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NATIONAL P RANAB M UKHERJEE WON THE P RESIDENTIALE LECTION 2012

Pranab Mukherjee was elected as the13th President (in person) of India on 22 July2012. Pranab Mukherjee defeated his rivalPA Sangma with a huge margin as he securednearly 69 percent of total valid votes. In anelectoral college of 10.5 lakh, Pranab

Mukherjee secured a vote value of 713763,while, PA Sangma managed to get only a votevalue 315987. The victory of PranabMukherjee was announced by Returning Of-ficer for the Presidential election VK Agnihotri. Pranab Mukherjee will be swornin as the thirteenth President of India on 25July 2012. Out of the total 748 MPs, Pranabgot the support of 527 while his rival, PASangma got 206 votes in his favour. Fifteenvotes including that of Samjwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav were invalid. Of these, nine were to be in favour of Mukherjeewhile six for Sangma. Each MP had a votevalue of 708 in the Presidential Election2012. There are a total of 776 voters in boththe Houses of Parliament. The Electoral Col-lege also consisted of 4120 MLAs in thestates.

As per the article 54 of the Indian constitution,the President is elected by electoral college comprisingthe elected members of both Houses of Parliament, andelected members of the Legislative Assemblies of allStates including National Capital Territory of Delhi andthe Union Territory of Puducherry. The nominatedmembers of Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and Legislative

Assemblies of the States cannot participate in theelection. The Electoral College for the Presidential poll2012 is 4896. A total of 776 Members of Parliamentand 4120 Members of Legislative Assemblies will

participate in presidential election 2012.

INDIA RECORDED 3.8 % U NEMPLOYMENT IN THEYEAR 2010-11

According to the findings of unemploy-ment survey conducted by the Labour Bu-reau of the Government of India, the countryrecorded 3.8 percent unemployment rate inthe year 2010-11. The earlier figure (2009-10) was 9.4 percent. The survey was con-ducted in all 28 states and 7 Union Territo-ries.

The findings of the survey were releasedon 9 July 2012. As per the survey report theofficial unemployment rate of the countrywas 3.8 percent, with urban unemployment

and rural unemployment stood at at 5.1 per-cent and 3.5 percent respectively. Womenunemployment at 6.7 percent stood signifi-cantly ahead of men unemployment ratewhich stood at 2.8 percent.

The report stated that of those with alivelihood, the majority were self-employedor casual labour. While 48.6 per cent wereself employed, 31 per cent were casual labour.

On the basis of social stratum the ratesof employment for the SC, ST, and OBC

groups stood at 55.9 per cent, 59.7 per cent,and 53.3 per cent respectively, as comparedto 48.5 per cent for the general category. The
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unemployment rate was found maximum instates such as Goa (16 percent), Kerala (9

percent) and West Bengal (7 percent), whileGujarat (1 Percent) had the lowest number of unemployment rate. Less developed statessuch as Bihar, Odisha and UP also recordeda moderate unemployment rate. The data wascollected from a sample of 128298 house-holds, while the size of the sample of previ-ous survey was fourth of this size.

P C HIDAMBARAM IS

NEW U NION F INANCE M INISTER In a small cabinet reshuffle carried out

on 31 July 2012, the United Progressive Al-liance government allocated PChaidambaram the portfolio of Union Fi-nance Ministry. Previously Chidambaramwas serving as the Union Home Minister.Sushilkumar Shinde, was given the chargeof Union Home Ministry while, CorporateAffairs Minister Virappa Moily was given theadditional charge of Power Ministry. Presi-dent of India Pranb Mukherjee signed thenotification on the reallocation of ministries.The cabinet reshuffle carried out followingthe resignation of Pranab Mukherjee from theunion cabinet, who became the President of India on 25 July 2012. Mukherjee resignedas the Union finance minister on 26 June2012 and since then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was looking after the port-folio.

ANNUAL H EALTH SURVEY R EPORT

According to the data released by firstAnnual Health Survey (AHS), conducted by

the census authorities, the incidents of childmarriage fell significantly over the past fewyears. The data was released on 16 April2012. The AHS, worlds largest demographicsurvey, was carried out by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in collaborationwith the Registrar General of India (RGI) andMinistry of Home Affairs of India. The sur-vey was conducted in all 284 districts of theEmpowered Action Group (EAG) states thatincludes Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar

Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Assam. Thenine states account for half of the countrys

population. The project was launched to as-sess the impact of National Rural HealthMission (NRHM) in all 284 districts. Untilrecently the only reliable source of suchhealth data was the National Family HealthSurvey, which the health ministry has nowdiscontinued. The survey was conducted by

private agencies under the supervision of

RGI. The key findings of the latest reports of the survey are as follows:

One-fifth of marriages in Bihar between 2007-09 involved women under 18.

