(Premium) Gist of The Hindu: October 2012

Premium - Gist of The Hindu: October 2012

Content

Some facts about 114th Constitution Amendment Bill 2010.

  • Constitution (114th Amendment) Bill 2010 to raise the retirement age of only the High Court judges from 62 to 65, which was tabled in Parliament in December 2011 but not as yet passed.

  • One factor deterring a competent lawyer from accepting judgeship is the retiring age at 62. Increasing it to 65 may induce competent lawyers to seek appointment as judges of the High Court.

  • Secondly, with a larger tenure, judgesmay acquire more maturity, learning and experience so necessary for a judge.

  • Thirdly,with retirement at 65, a judgemay be less anxious about looking for employment after retirement, by way of an appointment to a Tribunal or Commission by governments.

  • Fourthly, today the Chief Justices and most senior judges of the High Courts, nearing their retirement at 62, sometimes aspire unbecomingly to being selected judges of the Supreme Court not only for the prestige of the post but also to obtain another three-year stint in the Supreme Court.

  • If the retirement age is increased to 65 on a par with that of Supreme Court judges, senior judgesmay be content with remaining in their ownHigh Court rather than seek an additional three-year stint, in the Supreme Court.

Supreme Courts abroad, the retirement age is above 65. In the High Court of Australia (which is the apex court there) it is 70, in the Supreme Court of Canada 75, in the Supreme Court of Ireland 70, in the Supreme Court of Israel 70, in the Supreme Court of New Zealand 68, in the Constitutional Court of South Africa 70 or after 12 years of service, and in the U.K. Supreme Court 75.

Coal Block Scam.

The Rs.1.86 lakh crore coalgate scam exposed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), which has dragged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh into its centre, shut down Parliament and stirred up a raging  national debate, will now be examined by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The report has led to Dr. Singh finally taking full responsibility for the decisions of the Coal Ministry, but only after rebutting the CAG’s observations as “clearly disputable and flawed.”

  • (Moher, Moher-Amlohri Extension & Chhattrasal) allocated to Reliance Power for their Sasan UMPP were deallocated from Northern Coalfields Ltd, a subsidiary of CIL.

  • For end-user projects (EUP) for which captive coal blocks are allocated, besides coal through captive coal production. These are: (i) coal-linkages from CIL based on CIL base prices, (ii) e-auction prices of CIL and (iii) imports. Since the sale price used for comparison in the CAG Report is theCIL base price, which is far lower than the other two alternatives, the CAG would argue that its loss assessment borders on conservative.

  • Additionally, the coal ministry has itself admitted that theCIL’s cost of production, given its social and legacy overheads, is actually higher than the figures used by the CAG. Since costs differ acrossmines, the CAG report has used average CIL costs (and prices) for its calculations, while considering an additional financing cost of Rs.150 per tonne, indicating that the CAG’s profit per tonne of coal estimate is also rather conservative. For mineable geological reserves, the profit per tonne of coal has been multiplied by the expected mineable geological reserves (GR) in each of the coal blocks to arrive at the total windfall gain. Wherever the mining plan had been prepared, their GRs have been considered. Where mining plans are not available, the CAG has used conservative figures of 73 per cent for open cast and 37 per cent for mixed mines as against the CoalMinistry’s own norms of 75-80 per cent for open cast and 45-60 per cent for undergroundmines mentioned in its counter. The CAG is likely to encash these inadvertent admissions.

  • Chinese officials say the railway link from Kashgar can, in the future, run up to Gwadar if it is connected to the domestic rail network.

India’s Health care System

GENERIC DRUGS

An important low hanging fruit identified by the High Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) set up by the Planning Commission is to provide generic drugs through the public system. The HLEG also recommended in its report submitted in October 2011 that health care should be available to all citizens with a smart card and should be cashless at the point of service. An UHC system should provide a combination of preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative care through a package of primary, secondary and tertiary services. An emphasis on prevention and promotion at the primary level would be both cost effective and best in terms of health outcomes.

