Current Affaires 11-12 Dec2014 Eng

UN World Economic Situation and Prospects 2015 (WESP) report released

12-DEC-2014

The UN World Economic Situation and Prospects 2015 (WESP) report was released on 10 December 2014.
According to report, global economic growth is forecasted to continue increasing over the next two years, despite legacies from the financial crisis continuing to weigh on growth, and the emergence of new challenges, including geopolitical conflicts such as in Ukraine, and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Highlights of the WESP 2015 report

The global economy is expected to grow at 3.1 percent in 2015 and 3.3 percent in 2016. These figures are higher than the 2.6 percent growth recorded in 2014, where the pace of expansion has been moderate and uneven.
Among the developed countries, the United States fared well and has maintained economic growth above 2 percent in 2014, and expected to continue growth of 2.8 percent in 2015 and 3.1 percent in 2016.
Economic growth in South Asia is also set to gradually pick up from an estimated 4.9 percent in 2014 to 5.4 percent in 2015 and 5.7 percent in 2016.
In 2014, Economic growth of East Asia, including China managed to register relatively robust growth, while India led South Asia to a moderate strengthening.
The developing countries as a group are expected to grow at 4.8 percent in 2015 and 5.1 percent in 2016, up from the 4.3 percent estimated for 2014.
Average inflation for developing economies will also fall slowly over the outlook period.
The inflation for East Asia will stay around the recent levels of 23 percent over the outlook period.
A pronounced decrease is forecast for South Asia due to falling inflation in almost all countries, especially in India and Iran.
Regional average inflation for South Asia is projected to decrease gradually from 14.7 percent in 2013 to 7.2 percent in 2016.
Apart from India, the baseline forecast projects a moderate growth recovery in 2015 and 2016 for almost all emerging economies, including Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Turkey.
A slight improvement of economic growth is expected in Western Europe from 1.7 percent in 2015 to two percent in 2016.
The Western Europe is held back by the travails of the euro area, where the level of GDP has yet to regain its pre-recession peak.
It is imperative to strengthen international policy coordination to reduce risks and meet challenges of global economy.
The forthcoming further normalization of the US Federal Reserves monetary policy posed significant risks and uncertainties for the global economic outlook, depending on the timing and strategy of the monetary tightening, as well as the response by financial markets.
Along with robust external demand, global economic growth is expected to be underpinned by a moderate strengthening of domestic consumption and investment as countries benefit from improved macroeconomic conditions.
Some economic indicators are positive and moving in the right direction which points to the potential for a gradual return to consistent economic growth, many risks and uncertainties could dash efforts to get the global economy on track and moving forward.
There is a significant downside risks for the South Asian region due to the continuing fragility of the global economy and considerable country-specific weaknesses, including political instability and the agricultural dependency on the monsoon.
The worldwide macroeconomic policies should be aligned toward supporting robust and balanced growth, creating productive jobs, and maintaining long-term economic and financial stability.

WESP on India

The recovery in South Asia will be led by India, which accounts for about 70 percent of regional output and other economies such as Bangladesh and Iran are also projected to see stronger growth in the forecast period.
Economic growth of India, which is estimated to record a 5.4 percent economic growth in 2014, will improve to 5.9 percent in 2015 and 6.3 percent in 2016.
India is likely to make progress in implementing economic policy reforms and help provide support to business and consumer confidence.
The forecasted growth of India about six percent growth in 2016 will be the highest since the 2008-2011 period when it had grown at about 7.3 percent. It has slowed to 4.7 percent in 2012.

Ebola fighters named TIME's Person of the Year 2014

12-DEC-2014

Ebola fighters collectively were named as the TIME’s Person of the Year 2014 on 10 December 2014 by the TIME’s magazine. The announcement was made by Nancy Gibbs, the Managing Editor of TIME.
They were selected from an initial list of 50 world leaders, business heads and record-breaking artists for their tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defences, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving the thousands of lives from Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
In their honour, the magazine has come out with five cover pages featuring five of them. These are:

Dr Kent Brantly: the U.S. doctor who contracted Ebola while treating patients in Liberia
Dr Jerry Brown: A Liberian surgeon who turned his hospital's chapel into the country's first Ebola treatment center
Foday Gallah: An ambulance driver who survived the infection
Salome Karwah: Medecins Sans Frontieres nurse

EVD since its outbreak in early 2014 turned into an epidemic killing more than 7000 people across Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone before traveling to Europe and the U.S.

The Top Four Runners Up of the TIME’s Person of the Year 2014

In the TIME’s Person of the Year 2014, Ferguson Protesters came at the second place. They started their protest in August 2014 and built a movement that revived national conversation about race and justice. The protesters took to the streets following the shooting down of 18-year-old unarmed black man Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson.
At third place came the Russian President Vladimir Putin who invaded Crimea in February 2014 and in doing so, restored Russia's honour and saw his approval ratings soar.
The fourth place was bagged by Masoud Barzani, the acting president of the Iraqi Kurdish Region.
At fifth place came Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant that debuted with 25 billion US dollars IPO in September 2014 making it one of the world's most valuable tech companies.
Other than this, in the readers’ poll of TIMES magazine that was conducted online Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the poll with a whopping 16 percent margin.
TIME's Person of the Year since 2000
This is an annual honour bestowed by Time magazine since 1927. It goes to the person who most influenced the news during the year for better or worse.

