BANK , SSC AND PUNJAB STATE EXAMS

22 December 2010

TODAY’S NEWS

1. 30 agreements were signed between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The highlight of the 30 agreements was the consolidation and extension of strategic cooperation in the civil nuclear, hydrocarbons and space sectors.

2. Russia joined the U.S. and France in speaking of India and itself as “states possessing nuclear weapons” and promised to quarterback India's bid for full membership at the Nuclear Suppliers Group and other multilateral export control clubs. Russia reiterated its support to India for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council

3. In the civil nuclear sector, a firm agreement on setting up two more reactors at Kudankulam, beyond the four already in the pipeline, was postponed pending the ongoing talks on the liability issue Russian reactors are due to come up at Haripur in West Bengal, besides Kudankulam. In response to Russia's unhappiness with Haripur, another potentially less contentious site in Orissa is being readied.

4. In defence, India and Russia marked the beginning of their first-ever collaboration in producing a next-generation fighter aircraft, with the inking of the preliminary design contract agreement.

5. The intention to collaborate in the hydrocarbons sector was given a concrete shape by an inter-governmental agreement The Memorandum of Understanding between Sistema, a telecom-petro giant with rights over two lucrative hydrocarbon fields, and ONGC Videsh progressed to a framework agreement on cooperation.

6. Three agreements in the space sector will give India access to the Russian satellite constellation, the Global Navigation Satellite System.

7. The two sides also gave a firm shape to a partnership in the pharmaceuticals sector, in which India sees a $15-16 billion opportunity, with the joining of hands by the private sectors of both countries for joint ventures in Russia.

8. The country's indigenous Lakshya-2 pilotless target aircraft was successfully flight-tested The aircraft is built to meet anticipated users' requirements for such a vehicle for testing out their guns and missiles

9. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released Rs.400 crore for the Andhra Pradesh government as advance from the National Calamity Contingency Fund to take up immediate relief and rehabilitation measures in the State that was affected by unprecedented rains and cyclonic storms in the last few months.

10.President Pratibha Patil ordered the suspension of B.S. Lalli, Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, on charges of irregularities in the country's largest public broadcaster. According to the Prasar Bharati Act, the chairman or a member can only be removed by an order of the President on grounds of misbehavior, after which the Supreme Court holds an inquiry

11.Book,Convenient Action: Gujarat's Response to Climate Change written by Chief Minister Narendra Modi

12.The Indian Space Research Organisation is set to place Singapore's first satellite in orbit within a month

13.Saikat Dutta of The Outlook magazine and Vinita Kamte, wife of killed Mumbai police officer Ashok Kamte, are among the seven winners of this year's National RTI Awards, announced by the Public Cause Research Foundation.

14.The biggest defence programme in India's history — the contract for the preliminary design of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) — was signed between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Russia's Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi. It will involve the production of 200-250 aircraft. The aircraft would be called Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF).

15.India and Russia on Tuesday signed an agreement to share high-precision signals from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) for defence as well as civilian use. Russia currently has a total of 26 GLONASS satellites in orbit, of which 23 are operational. GLONASS is the Russian equivalent of the United States' global positioning system that allows users to determine a near precise position of any object to within metres. Notably, in March this year, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Russian Navigation Information Systems (NIS) GLONASS signed a ‘Memorandum of Cooperation

23 December 2010

TODAY'S NEWS

1. The Centre on Thursday announced abolition of import duties and banned its exports for an indefinite period. Cabinet Secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar, who is personally monitoring the situation, asked the State governments to take strong action against hoarders. He asked the Union Commerce Ministry to import onions to cool down prices. The government directed its three trading companies — STC, PEC and MMTC — to scout for imports. “To counter the sudden and unexpected rise in the prices of onions, the Department of Revenue has brought down customs duty and countervailing duty to zero,” Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla told reporters. The government, which had earlier suspended exports till January 15, notified an indefinite ban on onion export. Onion imports hitherto attracted a customs duty of 5 per cent, while countervailing duty was fixed at 4 per cent. Countervailing duty is levied to protect domestic producers.

2. The Jammu and Kashmir government has lifted the ban on short messaging services on post-paid cellphone connections. But the ban on SMS through pre-paid connections will stay.

3. Professor Wei Zhang, a Benjamin Pierce Instructor at the Department of Mathematics, Harvard University, received the SASTRA-Ramanujan Award, instituted by the Shanmugha Arts Science Technology and Research Academy (SASTRA) University to encourage path-breaking research in Ramanujan Mathematics for 2010.

4. By referring to “states possessing nuclear weapons” in his joint statement with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev became the third leader of the P-5 to acknowledge the importance of transcending the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty's definition of a “nuclear weapons state” in the push for universal disarmament. U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy had earlier both agreed to similar formulations in their joint statements.

5. Among the P-5, the Chinese also refused to commit themselves to supporting India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group, something the U.S., France and Russia have all announced their backing for. The British have not yet addressed this issue but again, Indian officials are confident that the next bilateral summit will cover this ground.

6. Indian membership in NSG, which will be informally taken up by the 46-nation cartel at its plenary at The Hague in June 2011, will be another step in the direction of India being accommodated within the non-proliferation regime despite possessing nuclear weapons outside the NPT.

7. Two nuclear weapons-capable Prithvi-II missiles were successfully flight-tested within an hour of each other from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, Orissa, the short-range ballistic missiles were tested for the full range (350 km) by personnel of the Strategic Force Command (SFC) as part of a regular exercise.

8. The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha has moved the Supreme Court, challenging the part of the Allahabad High Court's September 30 ruling on the Ayodhya title suits which has given one-third of the disputed land to Muslims.

9. The U.S. Senate on Wednesday ratified a landmark nuclear arms control treaty with Russia- Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)

10.Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said he saw the private sector chipping in with $500 billion (about Rs.22.50 lakh crore) for development of the infrastructure sector during the XII Plan (2012-17).“We are already envisaging doubling of infrastructure investment to around $1 trillion in the XII Plan, with half of it coming from the private sector,” he said. During the XI Plan (2007-12), the Minister said, the government tried to scale up investment in the infrastructure sector to 7.1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the private sector contributing about one-third of the total envisaged investment of about $500 billion.

11.Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn said the RBI would soon come out with the guidelines for credit default swap (CDS), an instrument by which a lender could insure the risk arising from its exposure to a borrower by transferring it to a third party.

12.The committee headed by the former Supreme Court Judge, Justice B.N. Srikrishna, set up to go into the demands for a ‘separate Telangana' State and a ‘united Andhra Pradesh,' will present its report to the Centre on December 31, last day of its term.

24 December 2010

TODAY'S NEWS

1. In the wake of a fall in the prices in the wholesale markets across the country, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) said it had deferred imports from Pakistan.

2. Australia apologised to Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef for wrongly detaining him on terror charges three years ago.

3. Within a week of a British court striking down the interim cap on professionals from India and other non-EU countries working in the United Kingdom, the Home Office said the cap until April 2011 is “legal and up and running.”

4. Fuelled by the soaring onion prices, food inflation re-entered the double-digit zone, after a gap of one month. It stood at 12.13 per cent as on December 11.

5. A complaint has been filed in a local court against hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and writer-activist Arundhati Roy for their alleged anti-India remarks at a seminar in Delhi on October 21.

6. The former Chief Minister of Kerala and veteran Congress leader, K. Karunakaran, died.

7. Government is discussing a proposal for allowing foreign direct investment in multibrand retail stores and increasing the FDI limit in defence production.

8. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has agreed to provide financial assistance of Rs.1,152.50 crore to the Rajasthan Government for implementation of the second phase of a forestry and bio-diversity project in the State with emphasis on sustainable development through joint forest management.

9. The United States Senate passed the New START treaty, an arms reduction agreement with Russia.

10.The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance enters into force on December 23, marking the end of a long struggle to get enough number of countries to ratify the convention to make it a legal instrument. Almost four years after its adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Convention eventually reached the 20th ratification, which was necessary for it to come into effect. As many as 88 countries have signed the convention but only 21 have ratified it

11.Sound of Music star Julie Andrews, country singer Dolly Parton and jazz drummer Roy Haynes will be honored with lifetime achievement Grammy awards next year

12.Intergovernmental agreement on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project (TAPI) signed on December 11 in Ashgabat (Turkmenistan).

13.At present, just about 45 per cent of the Indian population had access to bank accounts, and there was a low ratio of one bank branch for 16,000 people. The number of branches per lakh of population was 6.33 this March, as compared to 25 to 45 for developed countries.

14.Banks have advised the Reserve Bank of India against allowing industrial houses to enter the banking space, even as industry associations, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs) have been in favour of corporates into banking.

15.Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) declined sharply by 37.84 per cent to $12.40 billion during April-October this year as compared to $19.95 billion in the corresponding period last year.

16.Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu called off his eight-day hunger strike demanding higher compensation to farmers hit by heavy rains and floods following persuasion by national leaders of ten parties.

25 December 2010

TODAY'S NEWS

1. Just two months after Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton got engaged, an official coin marking the occasion has been unveiled.

2. To monitor the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is planning social monitoring of the historic law that guarantees elementary education to children in the age group of 6-14. The NCPCR is in the process of developing a tool for the social monitoring of the Act, which will be initiated as a pilot project from early next year in 250 panchayats across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.

3. The GSLV-F06 will put in orbit communications satellite GSAT- 5P from Sriharikota A.P. It has liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen into the third upper cryogenic stage, which is imported from Russia. The GSAT-5P will be used for broadcasting television programmes, beaming telephone conversations and networking banking transactions.

4. The United States — which, despite protests by New Delhi, recently proposed a hike in fee for H1B and L1 visas used by Indian professionals — now plans to levy an additional two per cent fee on Indian exports.

5. “Swarnim Chess Mahotsav” (Gujarat) has staked its claim to find a place in the Guinness Book of World Records by assembling 20,483 players to play chess simultaneously on one platform.

6. A pilot project of building houses for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Jaffna sri lanka will begin soon. Initially, 1000 houses will be built and 49,000 will be added later. the first lot is expected to be ready by April 2011.

7. The Russian-American New START treaty won preliminary approval of the Russian Parliament.

8. Potatoes and red chilly will be among the new 17 commodities proposed to be introduced by the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) for spot trading. NSEL provides an electronic platform for spot trading in agriculture and non-agriculture commodities.

9. India will open its trade in goods and services with Malaysia, Japan and the European Union in the first half of 2011, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said. India has already signed a framework agreement for the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with Malaysia and concluded negotiations for a similar pact with Japan. India had launched negotiations for comprehensive economic partnership agreement with New Zealand and Canada. India had already entered into comprehensive market opening pacts with Singapore, South Korea and 10-nation economic bloc ASEAN.

10.The Bombay Stock Exchange and Taqwaa Advisory and Shariah Investment Solutions (TASIS) will launch the BSE TASIS Shariah 50 index. The Index will be the first Shariah Index created in India utilising the strict guidelines and local expertise of a domestic, India-based Shariah advisory board. . The BSE TASIS Shariah 50 index consists of the 50 largest and most liquid Shariah compliant stocks within the BSE 500, an exchange release said here. The creation of the index will help promote financial inclusion of the Muslim population in India and attract investment flows from international funds that must adhere to Shariah norms.

26 December 2010

TODAY'S NEWS

1. The launch of the Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F06) ended in a failure at Sriharikota (A.P.). The GSLV-F06 was to have put in orbit GSAT-5P with 36 transponders. The previous GSLV flight in April 2010 also failed. Out of seven GSLV flights from 2001, four, including the latest one, have failed. The GSAT-8, having 24 transponders, would be launched by the European Space Agency's Ariane rocket from French-Guyana in March-April 2011. The ISRO Chairman Dr. Radhakrishnan, however, said: “we will now review the GSLV programme” since a GSLV of the same class was needed to put Chandrayaan-2 into orbit in 2013-14.

2. The ISRO would launch a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C16) from Sriharikota in the first week of February 2011. The rocket would put in orbit India's Resourcesat-2, Youthsat with payloads from Russia and India, and X-Sat from Singapore.

3. Sanjeev Tripathi will be the new chief of the country's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

4. The Chinese government's official film production company has given its backing to the country's first ever home-made “Bollywood” film production, a $ 10-million project.

5. “Coop Core – 2010” workshop for the nation-wide launch of the Core Banking Solutions (CBS) for Urban Cooperative Banks (UBCs) held at ahamadabad.

6. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee lauded public sector oil marketing companies for subsidising petroleum products even in the face of high rate of crude in the international market. Mr. Mukherjee said: “ oil marketing companies are subsidising diesel at Rs. 5.41 per litre, kerosene at Rs. 16.88 per litre and LPG cylinders at Rs. 272.19 each.”

7. Union Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily said the Centre was committed to implementing all recommendations of the Rajinder Sachar Committee on minorities' welfare. Centre had already identified 90 districts with a large concentration of minorities where it would implement the 15-point programme for them and solve their economic and other problems.

8. Agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan has been conferred the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award for his “outstanding leadership in the field of agriculture that has contributed to ensuring food security for millions of Indians.”

9. National Green Tribunal (NGT) Act 2010 - The constitution of NGT and by excluding all environmental matters from the jurisdiction of the High Court and Civil Courts. The National Environmental Tribunal Act and the National Environment Appellate Authority Act were repealed. The cases pending before the two forums stood transferred to the NGT.

10.Britain could soon become the first western country to declare caste discrimination unlawful by recognising it as a form of racial prejudice if the government accepts the recommendations of a study it commissioned to help it take a decision.

26 January 2011

TODAY'S NEW

1. The stand-off between the BJP and the Jammu and Kashmir government ended with the arrest here of the party's top leaders along workers, who tried to move towards Jammu on their way to Srinagar to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk on Republic Day.

2. Army doctor Major Laishram Jyotin Singh will be posthumously conferred the country's highest peacetime gallantry award, Ashok Chakra, on Republic Day. On the eve of Republic Day, the President approved 440 gallantry including 5 Kirti Chakra, 21 Shaurya Chakra.

3. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the former National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, Wipro chief Azim Premji, Telugu film celebrity A. Nageswara Rao, Art historian Kapila Vatsyayan, India's first woman news photographer Homai Vyarawalla and the former Attorney-General, K. Parasaran, are among this year's 13 Padma Vibhushan awardees. The Padma Vibhushan, which is India's second highest civilian honour, has been conferred posthumously on Gandhian and freedom fighter Lakshmi Chand Jain. Actress of yesteryear Waheeda Rahman (Padma Bhushan) and cricketer V.V.S. Laxman (Padma Shri) are among the 128 men and women who have made it to the Padma awards list this year.

4. British historical drama The King's Speech garnered 12 Oscar nominations, leading the competition for the film industry's top honours. True Grit came in second with 10 nominations. The Social Network and Inception won eight nominations each for the 83rd annual Academy Awards to be held on February 27.

5. The India Annual Conference of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) will be held in Hyderabad on January 28 and 29.

6. India had Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with 79 countries and modifications in such pacts were needed in 74 of them to broaden the scope of the article of exchange of information to include exchange of banking information. Already a total of 23 negotiations in line with international standards had been completed for DTAAs and 10 for Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs). In 31 cases, DTAA negotiations and in five cases, TIEA negotiations were in progress.

7. The Task Force, headed by Minister of State for Commerce Jyotiraditya Scindia constituted by the Centre to suggest measures to cut transaction costs in the export sector is expected to submit its report soon.

8. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) have formed a national level apex committee to monitor the progress of Rs.1,200 crore India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) being established in Theni district (T.N.).

9. SyndicateBank, which has entered into a tie-up with Tata AIG Life Insurance Company, on Tuesday launched a micro-insurance product for its customers under Financial Inclusion (FI) programme. Under the agreement, the customers of bank can avail a life insurance cover up to Rs. 25,000 at an affordable premium.

10.The Maharashtra government announced that a lifetime achievement award in classical music will be instituted in memory of Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. It will consist of Rs.1 lakh.

11.India and Indonesia on Tuesday signed 18 agreements worth $15.1 billion in sectors such as mining, infrastructure and manufacturing.

12.India's first Greenfield International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT) is likely to go on stream in Kochi on February 11.

13.Thousands of anti-government protesters clashed with riot police in the centre of Cairo (Egypt) in a Tunisia-inspired demonstration to demand the end of Hosni Mubarak's nearly 30 years in power.

14.Gen. Sarath Fonseka faces court martial. Mr. Fonseka commanded the Army when Sri Lanka defeated the LTTE in May 2009, ending nearly three decades of civil war. He later contested unsuccessfully against Mahinda Rajapaksa in the January 2010 presidential election.

15.The FAO Food Price Index at the end of 2010 returned to its highest level. Drought in Russia and the export restrictions adopted by the government, together with lower crop harvests than expected, first in the United States and Europe, then in Australia and Argentina, have triggered a process of soaring agricultural commodity prices on international markets.

16.On January 26, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will be chief guest at India's Republic Day.

17.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the repo rate — the rate at which banks borrow money from the central bank — by 25 basis points from 6.25 per cent to 6.5 per cent and the reverse repo rate — the rate at which banks park their funds with the RBI — from 5.25 per cent to 5.5 per cent. Since mid-March 2010, the RBI has cumulatively increased the repo rate by 175 basis points and the reverse repo rate by 225 basis points. Additionally, the CRR was increased by 100 basis points. WPI inflation (year-on-year) moved up from 7.4 per cent in November to 8.4 per cent in December 2010, due mainly to sharp increase in the prices of vegetables, mineral oils and minerals. While the RBI retained the GDP growth forecast at 8.5 per cent with upward bias, it raised the March inflation forecast to 7 per cent compared to its earlier forecast of 5.5 per cent.

18. The International Monetary Fund raised growth forecast for global economy to 4.4 per cent while retaining the projection for India at 8.4 per cent for calendar year 2011.

27 December 2010

TODAY'S NEWS

1. Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) of India Vinod Rai will appear before Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in connection with the 2G telecom controversy. The PAC, headed by BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi has been examining the CAG's report of a presumed loss of Rs.1.76-lakh crore in the allocation of the 2 G spectrum, which created a storm in Parliament.

2. Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir have thrown their weight behind the Rajasthan Gujjars in their ongoing struggle for grant of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. ST status was given to the J&K and Himachal Gujjars more than two decades ago. They urged the Union government to take action on the Justice Chopra Committee report, which was forwarded to New Delhi by the Rajasthan government in 2008. The report clearly said that the Rajasthan Gujjars fulfilled all the requirement to be declared an enlisted Tribal Group, it noted.

3. The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) grouping will become BRICS with the inclusion of South Africa, according to sources in the government. The third BRIC summit in China next year will see South African President Jacob Zuma present as an observer. Membership of the soon-to-be five nation grouping will then be frozen for some time. This means that aspirants for membership like Egypt and Indonesia will have to wait till the BRICS stabilises.

4. The G-4 countries (Japan-India-Germany-Brazil) regularly have consultations with South Africa on the expansion of the Security Council.

5. GSLV-Mark II with an indigenous cryogenic engine that will put Chandrayaan-2 in orbit in 2013-14. While the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL), which is much smaller than the GSLV-Mark II, put Chandrayaan-1 in orbit in October 2008, ISRO needs a GSLV to put Chandrayaan-2 in orbit because Chandrayaan-2 is much heavier. It will have a lander and a rover. The rover will drive about on the lunar soil, pick up samples with a robotic arm and do in situ analysis. The upgraded GSLV-Mark III, which is under development, will carry two Indians into space in low earth orbit around 2016. The GSLV is a three-stage vehicle. The first stage uses solid propellants with four strap-on booster motors. The second stage uses liquid propellants. The third topmost stage uses cryogenic propellants.

6. Iran has stepped up pressure on Pakistan to crack down on terrorists, days after Islamabad announced the arrest of the chief of Jundallah, a sectarian Muslim group which carries out cross-border attacks inside Iranian territory.

