NATIONAL EVENTS

Justice HandyalaLakshminarayanaSwamyDattu as the new CJI

• Hours after being sworn in as the 42nd Chief Justice of India at the Durbar Hall of RashtrapatiBhavan, Justice HandyalaLakshminarayanaswamyDattu pledged to be a common man’s judge on the Bench. .

•  The 63-year-old Chief Justice was sworn in by President Pranab Mukherjee. He will serve for 14 months and retire on December 2, 2015.

•  Asked about the changes in the Supreme Court over the years, the CJI said the workload had increased tremendously and many sensitive cases were being filed now. Justice Dattu is presiding over the Bench monitoring the 2G spectrum scam.

PM launches 'Swachh Bharat' challenge

•  In his bid to make 'Swachh Bharat' a people's movement, Prime Minister NarendraModi initiated a chain by inviting nine eminent personalities including cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, Congress leader ShashiTharoor, industrialist Anil Ambani along with several actors to spread awareness on cleanliness.

•  The Internet-savvy Prime Minister appeared inspired by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which had gone viral in recent months, as he asked the celebrities to nominate nine more people to join the campaign and hoped that the chain would continue.

Centre govt notifies life-long visa for PIOs

•  Well before Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns home, the government has moved, with unusual swiftness, to implement his promise of life-long visas to Indian-Americans.

•  The Union home ministry notified changes to the Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) scheme to make the PIO cards valid for the duration of the card holder’s lifetime — instead of the existing 15 days.

•  The ministry also exempted them from registering with the police if their stay in India exceeds 180 days.

•  During his US visit Modi had, at Madison Square Garden, promised to ease visa problems for PIO card holders, to merge the PIO and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) scheme and to make it simpler for foreigners who marry Indians to get the PIO/OCI cards.

•  A home ministry official told HT that the government had begun the process to finalise changes to the Citizenship Act.

•  The UPA had first announced their intention to amend the citizenship law in 2011 but the initiative lost steam soon after.

ISRO Upgrading Indian rockets for future Mars missions

•  After the stunning success of its very first shot at Mars, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will need to take those capabilities forward, dispatching bigger, and more advanced spacecraft in the years to come. That, in turn, requires rockets that can carry such probes on the first leg of their journey and place them in orbit around Earth.

•  For its first attempt with the Mars Orbiter, ISRO turned to the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), a rocket with an impeccable track record. Initially, it seemed that this launcher would not be powerful enough for the task and every aspect of the mission had to be carefully optimised in order to make that possible, according to V. Adimurthy, the space agency's senior adviser for interplanetary missions. He led a study team whose 2011 report laid out how India could send probes to the Red Planet.

• For future missions, ISRO will have to turn to the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and GSLV Mark III that can lift much heavier spacecraft than the PSLV. The former, equipped with an indigenous cryogenic stage, had its first successful flight only in January this year. An experimental launch of the Mark III, with a non-functional cryogenic upper stage, is to take place shortly. (The rocket’s operational cryogenic engine and stage are still under development.

India along with five nations to build world's largest telescope

•  India along with Japan, the US, China and Canada will start work on the world’s biggest telescope on Hawaii Island that will enable to identify an object as small as coin from a distance of 500 kms.

•  The 30-meter telescope will be established near the summit of the Mauna Kea volcano with a cost of $1.4 billion.

•  The construction is expected to be completed by March 2022. Japan is expected to cover about a quarter of the construction costs.

•  To mark the start of construction, 100 astronomers and officials from the five countries are scheduled to attend a ceremony on October 7 at a location 4,012 meters high on Mount Mauna Kea.

•  The telescope will be larger than Japan’s Subaru Telescope, one of the world’s biggest, which was also built on the summit of Mauna Kea and started observation in 1999.

•  The Subaru Telescope’s single main mirror measures 8.2 meters in diameter, while the new telescope will be composed of 492 hexagonal mirrors, each measuring 72 cm across.

•  The telescope’s light-condensing capabilities will be 13 times greater than the Subaru telescope’s, enabling the identification of an object as small as a coin from a distance equivalent to 500 kms.

India stepped up surveillance in Rajasthan as polio sweeps Pakistan

•  With Pakistan reporting the highest number of polio cases in the past 15 years, India has stepped up surveillance along the international border, particularly in Rajasthan, to check any spread of the infection.

•  Jodhpur and Barmer districts are under heightened vigilance because of the Thar Link Express passing through here which ferries people between the two countries. More than 25,000 people have travelled in Thar link Express.

