February 2013 Current Affairs

=Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal presented the Union Railway Budget for 2013-14 in Lok Sabha on 26 February 2013. Some of the New Plans and Schemes proposed in Railway Budget 2013-14 are as under:

• Proposal for setting up of Railway Tariff Regulatory Authority formulated and at inter-ministerial consultation stage. • To provide a memorable experience to the visitors especially the children, a revamp plan will be rolled out for National Railway Museum in 2013-14. • To create a corpus for meeting IR’s committed liabilities for debt servicing of JICA and World Bank loans taken for the DFC Project, it is proposed to set up a new Debt Service Fund. • In order to meet the growing demand, 72 additional services in Mumbai and 18 in Kolkata are being introduced. Besides, rake length is being increased from 9 cars to 12 cars for 80 services in Kolkata and 30 services in Chennai. • A target to complete 500 km of new lines has been set for 2013-14. • There is target to convert 450 km of MG/NG lines to broad gauge during 2013-14. • Announcement of resumption of work on new line projects of Chickmagalur - Sakleshpur and Bengaluru - Satyamangalam, which were pending for want of resources and other mandatory clearances, after State Government of Karnataka agreed to give land free of cost and bear 50% of the cost.

=Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal presented the Union Railway Budget for 2013-14 in Lok Sabha on 26 February 2013. Some of the major Initiative proposed in Railway Budget 2013-14 are as under:

Anubhuti

• Indian Railways will introduce one coach in select trains which will provide an excellent ambience and latest modern facilities and services responding to the Increased Popularity of Shatabdi and Rajdhani Trains. Such coaches will be named Anubhuti with commensurate fare structures.

Amenities for Differently-abled Passengers

• To facilitate the boarding of trains and exit from the stations for the differently-abled and the elderly, there is a proposed provision of 179 escalators and 400 lifts at A- 1 and other major stations, affixing Braille stickers indicating the layout of coaches including toilets, provision of wheel chairs and battery operated vehicles at more stations and making coaches wheel-chair friendly. • In order to provide an employment avenue to the disabled people, there is proposal to reserve a specified number of Jan Sadharan Ticket Booking Sewak (JTBS) for them, keeping in view the fact that the PCOs at stations have become largely redundant after the mobile revolution in India.

IT Initiatives for passenger benefits

• There will be now Use of Aadhar scheme by Indian Railways. The database generated, can be extensively and efficiently used by railways not only to render more user friendly services such as booking of tickets, validation of genuine passengers with GPS enabled handheld gadgets in trains, but also to provide a better interface with its employees in regard to their salaries, pension, allowances etc.

Some of the other measures proposed under IT Initiative of Railways are:

• Extending availability of the facility of internet ticketing from 0030 hours to 2330 hours • Making e-ticketing possible through mobile phones as a follow up to overwhelming response to IR website and Integrated Train Enquiry Service under 139, a project of SMS Alerts to passengers providing updates on reservation status is being rolled out shortly. • Covering larger number of trains under Real Time Information System (RTIS), whereby rail-users will be able to access information through nominated websites and mobile phones.

Some measures taken to curb malpractices in reserved tickets including Tatkal are:

• Mandatory carrying of ID cards by passengers with reserved tickets • Rigorous drive leading to prosecution of more than 1800 touts in the current year • In case of tatkal, reduction of advance reservation period to one day, issue of tickets only on production of ID proof at PRS counters, issue of only one tatkal ticket per train per day to web service agents; • Denial of access to agents to internet booking between 0800 to 1000 hrs.

Other Major Initiatives

• A Centralised Catering Services Monitoring Cell with a Toll free number – 1800 111 321 has started functioning w.e.f. 18th January, 2013 to facilitate redressal of complaints/suggestions on real-time basis. • For effective quality control, arrangements are being tied up with food testing laboratories in addition to third party audit. State-of the- art base kitchens are proposed to be set up in railway premises for better monitoring of quality of meals. • ISO certification will now be insisted upon for all base-kitchens.

Green Energy Initiatives

Some of the new steps that have been taken or are proposed to be taken include:- • Setting up of Railway Energy Management Company (REMC) to harness potential of solar and wind energy • Setting up of 75 MW windmill plants and energizing 1000 level crossings with solar power • Deployment of new generation energy efficient electric locomotives and electrical multiple units (EMUs) saving about 60 crore units in 2011-12. Railways have also won the National Energy Conservation Award • Encourage more usage of agro-based and recycled paper and ban use of plastic in catering.

=Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the changes in the exam patterns of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination. According to the new changes, more weightage will be given to the General Studies paper.

The decision was based on the recommendations of the committee which was constituted by the UPSC. The committee presented the report under Chairmanship of former chairman of UGC and was also examined by Department of Personnel and Training. It was later sent to the Prime Minister for seeking final approval.

As of now, the Main paper of civil services has General Studies Paper I and II which carry 300 marks each and includes compulsory as well as optional subjects. But after implementation of these changes, both these General Studies Papers will bear more weightage.

Civil Service examination is conducted by UPSC for selecting the candidates for three main All India Services which include Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service and Indian Administrative Service.

=Hyderabad-based Celkon Mobiles launched a tablet PC called Celkon CT910 with 3G SIM as well as a smartphone called A225 in the last week of February 2013. While the tablet is priced at 8699 Rupees, the smartphone on the other hand comes at a price of 9499 Rupees.

Features and Specifications of tablet PC Celkon CT910

• 7-inch Capacitive Touch Display • 1 GHz Processor • Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) • In built 3G SIM support • 2 Mp rear camera • Front camera • 5 point Multi-touch panel • Wifi and GPS • 512 MB RAM with 4 GB internal memory • 3500 mAh marathon battery • MicroSD card slot (expandable up to 32GB) • Free Inbuilt entertainment apps • Live TV • G-sensor

Features and Specifications of smartphone A225

• GSM 900 / 1800 - SIM 1 & SIM 2 • 4.7 inches Capacitive touchscreen • microSD, exapandable up to 32 GB • 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels • Android OS, v4.1 (Jelly Bean) • SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, IM • Photo viewer/editor • MP3/WAV/eAAC player

Celkon Mobiles planned to launch more than 30 smartphones in the market in 2013.

=28 February 2013: National Science Day

National Science Day was observed on 28 February 2013. The theme of 2013 was Genetically Modified Crops and Food Security. The day is observed on the 28th of February every year to popularise science and its applications among school and college students. National Science Day is observed in honour of Nobel laureate and physicist CV Raman’s discovery of the Raman Effect, which he announced on this day in 1928.

Various activities like debates, quiz competitions, exhibitions and lectures were organised to mark the occasion.

=Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on 28 February 2013 tabled the Union budget in the Parliament for the financial year 2013-14.

P. Chidambaram was presenting his 8th Union Budget. The union Budget of 2013-14 emphasized fast track economic growth with due importance on infrastructure development, skill development, employment generation and funding for social schemes.

Three factors of Economic Concern discussed in the Union Budget 2013-14 were high fiscal deficit, slow growth and high inflation.

Expressing his confidence on India returning back to the higher growth path Chidambaram advocated for support from all quarters to navigate through economic crisis. The Union Budget of year 2013-14 stressed on achieving a growth of 8 per cent on an immediate effect.

The finance minister expressed his worry on Current Account deficit (CAD). CAD which required 75 billion Dollars to finance was high because of high import in Oil, coal and gold imports.

The Highlights of the Union Budget 2013-14 are as Follows:

• Total budget expenditure was Estimated at 16.65 trillion rupees in 2013-14 • India's 2013-14 plan expenditure seen at 5.55 trillion rupees • To allocate 801.94 billion rupees to rural development in 2013-14 • Plan to allocate 270.49 billion rupees for agriculture in 2013-14 • RBI expected GDP growth of 5.5% for Financial Year 2013-14 • 80194 crore rupees allocation have been made for rural development schemes including MGNAREGA, PMGSY, INDIRA AWAS YOYANA. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission will to continue during the 12th plan period. • 3511 crore allocation to minorities which is 12 per cent hike over budget estimates, 110 crore rupees allotted for welfare of disabled. • 65867 crore rupees have been allocated to the Ministry of Human resources development which is 17 per cent hike over the revised estimates. • 500 Crore rupees have been earmarked for high tech crop diversification program. • Allocations also include 13215 crore rupees for mid day meal programme. 27,049 crore rupees for agricultural ministry and additional 200 crore to women and child Welfare Ministry.

• 14000 crore Rupees will be provided for PSB recapitalization. He will constitute a panel on transaction costs, and financial policies.

• Education gets 65867 crore rupees, an increase of 17 percent over RE for 2012-13. • ICDS gets 17700 crore rupees. This is 11.7 percent more than the current year. • Drinking water and sanitation will receive 15260 crore rupees. 1,400 crore was provided for setting up water purification plants to cover arsenic and fluoride affected rural areas. • Health and Family Welfare Ministry had been allotted 37330 crore rupees. • Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) Refinance Fund doubled to an amount of 10000 crore rupees. • Plans of Government are to encourage PPP projects along with Coal India. • P Chidambaram announced setting up of a new all-women's bank. • 1000 crore Rupees initial capital for a new women's bank which will be another public sector bank. The Bank will be set up by October 2013. • An amount of additional 10000 crore rupees allotted for Food Security Bill in FY14. • 3000 km of road projects will be awarded in first six months of FY14.

• Finance ministry approved 50000 crore Rupees tax-free bonds in FY14. The government expects to raise 25000 crore rupees via tax-free bonds in FY13. • Refinancing capacity of SIDBI raised to Rs. 10,000 crore. • Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) for textile to continue in 12th Plan with an investment target of 151000 crore Rupees. • 14000 crore Rupees will be provided to public sector banks for capital infusion in 2013-14. • A grant of 100 crore each has been made to 4 institutions of excellence including Aligarh Muslim University, Banaras Hindu University, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). • New taxes to yield 18000 crore Rupees. • A surcharge of 10 percent on persons (other than companies) whose taxable income exceeds Rs.1 crore have been levied. • Tobacco products, SUVs and Mobile Phones to cost more. • Relief of Rs. 2000 for the tax payers in the first bracket of 2 to 5 lakhs. • Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme launched for recovering service tax dues. • 9000 crore Rupees earmarked as the first installment of balance of CST compensations to different States/UTs.

Budget in Indian Constitution

Budget in Indian Constitution is an annual financial statement. It is included in part V, Chapter 2 of PARLIAMENT Procedure in Financial Matters of Constitution of India.

As per the article 112 of Indian Constitution

The President shall in respect of every financial year cause to be laid before both the Houses of Parliament a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India for that year, in this Part referred to as the annual financial statement. (2) The estimates of expenditure embodied in the annual financial statement shall show separately- (a) The sums required to meet expenditure described by this Constitution as expenditure charged upon the Consolidated Fund of India; and (b) The sums required to meet other expenditure proposed to be made from the Consolidated Fund of India, and shall distinguish expenditure on revenue account from other expenditure.

=Somdev Devvarman of India was defeated out of the ATP Dubai Tennis Championship 2013. In pre-quarterfinal match, in the Men’s Singles, Somdev Devvarman lost to Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina 4-6, 4-6.

After losing out of the tournament, Somdev managed to grab 20 ranking points along with euro 9130 as prize money. It is important to note that India still has its chances in the ATP Dubai Tennis Championships 2013 in terms of Doubles, where Rohan Bopanna along with his British partner Colin Fleming reached quarter-finals.

They defeated Robin Haase and Dick Norman 6-4 6-2 in the opening round.

=The National Capital of India, Delhi emerged as worst place in terms of key parameters of environment in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) was started by the Planning Commission. In 2011, Delhi ranked at number 26 and now slipped down to number 32 in 2012.

EPI Project was started three years ago, but its results were published for the first time as per the analysis of data which was supplied by 35 states as well as union territories. EPI was developed to measure the environmental well being of states.

The rankings of EPI reflect the performance of the states depending upon 16 green indicators which are divided under five main categories- water quality, air quality, waste management, measures undertaken for climate change adaptation as well as state of the forests. All the states in India were asked to submit their detailed report on these parameters.

Delhi’s cumulative score was 0.4246 in comparison to 0.7696 of the top ranker, Andhra Pradesh. Delhi’s rank was 32 among various states and union territories. The state that achieves the score 1 reflects cleaner environment, adherence to environmental standards, implementation of necessary legislation as well as conduction of efforts for the conservation of natural resources.

The best performing states with their scores are as follows:

• Andhra Pradesh: 0.7696 • Sikkim: 0.7478 • Himachal Pradesh: 0.7414 • Madhya Pradesh: 0.7334 • Maharashtra: 0.7167

=Sugata Mitra was awarded the million-dollar TED Prize on 26 February 2013 for pursuing his idea for building the schools in the Internet. TED Prize is actually awarded to the extraordinary people who have creative as well as bold ideas for global change.

About Sugata Mitra

• Sugata Mitra is a researcher who started inspiring the children across the world to arouse curiosity in them. • In 1999, Sugata along with his colleagues installed the Internet-connected computer in New Delhi and left it with the hidden camera. Eventually, the slum kids started learning English as well as searched the Internet for various Science and other topics. • Sugata along with his colleagues performed these experiments for 13 years, which eventually earned him 1 million US dollars TED Prize.

About the TED Prize

TED Prize was first introduced in 2005. Till 2010, TED gave three extraordinary people with 100000 US Dollars prize money along with the wish to make changes in the world. At the annual conference of TED, the winner talks about the wish to bring changes in the world. In 2013, the prize money offered by TED increased to 1 million US Dollars.

=Capital of India, Delhi was ranked at number 32 or the worst position in the crucial environmental parameters of Environmental Performance Index (EPI) that evolved by Planning Commission. In 2011, Delhi ranked at number 26 and now slipped down to number 32 in 2012.

Environmental Parameters of Judging a State:

The rankings of EPI reflect the performance of the states depending upon 16 green indicators which are divided under five main categories- water quality, air quality, waste management, measures undertaken for climate change adaptation as well as state of the forests.

Scores of the States:

Delhi’s cumulative score was 0.4246 in comparison to 0.7696 of the top ranker, Andhra Pradesh. Delhi’s rank was 32 among various states and union territories. The best performing states with their scores are as follows:

• Andhra Pradesh: 0.7696 • Sikkim: 0.7478 • Himachal Pradesh: 0.7414 • Madhya Pradesh: 0.7334 • Maharashtra: 0.7167

=Anupam Kher, the veteran Bollywood actor was awarded with the City Proclamation Award in Los Angeles in the last week of February 2013.

It is important to note that Anupam Kher was also nominated for Oscars 2013 for the Hollywood movie- Silver Lining Playbook. He has also acted in the Hollywood movies like Bend it Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice, The Mistress of Spices, American Blade, Hope and a Little Sugar, Midnight Children as well as in the television series.

=The Government of India on 27 February 2013 announced constitution of Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe into the allegations in the VVIP helicopter deal from Agusta Westland and to identify the role of the middlemen in the purchase of the 12 helicopters.

The motion was moved by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath. The proposed JPC will constitute of 20 members from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha and submit the report of its findings within three months from the day of its constitution. The motion was adopted in the Rajya Sabha by Voice Vote.

Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)

• Joint Parliamentary Committee is an ad hoc Parliamentary Committee that is constituted by the Indian parliament. • The JPC is constituted only after a motion is adopted in one house of the Parliament and accepted by the other house. • A Joint Parliamentary committee can also be formed when the presiding chiefs of both houses communicates with each other in writing for the formation of the joint parliamentary committee. • The strength of JPC can be different every time it is constituted but the number of members from the Lok Sabha is always double to the members from Rajya Sabha in the committee formed.

Giuseppe Orsi held on Bribe Charges in Indian Defence Helicopter Deal

=The Government of Japan in the last week of February 2013, nominated Haruhiko Kuroda for the designation of next governor of the Central Bank of the country, the Bank of Japan. At present, Haruhiko Kuroda is the head of Asian Development Bank.

As customarily, after nomination of a person for the post of governor of the Central Bank of the country, both the houses of the Parliament of Japan will be required to vote as well as approve this nomination. Apart from Haruhiko Kuroda, Hiroshi Nakaso, official of the Bank of Japan; as well as Kikuo Iwata were also nominated for the designation.

=Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on 27 February 2013 proposed the introduction of 67 new express trains and 26 new passenger trains. He also asserted the introduction of 22 new lines in 2013-14.

Highlights of the new Trains announced

• 67 new Express trains to be introduced. • 26 new passenger services, 8 DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit) services and 5 MEMU services to be introduced. • Run of 57 trains to be extended. • Frequency of 24 trains to be increased.

Metropolitan Projects/Sub-urban Services

• Introduction of first AC EMU rake on Mumbai suburban network in2013-14. • Introduction of 72 additional services in Mumbai and 18 in Kolkata. • Rake length increased from 9 cars to 12 cars for 80 services in Kolkata and 30 services in Chennai.

State wise break up of new Trains announced

• Karnataka gets 3 new lines, 8 express trains • Goa gets 3 New Express trains • Andhra Pradesh got 8 New Trains • 13 New Trains for UP, 7 out of which went to Lucknow Only

Region Wise Break up of New Train Announced • Eight new express trains, 11 originating trains and eight pass-through trains, six extension trains apart from 20 new lines and doubling projects fell in South Central Rail-way’s kitty in the Railway Budget announced. • As per the budget, Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) will get a total of 17 new mail/express trains, of which 14 trains will serve either the city or state passengers. • Further, 72 additional services of local trains, augmentation of AC local trains at WR, have also been announced.

=Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on 27 February presented the Economic Survey 2012-13 in the Lok Sabha of the Parliament.

India's Economic Survey for 2012-13 pegs the country's growth at 6.1-6.7% and inflation at 6.2-6.6% for the next fiscal 2013-14 and made a strong call for cutting subsidies.

Economic Survey is presented every year, just before the Union Budget. It is a flagship annual document of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Economic Survey reviews the developments in the Indian economy over the previous 12 months. It summarizes the performance on major development programmes, and highlights the policy initiatives of the government and the prospects of the economy in the short to medium term.

The economic survey 2012-13 was prepared by a team of economists led by Chief Economic Advisor Raghuram Rajan, and pitches for speeding up economic reforms to activate a sluggish economy. It serves as an indicator of what is likely to be contained in the General Budget proposals.

Following are the major Higlhlights of the Economic Survey 2012-13

• GDP growth seen at 6.1-6.7 percent in 2013/14 • Government target for fiscal deficit is 4.8 pct of GDP in 2013/14 • Government target for fiscal deficit is 3 pct of GDP in 2016/17 • Headline WPI inflation may decline to 6.2-6.6 pct by March2013 • Focus on curbing imports, making oil prices more market determined to reign in current account deficit • Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) flows need to be targeted towards long-term rupee instruments • Prioritisation of expenditure seen as key ingredient of credible medium-term fiscal consolidation plan • Raising tax to GDP ratio to more than 11 percent seen as critical for sustaining fiscal consolidation • Room for accommodative monetary policy with expected fiscal consolidation • India likely to meet fiscal deficit target of 5.3 pct of GDP in 2012/13, despite significant shortfall in revenues • Recommends curbing gold imports to reign in current account deficit • Room to increase exports in the short run limited • Industrial output seen growing around 3 pct in 2012/13 • Govt priority to fight inflation by reducing fiscal impetus to demand as well as by focusing on incentivizing food production. • More jobs in low productivity construction sector • Balance of Payments under pressure with net exports decline • Service sector has shown more resilience despite global slowdown • Pitches for hike in price of diesel and LPG to cut subsidy burden • Railway freight grows by 5.1 per cent in 2012-13 • Foreign Exchange reserves remains steady at USD 295.6 Billion at December 2012 end.

=Hot air balloon crashed near Luxor, Egypt on 26 February 2013 because of mid-air gas explosion, which killed 19 European and Asian tourists. The blast took place at 1000 feet (300 metres). The deceased were from Hong Kong, Japan, France and Britain.

One tourist as well as a pilot survived the blast. The accident took place over banks of River Nile. Tourists going to Luxor are fascinated with the hot air ballooning. However, there has been a downturn in tourism industry of Egypt since 2011 uprising and protests. =Vishwaroop, the CEO, NTPC SAIL Power Company (NSPCL) was conferred with the Exemplary Leader Award in Mumbai on 25 February 2013. He was conferred with the award for his contribution to Power sector.

About NTPC SAIL Power Company (NSPCL)

NTPC SAIL Power Company (NSPCL) is the joint venture between NTPC Limited and SAIL for generating power for the steel plants in India.

=The Surrey Space Centre (SSC) of the University of Surrey on 26 February 2013 announced that STRaND-1, a nano-satellite carrying a smartphone was launched successfully into space from India. With this launch, India became the first country to successfully launch the first smartphone of the world.

About STRaND-1 and apps on board

STRaND-1 is the training and demonstration mission which is designed in order to test the commercial shelf technology in space. There are certain applications on board STRaND-1. These applications were designed by the winners of social networking site, Facebook competition which was organised in 2012.

STRaND-1 mission weighs 4.3 kg and was launched in 785km Sun-synchronous orbit on the PSLV launcher of ISRO.

• For example, iTesa will help in recording the magnitude of the magnetic field which surrounds the smartphone during its orbit. The app called iTesa will in turn also help in detection of magnetic oscillations in the upper atmosphere, called Alfven waves. • Another app called Scream in Space was designed by the Cambridge University Space Flight. This application will be making use of the speakers of smartphones. • Yet another app is called STRAND Data. This application will help in showing the satellite telemetry on the display of the smartphone. This in turn would be visible on the additional camera on-board. This eventually will allow new graphical telemetry for interpreting the trends. • 360 app allows taking images with the help of camera of smartphone. This application will also help in using the technology on-board for establishing the position of STRaND-1.

=Delhi became the first state in India to ban the manual scavenging. The Chief Minister of Delhi on 26 February 2013 banned deployment of the cleaning staff for the purpose of manual sewer cleaning.

At the Swabhiman Diwas celebrations on 26 February 2013, the CM announced that the Delhi government was facilitating the amenities to the cleaning staff according to the service rules. The Delhi government was also taking initiatives for modernising the working mechanism for them and facilitating appropriate training to them.

In the meanwhile, it was also declared that all the civic bodies of Delhi would be asked to regularise services of the cleaning staff that was working for several years on contractual basis.

Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012

In January 2013, the Supreme Court of India had reproached the Union Government of India for not enacting the law that would lead to a ban on manual scavenging. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012 is still pending in the Parliament.

As per this Bill, the district magistrate would be required to make sure that no one in their jurisdiction was engaged in manual scavenging. The Bill made it obligatory for the cantonment boards and municipalities along with the railway authorities to build adequate sanitary community bathrooms within 3 years after the Act comes into force.

=Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal presented the Union Railway Budget for 2013-14 in Lok Sabha on 26 February 2013.

The major highlights of the budget are the introduction 106 new trains with no fare hikes. The present year railway budget laid emphasis on host of proposals for travel safety and comfort, such as escalators at key stations, a new e- ticketing system and a high-class coach in select trains.

Railway Budget 2013-14 at a Glance:

The Thrust of this year Railway Budget was on Safety, Consolidation, Passenger Amenities and Fiscal Discipline.

• Deployment of new generation energy efficient electric locomotives and EMUs. • Five Percent Increase in freight to push Inflation. • Elimination of 10797 level crossings during the 12th Plan and no addition of new LCs to the IR system henceforth. • Introduction of Train Protection Warning System on Automatic Signalling Systems. • Rigorous trials of the indigenously developed Train Collision Avoidance System. • Four companies of women RPF personnel set up and another 8 to be set up to strengthen the security of rail passengers, especially women passengers • Recruitment to RPF with 10% vacancies reserved for women. • No increase in passenger fares • 500-km new lines to be completed in 2013-14 • Diesel price hike added 3300 crore rupees to fuel bill of Railways • Railways hopes to end 2013-14 with a balance of 12506 crore rupees • Concessional fare for sportspersons • Five fellowships to be announced to motivate students • Seek to fill 1.52 lakh vacancies in railways this year. 47000 vacancies for weaker sections and physically challenged to be filled up soon • Target of 4000 crore rupees for railway production units in 2014 • Induction of e-ticketing through mobile phones, SMS alerts to passengers • Free wi-fi facilities in select trains. 60 more 'adarsh' stations • The number of passenger trains has increased from 8000 in 2001 to over 12000 in 2012 - yet losses continue to mount. It is estimated to be Rs. 24000 crore in 2012-13 • Proposal for setting up of Railway Tariff Regulatory Authority formulated and at inter-ministerial consultation stage. • Supplementary charges for super fast trains, reservation fee, clerkage charge, cancellation charge and tatkal charge marginally increased. • Complimentary card passes to Olympic medalist and Dronacharya Awardees for Rajdhani Shatabdi Trains. • Announcement Facility and Electronic display boards in train.

=Park Geun-hye sworn-in as the first woman President of South Korea on 25 February 2013. After swearing-in, she vowed for zero tolerance against nuclearised North Korea as well as economic prosperity of the country.

Park Geun-hye took charge of the office of the President of South Korea just a little over 50 years after Park Chung- hee, her father had taken over the office in 1961.

About Park Geun-hye

• Park Geun-hye was elected as the first female President of South Korea on 19 December 2012. • The 61-year-old Park Geun-hye belongs to the conservative Saenuri party. • She is serving as the 18th President of South Korea. • Former President of South Korea was Lee Myung-bak. • She was born on 2 February 1952.

Park Geun-Hye Elected As the First Woman President of South Korea

=Mozilla, the software community which is known for producing the Firefox web browser, launched Web-based Smartphone operating system on 24 February 2013.

The company at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain announced that it partnered with device manufacturers and mobile operators across the world to launch Firefox Smartphone in 2013.

With the launch of operating system Mozilla also officially launched the Firefox Marketplace, which is basically an app store featuring mobile Web applications and websites that will be able to operate on the new smartphones. Both the Firefox OS and Marketplace are optimized towards HTML5 development and open Web standards using Mozilla’s Firefox browser as its backbone.

Some of the Highlights of the launched Operating system

• Mozilla claimed three initial manufacturers ready to build and deploy Firefox OS smartphones: LG, Alcatel and ZTE. • These devices will be distributed to 17 global carriers in nine countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Serbia, Montenegro, Poland, Spain, Hungary and Venezuela targeting only the developing market.

• Sony had also expresses the desire that it would build and release Firefox OS smartphones in 2014.

• Among the companies that have announced their support for Mozilla's Firefox Marketplace are AccuWeather, Airbnb, Box, Cut the Rope, Disney Mobile Games, EA, Facebook, Nokia's mapping service HERE, MTV Brasil, Pulse News, SoundCloud, SporTV, Terra, Time Out and Twitter.

• Disney, for example, is planning to offer its popular, Where's My Water? game on the marketplace.

=Researchers from Norway, South Africa, Britain and Germany, in the last week of February 2013 discovered a sunken and small continent beneath the Indian Ocean. This is the ancient and mini continent named Mauritia and it lies beneath the lava flows which led to the formation of islands of Mauritius and Reunion.

This lost continent called Mauritia, dates back to the time when the super continents of the Earth- Laurasia and Gondwana shattered into the familiar geography like present. Mauritia is said to be a part of the mass of Gondwana which had eventually split into Antarctica, India, Australia and Madagascar after around 170 million years ago.

The mini continent was later torn apart as it passed over the mid-ocean ridges. The lava eruptions later covered this sunken continent. But later, due to the volcanic eruptions on the Island of Mauritius the pieces of this lost continent were brought on the surface of the Earth. These pieces were crystals called zircons which dated back to 660 and 1970 million years ago. This hinted towards the fact that the rock which lied beneath the crust was in fact the part of this ancient mini-continent.

The team of geoscientists also suggested that there might be other lost micro-continents on Earth which are buried beneath the lava.

=Jelena Jankovic, the former world no. 1 won the WTA Copa Claro Colsanitas Cup 2013 in Bogota, Colombia on 24 February 2013. This was her first tour title in three years as well as the 13th of her career. The 27-year old Serbian defeated Argentine Paula Ormaechea 6-1 and 6-2.

About Jelena Jankovic:

• Jelena Jankovic was the former world no. 1. • This was her first tour title and 13th of the career. • Her last title on the tour came in 2010 at Indian Wells.

=The Oscars 2013 or the 85th Academy Awards ceremony took place on 24 February 2013. The annual Academy Awards were presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in order to honour the best films of the previous years, i.e., 2012. The Oscars 2013 ceremony was held at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. The awards were hosted by Seth MacFarlane. This is said to be the most viewed ceremony since Academy Awards 2004.

The main winners of the Oscars 2013 were Life of Pi, with four awards;Argo with three awards; Les Miserables with three awards andDjango Unchained, Lincoln, Skyfall with two awards each. The list of the awardees of 85th Academy Awards is as follows:

List of the awardees of 85th Academy Awards:

• Best Picture: Argo • Best Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln • Best Actress in a Leading Role: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook • Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained • Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables • Best Animated Feature Film: Brave • Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi • Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina • Best Directing: Ang Lee for Life of Pi • Best Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugar Man • Best Documentary Short: Inocente • Best Film Editing: William Goldenberg for Argo • Best Foreign Language Film: Amour (Austria) • Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell for Les Misérables • Best Music-Original Score: Mychael Danna for Life of Pi • Best Music-Original Song: Skyfall from Skyfall (Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth) • Best Production Design: Rick Carter (Production Design); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration) for Lincoln • Best Short Film-Animated: Paperman • Best Short Film-Live Action: Curfew • Best Sound Editing: Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers for Skyfall • Best Sound Mixing: Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes for Les Misérables • Best Visual Effects: Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott for Life of Pi • Best Writing-Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio for Argo • Best Writing-Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained

=Arun Tadanki, the managing director for Yahoo India and South East Asia quit Yahoo on 25 February 2013 citing reasons that he wanted to explore fresh opportunities in the world of the Internet. However, Arun Tadanki will remain in Yahoo at his designation till June 2013.

