Monday 10 December 2012

Daily News - Dec 10

The 2nd Meeting on India-China Border Affairs held in New Delhi
 New Delhi: The 2nd meeting  of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs was held here.The 2nd meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs was held in New Delhi on 29-30 November, 2012. The discussions took place in a cordial, constructive and cooperative atmosphere. The two delegations reviewed developments in the India-China border areas since the 1st meeting of the Mechanism and acknowledged with satisfaction that peace and tranquillity continued to be maintained due to the efforts of both sides. The two delegations also exchanged ideas on additional measures for maintaining peace and tranquillity as well as further steps to build greater trust and confidence between the two sides.The two delegations welcomed the recent liberalization of border trade across Nathu La, which has led to a significant increase in the volume of trade. They continued their discussions on introducing additional routes for the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra. The Indian delegation was lead by Gautam Bambawale, Joint Secretary (East Asia) and comprised of representatives of the Ministries of External Affairs, Defence and Home Affairs as well as members of the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. The Chinese delegation was lead by Ambassador Wang Xiaodu, Special Representative, Department of Boundary and Oceanic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and comprised of representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and National Defence of the People’s Republic of China.The 3rd meeting of the Working Mechanism will be held in China at a mutually convenient time.

Lionel Messi set the Record for most Goals in a Calendar Year
Lionel Messi, the renowned soccer player on 9 December 2012 set the record for most goals in a calendar year by scoring his 86th goal of 2012. He set the record while scoring the winning goal against Real Betis. Messi's record included 12 for Argentina and 74 goals for Barcelona in 66 games.  The earlier record was made by Gerd Mueller who had scored 85 goals in 1972 which included 72 goals for his club Bayern Munich and 13 for his country West Germany.Messi still has to play two league matches and one King's Cup match before the end of 2012. The record breaking performance has made Messi favourite to claim his fourth FIFA World Player of the Year award.Lionel AndrĂ©s Leo Messi is a footballer who plays for La Liga club FC Barcelona and as the captain of the Argentina national team.

Hockey Champions Trophy: Australia Won for the Fifth Consecutive Year, India Lost Bronze to Pakistan
At the Champions Trophy 2012, Australia won once again, adding to fifth victory consecutively after it earned a 2-1 win in a match against Netherlands in Melbourne. The fifth consecutive victory of Australia at this event re-established it as the hockey team (men’s) to beat, after Australia had missed on gold at Olympics. For the Netherlands, it was silver medal with the silver lining. Netherlands upgraded itself from bronze which they acquired last two years.
The bronze was claimed by Pakistan after they beat India 3-2 on a match on 9 December 2012. India missed the chance to win bronze, which would have been its second Champions trophy medal as well as the first since 1982.For the fifth place, Belgium won the match against Germany, the Olympic champion. New Zealand, in the meanwhile stood at seventh position over England.

The awards for the tournament were as follows:
•Top Scorer: Nicholas Wilson (NZL)
•Best Player: Shakeel Abassi (PAK)
•Fair Play Award: The Netherlands
•Best Goalkeeper: Jaap Stockmann (NED)

Records of Hockey Champions Trophy (Men’s)
•In the men’s tournament Australia has won Champions Trophy 13 times.
•Germany has won this trophy 9 times.
•Netherlands won the Champions Trophy 8 times.
•Pakistan is only Asian champion that has three titles in its name.

About Hockey Champions Trophy
Hockey Champions Trophy is held every year by International Hockey Federation. The tournament features some of the best teams of the world which compete against each other in round-robin format.

Devendra Lal, the Renowned Geophysicist Died At 83
 Devendra Lal, the renowned geophysicist as well as the visiting professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), University of California died at 83 on 1 December 2012. He passed away at his home in San Diego.

About Devendra Lal
•Devendra Lal started his career in research when he was 20 years of age. He started his career at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. His areas of research there were earth and planetary sciences, cosmic ray physics as well as astrophysics. He mainly studied records of the climate which are found in terrestrial minerals.
•He also set up National Radiocarbon Laboratory at TIFR so as to assist chronological studies of Indian archaeological sites dating back to the Harappan era.
•Additionally, he also set up Tritium Laboratory at TIFR. Tritium Laboratory was then shifted to National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad.
•From 1972 to 1983, he was the Director of Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmadabad.
•Devendra Lal won prestigious award of CSIR- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award in 1967.
•He was conferred with Padma Shri in 1971.
•Devendra Lal also won NASA Group Achievement Award.
•He won Hans Peterson Medal from Royal Swedish Academy.

