Rajasthan Cabinet Approved the Rajasthan Public Service Guarantee Act, 2011

The Rajasthan Cabinet cleared the Rajasthan Public Service Guarantee Act, 2011 on 24 August 2011 with the objective of providing services to the common man in a specified time frame. The bill aims at making public administration and governance more effective and accountable.

 The bill states that if an official fails to provide service to the people in a time bound manner, he is bound to face disciplinary action as well a fine up to 5000 rupees. In order to avail this service, a person is required to submit an application form.

The draft bill includes major services such as documents verification for passport, disability certificate, birth and death certificate(local civic body), driving license(transport department), water connection( Public Health Department).

The bill also includes other services like transfer of names in the Urban Development and Estate Department, receiving documents and map, BPL and the APL ration card (Food Department), pension of officials and employees (Finance Department) old age, widow and disability pension (Social Justice and Empowerment Department), grievance redressal, reimbursement of security money (Public Construction Department).

Former Indian Cricketer, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi who was Test Cricket's Youngest Captain died

Former Indian cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi nicknamed Tiger Pataudi died in New Delhi on 22 September 2011. He is survived by his wife Sharmila Tagore, his son Saif Ali Khan and his two daughters Soha and Saba Ali Khan. Tagore, Saif and Soha are prominent actors in India's film industry.

Mansoor was born to Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, eighth Nawab of Pataudi and his wife Sajida Sultan, second daughter of the last ruling nawab of Bhopal in 1941. Pataudi was the ninth and last Nawab of Pataudi until 1971, when the Indian government abolished royal entitlements through the 26th Amendment to the Constitution.
He went on an impaired eye to become a visionary and pioneering captain of the Indian Test team. He was the youngest to become captain at the age of 21.

Tiger Pataudi made his debut on 13 December 1961 in the test match against England played in New Delhi. In 1962 he scored his maiden centuary (113) in his third Test against England in Chennai. On 23 March 1962 he lead India in his fourth Test, in Barbados and thus at 21 he became Test cricket's youngest captain. He attained his career-best score, 203 not out against England in Delhi on 12-13 February 1964. In February-March 1968 he lead India to their first overseas Test win, in Dunedin. India go on to win an away series for the first time, beating New Zealand 3-1 under his captaincy. He played his final Test, scoring 9 in each innings against West Indies in Mumbai on 23 January 1975.

Pataudi played 46 Tests between 1961 and 1975. He was given the leadership in his fourth Test, when he was 21, in Barbados in 1962, because the regular captain Nari Contractor was in hospital after getting hit on the head by Charlie Griffith. He led India in 40 Tests and had a successful career. Pataudi scored 2793 runs at an average of 35 and made six centuries, the biggest of which was an unbeaten 203 against England in Delhi in 1964.

After retirement, Pataudi served as a match referee between 1993 and 1996, officiating in two Tests and ten ODIs. He also worked as the editor of Sportsworld, the now defunct cricket magazine, and a television commentator in the 1980s.

Pataudi was also a consultant to the BCCI from 2007 and part of the first IPL governing council but refused to continue in the role in October 2010, when the BCCI made significant changes to the league following the sacking of Lalit Modi as its chairman.

He was honoured with the prestigious Arjuna Award in 1964. He was conferred upon the Padma Shri in 1967.

Since 2007, bilateral Test series between India and England have been contested for the Pataudi Trophy, named after his family for their contribution to Anglo-Indian cricket.

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange’s Unauthorised Autobiography released by Canongate

The WikiLeaks founder founder Julian Assange’s unauthorised autobiography was released by publishers Canongate. Copies of the unauthorised autobiography of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange are placed on display for sale in a bookstore in Edinburgh, Scotland on 22 September 2011. The unauthorised autobiography was released amid heavy secrecy to stop the author from seeking an injunction to block publication.

The book is based on an early 70000-word draft of the manuscript written by Assange with the novelist Andrew O'Hagan and was shown to the publishers in March 2011.

The story focussed on instead on Assange's childhood and early adulthood in Australia, the origins of Wikileaks through the Collateral Murder video release, and the early days of the organisation's relationships with media partners including the Guardian.

Almost a third of its 339 pages is made up of an appendix of the cable releases and an afterword, and there is no index.

The focus on the passages in which Assange addresses the accusations of rape and sexual assault made by two Swedish women, for which his extradition is being sought.

