News updates

• The Hindu : Today's Paper / OPINION : Auto focus
  • all the big automobile companies have a major presence in India, which is touted as the market of the future especially for passenger cars
  • automobile industry is up against stiff challenges on multiple fronts
  • rising petrol prices
  • high interest rates on car loans
  • possibility of the government imposing a higher tax on diesel cars to correct the distortion in sales pattern due to the wide gap between petrol and diesel prices is a source of anxiety
  • poor state of infrastructure in ports and connectivity
  • labour unrest in some automobile hubs
  • government support is the sine qua non for the party to continue
• The Hindu : Today's Paper / OPINION : ‘Private sector must support scientific research too'
  • responsibility of both the public governance system and the private sector to enhance the focus on research
  • education and research institutions must spend more time in interacting with the industry in understanding their problems and in solving their problems.
  • We must create a platform like the National Science Foundation (an independent United State's government agency aimed at promoting science and engineering). The Indian Parliament passed a bill six years ago to constitute a similar agency, but it has not yet been created.
• Connectivity will generate economic vibrancy: Hasina
  • Akhaura-Agartala rail link
  • operation of Ashuganj as a multimodal trans-shipment point
  • transportation of Over Dimensional Cargo for the Palatana power project
  • bridge over Feni river; use of Chittagong and Mongla Ports by India, Nepal and Bhutan
  • four new border haats (markets)
  • Bangladesh was keen to undertake a joint venture project for power generation
• The Hindu : News / National : Cabinet approval for new narcotics policy
  • policy on narcotic drugs to check illicit production of psychotropic substances, curb drug abuse and halt trafficking of such items as they constitute a major component of black money proliferation
  • Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) policy
  • the private sector may be allowed to produce alkaloids — chemical substances used in the pharmaceutical industry — from opium and products from poppy straw
  • Hitherto, alkaloids from opium are made only in government-owned opium and alkaloid units
  • To check illicit cultivation of poppy and cannabis, the government will use satellite imageries to detect and eradicate such crops.
  • policy lays emphasis on developing alternative means of livelihood for growers.
• The Hindu : News / National : Cabinet clears Counter-Terrorism Centre
  • NCTC would work under the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and report to its Director, the Home Secretary and the Home Minister
  • drawing up plans and co-ordinating all actions to counter terrorism
  • ntegrating all intelligence, coordinating with relevant intelligence agencies to ensure that the perpetrators of terror are brought to justice
  • comprehensive database of terrorists, their associates and supporters
  • Counter-terrorism in today's day and age is a specialised function
  • here must be an organisation that devotes its complete time and energy to anticipating and countering terrorists.
• The Hindu : Health / Policy & Issues : No new wild polio case for a year, India beats down deadly virus
  • Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease which mainly affects young children.
  • ransmitted through contaminated food and water, and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system
  • Acute Flaccid Paralysis is a disabling condition where there is absence of muscle tone in one or both limbs, and tendon reflexes
  • oral polio vaccine prevents the transmission of infection effectively.
  • If all tests for the wild polio virus in India — including laboratory analysis of acute flaccid paralysis cases with onset up to mid-January and environmental sewage sampling — return negative, India will officially be deemed to have stopped the transmission of the indigenous wild polio virus.
  • e next step would be to look at a polio-free South East Asian Region in 2014

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.