Current  bits ...

Prime Minister’s Japan visit and its scope

India and Japan are the second and third largest economies of Asia. The two countries are engaged in technologic and economic partnership. India is one of the major recipients of Japanese ODA (Official Development Assistance). But, Indo-Japan bilateral trade at $16.29 billion in 2013-14 accounted for just 2.13 per cent of India’s total trade and barely 1 per cent of Japan’s. Also, in terms of the foreign direct investment (FDI), it ranks low, well behind China. Between April 2000 and February 2014, Japanese companies cumulatively invested $15.97 billion in India, accounting for just 7.46 per cent of total FDI inflows into India. Japan has promised to invest 3.5 trillion yen ($33.5 billion) in India in the next five years in the sectors of infrastructure, manufacturing, transport, clean energy, and on smart cities. Ever since India liberalised in the early 1990s, there has been steady interest among Japanese companies and investors. In the recent visit Mr. Modi harped on all the right themes including the three Ds that India can boast of, namely democracy, demography and demand, while making his pitch to Japanese business. With manufacturing costs increasing in China and given the political issues between the two countries, Japanese businesses are looking to diversify, and India presents a good choice with its huge market. New projects such as those for super-fast trains and smart cities are ideal destinations for Japanese investments. The technological supremacy of Japan and rich man power of India together can add muscle to the growing economy.

Pehli Udaan and Pehla Kada of SBI

State Bank of India (SBI) introduced personalised savings accounts for anyone below 18-year age. Three months ago the Reserve Bank had issued guidelines allowing minors over 10 years to operate bank savings accounts independently and use facilities such as ATMs and cheque books. Pehli Udaan is a singly operated savings bank account for a minor aged 10 years and above and who can sign uniformly, while Pehla Kadam is a savings bank account for minor of any age operated jointly with his/her parent or guardian. All the account holders will be given an exclusively designed personalised photo ATM—cum—Debit card. Other features include internet banking with limited transaction facilities like bill payment, opening of fixed deposit, recurring deposits, etc. with per day transaction limit of Rs 5,000. Besides, such account holders can have facility of mobile banking with limited transaction facilities like bill payment, and top—ups with per day transaction limit of Rs 2,000. While launching these products SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya emphasised the importance of cultivating savings habits from childhood and managing and spending money wisely.

Konkan Railway to attract migratory birds:

As a part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, Konkan Railway has undertaken a project at Goa which will draw more migratory birds to Carambolim lake in north Goa and help in the increase of their population. The project is also meant to beautify the area. The idea is that since the Karmali station on Konkan Railway route is adjoining the Carambolim Lake, increasing green cover alongside the railway station would help in attracting migratory birds.

National Water Way No. 1

Preliminary work was begun on the development of the National Waterway I, a 1,620 km waterway on River Ganga between Haldia in West Bengal and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. The World Bank is likely to support the project with an initial assistance of US $ 50 million. The Inland Waterways Authority of India, which is implementing the project, estimated the cost at Rs 4,200 crores.

The waterway passes through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal and touches major cities including Kolkata and Varanasi. . It was declared as a waterway in October 1986. (The Inland Water Authority of India or IWAI came into existence in 1986 for development and regulation of inland waterways for shipping and navigation)

NW	In Between	Distance	River systems	Year
I	Haldia (Sagar) & Allahabad	1620 km	Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly	1986
II	Sadiya & Dhubri	891 km	Brahmaputhra	1988
III	Kollam and Kottapuram	205 km	Kollam-Kottapuram stretch of West Coast Canal, Champakara Canal and Udyogmandal Canal	1993
IV	Kakinada and Pondicherry	1095 km	Godavari& Krishna	2008
V		623 km	Brahmani River and Mahanadi river system along with East Coast Canal	2008
VI	Lakhipur and Bhanga	121 km	Barak River	2013

States are free to add official languages:

A Constitution Bench of Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha held that a State Legislature’s power to declare a language in use in the State as official language is not against Article 347 of the Constitution. The verdict was made in a case filed by the U.P. Hindi Sahitya Sammelan against the 1989 amendment to the Uttar Pradesh Official Language Act which adopted Urdu second official language. The court said a language can be made official upon the satisfaction of the President. The ruling was made on the question whether a State Legislature is prevented from adopting another official language if Hindi has already been declared the official language. 

            Article 345 of the Constitution states that the Legislature of a State may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the language or languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State.

L&T to build 5000 toilets: Responding to the government’s recently launched ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India Campaign), engineering major Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T) announced plans to build 5,000 toilets as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiative. L&T group executive chairman A.M. Naik said that initially 2,000 toilets would be built by the Company. (Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is new form of UPA’s sanitation programme which was know Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. It will tackle sanitation and waste management issues in the country. The Mission is a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150^th birth anniversary)