19-20 feb 2015 eng

19 feb

Producer Daggubati Ramanaidu died

Noted film producer and Dada Saheb Phalke award winner Daggubati Ramanaidu died on 18 February 2015 in a hospital of Hyderabad. He was 78.

He was suffering from prostate cancer.

Ramanaidu is survived by his sons Suresh Babu (producer), Venkatesh (actor) and grandson Rana Daggubati (actor).

Daggubati Ramanaidu
• He held the Guinness World record for producing the highest number of films (over 150) in several languages like Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi and English.
• Later in his career, he turned to politics and was the Telugu Desam Member of Parliament from Bapatla in Guntur in the 13th Lok Sabha between 1999 and 2004
• He owned a production house, named Suresh Productions Pvt. Ltd
• In 2013, he was awarded with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award
• In 2009, he received the Dadasaheb Phalke, Indian cinema’s highest honour
• He was born on 6 June 1936 in Karamchedu, Madras Presidency of British India

Some of his famous films were Staten Island (in English), Dilwaala (in Hindi), Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain (in Hindi), Kuch Tum Kaho Kuch Hum Kahein (in Hindi), Asukh (in Bengali), Jeevana Tarangalu (in Telugu), Soggadu (in Telugu), Preminchu (in Telugu), Dharama Devatha (in Oriya), Aswaradoon (in Malayalam), Singh vs Kaur (in Punjabi) and others.

Bharti Airtel Ltd tied-up with UNICEF to provide education content in 17 African countries

Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel Limited on 18 February 2015 tied-up with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to provide health, education and youth-focused content to its customers in 17 African countries.

In this regard, Bharti Airtel limited and UNICEF signed a partnership agreement. Their partnership is aimed at improving African population’s access to health and education-related information from various innovative projects supported by UNICEF.

The partnership extends across 17 countries in Africa including Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Chad, DRC, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

This agreement will help UNICEF to tap into Airtel’s mobile services to spread its health, education and youth-focused content to Airtel customers across the 17 African countries.

Through Airtel’s improved connectivity, more Africans will have free access to mobile applications and services developed by UNICEF such as eduTrac, mTrac and U-report with improved connectivity.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel launched its first customised 3G Smartphone pan-Africa to tap mobile internet users.

Bihar Government decided to grant 35% reservation for women in Non-Gazetted jobs

State Government of Bihar on 18 February 2015 decided to give 35 percent reservation to women in non-gazetted government jobs.

The decision was made during the state cabinet meet presided by Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. Apart from this, the Cabinet also made 21 more decisions. Some of them include:
• Hike in MLA development fund from the existing 2 crore rupees in a year to 3 crore rupees from financial year 2016
• Approved the proposal to pay 13 months’ salary in place of 12 months to policemen up to inspector rank
• It enhanced the daily wage for home guards from existing 300 rupees to 400 rupees
• It decided to recommend the Union Government to pay an additional 1000 rupees per month to cook engaged under mid-day meal scheme in schools
• Decided to enhance the payments for agricultural advisors from 6000 rupees per month to 7000 rupees per month
• Decided to replace Advocate General Ram Balak Mahto with Binod Kumar Kanth

The cabinet decisions were made after the Patna High Court on 18 February 2015 stayed its restriction imposed on Manjhi from taking any policy decisions and allowed it to take them. But the Court ordered that the policies should be implemented after 21 February 2015.

These decisions were made a day before the crucial confidence vote on 20 February 2015, in which Manjhi will have to prove his majority in the cabinet or he will not be on the post, further.

India’s first air quality checking Mobile App SAFAR-Air launched

India’s first air quality checking Mobile App, SAFAR-Air was launched on 17 February 2015 at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, Maharashtra.

SAFAR is an acronym for System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research which was first launched in Delhi in 2010 during the Commonwealth Games. The Project Director of SAFAR is Gufran Beig.

The App was launched by Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) to provide online metro Air Quality information Service in real time.

At present the App service is available only for Pune and Delhi city and it will be available in Mumbai by May 2015.By 2017 the forecasting services will be extended to cover Chennai and Kolkata.

The system is jointly run by the IITM and the India Meteorology Department (IMD) and the forecasting model is running on a supercomputer in IITM called Aditya.

Characteristic Features of SAFAR-Air
• SAFAR-Air is the first mobile application service in India to provide a current and advanced forecast for air quality.
• The application was developed by scientists at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune. It will enable citizens to check their city’s air quality in real time.
• The app will provide current data and a forecast for air quality in the user’s current location through a colour-coded system- green is good, yellow is moderately polluted, orange is poor, red is very poor and maroon is critical.
• The app will initially be available on smartphones operating on Google's Android system and later on devices using Apple's iOS.
• Users can also share the information from the app on Twitter, Facebook, and by email.
• It will aid in enhancing the awareness of the hazards of air pollution and will also aid the policy makers to adopt practical city-level measures to address air pollution.

