2011

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Current Affairs
April 7

Praveen http://indiancurrentaffairs.wordpress.com 4/7/2011

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POLITICS AND THE NATION

Every CIC must dispose of 3,200 cases annually

In a path-breaking initiative, the Central Information Commission, which is the Central appellate body for the Right to Information Act, has decided on a minimum performance norm for its commissioners. This is the first such decision by a quasi-judicial body in the country.

Under the new norm, each Central Information Commissioner will be required to dispose of a minimum of 3,200 cases annually.

The

current

national

average

of

disposals

by

Information

Commissioners is less than 1,000. The Central Information Commissioners also decided by mutual agreement to upload their asset details on the CIC website. Last year, Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, who disposed of 4,599 cases, topped the list of disposals followed by Annapurna Dixit who disposed of 3,965 cases. The current Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra disposed of 3,475 cases. Wajahat Habibullah who retired as chief of the body in September 2010 disposed of 892 cases. Central Information Commissioners Sushma Singh and Deepak

Sandhu disposed of 1,939 and 1,859 cases respectively.

How are Koya Commandos appointed, asks Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed concern over the creation of Koya Commandos by the Chhattisgarh government and giving them arms to deal with Maoists .

A Bench of, taking a serious note of the statements made by social activist Agnivesh, who was attacked during his recent visit to the State, said in its order: We direct the State of Chhattisgarh to provide the details as to under

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what authority and rules the Koya Commandos are appointed and arms are provided to them. Swami Agnivesh narrated before the Bench how when visiting a village in Dantewada last month with activists of Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living,' he was attacked by the Koya Commandos. He said it showed that the Salwa Judum force continued to exist in various forms. He said he was attacked by a group of people consisting of Special Police Officers and Salwa Judum volunteers. The Bench was hearing a petition filed by Nandini Sundar and others challenging the continued presence of Salwa Judum despite denial by the government.

Sharad Pawar quits GoM on corruption

Under attack from fasting social activist Anna Hazare and civil society groups, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has resigned from the Group of Ministers (GoM) on corruption, saying he does not want to be associated with it any more.

The Nationalist Congress Party chief has written to Prime Minister saying he would not attend the sittings of the panel any more. The panel, headed by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, has had two sittings so far.

Mr. Pawar's decision came a few hours after he said at a press conference he would be happy if he was removed from all GoMs, including the one on corruption. However, sources in the PMO said no resignation letter was received from Mr. Pawar.

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WORLD AFFAIRS

Arguments over agenda stall U.N. climate talks

U.N. climate talks remained deadlocked on Wednesday over a debate on the agenda for negotiations, with developing countries pushing hard for a greater focus on the fate of the Kyoto Protocol.

The April 3-8 talks in the Thai capital are part of a long and often troubled negotiation trying to strengthen the global fight against climate change by deepening greenhouse gas curbs by the world's major economies.

Kyoto is the only pact with legally binding targets for about 40 rich nations up to 2012. No successor agreement is in sight and many developing nations say the talks need to step up a gear to decide on a pact to begin in 2013 to avoid a gap.

During a late night debate on Tuesday among delegates from more than 170 nations, developing countries welcomed progress made at last December's meeting in the Mexican resort of Cancun, which led to a series of agreements widely seen as saving the process from collapse.

But developing country delegates said the current gathering must focus on the issues that Cancun put to one side, including the fate of Kyoto and the need for rich nations to step up carbon cuts.

The Cancun agreements enshrined a step-by-step process to win agreement on different issues.

Poorer nations in their proposed agenda on Tuesday said a major meeting in the South African city of Durban at the year's end must solve the issue of whether or how to extend Kyoto into a second commitment period.

Delegates were trying to craft a new agenda on Wednesday.

TOUGH ISSUES

The December deal in Cancun included a Green Climate Fund to manage $100 billion a year in aid to poor nations by 2020 and to limit a rise in average world temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times.

