Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010 ISO 27001:2005 certification for compliance with Best Security Practices Republic

of Tatarstan Its a federal subject of Russia gram suraj abhiyan (village contact programme) : Chhattisgarh Of the 34 globally identified biodiversity hotspots, India harbours four hotspots, i.e., Himalaya, Indo- Burma, Western Ghats and Sri Lanka and Sundaland. In terms of plant diversity, India ranks tenth in the world and fourth in Asia. With over 45,500 plant species India represents nearly 11 per cent of the world known floral diversity. To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot on Myers 2000 edition of the hotspot-map, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 0.5% or 1,500 species of vascular plants as endemics, and it has to have lost at least 70% of its primary vegetation. The Centre has identified the ecologically fragile Arunachal Pradesh as the powerhouse of the country. According to an estimate of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and private power developers, this State bordering China has the potential to generate over 57,000 MW of hydro power. http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article3476285.ece The National Green Tribunal has sought the reply of Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on a plea against grant of any clearance to any new project in ecologically sensitive Western Ghats. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) in its report to MoEF dated August 31, 2011 has designated the entire Western Ghats as an Ecologically Sensitive Area and categorised the whole region in three classes according to their ecological sensitivities. The WGEEP had in its report recommended that no mining should be allowed in the Western Ghats in Goa. For mining activities in other areas in two categories, WGEEP had recommended that no new licenses should to be given and where mining exists, it should be phased out in five years, by 2016. Expansion of commercial plantations in Western Ghats has led to fragmentation of forest, soil erosion, degradation of river ecosystems and toxic contamination of the environment," the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel report said. A national centre for research in encryption and cryptanalysis should be set up to meet cyber-security requirements and build interception capabilities without hindering economic growth, says a report prepared by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) and Data Security Council of India (DSCI). Emphasising that law enforcement and intelligence agencies need to build lawful interception capabilities to monitor electronic communication, including encrypted communication, in real time, http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article3391187.ece Consensus could not be reached among Nepals main political parties, the UCPN (Maoist) , Nepali Congress , CPN-UML and the union of the Samyukta Loktantrik madhesi Morcha as they were unable to resolve the differences in the constitution drafting. Major cause of opposition: Differences on restructuring of states. Formation of 14 states based on ethnicity was proposed but the idea has been rejected. One MP-One Idea Scheme announced by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS). Focus of the Scheme: (http://www.gktoday.in/one-mp-one-ideascheme/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GeneralKnowledgeToday+%28General+Know ledge+Today%29)

advocating a grass-root bottoms-up approach to innovation and development arriving at solutions for local problems which are sustainable and scalable

Investment Tracking System (ITS) has been approved to ensure speedy execution of major investment projects getting delayed for a number of reasons.It has been decided that major projects will be specially tracked to implement them faster to give a thrust to the economy.The decision has come at a time when projects are getting delayed on multiple fronts - environmental clearances, security clearances, other clearances, land related matters etc. National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) will track all Public Sector projects with an investment of Rs 1000 crore and above In a bid to banish the specter of open defecation within a decade, the government has increased its spending on toilets for rural areas, hiking the amount to be spent for a household latrine from the existing Rs.4,600 to Rs.10,000. On Thursday, the Cabinet

Committee on Economic Affairs approved the increased allocation for the Total Sanitation Campaign now renamed the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) from Rs.1,500 crore in the last financial year to Rs.3,000 crore in the current one. Renowned scientist Sekhar Basu took the position of director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). He played pivotal role in the development of atomic reactor for India's indigenous nuclear submarine The government increased Minimum Support Price (MSPs) of primary kharif crops for the 2012-13 by up to 53 % that triggered concerns about further rise in food inflation.

The raise was recommended by Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) after taking into account the cost of production. As per the CACP:

a) High MSP of paddy would not affect the majority of the population, as after implementation of the Food Bill, 60% of the population would get grains at subsidized rates. b) The government also has sufficient grain in its storage to control on any surge in rates. c) As market rates are already higher the rise in MSPs would not lead lo increase in retail prices of oilseeds and a few pulses. d) MSPs are already almost 50 per cent less than market prices.

Objective: The move is taken to incentivize the farmers and to encourage them to shift towards non-cereals crops, production of which is below the demand

The support prices of moong and tur, has not been raised due to stiff opposition from the Department of Consumer Affairs, which feared higher MSPs would lead to a increase in retail prices. The CACP had suggested raise of 29% and 25 %in the MSPs of Moong and Tur, respectively. Fearing surge in retail prices, a proposal providing anequity bonus of Rs 100 a quintal on paddy, over and above the MSP, was also rejected. Are MSPs the primary reason behind allocating sown area for a crop?

