29.05.2009

Politics & the Nation

• Prime Minister's first trip abroad
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first trip abroad will be to Russia next month for the meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) grouping. 
  
• Mr Singh will travel overseas for the SCO meeting, which is set to take place on June 15 and 16 at Yekaterinburg in Russia.  The focus at the SCO meeting, where India will participate as an observer, will be on regional issues. Among the issues that the grouping has commented on recently includes the current situation in Pakistan, which also has observer status in the grouping. 
• He will then participate in the BRIC leaders’ summit, which will take place on June 16 evening at the same place. Incidentally, this is the first-ever meeting of the head of states of BRIC countries. At the meeting, the Indian side is expected to seek greater unity among the countries at international meets, so that the grouping can play a larger role in the international decision-making process. 
• PM makes him mark on cabinet formation
• The PM added 59 new ministers — 14 at the Cabinet level, seven ministers of state (MoS) with independent charge and 38 MoS — after reconciling conflicting interests and aspirations of his party colleagues, his party’s need to shore up in vulnerable areas and injecting an element of youthful energy. 
  
• The PM’s grip on economic policy-making was tightened with appointments in key ministries. The sign of his determination to place people he wanted where he wanted came last week itself when he refused to accommodate DMK ministers in key infrastructure ministries. The DMK had to contend with Cabinet posts in telecom, fertilisers and chemicals and textiles. 
  
• Look at the various areas where the PM is expected to have his undivided attention in the next 100 days:
  
• Road Transport and Highways 
  
• 1. Accelerate pace of awarding road projects 2. Clear backlog, award another 35 highway projects 
  
• Civil Aviation 
  
• 1. Inject life-saving capital to the turbulent airline industry 2. Allow FDI in domestic carriers by foreign airlines 3. Revitalise national carrier Air India 
  
• Telecom 
  
• 1. 3g and Wimax auction within 2 months 2. STD at 25 p and local calls at 10 p per minute 3. Will have to take call on Bharti-MTN 
  
• Steel 
  
• 1. Achieve production target (120 million tonne by 2012) 2. Raw material security 
  
• Oil & Natural Gas 
  
• 1. Transparent oil subsidy mechanism 2. Tax exemption to natural gas production 
  
• Commerce 
  
• 1. Check falling exports. 2. Ink free trade agreements with Asean and South Korea 
  
• Finance 
  
• 1. Financial sector reforms, fiscal measures to boost economy 2. Disinvestment 
  
• Power 
  
• 1. New capacity addition 2. Boost nuclear power 
  
• Corporate Affairs 
  
• 1. Evolve a new company law, bankruptcy code 2. Fully operationalise Competition Commission of India 
  
• Complete list of the Union Council of Ministers and their portfolios: 
  
• MANMOHAN SINGH: Prime Minister,general administration, personnel, atomic energy 
• CABINET MINISTERS 
  
• Pranab Mukherjee: Finance 
• AK Antony: Defence 
• P Chidambaram: Home 
• SM Krishna: External affairs 
• Kapil Sibal: HRD 
• Anand Sharma: Commerce & industry 
• Mamata Banerjee: Railways 
• Kamal Nath: Roads 
• GK Vasan: Shipping 
• Sushilkumar Shinde: Power 
• Murli Deora: Petroleum 
• A Raja: Telecom, IT 
• Vilasrao Deskmukh: Heavy industries
• Virbhadra Singh: Steel 
• Dayanadhi Maran: Textiles 
• M Veerappa Moily: Law 
• Ambika Soni: I&B 
• Sharad Pawar: Agriculture, consumer affairs, food & PDS 
• Kumari Selja: Tourism, housing 
• Pawan Kumar Bansal: Parliamentary affairs 
• Ghulam Nabi Azad: Health 
• S Jaipal Reddy: Urban development 
• Vayalar Ravi: NRI affairs 
• Meira Kumar: Water resources 
• BK Handique: Mines, northeast development 
• CP Joshi: Rural development, panchayati raj 
• Farooq Abdullah: New/renewable energy 
• Mallikarjun Kharge: Labour 
• MS Gill: Sports, Youth affairs 
• Subodh Kant Sahay: Food processing industries 
• Mukul Wasnik: Social justice 
• Kantilal Bhuria: Tribal affairs 
• MK Azhagiri: Chemicals & fertilisers 
  
• MINISTERS OF STATE WITH INDEPENDENT CHARGE 
  
• Praful Patel: Civil aviation Prithviraj Chavan: S&T & also MoS in PMO, parliamentary affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal: Coal, statistics and programme implementation Salman Khurshid: Corporate affairs, minority affairs Dinsha Patel: Micro, small & medium enterprises Krishna Tirath: Women and child development Jairam Ramesh: Environment and forests 
  
