Advancement of clock by 1 hour for Eastern India

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/not-in-their-comfort-zone/article3937089.ece

Economic Indicators

Fiscal Deficit for the FY 2011-12 was 5.7% of GDP. Govt. hopes to bring it down to 5.1%.
CAD deficit is at 4.2% in last fiscal.
GDP growth was 6.5% in FY 2011-2012

Sudanese Conflict

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/final-solution-eludes-the-two-sudans/article3933618.ece

Recent Economic Reforms

Includes -
1. Raise in price of diesel by INR 5.
2. capping of subsidized domestic LPG cylinder to 6 per annum.
3. 51% FDI in multi brand retail.
4. ____ in single brand retail
5. ____ in civil aviation

Aftermath -

• TMC with 19 MPs pulled out of the govt.
• Bharat Bandh
• Delhi state govt. will provide additional 3 subsidized cylinders for domestic purposes.
• Excise and custom duty cut on domestic non-subsidized LPG cylinders.
• FM P. Chidambaram has approved the operational features of Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme (RGESS) to attract first time investors to stock market through a tax savings scheme. This will also act as an alternative to investment in gold.
• FM also approved foreign borrowings through loan and long term infrastructure bonds. So, no case-by-case approval is reqd.

Salient Features of RGESS :

-- It will provide tax deduction of 50% for investments up to 50000 for investors whose annual taxable income in below 10 lakhs.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/article3924675.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/old-arguments-warmed-up/article3930494.ece

Insurance Sector (09/30/2012) :
FM Chidambaram announced a revival package for the life insurance sector.
Package includes -
1. Banks can act as insurance broker as they can sell products from multiple insurance companies. At present, they can sell only one company's under Bancassurance policy.
2. 49% FDI in insurance sector was approved by cabinet on 22nd Aug.

Next Wave of Reforms (10/05/2012) : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/upaii-gambles-with-another-round-of-big-bang-reforms/article3966789.ece
Cabinet approved
   -  49% FDI in Insurance sector & Insurance Laws (Amendments) Bill, 2008 (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/fdi-in-insurance-hiked-to-49/article3966757.ece)
(http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/playing-brinksmanship-to-promote-infrastructure/article3976022.ece)
   - Opening of Pension sector to Foreign Investment
   - Clearing Companies Bill, 2011
   - Amendments to the Competition Act, 2002
   - Foreign Contracts (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2012

118th Constitutional Amendment Bill

It seeks to insert a new article 371-J to Part XXI of Indian constitution.
Objective : To provide special provision/status to 6 backward districts in Hyderabad-Karnataka region.
Detailed Provisions -
1. A separate Development Board to see more funds are allocated to this region among other things.
2. Local reservation in education and govt. jobs

Part XXI (Temporary, Transitional & Special Provisions) [Art 371-A to 371-I]
It contains special provisions for 10 states.

371 : Mah & Guj
371-A : Nagaland
371-B : Assam
371-C : Manipur
371-D, 371-E : Andhra Pradesh
371-F : Sikkim
371-G : Mizoram
371-H : Arunachal Pradesh
371-I : Goa

CAG

CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India)

What is it ?
It is an independent constitutional (Art. 148) authority/ position.
Head of Indian Audit & Accounts Department (estd. 1753). In short, he is the guardian of entire financial system, both at centre and state level.
A bulwark of Indian Democracy. Others being -
SC
EC
UPSC

Appointed by the President [Administrative Power of the President]
Oath before the President    [Administrative Power of the President]
Appointed for a period of 6 years till the age of 65.
Removal :
-- Can resign addressing to the President.
-- Can be removed by the President in the same manner as a SC judge only on grounds of proven misbehavior or incapacity.

Constitutional Provisions for independent functioning of CAG :
6 points

Duties & Powers
Art 149 authorizes parliament to lay down powers. So, CAG's (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971 (amended in 1976) specifies 13 powers.
1. All Consolidated Funds (center, states, UTs having lgislature)
2. All Contingency funds and Public Accounts.
3. All accounts of all departments of central and state govt.
4. receipts also
5.

Responsible only to the Parliament.
In practice, CAG functions only as an auditor, unlike that in Britain.
CAG does two types of audit.
1. Audit from legal and regulatory perspective.
2. Audit from propriety perspective. This is not discretionary. e.g. In case of coal block allocation report, PAC had asked CAG to look into this 3-4 yrs. back.

Secret service expenditure is a limitation on audit functionality of CAG. It will only get a certificate  from competent administrative authority.

Why in News ?
Recently published its report on allocation of coal blocks and augmentation of coal production.
The report states that col ministry's failure to introduce competitive bidding process while allocating coal blocks between 2004 and 2009 has led to a loss of 1.6 lakh crores to the exchequer.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/rilcag-row-goes-to-pmo/article4132065.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/cag-seeks-right-to-audit-clause-included-in-oil-and-blocks-auction-contracts/article4113504.ece

Right To Education

Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 provides for free and compulsory education to children within age group of 6 to 14 years and mandates government/ aided/ non-aided non-minority schools to reserve 25% of seats for them.
In April this year, SC had upheld the validity of this act.

Now, SC has refused to admit any more petition on this.

First indigenous AEW&C

India's first indigenously developed Air Borne Early warning & Control system will be unveiled by Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal N.A.K. Browne.

Flown on an aircraft — a modified Embraer EMB 1451 — the system provides early warning to the military about enemy aircraft.

ISRO's 100th Mission

Recently ISRO conducted its 100th space mission

What happened in this 100th mission ?

ISRO launched two satellites using PSLV C-21 rocket.
Where : Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, AP.
1. SPOT 6 : A french satellite
2. Proiteres : A japanese micro satellite

India's Defence preparedness

DRDO is the main developer of India's defence arsenals.

Nirbhay
- Sub-sonic (less than the speed of sound) terrain-hugging cruise missile
- India's equivalent of Tomahawk
- Range : 1000 kms
- Launched from : any surface

A top DRDO official said the advantage with the “fast-reaction” Nirbhay was that it would be difficult for enemy radars to detect it.

The missile was highly manoeuvrable and could change the trajectory mid-course because of “waypoint navigation.”

Astra
- Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM)
- Currently under development
- The 3.8 m long Astra is the smallest of the missiles developed by DRDO.

Nag
- Fire and forget anti tank missile with a range of 4 kms.
- NAMICA : The vehicle to launch Nag
- HELINA  : Version of Nag to be launched from helicopter

Agni and Prithvi variants are surface-to-surface missiles.
Dhanush is a naval variant of Prithvi.

Prithvi
- India's
Prithvi II : Personnel of Strategic Forces Command successfully test fired this surface-to-surface nuclear warhead capable, 350 kms range missile from a road mobile launcher.
It is a single stage liquid propellant missile.
Agni
- India's long range missile system
Agni III : Personnel of Strategic Forces Command will conduct a test- firing of this missile on Sep 21.

• 3000 kms range, surface-to-surface nuclear capable missile
• 2 stage solid propelled missile that can carry warhead of 1.5 tonnes.

- Agni IV : final developmental test flight on Sep 20. If successful, commercial induction into the services early next year.

• Two stage solid propellant
• Can carry payload of 1000 kgs till 4000 kms.
• Its re-entry vehicle is equipped with heat shield to enable the payload withstand searing temperatures of more than 3,000 degrees Celsius. 
The missile’s advanced ring-laser gyro-based INS ensures a high degree of accuracy.

- Agni V :

• 5000 kms. range.