RBI directed Banks to implement Fraud Risk Management Practices by 30 September 2012

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 22 September 2011 directed banks to implement various safety measures related to credit card and debit card usage over a period of next two years in order to eliminate cases of fraud and ensure security of transactions.

The RBI emphasised on the need to migrate to Euro pay MasterCard Visa (EMV) chip and PIN based cards from the present magnetic strip cards as the magnetic strip card is vulnerable to skimming and cloning. The need for a complete migration to EMV chip and PIN based cards could be considered based on the progress of Aadhar (Unique Identification Card) in 18 months time frame.

The RBI directed banks to strengthen the existing payment infrastructure and future proofing system along with adoption of fraud risk management practices within a period of next 12-24 months. An imperative need was felt to secure card based transactions as well to protect the interests of the card holders.

In the circular issued in this repect the central bank directed banks to implement improved fraud risk management practices by 30 September 2012 and secure the technology set up by 30 September 2013.

Rupee fell by 124 paise to close at nearly two-and-a-half year Low of 49.57/58 against Dollar

The rupee plunged by 124 paise to close at nearly two-and-a-half year low of 49.57/58 against the dollar on 22 September 2011. The depreciation is posing worries to policy makers on inflation front as a weak domestic currency will make imports costlier.

Economists  are of the opinion that if the rupee continued to move at its present pace it will likely breach the technical level of 52. If the RBI does not intervene the situation would get unmangable.

According to the forex dealers, the rupee plummeted as importers and banks rushed to buy dollars amid its sharp rise in the overseas markets to a seven-month high against major currencies.

The sharp fall in rupee came at a time when the government is battling high inflation. A weak rupee will make imports of petroleum products costlier thereby impacting prices. India imports 80 per cent of the petroleum products requirement.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the rupee resumed sharply lower at 48.78/79 a dollar from overnight close of 48.33/34 and touched a high of 48.68. However later it fell to a low of 49.59 before settling at 49.57/58, a steep fall of 2.56 per cent. Its last weakest close was 49.77/78 on 14 May 2009. The rupee had registered a biggest fall of 152 paise or 3.08 pct on 18 May 2009.

The rupee declined against the pound sterling as well and ended at Rs. 76.43/45 from close of Rss 75.59/61 on 21 September 2011 and also remained weak to settle at Rs. 66.69/71 per euro from Rs. 66.02/04 previously. It too slumped further against the Japanese yen to Rs. 64.98/65.00 per 100 yen from Rs. 63.34/36.

India Took over the Presidency of the G-24 Group after a Gap of 28 Years

ndia on 22 September 2011 took over the presidency of the G-24 group of 24 developing countries after a gap of 28 years.  Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee took over the Presidency of the group from South African finance minister Pravin J Gordhan. Egypt was elected the Vice Chair of the group. The last time India held the Presidency of the group was in 1983-84. Interestingly, Pranab Mukherjee was the Finance Minister at the time and thus chaired the G-24.

Members of G-24 group are spread equally over Asia, Africa and Latin America. From Asia, the members include Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Iran, the Philippines, Syria and Sri Lanka. There are eight members each from Africa and Latin America.

G-24 was Established in 1971. It coordinates the position of developing countries on monetary and development issues, particularly issues on the agendas of the IMF and the World Bank. The group was formed to balance the influence of the G-10 economic grouping.

India-Japan Global Partnership Summit Concluded in Tokyo

A three-day India-Japan Global Partnership Summit, IJGPS concluded in Tokyo on 7 September 2011. The policymakers, opinion leaders and business captains exchanged ideas on strengthening economic ties between the two Asian nations, besides greater regional integration.

India and Japan have great potential for furthering areas of cooperation through joint partnerships and infrastructure and knowledge projects.

India Center Foundation is a non-partisan and not-for-profit organization working as a catalyst in nation building processes of India through its various socio-economic initiatives. India Japan Global Partnership is one of such initiatives.

Reserve Bank of India launched Industrial Outlook Survey for the July-September 2011 Period

The Reserve Bank of India on 3 August 2011 launched its Industrial Outlook Survey for the July-September 2011 period. The Industrial Outlook Survey provides for an insight into the perception of non-financial public and private limited companies that are engaged in manufacturing activities about their performance and future prospects.

