Current Affairs: April 1, 2010

Events / Happenings / Observances:

Reserve Bank of India: Platinum Jubilee
Celebration Finale
Established on April 1, 1935, the Reserve Bank of
India, country’s central bank, celebrated 2009-
2010 as its Platinum Jubilee year. The year-long
celebrations included several events with a series
of learning events to showcase the Reserve Bank
as a knowledge institution, a set of internal events
involving current and former RBI staff to reinforce
a sense of belonging and inclusiveness among
members of the RBI family and the outreach
programme. The focus of the outreach programme
was financial inclusion and financial literacy. The
top management of the Reserve Bank travelled to
remote villages across the country to listen to
ordinary people, see and understand how grass
root institutions operate and to learn of the
challenges and opportunities for financial
inclusion.
October 2009
The Reserve Bank of India was established on
April 1, 1935 in accordance with the provisions of
the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 with a share
capital of Rs. 5 crores on the basis of the
recommendations of the Hilton Young
Commission. This commission submitted its report
in the year 1926, though the bank was not set up
for nine years.
The share capital was divided into shares of Rs.
100 each fully paid which was entirely owned by
private shareholders in the beginning.
Office of RBI :
The Central Office of the Reserve Bank was
initially established in Kolkata but was
permanently moved to Mumbai in 1937. It has 22
regional offices.
Nationalization of RBI:
With a view to have a cordinated regulation of
Indian banking Indian Banking Act was passed in
march 1949. To make RBI more powerful the
Govt. of India nationalised RBI on January 1,
1949.
The general superintendence and direction of the
Bank is entrusted to Central Board of Directors of
20 members, the Governor and four Deputy
Governors, one Government official from the
Ministry of Finance, ten nominated Directors by
the Government to give representation to
important elements in the economic life of the
country, and four nominated Directors by the
Central Government to represent the four local
Boards with the headquarters at Mumbai, Kolkata,
Chennai and New Delhi.
Local Boards consist of five members each Central
Government appointed for a term of four years to
represent territorial and economic interests and the
interests of co-operative and indigenous banks.
Functions of RBI
1. Issue of Notes: Under Section 22 of the Reserve
Bank of India Act, RBI has sole right to issue
currency notes of various denominations except
one rupee notes.
The One Rupee note is issued by Ministry of
Finance and It bears the signatures of Finance
Secretary, while other notes bear the signature of
Governor RBI.
However RBI is the only source of legal tender
money because distribution of one rupee notes and
coins and small coins all over the country is
undertaken by the Reserve Bank as agent of the
Government.
Issue Department: RBI has a separate Issue
Department which is responsible for the issue of
currency notes.
Originally, the assets of the Issue Department were
to consist of not less than two-fifths of gold coin,
gold bullion or sterling securities provided the
amount of gold was not less than Rs. 40 crores in
value. The remaining three-fifths of the assets
might be held in rupee coins, Government of India
rupee securities, eligible bills of exchange and
promissory notes payable in India.
Since 1957, the Reserve Bank of India is required
to maintain gold and foreign exchange reserves of
Rs. 200 crores, of which at least Rs. 115 crores
should be in gold. The system as it exists today is
known as the minimum reserve system.
2. Banker to Government
The second important function of the Reserve
Bank of India is to act as Government banker,
agent and adviser. The Reserve Bank is agent of
Central Government and of all State Governments
in India excepting that of Jammu and Kashmir.
The RBI performs all the banking functions of the
State & Central Government and tenders advice
related to economic and monetary policy. The
Reserve Bank of India helps the Government -
both the Union and the States to float new loans
and to manage public debt. The Bank makes ways
and means advances to the Governments for 90
days. It makes loans and advances to the States
and local authorities. It acts as adviser to the
Government on all monetary and banking matters.
3. Bankers' Bank:
The Reserve Bank of India acts as the bankers'
bank. As per the provisions of the Banking
Companies Act of 1949, every scheduled bank was
required to maintain with the Reserve Bank a cash
balance equivalent to 5% of its demand liabilites
and 2 per cent of its time liabilities in India.
However , by an amendment of 1962, the
distinction between demand and time liabilities
was abolished and banks have been asked to keep
cash reserves equal to 3 per cent of their aggregate
deposit liabilities. The minimum cash
requirements can be changed by the Reserve Bank
of India.
4. Controller of Credit
The Reserve Bank of India has the responsibility
of the controller of credit i.e. it has the power to
influence the volume of credit created by banks in
India. For this purpose RBI makes extensive use of
qualitative and quantitative use of techniques such
as changing the Bank rate or through open market
operations.
As per Banking Regulation Act of 1949, the
Reserve Bank of India can ask any particular bank
or the whole banking system not to lend to
particular groups or persons on the basis of certain
types of securities. Since 1956, selective controls
of credit are increasingly being used by the
Reserve Bank.
5. Custodian of Foreign Reserves
The Reserve Bank of India has the responsibility
to maintain the official rate of exchange.
As per the Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934, the
Bank was required to buy and sell at fixed rates
any amount of sterling in lots of not less than Rs.
10,000.
After India became a member of the International
Monetary Fund in 1946, the Reserve Bank has the
responsibility of maintaining fixed exchange rates
with all other member countries of the I.M.F.
Besides maintaining the rate of exchange of the
rupee, the Reserve Bank has to act as the custodian
of India's reserve of international currencies. The
vast sterling balances were acquired and managed
by the Bank. Further, the RBI has the
responsibility of administering the exchange
controls of the country.
6. Supervisory Functions
In addition to its traditional central banking
functions, the Reserve bank has certain non-
monetary functions of the nature of supervision of
banks and promotion of sound banking in India.
7. Promotional functions
RBI performs a variety of developmental and
promotional functions also such as helping in the
1. Set up of the IFCI and the SFC (State Financial
Corporations)
2. Set up the Deposit Insurance Corporation in
1962
3. the Unit Trust of India in 1964,
4. The Industrial Development Bank of India also
in 1964,
5. The Agricultural Refinance Corporation of India
in 1963
6. Industrial Reconstruction Corporation of India
in 1972.
Legal Framework of RBI
1. Umbrella Acts
Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934: governs the
Reserve Bank functions
Banking Regulation Act, 1949: governs the
financial sector
Acts governing specific functions
Public Debt Act, 1944/Government Securities Act
(Proposed): Governs government debt market
Securities Contract (Regulation) Act, 1956:
Regulates government securities market
Indian Coinage Act, 1906:Governs currency and
coins
Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973/Foreign
Exchange Management Act, 1999:Governs trade
and foreign exchange market
Acts governing Banking Operations
Companies Act, 1956:Governs banks as
companies
Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of
Undertakings) Act, 1970/1980: Relates to
nationalisation of banks
Bankers' Books Evidence Act
Banking Secrecy Act
Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881
Acts governing Individual Institutions
State Bank of India Act, 1954
The Industrial Development Bank (Transfer of
Undertaking and Repeal) Act, 2003
The Industrial Finance Corporation (Transfer of
Undertaking and Repeal) Act, 1993
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development Act
National Housing Bank Act
Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee
Corporation Act
Training Establishments of RBI
RBI sas six training establishments
College of Agricultural Banking
Bankers Training College
Reserve Bank of India Staff College
The above three are part of the Reserve Bank of
India
National Institute for Bank Management
Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research
(IGIDR)
Institute for Development and Research in
Banking Technology (IDRBT)
The above three are autonomous Institutions
Subsidiaries of RBI
Fully owned:
National Housing Bank(NHB)
Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee
Corporation of India(DICGC)
Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private
Limited(BRBNMPL)
Majority stake:
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development (NABARD)
The Reserve Bank of India has recently divested
its stake in State Bank of India to the Government
of India.
Monetary Policy : It is called as money and credit
policy. It refers to a regulatory policy by which the
RBI maintaines control over the money supply and
demand for the realization of economic goals.
Annual Policy Statement:
Since 1999-2000 , with the decline in agricultural
credit and rise in its Industrial credit RBi has
started making its annual policy statement in April
every year and quarterly review of the same.
Instruments of Control:
Bank Rate: The rate at which RBI lends to its
clients on long term borrowings.It is a direct
quantitative method of RBI to control the
economy.
Open market Operations: Bying and selling of
Government securities, treasury bills and other
approved securities, short term commercial Bills,
Switch Operations (purchansing one loans against
the sale of another operations) .
Cash Reserve Ratio: The banks keep a proportion
of their assets in the form of cash -partly as cash
on hand and partly as balance (reserve) with RBI .
This is cash reserve ratio. RBI has power to fix
CRR n commercial banks . Earlier this range was
from 6% to 15 % . By an Amendment Act in 2006,
this limit has been removed and so RBI is free to
fix any CRR. On April 21, 2009 RBI in its latest
Annual Monetary Policy kept CRR unchanged at 5
%.
Statutory Liquidity Ratio: It is the ratio of the total
deposits of of a bank that it has to maintain with
itself in non cash form. This means that it is
against net demand and time liabilities. The
Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act of 1962
provides for maintaining a minimum SLR of 25%
by the bank against their net demand and time
liabilities, however RBI is powered by this act to
raise the SLR up to 40%. The Reserve bank of
India ( Amendment) Act 2005 which was
approved by Lok Sabha on may 17, 2006 amends
the Reserve Bank Act for providing flexibility to
the Central Bank in Fixing the CRR.
REPO rate and Reverse REPO Rate: Repo is
“Repurchase Agreement. An agreement to sell a
security for a specified price and to buy it back
later at another specified price. A repo is
essentially a secured loan. Whenever the banks
have any shortage of funds they can borrow it
from RBI. Repo rate is the rate at which our banks
borrow rupees from RBI. A reduction in the repo
rate will help banks to get money at a cheaper rate.
When the repo rate increases borrowing from RBI
becomes more expensive. On March 4, 2009 it was
5% in India.
Some latest Current Affairs Related to RBI Annual
Policy Statement:
RBI declared it Annual Policy Statement for the
Year 2009-10 on 21st April 2009 in consistance
with the current assessment of macroeconomic and
monetary conditions, the Reserve Bank has
decided to reduce the repo rate under the LAF by
25 basis points from 5.0% to 4.75% with
immediate effect.
reduce the reverse repo rate under the LAF by 25
basis points from 3.5% to 3.25% with immediate
effect.
keep the CRR unchanged at 5.0% of net demand
and time liabilities (NDTL).
Note issue of Rs. 1000 Note:
Rs. 1000 note was released by RBI on October 9,
2000. The Rs. 1000 notes which were discontinued
22 years ago in 1978 to discourage hoarding by
black marketers were be re circulated with
additional security features like optically variable
ink and micro letters.
Issue of 10 Rupee Coin:
On April 11, 2009, The Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) has launched 10 Rupee coins. They are
bimetallic coins comprising of Nickel-Bronze and
Ferrous Steel. The weight of the coin is 8 grams
and the diameter is 28 mm. The 10 Rupee coins
were supposed to be released three years ago, but
were delayed due to some technical issues. The
new 10 Rupee coin has the lion capitol, the
numeric 10 and the year of manufacturing on one
side. On the reverse side, there is a double line
cross with a dot in each pellet of cross. The value
of the coin is indicated on both Hindi and English.
The 10 Rupee coin was designed by National
Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad with the
theme of Unity in Diversity. The coins are being
prepared at Noida and Mumbai mints.
Reconstitution of Technical Advisory Committee
(TAC) : June 24, 2009
The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on
Monetary Policy, Reserve Bank of India’s arm to
advise it on its monetary policy stance, has been
reconstituted effective July 1, 2009.
The committee under the chairmanship of
Governor Duvvuri Subbarao will have deputy
governors Shyamala Gopinath, Usha Thorat and
K.C. Chakrabarty as members.The tenure of the
committee will be up to June 30, 2011.
K C Chakrabarty has been appointmented as RBI
Deputy Governor: June 15, 2009
Punjab National Bank CMD K C Chakrabarty has
been appointmented as RBI Deputy Governor. K C
Chakrabarty has demitted office on 14 June 2009
on his appointment as Deputy Governor, Reserve
Bank of India, Chakrabarty’s appointment to RBI
came in place of V Leeladhar who had retired in
December. RBI has four deputy governors, of
whom Rakesh Mohan has resigned to take a
teaching profession in Stanford University in the
US.

National Updates:
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education Act, 2009
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education Act, 2009 comes into force on April 1,
2010. Right To Education Bill (The Right of
Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act )
Recently India's parliament passed Right to
Education Bill 4 August 2009. This act describes
the modalities of the provision of free and
compulsory education for children between 6 and
14 in India under Article 21A of the Indian
Constitution.
What is Article 21?
Article 21. Protection Of Life And Personal
Liberty: No person shall be deprived of his life or
personal liberty except according to procedure
established by law.
Article 21A Right to Education: - “The State shall
provide free and compulsory education to all
children of the age of six to fourteen years in such
manner as the State may, by law, determine.”
Salient Features:
Every child between the ages of 6 to 14 years has
the right to free and compulsory education.
This is stated as per the 86th Constitution
Amendment Act added Article 21A. The right to
education bill seeks to give effect to this
amendment
The government schools shall provide free
education to all the children and the schools will
be managed by school management committees
(SMC).
Private schools shall admit at least 25% of the
children in their schools without any fee.
The National Commission for Elementary
Education shall be constituted to monitor all
aspects of elementary education including quality.
No child shall be held back, expelled, or required
to pass a board examination until completion of
elementary education
A child who completes elementary education (upto
class shall be awarded a certificate
Calls for a fixed student-teacher ratio
Will apply to all of India except Jammu and
Kashmir
Provides for 25 percent reservation for
economically disadvantaged communities in
admission to Class One in all private schools
Mandates improvement in quality of education
School teachers will need adequate professional
degree within five years or else will lose job
School infrastructure (where there is problem) to
be improved in three years, else recognition
cancelled
Financial burden will be shared between state and
central government
History:
1950: Constitution of India contained Article 45,
as one of the directive principles of State policy,
which states that: "The State shall endeavor to
provide within a period of ten years from the
commencement of this Constitution, for free and
compulsory education for all children until they
complete the age of fourteen years."
1968: First National Commission for education
under Dr. Kothari submits its reports. It introduced
several far-reaching changes as uniform
curriculum for both boys and girls, mathematics
and science as compulsory subjects etc. It also
proposed a Common School System.
1976: Constitution amendment making education a
concurrent subject (responsibility of both state and
center) was passed.
1986: National policy on Education (NPE)
endorsing Common School System (CSS) was
formulated. Subsequent NPE’s endorsed CSS but
it has never been implemented.
1993: The Supreme court in the case Unnikrishnan
vs State of Andhra Pradesh ruled that the right to
education is a fundamental right that flows from
the Right to life in Article 21 of the Constitution.
1997: Constitution Amendment making Education
a fundamental right was introduced.
2002: 86th Constitution Amendment added Article
21A stating that “The State shall provide free and
compulsory education to all children of the age six
to fourteen years in such as a way as the State
may, by law, determine.” The 86th Amendment
also modified Article 45 which reads as “The state
shall endeavor to provide early childhood care and
education for all children until they complete the
age of 6 years”.
2005: CABE committee report constituted to draft
the Right to Education Bill submits its report.
Every time a new version was placed till it was
tabled in Parliament in 2008.
The bill was approved by the cabinet on 2 July
2009.
Rajya Sabha passed the bill on 20 July 2009 and
the Lok Sabha on 4 August 2009.
It received Presidential assent and was notified as
law on 3 Sept 2009 as The Children's Right to Free
and Compulsory Education Act 2009.
Right to Education in UN Declaration:
As per article 26 of UN declaration of Human
Rights, it has been clearly stated that "Everyone
has the right to education…directed to the full
development of the human personality and to the
strengthening of respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms".
India's Problems:
India is yet to achieve credible accomplishments in
various segments of education - literacy, universal
enrolment, lowering the dropout rate, improving
quality and making the system more relevant.
50% students in the Indian education system fail at
the secondary level. They often do not continue
with their studies.
Only six per cent of the youth in the 18-23 years
bracket go in for higher education in India. The
quality of many primary schools is appallingly
low.
One in five children is over or under age, one in
three children drops out before completing the
primary cycle; and one in two children does not
have clean drinking water at school.
A recent study in rural India found that not a single
grade 5 student had mastered grade 2
competencies in Hindi or mathematics.
Vulnerable groups are often deprived of
educational opportunities.
The literacy rate in India varies from 90 percent
for rich urban males to a mere 17 per cent for the
poor.
The difference between the primary enrolment rate
of landless peasant households and medium to
large landowners is almost 20 percentage points.
About three-quarters of children denied education
live in six states - Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal.
The elusive goal of providing free and compulsory
education until the age of 14 within a few years
has been regularly reiterated, without any effective
steps being taken to reach it- Amartya Sen
Every 6-to-14-year-old will be provided eight
years of elementary education in an age
appropriate classroom in the vicinity of his or her
neighborhood.

Decennial Census Operation begins:

President Pratibha Patil becomes the first citizen to
be enumerated and with this, largest census
exercise ever attempted in the history of mankind
begins. Registrar General and Census
Commissioner C Chandramouli and Deputy
Director General, National Population Register, S
K Chakraborty were present when president
launches the exercise.
Fifteenth Census of India
On April 1, 2010, President Pratibha Patil becomes
the first citizen to be enumerated and with this,
largest census exercise ever attempted in the
history of mankind begins.
Registrar General and Census Commissioner C
Chandramouli and Deputy Director General,
National Population Register, S K Chakraborty
were present when president launches the exercise.
Along with this preparation also begins for
National Population Register (NPR) which is
aimed to create a comprehensive identity database
in the country.
This will be first ever National Population
Register.
National Population Register project of usual
residents of the country would cover an estimated
population of 1.2 billion and the total cost of the
scheme is Rs 3,539.24 crore.
There are going to be two phases as first phase of
census to be started in April and concluded in
September 2010, which would include assimilation
of house listing and house census and collection of
data on NPR and second and last phase from
February 9 to 28 which will includ population
enumeration.
2011 is going to be 15th census and 7th regular
census after Independence. A systematic and
modern population census, in its present form was
conducted non synchronously between 1865 and
1872 in different parts of the country.
This effort culminating in 1872 has been popularly
labeled as the first population census of India .
However, the first synchronous census in India
was held in
1881.
Since then, censuses have been undertaken
uninterruptedly once every ten year.
Fact Box: Constitutional Position of census
Census of India' is statutory interpretation under
Citizenship Act, 1955 and the
Citizenship(Registration of Citizens and Issue of
National Identity Cards) Rule, 2003 and Census
Act, 1948 and Census Rules.
Why Census?
The census provides information on size,
distribution and socio-economic, demographic and
other characteristics of the country's population.
The data collected through the census are used for
administration, planning and policy making as
well as management and evaluation of various
programmes by the government, NGOs,
researchers, commercial and private enterprises,
etc.
Census data is also used for demarcation of
constituencies and allocation of representation to
parliament, State legislative Assemblies and the
local bodies.
Researchers and demographers use census data to
analyze growth and trends of population and make
projections.
The census data is also important for business
houses and industries for strengthening and
planning their business for penetration into areas,
which had hitherto remained, uncovered.