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It also won consensus on measures to protect tropical forests and a framework to help poorer nations adapt to rising seas and greater weather extremes. The agenda for Bangkok, the first major climate meeting since Cancun, is meant to build on the December deal by filling in the details on getting these schemes operating. But the 131-member G77 group of developing nations plus China said while Cancun was a good basis for talks, the tougher issues must be given much more focus and challenged the agenda presented by the chair of the meeting. Many rich nations say they want a broader agreement that binds all big emitters to steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Japan, Canada and Russia are firmly opposed to the pact entering a second commitment period from 2013 while developing nations say Kyoto must be preserved.

Gbagbo negotiating exit from Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo was negotiating the terms of his departure on Tuesday following a fierce assault by forces loyal to his rival and backed by U.N. and French helicopter air strikes. A United Nations internal document suggests that Gbagbo had surrendered. A U.N. official, under condition of anonymity, said later that Gbagbo had not yet done so but had suggested he wanted to, and had requested U.N. protection. France said it expected a swift exit by Gbagbo, who had clung to power since refusing to concede he lost last November's presidential election to Alassane Ouattara, plunging the world's top cocoa-growing nation into renewed civil war.

WikiLeaks coverage wins Guardian Newspaper of the Year'' award

The Guardian's coverage of the secret U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks has won it recognition as Britain's Newspaper of the Year'' at the prestigious 2011 Press Awards given on Tuesday.

Judges described it as an enormous story with reverberations around the world'' and said it put the Guardian at the top of the news headlines and

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some say it will change relationships between governments and the press and public forever. Alan Rusbridger - Guardian's editor-in-chief The publication of thousands of secret cables, including a cache of India cables'' by The Hindu, revealing controversial aspects of American foreign policy, has embarrassed the U.S. administration and its friends abroad. In New Delhi, there have been many red faces both in government and the Opposition following WikiLeaks revelations in The Hindu. The 5,000-odd cables, running into some six million words, provide an extraordinary glimpse of the Indian Establishment's often controversially cosy relationship with Washington. The Guardian was one of the world's four leading newspapers, besides the New York Times, Le Monde and Der Spiegel, that originally collaborated with WikiLeaks to publish the cables.

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BUSINESS/FINANCE/ECONOMICS
Cabinet unanimous on royalty issue in Cairn-Vedanta deal

The cabinet is unanimous in its opinion that royalties related to a deal in which Vedanta Resources would take control of Cairn India should be cost recoverable, Oil Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said on Wednesday.

Reddy spoke to reporters after the cabinet referred the deal to a panel of ministers. "There are some complex issues. The cabinet committee felt such a decision should not be taken in a hurry," he said.

Cairn Energy agreed last August to sell a majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta in a deal valued at up to $9.6 billion.

The deal has been delayed due to a dispute over royalty payments by staterun Oil and Natural Gas Corp, which has a 30-percent holding in the Cairnoperated Rajasthan fields but pays 100 percent of the royalties.

India's 2011 wheat harvest seen at 84.3 million tonnes

India's wheat harvest is seen at 84.3 million tonnes in 2011, Agru Minister Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday.

The country's grains output is expected to be 235.8 million tonnes, he added.

The government's previous forecast for wheat harvest this year was 81.47 million tonnes and for grains output, 232.07 million tonnes.

India set to harvest record grains, may allow exports

India's record grains output in 2011 may prompt the government to allow wheat exports, Agri Minister Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday, boosting the prospect of overseas sales of the grain from the world's second - biggest producer.

State Minister Arun Yadav last month said the country could lift a four-yearold ban on the overseas sale of the grain.

Pawar, a key member of a panel of ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on food, has favoured overseas sale of farm products like

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sugar to keep funds flowing to mills to ensure timely payments to cane growers. India's wheat harvest is seen at 84.3 million tonnes in 2011, higher than the previous forecast of 81.5 million tonnes and last year's output of 80.8 million tonnes. India's food grain output is set to touch an all-time record of 235.88 million tonnes in 2010/11 helped by the highest-ever output of wheat and pulses. The latest production forecast is 1.6 percent higher than the previous year's 232.07 million tonnes. India's crop year runs from July to June. In 2010/11, India's lentils production is likely to rise 18 percent to 17.3 million tonnes. India is a net importer of lentils and higher production would make the widely consumed nutritional cereals more affordable for the common man. India's food inflation eased to 9.50 percent in the year to March 19, data released last Thursday showed, from 10.05 percent in the preceding week.

