Medvedev replaces Putin as ruling party chief

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev succeeded President Vladimir Putin as head of the ruling party, United Russia, in a follow up to their job swap in the Kremlin.

Mr. Putin stepped down as the party’s chairman following his return to the presidency earlier this month. He argued that President in Russia by tradition is not affiliated with any party.

United Russia, which has dominated the Russian Parliament since its establishment in 2003, has recently been losing support. It lost a quarter of its seats in Parliament in December elections, which were marred with massive falsifications and sparked the biggest anti-Kremlin protests in 20 years.

Mr. Medvedev called for democratisation of the ruling party to enable it to deal with the growing competition from other political forces.

“The party must be more open, it must be seen by people as their own, not as a party imposed from high up… but as a party representing the interests of the broad masses,” Mr. Medvedev told a party congress on May 26.

He said all party functionaries must henceforth be elected by contested secret ballot and be replaced after five years. Mr. Medvedev himself was elected unopposed by a show of hands.

Falling sex ratio impinges on women's rights, says NAC

The declining sex ratio is not a problem restricted narrowly to the issue of decreasing birth of girl children but is central to women's rights, gender equity and gender justice, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council believes.

A day after the United Progressive Alliance's eighth anniversary celebrations, the NAC met here to consider a draft policy that can address the serious implications of gender imbalance in society, revealed in the provisional 2011 Census report.

Topping its recommendations are strengthening the legal regime to prevent misuse of medical technology for sex selection and developing a legislative framework to take into account newer technologies. In this context, the NAC wants the government to consider the implications of fresh legislation such as the Draft Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Regulation) Bill, 2010 from the perspective of sex selection as well as to ensure effective implementation of the Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (prohibition of sex selection) Act, 1994 (PC&PNDT Act).

Impact of incentives

The government needs to review the existing conditional cash and other incentive schemes for girl children to see whether they have made any dent, says the NAC draft policy. The sources pointed out that there was a growing realisation that the crime of sex selection was not confined to the poor who might be dissuaded by such schemes from killing girl babies. This scourge has spread to the middle class for which government schemes hold no significance. There is need, therefore, to plan interventions for the more affluent sections as well.

The draft policy also suggests a national communication and advocacy strategy targeted at behaviour change with a shared core message content, identified target audiences and multiple platforms so that women are projected as useful members of society, rather than as liabilities. It calls for a review of gender-related laws and policies including the dowry prohibition law, amendments to laws related to rape and connected provisions (currently under review by the government), in order to propose amendments or ways for strengthening their implementation. Students and professionals (particularly those pursuing law and medicine), public officials, elected representatives, frontline health and other workers all need to be sensitised through the introduction and development of appropriate course curricula and providing training in gender-sensitive counselling.

The provisional 2011 Census report has revealed that the child sex ratio in India (0-6 years) has dropped to 914 females against 1,000 males, the lowest since Independence. The NAC Working Group headed by Farah Naqvi and A.K. Shivakumar has identified that the child sex ratio, while “influenced by a number of factors such as under-registration of girls, differential infant and child mortality and age misreporting, is in large measure determined by the sex ratio at birth. It is, therefore, directly linked to the practice of prenatal sex selection, which, according to available evidence, has spread all over India”.

Women's empowerment

The policy, the NAC feels, should affirm that this horrifying situation “reflects the much larger issue of the status of women in our society, economy, and polity” and it should be “addressed within a broad framework of women's empowerment.” The policy must acknowledge that “dealing with declining sex ratios cannot be the responsibility of any one or two departments and Ministries” but that it will require “multiple initiatives, cutting across sectors, aimed at achieving gender equity, enhancing the status of women, and creating a social and economic environment against sex selection”.

But in doing so, the policy must take care that while entering “the private domain of pregnancy, abortion and the right to choose,” it ensures that any “intervention or communication message” does not inadvertently “stigmatise abortion per se, compromise women's reproductive rights, their right to choose, or jeopardise access to safe and legal abortion as articulated within the framework of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971.”

E-Governance for Panchayat Raj Institutions

The Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) is designed to redress regional imbalances in development. The BRGF covers 250 identified districts to Bridge critical gaps in local infrastructure and other development requirements that are not being adequately met through existing inflows. Rs.3917 crore was released during 2011-12 under BRGF, which being implemented through panchayats and urban local bodies.

