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Governor of Ohio Ted Strickland bans offshoring of government projects
(General) |
08-09-10
In what good be the beginning of a new "protectionist" trend, Ohio a US state has banned outsourcing of government IT projects to offshore providers.
An executive to this effect was signed last month by the Governor. "Ohio's policy has been--and must continue to be--that public funds should not be spent on services provided offshore," Governor Ted Strickland says in the order.
Strickland said "Ohioans have been among the hardest hit by more than a decade of unfair trade agreements and the trickle-down economic policies that promoted offshoring jobs at the expense of Ohioans who work for a living."
He added "We must do everything within our power to prevent outsourcing jobs because it undermines our economic development objectives, slows our recovery and deprives Ohioans and other Americans of employment opportunities."
Indian major IT service providers have expressed concern. |
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Bihar General Elections announced. 6 phase schedule from 21-Oct to 20-Nov
(General) |
07-09-10
Bihar will elect its new Chief Minister between 21-Oct-2010 and 20-Nov-2010 in a 6 phase general election announced for the state by the Election Commissioner of India.
The tenure of the sitting government of Bihar under the stewardship of Nitish Kumar is scheduled to be over by 27-Nov-2010. The commission has announced the general election schedule under which the results will be announced on 24-Nov-2010 and election process will be completed by 26-Nov-2010.
The Election Commission has also announced the bye-election for Lok Sabha from the Banka Parliamentary seat, which fell vacant after the death of Digvijay Singh on 24-June-2010.
The Commission has decided to hold the bye-election to Lok Sabha from 27-Banka Parliamentary Constituency simultaneously with the general election to the Legislative Assembly with the same schedule fixed for the Assembly Constituencies comprised within the said Parliamentary Constituency , viz., 157-Sultanganj, 159-Amarpur, 160-Dhauraiya (SC), 161-Banka, 162-Katoria (ST) and 163-Belhar.
Bihar State has a 243 seater assembly out of which 38 are reserved for SC and 2 for ST candidates. As per the final rolls, there are 5,50,88,402 electors in the State of Bihar. |
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Supreme Court reitirates its order - distribute foodgrains instead of letting it rot
(General) |
31-08-10
The Supreme Court took strong exception to Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's statement in press that it was not possible to implement the Supreme Court "suggestion" in which the country's apex court had asked the government to distribute foodgrain for free to the hungry poor instead of allowing it to rot.
The Supreme Court told the Additional Solicitor General, today that its instructions about free distribution of foodgrains was an order and not a suggestion.
While hearing a PIL about the foodgrains rotting in the godowns of Food Corporation of India, earlier this month a Supreme Court bench had ordered the government to give it to the hungry poor instead of it going down the drain. The bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma had also asked the government to take urgent steps to ensure that food grains are not wasted.
The Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar had taken the order casually saying that it was not possible to distribute grains for free.
Later in the day, when the opposition tried to corner Sharad Pawar in Lok Sabha on the matter, Sharad Pawar said that he would be able to comment only after seeing the orders of the court. |
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SEBI asks media to disclose stake in companies reported
(General) |
27-08-10
Press Council of India accepted suggestions made by SEBI asking media companies to disclose their interest in the companies that they cover in their media.
SEBI had taken up with the Press Council of India, its concerns on practice of many media groups entering into agreements, such as "Private Treaties", with companies. Typically, such arrangements are with companies which are listed or which proposes to come out with public offerings. These, in general, entail a company giving stake in it (shares, warrants, bonds etc.) in return for media coverage through advertisements, news reports, advertorials etc. in the print or electronic media.
Press Council of India informed SEBI that in its meeting held on 22.02.2010 at New Delhi, it has accepted the following suggestions of SEBI and has mandated the following:- Disclosures regarding stake held by the media company should be made in the news report/ article/ editorial in newspapers/television relating to the company in which the media group holds such stake.
- Disclosure on percentage of stake held by media groups in various companies under such 'Private Treaties' on the website of media groups should be made.
- Any other disclosures relating to such agreements such as any nominee of the media group on the Board of Directors of the company, any management control or other details which may be required to be disclosed and which may be a potential conflict of interest for media group, should also be mandatorily disclosed.
There are prescribed norms of Journalistic Conduct that require journalists to disclose any interest that they may have in the company about which they are reporting. However, now equivalent requirements have been introduced in the case of media companies holding a stake in the company which is being reported / covered. |
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Jnaneshwari Train mishap key accused Uma Kant Mahato killed
(General) |
27-08-10
Maoist Uma Kant Mahato, a key accused in the Jnaneshwari Express mishap of 28 May 2010 that killed 148 passengers, has been killed in a gunbattle with security forces.
The incident occurred early morning on Friday 27 August 2010 at Jhargram, about 150 kms from Kolkata.
Uma Kant Mahato was a member of the tribal body People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA). He was wanted in connection with Jnaneshwari sabotage and the CBI had annouced a reward of Rs. 1 lakh for him.
The security forces had mounted an operation to corner him and some of his associates on the basis of a tip-off. Gun-fire was exchanged from both sides for more than 4 hours.
