Recently released census 2001 data on bilingualism and trilingualism says thatEnglish was the primary language for barely 2.3 lakh Indians at the time of the census, more than 86 million listed it as their second language and another 39 million as their third language. This puts the number of English speakers in India at the time to more than 125 million. English speakers in India outnumber those in all of western Europe, not counting the United Kingdom. And Indian English-speakers are more than twice the UK’s population.

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Mr. Justice Balakrishnan favoured setting up of gram Nyayalayas. “If about 4,000 Gram Nyayalayas are set up in the country, they can be helpful in settling minor offences or disputes of rural people,” he said.

Allowing futures trading in commodities will not fuel inflation, government’s chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu said on Friday.

“The reason why I am personally in favour of allowing futures trade in commodities is because it is not going to make inflation worse,” Basu said at a FICCI seminar on de-risking the futures trading in commodities held in New Delhi.

The Reserve Bank said high inflation, primarily driven by food prices, has started spreading to the broader economy now but it is likely to ease in the coming months on the back of an expected moderation in food prices with the arrival of fresh crops.

“Inflation is now broad-based and spreading to areas other than food, especially manufacturing, and is not just restricted to food inflation,” RBI deputy governor Subir Gokarn told reporters in Mumbai .

India has emerged as the second fastest growing investor in the United Statesafter the UAE between 2004 and 2008, a top Obama Administration official has said.

The recent years have seen the drift toward a newer group of investors from countries such as the UAE, India, Spain andChile, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs Robert D Hormats said in his address to the US Council for International Business.

Comptroller and Auditor General of India has made initiatives for participation of large number of stakeholders before undertaking audits in topics impacting  common man. It issued advertisements in newspapers across the country inviting comments from the public regarding water pollution issues.  These inputs are to be used while planning the Performance Audit on “Pollution of Rivers, Lakes and Groundwater in India” being conducted by the CAG during 2010-11.

Majority of middle class parents desist from sending their children of age group exceeding 17-18 to established coaching institutions for making careers in IITs, medical, management institutions including for Law courses for want of resources as these make a hole in their pockets by Rs. 3 Lakh per annum even if their children have been rated above average by their respective schools with potential to qualify for listed courses, reveals a survey conduced under aegis of ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation(ASDF).

The study undertaken by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has projected 87.37 million new jobs by 2015 with a very significant share of 32 percent by the manufacturing sector followed by the trade and construction.

The chamber study on “Emerging Future jobs”, has revealed that the next most important source of new employment is expected to be trade with 24.24 million new jobs followed by construction with a figure of 15.13 million.

The Manmohan Singh Government is introducing a Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill in the Lok Sabha. This is a harmful piece of legislation meant to serve the interests of the United States and its nuclear industry. This is also an outcome of the Indo-US nuclear deal. The Government is seeking to fulfill a hidden commitment to deliver a legislation which safeguards the interests of the United States at the expense of the safety of the Indian people.

Professor Madabhushi Sridhar, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad

The Constitution (108^th Amendment) Bill, 2010 as approved by Rajya Sabha recently, seeks to reserve as nearly as possible one third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, and the state legislative assemblies including Delhi. Rajya Sabha and Legislative councils in States are excluded from the purview of this reservation, justification for which was not explained anywhere. The allocation of reserved seats shall be determined by such authority as prescribed by the Parliament. This bill also seeks to reserve one-third seats among those reserved to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in favour of SC/ST women. These reservations will cease to exist 15 years after commencement of the Act. This Bill has a provision giving power to the Center to review and extend the reservations. Reserved seats will be allocated by rotation to different constituencies in the state and union territory. If a state or union territory as only one seat in the Lok Sabha that seat shall be reserved for women in the first general election of every cycle of three elections. If there are two seats, each shall be reserved once in a cycle of three elections. Similar rules apply for seats reserved for SC/STs. Of the two seats in the Lok Sabha reserved for Anglo Indians, one will be reserved for women in each of the two elections in a cycle of three elections. Similar provisions are made for all the seats in state legislative assemblies also.

The UPA Government has placed the Nuclear Liability Bill as one of 36 legislations it wants the Parliament to pass this session. This is one more chapter in the sorry saga of the India US Nuclear Deal. The key part of the the proposed Bill is to absolve all US equipment suppliers of any liability. Without this, the US equipment suppliers will not supply any equipment and the US Government has held up all action on the India US Nuclear Deal. Though the French and Russian equipment suppliers have not asked for any such liability legislation, the Manmohan Singh Government has buckled under US pressure and is now willing to provide the US suppliers with this comfort.

The Technology development and Transfer issue is under active discussion at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The discussions include a Technology Mechanism to accelerate the technology development and transfer in support of adaptation and mitigation activities. In the negotiations, India along with other developing countries have insisted that Annex-I Parties should commit between 0.5 to 1.0 % of their GDP towards adaptation, mitigation and technology development & transfer to developing countries.

The Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs Shri V. Narayanasamy has said that four sites from India figure in the list of endangered heritage sites compiled by World Monument Fund in 2010. These are: