General Awareness Updates – October 2012Persons in News

The Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence awarded to the prime accused for the 26/11 terrorist attacks, Ajmal Kasab. The death sentence was awarded by the Sessions Court and affirmed by the Bombay High Court for waging war against India. Justices Aftab Alam and C. K. Prasad said Kasab was part of a conspiracy hatched to wage war against India. In terms of loss and of life and property and more importantly in its traumatic effect this case stands alone or it is at least the very rarest of rare. Therefore it should attract the rarest of rare punishments. The court observed that Mr Kasab joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba in December 2007 and continued to be a member till the end. Even after his capture he regarded himself as a “Watan Parast”, a patriotic Pakistani at war with India. The court also observed that Mr Kasab did not show any remorse for the killings in Mumbai.

Noted Indian American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria was suspended by CNN and Time Magazine, though reinstated later, after he admitted to having plagiarised portions of an article he wrote on gun control from The New Yorker for the August 20 issue of TIME.

Mr Zakaria issued an apology saying he made a terrible mistake and his lifting of a paragraph from the article of Harvard University Professor of American History, Jill Lepore was an ethical lapse. He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2010. He was the Managing Editor of Foreign Affairs, editor of Newsweek International, for 10 years before moving to CNN in 2010.

Hamid Ansari, the 75-year-old former IFS officer and Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was re-elected Vice President of India for a second term. He is the second Vice President to get a second consecutive term after Dr S. Radhakrishnan who enjoyed two terms from 1952 to1962. He polled 490 votes as the candidate of UPA while Jaswant Singh, the NDA candidate, polled 238.

The father of India’s White Revolution Dr Verghese Kurien (left) passed away, aged 90, at Nadiad, Gujarat.  Hailed asIndia’s doodhwala (milkman), he was the founder chairman of both the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that markets brand Amul and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).

He transformed India from a milk-deficient country to world’s largest milk producer after he kicked off ‘Operation Flood’.  As architect of Operation Flood — the largest dairy

development programme in the world — he helped modernize model of co-operatives. He also served as founder chairman of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). He had arrived in Anand in May 1949 as a dairy engineer appointed by government to look after the operations of Government Research Creamery.

Iraq’s fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi , a top critic of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging, in a decision likely to renew political tensions.

Mr Hashemi, tried in absentia, has dismissed all charges against him as politically motivated. A Baghdad court also tried in absentia his secretary and son-in-law Ahmed Qahtan and sentenced him to death. The trial for the murder of a lawyer and a brigadier general, which began in May, covered the first of around 150 charges leveled against Mr Hashemi, who has been accused of running a death squad, and his bodyguards. 

Mr Hashemi, who was born in 1942, became one of Iraq’s vice presidents in April 2006, the same month that his brother and sister were shot dead in separate attacks. When he first became a vice president, he was the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a group that was said to have connections to some elements of Iraq’s Sunni insurgency.

The party was the driving force in Iraqs Sunni-led National Concord Front, which helped mastermind the return of the country’s Sunni minority to the political process after the community boycotted January 2005 elections. He later founded the Tajdid (Renewal) party, which is a part of Iraqiya, the secular, Sunni-backed bloc that won the most seats in 2010 parliamentary polls only to be outmaneuvered by Mr Maliki, who retained the premiership. He was reelected as vice president in 2010 but was accused of running a death squad in mid-December 2011 as the last American soldiers left the country. He fled to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, which declined to hand him over to the federal government, and then embarked on a tour that took him to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He has taken refuge in Turkey since April.

Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister since 1995, had died, aged 57. His Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front seized Parliament in 1991 following the dictatorship of Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam. He is credited with reviving the economy which has grown by an average of 11% due to investment in agriculture and infrastructure. He also developed closer trade ties with India, Turkey, China, and supported U.S. military operations in Somalia.

Vilasrao Deshmukh, the Union Minister for Science and Technology, had died, aged 67. He was a five time MLA and former Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He started his career as a sarpanch in the Latur region of Marathwada.op

Distinguished character actor Avtar Kishan Hangal, who was best known for his roles in films like ‘Namak Haram’, ‘Sholay’ and ‘Shaukeen’, has died, aged 92. He had participated in the freedom struggle before turning to acting. He played roles in films like ‘Bawarchi’, ‘Guddi’, ‘Abhimaan’, ‘Anamika’ and ‘Parichay’. He was also a regular in Rajesh Khanna starrers like ‘Aap Ki Kasam’, ‘Amar Deep’, ‘Naukri’, ‘Thodisi Bewafaii’ and ‘Phir Wohi Raat’.

Former United States astronaut and global icon Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the Moon, passed away at the age of 82. As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Mr Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969.  As he stepped on the Moon’s dusty surface, Mr Armstrong said: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

The Apollo 11 moon mission turned out to be Armstrong’s last space flight. The following year he was appointed to a desk job, being named NASA’s deputy associate administrator for aeronautics in the office of advanced research and technology. He left NASA a year later to become a professor of engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

Born on 5th August, 1930, on a farm near Wapakoneta in western Ohio, he took his first airplane ride at age 6 and developed a fascination with aviation that prompted him to build model airplanes and conduct experiments in a homemade wind tunnel. As a boy, he worked at a pharmacy and took flying lessons. He was licensed to fly at 16, before he got his driver’s license.

Armstrong enrolled in Purdue University to study aeronautical engineering but was called to duty with the U.S. Navy in 1949 and flew 78 combat missions in the Korean peninsula. After the war, Armstrong finished his degree from Purdue and later earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California. He became a test pilot with what evolved into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), flying more than 200 kinds of aircraft from gliders to jets.

