February 11, 2010
ü Pakistan appears to have decided to accept New Delhi’s offer of Foreign Secretary talks after thrashing it out at a meeting of domestic “stakeholders” on Wednesday and may suggest February 25 as the date, but has not said so yet officially.
· Separately, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told journalists that there was no harm in accepting the Indian offer, as it could lead to the resumption of the composite dialogue process. Kashmir, he said, was the number one issue for Pakistan and would be discussed in the talks.
· In response, Indian officials said that India is ready to discuss any issue Pakistan wishes to raise but is unwilling to assure Islamabad that the proposed Foreign Secretaries’ meeting will quickly lead to resumption of the composite dialogue.
· Importance of India – Pakistan Relationship
o For the betterment of the region
o In the best interests of both India and Pakistan
o Even though the trade with Pakistan is not huge, it is substantial.
o For the people leaving along the borders
o To prevent the huge Human Resources lost every year
o Strategic Importance of the region
o This relation could set the tone for several other similar relationships
o Good for the shared resources of both the countries
ü Taking exception to the decision of the Indian Premier League to shift the inaugural match out of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh Sports Minister Komati Reddy Venkat Reddy on Wednesday said he would ask the Deccan Chargers to boycott matches if the organisers did not stick to the original schedule.
· The inaugural match between Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders was shifted from Hyderabad to Mumbai following threats from Pro-Telengana supporters
· But is mixing sports with politics right?
o Historical examples are there: The 1936 Berlin Olympics was overshadowed by Nazi Propaganda. The Cold War shrouded over the 1980 Munich Olympics. Germany fielded an united team in the 1990 Winter Olympics.
o The political controversy before the recent Beijing Olympics is also an example
o The influence is increased in this age of media.
o Public opinion plays an important part
o It is understandable to look at the people’s concerns , but still the money involved also has to be taken into consideration, which may run into several tens of crores/millions
o The involved parties should not stand to lose.
o The role of political leaders and their ideologies plays an important part. Extremist views have to be avoided as sporting events like IPL are not a representation of a nation, but a commercial venture.
o Nationalism has to be given its due credit when national players are playing.
o Another factor that has to be taken into consideration is that historically it is seen that the seats of power of several sporting bodies are occupied by political leaders or their kith and kin.
o Sport has always embodied the spirit of participation and competition, not nationalist flavours.
o On a lighter note, sport is derived from the French word desport which means “ leisure” and not something serious.
ü Even as people across Sri Lanka on Wednesday protested the detention of the former Army Chief, General Sarath Fonseka, it was announced that the snap parliamentary elections would be held on April 8.
· The election schedule was announced after President Mahinda Rajapaksa dissolved Parliament on Tuesday night. The new Parliament is scheduled to meet on April 22.
· Meanwhile, a fundamental rights violation petition, challenging the alleged arbitrary arrest of Gen. Fonseka, was filed before the Supreme Court by his wife Anoma and New Democratic Front secretary Shamila Perera.
ü It is a sad day for the people of Kerala as well as India as one of the luminaries in field of Economics passed away.
· K.N. Raj, widely respected development economist and teacher and one of the architects of the Indian Plan edifice, passed away at Trivandrum on Wednesday. He was 85.
· We believe that the best article that was written should not be shortened. Hence we request all of you to go through this article.
ü The Congress on Wednesday appeared preparing the ground for a possible hike in fuel prices in the near future; with “it is inevitable” being the refrain at the party headquarters.
· But what determines the global oil prices?
o The major role is concept of Supply and Demand. When the Demand is more at a particular, the price shoots up according to the Supply and Demand Curve.
o The role of speculators and hedgers are also important.
o Political factors, esp. political instability in oil producing countries decide the price of the oil.
o OPEC decides the Oil Prices, although there control has decreased over the years.
o The oil price cycle which follows a spike every 28 years or so ( This is a plausible theory)
o Weather factors
o Concept of peak oil ( Please understand that peak oil is not depletion of oil, but the point at which the rate of production of oil becomes maximum)
o Diminishing supplies and discoveries of new fields.
· Chances of a hike in oil prices causing the inflation to increase is very much there. To read more about food inflation, please read our earlier post.
ü A devout British Hindu, Seventy-one-year-old Davendra Ghai, on Wednesday won a protracted legal battle over the right to be cremated on a traditional funeral pyre consistent with his religious practices, after he agreed that the cremation site could be surrounded by walls and have a roof with an opening.
ü The Election Commission should immediately take action against Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on the issue of paid news and stop acting like a postman, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya said on Wednesday.