Babu warns of 40% fall in MGNREGS jobs

•  Overriding objections raised by senior officials, rural development minister NitinGadkari has ordered far-reaching changes in the job guarantee scheme (MGNREGS) which has provided seasonal work to one in three rural households in the last eight years.

•  Documents obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by activists show file noting by a senior official in the ministry arguing that Gadkari's announcements run contrary to the "spirit of the Act" and that reducing the wage component of the total funds allocated for the scheme would lead to a 40% fall in jobs, affecting five crore rural households.

SC dismisses plea against posts for retired judges

•  The Supreme Court dismissed a public interest litigation petition (PIL) which alleged that the offer of jobs to retired judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts affected judicial independence.

•  A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu refused to entertain the plea by a Bangalore-based Ph.D. scholar, Muhammed Ali, to restrain the government from clearing the names of retired judges “without the consultation and concurrence of the Chief Justice of India or the Chief Justices of the High Courts.”

•  The petition said this restraint was in compliance with the recommendations contained in the Consultation Paper on Superior Judiciary of September 26, 2001, submitted by the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution to the Union Law and Justice Ministry.

•  The petition was filed in the backdrop of the appointment of the former Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam as the Governor of Kerala, contending that it was done in a “hasty and ill-advised” manner.

Hill stations will be part of smart city project

•  A few hill stations that were developed by the British but have little to show by way of development and infrastructure over the years will be part of the Centre’s ambitious smart city project.

•  The Urban Development Ministry will identify and initiate the process with the help of private players.

•  A senior official of the Ministry said the concept of creating smart cities will be carried out on a PPP model and the government will contribute viable gap funding (VGF) for the project. Work on the hill stations will be taken up as Greenfield projects.

MIT students designing a nano satellite “Parikshit”

•  Even as the euphoria over the Mangalyaan reaching its Martian orbit is still to fade, the dream of 46 students of Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), a constituent of Manipal University (MU), to design a nano satellite is steadily taking shape. They are burning the midnight oil and working hard to build it.

• The 46 engineering students are drawn from various disciplines such as Electronics and Communications, Electronics and Engineering, Mechanical, Civil, Mechatronics, Aeronautics and Automobiles, Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering.

•  The MIT has already signed a MoU with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the launch of the satellite after it is constructed. The construction of the nano satellite named “Parikshit” is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

•  According to AdheeshBoratkar, a final year E&C student, the “Parikshit” will have two payloads. The first payload will take thermal images over Indian subcontinent to study urban heat islands.

•  “Cities are hotter than rural areas. The rate of cooling of the cities is lesser. On the thermal images, they will appear as islands. It will tell the temperature data of the subcontinent. The resolution of the pictures generated by the satellite will be one kilometer by one kilometer per pixel,” he said.

•  The satellite would also do cloud and ocean monitoring. The second payload will de-orbit the satellite at the end of its life of six months. The size of Parikshit will be 10 centimetres by 10 centimetres by 20 centimetres. Its weight would be 2.3 kgs. The satellite will be in a polar orbit and will orbit the earth 14 times a day.

Centre will name its urban housing mission after Sardar Patel

•  To achieve the objective, the government is shortly going to launch a comprehensive programme named 'Sardar Patel National Housing Mission' by merging and improving existing urban housing schemes, he said.

•  The NDA government had earlier named its ambitious skill development programme 'DeendayalAntodayaYojana' after Jan Sangh leader DeendayalUpadhayay.

•  Currently, there are several schemes including Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, Rajiv AwasYojana, Indira AwasYojana, Rajiv RinnYojana meant for providing housing facilities to economically weaker sections.

•  The minister said the new mission is in pursuit of Prime Minister's call of 'HarParivarkoGhar' (housing for every family).

India-Norway expected to reach an accord on N-safety

•  India and Norway are expected to reach an agreement on nuclear safety measures during the upcoming visit of President Pranab Mukherjee to Oslo — the first-ever by an Indian head of State to that country.

•  Mr. Mukherjee, who will leave for Oslo on 12th October, has his State visit scheduled for October 13-14. He will then travel to Finland on October 15-16.

•  VenuRajamony, Press Secretary to the President, told presspersons that education was a key focus area of the visits to both Norway and Finland.

•  A number of vice-chancellors are travelling with the President and several agreements will be signed in both Norway and Finland. “It will be a substantial visit with deliverables,” he said.

•  Mr. Mukherjee will be the first Indian Head of State to visit Rovaneimi, the “official home” of Santa Claus. Rovaneimi is promoted as a destination where you can meet Santa Claus every day.