Air Quality in India
The air quality in Indian metro cities, partcularly Delhi, is worsening day-by-day leading to increasing number of morbidity related to poor air quality. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), 1.9 million people in India die every year due to air pollution.

In a study published by the WHO in May 2014 and by Yale University in February 2014, the air in New Delhi was the most polluted in India and in the world.

The incidence of particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter was the highest between November 2014 and January 2015 in New Delhi since 2010. On an annual average over the five years, PM 2.5 pollution was around 100, while this year it was 114, as compared to 101 in 2013 and 98 in 2012.

What are Particulate Matters?
Particulate matter (PM) includes sulfates, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, black carbon, mineral dust and water. These are considered the most dangerous air pollutants. These can settle deep inside the lungs, making people vulnerable to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as lung cancer.

According to WHO, the most health-damaging particles are those with a diameter of 10 microns or less, which can penetrate and lodge deep inside the lungs.

India and Bangladesh decided to step up Joint Border Patrolling

India and Bangladesh on 17 February 2015 decided to step up joint patrolling along the boundary to act against criminals and smugglers. The coordinated border management plan will also help in enhancing cooperation between the two nations.

The decision was taken at the India-Bangladesh Joint Working Group meeting and the Home Secretary-level talks held in New Delhi on 16-17 February 2015. The Indian delegation was led by Union Home Secretary LC Goyal while the Bangladeshi delegation was led by Senior Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs Mozammel Haque Khan.

Agreements and decisions made during the meet include
• The two sides agreed to vigil on the border by deployment of troops of Bangladesh in unguarded border areas of Bangladesh, particularly along the borders facing Tripura and Mizoram.
• The two sides agreed to act against the criminals engaged in human trafficking from Bangladesh to India and other countries.
• The two sides agreed to resolve the issues concerning fishermen drifting inadvertently across the maritime boundaries
• The two sides discussed about the security and border management-related issues between the two countries
• The meetings of Deputy Commissioners or District Magistrates of the districts bordering India and Bangladesh were also resumed, after a long time

Apart from this, LC Goyal also appreciated the steps taken by the Bangladesh authorities in acting against the carriers of fake Indian currency notes as well as the actions taken against the Indian Insurgent Groups taking shelter in the bordering areas of Bangladesh.

EPFO launched Online Help Desk to trace Inoperative Accounts

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on 18 February 2015 set up an online help desk to trace subscribers of such inoperative accounts and seek final settlement. There are about 8.15 crore inoperative provident fund accounts with a balance of 27000 crore rupees.

The online help desk was launched by the Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya on the occasion of Shrameva Jayate programme under the directions of Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi.

These online helpdesk can be accessed through EPFO’s website. While accessing the website, the member will have to:
• Provide the known details of his/her employment in a specially designed proforma which will include establishment code, PF account number, address, state, city, date of joining and others
• They will have to provide personal information like name, mobile number, date of birth and others
• The members are supposed to provide the information to the extent available with them.

Thereafter, a reference ID is created for future reference and tracking. Based on the reference ID generated, the field office concerned (where the member held his PF account) shall contact the member and guide him for getting the settlement or affecting the transfer as the case may be.

What are Inoperative Accounts?
The inoperative accounts are those accounts wherein the contribution has not been received for 36 months. EPFO had stopped payment of interest to such accounts from 1 April 2011.

Barry Knowles appointed as head of Youth Development Programme of Bharat FC

Pune-based I-League football club Bharat FC in the third week of February 2015 appointed English football coach Barry Knowles as head of its youth development programme.

The appointment of Barry Knowles is part of Bharat FC efforts to build its own training facility at Manjri and to build squads in the under -9, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19 age groups. Another unique aspect of this youth setup will be that the academy will give preference to young aspirants from Pune.
55-year-old English coach Barry Knowles is a former professional footballer and have more than 300 appearances to his credit for different distinguished clubs in England. He played as a full-back before retiring from professional football at the age of 33.

He was associated with football clubs like Southport FC, Runcorn FC, Barrow AFC, Wigan Athletic and had coached different football clubs like Blackpool FC, Chester City FC, Burnley College Football Academy.

Snapdeal.com acquired luxury fashion portal Exclusively.com

Online shopping portal Snapdeal.com on 18 February 2015 acquired premium and luxury fashion site Exclusively.com for an undisclosed amount.

With this acquisition, Snapdeal.com aims to further strengthen its fashion business and reach 2 billion US dollars in gross merchandise value in the fashion category in 2015.

Under the acquisition, Exclusively.com will complement Snapdeal's existing ecosystem and will provide a consolidated offering for the luxury and lifestyle shopper making it India's first online luxury mall.

