(Study Notes) Current Affairs: National/Social Issues: 16 - 23 Jan 2010 By Dialogue India

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(Study Notes) Current Affairs: National/Social Issues: 16 - 23 Jan 2010 By Dialogue India

CAG Weekly
(Current Affairs & GK)
By Om Prakash (goldy sir)

Indo-Malaysia

1.   India, Malaysia sign extradition agreement

• India and Malaysia on Wednesday signed an extradition treaty and several other agreements covering fields from trade to education in an effort to scale up their relations.

• The agreements were signed after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak, held wide-ranging talks in New Delhi.
• The two countries also agreed to conclude a free trade agreement (FTA) by the end of 2010.

       2.   “India, Malaysia can collaborate in green technology’

• Malaysia has expressed its eagerness to build upon existing bilateral agreements with India in Science and Technology and was keen on expanding cooperation in bio-technology and grass roots innovation to the benefit of both countries.
• both countries should explore developing green technology.
• Kuala Lumpur also plans to seek a two-way collaboration in the field.

        3. Clinch economic pact by year-end: Malaysia

• Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammed Najib Tun Abdul Razak suggested that a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with India be concluded by year-end to tap opportunities in biosciences, ICT and education, besides raising funds from the capital market.
• The CECA, he said, would spur bilateral trade and investment and create job, investment and economic opportunities for the people of the two countries. “On our part, we will do all that is necessary to fast-track negotiations.”

Indo- Bangladesh

          1.   India, Bangladesh to establish power transmission link

• India and Bangladesh have given a final shape to the agreement for setting up a 130-km power transmission link to be established at a cost of Rs. 882 crore,to be operational in two years or by July 2012.
• The transmission line would connect Behrampur in India and Behramara in Bangladesh.
• Out of the 130-km link, 45 km would fall in the Indian territory and the remaining would be built on Bangladesh land.
• India’s largest power generation company NTPC would also set up power projects in Bangladesh and would also take up renovation and modernisation (R&M) of existing projects.
• The two countries signed an energy agreement after a meeting between Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Under the agreement, India agreed to supply 250 MW of power out of its central share of 15 per cent.

2.    An analysis on indo –Bangladesh relationship

• For most of the past four decades, India and Bangladesh have been distant neighbours, separated by distrust and suspicion despite their visceral connections of geography and ecology, language and culture, economics and politics.
• There have been periods of acute stasis and also moments of hope, when a basic transformation in the relationship seemed possible. But never before has the overall situation been quite as propitious as it is now.
• The position of India as a growth pillar in South Asia and the world means the logic of regional integration is more compelling than ever before.
• In Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina Wajed is once again Prime Minister, this time with a majority so convincing that she need not keep looking over her shoulder to second guess what the Bangladesh National Party of Khaleda Zia might say or do in response to the improvement in bilateral ties with India.
• Notwithstanding the benign domestic political situation the Congress and the Awami League find themselves in, the governments have a two-year window to bring about a fundamental shift in the structure and content of the bilateral relationship before electoral compulsions kick in once again. And judging by the success of Sheikh Hasina’s recent visit to Delhi, a fine start has been made.
• India has promised a $1 billion line of credit to Bangladesh and a pruning of the negative list of Bangladeshi products that are denied preferential access to Indian markets.
• It has also agreed to push for better border connectivity so that bilateral trade can increase, and Teesta water sharing has been flagged for discussion.
• On its part, Bangladesh has dropped its opposition to granting India transit rights.
• The Agartala-Akhaura rail link will now be developed, creating the potential for railway freight to be sent from Kolkata to Tripura and thence to the rest of the North-East via Bangladesh.
• On the security front, Dhaka demonstrated its willingness to accommodate Indian concerns by facilitating the handover of ULFA leader Paresh Barua. All this suggests that both countries are serious about opening a new chapter.
• But one ought not to minimise the challenges that lie ahead. One test will be whether India is prepared to allow Bangladeshi garment manufacturers preferential market access. Another will be its willingness to craft agreements on the equitable sharing of all river waters. As the bigger economy, India needs to go the extra mile in giving a boost to its neighbour’s economic potential, especially considering that Sheikh Hasina has moved so far in addressing longstanding Indian requests on transit.

Nearly 2 lakh farm suicides since 1997: National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)

• According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there were at least 16,196 farmers’ suicides in India in 2008, bringing the total since 1997 to 199,132.
• The share of the Big 5 States or ‘suicide belt’ in 2008 — Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh — remained very high at 10,797, or 66.6 per cent of the total farm suicides in the country.
• Within the Big 5, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh recorded higher numbers. The
• This was marginally higher than it was in 2007 (66.2 per cent). Maharashtra remains the worst State in the nation for farm suicides with a total of 3802.
• The all-India total of 16,196 represents a fall of 436 from 2007. But the broad trends of the past decade reflect no significant change. The national average for farm suicides since 2003 stays at roughly one every 30 minutes.
• If this is the state for 2008, the year of the Rs. 70,000 crore loan waiver and multiple farm packages, then 2009, a drought year, could show very disturbing figures. The underlying agrarian problems seem as acute as ever.”

