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Current Affairs PDF March 2013

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WWW.JAGRANJOSH.COM CURRENT AFFAIRS PDF MARCH 2013

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Table of Contents

Preface ............................................................................................................................................ 9

Pick of the Month ......................................................................................................................... 10

5th BRICS Summit held in Durban, South Africa: Highlights ................................................. 10

Second India-Afghanistan-United States Trilateral Dialogue ............................................... 12

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died at 58 due to Cancer ............................................. 12

RBI Slashed Repo Rate by 25 Base Points; Kept CRR Unchanged ......................................... 13

India won Border Gavaskar Trophy 2013 by 4-0 .................................................................. 15

Tiger Woods Won Arnold Palmer Invitational 2013 ............................................................. 16

Jorge Bergoglio the New Pope Chose Francis his Papal Name ............................................. 16

Xi Jinping Took Over As the New President of China ............................................................ 18

Number of High Courts went up to 24 from 21 .................................................................... 18

Govt decided to Introduce National Policy on Drug Abuse .................................................. 19

Half of Africa’s Lions Facing Extinction Threat: Study .......................................................... 19

BARC Developed Largest Magnet of the World .................................................................... 20

India & US agreed on Cooperation in Moon & Mars Missions ............................................. 20

International ................................................................................................................................. 22

India and Portugal Signed a Social Security Agreement ....................................................... 22

India-United Kingdom Summit 2013: Agreements Reached ................................................ 22

India & UK Signed MOU to Co-Operate on Earth Sciences .................................................. 24

Pakistan Government completed its Historic Five Year Term .............................................. 25

Nepal and US to Conduct Joint Military Exercises ................................................................ 25

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2012-2013 approved in Britain ....................................... 26

President of Egypt Visited India: Major Deals Signed ........................................................... 26

Lebanon PM announced Government’s Resignation ........................................................... 28





FAA to close 149 Air Traffic Towers due to Budget Cut ........................................................ 29

US and Afghanistan reached Agreement on Prison Transfer ............................................... 29

South Australia rolled out 10-year Plan to Enhance Trade .................................................. 30

US President Barack Obama Signed Short-Term Budget Bill ................................................ 31

India and Liechtenstein Signed TIEA ..................................................................................... 31

BRICS Summit 2013: South Africa and Russia signed Agreement ........................................ 32

International Quizzes ............................................................................................................ 33

World Dairy ................................................................................................................................... 36

National ......................................................................................................................................... 40

Electronics Project Proposal System e-PPS launched ........................................................... 40

Charges Framed against Irom Sharmila for Attempting Suicide .......................................... 40

CCS approved Flexible Use of Airspace ................................................................................. 42

Union Cabinet cleared Bill to Tackle Crimes against Women............................................... 43

India’s First All Women Post Office Inaugurated by Kapil Sibal ........................................... 43

Union Cabinet approved Electronic Services Bill .................................................................. 44

Govt approved Changes in Bill to Tackle Bribery by Foreigners ........................................... 44

Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2013 Passed in the Lok Sabha ........................................... 45

Union Cabinet cleared National Food Security Bill ............................................................... 46

Standards of Quality of Service Amendment Regulations: Notified .................................... 47

Govt. cleared 1500 crore Rupees Proposal for Pinaka Rockets ............................................ 47

National Quizzes ................................................................................................................... 48

India Dairy ..................................................................................................................................... 51

Economy ........................................................................................................................................ 58

MOU for Setting up of Memu Coaches Manufacturing Facility ........................................... 58

Government approved Export of Additional Wheat ............................................................ 58

Financial Regulators signed pact to Monitor Conglomerates .............................................. 59





Coal India signed Fuel Supply Pacts with 56 Power Plants ................................................... 59

Union Government to launch 10 Rupees Plastic Notes ........................................................ 60

Government granted aid to protect Pashmina Goats .......................................................... 60

HPCL and Rajasthan Govt Signed a MoU for Setting up Refinery ........................................ 60

CCI approved Five Oil, Gas Blocks for Operations ................................................................ 61

Economy Current Affairs Quizzes ......................................................................................... 62

Corporate ...................................................................................................................................... 64

Welspun commissioned Asia’s largest Solar Power Project ................................................. 64

REC Signed Bilateral Term-Loan Agreement with SBI .......................................................... 64

TSMC Acquired Stake in Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Ltd. ................................................ 65

Infosys Inked Deal with India Post ........................................................................................ 66

SBI to Open 1200 Branches in India & 8 Overseas Offices ................................................... 66

Nokia won Patent Infringement Suit against HTC in Germany............................................. 67

Prudential, Insurance Giant fined 30 Million Pound by FSA ................................................. 67

Apple bought Indoor Mapping firm WiFiSlam ...................................................................... 68

IT Department slapped 2000 crore Rupees Tax Notice to Nokia ......................................... 68

Educomp Solutions sold 50 percent stake in Eurokids ......................................................... 69

Google launched Google Play Movies in India...................................................................... 69

Corporate Current Affair Quizzes ......................................................................................... 70

State .............................................................................................................................................. 72

State Budget of Haryana 2013-14: Highlights....................................................................... 72

State Budget of Haryana 2013-14: New Initiatives .............................................................. 72

Andhra Pradesh Budget 2013- 14: Highlights ....................................................................... 74

Delhi Budget 2013-14: Sheila Dikshit presented the Budget ............................................... 74

Tamil Nadu Budget 2013-14: Presented by O. Panneerselvam ........................................... 76

Arunachal Pradesh became First State to introduce e-GPF ................................................. 77





State Budget of Madhya Pradesh: 2013-14 Presented ........................................................ 78

Raghuraj Pratap Singh resigned from the State Cabinet ...................................................... 84

President of India appointed Judges in the High Court of J&K ............................................. 84

UK opened Mobile Visa Application Facility in Goa .............................................................. 85

MP bagged Two National Tourism Awards........................................................................... 85

Single Phase Assembly Elections in Karnataka on 5 May ..................................................... 86

Oommen Chandy Commissioned a Biogas Plant in Secretariat ........................................... 86

Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passed Eight Bills ................................................................. 87

Sports ............................................................................................................................................ 88

Novak Djokovic won ATP Dubai Open Tennis Title 2013 ...................................................... 88

Sahmim Khan won t PGTI Players Championship Title 2013 ................................................ 88

Services Clinched 67th Santosh Trophy ................................................................................ 88

Rafael Nadal won ATP Mexican Open 2013 Tennis Tournament ......................................... 89

Manorama & Deborah won Bronze in HACC ........................................................................ 89

Smriti Mehra Won Second Title in Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour ........................................ 89

T. Baun Won All England Open Badminton Championship .................................................. 90

Neha Tripathi Won BT Pro Am of Champions Golf Tournament .......................................... 90

David Beckham Named Richest Footballer of the World ..................................................... 91

India Won Eight Medals in Inaugural AGPAC ....................................................................... 91

Bhullar Finished Second in Avantha Masters Golf Tournament ........................................... 91

Muradian Khalmuratov won Gold in Men's Category of HACC ............................................ 92

Team Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen Won Australian Grand Prix 2013 .......................................... 92

Australia Won Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament 2013 ............................................... 93

Nadal & Sharapova Won Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open 2013 ........................................... 93

Harmanpreet Named Captain of Indian Women's Cricket Team ......................................... 93

Sports Current Affairs Quizzes .............................................................................................. 94





Environment Ecology .................................................................................................................... 96

Okhla Compost Plant Received Carbon Credits .................................................................... 96

New Zealand Declared Worst-Ever Drought in 30 Years ...................................................... 96

Mass Death of Prawns Due to Unexplained Reason in Coronel ........................................... 97

Two Woodlizard Species Called Enyalioides Discovered ...................................................... 97

Great Indian Rhinoceros Population Increased in Kaziranga ............................................... 98

Science & Technology ................................................................................................................. 100

NASA’s Swift Satellite Discovered Supernova Remnants ................................................... 100

India Ranked Third on List of Spam Spewing Nation in World ........................................... 100

Japan Extracts Natural Gas from Methane Hydrate ........................................................... 101

Exact Distance to Our Neighbouring Galaxy Calculated ..................................................... 102

Abundant Active Bacteria Community Discovered............................................................. 103

Herschel Observatory discovered Protostars ..................................................................... 104

Unknown Huge Radio Galaxy Discovered ........................................................................... 105

Jeff Bezos Recovered Two Apollo Rocket Engines .............................................................. 106

Science and Technology Quizzes ........................................................................................ 107

One Liners ................................................................................................................................... 109

News Capsule .............................................................................................................................. 111

Vice Admiral Thapliyal is New DG of Indian Coast Guard ................................................... 111

Walking With Lions: Tales from a Diplomatic Past: Released ............................................ 111

Women of Courage Award to Delhi Gangrape Victim ........................................................ 111

Commemorative Postage Stamp on Sahir Ludhianvi Released .......................................... 112

Nicolas Maduro sworn in as Interim President of Venezuela ............................................ 112

Five Writers honoured with SAARC Literature Award 2013 ............................................... 113

Sanjay Dutt Sentenced to 5-Years Jail Term by SC ............................................................. 113

Swedish Princess Lilian Davies Died At the Age of 97 Years ............................................... 114





Delhi Among Five Indian Hotspots of Illegal Trade of Tigers .............................................. 114

5th CIDC Vishwakarma Award 2013 ................................................................................... 115

Coffee Table Book Titled Indian Saga of Steel Released ..................................................... 116

Laureus World Sports Awards 2013 ................................................................................... 116

ACI Placed Three Indian Airports among Top Five of the World ........................................ 117

Entertainment and Media Sector to Double by 2017: Report ........................................... 118

Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awards for the Year 2011 ................................................... 119

Tan Twan Eng Declared Winner of Man Asian Literary Prize ............................................. 120

India Ranked Low on Gender Inequality Index: UN Report 2013 ....................................... 122

World Consumer Rights Day Observed Across the World .................................................. 122

B. Ghosh is First non-American Editor of Time International ............................................. 123

Universal Periodic Review Report on Human Rights in Lanka ............................................ 123

UNDP Report: South Asia Lead the World .......................................................................... 123

60th National Film Awards ................................................................................................. 125

Sugatha kumari Selected For Saraswati Samman 2012...................................................... 126

Toyo Ito, Declared As Winner of Pritzker Architecture Prize ............................................. 127

Army Got the First Indigenous Chopper Called Rudra........................................................ 128

S. Venkata Mohan won National Bioscience Award for 2012 ............................................ 128

Hamid Ansari Released a Book on Former President of India ............................................ 129

World Forestry Day Observed Across the World ................................................................ 129

The President of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman Passed away at 84 ....................................... 129

Anil Ananthaswamy Won Inaugural Physics Journalism Prize ........................................... 130

UN announced 20 March as International Happiness Day ................................................. 130

FSLRC Suggested Constitution of UFSR; reduced role of RBI .............................................. 131

Asian Business Awards 2013 ............................................................................................... 132

Navneet Kaur Dhillon Crowned Pond’s Femina Miss India 2013 ....................................... 132





Italian Foreign Minister resigned over Marine Case .......................................................... 133

Questions of the Month .............................................................................................................. 134





PREFACE

The Current Affairs PDF Magazine March 2013 includes the happenings of March Month. The PDF magazine available on jagranjosh.com plays an important role in making people aware of the happenings of the world and it also acts as a guide for candidates engaged in preparations of different level of competitive exams. The magazine being provide is drafted to meet the requirements of different level of exams including IAS|PCS, SSC, Banking, MBA as well as Board Exams of CBSE and State Boards.

The events happening across the world following the series of their occurrence and importance has been compiled with fineness by the team of experts. The events before being included for the final packaging are evaluated on different standards to make sure that it helps the readers and keep them informed in the best way. The presentation of the events is planned to stay for a longer period in the memories of the reader to ease their way of preparation for the exams they will appear in. Fine perception of the stories allows a candidate to apply the theories behind the making of the event and face the challenges during the exams everywhere.

Within the magazine one can find the events and happenings of National and International importance, daily affairs of Corporate world and Economy, advancements on the frontiers of Science and Technology as well as Environment And Ecology, Sports happenings and Issues of different States of the country.


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PICK OF THE MONTH

5TH BRICS SUMMIT HELD IN DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA: HIGHLIGHTS

South Africa hosted the fifth BRICS Summit from 26 to 28 March 2013 at the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC). This will complete the first cycle of BRICS summits.

The central area of discussion was under the overarching theme, BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialisation.

Subsequent to the discussions that took place at the Business Forum Meeting, the industry leaders from the business communities of the five countries namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa agreed on different points.

FOLLOWING ARE THE AGREED POINTS

• BRICS and Africa will forge a closer partnership for development integration and

industrialisation.

• BRICS countries will actively support infrastructure development and industrialisation on

the African continent in order to contribute to its development and to expand trade

links between Africa and BRICS.

• The global economic situation, though improving, continues to remain uncertain with

the Euro-crisis a major concern. The recovery seen in the US and the continued steps

taken by the Euro Zone countries to address the sovereign debt crisis are worth noting.

The task ahead is to build on these developments and BRICS countries remain

committed to the cause of promoting sustainable growth.

• Greater economic cooperation amongst BRICS countries is imperative. This can help in

addressing some of the domestic challenges each of us face as well as prove beneficial

for global economic growth.

• China and Brazil have agreed to establish a currency swap line worth around 30 billion

dollar in their respective currencies, which they say is designed to protect against future

global financial crises.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE SUMMIT





• The BRICS Nations fully support the efforts of their respective governments at the G20

that has emerged as the premiere forum to address critical global economic and

financial issues. We shall work collectively to carry forward the work agenda set by the

G20 leaders for promoting stronger, sustainable and more equitable growth.

• They reiterate that the world economic order is changing and that the process of

developing economic policy agenda at the global level should reflect this. While there is

a realization even amongst the developed countries about the increasing economic

weight of emerging economies, this is not fully reflected in the governance model of

global institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. We shall continue to work alongside

our governments to gradually usher in governance reforms at multi-lateral institutions.

• The BRICS nation urges their respective governments to deepen their consultative

engagements on economic policies to bring about stability and certainty in global

financial markets.

• The BRICS nations encourage their respective governments to take steps to deepen

economic engagement amongst the BRICS countries. The establishment of the BRICS

Business Council is, therefore, supported as a practical measure that will deepen

economic engagement amongst BRICS countries. Trade and investment are the two

pillars of economic engagement amongst BRICS countries. We should look to continue

enhancing intra-BRICS trade to achieve at least US$ 500 billion by 2015 as per

agreement from previous Business Forum in India. It is essential to improve the quality

of trade by focusing on more value added trade in all the three sectors namely

manufacturing, services and agriculture. Likewise, we should capitalise on opportunities

in sectors such as but not limited to agriculture and agro-processing, energy, sustainable

development, infrastructure, mining beneficiation, pharmaceutical and information and

communication technology. There is agreement that support for industrialisation

projects on the African continent will contribute to the expansion of trade and

investment links between BRICS and Africa.

• The Countries are encouraged by the discussions that are taking place amongst our

respective governments towards greater cooperation in the financial sector. The

possibility of setting up of a development bank and investment fund and promoting

trade within this group in local currencies are particularly encouraging and progress in

finalising these.

NEW AREAS OF COOPERATION TO BE EXPLORED

• BRICS Public Diplomacy Forum.

• BRICS Anti-Corruption Cooperation.

• BRICS State Owned Companies / State Owned Enterprises.





• National Agencies Responsible for Drug Control.

• BRICS virtual secretariat.

• BRICS Youth Policy Dialogue

• Tourism.

• Energy.

• Sports and Mega Sporting Events.

ABOUT BRICS SUMMIT

• BRICS is an acronym for the powerful grouping of the world’s leading emerging

economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The first BRIC Summit

took place in Yekateringburg, Russia, where the elected leaders of the four countries

formally declared the membership of the BRIC economic bloc. South Africa joined the

bloc in 2010, resulting in BRICS.

• The BRICS mechanism aims to achieve peace, security, development and cooperation. It

also seeks to contribute significantly to the development of humanity and establish a

more equitable and fair world.

SECOND INDIA-AFGHANISTAN-UNITED STATES TRILATERAL DIALOGUE

India hosted the second meeting of India-Afghanistan-US trilateral dialogue in New Delhi on 19 February 2013. The Afghan delegation was led by Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin, with Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake, Jr. leading the U.S. delegation. Additional Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran) Y. K. Sinha led the Indian delegation.

India has strategic partnerships with both Afghanistan and the US, and jointly they share a vision of a secure, peaceful, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan. The second trilateral dialogue provided a platform for in-depth consultations on issues ranging from political and security spheres to trade, commerce and investment, and other areas of mutual interest. The three sides agreed to continue this trilateral process as a vehicle for achieving the shared goal of peace, security and development of Afghanistan. It may be recalled that the first trilateral dialogue was hosted by Afghanistan in New York on 25 September 2012.

VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ DIED AT 58 DUE TO CANCER





Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died on 5 March 2013 at a military hospital in Caracas at the age of 58 due to Cancer. He died after battling from cancer for two years during which he underwent several surgeries and chemotherapy in Cuba.

With his death his 14 year rule of Venezuela came to an end and bringing a challenge of electing a new President for the country within 30 days as per Constitution of Venezuela. Till then the Presidency will be assumed by the Vice-President of the country, Nicolas Maduro. The Foreign Minister of Venezuela Elias Jose Jaua Milano announced seven days mourning for the country.

HUGO CHAVEZ

• Hugo Chavez was the President of Venezuela from 1999 till his death in 2013 • He was the leader of the United Socialist Party

of Venezuela • He was responsible for the promotion of the

Bolivarian cause of social revolution and started the secretive Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in early 1980s

• He served the Venezuelan army as a officer before entering into politics and initiation the secretive Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200)

• He was a former leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007

• He led a coup attempt in 1992 and landed in jail for his act and was further he launched his political career

• Served as the President of Venezuela for three times

A coup attempt was made in Venezuela in April 2002 to overthrow Hugo Chavez from his office. During this coup attempt, Hugo was ousted from his office for 47 hours and further the situation was restored by the support of public that was seeking his government and the military loyalists.

RBI SLASHED REPO RATE BY 25 BASE POINTS; KEPT CRR UNCHANGED

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 19 March 2013 cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.5 per cent from 7.75 percent in its mid-quarter review of the monetary policy. The change of the Repo rate is aimed to prompt growth and revive investment.

Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF stands adjusted to 6.5per cent from the earlier 6.75 per cent and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 8.5 per cent with immediate effect. The Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) has been retained at 4 per cent.





It is for the second time since the start of the year RBI has cut down the repo rate in a bid to help revive flagging growth in Asia's third-largest economy. RBI has also warned that its scope for further policy easing is limited.

The RBI will continue to actively manage liquidity through various instruments, including open market operations, so as to ensure adequate flow of credit to productive sectors of the economy.

With the change in Repo rate, the Reserve Bank of India also announced infusion of 10000 crore rupees into the financial system by purchasing government securities as part of its liquidity injection measure.

The Indian economy expanded at a 25-quarter low of 4.5% in October-December 2012 quarter, and the 2.4% rise in industrial production in January 2013 after two months of contraction suggests the recovery is still weak. The current account deficit hit a record-high 5.4 per cent in the September quarter and is expected to end the 2012/13 fiscal year at its highest level ever.

WHAT IS REPO RATE?

The rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks is called repo rate. It is an instrument of monetary policy. Whenever banks have any shortage of funds they can borrow from the RBI. A reduction in the repo rate helps banks get money at a cheaper rate and vice versa.

WHAT IS REVERSE REPO RATE?

Reverse Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI borrows money from commercial banks.

An increase in reverse repo rate can prompt banks to park more funds with the RBI to earn higher returns on idle cash. It is also a tool which can be used by the RBI to drain excess money out of the banking system.

WHAT IS CASH RESERVE RATIO?

Cash reserve Ratio (CRR) is the amount of funds that the banks have to keep with the RBI. If the central bank decides to increase the CRR, the available amount with the banks comes down. The RBI uses the CRR to drain out excessive money from the system.

Highlights of the RBI Quarterly Monetary Policy Review:

• Repo rate changed to 7.5 Percent from 7.75 Percent • CRR Remain Unchanged at 4 Percent • Reverse repo rate changed to 6.75 percent from earlier 6.5 Percent





• Marginal standing facility (MSF) rate – 8.5 Percent • Bank Rate to 8.5 per cent

INDIA WON BORDER GAVASKAR TROPHY 2013 BY 4-0

India on 24 March 2013 won the fourth and the final test with 6 wickets remaining against Australia in the Alan Border Series – Australia Tour to India, at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, Delhi. India won the series 4-0.

In the second innings of the final match, Cheteswar Pujara scored an unbeaten 82 runs while chasing the 155 run target set by team Australia on the third day of the match. Before this Jadeja’s 5 wicket haul for 58 runs in 16 over limited Australia to a lead score of 155 runs. R Ashwin, P Ojha took 2 wickets each and Ishant Sharma booked the last wicket of Pattinson to seal the second innings of Australia at 155 runs.

Man of the Match: Ravindra Jadeja for his all-round performance

Man of the Series: Ravichandran Ashwin for claiming 29 wickets in the four-Test Series

SERIES REPORT

1st Test: 22-26 February 2013 - India vs Australia at Chennai - Australia 380 and 241; India 572 and 50/2. India won the match by 8 wickets remaining.

2nd Test: 2-5 March 2013 - India vs Australia at Hyderabad (Deccan) - Australia declared its innings 237 at the fall of 9 wickets and 131; India 503. India won by an innings and 135 runs.

3rd Test: 14-18 March, 2013 - India vs Australia at Mohali - Australia 408 and 223; India 499 and 136/4. India won the match by 6 wickets.

4th Test: 22-24 March 2013 - India v Australia at Delhi - Australia 262 and 164; India 272 and 158/4. India won the match by 6 wickets.

Some Records of the Series

• Prgyan Ojha, the left arm spinner from India completed his haul of 100 wickets in Test Cricket on second day of fourth test against Australia and became the third fastest Indian to achieve the milestone. Ojha reached the milestone, in 22nd test and is placed in the list after Erapalli Prasanna (who did this in 20 test matches) and Anil Kumble (who achieved the sport in 21 test matches)

• Off-Spinner from India, R Ashwin became the leading wicket-taker for India in a series of four test matches; he finished with 29 wickets in this series. To make this record Ashwin





surpassed the former Indian Captain Anil Kumble, who took 27 wickets in a series of four test matches.

• India never in the 81 year test history won more than two matches against Australia in a single series, but with this clean sweep – India secured wrote a new history in test cricket

• Shikhar Dhawan slammed fastest hundred by a debutant in test cricket, by scoring a century in 85 balls

TIGER WOODS WON ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL 2013

Tiger Woods won the third PGA Tour title 2013, Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge; Orlando, Florida on 25 March 2013. His score was 69-70-66-70 and he defeated Justin Rose to win 1080000 US Dollar cash prize.

With this victory, Tiger Woods, 37, regained the world number one spot on 25 March 2013, replacing Rory McIlroy. This is his third win of the 2013 PGA Tour season and 77th career PGA win. Runner-up Justin Rose finished with two-under 70 to finish at 13-under and climbed to the third position in the world ranking other scores were-Mark Wilson (71), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (72) and Keegan Bradley (71).

JORGE BERGOGLIO THE NEW POPE CHOSE FRANCIS HIS PAPAL NAME

Jorge Bergoglio: He is the 266th Pope (head of the Roman Catholic Church)

The cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chose Argentine Jorge Bergoglio on 13 March 2013 as the new Pope. The new pope chose Francis as his Papal Name and he replace Pope Benedict XVI. He is the first non-European pope in almost 1300 years and first pontiff from the Americas. A Pope sits in the Vatican City.

Before Jorge Bergoglio, no other Pope took the Papal Name Francis after Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint Francis of Assisi was the reformer of 13th Century, who lived in extreme poverty and preached his followers to preach the Gospel always, if necessary use words.

After being elected as the Pope, Pope Francis waved his hands to the huge crowd gathered at St. Peter’s Square. The cardinals elected Jorge Bergoglio as the new pope after completion of the fifth ballot, but in all these ballots there existed no clear front-runner into the vote. For being elected to the position of the Pope, a winner must secure 77 votes or two-thirds of the 115 votes.





Before this in the year 2005, Pope Benedict XVI was the front-runner in the fourth ballot. In 1978 Pope John Paul II was elected after eighth ballot and was the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years.

Pope Benedict XVI, who was appointed pope in the year 2005 resigned from his position in February 2013 claiming that he was infirm to carry. He was the first pope in past 600 years to resign after Pope Gregory XII, who resigned from the position in 1415 to put an end to the Great Western Split among competing papal claimants.

IMPORTANCE OF CHIMNEY SMOKE IN COMPLETION OF THE ELECTION PROCESS

The colour of the smoke from chimney plays a vital role in indicating the completion of election process of a Pope. When the process of election of a Pope is completed and he accepts his position, the ballots are burnt immediately.

Traditionally, these ballots are burnt dry or with the help of chemical additives. When a pope is elected, white smoke appears from the chimney. On the other hand, appearance of the black smoke indicates that voting has remained inconclusive. After the election of the Pope, white smoke appeared from Sistine Chapel Chimney on 13 March 2013, which indicated that a Pope was elected and he also accepted his position.

WHAT IS PAPAL NAME?

Papal Name is the name used by the Popes at the time, when they are in the office. This activity of choosing a name first started in sixth century and became a custom in the 10th Century. Since 16th Century every pope had been choosing the papal name.

ELECTION PROCESS OF THE POPE

The process of electing a new pope is called conclave and a college of cardinals is responsible for his election. Conclave is the process of seizing the members of the college in the Vatican City, authorized to vote, leaving them in no-contact with the outside world. During the voting process the Cardinals are locked inside the Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace. The Conclave is initiated after 15 days and before 20 days of Pope’s death or resignation. During this complete process the cardinals are made to stay in the hospital inside the Vatican called as St. Martha’s House that has 130 rooms. All the arrangements are made to make sure that no one from the outside world is able to get in touch with any of the cardinals or vice-versa, when they are transported from the St. Martha's and the Sistine Chapel.

RULES LAID DOWN FOR ELECTION OF A NEW POPE

• The number of electors from the College of Cardinals is 120 may be whatever is the number of Cardinals in the college.





• A Cardnal, who had attended the age of 80 years before the Papacy day is not allowed to participate in the Conclave.

• Any contestant, who is able to win more than two-third of the votes is elected as the Pope

• The ballot is conducted twice in morning and afternoon continuously for four days, before declaring the result

• In case, the cardinals fail to elect a Pope with 12 or 13 days, they can impose a majority vote and select the new Pope with simple majority

XI JINPING TOOK OVER AS THE NEW PRESIDENT OF CHINA

The new leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xi Jinping on 14 March 2013 was appointed as the President of China. It is important to note that Xi Jinping, 59, was also chosen as the General Secretary of CPC in November 2012. He overtook the office from Hu Jintao.

On 14 March 2013, Xi Jinping was approved by National People’s Congress (NPC), the Parliament of China, in the comprehensive election process at Great Hall of the People. Out of 2963 delegates of NPC, there were 2956 delegates present. Out of the present delegates, 2952 voted for Xi Jinping. Only one vote was cast against him, while three representatives did not vote.

Politburo member Li Yuanchao (63) was also chosen as the Vice President of Xi Jinping on the same day with 2839 votes in favour of him. Li Keqiang, 57, was appointed as the Prime Minister of China. He replaced Wen Jiabao.

• President of China: Xi Jinping • Vice President of China: Li Yuanchao • Prime Minister of China: Li Keqiang

NUMBER OF HIGH COURTS WENT UP TO 24 FROM 21

Three new High Courts opened in Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya

Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur on 23 March 2013 got their own High Courts. Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre, Judge of Chhattisgarh High Court took oath as the first Chief Justice of Manipur High Court on 23 March 2013. Gurbachan Jagat Governor of Manipur administered his oath for the office in Imphal.

Justice Deepak Gupta along with three other judges would be administered the oath to the High Court of Tripura by the Governor of Bihar and Tripura Dr. D Y Patil. Ashwini Kumar, the Union Law Minister will open the High Court of Manipur in Presence of Chief Justice of India, Altamas Kabir on 25 December 2013. With the opening of the three high Courts in the North Eastern states of India, the total number of high Courts in India has gone up to 24 from previous 21.





GOVT DECIDED TO INTRODUCE NATIONAL POLICY ON DRUG ABUSE

To check the alarming rise of drug abuse in various parts of the country, the Union government in March 2013 decided to introduce a National Policy on Drug Abuse and has formed an expert committee to suggest guidelines for it.