He was accepted into NASA’s second astronaut class in 1962 – the first, including Glenn, was chosen in 1959 – and commanded the Gemini 8 mission in 1966. After the first space docking, he brought the capsule back in an emergency landing in the Pacific Ocean when a wildly firing thruster kicked it out of orbit. He was backup commander for the historic Apollo 8 mission at Christmas time in 1968. In that flight, Commander Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell

and Bill Anders circled the moon 10 times, and paving the way for the lunar landing seven months later.

Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft, along with fellow astronauts Michael Collins, and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr that landed on the Moon July 20, 1969, capping the most daring of the 20th century’s scientific expeditions.

Somalia’s Members of Parliament (MPs), meeting in Mogadishu, have elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the country’s new president, in the latest step to end decades of war. The academic beat incumbent President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in a run-off poll by 190 to 79 votes. It is the first time for years that a president has been chosen on Somali soil, a sign of improving security.

However, Al-Qaeda linked group Al-Shabab still controls many southern and central parts of the country, and has staged frequent suicide attacks in the capital since it was driven out of Mogadishu last year by African Union troops and pro-government forces.

Enrique Peña Nieto was declared the legitimate winner of the Mexico’s July 1 presidential election by the country’s highest electoral authority, formally opening the transition to a new government despite continuing claims of fraud by the second-place candidate of the left. The Federal Electoral Tribunal said leftist candidate Andres Manuel López Obrador had failed to prove claims that vote-buying had affected the results of the vote returning Mexico’s former autocratic ruling party to the country’s highest office after a 12-year absence.

Places in NewsChina announced testing of a new generation of inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), Dongfeng-41, with a strike range of 14,000 km and capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads. The U.S. military and intelligence officials say that China has developed the new long range Dongfeng-41 ICBM with mobile launching system making it harder to find and destroy the missile before it is launched.

Awards & Honours

Damien-Dutton AwardThe 2012 Damien Dutton Award for work in the field of Leprosy eradication has been awarded to Orissa state leprosy officer P. K. B. Pattnaik. Previous award winners included Dr Dharmendra, Baba Amte and Mother Teresa. Orissa became the first state in India to achieve the leprosy elimination goal of the WHO in 2006. When the leprosy elimination

programme was launched in Orissa in 1983 the prevalence rate was 130 per 10,000 population but it has now been brought down to below 1per 10,000 population. Orissa has been able to treat 12 lakh leprosy patients, rehabilitate 40,000 and perform surgical deformity correction on 3500 patients.

Nishan-e-ImtiazSaadat Hasan Manto, renowned Pakistani author who angered progressives and puritans alike, has been awarded Pakistan’s highest civilian award - Nishan-e-Imtiaz, 57 years after his death in his birth centenary year. He wrote his first story at the age of 19 and over the next 24 years before his death at the age of 43, he packed in a collection of short stories, radio dramas essays, sketches, a novel and half-a-dozen film scripts. He attracted court cases on charges of obscenity. The Nishan-e-Imtiaz was also conferred on Ghazal king Mehdi Hasan who died recently.

Sports

Vijay and Yogeshwar receive Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award

A thunderous applause greeted London Olympic heroes, Vijay Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt, as they jointly received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour in a glittering ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Pistol shooter Vijay had won Silver in the 25m rapid fire event at the London Games, while wrestler Yogeshwar bagged a Bronze in 60kg free style event. Both the medalists collected the trophy that consists of a medal, citation and cash prize of`7.5 lakh each.

The choices were made by a selection committee headed by 2004 Olympics silver-medallist shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and comprised noted sportspersons such as Akhil Kumar (boxing), Khajan Singh (swimming) and Bhaichung Bhutia (football) among others besides a few bureaucrats.

The following are the winners of Arjuna Awards: Deepika Kumari (Archery), Laishram Bombayla Devi (Archery), Sudha Singh (Athletics), Kavita Ramdas Raut (Athletics), Ashwani Ponnappa (Badminton), Parupalli Kashyap (Badminton), Aditya S. Mehta (Billiards and Snooker), Vikas Krishan (Boxing), Yuvraj Singh (Cricket), Sardar Singh (Hockey), Yashpal Solanki (Judo), Anup Kumar (Kabaddi), Samir Suhag (Polo), Annu Raj Singh (Shooting), Omkar Singh (Shooting), Joydeep Karmakar (Shooting), Deepika Pallikal (Squash), Sandeep Sejwal (Swimming), Ng. Sonia Chanu (Weightlifting), Narsingh Yadav (Wrestling), Rajinder

Kumar (Wrestling), Geeta Phogat (Wrestling), M. Bimoljit Singh (Wushu), Deepa Mallick (Athletics-Paralympics), and Ramkaran Singh (Athletics-Paralympics).

Dronacharya Award, the top recognition for coaches in the country, was conferred on eight: Virender Poonia (Athletics), Sunil Dabas (Kabaddi), Yashvir Singh (Wrestling), Harendra Singh (Hockey), Satyapal Singh (Para Sports - Athletics), J. S. Bhatia (Athletics, for Lifetime Wchievement), Bhawani Mukherjee (Table Tennis, for Lifetime Achievement), and B. I. Fernandez (Boxing, foreign coach).

