Current Affairs: National - Minor Issues 25 Aug to 25 Sept 2010

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

National - Social/Political (Minor Issues)

Cabinet agrees for giving statutory powers to UIDAI

  • The government on Friday cleared the decks for the formation of a statutory body to be christened — National Identification Authority of India (NIAI), in order to give collection of data for allocating unique id numbers, a legal sanction. The approval by the cabinet paves way for introduction of the NIAI Bill 2010, in winter session of the Parliament.
  • The legal sanction is for collection of private data of citizens and makes it difficult to challenge in a court of law. The sanction is needed as the government plans to allocate the first set of numbers to citizens in a few weeks in Maharashtra. In 2009, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had already made it clear that an Act of Parliament will set it up as a statutory body. But, already many NGOs are planning to challenge the proposed Bill.
  • Once passed, the NIAI Act 2010 will contain a prescription against collecting any other information than the information permitted, with specific prohibitions against collection of information regarding religion, race, ethnicity and caste. It will also contain penal provisions against persons employed by, or associated directly or indirectly with, the data repository, registrars, enrolling agencies and other service providers for failing to comply with the directions issued under the Act.

The Ayodhya-Babri Masjid dispute

  • The longest-running legal battle in India is a dispute over the 60 sq feet by 40 sq feet land in Ayodhya where Babri Masjid stood till Dec 6, 1992. Since 1950, five title suits were filed in the Allahabad HC, staking claim to the title of the plot of land of the Babri Masjid. Of these, four are to be decided by the Lucknow bench of HC.
  • The bench comprising Justices S U Khan, Sudhir Agarwal and D V Sharma will give its verdict on the following questions:
  • Did a temple exist at the disputed site before 1528 when Mir Baqi constructed the Babri Masjid?
  • Was the suit filed by Sunni Waqf Board in 1961 barred by time limitation?
  • Was Ayodhya Lord Ram’s birth place & is there evidence to show that Hindus have been worshipping at this place for a long time?
  • Two separate civil suits were filed in 1950 by Hindu Mahasabha member late Gopal Singh Visharad and the Paramhansa Ramchandra Das, keeper of the Digambar Akhada in Ayodhya, seeking permission for pooja at the disputed site
  • The second suit was filed by Paramhans Ramchandra Das, also in 1950, seeking the same injunction but this suit was later withdrawn
  • The third suit was filed in 1959 by the Nirmohi Akhara, seeking direction to hand over charge of the disputed site from the receiver
  • The fourth suit was filed in 1961 by the UP Sunni Central Board of Waqfs for declaration and possession of the site
  • The fifth suit was moved in 1989 in the name of Bhagwan Shree Ram Lalla Virajman for declaration and possession
  • However, one suit was withdrawn and the others were pending with the Faizabad civil court till 1989, when they were transferred to the Allahabad high court
  • The first suit dates back to 1885, when Mahant Raghubar Das filed a title suit in a Faizabad court to build a chabutra on the outer courtyard of the mosque structure. It was dismissed on the ground that the alleged demolition of an original Ram temple in 1528 had occurred over 350 years ago, and so it was “too late now” to remedy the grievance
  • However, in December 1949 some people broke open the structure’s locks and installed a Ram statue and articles of worship, and the administration ordered status quo

Some details about the rehashed land acquisition bill

  • The Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill sets aside three categories of projects for which the government can acquire 100% land. These include establishment of installations pertaining to national security, infrastructure and facilities designated as “social infrastructure,” such as health, education and space research.
  • For any project other than the above, land could be acquired in the 70:30 ratio, with the company planning to set up the facility on that land being asked to purchase 70% of it. The state government would step into the picture only after the private player had done its bit, by agreeing to take over the remaining 30% if it felt the project fell in the “public purpose” domain.
  • On the compensation package, the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill wanted the displaced persons to be granted 60% solatium over and above the market rate of the land being taken over. Market rate was defined as the average of the highest transactions in the last three in the same area on a similar tract of land.
  • Even these highly liberalised provisions are not going to convince the Trinamool Congress as it has been saying that it is opposed to the governments -- either at the Centre or at the State level having anything to do with land acquisition.

