February 23, 2010
ü Faced with the inter-State ‘Operation Green Hunt,’ the Maoist leadership said on Monday that it was ready for dialogue only if the Centre halted security operations targeting the outfit for 72 days.
· The condition comes within a week of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram saying that the Centre would find ways to facilitate talks with the Maoists if the latter halted violence for 72 hours.
ü With the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) getting issues with the Union Finance and Law Ministries resolved, the auction of spectrum for advanced 3G mobile services is likely to begin this week. However, the process is unlikely to be completed this fiscal.
· In his last budget speech, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had expressed the hope that Rs. 35,000 crore could be garnered from the auction in the current fiscal, but the process got delayed following objections from his Ministry and the Law Ministry over the availability of spectrum, the number of slots to be auctioned and other legal issues.
· What is 3G? International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000), better known as 3G or 3rd Generation, is a family of standards for mobile telecommunications defined by the International Telecommunication Union, which includes GSM EDGE, UMTS, and CDMA2000 as well as DECT and WiMAX.
· Services include wide-area wireless voice telephone, video calls, and wireless data, all in a mobile environment.
· 3G networks enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.
· The first pre-commercial 3G network was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan branded FOMA, in May 2001 on a pre-release of W-CDMA technology.
· What are its practical applications? Mobile TV, Video on Demand, Video Conferencing, Tele Medicine, Localised services.
· 3G in India? Let us take a look.
o We should have had 3G services in India 3-4 years ago.
o But we took a detour to giving more 2.5G licenses.
o The government owned telecoms (BSNL and MTNL) have been offering 3G services for the past many months - and we have barely noticed.
o Ex-Telecom Minister Dayanadi Maran was in the verge of releasing the 3G guidelines in India.
o After the new Telecom Minister took over there was some talk about India going with 2.5G, which enables high-speed data transfer over upgraded existing 2G networks.
o Upgrading to 3G will be an expensive affair for all telecoms. Which is actually good news for telecom hardware providers.
o 2009 was another boom year for India’s telecom sector which actually creates a huge potential customer base for the telecom companies.
o Experts believe that India is ready for a widespread rollout of 3G services.
ü Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on Monday made it clear that talks with Pakistan later this week would be restricted to India’s “core concerns” over cross-border terrorism.
ü Unhappy with the State Excise Departments — as nodal agencies for enforcing alcohol-related regulations — for focusing more on revenue generation than on discouraging consumption, the Centre has suggested that the State Health Departments be empowered to coordinate all alcohol-related issues.
· It raises an important question. Should liberal sales and consumption be banned across the country?
· It is a known fact that there are harmful effects, both physical and mental.
· It is good to understand the culture prevailing in the particular region, for example a country that has people who consider social drinking okay and link heavy drinking with manhood, alcohol consumption is seen to have grown up. Whereas, a country that preaches against the moral problems against alcoholism is sure to have decreased consumption.
· Moreover, it is important to differentiate between alcohol consumption and alcoholism.
· There are several aspects that should be considered.
o Social aspects are very important. As man is a social animal, he is greatly influenced by society and culture around him. In India, in several states, alcohol consumption is seen as a way of life and it influences the young and old alike.
o The age of globalization has brought forward a mixing of culture. Westernization has also had its effects.
o The political leadership of a country too plays an important role. Liberal parties might favour liberal sales whereas hardliner parties may not.
o Curbing the sales of alcohol might also throw up some legal problems.
o Economics is the major driver. Several states gain their major share of profit through alcohol sales only. Such states might oppose such a move.
o It has to be understood that supply is there because demand is there.
o Advertisements placed incognito have helped in boosting the sales of product.
o It is to be understood that several states own outlets for alcohol sales.
o Excise is the second largest source of revenue for the State governments, after Value Added Tax (VAT). According to an estimation made in 2007-08, they earned Rs. 26,000 crore from tax on alcohol.
o Apart from major health problems, it has to be understood that children are prone to impressions.
o A spate of drunken driving cases in the recent days shows the ugly side of alcohol consumption.
o In a country like India, a ban might not be the right way to go as it may lead to balck marketing and hooch trading.
o A more restrictive policy will be the right way forward.
o An important footnote : A study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences for the WHO, has estimated that while gains in terms of revenue from alcohol sales are Rs. 216 billion every year, losses from adverse effects of the sale are Rs. 244 billion, apart from the immeasurable losses due to multiple effects of alcohol use.
