News : 15-22 Oct 2013

Appointments :

1. The Madhya Pradesh government  constituted a judicial commission headed by Rakesh Saxena to probe the stampede at Ratangarh in Datia district on October 13.
2. New Chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), S. K. Roy.

Resignations/Retirements

Obituaries

Awards

Sports

Books

1. RICHARD DAWKINS : An Appetite for Wonder

International

1. India has moved from 65 to 63 in the Global Hunger Index, making a marginal improvement since 2012, but continues to languish far behind other emerging economies. The score for the country improved slightly from 22.9 in 2012 to 21.3 this year. As has been the trend, within SAARC countries too, India continued to trail behind Pakistan and Bangladesh on the index.The index is prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute along with Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide.
2. Pre-COP (Conference of Parties), is organised to firm up the agenda for the meeting, where all member-countries of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change gather held at POLAND.
3. Typhoon Wipha, packing winds of 140 kilometre per hour (km/hr), is moving towards north Tokyo where the crippled Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant lies
4. German defence firm Atlas Elektronik, a leading manufacturer of high-tech maritime and naval systems, is in the process of finalising a deal with India for supplying low-frequency sonar systems for Navy’s warships that will help them detect enemy submarines, warships and torpedoes from a long distance.
5. India-Hungary joint commission on economic co-operation on Tuesday signed an agreement between the two countries in the field of traditional medicine.

National

1. “My Stamp”, an innovation of India Post, gives individuals the opportunity to get a postage stamp with their photos on it.To get personalised “My Stamp”, the customers will have to fill in the form indicating choice of stamps from available stamp sheets and deposit Rs.300 along with his or her colour photo (with white background) or provide the same in soft copy.
2. The Indian Navy inducted into service its largest offshore patrol vessel (OPV), INS Sunayna.
3. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of Karnataka  instructed the Law Department to draft legislation in Kannada and then translate them into English.
4. First batch of members of the Bnei Menashe tribe may arrive in Jewish state by year-end.899 Indian Jews from Manipur and Mizoram, all members of the “lost” Bnei Menashe tribe, to immigrate to Israel.The Bnei Menashe (literally meaning sons of Menashe) tribe trace their roots to one of the 10 “lost tribes” of Jews exiled by the Assyrian regime over 2,700 years ago.Hundreds of Bnei Menashe are already living in Israel, having made aliyah (immigration) with the help of NGO Shavei Israel, which is dedicated to bringing “lost Jews” around the world to Israel.
5. Two Ukraine nationals – crew of the detained US ship Seaman Guard Ohio – were arrested by Tamil Nadu ‘Q’ Branch police.
6. Centre wants liquor and petroleum products to come under the GST, states are keen to retain their power to tax these items as they are major sources of revenue.

Polity

1. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has joined government and PSU oil firms against the Supreme Court order making Aadhaar card not mandatory for availing social benefits
2. Co-operative societies do not fall within the ambit of Right to Information Act, the Supreme Court has said.
3. Convicted Congress leader Rashid Masood  became the first MP to lose his seat after the Supreme Court struck down a provision that protects a convicted lawmaker from disqualification on the ground of pendency of appeal in higher courts.

Economics

1. Economics Nobel Prize : Shared by Eugene Fama, Robert Shiller and Lars Peter Hansen. Their work ranges from the foundations of modern finance (Fama) to defects in the mainstream models (Fama and Shiller) and improvements in statistical methodology (Fama and Hansen). More
2. London-based HSBC, on Thursday, said it would exit its retail broking business in India, the latest global bank to scale back operations in the country.
3. China’s economy grew by 7.8 per cent in the third quarter, the fastest growth recorded this year so far.
4. Google’s stock surpassed the $1,000 mark for the first time
5. The World Bank has lowered its forecast for India’s economic growth in the current fiscal year to 4.7 per cent from 6.1 per cent it had projected in April.The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its World Economic Outlook, slashed India’s growth forecast to 4.25 per cent for the current fiscal.

