Govt. to promulgate fresh ordinance on Land Bill
Even as the opposition to the Land Acquisition Bill continues in different quarters, the NDA government is determined to bring to Parliament its amended Bill through a fresh Ordinance. The amended NDA
Hindu
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Incidence of diabetes studied
The incidence rate has been arrived at by studying about 500 people over an eight-year period Incidence reflects the rate at which healthy people in the population acquire the disease The overall incidence of diabetes has been 20.2 per 1,000 person years of follow-up While the total number of diabetics in the country, which is known as prevalence, is estimated to be 35-40 million, the number of people who become diabetic every year was not known. Not anymore. The "first incidence study on diabetes and pre-diabetes in India' has been published in the March 2008 online edition of the Journal of Association of Physicians of India (JAPI). Unlike the prevalence study undertaken by many researchers, studying the incidence
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Quake jolts Britain
Britain was on Wednesday jolted by an earthquake, the biggest to hit the country in nearly 25 years that damaged property worth over
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China closes plastic bags firm
The battle to clean up China's environment has led to the closure of the country's largest producer of plastic bags. The announcement comes after a state-led campaign discouraging the consumption of plastics was launched last month. The new regulations banned the use of ultra-thin bags (under 0.025 mm thick) and ordered supermarkets and shops to stop giving away free carriers from June 1. Following the move, Suiping Huaqiang Plastic Co., a company that annually produced some 250,000 tonnes of bags, has closed. State media revealed that the firm ceased production in mid-January. "Over 90 per cent of our products are on the limit list, so the only way forward for the factory is closure,' a management official was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency. According to official statistics, Chinese people use up to 3 billion plastic bags a day and the country has to refine 5 million tonnes (37 million barrels) of crude oil every year to make plastics used for packaging. Suiping Huaqiang, a 2.2-billion yuan ($305 million) company, employed 20,000 persons who now face an uncertain future. China's decree on plastics was a surprise move that went further than similar action taken by the United States and many other developed nations. It is being seen as a sign of growing environmental awareness in a country where breakneck economic growth has led to a serious toll on the air and water. The closure of Suiping Huaqiang may well be followed by others. Chinese leaders are increasingly anxious about the environment and draft laws to punish polluters will be high on the agenda of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, China's Parliament, next week.
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Sethu project: government yet to finalise stand
The Congress on Wednesday said the government was making efforts to find a "balanced' solution to the Sethusamudram project, though ultimately it would be the Supreme Court that would take a view on it. Sources in the party hinted at getting further studies done on finding an alternative
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Anthrax due to leather industry in TN: Minister
The government has confirmed prevalence of anthrax in Chittoor, Prakasam, Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts and attributed its outbreak in the State to the leather industry thriving in Tamil Nadu close to the common border. Replying to a question tabled by G. Muddukrishnama Naidu (Congress), Animal Husbandry Minister M. Buddha Prasad informed the Assembly on Wednesday that disease broke out among sheep at Jandlapeta in Karvetinagar area of Chittoor Municipality close to the Tamil Nadu border. Five sheep and four cattle perished last month as a result. The incidence of the disease was also reported in Prakasam district in December and some
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91.43-crore deficit Budget for Madhya Pradesh
A bag full of surprises: Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Raghavji arrives at the Vidhan Sabha in Bhopal to present the State Budget on Wednesday. Finance Minister Raghavji on Wednesday presented in the State Assembly the Madhya Pradesh Budget for 2008-09 with a budgetary deficit of Rs.91.43 crore. The Minister announced a reduction in entry tax on raw material inputs for textile industry and removal of entry tax on sponge iron and iron scrap for induction furnace. He also announced a reduction in VAT on diesel from 26 per cent to 25 per cent. Mr. Raghavji went on to announce pension and medical facilities to those detained under the dreaded MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) during the infamous Emergency. Those who served six months or more behind bars would get Rs.6,000 per month as "Loknayak Jayaprakash Samman Nidhi' (monthly pension) while there would be a pension of Rs.3,000 for those jailed for more than three months but less than six months. One of the major budgetary announcements was that wheat would be available to each BPL family at the rate of Rs.3 per kg and rice at Rs.4.50 per kg . The budget for 2008-09 has a revenue surplus of Rs.2839.78 crore and the fiscal deficit for year is estimated at Rs.4741.00 crore, which is 3 per cent of the GSDP. The Finance Minister told media persons later that one of the important goals was to focus attention on gender budgeting to ensure equality for women, economic empowerment and women's participation in developmental schemes covered by 21 State departments. The Budget provides Rs.1371.47 crore for Energy, Rs.1656 crore for construction of roads and Rs.484 crore for road maintenance. The Finance Minister incorporated the Chief Minister's recent announcements at a Kisan Mahapanchayat here and told the House that there would be budgetary provision for a bonus of Rs.100 per quintal of wheat procured by government agencies for the public distribution system, reduction in rate of interest from 7 per cent to 5 per cent on short-term agriculture loans, relief in payment of old outstanding electricity bills, and increase in the rate of grant from 10 per cent to 30 per cent on drip/sprinkler irrigation. Mr. Raghavji said that additional irrigation capacity for 4.80 lakh hectare had been created in last four-year period and for the next fiscal, there would be a provision of Rs.1815.57 crore for irrigation purpose. He said colleges of excellence would be set up in each of the 38 backward districts. He also told the House that 254 girls' hostels would be constructed and 448 middle schools would be upgraded to the high school level. The Government would also be launching several scholarships for students belonging to the weaker sections, he added. The Finance Minister told the House that there was provision of Rs.566.88 crore (State share) for creation of employment in rural areas, Rs.100 crore for the District Poverty Initiative Programme Phase-II and Rs.93.23 crore for Rural Livelihood Project. He said the State employees would get dearness allowance and dearness relief at the rate of 4 per cent from this coming April 1 onward.