India and Ukraine signed Five Agreements to Increase Bilateral Cooperation


India and Ukraine on 10 December 2012 signed five agreements in New Delhi to enhance cooperation including in areas of defence, Nuclear, Science and Technology and also to remove barriers in trade and commerce.The two countries also agreed to raise bilateral cooperation to Comprehensive partnership level. The agreements were signed during the visit of Ukraine President Victor Yanukovich. The agreements are as following:-

1)Agreement between the Government of the Republic of India and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on Cooperation in the Field of Defence
The Agreement will provide the framework for expanding our military technical cooperation on an institutionalized basis. It envisages mechanisms to be set up for promoting defence cooperation. It will pave the way for moving our relationship to a new plane, that of joint research and development in the future.
2)Agreement between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of Ukraine on Co-operation in the Fields of Science and Technology
The agreement envisages regular meetings of a joint committee, exchange of scientists and holding of seminars, joint research programmes and contacts between scientific organizations. There are over ten ongoing joint research programmes and this agreement will allow for further expansion of collaboration in this area.
3)Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Civil and Commercial Matters between the Republic of India and Ukraine
The Treaty provides for reciprocal arrangements for service of summons, execution of decrees etc. In an environment of increased contacts and enhanced engagement it eases legal procedures in the field of consular affairs.
4)Agreement between Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, Government of India and the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine for Exchange of Technical Information and Co-operation on Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection
The Agreement flows from the continuing interaction between AERB and the Ukrainian nuclear regulator and will now allow them to cooperate in a structured format. The Agreement envisages cooperation in some very important regulatory activities, including legislative regulations, safety guides and technical criteria on nuclear safety; siting, design, construction, operation, decommissioning of nuclear facilities; waste management and environment impact etc.
5)Memorandum of Understanding in the Field of Standardisation, Conformity Assessment and Quality between the Bureau of Indian Standards and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine
The MoU is in continuation of a similar MoU signed for a period of five years in 2005. It envisages enhanced economic engagement through elimination of technical barriers to trade and economic relations.

India to sign Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in criminal matters with four other nations
India would sign Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in the criminal matters with four other countries in 2013. The treaty in general helps in mutual assistance between two nations for preventing, investigating as well as prosecuting crime. Discussions on treaty were initiated already with four countries namely Azerbaijan, Israel, Nepal and Oman. Ministry of Home Affairs announced that formal signing of this treaty will take place in 2013. As of now, India has signed the treaty with 32 countries which include Russia, Egypt, US, South Africa, France, Switzerland, UK, Canada, UAE and Iran. The agreement is important because it helps in fighting back the trans-national organised crimes such as money laundering, terrorism, counterfeit currency, smuggling of explosives and arms, drug trafficking and much more.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram Selected For K Karunakaran Foundation Award
Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram was selected for K Karunakaran Foundation award on 9 December 2012 for his brilliant administration.The award is being offered in the memory of renowned Congress leader as well as the former Kerala Chief minister K Karunakaran. It includes 1 lakh Rupees as well as citation. The award would be given away to P Chidambaram by Vice- President Hamid Ansari on 13 December 2012 at Constitution Club in New Delhi. First Karunakaran Foundation Award was given to Pranab Mukherjee.

Delhi Government Checked Compliance of Polybag Ban across the City
Delhi Government’s Environment department on 9 December 2012 launched a campaign to check the conformity of blanket ban on plastic bag usage across Delhi. 25 teams of the department checked shopping malls as well as 5-star hotels in Delhi in order to find out the violators. The teams found that the blanket ban on use of polybags was violated in more than 100 shops. It was declared that violators will have to suffer the consequences. In November 2012, the government had imposed ban of plastic bags on manufacturing, sale, storage as well as use, according to the provision of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Violation of the provision would lead to up to 5 years of imprisonment or fine of up to 1 lakh rupees or both. Officials of the Environment department declared that initially the focus would be on plastic carry bags. Packaged food as well as materials would be focused later.

