Current Affairs June 2011

The India-Malaysia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) - The IndiaMalaysia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) is in effect starting July 1, 2011. India-Malaysia CECA is Indias fourth bilateral Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, after Singapore, South Korea and Japan. The CECA envisages liberalisation of trade in goods, trade in services, investments and other areas of economic cooperation. Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory under Threat from Wildfire - A fast-moving wildfire forced officials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to close the site. Sri Lanka Included Chinese Currency Renminbi in Banking Deals-The Sri Lankan Central Bank Monetary Board on 27 June 2011 announced that Chinese Renminbi would be included in the list of designated currencies permitted for international transactions Supreme Court Stayed the Return of Singur Land to Farmers - The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the return of land acquired from farmers in Singur in West Bengal for the Tata Motors Nano project till the final order on the issue by the Calcutta High Court.

Common Written Exam for Bank P.O.

A Common Written Examination (CWE) will be conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) as a pre-requisite for selection of personnel for Probationary Officer/ Management Trainee posts in the Public Sector Banks mentioned below.

Current Affairs July 2011

National Introduction of LokPal bill in Lok Sabha-The much awaited Lok Pal bill will be introduced in Lok Sabha. The green signal was given by the government to Speaker Meira Kumar to allow the two day period needed to present the bill.The Minister of State Personnel Mr. V Narayaswamy gave the notice to Meira Kumar regarding the matter of Lok Pal bill. Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal said that all the parties were in favour of introducing the bill at the earliest. The copies of the bill have been distributed to all the parties. The bill has been finalised by the government after a number of meetings during the last month.The government has kept out Prime Minister and other higher judiciary from the ambit of the bill. This decision has been strongly opposed by the all the activists of the bill. The BJP has demanded that the bill should include the Prime Minister into the bill. Regarding the matter the government has said that the prime minister will be questioned if necessary but only when he has stopped working and this can be done only in a limited amount of time i.e. 7yrs at most. Anna Hazare has again threatened to go on hunger strike again if the government does not introduced a lok pal bill that handles every aspect of corruption and if the government fails to do so then he will go on strike on Aug 16.

Most Influential Scientists

A Ranking of the Most Influential Scientists, Past and Present

The list below is from the book The Scientific 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Scientists, Past and Present, Citadel Press (2000), written by John Galbraith Simmons.

1 2 3 4 5

Isaac Newton

the Newtonian Revolution

Albert Einstein Twentieth-Century Science Neils Bohr the Atom

Charles Darwin Evolution Louis Pasteur the Germ Theory of Disease

here are over 200 countries in the world and each is unique in its own way. Some have access to the sea ,some dont, some are very densely populated as Japan, India or China and some are extremely sparsely populated such as Mongolia or Central African Republic. There are countries that are spread on several continents such as Russia, which is the largest country in the world, Kazakhstan and Turkey. All in all, each state deserves to be given equal attention and to be equally respected. These are the smallest countries in the world that deserve equal attention as the largest ones. 1. Vatican The Vatican is called a state within a state, and its smallest in the world. Vatican is a very specific country and attracts many tourists from around the world. Vatican is the seat of the Catholic Christian belief. The St. Peters Square, which is one of the most visited squares in the world ever, is located in the centre of Vatican. In this little country, a few times a year, the Pope is speaking to faithful people from the balcony. Vatican is located in the center of Rome, which is capital of Italy. Vaticans area is only 0.4 km and it has 770 inhabitants, none of which dont ordinarily stay in this country, because next to St. Peters square, are located musem complexes. Although its the smallest one, its still one of the most specific states ever.

Current-Oct & Nov

Persons in News

Aminatta Forna British-born Sierra Leonean novelist Aminatta Forna has won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers Prize for her novel, The Memory of Love, set in the aftermath of Sierra Leone s devastating civil war in which thousands of people were killed.The prize for the Best First Book went to Craig Cliff of New Zealand for A Man Melting, a collection of short stories. He received 5,000. Ahmed Wali Karzai, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzais powerful half-brother and the head of the Kandahar provincial council, was assassinated by a bodyguard at his home in Kandahar .