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Construction spree on Yamuna plains
The list includes temple, shopping mall, Games Village, road diversions and more Constructions pose a great threat to the city's water security, say activists "Government not adhering to moratorium on further constructions' NEW DELHI: A temple, a shopping mall, a depot, an entire Games Village and now road diversions
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Chickenpox cases on the rise
The Capital has recorded over 1,100 cases of chickenpox this year. This, according to a senior Municipal Corporation of Delhi official, is high for this time of the year. Over 600 patients were treated at MCD's outdoor facilities, he said. "We do get a lot of chickenpox cases between January and April, but this year the numbers have been on the higher side. However, there is no cause for worry,' he added.
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GoM for pictorial warnings on tobacco product packs
A Group of Ministers (GoM) on Tuesday recommended using pictorial warnings on cigarette, beedi and tobacco product packs but did not set any time-frame for its implementation. Chaired by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the GoM also decided to tone down the nature of pictures and reduce the size of warnings from 50 to 30 or 40 per cent of the pack size. "The chairman will decide on the kind of pictures, which are either a scorpion or lungs and the size of the pictures in consultation with the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister,' Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi told reporters after the meeting. He said this was the last meeting of the GoM and the final decision on the nature and size would be taken by this weekend. Notification According to Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, a notification on pictorial warnings would be issued once a decision was taken on the picture and the size. However, the government would run a two-phase campaign to create awareness on the issue before implementation. "Importantly, we want to give time to the Labour Ministry to look for alternative jobs for those who could, if any, be affected by these warnings,' Dr. Ramadoss said. The first phase would be started in the next financial year and depending upon its outcome, the second phase would be launched, Dr. Ramadoss said.
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ISRO ponders mission to red planet before 2015
Ambitious space missions drawn up by ISRO's Advisory Committee After the Moon, it could be Mars before 2015 for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) if the ambitious space missions drawn up by ISRO's Advisory Committee for Space (ADCOS) up to the year 2020 are realised in the envisaged time frame. This was disclosed here by Prof. U.R. Rao, former Chairman of ISRO and currently Chairman of ADCOS, in his inaugural address at the four-day 15th National Space Science Symposium (NSSS-2008) which got underway on Tuesday. It was on the basis of the recommendations made by ADCOS that the first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, which will be an orbiter-cum-impactor mission, and the multi-wavelength X-ray astronomical satellite ASTROSAT have been undertaken by ISRO. Chandrayaan-1, originally scheduled for an April launch window, is now postponed by a few months and will be launched by mid-2008. The mission is chiefly aimed at understanding the chemistry and mineralogy of the lunar surface. It comprises 11 instrument payloads, which include five indigenous experiments, two joint experiments of ISRO with external agencies and the remaining four wholly foreign. According to ISRO sources, four of the payloads have been totally integrated with the lunar satellite and the remaining are in various stages of integration. ASTROSAT is expected to be launched in 2009. ADCOS, Prof. Rao said, had recently constituted four major panels on Planetary Exploration, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Space Weather and Weather and Climate Science. In recent months the deliberations of these panels have resulted in the identification of candidate future scientific missions on the basis of which the Committee has drawn up a perspective plan up to the year 2020, that also includes programmes for the Eleventh Five Year Plan period 2007-2012, he said. The exercises of defining these missions are likely to be taken up in due course. The identified missions include Chandrayaan-2, which ADCOS envisages to be a lunar orbiter mission again but this time with the possibility of including a lander-rover and robotic instruments to carry out, if possible, in situ analyses of lunar samples. Studies related to this mission are already on and Chandrayaan-2 is expected to be launched by 2012. Prof. Rao, in fact, expected this to be followed by more lunar missions. Some other important future scientific missions that ADCOS has identified include: A Mars Orbiter, to be taken up in the time frame 2009-2015, for the exploration of Mars with regard to the effect of solar wind, studies of its surface magnetic field, and search for palaeo-water; Asteroid orbiter or comet fly-by during the time frame 2009-2017, with the near-earth asteroid as the primary target; Space-borne solar coronograph by 2012 in the visible and infrared. A twin-satellite mission is planned to probe the electromagnetic field of the near-earth space during 2008-2010; small satellites carrying primary payloads such as (a) a nadir-viewing multi-angle polarisation imager and multi-spectral sensor; (b) payload for measuring vertical distribution of aerosols; and, (c) IR spectrometer for measuring atmospheric trace gases by 2010. Besides the small satellite scientific mission solar coronograph mentioned above, several other small satellite missions have also been proposed for the period beyond 2010. As for the upcoming near-term scientific missions besides Chandrayaan-1, there is the Indo-Russian mission called RT-2, aimed at hard X-ray spectrometry and imaging, which will be flown aboard the Russian launcher Photon-Coronas and is scheduled be launched this year. The other is the Indo-Israeli mission called TAUVEX, a UV imaging satellite, which will be launched along with GSAT-4 aboard ISRO's launcher GSLV. This is also scheduled for launch in 2008. A dedicated Space Science Instrumentation Facility (SSIF) is also proposed to be established shortly as a separate wing of ISRO.