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National:

Andhra Pradesh,first legislation to implement Sub-Plans for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes

A new chapter was opened for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh when itsAssembly adopted a Bill to give legislative backing to the implementation of Sub-Plans for thesedisadvantaged sections with a mandatory provision for allocation of nearly a fourth of the States annual planof the budget for them hereafter. This makes AP the first State in the country to enact the law giving legalstatus to the Sub-Plans as sought by the Planning Commission and National Development Council (NDC)which are insisting on States to adopt this piece of law for a long time. The legislation will be effective fromthe States 2013-14 budget, a huge sum of Rs. 11,157 crore would have gone to them straightaway from theRs 48,935-crore plan outlay of the States 2012-13 budget (calculated at statutory 16.23 per cent for SCs and6.6 per cent STs).

First commutation of death sentence by Pranab

Atbir Singh, lodged in Tihar Jail, New Delhi, is the first death-row convict whose sentence has beencommuted to life imprisonment by President Pranab Mukherjee. Mr. Mukherjee passed the order onNovember 15. Atbir is one of the 16 death-row convicts whose mercy petition, Pratibha Patil, Mr. Mukherjeespredecessor, left undecided while completing her tenure. Atbir was convicted and sentenced to death by asessions court in 2004 for the murder of his step mother, step sister and step brother in 1996 over a propertydispute. The High Court confirmed the sentence in 2006 and the Supreme Court dismissed his appealagainst the sentence in 2010. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recommended commutation as the crimehad a socio-economic basis.

Ranjit Sinha takes over as CBI Director

Senior IPS officer Ranjit Sinha today took over as the new CBI Director and said he would lay specialemphasis on addressing delays in execution of Letters Rogatory and improving forensic capabilities of theagency. A 1974-batch Bihar cadre officer, Sinha, who is also holding charge as Director General Indo-TibetanBorder Police, succeeds A P Singh who retired on November 30.

Australian film festival begins

The three-day Australian Film Festival (AFF) got off to a magnificent start with enthusiasts queuing up toview the films. Dehra Dun is the only non-metro city where the screening of the Australian movies will takeplace apart from New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. This also happens to be the first international film festivalin the city. 'Yes, Madam Sir' is the most anticipated film of the festival. This award-winning documentary onthe first woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi has been directed by Megan Doneman.

India among nations most impacted by terrorism: Study

India, Pakistan and Afghanistan were among the nations most impacted by terrorism in 2011, according to anew global study, which said the terror strikes worldwide had increased fourfold since the start of the Iraq warin 2003. The inaugural Global Terrorism Index (GTI) said Pakistan, India and Afghanistan accounted for 12per cent, 11 per cent and 10 per cent of global terrorist incidents respectively from 2002 to 2009. In 2011,Middle East, India, Pakistan and Russia were the areas most impacted by terrorism. The US, Algeria andColombia had the biggest improvements over the last ten years.

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Adopted child has no right to property of biological father: HC

The Bombay High Court has held that a child given away in adoption cannot claim any right in the property ofhis biological father. Justice Mridula Bhatkar who observed that once a child is given away in adoption, hisrights to property of his biological father ceased to exist. He said "family is not defined under HinduSuccession Act. Thus, who can be a member of the family is not described by the statute.

International:

UK govt banned ministers to meet Dalai Lama

The British government had imposed a "blanket prohibition" on two ministers meeting the Dalai Lama, forcingthe duo to accuse Prime Minister David Cameron of buckling to Chinese pressure on the vexed Tibet issue.The ban on meeting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader imposed by the Prime Minister's team during crisistalks over Eurozone countries at a meeting of G20 countries prompted a fierce backlash from the twoministers Tim Loughton and Norman Baker.

Ukraine govt resigns

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his

government and told the cabinet to stay on in an interim capacity. In his two and a half years as primeminister, Azarov has sought to revive an indebted economy which was hard hit by recession in 2009. He hasalso been at the forefront of tough and so far unsuccessful negotiations with Russia, Ukraine's main energyprovider, to try to persuade Moscow to bring down the price of strategic supplies of natural gas which thegovernment says are way above market price and are a huge drain on the economy.

