Indian Current Affairs: 30.08.2007

Yes argues an ET editorial of today. But I have a different take on the subject. Take a look at what I noted for us in our Discover It blog.

It is the name of the leaky ship in which the Cuban legends Fidel Castro and Che Guevera have landed in Cuba on December 2, 1956 along with 80 others to launch their successful revolution.
Today, Communist Party of Cuba’s mouthpiece has the same name. Castro keeps writing an odd editorial there in that paper.

When it comes to anti-imperialism and improving the labour standards in our country, it is the former that our Left prefers to counter than to fight for improving the lot of the proletariat.
The developed world’s attempts to impose labour standards on Indian producers are opposed by our Left more vehemently than our own capitalists. Never mind if our proletariat suffers in the process. Never also mind whether or not it will reduce our country’s export competitiveness. Because the measures are proposed by the imperialist West, it is their arm-twisting on labour standards that has to be resisted.
Can you find arguments more devious than this? I couldn’t.

The finance ministry has recently finalized the selection of some transaction advisers in PPP (Public Private Partnership). This move is expected to give a fillip to taking forward the proposed infrastructure projects.
A transaction adviser will help state governments and other government agencies to structure infrastructure projects to be taken up on a PPP basis. They will also help in attracting the best bidders and ensure that PPP really takes off, especially at state and municipal levels.
So far, 22 states have set up PPP cells for taking forward the infrastructure projects. But empowering them remains a big issue.
Only four states viz., Gujarat, AP, Orissa and Punjab have so far put in place infrastructure Acts.

The oldest film festival in the world, has turned 75 now. It has opened yesterday. The festival made its debut in 1932.
The festival's principal awards are the Leone d'Oro (Golden Lion), which is awarded to the best film screened at the festival, and the Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup; 'volpi' translates as 'vixens'), which is awarded to the best actor and actress. Recently, a new award has been added, the San Marco Award for the best film in the "controcorrente" (counter-current) section.
British psychological drama ‘Atonement’, in which Keira Knightley played the lead actress, is expected to win this year’s Golden Lion award. But let’s wait and watch.
A rare feature of this year’s festival is that all the 22 films which are in competition are world premiers. This feat was achieved only once earlier – last year.

Earlier, it was the Narasimhan Committee of 1998 that has gone into the issues of taking the reform process forward. The measures that were initiated following that committee’s recommendations came to be largely recognized as the second generation of reforms.
The present committee is to submit its report by March 2008. Its mandate includes:

Indicating the prioritizing and the sequencing of reform measures;
Suggesting appropriate supervisory and regulatory changes as well as measures to contain risks; and
Recommending whatever changes are found necessary in the legal and educational systems for enabling the financial sector to perform better.

We all know too well that ICRISAT is located near Hyderabad and that it is headed by a Director General, Mr. William Dar. Time for us to know a little about what they do.
On overcoming land degradation in dry land areas, it has three interventions:

Desert Margins Programme: The premise of this programme is that deserts can be avoided and reversed by enhancing the resilience and biodiversity of the agro-ecosystem; and improving the farmers’ livelihoods through more productive, profitable, and stable land management.
Fertilizer microdosing: It is the practice of providing the growing crop with the appropriate quantity of fertilizer at the right time. Farmers measure the right amount of fertilizer in caps of soft drink or beer bottles and place them along with the seed.
Drylands eco-farm: It is a tree-crops-livestock system for rain fed crop production. It involves inter-cropping fast-growing trees with annual crops. Profits from eco-farms are three to five times higher than the current farming systems.

India beat Syria to win the cup.
The Nehru Cup was launched in 1982 as an annual tournament and since 1989 was held every alternate year until the last edition at Kochi in 1997. The tournament was shelved after 1997 due to lack of sponsorship. However it was revived in 2007 mainly due to persuasion by the current coach of Indian Football team Bob Houghton.
The tournament held during 2007 is known as ONGC Nehru Cup.

It is an eight-day-long annual festival that takes place in Ari Kaplan Park and Rec, Nevada, USA on the American Labor Day holiday in September. The event is described by organizers as an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance and takes its name from the ritual of burning a large wooden sculpture of a man on the sixth day. The event is organized by Black Rock City, LLC, under the guidance of founder Larry Harvey. In 2006, nearly 40,000 people participated in The Burning Man Project.
It is in news now because, the wooden sculpture was burnt accidentally before the event started.

Indian Current Affairs