MOTORRACING

Belgian Grand PrixWinner: Jenson Button (Britain / McLaren-Mercedes)Second: Sebastian Vettel (Germany / Red Bull-Renault)Third: Kimi Raikkonen (Finland / Lotus-Renault)

Italian Grand Prix, MonzaWinner: Lewis Hamilton (Britain / McLaren-Mercedes)Second: Sergio Perez (Mexico / Sauber)Third: Fernando Alonso (Spain / Ferrari)

TENNIS

U.S. Open, Flushing MeadowsMen’sWinner: Andy Murray (Great Britain)Runner-up: Novak Djokovic (Serbia)Women’sWinner: Serena Williams (U.S.)Runner-up: Victoria Azarenka (Belarus)Men’s DoublesWinners: Mike Bryan / Bob Bryan (U.S.)Runners-up: Leander Paes (India) / Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic)Women’s DoublesWinners: Sara Errani / Roberta Vinci (Italy)Runners-up: Andrea Hlavackova / Lucie Hradecka (Czech Republic)Mixed DoublesWinners: Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) / Bruno Soares (Brazil)Runner-up: Kveta Peschke (Czech Republic) / Marcin Matkowski (Poland)

India showed nerves of steel to overcome Cameroon 5-4 via penalty shootout and retain the Nehru Cup Football Tournament as coach Wim Koevermans’ first assignment in the hot seat ended in glory, in New Delhi. India has won this tournament for the third time in a row.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) stripped cycling icon Lance Armstrong of his record seven Tour de France titles and slapped him with a lifetime ban from competition.

Mr Armstrong announced that he was dropping his legal challenge against USADA over claims that he cheated and used performance-enhancing drugs to win cycling’s most prestigious race from 1999 to 2005. The 40-year-old, who battled to the top of his sport after beating life-threatening cancer, maintained his innocence but said he had grown weary of the fight and the strain it had put on his personal and professional life.

USADA took his announcement as an admission of guilt and proceeded with severe sanctions against the former champion and global sporting icon that will forever tarnish his inspirational legacy. USADA maintains that Mr Armstrong used banned substances, including the blood-booster EPO and steroids, as well as blood transfusions dating back to 1996, and said 10 of his former team-mates were ready to testify against him.

Attention now turns to the UCI, based in Aigle, Switzerland, to see if cycling’s governing body will uphold USADA’s decision to strip Armstrong of his titles and ban him from competition. If the UCI confirms the move, it faces a potential headache of choosing the new winners, as a number of cyclists who finished behind the American have also been implicated in doping scandals.

Economy & Business

The former Chief Economist of the IMF, Raghuram Rajan, has assumed charge as the Chief Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance. He succeeds Kaushik Basu. Mr Rajan is acclaimed as being one of the very few to have correctly predicted the 2008 financial crisis. In November 2008 the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh appointed Raghuram Rajan as honorary economic advisor. Mr Rajan holds B. Tech from IIT Delhi, PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad, and PhD from MIT.

Against the backdrop of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) being finalised between India and Israel as they celebrate 20 years of diplomatic relations, the two nations have signed pacts to boost the textiles business.

India’s Ministry of Textile and Israel’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Labour signed an MoU on the sidelines of the first India International Apparel and Textile Trade Show to expand business in areas such as cotton, jute, silk, handlooms, clothing and fashion industries. Around 30 leading Indian manufacturers of apparels and textile have put up stalls at the show in Tel Aviv to tap the Israeli market.

India’s Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) also signed a separate MoU with the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute (IEAICI). AEPC and IEAICI outlined cooperation in the field of clothing and fashion industries, innovative technologies and possible solutions for the Textile Industry as focus areas to enhance bilateral trade and economic relations.

India’s textiles industry has turnover of more than U.S.$80 billion, but it constitutes only about 5 per cent of the U.S.$5.5 billion trade between India and Israel that is dominated by diamonds, which alone account for more than 50 per cent of the total.

Exports from Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are expected to cross `4 lakh crore in the current financial year from `3.65 lakh crore in the previous fiscal. During April-June 2012-13, shipments from the tax-free enclaves were `1.18 lakh crore.

Most of the exports from SEZs are from services sector followed by petroleum and gems and jewellery, which are confined only to a few states and urban agglomerates. Experts believe that there is a need to focus on manufacturing sector to create more and more employment as the country’s economy cannot depend only on services sector.

Out of 588 approved SEZs, or export hubs, 386 are notified and only 158 are operational. However, these zones have lost sheen after imposition of certain levies and proposal to take away tax incentives. The government had imposed Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) and Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) on SEZs in 2010-11, which were earlier exempted from almost all levies. The tax incentives were the main attraction for setting up of these export enclaves. To boost investors’ confidence in these zones, the government is planning incentives for developers who want to set up SEZs in remote and undeveloped areas.

Industrial production growth rates lowed to just 0.1 per cent in July due to poor show by manufacturing, mining and capital goods sectors, reflecting weak economic activity. Growth in factory output, as measured by the index of industrial production (IIP), was 3.7 per cent in July last year, and 6.1 per cent in the April-July period in 2011-12.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, witnessed a contraction in output by 0.2 per cent in July, as against growth of 3.1 per cent in the same month last year.

The performance of the manufacturing sector in April-July was poor as output contracted by 0.6 per cent, as against a growth of 6.5 per cent in the four-month period of last year. The capital goods production also down by 5 per cent in July against a contraction of 13.7 per cent in the same month a year ago.

The output of capital goods contracted in April-July period by 16.8 per cent, as against a growth of 8.2 per cent in 2011-12. Mining output in July dipped by 0.7 per cent, as against a growth of 0.7 per cent in the same month a year ago. The sector’s production in April-July quarter declined by 0.9 per cent, compared to a growth of 0.6 per cent in 2011-12.

