Miscellaneous

International Pepper Conclave 2013

Three kinds of International Pepper Community (IPC) Common Sales Contracts were launched by International Pepper Conclave 2013 in order to standardise the contract terms for export of pepper from various origins. The International Pepper Conclave 2013 was organised with the assistance of Jakarta-based International Pepper Community (IPC), which is an inter-governmental organisation. All these contracts were earlier approved by member countries of International Pepper Community in 2013. IPC explained that the buyers as well as sellers would adopt the terms of these contracts in some time and trading on these terms would also begin. The prices of pepper, at present are a little more than 6 US dollar per kg or 6000 US dollar per tonne. There has been area expansion because of higher prices since the year 2010. Also, it has led to better yields through better agronomy and new origins. This would eventually lead to an increase in the production. It is important to note that the Emirate has become the hub for commodity trade because free trade policies exist there.

SEBI notified Norms for Listing of Preference Shares

Market regulator Sebi in Month of June 2013 notified a new set of regulations to regulate issuing and listing of non-convertible preference. The listing of preference shares is basically meant to bring more transparency in raising of funds through such securities. The listing of privately placed non-convertible redeemable preference shares would require a minimum application size of 10 lakh Rupees for each investor which will safeguard the interest of small investors from high risk securities. The definite structure for issuance and listing of such shares is supposed to make it easier for banks and infrastructure companies to gain funds through this route. There is also a requirement of minimum three year term for the instruments of share besides public issuance of it and also a rating of AA- or equivalent investment grade. The new regulations is applicable to issuing by banks of non-equity instruments such as ‘Perpetual Non-Cumulative Preference Shares’ and ‘Innovative Perpetual Debt Instruments’, which are in according with the specified criteria for inclusion in Additional Tier I Capital.

What is Preference Shares?

Preference share is an equity security which has the properties of both equity and a debt instrument. Preference share usually carries no voting rights but sometimes it may carry a dividend.
There would be a comprehensive regulatory framework as per the new norm for the public issuance of non-convertible redeemable shares also for listing of privately placed redeemable preference shares. It is important here to note that in the last three years, Indian companies have raised over 25000 crore rupees through preference share issuance.

Revival of Nagaland Pulp and Paper Company Limited approved

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 4 June 2013 approved the revival of the Nagaland Pulp and Paper Company Limited (NPPC) with the infusion of funds of 309.38 crore, Rupees.
The Committee also approved the regularization of inter se diversion of fund of 54.60 crore, rupees and had increased the authorized capital of NPPC from150 crore rupees to 250 crore Rupees. To avail term loan from commercial banks against government guarantee a sum of around 156.50 crore was also approved by the committee.
About Revival Plan
The revival plan includes rebuilding/re-furbishment of paper machine, pulping mill, new power plant etc.

·         The company is supposed to produce both pulp and paper in the first phase but after with the implementation of the revival plan, the net value of the company will become positive and it will start posting profit from the first year after implementation.

·         The company will start making profit on continuous basis and its reliance on Government of India for financial assistance for disbursement of salary and wages and statutory dues to employees shall come to an end, it will come out of the purview of the Board of Industrial and Financial Restructuring (BIFR).

India 3rd Most Attractive Destination for Investment

A survey conducted by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) revealed on 26 June 2013 that India was the third most attractive destination for investment in the world. The survey by UNCTAD included transnational corporations (TNCs) as the respondents. India was ranked at the third position after china and the United States. The survey was based on the responses given by 159 top global companies of the world. The World Investment Report 2013 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) revealed that the ranking of top five host economies of the world remained unaltered since 2012. China was still leading the list of top most destinations for investment with 46 percent respondents agreeing on it. This was followed by US, which got 45 percent agreeing votes. Among other top five investment destinations as responded by TNCs, were Indonesia and Brazil. An interesting fact about the survey was that, among top five most attractive destinations for investment in the world, four were the developing countries. Apart from this, six out of top 10 prospective host countries were also from the developing world. Thailand and Mexico appeared in this list for the very first time. As far as the developed countries were concerned, Japan climbed up three positions because of its reconstruction efforts after 2011 tsunami as well as expansionary monetary policies, which led to increased attractiveness of the country for foreign investment in the medium term. In the meanwhile, Australia, Russia and United Kingdom came down the rankings in comparison to 2012 survey, while Germany gained two positions.