7. In a bid to boost innovative agri start-ups and rural enterprises, the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has earmarked Rs.100 crore to be lent to venture capital funds, which have a mandate to invest in such companies

28 December 2010

TODAYS'S NEWS

1. At least 17,368 Indian farmers killed themselves in 2009, the worst figure for farm suicides in six years, according to data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). This is an increase of 1,172 over the 2008 count of 16,196. It brings the total farm suicides since 1997 to 2,16,500. The share of the Big 5 States, or ‘suicide belt' — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — in 2009 remained very high at 10,765, or around 62 per cent of the total, though falling nearly five percentage points from 2008. Maharashtra remained the worst State for farm suicides for the tenth successive year, reporting 2,872. Though that is a fall of 930, it is still 590 more than in Karnataka, second worst, which logged 2,282 farm suicides.

Maharashtra has logged 44,276 farm suicides since 1997, over a fifth of the total 2,16,500. Within the Big 5, Karnataka saw the highest increase of 545 in 2009. Andhra Pradesh recorded 2,414 farm suicides — 309 more than in 2008. Madhya Pradesh (1,395) and Chhattisgarh (1,802) saw smaller increases of 16 and 29. Outside the Big 5, Tamil Nadu doubled its tally with 1,060, against 512 in 2008. In all, 18 of 28 States reported higher farm suicide numbers in 2009. NCRB farm data now exist for 13 years. Among the major States, only a few including Karnataka, Kerala and West Bengal avoided the sharp rise these six years .

2. Vaidyanathan committee report on cooperative sector reforms.

3. Comptroller and Auditor-General of India Vinod Rai on Monday appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), 22-member committee, led by Murli Manohar Joshi to give his views on the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

4. The Pakistan Navy on Monday successfully test-fired several surface-to-air missiles to assess its air defence capabilities in the Sonmiani area of the Sindh province.

5. Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL), an infrastructure major with experience in irrigation, drinking water, power, roads, oil and natural gas sectors apart from manufacture of spiral and fibre glass pipes, has been awarded a prestigious PURA (Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) project worth Rs. 120 crore. It will complete the work under public-private partnership model in three years and manage it for the next ten years. The amount would be spent in the two Gram Panchayats of Krishna district – Kondapalli and Ibrahimpatnam. PURA stems out of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's visualisation of the transformation of rural India in 2003, with the primarily objective of providing livelihood opportunities and urban amenities in rural areas.

6. The Chairman and Editorial Director of Business Standard, T.N. Ninan, has been elected president of the Editors Guild of India.

7. Mr. Patel launched the first seaplane service in the country at the Juhu aerodrome here and named it ‘Jal Hans.' The amphibian plane will run on the Andaman and Nicobar islands. A joint venture has been formed between Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL) and the Andaman and Nicobar administration on an equal profit-sharing basis. Government had allowed 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment in the operation of seaplanes.

8. Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi said on Monday that an expenditure monitoring division had been set up at the Election Commission headquarters in New Delhi and the campaign to check use of money power in elections would continue.

9. Inflation is expected to come down to 5.5 per cent by March 2011, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C. Rangarajan said. Besides, the PM panel sees a GDP growth rate between 8.5 per cent-9 per cent in the current fiscal. The wholesale price index-based inflation stood at 7.48 per cent in November against 8.58 per cent in October while food inflation shot up to 12.13 per cent for the week ended December 11. The economy would become middle income country by 2020, Dr. Rangarajan added.

10. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), is raising its stake in Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL) from 21 per cent to 49 per cent. At present, the government owns 79 per cent stake in the chopper firm, while ONGC has 21 per cent.

11. Lack of preparedness on the part of mobile operators may force the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to extend its January 1, 2011 deadline to begin its crackdown against telemarketing companies for making unsolicited calls and sending SMS. TRAI source said registration of telemarketers and subscribers is likely to begin on January 15, 2011. TRAI will also issue a new set of numbers starting with ‘70' for telemarketers so that any unregistered subscribers can identify commercial calls and decide whether to accept or reject them. Similarly, no telemarketing calls will be made between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m.

12. The Union Civil Aviation Ministry has recommended an equity infusion of Rs.2,000 crore in Air India (AI) in the next financial year after the national carrier gets Rs.1,200 crore soon.

29 December 2010

TODAY'S NEWS

1. The Centre on Tuesday announced an additional allocation of five million tonnes of wheat and rice to States for distribution to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) beneficiaries through the Targeted Public Distribution System. This is in addition to the 25 lakh tonnes of grains released for the BPL population in August. The grains for BPL will be sold at the public distribution system rate of Rs. 4.15 a kg for wheat and Rs. 5.65 for rice. For the APL, wheat will be available at Rs. 8.45 a kg and rice at Rs. 8.45. The government also extended the ban on export of pulses and the permission to import pulses at zero duty till March 2012. Stock holding limit on sugar will also continue for the next three months to keep prices in check. These decisions, taken at a meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), chaired by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, are meant to contain food inflation and keep prices of wheat, rice, pulses and sugar in check in the coming months.

2. The UAE has introduced a work permit that will allow foreign workers to switch jobs after two years without facing a six-month ban.

3. The Department of Space plans to launch “not less than 30 satellites” in the next decade. These include a series of resourcesat, cartosat, ocean and atmospheric satellites, National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) director V. Jayaraman told. Resourcesat-2 will be launched in early February or January-end. It will be a replacement satellite for Resourcesat-1.

4. the book The Congress and the Making of the Indian Nation edited by senior party leader Pranab Mukherjee.

5. India offered training placements for the Sri Lankan security personnel. Two countries will have a joint naval exercise in the Sri Lankan waters in 2011. Also, an annual defence dialogue and staff-level talks between the Navy and armies of the two countries will begin from next year.

6. A banking fraud, which could run into a whopping Rs. 400 crore, has been unearthed at the leading multinational lender Citibank's Gurgaon (Haryana) branch.

7. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out apologising to Turkey over the raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship that killed nine Turkish activists, as another vessel prepared to bypass its blockade of the territory.

8. The UAE's state nuclear company is moving ahead with plans to build its first nuclear power plant, saying it has filed a construction license application covering the project's first two reactors.

9. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued a consultation paper seeking views of various stakeholders for promoting manufacturing and research and development (R&D) of telecom equipment.

10.After a dull 2008 and 2009, public equity issuances, comprising initial public offerings (IPOs) and follow-on public offerings (FPOs), witnessed the highest-ever mobilisation in 2010 at Rs.69,192 crore, according to PRIME, the premier database on the primary capital market. This is three-and-a-half times higher than the previous year (Rs.19,567 crore) and 53 per cent higher than the earlier record year of 2007 (Rs.45,142 crore). This huge raising was possible because of the concerted and successful public sector undertakings (PSUs) issue programme. By number of issues, the year closed at 72, over three times higher than 21 in 2009, though much below 106 issues in 2007, or several earlier years which had seen much higher number of issuances. According to PRIME, the year witnessed 64 IPOs (previous year 20) and 8 FPOs (previous year 1).

11.The year 2010 also witnessed the largest-ever IPO — from Coal India for Rs.15,199 crore, which single-handedly accounted for 22 per cent of the year's total mobilisation. Coal India got oversubscribed by over 15 times. The highest oversubscription was witnessed by Persistent Systems at 93 times. The top five issues were all from the public sector. Following Coal India were NMDC (Rs.9,930 crore), NTPC (Rs.8,480 crore), Power Grid (Rs.7,442 crore) and REC (Rs.3,530 crore). The largest private sector issue was from Jaypee Infratech (Rs.2,262 crore).

12.The year 2010 also broke another record, according to Mr. Haldea, that of the highest amount ever collected as application money. Coal India, with Rs.2.33 lakh crore beat Reliance Powers' record of Rs.2.25 lakh crore.

13.Anchor investors, who cannot be a promoter of the issuer company, can be allocated as much as 30 per cent of the portion reserved for qualified institutional buyers (usually 60 per cent) in an issue, through a bidding process. The lock-in period for such an investor is 30 days. The issuer will carry out the bidding process one day prior to the actual issue opening to choose the anchor investor. Anchor investors belong to the Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) category, which include mutual funds, foreign institutional investors, banks, and venture capital funds - domestic and international provident and pension funds.

14.ASBA (Application Supported by Blocked Amounts) is a process developed by the Securities and Exchange Board Of India (SEBI) for applying to IPO.In ASBA, an IPO applicant's account doesn't get debited until shares are alloted to him.

30 December 2010

TODAY'S NEWS

1. Reserve Bank of India has barred companies from using the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) to process current account transactions for oil and gas imports — a decision that directly hits at Indian energy imports from Iran. American and European clearing houses also unwilling to process payments involving the Iranian hydrocarbon sector. The ACU has nine members today: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Iran. The nine countries settle payments for intra-regional transactions among participating central banks on a multilateral basis. Two years ago, Iran asked Indian companies such as ONGC to use the ACU to avoid being targeted by U.S. extra-territorial sanctions. But since the U.S. Treasury, which enforces those sanctions, is unable to monitor ACU transactions, Washington had been pressuring Delhi to shut down this route.

2. Nepal's exotic Chitwan National Park, where a unique Miss Elephant International pageant was held.

3. Besides developing the Iranian port, India is keen on laying down a rail link to the edge of this Zaranj-Delaram road. Goods would then be transported into Pashtun areas of Afghanistan by an alternate route than the one through Pakistan's Karachi port.

4. The National Commission for Human Resources for Health Bill, 2010, is aimed at consolidating the law in certain disciplines of health sector and promoting human resources in the health sector.

5. Mobile operators who recently received notices from the Department of Telecommunications for failing to meet their roll-out obligations have started paying penalty to the government.

6. President Obama has achieved a significant success in gaining the United States Senate's ratification by 71 votes to 26 of a new strategic arms reduction treaty (Start) with Russia. The document, which Mr. Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed in Prague in April, requires each side to reduce its nuclear arsenal from the current limit of 2,200 to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads by 2017. Launch vehicles of all kinds are restricted to 700 for each side and all launch systems are not to exceed 800 each. The agreement also introduces an inspection and verification process; there has been none since the 1991 Start expired in December 2009.

7. Private insurer Star Union Dai-ichi Life insurance (SUD Life) on Wednesday said that it had entered into a tie-up with Union Bank of India (UBI) for pan-India distribution of its reverse mortgage loan-enabled annuity plan (RMLeA).

31 December 2010

TODAY'S NEW

1. The Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II allocated the highest share of Krishna river waters to Andhra Pradesh. The shares of other basin States — Karnataka and Maharashtra — were also raised. The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar, permitted Karnataka to raise the storage level in the Almatti dam to 524.256 metres from 519.6 metres. the tribunal allocated a total share of of 1,001 tmcft to Andhra Pradesh, 911 tmcft to Karnataka and 666 tmcft to Maharashtra The tribunal, however, directed Karnataka to make regulated releases of 8 to 10 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) from the dam to Andhra Pradesh in June and July. The tribunal asked the Centre to set up a `Krishna Water Decision-Implementation Board' with representation from all the three States.

2. Come June 30, 2011, 50 paise will be the minimum coin accepted in the markets as all denominations below it will cease to be legal currency.

3. B. N. Srikrishna Committee, five-member committee after holding wide-ranging consultations over the past 11 months on the demands for creation of a State of Telangana submitted its report to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

4. Food inflation surged to a 10-week high of 14.44 per cent.

5. The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has successfully completed the trials of a big aerostat system developed by it. During the trials, which comprised surveillance over Agra and interception of a variety of communications, the aerostat carried electro-optic and communication intelligence payloads.

6. The Reserve Bank of India stopped facilitating payments for crude oil imported from Iran. The RBI said companies would be allowed to settle current account and trade transactions with Iran outside the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), a regional payment arrangement. ACU participants settle transactions in either U.S. dollar or Euro. Iran has refused to sell oil under the new rules. India is a member of the nine-country ACU and has utilised it extensively to settle gas and oil transactions with Iran.The ACU, based in Tehran, settles trade transactions with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, the Maldives, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Iran is India's second largest crude oil supplier, after Saudi Arabia, meeting more than 12 per cent of its needs. Until 2008, payments under the ACU were made in dollars, but after the U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran, Euro was adopted. Recently, the European Central Bank (ECB) asked the RBI to certify that the Euro being used to import products were not on the U.S. sanctions list.

7. PAC head, Dr. Joshi is looking into the Comptroller and Auditor General of India's report on 2G spectrum allocation that has put “presumptive loss” to the exchequer at over Rs.1.76-lakh crore. Government has so far declined to setting up a JPC, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has offered to appear before the PAC to answer any query on the 2G scam. The BJP's position is that we are very clear and firm on the demand for a JPC.

8. The government extended tourist visa-on-arrival (TVOA) facility to nationals of Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines from January. The TVOA will be allowed for a maximum period of 30 days with single entry facility by immigration officers at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata Airports. The TVOA shall be allowed for a maximum of two times in a calendar year to a foreigner with a minimum gap of two months. The TVOA shall be non-extendable and non-convertible. The visa-on-arrival will be provided on payment of a fee of $60 or equivalent amount in rupees per passenger including children. The foreigners may also avail the TVOA for upto 30 days for medical treatment, for casual business or to visit friends or relatives. The TVOA facility shall not be applicable to the holders of Diplomatic or Official Passports. Further, the TVOA shall not be granted to foreigners who have permanent residence or occupation in India. Such persons can visit India on normal visa, as applicable.

9. Field trial for a genetically modified (GM) variety of rice in West Bengal has sparked controversy. Protest emerged about the decision of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to grant permission to the Calcutta University for a field trial of GM rice at the State government's Rice Research Station in Chinsurah in Hooghly district.

10. Self-Employed Women's Association (Sewa), welcomed the recent initiative of the government to implement scheme, women working in shops were entitled to get an amount equivalent to 12 weeks wages during maternity leave.

11. United Nations Mission in Nepal (Unmin) begins to pack up as its term ends on January 15.

12. Mongolia has joined the Regional Integrated Multi-hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES) to boost protection against natural disasters, according to a press release issued in Ulan Bator on December 30.

13. Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the infusion of Rs.1, 200-crore as equity in Air India Limited and directed the management of the public sector carrier to work towards rationalization of its wage structure. Government had earlier released Rs.800 crore in February this year as equity induction in the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), now Air India Limited, for its revival plan.

14. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee hinted more steps to check rising prices even as food inflation surged to a 10-week high of 14.44 per cent.

15. Growth in core sectors — crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel, key infrastructure sectors dropped to a 21-month low of 2.3 per cent in November, over the same month last year. In October, these sectors had recorded an impressive growth of 8.6 per cent. The six infrastructure sectors, which have a weightage of 26.68 per cent in the overall industrial output, were largely on account of dip in petroleum refinery and cement output.

16. Attributing high food inflation to demand-supply mismatch and rising global commodity prices, the Reserve Bank of India said high rate of price rise had emerged as a new risk factor. Global prices of major commodities, including crude oil, gold, iron ore, silver and farm goods like cotton have risen sharply, it said. Crude oil prices are trading at two-year high of $92 a barrel. The overall inflation including manufacturing came down to 7.48 per cent in November. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee indicated more steps to check rising prices and pegged the overall inflation rate at 6.5 per cent by this fiscal-end. However it is higher than 5.5 per cent indicated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and 6 per cent projected by the Mid-Year Analysis of the Finance Ministry for the current fiscal. Since October 2009, the RBI has cumulatively raised the cash reserve ratio by 100 basis points, and the repo and reverse repo rates by 150 and 200 basis points, respectively.

17. The follow-on-public offer (FPO) of ONGC will happen before the end of March 2011. The Cabinet had on December 1 approved the sale of government's 5 per cent stake in ONGC to raise up to Rs.13, 000 crore. Post-offer, government shareholding in ONGC would come down to 69.14 per cent from 74.14 per cent. The share stake sale 10 per cent share of IOC, which was previously said to take place in the last week of January 2011, has been pushed to 2011-12 fiscal. Rising crude oil prices and the mounting subsidy burden had made IOC less attractive to investors. On the other hand, ONGC gets international price for the crude oil it produces. The government plans to raise Rs.40, 000 crore through disinvestment of its stake in public sector units in the current fiscal, up from around Rs.25, 000 crore in 2009-10.

18. Government was committed to compensating State-owned oil marketing firms for the revenue loss on account of selling petroleum products at a subsidized price. At present, oil marketing companies (OMCs) - Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation were losing over Rs.225 crore a day on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below their imported cost.

19. The executive committee of the central board of State Bank of India has approved a proposal to raise Rs.10,000 crore through Tier-II bonds and Rs.2,000 crore through bonds from retail investors during the remaining period of 2010-11 and 2011-12

1 Jan 2011

1. Bobby Jindal, Indian-origin Governor of Louisiana, is the most popular serving governor in the United States, according to an opinion poll.

2. CIRUS, a 50-year-old research reactor and India's symbol of the civil and military nuclear programme, was shut down permanently at midnight on 31 December as per India's commitment under its civil nuclear deal with the United States.

3. The area sown under rabi foodgrains this year is so far higher than that of the previous by 31.32 lakh hectares, with the area under wheat and pulses higher, but coarse cereals lower. The area under foodgrains is 507.47 lakh hectares as against the 476.15 lakh hectares sown in the corresponding period last year. Sowing of rabi wheat on 275.85 lakh hectares has crossed last year's level of 265.81 lakh hectares. The area under pulses is also higher at 139.03 lakh hectares as against the 129.92 lakh hectares in the corresponding period last year.

4. The Preliminary Failure Analysis Team was chaired by the former ISRO Chairman, G. Madhavan Nair GSLV-F06 failour. The ISRO has also constituted a Programme Review and Strategy Committee to look into the future of the GSLV Programme and the launches of the INSAT/GSAT Series, INSAT-3D and Chandrayaan-2. This seven-member committee will be headed by K. Kasturirangan, former ISRO chairman. These two Committees have been requested to submit their reports by the end of January 2011.

5. Kerala IT's Akshaya project has won the Manthan Award South Asia 2010 in the e-governance category. The Manthan award is one of South Asia's biggest events in information and communications technology for development initiatives.

6. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday chaired the first meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) formed to sort out inter-regulatory issues. FSDC includes Reserve Bank of India Governor, Finance Secretary and heads of regulators like Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). The Council is also expected to coordinate the country's international interface with financial sector bodies such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Financial Stability Board (FSB).

7. India's external debt has gone up by 12.8 per cent to $295.8 billion in the first-half of the current financial year (2010-11), mainly due to increase in overseas borrowings by corporates and appreciation of rupee vis-a-vis other major currencies. Rupee appreciation led to rise in external debt by $6.3 billion or 18.8 per cent of the total increase. The long-term debt rose by 9.5 per cent to $229.8 billion, while the short-term debt increased by 25.8 per cent to $66 billion during April-September 2010. The share of Government debt in total external debt stood at 24.4 per cent and long-term debt accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the total debt.

8. the Reserve Bank of India on Friday directed banks not to invest in non-convertible debenture (NCD) of corporates unless they disclose the purpose for which the funds are being raised.

9. The all-India consumer price index number for industrial workers (base: 2001=100) moves up to 182 during November from 181 in the previous month, according to a Labour Bureau release.

10. India's current account deficit, representing net flow of income out of the country barring capital movements, surged 72 per cent to $15.8 billion in the July-September quarter over the same period last year. The increase in current account deficit (CAD) during the period under review is due to higher imports. In the corresponding period last year, current account deficit stood at $9.2 billion. The current account deficit, which includes deficit in external trade of goods, services, besides net investment income, stood at 2.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) last fiscal, and experts believe that it will increase a bit to 3 per cent of GDP this fiscal. The net outflow of money on current account was, however, more than offset by inflow on capital account, despite moderation in foreign direct investment (FDI). Higher capital inflows were due to higher investment in capital markets by foreign funds, external commercial borrowings by India Inc and external assistance, the data showed. During the July-September quarter, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) put in $18.8 billion, while it was only $7 billion in the same period last fiscal. However, foreign direct investment fell to $2.5 billion during the period under reference from $7.5 billion in the year-ago period. As external commercial borrowings among other overseas debts rose, India's external debt rose by 12.8 per cent to $295.8 billion in the first half of 2010-11.