India's first AC double-decker train

The Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala rolls
out the India's first air conditioned double-decker
coach for oscillation trials on the Delhi-Muradabad
section. Introduction of AC double-decker coaches
was announced by Railway Minister in Budget
2010-11. These high-speed stainless steel AC
coaches would be introduced to cater to the heavy
rush of commuters in high density corridors
offering AC travel at a low cost.

Punjab: Pearls World Cup Kabaddi Punjab-2010

Stopper Mangat Singh Mangi Bagga is leading the
14-member Indian team in the first Pearls World
Cup Kabaddi Punjab-2010 being organised by the
Punjab Government at different venues of the state
from April 3-12. Raider Hardawinder Singh Dulla
Surkhpuria will be his deputy.

Rajasthan: India's First Homeopathic University

Rajasthan Assembly passes the Homeopathy
University Jaipur Bill 2010,paving the way for
India's First Homeopathic University at Jaipur. Bill
was brought and passed to replace the ordinance
promulgated by the state government for the
purpose in October 2009. The University will be
run by Dr MP Khunteta Homeopathy Medical
College and Research Society.
Fact Box: German physician Samuel Hahnemann
was the first to propose Homeopathy in 1796 as an
alternative medicine. Hahnemann conceived of the
"law of similars", otherwise known as "let like be
cured by like". He used Cincona for cure of
malaria .
Himachal Pradesh: What are Sirmouri, Kulluvi,
Kangri and Mahajavi?
Sirmouri, Kulluvi, Kangri and Mahajavi are some
dialects out of more than 10 dialects of Pahari
Language. Pahari language is spoken in
Himalayan region and not in only Himachal
Pradesh. However , the mountains isn these
regions have the tendency of isolating
communities from change. These dialects have
their own characteristics. All of these dialects are
commonly referred to as the 'Pahari' languages,
and most people from the Himalayan range as
known as Pahari.
On April 1, 2010 a resolution is passed by the
Himachal Pradesh assembly to recommend the
inclusion of Pahari language in the Indian
Constitution.
FactBox: Languages in the Indian Constitution:
The Constitution of India has given 22 "languages
of the 8th Schedule" the status of official language.
Hindi is official language of the Union along with
English. Hindi is NOT national language of India,
neither is English. The 22 languages are:
Assamese/Axomiya,Bengali,Bodo, Dogri,
Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,Konkani,
Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri (also Meitei or
Meithei), Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, ,
Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu.
Tamil is the first classical language of India which
got this status in 2004. Sanskrit, Kannada &
Telugu are other classical languages.

Antarnaad in Guinness Book of World Records:

The record for the largest simultaneous sing-along
was organised by The Art of Living Foundation
(India) and involved 104,637 participants singing
'Vande Mataram', India's national song, at
Antarnaad in Pune, India on 12 January 2010.
(citation issued by the Guinness World Records
Ltd).
There are two more entries in the Guinness Book
in the name of Art of Living Foundation India. In
the year 2006, as many as 1200 Mohiniattam
dancers performing together on one stage in
Kerala and a sitar concert titled "Brahm Naad" in
New Delhi in November 2008, which brought
together 1094 sitar exponents on one stage.

Business & Economy:

London 2012 Olympics : tier-two sponsor -
ArcelorMittal
ArcelorMittal becomes tier-two sponsor of the
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and will
support the infrastructure for the Games. The
ArcelorMittal Orbit will be the iconic and
permanent symbol of the 2012 Olympic and will
embody both the artistic and functional versatility
of steel as a construction material. ArcelorMittal
will fund 16 million pounds of the 19.1 million
pound project, with the outstanding 3.1 million
pounds provided by the London Development
Agency.
Fact Box : London 2012 Olympics:
London 2012 Olympics or XXX Olympiad will be
held at London from 27 July to 12 August 2012.
London is organising the mega event for third
time. Previously London organised summer
olympics in 1908 and 1948. London will become
the first city to officially host the modern Olympic
Games three times.

State Bank of India: 15,000 business

correspondents
In order to expand its presence in the unbanked
areas, the The State Bank of India intends to hire
around 15,000 (business correspondents) in 2010-
11. Business correspondents and business
facilitator model would help in taking banking
facilities to every part of the country, as its not
possible for banks to open branches in every
village. Key Role of the business correspondents
will be to accept deposits and remit money.
As per the Reserve Bank's guideline, banks are
allowed to engage retired employees, ex-
servicemen and retired government employees and
other entities, as prescribed by the central bank, as
business correspondents.

World Updates:
Ireland's Richest person: Pallonji Mistry
Construction Tycoon Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry is
Ireland's richest person with a worth of 3.9 billion
pounds ($5.93 billion). He became an Irish citizen
in 2003 through his Irish born wife and his
business is in real estate, cars, heavy industry, tea
and partly owns the Taj Mahal Hotel.

World's most visited place: Louvre Museum, Paris

Louvre Museum, Paris which is home to 600,000
art pieces including Leonardo Da Vici's Mona Lisa
tops list of most visited places in the world. In
2009, 8.5 million people visited the museum in
2009. The Louvre, which dates back to 1527,
became a museum in 1793.

First-ever Afghanistan Cannabis Survey:

The first-ever Afghanistan Cannabis Survey was
conducted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
has been released. The survey say that an
estimated 10,000 to 24,000 hectares of cannabis
are grown in Afghanistan every year.
Afghanistan is not only the world's largest
producer of hashish but also world's largest
producer of illicit opiates.

Current Affairs : April 2, 2010

Appointments / Elections:
New Members of Jawahar Bhavan Trust
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi along
with AICC Treasurer Motilal Vora and party
General Secretary and Union Minister Mukul
Wasnik are the new trustees of Jawahar Bhavan
Trust.

New Maharashtra BJP chief: Sudhir Mungantivar

Sudhir Mungantivar, a senior BJP leader of
Maharastra BJP is elected state party chief . He
replaces Nitin Gadkari, who was elected national
BJP president in December 2009.

Events, Happenings & Observances:

SIMBEX 2010
SIMBEX 2010 is the 17th edition of annual
bilateral exercises between the Indian Navy (IN)
and the Republic of Singapore Navy Its starts on
April 3, 2010 at Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal
Fact Box : Some Naval exercises of Indian Navy:
Varuna with the French Navy, Konkan with the
Royal Navy, Indra with Russian Navy, Malabar
with the U.S. Navy and SIMBEX with the
Republic of Singapore Navy. SIMBEX is an
acronym of Singapore Indian Maritime Bilateral
Exercise

National Updates:
Update on Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act
Two panels viz. Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee
and the Second Administrative Reform
Commission had made the recommendation of
replacing the controversial Armed Forces (Special
Powers) Act.

Haryana : Senior Citizen Samman Scheme

Senior Citizen Samman Scheme has been launched
in Haryana. The scheme envisages creation of
Senior Citizens Club in 1000 villages of Haryana.
As per this scheme the village Gram Panchayats
will provide land for a 400-square meter room at
their own level in their villages.
Fact Box: Apni Beti Apna Dhan Yojna of
Haryana: LAADLI
Apni Betian Apna Dhan(Ladli) is being
implemented in Haryana Government under which
Rs.5000/- per family i.e. Rs.2500/- per daughter is
given to the parents on the birth of their second
daughter born on or after Ist January,2006 up to
five years.
Business & Economy:
Kerala : First Multiplex
The first cineplex of Kerala comes up in Kochi,
promoted by Cinemax, one of the largest multiplex
chains in India.
Who is Nikesh Arora?
Nikesh Arora is global sales boss of Google and is
the top earning Indian at the global search giant.
Arora received $26.3 million in compensation in
2009. This also makes him one of the highest paid
executives in America. he is also the top Ranking
Indian in Google. He had joined the company in
April 2009, after replacing Omid Kordestsani.
Before this he was running Google in Europe.

India's External Debt:

As of December 31, 2009 India's total external
debt was $ 251.4 Billion. Out of this Long term
debt was $ 206 Billion while the short term debt
was $ 45.2 Billion.

RBI : Normal Ways and Means Advances Limits

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) keeps the limit
of state governments' short-term borrowing from
the central bank, called as Normal Ways and
Means Advances, unchanged for the financial year
started on April 1, 2010. The limit, which is also
applicable for the union territory of Puducherry is
placed at Rs 9925 crore.

Current Affairs April 3, 2010

Appointments / Elections:
Chief Justice of Madras High Court - Justice M Y
Eqbal
Justice M Y Eqbal is the new Chief Justice of
Madras High Court. He replaces Justice H L
Gokhale. Justice H L Gokhale & Jharkhand High
Court Chief Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra have been
recommended by Supreme Court collegium for
elevation to the Supreme Court.

Events Happenings & Observances:

Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapon for None
This is the tile of a meeting on Nuclear
disarmament in Tehran scheduled for April 17-18,
2010. India decides to join this meet and India's
ambassador to Tehran Sanjay Singh will
participate in the meeting.

Awards:
Srimanta Sankardeva Award
Srimanta Sankardeva Award are conferred by
Assam Government. Eminent litterateur Homen
Borgohain and eminent actress Sharmila Tagore
have been chosen for Srimanta Sankardeva Award
2007 & 2008.

Public Relations Council of India - Chanakya

Awards
Public Relations Council of India (PRCI), a
Registered National body of PR and
Communication professionals based at Chennai
announces Chanakya Awards for the year 2010.
some of the awardees are as follows:
Lifetime Achievement Award : Bobby Sista &
Manohar Prabhakar
Bobby Sista is an advertiser and founder
chairperson of NGO 'Population First'. Manohar
Prabhakar is former director of the Information
and Public Relations Department of Rajasthan
Government.
Media Personality of the Decade Award: Barkha
Datt
Barkha Datt is Managing Editor of NDTV.
NGO of the Year Award - Navjyoti
Navjyoti is an NGO of Dr Kiran Bedi
Organisation of the Year-PR Excellence - Coca-
Cola
Communicator of the Year-PR - Yogesh Joshi
Yogesh Joshi is president of Association of
Business Communicators of India
Young Visionary - Phanindra Sama
Phanindra Sama is CEO Red Bus
Corporate Citizen of the Year - Centre For Social
Research-Women Empowerment
National Updates:
India's first Standard Guage line Opens
India's first Standard Guage line taking Delhi
Metro from Inderlok to Mundka opens. Being on
the Standard Gauge rails measuring four feet and
8.5 inches, as against Broad Gauge used for Phase
one, the tracks on this line will be narrower and
speed of the trains better. With the commissioning
of this line, the total Metro network has increased
to over 111 km and 97 stations.
Sports:
Asian Rugby Sevens Invitational Tournament
Malaysia is the champion of the Asian Rugby
Sevens Invitational Tournament. India finihses
4th.

Current Affairs - April 5, 2010

Awards & Honors:
Haryana : Government Literary Awards:
Haryana Sahitya Rattan Samman for 2008-09 goes
to Dr Harish Chander Verma and for 2009-10 to
Rajya Kavi Uday Bhanu Hans. April 2010
Haryana Sahitya Academy Awards
The following persons are the winners of the
Haryana Government literary awards for 2008-09
& 2009-10
Awards for 2008-09
Haryana Sahitya Rattan Samman : Dr Harish
Chander Verma
Mahakavi Surdas Samman Award :
Dr.M.P.Bhardwaj
Babu Bal Mukund Gupt Samman Award : Puran
Mudgal
Lal Deshbandhu Gupt Samman Award : Ms Urmi
Kiran
Pt Lakhmi Chand Samman Award: Mr Madan
Gopal Shastri
Haryana Gaurav Samman Award: Suresh Gautam
Awards for 2009-10
Haryana Sahitya Rattan Samman : Rajya Kavi
Uday Bhanu Hans
Mahakavi Surdas Samman Award : Mr Kanwal
Nain Kapoor
Babu Bal Mukund Gupt Samman Award : Gian
Parkash Vivek
Lal Deshbandhu Gupt Samman Award: Mr
Narender Kumar Upmanyu, Hament Atri
Pt Lakhmi Chand Samman Award: Mr Rajbir
Deswal
Haryana Gaurav Samman Award: Dr.Kamal
Kumar of Delhi
Haryana Sahitya Sewa Samman Award For
Haryanvi Literature (Mr.Bharat Bhushan
Sanghiwal, Mr Satpal Gupt,. Mr Tara Chand
Premi)
Chairman of the Haryana Sahitya Academy
Bhupinder Singh Huda announces 3 more awards
to be institutded from this year - Haryanavi
Puraskar, Hasya Puraskar and Mahila Rachnakar
Puraskar

Karnataka: Film Awards in the name of

Vishnuvardhan, K.S. Aswath
Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa
announces institution of Vishnuvardhan Life Time
Achievement award and KS Aswath " best
supporting actor" award.
The state government also announces building a
memorial in the name of Dr. Vishnuvardhan. Life
Time Achievement award for the year 2008 has
been conferred upon Dr. Vishnuvardhan and his
wife Bharathi Vishnuvardhan receives this award.

Events, Happenings & Observances:

"Yodha Shakti" & "Azm-e-Nau"
Yodha Shakti is the name of the month-long war
games scheduled to be conducted by Indian Army
in mid-April in the Thar desert of Rajasthan. This
will be India's biggest war-game exercise ever. At
the same time Pakistan army is organizing similar
kind of wargame - Azm-e-Nau (New Resolution)
on the Pakistan side of the Thar Desert.

National Updates:
Gujarat : 50 Years of Sardar Sarovar Narmada
Project
Out of the thirty large dams planned on river
Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is the
largest multipurpose project involved in the
construction.
The foundation stone of this project was launched
on 5th April 1961, by Gujarat's first Chief Minister
Dr Jivraj Mehta.
On 5th April 2010, the project enters its 50th year.
The project was first conceived by Jawahar Lal
Nehru in 1940s. At that time the aim was limited
to iirigation of the Bharuch district and some
adjacent areas. It was vision of Sardar Vallabh
Bhai patel , that harnessing the excess waters of
Narmada river will quench the thirst of the water
starved areas of Gujarat.
However it took decades to take the project form
of development scheme to increase irrigation and
produce hydroelectricity.
The Narmada Valley Development Plan (NVDP)
came in 1979, which envisaged 30 big dams, 135
medium dams and 3,000 small dams on the
Narmada and its tributaries.
Amongst the 30 large dams planned for the
Narmada Sardar Sarovar dam is the largest with
136.5 m (455 ft) height. This 136.5 m (455 ft)
height is the main focus of Narmada bachao
Andolan.
The project would irrigate 18000 square
kilometers of land spread over Gujarat and
Barmer, Jalor districts of Rajasthan.
Assam : Baideu & Nabou Schemes:
Baideu & Nabou are two new schemes started by
the Assam state government. These ambitious
projects are for the benefit of unmarried women
and widows respectively. Baideu means elder
sister and this scheme targets unmarried women
who are above the age of 45 and living below
poverty line. Nabou which means Sister in law
targets the widows living below poverty line. The
scheme involves financial assistance of Rs 3,000
each annually and one-time assistance of Rs
10,000 to each beneficiary.

Delhi : e-waste disposal system

Delhi government goes ahead with the e-waste
disposal system. The e-waste bins will be installed
in various places across the capital from where the
authorized recyclers shall collect the e-waste for
recycling.

e-Office of Finance Ministry:

Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla initiates e-Office
programme directed towards a paperless office by
enabling access to internal information for its
employees through any computer. The E-office
has been developed by National Informatics
Centre (NIC). Its going to be a platform for
personalized, role based, secure access to internal
information for the employees that is accessible
through any browser.
Some features of the programme are unified view
of data, content and document management,
collaboration and messaging services with SMS
interface, single standards based directory service,
identity and access management role and
integration of applications.

Rajasthan: New Air field in Phalodi

Phalodi which was called as Phalvardhika in
ancient times is a strategic town located in Jodhpur
District of Rajasthan. A new Indian Air Force
(IAF) airfield equipped with modern infrastructure
is to be inaugurated by Chief of the Air Staff, Air
Chief Marshal PV Naik at Phalodi. Its location
between Jaisalmer and Jodhpur spans the distance
between these two important air bases of Indian
Air Force.

Business & Economy:

ONGC : First Public Sector Company to receive
Emission Reduction Certificates from UNFCC
On April 5, 2010, ONGC announces that it has
become India's First PSU to receive Emission
Reduction Certificates from the UN agency UNFC
& CC (UNFCCC). The certificate was issued on
March 18.
The first registered CDM project is 'Waste Heat
Recovery Project at Mumbai High'. There are six
registered CDM projects of ONGC.
However, Waste Heat Recovery project happened
to be the first registered project. The monitoring
period was from February 5 ,2007 to March 31,
2009 and the issued CERs are 10,722 for the
period. The remaining five projects are in the
various phases of monitoring and verification. The
remaining five projects are in the various phases of
monitoring and verification.

Highest paid CEO in United States: Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison, co-founder and CEO of Oracle
Corporation, a major enterprise software company
emerges as the highest paid CEO in the US. His
pay packet was $84.5 million. Ray Elliott of
Boston Scientific is at the second place ($33.4
million). The listing has been published by
cnnmoney.com

Red Dot Product Design Award - BPL Studylite

BPL Studylite is India's first eco-friendly
rechargeable LED study lamp. It has been chosen
from 4,252 entries across a field of around 1,635
companies from 57 countries across the world and
is the only Indian product to win a Red Dot Award
in 2010. It bags Red Dot Product Design Award in
the Lighting category
Red Dot award is one of the most prestigious
International product design awards and denotes
international seal of quality for outstanding design.

Delhi : First green grid in North India -

Commonwealth Games village
Commonwealth Games village gets its dedicated
power substation, as the 66/11 KV Commonwealth
Grid sub-station gets inaugurated by Chief
Minister Sheila Dikshit.

Bankers meet RBI:

Chief of Indian Bankers Association, M.V. Nair
and chiefs of some big banks meet RBI ahead of
RBI's annual monetary policy due to be released
on April 20.

Ashok Leyland’s Sales:

Ashok Leyland 's vehicle sales records 100% jump
in March to more than 10,000 units, with largest
fraction from domestic markets.

NABARD: Business Growth at a Glance

NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and
Rural Development) is India's apex development
bank.
Factbox : NABARD: It was established by an act
of Parliament on 12 July 1982 to implement the
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development Act 1981. It replaced the
Agricultural Credit Department (ACD) and Rural
Planning and Credit Cell (RPCC) of Reserve Bank
of India, and Agricultural Refinance and
Development Corporation (ARDC). It is one of the
premiere agencies to provide credit in rural areas.
The main business of the Bank are long-term and
short-term refinancing, plus funding under Rural
Infrastructure Development Fund.
In 2009-10, the bank has done a business of Rs.
1.36 Lakh Crore. Its current loans are over Rs. 1
lakh crore. The growth in 2009-10 was around 14
per cent over the previous year's business of Rs.
1.19 Lakh Crore.
NABARD has appointed The Boston Consulting
Group to prepare a roadmap for the future.

Sports:
Jumbo: Mascot for 2011 World Cup?
Jumbo, an elephant is the mascot of ICC Cricket
World Cup 2011. It was unveiled on April 2, 2010.
It is after 28 years that elephant, which was chosen
as the mascot for the 1982 Asian Games in New
Delhi.

Seventh National Rafting Championship

Indian Rafting Foundation, Arunachal Pradesh
Tour Operators Association, the Department of
Tourism had organized Seventh National Rafting
Championship at Yingkiong, the headquarters of
Upper Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh. Army
Adventure Wing (AAW), Raiwal received the
Champion Trophy.