The Real Estate Bill 2013 Approved

The Union Cabinet of India on 4 June 2013 approved the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill 2013 to set up a regulator for the real estate sector in the country. This was done with the objective of protecting home buyers from dishonest builders. The bill seeks to make it mandatory for developers to launch projects only after acquiring all the statutory clearances from relevant authorities.
It also has provisions under which all relevant clearances for real estate projects would have to be submitted to the regulator and also displayed on a website before starting construction work. A real estate regulator will be set up in every state. It will ensure that private developers get all their projects registered with it before sale and only after obtaining all necessary clearances. The commercial real estate is not covered under the purview of the proposed bill. However, it will apply to residential buildings. The bill has a provision for mandatory public disclosure of all project details such as lay out plan, land status and credentials of promoters etc. An adjudicating officer in the state will be appointed by the authority for fast tracking settlement of disputes. There will be Real Estate Appellate Tribunal as per the bill. It will hear appeals from orders, decisions or directions of regulator and adjudicating officer.

Mineral Production during April 2013

The index of mineral production of mining and quarrying sector in April 2013 was lower by 16.9 percent compared to March 2013 as per the data released by ministry of mines. The mineral sector has shown a negative growth of 3.1 percent during April 2013 as compared to that of the April 2012. The total value of mineral production (excluding atomic & minor minerals) in India during April 2013 was 17772 crore rupees. The contribution of coal was the highest at 5673 crore rupees (32 percent). Next in the order of importance were: petroleum (crude) 5671 crore rupees, iron ore 2712 crore rupees, natural gas (utilized) 1883 crore rupees, lignite 490 crore rupees and limestone 382 crore rupees.
These six minerals together contributed about 95 percent of the total value of mineral production in April 2013. Production level of important minerals in April 2013 were: coal 435 lakh tonnes, lignite 39 lakh tonnes, natural gas (utilized) 2942 million cu. m., petroleum (crude) 31 lakh tonnes, bauxite 2035 thousand tonnes, chromite 242 thousand tonnes, copper conc. 10 thousand tonnes, gold 120 kg., iron ore 119 lakh tonnes, lead conc. 16 thousand tonnes, manganese ore 194 thousand tonnes, zinc conc. 124 thousand tonnes, apatite & phosphorite 198 thousand tonnes, dolomite 520 thousand tonnes, limestone 242 lakh tonnes, magnesite 16 thousand tonnes and diamond 2928 carat. In April 2013, the output of apatite & phosphorite increased by 33.6 percent, bauxite 14.7 percent and iron ore 1.3 percent. However the production of petroleum (crude) decreased by 3.7 percent, natural gas (utilized) 5.5 percent, limestone 5.9 percent, lead conc. 8.9 percent, gold 11.1 percent, dolomite 15.0 percent, manganese ore 18.1 percent, copper conc. 18.6 percent, magnesite 20.3 percent, zinc conc. 23.0 percent, lignite 27.9 percent, chromite 30.3 percent, coal 33.0 percent and diamond 33.6 percent.

India’s Food grain Production registered 30 % Growth

India’s foodgrain production registered an impressive growth of over 30 percent in the last nine years. It went up to 259 million tonnes in 2012-13 from 198.36 million tonnes in 2004-05. This is result of government initiatives like National Food Security Mission, NFSM, and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.
While NFSM is an area and crop specific scheme, RKVY is a highly flexible mega scheme to incentivise states for investment in agriculture. The flow of agricultural credit was raised from 86981 crore rupees in 2003-04 to 5.75 lakh crore in 2012-13.
The Minimum Support Price of major crops also increased by more than hundred per cent during the period. India has now become food surplus and exports of agriculture and allied products have increased from 29.8 billion Dollars in 2011-12 to 33.54 billion Dollars in 2012-13.

Advanced Meteorological Satellite of India Launched Successfully

INSAT-3D, the advanced meteorological satellite of India was launched successfully by the European rocket, Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket, from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana on 26 July 2013. The satellite will give a push to the weather forecasting as well as help in facilitating disaster warning services. Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket of European space consortium launched the Alphasat satellites as well as INSAT-3D. Alphasat is the largest-ever telecommunication satellite of Europe. This satellite is the result of large-scale public-private partnership between Inmarsat as well as European Space Agency.
Features of INSAT-3D

·         The new satellite, INSAT-3D will be operational for next seven years, i.e., up to 2020.

·         The aim of the satellite is to make a crucial difference to the disaster warning systems as well as weather forecasting of India.

·         INSAT-3D will also provide monitoring of the ocean as well as land areas, apart from providing meteorological observation.

·         INSAT-3D will facilitate new dimension to the weather monitoring because of its atmospheric sounding system. The atmospheric sounding system provides the vertical profiles of integrated ozone, humidity as well as temperature, from top of the atmosphere.

