April-2015

NATIONAL

Janata Parivar merger: Name and symbol of new party on Sunday

• The name and symbol of a new party that will be formed through the merger of six Janata Parivar entities will be announced at a meeting of its leaders slated at Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh’s residence.

•  The SP leader will be the new party’s chairman and its name will contain the word Samajwadi — either Samajwadi Janata Dal or Samajwadi Janata Party.

Army to take Swachh to Everest

•  The Army is taking the Swachh Bharat campaign to the Everest with a mountaineering team planning to clean up and bring down tonnes of garbage dumped there by mountaineers over the decades.

•  The campaign is part of the golden jubilee of the scaling of the world’s highest peak by an Indian team for the first time.

•  Fifty years ago, an Indian team led by Captain (the then Lieutenant Commander) M.S. Kohli scaled the Mount Everest (Sagarmatha) for the first time. Major A.S. Cheema was the first Indian to scale the peak, Army officers said.

•  “The Army team will contribute towards restoring the ecological balance of the route by bringing down some of the non-biodegradable waste left behind by generations of climbers,” an Army officer said . The Army mountaineers aim toconvey the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a clean environment, the officer added.

•  The team aims to bring down at least 4,000 kg of non-biodegradable waste from the high-altitude camps.

•  The 30-member team is being led by Major R.S. Jamwal, an experienced mountaineer. Army Chief General Dalbir Singh flagged off the team. They will depart for Kathmandu on April 4 and begin scaling the peak mid-May. The team has been undergoing special endurance and mountaineering training for the mission.

Prasar Bharati honours Mrinal Sen

•  The Prasar Bharati handed over a copy of the documentary Celebrating Mrinal Sen to the nonagenarian auteur at his south Kolkata residence as part of paying tribute to the “living legends of our country.”

•  Jawhar Sircar, Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, handed over the DVD, a release by the Press Information Bureau said.

• The archival documentary is primarily based on conversations between Mr. Sen and film critic Sameek Bandyopadhyay, interspersed with excerpts from his memorable films and comments from actors and crew members of his film.

India hails Iran nuclear agreement

•  India hailed the agreement reached between Iran and the P5+1 group — U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany — on Tehran’s nuclear programme, calling it a “significant step” towards a comprehensive settlement.

•  A statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, after the agreement was announced in the Swiss town of Lausanne said: “The announcement underlines the success of diplomacy and dialogue, which India has always supported.”

•  After several delays and an extended deadline, the Foreign Ministers of all the countries involved in what are called the E3+3 (Europe 3+3 or P5+1 of the Security Council and Germany) group and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif announced that they had a “framework agreement” to take forward their twin objectives of reducing Iran’s nuclear capabilities for civilian use only, while lifting financial sanctions imposed by the U.N., the European Union and the United States.

•  According to the draft agreement released by U.S. officials, Iran will reduce the number of installed centrifuges by two-thirds, bring uranium stocks down from 10,000 kg to 300 kg LEU (low-enriched uranium) and turn its nuclear facility in Fordow into an R&D facility for 15 years. All the excess stockpile and nuclear parts will be kept at an IAEA-monitored location, while the U.N., the U.S. and the EU will withdraw all sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy for years.

•  Indian officials were cautious about the completion of the final agreement, but say once the deal is finalised, India could stand to benefit greatly. “If there is a significant withdrawal of sanctions, that would benefit our economic engagement greatly as even the most normal transactions had become very tedious for Indian businesses. From insurance to raising capital, every deal faced international hurdles,” a senior official told.

•  India and Iran have an annual bilateral trade of about $14 billion, with an extremely high balance of trade problem, as India has been unable to pay Iran about $8.8 billion for oil due to sanctions, according to Commerce Ministry figures.

•  The government has also had to bow to U.S. and international pressure on cutting its oil imports from Iran, and in March 2015 halted oil imports altogether for the first time in more than a decade in order to keep its international commitments.

•  Some are also warning that the Lausanne agreement could face a strain if the U.S. and the Iranian governments come under pressure from their hardline domestic constituencies in the months ahead. “Both sides are trying to play this as a great win for domestic reasons, and say that they have taken the other side for a ride,” explained former Indian Ambassador to Iran K.C. Singh. “With both President Rouhani and President Obama in weakened political positions at home, neither can afford to be seen as a loser from the agreement,” he told.

•  If the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement is finalised as hoped, opinion is divided over how much India will benefit. While economists are predicting India-Iran trade could double, given old business ties between the two countries, officials concede that once sanctions are lifted on Iran, India would also have to compete with the U.S. and European suppliers for the “prosperous middle-class market” that Iran represents.

•  In the short run, the big advantage for India could be a further reduction in the price of oil that India used to source at a much higher quantity pre-2012, when Iran was India’s second biggest supplier.

Gujarat leads in Swachh Bharat implementation

•  Gujarat stands tops the list of States in the implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission, while Odisha has excelled in the construction of community toilets, according to an assessment by the Union Urban Development Ministry for 2014-15.

•  Gujarat accounted for 60 per cent of the 2,70,069 household toilets constructed during the last financial year under the mission. Madhya Pradesh constructed 99,151 household toilets, followed by Karnataka with 4,697.

