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Tuesday 24 September 2013

RBI Announced Committee to Frame Vision for Financial Inclusion

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 23 September 2013 announced the appointment of a Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Households under the Chairmanship of Nachiket Mor, who is a Member on the Central Board of Directors of RBI.

Objectives of the Committee

The 15-member committee has been asked to frame a clear and detailed vision for financial inclusion and financial deepening in India. Committee is to lay down a set of design principles that will guide the development of institutional frameworks and regulation for achieving financial inclusion and financial deepening in India.

Committee will review existing strategies and develop new ones that address specific barriers to progress, and that encourage participants to work swiftly towards achieving full inclusion and financial deepening, consistent with the design principles. 

Further, Committee is to develop a comprehensive monitoring framework to track the progress of the financial inclusion and deepening efforts on a nationwide basis. 
The committee has been asked to submit its final report by 31 December 2013.

The committee members are: Bindu Ananth (President, IFMR Trust); Prakash Bakshi (Chairman, Nabard); Bharat Doshi (Chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services); A. P. Hota (Managing Director and CEO, National Payments Corporation of India); Sunil Kaushal (CEO, Standard Chartered Bank India); Roopa Kudva (MD and CEO, Crisil); Zia Mody (Managing Partner, AZB & Partners); S. S. Mundra (CMD, Bank of Baroda); Vikram Pandit (former CEO, Citigroup); Ramesh Ramanathan (Chairman, Janalakshmi Financial Services) and Shikha Sharma (MD & CEO, Axis Bank). A. Udgata, Principal Chief General Manager, RBI is the Member Secretary. Karuppasamy and Deepali Pant Joshi, both Executive Directors, RBI will be the expert observers.

Justice Vangala Eswaraiah Appointed as The Chairperson of NCBC

Government of India appointed Justice Vangala Eswaraiah, former Acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court as the Chairperson of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) on 23 September 2013.He was succeeded by Justice M. N. Rao, a retired Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court.

About Justice V. Eswaraiah


• Justice V. Eswaraiah was born on 10 March 1951 at Nemillakalva Village, Valigonda Mandal, Nalgonda District of Andhra Pradesh.
• Enrolled as an Advocate in 1978. 
• Practiced as lawyer mainly in High court and Civil Courts in Hyderabad.
• Handled several Civil, Criminal and Constitution matters. Worked as Government Pleader for 5 years from January 1990 to December 1994 and Standing Counsel of A.P.D.D.C.L. and Nalgonda District co-op. Central Bank, etc.
• He was appointed as Additional Judge of High Court of Andhra Pradesh on 17 May 1999. 
• He was appointed as acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh high court on 4 June 2012.
• He retired from the office of Chief justice of Andhra Pradesh on 9 March 2013.

About National Commission for Backward Classes


• The National Commission for Backward Classes has been set up under the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993, pursuant to the direction of the Supreme Court in the Mandal case judgement for setting up a national body for Backward Classes at the Centre as a permanent body. 
• The Commission shall consist of five Members, comprising of a Chairperson who is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court or of a High Court, a social scientist, two persons, who have special knowledge in matters relating to backward classes, and a Member-Secretary, who is or has been an officer of the Central Government.

Bunker Roy and Malala Yousafzai Selected for Clinton Global Citizens Awards

India environmentalist Bunker Roy and Pakistan's teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai on 23 September 2013 declared as winners of the Clinton Global Citizens Awards for the year 2013. 

About Bunker Roy

Bunker Roy is the founder of the Barefoot College, which has been providing solutions to problems in rural communities for more than 40 years. As a result of Barefoot's work, one million litres of rainwater have been harvested to provide clean drinking water to over 239000 school children in more than 1300 communities worldwide. 