E-Panchayat

E-panchayat is one of the Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) under National e-Governance Programme (NeGP) aimed at making Panchayats more efficient, transparent and symbols of modernity by leveraging ICT to become modern institutions of self governance at the cutting edge level by ensuring greater openness through transparency, disclosure of information, social audit, efficient delivery of services, improving internal management of Panchayats, procurement etc. During 2011-12, 40 crores was allocated for the project. 1.5 crores allocated for incentivizing the adoption of PRIASoft; and 38.5 crores for setting up of Programme Management Units at State and District levels for rollout of e-Panchayat MMP.

Under the e-Panchayat MMP, 11 Core Common Software applications are planned. Four of these applications namely PRIASoft, PlanPlus, National Panchayat Portal and Local Governance Directory have been rolled out. Six more applications except Geographic Information System (GIS) namely Area Profiler, ServicePlus, Asset Directory, ActionSoft, Social Audit and Trainings Management have also been launched in April, 2012 on the occasion of National Panchayat Day. Over 65,000 Panchayats are using PRIASoft and over 75,000 plans of different urban local bodies, rural local bodies and line departments are available online on PlanPlus application.

Empowerment of Panchayats

Panchayat Empowerment and  Accountability Incentive Scheme  was  implemented by the Ministry to recognize and incentivize the efforts of Panchayats with respect to transparency, accountability and efficiency and of States with respect to devolution of funds, functions and functionaries to Panchayats. Awards are given to best performing States/UTs based on their rank on DI annually.  The scheme aims at encouraging the States for empowering the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and putting in place mechanism for transparency and accountability of the PRIs. 16 best performing Gram Panchayats were given “Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Purskar and 170 Panchayats representatives were felicitated of with “Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar” under the Panchayat Empowerment Accountability Incentive Scheme (PEAIS).

Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Yojana

The Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Yojana is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme being implemented by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj with the objective of assisting efforts of the State Governments for training and capacity building of elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions.  Funding of the scheme is applicable only for the non-BRGF districts.  The scheme focuses primarily on providing financial assistance to the States/UTs for Training & Capacity Building of elected representatives (ERs) and functionaries of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). Assistance is provided for Distance Learning infrastructure for the ERs and Functionaries of the PRIs including Satellite based training infrastructure. During 2011-12 160493 participants trained and 719 Gram Panchayat Ghars sanctioned.

Roadmap for Panchayati Raj

The national level plan for improving the functioning of PRIs is chalked out in the Roadmap for Panchayati Raj (2011-2017). The Roadmap logically delineates the issues and specific action plans within the larger governance framework for creating an effective Panchayati Raj structure. It highlights key aspects for empowerment, enablement and accountability of the PRIs for better governance and faster development including devolution of functions, funds and functionaries as envisaged in the Constitution, Capacity Building of the Panchayats and Functionaries, decentralized planning, effective implementation of PESA, empowered elected village councils in the Sixth Scheduled Areas and changes in the constitutional and legal framework.

This national Roadmap is enabled and assisted by the Government by the provision of funds under several schemes. The Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) provides untied grants to the Panchayats in the backward regions in order to reduce development deficits of the country, with the requirement that the District Plans for utilization of the grant be prepared by the involvement of the Gram Sabhas.  The Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Yojana (RGSY) which aims at Capacity Building and Training of the Elected Representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions as well as the Functionaries.

Rural Business Hubs (RBHs)

The Ministry has been implementing a Central Sector Scheme of Rural Business Hubs (RBHs) for promoting businesses using raw materials/skills available in the rural areas. The scheme works on a Public-Private-Panchayat-Partnership model and is applicable in all the BRGF districts and all the districts in the North-Eastern Region. Assistance under RBH Scheme is available for professional support services, training/skill development and for purchase of minor equipment. The proposals under the scheme are prepared and sent by the willing and interested Implementing Agencies and are required to be sent through the State Government or District level officials. RBH is a demand driven scheme and no targets are fixed for it. The guideline for RBH Scheme was revised in October, 2011. The revisions made in the guidelines are to the effect:

 (i) Earlier the proposals needed to be recommended by the Panchayati Raj Department of the concerned States/UTs Government. This condition has been relaxed and recommendation of District Collectors or Chief Executive Officers of the Zilla Parishad of the concerned District is considered adequate.

