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27
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January 2011
1. Denial of permission for school upgrade violates minority rights: panel
Refusal of permission by a State government to a Muslim upper primary school for being upgraded as a high
school is a violation of the educational rights of the minorities enshrined in Article 30 (1) of the Constitution,
the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions has held. Rejecting the Kerala government's
contention that the permission could not be granted in view of a policy decision, the Commission, headed by
its Chairman Justice M.S.A. Siddiqui, said: The fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 30 (1) cannot
be sacrificed at the altar of the policy of the State government.

2. Maha govt sets up award in memory of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi
The Maharashtra gover nment instituted an award for lifetime achievement in the field of classical music in
memory of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. The doyen of Hindustani vocal music passed away in Pune.

3. Move to amend Factories Act anti-worker: Dasgupta
In view of the changed industrial scenario in the country, the Government is planning to amend the Factories
Act, 1948 even as the labour organisations have expressed apprehensions about the move leading to a
negative direction and making the legislation anti -worker and pro-corporate. Reacting to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singhs decision to constitute a high -powered committee, All India Trade Union Congress
(AITUC) general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta said the Governments move is meant to further liberalise the
market and make it more investment-friendly and profitable for industrialists. It would be anti -worker, he said,
adding even the existing Act is not being properly enforced.

4. Law on genetic research to become stringent
Penalty to the tune of `50 lakh, jail-term of up to five years and mandatory registration of an institute
conducting human research with a Central body are some of the key features in the final draft of a legislation
aiming to regulate human genetic research in the country. The idea is to make the Biomedical Research on
Human Participants (Promotion and Regulation) Bill an updated document as per the international
standards, said Dr VM Katoch, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which has
been entrusted with its drafting.

5. Maulana Vastanvi resigns
Under fire for his reported remarks praising the Narendra Modi government, Maulana Ghulam Mohammad
Vastanvi, Mohtamim or rector, of Darul Uloom, Deoband, has resigned. He was appointed only on January
10. Maulana Vastanvi, however, made it clear that he did not resign under pressure after protests by a
section of clerics and students. He maintained that he was misquoted, and his remarks were blown out of
proportion.

6. Rahman bags WEF Crystal Award
Internationally renowned music composer A.R. Rahman was honoured with the Crystal Award of the World
Economic Forum (WEF) at the opening ceremony of its annual meet being attended by 2,500 global leaders
from the fields of business, government, art, culture and religion.

7. Modi announces onli ne complaint scheme
As part of the Republic Day celebrations in Gujarat, Chief Minister Narendra Modi has announced the launch
of Gram Swagat, an online grievance redressal programme for rural people in the State. The Chief Minister
made this announcement while speaking at the Khubsurat Gujarat cultural event organised at Surat as part
of the Republic Day celebrations in the State. The online grievance redressal system would be operational in
the State from February 1. The Gram Swagat programme will be an extension of the scheme already in
force wherein people at district headquarters and taluka level can express their grievances online to the
Collectors and police chiefs.

8. Consensus eludes Nepali parties
Despite last minute negotiations, Nepal's political parties failed to agree on a consensus government to
replace the seven-month old caretaker Madhav Nepal-led government. President Ram Baran Yadav's
deadline to the parties to form such a unity government ended. Talks failed as all the three major parties
Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified
Marxist Leninist) staked claim for leadership in the next government.







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January 2011
9. USA lifts curbs on Isro and DRDO
The USA has removed nine Indian space and defence-related companies, including those from Defence
Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),
from its export control "Entity List" in an attempt to expand high-technology trade and strategic cooperation
with India. The US decision meets a long-pending Indian demand and is the first step to implement the
export control policy initiative announced by US President Mr Barack Obama and Prime Minister Dr
Manmohan Singh on 8 November last year, after their summit talks in New Delhi.

10. US to drop colour-coded terror warnings by April-end
By the end of April, terror threats to the US will no longer be described in shades of green, blue, yellow,
orange and red. The nation's colour-coded terror warning system will be phased out. The Homeland Security
Department and other government agencies have been reviewing the Homeland Security Advisory System's
usefulness for more than a year. One of the most notable changes to come: The public will no longer hear
automated recordings at US airports stating that the threat level is orange.

11. Genghis Khan the greenest invader in history: research
Genghis Khan, who established the worlds largest contiguous empire between the 13th and 14th centuries,
has been branded the greenest invader in history as his murderous invasion actually helped scrub about
700 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere. According to a new research, the ruthless Mongol warrior
killed so many people during his bloody invasions that huge swathes of cultivated land depopulated and
returned to forest.

12. Indian-American sentenced to 32 years of imprisonment
Indian-American Noshir Gowadia, a former B-2 stealth bomber engineer has been sentenced by a US
federal judge to 32 years of imprisonment for selling military secrets to China.

13. SAIL to set up a 3-mn tonne steel plant in Indonesia
State -run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) will set up a 3 million tonne plant at Central Kalimantan province of
Indonesia, entailing a likel y investment of up to Rs 15,000 crore. The timeline for the plant will be decided
soon. Mahratna SAIL has already inked a pact with Indonesian government on January 25 for setting up a
steel plant and a mineral processing unit besides development of mineral deposits at Central Kalimantan
province of the South -east Asian country. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by SAIL
Chairman C S Verma and Governor of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Agustin Teras Narang.

14. CCI allowed to continue inquiry against DLF
Rejecting the plea of realty major DLF Ltd, competition appellate body COMPAT has allowed watchdog CCI
to continue with its inquiry against the company, which is under the scanner for allegedly misusing its
dominant market position. DLF had moved the Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) against
Competition Commission of India (CCI) for initiating a probe without hearing the accused. COMPAT has
dismissed DLFs appeal that sought stay on the CCI inquiry against it.

15. NASA 'captures runaway star'
A NASA team used an orbiting observatory called WISE -- that sees the sky in infrared light -- to capture the
star; it recorded the yellow arc as its powerful stellar winds push the gas and dust out of the way. According
to the astronomers, the star, labelled Zeta in the constellation of Ophiuchus the snake charmer, once
revolved around another star. But its companion exploded as a violent supernova, flinging Zeta out into deep
space. Zeta Ophiuchi, as it is known, is a very massive hot blue star that is 65,000 times brighter than our
own Sun and 20 times its size. It lies 458 light years away and appear brighter in the night sky if it not
shrouded by gas and dust.

16. Miracle weed emerges as cure for skin cancer
The sap from milkweed, a common garden weed, can kill certain types of cancer cells when applied to the
skin. It works on non-melanoma skin cancers, which affect hundreds of thousands of people each year. They
are triggered by sun damage and, although not usually fatal, can be disfiguring without treatment. The plant
has been used for centuries as a traditional folk medicine to treat conditions such as warts, asthma and
several types of cancer. But for the first time a team of scientists in Australia has carried out a clinical study
of sap from Euphorbia peplus, which is related to Euphorbia plants grown in gardens in Britain.






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January 2011
17. Malaysian lab releases 6,000 mosquitoes to fight dengue
Malaysia released about 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes into a forest in the first experiment of its kind
in Asia aimed at curbing dengue fever. The field test is meant to pave the way for the use of genetically
engineered Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes to mate with females and produce no offspring or ones with
shorter lives, thus curtailing the mosquito population. A similar trial in the Cayman Islands last year the first
time genetically modified mosquitoes have been set loose in the wild after years of laboratory experiments
and hypothetical calculations resulted in a dramatic drop in the mosquito population in a small area studied
by researchers.