The Barefoot Approach is a proven community-based model, providing basic infrastructure for power and water in remote, rural areas, as part of an integrated solution to alleviating global poverty. The model of community-owned, managed, and financially sustained household solar light systems is replicated in more than 54 countries, empowering more than 600 Women Barefoot Solar Engineers and providing clean energy access to 450000 people in nearly 1650 communities throughout India, Africa, Latin America, the Pacific, and Asia.
Bunker Roy also named one of the 50 environmentalists who could save the planet by the Guardian and one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.
About Malala Yousafzai
Sixteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who, after being shot by the Taliban for her outspoken support for girls' education, has co-founded the Malala Fund to continue advocating for universal access to education. 

The Clinton Global Citizen Awards were launched in 2007 to honour outstanding individuals for their visionary leadership, demonstrated impact, and sustainable and scalable work in solving global issues.

G20 Summit 2013 took Place in St. Petersburg, Russia

The G20 Leaders' Summit took place in St.Petersburg on 5-6 September 2013 presided by Russia. The G20 nations discussed ways to ensure economic growth and financial stability, create jobs and combat unemployment, stimulate investment and promote multilateral trade, international development and anti-corruption. The members of the Group of Twenty (G-20) are: Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Great Britain, Germany, European Union, India, Indonesia, Italy, Canada, China, Mexico, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, USA, Turkey, France, South Africa, Republic of Korea, and Japan. The presidency of the G20 rotates annually among its members.
The G20 Leaders took notice of the final recommendations that the Business 20, Civil 20, Labour 20, Think 20 and Youth 20. To continue and expand dialogue, the G20 Leaders met with the representatives of business community and trade unions on the sidelines of the Summit.
A number of round table discussions were held in the Summit's International Media Centre (IMC), including: Experts' vision of the significance of the G20, G8 and BRICS for Russia; Issues of Development of the Global and Russian Economy on the G20 Agenda; G20 Initiatives to Reform the International Monetary System and Financial Regulation: Problems and Solutions; Fighting unemployment and creating jobs - a universal goal for the G20 countries; and The G20 Efforts on Fighting Protectionism and Trade Barriers. The Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier forum for international cooperation on the most important issues of the global economic and financial agenda.
The objectives of the G20 refer to:
1. Policy coordination between its members in order to achieve global economic stability, sustainable growth;
2. Promoting financial regulations that reduce risks and prevent future financial crises;
3. Modernizing international financial architecture.

The G20 brings together finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States of America plus the European Union, which is represented by the President of the European Council and by Head of the European Central Bank.
The G20 was formally established in September 1999 when finance ministers and central bank governors of seven major industrial countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) met in Washington, D.C. in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 1997-1998, which revealed the vulnerability of the international financial system in context of economic globalization and showed that key developing countries were insufficiently involved in discussions and decisions concerning global economic issues.
Finance ministers and central bank governors started to hold annual meetings after the inaugural meeting on December 15-16, 1999, in Berlin.
The first meeting of the G20 Leaders took place in Washington, D.C., on November 14-15, 2008, where the Leaders agreed to an action plan to stabilize the global economy and prevent future crises.
At the Leaders' level, Mexico was the second episode, following the Republic of Korea, that an emerging country held the Presidency of the Group.
G20 members represent almost:
1. 90% of global GDP.
2. 80% of international global-trade.
3. 2/3 of the world's population lives in G20 member countries.
4. 84% of all fossil fuel emissions are produced by G20 countries.
At their first meeting in Washington, the G20 Leaders achieved general agreement amongst the G20 on how to cooperate in key areas so as to strengthen economic growth, deal with the financial crisis and agreed upon three key objectives:
- restoring global economic growth;
- strengthening the international financial system;
- reforming international financial institutions.

Aadhar Card Not Mandatory for Government Benefits: Supreme Court of India

The Supreme Court of India on 23 September 2013 held that Aadhaar cards or Unique Identification number (UID) will not be mandatory for availing services or benefits under Government schemes like LPG subsidy, transfer benefits, food security, vehicle registration, scholarships, marriage registration, salaries and provident fund etc.

The court's order came on a petition protesting the issuance of Aadhaar cards to illegal migrants.