The Decision in this regard was taken by the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry with an expert committee which was formed to study nation-wide scenario of drug and substance abuse. The committee on National Policy on Drug Abuse is being headed by a senior Ministry official and experts from various backgrounds have been roped in it as members. The Committee made its first presentation to the Union SJ&E Minister Kumari Selja and highlighted some of the key issues such as lack of a credible national data on drug addiction and the delayed pilot projects for assessment in Punjab, Maharashtra and Manipur.

The Ministry had planned to start the pilot project in December in year 2012 with a deadline to complete it by February 2013. The Ministry has also formed several schemes to break the demand and supply nexus of drug consumption, but due to lack of a national policy, these schemes are not being implemented properly.

The Committee includes experts from some top medical colleges, centres engaged in task of rehabilitation of drug victims, officials of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and other stakeholders. Regular consultations are being conducted with all stakeholders and organisations engaged in rehabilitation of drug victims. The policy will also ensure a better coordination among agencies and state governments while providing periodical data on impact of the schemes launched by the Ministry.

HALF OF AFRICA’S LIONS FACING EXTINCTION THREAT: STUDY

The study conducted by a team of Lion Biologists of University of Minnesota in the first week of March 2013 found that around half of the wild lion population of Africa would decline to almost extinction over the period of 20-40 years if conservation measures were not taken.

It was estimated that at present, less than 30000 lions remain in Africa in around 25 percent of natural habitat. The study led by Professor Craig Packer as well as co-authored by a whole team of lion biologists made use of the field data from 11 different African countries. In the study, the cost for managing the fenced as well as unfenced habitats was examined. Also, in the study, the lion population densities along with the trends were studied.

In the report, it was found that the cost of conservation in the reserves which are secured by wildlife-proof fences was lower in comparison to unfenced ecosystems, while the size as well as densities of the lion population was higher.

It was also identified that the lions living in the unfenced reserves were prone to higher degree of dangers from the human communities. Lions in the unfenced reserves faced





threats such as retaliatory killing by the herders, fragmentation and habitat loss as well as overhunting of the lion prey.

In context with the study, Panthera, a US-based wild cat conservation organisation declared that the study highlighted the degree of lion conservation crisis as well as the limited choices for safeguarding their future.

The lion biologists declared that fencing or some kind of alternative physical boundary like intensely managed buffer zones was important to separate lion population from humans in order to ensure the survival of the species. There was a need for decreasing the lion-human conflict.

BARC DEVELOPED LARGEST MAGNET OF THE WORLD

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, which is the state-owned centre of India, announced that it was developing the largest magnet of the world. This largest magnet would weigh 50000 tons.

The magnet is said to be much bigger than the one which is found at Compact Muon Solenoid detector at CERN in Geneva. This magnet will play a crucial role in the India-based Neutrino Observatory which will come up almost 4300 feet below the cave in the mountain in Tamil Nadu.

The Head of the atomic research centre's nuclear physics division announced that the magnet to be developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre would be the largest in the world in terms of its dimensions. The magnet will be iron-based and will weigh 50000 tons. The weight of the magnet at CERN ranges somewhere between 4000 and 5000 tons.

INDIA & US AGREED ON COOPERATION IN MOON & MARS MISSIONS

India and the US in the Month of March 2013 agreed for cooperation on future missions to the Moon and Mars after successful collaboration in Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission. The highly successful Chandrayaan-1 Lunar Mission, which was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in October 2008 led to strong evidence of the presence of lunar water.

So, In light of the Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission NASA and ISRO agreed to explore further cooperative space exploration work, including future missions to the Moon and Mars.

The scientist from both the working group of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) agreed to continue discussions in planetary science and Heliophysics to identify areas of potential cooperation.





The value of mutual cooperation was well reflected, it can be supported from the fact that with the addition of two NASA instruments on the successful Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission, led to significant discoveries about lunar surface characteristics.

The existing cooperation, in the use of US and Indian earth observation satellite data, helped in producing information yielding a broad range of societal benefits including improved weather and monsoon forecasting, disaster management and response, improved agricultural and natural resource use and better understanding of climate change.





INTERNATIONAL

INDIA AND PORTUGAL SIGNED A SOCIAL SECURITY AGREEMENT

A Social Security Agreement (SSA) was signed between India and Republic of Portugal on 4 March 2013 at New Delhi. The agreement was signed by Vayalar Ravi, the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and Paulo Sacadura Cabral Portas, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs of Portugal.

The bilateral social security agreement would help in taking advantage of the emerging employment opportunities and strengthening the trade and investments between the two countries. At present about 75000 Indians are living in Portugal and it includes self-employed people as well as working professionals.

BENEFITS TO INDIAN NATIONALS WORKING IN PORTUGAL

• For short term contract of up to 5 year, no social security contribution should be paid

under the Portuguese law by the detached workers, in case they are making their

contribution of the social security payment in India.

• In case an employee is sent to Republic of Portugal by an Indian Company from a third

company then also the benefits of the agreement will be available to the Indian worker.

• Indian workers shall be entitled to the export of the social security benefit if they

relocate to India after the completion of their service in Republic of Portugal.

• The self-employed Indians in Republic of Portugal would also be entitled to export of

social security benefit on their relocation to India.

• The period of contribution in one contracting state will be added to the period of

contribution in the second contracting state for determining the eligibility for social

security benefits.

India has signed the Social Security Agreement with 17 countries of the world and they are Belgium, Germany (Social Insurance), Hungary, Switzerland, France, The Czech Republic, Republic of Korea, Germany (Comprehensive SSA), Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Japan, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Canada, Sweden and Austria.

INDIA-UNITED KINGDOM SUMMIT 2013: AGREEMENTS REACHED





The India-UK Summit talks took place on 19 February 2013 in New Delhi during the official visit of British Prime Minister, David Cameron to India. The British Prime Minister was accompanied with his Ministerial colleagues as well as delegation which included largest British trade delegation ever to visit India, i.e., the university Vice Chancellors, leaders of the UK-India CEO Forum and members of Parliament.

In the official visit, the progress which was made between the two countries since previous Summit in 2010, was reviewed and discussed. The issues which were discussed included:

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND COOPERATION

It was found that the trade between India and UK grew at a positive pace since last Summit in 2010. The average growth of the trade in 2010 and 2011 was 23 percent. However, in 2012, the economic climate remained tougher. It was decided that trade and investment between the two countries would be increased.

Two-way investment between India and UK since 2010 Summit was also reviewed. It was found that UK was 3rd largest investor in India now and India, on the other hand, was 5th largest investor in UK.

It was also additionally found that signature of an Amending Protocol of their Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) in October 2012 provided tax stability to residents of the two countries. It also led to flow of investment, services as well as technology.

During the visit, the leaders also had a meeting with the members of the UK-India CEO forum. During the meeting, recommendations in context with advance manufacturing and R&D, education and skills, healthcare, and infrastructure and energy were taken.

The EU-India negotiations were discussed as well. It was found that Free Trade Agreement would help in generation of jobs as well as growth of the two countries. UK extended co-operation with India for development of a new Bengaluru-Mumbai Economic Corridor (BMEC).

During the visit, it was also found that co-investment made by both countries in supporting joint research activities increased from 1 million pounds in 2009 to more than 100 million pounds in 2013. It was agreed by the leaders of both the nations that energy security challenge would be faced in a co-operative manner.

India and UK during the visit of the UK PM agreed to discuss between relevant agencies working in the field of petroleum conservation in the two countries. It was decided that the two countries would promote joint cooperation through activities where exchanging technology and knowledge would lead to fuel conservation.





It was agreed to encourage Indian Public Sector Undertakings and UK oil and gas companies for exploring possibilities of upstream oil and gas sector investment in India, the UK and in third countries. The issue of cyber security was also discussed.

The two nations also agreed to work towards security of nuclear weapons. It was agreed that regular consultations on disarmament and non-proliferation issues would be held. UK Prime Minister David Cameron committed to facilitate India with cutting edge British technology, civil and military, in accordance with the international obligations.

International security matters such as conflict in Syria and Iran’s nuclear programme were also discussed during the visit. Both the nations agreed to deepen the existing India-UK strategic consultations on developments in West Asia / Middle East. Establishing a new Joint Working Group was also agreed upon. This was done for regular bilateral dialogue on peace, security and development in Afghanistan.

OTHER DISCUSSIONS AND DIALOGUES

The two nations considered the results of India-UK Education Forum meeting which took place on 30 January 2013 in London.

India welcomed the British Council’s programme for providing digital English language materials for Indian learners.

Both India and UK affirmed welcoming legitimate travellers, including students, tourists, visitors, business people or qualified workers.

INDIA & UK SIGNED MOU TO CO-OPERATE ON EARTH SCIENCES

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between India and UK to strengthen their cooperation in Earth Sciences and environmental research on 1 March 2013 in New Delhi. The MOU will allow the two countries to share information on meteorology, hydrology and climate variability.

MAJOR POINTS OF THE MOU SIGNED

• The MOU inked between India and UK will allow the two to share information on

meteorology, hydrology and climate variability.

• The MOU will also help in promoting exchange of scientific and technical capabilities.

• The MOU will facilitate India and UK to identify new opportunities for collaborative

activities as well as co-funding new environmental research.

• The MOU was signed between the Earth System Science Organisation of the Ministry of

Earth Sciences and Natural Environment Research Council of UK. Science and

Technology Minister of India, S Jaipal Reddy was also present.





The Memorandum of Understanding will help India in improving the forecasting capability of various weather and climate-related phenomena by sharing the expertise and knowledge. This advance forecasting will help people associated with the agriculture sector, which is the main sector of the India’s economy.

PAKISTAN GOVERNMENT COMPLETED ITS HISTORIC FIVE YEAR TERM

Pakistan's government made history on 16 March 2013, with the parliament becoming the first democratically chosen body to complete its five-year term. Pakistan has faced three military coups and persistent political turmoil.

The election will be held within 60 days as per the constitution of Pakistan. Meanwhile, there will be an interim government to manage the affairs of the country.

After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on 27 December 2007, the parliamentary elections which were scheduled to be held in January were postponed until 18 February 2013. The PPP won the considerable victory, winning 121seats from all provinces in the Parliament, whilst the centre-right, Pakistan Muslim League managed to secure 91 seats from all over the country.

NEPAL AND US TO CONDUCT JOINT MILITARY EXERCISES

Nepal and United States decided to conduct the military exercises jointly in the last week of March 2013. The joint military exercises will also include other countries such as India. The joint military exercises are called Shanti Prayas-2 or Peace Initiatives and these will be conducted in Panchkhal, 50 km east of Kathmandu from 25 March 2013 to 7 April 2013.

The Armies of Nepal and the US, apart from other countries announced participating in this drill, which is said to be the latest in Asia-Pacific region. This drill is designed for promotion of security as well as regional peace, while also enhancing the peacekeeping capabilities as well as capacity of the nations which participate in Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI). GPOI is the initiative of G8 nations for increasing the operations for peace support across the worldwide. The training which will be conducted during the joint military exercises will include- vignette based staff training exercise as well as field training exercise.

VIGNETTE BASED STAFF TRAINING EXERCISE

The Staff Training Exercise will include Nepal Army officers apart from the officers from countries such as Rwanda, South Korea, Canada, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Australia, Bangladesh, Philippines, Tajikistan, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Paraguay, Japan and Jordan. The purpose of the training would be to refine the staff skills of the military officers who primarily function in UN peacekeeping missions across the world.

FIELD TRAINING EXERCISE





The field training exercise on the other hand, will be conducted by the armies from Nepal, Philippines, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Rwanda, Paraguay, Indonesia, Japan and Jordan. This training will be offered by international cadre of instructors who have wide training experience in peacekeeping. Also the personnel from the US Pacific Command will facilitate the training. The purpose of the training would be enhancement of basic skills which are required while conducting the peacekeeping operations like convoy operations, checkpoint operations as well as patrolling.

MARRIAGE (SAME SEX COUPLES) BILL 2012-2013 APPROVED IN BRITAIN

The British House of Commons voted on 5 February 2013 to pass the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2012-2013, which legalise same-sex marriage in UK. The bill received votes of 400 to 175. It is important to note that the bill is strongly supported by the Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Bill was presented in the UK Parliament on 24 January 2013. The legislation applied to Wales and England. This would allow civil marriage between the couples of same sex. However, the Church of England as well as certain other faiths was exempted from the obligation of performing such ceremonies. Certain faith groups such as Quakers announced that legal right was required for performing the same-sex marriages.

The bill will now have to pass in House of Lords. In the House of Commons, 127 out of 303 Conservative lawmakers voted in favour of the bill while 136 voted against it. 5 remained absent while 35 did not register their vote.

Majority of the votes which approved the bill came from Labour Party, which is in opposition, as well as the Liberal Democrats, the center-left party. These two parties are in coalition with the Conservatives. If the Bill is approved, it would put Britain on path of some of the other European nations such as Denmark, Netherlands and Spain, which open the marriage to the homosexuals.

PRESIDENT OF EGYPT VISITED INDIA: MAJOR DEALS SIGNED

The President of Egypt Dr. Mohamed Morsy visited India from 18 March 2013 to 20 March 2013. He was accompanied by his senior ministers as well as business delegation.

It is important to note that bilateral trade between India and Egypt increased in past few years and this stands at 5.5 billion US Dollars. India is also the seventh largest trading partner of Egypt as well as the second largest source of the exports. The cumulative investments of India in Egypt are over 2.5 billion US Dollars.

Deals signed are as follows

MOU ON COOPERATION IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY





• This MoU was signed between Indian Minister for

Communications & Information Technology, Kapil

Sibal and Egyptian Minister of Communications

and Information Technology, Eng. Atef Helmy.

• In the MoU, certain core areas were identified for

cooperation. This included e-education, sharing

experiences in creation of Technology Parks and

IT clusters e-governance, IT and electronics

hardware as well as strengthening cooperation

between ICT companies in private sector.

MOU ON COOPERATION IN THE AREA OF CYBER SECURITY

• This MoU was signed between Indian Minister for Communications & Information

Technology, Kapil Sibal and Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information

Technology, Eng. Atef Helmy.

• In the MoU, it was decided that expertise for exchanging the information on different

aspects of cyber security would be shared. It was also decided that both the countries

would support each other in undertaking right measures for preventing cyber security

incidents.

MOU FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE IN IT (CEIT) IN EGYPT

• This MoU was signed between External Affairs Minister of India, Salman Khursid and

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, Mohamed K. Amr.

• The MoU signed for establishing Centre for Excellence in IT (CEIT) in Al Azhar University

is considered as an important step in meeting the goals of technical and development

cooperation between India and Egypt.

• Under this MoU, India will facilitate human resources, hardware as well as software for

setting up centre for the training of upto 500 students per year.

• Egypt, on the other hand, will facilitate establishment of centre including the provision

of space and logistical support.

MOU ON COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES

• This MoU was signed between Chairman cum Managing DirectorNational Small

Industries Corporation (NSIC), India and Managing DirectorSocial Fund for Development

(SFD), Egypt.





• The MoU will help in sharing information, meeting between the enterprises, technology

transfers as well as provision of consultation services for enhancing abilities of business

enterprises of both the countries.

MOU FOR COOPERATION IN THE FIELDS OF PROTECTION, PRESERVATION, PROMOTION AND MANAGEMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE

• This MoU was signed between Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage and

Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs, Arab Republic of Egypt.

• This helps in facilitating joint activities, sharing information as well as exchange of

expertise through joint projects, workshops and conferences.

• The MoU will also help in cooperation in the field of protection of intellectual property

rights and prevention of illicit traffic of antiquities.

Agreement between the Government of Egypt and the Government of India for Up gradation of a Vocational Training Centre at Shourba El Kheima, Cairo, Egypt.

• An agreement was signed between the Government of Egypt represented by Industrial

Development Authority and the Government and Government of India represented by

National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), New Delhi.

• As part of the MoU, NSIC will be upgrading the Vocational Training Centre at Shoubra El

Kheima, Cairo especially in the technological upgradation required in the area of

spinning, weaving, knitting and dyeing technology.

LETTER OF INTENT ON INDIA-EGYPT SOLAR ENERGY COOPERATION

• A Letter of Intent was also signed between Ministry of New and Renewable Energy,

India and Ministry of Electricity and Energy of Egypt.

• The letter envisages providing 8.8 kilowatt of power using solar energy to 40 households

in a village in Siwa located in Martrouh Governorate of Egypt.

Letter of Intent on launch services of the Egyptian Nano Satellite EGYCUBESAT-1 on board the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) by Antrix Cooperation Ltd

This Letter of Intent was signed between Antrix Corporation Ltd., the commercial wing of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Egyptian National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS).

LEBANON PM ANNOUNCED GOVERNMENT’S RESIGNATION





The Prime Minister of Lebabon, Najib Mikati on 22 March 2013 announced resignation of his Government. The decision came after the cabinet failed to approve the commission to oversee elections, scheduled in June 2013 and refusal of the cabinet in extending the tenure of the Police Chief Major General Ashraf Rifi, who will retire in April 2013.

The dispute was mainly created by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah that dominates the Parliament of Lebanon. The resignation of the Government still awaits its acceptance by the President, Michel Suleiman.

With the resignation of the Government, Lebanon has entered into the political crisis and it has been suffering from the protests in Syria. The Syrian conflict had affected Lebanon by the emigration of the refugees from Syria to Lebanon, which was also responsible in the slowdown of the country’s economy and a surge of 67 percent in its budget deficit in 2012.

FAA TO CLOSE 149 AIR TRAFFIC TOWERS DUE TO BUDGET CUT

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on 22 March 2013 announced closure of 149 Air Traffic Control Towers across United States. The decision of shutting down the traffic control towers came in wake of the budget cuts that had trimmed several million dollars from it.

The decision will be in affect from 7 April 2013 in the small airports of across the country. Shutting down of the towers will not force the shutdown of the airports but now, the pilots will have to coordinate the landings and takeoffs among themselves on a shared radio frequency. The pilots will receive no help from ground controllers.

Federal Aviation Administration was forced by the authorities to slash 637 million dollars for rest of the fiscal year that ends on 30 September 2013. The administration had only one option of ending most of its employees to a periodic unpaid leave. The airports that had been targeted for forced shut down of the towers had 150000 total flight operations per year f which only 10000 are the commercial flights by passengers’ airlines.

US AND AFGHANISTAN REACHED AGREEMENT ON PRISON TRANSFER

The United States on 23 March 2013 agreed to transfer the control of the prison that houses insurgents and other dangerous inmates adjacent to Bagram Airfield to Afghanistan. The agreement of to transfer to Afghan Control reached to an agreement after a week’s long intensified negotiations between the officials of both the parties.





The formal transfer of control will take place on 25 March 2013 and the provisions of the transfer includes that inmates who are a threat to the security and peace of Afghanistan and the international forces shall continue to be under detention under Afghan Law.

The Parwan Detention Facility was turning up to be a point of increasing friction between the two countries and thus the US Defence Secretary; Chuck Hagel spoke to Hamid Karzai the president of Afghanistan. The Afghan President made a commitment to carry on the transfer of power ensuring safety of the Afghan people and the coalition forces and keep the detained individuals secured with a humane approach, following the guidelines prescribed under Afghan Law.

Earlier the negotiations were reached and an agreement of transferring the Parwan Detention Facility was agreed upon in September 2012, when US agreed to hand over the responsibility of more than three thousand detainees to Afghanistan. After the transfer ceremony, the U.S. troops remained at the prison to control the area around it.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA ROLLED OUT 10-YEAR PLAN TO ENHANCE TRADE

South Australia on 25 March 2013 rolled out a 10-year strategic Plan to enhance trade ties with India by holding its first meeting of South Australia-India Council in Adelaide.

The State Trade Minister of South Australia Tom Kenyon asserted that it is being done to strategically identify key sectors of the economy that could take advantage of India’s rapid development and create local jobs. The SA-India Council held its first meeting in Adelaide on 25 March 2013 as part of the State Government’s long-term strategy to become a significant trade and investment partner with India.

The South Australia-India Council, which includes experts from business, government and the community, will play a leading role in helping guide that strategy. The council is being supported by an Indian team within the Department for Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy (DMITRE).

This team will focus on the industry sectors identified in the India strategy – aerospace and defence, energy and natural resources, education and training and clean technology, with the identification of commercial possibilities and prioritizing of trade and investment strategies will be developed to ensure South Australia can respond rapidly and flexibly.

The India Council – chaired by Strategic Adviser to India Brian Hayes – will be responsible for the governance, oversight and refinement of the India strategy. The other members of the India Advisory Council are Raymond Spencer (Chair Economic Development Board), Geoff Knight (Chief Executive DIMTRE), Don Frater (Executive Director State Development), Paul Sandercock





(Executive Director SMR Automotive), Andrew Downs (Group Managing Director Sage Automation), among others.

US PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SIGNED SHORT-TERM BUDGET BILL

US President Barack Obama signed into law a short-term budget Bill on 26 March 2013 in Washington that removes the alarming threat of a Government shutdown by funding the US government through the end of the year.

The lower chamber of Congress passed the measure last week 318-109; a day after the upper Senate had approved the effort 73-26. The final vote was 318-109 — 115 Democrats joined 203 Republicans to pass the bill.

The budget provides 1 trillion dollar through the end of the budget year on 30 September 2013 but maintains 85 billion dollar in across-the-board austerity measures that took effect earlier in March 2013. The measure on the other hand allows certain government departments, including the Defence Department, more suppleness in enacting the mandatory cuts.

The new bill which is also Known as a continuing resolution, extends funding levels for the government through the fiscal year at the levels already agreed to by both parties. Congress has been under pressure to produce a Bill; as if a short-term funding blueprint had not been agreed to before 27 March 2013 the Government would have run out of money.

To avert a government shutdown, Congress has had to pass a series of short-term measures because it did not pass a year-long budget. The threat of a government shutdown was the latest budgetary standoff between Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, and Obama and his Democratic Party, which controls the Senate.

INDIA AND LIECHTENSTEIN SIGNED TIEA

India and Liechtenstein signed the Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) on 28 March 2013 at Bern, Switzerland. The agreement was signed between Indian Ambassador in Switzerland and Ambassador of Liechtenstein in Switzerland.

THE PRIMARY FEATURES OF TIEA WERE AS FOLLOWS

• TIEA is based on international standard of transparency and exchange of information.

• It was decided that the information should be anticipated in context with the

administration and enforcement of the domestic laws of the Contracting Parties in

relation with the taxes included in the agreement.





• There was also a specific provision that the requested Party will make use of the

information gathering measures to obtain the requested information, despite the fact

that the Party does not need any such information for its tax purposes.

• A specific provision was incorporated in the agreement wherein it was decided that

ownership and banking information shall be provided.

• The TIEA facilitates the representatives of the competent authority of the requesting

Party to enter the territory of the requested Party in order to interview the individuals

as well as examine the records.

• The Agreement also includes specific provisions for protecting the confidentiality of the

information obtained under the Agreement. It was decided that the information has to

be kept secret or should be disclosed only to specific people and authorities, which are

its oversight body or tax authorities.

• The Agreement will be effective one month after the letter of notification. It is possible

to exchange the information if it pertains to taxable periods beginning on or after 1 April

2013.

• TIEA additionally also facilitates exchange of documents or information created in or

derived from a date preceding 1 April 2013.

BRICS SUMMIT 2013: SOUTH AFRICA AND RUSSIA SIGNED AGREEMENT

An agreement, on the RadioAstron space satellite was signed between the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) on the Margins of BRICS Summit on 26 March 2013 in Durban.

The agreement paved the way for the two countries to work together on the development of science and space technologies. In 2006 the South African and Russian governments signed an agreement to cooperate on the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes.

The agreement signed confirms a strategic role in the area of global space science and technology and also provides an opportunity to use space science and technology to contribute towards socio-economic development. As per the agreement, Roscosmos will provide the hardware for upgrading the tracking station (antenna) for compatibility with RadioAstron, while SANSA will install and maintain the upgraded hardware and operate the tracking station.

ABOUT RADIOASTRON

• The RadioAstron satellite was launched by Roscosmos on 18 July 2011. • It carries a radio telescope that will obtain images and coordinates of various radio-

emitting objects. • The idea is to complement the capability of ground-based very long baseline

interferometry (VLBI) instruments with a space-based VLBI instrument.





• The project is an international collaboration led by the Astro Space Centre of the Lebedev Physical Institute (Russian Academy of Sciences) in Moscow.

• Other partners include the European Space Agency, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (USA), the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (India), and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia).

HOW RADIOASTRON WILL BE USED?

The RadioAstron mission will support and enhance investment in radio astronomy infrastructure in Africa, contributing to capacity building and socio-economic development on the continent. RadioAstron will complement other radio astronomy facilities in Africa (like the Square Kilometre Array), enhancing the continent’s reputation as a premier destination for radio astronomy.

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INTERNATIONAL QUIZZES

1. Cyprus Presidential Elections and Nicos Anastasiades, which of the below mentioned statements in relation to the two are true?

I. Nicos Anastasiades, won the Presidential elections of Cyprus with 57.5 percent votes

II. Nicos Anastasia is the party leader of the centre-right DISY (the Democratic Rally) party

III. Nicos Anastasiades had a very easy-going victory over Communist-backed Stavros Malas who secured 42.5 percent votes in the election.

IV. Nicos Anastasiades replaced the former President of Cyprus, Dimitris Christofias who served the office from 28 February 2008 onwards

a) Statements I, II and IV are true

b) Statements II, III and IV are true

c) Statements I, III and IV are true

d) All the four statements are true

Answer. (d) All the four statements are true

2. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between India and UK to strengthen their cooperation in Earth Sciences and environmental research at New Delhi. Which of the statements related to the MoU true?

I. The MoU inked between India and UK will allow the two to share information on meteorology, hydrology and climate variability.


http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs-international-world-1283850903-1




II. The MoU will also help in promoting exchange of scientific and technical capabilities.

III. The MoU will facilitate India and UK to identify new opportunities for collaborative activities as well as co-funding new environmental research but the researches will be conducted only in UK with no provisions for them to be conducted in India.

IV. The MoU was signed between the Earth System Science Organisation of the Ministry of Earth Sciences and Natural Environment Research Council of UK. Science and Technology Minister of India, S Jaipal Reddy was also present.





Answer. (a) Statements I, II and IV are true

3. During the visit of the British Prime Minister, David Cameron to India India-UK Summit 2013 was held. Which of the following statements in relation to the summit and its discussions true?

I. Decisions were made to boost the trade and investment between the two countries would be increased.

II. During the meeting, recommendations in context with advance manufacturing and R&D, education and skills, healthcare, and infrastructure and energy were taken

III. Leaders of both the countries met with the members of the UK-India CEO-Forum and the group failed in making any decision on security of nuclear weapons

IV. UK extended co-operation with India for development of a new Bengaluru-Mumbai Economic Corridor (BMEC)





Answer. (a) Statements I, II and IV are true

4. Which of the below mentioned statements true?

I. Social Security Agreement (SSA) was signed between India and Republic of Portugal in March 2013 at New Delhi





II. The bilateral social security agreement would help in taking advantage of the emerging employment opportunities and strengthening the trade and investments between the two countries.

III. The provisions of the agreement will be helpful for the self-employed Indians in Republic of Portugal would also be entitled to export of social security benefit on their relocation to India.

IV. Indian workers are not entitled to export of the social security benefit from Portugal, if they relocate to India after the completion of their service in Republic of Portugal.

a) Statements I, II and III are true

b) Statements I, II and IV are true

c) Statements II, III and IV are true


Answer. (a) Statements I, II and III are true

5. In which city does the Hot air balloon crashed in February 2013 because of mid-air gas explosion that killed 19 European and Asian tourists. The blast took place at 1000 feet (300 metres). The deceased were from Hong Kong, Japan, France and Britain.

a) Melbourne

b) Yarra Valley

c) Mansfield

d) Luxor

Answer. (d) Luxor

For More International Quizzes


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WORLD DAIRY

25 February 2013

Nicos Anastasiades won Cyprus presidential elections with 57.5 percent votes.

26 February 2013

Jelena Jankovic won WTA Copa Claro Colsanitas Cup 2013.

27 February 2013

First smartphone into space launched successfully from India.

28 February 2013

Somdev Devvarman crashed out of ATP Dubai Tennis Championship 2013.

1 March 2013

India and UK signed MoU on strengthening co-operation in earth sciences.

2 March 2013

Vijitha Bandara of Sri Lanka won Eighth NCR Cup Golf Tournament.

3 March 2013

World number one Novak Djokovic won the ATP Dubai Open Tennis title 2013.

Sahmim Khan won the PGTI Players Championship Title 2013.

4 March 2013

India-United Kingdom Summit 2013: issues discussed and agreed upon.

5 March 2013

India and Republic of Portugal signed a Social Security Agreement.

6 March 2013

Japan and US agreed on Free Trade Auto Exception.

