1.The CoRoT team has announced the discovery of six diverse new planets, from 'shrunken-Saturns' to 'bloated hot Jupiters' as well a very rare brown dwarf with 60 times the mass of Jupiter.
CoRoT (Convection, Rotation and Transits), a space telescope operated by the French space agency CNES, discovers exoplanets when they pass in front of their stars - the so-called 'transit method'.
2.Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) report on causes of muslim backwardness in India:
- lack of access to educational institutions,
- inadequate number of educational institutions,
- a low literacy rate among parents and poor implementation of the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS)
- poor participation of Muslims in the professional and managerial cadre
3.Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group of Companies, has been made an Honorary Doctor of Law by the University of Cambridge in recognition of his business achievements and philanthropic work
4. The proposed sale of nuclear reactors to Pakistan by China and objections by the international community:
The rules of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, of which China is a member, prohibit reactor sales to countries that do not have full-scope safeguards.
By claiming its proposed export of the Chashma-3 and 4 pressurised water reactors forms part of an earlier agreement with Pakistan that predates its membership of the NSG, Beijing denies the sale would violate the guidelines of the 46-nation cartel. Other NSG members dispute that, pointing to China's 2004 declaration limiting its ‘grandfathering' obligations to just the equipment and fuel for Chashma-1 and 2
The Chashma Nuclear Power Plant near Chashma, Punjab, Pakistan, consists of Chashma Nuclear Power Plant I (CHASNUPP-1) and Chashma Nuclear Power Plant II (CHASNUPP-2). Chashma Nuclear Power Plant's reactors and other facilities are being built and operated by the Pakistani government with Chinese support.
NSG:
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is a multinational body concerned with reducing nuclear proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that may be applicable to nuclear weapon development and by improving safeguards and protection on existing materials.
Initially the NSG had seven members, Canada, West Germany, France, Japan, the USSR, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1976-77, membership was expanded to fifteen with the admittance of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland
China became a member in 2004. The European Commission participates as an observer. The 2009/2010 NSG Chair is Hungary
NSG members are meeting in New Zealand this year
5. Financial Inclusion:providing financial services to the vast sections of the population not covered by the formal banking system
Steps taken by RBI to ensure financial inclusion:
- Licensing laws have been tweaked to persuade banks to open branches in remote areas
- RBI has directed all banks to open “no-frills” accounts, characterised by low minimum balances and charges, but limited facilities
- Priority sector lending mandated by the central bank has financial inclusion as one of its objectives
6. 2011 census will, for the first time, include a counting of the diabled
7.India's share in U.S. imports of special purpose fabric (technical textiles) and non-woven fabrics was merely 2.6 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively in 2009 as compared to China's share of 15 per cent and 12 per cent
FICCI recommendations towards developing technology-intensive products in textile:
- formulate a comprehensive research and development (R&D) policy for the Indian textile industry which would provide a special focus on eco-friendly textiles that would help in reducing carbon footprint
- The chamber has also recommended setting up of a National Textiles Research Council with a seed-money of Rs. 30 crore and an annual grant of Rs. 10 crore.
8. The Indian Air Force (IAF) may grant the honorary rank of group captain to batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar in recognition of the laurels he has brought to the country
In the past, the IAF had accorded the honorary rank of air commodore to industrialist Vijaypath Singhania after he won the gold medal in the 24-day, 34,000 km Federation Aeronautique Internationale air race in 1994
9. Ratnam pens:
Maker of the famous Ratnam Pens based out of Rajahmundry
known as ‘swadeshi' pens during the freedom movement, brought fame to Rajahmundry and the pen-maker, K.V. Ratnam
Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, S. Kasturiranga Iyengar of The Hindu, Indira Gandhi, V.V. Giri, Ramnath Goenka of the Indian Express, and Archibald Nye, Governor of Madras, were known to have used them
K.V. Ramana Murthy of Ratnam and Sons has designed a pen which is of 3.5 cm long and 1.7 gm in weight, with a 14 carat gold nib with a pen point, a clip and ring band
he describes it as the world's smallest fountain pen
10.1000 Genomes Project
The 1000 Genomes Project, launched in January 2008, is an international research effort to establish by far the most detailed catalogue of human genetic variation. Scientists plan to sequence the genomes of at least one thousand anonymous participants from a number of different ethnic groups within the next three years, using newly developed technologies which are faster and less expensive.
The project unites multidisciplinary research teams from institutes around the world, including the United Kingdom, China, the United States and Germany
It has released first phase data
11. foreign direct investment (FDI) in the services sector drop by 33.5 per cent to $4.39 billion during 2009-10
During 2008-09, India received $6.61 billion FDI in the services sector.
FDI ranking in India country wise: Mauritius($10.37 bn) > Singapore > U.S.A
12.Two Indian women — Roshni Nadar and Nisa Godrej — have been listed among Forbes magazine’s list of “a breed of heiresses who choose to live a lower-key life ... and working to make a difference behind the scenes.”
13. The World Bank's total financial commitment towards India's development agenda is set to touch $9.3 billion by the end of the bank's fiscal year ending June
total expected lending this year (July-June 2010) would include $2.6 billion in the form of credits from the International Development Association (IDA) in addition to $6.7 billion as long-term, low-interest loans from the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
14. RBI revises norms for non-convertible debenture issue:
A corporate entity should have tangible net worth of not less than Rs4 crore, as per the latest audited balance sheet, and should have sanctioned working capital limit or term loan by banks or all-India financial institutions to be eligible to issue non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of original or initial maturity up to one year
An eligible corporate intending to issue NCDs should obtain credit rating for issuance of the NCDs from one of the rating agencies, viz., the Credit Rating Information Services of India Ltd. (CRISIL) or the Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India Ltd. (ICRA) or the Credit Analysis and Research Ltd. (CARE) or the FITCH Ratings India Pvt Ltd or such other agencies registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) or such other credit rating agencies as may be specified by the Reserve Bank of India from time to time,
The maturity of NCDs should not be less than 90 days from the date of issue and the exercise date of option (put/call), if any, attached to the NCDs should not fall within the period of 90 days from the date of issue
15. ISRO has announced that it will make a detailed study of green house gases and forest fires for with funds from the union ministry of environment and forests. The satellite for this purpose which is under designing stage will be implemented in two to three years
16. The union government has decided to lift price control on petrol and allow an increase of Rs3.50 per litre of petrol. The empowered group of ministers (EGoM) also approved a hike of Rs2 per litre of diesel and Rs35 per cylinder of LGP
The EGoM, headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, decided to opt for a market-driven increase in the prices of petrol and diesel as the pressure to cut budget deficit outweighed concerns of the political fallout the measures.
17.Japan - one of the staunchest supporters of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - has decided to jettison its opposition to nuclear deals with non-signatories of the NPT and enter into negotiations with India for sale of nuclear technology. The move will allow technology companies, such as Toshiba Corp and Hitachi Ltd, to breathe easy and bid for the burgeoning nuclear market in India, which is the second-biggest after China.
According to the World Nuclear Association, India plans to construct 35 new reactors in the next decade - a number that is the second biggest after China
The decision is historic because it would be the first such agreement between Japan and a country that is a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Japan, along with China and Australia and a few other nations had opposed the waiver granted to India by the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2008.
18. Beginning 1 July, the World Bank will offer access to its files under the Right to Information Act.
19. The longest professional tennis match, in terms of both time and total games played, was the Wimbledon 2010 first round match between Nicolas Mahut and John Isner on the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th of June, 2010, lasting 11 hours and 5 minutes, with a total of 183 games. The fifth set of the match, lasting 138 games, played over 8 hours 11 minutes, was also the longest set in history by both time and games. In addition, this match set duration records for:
Longest play in a single day: The first 118 games of the fifth set, played on 23rd of June 2010, lasted 7 hours and 6 minutes. This time is longer than the entire Nelson-Hepner match (below) and any other match in tennis history.
Most games in a single day: 118, on the 23rd of June
The longest women's match (by time) took place in 1984, when Vicki Nelson took 6 hours, 31 minutes to defeat Jean Hepner 6–4, 7–6(11). The match featured a 29-minute, 643-shot rally, the longest in professional tennis history.This match is also the longest professional match completed in a single day; the Mahut-Isner match was twice suspended by darkness, lasting three days.
20.Renewable energy major Suzlon Energy Ltd will supply 48.3 MW wind turbines to a Chinese power producer
21.India has extended the ban on import of milk and milk products from China for another six months
The items prohibited for import into India from the neighbouring country would include chocolate and chocolate products, candies, confectioneries and food preparations with milk as an ingredient
Imports of milk and milk products from China have been prohibited since September 2008
Though the directorate general of foreign trade has not cited any reason for the ban, it is understood that it was over fears of Chinese milk containing melamine, a deadly chemical
22.Saina Nehwal - first-ever Indian shuttler to win three Super Series titles
23. Facts on the Kishenganga project and the reason for the controversy:
The Kishenganga is a tributary of the Jhelum. It originates in J&K, crosses the Line of Control, runs for some 150 km in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and joins the Jhelum (in PoK).
India proposes to build a dam on the Kishenganga shortly before it crosses the LoC, divert a substantial part of the waters of the river through a tunnel to the hydroelectric project (330 MW, that is, 110 MW x 3) located near Bonar Nala, another tributary of the Jhelum, and then return the diverted waters, after they have passed through the turbines, to the Jhelum via the Wular Lake.
Why is Pakistan opposing to this project?
- Any diversion of waters from a river is bound to reduce the flows downstream of the diversion point. It is true that the diverted waters will be returned to the Jhelum, but there will certainly be a reduction of flows in the stretch of the Kishenganga (some 150 km) before it joins the Jhelum
- the existing agricultural use and use for hydro-electric power generation on the Kishenganga in Pakistan will be affected
What does the treaty say about this?
Two articles of the treaty contradict each other. While One says against the project the other says in favour of it.
Art. III (2) of the Treaty requires India to let flow all the western rivers to Pakistan and not permit any interference with those waters, and Art. IV (6) calls for the maintenance of natural channels
On the other hand, there is another provision (Ann. D, paragraph 15 (iii)) which specifically envisages water released from a hydroelectric plant located on one tributary of the Jhelum being delivered to another tributary; this seems to permit inter-tributary diversion
24.India has joined the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) project, the next generation astronomical observatory that will be located on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
- India has been granted observer status on the TMT Board. This is the first step to becoming a full partner in TMT, which will mean participating in the development and scientific use of what will be the world's most advanced and capable astronomical observatory
- The TMT project is an international partnership among Caltech, the University of California and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy.
The National Astronomical Observatory (NAO) of Japan joined TMT as a collaborating institution in 2008. The National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences joined TMT with the observer status in November 2009.
The TMT was proposed by American scientists after the enormous success of the first new technology telescope, the twin 10 m Keck Telescope, on Mauna Kea. The TMT's primary mirror builds on the technological and operational heritage of Keck.
25. World Refugee Day, observed June 20 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world
- On 4 December 2000, the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 55/76 decided that, from 2001, 20 June would be celebrated as World Refugee Day. In this resolution, the General Assembly noted that 2001 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
26. University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Baskakov study on possible use of Blue green bacteria to generate 'green' electricity:
cyanobacteria possess a natural light-dependent electrogenic activity. The bacteria can generate and transfer high-energy electrons -- generate electricity -- to the external environment under illumination. Cyanobacteria fix within themselves an estimated 25 Giga tons of carbon, in the form of CO2 per year and account for 20-30 per cent of Earth’s total photosynthetic productivity
27. A.K. Antony on Tuesday became the first Defence Minister to land at the Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) of Nyoma in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.
28. Ahakista in Ireland:
- Ahakista (Atha Ciste) is located approximately half way along the Sheep's Head peninsula between Durrus and Kilcrohane in west Cork, Ireland. It is a wooded coastal village with a deep and sheltered harbour
- The Air India Memorial Garden is located here and each June the local community remembers the terrorist attack of 1985 that resulted in the deaths of over 300 people. Just after 08:00 on Sunday 23 June 1985 an Air India Jumbo jet flying from Canada to India and carrying 329 people - most of them Canadian citizens of Indian origin - was approaching the southwest coast of Ireland when it was blown apart by a bomb, killing everybody on board - men, women and children. In the days that followed, a huge search was carried out by ships, planes and helicopters
- The memorial includes a sundial with its shadow designed to touch a precise spot at 8.13 a.m. on June 23 every year. “Time flies, suns rise, shadows fall, let it pass by, love reigns forever overall,” reads the inscription on the sundial
29. The People's Bank of China pledged to make its currency more flexible, ending the yuan's peg to the U.S. dollar since August 2008 +>The yuan is expected to begin appreciating against the U.S. dollar and other currencies => Chinese items will be costlier for other coutries to buy => demand for chinese goods will decrease and demand for imports from other countries would increase since Yuan has appreciated
Why such a move?
This is to diffuse growing pressure on China to move its exchange rate and to diminish the risk that the United States and other countries might retaliate against China's exports if the peg of the yuan to the U.S. dollar persisted.
How is this going to impact the Forex reserves of China?
It will reduce the value of these reserves
For the United States and the rest of the world, appreciation of China's currency will improve the competitiveness of these countries, increasing their exports and helping to deal with global imbalances in saving and investment
How is it going to impact India?
The impact of such a move on India is not very different from the impact it is gooing to have on other countries. Competitiveness of Indian exports will increase because they can compete with Chinese goods on price points
30. Julia Gillard was sworn in as Australia's first woman Prime Minister on Thursday, after she toppled Kevin Rudd as leader of the ruling Labour party
31. New developments in Quantum Computing:
- The remarkable ability of an electron to exist in two places at once has been controlled in the most common electronic material - silicon - for the first time.