Current Affairs : April 6, 2010

Appointments:
National Security Adviser - Shiv Shankar Menon
Appointment of Shiv Shankar Menon as next
National Security Advisor has been formally
approved by Appointment Committee of the
Cabinet (ACC).
Fact Box: National Security Advisor
The post of National Security Advisor is a
brainchild of Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government.
This post was created on 19 November 1998 to
oversee the management of national security, both
in the immediate term and long term. First NSA
Brajesh Mishra held the position till 2004. He was
succeeded by J.N. Dixit, who died in harness in
January 2005. Both were former Foreign
Secretaries. Later M K Narayanan became India's
National Security Advisor. Mr. Menon is India's
4th National Security Advisor. Its worth note that
other than MK Narayanan, all the three National
Security Advisors have been India's Foreign
Secretaries. MK Narayanan was head of the
Intelligence Bureau (IB) from 1987 to 1990.
Functions of a National Security Advisor:
To advise the Prime Minister on all matters
relating to internal and external threats to the
country.
To advise the Prime Minister on oversees strategic
issues.
To serve as Prime Minister's Special Interlocutor
on border issues
To accompany Prime Minister on Foreign State
visits.
The directors of R&AW and IB report to the NSA
rather than the Prime Minister directly.
To receive all intelligence reports and co-ordinate
them to present before the Prime Minister
Factbox : Shiv Shankar Menon:
Hailing from Kerala, Shiv Shankar Menon has
served as the Foreign Secretary of India, the Indian
High Commissioner to Pakistan and in China and
Israel as ambassador and diplomat. A milestone in
his career was the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Air India chief operating officer - Gustav Baldauf

Gustav Baldauf, Austrian Airlines' executive vice-
president, flight operations has been appointed
chief operating officer (COO) of Air India.
Baldauf will be the first ever COO of the airline
and his job will be of salvaging Air India’s
fortunes in the next three years. He was with Jet
Airways also previously.

National Aviation Company India Ltd (NACIL) -

Committees on Turnaround
National Aviation Company India Ltd (NACIL)
which operates Air India creates 4 committees
which shall give reports on the turnaround plan for
the airline in the next 30 days. The committees and
their heads are as follows:
HR Committee: Fali Homi Major, Amit Mitra
Amit Mitra is secretary general of Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry
(FICCI)
Fali Homi Major is former chief of air staff
Audit & Finance Committee: Anand Mahindra and
Harsh Neotia
Anand Mahindra is vice-chairman and managing
director of Mahindra & Mahindra
Harsh Neotia is Chairman Ambuja Realty
Development
The other committees will be head by the
independent directors.

CMD Religare Enterprises Ltd : Sunil Godhwani

Sunil Godhwani is the new chairman and
managing director of Religare Enterprises Ltd. The
erstwhile Chairman Malvinder Mohan Singh
announced his resignation from the company's
board of directors. His brother Shivinder Mohan
Singh has also resigned as member of the Religare
Enterprises Ltd board. The board of directors has
been reorganised keeping in mind the
organisation’s global plans and ambitions in the
field of asset management and investment
banking.

National Updates:
Maoist attack in Dantewada
Maoist rebels kill 76 CRPF policemen in an
ambush attack in Dantewada district of
Chhattisgarh. The attack occurred when over 80
officers from the Central Reserve Police Force
(CRPF) and a local police group were conducting
a domination exercise in the area. This is the
biggest loss of life security forces in a single day
during the Naxal-Maoist insurgency.

Assam: Package for Majuli

Majuli, largest riverine island in the world and the
largest freshwater island in South Asia is loacted
in the Brahmaputra River in Assam. The total area
of Majuli was 1500 square kilometers at the time
of India's independence and was dotted with Hindu
monasteries, however it lost half of this to erosion.
The erosion started after an earthquake in 1950s,
which shifted the river bed. The current area is 422
square kilometers. The Island was formed due to
course changes by Lohit and othertributaries of
Brahmaputra.
Majuli is in danger and is prone to extensive
flooding and erosion. In this context, India's
central government announces a Rs. 5 Crore
special financial package to curb the erosion and
save the ecosystem of island. This grant has been
announced for 5 years. Its worth note that Majuli
was capital of Assam since 16th century.
Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankardeva , a saint and
social reformer of Assam , who is credited to bring
unity to Assam straddling two major kingdoms
(Ahom and Koch kingdoms) and establishing a
bedrock of Assamese culture, had visited the
island and established monasteries and hermitages
known as 'satras'.

New Delhi: India's first online Community College

India's first online Community College has been
launched in New Delhi. Its a digital institution
launched by Gurukul Online Learning Solutions
Academy (GOLS) under the Community College
scheme of Indira Gandhi National Open University
(IGNOU). website:

What is the Turnaround Plan for Air India?

In 2009, the National Aviation Company India Ltd
submitted a turnaround plan to the government
with an aim to reduce costs by over Rs 5,400 crore
per year.
It envisages cost savings viz. fuel expenses, hiring,
parking and landing charges and ground handling
fees.
The plan also involves saving of Rs 700 crore in
employee cost and increasing revenues by Rs
2,400 crore per year through higher earnings from
cargo, engineering, training and passenger ticket
charges.
On Losses of Air India:
With the expected losses of Rs.5,400 crore in
2009-10, the carrier's losses will mount to over
Rs.13,174 crore in three straight fiscals. The
carrier had incurred a loss of Rs.2,226.16 crore in
2007-08 and Rs.5,548 crore in 2008-09 - Praful
Patel, Civil Aviation Minister in Rajya Sabha
Notes on Working Capital of Air India:
Currently the airline's working capital is Rs.17,000
crore. The airline is waiting for a cabinet nod to
raise its working capital by Rs.1,000 crore. It
recently received the government's sanction for an
equity infusion of Rs.800 crore in February 2010
with a provision of an additional Rs.1,200 crore in
the next fiscal. It has also raised over Rs.700 crore
from bonds for aircraft acquisition.

Jairam Ramesh on Tiger Conservation:

Kaziranga National park registers a density of 30
tigers over 100 sq. km which brings fresh hopes on
Tiger Conservation.
This density is Highest in the Country.
Since the National Park spreads over 1000 sq. kms
there should be more than 100 tigers.
The figures of the Tiger census would be out in
November.
Four regional offices of the National Tiger
Conservation Authority (NTCA) to be opened in
Bangalore, Nagpur, Kolkata and Guwahati to
extend the activities of NTCA. The headquarters
would remain in New Delhi.
India has 39 project tiger areas, the situation in
nine were good, 12 satisfactory while the scenario
in 18 was precarious.
About 50 to 60 per cent of the wild tiger
population of the world is found in India and this
had become possible because of huge and
sustained efforts under Project Tiger.
India US Agreement on comprehensive economic
partnership
India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee &
United States Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner sign an agreement launch a
comprehensive economic partnership to boost their
bilateral engagement.
A similar agreement US has with China. the key
focus of this agreement will be micro-finance and
infrastructure development.

Science & Technology:

NASA: STS-131
STS-131 is International Space Station assembly
flight and NASA's current Space Shuttle mission
which has blasted off on April 5, 2010 from
Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A. The
mission is being flown by Space Shuttle
Discovery. It is one of NASA's final servicing
missions to the International Space Station. Alan
Poindexter is the commander of this mission.
Please note that STS-133 which is scheduled to be
launched in September 2010 will be the last flight
before Discovery is decommissioned in 2010.

Current Affairs April 7, 2010

Events, Happenings & Observances:
World Health Day, 2010
April 7 is observed all over as World Health Day.
This commemorates the First World Health
Assembly in 1948.
However the observance started from 1950. WHO
provides resources on particular theme of the
World Health Day every year.
2010 theme is "Be part of a global movement to
make cities healthier" The World Health
Organization regards urbanization as an urgent
public health concern.
The urban setting influences health outcomes, both
positively and negatively. In terms of health,
urbanization presents challenges as well as
opportunities.
1000 cities, 1000 lives
On the occasion of World Health Day the WHO
launched a campaign " 1000 cities, 1000 lives".
This campaign asks people to sign up their city
and commit to opening up public spaces to health
for one day during the week of 7–11 April 2010.
World Health Organisation
Established : April 7, 1948
Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
Head : Dr. Margaret Chan
Constitution Objective:
"The attainment by all people of the highest
possible level of health" Constitution of WHO :
Came into force on the first World Health Day,
April 7, 1950
Memorable Point: Out of the Six Regional Offices
of WHO, Regional Office for South East Asia
(SEARO) is located in New Delhi . The First
session of the WHO Regional Committee for
South-East Asia was held from 4-5 October 1948
in the office of the Indian Minister of Health. It
was inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru.

90th Birth Day of Pandit Ravi Shankar:

Sitar Maestro Bharat Ratna (1999) Pandit Ravi
Shankar was born on 7 April 1920. He was a
shishya (pupil) of legendary Allauddin Khan. He is
a winner of three Grammy Awards. He had
performed at the famous Woodstock Festival in
1969. My Music, My Life is the best selling
autobiography of this Music maestro. He was
honored by the prestigious UNESCO International
Music Council in 1975.
His daughter Norah Jones is a Grammy-winning
American pop artist & other daughter Anoushka
Shankar is a budding Sitar Artist.

Festival of India in China

Minister for External Affairs S M Krishna who is
currently in China inaugurates the Festival of India
in China at Beijing which eventually marks the
60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic
relations between India & China. In 30 Chinese
cities performances of various Indian classical
dances, folk dances, classical music, martial arts
and contemporary music will be organized.

Appointments:
Sony digicam brand ambassador- Deepika
Padukone
Sony India appoints Deepika Padukone as the
brand ambassador for its digital still camera
segment.
FactBox: Some Brands Deepika Padukone has
been associated with :
Liril, Dabur Lal powder, Close-Up toothpaste and
Limca, Jewels of India retail jewellery show,
Maybelline (cosmetic company) , BSNL

Member of the White House Commission on

Presidential Scholars - Srinija Srinivasan
Yahoo was founded by David Filo and Jerry Yang.
Srinija manages Yahoo! Inc's team of Surfers and
is responsible for the design and maintenance of
Yahoo!'s overall classification and organization
scheme, the foundation stones of Yahoo's system.
She has been appointed as member of the White
House Commission on Presidential Scholars.

Awards:
2010 CIF Chanchlani Global Indian Award -
Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata has been selected for the '2010 CIF
Chanchlani Global Indian Award' for his
outstanding global leadership, vision and
professional excellence. This award is conferred
by Canada India Foundation and carries $225,000.
Phalke Ratna Award: Dev Anand
Phalke Ratna Award is conferred by Dadasaheb
Phalke Academy on the birth anniversary of father
of the Indian film industry Dadasaheb Phalke on
April 30. Devanand Has been Selected for this
Award 2010.

BPO Excellence Awards 2009-10

Following are some of the winners of BPO
Excellence Awards 2009-10
Social Change Agent Award : Patni Computer
Systems Ltd.
Most Significant contributor to the BPO Industry :
Wipro Technologies
Use of Technology for Operational Excellence
Award : eClerx Services Ltd.
Award for Operational Excellence & Quality :
Patni Computer Systems Ltd., Wipro Technologies
BPO Innovation of the year : Quatrro BPO
Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
BPO Organisation of the year : Patni Computer
Systems Ltd, Infosys BPO
National Updates:
Kerala: CERT-Kerala
In Lines of CERT-In the Kerala Government
constitutes CERT-Kerala with the support of the
Central Government to function as a nodal agency
for the Cyber safety in the state and Central
government institutions. N Krishan is the Director
of CERT Kerala.
Green Gas Corridor
Green Gas Corridor is a proposed 500 kms CNG
route between Lucknow & New Delhi. The route
passes via Sitapur, Shahjahanpur, Bareilly and
Moradabad. This project is given Central
Government's nod. This is being set up by GAIL
(Gas Authority of India Ltd) and with this the
vehicle owners of CNG would be able to get at
least one gas station within 150 km on both
highways.
Fact Box: CNG:
Compressed Natural Gas is made by compressing
natural gas (main component Methane) which is
stored and distributed in hard containers, at a
normal pressure of 200–248 bar . It is used as
substitute for gasoline (petrol), diesel. It produces
lesser emissions of pollutants like carbon dioxide
(CO2), hydrocarbons(UHC), carbon monoxide
(CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx)
and particulate matter (PM), as compared to petrol
& diesel. It does not contain any lead or benzene
content and thus lead fouling of spark plugs is
eliminated. New Delhi has the World's Largest
Fleet of CNG Buses operated by Delhi Transport
Corporation (DTC). In Delhi and Ahmadabad,
CNG is mandated for the public transport system.
On Tamil Nadu Legislative Council
Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was abolished in
1986 by the AIADMK Regime headed by the late
M G Ramachandran (MGR). The Tamil Nadu
Legislative Council (Abolition) Bill, 1986 was
passed by both houses of the Parliament and
received the assent of the president on 30 August
1986. The Act came into force on 1 November
1986 and the council was abolished.
Fact Box : Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was
previously named as Madras Legislative Council.
It was the Upper House of the bicameral
legislature of Madras Presidency. It was
established by the first Indian Council Act of
1861. It was renamed as Tamil Nadu Legislative
Council in 1961.
Memorable Points: India's States with Bicameral
Legislature Current 6 states
in India have bicameral legislatures: Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka,
Maharastra, Uttar Pradesh

On April 7, 2010, the Chief Minister M

Karunanidhi informs the State Assembly that a
resolution would very soon be adopted in the
Tamil Nadu Assembly to revive the Tamilnadu
State Legislative Council.

Andhra Pradesh: INFO-AGE Government

INFO-AGE is a new concept of Andhra Pradesh
State Government. The government seeks to
leverage Information technology to achieve an
INFO-AGE government. Its goal is to transform
the state into a knowledge society and make
available the benefits of ICT to all citizens,
especially those in rural areas and living in
poverty.

INFO-AGE Government is an abbreviation of

Inclusive, Networked, Fast, Open, Accountable,
Globally benchmarked and Efficient Government.

SMART Government: similar concept was devised

by Former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu
which was called SMART administration,
abbreviated form of Simple, Moral, Accountable,
Responsive and Transparent administration.

Business & Economy:

Low Carbon Jobs in an Interconnected World
Low Carbon Jobs in an Interconnected World is
the title of a report released by Global Climate
Network. It says that implementation of the Indian
government's National Action Plan on Climate
Change (NAPCC) could create an additional 10.5
million direct jobs in wind, solar and bio-fuel
energy production.
As India is already a world leader in wind
technology, ambitious global expansion of wind
power could see 288,500 Indian jobs created if
Indian firms were able to command 10 per cent of
the global market. Read Summary Here

USL becomes world's No 2 spirit co

United Breweries is India's largest producer of
beer with a market share of around 48% by
volume. With sales volume of 100 million cases
for the fiscal ended March 31, 2010, it has become
world's second largest spirit company by volumes.

SEBI : Technical Advisory Committee

India's market regulator Securities and Exchange
Board of India creates a Technical Advisory
Committee to recommend measures for changes
and improvements in market structure in view of
the technological changes. This committee will be
headed by Professor S Sadagopan.
The committee will also make recommendations to
frame appropriate policies arising out of
technological advancements in areas like wireless
trading, algorithmic trading and smart order
routing,.

Science & Technology:

On Glonass:
Glonass (Global Navigation Satellite System) is
the Russian equivalent of the US Global
Positioning System (GPS) and is designed for both
military and civilian use. Both systems allow users
to determine their positions too within a few
meters. Glonass is a radio-based satellite
navigation system. It was developed by the former
Soviet Union and now operated for the Russian
government by the Russian Space Forces.
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says that
his country will send seven new Glonass satellites
into orbit in 2010. Currently out of total 23
satellites , 21 are functioning perfectly. With seven
more satellites , a total of 27-28 fully functional
satellites will be there for the navigation system.
Note: The predecessor program of Glonass was
"Tsiklon"

Caves on Moon:
Chandrayaan-1 has discovered large caves on the
lunar surface that can act as human shelter on
moon. The tunnel, which has been discovered near
the lunar equator, is an empty volcanic tube,
measuring about two km in length and 360 metres
in width. Indian Space Research Organization’s
Space Applications Centre based in Ahmadabad
announces that terrain mapping camera, an Indian
instrument on the lunar mission, has found "new
types of rocks" and hollow tunnels. These tubes
were formed after the flow of lava from volcanoes.
Note: the similar kind of cave was discovered
previously by Japanese spacecraft "Kaguya"

Current Affairs : April 8, 2010

Events, Happenings & Observances:
Army Ordnance Corps (AOC) : 235th Anniversary
Army Ordnance Corps (AOC) deals with supply
and maintenance of weaponry, ammunitions and
other military equipment .8th April 2010 marks the
235th anniversary of Army Ordnance Corps. April
2010

Appointments:
New CMD of ITI: K L Dhingra
ITI Ltd (established 1948) is India’s first Public
Sector Unit (PSU). It is a pioneering venture in the
field of telecommunications in India and has
contributed to 50% of the present national telecom
network. The company has manufacturing
facilities spread across six locations and a
countrywide network of marketing/service outlets,
the company offers a complete range of telecom
products and total solutions covering the whole
spectrum of Switching, Transmission, Access and
Subscriber Premises equipment.
Mr K L Dhingra takes over as Chairman and
Managing Director of Public Sector telecom major
ITI Limited.

National Updates:
Working groups on Price Rise:
The central government creates 3 high-powered
working groups on the issue of the price rise.
The Core Committee will be headed by Prime
Minister Man Mohan Singh.
Working group on Agricultural Production will be
headed by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister
Haryana.
Working group on Consumers Affairs will be
headed by Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra
Modi.
Working group on Food and Public Distribution
system(PDS) headed by Planning Commission
Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. It has
been decided in a meeting prior to country wide
agitation of the left on the price rise issue.
Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010
Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 was earlier
drafted as Prevention of Torture Bill, 2009. April
2010
Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010
Background:
Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 was earlier
drafted as Prevention of Torture Bill, 2009. The
bill is a sequel to India's inking the 1975 UN
Convention against torture and other cruel,
Inhuman and Degrading treatment or punishment
in 1997.
The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
also known as Torture Convention was adopted by
the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10
December 1984.
It entered into force on 26 June 1987 after it had
been ratified by 20 States.
India signed this convention on 14 Oct 1997 .
India is yet to ratify this convention.
Ratification by India:
The Indian Penal Code has some provision
regarding the subject matter of this convention,
however it does not define 'torture' as clearly as in
Article 1 of the convention nor make it criminal as
called for by Article 4 of this convention. This is a
prerequisite of ratifying the convention that the
country needs to bring in a domestic legislation.
The government has earlier thought of modifying
the IPC, but it would have complicated the
procedure.
Consultations:
Criminal law, including all matters included in the
Indian Penal Code come under the subject matter
of Concurrent List of 7th schedule of the
Constitution of India. (see concurrent list subjects
1, 2 & 3)
So these issues require a consultation with the state
governments also.
Besides the mater has been examined at length in
consultation with the Law Commission of India
and the then attorney general of India.
After long deliberation on the issue it was decided
to bring a piece of 'stand alone' legislation so that
the convention could be ratified.
Current Status:
India's Union cabinet approves a proposal on April
8, 2010 to introduce Prevention of Torture Bill,
2010

Gujarat: Kamdhenu University

After a Petroleum University and a Defense
University, Gujarat, the largest milk producing
state of India starts a Veterinary University in June
2010. The proposed name is Kamdhenu
University. It is going to be started in Rajpura
village in North Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district.