CBI had announced awards ranging from Rs.50,000/- to Rs. 2,00,000/- for arrest of eleven absconding accused persons in the Jnaneshwari Train case. |
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Environment Ministry denies mining clearance to Vedanta Alumina in Orissa
(General) |
24-08-10
Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, has denied clearance to the mining project of $1.7 billion Vedanta refinery project saying "There has been a very serious violation of laws. There has been violation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, Environment Protection Act, 1966 and Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Therefore, the project cannot go ahead."
A four member committee had been setup up by Environment Ministry early this year to investigate alleged violations of environmental laws. The committee submitted its report last week that mining in the hills would endanger the survival of tribals living in the area and advised rejection of the mining project. Going through the report put before it, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) says that "there is compelling and significant prima facie evidence of violations of Forest Rights Act, Forest Conservation Act and Environment Protection Act."
A statement issued today says, “The stage II forest clearance for the Orissa Mining Corporation Ltd.(OMC) and Sterlite bauxite mining project on Niyamgiri Hills in Lanjigarh, Kalahandi and Rayagada districts of Orissa cannot be granted. Stage II Forest Clearance therefore stands rejected. Since the forest clearance is being rejected, the environmental clearance for this mine is inoperable.”
The minister further informed that the government is considering penal action against the company for illegal mining.
Vedanta has responded saying that there has been no regulatory violations of any kind at the Lanjigarh Alumina refinery. |
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GOI demands for Blackberry access by 31-Aug-2010
(General) |
13-08-10
Government has made the service providers responsible for providing access to Blackberry's encrypted services by the end of this month.
The decission was taken at a meeting between G. K. Pillai Union Secretary Home, telecom department and representatives of various security agencies of the country on Thursday 12-Aug-2010.
Telecom Department has been asked to convey to the service providers that two Blackberry services - Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES) and Blackberry Messenger Service (BMS) - has to be made accessible to law enforcement agencies by 31-Aug-2010.
If a technical solution is not provided by end of this month, the Government has said that it will review the position and take steps to block these two services from the network.
Blackberry had been recently banned in UAE region for similar reasons.
There are about 10 lakh subscribers of these Blackberry services in India. Blackberry service is provided by Research In Motion (RIM). RIM develops integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless networks. |
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Protection for whistleblowers approved by Union Cabinet
(General) |
09-08-10
Government has announced a major initiative to encourage people who expose corruption. The Union Cabinet, on 09-Aug-2010, approved a bill to protect whistleblowers.
The proposed bill has provisions to prevent victimisation or disciplinary action against whistleblowers and covers the employees in Central, State and Public Sectors.
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) will be the nodal agency and will get powers of a civil court under The Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making Disclosure Bill, 2010.
The bill will have provisions to severely punish those exposing the identity of the whistleblowers, and also has clauses for fines and penalties to people who punish those exposing corruption. |
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Chitra Khalijia3 Crash:Oil spill causes environmental hazard around Mumbai Coast
(General) |
09-08-10
Three days after 2 foreign merchant ships collided over 5 miles off Mumbai efforts are still on to contain the oil spill which has nearly reached Mumbai. MSC Chitra has listed 80°, dropped about 300 containers and spilt over 50 tonnes of oil into the sea off Mumbai port.
The ship was carrying more than 1200 containers on board when it collided with bulk carrier MV Khalijia III on the morning of Saturday, 7 August 2010. The incident occurred shortly before 10 am when MV Khalijia III was heading into Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and MSC Chitra was moving out. Chitra had about 286 tonnes of fuel and several tonnes of lubricants onboard at the time of collision.
The oil slick has been sighted two to three kilometers around the ship. Indian Coast Guard has deployed several ships and helicopters, measures are being taken the contain the environmental hazard.
Several containers that had fallen of Chitra have been spotted floating on the water due to which all sea-traffic has been halted at Mumbai port. Meanwhile, fishermen have also been asked to suspend fishing activities until the oil slick is neutralized.
Cases have been filed against the captains of the two ships. |
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Rescue operations still on at Leh after cloudburst
(General) |
09-08-10
Rescue operations are on at full swing to bring relief to the people of Leh where flash floods caused heavy damanges on the morning of Friday 6-Aug-2010.
The region witnessed a large scale devastation on Friday morning due a cloudburst. Several villages were flattened in the mudslide that followed. Makeshift communication links have been setup in Leh and the runway was repaired to restore airlink with the region.
Severals aircrafts of the Indian Airforce - IF-76 and AN-32 - arrived at Leh yesterday with relief material, doctors and relief workers.24 hour helpline has been setup by the administration. The numbers are 09906990787 and 09906990835.
Rescue workers are removing bodies of persons trapped under the debris taking up the death toll to over 150, while at least 500 people are reported to be still missing. About 3000 tourists on holiday trips in the region were stranded.
Leh was completely cut off from rest of the nation after the incident. Leh's cellphone hub was destroyed, the runway was damaged and the road link was broken as several bridges on the Srinagar-Leh route were washed away by the mudslides. |
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