- scientists at University of Surrey, have created a simple version of Schrodinger's cat - which is paradoxically simultaneously both dead and alive - in the cheap and simple material out of which ordinary computer chips are made.
What are the advantages of Quantum Computing?
Quantum computers can solve some problems much more efficiently than conventional computers - and they will be particularly useful for security because they can quickly crack existing codes and create un-crackable codes
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
12th till 19th June - CA
1. Media baron and Sun TV promoter Kalanithi Maran is set to buy a 38 per cent stake in India's second-largest low-fare carrier, SpiceJet, from Bhupendra Kansagra and distressed asset specialist W L Ross
2. India-Syria joint declaration:
enhance cooperation in various sectors like:
- oil and gas exploration
- phosphatic fertilisers,
- automobiles,
- processed food products,
- agricultural machinery,
- marine transport
- small and medium enterprises
3.A breakthrough in cancer therapy:
- Research made by a team of British doctors, led by Goa-born Jayant S Vaidya
- could ensure that the painful and time-consuming radiotherapy for breast cancer could soon be a single-dose, 30-minute affair
- `Targeted Intraoperative Radiotherapy' (TIR), conducted in nine countries involving over 2,200 women, confirmed that radiation targeting a specific area of the breast was as effective as whole-breast radiation in reducing breast cancer recurrence in women.
4. World's biggest radio telescope:
- Dutch scientists in the Netherlands have unveiled the largest radio telescope in the world, saying it was capable of detecting faint signals from almost as far back as the Big Bang.
- Instead of the traditional large dish, the LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) system consists of 25,000 small antennas measuring between 50 centimetres and two metres across
- The hub of the system is based near the north-eastern Dutch town of Assen, but the antennas spread out across the rest of the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, France and Britain
5. Combined revenue from BWA(Broadband Wireless Access) and 3G :Rs1.06 lakh crore, which is more than three times the initial estimate of Rs35,000 crore
Unlike the 3G auctions where there were no pan India winners(BSNL and MTNL), in the BWA auctions, Infotel Broadband Services Private Ltd in which Reliance Industries Ltd has announced acquiring a 95-per cent stake , has emerged as the winner in all 22 circles.
RIL has acquired 95-% stake in Infotel Broadband - first foray of RIL into the telecom sector after 2005
BWA offers tremendous potential to these operators as the broadband penetration in India is just 0.74 per cent as compared to an overall tele-density of 52.74 per cent. There are just 0.1 to 0.2 million net broadband additions per month as compared to an addition of approximately 15-18 million wireless subscribers per month.
6. In a startling revelation the US Pentagon has let it be known that Afghanistan has nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits - enough to turn a country racked by decades of conflict into one of the most important mining centres in the world. An internal Pentagon assessment says the huge mineral reserves contain lithium, a key industrial metal, stocks of which are large enough to turn the country into the 'Saudi Arabia of lithium'.
7. Foxconn, which manufactures components for giants like Sony and Apple, has been forced to announce a 66% wage increases after a spate of 11 suicides by its workers and allegations that it was caused by workplace depression and low wages. This has prompted the company to move a part of its plants in southern China to one of the northern cities like Tianjin to overcome the problem of rising wage costs.
Begining of the end of China's factory model:
So far the biggest advantage China has in the world market in terms of export competitiveness is its labour-intensive, low-wage, large-scale and highly-efficient factory model. But in recent months, the durability of the China factory model has come under increasing scrutiny, after a series of strikes across China's manufacturing heartland The debate ignited by the suicides has intensified in recent weeks following a series of high-profile strikes at other factories over low wages. Last week, production at Japanese carmaker Honda's facility in Foshan, in southern China, came to a grinding halt as workers laid down their tools demanding higher pay.
The company was forced to acquiesce to the demands, agreeing to a 24 per cent pay hike. The strike's success prompted workers at a number of other plants across China's Pearl River Delta, the manufacturing heartland, to follow suit After the Foxconn case and the strikes at Honda, a number of foreign companies are raising salaries. The rise in wages, analysts say, will have global repercussions. The wage hike will see between 2,000 and 3,000 Hong Kong-owned factories close in southern China, estimates a Hong Kong-based industry group.
Labour costs in southern China now exceed average costs in seven Asian countries, including India, rising to $1.08 (Rs.50) an hour. Foxconn, which announced a 65 per cent pay hike following the suicides, has already announced it will move some of its factories out of southern China; the company is said to be considering Vietnam and India.
8.Fibertect - a non-woven, environment-friendly cotton carbon absorbent wipes created by Seshadri Ramkumar, Associate Professor of the Texas Tech Institute of Environmental and Human Health. This contains 0.5 per cent wax, which enables it to soak up 40 times its weight.
9. New DTC provisions:
- provident funds would not be taxed on withdrawal
- a proposal to levy MAT on corporates based on their assets had been dropped
- MAT paid by eligible companies are to be computed on profits and not on assets. - retirement funds continue to be exempt from tax on withdrawal
10. 93-year-old Shyam Saran of Kalpa village of Kinnaur district, one of the first few voters of Independent India, was honoured by Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla at Mr. Saran's home in Himachal Pradesh
11. a centre for studying climate change would be set up exclusively for the north-eastern States This centre will be anchored at the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) and will have satellite centres in the region
12. Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, whose surnames have become part of the fabric of cricket, were both awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire).
The Duckworth-Lewis method was first used in international cricket in 1997 and formally adopted by the ICC as the standard method for setting revised targets in truncated games in 2001.
Other awardees:
Catherine Zeta-Jones - CBE(Commander of the Order of the British Empire)
Bert Williams - MBE the England goalkeeping hero whose fate it is to be remembered for a goal he let in. (Is it the turn of Robert Green next?:-))
13. Centrifuge machines manufactured by Ocean Therapy Solutions, a company co-owned by Kevin Costner to clean oil spill:
After seeing the effects of the Valdez spill in Alaska on TV, Costner put in $24 million of his money in 1995 to fund a team of scientists, including his brother Dan Costner, also a scientist, to develop a technology that could deal with huge oil spills.
BP has signed a letter of intent with Ocean Therapy Solutions, a company co-owned by Kevin Costner to deploy 32 centrifuge machines to assist in the cleanup of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
The centrifuge machines are sophisticated centrifuge devices that can handle a huge volume of water and separate oil at unprecedented rates. The machines are taken out into the spill area via barges, where they can separate the oil and water.
14. Great Andaman Trunk Road - a threat to the Jarawas:
The Jarawa are one of the adivasi indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands. Their present numbers are estimated at between 250-350 individuals.
The biggest threat to the Jarawa in recent years came from the building of the Great Andaman Trunk Road through their newer western forest homeland in the 1970s. This has led to
widespread encroachment, poaching and commercial exploitation of Jarawa lands
Tourism also is taking a toll on the Jarawas. The volume of sightseeing tours that are operated by private companies, where tourists view, photograph or otherwise attempt interactions with Jarawas, who are often begging by the highway. These are illegal under Indian law, and in March 2008, the Tourism Department of the Andaman and Nicobar administration issued a fresh warning to tour operators that attempting contact with Jarawas, photographing them,
stopping vehicles while transiting through their land or offering them rides were prohibited under the Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation, 1956, and would be prosecuted under a strict interpretation of the statute.
15. Higuain from Argentian became the 48th hat-trick scorer in the FIFA world cup and the third Argentine to acheive the feat following Guillermo Stabile (1930) and Gabriel Batistuta(1994, 1998)
16. How America benefits from economic engagement with India - report based on a joint study by the University of Maryland, India-US World Affairs Institute and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI):
Findings:
- India has invested over $26.6 billion in the US over the last five years thereby creating about 60,000 jobs
- The investments included 372 acquisitions worth a total $21 billion by 239 Indian companies and 127 fresh investments worth $5.5 billion between 2004 and 2009
- Minnesota, Virginia and Texas emerged the top three destinations for green field investments while Ohio, Texas, and California were the top three states in terms of jobs created
17.The Reserve Bank of India has revised the rupee value of the special currency basket for payments under the deferred payment protocol between the Government of India and the erstwhile USSR to Rs63.0402 with effect from 31 May 2010 India and the Russian Federation signed the deferred payment protocols on 30 April 1981 and 23 December 1985 on the debt India owed the erstwhile USSR
This deferred payment protocol pertains to the payment to be made by India to USSR for the purchases that it has made on credit.
18.Ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan:
Clash between two main Kyrgyz ethnic groups – the Uzbeks and the Kyrgyz people
The death toll in the week-long ethnic violence in south Kyrgyzstan could cross 2000 mark with over 70,000 refugees fleeing their homes to neighbouring Uzbekistan amid the worst humanitarian crisis since the collapse of the former Soviet Union
The roots of Kyrgyz-Uzbek hostility reach far back in history.
In June 1990, ethnic tensions between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz surfaced in the Osh Oblast, where Uzbeks form a majority of the population. Violent confrontations ensued, and a state of emergency and curfew were introduced
Probable cause:
Sudden ouster in April of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
The anti-Uzbek riots are taking place in the southern region, where the deposed leader retains a strong following among the Kyrgyz population. The region is home to large numbers of ethnic Uzbeks, whose loyalties lie with the political set-up that replaced the corrupt and nepotistic Mr. Bakiyev
CSTO intervention:
On October 7, 2002, the Presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan signed a charter in Tashkent founding the Collective
Security Treaty Organisation
The CSTO decided to send logistical help such as helicopters and fuel, but no troops
19. India's biggest photovoltaic solar power plant, capable of generating 3 MW - at Yalesandra village in Kolar district of Karnataka has been inagurated
- The plant, using modular crystalline technology to generate solar energy, has been set up at a cost of Rs59.5 crore
- Earlier West Bengal boasted the largest solar poweer plant in the country, though it has only a 1 MW capacity.
- The unique feature of the plant is that the power would be available to farmers during the day, unlike conventional power which is largely available only at night for farmers
20. Sericulture and allied activities would now on be eligible for funding under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). It will cover sericulture up to the stage of cocoon production along with extension system for cocoon production and silk yarn production in agri-enterprise up to the marketing The benefits of RKVY can now be availed for improvement of sericulture extension system, enhancement of soil health development of rain fed sericulture and for integrated pest management
21. Nobel literature prize winner Jose Saramago is dead
- Portuguese novelist, playwright and journalist
- Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998
22. Recent findings from excavation at Pattnam:
- The finds include pottery, metals, objects of personal adornment, and botanical samples. One other interesting find was a broken rim with Brahmi script.
- The imported and fine pottery assemblage comprises Roman, West Asian, Indian Rouletted Ware (IRW) and a host of other unidentified fine wares. The number of Roman amphora sherds and Terra Sigillata excavated at Pattanam continued to be impressive and its record as the largest assemblage of Roman pottery in India will have deeper implications in understanding the Roman role in Indian Ocean trade
23. Nuclear weapons-capable, medium range surface-to-surface Prithvi-II ballistic missile was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, off the Orissa coast
The Prithvi is the first of the missiles developed under the country's Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. It now has two variants — Air Force version (Prithvi-II) and Naval (Dhanush) — both having a range of 350 km
24. International Whaling Commission prepares to hold its 62nd annual meeting from June 21 in Agadir, Morocco
Agenda:
Japan and Iceland have been trying to to get the moratorium on the slaughter of whales lifted. The 24-year-old ban on commercial whaling has become an emotive issue for Japan, which cites historic and cultural reasons to justify its abhorrent hunts.
Japan is also using the loophole in one of the provisions in IWC that allows the unilateral issue of permits to kill whales for scientific experiments. They are sending factory ships each year into faraway Antarctic waters to hunt minke whales, and process their meat for sale.
Iceland also used this loophole to launch a similar programme four years ago, while Norway has resorted to an objection clause to claim exemption from the moratorium.
This meeting is very important from the perspecting of keeping the ban intact and not bowing down the pressure from Japan,Norway and Iceland
25. Janani Suraksha Yojana - launched in 2005 to encourage deliveries at government health care facilities, has achieved some of its goals
- the number of deliveries in government health facilities shot up by 36 per cent in Rajasthan and 53 per cent in Madhya Pradesh
- The study revealed that cash payment led to a reduction of about four perinatal deaths per 1,000 pregnancies, and two neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births
- With a budget of Rs.1,540 crore and 9.5 million beneficiaries, JSY is the world's largest conditional cash transfer scheme
26. Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) along with its subsidiary MOICML (Mahindra Overseas Investment Company Mauritius Ltd.), Arabia Holdings and Ras Al-Khaimah
Transport Investments LLC, signed an agreement to create a joint venture company in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE for armouring of vehicles
- It would launch a number of MDS' armoured vehicles such as the Marksman, the up-armoured Scorpio and cash in transit van, which have been successful in India
26. An international clinical trial has found that AIDS-fighting antiretroviral drug combinations given to pregnant and breastfeeding women in Botswana, Africa, prevented 99 per cent of the mothers from transmitting he human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to their infants
27. HRV: Heart rate variability refers to variation in the time interval between heart beats during everyday
Eating a Mediterranean-style diet — one characterized by low saturated fats and high in fish, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, olive oil, cereals and moderate alcohol consumption — reduces a person's heart disease risk => increases the HRV
28.Endangered cow cloned:
The team, led by Jeju National University and Mirae Biotech have successfully cloned Huku or black-fur cow
The Huku breed is indigenous to the southern island, where there are about 600 of them.
29. A set of rare paintings by Rabindranath Tagore, who had gifted them to a British missionary and friend Leonard Elmhirst for his private collection in 1939, was sold for a record £1.6 million at an auction
The sale was part of Sotheby's auction of South Asian art, which together fetched £5.5 million and included works of leading Indian artists such as Syed Haider Raza and Francis Souza.