Env & Ecology

Science & Tech

1. The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) has recommended scale-up of the pentavalent vaccine across the country, along with activities to monitor potential adverse effects.The pentavalent vaccine simultaneously provides protection against the five life threatening diseases — Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Hib (Haemophilus influenza type b). DPT (Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus) and Hepatitis B are already part of the national routine immunisation programme. Protection against Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib), which causes severe pneumonia, meningitis and other life-threatening conditions in children less than five years of age, is a new addition.The pentavalent vaccine, which is being used in 188 countries, is an important tool to reduce under-five mortality in India. Its rollout in Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Vietnam was briefly suspended to investigate concerns over a few deaths, but has since been re-introduced in all of these countries.
2. The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Dr. James E. Rothman, Dr. Randy W. Schekman and Dr. Thomas C. Südhof for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells

News : 1-7 Oct 2013

Appointments :

Resignations/Retirements

Obituaries

1. Tom Clancy, whose high-tech, cold war thrillers such as The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games made him the most widely read and influential military novelist of his time, has died.

Awards

Sports

International

1. A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal  awarded death penalty to Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a top ranking opposition leader, for murder and genocide during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.
2. The Democratic-led Senate rejected the latest House Republican effort to negotiate on a spending bill stalled by conservative efforts to derail the health care overhaul.In a 54-46 party-line vote, the Senate turned aside a House request to name negotiators to a conference to resolve differences.
3. President Vladimir Putin has been nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize by a Russian advocacy group for his key role in preventing a US missile strike on Syria and initiatives to dismantle Damascus’ chemical weapons.
4. Malaysian lawmakers approved changes to a crime-prevention law which could be abused by authorities to hold people without trial for years and negate the prime minister Najib Razak’s pledge to protect human rights.PM is criticized for introducing the changes less than two years after abolishing laws that had occasionally been used in past decades to hold political dissenters without charge. Legislators in Parliament’s lower house passed the changes to the Prevention of Crime Act after a heated debate. The changes must be endorsed by Parliament’s upper house and the country’s constitutional monarch before they can take effect, but they are unlikely to encounter resistance at those stages.

National

1. India and Sri Lanka will  ink an agreement for the execution of the 500 MW thermal power project at Sampur in Trincomalee at a cost of Rs. 4,000 crore.
2. India’s commercial export of power to Bangladesh commenced on Saturday with the inauguration of the Bangladesh-India Power Transmission Centre at western Bherampura, adjacent to West Bengal.India will export 500 megawatts of electricity a day to Bangladesh over a period of 35 years. A 125-kilometre transmission line, 40 km of it in Bangladesh, connects the two substations.
3. Inter-company LPG portability comes into force in 24 cities.
4.  SMS complaint cell at Thanjavur municipal office is the first such facility in the whole of Tamil Nadu .
5. A recommendation of the Election Commission (EC) for a “cooling off period” to bar top bureaucrats from joining politics or contesting polls immediately on exit from service has been rejected by the government which feels such a step will not be in harmony with the constitutional provisions.

Polity

Economics

1. Private insurer SBI Life Insurance on Thursday launched ‘Smart Power Insurance’ plan, which is designed to care for investor’s twin needs of insurance and investment.
2. The Yashwant Sinha-led Standing Committee on Finance has argued strongly against grant of banking licences to corporate houses . Stating that industrial houses may not be geared to achieve the national objectives of financial inclusion, it has recommended that banking and industry be kept separate.

Env & Ecology

1. A huge cluster of jellyfish forced one of the world’s largest nuclear reactors of Oskarshamn nuclear plant in southeastern Sweden to shut down by producing waves.

Science & Tech

1. Twitter revealed plans  to raise 1 billion dollars in an initial public offering, setting the stage for the most eagerly-awaited tech offering since Facebook’s over-hyped public launch in May 2012.
2. In a top-level reshuffle, software services major Wipro,, appointed Soumitro Ghosh as head of Wipro Infotech replacing Senior Vice-President and Business Head of Global Infrastructure Services Anand Sankaran, who quit the company hours before the rejig was announced.
3. Indigenously manufactured vaccine to prevent the deadly Japanese encephalitis.The vaccine being used at present is imported from China and the government often had problems with its procurement, but the domestically prepared vaccine would be readily available, both in the government-run immunisation programme and in the open market.Vaccination is part of the government’s National Programme for Prevention and Control of JE/AES.he new vaccine, JENVAC, available in single and double dose, has been manufactured by Genome Valley-based Bharat Biotech.

