Current Affairs For April 2011

Anna Hazares fast against corruption • Social Activist Anna Hazare started a fast unto death on 5/4/2011 demanding enactment of a comprehensive law like the Jan Lokpal Bill to tackle corruption. Just a couple of days since the nation was recovering from the euphoria of winning the world cup the 72 year old Anna Hazare began his fast at Jantar Mantar after taking out a march from Rajghat where he paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi. Other eminent activists like Swami Agnivesh, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Sandeep Pandey were also present to lend support. The fast soon gathered a lot of momentum through continuous coverage and brought the government under a lot of pressure. The movement soon spread to all parts of India where hundreds and thousands of students, housewives, working executives and senior citizens joined the campaign to make the government to enact the important new law to fight corruption. Facing intense pressure, the Government, finally agreed to forming a joint committee to draft a stronger Lokpal Bill. The panel will have five members and five representatives of the civil society. It includes Anna Hazare himself, but not as a chairman, lawyers Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan, anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal and former Supreme Court judge Santosh Hegde. While Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will be the Chairman of the committee that will also include Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Water Resources Minister Salman Khurshid as members. Gopal Das returns from Pak after 27 yrs • Indian National Gopal Das set foot on Indian soil on 7/4/2011 after spending 27 years in a Pakistan prison when he was convicted for charges of espionage. The 52 year old Das was set free from Lahore Jail after Pakistani President remitted his sentence following an appeal by the Supreme Court on humanitarian grounds. As soon as he set foot in India an emotional Das bowed down and kissed the soil. He was greeted by his family members including his brother Anand Vir, two sisters and niece Navjot besides, a dozen people from Bhaini Mian Khan village of Gurdaspur district of Punjab were there to receive him. When speaking to the media Das lamented that the golden period of his youth were spent behind bars in Pakistan. He said “I have a grudge against the Indian leadership who has never bothered about Indian prisoners rotting in prisons in Pakistan for so many years. Thirty-two Indian nationals, who have completed their jail term, are still languishing due to lack of initiative on the part of the Indian government,” Good voter turnout in Assembly Elections For Assam, TN, Kerala and Puducherry • The Election Commission had announced the election dates for four states on 1/2/2011 - Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry. The assembly elections so far have witnessed a good voter turn out in 2011. Assam witnessed a good voter turn out in both phases which were held on the 4th and 11th of April 2011 respectively. In the first phase the state witnessed a 73.03 per cent voter turnout and in the second phase the turnout was 70.35 per cent. An average of nearly 78 per cent voters exercised their franchise to elect new assemblies in the key southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the Union territory of Puducherry on 13/4/2011. While Tamil Nadu and Kerala registered a turnout of 75.21 per cent and 74.4 per cent respectively, in Puducherry it was the highest at 85.21 per cent, Deputy Election Commissioner J. P. Prakash told reporters in Delhi. Meanwhile the election process is currently underway in West Bengal where it is being held in 6 phases, the last date being May 10th. Counting will be on 13/5/2011 for all states. Supreme Court grants bail to Dr Binayak Sen • The Supreme Court on 15/4/2011 granted bail to Dr Binayak Sen who was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of sedition and having links with the Maoists by the Chhattisgarh sessions court on 24/12/2011. A bench comprising Justices HS Bedi and CK Prasad passed the order after Dr Sen filed a petition challenging the Chhattisgarh court order. The Apex court had declared that the evidence on record proved no sedition charge against Sen and at worst termed him a Naxal sympathizer. The court further observed that mere possession of Naxal Literature doe not make the person a Naxalite or guilty of sedition. Dr Sen was arrested in May 2007 when the government charged him with aiding the insurgents by passing notes between Piyush Guha, a businessman and jailed Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal. Dr Sen has maintained his innocence and denies any wrong doing rather said that he was being victimized for his criticism of Salwa Judum which was a group started by the state government to counter Maoist insurgents. He was released on bail in May 2009. Later a trial court convicted him of sedition and sentenced him to life imprisonment in 24/12/2010. Following that the High Court in Chhattisgarh rejected Dr. Sen’s bail application in 10/2/ 2011 which he appealed against and was finally granted bail by the Supreme Court. Rajdhani Express catches fire, passengers safe • A fire broke out in the pantry car of the Mumbai – Delhi Rajdhani express on 18/4/2011 at early morning 2:20 AM. The fire spread to the near by coaches B5, B6 and B7 but an alert pantry staff ensured all the passengers were woken up on time and made to evacuate the train ensuring none of them were killed or injured in the process. They also delinked the affected coaches from the rest of the train thereby averting a major disaster. Railways gave Rs 10.6 lakh to 212 passengers (Rs 5,000 per passenger) as ex-gratia for the inconvenience and loss of baggage due to the fire in the 12951 Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani. The railways has rewarded the nine staffers of the IRCTC with Rs 3,000 as a "token gesture", Sanjay Jain, Group General Manager of IRCTC said. There were a total of 30 pantry staffers in the train at that time. Shiney Ahuja appeals against rape sentence • Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja who was earlier sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for raping his maid has appealed to the Bombay High Court against his sentence on 19/4/2011. Earlier a fast track court on 30/3/2011 had convicted the actor even as the victim had turned hostile during the trial. The court had considered circumstantial evidence which includes – a DNA report which tested positive, torn hymen, blood marks on victim's clothes, semen found on quilt and curtains and Shiney’s hand which bore scratch marks of the victim. Shiney on his part has stated in his appeal that he had been falsely implicated and that the lower court has erred in law while convicting him. Kidnapped Mumbai boy Karnit Shah returns home • Five year old Karnit Shah who was kidnapped from outside his home in suburban Kandivali, Mumbai was rescued by the Police from Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh on 20/4/2011. Karnit had gone missing since 6/4/2011 when he was last seen playing at the premises of his building Pranik Gardens. Karnit's family pulled out all stops to trace their little boy. His father Anand a stock broker and his mother Alpa turned to facebook and uploaded photos of their son along with mobile numbers hoping people may be able to help by offering some sort of information about their missing son. Various online communities sprang up as the appeal went viral. Thousands of people forwarded the boy’s photos while the Shah’s on their behalf also offered Rs Two lakh in compensation for any information that would assist in tracing their son. The incident became a nation wide flutter after it generated considerable press coverage as well. The police have arrested the main accused of the case, Sohan Singh, along with his alleged associates Sameer Khan, Sandeep Warige and Shankar Salve, where Singh ran a confectionery shop in Kandivali which is close to Karnit’s residence. The police said children in the neighbourhood had spoken of a “Sunny Uncle”, possibly in his 20s, who was spotted lately offering sweets to the children and his disappearance too had coincided with that of Karnit. After two weeks of relentless chase, the Mumbai police with the help of UP Special Task Force traced the boy to a hut in Handia, UP from where he was rescued. Kalmadi arrested in CWG scam • Congress MP Suresh Kalamadi was arrested on 25/4/2011 by the Central Buearau of Investigation (CBI) for irregularities in the CW games. The former Chairman of the CWG was arrested under the charges for 120 B and 420 (criminal conspiracy and cheating) of the Indian Penal Code. The CBI has charged him with criminal conspiracy to buy timing, scoring and result (TSR) system from a Swiss company at an inflated cost of Rs 141 crore which the agency has alleged had cost the government Rs 95 Crore extra. Two other senior officials of the Organizing Committee - Surjeet Lal and ASV Prasad - have also been arrested in the Time Scoring scam. The 66 year old Kalmadi a Lok Sabha MP for the Congress from Pune has been facing a lot of flak even before the start of the games for construction delays and gross misuse of funds. Some of Kalmadi’s aides already arrested include Sanjay Mohindroo, M Jayachandran, TS Darbai, Kalmadi's personal assistant Shekhar Deorukhkar, Verma and Lalit Bhanot. Following his arrest he was suspended from the Congress party and soon enough it also brought a halt to his 15 year old reign as President of the Indian Olympic Committee (IOC). Veteran Sports Administrator VK Malhotra was unanimously named the acting President in his absence. CBI names Kanimozhi coconspirator in 2G scam • The CBI on 25/4/2011 has filed a second charge sheet in the 2G spectrum case naming Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK Chief M Karunanidhi’s daughter M Kanimozhi as a co conspirator. She has been charged with section 7 and 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The sections deal with acceptance of alleged gratification. The four other who have been charge sheeted with her include Kalaignar TV Managing Director Sharad Kumar, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa's cousin Asif Balwa, Rajeev Agarwal -- Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd and Karim Murani of Cineyug Films. However Dayalu Ammal wife of the Dr Karunanidhi has not been named in the chargesheet. Kanimozhi, Dayalu Ammal and Sharad Kumar of Kalaignar TV, have 20, 60 and 20% shares in the channel respectively. The CBI had already told the court earlier that Rs 200 Crores connected with the spectrum case allegedly was routed from Balwa’s Swan telecom to Kalaignar TV. Kanimozhi has been named co conspirator in the scam along with former telecom minister A. Raja who was arrested in February and still remains in prison. She has been asked to appear at a court in Delhi on 6/5/2011, which is dealing with the scam. Dada Saheb Phalke award for K. Balachander • K. Balachander, one of India’s most acclaimed and influential filmmakers will receive the Daba Saheb Phalke award for 2010 in an announcement by the Information & Broadcasting ministry on 29/4/2011. The award consists of a Swarn Kamal, a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh and a shawl, given for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema. The prolific director who worked as a government servant in his early days was drawn to theatre where he began to write plays. Following this success a career in films soon beckoned him where he has made many classics that are well received and appreciated to this day. He was a bold director who always tried to explore new themes and many of his movies had strong female characters. Some of the director’s famous works in Tamil include Apoorva Raganagal, Thaneer Thanerr, Varumayin Niram Sigappu, Server Sundaram, Sinthu Bairavi etc while the hindi film Ek Duuje Ke Liye won him applause in the northern parts of the country as well. K. Balachander has spotted and groomed several artists in the industry the likes of which include Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan. Spiritual Leader Sathya Sai Baba passes away • Spiritual leader Sathya Baba passed away on 24/4/2011 at the Sathya Sai Hospital in Puttapathi, Andhra Pradesh due to cardio-respiratory failure. The 84 year old Godman was admitted in hospital for the past one month after complaining of breathing and heart problems. The doctors had described his condition as ‘very critical’ over the last three to four days when most of his major organs stopped responding to treatment. Upon hearing his death a pale of gloom had descended Puttaparthi and thousands of his followers could be seen mourning his demise. Spiritual guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba was buried on 27/4/2011 as hundreds of thousands of devotees flocked to pay their last respects at his temple in Puttaparthi. Queues stretched for kilometres through the town, which has shuttered its shops and businesses since last three days. He was buried with full state honours in the Sai Kulwanth hall from where he used to address all his devotees over the years. Sai Baba was born as Sathyanarayana Raju in a humble backward caste family on November 23, 1926. He emerged as one of the most popular godmen in India in modern times leaving behind an empire estimated from a conservative figure of Rs. 40,000 crore to a staggering Rs. 1.5 lakh crores raising questions over who will manage the Trust. Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu dies in chopper crash • Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu was found dead in the remote and inaccessible Luguthang village, about 30 km from Tawang on 4/5/2011. The CM had gone missing on 30/4/2011 when on a flight from Tawang was found dead along with four others after their helicopter crashed in bad weather in the mountains regions. The helicopter's wreckage was found at Lobotang which is situated near Jang water falls in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh. The rescue operations were hampered due to bad weather. The other four members, who accompanied Khandu in the chopper, were - crew members Captain JS Babbar and Captain KS Malick, Khandu's security officer Yeshi Choddak and Yeshi Lamu, sister of Tawang legislator Tsewang Dhondup. This is the second death of a chief minister in two years after CM of Andhra Pradesh Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was killed in a helicopter crash in the Nallamalla ranges in the state in September 2009. Air India pilots call off 10-day-long strike • Air India pilots called off their 10-day-long strike and returned to work on 5/5/2011 night after the government agreed to reinstate the sacked and suspended pilots and look into their demands within a time-frame. The ten day strike has resulted in an estimated loss of over 150 crores inconveniencing thousands of passengers across the country. Civil Aviation ministry officials, the association president Captain A S Bhinder along with ICPA general secretary Rishabh Kapur said that the government has agreed to look into all the alleged irregularities. Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi the 3 member committee would give its report in the next few months. The strike by over 800 pilots on 27/4/2011 owing allegiance to the ICPA had resulted in the grounding of up to 90 per cent of the airline operations. The Delhi High Court had also slapped contempt notices on nine office bearers of the de-recognized ICPA for disobeying its order to call off the strike. Arunima Sinha story, whose telling the truth ? • National-level volleyball player Arunima Sinha alias Sonu, who lost her leg after being pushed out of a moving train on 11/4/2011 when she tried to fight an alleged robbery attempt. She lost her left leg after being pushed out of the Padmavat Express when three robbers tried to snatch her gold chain. Following her fall, one of Sinha's legs had to be amputated below the knee. The other leg suffered multiple fractures as she was hit by a train passing on the adjacent track. She was later admitted in AIIMS when her leg developed an infection. Since then the 23 year old sportswoman has been out of danger and recuperating well. She was offered a paltry compensation of Rs 25,000 which she snubbed following which the railways offered a job to Arunima. The incident generated lot of press interest and many people including cricketers Yuvraj Harbhajan came forward with monetary help for the athlete. However over the Government Railway Police (GRP) probe the officials have found many loopholes in Sonu’s story. Some of which they allege that it might have been a suicide attempt and the passengers of train do not corroborate with her story. They also allege that location where Arunima was found does not corroborate with her version of the events. The sportswoman on her part has accused the officials of mentally harassing her and has refuted their charges.

India Wins World Cup 2011 • The Indian cricket team came up with an inspired performance against Sri Lanka in the final to lift the World Cup in Mumbai on 2/4/2011 bringing to an end the 28 year wait when Kapil’s Devils had last lifted the cup in 1983. The World Champions were ecstatic with their victory while batting icon Sachin Tendulkar and Coach Gary Kirsten were given a lap of honour by their team mates. Sri Lanka had won the toss and opted to bat first notching up a formidable 274 runs on board thanks to an impressive century by Mahela Jayawardhene. Indian run chase started on jittery note when both openers Sachin and Sehwag were back in pavilion with the score at 31 for 2. However Gambhir and Dhoni who promoted himself up the order came up with a crucial partnership that helped to take India home. Dhoni finished of the match with a huge six over long on bringing the stadium to its feet and joy across millions of homes in India. McLaren's Hamilton wins Chinese Grand Prix • Mclaren’s Lewis Hamitlon won the Chinese Grand Prix in thrilling fashon on 17/4/2011 by passing Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel for the lead with just five laps remaining. Sebastian Vettel who had earlier made a strong bid for three straight wins to the start of the Formula 1 season how ever could not hold off Hamilton who looked in sublime touch throughout the race. Red Bull’s Mark Webber came in third on drove beautifully to finish on the podium considering he started eighteenth on the grid. Hamilton on his part was close to being out of contention when he fuel leak was detected in his car. The Mclaren mechanics worked frantically to rectify it. McLaren's Jenson Button was fourth, ahead of Mercedes' Nico Rosberg and Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who all led at various stages at Shanghai International Circuit. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was seventh, ahead of Mercedes' Michael Schumacher, and Renault's Vitaly Petrov, with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi taking the final point in 10th place. With three races completed this season Vettel leads the drivers standing with 68 points followed by Hamilton at 47, Button on 38 and Webber on 37. Duncan Fletcher has been appointed as coach of India • Duncan Fletcher on 27/4/2011 has been named coach of the Indian cricket team finally ending weeks of speculation as to who would take over the high profile job. Fletcher (62) a former Zimbabwean all-rounder came to prominence when he coached England and helped them regain the Ashes in 2005. Under his guidance England won its first series in West Indies in 36 years and the team rose to the third spot in the Test rankings during his tenure. He captained Zimbabwe in the 83 World cup and has played in just 6 ODI’s during his time when the country hadn’t yet achieved Test status. He may not be a part of the team for the West Indies tour, as he has some prior commitments, said BCCI secretary N Srinivasan. He also added that Eric Simmons who was the bowling coach during previous coach Gary Kirsten’s tenure is to continue his stint with the Indian team. IPL Season 4 Starts • Just days after the Indian team won the cricket world cup the IPL season has started in full swing. IPL 4 is now a ten team event with the two new teams being the Kochi Tuskers and the Pune Warriors. Many players have gone for record prices and it is expected that this years IPL will be a very hard fought contest between the teams with fluctuating fortunes after every match. Two teams that are being considered hot favourites are the Mumbai Indians and defending Champions Chennai Super Kings. This is the first IPL event that is happening in the absence of Lalith Modi who created a lot of controversy last year. Now with Indian team riding a good wave of form it is expected the people will tune into the matches in large numbers.