30. Ashok Kumar Attri has been appointed Ambassador of India to Denmark.
31. Nirmalgram Puraskar'
The award is to ensure rural sanitation and eradicate open defecation
Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan presented the ‘Nirmalgram Puraskar' to 1,720 villages, in recognition of their achievement of full sanitation
32. New pancreatic cancer mechanism discovered:
- Cancer of the pancreas is a form of cancer that has few treatment options and a poor prognosis. It is linked to two particularly common cellular changes: mutations in a family of cancer genes called RAS and increased activity in the 'Hedgehog' signalling pathway, a molecular signal transmission mechanism that is normally only activated during embryonic growth.
- A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows how RAS and the Hedgehog pathway interact in the development of pancreatic cancer in mice
- Activation of cancer genes in the RAS family causes the tumour cells to secrete the factor (SHH) that activates Hedgehog signalling, and shuts off the tumour cell's own ability to respond to this type of stimulation
- One of the reasons for the poor prognosis associated with pancreatic cancer is that the disease is hard to detect at an early stage
33. India exported goods and services worth around $33 billion in the first two months of the current financial year (April-May 2010) while imports into the country during the two months stood at $54.7 billion.
The trade deficit of the country for the two months stood at a whopping $21.7 billion.
34. 'Impossible' conductivity explained:
- Bring two materials that are not themselves conductive into contact and, exactly at their interface, something remarkable happens: at that precise point, conduction is possible
- Researchers from the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology of the University of Twente, together with colleagues from Munich, Berkeley and Davis, have now also demonstrated that at this interface two parallel conductive 'paths' are created, just one nanometre apart.
- This breakthrough could lead to new possibilities for nanoelectronics
35. Updates on India-S.Korea relations
India and South Korea agreed to explore possibilities for civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries as well as the launching of South Korean satellites aboard India's space launch vehicles
- - The foreign ministers of both nations noted that after the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement went into effect in January this year, trade volume has picked up 70 per cent. Both countries are targeting a trade volume of $30 billion by 2014
- South Korea and India hold ministerial talks, dubbed the Joint Commission, since 2002. This year was the sixth such meeting of its kind. Form this year the talks will be an annual affair, as agreed upon by leaders of both nations in January this year.
- Krishna also suggested that a bust of Rabindranath Tagore, who had described Korea as the 'Lamp of the East,' be installed at a prominent place in Seoul
36. End of IRDA-SEBI tiff:
- The Insurance Regulatory Authority of India (IRDA) will regulate the issue of unit-linked insurance policies (ULIPs) and the insurance regulator will now come up with revised guidelines on ULIPs.
- The President promulgated an ordinance to this effect. The ordinance will be made into bill to be passed at the next session of Parliament
- The regulatory turf war started in April with the SEBI banning 14 life insurance firms from issuing fresh ULIP schemes and asking them to stop further sales of existing products
37. Union minister for human resource development Kapil Sibal proposed health insurance and life insurance cover as also a group housing scheme for the 6 million school teachers in the country
- While the two insurance schemes will require financial contribution by the centre, the states and the teachers, the group housing scheme will be administered at the central level but will not require financial contribution from the centre or the state governments
38.Higher Education in India:
Two commissions employed to recommend reforms in higher education in recent times are:National Knowledge Commission headed by Sam Pitroda and the other by the Committee on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education headed by Yash Pal
However to formalise their recommendations effortds are on to provide legislative basis to them.Specifically, the four Bills introduced in Parliament in April and the one on the anvil, if enacted with whatever changes Parliament deems fit, can provide a strong foundation to overcome the present aberrations and enhance the credibility of Indian higher educational qualifications among the nations of the world.
The four Bills are:
- Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill, 2010;
- Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill;
- the Educational Tribunal Bill and
- the National Accreditation Authority Bill
Foreign Institutions Bill:
The basic premise of the Foreign Institutions Bill is that every foreign educational service provider engaged in offering programmes leading to degrees and diplomas, whether it already operates in India or intends to do so in future either on its own or in collaboration with an Indian partner, must register itself with a designated authority, giving all the necessary information.
Prerequisites:
these institutions must have a track record of 20 years in offering recognised and accredited degree programmes in their home country
National Accreditation Authority Bill:
license competent professional organisations to undertake the accreditation responsibilities, in accordance with norms and standards prescribed by a competent agency.
National Commission on Higher Education and Research (NCHER)'s responsibilities:
- primary task is to evolve norms and standards for various aspects of higher education, including assessment and accreditation. Several of the regulating bodies dealing with academic norms for higher education will consequently stand abolished.
- identification of academic-administrators of national standing who are eligible and qualify for appointment as Vice-Chancellors of universities or heads of central educational institutions
39. Indonesia has filed a lawsuit against the ban implemented by U.S. administration that bans the trade of clove cigarette in the U.S. territory
- lawsuit has been filed to Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) last week, an agency under the control of the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly tasked to settle trade dispute
- The other reason to file the lawsuit was that the U.S. agency did not respond to Indonesia's request to prove scientifically over the agency's statement that the cigarette with aroma and odor is more dangerous than the ones without them
- The U.S. agency's policy to ban trade of clove cigarette in that country would cost Indonesia significantly as 99 per cent of cigarettes supplied to the United States come from Indonesia
40. India and China, the region's largest food grain producing and consuming countries, have identified the emerging food grain storage sector as a new are of cooperation between the two.
41. Kartar Singh Lalvani, founder of pharmaceutical major Vitabiotics in Britain, has been awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in her Birthday Honours List
Lalvani has established Indali Lounge, recognised as the ‘healthiest curry house in world.'
Anil Kumar Bhanot has been honoured for services to the Hindu Community and to Inter-Faith Relations, while Janti Champaneri figures in the list for services to the local government in Birmingham, and Kailash Chand Malhotra for services to healthcare in Cheshire
42. India created history by fielding its first professional symphony orchestra in the Fifth Festival of World's Symphony Orchestras here, and winning the applause of Muscovites, one of the most demanding audiences in the world.
- The Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), during its maiden foreign trip, performed Beethoven's 9th symphony in the finale of the 10-day festival in the historical House of Columns, once the club of Russian Imperial gentry
- The SOI was formed by the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in 2006
43. The Centre has approved capital infusion of Rs.6,211 crore in five public sector banks to help them in attaining a minimum 8 per cent Tier-I capital by March 31, 2011, and ensure an additional Rs.77,637 crore in lending capacity to various sectors of the economy.
Those are: IDBI Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, UCO Bank and Union Bank of India
- The continuing exercise of capital infusion is a part of the budgetary promise to provide a sum of Rs.16,500 crore to ensure that the public sector banks are able to attain a minimum 8 per cent Tier-I capital by the end of the current fiscal.
2. India-Syria joint declaration:
enhance cooperation in various sectors like:
- oil and gas exploration
- phosphatic fertilisers,
- automobiles,
- processed food products,
- agricultural machinery,
- marine transport
- small and medium enterprises
3.A breakthrough in cancer therapy:
- Research made by a team of British doctors, led by Goa-born Jayant S Vaidya
- could ensure that the painful and time-consuming radiotherapy for breast cancer could soon be a single-dose, 30-minute affair
- `Targeted Intraoperative Radiotherapy' (TIR), conducted in nine countries involving over 2,200 women, confirmed that radiation targeting a specific area of the breast was as effective as whole-breast radiation in reducing breast cancer recurrence in women.
4. World's biggest radio telescope:
- Dutch scientists in the Netherlands have unveiled the largest radio telescope in the world, saying it was capable of detecting faint signals from almost as far back as the Big Bang.
- Instead of the traditional large dish, the LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) system consists of 25,000 small antennas measuring between 50 centimetres and two metres across
- The hub of the system is based near the north-eastern Dutch town of Assen, but the antennas spread out across the rest of the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, France and Britain
5. Combined revenue from BWA(Broadband Wireless Access) and 3G :Rs1.06 lakh crore, which is more than three times the initial estimate of Rs35,000 crore
Unlike the 3G auctions where there were no pan India winners(BSNL and MTNL), in the BWA auctions, Infotel Broadband Services Private Ltd in which Reliance Industries Ltd has announced acquiring a 95-per cent stake , has emerged as the winner in all 22 circles.
RIL has acquired 95-% stake in Infotel Broadband - first foray of RIL into the telecom sector after 2005
BWA offers tremendous potential to these operators as the broadband penetration in India is just 0.74 per cent as compared to an overall tele-density of 52.74 per cent. There are just 0.1 to 0.2 million net broadband additions per month as compared to an addition of approximately 15-18 million wireless subscribers per month.
6. In a startling revelation the US Pentagon has let it be known that Afghanistan has nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits - enough to turn a country racked by decades of conflict into one of the most important mining centres in the world. An internal Pentagon assessment says the huge mineral reserves contain lithium, a key industrial metal, stocks of which are large enough to turn the country into the 'Saudi Arabia of lithium'.
7. Foxconn, which manufactures components for giants like Sony and Apple, has been forced to announce a 66% wage increases after a spate of 11 suicides by its workers and allegations that it was caused by workplace depression and low wages. This has prompted the company to move a part of its plants in southern China to one of the northern cities like Tianjin to overcome the problem of rising wage costs.
Begining of the end of China's factory model:
So far the biggest advantage China has in the world market in terms of export competitiveness is its labour-intensive, low-wage, large-scale and highly-efficient factory model. But in recent months, the durability of the China factory model has come under increasing scrutiny, after a series of strikes across China's manufacturing heartland The debate ignited by the suicides has intensified in recent weeks following a series of high-profile strikes at other factories over low wages. Last week, production at Japanese carmaker Honda's facility in Foshan, in southern China, came to a grinding halt as workers laid down their tools demanding higher pay.
The company was forced to acquiesce to the demands, agreeing to a 24 per cent pay hike. The strike's success prompted workers at a number of other plants across China's Pearl River Delta, the manufacturing heartland, to follow suit After the Foxconn case and the strikes at Honda, a number of foreign companies are raising salaries. The rise in wages, analysts say, will have global repercussions. The wage hike will see between 2,000 and 3,000 Hong Kong-owned factories close in southern China, estimates a Hong Kong-based industry group.
Labour costs in southern China now exceed average costs in seven Asian countries, including India, rising to $1.08 (Rs.50) an hour. Foxconn, which announced a 65 per cent pay hike following the suicides, has already announced it will move some of its factories out of southern China; the company is said to be considering Vietnam and India.
8.Fibertect - a non-woven, environment-friendly cotton carbon absorbent wipes created by Seshadri Ramkumar, Associate Professor of the Texas Tech Institute of Environmental and Human Health. This contains 0.5 per cent wax, which enables it to soak up 40 times its weight.
9. New DTC provisions:
- provident funds would not be taxed on withdrawal
- a proposal to levy MAT on corporates based on their assets had been dropped
- MAT paid by eligible companies are to be computed on profits and not on assets. - retirement funds continue to be exempt from tax on withdrawal
10. 93-year-old Shyam Saran of Kalpa village of Kinnaur district, one of the first few voters of Independent India, was honoured by Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla at Mr. Saran's home in Himachal Pradesh
11. a centre for studying climate change would be set up exclusively for the north-eastern States This centre will be anchored at the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) and will have satellite centres in the region
12. Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, whose surnames have become part of the fabric of cricket, were both awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire).
The Duckworth-Lewis method was first used in international cricket in 1997 and formally adopted by the ICC as the standard method for setting revised targets in truncated games in 2001.
Other awardees:
Catherine Zeta-Jones - CBE(Commander of the Order of the British Empire)
Bert Williams - MBE the England goalkeeping hero whose fate it is to be remembered for a goal he let in. (Is it the turn of Robert Green next?:-))
13. Centrifuge machines manufactured by Ocean Therapy Solutions, a company co-owned by Kevin Costner to clean oil spill:
After seeing the effects of the Valdez spill in Alaska on TV, Costner put in $24 million of his money in 1995 to fund a team of scientists, including his brother Dan Costner, also a scientist, to develop a technology that could deal with huge oil spills.
BP has signed a letter of intent with Ocean Therapy Solutions, a company co-owned by Kevin Costner to deploy 32 centrifuge machines to assist in the cleanup of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
The centrifuge machines are sophisticated centrifuge devices that can handle a huge volume of water and separate oil at unprecedented rates. The machines are taken out into the spill area via barges, where they can separate the oil and water.
14. Great Andaman Trunk Road - a threat to the Jarawas:
The Jarawa are one of the adivasi indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands. Their present numbers are estimated at between 250-350 individuals.
The biggest threat to the Jarawa in recent years came from the building of the Great Andaman Trunk Road through their newer western forest homeland in the 1970s. This has led to
widespread encroachment, poaching and commercial exploitation of Jarawa lands
Tourism also is taking a toll on the Jarawas. The volume of sightseeing tours that are operated by private companies, where tourists view, photograph or otherwise attempt interactions with Jarawas, who are often begging by the highway. These are illegal under Indian law, and in March 2008, the Tourism Department of the Andaman and Nicobar administration issued a fresh warning to tour operators that attempting contact with Jarawas, photographing them,
stopping vehicles while transiting through their land or offering them rides were prohibited under the Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation, 1956, and would be prosecuted under a strict interpretation of the statute.