 (ii) Earlier the proposals of RBH were to be considered and approved by an Empowerment Committee headed by the Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj. This has been discontinued. Now the proposals of RBH are initially examined by the RBH Division of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj in consultation with the Integrated Finance Division and the final approval is obtained from the Divisional Head of RBH.

Serbian Progressive Party Leader Tomislav Nikolic won the Serbia’s Presidential Election

The Serbian Progressive Party leader Tomislav Nikolic won the Serbia’s presidential election on 20 May 2012. Nikolic beat his centrist opponent, the incumbent Boris Tadic in a closely contested election. Nikolic accounted for 50.21% of the total vote, against 46.77% for Tadic, with 40% of votes counted.
Nikolic, during his previous stints in power worked as a deputy prime minister under the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was put on trial for genocide at The Hague. He was also the part of the government when Nato forces attacked Serbia in 1999. Nikolic, an ultra-nationalist, has widely been considered as anti-European Union given his vocal opposition of the bloc. He, however, in a bid to recapture the power toned down his antipathy towards the European Union and vowed to not deviate from its European path, after winning the elections.

Serbia, located at the intersections between Central and Southern Europe, became a separate sovereign republic in summer 2006 after Montenegro voted in a referendum for independence from the Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The country has its unemployment rate spiraling high at 24%. The total foreign debt of the country is also piling up as the current figure stands at 24 billion euro.

73-Year-Old Tamae Watanabe became World’s Oldest Women to climb the Mount Everest

73-year-old Tamae Watanabe bettered her own record of being the world’s oldest women to climb the Mount Everest the world's highest mountain peak. The Japanese woman scaled Everest's 8850-meter-high (29035-foot-high) peak from the northern side of the mountain in Tibet on 19 May 2012 with four other team members.
Watanabe was 63 when she had created the record of being the world’s oldest woman to have climbed Everest. She had retained the title until she topped herself a decade later.

India surpassed China as the largest Arms Importer in the World

According to a report published in March 2012 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India topped China as the largest importer of arms during 2007-11 and accounted for 10 per cent of global arms import as compared to Chinese share of five per cent.
The report mentioned China, which was the largest importer of arms during 2002-2006, slipping to fourth spot in 2007-11 given the significant advancement in China’s arms industry and increased arms exports.
India has taken numerous measures to modernise its armed forces in the past ten years. The country has signed several deals to procure military hardware such as 10 C-17 strategic lift aircraft, six C-130 Super Hercules Special Operations aircraft, additional Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jets along with several warships.
The report revealed the countries from Asia and Oceania as the leading arms importers as they accounted for 44 per cent of arms imports followed by Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Africa which accounted for 19 per cent, 17 per cent, 11 per cent and 9 per cent of total arms imports respectively.
In the budget presented in the parliament for the fiscal year 2012-13, the Finance Minister announced to increse India's defence budget by 17 per cent and doled out 1.93 trillion Indian rupees for the defence purpose. Of this outlay, 41 percent has to be spent on procuring modern weapons systems and military hardware.

Small Industries Development Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2012 tabled in the Lok Sabha

The Union government on 22 May 2012 tabled the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2012 in the Lok Sabha, allowing sectors including floriculture, tourism, restaurants, and the entertainment industry to access loans from the bank.

The SIDBI (Amendment) Bill tabled by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee
•    empowers SIDBI to confiscate the mortgaged property or right to transfer by way of lease or sale in case enterprise makes a default in repayment of any loan or advances.
•    The bill envisages the widening of the scope of industrial concerns as well as aims at conferring more powers upon the board of directors of bank to decide investment limit for these industrial concerns.

It was believed that an amendment would replace definition and expression of industrial concern in small sector with industrial concern or micro enterprise or small enterprise or medium enterprise in the SIDBI Act 1989. The board of directors would be empowered to unanimously resolve to decide the investment limit for the purpose of industrial concern.

The change in definition as stated in the bill will thus help businesses such as convention centres, travel and transport, tourist service agencies, guidance and counselling services to tourists, financial assistance by way of venture capital, risk capital factoring and discounting , construction and development of roads to take loans and advances from the bank.

National Ganga River Basin Authority

The Minister of State (I/C) for Environment and Forests Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan today stated in Rajya Sabha that Ganga Basin is the largest river basin of the country with catchment lying in 11 States covering about 26% of the Indian landmass and 43% of the irrigable area with a population of nearly 500 million.