Oscar Nominated Director killed in Libya • Two veteran journalists including Oscar nominated Director Tim Hetherington were killed in the town of Mistrata on 13/4/2011 while covering the battles between the rebels and the Libyan government forces. Tim (40) was nominated this year for codirecting the Afghanistan war story Restrepo in Best Documentary category. Chris Hondros, a New York-based photographer for Getty Images, was also killed. His work has appeared in many famous magazines and newspapers all around the World and has been awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal, which is one of the most prestigious awards for War Photography. Two other journalists Guy Martin and Michael Christopher Brown, who were freelancing for several large publications were also wounded. Japan Atomic Crisis Reaches Chernobyl Level as Radiation Climbs • Japan's nuclear safety agency has raised the severity level of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant from level 5 to level 7 which ranks it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. It doesn't mean it's as bad as Chernobyl but it's still a negative development nonetheless. There have been only two level-seven incidents in nuclear history: the Chernobyl catastrophe 25 years ago in the Ukraine and now Fukushima, on the east coast of Japan. The disaster in Ukraine spewed debris as high as 9 kilometers into the air and released radiation 200 times the volume of the combined bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a 2006 report commissioned by Europe’s Green Party. The March 11 earthquake, the nation’s strongest on record, and tsunami left about 27,500 dead or missing, according to Japan’s National Police Agency. Japan was struck by two earthquakes stronger than magnitude 6 again on April that hindered recovering efforts as workers were temporarily evacuated. Kate marries Prince William • Prince William second in line to the throne married his long time girlfriend Kate Middleton at a service in London’s West Minister Abbey on 29/4/2011. The pair exchanged in the presence of close to two thousand guests while the rest of the World watched it live on television. It was the most eagerly awaited and anticipated wedding since the Charles and Diana wedding. Middleton looked beautiful in her ivory and white satin dress with lace sleeves and shoulders, designed by Sarah Burton of the Alexander McQueen fashion house. The crowds cheered when the newly weds travelled in an open carriage on their way back to the Buckingham Palace from the abbey. Hundreds of thousands of people appeared in front of the palace to witness the kiss between the newly weds from the balcony while street parties where held across the United Kingdom to cheer the royal couple. The wedding was watched by close to two billion people across the globe. The couple will be known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge following their marriage. Osama Bin Laden killed in Pakistan • The worlds most dreaded terrorist Osama Bin Laden has been shot dead by American Navy Seals on 2/5/2011 after he was found to be staying in relative luxury in a house just few hundred meters away from a Pakistani military academy in Abbotabad. Bin Laden was shot in the face and chest when the American forces sprung a surprise attack and the whole mission was performed without the consent or the knowledge of Pakistan. Obama, in his address to the nation shortly before midnight, thanked the Americans who have toiled in pursuit of bin Laden and applauded those who carried out the successful mission in Pakistan. “For over two decades, bin Laden has been Al Qaeda’s leader and symbol,” Obama said. “The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat Al Qaeda.” This comes as a real embarrassment to the Pakistani government which has been maintaining for many years now that Osama was not there in Pakistan. And to find him holed up in a facility just yards away from a prestigious military academy which is also just a couple of hours away from Islamabad poses many tough questions regarding Pakistani’s commitment to fighting terror. The US government had further declared that they would carry out such operations again in the future if the need arises. The US is already mulling over whether they should sanction further aid to Pakistan unless they come up with satisfactory answers regarding how Osama was found where he was. This is a serious intelligence lapse and does not auger well for the country that is already reeling under various problems that threaten the very fabric of the nation. It remains to be seen how the nation will cope with the allegations. Syria lifts emergency rule • Syria's government approved lifting the country's nearly 50-year-old state of emergency on 19/4/2011 in an effort to satisfy the one of the key demands of the anti government protestors. But the government also issued a stern warning to call of the protests against President Bashar Assad’s hard line rule. Assad the previous week had told his cabinet to remove the state of emergency – in place since his Baath Party took power in March 1963 – but added that such a move would give protesters no more reason to take to the streets. This could give Assad further pretext to move against any further marches or rallies. The Syrian population how ever shows no signs of letting down after being inspired by the successful revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt. Most of Syria’s 23 million people were born or grew up under the strict control of the state ofemergency. Assad hard line rule means strict control over the media, allowing eavesdropping on telecommunications and permitting arrests without warrants from judicial authorities Home Contact Site Map

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Prelims Current Affairs 2010

International Current Affairs 2010 Sri Lanka abandons Tamil version of its national anthem (13th Dec 2010) The Sri lankan government has decided to scrap the tamil version of the national anthem in its official and state functions. This move may possibly further alienate Online Test Registration the tamil minorities in the country. A directive to use only the Sinhalese version as been sent by the ministry as president Rajapakse pointed out that no country Online Books for IAS uses two versions of the anthem.

th [New] China reveals world’s fastest train (8 Dec 2010) IAS Chat China unveiled its new high speed train CRH380 that can clock a maximum speed of 486.1 kmph. It is said to be much faster than even the bullet trains of Current Affairs QuizMay Japan. At a cruising speed of 380 this is certainly a major accomplishment. China on its part has gone ahead and is now working on a model that is expected to Subscribe for Newsletter clock 600kmph. Pakistan’s Initiative against Terrorism (23th Nov 2010) Dicussion Forum Pakistan has been the victim of international terrorism in the past few months. As a result of this, a top US official recently said that Islamabad should begin to crack Educational Games down on terrorists and terrorist groups operational within the country immediately. Barrack Obama, President of the United States of America has also agreed to this statement and feels that Pakistan has been one of the major victims of international terrorism lately. President Obama also said that Pakistan needs to take strong and immediate steps against all terrorist groups operating on Pakistani soil. Furthermore, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said that a number of terrorist groups are operating in a syndicate and working together against American interests, not just in the US but in other nations such as Afghanistan and India as well. Mr. Blake also stated that the US has welcomed every step take by Pakistan so far and that it is in full support of Pakistan as always. Mark Zuckerberg, Times Person Of The Year (16th Nov 2010) Times magazine has named Mark Zuckerberg as the person of the year . Mr Zuckerberg is the founder of thesmash hit social networking site Facebook and is also the world youngest billionaire currently. Although, Julian Assange the editor in chief of wikileaks was the pick of the time readers, but Zuckerberg won Select Language because of the scope and reach his website and how it has touched and remodeled our thoughts on social networking bringing the world that much more closer. Facebook has reached 500 million users this year all around the globe and the numbers are still counting. Powered by UN’s terrorism sanctions list (16th Nov 2010) Translate In a recent and sudden move, a US committee took down several names of al- Qaida and Taliban terrorists off its terrorism sanction lists. The committee said that the reason for such an action was that several of the names on the sanctions list were probably dead. The committee Chairman Thomas Mayr Harting said that following this step, the committee had started investigations into how many terrorists put on the list were actually dead. This committee was set up in 1999. Friendly neighbor China (15th November 2010) Rising concerns over China’s assertive and aggressive attitude in the Asian continent has prompted China’s President Hu Jintao to assure all nations that China is committed to being a friendly and helpful neighbor. China has been in the news recently over its spats with neighboring nations over international borders and territories. The reason for this has been said to be China’s interests in a group of potentially resource rich islands in the Asian Pacific. Speaking to leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Japan, President Hu said that China was committed to the regional policy of building good neighborliness and friendship. New Government in Iraq (11th Nov 2010) Prolonged warring and quarrels between rival political factions in Iraq had caused over an eight month deadlock over the issue of forming the next government. Recently, the Iraqi Prime Minister appealed to these political factions to work together and unite following his acceptance of the President’s request to form the next government. Senior officials admitted that a Herculean task now lay before them, that of forming a government comprising of members of all possible political factions. The task has been made harder by the month long deadline to form the government which will preside over the country’s affair as US troops move out and power is handed back to the Iraqi people. The new government is expected to have members from all the political factions such as the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. Prime Minister Designate al-Maliki called upon al Iraqi citizens and politicians to help him in this difficult task. Myanmar polls called fake (10th November 2010) The first democratic polls in Myanmar after several years of military rule were held among complaints of threats, intimidation and accusations of the polls being a charade. In most constituencies, the poll was a competition between the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the National Unity Party (NUS). Several accusations were made by opposition parties against the USDP, claiming that they illegally collected advanced ballots. USA and UK officials also voiced their concerns about the transparency and fairness of these polls. Rolls Royce sued by Qantas (8th November 2010) Australian flight safety officials have recently warned that manufacturing defects have been found in the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines. Officials further urged airlines using these engines to carry extensive checks before using them because defects present in them could lead to catastrophic failures. In the meanwhile, Qantas began court proceedings against Rolls Royce and was granted an injunction by the federal court of Australia which ensured that the airline could pursue legal action against the engine manufacturing giants. China’s slowest growth (5 November 2010) China had its slowest rate of economic growth in a year during the September quarter. In addition to this, a World Bank report hinted at a further decrease in its economic growth. One of the reasons for this has been the long term inflation that China has faced for almost two years. China’s industrial growth has also fallen considerably in recent times. This slow growth in China’s economy has gotten many people to believe that India might be the next economic superpower to rise because of its high levels of industrial and economic growth in recent times. Though not immediately, but experts predicted India’s rate of growth to exceed that of China’s by a considerable margin in the next five years. India gets UNSC non-permanent seat (12 October 2010) The biggest news on the international front for India has been its inclusion into the UNSC as a non-permanent member after a gap of 19 years. Even as India’s acclamation for a non-permanent bench on the body that includes fifteen members in total was an inevitable cessation afterwards Kazakhstan back out of the chase for the Asian bench beforehand in early January. India got an unbelievable 187 of the 191 votes in the UN General Assembly ballot on October 14th 2010. India's previous spell in the Security Council was way back in 1992. Almost immediately afterwards India's appointment, Indian agent to the United Nations Hardeep Singh Puri put it straight that New Delhi would make use of this couple of year valid span to build assurance and accord a feeling of aplomb to the five non changing associates (famously known as the P-5) - the United States of America, Russia, Britain, France and China. Considering that Brazil, a running affiliate of the United Nation Security Council, and South Africa and Germany, which got appointed with India, on October 14th were as well in contention for a permanent membership, he stated: 'Of course everybody of us will attempt to bring into play the two years we need to render our allies a feeling of aplomb and formulate trust and faith so that they are at ease with our role playing in the United Nation Security Council on a continued period of time'. India and Mozambique sign 3 agreementss (5 October 2010) India and Mozambique came together and signed three agreements and a credit band of 500 million United States dollars has been advanced to that nation state for works regarding the infrastructure, agronomics and power during a convention that featured President of Mozambique Armando Guebuza and Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh. Guebuza and Singh, who captivated entrustment level converses, resolved to actualize an affiliation following the lines of superior political meeting, deepening of bread-and-butter collaboration, deepening of defense and aegis collaboration, distinctively to get hold of sea lanes in opposition to piracy and, cooperation in competence building and human resource (or workforce) development. “Both of us together accord to the aforementioned Indian Ocean association and we carve up familiar issues. It is in our alternate absorption to ensure the assurance and aegis of sea lanes of communication in the Indian Ocean,” Dr. Manmohan Singh said in a collective journalist statement. India will back the enactment in preparation and setting up organizations in Mozambique to back capacity building in the coal business and will as well back the ability formation for the defense and patrolling personnel of that nation state, the Prime Minister alleged. Conveying worry over the assurance and aegis of sea lanes in Indian Ocean, Guebuza promised India it will accommodate all practical aid to safeguard them. Indians freed from Malay traffickers: (3 September 2010) Not less than 24 Indian men who were discovered bound up in a residence in a Malaysian boondocks were successfully freed from the arrest and two Pakistani men supposedly engaged in a human trafficking guild were detained with immediate effect. "Inquiries into the matter exposed that those people, age-old amid 20 and 30, were from Uttar Pradesh. If the reports of the media are to be trusted, the victims landed on to the capital’s intl. airport four months back, afore getting picked by the accused people who were apparently looking for workers in an industrial unit in Johor," he said. He further stated that the two men promised the Indian workers appealing wages as the bait. It is once again proved that Malaysia is a magnet for wide spread drug peddling and human trafficking. Unemployed workforce looking out for jobs is brought for added transfers to other Southeast Asian countries and to Australia. Indians to lead FIDE: (September 2010) Indians have already proved their metal in various sports at the international level. Tennis, Cricket, Shooting, Boxing and also Chess. After Vishwanathan Anand, another lot of Indians are about to triumph on the World Chess Podium. D.V. Sundar has been elected has the President of the world body for the sport of chess, FIDE at Russia. Apart from that, the president for the Asian Continent was Mr. Dongre and Commonwealth Chess Federation President was revealed in the name of Mr. B.S. Chahuhan, a press statement by the All India Chess Federation revealed. Make way for the new breed: ( September 2010) The new world power calendar for 2010 has once again predicted that New Delhi’s dominance in the world will see acceleration by 2025. Among the able coalition, the country has been placed at the fourth position afterwards the US, China and the European Union. ‘The Global Governance 2025’ was together brought out by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) of the US and the European Union’s Institutes for Security Studies (EUISS). In the current year, the US leads the lot of able countries/regions, cumulatively for about 22 percent of the worldwide supremacy. The US is chased by China at 12 percent, European Union at 16 percent and India at eight percent. India comes next to Japan, Russia and Brazil with beneath than 5 percent apiece. Following these global statistics, by 2025 the ability of the US, EU, Japan and Russia will cut down although that of China, India and Brazil will boost but this surge will see the positions unchanged. By 2025, the United States of America will continue to be the most dominating nation, but it will be possessing just a bit above 18 percent of the global authority. The US will be carefully trailed by China with 16 percent, European Union with 14 percent and India with 10 percent looking to overleap. Mission Accomplished (19 August 2010) The United States have finally started pulling its troops out of Iraq. President Barack Obama has confirmed that the US plans to withdraw significant number of combat troops from Iraq stating that the war was nearing an end. The remaining force of 50,000 soldiers will train Iraqi security forces and provide security for ongoing US Diplomatic efforts. Australia with a hung parliament (23 August 2010) Australians failed to elect a new government in the polls held in August and were left with a hung parliament. The non-result elections between Julia Gillard’s Labor and Abbott’s Liberal party led to the first hung parliament in Australia since World War II. Three key Independents are now in the process of deciding which party to support to form a government. Pakistani cricketers tainted (30 August 2010) The Game of cricket gets murkier with alleged match-fixer Mazhar Majeed’s claim of having rigged games played by Pakistan for three years. The British Police recovered cash from hotel rooms of Pakistani players involved in spot fixing. Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammed Asif were interviewed and their mobiles confiscated after Majeed’s confession. The Anti-Corruption Unit of the ICC will probe all 82 international matches played by Pakistan during this time. The news came as a bolt for the flood-stricken and violence-plagued country where cricket is the national sport. Pakistan Floods (2 August 2010) In the worst flooding disaster in 80 years the floodwaters have affected about one- fifth of the country washing away millions of hectares of crops, submerging villages and destroying roads, bridges, schools, electricity and communication setting back the infrastructure by many years. Disease is fast spreading in these flood affected areas and there have been warnings that dams in the south may burst. It is estimated that the floods in Pakistan have displaced people thrice the number displaced during partition. Hike in Visa fee (11 August 2010) The Obama Regime has raised H-1B and L1 visa fees to protect its borders from illegal Mexican immigrants. This additional fee would be used to build operating bases and deploy unmanned aerial surveillance to beef up U.S.-Mexico border security. The impact of this hike will be substantial on Indian IT companies that account for approximately 50,000 H1 and L1 visas per year. Mosque near ground Zero(28 August 2010) A New York city panel has cleared the way for the construction of a mosque near ground zero that has been causing a political uproar over religious freedom. The proposed construction of the mosque near ground zero has sparked debate all around the country. President Barack Obama, however, supported the right of having a mosque by asserting that Muslims have the same right to freedom of religion as everyone else in America. China to launch space station(17 August 2010) Having finished the first module of a planned space station and testing its electronics and other systems China is all set to launch it into orbit next year. Changes were being made to the rocket that will carry the 8.5ton Tiangong 1 module into a set orbit. No finishing or manning dates have been given for the space station. The official Xinhua news agency said that The Shenzhou 8 spacecraft and Shenzhou 9 and 10 spacecraft would dock with it in the second half of 2011 and 2012 respectively. Online route(30 August 2010) Oxford English Dictionary that has been in print for over a century may never appear in print for the future generations. The word reference Bible is likely to loose its existence to its online version. With the digital books becoming popular, the format that the 3rd edition, currently being worked upon, will take is anybody’s guess. Japan Elections(10 July 2010) Democratic Party of Japan suffered a heavy blow in the elections for the upper house of Japan’s Diet (parliament) when it won ten seats fewer than expected thus loosing its majority. DPJ will now have to look for new coalition partners to restore its majority in the upper house and enable it to easily pass laws through the Diet legislature. After breaking the 55 year period of dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party and naming Naoto Kan the new prime minister just a month back the results have baffled the DJP. July 15th Summit, Islamabad(15 July 2010) Failed talks between Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna and the Pakistani counterpart Mr. Shah Mehmood Qureshi's have once again proved that whenever efforts were initiated by India to improve the relations between the two countries. The Pak leaders and officials took deliberate steps to derail the process conveying a clear message to India that the talks can continue only on its terms. Gulf of Spill(15 August 2010) More than three months after the April 20 explosion aboard the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil platform, which killed 11 workers and sank the rig gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the most severe US environmental disaster ever is close to coming to an end. In an operation called “static kill” 2,300 barrels of mud was forced down into the well’s opening overnight pushing the crude back down to its source. A cap over the wellhead has shut in leaking oil since July 15 and the static kill — also known as bull heading — probably would not have worked without the cap in place. Genocide(12 July 2010) Omar-al-Bashir, President of Sudan has been charged with three counts of genocide over the Darfur Conflict, he was convicted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague. It is for the first time that a court has accused anyone of genocide. Jacob Lew the new Budget Director(13 July 2010) President Barack Obama has chosen Mr. Jacob Lew as his new budget director. This is Mr. Lews second stint with the federal budget. Current Affairs [June 2010] • Julia Gillard become Australia’s first women Prime Minister replacing Kevin Rudd following a sudden revolt against him. • No more time for sorrow’ written by Robert Beeman. The author predict that terrorist will set off an atom bomb in the USA by 2013. • Tuvalu become 187th member of IMF (International Monetary Fund). The island is located in the Pacific Ocean. • Kyrgyzstan voted for a new constitution in a referendum. It is Central Asia’s first parliament democracy. • G-20 summit held at Toronto, Canada. Current Affairs [May 2010] • G-15 summit was held at Tehran on 16-17 May. • Bangladesh handed over Ranjan Daimary of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland to India. The group was responsible for serial bombing in Assam in 2008. • National League for Democracy (NLD) party of Myannmar’s democracy leader Aung San Sui Kyi was abolished after deadline to re-register as a political party was over. • EU-IMF provide a $ 1 trillion rescue package to the Greece to resolve its debt crises. • Pakistan successfully test fired two short range ballistic missiles, Shaheen I( range 650 Km) and Ghazani (range 290 Km) capable of carrying nuclear war heads and striking Indian cities. Current Affairs [April 2010] • Belgium became the Europe’s first country to ban burqa. • Pakistan’s National assembly passed a bill that takes away the President’s power to dissolve parliament, dismiss a elected government and appoint the three services Chiefs. Pakistan’s parliament passes 18th amendment which was later signed by Presient cutting President’s powers. • USA and Russia signed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty(START) that allowed a maximum of 1550 deployed overheads, about 30% lower than a limit set in 2002. The treaty was signed in the Progue Castle. • Emergency was imposed in Thailand. • Nuclear Security Summit held at Washington.It was a 47 nation summit wherein P.M. announced setting up of a global nuclear energy centre for conducting research & development of design systems that are secure, proliferation resistant & sustainable. • PM visit USA & Brazil, a two nation tour. He attended Nuclear Security Summit in USA & India- Brazil-S.Africa(IBSA) and Brazil-Russia-India- China(BRIC) summit in Brasilia (Brazil). • 16th SAARC Summit held in Bhutan in 28-29 April. The summit was held in Bhutan for the first time. It is the silver jubilee summit as SAARC has completed 25 years. The summit central theme was ‘Climate Change’. The summit recommended to declare 2010-2020 as the “Decade of Intra- regional Connectivity in SAARC”. The 17th SAARC summit will be held in Maldives in 2011. Current Affairs [March 2010] • China will launch in 2011 unmammed space mode ‘ Tiangong I’ for its future space laboratory. • US internet giant Google close its business in China. • India’s largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel buy Zain’s Africa operations for an enterprise value of $ 10.7 billion (Rs 49000 crore). Currently Bharti’s non-India operations include Sri Lanka & Bangladesh. • Russia abolished two of its eleven time Zones. Current Affairs [February 2010] • NATO forces carried out Marjah operation (dubbed Moshtarak) against Taliban forces in Afghanistan. • European Union summit was held in Brussels. EU & IMF decided to giving support to Greece in its struggle to bring its ballooning budget deficit under control. EU President is Herman Van Rompuy. • Iran’s President Mahmood Ahmedinejad declared that Iran had produced first batch of 20 % enriched uranium and now Iran became a nuclear state. • Iran launched ‘Kavoshger -3 rocket’ capable of carrying a satellite. It carried a mouse, worms & two turtles. Current Affairs [January 2010] • Gilgit Baltistan region elected its first Chief Minister Mehdi Shah on the basis of Gilgit Baltistan Empowerment & Self Governance Order 2009. The new appointed CM declare the Gilgit Baltistan region as 5th province of Pakistan. The Indian Govt has, however, of the view that the region was part of J & K, and thus objected to the remarks of CM. • Venezuela devalued it currency ‘Bolivar’. • A massive earthquake strike Haiti, the Carribbean nation. Capital of Haiti is Port-au-Prince. • Mahinda Rajapaksa won a second term as Sri Lanka’s President. He belongs to Sri Lanka Freedom Party. National Current Affairs 2010