7 March 2013





India proposed hydrocarbon pipeline from Kazakhstan.

8 March 2013

Barack Obama signed into law the Violence against Women Act Reauthorization 2013.

9 March 2013

Kenya Election: Uhuru Kenyatta won Kenya presidency.

10 March 2013

World Bank barred Larsen &Turbo for six months over forgery.

11 March 2013

US and South Korea started joint annual military drills.

China unveiled government restructuring plan; Ministry Of Railways to be dissolved.

India and Bhutan signed Currency Swap Agreement worth 100 million dollars.

12 March 2013

45th Independence Day of Mauritius celebrated; Pranab Mukherjee was the chief guest.

Iran and Pakistan launched Gas Pipeline Project.

13 March 2013

India clinched gold and a bronze medal in Asian Archery Grand Prix.

14 March 2013

Peter Banks, the original guitarist for rock band YES died at 65.

Jorge Bergoglio elected as the new pope; chose Francis as his Papal Name.

15 March 2013

Khil Raj Regmi to head the interim Government of Nepal; sworn-in as the Prime Minister.

India and Britain signed pact to support research and development projects.

Xi Jinping took over as the new President of China.

16 March 2013

Eurozone and IMF agreed for 10 billion Euros Cyprus bailout deal.

Parliament rejected Pakistan's resolution on Afzal Guru and claimed it interference.





17 March 2013

Pakistan Government completed its historic five year term.

18 March 2013

UAE inaugurated world’s largest solar power plant named Shams 1.

Nepal and United States decided to conduct joint military exercises called Shanti Prayas-2.

China became the world's fifth-largest arms exporter.

19 March 2013

Australia won Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament 2013 for the seventh time.

20 March 2013

The British House of Commons approved Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2012-2013.

21 March 2013

President of Egypt Dr. Mohamed Morsy visited India: major deals signed.

22 March 2013

Neha Tripathi won sixth leg of Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour 2013.

23 March 2013

Lebanon PM Najib Mikati announced resignation of his government amid cabinet dispute.

Federal aviation administration to close 149 air traffic towers due to budget cut.

24 March 2013

US and Afghanistan reached agreement on Prison Transfer.

25 March 2013

South Australia rolled out 10-year plan to enhance trade with India.

26 March 2013

Tiger Woods won Arnold Palmer Invitational 2013; regained world number 1 ranking.

27 March 2013





Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi resigned over marine case.

Three NRIs honoured by Indian High Commission in London on World Hindi Day 2013.

28 March 2013

US President Barack Obama signed Short-Term Budget Bill to avert government shutdown.

Brazil and China signed the Currency Swap Agreement: BRICS Summit 2013.

5th BRICS Summit held in Durban, South Africa.

29 March 2013

India and Liechtenstein signed the Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA).

BRICS Summit 2013: South Africa and Russian space agencies signed agreement.

Angelo Mathews named captain of the Pune Warriors India for IPL 6.

30 March 2013

Mercedes-Benz and Sahara Force India signed a long-term agreement.

31 March 2013

America’s Serena Williams won Miami Masters open Tennis Tournament 2013.





NATIONAL

ELECTRONICS PROJECT PROPOSAL SYSTEM E-PPS LAUNCHED

Union Minister Kapil Sibal on 6 March 2013 launched the Electronics Project Proposal System (e-PPS), developed by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, through the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) during a round table discussion with Academia, Industry and R&D Organisation. The e-PPS system will initially start as a pilot project.

WHAT IS ELECTRONIC PROJECT PROPOSAL SYSTEM (E-PPS)

It is a web based system in form of solution to fund the R&D projects, which will start from online submission of the project proposal for funds and will monitor as well as manage the funded projects.

PROCESSES SUPPORTED BY THE E-PPS SYSTEM

• Online submission of project proposals • Evaluation of proposals by experts • Project recommendations • Project Monitoring

IMPACT OF THE E-PPS SYSTEM

• It will replace existing manual system of project funding in which the project investigators submit hard copies of R&D proposals, which are presented to a Working Group and based on the recommendations of the Working Group the proposals are further processed

• The system would create a One-Go-Dash-Board to monitor the projects from its initiation to completion

• Will ease the processing time of the proposal and dissemination of the project information

CHARGES FRAMED AGAINST IROM SHARMILA FOR ATTEMPTING SUICIDE





The Patiala House Court, New Delhi on 4 March 2013 framed charges of allegedly attempting to commit suicide during her fast until death in the Capital in 2006 against Irom Sharmila Chanu, the Iron Lady from Manipur.

The Court framed charges against the Iron Lady for her attempt to commit suicide. The Court also issued a show cause notice to Irom Sharmila after she refused to plead guilty. She appeared before the court under Indian Penal Code 309 (attempt to commit suicide) for fasting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

IROM SHARMILA CHANU

Irom Sharmila had been fasting for more than 12 years for repealing of the Armed Forces Special Powers Actb 1958, AFSPA. Sharmila began her fast till death after ten persons, including a boy who received the National Bravery Award, were shot dead in an alleged encounter with Assam Rifles personnel at Malom near Imphal Airport on 2 November 2000. She is force fed, through her nose with a food pipe for more than a decade.

ARMED FORCES SPECIAL POWERS ACT, AFSPA

Violence became the way of life in north-eastern States of India. State administration became incapable to maintain its internal disturbance. Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance was promulgated by the President on 22 May 1958. In which some special powers have been given to the members of the armed forces in disturbed areas in the State of Assam and Union Territory of Manipur. Later the Ordinance was replaced by the armed Forces Special Powers Bill.

Iron Sharmila had been fasting for repealing of the armed forces Special Power Act from the North Eastern States. Her fast till death is a process of silent protest that had been in existence in the nation from the pre-independence era to the post independence era. From Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation to Anna Hazare had carried on with their protests alongwith their demands by Fasting.

Article 19 of the Constitution of India deals with the right of expression and speech and as fasting is a process of expressing the thoughts against the government thus it can be considered as a part of Article 19. This right cannot be denied until and unless there exist an illegality in the process. In fact, none of the Indian Courts till date have banned fasts in India and every individual have the right to go on fast to protest against the government.





Under IPC 309 her indefinite fasting is regarded as the attempt to commit suicide. IPC 309 Attempt to commit suicide-- Whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offence, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year 1 (or with fine, or with both.)

CCS APPROVED FLEXIBLE USE OF AIRSPACE

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on 8 March 2013 cleared Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA) by Civil and Military users, which was unsettled for last few years.

There was a necessity to fulfill the demand of national security, where the requirement of airspace by the military was to be fulfilled in the fast changing environment of air warfare. Therefore, sharing of airspace on a need basis, by civil and military users was an urgent national requisite.

Ajit Singh with taking over the charge as Union Civil Aviation Minister implemented the Flexible Use of Airspace, which will result in fuel saving of 202380 kg per annum and reduction of carbon dioxide emission by 6393600 kg per annum by direct routing between seven city pairs of Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Kolkata, Delhi–Chennai, Delhi-Hyderabad, Delhi-Begaluru, Kolkata-Chennai and Chennai-Mumbai for which the information is available.

OBJECTIVE OF FLEXIBLE USE OF AIRSPACE (FUA)

• The primary objective of FUA is to enhance airspace Capacity, minimize delays, fuel conservation, emission reduction and ultimate benefits to travelling public.

• Implementation of FUA through efficient civilian military co-ordination is an essential requirement to foster the traffic growth with ultimate benefit to the nation’s economy.

• FUA permits both military and civil user to efficiently and effectively utilize the available airspace on sharing basis to gain optimum usage, thereby enhancing its capacity, which results into efficient operations.

• In this model a coordinated procedure between the civil and the military and vice versa, as per need and on a real time basis if it is not being used by the user assigned with the responsibility for its control.

WORKING MECHANISM OF FLEXIBLE USE OF AIRSPACE (FUA)

• As a first step for implementation of the FUA in India, a National High Level Airspace Policy Body (NHLAPB) for airspace use is set up, to take up the job of strategic planning and assess/reassess the national airspace requirements of various stakeholders.

• It will establish flexible airspace use structure/committee’s and introduce procedures for allocation of these airspace structures.

• The NHLAPB will be chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation with representation from Ministry of Defence, Indian Air force, Indian Navy, Indian Space Research





Organization, Airport Authority of India and Directorate General of Civil Aviation. It can co-opt new members in future depending upon requirement.

The Ministry of Defence has agreed with the proposal for implementation of FUA, subject to ensuring adequate safeguards in the system to prevent inadvertent leak of Military information and dissemination of any information on Military Aviation activities strictly on need to know basis.

UNION CABINET CLEARED BILL TO TACKLE CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN

The Union Cabinet of India on 14 March 2013 cleared a Bill providing for severe punishment for rape, acid attack, stalking and voyeurism more to the point reducing the age of consent for sex to 16 years.

The bill which was named the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 lowers the age of consent for sex from 18 to 16 years with making of rape as a gender-specific offence under which men only can be charged for it. The Bill is brought in line with the Indian Penal Code, but at variance with the Child Protection Act, 2012, which raised it to 18.

The bill brought against the milieu of the 16 December 2012 Delhi gangrape, provides for minimum jail term of 20 years for rape which may be extended to natural life of the convict in jail. There is also provision for death sentence if the victim dies or is left in a 'persistent vegetative state'. Stalking, voyeurisms have been defined as criminal offences in the bill. Sustained stalking will be a non-bailable offence.

As per the bill there is replacement in more general expression sexual assault used in the ordinance. It also provides for the death sentence if the rape victim dies or ends up in a vegetative state. The approval of the Cabinet paves the way for introduction of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 in Parliament before it goes into recess on 22 March 2013. The bill also proposes a punishment of not less than 10 years to a maximum of life imprisonment Defining acid attack as a separate IPC offence. Repeat offences of voyeurism, inappropriate touch, gesture and remarks have been recommended as non-bailable offences.

INDIA’S FIRST ALL WOMEN POST OFFICE INAUGURATED BY KAPIL SIBAL

Union Minister of Communications & IT, Kapil Sibal on 8 March 2013 inaugurated the First All Women Employees Post Office of India at Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi.

The Post Office is called Project Arrow Office and consists of three counters. Two of the three counters offer Multi Purpose services such as registration, booking of money orders, booking of speed post as well as sale of IPOs. Other counter is meant to facilitate the sale of stamps. All the three counters will have only women employees.





Overall, there are 1003 women employees at operative level in Delhi circle. The percentage of these women in overall workforce is around 14 percent. In administrative cadres, percentage of women employees is 22 percent. It is also important to note that the Junior Engineer [Civil] - the in-charge of maintenance of the post office building, as well as the Assistant Superintendent of Post Offices of the Postal Sub Division and Senior Superintendent of Post Offices of Delhi Central division of this Post Office is also women.

UNION CABINET APPROVED ELECTRONIC SERVICES BILL

The Union Government on 18 March 2013 approved a bill that is directed towards providing access to all central and state government services such as passport, ration card and driving licences electronically, especially the Internet, within eight years.

The bill will be of directive nature and mandate the government organisations to start providing all services for citizen within eight years time through electronic medium. The (central and state) governments will notify the service that they will provide electronically in next 5 years. They will be given extra three years after five years to ensure all services all provided electronically.

The bill is supposed to bring more transparency in the system as the electronic delivery of services will help rein in corruption. The Electronic Service Delivery bill was brought before the Cabinet to bring it in sync with Citizens Charter Bill or The Right of Citizens for Time-Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011, and was approved by Union Cabinet on 7 March 2013.

GOVT APPROVED CHANGES IN BILL TO TACKLE BRIBERY BY FOREIGNERS

Union Government on 18 March 2013 approved changes in a proposed legislation according to which accepting or giving bribe by foreign public officials is a criminal offence implicating imprisonment of up to seven years among others penal provisions.

The bill which was named The Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and Officials of Public International Organisations Bill, 2011 was amended officially with the approval by the Union Cabinet.

It is evident that Bribery by foreign nationals is not covered under any domestic anti-corruption laws at present. So, the legislation, if passed by Parliament, will be a separate law to deal with bribery by foreign public officials.





As per the proposed Bill, the government can attach, seize and confiscate property of offenders. In addition it also has a provision for extradition of an accused official. The Bill, besides having a provision to punish both bribe taker and giver, also help empowering the government to enter into agreements with other countries or contracting states for enforcing this law and for exchange of investigative information.

The Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on 25 March 2011 and referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee in the month of April 2011. A report on the bill was given by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice on 29 March 2012.

CRIMINAL LAW (AMENDMENT) BILL 2013 PASSED IN THE LOK SABHA

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2013 was passed in the Lok Sabha on 19 March 2013. Now the bill will be the tabled in the Rajya Sabha, where the voting will take place.

The bill encompasses features that will provide stringent punishment for crimes against women such as rape, acid attacks, voyeurism and stalking. The punishments range from life term to death penalty for the repeated offenders. The Bill brought out after the Delhi gang rape of the Para-medical student on 16 December 2012, also fixed the age of consensual sex to 18 years.

KEY FEATURES OF THE CRIMINAL LAW (AMENDMENT) BILL 2013

• The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2013 was actually the Ordinance that was promulgated by the President of India on 3 February 2013.

• The bill seeks to make amendments in the Code of Criminal Procedure, Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act as well as Indian Evidence Act.

• The bill states that offender could be given an imprisonment of not less than 20 years, extendable up to life term.

• The bill also includes provisions for death sentence for offenders who are convicted earlier for such crimes.

• This is for the first time that the bill described voyeurism and stalking as the non-bailable offences, in case repeated for the second time.

• Perpetrators of acid attacks would be sentenced for 10-year jail term.

NEW OFFENCES INCORPORATED IN THE INDIAN PENAL CODE (IPC)

• Acid Attack • Attempt to Acid Attack





• Sexual Harassment • Public disrobing of woman • Voyeurism • Stalking

BACKGROUND

In light of the gang rape of female physiotherapy student on 16 December 2012 in Delhi, the judicial committee which was headed by Justice J. S. Verma was appointed by the Government of India on 22 December 2012 for submitting the report, suggesting amendments in criminal law for dealing with sexual assault cases. The Justice Verma panel, which is a 3-member commission created to review the laws for sexual crimes submitted the report to the Government of India on 23 January 2013.

As a result, the Cabinet Ministers approved the bringing of ordinance on 1 February 2013 for bringing into law the suggestions of Verma Committee Report. Subsequently, the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on 3 February 2013 agreed to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 for sharpening the laws against sexual assault.

UNION CABINET CLEARED NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY BILL

The Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on 19 March 2013 approved the National Food Security Bill.

The food security bill approved is directed towards giving the right to food to around 67 per cent of India's 120-crore population. The amendments to the Bill will guarantee 5 kg of foodgrains per person per month, while families in the poorest of the poor will continue to get 35 kg of grains per month.

As per the bill around 800 crore people will be entitled to get five kilos of subsidised grain per month. Rice will be made available at 3 Rupees per kilo; wheat will cost 2 rupees a kilo and cereal will be sold for 1 Rupees per kilo. The beneficiaries are supposed to be decided by state governments, while the criteria to exclude 33 per cent of population would be provided by the Planning Commission, Thomas said.

The scheme will be linked to the Aadhar scheme which provides every citizen with a unique identification number that's linked to a database that includes the biometrics of all card-holders. It is also evident from the present year budget, that 90000 crore Rupees is allocated for spending on food subsidies with the government setting aside an extra 10 000 crore Rupees for the bill.

In earlier versions, the Food Security Bill assigned subsidised grains on the basis of priority and general groups, which were demarcated on the basis of poverty levels. The Cabinet gave its nod to the 71 amendments proposed by the Food Ministry, including the one that said the 2.43





crore Antyodaya Anna Yojna beneficiary households will continue to get their quota of 35 kg grains a month under the public distribution system.

STANDARDS OF QUALITY OF SERVICE AMENDMENT REGULATIONS: NOTIFIED

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 22 March 2013 notified the Standards of Quality of Service (Duration of Advertisements in Television Channels) Amendment Regulations: 2013. The amendment regulation was notified for ensuring quality of service and protection of consumers’ interests.

The regulation makes it mandatory for the broadcasters to restrict duration of advertisement in channels for to a maximum limit of 12 minutes in one hour as already prescribed in the rules in existence. For fine monitoring of the compliance of the regulations by broadcasters, the regulatory authority had made it compulsory for the broadcasters to report the duration of advertisements carried on their channels on quarterly basis to them.

TRAI reached to the decision of notifying the standards of quality service after studying the issue of duration of advertisements that was carried on the TV channels that was obtained by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting from the broadcasters. The data obtained established a clear breach of the rule and regulations in existence by most of the TV Channels.

GOVT. CLEARED 1500 CRORE RUPEES PROPOSAL FOR PINAKA ROCKETS

The Union government in March 2013 approved a 1500 crore Rupees proposal for production of more than 2000 rockets for the Pinaka multi- barrel weapons system.

The proposal was approved to enhance the Army's firepower. The Indian Army requires more than 2000 of these rockets to equip its 10-12 regiments comprising the Pinaka launchers. A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which was headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had given its approval to the proposal enthused by the Defence Ministry for upgrading the capabilities of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) for producing these rockets.

According the proposal, the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) under the Department of Defence Production, is going to upgrade facilities at nine of its factories involved in the production of Pinaka rockets.

It was also decided by the defence Ministry to drive in 15000 crore rupees to augment domestic military production with a focus on indigenisation to avoid scams in acquisition of foreign military hardware. The major plans of OFB include augmentation of production capabilities for T-90 and T-72 tanks, engines for armoured vehicles and setting up of 155mm howitzer production plants.





It was also decided by Ministry's Department of Defence Production to hike the allocation from 583 crore Rupees during the 11th Plan period to 15000 crore Rupees for modernisation of the production capabilities of OFB during the current Plan. The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) list includes upgrading of 130mm M46 field artillery guns to 155mm 45 calibre standard, development of 155mm 52 calibre mounted howitzers and integration of the 105mm field guns on BMP combat vehicles.

WHAT ARE PINAKA ROCKETS?

Pinaka is a multiple rocket launcher produced in India and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the Indian Army.

• The Pinaka system has a maximum range of 39–40 km and can fire a salvo of 12 HE rockets in 44 seconds, neutralizing a target area of 3.9 km2.

• The system is mounted on a Tatra truck for mobility. • Pinaka was in service and in large use during the Kargil War, where it was successful in

neutralizing enemy positions on the mountain tops. It has since been inducted into the Indian Army in large numbers.

• Pinaka is a complete MBRL system, each Pinaka battery consists of: six launcher vehicles, each with 12 rockets; six loader-cum-replenishment vehicles; three replenishment vehicles; two Command Post vehicles (one stand by) with a Fire Control computer, and the DIGICORA MET radar.


NATIONAL QUIZZES

1. Name the newly appointed Director General of Indian Coast Guard?

a) Vice Admiral V.A. Kamath

b) Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal

c) Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan

d) Director General Dr. P Paleri

Answer. (b) Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal

2. Name the Interceptor Boat that was commissioned by the Indian Coast Guard in February 2013.

a) Arneson Surface Drive Based Interceptor Boat C-164

b) Arneson Surface Drive Based Interceptor Boat C-401

c) INS Saryu


http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs-national-india-1283851987-1




d) Arneson Surface Drive Based Interceptor Boat C-154

Answer. (d) Arneson Surface Drive Based Interceptor Boat C-154

3. Which of the following statements related to Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) is true?

I. Joint Parliamentary Committee is an standing Parliamentary Committee that is constituted by the Indian parliament.

II. The JPC is constituted only after a motion is adopted in one house of the Parliament and accepted by the other house.

III. A Joint Parliamentary committee can also be formed when the presiding chiefs of both houses communicates with each other in writing for the formation of the joint parliamentary committee.

IV. The strength of JPC can be different every time it is constituted but the number of members from the Lok Sabha is always double to the members from Rajya Sabha in the committee formed.

a) Statement I is only true



d) Statements I, III and IV are true

Answer. (c) Statements II, III and IV are true

4. Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha in last week of February 2013. Which of the statements in relation to the Bill is true?

I. The bill seeks protection for women in all type of organised, unorganized as well as Private Sectors, including the sexual harassment of domestic help as well as agricultural workers.

II. The bill had made it mandatory for every organization with 40 or more employees to form an internal complaint committee to deal with the complaints of sexual offences. The committees should be disposed of within 90 days and organizations that fails to follow the guidelines, would be penalized with 50000 rupees.

III. Organisations that repeatedly violate the provisions of the bill would be penalized to a greater level and the offence may lead to the cancellation of the licenses or registration of the business conduct.

IV. Under its list of offences, the bill covers sexual remarks, sexual favour demands, any act of unwelcome touch and physical advance and showing pornography.





a) Statement I is only true



d) Statements I, III and IV are true

Answer. (d) Statements I, III and IV are true

5. Which of the following statements related to Interceptor Boat C-154 true?

I. Interceptor Boat C-154 is 28 metres in length with 75 tonnes displacement has the capability of achieving a maximum speed of 35 knots.

II. The vessel has state-of-the-art navigation as well as communication equipment along with medium range armament.

III. The purpose of designing the Interceptor Boat C-154 was for achieving close-coast patrol, high speed interception, Search and Rescue, low-intensity maritime operations as well as maritime surveillance.

IV. This IB also has the capability of operating in the shallow water along with the deep sea.





Answer. (d) All the four statements are true For More National Quizzes


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INDIA DAIRY

24 February 2013

Silver Linings Playbook won Four Awards at the Independent Spirit Awards

25 February 2013

• CBI Registered Case against Airtel and Tata Communications for Violating DoT Norms

27 February 2013

• Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Bill approved by Rajya Sabha

• Delhi Emerged As Worst Place in Environmental Performance Index

28 January 2013

• Joint Parliamentary Committee formed to Probe into the VVIP Helicopter Deal

• Changes in Civil Services Exam Patterns Approved; General Studies to Have More Weight

1 March 2013

• Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal is the New Director General of Indian Coast Guard

• Indian Coast Guard Commissioned Arneson Surface Drive Based Interceptor Boat C-154

2 March 2013

• Vice President of India Released Walking With Lions: Tales from a Diplomatic Past

3 March 2013

• Second India-Afghanistan-United States Trilateral Dialogue held in New Delhi

4 March 2013

• Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sanctioned Remote Village Electrification for 6033 Villages

• Patiala House Court framed Charges against Irom Sharmila for Attempting Suicide

• SK Varma, the former news editor of The Indian Express died in New Delhi following a cardiac arrest

• Mukesh Ambani retained his title as the richest person of India for the sixth consecutive year with the net worth of 21.5 billion US Dollars.





• Microsoft, the Software giant launched new version of Office 365 for the businesses running in India

• President of India, Pranab Mukherjee conferred with the Liberation War Honour Award by the President of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman.

5 March 2013

• Cadbury India Ltd, was slapped with a 250 crore Rupees notice by the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence on the grounds of excise duty evasion

• The Foreign Investment Promotion Board on 6 March 2013 cleared the investment proposal of AirAsia to launch the new airline in India

• Mukul Manda Sangma of Congress was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Meghalaya for the second term. He took oath as 26th CM of the state.

• Neiphiu Rio 63, of Naga People’s Front (NPF) was sworn in as Chief Minister of Nagaland for the third straight term along with 11 ministers by the Governor Nikhil Kumar at the Raj Bhavan in Kohima.

6 March 2013

• The Parliamentary Award Committee selected Arun Jaitley, Karan Singh and Sharad Yadav for Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for 2010, 2011 and 2012 resp.

• At the ABP News-IPSOS Best City Survey and Awards 2013 event in New Delhi , Nagpur won the award for most liveable Indian city

7 March 2013

• India’s Deborah won a Bronze medal in the final of women's juniors of 500m cycle event in Asian Cycling Championship in New Delhi.

• The GoM approved export of additional 5 million tonnes of wheat from FCI. Private Exporters are only permitted to export the additional quantity of Wheat

• Ministry for Information & Broadcasting constituted a committee to check sexual harassment allegations made by the news presenters at FM Gold AIR.

8 March 2013

• The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee released the Commemorative Postage Stamp on Sahir Ludhianvi at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

• Blackberry India Managing Director Sunil Dutt, who joined the company in December 2011, resigned from the company.





• The World Bank barred Larsen & Toubro (L&T) from doing any business with it or the projects funded by it for a period of six months

9 March 2013

• 86 years old Former West Bengal Governor and industrialist Viren J Shah died in Jordan after a heart attack

• Former CBI Director, Ashwani Kumar appointed as Governor of Nagaland

• C J George the Managing Director of Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd, elected chairman, CII Kerala State Council for 2013-14

10 March 2013

• The country's top four financial regulators signed an agreement among each other for co-operation on consolidated supervision and monitoring of financial groups

• The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) cleared Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA) by civil and military users, which was unsettled for last few years

11 March 2013

• Union Minister of Communications & IT, inaugurated the First All Women Employees Post Office of India at Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi.

• Ministry of Tourism’s new film Find What You Seek received first prize at the 11th Golden City Gate Tourism Media Awards Ceremony held in Berlin

• 5th CIDC Vishwakarma Award 2013: Tapas Kumar Lahiry Won Achievement Award for Public Officer

12 March 2013

• The Union Minister for Steel, Beni Prasad Verma released a Coffee Table Book titled Indian Saga of Steel in New Delhi

• 76 years old legendary painter Ganesh Pyne died after a heart attack at a city hospital in Kolkata.

• IGI Airport was placed at 2nd position in the category of airports that handles 25 to 40 million passengers per year (MPPA) by ACI.

13 March 2013

• Prof Veer Bhadra Mishra, the noted environmentalist died at Sir Sundarlal Hospital of Banaras Hindu University. He was aged 75 years.





• The Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, announced Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awards for the year 2011.

• Soumitra Bhattacharya and Sandeep Kumar Maini elected as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of CII Karnataka for 2013-14.

14 March 2013

• The Union Cabinet cleared a Bill providing for severe punishment for rape, acid attack, stalking and voyeurism

• Kallam Anji Reddy, the main behind Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, the second-largest drugmaker of India died at Hyderabad’s Apollo Hospital.

15 March 2013

• The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee released a commemorative postal stamp at XXXIII Convocation of PGIMER at Chandigarh

• B Ashok Reddy, the Infotech Enterprises President was elected as the new chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Andhra Pradesh, for 2013-14.

16 March 2013

• The Union ministry of social justice and empowerment for the first time instituted national awards to prevent Alcoholism and Drug abuse

• India ranked fifth in the world in terms of number of High Net worth Individuals (HNIs), according to the Knight Frank Wealth Report 2013.

17 March 2013

• Sugathakumari, the Malayalam poetess was chosen for the Saraswati Samman 2012 for the poetry collection Manalezhuthu

• Bobby Ghosh was appointed as the Editor of Times International. He is the first non-American to be appointed at the post in the 80 years history of Times.

18 March 2013

• 60th National Film Awards Announced; Irrfan Khan Won Best Actor Award for Paan Singh Tomar

• S. Venkata Mohan a scientist of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology won the National Bioscience Award for 2012.

• The Union Government approved a bill that is directed towards providing access to all central and state government services.





19 March 2013

• Hamid Ansari released a book titled The First Woman President of India, Reinventing leadership, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

• Union Government approved changes in a proposed legislation according to which accepting or giving bribe by foreign public officials is a criminal offence.

• The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2013 was passed in the Lok Sabha on 19 March 2013. Now the bill will be the tabled in the Rajya Sabha.

20 March 2013

• The Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, approved the National Food Security Bill.

• Bhaichung Bhutia, the former India captain of the football team was appointed as the chairman of the All India Football Federation’s technical committee.

• India successfully test fired its submarine-launched version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile of the over 290 km-range in the Bay of Bengal

21 March 2013

• The Supreme Court of India, sentenced Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt to 5 years jail in connection with 1993 Mumbai bombing.

• Baba Kalyani, the Chairman and MD of Bharat Forge Limited was nominated as the Chairman of India-Japan Business Leader’s Forum (IJBLF).

22 March 2013

• Standards of Quality of Service (Duration of Advertisements in Television Channels) Amendment Regulations: 2013 was notified by TRAI

• Three High Courts opened in Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya

23 March 2013

• Nikhil Kumar on 23 March 2013 took oath of the office and secrecy as the Governor of Kerala at Raj Bhawan.

• Earth Hour was observed across India

24 March 2013

• Navneet Kaur Dhillon was crowned Pond’s Femina Miss India 2013 in the grand finale of 50th edition of the beauty pageant in Mumbai.





• The CCI was nominated for the Global Competition Review (GCR) Awards 2013 in the category Agency of the Year-Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa.

25 March 2013

• Union government approved a 1500 crore Rupees proposal for production of more than 2000 rockets for the Pinaka multi- barrel weapons system.

