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G20 pledges to fight climate change, Ebola
Centre to make marriage laws women-friendly
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Al-Qaida banking on SIMI for Indian recruits
India, China start military exercise
PM neither sleeps nor allows us to sleep: Naidu
Prabhu faces uphill task as
Railway Minister
Pensioners await arrears despite SC orders
Make Henderson report public: Capt
Sena to show strength today
In 6 months, 40 pilots quit SpiceJet
Pak pitches for better ties with India
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G20 pledges to fight climate change, Ebola
Brisbane, November 16 Russian President Vladimir Putin left the G20 summit in Brisbane early as US President Barack Obama accused Russia of invading Ukraine and Britain warned of a possible "frozen conflict" in Europe. "I think President Putin can see he is at a crossroads," said British Prime Minister David Cameron. "If he continues to destabilise Ukraine there will be further sanctions, further measures. "We would prefer a Russia that is fully integrated with the global economy," he told a news conference. "But we are also very firm on the need to uphold core international principles... you don't invade other countries or finance proxies and support them in ways that break up a country that has mechanisms for democratic elections." Before leaving the G20 Summit, Putin said a solution to the Ukraine crisis was possible, but did not elaborate. Security and climate change overshadowed G20 talks on boosting global economic growth at the summit, although the leaders did sign off on a package of measures to add an extra 2.1 percentage points to global growth over five years. "This will add more than $2 trillion to the global economy and create millions of jobs," said a communique issued at the end of the meeting. The US and other nations overrode host Australia's attempts to keep climate change off the formal agenda. Australia is one of the world's biggest carbon emitters per capita. The final communique called for effective action to address climate change with the aim of adopting a protocol, with legal force, at a UN climate conference in Paris in 2015. Obama put climate change squarely on the G20 agenda with a speech on Saturday calling on all nations to act, and committing $3 Billion to the Green Climate Fund. Japan pledged $1.5 Billion to the fund on Sunday. World leaders agreed to unite in the fight against Ebola, which Britain's Cameron said was not only a humanitarian crisis but also a security threat. — Reuters West isolates Russia
Putin leaves early amid backlash
Vladimir Putin jetted out of Australia on Sunday after a testy G20 summit where he faced concerted Western fire over
the Ukraine crisis, saying he left slightly early because he needed to get some sleep. Putin added in comments reported by RIA Novosti news agency that the decision to leave early had nothing to do with tensions over Ukraine.
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Remittance cost to go down
Taking concerns of India and other developing countries on board, the G20 on Sunday vowed to take “strong
practical” measures to reduce the global average cost of transferring remittances to five per cent. India is the world’s largest recipient of remittances with $71 billion sent last year. China to host G20 in 2016
Asian powerhouse China will host world leaders for the G20 summit in 2016, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Sunday at the conclusion of two days of talks in Brisbane. Turkey takes over the presidency from Australia and will host the event in Antalya next year Saudi prince meets Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud here on the sidelines of the G20 summit. During the delegation-level talks, the Saudi crown prince congratulated Modi and said his country was “ready to cooperate in all sectors”. Modi unveils Gandhi’s statue
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday unveiled a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Brisbane, saying that the Mahatma's legacy is still relevant today. "Mahatma Gandhi is as relevant today as he was in his lifetime," Modi said at a function where he unveiled the Gandhi statue at Roma Street Parkland here.
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Centre to make marriage laws women-friendly
New Delhi, November 16 The Law Ministry has circulated a draft cabinet note on Marriage Laws (amendment) Bill for inter-ministerial consultations. Once it receives the feedback, newly-appointed Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda will take the proposal to the Union Cabinet for a final nod, a top Ministry official said. According
to the draft, marriage laws will now become more women friendly with a
slew of measures being proposed including providing for sufficient
compensation for the wife and children from the husband’s immovable
property in case of a divorce. Seeking to put an end to prolonged
legal battles in divorce cases, the Law Ministry has proposed that
courts will be free to exercise discretion in granting divorce after
three years if one of the partners does not move a second ‘joint
application’ for divorce with mutual consent. There is a provision
for ensuring compensation for the wife and children from the husband’s
immovable property in case of a divorce and the amount will be decided
by the court. It has also been proposed to empower courts to decide
the compensation amount for a wife and children from the husband’s
inherited and inheritable property once a marriage legally ends. A new
section 13 (f) has been added to this effect. A six to 18 month waiting period or cooling off period already exists in the present law when the two parties move joint application for divorce with mutual consent. The previous UPA government had struggled for a consensus on the Bill after it was first introduced in Rajya Sabha in 2010. It had gone back the then Cabinet on four occasions for changes. It was finally passed in August, 2013 in the upper house but could not be cleared by the lower house. The legislation lapsed following dissolution of 15th Lok Sabha. The
present draft is on the lines of the previous Bill and any change would
be made after inter-ministerial consultations. The proposal, which seeks
to alter the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and the Special Marriage Act,
1954, introduces the option of divorce on grounds of “irretrievable
breakdown of marriage”. Legislative Department in the Law Ministry
is the nodal unit dealing with marriage laws in India.
