Indian Current Affairs: 18.03.2011

Politics & the Nation

There are two reasons for this. One is that while the probability of a catastrophic nuclear plant accident is very small, the damage due to a meltdown could be very high. The general fear is that it could be as high as what happened in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. However, this is misleading. When Hiroshima was bombed, people had no advance warning. At Fukushima, the population in a 20-km radius is already evacuated. So, even if there is a meltdown, the loss of life would be limited. Of course, these will be a high loss of property.
The second reason why people are wary of the risk of a nuclear power plant is that it is a risk not knowingly and willingly taken by people. People who may be affected by a nuclear power plant accident feel that it is a risk imposed on them.
One serious accident in a nuclear plant can lead to large-scale and long-lasting impacts — impacts that do not differentiate between the rich and the poor or the young and the old. But it is also true that our inability to provide clean energy sources to the masses is resulting in around 4,00,000 premature deaths annually from indoor air pollution — largely impacting children under 6. It has also been estimated that air pollution in urban areas leads to approximately 50,000 premature deaths. The key difference between these casualties and those arising from a nuclear accident is that these are widely dispersed geographically and spread through the year, although repeated annually.

The latest tranche of documents from WikiLeaks, detailing use of cash for purchasing votes for the UPA regime during the 2008 trust vote, has compounded the woes of the scandal-scarred Manmohan Singh government. The Opposition, which has been homing in on Manmohan Singh as a political punching bag, seized upon the latest revelation to demand his resignation.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who spoke on the issue in the Rajya Sabha, rejected the Opposition's demand for the government's resignation. "The cables were correspondence between a sovereign government and its mission abroad. They enjoyed diplomatic immunity and it is not possible for the government to either confirm it or deny it," he said. Mukherjee also said the charges pertained to the 14th Lok Sabha but the government of the day was responsible to the 15th Lok Sabha.

Finance & Economy

The Central Bank has raised by 25 bps the repo and the reverse repo rates, as predicted.
The Central Bank has identified three tasks for the government to keep inflation in check and sustain growth. These are:

1. Keep a lid on subsidies to keep the overall fiscal deficit in check, so as to leave room for robust private sector investment;
2. Remove fuel subsidies, so as to stop feeding inflationary expectations (after all, as global crude prices keep rising, domestic retail prices have to reflect them sooner or later); and
3. Invest to raise farm productivity, to ease food inflation.

The central bank notes with satisfaction that the Budget for 2011-12 does promise to make progress on these three vital fronts, and calls on the government to deliver on the promises made.

Manoj Pant discusses the issue in his op-ed today. He says that the alarm on this count is misplaced. He gives some solid reasons as to why this is so. Take a look. An interesting read.

The Environment Ministry is considering the idea of developing bioshields comprising mangrove and non-mangrove species in coastal areas adjoining critical infrastructure projects such as power plants and oil storage depots.
The idea of promoting mangroves and other biological shields to provide a ‘speed breaker’ was suggested by agricultural scientist and Rajya Sabha MP MS Swaminathan. The suggestion is being followed up by the expert group appointed by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to evaluate additional safeguards against the risk of tsunami.
Swaminathan has also suggested that the coastal areas adjoining the nuclear plants could be declared as critically vulnerable coastline. The senior agricultural scientist said that the idea of using mangroves as line of defence against coastal storms and tsunamis came following a discussion with older generation of Japanese scientists in 1989.

International

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the United States generally separates unplanned nuclear “events” into two classes, “incidents” and “accidents.” Incidents are unforeseen events and technical failures that occur during normal plant operation and result in no off-site releases of radiation or severe damage to equipment. Accidents refer to either off-site releases of radiation or severe damage to plant equipment.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the United States generally separates unplanned nuclear “events” into two classes, “incidents” and “accidents.” Incidents are unforeseen events and technical failures that occur during normal plant operation and result in no off-site releases of radiation or severe damage to equipment. Accidents refer to either off-site releases of radiation or severe damage to plant equipment.

Beijing has suspended approval for nuclear power plants across the country, putting brakes on a development programme that accounts for almost 40 % of the world’s planned reactors. In the US, billions in loan guarantees as well as the first wave of new plant licences since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 are in jeopardy. Germany has idled one-third of its nuclear capacity. Spain, Switzerland, the UK, the US and India have announced safety reviews.
The yen is surging ahead (current $1 = 79Y is the highest since World War II) due to Japanese insurance companies repatriating foreign assets to finance claims payouts and Japanese investors repatriating funds for reconstruction.
Not just these, there are quite a few immediate and mid term possibilities. Take a look at them in this article. While some of it may look like counting the money while the corpse is still there, experts have to do their job!

Language lessons

Of or relating to or functioning as an adjective
eg: Of course, some may quibble about why the sleuths cannot widen their repertoire to include equally low fat adjectival alternatives such as boiling, poaching, or roasting but the short answer would be that none of these would have such a searing impact on those being interrogated.

Argumentation that is specious or excessively subtle and intended to be misleading; Moral philosophy based on the application of general ethical principles to resolve moral dilemmas

Indian Current Affairs