Consumer goods production was up 0.7 per cent in July as compared to 6.4 per cent growth in the same month last year. During the April-July period of this fiscal, the growth in the segment was 3.3 per cent, compared to 4.9 per cent in the four month period a year ago. In all, only 8 of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector showed positive growth in July.

Consumer durables production showed a decline in growth rate as this segment increased by 1.4 per cent in July, compared to 9 per cent in the same month last year. The output of these goods registered a growth of 6.3 per cent in April-July quarter this fiscal, as against 4.3 per cent in the same period in 2011-12.

The consumer non-durables output growth declined to 0.1 per cent in July, as against a growth of 4.1 per cent in the same month last year. This segment grew by 0.7 per cent in first four months of this fiscal as against 5.5 per cent in 2011-12.

The basic goods production growth slowed to 1.5 per cent in July, compared to 10 per cent a year ago. During April- July period, this segment recorded a growth of 3 per cent compared to 8.1 per cent in the four months of last fiscal.

Power generation too witnessed a dip in growth rate as it declined to 2.8 per cent during July, compared to 13.1 per cent in the same month a year ago. Electricity generation increased by 5.5 per cent in the April-July period of this fiscal, as against 9.4 per cent in the same period in 2011-12.

Miscellaneous-1

The Indian Coast Guard has commissioned Rajkiran, an inshore patrol vessel (IPV). The Coast Guard and the Indian Navy work in tandem to protect the maritime and coastal security interests of the nation. The 50-meter indigenous IPV displaces 300 tonnes and can achieve a maximum speed of 34 knots, with an endurance of 1500 nautical miles at economical speed of 16 knots. Equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and advanced communication and navigational equipment, it makes an ideal platform for undertaking

multifarious close-coast missions such as surveillance, interdiction, search and rescue, and medical evacuation. The special features of the ship include an Integrated Bridge Management System (IBMS), Integrated Machinery Control System (IMCS) and an integrated gun mount with indigenous Fire Control system (FCS). Rajkiran, literally meaning “Royal Light”, will be based at Haldia.

Several hundred bodies were found in Daraya, a town near Damascus after a ferocious assault by the Syrian army, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as activists accused government forces of a gruesome “massacre”. A grisly video issued by opposition militants showed bodies piled up wall-to-wall in a mosque complex in Daraya after a massive offensive by troops battling to crush insurgents who have regrouped in the outskirts of the capital. The Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists on the ground in Syria, described it as a “massacre” by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and said people in Daraya had been summarily executed and their bodies burnt.

Human rights groups have accused the regime of committing many atrocities since the uprising against Mr Assad’s government first erupted in March last year, and a UN panel said earlier this month it was guilty of crimes against humanity. The brutal conflict that has convulsed Syria for 17 months showed no signs of abating in the face of deep divisions among world powers.  A report by UN investigators said on August 15 that government forces and their militia allies have committed crimes against humanity and that rebels have also carried out war crimes, although on a lesser scale.

In particular, it held government forces responsible for a massacre in the central town of Houla in May when 108 civilians, including 49 children, were killed in an atrocity that shocked the world.

Miscellaneous-2

U.S. designates Haqqani Network a global terrorist organisation

The U.S. has designated the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network a terrorist organization, which will trigger sanctions against a group American officials blame for high-profile attacks in Afghanistan, and which they say has ties to the Pakistani State.

Designation by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization would bring sanctions such as criminal penalties for anyone providing material support to the group and seizure of any assets in the United States. The decision to blacklist the Haqqani Network could heighten tensions between Washington and Islamabad and have far-reaching implications for any reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

Senior Haqqani commanders warned as much, telling that it showed the United States was not sincere about peace efforts in Afghanistan. The commanders also said it would bring hardship for America’s only prisoner of war, U.S. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who is being held by the militants.The Haqqanis, a Pashtun tribe with strongholds in southeastern Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan, are blamed by Washington for an attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul and other high-profile assaults in Afghanistan.

The United States accuses Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of supporting the Haqqani Network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain leverage against the growing influence of its arch-rival India in the country. Pakistan denies the allegations.But whether to brand the group as a terrorist organisation has been the subject of intense debate within the Obama administration, with some officials arguing it will have little real impact but risks setting back Afghan reconciliation efforts.

The U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said that the U.S. will brand the Haqqani network a foreign terrorist organization, subjecting the group and its members to additional sanctions, including an asset freeze. “We also continue our robust campaign of diplomatic, military and intelligence pressure on the network, demonstrating the United States’ resolve to degrade the organization’s ability to execute violent attacks,” said Ms Clinton.

The United States also has targeted the Haqqanis with military strikes. The terror tag as a foreign terrorist organization would increase pressure on the Pakistani government, but any actual effects beyond that were unclear since most of the Haqqani leaders have already been blacklisted individually. It also remained unclear how much damage the U.S. decision could do to ties with Islamabad.

Relations have thawed slightly in recent months following a U.S. apology for an airstrike that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, but remain fraught. In June, U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States was reaching the limits of its patience with Pakistan because of the safe havens that groups like the Haqqanis found there.

New legal measures to control child labour

Employing a child below 14 years in any kind of occupation will be completely banned and land the perpetrator in jail with a maximum three years imprisonment or fine up to a maximum of `50,000 with the Union Cabinet approving the measure.

Making employment of children below the age of 14 a cognisable offence, the Cabinet cleared a proposal to amend the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 to put a

total ban on employment of children below 14 years in any industry – hazardous or non-hazardous.