Yahoo has not named the successor of Arun Tadanki. Tadanki worked in the roles for CEO for Asia Pacific region and emerging markets for 11 years. He announced that he was looking forward to play different role in the Internet ecosystem now.

Arun Tadanki became the Managing Director of Yahoo in May 2009.

=Six foreign micro and mini spacecrafts as well as the Indo-French oceanographic study satellite, SARAL (Satellite for Argos-3 and Altika) were launched successfully by ISRO's PSLV-C20 rocket on 25 February 2013 from the spaceport at Sriharikota.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) of Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) flew from first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre and was successfully put into the orbit. The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee witnessed this launch from mission control centre at Sriharikota.

Satellites launched by PSLV-C20 rocket

• 410-kg SARAL with payloads - Argos and Altika • Two micro-satellites UniBRITE and BRITE from Austria • AAUSAT3 from Denmark • STRaND from United Kingdom • Micro-satellite (NEOSSat) • Mini-satellite (SAPPHIRE) from Canada

These seven satellites were launched successfully by PSLV which depicted its versatility and recorded 22nd successful flight consecutive. ISRO also has plans to launch the Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle that has indigenous cryogenic engine, along with the India’s mission to Mars, both of which are scheduled for 2013.

SARAL, the unique satellite

• SARAL is said to be a very unique satellite which serves the research community. • This satellite will assist the researchers in oceanographic studies. • SARAL will study the sea surface heights and ocean currents. • ARGOS-2 will help in collecting the data, while Altikameter will be responsible for measuring the height of sea surface. • SARAL will also assist researchers in studying about the climatic developments. • Its practical applications include study of migration of the marine animals, continental ice studies, protection of biodiversity and coastal erosion.

=Marina Erakovic won her first Women's Tennis Association title, US National Indoor Tennis Championship 2013 after beating Germany's Sabine Lisicki in Memphis on 23 February 2013.

The match merely took place for one set with Marina Erakovic winning 6-1 and Sabine Lisicki unable to begin due to illness.

About Marina Erakovic:

• With this victory, Erakovic became the first women from New Zealand to win WTA Title since Belinda Cordwell in Singapore in 1989. • This is her first career victory.

=Hari Shankar Singhania, the leading industrialist died on 23 February 2013 at the age of 79 years. Hari Shankar Singhania was a Padma Bhushan awardee (in 2003) and was also involved with JK organisation since 1951.

He was also the chairman of International Chamber of Commerce from the time duration of 1993 to 1994. He had remained the president of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in 1979-80.

Hari Shankar Singhania was born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh on 20 June 1933. His ventures had seen businesses in the various sectors such as jute, steel, insurance, textiles, office equipment, aluminium and paint.

About Hari Shankar Singhania:

• Hari Shankar Singhania achieved various recognitions and award, one of which also includes 2008 Paper Industry International Hall of Fame Award. • He had also won Lifetime Achievement Award for Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship in 2010. • In 2005, he won Royal Order of the Polar Star by the king of Sweden for contributing towards the Indo-Swedish business relationships. =The Central Bureau of Investigation registered a case on 22 February 2013 against Bharti Airtel Ltd and Tata Communications Ltd, the giant telecom companies for having link up with the Singapore Telecom for the purpose of international calls, thereby violating norms of Department of Telecom (DoT).

CBI on 24 February 2013 announced that the two companies were charged for causing a loss of around 48 crore Rupees to the Union Government of India since 2004 because of illegal arrangement. CBI filed an FIR in the local court in Delhi after complaints of Communications and IT Ministry.

CBI accused these operators on charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy. Actually, Bharti Airtel Ltd and Tata Communications Ltd had entered into an agreement with the Singapore Telecom for the purpose of international calls, which violates the norms that are laid down by the Department of Telecommunications.

=The two-day inaugural Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) 2013 which was aimed to revive creativity and art of Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan, concluded on 24 February 2013. The LLF 2013 ended with the discussions on literature, celebration of the international and local writers as well as social discourse of past, present and future of the literature.

Chairperson of the LLF's advisory board declared that the first-ever LLF was meant to reclaim and celebrate essence of Pakistani culture.

In the event, people got an opportunity to meet, hear and interact with some of the eminent journalists, artists, intellectuals, authors and many more, at both local and global level. Indian authors who took part in the LLF 2013 were Pran Nevile, Urvashi Butalia and Jeet Thayil.

=61st Cavalry defeated IPG 9-5 ½ in the M3M Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup 2013 to lift the trophy on 24 February 2013. Major Ravi Rathore scored five goals in the Jaipur Polo Ground, New Delhi, thereby giving a comfortable lead to the Cavalry men.

Bhawani Kalvi of IPG managed to score four goals, but could not close the gap, thus losing to the 61st Cavalry in the M3M Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup 2013.

About M3M Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup 2013

• M3M Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup 2013 was the 16th edition of the tournament in which a total of 8 teams participated. The teams which participated in the tournament include Jindal Steel & Power, Elevation, Action Polo, 61st Cavalry, IPG 9-5 ½, Jindal Power, Sahara Warriors and ASC-RVC. • M3M India is the luxury real estate property developer that associated with exclusive sports events such as polo as a part of its marketing strategy. M3M is the sponsor of this Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup 2013 tournament. • Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup was instituted by late Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia of Gwalior, to commemorate Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia. The Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup is patronized by Royal Scindia Family of Gwalior. • Proceeds of the tournament were given to Rajmata Shrimant Vijaya Raje Scindia Centre for Development, which is an NGO that works towards hunger eradication, primary health care, water management, women empowerment and primary education.

=Nicos Anastasiades, the centre-right DISY (the Democratic Rally) party leader won the presidential elections of Cyprus on 24 February 2013 with 57.5 percent votes. The term of his office starts from 28 February 2013.

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

Major challenges to be faced by Nicos Anastasiades

The major challenge that would be faced by Nicos Anastasiades is that Cyprus is standing on the verge of bankruptcy because of knock-on effect of the economic despair of Greece. Nicos Anastasiades after winning therefore declared that his first priority would be to reinstate the credibility of Cyprus. For this, he would favour deals with the foreign lenders.

The economy of Cyprus is in recession. Back in July 2012, Cyprus had also asked European Union for bailout in order to shore up the banks. As a result of the bailout deal for Greece as well as restructuring of debts, private bondholders had to suffer losses, resulting in Cyprus’s banks losing 75 percent of the investments.

New president Nicos Anastasiades would be required to finalise the deal with 16 countries which use Euro as the currency as well as with International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The aim of the newly elected president would also be to exploit the immense natural gas, which in turn would bring energy as well as income.

About Nicos Anastasiades

• Nicos Anastasiades is a 66-year old lawyer and a member of the Cyprus’s parliament since 1981. • He is the leader of centre-right DISY (the Democratic Rally) party since 1997. • Nicos Anastasiades would be replacing the former President of Cyprus, Dimitris Christofias who served the office from 28 February 2008 and will remain into the designation till the end of his term on 28 February 2013. Dimitris Christofias belonged to the Progressive Party of Working People.

Important Facts

• Presidential elections took place in the Republic of Cyprus on 17 February 2013. None of the candidates received 50 percent of the overall votes from first round. Eventually, a runoff took place on 24 February 2013 where Nicos Anastasiades emerged as the winner. • The President of the Republic of Cyprus is also known as the head of the state as well as the head of the government of Cyprus. • The office of the President of Cyprus was formed in 1960 after the country achieved its freedom from the UK.

=UK scientists in the third week of January 2013 discovered a set of hydrothermal vents, the deepest anywhere in the world while exploring the ocean floor in the Caribbean islands. Scientists used ROV (Remotely operated vehicle) in the Cayman Trough to make this discovery. They stumbled across a previously-unknown site nearly 5000m below the surface. In the huge pressure of the sea three miles down, the ROV, which is also known as ISIS, was gently steered around the vents, to take pictures and gather samples.

Hydrothermal vents are among the strangest features of the deep ocean and their existence was hidden until the 1970s. Since then they have been discovered at about 200 sites across the globe which includes the Southern Ocean and the Atlantic. However it was in 2010 that vents were first detected in the Cayman Trough, a deep trench formed by the boundary between two tectonic plates. One set of vents, known as Beebe, was considered as the deepest on record prior to the recent discovery made in the Ocean floor of Caribbean islands.

=Scientists discovered in their study that Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) can detect flowers' electric fields. Scientific study indicated that floral electric fields improve the bees' ability to discriminate between different flowers. When used with visual signals, electrical cues can increase the bee's memory of floral rewards. Scientists hinted that this method of signalling provides speedy and dynamic communication between plants and pollinators.Flowering plants provide pollinators with nectar and pollen in exchange for their assistance in the flowers' sexual reproduction.

Usually, Flowers attract pollinators using cues such as bright colours, patterns and enticing fragrances but this study for the first time revealed the significance of electrostatic information as an additional cue. The investigation done by the scientists put emphasis on the possible importance of electrostatic forces.

=Regional African leaders from Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Republic and South Sudan signed UN-brokered accord which aims to bring peace to the troubled eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The deal was signed in the presence of UN Secretary General Ban Ki- moon in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia.

As many as 800000 people were displaced since rebel group M23 revolted against the DR Congo government in May 2012.The agreement, signed by leaders of the Great Lakes region, will result in setting up of special UN intervention brigade in eastern Congo.

M23 Rebels

As per the statement made by M23 rebels, they want to better the conditions for the people of eastern DR Cong, however UN says they are supported by Rwanda who are responsible for the country's genocide in 1994.

Bosco Ntaganda set up M23. He was an officer in the Rwandan army earlier. Afterwards, he left to join a rebel movement in DR Congo. He is accused of using child soldiers and he controls several mines in the east of the country. The M23 group briefly seized control of the city of Goma in November 2012 after carving out an area for themselves in North Kivu province. Congo's government and rebels are holding talks in Uganda aimed at reaching an agreement on a range of issues. In January 2013, the rebels declared a unilateral ceasefire.

An earlier attempt to reach a deal ended up in failure in December 2012 after the rebels accused President Joseph Kabila of failing to honour a deal to integrate rebels into the army.

The region's mineral resources have been exploited by numerous groups and countries over the past 15 years and little has been aimed at improving DR Congo's infrastructure.

=Silver Linings Playbook won four awards at the Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica on 24 February 2013. The movie won best film, best screenplay, best director for David O Russell and best actress for Jennifer Lawrence at the film awards. The awards were presented by Daniel Radcliffe, Salma Hayek and Jeremy Renner.

John Hawkes got best actor award for portraying the late disabled journalist in The Sessions. Hawkes hoped that the movie would help change perceptions of disability. Other major highlights of the award function are as following:- • Best foreign film went to Oscar favourite Amour, directed by Michael Haneke. • Best documentary award was won by The Invisible War, which addresses rape and sexual abuse in the US military. • The best first feature prize went to Perks of Being a Wallflower, which stars Emma Watson.

=NASA scientists spotted the youngest black hole yet in the Milky Way galaxy called W49B, which is just 1000- years-old and only 26000 light-years away from Earth. New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggested a highly distorted supernova remnant may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy.

NASA explained that W49B appears to be the product of a rare explosion in which matter is ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star. Laura Lopez, who led the study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that W49B is the first of its kind to be discovered in the galaxy. Usually when a massive star runs out of fuel, the central region of the star collapses, triggering a chain of events that quickly culminate in a supernova explosion.

Most of these explosions are generally symmetrical, with the stellar material blasting away more or less evenly in all directions. However, in the W49B supernova, material near the poles of the doomed rotating star was ejected at a much higher speed than material emanating from its equator. The remnant now glows brightly in X-rays and other wavelengths, offering the evidence for a peculiar explosion. By tracing the distribution and amounts of different elements in the stellar debris field, researchers were able to compare the Chandra data to theoretical models of how a star explodes.

A careful search of the Chandra data revealed no evidence for a neutron star. The lack of such evidence implies a black hole may have formed. =Assam became the first state in India to produce over 500 million kilogram tea for two years in a row. Assam produced five hundred 88 million kilogram of tea in 2012, which is 53 percent of the country’s total tea production. Earlier in 2011, 5 hundred 89 million kilogram tea was produced in the state.

According to an estimate, over seven thousand five hundred crore rupee turn-over was recorded in Assam tea sector in 2012. It may be recalled that around seven lakh workers are engaged in the tea sector. Fifty percent of them are women.

=India's Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie-Mattek Sands won the Dubai Tennis Championship on 23 February 2013. The Indo-American duo defeated the second seeded Russian-Slovenian combination of Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik, 6-4, 2-6, 10-7. Sania bagged her second Doubles title of the season.

Meanwhile, Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova yesterday clinched the Women's Singles trophy. In the finals, she defeated Sara Errani of Italy, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 to win her career's 10th title.

=The Reserve Bank of India on 22 February 2013 released the Guidelines for Licensing of New Banks in the Private Sector. The guidelines issued by the Apex Bank have opened gates for private players as well as the finance firms to enter into the strictly regulated banking sector of India.

Key Features of the issued Guidelines:

(i) Eligible Promoters: Entities / groups in the private sector, entities in public sector and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) shall be eligible to set up a bank through a wholly-owned Non-Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC).

(ii) Fit and Proper criteria: Entities / groups should have a past record of sound credentials and integrity, be financially sound with a successful track record of 10 years. For this purpose, RBI may seek feedback from other regulators and enforcement and investigative agencies.

(iii) Corporate structure of the NOFHC: The NOFHC shall be wholly owned by the Promoter / Promoter Group. The NOFHC shall hold the bank as well as all the other financial services entities of the group.

(iv) Minimum voting equity capital requirements for banks and shareholding by NOFHC: The initial minimum paid-up voting equity capital for a bank shall be `5 billion. The NOFHC shall initially hold a minimum of 40 per cent of the paid-up voting equity capital of the bank which shall be locked in for a period of five years and which shall be brought down to 15 per cent within 12 years. The bank shall get its shares listed on the stock exchanges within three years of the commencement of business by the bank. (v) Regulatory framework: The bank will be governed by the provisions of the relevant Acts, relevant Statutes and the Directives, Prudential regulations and other Guidelines/Instructions issued by RBI and other regulators. The NOFHC shall be registered as a non-banking finance company (NBFC) with the RBI and will be governed by a separate set of directions issued by RBI.

(vi) Foreign shareholding in the bank: The aggregate non-resident shareholding in the new bank shall not exceed 49% for the first 5 years after which it will be as per the extant policy.

(vii) Corporate governance of NOFHC: At least 50% of the Directors of the NOFHC should be independent directors. The corporate structure should not impede effective supervision of the bank and the NOFHC on a consolidated basis by RBI.

(viii) Prudential norms for the NOFHC: The prudential norms will be applied to NOFHC both on stand-alone as well as on a consolidated basis and the norms would be on similar lines as that of the bank.

(ix) Exposure norms: The NOFHC and the bank shall not have any exposure to the Promoter Group. The bank shall not invest in the equity / debt capital instruments of any financial entities held by the NOFHC.

(x) Business Plan for the bank: The business plan should be realistic and viable and should address how the bank proposes to achieve financial inclusion.

(xi) Other conditions for the bank: The Board of the bank should have a majority of independent Directors. • The bank shall open at least 25 per cent of its branches in unbanked rural centres (population up to 9,999 as per the latest census) • The bank shall comply with the priority sector lending targets and sub-targets as applicable to the existing domestic banks. • Banks promoted by groups having 40 per cent or more assets/income from non-financial business will require RBI’s prior approval for raising paid-up voting equity capital beyond `10 billion for every block of `5 billion. • Any non-compliance of terms and conditions will attract penal measures including cancellation of licence of the bank.

(xii) Additional conditions for NBFCs promoting / converting into a bank: Existing NBFCs, if considered eligible, may be permitted to promote a new bank or convert themselves into banks.

Background

The guidelines for the Licensing of New Banks in the Private Sector were finalized after amending the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 in December 2012.

=Uttar Pradesh Budget 2013-14: 221201.19 crore rupees Budget Planned

The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on 19 February 2013 presented a budget of 221201.19 crore rupees for the fiscal year 2013-2014 in the Vidhan Sabha. The budget presented for the upcoming fiscal year is 10.5 percent more than the budget presented in the 2012-13 fiscal year. The budget has not presented any new tax.

The state finance ministry of Uttar Pradesh is led by the Chief Minister of the State Akhilesh Yadav himself. The new budget had levied no new taxes but estimated a deficit of 2.94 percent in the new financial year.

Important points of the state budget 2013-14

• People with annual income less than 36000 rupees will be provided free houses in the state • Free education for girls in degree colleges, both in government and government aided colleges • 750 crore rupees was allocated for a loan waiver for farmers.

Budgetary Allocation of Money

• 32886 crore rupees for Education • 20292 crore rupees for Social Welfare Schemes • 10,654 crore rupees for Health • 26,641 crore rupees for developing Infrastructure and Value-Addition on Bridges, Roads, Flyovers, Expressways, this is 25 percent more than the allocation made in 2012-13 budget • 17,774 crore rupees for Agriculture • 1,200 crore rupees for unemployment allowance • 100 crore rupees for the development of Poorvanchal • The state Government have allotted a sum of 350 crore rupees for its scheme Hamari Beti Ushka Kal • 20292.92 crore rupees have been allocated for uplifting of SCs, STs, OBCs, physically handicapped, Minority groups as well as BPL families of general category

The budget has displayed a revenue loss of 3 percent (24000 crore rupees) in the GDP. The budget has assured construction of 313 junior schools and 1200 primary schools in the 2013-14 fiscal year. =The Silk Route Car rally from Kolkata to Kunming organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and supported by the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation (BCIM) was flagged off on 22 February 2013 from Helipad Ground in Salt Lake Stadium, West Bengal.

In its 3000 kilometer long journey the car rally will pass from North-East of India to Bangladesh than will enter back to North-East and then to Myanmar to head towards China. The rally will end on 5 March 2013 at Kunming, China.

A total of eighty participants from India, China, Bangladesh and Myanmar in 20 SUVs will rally on the ancient trade route that have remained closed for more than six decades, post World War II. Success of the rally may help in redefining the ancient trade route and bring out the trade potential of the region.

=Justice Usha Mehra Commission on 22 February 2013 submitted its report to on the 16 December 2012 Delhi gang-rape incident to the Union Government of India. The report was received by the Union Minister of Law and Justice Ashwani Kumar and the Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh.

Major findings of the Usha Mehra Commission

• Lack of Coordination between the Police and the transport department • Lack of cooperation between the police of National Capital Territory and National Capital Region plays a great role in escape of the criminals from one place to another • Lack of PCR vans and public transport facility in Delhi

Usha Mehra Commission

The Usha Mehra Commission was constituted by the Union Government on 26 December 2012 to inquire into the different aspects of the brutal rape and assault incident of the girl on 16 December 2012 on the streets of Delhi. The commission was asked to submit the report within three months. Retired Delhi High Court Judge, Usha Mehra was the head of this commission.

=The Union Cabinet of India approved merger of Bharat Heavy Plate & Vessels Ltd. (BHPV) Vishakhapatnam with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) on 21 February 2013. After the merger, BHVP will be a unit of BHEL.

Post-merger, BHVP will be able to participate in the tenders as well as obtain the orders.

Bharat Heavy Plate & Vessels Ltd. (BHPV)

Bharat Heavy Plate & Vessels Ltd. (BHPV) is the engineering and heavy fabrication company which was established back in 1966 in Andhra Pradesh. The company had suffered immense loss because of various reasons.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL)

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) acquired BHPV in 2008 as 100 percent subsidiary. However, because BHVP was a separate company, therefore it was not able to derive complete benefits.

=National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) tied up a term loan facility of 250 million US dollars with the State Bank of India, New York Branch as well as Singapore Branch of Mizuho Corporate Bank Limited.

The agreement for the loan was signed in New York. The loan will empower NTPC for making use of the proceeds of loan towards capital expenditure for procurement of goods and services for new as well as ongoing projects. It will also help NTPC in modernization as well as renovation of stations of this corporation.

The loan signed by NTPC will carry a floating rate of interest associated to LIBOR. It also has door to door maturity of 7 years.

With execution of this term loan facility, NTPC raised a total of 750 million US Dollars in 2012-2013 fiscal year, which is the maximum amount allowed under the Automatic Route of the ECB guidelines issued by the Central Bank of India- RBI.

=Ratan Tata, the former head of Tata Group was awarded the life time achievement award 2012 by Ernst & Young on 21 February 2013. He was given away the award for displaying great role for the Indian businessmen on global business level.

The entrepreneur of the year (2012) award was given away to Adi Godrej, Godrej Group Chairman. It is important to note that entrepreneur of the year award is an only business award which is based on self-nomination.

Also, Ernst & Young announced names of successful entrepreneurs in various categories and these awards were given away to TT Jagannathan, Chairman, TTK Group; Francisco D’Souza, Chief Executive Officer, Cognizant Technology Solutions; Cyrus S Poonawalla, Managing Director, Serum Institute of India and Onkar S Kanwar, Chairman and Managing Director, Apollo Tyres.

=The UTTIPEC (Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure Planning and Engineering Centre) on 21 February 2013 started efforts for developing vision as well as strategy for successful implementation of the plans for mass-rapid transport system in Delhi. Already, pilot projects along the four metro corridors as well as Karkardooma have got in-principal approval for first phase of transit-oriented development (TOD).

UTTIPEC is the division of Delhi Development Authority. It has plans for conducting around 25 workshops in coming months which would focus on metro corridors between Chattarpur to Arjangarh and Peeragarhi to Teekri Kalan. The aim of these workshops is to create awareness about TOD policy. Also, the workshops will include concerns raised by stakeholders such as NGOs, RWAs, DTC, DMRC, private transporters, DTC as well as other experts.

UTTIPEC planners on 21 February 2013 emphasised on the fact that TOD system would help in making the transport system friendly to women, cyclists and walkers.

Aim of TOD

The aim of TOD is building mass-rapid transport hubs which will have inner zone of 300 metres radius that would be called intense-zone. This intense-zone will give preference to non-motorised transport, pedestrians as well as high-density mixed use development.

Two other concentric zones of 800 metres and 2 km will be built with equal road-space distribution and high-density street network.

Nine themes

The workshops would create strategies as well as plans which would have nine themes and these are:

• visualising of the TOD-based development • economic feasibility and market testing • strategy for sustainable infrastructure • transferring development rights as well as its implementation • strategy for incentivising redevelopment • strategy for sustainable transport infrastructure • strategy for effective parking • strategy for rolling out the TOD

In order to select the models for retrofitting, green-field development and redevelopment, design competitions will be held.

=Telecom Regulator Authority of India (TRAI) started the pre-consultation process for the country-wide mobile number portability services which will enable the users to have the same number even if they change their service area.

As of now, mobile number portability (MNP) services were available in one service area only. But with the help of country-wide MNP services, the users would be able to have same number even if they change their location state- wise.

TRAI announced that it would seek views from the stakeholders on certain issues through the pre-consultation paper. TRAI asked the stakeholders to offer their views by 7 March 2013 on methods or techniques that needed to be used for implementation of full MNP, number portability from one service area to another as well as amendments needed in the existing regulation.

At present, TRAI announced, that there were two MNP service providers which catered to 22 service areas. Implementing complete MNP service would have issues associated with processing of these porting requests, charging, routing, testing as well as much more. Also, there would be a need to ensure connectivity between the MNP service providers.

As per the present MNP regulations, the time required for completing porting for North East, J&K as well as Assam is 15 working days. In other service areas, this time is 7 working days.

=Two bomb blasts took place in Dilsukhnagar, the busy shopping area of Hyderabad, the Capital City of Andhra Pradesh on 21 February 2013. 14 people were reported dead and 119 were critically injured in the serial blasts that rocked the city around 6:50 pm.

Investigations were ordered by both the Central Government and the State Government to find out the group involved in the blast. The State Government of Andhra Pradesh appointed a probe team into the matter.

The blasts were triggered using the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), which were placed on two different bicycles at a distance of 100 meters from each other near Konark and Venkatadri theatres. The area of blasts lie on the Hyderabad-Vijaywada National Highway within Cyberabad police limits.

Dilsukhnagar

Dilsukhnagar is a commercial and educational hub of Hyderabad. The market of Dilsukhnagar is packed with shops, restaurants, educational institutions, exam preparation centers and theaters.

Blasts in recent past in Hyderabad

A bomb blast occurred at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad in May 2007 claiming lives of 9 people. =T. S. Vijayan, the former LIC chief took over as the Chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) on 21 February 2013. Vijayan will succeed J. Hari Narayan. J. Hari Narayan completed the five- year term on 20 February 2013.

The tenure for IRDA chairman is five years or till 65 years.

T. S. Vijayan will take over as the Chairman of IRDA when the entire industry is facing meltdown. The challenges which will be faced by him include taking the insurance industry to rural areas as well as simplifying the insurance products.

=Hamadi Jebali resigned from the office of the Prime Minister of Tunisia on 19 February 2013 after his attempt to end a political standoff by formation of a Government of Technocrats failed. Hamadi Jebali was trying to create coalition because of the political crisis which took birth by killing of Chokri Belaid, the opposition leader.

A cabinet of apolitical technocrats was proposed by Jebali to suppress the disorder created after the assassination of the secular opposition politician Chokri Belaid on 6 February 2013. Belaid, an outspoken critic of the government and a leaning lawyer was shot dead and his death created a situation of mass protests across the nation.

Assassination of Chokri Belaid on 6 February 2013 led to mass protests as well as resignations from the coalition government of Tunisia.

About Hamadi Jebali

Hamadi Jebali is the Tunisian Islamist politician, who remained in office as the PM from December 2011 to 19 February 2013. He was also the Secretary-General of the Ennahda Movement which is the Islamist party in Tunisia. He belonged to the Ennahda Movement political party of Tunisia. He is a member of the Islamist Ennahda party.

=The survey released by Aon Hewitt, the HR consulting firm, on 20 February 2013 depicted that there would be a double-digit increase in the salary of Corporate India in 2013. However, the economic meltdown might have adverse effect on these calculations. The survey depicted that increments on an average basis in India would be 10.3 percent in comparison to 10.7 percent in 2012.

Sector-Wise increment

• The sector which is expected to have the highest increment is pharmaceutical sector that would witness a hike at 13.5 percent. • Certain other sectors will also witness a hike and these are medical devices (12.6 percent), consumer business (11.8 percent) and life sciences (13.1 percent). • The FMCG sector, on the other hand would witness an increase in salary of 12.3 percent on the grounds of expectation of increased consumer demand due to foreign multi-brand retailers entering market after government enabled FDI.

Hike projections on a global level

The salary projections for 2013 are seen healthy because in 2009, the projections were 6.6 percent. Even though India will receive a hike of 10.3 percent, but Hewitt announced that increment in India would rank among the top-5 on the global level. The top five increment receivers will be Venezuela (25.6 percent), Argentina (24.2 percent), Vietnam (12.6 percent), Tanzania (10.6 percent) and India (10.3 percent).

Increment will be on the low side in US (2.7 percent) and UK (3 percent). Even China which is said to be the economy which grows faster, will witness a low hike of 9.3 percent.

For conducting the survey, Hewitt studied a total of 518 organisations across 20 industries as well as 30 sub classifications.

=Virat Kohli on 20 February 2013 was appointed as he Captain of the IPL Franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League. Kohli will be the successor of Daniel Vettori as the new captain of the team.

Virat Kohli and IPL Records

• He is the 11th highest run-scorer in the history of IPL, with 1693 runs with a strike rate of 119.28 • He is the longest serving member of the team RCB • He has appeared in a total of 77 matches and this is the highest by any player of RCB and third most appearances by any player in the IPL

=The State Government of Kerala on 20 February 2013 approved Kerala Abkari Act Amendment Ordinance 2013 that envisaged raising age limit for buying or selling liquor from 18 years to 21 years.

The new policy was announced in 2012, according to which Congress had committed to raise liquor buying and selling age from 18 to 21 years. This was aimed at bringing down the consumption of liquor in Kerala.

Apart from this, the Kerala Abkari Act Amendment Ordinance 2013 would obligate showing statutory warnings for movies and television, against the consumption of liquor.

=The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) on 20 February 2013 cleared the proposal of the Power Ministry to set up the North Karanpura Super Thermal Power Plant (NKSTPP) (3 x 660 MW) near Tandwa town in Chatra district of Jharkhand by the National Thermal Power Corporation, NTPC.

The CCI also agreed for restoring the original coal linkage for the project and declared that the project will be based on environment friendly super-critical technology. This supply will be made available in the 13th Five Year Plan.

The safeguards of the project was recommended by the Chaturvedi Committee were accepted by the Group of Ministers that was chaired by the Finance Minister of Indian Union.

The power project is being developed for generation of 1980 MW power. The Plant is expected to generate electricity for a period of about 35 years.

=The Government of Bulgaria resigned from the office on 20 February 2013 on grounds of protests in the nation against the high electricity prices. The Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Boiko Borisov earlier tried to bring peace by sacking the finance minister and assured cutting the power prices as well as punishing the foreign-owned companies.

Cause of resignation of Bulgaria’s Government

Bulgarians held protests in the country because of concerns over higher energy costs, lower living standards, power monopolies as well as corruption.

The Boiko Borisov on 20 February 2013 announced his resignation. While announcing his resignation, Boiko Borisov did not mention anything about the parliamentary elections which are scheduled for July 2013.

Important Facts:

• Bulgaria is located in Southeastern Europe. It is the 14th largest country of Europe. • Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Boiko Borisov belonged to the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, which is abbreviated as GERB (Grazhdani za evropeysko razvitie na Balgariya). • It is the center-right political party of Bulgaria which was established in 2006. It has remained a ruling party in Bulgaria since 2009, headed by Boiko Borisov.