Nirupama Rao India s current Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has been appointed as the next Ambassador to the United States . She succeeds Meera Shankar.The 1973-batch IFS officer assumed the office of the Foreign Secretary in August 2009, becoming the only second woman to become the Foreign Secretary after Chokila Iyer.She has served in various key positions and has been Indias envoy to various countries, including China and Sri Lanka . She has also been the only woman spokesperson in the MEA. Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan received a Green Globe Award at the fourth edition of the Panasonic Green Globe Foundation Awards. The actor will be honoured for his efforts towards creating a greener environment at a function here and Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger will present him the award. The Supreme Court on 31 January 2012 set aside the Delhi High Court order refusing to pass any direction to the Prime Minister for taking a decision on sanction of prosecution in 2G case Four-member committee headed by Justice D. M. Dharmadhikari submitted report on Air India and Indian Airlines merger to Civil Aviation Minister Bangalore artist Sheela Gowda, who uses unconventional materials to make sculptures was shortlisted for UKs contemporary art prize, Artes Mundi Freedom fighter and one of the doyens of Indian diplomacy, Ambassador A K Damodaran passed away in New Delhi on 31 January 2012 Review Committee on Delhi School Education Act and Rules 1973 chaired by former Delhi Chief Secretary Shailja Chandra submitted its report to CM Sheila Dikshit Rajasthan government decided to form Jaisalmer Fort Development Authority to resolve the vexed and inter-connected problems relating to constructions and encroachments within the Jaisalmer Fort

President conferred the Ashoka Chakra on Lt. Navdeep Singh (posthumous) on the occasion of the 63rd Republic Day Parade 2012 Environmental historian and political commentator Mahesh Rangarajan was selected and appointed as director of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Kerala governor and three-time Puducherry chief minister and MP, M O H Farook died in Chennai on 26 January 2012 The Padma awards for the year 2012 were announced on the eve of Indias 63rd Republic Day. Padma Awards 2012 comprise 13 Padma Vibhushan, 31 Padma Bhushan and 84 Padma Shri Awards The Supreme Court of India on 24 January 2012 criticized the Union government for total inaction in dealing with the prolonged imprisonment of several foreign nationals in Indian jails Sukumar Azhikode, award-winning Malayalam writer, scholar and one of the most influential Gandhian intellectual in Kerala, died on 24 January 2012 Senior congress leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh C. Jagannatha Rao died on 23 January 2012 The Controller and Auditor General, CAG indicted the Uttar Pradesh Government of anomalies in spending around 5000 crore rupees under the National Rural Health Mission(NRHM) The home ministry of India launched the first batch of RICs (Resident Identity Cards) at Porthrapur village in Andaman and Nicobar Islands Inter-ministerial committee for tourism sector decided to extend Visa-on-Arrival facility to Goa, Hyderabad, Kochi & Bangaluru airports to help double the foreign tourist arrivals The Supreme Court of India on 20 January 2012 dismissed a PIL seeking a direction to the government to restore the Army Chief Gen V K Singh's date of birth as 10 May 1951 Noted Times of India film critic, Nikhat Kazmi who had been suffering from s breast cancer died on 20 January 2012 India was ranked the sixth most innovative country in the world in GE's Annual Global Innovation Barometer published on 18 January 2012 ADB(Asian Development Bank) on 18 January 2012 signed an agreement with Union government of India to give a loan of 24.3 million US dollars to boost investment in Maharashtra Agribusiness Infrastructure Environment & Ecology Current Affairs 2012. Planning commission of India approved investment clearance for the scheme, Rudrasagar Drainage Development Scheme, Tripura The Government of India and the World Bank on 20 January 2012 signed an IDA credit of 130 million US dollars to finance the project called NERLP (North East Rural Livelihoods Project)

