2 APRIL 2014

Ø  Communications satellite INSAT-3E has completed its life and gone out of service. Built to last 15 years, it has completed ten-and-a-half years in orbit. The third-generation satellite was launched in September 2003 with 36 transponders — 24 C-band and 12 extended C-band transponders — but only 25 of them have been working since 2009. The ISRO had apparently expected that the satellite, positioned at 55 degrees E longitude, would last a few more months and that it would be smoothly replaced with GSAT-16.

Ø  The largest land crab is called robber crab, but in reality only its life is being robbed by youth, and habitat destruction after the 2004 tsunami. The population of this crab, also called coconut crab, in the wild archipelagos of Andaman and Nicobar, the only place in India where they are found, is severely fragmented. What is remarkable about this crab is that it climbs a coconut tree, cuts a fruit and drops it. On descending, it de-husks the fruit and, using its pincers, eats the kernel or endosperm, piercing through the eyes in the nut. And it uses the fibre as a bed in its burrow. The NCF team conducted the study in South Sentinel and Little Andaman in Andaman Islands; and Car Nicobar, Little Nicobar, Great Nicobar, Camotra, Menchal and Cabra Islands in Nicobar Islands. It held discussions with Nicobari communities to examine how to conserve this species and conducted timed searches in areas where these crabs are likely to be found. The interactions revealed social taboos against hunting the crab in most of the Nicobar Islands. However, in some islands, the community members, particularly the youth, hunted them and consumed them. Although the crab is under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, none of the villagers are aware that hunting this species is illegal. The Zoological Survey of India has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Environment and Forests to study the habitat of these crabs, survey their population in the wild and assess threats they face.

Ø  The Geographical Indications (GI) Registry has put on hold the decision to grant registration to products such as Dharmavaram handloom silk sari, Firozabad glass, Kannauj perfume, Moradabad metal craft and Saharanpur woodcraft due to code of conduct in force.

Ø  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Raghuram Rajan, said that the central bank had adopted the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) (combined) as the key measure of inflation. Some recommendations of Urjit R. Patel Committee report have been implemented.  This also includes explicit recognition of the glide path for disinflation, transition to a bi-monthly monetary policy cycle, progressive reduction in access to overnight liquidity at the fixed repo rate, and a corresponding increase in access to liquidity through term repos, and introduction of longer-tenor term repos as well as, going forward, term reverse repos. Following on the recommendations of the high-level advisory committee chaired by Bimal Jalan, and after consulting the Election Commission, the RBI will announce in-principle approval for new bank licences.