2000: George W. Bush
2001: Rudolph Giuliani, who was New York City's mayor on 9/11
2002: The Enron Whistleblowers
2003: The American soldier
2004: George W. Bush
2005: The Good Samaritans - Bono and Bill Gates
2006: You - represented by the Internet
2007: Vladimir Putin
2008: Barack Obama
2009: Ben Bernanke
2010: Mark Zuckerberg
2011: The Protester
2012: Barack Obama
2013: Pope Francis

Australian Cricketer David Warner completed 1000 runs in 2014

12-DEC-2014

Australian Cricketer David Warner on 12 December 2014 completed 1000 Test runs in 2014. With this, he became the first opener to achieve the feat in one calendar year since England skipper Alastair Cook in 2012.
He scored his century in the second innings of the first cricket Test against India at the Adelaide Oval.
Also, he became the fifth batsman to complete 1000 Test runs in 2014. The other four are Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (1486 runs), Angelo Mathews (1201), Mahela Jayawardene (1003 runs) and veteran Pakistan batsman Younis Khan who has accumulated 1213 runs.
The last Australian opener to reach the milestone was Simon Katich (1111 runs) in 2009.

Google announced to shut down its news linking services in Spain

12-DEC-2014

Google on 11 December 2014 announced to shut down its news linking services in Spain over new intellectual property law. As per the law, publishers will soon be force to pay for re-publishing headlines or snippets of news to Internet sites.
The norm in the Spanish intellectual property law has been dubbed as the Google Tax. New Law will come into effect on 1 January 2015.
In a response, Google said that the new law makes the Google News service unsustainable and that it will remove Spanish publishers from Google News sites worldwide and shut down this service in Spain on 16 December 2014.
The move also means readers in Latin America and around the globe will no longer find links to articles from any Spanish news publishers on Google News.
Google's action caps a decade of acrimony with news publishers who blame the search giant for revenue and readership declines. The company maintains that it sends millions of clicks that allow news sites to make money via online advertising.
The stand-off also comes amid a growing campaign by politicians, regulators and courts across Europe to rein in Google's power over the Internet search market and the impact it has on deeply ingrained social norms around personal privacy.
In recent years, publishers in countries from Germany and France to Spain have pushed to pass new national copyright laws that force Google and other web aggregators to pay licensing fees when they publish snippets of their news articles.
In Spain and Germany, these laws require publishers who want their content to continue to show up in Google search results to give the company explicit permission to do so.

RIL named former UK judge as its arbitrator in gas dispute

12-DEC-2014

Reliance Industries (RIL) on 11 December 2014 named former UK Judge Sir Bernard Rix as its arbitrator in the KG-D6 cost recovery dispute case with the Government of India (GOI).
He will sit on a three-member arbitration panel headed by Supreme Court-appointed neutral arbitrator Michael Kirby, a former Judge of an Australian High Court. The arbitrator from the government side is former Chief Justice of India V N Khare.
RIL suggested his name after former Chief Justice of India S P Bharucha quit the case in the first week of December 2014.
Bharucha quit from the case after the government challenged his nomination on the grounds that he had not disclosed all previous associations with RIL and that his arbitration could create doubts about his independence and impartiality.
Rix recently retired as Lord Justice of Appeal with 20 years experience in the Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal.

Anurag Jain appointed as the Joint Secretary in Prime Minister's Office

12-DEC-2014

Senior IAS officer Anurag Jain was on 10 December 2014 appointed as the Joint Secretary in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) of India.
Jain will serve the PMO till 28 June 2016, the balance period of his central deputation. He is presently working as Joint Secretary in Department of Financial Services under the Union Finance Ministry.
Anurag Jain
• Anurag Jain is a 1989 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre.
• He was appointed as a Director at National Housing Bank in October 2011.
• He became the Interim Chief Executive Officer and Interim Managing Director of IFCI Limited from May 2013 to July 2013.
• He has also served as an Acting Chairman and Acting Managing Director of Export-Import Bank of India from December 2013 to February 2014.

Tata Power acquired 540 MW thermal power plant for 3000 crore rupees

12-DEC-2014

Tata Power on 10 December 2014 acquired 540-megawatt (MW) thermal power plant in Maharashtra for 3000 crore rupees.
The thermal plant was acquired from the promoters of IRB Infrastructure. With this deal, Tata Power aimed to increase its total capacity to 8885 MW.
Until now, Tata Power used to be the nation's biggest private sector electricity producer but after the new announcements by Adani Power, Tata Power is under deficit of Production. Adani Power has total capacity of 11040 MW.
The power sector has been short-circuited by regulatory uncertainties, fuel supply disruptions and high debts. The uncertainties have seen M&A deals worth more than 22000 crore rupees in the recent past as big players consolidate their business.
About Tata Power
Tata Power is an Indian electric utility company based in Mumbai, India. It is part of the Tata Group. The core business of the company is to generate, transmit and distribute electricity.
With an installed electricity generation capacity of about 8560 MW, it is India's second largest private power producer.

Snapdeal acquired Gift Recommendation Platform Wishpicker

12-DEC-2014

E-commerce major Snapdeal on 11 December 2014 acquired Gift Recommendation Platform Wishpicker. The amount of deal was not disclosed.
This is the company's first acquisition after Japanese telecom and internet giant SoftBank invested 627 million US dollar in the homegrown online marketplace in October 2014.
Overall, this is Snapdeal's fifth acquisition since inception. Snapdeal had earlier acquired Bangalore-based group buying site Grabbon.com (June 2010), esportsbuy.com (April 2012), Shopo.in (May 2013) and Doozton (April 2014).
Wishpicker is an online gift retailer founded by IIT-Delhi graduates Apurv Bansal and Prateek Rathore in 2013. It deals in providing gift ideas from across the internet through an intelligent gift recommendation engine. It uses parameters like relationship with the recipient, age and personality for suggesting gifts.
Wishpicker was already working with multiple e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Myntra, Healthkart, Fernsnpetals, Caratlane etc.