Tamilnadu: JATROPT Project

In recent times Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) has
received much attention as a source of renewable
oil for the production of sustainable and affordable
bio-fuels. April 2010
JATROPA Project
In recent times Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) has
received much attention as a source of renewable
oil for the production of sustainable and affordable
bio-fuels.
Jatropa is a wild species and there have not been
satisfactory crop improvement programmes for
this species. JATROPT project (Jatropha curcas,
applied and technological research in plant Traits)
is such a crop improvement programme for Jatropa
cultivation. It is EU Framework 7 programme. The
programme involves nine countries-- Brazil,
France, Guatemala, India, Madagascar, Mexico,
Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom.
In India the Planning Commission has identified
Jatropha as a potential crop for oil source for its
various merits such as wide range of adaptation to
different climatic and soil conditions.
In this context, Centre of Excellence in Bio fuels
of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU)
has been selected as one of the networking
partners in the JATROPT project for a four years
period from 2010 to 2013. The project is worth
1,15,937 Euros (approximately Rs. 70 lakh).

Punjab: Rs 592 crore for development of 19 towns

The Punjab State Government gives approval to
sanction Rs 592 crore for 19 towns in Mohali,
Ludhiana and Jalandhar districts. This includes 10
towns of Ludhiana, 3 towns of Jalandhar and 6
Towns in Mohali. The idea is to facilities provide
100 per cent drinking water supply, sewerage
including installation of sewage treatment plants,
roads and street lighting.

Delhi: HC allows lawyer to argue in Hindi.

For the very first time, the Delhi Court allows a
lawyer to argue in his Mother Tongue Hindi,
bypassing the official Hindi language. Lawyer Das
Goninder Singh was allowed to respond in Hindi
and be asked the questions in Hindi only.
Indian Maritime University
Indian Maritime University was established as a
Central University by the Government of India
under an Act of Parliament (Indian Maritime
University Act 2008). It is located in Chennai. Its
campuses are at Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and
Vishakhapatnam. On 8th April 2010, Cabinet
Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)
approves a financial support of Rs. 282.25 Crore to
IMU.

On Digitalization of All India radio &

Doordarshan
The 11th plan envisages Rs 620 crore for
implementation of digitalization of transmitters,
studios and connectivity programme of DD and Rs
920 crore in case of AIR. Digitalization aims at
enabling people in the remotest corner of the
country to receive a higher quality of AIR and DD
signals.
This programme gets cabinet nod on April 8, 2010.
20 production centers are going to be covered. The
decision to digitalis AIR transmission has been
taken in view of the serious challenge the public
broadcaster was going to face from private players
in the third phase of the extension of FM Radio.
India Australia Education Deal:
India and Australia sign a major deal on education.
This paves the way for setting up of India-
Australia Education Council comprising experts
from both countries.

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre - solar heat and

light based Desalination System
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai
comes up with a desalination system based on
solar heat and light. The solar energy-based small
and community level reverse osmosis unit has
been developed for producing safe drinking wate.
In this unit the feed water is passed through the
membrane with the help of a DC (direct current)
pump connected to the Photovoltaics panels
without any batteries.

Business & Economy:

Asian Cricket Council - Nimbus Deal:
Nimbus Sport International, one of Asia's leading
sports management companies, signs a 5 year deal
with Asian Cricket Council. With this deal Nimbus
gets right to globally market the commercial rights
of three Asia Cups from 2010 to 2014.
Fact Box: Asian Cricket Council
Conceived in 1983 as Asian Cricket Conference
and rechristened in 1995 as Asian Cricket Council,
it is a regional administrative body which
functions as subordinate to International Cricket
Council. It has 22 members (4 full test status
members, 7 associate members, 11 affiliate
members). 4 full test status members are
Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Headquarters are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Arjun Ranatunga, former captain of Sri Lanka
Cricket Team is the current President.
The officially sanctioned tournaments are Asia
Cup, Asian Test Championship, ACC Trophy, and
Asian Cricket Junior Tournament. Apart from this,
ACC runs coaching, umpiring, and sports
medicine programs. Asia Cup was conceived in
1983 to promote goodwill between Asian
countries.
First Asia Cup was held in 1984 at Sharjah. India
was the winner of First Asia Cup. India & Sri
Lanka have won this cup for 4 times each.
Pakistan only once. 2010 edition of this
tournament will be held in Sri Lanka in June 2010

No FDI in manufacturing of Cigarettes:

On 8th April 2010, India's Cabinet Committee on
Economic Affairs (CCEA) prohibited Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) in manufacturing of
cigarettes. This was a sequel to a proposal moved
by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion
of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. With
this move the door for foreign players Such as
Japan Tobacco's are closed for ever.
Japan Tobacco’s had a proposal to invest $100
million into its Indian subsidiary.
FDI in Cigarettes: Up till now, FDI up to 100 per
cent with prior government and Foreign
Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval was
permitted in the manufacture of cigarettes, subject
to the undertaking obtaining an industrial license
under the Industrial (Development and Regulation)
Act, 1951. However this policy was not in tune
with the administrative decision not to grant
industrial license for cigarette manufacturing
The decision leaves the market open for dominant
Indian Player ITC to increase its share in India's
cigarette market. ITC has 50 % share in India's
cigarette market. Two other major players are
Godfrey Phillips and VST.

SAIL Disinvestment Proposal:

on 8th April 2010, the Cabinet Committee on
Economic Affairs (CCEA) approves a proposal of
the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) to raise
additional capital through sale of the government's
stake in the company and issue of fresh equity in
two tranches. These trenches will include a fresh
issue of 5 percent pre-issue paid up equity of the
company and offer of sale of 5 percent of
government equity in SAIL. Both the government
and SAIL will be able to raise up to Rs.8,000 crore
each through the disinvestment and issue of fresh
equity.
As of March 2009, Government of India has 85.82
% share in the SAIL.

India's Highest Individual Taxpayer:

As per Economic Times, Analjit Singh, the
founder and chairman of Max India, a diversified
business group with interests in healthcare, IT
services, and financial services, is India's highest
individual taxpayer. He paid advance tax of Rs
99.7 crore . He paid a tax of Rs 13.3 crore in the
previous fiscal 2008-09.

Science & Technology:

Solar Impulse:
Solar Impulse is a long-range solar-powered plane
project of École Polytechnique Fédérale de
Lausanne, being promoted by Bertrand Piccard.
Bertrand Piccard had piloted the first balloon to
circle the world non-stop.
The first aircraft of this project is named HB-SIA.
HB-SIA is a solar powered one-seater, capable of
taking off under its own power, and intended to
remain airborne up to 36 hours.

On 7 April 2010 the HB-SIA underwent an

extended 87 minute test flight piloted by Markus
Scherdel. In contrast to earlier tests, the April
flight reached an altitude of 1,200 m (3,937 ft).
The project took 6 years to create this carbon fiber
aircraft.

World Economy:
World Production of Manganese
Manganese (Mn) atomic number 25 is a transition
metal found a free element in nature and also in
combination with iron, is the 12th most abundant
element in Earth's crust.
Principle Ores of Manganes are
Pyrolusite (MnO2),
Braunite, (Mn2+Mn3+6)(SiO12),
Psilomelane (Ba,H2O)2Mn5O10,
Rhodochrosite (MnCO3).
In 2009 the total world reserves were estimated to
be around 540,000 thousand metric tonnes.
Total world mining output of Mangense was 9,600
thousand metric tonnes.
China was the largest producer of Manganese in
2009 with an output of 2400 thousand metric
tonnes.
However largest reserves of Manganese are found
in South Africa & Ukraine.

Current Affairs : April 9, 2010

Events / Happenings / Observances:
London Symphony Orchestra returns to India after
45 years
London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), a 100
member major orchestra of the United Kingdom,
as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the
world which was established in 1904, performs in
Mumbai after a span of 45 years.

Awards:
Aryabhata Intl Award - Mahantesh G
Kivadasanavar
Mahantesh G Kivadasanavarwas, Founder
Managing Trustee of Samarthanam Trust for the
Disabled has been conferred 'Aryabhata
International Award' for the year 2009 for his
relentless service to the disabled and the
underprivileged.
Mother Teresa International Award
Mother Teresa International awards which were
instituted in 2000-2001 , are presented to eminent
personalities for their outstanding contribution in
the fields of education, science, culture, music,
sports, social work, medicine, industry and politics
in India and overseas.
The winners of Mother Teresa Lifetime
Achievement Award for the year 2010 is Ajit
Wadekar. Other personalities to win the Mother
Teresa International Award are former Captain of
1983 World Cup wining Indian Cricket Team
Kapil Dev, Davis Cupper Jaideep Mukerjea and
Olympic hockey skipper Gurbux Singh, famed
soccer striker Tulsidas Balaram, popular singer
Amit Kumar, Bengali stage and screen actress
Sova Sen, and noted filmmaker Tarun Majumdar.
Other winner is Matinee idol Uttam Kumar
(posthumously).

National Updates:
Rajasthan: Highest Annual Plan Outlay of Rs
24,000 Cr
Annual Plan of Rs. 24000 Crore of Rajsthan has
been approved by the Planning commission for the
fiscal 2010-11. The top most priority has been
given to Energy sector and social and community
services. The plan also includes one time
additional Central Assistance sanctioned by the
Commission for construction of High Court
building in Jodhpur and development of Durgah
and Ana Sagar Lake area in Ajmer. The previous
year plan (2009-10) was Rs 17,322 crore and
growth comes out to be 38.55%.

Gujarat: General Motors to grow Jatropa

General Motors, jointly with US department of
Energy will develop 84 hectares of Land Near
Bhavnagar in Gujarat for Jatropa cultivation. For
this purpose the company had announced a 5 years
partnership with US Department of Energy. Out of
84 hectares, the company will develop 38 hectares
near GM India's plant in Halol.

Jatropa Bio fuel: Jatropha oil, produced from the

seeds of the Jatropha curcas is one of the best
candidates for future biodiesel production.

Kerala: Disaster Risk Reduction Programme 2009-

10
Disaster Risk Reduction Programme 2009-10 is a
Joint initiative of Government of India and United
Nations Development Programme. In this context
the Kerala state government constitutes a State-
level Project Stearing Committiee to implement
the programme in the state.

National Marine Fisheries Census

National Marine Fisheries Census 2010 will start
from April 16, 2010. The aim of this census is to
collect information about fisherfolk of the country.
It will be launched by Central Marine Fisheries
Reserch Institute (CMFRI), Kochi with financial
aid from Department of Animal Husbandary,
Dairying and Fisheries (DAHDF). The data of
10.98 lakh families, fishing boats, nets and
socioeconomic conditions will be collected during
the census. The compiled databsed will be used for
the over all development of the sector.
Fact Box: National Marine Fisheries Census -2005
There were 3.52 million fishermen in 7,56,212
houses across 3202 fisher villages in the country.
It also accounted 238,722 fishing boats, including
58,911 motorised and 75,591 motorised traditional
boats.

Dantewada Massacre:
Home Minister P chidambaram acepts moral
responsibilty and offers to resign from his post and
prime Minister rejects the offer.
Business Updates:
India's First 3D TV range - Samsung
Samsung releases the range of first 3D TVs in
India. Viewers can convert the regular 2D
programmes on their Samsung TVs to 3D viewing
for which they would need to wear 3D glasses.
Samsung 3D LED range is availaible in the screen
size between 40 to 65 inches and its cost ranges
from Rs 1,30,000 to Rs 4,35,000.

Bharti foundation: 25 senior secondary schools for

the underprivileged children
25 senior secondary schools for the
underprivileged children will be established over
next 3 years under PPP model by Bharti
foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti
Enterprises.

Reliance Industries: Investment of $ 1.7 Billion in

US
Reliance Industries signs an agreement with Atlas
Energy of US for a project in the United States for
extracting gas from shale, a sedimentary rock. The
project is located in Marcellus area spanning in
some parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and
New York. Reliance will acquire a 40 per cent
undivided interest in about 300,000 acres of
undeveloped leasehold held by Atlas.

World Economy:
Zinc Production:
Largest Producer of Zinc in 2009 was China
2,800,000 Metric Tonnes. 12 April 2010
The main use of Zinc (Zn) is for coating iron and
steel products in order to make them corrosion
resistant.The process known as galvanizing
represents approximately 40 % of end use of Zinc.
Other uses are in brass alloys, die casting alloys,
chemicals and rolled zinc products.
Zinc Ores:
Mostly Zinc ore is associated with copper, lead
and gold ores and is produced as a bye product.
Sphalerite (Zn,FeS) is the main ore . Others are
Smithsonite (ZnCO3), willemite (Zn2SiO4) and
hemimorphite (Zn4Si2O7(OH)2 H2O).
Zinc Reserves:
Zinc is 24th most abundant element in Earth's
Crust. The data from International Lead and Zinc
Study Group / US Geological Survey Commodity
Summary data for 2009, World Reserve Base of
Zinc was 480,000 thousand Metric Tonnes.
However, Identified zinc resources of the world
are about 1.9 billion metric tons. Australia had the
largest reserve bases. The following graphic shows
the world zinc reserve bases in 2009.
Zinc Production:
As per Mineral commodity Summary of United
States Geological Survey, Largest Producer of
Zinc in 2009 was China 2,800,000 Metric Tonnes.

World Updates:
China: Maglev Train
Authorities in Sichuan province of China take the
delivery of China's first indigenously built high-
speed Maglev (magnetic levitation) train. This
train has maximum speed of 500 kms per hour.
The Shanghai Maglev Transportation
Development Company had rum China's first
commercial Maglev train in 2002 in Shanghai
Fact Box: Magnetic Leviation: The system of
magnetic leviation suspends, guides and propels
the trains using large number of magnets for lift
and propulsion. The highest recorded speed of a
Maglev train is 581 kilometres per hour, achieved
in Japan in 2003. The first commercial Maglev ,
christened "people-mover" was officially opened
in 1984 in Birmingham, England, however it was
closed in 1995 due to reliability and design
problems.
16th ASEAN summit
16th ASEAN Summit of 10 member countries
(Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam) was hosted by Vietnam (ASEAN
President for 2010) at Hanoi ( capital and second-
largest city of Vietnam) on 8th and 9th April 2010.
Vietnam’s Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2010
coincides with the 15th anniversary of its
accession to the Association. The last time Viet
Nam hosted the Summit was in 1998.
Theme:
The theme of the summit was: Towards the
ASEAN Community: From Vision to Action . The
Summit was attended by the ASEAN Leaders,
while Thailand was represented by its Foreign
Minister.
ACWC
Prior to the summit, The ASEAN Commission on
the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of
Women and Children (ACWC) was inaugurated
on 7th April, 2010 by Prime Minister of Vietnam,
H.E. Nguyen Tan Dung. The establishment of the
ACWC is to promote and protect the human rights
and fundamental freedoms of women and children
in ASEAN. It will take into consideration the
different historical, political socio-cultural,
religious and economic context in the region and
the balances between rights and responsibilities.
Protocol on Dispute Settlement Mechanisms
On April 8, 2010, The Foreign Ministers of
ASEAN signed the Protocol to the ASEAN
Charter on Dispute Settlement Mechanisms.
TheProtocol aims to put in place a mechanism to
help ASEAN Member States resolve disputes
concerning the interpretation or application of the
ASEAN Charter. The Protocol also applies to
other ASEAN instruments which do not
specifically provide for dispute settlement
mechanisms. The signing of the Protocol, which
would facilitate the implementation of the ASEAN
Charter, follows that of the Agreement on the
Privileges and Immunities of ASEAN that was
signed by the Foreign Ministers in October 2009 in
Cha-Am Hua Hin, Thailand.
ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on Sustained
Recovery and Development
Leaders at ASEAN summit said in the statement
that they would focus efforts on ensuring financial
stability, fostering regional infrastructure
development and connectivity, promoting
sustainable development and narrowing the
development gap. In this context, they adopted the
ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on Sustained
Recovery and Development. The Leaders
highlighted the need to promote Green Growth,
including the development of green technology, its
application and investment.
On ASEAN connectivity:
The leaders took note of the on-going efforts in
developing a Master Plan on ASEAN
Connectivity. This Master Plan on ASEAN
Connectivity is to be submitted in October 2010,
17th Summit at Indonesia.
The first meeting of the High Level Task Force on
ASEAN Connectivity was held on 9-10 March
2010 in Ha Noi. It had produced the key elements
and principles for the Master Plan. The Leaders
emphasized that priority should be given to
enhancing intra-ASEAN connectivity, including
the need to complete the missing air, sea and land
transportation links in Mekong and other sub-
regions of ASEAN building on achievements of
existing frameworks. It was further reaffirmed that
priority would be given to transport, information
communication technology (ICT), energy and
cross border facilitation for the smooth movement
of people, goods and services.
On ASEAN Charter:
ASEAN Charter which aims of moving closer to
"an EU-style community" is the institutional
framework of the member-states which was
adopted at the 13th ASEAN Summit in at Jakarta,
Indonesia in November 2007. The leaders of the
ASEAN emphasized on the fast implementation of
the charter. The signing of the protocol related to
Dispute Settlement Mechanisms is also one step
towards implementation of ASEAN Charter.
Next ASEAN Summit:
Next ASEAN summit will be held in October 2010
in Indonesia. Indonesia has proposed a swap with
Brunei as it will play host APEC in 2013. The
2011 president of ASEAN is Indonesia.

Mount Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation

Initiative
Mount Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation
Initiative: Developing a Transboundary
Framework for Conservation and Sustainable
Development in the Greater Mt Kailash Region of
Nepal, India and China. This is the title of a major
transboundary project for conservation and
sustainable development of Mount Kailash ,
launched jointly by India, China and Nepal under
the guidence of International Centre for Integrated
Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

Current Affairs : April 10, 2010

Appointments:
Karnataka: New Chief Justice - JS Khehar
Justice JS Khehar is the new chief Justice of
Karnataka High Court. He was enrolled as an
advocate in 1979 and appointed Additional
Advocate General, Punjab in January 1992. He
was elevated to the High Court of Punjab in 1999
and appointed Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High
Court on November 29, 2009.
The present Chief Justice PD Dinakaran has been
transferred to Sikkim High Court.

Events, Happenings and Observances:

First Public Sector Day
April 10, 2010 marks the first "Public Sector Day"
organized by Standing Conference of Public
Enterprises (SCOPE) and the Department of
Public Enterprises (DPE) New Delhi.

Awards:
National Aeronautics Award - P S Subramanyam
P S Subramanyam is an eminent DRDO scientist
and Director, Aerospace Development Agency
(ADA), Bangalore (an organ of DRDO) has been
awarded National Aeronautics Award by the
Aeronautical Society of India for the year 2009 for
his outstanding contribution which led to
development leading to more production of the
Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), 'Tejas'.
FactBox: Tejas
Tejas, a Light Combat Aircraft developed by India
has a tailless, compound delta wing design
powered by a single engine. LCA-Tejas has
completed total 1334 test flights successfully till
now. The name Tejas was given to this Light
Combat Aircraft by former prime minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee. Tejas will be inducted into the
Indian Air Force by early 2011. Its design has been
prepared by Aeronautical Development Agency
and the Manufacturer is Hindustan Aeronautics
Limited. Tejas is the supersonic fighter being
manufactured indigenously by Hindustan
Aeronautics Limited. The project was launched in
1983, while took the first flight on 4 January 2001.

