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Manmohan's return gift for Pakistan's MFN gesture At an hour-long meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, India announced a trade-related confidence-building measure to match Pakistan according the most favoured nation (MFN) status to India. Dr. Singh said India had decided to move towards a Preferential Trade Agreement with Pakistan. He also said a liberalised visa regime to replace the current onerous system would be implemented soon. 2. Victims of drought or an epidemic? Finally, the mystery around the discovery of skulls at Annigeri in Dharwad district in 2010 seems to have been cleared. Beta Analytic, a company based in Miami, Florida, which conducted tests to determine the age of the skulls, has said in its report that the skulls are 180 years old. There is a gap of 458 years in the age of the skulls in the report of Beta Analytic and the report submitted by the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, which put the age of the skulls at 638 years. The Department of Archaeology and Museums has accepted the report and is likely to close the inquiry into the provenance of the skulls. R. Gopal, Director of the department, told The Hindu that it would officially accept the report submitted by Beta Analytic, whose track record in such testing has been good. The company had done a professional job, with little knowledge of the Indian situation, he said. While the Institute of Physics submitted an eight-line note, Beta Analytic has given a three-page detailed report. Mr. Gopal said no war or mass massacre took place in the area 180 years ago. So, the latest report nullifies any such possibility. A large-scale migration must have taken place following a drought or epidemic, and when the people came back, the remains of those who fell victim to the disaster might have been given a second burial as a mark of respect, the official said. 3. Gautam Gambhir lends a hand to a noble cause Extending his support to spreading awareness about organ donation in the country, cricketer Gautam Gambhir, leading by example, has pledged to donate his organs and also promised to speak and encourage other Indian cricketers to follow suit. He took the pledge after launching Gift a Life' initiative a website supported by the Apollo Transplant Institutes -- to encourage people to take a pledge for donating organs to save countless lives in the process. The cricketer also inaugurated the website www.giftalife.org, a one stop destination for all questions about organ donation where the general public can also pledge to donate their organs. He also signed a travelling wall' that will be taken around schools and colleges encouraging students to take the pledge. The mission Gift a Life' is an endeavour to ensure that no person in India dies for want of an organ. This public awareness initiative aims to bring together information and awareness on the issue of organ donation. 4. Army raises secession' spectre to counter plan to lift AFSPA The Army's top commander in Jammu and Kashmir has said the country could be compelled to grant the State independence by 2016 if government plans to lift the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act from some areas go ahead, highly-placed security sources have told The Hindu. The assertion was made in an over hour-long presentation to the Unified Headquarters, the State's top coordination body for security, by Lieutenant-General Syed Ata Hasnain, who commands the Srinagar-based XV Corps. 5. 2G case trial set to start on November 11, 2011 The much-awaited trial in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case is to begin at a court in New Delhi from November 11, 2011, with the examination of some witnesses in the first list.

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6. NHRC notice to State government The State government is in a fix with the National Human Rights Commission serving notice on it for non-payment of adequate compensation to endosulfan victims in Kasaragod district. 7. Dalits enter temple after two decades The Dalits of Uthapuram village near Madurai (tamilnadu), where the untouchability' wall was demolished in 2008, on November 10, 2011 entered a temple under the control of the upper caste Hindus, with police protection. Though scores of upper caste Hindus received the 11 Dalit persons outside the temple with folded hands, the scene was marred by the loud wails of women from the nearby streets, who were opposed to the entry of Dalits to their temple. The Dalits, led by their leaders K. Ponnaiah and Sankaralingam, offered prayers at the Sri Muthalamman, Sri Mariamman temple around 4 p.m. They offered a garland, coconuts and fruits to the presiding deity. 8. Traditional coastal communities can now mine river sand using manual methods The government has lifted the ban against sand mining in coastal areas by permitting traditional coastal communities to remove sand bars in rivers and estuaries strictly by manual methods only. While builders have been demanding an opening up of sand mining in coastal areas in order to reduce their costs, environmentalists have been firmly opposing the move. After examining a proposal of the Karnataka state government in the light of the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2011, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided to allow this kind of traditional sand mining in all 11 coastal States and Union Territories, subject to certain conditions. Traditional coastal communities would be the only ones allowed to remove sand bars, using manual methods such as non-mechanised dinghies or small boats using baskets or buckets, said the order. Mining would not be allowed in areas identified as eco-sensitive zones, or fish migration and breeding grounds. 9. U.S. interested in Indian helicopter tender The United States has expressed strong interest in participating in India's tender for attack helicopter and heavy-lift helicopters despite the snub it received earlier this year in the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition, according to a top official. Earlier, the Indian Air Force was reported to have floated tenders for 22 combat and 15 heavy lift helicopters. Among the U.S. contenders in the race would be Boeing's Apache, for combat, and the Chinook, for heavy-lift. The reportedly $550 million-tender aims to replace India's ageing helicopter fleet and trials were said to be on in the hot, humid deserts of Rajasthan and the icy Himalayan heights of Ladakh and Leh. 10. Papademos is new Greek Prime Minister Senior banker Lucas Papademos was named on November 10, 2011 as the Prime Minister of the new Greek interim government, charged with keeping the debt-strapped country out of bankruptcy and firmly in the 17-nation eurozone. After four days of intense political negotiations, the 64-year-old former vice-president of the European Central Bank was chosen to lead a coalition backed by both the governing Socialists and opposition conservatives that will operate until early elections in February 2011. He replaces outgoing Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou midway through his four-year term. 11. Israeli ex-President heads for jail Israel's Supreme Court on November 10, 2011 rejected an appeal by the former President, Moshe Katsav, against his conviction for rape and other sexual offences, and upheld his sevenyear jail term. The disgraced 65-year-old showed little emotion as the three justices read out their decision, that Katsav would begin serving his sentence on December 7. He was convicted in December 2010 of two counts of rape, sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice after an 18-month trial which included harrowing accusations, and portrayed him as a sexual predator who routinely harassed his female staff. Page 2 of 4 11th November 2011