The amendment cleared at the meeting presided by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh also approved a blanket ban on employing children below 18 years in hazardous industries like mining. At present children under the age of 14 years are prohibited from employment only in hazardous industry.

According to Census 2001, there were 12.6 million economically active children in the age-group of 5-14 years while the National Sample Survey data said the child workforce during 2004-05 was estimated at 9.07 million.

The amendments would ensure that all the children are compulsorily admitted in schools as per the mandate Right to Education Act, 2009 instead of being employed at workplaces. It would also enable India to ratify ILO Convention 138 (minimum age for entry to employment) and Convention 182 (prohibition of employment of persons below 18 years in hazardous occupations). Employment of persons below 18 years will be prohibited in hazardous occupations like in Mines, Explosives and hazardous occupations set forth in the Factories Act, 1948.

Maximum punishment for offences under the Act has been increased from one year imprisonment to two year imprisonment and from `20,000 fine to `50,000 fine or both. For repeated offences, the punishment has been raised to a three-year jail term.The overall responsibility for implementation of the act shall be vested with the district magistrate and the monitoring and inspection is to be done by the labour department in the state concerned.

Govt amends Central Universities Act

A proposal to bring an amendment to the Central Universities Act for enabling setting up of two central varsities in Bihar was cleared by the Government. The Union Cabinet approved amending the Act after the HRD Ministry took a decision to set up a central university in Motihari in addition to the one already proposed in Gaya.

This is only the second exception made by the Union Government for setting up two central universities in a particular state, the first being Jammu and Kashmir. The Government’s decision for setting up a central university in Motihari had put an end a prolonged slugfest over the issue. The Ministry has, however, said there would be no additional allocation for Biharand the `240 crore meant for the state for the central university would now be divided among the two varsities.

Reservation in promotions for SC/ST approved

The Government has cleared a proposal that would allow it to provide reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotion in state jobs. The Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, approved the proposal for making provisions for quotas for SC / STs in promotions in government jobs.

The Cabinet nod clears the decks for introduction of a Constitution Amendment Bill in the ongoing session of Parliament, which has been a long-standing demand of all parties, barring the Samajwadi Party.

An all-party meeting had discussed the issue of reservation in promotion specifically in the wake of the decision of the Supreme Court striking down reservation in promotion to SCs and STs in Uttar Pradesh. Most political parties had favoured a legally sustainable legislation in the backdrop of the Supreme Court order. The proposed bill seeks to amend at least four articles of the Constitution to enable the government to provide quota in promotions to SC/STs.

BSP leader Mayawati had raised the issue in Parliament after the Supreme Court had on April 28 struck down her government’s decision in this regard. Parliament had witnessed disruptions on the issue in the current as well as the previous session.

NRHM to be expanded to towns

The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) launched in 2005 is to be extended to towns. The National Health Mission (NHM) would be launched by merging the NRHM and the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM).

The NRHM is being implemented with the help of 10 lakh health personnel including 8.5 lakh ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) workers. The Government credits NRHM with a number of successes like:

      decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) from 58 per thousand live births to 47 in 2010;      decline in Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) from 254 per one lakh deliveries in 2004-

2006 to 212 in 2007-09, and      registering of impressive gains under the Janani Surakhsa Yojana with 1.13 crore

women benefiting in 2010-11.

Some of the features of NUHM, which is likely to be put in place in 2013 are:

      It will launched as a separate mission for urban areas with focus on slums and urban poor;

      It will cover 779 cities and towns with a population of more than 50,000 including the four metros, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad;

      Budget allocation of `30,000 crore will be made for NUHM;      Intersectoral convergence will be planned among JNNURM, Rajiv Awas Yojana and

the NUHM;      One urban PHC will be set up for every 50,000–60,000 people, and      Outreach services will be provided to urban poor with the help of Urban Social Health

Activist (USHA), one for every 200–500 households and activists from the Mahila Arogya Samithi, one for every 50–100 households.

ISRO does India proud, launches 100th space mission

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India’s national space organization, has marked its 100th mission by successfully launching two new satellites which Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has lauded as a “spectacular success”.

Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) celebrated the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C21 as it blasted into the sky carrying SPOT 6 satellite, a French observation satellite, and PROTIERES, a Japanese microsatellite.

India has had an active space programme since the 1960s and has launched scores of satellites for itself and other countries.

Dr Singh congratulated the team at the ISRO at Sriharikota hailing the achievement as “a milestone in our nation’s space capabilities. India is justly proud of its space scientists, who have overcome immense odds to set up world class facilities and develop advanced technologies. We owe a great deal to pioneers like Dr Vikram Sarabhai and  Prof. Satish Dhawan.

“I would also like to congratulate European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) Astrium of France and Osaka Institute of Technology of Japan for the successful launch of their satellites,” Singh said. “The launch of these satellites on board an Indian launch vehicle is testimony to the commercial competitiveness of the Indian space industry and is a tribute to Indian innovation and ingenuity,” he added.

Future missions

India is one of the few developing countries with a space programme and the government has spent billions of dollars on the project.

India has recently announced plans to join a small group of nations already exploring Mars by sending a satellite via an unmanned spacecraft to orbit the planet. A rocket will blast off

from the south eastern coast of India, dropping the satellite into deep space, which will then travel to Mars to achieve orbit.

The launch was a landmark for ISRO, which began its space odyssey on a humble note when it launched the indigenous ‘Aryabhatta’ on board a Russian rocket on 19th April 1975. Four years ago, its Chandrayaan satellite found evidence of water on the Moon and India is also looking at landing a wheeled rover on the Moon in 2014.