Essar Group and Rosneft of Russia signed agreement worth 10 billion US dollars

12-DEC-2014

Essar Group of India and Rosneft, crude oil producer of Russia on 11 December 2014 signed a 10 billion US dollars contract to import crude oil over ten years from Russia. The agreement was signed during the visit of President Vladimir Putin to India.
Rosneft will import to India about 10 million tons a year and the agreement comes into force from 2015 onwards. The deal can be extended beyond ten years.
The biggest deal of India is Reliance Industries 15-year deal to purchase 300000 bpd to 40000 bpd crude oil from Venezuela. This is the second biggest contract of Essar 200000 bpd (10 million tons a year).
Chairman of Rosneft: Igor Ivanovich Sechin
Chairman of Essar: Shashi Ruia
About Rosneft
• State oil production and refining enterprise Rosneft was founded in April 1993. Rosneft is affiliation of the companies of Russia started oil-field exploration in Sakhalin.
• Rosneft is the world’s largest publicly traded petroleum company and its activities include hydrocarbon exploration and production, upstream offshore projects, hydrocarbon refining, and crude oil, gas and product marketing in Russia and abroad.
Comment
The agreement will have a substantial impact on the scale of economic cooperation between Russia and India. This agreement represents a vital element of basic supplies diversification and also will ensure energy for India. In turn Russia will get the possibility of production and supplies volume planning to a new region with considerable growth potential.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed appointed as the new head of the UNMEER

12-DEC-2014

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania was on 11 December 2014 appointed as the new head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER). His appointment was confirmed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Ahmed will succeed American Anthony Banbury in January 2015.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed
• Ahmed is currently deputy special representative of the UN chief and deputy head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
• He served as United Nations resident coordinator, humanitarian coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative in Syria (2008-2012) and Yemen (2012- 2014).
• Ahmed has also held several positions with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Background
UNMEER was established in September 2015 to coordinate efforts to combat the world's worst outbreak of the Ebola virus.
Ebola outbreak has till now killed 6533 people in the three West African countries- Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. It has infected around 18118 people.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz awarded the Confucius Peace Prize 2014

12-DEC-2014

Former Cuban Leader Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was on 9 December 2014 awarded the Confucius Peace Prize 2014 for his important contributions in eliminating nuclear war after his retirement.
He was selected from more than 20 nominees including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and two organizations.
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz
• Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban politician and revolutionary who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976.
• He became President of Cuba in 1976. However, he formally relinquished the presidency in February 2008 because of health problems.
• After his retirement, he has been actively meeting with leaders and groups from all over the world and has made important contributions to emphasizing the need to eliminate nuclear war.
Confucius Peace prize
• The Confucius Peace prize was established in 2009 as an eastern alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize following the proposal of Chinese businessman Lui Zhiqin.
• The award is in the form of a gold statuette and includes a cash prize of 15000 US dollars.
• It was created following the Norwegian Nobel committee’s decision to honor imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
• Confucius Peace Prize of China is equivalent to Nobel Peace Prize and was first awarded in 2010.
• Previous recipients of award are former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
• In 2013, Yi Cheng, who is the honorary head of the Buddhist Association of China, was awarded the Confucius Peace prize.

Delhi HC banned Xiaomi to sell phones in India over patent issue with Ericcson

12-DEC-2014

Delhi High Court on 10 December 2014 banned Xiaomi to sell phones in India over patent issue with Ericsson.
In its judgement, the HC granted an ex parte injunction order against the Xiaomi for infringement of Ericsson's patents and ordered Xiaomi to not bring any new phones into India nor sell or advertise them here unless it resolves the legal issues surrounding its operations.
The court banned Xiaomi after Ericsson put a plea in Delhi HC that that the Chinese company’s phones infringed on its patents. Ericsson deals in networking technologies.
Ericsson sued Xiaomi over the patent issue under the FRAND category. FRAND stands for Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory, which means they are essential and Ericsson can licence them to other companies for a reasonable fee.
On this ground, Ericsson wrote to Xiaomi in July 2014 to pay for the said patents. But Xiaomi allegedly did not reply.
The fight over patents, especially FRAND patents, is more common in countries like the US; however, Ericsson is going after copycat phone companies in India.
Recently, it asked Micromax for royalties, claiming that the Indian phone company was using Ericsson technology in its phones without approval.
About FRAND Patent
FRAND is a legal term that stands for Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory and is typically used to describe patent licensing terms. It is normal for companies to have to agree to licensing a patent in FRAND terms before it will be accepted to become part of a standards body approved technical standard.

Andhra Pradesh CM Nara Chandrababu Naidu launched Farmers Debt Redemption Scheme

12-DEC-2014

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister (CM) Nara Chandrababu Naidu on 11 December 2014 launched the Farmers Debt Redemption Scheme to give debt relief to every eligible farmer.
As per the Scheme, farmers who took loans between 1 April 2007 and 31 December 2013 are eligible for the waiver. About 22.79 lakh farmers will be benefitted by the scheme.
Highlights of the scheme
• Under the Debt Redemption Scheme, all the debt of up to 50000 rupees of each farmer will be repaid to the banks after the verification process.
• The verification process will bring out the names of the farmers who have a debt burden of over 50000 rupees to 1.5 lakh rupees which is the upper limit as set by the government.
• Farmers whose loan amounts are up to 1.5 lakh rupees will get waiver in installments with an initial 20 percent payment.
• Under the scheme, District Collectors and Joint Collectors will be held accountable if any farmer was compelled to sell his produce for less than the minimum support price.