ü Concerned over the indiscriminate use of emergency contraceptive pills sold across the country, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has written to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Medical Council of India seeking their opinion in curbing the promotion of these pills.
· The NCW has said that it had been brought to their notice that wide scale advertisement campaign in favour of oral emergency contraceptive pills was being carried out by the pharmaceutical companies.
· It is being projected as an alternative to the safe sex method and thus may lead to an everlasting impact on the younger generation and in turn result in the government and the society losing its battle against AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases besides putting the women through grave emotional and physical trauma and everlasting effect of hormonal imbalance.
· It is to be noted that this over the counter drug is designed for women over 25 years and accordingly it is felt that it may have dangerous side-effects on teenagers and on women using it too regularly.
· It is dangerous because emergency pills do not prevent sexually transmitted disease like HIV/AIDS, the statement added.
ü Defeated opposition presidential candidate General (retired) Sarath Fonseka was on Monday named the leader of the newly floated Democratic National Alliance (DNA), of which the ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna would be a key constituent.
ü U.S. President Barack Obama is making a fresh attempt on Monday to rescue his signature issue of overhauling the U.S. health care system, with a proposal to keep a lid on climbing insurance premiums.
· Mr. Obama's new plan includes a provision to allow the government to deny or roll back egregious increases that infuriate consumers.
· The idea is bound to resonate with Americans fed up with insurance companies.
· It also puts Republican lawmakers, who have opposed Mr. Obama's health care overhaul plan, at risk of appearing to favour big business over the constituents who will be voting in November congressional elections.
· What is Obama’s health care plan over which so many hue and cry has been raised?
o It is known as the Affordable Health Care for America Act.
o The Affordable Health Care for America Act is a revision of an earlier proposal, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.
o There are several provisions.
o Some of the major provisions include prohibiting health insurers from refusing coverage based on patients' medical histories, prohibiting health insurers from charging different rates based on patients' medical histories or gender, repeal of insurance companies' exemption from anti-trust laws, requiring most employers to provide coverage for their workers or pay a surtax on the worker's wages up to 8%, a subsidy to low- and middle-income Americans to help buy insurance, a 2.5% excise tax on medical devices, reductions in projected spending on Medicare of $400 billion over a ten-year period etc.
o It has to be noted that several top insurance companies have opposed the bill.
ü The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on Monday approved 12 new foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth over Rs. 1,000 crore, including that of Walt Disney and Zee Entertainment.
· Based on the recommendations of FIPB, the government has approved 12 proposals of FDI amounting to Rs. 1,045.61 crore.
· The highest FDI of Rs. 529 crore is likely to come from Delhi-based Max India, followed by Hyderabad-based Soma Highways (Toll) Projects' Rs. 360-crore proposal.
· The government deferred 11 proposals, including Essar Capital Holdings, Verizon Communications, Star India Holding, and Etisalat DB Telecom.
· It, however, rejected seven FDI proposals and referred the proposal of Bharat Oman Refineries to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for its consideration.
· Similarly, the government had begun the process of restricting fresh foreign investment in the tobacco sector as it would like India to be seen as a responsible country, conscious about its people's health.
ü Following the recommendation of the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD), the Commerce Ministry is toying with the idea of imposing an anti-dumping duty on import of two variants of anti-bacterial drug penicillin to protect the domestic industry from cheap Chinese and Mexican imports.
· What is dumping? In economics, "dumping" can refer to any kind of predatory pricing. However, the word is now generally used only in the context of international trade law, where dumping is defined as the act of a manufacturer in one country exporting a product to another country at a price which is either below the price it charges in its home market or is below its costs of production.
· Advocates of free markets see "dumping" as beneficial for consumers and believe that protectionism to prevent it would have net negative consequences.
· Advocates for workers and laborers however, believe that safeguarding businesses against predatory practices, such as dumping, help alleviate some of the harsher consequences of free trade between economies at different stages of development.
· But what is Social Dumping? "Social dumping" is a term (with a negative connotation) that is used to describe a temporary or transitory movement of labour, whereby employers use workers from one country or area in another country or area where the cost of labour is usually more expensive, thus saving money and potentially increasing profit.
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