=The Malaysian Authorities on 19 February 2013 lifted the ban imposed on the screening of the Tamil movie Vishwaroopam, directed and produced by Kamal Haasan for public screening.

Earlier on 24 January 2013 the authorities approved the screening of the movie in Malaysia but following the directives released by the Home Ministry that the content of the movie portrayed Islam in a negative light, the approval was withdrawn.

The movie received a go-ahead in Malaysia after the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) and the National Censorship Board studied the movie from all aspects including religious and security fronts and gave a green signal to its screening.

=The ground controllers of NASA re-established its contact with International Space Station in just less than 3 hours after the computer failure had blocked their communication.

The flight controllers of Houston were updating the ISS software when the data relay system broke down. But ISS was able to irregularly contact NASA through the Russian stations. Usually, NASA communicates to ISS from Houston through three communication satellites.

Interruptions like these have happened certain times in past.

The main problem was that the primary computer that has the responsibility of controlling the critical functions of the ISS defaulted to the backup computer. But it did not allow the ISS to communicate with the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites of NASA.

=The monthly trade deficit of Japan hit record in January 2013 after the aggressive monetary policy weakened Yen, its currency considerably.

The exports increased in January, which was the first increase in 8 months time. Exports of Japan increased because the goods became affordable for the foreign buyers. However, because of the weakened Yen, the import bill also increased which eventually led to a monthly trade deficit of 1.6tn yen or 17.1 billion US dollars. This was the 10 percent increase from 2012.

The deficit of Japan was also affected because of an increase in the fuel imports. Japan is the third largest economy of the world and there was an increase in the fuel imports because most of the nuclear reactors of the country remained shut down.

The imports of the country increased 7.3 percent in January 2013 from January 2012. The highest jump was in import of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) which increased over 28 percent. In the meanwhile, exports also increased 6.4 percent. The exports were driven considerably by shipment of the manufactured goods.

Factors affecting Japan’s export

• The exports of Japan are crucial factors that drive its economic growth. Exports of Japan were affected because of various factors. These factors are as follows: • Demand from the biggest markets of Japan, Eurozone, was hurt because of ongoing debt crisis of the region. • Territorial dispute with the biggest trading partner of Japan, i.e., China hit the sales of goods produced by Japan over the duration of past certain months. • The exports also declined to the European Union during January 2013.

=A 1000 page report submitted by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) to the finance ministry estimated that unlawful wealth would exceed 10 percent or more of GDP, i.e., above 10 lakh crore Rupees as per the size of the economy. The study was commissioned by NIPFP in last week of December 2012 in order to quantify the black money that was generated in India.

The study conducted by NIPFP was headed by the head of NIPFP's tax policy and research and also included former director general of income tax investigation. The report presented a sector-wise division of the scope of black money in India, for example, telecom sector, mining sector and real estate sector.

A similar study like this was conducted last time by NIPFP in 1984 where it was estimated that black money generated in India was 19 percent to 21 percent of GDP, i.e., up to 36000 crore Rupees.

The government, in order to combat this had also selected three thinking tanks in March 2011 in order to estimate the quantum of black money. These three thinking tanks were- National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM), National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCEAR) and National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP).

Before this, NIPFP had also carried out the studies in 1976 and 1981 where it was estimated that black money in India was around 15-18 percent of GDP and 18-21 percent of GDP respectively.

The previous estimated of black money generated in India, as per the study of NIPFP are as follows:

• 1975-76: 15-18 percent of GDP, i.e., 9958 to 11870 crore Rupees • 1980-81: 18-21 percent of GDP, i.e., 20362 to 23678 crore Rupees • 1983-84: 19-21 percent of GDP, i.e., 31584 to 36784 crore Rupees

About National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP)

• National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) is the centre for research in public finance and public policy. It was established in 1976. • Primary aim of NIPFP is contributing to policy making in areas which are related to public economics. • The annual grant-in-aid is received by NIPFP from Ministry of Finance, Government of India and from various State Governments. =Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel on 19 February 2013 announced a coalition deal with the rival centrist Hatnua Party Chairwomen and the former Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, at Jerusalem. Under the deal agreement, Livni will serve as the new Justice Minister and will oversee the peace efforts with the Palestinians.

Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu is the Prime Minister of Israel and the leader of the Right Wing bloc of Israel. His party won the hard fought general elections on 23 January 2013 but felled shot of majority.

Tzipi Livni

Tzipi Livni is an Israeli Politician and the first women to be the leader of opposition in Israel. She is the leader of the new centrist party, Hatnuah. She served Israel as its Foreign Minister from 2006 to 2009.

=India and Sri Lanka on 22 January 2013 signed two agreements for fighting against international terrorism as well as avoiding double taxation. The agreements were signed after 8th India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting which was held in New Delhi.

Discussions held during 8th India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting

• The agreements were signed after discussions on cooperation on various areas such as civil nuclear energy and many more. External Affairs Minister led the Indian side in the meeting, while the Sri Lankan side was led by G L Peiris. • Issue of the fishermen as well as rehabilitation process of the Tamils in Sri Lanka was also discussed during the meeting. • Apart from this, 13th Amendment of the Lankan constitution which provides autonomy to the provinces was also discussed.

It is important to note that India and Sri Lanka are the largest trade partners of each other in South Asia.

After the meeting, it was agreed that a dialogue between the Commerce Secretary of India and Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development of Sri Lanka would be initiated to progress the framework for special economic partnership between these two nations.

=Milos Raonic on 17 February 2013 won SAP Open 2013 at San Jose defeating Tommy Haas in the championship match. Milos Raonic completed the tournament with 6-4, 6-3 victory over Haas.

Raonic won third straight SAP Open singles titles. With this victory, he became first player to grab the trophy for three years consecutively, since Tony Trabert in 1953-55.

On the other hand, in SAP Open 2013 doubles final, Xavier Malisse and Frank Moser beat Lleyton Hewitt and Marinko Matosevic 6-0, 6-7(5), 10-4 to lift the trophy.

About Milos Raonic

• Milos Raonic has the 13th world ranking. • After this victory, he has four career titles out of which three came from San Jose only. Before winning the SAP Open 2013 singles titles, he has also won SAP Open 2011 and SAP Open 2012 singles titles. • Milos Raonic is basically a Canadian professional tennis player.

About SAP Open

• SAP Open commenced in 1889 and it was called Pacific Coast Championships at the Old Del Monte Lodge in California. • SAP Open is the second-oldest tennis tournament in US. • SAP Open 2013 was last tournament held in Bay Area. Future tournament will have Rio de Janeiro as the venue. • In SAP Open 2013, highest ranked player was Milos Raonic who ranked number 13th.

=The State Government of Rajasthan on 19 February 2013 decided to constitute a task force to control Swine Flu effectively. Chief Secretary of the State, CK Matthew was appointed as the head of the task force constituted.

The state had witnessed 148 cases of death and 834 positive cases since April 2012. A central team that constitutes of five doctors and microbiologist is on the state visit and would pay a visit to Jodhpur, Ajmer and Bikaner, areas worst affected from the disease. A report is to be submitted by this team to the Union Ministry based on which the Ministry will frame a strategy to curb the menace of Swine-Flu.

=Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) on 19 February 2013 confirmed the use of goal-line technology during the 2014 FIFA World Cup to be organised in Brazil. It also stated that the technology could be introduced in the next season’s Premier league.

FIFA had invited tenders from more service providers of the technology to conduct an official bidding ahead of the Confederations Cup to be held in June 2013.

Introduction of the technology in football is being insisted to provide a high-tech aid to the World Cup referees to rule on the disputed incidents. IFAB, the rule making panel of FIFA in July 2012 decided to approve the goal-line technology for the competitive matches after it passed an extensive test conducted by the body.

The decision by FIFA was expected once its rule-making panel, known as IFAB, decided last July to approve goal- line technology at competitive matches after two systems passed extensive tests.

Goal-Line Technology (GLT)

Goal-line Technology is a technology that is used to determine the fact that has the ball passed the goal-line or not with the support of an electronic-device to help the referee decided to take a call that either it was a goal or not.

=The Union Government of India on 18 February 2013 cancelled the bond auctions worth 12000 crore Rupees, thereby bringing down the market borrowing programme for 2012-2013 fiscal year in order to contain fiscal deficit at 5.3 percent.

With this decision, the overall market borrowing of government in 2012-2013 fiscal year came down to 5.58 lakh crore Rupees from 5.70 lakh crore Rupees as imagined in 2012-2013 budget. The Finance Ministry announced that after reviewing the cash position as well as the funding requirement of the government, it was decided that market borrowing of the Government through dated securities by 12000 crore Rupees would be reduced.

Also, the auction for these dated securities which was scheduled to be held on 22 February 2013 was cancelled. As of now, the government borrowed 3.7 lakh crore Rupees in first half of the fiscal year which ended on 30 September 2012. This is 65 percent of the overall planned borrowing.

The Government also gave directions to the ministries to control the non-plan expenditure from January to March quarter.

=The State Government of Uttar Pradesh on 18 February 2013 appointed Onkareshwar Bhatt, the retired Justice of Allahabad High Court to conduct Judicial Probe into the Allahabad Railway Station Stampede that occurred during Kumbh Mela. The constituted committee that will probe into the matter is a one-man committee and was directed to submit its report in two months.

The State Government ordered a Judicial Probe into the incident that occurred on the day of Mauni Amawasya 10 February 2013 at the Allahabad Railway Station during Kumbh Mela.

Other Two Committees conducting Inquiry on the Case

• Earlier, the state Government appointed Jagan Mathuews, Chairman of the UP Board of Revenue to conduct an inquiry and submit its report within one month. • Railways have also appointed an Inquiry Committee being headed by the Additional member traffic Railway Board, to look into the matter

An inquiry committee that was constituted by the Railways to look into the matter; the committee is being headed by the Additional member traffic Railway Board.

=Radhakishan Malviya, the former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha Member from Madhya Pradesh died on 19 February 2013 at a private hospital in Indore after suffering from a brief illness. He died at the age of 68.

Radhakishan Malviya

• He was a veteran Congress Leader and was elected MLA from Sanver in Indore district in 1972. • He served the country as Labour Minister in mid 1980s in the Rajiv Gandhi Government. • He was elected as the MP to Rajya Sabha three times • During the tenure of Digvijay Singh as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Malviya was the President of Congress Committee from 1998 to 2003 • He served as the national President for the Harijan Sevak Sangh

=Rafael Nadal on 17 February 2013 won the finals of Brazil Open 2013 by defeating Argentinean David Nalbandian in straight sets by 6-2, 6-3 in Sao Paolo. He won the tournament for the second time; he won it for the first time in 2005.

This was the second tournament for the former world number 1 Spanish tennis star after returning back from to the game after seven months. He was absent from the game due to the knee injury that he suffered from.

His next event is Mexican Open that is scheduled to start on 25 February in Acapulco.

Brazil Open

The tournament is a part of ATP World Tour 250 Series and is held annually in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is a one of the important tournaments held in Brazil and is played on the South American Clay Court circuit since 2004.

=Dabur India on 18 February 2013 launched Dabur Babool + Salt Powder Toothpaste and roped in actor Irrfan Khan to endorse the brand, as a new face for the product, Babool Salt. Irrfan Khan had been roped in with the brand for being featured in its 360 degree media campaign.

The product Babool Salt is a combination of traditional ingredients salt and babool extracts. It is manufactured after conducting a strong research and development activity to provide consumers the best product for dental care. The toothpaste will be available in the market in three different packaging.

Availability of the Toothpaste

• 200gm (with a free toothbrush) at Rs 44 • 100gm (with a free toothbrush) at Rs 28 • 40gm at Rs 10 (inaugural price)

=Researchers in the third week of February 2013 detected water traces inside the crystalline structure of one of the oldest lunar rocks which were obtained through Apollo missions on Moon. As per the study conducted by University of Michigan, the lunar highlands represent original crust which is actually crystallised from Magma Ocean that was found mainly on the molten early Moon.

Researchers made use of the Infrared spectroscopy for analysing water content in a part of plagioclase feldspar from lunar anorthosites. Plagioclase feldspar from lunar anorthosites are basically the lunar rocks which are formed of over 90 percent plagioclase.

It is believed that these bright-coloured highlands rocks formed early in the history of the moon when plagioclase crystallised from the magma ocean and came up to the surface. The infrared spectroscopy work found out about the presence of 6 parts per million of water in lunar anorthosites.

The water content that was measured is not actually liquid water but hydroxyl groups which were distributed in mineral grain. These hydroxyl groups that were detected are evident that the interior of the Moon contained water during the early molten state of it. Later the crust was solidified and played a crucial role in lunar basalts developments.

Because there are some oldest rocks from the Moon, therefore it is believed that water would have been there in the Moon when it was formed. Earlier theories revealed that Moon was formed when the Mars-sized body bumped into the young Earth. Eventually the debris broke off and combined into new body. It was believed that a lot of water would have been evaporated in the space, leaving Moon arid. =The Afghan government on 18 February 2013 prohibited its security forces from taking any air support from the International Forces during security operations in residential areas of the country. The government also instructed the security forces to respect human rights during the security operations.

The order came after the death of at least ten civilians, including women and children in an air strike by the International Forces in the north-eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan recently. =Mritunjay Singh was appointed as the new joint Chief Operation Officer (COO) of the Persistent Systems, a software product and technology service providing company. At this post, Mritunjay had been made responsible for managing the operations of the company and work alongside the Executive Director and COO, Nitin Kulkarni.

Mritunjay Singh had joined Persistent Systems from Infosys, where he served as the delivery head for the financial services and insurance application development and maintenance unit. He was also the head of Infosys Pune development centre.

Persistent Systems

Persistent Systems is a company of global repute, with an employee base of about 6000 employees. The company specializes in software product and technology services and serves customers in the global market, with services like Mobility, Analytic's and Collaboration, Cloud Computing and others.

=Samsung Electronics launchedWiFi-only Galaxy Camera in February 2013. Just like the original Galaxy Camera, the new WiFi-only Galaxy Camera is powered by Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) operating system. It also includes dual- band Wi-Fi connectivity option.

The Galaxy Camera (Wi-Fi) is equipped with all those features which are also present in original Galaxy Camera, with the only difference being absence of 3G/4G connection.

The Galaxy Camera (Wi-Fi) allows the users to make use of the dual-band Wi-Fi technology which already comes embedded into this device. This allows users to share the pictures with others through social networks and emails from their device.

Features and Specifications of Galaxy Camera (Wi-Fi)

• It comes with 21x super long zoom lens. • The Galaxy Camera (Wi-Fi) has 16 megapixel BSI CMOS. • The camera features 4.8-inch (121.2mm) HD Super Clear Touch Display. • Photo and video editing tools are also pre-loaded in the camera. These tools are called Photo Wizard and Video Editor respectively. • Galaxy Camera (Wi-Fi) is powered by 1.4GHz Quad-Core processor.

=Abhishek Kapoor's Kai Po Chebased on the novel of Chetan Bhagat- 3 Mistakes of My Life was premiered on 18 February 2013.

Produced by Sidharth Roy Kapur, the movie premier witnessed some Bollywood stars such as Vidya Balan, Hrithik Roshan and his wife Sussanne Roshan as well as Ranveer Singh.

Kai Po Che is the Bollywood debut of Sushant Singh Rajput as well as Amit Sadh. The plot of the movie revolves around three friends, the characters of whom are played by Sushant, Amit and Rajkumar Yadav.

Kai Po Che will release on 22 February 2013. In the third week of February 2013, the movie attracted many at Berlin Film Festival.

Meaning of the phrase Kai Po Che

Kai Po Che is actually a Gujarati phrase which means I have cut. It relates to the kite competition where a competitor after cutting others’ kite shouts Kai Po Che. =Viswanathan Anand, the World Champion in Chess from India won the Grenke Chess Classic trophy of 2013 after defeating Arkadij Naiditsch from Germany on 17 February 2013. To secure his win in the Grenke Chess Classic, Anand also defeated Fabiano Caruana from Italy. This was his first title of the year.

The 43 years old Anand, managed to take a 49 move win against Arkadij with his black pieces to claim the title for his all-play-all tournament title in five years. Anand last won a title in March 2008 at Linares, when he topped the field with 8.5 points in the eight player field. In January 2013, Anand finished at third position in the Tata Steel at Wijk aan Zee in although he lost the first round to Wang Hao from China.

Standings of Players Point wise:

1. Viswanathan Anand from India (6.5/10) 2. Fabiano Caruana from Italy (6/10) 3. Michael Adams from England (5/10) 4. Georg Meier from Germany (5/10) 5. Arkadij Naiditsch from Germany (4/10) 6. Daniel Fridman from Germany (3.5/10)

=India and the UAE agreed to improve their trade and investment relations during the first meeting of India-UAE High Level Task Force on Investmentin Abu Dhabi on 18 February 2013. UAE decided to invest 2 billion dollars in Infrastructure sector projects in India and the two countries decided to work for and support Strategic Oil Reserve in India. The meeting was co-chaired by the Union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles, Anand Sharma and Sheikh Hamid Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court.

As a part of the bilateral agreement, Five high level sub committees will be set up to promote investment in infrastructure and energy, trade and investment, manufacturing and technology, Information and communications technology and aviation sectors. India and UAE also decided to work together for third country projects, including Africa aimed at collaborating in the infrastructure sector and oil and gas exploration. The two countries also agreed to put in place Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement(BIPA).

=The first wildlife skywalk of India will be coming up in Maenam wildlife sanctuary, Sikkim. The State Government of Sikkim proposed to construct 22 km rope-way from Maenam sanctuary to skywalk which would be built on edge of Bhalleydhunga steep face.

This will also have rain shelter as well as public conveniences. Maenam wildlife sanctuary in Sikkim is 65 km south from Gangtok, the capital of the state. It is a popular tourist destination as well.

The environment ministry too has approved the proposal of Sikkim government for the first wildlife skywalk of India proposal that would cost 500 crore Rupees. This skywalk would be like the one in Grand Canyon in North America. The skywalk in Grand Canyon in North America gets more than 300000 visitors every year, inspite of opposition from the wild-lifers.

=The Court of Arbitration at The Hague on 18 February 2013 allowed India to go ahead with the Construction of the Kishanganga hydro-electric project in Gurez valley near Bandipura in North Kashmir, the court rejected the plea of Pakistan that the construction was a violation of 1960 Indus Water Treaty.

The Court of Arbitration, chaired by Stephen M. Schwebel in its orders stated that India can move ahead with the diversion of water plans of Kishanganga that is a tributary of Jhelum, for generation of hydro-electric power. But it restrained India from adoption of the drawdown technique of flushing for clearing the sedimentation of the run-of- the river project that had been designed and asked it to adopt a different technique for generation of 330 MW power facilities. The Court had also demanded the environmental flows statistics of the project.

Bhaswati Mukherjee, Indian Ambassador and her Pakistani counterpart Fauzia Mazhar Sana received the Judgment of the Court at The Hague.

Pakistan initiated the arbitration against India with a charge that India violated the provisions of the Water Treaty between the two countries. But India denied the charges forced on to it by explain that the country reserved its rights to divert the water from one of the tributaries of Jhelum to another.

Issues for Pakistan from its Perspective:

Pakistan on 17 May 2010 raised objections on the making of the Kishanganga Hydro-power project for which it demanded setting up of the Court of Arbitration.

The issues raised by Pakistan in the Court of Arbitration:

• The project is being developed at the downstreams of Kishanganga River that is known by the name Neelam in Pakistan and is a tributary of Jhelum. India is diverting the waters of the river from the dam site to Bonar Madmati Nallah that is another tributary of Jhelum. • India planned to use modern drawdown flushing technique for sedimentation management in the dam. The technique requires waters to be brought below the dead storage level (as per the treaty the water can be reduced below the dead storage level only in cases of unforeseen emergency) and was this plan was accepted by the neutral expert during the Bahlihar dispute with Pakistan.

In June 2011, the members from the Court of Arbitration, The Hague visited India as well as Pakistan for inspection of the site.

Brief Provisions of Indus Waters Treaty 1960 i. The Indus system of rivers comprises three Eastern Rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej and their tributaries) and threes Western Rivers (Indus, Jhelum and Chenab and their tributaries). ii. The Indus Waters Treaty 1960 was signed on 19.09.1960 between India and Pakistan. It is however effective from 01.04.1960. iii. Under the Treaty, the waters of Eastern Rivers are allocated to India. India is under obligation to let flow the waters of the Western Rivers except for the following uses: (a) Domestic Use (b) Non-consumptive use (c) Agricultural use as specified (d) Generation of hydro-electric power as specified ix. The Commissioners of the Indus Waters may discuss the questions arising under the Treaty under Article IX of the Treaty related to Settlement of Differences and Disputes and in the case of non-resolution, take further action under this Article for resolution through a Neutral Expert, negotiators or Court of Arbitration.

Articles under Consideration:

• Article III (2): Let flow all waters of the Western Rivers and not permit any interference with the water • Article IV (6): Both the countries require use of the best endeavors at each other’s end for maintenance of natural channels of the rivers and should avoid all the steps that may obstruct the flow of these rivers creating a material damage at the end of any of the two parties.

As per Pakistan, the diversion of the water of Kishanganga as well as implementation of the drawdown flushing technique at Kishanganga project as well as other hydro-electric plants were the violation of the Treat signed in 1960, named Indus Water Treaty.

Kishanganga Project

Kishanganga hydro-electric power project is a 330 MW project under its construction phase on the Kishanganga River and is developed by the National Power Corporation in Gurez Valley, near Bandipura in North Kashmir. The work on the project started in the year 1992. The Kishanganga hydro-electric project is a 3600 crore project. Kishanganga is called Neelam in Pakistan.

Permanent Court of Arbitration

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) was established during the First Hague Peace Conference 1899 by a treaty. It is an intergovernmental organization (IGO) that provides a variety of dispute resolution services to the international community. It provides resolution to the disputes related to intergovernmental organizations, states, state entities and private parties. PCA is located in The Hague, Netherland.

PCA provides services for the resolution of disputes involving various combinations of states, state entities, intergovernmental organisations, and private parties. The PCA can assist in the selection of arbitrators, and may be called upon to designate or act as appointing authority.

=The President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 18 February 2013 conferred 2011 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development Award to Ela Ramesh Bhatt, a renowned Women social worker. The award was given away at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi.

Ela Bhatt was given away the award for life time achievements in women empowerment, promotion of grassroot level entrepreneurship as well as contribution towards promotion of equitable development and peace. Ela Bhatt has her organisation SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association). President Pranab Mukherjee while giving away the award announced that SEWA was a vehicle of self employment and self reliance for the Indian women, while at the same time being synonymous with the rural inclusiveness.

Ela Bhatt

• Ela Bhatt is the founder of more than 1 million SEWAs in India. • Since years, Ela Bhatt has been working for women empowerment and bringing women out of poverty through promotion of Self Help Groups. • SEWA has empowered women with freedom as well as financial self- reliance.

=A group of various banks agreed to loan 937 crore Rupees for 1000-MW NTPL power project. NTPL power project is the joint venture of Tamil Nadu Power Generation and Distribution Corporation as well as Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC). The project will come up at Tuticorin.

NLC Director (Finance) as well as the Bank of India Deputy General Manager (Mumbai) signed an agreement on 18 February 2013. The estimated cost of the project would be 4909.54 crore Rupees having debt-equity ratio of 70:30.

The group of various banks included Indian Bank, the Central Bank of India as well as the Bank of India. In the meanwhile, it is important to note that NTPL had tied up with another group of banks earlier. The group was led by Bank of Baroda. NTPL had tied up with other group of banks for the debt which amounted to 2500 crore Rupees.

After the pact was signed, NTPL sealed the debt component for this project which amounted to 3437 crore Rupees in all.

As of now, 70 percent of the overall project was completed. First unit of the 500 MW would go on stream in December 2013. The second unit, which would have almost similar capability, will start operating in March 2014.

For the fuel, NTPL signed the deal with Mahanadhi Coal Fields Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd.

The power which would be generated from this project will be shared among the states of Puducherry, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. For this purpose, power purchase agreements were signed with Tangedco as well as respective State Electricity Boards.

=The astronomers in the second week of February 2013 discovered the proof that cosmic rays originate as the results of explosions of stars or supernova, these are termed as the most energetic event in the galaxy. Cosmic Rays were first discovered in 1912 by Victor Hess and it was believed that these highly energetic particles that keep on hitting the atmosphere of earth from all directions originate with the explosion of stars, but till now no direct evidence for the same conclusion was available to the mankind.

The astronomers were successful in reaching to the conclusion as the findings of two experiments one ground-based and the other one that was space-based, provided the same evidence, after looking on different Supernova Remnants (SNRs) in the sky. The observations were made on different perspectives and in different parts of the sky.

The first study is based on the observations made by the astronomers from Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg of the remnants of a 1000 year old supernova SN1006 from the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) based in Chile.

The second study was based on the years of data collected from the 10000 year old SNRs IC443 that is located in Gemini Constellation at a distance of about 5000 light years from earth and W44 that is located in Aquila Constellation at a distance of 10000 light years. The data of the two SNRs were collected by the scientists of Kavli Institute for Particle Physics and Cosmology at the SLAC National Accelerator laboratory by using NASA’s Fermi Gamma Ray Telescope that was launched in June 2008.

A supernova occurs twice or thrice in a century and it happens with the massive explosion of a star. The core of the exploded star remains as a neutron star or a black hole, whereas the parts ejected due to explosion flows in the space in form of debris by a powerful shockwave. The remnants of the explosion remains in the sky for thousands of years and are used by the scientists and astronomers to study the facts about the cosmic rays.

Cosmic rays consist of about 90 percent proton, a nuclei and electrons. The two experiments done in space and ground claimed that evidence were found that protons that the protons accelerated to the speed of light after being ejected due to shockwaves of the supernova. The mechanism was proposed by Enrico Fermi in 1949 and it stated that the protons, which are trapped in the fast moving shock region due to magnetic fields travelling through the shock front boosts itself to high speeds after repeatedly being reflected in the magnetic field.

The protons gain energy of about one percent with every round trip and after making several hundreds of such trips; it travels at the speed of light and finally releases itself from the shockwave front. These charged protons, get it drifted due to the magnetic field that it experiences on its way to earth resulting in distortion of its path. This is a reason that one can’t decidedly say that the SNRs produce cosmic rays.

=Ecuador's President Rafael Correa was re-elected for a third term with more than 50 percent of the vote according to the election results declared in the third week of February 2013. As per the results, Rafael Correa got 56.7 percent while his closest competitor Guillermo could secure only 23.3 percent.

Correa is a socialist leader who was first elected in 2007. He is credited with bringing political stability to a nation that experienced several protests and coups. He is known for his citizen revolution which made him popular among people of Ecuador. He is 49 years old.

During his six years in power, Correa provided access to education and healthcare and bettered thousands of miles of highways, leading to creation of jobs in the process. Moreover, Poverty rates declined significantly.

To avoid a run-off, the President of Ecuador was required to win 50 percent of the total vote or 40 percent plus a 10- point margin over the second-placed candidate.

=External Affairs Minister of India, Salman Khurshid paid an official visit to Bangladesh on 16-17 February 2013 to co-chair the second meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission (JCC). Both nations reviewed the progress of initiatives taken under the Framework Agreement since the last meeting and hold discussions on the entire gamut of bilateral relations including power, water resources, security, border management, people-to-people exchanges, trade, connectivity, culture, development cooperation, environment and education. The JCC was constituted under the Framework Agreement on Cooperation for Development signed during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Bangladesh in September 2011. The first meeting of the JCC was held in New Delhi in May 2012.

=The Government of Rajasthan on 17 February 2013 announced a relief package for farmers, whose crops were destroyed due to the rains and hailstorm that happened in the second week of February. The package includes waiver from paying electricity bills for months.

The State Government announced that agricultural input-grant (that is limited to its maximum up to two hectares) to the small, marginal and other farmers who have suffered losses of 50 percent or more crop damage.

Entitlement of benefits in the relief package announced:

• 3000 rupees per hectare for non-irrigated fields • 6000 rupees per hectare for fields irrigated by canals and wells • For fields irrigated by diesel pumps, the decided amount is 8000 rupees per hectare • Farmers who have suffered more than 50 percent crop damage would be exempted from paying electricity bills for four months

The farmers engaged in contractual or partnership based farming and not listed in the revenue records needs to get a five-rupee stamp paper signed by their land owners to get the benefits of the package. A Committee constituted at the Gram Panchayat level is made responsible to take care of all sorts of problems.

=The India-U.S.Joint Working Group on UN Peacekeeping held its 10th meeting in Washington on 13 February 2013. At the meeting, India and the United States advanced a number of goals laid out in the Declaration of Principles the Joint Working Group agreed upon in 2011. The Joint Working Group also continued in-depth consultations on UN peacekeeping issues, and explored an agreement on a set of Principles of India-U.S. Cooperation in the Area of Training UN Peacekeepers and institutional arrangements between their peacekeeping institutions.

India and USA welcomed the open and comprehensive nature of the discussions, and agreed the talks helped advance their shared commitment to supporting and strengthening United Nations peacekeeping operations, and their mutual interest in assuring the success of UN peacekeeping missions. Both nations agreed that the 11th meeting of the Working Group will be held in New Delhi in 2014.

=Australia won the ICC Women’s World Cup Trophy after defeating West-Indies by 114-runs on 17 February 2013 at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Australia clinched the title for the sixth time in the history of women’s cricket World Cup it last won the title in 2005.

Australia scored 259 runs (this is the highest score in Women’s World Cup Final) at the loss of 7 wickets in 50 overs and West Indies lost all its wickets at the score of 145.