Direction given by SC to the Union Government regarding Aadhaar card


• While issuing Aadhaar card Government should verify whether the person is an Indian citizen or not. 
• These cards cannot be issued to illegal migrants.
• Aadhaar not compulsory for Government benefits.

Arguments

 Bench of justice B S Chauhan and justice S A Bobde said that even in Aadhaar issuing guidelines prepared by UIDIA mentioned that Aadhaar card is voluntary. Bench also asked the Union Government, on what basis Aadhaar card made mandate for Government services.

The petitioner, Puttaswamy Karnataka High Court judge told the bench that Aadhaar scheme is unconstitutional, there is no legal base for this scheme. For giving Aadhaar card they will collect biometric information and individual details. It violates right to privacy of individuals. Supreme Court interpreted in different situations that right to privacy is a fundamental right (article 21) under the Constitution of India.

But the law officers of government solicitor general Mohan Parasaran and additional solicitor general L Nageswar Rao argued that centre never gave any direction regarding Aadhaar card mandate for government benefits. They also argued that Aadhaar card was voluntary and not mandatory.

Recently Delhi and Maharashtra made Aadhaar must for all the government facilities like bank account, cash transfer and new gas connection etc. The direction may impact the Governments who are planning to implement the schemes like cash transfer and subsidies directly by linking Aadhaar card with their bank account number.

Main Objective of UIDIA Scheme

• Unique identification project was initially started by the Planning Commission as an initiative that would provide identification for each resident across the country.
• It would be used primarily as the basis for efficient delivery of welfare services. It would also act as a tool for effective monitoring of various programs and schemes of the Government.
• The government also created and approved the position of the Chairperson of the UIDAI.
•Mr. Nandan Nilekani appointed first Chairpersonof UIDIA and he holds the rank and status of Cabinet Minister.

About Aadhaar Card

• Adhaar is a unique Identification number issued by UIDAI to individuals for the purpose of establishing unique identification of every single person. It serves as the proof of identity and address any where in India.
• Aadhaar is a 12-digit number.
• Aadhaar is not a compulsory, it is voluntary based.
• The Aadhaar number can be used while opening a bank account, applying for passport, booking, e-tickets and many other places where there is a need to give your identity. 

Comment

Some eminent persons argued that data collection should be done through Ministry insisted identity number i.e.National Population Register (NPR). The National Population Register is a comprehensive identity database to be maintained by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India , Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India .

Apollo Hospitals and Saarum Innovations Formed JV for First Commercial Bio-Bank of India

Apollo Hospitals and health science firm Saarum Innovations formed a joint venture for establishment of Sapien Biosciences, the first commercial bio bank of India. Sapien Biosciences was launched on 23 September 2013. The aim of the joint venture between Apollo Hospitals and Saarum Innovations was creation of a sophisticated bio bank as well as a personalised medicine company. 

Shobana Kamineni, the ED, New Initiatives, Apollo Hospitals and Sreevatsa Natarajan, CEO, Sapien Biosciences announced the details about this bio bank. Sapien Biosciences consists of collections of high quality and systematically archived human samples which can be used for new clinical and research and development applications. 

About Sapien Biosciences

• Sapien Biosciences is the first commercial bio bank of India, which is established as a JV between Apollo Hospitals and Saarum Innovations.
• The role of Sapien Biosciences is to leverage the pathological and diagnostic data for developing state-of-the-art diagnostics as well as provide world class genetic risk assessment.
• It will facilitate cell-related research assistance to various Pharma companies.
• It is the 70:30 JV between Apollo Hospitals and Saarum Innovations.
• The joint venture will invest around 25 crore Rupees by 2015 in order to scale up the operations. 
• The Sapien Biosciences will also provide the personalised treatment to patients, which will include detection of the genetic disposition of patients for early diagnosis of diseases. 
• It will have access to 50 different hospitals of Apollo for the process of collection of samples as well as tissues for bio bank. 
• Sapien Biosciences will also collect its samples from the research-oriented clinics as well as hospitals for bio-banking needs and personalised medicine.
• Sapien Biosciences has also launched its first personalised product called MyPlatelet. This product helps in determining the response of a patient to the blood thinning medication. MyPlatelet will be used for measuring the genetic make-up of a patient as well as for suggesting the specific treatments. 
• India already has a few small-scale bio-banks, but this is the first commercial facility of India. There are around 150 large bio-banks in the world, which also include non-commercial and commercial ones apart from the non-profit bio-banks. 