• Odisha was ahead in the construction of community toilet seats, accounting for 740 of the 1,222 seats built during 2014-15. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported 200 and Karnataka 100.

•  Gujarat also took the lead in solid waste management, the third component of the mission, reporting 100 per cent collection and transport of municipal solid waste in 120 of the 195 towns in the State. Odisha did well, with 100 per cent solid waste management of 107 towns and Karnataka with 40 towns.

•  Swachh Bharat, launched on October 2 last, is aimed at ensuring cleanliness in all 4,041 statutory cities and towns of the country by October 2, 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

•  The five-year mission will be implemented at a cost of Rs. 62,009 crore, with a plan to build 1.04 crore household toilets, 2.51 lakh community toilet seats and 2.55 lakh public toilet seats, besides helping 37 crore urban people in solid waste management.

•  “During 2014-15, Rs. 900 crore has been sanctioned by the Ministry of Urban Development and Rs. 700 crore has been released to the States and the Union Territories based on proposals received under the mission. The implementation of the mission is expected to pick up momentum from the current financial year,” said an official.

“By 2050, India will have the largest number of Muslims”

•  Although the world population of Hindus will grow rapidly between now and 2050 based on a relatively high expansion rate and the youth profile of the community, the global surge in the number of Muslims will outpace the growth of the population of every other religion.

•  This was a key result of an in-depth study on ‘The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050,” conducted by the Pew Research Center, which sought to explain ‘Why Muslims Are Rising Fastest,’ in terms of the community’s higher fertility (3.1 children per woman) and the fact that 34 per cent of them are below the age of 15.

•  The report argued that India would retain a Hindu majority, but would also have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.

P.V. Abdul Wahab is IUML RS nominee

•  The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) on Saturday chose P.V. Abdul Wahab, chairman of Peevees Group, as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha (RS) seat.

•  If elected, it will be Mr. Wahab’s second term in the Upper House after a gap of five years.

•  Apart from Mr. Wahab, IUML State general secretary K.P.A. Majeed’s name was also tipped for the post. A section in the party favoured Mr. Majeed while another strongly opposed him.

ED seeks chopper deal details from Defence Ministry

•  The Enforcement Directorate, which has recorded the statement of Air Marshal (Retd.) Gautam Nayyar in connection with the Rs. 3,700-crore AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal, has sought information from the Defence Ministry on the post-retirement cooling-off period for Air Force officers.

•  The ED last month summoned the retired Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (Maintenance Command) and recorded his statement on the alleged links with Christian Michel, an accused.

•  The agency said he received Rs. 1 crore from Michel’s Dubai-based firm Global Services after retirement. The agency has obtained documents suggesting that Michel had financed the foreign trips of the retired officer and his wife between 2010 and 2013.

•  In a statement to the media, Mr. Nayyar denied his role in any defence deal, even the VVIP helicopter contract.

Online protest against Rajnath Singh

•  Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s comments that there is “no non-lethal weapons strategy” for the Border Security Force (BSF) to man the India-Bangladesh border has attracted an online protest.

•  A Kolkata-based human right organisation, MASUM, engaged in monitoring violence on the eastern border, launched the protest, based on an April 1 report.

•  The chief of MASUM, Kirity Roy addressed the petition to President Pranab Mukherjee charging that Mr. Singh had negated the agreement of March 2011 between the BSF and the Bangladesh Border Guards (BGB) agreeing not to use lethal weapons along the 4,000-km. Indo-Bangladesh border

•  “There is nothing like a non-lethal strategy. What is paramount is that our border needs to be protected. I cannot allow [a situation in which] the jawans are attacked and they cannot fire in self-defence,” Mr. Singh had said during a visit to a floating border outpost at the North 24 Parganas district.

•  “While everyone has the right to self-defence, the BSF usually fires shots and then lodges an FIR against the dead. This border was earlier referred to as the ‘trigger happy zone’ and the agreement between the two countries was reached after prolonged interventions by human rights organisations of both India and Bangladesh. Even children are not spared at the border. Mr. Singh’s comments were unconstitutional,” Mr. Roy said.

Operation Raahat: over 600 evacuated

•  In the largest evacuation as part of Operation Raahat so far, three Air India flights airlifted 488 people from Sana’a to Djibouti while naval patrol vessel INS Sumitra rescued 203 people, including 19 foreign nationals from eight countries, from Ash Shihr via Al Muqalla port.

•  India secured a four-hour window for evacuation from Sana’a.

•  Meanwhile two Air Force C-17s with 452 passengers landed in Mumbai while an Air India AI-777 with 352 passengers landed in Kochi.

•  In addition, the civilian liners Kavaratti and Corals , with a total capacity of 1100 passengers, have reached Djibouti and will join in the evacuation, officials said.

•  Op Raahat is now a global endeavour with nationals from several countries evacuated by India; INS Mumbai evacuated 179 people from 17 countries from Aden.

•  “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - The world is a family…” tweeted Syed Akbaruddin, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson.

•  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj meanwhile said the evacuation from Aden, which is witnessing heavy fighting between the warring sides, is now over. “The evacuation from Aden is complete - thanks to Indian Navy,” she tweeted.

•  The Minister also turned down criticism that India had delayed its response, reminding citizens and netizens alike that India had issued three advisories — the first one as early as January — asking Indians to leave.