Coalgate: CAG estimates loss at 186000 crore

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in a report on coal block allocations made during 2004 -09 has estimated that a huge loss of `186000 crore was incurred by not ensuring transparency in allocations. The CAG also pointed out serious discrepancies during 2006-09 when the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was the Coal Minister. The role of the PMO was also suspect as it delayed the introduction of competitive bidding though the Law and Justice Ministry had cleared the process.One of the biggest beneficiaries of the coal blocks allocations has been the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Power (RPL). The CAG criticised the Power and Coal ministries for giving post-bid concessions to RPL for its 4000 MW Sasan Power Project. The CAG said this not only vitiated the bidding process but also conferred on the developer `29033 crore in undue benefits.

It also criticised the Central Government for allowing RPL to use surplus coal from the blocks allotted to the Sasan plant for its other projects. The CAG made these observations on Ultra-Mega Power Projects (UMPP) under special purpose vehicles.

Some of the observations made by the CAG on coal allocations are mentioned below:      The Coal Secretary had warned in 2004 about windfall gains to private companies

but the PMO continued to delay process of competitive bidding.      This delay meant coal was allocated under existing opaque process giving private

companies windfall gains.      CAG took into account average production cost per tonne of coal of all grades

produced in open cast mines of Coal India Ltd as well as sale price as reference value in order to calculate financial gains to exchequer.

      Some of the companies that benefited are Tata Group, Reliance Power, Jindal Power and Steel, Abhijit Group, Bhusan Group, Electro Steel, Adunik Group, SR Rungta Group, Sajjan Jindal, Godawari Ispat. OP Jindal Group, Jaiprakash Gaur, and Goenka Group.

      Since July 2004, 142 coal mines have been allocated to various Government and private parties following a process which lacked transparency, objectivity and competition.

      It took seven-and-a-half years to move the allocation procedure for captive coal blocks from a discretionary procedure to competitive bidding.

      The process began within six weeks of UPA I coming to power in 2004 and ironically the amendment to the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation (MMDR) Act rules for action by competitive bidding was notified as recently as 2 Feb 2012. It was the same day that the Supreme Court, while cancelling 122 illegal licenses awarded by the then telecom minister A. Raja, directed the auction process to be followed for all valuable scarce natural resources.

      During the seven-and-a-half years delay, one thing was clear: the bureaucrats made every possible attempt to move coal allocation to a competitive bidding process but failed.

      The plan for competitive bidding was dropped despite the Department of Legal Affairs, the Law Secretary and the Coal Secretary making out a strong case for auctions.

      Citing the Supreme Court judgment on 2G Spectrum case, which wanted to make allocation of scarce natural resources transparent and competitive, the CAG said the Government could have tapped into a part of the `1.86 lakh crore gain to private parties.

      As of June 2004, 39 coal blocks were allocated. During July 2004 to September 2006, 71 more blocks were allocated. In all, since July 2004, 142 blocks were allocated through nomination which lacked transparency, objectivity and competition.

Under criticism from the UPA Government, the CAG has defended itself for its methodology in computing the loss in the coal allocation scam. It said that the real intent behind the report is to end the business of crony capitalism. The figures of loss are intended to be red flags pointing toward governance failure. The Government should focus on fixing responsibility and enforcing accountability rather than quibbling about the quantum of loss first. The CAG had attracted the Government’s wrath in the 2G spectrum report when it projected a notional loss of ` 1.76 lakh crore.

The Government questioned its methodology of arriving at the notional loss but in July 2012 indirectly accepted the CAG’s estimate by fixing the reserve price for auctions of 2G spectrum. The reserve price of `14,000 crore is in accordance with CAG’s methodology in the 2G case.

Also, the CAG said that the criticism of the loss figure of `1.86 lakh crore is puzzling because the figures have been drawn from the Governments own documents as well as financial information that is in the public domain.

The CAG said that is not interfering in policy matters by recommending auctions. It was the Coal Secretary who said that the system of allocation by a screening committee was opaque and led to lobbying and windfall gains to the beneficiary. The coal secretary recommended auctions in May 2004 which the Coal Minister accepted in October 2004. The CAG has only questioned why it took the Government eight years to operationalise its own decision.

In both the cases, i.e., 2G and coal allocation, the support/advocacy for auctions came from the Government. It was the PM and the Finance Secretary who had recommended auctions of 2G spectrum but this advice was ignored by the then Telecom Minister A. Raja. In the case of coal allocations it was the Coal Secretary who recommended auctions and the Government took eight years to operationalise the decision.

Pranab Mukherjee, then the Finance Minister, significantly said in 2011 that the CAG is not exceeding its jurisdiction because the basic responsibility of the CAG is to identify if there is any lapse. In 2006 the Finance Ministry clarified that Performance Audit which is concerned with economy efficiency and effectiveness in the receipt and application of public funds is deemed to be within the scope of audit by CAG.

Indian banks need `5 lakh crore to meet Basel III norms

Indian banks will require an additional capital of `5 lakh crore to meet the new global banking norms, Basel III, RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao has said. The new norms are to be implemented in a phased manner by banks by March 2018.

The government, which owns 70 per cent of the banking system, alone will have to pump in `90,000 crore equity to retain its shareholding in the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) at the current level to meet the norms.

Mr Subbarao said that “fiscal constraints pose significant challenges” to the government to re-capitalise banks to help them meet the Basel III norms, but bringing down its holdings to below 51 per cent can help tide over the problem. “Reserve Bank’s estimates project an additional capital requirement of `5 lakh crore (additional capital required by all banks to meet Basel III norms). If the Government opts to maintain its shareholding at the current level, the burden of recapitalisation (in PSBs) will be of the order of `900 billion,” he said.