Typhoon Bopha lashes Philippines

Typhoon Bopha smashed into the Philippines uprooting trees and power lines and forcing more than 40,000people to cram into shelters to escape the strongest storm to hit the country.

Technology:

Voyager 1 probe leaving solar system reaches ''magnetic highway'' exit

NASA's long-lived Voyager 1 spacecraft, which is heading out of the solar system, has reached a "magnetichighway" leading to interstellar space. The probe, launched 35 years ago to study the outer planets, is nowabout 11 billion miles (18 billion km) from Earth. At that distance, it takes radio signals traveling at the speedof light 17 hours to reach Earth. Light moves at 186,000 miles (300,000 km) per second). Voyager 1 will bethe first manmade object to leave the solar system. Scientists believe Voyager 1 is in an area where themagnetic field lines from the sun are connecting with magnetic field lines from interstellar space. Thephenomenon is causing highly energetic particles from distant supernova explosions and other cosmicevents to zoom inside the solar system, while less-energetic solar particles exit. Voyager 1 hit the outersphere of the solar system, a region called the heliosphere, in 2004 and passed into the heliosheath, wherethe supersonic stream of particles from the sun the so-called "solar wind" - slowed down and becameturbulent. That phase of the journey lasted for 5.5 years. Then the solar wind stopped moving and themagnetic field strengthened. Based on an instrument that measures charged particles.

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Business & Economy:

India decides to adopt liberal visa policy with Bangladesh

India's Ambassador to Bangladesh Pankaj Saran said it has decided to adopt a liberal visa policy for peopleof Bangladesh to promote economic engagement, people-to-people contact and tourism between the twoneighbouring nations. However, India did not wait for joint working group (JWG) to be set up to sort out theissue of liberal visa regime. India at present gives nearly 500,000 visas to Bangladesh nationals every year.India has already signed a liberal visa regime with its other neighbour, Pakistan-- introducing for the first timegroup tourist and pilgrim visas, multi-city and multi-entry visa for businessmen.

D. K. Mittal to head Department of Disinvestment

Department of Financial Services Secretary D. K. Mittal has been accorded additional charge of theDepartment of Disinvestment following the retirement of Mohammad Haleem Khan as DoD Secretary onNovember 30. He will hold the additional charge for two months with effect from December 1 or till theappointment of a regular incumbent to the post. Mr. Mittal was appointed as Secretary in the Department ofFinancial Services 2011.

Adani completes coal exploration work in Australia

Adani Group, an integrated infrastructure player, announced the completion of the single largest and mostcomprehensive coal mining exploration programme undertaken in Australia. A record number of drill rigswere deployed to drastically reduce the exploration time frame at the Carmichael mine in the Galillee basinof Queensland to nine months.

Bangalore best Indian city to live: Mercer

Technology hub Bangalore has emerged as the best city to live in India, pipping other metro cities such asNew Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, in terms of of overall quality of living. Amongst Indian cities, Bangalore(139) ranks higher than New Delhi (143), Mumbai (146), Chennai (150) and Kolkata (151) in overall quality ofliving, according to Mercer's 2012 Quality of Living Index. In terms of city infrastructure, however, Mumbai(134) was ranked highest among Indian cities followed by Kolkata (141), New Delhi (153), Chennai (168),Bangalore (170). However, no Indian city could manage to find a place in the global list, which was topped byVienna and was followed by Zurich and Auckland in second and third place, respectively.

FIPB nod to stay for FDI in domestic pharma units

The government, has decided that all foreign investments in existing domestic pharma firms should beallowed only after clearance by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), amid mounting concernsover availability of affordable essential drugs in the wake of multinationals acquiring local companies. Thedecision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The meeting wasattended by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and HealthMinister Ghulam Nabi Azad, among others.

State Bank of India may use POS terminals for utility bill payments

The State Bank of India is evaluating the prospects of utilising the point of sale (POS) terminals installed atmerchant establishments to accept remittances towards utility bills. Even while working towards a string ofservices on the terminals, the bank is also working on deploying its POS terminals at more commercialestablishments. Right now there are 30,000 POS machines of SBI and we want to take this to one lakh byMarch-end, he said. The focus would be on taking the POS terminals across the country and into semi-urban and rural areas as well.