•  In another tweet, Ms. Swaraj said: “My colleague General V. K. Singh who is shuttling between Sana’a and Djibouti is sparing no effort in accomplishing this difficult task.”

•  As situation worsens and the anxiety of stranded citizens and their awaiting families mounts, Twitter continues to be the primary link between those stranded and the government to disseminate information.

Accord signed for Ambedkar memorial

•  Clearing all hurdles in the construction of a memorial for Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu mill land in Central Mumbai, a tripartite agreement was signed in New Delhi between the Union government, the National Textile Corporation (NTC) and the Maharashtra government.

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the stone-laying ceremony.

•  The project was put on hold as the Central government had not presented the Bill in Parliament to hand over the mill land from the NTC to the State government.

•  According to officials, the agreement was signed after Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis held discussions with the legal fraternity and it was clarified that the land could be transferred with approval from the Central government, without bringing the Bill.

•  The agreement was signed as per section 11 of ‘The Textile Undertakings Nationalisation Act 1995’ with prior permission of the Centre, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Fadnavis.

•  The State government will buy the land from the NTC. A three-member committee will decide on the price and other technical details.

Muslim girl felicitated for winning Gita contest

• Political parties are now scrambling to felicitate 12-year-old Mariyam Siddiqui, a Class 6 student who won the Bhagvad Gita contest organised by ISKCON International Society last month for 4,500 students.

•  Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar felicitated Mariyam and her parents at a specially organised function at Vidhan Bhavan.

•  “A Muslim student winning a competition on a great scripture like the Gita is a praiseworthy achievement,” said Mr. Mungantiwar, who assured the girl’s family of all support in her educational career.

•  Mariyam, student of Cosmopolitan High School, received the first prize in an inter-school competition for explaining the teachings of the holy book. ISKCON International Society had organised the “Shrimad Bhagvad Gita Champion League” in which 195 schools including 105 private and 90 municipal schools participated.

•  Mariyam topped the written examination consisting of 100 questions, scoring 100 out of 100 marks. Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam said his party would felicitate Mariyam at the party headquarters on April 8.

Maharashtra to set up memorial to R.K. Laxman

•  The Maharashtra government will set up a memorial to cartoonist R.K. Laxman in the Sir J.J. School of Arts.

• State Culture Minister Vinod Tawde announced in the Assembly that the memorial would have eight halls exclusively exhibiting cartoons of the past eight decades.

•  “We will also place cartoons by cartoonists across the country and abroad along with those of Laxman’s,” he said.

•  He said the bungalow of Rudyard Kipling within the compounds of the School would be converted into a museum of rare paintings.

•  Explaining the government’s initiative to promote Marathi cinema, which of late has been winning many national awards, including this year’s best film award, Mr. Tawde said all multiplexes in the city would have to play at least one show of a Marathi film at prime time.

•  “Apart from playing the National Anthem at the start of the movie, a short film of a minute or two on the life of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema, will be played in each theatre,” he said.

•  He said the Culture Department was in consultation with the Law Department to change “Bombay” to “Mumbai” in various laws.

•  “There are 199 Acts from the time of the British rule and all of them have the name ‘Bombay’ as it was known earlier,” he said. The process of changing it to Mumbai had already begun.

• “All multiplexes in Mumbai required to play at least one show of a Marathi film at prime time”.

Union Cabinet clears Real Estate Bill

•  The Union Cabinet approved the Real Estate (Regulation and Development Bill) which will address a long-standing demand to bring in a regulator for the real estate sector.

•  The Cabinet, however, deferred its decision on the proposed juvenile justice amendment bill that will allow minors between the age of 16-18 years accused of heinous crimes like murder or rape to be treated as adults.

•  The Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Bill seeks to protect the interests of consumers and establish regulatory bodies at the Centre and States for ethical and transparent business practices in the real estate sector.

•  The Bill provides for mandatory registration of all projects and real estate agents who intend to sell any plot, apartment or building with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority. It makes mandatory the disclosure of all information for registered projects like details of promoters, layout plan, land status, schedule of execution and status of various approvals. The Bill also seeks to enforce the contract between the developer and buyer and a fast track mechanism to settle disputes.

•  The government said the Bill is expected ensure greater accountability towards consumers, and to significantly reduce frauds and delays. It said the proposed legislation is expected to promote regulated and orderly growth of the real estate sector through efficiency, professionalism and standardization

•  “These measures are expected to boost domestic and foreign investment in the sector and help achieve the objective of the Government of India to provide ‘Housing for All by 2022’, through enhanced private participation,” a government release said.

•  The Real Estate Regulation Bill was first introduced by the UPA government in the Rajya Sabha in August 2013 and was then referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee, which had submitted its report in February 2014.

•  The NDA government had made some important changes to the original legislation. The earlier Bill had mandated that a developer put 70 per cent of the buyer's investment into an escrow account that would be used only for the construction of that project.

•  Last year, the Housing Ministry brought this down to 50 per cent, reportedly after much lobbying from the real estate companies. The other major change was to bring the commercial segment of the real estate sector within the ambit of the Bill, which was earlier limited to regulating only the residential segment.