· It would be good if we look into the phenomenon of Paid News.
o What is Paid News? Any news that has been paid to appear in any form of media, be it true or false, is paid news unless it states that the particular news article has been sponsored by certain interested parties.
o Is it a new phenomenon? No, it is not. It has been practiced for since the beginning of the printing by Gutenberg. Be it kings who made their glorified stories reach the public, or the states which wanted the public to follow certain policies, paid news has been part of the history.
o The recent Lok Sabha as well Rajya Sabha elections for some states brought to fore the term again.
o Are politicians the only guilty parties? Business houses follow it to promote their shares, Film industry follows it to promote their films through favourable reviews and Sports teams follow it to increase publicity.
o What are the problems? Media, which is the fourth pillar of democracy, has an inherent responsibility to bring out the corruption as well as misgivings in the society.
o Media, be it print, visual, audio or social has a wide reach and plays an important part in influencing the public opinion to a large extent.
o Journalists have a moral responsibility to report true facts.
o Media also has to show restrain while reporting certain news items.
o Moral and ethical principles are the basic principles that go against paid news as the public has a right to obtain the true news.
o The stringent standards set by Press Council of India and Editors Guild sets the tone against such phenomenon.
o But, it is to be understood that media is also a business venture
o Sponsored News is okay.
o There is a very fine line between sponsored news and paid news.
o The responsible parties, the news anchors, the journalists and the news editors should maintain themselves behind these lines
o The role of Editors Guild and Press Council of India play an important part in this.
ü Upbeat on the pace of economic recovery during the second half of 2009-10, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday maintained that the final GDP (gross domestic product) growth numbers for the fiscal year could show an improvement over the 7.2 per cent expansion projected by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) in its advance estimates released earlier this week.
· Please refer to our earlier post for more details on GDP
ü In Andhra Pradesh, in a bid to improve the quality of medical services at all levels, the government has made it compulsory for the doctors to serve in State-run hospitals for one year after completion of their post-graduate degree and diploma courses.
ü S.C. Sinha has been appointed Director-General of the National Investigation Agency. He succeeds the first chief of the agency, Radha Vinod Raju, whose tenure ended last monthS.C. Sinha is a 1975 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who probed the sensitive case of the death of two women in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district
ü India on Wednesday announced it would test Agni-V with a range of 5,000-km within a year, asserting that the country’s capability to develop ballistic missiles remained ahead of China.
· It is important that we compare the military strengths of the two great nations
o According to United States DoD (Department of Defense) reports for 2006, China’s military expenditure is estimated to be 80 billion US dollars. However, the official Chinese CPC government quote is a $30 billion military expenditure (which a lot of analysts believe is underquoted).
o If we were to go by the conservative official Chinese figure of $30 billion, it would put China second only to USA in global military spending.
o On the other side, India’s official military expenditure for 2006 is quoted at $22 billion by the Ministry of Finance (India) Budget (2006-2007).
o By its official 2006 military budget figures, India stands at 9th position in global military spending.
o It us to be noted that in sheer numbers, China overpowers India in the military strength.
o Economic theory teaches us that incentives drive decision making by a nation or an individual. In case of India, a democracy with no serious military adversary, its militarisation drive is often overshadowed by internal militancy issues and political struggles. In case of a communist China, it has a powerful military adversary in United States; the conflicts over Taiwan give China a strong incentive to beef up its military defence to counter the US military might.
o But the fact that the cloak of secrecy that covers the military strength of a nations makes it difficult to compare.
o For a number by number comparison, go here. It includes a video also.
ü As many as two lakh Indians are living illegally in the U.S., claimed the latest official report on illegal residents for 2009. This is an increase of 40,000 from the 2008 figure. The rise in unauthorised Indians living in the U.S. comes at a time when there is a seven per cent decline in the number of total illegal foreign residents
ü India came first in the recently concluded 11th South Asian games. India has always triumphed at the South Asian games. The recent games saw India finish with a medal tally of 90 Gold, 55 Silver, 29 Bronze, an overall tally of 174 medals. Pakistan was a distant 2nd with 19 gold medals
· South Asian Games (also known as SAF Games or SAG & formerly known as South Asian Federation Games) are a bi-annual multi-sport event held among the athletes from South Asia.
· The governing body of these games is South Asian Sports Council (SASC), formed in 1983. At present, SAG are joined by eight members namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.
· The first South Asian Games were hosted by Kathmandu, Nepal in 1983 and have since been held every two years except for some occasions.
· In 2004, it was decided in the 32nd meeting of South Asian Sports Council to rename the games from South Asian Federation Games to South Asian Games as the officials believed the word Federation was diminishing the emphasis on event and acting as a barrier in attracting crowd.
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