National:
No Diesel, petrol for vehicles without PUC Certificate in Delhi
The Delhi
government has decided to stop the sale of Diesel and petrol from the 1st of
next month to vehicles which do not posses Pollution Under Control (PUC)
Certificate. The decision has been taken to control pollution in the city. An
official said all vehicles registered before 2010 have to get PUC Certificates
after every three months. While those purchased after 2010 have to get the
certificate annually.
Chhattisgarh govt bans 4 medicines
The Chhattisgarh
government has banned the sale of four drugs, ibuprofen, Ciprocin, injection
Lignocaine, and Xylocaine gel, as well as absorbent cotton - each with their
batch numbers and the name of their manufacturers - which were distributed to
women who underwent sterilisation at Takhatpur, Pendra and Marwahi health camps
leading to 13 deaths. According to preliminary investigations into the botched
sterilisations indicate drugs distributed to patients post-surgery could be a
cause of deaths. The sample of all drugs has been sent to central Drug
laboratory, Kolkata, for analyses.
India agrees to stay on as advisory board member of UNCCT
India has agreed to
UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s offer to remain a member of the advisory board of a UN
centre on counter-terrorism for an additional three years. India’s Permanent
Representative to the UN Asoke Mukerji said that the Secretary-General to India
has been offered to continue as a member of the Advisory Board of the United
Nations Counter-Terrorism Center (UNCCT) for an additional three years starting
from April 2, 2015. The UNCCT was established in 2011 within the United Nations
Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) to assist capacity-building
needs of member states, and to strengthen United Nations’ counter-terrorism
expertise. The Centre engages with the over 30 CTITF entities with expertise on
a broad spectrum of counter-terrorism related issues. The centre’s advisory
board is chaired by Saudi Arabia and has 22 members including China, Russia, Pakistan,
UK and the US.
International:
European probe ‘Philae’ lands on comet, fails to anchor
Europe has made
history by placing the first-ever lander on a comet — but the robot failed to
anchor itself properly, raising concerns at ground control. The fridge-sized
lab dubbed Philae touched down on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in a
high-risk manoeuvre more than 510 million kilometres (320 million miles) from
Earth. But instead of harpooning itself to the surface after a seven-hour
descent from mothership Rosetta, early radio signals suggest Philae could have
settled in a soft surface or gently lifted off and then redescended. There was
cause for celebration as Philae separated from Rosetta as scheduled and headed
for “67P” after a decade-long trek covering 6.5 billion kilometres (four
billion miles).
WHO set guidelines to reduce deaths from indoor air pollution
The World Health
Organization has announced its first-ever guidelines for indoor air pollution
related to cooking, heating and lighting, a problem estimated to kill more than
four million people per year. The burning fuels such as unprocessed coal or
kerosene indoors is the primary cause of such pollution, with poorer countries
hardest hit due to a lack of affordable alternatives. The WHO said nearly three
billion people worldwide -- almost half the global population -- lack access to
clean fuels and technologies for cooking, heating and lighting. India has been
among the countries that have most suffered from the problem. According to the
UN, in 2012, 1.7 million premature deaths occurred in Asia due to indoor
pollution, with India at the top of the list.
US Supreme Court permits gay marriage in Kansas
The U.S. Supreme
Court has said same-sex marriages can go ahead in Kansas in a decision that the
state insists applies to only two counties. On the same day, a federal judge
struck down South Carolina’s ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional. The
Supreme Court has declined to hear cases from three appeals courts that had
overturned gay marriage bans. Kansas, South Carolina and Montana all have
refused to allow gay couples to obtain marriages licenses despite rulings from
federal appeals courts that oversee them. Gay marriage is legal in 32 other
states. In Missouri, a federal judge in Kansas City and a state judge in St.
Louis each declared its ban unconstitutional, and gay-rights advocates urged
the state’s attorney general not to appeal.
Couple can’t keep surrogate child
Italy’s Supreme
Court has ruled that a baby born to a surrogate mother in Ukraine cannot be
kept by the Italian couple who paid for it and must be put up for adoption.