CBI seeking closure in Arushi Talwar case (13th Dec 2010) CBI has sought closure after being unable to comprehensively solve the Arushi Talwar murder case which has hogged the limelight for over two years now. The report claims that they have hit a road block and lack of evidence as main reasons for not being able to solve the case. However the report as named the victims father Dr Rajesh Talwar as a possible suspect. Chandra Babu Naidu ends fast (13th Dec 2010) Telugu Desam Party president finally ended his hunger strike of eight days on the insistence of visiting leaders like Thambi Durai, Arunkumar, Amba Durai, Maitreya, Prakash Karat, Bardan, Om Prakash Choutala, Sharad Yadav and Ajit Singh. Mr Naidu undertook the fast citing that the Andhra Govt should revise its compensation package for the rain hit farmers of the state. The visiting leaders promised Mr Naidu that they would bring the issue to the notice of the Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh by taking an all party delegation to New Delhi. Congress blames Sanjay Gandhi for the emergency excesses (13th Dec 2010) The congress party which is celebrating its 125th birthday this month has accused Sanjay Gandhi for many of the excesses committed during the emergency of 1975-77. Sanjay Gandhi received notoriety for many ruthless measures like slum clearance and mass sterilization programs. The congress has always had to walk a tight rope when it comes to defending Indira Gandhis decision to enforce emergency which led to one of the most turbulent times in Indian history since independence. CBI seeking closure in Arushi Talwar case (13th Dec 2010) Citibank employee Shivraj Puri accused of fraud surrenders Citibank employee Shivraj Puri who is said to be involved in a massive fraud, finally surrendered to the police after almost 48 hrs since the incident came to light. Mr Puri who works as a relationship manager has been accused of siphoning of money to the tune of 400 crores from atleast 20 clients to other fictitious accounts. Opposition unrelenting on its demand in JPC probe (13th Dec 2010) The opposition has been steadfast in its demand for the JPC with regard to the 2G scam. The PM Dr Manmohan Singh had earlier offered to appear himself before the PAC headed by BJP stalwart Mr. Murali Manohar Joshi. The opposition still feels the JPC would be the best option that would help to bring this case to its logical conclusion. Human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen convicted, gets life term (13th Dec 2010) The session’s court of Raipur has convicted Dr Binayak Sen and three others on grounds of sedition and conspiracy thereby sentencing them for life due to their links with the Maoists. Dr Sen has been held guilty under Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, of being a conduit between Naxals and of meeting Narayan Sanyal in jail. The trio has also been convicted under provisions of section 124 IPC (sedition) and 120 B IPC (conspiracy). Dr Sen is a pediatrician and alumni of Christian medical college. The 58 year old doctor has provided over 28 years of selfless service to the poorer sections of Chattisgarh. Prices of onions hit through the roof (13th Dec 2010) The prices of onions have undergone a steep rise with a kg costing close to Rs 80 in the national capital and its surrounding areas. Other parts of India too have started feeling the pressure and the prices are continuously shooting up. The Government on it part has suspended the export of onions until January in an attempt to bring down the prices. According to traders, they are attributing the supply crunch due to torrential downpours in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Southern states which has lead to a poor yield. Indias GSLV vehicle fails during launch. (13th Dec 2010) ISRO suffered a serious setback when its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F06) failed on its course, forcing the team at SriHarikota to abort the mission and self destruct the launch vehicle. The vehicles on board computer lost control of the actuation system raising serious questions about ISROS other ambitious projects that includes a mission to the moon. The GSAT-5P satellite which the launch vehicle was supposed to send into orbit was one of the heaviest and cost ISRO 125 crores. Had it been successful, the satellite would have served the needs of the telecommunication sector and the weather department. It would have eventually replaced the INSAT-2E satellite that was sent up in 1999. India and China set $100bn trade target by 2015 (16th Dec 2010) India and China have agreed upon a new $100billion trade target by 2015 which is more than the $6 billion agreed upon in 2010.With the arrival of Chinese PM Wen Jiabao accompanied by 400 Chinese business leaders in India, the two countries signed around 50 deals in power,steel ,wind energy , food and marine products and telecommunications worth $16 billion. This overtakes the $10bn of agreements signed between Indian and American businesspeople during the recent visit of US President Barack Obama. Sensex drops 458 points (November 2010) The Bombay Stock Exchange recently fell by a total of 458 points. The reasons for the underperformance of the Indian Equity market have been said to be the series of scams that were unearthed from mid November. Just last month, CBI officials discovered a bribe for loan scandal that involved several officials from financial firms and a few state run banks. The 10.8% rise in industrial growth since last month could not help and several indices ended with huge losses. Major loses were mainly suffered by PSUs, realty, consumer durables and healthcare. Satyam Trial Case (2 November 2010) The examination of the first witness in the infamous multi crore Satyam Computer accounting scam would begin from the first of November Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court. CBI officials submitted a list of six witnesses to the courts who were officials of a number of different banks. All ten accused including company founder B Ramalinga Raju were present in court during the hearing of the case. The DIG of police who operates under the department of CBI said that the agency requested permission to set up LCD projectors and screens in the court so that both parties could observe and take notes on all the documents that would be brought up in court. Since cases in the Supreme Court need to be resolved at the earliest, CBI officials submitted close to a thousand documents to the court to speed up the prosecution. The bail of the owner of company and the other 5 individuals associated has been rejected. Baba Ramdev Temple under threat (2 November 2010) An anonymous letter was received at the Ramdev Baba temple in Jaisalmer that contained threats to blow up the temple on November 9th. District Collector G S Kushwaha received this letter by normal post. Following this letter security around the temple and the surrounding complex was tightened by posting additional number of policeman around the temple complex. Around 5 million devotees are said to visit the temple every year. Ashok Chavan’s fate (5 November 2010) Disgraced Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chauhan’s would be decided after the Diwali holiday season, i.e. after November 8th said the Congress party. Recently Chief Minister Ashok Chauhan’s name had come in the Adarsh Housing Society scam. Following this allegation, Mr. Ashok Chauhan immediately offered to resign from his post. No mention of either the Adarsh Housing Society scam or the commonwealth Games fiasco was made by the Congress in its AICC session. Also present at the meeting were Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, Common Wealth Games Organizing Committee Chaiperson Suresh Kalmadi, Heavy Industries Minister and former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Maharashtra PCC President Manikrao Thakre. Adjournment of Ajmer Dargah blast case (27 November 2010) The hearing of the Ajmer Gargah blast case was recently adjourned to November 8 by a sessions court due to leave taken by the presiding judge. Over an 800 page charge sheet was produced before the court of the Additional Chief Judge Magistrate on the 22nd of October by the Rajasthan ATS. The five accused in the case have alleged links with the radical Hindu group Abhinav Bharat. Only one accused was brought to the court while the other two are being questioned about the Hyderabad Mecca blast case. The accused have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code like conspiracy to murder, attempt to murder and murder. Over one hundred and thirty witnesses have been cited by the prosecution of the case. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s concern (29 November 2010) The finance minister of the country Pranab Mukherjee recently raised his fears over the rising of inflation in the country. Minister Mukherjee said that the Reserve Bank of India would take steps at its next monetary policy review to check rising prices because of increased inflation. He further added that rising food prices were solely the reason for this sudden inflation. Inflation for the month of September was estimated to be close to 8.6% much above the acceptable rate of 5%. As said by Finance Minister Mukherjee, food prices had the highest amount of inflation which in Mid October was estimated to be over 13%. Recently, Minister Pranab Mukherjee was in talks with the Reserve Bank of India Governor over the the possible rate hike action by the Central Bank. The global financial crisis, which was worsened by the total collapse of financial firm Lehman Brothers, is being said to be the reason behind the RBI’s recent reversal of its soft monetary policy that it started back in September 2008. Adding to these has been the sudden drop in industrial growth from 15.2% to 5.6%. To combat the aforementioned rise in inflation, the Reserve Bank of India has hiked its key short term lending and borrowing times several times this year. Protest during Obama visit by Bhopal Gas tragedy victims (6 November 2010) Victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy are said to be planning to stage a protest at Jantar Mantar on the 8th of November, during the time of US President Barrack Obama’s visit to the capital. Several tonnes of the poisonous gas methyl iso- cyanide, leaked from the Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal in 1984, killing over 3000 people the same night and causing the deaths of over 25000 people over the subsequent years. Five different voluntary organizations working for the gas tragedy victims recently held a press conference where they stated that they would be requesting to President Obama to use his Presidential powers to bring the Union Carbide Corporation to Indian Courts and be answerable to them. The verdict of this case many years back had found seven top officials of this corporation to be guilty but as these guilty persons were bailed out within minutes of the verdict, many people till date question the justice imparted in the case. The voluntary organizations further added that hundreds of people regularly fall sick and die every month due to the long term poisonous effects of the leaked gas on the soil and water. They further plan to ask President Obama for his help as the US government has been largely unhelpful these last few years. The sit in protest organized by the voluntary organizations is said to be comprised of over 5000 gas tragedy victims. Third stage of Bihar polling completed (28 Oct 2010) Polling was carried out affably in 48 electorates on 28th Oct 2010, estimating in the third appearance of Bihar Assembly elections, which witnessed an approximated 53% voter responsive. Electorates like Amnour, Taraya, Ramnagar, Balmikinagar and Patepur (Maoist followers) account about 45%-52% voting. Voters were carried by boats in the littoral areas of Raghopur Assembly electorate in Vaishali commune where the popular figure of Rabri Devi was in the tussle. The better half of RJD spearhead Lalu Prasad Yadav is as well battling from Sonepur bench in Saran constituency. More than 185 people were held during the balloting, which saw miniature incidents of affray and fracas. Unlike on a number of occasions before, this time Bihar polling did not see what it usually it experiences in terms of riots, booth capturing and other forms of unrest and violence that hampers the true and the honest spirit of competition. "Apart from this, it was nonviolent and silky," stated by Neelmani (DG of Police). Approximately sixty cars were as well detained. In excess of one crore voters will adjudge the future of six ministers (of the state) in the third stage. The following round i.e. stage 4 will be carried out on Nov. 4 2010. UID experiences technical hiccups (Oct 2010) In order to overcome the challenge posed by the huge figure of people (approximately 1.03 billions) in the country, the chief of the dept. stated that the 16 digit long UID numbers will be released in the next year and half or so. He added that the epicenter of its working will be in the city of Bangalore. An easy remedy to the obstacles posed by the allotment of different IDs is to have a bench where every formerly sanctioned UID are kept and a fresh one is given only afterwards verifying that is actually a unique code. Fundamentally, we charge to break an extremely tough difficulty in dispersed schemes once we have copies of the bench (for dependability) and ought to accordingly respond/keep informed the table as questions are asked. Taking the point in consideration, provided the millions of accretion objects affiliated to the web, there is no scrutiny if a prime number selected is the similar chosen by somebody else before. If this is to happen, it is an aegis aperture of the aboriginal order for web; the possibly is, nevertheless, acutely undersized. Population on another instance has proven to be a major obstacle in the development and progress course of India. UID which was anticipated to be a huge success and particularly curb this issue is yet to combat the problem itself to even get kick started. Haryana barricades polythene bags entry (Aug 2010) In another attempt to safeguard the environmental and not add insult to the already injured state of the planet, like the govt. of Delhi, Haryana govt. has also decided to prohibit polythene bags in the state. The ban includes a complete no- no of recycling, storage and usage (in any form) within the state. A suggestion to this aftereffect has been supported by Bhupinder Singh Hooda (the honorable Chief Minister of the state), an authorized agent said in the capital on Saturday. The resolution was taken as it was empiric that fractional forbid on use of polythene bags of a clearly defined array bracket did not crop the needed consequences. There was consistent ambiguity over the array of poly bags in exercise and it had as well been discovered that nibbling of a great number of polythene bogs had resulted in deaths of cows on a regular basis, he said. This type of thinking and resolutions are the only way through which we can combat and better the ailing state of the plant Earth. If all other cities and states like previously Delhi and now Haryana think about the hazards the polythene bags can cost, we will be having better standards of health and hygiene. PM and Sonia Gandhi inaugurate UID: (28 Sep 2010) The Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and UPA Arch Sonia Gandhi shaped a record by accordingly ablution the world's aboriginal ID activity on September 29th 2010 forth with Nilekani, the arch man of the ministry is acclimated to accommodate Unique Identification Numbers for India's citizens (cumulatively well in billions), by rendering them the aboriginal collection of twelve digit figures to ten clannish. The PM as well as the UPA Chief were collectively congratulated in the presence of former Infosys headman. This ID Card is assumed to be nation’s biggest ever tech adeptness action alleged 'Aadhaar'(base), that is due to be issued to all Indians to accommodate them within a lucrative nationally accurate and absolute individual antecedent of character affidavit through an authenticity vault and that will help to accomplish supply processes transparent. Biometric following abstracts include fingerprints and an iris browse getting acclimated for the aboriginal time wherever in the planet. Yamuna raises its bar, causes menace: (28 Sep 2010) The baptize akin in the river rose to 206.70 accent recently, 1.87 accent aloft the crisis mark of 204.83 accent and is acceptable to go up added as neighboring Haryana would absolution added water in the river, a chief official of the flood ascendancy administration said. Waters from the flood reached into vicinities like of the local areas as well (Yamuna and Sonia Vihar, Usmanpur, Jaitpur are a few). A large number of localities that reside in the areas forth the banks of the river were apparent lined up on the footpaths on the ITO arch with whatsoever they had of their possessions. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had on Friday requested the inhibiters not to get into agitation and said all basic measures are getting put into abode to accommodated any possible occurrence. Over 100 cadre from National Disaster Response Force, were soon deployed to abetment the bounded authorities. The ascent Yamuna has affected the Northern Railways to abolish 25 trains and absent 36 others. The cancelled train were prominent ones (Kalka and Brahamaputra Mail, Shalimar, A.A. and G.N. Express, etc). The 90 trains that have to be detoured included the most heavily commuted ones and this has disrupted the life of the general public paralyzing their usual movements, a Northern Railway spokesmen stated. Ayodha Verdict finally out, Allahabad Bench applauded: (Sep 2010) Culminating 60 years of anfractuous proceedings, asserts and counter-claims, optimism and desolation, Allahabad HC conventions in favor of improvised Ram temple on quarreled site; the remaining of acreage to be disconnected amid Hindus & Muslims. In what is conceivably the most of eagerly anticipated judgment in contempt times, a breach adjudication dispensed out by a three- member bank of Allahabad High Court were in full abounding of the claims of the Hindu petitioners while acclimation a three-way analysis of the acknowledged land. The cardinal provided acknowledged permit to the temporary Ram temple that came up afterwards the annihilation of the acknowledged anatomy in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. The entire panel of adjudicators – the prominent faces of the country (Justice Agarwal, Khan and Sharma) – was very much in favor of the acceptance that captivated the acknowledged land was the native land of the Hindu deity. Mr. Sharma and Mr. Agarwal settled with the long-held affirmation of the Sangh Parivar and an area of archaeologists that the acknowledged anatomy cannot be advised as an Islamic place of worship as it came into actuality adjoins the credo of Islam. Lights, Camera and Applause: (Sep 2010) The 57th Edition of the National Film Award ceremony was concluded for the year 2009 in the month of September. The awards were given away in three groups namely, finest Feature Motion Picture Class led by Chairpersonship of Mr. Sippy, Non Feature Motion Picture Group led by Chairpersonship of Mr. Pandey, and Script on Movies beneath the Chairpersonship of Mr. S. Bandhopadhyay.  The following were the recipients of a few awards in various nominations:

a. Motion Picture: Malayalam flick – KuttySrank b. I.G.A. for the Best first appearance movie : Hindi movie – Lahore for the Direction c. Box office blockbuster (widespread entertainment): Hindi – 3 Idiots d. N.D.A. for the Best motion picture on Patriotic Spirit: Hindi – Delhi 6 e. Best motion picture on Society’s Matters: Bollywood - Well Done Abba f. Motion Picture for Kids: Tied between Keshu (Malayalam) and Putaani Party (Kannada) g. Direction: Rituparno Ghosh for Abohoman h. Actor: Amitabh Bachcha for Auro’s role i. Actress: Ananya Chatterjee j. Child’s Performance: Tollywood’s Pasanga k. Male Singer: Rupam Islam in Bengali l. Female Singer: Neelanjana Sarkar in Bengali Nuclear liability bill passed (Aug 2010) Nuclear liability bill which was adopted by Rajya Sabha has now been approved by the process of Voice vote. The session of the Parliament lasted 48 hours extra than the scheduled time so that the legislation can be easily passed and approved. A total of 18 amendments were introduced in this bill by Lok Sabha before processing it further. Soon the bill was selected for a considerable hike in the liability of operator. This liability has now become 3 times then what it was in the past and now holds a value of rupees 1500 crore’s in total. By virtue of progression of this bill and significant increase in the liability many overseas companies have shown their interests in setting up reactors in India. Special accidental care will now be provided for the employees operating in the various sections of the nuclear plants. The decision and the passing of the bill had been strongly opposed by the BJP leaders as they found it insignificant. Swiss Bank Access (Aug 2010) Swiss Authorities will provide information to India on cases of tax fraud and tax evasion from January 1,2011under the reworked double tax agreement (DTA) signed by India and Switzerland. The Indian Authorities can now seek information about the account holders in Swiss banks who have a case filed against them for tax evasion. Government Intervention for CWG (28 Aug 2010) PM and his select team of ministers takeover as CWG supervisors. Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh took over the reigns of the forthcoming games in the wake of scandals and unfinished work surrounding the event. Committee of Secretaries, headed by a Cabinet Secretary, will now supervise the mega event to be held in October overtaking Organizing Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi. Bhopal Case reopened (Aug 2010) The Supreme court of India has reopened the Bhopal Gas leak case in response to Government’s petition for harsher punishment to the guilty for the worst tragedy of its kind in which at least 7,000 people perished within days of the release of the toxic methyl isocyanate gas at the Union Carbide pesticide plant on 3 December 1984, and a further 15,000 died later from exposure to the gas. The tragedy left countless others with lifelong damage to their health. CSAT to replace the civil services prelims (Aug 2010) The new Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) will replace the existing civil services (preliminary) examination from 2011. The new scheme will test the candidates for their aptitude for civil services as well as their ethical and moral dimension of decision-making. There will now be two common papers with equal weightage in place of one common paper (general awareness) and one optional paper (any particular subject of choice). The civil services main exam and the interview will remain the same as of now. Rahul creates controversy (Aug 2010) Wherein one place Mamta Banerjee is speaking in the favour of naxals and now Rahul Gandhi is sharing a dias with a suspected Maoist , this is the approach of the government in the fight against naxals. Member Parliament salaries hiked (Aug 2010) Parliament recently in Delhi has made a decision to increase the salaries of MPs. A hike of about rupees 35000 will be introduced in the salary of each MPs thus taking it from figures like 20,000 to 55,000 or so. Because daily allowance has an important role to play hence parliament has also decided to exactly double the allowances issued daily to each Member of Parliament. Hence daily allowance of rupees 1000 will now become 2000. This daily allowance will be issued only when the parliament session is in progress. Other than the daily allowances the official expenses for every office per month have now been considerably raised and touch a 50,000 amount. That is not all the travel and conveyance charge issued will now become 4 times which were earlier around rupees 1,00,000. Retired members will now get a monthly pension of around rupees 20,000 which was around 10,000 in the past times. Commonwealth with less green (Aug 2010) Approximately 40,000 trees have been either felled or transplanted for Delhi’s preparation of Commonwealth Games 2010. Apart from the financial burden of creating world class infrastructure and transport facilities Delhites have to bear the loss of its green cover as the compensatory plantation cannot in any way compensate for the loss of a fully grown, mature tree. Blackberry controversy (Aug 2010) Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of Blackberry has finally surrendered to Indian security agencies’ demand for access to their server. The company has proposed for lawful access to its services including the messenger as well as the enterprise with immediate effect and the company would have to set up a server in India if it does not work to the satisfaction of Indian agencies. The security agencies already had access to voice data, SMS and general emails sent through Blackberry devices but Blackberry email and messaging services that are highly encrypted were major concerns for the security agencies. With this understanding in place the government has decided to serve notices to Google and Skype also to fall in line. Direct tax code (Aug 2010) The Government deferred the direct tax code(DTC) by yet another year to April 2012 causing yet another disappointment to the taxpayers. Women taxpayers suffered a bolt as the preferential treatment meted out to them earlier is now proposed to be withdrawn. Senior citizens, however, enjoy a higher exemption limit. The bill that replaces the Income Tax Act 1961 seeks an increase in exemption threshold of individuals from Rs.1.6 lakh currently to Rs.2lakh. The corporate taxes will be reduced to a flat 30%. Leh hit by flood (Aug 2010) A cloudburst on the intervening night of August 5 and 6 has led to flash floods and mudslides in the Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir. The cloudburst and the following floods have claimed over 175 lives and injured about 400 people, besides causing widespread damage to public and private property. The worst hit Chuglamsar has just turned into debris all over. More rich than poor Indians (Aug 2010) National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has estimated in its report, "How India Earns, Spends and Saves", that despite the economic slowdown of the last three years, the number of high-income households in India has exceeded the number of low-income households. Households with high income or earnings have grown by over 3.7% in total and now touch the mark of around 21%. That is not all also the households with low income sources have fallen by around 3.2% and gone down to a mark of 18%. CWG Anthem (Aug 2010) When everything is being prepared for the common wealth coming up in October then how could Music maestro A R Rahman stay away from it. Yes, the musician has launched the theme song for the Commonwealth Games 2010 that has the best lyrics covering khelo oh yaaro,,jeeto oh yaaro. During the launch of this theme song honorable Chief Minister Shiela Dixit, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi were present in the ceremony. CWG breeding mosquitoes (Aug 2010) The fingers are already crossed and people fear further delay in the common wealth problems. When the earlier hurdles are not getting removed and new problems are coming into view. The sincere attention is being drawn by the mosquitoes breeding in various dumps. Because of heavy rainfall in the country water is collected in almost every venue and mosquitoes have converted these venues into their favorite breeding places and are increasing the fear of dengue disease. Yet another marine disaster (Aug 2010) A foreign cargo ship MV Khalijia-111 which collided with MSC Chitra which was carrying about 1,200 containers with over 266 tonnes of fuel about 10 km off Mumbai harbour has spilled oil into the Mumbai seas. The collision tilted MSC Chitra vessel causing 300 containers carrying oil to tumble into the Mumbai waters creating a thick oil slick two to three kms around the vessel Chitra causing a serious threat to the marine life. India’s Independence (Aug 2010) August 15th, 2010 India celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its independence. IBM Number two employer (Aug 2010) IBM is the second largest private sector employer in India after TCS . The company has more than one lakh people on its rolls. Noose tightening for Politicos in Sohrab case (July 2010) Sohrab case getting murkier with CBI stepping up pressure on top Gujarat IPS Officers P.C.Pande, O.P.Mathur and Geeta Johri for their suspected involvement in scuttling the probe at the behest of former Gujarat Minister of State for home Amit Shah. Two Rajasthan BJP leaders Gulabchand Kataria and Om Mathur are also facing the CBI heat. Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed in a fake encounter and his wife who was a witness to her husband’s abduction was also later eliminated. The agency is investigating the police-politico nexus behind the killings. Chidambaram confident of overcoming maoist problem in three years (July 2010) Addressing a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for the ministry of home affairs, P Chidambaram informed that in a meeting of chief ministers of seven Naxal-affected states on July 14, a decision of unified command was agreed to namely in-- West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand -- for anti-Naxal operations. A two-pronged strategy of initiating development and police action in the affected areas was designed to overcome Maoist problem after consultations with the Naxal-affected states Grooming for a succession? (July 2010) Noel Tata, chairman Ratan Tata’s brother has been installed as the chairman and CEO of Tata Investment Corp and the MD in Tata International while relinquishing his executive position in Trent Ltd within the last two months. There is speculation that these moves are in line with the group’s succession plan for top job i.e. the Chairmanship of Tata Sons in 2012 when Ratan Tata steps down. Applaud or embarrassment? (July 2010) According to top sources from Central Vigilance Commission, fake certificates were being routinely issued to pass substandard work and material to the vendors of Commonwealth Games 2010 leading to huge gains for the contractors and vendors. All these certificates were issued without ground verification or technical examination. The compromise, herein, in the quality of materials and workmanship poses a serious threat to the sports personnel from countries all over the world lending a shameful picture of India and hence jeopardizing our ability to host such events in the future. Valley stir (July 2010) Following the imposition of curfew in wake of the protest by Syed Ali Geelani demanding the release of dozens of arrested separatist leaders, violence was triggered in the valley due to a spate of civilian killings by security personnel leading to an indefinite curfew being clamped in Srinagar. Educational institutions, shops, post offices, banks, public transport and other business establishments were closed as a precautionary measure. The protests are part of the separatists' 'Quit Kashmir' programme. Current Affairs [June 2010] • In the Global Peace Index 2010, India ranked at 128. • 2010 Failed State Index- Somalia top the list followed by Zimbabwe, Sudan & Chad. India is ranked at 87 place out of 177 countries. Norway in ranked at the bottom of the list. • President Rule imposed in Jharkhand. • Amar Singh launches a new party ‘Akhil Bhartiya Lok Manch’. • South African president Jacob Zuma visited India. • Turkmenistan President Gurbaguly Bardimuhamedov visited India. • Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited India. India signed 7 pacts with Sri Lanka. India will assist in building 50000 houses in the northen&eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. • Bangladesh Govt has requested to rename the train linking West Bengal to Tripura via Banglades as ‘ Sonar Tori’. Earlier the name of the train as envisaged in the Railway Budget 2010 is ‘Epar Bangla Opar Bangla’. Sonar Tori is a collection of poems written by Rabindranath Tagore, whose 150th birth anniversary is being celebrated in 2010. • Maharastra will become first state in the country to have a real estate regulatory authority. • BWA- Broadband Wireless Access. The BWA spectrum was auctioned by the Govt. BWA Spectrum is essential for rolling out WiMAX services enabling hand held devices and laptops to access Intranet. It will allow firms to offer high speed Net, Web telephony & TV Services. The govt fixed Rs.1750 crore as base rate for BWA license. The auction was held for 117 rounds and in 16 days. Rs.12848 crore was the pan India BWA license price which was won by Infotel Broadband services ( in all 22 circles). The Govt auctioned the BWA license for a total of Rs.38,543 crore. Mumbai had the highest bid of Rs.2293 crore followed by Delhi with Rs.2241 crore respectively. • India signed Civil Nuclear agreement with Canada. The agreement was signed by Manmohan Singh and Canada’s PM Stephen Harper. Canada is the 8th nation to enter into such an agreement with India. Canada served nuclear ties with India in 1974 when India conducted its first nuclear test at Pokhran in 1974. India’s nuclear power programme is based on the CANDU ( Canada Deuterium Uranium) reactor. • India become a full fledged member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a 34 member inter governmental body that devises policies at both national & international levels to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. FATF membership will enable Indian authorities to access information on suspect accounts in nations such as Switzerland & UK. India become its 34th member. Current Affairs [May 2010] • Naxalites killed 47 people in a landmine blast between Dantewada and Sukma in Chattisgarh. • Test fire of nuclear capable Agni-II missile was successfully carried out from Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa on 17th May. Agni II has a range of 2000Km. It is 20m long two stage solid propelled ballistic missile. It was developed by Advanced System Laboratories alongwith DRDO & Bharat Dynamics Ltd. • Supreme Court in a recent judgement upheld a rule that allows the adjustment of reserved category candidate SC/ST/OBC against their quota seats even if they manage to qualify an examination for govt services on merit. • National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is the monitoring authority for the Right to Education Act which became effective from April 1, 2010. Current Affairs [April 2010] • Naxals killed about 75 CRPF personal at Chintalnar-Tarmetla village in Dantewada distt ,Chhattisgarh. Government appoint E.N. Rammohan, to probe the incident. • Uninque Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) now known as Aadhaar. It’sChairman is Nandan Nilekani. It will assign 16 digit identification number to all residents in India. • NTRO- National Technical Research Organisation. The organization came to limelight after allegation of phone tapping of politicians. • Indian navy commissioned India’s first indigenously built stealth warship ‘ INS Shivalik’. The other stealth warship to be built are named as ‘INS Sahyadri’ and INS Satpura’. • Right To Education Act is notified and will become a legally enforceable from 1 April 2010. Key features of RTE Act are : All children in 6-14 age group must get free and compulsory eduction; No child shall be held back,expelled or required to pass a board examination till Class VIII; There must be 25 % reservation for poor children even in private & minority schools; There must be one teacher for every 30 students; A child rights commission will look into violations of the RTE law. • Govt start Census 2011. It is the 15th Census. It is in two phase. The first phase is called –House listing & Housing Census and the second phase is called decadal headcount which will be held in Feb 2011. The Registrar General of India is C Chandramouli. Current Affairs [March 2010] • Govt launched National Mission for Empowerment of Women aimed at inter- sectoral convergence of all pro- women programmes. • Constitution 108th Amendment Bill 2008 commonly known as women’s reservation bill was passed by Rajya Sabha by 186 in favour 1 against 39 abstained (Current strength of Rajya Sabha is 233). The bill seeks to reserve a third of the seats on the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for 15 years on a rotational basis. It was first introduced in 1996. Sharad Joshi, an independent MP is the only MP which cast vote against the bill. In the present Lok Sabha, there are 59 women MPs out of 543 MPs. Total MLAs in 29 state assemblies in India are 4093. • Yamunanagar (Haryana) and Vishakhapatnam (AP) are choosen for a pilot project on saving household energy by replacing incandescent lamps with CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps). • Earth Hour 2010 has been celebrated on 27 March organized by World Wide Fund for Nature, India. Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru are official Earth Hour Cities among 15 Indian cities. • Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia visit India in March 2010. • Supreme Court allowed religion based 4 % reservations in Govt jobs & educational institutes in Andhra Pradesh. It extended the benefit to 14 OBC in muslims in the state. The matter is further referred to Constitutional bench of Supreme Court. • ’Bold Kurushetra’ a joint armour exercise between India and Singapore was held at Jhansi(UP). • Prohibition of unfair practices in technical, medical educational institutions & universities Bill is passed by Govt. It provided for 3 year imprisonment and a fine of upto Rs 50 lakh for higher education providers guilty of misleading students. • Govt approved Foreign Educational Institution (Regulation of Entry & Operation) Bill 2010. It provides foreign universities to set up campuses in India. • Govt amends Anti Hijacking Act 1982. It now provides for death sentence to the hijackers. • Govt starts the scheme for creation of the National Population Register (NPR) of Indian residents. The project will cover an estimated 1.2 billion people and total cost of the project will be Rs. 3539.24 crore. • India became 1st country in the world to have a ‘manoeuvrable’ supersonic cruise missile, when it successfully test fired 290 km range Brahmos missile. • Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu visit India in March 2010. Current Affairs [February 2010] • Kirit Parikh committee , set up to review petro pricing regime, submit its recommendation. Its major recommendation are to deregulate the prices of petrol & diesel as per market prices, reduce the subsidy on LPG. • India signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with the UK, which became the 8th country to enter into such a pact, since the lifting of atomic trade embargo in 2008. • Govt set up a panel under the Chairmanship of former Justice B N Srikrishna which would consider the demand for splitting Andhra Pradesh. • India and Denmark signed a social security pact which will relieve their workers from double taxation and provide for cooperation in areas of labour market expansion and orderly migration. • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits Saudi Arabia in Feb 2010. He was the first Indian PM in 28 years to visit the gulf country. Saudi Arabia is India’s largest supplier of crude oil ( 23 %) followed by Iran ( 17 %) and Nigeria ( 11 %). India is offering upto 10 % equity to Saudi petroleum firm Saudi Aramco in a refinery being built in Orissa. PM addressed the Shoura council of Saudi Arabia. • Constitution 111th Amendment – Proposes to incorporate a new Part ( Part IX B) in the Constitution so as to provide for legal framework to regulate the functioning of cooperative societies. A new Article ( Article 43 B) is also proposed to be inserted in Part IV of the Constitution (Directive Principles of State Policy) for the States to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning of cooperative societies. • Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2009 commonly known as Nuclear Liability Bill will be introduced by Govt in Parliament in Winter session 2010. The draft bill aims at limiting the liability of a nuclear plant operator to Rs. 300 crore in the eventuality of an accident. The bill provides for the penalty to be paid by the operator and not the supplier companies which would mainly be American in this case. India has entered into civil nuclear cooperation agreement with eight countries so far. Current Affairs [January 2010] • Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visit India in Jan 2010. She belongs to Awami League Party. The two countries signed five agreements – on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, on transfer of sentenced persons and on combating international terrorism, organized crime & illicit drug trafficking besides MOU on cooperation in the power sector and on cultural exchanges. India give Bangladesh a $ 1 billion line of credit, the biggest it has given to any country so far. • South Korea President Lee Myung Bak visit India in Jan 2010. The two countries decided to double the bilateral trade to $ 30 billion by 2014. Four facts were signed between two countries – cooperation in peaceful use of outer space, IT, science & technology for the year 2010-12 and transfer of sentenced persons. South Korean President was also the chief guest at 2010 Republic Day Parade. • Gujarat Local Authorities Law (amendment) Bill 2009- The Bill makes it the duty of a qualified voter to vote during elections to local bodies. Voting is compulsory, but the Bill allows voters to cast their vote in favour of none of the candidates. Election officers will declare those who fail to vote defaulter, and serve them a notice. • India and China has decided to start joint military exercise from 2011. • Najib Razak, Malaysia Prime Minister visit India in Jan 2010. • Govt launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Key highlights of the mission are : ○ To create an enabling policy framework for the deployment of 20,000 MW of solar power by 2020. ○ To create favourable conditions for solar manufacturing capability for indigenous production and market leadership. ○ To promote programmes for off grid applications, reaching 1000 MW by 2017 and 2000 MW by 2022. ○ To achieve 15 million sq. meters solar thermal collector area by 2017 and 20 million by 2022. ○ To deploy 20 million solar lighting systems for rural areas by 2022. • New Governors appointed : a) M K Narayanan – West Bengal, b)Shivraj Patil – Punjab, c) Mohsina Kidwai – Jharkhand, d) Shekhar Dutt – Chhattisgarh, e) E S L Narasimhan – Andhra Pradesh. • Govt plans to create a National Gas Highway Development Authority. The present Gas Pipeline Density in India is 3.29 Km per 1000 Sq.Km. • Govt plans to set up a National Green Tribunal to control Carbon Emissions and pollution. It will be responsible for implementing the low carbon roadmap to be set forth in the 12th Five Year Plan.