Captains

• Australian Captain: Jodie Fields • West Indies Captain: Merissa Aguilleira

Scorecard of Finals

• Australia: 7/259 i. J Cameron scored 75runs in the finals ii. R Haynes scored 52 runs in the finals iii. S Quintyne took 3 wickets for 27 runs • West Indies 10/145 i. KA Knight scored 21* in the finals ii. MR Aguilleria scored 23 runs in the finals iii. E Perry took 3 wickets for 19 runs

Tournament Report

• Player of the tournament - New Zealand’s Suzie Bates for scoring 407 runs with three half-centuries and a ton at an average of 67.83 in the series.

The Australian, all-rounder Lisa Sthalekar announced her retirement from International cricket after the Australian women’s cricket team won the world cup title 2013. She made her debut in the international cricket in 2001 in an ODI match against England till her retirement she managed to play 125 one day internationals, 8 tests and 54 women T20 international matches.

Women's World Cup History

• First World Cup was played in the year 1973 at England, the final was played between England and Australia and England won the match by 92 runs • Second World Cup was played in India in the year 1978 India, England and Australia were the teams in the final, Australia won the match by 8 wickets • Third World Cup was played in 1982 at New Zealand. England and Australia were the team in the final match; Australia won it by 3 wickets • In 1988 venue for the fourth World Cup was played in Australia. The final was played between Australia and England; Australia won it by 3 wickets • The sixth World Cup was played in England in the year 1993. The final was played between New Zealand and England; England won it by 67 runs • The seventh World Cup was played in 1997 in India, Australia and New Zealand were the two teams in the final; Australia won it by 5 wickets • Eighth World Cup was played at New Zealand in the year 2000. The final was played between, Australia and New Zealand; New Zealand won it by 4 runs • The ninth World Cup was held in South Africa in the year 2005, Australia and India were the two teams in final; Australia won it by 98 runs • The tenth World Cup was held in Australia and the final was played between England and New Zealand, England won it by 4 wickets • 2013 the tournament was played in India, West Indies and Australia were the two teams in final; Australia won the match with 114 runs

Captain of England Women’s Cricket team, Charlotte Edwards became the first women to pass 5000 runs in one- day international after hitting 121 runs of 106 balls in the semi-final match against New Zealand.

India failed to make its path into the quarterfinals and had never won any world cup trophy till date. =Devanoor's Collection of Articles Edege Bidda Akshara released Published on: 18-FEB-2013

Edege Bidda Akshara a collection of Devanoor Mahadeva’s articles was released on 17 Feb 2013 by Dalit Sahitya Parishat and Pro-Dalit organizations. =American philosopher and Constitutional law expert, Ronald Dworkin died in a hospital at London on 14 February 2013. The liberal scholar who argued that the law should be founded on moral integrity died at the age of 81 suffering from leukemia.

He is now survived by his wife, Irene Brendel Dworkin, two children Anthony Dworkin and Jennifer Dworkin and two grandchildren.

Ronald Dworkin

• Dworkin was a professor of law at New York University and was an emeritus professor at University College London • He was one of the best known and most quoted legal scholars in the U.S. and also an expert on British law • He wrote books named A Matter of Principle, Law's Empire and Justice for Hedgehogs • He graduated in Law from Harvard Law School in 1957 • He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England =National AIDS Control Organisation(NACO), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare signed the first MoU with the Ministry of Shipping on 14 February 2013 as a part of its efforts to highlight issues relating to HIV/AIDS.

According to the MoU, NACO will provide HIV/AIDS/STI preventive, care support and treatment services to port workers as well as community around major ports including fishermen, seafarers, truckers, single male migrants and other vulnerable population etc. It also aims to provide stigma free environment and promote greater involvement of people living with HIV in all major port areas.

Under the MoU, Ministry of Shipping commits itself to the following points:- • Make available health infrastructure and human resources for prevention and management of HIV/AIDS/STI. • Designate responsibility to personnel at suitable level to plan, implement and monitor HIV/AIDS/STI services. • Ensure identified health personnel from the facilities are provided capacity building by State AIDS Control Societies. • Promote safe sexual practices among vulnerable population in port setting with necessary support from State AIDS Control Societies. • Ensure dissemination/display of IEC material pertaining to HIV/AIDS/STI at ports/health facilities and outreach activities. • Ensure ICTC/PPTCT/ and STI services and ensure availability of rapid HIV diagnostic kits (3 different antigens/principles) as per NACO guidelines and specifications. • Set up designated STI/ICTC Clinics at major ports for vulnerable population including truckers and transport workers and ensure availability of STI drug kits as per NACO guidelines and specifications. • Coordinate and strengthen referral linkages with State AIDS Control societies and implementing partners like targeted interventions TI NGOs/drop in centre/community care centres and network of HIV Positive persons. • Ensure record keeping and reporting to SACS as per prescribed format. • Commit resource (Manpower, material and money) for HIV/AIDS/STI in budgets/or CSR component for sustainability to his endeavor.

The NACO commits itself to the following points • Share Nationally approved treatment protocols, guidelines and standards pertaining to STI/HIV/AIDS. • Providing technical support and build capacity of ports health personnel to facilitate integration of HIVIAIDS in the Health Services. • Providing training to major port health personnel (Doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians on syndromic case management of ST1, which could be direct training or training of trainers as per the number of personnel. • Providing training to major port health personnel (Doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians) on integrated counseling and testing services for HIV, which could be direct training or training of trainers as per the number of personnel. Provide technical support for implementation of IEC and awareness activities around major ports with support of ports authorities. • Sharing reporting formats and monitoring mechanisms. • NACO/SACS will coordinate and provide necessary technical support to Ministry of Shipping /major ports to integrate STI/HIV/AIDS services.

=Telecom operator Uninor closed its operations in Mumbai on 17 February 2013 following a Supreme Court order. The apex court had ordered immediate closure of the company after it cancelled 22 licences of Uninor in Februray 2012. Temporary licences, too, have not been permitted by the Supreme Court.

The majority stakeholder of the company, Telenor participated in the November 2012 auction through new entity Telewings Communications and won spectrum in six circles. Telenor is now in the process of transferring business of Uninor in Maharashtra and Goa, Gujarat, UP East, UP West, Bihar and Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh service areas, to Telewings Communications.

According to Uninor statement, its operations in these service areas will continue as fresh spectrum for 20 years has already been secured.

=The African state of Gabon on 16 February 2013 decided to suspend the sale of large-calibre arms and ammunitions to stem elephant poaching in the country. Last week, a study showed that in Gabon, which hosts more than half of Africa's forest elephants, at least 20,000 elephants have been killed by poachers for their ivory during the last decade.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, some of the money raised through the illegal poaching in Africa is used to finance armed groups. Trade in elephant ivory has been outlawed since 1989. During the 1980s, more than half of Africa's elephants were wiped out, mostly by poachers hunting for ivory.

But in January 1990, countries across the globe signed up to an international ban on the trade in ivory. Global demand decreased in the face of a worldwide public awareness campaign. As a result, Elephant populations began to increase again. But in recent years, this has been reversed. According to an estimate, 25000 elephants were killed in 2011. The figures for 2012 are still being calculated, but they are likely to be higher.

=India and Bangladesh held the second Joint Consultative Commission meeting in Dhaka on 16 February 2013. At the end of the meeting, both countries exchanged one strip map as part of the process of the implementation of the agreement signed to resolve land boundary issues between them.

In addition, two MOUs were also signed for the construction of a rail link to connect Akhaura in Bangladesh to Agartala in India and for setting up a think-tank to be called Bangladesh-India Foundation.

The India-Bangladesh border conflict was a brief armed conflict between India and Bangladesh which took place in April 2011 over the poorly marked international border between the countries. The conflict happened around the village of Padua (known as Pyrdiwah in India), which adjoins the Indian state of Meghalaya and the Timbil area of the Bangladesh border in the Sylhet district. In that area, 6.5 kilometres of the border have remained in dispute for the past 30 years.

The India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission is an inter-ministerial body of the two countries headed by the Minister of External Affairs of India and Foreign Minister of Bangladesh. The Commission was established under the Framework Agreement on Cooperation for Development signed by the Prime Ministers of the two countries in September 2011.

The Joint Consultative Commission will also the review progress in various sectors of the bilateral relationship, identify thrust areas and give directions for further growth of the bilateral partnership.

=The Romanian film Child's Pose on 16 February 2013 bagged the covetedGolden Bear prize for best film at the 63rd Berlin film festival. The Romanian drama is about a dominating mother using her social position to try to save her son from jail.

The awards ceremony brought to a close the 11-day cinema showcase, where hundreds of movies were screened across Berlin.

US independent director David Gordon Green won the Silver Bear best director award for his movie Prince Avalanche. The movie, the only comedy movie among the 19 contenders at the festival, features Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch in the lead roles as highway maintenance workers in Texas at a crossroads in their lives.

The Silver Bear for best actress was won by Chile’s Paulina Garcia for her role in Gloria. The movie is a feel-good movie about a middle-aged divorcee who refuses to give up her search for happiness. Best screenplay was picked up by Closed Curtain. It was directed by Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi and his longtime collaborator Kambuzia Partovi, a film made in defiance of a ban by authorities in Tehran. =The High Court of Gujarat on 15 February 2013 ordered the state Government to implement the Centre's Pre- matriculation Scholarship Scheme for students of minority community in the state. The court rejected the contention of Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of the state of in implementation of the Centre's pre-matriculation scholarship scheme by stating it discriminatory.

From the High Court Bench of five judges, three namely Justices V M Sahai, D H Vaghela and Akil Kureshi supported the implementation of the scheme upholding its constitutional validity and declared that equating it with any particular type of reservation was not possible, whereas two judges namely Justice R R Tripathi and J B Pardiwala ruled against the scheme.

The orders of the court came after hearing of the PILs launched against the State Government’s decision to hold on the implementation of the Centre's pre-matriculation scholarship scheme since 2008, when the scheme was launched across the country. The Court in its majority verdict established that the scheme doesn’t violate the provisions mentioned in the Article 15 (1) of the Constitution of India. Whereas the minority verdict identified that the scheme violated the provisions of the section.

Pre-matriculation Scholarship Scheme for Minority Communities The Centre's pre-matriculation scholarship scheme is a scheme run by the Central Government of India and it covers students, who belong to five religious minorities including Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist and Parsi with annual income below 1 lakh rupees.

Under the provisions of the scheme, the central government provides 75 percent scholarship to students covered under the scheme and the rest 25 percent is the responsibility of the State Government.

• The Scholarship is provided to students from minority community up to tenth class, who are studying in private as well as Government schools. • The main objective of the scholarship is to empower the country through education and create a potential of upliftment of the socio economic conditions of minority community • Monetary benefits are also provided to the deserving candidates to help the families of these students and to encourage other families of the minority community to send their children to schools

=Bangladesh banned the Japanese cartoon Doraemon in the third week of February 2013 because of the fears that children watching the Hindi-dubbed version were struggling to cope up with their native language- Bangla.

Information Minister of Bangladesh Hasanul Haque Inu declared that all television channels which screened Doraemon were sent official notifications in which it was ordered that all the series should be taken off-air. The minister declared that the Government of Bangladesh did not want the educational atmosphere of the children to be disturbed by this Japanese cartoon.

It was demanded by the lawmakers that television channels should be permitted to air only those foreign cartoons which were dubbed in Bengali.

Doraemon is a Japanese cartoon character created by manga artist Fujiko F. Fujio. The character is actually a robotic cat to help pre-teen boy named Nobita.

=Asoke Kumar Mukerji was appointed as the next Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations on 13 February 2013. Mukerji replaced Hardeep Singh Puri who retired in February 2013 after the tenure of two years.

Asoke Kumar Mukerji was chosen by the Ministry of External Affairs of the Union Government of India. At present, Mukerji is Special Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry. He also served as the Consul General in Dubai as well as the Deputy High Commissioner in London.

Asoke Kumar Mukerji was the private secretary to External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.

=The State Cabinet of Manipur decided to issue ban on the use of tobacco products in the state on 15 February 2013. The cabinet’s decision to ban the sale and consumption of tobacco products like gutka, cigarette, zarda, khaini and others would be implemented with immediate effect.

The State Cabinet meeting that issued complete ban on use of tobacco product in the state was chaired by the Chief Minister of the state, Okram Ibobi Singh at Imphal.

=Serena Williams became the new World number one women’s tennis player. Serena Williams who is aged 31 years thrashed Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic 6-3,3-6,7-5 and reached Semifinals of Qatar Open Tennis Championship in Doha.

On entering the semi-finals, she achieved the top position after a period of two and a half years.

Serena Williams will compete against Maria Sharapova in the Semifinals on 16 February 2013. Maria Sharapova reached semi-finals after defeating Samantha Stosur 6-2,6-4.

Serena Williams (31 years, 4 months, 24 days) is now the oldest woman tennis player to hold number 1 ranking. She broke the record of Chris Evert (30 years, 11 months, 3 days) of USA. =The twenty seventh edition of the Surajkund International Crafts Mela ended on 15 February 2013 at Surajkund in Faridabad (Haryana). The mela lasted for fifteen days from 1 February to 15 February 2013, presented a kaleidoscopic perspective of the rich Indian culture.

Facts related to the 27th edition of the meal are as follows:

• The 27th edition of the mela carried Karnataka as its main theme and the theme was selected after a gap of 18 years. • Craftsmen from SAARC nations participated for the first time under one roof in the history of mela • Craftsmen from Eurasian countries like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan & Kyrgystan also displayed their handicrafts and handicrafts during the mela

About Surajkund Mela

Surajkund Mela, for the first time was held in 1987 and since then the colorful traditional craft festival is held from 1 February to 15 February every year on the onset of spring season. The annual fair helps in showcasing the finest handlooms, handicrafts, authentic fragrances and flavours of rich Indian cuisines. State as well as National awardees artisans from every corner of India participate in the mela.

Every year the mela is organised based on the theme of a particular state of India that is chosen as the state of the year. Complete mela carries the look of the selected state

Surajkund and its Significance The name Surajkund means Lake of the Sun and the area lies in the backdrop of Aravalli hills. The area was built by the ruler of Tomar Dynasty, Suraj Pal in tenth century. The place holds a historic sun temple of tenth century. Surajkund being a historical place is also included in the list of Haryana Tourism department.

=Pakistan successfully tested the nuclear-capable Hatf-II ballistic missile on 15 February 2013. This was the second test of missile system in just four days by Pakistan. The test was conducted in order to evaluate the capabilities of Strategic Forces.

Main features related to Hatf-II ballistic missile:

• Hatf-II ballistic missile is also known as Abdali short range surface-to-surface ballistic missile. • Hatf-II is capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads with precision and high accuracy. • Hatf-II has a range of 180 km.

It is important to note that earlier on 11 February 2013; Pakistan had tested the Hatf-IX tactical missile that had a range of 60 km and was nuclear-capable. Hatf-IX missile, according to the analysts, is aimed at preventing the Cold Start military doctrine of India.

Pakistan Successfully Test Fired Short Range Surface-To-Surface Missile Hatf IX (NASR)

=Zoological Society of London along with IUCN species survival commission in their largest-ever analysis found out that 19 percent of turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodiles and other reptiles were facing severe threat of extinction.

One out of every five out of 10000 species of reptiles in the world, many of which are from India, is facing a threat of extinction. Out of the endangered species are the King cobra, Indian crocodile (mugger), South Andaman krait and four kinds of turtles namely, Red-crowned Roofed Turtle, Bengal Roof Turtle, Jaggedshelled turtle and Hawksbill turtle. These species were identified to be extinct forever.

The conversationalists worry about the fact that at present, there is no information about conservation status of around one in every three reptiles in India.

The study conducted found out that 30 percent of the freshwater reptiles were almost close to extinction. The figure increases to 50 percent when just the freshwater turtles are considered. These reptiles are affected by international as well as national trade.

Also, 15 percent reptiles in Indo-malayan region were threatened. Our of 1500 species samples in the study, it was found that 112 were from India. Out of these 1500 species, 12.2 percent had threat of extinction.

=The Supreme Court (SC) of India on 15 February 2013 directed the telecom companies that failed to win bidding in the fresh 2G Spectrum Auction or didn’t participated into it to cease their operations immediately. The fresh auction took place after the licenses issued earlier were scrapped by the Court.

The Supreme Court also cleared that the Court would soon order the companies, which were successful in winning their biddings in the actions those were held on 12 November and 14 November 2012 to start operations in their respective circles immediately.

The Supreme Court bench of two Judges that comprised justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan directed the telecom companies whose licenses were scrapped on 2 February 2012 but allowed to function were supposed to pay back the reserved price fixed for the licenses during the first round of November 2012 auction.

The Court in its declaration cleared that the Judgment pronounced in February 2012 was not applicable for the telecom companies that holds spectrum in 900 MHz band as the orders of February 2012 held’s no bearing on litigations related to 900 MHz band.

The Court also ordered to put on immediate and fresh auction the entire 2G Spectrum, whose licenses were cancelled by it. =Sanskrit Caravan was launched in New Delhi on 14 February 2013 by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor for promoting, preserving as well as propagating Indian languages such as Sanskrit and Urdu.

Sanskrit Caravan was launched as a part of Indian Heritage Caravan, which is actually an initiative of Press Council of India chairman and former Supreme Court Judge Justice Markandey Katju. Idea Communication was the sponsor of the event. Earlier in February 2013, Justice Markandey Katju had also inaugurated Urdu Caravan from Delhi to Bhopal as well as Mumbai.

Sanskrit as a language of science

In the event, Sanskrit was described as the language of science. It was also declared that Sanskrit was the base language for science and that even the scientists from NASA were developing programmes on the artificial language in Sanskrit. Even JNU developed certain programmes on the basis of Sanskrit.

Justice Katju explained that Sanskrit language which was read and spoken in modern times in India was actually shaped and defined by Panini and that it was a very powerful instrument for expressing scientific ideas with precision.

=The meteorite that weighed around 10 tonnes entered the earth’s atmosphere over Siberia above the skies of Ural Mountains on 15 February 2013. The meteorite that travelled at a speed of 15 to 20 kilometer per second created a panic kind of situation and resulted into shockwaves that blasted windows and rocked buildings. Russian Emergency Situations Ministry declared that the shockwaves injured around 500 people out of which 84 were children.

The meteorite exploded itself into small fragments at a distance of about 50 kilometers from earth surface. Fragments of the meteorite effected several regions of Siberia and Kazakhstan, with Chelyabinsk, the industrial city of Russia. Three areas that suffered effects of meteorite and among them one included a crater of six meter near Lake Chebarkul. The meteorite was preceded the Asteroid 2012 DA14 that crossed over the skies of Indonesia and other parts of Asia.

=England defeated host New Zealand in the third and last Twenty20 Cricket match played at Wellington on 15 Feb 2013 to win the series 2-1. England bowled first and they restricted the Kiwis to 139-8 and later achieved the winning target with 44 balls remaining. The Second Twenty20 was played at Hamilton on 12 February 2013 in which New Zealand defeated England by 55 runs to level the three match Twenty20 international series at 1-1.

The First Twenty20 was played at Auckland on 9 February 2013 which was won by England. It defeated New Zealand by 40 runs. =The first India-Japan Maritime Affairs Dialogue was held in New Delhi on 29 January 2013. Issues of mutual interest were discussed, inter alia, maritime security including non-traditional threats, cooperation in shipping, marine sciences and technology, marine biodiversity and cooperation at various multilateral forums.

The Indian delegation was led by DB Venkatesh Varma, Joint Secretary (Disarmament and International Security Affairs), in the Ministry of External Affairs and the Japanese delegation by Mr. Kazuyuki Yamazaki, Deputy Director General (Ambassador), Foreign Policy Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

=Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda, the London paralympics silver-medallist and Padma Shri awardee was appointed as the brand ambassador of nutrition company Herbalife on 15 February 2013.

Herbalife is a global nutrition company that appointed Girisha as the brand personality. As per the agreement, Girisha will endorse Herbalife products such as Afresh Energy Drink Mix and Formula 1 Nutritional Shake.

This is said to be the first corporate sponsorship for Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda. Girisha’s first achievement in an international event came at Junior World Championships for the disabled in Ireland in 2006 where he won bronze medal.

=Y Bhaskar Rao, the former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, sworn in as the Lokayukta on 14 February 2013. The post of Lokayukta was lying vacant since September 2011.

Y Bhaskar Rao will succeed Justice (Retd) Shivaraj Patil who resigned as the Lokayukta in September 2011 after allegations about illegal possession of government site. Y Bhaskar Rao served as the member of National Human Rights Commission. Rao, 75 years old was sworn-in by the Governor HR Bhardwaj at Raj Bhavan.

=Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee Blade Runner from South Africa was charged on 14 February 2013 for allegedly shooting dead his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his home in Pretoria.

Oscar Pistorius

• Oscar Pistorius is a South African sprint runner, who turned up to be the first double-leg-amputee, who lined up in the starting blocks with the able bodied competitors in the men's 400 metres race during the London Olympics 2012. • He won gold medals in the men's 400 metre race in a Paralympic and set a record time of 46.68 seconds as well as he managed to create a world record in the 4 × 100 metres relay in 41.78 seconds

=The entire world came together on one platform to raise the voice for the violence against women across the globe by participating in One Billion Rising Campaign. This is a global campaign to rise against violence and take a stand for the one billion women. Almost 200 hundred countries are taking part in this campaign.

UN in its message stated that by standing together the world can end the violence against women and girls and build a world where all live free from harassment and fear.

In fact, the governments across the globe should make a concrete commitment of action to end the violence against women and girls. =Standing Committee of East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) on 14 February 2013 cleared the proposal, for tele-booking services of the auto-rickshaws on the lines of radio taxis. The proposal would be tabled in the house for being approved. Te proposal once passed would help provide a safe and reliable transport facility to the residents of East Delhi.

The proposed name of the facility is Green Autos and the main aim of the project is to provide auto rickshaw facility round the clock, at the door-steps of the residents of East Delhi at Government notified meter based price. To avail this facility, the passenger is liable to pay the fare from the place of boarding the auto.

To manage and control the facility of tele-booking services of the auto-rickshaws a centralized call-centre is proposed to be developed. The call-centre would be responsible for forwarding the calls directly to the auto drivers.

Nirmal Foundation that is running similar type of auto-rickshaw services in different cities of Gujarat would be responsible for setting up of the services in East Delhi and manage it. Once the proposal is cleared by the house, the foundation will be responsible for development of the call centre and starting the service at its own cost. EDMC would provide space to the foundation for development of the call centre. Delhi-police would support the corporation in verifying the past history of the drivers appointed to operate the new service.

=India and France on 14 February 2013 agreed to strengthen counter terrorism and intelligence cooperation between the two countries during the visit of French President Francois Holllande to India. Both nations exchanged views on a number of bi-lateral, regional and multilateral issues.

India and France also reviewed progress on the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project and reiterated our commitment to its early implementation as soon as the commercial and technical negotiations, which have made good progress, are completed.

Both the nations also concluded negotiations on the short range surface to Air missile to be co-produced in India. They also agreed on the need to reinvigorate economic engagement between the two countries. Moreover, they had in-depth discussion on the defence cooperation issue including submarines and missiles.

Other Important India-France Agreements • Both the nations agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fields of the modernisation of the railway, high speed corridors and network upgradation of railway stations. • Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and France's CNES under the space cooperation programme, jointly identified the means to pursue further cooperation. • A pact was changed to increase exchanges between the sportspersons, artists, architects, researchers, teachers, students to improve people-to-people contacts. • The cooperation between various Indian and French educational institutions was finalised. • MoU was signed between Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and France's CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) • CFA(Credit Facility Agreement) was signed for the Bangalore Metro Rail Project, Phase-1 between Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance and the French Development Agency(AFD)

=AMR Corporation, parent company of American Airlines as well as US Airways on 14 February 2013 confirmed about their merger plans in a deal which would result in creation of second largest airline of the world in terms of revenue. The merger will take place after Sean Lane; the judge that is overseeing the bankruptcy of AMR will clear the plan. The merger between the two companies will happen just after clearance from US Bankruptcy Court.

The combined company will have an equity value of approximately 11 billion US dollars. The net combined debt of these companies would be somewhere around 15 billion US dollars.

The deal was approved by the board of two companies. The deal came 15 months after the AMR Corporation sought for protection in November 2011. The US Airways chief executive, Doug Parker would be the chief executive of this new company. Tom Horton, AMR’s chief executive on the other hand will be the temporary non-executive chairman.

The two companies announced that they would continue to operate in their present hubs as well as serve everywhere they served as of now. However, US Airways announced that merger would result in cost savings because of combined systems, maintenance facilities and single team for management.

=A recent NASA study revealed that Middle East lost quantity of freshwater which is almost the size of Dead Sea because of poor management, increasing demand of groundwater as well as the after-effects of 2007 drought.

The NASA study researched on the data over a time period of seven years since 2003 with the help of gravity- measuring satellites, which are a part of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment or GRACE. Researchers discovered that freshwater reserves in areas in countries like Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran along Euphrates and Tigris river basins lost 117 million acre feet or 144 cubic kilometers of total stored freshwater, which is said to be the second-fastest loss.

Cause of loss of water

• 60 percent of loss was a result of pumping of underground reservoirs for ground water. 1000 wells in Iraq were pumped for groundwater. • One-fifth loss occurred because of impacts of drought which included decreasing snow packs as well as drying up of soil. • Another one-fifth loss happened because of loss of surface water from reservoirs and lakes. • The rate at which water loss occurred is the largest liquid freshwater loss on the continents.

Worsening water-crisis in Middle East

• The latest NASA study revealed about the worsening of water crisis in Middle East. The demand for water in Middle East is increasing because of increasing population, war as well as climatic changes. It also depicts that certain countries would face acute shortage of water in near future. • When the report was released during U.N. climate talks in Qatar, World Bank had concluded that water shortage was one among the critical problems in North Africa and Middle East. This region particularly had lowest quantity of freshwater in the entire world. • Climatic changes would result in more droughts in these regions with extreme situations. Water runoff would decrease 10 percent by 2050 and the demand for water would increase 60 percent by 2045. Fulfilling the increasing demand of water is the biggest challenge for improving the water conservation in Tigris and Euphrates river basins.

Need for coordinated water management between Turkey, Syria and Iraq

Tigris and Euphrates headwaters are controlled by Turkey. Also the reservoirs and the infrastructure of Turkey's Greater Anatolia Project which dictates the quantity of downstream of water flow into Iraq and Syria are controlled by Turkey.

There is a need for coordinated water management, which at present does not exist among Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Also, the tensions intensified since the drought of 2007 because Turkey diverts water to irrigate farmland. As a result, decline in the stream flow puts pressure on northern Iraq. UN as well as anecdotal reports from area residents made it clear in the report that because of a decline in the stream flow, the northern Iraq had to turn up to groundwater.

=NASA scientists discovered the youngest black hole in our galaxy, Milky Way in February 2013. This youngest black hole is merely 1000 years old and just 26000 light years away from our planet. According to the new data revealed by Chandra X-ray Observatory of NASA, the distorted remains of supernova could contain most recent or the youngest black hole formed in our galaxy. The remains known as W49B are a result of rare explosion due to which matter ejects at very high speed along poles of rotating star.

Scientists described that W49B is the first one that was discovered in Milky Way. It was observed that the parent star of W49B died in such a way like most of the other stars don’t. Most often, when the massive star does not have fuel, its central region collapses which leads to certain events which quickly lead to supernova explosion.

Most of the explosions are symmetrical due to which stellar material blasts away almost evenly in all the directions. However in case of W49B supernova, material in proximity with the doomed rotating star was cast out at a higher speed than the material originating from the equator. Jets which shoot from the poles of the star are the main cause for shaping the supernova explosion as well as its results.

The trace or the remains are now glowing brightly in certain wavelengths and X-rays which offer a confirmation of the explosion. The scientists compared the data from Chandra with theoretical models of the process of star explosion by tracing distribution as well as amounts of various elements in stellar debris field.

The scientists explained that apart from having unusual elements, W49B is also elliptical and elongated than the other traces. In the study, it was also examined about the kind of compact objects the supernova explosion left. Usually, the massive stars which collapse into supernovas leave behind dense and spinning core which is called neutron star. These neutron stars can be detected using the X-rays or radio pulses.

However, data from Chandra did not reveal any evidence of a neutron star. Absence of evidence like this indicated towards the formation of a black hole.

=The inflation rate of India dropped down to the three year low in the chart to 6.62 percent in January 2013 from the 7.18 percent, measured in December 2012. The inflation was measured based upon monthly Wholesale Price Index.

The official Wholesale Price Index for All Commodities (Base: 2004-05 = 100) in January, 2013 rose by 0.4 percent to 169.2 (Provisional) from 168.6 (Provisional) for the previous month.

Slowing exports and decline in investments and low demand in the domestic market have been a major factor in slipping down the growth rate of India. The two factors have affected the manufatruing as well as service sectors of India.

The growth forecast for the running fiscal year that would end on 31 March 2013 was lowered by the India’s Statistical Office to 5 percent. The Reserve Bank of India also changed its forecast from 5.8 percent to 5.5 percent. To revive a fresh air in the slowing down economic conditions of India, the Reserve Bank took a major step of lowering the key interest rate from 8 percent to 7.75 percent; this was the first step in nine months. The Policy makers have also taken afresh steps to revive the slowing economic conditions of the nation.