•  The Bill also now includes a condition that prohibits a developer from changing the plan in a project unless 2/3rd of the allottees have agreed for such a change.

Nasim Zaidi set to become new CEC

•  Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi will become the next Chief Election Commissioner later this month.

•  The Law Ministry has initiated the file for the appointment as incumbent, H.S. Brahma retires on April 19. Mr. Zaidi will have a tenure up to July 2017, when he attains the age of 65.

Voluntary retirement no excuse to skip alimony, says apex court

•  Deciding the case of a man who took voluntary retirement and stopped paying maintenance to his divorced wife, the Supreme Court held that he has to continue paying her as long as he is “healthy, able-bodied and is in a position to support himself.”

•  In a judgment, a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant said reasons given by estranged husbands to skip payment are bald excuses. “These have no acceptability in law,” Justice Misra, who authored the verdict, said.

•  The right to get maintenance is “absolute” for a woman, and she cannot be reduced to the state of a “beggar” after being compelled to leave her matrimonial home. “If the husband is able-bodied and is in a position to support himself, he is under the legal obligation to support his wife, for the wife’s right to receive maintenance under Section 125 Cr.PC, unless disqualified, is an absolute right,” the court held in its April 6 judgment. The court held that the obligation of the man to pay maintenance is “heightened” when the couple’s children are with the wife. Again, the amount of maintenance should not be that which would only mean their “mere survival.”

•  As per law, she should lead a life similar to the one she would have in her husband’s house. “And that is where the status and strata of the husband comes into play and that is where the legal obligation of the husband becomes a prominent one,” Justice Misra wrote.

•  The court was deciding the case of an ex-Armyman who took VRS so that he did not have to pay her the monthly maintenance of Rs. 4,000.

PM announces enhanced input subsidy

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced enhanced input subsidy relief for farmers in distress.

•  Farmers will now be eligible for input subsidy if 33 per cent of their crop has been damaged, as opposed to 50 per cent or more, which was the norm till now, the Prime Minister said at the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd (MUDRA) Yojana .

•  Further, the input subsidy given to distressed farmers will be enhanced by 50 per cent of the existing amount.

•  The Prime Minister expressed concern over the problems faced by farmers due to the abnormal weather in the past year.

•  “Helping farmers in this time of distress is our responsibility, and therefore, the government has sent teams of Central Ministers to affected areas to assess the extent of the damage,” Mr. Modi said, according to an official release.

•  He also gave the assurance that the Centre, State governments, banks and insurance companies would do their utmost to provide relief to the farmers.

•  Mr. Modi said banks had been asked to restructure loans of farmers hit by unseasonal rain and insurance companies had been advised to pro-actively settle claims.

MUDRA bank launched

•  He also launched the MUDRA bank with a corpus of Rs. 20,000 crore and credit guarantee of Rs. 3,000 crore.

•  The bank will be responsible for refinancing micro-finance institutions in the business of lending to small entities.

•  While big industrial houses provide jobs to only 1.25 crore people, small entrepreneurs have given employment to nearly 12 crore people, Mr. Modi said. The postal network would be used for increasing access to the formal financial system.

• Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the MUDRA Bank was a step in the right direction for “funding the unfunded.” He had proposed the MUDRA Bank in his budget speech in February.

•  MUDRA will be set up through a statutory enactment. It will be responsible for developing and refinancing all micro-finance institutions (MFIs) which are in the business of lending to micro and small business entities engaged in manufacturing, trading and service activities.

•  It will also partner with State and regional-level coordinators to provide finance to last-mile financiers of small and micro business enterprises. Its proposed role includes laying down policy guidelines for micro enterprise financing business, registration, accreditation and rating of MFI entities.

•  The agency will also lay down responsible financing practices to ward off over-indebtedness and ensure proper client protection principles and methods of recovery, according to an official release.

•  These measures are targeted towards mainstreaming young, educated or skilled workers and entrepreneurs, including women entrepreneurs, the release said.

•  “A vast part of the non-corporate sector operates as unregistered enterprises and formal or institutional architecture has not been able to reach out to meet its financial requirements. Providing access to institutional finance to such micro, small business units, enterprises will not only help in improving the quality of life of these entrepreneurs, but also turn them into strong instruments of GDP growth and employment generation,” the release said.

India will be able to create 109.7 mn jobs by 2022: study

•  India will be able to create only 109.7 million jobs by 2022, latest estimates and studies on sector-wise human resource and skill requirements, commissioned by the newly-created Skills Ministry, show.

•  An earlier official estimate said that by 2022, India will have to impart skills training to 500 million people. Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy will release the new estimates.

•  The estimate of 109.7 million jobs is for India’s qualitative skill gap in key job roles, explained a government source. “It is a demand-side projection from the industry’s point of view... it is different from the estimate of the labour-supply side for the need for jobs that was earlier projected at 500 million,” the source said.

•  The studies for calculating India’s Skill Gap were undertaken in the wake of the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana that the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved last month.

•  They involve mapping of top job roles in 24 sectors including unorganised parts and also of current supply infrastructure (both private and public)- capacity, quality and challenges. Government schemes for skill development for the sector were also factored into the assessment.

•  The Modi government’s skills initiative is central to the success of the Prime Minister’s other pet schemes such as Make in India and Digital India.

