News Roundup - 15 October 2014

1. Wholesale price inflation dropped to a near five-year low in September to 2.38 per cent, helped by moderation in food and fuel prices.
2. The memoir of Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient and an icon of education rights, I am Malala: the girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban , is being translated into four Indian languages — Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi.
3. Petrol price was cut by Re. 1 a litre with effect from Tuesday midnight.  In Delhi, the new price is Rs. 66.65 a litre.
4. The proportion of underweight children in India might have declined from 45.1 per cent in 2005-06 to a historic low of 30.7 per cent last year, new provisional data from a survey conducted by the government and UNICEF shows.
5. Group BPCE, which includes Banque Populaire and Caisses d’Epargne, announced the service called S-money in France. It will be used to make payments via twitter. Users tweet a payment request to S-money, which then requires an authentication code before sending the amount and a tweet to the destination confirming the payment for all the world to see.
6. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has said religious or national background is not such a big issue when asked whether it was appropriate to mention the religious affiliation of Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai in their Nobel Peace Prize Citation. The Nobel Committee, which is independent of the Norwegian government, has in the past made controver-sial choices such as granting the Peace Prize to Barack Obama and the European Union in recent years. However, the Norwegian government has faced the maximum fire for the actions of the Nobel Committee for granting the Peace Prize in 2010 to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, currently serving a jail term.
7. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday downplayed appearance of Islamic State (IS) flags in the Kashmir Valley as an act by “some foolish’’ young persons.
8. India lost a case filed by the U.S. in the WTO against restrictions it imposed on poultry imports from America as it felt restrictions imposed by India were “inconsistent” with international norms. In March 2012, the U.S. dragged India to the WTO against India’s ban on imports of certain American farm products, including poultry meat and eggs. India had banned imports of various agricultural products from the U.S. in 2007, as a precautionary measure to prevent outbreaks of avian influenza in the country.
9. 13 agreements signed between New Delhi and Oslo - from a statement of intent between the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and setting up a state-of-the-art fish farming unit outside Delhi, also had IIT-Kanpur, Hyderabad University and several other educational institutions reaching accord with their Norwegian counterparts. Norwegian tourists would soon be given the visa-on-arrival facility and Oslo would open a new consulate in Mumbai. As Mr. Mukherjee suggested that Norway’s $900-billion pension fund would increase its exposure to India, given the new Narendra Modi government’s intent to create an enabling business climate, Ms. Solberg said pension fund decisions were made independently of the government.
10. The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Centre and Bihar, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh to restrict export or transport of livestock to Nepal by road and on foot for sacrifice for the Gadhimai festival in November. The petition pertained to the mass transport of animals from India for being ritually sacrificed at Bariyarpur every five years where over 5 lakh animals are slaughtered over two days. The festival is the largest animal sacrifice event in the world.
11.  Rule 135-B: “ No cosmetic that has been tested on animals after the commencement of Drugs and Cosmetics (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2014 shall be imported into the country.” The notification will come into effect on November 13, 2014 (30 days from the date of notification). Historic victory, says Humane Society International.
12. Mumbai Film Festival organised by the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image: Aishwarya Rai gave away the lifetime achievement award to veteran French actress Catherine Denevue, Akshay Kumar presented Helen the lifetime achievement award. The festival began with the screening of Susanne Bier’s period drama Serena starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. About 185 films from 65 countries will play in this year’s edition over the next week in venues around Mumbai.
13. A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C26) carrying the 1,425-kg Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS-1C) will be launched from Sriharikota at 1.32 a.m. on Oct 16, 2014. The IRNSS-1C, part of a constellation of seven satellites, will help in terrestrial, aerial and sea navigation. Civilian aircraft can use them for cruising, approaching an airport to land and during landing. In defence, they will aid missiles to reach their targets accurately or in way-pointing them to circumvent hills. The atomic clocks on the satellites will help missiles in executing their manoeuvres at the appointed time.
14. Corporates including Infosys, Maruti Suzuki, JK Tyres, TCS, Toyota Kirloskar and Bharti Foundation pledged to set aside money from their Corporate Social Responsibility funds for building toilets for girls in government schools. As per the latest available data, 1,01,768 government schools across the country do not have separate toilets for girls. The August 15, 2015 deadline for girls’ toilets in all government schools was set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech. HRD Ministry said the NTPC had indicated a commitment to construct 24,000 toilets and Infosys had blocked 109 schools in Bhubaneswar.
15. Canada is deeply troubled by the recent LoC violations, and supports India in its fight against terror, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird told Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday.
16. An inspector with the Jammu and Kashmir Police has bagged the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award 2014 instituted by the U.N. for her “exceptional achievements” while serving with the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. Shakti Devi, 38, currently deployed in the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), was also cited for her efforts towards helping victims of sexual and gender-based violence. The award is instituted by the U.N. Police Division.
17. Girl students have been banned from attending classes in a state government-affiliated madrasa for lack of separate sitting area. According to officials of Madrasa Azizia in Biharsharif, the district headquarters of Nalanda, a “diktat” has been issued saying girl students would no longer be enrolled and those already enrolled would not be allowed into the premises for lack of separate seating arrangement for them. Madrasa Azizia is run by Soghra Wakf Estate Committee. Interestingly, girl students of the madrasa and of several other such schools of the state have been getting free bicycles, uniforms and other government freebies.
18. The British House of Commons voted overwhelmingly in favour of recognising Palestine as a state alongside Israel. Although it is the government and not the House of Commons that recognises states, the voting result at 274 to 12 will strengthen the moral case for Palestine internationally while simultaneously isolating Israel for its illegal occupation of Palestine.
19. Indirect tax collections, comprising excise, customs and service tax, stood at Rs.2.42 lakh crore in the first six months of 2014-15 as against Rs.2.29 lakh crore in the corresponding period a year ago, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. The growth at 5.8 per cent is far less than 25 per cent annual increase envisaged in the budget for 2014-15.
20. Exports rose by a marginal 2.73 per cent to $28.9 billion in September, but the trade deficit more than doubled to $14.2 billion in the month due to a surge in gold imports. The trade deficit was $6.12 billion in September, 2013. Gold imports during the month under review increased manifold to $3.75 billion compared to $682.5 million in same month last year. Overall imports jumped by about 26 per cent to $43.15 billion. During the April-September period, exports registered a growth of 6.47 per cent at $163.7 billion. Imports during the period grew by 1.57 per cent to $234 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $70.39 billion in the first half of the current fiscal. Export growth had slipped by 2.35 per cent at $26.95 billion in August. 
21. In a high-profile case dating back to over 12 years, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has found former Tata Finance Managing Director Dilip Pendse had executed ‘illegal transactions’ in stocks of four firms, including Infosys and erstwhile Telco. The latest order prohibits Mr. Pendse from accessing capital markets for two years.
22. Norway voted to extend military service to women, saying the step was meant to expand the talent pool for its armed forces. The new policy will come into effect in 2016, bringing the NATO country, which operates a weak form of mandatory military service, more in line with Israel than other European nations.
23. Pakistan has launched a housing project in Mannar, where India is currently building 6,000 homes for families displaced during Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war.

Credits: The Hindu, Google.