Sachin Tendulkar scores fifty centuries in test cricket(19th Dec 2010) Sachin Tendulkar scored his fiftieth test century in the second innings of the first test against South Africa at the Centurion. The master blasted scored his century in196 balls with 12 fours and one six. Even thought India lost the first test Sachin’s century helped about bringing some respectability to the proceedings. Incidentally he has also been named the ICC player of the year. Indian cricket teams wins its second test at Durban.(16th Dec 2010) The Indian team had a poor game at the centurion where they were bundled out by an innings and twenty five runs by their South African counterparts. The second test they came back with a much more inspired performance with both bat and bowl leading to their first ever win in Durban which had always troubled them in the past. India had scored 205 and 228 in their two innings while the South Africans could score only 131 and 215 respectively.The star of the match was V.VS Laxman whose 96 helped India seal victory. Saina Nehwal wins Honk Kong Open Super Series.(12th Dec 2010) Indias star sportswoman Saina Nehwal rallied around from a one game deficit to win 15-21, 21-16, 21-17 over Wang Shixian of China. Saina finished of her year on a wonderful note and has an unmatched record compared to any Indian player with regard to winning the super series title. Current Affairs Chelsea lose third match out of fourth (16th Nov 2010) Birmingham City defeated Chelsea by a score of 1-0 at Birmingham City making this the third defeat to be suffered by Chelsea in the four matches that it has played so far. This win helped Manchester United to move up in the English Premier League rankings. Birmingham gained three points in the rankings thanks to the one and only winning goal scored by its player Lee Bowyer. Newcastle lost 5-1 to Bolton while West Ham lost 3-0 to Liverpool alongside Blackpool and Stoke who claimed their respective victories. In their game against Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea let slip past their initial lead of 2-0, to finally lose the game at a score of 3-2. The game was at a score of 2-0 till half time with Chelsea winning but a combination of lack of concentration in players and simple bad luck cost Chelsea the match. Cricket in 2014 Asian Games (15th Nov 2010) Rumors recently originated that cricket had been removed from the list of proposed sports and events of the 2014 Asian games. The reason for these rumors has been said to be the decision of the Olympic Committee of Asia to limit the number of sporting events in the Asian games to a maximum of 35. However, these fears proved out to be false as the OCA recently confirmed the inclusion of cricket in the list of sporting events for the Asian games 2014. For the time being cricket and karate have been confirmed as two out of the seven non Olympic events in these games while the other five are still to be decided. However, South Korean organizers are said to not be in support of this decision. Nadal and Clijsters (Nov 2010) Rafael Nadal continues to hold the top spot in the ATP rankings with his score being close to 11900 points while Roger Federer holds the spot of number two. On the other hand Kim Clijsters fell to the third position in the WTA rankings released recently followed by Serena Williams on the fourth position. Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Nov 2010) Following his win in the Korean Grand Prix, third position in Brazil and third position in the qualifiers of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari looked like the possible winner. However the title slipped out of his hands, much to his surprise and landed into the hands of Vettel making him the youngest Formula One champion in the history of F1 racing aged just 23 years. Current Affairs

A century of Medals in CWG 2010: (15th Oct 2010) Thanks to the final in the woman badminton category that India was able to taste the sweet gland of a century tally of medals for the very first time in any CWG edition. India had tallied 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze medals which cumulatively read 101 medals. Even though India were shattered to an 8-0 defeat by the Aussies the woman shutters’ heroics steered them to a total of medals that read 101. India finished ahead of England (142) and behind Australia (177). The culminating day (Oct 14th) saw the quest of an unimaginable 2nd place finish thanks to Jwala and Ashwini. They defeated Singapore’s Sari Shanti Mulia and Yao Lei with some ease and become the lone pair so far to win gold in women badminton (doubles). But the cherry on the cake was put by Indian badminton pioneer – Saina Nehwal. The hosts scalped addition one inclusive of a bronze medal when our table tennis masters Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das won in the doubles for women bronze medal final round alongside the Australian pair. Tan Zed Vivian and Peri Campbell-Innes. But the finals for the hockey men were a match to forget as they were thumped by the Kangaroos scoring 8 past their goal. Going into this match with some resilient attitude as shown in the semis, the Aussies brought them to ground by outplaying them with power play. Master Blaster’s the Best; ICC admits: Sachin Tendulkar (quite unsurprisingly) was shortlisted for the most decorated cricketing accolade in contempt period, an award given to the greatest cricketer for the year that is named after Sir Garfield Sobers. The Master Blaster turned out to be the second Indian to win the accolade following the success of Rahul Dravid in the same award six years before. Afterwards accumulating 1,000 runs in Test match cricket this calendar year more to the point becoming the aboriginal cricketer to score a double century in LOI cricket playing against South Africa on Feb 24th 2010 in Gwalior, Sachin completed a double of awards at the even by also winning the famous – LG People’s Choice Award. The Men in Blue had a lot extra to applaud about as their striking opener, Virender Sehwag, with 1,282 runs in the game’s longer adaptation, was chosen as the Test Cricketer of the Year and M.S. Dhoni was selected as the captain of a World Test XI. In the previous, Sehwag’s Delhi team mate as well as opening partner, Gautam Gambhir was given this privilege. Decorated Indian off-spinner, B.S. Bedi was introduced into the Hall of Fame (for ICC) forth along with the legendary West Indies’ fast bowlers Garner and Walsh and Rachael Heyhoe Flint (ex-England women cricketer) The LOI (also known as ODI) Player of the Year was bagged by the South African cricketer A.B. de Villiers.

Kangaroos see BLUE in India: In a highly anticipated and evenly fought cricket competition between two giants of the beautiful game of cricket between India and Australia, the former proved to be good for the Aussies. The Australian team over a period of time has seen its main workforce in Gilchrist, Hayden, McGrath and others retiring had to rely majorly on the young breed of players lacking experience of play in the Indian subcontinent. India had slipped its rank down a bit from No. 1 and was in a quest to get it back. That’s what actually transpired. Thanks to the great heroics of Sachin along with the rest of his teammates India were not only able to beat the Aussies but finish it as a clean sweep which the team Down Under hadn’t experienced for quite some time. Sachin’s double ton was the highlight of the series and imperative in order to retain the coveted Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Apart from the Test Series, India also won the ODI series without losing single game (1-0). Two of the three matches were abandoned due to bad weather conditions while the sole game played, India convincingly beat the Australians thanks to a solid partnership between Suresh Raina and Mohit Tiwary. The partnership between the two batsmen helped India to chase down a total just under 300.

