April 2012 National Affairs

President Pratibha Patil on 18 April 2012 released a commemorative postage stamp to mark the birth centenary of President R. Venkataraman at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. The release of the stamp marked the end of year-long centenary celebrations organised from December 2010 onward to celebrate the life of India's eighth President, R. Venkataraman.

The Union Cabinet on 12 April 2012 gave its approval to the introduction of a Bill seeking an amendment in the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 to include registration of marriages as well, so that the existing administrative mechanisms will be able to carry out such registration of marriages in accordance with the specified procedures and be able to maintain necessary records and statistics for registration of marriages also.

The Supreme Court of India on 12 April 2012 upheld the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act, 2009, which mandates 25 per cent free seats to the poor in government and private unaided schools uniformly across the country. The apex court clarified that its judgment will come into force from 12 April 2012. However, the act will apply uniformly to government and unaided private schools except unaided private minority schools. A three-judge bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar gave the ruling.

India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board was admitted as the 11th member of MDEP (Multinational Design Evaluation Programme) on 4 April 2012. The other members of this body are China, Finland, Japan, Korea, South Africa, USA, UK, Canada, France and Russia. MDEP is a multinational initiative taken by national safety authorities to develop innovative approaches to leverage the resources and knowledge of the national regulatory authorities who are currently tasked with the review of new reactor power plant designs. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of the United States and the French Nuclear Safety Authority launched it in 2006.

Input From Sakshi