Israeli polls throw up another hung assembly

Israel’s ruling Likud party and its main rival Blue and White party are tied at 32 seats each, putting the country’s longest serving prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on shaky ground with his right-wing bloc falling five short of a majority in the 120-member Parliament. According to the Times of Israel, Netanyahu’s Likud and centrist challenger Benny Gantz’s Blue and White stood at 32 seats each after counting of 90 per cent of ballots were completed. The elections were held on September 17. The secular Yisrael Beitenu party won nine seats, making its leader Avigdor Lieberman the kingmaker, as predicted earlier in the exit polls. Netanyahu, 69, called the snap election after failing to form a governing coalition with a viable majority after April’s vote. Joint List, an alliance of mostly Arab Israeli parties, stood at the third place with 12 seats, followed by the ultra-Orthodox Shas with nine seats.

NGOs with govt funds come under RTI Act

NGOs receiving substantial financing from the government are bound to give information to the public under the RTI Act, the Supreme Court has held. The apex court said institutions like schools, colleges and hospitals which receive substantial state aid, both directly or indirectly in the form of land at discounted rate, are also bound to give information to the citizens under the RTI Act. A bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said, “If NGOs or other bodies get substantial finance from the government, we find no reason why any citizen cannot ask for information to find out whether his/her money which has been given to an NGO or any other body is being used for the requisite purpose or not.” The court said the RTI Act was enacted with the purpose of bringing transparency in public dealings.

HP govt approves policy to buy back plastic

In an effort to make the state litter-free, the Himachal Pradesh cabinet has approved a draft policy to buy back non-recyclable plastic waste. The cabinet gave its approval to the policy at a meeting called by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. The draft policy will be implemented soon, whereby plastic would be purchased at a minimum support price of Rs 75 kg by urban local bodies (ULBs) in the state, said HP State Pollution Control Board chairman R.D. Dhiman. Purchasing centres in all 54 ULBs of the state would soon be opened. The purchased plastic would be sold to the Public Works Department for the construction of roads by mixing it with bitumen and to cement companies as fuel. Himachal Pradesh had banned the use of polythene bags on October 2, 2009.

Centre formulating National Coal Index

In the wake of the government’s decision to allow foreign direct investment and open up coal sector to commercial mining, the Centre is in the process of formulating a National Coal Index. Last year, a high-powered panel had recommended to develop a Coal Index for determining the value of blocks and a revenue-sharing model with the states. “Coal Index is under formulation by the coal ministry for revenue-sharing model with the governments and determining the value of blocks,” said Coal India GM (Mining) M.K. Singh. He also said Coal India is closely observing the interests from overseas players and private sector after the centre has decided to allow 100 percent foreign direct investment in coal mining. “We would be able to benchmark coal price, cost of production and efficiency of operations,” Singh said.

Trains to go ‘silent’ by the end of the year

Trains will go “silent” by December, with the railways deciding to run them on power drawn from an overhead electric supply system, instead of the noisy power cars at either end. One of the two power cars will be replaced with an LSLRD (LHB Second Luggage, Guard & Divyaang Compartment). There will be one standby “silent” generator car to be used for emergency. Presently, the power cars generate a 105-decibel noise, which will reduce to nil by year-end, Member (Rolling Stock), Railway Board Rajesh Agarwal said, adding that it will also save the railways Rs 800 crore a year in power bills and reduce air and noise pollution. The system is called Head-On Generation (HOG). Currently, the cost of power is over Rs 36 per unit and with HOG, it will be available at Rs 6 per unit.

Hyderabad-Karnataka gets a new name

Fulfilling a long-standing demand of the people of Hyderabad-Karnataka region, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has announced that it has been renamed as Kalyana Karnataka and a separate secretariat would be established for its development. The announcement was made on the occasion of commemoration of Hyderabad-Karnataka Liberation Day on September 17. The region was under the Nizams of Hyderabad even after independence as the last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur, refused to annex his kingdom to the Indian Union. On September 17, 1948, he merged with the Union of India after police action, which forced the Nizam and his army to surrender. The region, comprising Bidar, Ballari, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Raichur and Yadgir, enjoys special status under the Constitution owing to its backwardness.

ISRO, DRDO sign MoUs for Gaganyaan

ISRO has inked MoUs with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the development of human-centric systems for the Gaganyaan project. Some of the critical technologies to be provided by the DRDO to ISRO include space food, space crew health monitoring and emergency survival kit, radiation measurement and protection and parachutes for the safe recovery of the crew module. DRDO chairman G. Satheesh Reddy said the technological capabilities existing in DRDO laboratories for defence applications will be customised to meet the requirements of the human space mission of ISRO. ISRO aims to demonstrate human spaceflight capability before the 75th anniversary of India’s independence in 2022.