15. Higuain from Argentian became the 48th hat-trick scorer in the FIFA world cup and the third Argentine to acheive the feat following Guillermo Stabile (1930) and Gabriel Batistuta(1994, 1998)
16. How America benefits from economic engagement with India - report based on a joint study by the University of Maryland, India-US World Affairs Institute and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI):
Findings:
- India has invested over $26.6 billion in the US over the last five years thereby creating about 60,000 jobs
- The investments included 372 acquisitions worth a total $21 billion by 239 Indian companies and 127 fresh investments worth $5.5 billion between 2004 and 2009
- Minnesota, Virginia and Texas emerged the top three destinations for green field investments while Ohio, Texas, and California were the top three states in terms of jobs created
17.The Reserve Bank of India has revised the rupee value of the special currency basket for payments under the deferred payment protocol between the Government of India and the erstwhile USSR to Rs63.0402 with effect from 31 May 2010 India and the Russian Federation signed the deferred payment protocols on 30 April 1981 and 23 December 1985 on the debt India owed the erstwhile USSR
This deferred payment protocol pertains to the payment to be made by India to USSR for the purchases that it has made on credit.
18.Ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan:
Clash between two main Kyrgyz ethnic groups – the Uzbeks and the Kyrgyz people
The death toll in the week-long ethnic violence in south Kyrgyzstan could cross 2000 mark with over 70,000 refugees fleeing their homes to neighbouring Uzbekistan amid the worst humanitarian crisis since the collapse of the former Soviet Union
The roots of Kyrgyz-Uzbek hostility reach far back in history.
In June 1990, ethnic tensions between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz surfaced in the Osh Oblast, where Uzbeks form a majority of the population. Violent confrontations ensued, and a state of emergency and curfew were introduced
Probable cause:
Sudden ouster in April of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
The anti-Uzbek riots are taking place in the southern region, where the deposed leader retains a strong following among the Kyrgyz population. The region is home to large numbers of ethnic Uzbeks, whose loyalties lie with the political set-up that replaced the corrupt and nepotistic Mr. Bakiyev
CSTO intervention:
On October 7, 2002, the Presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan signed a charter in Tashkent founding the Collective
Security Treaty Organisation
The CSTO decided to send logistical help such as helicopters and fuel, but no troops
19. India's biggest photovoltaic solar power plant, capable of generating 3 MW - at Yalesandra village in Kolar district of Karnataka has been inagurated
- The plant, using modular crystalline technology to generate solar energy, has been set up at a cost of Rs59.5 crore
- Earlier West Bengal boasted the largest solar poweer plant in the country, though it has only a 1 MW capacity.
- The unique feature of the plant is that the power would be available to farmers during the day, unlike conventional power which is largely available only at night for farmers
20. Sericulture and allied activities would now on be eligible for funding under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). It will cover sericulture up to the stage of cocoon production along with extension system for cocoon production and silk yarn production in agri-enterprise up to the marketing The benefits of RKVY can now be availed for improvement of sericulture extension system, enhancement of soil health development of rain fed sericulture and for integrated pest management
21. Nobel literature prize winner Jose Saramago is dead
- Portuguese novelist, playwright and journalist
- Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998
22. Recent findings from excavation at Pattnam:
- The finds include pottery, metals, objects of personal adornment, and botanical samples. One other interesting find was a broken rim with Brahmi script.
- The imported and fine pottery assemblage comprises Roman, West Asian, Indian Rouletted Ware (IRW) and a host of other unidentified fine wares. The number of Roman amphora sherds and Terra Sigillata excavated at Pattanam continued to be impressive and its record as the largest assemblage of Roman pottery in India will have deeper implications in understanding the Roman role in Indian Ocean trade
23. Nuclear weapons-capable, medium range surface-to-surface Prithvi-II ballistic missile was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, off the Orissa coast
The Prithvi is the first of the missiles developed under the country's Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. It now has two variants — Air Force version (Prithvi-II) and Naval (Dhanush) — both having a range of 350 km
24. International Whaling Commission prepares to hold its 62nd annual meeting from June 21 in Agadir, Morocco
Agenda:
Japan and Iceland have been trying to to get the moratorium on the slaughter of whales lifted. The 24-year-old ban on commercial whaling has become an emotive issue for Japan, which cites historic and cultural reasons to justify its abhorrent hunts.
Japan is also using the loophole in one of the provisions in IWC that allows the unilateral issue of permits to kill whales for scientific experiments. They are sending factory ships each year into faraway Antarctic waters to hunt minke whales, and process their meat for sale.
Iceland also used this loophole to launch a similar programme four years ago, while Norway has resorted to an objection clause to claim exemption from the moratorium.
This meeting is very important from the perspecting of keeping the ban intact and not bowing down the pressure from Japan,Norway and Iceland
25. Janani Suraksha Yojana - launched in 2005 to encourage deliveries at government health care facilities, has achieved some of its goals
- the number of deliveries in government health facilities shot up by 36 per cent in Rajasthan and 53 per cent in Madhya Pradesh
- The study revealed that cash payment led to a reduction of about four perinatal deaths per 1,000 pregnancies, and two neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births
- With a budget of Rs.1,540 crore and 9.5 million beneficiaries, JSY is the world's largest conditional cash transfer scheme
26. Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) along with its subsidiary MOICML (Mahindra Overseas Investment Company Mauritius Ltd.), Arabia Holdings and Ras Al-Khaimah
Transport Investments LLC, signed an agreement to create a joint venture company in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE for armouring of vehicles
- It would launch a number of MDS' armoured vehicles such as the Marksman, the up-armoured Scorpio and cash in transit van, which have been successful in India
26. An international clinical trial has found that AIDS-fighting antiretroviral drug combinations given to pregnant and breastfeeding women in Botswana, Africa, prevented 99 per cent of the mothers from transmitting he human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to their infants
27. HRV: Heart rate variability refers to variation in the time interval between heart beats during everyday
Eating a Mediterranean-style diet — one characterized by low saturated fats and high in fish, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, olive oil, cereals and moderate alcohol consumption — reduces a person's heart disease risk => increases the HRV
28.Endangered cow cloned:
The team, led by Jeju National University and Mirae Biotech have successfully cloned Huku or black-fur cow
The Huku breed is indigenous to the southern island, where there are about 600 of them.
29. A set of rare paintings by Rabindranath Tagore, who had gifted them to a British missionary and friend Leonard Elmhirst for his private collection in 1939, was sold for a record £1.6 million at an auction
The sale was part of Sotheby's auction of South Asian art, which together fetched £5.5 million and included works of leading Indian artists such as Syed Haider Raza and Francis Souza.
30. Ashok Kumar Attri has been appointed Ambassador of India to Denmark.
31. Nirmalgram Puraskar'
The award is to ensure rural sanitation and eradicate open defecation
Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan presented the ‘Nirmalgram Puraskar' to 1,720 villages, in recognition of their achievement of full sanitation
32. New pancreatic cancer mechanism discovered:
- Cancer of the pancreas is a form of cancer that has few treatment options and a poor prognosis. It is linked to two particularly common cellular changes: mutations in a family of cancer genes called RAS and increased activity in the 'Hedgehog' signalling pathway, a molecular signal transmission mechanism that is normally only activated during embryonic growth.
- A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows how RAS and the Hedgehog pathway interact in the development of pancreatic cancer in mice
- Activation of cancer genes in the RAS family causes the tumour cells to secrete the factor (SHH) that activates Hedgehog signalling, and shuts off the tumour cell's own ability to respond to this type of stimulation
- One of the reasons for the poor prognosis associated with pancreatic cancer is that the disease is hard to detect at an early stage
33. India exported goods and services worth around $33 billion in the first two months of the current financial year (April-May 2010) while imports into the country during the two months stood at $54.7 billion.
The trade deficit of the country for the two months stood at a whopping $21.7 billion.
34. 'Impossible' conductivity explained:
- Bring two materials that are not themselves conductive into contact and, exactly at their interface, something remarkable happens: at that precise point, conduction is possible
- Researchers from the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology of the University of Twente, together with colleagues from Munich, Berkeley and Davis, have now also demonstrated that at this interface two parallel conductive 'paths' are created, just one nanometre apart.
- This breakthrough could lead to new possibilities for nanoelectronics
35. Updates on India-S.Korea relations
India and South Korea agreed to explore possibilities for civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries as well as the launching of South Korean satellites aboard India's space launch vehicles
- - The foreign ministers of both nations noted that after the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement went into effect in January this year, trade volume has picked up 70 per cent. Both countries are targeting a trade volume of $30 billion by 2014
- South Korea and India hold ministerial talks, dubbed the Joint Commission, since 2002. This year was the sixth such meeting of its kind. Form this year the talks will be an annual affair, as agreed upon by leaders of both nations in January this year.
- Krishna also suggested that a bust of Rabindranath Tagore, who had described Korea as the 'Lamp of the East,' be installed at a prominent place in Seoul
36. End of IRDA-SEBI tiff:
- The Insurance Regulatory Authority of India (IRDA) will regulate the issue of unit-linked insurance policies (ULIPs) and the insurance regulator will now come up with revised guidelines on ULIPs.
- The President promulgated an ordinance to this effect. The ordinance will be made into bill to be passed at the next session of Parliament
- The regulatory turf war started in April with the SEBI banning 14 life insurance firms from issuing fresh ULIP schemes and asking them to stop further sales of existing products
37. Union minister for human resource development Kapil Sibal proposed health insurance and life insurance cover as also a group housing scheme for the 6 million school teachers in the country
- While the two insurance schemes will require financial contribution by the centre, the states and the teachers, the group housing scheme will be administered at the central level but will not require financial contribution from the centre or the state governments
38.Higher Education in India:
Two commissions employed to recommend reforms in higher education in recent times are:National Knowledge Commission headed by Sam Pitroda and the other by the Committee on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education headed by Yash Pal
However to formalise their recommendations effortds are on to provide legislative basis to them.Specifically, the four Bills introduced in Parliament in April and the one on the anvil, if enacted with whatever changes Parliament deems fit, can provide a strong foundation to overcome the present aberrations and enhance the credibility of Indian higher educational qualifications among the nations of the world.
The four Bills are:
- Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill, 2010;
- Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill;
- the Educational Tribunal Bill and
- the National Accreditation Authority Bill
Foreign Institutions Bill:
The basic premise of the Foreign Institutions Bill is that every foreign educational service provider engaged in offering programmes leading to degrees and diplomas, whether it already operates in India or intends to do so in future either on its own or in collaboration with an Indian partner, must register itself with a designated authority, giving all the necessary information.
Prerequisites:
these institutions must have a track record of 20 years in offering recognised and accredited degree programmes in their home country
National Accreditation Authority Bill:
license competent professional organisations to undertake the accreditation responsibilities, in accordance with norms and standards prescribed by a competent agency.
National Commission on Higher Education and Research (NCHER)'s responsibilities:
- primary task is to evolve norms and standards for various aspects of higher education, including assessment and accreditation. Several of the regulating bodies dealing with academic norms for higher education will consequently stand abolished.
- identification of academic-administrators of national standing who are eligible and qualify for appointment as Vice-Chancellors of universities or heads of central educational institutions
39. Indonesia has filed a lawsuit against the ban implemented by U.S. administration that bans the trade of clove cigarette in the U.S. territory
- lawsuit has been filed to Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) last week, an agency under the control of the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly tasked to settle trade dispute
- The other reason to file the lawsuit was that the U.S. agency did not respond to Indonesia's request to prove scientifically over the agency's statement that the cigarette with aroma and odor is more dangerous than the ones without them
- The U.S. agency's policy to ban trade of clove cigarette in that country would cost Indonesia significantly as 99 per cent of cigarettes supplied to the United States come from Indonesia
40. India and China, the region's largest food grain producing and consuming countries, have identified the emerging food grain storage sector as a new are of cooperation between the two.
41. Kartar Singh Lalvani, founder of pharmaceutical major Vitabiotics in Britain, has been awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in her Birthday Honours List
Lalvani has established Indali Lounge, recognised as the ‘healthiest curry house in world.'
Anil Kumar Bhanot has been honoured for services to the Hindu Community and to Inter-Faith Relations, while Janti Champaneri figures in the list for services to the local government in Birmingham, and Kailash Chand Malhotra for services to healthcare in Cheshire
42. India created history by fielding its first professional symphony orchestra in the Fifth Festival of World's Symphony Orchestras here, and winning the applause of Muscovites, one of the most demanding audiences in the world.
- The Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), during its maiden foreign trip, performed Beethoven's 9th symphony in the finale of the 10-day festival in the historical House of Columns, once the club of Russian Imperial gentry
- The SOI was formed by the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in 2006
43. The Centre has approved capital infusion of Rs.6,211 crore in five public sector banks to help them in attaining a minimum 8 per cent Tier-I capital by March 31, 2011, and ensure an additional Rs.77,637 crore in lending capacity to various sectors of the economy.
Those are: IDBI Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, UCO Bank and Union Bank of India
- The continuing exercise of capital infusion is a part of the budgetary promise to provide a sum of Rs.16,500 crore to ensure that the public sector banks are able to attain a minimum 8 per cent Tier-I capital by the end of the current fiscal.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
6 to 11 June
1. UN Sanctions against Iran:
- prohibit Iran from purchasing heavy weaponry, of various types, including attack helicopter and missiles
- Banning licences of banks suspected of funding nuclear activities
- head of Iran's Esfahan Nuclear Centre, Javed Rashiqi, added to list of 40 Iranians subject ot asset freeze and travel ban
- Ban on dealing with 23 companies involved in nuclear ballistic missile activities - including Khatam al-Anblya COnstruciton - and 15 others linked to Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
- It recommends all countries to inspect cargo from Iran, suspected of containing banned items at their ports and airports
- restriction on arm sales to Iran to include eight new categories including tanls, figher planes and missile systems
Vienna Group - Russia, France and the United States
2. Global Peace Index Report (GPI) - an annual publication by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP):
India- 128th, Pakistan - 145, Afghanistan - 147th
Srilanka - 133rd, Nepal -82nd, Bhutan - 36th
New Zealand - the most peaceful nation globally
3. New developments in India-Srilanka ties:
- India has agreed to extend a credit of $1 billion for funding Sri Lanka's infrastructure projects, mainly in the former civil war zones in the north and east of the country
- Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal Matters and Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Prisoners
- India agreed to assist in the reconstruction of the Palaly Airport and the Kankesanthurai Harbour and also help in the renovation of the Duraiappah Stadium and construction of a cultural centre in Jaffna.