No. MSPs were thought to be the primary reason behind allocating sown area for a crop, but according to Religare Commodities, the last few years had show barring soybean, cotton and paddy, farmers did not respond satisfactorily to a rise in MSPs.

NuSTAR:

A space-based X-ray telescope that will use a Wolter telescope to focus high energy X-rays from astrophysical sources, especially for nuclear spectroscopy The first space-based direct-imaging X-ray telescope at energies beyond those of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton

Primary Objective:

Conducting a deep survey for black holes a billion times more massive than our sun, Understanding how particles are accelerated to within a fraction of a percent of the speed of light in active galaxies, Understanding how the elements are created in the explosions of massive stars by imaging the remains, which are called supernova remnants

India will supply 500 MW electricity to energy deficient Pakistan. The power will be supplied through Punjab at International rates. India and Kazakhstan signed a pact to promote growth of textiles, particularly garment manufacturing, to strengthen their domestic industries. MoU inked b/w the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) and State Authority Directorate of SEZ 'Ontustyk' . Both the countries decided to collaborate in segments like wool and cotton along with exchanging information.

Govt approved for establishing an autonomous organization North-East Centre for Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR) at an estimated cost of Rs 292 crore. It will be established at Shillong and will be completed in 12th Plan period. Objective: The motive behind NECTAR is to promote application of carefully selected technologies originating from the public funded research institutions under the government

The Red list of threatened species, prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has listed 132 species of plants and animals as Critically Endangered, the most threatened category, from India. Plants seemed to be the most threatened life form with 60 species being listed as Critically Endangered and 141 as Endangered. Real exchange rate can be defined as the rate that takes into account inflation differential between the countries. Suppose the rupee was trading at Rs 40 to a dollar at the beginning of 2009. Assuming a 10% inflation in the Indian economy and 5% inflation in the US economy for the whole year, then this model says the rupee should depreciate by 5% (10%-5%) to Rs 42 to a dollar, other things being equal. The RBI calculates REER for India. It calculates the value of the rupee with respect to two indices, one comprising six countries and the other 36 countries with a 2004-05 base. The RBI, however, uses the wholesale price indexbased inflation whereas globally consumer price indices are used. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/Readers-Editor/article3540068.ece Twenty years have passed since the Act on new Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) was put in place by the Constitution 73rd Amendment (1992). There were high hopes of empowering rural Indias two long-neglected sections of society women and Dalits through reservation of seats in elections to panchayat bodies. The reform was seen, understandably, as a major step in the direction of Dalit liberation. In a breakthrough innovation Rao Papineni, the nanotechnology scientist, in collaboration with his colleagues invented a cancer treatment system in which a nano-particle acts as a carrier of anti-cancer drug. Traditionally, disability has been defined mainly in terms of the medical impairment a person lives with. However, a person is not primarily disabled only because her vision is clouded, or limbs are feeble, or because she cannot hear or speak, or her mind is slow. She is disabled because society does not allow her to exercise the many abilities she does have, to live a life of relative self-reliance and dignity. All over the world, it has been demonstrated, for instance, that mentally slow persons may perform as well or better than other workers in assembly line jobs; hearing impaired persons are more accurate in data entry tasks; and visual impairment is an asset in manufacture of photosensitive materials. If these persons still cannot find work, the barrier is not their medical disability, but the attitude of employers. Therefore, the disability of an individual should not be evaluated merely in terms of the physiological difficulties that the person encounters, but the ways the physical and socio-cultural environment responds to these medical impairments. Such socio-medical scales of disability have been developed in other parts of the world, and the new law should make it mandatory for governments to develop these also for India. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/article3590217.ece The PMO has planned to establish a coordination committee to attend to diverse aspects of broadband services for panchayats. This will be implemented through a network being set up at an expense Rs 20,000. The creation of the network is a part of the governments endeavor to provide e-Governance at the panchayat level as it will help electronic delivery of services. It has been recently reviewed by the PMO to create the National Optical Fibre Network to provide broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry launched a LPG Portal aimed at ensuring transparency in the delivery of domestic LPG cylinders to the consumers. This step is expected to materialize into a potent tool for social audit for all domestic LPG supplies. Civil Society can also access LPG distribution information from this portal and can report incongruities and register their feedback on the irregularities in supply. The portal is supposed to make all the stakeholders responsible, thus providing an impartial and equitable distribution of the subsidized LPG fuel. Around 14 crore households across India living in urban, semi-urban and even rural India are estimated to benefit from this initiative. One can access the LPG Transparency portal via the official website of the ministry www.petroleum.nic.in.