IITs to offer medical courses

  • IITs will now be able to offer medical education, permanent faculty positions to foreign nationals and admit foreign students at the post-graduate level. These decisions were taken at a meeting of the IIT Council headed by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on Friday. The Institute of Technologies Act will have to be amended to enable IITs to offer medical courses.
  • The health ministry has been opposed to the idea of IITs setting up their own medical schools. It asked that the engineering schools start courses on health information technology, biomedical engineering and e-health rather than running a hospital or starting MBBS courses.
  • At present, only IIT Kharagpur has expressed an interest in setting up a full fledged medical school. IIT Kharagpur has argued that there are no hospitals or medical colleges in the area and that it would actually be addressing a need.

A bit of history about Periyar and the movements led by him

  • Periyar is known for his anti-Brahmin movement in Tamilnadu.  The seeds of the movement were sown in 1925 when EV Ramasamy Naicker, known as Periyar, or the elder, walked out of the Indian National Congress convention after the then Brahmin-dominated party refused to consider a resolution seeking proportional representation. Periyar’s reasons for seeking change were strong. In 1914, of the of the 650 graduates in then Madras Province, 452 were from the Brahmin community. Of the 15 elected for the All India Congress Committee, 14 were Brahmins.
  • Periyar led the Self-Respect and the Anti-Hindi movements of the aristocrats-led Justice Party formed to further the non-Brahmin interests in the four southern states. The party was renamed Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944 with rationalism and atheism as its main planks and Karunanidhi and his mentor CN Annadurai among the top leadership.
  • Karunanidhi, Jayalalithaa and Ramachandran have their roots in the Dravidian Movement.

Country's new Central Vigilance Commissioner

  • Former telecom secretary P J Thomas was sworn in as the new Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC).
  • BJP objected to the choice in the light of he being under a cloud in the palmolein scam in Kerala in the early 90s and alleged that it was a “cover up” for the 2G spectrum scam.

Govt rot earns Supreme Court's wrath

  • The Centre’s failure to prevent wastage of millions of tonnes of grain stored in godowns invited the Supreme Court’s ire. In a stinging indictment, the Supreme Court charged the government with a callous approach and suggested remedial measures.
  • The court said it was concerned the government was allowing rotting of grain when millions in the country were going without two square meals a day. A Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma, who subjected Mr Sharad Pawar to some verbal caning, said the food ministry was not serious about handling the peculiar situation of overflowing granaries and hungry stomachs.

Prime Minister's remarks termed “anti-poor”

  • The steering group of the Right to Food Campaign expressed its “shock” at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement asking the Supreme Court not to interfere with policy and said it showed how “completely anti-poor” the government was.
  • the Campaign — a conglomeration of rights and civil society groups — said that when, under the Constitution, people had the Right to Life as well as the right to approach courts, “the statement showed that the head of the Executive, does not want the Fundamental Right of the people to be realised, and worse, interferes with their right to get justice.”

Kanishka bomb-maker Reyat found guilty of perjury

  • Inderjit Singh Reyat, the sole person convicted in the 1985 bombing of Air India's Kanishka flight that killed 329 people, has been found guilty of perjury by a Canadian court for lying under oath during the trial of the world's deadliest airline bombing.
  • Reyat (58), who had earlier confessed to helping make the bomb that destroyed the Air India Flight 182, showed little emotion as the verdict was read in a Vancouver courtroom on Saturday after jurors deliberated for more than 20 hours.

Husain's works fetch Rs.11.69 crore

  • Fifteen works of art by painter M.F. Husain, including a canvas work he gifted to Italian film director Roberto Rossellini and his Indian wife, have fetched Rs.11.69 crore at a Sotheby's auction here.
  • The highlight of the South Asian Art sale was undoubtedly Cinq Sens (Five Senses) by Husain, who celebrated his 95th birthday on September 16. The large canvas, painted at the Italian home of Rossellini and his wife Sonali Sen Roy Dasgupta in 1958, went for Rs.3.6 crore.
  • Husain spent an extended period of time in Italy with the Rossellinis during the late 1950s and gifted this painting to the couple, from whom it was acquired by the current owner.