•  Referring to India’s entry into the Arctic Council (which coordinates Arctic policy) as an observer in May 2013, NavtejSarna, Secretary (West) in the External Affairs Ministry, said New Delhi was not working with the objective of exploiting Arctic resources.

PM launches village adoption scheme for MPs

•  Taking forward his announcement during his address to the nation on August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a blueprint for the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) on Jayaprakash Narayan’s birth anniversary.

•  The scheme encourages Members of Parliament from both Houses to identify and develop one village from their constituency as a model village by 2016, and two more by 2019, covering over 2,500 villages of the 6 lakh villages country-wide.

• “This is not a rupiya-paisa yojana but a demand-driven, people’s participatory scheme. There are 800 parliamentarians and in three years, 2,500-odd villages could get covered. If States were to initiate their own similar schemes with MLAs, 6,000 to 7,000 villages could get covered. One good village can affect an entire area, and a viral effect could begin,” Mr. Modi said while unveiling SAGY for which no new funds have been allocated.

•  The 65-page outline for the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the presence of Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari, requires MPs to identify one village with a population of 3,000-5,000 in the plains and 1,000-3,000 in the hills within a month for convergence of existing schemes for socio-economic development of the area.

•  MPs can choose any village except their own or their spouse’s. There is no other criterion. MPs are expected to facilitate a village development plan, motivate villagers to take up activities and use the Rs.5-crore MPLAD fund to fill gaps for funds besides mobilising “additional resources especially from Corporate Social Responsibility” in sewage and water supply schemes.

SC to hear PIL against rise in drug price

•  The Supreme Court will hear next week a public interest writ petition challenging a circular providing for increase in the prices of life-saving and other essential drugs.

•  A Bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices S.A. Bobde and A.M. Sapre told petitioner-advocate M.L. Sharma that the PIL would be listed for hearing as expeditiously as possible.

•  The petitioner said the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had issued a circular on September 22 providing for a hike in the prices of 108 life-saving drugs, resulting in a windfall gain to pharmaceutical companies.

•  “There are approximately 4.1 crore diabetes patients in India, 5.7 crore people have coronary heart disease, 22 lakh suffer from TB, 11 lakh from cancer, 25 lakh from HIV/AIDS and 6 crore blood pressure patients who are in need of life-saving drugs,” he said.

•  The petitioner alleged that there was a conspiracy among government officials and pharmaceutical companies for allowing an increase in drug prices. Citing examples of the steep increase in drug prices, he said, “Glivec, an anti-cancer tablet, rose from Rs. 8,500 to Rs. 1.08 lakh; Plavix, a blood pressure/heart ailment tablet rose from Rs. 147 to Rs. 1,615; anti-rabies injection and Kamrab from Rs. 2,670 to Rs. 7,000.” “The government succumbed to pressure from industry lobbies,” he claimed.

Centre will set inflation targets for RBI

•  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has given the go-ahead for a major overhaul of the current monetary policy framework wherein the Centre will specify ‘inflation targets’ for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to achieve. Under the proposed new regime, the RBI will set inflation as its top priority in its policy statements.

•  The decision departs from the recommendation of an expert committee of the RBI, appointed to examine monetary policy. Headed by Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Urjit R. Patel, the committee had recommended that the monetary policy decision-making should be vested with a monetary policy committee, chaired by the RBI Governor.

•  Other recommendations were that the apex bank adopts the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) as the measure of the nominal anchor for monetary policy. And that the RBI set the target CPI inflation level at 4 per cent (+/- 2 per cent) to be achieved through its monetary policy tools.

•  A senior Ministry official told that the Modi government decided that the RBI “cannot set for itself an inflation target level of 4 per cent for all times to come…the Centre will set this target.” “It is best that inflation targets are set by the governments elected by the people and not a bunch of bureaucrats and economists sitting in the Reserve Bank.”

•  RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said last that many earlier reports including one by himself talked about the importance of central bank accountability and independence.

President interacts with Indian scientists at Arctic station

•  As five Indian scientists from “Himadri,” India’s Arctic station at Svalbard, listened in by video link, a dire climate change warning that linked varying monsoon patterns in India with Arctic ice melts was presented to President Pranab Mukherjee.

• Jan-Gunnar Winther, director of the Norway Polar Institute, said at the Fram maritime museum that scientists had consistently underestimated the process of climate change.

