January 2012 National Affairs

The Indian Coast Guard ship ICGS Rani Abbakka, the 1st of a series of five inshore patrol vessels (IPV) built at Hindustan Shipyard Ltd, was commissioned at Visakhapatnam on 20 january. The ship, incidentally, is named after Abbakka Mahadevi, the legendary queen of Tulunadu, Karnataka who fought the Portuguese in the latter half of the 16th Century.

The International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology (ICONSAT - 2012) will be held from January 20 to 23, 2012 at Hyderabad, India. The conference is being organized by International Advanced Research Center for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India is the official sponsor of this conference and the above event is a regular biennial feature under its Nano Mission initiative.

The first batch of RICs (Resident Identity Cards) was launched by the home ministry at Porthrapur village in Andaman and Nicobar Islands on 21 January 2012. The RIC cards were distributed to all persons above the age of 18 residing in the nine coastal states and four union territories under the National Population Register (NPR) scheme. The NPR scheme is aimed to provide valid identity to all people in these areas to strengthen the security along the country's coastline.

The Government of India and the World Bank on 20 January 2012 signed an IDA credit of 130 million US dollars to finance the project NERLP (North East Rural Livelihoods Project), to empower rural communities in the North East region to improve their livelihood opportunities.The NERLP will enhance the livelihoods of the rural poor, especially women, unemployed youth of the four participating states of Mizoram, Nagaland,Sikkim and Tripura.

The 15th World Sanskrit conference was held from 5 to 10 January 2012 in New Delhi. It was organized by Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan and International Association of Sanskrit Studies. Scholars and delegates attended the six-day event from 32 countries. The 14th World Sanskrit conference was held in Kyoto, Japan.

The Cabinet Committee on Security approved the setting up of a National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) to counter terrorism effectively. The Ministry of Home Affairs proposed the NCTC. It will be a single window organisation that will gather and disseminate intelligence to central and state security organisations.

The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh inaugurated the 10th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas event that was held on 7-9 January 2012 in Jaipur. The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad Bissessar was the Chief Guest of the event. “The Global Indian: Inclusive Growth” was the theme of the event. Prime Minister announced a new Pension and Life Insurance Fund for overseas Indian workers in this event. Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs announced that next Regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas-2012 will be held in Dubai for the Gulf region.

A United Nations Resource Centre for the North-East was set up at Guwahati, Assam on 2 January 2012. The centre happens to be the first of its kind in the country. The centre was formally inaugurated by the State Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

India announced that it became free from bird flu, H5N1 virus. The government made a declaration to this effect on 4 January 2012.

Input From Sakshi