Government formalizes the price formula for natural gas October 21, 2014   

The Central Government has finalized a new pricing mechanism for natural gas. The new gas pricing formula is believed to be much lesser than the formula suggested by the Rangarajan Committee.Process of finalization

The Centre had constituted a panel of secretaries to determine the methodology of pricing gas. The central cabinet accepted the recommendations of this panel at its meeting held on October 20.

New pricing formula

As per the new formula, domestic gas price will now increase from $4.2 per mmBtu (million British thermal unit) to $5.61 per mmBtu. The Rangarajan Committee has recommended revision of prices to $8.4 per mmBtu.

This price will, however be revised every six months.

This new gas pricing formula will be effective from the 1st of November.Balancing viability and consumer interests

The new gas pricing formula aims to keep the price high enough so that drilling projects remain viable, while keeping the price reasonable enough so that the consumers don’t buckle under the high costs.

Also the review that is to be carried out every six months will ensure that the prices are modified suitably to protect the interest of all stakeholders. This six monthly review will eventually lead to free natural gas prices.

Government deregulates diesel pric e October 21, 2014  

The Central government has deregulated the price of diesel. This means that just like petrol prices, the price of diesel too will be determined by the global market forces. The price of diesel shall vary depending on the rise and fall of oil in theinternational marketsFall in price

Currently, the price of oil in global markets is on a declining trend. The oil prices are at a four year low. Hence, the deregulation is expected to result in the reduction of diesel prices. InDelhi, the price of diesel is expected to fall by Rs. 3.37 a litre This will be the first reduction in diesel rates in over five years.Scenario prior to deregulation

From January 2013, diesel prices are being raised in stages through a 50 paisa per litre increase every month, in an effort to bring them to the global diesel price levels. Since January 2013, the rates have cumulatively risen by Rs. 11.81 per litre over a span 19 measured periodical increases. Traditionally, oil firms have incurred huge losses on diesel, because the price tends to be much lower than the costs incurred by the companies in procuring and distributing the fuel .However, since the second half of September, the companies have actually started making profits because of the fall in global oil prices. The profit has reportedly since reached Rs 3.56 per litre. This reduction did not reflect in the prevalent prices of diesel. However, now with deregulation, the price of diesel will be adjusted to reflect this. elief for PSUs

The deregulation bodes well for PSUs like ONGC which will no longer have to bear the brunt of subsidizing diesel.

Government to relaunch Direct Benefits Transfer Scheme October 21, 2014   

The Union Cabinet has approved the relaunch of the Direct Benefits Transfer scheme with some modifications.Some of the salient points pertaining to the new scheme are:-

Scheme is to launched in 54 districts from November 15, 2014 and in the rest of the country from January 1, 2015

It will be implemented in mission mode between 10 November and 1 January 2015

The subsidy amount to be given per domestic subsidized LPG cylinder shall remain fixed

Future beneficiaries can receive the cash subsidies by linking theirAadhaar number with the LPG connection, and have their bank account as the primary option. Alternatively, they can also directly link their LPG connection with their bank account, and may or may not include Aadhaar as the secondary option. In any scenario, possession of an Aadhaar number will not be a requirement, which is in conformity with a SC verdict which said that Aadhaar card cannot be made mandatory because it has no legal backing

Persons who have opened accounts under the newly introduced Jan Dhan Yojana can also link their LPG connection to such an account.

Persons without bank accounts or Aadhaar will also receive subsidized LPG cylinder for some time

Hurricane Gonzalo hits Bermuda October 21, 2014  

Hurricane Gonzalo made landfall on October 17 inBermuda, with rain and winds of speed 175 km/h.Two storms

Gonzalo was the second storm to hit Bermuda this month. Earlier in the previous week, Tropical Storm Fay had damaged homes and knocked down trees and power lines.

Destruction

Electricity supply was lost to 31,200 homes initially. Electricity was restored to two thirds of these houses by 19 October. The hurricane caused flooding, uprooted trees and damaged structures.

No loss of life

Only minor injuries were reported in the island. Gonzola was initially a category 4 storm as it approached the island, it weakened and was downgraded to a category 2 storm before it made landfall.

