It's been long since I posted anything..I am sorry about that. Would like to make up for it by posting the current affairs for the months of August and September in multiple parts. Here goes the 1st part.
1. Gita Gopinath’s ground-breaking research is helping economists get a better understanding of the financial crisis in Greece and Iceland. Professor Gopinath has recently been named tenured professor at Harvard University’s high-brow economics department and she thus becomes the third woman ever and the first Indian after Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to receive such as outstanding honour.
2.India, the world’s second biggest wheat producer, has developed 22 wheat varieties, which are resistant to the deadly Ug99 fungal disease
Ug99, a fungal disease originated in Uganda in 1999, belongs to a race of black stem rust, which brings 100 per cent crop loss unlike other rusts that partially affect the yield.
3.K M Mathew, doyen of Malayalam journalism and chief editor of Malayala Manorama daily, K M Mathew, passed away
4.Babli dam row:
Maharashtra constructed the small barrage to pump about 2.7 tmc (80 million cu.m) to supply drinking water to farmers of Babli villages and residents of Dharmabad taluk of the backward Nanded district.
According to the state, such small structures do not require Central Water Commission (CWC) permission and on top of it, the barrage is supposed be well within their allocated quantum of water from Godavari. They claim that the water will be used only for drinking purpose.
Andhra Pradesh’s contention is that Babli dam is being constructed within the water impounded area of Sri Ramsagar dam. It is actually within the reservoir of Sri Ramsagar and therefore the construction is illegal and unethical.
Political parties of Andhra Pradesh are also promoting the much larger fear that Babli can effectively suck 60 tmc of water, half of Sri Ramsagar, and during critical times there may not be water for irrigation. So the entire Northern Telangana might become a desert and this might even spread to the Godavari delta.
5. Somdev Devvarman was ranked No. 96 in the latest rankings released by the ATP
Devvarman became the sixth Indian men's tennis player after ATP computer rankings started in August 1973, to figure in the top-100 behind Vijay Amritraj (16), Ramesh Krishnan (23), Leander Paes (73), Anand Amritraj (74) and Sashi Menon (87).
6. The Jantar Mantar in Jaipur is now a World Heritage Monument. The 34th session of the World Heritage Committee, presently underway in Brasilia, has inscribed Jantar Mantar in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's World Heritage List
The Jantar Mantar in Jaipur was chosen since ‘it is the most significant and the best preserved of India's historic observatories.'
Located outside the city palace, this large stone observatory with its many instruments was built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in the 18th century. It is one of the one of the four existing astronomical observatories in India. The others are located in Varanasi, Delhi and Ujjain
The Samrat Yantra in Jaipur is one of the largest sundials in the world, with its gnomon raising about 73 feet above its base.
India had also submitted the Matheran Light Railway line for consideration as an extension of the Mountain Railways of India, which includes the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Nilgiri Railway and Kalka-Shimla Railway that are already inscribed as heritage sites.
The other international sites added to the list this year include, 11 Australian convict sites, the palace ensemble at ad-Dir'iyah in Saudi Arabia, Tabriz historic bazaar complex in Iran and the natural site of the Central Highlands in Sri Lanka
7.Securities and Insurance Laws (Amendment and Validation) Bill 2010:
The bill provides for setting up of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), a joint mechanism headed by the finance minister, to resolve differences among the sectoral regulators such as SEBI, IRDA and PFRDA.
The bill seeks to amend the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the Insurance Act, 1938 as also the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992.
This bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha
8.The mealy bug: is a polyphagous sucking pest that infests crops such as cotton, papaya, tapioca, mulberry, jatropha and other cultivable crops. The pest sucks the sap of the plant and weakens it. The honey dew secreted by the bug results in the formation of a black sooty mould that causes further damage to the crops.
9.Renowned Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has won the first prize at the 8th International Sand Sculpture Championship in Berlin for his sculpture that showcased the effects of global warming. With this, Mr Pattnaik wins Sand Sculpture Championship for 5th time
10. A landmark international treaty to ban cluster munitions took effect on 1st August, requiring signatories to stop the use, production and transfer of the deadly weapons
The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) is an international treaty that prohibits the use of cluster bombs, a type of explosive weapon which scatters submunitions ("bomblets") over an area. The convention was adopted on 30 May 2008 in Dublin,and was opened for signature on 3 December 2008 in Oslo. It entered into force on 1 August 2010, six months after it was ratified by 30 states.As of 1 August 2010, 38 states have ratified it and another 70 have signed but not yet ratified it.Most major producers of cluster munitions and their components, including Brazil, India, Israel, Pakistan, the People's Republic of China, Russia, and the United States have not signed the Convention.