• MINISTERS OF STATE 
  
• Shashi Tharoor: External affairs Preneet Kaur: External affairs Ajay Maken: Home Mullappally Ramachandran: Home NN Meena: Finance SS Palanimanickam: Finance MM Pallam Raju: Defence Jyotiraditya Scindia: Commerce & industry Gurudas Kamath: Telecom, IT Sachin Pilot: Telecom, IT E Ahmed: Railways K H Muniyappa: Railways Jitin Prasada: Petroleum D Purandareswari: HRD Srikanth Jena: Chemicals & fertilisers Saugata Ray: Urban development V Narayanasamy: Planning, parliamentary affairs Panabaka Lakshmi: Textiles A Sai Prathap: Steel Harish Rawat: Labour KV Thomas: Agriculture, PDS Bharatsinh Solanki: Power Mahadev Khandela: Roads RPN Singh: Roads Dinesh Trivedi: Health S Gandhiselvan: Health Sisir Adhikari: Rural development Pradeep Jain: Rural development Agatha Sangma: Rural development Sultan Ahmed: Tourism Mohan Jatua: I&B Dr S Jagathrakshakan: I&B Mukul Roy: Shipping D Napoleon: Social justice Tusharbhai Chaudhary: Tribal affairs Arun Yadav: Sports, youth affairs Prateek Patil: Heavy industry & PE Vincent Pala: Water resources
  
• A few important observations that cannot be missed on the Cabinet formation
• The composition of the Manmohan Singh team suggested a power shift — from the cowbelt to states in the South, West and East. About 40% of the council of ministers is from Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. 
  
• Most of the important portfolios will be handled by leaders from these regions. Another noteworthy feature was large representation of Dalits. There are as many as 10 of them which is a clear indication that the Congress is determined to bring the section back to its fold.
  
• Youngest minister in the Council of Ministers: Ms. Agatha Sangma (28), MoS for Rural development
• Oldest minister: SM Krishna (77), Cabinet Minister for External Affairs
• Powerful commentary on the draconian nature of security laws by Gutam Navlakha, Civil Rights activist in the context of Binayak Sen case.
  
• Once a person is accused under security laws, rule of law turns lawless, due process is diluted and the threshold for evidence lowered. Half truths peddled by cowardly officials get media coverage. 
  

Finance & Economy

• Is disinvestment in PSUs a reformist measure?
• Today's ET article argues that it need not necessarily be.  Take a look at the reasons.
• New gas finds by RIL can catapult India into the big league of gas producers
  
• NEW gas finds by Reliance Industries (RIL) in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin, if validated by Indian regulators, may place India among the top 15 gas producers in the world. RIL’s joint venture partner the UK-based Hardy Oil and Gas on Wednesday announced the discovery of 9.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in the D-3 block of the KG basin and another find of 10.8 tcf in D-9 block. Neither of these finds has been certified yet by the Indian upstream regulator, but could potentially raise India’s proven reserves of natural gas to a significant extent. Blocks refer to areas, running into thousands of square kilometre, where companies have been allowed to search for oil and gas.
• As at the end of 2007, India's proven gas reserves were stated to be 37 tcf.  If this current find adds another 20 tcf, then with 57 tcf of proven gas reserves India will occupy a place of pride among gas producers of the world. 
  

International

• US names new ambassador to India
• US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has named former Democratic congressman Timothy J Roemer as the new US ambassador to India.
  
• He will replace David C Mulford, who finished his tenure and left at the beginning of the year. The Obama administration had appointed Peter Burleigh as US Charge d’Affaires for the interim period. 
  
• Pak keeps in piling up nuclear arsenal
• A US congressional report has said that Pakistan, which has 60 nuclear warheads that are targeted at India, is continuing with its production of fissile material for weapons, and is constantly adding to its nuclear capabilities. 
  
• “Deterring India’s nuclear weapons and augmenting Pakistan’s inferior conventional forces are widely believed to be the primary motivation for Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal,” says the report.
  
• “Islamabad continues to produce about 100 kg of highly enriched uranium for weapons every year,” it adds.
  
• Man Booker International Prize goes to Alice Munro
  
• Acclaimed Canadian short story writer Alice Munro has bagged this year's Man Booker International Prize worth 60,000 pounds, pipping celebrated Bengali author Mahasweta Devi and Indian-origin Nobel laureate V S Naipaul in the clash of the world's literary giants. 
  
• 77-year-old Munro is the third person to win the prestigious award, which is given every two years since its creation in 2005. Earlier, it was awarded to Albania's Ismail Kadare and Nigeria's Chinua Achebe.
  
• The Man Booker International Prize is affiliated with the Booker Prize and can be won by an author of any nationality providing their work is available in English.
  
• Her first collection of stories, 'Dance of the Happy Shades' (1968) was highly acclaimed and won the Governor General's Literary Award, Canada's most prestigious literary prize.
  
• Her success was followed by 'Lives of Girls and Women' (1971), which won the Canadian Booksellers Association International Book Year Award.
  
• In 1980 'The Beggar Maid' was shortlisted for the annual Booker Prize for Fiction.
  

Language lessons

• fealty: Noun
• The loyalty that citizens owe to their country (or subjects to their sovereign)
  
• eg: FOR old-time family retainers like Arjun Singh and HR Bhardwaj, loyalty certainly did not pay. Their fealty used to ensure them a place of pride in any Congress Cabinet, but today, their inability to offer anything more than loyalty has put them out in the cold. 
• factotum: Noun
• A servant employed to do a variety of jobs
  
• eg: The appointment of Salman Khursheed as the new corporate affairs minister — a job held in the previous government by the Lalu factotum Prem Gupta — is proof, if indeed it were needed, that with the shackles of allies off, Manmohan Singh now means business.
• homilie: Noun
• A sermon on a moral or religious topic
  
• doppelganger: Noun
• A ghostly double of a living person that haunts its living counterpart