With the launch of Shenzhou-9 space mission china has reached a new milestone as its crew members comprise 3 astronauts including Chinas first woman astronaut Liu Yang. Shenzhou-9, Chinas 4th human spaceflight launched from the Jiuquan satellite launch centre in Gansu State. Israeli scientist Daniel Hillel bagged World Food Prize 2012. His work and motivation has contributed in bridging the divisions and spreading peace and understanding in the Middle East by enhancing a breakthrough achievement. His work is relevant for agriculture-dominated economies.He conceived and implemented the method of micro-irrigation, which maximizes the efficaciousness of water usage in agriculture, in the dry and arid land regions. He will be formally presented with the cash prize of $ 250000 award. The World Food Prize award is chaired by M.S. Swaminathan, an Indian agricultural scientist Professor and the 1 st World Food Prize recipient.

Inclusive Wealth Report 2012:

The Inclusive Wealth Report 2012 is the first of a series of biennial reports on the sustainability of countries. It looks at the productive base of economies, based on capital assets produced or manufactured capital, human capital, and natural capital. The IWR 2012 is a joint initiative of the United Nations University International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (UNU-IHDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in collaboration with the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC) and the Natural Capital Project.

Inclusive Wealth Index (IWI)

The IWI is a more holistic measure which considers full range of assets such as manufactured, human and natural capital, which shows a countrys actual wealth and sustainability. The Inclusive Wealth Index (IWI) seeks to measure the social value of capital assets of nations beyond manufactured capital. The index is inclusive in the sense that it accounts for other key assets as important components of the productive base of the economy, such as natural capital and human capital. The total value of capital assets or wealth is concretely measured by adding up the social worth of each capital type of a nation, where the social (or shadow) prices per unit of capital form act as a weight in its index of inclusive wealth.Further, the index measures changes in wealth (or per-capita wealth) over a period of time. Thus, changes in wealth or inclusive investment are measured by assessing the changes in the physical asset base of a nation over time, and subsequently adjusted for population.

What is the role of natural capital in inclusive wealth?

Natural capital represents an essential pool of resources that can induce the building of other capital assets, such as education, health or manufactured capital.

The report, which will be produced every two years, makes the following specific recommendations:

Countries witnessing diminishing returns in natural capital should invest in renewable natural capital to improve their IWI and the well-being of their citizens. Example investments include reforestation and agricultural biodiversity Nations should incorporate the IWI within planning and development ministries to encourage the creation of sustainable policies Countries should speed up the process of moving from an income-based accounting framework to a wealth accounting framework Macroeconomic policies should be evaluated on the basis of IWI rather than GDP per capita Governments and international organizations should establish research programmes to value key components of natural capital, in particular ecosystems.

Incidentally, as high as 22 per cent urban Indians were found to be overweight with seven per cent among them being obese. It, thus, leaves India in an ironical burden of parallel battles against mass obesity and malnutrition.

Two Maharashtra villages recently experienced electricity for the first time thanks to Tata Power Community Development Trusts (TPCDT) new initiative Project Suryaprakash. Remotely located Limbarvadi and Bhadaskonda villages in the Mulshi region of Pune benefitted from the project. The project is one of the initiatives to facilitate the implementation of a NABARD scheme of solar energy based home lighting system (HLS). It is being provided technological support by Tata BP Solar. Project Suryaprakash was launched with an aim to empower the existing network of self help groups (SHGs) in the process of creating awareness and making HLS accessible to communities. As the existing network of SHG comprises mostly women, the project has been designed to empower womenfolk. Training programmes have been designed for the beneficiaries and the trainees. Mostly women will be assisting the Tata team in the installation process, a company release stated. The uniqueness of the project is that the villagers themselves are doing the entire funding, training, operations and maintenance jobs and TPCDT has only been a facilitator by tying up with NABARD for government subsidy and bank loans. According to the model, the SHG will be running the scheme, employing two persons and will be responsible for repayment of loans.