India-Russia signed 20 agreements during the 15th India-Russia Annual Summit in New Delhi

12-DEC-2014

India and Russia on 11 December 2014 signed 20 agreements during the 15th India-Russia Annual Summit held in New Delhi. The agreements were signed in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russia President Vladimir Putin, who is on the official visit to India.
The agreements signed included eight agreements between government entities and 12 between private enterprises and covered the fields of nuclear energy, oil and gas, health, investment, mining, media and wind power. These agreement include Russia’s help in building at least 12 nuclear reactors and a plan to manufacture advanced Russian military helicopters and defence spare parts in India
During the summit, both the countries also vowed to strengthen the special strategic partnership and unveiled Druzhba-Dosti vision statement for the next decade.
List of Agreements signed
International Relations
Protocol for consultations between the External Affairs Ministry of both the countries for the period 2015-2016: The agreement envisages close consultation on as many as 17 issues, ranging from Asia-Pacific to West Asia to West Europe to Latin America as also at various multilateral for a like UN, G20, BRICS, SCO, RIC.
Nuclear Energy
Strategic vision for strengthening cooperation in peaceful uses of atomic energy envisaging a roadmap of bilateral cooperation in the civil nuclear energy sector for the next two decades. It contains plans to build over 20 nuclear power units in India
Provisions for the technical data and information non-disclosure in the framework of cooperation in the field of peaceful use of nuclear energy to provide an impetus to scientific and technological cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy

Supplement to the General Framework Agreement (GFA) for Units 3 and 4 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and ATOMSTROYEXPORT (ASE) to operationlise the General Framework Agreement (GFA) and Technical Commercial Offer (TCO) signed in April 2014
Contract between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and ATOMSTROYEXPORT (ASE) for unit 3 and 4 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant for supply of some major equipment by ASE

Oil and Gas

Programme of Cooperation (POC) under Framework of Inter-governmental Agreement for Enhancement of Cooperation in Oil & Gas in 2015-16: The agreement sets out a concrete programme for cooperation, envisaging projects including joint exploration and production of hydrocarbons, long term LNG supplies and joint study of a hydrocarbon pipeline system connecting Russia with India.
MoU between TATA Power and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to explore investment opportunities in the energy sector across the Russian Federation
MoU between Oil India Limite’ and Zarubezhneft to facilitate technological association on hydrocarbon projects in India
MoU between ESSAR and ROSNEFT for long-term supply of crude oil envisaging ten year supply and purchase by India of crude oil and feed stocks/products

Economic Sphere

MoU on technical cooperation on accreditation: Aims at development of accreditation systems, sharing of information, recognition of test reports, and creation of conditions for the elimination of technical barriers in trade and economic cooperation.
MoU between ACRON of Russia and NMDC of India to implement 2 billion US dollars potash mine project of ACRON in Russia
MoU between Vneshtorgbank (VTB) of Russia and ESSAR Group envisaging finance arrangement of 1 billion US dollar to ESSAR by VTB
MoU between Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation Ltd (IDFC) and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on a co-investment opportunity up to 1 billion US dollars
MoU between FICCI and Delovaya Rossiya to broaden and strengthen economic ties and identifying new areas of economic cooperation
MoU between Electronics and Software Export promotion Council of India (ESEPCI) and Skolkovo Foundation of Russia to enable companies in these sectors to enter new markets by means of joint ventures, strategic alliances and in joint research and development
MoU between Gamesa Wind Turbine Pvt Ltd. of India and ROTEK of Russia to facilitate cooperation between the two companies in wind power equipment
MoU between news agencies PTI and TASS on exchange of news and the right to use news items

Health sector

MoU on cooperation in Health Research: Envisages programme of cooperation in specific areas of health research such as oncology, bioinformatics & bioimaging, neurosciences, new generation vaccine research and research in HIV/AIDS.

Space

MoU between EIRENE SYSTEMS and GLONASS Union to contribute to joint development and implementation of projects like Navigation Platform and Geographical Information System in India

Defence

Agreement for training of Indian defence personnel in the defence establishments of the Russia: This will facilitate better understanding between the two defence forces.

Comment

Being shunned by the West, the host of agreements signed between India and Russia including the Russia assistance in building nuclear reactors highlight that Russia would remain India’s most important defence partner even if India’s options have increased.

IAF launched second phase of air combat game called Guardian of the Skies

12-DEC-2014

The Indian Air Force (IAF) on 11 December 2014 launched the second phase of its 3D mobile air combat game, Guardians of the Skies (GOTS). The game will be available on all three popular mobile platforms - Android, iOS and Windows.
In the game, IAF focused on getting a realistic picture of its flying operations, which is also a first of its kind effort by any Air Force in the world on a mobile based platform.
About Guardians of the Skies
• The game puts players into a stimulated world where players become IAF pilots and battle it out with a fictitious country called Zaruzia.
• In the game, the player undergoes flying training and subsequently gets engaged in combat missions in various aircraft types of the IAF fighters, transport and helicopter fleet.
• Apart from a single player campaign, the game will also have multiplayer mode in which players will be able to carry out simulated combat against each other over a WiFi network.
• The game is optimized to run on devices with as less as 512 MB RAM.
Earlier in July 2014, the first phase of the game with teaser missions was released to attract generation-next youth to pursue a career in the force especially in Air force.
The game received an enthusiastic response from gamers in the age group of 15-25 years and has been complimented for its realistic graphics and game play. The game has won the prestigious Best Indian Game award from Microsoft on its windows application store.
The game has been developed by Threye Interactive in accordance with the strict concept and guidelines laid down by the IAF.