2 January 2011

1. The proposal for a privately promoted aerospace university near Devanahalli, which was first mooted at the Global Investors Meet (GIM) in June, is likely to fructify after the Bangalore Aero Show in February, sources in the Government.

2. India and Pakistan exchanged lists of their nuclear installations and facilities. This was in line with a two-decades-old pact prohibiting attacks on atomic assets.

3. Sanskriti Express, an exhibition train being run by the Indian Railways to celebrate Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary, flagged off by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in May 2010, is visiting important cities across India. It will return to Kolkata in May 2011.

4. proposed National Food Security Bill approved by the Empowered Group of Ministers, But later the entire exercise was taken over by the National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by Sonia Gandhi. The NAC recommended that 75 per cent population be covered under the proposed Bill in two phases. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh then formed an experts group under Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C. Rangarajan to examine the NAC recommendations. Dr. Rangarajan will soon submit his report to the Prime Minister and is expected to recommend implementation in “do-able'' phases.

5. The Central government has decided to set up a wagon manufacturing factory at Kazipet (W.B.)

6. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has so far collected Rs.73.73 crore as penalty from new telecom operators who failed to meet their network rollout obligations as per licence conditions.

7. TRAI guidelines favour severe penalty against defaulting telemarketing companies and operators with financial penalty as high as Rs.2.50-lakh, the action was to begin on February 1. It also recommended a new set of phone numbers starting with ‘70' for telemarketers to help unregistered subscribers identify commercial calls and decide whether to accept or reject such calls. It also said no commercial calls could be made between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. New regulations gave customers different options to avoid unsolicited calls by choosing either “fully blocked” or “partially blocked” categories. TRAI also identified seven categories for telemarketing calls, including banking and financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, automobiles, communication, entertainment, tourism and leisure.

8. The first 1,000-km-long oil pipeline between Russia and China became operational, marking growing ties between the world's biggest oil producer and its biggest energy consumer.

3 January 2011

1. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday decided to boycott a meeting of eight recognised parties called by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram in New Delhi for January 6 to discuss the report of the Srikrishna Committee on the issue of statehood for Telangana.

2. After 19 years, India has joined the U.N. Security Council as a non-permanent member for a two-year term (2011-12). On January 1, India, along with Germany, Portugal, South Africa and Columbia, became a non-permanent member of this 15-member body.

3. India will make another attempt to acquire the house of Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg, where he had lived a century ago, to convert it into a memorial. The house, where Gandhi had stayed from 1908 to 1910 as a young lawyer, was on sale, state-owned Coal India Ltd. attempted to buy it in August 2009 but it was snapped up by a French tourism company in an auction for what was believed at the time to be almost twice the asking price of $3,77,029.

4. The Centre is hopeful that food inflation will come down to 6.5 per cent by March.

5. According to the final draft of the Bill - National Commission for Human Resources for Health (NCHRH) Bill - 2010, the National Board of Examinations will be dissolved and its functions taken over by the National Board for Health Education (NBHE) to be set up under the proposed law.

6. A delegation of Afghanistan's High Council for Peace, set up in September last year by the Karzai government to hold talks with Taliban-led insurgents in the hope of a negotiated end to the conflict, will visit Pakistan this week. The delegation will be led by its chairman and former Afghanistan President Burhanuddin Rabbani.

7. Iran's Revolutionary Guards have shot down two “Western spy” drones in the Gulf, the Fars news agency said.

8. Tata Steel plans to ink an agreement with Japan-based Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC) by the end of this month to set up a Rs. 2,400 crore steel plant for producing autograde steel. The proposed joint venture facility is expected to commence operation in the next two years at the Tata Steel's existing unit in Jamshedpur.

4 January 2011

1. The Election Commission is likely to hold the Assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry in May.

2. The Centre is working on the concept of having ‘Navratna' universities. Government intend to nurture these select universities like the public sector Navratnas, through generous financial support, freedom in access to external funding and total autonomy so as to free them from the shackles of governmental control. Government was also planning to set up 14 Innovation Universities. The institutions would set benchmarks in academics comparable to the best in the world with regard to problems of hunger, water and poverty.

3. The Centre has allowed export of 5 lakh tonnes of sugar. It has asked sugar mills to register themselves for seeking the Release Order for exports under Open General Licence (OGL). The export has been allowed as sugar production this year is expected to be around 24.5 million tonnes, higher than the internal demand of 23 million tonnes, informed sources said. The output the previous year was 18.8 million tonnes.

4. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presenting the Gold Medal of the General President of the Indian Science Congress Association to Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan at the inauguration of 98th ISC at SRM University, Kattankulathur near Chennai.

5. Procurement deal of MMRCA (Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) - Six manufacturers — American Boeing (F/A-18) and Lockheed Martin (F-16), Russian (MiG-35), European consortium EADS (Eurofighter), French (Rafale), and Swedish SAAB (Gripen) — took part in the field trials.

6. Tamil Nadu has the highest number of Micro, Small Enterprises (MSE) clusters in the country, followed by Kerala

7. On December 11, India joined Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan to sign a framework agreement to build a 1,680-km gas pipeline. The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline will initially draw gas from the Daulatabad gasfield and convey it to India through Afghanistan and Pakistan. Subsequently, gas may also be sourced from the huge South Yoloten-Osman field which is still under development. India and Pakistan will each get 33 bcm annually. The pipeline project has the blessings of the Asian Development Bank and the U.S.

8. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and GAIL India (GAIL) announced that they had reached a landmark agreement to ensure mutual business growth in the areas of natural gas as well as petrochemicals.

9. The current Plan is expected to see the addition of 62,374 MW of power generation capacity and projects for creating a capacity of 66,000 MW are now under implementation, Union Minister of Power Sushil Kumar Shinde said. The private sector was poised to have a majority share of the sector — at least 52 per cent (against 32 per cent) by the next Plan period beginning April 2012, he said. The Minister said that the share had increased to 32 per cent now from less than 10 per cent in the X Plan and was set to be over 52 per cent in the next Plan period.

10. With exports registering a healthy growth of 26.5 per cent during November 2010 at $18.8 billion, the Commerce Ministry officials were confident that the overall exports would easily breach the $200 billion target set for this fiscal.

11. Reliance Exchangenext Limited (RNext), a subsidiary of Reliance Capital, a part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has acquired 26 per cent stake in Indian Commodity Exchange Limited (ICEX) from Indiabulls Financial Services Limited.

5 January 2011

1. CBI reiterated its stand to close the Bofors case in “public interest.

2. After TRS and BJP, Telugu Desam too may stay away from the all-party meeting called by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to discuss Srikrishna Committee report in New Delhi on January 6.

3. Governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was gunned down, by one of his own security guards.

4. Use of energy-saving CFL and LED lights, T5 tubelights and labelled equipment of three stars and above has been made mandatory for government departments, quasi-government organisations, public sector undertakings in the Andhra Pradesh as part of energy conservation policy.

5. India announced an extension of the ban on milk and milk products from China for another year. Milk and milk products from China have been prohibited since September 2008. The items that come under the ban include chocolate, chocolate products, candies, confectioneries and food preparations that use milk as an ingredient. It was over fears of Chinese milk containing melamine, a deadly chemical.

6. MBT (Main Battle Tank) Arjun and Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas indigenously developed

7. Nalanda University (which existed in Bihar during the early fifth century) was “violently destroyed” in an Afghan attack led by Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193. It was being re-established through an Asian initiative, involving India, China, Singapore, Japan and Thailand. Amartya Sen, the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University in the U.S. is the chairman of the Interim Governing Board of Nalanda University.

8. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has decided to set up a research and innovation centre in the Research Park of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras, V.K. Saraswat, DRDO Director-General and Defence Research and Development Department Secretary, said.

9. This train seeks to provide insight into the life and service of Mother Teresa, was launched at the West Bengal capital on August 26, 2010. the train, which celebrates the birth centenary of Nobel laureate is on a nationwide tour.

10. India and Iran agreed on a “formula” for making payments for oil through a Hamburg-based German bank. Iran's national oil company National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has a Euro account in Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (EIH Bank) in Hamburg, which will process the payments made for Iranian crude by Indian companies. Oil companies such as Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Indian Oil and Essar Oil will make payments to the State Bank of India, whose Frankfurt branch will transfer the money to NIOC's EIH Bank account.

11. Meira Kumar, the first woman Lok Sabha Speaker, was awarded an honorary D. Litt. (Degree of Doctor of Letters) by Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women's University.

12. South Sudan just five days away it votes in a referendum on independence.

13. The “5+1” countries are the six world powers negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme — the five permanent U.N. Security Council members (the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China) plus Germany. Iran has invited world powers and its allies in the Arab and developing world — but apparently not United States and the other Western powers in the group, in an apparent attempt to split the six powers ahead of planned talks on Iran's nuclear programme this month. Facilities to be visited include the nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz and the Arak site where Tehran is building a plutonium-producing heavy water reactor.

14. Saudi Arabia, the top oil exporter, is planning to host the world's largest gold factory located in city of Jeddah by the end of 2011, Arab News reported.

15. The Supreme Court refused to stay the fund raising exercise of two Sahara group firms as sought by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, but allowed the market regulator to seek information on investors' details from the companies. Two Sahara group companies — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation — are planning to raise Rs.20,000 crore each from the market through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs).

16. Uninor, a joint venture between Unitech and Norway's Telenor, moved the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) seeking damages from the company for not meeting its roll-out obligations.

6 January 2011

1. The Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee, five-member panel, has offered 6 options on which the government may take a decision.

2. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) officials questioned Citibank's Relationship Manager Shivraj Puri and Hero Corporate Service's former Associate Vice-President (Accounts) Sanjay Gupta in connection with the Rs. 300-crore fraud case in the Gurgaon branch of the bank.

3. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah clarified that there would be no rotation of Chief Ministership between the National Conference and the Congress.

4. Field trials of Genetically Modified (GM) rubber will be held in the Rubber Research Institute of India in Kerala and Maharashtra for around 14 years. The GM rubber plants incorporate the target gene (MnSOD) from rubber itself and not from any other species. Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee gives approval for trial.

5. The 14-day ‘Rastriya Ekta Yatra' will begin on January 12 (birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda) from Kolkata to Lal Chowk in Srinagar birthplace of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee on Republic Day, where the BJP has announced that it would hoist the national flag.

6. Three unique marine organisms, Deep Sea Smoky Batfish, Grooved Razor fish and Frog crab, have been re-recorded from Indian waters after a gap of over a century by research vessel ‘Sagar Sampda' in the Bay of Bengal .

7. Disputes between students and institutions, and teachers and government institutions can now be settled without much hassle as the government is planning to set up a tribunal bringing all disputes at the higher education level under one authority for speedy solution.

8. From January 7 to 10 Bangalore will host World Sanskrit Book Fair-2011 -- being organised for the first time in 300 years.

9. Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) 1976.

10. 127 agro-climatic zones had been identified in the country based on the cropping and weather factors.

11. The Western Ghats Task Force has urged Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to restrict the use of endosulfan, an organochlorine pesticide, used as an aerial spray in cashew plantations.

12. Prime Minister has turned down the proposal of National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi to pay MNREGA workers the minimum wages statutorily notified by different States.He has offered to link the wage rate with the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour (CPIAL) and implement it with effect from January 1, 2011.

13. Gujjars, who have been on stir demanding 5 per cent reservation for them and three other Special Backward Classes (SBCs) in jobs and education, called off their 17-day-old agitation

14. China has become one of the world's largest offshore oil producers after the United States, the United Kingdom, and Norway. China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) announced that its oil and natural gas output surpassed 60 million metric tonnes in 2010.

15. Apollo Hospitals will be investing nearly Rs.1,000 crore to set up 12 new hospitals in small towns across the country in the next two years.

16. The World Bank has issued its first yuan-denominated bond to raise 500 million yuan ($76 million) from the two-year bond issue on the Hong Kong's yuan-denominated bond market.

17. FedEx Express, a subsidiary of world's largest express cargo company FedEx Corp, announced the launch of its direct services from India to China, giving a further boost to trade ties between the two countries.

18. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to implement the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) to provide India and neighbouring countries with the Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) service. The government had approved the project, which would be implemented in the next few years. Initially, the system would have seven satellites and then 11. At present, two space navigation systems operate in the world — the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS). The Galileo of Europe and China's COMPASS (Beidou) are likely to start working in five to 10 years. ISRO's GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) project was being implemented for the benefit of civil aviation. It would especially be useful in aircraft landing.

7 January 2011

1. The Srikrishna Committee has favoured maintaining the status quo of a united Andhra Pradesh and described the demand for a Telangana State as the “second best option.” report lists six options — (I) maintaining the status quo; (II) bifurcation of the State into Seemandhra and Telangana, with Hyderabad as a Union Territory, and the two States developing their own capitals in due course; (III) bifurcation of the State into the Rayala-Telangana and coastal Andhra regions, with Hyderabad being an integral part of Rayala-Telangana; (IV) bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Seemandhra and Telangana, with an enlarged Hyderabad metropolis as a separate Union Territory; (V) bifurcation of the State into Telangana and Seemandhra as per the existing boundaries, with Hyderabad serving as the capital of Telangana, and Seemandhra having a new capital; and (VI) keeping the State united by simultaneously providing certain definite constitutional/statutory measures for socio-economic development and political empowerment of the Telangana region — creation of a statutorily empowered Telangana Regional Council.

2. Over five crore Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers across the country will enjoy a 17 to 30 per cent rise in wages with their wage rate being linked with the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour(CPIAL) with immediate effect. The budgetary pronouncement of a real wage of Rs. 100 as on April 1, 2009 has now been linked with the CPIAL. The revision of wages will be made annually, for five years, on the base wage of Rs. 100. The base wage will be revised only in 2014. As of now, a 17-30 per cent increase is allowed for in NREGA wages, differing from State to State. This will entail an additional burden of Rs. 3,500 crore during the last quarter of the current fiscal.

3. The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the judgment of the Kerala High Court prohibiting public meetings by the roadsides in the State.

4. Food inflation zoomed to almost a year's high at 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25, 2010, owing to a spurt in the prices of vegetables, onions and milk.

5. In a New Year bonanza for its grade-four employees, the Railways has extended them the facility of travelling with their families in AC-3 once a year.

6. Pakistan deciding to ban its onion export to India through the Wagah border.

7. The CAG had for the first time taken up a social audit on water pollution with the help of social group Pan India and the report on it was expected to come in six months. It had already sought repeal of the 1971 Audit Act. The new Act would be made in the budget session of Parliament. The new Act would help avoid delays in audits, get information from the the concerned swiftly and enable auditing of all institutions involved in spending government funds. Auditing of public-private partnerships had already been taken up.

8. The Supreme Court asked Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam to seek instructions from the Centre whether the new pictorial warnings on tobacco products would be brought into effect from June 1, 2011, as per the December 20, 2010 notification.

9. China will always honour its promise not to launch a nuclear first-strike, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei.

10. International Monetary Fund (IMF) is Projecting India's economy to grow by 8.75 per cent in 2010-11 with a moderation to about 8 per cent during the next fiscal.

11. The IMF has estimated India's current account deficit (CAD) to touch 3.3 per cent of GDP in 2010-11 and rise to 3.5 per cent next year. While so far, the deficit has been financed mainly by foreign direct investment and equity inflows.

12. The Government also approved setting a power generation capacity target of one-lakh MW for the XII Plan. In the current XI Plan, the government had targeted generation of 78,000 MW, which was slashed to about 62,000 MW.

13. NTPC is conducting a feasibility study in Maldives to explore the potential of the island nation for setting up solar power projects.

14. Union Cabinet approved an amended Power Tariff Policy, which mandates States to have solar energy as 3 per cent of their total power purchases by 2022. The solar power purchase obligation for States may start with 0.25 per cent in Phase-I (by 2013) and go up to 3 per cent by 2022. The present amendment in the Tariff Policy is as per the National Solar Mission Strategy, which was approved by the Cabinet on November 19, 2009. As per the amendment, the power purchased by State electricity boards or other state utilities will be complemented by solar-specific Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) mechanism through which solar power generation companies will sell certificates to the buyers.

15. Indian Bank has been conferred with the Skoch Financial Inclusion Award 2011 for “SHG Initiatives – Urban Financial Inclusion” Indian Bank has set up 32 exclusive Micro Finance Branches for financing SHGs.

8 January 2011

1. The State Bank of India refused to facilitate payments through an alternate temporary channel, a move that can potentially halt import of oil from Iran.

2. The Centre has constituted a Group of Ministers to examine the issue of paid news and suggest remedial measures.

3. The Bombay High Court gave an extension of one week to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to pass its final order on whether the planned hill-city Lavasa near Pune has violated any environmental regulations.

4. Prime minister has commissioned the country's third power reactor spent fuel reprocessing plant at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) at Tarapur, about 100 km from Mumbai.

5. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh proposes to issue a River Regulation Zone notification to protect riverbeds from such harmful constructions in the future.

6. The Experts Group chaired by the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman, C. Rangarajan, favours mandatory entitlement of subsidised foodgrains to the ‘priority' category (Below the Poverty Line) as recommended by the National Advisory Council (NAC). But the Group does not think that it is feasible to extend to the ‘general' category (Above the Poverty Line) legal entitlement of subsidised foodgrains under the Public Distribution System (PDS). The panel has suggested that the subsidised grain for the poor be linked to inflation and indexed to the Consumer Price Index in the coming years. This means the rate at which 35 kg of wheat (at Rs. 2 a kg) and rice (Rs. 3 a kg) is given per month to a poor household will be revised at a later date. As for the ‘general' or APL population, the panel, in a major watering down of NAC recommendations, has suggested that cheap foodgrains be supplied to this category “as and when” available after meeting the requirements of the entitled ‘priority' category (BPL) and only at the minimum support price.Dr. Rangarajan has gone with the Tendulkar Committee's estimate of the poor at 41.8 per cent in rural areas and 25.7 per cent in urban areas, and added 10 per cent to it to cover those living on the “margins” to arrive at a figure that matches the ‘priority' number suggested by the NAC. NAC recommended that 44 per cent ‘general' category people (APL) in rural areas and 22 per cent in urban areas be covered under the Act with a monthly entitlement of 20 kg at a price not exceeding 50 per cent of the current minimum support price for millets, wheat and rice.

7. The Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) has an inbuilt offset clause that requires the manufacturers in the category of ‘Buy' and ‘Make and Buy” for acquisitions over and above Rs. 300 crore to invest 30 per cent of the estimated cost in indigenous defence industries. The new DPP includes training services or equipment like simulators that were not part of the previous DPP. The change is significant as the country is going in for large-scale acquisition, including the 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft, in which simulators are an important component.

8. The gems and jewellery exports posted 39 per cent growth at around $23.5 billion in the first three quarters of this fiscal.

9. Tata Steel said it has inked a joint venture agreement with Nippon Steel for setting up a Rs.2,300-crore specialty steel-making line having a capacity of six lakh tonnes annually at Jamshedpur to cater to the domestic auto sector. The project is expected to be operational in three years time.

9 January 2011

1. A crack in a pipeline of the Indian Oil Corporation has caused the death of hundreds of fishes in nearby water bodies, about 1.5 km from company's storage point at Paradip.

2. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the merging of the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) and the People of Indian Origin (PIO) cards to facilitate visa-free travel to India during inaugurating the Ninth Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas 2011 in Delhi. The Prime Minister also announced the extension of the Indian Community Welfare Fund to all Indian Missions from the present 42. Government would soon give effect to a law that allowed Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to register themselves as voters. Prime Minister pointed out that besides the signing of Social Security Agreements with 12 countries and finalisation of Labour Mobility Partnerships with two others, the government was negotiating a generic arrangement with the European Union.

3. The Central Information Commission (CIC) president Satyananda Mishra.

4. 10th national convention of the National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) in Delhi - Centre was in the process of setting up a mortgage guarantee fund which would cover the risk of home loans given to the poor by banks and housing finance companies (HFCs). . Approximately 9.3-crore people live in the slums. Urbanisation in the country will grow to 40 per cent by 2030 and 50 per cent by 2040, from the 28 per cent at present.