Senior television journalist Pankaj Pachauri as was appointed as Communication Advisor in the Prime Ministers Office on 19 January 2012. Harish Khare resigned as media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after Pankaj Pachauri was appointed as Communication Advisor in the PMO

The Law Commission of India on 18 January 2012 recommended the dilution of Anti-Dowry law to make it less stringent

Siddharth Varadarajan succeeded N. Ram as the Editor of The Hindu. N. Ram stepped down as Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of The Hindu , Business Line , Frontline , and Sportstar

Anthony Prabhu Gonsalves, India's first music arranger died on 18 January 2012 Himachal Tourism Department signed a pact with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation for managing its establishments in the hill State.

Union Ministry for Human Resource Development announced that there would be a Grievance Redressal mechanisms in higher educational institutions

Pioneers J Gopikrishnan & CNBC-TV18s Udayan Mukherjee were adjudged Journalist of the Year at the 5th Ramnath Goenka Awards for Excellence in Journalism

Tamil Nadu government decided to start an integrated Urban Development Scheme at a cost of 6653 crore rupees with the objective of improving basic infrastructure facilities in cities and urban areas in the state

Indias first woman photo-journalist Homai Vyarawala popularly known as Dalda 13died on 15 January 2012 in Vadodara, Gujarat

The 10th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas was held in the pink city of Jaipur, Rajasthan. The event is held annually between 7th to 9th January

The Union government of India on 14 January 2012 directed all the states to tighten norms in granting licences to open new medical institutes

Total number of family planning acceptors in India increased by 3.5 per cent between 2010 and 2011

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on 11 January 2012 launched the signature tune of the Indian Customs, Pragati ki Dhadkan in New Delhi

The Ministry of Rural Development sanctioned 3 road projects using latest Polymer-based technologies, under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in Chhattisgarh

Diplomat Pavan K. Varma's new book, When Loss is Gain launched in the New Delhi by Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, the Queen Mother of Bhutan.

Archaeologist discovered remains of Shiva temple supposed to have been built during the Gupta period near Bundi district town in Rajast

The Union Cabinet of India on 12 January 2012 approved the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) policy

The Cabinet Committee on Security approved the setting up of a National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) to counter terrorism effectively.

Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan & IASS jointly organised 15th World Sanskrit conference from 5 to 10 January 2012 in New Delhi

The Union Ministry of Animal Husbandry directed the Odisha Government to kill all the birds in order to prevent the spread of bird flu to other areas

The Election Commission of India asked the government to with hold 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities in five poll bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur for now

Delhi HC directed FSSAI to hold deliberations with the experts and frame necessary guidelines to make healthy food available in school canteens

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on 11 January 2012 inaugurated a 5-MW solar energy plant by Sun Edison in Phalodi

Hunger and Malnutrition Survey monitored over 100000 children showed forty-two percent of children in India younger than 5 are underweight

Madhya Pradesh government launched its Panch Parmeshwar scheme on 9 January 2012. The objective of the scheme is to further empower village Panchayats

Six researchers from five science streams were honoured with the Infosys Prize-2011 by the former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Survey of elementary education funds of seven States for 2009-2010 showed that only 1% of the education fund is spent on improving quality of education

National Commission for Protection of Child Right (NCPCR) on 9 January 2012 directed the state governments to propose a system called Shiksha Samvad

D Bala Venkatesh Verma, Joint Secretary Disarmament in the Ministry of External Affairs was conferred with the first S K Singh Award for excellence in the Indian Foreign Service on 6 January 2012

The Union government of India on 6 January 2012 sanctioned seven more tourism projects worth 36.22 crore rupees to Jammu and Kashmir for up gradation of tourist infrastructure in the state

The Union government of India on 4 January 2012 approved an additional fund of 19 thousand crore rupees for completion of Katra - Quazigund Railway line project in Jammu and Kashmir

Vice Admiral M.P. Muralidharan took charge as the 19th Director-General of the Indian Coast Guard in January 2012

The Central Information Commission(CIS) held that all information in possession of the office of the Chief Justice of India is not completely exempt from disclosure under the Right to Information( RTI) act.