Union Home Ministry removed Section 309 of IPC decriminalizing attempt to suicide

12-DEC-2014

Union Home Ministry on 10 December 2014 removed Section 309 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) decriminalizing attempt to suicide. The Ministry decided to remove Section 309 of IPC after 20th Law Commission recommended to decriminalize attempt to suicide.
As a result, attempt to suicide now will not be taken as a criminal offence as against the earlier position that a person charged with Section 309 of the IPC faced up to one year in prison and a fine.
20th Law Commission headed by Justice (retd) A P Shah in its 210th Report on Humanization and Decriminalization of Attempt to Suicide had recommended that Section 309 of IPC needed to be effaced from the statute book because the provision is inhuman, irrespective of whether it is constitutional or unconstitutional.
18 States and four Union Territories have backed the government's decision. However, states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi did advise due caution before scrapping of the provision.
Bihar government asked the Union Home Ministry that the section should not be omitted as there are suicide bombers who fail in their attempt to blow themselves up and other terrorists who consume cyanide pills with the intention to wipe out evidence

CCEA approved implementation of Tea Development and Promotion Scheme

12-DEC-2014

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 10 December 2014 approved the implementation of the Tea Development and Promotion Scheme of the Tea Board for the 12th Five Year Plan.
The Cabinet approved the Scheme with a project outlay of 1425 crore rupees. The Tea Development and Promotion Scheme was proposed by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The Scheme is aimed at supporting development of improved varieties and technologies for increasing production, productivity and quality of tea. It seeks to promote Indian tea in the overseas and domestic markets.
Component-wise break-up of 1425 crore rupees project outlay
• As per the scheme, 400 crore rupees will be spent on plantation development.
• 350 crore rupees are allocated for quality up-gradation and product diversification.
• The cabinet earmarked 200 crore rupees for market promotion and 150 crore rupees for research and development.
• Human Resource Development was allocated with 100 crore rupees.
• The Cabinet allotted 200 crore rupees for the Development of Small holding and 25 crore rupees for the National Programme of Tea Regulation.

Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai received Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2014

11-DEC-2014

Child rights campaigner of India Kailash Satyarthi and Education activist of Pakistan Malala Yousafzai received the Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2014. Both the recipients received medals and prize money 1.4 million US dollars from the Norwegian Nobel Committee at Oslo, Norway on 10 December 2014.
Both Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai were awarded for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.
Both the co-winners of the Nobel Peace Prize have been described by the Norwegian Nobel Committee as Champions of Peace. Besides, US Senate also passed a resolution recognizing both the co-winners as a symbol of peace.
Kailash Satyarthi is a children's rights activist and has been active in the Indian movement against child labour since the 1990s. He founded an organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan has freed over 80000 children from various forms of servitude and helped in successful reintegration, rehabilitation and education of them.
Child education activist of Pakistan Malala Yousafzai at the age of 17 became the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize and also the first person to win the Nobel Prize from Pakistan. She is known for her activism for right to education for women especially in the Swat Valley where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school.
Other Nobel Laureates of 2014
Other Nobel laureates received their Nobel Peace Prizes from the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the presence of King Harald V of Norway at Stockholm, Sweden.
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain.
• Nobel Prize in Literature: French author Patrick Modiano for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation.
• Nobel Prize in Physics: Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources.
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Eric Betzig from Janelia Research Campus, Stefan Hell, Gottingen and William E. Moerner for their role in the of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy.
• Nobel Prize in Economics: Jean Tirole for his analysis of market power and regulation.

Union Cabinet approved to set up 500 crore rupees Credit Guarantee Fund for factoring for MSME units

11-DEC-2014

Union Cabinet on 10 December 2014 approved to set up of 500 crore rupees Credit Guarantee Fund for factoring of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) units with an aim to promote factoring without recourse.
The factoring will provides liquidity to MSMEs and facilitates collection of receivables.
Main feature of the proposed Credit Guarantee Fund
• Department of Financial Services (DoFS) will be the Settlor and shall establish a Fund for guaranteeing factored debts.
• The Fund shall be under National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC).
• The NCGTC will have a Management Committee consisting of Secretary, DoFS as the ex-officio Chairman.
• The convener of the Management Committee will be nominated by the Settlor. The Management Committee shall be responsible for all policy aspects of the Fund.
• The fund provides a credit guarantee cover for a maximum of 50 percent of factored debt. To start with, only transactions covered under the Factoring Regulation Act, 2011 will be included.
• The guarantee fee chargeable from the MLIs shall not exceed 0.75 percent per quarter of the guaranteed factored debts for the amount of guarantee cover.
• Claims shall be filed by MLIs with the proposed Fund, as per guidelines prescribed by the Management Committee.
• The actual interest rate to be charged from the MSMEs will be left to Factors.
About Factoring
Factoring is a financing arrangement for suppliers by making pre-payments against invoices.
The Factoring Regulation Act, 2012 provides the legal framework for factoring and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) already has issued guidelines in which insurance is excluded for factoring. The gross factoring of India is below 20000 crore rupees.