Post this acquisition, Exclusively Co-Founders Mohini Boparai Guleria and Sunjay Guleria will join the Snapdeal as General Manager (Creative & Catalogue) and General Manager (Business) at Exclusively.com respectively.

However, Exclusively will continue to function as an independent site and all aspects of its online shopping will remain intact.

Snapdeal forayed into the designer wear category in October 2014 with the launch of The Designer Studio and this acquisition will further strengthen its presence in the luxury and premium products space. Currently, the fashion business contributes to over 60 percent of the volumes of orders at Snapdeal.

Exclusively.com
• Founded in 2010, with offices in New York and New Delhi, Exclusively offers a comprehensive collection of designer apparel and accessories, showcasing over 200 labels.
• The site features high-end traditional Indian apparel as well as scarves, jewellery, handbags, crafts, paintings, photography and other home goods made by Indian designers.
• Presently, Exclusively.com retails hundreds of India's leading designers on its site including Manish Malhotra, Tarun Tahiliani, Manish Arora, Anita Dongre, Rohit Bal, Gaurav Gupta, JJ Valaya, Ritu Kumar, Varun Bahl, Shivan & Narresh and Neeta Lulla.

BJD Vice-President kalindi Charan Behera passed away

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Vice-President Kalindi Charan Behera passed away on 18 February 2015 at Bhubaneswar following a brief illness. He was 71. Behera is survived by his wife, two daughters and two sons.

Behera began his career as a professor at BJB College, Bhubaneswar before taking the plunge into politics. He was also a writer of repute and took a keen interest in socio-cultural affairs. In 1990s, he wrote a hagiography of Biju Patnaik called Kalingara Baraputra.

Kalindi Charan Behera was elected to the Odisha State Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1977 when he won from Salepur constituency as a Janata Party candidate.

Later, he represented the same seat thrice, once as a Janata Dal candidate in 1990 and then as a BJD candidate in 2000 and 2004. In 2009, he was elected from the Cuttack Sadar constituency on a BJD ticket.

He had also held several important portfolios in the state Council of Ministers, first under the late Chief Minister of Odhisa Biju Patnaik and then under the current CM of Odhisa Naveen Patnaik.

Demand for dowry can be made at any time and not necessarily before marriage: Supreme Court

Supreme Court (SC) on 11 February 2015 ruled that demand for dowry can be made at any time and not necessarily before marriage. The decision was given by the SC bench comprising of Justice MY Eqbal and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose.

The decision was given by the SC Bench in the State of Uttarakhand vs Bhim Singh & Anr., (2015) while upholding the life term awarded to Bhim Singh for poisoning and burning his wife Prem Davi to death in 1997.

The apex court said that the social evil of dowry that is prevalent in the Indian society and the defence that it was not sought before the marriage does not hold water.

In the of Himachal Pradesh v. Nikku Ram & Ors., (1995), SC had held that the demand for dowry can be made at any time, and not necessarily before marriage. The demand can be made on three occasions; before marriage, at the time of marriage and after marriage.

Earlier, the trial court had held Bhim and his brother guilty of offence 304-B (dowry death) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced them to life, Section 498-A (cruelty) of IPC and Sections 3 & 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.

Nuclear capable Prithvi-II missile test-fired from Chandipur in Odisha

India on 19 February 2015 successfully test-fired nuclear weapons capable, surface-to-surface Prithvi-II missile from Chandipur-on-sea in Balasore district, Odisha as part of a user trial by the army.

The missile was tested for a shortened range of 250 km as against its full range of 350 km. The indigenously developed missile was launched by personnel of Strategic Forces Command (SFC) from a road mobile launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR).

The missile carried a dummy payload of 500 kg weight and met all the mission objectives. The missile after a flight duration of nearly seven minutes splashed down near the pre-designated target point in the Bay of Bengal with a high degree of accuracy.

Prithvi-II is the first missile to have been developed by the DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) and has been inducted into the SFC in 2003.

With a strike range of 350 km, Prithvi-II is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1000 kg of warheads and is thrusted by liquid propulsion twine engines. It uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvering trajectory.

The last user trial of Prithvi-II was successfully conducted in November 2014 from the same test range in Odisha.

The first National Tribal festival Vanaj 2015 concluded

The first National Tribal Festival Vanaj 2015 concluded on 18 February 2015. The festival was held at three places in New Delhi from 13 February 2015 to 18 February 2015.

These were Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Baba Kharak Singh Marg and Central Park in Connaught Place.

The festival was organised by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs. The festival ended after a series of weeklong colourful presentations especially depicting the spring time tribal festivals of Phagu, Phagua and Phagun Parab.

The festival exhibited the unseen aspects of tribal life and also gave an opportunity to the people to appreciate the rich and diverse tribal culture.

