Govt. against bringing Prime Minister under Lokpal

Sharp differences came to the surface at a meeting of the drafting committee for Lokpal bill on Monday with the government strongly opposing proposals for inclusion of Prime Minister, higher judiciary and acts of Members of Parliament inside Parliament under its purview.At the meeting held under the Chairmanship of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, contentious issues came up for discussion in the committee for the first time.

India and Afghanistan Sign MOU for Cooperation in the Field of Official Statistics

As a follow up of the umbrella agreement signed by Government of India with Government of Afghanistan and UNDP on 30th March 2010 to develop the capacity of Afghan Ministries / Agencies in Afghanistan through the project called National Institution Building Project, Dr. M. S. Gill, Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation signed an MOU with Mr. Abdul Rahman Ghafoori, President General, Central Statistics Organisation, Afghanistan here today for cooperation in the field of official statistics. 

FCRA, 2010 to Check Misutilisation of Foreign Contribution

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 has come into effect from May 1, 2011. The Ministry of Home Affairs issued the necessary Gazette Notification on 29th April, 2011 in this regard. Consequently, the earlier Act, viz., the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 has been repealed.

Solar power needed to fuel Asia’s economic growth: Asian Development Bank

Harnessing solar power is now an economic imperative for Asia and no longer just an environmental issue, the vice president of the Asian Development Bank said Monday.

Speaking at the Asia Solar Energy Forum in Bangkok, Xiaoyu Zhao said the region must manage its energy,security and develop sustainable, low-carbon economic growth and wean itself off total dependence on high resource, high carbon development. “Harnessing the power of the sun to fuel Asia’s growth is no longer simply an option, it is a necessity,” he said.

Germany to abandon nuclear power by 2022

Germany’s coalition government agreed early on Monday to shut down all the country’s nuclear power plants by 2022, the environment minister said, making it the first major industrialized nation in the last quarter century to announce plans to go nuclear-free. The country’s seven oldest reactors that were already taken off the grid pending safety inspections following the catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant in March will remain offline permanently, Norbert Roettgen added. The country has 17 reactors in total.