The responsibility for conducting the research on behalf of the central bank was bestowed on Centre for Research Planning and Action (CERPA). The CERPA is to get in touch with several manufacturing companies during the quarter July-September for seeking their valuable feedback so that it can be included in the survey. The survey is to cover non-financial private and public limited companies with a good size/industry representation. Those manufacturing companies which are not approached by CERPA can also participate in the survey by downloading the survey schedule from RBI’s official website.

The assessment of business sentiments for the present quarter and expectations for the ensuing quarter are based on qualitative responses to 20 major parameters. The parameters include overall business and financial situations, demand indicators, price and employment expectations, profit margins etc.

The survey aimed to provide useful forward looking inputs for policymakers, analysts and businesses.
The RBI has been conducting the Industrial Outlook Survey on a quarterly basis since 1998.

CERPA

CERPA was established in 1972 and conducts social science research, provides consultancy on developmental issues, helps planners and policymakers and provides charitable services to the disadvantaged and poor sections of the country.

Gmail Data & Emails To Be Restored "Soon" to All Those Impacted By Yesterday's Outage

As we Know, many Gmail users woke up Sunday to find that their email inboxes were empty - and not in a good way. Users reported their entire Gmail history - inboxes, outboxes, and archives - were wiped clean.

Google reports now that it has identified the problem, which it says was a bug resulting from a software storage update. Users affected will have access to their Gmail accounts again, and their email messages will be restored "though it may take longer than we originally expected".

Google confirmed the problem with some Gmail accounts yesterday afternoon, and its engineers have been working on the problem since. Although Google initially said the problems affected .29% of Gmail users, the company has revised those estimates downward to .08% and then to .02% of users.

It was a small number of accounts, to be sure, but the problem has lasted about 30 hours. And for those impacted, the thought of losing all their email records was fairly frightening, as many who took to the Google forrums to help troubleshoot their problems remarked with panic and frustration that they had years of email history stored there.

Fully restored emails or not, the incident is a good reminder to back up your data by either storing it locally or by storing a copy with another service.

RBI hikes repo rate by 0.25%, loans to become costlier

After a sharp hike in petrol prices, there's more negative news in the offing. The Reserve Bank of India today hiked the repo rate by 0.25 percentage points to 8.25 per cent.

Repo rate is the rate at which banks borrow money from RBI. When the repo rate increases, borrowing from RBI becomes more expensive. Hence, all loans - personal and corporate - are likely to become costlier and home loan EMIs will increase once banks hike their base rate - the rate to which most retail loans are pegged.

The hike in repo rate was along expected lines. In a poll of bankers and economists by NDTV, 85 per cent said the RBI will hike rates by 0.25 per cent while only 15 per cent believed that there will be no hike this time.

This is the 12th time, since March 2010, that the RBI has raised interest rates, making it the longest rate hike cycle in nearly a decade. The RBI has been increasing interest rates in a bid to contain rising inflation and at 9.78 per cent, inflation for the month of August hit a 13-month high .

The reverse repo rate - the short term borrowing rate - has now moved up from 7 per cent to 7.25 per cent. The cash reserve ratio (CRR) - the amount of funds that the banks have to keep with RBI- remains unchanged at 6 per cent.

India Issues Terror Alert Over Hijack Plot

Indian airports are on high alert today after officials issued a terror warning of a possible airline hijacking.

Security has been increased at all airports, passengers are being subjected to tougher screening and more air marshals will be deployed on flights in India, the Indian home ministry said this morning. Local reports suggest that Air India flights within all of South Asia are being targeted.

The alert comes days after U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates met with Indian officials in New Delhi and said that a "syndicate of terror groups" affiliated with al-Qaeda are potentially trying to destabilize the entire region.

"This alert is based on specific information from a usually reliable source," U. K. Bansal, the senior home ministry official in charge of internal security, told ABC News. "We've taken a closer look at it and we regard it as significant."

But the attack is not likely to occur immediately, Bansal said.

"I would not say it is imminent in the next few hours or days," he said.

India has issued similar alerts in the past year. Terror threats often occur around this time of year when India celebrates its annual Republic Day on Jan. 26.

India suffered its last major attack on Nov. 26, 2008, when terrorists -- believed to be from the militant organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba -- struck the financial capital of Mumbai, killing at least 166 people.

Local news reports have said the group is responsible for the latest hijacking threat but the home minister was quick to dismiss a specific group.

"I wouldn't really make a major importance in distinction from these terrorists groups," Bansal said, explaining that the priority is to protect Indians from attack and prevent any group from coordinating a strike against the country.