Stray tigress caught in the Sunderbans

  • A tigress that had strayed into a village and taken shelter in a hut in the Sunderbans created panic before it was tranquillised and caught by the authorities of the Tiger Reserve early Sunday morning.
  • The tigress had strayed into a village near Budhbarer Bazaar at Kumirmari in South 24-Parganas district on Saturday night. Villagers found that it had taken shelter in a hut and informed the Reserve authorities at 5 a.m., Subrat Mukherjee, STR field director, told The Hindu over telephone.

Naga blockade of Manipur resumes

  • The United Naga Council, (UNC), a frontal organisation of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah group), imposed an indefinite blockade against Manipur from Saturday morning. This follows the expiry of the 113-day blockade spread over three phases.
  • In a press release, the UNC said the blockade would continue till the demands relating to the Naga issues were conceded. It said the Autonomous District Council elections in the hill districts were held against the “wishes” of the tribals. The ADCs would not be allowed to function in the “Naga areas.”

3 more Indian-Americans in Team Obama

  • After a slight lull over the summer, President Barack Obama's drive to recruit persons of Indian origin into his government is back to full throttle.
  • This week the White House announced a string of appointments to the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and they included three Indian-Americans: Farooq Kathwari, Amardeep Singh and Sunil Puri.

The WAN-IFRA India 2010

  • Tapping social media can enhance journalism: Rusbridger
  • Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian Alan Rusbridger delivers the keynote address at the concluding session of conference in Jaipur.

V. Narayanan passes away

  • V. Narayanan, the former Chairman of Goodyear India and Founder Trustee of Chennai Willingdon Corporate Foundation, passed away  morning at his residence.
  • Born on November 7, 1918, in a small village near Chidambaram, Mr. Narayanan rose to become an elected member in the board of directors of Goodyear India, a company he joined as a junior staff member. He eventually became the Chairman and Managing Director.
  • On his retirement from Goodyear in 1988, Mr. Narayanan founded a family trust named Ashavattha Charitable Trust here. He was also assisting other charities, including the Andhra Mahila Sabha, as its honorary adviser.

Sikkim has the highest suicide rate

  • Sikkim has dislodged the usual top ranker Kerala as the State with the highest suicide rate in the country, according to Lakshmi Vijayakumar, regional representative of the World Health Organisation on suicide prevention and founder of SNEHA, a non-governmental organisation.
  • Addressing a Continuing Medical Education programme organised by the Department of Psychiatry, Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute (CHRI), Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar said Sikkim, with a suicide rate of 48.2 per lakh of population, and Puducherry, with a rate of 46.9 per lakh, presented a new and worrying trend of an escalation of suicides in smaller States.
  • Bangalore led the list among cities, with a rate of 42.1 per lakh, followed by Rajkot (31.5), Jabalpur (24.4) and Vijayawada (23.2).

Two cubs still missing after fighting between relocated tigers in Panna

  • Two fighting big cats, one wounded tigress, and two missing cubs at the Panna reserve have raised questions about some aspects of the tiger relocation programme – and the level up to which concerned humans can interfere in natural tiger behaviour.

Filmmaker Vijay Kumar leaving for India

  • Vijay Kumar, Indian filmmaker arrested in the United States and jailed for 20 days for carrying brass knuckles and “jihadi literature” in his baggage, will be leaving for India, his lawyer has confirmed.
  • In a case that exemplifies “heightened suspicion after 9/11,” according to Mr. Scheiner, Mr. Kumar had to undergo an ordeal in a Texas jail, subsisting on only bread and water, and unsure when he would be released.
  • Although the arrest was a “mistake of law,” Mr. Kumar was unable to obtain an earlier acquittal because he was “tied into a procedural knot by U.S. law,” Mr. Scheiner said. Particularly baffling — and an indicator of excessive caution in the post-9/11 era — was the fact that Mr. Kumar had his visa revoked by immigration authorities and then was jailed for not having a valid U.S. visa.

Irregular' Doordarshan appointments quashed

  • The appointments of 25 Doordarshan News anchors and correspondents have been quashed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which ruled that “irregularities” were committed in the selection process in order to help certain candidates.

Irom Sharmila honoured with Tagore award

  • Irom Sharmila — who has been observing a fast-unto-death since November 4, 2000, demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act — was given the Rabindranath Tagore Award-2010 on Saturday.
  • The award, instituted by the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), carries Rs.51 lakh in cash, a gold medal, a citation and a shawl.