5. The Sudanese vote on Sunday to decide on independence for its southern regions

6. Iran's talks to ease tensions over its nuclear programme with six world powers ( United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) are expected to commence in Istanbul on January 21.

7. U.S.A. has already sanctioned $7.5-billion under the Kerry-Lugar bill and a recent announcement of over $2 billion to be directly given to the Pakistani army.

8. India's exports in December 2010 went up by an impressive 36.4 per cent to $22.5 billion, highest in 33 months, while imports contracted by 11.1 per cent to $25.1 billion, lowest in the last 14 months. This led to a narrow trade deficit of $2.6 billion, the lowest in three years. The U.S. markets have been doing pretty good…even EU markets are good. Export figures were also attributed to diversification of India's export markets. The overall trade gap may not be more than $120 billion for this year against earlier apprehensions of $130-135 billion. Good exports figures may now help India surpass exports target of $200 billion in 2010-11 and reaching $215-225 billion. During April-December 2010-11, merchandise export grew by 29.5 per cent to $164.7 billion. Imports too rose by 19 per cent to $247.1 billion. The trade deficit during the first nine months stood at $82.4 billion.

9. State Bank of India on is ready to facilitate payments for Iranian crude oil but is awaiting notification of a bank that is not under the U.S. sanctions which can receive payments.

10 January 2011

1. The production value in the last seven years for the products developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is estimated around Rs.100,000 crore :-

a. The DRDO-developed missiles, which are under production, include the strategic missiles Prithvi (surface-to-surface missile), Agni-II (surface-to-surface missile) and Agni-I (surface-to-surface missile), and the tactical missiles such as BrahMos (all three version), Akash (surface-to-air missile) and Nag (anti tank missile).

b. LCA Tejas, unmanned aerial vehicle Nishant and the pilotless target aircraft, Lakshya, are under production.

c. Indra and Rajendra radars.

d. Arjun-Mark I main battle tanks, another Arjun-Mark II.

e. A variety of sonars used by the Navy in its vessels. These sonars have been named Humsa, Nagan and Ushu.

2. India has a high MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate) of 254 per 1,00,000 live births. India had higher MMR than Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries with as many as 200 women dying every day due to pregnancy-related problems.

3. America was still on course to begin troop withdrawal from Afghanistan as soon as July 2011 and continued to move towards the goal of having Afghans take the lead in security in the country in 2014.

4. India has pledged $1.3 billion to the reconstruction projects in Afghanistan.

5. Fourteen overseas Indians, including New Zealand Governor-General Anand Satyanand, received this year's Pravasi Bharatiya Samman for contributions to their countries of domicile and enhancing India's image globally. The other awardees are: Professor Veena Harbhagwan Sahajwalla (Australia), Lata Pada (Canada), Harindrapal Singh Banga (Hong Kong-China), Mohammad Munir Nazir Hassan Ansari (Israel), Upjit Singh Sachdeva (Liberia), Tan Sri Dato Ajit Singh (Malaysia), Saleh Wahid from (Netherlands), Mohiaddin Syed Karimuddin (Saudi Arabia), Mano Selvanathan (Sri Lanka), Mohan Jashanmal (United Arab Emirates), Baroness Sandip Verma (U.K.), and Ashook Kumar Ramsaran and Rajiv Shah (U.S.).

6. Although the NRI investment in the country was not huge, the remittances from workers were significant. India received $46.9 billion as remittances during 2008-09. India is planning to double the investment in infrastructure to $1 trillion in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) against $500 billion in the current Plan.

7. India's ambitious Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) “Tejas” will get the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC), paving the way for its formal induction into the Indian Air Force.

11 January 2011

1. Baldev Raj, Director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam has been elected president of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE).

2. Agricultural scientist K.V. Raman has been awarded the prestigious Bharat Jyoti Award of the India International Friendship Society for his contributions to science, technology and development.

3. The Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) has decided to stick to its recommendations made on the draft National Food Security Bill. Though these have been rejected by a government committee led by C. Rangarajan, who heads the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. The committee was constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to examine the feasibility of the NAC's recommendations.

4. The NAC suggested that legal entitlements to subsidised foodgrains be extended to at least 75 per cent of the population — 90 per cent in rural areas and 50 per cent in urban areas. Further, priority households (46 per cent in rural areas and 28 per cent in urban areas) should be entitled to 35 kg (equivalent to 7 kg per person) every month at a subsidised price of Re. 1 a kg for millets, Rs. 2 for wheat and Rs.3 for rice, with rural coverage adjusted State-wise based on the Planning Commission's 2004-05 poverty estimates. The general households (44 per cent in rural areas and 22 per cent in urban areas), the NAC had said, should be entitled to 20 kg (equivalent to 4 kg per person) every month at a price not exceeding 50 per cent of the existing Minimum Support Price for millets, wheat and rice.

5. The Rangarajan Committee rejected the NAC proposals on the grounds that raising procurement levels further would “lead to a lower availability of foodgrains for the open market, pushing up prices.” Instead, while favouring mandatory entitlement of subsidised foodgrains to the ‘priority' category as recommended by the NAC, it said it was not feasible to extend to the ‘general' category legal entitlement of subsidised foodgrains under the Public Distribution System. The panel also suggested that the subsidised grain for the poor be linked to inflation and indexed to the Consumer Price Index in the coming years. This means the rate at which 35 kg of wheat (at Rs. 2 a kg) and rice (Rs. 3 a kg) is given per month to a poor household will be revised at a later date. Additionally, the Rangarajan Committee has totally ignored the NAC's recommendations on non-PDS entitlements such as child nutrition programmes, maternity entitlements and destitute feeding, intended to address India's massive “nutritional deficiencies.”

6. India's first indigenously designed and developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) ‘Tejas' gets Initial Operational Clearance (IOC). In LCA project, Rs.25,000 crore sanctioned for developing the Mark II and Naval variant. It was estimated that the country needed 200 Tejas aircraft. The first of two IOC-configured ‘Tejas' will be handed over to the IAF by March this year, while another two will be given towards the end of the year. These will be part of the consignment of 20 aircraft that the IAF ordered. The rest will be delivered progressively till the end of 2013.

7. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has entered into a tie-up with the international news agency Thompson Reuters' Indian subsidiary to provide market information to farmers. The one year programme is being introduced in Tamil Nadu from January as a pilot project through Short Message Service (SMS).

8. Dr. S. K. Sharma has been invited to a meeting of experts from 25 countries being held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on January 13 and 14 to discuss road map problems and recent developments in carbon-foot printing, water-foot printing and sustainable development. He will also lead the Indian delegation to the I.S.O. meeting on greenhouse gases being held in Italy from January 18 to 21 in which representatives from 127 countries will deliberate on the new international standard on carbon foot printing and water foot printing.

9. United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Chinese Minister of National Defence General Liang Guanglie suggested that they had reached a broad agreement on the need for stronger bilateral military ties. Yet they respectively hinted that the China's development of a stealth aircraft and the U.S.' arms sales to Taiwan last year were points of disagreement.

10. India has voluntarily sought a comprehensive financial sector assessment programme (FSAP) by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as the country has been found to be compliant with internationally-accepted financial standards, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

11. Indian Railways has joined hands with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) to set up a new rail axle manufacturing factory (Rs.300-crore project) in New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal.

12 January 2011

1. De-recognition of 44 deemed universities - Tandon committee.

2. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, wanted in Sweden over claims that he sexually assaulted two women appeared in a U.K. court.

3. Broadcasters and advertisers have to shell out Rs. 660 crore over the next five years to enable expansion of the sample size of the Television Rating Points (TRP) system used to measure the popularity of television programmes, according to a report (Amit Mitra committee) submitted to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni. This was needed to expand the sample size from 8,000 homes, at present, to 30,000 homes. It also emphasised that the survey sample be made more representative by including households in rural areas, the northeast and Jammu and Kashmir, which are currently excluded from the system used by the two private rating agencies that determine much of the content of Indian television. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had earlier suggested that an industry-led body with government oversight called the Broadcast Audience Research Council be set up to self-regulate TRPs rather than leave it to the rating agencies. Now, Mr. Mitra's committee has recommended that the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) be revamped and made functional with a wider scope and membership.

4. Food inflation that soared to 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25 due to zooming prices of onion, vegetables, fruits, eggs and milk.

5. First World Sanskrit Book Fair - Bangalore.

6. , New Delhi and Dhaka have agreed to sign a 15-year interim accord on sharing the waters of common rivers Teesta and Feni. Discussions included formulation of a working plan on the sharing of the waters of five other common rivers — Dharla, Dudhkumar, Manu, Khowai, Gumti and Muhuri. This was decided at a Secretary-level meeting of the Indo-Bangladesh Joint River Commission (JRC). The agreement is expected to be signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka this year.

7. The Prince of Wales is planning to build a shanty town for 15,000 poor people living in India, inspired by the one he saw in the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire. As a part of the plan, schools, shops and 3,000 homes will be built, The Daily Mail reported. Prince Charles plans to turn a 25 acre expanse of Indian wasteland on the outskirts of either Calcutta or Bangalore into a ‘mini oasis in the desert' and the development will be modelled on Poundbury, the Dorset model village that has been Prince Charles' 30-year pet project.

8. Russia and the United States have enacted a historic nuclear cooperation pact that will enable the two countries to collaborate in atomic technologies for the first time in the history of their relations. The deal would allow Russia to store and reprocess U.S. spent fuel and would give the U.S access to state-of-the-art Russian nuclear technologies. Experts said the U.S., which has not built a single nuclear reactor in the past 30 years, is especially interested in fast-neutron reactors, as well as in recycling nuclear fuel.

9. Central Brisbane (Australia) affected by flood.

10. India and South Africa have decided to set a target of achieving $15 billion bilateral trade by 2015. The two countries are also set to breach the $10 billion two-way trade target by next month, 23 months ahead of schedule.

11. Seeking to amicably resolve the oil payment crisis that threatens to disrupt crude oil supplies to India from Iran, an Indian delegation will leave for Tehran on January 14 in a bid to settle the currency payment issue pertaining to purchase of oil.

13 January 2011

1. World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick signed a $220-million agreement with the Bihar government for the Kosi Recovery Project to rebuild areas affected by the 2008 floods.

2. In the single largest aircraft deal in the global aviation history, no-frill carrier IndiGo will acquire 180 A-320 aircraft worth an estimated $15.6 billion from the European manufacturer Airbus.

3. The Indian government will despatch relief material for the flood-affected people of Sri Lanka.

4. More married persons than unmarried ones committed suicide in the country in 2009 (70.4 per cent were married and 21. 9 per cent unmarried), according to the National Crime Records Bureau's latest report. the statistic also shows that more men took the extreme step than women in this period. The gender ratio in suicides stood at 64:36.

5. The National Multi Commodity Exchange of India (NMCE) has achieved its highest turnover since the launch of the contract, logging Rs.283 crore turnover on January 6.

6. China will get 1,000 sq km more from Tajikistan which agreed to cede a territory under a 130-year-old dispute.

7. State Bank of India (SBI) and Bharti Airtel decided to join hands to form a joint venture to make available banking services to the uncovered population of the country. The joint venture (Rs.100 crore) will become the business correspondent of SBI and offer banking products and services at affordable cost to the citizens. Business correspondents are persons who, besides helping rural people to open bank accounts, would facilitate in banking transactions. Their key role is to accept deposits and remit money. In the newly formed joint venture company, SBI will hold 51 per cent stake and Bharti Airtel the balance. It will engage Airtel's retailers as customer service points (CSPs) across the country in a phased manner.

8. Punj Lloyd announced that it had signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPP) with NTPC-owned Vidyut Vyapar Nigam for sale of power from a 5-MW solar power plant to be built in Rajasthan. This project is being set up as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, a programme under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Ministry of Power.

9. Ahead of the state visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to the U.S., China has launched yuan trading in New York as part of efforts to make its currency ‘fully convertible' and a global competitor to the dollar.

10. A.N. Raman has been appointed as the President of South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA).

11. IDBI Bank has become a Registrar for Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). As a Registrar, the bank will enroll residents in the UID Project and assist the Authority in the various stages.

12.

14 January 2011

1. The C. Rangarajan Committee on the proposed food security bill favours legal entitlement of subsidised foodgrains to the poor (below the poverty line), but has rejected the National Advisory Council's recommendation that above the poverty line (APL) households be partially covered, saying it is not feasible at the current levels of grain production and procurement. The NAC, headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, had recommended 75 per cent coverage of the population in two phases, with 90 per cent rural and 50 per cent urban population included. The Rangarajan Committee, however, suggested that 46 per cent of the rural population and 28 per cent of the urban population be entitled to 35 kg of rice at Rs. 3 a kg or wheat at Rs. 2 a kg per household a month. The committee said the price of subsidised foodgrains for the poor (BPL) might be linked to inflation and indexed to the Consumer Price Index in the coming years, and the price at which wheat and rice was to be made available to the non-poor (APL) might be linked to the minimum support price (MSP).

2. The Union Government permitted carriage of video calls on 3G mobile networks subject to an undertaking by the operators that they would provide interception capability by July 31.

3. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up an inter-ministerial group under the Chief Economic Adviser to the Finance Ministry to review the inflation situation with particular reference to primary food articles.

4. The Chinese Embassy here made it clear that it would not issue visa to any official from Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims is part of its territory, and will continue to issue stapled visas to non-officials from that State.

5. Screening of pregnant women and all individuals above the age of 30 for diabetes, hypertension and non-communicable diseases, and the introduction of Bachelor of Rural Health Care courses were among the major decisions taken at the three-day national conference of the State Health Ministers and Health Secretaries, which concluded in Hyderabad. The conference, chaired by Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad, also came out with several initiatives to bring down Maternal and Infant Mortality Rates (MMR and IMR). The actions to reduce MMR and IMR include ensuring one doctor and nurse at each primary health centre as a mandatory requirement by March 31, 2012.

6. After 16 rounds of trying to elect a new Prime Minister in Nepal, the old process was abandoned and a new one would be initiated, so that a consensus was reached soon.

7. Tehran invited diplomats accredited to IAEA from Russia, China and the nonaligned group to visit its nuclear sites at Natanz and Arak.

8. Indian-American Namrata “Nikki” Randhawa Haley sworn in as the first woman and non-white Governor of South Carolina.

9. Nepal set up a five-member panel to amend the rules for the election of a Prime Minister, following the withdrawal of Nepali Congress candidate R.C. Poudel from the deadlocked race.

15 January 2011

1. As part of the confidence building measures concerning Jammu and Kashmir, the Union government said it was contemplating a cut of nearly 25 per cent of the security forces in the State. Home Secretary G. K. Pillai said it was planned to unilaterally issue six-month multiple entry permits for the people of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) wanting to visit Jammu and Kashmir through the Line of Control (LoC).

2. The first consignment of about 200 tonnes of onion imported by the government from Pakistan landed at the Mundra port in Gujarat.

3. India Meteorological Department has declared that 2010 was the warmest year since 1901.

4. Pope John Paul II to be beatified on May 1.

5. The Supreme Court asked the Centre to consider revealing the names of those who have deposited their black money in the Liechtenstein Bank in Germany now that the German government had furnished the details.

6. Qatar agreed to increase supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet India's requirements and also facilitate participation of Indian companies in the oil and gas sector. The Gulf nation has also shown interest in cooperation in the area of banking supervision and exchange of information to combat money laundering and terror financing.

7. India and World Bank signed an agreement through which the latter will provide a credit of $255 million for the first phase of the national programme to mitigate the impact of cyclones. The programme, which would ultimately cover all the vulnerable areas along the eastern and western coasts of the country, is slated to begin with Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. It will upgrad the early warning and communication systems in the coastal areas, boost the ability of the communities there to respond to disaster, and improve their access to emergency shelters. It will also seek to strengthen the disaster risk management capability at Central, State and local levels. In the first phase, among other things, an early warning system would be installed in 1,740 villages — 760 in Andhra Pradesh and 980 in Orissa — within five km of the coastline.

8. On the day the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) lowered the U.N. flag to signify the closure of the mission, the Nepal government and the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) finally inked a deal on alternative mechanisms to take over UNMIN's responsibilities.

9. The Chinese prototype of a fifth-generation aircraft is J-20. China has emerged as the third nation developing the fifth-generation fighter plane after the U.S. and Russia. It will be ready by 2020. The Russian prototype, T-50, made its first flight a year ago. India joined the project only last month when the two sides signed a contract for the preliminary design of the fifth-generation fighter aircraft to be called Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF). India will contribute about 30 per cent of the plane's total design by providing composite material components, some avionics, electronic warfare systems and cockpit displays. Indian designers will also be responsible for re-modelling Russia's single-seat fighter into a two-seater version for the IAF. The PMF planes are expected to start rolling out around 2017.

10. Inflation surged to 8.43 per cent in December from 7.48 per cent in the previous month, mainly driven by the runaway increase in food prices.

11. As of June 30, 2010, the World Bank group had 75 active projects in the country. The net aid commitment for these projects was about $21.4 billion. Fresh lending in 2009-10 (July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010) amounted to $9.3 billion.

17 January 2011

1. State-owned oil companies raised petrol prices by Rs.2.50-2.54 per litre, the second hike in a month, against the backdrop of rising crude oil prices.

2. Fifth edition of the “Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit” concluded in Gandhi nagar.

3. The Union government is working out a formula for ensuring national minority status for the Jain community.

4. Department of Telecommunications (DoT had started a special drive last year asking all mobile service providers to produce a self-certificate of their towers, but this mandatory procedure was not followed in case of over one lakh towers across India, out of a total of 5.62 lakh. The DoT is now planning a crackdown on over one lakh towers that have failed to self-certify towers on radiation levels. Though India had adopted WHO-approved International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines, there were countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Russia, Italy, Poland, China and Belgium where the radiation density was even lower than ICNIRP levels.

5. Music composer A.R. Rahman bagged the best original song trophy at the 16th Critics' Choice Awards for his number “If I Rise” in Danny Boyle's film 127 Hours. Written by Rollo Armstrong and American artiste Dido, the song was performed by Rahman and Dido.

18 January 2011

1. K. Laxman, BJP national secretary, will be part of a nine-member party delegation led by president Nitin Gadkari that will visit China from January 20 on an invitation from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

2. India scheduled to get aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkhov) towards the end of 2013 from Russia. Since 2003, both navies have regularly conducted joint exercises named ‘INDRA.' Five exercises have been held so far, with the last being held in January 2009, off Goa.

3. Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission was awarded the Indian Nuclear Society's Homi Bhabha Lifetime Achievement Award for the year 2009, which carried a citation and a cash prize of Rs.2.5 lakh. Swapnesh Kumar Malhotra received the Indian Nuclear Society's Science Communication Award for 2009.

4. Hailing Asia as the future centre of growth of nuclear power, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Yukiya Amano said that out of the 61 nuclear reactors under construction in the world, 39 are in Asia. India, China, Japan and Republic of Korea were the countries fuelling the growth of nuclear power in Asia.

5. The Union government's interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir on Monday began their monthly visit to Jammu. The team, comprising Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M.M. Ansari, arrived on a six-day visit.

6. The former Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyamasaid that India and Japan were close to finalising a civil nuclear cooperation agreement. The India-Japan Global Partnership Summit 2011, which will be held from September 5 to 7 in Tokyo this year, aiming to expand people-to-people bilateral relationship. The negotiations for the nuclear agreement were launched on June 28 when officials from Japan and India met for the first round in Tokyo. The agreement will enable Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi, Hitachi and Toshiba, all having advance civil nuclear energy technologies, to set up projects in India where the nuclear energy market is pegged at $150 billion. Japan currently meets 30 per cent of its energy requirements from nuclear plants and this is expected to increase to at least 40 per cent by 2017.