• The Union government decided to introduce a National Policy on Drug Abuse and has formed an expert committee to suggest guidelines for it.

• The CCI was nominated for the Global Competition Review (GCR) Awards 2013 in the category Agency of the Year-Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa.

26 March 2013

• Income Tax department served a 2000 crore notice Rupees on Nokia for suspected evasion of taxes in its business transactions in the country.

• Educomp Solutions Ltd, announced completion of the sale of its entire 50% stake in Eurokids International

• Commercial production of oil and gas started at Aishwarya Oil Field in Barmer, Rajasthan. It was inaugurated by Veerappa Moily and Ashok Gehlot.

27 March 2013

SPMCIL signed the growth-oriented MoU with the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance on 25 March 2013.

India’s international financial liabilities increased by 10.5 billion Dollars to 723.9 billion Dollars as at end- of December 2012 as per the RBI Report.

28 March 2013

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) have made the norms stricter for reinsurers.

Vineet Jain of Times Group was conferred with the Contribution to News Television Award 2013 at the Sixth News Television Awards in New Delhi.

29 March 2013

The 2nd National Photo Awards for the year 2011-2012 were given away at New Delhi.

The Union Government decided to set up 2000 telecom towers in tribal areas with a cost of around 3000 crore Rupees.

30 March 2013





Rajan Bharti Mittal appointed as the President of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) India.

The production of eight core sector industries decreased by 2.5 percent in the month of February 2013, for the first time in 2012-13 financial year.

31 March 2013

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, re-inducted into the Central Parliamentary Board, top decision-making body of BJP.

M F Farooqui took over charge as the secretary of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).





ECONOMY

MOU FOR SETTING UP OF MEMU COACHES MANUFACTURING FACILITY

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on 25 February 2013 between Indian Railways and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) for setting up of Greenfield MEMU coaches manufacturing facility by BHEL at Bhilwara in Rajasthan.

Main Line Electric Multiple Unit Trains, popularly known as MEMU trains were first introduced in Indian Railways in the Year 1994-95, as a mode of rapid transit system, to cater to non-suburban passengers, residing in small towns and villages surrounding urban and industrial centres. MEMU trains have higher passenger carrying capacity and higher average speed as compared to conventional loco hauled passenger trains due to faster acceleration and braking characteristics. These rakes are now being manufactured with toilet facilities to take care of passenger needs. MEMU trains increase the line capacity utilisation, and therefore are more suitable for running on high traffic density routes.

These MEMU trains have gained rapid popularity over the years. Currently, there are about 160 MEMU services running. There are demands coming from all over the country for running more and more MEMU trains. The demand for these coaches will further increase as Indian Railways have plans to Electrify approximately 15000 route kilometre during the next 10 years, in addition to the existing 22000 route kilometre of electrified track. There was a shortfall in acquisition of 800 MEMU coaches during XIth Plan Period due to capacity constraints at Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, where these MEMU coaches are produced. Overall it is expected that the requirement of MEMU coaches will grow to nearly 9000 coaches during the next 10 year period. Setting up of factory for conventional MEMU coaches will go a long way in meeting this demand.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is a Maharatna Central Public Sector Unit (CPSU) company, which is a partner of Indian Railways for a period spanning more than 40 years. It has been manufacturing and supplying electric rolling stock including EMUs and MEMUs; as well as sub-assembly and equipment for rolling stock being manufactured at IR’s own production units.

The proposed facility for production of MEMU coaches will be set up by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) at Bhilwara in the State of Rajasthan. The entire cost will be borne by BHEL. Government of Rajasthan will provide land to Railways, for setting up the project. In order to make the project viable, Ministry of Railways will give Assured Off-Take orders to BHEL.

GOVERNMENT APPROVED EXPORT OF ADDITIONAL WHEAT





The Union Government of India on 7 March 2013 approved export of extra five million tonnes of Wheat from its Godowns. The group of ministers in its meeting also decided that the added quantity of 5 million tonnes of wheat shall be exported by the private traders. It also cleared that the public sector trading firms will not be a participant in export of the additional quantity of wheat.

The GoM (Group of Ministers) have also decided that bidding process would be used by the Private traders to export the 2011-12 crop and the floor price decided for per quintal is 1480 rupees. For the present fiscal, the permitted export of wheat from the godowns of the Food Corporation of India now stands at 9.5 million tonnes.

FINANCIAL REGULATORS SIGNED PACT TO MONITOR CONGLOMERATES

The country's top four financial regulators on 8 March 2013 signed an agreement among each other for co-operation on consolidated supervision and monitoring of financial groups identified as financial conglomerates- large banks and other key players.

The decision was taken at a sub-committee meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) held in the Reserve Bank. The regulators who signed the pact were the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.

The FSDC (Financial Stability and Development Council) meeting, chaired by RBI Governor D Subbarao also approved formulating a national strategy for financial education by incorporating the feedback received from public consultations and from a global peer review, RBI said without providing details. RBI had on 22 February 2013 released rules on allowing companies to start banks in India and such coordination among regulators is needed for effective supervision.

COAL INDIA SIGNED FUEL SUPPLY PACTS WITH 56 POWER PLANTS

The Union government on 12 March 2013 informed that state-run Coal India Ltd. (CIL) signed fuel supply pacts with 56 power plants so far.

Minister of state for coal, Pratik Prakashbapu Patil in his written reply to Lok Sabha mentioned that, Coal India Ltd has signed 56 fuel supply agreements (FSAs) with the power plants as on 2 March 2013. It is important to note that the deadline set by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for signing of FSAs between CIL and power producers expired in January 2013.

Chief vigilance officer replying to a question regarding CIL’s highlighted irregularities in awarding of FSAs. CIL observed certain inadequacies in the documents of 11 cases, during verification of the documents in respect of milestone achievement of LoAs (Letter of Assurance). It was also affirmed by the minister that appropriate action would be taken in this regard by CIL’s subsidiaries to ensure that all due procedures are observed.





Minister of state for coal stated that there is a proposal to engage an independent third party sampling agency by CIL for consumers having FSAs.

UNION GOVERNMENT TO LAUNCH 10 RUPEES PLASTIC NOTES

The Union Government and RBI on 12 March 2013 decided to introduce one billion pieces of 10 Rupees bank notes made of plastic on a field trial basis in five cities. A 10 Rupees note in polymer/plastic on a field trial basis will be introduced first; Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said it in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The field trail is supposed to be conducted in five cities of Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Bhubhaneswar and Shimla with varied geographical locations and climatic conditions. As per the RBI, the primary objective of introduction of polymer notes is to increase its life; it could also help in combating counterfeiting.

Various agencies such as the RBI, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs, Security and Intelligence Agencies of the Centre and States, Central Bureau of Investigation are already working in tandem to thwart the illegal activities related to Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN). The work of these agencies is periodically reviewed by a nodal group set up for this purpose.

GOVERNMENT GRANTED AID TO PROTECT PASHMINA GOATS

The Union Government on 12 March 2013 decided to provide a financial assistance of 41.21 crore rupees to protect Pashmina Goat, which produces world-famous fine luxury fibre.

The idea of providing assistance came in light of concern over the recent deaths of thousands of Pashmina goats in the Ladakh region. As per the assistance, there is plan which ideates a new Pashmina Wool Development Scheme with a special package and a financial allocation of 41.21 crore rupees.

MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE SCHEME

• It includes assistance for foundation stock in new areas for Pashmina rearing activities. • Inclusion of Health coverage and feed supplement. • Strengthening of existing fodder bank and pashmina goat breeding farm. • It will also include establishment of multipurpose extension centre and pasture farm on

migratory routes. • Development of Breeder orientation training camp for research and development.

HPCL AND RAJASTHAN GOVT SIGNED A MOU FOR SETTING UP REFINERY

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and the Government of Rajasthan on 14 March 2013 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at Jaipur for setting up a refinery-





cum-petrochemical complex in Barmer, Rajasthan. The project will be a joint venture between HPCL and Rajasthan State Refinery Limited, apart from other equity partners.

The MoU was signed by Subhash Pant, Secretary Mines and Petroleum, Government of Rajasthan and K.Murli, Director (Refineries) of HPCL.

ABOUT THE REFINERY-CUM-PETROCHEMICAL COMPLEX PROJECT

• The refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in Barmer will be set up at an estimated capital investment of 37230 crore Rupees.

• The project will be completed in 4 years time duration. • 9 MMTPA refinery-cum—petrochemicals will be a state-of-the-art complex and will

bring benefit to the state of Rajasthan and its people. • The purpose of the refinery will be to process the locally available crude apart from

other crudes. • The refinery-cum-petrochemical complex is designed for production of motor fuels with

latest environmental specifications as well as wide range of petrochemicals. • The proposed complex will be the first of its kind to be specifically designed to produce

petrochemicals from the indigenous crude oil.

CCI APPROVED FIVE OIL, GAS BLOCKS FOR OPERATIONS

The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) on 21 March 2013 cleared Reliance Industries' (RIL) KG-D6 and NEC-25 blocks for oil and gas exploration along with three other areas.

The work on these blocks, which has an investment close to 10.7 billion has dollars, was having difficulties because of inter-ministerial differences, particularly relating to Defence issues.

Eight blocks, including RIL's Krishna Godavari basin KG-D6 block and gas discovery area of NEC-25 in the North East Coast (NEC) region, were declared No-Go zones for reasons relating to defence issues raised by the Indian Navy, and the Indian Air Force.

An approval for eight blocks, was Sought by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry of which one was already renounced by the contractor, Reliance Industries Ltd. Out of the remaining seven, conditional clearance for four blocks – two of Reliance Industries, one each of ONGC consortium and Cairn India – were sought.

The Ministry had also sought CCI approval to declare three blocks as ‘no go’ areas. Two blocks belonged to the ONGC-led consortium and one to the Oil India Ltd-led consortium. The CCI, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was set up to fast-track clearances to infrastructure projects involving investments of over 1000 crore rupees.

CCIC AND MINISTRY OF TEXTILES SIGNED MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING





A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Central Cottage Industries Corporation of India Ltd (CCIC) and Ministry of Textiles, Government of India in March 2013. The MoU envisaged a turnover target of 9700 lakh Rupees for 2013-14 financial years.

ABOUT CENTRAL COTTAGE INDUSTRIES CORPORATION OF INDIA LTD (CCIC)

Central Cottage Industries Corporation of India Ltd (CCIC) established Central Cottage Industries Emporium for handicraft and handloom products. The body functions towards promotion of creativity of Indian craftsmen. Central Cottage Industries Emporium was conceived in 1952 by art lovers, which in turn has been working towards restoration of craftsmen as well as giving them recognition and honour.


ECONOMY CURRENT AFFAIRS QUIZZES

1. Union Government of India on 7 March 2013 approved export of what quantity of wheat from its Godowns?

a) 10 Miilion Tonnes

b) 5 Million Tonnes

c) 15 Milion Tonnes

d) 20 Million Tonnes

Answer. (b) 5 Million

2. What is the hike percentage on Defence Budget over the last year 2012-13, as allocated in the Union budget 2013-14 thus promising more funds required for national security?

a) 14 Percent

b) 12 Percent

c) 10 Percent

d) 9 Percent

Answer. (a) 14 Percent

3. What is the percentage of Investment allowance as proposed in the Union Budget 2013-14 for investment in plant & machinery?

a) 10 Percent

b) 12 Percent


http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs-economy-1284037727-1




c) 13 Percent

d) 15 Percent

Answer. (d) 15 Percent

4. Which of the financial regulator is not included among four financial regulators who signed an agreement on 8 March 2013 among each other for co-operation on consolidated supervision and monitoring of financial groups?

a) RBI

b) SEBI

c) Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority

d) IMF

Answer. (d) IMF

5. What growth percent is estimated by World Bank for the Indian Economy during 2013-14?

a) 6 Percent

b) 7 Percent

c) 8 Percent

d) 4 Percent

Answer. (a) 6 Percent

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CORPORATE

WELSPUN COMMISSIONED ASIA’S LARGEST SOLAR POWER PROJECT

Welspun Energy, the country’s biggest developer of solar projects on 12 March 2013 commissioned Asia’s largest Solar Power Project of 50 MW at Jodhpur district in Rajasthan.

The solar power project commissioned is being counted among the largest solar project developed by Welspun Energy till date and is also the largest photovoltaic (PV) power plant in India. The project is known by the name utility-scale solar project and was commissioned just an astonishing five months; well ahead of schedule, creating a new benchmark for the industry.

Welspun Energy won the 50 MW solar projects through a competitive bid under Batch-2, Phase-1 of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Welspun, earlier in year 2013 started a 15 MW unit at the site, and with short span of it now has commissioned two more units of 15 MW and 20 MW solar generators. The PV project is supposed to generate total electricity of 90 million kWh or units annually and supply clean energy to power 25 million families. It is estimated that with the commissioning of this project, an approximation of 83220 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions will be mitigated each year.

ABOUT WELSPUN ENERGY

Welspun Energy Ltd (WEL) is one of the top independent renewable energy based power generation company which focuses on developing, owning and operating a diversified portfolio of renewable energy power plants.

• Welspun was the only company to have been awarded a maximum capacity of 50 MW under this scheme, making this the largest project in India.

• The company has become the largest solar power developer in India with over 300 MW solar and wind projects on the ground.

• Welspun energy planned to develop a pipeline of 1.7 GW of renewable power projects which will be developed within 2015 and over 250 MW of renewable projects are presently being developed on ground.

Welspun Energy is part of the 3.5 billion dollar Welspun Group, which has interests in power generation, infrastructure, exploration and production of oil and natural gas, steel pipes and textiles.

REC SIGNED BILATERAL TERM-LOAN AGREEMENT WITH SBI





Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) on 11 March 2013 signed a bilateral term-loan agreement worth 250 million US Dollars or 1350 crore Rupees approximately, with the State Bank of India at Hong Kong.

The funding for the agreement will be done by the offshore branch of State Bank of India, which is also the only lender. The bilateral term-loan agreement was exchanged between REC Chairman Rajeev Sharma and the officials of SBI.

Proceeds of this loan will be used by Rural Electrification Corporation Limited for Infrastructure Power Sector. The loan will also have a floating interest rate to 6 -month LIBOR. It also has door-to-door maturity of 3 years. LIBOR means the rate of interest charged by the top-quality banks on each other for the loans.

With the signing of this bilateral term-loan agreement, REC has completely made use of the External Commercial Borrowings equal to 750 million US dollars, which was sanctioned by Reserve Bank of India under approval route in 2012-13 financial year. At present, Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) is involved in financing the power projects in primarily rural India.

TSMC ACQUIRED STAKE IN LABRADOR IRON MINES HOLDINGS LTD.

Tata Steel Ltd. on 12 March 2013 announced that Tata Steel Minerals Canada Ltd. (TSMC) acquired stake in Canadian company Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Ltd. (LIM) for 163 crore Rupees.

MAIN POINTS OF THE DEAL

• According to the deal, Labrador Iron decided to transfer 51 percent stake in Howse deposit to TMSC. It is estimated that Howse deposit will have28 million tonnes of iron ore resources.

• In exchange, Tata will be transferring Timmins 4 deposit having 1.7 million tons of resources to Labrador for 16.3 crore Rupees. The payment would be recovered from sales.

• Later, Tata can increase the ownership of Howse deposit to 70 percent for 136 crore Rupees. As a part of the deal, Tata is free to further explore Howse deposit.

• Tata Steel Minerals Canada Ltd. (TSMC) and Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Ltd. (LIM) will co-operate with each other for development of rail line which will pass through Labrador Iron's rail yard facilities and connect TSMC's processing plant with main line.





It is important to note that Tata Steel had laid its footprints in Canada already after buying 27.7 percent in the New Millennium Iron Corporation.

INFOSYS INKED DEAL WITH INDIA POST

Infosys, the second largest software exporter of India, signed a deal with India Post for managing the rural operations platform of the latter. Under the agreement, Infosys will help India Post in its India Post's Rural Systems Integration (RSI) program. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

MAIN POINTS OF THE DEAL

• According to the deal, Infosys will facilitate India Post in developing the service delivery platform by making use of the solutions like Finacle, TruSync and mConnect.

• The deal will help over 130000 rural post offices in offering the online services. • Apart from this, the deal will facilitate in connecting as well as managing over 130000

handheld devices which are used by rural postal workers. These handheld devices will help in distributing the social benefits under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and will also help in processing the electronic money orders.

Additionally, Infosys also partnered with India Post in August 2012 for transformation of financial services operations such as banking and insurance of India Post, as well as the end-user experience under its Financial Services System Integration program.

ABOUT INDIA POST

India Post plays an important role in socio-economic development of India. Its functions include delivery of mails, accepting the deposits under the Small Savings Schemes, providing the life insurance cover under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) as well as in providing other retail services such as sales of forms and bill collection.

SBI TO OPEN 1200 BRANCHES IN INDIA & 8 OVERSEAS OFFICES

The State Bank of India (SBI) planned to start around 1200 new branches in India as well as eight overseas branches in financial year 2013-2014.

SBI planned to open 100 branches in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra under its domestic expansion plan. In the overseas expansion plan, it planned to open two branches in UK and Bangladesh each and one each in Sri Lanka, South Korea, China and Netherlands. It is important to note





that South Korea already has SBI branch and now there are plans to upgrade the existing representative office into full-fledged branch.

SBI aimed to open offshore branches for catering to the Non-Resident Indians as well as Indian businesses. By starting these eight offshore branches, the network would increase to 59. SBI is said to be the largest bank of India with 14677 branches spread across India. In the meanwhile, SBI is also in the process to recruit 1500 Probationary Officers for managing the increasing operations.

NOKIA WON PATENT INFRINGEMENT SUIT AGAINST HTC IN GERMANY

Mannheim Regional Court, a Court in Germany passed a judgement in favour of Nokia on 19 March 2013 in the case involving infringement of Nokia’s power-saving patent. The court, while passing the judgement observed that certain devices made by HTC infringed on the power-saving patent.

The case was among 22 infringement suits filed by Nokia against Taiwan’s HTC in Germany. The power-saving patent actually refers to the Nokia’s technology for saving the battery power when connected to the network.

HTC however announced that losing the case in German Court would not have a negative impact on it because it covers just three headsets- the Wildfire S, Desire S, and Rhyme, all of which are not imported into Germany anymore. Nokia in the meanwhile, also announced that it has asserted power-saving patent against HTC in United States International Trade Commission and UK. Hearing in US will begin in May 2013.

PRUDENTIAL, INSURANCE GIANT FINED 30 MILLION POUND BY FSA

Prudential, the insurance giant was fined 30 million Pound by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) on the grounds that Prudential did not inform about its plans to buy AIA, an Asian subsidiary of US insurer AIG. The FSA while criticizing the Chief Executive of Prudential declared that the company failed to deal in a transparent and cooperative manner with FSA over the 2010 bid to buy AIA.

The fine levied on Prudential is one of the heaviest fines imposed by Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The deal of Prudential to buy out AIA however failed because of opposition from the shareholders. FSA declared that it should have been given more time for deciding whether the deal should be approved on the regulatory grounds or not. This is so because the proposed 14.5 billion Pound rights issue of Prudential to fund this purchase would have led to a complete makeover of the risk profile of the insurance company.





FSA announced that this deal would have created an impact on confidence as well as stability of financial sector of UK as well as abroad. However, Prudential was not able to strike a 35.5bn US dollar attempt for buying AIA because the shareholders vetoed this deal on the grounds of fear of too high purchase price.

The Chief Executive of Prudential on the other hand, argued that this deal should have gone ahead because it would then lead to doubling of market share of the company in Asia. However, the Chief Executive was not able to convince AIG for accepting the lower offer of 30 billion US dollar.

APPLE BOUGHT INDOOR MAPPING FIRM WIFISLAM

The American multinational corporation Apple in the month of March 2013 bought the indoor GPS mapping firm wifiSLAM for 20 million dollars. The acquisition is being seen as a challenge to Google’s dominance of mobile mapping software. WifiSLAM’s technology, which is focused on mapping indoor spaces could allow Apple to pinpoint the location of users inside buildings to within 2.5 metres — an asset that could be of high value to advertisers wishing to target mall shoppers.

Wifislam's technology works by using smartphones to pinpoint its location (and the location of your friends) in real-time to 2.5m accuracy using only ambient WiFi signals that are already present in buildings. It can also be seen that Google already has an extensive catalogue of public floor plans which it used to map the interior of public buildings for users of its Google Maps service.

Apple tried to challenge the domination of Google Maps when it released its own mapping software with the launch of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 in 2012. However the software was extensively criticized for being imprecise and confusing resulting Apple to issue an apology to users and recommend using third-party products.

IT DEPARTMENT SLAPPED 2000 CRORE RUPEES TAX NOTICE TO NOKIA

The Income Tax department in the month of March 2013 served a 2000 crore notice Rupees on Nokia for suspected evasion of taxes in its business transactions in the country.

However, an interim stay was granted by Delhi High Court after the mobile phone manufacturing company filed a petition challenging the order. The department had on 21 March 2013 asked the firm to submit the amount of 2000 crore Rupees in about a week's time, I-T department.

The company has confirmed receiving an order from Indian tax officials. Nokia restates its position that it is in full compliance with local laws as well as the bilaterally negotiated tax treaty between the governments of India and Finland, and will defend itself vigorously.





The notice has been issued by the I-T department after it completed its investigation and had conducted a survey operation on the company's factory in Chennai and offices in Gurgaon, Haryana, earlier this year. The tax evasion, according to these sources, relates to royalty payment which is made against supply of software by the company's parent company which attracts a 10 per cent tax deduction under the Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) category.

EDUCOMP SOLUTIONS SOLD 50 PERCENT STAKE IN EUROKIDS

Educomp Solutions Ltd, the India’s largest education company, on 26 March 2013 announced completion of the sale of its entire 50% stake in Eurokids International Limited to a group of investors led by GPE India. Educomp had earlier finalised the stake sale on 8 January 2013 and the transaction has been completed on 26 March 2013, after meeting the expected conditions precedents.

The transaction is an important milestone for the business transformation agenda that is currently underway. Educomp has made 3x its original investment in Eurokids and has created significant value for its shareholders by making a profit of approximately 70 crore Rupees on this investment.

Earlier in the year 2013, Educomp sought growth capital investment of 22 crore Rupees in its internet education platform business Authorgen, from Kaizen PE and Bertelsmann. The completion of the Eurokids transaction is the second milestone in asset monetization strategy of the company. The proceeds from the transaction will be ploughed back into company’s core businesses as well as used to de-lever their balance sheet.

GOOGLE LAUNCHED GOOGLE PLAY MOVIES IN INDIA

Google in the Month of March 2013 added Google Play Movies features to its Google Play India Page which allows you to download or rent movies. Recently Google also has added Google Books, Google Nexus 7 Store to its Google Play in India. The Google play movies were simultaneously launched in India and Mexico.

The outstanding feature of Google Play Movies is that it allows users to buy and stream popular films and television shows which can be downloaded in the high definition (HD) or standard versions, depending on compatibility of the device.

The Google Movies play store has some great collection of English and Hindi and English movies like the Amazing Spiderman, Ted, The Bourne legacy, Total Recall and Indian movies like Ek tha Tiger, Hum Tum, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. One can also watch a movie on rent in Google Play Movies by paying an amount 100 rupees and can buy a movie for about200 Rupees. Rent and purchase amount of a movie differs from one to other.

As per the Google’s terms and conditions, customers can also return or cancel their purchase anytime within seven days of purchase if they have not begun playback. On the other hand if





one has ordered content that is defective, unavailable or does not perform as stated, he may request a refund at anytime.


CORPORATE CURRENT AFFAIR QUIZZES

1. The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) lifted import alert on the Hyderabad-based antibiotics facility of which leading pharmaceutical research company of India?

a) Ranbaxy b) Aurobindo Pharma c) Cadila Healthcare d) Glenmark Pharmaceuticals

Answer. (b) Aurobindo Pharma

2. Which feature was added by Google to its Google Play India Page which allows you to download or rent movies?

a) Google Play Movies b) Play My Movie c) Rent a Movie d) Watch My Movie

Answer. (a) Google Play Movies

3. Which largest education company of India, on 26 March 2013 announced completion of the sale of its entire 50% stake in Eurokids International Limited?

a) IndiaCan b) Oxfam India c) Everonn Education limited d) Educomp Solutions Ltd

Answer. (d) Educomp Solutions Ltd

4. Which insurance giant was fined 30 million Pound by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) over AIA bid in March 2013?

a) ICICI Lombard b) Reliance Insurance c) Prudential d) AIG Vyasya

Answer. (c) Prudential

5. Apple in the month of March 2013 bought which indoor GPS mapping firm for 20 million dollars?


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a) BlueNav b) DirectRoute c) wifiSLAM d) Topo

Answer: (c) wifiSLAM

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STATE

STATE BUDGET OF HARYANA 2013-14: HIGHLIGHTS

Finance Minister of Haryana on 1 March 2013 presented his second budget as the Finance Minister of the State.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BUDGET ARE AS FOLLOWS

• An outlay plan of 27071.32 crore rupees was proposed for Annual Plan 2013-14 with a growth of 18% from RE 2012-13. A growth of 17.26 % was expected in VAT to yield 19288.61 crore rupees.

• Haryana has outperformed the major States in the country in mobilizing financial resources during the 11th Five Year Plan.

• The State will achieve the target of its revenue collections of 19962 crore rupees under VAT Act, CST Act, Entertainment Duty Act, Passenger and Goods Taxation Act and Excise Act for the current year.

• Expected revenue receipts for 2013-14 is at 43780.33 crore constituting growth of 15.75% over RE 2012-13

• Excise Policy already announced by the government will yield 4000 crore rupees in Financial Year 2013-14

• Revenue deficit as a percentage to GSDP will further reduce to 0.59 during BE 2013-14 as against 0.90 in RE 2012-13.

• The ratio of salary and pension to total revenue receipts is also proposed to reduce from 38.68% during RE 2012-13 to 37.94% in BE 2013-14.

• The debt-GSDP ratio also declines favourably from 16.50% in RE 2012-13 to 16.47% during BE 2013-14, much within the target of 22.8% prescribed by the 13th Finance Commission.

• The capital expenditure net of expenditure on food procurement is proposed to increase to 6936.99 crore in Financial Year 2013-14 as against 5509.24 crore during RE 2012-13.

STATE BUDGET OF HARYANA 2013-14: NEW INITIATIVES

Finance Minister of Haryana Harmohindar Singh Chatha on 1 March 2013 presented the Budget of State.

Some of the new initiatives undertaken by the Government of Haryana as under the Budget are as follows:





• The State Government proposes to launch an ambitious housing scheme name Priyadarshini Awaas Yojna (PAY) in the budget for the year 2013-14 to facilitate the housing delivery in rural areas.

• Each of the beneficiaries, under the scheme (PAY), will be given financial assistance of 81000 rupees by the State as grant for the construction of a new house.

• In order to cater to the requirement of affordable housing for the weaker sections residing in the Urban Areas, the Government proposes to construct 1.50 lakh houses during the next financial years 2013-14 and 2014-15 through Housing Board Haryana, Urban Local Bodies and Town & Country Planning Department.

• Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY) is being started during 2013-14 for which 37 crore are being provided.

• In order to cater to the requirement of affordable housing for the weaker sections residing in the Urban Areas, the Government proposes to construct 1.50 lakh houses during the next financial years 2013-14 and 2014-15 through Housing Board Haryana, Urban Local Bodies and Town & Country Planning Department.

• For effective and efficient implementation of the District Plan Scheme, the Government has constituted the District Development and Monitoring Committee in each district under the chairmanship of the Minister in-charge of the District Grievances Redressal Committee.

• State Government has set up four permanent Commissions in this financial year in public interest.

• State Government has also approved the constitution of 21 Fast Track Courts, one in each district, to expedite the trial in crime against women.

• Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan (RGPSA) is a new umbrella scheme which is being started during 2013-14 and will strengthen the Panchayati Raj System across the State and address critical gaps that constrain it. 85 crore of rupees have been allotted to this scheme.

• For investment in Sports Infrastructure and promotion of sports through a multi-pronged approach, an outlay of 100 crore rupees was allocated under Plan side giving an increase of 100% from last year.

• Under the National River Conservation Programme, two projects for augmentation of sewerage facilities and construction of Sewage Treatment Plants for Sonepat and Panipat towns have been approved at a cost of 88.36 crore and 129.51 crore rupees respectively to be completed by 2015-16.

• The State Government has approved NABARD assisted project of 68 crore for construction of 6095 separate toilets for girls along with 2910 hand pumps for water in 2910 Government High/Higher Secondary Schools in rural areas of the State.

• State Livestock Mission is being set up with a provision of 1 crore during 2013-14 to provide support for conservation of genetic resource, improvement of valuable native breeds, their health and nutrition etc. To set up Gau-Sewa Ayog, 1 crore has been provided in 2013-14.