The Supreme Court of India ruled that a person cannot be detained under the preventive detention law like National Security Act (NSA) without justifiable reasons.

United Nations Resource Centre for the North-East was set up in Assam on 2 January 2012 Former Delhi state footballer Mohd Akram passed away in New Delhi on 3 January 2012 Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan was presented the Mallikarjun Mansur award in recognition of his achievements on 3 January 2012

Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama was presented the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation on 4 January 2011

The Rajasthan state cabinet on 4 January 2012 approved the proposal to develop the Rajiv Gandhi Biosphere Reserve. The biosphere reserve will link a dozen wildlife sanctuaries and the prestigious Ranthambhore National Park. This will help in facilitating movement of tigers and other wild animals.

India became free from bird flu, H5N1. The government made a declaration to this effect India on 4 January 2012 approved 6600 crore rupees acquisition of 490 French advanced missile systems to arm the Mirage-2000 fighter jets

Noted mathematician & Pro-Vice Chancellor, IGNOU Prof. Parvin Sinclair was appointed the Director of NCERT

Former Textiles Secretary, Rita Menon took over as Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the India Trade Promotion Organisation

President Pratibha Patil visited the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota and inaugurated the new Mission Control Centre

The Union Cabinet of India on 24 January 2012 approved renaming of the Mana Airport at Raipur in Chattisgarh as the Swami Vivekanand Airport, Raipur. Union government revised economic growth rate for 2010-2011 to 8.4 percent in comparison to the previous estimate of 8.5 percent The deficit between April and December 2011 at Rs 3.81 lakh crore reached 92.3% of the 201112 estimate Net FII buying crossed the $2-billion mark in January 2012 making January the best month in terms of foreign fund flows since November 2010 Telecom Commission decided to allow mobile phone companies to share spectrum. The Commission has however limited this facility to 2G airwaves alone Union finance ministry urged the department of industrial policy and promotion to design FDI policy for power exchanges on lines of commodity exchanges SEBI decided to enhance the minimum investment amount per client managed by portfolio managers to Rs.25 lakh from Rs.5 lakh C R Sundaramurti Committee report to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee suggested a complete overhaul of government accounting norms PFRDA changed the incentive structure for the distributors from a fixed sum to a percentage of the investment amount RBI cut the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points from 6 per cent to 5.5 per cent with effect from 28 January 2012 GJEPC reported 15%dip in gems and jewellery exports which went down to $3 billion in December 2011 Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) estimated Corporate Indias sales to grow 21.6% in 2011-12 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on 20 January 2012 asked telecom companies to block bulk international SMS RBI allowed banks to grant permission to listed and unlisted companies to hedge price risk in commodities other than precious metals . Indian rupee rose to a two-month high and shares climbed on 18 January 2012 as a result of revival of US dollar flows Cheaper food items, including fruit and vegetables, pulled down the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by 0.44 per cent month-on-month in December 2011 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India proposed a fee of Rs.20 crore for a national-level unified licence under the new regime Union government nearly doubled the import duty on gold and silver by changing the customs and excise duty structure on precious metals