4. A breakthrough in cancer research:
- A protein known as 'Delta-like ligand 4' (DLL4) has recently been identified as an important component in regulating the formation of new blood vessels in a cancer tumour
- A research group at Karolinska Institutet has developed a DNA-vaccine against DLL4 and the blood vessel tip cells. They have shown that vaccination against DLL4 causes an immunological antibody response to DLL4, and this hinders the growth of breast cancer in mice
5. Research on nanoparticles by NIST:
Nanoparticles designed for use in drug therapy or as contrast agents for medical imaging typically are coated with molecules to prevent the particles from clumping together, which would reduce their effectiveness. But the efficacy of the anti-clumping coating often depends on the pH of the environment.
So what is the breakthrough?
There are certain nano particles which turn acidic when exposed to light. Their results demonstrate that under certain conditions, the stability of the nanoparticles-their tendency to resist clumping-becomes very sensitive to pH
What is its usefulness: Studies such as these could provide a stronger foundation to design nanoparticles for applications such as targeting tumor cells that have levels of acidity markedly different from normal cells.
6. India's largest life insurance company, state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India, has tied up with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to share its data base of more than 21 crore customers
7. GE has developed the world's first two-stage turbocharged gas engine in response to growing global demand for high-efficiency power generation
8. Barbara Kingsolver - winner of Orange Prize for fiction, Britain's highly-regarded literary honour for women writers
9. Amendments to Section 13-B of the Hindu Marriage Act and Section 28 of the Special Marriage Act: These two sections pertain to dissolution of marriage by mutual consent. The recent amendment is addition of another clause to the existing grounds for divorce that include adultery, cruelty, desertion, conversion to another religion, unsoundness of mind, virulent and incurable form of leprosy, venereal disease in a communicable form, renouncement of the world and not heard as being alive for a period of seven years.
The additional clause is :‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage'
What does this mean?
Irretrievable breakdown of marriage can be defined as such failure in the matrimonial relationship or such circumstances adverse to that relationship that no reasonable probability remains of the spouses remaining together as husband and wife for mutual comfort and supportIt is the situation that occurs in a marriage when one spouse refuses to live with the other and will not work towards reconciliation. When there is not an iota of hope that parties can be reconciled to continue their matrimonial life, the marriage can be considered as Irretrievable Breakdown of marriage
10. Minimum Support Price:
Minimum price for a product, established by a government and supported by payments to producers in the event that the market price falls below the specified minimum.
- To encourage cultivation of pulses, the Union government on Thursday increased the minimum support prices by up to 33 per cent, but did not extend the favour to other kharif crops.
11. State Bank of India Chairman O. P. Bhatt has been elected the new Chairman of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) for 2010-11
HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri, Bank of Baroda Chairman and Managing Director M. D. Mallya and Canara Bank Chairman and Managing Director A. C. Mahajan were elected deputy chairmen
12. The former Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, Makani Narayana Rao, has assumed charged as Chairperson of the National Commission for Backward Classes
13. Garuda - Indo-French air combat exercise will take place at Isteres air base in France from June 14 to 25
- The Garuda series between India and France started in 2003 aiming to enhance military ties and allow their air forces to understand each other's capabilities
- For the first time the two air forces would be joined by the Singaporean Air Force with its American-origin Block 52 F-16s
14. Bengal flavour in FIFA World Cup South Africa -
100 tonne of lakshmanbhog variety of mangoes from Malda will be sold at the food court counters in the village setup to house the football stars and other guests.
Malda - One time capital of Bengal, the district maintains the tradition of the past in culture and education. It lies just east of the confluence of the Mahananda and Kalindri rivers. It is part of the English Bazar urban agglomeration. The town rose to prominence as the river port of the Hindu capital of Pandua. During the 18th century it was the seat of prosperous cotton and silk industries. It remains an important distributing centre for rice, jute, and wheat.
15.Objective of water mission,2010:
water conservation, minimising wastage and ensuring equitable distribution both across and within States through integrated resource development and management
Principles:
- comprehensive data base in public domain;
- public participation through promotion of citizen-State interaction;
- integrated basin-wide management;
- enactment of State-wide legislation through persuasion;
- review and adoption of a National Water Policy by March 2013
Goals:
expanding monitoring network; expeditious formulation of river-interlinking project; and implementing rainwater harvesting and augmentation of artificial recharge in all Blocks by 2017.
16. Abu Dhabi tower has been recognised as the “furthest-leaning man-made tower” in the world by Guinness World Records. The 160-metre Capital Gate tower, developed by the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company, leans at 18 degrees — over four times the angle of Italy's famous Leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Alarmed by the dwindling population of Olive Ridley Turtles in Orissa, the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India has set up a temporary study camp at Ganjam district of the state to monitor their nesting, breeding and migration.
There are three major nesting sites of Olive Ridley Turtle in Orissa -- the Nasi Islands in Gahirmatha, the Devi river mouth and the Rushikulya river mouth. From January to March, half a million turtles nest here. A single female adult lays around 100-140 eggs at a time.
18. Vapi, Gujarat - one of the 10 most polluted towns in the world as per Time and Fobes
As per Forbes, Vapi’s groundwater is reported to be polluted 96 times higher than the World Health Organization’s health standards; in addition, local agricultural produce can contain up to 60 times more heavy metals
- prohibit Iran from purchasing heavy weaponry, of various types, including attack helicopter and missiles
- Banning licences of banks suspected of funding nuclear activities
- head of Iran's Esfahan Nuclear Centre, Javed Rashiqi, added to list of 40 Iranians subject ot asset freeze and travel ban
- Ban on dealing with 23 companies involved in nuclear ballistic missile activities - including Khatam al-Anblya COnstruciton - and 15 others linked to Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
- It recommends all countries to inspect cargo from Iran, suspected of containing banned items at their ports and airports
- restriction on arm sales to Iran to include eight new categories including tanls, figher planes and missile systems
Vienna Group - Russia, France and the United States
2. Global Peace Index Report (GPI) - an annual publication by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP):
India- 128th, Pakistan - 145, Afghanistan - 147th
Srilanka - 133rd, Nepal -82nd, Bhutan - 36th
New Zealand - the most peaceful nation globally
3. New developments in India-Srilanka ties:
- India has agreed to extend a credit of $1 billion for funding Sri Lanka's infrastructure projects, mainly in the former civil war zones in the north and east of the country
- Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal Matters and Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Prisoners
- India agreed to assist in the reconstruction of the Palaly Airport and the Kankesanthurai Harbour and also help in the renovation of the Duraiappah Stadium and construction of a cultural centre in Jaffna.
4. A breakthrough in cancer research:
- A protein known as 'Delta-like ligand 4' (DLL4) has recently been identified as an important component in regulating the formation of new blood vessels in a cancer tumour
- A research group at Karolinska Institutet has developed a DNA-vaccine against DLL4 and the blood vessel tip cells. They have shown that vaccination against DLL4 causes an immunological antibody response to DLL4, and this hinders the growth of breast cancer in mice
5. Research on nanoparticles by NIST:
Nanoparticles designed for use in drug therapy or as contrast agents for medical imaging typically are coated with molecules to prevent the particles from clumping together, which would reduce their effectiveness. But the efficacy of the anti-clumping coating often depends on the pH of the environment.
So what is the breakthrough?
There are certain nano particles which turn acidic when exposed to light. Their results demonstrate that under certain conditions, the stability of the nanoparticles-their tendency to resist clumping-becomes very sensitive to pH
What is its usefulness: Studies such as these could provide a stronger foundation to design nanoparticles for applications such as targeting tumor cells that have levels of acidity markedly different from normal cells.
6. India's largest life insurance company, state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India, has tied up with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to share its data base of more than 21 crore customers
7. GE has developed the world's first two-stage turbocharged gas engine in response to growing global demand for high-efficiency power generation
8. Barbara Kingsolver - winner of Orange Prize for fiction, Britain's highly-regarded literary honour for women writers
9. Amendments to Section 13-B of the Hindu Marriage Act and Section 28 of the Special Marriage Act: These two sections pertain to dissolution of marriage by mutual consent. The recent amendment is addition of another clause to the existing grounds for divorce that include adultery, cruelty, desertion, conversion to another religion, unsoundness of mind, virulent and incurable form of leprosy, venereal disease in a communicable form, renouncement of the world and not heard as being alive for a period of seven years.
The additional clause is :‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage'
What does this mean?
Irretrievable breakdown of marriage can be defined as such failure in the matrimonial relationship or such circumstances adverse to that relationship that no reasonable probability remains of the spouses remaining together as husband and wife for mutual comfort and supportIt is the situation that occurs in a marriage when one spouse refuses to live with the other and will not work towards reconciliation. When there is not an iota of hope that parties can be reconciled to continue their matrimonial life, the marriage can be considered as Irretrievable Breakdown of marriage
10. Minimum Support Price:
Minimum price for a product, established by a government and supported by payments to producers in the event that the market price falls below the specified minimum.
- To encourage cultivation of pulses, the Union government on Thursday increased the minimum support prices by up to 33 per cent, but did not extend the favour to other kharif crops.
11. State Bank of India Chairman O. P. Bhatt has been elected the new Chairman of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) for 2010-11
HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri, Bank of Baroda Chairman and Managing Director M. D. Mallya and Canara Bank Chairman and Managing Director A. C. Mahajan were elected deputy chairmen
12. The former Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, Makani Narayana Rao, has assumed charged as Chairperson of the National Commission for Backward Classes
13. Garuda - Indo-French air combat exercise will take place at Isteres air base in France from June 14 to 25
- The Garuda series between India and France started in 2003 aiming to enhance military ties and allow their air forces to understand each other's capabilities
- For the first time the two air forces would be joined by the Singaporean Air Force with its American-origin Block 52 F-16s
14. Bengal flavour in FIFA World Cup South Africa -
100 tonne of lakshmanbhog variety of mangoes from Malda will be sold at the food court counters in the village setup to house the football stars and other guests.
Malda - One time capital of Bengal, the district maintains the tradition of the past in culture and education. It lies just east of the confluence of the Mahananda and Kalindri rivers. It is part of the English Bazar urban agglomeration. The town rose to prominence as the river port of the Hindu capital of Pandua. During the 18th century it was the seat of prosperous cotton and silk industries. It remains an important distributing centre for rice, jute, and wheat.
15.Objective of water mission,2010:
water conservation, minimising wastage and ensuring equitable distribution both across and within States through integrated resource development and management
Principles:
- comprehensive data base in public domain;
- public participation through promotion of citizen-State interaction;
- integrated basin-wide management;
- enactment of State-wide legislation through persuasion;
- review and adoption of a National Water Policy by March 2013
Goals:
expanding monitoring network; expeditious formulation of river-interlinking project; and implementing rainwater harvesting and augmentation of artificial recharge in all Blocks by 2017.
16. Abu Dhabi tower has been recognised as the “furthest-leaning man-made tower” in the world by Guinness World Records. The 160-metre Capital Gate tower, developed by the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company, leans at 18 degrees — over four times the angle of Italy's famous Leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Alarmed by the dwindling population of Olive Ridley Turtles in Orissa, the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India has set up a temporary study camp at Ganjam district of the state to monitor their nesting, breeding and migration.
There are three major nesting sites of Olive Ridley Turtle in Orissa -- the Nasi Islands in Gahirmatha, the Devi river mouth and the Rushikulya river mouth. From January to March, half a million turtles nest here. A single female adult lays around 100-140 eggs at a time.
18. Vapi, Gujarat - one of the 10 most polluted towns in the world as per Time and Fobes
As per Forbes, Vapi’s groundwater is reported to be polluted 96 times higher than the World Health Organization’s health standards; in addition, local agricultural produce can contain up to 60 times more heavy metals
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
8th June - CA
1. India-Czech Republic relationship- A new begining
- President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus committed his country's support for India's bid for United Nations Security Council
-Proposed collaboration in science and technology and IT
- Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore had visited Prague twice — in 1921 and 1926. Professor Vincenc Lesny of the Charles University was the first European to have translated Tagore's verses directly from Bengali to Czech
2. Hydra-headed crisis - representative of times we live in. We are living at a time of successive crises successive crises – the Haiti earthquake, famine in East Africa, the Taliban attack on Kabul, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Boxing Day Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina…No sooner does one crisis disappear from the headlines, than another pops up in a different part of the world
3. UNESCO-Obiang prize for improve the quality of human life conroversy:
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the president of Equatorial Guinea has been accused by rights groups and anti-corruption activists of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from his tiny oil-rich West African state, while most of its people scrape by in dire poverty
According to the African Economic Outlook, 77 per cent of Equatorial Guinea's population fell below the poverty line in 2006. The country has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and an average life expectancy of 62. It ranks among the bottom 13 countries on Transparency International's corruption index, and ninth on the Freedom House list of the world's most repressive countries.
3. Indo-Australian collaboration in the energy sector:
- India to jointly with Australia in energy, minerals and power generation sectors including tie-up for gas supply for new plants to be set up by both countries in India
- development of use of brown coal (lignite), energy efficiency, efficiency improvements of coal based power plants, hydro power development and power generation technology research and development of smart grids
- India now had the fifth largest electricity generation capacity in the world and the world's third largest transmission and distribution network.