• Extension of Delhi Metro to YMCA Chowk Faridabad with the corridor length of 13.875 KMs is being executed at a cost of `2494 crore. For this, Government of Haryana is contributing 1557.40 crore.





• Cashless medical facility will be implemented from the year 2013-14, for the employees of the Government of Haryana, its PSUs, Local Bodies, Cooperative Institutions, Autonomous Bodies, etc. to fulfill their expectation.

ANDHRA PRADESH BUDGET 2013- 14: HIGHLIGHTS

Anam Ramnarayana Reddy, the Finance Minister of Andhra Pradesh on 18 March 2013 presented the budget for the year 2013-14 to the Andhra Pradesh legislature.

BUDGET 2013-14 OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT A GLANCE

• For the financial year 2013-14, government proposes an expenditure of 161348 crores Rupees. Non-plan expenditure is estimated at 101926 crores Rupees and Plan expenditure at 59422 crores Rupees.

• The estimated revenue surplus is 1023 crores Rupees and fiscal deficit is estimated at 24487 crores Rupees at 2.85 percent of GSDP

• First ever exclusive Agriculture action plan was presented to the Legislature. • The revised estimates of 2012-13 indicate a revenue surplus of 1685 crores against the

budgeted revenue surplus of 4444 crores Rupees. The fiscal deficit is estimated at.21129 crores Rupees which would be 2.86% of GSDP.

• The Gross State Domestic Product of Andhra Pradesh (GSDP) at current prices for the year 2012-13 as per the Advance estimates is 738497 crores rupees - an increase of 12.72 percent over the quick estimate of the GSDP of the previous year.

• The interest subvention scheme of Vaddileni Runalu is launched for the benefit of the farmers. An allocation of 500 crores rupees is made in the budget.

• A provision of 6128 crores rupees is proposed in year 2013-14 for Agriculture and Allied Sectors.

• The allocation for Social Welfare department is 4122 crores rupees in 2013-14. The allocation has been increased by 1445 crores Rupees over 2677 Rupees crores allocated in the year 2012-13.

• Five Districts i.e. Rangareddy, Hyderabad, East Godavari, Ananthapur and Chittoor are selected for implementation Aadhar Enabled Payment of all benefits in the first phase.

• Under the economic support schemes, Government is implementing the SC action plan so as to provide assistance to 66213 beneficiaries with an outlay of 423.86 crores rupees.

• For improving health infrastructure in tribal areas, Government have sanctioned buildings for (59) PHCs, (238) Sub-Centres and (19) CHNCs with a cost of 45.97 crore Rupees under NRHM.

DELHI BUDGET 2013-14: SHEILA DIKSHIT PRESENTED THE BUDGET





Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit on 20 March 2013 presented 15th consecutive budget of 37450 crore rupees with launch of new schemes in different arena and launch of infrastructural development and with no fresh taxes.

BUDGET OF DELHI 2013-14 AT A GLANCE

• Budget of Government of NCT of Delhi in 2013-14 proposed at 37450 crore Rupees • Plan Budget – 16000 crore Rupees • Non-Plan Budget - 21000 crore Rupees • Centrally Sponsored Scheme – 450 crore Rupees • The Social Services Sectors receive the highest priority in terms of budgetary allocation

under Plan and proposing an outlay of 10359 crore with a share of about 65% of total Plan Budget.

• The target of tax collection in 2013-14 is estimated at 30454 crore Rupees. Tax-GSDP ratio which was 6.43% in 2011-12 is expected to increase to 6.88% in 2012-13.

• The fiscal deficit has been projected to be reduced from 2921 crore Rupees in 2012-13 to 1268 crore Rupees in 2013-14.

• The Dilli Swablamban Yojana (DSY), a co-contributory pension scheme for unorganized sector, is proposed to be launched by Government of Delhi with an annual contribution of 1000 Rupees per person along with the equal contribution of Government of India and intend to make it Aadhaar enabled.

• Financial support of 1000 per month is proposed to be given to the transgender who are living in Delhi for at least three years. They will also be eligible to get benefit under Dilli Annshree Yojana with effect from 1 April, 2013.

• A residential school for SC/ST/OBC/Minorities students of Delhi will be set up in 2013-14.

• The grant-in-aid to Delhi Haj Committee is proposed to be enhanced to 2 crore rupees in 2013-14 from the existing grant of 1 crore.

• A fund of 5 crore is proposed for the welfare of journalists of Delhi • 8000 new Auto Rickshaws will be allotted to Corporate Houses on the line of theRadio

Taxi. Maximum 500 permits will be given to a single corporate entity. Two Corporate entities, which will employ only women Auto Rickshaw drivers, will be allotted for 1000 permits.

• Delhi Government has identified certain specific priority areas so that the city becomes more productive and caring. These include: -

• To cover every poor and vulnerable resident of Delhi, not covered by other schemes, under Annshree,

• Direct benefit transfer to beneficiaries of all State Government and Central Government schemes

• Nurture and enhance the green cover so that Delhi becomes the greenest capital of the world,

• Ensure construction of upstream reservoirs for augmentation of water supply, better management of water, increased and equitable distribution of water and also cover un sewered areas within the network of sewerage system,





• Substantial improvement in the availability of housing through a series of measures, • Boost facilities for formation and upgradation of skills to enhance employability by

setting up high class Institutes. • Ensure substantial improvement in health infrastructure and delivery toensure global

standards, • Ensure availability of 11000 buses on Delhi roads which along with additional network of

Metro will make travel within Delhi safe, convenient and pleasurable • Qualitative and quantitative improvement in the road infrastructure, • Strengthen Bhagidari to institutionalise regular dialogue with RWAs and community

groups and making them active partners in the development process from planning to execution and post-execution, and

• Further strengthen service delivery and bring most government services within ambit of time bound delivery system.

TAMIL NADU BUDGET 2013-14: PRESENTED BY O. PANNEERSELVAM

The Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu O. Panneerselvam on 21 March 2013 presented the Budget 2013-14 in the legislative Assembly.

The budget of the year 2013-14 was focused on agriculture with not any imposition of taxes or not any hike proposed from the existing rates in the surroundings of the slow economic growth

The Budget was focused on rural and urban infrastructure with investments going into storage and marketing infrastructure, industrial development backed by speedy implementation of infrastructure projects including in power and roads.

BUDGET 2013-14 OF TAMIL NADU AT A GLANCE

• Compensation of15000 rupees was announced as part of the special relief package in the Cauvery Delta Area per acre as crop loss compensation and special compensation including advance against insurance payments to those farmers who had suffered more than 50% crop loss.

• There is also announcement of works worth 1517 crores rupees under various schemes which will be taken up in the Cauvery Delta Area, including the creation of 15000 farm ponds under MGNREGS at a cost of181 crores Rupees.

• The State will exceed the Annual Plan target of 28000 crores Rupees during 2012-2013 and the allocation has been increased to.37000 crores Rupees for 2013-2014. The plan allocation for the primary sector has been increased by 20.12%.

• During 2012-2013, the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) has recruited 12152 Police Constables, 377 Jail Warders and 791 Firemen. The TNUSRB will further recruit 17138 Police Constables, 1091 Sub-Inspectors, 1005 Firemen and 292 Jail Warders during 2013-2014.

BUDGET ALLOCATION FOR AGRICULTURE





• The allocation to agriculture is 5189 crore Rupees (4829 crore rupees) of the total Rs 17,220 crore to the primary sector.

• Following the 1517-crore Rupees relief package to the Cauvery Delta farmers, the Government is readying a relief package for the other districts.

• Horticulture will be expanded with 8.2 lakh acres brought under vegetable cultivation against the present 7.25 lakh acres.

• Infrastructure in agricultural markets will be upgraded and markets integrated with commodity exchanges. The objective is to increase processing, farmers’ revenue and stabilise incomes.

• Crop loan target from the cooperative sector is pegged at 4500 crore rupees for 2013-14 against 4000 crore rupees in the current year.

• To improve water use efficiency, the State Government decided to do away with the one-acre limit on small and marginal farmers to make use of subsidy for micro irrigation.

• Farmers can choose their suppliers and the subsidy will be released to the farmers’ account. Over 520 crore Rupees will be available as subsidy to cover over 1.30 lakh acres.

BUDGET ALLOCATION FOR INFRASTRUCTURE

• Government allocated 2000 crore Rupees for an infrastructure development fund and 200 crore Rupees for project preparation fund for the year.

• Key infrastructure projects have been cleared at the first meeting of the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board.

• A new body, the Tamil Nadu State Highways Authority will be created along the lines of the National Highways Authority of India to maintain and manage State Highways.

• The biggest externally aided project will be implemented in the road sector at a cost of 8580 crore rupees covering over 1678 km.

BUDGET ALLOCATION FOR EDUCATION

• The Government has earmarked maximum funds to school education at 16965 crore Rupees.

• Tamil Nadu was among the earliest to notify the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2011.

• Over 24.76 lakh students will receive cash benefit of 381 crore Rupees including cash incentives.

• Enrolment in higher education has gone up to 6.51 lakh students in 2012-13 (6.09 lakh).

ARUNACHAL PRADESH BECAME FIRST STATE TO INTRODUCE E-GPF

Arunachal Pradesh in the month of March 2013 became the first state to introduce e-GPF or electronic GPF. The state Finance Department facilitated the online access to 34000 GPF





accounts through its redesigned Web site, which was launched by Chief Minister of Arunachal Pardesh Nabam Tuki.

FEATURES OF THE WEBSITES

• The Web site is meant to help the public in accessing all updated fiscal information including 34000 GPF accounts besides pensioners, who from anywhere in India could get information on their hard earned pension and fastest disposal of RTI cases.

• The Web site www.arunachalfinance.in has a number of features to make it citizen-friendly and to bring in more transparency and accountability in respect of works in the Finance Department.

• With all the information available on the Web site, citizens as well as government employees would not need to visit the Finance office for each and every work. Also, he felt applications seeking information under RTI would come down as all information needed are available on the site.

The Web site is developed by the department with technical assistance from NIC. It is interactive with facilities to download forms such as medical reimbursement, GPF Final Payment, which would be quite beneficial for Government employees, particularly pensioners.

STATE BUDGET OF MADHYA PRADESH: 2013-14 PRESENTED

Raghavji, the Finance Minister of Madhya Pradesh on 22 March 2013 presented the State Budget of 2013-14 in State Assembly.

• Total plan outlay of 91946.86 crore rupees for the year 2013-14.

The presented budget for the financial year 2013-14 is a 5214.83 crore rupees revenue surplus budget. The proposed fiscal deficit for the financial year 2013-14 was estimated to be 12218.53 crore rupees and revenue receipts was estimated to be of 79603.47 crore rupees.

• The budget aims at meeting the targets set under the Madhya Pradesh Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2005.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MADHYA PRADESH BUDGET: 2013-14

• Total expenditure estimated for the year 2013-14 is of 91946.86 crore rupees • Revenue surplus estimated for the year 2013-14 is 5214.83 crore rupees • Fiscal Deficit estimated for the year 2013-14 is 12218.53 crore rupees • Total Revenue Receipts for the year 2013-14 are estimated to be 79603.47 crore rupees

and the components for the Revenue Receipts are a) 33381.68 crore rupees that includes State’s Own Tax Revenue b) 23693.61 crore rupees as share in Central Taxes c) 7583.39 crore rupees as State’s Own Non-Tax Revenue





d) 14944.79 crore rupees of Central Grants • State’s own Tax Revenue estimates are 17.91 percent higher in 2013-14 balance

estimates as compared to 2012-13 (balance estimates) • Revenue Expenditure of 74388.64 crore rupees estimated for the year 2013-14, which is

10845.14 crore rupees more than 63543.50 crore rupees for the year 2012-13 (balance estimates)

• Opening balance of (-) 195.33 crore rupees is estimated for the year 2013-14. Net transaction during the year is estimated to be 72.24 crore rupees. Hence, closing balance at the end of the year is estimated to be (-) 123.09 crore rupees

• Plan expenditure for the year 2013-14 is estimated to be 37608.17 crore rupees as against 31473.48 crore rupees for the year 2012-13, which is an increase of 18 percent

• Budget estimates in Tribal Sub-plan have increased from 6109.88 crore rupees for the year 2012-13 to 6907.15 crore rupees for the year 2013-14, which is a n increase of 13.05 percent

• Budget estimates in Scheduled Caste sub-plan have increased from 4241.82 crore rupees for the year 2012-13 to 4889.99 crore rupees for the year 2013-14, which is an increase of 15.28 percent increase

FISCAL INDICATORS

• Fiscal Deficit estimated at 2.98 percent of GSDP • Revenue Surplus estimated at 1.27 percent of GSDP • Interest payments estimated at 8.19 percent of Revenue Receipts • Total net debt of the state has come down to 14.30 percent of GSDP

AGRICULTURE AND ALLIED SECTORS

• Separate Agriculture Budget for Agriculture and Allied Sectors • Total provision of 4765 crore rupees for the development of irrigation facilities • Work on 2 large and 10 medium irrigation schemes will be started in the year 2013-14 • Provision of subsidy of 1700 crore rupees for electricity supply to farmers • Investment of 3000 crore rupees in the year 2013-14 for Feeder separation scheme to

ensure 8 hours continuous electricity supply to farmers • Provision of 400 crore rupees for free electricity for 5HP agricultural pumps (land up to 1

hectare) and up to 25 units per month domestic electricity consumption to SC and ST farmers/consumers

• Provision of 500 crore rupees to provide loan at 0 percent interest rate to farmers • Provision for bonus of 150 per quintal on wheat procurement. Provision of 1050 crore

rupees for this incentive • New scheme for incentivising organic agriculture along with scheme to reward

agricultural farmers at block level too. Provision of 12 crore rupees made • Seed cum organic fertilizer drill grant to induce linear sowing • Target of cent percent seed treatment • Mukhya Mantri Kisan Videsh Adhayayan Yojana





• Provision of 9 crore and fivefold increase in the goals of State Micro Irrigation scheme • Provision of 32 crore rupees to establish 250 custom hiring centres for young

entrepreneurs and agricultural graduates • Provision of 4 crore rupees for semen transplantation lab to rear superior breed • Provision of veterinary doctors at door-step extended to 89 tribal blocks • Initiation of core banking facility in Central Cooperative Banks • Provision of assistance in RBC 6(4) for damage of crops by black buck and blue bull. • Provision of 12 crore rupees for proper storage of Wheat/Rice. • Provision of 18 crore rupees for establishment of 50 new and upgradation of 123

Veterinary Hospitals. • Provision of 55 crore rupees for integrated cooperative development projects. • Provision of 350 crore rupees for the year 2013-14 under Annapurna Scheme. • Provision of 27 crore rupees for fish farming for Plan expenditure which is 50 percent

more than the last year. • Short term working capital loan to fishermen at 0 percent interest rate.

INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

• Provision of 8856 crore rupees in the energy sector for the year 2013-14, which is 1146 crore rupees more than 2012-13.

• Provision of 2681 crore rupees for upgradation and strengthening of electricity distribution and sub-distribution

• Provision of 405 crore rupees to enhance power generation capacity • Provision of 29 crore rupees to promote non-conventional energy • Provision of 4970 crore rupees for road construction and maintenance • Provision of 501 crore rupees for Mukya Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana • Provision of 4765 crore rupees for irrigation schemes • 2 large and 10 medium irrigation schemes to be started in 2013-14

PANCHAYAT AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

• Provision of 7444 crore rupees for panchayat and rural development. • Provision of 100 crore rupees under Mukhya Mantri Grameen Awas Mission • Provision of 35 crore rupees under Mukhya Mantri Antyodaya Awas Yojana • 4527 crore rupees to be transferred as grant in aid to Urban/Rural local bodies which is

21.6 percent more than the last year

DRINKING WATER

• Provision of 1743 crore rupees for drinking water schemes • Provision of drinking water through handpump/water supply schemes in 13200 rural

habitats • Provision of 432 crore rupees to initiate Kshipra-Narmada link project • Provision for drinking water facilities in 5794 Aanganwadis





• Investment of 15 crore rupees in Jal Nigam

EDUCATION

• Provision of 13763 crore rupees in education sector which is 1644 crore rupees more than last year

• Provision of 71 crore rupees for reimbursement of fees for 2.65 lac students belonging to weaker sections

• Extension of Gaon Ki Beti and Pratibha Kiran Yojana • Establishment of new engineering colleges at Nowgaon, Chhatarpur • Increase of 500 for stationery and 1500 for books to students of SCs and STs • Two fold increase in scholarship for research work to students of SCs and STs • Establishment of ITIs at Deosar in Singrauli District, Kasravad in Ujjain, Patan in Jabalpur

and Majhgawan in Satna district. • Stipend of ITI apprentice of SCs and STs Students rose from 140 per month to 235 per

month

HEALTH

• Provision of 4147 crore rupees for health sector which is 551 crore rupees higher than 2012-13

• 100 additional vehicles for 108 ambulance services (renamed as Sanjeevani-108) • Establishment of G.N.M. schools at Dewas, Mandsaur, Vidisha, Raisen, Jhabua, Sidhi,

Rajgarh, Narsinghpur, Satna and Seoni • Sanction for operation of 150 additional ambulances • Provision of stipend of 2500 to A.N.M., 3000 to G.N.M. and 3500 to B.Sc. Nursing

trainees • Decision to enhance the daily diet allowance from 30 to 40 for patients

WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

• Provision of 5106 crore rupees for women and child development which is 26 percent higher than last year

• Provision of 850 crore rupees for Ladli Laxmi Yojana, which is 30 percent higher than the last year

• Provision of 111 crore rupees for construction of anganwadi buildings and 5 crore rupees for maintenance

• Introduction of new scheme to give prizes to persons protecting the dignity of women • Social Justice • Provision of 1397 crore rupees for the year 2013-14 which is 31 percent higher than last

year • Provision of 17 crore rupees for Antoyadaya Melas extended upto block levels • Provision of 100 crore rupees under Mukhya Mantri Kanya Daan Yojana and Mukhya

Mantri Nikah Yojana which is 67 percent higher than last year





• State of M.P. awarded with National Award for excellent work as employer of disabled persons on reserved seats

• Constitution of State Senior Citizen commission

URBAN ADMINISTRATION

• Provision of 5168 crore rupees for urban administration and development which is 22 percent higher than last year

• Provision of 258 crore rupees for Mukhya Mantri Shahri Peyjal Yojana, Mukhya Mantri Shahri Swachhata Mission and Mukhya Mantri Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme

• Initiation of schemes for conservation and development of ponds and lakes. Provision of 1 crore rupees made

• New Urban Reform Scheme for reforms in urban bodies for financial, administrative, e-governance, wealth tax and consumer tariff

• Initiation of Valmiki Yojana to inspire cleanliness drive • Provision of 150 crore rupees for Simhastha-2016

SPORTS

• Provision of 126 crore rupees for 2013-14 which is 21 percent higher than last year • Players of the state have achieved glory for the state by winning 1586 medals at

national and international level in 2012-13 • New scheme Olympic - 2020 from 2013-14 • Provision of 3 crore rupees to lay down Hockey astroturf in 15 cities • Tourism and Culture • Provision of 158 crore rupees for tourism activities for 2013-14 which is 31 percent

higher than last year • Provision of 11 crore rupees to develop tourist centres in each district • Provision of 141 crore rupees for culture which is 22 percent higher than last year • Allocation of 10 crore for establishment of Sanchi Baudh Bharatiya Gyan Adhyayan

Vishwavidyalaya • Decision to establish Atal Bihari Bajpai Centre for Art and Culture at Morena • Provision of 1 crore for celebration of 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekanand • Industry and Mining • Provision of 907 crore rupees for industrial sector which is 40 percent higher than last

year • Provision of 340 crore rupees for Industrial Investment Promotion Assistance • Decision to award Dattopant Thengdi Prize of 5 lac, 3 lac and 2 lac respectively to first

three units creating opportunities for maximum employment as against capital investment in MSME sectors

• Provision of 54 crore to benefit 50,000 youths under a new scheme Mukhya Mantri Swarojgar Yojana





SC AND ST DEVELOPMENT

• Provision of 2013-14 is 1447 crore rupees higher than the last year • More than two fold increase under the provision of SC and ST Atrocities Act • Relief amount enhanced from 2 lacs to 5 lacs • Decision to provide laptop to first year students of engineering and medical colleges

belonging to SCs and STs. Provision of 14 crore rupees in 2013-14 • Upgradation of 40 High Schools to Higher Secondary Schools, 20 Middle schools to High

schools and 20 primary English medium schools to middle schools in tribal areas in 2013-14

• Proposal to open 20 new girl education centres (parisar) • Proposal of additional faculty in 20 Higher Secondary schools • Proposal of new 20 post matric hostels, 10 pre-matric hostels and 10 ashram schools • Proposal to begin two new sports centres(parisar) for students of STs • Decision to enhance per day diet allowance from 25 to 100 and sports kit allowance

from 850 to Rs. 3000 for players residing in sports centres (parisar) • Establishment of 119 new hostels for SC students and proposal of increase of 3000 seats

in the existing hostels • Provision of 24 crore rupees for Vimukt, Ghumakkad and Ardh Ghumakkad communities • Backward Classes and Minorities Development • Provision of 749 crore rupees for different welfare schemes for the backward classes

and minority sections which is 37 percent higher than last year. • Necessary resources have been made available to all districts for monitoring and

implementation of different schemes for the welfare of minorities and backward classes

LAW AND ORDER

• Provision of 3962 crore rupees for police force which is 37 percent higher than last year • 5000 new posts to be filled in the year 2013-14 • Constitution of new women crime cell. 500 new posts and provision of 23 crore rupees

in 2013-14 • Necessary provisions for the new schemes like Police health infrastructure, community

police, social empowerment and tourism police, state highway security and conservation, Centralized Police Call Centre and Control Room System, Automatic Finger Identification System etc

• Sanction of 1208 posts including 52 new district and session judge and 86 Class II Civil judges

• Provision of 29 crore for this in 2013-14 • Decision to constitute Adhivakta Kalyan Nidhi for the welfare of lawyers • Decision to enhance the fee of penal lawyers in Madhyamastha Adhikaran from ` 5,000

per case to ` 20,000

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS





• No ban imposed on purchases in the year 2013-14 which is the living testimony of the efficient financial management

• Decision to enhance the relief amount by 50 percent in road accident cases to the victim’s family by raising assistance from 10000 to 15000 in death case and 5000 to 7500 for serious injuries

• Decision to enhance the monthly honorarium of elected representatives and office bearers of 50 zila panchayats, 313 Janpad Panchayat and 23006 Gram Panchayat

EMPLOYEES WELFARE

• Payment of 72 percent D.A. to state government employees and pensioners as Central Government employees as per promises made by the state government

• Decision of 725 kit allowance per year for constables and head constables of police forces

• Decision to enhance the allowances of part time sweepers, part time peons and part time clerks in schools by 300, 400 and 500 respectively. Their allowances will respectively now are 1000, 2000 and 2500

Read More on State Budgets

RAGHURAJ PRATAP SINGH RESIGNED FROM THE STATE CABINET

Uttar Pradesh Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya resigned from the State Cabinet on 4 March 2013 in the wake of the killing of the DSP in Pratapgarh district. He submitted his resignation to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav at Lucknow and Governor of the state, B.L. Joshi accepted his resignation.

ISSUE THAT LED TO RESIGNATION

DSP Zia-ul-Haq was killed by a mob in Pratapgarh on 2 March 2013 when he rushed there after a village head was shot dead over a land dispute. Raja Bhaiya was accused for the attack on the DSP by his slain wife. The complaint was filed against Raja Bhaiya at the Kunda Police Station, where DSP Zia-ul-Haq was posted.

PRESIDENT OF INDIA APPOINTED JUDGES IN THE HIGH COURT OF J&K

President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on 11 March 2013 appointed Ali Mohd. Magrey and Dhiraj Singh Thakur as the Judges of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. The appointment of judges’ by the President took place in confirmation to the powers conferred in Article 95 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir.

Exercising the powers provided under Sub-Section (1) of section 100-A of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, the President also appointed Rabstan, Bansi Lal Bhat and Janak Raj Kotwal as the Additional Judges of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, in their order of seniority. All






these additional judges will serve the Court for a period of two years and from the day when they will assume the charge of their respective offices.

Article 370 of Constitution of India grants temporary provisions with respect to the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

(1) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution,

(a) The provisions of article 238 shall not apply in relation to the State of Jammu and Kashmir;

(b) The power of Parliament to make laws for the said State shall be limited

UK OPENED MOBILE VISA APPLICATION FACILITY IN GOA

The UK Government on 12 March 2013 opened its first ever Mobile Biometric Clinic (MBC) in Goa.

The Mobile Biometric Clinic is meant to save the time of locals from travelling to distant places like Mumbai to apply for visa to the country. Mobile Biometric Clinic is an initiative by the UK Border Agency providing convenience to the citizens of Goa with the localised option of applying for a UK visa.

ABOUT MOBILE BIOMETRIC CLINIC (MBC)

• MBC is a new and optional service, which for an additional fee allows applicants who are residing in Goa to submit their UK visa application and biometric data using a mobile facility in the state.

• The new MBC service offers the option to do things closer from home. • The MBC uses the UK Border Agency’s mobile Biometric Enrolment System (BES)

equipment to take biometric data (finger scans and digital photograph).

The service is delivered by the UK Border Agency’s commercial partner, VFS Global. Earlier in the month of February, the UK prime minister had announced a new same day visa service for businessmen.

MP BAGGED TWO NATIONAL TOURISM AWARDS

Madhya Pradesh on 18 March 2013 bagged two national tourism awards. One for the best civic management of a tourist destination and other for the most innovative and unique tourism project in the 23rd National Tourism Award.

Madhya Pradesh which is known for tourism hotspots received the awards from President Pranab Mukherjee at a function held for National Tourism Awards 2011-12 in New Delhi, at Vigyan Bhawan.





The state received the award in category-‘B’ city for Municipal Council of Mandu in Dhar district. It also got another award for most innovative and unique tourism project-Air Taxi. The state has pioneered in the country to launch the first intra-state Air Taxi services through MPSTDC, in a joint venture with M/s Ventura Air connect Pvt Ltd.

MADHYA PRADESH AIR TAXI PROJECT

Madhya Pradesh was the first state in the country to offer air taxi services. The Madhya Pradesh Air Taxi project provided a boost to tourism sector and also for commercial activities. The wild life, sports, adventure, religious and leisure tourism have received a big boost with the Air taxi project. Air connectivity to remote areas has a direct impact on in its prosperity. It influences hotel occupancy, taxi usage and its allied activities. The Air taxi connections will provide easy accessibility to cities with tourist interest and business potential.

SINGLE PHASE ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS IN KARNATAKA ON 5 MAY

The Election Commission (EC) on 20 March 2013 announced that single phase assembly elections in Karnataka will be held on 5 May 2013. Counting of the votes will be held on 8 May 2013. There are 4.18 crore voters in Karnataka and voting will take place at 50446 polling stations.

Formal notification will be issued on 10 April 2013. Last day for the nomination is 17 April 2013 while the last day for withdrawal of nomination is 20 April 2013. The Karnataka Assembly comprises of 224 members. The Karnataka Assembly will end on 3 June 2013. There are primarily three main regions of Karnataka-Old Mysore, Mumbai-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka.

OOMMEN CHANDY COMMISSIONED A BIOGAS PLANT IN SECRETARIAT

The Chief Minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy commissioned a biogas plant in the Government Secretariat campus in Thiruvananthapuram on 23 March 2013. The biogas plant was installed by Bio Flame-Biogas and Energy Pvt Ltd.

FEATURES OF THE BIOGAS PLANT

• This biogas plant has the capacity of processing up to 100 kg of bio-waste per hour. • It can also produce 8-10 kg of fuel. This fuel would be utilised for cooking purpose. • The waste which came from in-house canteen would be processed by the plant mainly. • The plant is a result of rising concerns of waste disposal in this Capital City.

Apart from the biogas plant, incinerator was also scheduled to come up in the campus. The site for establishing this 18 lakh Rupees project was identified near this biogas plant. The work would finish by April 2013. This incinerator is like the one which is already functioning at Shanthi Kavadam.





JAMMU AND KASHMIR ASSEMBLY PASSED EIGHT BILLS

Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on 28 March 2013 passed eight bills the major of which is associated to juveniles in conflict with law.

A Bill to consolidate and amend the law related to juveniles in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection was moved by Minister for Social Welfare Sakina Itoo, which was passed by voice vote after minor changes.

OTHER BILLS PASSED ARE

• A Bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services Decentralisation and Recruitment Act, 2010

• A Bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Value Added Tax Act, 2005. • A bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Special Provisions) Act, 2010.