— PTI New surrogacy law soon
New Delhi: Surrogacy in India will soon be a regulated sector with the government bringing in a law to govern all aspects of the process like compensation, age and consent of the surrogate mother. “The final draft Bill is now lying with the Law Ministry and, after being cleared, will be presented before the Cabinet for approval,”
VM Katoch, Secretary, Department of Health Research under the Health Ministry said.
— IANS
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Al-Qaida banking on SIMI for Indian recruits
New Delhi, November 16 Sources said intelligence inputs shared by Central agencies with the police in some major cities, including Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Mumbai, talked of Al-Qaida not only planning to recruit disgruntled youth but had a target to pick up those familiar with use of computers or having knowledge about aeroplanes. They said Qaida, which was responsible for the September 11, 2001, attack on New York’s World Trade Center but has no reported presence in India till now, is using Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives in Pakistan to establish contacts with the sleeper cells of SIMI to recruit educated Muslim youth. “A recruit with some technical skill can prove to be more lethal than others. Qaida wants to add manpower and gain capabilities,” said an official, who did not want to be named. Sources said Qaida has plans to cause blasts and other disturbances in India. Intelligence officials said members of Al Qaida were in touch with Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, founder members of Indian Mujahideen who are believed to be in Pakistan. The sources said there was evidence of growing ties between Qaida and IM. IM has worked in close association with SIMI in the past and its sleeper cells were sought to be used by Al-Qaida.
— IANS
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Chhattisgarh sterilisation Deaths Bilaspur, November 16 “Auxillary nurse-midwives and mitanins (women health workers) told the women that they will get a hefty sum of money and free medicines. But afterwards they were given just Rs 30-40, and told that rest of the money was spent on the transportation and other arrangements,” alleged Buddhu Singh, whose wife Chaiti Bai was one of the 13 women who died. By an order issued in the 1970s, Pahari Korva, Baiga, Abujhmaria, Birhor and Kamar tribes, which live along the present-day Chhattisghar-MP border, cannot be targeted for sterilisation due to their high mortality rate. Singh, however, said that at least 18 women of Baiga tribe from Gaurela region, around 260 km from Raipur, were operated upon at the camps. The government has claimed that only two women from the tribe underwent the surgery. The amount that a woman who undergoes tubectomy had been increased from Rs 600 to Rs 1,400 earlier this month. Mangli, the other Baiga woman who underwent the surgery, was being treated at a hospital in Bilaspur, said Pendra sub-divisional magistrate OP Verma. Govt to ‘adopt’ children Children of the women who died after undergoing surgeries would be adopted by the state government. The government will make fixed deposits of ~2 lakh each in the name of these children, bear expenses of their education, and provide them free medical care till the age of 18. ‘No rat poison in pills’
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India, China start military exercise
New Delhi, November 16 The joint training aims at sharing the drills and practices learnt while tackling insurgency and terrorism and developing joint strategies of conducting operations in a counter terrorism environment. Indian Army spokesperson Col Rohan Anand said: “The exercise is planned at the company level with respective battalion headquarters controlling the training and manoeuvres.” A joint panel comprising senior officials of both nations will supervise the exercise. Helicopters of the
Indian Air Force will also be taking active part in various manoeuvres planned in
the exercise. The exercise comes two months after aggressive posturing along the LAC in Ladakh and is being seen as an important confidence-building measure between the two armies. This will be the fourth edition of the ‘hand-in-hand’ exercise since it started in 2007 with Kunming in China hosting the first edition. This time the original venue exercise was slated to be Bathinda in Punjab. But, the Chinese, in the planning conference with India, said the location was too ‘hot’ in terms of weather. Terror focus
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PM neither sleeps nor allows us to sleep: Naidu
Hyderabad, November 16 “Our Prime Minister does not sleep and does not allow others to sleep…but we are enjoying. Because working for the people ...working for the betterment of life of the common man is the most enjoyable thing in life,” the Union Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister said at a function. When some Cabinet colleagues said five years would be needed to achieve the target to make everybody a bank account holder in the country, the Prime Minister said the exercise should be completed in one year, he said. Naidu said by the end of seven weeks since ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan
Dhan Yojana’ was launched, (an additional) 6.99 crore people now have bank accounts. Before the exercise began, 58% of the country’s population, mostly in rural areas, had no bank accounts, he said.