•  Sitting alongside Norwegian King Harald V, President Mukherjee asked the five scientists about the links they had managed to establish between Arctic ice melting and monsoon pattern changes in India.

•  “I wish you all success,” the President told the five scientists who were standing in snow at temperatures of minus five degrees at the “Himadri” station. He said the Indians at the Arctic station were taking risks by subjecting themselves to the cold, hostile climate.

•  Mr. Mukherjee also sought suggestions from three Indian Ph.D candidates Archana Mesram, Srikumar Rai and Tina Chauhan, who joined in by a separate video link from the University Centre, Svalbard, on how India-Norway cooperation could be taken forward.

•  Ms. Mesram said being able to study in Norway presented a huge opportunity for her and suggested to the President that more Indian universities should be involved in research activities with their Norwegian counterparts.

New Bill in winter session for total ban on child labour

•  Among the bills up for consideration in the winter session of Parliament is the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment (CLPRA) Bill, pending since December 2012. The proposed amendments to the Act will for the first time ban employment of children below 14 years in any occupation, bringing the law in consistency with the Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009. The Bill prohibits employment of adolescents aged 14-18 years in hazardous occupations.

•  The Ministry had sought public comments on the CLPRA Bill 2012 this June. A majority of the changes in the proposed Bill are the same as those in the Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha by UPA Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge in December 2012.

•  “The Bill will regulate conditions of work for adolescents, and of children working in audio-visual entertainment industry. In 1996, the Supreme Court had prescribed a penalty of Rs. 20,000 from employers and Rs. 5,000 from State government for every child worker rescued. This will now be introduced in law and indexed to price rise,” a senior official in the Ministry of Labour and Employment said.

•  The 1986 law prohibits employing children only in certain occupations such as mines, work in hazardous process and with inflammable substances or explosives.

•  Minors working in middle class homes as domestic workers and those employed at hotels, dhabas were included as a category of child labourers only after an amendment in 2006.

•  The Standing Committee on Labour and Employment under D.S. Chauhan had in its report on CLPRA Bill, in December 2013, recommended that the Bill give details for regulation for prescribing the conditions of work for adolescents — criteria for wages, hours of work, settlement of disputes. This was incorporated. It had suggested that adolescents should have completed Class VIII before being allowed to join an occupation. It suggested the explicit exception in the Bill granted to children helping their family after school hours be deleted. Both suggestions were not accepted.

Coastal cities need to be climate-proof: study

•  A devastated Vishakhapatnam has brought home the need for coastal cities to be climate resilient in terms of extreme events with respect to preparation and infrastructure. Recent studies indicate that there is a long way to go in achieving this. Both the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 and the Environment Ministry had said there would be a high likelihood of increase in the intensity of cyclonic events on the east coast of India.

•  A working paper on Planning Climate Resilient Coastal Cities — Learning from Panaji and Visakhapatnam by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), released last week, says that it is highly pertinent to start climate proofing infrastructure and services, given the climate sensitive nature of the existing infrastructure systems in the cities. The study says it is imperative to assess sea level rise combined with other factors like storm surge and cyclones and changes in precipitation.

•  According to the IPCC, coastal areas face multiple risks related to climate change and variability. India has 130 towns and cities within 84 coastal districts and according to the Planning Commission; the rise in sea level is in the range of 1.06 to 1.75 mm per year in the past century.

Assembly polls in Maharashtra & Haryana

•  Maharashtra and Haryana will go to the polls in single-phase elections on 15th october. These elections will determine whether the ‘Modi effect’ has percolated to the States beyond the 2014 general election.

•  For the Congress, it is a test of its ability to arrest a slide that saw it touching a historic low of 44 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

•  The most at stake is in Maharashtra where the BJP chose to break its 25-year-old alliance with the Shiv Sena to strike out on its own. The BJP’s gamble in these elections could redefine Maharashtra politics.

•  The rupture of the Congress-NCP alliance that ruled the State for the past 15 years has made it a five-cornered fight with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena being the fifth in the fray. In Haryana too, the BJP is going solo, contesting all 90 seats, with Mr. Modi as its mascot.

Global Handwashing Day on oct. 16th

•  Municipal schools in the Capital observed Global Handwashing Day on October 16th october, with students being instructed on the importance of maintaining hygiene.

•  The South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s school teachers showed students the correct way to wash their hands and the benefits of doing so. The 3.41 lakh students studying in the SDMC’s primary schools also learned about the need to conserve water.

•  The teachers also told students about keeping away diseases that are caused due to unhygienic conditions. In the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, a pamphlet explaining the right way to wash hands was also distributed.

