NATIONAL APRIL 2011

NATIONAL APRIL 2011

• The Supreme Court refused to lift the ban on sale of tobacco products such as gutka and pan masala in plastic sachets. The bench clearly stated that the stay on the use of plastic sachets for Guthka could not be vacated. 
• Committee on Zonal Cultural Centres headed by Mani Shankar Aiyar presented its Report to the Union Culture Minister Kumari Selja on 11 April 2011. The recommendations will be processed by Ministry of Culture and appropriate steps will be taken to revamp the functioning of the ZCCs to further enhance their outreach. 
• India will overtake China in terms of population by 2025, an analysis of the provisional Census, 2011 data suggests. With more than 1.2 billion people, India has about 17.5 per cent (every sixth person in the world is an Indian) of humanity. China is the only country with a larger population, with 144 million more people. The United Nations has estimated that the Indian population grew at an annual rate of 1.43 per cent during 2005-10. In comparison, China registered a much lower annual growth rate of 0.7 per cent during the corresponding period. In fact, the population growth is now almost on a par with that of the developed nations. Demographers expect India's population to surpass that of China. At that time, India is expected to have a population of more than 1.4 billion, which will begin to drop in subsequent years. 
• The provisional Census 2011 figures suggest that two contrasting demographic “nations” are emerging in the country with all four south Indian States — Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu — already having achieved the replacement level fertility of 2.1 children per women required to initiate the process of population stabilization, while the four large north Indian States — Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh — have still a long way to go before they achieve the required level. Replacement level fertility is the number of children a woman should have to replace herself and her mate for a stable population, and it has been fixed at 2.1 globally due to child mortality. A stable population is that where fertility and mortality are constant. This kind of population will show an unvarying age distribution and will grow at a constant rate 
• The Central Advisory Board on Culture, in a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister in his capacity as the then Culture Minister had suggested a review of the functioning of the Seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) with their headquarters at Patiala, Udaipur, Nagpur, Thanjavur, Allahabad, Kolkata and Dimapur over the last 25 years. To review the functioning and performance of the seven ZCCs, the Ministry of Culture, had constituted a Committee on ZCCs. The committee included Mani Shankar Aiyar (Chairman), Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra and Amol Palekar. 
• The Union Sports Ministry formed a committee, headed by Justice Mukul Mudgal, retired Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana to fine-tune the draft National Sports Development Bill. The committee will also include badminton legend Prakash Padukone and former sprinter Ashwini Nachappa, who is also the Vice-President of Cleansports India. 
• A five-member high-powered committee, led by Dr V Mohini Giri submitted final draft of National Policy on Senior Citizens 2011 to the Indian Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The committee recommended that recipients of national honours like Padma awards or gallantry awards in the armed forces or national recognition for arts and culture must be given lifelong healthcare facilities for free on the lines of Central Government Health Services. The National Policy on Senior Citizens 2011calls for the setting up of a department of senior citizens and also a National Council for Senior Citizens. Rates of monthly pension will be increased to Rs 1000 per person and revised at intervals to prevent its deflation. Covering the oldest under the National Old Age Assistance which would provide additional grants in case of disability and loss of adult children was also suggested. 
• Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on 11 April said the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) would give fresh licences and renew the old ones for 10 years instead of the current norm of 20 years. The government was also planning to come out with a National Spectrum Act for better management of this scarce resource, while merger and acquisition (M&A) rules would also be liberalised to help consolidation of the mobile telecom sector. Mr. Sibal said all these important norms and guidelines would be part of the National Telecom Policy 2011 (NTP-2011), which is likely to come into effect by this year-end. The DoT was also looking at introducing a new licensing regime to replace the Unified Access Service Licence System. 
• A ‘State Innovation Council' for Andhra Pradesh will be set up for evolving a new process, and structures to enhance the delivery of services and improve the governance. Union government had already set up a 15-member National Innovation Council under the chairmanship of Sam Pitroda, following a suggestion by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy during the Secretaries' conference in January. The Council will prepare a road map for the Decade of Innovations 2010-2020. The Centre for Good Governance will serve as a Nodal Agency for the State Council comprising a small expert group with government and outside members from relevant and crucial sectors. The tasks to be assigned to the Council include evolving an Indian model of innovation, with focus on inclusive growth, public service delivery, delineating policy initiatives, exploring new strategies and alternatives for innovations and collaborations and encouraging universities, R&D institutions to innovate. 