4. Bharti acquires Zain:
India's largest telecom company Bharti Airtel has closed its $10.7-billion acquisition of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co, also known as Zain, becoming the world's fifth largest mobile phone services company after China Mobile, Vodafone, Telefonica and America Movil Group.
The Zain acquisition will be an Indian company's second-largest overseas acquisition after Tata Steel's $12.11 billion acquisition of Anglo Dutch steel maker Corus in 2007, which catapulted it to the world's fifth-largest steel maker
The countries in which Bharti can operate through Zain's acquisition are - Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia
5. 17th century 'Archduke Joseph' diamond from Golkonda is up for saleThe diamond takes its name from Archduke Joseph August (1872-1962), a prince of the Hungarian line of the Hapsburg dynasty.
6.Limiting the use of Platinum in fuel cell because of copule of disadvantages of Pt It is expensive, and it breaks down over time in fuel-cell reactions.New technology discovered:five-nanometer palladium (Pd) core and encircled it with a shell consisting of iron and platinum (FePt).
Core of the technology:iron-platinum shell by decomposing iron pentacarbonyl [Fe(CO)5] and reducing platinum acetylacetonate [Pt(acac)2] => reductioon in usage of Platinum in fuel cells
7. Rdio - social music service created by Janus Friis with Niklas Zennström, who built Skype and Kazaa
- President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus committed his country's support for India's bid for United Nations Security Council
-Proposed collaboration in science and technology and IT
- Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore had visited Prague twice — in 1921 and 1926. Professor Vincenc Lesny of the Charles University was the first European to have translated Tagore's verses directly from Bengali to Czech
2. Hydra-headed crisis - representative of times we live in. We are living at a time of successive crises successive crises – the Haiti earthquake, famine in East Africa, the Taliban attack on Kabul, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Boxing Day Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina…No sooner does one crisis disappear from the headlines, than another pops up in a different part of the world
3. UNESCO-Obiang prize for improve the quality of human life conroversy:
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the president of Equatorial Guinea has been accused by rights groups and anti-corruption activists of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from his tiny oil-rich West African state, while most of its people scrape by in dire poverty
According to the African Economic Outlook, 77 per cent of Equatorial Guinea's population fell below the poverty line in 2006. The country has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and an average life expectancy of 62. It ranks among the bottom 13 countries on Transparency International's corruption index, and ninth on the Freedom House list of the world's most repressive countries.
3. Indo-Australian collaboration in the energy sector:
- India to jointly with Australia in energy, minerals and power generation sectors including tie-up for gas supply for new plants to be set up by both countries in India
- development of use of brown coal (lignite), energy efficiency, efficiency improvements of coal based power plants, hydro power development and power generation technology research and development of smart grids
- India now had the fifth largest electricity generation capacity in the world and the world's third largest transmission and distribution network.
4. Bharti acquires Zain:
India's largest telecom company Bharti Airtel has closed its $10.7-billion acquisition of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co, also known as Zain, becoming the world's fifth largest mobile phone services company after China Mobile, Vodafone, Telefonica and America Movil Group.
The Zain acquisition will be an Indian company's second-largest overseas acquisition after Tata Steel's $12.11 billion acquisition of Anglo Dutch steel maker Corus in 2007, which catapulted it to the world's fifth-largest steel maker
The countries in which Bharti can operate through Zain's acquisition are - Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia
5. 17th century 'Archduke Joseph' diamond from Golkonda is up for saleThe diamond takes its name from Archduke Joseph August (1872-1962), a prince of the Hungarian line of the Hapsburg dynasty.
6.Limiting the use of Platinum in fuel cell because of copule of disadvantages of Pt It is expensive, and it breaks down over time in fuel-cell reactions.New technology discovered:five-nanometer palladium (Pd) core and encircled it with a shell consisting of iron and platinum (FePt).
Core of the technology:iron-platinum shell by decomposing iron pentacarbonyl [Fe(CO)5] and reducing platinum acetylacetonate [Pt(acac)2] => reductioon in usage of Platinum in fuel cells
7. Rdio - social music service created by Janus Friis with Niklas Zennström, who built Skype and Kazaa
Sunday, June 6, 2010
3rd,4th and 5th June - CA
1. Amendments to the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules:
i)Minimum floor limit for public investment has been raised 25 per cent.for all listed companies
ii)Existing listed companies with less than 25 per cent public holding have to reach the minimum 25 per cent level through an annual addition of at least 5 per cent public holding.
iii)For new listings, if the post issue capital of the company calculated at offer price is more than Rs4,000 crore, the company may be allowed to go public with 10 per cent public shareholding and comply with the 25 per cent public shareholding requirement by increasing its public shareholding by at least 5 per cent every year.
2. A new step in tele medicine:
Doctors in the country will now be able to view patient's electrocardiogram (ECG) reports on their Blackberry smartphone if it is connected by GSM mobile service operator Vodafone.
This service has come about with of three companies – Canada's Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, Navi Mumbai-based Maestros Mediline Systems, a designer and manufacturer of diagnostic and patient monitoring devices and cellular operator Vodafone
3.Global Investors Meet in Bangalore:
State Government has signed 361 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with investors for a total investment of Rs. 4 lakh crore.
4. The Red Sari: When Life is the Price of Power - biography of Sonia Gandhi by Javier Moro. Senior figures in the Congress have objected to passages in the book, saying they are inaccurate
5. Toxic chromium and other pollutants in the soil and water around five Coca Cola and Pepsico plants in northern India Mehdiganj and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Kaladera and Chopanki in Rajasthan, and Panipat in Haryana
6. Naoto Kan - elected as Japan's Prime Minister. He succeeds Yukio Hatoyama, who resigned citing his failure to stay in step with the people's wishes.
7.ICCPR : The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976. It commits its parties to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process and a fair trial. As of October 2009, the Covenant had 72 signatories and 165 parties.
Denmark and Japan are First World democracies that have signed and ratified ICCPR. But these countries have come under a lot of criticism on whether they adhere to the principles laid out in the ICCPR in their letter and spirit. This is in the wake of how these two countries handled the Red Carpet Four and Tokyo Two
Red Carpet Four:
During the climate conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, for example, four Greenpeace activists were held for 20 days in preventive detention for gate-crashing a banquet held by the Danish Queen and unfurling banners
Tokyo Two:
anti-whaling activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki. They also were subjected to similar arbitrary detention
8. Meeting of G-20 finance ministers at Busan, South korea : India, Australia and Canada are opposed to the idea of levying tax on banks put forth by the EU. Rather, India is in favour of regulatory mechanism as being followed by Indian banks.
9. proposed agreements between India and South Afirca:
i)Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between India and South African Customs Union (SACU)
ii)Bilateral Investment Promotion & Protection Agreement (BIPPA)
SACU: The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is a customs union among five countries of Southern Africa : Republic of South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia
The major items of exports to South Africa are: petroleum, drugs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, transport equipment, electronic goods and machinery.
The major items of imports from South Africa are: gold, coal, coke, inorganic chemicals, non-ferrous metals, pulp and waste paper
10. Elite Panel of ICC Umpires for 2010-11:Billy Bowden, Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Asoka de Silva, Billy Doctrove, Marais Erasmus, Ian Gould, Daryl Harper, Tony Hill, Asad Rauf, Simon Taufel, Rodney Tucker
11.COAPS model:developed by Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Florida uses numerical models to predict seasonal hurricane activity. A key component of the COAPS model is the use of predicted sea surface temperatures.
12. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint program by NASA and the German Aerospace Center, achieved a major milestone recently, with its first in-flight night observations
13.The South Asian University (SAU), Delhi:will have students from eight member States of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
The concept of a world-class university was initiated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the 13th SAARC summit at Dhaka in 2005 with a formal agreement for establishing the institute signed in April 2007 during the 14th summit in New Delhi.
14.The curious case of rare Earth Metals:
Rare earths are a select group of 17 elements that are crucial to many of the world's most advanced technologies starting from green technologies through hybrid cars and wind turbines to solar cells. They also happen to be found widely in China, which is estimated to account for more than 95 per cent of their global supply.
15. Agatha - eastern Pacific tropical storm which hit central America recently
16. Survey on preferred FDI destinations:
By ‘European attractiveness survey': 1. China 2. W. Europe 3. Central and Eastern Europe 4. India
By E & Y : 1. China 2. India 3. Central & Eastern Europe
17. Pollachi coir industry has developed into a major coir centre accounting for a close to Rs. 250 crore export of which Rs. 210 crore is from the coir pith and fibre exports alone. With this it has sought for obtaining the tag of Town of Export Excellence
18. Miss Ellie, a small, bug-eyed Chinese Crested Hairless dog whose pimples and lolling tongue helped her win Animal Planet's ‘World's Ugliest Dog' contest in 2009, has died at age 17 after a career in resort show business.
19.Vaxiflu-S - India's first indigenously manufactured anti-influenza vaccine that will protect people against the A(H1N1) flu, manufactured by Zydus-Cadila Healthcare
20.K.G. Balakrishnan - appointed as the sixth chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
21. Gershwin Prize, the highest American award for popular song - awarded to Sir Paul McCartney in 2010.Created in 2007 by the Library of Congress, the prize is named for brothers George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, whose contributions to popular music included songs such as "I Got Rhythm," "Embraceable You," and "Someone to Watch Over Me," the orchestral pieces Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, and the opera Porgy and Bess. The first recipient of the award was Paul Simon
22.World'slargest IPO so far - China's biggest bank, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, raising at least $19.1 billion in a dual listing on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges
The previous record was a $18.4-billion initial stock offer by Japanese mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo in 1998.
The proposed IPO by Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) in China may overtake Industrial & Commercial Bank of China as the biggest IPO in the world
i)Minimum floor limit for public investment has been raised 25 per cent.for all listed companies
ii)Existing listed companies with less than 25 per cent public holding have to reach the minimum 25 per cent level through an annual addition of at least 5 per cent public holding.
iii)For new listings, if the post issue capital of the company calculated at offer price is more than Rs4,000 crore, the company may be allowed to go public with 10 per cent public shareholding and comply with the 25 per cent public shareholding requirement by increasing its public shareholding by at least 5 per cent every year.
2. A new step in tele medicine:
Doctors in the country will now be able to view patient's electrocardiogram (ECG) reports on their Blackberry smartphone if it is connected by GSM mobile service operator Vodafone.
This service has come about with of three companies – Canada's Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, Navi Mumbai-based Maestros Mediline Systems, a designer and manufacturer of diagnostic and patient monitoring devices and cellular operator Vodafone
3.Global Investors Meet in Bangalore:
State Government has signed 361 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with investors for a total investment of Rs. 4 lakh crore.
4. The Red Sari: When Life is the Price of Power - biography of Sonia Gandhi by Javier Moro. Senior figures in the Congress have objected to passages in the book, saying they are inaccurate
5. Toxic chromium and other pollutants in the soil and water around five Coca Cola and Pepsico plants in northern India Mehdiganj and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Kaladera and Chopanki in Rajasthan, and Panipat in Haryana
6. Naoto Kan - elected as Japan's Prime Minister. He succeeds Yukio Hatoyama, who resigned citing his failure to stay in step with the people's wishes.
7.ICCPR : The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976. It commits its parties to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process and a fair trial. As of October 2009, the Covenant had 72 signatories and 165 parties.
Denmark and Japan are First World democracies that have signed and ratified ICCPR. But these countries have come under a lot of criticism on whether they adhere to the principles laid out in the ICCPR in their letter and spirit. This is in the wake of how these two countries handled the Red Carpet Four and Tokyo Two
Red Carpet Four:
During the climate conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, for example, four Greenpeace activists were held for 20 days in preventive detention for gate-crashing a banquet held by the Danish Queen and unfurling banners
Tokyo Two:
anti-whaling activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki. They also were subjected to similar arbitrary detention
8. Meeting of G-20 finance ministers at Busan, South korea : India, Australia and Canada are opposed to the idea of levying tax on banks put forth by the EU. Rather, India is in favour of regulatory mechanism as being followed by Indian banks.
9. proposed agreements between India and South Afirca:
i)Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between India and South African Customs Union (SACU)
ii)Bilateral Investment Promotion & Protection Agreement (BIPPA)
SACU: The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is a customs union among five countries of Southern Africa : Republic of South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia
The major items of exports to South Africa are: petroleum, drugs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, transport equipment, electronic goods and machinery.
The major items of imports from South Africa are: gold, coal, coke, inorganic chemicals, non-ferrous metals, pulp and waste paper
10. Elite Panel of ICC Umpires for 2010-11:Billy Bowden, Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Asoka de Silva, Billy Doctrove, Marais Erasmus, Ian Gould, Daryl Harper, Tony Hill, Asad Rauf, Simon Taufel, Rodney Tucker
11.COAPS model:developed by Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Florida uses numerical models to predict seasonal hurricane activity. A key component of the COAPS model is the use of predicted sea surface temperatures.
12. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint program by NASA and the German Aerospace Center, achieved a major milestone recently, with its first in-flight night observations
13.The South Asian University (SAU), Delhi:will have students from eight member States of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
The concept of a world-class university was initiated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the 13th SAARC summit at Dhaka in 2005 with a formal agreement for establishing the institute signed in April 2007 during the 14th summit in New Delhi.
14.The curious case of rare Earth Metals:
Rare earths are a select group of 17 elements that are crucial to many of the world's most advanced technologies starting from green technologies through hybrid cars and wind turbines to solar cells. They also happen to be found widely in China, which is estimated to account for more than 95 per cent of their global supply.