In Jharkhand, the proportion of child marriagewent down from 60 percent to 18 percent earlier.

Rajasthan with 22 percent cases of childmarriage has the highest proportion of womenunder 18 getting married.

Contraceptive use remains low despiteimprovements in several regions.

Among the 9 states, Bihar has the lowestcontraceptive use with just over a third of women aged 15-49 using any method of contraception.


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Sitapur in UP emerged as the district with the

lowest contraceptive use as only 20 percent of women found using any method of contraception.

Condition of maternal and infant health is stillthe subject of worry.

Less than 5 percent of women in UP had a fullante natal check-up.

Chhattisgarh, with 20 percent full ante-natalcheck-up, emerged as the best-performing of these states.

Less than half of pregnant women in Jharkhandand Chhattisgarh have safe deliveries.

UP, Bihar and Uttarakhand saw 40 percent of safe deliveries.

NARESH C HANDRA C OMMITTEE

Naresh Chandra Committee, a 14-member task force on national security, submitted its report to thegovernment on 8 August 2012. The committee was setup by the Union government on 21 June 2012 tosuggest ways to revamp of defence management in thecountry. Naresh Chandra, a former bureaucrat, headedthe committee which members included former military officers, intelligence chiefs, diplomats andstrategic analysts. Air Chief Marshal (retired) S.Krishnaswamy, General (retired) VR Raghavan, theformer Department of Atomic Energy chief AnilKakodkar, Admiral (retired) Arun Prakash, the former R&AW head KC Verma, the former Union HomeSecretary V.K. Duggal, G Parthasarathy, former diplomat, and senior journalist Manoj Joshi were theother members in the committee. The main objective

behind the consti tution of the committ ee was tocontemporarise the Kargil Review Committeesrecommendations, which was tabled in the Parliamenton 23 February 2000. Besides, the task force was alsoasked to examine the state of countrys border management and restructuring system.

SUPREME C OURT FLAYS C ENTRE S A PATHY TOC AUVERY ISSUE

The Supreme Court, while expressing

displeasure at the lack of sensitivity on the part of the Centre on the Cauvery issue, hasdirected it to respond to Tamil Nadus pleafor convening a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority, headed by the Prime Minister.When senior counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan, ap-

pearing for Tamil Nadu, insisted on a direc-tion to Karnataka to release water, a Benchof Justices D.K. Jain and Madan B. Lokur said it would pass orders after getting the re-sponses of the Centre and that State, due in

10 days. Further hearing is posted to Septem- ber 3. In a brief order, the Bench said: Be-fore we pass orders on applications filed byTamil Nadu, we would require the Union of India to place before us its response to theapplication, particularly to a personal requestmade by the Chief Minister [Jayalalithaa] toPrime Minister Manmohan Singh in her let-ters [for convening the CRA].

Despite the orders of this court on Feb-ruary 8, 2003, only one CRA meeting took

place on February 10, 2003 but no decisionwas taken on water sharing on the basis of the distress formula (evolved by the CauveryMonitoring Committee), the Bench noted. Italso pointed out that though a copy of Tamil

Nadus application was served on the Centre(on July 21), this case was not entrusted toany senior law officer.

Tamil Nadu received only 3.604 tmcftas on August 8 in the Mettur reservoir, againstthe stipulated quantum of 64.706 tmcft andeven on an application of the distress-shar-ing formula, Tamil Nadu ought to have re-ceived at least 28.978 tmcft at Mettur.


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U NION C ABINET APPROVED TH E L AUNCH OFSATELLITE TO S TUDY M ARS

The Union Cabinet on 3 August 2012gave its consent to the launch of satellite tothe Mars proposed in 2013. The Cabinet de-cision came following a meeting chaired byPrime Minister Manmohan Singh. The De-

partment of Space had sent a proposal to theUnion Cabinet, in which it had soughtgovernments permission to launch a satel-lite to study Mars, also called Red Planet. The

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)is expected to launch a Mars Orbiter in No-vember 2013 with a 25kg scientific payload.The Mars mission will be launched by ISROsadvanced Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle(PSLV). The objective of the mission is tostudy the climate, geology, origin, evolutionand sustainability of life on the planet. If theISRO fails to launch the Mars Mission nextyear, other opportunites are available in 2016and 2018. India has undertaken the massivespace project with the help of United States,Russia, Europe, Japan and China. The mis-sion is estimated to cost the government ex-chequer about 450 crore rupees. An initialallocation of 125 crore rupees was alreadymade in the budget 2012-13.