=Seventeenth Convocation of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) was held on 14 February 2013 in Bangalore. Chief Guest of the convocation was the Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Initiatives taken during the convocation

•Ghulam Nabi Azad declared that address and telephone based Mother and Child Tracking System were available for reaching out to the pregnant women for appropriate care during pregnancy as well as for every child for vaccination. •New initiative called Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram was launched on 6 February 2013 in Maharashtra for Universal Screening of Children for Disorders, Diseases, Deficiencies and Disabilities since birth to 18 years. This programme will include 270 million children in India. •The Health Ministers of India and Bangladesh signed a MoU on Health in New Delhi on 12 February 2013. The MoU was signed so that the two nations can cooperate in terms of health sector. •India and Bangladesh also facilitated setting up South Asian Autism Network (SAAN). The meeting between two nations was concluded on 11 February 2013 where both nations had Adoption of Delhi Declaration. •National review in mental health was conducted in which it was observed that around one out of two patients needed to travel over 5 km for care and 40 percent patients had to travel over 10 km. National Mental Health Programmes in context with this, were re-strategised for upgrading all Mental Hospitals in India. •Apart from this, psychiatry wings of about 90 medical colleges were upgraded and District Hospitals were strengthened for facilitating medical care to patients who are mentally ill. •It was decided that 18 Ambulance services would be started for transporting the patients to District Hospitals in case of emergency. •The Health Ministry also drew plan for scaling up the programme to around 300 districts and eventually to all the districts in a properly phased manner during 12th Five Year Plan. •The programme would be evaluated by NIMHANS. Also, NIMHANS would facilitate a blue print for expanding these mental health services in India.

About National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS)

•National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) is a deemed university, designated as Institute of National Importance by an Act of Parliament. •NIMHANS laid its foundation on 14 February 1974. •Specialty of NIMHANS is in the discipline of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences in India. •NIMHANS in 2012 started free legal aid services called NIMHANS Centre for Well-Being with 15 high-tech laboratories. =Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lankan all-rounder cricketer was appointed the Captain of the test and one-day cricket team of Sri Lanka on 14 February 2013 for a period of one year. Mathews replaced Mahela Jayawardene, who announced to quit captaincy after Sri Lanka’s tour of Australia.

Dinesh Chandimal, the wicket-keeper batsman was appointed as the vice-captain in the test and one-day format of the game and will lead the country as a captain in the T20 format of the game. Lasith Malinga was appointed as the vice-captain for the T20 team.

Angelo Mathews

• Angelo Mathews is a Sri Lankan all-rounder cricketer, who made his debut in the international cricket in a One Day International match against Zimbabwe in November 2008. • In 31 test matches Mathews have scored 1668 runs since making his debut in 2009 and recorded his first and only test century against Australia

=Reckitt Benckiser (RB) on 13 Feb 2013 signed a global partnership deal of 8-million US dollars with Save the Children for 2013 to support vulnerable children below the age of five. It will be done through large-scale health, hygiene and child protection programmes. It will provide local support in more than 40 countries in the world.

The global initiative with Save the Children, Healthier Kids, Happier World, will organise many national level activities to increase funds and awareness focusing on big picture programmes that reach the most disadvantaged children across the world including most remote areas.

=Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) the stock market regulator of India on 13 February 2013 ordered freezing of bank accounts and attachment of properties of two Sahara group firms Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd., and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd. and its Chairman Subrata Roy as well as top executives Vandana Bhargava, Ravi Shanker Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary after it failed to refund more than 24,000 crore rupees to investors.

The decision from the market regulator came after the Supreme Court of India granted it the freedom to freeze the accounts of the two companies and attach the properties of the defaulting groups.

The market regulator gave 21 days time to Sahara Firms to submit the details of the investments done and not listed in an order. SEBI’s orders restricts the Sahara India Estate Corporation from operating its demat accounts and redeeming the mutual fund units held by it as well as from transferring the shares controlled by it to any other body or company.

Sahara Housing was asked to furnish details related to the development rights along with the special puprpose vehicles as well as stakes. The orders to submit the details of movable and immovable properties to Subrata Roy and the three executives have restrained them from alienating, disposing or encumbering the properties on their names.

Supreme Court of India asked SEBI to Freeze accounts of two companies of Sahara =The Asteroid 2012 DA14, a 150-foot asteroid would fly above the earth at a distance of about 17000 miles on 15 February 2013, inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites. The asteroid would be visible across Asia including India and can be seen with the help of a binocular or telescope.

This would be the first encounter of the scientists with an object so close to earth. This encounter will bring chances of studying the closet near earth object. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office that have predicted the path of the asteroid had cleared that there exist no chances of asteroid collision with earth.

=The two-day International Conference on Traditional Medicine for South-East Asian Countries concluded with the Adoption of Delhi Declaration in New Delhi on 13 February 2013. The Delhi Declaration was made for fostering the development of Traditional Medicine of the region.

Agenda’s of Delhi Declaration on Traditional Medicine for the South-East Asian Countries:

• For appropriate use of traditional medicines in the health care delivery system impartial development and promotion of national policies, strategies and interventions • Development of institutionalized mechanism for exchange of information, expertise and knowledge with active cooperation with WHO on traditional medicine through workshops, symposia, visit of experts, exchange of literature and more • To pursue harmonized approach for the education, research, documentation, practice and regulation of traditional medicine along with the involvement of practitioners of health services of the traditional medicine • Identification of the possible ways for promotion of mutual recognition of educational qualifications that is awarded by recognized Universities, monographs, pharmacopoeias and relevant databases of traditional medicine • The declaration included development of a common document for reference on traditional medicines for the south East Asian nations • To identify and develop the scopes of regional cooperation for training and capacity building of traditional medicine experts • To encourage sustainable development and resource augmentation of medicinal plants in the South East Asian regional countries • To establish regional centers as required for capacity building and networking in the areas of traditional medicine and medicinal plants • To exchange views, experiences and experts for integration of traditional medicine into national health systems in accordance with national policies and regulations

The conference was attended by the representatives of South-East Asian countries namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, DPR Korea, Indonesia, Myanmar, Maldives and Thailand.

=Mohan Parasaran, the Additional Solicitor General was on 13 February 2013 appointed as the Solicitor General of India after senior advocate Rohinton Nariman resigned from his designation.

Mohan Parasaran will serve as the Solicitor General of India for a term of three years. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) cleared his name for Solicitor General of India. Rohinton Nariman resigned from his post in Early February 2013.

Mohan Parasaran is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court. He was appointed by first UPA Government as Additional Solicitor General (ASG) in July 2004.

Solicitor General of India

The Solicitor General of India is the second highest law officer of India and a subordinate to the Attorney General for India, who is the Indian government's chief legal advisor.

Rohinton F Nariman Solicitor-General of India resigned from his office =Astronomers in the third week of February 2013 discovered six speeding stars which were racing through the space at a speed of 3.2 million kilometres per hour. These stars were ejected from the huge black hole which sits in the middle of Earth’s galaxy, Milky Way.

These stars represented the first-known hypervelocity stars that have mass just like that of Earth’s Sun. The discovery is said to be very important because it would reveal how stars were formed in the dust-cloaked core of Milky Way.

The core of Milky Way is actually cloaked in dust which makes all stars unclear from telescopes of the astronomers, except the brightest stars. But these hypervelocity stars were useful in providing a peep into how star formation took place in the depths of Milky Way.

This is so because it is believed that the hypervelocity stars form when the black holes in the centre of Milky Way consume one star in binary system and ejects other (its twin), throwing it through the space at extremely high speed.

The astronomers explained that these stars were highly fast-moving objects which were gravitationally unbound to Earth’s galaxy. Even though these stars were in proximity to black holes, but they were not cloaked by dust and so they could be identified using telescopes easily. Identifying these stars could help in revealing the kind of star formation that took place in galactic centre.

Astronomers at University of Hawaii in their study made use of the data from Palomar 5-metre telescope in California. In their study they discovered 130 stars in Milky Way which were traveling at a fast pace. Then the astronomers narrowed down the group of stars which were traveling at extremely fast speed with ejection from centre of Milky Way galaxy. Six of the stars met this criterion.

=Seismologists in the second week of February 2013 declared that life on our planet was facing threat because of the catastrophic super-volcano which would erupt anytime in 200 million years. The seismologists explained that around two heaps of rocks which are like the size of continents, were crashing against each other as they shift under the mantle of the Earth, i.e., 2900 km below Pacific Ocean.

Seismologists also explained that beginning of any of huge eruptive events could lead to gigantic destruction on the Earth. This mechanism would lead to huge plume eruptions but these would happen somewhere in 100 million to 200 million years time duration.

The study conducted revealed that the activity created zone of partly molten rock which was that of the size of Florida and this would cause massive eruptions in the times to come.

Hotspot plume super-volcano eruptions during previous 2 million years at Yellowstone caldera of Wyoming led to huge landforms. For example, gigantic flood basalt eruptions created huge provinces such as Pacific Northwest’s Columbia River basalts some 17 to 15 million years ago.

Since early 1990s, scientists knew about existence of thermochemical piles, which were that of the size of continents, sitting on top of the Earth’s core and below most of the volcanic hotspots of the Earth.

=The State Government of Haryana exempted Value Added Tax (VAT) on Wheat that is given to the beneficiaries of Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) under Public Distribution System (PDS) on 13 February 2013. It’s expected that this exemption would tune up about 1.50 crore Rupees in a year.

The State Government of Haryana was offering a subsidy benefit of 6.35 crore rupees on wheat to the beneficiaries of Antyodaya Anna Yojana. The State Government also offered a VAT free distribution of Kerosene under Public Distribution System. The decision of exempting wheat from VAT for the Beneficiaries of Antyodaya Anna Yojana was taken in conformation of the directions provided by the Union Government of India that is 2 Rupees per Kilogram. =The 9th edition of Aero India 2013, a five-day aviation show organised by the Defence Exhibition Organization of the Ministry of Defence ended at the Air Force Station, Yelahanka, Bangalore on 10 February 2013 after displaying its magnificent aerobatic skills and belongings that created a chance of winning potential business tie-ups and networking. Defence Minister of India, A K Antony inaugurated the Air Show on 6 February 2013.

During the inauguration ceremony of the 9th Edition of Aero India show, Aero Space Policy of Karnataka state was unveiled by the Defence Minister of India, A K Antony.

The Show was opened for general public on 9 February 2013.

Aircrafts on display during the Show

• Vintage Tigher Moth aircraft of 1930’s was displayed after a gap of 22 years • LCA Tejas showed some breath taking loops and vertical charlies in the skies of Yelhanka • Flying Bulls aerobatics team of Czech Republic displayed Zlin Z-50 aircraft • USAF C-17 Globemaster III • Dassault Rafale B and Rafale C • USAF F-16 C • IAF Mi 17 V5 • HAL Rudra • Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker • C-17 Globemaster III • India Coast Guard Dornier Do 228 • French Dassault Falcon 900LX • Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin • Rafael Very Short Range Air Defense (V-SHORAD) system • Indian Army Dhruv • IAF Mi-8 for VIP Transport • Rafael SPYDER air defense System • IAF Tejas • IAF C-130J Super Hercules • Sukhoi Su-27Ps of the Russian Knights • Sarang • HAL Light Combat Helicopter

Aero India Show

Aero India is a show and exhibition of aviation organized by the Defence Exhibition Organisation of the Ministry of Defence at the Yelahanka Air Force Station in Bangalore. To make the show the largest Air Show of Asia different bodies namely Defence Ministry of India, Indian Air Force, Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Department of Space, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry and few more comes together to organize the same.

The first Edition of the show was organised for the first time in 1996. In the previous 2011 edition of the show Boeings F/A-18 Super Hornet, Jaguars, Sukhoi Su-30MKIs, Saab Gripen and Dassault Rafale were the main highlights of Aero India 2011. The next Aero India show is scheduled to be held from 18 February to 22 February 2015 at Bangalore.

9th International Exhibition on Aerospace, Defence & Civil Aviation Aimed at

The Exhibition aimed at creating good scopes of public-private partnership model following the provisions available in the Defence Procurement Policy of 2010 that provides Indian aerospace industry a chance to turn up as a hub for world class products and technologies for Indian aerospace industry in the sub-continent.

=The exports of India increased by 0.8 percent in the month of January 2013 to 25.58 billion US dollars. Comparatively, exports in January 2012 were 25.37 billion US dollars.

Imports on the other hand, increased by 6.12 percent to 45.5 billion US dollars. During April to January 2012-2013, the overseas shipments of India dropped by 4.86 percent to 239.6 billion US dollars. The main concern for the country is however to widen the trade deficit.

As a cumulative result, the exports depicted an arrest in decreasing exports. Now, the result is -4.9 percent. Import of crude oil was growing at a faster pace. Oil imports in January 2013 increased by 6.91 percent to 15.89 billion US dollars in comparison to 14.87 billion US dollars in January 2012.

=A new study using data from a pair of gravity-measuring NASA satellites found on 12 February 2013 that large parts of the arid Middle East region lost freshwater reserves rapidly during the past decade. Scientists at the University of California at Irvine found that during a seven-year period beginning in 2003, parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran along the Tigris and Euphrates river basins lost 117 million acre feet (144 cubic kilometers) of its total stored freshwater. That is almost the amount of water in the Dead Sea. The researchers attribute about 60 percent of the loss to pumping of groundwater from underground reservoirs.

Since obtaining ground-based data in the area is difficult, satellite data, such as that from NASA's twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, are essential. GRACE is providing a global picture of water storage trends and is invaluable when hydrologic observations are not routinely collected or shared beyond political boundaries.

GRACE is like having a giant scale in the sky. Within a given region, rising or falling water reserves alter Earth's mass, influencing how strong the local gravitational attraction is. By periodically measuring gravity regionally, GRACE tells us how much each region's water storage changes over time.

The team calculated about one-fifth of the observed water losses resulted from soil drying up and snowpack shrinking, partly in response to the 2007 drought. Loss of surface water from lakes and reservoirs accounted for about another fifth of the losses. The majority of the water lost approximately 73 million acre feet (90 cubic kilometers) was due to reductions in groundwater.

When a drought reduces an available surface water supply, irrigators and other water users turn to groundwater supplies. For example, the Iraqi government drilled about 1000 wells in response to the 2007 drought, a number that does not include the numerous private wells landowners also very likely drilled.

Water management is a complex issue in the Middle East, an area that already is dealing with limited water resources and competing stakeholders said Kate Voss, lead author of the study and a water policy fellow with the University of California's Center for Hydrological Modeling in Irvine, which Famiglietti directs.

GRACE is a joint mission with the German Aerospace Center and the German Research Center for Geosciences, in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. For more about GRACE, visit:

=The Government of India and the World Bank on 11 February 2013 signed a 60 million US dollars credit agreement for the Karnataka Watershed Development Project II (KWDP II) to further improve watershed planning and management in project areas. The Project will improve government watershed operations in 930 micro- watersheds covering 465000 ha across 7 districts of Karnataka.

This project builds on the successful experience of earlier Bank-supported Karnataka Watershed Development Project I, also known as Sujala, which helped improve the lives of 230000 farmers by increasing crop yields by about 25 percent, and raising household incomes of small and marginal farmers by 40 percent.

KWDP II will focus on improving the performance and results of IWMP by introducing new tools and approaches for integrated watershed planning, incorporating more information about water resources into the planning process, facilitating better convergence of IWMP with other government programs such as NREGS, and helping farmers increase agricultural productivity. The project will cover about 465000 ha and 160000 farmer households in 7 districts.

Consequently, a primary focus of the project is on supporting the implementation of IWMP in the 7-selected districts of Karnataka through better planning, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, and post-harvest value addition. Focus will also be on understanding local needs, like location‐specific soil‐crop‐water interactions; expanding the scope of rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge, by partly converging the NREGS with the IWMP and developing agro‐climatic zone specific technology to enable rural communities to better adapt to the effects of climate change.

Among the other components of the project, horticulture is expected to play a major role in raising income of farmers even in dry tracks. The Project will support activities for promoting dry land production for annual and perennial crops; crop diversification; help farmers in carrying out soil, water and leaf analysis to identify nutrient deficiencies; create facilities for testing, training and demonstrations; facilitate farmers in availing quality seed and planting material; and support farmers to improve post-harvest handling and marketing of the produce among others.

Karnataka’s dry regions are among the states’ poorest, have low agricultural productivity, and are susceptible to drought and deepening environmental stress and degradation. The project area has 39400 landless families. Annual normal rainfall varies from 600 to 800 mm with 43 rainy days in a year. Rain fed agriculture in 278000 ha of project area, experiences at least two water deficit years in a five year cycle due to prolonged dry spells during crop season and/or delayed onset of monsoon rains.The project will be financed by a credit from the International Development Association (IDA) – the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm – which provides interest-free loans with 25 years to maturity and a grace period of five years. The Closing Date of the Project is 31 December 2018. =Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) acquired stake of Navistar International Corporation in two joint ventures Mahindra Navistar Engines Pvt Ltd (MNEPL) and Mahindra Navistar Automotives Ltd (MNAL) on 12 February 2013.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) announced that it took over complete ownership to sell products of MNAL and MNEPL. Navistar however decided that it would source the components from India. M&M would forward its engineering services to Navistar, which in turn would facilitate support to it through the license agreements.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has further plans of introducing refrigerated trucks in the market.

=Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) appointed Subodh Kumar Agrawal as its new President and K. Raghu as its new Vice-President on 12 February 2013.

Subodh Kumar Agrawal

• He had served the ICAI as its fellow for 24 years • He had been the member of Institute’s central council twice since 2007 • He is specialized in area of internal and statutory audit of private and public sector entities like insurance companies and banks • He had served the institute at different positions and it includes Vice President and Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Member of its different Committees

K. Raghu

• K. Raghu is specialized in areas of business, taxation and technology consultation • He served as the member of the central council of ICAI from 2007 to 2010 and during this period he served ICAI as the Chairman of Information Technology Committee and brought forward the e-learning and web-casting initiatives of the organization

=As per the data released by Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry on 13 February 2013, India’s performance in export and import are as following:

EXPORTS Exports during January, 2013 were valued at 25587.24 million US dollars. (138981.70 crore rupees) which was 0.82 per cent higher in Dollar terms (6.67 per cent higher in Rupee terms) than the level of 25379.05 million US dollars (130294.02 crore rupees) during January 2012. Cumulative value of exports for the period April-January 2012 -13 was 239687.01 million US dollars (1305420.39 rupees) as against 251930.14 million US dollars (1196962.33 crore rupees) registering a negative growth of 4.86 per cent in Dollar terms and growth of 9.06 per cent in Rupee terms over the same period 2011-12.

IMPORTS Imports during January, 2013 were valued at 45583.25 million US dollars (247593.63 crore rupees) representing a growth of 6.12 per cent in Dollar terms and 12.28 per cent in Rupee terms over the level of imports valued at 42952.47 million US Dollars ( 220514.54 crore rupees) in January 2012. Cumulative value of imports for the period April-January 2012-13 was 406855.13 million US dollars (2215115.46 crore rupees) as against 406820.28 million US dollars (1934946.96 crore rupees) registering a positive growth of 0.01 per cent in Dollar terms and growth of 14.48 per cent in Rupee terms over the same period 2011-12.

CRUDE OIL AND NON-OIL IMPORTS: Oil imports during January, 2013 were valued at 15899.3 million US dollars which was 6.91 per cent higher than oil imports valued at 14871.2 million US Dollars in the corresponding period last year. Oil imports during April- January, 2012-13 were valued at 140420.1 million US dollars which was 11.56 per cent higher than the oil imports of 125874.2 million US dollars in the corresponding period last year.Non-oil imports during January 2013 were estimated at 29684.0 million US dollars which was 5.71 per cent higher than non-oil imports of US 28081.3 million in January 2012. Non-oil imports during April – January 2012-13 were valued at 266435.0 million US dollars which was 5.17 per cent lower than the level of such imports valued at 280946.1 million US dollars in April - January 2011- 12.

TRADE BALANCE The trade deficit for April - January 2012-13 was estimated at 167168.12 million US dollars which was higher than the deficit of 154890.14 million US dollars during April -January 2011-12. =North Korea on 12 February 2013 announced success of its underground Nuclear Test. The country cleared that the miniaturized nuclear device was detonated successfully and it also announced that the test was an act of self-defence from the US Hostility and also threatened stronger steps in future.

This was the third test conducted by the country since 2006 that had defied the UN regulations in existence. The test is reported to have conducted in the North Hamgyeong Province nearby the Punggye-ri nuclear complex, the place where the tests of 2006 and 2009 were conducted. Due to the past two nuclear tests of 2006 and 2009, North Korea is already facing many sanctions over it imposed by the United Nations Security Council. This is the first test conducted in North Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong-un.

World Response

The Western Nations termed this act to be highly provocative act of North Korea and claimed it to be a threat to the stability of the region. Whereas Asian countries like, China, Japan and Russia criticized the test and announced it to be a threat beyond tolerance. The international bodies like UN and NATO claimed this test as irresponsible and threat to the world peace.

=Twitter on 11 February 2013 launched its first pay-by-tweet service in partnership with the American Express. The service is designed to allow the cardholders to purchase products by tweeting #hashtags. Twitter and Amex have came together to create an integrated e-commerce payment mechanism in twitter and Amex cardholders would have an access to the offers made on the website by the merchants.

Cardholders of Amex willing to purchase a product by pay-by-tweet service needs to link their cards with their twitter account through the financial service application of the firm. The cardholder will also have to confirm the messages that come as a follow-up from Amex to complete the transaction.

=Parle-G in February 2013 became the first Indian FMCG brand that crossed 5000 crore Rupees mark in terms of retail sales in one year. Parle Products were launched in 1939 when the British ruled India. Factually, Parle Products in 2012 sold 5010 crore rupees worth glucose biscuits at the retail price, surpassing the domestic sales of Godrej products and Dabur, while at the same time also selling thrice more products than Maggi.

This means that Parle Products sold over 100 crore packets of the glucose biscuits every month, or 14600 crore biscuits in 2012. Parle-G that has less than 1 billion dollar sales in a year, but even then it has good lead over its rivals such as Hindustan Unilever's Wheel and Ghari Detergent.

Parle-G’s share increased from 67 percent in 2002 to 79 percent in 2012. Comparatively, shares of Britannia's Tiger and ITC's Sunfeast brand fell down.

=12 February 2013: World Radio Day was observed to increase awareness about the importance of radio. World Radio Day was observed on 12 February 2013 to raise awareness about the importance of radio, facilitate access to information through it and enhance networking among broadcasters. On the 18th of December, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the 2011 resolution adopted by the UNESCO General Conference, proclaiming the 13th of February as World Radio Day, the day United Nations Radio was established in 1946.

Since its invention more than a century ago, the radio serves as a channel for information and entertainment. The multi-purpose medium is an important source of information in those areas which are sometimes too remote to get a newspaper delivered.

Across the world, the number of radio stations is increasing and the cost of broadcasting is decreasing. More than ever, the radio remains an effective means to bring social change, by sharing knowledge and providing a platform for inclusive debate. =Prime Minister of Bhutan, Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley was on the home visit to India from 7 February to 9 February 2013. During his visit to India he met with President of Indian Union-Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Vice-President of India-Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister-Manmohan Singh, Minister of Finance-P Chidambaram and Foreign Secretary-Ranjan Mathai.

His visit was aimed at improving India-Bhutan bilateral relationship.

Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley He is the Prime Minister of the Royal Government of Bhutan from 2008, after Bhutan became a democratic country. Bhutan became the youngest democracy of the world on 6 November 2008.

• He was the secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1992 • In 1994 was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs • In 1994 he became Bhutan's Permanent Representative to the office of United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva • Lyonchhen served as the Prime Minister of Bhutan twice before introduction of Democracy in the nation and the period included July 1998 to July 1999 and August 2003 to August 2004.

=The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee appointed Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty as the chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi on 12 February 2013. Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty is the IAS officer of 1970 batch and retired from the designation of Secretary to Government of India.

Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty will retain his position till 31 December 2017. Chakravarty also served in Madhya Pradesh government. He had also remained member-secretary of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and director general of the National Museum, New Delhi apart from vice chancellor of the National Museum Institute.

Lalit Kala Akademi

Lalit Kala Akademi or the National Academy of Fine Art is fine art institution of Government of India with an objective to promote, develop as well as spread the culture of Indian fine art. It receives funds from Ministry of Culture.

=India and Japan on 12 February 2013 decided to strengthen cooperation in tourism sector and explore the new areas and opportunities in the sector by working together in different fields like the field of human resource development, investment in the tourism sector, exchange of tour operators and exchange of information related to tourism.

The decision was made during a meet of the Japanese Senior Vice-Minister of Tourism, Hiroshi Kajiyama with the Union Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi in India. The two also discussed issues related to singing of an agreement/MoU.

India and Japan had been an important tourism market for each other in the recent past and Japan accounts to be among the top ten inbound tourist generating market for India.

Japanese tourists in India in past few years:

Year 2008 2009 2010 2011

No. of 145352 124756 168019 193525 tourists

Japanese Tourists in India are interested in visiting to places connected to Buddhism in India. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had extended a loan of 7331 million Japanese Yen that is equivalent to 299 crore rupees for development of the Ajanta Ellora Conservation and Development Program – Phase II. The Ministry of Tourism is going to hold road shows in Tokya and Osaka on 18 February 2013 and 20 February 2013, respectively.

=MCX-SX, the third bourse on the equities and equity derivatives trading block debuted on 11 February 2013. It is the third national stock exchange of India after Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. MCX- SX started its trading in shared of 1116 listed companies against 1665 companies in National Stock Exchange and 5191 companies in Bombay Stock Exchange.

MCX-SX Index

MCX-SX Index is called SX40. This is like Sensex of BSE and Nifty of NSE. SX40 is formulated for measuring the economic performance through polished presentation of different industries as well as sectors based on ICB, which is a leading international classification from FTSE-100 of Britain.

SX40 Constituents

SX40 constituents are as follows: •ACC •Ambuja Cements •Asian Paints •Bajaj Auto •BPCL •Bharti Airtel •BHEL •Cairn India •Cipla •Coal India •Dr Reddy's •Gail (India) •HCL Tech •HDFC Bank •HDFC •Hero MotoCorp •Hindalco •HUL •ICICI Bank •Infosys •ITC •JP Associates •JSPL •L&T •Lupin •M&M •Maruti Suzuki •NTPC •ONGC •Power Grid Corp •RIL •Sun Pharma •TCS •Tata Motors •Tata Power •Tata Steel •Titan Industries •United Spirits •Wipro •Zee Entertainment

What is SX40?

•SX40 is the free-float based index, which means that the shares are available at any time for trading. It is an index of 40 large-cap as well as liquid stocks. •SX40 includes those companies which have minimum free float of 10 per cent. These companies are included within top 100 liquid companies. •In terms of international indexes, Britain's FTSE includes 25 percent free float criteria and US S&P 500 includes 50 percent free float criteria.

MCX-SX’s competition

•The direct competition of MCX-SX is with NSE and BSE. =The sanctions-hit Iran on 12 February 2013 called on for destruction of all atomic weapons of the world. The decision came soon after North Korea declared that the country had staged the most powerful nuclear test yet available with it.

The Foreign Ministry of Iran statement cleared that they demand of the country was that the nuclear weapons of every country of the world should be destroyed and at the same time, no country of the world should posses any type of nuclear arm.

=Giuseppe Orsi, head of an Italian defence and aerospace giant Finmeccanica was arrested in Milan on 11 February 2013 on the charges of his alleged involvement in the bribery activity to secure an Indian defence helicopter deal of 3600 crore rupees. He was arrested in relation to the probe of the international corruption.

The Deal The contract signed with Italian defence giant Finmeccanica in February 2010 involved supply of 12 VVIP three- engine AW-101 choppers from AgustaWestland for the Indian Air Force’s elite Communication Sqadron. By now, three choppers have already been delivered to India.

As per the reports on the bribe scam, it’s expected that about 362 crore rupees that is equivalent to about 10 percent of the final deal was given back to help the Italian firm in winning the contract.

About Finmeccanica The Finmeccanica is an Italian defence Giant company that entered into a deal to supply 12 three-engine AW-101 helicopters to India in February 2010.

Giuseppe Orsi, now the CEO of Finmeccanica and the then head of its Helicopter Unit was arrested on the charges of the bribe scandal that surfaced.

AgustaWestland

AgustaWestland is an Anglo-Italian helicopter company that is owned by Italy’s Finmeccanica. The company is a total capability provider in the vertical lift market. =The Health Ministers of India and Bangladesh signed a MoU on Health in New Delhi on 12 February 2013.The salient features of the MoU between India and Bangladesh are as following:

The main areas of cooperation between the two Governments will include the following: • Exchange of medical doctors, other health professionals and experts: • Development of human resources. • Exchange of information on health. • Medical and health research development. • Regulations of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and cosmetics. • Health promotion and disease prevention. • Fostering cooperation for the development of culturally sensitive and effective public and professional awareness campaign including clinical are practices and best practices guidelines for healthcare providers and caretakers to benefit individuals and families touched by Autism Spectrum Disorders and Developmental Disabilities • Any other area of cooperation as may be mutually decided upon.

Moreover, the cooperation between India and Bangladesh in the fields of health and medical sciences will be promoted through the following means:

• Exchange of scientific materials and information. • Joint collaboration in the area of research in medical science. • Institution level cooperation in the field of medical treatment, scientific research and training. • Exchange of health specialists and professionals. • Participation of specialists / professionals in seminars, workshops, conferences and meetings to be organized by both the parties. • Training for doctors and health workers by both the parties in the areas where they have relevant expertise and excellence. • Other areas of cooperation in the fields of health and medical sciences as mutually agreed upon.”

=World No. 73 Horacio Zeballos defeated Rafael Nadal 6-7 (2) 7-6 (6) 6-4 to win his first ATP World Tour trophy in VTR OPEN 2013 on 10 February 2013 in Vina del Mar, Chile in Men’s Singles.

Horacio Zeballos became the second first-time winner in ATP World Tour 2013. The first one was Australian Bernard Tomic who won at Apia International Sydney.

27-year-old Horacio Zeballos knocked all the four seeded opponents to grab the title. Apart from Nadal, he defeated fourth seed Pablo Andujar, fifth seed Albert Ramos and eighth seed Carlos Berlocq.

