23-09-2009

WORLD

• The top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan has warned President Barack Obama in a confidential report that the war against the Taliban could be lost within a year without more troops.The report was presented to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on August 30 and is being reviewed by the White House, with McChrystal widely expected to make a formal request to increase the 62,000-strong US force.
• The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, will announce an extra $1bn to pay for more vaccines and immunisation for children in the developing world and boost healthcare systems.The money — nearly half of which will come from the UK — will be channelled through the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi), which already funds major programmes to protect children from diseases including measles and diphtheria. But in a move away from its original remit, Gavi will distribute the money not only to support vaccination but also to improve health systems in the 72 poorest countries in the world.
• India, Brazil, S. Africa want U.N. Council to be expanded. At a meeting, the ministers reiterated the urgent need for the expansion of the Security Council in both the permanent and non-permanent seats to increase the participation of developing countries.
• Irina Bokova of Bulgaria is elected Director-General of UNESCO, the first woman and first Eastern European to fill the role.
  

INDIA

• Venu Srinivasan, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry, on Monday said his “biggest concern today” is where India will derive future competitiveness from in world markets, especially vis-À-vis competitors such as China and Indonesia.
• The Union government is firmed up a proposal to set up a 4,000 MW thermal power plant in Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh.Officials in the Power Ministry said the Commission had formulated a proposal to set up such a power plant in the public sector and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is likely to be entrusted with the job.The plant is likely to be located in Lalitpur.The officials said an investment of around Rs. 18,000 crore would be required for the plant.
• Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C14) is all set to lift off from Sriharikota. It will put India’s Oceansat-2 and six foreign nano satellites in orbit.
• The World Bank has approved four projects worth $4.3 billion to India to bolster its economic stimulus programme and support the infrastructure sector.Of this $2 billion is Banking Sector Support Loan, which will provide budgetary support to India, helping it maintain its broad economic stimulus programme by enhancing the capital of select public sector banks.
  

OTHERS

• 30 Rock and Mad Men win the two biggest awards on Sunday night at the 61st annual Primetime Emmy Awards. 30 Rock, which led all shows with 22 nominations, was named best comedy for the third straight year.AMC’s Mad Men, which garnered 16 nominations, won best drama for the second straight year.
• Spain and Czech Republic head the seedings for the Davis Cup World Group draw to be made in Geneva.The U.S., Russia, Argentina, Croatia, Israel and Germany are the other seeded teams.The seeded teams will be drawn against Belgium, Chile, Ecuador, France, India, Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland.
• The Renault F1 racing team is given a two-year suspended ban by the FIA, after accepting a charge of conspiring to cause a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
• The drama film Precious, directed by Lee Daniels, wins the People's Choice Award at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.

17-09-2009

WORLD

• The White House today emphasised on the need to have countries like India and China on board on climate change, which it said is crucial for success of the Copenhagen meet in December on the issue.
• The number of hungry people will pass 1 billion this year(2009) for the first time, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said.Food stress jumped toward the top of the global agenda after soaring commodity prices in 2007 and 2008 sparked riots in 30 countries, including many tottering on the brink of severe shortages or widespread hunger. The World Bank estimates that food inflation during that period pushed an additional 100 million people into deep poverty, on top of a billion that were already scraping by on less than $1 a day. The three most populous countries in South Asia also face food precariousness: Pakistan, ranked 11th, is at “extreme risk,” while Bangladesh and India are both at “high risk”, ranked 20th and 25th respectively.
• Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and the Red-Green Coalition win the Norwegian parliamentary election.
• Egypt's top Islamic authority, Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, defends women's rights to wear trousers in public following the high-profile court case in neighbouring Sudan where women, including Lubna al-Hussein, were flogged for dressing in the garments.
  

INDIA

• With the aim of promoting public private participation (PPP) model in the urban transport system, the Centre has decided to give awards for the best PPP initiative in the sector.In addition, the awards constituted for the first time by the Urban Development Ministry, would select the best environment-friendly project in urban transport to encourage green mode of transport in the country.
• India has designed a new version of Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) which will use low enriched uranium along with thorium as fuel, chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Anil Kakodkar announced in Vienna. The already designed and developed 300 MWe AHWR by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, which is expected to start production soon, is mainly a thorium-fuelled reactor with several advanced passive safety features.
  