Culture

1. A monolithic stone idol of Lord Buddha belonging to the 6th A.D. was unearthed by a team of epigraphists at Kavinadu tank, the largest in the district

Books – Oct 2013

• Cooperatives and socialism : A view from CUBA  :   Camila Pineiro Harnecker
• Parliament – Powers, Functions and Privileges: A comparative constitutional perspective : Advocate K S Chauhan

April 2013-Consolidated

Appointments : 

• S Gopalakrishnan, the co-founder and Executive Co-Chairman of Infosys, on 5th April, 2013 was elected as the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2013-14.
• Krishna Kumar Natrajan appointed as the New Chief of NASSCOM
• PJ Kurien, Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha,elected as the New Chairman of the prestigiousAsian Forum of Parliamentarians on
  Population and Development on 11th April, 2013 at Bangkok
• Aruna Bahuguna took over as the first women Special Director General of CRPF. She is an IPS from a 1979-batch Andhra Pradesh cadre
• Italy’s Parliament re-elected Giorgio Napolitano to an unparalleled second term as president on 20th April, 2013.
• Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in as the New President of Kenya on 9th April 2013. He is the 4th President of Kenya. He defeated Raila
  Odinga.
• Nicolas Maduro was sworn in as the New President of Venezuela on 19th April, 2013 in a ceremony by the National Assembly Speaker, Diosdado Cabello.
• Takehiko Nakao appointed as the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) by the Board of Governors. He succeeded Haruhiko Kuroda.
• Narasimhan Ravi, the former Editor of The Hindu was unanimously elected as the president of Editors Guild of India on 23rd
  April, 2013 in New Delhi.
• Parliamentary Speaker Abdul Hamid sworn in as the New President of Bangladesh to replace Zillur Rahman on 24th April, 2013.
• Sunil Bharti Mittal appointed as the New Vice Chairman of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Obituaries

• The Great Indian Mathematician also known as Human Computer, Shakuntala Devi died due to heart failure and renal problem on 21st April, 2013 at Bangalore.
• Historian Professor Bratindra Nath Mukherjee died at his residence in Kolkata on 4th April, 2013. He was a Padma Shree Awardee, a renowned epigraphist and numismatist.
• India’s only Women Chief Election Commissioner, V.S. Ramadevi died due to Cardiac Arrest. She also was the governor of
  Karnataka & HP.
• The first and the only women to be the Prime Minister of Britain, Margaret Thatcher passed away at the age of 87 following a stroke on 8th April, 2013.
• Former Chief Justice of, Justice JS Verma died on 22nd April, 2013 in New Delhi after multiple organ failure at the age of 80 years. He was the 27th Chief Justice of India on 25th March, 1997 and retired on 18th January, 1998.
• Dr Hilary Koprowski, a Polish researcher who Developer of First Successful Oral Vaccination for Polio died on 11th April, 2013 in
  Philadelphia at the age of 96.
• British Scientist, Robert Edwards passed away at 87. He was the Pioneer of Vitro Fertilization that resulted in the birth of first test tube baby of the world.
• Sailendra Nath Roy, an Indian Guinness World Record holder on 28th April, 2013 died during the stunt.
• Renowned violinist and Composer, Lalgudin Jayaraman died in Chennai on 22nd April, 2013 at 82 due to illness.
• Legendary singer Shamshad Begum died on 23rd April, 2013 in Mumbai due to illness. She was 94 years of age.

Awards

• The New York Times won four Pulitzer Prizes including the Award for Investigative Reporting for Stories on 15th April, 2013.
• Telgu Writer, Ravuri Bharadwaja was selected for the Jnanpith Award 2012 by the Jnanpith Award Committee for his contribution to Telgu Literature.
• Navjot Singh became the youngest athlete of Jammu and Kashmir to be conferred with the Sher-i-Kashmir Sports Award on 17th April, 2013.
• The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee gave 54 Padma Awards at the function in Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on 20th April, 2013.
• Sebastian Vettel won the Bahrain Grand Prix 2013.
• Yash Chopra for his contributions to Film Industry will be honoured with Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award 2013. Yash Chopra and Rajesh Khanna selected for 13th Dada Saheb Phalke Academy Awards to be conferred on 30th April, 2013.
• Belgian Mathematician, Pierre Deligne won the Abel prize 2013. The Abel Prize is considered equivalent to the Nobel Prize.
• Legendary Actor Pran awarded Bollywood’s Highest Honour Dada Saheb Phalke Award for 2012.

Sports

• ICC Test Rankings released by ICC on 21st April, 2013. Hashim Amla was placed at top among batsman and Dale Steyn was ranked best bowler. Pujara and Ashwin are the only two Indians among Top-10.
• Gayle hit Fastest-Ever Century in the history of Cricket during IPL against Pune Warriors India by reaching 100 in merely 30 balls on 23rd April, 2013.