Deployment of frigate

Bermuda is a British overseas territory. The Royal Navy of UK had deployed a frigate, HMS Argyll, along with trained medical personnel to help with the provision of humanitarian assistance. The personnel will also help recover power, communications and water supplies, while a helicopter on the ship will carry out an aerial survey of the island.

Government reconstitutes the National Committee to commemorate 125th Birth Anniversary of Nehru October 21, 2014   

The Government has reconstituted the National Committee  to commemorate the 125th Birth Anniversary of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The committee will hold its first meeting after Diwali. On its agenda will be the celebrations to be undertaken to mark Nehru’s 125th birth anniversary on 14 November, 2014.Members of the Committee

The Committee will be chaired by the Prime Minister. The Home Minister, Minister of External Affairs, Finance Minister, Minister of Human Resource Development, Minister of Culture and Minister of Information & Broadcasting are all ex-officio members of the Committee.Some leaders from the Congress Party like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Karan Singh etc and senior journalists Rajat Sharma, M.J.Akbar, Swapan Dasgupta have also been inducted as members.

National Implementation Committee

Apart from the main National Committee, the PM has also approved theconstitution of a National Implementation Committee. This Committee will be headed by the Home Minister, and will monitor the implementation of the programmes/proposals finalised by the main committee. 

Origin of the Committee

The National Committee was initially set up by during the tenure of the previous UPA government, and was headed by then PM Manmohan Singh.

Cricket Association of Bengal releases special Gold Coin on 150th anniversary of Eden Gardens October 21, 2014   

Three day long celebrations are underway at the Eden Gardens in Kolkatta by the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the iconic cricket ground.

As part of the celebrations, 150 of the oldest members of annual, associate and life categories of the CAB will be felicitated. On October 18, a souvenir and a special gold coin will be released by CAB.

Eden Gardens

Eden Gardens was established in 1864. It is the largest cricket stadium in Indiaand the third biggest cricket stadium in the world in terms of capacity. It is the home of the Bengal cricket team and IPL’s Kolkatta Knight Riders. It has been a venue for Test matches, ODIs and Twenty20 international matches.

Japan rolls out Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), its first commercial jet in 50 years October 21, 2014  

After a gap of half a century, Mitsubishi Aircraft has rolled out Japan’s first commercial jet .Nature of the MRJ

The MRJ has a little less than 100 seats. The jet is valued at $42 million. It marks Japan’s second attempt to enter the commercial aircraft market. The unique aspect of the MRJ is that is consumes one fifth less fuel than an aircraft its size.

Development of the MRJ

The MRJ has been developed by a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industrieswhich  counts carmaker Toyota Corp as one of its shareholders. The MRJ will now be subject to a multiple flight before the first

delivery of the aircraft in June 2017. This target is 3 years later than Mitsubhishi’s original plan.

Government approves Ahmedabad Metro Rail project phase-1 October 21, 2014   

The Union Cabinet has given its approval to grant financial assistance to the Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project.The Cabinet has granted its approval for the Rs. 10,773 cr project to build Phase I of the Ahmedabad Metro Rail project.

Phase I of the metro rail

Phase I of the rail project covers a 35.96 km long route along two corridors, namely, the North-South Corridor covering 15.42 km from APMC to Motera Stadium and East-West Corridor covering 20.54 km from Thaltej Gam to Vastral Gam.

Role of the Central Government

While the total project cost is Rs.10,773 cr, the Central government will contribute Rs. 1,990 cr in the form of equity and subordinate debt.

Implementation of the project

The project will be implemented by the Metro-Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) Company Ltd., which will now be converted into a 50:50 jointly owned company of the Central government and state government of ofGujarat.Legal Framework

The project will be covered under the legal framework of the Metro Railways(Construction of Works) Act, 1978; the Metro Railways (Operation and Maintenance) Act, 2002; and the Railways Act, 1989.

Centre sends advisory to states to recruit 33 percent women in police forces October 22, 2014   

The Central Government has issued an advisory asking that steps be taken so that 33% of the workforce in police forces are constituted by women. The advisory has been sent to all the states, union territories and central armed police forces. Presently, only 1.99% of the personnel in the paramilitary

forces are women. The government aims to increase this number in the next 10 years.

