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25
th
January 2011

1. BJP yatra stopped at JK border, Swaraj, Jaitley arrested
Amid high drama, BJP's flag yatra was stopped at the Lakhampur border of Jammu and Kashmir with its
three senior leaders being arrested even as they lashed out at the state government and the Centre for
committing a "historic mistake". A day after being thrown out of Jammu and Kashmir, senior leaders Sushma
Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar tried to re-enter the state along with the Ekta Yatra being led by the
party's youth wing president Anurag Thakur but it was foiled by police which had put up barricades.

2. SC seeks AG's response on euthanasia plea
The euthanasia debate took a decisive turn in the Supreme Court with the Attorney General being asked to
give his view on ending the life of a nurse who was raped in a Mumbai hospital 38 years ago and almost
strangulated to death with a dog chain, causing in her a permanent vegetative state. To assess the present
condition of the victim Aruna R Shanbaug, whose plight was brought to the courts attention by a journalist
Pinki Virani, the Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra formed a team of three doctors
to visit the patient and submit a report by February 22.

3. Court notice to Centre on plea to release all Radia tapes
The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre on a writ petition for a direction to the Centre to release all
5,800 conversations of Niira Radia tapped by government agencies. A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and
S.S. Nijjar was hearing the petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation and posted the matter for
further hearing on February 2, along with the petition filed by industrialist Ratan Tata on the same issue. The
CPIL also wanted the court to frame guidelines that protect public whistle-blowers.

4. Sabala Yojana' launched for out-of-school adolescent girls
Rajasthan Women and Child Development Minister Bina Kak launched the Sabala Yojana for
empowerment of out-of-school adolescent girls through supplementary nutrition and life skills training at
anganwadi centres, ensuring their mental and physical growth, and enabling them to become self-sufficient.
Ms. Kak said about eight lakh girls in the age group of 11 to 18 years would benefit from the scheme, to be
implemented in 10 districts of the Rajasthan with the Central assistance. The scheme would also encourage
teenage girls to join regular schools.

5. NDMA team holds mock drill for TTD staff
A team of specialists from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) conducted a mock drill on
the dos and don'ts to be followed in the pilgrim-choked hill temple of Venkateswara in the event of a fire,
stampede or bomb blast. The NDMA experts, who landed in the backdrop of the January 14 Sabarimala
tragedy, focussed on two areas studying the contingency plans already put in place by the Tirumala
Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to tackle any possible disaster, especially in the Venkateswara temple, which
is always crowded, and to train the temple staff and the fire brigade on the security drill to be followed in the
event of any disaster.

6. Darul Uloom V-C's tenure starts on a stormy note
Students staged a protest at the leading Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband demanding removal of the
new Vice-Chancellor for his alleged comments on Gujara t Chief Minister Narendra Modi. A group of
protesters who were raising slogans against V-C Maulana Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi disrupted classes
and closed the main gate, they said, adding that two students were injured.

7. India ranks second in world for natural disasters, says UN
India ranks second in the world for natural disasters after China, a top UN official has said underlining that
unplanned urbanisation and failure to address the issue of climate change pose a grave threat worldwide.
The two rapidly growing countries in the world China and India rank first and second in the number of
reported natural disasters. While China witnessed 22 natural disasters, India came second with 16. About
373 natural disasters killed over 296,800 people last year. The estimated costs of natural disasters in 2010
in which an earthquake in Haiti killed over 222,500 people and the Russian heat wave caused around
56,000 fatalities is around $110 billion.







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25
th
January 2011

8. Sri Lankan Navy denies shooting Indian fisherman
Sri Lanka strongly rejected allegations that its navy had killed an Indian fisherman and warned of elements
trying to tarnish relations between the neighbouring countries. Navy spokesman Captain Athula Senarath
said its personnel had no involvement in Saturdays reported shooting off the Kodikarai coast in
Nagapattinam district, where one fisherman was killed and two were injured. Our patrol crafts operating off
the northern coast have nothing to do with this reported incident, he said. There may be some elements
involved in trying to tarnish the good relations we have. The navy was accused of a similar incident 10 days
before.

9. Indo-Bangla joint headcount survey in disputed enclaves
Bangladesh and India will soon launch a joint enclave population survey to exchange lands located in each
other's territory in a bid to end a protracted cross-border problem. The Bangladesh side constituted 10
committees comprising concerned officials and we now await Indian response to launch the headcount
survey in enclaves as soon as possible, Kamaluddin Ahmed, the joint secretary in the Home Ministry, told.

10. Japan to slaughter 410,000 chickens for bird flu
An official says bird flu has been detected on a farm in southern Japan and its 410,000 chickens are to be
slaughtered. Miyazaki agricultural official Masuhiro Nozaki says five dead birds on the farm were confirmed
infected with the H5 strain of bird flu. Nozaki said more tests were under way to determine whether it was the
virulent H5N1 subtype. Nozaki said that Japan will send some 170 ground troops to Miyazaki to help local
authorities contain the spread of bird flu. Cars driving in and out of the area were being disinfected and the
movement of chickens and eggs from farms in the area was banned.

11. Plan to develop Sri Lanka's north
The United Nations and the Sri Lankan government are preparing a joint plan for assistance for the north of
the country. It will be ready by early February and will be a comprehensive to-do list that was essential to
make sure that the needs of the people were met, said a senior U.N. Official. The plan was prepared in
consultation with the Sri Lankan government and was being given the final touches. The plan had included
the role of international NGOs, and a host of other organisations working in the Jaffna area so that
development could be approached in an integrated manner.

12. Philips to buy Preethi brand
Chennai-based appliances brand Preethi, a leader in mixer-grinders in the south, is set to change hands.
Preethi will come under Philips India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the global major Philips. This follows an
agreement initialled by the promoters of the three-decade-old Maya Appliances Pvt. Ltd., which owns Preethi
brand, and Philips. Though an intent to buy' agreement has been inked between the two, it will take around
three months for the deal to be consummated.

13. Airtel launches 3G services
Bharti Airtel, which has the biggest revenue share among mobile phone companies in India, launched its 3G
services. Vineet Taneja, Operations Director -South, said the launch of higher value services on the 3G
platform will check the decline in average revenue per user (ARPU). He said Airtel's leadership formula,
based on the provision of services on the high speed packet access (HSPA) protocol would enable users
browse the Internet on mobile devices at speeds of up to 21 mega bits per second (mbps).

14. Tax collection to exceed target by Rs 37k crore
On the back of robust growth in the Indian economy, tax collections during the current fiscal are likely to
exceed the budgetary target by about `37,000 crore, at `7.82 lakh crore. The Budget target of tax revenue
has been revised upward to `7.82 lakh crore from `7.45 lakh crore for the current fiscal, Revenue Secretary
Sunil Mi tra told. While the target for direct tax collection has been raised from `4.30 lakh crore to `4.46 lakh
crore, the indirect tax collection estimate has been hiked from `3.15 lakh crore to `3.36 lakh crore, he added.
Meanwhile, Mitra also said the average annual inflation during the current fiscal will jump to 9 per cent, which
is more than double the figure of 3.8 per cent recorded a year ago.