Washington: Taking another step towards the implementation of the 2008 Indo-US civil nuclear deal, the two countries have signed an agreement on reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.
Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns signed the agreement at a US State Department ceremony on Friday.
"The arrangement with India reflects President Barack Obama’s strong commitment to building successfully on the landmark US-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative and is a prerequisite for US nuclear fuel suppliers to conduct business with India," The News quoted a State Department statement, as saying.
The pact enables reprocessing of US-originated nuclear material by India under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards, and will facilitate participation by US firms in India’s rapidly expanding civil nuclear energy sector.
"Increased civil nuclear trade with India will create thousands of new jobs for the US economy while helping India to meet its rising energy needs in an environmentally responsible way by reducing the growth of carbon emissions," the statement added. http://sify.com/news/india-us-sign-nuclear-reprocessing-pact-news-international-kh5nkecbbfd.html
2. EC derecognizes RJD as national party
NEW DELHI: It was a shortlived status for Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal as the Election Commission on Friday derecognised it as a national party along with five other parties.
The only consolation for Lalu is that his rival party in Bihar, JD(U), has also lost the national status. Others in the list are Vaiko-led MDMK, Samajwadi Party, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Arunachal Congress.
EC officials said these parties may retain their symbol, but they would lose facilities like utilising public broadcasters All India Radio and Doordarshan for poll-eve broadcasts and free copies of electoral rolls.
RJD, a recognised party in Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur and Nagaland, lost its national party recognition following its poor showing in Jharkhand where the party has been derecognised. To get the national party status, a party should be recognised as a state party in at least four states.
The Arunachal Congress lost its state party status in Arunachal Pradesh, PMK in Puducherry and Samajwadi Party in Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. JD(U), a recognised party in Bihar and Jharkhand, lost its recognition in Jharkhand. However, PMK will continue to be accorded the state party status in Tamil Nadu and Samajwadi Party a similar privilege in Uttar Pradesh.
Trinamool Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which were also served notices earlier, sought more time to present their case, EC sources said. The Commission had earlier issued notices to these seven parties asking them to explain why their recognition in some states should not be withdrawn as they failed to fulfil EC’s conditions for being declared as a state party.
The EC conditions for getting recognition include that the total number of valid votes polled by all the candidates of a party in the last Lok Sabha or assembly election should not be less than 6% of the total votes polled.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6238313.cms?prtpage=1
3. TRS sweeps Telangana bypolls, wins 11 of 12 Assembly seats
HYDERABAD: It was a landslide victory for the Telangana Rashtra Samiti candidates in 11 out of 12 assembly constituencies that went for bypolls in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh on July 27.
By early morning on Saturday when the results were announced at the end of a lengthy counting process that began yesterday, some of the TRS victors set new records in the state’s electoral history.
For the first time in its political history, the Telugu Desam Party had to forfeit deposits in all the 12 Assembly segments while ruling Congress met with the same fate in four constituencies.
In Siddipet in Medak district, T Harish Rao, nephew of TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, set a new record by winning the by-election with a margin of 95,858 votes against his Congress rival Srinivas Goud. The Congress as well as the TDP, which stood third here, lost the deposits.
Harish Rao won from Siddipet for fourth consecutive time. his victory margin is said to be by far the largest margin ever recorded in the Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.
Interestingly, the Medak district administration, led by Collector S Suresh Kumar, also set a record by completing the counting process in just over 90 minutes.
Another TRS candidate Gaddam Aravinda Reddy too retained his Mancherial seat in Adilabad district with a record margin of 78,047 votes as against 13,827 he got in 2009.
Reddy’s victory margin is the second largest after Harish Rao’s. The Congress lost its seat in Mancherial as well.
Koppula Easwar, another notable TRS candidate, improved his victory margin from modest 1,484 votes in 2009 to a staggering 58,891 now to bag Dharmapuri seat in Karimnagar district.
TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son K Taraka Rama Rao secured a handsome margin of 44,642 votes in the by-election from Siricilla.
It is a sweet victory for Rama Rao this time in more ways than one as he scraped through with a bare margin of just 173 votes against the TRS rebel candidate K K Mahender Reddy in his first electoral battle in 2009.
Mahender Reddy was the Congress’ official nominee this time but lost his deposit following the bitter defeat.
TRS’ Dasyam Vinay Bhaskar saw his victory margin in Warangal West constituency swell ten-fold – from 6,684 last year to 67,524 this time. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6240689.cms?prtpage=1