International

• The US House of Representatives passed the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) on 18th April, 2013.
• Italy got a New Coalition Government with Enrico Letta as its Prime Minister.
•  A Pakistani election tribunal on 16th April, 2013 barred former military dictator Pervez Musharraf from running for Parliament.
• Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways on 24th April, 2013 confirmed taking over of 24 percent minority stake in Jet Airways for 379 million dollars.
• China Mobile and Vodafone on 4th April, 2013 announced that they formed a consortium in order to bid for the mobile licences in Burma
• Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina rejected New Anti-Blasphemy Law Demands of Islamists.
• The Federal Investigation Agency in Pakistan arrested former President, Pervez Musharraf in relation to the Benazir Bhutto murder case.
•  India and UAE on 24th April, 2013 signed an agreement to increase the number of weekly airlines seat by four times during a bilateral meet at Abu Dhabi.
• Turkey Treasury Undersecretariat would close debt to IMF with refund of 422.1 million USD of capital as part of the 19th stand-by after 52 years.
• The fifth BRICS Summit was held at the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC), South Africa. The theme of the 5th BRICS Summit was: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialisation. The participant nations in the summit were Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
• Pakistan successfully test-fired the nuclear- capable Hatf-IV ballistic missile on 10th April, 2013. Hatf-IV has the range of 900 km.
• Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh visited Germany from 10th April – 12th April, 2013. He was accompanied by delegation.
• Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari visited Tajikistan from 14th – 17th April, 2013 for strengthening bilateral ties
• On 8th April, 2013, India and Malta signed the new DTAA at Valetta, Malta.

National

• Government of India approved the National Policy for Children, 2012. The policy recognizes every person below 18 years in age as a child.
• President Pranab Mukherjee on 16th April, 2013 dedicated Siddheshwar Dham Temple to the Nation
•  Lt Cdr Abhilash Tomy became the first Indian to Circumnavigate Globe Solo and Non-Stop on a sail boat. On return he was welcomed by the President of India.
• Swedish Luxury Carmaker Volvo signed Jeev Milkha Singh as its Brand Ambassador.
• The Indian city of Ahmedabad launched a first-of-its-kind Heat Action Plan on 16th April, 2013.
• The Government approved the project for creation of National Optical Fibre Network connecting all the 250000 Gram Panchayats.
• The Odisha Legislative Assembly on 4th April, 2013 unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the Centre to award special category status to the state.
• The world famous textile embroidery handicraft Lucknow Zardozi became a brand after being accorded with the Geographical Indication (GI) registration.
• Book entitled Leaf Turns Yellow: the Sufis of Awadh was released by the Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari at New Delhi.
• Government launched IBIN (India Backbone Implementation Network) for effective implantation of its core programmes and policies.
• Odisha on 8th April, 2013 decided to set up the first public health university in India. This university will be set up under Public-Private Partnership mode.
• The Madhya Pradesh government on 9th April, 2013 decided to declare Malkhamb as the State Sport.

Polity

• Assam Right to Public Service Act 2012 was implemented by Assam to bring in transparency and accountability in the key areas of governance.
• The Meghalaya Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill 2013 was on 18th April, 2013 passed in the state Assembly.

Economics

• Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Reliance Communications on 2nd April, 2013 signed a 1200 crore Rupees definitive agreement to roll out the 4G services.
• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved de-control of Sugar.
•  P. Chidambaram on 24th April, 2013 launched medi claim facility for the farmers holding Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) issued by Dena Bank.
• India is the largest recipient of remittances in the world, receiving 69 billion US Dollars in 2012 according to World Bank.
• World Growth Forecast for 2013 was slashed to 3.3% from 3.5% by IMF. Continued recession in Eurozone is the reason for it.
• The retail business of Sahara India Pariwar called Sahara Q Shop entered into the Guinness World Records by opening 315 outlets in 10 states.
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to launch Plastic notes in the denomination of 10 Rupees in five selected cities of India on trial basis.
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on 12th April, 2013 that it recognised Somalia’s new government after a 22-year gap in relations with the country.

Science & Tech

• Google Inc acquired Wavii, the news summarization app based in Seattle, for around 30 million US dollar cash.
• NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovered Two Earth- Like Planets Kepler-62f And Kepler-62e.
• Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, Russia on 19th April, 2013 launched the bio-satellite (BION-M) called orbital Noah’s Ark into space with various living organisms.
• Facebook on 4th April, 2013 released the software called Home, which puts the feeds from Facebook on Android phones’ home screen.
• A website on Babu Jagjibvan Ram was launched by the Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment on 5th April, 2013, his 106th Birth Anniversary.
• Nuclear Capable Agni-II Missile was Successfully Test-Fired. The medium range nuclear capable Agni-II missile was on 7th April, 2013 successfully test-fired with a strike range of more than 2000 km from the Wheeler Island.