Research from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) shows that sea levels are rising much faster between North Carolina and Massachusetts than anywhere else in the world. The existence of the hotspot is consistent with the measured slowing of Atlantic Ocean circulation, which may be tied to changes in water temperature, salinity and density in the subpolar north of the ocean. ''Many people mistakenly think that the rate of sea-level rise is the same everywhere as glaciers and ice caps melt,'' said Marcia McNutt, director of the USGS. However, regional variations in temperature, water salinity and air pressure can cause rates of increase to differ considerably, as can ocean currents and land movements. No sewerage system. Just a squatting platform connected to a covered 4-foot single pit, surrounded by three walls with no doors or ceiling. This is a toilet in Vishnupur Khurd village of Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh built with the incentive received under the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC). It is not the only toilet with such a design. There are almost 50 beneficiaries who have similar unusable toilets outside their homes, built under the scheme. Earlier this year, the village administration handpicked these below-poverty-line (BPL) families and gave them Rs. 2200 under the TSC to construct toilets in their homes. The families had to add the additional amount required to build the toilet. According to Sanandan Pandey, village pradhan Gayatri Devis son, there are no guidelines specifying the design or the amount to be contributed by the beneficiary. Neither Mr Pandey nor the District Panchayati Raj officer Prabhakar Singh are able to confirm if this identical toilet design is approved by any government agency or whether there is any standardization of the toilet design at all. Its not just the depth or the absence of doors and ceiling. Many a times the lid gets damaged or stolen and this happens frequently. Arranging for a new cover is very difficult for the poor families and it takes a lot of time. This is worse than defecating in the open because the waste is lying uncovered at your backyard, A new global study mapping human-animal diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and Rift Valley fever finds that an unlucky 13 zoonoses are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths per year. The vast majority occur in low-and middleincome countries. Zoonoses are essentially diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans. According to the study, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania in Africa, as well as India in Asia, have the highest zoonotic disease burdens, with widespread illness and death. Meanwhile, the north-eastern United States, Western Europe (especially the United Kingdom), Brazil and parts of Southeast Asia may be hotspots of emerging zoonoses those that are newly infecting humans, are newly virulent, or have newly become drug resistant. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3616699.ece , http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3573747.ece (ias services conditions) What is a preventable and easily treatable disease is now threatening to overwhelm India with growing drug resistant forms, rising treatment costs and greater suffering. Tuberculosis is a disease of antiquity that claims nearly 1,000 lives every day in India. There are serious challenges that continue to exist in the TB landscape. One of these is drug resistance to anti-TB drugs. Though drug resistant TB has been in existence for long, it has lethal forms that continue to emerge and threaten to undermine the extensive work undertaken to prevent and control the spread of TB. Drug resistant TB is a man-made problem, the result of treatment mismanagement due to which the TB bacteria develops resistance to the two or more most commonly used drugs in the current four-drug (or first-line) regimen, leading to multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). In some cases, this mismanagement can transform

itself into extensively drug resistant TB (XDR TB), where the bacteria do not respond to even second line drugs. This poses a serious threat to global TB control. To make matters worse, an advanced form of drug resistance has been reported recently in India. It is known as extremely drug resistant TB (XXDR-TB). In this form of the disease, none of the known TB drugs or their combinations work. The reasons for the rise in drug resistance are many. In most instances, detection of the disease is delayed due to the nonavailability of good diagnostic laboratories and patients receiving treatment with non-standardised and arbitrary drug regimens of questionable quality. There is continuous use of incorrect diagnostics like serological tests for detecting TB which are utilised in the private sector. Though the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended the ban on the use of these tests, $15 billion is being spent annually in India on these. A recent study carried out by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) concludes that serological tests can detect the disease only in a quarter of TB patients while three-fourths will be wrongly diagnosed as nonTB cases, even if they are smear positive. In other words, most who have the disease will be diagnosed as healthy, and most healthy persons will be diagnosed as TB infected patients, if serology alone is relied upon. Although drug resistant TB in India has been reported frequently during the last four decades, the available information from here is incomplete. Most patients are not notified to the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) and many treatment outcomes remain unknown. Recently, the Central TB Division (CTD) has taken a policy decision to make it mandatory to notify all TB cases a positive step. Indian Navy commissioned a Naval Base Station INS Tanaji in Mumbais Eastern suburb of Mankhurd. The base depot ship INS Tanaji will look after berthing and ship lift facilities of the Indian Navy. INS Tanaji is named after Maratha warrior Tanaji Malusare What is New Free Drug Policy launched by Govt of India? Objective: To provide medical benefits to countrys 121 Crore population, the Govt of India has launched Free Drug policy.

Under this policy every citizen of the country will be entitled to free medicines in all public health centers spread across the country. Only generic drugs will be provided. Branded drugs have been kept out of the policy. The Policy will be effective over the next 5 years and it will support around 40% population, which spends less than $1.25 a day on health. The policy will cost the exchequer around $5.4 billion.

