Current Affairs : newspaper cuttings

Snowden granted Russian asylum

U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted asylum in Russia and left the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for an undisclosed “safe location”.
Mr. Snowden (30), a former CIA employee and NSA contractor had been stuck at Sheremetyevo Airport since June 23, when he arrived in Moscow on the way from Hong Kong. However, he could

The tiger is faring better in Nepal compared to four years ago, the tiger survey, whose findings were presented in Lalitpur earlier this week to mark the International Tiger Day, shows. The findings of the survey — conducted jointly with India to avoid double counting in the protected areas that overlap the national boundaries — revealed that the estimated number of tigers in Nepal has risen from 121 in 2008 to 198 in 2012, a growth of 63 per cent that has elated the conservationists.
Though conducted simultaneously in the border areas of both countries, the survey’s India results are still being tallied and a joint status report is expected in December.
The International Tiger Day was created in 2010, at the St. Petersburg Tigers Summit of 13 tiger range countries. It resulted in a pledge to heighten national efforts to double the number of tigers in each country by 2022, the “year of the tiger” in the Chinese calendar.
The Terai Arc Landscape is the conservation area to the west of River Bhagmati and east of River Yamuna.It includes four important national parks — in terms of tiger population — two in Nepal Chitwan and Bardiya; and two in India, the Dudhwa and Valmiki.
It has the world’s highest density of Bengal tiger population

In the 15 years since the downfall of military dictator Suharto, Indonesia has emerged as a boisterous democracy. It’s been a laborious, often fraught, process attempting to establish institutions that guarantee a nation run in accordance with the law, rather than the whims of powerful individuals. But the most popular of these institutions today, is not the democratically elected Parliament, nor the executive office of the President; not the once-dominant military, nor the police or judiciary.
It is rather, the country’s anti-corruption agency known as the Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi or KPK, a lithe, sharp-fanged outfit, with the kinds of powers that would have Anna Hazare and his supporters swooning in delight.
As in many developing countries, corruption in the public sector and politics is among the most pressing popular concerns in Indonesia.
The country ranked 118 out of 176 in Transparency International’s 2012, Corruption Perceptions Index, well behind India’s 94th position.

Competition has become a driving force in the global economy.
May 19, 2009 changed the paradigm of doing business in India.
That is the day the enforcement of the Competition Act was started by the Competition Commission of India.
During its brief existence of about 4 years, CCI has come a long way.

India was among the first developing countries to have a competition law in the form of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act, 1969.
The MRTP Act was designed to check concentration of economic power, prohibit restrictive or unfair trade practices and control of monopolies. Then came 1991, which has proved to be a watershed in the history of India’s economic development.
The new India required new rules.Hence, the need for a new competition law.
Accordingly, the Competition Act was passed in 2002 and amended in 2007.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) was established on March 1, 2009 as an autonomous body comprising of a Chairperson and six members. An appellate body Competition Appellate Tribunal was also set up in May 2009 with final appeal lying to the Supreme Court of India.
Subsequently, the MRTP Act was repealed, MRTP Commission established under that act was abolished and its pending cases were transferred to the CCI. Sections 5 & 6 relating to Merger & Acquisition were notified in June, 2011.

The CCI not only hears and investigates cases based on the information received by it, but it also takes suo moto action wherever it finds that a prima facie violation of Competition Act has been committed.
Competition law treats the activities of trade associations much like any other form of cooperation between competitors. For competition law purposes, decisions or recommendations of trade associations are treated as agreements between its members and law may be breached even when they are not binding on the members.