7. Sam Pitroda - Adviser to Prime Minister on Technology.

8. Twenty-three children — nine girls and 14 boys — have been selected for the National Bravery Awards-2010. Two awards have been given posthumously. The children will receive their awards from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and participate in the Republic Day Parade. The prestigious Geeta Chopra Award has been conferred on 13-year-old Jismi P.M. of Kerala. She saved two children from drowning. The Sanjay Chopra Award went to 11-year-old Priyanshu Joshi of Uttarakhand for saving his sister from a leopard. The National Bravery Award scheme was initiated by the Indian Council for Child Welfare in 1957.

9. To avoid a clash with the Union Environment and Forest Ministry over environmental clearance for coal projects, the Coal Ministry has sought permission for mining on the land which is not under dense forest and wildlife corridor. Group of Ministers (GoM) has been constituted by the Prime Minister for deliberating on the issue. Feasibility of “clean coal technology” is also being studied, with the possibility of “coal to liquid” (CTL) technology used in South Africa.

10. The Social Network, a film about Harvard-graduate Mark Zuckerberg's ultra-popular Facebook website, swept up four awards at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards. Other notable winners included The Social Network, for Best Motion Picture; Colin Firth for best performance by an actor in The King's Speech; Natalie Portman for best performance by an actress in The Black Swan.

11. Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer personally handed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange two CDs reportedly containing the names of 2,000 bank clients who may have been evading taxes.

12. On trade, the United States has hit out at China's valuation of its currency. China has responded by attacking the Federal Reserve's $ 600 billion bond-buying move to make the dollar more competitive.

13. Ahmet Uzumcu , who took over as Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) about six months ago, was recently in India.

14. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) President, Dilip Modi cautioned the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) against any attempt at tightening its monetary policy and maintained that the need of the hour was to increase bank liquidity and sustain credit growth in the face of the unprecedented rise in the inflation rate.

15. The Finance Ministry said inflation would come down to around 6.5 per cent by March-end from the present 8.43 per cent in December (7.48 per cent in November).

19 January 2011

1. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan made an emotional appeal for the Jaitapur nuclear power project saying that he would never tolerate an unsafe project for Maharashtra at any cost. EPR has been designed and developed mainly by Framatome (now Areva). It is a third generation pressurized water reactor (PWR). Atomic Energy Commission chairman Srikumar Banerji said there are 20 nuclear plants running in the country and “we have demonstrated that the environment is well protected and on the contrary the flora and fauna has improved there”. Experts also clarified that there was no danger in locating six 1650-MW equivalent reactors at Jaitapur.

2. Manmohan Singh Government is all set to give its approval to 51 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the multi-brand retail sector. The Government is proposing some safeguards to ensure that non-serious players and fly-by-night operators are not entertained. To this end, any player who seeks entry into the Indian market will be required to invest a minimum of Rs. 500 crore. Though 100 per cent FDI is permitted in cold chain through the automatic route in the absence of FDI in retail. Present FDI regime allows 51 per cent foreign investment in single brand retail and 100 per cent in wholesale cash and carry.

3. Union Labour and Employment Minister is hopeful that his Ministry would be able to persuade the Finance Ministry to give its nod for the decision of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) to increase the rate of interest on Employees Provident Fund (EPF) from 8.5 to 9.5 per cent for 2010-11. . The increased interest rate will cost the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) an additional Rs.1,700 crore.” The basic objection of the Finance Ministry was how the EPFO could manage and sustain such a huge increase of additional money involved for paying the new interest rate.

4. Davinder S. Brar, chairman, GVK Biosciences Pvt. Ltd, and Roger L. Williams, CEO, United States Pharmacopeia (USP), have been selected for Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA) Special Awards 2011.

5. National Institute of Virology, Pune, had identified the virus as Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in Ahmedabad. A six-member team of specialists from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) will visit Ahmedabad. As of now there is no medicine or vaccine that can prevent or cure the disease. The CCHF virus is known to be transmitted among animals through ticks. It does not affect animals, but kills 20 to 40 per cent of humans who contract it. The CCHF virus has earlier been reported from Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Pakistan. There is serological evidence of CCHF infection being present in India in animals.

6. Pakistan sought a quick resolution of its dispute with India on the 330-MW Kishenganga hydropower project in Jammu and Kashmir and wanted an immediate site-inspection by the International Court of Arbitration during its preliminary hearing on January 14 at The Hague. Pakistan did not seek an interim stay on India's Rs. 3600-crore project — as in the case of the Baglihar Dam dispute, which went to a neutral expert — but did seek an early decision before the project construction reached an “irreversible” stage. Both India and Pakistan will have to spend an estimated $2.5 million each towards the settlement of the dispute that was taken by Islamabad to the international arbitration court that was specially set up as per the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960.

7. poet Akkitham Achuthan Namboodiri being chosen for the prestigious Moortidevi Award of the Bharatiya Jnanpith for 2009.

8. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reaffirmed Moscow's commitment to an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, on a visit to the West Bank.

9. Government had already set up an apex-level Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) headed by finance ministry; to strengthen and institutionalise the mechanism for maintaining financial stability. This council would undertake macro-prudential supervision of the economy and address inter-regulatory coordination issues without infringing on the autonomy of market regulators.

10. Government had also been decided to set up a Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) to rewrite and clean up the financial sector laws and bring them in line with the requirements of the sector.

11. The Centre cleared the appointment of Anand Sinha as Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor in place of Usha Thorat, who retired in November 2010.

12. IOC said it had signed an agreement with LanzaTech, a leading clean energy technology company, for production of fuel grade ethanol.

13. ICICI Bank introduced the cash withdrawal facility at point of sale (PoS) terminals at merchant outlets. The new facility will be available for all ICICI Bank debit cards holders who can withdraw up to Rs.1,000 a day as per RBI guidelines .

20 January 2011

1. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh introduced three new faces, upgraded five Ministers and shuffled the rest of the pack. The top four jobs — Finance, Home, External Affairs and Defence — were left untouched. Salman Khursheed, Sriprakash Jaiswal and Praful Patel — the last named from the Nationalist Congress Party — were elevated to the Cabinet, while Ministers of State Ajay Maken and K.V. Thomas were given independent charge. The three new faces are Beni Prasad Verma, now MoS with independent charge, Ashwani Kumar and K.C. Venugopal, both inducted as Ministers of State. The most significant change was Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy being moved to the high profile Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry, and Petroleum Minister Murli Deora being shifted to the relatively low key Corporate Affairs Ministry.

2. Describing black money stashed away abroad by Indians as “pure and simple theft of national money,” the Supreme Court questioned the Centre's approach to tackling this menace and retrieving the huge amount kept in foreign banks. Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam furnished in a sealed cover a list of 26 names who had accounts with Liechtenstein Bank.

3. Current projections indicate that rainfall might increase by five per cent to 25 per cent all over the tropics in the next 25 to 30 years on account of climate change, according to Ajit Tyagi, Director-General, India Meteorological Department. The trend during the last 30 years showed a decrease in rainfall in the eastern parts of the country and an increase in the western region.

4. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asked the Bharatiya Janata Party not to “precipitate” the situation in the Kashmir Valley by going ahead with its ‘Ekta Yatra' to hoist the tricolour at Srinagar's Lal Chowk on Republic Day.

5. The fourth unit of the 220 MW Kaiga Generating Station (KGS-4), located in Karnataka, was connected to the southern power grid, after the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) granted clearance to it.

6. Representatives from various human rights groups briefed U.N. Special Rapporteur Margaret Sekaggaya on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

7. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will formally announce a nationwide roll-out of the much-awaited mobile number portability (MNP) service. This facility will allow mobile subscribers to switch operators without changing their phone numbers, thus forcing telecom companies to improve efficiency of their networks, offer competitive tariffs and more value-added services. It was introduced in Haryana as a test case in November 2010.

8. The Forum of Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar (BCIM) agreed to promote regional prosperity and harmony. Ninth meeting of the Forum, which concluded in the Kunming city of the Yunan province, China. Agreed to rename the “Forum of Bangladesh China, India and Myanmar on Regional Economic Cooperation” as “Bangladesh China India and Myanmar Regional Cooperation Forum.” Launched in 1999. The Forum agreed to focus on improved regional connectivity and establishing the Kunming-Mandalay-Dhaka-Kolkata economic corridor. BCIM agreed to conduct a joint road survey for a car rally from Kunming to Kolkata proposed to be held in 2012.

9. First time a delegation of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders headed by party president Nitin Gadkari left on a goodwill visit to China.

10. Currently, Australia practices a policy of not supplying uranium to countries that have not acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India is not a member of NPT but it is still trying to convince Australia for uranium.

11. South Sudan voted 97.5 per cent for independence.

12. A massive earthquake of 7.3 magnitude shook Balochistan in Pakistan.

13. Recommendation of Y. H. Malegam Committee on micro finance set up bi RBI :-

a. Micro finance institutions (MFIs) be allowed to charge a maximum interest of 24 per cent on small loans which cannot exceed Rs.25,000.

b. Creation of a separate category of non-banking financial companies (NBFC-MFI) for the micro finance sector.

c. Small loans of up to Rs.25,000 could be given to families having an income up to Rs.50,000 per annum.

d. On repayment the borrowers should be given the option of weekly or fortnightly or monthly return of the loan.

e. At least 75 per cent of loans extended by MFIs should be for income generation purposes.

f. Regulations of MFIs should be done by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in close coordination with the RBI.

g. If the recommendations are accepted, separate law enacted by the Andhra Pradesh government would not be needed.

h. NBFC-MFIs should have a minimum net worth of Rs.15 crore.

i. Bank lending to NBFCs, which qualify as NBFC-MFIs, will be entitled to the ‘priority lending' status.

j. a borrower can be a member of only one self-help group or a joint liability group; not more than two MFIs can lend to a single borrower.

k. These recommendations should be implemented from April 1, 2011.

l. The other members of the panel include industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, RBI Central Board member U. R. Rao and RBI Deputy Governor K. C. Chakrabarty.

14. IndiGo has received government nod to launch international operations and would fly to Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai and Muscat soon after it completes five years of domestic operations in August.

21 january 2011

1. Government is in the process of revisiting bilateral agreements with countries that are tax havens to include a provision so that it can secure information on accounts opened by Indian citizens over there. It is learnt that some have already been signed and some are in the works.

2. The Union Cabinet decided to observe January 25 as ‘National Voters Day' from this year as part of an exercise to get youth to participate in the election process in greater numbers.

3. Food inflation slid for the second week in a row, declining to 15.52 per cent for the week ended January 8 from 16.91 per cent in the previous week.

4. Chinese President Hu Jintao is on a state visit to the United States.

5. The Supreme Court took a serious view of the Centre for Justice and Peace (CJP), run by Teesta Setalvad, writing to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva on the Godhra riots cases.

6. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare claimed that no new cases of the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) were reported from Gujarat even as a six-member central team of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) arrived in Ahmedabad to investigate the outbreak. The National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Pune has sent a team as well.

7. Hyderabad will witness the largest gathering of Islamic scholars next week. More than 400 ulemas, including some from foreign countries, will be here to take part in the international seminar on Quran.

8. Physicist and the former ISRO chairman, U.R. Rao, has calculated that cosmic rays — which, unlike carbon emissions, cannot be controlled by human activity — have a much larger impact on climate change than The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claims.

9. India has achieved a tele-density of about 65 per cent.

10. Australia will “continue to discuss” with India its “differences” on whether to allowaccess to Australian uranium for civil nuclear purposes. The discussion will now take place “within the framework” of the “strategic partnership” that Canberra established with New Delhi in 2009 Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said after holding talks with External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna in Melbourne.

11. Peepli Live, the country's official entry to the Oscars, has failed to make it to the final nine.

12. The Sea Life aquarium in Oberhausen unveiled an outsized memorial to the World Cup's most unlikely star Paul the celebrated octopus — a two-metre-tall plastic replica of Paul clutching a ball in his eight arms.

13. The warmest year on record is a three-way tie- 2010, 2005 and 1998 - according to World Meteorological Organisation.

14. India-South Korea trade agreed to set a $30 billion bilateral trade turnover target to be achieved by 2014.

15. Mr. Jong-Hoon South Korean Trade Minister, is in delhi for the first review of the India-South Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), implemented a year ago.

16. The RBI said cooperative banks could not give housing loans beyond 5 per cent of their total assets. Earlier, State cooperative banks and Central cooperative banks were allowed to extend housing finance up to 10 per cent of their total loans and advances.

17. The visiting South Korean Trade Minister, Kim Jong-Hoon, said India should not “disregard” the importance of the proposed $12-billion Posco steel project. It is the largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India.

22 January 2011

1. Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj accorded sanction to prosecute Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa over allegations of denotification of land acquired by the government, apart from other charges.

2. According to an ONGC statement the oil leak was detected in the Mumbai-Uran Trunk (MUT) pipeline.

3. The annual statistics Olympiad of C.R. Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics Statistics and Computer Sciences and the Integral Association of Amateur Mathematicians and Scientists will be held all over the country on January 22. The finalists will be presented C.R. Rao and C. Bhargavi Rao prizes on June 29, the birth date of statistician P.C. Mahalanobis, which is also observed as the Statistics Day of India.

4. The World Economic Forum has constituted a Water Resource Cell for preparing an agenda for 2030 for scientific water management technique. It has convened a meeting of the cell in Davos, Switzerland, on January 27.

5. The European Union and some of its member-States will send representatives as “observers” during the January 24 hearing of human rights activist Binayak Sen's bail application in the Chhattisgarh High Court at Bilaspur.

6. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) asked the Kakodkar Committee to “re-work” its proposal seeking a four-fold increase in fees for undergraduate courses at the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

7. Defence Minister A.K. Antony clarified that there was no proposal for reducing the Army in Jammu and Kashmir for now, referring to the Home Ministry's announcement of a 25 per cent reduction in security forces in the border State. Mr. Antony was talking to journalists after commissioning the Italian-built fleet tanker INS Deepak into the Indian Navy. “The statement was not about Army reduction but about paramilitary [forces'] reduction. We have already reduced 30,000 [of the] Army forces. After that, there is no such proposal before us,” he said.

8. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders is Margaret Sekaggya.

9. Iran has said that its first round of talks in Istanbul with the global powers morning had been held in a “positive atmosphere”. European Union foreign policy chief Catharine Ashton is leading a delegation, which has representatives from the United States, Russia, China, Britain France and Germany. The Tehran declaration of May 2010, which followed active mediation by Turkey and Brazil, contains the broad parameters of a nuclear deal involving the transfers abroad of Iran's lightly enriched uranium stocks, in return for 20 per cent enriched nuclear fuel rods required to run a Tehran medical reactor. In a related development, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, the Iranian representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) asserted on the eve of Istanbul talks that Iran would not halt nuclear enrichment, as demanded by the six global powers.

10. Russia has agreed to expand its military and economic assistance to Afghanistan in an effort to play a larger role in the region. Mr. Karzai is on his first official visit to Russia since taking office in 2004, even though he has visited Moscow for multilateral meetings. U.S.-led international military coalition will leave Afghanistan by 2014.

11. Although negotiations on the much-awaited India-European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) are likely to be concluded by summer this year, the formal signing will only happen by the end of this year at the India-EU summit. EU would be introducing a ‘Blue Card' on the pattern of U.S.' Green Card that would make easy the inter-country and inter-corporate movement of professionals in Europe.

12. Concerned over rising incidents of cyber frauds, the Reserve Bank of India will soon ask banks to shift to chip-based ATM cards from the existing magnetic strips and upgrade the currency vending machines.

13. The Lavasa township hill-side project near pune is promoted by Hindustan Construction Company (HCC).

14. The Reserve Bank came out with a discussion paper suggesting that foreign banks should be incentivised to operate in India as wholly-owned subsidiaries, as against the current system of having presence through branch network. Under the wholly-owned subsidiary (WOS) form, a foreign bank will have to operate as a locally incorporated legal entity and will be subject to the domestic laws such as the Companies Act and the Banking Regulation Act. At present, there are 34 foreign banks operating in India, with five major banks. To encourage existing foreign banks to convert into WOS, the discussion paper says the subsidiaries should be given preferential treatment for opening of branches as compared to those foreign banks which operate through branches.

15. the high-level meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council was attended by RBI Governor D. Subbarao, Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman C. B. Bhave, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Chairman J. Hari Narayan and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Chairman Yogesh Agarwal. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is the chair man of this council.

23 January 2011

1. The DSC Prize (50,000 US dollars) for South Asian Literature announced its first ever winner HM Naqvi for his book “Home Boy” (HarperCollins India) at a memorable ceremony held at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival on January 22nd, 2011.

2. The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's target to roll out 3G services in 760 cities will be achieved by this fiscal, according to its Chairman and Managing Director Gopal Das.

3. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has rejected most of the changes suggested in the government's Draft Rules for the Right to Information Act by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC).

4. President Pratibha Patil will wind up the diamond-jubilee celebrations of the Election Commission and launch the “National Voters Day” on 25 January.

5. Amir khan is one of the seven jury members who will pick the winner of the prestigious Golden and Silver Bear prizes at the festival to be held here from February 10 to 20.

6. Even as the issue of payment for crude oil purchased from Iran remained unresolved, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) team will visit Tehran to work out a solution. On its part, Iran has promised India that it will not disrupt the supply of oil despite no payments going through during the last one month.

7. Book ‘Global Crisis, Recession and Uneven Recovery' authored by Y.V. Reddy, former RBI governor.

8. The two-day talks between Iran and the six global powers have reached a dead-end with both sides failing to fix another date to continue their dialogue. The European Union foreign policy chief, Catharine Ashton, who led the delegation with representatives from the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France and Germany, accused Iran of setting “preconditions” for advancing the dialogue.

24 January 2011

1. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Swiss Federal Councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey signed a “protocol” on August 30, 2010 to amend the double taxation agreement (DTA). The revised tax treaty is expected to facilitate the Indian government in getting details about illicit wealth kept in Swiss banks. India may have to wait till at least next year for information from Switzerland on the possible black money trail to Swiss banks, as a treaty for the same might come into force only by the end of 2011. The treaty needs to be ratified by various authorities in India and Switzerland, including the Parliament of the European nation, and it might come into effect by 2011-end depending on these approvals.

2. The Planning Commission has decided to disown the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for Selected Tribal and Backward Districts that it authored and was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). Currently being implemented in 60 Left wing extremist (LWE)-affected districts, the plan was watered down by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) before it received the CCEA nod. Having lost its battle with the Ministry, the Commission will tackle tribal welfare once again but do so, de-linking it from the security aspect, in the 12th Plan (2012-2017). The Commission feels that the issue deserves “a long-term perspective.

3. Government wants to ensure that imports come down to 30 per cent in the near future. The defence spending now was 2.4 per cent of the GDP and allocation in the budget 16 to 17 per cent.

4. With opium prices shooting up in 2010 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has warned of more Afghans taking to opium cultivation this year. With 89 per cent of the total income from opium production going to farmers in the Taliban controlled areas of southern Afghanistan, it once again draws attention to how poppy cultivation remains a funding source for terror.

25 January 2011

1. Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Bharat Ratna awardee Hindustani classical musician, died. He belongs to the Kirana Gharan.

2. The Supreme Court decided to examine whether euthanasia will come within the ambit of Article 21 (right to life and liberty) of the Constitution.

3. Kochi is developed as a SmartCity.

4. The United Nations and the Sri Lankan government are preparing a joint plan for assistance for the north of the country. It will be ready by early February and will be a comprehensive “to-do” list that was essential to make sure that the needs of the people were met.

26 January 2011

5. The India Annual Conference of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) will be held in Hyderabad on January 28 and 29.

10. The Maharashtra government announced that a lifetime achievement award in classical music will be instituted in memory of Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. It will consist of Rs.1 lakh.

11. India and Indonesia on Tuesday signed 18 agreements worth $15.1 billion in sectors such as mining, infrastructure and manufacturing.

12. India's first Greenfield International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT) is likely to go on stream in Kochi on February 11.

13. Thousands of anti-government protesters clashed with riot police in the centre of Cairo (Egypt) in a Tunisia-inspired demonstration to demand the end of Hosni Mubarak's nearly 30 years in power.