Cluster Munition:
The munitions split open before impact and scatter multiple -- often hundreds -- of smaller submunitions, or plastic bomblets, the size and shape of a tennis ball or a table lighter over a wide area.
Many of them fail to explode immediately and can lie hidden for years, killing and maiming civilians, including children, even decades after the original conflict is over in countries such as Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam
In Laos, which will host the first meeting of the convention in November, some 300 people are still hit every year by cluster bombs dating to the Vietnam war
11. Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests, will be one of the 21 members of the United Nations' (UN) newly formed High-level Panel on Global Sustainability.
12. The Federation of Indo-Israeli Chambers of Commerce (FIICC) honoured Ratan Tata, bestowing the 'Businessman of the Decade' honour on the Tata Group chairman
13.Setting up of a new farm research institute named after Borlaug prooposed:
Borlaug Institute of South Asia The institute is likely to be set up on a 500-acre plot at Pusa in Bihar. It is being established in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and will work in close coordination with Borlaug Institute of International Agriculture based in Texas and other research centres in South Asian countries.
14.SKS Microfinance becomes the first microfinance firm in India and the second in the world to get listed on a bourse
15. The East India Company, the world's first multinational company, is reborn after 400 years. Sanjiv Mehta, an India-born Briton relaunched it on Independence Day-eve. Mehta is opening a luxury food store in Mayfair, London, which he says would eventually take the company to India once again
The British East India Company was dissolved in 1854 and a small part of the joint stock company survived to trade in tea and coffee under the East India Company brand name
16.Country's oldest private sector bank, Bank of Rajasthan Ltd, has become part of ICICI bank Ltd.
This is ICICI Bank's third acquisition after Bank of Madura in 2000-01 and Sangli Bank in 2006-07
17. Computer peripherals maker TVS Electronics has introduced India's first computer keyboard with a key dedicated to the new rupee symbol.
18. Manmohan Singh on Sunday became the third Prime Minister to hoist the national flag from the ramparts of Red Fort for the seventh time in a row, after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
By hoisting the tricolour this morning, Dr. Singh overtook his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had the honour of unfurling the national flag from the majestic Red Fort six times
The historic Mughal monument has seen Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, unfurling the national flag 17 times. He is closely followed by his daughter Indira Gandhi who had the honour of unfurling the flag 16 times.
19.Arjun Atwal became the first Indian and just the sixth Asian-born player to win on the PGA Tour when he secured a one-stroke victory at the Wyndham Championship
20.Why is all this fuss about nuclear liablity bill?
India-US signing civilian nuclear deal in 2008 -> separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and place all its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and, in exchange, the United States agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India -> this is where the US suppliers come in to the picture
21. United Stock Exchange (USE), India's newest stock exchange for currency derivatives
22. Within a month of approving the 600 MW Loharinag Pala dam on the Bhagirathi River, a major source of the Ganges in Uttarakhand, the government has decided to scrap the project. The volte face came after the intervention of the Congress top brass, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
23. US billionaire George Soros is said to have acquired a 4-per cent stake in Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for about $35 million, valuing the oldest bourse in Asia at around $875 million.
The 135-year-old BSE, which has the world's largest number of companies - 4900 companies - listed on it.
The market capitalisation of the companies listed on the BSE was $1.28 trillion as of February 2010, making it then the largest stock exchange in South Asia and the 12th largest in the world
Recently, George Kaiser, one of the top 50 richest people in the world and among the top 50 American philanthropists, bought 3.9 per cent in BSE through his private equity firm Oklahoma-based Argonaut Ventures, while Canadian fund manager Urbana Corp hiked its stake to 2.6 per cent.
Other major global shareholders in BSE are Deutsche Boerse and Singapore Stock Exchange, both of which hold 5 per cent each, while Atticus Mauritius, Acacia Banyan and Caldwell Asset Management also hold small stakes.
24.Garima-II:
Another cloned buffalo calf was born at the Karnal-based National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) on Sunday, where two calves were cloned a year ago
This buffalo calf was born through the new and advanced ‘hand-guided cloning technique'.
This cloned buffalo calf is different from the earlier clone calf because, in this case, the used donor cell was an embryonic cell
25.Theme of World health Day, 2011; antimicrobial resistance(AMR)
26.The UN Conference on Trade and Development study -- World Investment Report 2010 -- ranks India as the 9th most attractive destination for foreign direct investment, up from 13th last year. It received $35 billion in FDI in 2009.