Current Affairs [September 2010]

• Kalmadi and Co. pocket Common man’s Wealth: The contempt letters of forgery and fraud in Commonwealth Games resulted in an abnormally affliction of our nation’s picture. The bulk of finances used up on modernizing the venues for Commonwealth Games accommodate a prima facie affirmation of ample calibration enticement in the alignment of Commonwealth Games. The abstracts accessible on the Commonwealth Games website reveals that the amount of refurbishing the JNU stadium was USD 215 million; the IGI Stadium USD 150 million; the Hockey stadium (named after Dhyan Chand) USD 60 million; and the Shooting Alleys USD 35 million. An absolute sum of USD 10150 million was spent on renovations. The costs incurred in the advance of the lone cricket stadium in Delhi were USD 20 million. For the LBS stadium in Hyderabad was USD 18 million, and architecture of a contemporary and technology studded stadium in the city of oranges amounted USD 19 million. It is acute that the Central Government anon adjustment a top akin analysis into this arrangement and the dealings embarked on. It is abominable that such all-embracing abusage of communal resources has taken abode in the name of the Commonwealth Games. The accusations of inducement ambit from favoritism in accolade of affairs to big-ticket appoint of accessories for training and abrupt accretion in the costs of architecture treaties. • Bridge Collapses; Casualties cross double figures: Reportedly not less than 27 people were afflicted afterwards an under- construction foot over bridge burst within the close proximity of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the capital area of the Commonwealth Games, bidding the Organizing Committee (OC) to awning up by giving a statement or in other words a false sense of complacency and assurance that everything is being taken care of. The arch was to hotlink the amphitheater to parking for delegates and athletes. The Urban Development Minister, Jaipal Reddy has dismissed the pressures by quoting it is a negligible incident. The Public Works Department (PWD) has urged for an acoount of the structure from the builders. Later the aforementioned day, Organizing Committee Secretary General Lalit Bhanot addressed reporters: "We will put up a great show. He said the venues will be all set in the days to come and there would be added sprucing to accommodate top notch standards. However, the mishap is a concern to the CWG organizers, who are already nabbed amidst accuse of laziness and fraud for the XIX Edition. Previously, Mike Hooper, the main controller of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), remarked on the condition of hygiene at the Games Village as “dirty.” • Chennai are the Super Kings of Twenty20 Cricket: The Mahendra Singh Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings are the champions of the second edition of the AirTel Champions League Twenty20 hosted by South Africa from September 10th to September 26th. Chennai Super Kings defeated their fellow finalists in some fashion by 8 wickets in the final of the Champions League T20 2010.Warriors had won the toss earlier and decided to bat first but bootless to account an appropriate target, but only capable to set a minimal total of mere 128 runs for 7 wickets. Only Davy Jacobs’s denticulate 34 runs were the notable contribution and was also the best from the entire batting lineup of the Warriors. Muttiah Muralidaran was the most booming bowler scalping 3 wickets for only 16 runs. Ashwin got a couple of wickets for 16 runs as well. Chennai Super Kings started off in some style by baking batting by Murali Vijay who denticulate a 58 run total. Michael Hussey fabricated 42 handy runs to the total. The Opening brace fabricated 103 runs which fabricated their way of triumph easier than it ever seemed. With this Murali Vijay became the highest run getter of the second edition of the Champions League Twenty20. He was facilitated with the Man of the Match Award. With such great triumph on the world stage, the Indian and CSK captain has silenced his critics and is still in contention to be the best ever captain in the world today. Current Affairs [August 2010] • Sehwag denied century A deliberate no ball by the Srilankan off-spinner Suraj Randiv to prevent Virendar Sehwag from completing his century in the tri-series has left a bad taste in the mouth for all cricket lovers. Indians were just short of 5 runs from destination called victory and the opening batsman VEERU was just a run away from his ton. At the same time Lankan skipper chose spinner S. Randiv to come in and bowl. On the third bowl of his spell Virender Sehwag sent the bowl out of the fence with a huge six but the turning point was that it was a no ball which defended Virender Sehwag from completing his century. As per the declaration of the match referee it was been found out that it was an intentional attempt. • Shooting Gold Tejaswini Sawant created history by becoming India’s first female shooter to clinch gold at the World Shooting Championship held in Munich, Germany. The 29-year-old, who shot a score of 597/600 (100, 100, 100, 99, 99, 99), equaling the world record in the process, won the 50m rifle prone event • Sri Lanka wins the tri series The host Sri Lanka’ eight wicket victory over India in Dambulla represents its 25th win in a tournament final. Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara'who won the toss decided to bat against India in the tri-series final. The Sri Lankans won the match by 74 runs in this game. With this it became the second team to win a tournament final on 25 occasions. Australia has won 52 tournament finals. • First Indian US PGA Tour winner Arjun Atwal has become the first Indian Golfer to win the US PGA tour. Atwal, who started playing at the age of fourteen, became one of the leading players on the Asian Tour and the European tour. He is the the first native East Indian golfer to become a member of, and later win the U.S. PGA Tour. Current Affairs [July 2010] • Saina Nehwal: A smash hit The Indian Open Grand Prix Gold, the Singapore Open Super Series and then the Indonesian Open Super Series at Jakarta have given enough reasons to Saina to celebrate. The World No.3 defeated a fighting Sayaka Sato of Japan 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 in the badminton finals. Just two notches away from the badminton World No. 1, Saina is now indisputably India's top female athlete. • Khel awards Saina Nehwal to be conferred the country’s top sporting honour-the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. While Jhulan Goswami skipper of womens cricket team, boxer Dinesh Kumar and Sandeep Singh are tipped to receive the Arjuna Awards in recognition of their outstanding achievements during the last one year, Footballer Sunil Chhetri and Deepak Mondal have also been nominated for the award that will be given away in Rashtrapati Bhawan on 29th Aug by President Pratibha Patil. • World cup for Spain In a historic football victory Spain lifted their first-ever World Cup after defeating Netherlands 1-0 in Johannesburg. Andres Iniesta secured the only goal of an enthralling final against the Netherlands four minutes from the end of extra-time on Sunday leading his team to victory. Current Affairs [June 2010] • French Open 2010 : ○ Men’s singles – Rafael Nadal defeated Robin Soderling. He is the second person after Bjorn Borg to win 5th French Open titles. ○ Women’s singles- Francesca Schiavone (Italy) defeated Samantha Stosur (Australia). She became first Italian women to won the French open. ○ Men’s Doubles- Daniel Nestor & Nenad Zimonjic defeated Lukas Dlouhy & Leander Paes. ○ Women’s Doubles- Serena Williams & Venus Williams defeated Kveta Peschke & Katarina Srebotnik. ○ Mixed Doubles – Katarina Srebotnik & Nenad Zimonjic defeated Yavoslava Shvedova & Julian Knowle. • Saina Nehwal defeated Choo Wong Mew to win women’s single title in Yonex-Sunrise Indian Open badminton championship. In the Men’s singles Yunus Alamsyah won the title. • Saina Nehwal defeated Japan’s Sayaka Sato to win women’s singles title in Indonesian Open Super Series 2010. • Indian Ronjan Sodhi won the double trap gold medal at ISSF World Cup in Lonato, Italy. • India defeated Sri Lanka to won Asia Cup(Cricket) 2010. India won the title after 15 years i.e. it won the cup in 1995. • Saina Nehwal won the Women’s singles title in Singapore Super Series badminton championship 2010 defeating China’s Tzu Ying Tai. It was her 2nd consecutive title. • 3000th ODI( One day international) cricket match was played between England & Australia. Current Affairs [May 2010] • England won 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating Australia. The tournament was held at West Indies. Kevin Pieterson of England has been declared as Player of the Tournament. • Australia won 2010 Women’s World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating New Zealand. • India and South Korea were declared joint winner of 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup, after suspension of the final match due to heavy rains.India’s Sardar Singh has been declared as Best Player of the Tournament. Australia won the Bronze medal. The tournament was held at Ipoh (Malaysia). India had won the tournament earlier in 1985, 1991, 1995 & 2009. • China won Thomas Cup ( Men’s Badminton) defeating Indonesia. • In the World Youth Boxing Championship, held at Baku, Azerbaijan, India won 1 Gold& 1 Silver. Gold medal was won by Vikas Krishan and Silver medal was won by Shiva Thapa. • India won bronze medal in the 2nd Asian Paragliding Championship held at Nishiewa, Japan. • World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand retained his title after defeating Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the World Chess Championship 2010. Current Affairs [April 2010] • IPL3 season won by Chennai Super Kings defeating Mumbai Indians. • Youth Olympics Games 2010 to be held in Singapore in Aug 2010. • World Youth Championship was held at Baku, Azerbaijan. • Lawn tennis legend Martina Navratilova diagnosed with Breast Cancer. • ‘Jumbo’ chosen as 2011 World Cricket Cup Mascot. • World Kabbadi Cup 2010- India defeated Pakistan to won World Cup Kabbadi 2010 held at Ludhiana. • Pankaj Advani won the Asian Billiards Championship defeating Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist for the consecutive third time. • Badminton Asia Championship, Delhi : ○ Men’s singles – Lin Dan defeated Wang Zhenguing ○ Women’s singles-Li Xiurei defeated Liu Xin. Current Affairs [March 2010] • Tamil Nadu defeated West Bengal to won Vijay Harare Cricket Trophy. • Australia won World Hockey Cup 2010 defeating Germany. India ranked at 8th place. • India won six gold medal in the Commonwealth Boxing Championship held at Delhi. • Two new IPL teams, Kochi was auctioned for Rs 1533 crore and Pune was auctioned for Rs 1702 crore. Kochi was auctioned to Rendezvous Adventure Sports Ltd. Pune was auctioned to Sahara Adventure Sports Ltd. Current Affairs [February 2010] • Sachin Tendulkar became first player in the world to score a double century in ODI (One day International). He scored 200 (Not out) against South Africa. • 11th South Asian Games 2010 : Held at Dhaka, Bangladesh from 29 Jan to 8 Feb. Originally scheduled to take place in 2009, but due to general elections in Bangladesh, the games were held in 2010. This was the third time that the Dhaka hosted the Games, thus becoming the first city to hold the games three times. 8 countries participated in the games in 23 different sports, including T20 cricket, which was introduced for the first time in SAG. The 8 countries included are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan& Sri Lanka. 1The logo of the games was ‘Kutumb’, a flying doel , which is the national bird of Bangladesh. The mascot of the games featured a magpie robin, which was holding the torch to begin the games. The final medal tally include : India - 1st place with 90 G 55 S 29 B Total 174, Pakistan- 2nd place with 19 G 25 S 36 B Total 80, Bangladesh- 3rd place with 18 G 23 S 56 B Total 97. • West Zone won Duleep Trophy ( 2009-10) defeating South Zone. • India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar won the Asian Tour International Trophy 2010. It is his 2nd consecutive title. • Euro 2012 to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. • 2010 Winter Olympic Games were held at Vancouver, Canada. Mascot of the game was MIGA (a sea bear), QUATCHI( a sasquatch) and SUMI (animal guardian spirit). The logo of the games was Ilnaaq meaning Friend in Inuktut. There were 86 events in 7 sports. The games were held from 12 Feb to 28 Feb. Final medal tally. Canada- 14 G 7 S 5 B, Germany- 10 G 13 S 7 B, USA- 9 G 15 S 13 B. • IOC (International Olympic Committee ) has approved ICC (International Cricket Council) bid to join the Olympic games 2020. The first time cricket was included in the Olympic games was in Paris Olympic 1900. • 11th World Hockey Cup 2010- To be held in Delhi, India. This is 2nd WHC which India is hosting. India also hosted the WHC in 1982 at Mumbai. 12 countries participated in the tournament. WHC is held in the years between two summer Olympics. First WHC was held at Barcelona in 1971. Pakistan has won the cup four times, Netherland three times, Germany two times, India & Australia once each. India won the WHC in 1975. • Commonwealth Shooting Championship was held in New Delhi in Feb 2010. India stood at first place with 35 Gold 25 Silver and 14 Bronze. England stood at 2nd place with 4 gold and Wales stood at 3rd place. Current Affairs [January 2010] • U-19 World Cup 2010 held in New Zealand from 15 – 30 Jan 2010. Javagal Srinath from India appointed as one of the match referee for the tournament. • Australia won the U-19 World Cup for the third time defeating Pakistan. India is placed at 6th rank. Australia won the cup for the third time. • Rafael Nadal won the Capitala World Tennis Championsip, held at Abu Dhabi defeating Robin Soderling. • Magnus Carlsen becomes the youngest World No.1 chess player at the age of 19 years breaking the Garry Kasparov’s record when he became the world’s top ranked chess player at the age of 22 years in 1985. Magnus Carlsen is the 5th player after Kasparov, Kramnik, Topalov and V.Anand (India) to cross the 2800 ELO rating. In the Jan 2010 FIDE ranking, Carlsen stood at 1st place, Topalov at 2nd place and V Anand at 3rd place. • Marin Cilic defeated Staniglas Wawrinka to won Men’s singles title of Aircel Chennai Open. • Pakistan’s cricketer Shahid Afridi was banned for two T20 internationals after he was found guilty of ball tempering in a ODI against Australia. • Corus Chess Grandmaster Tournament won by Magnus Carlsen. V.Anand of India ranked at 4th place. Hopman Cup 2010- Spain defeated Great Britain. • Australian Open 2010 : Women’s Single- Serena William defeated Justin Henin. It is Serena’s 5th Australian Open title. It is also Serena’s 12th Grand Slam title equaling the record of Billie Jean King. • Men’s Single- Roger Federer(Swiss) defeated Andy Murray(Britain). It is Federer’s 4th Australian Open title. It is Federer’s 16th Grand Slam title. • Men’s Double- Mike Bryan & Bob Bryan defeated Daniel Nestor & Nenad Zimonjic. • Women’s Double – Serena Williams & Venus Williams defeated Cara Black & L Huber. • Mixed Double – Laender Paes (India) & Cara Black (Zimbabwe) defeated Ekterina Makasova & Jaroslav Levinsky. It is Paes’s 11th Grand Slam title.

General Studies Notes on 2009

International Affairs 2009 Fiji’s president Ratu Josefa Iloilo repealed the country’s constitution and appointed himself head of the State and set a 2014 election deadline. Switzerland expanded its border upto 150 meters into Italian territory because of melting glaciers in the high Alps. Venezuela’s Stefania Fernandez become Miss Universe 2009. This is the 2nd consecutive year Miss Venezuela has won the title. Venezuela has so far won the title for the record six times. Miss Ada de la Cruz (Dominican Republic) is 1st runner up. Miss Marigona Dragusha is the 2nd runner up. Miss Universe 2009 contest was held in Bahamas. Patent Cooperation Treaty(PCT) is an agreement that binds 141 countries in a pact that facilitates the process of seeking protection for an invention in multiple countries. The PCT which is administered by WIPO ( World Intellectual Property Organization) is particularly valuable option for any company operating internationally. It is a procedural treaty first launched in 1978. Recently PCT is in news because it is under modification/ reformation which India is opposing. Pakistan govt clears construction of the $ 8.5 billion Diamer-Bhasha power project of 4500 MW capacity on the Indus river in the Gilgit region in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Under the Indus water treaty signed with India, Pakistan is free to build dams anywhere on the Indus river. The treaty gives India first right over the waters of the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas rivers and Pakistan the same privileges over the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum rivers. 70th anniversary of the beginning of World War II ( 1 Sep 1939) celebrated on 1 Sep. OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) parliamentary assembly recently grouped Germany and Soviet Union, pronouncing them to be equally responsible for World War II. Yukio Hatoyama is appointed as next Prime Minister of Japan. He is nicknamed ‘the alien’. For the first time since last 54 years, LDP(Liberal democratic party) ousted from forming Govt in Japan. Hatoyama belongs to Democratic Party. USA Commission on International Religious Freedom placed India on its ‘watch list’ for 2009 because it found the Indian govt had failed to take effective measures to ensure the rights of religious minorities. The summit of Dushanbe Four was held in 2009. It includes Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The official objective to the summit was to discuss supply of electricity from Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nepal Vice President Parmananda Jha who took oath in Hindi last year, has been asked by the Nepal Supreme Court to retake the oath in Nepali language or resign from the post. Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth after it failed to meet a deadline to make progress towards establishing democracy. India’s Reena Kaushal Dharamshaktu will be part of an eight member team that will ski to the South Pole to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Commonwealth. The expedition is headed by Felicity Aston and to be flagged off in Nov 2009. China intrudes Ladakh region on 31 July 2009. Sri Lanka expels James Elder, Communication chief with UNICEF(United Nations Children’s Fund). Farah Pandith an Indian American, has been sworn in as the first US Special Representative to muslim communities in USA. As per report of UN World Food Programme (WFP), the number of hungry people will pass one billion this year for the first time. In the Food Security Risk Index 2009, India ranked at 25th place. The US is least at risk followed by France, Canada. The index rank the nations on the basis of risk of food shortage faced by the countries. Communal violence erupted in China’s North West Xinjiang province capital ‘ Urumgi’ in July 09. START ( Strategic arms reduction treaty) between USA & Russia started on 31 July 1991 came to end on 5 Dec 2009. Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) met at Yekaterinburg on June 2009. The SCO comprises of Russia, China, Kazakhtan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgzstan. India, Pakistan, Mongolia and Iran have observer status. Afghanistan’s president attended the summit as a special guest. Sri Lanka had been granted the status of dialogue partner. Google was shut down in China. The first ever summit of BRIC countries was held at Yekaterinburg in Russia in June 09. BRIC countries include Brazil, Russia, India and China. India signed a $ 400 million agreement with Ukraine to upgrade its fleet of transport aircraft AN-32 aimed at extending its life and improving avionics. Tipaimukh dam project issue between India and Bangladesh. Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Network (TAR) entered into force on June 11, 2009 after China ratified the treaty. The other parties to the agreement are Combodia, India, Mongolia, Korea, Russia, Tajikistan and Thailand. Abu Dhabi, capital of UAE was elected as headquarter of the International Renewal Energy Agency (IRENA), a grouping of 129 countries. Mini Pravasi Indian Day was held at Hague (Netherland) in Sep 2009. France President has recently remarked that ‘ the burqa is a sign of female subservience’. Lord Swaraj Paul became the first India born Briton to be appointed a Privy Councillor in Britain. Milan has been named as the world’s top fashion city. Mumbai is placed at 16th place and Delhi at 17th place. Japan’s finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa resigned after he was accused to attending the G 7 summit in Rome in drinking condition. China became world’s largest green house gas emitter in 2007. USA at 2nd position. Russia at 3rd position. India at 4th position with one tone of Carbon Dioxide per person per year emission. Nuclear armed submarines from Britain and France collided in the Atlantic Ocean. USA govt approved $ 787 billion economic stimulus package initiated by Barack Obama. Venezuala’a President Hugo Chavez won a referendum vote that lets him stay in power as long as he keeps winning elections. From 1 April 2009 NATO membership was enlarged to 28 with the entrance of Albania and Croatia. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) also called the North Atlantic Alliance is a military alliance established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. 16th SAARC Summit was held in Maldives in 2009. EUMA ( End User Monitoring Agreement)- India has signed EUMA with USA which allows US inspectors to verify the end use of US sourced high technology equipment to dual use. EUMA is designed to facilitate high end dual use technology transfer to India. World’s first commercial passenger flight powered by natural Gas operated between London and Qatar in Oct 09. Shell company developed and produced the 50-50 blend of synthetic Gas to Liquid (GTL) kerosene and conventional oil based kerosene fuel. Qatar will become the world’s leading producer of GTL kerosene by 2012. Turkey and Armenia signed a landmark accord to restore ties and open their shared border after a century of hostility stemming from World War I. ‘Operation Rah E Nijat or Path to Salvation’- It is the name of operation conducted by Pakistan army against strongholds of Tehreek-e- Taliban (also called Pakistan Taliban) soldiers. USA has declared national emergency in view of increasing number of death due to Swine flu. Bangladesh decided to advance its time an hour to GMT + 7. Every 15 degree means an hour. France have 12 time zones, Russia have 11 times zones, USA has nine time zones. India has one time zone based on its 82*30’ East near Allahabad. India and Canada signed a civil nuclear cooperation deal . Canada became the 8th country with which India has reached a civil nuclear agreement. Commonwealth has admitted Rwanda, central African country, as its 54th member. Nepal cabinet meet at Kala Patthar, situated at 17,192 ft above sea level in Nov 09 and the base camp of Mount Everest. It adopted Mt Everest declaration which allow setting up of Gauri Shankar Conservation Area near Mt Everest. COP15, the official term for the Copenhagen meeting, the 15th conference of parties to negotiate a new global climate treaty to replace or extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 in Dec 2009. Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark. India and Russia sign civil nuclear agreement in Dec 2009.