14. Gen. Sarath Fonseka faces court martial. Mr. Fonseka commanded the Army when Sri Lanka defeated the LTTE in May 2009, ending nearly three decades of civil war. He later contested unsuccessfully against Mahinda Rajapaksa in the January 2010 presidential election.

15. The FAO Food Price Index at the end of 2010 returned to its highest level. Drought in Russia and the export restrictions adopted by the government, together with lower crop harvests than expected, first in the United States and Europe, then in Australia and Argentina, have triggered a process of soaring agricultural commodity prices on international markets.

16. On January 26, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will be chief guest at India's Republic Day.

17. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the repo rate — the rate at which banks borrow money from the central bank — by 25 basis points from 6.25 per cent to 6.5 per cent and the reverse repo rate — the rate at which banks park their funds with the RBI — from 5.25 per cent to 5.5 per cent. Since mid-March 2010, the RBI has cumulatively increased the repo rate by 175 basis points and the reverse repo rate by 225 basis points. Additionally, the CRR was increased by 100 basis points. WPI inflation (year-on-year) moved up from 7.4 per cent in November to 8.4 per cent in December 2010, due mainly to sharp increase in the prices of vegetables, mineral oils and minerals. While the RBI retained the GDP growth forecast at 8.5 per cent with upward bias, it raised the March inflation forecast to 7 per cent compared to its earlier forecast of 5.5 per cent.

18. The International Monetary Fund raised growth forecast for global economy to 4.4 per cent while retaining the projection for India at 8.4 per cent for calendar year 2011.

27 January 2011

1. A.R. Rahman was honoured with the Crystal Award of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the opening ceremony of its annual meet in DAVOS (SWITZERLAND).

2. The Department of Telecommunications has so far raised Rs.215 crore from mobile companies which failed to roll out their networks as per schedule. The licensees were required to roll out their services in 90 per cent of service areas in metros and 10 per cent in district headquarters within 12 months (52 weeks) from the date of award of licence.

3. “Global Financial Stability” and “World Economic Outlook” – released by IMF

4. India and Indonesia have agreed to begin negotiations for concluding a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and set a bilateral trade target of $25 billion by 2015 against $11 billion last fiscal. India implemented a free trade pact with Indonesia in October last that slashes import duties on goods.

5. The United Nations urged governments not to impose export restrictions or other short-term measures to cope with rising food prices, saying they can actually make matters worse by driving global prices up.

28 January 2011

1. An exclusive research station for grapes will be set up in Cumbum valley (T.N.).

2. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has said that providing a solution to access its enterprise mail service is “not possible.” “There is no solution, there are no keys to be handed.

3. The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in India has come down to 50 (deaths per 1,000 live births) from 53, showing a reduction of three points as compared to 2008, and eight points since 2005, when the national average was 58. The IMR is the lowest in Goa at 11 followed by Kerala at 12. The worst performers are Madhya Pradesh at 67, Orissa at 65, Uttar Pradesh at 63. Though it is below the expectation of 30 by 2015, as stipulated under the Millennium Development Goals. The government will now focus on nine not-so-well performing States where the IMR is still above the national average of 50 — these include U.P., M.P., Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Uttarakhand, and Assam.

4. Driving licence will now bear a unique number and Car registration number enjoy portability but it will have to go through a two-stage process to obtain a driving licence. Changes have been mooted by the S. Sundar Committee in a bid to streamline the Motor Vehicles Act 1988. The scheme will enable the linking of the driving licence with the Unique Identification Number to be issued by the UIDAI.

5. Kovvada Nuclear Power Park (A.P.) will be set up in A.P. It will have six nuclear reactors (1600 MWe each) to generate about 9,600 MWe. US-based GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy, (a joint venture between General Electric Company and Hitachi) would be supplying the equipment while the erection and commissioning would be done by NPCIL. Six reactors would be set up in a phased manner and the civil works for the first two units would commence by the end of 2011 or early 2012. They were expected to be commissioned by 2017. Each subsequent reactor would go critical every year and the entire project would be completed by 2021.

6. Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav arrived in Kolkata on a 10-day official visit to India.

7. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced “a one-off levy” to fund, partially, the reconstruction of roads, bridges, and ports which were heavily damaged in the recent floods across the country.

8. Bilateral trade between India and China exceeded the two countries' $60 billion target last year, driven largely by rising Indian imports of Chinese machinery that have left a record trade imbalance of $20 billion in China's favour.

29 January 2011

1. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) plans another test-firing of the K-15 missile (range of 700 km) from a pontoon off the coast of Visakhapatnam under the Sagarika project. The missile, which is under production, can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads. It will form part of the lethal arsenal of the country's first nuclear-powered submarine, Arihant, which is undergoing sea trials. India is building two more such submarines. The DRDO is developing a K-4 underwater-launched missile, which will have a range of 3,000 km.

2. A technical team of the Election Commission of India (EC), drawn from the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) manufacturing units such as the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and the Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), will visit Pakistan next month to demonstrate the working of EVMs to the Pakistan Election Commission (PEC).

3. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed into law the ratification of a landmark nuclear arms cut pact with the United States, a day after the Upper House of the Russian Parliament unanimously endorsed the pact. The U.S. Senate ratified the New Start treaty last month. The treaty limits each country to 1,550 strategic warheads, down from the current ceiling of 2,200, and to 700 deployed carrier vehicles. It will enter into force after the two sides exchange the instruments of ratification.

4. Trade ministers of India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA) and China met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos and reviewed the current status of the Doha Round of WTO negotiations.

5. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani-owned Reliance Infrastructure announced that it had commissioned the country's first 100 per cent privately-owned transmission line (116 km) on build, own, operate (BOT) basis between Solapur and Karad in Maharashtra.

30 January 2011

1. A high-powered committee would soon be formed to work out the modalities of setting up a mega science city complex in Chennai. The facility would be modelled after Tokyo Science City.

2. “A breed of next-generation lightweight choppers from the stables of Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) will fly out within three years to provide air surveillance for law-enforcing agencies in major cities and in a decade for monitoring the national highways,” said Ashok Nayak, Chairman, HAL, Bangalore.

3. During January-November, 2010, India's FDI inflows declined by 26 per cent to $18.9 billion from $25.5 billion in the same period last year. India needed FDI to bridge the rising current account deficit (CAD). “We have CAD. We need to finance our deficit.”

4. Trade ministers from key World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries, including India, agreed that efforts needed to be stepped up to conclude a multilateral trade deal this year under the Doha Round.

31 January 2011

1. Seeking to tackle the issue of black money in a proactive manner, the Finance Ministry has set up a “study group” to improve voluntary compliance and address the issue of revenue leakage by suggesting appropriate measures to motivate tax evaders to disclose their unaccounted income.

2. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, two of the world's richest people, will visit India this year to seek the support of wealthy Indians for philanthropic activities.

3. Minister for External Affairs S.M. Krishna has taken strong exception to the radio-tagging of Indian students in San Francisco.

4. Union Law and Justice Minister M. Veerappa Moily said that all subordinate courts in the country would be converted into fast track courts (FTC) within three months. Draft of the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill had been prepared for tackling corruption in the High Courts.

1 February 2011

1. Egyptian demonstrators, battling the Hosni Mubarak regime, have called a million-strong march and a nationwide strike

2. Laying down 60 more conditions, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests granted conditional clearance to Posco's $12-billion company's steel-cum captive power plant and a captive minor port in Orissa.

3. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) extended the deadline for implementing its new guidelines till March 1, 2011 from unsolicited telemarketing calls and SMS.

4. Railway Ministry has decided to re-introduce the need for carrying identity proof in original during the course of the journey. The provision will come into effect from February 11.

5. India's GDP (gross domestic product) growth stands revised upwards to 8 per cent for 2009-10 from the 7.4 per cent expansion estimated earlier for the fiscal, mainly on the strength of better showing by sectors such as manufacturing (8.8 per cent), financing, insurance, real estate as well as business services (9.2 per cent), transport, storage and communication (15 per cent), community, social and personal services (11.8 per cent); According to Central Statistical Organisation.

6. The country's GDP at factor cost at constant (2004-05) prices in 2009-10 is estimated at Rs.44.94 lakh crore as against Rs.41.63 lakh crore in 2008-09, which works out to an overall economic growth of 8 per cent during the year. At current prices, however, it is estimated much higher at Rs.61.33 lakh crore as against Rs.52.82 lakh crore in 2008-09 to show an increase of 16.1 per cent for the year.

7. The CSO data showed that the per capita income (per capita net national income at factor cost) in real terms (at 2004-05 prices), is estimated at Rs.33,731 for 2009-10 as against Rs.31,801 in 2008-09 to mark an increase of 6.1 per cent during the year, the CSO data showed. At current prices, however, it is estimated at Rs.46,492 during the year as against Rs.40,605 for the previous year to post a growth of 14.5 per cent.

8. Gross domestic saving (GDS) at current prices in 2009-10 is estimated at Rs.22.07 lakh crore as against Rs.17.98 lakh crore in 2008-09, constituting 33.7 per cent of GDP at market prices as against 32.2 per cent in the previous year.

9. Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to extend an aid quantum of $7.4 billion to India for developing its infrastructure for a three-year period (2011-13).

10. Finance Ministry on Monday approved Rs.8,000 crore in cash subsidy to state-owned fuel retailers ( (IOC, BPCL, HPCL) to make up for half of the revenues they lost on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost in the third quarter. First six months, the Finance Ministry had previously approved Rs.13,000 crore and now with today's Rs.8,000 crore, the total subsidy from the government so far this fiscal is Rs.21,000 crore.

11. Bharti Airtel on Monday launched its unique ‘Airtel money' service that will allow its subscribers to pay their various bills through mobile phones.

2 February 2011

1. V.K. Shunglu panel went into alleged financial irregularities in the Commonwealth Games.

2. Expressing serious concern over high-level of electromagnetic radiation from mobile towers and handsets, a high-level inter-ministerial committee has called for revision of radiation norms to suit to Indian conditions and environment. The committee has called for imposing strict restrictions on installation of mobile towers near high-density residential areas, schools, playgrounds and hospitals. India currently follows World Health Organisation (WHO)-approved International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines.

3. The National Democratic Alliance on Tuesday proposed that all its Chief Ministers and Members of Parliament publicly declare they have no bank accounts in Switzerland or other tax havens abroad, and if funds were found by the government, it could keep them.

4. India, the largest donor towards the setting up of an anti-slavery memorial, symbolically handed over the cheque. Its contribution of $250,000 was towards the Trust Fund for the Permanent Memorial to honour the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The memorial will be located in the lawns of the United Nations headquarters in New York and the symbolic handing-over was done by India's Permanent Representative to the U.N., Hardeep Puri, according to an official missive. The Trust Fund was launched on May 20, 2009, following the adoption, by the U.N. General Assembly, of a resolution seeking to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 2007.

5. India's first Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah is the next chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM).

6. Riding on the back of increased demand from the U.S. and the EU, India's exports rose a record 36.4 per cent to $22.5 billion in December 2010 on an annual basis, the highest in 33 months, raising hopes of the country breaching the $200 billion target this fiscal. During April-December 2010, outbound shipment grew by 29.5 per cent to $164.7 billion from $127.1 billion year-on-year. The trade deficit during April-December stood at $82 billion, marginally higher than $80.13 billion in the corresponding period last fiscal.

7. With the international crude oil prices breaching the $100-a barrel mark in the oil futures market, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry has come under increasing pressure from oil marketing companies (OMCs) for a ‘sharp revision' in the prices of petroleum products, including diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene.

8. The Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) is a multilateral currency swap arrangement among the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong), Japan, and South Korea. It draws from a foreign exchange reserves pool worth US$120 billion and was launched on 24 March 2010.

9. State Bank of India will raise Rs.10,000 crore through bonds to augment its capital base to meet the growing business requirements.

3 February 2011

1. The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday arrested the former Union Communications and Information Technology Minister, A. Raja.

2. The Centre proposes to create a biometric database of all workers covered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. It will be used to authenticate work applications, work-site attendance and wage payments.

3. Britain is likely to impose new restrictions in the grant of visas for India and other non-EU countries in line with the government's promise to reduce immigration and curb visa abuse.

4. After a strong protest from India against the radio-tagging of Indian students duped by a California university, U.S. immigration officials have assured New Delhi that they will use “good judgment and common sense” while handling the case.

5. Census 2011 will be conducted between February 9 and 28. Registrar-General and Census Commissioner C. Chandramouli said that the census conducted across 35 States and Union Territories. While a column on the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes would be there in Census 2011, the government decided to hold caste-based enumeration as a separate exercise from June to September 2011. First phase of house-listing was done from April to September last year.

6. All citizens would be counted, according to their gender, religion, occupation and education. For the first time, enumerators would collect such information as ownership of mobile phones, computers and the Internet, having treated or untreated drinking water facility and banking services. They would also seek additional information for the creation of the National Population Register (NPR). The Rs.2,200-crore exercise would cover all citizens living in 7,742 towns and six lakh villages in 640 districts. With the expenditure of a mere Rs.18.33 for each person, this census is also being considered the most cost-effective. The data of migrant population will be collected on the night of February 28 at airports, railway stations, seaports and bus terminals.

7. The exercise will mark a milestone as the first ever NPR will also be prepared; all persons above 15 would be photographed and fingerprinted to create a biometric national database. With this, India would probably become the first democratic nation in the world that has its population fingerprinted in a year from now.

8. Once the NPR's final database was created, it would be sent to the Unique Identification Authority of India for duplication and generation of UID number and for issue of identity smart card.

9. Dependent children of persons with leprosy will now be eligible for free higher education thanks to the initiative taken by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. The University Grants Commission (UGC) recently instructed all State and Central universities to explore the possibilities of providing free education and/or vocational degree to the dependents of leprosy-affected persons.

10. Renowned strategic thinker K. Subrahmanyam passed away.

11. G-4 is a grouping of India, Germany, Brazil and Japan, all of whom claim to be ideally placed for seats on an expanded Security Council. This group has decided to seek the expansion of the Council from 15 (five permanent and 10 rotating) to 25 or 26. The permanent category should be increased from five to 11, with two each of the new members from Africa and Asia and one each from South America and the Caribbean. The non-permanent category should be increased from 10 to 14 or 15. The group has sought restrictions on using the veto by proscribing it under conditions such as genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and terrorism.

12. For permanent membership, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna will leave for New York to attend the first session of the Security Council, in which India is a non-permanent member for 2011-12. On the sidelines, he will interact with Foreign Ministers from the other G-4 countries. On his return, the Ministry of External Affairs will host a Ministerial meeting of 45 least developed countries here. After a mini-gathering of east African nations on February 10, India will host an African summit in Ethiopia in the middle of this year. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will also arrive here around this time of the year.

13. Cyclone Yasi strikes Australia

14. World Trade Centers' Association (WTCA) expect at least 15 more WTCs in the country over the next five years with Kochi centre being the third fully functional centre in India after Mumbai, established in 1970; and Bangalore centre set for commissioning by the middle of this year.

15. Crude oil prices have soared to a 28-month high at $102 a barrel in the wake of the political crisis in Egypt and the uncertainties in Yemen.

16. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), President Som Mittal said the Indian IT-BPO sector was estimated to grow 19 per cent in the current financial year to reach $76 billion in revenues.

17. India inked a revised new double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) treaty with Norway for exchange of information to check tax evasion and prevent the flow of black money between the two countries. The new DTAA has been renegotiated in line with international standards and will replace the existing double taxation avoidance convention (DTAC).

18. The Planning Commission launched a dedicated website to elicit suggestions and views of the people for formulating the XII Plan (2012-2017).

19. India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd. (IIFCL), a wholly-owned government company, plans to raise up to Rs.1,200 crore through the public issue of tax-free bonds for funding infrastructure projects.

20. United India gets Skoch award 2010 for successful implementation of the financial inclusion initiatives.

4 February 2011

1. Pro-democracy demonstrators in Egypt have mounted fresh pressure for the immediate exit of President Hosni Mubarak by mobilising hundreds of thousands of supporters at Cairo's Tahrir Square. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the coalition of National Association for Change was among protester.

2. As the countdown to the World Sparrow Day (WSD) on March 20 — a celebration of the much-cherished but fast-disappearing sparrow — begins, the Nature Forever Society (NFS) has decided to launch Project SOS: Save Our Sparrows by distributing 52,000 bird feeders to interested citizens, institutions and organisations across the country.

3. Hyderabad Declaration that was adopted by a round table on Genetic Engineering (GE) in food and farming wanted the Central government to make India GM-free. It has called for moratorium on Genetically Modified (GM) crops and foods for the next 50 years till it was convincingly proved that GM crops and foods were not harmful to people, biodiversity and food sovereignty of the country.

4. National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) is all set to acquire two iron ore mines in Australia .

5. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the setting up of a wagon component factory near Nandigram in West Bengal.

6. Government decided to allow non-resident Indians (NRIs) to vote in the country.

7. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked States to consider waiving mandi taxes, octroi and local taxes for taming inflation, which affected the poor “harder” and posed a serious threat to the country's growth momentum.

8. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan Nilekani, who headed the Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP), submitted the seven-member group's report to Mr. Mukherjee.

9. The Department of Posts announced a strategic partnership with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for registration and distribution of unique identification (UID) project AADHAR cards to citizens. The two organisations will also collaborate to provide state-of-the-art biometric and identity authentication services.

10. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the 2011-12 Budget will project the country's annual average Gross Domestic Product growth at 8.5 to 8.75 per cent.

5 February 2011

1. The round-the-clock Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre will, in 2012, become a regional provider, providing alerts to all Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) countries. As a prelude, a five-day meeting of experts from 17 countries will be held next week at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) here, which houses the Tsunami Early Warning Centre.

2. Thein Sein, a military general-turned-civilian leader, was elected Myanmar's first President under its 2008 Constitution.

3. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that by March, it was expected to come down to 7 per cent.

4. Anil Ambani owned Reliance Power on Friday said it expected to generate over Rs.2,000 crore by use of energy efficient and environment friendly coal technology at its 4,000 MW Ultra Mega Power Project at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh. Sasan project, using super-critical technology, has been registered with the Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The registration with CDM-EB allows the Sasan project to earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2. The Sasan project is the first UMPP to be registered with the CDM–EB. It is a 3,960 MW (6 units of 660 MW each) super-critical technology based pit-head coal-fired power generating plant at Sasan, in Madhya Pradesh.

5. The Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala on Friday rolled out 15 coaches of the country's first jerk-free Duranto express train to be run on the Mumbai-Secundrabad section this month.

6 February 2011

1. The entire top leadership of Egypt's ruling party resigned, marking yet another step forward for the pro-democracy movement, which is demanding an end to the 30-year-old regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

2. The Indian Air Force on Saturday inducted the tactical airlift transport C-130J Super Hercules aircraft at the Hindon Air Force Station.

3. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee launched the LIC-Aadhaar project of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). LIC-Aadhaar project is the implementation of the UID project of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) wherein LIC is delivering Unique 12-digit Identity “Aadhaar” numbers to Indian residents. LIC of India became the first institutional partner of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) by signing an MoU with UIDAI on June 9, 2010 and It is also the first registrar of the UID Project to hand over these cards in Jangipur in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.

4. Aadhaar is envisioned as a number that will make it possible for Indian residents to easily establish their identity in order to facilitate their interaction with various public and private agencies across the country. It is based on demographic and biometric data like photograph, fingerprints (10), and iris scan, so no duplicates can creep into the system.

5. The Centre has sanctioned skill development centres (SDC) in Bangalore and Gulbarga. The Union Government had decided to establish SDCs across the country to impart technical skills to the educated, unemployed youth in order to make them more employable through the specially designed skill development programmes.

7 February 2011

1. Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has started inquiries into a 2005 agreement between the Indian Space Research Organisation's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd. and Devas Multimedia Private Ltd.

2. SAARC will get its first woman Secretary-General in its silver jubilee year — the former Maldivian Attorney-General, Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed. Maldives will also host the next SAARC summit in November this year.