HIGHER PUBLIC SPENDING

The HLEG called for stepping up public investment in health to reach 2.5%of GDP by the end of the 12 Five Year Plan, and argued that a strengthened public sector must be the bedrock of reforms. But how to deal with the fact that public facilities themselves ignore public health, often lack adequate staff and equipment, and treat patients with scant respect? More investment must be backed up by the creation of a public health cadre, the recognition of a three year medical qualification in order to increase the availability of qualified professionals, and more staff at the lowest level. And a strong set of management reforms to improve quality and performance of public facilities must be urgently implemented.

The HLEG’s support for public investment in health is backed by the experience of many countries — Europe, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Mexico, to name a few. But one cannot ignore the reality of the private health sector or the fact that it can and ought to be made to play its part in the move towards universal health coverage. At present, private facilities, under a veneer of respectful treatment, can be hugely expensive, and often do not provide appropriate or high quality clinical services. Ensuring that private health providers play a responsible role requires that we move away from ad hoc and unregulated public-private partnerships (PPPs) and also away from the practice of giving subsidies and freebies like land and tax-breaks to the private sector without any effective mechanisms to ensure accountability.

An important recommendation of the HLEG is to set up independent and effective Health Regulatory and Development Authorities at both national and state levels that would supervise the quality of services delivered by both public and private sector providers. These bodies would ensure among other things that standard treatment guidelines form the basis of clinical care across both sectors, with adequate monitoring to improve the quality of care and control costs. They would also ensure grievance redress mechanisms by linking up with measures to ensure citizen participation and accountability. This has been done very effectively in countries that are at the forefront of the move towards universal health care such as Thailand and Brazil, and must be implemented in India.

Recommendation of Shome Panel about GARR.

Advocates abolition of capital gains tax on transfer of securities In wide-ranging recommendations aimed at soothing the hackles of investors and revive the inflow of foreign capital, the expert committee on General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR), headed by Parthasarathi Shome, has advocated postponement of the controversial tax provision by three years till 2016-17 along with abolition of capital gains tax on transfer of securities.

In a further reassurance to foreign institutional investors (FIIs) operating through the Mauritius route, the expert panel, in its draft report submitted to the government on August 31 and put in the public domain by the Finance Ministry on Saturday for comments from stakeholders, has suggested that the GAAR provisions should not be invoked to examine the genuineness of the foreign investor entities’ residency in the island nation.

THRESHOLD OF TAX BENEFIT

Among its other major recommendations for amendment in the Act, for guidelines to be prescribed under Income-Tax Rules, 1962, and for clarifications and illustrations through circular, the Shome panel has suggested that GAAR should be made applicable only if the monetary threshold of tax benefit is Rs.3 crore and more. Alongside, while comments from all stakeholders have been sought by September 15 for drawing up the final guidelines on GAAR, the Finance Ministry has also expanded the terms of reference of the expert panel which was set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July, mainly to bring about tax clarity and address the
concerns of foreign investors. Instead of only FIIs, the panel has been told to look into issues pertaining to all non-resident tax payers. On the need for postponing implementation of GAAR, the Shome panel in its draft report said: “The implementation of GAAR may be deferred by three years on administrative grounds. GAAR is an extremely dvanced instrument of tax administration—one of deterrence, rather than for revenue generation — for which intensive training of tax officers, who would specialise in the finer aspects of international taxation, is needed…Hence GAAR should be deferred for three years. But the year, 2016-17, should be announced now. In effect, therefore, GAAR would apply from Assessment Year 2017-18. Pre-announcement is a common practice internationally, in today‘s global environment of freely flowing capital.”

MAURITIUS ISSUE

Of particular concern for FIIs was the Mauritius issue. To address their concerns, the expert panel said that while the provisions of GAAR should not be invoked to “examine the genuineness of the residency of an entity set up in Mauritius,” the government should retain the provisions of the CBDT circular issued in the Year 2000 on acceptance of Tax Residence Certificate (TRC) issued by Mauritius. “...if the government cannot accept it (proposal to abolish capital gains tax on transfer of listed securities) on political economy grounds, a second best alternative would be to retain...the Circular accepting Tax Residence Certificate issued by the Mauritius authorities,” it said. In this regard, the Shome panel said: “The government should abolish the tax on gains arising from transfer of listed securities, whether in the nature of capital gains or business income, to both residents as well as non-residents. In order to make the proposal tax neutral, the government may consider to increase the rate of Securities Transaction Tax (STT) appropriately.”