 

News : 8 -15 Sep 2013

• The United Nations has formally accepted Syria’s application to join the chemical weapons convention
• Microsoft is making its Xbox Music streaming service available for free on the Web even to those who don’t use Windows 8.
• India has decided not to give in to U.S. pressure to agree to discussions on phasing out refrigerant gases under the Montreal Protocol.More 
• The agreement signed between the Rubber Board and the National Institute for Research and Development in Defence Ship Building (NIRDESH), Kozhikode, is for developing rubber-based mountings for use in indigenously built submarines at Mazagon Dock Ltd., Mumbai.
• After Kazakhstan’s promise of 2,000 tonnes of the mineral, Uzbekistan has now offered to provide a similar quantity for fuelling nuclear plants in India.
• German scientists say they have discovered indicators of gold deposits at hotspots in the Pacific Ocean and measured the highest temperature ever recorded in the ocean at one of them.According to Germany’s Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), 378 degrees celsius was registered at a depth of 1,850 metres near the island nation of Vanuatu, about 1,750 kilometres east of northern Australia.The only spot on the ocean floor ever found to be hotter — 403 degrees celsius — is in the Atlantic.
• China  welcomed a Russia-U.S. agreement on securing and destroying Syria’s chemical weapons, saying it was a peaceful solution to the stockpile issue that could ease the tense situation in the war-torn country.
• NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched 36 years ago – and now 19 billion kilometres from the Sun – has become the first man-made object to venture into interstellar space
• The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has launched a deep ultraviolet (DUV) solid-state laser device, making the country first-ever in the world to possess such technology
• Tamu Massif, as the megavolcano is called, may be as voluminous as Olympus Mons on Mars, which is regarded as the Solar System’s largest known volcano found at the bottom of Pacific ocean.Tamu Massif, the inactive volcano, was previously thought to be a string of volcanoes rather than one enormous feature. It is part of an underwater mountain range called the Shatsky Rise.
• The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, WAN-IFRA, has chosen The Hindu, along with seven other newspapers in India, for a prize for excellence in youth engagement. It has also named India the World Young Reader Country of the Year.
• The Ministry of Science & Technology(DBT & DST) ,Govt. of India and RIKEN, Japan’s largest research organization have signied MOUs to day for Launching joint Research programs in the fields of Biology, Life sciences and material sciences. (Genome–related research including systems Biology, Computational science including development of bioinformatics tools, Detection tools (e.g. spectroscopy) for security and other areas of mutual interest)
• India-Chile to Enhance Cooperation in Renewable Energy
• A Centre of Excellence and Ethics to be Set up at Ajmer
  • The Institute of Company Secretaries of India,
  • The Institute of Cost Accountants of India, and
  • The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India Sign MOU with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs
• The National Highways Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2013 Receives the Assent of the President
• Vice President Releases Prof. K.N. Pannikar’s Book “History as A Site of Struggle” at Thiruvananthpuram
• International Olympics Committee decided to include wresting as 26th sport in 2020 Olympics at Tokyo.
• After three days of intensive talks in Geneva, Russia and the United States have reached an agreement on a timetable for the swift elimination of Syria’s stockpiles of chemical weapons, with the provision that the non-compliance by Damascus would mean that the United Nations Security Council will steer the future course of action.
• Ray Dolby, an American inventor and audio pioneer who founded Dolby Laboratories, has died at the age of 80
• BJP on Friday named Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
• Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2012 to  Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
• The landmark Food Security Bill, aimed at giving a legal right on highly subsidised foodgrains to 67 per cent of the country’s population, on sep 12 received the President’s nod.
• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)  imposed life ban on pacer S. Sreesanth and Mumbai left-arm spinner Ankeet Chavan for having brought disrepute to the game by indulging in spot-fixing in the last edition of the Indian Premier League.
  Also punished were Rajasthan Royals players Amit Singh, banned for five years, and Siddharth Trivedi, for a year as he did not inform the BCCI that he was approached by bookmakers. Harmeet Singh, however, was reprieved for lack of evidence.