Rafael Nadal, additionally also lost in Men’s Doubles after he and Juan Monaco of Argentina lost to Italians Paolo Lorenzi and Potito Starace (6-2, 6-4).

About VTR OPEN 2013

• VTR OPEN 2013 was played on the clay courts. It is a tennis tournament. This was the 20th edition of VTR OPEN and also a part of ATP World Tour 250 series of the 2013 ATP World Tour. • VTR OPEN 2013 took place in Viña del Mar, Chile. • It took place from 2 February 2013 to 10 February 2013.

=Indian Tennis Players Association (ITPA), a collective body of Indian Tennis players was designed on 11 February 2013. The ITPA would be responsible to represent the concerns and professional interests of its members. The association is being constituted as there exist no particular structure in tennis to represent or address the issues of the tennis players in India.

The modeling of the ITPA is done on the basis of (Association of Tennis Professionals) ATP and will operate on the basic principle of self governance and consultative dialogue, to arrive at decisions that impact the professional tennis of the country.

ITPA - Indian Tennis Players Association The ITPA is being constituted under section 25 company and the membership is opened for all former and current, national and international tennis players. The association is being constituted as a non-profit body and the founding members include Davis Cup winners Jaidip Mukerjea, Mahesh Bhupathi, Somdev Devvarman, Prahlad Srinath and Mustafa Ghouse, Enrico Piperno, Rohan Bopanna, Manisha Malhotra, AITA vice-president Karti P. Chidambaram and Aditya Sachdeva (High Performance Coaching Director).

Every member of the body have equal voting rights for election of a general body to identify ITPA’s operations.

Jaidip Mukerjea is elected as the interim President of the body and will be on the post till the formative period of ITPA and until the general body and general council meets formally.

=India maintained their number one spot in the ICC ODI Championship table in the latest rankings issued in Dubai on 11 February 2013. Both India and England have same 119 rating points, but England lags behind on the basis of decimal points. Australia and South Africa follow the top two teams closely with 116 and 112 points respectively.

Among the batsmen, South African run machine Hashim Amla is at number one followed by fellow countryman AB Devilliers. India’s Virat Kohli is at number three followed closely by the skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Among the bowlers, Pakistan off spinner Saeed Ajmal maintains his top billing followed by Mohammad Hafeez. In the All rounder’s category, Pakistan skipper Mohammed Hafeez is the leader followed by Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan.

=The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 11 February 2013 removed the public prosecutor AK Singh from the 2G Spectrum Case. The decision of removal came after the alleged public prosecutor was caught discussing the strategy of prosecution with one of the prime accused of the 2G Spectrum Allocation Case in a taped conversation.

The 2G Spectrum Case is under trial in a Court of Special Judge at New Delhi and the court was informed about the alleged involvement if the Public Prosecutor by the CBI. AK Singh was the part of the 2G scam legal team of the CBI that was headed by the senior lawyer UU Lalit (the special public prosecutor in the case).

2G Spectrum Case

The 2G Spectrum Scam of India is a scam that involved Government Officials, Political Leaders and Industrialists within its circumference. The Government officials and politicians were accused for their alleged involvement in undercharging the frequency allocation licenses to the mobile telephony companies, resulting in a total loss of about 176,645 crore rupees as valued by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

=Pakistan on 11 February 2013 successfully test fired short range surface-to-surface missile Hatf IX (NASR). The test fire took place with consecutive launches of two missiles from multi-tube launcher. NASR has 60 km range with the capability of in-flight manoeuvring. It also has the capability of carrying nuclear warheads having apt yields, with higher efficiency.

Important facts related to Hatf IX (NASR)

• NASR is designed specifically to defeat Anti-Tactical Missile Defence Systems of all kinds. • The test firing of short range surface-to-surface missile Hatf IX (NASR) was a part of medium-range ballistic missiles [MRBM] and short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile [SRBMs] exercise which will be completed in three cycles by July 2013. • The missile has the capability to carry nuclear weapons.

=Priority Sector Lending (PSL) to Minorities increased considerably from 10.60 percent of total PSL in 2007-2008 to 15.01 percent in 2012-2013. Priority Sector Lending (PSL) to minorities belongs to one of the schemes which are covered under the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for Welfare of Minorities.

An increase was observed because of lending of 171960.71crore Rupees as on September 2012 to the minorities. Self-employment initiatives were created and sustained because of bank credit. The increase was observed because of sustained efforts of government of India.

In order to increase credit flow to the minorities, various steps were undertaken by the Government. These included:

•Reserve Bank of India issued directions on Priority Sector Lending in order to improve credit facilities to the minorities. •From 2007-2008 to 2011-2012, 5954 branches of bank were opened in those areas where there was substantial minority population. •Regular monitoring of Public Sector Banks was done for checking disposal of loan applications for the minorities. •14244 awareness campaigns were organised by Public Sector Banks in 15466 towns and blocks which covered minority population.

Priority Sector Lending (PSL) to Minorities in the absolute terms increased from 58662.67 crore Rupees in 2007- 2008 to 171960.71crore Rupees as of September 2012.

Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for Welfare of Minorities

The President on 25 February 2005 announced that Government of India would recast the 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities for including certain programme specific interventions.

The objectives of this programme were as follows:

•Enhancing opportunities for education. •Ensuring an equitable share for minorities in economic activities and employment, through existing and new schemes, enhanced credit support for self-employment, and recruitment to State and Central Government jobs. •Improving the conditions of living of minorities by ensuring an appropriate share for them in infrastructure development schemes. •Prevention and control of communal disharmony and violence.

=Seventeen Indian prisoners who were on death row in Sharjah jail since 2010 on charges of murdering a Pakistani national were released by the Dubai court in the second week of February 2013. As per the court ruling, their death sentences commuted through the pardon, but received a suspended two year prison sentence each. As they have already served more than the prescribed time in prison, they can be released. A Sharjah court had sentenced them to death in March 2010.

The 17 Indians were found guilty in March 2010 for killing Misri Nazir Khan in the Saaja Industrial Area of Sharjah in January 2009. Among them, 16 were from Punjab and one from Haryana. Sarbat Dah Bhala, an organisation was leading the campaign to secure the release of the 17 Indian expatriates.

=Operation Three Star: Code name given to secret plan for executing Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist Afzal Guru in Tihar Jail on 9 February 2013.

Operation Three Star started on 4 February 2013, just a day after the President of India Pranab Mukherjee rejected mercy plea of Afzal Guru. A few top officials of Home Ministry were aware about secret Operation Three Star.

Afzal Guru was hanged on 9 February 2013 at 8 AM in Tihar Jail, New Delhi. Afzal Guru was guilty of conspiring as well as providing shelter to terrorists who attacked Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001.

Hanging of Mumbai terror attack militant Ajmal Kasab was called Operation X. he was hanged at Yerwada Central Jail on 21 November 2012.

Afzal Guru, the convict of Parliament Attack 2001 hanged after rejection of Mercy Plea =The Environment Ministry in the third week of February 2013 constituted a committee that will review better legal protection to elephant reserves as well as the corridors in India under the green laws which are already present. The committee was constituted after National Board for Wildlife raised concerns about absence of any legal cover for the elephant corridors and reserves.

The central government has already identified two-third elephant reserves which cover 69582 sq km of area. The size of these reserves varies from 450-6724 sq km. These reserves not just include the forest patches of various kinds but also the tea plantations, revenue land, agricultural land, villages and townships.

As of now, these elephant reserves are identified as the programme of the environment ministry for facilitating more funds under Project Elephant central scheme. However, it does not facilitate better legal protection against the changes to demarcated landscape like that is case of tiger reserves. The government does not face many difficulties in safeguarding the tiger reserves, national parks and sanctuaries, but in case of elephant reserves, there are certain difficulties faced by the government.

This is so because the elephants travel hundreds of kilometres in a year and they run through the forest and, cities and villages as well.

Members of the committee

•The committee which was set up by the environment ministry will be headed over by retired senior forest officer, Vinod Rishi. •The director of Project Tiger will be the member convener of the committee. •Other members will include Member of National Board for Wildlife M D Madhusudan, elephant conservation expert Ajay Desai, chief wildlife warden of Odisha J D Sharma and Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Upadhayaya.

Purpose of the committee

•The committee will have a one year time for examining the existing networks of elephant corridors and reserves. The committee will inspect whether these reserves and corridors sufficiently cover the habitat of elephants and that what other legal cover can be provided to these reserves and corridors under the green laws recommended by Elephant Task Force. •The committee will also assess impact of wildlife protection regulations on the population that lives on or uses the land that falls inside elephant corridors and reserves.

=The Delhi Declaration of the first South Asian Autism Network (SAAN) for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) conference concluded in New Delhi on 11 February 2013.

The Delhi Declaration is as follows:

The members of South Asian Autism Network (SAAN), during New Delhi Declaration took into consideration facts like: • To reiterate the commitment of nations to the concept of all human beings being born free and equal in rights and dignity as enshrined in:

a. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, b. The Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, c. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2007, d. The Declaration of 2nd April as World Autism Awareness Day by the United Nations General Assembly 2007 e. The Dhaka Declaration on Autism Spectrum Disorders and Developmental Disabilities of July 2011

• They reiterated towards its commitment for safeguarding every citizen from discrimination and social exclusion ensuring their inclusion in all spheres of life • They noted down their concerns related to the increased occurrence of autism and disorders related to it as well as the absence of population based mechanisms to detect the accessible interventions on time • To develop a community based model for early detection, intervention and care for Autism which can surely improve the outcome and become a model for different types of developmental disabilities • The concern for making the appropriate services accessible to children and their families, making it affordable, and increase the human and material costs for communities, families and nations because the scientific evidences for early intervention of the children with autism have increased at a large scale • To consider the stigma, discrimination as well as social exclusion that children and their families can face on a daily basis

The Participant nations undertook:

• A commitment to themselves to include ASD in all mainstream policies and programmes of their nations for addressing the issues related to early childhood development in all spheres of community life • To develop measures for early detection and surveillance services at every level • Evaluation and implementation of the efficacious and effective programs for addressing the life cycle needs of person with ASD • The member countries agreed to undertake collaborative research on all aspects of autism • To strive to improve Awareness, develop collaborative networks for Advocacy and Legislation/Policy changes if required, on ASD which will also provide a platform for the voices of persons with ASD and their families • Implementation of the Dhaka Declaration on Autism Spectrum Disorders and Developmental Disabilities of 2011, in both letter and spirit =Stampede took place at the Allahabad railway station on 10 February 2013. On 11 February 2013, the death toll reached to 36 people. The death toll is likely to increase. The injured were being treated at SRN hospital in Allahabad and railway hospitals.

Victims included 9 men, 26 women and one child. Bodies of 20 deceased people were identified. The stampede took place at Platform number 5 and 6 where a number of passengers, most of which were Maha Kumbh devotees, were returning after they took dip in the Holy Sangam on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya.

The government of Uttar Pradesh ordered inquiry into this matter. The government also asked Railways to sanction ex-gratia of 5 lakh Rupees to families of deceased.

Azam Khan resigned as in-charge of Kumbh after the Allahabad stampede

Following the stampede that tolled 36 lives, Mohammad Azam Khan, the UP minister resigned as an in-charge of ongoing Kumbh Mela, owing to the moral responsibility.

=Pope Benedict XVI announced on 11 February 2013 that he would resign at the end of the month. He reasoned that he was too infirm to carry on. He is the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision set the stage for the election of a new Pope before the end of March 2013.

Pope Benedict XVI is 85 years old. He had become the Pope in 2005. The last Pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who took this step in 1415 to put an end to the Great Western Split among competing papal claimants. =US Marine General Joseph Dunford took over the command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan at a change over ceremony in Kabul on 10 February 2013. He succeeded US Marine General John Allen who became the longest-serving ISAF commander in the eleven year old war against terror in Afghanistan by completing 19 months at the office. General Dunford previously served in various capacities in the U.S. Marine Corps including as its Assistant Commandant.

Joseph Dunford will head the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the final two years of the war, and may to be the last commander to serve in Afghanistan, as Afghan soldiers take over from coalition forces in time for a full withdrawal in 2014.

Dunford will be the fifth top allied commander to lead in Afghanistan in five years.

=Lydia Ko, the teenager became youngest winner of a women's European Tour golf event by winning at New Zealand Women's Open in Christchurch on 10 February 2013. This is her third victory of the professional title. She is aged just 15 years, eight months and 17 days.

Lydia Ko in the meanwhile, also became the third amateur, who won on women's European Tour. First and second amateurs were Gillian Stewart and Yang respectively.

Ko at present is at number 38 on professional rankings of the world. She will go for Australian Open in Canberra that would kick off on 14 February 2013.

Her first victory was in pro tour event which took place at ALPG's Bing Lee Samsung Women's NSW Open in early 2012 when Lydia Ko was just 14 years of age.

Her second victory came at 2012’s Canadian Women's Open.

=The Union government of India on 10 February 2013 directed all states to review the cases of under-trials lodged in jails for longer duration. The Home Ministry asked the States and Union Territories that an under-trial prisoner completing half of the maximum period of imprisonment should be released by the Court on his personal bond with or without sureties except for those involved in heinous crimes.

The Advisory issued by the Home Ministry stated that although the percentage of overcrowding in jails is decreasing slowly, even then 67 per cent of the inmates in various prisons are under-trials. The Ministry elaborated that except those who are charged with offences punishable with the death sentence, no person can be detained in prison as an under-trial for a period exceeding the maximum possible sentence.

=Ranchi Rhinos beat Delhi Waveriders 2-1 to win the inaugural Hockey India League (HIL) in the match at Astroturf Hockey Stadium on 10 February 2013. Apart from winning the trophy, Ranchi Rhinos took away 2.5 crore Rupees. Runners-up Delhi Waveriders on the other hand, pocketed 1.25 crore Rupees.

Uttar Pradesh Wizards that completed in the third place took away 75 lakh Rupees. Uttar Pradesh Wizards defeated Punjab Warriors 4-3 to claim third position. Mumbai Magicians player Sandeep Singh hit maximum goals (11) in the tournament.

The awards given away in the Hockey India League (HIL) were as follows:

•Hero Goal of the Day: Manpreet Singh •Man-ofthe-Match: Mauritz Furtse •Winners (Prize Money Rs. 25000000): Ranchi Rhinos •Runners-Up (Prize Money: Rs. 12500000): Delhi Waveriders •Third Place (Prize Money: Rs. 7500000): Uttar Pradesh Wizards •Fair-Play Award: Ranchi Rhinos •Hero Player of the Tournament (Rs. 2500000): Sardar Singh •Ponty Chadha Trophy for Upcoming Player of the Tournament (Rs. 2000000): Mandeep Singh •Airtel Award for Most Goals in the Tournament (Rs. 1000000): Delhi Waveriders

About Hockey India League (HIL):

•Hockey India League (HIL) was played from 14 January 2013 to 10 February 2013 in which 5 teams Delhi Waveriders, Jaypee Punjab Riders, Sahara India Uttar Pradesh Wizards, Dabur Mumbai Magicians and Patel-Union Ranchi Rhinos participated. •The tournament was played at 5 places- Delhi, Jalandhar, Lucknow, Mumbai and Ranchi. •Renowned hockey players of the world participated in the Hockey India League (HIL). 34 matches in all were played during the tournament.

=Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar legend was honoured with the posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy award. His daughter sitarist Anoushka Shankar accepted the award on his behalf on 9 February 2013 ahead of the Grammy’s show that took place in Los Angeles on 10 February 2013.

Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones attended the pre-Grammy ceremony at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre for accepting the honour which was given to their deceased father. Pandit Ravi Shankar died on 11 December 2012 at 92 years of age.

Pandit Ravi Shankar was in the list of seven other artistes named for Lifetime Achievement Award honourees and this also included Carole King and the Temptations. The Indian sitar legend also won best world music album Grammy for The Living Room Sessions Part 1. Pandit Ravi Shankar’s daughter Anoushka Shankar was also nominated in this category for album Traveller.

Pandit Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitar Maestro Passed away in California

Pandit Ravi Shankar to be Honoured with Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award 2013

=NASA on 9 February 2013 announced that its Mars rover Curiosity drilled into the surface of the planet for first time. The drilling was a part of endeavor to learn whether the Martian surface, which has solar system like that of Earth, supports microbial life or not. The drilling into Martian surface took place for the first time on 8 February 2013.

As an outcome of the drilling, the pictures were sent by Curiosity which depicted a hole of around 0.63 inches wide and 2.5 inches deep in the fine-grained sedimentary bedrock. The drilling fetched out small heap of powder which will be fed in onboard laboratory instruments so that the chemical makeup of the rock can be determined.

Earlier in the second week of February 2013, engineers spent a few days in order to make use of the Curiosity’s drill which also included boring practice holes. The first drill target of Curiosity was a Martian rock which was laced with the veins which appeared like water-deposited minerals. Curiosity is on a two-year mission on Mars for finding out the chemical and geologic conditions on Mars which are required for supporting as well as preserving the microbial life.

Engineers are not clear yet whether the powder was produced in what quantity but it is enough for laboratory analysis. NASA announced that using drill was the biggest achievement for the team of Curiosity ever since the rover landed on Mars in August 2012.

The final target of Curiosity is 3-mile- (5-km) high mound of layered sediment which rises from floor of Gale Crater landing site.

=The largest saltwater crocodile of the world, named Lolong died in Philippines on 10 February 2013 just 17 months after it was captured and put for tourists on display.

Lolong measured 6.17 metres or 20.24 feet. The largest crocodile of the world died because of illness that is not known. It is believed that Lolong was over 50 years old.

A hunting party that was sanctioned by the government captured Lolong in September 2011. The largest crocodile of the world became a source of tourist attraction.

Lolong was declared officially as the largest crocodile of its kind in captivity by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2012. It beat the record of 5.48-metre crocodile named Cassius which was kept in park in an island off Queensland, Australia.

Lolong belonged to the family of species called Crocodylus Porosus, or the Indo-Pacific crocodile, which is said to be the largest reptile of the world.

=Zhuang Zedong, the table tennis legend died in Beijing on 10 February 2013 following lengthy fight with cancer. He was aged 72 years.

Zhuang Zedong is a three-time world table tennis champion. He won a range of events in 1960s. He was renowned for chance meeting with Glenn Cowan, the US table tennis player during 31st World Table Tennis Championships in 1971.

Zhuang Zedong and Ping-Pong Diplomacy

Zhuang Zedong remained a crucial figure in ping-pong diplomacy of 1971 and is popularly also called the Architect of Ping-Pong Diplomacy. Ping-pong diplomacy means exchange of the table tennis (ping-pong) players between China and US. This was done to normalise relations between these two countries.

=The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on 8 February 2013 arranged the first of its kind Live Twitter Conference based on the theme- Community Radio: Road Travelled & Way Forward. The first ever Live Twitter Conference was chaired by the Secretary of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Uday Kumar Varma. Other senior officials of the I&B were present as well.

The Live Twitter Conference was scheduled for half an hour but continued for around more than 1 hour. During the Live Twitter Conference, over 200 questions were asked on various topics of Community Radio programme. The Secretary of Ministry of I&B gave answers to around 45 questions. These questions were associated to topics such as sustainability, licensing, waiver and spectrum fee of Community Radio Model as well as career prospects.

I&B announced that the first Live Twitter Conference enabled it to understand the mindset of people in terms of social media space. The intervention, in the meanwhile, also provided a good platform to the citizens for making them aware about the important policies as well as programmes of the Government of India. It was also ensured that awareness in terms of key policy interventions like Community Radio reached people in a way that it was understood by them.

=David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was on a visit to India from 18 February to 20 February 2013. During his three day visit to India, the Prime Minister met the President of India Pranab Mukherjee as well as the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Major Agreements Reached and Announced

• Agreement on more cooperation to combat with the cyber attacks, which included police training exchanges and research into online security, was reached between the two nations • Agreement on doubling the overall trade to 23 billion Euro’s by 2015 was reached • David Cameron promised that his country will respond to any request for information in relation to the corruption allegations over India's procurement of helicopters from the Anglo-Italian company AgustaWestland • Cameron outlined a same-day visa scheme to make the process easier for India's business community in his country • Cameron invited the Indian students to come up the United Kingdom to pursue higher studies in the country

During his stay in India, David Cameron visited the Golden Temple, Amritsar and the Jallianwala Bagh Public Gardens. He described the shootings as a Deeply Shameful event, but defended to deliver a formal British apology for the event, where more than 379 innocent Indians were killed at the orders of the then Brigadier-General Reginald E.H. Dyer. He is the first serving British prime minister to visitthe site of 1919 Jallianwala Bagh shootings.

=Sona Polo Team won the General Sparrow Centenary Polo Cup-2013 played at Jaipur Polo Ground on 2 March 2013 by defeating Sailors team.The Vice President of India, M. Hamid Ansari on 2 March 2013 presented prizes to the winners of the General Sparrow Centenary Polo Cup-2013 at Jaipur Polo Ground. Sona Polo Team won the Centenary Polo Cup after defeating Sailors team in the final game.

=The Union Finance Ministry in second week of February 2013 decided to pay an additional cash subsidy of 25000 crore rupees for the state owned fuel retailers. The subsidy package is being given to help the retailers in making up of the revenue that they lost while selling cooking and auto fuel below cost in the current fiscal year of April to December 2012.

A comfort letter was issued on 7 February 2013 by the Union Finance Ministry to the Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) that sanctioned sanctioning 25,000 crore rupees as the part of the revenue lost by them on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost or at subsidized cost. The sanctioned subsidy meets about 44 percent of the revenue lost by the three firms of 124854 crore rupees together on the Sale of cooking and auto fuels in a period of April to December in 2012.

As per the latest sanctions reveled IOC, BPCL and HPCL would get 13474.56 crore rupees, 5987.25 crore rupees and 5538.19 crore rupees respectively.

=The Hydro Projects worth 2500 MW across various states were accorded clearance by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) on 5 February 2013. The projects include Tawang- II H.E. Project (800 MW) in Arunachal Pradesh, Teesta-IV H.E. Project (520 MW) in Sikkim to be executed by NHPC Limited and Luhri H.E. Project (775 MW) in Himachal Pradesh to be executed by Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Limited. The National Board for Wild Life (NBWL) has accorded wild life clearance to Vishnugad Pipalkoti H.E. Project (444 MW) in Uttarakhand to be executed by THDC India Limited subject to clearance by the State Board of Wild Life.

The clearances were pending for a long time. The way is straight clear in tapping the hydro potential of the country to meet the country’s power needs. Separately, the MoEF has recently granted Stage-I forest clearance to eight transmission projects and Stage-II forest clearance to two transmission projects of the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd.

The MoEF, through an order exempted certain linear projects including transmission lines from the requirement of obtaining consent of the concerned Gram Sabha(s) unless recognised rights of Primitive Tribal Groups/Pre- Agricultural Communities are being affected. However, all other conditions as prescribed in the MoEF`s earlier order would apply. This would help transmission projects obtain clearances faster.

=The total approximate earnings of Indian Railways on originating basis during 1 April 2012 to 31 January 2013 were 101223.95 crore rupees compared to 84083.74 crore rupees during the same period last year, registering an increase of 20.38 per cent, as per the data released by Ministry of Railways.

 The total goods earnings have gone up from 56163.30 crore rupees during 1 April 2011 – 31st January 2012 to 70067.36 crore rupees during 1 April 2012 – 31 January 2013, registering an increase of 24.76 per cent.

 The total passenger revenue earnings during 1 April 2012 – 31 January 2013 were 25924.29 crore rupees compared to 23344.42 crore rupees during the same period last year, registering an increase of 11.05 per cent.

 The revenue earnings from other coaching amounted to 2617.19 crore rupees during April 2012 - January 2013 compared to 2353.54 crore rupees during the same period last year, an increase of 11.20 per cent.

 The total approximate numbers of passengers booked during 1st April 2012 – 31st January 2013 were 7150.60 million compared to 6910.00 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 3.48 per cent. In the suburban and non-suburban sectors, the numbers of passengers booked during April 2012 -January 2013 were 3753.32 million and 3397.28 million compared to 3651.70 million and 3258.30 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 2.78 per cent 3.48 per cent respectively.

=Finance Minister P Chidambaram on 9 February 2013 launched the much-awaited Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme in Mumbai. The move will encourage new investors to put their money in the stock market. The scheme, which was announced in the Budget 2011-12, seeks to provide tax benefits to first-time investors in stock market. Under the scheme, an individual with an income of less than 10 lakh rupees would get tax incentives for investing up to 50000 rupees in the stock market.

As per the notification issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India on the scheme, there would be a lock-in period of one year on investments made under the scheme.

=Ministry of Civil Aviation on 8 February 2013 released Shubh Yatra, an exclusive monthly bi-lingual (Hindi & English) inflight magazine of Air India. It covers travel, lifestyle, culture and entertainment in all colour and spice. This is the new name of the inflight magazine.

=As cellphone operators continued disconnecting inactive SIM cards, India's total telecom subscriber base declined by 25.97 million to 895.51 million in December. In November, the country had 921.47 million telecom subscribers.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) stated that total wireless subscriber base decreased from 890.60 million in November 2012 to 864.72 million at the end of December 2012. TRAI reasoned that this decline is majorly due to large scale disconnections of inactive SIMs by some of the service providers. With this, the overall teledensity in India decreased to 73.34 per cent at the end of December, 2012 from 75.55 per cent in the previous month.

=The Information and Broadcasting Minister, Manish Tewari on 7 February 2013 launched the MyIndia Initiative-A Digital Volunteer Programme to reach out the people in the social media space.

The initiative from the I&B Ministry is aimed towards disseminating and delivering the messages of development to the citizens by registering them as volunteers them on the social media platforms. The initiative is an effort to make the citizen contribute positively towards nation building and this would initiate a principle of participative governance across the nation.

The I&B Ministry on 8 February 2013 also tried to reach out the citizens for the first time via Live Twitter Conference on the eve of 3rd Community Radio Conference. This was the first ever conference of such type by any of the Ministry’s of Government of India. Community Radio: Road Travelled & way forward was the topic for community radio conference and it lasted for a period of 30 minutes from 4 pm to 4:30 pm.

=Sachin Tendulkar on 8 February 2013 equaled the record of Sunil Gavaskar of 81 first class hundreds in first class cricket at Mumbai. He managed to equal Gavaskar’s record after scoring an unbeaten 140 runs in Irani Trophy against Rest of India in the first innings of the tournament of Mumbai team.

Centuries of Sachin in first class cricket

• 51 in Test matches • 18 in Ranji Trophy • 2 in Irani Cup • 3 in Duleep Trophy • 1 in county cricket for Yorkshire • 6 in other games

=Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on 8 February 2013 was slapped a penalty of 52.24 crore rupees by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for being indulged in anti-competitive practices. The CCI ordered BCCI to deposit the penalty within 90 days from the date of issue of orders.

The CCI in its verdict claimed that BCCI abused its dominant position and directed it to cease its all practices of denying market access to the potential competitors. The regulator also stated that the stance of BCCI was of serious concern and quantum of penalty which should be levied that is proportional to the seriousness of violation.

A complaint was filed by Surinder Singh Barmi in November 2010 against BCCI and his allegations were based on issues related to a Professional League Tournament and Indian Premier League (IPL) conducted by the BCCI. The issues were related to irregularities in granting the rights of franchise of the team ownership and award of sponsorship rights as well as media rights of the league. This complaint against BCCI was sent to the CCI’s Director General in December 2010 for hearing.

The CCI in its statement noted that BCCI have a huge economic power helped it in keeping away other competitors from the market by using its position as a de facto regulatory body, as a result of it many players which would have opted for other competitions were not successful in doing so. The BCCI had a strategy of monopoly over the market as a result of which it didn’t allow any other competitor to emerge in the market.

The Director General finally concluded that BCCI was a non-profit making organization and was registered as a society, but the activities performed by it like IPL earned it huge revenues and profits from the market via activities like grant of media rights, franchise rights, sponsorship rights and many more.

=The Advocate-General of West Bengal, Anindya Kumar Mitra resigned from his office on 8 February 2013. Following his resignation, Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal appointed Bimal Chatterjee as the new Advocate General of the state.

=Mohamammed Afzal Guru, the convict of 2001 Parliament attack was hanged on 9 February 2013 at 8 AM in Tihar Jail, New Delhi. The Supreme Court of India pronounced the death Sentence for Afzal Guru in 2004 for masterminding the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001.

The decision of hanging him came after the mercy petition filed was cancelled by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on 23 January 2013.

The 2001 Parliament Attack

The terrorist of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad managed to attack on the Parliament of India, leading to the death of about a dozen of people including the security persons as well as civilians.

More mercy plea’s rejected by the President, Pranab Mukherjee

Before rejection of Afzal Guru’s mercy plea, two more mercy pleas were rejected by the President in the recent past and they include the mercy pleas of 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks convict, Ajmal Kasab and Saibanna Ningappa Natikar, the person convicted for murdering his daughter and wife and was sentenced to death.

Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist caught during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, was hanged in a Yerwada Jail, Pune in a top- secret operation on 21 November 2012. Saibanna Ningappa Natikar currently lodged in the Central Prison at Hindalga, Belgaum, Karnataka and his plea was rejected by the President on 4 January 2013.

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab Hanged at Yerwada Jail, Pune

=The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on 6 February 2013 approved increase in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for 2013 season of both Milling and Ball Copra by 150 rupees per quintal over the MSP that was regulated in 2012.

The MSP for the Fair Average Quality (FAQ) of Milling Copra is fixed at 5250 rupees per quintal, and for the Ball Copra it is 5500 rupees per quintal. The decision from government of India may ignite the interests of the farmers to invest in cultivation of coconut to increase its productivity.

Government also cleared that National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) is the body that will act as the nodal agency for undertaking the price support operation at the minimum support prices in the coconut growing states.