While recommending that GAAR should apply “only in cases of abusive, contrived and artificial arrangements”, the Shome panel suggested that the I-T Act may be amended to provide that only arrangements which have the main purpose (and not one of the main purposes) of obtaining tax benefit should be covered under GAAR. Highlighting that the objective of GAAR should be deterrence rather than revenue, the panel has recommended that theApproving Panel (AP) for purposes of invoking GAAR provisions should consist of five members, including Chairman, who should be a retired judge of the High Court. Besides, two members should be from outside government and persons of eminence drawn from the fields of accountancy, economics or business, with knowledge of matters of income- tax, and two members should be chief commissioners of income-tax or one Chief Commissioner and one Commissioner.

It also suggested that GAAR can be invoked only with the approval of the Commissioner.

• China confidently coped with the global economic crisis in 2008, and in 2010 it became the second largest economy in theworld. China’s per capita income rose from $1000 in 2002 to over 2500 now. Many events such as the Beijing Olympics and astronauts in space missions were major achievements.

ABC of NAM & India’s point of view in the context of 16th Summit.

  • Non Aligned Movement attracted more interest than beforewith its 16th summit in Tehran last week.

It must have been disappointed. Iran’s biggest international conference in several years drew a full house, including Egypt’s first democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi; SaudiArabia and the Gulf states also sent representatives. And despite pressure by the U.S and Israel not to attend, the United Nations Secretary-General was present too. It’s another matter that both President Morsi, who described theAssad regime as an “occupation” of Syria, and Ban-ki Moon, who asked Iran to comply with U.N. demands or face isolation, did not playmusic in President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad’s ears. Still Iran came out looking better than it had before. For an Israel straining at the leash, this should be sufficient discouragement against any adventurism. Further, while western efforts to effect regime change in Syria have divided the world, and NAM’s members hold independent positions on the situation there, this did not affect the summit’s determination to press for equitable ‘global governance’ — diplomatic argot for an international order more representative than the present Security Council.

For India, the summit was an important occasion to send out two timely messages. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assertion that external intervention in Syria would only lead to more problems for that country, and that a solution had to come from within, was New Delhi’s clearest statement of differences with the U.S. on this issue. India had voted for a UNSC resolution calling for sanctions against Syria in July, but abstained from a General Assembly resolution that included a reference to an Arab League demand for President Assad to step down. Second, Dr. Singh’s meetings with the Iranian leadership were an opportunity to demonstrate that New Delhi’s relations with Tehran would not be dictated by the U.S. Ever since the U.S stepped up its pressure on the nuclear front by threatening sanctions against countries buying Iranian oil, India has walked a fine balance between the two countries.

The talks focussed on improving economic relations; Iran recommitted to facilitating the Chabahar route for India-Afghan trade. Foreign relations are not the zero sumgame some powers would like it to be. India and Iran must now follow up with quick action on the ground.

TB Control: The Road Ahead.

India, with the highest TB burden in the world, even more serious, requiring urgent attention and novel methods of intervention. It is within this context that two major policy initiatives—to make TB a notifiable disease and to ban serological tests — taken by the combined efforts of several government agencies are noteworthy, timely and laudable.

The second policy decision to ban serological diagnostic tests for TB is no less significant. Serological or blood tests are based on the successful detection of certain molecules (antigens) from the pathogen, or detection of the body’s immune response to the pathogen (antibody response mostly). These are routinely used for diagnosis of diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria and hepatitis. In principle and in practice, when effective, these tests are economical, easy to use and quick in diagnosis of a disease condition.

