May Day or International Workers’ Day, is observed on 1^st May every year to commemorate the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in most of the countries world over.

The heart of the labour movement was in Chicago, USA.   In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours should constitute a day’s work legally from May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve this goal. The workers were being forced to work more than twelve hours a day.  By April 1886, more than 2 lakh workers were involved in the May Day movement.

The spectrum scam has once again rocked parliament. We are reposting the following article for the benefit of our readers.

The telecom spectrum scam is now back in the news with CBI raiding the Department of Telecom (DoT), reportedly at the request of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). The CVC had earlier written to the Department of Telecom on this issue and had made clear that it was not satisfied at the explanation given by DoT. Why the minister concerned, who has self-admittedly been the key figure in this entire exercise, should be outside the investigations of the CBI is the key question. Is it merely an exercise to find some lowly scapegoats and thereby divert attention from the real figures?

If the minister continues to be in charge, he will obviously try and thwart the investigations. Even the prime minister has already given a clean chit to the minister, making CBI investigations even more difficult.

The Sixteenth Meeting of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Thimphu, Bhutan, on 28-29 April 2010,

Recalling the high priority attached by the Leaders of SAARC at successive Summits towards preserving and sustainably managing the rich, fragile and diverse ecosystems of South Asia;

Expressing deep concern about the adverse effects of climate change and its impact on the region, particularly on the lives and livelihoods of the 1.6 billion people of South Asia;

As per census 2001, the youth population in the age group of 13-35 years is 41.1 % of the total population of India. This information was given by Shri Pratik Prakashbapu Patil, Minister of State of Youth Affairs & Sports in the Rajya Sabha  by Shri Parimal Nathwani.

The Minister further stated that the main features of the National Youth Policy, 2003, is to develop qualities of citizenship and community service, reinforce volunteerism in youth, engage rural youth in nation building activities, training & research in youth development, encourage adventure activities, promote youth travel, create an International perspective in youth and convergence with other Departments on youth matters.

The major achievements in space research during the last three years (April 2007-March 2010) are as below:

• Successful launching of India’s first Lunar Mission Chandrayaan-I and detection of traces of water, ice and hydroxyl molecules on the lunar surface based on the scientific data obtained from Chandrayaan-I which is a major discovery in planetary science having tremendous implications in planning future long term lunar and planetary explorations.

The Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Murli Deora informed the Lok Sabha in a reply  that the refining of crude oil is a process industry where crude oil, which constitutes around 90% of the total cost, is processed through numerous processing units such as Crude Distillation Unit (CDU), Vacuum Distillation Unit(VDU), Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCC), Hydro-cracker, Coker unit, Lube Unit etc.  Each of these units produces intermediate products streams, which require extensive reprocessing and blending.  The blending of intermediate products streams from various process units for making finished petroleum products results in difficulty in allocating the total joint costs to individual refined products with reasonable accuracy.  Therefore, individual product-wise costs are not identified separately.

Project Arrow has been launched with objective of modernizing the post offices and make visible, tangible and noteworthy differences in the post offices operations that matter to “Aam Aadmi”. It was launched initially on proof of concept basis in 50 post offices in Phase I. After the successful completion of the Phase I it was implemented in 450 post office in Phase II and in 500 post offices in Phase III across the country including the rural areas. Project Arrow aims at comprehensive improvement of the core operations of the post office as well as the ambience in which postal transactions are undertaken.

The Minister of Civil Aviation, Shri Praful Patel informed the Lok Sabha today that as per CAPA-SITA White Paper on Information Technology in Indian aviation, it has been estimated that by 2020, domestic traffic will reach 160-180 million passengers per annum and international traffic will exceed 80 million. To sustain such growth, the Government is taking following initiatives:

(i) The infrastructure at the airports and Air Traffic Control and Navigation is being constantly upgraded to meet the future demand of the airlines.

The Minister for Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that UN-Habitat Report entitled “State of the World ‘s Cities 2010/2011 –Bridging the Urban Divide” has revealed that India has been successful in improving the lives of slum dwellers, having helped 59.7 million of these out of dire conditions since the year 2000. Slum prevalence fell from 41.5 per cent in 2000 to an estimated 28.1 per cent in 2010, a relative decrease of 32 per cent.