=NPCA: National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on 7 February 2013 approved the proposal for the merger of National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP) and National Wetlands Conservation Programme (NWCP) to develop a new scheme named National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA).

The estimated cost to bring this plan into operations during the 12th Plan Period is 900 crore rupees. The Government of India and the State Governments would be sharing the costs in a ratio of 70:30 and in case of the North-Eastern states the ratio is 90:10.

National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA)

The Union Government of India merged National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA) to develop a new program named National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA). The formation of the NPCA was done with the objective of conserving aquatic ecosystems (lakes and wetlands) by implementing sustainable conservation plans. To govern the implementation uniform policy and guidelines will be framed.

=The 2013 Pyeongchang Special Olympics World Winter Games finished on 5 February 2013 after a week of competition among differently-abled athletes. The games took place from 29 January 2013 to 5 February 2013. Almost 200000 spectators witnessed the games in venues- Pyeongchang and Gangneung. India returned with 46 medals in 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games at Pyeong Chang, South Korea.

The differently-abled athletes of India won 46 medals in all- 13 gold, 17 silver and 16 bronze from mentally- challenged 2200 athletes participating from more than 120 nations in the games. The medal tally of India doubled from World Winter Games 2009.

These games were completed in eight categories of sports- alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, figure skating, short track speed skating, floor hockey and floorball.

Various celebrities participated in the games to support these athletes. Some of the popular faces were former NBA All-Star Yao Ming and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi. In its closing ceremony, figure skating superstars Kim Yu-na and Michelle Kwan were also present.

=Research conducted by the Durham University and BirdLife International in its finding concluded that change in the climate is causing a threat to the survival of various Asian bird species including the ones found in India.

These species do not just need the complete protection of protected and important sites but also the management of wider countryside. The research also warned that in case of extreme situations, these birds would be required to be moved physically to climatically-suitable areas.

A study was conducted for 370 species of Asian birds. These are the species where conservation is a prime cause of concern in biodiversity hubs like lower Mekong River basin regions in certain parts of Nepal and India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Bhutan as well as eastern Himalayas. The findings of the study showed that for survival of these bird species it was important to properly manage the conservation sites.

It was shown that at least 45 percent and up to 88 percent of these 370 bird species would face a decrease in the availability of suitable habitats, which in turn would lead to change in the species composition in certain areas. As far as India is concerned, there are in all 466 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) which are identified for hosting the different kinds of avian species, most of which also belong to the endangered category.

BirdLife International described that even though the important sites like these will sustain the bird species but change in the climate will lead to a modification in the site for which the species will be suitable. Therefore there is a need to adapt the conservation management.

=The Central Statistics Office (CSO) on 7 February 2013 revealed that the economic growth of India is estimated to fall to 5 percent in 2012-2013 financial year, which is a lowest figure in 10 years. A fall in the economic growth is because of the poor performance of the services, agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) in its advance forecast of the national income chopped off the gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate to 5 percent for financial year which will end on 31 March 2013. This is much less than the GDP of 6.2 percent in 2011-2012 financial year. This is said to be the worst performance of economy of India since 2002-2003 when the economic growth was 4 percent.

The major share of India’s GDP comes from the services sector. The services sector is estimated to record a growth of 5.2 percent in 2012-2013 fiscal year against 7 percent of 2011-2012 fiscal year.

As far as the industry sector is concerned, it is expected that the growth would decrease to 1.9 percent in 2012-2013 FY. The farm sector growth will fall down to 1.8 percent.

It is important to note that the official projection of the economic growth of India is much lower than budgetary estimate as well as projections of the central bank of India and other organisations. In the union budget for financial year 2012-2013 which was presented in March 2012, the government pegged India’s economic growth at 7.6 percent.

Also in the quarterly monetary policy review which took place in the first week of February 2013, the Reserve Bank of India projected the growth of 5.5 percent for 2012-2013 financial year. In the meanwhile, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had projected the economic growth of 5.7 percent.

In first half of 2012-2013 FY, the economy of India grew by 5.4 percent. However, as per the latest estimate, the growth would be around 4.6 percent in second half of 2012-2013.

Industry bodies in the meanwhile asked the government to press for the reform process in order to revive the economic growth.

The Supreme Court of India on 7 February 2013 directed Karnataka to release 2.44 thousand million cubic feet of Cauvery water to the state of Tamil Nadu with immediate effect.

The bench of Justices R M Lodha, J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur gave the order on the basis of report submitted by the committee of Central Water Commission that was appointed on the orders of the Apex Court.

Sharing Cauvery waters has remained a source of disagreement between the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka since 1892. The dispute is based on the agreements which were signed in 1892 and 1924 between former Madras Presidency and Princely State of Mysore.

In the development of the dispute that took place in recent past, i.e., on 6 December 2012, the Apex Court had directed Karnataka to release 10000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu. The decision came in order to save the standing crops of both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Karnataka agreed to release 10,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu

Union Government ruled out the decision of Cauvery River Authority Karnataka to Provide Tamil Nadu with 12 TMC feet of Cauvery water: CMC =First bionic man of the world called Rex was unveiled on 7 February 2013 at London's Science Museum. The bionic man was created using 1 million US dollar limbs as well as organs.

Prosthetic legs and ankle came from MIT, synthetic blood from Sheffield University, spleens, pancreas and artificial kidneys from University College London, retinas from Oxford University and artificial lungs came from Swansea.

Rex has a human face with brown eyes and a height of 6.5 feet. It was designed jointly with assistance from 18 universities and companies. Rex gave a hope that it was possible to replace the body parts with the artificial alternatives, for the very first time.

The internal organs of Rex such as artificial lungs, bladder and pancreas were in line of development. It is important to note that it is not possible for certain technology to function without the help of human input. For example bionic hands require signals from brain and muscles to work properly. Other parts however, such as pancreas and heart can be designed to work automatically.

Rex would remain in display at London's Science Museum from 7 February 201 to 11 March 2013.

=The Union Cabinet of India on 6 February 2013 gave its nod to the proposal of decreasing the headcounts to 100 in habitations under the government's flagship programme, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, PMGSY. Under this program (PMGSY) habitation with population of 100 tribals and more in eighty-two naxal-hit would be connected via all weather roads.

Earlier, under the PMGSY program the tribal areas with a population graph of more than 250 people in the naxal- affected reasons were covered. The decision of decreasing the head counts in different area came after it was pointed out by Kishore Chandra Deo, the Tribal Affairs Minister that maximum habitations in these areas had a population graph of less than 250 people.

=Researchers from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg in the second week of February 2013 discovered the largest prime number of the world, beating an earlier record of largest prime number by more than 4 million digits. The findings of the researchers were a part of Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS). GIMPS is a distributed computing project which was specifically formulated for finding out a certain kind of prime number which was first identified in 17th century.

All the prime numbers in the world can be divided by themselves and 1 only. However there are certain rare kinds of prime numbers called Mersenne primes which have the form 2 multiplied by itself p times minus 1, where p denotes a prime number. The new number now shot to 2 multiplied by itself 57885161 times minus 1 and this broke the record of finding the new and even larger primes.

The new largest prime number discovered by the researchers has more than 17 million digits and is an only 48th Mersenne prime found so far. It is the 14th discovery by GIMPS. The earlier record of 2 multiplied by itself 43112609 times minus 1 was also discovered by GIMPS back in 2008 and it had just a few less than 13 million digits. GIMPS discovered all the top ten largest Mersenne primes.

There are infinite numbers of primes and there is not any specific formula for generating the primes like these. Therefore discovering numbers like these involves intensive computation. The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) software functions on almost 1000 university computers. One of the computers out of these spent 39 days in proving that number discovered was actually prime and later it was verified by other researchers as well. =The Union Cabinet of India on 7 February 2013 approved raise in the authorized capital of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Nabard to 20000 crore rupees from 5000 crore rupees.

The authorized capital was increased with the aim to enlarge the operations and broadening the activities of NABARD.

=GAIL (India) Ltd and EDF Trading on 7 February 2013 announced that they signed a MoU to jointly get hold of the oil and gas assets in North America. The MoU will also help in development of these assets. Both these companies will additionally be the partner in trading as well as optimization of LNG and US gas. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between GAIL (India) Ltd and EDF Trading on 2 February 2013.

EDF Trading is leading participants of LNG market in the world and it facilitates its users with services such as supply and delivery, re-gasification as well as nomination in networks as well as terminal operations. Apart from GAIL (India) Ltd, it is also in agreements with some of the leading participants of the market as well as long-term supply contracts in West Asia and Asia.

It is important to note that GAIL (India) has its footprint in US already through the 20 percent stake in Eagle Shale gas assets in Texas by Carrizo Oil.

=Election Commission of Maldives on 6 February 2013 announced that the Presidential Elections in Maldives would be held on 7 September 2013. This would be the first election scheduled to take place in Maldives after the former President Mohamed Nasheed was replaced by the vice-President Mohamed Waheed, on 7 February 2012.

=First copy of the book titled Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Germany by Professor Anita B. Pfaff was given to the President of India Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 6 February 2013. The book was brought out by the Federation of Indo-German Societies in India.

The book is a collection of the records shared by Professor Anita Pfaff as well as other known biographers and writers. The book depicts interesting facts about the life of Netaji and his contribution to freedom struggle of India. The President described the book as a tribute to Netaji.

=The Supreme Court of India on 6 February 2013 gave its ruling against Sahara Group setting the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) free for seizing the properties and freezing the accounts of the two companies of Sahara Group for disobeying the Apex Courts orders of refunding 24000 crore rupees of investors. The Supreme Court also issued a notice against Sahara Group seeking response within four weeks that why the contempt proceedings should not be initiated against the group.

The Supreme Court bench of two Judges, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and J.S. Khehar also pulled up SEBI for not taking action against the Sahara group companies namely Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIREC) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHIC) after it defied the Court orders as per the 31 August 2012 orders.

The Supreme Court bench also cleared that SEBI was free to take its actions against Sahara Group companies and the contempt plea would not come on the way of proceedings initiated by it.

What is the issue? Supreme Court on 31 August 2012 ordered the two companies Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIREC) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHIC) to refund the amount of around 24000 crore rupees to the investors with 15 percent interest per annum within three months as the two companies raised the amount from the investors after violating the rules and regulations.

Region for the Supreme Court’s Decision The two companies of the Sahara namely the Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIREC) and the Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHIC) defied the orders of the Court and failed to pay back the amount of 24000 crore rupees to the investors.

Series of Developments on the issue:

• 31 August 2012 – Supreme Court ordered two Sahara Companies to refund 24000 crore rupees to investors. • December 2012 – Sahara group rapped by Supreme Court for not refunding the amount to investors and gave a week’s deadline • 5 December 2012 – Sahara group got two months time to pay the amount to investors in three different installments • January 2013 – SEBI informed that all paper in case of Sahara was not received by them • 6 February 2013 – Supreme Court passed its ruling and set SEBI free to freeze the accounts and seize the properties of the two companies of Sahara.

=Russian Formula1 (F1) team Marussia announced on 6 February 2013 that Brazilian Luis Razia is the second driver for the 2013 Formula One Season going to start in Melbourne (Australian Grand Prix) on 17 March 2013. Razia, the runner up of the 2012 GP2 Series would race alongside Max Chilton, the British teammate.

Luis Razia

• Luis Razia is a Brazilian Driver, who was associated with the Russian Formulae One Team Marussia as a reserved driver in 2010. • He was a reserved driver for team Lotus in 2011 • In 2011 Chinese Grand Prix, he participated in his first free practice session

=Pakistan in the last week of January 2013 approved the deal which transferred operational control of Gwadar port from Singapore’s PSA International to Chinese Overseas Port Holdings Ltd. Gwadar port is situated at a strategic location of the Arabian Sea and the mouth of the Persian Gulf. It is only 400 kilometres away from the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil supply route.

Pakistan’ decision to hand over Gwadar port to China is a serious concern for India. It can be an attempt by China to encircle India. In addition to funding ports in Sri Lanka, China has also plans to build a port in Bangladesh.

=YES Bank, the fourth largest private sector Bank of India was awarded the Financial Institutions Syndicated Deal of the Year 2012 in its Asia Pacific Region. The award was given for 155 million US dollar syndicated loan.

The award was given away by Asia Pacific Loan Market Association (APLMA), which is a leading trade association for syndicated loan market in this region. The award ceremony was held in Hong Kong.

The 155 million US dollar loan which was syndicated by YES bank was distributed across 9 different countries from 14 banks.

=Gross Direct Tax collection from the period of April to January in fiscal year 2012-2013 increased by 7.02 percent at 455125 crore Rupees against 425274 crore Rupees in same period in 2011-2012 fiscal year.

Gross collection of the corporate taxes increased 3.71 percent, i.e., 296451 crore Rupees in 2012-2013 fiscal year against 285837 crore Rupees in 2011-2012. Gross collection of personal income tax increased by 13.81 percent, i.e., 157913 crore Rupees in 2012-2013 fiscal year against 138746 crore in 2011-2012 fiscal year.

Net Direct Tax collections registered a growth of 12.49 percent, i.e., 390310 crore Rupees in 2012-2013 fiscal year against 346959 crore Rupees in 2011-2012 fiscal year.

2.85 percent growth was recorded in wealth tax. It increased to 685 crore Rupees in 2012-2013 financial year in comparison to 666 crore Rupees in 2011-2012 financial year. Growth in Securities Transaction Tax was on negative side. It recorded a fall of 9.99 percent. It decreased to 3731 crore in 2012-2013 in comparison to 4145 crore Rupees from 2011-2012.

=Annette Schavan the Education Minister of Germany on 6 February 2013 was stripped of her doctorate degree by the committee of academics at Duesseldorf’s Heinrich Heine University. The University took the action after the committee considered the allegations of plagiarism done by Schavan in different parts of the thesis submitted to the University.

The allegations were made against the Education Minister by an anonymous blogger in 2012 claiming the Annette Schavan failed to cite the passages properly of the thesis in philosophy submitted to the University in 1980.

Before this, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the former Defence Minister of Germany resigned from his office in 2011 after it was confirmed that a major portion of doctoral thesis submitted by him to avail the doctorate was copied.

=Thomas Cook India, the largest Indian integrated travel service company on 6 February 2013 acquired 74 percent interests of Ikya Human Capital Solutions, the human resource staffing Solutions Company by signing an investment agreement with it. Thomas Cook made an investment of 256 crore rupees to acquire the interests of Ikya.

With this acquisition, Thomas Cook has been successful in broadening its portfolio in the service industry and has entered the largest Human Resource market of the world.

About Ikya

• Ikya as a company is involved in offering human resource services that includes searching the candidate, recruitment, facilities management, project based hiring of professional as well as general staffs and skill development. • The company as an associate to more than 500 leading Indian corporate clients and have 32 offices across India with a team size of 1400 members and 54000 associates.

=US President Barack Obama nominated Sally Jewell, a retail executive and outdoor enthusiast on 6 February 2013 as the U.S. interior secretary for looking after the huge energy reserves as well as the national parks. Obama while nominating Jewell described her as an expert on climate issues and energy issues.

It is important to note that Jewell is the first woman who is nominated to join second term of Obama.

About Sally Jewell

• Jewell who is 56 years of age has remained a leader in land conservation in the Pacific Northwest. • She has also worked in banking and energy sector in early days of her career.

Role of the U.S. interior secretary

• Apart from managing the U.S. National Park Service, the U.S. interior secretary also looks after one fifth of the land mass of the country as well as offshore oil fields. • The interior secretary also strongly voices out the opinions in rules which govern the hydraulic fracturing or fracking on the public lands and drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic.

=The Union Cabinet of India on 6 February 2013 gave approval to Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for developing an indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) for IAF.

AWACS allows IAF to keep a close watch on the enemy territory. The government granted an in-principal approval to the proposal for developing an indigenous AWACS. The approval was granted in the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security.

DRDO officials announced that DRDO would work for finalisation of further details of the programmes as well as the number of aircrafts that IAF would need for giving overall coverage to India’s boundaries. At present, India has a fleet of three AWACS aircraft.

=UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on 6 February 2013 launched a new health initiative called Rashtriya Bal Sawsthya Karyakram at Palghar town in Thane district of Maharashtra. The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, is a part of the National Rural Health Mission of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The Main Features of Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram are as following: • The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram is aimed at improving overall quality of life of children through early detection of birth defects, diseases and deficiencies, which are among key factors for child mortality. • The new initiative would assure a package of health services for all children up to 18 years of age. The programme will also prove economical for poor and marginalized. • The services will be provided through dedicated mobile health teams placed in every block. The scheme, which will be implemented in a phased manner, is expected to benefit approximately 27 crore children across the country. Birth defects account for 9.6 per cent of all new-born deaths and 4 per cent of under-five mortality. According to the programme, a set of thirty common conditions have been identified for screening and further management of child health.

National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is an Indian health program for improving health care delivery across rural India. It was launched on 12 April 2005 for a period of 7 years. =Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, the President of Nepal was on a visit to India from 24 December to 29 December 2012. During his visit to India, he attended the Special Convocation of Banaras Hindu University that marked the concluding ceremony of the Birth Ceremony of Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya on 25 Dcember 2012.

During his stay in India, he inaugurated the Maithili Play presented by Nepalese Artists at Sriram Center on 28 December 2012.

He also met with few dignitaries in India namely:

• Pranab Mukherjee, the President of Indian Union • Hamid Ansari, the Vice-President of Indian Union • Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India • Salman Khurshid, Minister of External Affairs • Ranjan Mathai, Foreign Secretary of India • Sushil Kumar Shinde, Minister of Home Affairs • A.K. Antony, Minister of Defence

=Mukund Govind Rajan was appointed as the group spokesperson and brand custodian of TATA Group on 6 February 2013. Rajan will have the responsibility of looking after the corporate communications as well as the branding activities of the group in India and abroad.

Apart from this, Rajan will also serve as the chief ethics officer of this group. He will look after the Corporate Social Responsibility activities of the Tata group as its Chairman of the Tata Council for Community Initiatives.

Rajan would report directly to Cyrus Mistry, the Chairman of the Tata group. Rajan has remained in Tata group for more than 18 years. He started his career in Tata as the Tata Administrative Service (TAS) Officer. In the recent past, he was the head of private equity advisory at the Tata Capital and also the Managing Partner of advisory team of Tata Opportunities Fund.

Previously, Rajan also served as the Managing Director of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra). He was also the vice president, Chairman’s Office, at Tata Sons.

=Times Television Network (TTN) tied up with one of the leading distribution companies MSM Discovery Pvt Ltd. (MSMD) in the second week of February 2013 in order to collect subscription revenue of its channels. MSMD is known as TheOneAlliance and is actually a joint venture of Sony's Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd as well as Discovery Communications.

After the tie-up, all the entertainment and news channels of TTN i.e., Movies Now, Zoom, Times Now and ET Now will be distributed across the country for collecting subscription of revenue over HITS, Cable (Digital and Analogue), DTH and IPTV platforms as the part of TheOneAlliance. However, the channel penetration and marketing will be done independently by the TTN.

There has been a business relationship between Multi Screen Media and Times Group since long which spreads over Filmfare Awards, movie licensing deal with the Sony Pictures Entertainment as well as the international advertising sales partnership for US. TTN channels have more than 100 million viewers in 30 million households in India.

Multi Screen Media India announced that TheOneAlliance offers entertainment to its viewers and addition of the TTN channels will help in strengthening the company even more.

=Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran on 5 February 2013 became the first Iranian leader to visit Egypt after Tehran's 1979 Islamic revolution. He flew into the Egyptian capital city Cairo for attending the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that started on 6 Feb 2013. Ahmadinejad’s visit to Egypt was scheduled to improve the ties between the two countries.

During this historic visit to Egypt, Ahmadinejad received a red carpet welcome by the President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi. The Presidents of the two nations discussed on the ways to improve relations between them and to resolve the Syrian crisis without resorting to military intervention.

During his visit to the al-Azhar, an ancient mosque, a shoe was thrown on Ahmadinejad by a Syrian protestor after which he managed to flee from there.

Tehran's 1979 Islamic revolution

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 was the series of events that took place for overthrowing the Pahlavi dynasty under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, which was then replaced by the Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution.

Reason for tensions between Iran and Egypt

The relations between the two countries went sour since late 1970’s, when Anwar Sadat (Egypt), the predecessor of Hosni Mubarak concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 to became an ally with the Western Powers, namely Europe and United States. This was the time, when Iran stood against the influence of Western Power in the Middle East. The other reason for the tension is naming of a street in Tehran by the name of the Islamist, who was responsible for the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. =The King and Queen of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Jetsun Pema respectively visited India from 23 January to 30 January 2013. King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was invited by the Indian President to be the Chief Guest for the Republic Day Celebrations of India.

The visit of the King of Bhutan and his acceptance to be the chief guest for the Republic Day celebration would contribute to further strengthening and expansion of the bilateral relation and ties between Bhutan and India.

During his visit, the King of Bhutan met with President of India, the Vice-President, Prime Minister, UPA Chairperson, Leader of Opposition in Lok sabha, Foreign Secretary, National Security Advisor.

=The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on 29 January 2013 constituted an Expert Committee to review the institutional frame work of Prasar Bharati as well as its relationship with Government, its role in continuance as a public broadcaster and the measures that needs to be taken to ensure technical upgradation of the organization. Sam Pitroda is the Chairperson of the committee.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Committee are as follows:

• To suggest measures to sustain, strengthen and amplify Prasar Bharati`s role as a Public Broadcaster with special reference to its relationship with Government in the emerging context. • The committee is responsible for reviewing the status of implementation of the recommendations, which were made by different committees after undertaking the study of Prasar Bharati, mainly, the Sengupta committee, the Bakshi Committee and the Narayanamurthy committee. It is also responsible to suggest a road map ahead to enhance the reach and potential of Prasar Bharati. • The committee is responsible for identifying the ways for digitization of the archived material available with Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR), which includes digitization of the materials of the Independence Movement. As well suggest the measures for development of infrastructure data centre, digitalization system and networks • The committee is responsible to find the ways offer suggestions to use the new media for delivering digital content; both in broadcast mode (DTH) and in a demand-based mode (Free on social media like You-Tube and on payment through IPTV). • Identify the ways and develop strategy to create a network of domestic and overseas business partners to ensure wider reach to a worldwide audience that includes creation of an exclusive overseas service. • Any other statutory issue that the Committee may like to consider.

Members appointed by the government in the Expert Committee are:

• Sam Pitroda is appointed as the Chairperson of the committee. At present he is the advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations • Asha Swaroop (member of the committee), he is a retired IAS and former Secretary to the Govt. of India • Dr. B.K. Gairola (member of the committee), he is the Mission Director of e-Governance • Shekhar Kapur (member of the committee), he is the Member of the National Innovation Council • Prof. M.P. Gupta(member of the committee), he is from IIT Delhi - Member • Jitendra Shankar Mathur (member of the committee), he is the Additional Secretary and nominated member on Prasar Bharati Board • Shri Jawhar Sircar (Convenor member of the committee), at present he is the Chief Executive of Prasar Bharati

=Rajkeswur Purryag, President of Republic of Mauritius visited India from 3 January 2013 to 10 January 2013. He was accompanied by Aneetah Purryag as well as the Ministers of Arts & Culture and of Social Integration and Economic Empowerment, and senior officials.

Key highlights of his visit:

•Rajkeswur Purryag was the Chief Guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2013 from 8 January 2013 to 9 January 2013. •President Purryag was honoured with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award. •President Purryag met President Pranab Mukherjee and also held talks with PM Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on 4 January 2013. •President Purryag also visited Patna, Tirupati as well as Kochi during the visit. He visited ancestral village, Bojeetpore near Patna in Bihar.

=Marussia F1 team unveiled their new Formula 1 car called MR02 on 5 February 2013. The specialty of this car is that it equips the KERS (the kinetic energy recovery system) power-boost system which is not found in any other existing teams. KERS was legalised since 2011. The benefit of KERS is that enables 0.3 seconds per lap.

New driver of the Marussia F1 team, Max Chilton drove this car on first day of the F1 pre-season testing at Jerez in Spain ON 5 February 2013.

Marussia F1 team described this car as an all-inclusive evolution of older 2012 model. MR02 is first of its kind car that is designed using the technique of CFD complementing wind tunnel.

=India and Austria on 5 February 2013 inked a social security pact at Vienna, under which the Indian professionals working in Austria would be exempted from paying the social security contribution of the country, if such payments are already made in India. Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and Austrian Minister for Labour and Social Security, Rudoulf Hundstorfer signed the pact.

The pact of social security between the two countries would also boost cooperation of the labour market expansion in Austria, the country that is a home for more than 17000 Indian professionals.

Provisions of the Agreement:

• Indians working in the country on short-term contracts of up to five years are exempted from making social security contribution in Austria if they continue making the payments in India. • If any Indian worker is sent to Austria by an Indian company from a third country then also he can avail the relief. • Export of the benefits of social security would be offered to the Indian worker, who relocates to India once his/her service term in Austria ends. The self employed Indians can also carry on the same benefits on relocation to India

India already have inked similar types of agreements with countries like Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary, Luxembourg, Denmark, South Korea, Finland, Canada, Norway and Japan.

As per the Indian Labour Law, every employer and employee who falls under the umbrella of Employees Provident Fund Act 1952 needs to make contribution towards provident fund. Similarly the mandatory contribution fund in Austria is known as Social Security. Before signing of these agreements, the Indian professionals posted in foreign countries paid social security tax in the countries of their stay although they contributed there part in India.

=FlightSafety International, which is said to be one of the biggest aviation training companies promoted by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, entered India through licensing and consultancy agreement with the Bangalore-based Aviators India.

FlightSafety International is a 60-year old company based in New York and it offers more than million hours of flight training to the aviation professionals, pilots, cabin attendants and technicians every year. It also additionally supplies visual systems, flight simulators and displays to the military, commercial and governmental organisations across the length and breadth of the world. India operations of FlightSafety will start by June 2013. In its early stage, FlightSafety would start with the training of cabin attendant for corporate and commercial flight operators.

FlightSafety will address two main kinds of market training in India and these are initial market and recurrence market training.

Bangalore-based Aviators India announced that there will be more than 10000 flight attendants in India for corporate and commercial operators. Also, in next five to seven years, there would be a growth of 100 percent in this vertical. Aviators India has remained in business of aircraft charter services as well as sales of corporate jets to Indians for around 20 years.

=Britain-based Rebecca Adlington, the Olympic champion announced retirement from all forms of competitive swimming on 4 February 2013. Adlington, 23 is from Mansfield.

Rebecca Adlington’s medals are as follows:

•2008 - Olympic Games 400m gold •2008 - Olympic Games 800m gold •2009 - World Championship 400m bronze •2010 - European Championship 400m gold •2010 - Commonwealth Games 400m gold •2010 - Commonwealth Games 800m gold •2011 - World Championship 400m silver •2011 - World Championship 800m gold •2012 - Olympic Games 400m bronze •2012 - Olympic Games 800m bronze

=Nepal started a three-month-long census of the tigers on 4 February 2013. Tigers were declared as the endangered species by International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2010.

The census includes five main conservation areas in Nepal which include two wildlife reserves namely, Parsa and Shuklaphanta as well as three national parks namely Bardiya, Banke and Chitwan. All the conservation areas where census began lie in the Terai plains of the country. First counting of the tigers started in Shuklaphanta reserve which is situated in far-west region. The census was jointly started by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the National Trust for Nature Conservation. 50 cameras were installed in Shuklaphanta reserve for counting the number of tigers.

Nepal is said to be the abode of Royal Bengal Tiger that primarily dwells in dense forests of the Terai plains. Royal Bengal Tiger was declared as the endangered species by International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2010. As per the initial census, there were a total of 200 tigers in Nepal. However, poaching remains a threat to tigers in Nepal.

=A powerful earthquake of magnitude 8.0 has struck off the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean on 6 February 2013 and generated a potentially destructive tsunami.

The earthquake struck the Santa Cruz Islands a part of the Solomon Islands Nation at 01:12 GMT as per the reports from the US Geological Survey. The quake struck 81 kilometres west of Lata, at a depth of 5.8 kilometres. The Tsunami warning was raised for Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Tuvalu, Fiji, Kosrae, and Wallis and Futuna and Kiribati islands.

=Manjushree Khaitan, the youngest daughter of Birla group on 5 February 2013 took over as the top executive of the BK Birla flagship, Kesoram Industries which is a 6000 crore Rupees company. Kesoram Industries’ board decided inducting Manjushree as a vice-chairman as well as whole-time director at the company.

Manjushree Khaitan remained as a member of the board at Kesoram Industries as their non-executive director since 30 October 1998. Manjushree Khaitan is taking over as the top executive in the company when it has suffered a loss of 379 crore Rupees in 2011-2012 fiscal year.

=The United States of America on 5 February 2013 filed a civil lawsuit against Standard and Poor's (S&P) the credit rating agency alleging that the agency lied about the nations objectivity and independence by the way it rated the mortgage bonds.

The lawsuit have claimed that as a result of the ratings issued by the S&P, which misrepresented the securities true credit risks the investors, even those who were federally insured financial institution lost billions of dollars on collateralized Debt Obligations.

=The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 5 February 2013 gave its principle approval for the price pooling mechanism of coal. The mechanism includes cost blending of the domestic coal with the imported one to counterbalance price hike. Basic principles and parameters of the price pooling mechanism have been identified and a specific data on the same would be created by the Power and Coal Ministries.

The mechanism has been created before government decided to put on sale the 9.5 percent stake of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) from its present holding of 84.50 percent. The sale of the stake was approved by the Empowered Group of Ministers on disinvestment chaired by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on 5 February 2013. This disinvestment of NTPC would fetch about 12000 crore rupees for the exchequer. =MakeMyTrip, one of the largest tourism-related online portals in India on 5 February 2013 launched the RoutePlanner, an innovative application which makes people’s traveling easier and faster. RoutePlanner actually combines the availability of various services such as trains, cabs, buses and flights and displays exact connectivity options that lie between two destinations in India.