Gopinath Munde’s daughter creates record of maximum victory margin in Lok Sabha elections October 22, 2014 

Late BJP leader Gopinath Munde’s second daughter, Pritam Munde,  won the Beed seat in Maharashtra by a record margin of nearly seven lakh votes. The bypoll was conducted in Beed to fill the seat left vacant by Gopinath Munde after his tragic and untimely demise. Pritam Munde’s record

Pritam polled 9,22,416 votes, defeating former Congress minister Ashok Patil by 6,96,321 votes. Shiv Sena and NCP chose not to field any candidate against Pritam. PM Modi had begun his Maharashtra poll campaign in Beed.

 Other records

Pritam broke Anil Basu’s record for a win with the highest electoral margin. Anil Basu of CPI-M won by 5,92,502 votes from Arambagh in West Bengal during the 2004 general elections. The third highest victory margin was recorded by late PM Narasimha Rao who won from Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh with a 5.8 lakh margin in 1991. The record for winning with the fourth largest margin is PM Modi, who won the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat in May this year by 5.7 lakh votes.He is followed by Ram Vilas Paswan’s 1989 margin of 5,04,448 votes from Hajipur in Bihar.

BJP wins assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana October 22, 2014   

The BJP has performed well in the first test of its popularity after the parliamentary elections. It looks set to form the government in both states.

Maharashtra Assembly Elections

With strong campaigning by the PM, the BJP won 122 seats in Maharashtra, which is almost three times the number of seats it won in the 2009 elections. However, the seats are still not enough for the BJP to solely for a government, as it falls 22 seats short of the halfway mark. The party which wishes to form the government must have a minimum of 145 seats in the 288 member Maharashtra assembly.The NCP won 41 seats and announced that it was willing to provide unconditional support to the BJP from the outside. The Shiv Sena won 63 seats. The Congress emerged as the third largest party in the House, after BJP and Shiv Sena, winning 42 seats. Raj Thackeray’s MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) won just one seat. MNS won from only Junnar which is in Pune district. In the earlier elections, MNS has won 13 seats.

BJP’s Maharashtra unit President, Devendra Phadnavis, seems to be the most likely candidate for the Chief Minister’s post. He is from the Vidarbha region, where the BJP won 40 seats.

Haryana Assembly Elections

Haryana’s Legislative Assembly has 90 seats. Of this, BJP gained the clear majority by winning 47 seats. Haryana voters have been voting for Congress since 2005, when Bhupinder Hooda became CM. The party with the second largest seats is the INLD (Indian National Lok Dal) with 19 seats. Congress won 15 seats this year, a far lesser number than the 40 seats it won in 2009. As for the other parties, Haryana Janhit Congress (BL), Shiromani Akali Dal

and BSP won 2, 1 and 1 seats respectively. Independent candidates cornered 5 seats.

Longest-serving MLA in Maharashtra Ganpatrao Deshmukh wins 11th time, creates record October 22, 2014  

Veteran legislator Ganpatrao Deshmukh won the legislative assembly elections for the 11th time. This makes him the longest serving MLA in India. Ganpatrao Deshmukh

88 year old Deshmukh won from Sangola in Solapur district, which he has represented for 54 years. In 2009, Deshmukh became the second legislator in India after M.Karunanidhi to have won 10 elections.

Deshmukh belongs to the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP). He has been a Minister twice, but has spent most of his time being part of the Opposition.  He was first elected as a MLA in 1962, and since then has won every election except for the 1972 and 1995 elections.

In 2012, he completed 50 years in the assembly, for which he was felicitated by the Assembly and the Government.

2014 legislative assembly win

The 2014 legislative assembly election was Deshmukh’s 13th assembly election. He defeated Shiv Sena’s Shahajibapu Patil by 25,224 votes. Deshmukh garnered 94,374 votes to Patil’s 69,150. The NCP chose not to field a candidate against Deshmukh.

Five year Indian boy climbs Kalapathar peak, sets world record October 22, 2014   

Harshit Saumitra, a five year and eleven month old Indian has successfully climbed Kalapathar peak. Harshit Saumitra is the son of a famous mountaineer, Rajeev Saumitra.