What is a bio-bank?

• Bio-banks are very important from the biomedical research point of view. 
• There are various kinds of bio-specimens which include purified DNA, plasma, saliva and blood. All these bio-specimens are maintained in the bio-banks. 
• Actually, bio-banks are the libraries or the store house of the human organism. 
• Bio-banks catalog the specimens y making use of the genetic as well as other kinds of traits like ethnicity, blood type, gender and age. 
• Researchers of various organisations and firms can access these bio-banks in case they need the specimen that has similar kinds of traits for their research studies. 
• Bio-banks are also accessed by the clinics which perform the research studies and clinical studies.

Tuesday 10 September 2013

ISRO to launch Mars Orbiter Mission in November 2013

Union government of India is set to launch ISRO’s (Indian Space Research Organization’s) ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission in November 2013. The total cost of the mission is 450 crore rupees. The unmanned mission, which will explore the existence of life and the possibility of sustaining life on Mars, will travel 299 days in space before reaching the Red Planet in September 2014. The Mars Orbiter Mission will be sent through powerful PSLV-XL launch vehicle.
India spends 3148 crore rupees on space programme a year and has a 16500 strong human resource expertise.
ISRO outlined nine challenges for the space programme: food security, energy security, environmental security, resource security, space security, space transportation, search for life, exploring universe and colonization of Mars.
India will be the sixth nation to launch a mission to Mars after the U.S., Russia, Europe, Japan and China.

Wrestling voted back for 2020 and 2024 Olympics Games

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 8 September 2013 announced that wrestling to be the part of Olympics in the 2020 and 2024 Games. Wrestling was approved by the IOC on Sunday as an additional sport for 2020 and 2024.

Wrestling a sport as ancient as the games themselves is back in the Olympics after seven months. It was dropped by the IOC executive board in February 2013.

Wrestling got the majority of 49 votes in a secret ballot among 95 member of the International committee. Wrestling easily defeated bids from baseball/softball and squash to regain its Olympic status. The joint bid of baseball/softball was second with 24 votes and squash received 22.

The IOC approved the 25 core sports at Summer Games with a 77-16 majority. Rugby sevens (made up of seven players, instead of the usual 15) and golf will be added in 2016 Olympic Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). With wrestling being back to Olympics the total number of sports in the world’s biggest sports fair will have go up to 28 sports in the list. 

The announcement came after six months campaign by Wrestling body International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) to keep Olympic status.

About IOC
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was created by Pierre, Baron de Coubertin on 23 June 1894. It was located in Lausanne, Switzerland. It consists of 100 active members, 33 honorary members and 1 honour member. The IOC organizes the modern Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games, which are held in summer and winter after every four years, respectively.

Liberal Party won the Parliamentary elections in Australia

Australian Liberal Party on 8 September 2013 won the 44th Parliamentary elections. Liberal Party defeated the in-power Labor Party in the general elections held on 7 September 2013 to return back in power as the Liberal-National coalition for the first time in six years. 

With this win, Tony Abbott the leader of the Liberal-National Coalition will become the Prime Minister of the Country and successor of Kevin Rudd of the Labor Party. 

The coalition won 88 seats in the 150 seat Parliament. The ruling Labor Party was successful in winning 57 seats. Three seats were distributed between three small parties, and there were two seats still to return results. WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange failed to get elected to the Senate after running in Victoria, with his Wikileaks Party garnering just 0.62% of the popular vote. Election officials declared 80 percent of the vote as counted. Abbott's Liberal-National Party coalition had won around 52.6 percent of the national vote.

