CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR OCTOBER 2012

National News

1. India’s National Security Advisor Sh. Shivshankar Menon recently released a report on the “Recommendations of Joint Working Group on Engagement with Private Sector on Cyber Security”.
2. The Supreme Court recently made it mandatory for all the States, Union territories and the regulatory bodies to put in place a legal mechanism to implement the ‘guidelines in Vishaka case’.
3. Union Home Ministry has begun discussing the broad contours of an agreement to solve the Naga problem with all regional stakeholders. 
4. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) recently presented the 2011 Carbon Footprint Report for the Indian Aviation Industry, in line with India’s initiatives to address the climate change challenge.
5. The Union Cabinet recently approved the introduction of Amendments to the “Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986″ in Parliament
6. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set up a high-level committee to spearhead efforts to ensure accessible financial services and to increase the speed of financial inclusion in the country. The committee will be called Financial Inclusion Advisory Committee (FIAC). It will be headed by RBI Deputy Governor K. C. Chakrabarty and has been asked to ensure that financial inclusion and financial stability move in tandem.
7. A committee headed by Dr C Rangarajan has recommended allowing millers to freely sell sugar in the open market and share 75% of the sugar’s value with sugarcane farmers. Dr C Rangarajan is Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC)
8. The Parthasarthi Shome committee that was looking at controversial tax proposals in the 2012 Budget has recommended that an amendment to the Income Tax Act seeking to tax indirect transfers of Indian assets should apply prospectively and only on those who make capital gains. The committee has also suggested that retrospective change in the law should be applied in rare cases. It has said that retrospective changes to the laws should be should be clarificatory, done through stakeholder consultations, and not implemented with the objective of enlarging the tax base
9. The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom has recommended that telecom service providers would have to pay a fee for their existing second-generation airwaves that will match the upcoming auction-determined price.
10. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the first phase of the end-to-end computerization of Targeted Public Distribution System. The project will cost the Centre and states about Rs 884 crore and the Centre will bear half the cost.
11. The Union Cabinet recently cleared the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012. Subsequently, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment introduced the Bill in the Lok Sabha on September 3, 2012. The Bill is aimed at prohibiting manual scavenging and employment of manual scavengers as sanitary workers.
12. The Union Cabinet recently approved the constitution of 20th Law Commission for a period for three years from 01.09.2012 to 31.08.2015
13. The Government is considering implementation of a number of steps that would quicken the shift towards a system of cash transfers that would put money directly in the hands of the targeted beneficiaries of Government welfare programmes.
14. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has decided to introduce electronic IPOs from January 1, 2013.The facility would allow retail investors to submit bids for IPOs electronically
15. Recently a report released by the National Institute of Medical Statistics (NIMS), which is part of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), shows that India will not meet the target of reducing infant mortality rate to 28 per 1,000 live births by March 2012 (end of the 11th five year Plan)
16. A high-level panel on infrastructure financing, headed by HDFC Bank Chairman Deepak Parekh, has submitted its interim report to the Prime Minister. The report lays down detailed plans for every infrastructure sector, with special attention to the railways.
17. The latest by the Registrar General of India Life  Expectancy (LE) of a rural Indian increased by 2.2 years between 2002 and 2008. The LE of an urban Indian was up by just 1.2 years over the same period.
18. Ministry of Women and Child Development proposed the formulation of a bill through which a certain percentage of a husband’s salary would be compulsorily transferred to his wife’s bank account to compensate her for all the domestic work she performs for the family. 

International News

1. In the Georgian parliamentary elections of 2012  the opposition Georgian Dream coalition won a majority of seats. The coalition is headed by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili.
2. The United Nations (U.N.) recently declared that the recent ethnic unrest in Myanmar has displaced an estimated further 26,500, in addition to some 75,000 people are already having taken refuge in the camps. These numbers include 4,000 who fled in boats to Rakhine State’s capital Sittwe — from mainly Muslim communities.
3. The 5th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) was organised by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) in collaboration with the Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) from 22 to 25 October at Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
4. Russia agreed on sharing precision signal from the multi-satellite based Russian global navigation system – GLONASS with the Indian military set-up. These signals will allow Indian missiles, including those fired from nuclear submarine Chakra, to strike with great precision – within half a metre of distant targets
5. The latest version of State of Food Insecurity in the World report has revised the number of people in hunger globally downwards from 1 billion to 870 million as of 2010-12
6. Indian Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram and the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Mr. Timothy Geithner, met in New Delhi for the third annual meeting of the India-U.S. Economic and Financial Partnership.
7. The Defence Minister Shri AK Antony was on a three-day visit to Indonesia, beginning Monday (15 Oct 2012), to take part in the first Ministerial Level Biennial Defence Dialogue between the two countries.
8. Hugo Chavez won the election of president in Venenzula. Mr. Chavez won 55% of the vote against 45% for MrCapriles, with 98% of the vote counted. Mr. Chavez’s new term will be beginning in February 2013.
9. Global agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has warned that India’s rating could be downgraded to junk status if the Government failed to ensure implementation of key economic reforms, contain the fiscal deficit and improve the investment climate.
10. The Union Cabinet recently approved the ratification of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing by India.
11. The Nagoya Protocol is an addition to the Convention on Biological Diversity. It was formulated during the 10th Biodiversity Summit (also called COP-10 of CBD), which was held in Nagoya (Japan) in 2010.