All three bills were passed by Voice Vote after discussion.

A bill to amend Jammu and Kashmir Employees' Provident Funds (and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1961 to increase PF from 10.33 per cent to 14 per cent was moved by Labour and Employment Minister Ajay Kumar Sadhotra.

The Bill was initially passed with amendments from 12 per cent to 14 per cent, but after the House spotted the mistake, it passed the original Bill by voice vote after discussion. The other bill was passed by Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Mir Saifullah who moved a Bill to amend the Salaries and Allowances of Member of the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature Act, 1960.

A bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Transfer of Property Act, Samvat 1977 and the Jammu and Kashmir Alienation of land Act, Samvat 1995 was also moved by Minister of state for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Ajaz Ahmed Khan

A Bill to provide better management, administration and governance of Mata Sukhrala Devi and Mata Bala Sundari shrines and its endowments including the land and buildings, was also passed by voice vote by Minister of State of Tourism.







SPORTS

NOVAK DJOKOVIC WON ATP DUBAI OPEN TENNIS TITLE 2013

World Number one Novak Djokovic on 2 March 2013 won the ATP Dubai Open Tennis title 2013. He defeated third seed Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych 7-5, 6-3 in the finals in Dubai.

India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and his French partner Michael Lloldra bagged the doubles crown defeating Serbian-Swedish duo of Nenad Zimonjic and Robert Lindstedt 7-6, 7-6 in straight sets.

SAHMIM KHAN WON T PGTI PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE 2013

Shamim Khan of Delhi on 1 March 2013 defeated Mukesh Kumar of Mhow in the playoff to win the PGTI Players Championship title at the Classic Golf Resort. S Chikkarangappa of Bangalore came third with an aggregate of 11-under-277.

Both Shamim and Mukesh finished the regulation 72 holes with matching totals of 12-under-276. Shamim (66-70-70-70) was in third position earlier. However, he placed three strokes behind Mukesh and made a solid start to the day with pars on the first eight holes and followed that up with a birdie on the ninth.

He made his approach shot from 115 yards to within a foot of the pin on the ninth. The 34-year-old reigning Rolex Rankings champion afterwards, he went two-under for the day with a birdie on the 14th after landing his chip within three feet of the hole. Shamim Kahn is 34 years old. He is the reigning Rolex Rankings Champion.

SERVICES CLINCHED 67TH SANTOSH TROPHY

Santosh Trophy In the final of the 67th Santosh Trophy on 3 March 2013, Services won the soccer contest by defeating hosts Kerala 4-3 on penalties at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi. The Man of the Match title was clinched by Services striker Lalian Mawia. The Services team bagged their third Santosh Trophy title.

ABOUT THE SANTOSH TROPHY





Santosh Trophy is the yearly Indian football tournament that is played among states and government institutions. This tournament was initiated in 1941. The Santosh Trophy is named after late Maharaja Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary of Santosh.

RAFAEL NADAL WON ATP MEXICAN OPEN 2013 TENNIS TOURNAMENT

Rafael Nadal defeated top seed and defending champion David Ferrer 6-0, 6-2 on 2 March 2013 in the final match of the ATP Mexican Open 2013 tennis tournament.

David Ferrer was the 3-time defending champion, who had also won 19 straight matches in the event. But eventually in the final of ATP Mexican Open 2013, he lost to Spanish compatriot Nadal. On the other hand, in the women’s final, Italy's Sara Errani defeated Carla Suarez-Navarro of Spain 6--0, 6-4.

ABOUT RAFAEL NADAL

• Rafael Nadal won ATP Mexican Open tournament for the second time. Earlier he had won this title in 2005.

• This is the second title for Nadal in 2013. Prior to this, he had won Brazil Open Tennis Tournament 2013 on 17 February 2013.

• This is the 38th clay court title of Nadal.

MANORAMA & DEBORAH WON BRONZE IN HACC

India's Deborah and Manorama Devi on 10 March 2013 won a bronze in the team sprint on the second to last day of the Hero Asian Cycling Championships (HACC) in New Delhi. The pair came just 0.148 secs ahead by defeating Malaysia's Faihah Shahwati Mohd Adnan and Nurul Alissa Mohamad Azman.

Manorama, was little slow as she completed the first lap in 22.243 secs as compared to Malaysia's rider (21.527). in contrary Deborah, wrested back the advantage and completed the race with an aggregate of 38.645 secs to bag a podium finish in the junior category while the Malaysian duo took 38.793 secs to finsh the two-lap race.

Earlier in the day, Faihah and Nurul had qualified with better timings (38.848 secs) as compared to the Indian pair (39.245 secs). Deborah is from Andaman and Nicobar.

SMRITI MEHRA WON SECOND TITLE IN HERO WOMEN’S PRO GOLF TOUR

Smriti Mehra, the veteran golfer, on 6 March 2013 won her second title in the fourth leg of Hero Women`s Pro Golf Tour 2013 in Mumbai.





Smriti played a round of one under 64 and finished with an overall score of 194 at the Willingdon Sports Club. At the second position was Neha Tripathi who completed with the final round score of one over 66 and an overall score of 200. Sharmila Nicollet achieved third position with lowly six over 71 and a total score of 202. Pallavi Jain came at the fourth position with par 65 and an overall score of 205. At the fifth position were Vani Kapoor and Saaniya Sharma who tied at a total score of 209.

THE WINNERS WERE AS FOLLOWS

• Smriti Mehra-194 (67, 63, 64) • Neha Tripathi-200 (70, 64, 66) • Sharmila Nicollet-202 (63, 68, 71) • Pallavi Jain-205 (65, 75, 65) • Vani Kapoor - 209 (73, 68, 68) • Saaniya Sharma- 209 (74, 67, 68)

T. BAUN WON ALL ENGLAND OPEN BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIP

Tine Baun won the women’s singles title in the All England Open Badminton Championships 2013 at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, England on 10 March 2013. With this victory, the 33-year-old Baun became the oldest All-England Women’s Singles Champion of Open Era. She defeated three-time world junior champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 21-14, 16-21, 21-10. This was the last tournament of Tine Baun’s career. Earlier, she had won the same title in 2008 and 2010.

ABOUT TINE BAUN

• Tine Baun is the female badminton player. She is from Denmark. • The most important highlight of her career is winning the All England Open Badminton

Championship women's singles three times in 2008, 2010 and most recently, in 2013. • This was the last tournament of her career.

ABOUT ALL ENGLAND OPEN BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

• All England Open Badminton Championships is also known as All England. • It is one of the oldest as well as the prestigious badminton tournaments of the world. • All England Open Badminton Championships tournament is played annually. • The first tournament was held in 1898 in Guildford. • Earlier, the All England Open Badminton Championships was held in only three

categories- Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles. • Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles titles were added to the tournament in 1900.

NEHA TRIPATHI WON BT PRO AM OF CHAMPIONS GOLF TOURNAMENT





Neha Tripathi defeated Thailand's Pennapa Pulsawath to win BT Pro Am of Champions Golf Tournament 2013 in Manesar on 10 March 2013. After initially tying up at a score of 141, Neha won the match in second playoff on 18th hole.

At the third position was golfer Smriti Mehra from India who got the total score of 142. Thai golfer Tiranan Yoopan finished at the fourth position with a score of 143. Tang Ni Nhung of Vietnam came at the fifth position with an overall score of 148. It is important to note that Neha Tripathi had won the first tournament of Hero Women Professional Golf Tour on 31 January 2013. This is her third title in the Women Tour.

DAVID BECKHAM NAMED RICHEST FOOTBALLER OF THE WORLD

David Beckham was named as the richest footballer of the world, according to the Goal Rich List 2013. David Beckham has a total income of 175 million pound. 37-year-old Beckham is the biggest brand in the world now, leaving behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

In 2012, Beckham earned more than 20 million pound from wages as well as endorsement. The Goal Rich List 2013 revealed that the worth of Beckham is 60 million pound more than Messi. At the third position is Ronaldo, aged 28 years. He earned a total of 112 million pound in his career. Wayne Rooney, the Manchester United and England striker made it to the list of Top Ten with a total of 50 million pound.

INDIA WON EIGHT MEDALS IN INAUGURAL AGPAC

India won a total of eight medals in the inaugural Asian Grand Prix Archery Championship at Bangkok on 14 March 2013. India won two gold, two silver and four bronze.

In the category of compound Men's individual, Ch. Jignas clinched the Gold after he defeated China's He Ying 145-142. In the Compound Men's trio category, Ch. Jignas, Abhishek Verma and Ritul Chatterjee won the Gold, registering a victory over Vietnam, 226-218. Silver was won by Rahul Banerjee in Recurve Men and Anjali Kumari in Compound Women in the individual categories. In the Recurve Men's event, Atanu Das clinched the Bronze.

Recurve Women's team of Bombayala Devi, Dola Banerjee and Rimil Biruli defeated Indonesia to win a Bronze. In the same section, Bombayla Devi won a Bronze in individual category. Atanu and Bombayala also defeated opponent team in mixed team event to win fourth Bronze for India.

BHULLAR FINISHED SECOND IN AVANTHA MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT





In the Avantha Masters golf tournament at Jaypee Greens course in Greater Noida on 17 March 2013, India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar finished at the runners-up position. Thomas Aiken of South Africa won the Avantha Masters golf tournament. At the third position was China’s Liang Wen-Chong who finished two spots behind Bhullar.

Gaganjeet Bhullar won a total prize money of 2 lakh Euros or 1 crore 34 lakh Rupees. Thomas Aiken won by three-stroke margin, claiming 3 lakh Euros or 2 crore Rupees. The score of Gaganjeet Bhullar was 20 under 268. On the other hand, Thomas Aiken scored 23-under 265. Among other Indians who gained good position was, Himmat Rai who finished at ninth spot. His tally was 14-under 274. Jeev Milkha Singh also claimed limelight in the event with 23rd position in the tournament.

ABOUT AVANTHA MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT

• Avantha Masters golf tournament is the professional tournament of golf which is co-sanctioned by the Professional Golf Tour of India, the European Tour and the Asian Tour.

• From 2010 to 2012, this tournament was played at DLF Golf and Country Club in Delhi. But in 2013, the tournament was played in Jaypee Greens Golf Club in Greater Noida.

MURADIAN KHALMURATOV WON GOLD IN MEN'S CATEGORY OF HACC

Muradian Khalmuratov of Uzbekistan clinched second gold by winning the 156.2 km individual road race event in the men's category of Asian champion's title on final day of Hero Asian Cycling Championship (HACC) on 17 March 2013.

With this, the total tally of Muradian Khalmuratov, 31, became two gold. Earlier, he had won the gold in 42.6 km individual time trial event. The favourite for this title was Iran's Sohrabi Mehdi, who finished at the 12th position. The Iranian team won silver which was won by Arvin Goudarzi. Kazakhstan's Andrey Mizurov won the bronze. In the meanwhile, there were four Indian cyclists- Arvind Panwar, Atul Kumar, Amresh Singh and Sombir Singh who did not finish the race.

The overall tally for Kazakhstan was three gold, four silver and two bronze. On the other hand, Hong Kong and China completed the tournament with two gold and a bronze. Uzbekistan won two gold in the tournament. In 2014, Asian Cycling Championship will take place at Astana, Kazakhstan.

TEAM LOTUS’S KIMI RAIKKONEN WON AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2013





Kimi Raikkonen, the Australian driver of Formula One team Lotus won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix 2013 on 17 March 2013. Kimi Raikkonen started at the seventh spot in Finland and adopted just two pit stops technique for winning the race.

In the Australian Grand Prix 2013 opening season, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel finished at the second and third position respectively. Brazilian Felipe Massa, the Ferrari driver and Britain’s Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes driver finished at the fourth and fifth positions respectively.

AUSTRALIA WON SULTAN AZLAN SHAH HOCKEY TOURNAMENT 2013

Australia, the World Champions won the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament title for the seventh time on 17 March 2013. Australia defeated Malaysia 3-2 in the final match in Malaysia. South Korea came at the third position. It is important to note that Malaysia came at the runner-ups position for the fourth time. South Korea won bronze after defeating 2012 winner- New Zealand 2-1. At the fifth position was India which defeated Pakistan 4-2. Trent Mitton was declared as the man-of-the-match for final match. The top scorers of the tournaments were India's Rupinder Pal Singh and Malaysia's Faizal with six goals each. Earlier, Australia had won the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament in 1983, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2011.

ABOUT SULTAN AZLAN SHAH HOCKEY TOURNAMENT

The Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament is held in Malaysia every year. The first tournament took place in 1983. After 1998, the tournament started taking place every year. The tournament is named after the ninth king of Malaysia- Sultan Azlan Shah. It is important to note that India won its first Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament in 1985.

NADAL & SHARAPOVA WON INDIAN WELLS BNP PARIBAS OPEN 2013

Rafael Nadal of Spain won Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open 2013 on 17 March 2013. Nadal defeated Argentine Juan Martin del Potro 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the final. After winning Tokyo Open in October 2010, this is the first hard court victory of Nadal.

With this, Nadal became number 4 in the world ranking. Apart from this, Maria Sharapova won the first title of 2013 in women’s final of the tournament by defeating Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-2.

HARMANPREET NAMED CAPTAIN OF INDIAN WOMEN'S CRICKET TEAM

Harmanpreet Kaur was named as the Captain of the Indian women's Cricket team for the limited-overs series against Bangladesh, on 28 March 2013. The limited-overs series against





Bangladesh will start in India from 2 April 2013. She replaced Mithali Raj to be the captain of the Indian women's Cricket team.

Opener Poonam Raut was named as the Vice-Captain of the team. Senior Indian batswoman and Captain Mithali Raj was not named in the 15-member Indian women's Cricket team by the All-India Women's Selection Committee. There will be three T20 matches as well as three One-Day International matches in the series to be played against Bangladesh.


SPORTS CURRENT AFFAIRS QUIZZES

1. Which Team won the General Sparrow Centenary Polo Cup-2013 played at Jaipur Polo Ground on 2 March 2013 by defeating Sailors team?

a) Sona Polo Team

b) Jaipur Riders

c) Elestina Gold Team

d) Garcha polo team

Answer (a) Sona Polo Team

2. Which top seeded tennis player Defeated David Ferrer to Win ATP Mexican Open 2013 Tennis Tournament?

a) Rafael Nadal

b) Roger Federer

c) Novak Djokovic

d) Mahesh Bhupati

Answer (a) Rafael Nadal

3. Name the Female Indian Cyclist won a Bronze medal in the final of women's juniors of 500m cycle event in Asian Cycling Championship on 7 March 2013 in New Delhi.

a) Kamaljeet Sandhu

b) Neha Agarwaal

c) Poulomi Ghatk

d) Deborah


http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs-sports-1286371683-1




Answer (d) Deborah

4. Which Indian female veteran golfer, on 6 March 2013 won her second title in the fourth leg of Hero Women`s pro golf tour 2013 in Mumbai.

a) Smriti Mehra

b) Sharmila Nicollet

c) Ankita Das

d) Saba anjum Karim

Answer (a) Smriti Mehra

5. Which female top seeded Badminton player won the women’s singles title in the All England Open Badminton Championships 2013 at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, England on 10 March 2013?

a) Tine Baun

b) Saina Nehwal

c) Jwala Dutta

d) Ashwini Ponaapa

Answer (a) Tine Baun

For More Sports Quizzes


http://www.jagranjosh.com/articles-sports-quizzes-1298700404-1




ENVIRONMENT ECOLOGY

OKHLA COMPOST PLANT RECEIVED CARBON CREDITS

The composting plant of South Delhi Municipal Corporation in Okhla, New Delhi became the first in India to receive the carbon credits from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The civic body was given 25 lakh Rupees as an advance against the Carbon Emission Reduction (CER) earnings from this plant.

The Okhla plant became operational in 2008. Since 2008, around two lakh tonnes of the waste has already been processed. In the future, the amount of waste processed everyday would be increased. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation has outsourced this operation to IL&FS (Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd), which in turn is also working on the programme for upgradation of this plant.

WHAT ARE CARBON CREDITS?

Carbon credits can be like the certificates which represent a decrease of greenhouse gases in environment. Projects which help in preventing the generation of these greenhouses gases are eligible for earning these credits.

The projects in turn can also sell these carbon credits to the other organisations, businesses or individuals in order to offset the emissions which are generated by them. One carbon credits equals to the saving of one tonne of carbon dioxide.

NEW ZEALAND DECLARED WORST-EVER DROUGHT IN 30 YEARS

The New Zealand Government in the third week of March 2013 declared the worst-ever drought in 30 years in the entire North Island of the country.

The worst-hit section of the society is the farmers. Losses from agriculture will put pressure on the economy, which in turn would cut off 1 percent of the economic growth of New Zealand. Farmers of New Zealand, who are said to be a crucial factor of the economy of the country, estimated that drought had cost them earnings of 1 billion New Zealand Dollars already.

The capital of NZ, Wellington is left with just 18 days of water. Drought will hit parts of the South Island soon. However, it was forecasted that first rainfall in the duration of two months would come by 16-17 March 2013. The drought conditions in New Zealand were apparent through the satellite images from space.

DROUGHT HINTING TOWARDS CLIMATE CHANGE





According to a few scientists, dry climatic conditions hint towards an overall climate change. Climate scientists from Victoria University of Wellington forecasted that more summers and drought conditions like these were on their way in New Zealand because of global warming.

The scientists explained that dry subtropical weather, which leads to the formation of deserts in countries like Australia and Africa, was inching closer towards the poles of the world. There were increasing risks of drought in the country, leading to stretching of water resources.

MASS DEATH OF PRAWNS DUE TO UNEXPLAINED REASON IN CORONEL

Thousands of prawns were found dead on the beach in Coronel city, around 530 km from Santiago, Chile, in the third week of March 2013.

The local fishermen hinted towards the fact that deaths of prawns might have been caused because of the power generation plants- Bocamina 1 and 2 as well as Colbun, which make use of seawater as their cooling agent. Experts, on the other hand, are investigating in terms of oxygen levels, water temperatures as well as certain other details. The environment officers explained that physical parameters such as electric conductivity, temperature and oxygen were being studied.

CAUSE OF MASS DEATH OF PRAWNS

Pollution as well as El Nino phenomenon is seen as the possible cause of mass death of prawns. El Nino phenomenon refers to warm ocean current which is found along Pacific coast of South America. It is believed that mass death of prawns would have a negative effect on the livelihood of fishermen.

TWO WOODLIZARD SPECIES CALLED ENYALIOIDES DISCOVERED

In a research led by lead author Dr Pablo Venegas from Centro de ornitología y Biodiversidad (CORBIDI) in Lima, Peru, in the last week of March 2013, two new woodlizard species called Enyalioides were discovered from Cordillera Azul National Park. These two species were named Enyalioides Azulae and Enyalioides Binzayedi.

Enyalioides Azulae is said to be from a locality in mountain rainforest of the Río Huallaga basin in northeastern Peru. This species was given the name based on the Spanish word- Azul which means blue. It referred to the Cordillera Azul National Park from where this species was explored.

Enyalioides binzayedi, on the other hand, was discovered from same river basin but was named after sponsor of the field survey Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He is the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE. He was the creator of Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZSCF).





The two newly discovered lizard species have body with distinct green patterns before the black and dark brown background. The researchers assumed that the species have common territory with an only difference in the altitude ranges. This slight difference of the altitude ranges made their biological difference fascinating from the perspective of evolution.

The two lizards were discovered from Cordillera Azul National Park, which is the third largest national park in Peru. This area includes least explored forests in Peru. The river basins of Pauya and Pisqui in this National Park are said to be remarkable in terms of the diversity of amphibians and reptiles.

The fieldwork on Enyalioides increased recently with three out of ten known species described in past 5 years. New members of Enyalioides species were discovered during the expeditions on Andes' slopes which are said to be the parts of Ecuador and Peru. The success of the discovery suggested that there were other undiscovered lizards in these areas.

GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS POPULATION INCREASED IN KAZIRANGA

Despite a lot of poaching activities taking place in the Kaziranga National Park, Rhino population in this world heritage site saw an increasing trend, according to the recent census which ended on 26 March 2013.

Earlier, there were 2290 one-horned Great Indian Rhinoceros, which increased to 2329 in the latest census, which means that there is an increase in the Rhino population of Kaziranga National Park by 39. The census began in the Kaziranga National Park on 24 March 2013. The authorities of the KNP declared that they counted 645 adult males and 684 adult females apart from sub-adults and the cubs.

Kaziranga National Park remained closed to the tourists during the census operation which was performed by more than 250 people with 50 elephants. The census included all 81 blocks of the Kaziranga National Park which has five main ranges- Agratoli, Bagori, Burapahar, Kohora and Uttarpara.

The census operation is performed in Kaziranga National Park every two years. The 2013 census included forest guards’ battalions, officials from state forest department as well as the NGOs and certain media groups.

Rhino headcount in Kaziranga National Park has now become a regular practice. It is performed in order to implement the conversation methods fruitfully. In 2012, Kaziranga National Park witnessed a loss of 20 rhinos in poaching. So far, in 2013 14 rhino deaths have been observed.

In 2011, the rhino population in Kaziranga National Park was 2290. In the year 1999, this was 1672. In 2009, this increased to 2048.





WHAT IS POACHING?

Poaching basically means unlawful activities for taking wild animals or plants through trapping, fishing, harvesting and hunting. The concerned law may be that of wildlife management of international conversation. When poachers violate the hunting laws, they are usually punishable by law. These violations of the hunting laws are called poaching. Poaching causes adverse affect on the wildlife population.

KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK: ABODE OF WORLD'S RHINOCEROSES

Kaziranga National Park is situated in Golaghat and Nagaon districts of Assam, India. It is the World Heritage Site and houses two-thirds of Great One-horned Rhinoceroses of the world. In terms of wildlife conservation, Kaziranga National Park has achieved great success in comparison to other wildlife protected areas of India. Being situated at edge of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hub, this Park is a home to varied species.





SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

NASA’S SWIFT SATELLITE DISCOVERED SUPERNOVA REMNANTS

NASA's Swift satellite in the Month of March 2013 discovered one of the youngest-known supernova remnants, which are believed to be less than 2500 years old - in our Milky Way Galaxy. The Supernova Remnants were discovered while performing an extensive X-ray survey of our galaxy's central region. Looking after the coordinates of its sky position it has been designated G306.3-0.9.

As per the analysis by the scientist it was indicated that G306.3-0.9 is likely less than 2500 years old, making it one of the 20 youngest remnants identified. It has been estimated that Astronomers have previously catalogued more than 300 supernova remnants in the galaxy.

To further investigate the object, the team followed up with an 83-minute exposure using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and additional radio observations from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), located near the town of Narrabri in New South Wales.

Using an estimated distance of 26,000 light-years for G306.3-0.9, the scientists determined that the explosion’s shock wave is racing through space at about 2.4 million km/h. The Chandra observations reveal the presence of iron, neon, silicon and sulfur at temperatures exceeding 28 million C, a reminder not only of the energies involved but of the role supernovae play in seeding the galaxy with heavy elements produced in the hearts of massive stars.

ABOUT SUPERNOVA EXPLOSION

A supernova explosion occurs once or twice a century in the Milky Way. The expanding blast wave and hot stellar debris slowly dissipate over hundreds of thousands of years, eventually mixing with and becoming indistinguishable from interstellar gas.

Earlier in 2011, Swift imaged a survey field near the southern border of the constellation Centaurus. Although nothing unusual appeared in the ultraviolet exposure, the X-ray image revealed an extended, semi-circular source reminiscent of a supernova remnant. A search of archival data revealed counterparts in Spitzer infrared imagery and in radio data from the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope in Australia.

INDIA RANKED THIRD ON LIST OF SPAM SPEWING NATION IN WORLD





India ranked third on list of countries, which distribute spam all over the world, after US and China, as per the new report of SophosLabs. SophosLabs is the Sophos’s global network of threat analysis centres.

In the study, US was single highest ranking country, but Asia ranked at number 1 position in the list of the continents with 36.6 percent of overall spam of the world. US sent 18.3 percent of the junk emails overall in the world. In last few months of 2012, India topped the spam spewing nations’ list, but eventually fell back to the third position. Second position was held by China.

In the study, the spam sent from December 2012 to February 2013 was tracked. China and India took second and third positions respectively with 8.2 percent and 4.2 percent of the spam of the world.

Other countries which ranked high included South Korea, France, Italy and Peru. Peru was ranked at fourth position with 4.0 percent of the spam. With 3.4 percent each, France, South Korea and Italy ranked fifth. Russia and Taiwan shared eighth position with 2.9 percent. At tenth, eleventh and twelfth position were Spain (2.8 percent), Germany (2.7 percent) and Iran (2.6 percent). In order to prevent spamming, the PC users can keep the anti-virus software updated and regularly run the malware checks. Apart from this, updating passwords regularly can also help.

JAPAN EXTRACTS NATURAL GAS FROM METHANE HYDRATE

Japan on 12 March 2013 announced that it had extracted the natural gas from frozen methane hydrate successfully off the central coast. With this, Japan became the first country to do so in the world. A Japan official from Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry announced that this was the first offshore experiment of producing natural gas from methane hydrate in the world.

Methane Hydrate, also known as clathrates are a kind of frozen confinements of molecules of water and methane. The gas field where the natural gas was extracted from methane hydrate is situated 50 km away from the main island of Japan in Nankai Trough.

Also, apart from Japan, certain other countries such as China, US and Canada have been searching for the ways to exploit the methane hydrate deposits. Certain pilot experiments were conducted in the past few years, which depicted that it was possible to extract methane from deposits by making use of the methane hydrate which was found under the land ice.

Offshore deposits have a huge source of methane but they also raise environmental concerns because underwater geology which encompasses them is unstable at various places. Now, the survey of gas field is being conducted by Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC).

HOW WAS THE NATURAL GAS FROM METHANE HYDRATE EXTRACTED?





The engineers made use of the depressurisation method which converts the methane hydrate into the methane gas. The production tests will continue till the end of March 2013.

The government officials of Japan announced that now their aim was establishment of methane hydrate production technologies for the purpose of practical use by 2018.

HOW WILL THIS EXTRACTION BENEFIT JAPAN?

According to the Japanese study, it was estimated that around 1.1tn cubic metres of methane hydrate existed in the offshore deposits. This is equal to the gas consumption of Japan in more than 10 years.

According to the researchers, this extraction can prove to be very beneficial because it could facilitate as an alternative source of energy for Japan. It is important to note that Japan as of now imports all the energy needs.

Japan has limited natural resources. After the nuclear disaster of Fukushima plant in 2011, cost of importing the fuel has also increased. The extraction of natural gas from methane hydrate will therefore help Japan in reducing the pressure on natural resources as well as bringing down the cost of import of fuel.

EXACT DISTANCE TO OUR NEIGHBOURING GALAXY CALCULATED

Researchers working on the accurate calculation of the distance of Milky Way to the nearest galaxy, led by Grzegorz Pietrzynski of the Universidad de Concepcion in Chile and Warsaw University Observatory in Poland, found the exact distance to our nearest galaxy. The nearest galaxy to Milky Way is called Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and it was found that it lies at a distance of 163000 light years away or exactly 49.97 kiloparsecs.

LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD (LMC)

• Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the dwarf galaxy which floats in the space around our galaxy, Milky Way. It floats in a similar trend like that between the Earth and the Moon.

• Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) encompasses huge clouds of gas in it, which gradually collapse, thereby forming new stars. These new stars are brightened in the colours which are actually visible in the images that are taken by Hubble Space Telescope.

• LMC also includes Tarantula Nebula which is the brightest stellar nursery in the cosmic neighbourhood.

IMPORTANCE OF THE FINDINGS

The findings about the distance of LMC from Milky Way are crucial because they can help in determining the scale of our universe, which has remained a mystery ever since its inception. These findings could also be used for determining the rate of expansion of the universe. This





rate of expansion of the universe is called Hubble Constant, which is named after an astronomer Edwin P Hubble who discovered in 1929 that the Universe was growing continuously.

Determination of the Hubble Constant is highly important for finding out the age as well as size of the universe. Exact distance of Milky Way to LMC has always remained one of the hugest uncertainties which affected the past measurements.

HOW WAS THE RESEARCH MADE?

Lead researcher Grzegorz Pietrzynski declared that they would now work on improving the accuracy of the measurements even more. The calculations of the distance were made by observation of the rare close pairs of stars which are called eclipsing binaries.

Eclipsing binaries are actually bound to each other gravitationally. Once per orbit, the overall brightness from this system of stars drops as one of these stars eclipses its partner. It is possible to find out the hugeness of the stars as well as information of their orbits by tracking changes in the brightness carefully as well as by measuring orbital speeds of stars.

