Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai removed by Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav. 

Why President demanded PM’s resignation?

The Parliament was dissolved over its inability to deliver a new constitution by the 27 May 2012 deadline. Thus, the PM was directed by the president to resign as he was no longer a member of the House.

The fresh National Telecom Policy (NTP), 2012 got approval from the Union Cabinet. 

NTP 2012 aims at:

• Abolishing roaming charges on mobile phones
• Allow users to hold the same number across the country without paying any extra charge
• Delinking spectrum allocation from Licensing
• Increasing Tele-density in rural areas
• NTP mentions Cloud computing, Next-Generation Networks, IPV6 and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as thrust areas of future technologies.

The policy also allows national number portability, but again, with no visible timelines.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) rebuked the Uttar Pradesh government for higher cost of tax collection as compared to the national average.

As per the the CAG Report:

• Gross collections related to trade tax/VAT receipts during 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 stands at Rs 17,482 crore, Rs 20,825 crore and Rs 24,836 crore respectively, on which respective cost of collection borne was Rs 272 crore, Rs 358 crore and Rs 406 crore respectively. Cost of gross collection in during these years found at 1.56, 1.72 and 1.64 % in UP whereas the national average is 0.83, 0.88 and 0.96 % respectively.
• There is an increasing trend in generation of UP’s own revenues during 2006-11 period.
• Ratio of Tax revenue to Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) remained constant around 7 %
• Ration of non-tax revenue to GSDP significantly decreased from 2.77% in 2009-10 to 1.90 % in 2010-11.
• UP’s GSDP stands at about Rs 588,000 crore (at current prices) during 2010-11.
• The debt-GSDP ratio is at 38 % at the end of 2010-11 is on lower side, especially in view of the target of Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (second amendment) Act 2011 to contain it to 42 per cent by the end of 2014-15.
• Nearly 92 %of borrowed funds in UP used for discharging debt liabilities during 2008-11.
• The state maintains a sinking fund, but it may not be adequate for amortization of loans.
• UP’s fiscal outlook showed improvement in 2010-11. Despite reduction in revenue surplus by Rs 3,539 crore, the fiscal deficit reduced to 2.93% of GSDP during 2010-11 due to low capital expenditure over the previous year.

Yearly economic growth of India dipped to a 9-year low of 5.3% in the January-March 2012 quarter. Even during the 2008-09, the year when India was facing the hit by the global financial meltdown, growth rate was higher at 6.7%. It is the lowest growth rate since 4.0% in 2002-03.

Some of the factors being attributed to for the low GDP growth rate:

• Euro zone debt crisis
• Lack of economic reforms
• High interest rates
• Poor investment and widening trade gap
• Low performing manufacturing sector
• Swelling Current Account Deficit
• Governments unpredictable regulations and tax

Andhra Pradesh High Court quashes Central Government’s decision of the creation of 4.5 % sub-quota for religious minorities including Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Parsis, within the 27% OBC quota