·         It is important to note that the i system and mechanism of INSAT-3D has a lot of improvement in comparison to INSAT-3A as well as KALPANA.

·         The satellite has the lift-off mass of 2060 kg.

·         It will facilitate continuity to the previous missions as well as also help in increasing the capability of providing meteorological and search and rescue services.

·         INSAT-3D carries the newly developed 19 channel sounder, which is the first payload of this kind to be flown to the ISRO satellite mission.

·         INSAT-3D has the facility of Search and Rescue payload which catches as well as relays the alert signals that originate from distress signal of maritime, aviation and land based users to the Indian Mission Control Centre located at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore.

The primary users of the Satellite Aided Search and Rescue service in India include Directorate General of Shipping, Defence Services, fishermen, Indian Coast Guard as well as Airports Authority of India. The alert services include a wide area of Indian Ocean region, as well as covers Sri Lanka, Tanzania, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Seychelles, Bhutan and Maldives. The information of oceanographic, hydrological as well as meteorological data from the uninhabited locations over the coverage area from Data Collection Platforms (DCPs) such as Agro Met Stations, Automatic Rain Gauge and Automatic Weather Station, as well as remote locations will be collected by the Data Relay Transponder (DRT). The ISRO as well as India Meteorological Department have already established over 1800 DCPs.

World’s 1st IVF baby born

World’s 1st IVF baby is born in US in June 2013 thus becoming the world’s first test tube baby to be born using a new low cost “next-generation sequencing” IVF technique. The method, through which the baby was born, uses the latest DNA sequencing a technique which aims to increase in-vitro fertilisation success rates while being more reasonable for couples and lowering the risk of miscarriages. The birth of baby using IVF sets an example to show next-generation sequencing can be used to pick the embryos created by IVF that are most likely to lead to successful pregnancies.
Use of New Embryo Screening Technique

·         The approach can identify embryos with the correct number of chromosomes and may cut hundreds of pounds off the cost of embryo screening.

·         The majority of embryos produced by IVF aren’t able to lead to successful pregnancies, and through embryo screening techniques scientists have sought to find ways of identifying the embryos that should be implanted to give the greatest chance of success.

·         Having an incorrect number of chromosomes usually prevents embryos from producing a pregnancy. Until recently, such abnormalities have been hard to detect as they do not affect the appearance of embryos under the microscope. But through IVF, the desired abnormalities rate is quite low.

·         Many of the embryos produced during infertility treatments have no chance of becoming a baby because they carry lethal genetic abnormalities.

·         Next-generation sequencing improves our ability to detect these abnormalities and helps us identify the embryos with the best chances of producing a viable pregnancy. Potentially, this should lead to improved IVF success rates and a lower risk of miscarriage.

·         Recently, a number of trials of various chromosome screening methods have shown that they can improve IVF success rates by around 30 per cent.

·         Results from randomised clinical trials carried out during the last year have suggested that most IVF patients would benefit from embryo chromosome screening. However, the costs of these genetic tests are relatively high, putting them beyond the reach of many patients.

·         Next-generation sequencing could make chromosome testing more widely available, improving access by cutting the costs.

·         The researchers’ approach involves sequencing DNA from multiple embryos all at the same time. Short DNA tags or ‘barcodes’ added to the genetic material from each individual embryo mean that the results could be identified uniquely and mapped back to the right embryo.

·         In the future, it should be possible to use the approach to check for chromosomal abnormalities and any serious inherited disorders at the same time.

About In Vitro Fertilisation
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process by which an egg is fertilised by sperm outside the body: in vitro. IVF is a major treatment for infertility when other methods of assisted reproductive technology have failed. The process basically involves monitoring a woman’s ovulatory process, removing ovum or ova (egg or eggs) from the woman’s ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a fluid medium in a laboratory. When a woman’s natural cycle is monitored to collect a naturally selected ovum (egg) for fertilisation, it is known as natural cycle IVF.

Genetic basis of  Cholera Resistance Found

Believe it or not, there is a hereditary component that determines whether a person is susceptibility to cholera or not. At least in the case of those of Bengali ethnicity in Dhaka, Bangladesh, there appears sufficient proof to say so. According to a paper published today (July 4) inScience Translational Medicine , this population has resistance to infection caused by Vibrio cholerae , the bacterium that causes cholera, and is hence less susceptible. According to the paper, cholera has an ancient origin, high prevalence, and high fatality rate in the Ganges River Delta region. So high is the prevalence that by age 15, more than half the population shows evidence of cholera infection. At 5-10 per cent, the mortality rate is high even today; it was once more than 50 per cent.
The three factors — ancient origin, high prevalence and high mortality — turned out to be the prime drivers in inducing a strong selection pressure. While many died, those who had genetic resistance to cholera survived the bacteria’s onslaught. These people in turn passed on the useful, protective genes to their children. Over the years, a large number of people in the population inherited the protective genes.