The festival also showcased India’s unique tribal culture, art, painting, music, dance, tribal medicine, tribal food, and tribal cuisine.

Seminars on traditional tribal knowledge, wisdom and skill, tribal folklore and oral traditions, traditional tribal medicines and healing system, traditional tribal food & crops were organised with a purpose of paying attention on tribal’s life, their problems and possible ways of their overall development.

The awards for the 5th and 6th National Level Photographic Competition held during the year 2011-12 and 2012-13 respectively on the themes Artists at work and Tribal Festivals and Sports of India were also presented on this occasion.

Union Government approved Project-17A worth 8 billion US dollar

Union Government on 18 February 2015 approved Project-17A worth 8 billion US dollar. The project is aimed at building country's most advanced warships. Under the Project-17A seven frigates will be built indigenously with stealth features to avoid easy detection.

The frigates under the Project-17A will be built at government shipyards in Mumbai and Kolkata.

The move is a part to boost Make in India campaign to build a domestic defence industrial base and reduce dependence on expensive imports that have made India the world's biggest arms market.

Project 17-A was awaiting cabinet clearance since 2012. The project has significance in combating the rising role of Chinese Navy.

China's naval forays in the Indian Ocean have exposed the Indian navy's weak undersea defences, which are down to 13 ageing diesel-electric submarines after a string of accidents and mishaps.

Rajya Sabha MP from Uttarakhand Manorama Dobriyal Sharma died

Manorama Dobriyal Sharma died at a private hospital in Gurgaon, Haryana on 17 February 2015 due to multiple organ failure. She was 60. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) in Rajya Sabha from Uttarakhand and Congress Party leader.

The Chief Minister of Uttrakhand, Harish Rawat declared three-day state mourning following her death. Her last rites were performed at Lakhibagh in Dehradun.

She was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha in November 2014 on Congress Party ticket, thus becoming the first woman member of the Upper House from Uttrakhand.

She was the President of women unit of Congress Party in Uttarakhand and was also the mayor of Dehradun. During her mayorship, she had successfully organized International Council of Mayors which shows her organizational capability besides her participation in mass movements.

20 feb

Union Government proposed Oil Subsidy Sharing Formula between Public Sector Oil Companies

Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in the first week of February 2015 finalised new oil subsidy sharing formula between the public sector oil refining companies and oil marketing companies. It finalised the new norms after consultations with the Union Finance Ministry and Chief Economic Adviser.

Under the new formula, the upstream companies or the oil refining companies’ contribution towards subsidy sharing would be as follows:

No contribution towards subsidy for crude oil price less than and equal to 60 dollars per barrel
85 percent contribution towards subsidy for crude oil prices exceeding 60 dollars per barrel and less than or equal to 100 dollars per barrel
90 percent contribution towards subsidy for crude oil prices exceeding 100 dollars per barrel

The new formula is supposed to come into effect starting from October 2015.

The new subsidy sharing formula was proposed by the Union Oil Ministry in lieu of declining global prices of crude oil and the deregulation of diesel prices in India. These two factors have changed the whole arithmetic of subsidy sharing calculations prompting the move.

Implications of the proposal

Less subsidy burden on ONGC and OIL:

Oil refining companies like Oil and Natural Gas (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) will be required to contribute less or even zero towards subsidy. That is, it will have to pay fewer rupees or nothing to the state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) like Indian IOC, BPCL and HPCL.

With the price of Indian crude basket at 75.17 dollars per barrel in the period October – December 2014 and the price of dollars in terms of rupee at 62 rupees per dollar, the total contribution of ONGC and OIL was 3252 crore rupees and 494 crore rupees respectively.

If the price of Indian crude basket in the rest of the year 2015 remains at the January 2015 level of 46 dollars per barrel, then the subsidy burden on ONGC and OIL would be zero. This is because, as per the proposed formula, the contribution towards subsidy will be zero if the price of crude remains below 60 dollars per barrel.

ONGC disinvestment will get a boost:

If the proposed subsidy sharing formula comes into effect, then it will pave the way for Union government to go ahead with the disinvestment process of ONGC enabling the government to earn 11500 crore rupees from 5 percent stake-sale of ONGC. Union government at present holds 68.94 percent in ONGC.

The ONGC stake sale in turn will help the government in achieving its disinvestment target of 43425 crore rupees kept for the fiscal year 2014-15.

Earlier on 30 January 2015, the government had earned a massive 24557 crore rupees from the 10 percent disinvestment of shares of Coal India Limited (CIL).

Limit fiscal deficit to 4.1 percent:

A lower subsidy bill will be a major positive for the government, which is seeking to limit the fiscal deficit within 4.1 percent of GDP in the fiscal year 2014-15, while looking for resources to step up public investment during the financial year 2015-16.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Soil Health Card Scheme

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 19 February 2015 launched the nationwide Soil Health Card Scheme in Suratgarh town of Sriganganagar district, Rajasthan. The nationwide scheme will help farmers to scientifically analyse the soil of farms in the country.

The scheme aims at helping farmers in improving productivity by appropriate use of nutrients or fertilisers.

Under the plan, 14 crore Soil Health Cards will be issued to farmer of the country in a span of 3 years. Around 3 crore farmers will be covered under the project in financial year 2014-15.

Feature of the Soil Health Card
• It would contain all basic information and crop-wise recommendations of nutrients or fertilizers required for farms of different soil types.
• It will carry crop-wise recommendation of fertilizers required for farm lands and other inputs to increase the productivity of individual farmer.

Government's step to issue soil health cards to farmers will ensure that they are aware of the quality of soil and use right fertilisers. Also, the scheme will help in keeping a check on overuse of fertilisers on farm land and will be provided to over 14 crore farmers.

Apart from this, the Prime Minister also gave a slogan Swasth Dharaa Khet Haraa (Healthy Earth Green Farm). He also asked states to set up high-powered expert committees on agriculture and asked farmers to take agricultural decisions after getting their soil tested under the Soil Health Card scheme.

Background
The Soil Health Card scheme was announced in the first budget presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in July 2014. The finance minister allotted a budget of 100 crore rupees for issuing cards and an additional 56 crore rupees to set up 100 mobile soil testing laboratories across India.

Justice KS Radhakrishnan panel on road safety submitted its report to the Supreme Court

Supreme Court (SC) appointed panel on road safety headed by Justice (retd) KS Radhakrishnan submitted its report before the apex court in the third week of February 2015.

In its report, the panel has recommended for ban on sale of alcohol on highways, both National and State highways, to curb the menace of road accident.

Main Recommendations of the Panel

Pointing out deficiencies in enforcement of the motor vehicles by the state governments, the panel directed the states to strengthen enforcement of law against drunken driving, over speeding and other offences.
The panel said that except Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Nagaland none of other states have framed a road safety policy so far.
It suggested for audit of road safety to be conducted by states to ensure that safety standards are incorporated in the design, construction and maintenance of roads.
It directed state governments to implement laws on helmet strictly as failure to implement the helmet laws strictly has resulted in high fatality of two-wheeler and pillion riders.
It raised concern about lax procedure for issuing driving licenses.
It recommended that state governments must take steps to remove hoardings and objects that obstruct driving or distract drivers.
Highlighting lack of awareness among people on road safety rules, the panel recommended that state governments must frame a permanent and scientific policy on educating people in this regard.
The panel also noted that the states do not have adequate number of trauma centres and the ambulances do not have required medical facilities.

Acting on the panel’s report, the SC bench comprising of Justices Madan B Lokur and UU Lalit directed the states to implement the recommendations. It, however, raised concern about the financial implication of banning the sale of alcohol in the states.

Background

Supreme Court had set up the three-member KS Radhakrishnan panel on road safety in April 2014 to scrutinize and monitor enforcement of statutory provisions including the Motor Vehicles Act for making road safer.

SC had set up the panel in light of increasing road accidents which required immediate attention and remedial action.

Road accidents are giant killers and every year 1.5 lakh people in the country die due to road accidents.

India has the distinction of having highest number of road accident related deaths in the whole world as every 4 minutes one person die in road accident in India.

Legendary Urdu Poet Dr. Kalim Ahmed Ajiz died

Legendary Urdu poet Dr. Kalim Ahmed Ajiz died on 15 February 2015 in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. He was 90.

At the time of death, Ajiz was serving as the Chairman of the Urdu Advisory Committee, Government of Bihar. He was a retired professor of Patna University.

His namaz-e-janaza (funeral ceremony) was performed in Gandhi Maidan, Patna and burial took place at his birthplace Telhara in Nalanda.

About Kalim Ahmed Ajiz
• He was the only Urdu poet during 1960’s and 70’s to represent Bihar in the Red Fort Mushaira that is held every year in Delhi on the eve of Independence Day.
• His first Mushaira appearance was in the year 1949 from Anjuman Rafiq us Shora in Patna.
• He was the author of several books and classical ghazals and his first book of ghazals was released in 1976 by the President of India Fakruddin Ali Ahmad.
• His thesis on Evolution of Urdu Literature in Bihar is now available in a book form.
• His first written couplet was Thi farmaish buzorgo ki to likh di ghazal aajiz/wagar na shayaari shairi ka tazarba humko bhala kahan hai.
• He wrote collective of ghazals and nazams named as, Woh jo shayri ka sabab hua, jab fasl bahar aayei thi, jahan khushboo hi khusboo thi.
• He was a recipient of Padma Shri award for his contribution to Urdu literature.
• One of the greatest Urdu poets of all times, Rahgupati Sahay alias Firaq Gorakpuri was a great admirer of Dr. Kaleem Ajiz.
• He was born in 1926 in Telhara village of Nalanda district

Rashad Hussain appointed as US Special Envoy for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications

Indian-American Rashad Hussain was on 18 February 2015 appointed as Special Envoy and Coordinator for Strategic Counter-terrorism Communication in the United States (US). Hussain is currently the Special Envoy of the US to Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) and will hold both the posts.