27. Top three spam-sending countries: 1. US 2. India 3. Brazil
28. The ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises has conferred `Miniratna' status on two central government enterprises - Bridge and Roof Company (I) Ltd and Bharat Pumps and Compressor Ltd.
Bridge and Roof Company (I) Ltd was granted Category - I Miniratna status while Bharat Pumps and Compressor Ltd was granted Category II Miniratna status.
For granting Category I Miniratna status, the CPSE should have made profit in the last three years continuously, with a Rs30-crore or above pre-tax profit at least in one of the three years and should have a positive net worth.
For Category II Miniratna status, the CPSE should have made profit for the last three years continuously and should have a positive net worth.
29. Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) launched mobile-based trading, becoming the first stock exchange in the country to extend internet trading to the mobile platform.
30. India raised outsourcing ban and related issues in Trade Policy Forum (TPF):
The sharp rise in US work visa fee for IT professionals as also the state of Ohio imposing a ban on outsourcing are expected to figure among the more prominent issues that will be discussed in a key India-US trade dialogue in New Delhi ahead of president Barack Obama's visit to India.
In 2009-10 the bilateral trade between the two countries touched $36.5 billion with the US accounting for around 60 per cent of India's total $50 billion IT and IT enabled services exports
What are India's chances of contesting Ohio's ban on outsourcing by government departments?
Unfortunately India finds herself on a sticky wicket on this count. The reason being, India is not a member of GPA(Government Procurement) the only legally binding agreement in the WTO setting fair rules for public purchases.
The Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is to date the only legally binding agreement in the WTO focusing on the subject of government procurement. Its present version was negotiated in parallel with the Uruguay Round in 1994, and entered into force on 1 January 1996. It is a plurilateral treaty administered by a Committee on Government Procurement, which includes the WTO Members that are Parties to the GPA, and thus have rights and obligations under the Agreement.
India became an 'observer' member of the GPA in February this year. Even if it wants to become a full-fledged member, it would take a long time, since not even the accession negotiations have started.
While the US is a member of the GPA, its coverage in regard to software procurement is limited to the federal government and not states. With this backdrop, experts feel that India would not be able to challenge the Ohio ban on offshore outsourcing.
31. Elephant to get a new status:
Government has decided to declare the jumbo as a national heritage animal
This comes in the wake of last year's move to have the Gangetic dolphin declared as the national aquatic animal, as it symbolises the health of the country's rivers
32. zEnterprise - world's fastest computer chip that can process information at a record breaking speed of 5.2 GHz.
The z196 processor is a four-core chip that contains 1.4 billion transistors on a 512-square millimeter (mm) surface
33. Public Interest Disclosures and the Protection to Persons Making the Disclosures Bill 2010:The Bill to protect whistleblowers, introduced in the Lok Sabha
proposed legislation has two main aims:
a. to protect the identity of those who call attention to corruption and misuse of power in an organisation,
b. to safeguard them against punitive disciplinary action.
34.Polavaram controversy:
The idea of the dam was first floated in the early 1940s but it remained a dream for the state government, an ambitious venture that stayed on election manifestos
The 150-feet-high dam, called the Polavaram Indira Sagar Dam, will create a reservoir spreading over the three districts of West Godavari, East Godavari and Khammam. The tail-end of this reservoir is more than 150 km away, touching Bastar in Chhattisgarh and Malkangiri in Orissa. The dam will harness 170 thousand million cubic feet water (tmcft), through two canals that spread out as arms on either side: the right canal which will take 80 tmcft to river Krishna and the left canal, which will help irrigate 7.2 lakh acres in the north coastal Andhra districts and take 23 tmcft to Visakhapatnam, which faces a perennial water shortage.
According to government estimates, the dam will submerge villages in the three Andhra districts of West Godavari, East Godavari and Khammam, in Bastar in Chhattisgarh and in Malkangiri, Orissa. Besides, nearly two lakh people will be displaced.
Orissa says 10 villages in Motu tehsil, nine of them dominated by Koya tribes, will be submerged in Malkangiri district
35. National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR) develops new transgenic potato:
- developed through transfer of genes of amaranth seed, a safe-to-eat crop
- Scientists have used the Amaranth Albumin 1 (AmA1) gene, which is responsible for the growth of the Amaranth plant as well as for its high levels of protein and essential amino acids, for developing the new class of potato
36. FII investment limits increased:
a. limit of foreign institutional investors (Flls) in government securities by $5 billion to $10 billion. FIIs, however, has to invest the incremental limit of $5 billion in securities with residual maturity of over five years,
b. Fll investment limit in corporate bonds by $5 billion, raising the cap to $20 billion.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
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