12. S&P differs with Moody's rating Differing with the downgrade accorded by Moody's, leading ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has upgraded the Indian banking sector saying its domestic regulations are in line with international standards. In the view of S&P, banking regulations in India are in line with international standards and the regulator (Reserve Bank of India) has a moderately successful track record, said S&P, while upgrading the risk profile (BICRA) a notch higher to Group 5'. The latest BICRA (Banking Industry Country Risk Assessments) of S&P comes a day after U.S.based Moody's changed the outlook for the sector to negative from stable, a move which evoked sharp criticism from Indian government and bankers. The new economic risk score of Group 5' by S&P reflects that India has high risk in economic resilience, low risk in economic imbalances, and high risk in credit risk in the economy, S&P said. In the Group 6', score on India's economic imbalance was intermediate risk which has now been upgraded to low risk. S&P, however, noted that India's economic resilience is constrained by its weak economic structure. Other countries in BICRA Group 5' are: China, Portugal, Thailand and Turkey. 13. Mumbai to host India Economic Summit Mumbai will be hosting the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) India Economic Summit for the first time in 26 years of the summit's history. The WEF, in partnership with the Confederation of India Industry (CII), will hold the event from November 12 to 14. With over 800 participants from 40 countries, comprising industry captains, representatives and political leaders will be participating in the summit which has the theme Linking leadership with livelihood.' Sushant Rao, Senior Director, Head of Asia, WEF, said the summit would focus on linking inclusive growth agenda with equitable growth agenda. 16. JLR to hire over 1,000 people for Solihull plant in U.K. Tatas-owned Jaguar Land Rover said it planned to recruit over 1,000 people at its Solihull manufacturing plant in the U.K. as it embarked on major expansion plan over the next five years, PTI reports from New Delhi. 17. No Gmail support for BlackBerry Google, maker of Android software for mobile phones, will stop supporting the Gmail application for Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones from November 22. 18. Apples fixes iPhone battery problem with software update Apple issued a software update to its latest mobile operating system recently in a move to fix widespread problems with the battery life of the iPhone 4S. The software update, iOS 5.0.1 also adds multi-tasking gestures to early versions of the iPad and closes a security loophole that could have duped users into loading malware onto their iPhones and iPads through Apples App Store. Complaints about the disappointing battery life began popping up immediately after the release of the iPhone 4S last month, which Apple acknowledged in a statement. 19. Irreversible climate change in five years, says energy agency The world is likely to build so many new fossil-fuelled power stations, energy-guzzling factories and inefficient buildings in the next five years that it will become impossible to hold global warming to safe levels, and the last chance of combating dangerous climate change will be lost for ever, according to the most thorough analysis yet of world energy infrastructure. Anything built from now on that which produces carbon will continue to do so for decades to come, and this lock-in effect will be the single factor most likely to produce irreversible climate change, the world's foremost authority on energy economics has found. If this infrastructure is not rapidly changed within the next five years, the results are likely to be disastrous. If current trends continue, and we go on building high-carbon energy generation, then by 2015 at least 90 per cent of the available carbon budget will be swallowed up by our energy and industrial infrastructure. Page 3 of 4 11th November 2011

By 2017, there will be no room for manoeuvre at all the whole of the carbon budget will be spoken for, according to the IEA's calculations. 20. HI hopeful of resolving de-recognition threat Hockey India has been asked to explain its position with regard to several issues at an Executive Board meeting of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on November 12, 2011. Faced with a de-recognition notice from the FIH over its association with the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), HI is ready to forget its uneasy, short-lived alliance with the IHF and move on as an independent entity administering hockey in the country. 21. Fallout with Tendulkar my biggest regret: Chappell Indias controversial former cricket coach Greg Chappell claims the biggest regret of his tumultuous three-year stint there was the fallout with senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar with whom he simply failed to communicate properly. Mr. Chappell, who served as Indias coach from 2005 to 2007, admitted in his new autobiography.

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