India launches its third navigation satellite

•  India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C26) lifted off with aplomb from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota at 1.32 a.m. on 16th and precisely put the Indian navigation satellite, IRNSS-1C into its perfect, pre-designated orbit. This was the 28th successful launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation.

•  After a long 67-hour countdown, which began at 6.32 a.m. on October 13, the PSLV lifted off from the first launch pad at 1.32 a.m. In the backdrop of a bright half moon, the rocket soared against a dark sky, presenting a celestial spectacle. In the darkness of the night, the first stage separation came across with a blinding flash of light. For several minutes, the rocket travelled across the sky like a dot of light. All the four stages of the vehicle ignited on time and separated on the dot.

•  “The PSLV has done it again. The navigation satellite is up in orbit and the injection was very precise,” announced an elated K. Radhakrishnan, ISRO chairman, amid applause from the scientists.

•  The Indian space scientists who arrived from different ISRO centres and organisations in the country, were present in strength to ensure the smooth launch of the XL extended version of PSLV. .

A historic win by BJP in Haryana poll

•  The BJP in scripted a historic win in the Haryana VidhanSabha elections, notching up 47 seats to get a clear majority the 90-member House. The party that has never got more than 10 per cent of the votes and played second fiddle to regional partners in the past, swept aside competition from the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal to mop up 33.2 per cent of the votes.

•  The BJP victory came despite the absence of any State leader of note and with a skeletal party structure. The BJP depended entirely on Prime Minister NarendraModi’s charisma while tiptoeing around Haryana’s infamous caste minefields.

•  The BJP Parliamentary Board has decided to send Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and party vice-president Dinesh Sharma to Chandigarh to finalise the Chief Minister. The BJP’s main aspirants for the post namely ManoharLalKhattar, CaptAbhimanyu, Ram Bilas Sharma and Om PrakashDhankar have all won.

Kerala to switch fully to organic farming by 2016: Minister

•  Kerala anticipates a full switch over to organic agriculture by 2016 and micro-level campaigns, starting from panchayat level, are being launched to achieve the target, said Minister for Agriculture K. P. Mohanan.

•  He was speaking at a press conference where he announced a global agricultural meet, which will be inaugurated here by Union Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh on November 6. The global agricultural meet will be held along with BIOFACH India 2014.

•  Mr. Mohanan expressed confidence that target of a fully organic farming State was achievable with grassroots effort. Panchayats and Assembly constituencies which achieve the goals of total organic farming by August next year would be rewarded.

•  The Minister claimed that the State’s agriculture sector had put up a remarkable show over the past few years, breaking away from negative to more than five per cent annual growth during the last financial year.

•  A senior official of the Department of Agriculture said that crops like banana and pineapple had helped the State achieve the growth rate. He said that there had been 25 to 30 per cent increase in acreage under pineapple and banana. Vegetables were another area where the State had achieved considerable growth rate. Mr. Mohanan claimed that Kerala was now producing approximately 50 per cent of its vegetable requirements.

First BJP CMs in Maharashtra & Haryana

•  The BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) is all set to have its first Chief Ministers in Haryana and Maharashtra. The party won a majority in Haryana, and in Maharashtra, it has emerged as the single largest party.

•  The party’s gamble of contesting alone in Haryana and snapping ties with its oldest ally, Shiv Sena, in Maharashtra have paid off. The results strengthen the hand of Prime Minister NarendraModi, who, along with BJP president Amit Shah, scripted the risky strategy in the first round of state elections after the LokSabha victory in May. Elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand are due in a few months and the party may consider a mid-term election in Delhi, now under central rule.

•  “For those who thought the Modi wave is over, this is proof that it's still a tsunami that can crush all competition. People of India consider NarendraModi their undisputed leader,” said Mr. Shah, whose micro-management of election campaigns has become a defining character of the BJP along with the oratory of Mr. Modi. The results will also mean less power for state leaders of the party, increasingly dominated by the national leadership.

•  However, failure to win a simple majority in Maharashtra left the BJP with a sense of incompleteness, though with twice as many seats as the Shiv Sena, the nearest opponent, it has established its primacy in the state for the first time. The Congress and the NCP were left far behind, with 42 and 41 seats respectively.

•  With Maharashtra and Haryana under the saffron flag, the BJP would now have six chief ministers, controlling large states. Alliance partners lead governments in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. The BJP’s efforts to dictate the terms of engagement with allies got a further fillip with these results.