National Updates:
Jammu & Kashmir: Inter-District Recruitment Bill
Jammu & Kashmir assembly passes a
controversial Inter-District Recruitment Bill . This
bill curtails job opportunities for general
candidates across the state. As per this bill , the
educated youth are allowed to apply for
government jobs only in their home district,
scheduled caste candidates can apply for
government jobs in any of the 22 districts of the
state. .

On India Australia Education Council

India & Australia have agreed to constitute the
India-Australia Education Council. Council will
bring together government, academia, business
and industry of both the countries to further
bilateral collaboration in the education sector. In
this context Three MoUs in the field of education
were also signed in the presence of the two
Ministers: Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of
Human Resource Development, and Ms. Julia
Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
MoU between Association of Indian Universities
and Universities Australia.
MoU between Central Board of Secondary
Education and Australian Council of Education
Research and
MoU between The Energy Research Institute
(TERI) and Deakin University.

Business & Economy:

India's Forex Reserves:
India's Forex reserves are $279.096 billion for the
week ended April 2, 2010. The RBI releases
weekly report on Forex Reserves of the country.
This includes
$ 254.730 Billion Foreign Currency Assets
excluding US$ 250 million invested in foreign
currency denominated bonds issued by IIFC (UK)
$ 17.986 Billion Gold Reserves Including USD
6,699 million , reflecting the purchase of 200
metric tonnes of gold from IMF on November 3,
2009.
SDR worth $ 5.001 Billion including SDR 3,082.5
million (equivalent to US$ 4,883 million)
allocated under general allocation and SDR 214.6
(equivalent to US $ 340 million) allocated under
special allocation by IMF done on August 28,
2009 and September 9, 2009, respectively
$ 1.379 Reserve Position in IMF. Reserve Position
in the International Monetary Fund
(IMF),i.e.,Reserve Tranche Position (RTP) which
was shown as a memo item from May 23, 2003 to
March 26, 2004 has been included in the reserves
from the week ended April 2, 2004 in keeping with
the international best practice.
Latest Automobile Market growth Data:
As per the data released by industry body SIAM
(Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers;
Located: New Delhi, Director General- Mr. Dilip
Chenoy) the light vehicle market comprising
passenger cars, utility vehicles, multi-purpose
vehicles and light commercial vehicles have grown
27.5% in India in 2009-10. This growth rate is
second in the world only after China (42%) and
faster than Germany (23%), Brazil (11%), France
(11%), Italy (-0.2%), UK (-6%), Japan (-9%), US
(-21%) and Russia (-50%). The credit goes to
government's economic revival package along
with country’s low car penetration, stable
economic growth, new model launches and lower
interest rates.

International :
Poland: President & 131 others die in Russia Jet
Crash
Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife
along with 130 others died in a plane crash, when
their plane crashed while coming in for a landing
in western Russia

Iran: advanced centrifuge machines

In a sequel to announcements about the
development of the new machines, the Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveils a third
generation of domestically built centrifuges
accelerating country's uranium enrichment
programme signaling the world about its fearful
nuclear programme ambitions.

SCOPE Awards 2008-09 & 2007-08

April 10, 2010 marks the first "Public Sector Day"
organised by Standing Conference of Public
Enterprises (SCOPE) and the Department of
Public Enterprises (DPE) at New Delhi. On the
occasion of first Public Sector Day celebrations,
SCOPE awards were presented. Here are details of
award winners:
SCOPE Meritorious Awards in Specialized Fields
- CSR 2008-09: Mr S.K. Roongta, Chairman,
SAIL
SCOPE Meritorious Awards in Specialized Fields
- CSR 2007-08: Mr. R.S. Sharma, CMD, ONGC
SCOPE Meritorious Awards in Specialized Fields
- R & D 2008-09: Mr. R.S. Sharma, CMD, ONGC
SCOPE Meritorious Awards in Specialized Fields
- R & D 2007-08: Mr S.K. Roongta, Chairman,
SAIL
SCOPE Meritorious Awards - 2008-09:
Corporate Governance: Mr. K.R. Kamath, CMD,
PNB
HR Management: Mr R.S. Sharma, CMD, NTPC
Environmental Excellence: Mr Haribhai V Patel,
MD, GSFC
Best Managed Financial Institution: Mr P Uma
Shankar, CMD, REC
Best Managed PSE set up under Section 25 : Mr
A.A. Naqvi, MD, NBCFDC
SCOPE Meritorious Awards - 2007-08:
Corporate Governance: Mr B.C. Tripathi, CMD,
GAIL
CSR Activities: Mr Arup Roy Choudhury, CMD,
NBCC
HR Management: Mr Arun Balakrishnan, CMD,
HPCL
Environmental Excellence: Mr V.K. Singh, CMD,
NCL
Best Managed Bank, Financial Institution or
Insurance Company: Mr A.V. Muralidharan,
CMD, ECGC
Best Managed Financial Institution: Mr P Uma
Shankar, CMD, REC
R & D Activities: Mr A.K. Datt, CMD, BEL
Abbreviations of Companies:
SAIL - Steel Authority of India Ltd,
ONGC- Oil & Natural Gas Corporation
PNB - Punjab National Bank
NTPC: National Thermal Power Corporation
GFSC: Gujarat State Financial Corporation
REC: Rural Electrification Corporation Limited
NBCFDC: National Backward Classes Finance
and Development
GAIL: Gas authority of India Ltd
NBCC: National Buildings Construction
Corporation Ltd.
NCL: National Chemical Laboratory, Pune
HPCL: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited,
Mumbai
ECGC: Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of
India Limited

Current Affairs : April 11, 2010

Appointments:
Bar Council Chairman: Gopal Subramanium
Solicitor General of India Gopal Subaramanium
has been unanimously elected as the Chairman of
the Bar Council of India (BCI). Mr Dhanapal Raj,
will be Vice Chairman.

Awards:
Dara Shikoh Award - Sheila Dixit:
Dara Shikoh Award is presented by Indo-Iran
Society. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit has
been selected for the award for her substantial
contribution in nurturing the values of peace,
harmony and brotherhood.
National Updates:
5 Years of National Rural Health Mission
National Rural Health Mission was launched by
Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh on 12 th April,
2005 with objectives to provide effective health
care to the rural population, the disadvantaged
groups including women and children by
improving access, enabling community ownership,
strengthening public health systems for efficient
service delivery, Enhancing equity and
accountability Promoting decentralization.
Some of the objects set while launching this
programme were:
Universal Health care, well functioning health care
delivery system.
IMR to be reduced to 30/1000 live births by 2012
MMR to be reduced to 100/100,000 live births by
2012
TFR to be reduced to 2.1 by 2012
Malaria Mortality Reduction Rate – 60% upto
2012
Kala Azar to be eliminated by 2010, Filaria
reduced by 80 % by 2010
Dengue Mortality reduced by 50% by 2012
RNTCP-2 – maintain 85% cure rate
The maternal mortality rate (MMR) has come
down to 204 from 254 per lakh live births and
Infant mortality rate has come down from 66 to 53
. None of the above targets have been fully
achieved and healthcare in rural India are still in
dismay.
Dismal Situation of Healthcare:
Our country is still struggling with inadequate
health infrastructure & shortage of trained
personnel. In rural areas there is a large gap
between the health needs and outreach of health
services. India is short by 20,486 sub-centres,
4,477 primary health centres (PHCs) and 2,337
community health centres (CHCs) (Economic
Survey 2009-10).
Main Healthcare Challenges:
The rural India still lacks basic facilities like
proper hospital buildings, hygienic conditions in
the hospitals , availability of water and electricity.
Many healthcare centers are running without
trained personnel’s and high absenteeism among
the personnel is another bottleneck. The Primary
Healthcare Centers and Community Healthcare
Centers are devoid of any kind of in-patient
services, operation theatres, labor rooms,
pathology tests, X-Ray facilities and emergency
care. High absenteeism among personnel manning
Public Health Centers and Community Health
centers is also a major bottleneck. One third (34%)
of the healthcare centers were running in rented
buildings. However this fraction comes down to
29% in the latest economic survey. India is
struggling with "uneven across regions, gender as
well as space" in most health indicators.
Achievements:
The most visible achievement of this programme
is that more and more women are going to the
hospitals for delivery which has brought down the
MMR. Apart from this , India's total life
expectancy at birth has increased to 63.5 years
between 2002-06 from 59.4 years in 1989-93.

Jammu & Kashmir: Primitive Tribal Groups

Jammu & Kasmir's nomadic Muslim community
of Gujjars and Bakarwals demands for a Primitive
Tribal Groups status and demanded a a separate
8% reservation out of total 10 per cent quota
available to all 12 Scheduled Tribe (ST) groups in
the state. Tribal Gujjars of J&K were given ST
status in 1991, but they say that the status has
failed to uplift them socially and economically.

DRDO : Nirbhay
Nirbhay is the name of a sub-sonic multiple role
1,000-km range cruise missile with 300 Kgs
warhead capability being developed by DRDO -
Dr V K Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to Defense
Minister and Chief of Defense Research and
Development Organization (DRDO)

TCS: Saakshar Bharat through Computers

In connection with Saakshar Bharat programme ,
government chooses Tata Consultancy Services to
teach illiterates through click and portal. The
company comes up with a software which shall
teach adults through animation, graphics and by
downloading teaching materials from a dedicated
site. The online version will be in several regional
languages.
Fact Box: India rolled out the flagship adult
education programme named Saakshar Bharat in
2009. The focus of this scheme is female literacy
and it aims to make 7 crore people including 85%
women. By April 2010 the scheme is being
implemented in 167 districts of 19 states of the
country.

Decoding Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome has been
decoded by Indian Scientists of CSIR along with
100 science students from several universities.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is causing agent of
Tuberculosis which kills 330000 Indians every
year. This achievement paves the way to develop a
new low cost Drug.

Maharastra: proposed CISF kind of Force

After the Mumbai attacks of 2008, the state
government was suggested by the Central
government to consider raising the state's own
industrial security force to share the burden of the
Central Industrial Security Force and ensure
proper security arrangements for private and
public sector industries. In this context the centre
has amended the CISF Act 1968, so as to make
security services to available to private and joint
venture industrial undertakings. In this context, a
bill was passed in the state assembly. The state
government now says that it is coming up soon
with such a force. The state government is initially
planning to recruit about 5,000 personnel for the
job under the Maharashtra State Special Security
Corporation.

Dantewada Tragedy: E N Rammohan Committee

E N Rammohan Committee has been appointed to
probe the recent Naxalite attack in Chhattisgarh
which killed 76 police personnel. E N Rammohan
is former chief of Border Security Forces. The
committee has started the work and E N
Rammohan meets Director General of CRPF
Vikram Srivastava.

Orissa: E-dispatch
E-dispatch is an Internet-based letter-dispatch
system, started by Orissa’s Panchayati raj
department in 2007 and now been adopted by 17
of the 35 State departments. This system has won
the Nasscom award for social innovation in
February 2010.
Every letter sent by the department from its head
office in Bhubaneswar to all the block offices and
the gram panchayats is scanned, saved in PDF
format and sent through the server to a dedicated
mailbox called e-space that’s assigned to every
official in the department.
The system generates an auto letter number and
assigns the address and mode of dispatch for each
letter. A computer operator in the department
sends every letter to the respective e-space. The
moment a letter lands in the mailboxes of the
respective BDO or Collector, they get an SMS.
The same letters are also sent by fax and post to
the collectors and BDOs.
The system is brainchild of Rabindra Nath Dash,
commissioner-cum-secretary in Orissa’s
Panchayati Raj Department.

Uttar Pradesh: Withdrawal from Umbrella State

Support Agreement (Umbrella SSA)
Umbrella State Support Agreement (Umbrella
SSA) has to be signed an state to enable the
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to
utilize the services of the state during highway
development in any part a state. The Uttar Pradesh
Government withdraws from this Umbrella SSA.

Tamil Nadu: Naam Tamilar

Naam Tamilar is the name of a new political party
floated by Sebastian Seeman, a Tamil Film
Director and ardent supporter of LTTE. The party's
flag which has been unveiled on 11th April closely
resembles that of LTTE's insignia — barring the
twin rifles in the background.

On Nuclear Security Summit

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh reaches
Washington to participate in the two-day Nuclear
Security Summit. The summit aims to enhance
international co-operation to prevent nuclear
terrorism which US President Barack Obama has
identified as the most immediate and extreme
threat to global security. 42 nations and heads of
the European Union and the International Atomic
Energy Agency have been invited to participate in
this Summit representing diverse set of regions
and various levels of nuclear materials, and energy
expertise.
US Navy Chief Arrives in India
Chief of Naval Operations of the United States
Admiral G Roughead arrives India for a 6 days
visit ahead of "Malabar Series" of Exercise
between India and US Navies in April end. This is
a six day visit aimed to enhance the navy-to-navy
interaction.

Iran's First indigenously built anti-aircraft missile -

Mersad
Mersad is the name of Iran's first indigenously
built anti-aircraft missile, which as per reports is
more powerful than the US-made Hawk missile. It
can destroy modern aircraft at low and medium
altitude. It is ready for use.

Current Affairs : April 12, 2010

Events / Happenings & Observances:
Hyderabad: International Congress of Mathematics
International Congress of Mathematics will be
held in Hyderabad in August 2010. This will be for
the first time that this Congress will be hosted in
India. The Fields Medal will also be announced in
the congress. Fields Medal is considered as
equivalent to the Nobel Prize in Mathematics.

TechED 2010
TechED 2010 is a much awaited technology
conclave in India for developers, IT professionals
and technology and business decision makers and
would bring together over 50,000 of the best
technical minds from nearly 100 towns and cities
in the country. Its launched in Bangalore and
Microsoft launches Visual Studio 2010 & .NET
Framework 4 in this event.
Appointments:
MasterCard CEO - Ajay Banga
MasterCard announces on April 12, 2010 that Ajay
Banga, currently MasterCard’s president and chief
operating officer, has been named by the Board of
Directors to serve as the company’s president and
chief executive officer, effective July 1, 2010. The
company also announced that Banga would
become a member of MasterCard’s Board of
Directors, effective immediately. Banga will
succeed Robert W. Selander, who has been
MasterCard's chief executive officer since March
1997.

Awards & Honors:

Pulitzer Prize 2010
The Pulitzer Prize is a United States Award for
newspaper journalism, literature and musical
composition. These awards are administered by
Columbia University, USA. The awards were
established by Hungarian-American publisher
Joseph Pulitzer.This award is given in 21 categoies
with award money f $ 10000 each. The Gold
medal always goes to a Newspaper.
The 2010 Pulitzer prizes were awarded on April
12, 2010. The Washington Post has won four
awards while The New York Times has won 3. For
the first time this award has been given to
ProPublica, an online source.
Following are the winners of the Pulitzer prizes
2010:
Journalism
Public Service - Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier
Breaking News Reporting - The Seattle Times
Staff
Investigative Reporting - Barbara Laker and
Wendy Ruderman of the Philadelphia Daily News
and Sheri Fink of ProPublica, in collaboration with
The New York Times Magazine
Explanatory Reporting - Michael Moss and
members of The New York Times Staff
Local Reporting - Raquel Rutledge of the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
National Reporting - Matt Richtel and members of
The New York Times Staff
International Reporting - Anthony Shadid of The
Washington Post
Feature Writing - Gene Weingarten of The
Washington Post
Commentary - Kathleen Parker of The Washington
Post
Criticism - Sarah Kaufman of The Washington
Post
Editorial Writing - Tod Robberson, Colleen
McCain Nelson and William McKenzie of The
Dallas Morning News
Editorial Cartooning - Mark Fiore, self syndicated,
appearing on SFGate.com
Breaking News Photography - Mary Chind of The
Des Moines Register
Feature Photography - Craig F. Walker of The
Denver Post
Letters, Drama and Music
Fiction - Tinkers by Paul Harding (Bellevue
Literary Press)
Drama - Next to Normal, music by Tom Kitt, book
and lyrics by Brian Yorkey
History - Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who
Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed (The
Penguin Press)
Biography - The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of
Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles (Alfred A.
Knopf)
Poetry - Versed by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan
University Press)
General Nonfiction - The Dead Hand: The Untold
Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its
Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman
(Doubleday)
Music - Violin Concerto by Jennifer Higdon
(Lawdon Press)
Special Citations
Hank Williams - press release on the Special
Citation awarded to Hank Williams

Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010

Established in 1987, the Commonwealth Writers’
Prize are organized and funded by the
Commonwealth Foundation, an intergovernmental
organization working in the 53 countries of the
Commonwealth of Nations & Macquarie Group
Foundation. The main objective of these prizes is
to encourage new Commonwealth fiction.
Commonwealth Writers’ Prize is chaired by
Justice Nicholas Hasluck, a distinguished author
and leading judicial officer of Australia. This is for
the first time that the award ceremony is hosted by
India.
Here are the winners of 2010 Commonwealth
Writers' Prize
Overall Winners:
Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book: Rana
Dasgupta (India/UK) for his work "Solo"
Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book:
Glenda Guest of Australia for "Siddon Rock"
Regional Winnes:
-Africa: Best Book - Marié Heese (South Africa)
for "The Double Crown"
-Africa: Best First Book - Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
(Nigeria) for "I Do Not Come to You By Chance"
-Caribbean and Canada: Best Book: Michael
Crummey (Canada) for "Galore"
-Caribbean and Canada: Best First Book:Shandi
Mitchell (Canada) for "Under This Unbroken Sky"
-South Asia and Europe: Best Book: Rana
Dasgupta (India/UK) for "Solo"
-South Asia and Europe: Best First Book:Daniyal
Mueenuddin (Pakistan) for "In Other Rooms,
Other Wonders"
-South East Asia and Pacific: Best Book: Albert
Wendt (Samoa) for "The Adventures of Vela"
-South East Asia and Pacific: Best First Book:
Glenda Guest (Australia) for "Siddon Rock"

NRHM Awards 2010

Vice President M. Hamid Ansari presented
“National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) awards"
to the States for their success in implementation of
the Mission at a function to commemorate the
‘Five Years of NRHM’ organized by the Ministry
of Health & Family Welfare. The Winner states
are :
Best performing State Award in North East : First :
Assam , Second : Mizoram
Best performing State Award among High Focus
States: First : Rajasthan , Second : Madhya
Pradesh
Best performing award among other states: First :
Tamil Nadu , Second: Haryana
National Updates:
National Integration Council (NIC) is reconstituted
National Integration Council (NIC) has been
reconstituted. To be chaired by the Prime Minister
of India, it has 147 members including Union
Ministers, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and
Rajya Sabha, Chief Ministers of all States &
Union Territories with Legislatures, leaders of
national political parties & regional political
parties, Chairperson of National Commissions,
eminent media persons, public figures,
representatives of business and women’s
representatives.
The list of members is as under:

PRIME MINISTER CHAIRMAN

I UNION MINISTERS
1. Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Union
Finance Minister Member
2. Shri Sharad Pawar, Union Minister
of Agriculture
and Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food &
Public Distribution
3. Shri A.K. Antony, Union Defence Minister
4. Shri P. Chidambaram, Union Home Minister
5. Kumari Mamata Banerjee, Union
Minister of Railways
6. Shri M. Veerappa Moily, Union Minister of
Law & Justice
7. Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Human
Resource Development
8. Smt. Ambika Soni, Union
Minister of Information & Broadcasting
9. Shri Dayanidhi Maran, Union
Minister of Textiles
10. Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Union
Minister of New and Renewable Energy
11. Shri Mukul Wasnik, Union
Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment
12. Shri Kantilal Bhuria, Union
Minister of Tribal Affairs
13. Shri Salman
Khursheed, Minister of State for Corporate Aff
airs and Ministry of Minority Affairs
14. Smt. Krishna Tirath,
Minister of State for Women
and Child Development
II LEADERS OF OPPOSITION IN LOK
SABHA & RAJYA SABHA
15. Smt. Sushma Swaraj Leader of Opposition
in Lok Sabha
16. Shri Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in
Rajya Sabha
III CHIEF MINISTERS OF ALL STATES AN
D UNION TERRITORIES WITH
LEGISLATURES
 17. Chief Ministers of all the
States and Union
Territories which have Legislatures (30
includes Chief Ministers of NCT of Delhi
and UT of Puducherry
IV LEADERS OF NATIONAL POLITICAL
PARTIES
1. Smt, Sonia Gandhi, President, Indian
National Congress
Member
2. Shri Nitin Gadkari, President, Bhartiya Janata
Party
3. Shri Prakash Karat, General Secretary,
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
4. Shri A.B. Bardhan, General Secretary,
Communist Party of India
5. Kumari Mayawati,
President, Bahujan Samaj Party
6. Shri Sharad Pawar, President,
Nationalist Congress Party
V LEADERS OF REGIONAL POLITICAL
PARTIES
1. Shri M. Karunanidhi,
President, Dravida Munnetra Kzhagam
Member
2. Dr. Farooq Abdullah, President, Jammu
and Kashmir National Conference
3. Shri Ajit Singh, President, Rashtriya Lok Dal
4. Shri Sukbir Singh Badal, President, Shiromani
Akali Dal
5. Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, President, Telugu
Desam Party
6. Shri E. Ahamed, President, Indian Union
Muslim League
7. Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, President,
Samajwadi Party
8. Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav,
President, Rashtriya Janata Dal
9. Shri H.D. Deve Gowda, President, Janata Dal
(S)
10. Shri Sharad Yadav, President, Janata Dal (U)
11. Shri Navin Patnaik, President, Biju
Janata Dal
12. Shri Chandra Mohan Patowary, President,
Asom Gana Parishad
13. Ms. Mehbooba Mufti, President,
People’s Democratic Party
14. Shri Shibu Soren, President, Jharkhand
Mukti Morcha
VI NATIONAL COMMISSIONS
1. Chairperson, National Commission
for Minorities Member
2. Chairperson, National Commission for
Scheduled Castes
3. Chairperson, National Commission for
Scheduled Tribes
4. Chairperson, National Commission for Women
5. Chairperson, National Human
Rights Commission,
6. Chairperson, National Commission
for Protection of Child Rights
VII MEDIA PERSONS
1. Shri N. Ravi, Editor, The Hindu Member
2. Shri Shashi Shekhar, Editor-in-Chief,
Hindustan
3. Shri Mammen Mathew, Editor, Malayala
Manorama
4. Shri Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief,
The Indian Express
5. Shri M.K. Razdan, Editor-in-Chief
and CEO, Press Trust of India Ltd
6. Ms. Shobhana Bhartia, Chairperson,
Hindustan Times
7. Shri Arun Kumar Bhandari, General Manager
& Chief Editor, United News of India
8. Shri Shravan Garg, Group Editor, Dainik
Bhaskar

9. Shri T.N. Ninan,

Editor, Business Standard Ltd
 10. Shri V. Raja, Chief Editor, Sun TV
Network Ltd.
11. Shri Kumar Ketkar, Editor, Lok Satta
12. Shri Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, CNN-
IBN
13. Ms. Barkha Dutt, Group Editor, NDTV
14. Shri Palagummi Sainath,
Rural Affairs Editor and Bureau Chief,
The Hindu
15. Shri Dileep Padgaonkar, Consulting Editor,
Times of India
16. Shri K.N. Tilak Kumar, Editor, Deccan Herald
17. Shri Zahid Ali Khan, Editor,
The Siasat Daily
18. Shri Shahid Latif, Editor, Inquilab
19. Shri Alok Mehta, Editor-in-Chief, Nai Duniya
20. Shri Pankaj Pachauri, Managing Editor,
NDTV
VIII REPRESENTATIVES OF BUSINESS
1. Shri Harsh Pati Singhania, President,
FICCI, Member
2. Shri Venu Srinivasan, President, Confederation
of Indian Industries (CII)
3. Dr. Ms. Swati Piramal, President, ASSOCHAM
4. Shri Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM
5. Shri Ratan N. Tata, Chairman, Tata
Sons Limited
6. Shri Venu Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS
Motor Company Limited
7. Shri Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Ltd
8. Shri Ajay Chowdhry, Chairman, HCL
9. Shri Y.C. Deveshwar, Chairman, ITC Limited
10. Dr. Ramdas M. Pai, President & Chancellor,
Manipal University
11. Mrs. R. Sandra Shroff, Vice-Chairman,
United Phosphorous India Limited
12. Shri A.M. Naik, Chairman &
Managing Director, Larsen & Toubro Limited
13. Shri Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique
Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
14. Shri Vikram Kirloskar, Chairman &
Managing Director, Kirloskar Systems Ltd
15. Shri Jamshyd N. Godrej, CMD, Godrej &
Boyce Manufacturing Company Ltd
IX EMINENT PUBLIC FIGURES
1. Shri H.D. Deve Gowda, Member
2. Shri I.K. Gujral
3. Shri L.K. Advani
4. Shri Somnath Chatterjee
5. Dr. Karan Singh
6. Shri Mrinal Sen
7. Shri Rishang Keishing
8. Dr. Amrik Singh
9. Prof. M.S. Swaminathan
10. Shri Bekal Utsahi
11. Shri Gulzar
12. Shri Vikram Seth
13. Shri Sitakanta Mohapatra
14. Professor Zoya Hasan
15. Rev. Prof. Valsan Thampu
16. Archbishop Vincent M.C. Concessao
17. Shri Sitaram Yechury
18. Shri Asghar Ali Engineer
19. Swami Agnivesh
20. Ms. Amarjeet Kaur
21. Shri Fali S. Nariman
22. Shri Madari Moideen
23. Shri C.K. Jaffar Sharief
24. Dr. John Dayal
25. Shri Asauddin Owaisi
26. Ms. Shabana Azmi
27. Shri Navaid Hamid
28. Dr. S.N. Subba Rao
29. Ms. Shabnam Hashmi
30. Shri Amar Singh
31. Shri Syed Shahabuddin
32. Ms. Mrinal Pande
33. Shri Rajnath Singh
X WOMEN’S REPRESENTATIVES
1. Smt. Ela R. Bhatt, Self Employed Women’s
Association (SEWA) Member
2. Dr. V. Mohini Giri, Guild for Service
3. Ms. Noor Bano
4. Dr. Amrit Srinivasan, Professor, Department
of Humanities & Social Sciences
5. Ms. Annie Raja, National Federation
of Indian Women
6. Ms. Gomathi Nair, President, All
India Women’s Conference
7. Ms. Neerja Chowdhary, President, Indian
Women Press Corps

North East : Biometric Ration Cards

The centre takes a decision to introduce the
biometric ration cards in North East to check the
pilferage of the highly-subsidized rice meant for
poor people living under Below Poverty Line.

Kerala : Annual Plan:

Annual Plan for Kerala for year 2010-2011 has
been finalized today at Rs 10,025 crore in a
meeting between Planning Commission Deputy
Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Kerala
Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan.
New Delhi: Delhi Urban Mass Transit Authority
(DUMTA),
On April 12, 2010 the Delhi cabinet approves a
bill for setting up Delhi Urban Mass Transit
Authority (DUMTA). The bill provide for setting
up of DUMTA for comprehensive planning,
development and regulation of integrated multi-
modal public transport for sustainable public
transport. The objective to set up this authority is
to create an integrated authority to handle
constructing and managing road network, traffic
police and transport department as the former two
do not come under Delhi government.

Abroad:
Cayman Trough : World's deepest undersea
volcanic vents
The Cayman Trough also known as Bartlett Deep
is located in Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and
the Cayman Islands. It is the deepest point in the
Caribbean Sea and forms part of the tectonic
boundary between the North American Plate and
the Caribbean Plate. A UK team from the National
Oceanography Centre in Southampton (NOCS),
equipped with an autonomously controlled, robot
submarine, began mapping the full extent of the
trench and discovered black smokers on the ocean
floor at a depth of 3.1 miles (5 kilometers), the
deepest yet found. These are world's deepest
undersea volcanic vents.

Greece Debt Crisis: 30 Billion Euro Package

To stamp out Greece's fiscal crisis and restore
confidence in the euro, the European governments
put together a loan package worth 30 Billion Euro
for debt-burdened Greece. The finance ministers
of 16 countries decided to offer the loans at three-
year interest rates of around 5 per cent in case
Greece needs the money. This is the first time that
Euro is facing such a grim test since it was
introduced in 1999. The step to bail out Greece is
indirectly related to currency’s viability as well.

Sports:
India Wins Kabaddi World Cup:
India is the winner of Pearls World Cup Kabaddi
Punjab 2010. Indian team led by Mangat Singh
Mangi Bagga , defeated Pakistan in the final.
Indian Team received Rs. 1 Crore.

Current Affairs : April 13, 2010

Appointments:
SSB Jharkhand Chairman: A K Chug
A K Chug, IAS and member of Revenue Council
has bee appointed as next chairman of Staff
Selection Board of Jharkhand.

Chief Justice of Jammu & Kashmir High Court:

Justice Aftab Hussain Saikia
Justice Aftab Hussain Saikia was administered the
oath of office by Jammu & Kashmir Governor N
N Vohra as Chief Justice of Jammu & Kashmir
High Court, Jammu.
Awards:
Ambedkar awards 2009
Mauritius Bhojpuri Institute founder director
Sarita Boodhoo has been selected for the Dr
Ambedkar International Award 2009 conferred by
Bharatiya Dalit Sahitya Akademi (BDSA). The
award will be conferred during the 26th National
Conference of Dalit Writers of BDSA in the city
on December 12.

National Updates:
Asian Development Bank (ADB) Latest
projections about India's Growth
'Asian Development Outlook 2010' which is
ADB's annual flagship publication has pegged
India's growth rate 8.2 per cent in 2010 and 8.7 per
cent in 2011. The annual inflation projects are 5%
in 2010 and 5.5% in 2011.
Developing Asia was set to grow 7.5 per cent in
2010 and 7.3 per cent in 2011, picking up from 5.2
per cent in 2009, the ADB said in its Asian
Development Outlook 2010.
What is Developing Asia?: Developing Asia refers
to 44 developing member countries of the Asian
Development Bank and Brunei Darussalam, an
unclassified regional member; East Asia comprises
People’s Republic of China; Hong Kong, China;
Republic of Korea; Mongolia; and Taipei,China;
Southeast Asia comprises Brunei Darussalam,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic
Republic, Malaysia,Myanmar, Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam; South Asia
comprises Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,
Bangladesh,Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan, and Sri Lanka; Central Asia comprises
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan; and The Pacific comprises Cook
Islands, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Republic of the
Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia,
Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Palau,
Samoa, Solomon Islands,Democratic Republic of
Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
On Green India Mission
Green India Mission is one of the eight missions
announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in
2008 under the National Action Plan on Climate
Change (NAPCC). It aims to expand forest cover
from 23 percent to 33 percent in the country and
afforestation of 6 million hectares of degraded
forest land. The Minister of Environment says that
draft document will be ready by April End and
implementation blue print will be ready by August
2010.

Quick Facts: 8 Missions of Prime Minister's

Action Plan on Climate Change:
National Solar Mission
National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency
National Mission on Sustainable Habitat
National Water Mission
National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan
Ecosystem
National Mission for a "Green India"
National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for
Climate Change

Business & Economy:

State Bank of India: Assam Rifles salary package
Similar to the earlier launched packages for Indian
Army and Indian Navy, the State bank of India
launches Assam Rifles salary package for
personnel of Assam Rifles. This package includes
free drafts, free cheque book, free fund transfers to
any of the SBI Group's about 15,000 branches and
free ATM cards.

abilitymatrimony.com
This is the url of new matrimonial website
launched by Bharat Matrimony for differently-
abled people. The portal has been launched by
Bharat Matrimony Founder and CEO Murugavel
Janakiraman.

ICAI-CBEC MoU:
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)
& Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC)
sign a MoU under which the ICAI praticing
members will provide e-filing returns at a charge
of maximum Rs 800.The aim is to reduce
paperwork, transaction costs and increase
accountability, efficiency and transparency. As per
the MoU, a practicing CA or a firm with a
minimum experience of one year could apply for
e-filing of service tax returns. CBEC will provide
a user name and a password to activate the facility.

India's Disclosure pacts with 9 Tax Heavens:

A new agreement has been signed by Indian
Government and 9 tax heavens. Now, India can
initiate and negotiate agreements for exchange of
information for the prevention of evasion or
avoidance of income tax and assistance in
collection of income tax with these nine specified
territories which include Guernsey, Isle of Man,
Jersey (all British Crown Dependencies), the
Netherlands Antilles (an autonomous part of the
Dutch kingdom) and Macau (a special
administrative region of the People’s Republic of
China).
The government has ordered re-negotiation of total
77 double-tax avoidance pacts entered into so far
to get real time information and track tax evasions
or stashing away of black money in other
countries.

BSE - NYSE Technologies Agreement

NYSE Technologies is the commercial technology
division of NYSE Euronext. NYSE Euronext is a
Euro-American corporation that operates multiple
securities exchanges, most notably Euronext, New
York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and NYSE Arca.
NYSE Technologies was launched in January
2009, incorporating all the internal technology
divisions of NYSE Euronext.
The Bombay Stock Exchange enters into an
agreement with the exchange solutions provider
NYSE Tech to offer high speed and low latency
trading facility.

Abroad:
China 's Second Lunar Probe
Chang'e-2 is China's second lunar orbiter , an un-
manned lunar probe scheduled for launch in
October 2010. The The probe will conduct
research at a 100-kilometer-high moon orbit as a
preparation for a soft landing by Chang'e 3.

EV-neo
EV-neo is all-electric scooter launched in Japan by
Honda Motor Company that will mark its first
attempt at mass-marketing zero-emission
motorbikes.

Ads by Twitter:
Twitter decides to sell advertising on its site for
the first time. Advertisers will be able to buy
"Promoted Tweets" that will appear on Twitter's
search results pages. Earlier Twitter had sold
Tweet Search results to Google.

Current Affairs April 14, 2010

Awards & Honors:
Wisden Cricketer of the Year - Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag has been named 'Wisden
Cricketer of the Year' for the second successive
time for scoring ''more quickly than any specialist
batsman in Tests or one-day internationals.''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is also known as

"the Bible of Cricket". It is a cricket reference
book published annually in the United Kingdom. It
is considered the world's most famous sports
reference book.

Events / Happenings:
Know Your Army
Know Your Army is a two day exhibition
organized by Army's EME center Secunderabad. It
has been launched by Union Minister of State for
Defense M M Pallam Raju.

National Updates:
Wild Life: Anti Poaching System
A software monitoring system to improve the
effectiveness of all surveillance and anti-poaching
interventions in the Project Tiger Reserve areas
has been launched by the Environment Minister
Jairam Ramesh. This system has been developed
by the Wildlife Institute of India in collaboration
with the Zoological Society of London and the
National Tiger Conservation Authority. This
system will ensure that the surveillance activities
that are done by field director and his colleagues is
based on ground level information. As a pilot
initiative, it is proposed to implement the system
within two months at six tiger reserves. They are
Corbett; Uttaranchal, Ranthambhor; Rajasthan,
Kanha; Madhya Pradesh, Bhadra; Karnataka,
Annamalai; Tamil Nadu and Nagarjunasagar
Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh.

India's First 3D Digital Animation Film:

India's first 3-D digital animation film, 'Bal
Hanuman-2', will be released on May 14 in
selected theaters, which are equipped with special
projectors.

Madhya Pradesh: India's First Buddhist

University:
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh
Chauhan announces establishment of India's first
'Bauddh Vishwavidyalaya' (Buddhist University)
at Sanchi.

Haryana: Energy Conservation Fund

To promote awareness, capacity building, research
and development, creation of testing and
certification procedures and demonstration
projects on energy conservation , The Haryana
Government decides to create a State Energy
Conservation Fund which is also called Green
Energy Initiative. The State Energy Conservation
Fund was constituted under Section 16 of the
Energy Conservation Act, 2001.

Gujarat: Top state in Marine Fish output:

As per NABARD, Gujarat has topped the list of
states in marine fish production and exported 1.88
lakh tonnes of marine products worth Rs.1,265
crore in fiscal 2008-09. The Pipavav Port has
emerged as a leader for export of marine products
from India with a share of 27.18 percent in
quantity and 16.36 per cent in value.

Index watch: Confidence in Leadership Index

As per the Confidence in Leadership Index survey
done by the Los Angeles-based Korn/Ferry
International, executives in India have the highest
faith in their CEOs and general corporate
leadership among the 13 major nations. India is
followed by China, Brazil and Russia.

Business & Economy:

On SAIL FPO:
SAIL FPO is estimated Rs 16,000 crore share sale
of the steel PSU. In This context a statements has
come (in Indian Express) of Steel Secretary Atul
Chaturvedi about creation of a committee
comprising officials from Steel Ministry,
Department of Disinvestment under the Ministry
of Finance and SAIL.
Please note that this is a two phase 20% share sale
programme which was approved recently by the
cabinet and estimated proceeds are Rs. 16000
Crore. However the final proceeds would depend
upon the issue price of FPO. This will be decided
by EGoM (Empowered Group of Ministers).
Currently Government of India owes 85% in the
company.
The SAIL has a Rs. 70,000 crores expansion plan,
which ramps up its capacity from present 14
million tonnes to 23 Million Tonnes.
Sports:
ICC Global Partner: Hero Honda:
International Cricket Council (ICC) and Hero
Honda Motors Ltd announce a three-year
partnership. ICC has now become global partner
with a major presence at all ICC events. This
agreement entitles Hero Honda to exercise certain
promotional, advertising, marketing and other
commercial rights on a world-wide basis in
connection with the events.

