National
Socialist thinker Mastram Kapoor passes away
Eminent socialist
author and thinker Mastram Kapoor passed away. Mr. Kapoor, 87, suffered from
Kidney
cancer. Author of
over 100 publications on socialist thought, he was known for penning Ram
Manohar
Lohia’s
biography. He was recently awarded the Yash Bharati award, which was revived
after six years by
Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Defence Minister A K Antony approves Rs 2,800 cr night-vision devices'
proposal
The Defence
Ministry has approved a Rs 2,820 crore proposal to provide night-vision devices
to the Army to
enable its tanks
and infantry combat vehicles to have capability to fight in both day and night
conditions.
Defence
Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister A K Antony also approved
proposals to
upgrade the 130
mm artillery guns of the Army along with amendments in procurement procedure to
boost
indigenisation in
defence production. Under the plans to do away with the night blindness of
Army's
mechanised fleet
including the Russian-origin T-90 and T-72 tanks and the BMP Infantry Combat
Vehicles
(ICV), around
5,000 thermal imaging sights would be procured from defence PSU Bharat
Electronics limited.
Arrest warrant against HRD Secretary
The National
Commission for Scheduled Castes has issued arrest warrant against Secretary,
Higher
Education of the
Union Ministry of Human Resource Development Ashok Thakur for disobeying
summons to
appear before it
for a hearing. The arrest warrant has been issued by Chairperson of the
National
Commission for Scheduled
Castes P.L. Punia .
Supreme Court grants Tamil Nadu time to respond to Centre’s stand on Ram
Sethu
The Supreme Court
has made it clear that it would examine the Pachauri Committee report on ‘Ram
Sethu’
and granted three
weeks time to Tamil Nadu to reply to the Centre’s stand on the project. A Bench
of Justices
H.L. Dattu and
J.S. Khehar told the Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy that it would
examine the
report. Senior
counsel L.N. Rao, appearing for Tamil Nadu, sought time to file the State’s
response. Solicitor
General Mohan
Parasaran appeared for the Centre. Earlier, Dr. Swamy argued that the
Sethusamudram
project was
wholly illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable and economically unviable, lacked
proportionality and was
violative of
national security. He said a committee headed by Dr. R. K. Pachauri, a Nobel
Laureate, “has
found the
Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, whether carried out along Alignment 4A or
the original
Alignment 6, or
any of the other five suggested Alignments non-viable from its economic as well
as
ecological
angles.”
Tobacco products still don’t carry new picture warning
Despite the
Government order requiring all tobacco product packages in the country to carry
the new
pictorial health
warnings from April 1, 2013, a snap survey conducted in the Capital indicated
that “almost no
cigarette, bidi
packets or any other chewing tobacco products have the new picture warnings”.
As per the
Union Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare notification dated September 27, 2012, three sets of
warnings
each were
notified for smoking as well as smokeless forms of tobacco product packages. As
per the
Government order,
the tobacco product retailers and distributors who fail to comply will face
legal
consequences with
a fine extending up to Rs. 1,000; imprisonment up to one year or both under
Section 20
of Cigarettes and
Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 (COTPA). Tobacco product manufacturers can
face
fines up to Rs.
5,000 or imprisonment up to two years or both on the first conviction.
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