Economy of India expected to grow 5-6 percent in 2015: Moody report

11-DEC-2014

The report titled 2015 Outlook: Global Credit Conditions was released by the Moody on 10 December 2014. According to report, Economy of India is expected grow to 5 to 6 percent and pick up pace in 2015.
As per Moody, economic growth in the current fiscal ending March 2015, would be between 5.4 and 5.9 percent. The growth had slumped to sub-5 percent in the earlier two consecutive fiscals.
Highlights of the report
• Indian economy is expected to grow around 5 percent, the economy will have stronger GDP growth and it is expected 5 to 6 percent in 2015.
• India had benefited from a strong domestic demand base and diversified export markets that gave protection from the effects of a slowing Chinese economy and muted growth in the eurozone and Japan.
• Employment and consumption of India is likely expected to rise and the fall in global commodity prices will help to lower high inflation in India.
• Indian corporate would see improved cash flows on account of acceleration in manufacturing activity.
• Both wholesale and retail inflation have hit multi-year lows and softness in global crude prices has reduced subsidy pressure on government.

Union Cabinet approved creation of five posts of ASG at High Courts

11-DEC-2014

The Union Cabinet on 10 December 2014 gave its approval for creation of five posts of Additional Solicitors General (ASG), one each for the High Courts of Punjab & Haryana, Patna, Jharkhand, Karnataka and its Circuit Benches at Hubli-Dharwad & Gulbarga and Gujarat.
The decision was made in a Cabinet meet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The decision will help in strengthening the litigation machinery to represent the Union Government efficiently and effectively as a whole and specifically in these courts.
These posts will facilitate transaction of business in accordance with procedures and thus enable assigning of functions to legally trained persons. This will result in greater accountability of Government Departments to curb frivolous litigation and lessen the burden of Government cases in these Courts.
It will also boost the morale of Government Department in following the rule of law and defending government policies and preventing high revenue pilferages.

World Wide Web Foundation's Web Index 2014 released

11-DEC-2014

The Web Index 2014 was released on 10 December 2014 was World Wide Web Foundation to measure the internet's contribution to social, economic and political progress in the world.
Highlights of the Web Index 2014
• Web users are at increasing risk of indiscriminate government surveillance. Laws preventing mass surveillance are weak in over 84 percent of countries.
• Online censorship is increasing as moderate or extensive Web censorship is now seen in 38 percent of countries.
• Online organising leads to offline change as Web and social media are making a major contribution to sparking citizen action in three in five countries. Meanwhile, women in 60 percent of countries are using the Web to exercise their rights to a moderate or extensive degree.
• Internet use has increased from around 45 percent to 78 percent in high-income countries since 2005, in low-income countries it has remained below 10 percent year after year.
• Online Gender Based Violence is not tackled effectively. In 74 percent of Web Index countries, law enforcement agencies and courts are failing to take appropriate actions.
• Almost 60 percent of the world‘s people are not online, while half of all Web users live in countries that severely restrict rights online.
• An estimated 4.4 billion people mostly poor, female, rural and living in developing countries have no access to the Internet at all.
• At least 1.8 billion face severe violations of their rights to privacy and freedom of expression when they go online.
• The higher a country’s per capita income, the higher its Web Index ranking.
• Digital divides also exist within countries. The skills and education needed to fully benefit from technology are very unevenly distributed.
• Powerful state economic elites are gaining more control over what ordinary people can do and say online.
• Almost 40 percent of countries blocked politically or socially sensitive Web content to a moderate or extreme degree.
• One in five female Internet users live in countries where harassment and abuse of women online is extremely unlikely to be punished.

Top 10 Web Index 2014-15 Rankings

Rank	Country	Score
1	Denmark	100
2	Finland	98.81
3	Norway	97.32
4	United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland	95.67
5	Sweden	94.97
6	United States of America	94.52
7	Iceland	93.72
8	Korea	92.81
9	Netherlands	91.84
10	Belgium	89.61

India's Ranking in the Web Index 2014
India ranks at the 48th Rank with 44.6 score in the index. It ranks behind China and other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations.
India’s Internet penetration rate is comparable to Nepal or Namibia. Despite promises of a digital revolution, the Web in India is still inaccessible to a large population.
Affordability is India’s biggest concern as the cost of broadband access in the country is greater than in countries in the neighbourhood such as Bangladesh.

Randhir Singh appointed as honorary member of IOC

11-DEC-2014

Randhir Singh was appointed as an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He was appointed as the honorary member during the IOC session in Monaco held from 8 December 2014 to 9 December 2014.
He was named for the honorary membership of the IOC after he served IOC as a full member from India from 2001 to 2014.
Randhir Singh is the second Indian to become an honorary member of the IOC after Ashwini Kumar. Ashwini Kumar was also given the membership after serving as full IOC member from India.
An honorary member of the IOC can attend its sessions without having the right to vote.
Randhir Singh is a former Secretary General of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) who served the association from 1987 to 2012. He is also a former shooter who took part in five Olympics.

Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices banned sale of 80 generic drugs

11-DEC-2014

German drug regulator Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) on 10 December 2014 banned the sale of 80 generic drugs with immediate effect on the grounds that their clinical trials were insufficient.
It also suspended the marketing authorisation given to the drugs concerned based on the data of clinical trials conducted by the India's pharmaceutical research company GVK Biosciences between 2008 and 2014.
As per the data, the generic versions of these drugs have the same effect on the human body as the original branded versions, which cannot be accepted as a basis for marketing approval.
The regulator itself investigated the marketing authorisation of 176 medicines by 28 pharmaceutical companies.
The ban comes after regulators in Germany, France and Belgium suspended marketing approval of 25 generic drugs in the first week of December 2014.
Highlights of the ban
• All the drug manufacturers, wholesale dealers, medical stores and other outlets were ordered not to sell or use these 80 drugs any longer.
• With the ban of 80 drugs, the medicines for treating high blood pressure, depression, migraine, epilepsy and Parkinson's disease will be affected.
• These medicines involved the products of 16 pharmaceutical companies including Stada and Dr Reddy's, Lupin, Micro Labs and Torrent. MNC companies facing the ban include Mylan and Abbott.
• The banned drugs include Escitalopram, Clopidogrel, Irbesartan, Levetiracetam and Valsartan, Cefpodoxim and Tacpan. Patients using these medicines were advised to consult their doctors.