CBI registers case against Jindal Steel & Power

•  A case of alleged cheating and corruption has been registered by the CBI against Jindal Steel and Power company relating to the probe into coal blocks allocated during 1993-2005 period.

•  CBI spokesperson said that it was the 36th FIR in connection with its probe in the coal allocation scam.

•  The fresh case has been registered against Jindal Strips Limited (now known as Jindal Steel and Power Limited) and unknown public officials for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating under the Indian Penal Code and Provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, CBI official said.

•  Soon after registering the case, the agency carried out searches at four locations in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, they said.

•  The sources said the case pertains to allocation of Gare Palma IV/1 coal block Jindal Strips Limited and JSPL. CBI spokesperson said The instant case is was the outcome of PE registered on September 26, 2012.

Govt. approved plan for e-auction coal mines

•  The Union Cabinet recommended the promulgation of an Ordinance to acquire the land of 214 coal blocks mines whose allocations were quashed by the Supreme Court last month.

•  It also approved a plan for e-auctioning the cancelled blocks to end-user private players of coal from the power, steel and cement sectors. Government entities, including public sector units such as NTPC and State Electricity Boards, however, will not have to go through the auction route as a pool of coal mines will be reserved for allocation to them from the cancelled blocks.

•  “The Cabinet’s decisions are with the view of cleaning up the coal mess due to allocations via the screening committee mechanism that the Supreme Court quashed,” Union Finance Minister ArunJaitley said briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

•  “The expeditious disposal of the process will provide a huge impetus to the manufacturing sector and the country will save precious foreign exchange on coal imports and this will also help banks that have funds stuck as a fallout of the Supreme Court’s verdict,” the Minister said. Despite being coal surplus, India was importing coal worth $20 billion annually, he said.

Odisha allowed illegal mining: SC panel

•  The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has found large-scale illegal mining of iron and manganese ore in the forest lands of Odisha.

•  In its report submitted to the apex court in a public interest writ petition seeking a ban on illegal mining in Odisha, the CEC, quoting the figures of the Odisha government, said, “As per the details given by the Odisha Forest Department, 286.392 lakh MT of iron ore, valued at Rs.13,898.20crore has been excavated from the forest land without approvals under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Out of the above, 67.74 lakh MT was illegally excavated during the years 1985-98, 54.38 lakh MT from November 17, 2002 to February 15, 2005 and 164.27 lakh MT from August 15, 2005 to August 27, 2009.”

•  Indicting the State government for permitting such illegal mining, the CEC said, “It is seen that illegal mining in the forest area included in the mining lease has been undertaken on a massive scale by the lessee concerned and that too spread over a large number of years. The CEC is unable to comprehend how illegal mining on such a massive scale was allowed to take place and how by issuing transit permits such illegal mineral was allowed to be transported through the Railways.”

•  The panel said that in many instances the environmental clearance had been obtained, but the requisite forest clearance had not been obtained before commencing mining.

•  The CEC wanted the court to consider directing that “70 per cent of the notional value of the minerals extracted from the forest land falling in Kasia and JillingLangalota mining leases without approvals under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, should be paid as compensation by the lessee, which will be deposited in the Special Purpose Vehicle for undertaking specific tribal and area development works.”

•  The report also wanted the court to consider directing the State government not to consider grant of approval under Section 8 (3) of the Mines and Minerals Development (Regulation) Act for the second renewal of the leases.

Govt. eases norms for private defence manufacturing firms

•  In a move expected to rake in investments into the defence sector, the government allowed private defence manufacturing firms to sell equipment to state-run entities without prior approval.

•  However, permission would be required to sell to non-government entities, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said.

•  “The Licensee shall be allowed to sell defence items to government entities under the control of Ministry of Home Affairs, State governments, Public Sector Undertakings and other valid Defence Licensed Companies without approval of the Department of Defence Production [DoDP],” the Ministry said in a communiqué.

•  “However, for sale of the items to any other entity, the Licensee shall take permission from the DoPD,” it said.

•  The Ministry also removed the cap on the annual production capacity for defence-related equipment. However, licensed firms would be required to submit their production returns to the government every six months.

MEA to oversee foreign infrastructure investments in States

•  Aiming to streamline foreign infrastructure investment, the government has announced a new division in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), appointing a joint secretary for “Centre-State” relations.

•  Confirming the development, MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told : “The new post will increase engagement between the MEA and State governments to coordinate State delegations visiting abroad, passport issues and political clearances, as well as to set up a database of State-level tie-ups and work on sister cities.”