She further stated that the Central Government has constituted the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) in February 2009 as an empowered body to ensure effective abatement of pollution and conservation of the river Ganga by adopting a holistic river basin approach. So far three meetings of Authority have been convened on 9th October 2009, 1st November 2010 and 17th April, 2012 respectively.

The Minister said that the Authority in its first meeting decided that under Mission Clean Ganga it will be ensured that by 2020 no untreated municipal sewage and industrial effluents flow into Ganga. Projects amounting to nearly Rs. 2600 crore have been sanctioned so far under the NGRBA for development of sewer networks, sewage treatment plants, electric crematoria, community toilets, development of river fronts, etc in the States of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Out of 55 sanctioned projects, 7 projects have been completed and remaining projects are in various stages of implementation. Further, based on the decisions of NGRBA in the first meeting, the Central Government has set up a Standing Committee under NGRBA to monitor implementation and an Empowered Steering Committee to approve pollution abatement projects on fast track basis; declared Gangetic Dolphin as the national aquatic animal.

Based on the decision in the second meeting, it has been decided to share costs towards operation and maintenance of the assets created under NGRBA between Centre and the States in the ratio of 70:30 and discontinued three hydro-electric power projects of Lohari Nagpala, Bhaironghati and Pala Maneri on Bhagirathi River.

In the third meeting it was decided that with respect to the proposed hydro-electric projects in the upper reaches of river Ganga, a multi-disciplinary group including the concerned State Governments would examine the reports prepared by the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee and Wild Life Institute of India for drawing up a roadmap for further action.

Development of Inland Waterways

The development and regulation of the waterways which are declared as National Waterways are under the purview of Central Government, while the other waterways remain under the purview of the respective State Governments. The Government has been taking various steps to develop Inland Water Transport (IWT) which, inter-alia, includes ensuring targeted depth and width in the navigational channels, aids for day and night navigation, fixed/floating terminals at specified locations for berthing and loading/unloading of vessels and intermodal connectivity at select locations. Besides these, Central Government also provides 100 per cent Grants-in-aid to the States in the North-Eastern Region for development of IWT.

As per the Report prepared by RITES Ltd. in the year 2009 titled “Total Transport System study on Traffic Flows & Modal Costs”, the share of Inland Water Transport (IWT) in the total domestic transport during 2007-08 was 0.24 % compared to 50.12 % for the road and 36.06 per cent for the rail sector in terms of tonne km.

Geonkhali-Charbatia stretch of East Coast Canal (217 km), Charbatia- Dhamra stretch of Matai River (39 km) , Talcher- Dhamra stretch of Brahmani- Kharsua- Dhamra River system (265 km) along with Mangalgadi- Paradeep stretch of Mahanadi delta Rivers ( 67 km) having a total length of 588 km. in the States of West Bengal and Odisha have been declared as National Waterway (NW-5) w.e.f. 25th November, 2008. Out of total length of 588 km., about 497 km. of NW-5 is in the State of Odisha. The efforts to develop more commercially viable stretches of NW-5 under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode with Viability Gap Funding (VGF) under India Infrastructure Project Development Fund (IIPDF) and PPP Pilot Project Initiative under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Technical Assistance are in process. Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) has appointed a Transaction Advisor in this regard. Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has its Head Office at Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

White Paper on Black Money

Placed below is a link for White Paper on Black Money:

Click here to see details

Performance of Janani Suraksha Yojana

Impressive gains have been registered under Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) since its inception. The number of beneficiaries under JSY has gone up from 7.39 lakhs beneficiaries in 2005-06 to 108.69 lakhs beneficiaries in 2011-12. The scheme has led to an increase in institutional deliveries which have gone up from 47% (District Level Household Survey-III, 2007-08) to 72.9% (Coverage Evaluation Survey, 2009) and to the resultant decline in maternal mortality and neo-natal mortality. Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) has declined from 254 maternal deaths per 1,00,000 live births in 2004-06 to 212 maternal deaths per 1,00,000 live births during 2007-09. Similarly, the Neo-Natal Mortality Rate (NMR) has declined from 37 per 1000 live births in 2006 to 33 per 1000 live births in 2010.