— PTI
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MP Sachin adopts remote AP village
Hyderabad, November 16 There was an excitement in the air at Puttamraju Kandriga, a sleepy village of 400 people, when the cricketing icon arrived to unveil a series of development works. Sachin adopted this village under the "Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana" and agreed to spend Rs 2.97 crore from the MPLAD funds. Dressed in blue jeans and blue shirt, the master blaster floored the villagers with his charm. Sachin unveiled a pylon, marking the adoption of the village under "Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna". He then announced that he would bear the cost of education of the children of a poor villager Kakolu Sivaiah. He laid the foundation stone for taking up Rs 2.97 crore worth developmental works in the first phase, including a community centre, Anganwadi school with kitchen, a playground, waiting halls and toilets.
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Prabhu faces uphill task as
Railway Minister
New Delhi, November 16 Years of inaction and populism has left one of the world’s largest network of railway in a precarious condition which is screaming for an overhaul not only of the system but of the entire mentality of its workforce. Though his predecessor Sadananda Gowda announced some measures like opening up the Railways for FDI and seeking to modernise railways, the mess inherited by the new railways minister is colossal. Besides, there are tricky issues related to rising expenditure on fuel and ensuring monthly pay for India’s largest employer; stagnant passenger volumes; erosion in the share of railways in the freight market; slow progress of private-public partnership (PPP) projects; and lack of modernisation and upgradation of infrastructure, putting a question mark on the safety of the passengers travelling on Indian Rail. This degeneration is also reflected in Indian Railway’s (IR) operating ratio, money spent to earn ~100. It is budgeting to meet an OR of 92.5 this financial year, the highest in four years and worse than 90.8 recorded last fiscal. Prabhu has also inherited multi-year delays in implementation of PPP projects. Experts say there is an urgent need to change attitude of the people running the IR.
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Pensioners await arrears despite SC orders
Chandigarh, November 16 Over a year after the Supreme Court ruled that government servants, including defence pensioners, were entitled to arrears of pension arising out of the rectification of anomalies of pre-2006 pensioners from January 2006 instead of September 2012, they continue to await their benefits. Retired officers said they had not received any intimation from the government regarding implementation of the SC orders. Consequent to removal of anomalies, the government ordered that the pensioners would get arrears with effect from September 2012. This was contested by the pensioners who claimed that they were entitled to arrears from January 2006, the date of implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, and any other date was arbitrary. The controversy had been simmering for defence as well as civilian pensioners since January 2006. The issue involved the interpretation whether pension would be based on the minimum pay within the pay band (PB 1,2,3 or 4) or the minimum of pay of the pay scale applicable to various grades and ranks. Each pay band consists of several pay scales. The Central Administrative Tribunal had, however, ruled in favour of pensioners and had directed re-fixation of pension from January 2006.
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Make Henderson report public: Capt
The report is yet to be made public even though an Australian journalist had recently in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls this May made parts of the report public generating a huge controversy in India about the document being kept top secret years after the war. Amarinder, Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, demanded publication of the report yesterday at the launch of his book “Honour and Fidelity” which celebrates the heroism and sacrifices of 74,000 Indian soldiers who died in World War 1. “There is no reason why the report should be kept under wraps. It should be made public. If any politician made a mistake we should know it; if any General messed up, we need to open up,” he said.
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Sena to show strength today
Mumbai, November 16 “Lakhs of Shiv Sainiks will come here to pay homage to Balasaheb Thackeray,” party leader Anil Desai told reporters here. Shiv Sena leaders say party chief Uddhav Thackeray along with members of the family will pay their respects.
— TNS
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In 6 months, 40 pilots quit SpiceJet
Mumbai, November 16 The airline has reported 5th straight quarter of net losses for the July-September period at Rs 310 crore. “The airline is losing its flight crew at a regular interval. In the last six months 40 pilots have quit, citing uncertain future," an industry source said. — PTI
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Pak pitches for better ties with India
Hyderabad, November 16 "Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj had said there are no full stops in diplomacy. I concur with her that in diplomacy...You do not completely shut it down. So, let's hope there are possibilities that will emerge. So, I am hopeful," Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit said in a media interaction at the Hyderabad Press Club. India had called off the scheduled foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan in August, objecting to its envoy meeting Kashmiri separatists on the eve of the dialogue. — PTI
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New Delhi, November 16