•  The studies have made recommendations for government, training partners, industry and the National Skills Development Council.

Raju gets 7 years for Rs. 7,000-cr. fraud

•  Former chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. B. Ramalinga Raju and nine others, two of them family members, were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment in the country’s largest-ever corporate fraud.

•  The special court imposed a fine of Rs. 5.5 crore each on Raju and his brother Rama Raju, ex-managing director, and about Rs. 50 lakh each on their sibling Suryanarayana Raju and seven others.

•  A confessional statement by Raju on fudging of accounts by his company on January 7, 2009, following the aborted acquisition of Maytas Properties and Infra, shook the corporate world as his meteoric rise had made him a household name among stock market investors.

•  Raju, seated in the accused box, looked calm as Judge B.V.L.N. Chakravarthi delivered the verdict. Initially, the judge who pronounced them guilty, did not disclose the quantum of punishment as he wanted to hear the accused and their counsel.

•  He delivered the sentence after the lunch break. Only the lawyers and accused were allowed inside the court hall while media personnel waited in the corridor outside.

•  The court found the accused guilty under 14 counts for various offences and sentenced them to imprisonment for different periods besides imposing fines.

•  The sentences will run concurrently and the maximum punishment each accused will get is seven years.

• Raju has already spent nearly 29 months in jail.

Govt. freezes Greenpeace accounts

•  The Union Home Ministry suspended the registration of Greenpeace India under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) for six months and froze its seven accounts, prohibiting donations from abroad.

•  This follows allegations about the organisation’s involvement in encouraging “anti-development” campaigns across the country.

•  The action is being viewed as part of the government’s policy to clamp down on advocacy groups which, it says, have been indulging in acts prejudicial to national economic security.

•  Greenpeace India has been served with a show-cause notice asking why its registration should not be cancelled.

•  Citing various grounds for suspension of its FCRA registration, the Ministry of Home Affairs alleged that the organisation did not inform the authorities about transfer of foreign contributions received in the designated account to the FCRA utilisation account and then to five other accounts.

UNESCO report lauds India’s progress

•  India has made remarkable strides towards ensuring education for all, a new global monitoring report shows. While access is now close to universal, the quality of education remains a major challenge, it says.

•  In April 2000, the governments of 164 countries adopted the Dakar Framework to deliver “Education for All” commitments by 2015. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) published the “Education for All” Global Monitoring Report to evaluate the progress of countries on these goals.

•  India is likely to reach the first goal of 80 per cent enrolment in pre-primary education by 2015, has already reached the second goal of universal primary enrolment, and will fall just short of universal youth literacy by 2015, the report said.

•  The one measurable goal India will not reach is reducing its adult illiteracy rate by half (it has reduced it by 26 per cent). The country’s major success has been in reaching gender parity for primary and lower secondary enrolment, the only country in South and West Asia to do so. It has also made progress towards improving the quality of education, but major gaps remain.

•  The report says nearly half of all countries have achieved universal pre-primary, primary and lower secondary enrolment.

•  Only 25 per cent of the countries have reduced by half their levels of adult illiteracy, and women continue to make up two-thirds of the illiterate. Two-thirds of the countries have achieved gender parity at the primary level, but fewer than half at the secondary level.

•  “Overall, not even the target of universal primary education was reached, let alone the more ambitious ‘Education for All’ goals, and the most disadvantaged continue to be the last to benefit. But there have been achievements that should not be underestimated. By 2015, the world has advanced beyond where it would have been if the trends of the 1990s had persisted,” the report says. “A lesson re-emerging over the past 15 years is that while technical solutions are important, gaining political influence and traction is of even greater significance,” it notes.

•  However, major challenges remain. The efficiency of public spending in India comes in for criticism, as does the expansion of contract teaching jobs in public schools.

•  Most crucially, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) said that while India’s education system succeeded in enrolling many more children, there were wide disparities in students’ achievement of basic skills across the States, a finding validated in the official National Achievement Survey of Grade 3 students,” the report says.

Rafale purchase a setback to ‘Make in India’ pitch

•  After the surprise announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on buying 36 Rafale fighters in a direct purchase from France, the original Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal now hangs fire.

•  This deal, under which the Rafale acquisition is being negotiated, had a substantial ‘Make in India’ component, is now heading towards a ‘Made in France’ endeavour.

•  Speaking on the decision, Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said: “India has finally broken the ice over the deal which has been pending for the last 17 years.” He added that the Rafale fighters in fly-away condition would be inducted into the Air Force in two years

•  Experts feel the decision was driven by operational necessities. Defence analyst Nitin Gokhale said: “It’s a decision born out of absolute operational necessity for the IAF and therefore, in a way, unavoidable. Under the circumstances it is the best beginning possible. Going by PM’s statement, under ‘Make in India’ Rafale could play a major role.”

•  While this does address the immediate concerns of the Air Force, the surprising part of the announcement is the timing since the deal was on the verge of collapse. Just last month, Mr. Parrikar had reiterated that France had to adhere to tender norms. He had also said that if the deal was to fall through, India would buy additional Sukhois.

•  Officials, however, indicated that there was potentially a larger ‘Make in India’ component to the direct purchase by inviting Dassault to partner with an Indian private entity and build more Rafales in India.

