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GKCA Update 1st to 31st Jan Starred Articles 01 India scraps Rs. 3,727-cr VVIP chopper deal with AgustaWestland Jan India > AgustaWestland Chopper Deal India terminated a controversial Rs. 3,727-crore contract with AgustaWestland to supply 12 VVIP helicopters to the Indian Air Force which has invoked the integrity pact to scrap the deal in which the UK-based firm allegedly paid middlemen more than Rs. 375 crore in bribes. The scrapping of the deal now opens the doors for fresh contract with other chopper companies like United Technologies Corp's Sikorsky Aircraft, EADS' Eurocopter and Lockheed Martin. AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of Italian defence group Finmeccanica, now faces the prospect of being blacklisted for up to 10 years. 07 Government deposits with RBI cross Rs. 50,000 crore, adds to liquidity crunch Jan Economy > RBI The Union Government’s deposits with the Reserve bank of India have crossed Rs. 50000 crore, even as it is curtailing expenditure and blocking liquidity. At a time when other banks are borrowing from the RBI at 7.75% to meet their daily liquidity requirements, the central government’s huge deposit is seen as inappropriate in the face of rising fiscal constraints. As per the latest data, the government had parked Rs 50,931 crore with the RBI at the end of December 2013. The sum comprises mostly of the unspent advance tax receipts that tend to get bunched at the end of a quarter. The government does not earn any interest income on the money. 07 Janet Yellen appointed as first woman chairman of the US Federal Reserve Jan World > US Federal Reserve The U.S. Senate has confirmed Janet Yellen to serve as the next chairman of the US Federal Reserve. She will be the first woman to head the Federal Reserve in its 100-year history. She will be replacing Ben Bernanke, who finishes his second term at the end of the month. Elen has more than a decade-long experience in various important Federal positions. 09 As 1-kid rule ends, China bans forced abortions Jan World > China China has banned forced abortions on women in advanced stages of pregnancy. China's National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) said it will keep a close watch on hospitals to curb late-term abortions by women. Those who opt for such abortions and those who facilitate them will be punished. The move follows the decision to end the one-child policy. The government recently said a couple will be allowed to go for a second child if one of the two parents was a single child in his childhood. Background: The Commission is worried that the lifting of controls under the one-child policy will result in a one-sided sex ratio with a lot more males than females if there are no controls on abortions. China has a serious problem with sex ratio forcing a large number of men to marry women brought in by agents from North Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. Page 1 of 12 GKCA Update st st 1 to 31 Jan 13 Japan's Suntory buys U.S. spirits maker Beam for $13.6 billion cash Jan Corporate > Beam -Suntory Suntory Holdings Ltd buys U.S. spirits company Beam Inc for $13.6 billion cash in a deal that made the Japanese company the world's third-largest spirits maker. Suntory has now become the third largest whiskey company and the fifth largest malt whiskey company by volume. The combined company will have annual sales of about $4.3 billion. 14 Nirbheek is India's first revolver designed for women Jan India > Nirbheek Over a year after the brutal Delhi gangrape incident, the Indian Ordnance Factory has come out with ‘Nirbheek’, a .32 bore light weight revolver designed especially for women to defend themselves from assault. With its nomenclature inspired by ‘Nirbhaya’, the 500-g revolver is light and can be kept by women in their purses or handbags. 16 US implants secret software to survey offline computers, spies even on partners like India Jan World > US Secret Surveillance The US National Security Agency (NSA) has implanted a secret software in nearly 1, 00,000 computers around the world that allows it to conduct surveillance and create a digital highway for launching cyber-attacks, even if they are not connected to the internet The technology, which the agency has used since at least 2008, relies on a covert channel of radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiously into the computers. In some cases, they are sent to a briefcase-size relay station that intelligence agencies can set up miles away from the target. In most cases, the radio frequency hardware must be physically inserted by a spy, a manufacturer or an unwitting user. Among the most frequent targets have been