Indian scientists discover three bacterial clusters

Three clusters of bacteria which have no phylogenetic relationship to any other bacteria have been discovered serendipitously by Indian scientists. The discovery happened during LOHAFEX (Loha means iron in Hindi while Fex is an acronym for fertilisation) experiment in the Southern Ocean, Antarctica, which was aimed at increasing CO sequestration through ocean iron fertilisation as part of studies on global warming mitigation. Though a group of German scientists were also part of the experiment, the discovery was made by Indian scientists, according to one of the investigators and former Scientist of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB). Director of National Institute of Oceanography, S.W.A. Naqvi was the principal investigator of the experiment, the results of which were published a few months ago in an open access journal, Frontiers in Microbiology. In the article, the authors pointed out that oceans are a major source and sink for carbon with the marine phytoplankton fixing up to 40 per cent CO. “Thus factors that hinder CO fixation by marine phytoplankton would impact global climate due to increase in the levels of CO in the atmosphere. Both biotic (grazing of phytoplankton by microzooplankton) and abiotic factors (deficiency in the micronutrient iron) could decrease the levels of CO sequestered. Therefore, the assumption is that if iron deficiency is overcome by exogenous addition of iron, it would facilitate a phytoplankton bloom and thus lead to CO sequestration. In order to get a better insight into bacteria-phytoplankton relationship in the context of iron fertilisation, the experiment looked at the effect of iron addition on bacterial community structure in the Southern Ocean, Antarctica.

Bihar debacle may weigh on economic policy

After the BJP’s debacle in Bihar and the setback to the reforms in Parliament, the Union government is set to tweak its economic policy. The Union Budget 2016, to be presented in February, will focus on farmers and unorganised workers, traditionally not the BJP’s constituencies. A highly placed  that the budget-makers are finalising a social security net for India’s 400 million unorganised workers who will access the scheme through smart cards, something that has been in the works for long. There are also plans to enhance funds for irrigation and to roll out a new improved crop insurance scheme — unlike last year’s Budget that focussed on public investments in roads and highways and railways. With two successive years of drought, rural distress, especially in the farm sector, will have to be addressed. The unorganised sector workers, too, have to be brought under the social security net as part of the universal security net that the government is working on…,” the official said. He said this expenditure would help to counter the economic slowdown by creating demand. Another official source, however, said the decision to focus on farmers and unorganised workers was based on the political feedback after the BJP’s rout in Bihar. “The government wants to show that it is pro-farmer and pro-poor, too,… not just working to improve the ease of doing business… and wants to move as far away as possible from the ‘suit-boot-ki-sarkar’ perception,” the source said. The 2015 Budget belied expectations of big-ticket reforms because of the anti-reforms voices within the BJP and the government after the BJP’s loss to the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi Assembly elections. In fact, after the Delhi debacle, the government withheld its plans for even those reforms that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced in his maiden Budget in July 2014. These measures, including decontrol of urea prices and withdrawal of kerosene from the PDS, are still on the back burner.

Amitabh Kant the additional Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog

In a significant secretary-level reshuffle at the Centre, the Prime Minister-led Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has transferred Disinvestment Secretary Aradhana Johri and given Industry Secretary Amitabh Kant the additional responsibility of being Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog. Ms. Johri has been appointed as the chairperson of the National Authority for Chemical Weapons, a statutory body under the Cabinet secretariat, while the role of steering the government’s ambitious disinvestment agenda has now been entrusted to Neeraj Kumar Gupta, an Uttar Pradesh cadre officer of 1982 batch. Mr. Gupta is presently serving as the Special Secretary in the Department of Public Enterprises. West Bengal Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra has been appointed the new Secretary for road transport and highways ministry and will take charge following the incumbent Vijay Chhibber’s super-annuation on December 31. Similarly, Special Secretary in the revenue department Rashmi Verma has been appointed the next Textiles Secretary in place of Sanjay Kumar Panda who retires this month. With NITI Aayog CEO Sindhushree Khullar’s extended tenure coming to an end this month, the appointments panel has assigned the additional charge of this role to Kerala cadre officer Mr. Kant who is presently, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and is expected to retire in March 2016.

China's first counter-terrorism law

China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the top organ of China’s parliament has adopted the country’s first counter-terrorism law. The legislation was approved with large majority at the end of a week-long bimonthly session China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee. Key facts The law expanded the definition of the term terrorism and is the latest attempt of China to address terrorism at home and help maintain world security. The law grants overarching powers to security agencies and also allows the military to venture overseas on counter-terror operations. Under the new law a separate clause makes terrorism a crime including fabricating it and disseminating information on fabricated terrorist incidents. The law allows news media only to report on the personal details of on-scene workers, hostages or authorities’ response to terrorist activities and it will require approval from counter-terrorism authorities. It is mandatory for technology firms to give sensitive data like encryption keys to the government when asked for under this law.