•  Some see this decision as an acknowledgement that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is not capable of producing an advanced aircraft and irrespective of what is said, the fact remains that no private player in India has the capability to execute such a sophisticated project.

Modi makes strong pitch for U.N. seat for India

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong pitch for a permanent seat for India in the UN Security Council, saying it should get it as a “right” for its immense contribution to global peace.

•  “Those days are gone when India had to beg. Now we want our right. No other country has such moral authority,” he said while addressing the Indian community.

•  “This is an opportunity to recognise a peace-loving nation like India,” he said, asking the U.N. to reconsider its stand on the issue when it celebrates the 70th anniversary. Mr. Modi said India had the maximum presence in U.N. peacekeeping forces. Both during the World War I, when 14 lakh Indians went to the battle front, and the World War II, the participation of Indians was immense, he stressed.

•  The world should understand this and change its outlook towards India, he said. India, he noted, had never been an aggressor against any country and firmly believed that the world must be rid of the spectre of war. “Sometimes, history is forgotten. Those who forget history will lose their right to write one,” he said.

•  The Prime Minister, who spoke in Hindi to an estimated over 2,000-strong gathering, was repeatedly cheered with chants of “Modi, Modi.”

Indian-Americans among biggest philanthropists

•  Three Indian-Americans are among 50 biggest philanthropists of 2015, including top business honchos such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

•  The list compiled by American lifestyle Town and Country Magazine figures New York-based Adarsh Alphons, Reshma Saujani and Shaila Ittycheria, all under 40 years of age.

•  “These are the men and women whose serious dollars, bold ideas, and old-fashioned hard work have made them the year’s most noteworthy and inspiring givers,” says the magazine on its T&C 50: The Biggest Philanthropists of 2015 list.

•  Ms. Saujani (39) is the founder of Girls Who Code, a three- year-old non-profit that teaches computer skills to girls from low-income communities to close technology’s gender-gap. “This is more than just a programme. It’s a movement,” said Ms. Saujani.

•  Mr. Alphons (30) founded ‘ProjectArt’ to unleash the creative power in each child and change the way the world views arts education, because for him, art saves lives.

•  His ‘Grand Plan’ is to help troubled New York City students via ProjectArt, which provides free art classes at public libraries in all five boroughs.

•  It does this by public awareness and programmes. Using its unique library-partnerships model, it helps youth express their artistic visions, set goals and display their art in celebrated art galleries in New York, all at no cost to the students.

•  Ms. Ittycheria (31) co-founded ‘Enstitute’ that bypasses college by placing its students in paid tech apprenticeships.

Government notifies NJAC, puts an end to collegium

•  Acting on its words in the Supreme Court that “the judges’ job is to judge cases and not to appoint their brother judges,” the Union government notified the National Judicial Appointments Commission law and effectively brought to an end the two-decades-old collegium system of appointing judges.

•  The notification brings into immediate effect the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014, and the 99th Constitution Amendment Act.

•  Now, the political class and civil society have an equal voice, along with the judiciary, in the appointment and transfer of judges in the highest judiciary.

•  The notification comes hardly 48 hours before a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court was to hear a batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the NJAC law on April 15.

•  But the notification was made possible by the Supreme Court itself on April 7.

•  While referring the petitions to a larger Bench, the court had refused to pass a stay order on the law coming into force.

IMF predicts India will hit 7.5 % growth, overtake China

•  The International Monetary Fund forecast India’s growth to strengthen from 7.2 per cent in 2014 to 7.5 per cent in both 2015 and 2016, overtaking China’s growth — for the first time since 1999 — that it projected will slow down to 6.8 per cent.

•  The World Bank too projected India’s growth to accelerate to 7.5 per cent in 2015, but added that on the back of significant acceleration of investment, growth could even reach 8 per cent in 2017-18. The country is attempting to shift from consumption to investment-led growth, at a time when China is undergoing the opposite transition, the Bank said in its bi-annual South Asia Economic Focus report.

•  Both the World Bank and the IMF’s projections for the current year are less optimistic than that of the Reserve Bank. The Central Bank-projected growth in 2015-16 (7.8 per cent) will be barely 30 bps faster than in 2014-15 (7.5 per cent) last week in its first bi-monthly monetary policy statement of 2015-16. At 8.1 per cent to 8.5 per cent, the Modi government’s growth projection for this year is the most optimistic.

•  Speaking to reporters after the release of the Outlook, IMF Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard said there was an increasing divergence in the growth paths of the world’s major economies this year, as a pick-up in the euro zone and India is expected to be offset by diminished prospects in other key emerging markets. Responding to a question, he said, he agreed with the general consensus that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates later this year.

•  The Oulook projects global growth to reach 3.5 percent and 3.8 per cent in 2015 and 2016 from the ‘modest’ 3.4 per cent in 2014 — in line with the projections in the IMF’s January 2015 World Economic Outlook Update. It projected growth to be stronger in 2015 relative to 2014 in advanced economies, but weaker in emerging markets. Nevertheless, emerging markets and developing economies still account for more than 70 percent of global growth in 2015.