All Sports Magazine : Top 10 Indian sporting

achievements of all time
Following are the Top 10 Indian sporting
achievements of all time as listed by "All Sports
Magazine"
Abhinav Bindra's individual gold medal in
shooting at the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- he's the
only Indian to earn this distinction in a century of
Endeavour.
Kapil's Devils' coup in the 1983 World Cup is
India's most sensational team triumph even though
it was replicated by M S Dhoni's 'Men in Blue' 24
years later, albeit in a more truncated version of
cricket.
The Dhyan Chand-orchestrated golden symphony
in the 1936 Berlin Olympics before a global
audience and an impressed Fuhrer made
supremacy and artistry in field hockey
synonymous with the jugglers from the sub-
continent.
Viswanathan Anand set the final seal on his
greatness when he won the 2007 (tournament) and
2008 (match play) FIDE world chess
championships to confirm his 2000 world triumph
in the knock out format which unleashed a chess
revolution in India in its wake.
Wilson Jones was right on cue in the 1958 World
Amateur Billiards Championship in Kolkata,
making him the first Indian world champion in any
discipline. His success paved the way for a
procession of world beaters in the three-ball game.
Prakash Padukone's upset win over Liem Swie
King in the final of the All England Badminton
Championship in 1980 took him to No 1 in the
world.
Leander Paes' bronze in the 1996 Atlanta
Olympics tennis singles while battling a wrist
injury and also a top-quality field to clinch the
second individual medal for India since 1952 was
another big high for the tricolor.
He may have missed a podium finish by the
proverbial whisker, but Milkha Singh's gallant run
in the 400 m final at the 1960 Rome Olympics is
still embedded in the nation’s collective memory.
Mohun Bagan's sensational 2-1 victory over East
Yorkshire Regiment in the 1911 IFA Shield final
was the seminal moment in Indian football whose
ripples echoed beyond the Kolkata maidan and
sparked off nationalist reverberations across the
entire nation.
Ajit Wadekar's twin series triumphs in the West
Indies and England in 1971 showed that Indian
cricket had made giant strides. (courtesy : All
Sports Magazine)

Abroad:
Saudi Arabia: Fatwa against terrorism
Highest Religious authority of Saudi Arabia has
issued a fatwa (edict) denouncing all acts of
terrorism and criminalizing its financing. Council
of Supreme Scholars declared "any act of
terrorism, including providing financial support to
terrorists, a crime," regardless of where it takes
place (Asharq al-Awsat - English News paper)

Current Affairs : April 15, 2010

Events, Happenings & Observances:
4th IBSA Summit:
The 4th IBSA summit took place in Brasilia,
Brazil on April 15, 2010.
What is IBSA?
IBSA is a trilateral, developmental initiative
between India, Brazil and South Africa to promote
South-South cooperation and exchange.
Origin: Brasilia Declaration
The birth of IBSA officially known as IBSA
Dialogue Forum was a sequel of Brasilia
Declaration, adopted by Ministers Nkosazana
Dlamini Zuma from South Africa, Celso Amorim
from Brazil and Yashwant Sinha from India in
2003. The three leaders had met on June 6, 2003,
following ongoing consultations and after the
respective Heads of State and/or Government of
their countries held conversations during the G-8
meeting, in Evian.
Objectives:
The main objectives of the IBSA Dialogue Forum
are as follows:
To promote South-South dialogue, cooperation
and common positions on issues of international
importance
To promote trade and investment opportunities
between the three regions of which they are part
To promote international poverty alleviation and
social development
To promote the trilateral exchange of information,
international best practices, technologies and
skills, as well as to compliment each others
competitive strengths into collective synergies
To promote cooperation in a broad range of areas,
namely agriculture, climate change, culture,
defence, education, energy, health, information
society, science and technology, social
development, trade and investment, tourism and
transport.
New Delhi Agenda for Cooperation
First Meeting of the Trilateral Commission of the
IBSA Dialogue Forum was held in New Delhi on
4th and 5th March 2004. It is known as New Delhi
Agenda for Cooperation.
Cape Town Ministerrial Communique
Second Meeting of the Trilateral Commission of
the IBSA Dialogue Forum was held at Cape Town
from 10-11 March 2005. This was Cape Town
Ministerial Communique.
Rio de Janeiro ministerial communique
Third Meeting of the Trilateral Commission of the
IBSA Dialogue Forum was held in Rio de Janeiro
on 30 March 2006. This was Rio de Janeiro
ministerial communique .
Summits:
1st IBSA summit was held in September, 2006 at
Brasilia, Brazil.
2nd IBSA summit was held in October, 2007 at
Pretoria, South Africa
3rd IBSA summit was held in October, 2008 at
New Delhi, India
4th IBSA summit was held on April 15, 2010 at
Brasília, Brazil.
Trade:
Trade between IBSA members amounts to be
around US$11.9 billion in 2009
Discussions :
Discussions were held on various global issues viz.
Iran and nuclear weapons, the Middle East
conflict, the furtherance of IBSA, reconstruction of
Haiti through the IBSA Fund for Alleviation of
Poverty and Hunger, and cooperation in science
and technology.
Leaders highlighted that the three countries’
commitment to democratic values, inclusive social
development and multilateralism constitutes the
basis for their growing cooperation and close
coordination on global issues
IBSA Satellite:
India, Brazil and South Africa will explore the
feasibility of launching an IBSA satellite. IBSA
satellite was on the agenda of the Grouping of
these countries. The data to be supplied by this
satellite will be very useful for all the three
countries as they are fastest developing and
emerging economies.
The IBSA Facility Fund:
The leaders of the IBSA reiterated the continued
commitment of India, Brazil and South Africa to
each contribute with at least US$ 1 million per
year to the Fund. The people and authorities of
Haiti, Palestine, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde,
Burundi and Cambodia are benefiting from
projects being undertaken under the IBSA Facility
Fund.
Remarks of Indian Prime Minister:
India's Prime Minister called for an early
finalisation of the Comprehensive Convention on
International Terrorism in the United Nations. Our
Prime Minister said that terrorism continues to
pose serious threat to our developmental goals and
the scourge needs to be fought through collective
international efforts. Global governanance have
not kept pace with the changing times and there is
an urgent need to reform the United Nations
including the Security Council by making it more
representative and democratic. On Economic
Issues the PM said that past mistakes should not be
repeated as the recovery is still fragile and uneven.
Global recovery must be anchored in the real
economy in order to make it sustainable.
Next IBSA Summit:
South Africa will host the VIII Trilateral
Commission and the V IBSA Summit of Heads of
State/Government towards the end of 2011.

Uttarakhand: Century's First Mahakumbha

At Haridwar, century’s first Mahakumbha comes
to an end after last Shahi Snan of Mesh Sankranti.
Over 1.45 crore people took a holy dip at Haridwar
on the occasion.

Kerala: Vishu
Vishu is the auspicious festival of prosperity and
hope celebrated in Kerala. Thousands of devotees
are thronging the temples for the traditional ritual
of vishukani darshan.
Vishu, one of the important festivals of Kerala
comes in the month of April usually on the 14th. It
is the 1st day of Malayalam month Medam which
is the astronomical New Year, as per the
traditional Malyalam Calender. The main event is
'Kani-Kanal' is the main event of the festival. On
the previous night of the Vishu, the ladies of the
house prepare the Kani which is a big pot
comprising coconuts, a gold ornament, a new
cloth, fruits, cereals and Konna flower. A mirror
and the garlanded deity of Lord Krishna is kept
behind the mirror. In the morning of the Vishu
day, the master of the house , followed by other
members see the aupicious 'Kani'. The youngers
get blessings from the elders of the family. The
youngers also get money called Vishu Kaineetam
.
West Bengal: Poila Baisakh
Poila Baisakh is the first day of the Bengali
calendar 1417. The day is celebrated with
traditional fervor and gaiety

Assam: Rongali Bihu

Rongali Bihu is the most popular post-harvest
festival of Assam. The week-long festival marks
the beginning of the Assamese New Year -
“Bohaag”.

Bangladesh: Pahela Baisakh

Pahela Baisakh or the First day of the 'Nababarsha'
or new Year is celebrated in 15th April 2010 in
Balgladesh. The programmes include singing of
devotional and patriotic songs in addition to street
plays and colourful processions with a number of
huge statues.
Appointments/ Elections:
Cannes Film Festival jury - Shekhar Kapur
Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur is selected to the
jury of the competition section at the 63rd annual
Cannes Film Festival scheduled to be held from
May 12 to May 23, 2010.American film director
Tim Burton will be the President of the Jury.

Wynn Telecom brand ambassador - Saif Ali Khan

Saif Ali Khan is appointed the Brand ambasador of
Wynn Telecom Ltd (WTL), a mobile handset
company. WTL is an extension of SAR Group of
companies which has LUMINOUS as the flagship
brand.

Infoclip: In 2006, Saif Ali Khan had appeared

along with Rani Mukerji, and Aishwarya Rai at the
Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth
Games in Melbourne, as part of a performance
showcasing Indian culture along with on behalf of
the 2010 Commonwealth Games, to be held in
Delhi.

Awards:
34th Matrishree Media Awards
Matri-Swar, organiser of Matrishree Awards have
been announced.Some of the winners are:
M Chenna Nagraj - UNI
Indra Shekhar Shah - Univarta
Archana Jyoti - PTI
Dharmendra Pant - Bhasha
Mumtaz Alam - Hamara Samaj
Usha Pahwa- Punjab Kesari
Yousuf Kirmani - Navbharat Times
Paras Amrohi: Dainik Hindutan
Other Winners: Rashtriya Sahara's Vijay Rai,
Dainik Jagran's Vibhuti Kumar, Amar Ujala's
Navneet Sharan, Hindustan Times' Gaurav
Chaudhary, Times of India's Saurabh Sinha, Nai
Duniya's Harish Kumar , The Hindu's Madhur
Tankah, R Prasad (cartoonist) of Mail Today ,
Vijay Kumar (photographer) of Press Trust of
India, Doordarshan's K V Singh, Akashvani's S P
Singh, Aaj Tak's Bhuvneshwar Sengar, Star News'
Praful Srivastava, IBN 7's Puneet and NDTV's
Anjali, Meenakshi Rao (film critic) of The
Pioneer, S N Verma of Sahafat Urdu and Mahesh
Darpan of Sandhya Times
Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan &
PAA in best film category.

National Affairs:
Meghalaya: Mobile mammography van
Meghalaya Government launches a mobile
mammography van to detect breat cancer in the
rural areas of the state.It is being jointly operated
by Meghalaya government and MKC Roko Cancer
Trust, a UK-based charity operating in India..
MKC Roko Cancer Trust has now covered nine
Indian states viz. Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh,
Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Karnataka, Meghalaya and Goa.

Nor'wester
Nor'wester is the severe cyclone that has hit Bihar,
West bengal and Assam claiming 138 lives. Worst
affected area is Karandighi in Bihar where 20
people have died so far.

Budget Session Resumes:

The Budget Session of the Parliament resumes
after recess. The dominating topics : Passage of
the finance and the women reservation bill , price
rise issue , cut motion in a bid to put pressure on
the government to roll back hike in petroleum
prices, IPL franchise scam and Dantewada
massacre of CRPF men by Naxals, Nuclear
Liability Bill.
Chetna Yatras
To mark the 125 years of Congress's foundation
National General Secretary of Congress , Rahul
Gandhi flags off ten Chetna Yatras in Uttar
Pradesh.

International Affairs:
US: India to get $ 4.5 million under ATA
ATA or Anti-terrorism assistance is a flagship
counter-terrorism law enforcement capacity-
building programme of the United States.
India to receive $ 4.5 million US assistance to
fight terrorism. Obama administration has doubled
the assistance to India for the year 2011 to meet
the increasing political will on the part of the
Indian government, which has requested more and
higher-level training in the aftermath of the
Mumbai attack.

Pakistan: Heraldo Munoz Report

Heraldo Munoz commission an independent
United Nations-appointed panel probing the killing
of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
& headed by Chile's UN ambassador Heraldo
Munoz commenced on July 1, 2009 and was to
have submitted its report on December 31, 2009
but its term was extended for another three
months.

Volcanic Eruptions in Europe:

Volcanic eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland
have caused significant disruption to air travel
across western and northern Europe. Much of the
airspace in Europe gets closed until 20 April,
causing cancellation of most flights within, to, and
from Europe.

Qinghai -Earthquake:
China's north western Qinghai province comes
under a massive attack of earthquake measuring
7.1 on Richter scale.

Sports:
Asian Junior Snooker
Liu Chuang od China wins 11th Asian Junior
Snooker Championship T T Paiboon of Thailand.
The event was organised in Indore, Madhya
Pradesh.

Current Affairs : April 16, 2010

Appointments:
Dr. N.C.Saxena Committee:
Joint Committee of Ministry of Environment And
Forests and Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been
revised. Dr. N.C.Saxena, retired Secretary,
Planning Commission will be Chairman of this
committeeand Dr. Devendra Pandey, Fromer
Director General, Forest Survey of India will be
Co-Chairman.

Awards:
Prime Minister’s Awards for excellence in
Governance for 2008-09
Prime Minister’s Awards for excellence in
Governance for 2008-09 have been announced.
These awards are given in individual, group and
organization categories. The list of the winners is
Here

National Affairs:
Failure of GSLV-D3
GSLV-D3, India's 330 crore rupees mission to
flight test the first indigenous cryogenic engine
failed after the rocket GSLV-D3 powered by it
crashed into the sea five minutes after a perfect
lift-off.

Panchayat Yuva Krida Aur Khel Abhiyan

Panchayat Yuva Krida Aur Khel Abhiyan is a
centrally sponsored scheme which was introduced
from 2008-09 for creation of basic sports
infrastructure in all village and block panchayats
and for conducting sports competitions at block,
district, state and national level in the country. The
outlay for this scheme for 11th five year plan is
Rs. 1500 Crores.

Railways: 169.77 kms of new line track was added

every year since 1950-51
As per a written reply of Minister of State for
Railways, Shri K.H. Muniyappa in Rajya
Sabha,the route kilometers of Indian Railways
have grown from 53,596 kms to 63,273 kms at a
Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of
around 0.29 per cent. The Running Track
Kilometers grew from 59,315 km to 85,158 km at
a CAGR of 0.64 per cent and the electrified route
grew from 388 kms to 18,274 kms at a CAGR of
6.99 per cent. The freight rates (average rate per
tonne km) increased from 3.16 paise to 89.04 paise
during the above period at a CAGR of 6.03 per
cent.
On an average 169.77 kms of new line track was
added from 1950-51 to 2007-08.
Infloclip: The Vision 2020 document of the
Railways envisages laying of 25,000 kms of new
line by the year 2020. Accordingly, an enhanced
target of laying 1000 kms of new lines has been
indicated in the Budget 2010-11.

Accelerated Pulses Production Programme (A3P)

Government has approved the Accelerated Pulses
Production Programme (A3P) under National
Food Security Mission on Pulses from April 1,
2010 for the remaining period of 11th Plan. Under
this plan 10 Lakh hectare of potential pulses area
would be taken up. The intention is to demonstrate
the impact of production and protection
technologies in the farmers' field for boosting the
production and productivity of pulses. Government
has been implementing National Food Security
Mission on Pulses in 16 Major Pulses Growing
states of the country.
Fact Box: Some Schemes in Budget 2010-11 for
Agriculture Development
Rs. 400 crore provided to extend the green
revolution to the eastern region of the
country comprising Bihar, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Eastern UP, West Bengal and Orissa.
Rs. 300 crore provided to organize 60,000 “pulses
and oil seed villages” in rain-fed areas during
2010-11 and provide an integrated intervention for
water harvesting, watershed management and soil
health, to enhance the productivity of the dry land
farming areas.
Rs. 200 crore provided for sustaining the gains
already made in the green revolution areas through
conservation farming, which involves concurrent
attention to soil health, water conservation and
preservation of biodiversity.
Banks have been consistently meeting the targets
set for agriculture credit flow in the past few years.
For the year 2010-11, the target has been set at Rs.
3,75,000 crore.
In view of the recent drought in some States and
the severe floods in some other parts of the
country, the period for repayment of the loan
amount by farmers extended by six months from
December 31, 2009 to June 30,2010 under the
Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme for Farmers.
Incentive of additional one per cent interest
subvention to farmers who repay short-term crop
loans as per schedule, increased to 2% for 2010-
11. (from PIB)

Business & Economy:

Carriers Data of Domestic Airlines:
Total domestic passengers carried by the
Scheduled Airlines of India in the first quarter of
2010 was:
Air India (Domestic) 17.6%, Jet Airways 18.7%,
Jet Lite 7.1%, Kingfisher 22.6%, Spice Jet 12.0%,
Paramount 1.6%, Go Air 5.4% and IndiGo 15.0%.
(PIB)

Medical Technology Park

There is a proposal to set up a Medical
Technology Park a Integrated Vaccine Complex
(IVC) at Chengalpattu, near Chennai for
manufacture of medical devices and instruments
and to address the growing vaccine demand of the
country and to develop facilities for producing
vaccines required by the Government.

2010 Bloomberg BusinessWeek annual rankings

of Most Innovative Companies
Apple tops the 2010 Bloomberg BusinessWeek
annual rankings of Most Innovative Companies
again. Apple is folowed by Google. Apple,
Google, Microsoft,IBM & Toyota Motor are top 5
companies this year. Two Indian companies have
apperaed in the top 50 Most Innovative Companies
of the world. They are Tata Group on Rank 17 and
Reliance Industries on Rank 33. For the first time
ever, more companies on our Top 50 are based
outside the U.S. China's rise is the fastest. A year
ago, its only representative was Lenovo, at 46.

International Affairs:
Youtube Record: Lady Gaga
Access Hollywood says that Lady GaGa has
broken a YouTube record passing one billion mark
for video views from a single channel.

On Findings of Heraldo Munoz Commission

United Nations report into the assassination of the
former prime minister of pakistan Benazir Bhutto
has highly criticized the then military government
of Gen. Parvez Musharraf. The report says that
killing could have been prevented if adequate
security measures had been taken. The report also
says that authorities failed to investigate the crime
properly. The report says that the versions of the
story invloving Mr. Zardari and other members of
the family simply had no basis, no evidence to be
treated as credible.

Current Affairs April 17, 2010

National Updates:
Amendment in the Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act 2009
An amendment in the Right of Children to Free
and Compulsory Education Act 2009 is introduced
in the Rajya Sabha on April 17, 2010. This
encompasses explicitly covering Children with
cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism and
multiple disabilities under the Right of Children to
Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009.

Andhra Pradesh: Prajapatham

Prajapatham is the new programme of the Andhra
Pradesh government which envisages "taking the
administration to the doorstep of the people''. Govt
claims that People's issues requiring immediate
attention would be taken up for redressal under the
programme.

On Cartosat-2B & STUDSAT

The ISO is undeterred by the GSLV-D3 failure
and now makes announcement to launch
CARTOSAT 2B (an Earth observation satellite in
a sun-synchronous orbit) on May 9. The Cartosat-
2B has been flagged off from ISRO's facility at
Bangalore to Sri harikota. It will be launched
along with the 117 kg Algerian Satellite, one nano
satellite each from Canada and Switzerland, and
StudSat, a pico satellite. Cartosat 2B is the third in
the Cartostat series and is a high-resolution
satellite designed for an operational life of five
years. With a single panchromatic camera on
board, this cartographic satellite will identify and
take pictures of a moving car.
STUDSAT or STUDent SATellite has been built
by Engineering Colleges Students , Bangalore has
been handed over to ISRO for launch along with
Cartosat 2B from Sriharikota on May 9. The
satellite has been developed by a consortium of
seven Engineering Colleges from Bangalore and
Hyderabad.

Andhra Pradesh: Hazmat

Hazmat is hazardous material handling vehicle
capable of fighting nuclear, chemical and
biological mishaps and effectively conducting
search and rescue operations, has been launched
by the Andhra Pradesh Government.