The Government has taken up the work on survey and mapping of various marine resources.  The Ministry of Earth Sciences is implementing a programme on Studies on Gas Hydrates Exploration and Technology Development.  This includes mapping of possible locations of gas hydrates.

India commissioned its first indigenously-built stealth warship INS Shivalik at Mazgaon Dock in Mumbai with sophisticated features to hoodwinkenemy radars and gained entry into a top club of developed countries having such capability. The first multi-role frigate with stealth features, INS Shivalik, is largest in its class in the world. The other countries having the capability to build stealth warships are the US, the UK, Russia, France, China, Japan and Italy.

Climate Change is a long-term phenomenon and has been duly recognised by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change. The international community including India is actively engaged in finding ways and means of preventive climate change. The Copenhagen Accord and the CoP decisions concerning the Adhoc Working Group (AWG) for Long Term Cooperative Action (LCA) and AWG for Kyoto Protocol (KP) reflect some of the key Indian concerns in the climate change negotiations. These include – continuation of two-track negotiations under the Bali Road Map, avoidance of explicit or implicit numerical target for emission reduction in developing countries through a long term goal of emission reduction, differentiation in the nature of mitigation commitments/actions of developing and developed countries, funding for developing country actions including those for rewarding REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) plus, need for technology development and cooperation and adaptation.

The recent media reports with regard to Ms. Nira Radia’s linkages with Minister A Raja needs to be investigated thoroughly and completely, including the unholy nexus that existed at the Nira Radia owned Noesis – a company that lobbies for India & Foreign companies to influence policy and implement legislative changes.

For more than a decade, the problem of retired officials batting with a corporate interest is visiblly seen in the case of petroleum sector. Several officers, particularly geo-scientists who are very key component in exploration, after retirement, joined several private companies and the same private companies in turn got very good blocks in their biddings of NELP in different phases. The reason for surprise is that as long as they are in service, neither of the government owned oil and gas exploration companies are benefitted due to their accruement.

Fifty over matches are under attack once again. The English Board has already scrapped this   longer version of limited over cricket in its domestic matches. The demand to do away with fifty over matches popularly known as one day matches has gained more support in the wake of commercial success of Indian Premier League. This time, the proposal to say a final farewell to ODI ‘ has come from person no less than Sachin Tendulkar.

The technology for the production of cloned animal is in the experimental stage. A project has been funded by National Agricultural Innovation Project/Indian Council of Agricultural Research on buffalo cloning in February 2009. The total approved cost of the project is Rs. 896.51 lakhs and it will be completed in June 2012.

The National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal has produced two cloned buffalo calves (i) first cloned buffalo calf was born on February 6, 2009 but died in a week’s time due to pneumonia and (ii) second calf was born on June 06, 2009 and is growing well. Both cloned calves were born through a novel hand guided cloning technology.

ISRO is planning to launch 10 satellites in a year. The actual number of satellites to be launched will be decided based on national developmental priorities.

The aims and objectives of these satellites include natural resources management, augmenting the communications infrastructure, satellite navigation, disaster management support, space science research and planetary exploration.

Following is the text of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s opening statement at the Sixteenth SAARC Summit in Bhutan :

“At the outset, I wish to congratulate His Excellency the Prime Minister of Bhutan Lyonchhen Jigmi Thinley for his unanimous election as Chairperson of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. I assure him of India’s fullest support.

It’s been 20 years since the shuttle Discovery ferried the Hubble Space Telescope into the heavens on 24th April 1990, the telescope opened up the vast Universe and captured the imaginations of generations.

Hubble was a great leap forward in space exploration as it didn’t have to contend with atmospheric issues like its brethren on Earth.

Consultancy firm Deloitte has said more than half of the business professionals covered in its new survey feel that more corporate financial statement frauds will be uncovered in 2010 and 2011 than the last three years.

According to the survey of around 2,100 business professionals, 56 per cent of the respondents think more financial statement frauds will be unearthed this year and in 2011 than the last three years combined.

Replying to a half-an-hour discussion on migration of workers, Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said there are 14 crore migrant labourers in the country based on the 2001 census.