Hussain will lead a staff drawn from a number of US departments and agencies to expand international engagement and partnerships to counter violent extremism and to develop strategic counterterrorism communications around the world.

In 2009, he served as the Director for Global Engagement at the National Security Council and he has also worked as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in Washington DC, where he prosecuted criminal cases.

For exceptionally outstanding service to the agencies of the US Government, he received the Distinguished Honor Award in January 2013.

The Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications was established in 2010. It was codified on 9 September 2011 by President Barack Obama's Executive Order 13584 to coordinate, orient, and inform government-wide strategic communications focused on violent extremists and terrorist organizations.

Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi resigned

Chief Minister (CM) of Bihar Jitan Ram Manjhi resigned on 20 February 2015 and recommended the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly. He resigned before the trust vote.

Governor of Bihar KN Tripathi accepted his resignation.

He was elected by the Janata Dal (United) Party as the 23rd Chief Minister of Bihar following Nitish Kumar's resignation. Nitish Kumar had resigned from the post of CM after his party’s poor show in Lok Sabha Elections 2014.

Earlier, he had served as Minister for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes’ Welfare in the cabinet of Nitish Kumar.

Union Government launched single window eBiz portal to foster business environment

The Union Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley launched a single window eBiz portal for 11 central government services in New Delhi on 19 February 2105. eBiz is a Government-to-Business (G2B) portal and was launched with an aim to bring transparency and ease of doing business in the country.

The 11 Central Government services that will be catered by the portal include four services of Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), two services of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), two services of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), one service each from Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) and Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO).

A business user can avail the service any time from the day of launch either from the portal of respectiveMinistry/Department or by physical submission of forms.

The list of 11 services

Sl. No.	Ministry or Department Name	Service Name
1	Ministry of Corporate Affairs	Name Availability
2	Ministry of Corporate Affairs	Director Identification Number
3	Ministry of Corporate Affairs	Certificate of Incorporation
4	Ministry of Corporate Affairs	Commencement of Business
5	Central Board of Direct Taxes	Issue of Permanent Account Number (PAN)
6	Central Board of Direct Taxes	Issue of Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN)
7	Reserve Bank of India	Advanced Foreign Remittance (AFR)
8	Reserve Bank of India	Foreign Collaboration-General Permission Route (FC-GPR)
9	Employees’ Provident Fund Organization	Employer Registration
10	Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization	Issue of Explosive License
11	Directorate General of Foreign Trade	Importer Exporter Code License

About eBiz
The eBiz portal was conceptualised with support from National Institute of Smart Government (NISG) as the consulting partner and was developed by Infosys Limited, Bangalore. It was developed in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model for a period of 10 years.

In the first three years, eBiz portal will be implemented on pilot basis during which 50 services (26 central + 24 state) across 10 states will be covered. These 10 states are Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

One of the salient features of eBiz is its payment gateway solution. It has been set up in collaboration with all the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) to transfer government fees on T+1 basis.

For eBiz transactions, an electronic PAO system (ePAO) has been set up in Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to make booking and reconciliation of all Central Government fees received through eBiz portal.

The eBiz portal has been approved by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India and it is for the first time in the country that collection of fees through credit and debit cards for different services have been permitted making it very convenient for business to deposit fees.

CCEA approved four Highway Projects in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 19 February 2015 gave its approval for four highway projects in three states namely Uttar Pradesh (two projects), Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

These projects has been approved under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis.

List of four highway projects that received the CCEA approval
• Six laning of the Chakeri-Allahabad section of National Highway - 2 (NH-2) in Uttar Pradesh (total length 145 kilometer) –The project will cost an estimated 1999.85 crore rupees including cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities.
• Six laning of the Handia-Varanasi section of NH-2 in Uttar Pradesh (total length 72.4 kilometer) –The project will cost an estimated 2378.59 crore rupees including the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities
•Six laning of the Baleshwar-Chandikhole section of NH-5 in Odisha (total length 137 kilometer) - The project will cost an estimated 2296.82 crore rupees including the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities
• Four/Six laning of the Raipur-Bilaspur section of NH-30/NH-130 (old NH-200) in Chhattisgarh (total length 127 kilometer) - The project will cost an estimated 1963.88 crore rupees including the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities

Except Raipur-Bilaspur section of NH-30/NH-130, all the three highway projects work will be implemented under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-V. Raipur-Bilaspur section of National Highway work will be implemented under the NHDP Phase-IV.