India's exports recorded a subdued growth of 6.7 per cent year-on-year in December 2011 on account of poor demand in Europe and the US As per the WPI published by the government , reduced food prices caused the inflation to dip to a year low at 7.47% in December 2011 India extended for five years anti-dumping duty on import of four Chinese products in the face of widening trade gap with China Market regulator SEBI unveiled rules for direct investment in stocks by foreign investors, including individuals Foreign exchange reserves fell to a 15-month low. Reserves dipped $3.2 billion to $293.5 billion as on 6 January 2012 RBI issued guidelines on compensation of wholetime directors, chief executive officers and other risk takers in private and foreign banks Industrial production bounced back with a growth of 5.9 per cent in November 2011, marking a five-month high Commerce Ministry lowered the minimum export price of onions by $100 a tonne to $150 a tonne to boost exports PMO directed cash-rich PSUs to invest around Rs.1.76 lakh crore, including Rs.1.41 lakh crore domestically to act as a stimulus DIPP notified the rules allowing 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand retail Indirect tax collections increased 16.1 per cent to Rs 285787 crore during April-December 2011 driven by an increase in service tax Moodys Investor Services upgrade the short-term country ceiling on foreign currency bank deposit increasing from NP (not prime) to Prime (P-3) Foreign direct investment into India went up by 56% to $2.53 billion in November 2011, indicating an improvement in investor sentiment Union government decided to incentivise the unlisted PSUs to help them come up with initial share offerings in the stock market in 2012-13 The turnover of the 21 commodity exchanges in India increased by 66% to Rs 137.22 lakh crore till December 2011 Ministry of Railways prepared draft policy which seeks increased private participation and opens the doors for foreign direct investors for expanding its network Foreign exchange reserves fell by over $4.18 billion slipping below the long-held $300-billion mark in the week ended 30 December 2011 Union government cleared ADB loan to finance programme launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in left wing extremism-affected villages Food inflation, as measured by the wholesale price index, fell by (-)3.36% for the week ended 24 December 2011, as per Commerce & Industry Ministry data Insurance regulator IRDA on 4 January 2012 introduced uniform asset-liability management norms for market players to ensure their solvency The Finance Ministry on 4 January 2012 clarified that the rates applicable on small savings instruments schemes would be announced on April 1 each year and the rate would remain valid till the maturity of the scheme

The report of the Department of Telecommunications, prepared by the working group on Telecom for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) Reserve Bank of India on 3 January 2011 decided to conduct an open market operation (OMO) to inject more liquidity into the system SEBI allowed auctioning of securities through stock exchanges and introduced a new method for institutional placement of stocks Parliamentary Standing Committee in its report recommended doubling of the maximum penalty for trading rule violations to Rs 50 lakh Implementation of levy on railway freight service was put off once again in the backdrop of high inflation RIL entered the media & entertainment sector by investing in one of Indias largest broadcast companies, Network18 Group Union government approved RIL's $1.529 billion investment plan for developing four satellite fields in the flagging KG-D6 block The Union government raised the ad valorem duty (export duty) on iron ore exports to 30 per cent from 20 per cent State-owned Coal India (CIL) announced on 2 January 2012 that its board approved in a meeting held on 30 December 2011 the switching over to internationally-accepted Gross Caloric Value-based pricing mechanism Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised red flags over the high dependability of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) As per the to Commerce Ministry data released on 2 January 2012, Indias exports recorded their slowest pace of growth in two years at 3.8 per cent in November 2011 as a result of the global slowdown The HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index ( PMI) - a headline index designed to measure the overall performance of the manufacturing sector - registered 54.2 in December, up from 51.0 in November Reserve Bank of India allowed non-residents to hedge their currency risk in respect of external commercial borrowings (ECB) denominated in rupees CCEA gave final approval to Vedanta Resources acquisition of a majority stake in Cairn India Ltd for $8.48 billion HUL appointed Hemant Bakshi, Executive Director of Sales and Customer Development as Executive Director-Home & Personal Care 132-year-old Photography Pioneer Eastman Kodak Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 19 January 2012 US beverage maker Coca Cola retained its top position in Inter brand's list of the top 100 global brands in 2011 B K Batra appointed as Deputy Managing Director of IDBI Bank SIDBI entered into MOU with IOB to extend assistance to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) customers of IOB HDFC Life, private life insurance company from India launched its first international operations with the opening of its representative office in Dubai

The board of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) declared on 4 January 2012 that it approved Rs.352.50-crore investment for producing oil from a marginal field off the Mumbai coast