12.10.2007

• Blast in Ajmer Dargah
• There was a blast here killing two persons and injuring about 20 others.
• This is believed to be the handiwork of fundamentalist outfits like Jamaat-e-Islami. They view practices like engagement between humans and god through mystics as heretical. Hence their view that Sufism is antithetical to Islam.
• Penalty in case of dowry deaths
• The Allahabad High Court has, while hearing the case of Nathu Vs. State of UP, has referred the issue of maximum penalty in case of dowry deaths to the law ministry. The law ministry in turn has asked the Law Commission for studying the issue. The Law Commission has recommended that the minimum penalty be kept at 10 years imprisonment in place of the present 7 years. It has not favoured death penalty, because international practice is to do away with death penalty for any crime altogether.
• The Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Ms. Girija Vyas has welcomed the increase in the penalty.
• Nobel Prize for Literature announced
• English writer Doris Lessing has won the prize.
• She was born to British parents who were living in what is now Iran. She was a school drop out at 13.
• She made her debut with “The Grass Is Singing” in 1950. She is best known for her 1962 work “Golden Notebook”. Her writings explored relationships between the genders and races.
• Oil bonds to OMCs
• In a bid to partially compensate the Oil Marketing Companies for their losses on sale of fuels, the government has announced that they would be issued oil bonds worth Rs. 23,457 crores.

Committee on port standardization

• Set up by the ministry of shipping to review the security preparedness of major ports and shipyards and headed by Cochin Port Trust Chairman, N. Ramachandran this committee has submitted its report.
• Is declaring a higher MSP year after year the solution to the problems afflicting the agriculture sector?
• NO argues an ET editorial today. Look at the arguments.
• Procurement is concentrated in just two or three states; so it does very little for the average farmer.
• A thorough revamp of the MSP – treat it as ‘support’ price instead of ‘procurement’ price – so that huge stocks are not left rotting away in FCI godowns and the subsidy burden is brought down. Government should step in only when the market price falls below the support price.
• The government should ensure that investment in farming, irrigation, extension programmes, storage facilities etc., is increased.
• PDS needs to be for targeted population like the BPL families and that too with food coupons instead of the present system which has lot of leakages.
• Religion, rationality & development
• This is a very good article that debates about the Ram Sethu controversy. Recommend reading it at least once. Will keep you in good stead for the General Essay paper of the Civil Services exam.
• RBI feels that NDFs could impact rupee
• In a paper published by it, the RBI feels that in volatile market conditions the NDF market transactions can have an impact on the domestic spot markets.
• Remember NDFs? Non-deliverable forwards.
• World Standards Day
• October 14^th is being observed as World Standards Day.
• It was on this day in 1946 that delegates from 25 countries first gathered in London and consequently decided to create a new international organization dedicated to the coordination and unification of standards work. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was officially formed one year later and it was at the prompting of an ISO President that the first World Standards Day was celebrated on October 14th, 1970.
• The theme for this year is "Standards and the Citizen: Contributing to Society".