Under Italian law, the person who gives birth to a baby is legally its mother,
and the use of surrogate mothers is outlawed. The couple from northern Italy,
both in their fifties and infertile, had been turned down three times in their
bid to adopt a child before they turned to surrogacy. They paid €25,000
($31,150) to a surrogate mother in Ukraine, who refused to give her name when
the baby was born in 2011, leaving the birth certificate blank.
Watch fetches record $21.3 million at auction
A Patek Philippe
gold watch, billed as the most expensive and most complicated in the world and
put together over five years, fetched a record $21.3 million when it went under
the hammer in Switzerland. The sale of the “Henry Graves Supercomplication,” a
handcrafted timepiece named after its original owner, a New York banker who
ordered it in 1925, was the main event at a jewel and watch auction held in
Geneva. The watch, which weighs more than half a kilogram and comprises 900
parts, had been estimated to go for a lower $15 million. But frenzied bidding
pushed the price up higher, and the final amount paid was “a new world record.
Business& Economy:
$3.2 b fine on 5 global banks for forex rigging
Global regulators announced
$3.2 billion (2.5 billion euros) in fines against five major U.S. and European
banks for attempting to manipulate foreign exchange markets. The hefty fines
centered on London, the world’s biggest hub for the $5.3-trillion-per-day forex
market. British banks HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), US peers Citigroup
and JPMorgan Chase, and Swiss lender UBS have all been fined by Britain’s
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the US Commodity Futures Trading
Commission (CFTC). The FCA hit the five banking giants with a record penalty of
£1.1 billion ($1.7 billion, 1.4 billion euros), while the CFTC has fined them
$1.4 billion. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) also
announced a settlement of 134 million Swiss francs ($139 million) with UBS over
the matter.
SEBI to implement CAS from March 2015
The Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has said that it would enable a single
consolidated view of all investments of every investor in mutual funds and
securities held in demat form with depositories from March
2015. Consolidation of account statement would be done on the basis of
permanent account number (PAN) and in case of multiple holding; it would be PAN
of the first holder and pattern of holding. The Consolidated Account Statement
(CAS) for all securities would “create one record for all financial assets of
every individual,”. AMCs/ RTAs would share the requisite information with the
depositories on monthly basis to enable generation of CAS.
Indian Oil LNG terminal to be ready by 2017-18
Indian Oil
Corporation’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and also the
first one on the east coast at Kamarajar Port will become operational by the
third quarter of 2017 or early 2018. IOC chairman B. Ashok said the company was
setting up a five million-tonne LNG terminal with storage and re-gassification
facilities at Ennore. The board had already given its nod for the project. The
Rs.5,150-crore project is developed jointly by IOC and Tamil Nadu Industrial
Development Corporation. IOC has 45 per cent stake and the latter five per
cent.
Govt sets up panel for smooth allocation of cancelled coal
blocks
Government has set
up a high-level inter-ministerial committee to ensure smooth allocation of 204
canceled coal blocks. It will provide advise on policy issues and interact with
the industry. In an official communication, the Coal Ministry said, the
nine-member committee to be headed by Additional Secretary Coal will have
members from the ministries like power, steel and law. It said the nominated
authority created under the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 2014 is
required to undertake management and reallocation of 204 coal blocks canceled
by the Supreme Court.
Railways allows 100% FDI in setting up of bio-toilets, laundry
facility
Indian railway has
identified toilets as one of the 17 special areas where 100 per cent foreign
and private investment can bring about major investments. According to the
guidelines approved by the government under its FDI policy, 100 per cent FDI
can be utilized in facilities like cleaning up trains and installation of
bio-toilets in passenger coaches and setting up of mechanized laundry
facilities. A committee constituted by Railway ministry to finalize the policy
has also suggested a set of business models to attract investments.
CII initiative to reward best start-ups in TN
The Chennai Zone of
Confederation of Indian Industry has launched an initiative called ‘CII
Startupreneurs’. The objective is to promote and encourage start-ups in the
region. As part of this initiative, it has announced a cash award of Rs 5 lakh
for the best start-ups choosen, from eight different verticals, across Tamil
Nadu. The advisory committee, which would pick the start-ups, consists of Arun
Jain of Polaris, Gopal Srinivasan CMD, TVS Capital Funds, and Lakshmi
Narayanan, Vice-Chairman, Cognizant, among others.
