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Of 4 28Th March 2012 India Contests WHO Figures for Multi-Drug Resistant

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Of 4 28Th March 2012 India Contests WHO Figures for Multi-Drug Resistant India contests WHO figures for multi-drug resistant TB The union government contested the WHO figures that put the number of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cases in India at 63,000, saying there were only 10,267. As many as 38,287 suspected cases were examined till the end of 2011 and of them, 10,267 have been diagnosed with MDR-TB and 6,994 put on treatment, according to TB India-2012 the annual status report of the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNCTP) brought out by the Health Ministry. The World Health Organisation, in its report released on the eve of World TB Day, said India had an estimated 63,000 cases of notified MDR-TB in 2010, the highest in South East Asia. It also put the MDR-TB prevalence estimates at 2.3 per cent among new cases and 12-17 per cent among re-treatment cases. However, due to the size of the population and the number of TB cases reported annually, India ranks second among the 27 MDR-TB high-burden countries world wide after China. Though India is the second most populous country, it has more new TB cases annually than any other. In 2009, out of the estimated global annual incidence of 9.4 million cases, two million were estimated to have occurred in India. It is estimated about 40 per cent of the Indian population is infected with TB bacillus. Court sticks to orders, wants Rajoana hanged on March 31 Dismissing the plea for deferring the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the Beant Singh assassination case, Additional District and Sessions Judge Shalini Nagpal has ordered that he be hanged, as scheduled, on March 31. Patiala Jail Superintendent Lakhvinder Singh Jakhar, who was also served with notice for contempt of court, was directed to execute the death warrant. Mr. Jakhar, who had previously returned the warrant, filed a petition for deferment of the execution on technical and legal grounds. The court upheld the arguments of CBI counsel that the decision to hang Rajoana in the Patiala jail was well within the ambit of law. The court initiated contempt proceedings against Mr. Jakhar for returning the warrant and expressing his inability to comply with it. In August 2007, a special CBI court had awarded the death sentence to Rajoana, who was a constable in the Punjab Police and top operative of the terror outfit, Babbar Khalsa International, and Jagtar Singh Hawara. Shamsher Singh, Lakhwinder Singh and Gurmeet Singh were given life imprisonment. Sreedharan on Vaishno Devi Board Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murthy and ‘Metroman' E. Sreedharan are among six eminent personalities nominated by Jammu & Kashmir Governor N. N. Vohra for the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. “The Governor has nominated E Sreedharan, Sudha Murthy, V-C of Central University of Jammu S. S. Bloeria, santoor maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, former DGP Ashok Bhan and Member of State Public Service Commission H. L. Maini as Board members,” Chief Executive Officer of the Board Navin Kumar Choudhary said. Mr. Vohra is the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Choudhary said. Santoor maestro Shiv Kumar Sharma has the distinction of bringing forth the folk instrument from the Kashmir Valley to its classical status. Spell out stand on Ram Setu in a day, Centre told The Supreme Court asked the Centre to make its stand clear on whether the ‘Ram Setu' could be declared a national monument, as demanded by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy in a petition. A Bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and C.K. Prasad granted a day's time to the Centre to spell out its stand after Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval submitted that the matter needed to be placed before the Cabinet Secretary for taking an appropriate decision, and that he had to take instructions. Dr. Swamy submitted that the Supreme Court on July 17, 2007 had asked the Centre to file an affidavit, the report submitted to the government by the committee headed by R.K. Pachauri on exploring alternative routes for the Sethusamudram canal should be made available to the court and a copy given to him. The Bench directed the Centre to give a copy of Dr. Pachauri's report to Dr. Swamy. India will achieve sanitation goals only by 2054 Going by the present pace of progress, India will achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) on sanitation only by 2054. While some States had already achieved the target and some are close to it, other populous States such as Madhya Pradesh and Orissa will reach the target only in the next century, according to WHO and UNICEF's Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMPWSS), which tracks the progress on drinking water and sanitation, 17 States, including Kerala, Haryana, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and most Union Territories, had already achieved the MDG target while Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh will achieve it in the next 10 years. Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Page 1 of 4 28th March 2012 Nadu and Chhattisgarh are some States that will meet the MDG target in the coming 25 years, while Madhya Pradesh is expected to achieve the goal in 2105 and Orissa in 2160 unless special strategies are adopted to speed up the progress. India has seen an improvement in the sanitation figures from 1990, when 75 per cent people defecated in the open as against 51 per cent in 2010. But this improvement is seen only in the urban settings, where 28 per cent had no access to toilets in 1990 as against 14 per cent in 2010. In the rural areas, 91 per cent had no access to sanitation in 1990 as against 67 per cent in 2010, indicating that it was the rich who had more access to sanitation. J’khand passes resolution against Centre's criteria for poverty The Jharkhand Assembly agreed to disagree with the new norms set by the Planning Commission defining poor in the country. Amnesty International writes to PM to stop Rajoana's execution Amnesty International has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to stop the imminent execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, scheduled to be carried out on March 31. Sam Zarifi, director, Amnesty International, Asia-Pacific, has written in a letter which was sent on March 26. India hosts BRICS Summit, trade ministers to meet today Chinese President Hu Jintao will arrive in New Delhi on a two-day visit to attend the fourth BRICS summit and will also hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a range of key issues. Hu is expected to highlight need for improving global governance, enhancing trade and push for creation of a mechanism for trading in local currencies among the five-member countries. Ahead of the BRICS Summit, trade ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa (BRICS) will meet in New Delhi to discuss ways to strengthen economic ties. Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma would meet his counterparts from Brazil Fernando Pimente, Chen Deming from China and Russia's Elvira Nabiullina and Rob Davis from South Africa. Besides, the development banks of BRICS are in advanced stage of reaching a pact for extending cross-country credit in local currencies of the member countries. The theme of the 4th BRICS Summit is 'Partnership for Stability, Security and Growth'. The last summit was held in China in April, 2011. Assad accepts Kofi Annan's peace plan The Arab League is set to recant its advocacy of regime change in Syria and support the diplomatic initiative of United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan during its summit hosted by Iraq. Ahead of the summit that began, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said it was unlikely the 22-nation League will ask President Bashar al-Assad to step down a sharp manoeuvre away from its earlier position seeking the exit of the Syrian head of state as the first step toward a political transition. “It's not up to other countries to dictate to the Syrians what kind of leaders they have or don't have,” said Mr. Zebari. Obama nominee for WB presidency to visit India Jim Yong Kim, the surprise choice of US President Barack Obama for the post of World Bank president, will visit India and six other key nations, most of them emerging economies, to drum up support for his candidacy. The developing nations have for long been nursing an unfulfilled wish to occupy the top posts of IMF and World Bank as part of reforming the two multilateral institutions, but have failed to put up a common candidate. While the major emerging economies have not fielded any candidate, Nigeria and Colombia have put up candidates. Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Colombia’s former Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo are in the fray. The Nigerian’s candidacy has been endorsed by the African Union. The World Bank presidency has been an American preserve right from the time of its founding in 1944, just as the International Monetary Fund’s top post of managing director has always been held by Europe. The selection will be made by the World Bank’s 25-member executive board. The board has said they will interview all three candidates with the goal of making a decision before the April 20 start of the World Bank’s spring meetings. Page 2 of 4 28th March 2012 ADB, BMRCL sign loan pact The Asian Development Bank (ADB), headquartered in Manila, the Philippines, and Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) signed a Facility Agreement for $250 million loan through the former's non- sovereign lending window.
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