03.03.2009

Politics & the Nation

• Election scheduled announced
• The general elections will be held in five phases between April 16 and May 13.  Counting to be held on May 16.  The Election Commission announced this on Monday.  For more details, take a look at this picture.
• India is the world's largest democracy with 714 mn i.e., 71.4 crore voters.  
• The mammoth exercise will deploy over 40 lakh civil officials and nearly 21 lakh security personnel, including 75,000 paramilitary personnel. 
  
• With the announcement, the model code of conduct has come into force, shutting the government exchequer.
• The EC will also hold simultaneous assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim as the terms of their assemblies expire on May 30, May 29 and May 23 respectively.
• Incidentally, this is the first parliamentary election to be held after the the Delimitation Commission redrew constituencies.  Delimitation has been completed in all states except Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Manipur and Nagaland. Thus, the election for 499 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held on the basis of delimited constituencies; the five UTs do not require the exercise.  Delimitation has also pushed up the number of scheduled caste seats in Parliament to 85 from 79 and scheduled tribe seats to 47 from 41. 
• The number of polling stations has also been increased significantly, from 6,87,402 in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls to 8,28,804 now. The large rise is on account of rationalisation of polling stations, resulting in an addition of 12,901 polling stations for villages with under 300 electors to address concerns of threat and intimidation. 
  

International

• BDR revolt leader arrested 
  
• Touhidul Alam, a senior officer of Bangladesh paramilitary force, BDR, who is suspected to have led the bloody rebellion, was arrested on Monday while attempting to flee the country as the army launched a massive hunt for about 1,000 fugitives facing murder charges. Alam had led a rebel delegation in talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
  
• Sri Lankan cricketers become the target of terrorists in Pakistan
• The touring Sri Lankan team was fired upon by terrorists in Pakistan.  At least five of the team members were reported to have received injuries and five policemen were killed.
• This incident proves that Pakistan is no longer a safe place for anybody -- including non-Indians.  With this the ICC promptly announced that it will not hold the Champions Trophy in Pakistan.  The prospects of even the 2011 World Cup being held (partly) in Pakistan look very dim.  The matches scheduled to be played in Pakistan may now be rescheduled for play elsewhere.
• This is the biggest blow that Pakistani cricket could have expected now.  It remains to be seen whether Pakistani cricketers would now have to master the sport of Buzkashi.
• Guinea-Bissau's President killed by its army
• Guinea-Bissau's President Joao Barnardo Vieira has been killed by rebel soldiers reportedly in revenge for the death of the army chief of staff.  His death came hours after chief of staff, Gen Tagme Na Waie, died in a blast that destroyed part of the military headquarters.
  
• Read this BBC report about the issue.
  

Finance & Economics

• Export Import performance
• Exports as well as imports fell for the fourth straight month in January.  The worsening global conditions are largely to be blamed for this poor performance.
• Take a look at this figure which gives details.
• Some nifty calculations on wealth creation through biofuels
  
• India consumed 120 million tonnes of crude oil in 2007. At an average price of $40 per barrel, Indians sent out Rs 177,876 crore of its wealth to oil exporters such as West Asia and others. 
  
• If India sets a target of 10% blend of diesel and petrol with biodiesel and bioethanol respectively, that will imply retention of Rs 17,787 crore of its wealth within the country. 
  
• The RBI, in a report in 2002 estimates that for Re 1 invested (i.e., not sent out of the country for oil imports) in agriculture, manufacturing or services leads to an additional income generation of Rs 3.89, Rs 4.73 and Rs 4.12 respectively, or an average of Rs 4.25. At this average multiplier, directly as a result of Rs 17,787 crore of wealth retained in the country, our GDP will be higher by Rs 75,594 crore or 1.36% every year! 
  
• A litre of domestically produced biofuels is worth 4.25 times more valuable to India than a litre of imported fuel.
  
• Centre-state financial relations
  
• All of you know that the Finance Commission's basic mandate revolves around distribution of finances between the centre and the states.
  
• Today's article in ET explains to us how the issues of resource sharing, intermediation of funds and independence and autonomy have been pitchforked to the fore by the States in their endeavour to garner a greater share of the divisible pool of finances.  A must read.

Language lessons

• scupper: verb
• Wait in hiding to attack
  
• Put in a dangerous, disadvantageous, or difficult position
  
• eg: It was a string of miscalculations in which the party scuppered itself and Delhi slipped out of its grip.