 For proper implementation of the scheme, the Ministry has issued the following instructions to State Governments:

• To ensure fast and seamless flow of funds under JSY from State headquarters to District and further to Block PHCs and Sub-centre levels and payment of cash assistance before discharge of pregnant women after delivery;

• Setting up of grievance redressal cells for prompt redressal of all grievances;

• Public display of names of all JSY beneficiaries in health facilities on a monthly basis so as to ensure transparency and check fraudulent payments;

• Payment of cash assistance under JSY to all beneficiaries only through cheques;

• Physical verification of beneficiaries by State and District officials in a random manner in order to check fictitious payments;

Further periodic verification of beneficiaries and assessment of the scheme is being done by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare through the Regional Evaluation Teams (RETs) of the Regional Directorates.

 The Ministry has also decided to get the annual transaction audit of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) done through the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) in all the States from the Financial Year 2011-12 in order to facilitate independent monitoring and to take corrective measures to control financial irregularities.

Recovery of Loans Sanctioned under Rashtriya Mahila Kosh

The following are the details of mechanism for recovery of loans sanctioned under the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) of the Ministry of Women and Child Development:

The RMK loans are recoverable from Intermediary microfinance organisations (IMOs) over a repayment period of 3 years (including the grace period of 6 months) in quarterly installments along with interest @ 8 per cent per annum on reducing balance. RMK follows the following procedure for recovery of loans:

(i) The repayment schedule is defined in advance, envisaging quarterly payment of principal and interest amount. The requisite Post Dated Cheques (PDCs) are collected as a risk mitigation measure.

(ii) Demand letters are issued before due dates to all IMOs at pre-defined due dates.

(iii) Quarterly list of defaults is reviewed regularly. Each defaulting NGO is contacted, either telephonically or through letters, to enquire about the reasons for default and the likely time for clearing of default.

(iv) The default loans accounts are handled as under:

(a) In the first instance reminders are sent to the defaulting IMOs asking them to pay the overdue amount, urgently.

(b) The defaulting IMO is sent first reminder, followed by another reminder and if required final warning (after 30 days from second reminder) to clear the overdues. If overdues still persist blacklisting is resorted to in case, an NGO commits default of 4 quarters of interest and / or 4 quarters of principal, or both. This has been an effective measure of recovery. Black- listing of the defaulting IMOs is undertaken mainly to pressurize for urgent clearance of overdue. In case the IMO clears the loan overdue, it is removed from RMK black list.

(c) Post-dated cheques given by NGOs are deposited in the concerned banks; if returned unpaid, case(s) under section 138 of Negotiable Instrument Act (NIA) are filed in the Court.

(d) In case of chronic default, a ‘recall-notice’ is also issued calling the defaulting IMO to pay upfront the entire outstanding amount of the loan dues, in a month’s time. If the recall-notice is not complied with, a PDC is lodged for the entire outstanding dues (loan instalments plus interest).

(e) Suits are filed or wherever applicable, Arbitration Process is followed, to recover the dues from the NGO where the loan repayment period has completed, as per the loan agreement.

India- UK Conference on Innovation and Skill Development

The India-UK Round Table Conference on Innovation and Skill Development was held on 20th April 2012 at New Delhi.

The Innovation round table discussions were focused on roadmap of India and UK on Innovation in education, framework for India-UK Partnerships, University Innovation clusters, Business University linkages, Centres of excellence and multi-partner collaborations, University incubation programmes and sandwich degrees/post doctoral research. The focused areas of discussion in the skills sector included strategy and roadmap on skills in India and UK; Qualification Framework, Leadership and Professional development and vocationalisation of secondary education. Both countries agreed for cooperation in all the above discussed areas.

Both countries agreed to collaborate in institutionalizing the process for improving the interface between institutions of higher learning and business in both the Innovation and Skill sectors by knowledge sharing, capacity building and developing pathways for commercialization and engaging the skilled manpower.

Lower Subansiri Hydro-Electric Project

The Government does not propose to review all the proposals of big dams in the country. However, as desired by Government of Assam (GoA), NHPC constituted an Expert Group consisting of experts from IIT, Guwahati, Gauhati University and Dibrugarh University to study the downstream impact of Lower Subansiri HEP (2000 MW). The Expert Group has submitted its final report on 3.3.2011. Meanwhile, on the concerns expressed by GoA regarding structural safety of the dam, Planning Commission has appointed a two Member Technical Experts Committee to study the technical reports of the Expert Group.