New visa scheme renamed “e-Tourist Visa”

•  The “Tourist Visa on Arrival-Electronic Travel Authorization (TvoA-ETA)” scheme, which was launched last year to facilitate short duration visits by travellers from as many as 44 countries, has now been renamed “e-Tourist Visa” to clarify that it is not an on-arrival scheme.

•  The government has issued 1.10 lakh visas under the new scheme that was launched on November 27 last year. According to the MHA, it will be extended to more countries and airports in a phased manner.

•  “The name of the scheme [TVoA-ETA] is creating confusion among tourists, who are under the impression that the visa is being granted on arrival. However, in the present system, the pre-authorisation of visa has to be taken before travel,” said an MHA official.

•  After some Indian embassies raised the issue with the Home Ministry seeking change of name, a committee comprising officials of the Bureau of Immigration, Home and External Ministries was formed to suggest a new name.

•  “Keeping in view the application process and the purpose of the scheme, the committee suggested 'e-Tourist Visa' as the appropriate name,” said the official.
  ‘Reformer-in-chief’: Obama’s name for Modi

•  PM Narendra Modi is featured in the Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people for this year with an article by U.S. President Barack Obama, who titled it “India’s reformer-in-chief.”

•  “As a boy, Modi helped his father sell tea to support their family. Today, he is the leader of the world’s largest democracy, and his life story — from poverty to PM — reflects the dynamism and potential of India’s rise,” Mr. Obama wrote.

•  Recalling how they reflected on the teachings of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi last year, Mr. Obama said Mr. Modi recognised that more than 1 billion Indians living and succeeding together can be an inspiring model for the world.

•  “Like India, he transcends the ancient and the modern — a devotee of yoga who connects on Twitter and imagines a “digital India,” Mr. Obama added.

Yechury is new CPI(M) chief

•  Rajya Sabha member Sitaram Yechury was elected the fifth general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) after it became evident that his supporters in the newly elected Central Committee (CC) would press for a vote if Polit Bureau (PB) member S. Ramachandran Pillai’s name was proposed by outgoing general secretary Prakash Karat.

•  Eager to ensure a smooth transition by averting a vote, Mr. Pillai’s candidature was withdrawn paving the way for the unanimous election of the 91-member CC, after which Mr. Karat proposed Mr. Yechury for general secretary which was unanimously accepted. The new CC also elected a 16-member PB. Both bodies have a few new faces.

•  Three party veterans — two former Chief Ministers, V.S. Achuthanandan from Kerala and Budhhadeb Bhattacharya from West Bengal, and Nirupam Sen — have been dropped from the CC, but made special invitees. Mr. Bhattacharya and Mr. Sen, who did not attend the congress, have also been dropped from the PB, as was K. Vardha Rajan — all on account of advancing age. The four new faces in the 16-member PB are Hannan Mollah, Mohd. Salim, Subhashini Ali and G. Ramakrishnan.

•  Addressing the concluding session soon after, Mr. Yechury papered over differences by reiterating his commitment to “collective leadership” and said his effort would be to correct the weaknesses that may have come up or are inherent “in all of us.”

•  Before the issue was clinched, the divide at the top was evident in the morning as Mr. Karat and Mr. Yechury left their hotel for the makeshift red township — Samar Mukherjee Nagar. Asked whether there could be a vote for the post of general secretary, Mr. Karat said: “This does not happen in our party.” Mr. Yechury’s response was: “It is for the new CC to decide.”

•  Mr. Yechury’s statement was seen as an indication that neither he nor his supporters would blink. Within hours, the party’s Malayalam television channel Kairali broke the news that Mr. Pillai had withdrawn from the race just before the CC election.

Nasim Zaidi takes over as new CEC

•  Nasim Zaidi, assumed charge as the 20th Chief Election Commissioner succeeding H.S. Bramha who retired after completing his term.

•  After assuming charge Mr. Zaidi said: “I feel privileged and honoured that I have been given this responsibility to lead one of the finest institutions that the Indian Constitution has provided. I am conscious of the onerous task in hand.”

•  “Election Commission of India will formulate a strategic plan for efficient election management based on principles of independence, transparency, professionalism, inclusiveness and measurable outputs,” he told the media.

•  Mr. Zaidi further stated that he would like the Election Commission to become a more vibrant and transparent organisation, which is open to receiving new ideas and best practices.

•  “Commission would like to formulate its guiding principles based on good governance,” he said.

Indira, Rajiv names dropped from two Hindi awards

•  The BJP-led NDA government has dropped the names of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi from two awards for propagating Hindi.

•  The two awards have been discontinued by the Union Home Ministry, which instead launched two new schemes for doing outstanding work for promoting the progressive use of official language.

•  According to a Home Ministry order, the ‘Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Puraskar’ and ‘Rajiv Gandhi Rashtriya Gyan-Vigyan Maulik Pustak Lekhan Puraskar’, launched more than two decades ago, have given way for ‘Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar’ and ‘Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar’.

Rajnath and AAP face off; FIR blames party workers

•  Home Minister Rajnath Singh has backed the Delhi Police which is under fire for allegedly not doing enough to stop the farmer Gajendra Singh from committing suicide during an Aam Aadmi Party rally.

•  The FIR said the police received no cooperation from AAP volunteers or leaders. “This is totally an incident where AAP workers and leaders instigated the man to commit suicide and they also did not pay heed to requests made by police,” the FIR says.