SEROLOGICAL TESTING

However, it has not been possible to develop an accurate serological test for TB so far. The main reason for this is that in disease endemic countries like India, where most of the population has been exposed to TB, these serological tests are completely ineffective. Although healthy, with no symptoms of pulmonary disease, most of us are likely to test positive for TB and in inexperienced hands will perhaps be started on TB treatment. The dependence on such unreliable tests can only do harm, especially serious, in case of TB, because many will end up undergoing TB therapy without any need for it. Several scientific studies have clearly shown that serological tests for TB are not only of no value but also add to the gravity of the problem by resulting in multi drug resistant (MDR) TB. The World Health Organisation has already advised all TB control programmes against the use of any of these. Thus, the ban by law in India has come not a day too soon. However, it should be emphasised that the ban is only on the serological tests that are used currently for TB and not for serological tests per se. If in future, a reliable and accurate serological test is developed, it will certainly be allowed to be used once its efficacy is proved.

DETECTING GENETIC MATERIAL

The obvious query in any thinking person’s mind would be: does this ban on serological tests in any way hamper doctors from diagnosing and treating those suffering from TB and requiring urgent attention? The short answer is a definite “no” because these tests are of no value. Moreover, highly efficient tests based on detecting genetic material from the TB bug are now available and in use in many TB endemic countries. These tests are highly reliable, quick and, more significantly, also address the problem of detection of most forms of drug-resistant TB. The challenge seems to be the price of the technology.

There is hope that in the future, home-grown and locally manufactured technologies will be discovered and made available for public use. These two landmark decisions indicate the positive energy that gets generated when various agencies manage to work in harmonious synchronisation. It is difficult to imagine that such vital decisions could have taken place without care, consultation and the coordinated efforts of all stakeholders in the public sphere involved in the control of TB, along with government agencies like the office of the Drugs Controller General of India, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme), Ministry of Communications & Information Technology and Indian Council of Medical Research. All these and several others involved in advocacy to control the disease need to be congratulated. These efforts also reflect the seriousness with which government and health providers in the country have decided to approach one of the most serious health problems in the country. There is hope and every reason to believe that with the combined efforts of public and private health providers, TB and MDR-TB can be effectively managed.

Bill of Sexual harassment

  • The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill 2012, recently passed by the Lok Sabha.

  • Supreme Court that resulted in a landmark 1997 judgment which, relying heavily on international conventions, laid down the so-calledVishaka guidelines — a framework for dealing with sexual harassment at the workplace.

  • A drafting initiative by the National Commission for Women, and pressure from civil society that we are close to having a full-fledged law that attempts to strengthen the right of women to a secure and non-threatening environment at the workplace.

  • The legal framework of the Bill is erected on the mandatory constitution of Internal Complaints Committees in offices and the creation of Local Complaints Committees in every district, twin mechanisms for redressal of complaints. Its ambit is wide as it covers, in keeping with the Vishaka guidelines, the unorganised sector, which in relation to a workplace means any enterprise engaged in the production of goods or providing service of any kind including those that employ less than 10 workers. The definition of the sexual harassment is expansive as well, including sexually coloured remarks and any non-verbal gesture of a sexual nature. Setting up Internal Complaints Committees, which must include one member from a NGO, in all offices and branches with more than 10 employees will take some doing.

  • And it remains to be seen how these committees, which have been vested with the powers of a civil court, will function.

  • The proposed law may have missed a trick in not being gender-neutral.

  • Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.The identity and privacy of the child will have to be protected and emergency treatment will have to be given in the presence of the parent or guardian or any other person in whom the victim has trust and confidence. The rules, drafted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and put up for comments by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, make it mandatory for any medical practitioner of a health facility to attend on an abused child for treatment of cuts, bruises and other injuries, sexually transmitted diseases, treatment for exposure to HIV, including prophylaxis for HIV after consultations with experts.

  • The special court may, in appropriate cases, order an interim compensation to meet the immediate needs of the child for relief and rehabilitation at any stage after registration of the First Information Report. It shall be adjusted against the final compensation, if any.

  • Compensation is to be paid by the State government, within 30 days of the court order, from the Victim Compensation Fund or any other scheme or fund established by it for rehabilitating victims.

Higgs Boson Particle

Rolf Heuer, director general of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said here on Monday that he believed that Satyendra Nath Bose, the physicist in honour of whoma family of particles in the Standard Model of particle physics is named, should have been given the Nobel Prize.

  • “Higgs boson-like particle” in July this year was only the beginning of the work to be done on the particle.

  • CERN authorities were eagerly awaiting a written application fromIndia applying for associate membership of the CERN Council.