National Affairs 2009 Union govt cleared a constitutional amendment to increase the reservation for woman in Panchayat to 50 % from present 33 %. The Panchayati Raj Ministry amend Art 243 D of the Constitution of India accordingly. The proposed amendment will increase reservations for woman to 50 % in Zila Parishads, Panchayat Samitis and Gram Panchayats at District, Block and Village level respectively. India has about 28.18 lakh elected representatives in panchayats. Four states- Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh already have 50 % reservation for woman in Panchayat. Kerala also announced 50 % reservation for woman in Panchayat. Bihar was the first state to give 50 % reservations to woman in Panchayat in 2005. Govt clear setting up of National Mission Against Corruption Authority (NMAC). The aim of the authority will be to ensure better coordination among the CBI and State/UT anti corruption vigilance bureaus. Govt has declared 272 districts out of 616 districts as drought stricken in 2009 due to rainfall shortage. Draft of National Food Security Act to be presented in parliament in winter session (Jan 2010). As per the proposed Act, every family living below the poverty line in rural and urban areas will be entitled for 25 Kg of rice or wheat per month at Rs. 3 per Kg. Govt plans to built 321 feet Shivaji statue in Mumbai. It is 16 feet taller that New York’s Statue of Liberty and on completion, it became the tallest statue in the world. Jaswant Singh book’ Jinnah-India partition Independence was banned in Gujarat state. The ban however ,was lifted after the High court judgment. The book is a biography of Jinnah. Jaswant Singh also earlier write ‘ A Call to Honour’. State Assembly Election was held in Oct 2009 in three states namely Haryana (seats -90), Maharashtra (seats -288) and Arunachal Pradesh (seats -60). Govt has decided that NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) will now provide employment for 200 days instead of 100 days. Parliament adopted the Constitution 109th amendment Bill 09 providing reservation of seats for SC & ST in the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies of the states for another 10 years. Namibia president Hifikepunye Pohambe visit India in Sep 209. Russia provides nuclear submarine’ Nerpa’ to India in 2009. It is Akula-2 submarine series. Women’s will be exempted from paying any fees for UPSC/SSC etc examination. SAF university to be set up in Delhi. It will be started from 2010-11 academic session. India bear 79 % of its expenditure. In the seven natural Wonders list, India’s only entry is that of Sunderban. It is a joint entry from India and Bangladesh. Vision-2015 For Consumer Satisfaction and Beyond – The paper is published by Oil & Petroleum ministry in which it is proposed to provide CNG in 200 cities by 2015. Mongolia president Tsakhiagiin Elbagdorj visited India in Sep 2009. India and Mongolia signed a Civil Nuclear pact. India already has civil nuclear agreement with USA, Russia, Kazakhstan and France. Indian National Congress party will completes 125 years on Dec 2009. Congress was formed on Dec 1885. India’s first non-stop super fast passenger train ‘Duronto Train’ inaugurated from Sealdah station to Delhi. Total of 14 such trains will be launched this year. Yashpal Committee was set up to give recommendation on Higher education sector. Under Kisan Abhiman Scheme. Kerala Govt has granted Rs 300 per month as pension to farmers above 60 years of age. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank appointed as fifth Chief Minister of Uttrakhand. Railway ministry has appointed Amit Mitra to prepare Vision -2020 document for the railways. B Sudershan Reddy appointed as chairman of panel to look into the impeachment proceeding against Justice Soumitra Sen. India is funding Palaly project in Sri Lanka. Areva, French Company and Nuclear power corporation of India Ltd sign an agreement to set up two 1650 MW nuclear plants in Maharastra state. Govt launched ‘Rajiv Awas Yojna’ under which govt plans to formulate for slum dwellers and the urban poor in an effort to promote a slum free India in next five years. Ramalingam Chandrashekeram appointed as head of parliamentary special committee that look into the matter of granting citizenship and other facilities for Sri Lankans in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu. Indian Railway proposed a South Asian Regional Train service linking Dhaka, New Delhi and Lahore. Justice Liberhan Commission which probed the sequence of events that led to the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya on Dec 1992, submitted its report. It has 399 sittings and 48 extensions. Govt increases minimum support price (MSP) for sugarcane to Rs. 107.76 for 2009-10. The MSP for the paddy crop for current year is Rs.950. Rajasthan will host the World Tiger Summit in Ranthambore in 2010. Appointment of new Governors – D N Dwivedi ( Gujarat), Margarat Alwa (Uttarakhand), Jagannath Pahadia (Haryana). Tata’s first Nano car was given to Ashok Vichare of Mumbai. Dilip Donde will try to circumnavigate the world solo ( on his own) in boat ‘Mhadei’ under Project Sagar Parikrama from 19 Aug 2009. Rajasthan became the first state in the country to sign a tripartite agreement with Central Govt promising accountability and adequate utilization of funds in the two tiger reserve of Sariska at Alwar and Ranthambore at Sawai Madho pur in Rajasthan. Jawahar lal Nehru Urban renewal mission (JNNURM) a centrally govt funded urban renewal mission is implemented in 63 cities out of a total of 5161 cities, towns and urban agglomerations in India. Right to Education Bill passed by the Parliament. Parliament made the right to education a fundamental right through the 93rd Constitution amendment. The bill earmarks 25 % seats to weaker sections in schools, seeks to do away with the practice of schools taking capitation fees before admission, subjecting the child or parents to a screening procedure and giving powers to child rights panels to look into grievances of parents against schools. Govt approved renaming of state of Orissa as ‘Odisha’ and the Oriya language as ‘Odia’. Assembly election was held in Jharkhand which is under President Rule since Jan 2009 in Dec 09. Total number of seats are 81. RIC ( Russia, India & China). It is a group of three nations. Second meeting of RIC is held at Bangalore in Oct 09. President Pratibha Patil visit Britain in Oct 09 to invite Queen Elizabeth to inaugurate 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held next year. This is the first state visit by an Indian President to Britain after S Radakrishnan and R Venkataraman in 1963 & 1990 respectively. Separation plan – India has notified its separation plan to International Atomic Energy Ageny. India will place 14 reactors under ISSA ( India Specific Safeguards Agreement) of the International nuclear watchdog by 2014. Under the plan, India has decided to permanently shut down the CIRUS research reactor located inside BARC, countries strategic laboratory in 2010. Govt has announced five new sites for setting up of light water reactors. The plants will come up at Jaitapur (Maharastra), Kudankulam (Tamil Nadu), Haripur (West Bengal), Chhayamithi Virdi (Gujarat) and Kovvada (Andhra Pradesh). Indian President Pratibha Patil visits Cyprus (Capital- Nicosia) in Nov 2009. Govt started ‘Operation Green Hunt’ to tackle the Maoists in five Indian states. Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangehuck visit India on a 5 day visit in Dec 09. He is the 5th king of Bhutan. NATGRID- National Intelligence Grid to be established by May 2011. The grid will provide real time access into 21 categories of databases such as credit card transaction, driving license, telephone, internet, passport, PAN details, bank A/c details etc. Impeachement motion has been initiated against Justice P D Dinakaran in the parliament on charges of amassing disproportionate assets and land grab.