3. India, Norway for joint polar research. A meeting was organized in this context by the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in collaboration with the Ministry's National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa, and the Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø. India established its first Antarctic research station Gangotri in 1983 and the second permanent station Maitri in 1989. It is establishing its third Antarctic station at Larsemann in East Antarctica. It is also setting up its Arctic research station ‘Himadri' at Nye-Ålesund in the Svalbard region of Norway in 2008

4. Nepal's President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav administered the oath to newly-elected Prime Minister and chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) Jhalanath Khanal.

8 February 2011

1. Central government said that it was in the process of reviewing the deal between the Indian Space Research Organisation's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd. and the Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia Pvt. Ltd. that gave Devas free access to scarce spectrum worth an estimated Rs. 2 lakh crore.

2. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests issued a notification banning the use of plastics for packaging ‘gutka' and other tobacco products. The Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 also bans the packaging of foodstuffs in recycled plastics or compostable plastics.

3. Islamabad has denied permission to a team of the National Investigation Agency to visit Pakistan to interrogate the masterminds of the Mumbai terror attacks.

4. Even as visa rules for ordinary people are being tightened with an annual cap for non-European Union nationals set to kick in soon, the “super-rich'' would be able to literally buy their way into Britain under new plans to attract wealthy investors. Media reports said the proposed rules would not only make it easier for the rich to enter Britain but, depending on how much money they bring in, they would be able to obtain British residency rights without going through too many hoops.

5. Transgenders have been officially recognised in Census 2011 as a third gender, putting an end to their relentless struggle in search of an identity of their own.

6. South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Foreign Ministers meeting is going to be held in Thimphu (Bhutan).

7. The U.S. is mounting pressure on Pakistan at various levels to secure the release of the American “diplomat” who has been in police custody since January 27 for killing two armed Pakistanis in “self-defence” in Lahore.

8. The Central Government announced that beginning with the month of January, a new consumer price series for rural, urban and combined (rural and urban), reflecting the impact of price rise on common man, will be released on February 18. These consumer indices will be available for five major groups — food, beverages and tobacco; fuel and light; housing; clothing, bedding and footwear; and miscellaneous. The indices will be released for States/Union Territories and all India.

9. The government will continue to release four CPI (Consumer Price Index) inflation series — CPI for industrial workers, CPI for agricultural labourers, CPI for rural labourers and CPI for urban non-manual employees. The base for the new series will be January-December 2010. CPI for urban and rural is compiled at State, UT and all-India level. “The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) will also compile a national CPI by merging CPI (rural) and CPI (urban) with appropriate weights,” Mr. Anant said. The government proposes to release provisional indices for one year

10. , Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said the 8.6 per cent economic growth estimates released for the current fiscal were satisfactory. In the July-September quarter this fiscal, the Current Account deficit (CAD) surged by 72 per cent to $15.8 billion from $9.2 billion in the same period in the previous year due to higher imports. Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu said a 9 per cent economic expansion for the next financial year was well within target.

9 February 2011

1. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a brief statement that it had not taken any decision to allocate ‘space segment' (wireless radio frequency under the control of the Department of Space) in the S-band spectrum to Antrix Corporation or Devas Multimedia Private Limited. The PMO was responding to reports, which referred to the contract entered into between Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO, and the Bangalore-based Devas engaged in developing multimedia and information services via satellites. The reports had pointed out that the equivalent of about Rs. 500 crore for which the agreement for the lease of transponder capacity was entered into was grossly short of what the initial estimates from the audit carried out by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General had suggested.

2. The Pesticides Manufacturers and Formulators' Association of India (PMFAI) has opposed moves by the European Union (EU) to push for a global ban on Endosulfan – a broad-spectrum pesticide active ingredient — saying it was aimed at benefiting the European crop protection industry.

3. Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh has sought a proposal from Karnataka for declaring the Kudremukh National Park a tiger reserve.

4. Pro-democracy reformer Mohamed ElBaradei is fast emerging as the natural ally of young protesters camping at Tahrir Square, who are regrouping to influence future negotiations that could lead to Egypt's transition to a democracy.

5. In a little more than five months, Southern Sudan is slated to become the world's newest country. Final results from last month's independence referendum announced show that 98.8 per cent of the ballots cast were for secession from Sudan's north.

6. Corporate Affairs Minister Murli Deora said he would meet the industry and professionals next week to finalise the revised draft of the Companies Bill 2009, which seeks to replace the over 50-year-old Act.

7. The Reserve Bank of India said non-resident Indians (NRIs) would not be eligible for incentives on interest on home loans of up to Rs.10 lakh. Banks provide 1 per cent interest subsidy for home loans of up to Rs.10 lakh.

8. The U.S. Ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer said that India would be able to get “huge benefits” by signing the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for geo-spatial cooperation (BECA) agreements with the U.S.

9. Aero India 2011, the international air show will be beginning in Bangalore.

10 February 2011

1. The Indian Air Force (IAF) will deploy more low-level aerial surveillance systems in the peninsular region to guard the country's 4,000-km-long coastline against hostile low-flying aircraft, gliders, and unmanned surveillance drones.

2. The Centre proposes to incorporate new provisions in the Direct Taxes Code Bill for unearthing black money by defining a taxable asset as inclusive of deposits in banks located outside India in the case of individuals if such deposits are not records in the books of accounts.

3. The government had completed negotiations for the Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with 10 countries — Bahamas, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man, the Cayman Island, the British island of Jersey, Monaco, St Kitts and Nevis, Argentina and the Marshall Islands — where money was believed to have been stashed away. Cabinet approval had been granted for eight of these agreements.

4. Government had initiated negotiations with 65 countries to amend the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) and broaden the scope of the article on exchange of information. As a consequence of the initiative and pressure brought by India, many of the tax havens now agreed to end banking secrecy.

5. India is also actively participating in the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange Information for Tax Purposes as a member of the steering group and as vice-chair of the Peer Review Group of the Global Forum.

6. The protocol amending the DTAA with Switzerland had also been signed and it would come into force after internal processes of ratification were completed by that country. It would allow India to obtain banking information as well as information without domestic interest from Switzerland in specific cases from April 1, 2011.

7. The Human Resource Development Ministry has set up a three-member committee to separately hear each of the 44 deemed-to-be-universities — found unfit to retain the deemed university status by a review committee constituted by the government — and prepare a reasoned and comprehensive report to be placed before the Supreme Court by April 25.

8. The Jammu and Kashmir government will hold the much-awaited panchayat elections after 11 years.

9. The Centre informed the Supreme Court that all marriages in the age group of 16 to 18 should be treated as voidable at the instance of either party to avoid the problem of girls below the age of 16 giving consent for marriage and making it valid.

10. The Election Commission (EC) has asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to monitor airports, major hotels, railway stations, hawala operators and financial brokers to curb money power during the Assembly polls in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

11. India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) has come out with a public issue of long- term infrastructure bonds for raising Rs. 1,200 crore in one or more tranches. The proceeds are proposed to be used for infrastructure lending activities. The bonds will have a face value of Rs.1,000 each and the minimum subscription is for five bonds.

12. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) company Reliance Power asked the Centre to ensure natural gas allocation for its group's power projects, like the expansion being planned at Samalkot unit in Andhra Pradesh. Reliance Power is building a 2,400-MW unit adjacent to its Samalkot plant in Andhra Pradesh.

13. The London Stock Exchange Group and the Canada's TMX Group will merge to create a combined entity with a total market capitalisation of about 3.7 trillion pounds. The TMX Group operates the Toronto Stock Exchange.

11 February 2011

1. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted a high-power committee to review the controversial deal between Antrix Corporation and Devas Multimedia. If implemented, the deal will give the Bangalore-based company virtually 20 years of free access to scarce S-band spectrum worth an estimated Rs.2 lakh crore. The two-man committee — comprising Planning Commission member and former Cabinet Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi, and Space Commission member Professor Roddam Narasimha — will review “the technical, commercial, procedural and financial aspects of the Agreement between Antrix (the commercial arm of ISRO) and (Bangalore-based private firm) Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd taking into account the report for internal review conducted by DoS.”

2. Short of calling it composite dialogue, India and Pakistan have agreed to hold wide-ranging talks on all issues they have been discussing before the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, according to a simultaneous announcement in both countries.

3. The Justice Shivraj Patil Committee has criticised the ‘first come, first served' (FCFS) policy adopted by both the UPA and the NDA governments between 2001 and 2009 for giving telecom licences and allocating 2G spectrum.

4. The Union Cabinet gave its nod to replace the age-old Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, with a new law.

5. The Union Cabinet approved a Rs. 7,029-crore package for States to compensate them for losses suffered by the reduction in the Central Sales Tax (CST) rate during 2010-11. The CST, a tax on movement of goods from one State to another, was reduced from 4 to 3 per cent in 2007-08 and further to 2 per cent in 2008-09 after the introduction of VAT, as it was considered distortional. The States have estimated the loss at Rs. 20,000 crore this fiscal on this account and are demanding reimbursement of the same.

6. For the first time in the past 31 years, leaders of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) opened unconditional talks with the Union government with the aim of finding a “just and honourable solution” to the problem of insurgency in Assam.

7. The Supreme Court reiterated its ruling that mere membership of a banned outfit could not be treated as a ground for criminality, unless a member resorted to, or incited people to, violence or public disorder.

8. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the government was committed to bring to Parliament a Right to Food Act which would serve as a viable safety net for the poor and the vulnerable sections among whom malnutrition was particularly high. National Advisory Council that wants near-universalisation of the public distribution system and the C. Rangarajan experts group that suggested that only the vulnerable sections (below poverty line population) be covered under the proposed Bill.

9. Chief Election Commissioner - S.Y. Quraishi, Election Commissioners - V.S. Sampath and Harishankar Brahma.

10. The details of finances of political parties in the country will be soon available on a new section on the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) website from February 12. ADR, in association with National Election Watch (NEW), has got the IT returns of almost all national and State-level political parties through a process of filing Right to Information applications. NEW, a nation-wide campaign, comprising over 1200 NGOs and citizen-led organisations working on electoral reforms, has, with this, stepped up the pressure on political parties demanding accountability from them.

11. About 80,000 youths from Below Poverty Line families are to be imparted job-oriented skill training under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, though the programme is yet to be launched formally. The Union Ministry of Rural Development has approved 14 projects for skill training leading to placement in urban settings, at an estimated cost of Rs. 165 crore, to be executed through private-public partnership mode. The Centre will contribute 75 per cent of the expenditure, about Rs. 125 crore, while the training partners or employers will bear the remainder, Rs. 40 crore. The one-year training will begin as soon as the respective State governments initiate action in this regard. These youth can look forward to entry-level jobs in apparel, textile and leather, handloom, construction, computer-based accounting and teaching, security services, retail, electrical and hospitality facility management sectors.

12. By 2015 the Planning Commission would report not just GDP as a conventional measure. It would also incorporate the loss of natural wealth and loss of the country's biodiversity because of developmental pressure. The Environment Ministry would soon launch a Green India Mission, which would mark a “profound paradigm shift in the way we approach the forests and forest management. It would be implemented through local bodies, institutions, women's self-help groups and communities with technical and managerial assistance from the Forest Department.

13. Results of a scientific census of tigers would be made public by next month-end. It was being carried out through cameras installed at strategic points such as water bodies. A computer analysis was being done to ascertain their presence. Though preliminary analysis of the census indicated that their numbers might have increased In 2007 census showed a sharp fall in the number of tigers in the country. According to it, India had only 1,411 big cats left in the forests.

14. A decision on the much awaited 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) is expected to be taken next month and the contract could be signed by September this year - Chief of Air Staff P.V. Naik. Six manufacturers, Boeing (F/A-18 Super Hornet), Lockheed Martin (F-16 Super Viper), Cassadian's [formerly EADS) Eurofighter, Russian MiG35, SAAB (Gripen) and Dassault (Rafale) are vying for the order that is estimated at $10.2 billion. The Ministry has worked with the manufacturers to work out the off-set obligation, which in this case is 50 per cent. In effect, it means the manufacturers will have to invest 50 per cent of order value in the country.

15. State Bank of India started an exclusive gold banking unit at Tiruchi. The gold banking unit will offer retail and bulk sale of gold. . The unit also will implement a gold deposit scheme under which a minimum of 500 gram should be deposited with it. The bank offers a nominal interest for a term ranging from three to five years.

16. The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved capital infusion of Rs.1,100 crore for regional rural banks (RRBs) for improving their capital adequacy ratio. The issued capital of RRBs is subscribed by the Central Government, the State Government concerned and sponsor banks in the proportion of 50 per cent, 15 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively. However, release of Central funds would be contingent on proportionate release of the share of the State Government concerned and the sponsor banks.

17. Besides, the Cabinet approved an additional amount of Rs.700 crore as contingency fund to meet the requirement of weak RRBs, particularly those in the North Eastern and Eastern regions. Capacity building fund with a corpus of Rs.100 crore would be set up by the Central Government with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) for training of the RRB staff in the institution of Nabard and other reputed institutions.

18. India announced it had entered into a pact with the British Virgin Islands for exchange of information to check tax evasion and money laundering. Under the agreement, there is a specific provision for providing banking and ownership information and the requesting state has to provide some minimum details about the information requested.

19. The Central Government approved the follow-on public (FPO) offer of the state-run lending agency Power Finance Corporation.

12 February 2011

1. Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak, has stepped down. This was announced by Vice-President Omar Suleiman, to whom the President's powers have been delegated.

2. After Britain's Prince Charles and Sir Richard Branson, US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke met the famous dabbawalas in Mumbai to understand their unique coding system for efficient delivery of lunch boxes across the city and ended up praising them for their management model.

3. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hailed India's first international container transshipment terminal (ICTT) in Vallarpadam island (Kochi) as a triumph of public-private partnership (PPP).

4. The industrial production plunged to a 20-month low of 1.6 per cent in December against 18.1 per cent growth during the same period last year. Industrial growth during April-December this fiscal stood at 8.6 per cent, unchanged in comparison to the corresponding period of the previous year. The disappointing numbers came just days after the government's prediction of encouraging 8.6 per cent economic growth this fiscal, against 8 per cent in 2009-10. The manufacturing segment, which has a weight of about 80 per cent on the IIP, managed to grow barely by one per cent in December against 19.6 per cent growth a year ago.

5. Jnanpith Award to poet O.N.V. Kurup.

6. On Pakistan's protests against India's dam-cum-power project in Kashmir across the Kishanganga, a tributary of the Neelam, Union Water Resources Minister Salman Khursheed said the matter was in the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva. “But there are signals that it could be resolved outside it. Fali Nariman is appearing for us.”

7. The International Labour Organisation's Decent Work Research Prize has been awarded to economist Jayati Ghosh and Professor Eve Landau.

8. The Vaidyanathan Committee of Experts on Agricultural Statistics has recommended restructuring of the methodology for collection of farm statistics in a phased manner to ensure objective, reliable and timely estimates of crop areas and yields. It has suggested setting up of a National Crop Statistics Centre (NCSC) as the nodal agency to undertake the work in collaboration with the Departments of Agriculture and Space.

9. Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said there had been significant progress in negotiations between India and the U.S. on the Avoidance of Double Taxation on Social Security (Totalisation Agreement). Seventh Indo-U.S. Economic Summit - organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.

10. Dr. Ahluwalia said the approach paper on the XII Plan would be ready by April or May this year. To make it participative, the Planning Commission is inviting comments from all segments of the society, including through Facebook.

11. In its latest GST Constitution Amendment draft — the third of its kind — the Centre has proposed the setting up a GST council and this is strongly opposed by the BJP-ruled States.

12. Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) said it planned to invest around Rs.5,000 crore to develop the mines in Chiria and start mechanised mining in the next three years to feed its plants in Bokaro, Burnpur, Durgapur and Rourkela.

13. Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma announced Rs.500-crore incentives to six sectors, covering 600 products, including agriculture, plastics, engineering goods, electronics and chemicals. The new incentives will be effective retrospectively from January 1. “More than 617 products across sectors, which have shown very little or no growth in exports, have been given incentives. Out of this, 375 new products, including tractors and inorganic chemicals, will get 2 per cent benefit of FOB value of exports to 15 markets under the Market Linked Focus Product Scheme (MLFPS)''

14. World's largest cell phone maker Nokia and software giant Microsoft will form a broad strategic partnership.

15. The Centre agreed to fully compensate the States for the losses they suffered due to a reduction in the Central Sales Tax (CST) estimated at Rs. 14,000 crore in 2010-11, said Asim Dasgupta, Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State. Previously Finance Ministers the Union Cabinet approved Rs. 7,029 crore as compensation to States for CST loss in 2010-11. Of this Rs. 3,000 crore is likely to be released this fiscal. Once the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) is rolled out, other existing indirect taxes, including the CST, will be subsumed under it.

13 February 2011

1. Chief Executive Officer of BrahMos - A. Sivathanu Pillai and BrahMos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Limited (BATL) is at Chakka (Thiruvananthapuram). BrahMos, which has already been inducted into the Navy and the Army, would have its air version tested on Su- 30 MKI aircraft next year. A BATL has made Vikas engine for the liquid stage of Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) GSLV and PSLV.

2. In a study done by Abusaleh Shariff, chief economist at the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), which is based on statistics compiled from a variety of sources: 61st round of the National Sample Survey; the Human Development Survey of the NCAER, deprivation data presented by the Sachar committee and the annual reports of the Reserve Bank of India. Kerala tops the list followed by Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Haryana and Gujarat. High hunger States are Orissa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Bihar. The highest hunger levels are reported by Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

3. The Election Commission has suggested to the Union government that the law be amended for making a provision in electronic voting machines to enable voters to exercise the option of not casting their votes (Rule 49-O of the Conduct of Election Rules), Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi said.

4. India, Brazil, Germany and Japan — the G4 nations — met at the U.N. headquarters here to step up their campaign for “urgent” reforms of the U.N. Security Council this year. The four Ministers met General Assembly President Joseph Deiss to discuss Security Council reform. The G4 Ministers also underlined the need for Africa to have a permanent seat on the Council. Except Japan, the other G4 countries are now on the Council serving as non-permanent members. India became a non-permanent member of the Security Council in 2011 after a gap of 19 years.

5. The delegation of NGO drew attention of Government to the long-overdue promise, of raising government spending on education to 6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). At present, the country's total government spending on education is about 3.4 per cent of GDP (as of 2008-09). The government's commitment in 2004 to raise the country's budgetary spending on health to 2 to 3 per cent of GDP remains unfulfilled. In 2009-10, India's total budgetary spending on health was only 1.06 per cent of GDP.

6. With the number of non-governmental organisations growing in the country, the government is planning to bring them under a regulatory mechanism to make them accountable. As of now, there are no specific laws or regulations to regulate volunteerism in India. A task force, constituted to examine the issues related to the evolution of an independent, national level, self-regulatory agency for the voluntary organisations and develop accreditation methodologies by the Planning Commission, has suggested the creation of a statutory body, the National Accreditation Council of India (NACI), on the lines of the Bar Council and the Press Council of India.The seven-member task force, set up in 2009 under the Mohammad Haleem Khan, chairpersonship of Director-General of Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), submitted its report in September last.

7. Akash Deep; indigenously built aerostat, is a surveillance system, equipped with an electric optic sensor camera capable of capturing clear images of the enemy territory without crossing the border.

8. Veteran Kathak guru Reba Vidyarthi died.

9. The total food grains output is expected to be 232.07 million tonnes, which is only marginally lower than the record production of 234.47 million tonnes in 2008-09. In the second advance estimates for 2010-11, rice output is expected to be 94.01 million tones, wheat (81.47 million tonnes), pulses (16.51 million tonnes) and cotton (33.9 million bales of 170 kg each) this year. Growth in agriculture sector would be about 5.4 per cent. Union Agriculture Minister Mr. Pawar attributed the bumper production to “focused interventions'' through Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna, National Food Security Mission, Accelerated Pulses Production Programme, higher credit and above all, “the resilience shown by farmers.''