WWF-India launched project Mobile Apps for Climate Change

11-DEC-2014

World Wide Fund for Nature – India (WWF-India) on 10 December 2014 launched the project Mobile Apps for Climate Change: A Citizen Science Programme for Schools in Metros in Hyderabad. It launched the project in collaboration with the Hyderabad-based L V Prasad Eye Institute.
The project was launched to make students aware about biodiversity and make them interested in environment.
As part of the project, three mobile apps on urban birds, butterflies and trees were launched. These apps will go live from 12 December 2014.
The apps were proposed and developed by V Shubhalaxmi-led Ladybird Environmental Consulting (LEC).
These apps will bring urban biodiversity information on the fingertips of the users in four metros, namely Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad.
In addition to mobile apps, the project also includes a School Citizen Science Programme titled Urban iNaturewatch Challenge. This programme will allow 40 city schools to take up local biodiversity studies as part of their project work.

Union Government and ATDC signed MoU for employment oriented training to youths

11-DEC-2014

Union Government and Apparel Training & Development Centre (ATDC) on 9 December 2014 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for employment oriented training to youths.
The objective of the MoU is to provide a framework whereby ATDC can run employment oriented training to the youth at national level.
Details of the MoU
• ATDC to run customized courses in association with large apparel export houses and leading domestic manufacturers
• Courses run by ATDC will be approved by National Council of Vocational Training (NCVT) which will facilitate the candidates to get NCVT certificates.
• ATDC to have freedom in developing such vocational courses wherein theory portion of the courses can be taught in the training centre and practical in the industry
• ADTC to ensure 80 percent of the students in a batch gets employment.
The MOU will help in three ways
• It will cut short many impediments in nationwide implementation of the skill based programs.
• It will focus on changing technology being incorporated in courses.
• It will focus more on longer duration program with support of DGE&T by tuning with industry inputs.
Earlier similar MoU have been signed by the Director General, Directorate General of Employment & Training (DGET) with other industry establishments to implement the skill based programs with an objective to generate employment.
These include Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and TATA Motors in Automobile Sector, Labournet in Construction sector, Raymond in Textile Sector, Cadila in Instrument Mechanic sector, Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd in Power Sector.
About Apparel Training & Development Centre
ATDC set up under the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has emerged as Largest Vocational Training Network for the Apparel Sector in India. Its network includes around 175 ATDCs comprising of 65 ATDC Vocational Institutes and over 135 ATDC- SMART Centres and Skill Camps present in major Apparel clusters spread across 22 states & 85 cities Pan India.

Samsung appointed HyunChil Hong as President of Southwest Asia

11-DEC-2014

Samsung Electronics Ltd on 10 December 2014 announced the appointment of HyunChil Hong as President of Southwest Asia Headquarters.
He will take the charge with immediate effect. He succeeded President B D Park. B D Park will now head Sales & Marketing for Digital Appliances Business at the headquarters in South Korea.
Hong will lead all of Samsung Electronics’ business in South West Asia that includes India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Hong previously served as the President of Samsung Electronics Latin America, a sales subsidiary in Central America for three years. Prior to that, he successfully headed Samsung Electronics’ sales subsidiaries in Chile.
Outgoing President BD Park has been serving in India since 2008. He was appointed as Head of the Mobile and IT Division of Samsung India Electronics Ltd (SIEL). In 2012, he was elevated to the position of President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia.

Nine species of bush frogs discovered in Western Ghats

11-DEC-2014

Nine new species of bush frogs were discovered in the Western Ghats by scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. Bush frogs are a miniature frog species distributed throughout South and South East Asia.
Findings of the discovery were published in international journal Zootaxa. IISc team that discovered these species was led by S P Vijayakumar and Kartik Shanker.
All the nine species of bush frogs belong to the genus Raorchestes frogs, which are distributed across the Western Ghats. Some of these discovered frogs are tiny as a thumbnail while other are brightly coloured or plain slimy.
The list of nine frogs and their characteristic
• Raorchestes flaviocularis: The species carries metallic-yellow patches on its eyes and was discovered perched on the leaves of short trees in a disturbed forest fragment within a tea estate
• Raorchestes aureus: It is known for its golden eyes, which is surrounded by speckles. This species was found in 2010 in grasslands on the edge of a forest.
• Raorchestes primarrumpfi: the species live in grasslands and swamps at high elevations. Its name has been derived from the German word, Primarrumpf.
• Raorchestes echinatus: Carries horn-like ridges on its back and its eyes are speckled gold with a brown band on the lower edge. The species was spotted on grass blades in 2011.
• Raorchestes emerald: the species is about 5 cm long and is the largest Raorchestes species known. The species has fleshy purplish armpits, and yellow spots scattered on its body.
• Raorchestes leucolatus: the species is found along the edges of wet evergreen forests on shrubs and grasses. It is a dark-brownish-red with white spots.
• Raorchestes archeos: It is a light-brown, medium-sized bush frog and its half arms are black while the other half is brown. It was first spotted in wet evergreen forests in 2010.
• Raorchestes blandus: It has been named after its melodious mating calls and in which bland (a Latin word) means pleasant. Spotted first time in 2008, carries an irregular regular-brown glandular patches on its skin and
• Raorchestes indigo: It has been named after the patches of indigo on the underside of its legs. It was found on leaves on the forest floor of Kudremukh, a mountain peak that has an uncanny resemblance to a horse's face.