CCEA approved continuation of incentive scheme for marketing of raw sugar production

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 19 February 2015 approved the continuation of the incentive scheme for marketing and promotion services of raw sugar production during the current sugar season (October-September) of 2014- 15.

The approval was granted for raw production of 14 lakh metric tonne of sugar.

The CCEA also fixed uniform rate of export subsidy at 4000 rupees per metric tonne for 2014-15 sugar season which is much higher than 3371 rupees per tonne fixed in 2014 for August-September period.

Further, in case of mills having alcohol production capacities, the incentive will be available to them if they offer to supply ethanol to oil marketing companies (OMCs) under the Ethanol Blending Programme (EBP) up to 25 percent of their annual production level of alcohol.

The decision will help sugar mills to clear the cane price dues of the farmers.

Earlier in 2013, the UPA Government had announced a subsidy for exports of raw sugar up to 4 million tonne in order to help the cash-starved industry clear sugarcane arrears to farmers. However, subsidy scheme ended in September 2014 as the NDA government did not extend the scheme for the current marketing year.

Chief Minister of Assam advocated Naturonomics for NE states to usher in a robust economy

Naturonomics: A blend of Nature and Economics
Assam’s Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on 19 February 2015 advocated for Naturonomics for Assam and other North Eastern (NE) states to usher in a robust economy in the region.

Naturonomics means using right blend of nature and economics for sustainable development in the region. As part of this, the government would give adequate impetus on tea, bamboo, food processing and other agro-based industries to stimulate the industrial growth of the State.

He coined the term while speaking at the inauguration of the first-ever Assam International Trade and Industrial Fair at Jorhat.

Assam International Trade and Industrial Fair is a seven day fair which will end on 25 February 2015. The fair has seen participation from countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Laos, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Bhutan and Thailand.

Researchers combined solar telescope with Laser Frequency Comb to search for Earth-like planets

German researchers successfully combined the sunlight from a Solar Vacuum Tower Telescope in Tenerife, Canary Islands with the light of Laser Frequency Comb (LFC) to make possible the search of Earth-like planets in distant space with accuracy and ease.

This development was published in the New Journal of Physics on 17 February 2015 and the study was led by Rafael Probst, a doctoral candidate at Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Germany.

In order to search for Earth-like planets in distance space with precision, researchers first combined the sunlight from a Solar Vacuum Tower Telescope in Tenerife, Canary Islands with the light of an LFC.

Then they combined the two lights into a one single-mode fibre (SMF) by an optical multiplexer.

On this, they obtained found that precision improved by about a factor of 100 over a temporally separated fibre transmission.

The development of this novel technique would enable the analysis of measurement of the accelerating universe by observing distant quasars.

Further, the researchers also believe that an LFC will allow them to measure the Doppler shifts much more accurately and therefore increase the chances of spotting Earth-sized, habitable planets.

What is Laser Frequency Comb (LFC)?

Laser frequency combs (LFC) were conceived a decade ago as tools for the precision spectroscopy of atomic hydrogen.
It was created by a laser that emits continuous pulses of light, containing millions of different colours, often spanning almost the entire visible spectrum.
When the different colours are separated based on their individual frequencies, they form a comb-like graph with finely spaced lines representing the individual frequencies.
This comb can then be used as a ruler to precisely measure the frequency of light from a wide range of sources such as lasers, atoms or stars.

India and the US held first-ever bilateral dialogue on United Nations

India and the US on 19 February 2015 held their first-ever bilateral dialogue on the United Nations (UN) and other multilateral issues in Washington.

The dialogue was held in the spirit of the Delhi Declaration of Friendship which was released during the visit of US President Barack Obama to India in January 2015.

Besides discussing the UN issue, the dialogue between the two countries also focused on international peace and security, peacekeeping operations, counter-piracy, the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the UN Human Rights Council, and other matters of mutual interest.

The Indian delegation in the dialogue was led by Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup while the US was led by Assistant Secretary of State for International Organisation Affairs Sheba Crocker.

Delhi Declaration of Friendship released on 25 January 2015 during the visit of US President Barack Obama as a chief guest on 2015 Republic Day. Within the framework of the Delhi Declaration of Friendship, India and the US vowed to hold regular consultations in multilateral forums and strengthen and expand the relationship between the two countries.

Prime Minister presented Krishi Karman Awards 2013-14 to State Government functionaries

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 19 February 2015 presented Krishi Karman Awards 2013-14 to State Government functionaries. The awards were presented during the launch of the Soil Health Card scheme nationwide at Suratgarh, Rajasthan.