India’s First Hydrogen-Powered Fuel Cell Bus Developed

Tata Motors Limited (TML) and Indian Space Research Organisation, in collaboration, developed the first Hydrogen-powered automobile bus of India, after various years of research. The first hydrogen fuel-fitted bus of India was put on demonstration at the ISRO facility- Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre in Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu on 28 July 2013.
Primary features of the Hydrogen-powered automobile bus

·         The Hydrogen-powered automobile bus is the CNG kind of a bus.

·         Atop the bus, the Hydrogen in bottles at high pressure is stored, which would lead to zero pollution.

·         These hydrogen bottles or cells were a by-product of the cryogenic technology and ISRO had been working on the development of this since past few years.

·         The technology used in Hydrogen-powered automobile bus is not exactly like the cryogenic technology. It is actually the liquid hydrogen handling, where ISRO has expertise.

·         The bus would lead to zero pollution because the product of cold combustion would be just water.

Since past 30 years, ISRO has had rich technology in production, storage as well as handling of the gaseous and liquid hydrogen. The team at ISRO generated technical specifications for various elements as well as general specifications of this bus. It is important to note that ISRO and TML had signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the year 2006 in order to design as well as develop the automobile bus which uses hydrogen as the fuel through the fuel cell route. The entire project is a team work of Tata Motors and ISRO specialists along with the contribution from PESO (Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation) and DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research).

ISRO to improve Transponder Allocation Norms

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned to revisit the SatCom Policy 2000 to improve the guidelines related to allocation and pricing of satellite transponders for public and non-government users. A revisit to the allocation norms has been increasingly felt in recent years as ISRO’s user groups have far outgrown, both in public and private sector. By improving the guidelines of SatCom Policy 2000, ISRO will be able to allocate to different users by percentages and charge, for capacity on its INSAT/GSAT satellites in a much more rational way than present procedure. From the 2007 onwards, the space agency was surprised by the increased demand of commercial DTH, high-definition (HD) TV broadcasters and VSAT operators. ISRO is the sole provider of transponders for broadcasters and other public and private users of space applications in the country.
About INSAT Coordination Committee (ICC)

·         The ICC allocates satellite transponders to user groups depending on their availability and urgency of use.

·         INSAT Co-ordination Committee (ICC) chaired by Department of Space Secretary was constituted by Government of India on 2 November 1977 for the co-ordination and monitoring of the implementation of the INSAT-1 system and for planning future developments.

·         The committee includes Secretaries of the departments of I&B, Telecom, IT, Science & Technology, Economic Affairs, Defence, Planning Commission and a representative of the Telecom Regulatory Authority.

What is Transponder?

Transponders are wireless communications device usually attached to a satellite. A transponder receives and transmits radio signals at a prescribed frequency range. After receiving the signal a transponder will at the same time broadcast the signal at a different frequency.
The term is a combination of the words transmitter and responder. Transponders are used in satellite communications and in location, identification and navigation systems.

Scientists created World’s Fastest Electrical Switch

US department of energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory invented the fastest electrical switching in magnetite- a naturally magnetic mineral. This scientific finding will enable faster, more powerful computing devices. Scientists used SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser to find that it takes only 1 trillionth of a second to flip the on-off electrical switch in samples of magnetite, which is thousands of times faster than the electrical switch used in transistors. This scientific finding will throw new light on the electronic properties of magnetite. We already know the basic magnetic properties of magnetite. In fact, for the first time the speed limit for electrical switching in magnetite was revealed by this scientific breakthrough.
Scientists hit magnetite with a visiblelight laser, which resulted into the fragmentation of the material’s electronic structure at an atomic scale, rearranging it to form the islands. The laser blast was followed by an ultra bright, ultra short X-ray pulse. It allowed researchers to study the timing and details of changes in the sample excited by the initial laser strike. After adjusting the interval of the X-ray pulses, the scientists measured the time duration of the material to shift from a non-conducting to an electrically conducting state and observed the structural changes during this switch. The magnetite was needed to be cooled to minus 190 degrees Celsius to lock its electrical charges in place.