The project was funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR - India). Forest departments from Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also supported the team in their study.
Earlier in June 2014, scientists had also discovered 14 new species of dancing frogs in the Western Ghats of southern India. The Indian Dancing frogs are scientifically known as Micrixalidae and their family comprises a single genus Micrixalus.

RIL announced to sell 49 percent stake in Textile Business to Chinese firm Shandong Ruyi

11-DEC-2014

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) on 9 December 2014 announced to sell 49 percent stake in the textiles business to Chinese textile firm Shandong Ruyi Science and Technology Group for an undisclosed sum.
RIL will hive off its textiles business into a new joint venture, in which it will have a 51 percent stake and the rest will be held by the Ruyi Group.
RIL operates its existing textile business under the brand Vimal. The business was started by RIL founder Dhirubhai Ambani about five decades ago in 1966 under the name of
Reliance Textiles, the company which later became Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) in 1985.
The textile business is located at Naroda near Ahmedabad. But it now contributes 300-350 million US Dollar, or less than 1%, to the overall 65-billion US dollar annual revenues of RIL.
In 2012, RIL had appointed bankers to sell its textile business but the sale was called off due to a tepid market and lack of buyers.
About Shandong Ruyi Science and Technology Group
Ruyi is a leading textile company in China. It has a global presence, including in America, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and China.
It has a portfolio of world-renowned brands such as Taylor & Lodge, Harris Tweed, Royal Ruyi China, Nogara Italy and Indios Italy.
Ruyi also operates in India under the Georgia Gullini brand in the suiting segment of the market. This business operation and its other activities would get realigned to strengthen the JV.

Manthan Awards conferred on 26 social entrepreneurs from South Asia and Asia-Pacific

11-DEC-2014

Manthan Awards South Asia 2014 was given on 5 December 2014 to 26 social entrepreneurs from South Asia and Asia-Pacific in recognition of their efforts to improve the lives of people using digital technologies.
The awards were given by the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) in 13 categories including health, agriculture, financial inclusion, community broadcasting, journalism, science, governance, and culture and tourism.
The list of winners of Manthan Award South Asia 2014 -

Category	Winner
e-Agriculture and Ecology	MPSSCA: Seed Certification MIS" – India
e-Business & Financial Inclusion	Using Psychometrics Credit Scoring to Expand Financial Inclusion – India bKash Limited – India
e-Culture, Heritage & Tourism	Endangered Archive 341 e-Pothi: Online Catalouging of Manuscripts of Odisha State Museum
e-Community Broadcasting	Yaadon ka Idiot Box with Neelesh Mishra – India Brahmaputra Community Radio Station 90.4 FM – India
e-Education, Learning & Employment	e-thaksalwa, The National e-learning portal for General Education – Sri Lanka Buddy4study.com – A Scholarship Portal – India iChemist – Tradition Simulator – Sri Lanka
e-Entertainment & Games	Shotz7 - India
e-Governance	Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Arogya Yojana, Govt. of Maharashtra – India – eScholarship – India JailVaarta – Video Conference of Prisoners with their Relatives – India
e-Health	Central Asia Health Systems Strengthening (CAHSS) Project – Pakistan National Intensive Care Surveillance: An innovative public health e-intervention from Sri Lanka
e-Inclusion & Accessibility	Gift of new abilities – India Swaraloka: Adaptive Music Score Trainer for Visually Impaired in Sri Lanka Blind With Camera - India
e-Localisation	The Kahani Project – India FUEL Project – India
e-News & Journalism	Citizen Matters – India Magzter Stay Informed – India Environmentmove.com - Bangladesh
e-Science & Technology	SIYARA Harbour VTMS: New dimension in Port Traffic management of Sri Lanka
e-Women & Empowerment	Kanyashree Online 2.0 – India Maya.com.bd - Bangladesh

The Manthan Award South Asia 2014 - Chairman's Distinction Award
• e-Science & Technology: iHelmet
• e-Culture & Tourism: Treasure Caretaker Training, Digital Monastery Project

Pioneer of home video game console Ralph Henry Baer died

11-DEC-2014

The pioneer of home video game console Ralph Henry Baer died on 6 December 2014 in Manchester following a brief illness. He was 92.
He was famously known as the Father of Video Games due to his contributions to video game industry.
Ralph Henry Baer
• Born to a Jewish family in south-western Germany in 1922, Baer and his family fled the country in 1938 to escape the Holocaust.
• In the late 1960s, Baer developed a system known as the Brown Box while working for Sanders Associates, a New Hampshire-based defence contractor. Later, Brown Box was named as Magnavox Odyssey.
• A version of Baer's Brown Box is now at the American History Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
• In 1967, he designed the game Chase, the first game played in a television set.
• Baer is credited for creating the first light gun for video game console. He is the co-creator of the light-up memory games Simon and Super Simon.
• Baer received the National Medal of Technology from President George W Bush in 2006 and in 2008, he received the Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award.
• In 2010, Ralph Henry Baer was inducted into the United States National Inventors Hall of Fame.
• In 2005, he donated all original videogame units and documents to the Smithsonian Institution.