• The Maharashtra Assembly late on 13 April unanimously approved 50 per cent reservation for women in local bodies. The government had promised reservation for women in elections to panchayat samitis, zilla parishads, municipal councils and municipal corporations in the State. 
• The Supreme Court on 15 April granted bail to rights activist Dr. Binayak Sen, observing that no case of sedition was made out against the rights activist, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in Chhattisgarh. Dr. Sen sought bail and suspension of the life sentence awarded by the trial court on charges of conspiring to commit sedition and providing assistance to those said to be Naxalites. The High Court had rejected his bail petition during the pendency of the hearing of his appeal against the trial court verdict. 
• Chief Minister of A.P, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has launched the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG)- Sabala in Hyderabad on 15 April in seven districts — Visakhapatnam, West Godavari, Ananthapur, Chittoor, Adilabad, Mahbubnagar and Hyderabad on a pilot basis for the empowerment of adolescent girls. Introduced by the Union government in 200 districts across the country with Anganwadis as nodal centres, the scheme would improve self-development, nutrition and health status of girls in the age group of 11 to 18, create awareness about hygiene, reproductive and sexual health. 
• The Supreme Court on 18 April banned the employment of children in circuses and directed the Union government to take immediate steps to rescue those engaged in such employment to implement the fundamental right of children under Article 21A [right to education]. 
• The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) gave permission to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate Puducherry Lt. Governor Iqbal Singh for his reported links to Hasan Ali Khan, a Pune stud farm owner, alleged to be the country's biggest money launderer and tax evader. 
• The latest data of the Planning Commission indicates that poverty has declined to 32 per cent in 2009-10 from 37.2 per cent five years ago. The preliminary estimates are based on the formula suggested by the Tendulkar Committee for computing the number of poor. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on 20 April told reporters that the 2009-10 data shows a decline in poverty from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 32 per cent in 2009-10 as the per the preliminary data worked out by the Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen. The Tendulkar Committee had suggested that poverty be estimated on the basis of consumption based on the cost of living index instead of caloric intake. It said that the basket of goods should also include services such as health and education. The new poverty line, as suggested by the Tendulkar Committee, is different for rich and poor States, and for rural and urban areas within a State. The National Sample Survey, which conducts large sample surveys every five years, will launch its next round in 2011-12. Estimates of poverty are important because the cheap grains under the proposed Food Security law will be provided based on these numbers. 
• The Full Planning Commission meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed on 21 April, to work towards a growth target of 9.0-9.5 per cent for the 12th Plan (2012-17). It endorsed the objectives and challenges outlined by the Commission for the five-year period involving special focus on policy and governance reforms and redesigning of government programmes. 
• The Planning Commission gave a presentation on the ongoing 11th Plan and objectives of the 12th Plan which include 100 per cent literacy, inclusive growth and development of physical and social infrastructure within the overall target of fiscal consolidation. According to the Commission's presentation, for aiming at 100 per cent adult literacy, the 12th Plan (2012-17) would have to increase expenditure on health from 1.3 per cent to at least 2.0-2.5 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product).The country was estimated to have recorded an annual growth rate of 8.2 per cent during 11th Plan as against the target of nine per cent. In particular, the economic performance was impacted by the global financial crisis and drought. 
• The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure on 20 April approved the Scheme of National Rollout of e-District Mission Mode Project at a cost of Rs 1663.08 crore to be implemented in all 640 districts (including the 41 districts where e-District Pilot Projects have already been initiated) of the country for a period of 4 years. National e Governance Plan (NeGP) was approved by the Government in May 2006, with the vision of “Make all Government Services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man”.
• One person was killed in police firing and several were injured as the protest against the nuclear power plant in Jaitapur located in Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra, turned violent on 18 April. Thirty protesters including Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi were arrested in this incident. 
• Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh, along with Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, on 27 April 2011 launched a programme giving tribals the right to harvest bamboo as a forest produce in Gadchiroli. Transit passes were handed over to tribals of Lekha Mendha village thereby according them the right of harvesting and managing bamboo. It will bring about a change in the life of tribals and other forest dwellers. 