Gujarat : Governor Returns the Bill

Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment)
Bill, 2009 seeks to raise the reservation of seats for
women in local self governance bodies from 33 to
50 per cent. The bill was passed on December 19,
2009 in the state assembly. As per this bill, if a
voter fails to vote for reasons other than prescribed
in the rules, he may be declared a 'defaulter voter'
and would face consequences, for which rules will
be framed and placed before the assembly for its
approval later. In other words, the bill sought to
make voting mandatory in the state. The bill was
sent to Governor Kamla Beniwal for assent and
has been returned back.
The objection of the governor are:
1. The bill violates the constitutional provision
which does not allow voting to be made mandatory
2. No punishment can be meted out for not
participating in the exercise of voting.
3. The state government has clubbed two bills
together- the opposition was in favour of
reservation for women bill but was opposed to the
mandatory voting bill. The governor noted that the
two bills should be separated.

Recommended: Next Chief Justice of India -

Justice S H Kapadia
As per the Memorandum of Procedure which
governs the appointment of members of the higher
judiciary, "appointment to the office of the Chief
Justice of India should be of the senior most Judge
of the Supreme Court considered fit to hold the
office. It stipulates that the law minister would, at
the appropriate time, seek the recommendation of
the outgoing Chief Justice of India for the
appointment of the next CJI. Justice SH Kapadia is
senior most Judge of supreme court after chief
Justice KG Balakrishnan. In this context, Chief
Justice has recommended name of justice S H
Kapadia to be next CJI. Justice KG Balakrishnan
will retire in May and final appointment by the
President of India shall be made after that.

International:
Volcano eruption in Eyjafjallajokull
Eyjafjallajökull which means island-mountain
glacier is a smaller glacier of Iceland which covers
a volcano, erupted relatively frequently since the
last glacial period. it has erupted on 20 March and
again on 14th April 2010. The April 2010 eruption
was powerful and caused substantial disruption to
air traffic across Europe. The volcano continues
throw up plumes of grey ash as high as 10
kilometres across the Atlantic. Thousands of
passengers are stranded at different airports in
Europe and international flights to and from
Europe have been affected. The entire airspace in
the UK, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and Sweden
is closed and air traffic in France and Finland have
been partially affected. Flights have also been
grounded in Ireland, Norway and Poland. The
drifting ash clouds also paralysed all the airports
in, Finland and Sweden. In Singapore, Hong Kong
and Bangkok, more than 1,000 passengers are
stranded.

Obituary :
C K Prahalad
Dr C K Prahalad, world's renowned management
gurus,a corporate strategy specialist and well
known figure passes away in United States at the
age of 68. He was Professor of Corporate Strategy
at the Ross School of Business, University of
Michigan.
An alumni of Loyola College, Chennai and IIM
Ahmadabad, Dr. Prahlad's work "The Fortune at
the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty
Through Profit" was one of the best management
books ever.
Some other works are:
The Core Competence of the Corporation (with
Gary Hamel)
Competing for the Future (with Gary Hamel),
The Future of Competition (with Venkat
Ramaswamy),
The New Age of Innovation. (with MS Krishanan)
CK Prahalad was co-founder and CEO of Praja
Inc.

Current Affairs : April 18, 2010

Awards:
Master Deenanath Vishesh award - Kajol
On 68th year of commemoration of Deenanath
Mangeshkar's memorial day, Kajol has been
presented the Master Deenanath Vishesh award by
Lata Mangeshkar

National Updates:
Bihar: Nitish Kumar on National Commission to
identify BPL families
Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar demands the
creation of National Commission for Identification
of Below Poverty Line(BPL) families in states
which would continuously keep updated records
for welfare schemes aimed at providing succour to
them. He speaks of the discrepancies in
identification of poor people citing example of
Bihar where centre had estimated only 65 lakh
BPL families while the actual figure was more
than 1.40 crore.

Haryana: First Grameen Nyayalaya

First Grameen Nayalaya (Rural Court) of Haryana
has been inaugurated by Supreme Court Judge,
Justice D K Jain at tehsil complex in Shahabad.

Gujarat: Mobile Directory

Gujarat University & 'Smile India Knowledge
services' launch a mobile directory loaded with
features like a search facility to find names of
various colleges offering a particular course in
various cities, finding out which city offers courses
etc, listing of all the cities, colleges, their names,
addresses, phone numbers and colleges and
departments, affiliated to Gujarat University and
contact details of colleges. It will give auto update
on important information like admission status and
quota.

On Justice Soumitra Sen Impeachment Issue:

Justice Sen of Calcutta High court is facing
allegations of financial irregularities when he was
a receiver in a dispute between SAIL and Indian
Shipping Corporation before becoming High Court
Judge in 2003. His impeachment was
recommended by Chief Justice Justice K G
Balakrishnan in a letter to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh in August 2008 following
refusal of the Justice to take voluntary retirement.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari had
appointed a three-member panel headed by
Supreme Court Judge B Sudarshan Reddy with
Punjab and Haryana Chief Justice Justice Mukul
Mudgal and noted lawyer Fali S Nariman to probe
into the allegation. The panel has issued a charge
sheet against Calcutta High Court Judge Justice
Soumitra Sen.

Independence Day in Zimbabwe:

Zimbabwe marks 30 years of independence from
British-backed minority white rule. Independence
from the United Kingdom was established 1901 &
proclaimed on 11 November 1965. However it was
recognized 18 April 1980. President of Zimbabwe
Robert Mugabe promises to continue his land
seizure policy and transfer of control of foreign
firms to locals as part of a black empowerment
drive. Mugabe also asks that politically and
racially driven violence in the country cease to be,
the first time he has ever done this.

2010 Badminton Asia Championships - Results:

Following are the winners of 2010 Badminton
Asia Championships held at Siri Fort Stadium,
New Delhi
Men's singles
Lin Dan (China)
Women's singles
Xuerui Li (China)
Men's doubles
Cho Gun Woo (South Korea)
Yoo Yean Seong(South Korea)
Women's doubles
Pan Pan (China)
Tian Qing (China)
Mixed doubles
Chan Peng Soon (Malaysia)
Goh Liu Ying (Malyasia)
Semifinal of IPL:
The semi-finals of the Indian Premier League
(IPL) cricket tournament moved from Bangalore to
Mumbai following the discovery of further
explosive devices.

Current Affairs April 20, 2010

Appointments:
Meghalaya: 21st Chief Minister - Dr Mukul
Manda Sangma
Dr Mukul Manda Sangma has been sowrn in as
21st Chief Minister of Meghalaya. He leads
Congress-United Democratic Party-led five-party
Meghalaya United Alliance coalition government.
Bindo M Lanong of the UDP was sworn-in as
Deputy Chief Minister.
List of Chief Ministers

Resignation:
Beleaguered Meghalaya Chief Minister D D
Lapang has resigned, paving the way for his
deputy Mukul Sangma to take over. Mr Lapang
who has been facing revolt by at least 14
legislators tenders his resignation to Governor R S
Mooshahary.

National Updates:
Home Minister in Dantewada Tragedy:
Home Minister P Chidambaram admits while
replying a debate in Rajya Sabha that Dantewada
massacre was a failure of command and control
and responsibility for the lapse will be fixed right
up to his level.However he rules out use of Army
and Air Force in the Naxal affected areas.

On Henderson Brooks Report

Henderson Brooks report is also known as
Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report which is an
analysis of India China war of 1962. This sensitive
report was prepared by then commandants of
Indian Military Academy Lieutenant-General
Henderson Brooks and Brigadier P S Bhagat. The
government refuses in Lok Sabha that the report
would not be made public as the report had current
operational value.

1999 Jessica Lall murder Case:

Supreme Court upholds Delhi High Court verdict ,
the conviction and life imprisonment awarded to
Manu Sharma in the the 1999 Jessica Lall murder
case.

Automated Finger Print Identification Systems

(AFIS)
Automated Finger Print Identification Systems
(AFIS) has been introduced by the government in
22 states (including J & K ) and Pondicherry. This
comes under the Crime and Criminal Tracking
Network and System (CCTNS). CCTNS is a
project under the national e-governance plan.
Every police station in the country will be
provided with a fingerprint reader for which
Rs.15,000 per police station has been earmarked.

The states are : Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,

Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, Mizoram,
Chhattisgarh, Nagaland, Delhi, Orissa, Goa,
Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Tamil Nadu,
Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Karnataka,
West Bengal, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

USB Pratirodh & NAYAN

USB Pratirodh & NAYAN are two e-security
products launched by C-DAC. USB Pratirodh and
Malware Resist has been launched for Home Users
and Network Abhigam Niyantran (NAYAN) for
enterprises.
Malware Resist is an anti-malware solution which
protects an end system from damage caused by
malware or any other rogue software by
continuously scrutinizing the active programs or
processes for malicious behavior. The solution
helps users to protect from the Malware by
quarantine the processes. NAYAN, especially
developed for enterprises, addresses the access
control and authentication requirements of a local
area network. NAYAN controls the access to
different network services at the end system level,
protecting internal network from rapidly
propagating threats and network misuse. (Govt. of
India Press Release)

Chhattisgarh - Foreign Travel Ban

State Government of Chhattisgarh imposes a ban
on all foreign travels by ministers and officers on
govt expenditure for 1 years.

Assam: Chief Justice of the Gawahati High Court

Justice Ramesh Surajmal Garg has been appointed
as Chief Justice of the Guwahati High Court.
Previously , he was a Judge of Madhya Pradesh
High Court.

Uttar Pradesh: New Tiger Reserve - Pilibhit

The central government has decided to open a new
Tiger Reserve in Pilibhit of Uttar Pradesh. The
government also decides to come up with more
reserves in Maharashtra, Orrisa and Madhya
Pradesh.

National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Zone

Management
Govt decided to set up National Centre for
Sustainable Coastal Zone Management under the
World Bank assisted Integrated Coastal Zone
Management project within the Anna University,
Chennai.

Justice (Retd.) Madan Mohan Punchhi

Commission:
Justice (Retd.) Madan Mohan Punchhi
Commission on Centre State Relations submits its
report to the Union Home Minister, Shri P.
Chidambaram, in presence of Shri Dhirendra
Singh, Shri V. K. Duggal, Dr. N. R. Madhava
Menon and Shri Vijay Shankar (members of the
commission). The Commission was constituted in
April, 2007 to take a fresh look at the relative roles
and responsibilities of the various levels of
government and their inter-relations. It was asked
to make recommendations to help address the
emerging challenges.

Assam: Bamboo Technology Park at Mymlhat

Minister of Mines and Minister of Development of
North Eastern Region B.K. Handique reveals
about an MoU which was signed between NEC
and the Ministry of Environment and Forest for
setting up of a Bamboo Technology Park at State
Forest College, Mymlhat. Foundation Stone of the
same was laid in June 2009.

Business & Economy:

RBI : Annual Monetary Policy 2010-11
Reserve Bank of India is the apex Institution of
India's monetary system and financial system and
plays a leading role in organizing, running,
supervising, regulating and developing the
monetary and financial system. Preparing and
conducting the monetary policy and credit policy
are special responsibilities of Reserve bank of
India.
RBI expresses its view on economy through
changes in monetary policy which is known as
Annual Policy Statement. The policy is released
every year in April and is reviewed every quarter.
Reserve Bank of India Governor D. Subbarao has
released its annual monetary Policy statement on
April 20, 2010 for the year 2010-11. This will be
followed by the first quarter review of monetary
policy for 2010-11 which will be announced on
July 27, 2010.
Following are the main points of this policy
statement:
Cash reserve ratio (CRR):
CRR is the percentage of cash deposits that banks
have to maintain with RBI.
The RBI had hiked the CRR by 75 points in
January 2010. This absorbed Rs. 36000 Crores
from the systemThe latest move is to hike the CRR
by an increase of 25 basis points from 5.75 to 6.0
percent has taken effect from April 24. This will
suck out Rs. 12500 Crores from the banks.
This move means that banks have to park more
money with the central bank. This money does not
earn any interest to them (or negligible returns)
and sucks out the liquidity in the banking system.
As a result, banks have lesser money with them to
lend. This could lead to higher interest rate as there
isn't enough liquidity in the system.
This affects the bank in the form of increased cost
of funds because they have to keep more money
for negligible returns on it. The banks pass on this
cost to their customers and thus loans become
dearer.
It must be noted down that RBI had slashed
frequently the CRR during 2008 & 2009 to
maintain high liquidity in the system as a measure
to fight the financial slowdown. The excess
liquidity causes the bank to lend more and thus
interest rates came down.
Repo Rate:
Repo Rate is the rate of interest at which the RBI
lends money to banks. This also means that Repo
Rate is the RBI's lending rate to other banks. When
RBI reduces the Repo Rate, the banks can borrow
more at a lower cost. This contributes to lowering
of the rates.
In the Annual Monetary Policy 2010-11 the RBI
has hiked the Repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.25
percent. This means that RBI has increased its
lending rate to other banks by .25%. For banks the
borrowing from RBI becomes costlier.
Reverse Repo Rate:
Reverse repo rate is the rate at which RBI borrows
funds from banks. This is opposite of repo rate.
Reverse repo rate is also known as RBI's
borrowing rate.
In the Annual Monetary Policy 2010-11, the RBI
has increased the Reverse Repo Rate by 25 basis
points to 3.75 percent. This means that now RBI
will provide 0.25% etc. interest on the money
which it borrows from the banks. An increase in
reverse repo rate means that banks earn higher
returns by lending to RBI. This indicates a hike in
the deposit rates.
Thus we can see that change in Policy rates has a
direct impact the lending and borrowing rates of
the banks. The consumers get affected
accordingly.
Please note that Prime lending rate is going to be
replaced with Base Rate System from July 2010
and the impact will be seen on Base Rates after the
Base rate system comes into effect.
Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) :
Statutory Liquidity Ratio is the fraction of liquid
assets which a bank has to keep an assured amount
of funds. The funds may be in the form of cash,
gold, government bonds, etc. In October 2009
Credit Policy the RBI had RBI had hiked the SLR
by 100 basis points - from 24 to 25 per cent.
This measure controls bank's credit expansion and
can lead to higher interest rates. In the October
2009 Credit Policy, RBI had hiked the SLR by 100
basis points - from 24 to 25 per cent. It has not
been touched by RBI in the Annual Monetary
Policy 2010-11.
Growth Projection for the Year 2010-11:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has projected
India's growth for this fiscal at upward of 8
percent, against 7.2 percent as per the earlier
projection, while the annual rate of inflation at the
end of March 2011 is projected at 5.5 percent.
Inflation Projection for 2010-11:
WPI (Wholesale Price Index) inflation has been
projected 5.5 percent by RBI. The Policy says that
Inflationary pressures have accentuated in the
recent period & Inflation risk looms large due to
domestic demand and price rise in global
commodities.
Money Supply:
During 2009-10, money supply (M3) growth
decelerated from over 20.0 per cent at the
beginning of the financial year to 16.4 per cent in
February 2010 before increasing to 16.8 per cent
by March 2010, slightly above the Reserve Bank’s
indicative projection of 16.5 per cent. For policy
purposes, M3 growth for 2010-11 is placed at 17.0
per cent. Consistent with this, aggregate deposits
of SCBs are projected to grow by 18.0 per cent.
The growth in non-food credit of SCBs is placed at
20.0 per cent. As always, these numbers are
provided as indicative projections and not as
targets.
Aggregate Deposit projection:
The aggregate deposits of the scheduled
commercial banks are projected to grow by 18% in
the 2010-11.
Bank rate: Bank rate has been retained at 6
percent.
Motive & Policy Stance of RBI:
It is worth note that in the wake of Global
Economic crisis, RBI had adopted a suitable
monetary policy from September 2008, to boos
market confidence and mitigate the adverse impact
of global financial slowdown on Indian Economy.
RBI was quite successful in achieving its goals but
in the late 2009, the food inflation started soaring
and RBI shifted to its first phase of exit from the
expansionary monetary policy. The moves of RBI
included raising the Key Policy rates and restoring
the statutory Liquidity Ratio in October 2009. RBI
continued to move on the same track and
announced 75 basis points increase in CRR in
January 2010. Besides RBI stunned the market by
mid-cycle increase of 25 basis points each in the
policy repo rate and the reverse repo rate under the
LAF on March 19, 2010. The latest policy has the
following stance:
Anchor inflation expectations, while being
prepared to respond appropriately, swiftly and
effectively to further build-up of inflationary
pressures.
Actively manage liquidity to ensure that the
growth in demand for credit by both the private
and public sectors is satisfied in a non-disruptive
way.
Maintain an interest rate regime consistent with
price, output and financial stability.
Financial Stability Report:
The first Financial Stability Report (FSR) was
released by RBI on March 25, 2010. in the Policy
statement RBI announces that Financial Stability
Reports will be published half yearly. he FSR will
assess the strength of the financial sector, with
particular focus on banks.
Introduction of Base Rate System:
After indicating the base rate system in Annual
Policy Statement of April 2009, RBI had
constituted a Working Group on Benchmark Prime
Lending Rate. Chairman of this working group
was Shri Deepak Mohanty. The objective was to
review the present benchmark prime lending rate
(BPLR) system and suggest changes to make
credit pricing more transparent. Deepak Mohanty
group submitted its report in October 2009 and the
same was placed on the Reserve Bank’s website
for public comments. Based on the
recommendations of the Group and the
suggestions from various stakeholders, the draft
guidelines on Base Rate were placed on the
Reserve Bank’s website in February 2010. RBI has
now decided to mandate banks to switch over to
the system of Base Rate from July 1, 2010.
Guidelines on the Base Rate system were issued
on April 9, 2010
Interest Rate Futures
RBI had introduced the Interest Rate Futures
contract on 10-year notional coupon bearing
Government of India security was on August 31,
2009. In the policy statement of 2010-11 RBI
announces to introduce Interest Rate Futures on 5-
year and 2-year notional coupon bearing securities
and 91-day Treasury Bills. (Product design and
operational modalities yet to be finalized)

On Mobile banking facility

Tii now, 32 banks have been approved to provide
mobile banking facility by the Reserve Bank of
India. Out of them 21 banks are providing these
services. Banks are now permitted to offer this
service to their customers subject to a daily cap of
Rs.50,000/- per customer for both funds transfer
and transactions involving purchase of goods/
services. Transactions up to Rs.1,000/- can be
facilitated by banks without end-to-end encryption.

Expert Group on Energy Drinks:

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has
constituted an Expert Group for formulating the
standards of the energy drinks.The group will
examine the scientific literature and global
position on use of caffeine and non-carbonated
beverages and their labeling, recommend the limit
of caffeine in energy drinks and non-carbonated
beverages under Food Regulations. & will suggest
suitable safety and products standards of Energy
Drink

Credit Guarantee Scheme for MSEs

Following the recommendations of Shri V. K.
Sharma, working group on credit guarantee
scheme of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for
Micro and Small Enterprises (CGFTMSE), the
RBI has mandated the banks not to insist on
collateral security in case of loans up to Rs.10 lakh
as against the present limit of Rs.5 lakh extended
to all units of the micro and small enterprises
(MSEs) sector.

Relaxations to BC Model:
Under the previous guidelines of RBI on the
business correspondent (BC) model, the banks
could appoint/ engage only certain select
categories of individuals as BC's. In the Policy
2010-11 RBI has permitted the banks to engage
any individual, including those operating Common
Service Centres (CSCs), as BC, subject to banks’
comfort level and their carrying out suitable due
diligence.