Tamil People’s Council

The Tamil People’s Council (TPC) will impress upon the Sri Lanka government to ensure that enough safeguards for Tamils are provided in the proposed Constitution, the TPC’s chairperson and Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C.V. Wigneswaran. Contending that the Tamils had been experiencing “adverse effects” of the 1972 Constitution, which was not accepted by the Tamil leadership, the Chief Minister pointed out the Constitution did not have a provision equivalent to Section 29 (2) of the Soulbury Constitution of 1948 on the issue of protection of minorities’ rights.

Calling upon all Tamil political leaders to join the Council, he also stated that “Just because some hold views different to ours, we do not regard them as enemies. We seek cooperation of everyone as the Council is a movement of the Tamil people. We are not prepared to leave out or ignore anyone. P. Lakshman, co-chair of the TPC, told The Hindu that the Council’s main task was to adopt a bottom up approach in obtaining inputs from the people and this was why it should not be viewed as a challenger to the Tamil National Alliance.

16th India-Russia annual summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow a red-carpet welcome on his first bilateral visit to Russia during which both countries are set to seal a raft of deals in key sectors such as defence, nuclear energy and hydrocarbons to boost their robust and close partnership. The Prime Minister was accorded a guard of honour at the Vnukova-II airport.

“Reached Moscow. A series of programmes await in this short but very important visit,” Mr. Modi tweeted in English and Russian. Stepping up economic engagement and further expanding ties in strategic areas are likely to be the centrepiece of the 16th India-Russia annual summit talks between Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

The two leaders are set to deliberate on various global issues such as the situation in Syria and tackling the threat of terrorism as well. It is expected that a number of major pacts including to ramp up cooperation in defence and nuclear energy sectors will be finalised. Russia has been India’s biggest supplier of arms though New Delhi has started buying more military hardware from the U.S. in the last few years. Last week, India’s DefenceMinistry’s top acquisition council had cleared the purchase of Russian S-400Triumf air defence missile systems at an estimated cost of Rs. 40,000 crore and there may be an announcement of the deal on Thursday besides a few others. In the nuclear energy sector, India is expected to offer a site in Andhra Pradesh to set up units five and six of Kudankulam nuclear power plant. The new plants will be in sync with broad principles of ‘Make in India’ initiative and a decision in this regard is likely to be finalised  Setting the tone for the visit, the Prime Minister, before his departure for Moscow, said Russia remained one of India’s “most valued” friends in the world and that he was “very optimistic” about outcomes of the talks with Mr. Putin. “Our relation with Russia is unique, covering almost every field of human endeavour,

‘पंचम द्विमासिक मौद्रिक नीति, 2015-16

भारतीय रिजर्व बैंक ने ‘पंचम द्विमासिक मौद्रिक नीति में नीति दरों, आरक्षित नकदी निधि अनुपात एवं निवल मांग एवं मियादी देयताओं को अपरिवर्तित रखा। पंचम द्विमासिक मौट्रिक नीति वक्तव्य में ‘चल-निधि समायोजन सुविधा (LAF: Liquidity Facility) के अंतर्गत रिपो दर में कोई परिवर्तन किए बिना इसे 6.75 प्रतिशत पर रखा गया है। 29 सितंबर, 2015 को भारतीय रिजर्व बैंक द्वारा ‘चतुर्थ द्विमासिक मौद्रिक नीति, 2015-16 में रिपो दर 7.25 प्रतिशत से 50 आधार अंक घटाकर 6.75 प्रतिशत करने की घोषणा की थी। नीलामियों के माध्यम से बैंक-वार निवल मांग और मियादी देयताओं के 0.25 प्रतिशत पर ओवर नाइट रेपो के अंतर्गत चलनिधि उपलब्ध करना तथा बैंकिंग प्रणाली की निवल मांग और मियादी देयताओं के 0.75 प्रतिशत तक 14 दिवसीय मियादी रेपों के साथ- साथ दीर्घावधिक रेपो के अंतर्गत चलनिधि उपलब्ध करना जारी रखा जाए। चलनिधि की सुलभता के लिए दैनिक परिवर्तनीय दर मियादी रेपो और प्रतिवर्ती रेपो जारी रखें जाए। अनुसूचित वाणिज्यि बैंकों के ‘सांविधिक चलनिधि अनुपात’ (SLR: Statutary Liquidity Ratio) को अपरिवर्तित रखते हुए 21.5 प्रतिशत पर रखा गया है। इसके परिणामस्वरूप चलनिधि समायोजन सुविधा के अंतर्गत ‘प्रतिवर्ती रेपो दर’ (Reverse Repo Rate) 5.75 प्रतिशत तथा ‘सीमांत स्थायी सुविधा दर (Marginal Standing Facility Rate) और बैंक दर 7 7.5 प्रतिशत रहेगी। भारतीय रिजर्व बैंक द्वारा वर्ष 7.4 प्रतिशत रहने का अनुमान लगाया है। द्विमासिक मौद्रिक नीति, 2015-16 में वित्त वर्ष 2015-16 दौरान विकास दर 7.4 प्रतिशत रहने का अनुमान लगाया गया।