The ruling party PM Kevin Rudd accepted the defeat. He also declared that he won’t contest again for the Labor leadership.

In the election campaign, the main issues were how to tackle economic slowdown, whether to keep tax on carbon emissions and how to reduce the number of asylum seekers by boat (refugees).

Swearing –In
The Constitution provides that every Member of the House of Representatives, before taking his or her seat, must make and subscribe an oath or affirmation of allegiance before the Governor-General or some person authorised by the Governor-General.

Role of Queen 
The Monarch of Australia is a form of Government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign of Australia. The monarch is nominal head in Westminister style of Parliamentary Government. 

The present monarch is Elizabeth II, who has reigned, since 6 February 1952. According to the Australian constitution, the monarch is represented by a Governor General, appointed directly by the Queen on the advice of the respective government. 

The Australian monarch, besides reigning in Australia, separately serves as monarch for each of fifteen other Common Wealth countries known as Common Wealth Realms. This was developed from the former colonial relationship of these countries to Britain, but they are now independent of each other and are legally distinct. 

Westminster style of Parliamentary
In general there are two forms of government. They are Presidential and Parliamentary form. 
The Westminster model of Parliament consists of both real and nominal heads. The Real head is head of the Government and he/she is the Prime Minister, who is vested with real powers. On the advice of Prime Minister, the nominal head will act. In Australian context nominal head is Queen Elizabeth II. 

About Tony Abbott
• Leader of Liberal Party and main opposition Liberal-National coalition
• Born 1957 in UK to Australian parents 
• Rhodes scholar, former student boxer and Catholic priest trainee
• Held employment and health and ageing portfolios in Howard government

Manmohan Singh released a Postage Stamp in memory of Lala Jagat Narayan

Manomohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India on 9 September 2013 released a Postage Stamp in the memory of the freedom fighter and former Member of Parliament, Lala Jagat Narayan. The postage stamp was released in New Delhi. 

About Lala Jagat Narayan


• He was a leader of Congress Party 
• In the pre-independent India; he acted as the Personal Secretary of Lala Lajpat Rai
• He also served as the editor of the Bhai Parmanand’s weekly Hindi newspaper, Akashvani
• As per the White Paper released by the Government of India, Narayan was killed in September 1981, in an assassination for criticizing, Bhindrawale
• He was born on 31 May 1899

Vice President of India Released a Book Entitled India and Malaysia: Intertwined Strands

The Vice President of India M. Hamid Ansari released a book entitled India and Malaysia: Intertwined Strands at New Delhi on 9 September 2013. The book is authored by former Diplomat Veena Sikri. 

About the book- India and Malaysia: Intertwined Strands

• India and Malaysia: Intertwined Strands is authored by former Diplomat Veena Sikri.
• The book is written for the Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore.
• It is a comprehensive book on a very useful subject of relationship between India and Malaysia.
• The book offers a panoramic yet in-depth historical analysis of the inter-linkages between India and Malaysia. The analysis is a microcosm of the much larger relationship between South Asia and South East Asia, as these have evolved for more than two millennia.

About the author- Veena Sikri

• She remained High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh from December 2003 to November 2006.
• She also remained the High Commissioner of India to Malaysia from September 2000 to December 2003.
• She also held the position as the Director General, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), New Delhi from March 1989 to December 1992.
• She has authored and reviewed various other books and articles such as Contemporarising Tagore and the World, book review on Bangladesh: Politics, Economy and Civil Society, article titled It’s the New Neighbourhood, book review of Understanding Bangladesh, Bangladesh 2009: The Elections and Beyond, The Geopolitics of Bangladesh, Connectivity Issues, India-Bangladesh Relations: The Way Ahead, Islam in South Asia: the Bengal Experience, Bangladesh: a Watershed Year and Democracy and the People of Bangladesh.