15. Agatha - eastern Pacific tropical storm which hit central America recently
16. Survey on preferred FDI destinations:
By ‘European attractiveness survey': 1. China 2. W. Europe 3. Central and Eastern Europe 4. India
By E & Y : 1. China 2. India 3. Central & Eastern Europe
17. Pollachi coir industry has developed into a major coir centre accounting for a close to Rs. 250 crore export of which Rs. 210 crore is from the coir pith and fibre exports alone. With this it has sought for obtaining the tag of Town of Export Excellence
18. Miss Ellie, a small, bug-eyed Chinese Crested Hairless dog whose pimples and lolling tongue helped her win Animal Planet's ‘World's Ugliest Dog' contest in 2009, has died at age 17 after a career in resort show business.
19.Vaxiflu-S - India's first indigenously manufactured anti-influenza vaccine that will protect people against the A(H1N1) flu, manufactured by Zydus-Cadila Healthcare
20.K.G. Balakrishnan - appointed as the sixth chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
21. Gershwin Prize, the highest American award for popular song - awarded to Sir Paul McCartney in 2010.Created in 2007 by the Library of Congress, the prize is named for brothers George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, whose contributions to popular music included songs such as "I Got Rhythm," "Embraceable You," and "Someone to Watch Over Me," the orchestral pieces Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, and the opera Porgy and Bess. The first recipient of the award was Paul Simon
22.World'slargest IPO so far - China's biggest bank, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, raising at least $19.1 billion in a dual listing on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges
The previous record was a $18.4-billion initial stock offer by Japanese mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo in 1998.
The proposed IPO by Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) in China may overtake Industrial & Commercial Bank of China as the biggest IPO in the world
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
2nd June - CA
1. The Naga Issue
Timelines:
1816 - Burma invaded naga inhabited areas and Assam
1826 - British East India Company took control of Assam in 1826, expanded its domain over
modern Nagaland
Till 1892 - all of modern Nagaland except the Tuensang area in the northeast was governed by
the British. It was politically amalgamated into Assam
1918 - Naga nationalist movement to form a state of their own
1947 - After independedence Naga inhabited areas remained a part of Assam which created
discontent among them. Naga National Council wreaked havoc in the state.
1955 - The Union government sent the Indian Army in 1955, to restore order
1957 - The Government began diplomatic talks with representatives of Naga tribes, and the
Naga Hills district of Assam and the Tuensang frontier were united in a single political entity that became a Union territory, directly administered by the Central government with a large degree of autonomy. This was not satisfactory to the tribes, however, and soon agitation and violence increased across the state—included attacks on Army and government institutions, as well as civil disobedience and non-payment of taxes
1963 - Statehood granted to Nagaland
1964 - A ‘Peace Mission’ was formed which resulted in the signing of an Agreement for Suspension of Operation (AGSOP) with the insurgents on 6th Spetember
Till 1967 - But violence continued and six rounds of talks between the Centre and insurgents
failed. The ‘Peace Mission’ broke in 1967.
1972 - The Government of India banned the NNC under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 and launched a massive counter-insurgency operation
1975 - the Shillong Accord was signed between NNC and the Government of India where the NNC cadres accepted “without condition, the Constitution of India”.
1980 - A section of the NNC rebelled against the accord and formed the National Socialist
Council of Nagaland (NSCN)
1981 - Split in NSCN into Isak-Muivah faction (NSCN-IM) and the Khaplang faction (NSCN-K).
Their objective : to establish Nagalim (greater Nagaland) comprising Naga inhabited areas of
Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring Myanmar
1997 - Prime Minister Atal Bihari vajpayee announced that the Government after talks with Isak group of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) declared a cease-fire or cessation of operations
2001 - ceasefire agreement with NSCN-K
Despite the ceasefire the militancy has never stopped in nagaland.The militant groups have been continuously collecting ‘tax’ from the people and business establishments. This money is collected from all sources, including from Government departments and the extortion network spreads over not only the cities like Dimapur, Kohima and various District headquarters and townships but also over almost all the 1317 villages of the state. ‘Tax’ is also collected from commercial vehicles plying on National Highway 39, en route, to Manipur. Neither the Central nor the state Government is taking any action against this ‘tax collection’ by the militants
The recent problems:
Cause: The recent violence erupted when Mr. muviah's visit to his birthplace Somdal in Ukhrul district of Manipur was banned by Manipur government.
1st June 2010 - the first peace talk between the union government and NSCN(IM)
What does NSCN want? - To form Nagalim by integrating Naga-inhabited areas in Assam, Manipur.
Obstacles - Objections by Manipur and Assam to secede thsoe areas to the proposed Nagalim
Interlocutor for governemnt - R.S.Pandey
2. President's rule has been impopsed in Jharkhand for the 2nd time in a span of 2 years
3. “A Disappearing Number" - a highly acclaimed play created and produced by the British theatre company, Complicite, which takes as its starting point the story of the grand collaboration between the Indian mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and the Cambridge University's renowned mathematician, Godfrey Harold Hardy
4. The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The 2010 session is going ot take place in Hyderabad
5.The Man Who Knew Infinity - biography of Srinivasa Ramanujam by Robert Kanigel
6.Tamil Nadu celebrates 22 December (Ramanujan's birthday) as 'State IT Day'
7. The retail price of gold in India crossed the Rs19,000-mark for 10 gm for the first time ever on account of a surge in global spot and futures markets as well as a weaker rupee, but settled at Rs18,700 by market closing time.
8.Pipavav Shipyard Limited (PSL) - the first private sector port in India. it is controlled and operated by the AP Møller Group (Maersk) of Denmark, one of the largest maritime groups in the world
Location: The shipyard complex is located on the south western coast of Gujarat, about 130 km from Bhavnagar to its east and Diu, about 90 km to its west
9. Louis Vuitton has designed the case for holdign the World cup trophy.From the tournament's beginning in 1930, the World Cup trophy has always been transported in an armored metal case -- largely for reasons of security.
10. Kingfisher Airlines has been voted the best Indian carrier and Finnair the best in north Europe in a global survey by an independent research agency - often called the Oscars of airline industry.
11. Bangladesh has signed an accord to finalise transhipment deal with India to allow Indian goods to be transported to its northeastern Tripura State.
Ashuganj - to be the new port of call
Shilghat - an already existing port-of-call
Through this accord, heavy Indian consignments for the Palatana power Project in Tripura will be transported through Bangladesh
Timelines:
1816 - Burma invaded naga inhabited areas and Assam
1826 - British East India Company took control of Assam in 1826, expanded its domain over
modern Nagaland
Till 1892 - all of modern Nagaland except the Tuensang area in the northeast was governed by
the British. It was politically amalgamated into Assam
1918 - Naga nationalist movement to form a state of their own
1947 - After independedence Naga inhabited areas remained a part of Assam which created
discontent among them. Naga National Council wreaked havoc in the state.
1955 - The Union government sent the Indian Army in 1955, to restore order
1957 - The Government began diplomatic talks with representatives of Naga tribes, and the
Naga Hills district of Assam and the Tuensang frontier were united in a single political entity that became a Union territory, directly administered by the Central government with a large degree of autonomy. This was not satisfactory to the tribes, however, and soon agitation and violence increased across the state—included attacks on Army and government institutions, as well as civil disobedience and non-payment of taxes
1963 - Statehood granted to Nagaland
1964 - A ‘Peace Mission’ was formed which resulted in the signing of an Agreement for Suspension of Operation (AGSOP) with the insurgents on 6th Spetember
Till 1967 - But violence continued and six rounds of talks between the Centre and insurgents
failed. The ‘Peace Mission’ broke in 1967.
1972 - The Government of India banned the NNC under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 and launched a massive counter-insurgency operation
1975 - the Shillong Accord was signed between NNC and the Government of India where the NNC cadres accepted “without condition, the Constitution of India”.
1980 - A section of the NNC rebelled against the accord and formed the National Socialist
Council of Nagaland (NSCN)
1981 - Split in NSCN into Isak-Muivah faction (NSCN-IM) and the Khaplang faction (NSCN-K).
Their objective : to establish Nagalim (greater Nagaland) comprising Naga inhabited areas of
Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring Myanmar
1997 - Prime Minister Atal Bihari vajpayee announced that the Government after talks with Isak group of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) declared a cease-fire or cessation of operations
2001 - ceasefire agreement with NSCN-K
Despite the ceasefire the militancy has never stopped in nagaland.The militant groups have been continuously collecting ‘tax’ from the people and business establishments. This money is collected from all sources, including from Government departments and the extortion network spreads over not only the cities like Dimapur, Kohima and various District headquarters and townships but also over almost all the 1317 villages of the state. ‘Tax’ is also collected from commercial vehicles plying on National Highway 39, en route, to Manipur. Neither the Central nor the state Government is taking any action against this ‘tax collection’ by the militants
The recent problems:
Cause: The recent violence erupted when Mr. muviah's visit to his birthplace Somdal in Ukhrul district of Manipur was banned by Manipur government.
1st June 2010 - the first peace talk between the union government and NSCN(IM)
What does NSCN want? - To form Nagalim by integrating Naga-inhabited areas in Assam, Manipur.
Obstacles - Objections by Manipur and Assam to secede thsoe areas to the proposed Nagalim
Interlocutor for governemnt - R.S.Pandey
2. President's rule has been impopsed in Jharkhand for the 2nd time in a span of 2 years
3. “A Disappearing Number" - a highly acclaimed play created and produced by the British theatre company, Complicite, which takes as its starting point the story of the grand collaboration between the Indian mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and the Cambridge University's renowned mathematician, Godfrey Harold Hardy
4. The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The 2010 session is going ot take place in Hyderabad
5.The Man Who Knew Infinity - biography of Srinivasa Ramanujam by Robert Kanigel
6.Tamil Nadu celebrates 22 December (Ramanujan's birthday) as 'State IT Day'
7. The retail price of gold in India crossed the Rs19,000-mark for 10 gm for the first time ever on account of a surge in global spot and futures markets as well as a weaker rupee, but settled at Rs18,700 by market closing time.
8.Pipavav Shipyard Limited (PSL) - the first private sector port in India. it is controlled and operated by the AP Møller Group (Maersk) of Denmark, one of the largest maritime groups in the world
Location: The shipyard complex is located on the south western coast of Gujarat, about 130 km from Bhavnagar to its east and Diu, about 90 km to its west
9. Louis Vuitton has designed the case for holdign the World cup trophy.From the tournament's beginning in 1930, the World Cup trophy has always been transported in an armored metal case -- largely for reasons of security.
10. Kingfisher Airlines has been voted the best Indian carrier and Finnair the best in north Europe in a global survey by an independent research agency - often called the Oscars of airline industry.
11. Bangladesh has signed an accord to finalise transhipment deal with India to allow Indian goods to be transported to its northeastern Tripura State.
Ashuganj - to be the new port of call
Shilghat - an already existing port-of-call
Through this accord, heavy Indian consignments for the Palatana power Project in Tripura will be transported through Bangladesh
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
1st June - CA
1. Updates from Indus Water Commissioner-level talks
- Pakistan withdraws its objection to the construction of Uri-II (On Jhelum river) and Chutak hydel power projects(on Suru river) in Jammu and Kashmir.
- Pakistan's objection Baghalier project on Chenab river came to an end only when World bank arbitrated the dispute in 2007.
- The Kishanganga project is still under dispute. Under the Indus Water Treaty, India has rights to the waters of the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas rivers while Pakistan has rights to the waters of the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum. All the rivers flow from India to Pakistan.
The Kishanganga project involves the diversion of water from one tributary of the Jhelum river to another, which according to India is permissable under the treaty. Pakistan says it is not.
2. S. Ramakrishnan, Director (Projects), Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, has been appointed Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He took charge as Director on Monday.
3.The LPSC has the responsibility of developing rocket stages powered by liquid propellants and cryogenic propellants for ISRO missions. While the LPSC centre at Valiamala, near Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, develops the liquid stages, its centre at Mahendragiri, near Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, has massive facilities for testing rocket stages fuelled by liquid propellants and cryogenic propellants. The cryogenic stage is also developed at Mahendragiri. The LPSC centre at Bangalore develops satellite propulsion systems.
4. New UGC guidelines:
- As per the new UGC (Institutions Deemed-to-be Universities) Regulations 2010, notified on May 21, the chancellor of a deemed university, appointed by the sponsoring society or trust, will have to be an eminent educationalist or a distinguished public figure other than the president of the sponsoring society or his/her relative. The chancellor can be a member of neither the society nor the trust.
- It is mandatory for an institution to be in existence for at least 15 years before seeking deemed university status, against the earlier 10 years, except under the category of ‘De-novo Institutions' or Innovative Universities
- The proposed deemed-to-be university will have to be registered either as a non-profit society under the Societies Registration Act or as a non-profit trust under the Public Trust Act
4. Societies Registration Act
- Societies Registration Act is a Central Act. However, ‘unincorporated literary, scientific, religious and other societies and associations’ is a State Subject (Entry 32 of List II of Seventh Schedule to Constitution, i.e. State List). Thus, normally, there should have been only State Laws on this subject. However, Societies Registration Act was passed in 1860, i.e. much before bifurcation of power between State and Centre was specified. Though the Act is still in force, it has been specifically repealed in many States and those States have their own Acts. Thus, practically, the Central Act is mainly of academic interest.
- Societies Registration Act is administered by the Corporate Affairs Ministry
- BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act.
The government is considering legislative action to bring all-India organisations such as the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) within the purview of the Societies Registration Act to make them more accountable.
5. Coastal regulation zone
Coastal regulation zone is the boundary from the high tide line upto 500m in the land -ward side. Area between the low tide line and high tide line. In the case of rivers, creeks and backwaters, the distance from the high tide level shall apply to both sides and this distance shall not be less than 100 meters or the width of the creek, river or backwater whichever is less.( Ministry of Environment and Forests Notification,Feb 1994).There are four type of category in coastal regulation zone .