Inflation a threat to sustained Asian recovery ADB

Some of Asia's emerging economies are showing signs of overheating, underscoring the need for further policy tightening and more flexible foreign exchange rates to tackle growing inflationary pressures, the Asian

Development Bank said on Wednesday. Developing Asia, a diverse group of economies including China, India, Azerbaijan, Thailand and Fiji, is expected to grow 7.8 percent in 2011 and 7.7 percent in 2012, robust rates albeit slower than the 9 percent seen in 2010, the ADB said in its latest Asian Development Outlook report. At the same time, inflation is expected to quicken to an average 5.3 percent this year from 4.4 percent in 2010, before easing to 4.6 percent in 2012, the ADB said. Some countries such as Vietnam and Pakistan could see inflation rates climb well into the double digits. Developing Asia is home to two-thirds of the world's poor and it is they who are most vulnerable to the effects of price increases. Policymakers must therefore consider preemptive action to control inflation before it accelerates.

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Higher interest rates alone may not be enough to tamp down price pressures, the report added, urging policymakers to use a variety of measures to curb inflation, including allowing greater flexibility in their currencies and capital controls. Besides rising food and fuel prices, other risks to regional growth included soft job and housing markets in the United States, Europe's debt problems, and the economic impact of last month's massive earthquake in Japan and nuclear crisis, the ADB said.

INFLATION THREAT

China, in particular, could do more to tighten monetary policy, the ADB said, even after Beijing raised interest rates on Tuesday for the fourth time since October. Inflation in China is running at around 5 percent and could accelerate further in coming months.

A surge in inflation, particularly food price inflation, could pull down those who are currently just above the poverty line, making it a social as well as economic concern, the ADB said.

The report said recent estimates showed a 10 percent rise in domestic food prices would raise the number of poor in developing Asia by about 64 million, or more than 7 percent.

"High inflation is a direct threat to stable and inclusive growth since rising domestic prices can lead to social tensions," the ADB said, singling out Vietnam as among the most at risk from rising prices.

Inflation in Vietnam could reach 13.3 percent this year, the second highest in the region after Pakistan, which could see inflation of 16 percent, the ADB said.

But tackling inflation driven by global and supply-side factors can put policymakers in a difficult position.

Steps such as tariff cuts and export bans have varying success, and there could also be problems with local infrastructure or domestic supply chains that exacerbate price pressures.

Raising interest rates can also attract more foreign inflows, which adds to pressure from currencies to appreciate and creates greater liquidity in domestic money supply, compounding problems for policymakers.

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Allowing currencies to appreciate was effective when dealing with a sustained surge of inflows, but could cause problems if the inflows are temporary, the ADB said. Unfortunately, distinguishing between permanent and temporary capital inflows is difficult, so countries will have to decide on the nature of problem while taking the necessary actions.

SEC slaps $17.5-million fine on Satyam, PriceWaterhouse

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday fined the software firm, Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (now Mahindra Satyam), and its auditors PriceWaterhouse India up to $17.5 million for accounts bungling that went undetected for several years.

The SEC said in a statement that Satyam Computer Services agreed to pay $10 million in fine for settlement of the charge of fraudulently overstating the company's revenue, income and cash balances by more than $1 billion over five years.

The SEC has also asked PriceWaterhouse India to pay $6 million in penalty for conducting deficient audits of the company's financial statements and enabling a massive accounting fraud to go undetected for several years.

Lovelock & Lewes and PriceWaterhouse Bangalore agreed to pay the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) $1.5 million in fine for violating PCAOB rules and standards in relation to the Satyam audit engagement.

In January 2008, Satyam founder B. Ramalinga Raju admitted to an accounting fraud (of Rs.7,000 crore) spread over five years.

The SEC complaint to the U.S. District Court said that former senior officials of Satyam used false invoices and forged bank statements to inflate the company's cash balances.