Kalapathar Peak

The Kalapathar Peak is 200 m above the base camp of Mount Everest in Nepal. The peak is 5,554 m high. It is also the highest peak amongst all the highest peaks of three continents, Europe’s Mount Blanc (4,810 m), Antartica’s Vinson Massif (4,892 m) and Australia’s Punack Jaya or Carstensz Pyramid (4,884 m).Climb to the peak

Harshit and his team, consisting of his father and two Sherpa guides, landed at Lukla Airport in a helicopter on October 7. It took them 10 days to reach the peak for a climb that normally takes 7 days.

World Records

Harshit’s father has claimed that Harshit has broken a world record set by 7 year old Aryan Balaji, who has climbed to Kalapathar in 2012. They are in the process of registering Harshit’s name for the Limca Book of Records and are considering applying for the Guinness World Records.

3000 houses handed over to Sikkim Earthquake affected under REDRH scheme October 22, 2014   

After a prolonged delay, 3000 houses in rural areas have been completely built under Sikkim’s REDRH scheme.REDRH

REDRH scheme refers to the Reconstruction of Earthquake Damaged Rural Houses project. This project was sanctioned under the PM’s Special Package after the Sikkim earthquake. A total of 7,972 houses have been sanctioned under the scheme by the PM’s Special Package.

Mode of building houses

The Project follows an owner driven implementation model. The core house design, building standards, construction material (cement and steel), technical supervision and capital will be provided by the government, while the owner has to undertake the actual construction, procure local construction material (stone, sand, timber etc) and arranged for mason and

labour. Where the government provided funds are insufficient, the owner will have to add their own finances.

State of progress

While 3000 houses have been completed, 2000 more houses have crossed roof level, and 2500 houses have crossed plinth level and work is underway on the remaining 472 houses

Funding

The scheme is centrally sponsored, so all the funds are provided by the Centre under the PM’s Special Package. The total cost sanctioned for the project by the Centre is Rs. 389.83 cr, of which the Sikkim government has received Rs. 227.03 cr from the Centre

Marin Cilic wins Kremlin Cup October 22, 2014   

Second seeded US Open champion Marin Cilic ofCroatia won the Kremlin Cup ATP title in Moscow. He defeated fifth seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut in the final. Cilic became the first Croatian to win the Moscow ATP 250 tournament since his coach Goran Ivanisevic beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1996.Kremlin Cup WTA Title

Sixth seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russiadefeated Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu to wint the WTA title. Anastasia became the first Russian woman to win the Kremlin Cup since Elena Dementieva in 2007. Anastasia earlier won the Open GDF Suez in Paris.

India wins Sultan of Johor Cup title October 22, 2014   

India faced Great Britain at the Taman Daya Hockeystadium in Johor Bahru in Malaysia for the finals of the Sultan of Johor under 21 hockey Cup.Past Title Winners

The Sultan of Johor Cup was inaugurated in 2011. The 2011 winner was Malaysia, 2012 winner wasGermany and 2013 winner was India.2014 Title winner

India successfully defended its 2013 win, and defeated Great Britain. This makes India the first team to the win the Sultan of Johor under 21 title twice.

Australia defeated New Zealand to finish third.Sultan of Johor

The Sultan of Johor is a hereditary seat and the title of the nominal ruler of the Malaysian state of Johor. Earlier, Johor was ruled by the Sultan, but now, it is governed by a CM. The Sultan of Johor just remains a ceremonial post today.

China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral dialogue held October 22, 2014  

China, Afghanistan and Pakistan held a trilateral dialogue to chalk out a roadmap for regional cooperation and strengthen ties with each other. This is the second such dialogue. The first dialogue was held in 2013 in Beijing.Organisers

The two day dialogue consisting of officials and experts of the three countries was organised by the Pakistan-China Institute (PCI) and German agency Konrad Adeneaur Stiftung.

Issues discussed

This dialogue was conceived to act as a vital platform to strengthen communication and cooperation among the three nations. The parties involved discussed presence of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, cross-border terrorist movement, capacity of the Afghan national security forces, protection of foreigninvestments in Afghanistan and the role of regional countries in promoting peace, stability and security in Afghanistan and surrounding region. Protection of foreign investments was especially an issue with China, which is Afghanistan’s largest investor.