Central Water Commission has informed that the seismic data/past history of earthquakes in the country is maintained by Indian Meteorological Department which includes the earthquake of 1950 referred herein. All such information has been taken into account for carrying out the seismic studies during submission of proposal of Lower Subansiri Hydro-electric Project. NHPC has informed that the occurrence of 1950 earthquake was considered during the site specific earthquake design parameters study for this Project by Department of Earthquake Engineering, IIT Roorkee.

The concerns of local people on the safety of the dam has been referred to the Two Member Technical Experts Committee as mentioned in the foregoing replies. In addition, on the concerns of downstream impact, a Joint Steering Committee has been constituted by NHPC on 19.4.2011 to suggest feasible and practicable remedial measures in the downstream areas with reference to Expert Group’s recommendations on downstream impact of Subansiri Lower Dam (Part-II) alongwith issues related to flood, bank erosion and sediment control. Also, as recommended by Inter-Ministerial Group headed by Secretary (Water Resources), a Cumulative Environment Impact Assessment Study of Lohit Sub-basin has recently been completed by WAPCOS and studies for Subansiri and Siang sub-basins have been commissioned by Central Water Commission.

Bhatinda oil refinery dedicated to the nation

On April 28, 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dedicated the Bathinda refinery to the nation.

The state-of-the-art refinery has used structural steel that would have been enough to build 15 buildings of the size of Eiffel Tower, each 320 metres in height. The amount of cement and concrete used in the refinery would have built the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, twice with each structure measuring 829.84 metres. The Chimneys of the refinery compete with Qutub Minar, the tallest minaret in India. The height of the chimneys is 141.7 metres, double the height of Qutub Minar.

Over 2,800-km-long pipelines have been used over 2,000 acres of land. The pipelines are long enough to cover distance from Bathinda to Mumbai and even more. The Crude Oil Terminal at Mundra and crude pipeline are sufficient to hold three days of India’s total crude oil requirement.

Apart from being an engineering marvel, the refinery is also self-sustainable in terms of power generation. Located in fuel and power deficient North India, the plant uses its poisonous gases for producing 153-MW of power, thereby, managing the emission that could have harmed the environment.

The present capacity of the refinery is 9 million metric tonnes per annum, which, steel tycoon Laxmi N. Mittal said, would be doubled to 18 million metric tonnes in the years to come.

INS Teg: New Stealth frigate for Indian Navy

The 3,970-tonne INS Teg frigate, armed with the 290-km BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles among other weapon systems, was commissioned into the Indian Navy at Yantar shipyard at Kaliningrad in Russia on April 27, 2012.

Taking its name from the short, single-edged curved swords traditionally used by the Sikhs, INS Teg will sail with a crew of 24 officers and 229 sailors.

Two other stealth frigates, INS Tarkash and INS Trikand, ordered from Russia under a $1.15-billion contract inked in 2006, will follow in September 2012, and July 2013.

With an operating range of 4,500 nautical miles, these frigates can handle many threats in all the three dimensions—air, surface and underwater. These warships pack more power than the earlier three Talwar-class frigates bought from Russia in 2003-04, equipped as they are with BrahMos land-attack missiles, surface-to-air missiles, AK-630 close-in weapon systems, torpedoes, anti-submarine rockets and an upgraded multi-role combat suite.

The 125-metre-long INS Teg, which can operate an anti-submarine or early-warning helicopter from its deck, has innovative design features to ensure reduction in its radar cross-section, infra-red, magnetic and acoustic signatures, as well as radiated underwater noise to enhance its stealth nature.

The warship is also equipped with complex automated systems for NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) defence and damage control.

Anti-malarial drug

Synriam is India’s first indigenously developed anti-malarial drug. It beats all currently available options on the counts of affordability, compliance and relief. The drug is the result of first successful public-private partnership on pharmaceutical research and development in India. Ranbaxy and the Ministry of Science paid Rs 5 crore each for the development of the drug.

Mamata Banerjee has been named among the 100 most influential persons in the world

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been named among the 100 most influential persons in the world by the prestigious Time magazine, in its 2012 list that also includes US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and billionaire investor Warren Buffet.
Apart from Banerjee, advocate Anjali Gopalan, who works for the rights of gays and transgendered in India, is the only other Indian in the list. The 2012 list is topped by American basketball sensation Jeremy Lin.