  • At present, India has an observer status at the CERN council.

Basell III – Facts

Basel III seeks to mitigate this externality by identifying global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) and mandating them to maintain a higher level of capital dependent on their level of systemic importance. The list of G-SIBs is to be reviewed annually. At present, no Indian bank appears in the list of G-SIBs.

• Banks in India are currently operating on the Standardised Approaches of Basel II,” said Dr. Subbarao.

• The larger banks needed to migrate to the Advanced Approaches, especially as they expanded their overseas presence. The adoption of advanced approaches to risk management would enable banks to manage their capital more efficiently and improve their profitability.

APEC Summit

Moscow attaches enormous importance to its first ever chairmanship of the 21-member economic group, which represents 40 per cent of the global population and 54 per cent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Russia has poured a staggering $21 billion into preparations for the September 8-9 summit — one and a half times as much as Britain spent on the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

  • Russia’s emperor whomoved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.

  • The European Union accounts for 50 per cent of Russia’s foreign trade compared with less than 20 per cent for APEC countries, largely just four of them — China, theU.S., Japan and SouthKorea.

  • The Kremlin’s probably most pressing motive for wooing APEC business to develop its Far East and East Siberia is to counterbalance China’s growing influence in the region.

  • Its share ofAPEC trade does not exceed 1.5 per cent. The situation may change now that Russia has finally joined the World Trade Organisation after nearly two decades of talks, opening the way for free trade accords with APEC members.

  • A Russian think tank has estimated that if the APEC countries invest $20-30 billion in Russian transport infrastructure, they could save $600 billion by 2020.

OIL IS THE CRUX AT SUDAN DISPUTE

  • South Sudan held a referendum and broke away from its northern neighbour.

  • The division left land-locked South Sudan with most of the region’s oil reserves; while Sudan retained the pipelines, most of the refineries, and Port Sudan — where oil is loaded onto tankers and shipped across the world. Analysts estimate that the two countries have between 4.2 billion and 6.7 billon barrels — a fraction of the estimated global reserve of 1,653 billion barrels.

  • OVL has also financed and constructed a 741 km pipeline from the Khartoum refinery in Sudan to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

  • South Sudan unilaterally stopped oil production after a dispute over the transit fee demanded by the North for use of its pipelines.

  • The stalemate has affected both countries; the International Monetary Fund estimates that oil accounts for about 90 per cent of Sudan’s exports and 98 per cent of South Sudan’s state revenues.

  • In August this year, the two countries arrived at an agreement on oil transit fees pursuant to a broader agreement on border security along a 10 km wide demilitarised zone.

  • A referendum on Abyei has been postponed indefinitely as both sides disagree over who should be allowed to participate in the referendum.

80% OF HUMAN GENOME HAS AN ACTIVE ROLE OR FUNCTION

  • The ENCODE project has found that not one per cent but 80.4 per cent of the genome has an active role or function. For instance, it could be “promoter” regions where “proteins bind to control gene expression” or “enhancer” regions that “regulate the expression of distant genes.”

  • The most important part is that genes comprise only 2 per cent of the genome.

  • The regulatory regions are scattered in the 98 per cent of the genome.

  • Apaper in Nature explains the important features of organisation and functioning of the human genome. It states that in 95 per cent of the cases, the genes are in close proximity to the regulatory switches.

  • To their amazement, the researchers found that most genes are not controlled by just one switch. Instead, the genes are regulated by more than a dozen switches. In other words, there is no oneto- one relationship between a gene and a switch. • Genes are copied (transcribed) intoRNA molecules

  • The ENCODE team found that 76 per cent of disease-associated variants in the non-gene regions are linked to the regulatory DNA.

  • “ENCODE is a foundation data set for understanding the human genome.”

  • ENCODE is a truly international collaborative effort — 442 scientists from 32 laboratories in the U.K., U.S, Spain, Singapore and Japan were involved.

  • They generated and analysed over 15 terabytes (15 trillion bytes) of raw data. True to its international team effort, all of the data from the project is freely available to the public.

  • The study included 8 people who had never smoked and 24 smokers, 11 with ormal lung function and 13 people with either chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma.

