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India has announced its participation in the development of Chabahar port of Iran. This port is just 76 km from Pakistan's Gwadar port which is operated by China. Prospects and consequences: 1. Afghanistan has a strategic position in Middle, South and East Asia - especially for India and Pakistan, and for China via Pakistan. Pakistan wants to have strategic control by providing its port facility of Gwadar as Afghanistan is a land-locked country. By giving China operating rights, Pakistan virtually made Afghanistan to submit to China. By participating in development of Chabahar port, India successfully tried to nullify Pakistan-China effort to solely utilize the strategic position of Afghanistan. a. It provided an alternative to Afghanistan to reach Arabian Sea. b. This way, India can strengthen its relation with Afghanistan. c. This also strengthens its relation with energy-rich Iran 2. China, by obtaining operating rights of Gwadar, strengthene...

Basics:  CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) is the intelligence agency of USA meant for combatting external threat. FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is the one which is responsible for combating internal threat. MI5 (Military intelligence 5) works for UK the same way the CIA works. MI6 works the way FBI works. IB (Intelligence Bureau) is India's intelligence agency which keeps and eye on internal threat. RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) is India's intelligency agency taking care of external threat. CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) is the criminal investigation body of India. NIA (National Intelligence Agency) is a federal agency to combat terror in India. Story goes like this: Before 9/11 United States CIA had Counter Terrorism Center (CTC) for terrorist threat. It was actually meant for external threat. On the same ground, Bajpayee Govt. formed CTC under an executive order as a part of IB and named it Multi Agency Center (MAC). As IB its...

Advanced bio-fuels could create millions of jobs while greening the economy Transforming agricultural residues into advanced bio fuels could create millions of jobs worldwide, economic growth, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and energy security by 2030, according to a report by Novozymes, the world leader in bio innovation and industrial enzymes. The Bloomberg New Energy Finance report “Moving towards a next-generation ethanol economy'' was commissioned by Novozymes. It estimates the socio-economic prospects of deploying advanced bio fuels in eight of the highest agricultural-producing regions in the world, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, EU-27, India, Mexico and US. “A huge global resource of agricultural residues can be harvested sustainably every year without altering current land use patterns and without interfering with the food chain,'' according to Steen Riisgaard, CEO of Novozymes. According to the report, an estimated 17.5 per cen...

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) offers incentive to Bank for Warehouse Loans. Bank can avail loan at 8% p.a. for refinance in Warehouse. Bank paying loan on schedule will get 1.5% rebate loan payment. The scheme has been conceptualized out of Rs. 2000 crore dedicated fund in Union Budget 2011-12. This will create 9 million tonne of additional storage capacity. All Kisan Credit Card holders can avail loan at 7% p.a. interest rate for stored for maximum of 6 months post-harvest. Warehouse established by farmers must be accredited to Warehouse Development and Regulation Authority (WDRA) to be eligible for loan.

Announcement : Election Commission generally announces the schedule of election a few weeks before the formal process set in motion. The model code of conduct for guidance of candidates and political parties immediately comes into effect after such announcement. Notification : The formal process of election starts with notification. After notification, candidates can start filing their nominations. This is at least 23 days before the polling. Last date of Nomination : This is generally a week after the Notification date. This means candidates get one week for them to be nominated. Scrutiny of Nomination : This is done the next day of the last day of nomination. Last day of withdrawal of Candidate : This is generally 2-3 days after the scrutiny of nomination. Campaigning : A candidate gets at least 2 weeks for campaigning. He must stop campaigning before 48 hours of polling. Polling : This is generally 3-4 weeks after the notification. This is after at least 23 day...

Will it be the next geopolitical battleground or remain the common heritage of humankind? A retired Rear Admiral of the Chinese PLA Navy, Yin Zhuo, caused a major stir in March 2010, when in a speech to the Chinese Peoples' Political Consultative Conference, he declared: “The Arctic belongs to all the people around the world as no nation has sovereignty over it.” China, he said, must also have a share of the region's resources. Resources, reserves The five nations which ring the Arctic Ocean, namely the U.S. Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia, disagree, though they themselves have competing territorial claims. The stakes are enormous: The Arctic Circle encloses 21 million square kilometres of land and 13 million sq.km of mostly ice-bound seas. By way of comparison, India's total land area is 3.3 million sq.km. It is estimated that the region may hold over 40 per cent of the current global reserves of oil and gas. There may also be significant reserves of co...

Date : January 30, 2012 The Reserve Bank of India's third quarter review of monetary policy was devoid of major surprises. The only change in monetary policy instruments — a cut in the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 0.50 percentage point to 5.5 per cent — was largely expected. The move will release Rs.32,000 crore of funds impounded from banks, almost immediately. The key policy interest rate, the repo rate, remains unchanged at 8.5 per cent. Consequently, the reverse repo stays at 7.5 per cent and the marginal standing facility at 9.5 per cent. A cut in the repo rate would have more definitely indicated a downward shift in the monetary stance but the RBI has argued that the CRR reduction is the best it could do under the prevailing circumstances and ought to be interpreted as a signal for a softer monetary policy regime. According to the RBI, the CRR is a policy instrument with liquidity dimension. Its reduction will bring down the cost of money for banks and have a...