Of the total `5 lakh crore (`5 trillion), equity capital will be of the order of `1.75 lakh crore and `3.25 lakh crore as non-equity. He said the government has two options: either to maintain its shareholding at the current level or bring down its shareholding at 51 per cent.

The RBI Governor, however, said that if the government decides to reduce its shareholding in every bank to a minimum of 51 per cent, the burden reduces to under `70,000 crore. He

said that providing equity capital of this size in the face of fiscal constraints poses significant challenges to the government. “The government has two options: either to maintain its shareholding at the current level or bring down its shareholding at 51 per cent in all the banks across the board,” he said.

However, Mr Subbarao asked, “would the Government be open to reducing its shareholding in PSBs to below 51 per cent? If the Government decides to pursue this option, an additional consideration is whether it will amend the statute to protect its majority voting rights.”

Referring to the `1.75 lakh crore Tier I capital to meet Basel III norms, Mr Subbarao said the amount that market will have to provide will be `70,000 crore to `1 lakh crore depending on how much the government will provide. He said market has the capacity to offer this much funds as over the past five years banks have raised equity capital worth `52,000 crore.

No need to bring infra credit under PSL: Chakrabarty

RBI Deputy Governor K. C. Chakrabarty has said there was no need to classify banks’ advances to infrastructure sector as priority sector lending (PSL) saying there is enough credit flow to this critical sector. He said there is no problem of credit flow to the infrastructure sector, which is estimated to require investments of over USD 1 trillion during the 12th Plan period starting this fiscal.

The high credit flow to the infra sector, which involves longer gestation projects, from banks worries the RBI due to the likely asset liability mismatches, he said. “Infrastructure has no problem of credit. In fact, we are worried that banks are giving too much credit to infra companies,” he said, without pointing the exact concerns.

Even after coming out with the final guidelines on priority sector lending norms in July after the customary consultative process, RBI Governor D. Subbarao had said during 30 th July credit policy that the central bank would be revisiting the norms after some bankers, especially from large foreign banks, expressed reservations.

The bankers’ reservation include making a foreign bank with over 20 branches at par with domestic ones and making them set aside 40 per cent of credit as PSL, exclusion of a host of segments from PSL in RBI’s bid to encourage direct lending to beneficiaries rather than through intermediaries, among others.

On the exclusion of certain part of export credit from PSL, Mr Chakrabarty said credit to small scale industries and agricultural exports is already classified as PSL, as per the norms, and the RBI will not budge in case someone makes the demand for classification of credit to export-oriented big corporates as PSL.

Following the MV Nair panel report on PSL, which sought to place large foreign banks – with over 20 branches to begin with – on par with domestic lenders on the PSL front, some of the affected foreign banks (there are only three such lenders now StanChart, HSBC and Citi) have reportedly sought inclusion of lending to the infra sector as PSL.

This demand, along with their call for inclusion of export financing as PLS lending, if accepted, would have helped them meet the new 40 per cent PSL target as they don’t have the branch presence to reach out to farmers and MSMEs in the far-flung areas. The Nair Committee report called for increasing the PSL target for foreign banks from 32 per cent to 40 per cent, which is the current target of the domestic banks. On foreign banks, he said the RBI has not arrived at any conclusion on any revision as yet. On the likely scaling down of foreign banks’ expansion plans as a result of the new PSL norms, he said, “you do priority sector lending, expand and participate in the growth story.”

RBI & SEBI allow partial flexibility in conversion of IDRs

Financial regulators RBI and SEBI have allowed partial flexibility in conversion of Indian Depository Receipts (IDRs) into equity shares by investors, while capping the funds to be raised through IDRs at U.S.$5 billion. The move is expected to help in attracting foreign entities to list their IDRs on domestic bourses.

 “To retain the domestic liquidity, it is decided to allow partial fungibility of IDRs (i.e., redemption / conversion of IDRs into underlying equity shares) in a financial year to the extent of 25 per cent of the IDRs originally issued,” the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said.

In 2012-13 Budget, the government had proposed to allow two-way fungibility of IDRs to encourage greater foreign participation in the Indian capital market.

In a separate circular, the RBI also said there would be an overall cap of U.S.$5 billion for raising of capital through IDRs by foreign companies in Indian markets. This cap would be akin to the caps imposed for FII investment in debt securities and would be monitored by SEBI.

The central bank said that the two-way fungibility allowed for IDRs is similar to the limited two-way flexibility allowed for ADRs and GDRs issued by domestic companies in foreign markets. The two-way fungibility would enable Indian shareholders to convert their depository receipts into equity shares of the issuer company and vice versa.

The fungibility issue is seen as one of the major factors restraining foreign entities from listing their IDRs. So far, only UKbanking major Standard Chartered in 2010 has come out with their IDRs.

Suitable instructions for modifying the existing legal framework governing IDRs, in order to implement the decision to allow redemption of IDRs into underlying equity shares and re-conversion of equity shares of a foreign issuer (which has already listed their IDRs) into IDRs, will be issued separately. The stock market regulator said it has been decided to prescribe a frame work for two-way fungibility of IDRs, to improve the attractiveness and long-term sustainability of such instruments.

GDP growth in free fall, rings alarm bells

Growth deceleration that began last fiscal,    when GDP growth slipped to a nine-year low of 6.5 per cent, has been led primarily by a near 50 per cent dip in new investments in large projects, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said, the drop was led by the infrastructure and metals sectors.

