General Studies Online Notes | Negative list and Positive list approach in trade

3 Dec 2011 By Admin

Negative list and Positive list approach in trade
In negative list approach, trade in all commodities are permitted and unregulated unless specific measures are set out in the list of reservations. This is a liberal form trade. In a positive list approach, only commodities evaluated and approved would be permitted in trade. Pakistan has also announced its intention to move over from the positive list to negative list on trade with India. Currently, Pakistan has given access to 1,940 product lines on its positive list and has 12,000 on the negative list. But half of the items on the positive list are not exported by India or it imports these items. Pakistan is likely to take up the issue of end to non-tariff barriers (NTBs) that prevent many of its goods from entering India. With Pakistan blocking Indian imports by the positive list, India has so far maintained that the NTBs Pakistan claims are not country-specific. 

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Frontline Magazine November 2011 | General Studies Online Notes

2 Dec 2011 By Admin

United States Africa Command
The United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM or AFRICOM) is one of nine Unified Combatant Commands of the United States Armed Forces, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. It is responsible for U.S. military operations and military relations with 53 African nations – an area of responsibility covering all of Africa except Egypt. AFRICOM provides billions of dollars worth of equipment to the armies of countries that are friendly to the U.S. The U.S. military is already helping counter-insurgency operations in Mali and Niger, where the marginalised Tuareg ethnic group has raised the banner of revolt. “With Libya secure, an American invasion of Africa is under way,” observed John Pilger in a recent article. AFRICOM played an important behind-the-scenes role in planning the U.S./NATO bombing of Libya. U.S. Special Forces teamed up with its counterparts from France and the United Kingdom to arm and organise the ragtag rebel forces into a fighting unit. It was the coordinated air strikes, coupled with an amphibious operation led by the U.S., that finally led to the fall of Tripoli.

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Frontline Magazine October 2011 | Online Notes

5 Nov 2011 By Admin

Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA)
Wada na Todo Abhiyan is a national coalition of 3000 civil society organisations and networks in India. Recently they compiled the recommendations and proposals that came up through a year-long consultative process into a document for the next five year plan of India. Titled “Approaching Equity, Civil Society Inputs for the Approach Paper – 12th Five Year Plan” it summarises the recommendations and thematic inputs in as many as 40 categories. It pointed out that certain groups and communities faced social and economic exclusion and political marginalisation owing to their caste, class, gender, age, religious affiliation, region, sexuality, disability, marital status, education, or HIV infection and/or other stigmatised health conditions. 

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Frontline Magazine October 2011 | Online Notes

2 Nov 2011 By Admin

Adaptive Optics
Twinkling of stars is because of the swirling air or the turbulence in the atmosphere above us. The same thing happens when stars or planets are observed or imaged through a telescope. Adaptive Optics is a technique that uses optical systems in conjunction with the telescope to correct, or compensate for, the optical aberrations introduced by the intervening medium. Laser guide star and Rayleigh beacon are AOs, used in large telescopes. The latest Project Robo-AO's aim was to demonstrate a low-cost autonomous LGS AO system and science instrument, which works both in the visible and near-infrared, and is specifically designed to take advantage of modest aperture telescopes by improving their sensitivity. 

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