10. A Pakistani anti-terrorism court issued an arrest warrant for the former President, Pervez Musharraf, over the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Mr. Musharraf, who was President when Bhutto was killed in December 2007 in a gun and suicide bomb attack, is in self-imposed exile in London.

11. Raising hopes of India surpassing the $200 billion export target and possibly touching $220 billion, exports rose by 32.5 per cent to $20.6 billion in January on an annual basis driven by pick-up in demand from traditional markets of the U.S. and Latin America. In December 2010, shipments grew by 36.4 per cent to $22.5 billion on an annual basis, the highest in 33 months. During April-January period of 2010-11, outbound shipments grew by 29.4 per cent to $184.6 billion over the year-ago period.

12. India has inked a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with the Bahamas based on international standards of transparency for exchange of banking and ownership information to check tax evasion and money laundering. This is the fourth such TIEA — as it is known in OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) parlance — that India has entered into with so-called ‘tax havens' or jurisdictions. These are in line with the double taxation avoidance agreements (DTAAs) with other sovereign countries which have been revisited with the primary objective of tracking black money and terror financing. Among the three TIEAs that India has entered into with such jurisdictions till now, the first was with Bermuda in October last year, followed by a pact with the Isle of Man last week and the third with British Virgin Islands earlier this week.

14 February 2011

1. Egypt's new military rulers have suspended the constitution, dissolved parliament and have set a six-month timeline for holding fresh parliamentary and presidential elections.

2. Contrary to the claims being made by Devas Multimedia that any decision on its controversial deal with the commercial arm of ISRO — Antrix Corporation — will be taken after the submission of the report of the two-man committee formed by the Prime Minister on the issue, government sources said it was up to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) to take a final call as the annulment of deal had already been approved by the Space Commission and the Law Ministry. After the Space Commission meeting its Chairman K. Radhakrishnan, who is also Secretary, Department of Space (DoS), and heads both ISRO and Antrix, said a detailed note on the issue had been given to the CCS and it would take the final call.

3. A project on the use of geoinformatics in the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 in Maharashtra by the Tribal Research and Training Institute (TRTI), Pune has been given the National e-Governance award, 2010-11 (Silver) in Aurangabad.

4. Physically-challenged persons will be counted in Census 2011. The Census 2001 had pegged their numbers at three per cent. According to National Sample Survey (NSS) of 2005 it was 2.3 per cent, as par 11the planning commission report it was six per cent while the United Nations estimates are at six per cent.

5. To ensure proper use of its Rs. 86,553 crore annual rural spending, an ambitious curriculum to train and educate all those involved in the execution of the programmes concerned is on the anvil. This mass-based decentralised capacity building process, the first of its kind among developing countries, intends to develop skills of 40 lakh hands annually. To achieve this, the Centre has evolved a new educational and training methodology for rural development and improving the livelihoods of the rural folk under a Central Training Authority to be set up under a new law currently under consideration. The Union Ministry of Rural Development has come up with the draft National Rural Development Training Authorities Bill, 2011 which has received the approval of both the Law Ministry and Expenditure Ministry.

6. Mohammad Hashim Ansari, the oldest litigant in the Ayodhya title suit, said he has decided to file an appeal in the Supreme Court today against the High Court's verdict as all efforts by him to find an out-of-the-court settlement have failed.

7. Eight of China's major wheat-growing provinces, which account for 80 per cent of the country's total wheat output, have been hit by a four-month drought which is worst drought to hit China in 60 years.

8. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) plans to introduce pre-opening trade in IPO (initial public offer) stocks on the day of listing, a practice that is currently only permitted for Sensex stocks and 20 other large cap counters.

15 February 2011

1. Overall inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) eased a tad to 8.23 per cent in January from 8.43 per cent in December 2010 owing to a marginal fall in the prices of sugar and wheat although fruit and vegetable prices continued to rule firm.

2. Concerned at the wastage of public funds, the Centre has set up a inter-ministerial task force, headed by UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani, to suggest ways of giving kerosene, cooking gas and fertilizer subsidies to beneficiaries directly.

3. A delegation of all-party representatives from Andhra Pradesh asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to implement the recommendations of the Justice Usha Mehra Commission that suggested introduction of a Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament allowing the States to sub-categorise Scheduled Castes.

4. While Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde announced that the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had given the green signal for the 4,000-MW Ultra-Mega Power Project (UMPP) at Bedabahal in Orissa. The Power Finance Corporation (PFC), nodal agency for implementation of UMPPs in the country.

5. The Supreme Court directed the Centre and the States to prepare schemes for rehabilitation of physically and sexually abused women all over the country. Prostitutes also have a right to live with dignity under Article 21 [right to life] of the Constitution since they are also human beings and their problems also need to be addressed.

6. India will soon sign its ninth civil nuclear agreement with its negotiators having finalised the text with South Korea. The countries with which India has signed similar pacts are Russia, the United States, France, Mongolia, Argentina, Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom and Canada. Some are pure fuel supplies pact while others include all aspects of the relationship such as fuel supply, R&D and setting up of civil nuclear plants. The pact with South Korea will focus on the last two aspects. India has signed a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CEPA) with South Korea which, in the first full year of operation in 2010, led to a 46 per cent growth in trade.

7. The production value of weapons and systems developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had crossed Rs.1 lakh crore during the six years. Budget allocation for science and technology, which was just 1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, had to be augmented to 3 per cent.

8. The King's Speech won the Best Film award at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards ceremony, as Colin Firth, who plays the film's stammering monarch, picked up Best Actor

9. Japan has now relinquished its position as the world's second largest economy to China. Japan's nominal GDP, before adjustments for prices, totaled $5.47 trillion in 2010, lower than China's figure of nearly $5.8 trillion. Japan has held the title of world's second largest economy for 42 years. Many analysts such as World Bank and Goldman Sachs have been quoted that China may overtake the United States as the number one economy by 2025.

10. Gay couples in Britain are to be allowed to “marry” and given the right to hold traditional weddings.

11. The World Bank has stated in its latest report that India can generate 68,000 MW of power, costing less than Rs.6 a unit from renewable energy sources. The government has set an ambitious target of installing at least 44,000 MW of additional capacity of renewables in the next 10 years. At present, the installed capacity of the country stands at about 1.70 lakh MW from all sources of energy.

12. Lockheed Martin Corporation and Tata Advanced Systems (TAS) announced the formation of a new joint venture company — Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures — to manufacture aerostructures for the C-130 aircraft produced by Lockheed Martin. This facility will be export-oriented.

16 February 2011

1. About 4.71 crore subscribers of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation are likely to get an interest of 9.5 per cent on their deposits for 2010-11.

2. The expert group of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the task force of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) broadly agreed to settle their turf war over the jurisdiction of medical education. The National Commission for Human Resources in Health (NCHRH) will get to lay down the minimum standards of medical education, while all health-related research will come under the purview of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), promoted by the HRD Ministry. The NCHRH and the NCHER draft Bills — proposed as regulatory bodies — have been pending for the past several months as the two ministries were involved in a tussle over the jurisdiction of medical education.

3. United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured the outfit of coming up with a solution that would be honourable and acceptable to the people of Assam.

4. Justice Shivaraj V. Patil Committee constituted to examine the appropriateness of the telecom policies and allocation of spectrum from 2001 to 2009.

5. Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik called up Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and thanked him for his assistance in the release of noted qawwali singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan detained at the Delhi airport for allegedly carrying a huge quantity of cash.

6. Launching the web-based Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS) for the autonomous Central Adoption Resource Authority of India (CARA), Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath said adoption guidelines were being amended and would be notified soon, to streamline the process further and make it more transparent. Developed by the National Informatics Centre, the CARINGS will provide all information on adoption — including eligibility, the documents required and the laws guiding adoption.

7. The Japanese Navy will take part, for the second year running, in the joint naval exercises by India and the United States. These will be held off the Okinawa coast, which has the highest concentration of U.S. Marines in the region.

8. Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) on Inflation, headed by Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu.

9. Tamil Nadu has topped the chart (after Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh) in terms of foreign tourist arrivals for the year 2010.

10. The British government has decided to continue the more-than-£280-million development aid it gives to India annually provoking protests from Tory MPs and campaign groups who questioned the “logic” behind “pouring” millions of pounds into one of the world's fastest growing economies when Britain itself was in the throes of a recession. Aid amounting to more than £1 billion over the next four years would continue until 2015 in order to tackle widespread poverty and malnutrition.

11. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned that two-thirds of China's wheat crop could be at risk, if a spring drought followed the on-going four-month-long dry spell.

12. The budget plan President Barack Obama sent Congress on foresees a record deficit of $1.65 trillion this year. That would be just under 11 per cent of the $14 trillion economy — the largest proportion since 1945.

13. The political upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt have now begun to have a serious impact on other parts of West Asia, including the Gulf. Thousands of protesters converged at the symbolic Pearl Roundabout, a famous monument representing the six Gulf countries: Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

14. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is to stand trial on charges of abuse of power and paying underage prostitutes for sex — a crime in Italy despite the fact that prostitution is legal.

15. U.S. President Barack Obama has proposed to Congress $3.1 billion in financial assistance to Pakistan for the year 2012. Of this, $1.9 billion has been proposed to promote a secure and stable Pakistan with a focus on energy, economic growth, agriculture, health, education, and strengthening the Pakistan's government.

16. India and Japan will sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

17 February 2011

1. The Cabinet approved a draft Bill seeking to form a tribunal for securing compensation and relief for the environmental degradation caused by a Coca-Cola unit at Plachimada in Palakkad district. The Bill was prepared on the basis of the recommendations of a high-power committee set up to study the issue. The committee had estimated that the people in the area had suffered a loss of Rs.216.26 crore on account of the pollution and water shortage caused by the operation of the plant.

2. After resisting the Opposition demand for over three months, the government has finally agreed to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum allocation issue.

3. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) here has retained its number one position and has been ranked amongst the top airports in its category in the world for the second year in a row in the latest ASQ (Airport Service Quality) rankings of the Airports Council International (ACI). Besides RGIA, Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), has been ranked fourth. Both the airports are operated by the GMR group-led consortia. IGIA's ranking was in the group of 25-40 mppa (million passengers per annum). The awards will be presented on April 7, 2011 during ACI conference at the ACI Asia Pacific Regional Conference and Exhibition to be held at New Delhi.

4. A team of doctors and scientists of the Geological Survey of India and the National Institute of Nutrition, which has been monitoring the intensity of fluorosis in the endemic areas (Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh) where fluoride content in drinking water is far higher than permissible levels of 0.5 ppm, say that after the emergence of hand-pumps, people become more dependent on groundwater even if one or two sources of surface water are available in their villages.

5. With expectations of a bumper wheat production this rabi, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies are targeting a record procurement of 260 lakh tonnes, which is 16 per cent higher than last year's level of 225 lakh tonnes. Procurement at 253 lakh tonnes was highest in 2008-09. The minimum support price of wheat payable to farmers for this season is set at Rs. 1,120 per quintal. The second advance estimates of foodgrains put the wheat output at 81.47 million tones.

6. Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh will chair a meeting with the Delhi and Haryana Chief Ministers next week to discuss outstanding issues between the two States over the Yamuna and related squabbles over who is guilty of polluting its waters.

7. Fateh Singh Rathore was conferred a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).

8. Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal and Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda' have reached a fresh agreement to abide by the spirit of the seven-point agreement signed before Mr. Khanal's election. The Maoists would share major portfolios with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist).

9. The World Bank has given warning of the impact of the rising cost of food, saying an estimated 44 million people had been pushed into poverty since the middle of last year by soaring commodity prices. Robert Zoellick, the Bank's president, said food prices had risen by almost 30 per cent in the past year and were within striking distance of the record levels reached during 2008.

10. Japan proposed joint exploration with India for the development of rare earth minerals. Tokyo also affirmed its commitment to “the steady implementation” of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and the related Dedicated Freight Corridor.

11. Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara signed the bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in Tokyo. Mr. Sharma proposed a two-way trade target of $25 billion by 2014, a doubling of the pre-CEPA level. The economic pact will come into force after the completion of national procedures.

12. Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh and Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had locked horns over mining of coal in sensitive zones. The dispute had reached the Union Cabinet after which it was decided to designate it to the GoM to come to a final resolution on the whole issue. The Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, will meet to work out a solution to the complex issue of ‘go' and ‘no-go' areas in coal blocks.

13. Last year, the Environment Ministry had prohibited mining in ‘no-go' areas, where the forest cover was 30 per cent. Despite being the third largest producer of coal in the world, India has to import 72 million tonnes to meet domestic demand last fiscal. According to the government's estimates, the requirement is likely to go up to 82 million tonnes in the current fiscal and to 142 million tonnes in 2011-12. Out of the total installed power generation capacity of 1.59 lakh MW, almost 50 per cent is based on coal.

14. The Indian pharmaceutical industry is set to gain in a big way with Japan, the world's second largest market, agreeing to open up by removing import duty on generic drugs shipped from India As part of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement signed between India and Japan.

18 February 2011

1. The Union government annulled the controversial deal between Indian Space Research Organisation's commercial arm Antrix Corporation and Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared that the government will not be able to provide the orbit slot in S-Band to Antrix for commercial purposes, including for its existing contractual obligations in view of strategic requirements.

2. Under the deal, Antrix was to provide 70 MHz of the scarce S-Band wavelength to Devas for its digital multimedia services. This was to be done by leasing 90 per cent of the transponders in satellites GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A that are proposed to be launched by ISRO. Devas, in turn, was to pay Antrix a total of $ 300 million over 12 years. The agreement was signed on January 28, 2005. Consequently, the Department of Space (DoS) got the Cabinet approval for the building of GSAT-6 at a cost of Rs.269 crore and the Space Commission at a cost of Rs. 147 crore under the Commission's delegated powers. There were complaints about the manner in which the deal was entered into and the way in which it was being operationalised. It was found that the DoS got the approvals for building the satellites without making any reference to the fact that they were to be utilised primarily for Devas' benefit. There were also apprehensions that the government could face a heavy revenue loss owing to the deal. The matter came up before the Space Commission at a meeting on July 2 last year. The high-power panel directed the DoS to instruct Antrix to annul the contract on the ground that there was a tremendous increase in the demand for allocation of space-based spectrum for strategic needs and societal applications. The DoS recently moved a note for the CCS, recommending that the government, take a decision to the effect that due to strategic requirements it would not be able to provide the orbit slot in S-Band to Antrix for commercial activities.

3. Karnataka government banned the use of endosulfan, an insecticide, with immediate effect. State government will now invoke the provisions of the Insecticides Act, 1968 (a Central act) and write a letter to the Union Government about the ban. Kerala was the first State to ban endosulfan, on October 31, 2006.

4. Eight Indian cities will now get cremation systems in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's Harit Moksha (Green Heaven) initiative. Harit Moksha systems, which promise to use 60 per cent less wood, could be significant. So far ONGC plans to set up 30 units in eight cities — including ten in Mumbai and six in Delhi with an NGO, Mokshda Paryavaran Evam Van Suraksha Samiti.

5. The Supreme Court refused to relax its order banning the sale of tobacco products in plastic sachets beyond March 1.

6. Negotiations on the India-E.U. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) were entering the endgame stage.

7. Japan is to extend an aid of Rs.2,557 crore (Yen 46.401 billion) to India for three projects through its Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) window. The projects pertain to cleaning the Yamuna in the national capital, crop diversification promotion in Himachal Pradesh and biodiversity conservation and greening in Tamil Nadu. The current aid quantum is part of the 2010 Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) ODA loan package.

8. Providing free and compulsory education is intended to allow all children in the age group 6-14 live with dignity, which is a facet of “right to life' under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court said.

9. The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has granted special consultative status to Banswara-based Vaagdhara, a non-governmental organisation working for empowerment of impoverished and vulnerable groups among farmers, tribal population, women and children in southern Rajasthan.

10. A powerful solar eruption that triggered a huge geomagnetic storm has disturbed radio communications and could disrupt electrical power grids, radio and satellite communication in the next days, NASA said. A strong wave of charged plasma particles emanating from the Jupiter-sized sun spot, the most powerful seen in four years, has already disrupted radio communication in southern China.

11. In the wake of the apparent reluctance of certain countries and jurisdictions in sharing tax related information pertaining to tracking black money and money laundering activities, India will seek a multilateral platform for automatic exchange of such data at the two-day meeting of G-20 finance ministers in Paris starting February 18.

12. Food inflation declined sharply to 11.05 per cent for the week ended February 5 from 13.07 per cent in the previous week.

19 February 2011

1. The Centre banned export of milk powder and its products to check the rising prices of milk.

2. Government adopted the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) which has base year 2010.

3. Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma proposed the creation of a dedicated fund for the construction of infrastructure projects in India with Malaysian collaboration. Both countries signed Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).

4. Upendra Kumar Sinha took charge as the Securities and Exchange Board of India's Chairman from the outgoing chief, C. B. Bhave.

5. Adani Group had inked a memorandum of understanding with Australia-based Carbon Energy to form a joint venture to pursue underground coal gasification (UCG) projects in India.

20 February 2011

1. Pro-democracy activists in Libya, inspired by democratic transitions in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, are facing a harsh crackdown.

2. The tussle between the Labour and the Finance Ministries on the payment of 9.5 per cent interest instead of 8.5 per cent to the employees' Provident Fund (PF) subscribers for 2010-11 may end smoothly next week, with the Finance Ministry reversing its “objection” for the new rate and pave way for issuing a notification by month end. The new rate of interest for the PF savings would benefit at least six crore subscribers.

3. An alert has been sounded in Tripura after the outbreak of bird flu in a State-owned poultry at R. K. Nagar.

4. The three-member committee, set up to look into alleged irregularities in the conduct of studies on use of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine by PATH in India, has submitted its final report to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

5. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stones of the country's second National Institute of Design (NID) at Jorhat and the Assam centre of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT) at Sivasagar.

6. The Union Home Ministry is pushing the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2005 for consideration and passing in the budget session of Parliament, even though it was summarily rejected by the National Advisory Council, which is currently drafting an entirely new law.

7. A joint declaration issued at the end of the largest-ever meeting of LDC representatives hosted by India. They made a demand for an international programme of action aiming at reducing the number of LDCs by half over the next decade after noting that the lack of international efforts led to the number of LDCs increasing from 25 in 1971 to 48 this year.

8. U.S.-based agricultural bio-technology giant Monsanto has signed a agreement under public-private partnership with the Rajasthan Government.

9. The United States found itself isolated among the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council on Friday when it was the sole nation to veto a resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

10. G20 Finance Ministers reached a compromise deal to correct global economic imbalances and expressed concern over excessive commodity price volatility impacting the world food security in Paris (France). The Finance Ministers and central bank chiefs, who could not reach a broad consensus on framing rules for current account deficit and real exchange rate and reserves, said “our aim is to agree, by our next meeting in April,” on a set of indicative guidelines to ensure orderly economic growth.

11. China is sitting on a $2.8 trillion forex reserves and is accused by the U.S. of manipulating its currency Yuan. After two days of hard bargain by their Finance Ministers, major economies faced with uneven recovery and downside risks reached a text in the face of tough resistance from China to agree on guidelines for removal of structural flaws in the global economy.

12. Commodity prices increased 20 to 30 per cent in 2010, according to IMF estimates.

13. However, the document did not talk about an issue of much interest to India. New Delhi wanted G20 to urge all jurisdictions to conclude Tax Information Exchange Agreements so that the menace of black money in tax havens could be tackled.

14. Indian Overseas Bank said the Government has decided to infuse Rs.1,054 crore into the bank as part of recapitalisation package.

BANK , SSC AND PUNJAB STATE EXAMS

Monday 31 October 2011

key

key

Tuesday 11 October 2011

gk test

gk test

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Excise and Tax Inspector Jobs In Punjab

Excise and Tax Inspector Jobs In Punjab

Tuesday 5 April 2011

CURRENT AFFAIR- 22 Dec.--20 Feb. ( Courtesy- Sumit Yadav Sir)