•  Inspector S.S. Yadav says in the FIR that party workers obstructed the police from rescuing Singh.

•  The Minister said in the Lok Sabha on Thursday that while the policemen on duty called up the control room and tried to get help from the fire brigade to stop the suicide, AAP volunteers egged the farmer on. Instead of talking him out of the suicide, as was generally done, the crowd kept clapping and raised slogans, he said.

•  “The crowd was clapping. The police requested them to stop raising slogans,” he said.

•  The AAP accused the Home Minister of lying in Parliament. The party declared an assistance of Rs. 10 lakh for the family of the deceased, and promised to support his children’s education.

Visa to Chinese nationals likely

•  India may extend e-visa on arrival facility to Chinese nationals when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits China from May 14 to 16, a move that has been held up for several years due to opposition from security agencies.

•  The Home Secretary is expected to chair a series of meetings focussing on Chinese concerns next week, when the decision could be taken.

•  Ahead of Mr. Modi’s visit, Chinese companies have raised serious issues over investing in India, also calling for an end to the government’s policy of “security clearances for countries of concern” that applies to China.

•  Sources have confirmed that the Ministry of External Affairs made a representation to the Home Ministry’s policy, which “discriminates” against Chinese investors, saying that visas were being given in a manner that “lacked objectivity and predictability.”

•  The issues are being taken more seriously after Chinese truck manufacturer Beiqi Foton Motor, which had announced the biggest FDI of $400 million for a plant near Pune in 2011, began to downsize its plans this February as it could not meet deadlines for setting up production because of bureaucratic hurdles.

SC seeks govt. response on renaming India as ‘Bharata’

•  The Supreme Court sought a response from the government on a petition seeking a declaration that the Republic be called ‘Bharata’ instead of ‘India.’

• A Bench led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu issued notice to the Centre and all the States on a public interest petition filed by social activist, Niranjan Bhatwal from Maharashtra, that the public should have an “unambigous understanding” that the country’s name is ‘Bharata.’

•  It sought a clarification on the phrase — “India, that is, Bharat shall be a Union of States” — used in Article 1 of the Indian Constitution. The petitioner represented by Ajay G. Majithia and Rahul Pandey said there the word ‘India’ is not a literal translation of the word ‘Bharata.’ Besides the country, both historically and in the Scriptures, is known as ‘Bharata.’

Maharashtra announces awards for film legends

•  Senior cinematographer in the Hindi and Marathi film industries Suryakant Lavande and veteran actor Shashikala will be conferred the V. Shantaram and Raj Kapoor Life Time Achievement Awards respectively by the Maharashtra government.

•  State’s Minister for Culture Vinod Tawde on Monday made the announcement. Actors Sonali Kulkarni and Vidya Balan will be presented the V. Shantaram and Raj Kapoor special contribution to the film industry awards respectively.

•  The awards are given every year by the Maharashtra government on the birth anniversary of Dadasaheb Phalke, founder of the Indian Film Industry.

•  “The life time achievement awards are given for their extra ordinary contribution to the film industry. We are happy to felicitate two legends of the industry,” said Mr. Tawde. The award ceremony will take place in Pune on April 30.

‘NREGA, the only insurance for India’

•  The World Bank said that the spike in ‘unmet demand’ for MGNREGA jobs is an indicator of increasing rural distress. Since the scheme is the only and therefore the best bet India has for mitigating the impact on the poor of the recent unseasonal rains, the government should take steps aimed at arresting delays in wage payments and the rising unmet demand for jobs.

•  “If you are a State hit by the unseasonal rains, now is the time to tell those responsible for implementing the MGNREGA to give their best…it is the only insurance India has…,” said World Bank Country Director in India Onno Ruhl. He was speaking at the release of the Bank’s latest India Development Update which analyses the performance of the scheme in States such as Bihar.

•  The update projects that provided there is a pick-up to 11 per cent in the rate of investment in the economy, growth in the current year would be 7.5 per cent, 7.9 per cent in 2016-17 and 8 per cent in 2017-18.

•  “The government has made progress in several policy areas, and long-term prospects for growth remain bright for India,” said Mr. Ruhl. Continuous strong momentum in reforms aimed at strengthening the business environment and enhancing the quality of public spending will further unleash the productivity that Indian firms need for creating jobs and becoming globally competitive, he said.

•  He stressed the need for reducing the pipeline of stuck projects, especially in the Public Private Partnership space for lifting the investments rate. Balance sheets of both companies and banks, he said, are stressed due to the stuck projects.

•  The analysis of MGNREGA in the update shows that the programme’s impact on rural poverty in Bihar is only 1 percentage point as against its potential of reducing poverty by at least 14 percentage points. Among the main reasons why the potential is not being realised, the study says, is that the supply side is too slow to respond to the demand for work from the poor, workers not receiving the full scheme wage and delays in wage payments.

•  “Discrepancies in the stipulated wage rages and the actual wages received by workers are contributing to the gap between potential and realised impacts…payment delays have emerged as a major bottleneck and are a strong disincentive to participating in the programme,” said a statement. “If MGNREGA were to be implemented effectively, its design would ensure that there is no unmet demand for work,” said the study’s author and lead economist at the Bank Rinku Murgai.
   

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