IPCC retracts 2035 alarm on glacier melt

• For the first time in its history, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — a panel of 2,500 of the best climate scientists in the world — accepted on that it had made a huge goof-up in its fourth assessment report on climate change and withdrew its assertion that the Himalayan glaciers ran the risk of being wiped out by 2035.
• It admitted that proper ‘‘procedures’’ were not followed while reaching the conclusion which not only created a massive scare , particularly in India, but also often placed New Delhi on the backfoot in climate debates leading up to the Copenhagen summit.
• The Nobel-prize winning body, however, attempted to soften the blow by couching its words. Its statement said: ‘‘It has come to our attention that (the statement on Himalayan glaciers) refers to poorly substantiated estimates of rate of recession and date for the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers. In drafting the paragraph in question, clear and well-established standards of evidence, required by IPCC procedures were not applied properly.’’
• The regret comes three days after a British newspaper quoted Professor Syed Iqbal Hasnain, one of the authors of the paper on the Himalayan glaciers, as saying his conclusion was ‘speculative’.
• The Ministry of Environment and Forests had challenged the outcome of the IPCC by bringing out a report of its own which said the health of the glaciers was a matter of concern but some glaciers like the Siachen were, in fact, increasing while others like the Gangotri were receding.

Raina demands apology for ‘voodoo science’ comment

• V.K. Raina, the former Deputy Director-General of the Geological Survey of India — whose research document on the Himalayan glaciers debunked the claims of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that these glaciers would disappear by 2035 — is not satisfied by the regret expressed by the United Nations agency.
• I want a personal apology from the IPCC chairperson R.K. Pachauri who had described my research as voodoo science.

TPDSvs Universal PDS

1. Additional food grains under TPDS to contain prices

• To contain rising prices, the Centre decided to allocate, on an ad hoc basis, an additional 10 kg of wheat or rice for every eligible family under the Targeted Public Distribution System during January and February.

• It will be sold at the minimum support price of Rs 10.80 for wheat and Rs 15.37 for rice a kg.
• the additional allocation will be available to an accepted number of cardholders under the Antyodaya Anna Yojna, the Below Poverty Line and Above Poverty Line categories.

2. Universal PDS is key to food security, says Vandana Shiva

• environment activist Vandana Shiva

• The revival of the universal public distribution system (PDS) held the key to food security.
• Blaming India’s food crisis on a series of economic policies adopted by the Centre in the early 1990s,It also turned the universal PDS into targeted PDS. The World Bank said this would reduce the budget expenditure as the government was spending too much on food subsidies. The food subsidy bill in 1991 was Rs.2,500 crore. Last year, it was Rs.50,000 crore and this year, it would be Rs.60,000 crore.
• You are starving people and spending more money by not having a universal PDS.
• By creating a targeted system the government has allowed the price of food to go up. When the price of food is high, the subsidy will always be high, resulting in high budget expenditure.
• In 1942, there was the great famine and 20 lakh lives were lost. Post-Independence, the old ‘zamindari’ system, that put land in the hands of a few people, was abolished. Now the special economic zones (SEZ) are bringing back ‘zamindari’ by putting land in the hands of big corporations. Massive land grab through violent means resulted. What is being grabbed is the most fertile land,” she said.

              Cause of cancer-

• Calling India the world capital of hunger, Ms. Shiva said about 70 of the rural populace and about 40 per cent urban Indians were underfed.
• While States like Punjab did not have this problem, they faced high rate of cancer caused by pesticides.
• She lambasted GM seeds as instruments used by monopolies to further their interests. “While Bt Cotton promised to resist pest attack, it created many new pests, thereby increasing use of pesticides 13 times more.”

SCs, STs in BPL list under study

• The Centre is contemplating direct inclusion of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and minorities in the next below poverty line (BPL) list for entitlement of benefits under social welfare schemes
• The objective was to ensure inclusion of vulnerable sections and check discontentment arising from the inclusion of the better-off who corner the benefits earmarked for the deprived.
• The exclusion criteria were to keep off those from the SC, the ST and minorities who were holding jobs or had irrigated land or such means.
• These criteria will be determined only after the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) fixes the number of families to be brought under the BPL list.
• The panchayats will be given the power to execute the exclusion criteria with the hope that the deserving ones are not excluded from the list.

Courtesy:- Dialogue India and Career Plus

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