The Hindu, Saregama to institute M.S. Subbulakshmi award

  • The Hindu and Saregama India will institute ‘The Hindu Saregama M.S. Subbulakshmi Award' at a function titled ‘Remembering MS Amma' here on September 15.
  • The award, in the name of the legendary musician, will be presented annually to a promising Carnatic vocalist.

Tagore scheme to attract cultural researchers

  • Five scholars have been selected to help invigorate and revitalise some of India's most prestigious cultural institutions under a newly-rebranded fellowship scheme. In the future, a proactive approach will be taken to lure top scholars as part of the programme.
  • Cashing in on the brand equity of the 150 {+t} {+h} birth anniversary celebrations of national icon Rabindranath Tagore, the Ministry of Culture has decided to rename the “Visiting Fellows in Art, Culture & Heritage” scheme, approved in November 2009. It will now be called the “Tagore National Fellowship for Cultural Research” scheme, according to government sources.

12 Chairs to commemorate First War of Independence

  • As part of commemoration of the 150 Th anniversary of India's First War of Independence, the Union government has decided to establish 12 Chairs in different universities in memory of freedom fighters.
  • The Ministry of Culture has set aside a corpus of Rs. 2 crore for each university.
  • The Chairs will be established in memory of Shaheed Bhagat Singh at the Jawaharlal Nehru University; Bahadur Shah Zafar, General Shah Nawaz and Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha at the Indira Gandhi National Open University; and Saifuddin Kitchlew, A.M.Khwaja, M.A.Ansari and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai at the Jamia Millia Islamia University.
  • The Delhi University will have Chairs in memory of Aruna Asaf Ali and Tatia Tope.
  • The Vikram University at Ujjain will establish a Chair to commemorate Chandra Shekhar Azad, while the Veer Kunwar Singh University at Arrah in Bihar is expected to come up with a similar proposal. Funds for these two could not be released as they had not come out with final proposals.

India-based MNCs nominated for U.S. award

  • General Electric Company (India) and PepsiCo (India) are among twelve finalists selected for the United States Secretary of State's prestigious 2010 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE).
  • The companies were chosen from a “record number” of 78 nominations submitted by American ambassadors around the world, a primary qualification for nomination being the requirement that the companies were international business leaders who recognised the role of U.S. businesses abroad as good corporate citizens.
  • The 2010 ACE winners will be announced at the annual ceremony hosted by the Secretary of State later this fall, officials said.

Mahatma's statue unveiled at Australian university

  • A bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi has been unveiled at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
  • The sculpture on the lawns of the library of the university was gifted to the institution by the Government of India along with a collection of books, an official statement said.

Gadkari's Russian host is a controversial inventor

  • The coming private visit of BJP national president Nitin Gadkari to Russia this week risks landing the party and its leader right smack in the middle of a scandal involving his host.
  • However, in Russia 64-year-old Petrik is a highly controversial figure lauded by some as a “Russian Leonardo da Vinci” and denounced by others as a charlatan and fraudster. His supporters include Parliament Speaker Boris Gryzlov of the ruling United Russia Party led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Among his detractors are venerable Russian scientists.
  • Mr. Petrik's best-known products are his household water filters, which he says use atom-thick sheets of carbon to deliver unique results.

At Chennamangalam, a unique project under way

  • A unique conservation project is under way at Chennamangalam, 40 km north of Kochi.
  • The 17th century Paliyam Palace, a landmark built by the Dutch East India Company, and the Nalukettu, the traditional mansion adjacent to it, are private property that were in need of attention.
  • The Kerala government has taken up their restoration with an understanding that the Paliyam Eswara Seva Trust, which owns the buildings, will keep it open to the public after restorationd and made into museums.

 ‘Aarohan' selected for Montreal World Film Festival

  • Bengali film ‘Aarohan' (ascension) will be screened during the 34th Montreal World Film Festival, being held from August 26 to September 6.
  • The film, starring actor Soumitra Chatterjee, Sandhya Ray and Rituparna Sengupta, has been slotted in the ‘Focus on World Cinema' section, ‘Aarohan' director Pinaki Choudhury said. The ‘Focus on World Cinema' section showcases films from America, Europe, Asia and Africa.