Category - I (CRZ I)
Areas that are ecologically sensitive and important such as national parks , marine parks , sanctuaries , reserve forests , wildlife habitats , mangroves, corals/coral reefs , areas close to breeding and spawning grounds of fish and other marine life, areas of outstanding natural beauty. historically important and heritage areas, area rich in genetic diversity, areas likely to be inundated due to rise in sea level consequent upon global warming and such other areas as notified by government from time to time .
Category - II (CRZ I I)
Area that have already been developed up to or close to the shoreline. For this purpose ,developed area is referred to as area within the municipal limits or other legally designated urban areas which is already substantially build up ad which has been provided with drainage and approach roads and other infrastructure facilities such as water supply and sewerage lines.
Category - III (CRZ III)
Area that are relatively undisturbed ad those which do not belong to either I or II . These will include coastal zoe in the rural areas developed or undeveloped and also areas within municipal limits or in other legally designated urban areas which are not substantially built up.
Category - IV (CRZ IV)
Coastal stretches in the Andaman & Nicobar islands , Lakshadeep and other small islands except those designated as category I, II and III .
6. The Adidas Jabulani is the official match ball for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.Jabulani means "rejoice" in Zulu, and was developed at Loughborough University, UK.
- A gold version of the Jabulani ball, the Jo'bulani, was announced as the ball for the World Cup Final. The name of the ball inspired by the city of Johannesburg, which is often nicknamed Jo'burg and will be the site of the 2010 Final
Economic terms demystified
Have made an attempt to explain some common terms that we come across in newspapers like Repo , CRR, SLR in layman's language. Hope you'd find it useful. Your suggestions are always welcome.
1. What is a Repo?
Repo stands for repurchase agreement. It is an agreement between a borrower and a lender wherein the lender lends cash to the borrower which deposits a financial security as collateral. The borrower also promises to repurchase the security by paying a fixed price to the lender at a future date. So it boils down to a scenario where the borrower sells a security to the lender and repurchases it when the contract comes to an end.
Let's say bank A is in urgent need of funds for 7 days. So it approaches bank B (which is dealer in Repos). Bank B says I can lend you funds but with two conditions:
i. You need to keep the financial security as collateral
ii. You have to repurchase the security after 7 days at a fixed price
So this translates to an agreement where Bank B is the lender and Bank A is the borrower. Bank A borrows cash by selling the security to B and B in turn sells it back to A at a higher price.
Let's give some numbers to this transaction. Bank A needs INR 1000 for 7 days. So Bank B lends INR 1000 to A today with the promise that it'd sell the security back to A after 7 days at a price higher than 1000. So it is as simple as a transaction where somebody gives you a short term loan today and collects the principal and interest after 7 days from you.
The difference between the loan amount taken today and the repurchase price of the borrower after 7 days is the interest paid by the borrower to the lender.
For the party selling the security (and agreeing to repurchase it in the future) it is a repo; for the party on the other end of the transaction, (buying the security and agreeing to sell in the future) it is a reverse repurchase agreement.
2. What is a repo rate?
In Indian banking scenario, repo rate is the rate at which our banks borrow rupees from RBI. Try to draw a parallel with the repo agreement that we discussed above. Here the Commercial Banks (CBs) are in a repo agreement with RBI. Whenever commercial banks have any shortage of funds then they can borrow from RBI at the prevailing repo rate.A reduction in the repo rate will help banks to get money at a cheaper rate. When the repo rate increases borrowing from RBI becomes more expensive. What does this imply for people like you and me? When RBI decreases repo rate it becomes easier for CBs to borrow short term funds from RBI. In this way RBI injects liquidity into the system.
3. What is a reverse repo rate?
It is the rate at which banks park their short-term excess liquidity with the RBI. The RBI uses this tool when it feels there is too much money floating in the banking system. An increase in the reverse repo rate means that the RBI will borrow money from the banks at a higher rate of interest. As a result, banks would prefer to keep their money with the RBI Just try to draw a parallel between the role of RBI here and the role of bank B in the 1st example.
4. What is CRR?
It stands for Cash Reserve Ratio.
The primary business model for commercial banks is that they accept deposits and disburse loans. Deposits are liabilities for banks since they owe principal and interest to the depositors. loans are assets for the bank since the borrowers owe money to the bank and hence banks see an income generating ability in loans. The difference between the deposit rate and the lending rate is their profit. Hence lending rate is always greater than the deposit rate. However since banks deal with money of others they can't function as per their whims and fancies. They need to be regulated. Here comes RBI into the picture.
Banks in India are required to hold a certain proportion of the deposits in the form of cash. However, actually Banks don’t hold these as cash with themselves, but deposit such cash with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) / currency chests, which is considered as equivalent to holding cash with themselves.. This minimum ratio (that is the part of the total deposits to be held as cash) is stipulated by the RBI and is known as the CRR or Cash Reserve Ratio. Thus, When a bank’s deposits increase by Rs100, and if the cash reserve ratio is 10%, the banks will have to hold additional Rs 10 with RBI and Bank will be able to use only Rs 90 for investments and lending / credit purpose. Therefore, higher the ratio (i.e. CRR), the lower is the amount that banks will be able to use for lending and investment.
This power of RBI to reduce the amount that can be lent by increasing the CRR, makes it an instrument in the hands of a central bank through which it can control the amount that banks lend. Thus, it is a tool used by RBI to control liquidity in the banking system.
5. What is SLR?
It stands for Statutory Liquidity Ratio. This term is used by bankers and indicates the minimum percentage of deposits that the bank has to maintain in form of gold, cash or other approved securities. Thus, we can say that it is ratio of cash and some other approved to liabilities (deposits) It regulates the credit growth in India.
6. What is Bank Rate ?
This is the rate at which central bank (RBI) lends money to other banks or financial institutions. If the bank rate goes up, long-term interest rates also tend to move up, and vice-versa. Thus, it can said that in case bank rate is hiked, in all likelihood banks will hike their own lending rates to ensure and they continue to make a profit
7. What is the difference between Bank rate and repo rate?
Bank rate indicates the long term outlook of RBI on interest rates while repo rate increase or decrease is used as a tool for short term liquidity injection into/out of the system.
8. What is Prime Lending Rate?
Interest rate charged by banks to their largest, most secure, and creditworthy customers on short-term loans. This rate is used as a guide for computing interest rates for other borrowers.
RBI changes prime lending rate system to base rate
Reason:In the existing system, banks are free to fix their PLRs. Most of the variable rate loans, like home loan and some of the term loans are pegged against PLR. This means, if the PLR is not changed, the loan rates remain the same. Banks have taken advantage of existing PLR system at the cost of their borrowers. When interest rates increase, banks hike their PLRs immediately, leading to rise in the home loan rates. But, when interest rates fall, they don't reduce PLRs. Because of this, the existing customers are not benefited by the lowering of the interest rates.
Moreover, there is no transparency in the way banks treated top corporate clients and common borrowers. Banks normally lend at much lower rates, as low as 5-6 per cent, to woo corporate borrowers while common borrowers pay a much higher rate.
What is new in base rate? :
Home loans and other variable loans will be pegged against a base rate. As the new base rate is fixed on the basis of cost of funds, any change in the interest rate will reflect in the base rate. And therefore, it will be automatically passed on to the existing customers also. Banks are unlikely to be given any exemption on short-term loans (allowing them to lend below the base rate to corporate clients) in the base rate model three categories of loans are exempt from from the base rate's ambit. they are -- staff loans, loans against fixed deposits and loans under the differential rate of interest scheme
When is it going to be effective from?
This was earlier slated to be effective from April 1st. But due to demand from banks to postpone, this has been postponed to July 1st.
1. What is a Repo?
Repo stands for repurchase agreement. It is an agreement between a borrower and a lender wherein the lender lends cash to the borrower which deposits a financial security as collateral. The borrower also promises to repurchase the security by paying a fixed price to the lender at a future date. So it boils down to a scenario where the borrower sells a security to the lender and repurchases it when the contract comes to an end.
Let's say bank A is in urgent need of funds for 7 days. So it approaches bank B (which is dealer in Repos). Bank B says I can lend you funds but with two conditions:
i. You need to keep the financial security as collateral
ii. You have to repurchase the security after 7 days at a fixed price
So this translates to an agreement where Bank B is the lender and Bank A is the borrower. Bank A borrows cash by selling the security to B and B in turn sells it back to A at a higher price.
Let's give some numbers to this transaction. Bank A needs INR 1000 for 7 days. So Bank B lends INR 1000 to A today with the promise that it'd sell the security back to A after 7 days at a price higher than 1000. So it is as simple as a transaction where somebody gives you a short term loan today and collects the principal and interest after 7 days from you.
The difference between the loan amount taken today and the repurchase price of the borrower after 7 days is the interest paid by the borrower to the lender.
For the party selling the security (and agreeing to repurchase it in the future) it is a repo; for the party on the other end of the transaction, (buying the security and agreeing to sell in the future) it is a reverse repurchase agreement.
2. What is a repo rate?
In Indian banking scenario, repo rate is the rate at which our banks borrow rupees from RBI. Try to draw a parallel with the repo agreement that we discussed above. Here the Commercial Banks (CBs) are in a repo agreement with RBI. Whenever commercial banks have any shortage of funds then they can borrow from RBI at the prevailing repo rate.A reduction in the repo rate will help banks to get money at a cheaper rate. When the repo rate increases borrowing from RBI becomes more expensive. What does this imply for people like you and me? When RBI decreases repo rate it becomes easier for CBs to borrow short term funds from RBI. In this way RBI injects liquidity into the system.
3. What is a reverse repo rate?
It is the rate at which banks park their short-term excess liquidity with the RBI. The RBI uses this tool when it feels there is too much money floating in the banking system. An increase in the reverse repo rate means that the RBI will borrow money from the banks at a higher rate of interest. As a result, banks would prefer to keep their money with the RBI Just try to draw a parallel between the role of RBI here and the role of bank B in the 1st example.
4. What is CRR?
It stands for Cash Reserve Ratio.
The primary business model for commercial banks is that they accept deposits and disburse loans. Deposits are liabilities for banks since they owe principal and interest to the depositors. loans are assets for the bank since the borrowers owe money to the bank and hence banks see an income generating ability in loans. The difference between the deposit rate and the lending rate is their profit. Hence lending rate is always greater than the deposit rate. However since banks deal with money of others they can't function as per their whims and fancies. They need to be regulated. Here comes RBI into the picture.
Banks in India are required to hold a certain proportion of the deposits in the form of cash. However, actually Banks don’t hold these as cash with themselves, but deposit such cash with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) / currency chests, which is considered as equivalent to holding cash with themselves.. This minimum ratio (that is the part of the total deposits to be held as cash) is stipulated by the RBI and is known as the CRR or Cash Reserve Ratio. Thus, When a bank’s deposits increase by Rs100, and if the cash reserve ratio is 10%, the banks will have to hold additional Rs 10 with RBI and Bank will be able to use only Rs 90 for investments and lending / credit purpose. Therefore, higher the ratio (i.e. CRR), the lower is the amount that banks will be able to use for lending and investment.
This power of RBI to reduce the amount that can be lent by increasing the CRR, makes it an instrument in the hands of a central bank through which it can control the amount that banks lend. Thus, it is a tool used by RBI to control liquidity in the banking system.
5. What is SLR?
It stands for Statutory Liquidity Ratio. This term is used by bankers and indicates the minimum percentage of deposits that the bank has to maintain in form of gold, cash or other approved securities. Thus, we can say that it is ratio of cash and some other approved to liabilities (deposits) It regulates the credit growth in India.
6. What is Bank Rate ?
This is the rate at which central bank (RBI) lends money to other banks or financial institutions. If the bank rate goes up, long-term interest rates also tend to move up, and vice-versa. Thus, it can said that in case bank rate is hiked, in all likelihood banks will hike their own lending rates to ensure and they continue to make a profit
7. What is the difference between Bank rate and repo rate?
Bank rate indicates the long term outlook of RBI on interest rates while repo rate increase or decrease is used as a tool for short term liquidity injection into/out of the system.
8. What is Prime Lending Rate?
Interest rate charged by banks to their largest, most secure, and creditworthy customers on short-term loans. This rate is used as a guide for computing interest rates for other borrowers.
RBI changes prime lending rate system to base rate
Reason:In the existing system, banks are free to fix their PLRs. Most of the variable rate loans, like home loan and some of the term loans are pegged against PLR. This means, if the PLR is not changed, the loan rates remain the same. Banks have taken advantage of existing PLR system at the cost of their borrowers. When interest rates increase, banks hike their PLRs immediately, leading to rise in the home loan rates. But, when interest rates fall, they don't reduce PLRs. Because of this, the existing customers are not benefited by the lowering of the interest rates.
Moreover, there is no transparency in the way banks treated top corporate clients and common borrowers. Banks normally lend at much lower rates, as low as 5-6 per cent, to woo corporate borrowers while common borrowers pay a much higher rate.
What is new in base rate? :
Home loans and other variable loans will be pegged against a base rate. As the new base rate is fixed on the basis of cost of funds, any change in the interest rate will reflect in the base rate. And therefore, it will be automatically passed on to the existing customers also. Banks are unlikely to be given any exemption on short-term loans (allowing them to lend below the base rate to corporate clients) in the base rate model three categories of loans are exempt from from the base rate's ambit. they are -- staff loans, loans against fixed deposits and loans under the differential rate of interest scheme
When is it going to be effective from?
This was earlier slated to be effective from April 1st. But due to demand from banks to postpone, this has been postponed to July 1st.
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