T AMIL N ADU ALLOWED TO CARRY OUT S MALLM AINTENANCE W ORKS ON THE M ULLAPERIYAR DAM

The Supreme Court of India allowed

Tamil Nadu government to carry out repair and maintenance works on the Mullaperiyar dam. However, the court instructed that therepairing and maintenance work is to be car-

ried out in the presence of the Superintend-ing Engineer of Kerala and an independentmember nominated by the Chairman of theCentral Water Commission. A five-judgeConstitution Bench of Justices DK Jain, RMLodha, Deepak Verma, CK Prasad and AnilR Dave gave the verdict after hearing an ap-

plication filed by Tamil Nadu government for the courts permission to carry out certainmaintenance works.

R EPORT ON S TATUS OF I MPLEMENTATION OF SC S

& ST S [P REVENTION OF A TROCITIES ] A CT 1989R ELEASED

The report on the Status of Implemen-tation of SCs and STs [Prevention of Atroci-ties] Act 1989 and Rules 1995 was released

by the first Dalit Chief Justice of India, Jus-tice K.G. Balakrishnan on 18 May 2012. Thereport was prepared The report was prepared

by the National Coalition after collectingevidences by visiting the places of incidentsand talking to victims across India for Strengthening SCs & STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The report revealed substan-tial increase in cases of violence against SCsand STs. The report also highlighted loop-holes in the implementation of the SCs andSTs [Prevention of Atrocities] Act and arguedthat it has not been able to check atrocitiesagainst Dalits and Adivasis in an effectivemanner. The report explained in details thetrends and nature of discrimination and

atrocities against SCs/STs over the years.According to the study, the cases of violenceagainst SCs/STs are not registered and evenif they are registered the conviction rate is


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found to be quite low. At least one-fourth of the cases were observed to have been dis-

posed of at the investigation stage itself bythe police and such complaints were referredto as mistake of fact.

Crime rate against SCs increased from2.6 per cent in 2007 to 2.8 per cent in 2010.In 2010, Uttar Pradesh accounted for 19.2 per cent of the total crimes against SCs (6,272out of 32,712) in the country. Rajasthan inthe same yearreported the highest rate of

crimes (7.4 per cent) against SCs comparedto the national average of 2.9 per cent. Ac-cording to the report, the number of crimesagainst STs drastically increased in 2010 to5,885 cases and murder cases of STs alonetotalled 142.

As per the report, police resort to vari-ous machinations to discourage SCs/STsfrom registering cases, to dilute the serious-ness of the violence, and to shield the accused

persons from arrest and prosecution. FIRs are

often registered under the PCR Act and IPC provisions, which attract lesser punishmentthan PoA Act provisions for the same offence.Only 11,682 (34.2 per cent) out of 34,127atrocity cases were registered under PoA Actin 2010 at the national level. In 2010 investi-gation was completed only for 37,558 casesof the total of 51,782 cases registered. Chargesheets were submitted only for 26480 cases(51 per cent) because of which even by theyear end, around 14,092 cases remained

pending for investigation.Of the 16,601 cases registered in 2010

across the country under PoA Act for atroci-

ties against SCs, the police closed almost2150 cases (13 per cent) in 2010. Meanwhile,of the 1,714 registered cases of atrocitiesagainst STs, 223 (13 per cent) were closed.The report recommended appointment of high-level committee to be appointed to re-view implementation of the Act and the Rulesin all the States. It also recommended exclu-sive special courts with powers to take cog-nizance of the offences under the Act should

be set up and special public prosecutors for

speedy trials of cases registered under the Actshould be appointed.

7.6 B ILLION D OLLAR TAPI G AS P IPELINEPROJECT APPROVED

The Union Cabinet approved the 7.6 billion dollar TAPI gas pipeline project on 17May 2012. The TAPI gas pipeline projectwhich originates from the central Asian na-tion Turkmenistan and reaches to India viaAfghanistan and Pakistan is also referred toas the peace pipeline as some of the coun-tries that it passes through dont enjoy goodrelationship with each other. The TAPI gas

project will have a total length of 1680 km.Of the total length 144km will be inTurkmenistan, 735km in Afghanistan, and800km in Pakistan, bringing it to the India

border. The pipeline, will be entirely func-tional in 2018 and supply gas over the nextthirty years. The pipeline would produce 90million standard cubic metres of gas per day

(mscmd). Of the total gas pumped throughit, India and Pakistan will get 38 mscmd eachand Afghanistan the remaining 14 mscmd.