By combining this with the measurement of apparent brightness, it is possible to determine absolutely accurate distances. In the study, a sample of stars that had extremely long orbital periods was observed for 16 long years. These extremely long orbital periods are absolutely perfect in order to calculate the precise distances. New measurements are useful for decreasing the uncertainty of calculating Hubble Constant to 3 percent while improving it to uncertainty of 2 percent in years to come.

ABUNDANT ACTIVE BACTERIA COMMUNITY DISCOVERED

A team of researchers, led by Ronnie Glud of University of Southern Denmark discovered that a huge community of bacteria grows in depths of the Mariana Trench off the coast of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Islands. It was found that the organisms live at the densities ten times higher than shallower ocean floor at rim of trench.

The deepest point on entire seafloor is called The Challenger Deep and it is situated in Mariana Trench off the coast of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Islands. This point is 36000 feet or 7.8 miles below the surface of the ocean.

HOW WAS THE RESEARCH DONE?

In order to explore the ecosystem that exists ultra-deep, the international team of researchers sent the specially-designed 1300 pound robot in the depth of the Mariana Trench in 2010. This robot was facilitated with thin sensors which could enter into the seafloor sediments in order to measure organic consumption of oxygen. Because all living organisms consume oxygen while





respiration, therefore it is possible to find out the amount of microorganisms living in an area by checking the tallies on what quantity of ambient oxygen is missing from the sediments.

The team of researchers used the device for sampling the sediments at two sites with depths of 35476 and 35488 feet. It was found that large quantity of oxygen consumption took place. This indicated that there were ten times more bacteria at the ultra-deep site than the shallower site which was sampled just for reference around 37 miles away, at a depth of merely 19626 feet.

WHAT DID THE SPECIALLY-DESIGNED 1300 POUND ROBOT EXPLORE?

The robot brought out an overall 21 sediment cores from these two deep sites. The sediment cores were kept for analysis in the lab. Even though a lot of microorganisms died after being brought out to the surface, but it confirmed the finding that cores from Mariana Trench were habitat to higher densities of bacterial cells than the ones which existed in the reference site.

Also, the video recording of the ocean floor was done by making use of the lights for illuminating the dark environment. It was also discovered that certain life forms which were larger than the bacteria on the top of the sediment, existed. It was determined that these life forms were Hirondellea gigas, a species of amphipods. Amphipods are the small crustaceans which are just less than one inch in terms of length.

IMPORTANCE OF THE RESEARCH

The finding of abundant bacterial life at such a depth is very surprising because it was believed that at such depths, not enough nutrients can be found. The Photosynthetic plankton can act as a nutrient base for almost all the ocean food chain, but even these planktons are unable to survive in lightless seafloor. But this research has amused the scientists because ultra-deep trench was found to be the abode of so much bacterial activity than the shallower reference site just nearby.

Since 2010 exploration, the team of researchers has also sent this robot to sample Japan Trench which is roughly 29500 feet deep. The researchers now plan to sample the Kermadec-Tonga Trench, which is 35430 feet deep.

HERSCHEL OBSERVATORY DISCOVERED PROTOSTARS

Astronomers at the Herschel Space Observatory in the Month of March 2013 found some of the youngest stars ever seen in the Universe.

The findings of new stars which is known by protostars was also contributed by Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile, a collaboration involving the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, the Onsala Space Observatory in Sweden, and the European Southern Observatory in Germany.





It has been observed that dense envelopes of gas and dust surround the fledging stars known as protostars, making their detection difficult. The 15 newly observed protostars turned up by surprise in a survey of the biggest site of star formation near our solar system, located in the constellation Orion.

The finding of these new stars is giving scientists a glance into one of the earliest and least understood phases of star formation and it can be a witnessing moment of the phases when a star begins to form. Astronomers long had investigated the stellar nursery in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a vast collection of star-forming clouds, but had not seen the newly identified protostars until Herschel observed the region.

A BRIEF INSIGHT OF THE OBSERVATION MADE

Herschel spied the protostars in far-infrared, or long-wavelength, light, which can shine through the dense clouds around burgeoning stars that block out higher-energy, shorter wavelengths, including the light our eyes see.

• The Herschel Photo-detector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) instrument collected infrared light at 70 and 160 micrometers in wavelength, comparable to the width of a human hair. Researchers compared these observations to previous scans of the star-forming regions in Orion taken by Spitzer.

• Extremely young protostars identified in the Herschel views but too cold to be picked up in most of the Spitzer data were further verified with radio wave observations from the APEX ground telescope.

• Of the 15 newly discovered protostars, 11 possess very red colors, meaning their light output trends toward the low-energy end of the electromagnetic spectrum. This output indicates the stars are still embedded deeply in a gaseous envelope, meaning they are very young.

UNKNOWN HUGE RADIO GALAXY DISCOVERED

An international team of astronomers led by ASTRON astronomer Dr. George Heald, in the third week of March 2013 discovered an unknown huge radio galaxy, by making use of the powerful International LOFAR Telescope (ILT), built by ASTRON. The galaxy was discovered in the LOFAR's first all-sky imaging survey called Multi-frequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS).

The new source which was equivalent to the size of full Moon was identified while analysis of the MSSS images. The radio emission was observed, which is associated with the material that is ejected from one of the members of interacting galaxy triplet system. Physical extent of this material is said to be much larger than system of galaxy, which actually extends millions of light years across the intergalactic space.

It is important to note that the MSSS is still under process. The newly found galaxy is the member of group of objects known as Giant Radio Galaxies (GRGs). GRGs, as the name suggest,





are kind of radio galaxies which have huge physical size, indicating towards the fact that either they are very old or very powerful. LOFAR is one of the most efficient tools for exploring the GRGs because it is very sensitive to the large objects. LOFAR operates at low frequencies which are very much suitable for observation of the old sources.

The team of astronomers which is performing this ongoing MSSS comprises of 50 members from different institutes, most of which are in Italy, Poland, France, Netherlands and Germany.

WHAT IS ASTRON?

ASTRON stands for Dutch Stichting ASTRonomisch Onderzoek in Nederland. It is actually the Dutch foundation that conducts research in radio astronomy. Radio astronomy is basically the subfield of astronomy which conducts study of the celestial objects located at the radio frequencies.

WHAT IS LOFAR?

LOFAR stands for Low-Frequency Array for radio astronomy. It was built as well as designed by Netherlands astronomical foundation called ASTRON. Its operations are managed by the ASTRON's radio observatory.

LOFAR is basically the largest connected radio telescope built by making use of the new concept based on range of omni-directional antennas.

WHAT IS MULTI-FREQUENCY SNAPSHOT SKY SURVEY (MSSS)?

The MSSS conducted by LOFAR is determined effort to analyse the northern sky at extremely low radio frequencies, between wavelengths varying from 2m to 10m. Primarily, the aim of this survey is performing the initial scan of sky for creating the all-sky model which will in turn help in deeper observations.

JEFF BEZOS RECOVERED TWO APOLLO ROCKET ENGINES

In the privately-funded expedition, a recovery team which was funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, recovered two Saturn V rocket engines from beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Announcement of the recovery was made on 20 March 2013. Saturn V rocket engines are the ones which were used to send human beings to Moon from 1967 until 1973.

Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon, in the year 2012 announced about his plans of searching the sea floor of Atlantic Ocean for the rocket motors which plunged back into the Ocean after the Saturn 5 launches to the moon during Apollo 11 moon mission. Two





Saturn V first-stage engines were recovered by the Bezos Expeditions from 3 miles beneath Atlantic Ocean.

Around 40 years ago, NASA had sent a total of seven missions to Moon out of which six had carried astronauts successfully. Jeff Bezos announced that the serial numbers on these engines were not found, which made it difficult for them to identify the mission for which they were used.

Restoration work will now be carried out on the engines which will continue to remain a US Government property, after which they would be put on the public display. One of these engines would be at public display at Washington DC's Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Other one would be displayed at Museum of Flight in Seattle.

NASA, in the meanwhile announced that this was a historic recovery that would allow in exploring the important artifacts about its first efforts of sending human beings out of the Earth’s orbit.

SATURN V FIRST-STAGE ROCKET ENGINES

• Saturn V was the American human-rated expendable rocket which was used by Apollo of NASA and Skylab from 1967 until 1973. NASA launched a total of 13 Saturn Vs from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

• It is said to be the heaviest, tallest as well as the most powerful rocket ever brought to the operational status. It holds a record of heaviest launch vehicle payload ever.

• Up to date, Saturn V is only launch vehicle that transported humans beyond low Earth orbit.

• The Saturn V first-stage rocket engines were developed by Rocketdyne. These engines were used in Saturn V.

• First F-1 engines were made use in S-IC first stage of each Saturn V, which was in turn used as the launch vehicle in Apollo Program.

• F-1 is the most powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine.


SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY QUIZZES

1. NASA's Swift satellite in the Month of March 2013 discovered one of the youngest-known supernova remnants. What is the age of these supernova remnants?

a) Less than 2500 years old b) 2500 years old c) 3000 years old d) Less than 3000 years old

Answer. (a) Less than 2500 years old


http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs-science-technology-1286444078-1




2. A team of researchers discovered abundant active bacteria community in the deepest spot of the Earth. What is the name of deepest point on Earth?

a) Mariana Trench b) Mariana Islands c) The Challenger Deep d) None of these

Answer. (c) The Challenger Deep

3. Astronomers at the Herschel space observatory in the Month of March 2013 found some of the youngest stars ever seen in the Universe. What were these youngest stars called?

a) Dwarf Stars b) Protostars c) Minute Stars d) Young Stars

Answer. (b) Protostars

4. An unknown huge radio galaxy was discovered by an international team of astronomers in the month of March 2013. Which telescope was used to discover this radio galaxy?

a) ASTRON b) MSSS c) All-sky model d) LOFAR

Answer. (d) LOFAR

5. Mass death of which species occurred on the beach in Coronel city, around 530 km from Santiago, Chile, in the third week of March 2013 likely because of the power generation plants- Bocamina 1 and 2 as well as Colbun?

a) Blue Whales b) Crabs c) Prawns d) Turtles

Answer. (c) Prawns

For More Science and Technology Quizzes


http://www.jagranjosh.com/articles-science-quizzes-1298700350-1




ONE LINERS

The CMD, of NLC (Neyveli Lignite Corporation) who was conferred with the CEO with HR Orientation Award at the World HRD Congress 2013 in Mumbai - B Surender Mohan

The book released by the Vice President of India, M. Hamid Ansari which is written by K. Natwar Singh, the former Union Minister for External Affairs - Walking with Lions: Tales from a Diplomatic Past

The Surface Drive Based Interceptor of Indian Coast Guard Commissioned by the Chief Secretary to Government of Maharashtra- Interceptor Boat C-154

The Congress MP from Banaskantha who passed away on 1 March 2013 in Ahmadabad because of multiple organ failure- Mukesh Gadhvi

The place where the second meeting of India-Afghanistan-US trilateral dialogue was held – New Delhi

Famous Italian musician and composer who had written the scores for about 300 films died at the age of 95- Armando Trovajoli

The former news editor of The Indian Express who died on 3 March 2013 in New Delhi following a cardiac arrest- SK Varma

The person who was appointed as the new High Commissioner to Maldives replacing D M Mulay- Rajeev Shahare

The Business tycoon who retained his title as the richest person of India for the sixth consecutive year with the net worth of 21.5 billion US Dollars- Mukesh Ambani

The author who was selected for the Bihari Puraskar for 2012 for Hindi novel Dhooni Tape Teer- Hariram Meena

The Venezuelan President who died due to cancer on 5 March 2013 at Caracas- Hugo Chavez

The Person who conferred with the Liberation War Honour Award by the President of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman- Pranab Mukherjee

The Person who was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Meghalaya for the second term by taking oath as 26th CM of the state- Mukul Manda Sangma

The Pollitical leader of Naga People’s Front (NPF) was sworn in as Chief Minister of Nagaland for the third straight term on 5 March 2013- Neiphiu Rio

The chairman of local organising committee of the 2015 World Cup who died at the age of 68- James Strong

The Person who took over as the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) in National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) - MRP Rao

The people who was selected by the Parliamentary Award Committee for Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively- Arun Jaitley, Karan Singh and Sharad Yadav





The city which won the award for most liveable Indian city by IPSOS Best City Survey and Awards 2013 event in New Delhi -Nagpur

Venezuelan Vice- President who was sworn in as Venezuela’s acting president- Nicolas Maduro

86 years old Former West Bengal Governor and industrialist who died in Jordan after a heart attack- Viren J Shah

Former CBI Director, who was appointed as Governor of Nagaland- Ashwani Kumar

The Managing Director of Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd, who was elected as the chairman, CII Kerala State Council for 2013-14- C J George

The India Tourism Film, which claimed First Prize at 11th Golden City Gate Awards- Find What You Seek

76 years old legendary painter who died after a heart attack at a city hospital in Kolkata- Ganesh Pyne

The new leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC), who was appointed as the President of China- Xi Jinping

The Chief Justice who was sworn-in as the new Prime Minister of Nepal by taking over the office from Baburam Bhattarai- Khil Raj Regmi

The winner of the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel The Garden of Evening Mists- Tan Twan Eng

The person who was elected as the Chairman of CII Karnataka - Soumitra Bhattacharya

The date on which World Consumer Rights Day was observed for creating awareness in terms of consumer protection measures as well as consumer rights – 15 March 2013





NEWS CAPSULE

VICE ADMIRAL THAPLIYAL IS NEW DG OF INDIAN COAST GUARD

Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal on 28 February 2013 took over as the twentieth Director General (DG) of the Indian Coast Guard. He is the successor of the outgoing Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan.

ADMIRAL ANURAG G THAPLIYAL

• He was commissioned on Indian Navy on 1 July 1977 and since then held different sea and operational appointments

• He is a Navigation and Aircraft Direction specialist • Few of his sea appointments include command of INS Ajay, Khukri, Tabar and Mysore • He had served as the fleet operations officer for Eastern Fleet at Visakhapatnam • He was promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral, when he was a Commandant of Indian

Naval Academy Ezhimala • He is an alumnus of Naval War College, USA and Defence Services Staff College

Wellington • He holds two Masters Degrees in Physics and Defence Studies

WALKING WITH LIONS: TALES FROM A DIPLOMATIC PAST: RELEASED

The Vice President of India, M. Hamid Ansari released a book titled Walking with Lions: Tales from a Diplomatic Past, written by K. Natwar Singh, the former Union Minister for External Affairs on 1 March 2013.

In the book, experiences of Natwar Singh have been described in interesting approach. The book will enlighten the readers. In the book, K. Natwar Singh has put together 50 episodes which will entertain and inform the readers.

WOMEN OF COURAGE AWARD TO DELHI GANGRAPE VICTIM

The US State Department awarded one of the 2013 International Women of Courage Awards to 23-year-old paramedical student who was gang raped in a moving bus in New Delhi on 16 December 2012. She died after just two weeks in Singapore after being raped in the capital. The award would be given away posthumously on 8 March 2013.

Popularly the paramedical student is also called Nirbhaya. The Secretary of State John Kerry will give away the US awards. The ceremony will also be attended by the First Lady Michelle Obama.





OTHER WOMEN WHO WILL ALSO RECEIVE THE AWARD

• Tsering Woeser, the Tibetan blogger and activist • Elena Milashina and Razan Zeitunah, the Russian journalist and rights activists

COMMEMORATIVE POSTAGE STAMP ON SAHIR LUDHIANVI RELEASED

The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on 8 March 2013 released the Commemorative Postage Stamp on Sahir Ludhianvi on occasion of his birth anniversary at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

Sahir Ludhianvi died on 25 October 1980 and was a renowned Urdu poet. He was known among the young for his poetry on beauty and love. Sahir Ludhianvi had converged Urdu poetry into the film songs as well. Also, he fought for recognition of lyric writers through the Film Writers Association.

During the release of the stamp, various dignitaries were present and these included Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology as well as Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting.

NICOLAS MADURO SWORN IN AS INTERIM PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA

Venezuelan Vice-President Nicolas Maduro on 8 March 2013 was sworn in as Venezuela’s acting president, despite the Opposition resistance as it is being considered to the violation of the country’s constitution.

Late President Hugo Chavez who died on 5 March 2013 after two year long fight against cancer named Maduro as his successor before undergoing the latest surgery in December 2012. He picked Nicolas Maduro as the presidential candidate of Chavez’s socialist party.

As per the country's 1999 constitution, the National Assembly speaker becomes interim president in the event of a president-elect's death or inability to be sworn in. The constitution also says new elections should be called within 30 days. Leader of opposition Angel Medina boycotted the swearing-in ceremony, with the vast majority of opposition legislators who haven’t attended the ceremony.





The earlier interim president of Venezuela was Ramón José Velásquez who served as acting president of Venezuela between 1993 and 1994 as a result of the crisis produced by the impeachment of President Carlos Andrés Pérez.

FIVE WRITERS HONOURED WITH SAARC LITERATURE AWARD 2013

SAARC Literature Award was presented to five writers at Agra during the two days SAARC Festival of Literature on 10 March 2013. A poet-diplomat from India Abhay K was among the five writers to be honoured with the prestigious Literature Award.

Other writers to be honoured with this award were Farheen Chaudhary (Pakistan), Abdul Khaliq Rashid (Afghanistan), Suman Pokhrel (Nepal) and novelist Daya Dissanayake (Sri Lanka).

SAARC LITERATURE AWARD

The award is annually presented to the eminent writers of the South Asian region for their contribution in the promotion of literature through their writings as well as literary initiatives. The SAARC Literature Festival 2013 focused on environment, literature and cultural connectivity. The First-Ever SAARC Writers Conference was organized in April 2000.

SANJAY DUTT SENTENCED TO 5-YEARS JAIL TERM BY SC

The Supreme Court of India, on 21 March 2013 sentenced Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt to a sentence of 5 years in jail because of his association with the 1993 bombings in Mumbai. The decision was given by a bench of Justice PS Sathasivam and BS Chauhan. Sanjay Dutt, 53, was held for acquiring illegal weapons for Mumbai bombings in 1993 which killed 257 people.

The Apex Court upheld his conviction under the Arms Act, but brought down the 6-year imprisonment given by TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act) court to 5 years.

He has already served 18 months in a jail in Pune, which means that he will have to serve remaining three-and-a-half year sentence. In 2007, he was found guilty of acquiring AK-56 rifle as well as a pistol illegally. He was one of the high profile people among 100 who were found associated with the bombing trial. Mumbai bombings took place in 1993. India’s most wanted Dawood Ibrahim was responsible for the bombings.

ABOUT TERRORIST AND DISRUPTIVE ACTIVITIES (PREVENTION) ACT (TADA)

The TADA was an active Indian Law from 1985 to 1995. The aim of the Act was to prevent the terrorist activities primarily taking place in Punjab. The Act came into force in 1985 and was





renewed in 1989, 1991 and 1993. Because of allegations of abuse of TADA, the Act was lapsed in 1995.

SWEDISH PRINCESS LILIAN DAVIES DIED AT THE AGE OF 97 YEARS

Swedish Princess Lilian Davies died in Stockholm on 10 March 2013. She was aged 97 years. Swedish Princess Lilian was married to Prince Bertil.

The Swedish Princess Lilian Davies was born in Swansea, Wales in August 1915 in a working class family. The cause of her death is unknown, but she suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Lilian Davies became the princess of Sweden in 1976 as well as the duchess of the southern province of Halland at Drottningholm Palace Chapel in Stockholm.

ABOUT SWEDISH PRINCESS LILIAN DAVIES

• Swedish Princess Lilian Davies was actually a Welsh-born fashion model who married Swedish Prince Bertil.

• She was honoured with the Swedish title- Member (Female Knight) of the Order of the Seraphim.

• Apart from the Swedish honour, she was also honoured with Knight of the Order of the Elephant, the Denmark honour; Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Falcon, the Iceland honour; Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany; Grand Cordon of the Order of the Star of Jordan, Recipient 2nd Class of the Order of the Three Stars, the Latvia honour; Commander's Grand Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas as well as the Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav honour.

DELHI AMONG FIVE INDIAN HOTSPOTS OF ILLEGAL TRADE OF TIGERS

As per the joint report by Global wildlife trade monitoring Network TRAFFIC and WWF Tigers Alive Initiative, titled Reduced to Skin and Bones Revisited, Delhi, Sunderbans and the Western Ghats emerged as the hotspots of illegal trade of tigers their parts and products.

The report which was released in Bangkok in Second week of March 2013 laid claim that tigers were being poached in most of the 13 tiger range countries including China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Based on the information with regard to India, five hotspot locations have been identified. The other four hotspots were close to protected areas in different parts of the country — Ramnagar in Uttar Pradesh which lies along to the entrance of Corbett National Park, the towns of Balgahat and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh where the Kanha and Pench National Park is located,





Kolkata and areas spanning south to the edge of the Sunderbans in Bengal and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in the Western Ghats.

Also as per the report, the National Capital Region is an exception among the hot spots as it is not located in or near to any tiger landscapes. The shocking part of the report concluded after an examination on trade of leopard parts and products is that Delhi accounts for more than 26 per cent of all leopards seized, making it the most important hub of illegal trade in the country.

OTHER MAJOR OUTCOME OF THE REPORTS

• On Sundarbans hotspot, the report says that seizures on the Bangladeshi side have been at a much lower rate in comparison to India, the most recent seizure there was in 2011 when a suspect was found in possession of three tiger heads, four tiger skins, and 24 kg of bones.

• As per the report Corbett and the adjacent Ramnagar Forest division have healthy tiger populations, they remain a prime target for poachers and in 2012 a poaching group was found hiding out in the protected zone of the park with traps.

• As per the latest analysis of arrogations, which includes new data for 2010-2012, it aws revealed that parts of more than 1400 tigers have been seized across Asia in the past 13 years.

• The report has also arrived at a conclusion with its finding that parts of at least 1425 tigers had been seized from twelve of 13 tiger range countries between 2000 and 2012. Cambodia was the only exception from where no seizures were recorded at all during the period.

• A Prominent finding in the report was the high rate of seizures of live tigers. 61 individuals were seized in the three-year period since the last full CITES meeting took place in 2010, representing 50 per cent of overall numbers (123) recorded since 2000, it says.

• Thailand was the most significant location for interdiction of live tiger trade (30), followed by Lao PDR (11) and Indonesia (9) and Vietnam (4).

A total of 654 seizures of tiger parts ranging from skin to bones, to teeth, claws and skulls took place during this period, an average of 110 tigers killed for trade per year or just over two per week. The report was launched on 8 March 2013 at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Bangkok.

5TH CIDC VISHWAKARMA AWARD 2013

At the 5th CIDC Vishwakarma Award 2013, Tapas Kumar Lahiry- the chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) and Bharat Cooking Coal Limited (BCCL) won the Achievement award for Public Officer on 7 March 2013 in New Delhi.

At the function organised by Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), Lahiry received this award. Lahiry is a mining engineer as well as administrator with leadership qualities. BCCL’s





turnover is 6952 crore Rupees with a profitability of 1093.69 crore Rupees in 2010-11. Lahiry has also remained associated with mining industry of America, China and Australia. CIDC Vishwakarma Awards are held annually for recognising the achievements as well as work of the organisations and individuals.

COFFEE TABLE BOOK TITLED INDIAN SAGA OF STEEL RELEASED

The Union Minister for Steel, Beni Prasad Verma released a Coffee Table Book titled Indian Saga of Steel in New Delhi on 4 March 2013. The book which is brought out by the Ministry of Steel depicts about the progress of the Indian Steel Industry as well as its milestones from initial years to the present.

The book-Indian Saga of Steel includes nine chapters. Apart from the milestones and development of the steel industry, names as well as brief profiles of some of the major steel companies in India can also be found. Areas of R&D, New Technologies, Environment and CSR can also be found in the book. Other details of the book include photos of various units of plants. On the release occasion of the book, a film based on Indian Steel Industry was screened as well.

On the occasion of release of the book, Member of Parliament and Chairman, JSPL Naveen Jindal; the Secretary, Ministry of Steel, D.R.S. Chaudhary and certain senior officials from Ministry of Steel were also present.

LAUREUS WORLD SPORTS AWARDS 2013

Laureus World Sports Awards 2013 were organised in Rio de Janeiro on 11 March 2013. Prestigious awards were claimed by sports stars- Jessica Ennis, Andy Murray and Sebastian Coe.

Jessica Ennis who won heptathlon gold in London 2012 Olympics was awarded the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award at the Theatro Municipal. Andy Murray won the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award. Andy Murray had won Olympic gold in the singles as well as silver in mixed doubles before winning grand slam title at the US Open in 2012.

Sebastian Coe, the Chairman of the London 2012 organising committee acclaimed Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award. Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter won the World Sportsman of the Year Award for the third time. Feliz Sanchez, the Dominican athlete won the World Comeback of





the Year Award. Daniel Dias, the multiple Paralympic champion swimmer of Brazil was awarded with the title of World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability. This was the second time he won the award.

Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian skydiver was named as the World Action Sportsperson of the Year Award. Michael Phelps, the American swimmer won the Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement Award. The Laureus World Team of the Year Title was acclaimed by the European Ryder Cup Team, which featured 7 UK golfers.

LIST OF THE AWARDEES IS AS FOLLOWS

• Laureus World Sportsman of the Year- Usain Bolt • Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year- Jessica Ennis • Laureus World Team of the Year- European Ryder Cup Team • Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year- Andy Murray • Laureus World Comeback of the Year- Feliz Sanchez • Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year- Felix Baumgartner • Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability- Daniel Dias

ABOUT THE LAUREUS WORLD SPORTS AWARDS

• Laureus World Sports Awards are the global sports awards which honour the sportsmen and sportswomen for all kinds of sports every year.

• The Laureus Media Selection Panel gives away the awards in six different categories: Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, Laureus World Team of the Year, Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year, Laureus World Comeback of the Year and Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year.

• The Laureus Specialist Panel gives the award in the categories: Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability. This award is overseen by Executive Committee of the International Paralympic Committee.

• Laureus is basically the Latin word for laurel, which means universal symbol for victory in sport.

• The winner of the Laureus World Sports Awards receives Laureus statuette, which is 30 cms high as well as 2.5 kg in weight. Every Laureus statuette consists of 670g of solid silver as well as 650g of gold finish base.

ACI PLACED THREE INDIAN AIRPORTS AMONG TOP FIVE OF THE WORLD

Airports Council International (ACI), the global body of Airports on 12 March 2013 declared Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport as second best airport of the world in the category of airports that handles 25 to 40 million passengers per year (MPPA). The Council placed Seoul's Incheon airport as the best airport of the world in the same category. Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport was placed at the third position in the same category.





For service quality in the category of five to fifteen MPPA, the Council ranked Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International airport (RGI) at second position placing Japan's Nagoya airport at the best position in the ranking.

RANKINGS OF AIRPORTS IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION (WITH LESS THAN TWO MILLION PASSENGERS PER YEAR)

1. Seouls’ Incheon 2. Singapore’s Changi 3. Bejing Airport 4. Delhi Airport

AIRPORTS COUNCIL INTERNATIONAL (ACI)

ACI is an autonomous and independent body that conducts the service quality passenger survey annually and measures the feedbacks from customers on different parameters of service delivery. The body tracks the experiences of the customers from the time of their arrival at the airport till the time of leaving the departure gate.

ENTERTAINMENT AND MEDIA SECTOR TO DOUBLE BY 2017: REPORT

The entertainment and media industry of India will become twice of its present size by 2017, as per the report released by FICCI-KPMG (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) on 12 March 2013 in Mumbai. An inaugural ceremony of FICCI Frames 2013 was organised in Mumbai. It was announced that entertainment and media industry has a current size of 91700 crore Rupees, which would increase to 166000 crore Rupees by 2017.

FICCI additionally declared that the dominant part of this industry was television. By 2017, newer media segments such as digital advertising, gaming, animation and visual effects will post double-digit growth.

PROJECTED GROWTH OF INDIVIDUAL MEDIA SECTOR

• Television segment, in 2012 accounted for 45 percent of 83100 crore Rupees market. Possibly, the share will increase to 50 percent by 2017 with 84760 crores Rupees of 166000 crore Rupees market.

• Print media, on the other hand, might post an annual growth rate of 8.7 percent and will touch 34020 crores Rupees from 22410 crores Rupees of 2012.

• Indian film industry will grow from 11240 crore Rupees to 19300 crore Rupees in 2017. • Advertising industry at present is 36200 crores Rupees. At present, the Print Media

advertising has a larger share of 44.7 percent followed by television advertising at 38.2 percent. As estimated by FICCI-KPMG, the Indian advertising industry would be worth 63000 crore Rupees with print as well as TV having share of 38-40 percent each.





• Digital advertising at present accounts for 2170 crore Rupees, which will increase to 8720 crore Rupees by 2017.