• South East Asian countries have decided to eliminate measles and control rubella and congenital syndrome by the year 2020. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that $ 800 million is needed to achieve this goal.
• Knowing about a candidate is the voter’s natural right in a democracy(the fundamental right of the citizens under Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution.), and non- disclosure of information by a contestant in his/her affidavit, leaving the relevant columns blank, will result in rejection of the nomination by the Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled .
  (At present, the EC has no power to reject nominations if candidates either leave some columns blank or give false information. However, a case can be registered against them under the Indian Penal Code for providing false information.)
• India joined the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in strongly opposing foreign military intervention in Syria and welcoming the Russian proposal for putting the chemical arsenals under international control.
• India’s upcoming Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) seeks to reveal whether there is methane, considered a “precursor chemical” for life, on the Red Planet.
• Verizon raised $49 billion in the largest corporate bond deal ever.
• Software services company iGate Corporation announced the appointment of Ashok Vemuri as its president and CEO
• India has also the highest number of female millionaires in the world as the country boasts of over 1,250 UHNW women with a combined fortune of $95 billion.Notwithstanding the continuing economic gloom, India has recorded the largest increase in its Ultra-High Net worth Individual (HNIW) club among the BRICS nations in the last one year, with a total of 7,850 super rich people in the country
• Russia has lifted the ban on import of non-basmati rice and oilseeds from India
• US agrees to UN discussion on Syria.After its deft diplomatic manoeuvre that has already coaxed the United States to delay its decision on attacking Syria, Russia — the architect of a widely supported proposal to disarm Syria of chemical weapons — has said that it would soon submit an action plan that would result in an internationally supervised destruction of the Syrian arsenal of poison gas.
• The UK coalition government has confirmed plans to privatise the country’s 500-year-old Royal Mail this fall.
• Russia has taken a “principled” decision to sell Iran an improved version of the S-300 air defence missiles and to build a second nuclear reactor at Bushehr,
• Iran sanctions eased to allow cultural exchanges by US.
• Mamnoon Hussain was sworn  as Pakistan’s 12th President by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
• Following the successful $50 billion currency swap agreement with Japan, a task force set up to identify key trading nations for local currency swap arrangement by the Commerce Ministry will meet on 11 sep 2013, and deliberate on how to take forward the issue of shortlisting countries.
• Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday launched the platform ‘HAVEn’, designed to enable organisations to gain better insight into their data and deliver real-time outcomes.
• The annual Miss World beauty pageant will open on Sunday on the Indonesian island of Bali, despite weeks of opposition from conservative Islamic groups. But the finale, which was to take place near the capital Jakarta later this month, has also been shifted to Bali owing to the protest.
• In a vote in Buenos Aires this weekend, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has granted Tokyo the right to hold the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.
• A new government prepared to take control of Australia ,with policies to cut pledges in foreign aid and to wind back greenhouse gas reduction measures in an effort to balance the nation’s books.Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbot’s conservative Liberal party-led coalition won a crushing victory at elections against the center-left Labour Party.
• Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari was given a ceremonial guard of honour on his last day as he became the first democratically elected head of state to complete a full five-year term.
• India-born Mamnoon Hussain, a close aide of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,  sworn in as the President of Pakistan in sep 2013.Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry administered the oath at a ceremony
• A proposal to force Reliance Industries to give up 86 per cent of eastern offshore KG-D6 gas block, including 8 gas discoveries worth at least $8 billion, has been put up to Petroleum Minister M. Veerappa Moily.
• Tripura surged ahead of Kerala to achieve top position in literacy chart in India. The state fell short to become fully literate state, but as of date stands at 94.65 percent.
• A Bill seeking to prohibit employment of individuals as manual scavengers by prescribing stringent punishment, including imprisonment up to five years, was passed by Parliament . It has provisions for rehabilitation of manual scavengers and their family members as well.