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At present India requires 176 mscmd of gas,of which a little more than one-sixth is im-

ported. The countrys need of the gas mightreach the level of about 400 mscmd by 2020.

The Indian government was pursuing asimilar project with the Iran which was puton hold by the Indian government given the

pressure from the USA. The TAPI gas projectalso involves Asian Development Bank which has bestowed financial assistance tothe project. The TAPI pipeline, was proposed

in the early 1990s, but was delayed due tothe political and economic hurdles involvedinto the project. Security of the pipeline has

been the major issue of concern which passesthrough some of the most unstabled regionsof Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the

project may face the risk of sabotage. India joined the project in April 2008.

UNION C ABINET GAVE ITS APPROVAL TO THE PUBLICPROCUREMENT B ILL

Union Cabinet on 12 April 2012 gave its nod tothe Public Procurement Bill. The bill is aimed at

bringing transparency in the bidding process for public procurement. The bill will regulate the government pu rch ases of abov e 50 la kh ru pees thr ough atransparent bidding process. At present there is nolegislation exists governing public procurement by thecentral government and central public sector enterprises. The General Financial Rules, 2005, govern

procurements made by the Centre. The present bill provides for a jail term ranging from six months to fiveyears for public servants found guilty of demandingand accepting bribes from bidders of governmentcontracts. The legislation is largely based on thesuggestions made by Committee on PublicProcurement headed by former bureaucrat Vinod Dhallwhich were accepted by a Group of Ministers to tacklecorruption on 22 February 2012. The GoM headed by

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had sent the bill

for the approval of the Union Cabinet.25% OF D ELIVERIES BY U NTRAINED H ANDS IN2010 IN I NDIA

According to the registrar general of Indias latest Sample Registration System(SRS) 2010 data, two in 10 women in Indiareceived medical attention by a qualified pro-fessional in 2010 while delivering at home.It was noted that fewer women in urban In-dia received medical attention while deliver-

ing at home than in rural India 10.8%against 16.2%. Nearly 1 in 4 births overallwere attended by untrained functionaries.Delivery by untrained functionaries werefound to vary from as high as 53.5% inJharkhand to as low as 0.2% in Kerala. Morewomen were noted to have delivered in gov-ernment hospitals (41%) as against privatehospitals (19.4%). Kerala recorded the high-est deliveries in private hospitals whileOdisha recorded the least. Tamil Nadu re-corded the highest number of women whodelivered in a government hospital whileJharkhand recorded the least (19%). 55% of women in Delhi delivered in governmenthospitals while 23% went to private hospi-tals. 17% of births at home were carried out

by a qualified professional. Deliveries con-ducted by a qualified professional at homewere as low as 4.5% in Maharashtra. Un-trained functionary deliveries were as highas 47% in Bihar, 35% in UP, 25% in WestBengal and 27% in Madhya Pradesh.

Institutional deliveries (children being born in health centres or hospitals and not in


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their homes) were found to have picked upin India. As per the data released, more thanthree-fourths of deliveries in India were foundto be occurring in institutional and by quali-fied professionals at present. Several statesrecorded very low births by untrained func-tionaries. They include Kerala (0.2%), Tamil

Nadu (0.9%), Andhra Pradesh (1%), Punjab(2.6%), Delhi (5.3%), Gujarat (8.8%),Haryana (6.3%) and Karnataka (9.3%). Ru-ral regions in several states recorded high

rates of delivery in private hospitals. LikeKerala, where 52% of births in rural settingstook place in a private hospital, followed by35% in Andhra, 23% in Delhi, 36% inGujarat, 32% in Haryana, 20% in Karnataka,36% in Maharashtra, 35% in Punjab and 24%in TN.

T RIVEDI PROPOSES R EGULATORY BODY TO DECIDER AILWAY F ARES

After failing to effect a hike in rail faresas a measure to generate internal resources,Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi proposedan independent body to take decisions on railfares without being influenced by politicalexigencies. He also favoured the restructur-ing of the Railway Board. The Minister wasaddressing a conference organised by theFederation of Indian Chambers of Commerceand Industry. Mr. Trivedi called for a national

policy for the railways that would set forth arevenue model with stress on safety and cus-

tomer benefit. His emphasis on need to de- politicise the railways came amid rumoursthat he failed to get Trinamool Congressleader and West Bengal Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjees approval for fare in-crease. He, however, denied that his call for keeping politics at bay was because of any

political interference. Instead, he said, hisemphasis was on the growth of the railwaysover the next five decades. He hoped the UPAgovernment and Parliament would give their nod for setting up a regulatory body on fares.As for the Railway Board, he said now it wasoriented to operations; it should focus oncustomer comfort and safety.


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