RAJIV GANDHI NATIONAL QUALITY AWARDS FOR THE YEAR 2011

The Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Prof. K.V. Thomas on 14 March 2013 announced Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awards for the year 2011.

The Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awards are given every year by Bureau of Indian Standards for encouraging the service as well as manufacturing organisations so that they strive for excellence. These awards give recognition to those who are considered as the leaders of quality movement in the country.

The Best of All Award was given to DAV ACC Senior Secondary Public School, Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh for excellence service standards.

In a category called Large Scale Manufacturing Industry, Nokia Siemens Networks Private Limited, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu was given the award for excellence in quality standards. In the Large Scale Service Industry category, R Systems International Limited, Noida, and Uttar Pradesh won the award. In the Small Scale Manufacturing Industry category, the award was bagged by Technocrat Connectivity Systems (Private) Limited, Rudrapur, Uttarakhand.

Apart from these awards, ten other organisations were chosen for commendation certificates under various categories. The awardees of the commendation certificates were chosen from 55 applicants from different sectors after evaluation by the group of qualified professionals from various spheres of intellectual activities.

Best Of All Award DAV ACC Senior Secondary Public School, Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh

Category Awards Name of the Organisation

Large Scale Manufacturing Industry Nokia Siemens Networks Private Limited, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu

Large Scale Service Industry R Systems International Limited, Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Small Scale Manufacturing Industry Technocrat Connectivity Systems (Private) Limited, Rudrapur, Uttarakhand





Commendation Certificates Name of the Organisation

Large Scale Manufacturing Industry Chemical Ultra Tech Cement Limited, Gujarat Cement Works, Kovaya, Gujarat

Large Scale Manufacturing Industry Electrical & Electronic

Sanmina-SCI India Private Limited, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu

Large Scale Manufacturing Industry Engineering & Others

Tata International Limited (Finished Leather Business), Dewas, Madhya Pradesh

Large Scale Manufacturing Industry Food & Drug

Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited, Palanpur, Gujarat

Large Scale Manufacturing Industry Metallurgical

Durgapur Steel Plant, Durgapur, West Bengal

Large Scale Service Industry Health care Jehangir Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra

Large Scale Service Industry Others L&T Construction, Mumbai, Maharashtra

Small Scale Manufacturing Industry Bio-technology

Hi Media Laboratories Private Limited, Nasik, Maharashtra

Small Scale Manufacturing Industry Engineering & Others

Bangalore Biotech Labs Private Limited – Biozeen, Bangalore, Karnataka

Small Scale Manufacturing Industry Food & Drug

Pharma Synth Formulations Limited, Haridwar, Uttarakhand

TAN TWAN ENG DECLARED WINNER OF MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE

Tan Twan Eng on 14 March 2013 was announced as a winner of the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize. With this, he became the first Malaysian author to win the most prestigious literary prize of Asia.





Tan Twan Eng won the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel The Garden of Evening Mists. This is only a second time that the prize has been given to the novel written originally in English. The previous winners had won the award as English translations.

The Garden of Evening Mists set during aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Malaya won 30000 US Dollars from the shortlist of five novels which spanned over the Asian continent.

THE FIVE SHORTLISTED NOVELS FROM LONGLIST OF 15 WERE

• Between Clay and Dust - Musharraf Ali Farooqi (Pakistan) • The Briefcase – Hiromi Kawakami (Japan) • Silent House - Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) • The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng (Malaysia) • Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil (India)

The judging panel of the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize was award-winning literary critic and journalist Dr. Maya Jaggi, novelist Vikram Chandra and Vietnamese-American novelist Monique Truong.

ABOUT THE GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng is a novel about traumatic aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Malaya. It also covers the post-war insurgency against British rule. The novel covers themes such as love and atonement, disturbing co-existence of cultural refinement, barbarism and personal and national honour.

PREVIOUS YEARS’ WINNERS

• South Korean writer Kyung-sook Shin- 2011 • Bi Feiyu- 2010 • Su Tong-2009 • Miguel Syjuco-2008 • Jiang Rong-2007

ABOUT MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE

The Man Asian Literary Prize laid its foundation in 2007. The literary award is given annually to best novel by an Asian writer. The novel can be written in English or translated into English. It should have been published in previous year.

For selecting the winner, the judges select the long list of 10 to 15 titles announced in December, which is then followed by the shortlist of 5 to 6 titles. The winner of the award is declared in March every year. The winner is given 30000 US Dollars. The translator, if exists, is





given 5000 US Dollars. The submissions for the best novels are invited by the jury through publishers in any country.

INDIA RANKED LOW ON GENDER INEQUALITY INDEX: UN REPORT 2013

The UN Human Development Report 2013 was released on 14 March 2013, according to which India has poor Gender Inequality Index, apart from the overall poor Human Development Index (HDI).

Apart from Afghanistan that got a rank of 147 in comparison to 132 of India, all the countries in the region of South Asia were ranked higher on Gender Inequality Index. China was also ranked very high on Gender Inequality Index. This Gender Inequality Index measures the inequality in terms of achievements between males and females in three main aspects namely, labour market, reproductive health and empowerment.

WOMEN REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT

Women representation in Parliament in India is only 10.9 percent. The only worse country than India is Iran with 3.1 percent. The country that has best representation of women in Parliament is Nepal with 33.2 percent.

MATERNAL MORTALITY RATIO

India ranks badly on the Maternal Mortality Ratio as well. Maternal Mortality Ratio measures the ratio of the number of maternal deaths to the number of live births in a given year. It is expressed per 100000 live births. In India, for every 100000 births, 200 women die during the childbirth or due to complications in childbearing. The only countries to have higher Maternal Mortality Ratio than India are Bangladesh (240), Pakistan (260) and Afghanistan (460). The countries with lowest Maternal Mortality Ratio are Sri Lanka (35) and Iran (21).

WHAT IS HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX (HDI)?

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a combined index which measures the average achievements of the countries in three main human development dimensions. These dimensions are decent standard of living, knowledge and long and healthy life. In the 2013 Human Development Index (HDI) report, analysis of the 40 developing countries in South Asia was done.

WORLD CONSUMER RIGHTS DAY OBSERVED ACROSS THE WORLD

15 March- World Consumer Rights Day





World Consumer Rights Day was observed on 15 March 2013 for creating awareness in terms of consumer protection measures as well as consumer rights. The theme for 2013 World Consumer Rights Day was Consumer Justice Now.

This day was first observed on 15 March 1983. In 1962, the former US President John F. Kennedy, declared four basic consumer rights- right to choose, right to be heard, right to safety and right to be informed.

CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, 1986

The Consumer Protection Act was enacted by the Parliament for the first time in 1986. It led to the establishment of consumer councils to settle consumer disputes and related matters.

Now, the Department of Consumer Affairs looks for the possibilities of producing tele-serials for empowering and educating consumers for their rights and responsibilities. Campaigns such as Jago Grahak Jago have been started in India with success in creation of consumer awareness.

B. GHOSH IS FIRST NON-AMERICAN EDITOR OF TIME INTERNATIONAL

Bobby Ghosh, the eminent Indian Journalist was appointed as the editor of Time International on 16 March 2013. He is the first non-American World Editor in the history of the Times. His appointment to the post was confirmed by the editor in Chief, Martha Nelson and Managing Editor Rick Stengel in a joint email.

BOBBY GHOSH

• Bobby Ghosh joined TIME in 1998 after serving India as a journalist for 10 years • He served two years on the staff of the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong

UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN LANKA

The Universal Periodic Review Report on Human Rights in Sri Lanka was unanimously adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva after a short debate on 15 March 2013.

The report was prepared by a group of three countries that was chaired by the India. Serious concerns were expressed by the international fraternity including United States and United Kingdom for non-implementation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission Report in true spirit.

UNDP REPORT: SOUTH ASIA LEAD THE WORLD

The United National Development Programme (UNDP) on 14 March 2013 at Georgetown Club, United States released its UNDP Human Development Report 2013. The report in its findings





revealed that South Asia leads the world in improvements in human development. The report clarified that the South Asian Countries achieved widespread gains in terms of human development across the developing world from 2000 to 2012.

The report titled The Rise of the South Human Progress in a Diverse World also identified investment in Education and taking care of the environment as the two key factors that can contribute in the making of the healthy development. It also indicated that although Afghanistan experienced several rapid gains but it lagged far behind in the race of development.

The progress in human development in context of India, Bangladesh and the other South Asian nation helped in driving a historic shift in global dynamics due to which millions of people have raised themselves out of poverty and billions are at the edge of joining the fast growing middle class.

THE GROWTH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACHIEVED BY DIFFERENT NATIONS

• Afghanistan and it was 3.9 percent (fastest) • Pakistan achieved 1.7 percent • Indian 1.7 percent • Sri Lanka 0.7 percent (least growth achieved)

The findings of the report are based on the analysis of more than 40 developing countries that achieved striking human development gains in recent past. The term South and North in the report is used to denote developing countries and developed countries respectively.

National Commitments that are attributed to be the reason for the achievements made by the developing countries included

• Better public health and education services • Innovative poverty eradication programs • Strategic engagement with the world economy

The report in its findings also defined that the speed and scale with which the South had risen was dramatic and stressed that never in the history, living conditions of the people changed in such a dramatic condition and have driven the global economic growth and societal change for the first time in centuries.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHANGES

• The economic take-offs of China and India started with about 1 billion people in each of these countries and within 20 years the output per capita of these doubled, which means that an economic force have affected a much larger section of the population, than that happened after the industrial revolution





• The report also summed up that the combined economic output of the three nations namely Brazil, India and China will cross the aggregate production of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States

REPORT FINDINGS IN CONTEXT OF INDIA

India’s investments on the world-class tertiary education, openness to trade and investments, building of human capabilities allowed India to develop technology enabled industries that are supported by a huge support of its skilled labour. The automobile, pharmaceutical, chemical and service industry of India also grew at a fast pace and allowed it to tap into thje world market.

RESULTS OF SUCH POLICIES FOR INDIA

• India’s trade output ratio increased to 46.3 percent in 2010 from 15.7 percent in 1990 • FDI in GDP went up to 3.6 percent from 0.1 percent in 1990 • Eight World’s largest fortune 500 listed corporations were Indian in 2011 • India’s stand to offer affordable capital goods that suits to the requirements of the

people in south than form the goods from the west also offered India a chance to be a global economic power

60TH NATIONAL FILM AWARDS

The 60th National Film Awards were announced on 18 March 2013. Films such as Kahaani and Paan Singh Tomar were given some of the big awards at National Film Awards, which are said to be the most popular film honours in Indian Cinema.

The artists who gave benchmark performances in acting and film making in the year 2012 were rewarded in the National Film Awards 2013.

THE LIST OF WINNERS CHOSEN BY THE JURY IN NATIONAL FILM AWARDS 2013

• Best actor: Irrfan Khan for Paan Singh Tomar and Vikram Gokhale for Marathi film Anumati

• Best film - wholesome entertainment: Vicky Donor • Best film on social issues: Spirit (Malayalam) • Best Animated Film: Delhi Safari • Best Children's Film: Dekh Indian Circus • Best Supporting Actress: Dolly Ahluwalia for Vicky Donor • Best supporting actor: Annu Kapoor • Best original screenplay: Sujoy Ghosh for Kahaani • Best screenplay (adapted): OMG Oh My God • Best actress: Usha Jadhav for Marathi film Dhaag • Best actor: Irrfan Khan for Paan Singh Tomar





• Best Playback Singer - Male: Shankar Mahadevan for Bolo Na from the film Chittagong • Best Playback Singer - Female: Aarti Anklekar Tikekar for Marathi film Samhita • Best Choreography: Pandit Birju Maharaj for Vishwaroopam (Tamil) • Best Editing: Namrata Rao for Kahaani (Hindi) • Best Special Effects: Eega (Telugu) • Best sound recording: Gangs of Wasseypur • Special Jury Award - Actress: Parineeti Chopra for Ishaqzaade • Special Jury Award - Actor: Nawazuddin Siddiquie for four films • Special Jury Award - Film: Rituporno Ghosh for Chitrangada

ABOUT NATIONAL FILM AWARDS

The National Film Awards are most prominent awards given away to the film fraternity. These awards were established in 1954. Annually, the national panel is appointed by Government of India which selects the winner. The awards are presented by the President of India in the official ceremony.

SUGATHA KUMARI SELECTED FOR SARASWATI SAMMAN 2012

Sugathakumari, the Malayalam poetess in the third week of March 2013 was chosen for the Saraswati Samman 2012 for the poetry collectionManalezhuthu, which means The Writing on the Sand in English. The Saraswati Samman is constituted by K. K. Birla Foundation.

79-year-old Sugathakumari was selected for Saraswati Samman by the 13-member jury. The head of this jury was former Chief Justice of India R. C. Lahoti. The jury considered works of the artists published in 22 different languages from 2002 to 2011. Saraswati Samman is awarded annually for outstanding literary work in any Indian language in past 10 years.

ABOUT SUGATHAKUMARI

• Sugathakumari has 15 volumes of poetry credited to her. • She also has six collections of prose. Her career spans over a duration of five decades. • The themes of her poems revolve around moral alertness, emotional empathy as well as

humanist sensitivity. Her poems also include social themes such as women oppression, failures of the ideals which inspired India as well as ecological crisis.

• Sugathakumari is also the passionate environmentalist. • She was also the head of Kerala’s State Women’s Commission. • Manalezhuthu, the poetry collection for which she was chosen, is actually a collection of

27 different poems. This was published in 2006. The poetry collection is said to be a representation of best of contemporary Malayalam poetry.

ABOUT SARASWATI SAMMAN

• Saraswati Samman is constituted by K. K. Birla Foundation.





• The award carries cash prize of 10 lakh Rupees, a plaque as well as a citation. • This award is given every year to the literary work in any Indian language which is the

part of Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. • Apart from this award, K. K. Birla Foundation also constituted other two awards which

include Bihari Puraskar for Hindi and Rajasthani writers and Vyas Samman for Hindi.

TOYO ITO, DECLARED AS WINNER OF PRITZKER ARCHITECTURE PRIZE

Toyo Ito, the Japanese architect was declared as the winner of 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize on 18 March 2013. The Pritzker Architecture Prize is said to be the most prestigious and richest award of architecture. Often, this prize is also referred as the Nobel Prize of Architecture.

71-year-old Toyo Ito is the sixth Japanese architect to win this prize. Others who won the prize include late Kenzo Tange, the designer of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (in 1987), Fumihiko Maki (in 1993), Tadao Ando, the designer of Church of the Light (in 1995) and team of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (in 2010). He will win 100000 US Dollars as well as a bronze medal at the official Pritzker ceremony will take place on 29 May 2013 at John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

ABOUT TOYO ITO

• Toyo Ito was born in Seoul to the Japanese parents. • He has a career spanning over duration of 50 years. His initial focus was on the

minimalist residences. Later, his projects included Mikimoto in the glitzy Omotesando, flagship stores for Tod’s and Ginza districts.

• He is best renowned for Sendai Mediatheque, the public library as well as art gallery which was completed in 2001.

• His notable creation also includes Municipal Funeral Hall in Gifu in Japan, arch-filled Tama Art University library in suburban Tokyo as well as White O residence in Marbella in Chile.

OTHER HONOURS RECEIVED BY TOYO ITO

• In 2010, the 22nd Praemium Imperiale in Honor of Prince Takamatsu • In 2006, the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal • In 2002, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for 8th Venice Biennale International

Exhibition

ABOUT THE PRITZKER ARCHITECTURE PRIZE

• Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually in the month of May. • Pritzker Architecture Prize was established back in 1979 in order to honour the best

living architect who contributed towards the art of architecture. • Late Philip Johnson won the first Pritzker Laureate in 1979.





• The prize is sponsored by Hyatt Foundation. • This prize was established by late entrepreneur Jay A Pritzker along with his wife Cindy.

The business interests of the Pritzker family were headquartered in Chicago. • The winner receives an amount of 100000 US Dollars as well as a bronze medallion. The

bronze medallion is based on the designs of Louis Sullivan.

ARMY GOT THE FIRST INDIGENOUS CHOPPER CALLED RUDRA

First indigenously-developed chopper called Rudra was given to the Indian Army on 8 February 2013. It is important to note that Army has raised the fleet of attack choppers of its own. Rudra is the first out of 60 armed helicopters which provided to the Army by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

Army deputy chief Lt Gen Narendra Singh described that the first platform of weaponries choppers was important for the Army because in the battle field, fire as well as manoeuvrability need to be integrated closely in order to manage the ground operations. Rudra will be useful in getting this capability.

The first squadron of these choppers would become operational soon. There are in all 60 choppers, and every squadron will encompass 10 of these choppers. There are plans of inducting an overall 60 Rudras which will be segregated into six squadrons.

Rudra is armed with Mistral, the air-to-air missile, heavy machine guns as well as rocket pods. This will help in assisting the ground forces. Army also planned to get under-development Light combat helicopter (LCH), which is also produced by HAL. It is important to note that control of the future acquisitions of these attack choppers was given to the Army, after a clash between the Army and the Air Force.

S. VENKATA MOHAN WON NATIONAL BIOSCIENCE AWARD FOR 2012

S. Venkata Mohan a scientist of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, on 19 March 2013 won the National Bioscience Award for 2012 in Hyderabad. S. Venkata Mohan who is from the Bioengineering and environmental centre of the Institute won the prize for his contributions towards developing technologies for production of clean bio-fuels from waste.

ABOUT NATIONAL BIOSCIENCE AWARD

The National Bio-science Award which is also called by N-BIOS Prize is an honour of high importance conferred by the Federal Government of India to the select young Indian bio-scientists of less than 45 years of age.

The award is given every year for distinctive contributions made towards the development of state of art in basic and applied areas of biological sciences through demonstrated activity in the form of publication in reputed journals and or patents. The award recognizes research and





development work carried out in India during the last 5 years of the career. The award is considered almost equivalent to the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize given by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India.

HAMID ANSARI RELEASED A BOOK ON FORMER PRESIDENT OF INDIA

The First Woman President of India, Reinventing leadership, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil written by Professor Sunaina SinghThe Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari on 19 March 2013 released a book titled The First Woman President of India, Reinventing leadership, Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

The book is written on the former President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil by Professor Sunaina Singh. The book is not just a biography of the former President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil but also highlights various kinds of issues in India.

WORLD FORESTRY DAY OBSERVED ACROSS THE WORLD

21 March- World Forestry Day

21 March 2013 is observed as the World Forestry Day across the globe. This day is celebrated for raising as well as promoting awareness about the value of forests. Importance of ecosystem and the forests is stressed upon on this day.

Various events are held in the world on this day in order to highlight contribution of forests. It is important to note that forests house 80 percent of the terrestrial biodiversity. India State of Forest Report 2011 revealed that Forest and Tree cover of India encompasses 78.29 million ha or 23.81 percent of geographical area of India.

The largest forest cover in India is in Madhya Pradesh, which has 77700 square km. this is followed by Arunachal Pradesh that has 67410 square km of forest cover.

THE PRESIDENT OF BANGLADESH, ZILLUR RAHMAN PASSED AWAY AT 84

The President of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman passed away on 20 March 2013 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. He was 84 years of age. The Government of Bangladesh announced three-day mourning in the country. Zillur Rahman was undergoing treatment for kidney as well as respiratory complications.

ARTICLE 54 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF BANGLADESH: SPEAKER TO ACT AS PRESIDENT DURING ABSENCE





Speaker Abdul Hamid became acting President of Bangladesh now. According to the Article 54 of the Constitution of Bangladesh, if a vacancy occurs in the office of President or if the President is unable to discharge the functions of his office on account of absence, illness or any other cause the Speaker shall discharge those functions until a President is elected or until the President resumes the functions of his office, as the case may be.

EXECUTIVE POWERS VEST IN THE PRIME MINISTER OF BANGLADESH

President’s death does not affect the Government of Bangladesh because ever since the parliamentary democracy in Bangladesh was restored in 1991, the President has remained just a ceremonial post. The executive powers vest in the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

ABOUT ZILLUR RAHMAN

• Zillur Rahman became the President of Bangladesh on 11 February 2009. He served as the 19th Bangladeshi President.

• He belonged to the Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party. • He is one of the veteran politicians of Bangladesh. He was elected as the Member of

Parliament in 1970 when Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan. • Zillur Rahman was chosen as the general secretary of Bangladesh Awami League (AL)

party in 1972 after the Bangladesh Liberation War. • In the general elections held in 1973, he was elected as the member of the parliament.

ANIL ANANTHASWAMY WON INAUGURAL PHYSICS JOURNALISM PRIZE

The London based Indian origin writer, Anil Ananthaswamy won inaugural Physics Journalism Prize for the article Hip Hip Array on 28 February 2013 in central London. The Physics Journalism Prize is co-sponsored by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Institute of Physics (IOP). The article written by Anil Ananthaswamy, Hip Hip Array lays emphasis on Square Kilometre Array which is an international project for building and designing largest radio telescope.

ABOUT PHYSICS JOURNALISM PRIZE

• Physics Journalism Prize is the inaugural prize which is sponsored by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Institute of Physics (IOP).

• On winning the prize, the winner is offered an expenses-paid trip to Japan for visiting the world-leading facilities in order to perform research in arena of Physics.

• The purpose of the prize is to inspire physicists by encouraging the journalists for tackling the complex topics.

UN ANNOUNCED 20 MARCH AS INTERNATIONAL HAPPINESS DAY





The United Nations on 20 March 2013 declared 20 March as the International Day of Happiness. This was the first edition of the happiness day observed by the world. 20 March was declared as the International Day of Happiness with an aim to acknowledge the importance of happiness and encourage Governments of different nations to consider well-being of its citizens as the common agenda other than focusing on the economic growth only.

All the 193 members of United Nations voted in favour of the International Day of Happiness.

CONCEPT BEHIND THE MAKING OF THE DAY

20 March was declared as the day of International Happiness following a Bhutanese Concept that was coined by the fourth king of Bhutan Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1970’s, when the country for the first time adopted Gross National Happiness (GNH) over Gross National Product (GNP) as its major goal. The initiative of 1970’s involved making holistic approach towards life.

World Happiness Report: UN released its World Happiness Report in 2012.

FSLRC SUGGESTED CONSTITUTION OF UFSR; REDUCED ROLE OF RBI

Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) headed by Justice BN Srikrishna in its final report submitted to the Union Government of India on 22 March 2013 recommended constitution of Unified Financial Sector Regulator (UFSR) by deriving powers from Indian Financial Code including Commodity Derivatives Market.

The 200 page long report in its key recommendations have directed the Government of India for unification of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and Forward Markets Commission (FMC) under a single regulator. It also recommended that the Reserve Bank of India should stay as the monetary Authority Regulating Bank.

As per the report of the commission, the regulatory structure shall be governed by the Financial Regulatory Architecture Act that to create a uniform legal process for the financial regulators. Before changing the legislative structure the Ministry of Finance shall unify the regulatory structure.

• The proposed regulatory structure will be governed by the Financial Regulatory Architecture Act that will ensure a uniform legal process for the financial regulators.

• The finance ministry will unify the regulatory structure before tweaking the legislative structure.

• Proposal also includes reviewing and revision of the laws financial sector laws after every ten years.

• Paying required attention to the debt management and setting up of a financial redressal agency and a financial stability and development council is also recommended by the commission





• Conversion of the Appellate Tribunal into Financial Appellate Tribunal for hearing the appeals of both unified regulators and RBI is also suggested in the report

• The committee in its suggestion has recommended doing away of the multiple agency structure for foreign capital inflows, at present the work is done by Department of Industry Policy and Promotion and clearance to the proposals of investments is done by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board

The Resolution notifying the FSLRC was issued by the Government on 24 March 2011. The FSLRC is required to submit its findings within a period of 24 months. FSLRC was set up two years ago for reviewing and harmonizing the financial sector legislations, rules and regulations that have gone obsolete or outdated in about a century’s time since when it was written.

ASIAN BUSINESS AWARDS 2013

Kartar Lalvani, the NRI entrepreneur was conferred with theHealthcare Businessman of the Year Award 2013 at the Asian Business Awards ceremony in Central London on 23 March 2013.

The honour was given by UK's Home Secretary Theresa May. On behalf of Kartar Lalvani, founder-chairman of Vitabiotics received this honour. Vitabiotics is the largest supplier of vitamin supplements as well as minerals in UK. In the same event, Amit Bhatia, son-in-law of Lakshmi Mittal, was declared as the Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013. The Lifetime Achievement Award 2013 was given to Sudhir Choudhrie, the Indian origin entrepreneur.

ABOUT ASIAN BUSINESS AWARDS

• Asian Business Awards 2013 were the 16th edition of Asian Business Awards. • The event celebrates the acumen, achievement and excellence of the Asian business. • The event encapsulates diversity as well as range of Asian businesses in UK. • The Asian Business Awards also launched 2013 Asian Rich List which is said to be the

definitive index of Asian wealth in UK. This 2013 Asian Rich List highlights achievements of the entrepreneurs over last one year.

NAVNEET KAUR DHILLON CROWNED POND’S FEMINA MISS INDIA 2013

Navneet Kaur Dhillon was crowned Pond’s Femina Miss India 2013 on 24 March 2013 in the grand finale of 50th edition of the beauty pageant in Mumbai. 20-year-old Navneet Kaur belongs to Punjab and is a media student at present. Navneet Kaur was also given the title Miss Glowing Skin. Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were the first and second runners-up respectively. The trio of Navneet Kaur, Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were selected from a total of 23 finalists.

The winner of Femina Miss India will now go for international contest Miss Universe. The first and second runners-up will compete in Miss World and Miss Asia Pacific respectively. The judges of the ceremony were choreographer Shiamak Dawar, filmmaker Karan Johar, actors





John Abraham, Chitrangda Singh and Asin Thottumkal, cricketer Yuvraj Singh and fashion designer Ritu Kumar.

Auditions for the beauty pageant were held in Chandigarh, Delhi, Indore, Kolkata, Pune, Goa and Bangalore. The semi-finalists were Gail Nicole Da Silva, Navneet Kaur Dhillon, Vijaya Sharma, Zoya Afroz, Apurva Lonkar, Sagarika Chhetri, Srishti Rana, Swati Kain, Anukriti Gusain and Sobhita Dhulipala. Karan Johar crowned Sobhita Dhulipala as Femina Miss Itimes Digital Diva. She also received one Lakh Rupees.

ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER RESIGNED OVER MARINE CASE

Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi resigned on 26 March 2013 in the wake of a dispute with India over the 2012 killing of two Indian fishermen by two marines while there are on anti-piracy duty.

Italy has agreed to send two Italian marines accused of the crime to India to face trial, after initially refusing to return them. The marines, Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre, are facing trial in India over the shooting dead of two fishermen off the southern state of Kerala in February 2012 when they were deputed to protect an Italian commercial tanker from pirates.

The dispute began after Italy allowed the two suspects to return to Italy in February 2013 to vote in national elections. Rome's initial refusal to send them back angered Indian government officials and Supreme Court justices, who noted that the Italian ambassador had given assurances to the court that the marines would come back to India after the elections.

On 11 March 2013 the outgoing technocrat government of Mario Monti in Italy said it would not send the marines back because Indian courts did not have jurisdiction over the incident, which as per the Rome occurred in international waters.



http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs-news-capsule-1284026861-1




QUESTIONS OF THE MONTH

Q.1) India and Liechtenstein signed the Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) on 28 March 2013 at Bern, Switzerland. Enlist the main features of TIEA. What is the significance of India-Liechtenstein TIEA?

Q.2) 5th BRICS summit was held in Durban, South Africa. What was the theme of the Summit? What were the major recommendations of the summit? What is the significance of the BRICS summit?

Q.3) The Union government in March 2013 decided to introduce national policy on drug abuse. Which ministry took this decision in this regard? Enlist the main features of the committee which was formed by the ministry to study nation-wide scenario of drug substance abuse.

Q.4) The Production of eight core sector industries decreased by 2.5 percent in the month of February 2013. What was the reason behind that decline? What was the performance of core sector industries in January 2013? Name the eight core sector industries. Describe the performance in February sector-wise.

Q.5) Write short notes on the following:

a) Unknown huge radio galaxy

b) NASA’s Swift Satellite

c) Japan becoming first country to extract natural gas from Methane Hydrate

d) Bhabha Atomic centre developing largest magnet of the world

e) First Smartphone launched into Space Successfully

f) President of Egypt Mohamed Morsy on India Visit

g) Rajan Bharti Mittal

h) Eighth India-Yemen Joint Committee Meeting

Q.6) One-horned Great Indian Rhinoceros population increased in Kaziranga despite Poaching according to the recent census which ended on 26 March 2013. What do you mean by poaching? Where is Kaziranga National Park located? What is the purpose of the census? How it is done?


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