Google and Apple Partnered for Kodak Patents
Google and Apple tied up for offering over 500 million dollar in order to purchase patents of Eastman Kodak Co out of bankruptcy.After leading different groups in the summer of 2012 in order to buy 1100 imaging patents of Kodak, these two giant companies have partnered. It is worth noticing that both Google as well as Apple are strong competitors for seeking dominance in Smartphone markets. Susceptible partnerships are usual in the sales of patent because these partnerships enable the competitors for neutralising budding infringement litigation.
Kodak in the month of November 2012 had obtained commitments for 830 million dollars exit financing, depending on the sale of digital-imaging patents for around 500 million dollar.

BS Yeddyurappa, former Chief Minister of Karnataka launched KJP
Former Chief Minister of Karnataka, B S Yeddyurappa formally launched Karnataka Janatha Party (KJP) on 9 December 2012. KJP was launched in Haveri, 350 kms from Bangalore.
Besides Yeddyurappa, Ramkrishna Hegde, HD Deve Gowda, SR Bommai, D Devaraj Urs, S Bangarappa and S Nijalingappa had formed their own parties after serving as the Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Queen Elizabeth II to Create History with 3D Christmas Message
Queen Elizabeth II would be the first UK royal broadcasted in 3D while delivering the Christmas message. In order to watch this monarch, viewers will have to use special glasses as well as new 3D TV sets. After the 3D debut of royal Queen Elizabeth II, there would also be an on-screen performance of the Queen with Daniel Craig in James Bond sequence which is primarily recorded for opening ceremony of London Olympics. The special 3D Christmas message was filmed by BskyB. This message would be available on BBC and ITV. The recording of the special Christmas message took place on 7 December 2012 at the Buckingham Palace. However the speech would miss out on the pregnancy of The Duchess of Cambridge, news which broke out in the first week of December 2012.In the message, instead of the pregnancy of The Duchess of Cambridge, the 86-year old royal Queen Elizabeth II would speak about Diamond Jubilee celebrations as well as the Olympic Games. The opportunity of becoming the first Royal to be broadcasted in 3D was declined by Prince William at the wedding to Kate Middleton in 2011.The first Christmas message was given by the Queen in 1952. The first live TV broadcast on Christmas was in 1957. The tradition of Christmas message started with Queen’s grandfather George V in 1932. George V had delivered the radio broadcast which was written by Rudyard Kipling.First royal channel to be set up on YouTube was back in the year 2007. Queen also has her account on social networking site- Twitter since 2009.

Lobby Bill of Wal-Mart Hit Around 125 Crore Rupees to Seek Entry into India
Wal-Mart had filed the lobbying disclosure report with US Senate and it was found that the retail giant had incurred around 25 million dollar or approximately 125 crore Rupees in the lobbying activities. These lobbying activities also included issues which were associated with increased access to the Indian markets for investments. Wal-Mart, the retail giant across the world was struggling continuously for initialising its supermarket in India and since 2008 it is lobbying with US lawmakers to seek entry into Indian markets which are highly lucrative. In previous quarter which had ended on 30 September 2012, Wal-Mart had spent 1.65 million dollar or around 10 crore Rupees on different lobbying issues and these also included discussions in context with FDI in India. During that quarter, Wal-Mart had lobbied with various bodies for the case and these included the US Department of State, the US Senate, the US Trade Representative (USTR) and the US House of Representatives. In general, companies are free to lobby the case in different bodies, agencies or departments in US, but they are supposed to disclose the reports about lobbying activities every quarter with US Senate. As of now, in 2012, Wal-Mart had spent over 3 million dollar or around 18 crore Rupees on different lobbying activities which also included the activities associated with India. According to the recent lobbying disclosure reports of Wal-mart, it had continuously lobbied in activities so that it could seek entry into the Indian markets since 2008, except for certain quarters in the year 2009. It was also disclosed in the report that India was one of the preferred destinations for international retailers that offered an accelerated retail growth of around 15-20 percent in coming five years.

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