• The state government of Maharashtra announced on 15 April 2011 that women would be allowed entry inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Sri Mahalakshmi temple in Kolahapur from now on. It was decided to allow special puja by women at a specified time and to fix specific hours for women to enter the sanctum sanctorum. According to the priests of the temple, only women belonging to royal families were allowed entry to the temple which was opposed by the women activists 
• Government panel that was set up to recommend rules for pricing of all natural resources has declared that all future allocations of airwaves must be done through auctions. The government panel is headed by former finance secretary, Ashok Chawla. In the draft report of the government panel, it has also called for spectrum trading to be permitted amongst telcos. This panel was set up in the backdrop of the 2G spectrum scam, rampant cases of illegal mining, controversies related to pricing of natural gas, and the potential that shale gas and other natural resources of India’s economy. In addition to airwaves, the committee also examines other natural resources such as oil, gas, coal, mining, other minerals, water and land owned by the government. 
• The Supreme Court of India on 19 April 2011 declared Khap panchayats illegal and termed them as kangaroo courts. A bench of the Supreme Court gave the Judgement stating that honour killings, khap panchayats in northern India and katta panchayats in Tamil Nadu were illegal and barbaric. The Supreme Court termed honour killings as shameful and asked for the harshest punishment who perpetrates this kind of crimes. The Supreme Court also directed State Governments to initiate action against any official such as District Magistrate or SP who does not prevent the incident in spite of having prior knowledge. 
• 11 of its 21 members of the of the Public Accounts Committee(PAC) on 2Gspectrum issue recorded their “vote” to “reject” the draft report circulated to the members by the Lok Sabha Secretariat on 27 April. Those who rejected the draft report said they intended to send recorded rejection slips to the Speaker as well as PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi. 
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• Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare called off his five-day hunger strike on 9 April morning after receiving a gazette notification from the Centre on the constitution of a joint committee, comprising members from the government and civil society, for preparation of the draft Lokpal Bill. The notification said the Joint Drafting Committee would “commence its work forthwith and evolve its own procedure to prepare the proposed legislation.” It is supposed to complete its work the latest by June 30, 2011.The 10-member Joint Drafting Committee will have five Cabinet members — Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee (chairman), Home Minister P. Chidamabaram, Law Minister Veerappa Moily (convener), Telecom and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal and Water Resources Minister Salman Khurshid.Apart from Mr. Hazare, civil society will be represented by the former Law Minister, Shanti Bhushan (co-chairperson), the former Supreme Court Judge, Justice N. Santosh Hegde, lawyer Prashant Bhushan and RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal. 
• Concerned over the sharp decline in the child sex ratio as reflected in the provisional Census figures, the Centre reconstituted the Central Supervisory Board set up under the Pre-conception & Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 (PC & PNDT Act).Chaired by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and co-chaired by the Minister of Women and Child Development, the Board consists of ex-officio members; 10 non official members The new Board will have 35 members including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare as the chairperson; Krishna Tirath, Minister of State (Women & Child Development) as Co-Chair; 
• In an effort to conserve water and ensure its optimum utilisation in the country, the union cabinet approved a comprehensive charter for the National Water Mission, one of the eight missions in the National Action Plan for Climate Change. The objective of the National Water Mission is 'conservation of water, minimising wastage and ensuring its equitable distribution both across and within states through integrated water resources development and management'. Its five goals include setting up of a comprehensive water database in public domain and assessment of the impact of climate change on water resources, promotion of citizen and state actions for water conservation, focused attention to vulnerable areas, increasing water use efficiency by 20 percent, and promotion of basin level integrated water resources management. An apex board will be set up at the central level with the minister of water resources as its chairman while at the state level, a monitoring committee headed by the principal secretary or the secretary will be constituted. 
• Andhra Pradesh government has amended some rules in the Panchayat Raj Act providing 50 per cent reservation for women in Panchayat Raj institutions. According to the amendments in the AP Panchayat Raj (Reservation of seats and offices of Gram Panchayats, Mandal Parishads and Zilla Parishads) Rules, 2006, half the seats in these institutions would henceforth be earmarked for women. Previously, women had a one-third quota in these institutions.