PROPOSAL FOR SINGLE WOMEN IN 12TH PLAN

  • The Planning Commission is pushing for special dispensation for single women, particularly those who are single by choice, under various government schemes in the 12th Five Year Plan.

  • In addition to reserving a certain percentage of jobs for single women under Centrally sponsored schemes, the Plan panel has proposed promoting and strengthening federations of single women at the block and district levels.

  • So far the recognised categories of single women are widows and divorcees. So far the recognised categories of single women are widows and divorcees. So far the recognised categories of single women are widows and divorcees.

  • So far the recognised categories of single women are widows and divorcees.

Russia to Auction its Largest Gold-field

  • Russia will auction its largest unmined gold deposit in the nearest future despite the prohibitive cost of reaching the remote eastern Siberian field.

  • Sukhoi Log’s estimated reserves of 2,000 tonnes and 3,000 tonnes (64.3 million to 96.4 million troy ounces) of gold and a smaller amount of silver make it into one of the world’s largest untapped deposits of the precious metal.

  • The field, located in the vast Irkutsk region of eastern Siberia, has been labelled ‘strategic’ by the Russian Government, and is not subject to bids from foreigners.

  • But Russia is now undergoing a new privatisation campaign, and the business daily cited First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov as saying the auction terms would be announced ‘shortly’.

  • Sukhoi Log (meaning ‘dry ravine’ in English) suffers from a series of drawbacks that have been under study for some 50 years. Studies show that its ore has a low gold concentration, and needs to be enriched.

  • It also remains inaccessible by road, and  has no independent or outside supply of the water required for processing.

  • The government’s own estimates say the project would take 12 years to develop at a cost of 49 billion rubles ($1.5 billion).

  • The government’s own estimates say the project would take 12 years to develop at a cost of 49 billion rubles ($1.5 billion).

Q. Africa’s Initiative for Space Research

  • The space shuttle Icarus 13, with its slender spires and massive flared base, is parked by the seafront a few blocks from downtown Luanda, the capital of Angola.

  • But the shuttle will never leave the oilrich west African country for the weightless serenity of space — Icarus 13 is not really a space ship, it is a mausoleum, an art project, a constructivist gesture in concrete.

  • The Soviet-funded mausoleum of Antonio Agostinho Neto, Angola’s first President and Kremlin ally, became “Icarus 13” — a spaceship that would take an all-African crew on a fantastical journey to the sun.

  • At present, the entire continent has less  bandwidth than Norway; almost all of which comes from 20-odd communication satellites, positioned over Africa, that are owned by non-African companies. “Space technologies… provide commercial opportunities and strategic advantages for a tiny minority of countries controlling them,” claims an Afrispace working paper.

  • Space technologies can be divided into the rocket science needed to put a satellite in space, and the earth station know-how necessary to make full use of the satellite once it is in orbit.

  • “No African nation has the ability to launch a satellite even thoughAfrica has a massive advantage having land on the equator, meaning lower costs for getting into orbit,”.

  • At present, countries like Ghana, South Africa, and Nigeria are investing in ground stations rather than rockets. While Ghana has set up the Ghana Space and Technology Centre that hopes to become a regional focal point for remote sensing, meteorological and communication technologies, Nigeria launched three satellites last year.

  • The NigComSat-1R communication satellite was built with Chinese support, while a British company built the NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X imaging satellites.

  • Afrispace must build institutions to leverage scientific infrastructure into development gains, or metaphorically risk becoming a mausoleum like Icarus 13.

  • A pan-African space programme may have its detractors but the continent’s policymakers believe that its benefits, including access to satellite data and better communications, far outweigh the costs

Q. Aviation Sector opened up.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, on Friday, approved 49 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the aviation sector, allowing foreign carriers to pick up stake in domestic airlines. This is likely to pave way for the much-needed equity infusion into domestic carriers, including loss- making Kingfisher Airlines, which are passing through turbulent times as majority of them are crying for funds to support their operations. “Though FDI of up to 49 per cent, 75 per cent and 100 per cent was there in the aviation sector, foreign airlines were not allowed, ’’CivilAviationMinisterAjit Singh told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

CURRENT NORMS

  • Current FDI norms allow foreign investors, not related to airline business, to directly or indirectly own an equity stake of up to 49 per cent in an Indian carrier. Allowing foreign airlines to pick up stakes in Indian carriers has been a long-pending demand of the aviation sector.