•  With more foreign dignitaries expressing their desire to visit cities other than Delhi, the special section will also coordinate visits to Tier Two cities. However, the new division will not deal with policy disagreements of the kind seen between the Centre and Tamil Nadu over Sri Lanka and with West Bengal over the Teesta accord with Bangladesh.

•  Sources said the move had followed several complaints from other countries on the lack of coordination between State governments and the Centre.

•  In one such case in August, the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India had written to the government, seeking “urgent intervention” to help iron out differences in commitments by the Centre that were not implemented by the States on major projects such as the Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor and the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial corridor, for which Japan had committed $100 billion in 2009.

India signs up for Asian Infrastructure Investment bank

•  China led 21 Asian nations, including India, in forming a multilateral financial front in the form of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), being seen as a challenger to the U.S.-backed Bretton Woods institutions.

•  India signed a memorandum of understanding, along with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal and others, as the founding member of the AIIB.

•  Usha Titus, Joint Secretary, Economic Affairs division of the Finance Ministry, signed the MoU on India’s behalf. With an initial subscribed capital of $50 billion, the setting up of the Beijing-headquartered AIIB has been welcomed by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. However, the U.S. has expressed concerns over the bank’s “ambiguous nature” and lack of “transparency.”

•  Reacting to the criticism, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson HuaChunying said “during the whole process of the AIIB, China has maintained communication and coordination with Japan, the U.S. and Indonesia and other countries.” The 21-nation group comprises Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Nod for Light Metro project in Kerala

•  The Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the elevated Light Metro proposed for the cities of Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode was approved by the director board of Kerala Monorail Corporation Ltd (KMCL) chaired by Chief Minister OommenChandy.

•  The DPR, prepared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for Light Metro in place of scrapped monorail, a Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS), for 35.12 km in both the cities, now needs Cabinet clearance.

•  The board also gave its nod to rename KMCL, the special purpose vehicle, as the Kerala Rapid Transit Corporation (KRT) as suggested in the DPR in view of the migration to Light Metro.

•  A fresh agreement is to be signed with DMRC and the terms of consultancy are to be worked out. Managing Director, KMCL, has been entrusted with this task.

•  The same alignment fixed for the scrapped MRTS and locations for the 19 stations in the 28.82 km Technocity-Karamana stretch in the capital and 14 in the 13.30 km Medical College-Meenchanda section in Kozhikode have been retained. A total of 17.47 hectares of government land and 4.62 hectares of private land is to be acquired in both the cities.

Pollution reaches nine times higher than normal

•  Diwali has left the Capital gasping for breath with the city recording nine times higher air pollution level than normal. The Meteorology Department has cautioned that Delhiites will have to fight the increased air pollution level over the weekend too.

•  Delhi has recorded the highest level of Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM) pollution post-Diwali this year at 531 mg per cubic metre - more than five times higher than the normal level leaving many at risk of respiratory problems.

Food Security Act rollout likely to delay

•  The differences in opinion between the Central and State governments over fixing the number of Below the Poverty Line (BPL) cardholders are likely to delay the implementation of the Food Security Act in the State.

•  The State government’s plan to implement the Act from November 1 is likely to be deferred at least by a month. While the State government had sought grain allotment for 14 lakh BPL families or the priority sector, the Centre had fixed it at 10.25 lakh families.

•  This means, about 3.75 lakh families will have to opt out of the public distribution system. The State government had earlier fixed the number of BPL families at 25 lakh.

•  The Centre had offered to continue grain allotment for the 3.75 lakh families even after enforcing the Act but it would be given only at the rates fixed for the Above Poverty Line (APL) or non-priority sector families.

CBI filed a case against Birla, Parakh

•  As directed by a special court, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a revised investigation report along with all the documents seeking closure of a case of criminal conspiracy and cheating against Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Aditya Birla Group, and the former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh in connection with the allocation of coal blocks to Hindalco in violation of the rules.

•  Special Judge Bharat Parashar had in September pulled up the investigating agency for not filing the original of minutes of the screening committee along with the final report with a plea to close the case. The committee had considered the company’s application for allocation of coal blocks.

•  Mr. Parashar had then also expressed displeasure over the investigating officer’s submission that the original of the minutes was missing. He had also questioned him over the urgency to file the closure report without proper documents.

•  The CBI had filed photocopies of the minutes. In the fresh closure report, the CBI said that it was “detailed and comprehensive”. Later, Mr. Parashar fixed November 10 as the date for hearing argument on the CBI’s plea.