News : 1-7 Sep 2013

• Google said the next version of Android will be called ‘KitKat’ in keeping with its penchant for giving tasty names to its software for powering mobile devices.
• India’s advanced multi-band communication satellite GSAT-7, launched from French Guiana by European space consortium Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket on August 30, has been successfully placed in the geosynchronous orbit with an altitude of about 36,000 km above earth surface.
• After Ymail and Flicker revamp, Yahoo Inc. now unveils new logo.Yahoo’s $1.1 billion purchase of Tumblr, an Internet blogging service.
• A rhino gave birth to a male calf in the Assam State Zoo here . This is the first calf born under the ex-situ conservation programme of the Asian rhino.
• India and the UK have formed a green energy forum to enhance and acclerate activities in clean energy.
• The Forward Markets Commission (FMC), chief regulator of forwards and futures commodity markets in India, will, henceforth, be overseen by the Ministry of Finance instead of the Department of Consumer Affairs under the Ministry of Food.The FMC is a statutory body set up under the Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1952. Till March 2009, it had regulated Rs. 52 trillion worth of commodity trade.
• Reserve Bank of India  allowed them to carry Indian currency of up to Rs.10,000 per person from 7,500.
• Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday downgraded subordinated debt ratings of 11 Indian banks, including SBI, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.
• The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday allowed banks to swap funds mobilised through foreign currency deposits to attract overseas funds.More.
• Raghuram Rajan takes over as RBI Governor.
• British telecom giant BT has called off its dial-up Internet access service as the vast majority of its 6.8 million broadband customers have switched to much faster connections.
• The Cabinet approved the India-Abu Dhabi bilateral air services agreement enabling their airlines to fly 50,000 seats each week, up from the current level of 13,700.
• Nokia sell its main handset division to Microsoft for 5.44 billion euro($7.2 billion).
• Danish pharmaceutical major Novo Nordisk  said it would soon launch its insulin injection Tresiba (insulin degludec) in India.
• Parliamentary Standing Committee’s report on the “Alleged Irregularities in the Conduct of Studies Using Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine by PATH in India.In the trials, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), with the support of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), approval from the Western Institutional Review Board (WIRB) [all three private international parties], donations from Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) and Glaxo SmithKline (GSK), in partnership with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and along with the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, through the national vaccination programme, delivered and administered HPV vaccines to 10-14-year-old girls in Khammam (A.P.) and Vadodara (Gujarat) districts.
• Pakistan RTI draft promises to hold defence department accountable
• U.S. President Barack Obama has sought congressional approval for limited military intervention in Syria to win more support for his plan to punish the Bashar al-Assad regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons.US is having support of France.
• U.S. President Barack Obama has sought congressional approval for limited military intervention in Syria to win more support for his plan to punish the Bashar al-Assad regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons.
• Bhutan has assured India that the security of the two countries is entwined and during its Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay’s first overseas visit after wining the elections, reiterated Thimphu’s desire to continue with the cooperation
• As its current account deficit widens and the value of the rupee dwindles, India plans to increase crude oil imports from Iran so as to save $8.5 billion in foreign exchange.It will save foreign reserve as India would be paying in Rupees.
• Sir David Frost, the journalist and broadcaster died.Frost, who was knighted in 1993, helped to establish London Weekend Television and TV-am.
• Uzhavan Express (Southern Railway zone of the Indian Railways and runs between Chennai Egmore and Thanjavur Jn) that was flagged off from here on September 1, qualifies to be called a ‘green express’ as bio-toilets have been fitted into 34 of its 36 coaches.The first bio-toilet-fitted train, Gwalior-Varanasi Bundelkhand Express, has been running since January 2011.
• The Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is in for more trouble as the Comptroller and Auditor-General has questioned the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry over the recent gas price increase and wanted to know the steps taken to ensure that the operator (RIL-BP) delivers gas at $4.2 mbtu as per the approved production plan.
• Reprieve for RTI as bill to insulate parties is deferred.The government has decided to refer the RTI [Amendment] Bill, 2013, to the standing committee of Parliament because the order passed by the Central Information Commission bringing political parties within the purview of ‘public authority’ under the RTI Act needs elaborate study.The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 13, seeks to insert an explanation in Section 2 of the RTI Act regarding public authority. It states, “Authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted by any law made by Parliament shall not include any association or body of individuals registered or recognised as a political party under the Representation of the People Act, 1951.”The Bill has a new Section 31 in the principal Act which says the amendment will apply “notwithstanding anything contained in any judgment, decree or order of any court or commission..,” and will prevail over “any other law for the time being in force.”
• Deepak Sandhu, who has been an information commissioner for the last four years, on Thursday became the first woman Chief Information Commissioner of the country.
• Negating a Supreme Court order, Parliament on Friday passed a bill that maintains the right of those in jail to contest polls.SC accepted to review the ruling to banned person from contesting election if in custodyThe Representation of the People (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013 was rushed through in the Lok Sabha and passed .The Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha on August 27. The Amendment Bill seeks to add a proviso to sub-section (2) of section 62 of the RP Act to state that a person cannot cease to be a voter while in detention as his or her right is only temporarily suspended.One of the amendments states that as the name of the jailed person continues to be on the electoral rolls, he or she also continues to be an elector and can file nomination for an election.
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would address the United Nations General assembly on September 28, according to the latest provisional list of speakers released by the U.N.
•  The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group made progress in the creation of a $100-billion Currency Reserve Fund (CRF) by announcing individual contribution.China will contribute $41 billion, while Brazil, Russia and India will chip in with $18 billion each. South Africa, the smallest economy, will commit only $5 billion to the CRF.
• President Pranab Mukherjee confers the the Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony to Zubin Mehta, western classical music conductor of Indian-Parsi origin
• The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill, 2011, was passed in the Rajya Sabha and now passed by Lok Sabha.
• The Rajya Sabha  passed a Constitution 120 th amendment Bill to create a Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) which will replace the collegium system of appointing judges to higher courts.

