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.