units of the Chinese Army, which the United States has accused of launching regular cyber -attacks on American industrial and military targets, and also Russian military networks and systems used by the Mexican police and drug cartels, trade institutions inside the European Union, and surprisingly sometimes partners against terrorism like Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan. 17 Pakistan's Peshawar world's 'largest reservoir' of polio: WHO Jan World > Pakistan Calling for an urgent action to boost vaccination, the World Health Organisation declared Pakistan's city of Peshawar as the world's "largest reservoir" of endemic polio. According to the WHO report, almost every polio case in Pakistan, one of only three countries where the disease remains endemic, could be linked genetically to the virus circulating in Peshawar. Polio is also endemic in Afghanistan and Nigeria, but of the three countries only Pakistan saw a rise in cases from 2012 to 2013. 18 Egypt passes new constitution Jan World > Egypt Egypt’s Electoral Commission has announced that Egyptian voters have overwhelmingly approved a new constitution, with 98.1% voting in favor of the new constitution and 1.9 percent voting ‘no’. The anti-coup Page 2 of 12 GKCA Update st st 1 to 31 Jan alliance composed largely of supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsy and the brotherhood had boycotted the elections. Nine people died of clashes on the first day of voting and some 400 people have been arrested over the two days for disrupting the vote. Mohammed Morsi, who was Egypt's first democratically elected president, is being held in jail in Alexandria, facing several criminal charges relating to his time in office. He says they are politically motivated. More than 2, 200 people have been killed since the ouster of Morsy and the repressive environment has sparked concerns from rights groups worldwide. 23 RBI to withdraw all pre-2005 notes from April Jan Economy > RBI Reserve Bank of India has said that all currency notes issued before 2005 will be withdrawn from circulation after March 31, 2014. The move will ensure rationalization of bank notes with better security features and flushing out of unaccounted money stored in banks and personal lockers. If a person has such notes, he should exchange them for post-2005 notes and starting April 1st, no one should accept pre-2005 notes. Dismissing the ensuing panic, the RBI has clarified that all notes issued before 2005 will continue to be legal tender and banks would have to exchange the notes for their customers as well as non-customers. After 1st July, 2014, in order to exchange more than 10 pieces of 500 and 1000 rupee notes, a person would have to furnish proof of identity and residence. 23 Indian-origin academician Rakesh Khurana appointed dean of Harvard College Jan World > Harvard College Indian-origin academician Rakesh Khurana has been appointed dean of the prestigious Harvard College. He will take over his new role in July. Currently, he is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School (HBS), professor of sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and co-master of Cabot House at Harvard. 26 Stanislas Wawrinka beats Rafael Nadal to clinch Australian Open; China’s Li Na wins women’s title Jan Sports > Australian Open Swiss tennis player Stanislas Wawrinka achieved a dramatic win by beating World no. 1 Rafael Nadal to clinch the Australian Open Men’s singles title. A back injury to Nadal in the warm-up matches prevented him from displaying his usual flair during the match. China's 31 year old Li Na stormed to her second Grand Slam title, defeating Dominika Cibulkova to become the oldest woman ever to win the Australian Open. She had won the French Open title three years ago. India’s Sania Mirza and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau failed to clinch the Australian open mixed doubles title as they lost to French-Canadian combination of Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor in straight sets in the summit clash. 30 Tatas to bag Rs 1,000 cr combat vehicle deal Jan Corporate > Indian Army Contract In a move that will end a decades-long monopoly of Czech-made Tatra trucks in supplying the military's high- end vehicles, Tata Motors is set to bag a Rs 1,000 crore contract with the Ministry of Defence for the supply of 1,239 heavy duty trucks. The deal for the so-called six-wheel-drive high mobility vehicles (HMV), fitted with Page 3 of 12 GKCA Update st st 1 to 31 Jan material handling cranes, has the option of a follow-on order for 600 more units. This deal is among the three procurement projects the defence ministry kicked off in 2013 involving specialized trucks.