  • The Indian aviation industry and the domestic carriers are suffering losses because of high taxes on jet fuel, high airport fees, costlier loans, poor infrastructure, and cut-throat competition. Except IndiGo, all airlines have posted losses in the financial year ending March 31.

  • Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines, which is burdened with a debt of over Rs.7,000 crore, and is operating with a bare minimum fleet, has been the most vocal supporter of allowing FDI in the sector.

  • The opening of the sector to foreign airlines may, however, bring good news for passengers who would benefit from more competitive fares, better product and services and better international connectivity.

  • Foreign carriers such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways have expressed interest in investing in Indian carriers.

  • However, Lufthansa Airlines said it had no plans to make further investments in Indian carriers.

Q. 11 Countries to Strengthen Capacities to address autism.

Bringing hope to families with autistic children, 11 countries from theWHO Southeast Asian Region at a recent meeting adopted a resolution on the distinct brain damage disorder that produces a range of behavioural
abnormalities. The countries resolved to strengthen national capacities and help mobilise resources in SoutheastAsia to address this issue. Autism is a severely incapacitating developmental disability that happens in the first
three years of life, but can be better dealt with if detected early. Statistics show that one in every 150 births is autistic. India has over one crore autistic children, but treatment and rehabilitation facilities are virtually non-existent. The resolution impressed upon the member states to give appropriate recognition to autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other developmental disabilities in policies and programmes related to early childhood
development, and asked them to develop and implement policies and plans—including public awareness, stigma removal campaigns, supported with adequate human, financial and technical resources — to address the issue. The meeting called for development of strategies for early detection and communitybased interventions for such children, thereby leading to the creation of appropriate infrastructure for care, support, intervention, service and rehabilitation.

The WHO expressed deep concern over the dramatic rise in the number of children with autism and developmental disabilities, and the growing cost involved in managing such disabilities in addition to the challenges of stigma, isolation and discrimination faced by families dealing with autism. To begin with, the 11 countries have agreed to support the activities of autism-related networks, including the South Asia Network (SAAN) — a concept that emerged from the Dhaka Declaration on Autism Spectrum Disorders and Developmental Disabilities, adopted at the end of a conference organised last year by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter Saima Hossain, to discuss the needs and challenges of the autismcommunity in Bangladesh and SouthAsia. The conference was attended by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Q. World Divided, India Undecided As 193 Nations Gear to Decide the Future of Net & Mobile

In December this year, representatives of 193 governments will meet in Dubai to vote on critical proposals that will decide how the Internet is governed from now on. The discussion, to be held at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), will impact nearly six billion mobile phone users and two billion Internet users. These include 700 million mobile phone and 100 million Internet users in India. The subject has assumed controversial proportions for two reasons: the countries are divided in their positions; and the issues have split national governments vis-à-vis their own telecom and Internet industry, civil society and academia in many cases. In that sense, the global divide among nation states is worsened by the yawning divide among stakeholders. Between December 4 and 13, the governments will review a treaty known as International Telecom Regulations (ITRs) under the aegis of a lesser known U.N. bureaucracy — the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The ITRs were last reviewed in 1988, when phone companies worldwide were government-owned and the Internet was not available for consumer use. Today, a vast majority of networks and subscribers are under private companies, and the Internet, which started with 16million subscribers in 1995, has more than two billion users; nearly half-a-million are added every day. Under discussion are several proposals, including cyber security, data privacy misuse, fraud and spam, which could give the states more control over content and access to networks; new peering arrangements and impact on costs of Internet traffic, which may increase the cost of users, especially in developing countries; “new technologies” regulation, which may open the way
for censorship through technologies, like DNS filtering, that fragment the global Internet; a review of Internet addresses leading to change in the global address registry and how users access websites today; and, finally, government regulated international mobile roaming tariffs which may impact the use of international SIM cards, like Matrix, to lower costs.