Sports Affairs 2009 Shooting champion of India, Samresh Jung is known as ‘Gold finger’. Heinrich Haussler won Tour de France 2009 tournament. Ranji Trophy celebrated Platinum Jubilee after completing 75 years in 2009. Ranji trophy will also be started in Ireland. 38th Ranji Trophy was won by Mumbai defeating UP in Jan 2009. Pullela Gopichand (Badminton champion) is the only person to have been awarded with Arjuna award, Dronacharya award and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. Binish K Shahji of India won silver medal in World School Athletics in Estonia held in June 2009. Wimbledon 2009 • Men’s Single – Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick. Federer break the record of Pete Sampras record of 14 grand slams. • Women’s Single – Serena William defeated Venus William. She claimed third Wimbledon title. • Women’s doubles –Serena and Venus William defeated Rennae Stubbs and Samantha Stosur. • Mixed Doubles- Mark Knowles and Anna Lena Groenefeld defeated Laender Paes(India) and Cara Black. • Men’s Doubles- Danial Nestor & Nened Jimonjic defeated Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan. French Open 2009 • Men’s single – Roger Federer defeated Robin Soderling. • Men’s double – Laender Paes and Lukas Dlouhy defeated Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman. • Women’s single – Svetlana Kuzenletsova defeated Dinara Safina. Australian Open 2009 • Mixed Double - Mahesh Bhupati and Sania Mirza defeated Nathalic Dechy and Andy Ram. Sania Mirza became the first Indian women to won a Grand slam title. • Men’s singles- Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer. He became the first Spaniard to won the title. • Women’s singles- Serena William defeated Dinara Safina. • India’s Yuki Bhambri won Junior Australian Open Single title 2009 defeating A F Georgoudes. US Open 2009 • Women’s singles – Kim Clijsters(Belgium) defeated Caroline Wozniacki. • Men’s singles- Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro defeated Roger Federer. • Men’s Doubles- Laender Paes (India) and Lukas Dlouhy defeated Mahesh Bhupathi & Mark Knowles. This is Paes 10th Grand Slam title. • Women’s Doubles – Venus Williams & Serena Williams defeated Cara Black & Ticzel Huber. • Mixed double – Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrott defeated Cara Black & Laender Paes(India). Science & Technology Affairs 2009 2009 is celebrated as International Year of Astronomy. 2009 is also celebrated as 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with the telescope used by the Italian physicist. 2009 is also celebrated as : Natural Fibre Year by UN, International Gurilla Year by conservationists & environmentalists, International Year of Reconciliation. Longest total solar eclipse of 21st century occurred on 22nd July 2009. It lasted 6 min 44 sec at Taregana in Bihar. GM( Genetically Modified) crops are those in which the genetic material(DNA) is altered so that there is some perceived advantage either to the producer or consumer. Bt Cotton (Bacillius Thuringeinsis) is only commercially approved biotech crop in India. Govt plans to introduce GM foods particularly Tomatoes, Brinjals and Cauliflower to held meet food production target in three years time. Till date, India has only allowed the use of GM Cotton, a non food crop. India is world’s second largest cotton producer. India’s own Bt cotton variety : Bikaner Narma. Deep Space Network Facility is located at Byalalu, Karnataka. Chandrayan II a lander rover mission of ISRO is scheduled to be launched in 2012. ISRO plans to hoist a capsule with two Indians on board to the Moon by 2015. Subsquently, an Indian will be launched to set foot on the Moon in 2020. ‘Aditya’ satellite will be sent by India to carry out studies on the Sun in 2012. SOHO stands for Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. Probe Plus of NASA to study Sun System will be launched in 2018. India’s first nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine’Arihant’ was launced on 26 July 2009. It will be commissioned by 2011. It was built with the help of Russian consultants. With the launch, India join elite club of five nations USA, Russia, China, Britain and France having nuclear powered submarine capability. Blue Brain project in Switzerland is under progress under which scientist attempt to ‘Reverse engineer’ the mammalian brain. Novo-G, world’s fastest and most powerful supercomputer became operational. Novo-G got the first part of its name from the Latin term to ‘make anew, change, alter’ and the second word G from ‘Genesis’. World Forestry Day celebrated on 21 March. Theme for 2009 was ‘Sustainable Forest Management’. India currently has 23.39 % of forest area against 33 % required. India presently has 37 Tiger reserves, 99 national parks and 515 wildlife sanctuaries. Earth Hour 2009 is a global event every year which will see landmarks around the world to go dark for an hour. Earth Day celebrated on 22 April. Eight Millenium Development Goals (MDG) were set in Millenium Summit 2000. It has a deadline of 2015. Kerala has already achieve the targets in 2008. India launched a Israel developed spy satellite ‘RISAT 2’ providing all weather 24 hour surveillance. Also launched experimental communication micro satellite’ ANUSAT’ built by Chennai based Anna University. International Space Development Conference was held at Orlando in May 2009. Scientist have discovered 47 million year old primate fossil named ‘Ida’ (Scientific name-Darwinius masillae) which forms a crucial missing link between our evolutionary branch of life and rest of animal kingdom. Per capita consumption of electricity is 630 Units in India in 2009. NDRI Karnal cloned world’s 2nd cloned buffalo ‘Garima’. It also produced world’s 1st cloned buffalo calf in Feb 2009 but it could not survive. El Nino- is a shift in ocean temperatures and atmospheric conditions in the tropical pacific. It is a periodic warming of the Pacific oceans that leads to extremes of weather. La Nino- It follows an El Nino. It is also called the Little Girl. It is anti El-Nino or simply a cold event. It is the cooling of water in the Pacific Ocean. SOI ( Southern Oscillation Index) is a major indicator of El Nino, measures the pressure difference between the Pacific islands of Tahiti and Darwin in Australia. A consistently negative SOI indicates to a developing El Nino. An El Nino is formally declared when above normal temp -0-5 degree celcius or higher are recorded over eastern Pacific surface for three straight months. Definition of poverty as per Planning Commission- Average per capita spending below Rs. 356 per month in rural areas and Rs. 539 per month in urban areas. 38th World Environment Day was celebrated on 5th June 2009. Theme for 2009 chosen by UNDP is ‘Your Planet Needs You’. World Environment Day was established by UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the human environment. 0.8 degree celcius rise in average temperature around the world since 1880. India is the 5th largest emitter of Greenhouse Gases. 2 of the 12 biodiversity hotspots of the world are in India i.e. Northeastern region and Western Ghats. US Space Agency’s Themis Mission – to study the colourful display of high latitude skies. Phoenix Mars Lander found Perchlorate substance on Mars surface. Carbon Credits : It provide a way to reduce green house emissions on industrial scale by capping total annual emissions and allowing the market to assign a monetary value to any shortfall through trading. India has earned 4,64,45,282 carbon credits, second only to China in the world. Per capita carbon dioxide emission for India is 1.02 metric tones, while USA stood at first place with 20.01 metric tones. Super Earth : It is a large extrasolar terrestrial planet, which is atleast twice the mass of earth but less than ten earth masses. European researcher found three super earths recently. Asia’s first and world’s second DNA bank is opened in Lucknow. Pluto, the 9th planet of solar system, was demoted from planet status in 2006 is now called’ Plutoids’. Jason-2, a French- USA satellite was launched in 2009. It will monitor rising sea levels and current movement. ‘Gegeneiphis Seshachari’ first viviparous ( those that do not lay eggs) was discovered in western Ghat. It is the first viviparous creature to be found in Asia. International Lunar Network, is a initiative that provide new insights into the Moon’s surface and its interior composition- critical inputs for the future colonialist. India has signed for the mission to put together a network of robotic science stations on the Moon. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, UK, USA and India have joined hands for six to eight stations of the Lunar Network. USA places first two Lunar Network Landers on the lunar surface in 2013-14. India has also scheduled to launched Chardrayaan-II in collaboration with Russia in 2012- 13. LHC Project : Large Hadron Collidor Project is operated by European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) at Geneva on 10 Sep, 2008, at Franco- Swiss border. In actual CERN stand for Conseil European pour la Recharche Nucleaire, in French language. CERN was founded in 1954. Under this experiment, scientist recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang to understand the creation and workings of the Universe. It is the most expansive scientific experiment to date, it cost $ 3.8 billion or Rs.16,340 crore. . CERN has 20 nations as member. India, Japan, Russia and US are the observer countries. Hadron : A particle with mass made up of smaller units called quarks that are bound together. Protons and Electrons are types of hadron. Higgs Boson : A theoretical particle which is thought to give matter its mass, known as the ‘God Particle’. First proposed by Peter Higgs in 1964. The particle was named after an Indian physicists S.N.Bose. The LHC experiment should confirm whether it exists or not. Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) operates the 17 reactors in six states, to produce 4120 MW of electricity. Brain Fingerprinting : It is an electronic test of a specific kind of brain wave that can identify incriminating information despite an individual’s attempt to conceal the knowledge. It is a type of signal in the brain kwown as P300 wave, so called because it is an involuntary response to a recognized object or piece of information that happens within 300 milliseconds. Carbon Footprint : It is a measure of the impact human activites have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of Carbon Dioxide. Global Positioning System Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) : It is a satellite based process developed jointly by the ISRO and the Airport Authority of India. Govt recently approved the system that will help airlines to choose the best and most fuel saving routes. GAGAN would be in place by 2011 and make flying much safer. Govt set a ten year deadline for the blending of petrol and diesel with 20 % bio- fuel. Govt approved the implementation of National Biofuel Policy that has set an indicative target of blending 20 % ethanol in petrol and non-edible oil from plants like Jatropha in diesel by 2017. At present, 5% ethanol blending in petrol is mandatory across the country except J&K, NE states. India is the world’s second largest producer of sugar after Brazil. Ethanol is produced from molasses, a sugar by product. 10th planet discovered called ‘Xena’ or 2003 UB 313. A new ozone hole discovered over Tibet. Anoushah Ansari is the first woman space tourist in the world. Namira Salim, first Pakistani women astronaut, sent in space by NASA in 2008. Agni 5 missile is in design stage. It has a maximum range of 5000 Km as an ICBM ( Inter Continental Ballistic Missile). Range of Agni I -700 Km, Agni-II- 2500 Km, Agni-III- 3500Km Virgin Mothership ‘Eve’ is designed to reach an altitude of 50000 feet and release space Ship Two, which will transport passengers to space. S-500 – Russia is developing a fifth generation surface to air rocket which is cabable of engaging ballistic hypersonic targets flying at a speed of 5 Km per second. ISRO unveil ‘Bhuvan’, its version of Google Earth. It is a 3 D mapping tool. Google unveiled a new version of its search engine called ‘ Caffeine’. ‘Weblog’ first coined by Jorn Barger in 1997. The contracted name ‘blog’ was coined in 1999 by Peter Merholz. TERI launched campaign ‘Lighting a Billion Lives’ which is based on the use of solar laterns specially designed and manufactured on a decentralized basis. Govt approved National Solar Mission which aimed at Solar generation target of 20,000 MW by 2020. At present solar generation capacity of India is 500 MW. National Solar Mission envisages an investment of Rs.91,684 crore over the next 30 years. It proposes to add 20,000MW of power by 2020 and 1,00,000 MW by 2030. It aims to achieve parity with coal based thermal power generation by 2030. According to latest findings, Malaria was first transmitted to humans by Chimpanzees. H1N1 a new influenza virus caused Swine flu. It is a genetic code consists of 8 segments. The virus gets its name from a combination of two proteins – hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. Swine flu was first detected in 1987. Just like humans, pigs get flu too, hence the name Swine flu. A disease that spreads throughout the world is called Pandemic. Swine flu is termed as pandemic disease. Govt formulate a technology mission – War for Water ( Winning, Augmentation and Renovation for Water). It solve problem of water scarcity. CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) is a global mechanism where green projects can be registered to earn carbon credits for trading in the international market. India has maximum number of CDM projects in the world followed by China. One Carbon Credit is equal to a tone of carbon saved from emission. UN Convention on Climate Change, the global body for certifying clean projects was held at Bonn, in Aug 2009. UMPP (Ultra Mega Power Projects) are large sized coal based power projects having a capacity of 4000 MW involving an estimated investment of about $ 4 billion. Four UMPP has been awarded so far in India. These are Mundra UMPP, Gujarat, Sasan UMPP, Madhya Pradesh, Krishnapatnam UMPP, Andhra Pradesh and Tilaiya UMPP at Jharkhand. Antares DLR-H2 motor glider is the first manned aircraft to be powered exclusively with a hydrogen fuel system. IMD (Indian Meteorological Deparment) official definition of a drought year is when more than 20 % of the country faces a deficit of atleast 25 % of normal rainfall. Wind power generation in India as on March 2009 is 10243 MW. SPASER- It is the world’s smallest laser which amplifies surface plasmons- tiny oscillations in the density of free electrons on the surface of metals which in turn produce light waves. LASER amplifies light using a mirrored cavity to intensify it. IIST- Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology set up at Valiamala, Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala is the only space university in the world offering courses at the undergruate, graduate, doctoral and post doctoral level in space technology. The Amino acid ‘Glycine’ a fundamental building block of proteins has been found for the first time in a comet Wild 2 by the NASA spacecraft ‘Stardust’ sent in 2004. Comet Wild 2 was named after astronomer Paul Wild. ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) launched first Swiss satellite built by students of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne to study the upper atmosphere. ‘Tobacco Atlas’ published by American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation, ranks India at No.3 in the top 20 female smoking population across the globe. First and second place is held by USA and China. Former DRDO (Defence Research & Development Organisation) scientist K Santhanam claimed that 1998 Hydrogen bomb test at Pokhran (Rajasthan) has failed to deliver the desired result. ISRO looses contact with Chandrayan I on 29 Aug 2009. It was launched on 22 Oct 2008 and was designed for a two year mission in space. India has terminated the 400 crore moon mission Chandrayan I on 30 Aug 2009. NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper placed abroad Chandrayan I recorded presence of water molecules on Moon. India’s first national medical research park is being set up in the Sricity SEZ on the Tamil Nadu-AP border. World’s first cloned wolf named ‘Snuwolf’ died in South Korea. Ridge A in the Antarctic plateau is the world’s coldest, driest and calmest place discovered so far. China proposed base in Antarctica is known as ‘Kunlun’ located at Dome A. A new technique called array Comparative Genomic Hybridization(CGH) makes it possible to ensure eggs have a normal number of chromosomes boosting the likelihood of a successful pregnancy. Baby Oliver became the first baby in the world using this egg screening technique in London. China overtake USA in the internet user population. Internet users in 2009 : China - 298 million, USA – 227 million, Japan – 94 million ,India -81 million. International Ozone Day is celebrated on 16 September every year. Theme of 2009 is ‘Universal Participation-Ozone protection unifies the world’. Ozone layer is a deep layer in the stratosphere , encircling the earth that has large amounts of ozone in it. The ozone layer protects all life on land on the surface of the ocean. Ozone molecules absorb the harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun. This protects us from radiation that can cause skin cancer and other severe skin disorders. Scientist discovered first rocky extrasolar planet named ‘Corot-7b’. ISRO launch Oceansat-2 satellite on 23 September 2009, which would help identify fishing zones and help in coastal studies. The 970 Kg spacecraft is launched by C 14 PSLV from Sriharikota. Six other nano satellites from European countries were also launched alongwith it. ‘Copernicium’ is included in the Periodic table as a new chemical element in July 09. It’s name was done after the famous astronomer Nicolus Copernicus. Google is testing a new service ‘ Fast Flip’ that allows users to view news articles from dozens of major publishers and flip through them as quickly as they would the pages of a magazine. Planet Saturn’s 61st satellite discovered. Scientist confirmed for the first time that Australia was once home to a dinosaur, after discovery of ‘Australovenator Wintonensis alias Banjo’. A new class of black hole was discovered by astronomers in 2009. A black hole is a ramnant of the collapsed star with such a powerful gravitational field that it absorbs all the light that passes near it and reflects nothing. Mocrobiologists in Maharastra’s Lonar lake found magnetic bacteria therein formed due to meteorite impact. Present day Carbon dioxide levels in atmosphere have touched the highest mark in the past 2.1 million years. World’s first zero waste city is under construction in Abu Dhabi called Masdar City. It is to be completed by 2016 and will be world’s first carbon neutral, zero waste city completely powered by renewable energy. CMERI has developed a solar electric rickshaw called ‘ Soleckshaw’ which is pollution free. Gyroscopes are used to maintain orientation and provide stability in boats, aircrafts and space crafts. Tsunami is a Japanese word meaning harbour wave. A massive tsunami was unleased by a earthquake in the pacific islands of Samoa on 30 Sep,2009. The capital of Samoa is Apia. Light combat aircraft ‘Tejas’ successfully completes its 1000th flight in Jan 09. Indigenously built ‘Astra’ air to air missile was successfully tested at Chandipur Range, Orissa in May 09. China’s Chang’e-1 mission successfully landed on Moon surface in March 09. It is China’s first moon probe. ‘Princess Elizabeth’ is the name of research station established by Belgium in Antartica in Feb 09. It is the first research station which does not emit any pollutant i.e. it is pollution free station. China successfully conducted Artificial Snowfall. LCROSS – Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. NASA’s LCROSS crashed two spacecrafts into a lunar crater on 9 Oct 2009, hoping to splash ice and find out possibility of water on Moon. IOTWS (Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning & Mitigation System)- It was tested in 18 Indian ocean nations on 14 Oct 2009. ‘2 Pallas’is the name of one of the largest asteroid in the solar system. James Dyson has developed a ‘Dyson Air Multiple Fan’, a desktop cooling device with no blades. Scientists have identified a gene ‘TMPRSS6’ which is responsible for causing anaemia. Neutrinos are elementary particles key to understanding how the universe evolved. Govt proposed to set up Rs.900 crore Neutrino observatory at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve at Masinagudi in Tamil Nadu. Epi -genome are the pattern of chemical switches in 200 types of human cell. A team led by Joseph Ecker produce the first complete map of the human epi- genome. NASA launched Ares 1-X rocket. It is first flight test of NASA’s next generation space craft and launch vehicle system which will replace shuttle system. There are 61 greenhouse gases that are together called Carbon Dioxide equivalent. ICAR scientist discovered a new sub species of the ‘mite’ variety of insect and named it ‘Mangalaus’. International Antartic Treaty Expedition 2009 was made from 15 to 30 Nov 2009. It started from Ushuaia. The expedition was run by Robert Swan Obe ( only man to travel to both North & South Poles). Drake passage is a thin body of water that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Indian scientist at Institute for Genomics & Integrative Biology sequenced the entire genome of human. The human genome contains 3.1 billions base pairs. India is the 8th country in the world to sequence the human genome. Astronomers discovered a planet GJ 1214 b in the constellation called ‘ Ophiuehus’. The planet is almost entirely made of water. ‘Ardi’ which roamed African forests 4.4 million years ago, has been named as the ‘Scientific breakthrough of 2009’. -Rakesh Kumar Gupta Email: [email protected] Current Affairs Quiz - new

Current Affairs>>Article>> The Telangana Issue

The Telangana Issue

Current Affairs Quiz - newTelangana issue has been generating a lot of news for the past couple of years. It’s an issue about which many people have been very passionate and has led to the loss of many lives. Infact the Telangana issue has been around for over many years now. Here is a look at what has happened over the years and why the Telangana issue still stands unsolved as it does today. What is Telagana? Telangana is a region in Andhra Pradesh and was originally a princely state, ruled by the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh today as it stands, can be divided into three regions – Telangana, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. The Telangana region comprises of districts in Western and Central Andhra Pradesh (Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak, Warangal, Khammam, Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Nalgonda, and Mahaboobnagar) It comprises 10 of Andhra Pradesh’s 23 districts. It accounts for 119 seats out of the 294 seats in

Telegana at the time of Independence After Independence, the Nizam of Hyderabad wanted to retain his hold over the state. But the Government of India had other plans and amalgamated his state on 17th September 1948 by force. On a historic note, Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra were part of the Madras Province under the British Empire. However post independence Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra were separated from the Madras State in 1953 and were merged with the Telangana region of Hyderabad in 1956 to form the state of Andhra Pradesh. The remaining parts of the Telangana region were merged with Karnataka and Maharashtra. This was the first state that was carved out on linguistic lines in the country. Demands for a separate Telangana State Demands for carving out a separate Telangana State became more buoyant during 1969. There are quite a few reasons for this:- There were distinct differences between Telangana and Andhra Regions. Andhra that was initially a part of Madras presidency had much better standards of development and education. Telangana on the other hand was more feudal in its approach and much less developed. The Telangana people had reservations also because they feared they would lose out on many jobs with the merger The cultural differences too were apparent. Under the rule of the Nizam the Telangana region bore influences of Northern India. The kind of festivals being celebrated too was different. The 1969 Agitation This was primarily a student protest which erupted in the regions of Telangana with Osmania Univeristy proving to be the hot bed of it all. The protests became massive with huge numbers of people taking part in the agitation. Over 350 people lost their lives in lathi charge and police firing. Former Congress leader Channa Reddy who defected to form his own party the ‘Telangana Praja Samithi’ later diluted the impact of the agitation as he merged with the Congress. Channa Reddy was also the same person responsible for raising slogans like ‘Jai Telangana’. The Prime Minister Indira Gandhi later went on to make him the Chief Minister after which the movement collapsed. After this P.V Narasimha Rao was also made the Chief Minister in 1971. He was also from the Telangana region. The role of K Chandrasekhar Rao K Chandrasekhar Rao was a member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) during the 1990’s. While hoping for a ministerial birth he only got that of a deputy speaker following the 1999 elections. KCR quit TDP in 2001 and set about to form the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) which he announced would fight for the formation of a separate Telangana State. The timing could not have been more perfect for KCR considering the fact the people of Telangana were already feeling looted. There was already a strong feeling gaining ground that the surplus produced by them was being rerouted to the finance body so that it could be used to develop the rest of the state. In the elections of 2004 YS Rajashekara Reddy and KCR decided to join hands after YSR promised him the formation of a separate Telangana State. But later YSR backtracked and sent a report to the Congress against the formation of the Telangana State. TRS withdrew support from the Congress led coalition government on the grounds of alleged indecision by the government over the delivery of its electoral promise to create a separate Telangana state. Soon the Telangana also ended up being a deeply political issue. Parties could often be seen flip flopping on their stand on the Telangana issue. The Congress and TDP are a divided house while Praja Rajyam and CPM are for a united Andhra. On the other hand the BJP and CPi are supporting the formation of s separate Telangana. On November 29, 2009, KCR took a fast until death demanding that the Congress Government introduce the Telangana bill in the parliament. Student’s rallies and people from various organizations took part in the demands and there were massive protests in many regions of Telangana. With KCR’s health fast failing the centre was forced to look into issue and finally gave into his request of a separate state making KCR end his 11 day fast. Srikrishna committee headed by Justice BN Srikrishna was then set up to look into wether a separate state should be carved out or a united Andhra must remain. The committee was constituted by the Government of India in 3 February 2010 and expected to submit its report on 30 December 2010 to the Ministry of Home Affairs. As part of the committee they invited people from all sections of the society and also toured the entire state where they got the opinions of a lot of people on what they felt about the issue. The SriKrishna Report was released on the internet to the public on 6 January 2011. The issue is still being contemplated in the political circles.

These two papers are the only changes that have been introduced by the government which will be enforced from next year onwards that is 2011. The rest of the pattern will remain the same as before. The aspirants clearing these two examinations will then be short listed for the main exam and then the interviews which will be followed after giving the main exams. The pattern for the main exam and the interview will remain the same until next year or in other words next year would be more or less a trial basis for a new pattern. If the government feels that there is a need for change in pattern of the main exam as well as the interview then it will be considered after next year. As of now the two aptitude tests are the only main changes in the civil services examination. These changes are definitely for the better as this pattern will give more people the encouragement and hope that civil services is not next to impossible and there is chance for even the average hard working people. It is hoped that more number of people will be able to clear the papers so that a fair chance is given to all of them to prove themselves.