Train private sector too to tackle Ebola: IMA

•  The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has asked the Centre to include the private sector in its ongoing programme for training and preparing the government healthcare sector for Ebola control.

•  The IMA has pointed out that by focussing only on the government sector and leaving out the private healthcare industry from training could prove to be a serious lacuna in tackling Ebola, even though India is considered a low risk country.

•  “Nearly 75 per cent of healthcare is provided for by the private system, if we do not involve this sector there could be a serious lapse. How does a lay person know that he could be a carrier of the Ebola virus. He might simply turn up at a local private hospital thinking it is flu. Healthcare workers in private hospitals have to be trained to identify the symptoms,” said Dr. NarendraSaini, honorary secretary general of the IMA.

•  The Centre has been holding training sessions for the government healthcare professionals. With little response from the government to its request for funds to educate the private healthcare workers and for partnering with it, the IMA is now mobilising resources for a similar session for the private sector.

•  He said partnering with private hospitals will also help the government meet the requirements like isolation facilities, if there is an outbreak. “We have already issued a set of guidelines for the healthcare workers, but given the high mortality risk, healthcare workers need intensive and extensive training on how to handle the protective gear and what precautionary measures need to be taken to avoid possible contact with body fluids of suspected patients,” Dr. Saini said.

Longest rail tunnel in north-east ‘scooped out’

•  The longest railway tunnel in the north-east on the newly constructed Lumding–Silchar broad gauge line in Assam has been scooped out, said Northeast Frontier Railway officials.

•  The tunnel is located near the New Haflong station building and goes under Haflong town. The 3,235-metre long tunnel connects the New Haflong railway station with Jatingalumpur railway station, said Md. M.M.Y. Alam, senior public relations officer, North East Frontier Railway.

•  He added that it is considered one of the most important tunnels in the 210-km broad gauge track. It was scooped out with great difficulty due to soil conditions of the area and geological issues, Mr. Alam told reporters

•  Adverse geological conditions were encountered during excavation and its completion is a major achievement for the construction engineers of NF Railway, he said.

PM lauds media role in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

•  Seeking to quell criticism that there is no media interaction with the Prime Minister’s Office under the new National Democratic Alliance regime, Prime Minister NarendraModi reached out to the media at a BJP function to mark Diwali and New Year “as celebrated in Gujarat.”

•  The Prime Minister chose his pet subject, the Clean India Campaign, for his outreach to praise the media for highlighting the importance of the campaign, particularly the lack of sanitation, as this was hurting India’s image abroad and spreading disease in the country.

•  Striking a friendly note, Mr. Modi said he was “obliged” that journalists had turned their “pens into brooms” and were contributing collectively to a national cause, which in any case was not the job of the government alone.

•  “Clean India is a precursor to a healthy India. Lack of sanitation not only hurts India’s image abroad but also breeds diseases. More important than healthcare is preventive health,” he said.

•  Much to the disappointment of those present, the Prime Minister did not take any questions from the invited galaxy of editors, owners of media houses and reporters but he did convey that he wanted to deepen and expand his earlier relationship with the media. “I remember laying chairs and waiting for you at the BJP headquarters,” he said amid laughter.

Coastal Gujarat to face Cyclone Nilofar

•  The coastal districts in Gujarat are taking steps to face Cyclone Nilofar, which has developed in the Arabian Sea and is expected to make landfall over the north-western region of the State in two days. The India Meteorological Department will give clear guidelines to the State on the progress of the cyclone on 28th.

•  “At present, the cyclonic storm is centred on the west-central and adjoining southwest area of the Arabian Sea. The exact situation — how and whether it will affect the Gujarat coast — can be ascertained, only after it moves from its current location. It may take 48 hours to ascertain that,” Additional Director of Ahmedabad Meteorological Centre ManoramaMohanty said.

•  “If it moves towards the Gujarat coast, then it may bring atmospheric changes such as rain and strong winds, but at present, it is difficult to say anything.”

•  Fishermen in Jamnagar, Porbandar and Kutch have been alerted to return from the sea, and the State administration has set up coordination networks up to the village level to meet any emergency.

•  “We were informed about Nilofar by the State control room. Everyone has been put on alert. Control rooms have also been set up at the village level. District officials from various departments till the taluk level have been alerted. At the moment, our State machinery is equipped. We also have the Indian Coast Guard, the Air Force and the Navy in Jamnagar,” NalinUpadhyay, District Collector, Jamnagar, told.
   

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