02% of the country’s geographical area is now under green cover. In the past 10 years, forest cover has increased by 3.31 million hectares, showing an average 0.46% increase every year. These figures are contained in the State of Forest Report 2009. The biennial report is based on satellite imagery up to 2007. India’s increasing forest cover deserved praise, especially compared to the loss of 2.5 million ha of forests in Brazil every year. India, however, lagged behind China’s achievement of gaining 4 million ha of forests annually. While India seemed to be doing well in protecting dense forests, the report indicated that moderately dense forests weren’t faring too well.
The world’s largest atom smasher, Large Hadron Collier, broke the record for proton acceleration on November 30, 2009, previously held by a US lab, Fermilab, since 2001, sending beams of particles at 1.18 trillion electron volts around the massive machine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)