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

• India will aim at scrapping irrelevant government schemes and reduce subsidies in the next fiscal year, the finance ministry said, as it grapples to keep a lid on spending and rein in the fiscal deficit. The government's stimulus spending to revive a slowing economy has strained its finances and could take the fiscal deficit to a 16-year high of 6.8 percent of GDP.
• The Chief Financial Officers of listed companies can be any person with financial or accounting background, a Securities and Exchange Board of India committee has said, setting aside a proposal by the market regulator to appoint only chartered accountants as CFOs.
  

AWARDS

• The Israeli war film Lebanon, directed by Samuel Maoz, wins the Golden Lion at the 66th Venice International Film Festival.

16-9-2009

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

• Indian officials have urged China to improve market access for Indian companies in the face of persisting problems in a number of sectors, ranging from agro-processing to information technology, and a fast-widening trade deficit.
• RBI Governor D. Subbarao maintained that the current soft monetary policy approach adopted as a measure to combat the fall-out of the global financial crisis would continue until the economy is securely on the growth track.
• ONGC Videsh Ltd and its partners Indian Oil Corporation and Oil India Ltd have dropped plans to develop an oil field in Iran after the discovery was found to be commercially nonviable.The joint venture of OVL, Indian Oil Corp and Oil India (OIL) had in 2006 made an oil discovery in the Farsi offshore block which was, in the initial estimates, thought to contain one billion barrels of reserves.The discovery, which was subsequently named Farzad-B gas field, has inplace reserves of up to 21.68 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), of which recoverable reserves may be 12.8 Tcf.OVL holds 40 per cent interest in the Farsi offshore block located in the eastern part of the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iran near the Saudi Arabian border and covers an area of 3,500 square kilometres.
• India will require $1.7 trillion in financing over the next decade to meet its infrastructure needs, Goldman Sachs said in a note. The figure is higher than Goldman's earlier estimate of $620 billion, while the government's projections for the 11th Five-Year Plan for 2007-2012 envisages $500 billion in infrastructure spending. 

INDIA   

• Karnataka High Court Chief Justice PD Dinakaran's assets are under scrutiny and the Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan has asked him to respond to allegations that he has amassed assets disproportionate to his income.The CJI had summoned Karnataka's Chief Justice to Delhi on Saturday to answer allegations made by senior jurists Fali Nariman and Shanti Bhushan on the basis of complaints based in Chennai that he has acquired huge assets.
• Since the days of the Shakti series of Pokharan-II underground nuclear tests, conducted jointly by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) more than 11 years ago, controversy over the yields of the devices tested, in particular that of the thermonuclear device, or hydrogen bomb (S1), has refused to go away. The devices of May 11, 1998 – S1, S2 and S3 – were exploded simultaneously as the shafts S1 and S2 were just one kilometer apart and there was the danger of the shock wave from the first large explosion damaging the neighboring shaft and the equipment therein. Similarly, the sub-kiloton devices of May 13, too, were exploded simultaneously, apparently for reasons of “convenience and speed”. The thermonuclear design yield was limited to 45 kt to avoid any damage to Khetolai village, located 5 km away, the DAE had stated. In a paper published in 2008 in the journal Atoms for Peace, R. Chidambaram, former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the leader of the POK2 tests, claimed that thermonuclear weapons of yields up to 200 kt could be confidently designed on the basis of the S1 test.
• A landmark verdict that was delivered by Justice S. Ravindra Bhat in the Delhi High Court on September 2. The Supreme Court, for the first time, was a petitioner before the Delhi High Court, the first appellate court which is itself subject to the Supreme Court’s superior appellate jurisdiction. The issue pertained to a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking information from the Chief Justice of India (CJI) whether his brother judges in the Supreme Court have been disclosing their assets to him in accordance with a 1997 resolution adopted by the Supreme Court.

WORLD

• U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell has met Israel's prime minister in an effort to secure a freeze in Israeli settlement building in areas the Palestinians want for a state. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has ruled out a total freeze, saying Israel may agree only to reduce construction in the West Bank settlements for a limited period. He has said East Jerusalem is not a settlement and building there will continue.
• Yukio Hatoyama, who led his Democratic Party to a landmark victory in elections last month, took office as prime minister on Wednesday, ending a half-century of virtually uninterrupted one-party rule in Japan. Mr. Hatoyama has promised to reverse Japan’s long economic decline by boosting social benefits and aligning policies more closely with public needs, rather than those of big business. He has also spoken of redefining Japan’s relationship with the United States, its closest ally.