The Prime Minister presented the Krishi Karman Awards to State Government functionaries led by Chief Ministers of States and progressive farmers belonging to the states of Punjab, Odisha, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Gujarat.

Winner States of Krishi Karman Awards 2013-14

Total foodgrains production

Category-I States (total foodgrains production exceeds 10 million tonnes): Punjab
Category-II States (total foodgrains production is between 1 and 10 million tonens): Odisha
Category-III States (total foodgrains production less than 1 million tonnes): Meghalaya

Each award winning state received a trophy, a citation and a cash award of 2 crore rupees

Individual crops

Rice: Chhattisgarh
Wheat: Madhya Pradesh
Pulses: Assam and Tamil Nadu
Coarse Cereals: West Bengal
Oil Seeds: Gujarat

Each award winning state received a trophy, a citation and a cash award of 1 crore rupees

The Commendation Awards were also presented to the State Government functionaries led by Agriculture Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Karnataka. Each winning state received a cash award of 25 lakh rupees.

Krishi Karman Awards
• Krishi Karman Awards were instituted in 2010-11 for recognising the meritorious efforts of the states in foodgrains production.
• The awards are given to the best performing states in two broad sets. One for total foodgrains production and the other for individual foodgrain crops of Rice, Wheat, Pulses and Coarse Cereals.
• Each award winning state gets a trophy, a citation and a cash award of 2 crore rupees. For individual crops of Rice, Wheat, Pulses and Coarse Cereals, award winning states get a trophy, a citation and a cash award of 1 crore rupees.
• Commendation awards are given to those states who achieve the production higher than their highest in last 5 years. The amount of Commendation Award is 25 lakh rupees for each state.

Samsung acquired US-based mobile wallet startup LoopPay

Samsung Electronics Co on 19 February 2015 acquired US-based mobile wallet startup LoopPay. The acquisition is aimed at launching a smartphone payments service to compete with Apple Pay of Apple Inc.

Samsung had also invested in LoopPay, along with Visa Inc and Synchrony Financial, before its acquisition.

LoopPay's technology is different from Apple Pay as it works off existing magnetic-stripe card readers at checkout, changing them into contactless receivers. About 90 percent of checkout counters already support magnetic swiping.

On the other hand, Apple Pay allows iPhone users to pay at the tap of a button. Moreover, more than 2000 banks now support it and the US government will accept Apple Pay by the end of year 2015.

Status of Mobile payments in the US

Mobile payments have been slow to catch on in the United States and elsewhere, despite strong backing. Apple, Google, and PayPal of eBay have all launched services to allow users to pay in stores via smartphones.

The weak uptake is partly because many retailers have been reluctant to adopt the hardware and software infrastructure required for these new mobile payment options to work.

These services also fail to offer much more convenience than simply swiping a credit card.

Two tropical cyclones Marcia and Lam hit Australia

Two tropical cyclones Marcia and Lam hit Australia on 20 February 2015. This is the first time that two cyclones have hit Australia at one time.

Tropical cyclone Marcia is a category five storm and it made the landfall at central Queensland and left a trail of destruction over Yeppoon and Rockhampton.

On the other hand Cyclone Lam is a category four storm which made landfall in the Northern Territory.

Earlier, in 1977 and 1986 also two cyclones had crossed Australia at once but they were not as severe as tropical cyclones Marcia and Lam.

Tropical cyclones are considered severe once they reach category three, with gusts of 165-224 kilometres (100-140 mph) per hour. Five is the highest rating, with gusts of more than 280 kilometres per hour and capable of wreaking widespread destruction.

Manuel Valls headed Socialist Government in France won confidence vote over market reforms

France's Socialist Government headed by Prime Minister Manuel Valls on 19 February 2015 won the confidence vote over market reforms.

The no-confidence vote against the government was brought by opposition conservatives after Manuel Valls forced through the market reforms without parliamentary approval.

The no-confidence vote brought in National Assembly saw only 234 lawmakers voting in favour of the motion which was far short of the number required to bring down the government.

289 votes were needed to pass the motion in the National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament.

The non-passage of the no-confidence motion means that package of economic reforms automatically pass their first reading in parliament and the Manuel Valls government has the right to use the same decree in subsequent readings.

In France’s 57-year old Fifth republic, only once, a no-confidence vote has succeeded. It succeeded in 1962 when it was used to oust the government of Georges Pompidou.

Background

Earlier on 17 January 2015, Manuel Valls employed a rarely-used constitutional device called 49 – 3 decreeto force through a key package of economic reforms. The package of reforms included extending Sunday shopping hours and opening up key parts of the French economy to competition.

This led to tensions between President Francois Hollande and Valls on the centrist wing of the Socialist Party and rebels on the left.

France, the Eurozone’s second-biggest economy, has been suffering from chronically high unemployment and sluggish growth from past few years.