News : 1 Aug 2013

1. The juicy Nagpur orange, the famous tribal Warli art, Dharmavaram saris and Kerala’s Kaipad rice have been cleared for inclusion in Geographical Indications (GI) registry in the country. The logo for Leather Toys of Indore (already a GI product) was also approved.
2. The U.K. government took step to take £3,000 bond for issuing visas to people of certain countries, including India.
3. The Ministry of Steel under Government of India has become the first Central Ministry to be awarded ISO 9001:2008, Quality Management System certification. ISO 9001 is quality management system which codifies quality standards in every area of organization’s functioning.
4. Bhutan, especially its 12 per cent poor, will heave a sigh of relief after India decided to restore the subsidy on cooking gas and kerosene a month after it was discontinued
5. Over 617 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries that are home to several critically endangered species like the Great Indian Bustard and the Snow Leopard get a mere Rs 75 crore or Rs 1 lakh each per month, on an average, while the 43 reserves for the big cat get a whopping Rs 165 crore.
6. The Bihar government has amended the Bodh Gaya Temple Act of 1949, allowing for a non-Hindu to head the temple committee.As per Section 3 (3) of the Act, the district magistrate (DM) is the ex-officio chairman of the temple committee and has to be a Hindu. If the DM is a non-Hindu, the Act requires the government “to nominate a Hindu as Chairman of the committee for the period during which the DM is a non-Hindu.”
7. Easing FDI norms :
   Insurance sector, it was decided to raise the sectoral FDI cap from 26 per cent to 49 per cent under automatic route under which companies investing do not require prior government approval. A bill to raise FDI cap in the sector is pending in the Rajya Sabha.
   Allow 49 per cent FDI in single brand retail under the automatic route and beyond, through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) route.
   In case of PSU oil refineries, commodity bourses, power exchanges, stock exchanges and clearing corporations, FDI would be allowed up to 49 per cent under automatic route as against the current routing of the investment through FIPB.
   In basic and cellular services, FDI was raised to 100 per cent from the current 74 per cent. Of this, up to 49 per cent would be allowed under automatic route and the remaining through FIPB approval.
   FDI of up to 100 per cent was allowed in courier services under automatic route. Earlier, similar amount of investment was allowed through FIPB route.
8. Ireland adopted a long-awaited law to allow abortion under limited circumstances after President Michael D. Higgins gave his assent to the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill passed by Parliament recently.
9. National Security Agency whistleblowers Edward Snowden left the transit zone of a Moscow airport and entered Russia after authorities granted him asylum for one year.
10. NSA’s XKeyscore surveillance programme has servers in India

News : 16 July 2013

1. Blue plaque for Krishna Menon’s London home.
2. U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden has applied for “temporary asylum” in Russia
3. US whistleblower Edward Snowden has very sensitive “blueprints” detailing how the National Security Agency (NSA) operates that would allow someone who read them to evade or even duplicate NSA surveillance,Glenn Greenwald, a journalist with The Guardian said.
4. India has overtaken the U.S. as the top buyer of Nigerian crude oil.

GK July 2013

1. India has ranked 66th out of 142 in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2013, an index that is published by Cornell University, INSEAD, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as a knowledge partner.
2. India has overtaken the U.S. as the top buyer of Nigerian crude oil.

News : 7 July 2013

1. A solar-powered aircraft completed the final leg of a history-making cross-country flight gliding to a smooth stop at New York’s JFK airport.
2. Israel’s Cabinet has approved a plan that would gradually end a contentious system that has granted automatic draft exemptions to Jewish ultra-Orthodox seminary students.The new system, which needs Parliamentary approval, would reduce the number of exemptions and require ultra-Orthodox men to register for military service. It would go into effect in three years.
3. India in discussion with Afghanistan on equipment supplies.But rejected plea for supply of lethal weapons to Afghanistan.