Currently, India spends only around 1.2 % of its GDP on health. As per the report of Organisation for Economic Co-operation, only seven countries in the world have public health expenditure less than India in terms of share of GDP. India faces serious shortage of medical facilities. The country also has a high infant mortality rate of 66 as compared to 19 in China and 21 in Brazil. The most celebrated Assamese Poet Hiren Bhattacharyya, who was famous as Hiru-da, passed away. The Navy has plans for expansion of its strategic Karwar naval base in Karnataka under the Project Seabird Phase IIA which involves construction of a wide range of new facilities and augmentation of certain existing facilities. The expansion project will cost over Rs 10,000 crore. Navy will be capable to berth around 30 major warships at Karwar after the completion of Phase-IIA by 2017-18. What is Project Seabird ?

First approved in 1985 at an initial cost of Rs 350 crore, since then it has been hindered by long delays and fund insufficiencies. Phase-I has already been completed, has made the Navy capable to deploy more than 15 warships at Karwar. Phase-II will empower the Karwar naval station with an airbase, armament depot, dockyard complex and missile silos, apart from additional jetties, berthing and anchorage facilities.

What are the objectives of Project Seabird?

The Project Seabird aims to ease the naval dockyards in Mumbai which is clogged due to increased traffic and pollution.

Another major reason is to establish a major base at some distance from Pakistani cities and range of their missiles. The base will be used for deploying Russian-origin aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, Scorpene submarines and carry out military aircraft operations.

Policy Paralysis is the new exhortation echoing in the news media.

By deciding to empanel private medical establishments in the RSBY insurance scheme (68 per cent of empanelled hospitals are private according to the RSBY official document) for secondary and tertiary care (not primary care), and to market health-care packages with price tag attached, the government has induced a warped health-care pattern. There are no standard treatment guidelines, no regulatory or monitoring body and no system for grievance redressal for patients or the care providers. There are other problems with the RSBY:

no support for outpatient care in this scheme despite the fact that out of pocket expenses for outpatient care is the most frequent cause of indebtedness due to private medical care; insurance companies are neither interested in ensuring enrolment of all, nor in swift renewal of the cards; increasing annual premium rates are increasing the cost of care; recent studies have shown that the government is not even allotting enough funds required to pay for claims of all the beneficiaries. A quick look at procedural faults in the RSBY tells you the enormous errors committed right from the initial steps of registration. Wrong age ascertainment, wrong names, names being excluded, entire families being missed out because they were not at home when teams went to their home, etc. making a complete mockery of the process.

On the one hand, people covered by the scheme are going for all kinds of procedures they may not need, and on the other, many people have been left out of the RSBY, raising questions about its claims to be a universal health coverage scheme The Planning Commission appointed high level expert group on health care (HLEG) has pointed to the dangers of the RSBY, and has suggested universal quality health care free of cost to all, which is provided predominantly by the government and complemented by a well regulated private sector with defined scope, quality, timeliness and compensation. (http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3643110.ece) While we should condemn unequivocally unnecessary hysterectomies, the medical college hospitals named stand guilty of abrogating their responsibility that of providing majority health care to the poor, which pushes them into the arms of a drivenby-profits private sector. A deliberately poorly functioning public health system makes way for a profit oriented private medical system. In fact, it is an open secret that many faculty members of these medical colleges are in illegal private practice, where they perform the procedures that they should be doing in government hospitals. How can we accept a situation that allows such a weak public health system with two of its three medical college hospitals failing? The question is how to remedy all this? Thats a huge question, but broadly, the solution lies in the state providing universal, free quality health care. (http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article3636339.ece) Saddled between the desert and the irrigated areas of the river Niger in north Mali, Timbuktu, founded by Tuaregs in the 11th century, flourished as a trading city during the 15th and 16th centuries, and also as a centre of learning. The mosques of Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia, built more than 400 years ago, attest to its great past. These exquisite examples of earthen architecture along with 16 cemeteries are World Heritage sites. Ansar Dine the radical Islamist militia which has taken control

of the area considers the mosques dedicated to Sufi saints and structures over graves as idolatrous, and has barbarically ravaged them with pickaxes. Rat-hole mining (http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article3643095.ece) UNESCOs recognition of the Bethlehem church believed to be the birthplace of Jesus could pave the way for securing and preserving other historical monuments in Palestine. It is for the first time that a Palestinian monument has been recognised as a World Heritage Site.