“Envisaged total fixed investment by large firms in new projects, which were sanctioned financial assistance during FY12, dropped by a whopping 46 per cent to about `2.1 trillion from `3.9 trillion a year ago,” according to the FY12 RBI annual report.

“Envisaged investment in infrastructure declined by 52 per cent to `1 trillion in FY12 from `2.2 trillion in FY11, led by the power and telecom sectors,” said the report, quoting data collated from banks and financial institutions.

While investment in the telecom sector has dried up, that in roads, ports and airports has also decelerated sharply, it added. Gross bank credit to infrastructure outstanding as of April 2012 was `6.2 trillion.

However, the flow of bank credit to the sector has decelerated, on the back of policy delays and higher interest rates, the report noted. Data on sector-wise gross deployment of bank credit shows that its year-on-year growth has declined to 14 per cent in FY12 compared to 38 per cent growth in FY11.

Noting that over half of the envisaged corporate fixed investment in large projects has been coming from the infrastructure space since 2008-09, the report said, its share, however, dropped to 48.6 per cent in FY12 from a high 54.8 per cent a year ago. This massive slippage has had a ripple effect on the economy. Order books of capital goods producing firms have declined as

the size of the pie has reduced. Their share has also gone down as they have been out-competed by cheaper imports by foreign firms, points out the report.

Industrial output to grow at just 5.1% in FY13

Industrial output is expected to grow by 5.1 per cent in FY13, higher than last year but below the seven-year average, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said in its monthly review.

“We expect the year 2012-13 to be below average for the Indian industry in terms of production growth. The index of industrial production (IIP), which is the official measure of industrial growth in India, is expected to rise by 5.1 per cent in FY13,” the CMIE said. This will be much slower than the average annual growth of 7.9 per cent posted by the index between its base year 2004-05 and 2011-12. However, the growth will be much higher than the 2.9 per cent in 2011-12, it said.

CMIE expects the projected growth in industrial output to be driven by a strong 10.4 per cent growth in electricity generation, whereas output of manufacturing sector and mining and quarrying sector is expected to grow by 4.3 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively.

The growth in electricity sector will be the highest one seen in power generation in last 23 years. It will be driven by a sharp 11.9 per cent rise in thermal power generation. “We expect the availability of coal to improve in FY13 with a 6.8 percent rise in production and a strong 28.3 rise in coal imports, This, coupled with the record capacity addition seen in the last year will accelerate the growth in thermal power generation in FY13,” the CMIE said.

Nuclear power generation is expected to grow by 17.1 per cent, backed by the 2,000 MW capacity addition by Nuclear Power Corporation. Hydel power generation, however, is expected to remain flat because of poor rainfall and low reservoir levels, according to the review.

The CMIE expects the output of mined products to grow by 3.7 per cent in FY13 after falling by 2 per cent in FY12.

Production of coal is expected to rise by a healthy 6.8 per cent in FY13, after recording a dismal growth of 1.2 percent in FY12. The scrappage of go / no-go area classification of coal blocks and fresh capacity additions are expected to help coal companies scale up their output, it said.

Besides, the CMIE expects the iron ore production to revive in FY13, as eight companies in Karnataka with a capacity of 6 million tonne have got clearance from the Central

Empowered Committee to resume mining from August 2012. And another 37 companies with a capacity of 22 million tonne are expected to resume mining in the next 2-3 months.

CMIE pointed out that the IIP will estimate the growth of the manufacturing sector correctly and will be in sync with the alternate data sources.

In FY12, the IIP had underestimated the growth of the manufacturing sector, showing a steep 22.2 per cent fall in production of electrical machinery and equipments. “We believe that the machinery industry is unlikely to have seen such steep falls in production, as net sales of over 300 machinery companies listed on the bourses rose by 11 per cent in FY12. This growth could not have been entirely price-driven. Also, projects worth `4.1 lakh crore got completed in FY12 which must have generated demand for machinery,” the CMIE said. The CMIE believes that the IIP had under-estimated the growth of the manufacturing sector in FY12. Had it not been for the machinery indices, the manufacturing index would have risen by 5.3 per cent in FY12, much higher than the 3 per cent growth it reported for the year.

It’s One-All in Apple versus Samsung patent war

In a massive victory in its patent case against Samsung, technology giant Apple has won more than U.S.$1 billion after a jury in California found that the South Korean firm violated a series of Apple’s patents related to the software and design of mobile devices.

The nine jurors in the case reached a verdict after answering more than 700 questions in a verdict form over three days of deliberations in a San Jose court in California. According to the verdict, Apple’s patents were valid and the company did not violate any of Samsung’s patents.

Apple said in a statement that the verdict sends a “clear message that stealing isn’t right. The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung’s copying went far deeper than even we knew... We make these products to delight our customers, not for our competitors to flagrantly copy.”

Reacting to the verdict, Samsung said it would ask the court to overturn the verdict and also plans to appeal in a higher court. Samsung said the verdict “should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer. It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices”. It also said the verdict is not the “final word” in the case or in “battles being waged in courts and tribunals around the world, some of which have already rejected many of Apple’s claims”.

Samsung wins against Apple in Japan

Apple lost a patent lawsuit in Japan as a Tokyo judge ruled that Samsung didn’t violate a patent held by Apple for synchronizing music and video data with servers. Apple was ordered by the Tokyo District Court to pay costs of the lawsuit after the verdict, the latest decision in a global dispute between the technology giants over patents used in mobile devices.

Apple and Samsung are battling over the U.S.$200 billion global smartphone market, with patent disputes being litigated on four continents.