Q. An Excessive Remedy

The Supreme Court order on the appointment of Information Commissioners has had an unsettling effect on the working of the Right to Information Act, an elegant seven-year old law that has immeasurably empowered the
average citizen. What was designed as an easyto- use legal tool for the poor and weak may now be at risk of getting tangled in a web of complexity. The Court has, inter alia , ruled that the competent authority should prefer a person who is or has been a judge of the High Court for appointment as Information Commissioners, while the head of the Information Commissions at the Centre or State shall only be a person who is or has been a Chief Justice of a High Court or a Judge of the Supreme Court. The reasoning is that these bodies perform judicial and quasi-judicial functions and such qualifications are essential to meet the ends of justice. The decision comes in the wake of complaints that the system of appointing Information Commissioners lacks transparency. That is true. Some States follow a closed-door appointments process, packing Commissions with favoured bureaucrats and political loyalists. Yet, the scale of the remedy is excessive. By specifying qualifications for appointments and instituting new working methodologies for Commissions, which it wants legislated, the court clearly intrudes into executive privilege.

The RTI Act has escaped many attempts by theCentre to whittle down its scope, with civil society rising to its defence each time. Given the culture of secrecy and pervasive corruption, the law is a nightmare for many in authority. But it has weathered the test of judicial scrutiny. Major questions on its scope have been decided by the courts, including high profile issues such as the judges’ assets case. Also, the majority of appeals before Information Commissions are those filed by citizens seeking simple information. The exceptions on disclosure under Section 8 of the RTI Act are clear, and the law leaves all other information held by public authorities open — there is little scope there for judicial interpretation. In any case, several orders of the Commissions in favour of citizens are challenged by officials in regular courts. So far, the appellate process has been refreshingly uncomplicated, as the applicant can appear in person, without the need for advocates, and the proceedings are in plain language. If poor citizens have to appear before a bench that has a judicial member and face lawyers employed by public authorities, the resulting asymmetry of power would clearly defeat the purpose of the law. The Supreme Court is correct in calling for due advertisement and a rational basis for appointments to Commissions. But it should leave that task to Parliament to execute.

Q. Pakistan Tests Nuclear Capable Babur Missile

Pakistan onMonday said it had successfully test-fired an indigenously developed multi-tube cruise missile that can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads over a range of 700 km. According to the Inter Services Public Relations, the Babur (Hatf-VII) cruise missile can strike targets on land and at sea with “pinpoint accuracy”.

Armed with stealth features, Babur is lowflying and terrain-hugging. It is equipped with modern cruise missile technology of Terrain Contour Matching and Digital Scene Matching and Area Co-relation. It was launched from a MultiTube MissileLaunchVehicle in the presence of the senior hierarchy of the Strategic Plans Division.

In Monday’s test, the National Command Authority’s fully automated Strategic Command and Control Support System was employed. It enables robust command and control capability of all strategic assets with round the clock situational awareness in a digitised network-centric environment to decision makers at National Command Centre (NCC), a statement put out by ISPR said. “The systemhas the added capability of real time remote monitoring of missile flight path”, it added.

Q. Agni-IV Scores a Hit Yet again

  • India on Wednesday successfully flighttested the surface-to-surface Agni-IV missile for its “full range of 4,000 km.”

  • In a flawless flight that lasted 20minutes, the nuclear-capable missile blasted off at 11.48 a.m. froma road-mobile launch pad on Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast and traced a parabolic path across the sky. As its re-entry systems worked perfectly, the missile then plunged into the Indian Ocean with its payload of one tonne of conventional explosives erupting spectacularly.

  • The payload systems withstood a searing temperature of more than 3,000 degrees Celsius during the re-entry phase.

  • This is the second consecutive success of Agni-IV: the missile scored a hit in November 2011, after the very first flight failed in 2010.

  • The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has designed and developed Agni-IV, which is 20 metres long and weighs 17 tonnes. The two-stage vehicle, which uses solid fuel, can carry a one-tonne nuclear warhead.

  • Wednesday’s triumph caps a series of successful flights ofAgni-V,Agni-I,Agni

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL MATERIAL

Study Material
IAS - INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
UPSC