RoutePlanner also allows the users to check various routes for destination pair. It allows a person to plan the trip between any two diverse destinations in India by putting together various modes of transport across 4300 cities, 2300 flight routes, 65000 bus routes and 970000 train routes.

MakeMyTrip announced that it made use of the technology as well as innovation for empowering the travelers.

=The Supreme Court of India on 4 February 2013 directed the Union Government of India to notify the six-year-old final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal by 20 February 2013. A bench headed by Justice RM Lodha expressed displeasure over the government not notifying the award even after the warring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had agreed before it on 4 January 2013 that they had no objection if the award was notified. The Centre had earlier assured the apex court that it would notify the tribunal’s award by 31 December 2013.

The apex court also directed Karnataka to release 2 Thousand Million Cubic feet, of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and directed the Central Water Commission to file a report on the water requirement of the two states. It asked the Commission to form a three-member expert body which will visit the states and directed it to file report within two days. The court posted the matter for further hearing on 7 February 2013.

The court was hearing Tamil Nadu's petition seeking the immediate release of 12 TMC of water.

=ICICI Bank, the largest private sector bank of India partnered with Aircel to announce the launch of their mobile banking service called Mobile Money. The service allows the unbanked population of ICICI and Aircel to transfer money instantly and safely through the mobiles without even connecting to data services. Initially, ICICI bank had launched the Mobile Money with Tata Docomo and Vodafone.

Mobile Money is aimed at those users who wish to transfer money but are devoid of services such as lack of branches or the ATMs. Mobile Money allows such users to go for financial services such as cash withdrawals, cash deposits, self-reload of prepaid mobile credit, money transfer to the third-parties as well as utility bills transfer.

At first the service will be available in Tamil Nadu and will especially cater to migrant working population from the area of Tirunelveli that now lives in Chennai. Rollout of this service to other parts of Tamil Nadu as well as the rest of India will occur over 2013.

The Mobile Money platform will be provided and managed through VISA, the global payments technology company.

=National Zoological Park,New Delhi: A White Tiger cub died here on 1 February 2013.

One out of two recently born white tiger cubs died in Delhi zoo on 1 February 2013. Two white tiger cubs were born in January 2013. Now the zoo has two adult male white tigers as well as five adult females.

One of the female white tiger was agreed to be exchanged with the cougar pair in Russia’s Zoo. The white tiger cub was small enough for the authorities to even determine its gender. With the birth of these twin white tigers, it was for the first time that zoo crossed the number of white tigers as conservation breeding programme part.

=Michael Clarke, the Australian cricket captain won the fourth Allan Border Medal in Melbourne on 4 February 2013. 31-year old Clarke had won the medal earlier in 2005, 2009 and 2012. Apart from Clarke, the only other player to win this medal four times is Captain Ricky Ponting.

Michael Clarke also won the Test cricketer of the year award for the second consecutive time after he scored 1080 runs in nine tests from 25 February 2012 to January 28 2013.

List of Awardees of Allan Border Medal in different categories:

•Domestic Player of the Year: Phil Hughes •Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year: Joe Burns •T20 Player of the Year: Shane Watson •ODI Player of the Year: Clint McKay •Test Player of the Year: Michael Clarke •Women's International Player of the Year: Jessica Cameron

•Allan Border Medal: Michael Clarke

About Allan Border Medal

Allan Border Medal is a prestigious award given away in the Australian cricket. It was first awarded in 2000. The Allan Border Medal is named after the former captain of Australia, Allan Border. =International Cricket Council, ICC rankings for test cricket was released on 4 February 2013 in Dubai. South Africa emerged as the world number one team in the category and is followed by England, Australia, Pakistan and India.

In the latest rankings released by the ICC Hashim Amla, the South African batsman has emerged as the best batsman in the category and with this he became the first batsman to hold the number one dice in both Test and One- day format of the game since 2007, before this Ricky Pointing was the cricketer to hold this position. Michael Clarke, the Australian batsman was racked at second position in the ranking.

Dale Steyn, the South African bowler holds the top position in the bowling ranking and is followed by his teammate, Vernan Philander. South African, Jacques Kallis has retained his position as the number one test all-rounder with versatile performance.

Pragyan Ojha is the only Indian to feature among the top ten bowlers in the test rankings released.

=Rohinton F Nariman, the Solicitor-General of India resigned from his office on 4 February 2013. He was appointed at the second highest law official of India on 23 July 2011 after Gopal Subramanium resigned from his office on 14 July 2011 following the issues with Government in context to the 2G Spectrum Allocation Scam.

Nariman was designated as a senior advocate at the age of 37, when M.N. Venkatachaliah, the Chief Justice of India amended the rules and reduced the age from 45 years for designating a lawyer as a senior advocate.

In the history of last four decades, only three Solicitor Generals have been successful in completing his five year term in the office and they are - L N Sinha from 1972-77, Dipankar Gupta from 1992-97 and G E Vahanvati from 2004-09.

=The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on 4 February 2013 constituted a panel for examining the issues of certification under Cinematographer Act 1952. Shri Mukul Mudgal, the retired Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court was appointed the Chairman of the Panel.

Role and Responsibilities of the panel:

I) The Panel would be responsible for reviewing the mandate and functioning of CBFC and recommend measures that includes constitutional changes for enabling CBFC to deal with contemporary requirements of certification with increased transparency/efficiency. The issues, inter alia, may include: a) The process of certification under the Act and Rules, including the mechanism followed by Examining and Revising Committees b) Categories of certification, existing and proposed, under the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2013 c) Requirement of special categories of certification for the purposes of broadcasting on television channels and radio stations II) It will be responsible for reviewing the mandate and functioning of Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) in order to make it a more efficacious appellate body III) It will be responsible towards examining the role of Central Government regarding sanctioning of cinematograph films for exhibition under Entry 60, List I of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India with reference to Entry 33, List II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India IV) The Panel will also be responsible for suggesting measures for carrying on more effective legal remedies and penal provisions in the Act, particularly with reference to making of the unlawful copies, camcording in cinema halls, interpolation/insertion of clips after certification and such similar issues V) It will be responsible for the issues that the Panel may find fit to deliberate upon

Members of the Panel constituted to examine issues in Cinematographer Act 1952 by I&B Ministry includes:

• Mukul Mudgal is appointed as the chairperson of the panel. He is the retired chief justice of high court of Punjab and Haryana • Lalit Bhasin, at present is the Chairperson of FCAT • Sharmila Tagore, she was the former Chairperson of CBFC • Janab Javed Akhtar, renowned music composer, writer and lyricist • Leela Samson, she is the Chairperson of CBFC • L Suresh, he is the Secretary of South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce and former President of Film Federation of India • Rameeza Hakim, is the Advocate in Supreme Court of India • Raghvendra Singh, he is the Joint Secretary (Films) and I&B-Member and Convenor

The constituted Panel is responsible for submission of report within two months period from the day of its constitution.

=Glenn McGrath and Charlie Turner, the renowned fast bowlers were unanimously chosen to be inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame on 3 February 2013. Hall of fame chairman David Crow declared that these two pace bowlers were inducted officially at Allan Border Medal ceremonies on 4 February 2013.

McGrath has a test career spanning 14 years over 124 matches. The highest tally of McGrath is 563 wickets at 21.64. This is the fourth highest tally of all times. McGrath was also the winner of Allan Border Medal in 2000. He was inducted in ICC Hall of Fame in December 2012.

Charlie Turner, on the other hand, took 6-15 on test debut at Sydney in 1887. He died in 1944. Turner took 101 wickets at 16.53 in 17 test matches between the time period of 1887 and 1895.

Other Hall of Fame inductees

The other Hall of Fame inductees include Keith Miller, Arthur Morris, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Ponsford, Bob Simpson, Warwick Armstrong, Richie Benaud, Lindsay Hassett, Ian Healy, Hugh Trumble, Victor Trumper, Bill Woodfull, Rod Marsh, Stan McCabe, Allan Border, Sir Donald Bradman, John Blackham, Charles Macartney, Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, Doug Walters, Glenn McGrath, Graham McKenzie, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Neil Harvey, Clem Hill, Ray Lindwall, Fred Spofforth, Mark Taylor, Alan Davidson, George Giffen, Dennis Lillee, Clarrie Grimmett, Monty Noble and Bill Lawry.

=World cancer day was observed on 4 February 2013 in order to raise awareness about this illness as well as to promote the measures, early detection, prevention and treatment of the disease. The theme for World Cancer Day, 2013 was Cancer - Did you know? The theme focused on dispelling the misconceptions associated with the disease.

Various functions on the day were organised by Union for International Cancer Control, which is the leading organisation for cancer fighting.

Facts related to cancer

•Cancer accounts for 7.6 million death in a year across the world. •Most of the cancer deaths occur because of stomach, lunch, colon, liver and breast cancer. •Around 30 percent cancer deaths occur because of dietary and behavioral risks. •22 percent of the cancer deaths occur because of tobacco use. Tobacco use also accounts for 71 percent of worldwide lung cancer deaths. •Around 70 percent of deaths due to cancer occur in low and middle income countries. •Deaths because of cancer across the world are rising continuously and it is estimated that there might be 13.1 million deaths because of cancer in 2030.

=The Enforcement Directorate (ED) slapped the IPL team Rajasthan Royals with a penalty notice of around 100 crore Rupees for violating the Forex laws. ED issued this penalty notice after investigating the matter for 2 years under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Three notices in all were sent across to the IPL franchise which totaled to 98.5 crore Rupees.

The Jaipur IPL Cricket Private Limited (JIPL) as well as its directors was sent a penalty notice of 50 crore Rupees. Apart from this, 34 crore Rupees penalty notice was issued against EM Sporting Holding, Mauritius and its directors for evading the Forex duties. A notice of 14.5 crore Rupees was also issued additionally against the Ms ND Investments, United Kingdom and its directors.

All these three parties are free to appeal against the penalty order in appellate authority of FEMA. According to the order, IPL team needs to make the payment in 45 days.

This is said to be the first biggest order against any team issued by the ED. According to the penalty order, it was found that the foreign investment in JIPL was conducted in flagrant contravention of FEMA.

The first penalty order was issued by ED against the Rajasthan Royals in mid-2011. Now, it issued the final orders after it moved to FEMA Adjudicating Authority in Delhi in order to examine investigations in the case.

=Experts of National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW) in first week of February released a report on the harmful effects of gutka. It reported that 86 percent of the total oral cancer figure across the world accounted to India. A total of 75000 to 80000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in India itself.

In case of India the maximum number of cancer was a result of tobacco chewing, because Indians chew tobacco more than smoking. India consists of 14 percent smoking tobacco users and 26 percent chewing tobacco users.

As per the report tobacco is responsible for creating 1.5 lakh cancer patients, 4.2 million heart diseases and 3.7 million lung diseases in India every year, making India an oral cancer capital. The statistics released by the Health Ministry 65 percent cancers in India are caused due to the use of tobacco. Other data released reveled that a third of the annual 5.6 million cancer deaths in India occurs due to the excessive use of tobacco. The rate of oral cancer reported in India is about twice the global average.

In 2008 cancer was the cause of 7.6 million deaths worldwide. In case of men from South-East Asia Region, oral and lung cancers are the most prevalent ones and breast and cervical cancers are mainly found in women.

The Government of India invests a sum of 300 billion rupees per year approximately on treatment of tobacco related illness via both private and public spending. It accounts to one-fourth of the total spending on health issues in the country. About 2500 persons die every day in India due to diseases related to tobacco.

=Ayesha Haroon, the renowned Pakistani journalist died on 2 February 2013 in New York following 4-year long fight with cancer. She was 46 years old.

About Ayesha Haroon:

•Ayesha Haroon is a highly respected journalistic figure in Pakistan. •She was former Lahore Resident Editor for The News International. •She also served as the editor of The Nation. •At The Nation, Ayesha Haroon was editorial writer for the English daily. •She played an important role in setting up as well as launching Waqt TV channel under The Nation group. •She bagged various awards for working as the leading journalist.

=Thirty Indian software product companies joined hands to form their own new association, marking a break-up with the IT industry body NASSCOM. Thirty founder members who were led by Bharat Goenka, co-founder of Tally Solutions, Vishnu Dusad, founder of Nucleus Software, Sharad Sharma, former head of Yahoo India R&D, startup mentor and founder of Brand Sigma and Naveen Tewari, founder of InMobi, will meet on 4 February 2013 to formalize this newly formed association and also for developing further action plans. The new association is called Indian Software Product Industry Round Table or iSpirt.

Vision of Indian Software Product Industry Round Table or iSpirt

The vision of Indian Software Product Industry Round Table or iSpirt is to transform India in terms of IT and also deliver the invaluable IT solutions at the international level. The objective of iSpirt is to share experiences and expertise of these industries in order to create the awareness in government as well as society about the importance of IT. These 30 Indian software product companies that formed their new association believed that it was not possible for them to grow under larger umbrella of NASSCOM.

No conflict with NASSCOM

One of the founder members of the new association, Bharat Goenka made it clear that there were negotiations about new association formation since past six months. NASSCOM had in return promised support and that there were no conflicts with the IT body. Also, it was explained that the new association would work with everyone including NASSCOM.

Organisational structure of iSpirt

A founder member Sharad Sharma described that the new association iSpirt will not have a president or similar nomenclature. Instead, there will be a governing council that will consist of these four founding members- Sharma, Goenka, Tewari and Dusad. There will be a flat structure of the association. Volunteer model will be adopted.

About NASSCOM

•NASSCOM is expanded as National Association of Software and Services Companies. It is a trade association of the BPO and IT industry. It was established in 1988 and is a non-profit organisation. •It is a global trade organisation with more than 1200 members out of which there are 250 global companies as well from China, Japan, Europe, UK and US. •The member companies of NASSCOM have businesses such as software services, software development, BPO, IT and e-commerce. •NASSCOM was established to facilitate trade and business in services and software in order to encourage advanced research in the software technology. It is registered under Indian Societies Act, 1860. •At present, the headquarters of NASSCOM is in New Delhi.

=Mo Yan, the winner of Nobel Prize for literature, 2012 and Jackie Chan, the movie star were given a political role in China by being selected as members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, one of the houses of Chinese parliament.

Mo Yan and Jackie Chan were among 2237 people selected by China's new leaders led by Xi Jinping as the members of CPPCC National Committee. Out of 2237 people, 399 are women. Xi Jinping is the new general secretary of the Communist Party. He will become the President of China after two Houses of Parliament have meeting in March 2013.

Apart from Mo Yan and Jackie Chan, other known face to be given a seat in this political party includes former NBA star and popular basket ball player Yao Ming.

CPPCC comprises of the members from different fields and they were selected without any election process. The party includes 893 members of the Communist Party. The chosen officials include members of non-Communist parties, military officers, officials, representatives from environmental, social, cultural, political and economic fields.

=A box of books said to be that of Sir Isaac Newton, in the school physics laboratory of Newcastle-under-Lyme School, Staffordshire in UK were discovered in the first week of February 2013. The textbooks are over 300 years old and contain works of Sir Issac Newton who is credited with discovery of gravity.

The auctioneers estimated that the discovery could be worth thousands of pounds. The books were discovered by the sixth-form physics student Will Garside while working on the artefacts from the school site.

The books contained Newton’s Laws of Motion as well as the account of principles of gravity spread across over 1000 pages. The discovered books are a set of three volumes and are said to be the property of first headmaster, Francis Elliot Kitchener, who was a keen scientist. The three books are known as Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, meaning mathematical principles of natural philosophy. They were first published on 5 July 1687.

The work of Sir Issac Newton was translated in English in 1728. Sir Newton was leading scientist in subjects such as alchemy, theology, natural philosophy and astronomy. He was born in 1642 and died in 1727.

=The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on 3 February 2013 agreed to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 for sharpening the laws against sexual assault. The President mandated harsher punishment such as death penalty for the offenders in such cases where the victim either dies or lands into the vegetative state. The amended law would come into force almost immediately.

Features of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013:

This Ordinance may be called the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013. It shall come into force at once.

•Insertion of new section 166A to the Indian Penal Code: Public servant disobeying direction under law. •Insertion of new sections 326A and 326B to the Indian Penal Code: Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid, voluntarily throwing or attempting to throw acid. •Insertion of new sections 354A, 354B, 354C and 354D to the Indian Penal Code: Sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment, Assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe, voyeurism, stalking. •Substitution of new sections 370 and 370A for section 370 to the Indian Penal Code: Trafficking of person, employing of a trafficked person. •Substitution of new sections for sections 375, 376, 376A, 376B, 376C and 376D to the Indian Penal Code: Sexual assault, punishment for sexual assault, punishment for causing death or resulting in persistent vegetative state of the victim, sexual assault by husband upon his wife during separation, sexual intercourse by a person in authority, sexual assault by gang and punishment for repeat offenders. •Insertion of new section 198B of the Code of Criminal Procedure: Cognizance of offence •Insertion of new section 53A of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872:Evidence of character or previous sexual experience not relevant in certain cases. •Substitution of new section for section 114A of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872: Presumption as to absence of consent in certain prosecution for sexual assault. •Substitution of new section for section 119 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872: Witness unable to communicate verbally.

What does the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 include?

•The Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 was given assent by the President and it includes stalking, voyeurism, acid attacks as well as disrobing of women. These crimes were given the status of specific offences under the Indian Penal Code. The ordinance was approved by Union Cabinet of India on 1 February 2013.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 comprises of various recommendations from the JS Verma committee as well.

•The ordinance is an impact of the Delhi gangrape which took place on 16 December 2012 in a moving bus. The ordinance brought changes to the clauses of already-existing criminal law by making amendments in Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Evidence Act.

Part V the Union CHAPTER III of the Constitution of Indiagrants legislative powers to the president to pass the ordinance. Article 123 includes power of president to promulgate ordinances during recess of parliament.

Article 123 of the Constitution of India

(1) If at any time, except when both Houses of Parliament are in session, the President is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action, he may promulgate such Ordinances as the circumstances appear to him to require. (2) An Ordinance promulgated under this article shall have the same force and effect as an Act of Parliament, but every such Ordinance- (a) shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament and shall cease to operate at the expiration of six weeks from the reassembly of Parliament, or, if before the expiration of that period resolutions disapproving it are passed by both Houses, upon the passing of the second of those resolutions; and (b) May be withdrawn at any time by the President. Explanation - Where the Houses of Parliament are summoned to reassemble on different dates, the period of six weeks shall be reckoned from the later of those dates for the purposes of this clause. (3) If and so far as an Ordinance under this article makes any provision which Parliament would not under this Constitution be competent to enact, it shall be void.

Duration of the ordinance

An ordinance once passed by the President of India remains into force for a time period of six months. Within this period, the Parliament needs to pass the ordinance.

Criminal Law Ordinance 2013 =Bharti Airtel launched an emergency alert service for the subscribers in Odisha, Bengal and Kolkata on 1 February 2013. The service is directed towards the women primarily and allows them to dial the Airtel helpline number known as 55100 as well as send the messages when there is an emergency.

As soon as the number is dialed, an alert SMS will be sent across along with the recorded voice message to the already loaded 10 numbers. The message will in turn allow these 10 pre-loaded numbers to track the location of a sender along with the time.

Messages and recorded voice message will be sent across simultaneously to these ten recipients. Also, these alert messages will repeat three times within just 30 minutes.

According to Airtel, the service primarily focuses women subscribers. For first 30 days, this service will be available free of cost but then it would cost 30 Rupees per month. At present, there are 20 million subscribers of Airtel across Kolkata, Bengal and Odisha and one-third out of these are women. Airtel expects that around 10 percent of these women subscribers will opt for this service.

According to the Airtel, the company was also having negotiations with the local police in order to make sure that one single number should be introduced for the purpose of emergency calls. The alerts could be generated through this single number such as 100 to all local police stations as well.

=Shanu Lahiri, the renowned painter of Bengal School died on 1 February 2013 following a brief illness at the private hospital in Kolkata. She was 85 years of age. She is survived by daughter Damayanti and son Arnab. She was cremated at the Keoratala Crematorium on 1 February 2013.

About Shanu Lahiri

•Shanu Lahiri was born in the artistic family and studied at Government School of Art and Crafts, Calcutta. •She also received President’s Gold Medal. She was the first one to receive this honour at her University. •In 1950, her first solo exhibition was organised. •In early 1960s she also acclaimed a scholarship to Paris. Thereafter her various exhibitions followed. •Lahiri was also known for her social contribution. She inspired street children towards painting on walls of Kolkata.

=The Japanese scientists from the Saitama University in the first week of February 2013 filmed for the first time, the thoughts of a fish while it tracks the prey, revealing about the precision of the brain activity that governs its hunting behaviour. The study is a first of its kind and it led to real-time recording of the precise brain processes in the animal.

In the similar studies conducted earlier, the patterns of the brain activities while making use of MRI scans were studied. These MRI scans were used to find out when the different regions of a brain switched on and off. However, this new study used a very different approach for recording which individual cells were being used at a particular moment.

The filmed thoughts are very important because this technology can be used for understanding the thought process of the animals as well as the humans. Also, it could be used for learning about the abnormalities which lead to increase in diseases of a brain.

In the study, the scientists demonstrated the map in a brain of the Zebra fish. This map was also present in human brain. This could greatly help in interpreting the behaviour of an animal which includes understanding their anger, joy, memory, learning and much more.

In their study, the scientists modified the larvae of the Zebra Fish genetically so that the neurons in their optic tectum emitted a fluorescent green light when being used. The larvae of Zebra Fish have transparent bodies which meant that the activities of brain cells could be easily filmed in a real-time with the help of a microscope and a high- resolution camera.

=The Union Government of India gave the Maharatna status to two PSUs- BHEL and GAIL on 1 February 2013. Granting Maharatna status to BHEL and GAIL will provide them with better functional and financial freedom and will also guarantee them with better valuation of the shares.

Ideally any Maharatna firm has a capacity to take investment decision of around 5000 crore Rupees without taking assistance from the government. On the other hand, forms with Navratna status have the capability of 1000 crore Rupees.

However, both BHEL and GAIL do not have enough non-official directors on the board, which is why they cannot exercise their Maharatna powers. Even though all other conditions of Maharatna status were met by both these PSUs but their boards do not have requisite number of board members. While GAIL is short of 4 independent directors, BHEL, on the other hand is short of 6 non-official directors.

In terms of turnover, networth as well as net profit, both these companies meet all the eligibility criterions.

Eligibility of a company to get a Maharatna status

•For any company to qualify for Maharatna status, the annual turnover should be over 25000 crore Rupees in past three years, as per the guidelines issued by Department of Public Enterprises. •The net worth of the PSU should be more than 15000 crore Rupees in past three years. •The net profit should be over 5000 crore Rupees during past three years.

At present, there are seven Maharatna companies, after inclusion of BHEL and GAIL and these companies are - ONGC, Indian Oil, SAIL, NTPC and CIL. Also, there are 14 Navratna companies, including Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited and NMDC. =Scientists at the Berkeley Lab in their first major breakthrough made possible to get the close view of how a brain develops as well as functions. The scientists would also be able to find out which part of brain is an absentee during the neurological disorders such as epilepsy, autism and schizophrenia. In their major breakthrough, the scientists created the first of its kind genome-wide digital atlas of gene enhancers that are found in the brain.

Genomes, as described by the scientists are the switches which help a gene in getting information about when and where they should be switched on or off. The world’s first atlas of this kind documents the cerebrum, motor functions as well as emotion identifies and also find out various gene-regulating elements that form the basic causes of neurological disorders.

A geneticist with Berkeley Lab's genomics division, Axel Visel described that the most challenging tasks of the contemporary science is to understand the functioning or malfunctioning of the brain. Therefore, they created the digital atlas of gene enhancers in the human brain. This atlas enabled the scientists to get a detailed study about how the individual genes can be regulated during the development of a brain and also how the genetic mutations can create an impact on the human neurological disorders.

The gene enhancers in reality are the short pieces of DNA in human genome, rather than the actual genes. Therefore these enhancers do not give rise to the proteins. Actually, they are the switches which are used to inform actual genes when they should become active and create a protein. Every cell type of human body composes of different sets of enhancers which are switched on or off. Together, these can help in coordination of activities of 20000 genes in every single cell.

=The Union Government of India on 31 January 2013 signed an agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for 100 million US dollar loan as second tranche of urban sector development investment programme of Uttarakhand.

The loan will provide support in terms of rehabilitation as well as expansion of the basic urban infrastructure in five main urban towns of Uttarakhand. The loan will also guarantee sustainable municipal service delivery.

The loan will help the urban infrastructure programme which was already started under first tranche in Nanital, Haridwar and Dehra Dun. Apart from this, the loan will also be extended to include the towns like Ramnagar, Roorkee and Haldwani. This will help primarily in improving water supply infrastructure which will provide benefit to around 800000 residents. The agreement was signed by Department of Economic Affairs Joint Secretary Anup Wadhawan who acted on behalf of the Union Government, as well as Uttarakhand’s Urban Development Secretary M.H. Khan.

In the second tranche of loan from ADB, there is a 25 year term which also includes the grace period of 5 years along with the commitment charges of 0.15 per cent. It also additionally carries interest rate which will be determined along with the Manila-based multilateral agency’s LIBOR-based lending facility.

Apart from this, the complementary funds of 42.86 million US dollar will be provided by the Centre for the total second tranche project investment cost amounting to 142.86 million US dollar.

=Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda on 1 February 2013 launched the Direct Benefits Transfer scheme in Sonepat and Ambala districts. The DBT scheme allows transferring the cash subsidies to beneficiary accounts for seven Central schemes. Hooda launched this scheme by sending the e-mail to Deputy Commissioners of Sonepat and Ambala districts, which was followed by disbursing the cash subsidies to bank accounts of Aadhar-based 3338 beneficiaries.

With the launch of Direct Benefits Transfer scheme, Haryana became one of the leading states which account for maximum of 25 per cent out of the total beneficiaries of India to whom cash subsidies were transferred directly in bank accounts. A total of 323.33 lakh Rupees was transferred on 1 February 2013.

Hooda described the DBT scheme as people-friendly and transparent scheme of Indian Government. With this scheme, there would be a greater sense of security among the poor.

Hooda additionally announced that the scheme would launch all over Haryana from 1 April 2013 after it is successfully implemented in Sonepat and Ambala and after the performance is reviewed. The social security scheme of the state was already in implementation in Durana village where 219 people were benefited already.

=Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain of the Indian cricket team was appointed as the vice-president of India Cements on 1 February 2013. India Cements is headed by BCCI President N Srinivasan.

It is important to note that Dhoni resigned from Air India team recently and now is expected to play for India Cements in the BCCI Corporate Trophy which started on 1 February 2013. India Cements owns IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, the captaincy of which lies in the hands of Dhoni since 2008. The Managing Director-cum- vice-chairman of India Cements is Srinivasan.

Including MS Dhoni’s name in the India Cements team for Corporate Trophy starting from 1 February 2013 to 8 February 2013 was actually a surprise, especially because the captain had declared to take rest for some time.

Earlier, Dhoni played in the Corporate Trophy for the team of Air India, but later he resigned. The Corporate Trophy will be taking place in four main cities- Nagpur, Raipur, Indore and Pune.

=Czech Republic: First Direct Presidential Elections were held here.

The result of first direct Presidential elections held in Czech Republic was declared on 25 January 2013. Milos Zeman emerged as winner. He won 55 percent as compared with 45 percent of Karel Schwarzenberg. Milos Zeman is the former Prime Minister of Czech Republic and head of the Party of Civic Rights-Zemanovci (SPOZ) while Karel Schwarzenberg is foreign minister in the present centre-right coalition government. Zeman succeeded Vaclav Klaus as the President of Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic is a land-locked country in central Europe. Until 2012, the Parliament elected the President for a five-year term. After a long discussion, fueled by allegations of corruption in the voting process, the constitution was amended in 2012 to provide for direct Presidential elections.

=India dropped nine places to 140th rank in the list of 179 countries in the latest World Press Freedom Index 2013, which is the lowest since 2002. India got this lowly rank because of increasing impunity for violence against journalists and internet censorship. Netherlands, Norway and Finland topped the list. The Press Freedom Index was released by world Press Freedom index for the year 2013. China got 173rd rank. Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea were placed at the bottom of the list as has been in the last three years.

As per the Press index report, there has been a decline in freedom of information in South Asia and the Indian subcontinent among Asia witnessed the sharpest deterioration in providing freedom and security for those involved in news reporting in 2012. In India considered as the world's biggest democracy, the authorities insist on censoring the Web and impose numerous kinds of restrictions, while violence against journalists was not punished and the regions like Kashmir and Chhattisgarh are getting increasingly isolated.

The Maldives crashed to 103rd place (-30) because of violence and threats against journalists in state television and private media regarded as Nasheed supporters by the coup leaders. Bangladesh more or less faces the same situation. Its journalists are targets of police violence frequently. They are not protected by authorities in case they face violence against them. Pakistan which ranked 159th is one of the world’s most dangerous nation for reporters. Nepal ranked 118th position.

Reporters without Borders also published an annual global indicator of worldwide media freedom which coincided with the release of its 2013 Press Freedom Index. This new analytic tool is helpful in measuring the overall level of freedom of information in the world and the performance of the world's governments in their response to Press freedom.

Find Here List =The Delhi High Court on 31 January 2013 ordered the Government of Delhi to issue guidelines to all hospitals, including the private hospitals in the capital not to refuse treatment to the victims of criminal offences, mainly those of road accidents and rapes.

A bench which was headed by Chief Justice D Murugesan ordered the Delhi government that victims of gangrape and other crimes, including road accidents should immediately be given first aid treatment, as per the condition of the victim.

The directions of Delhi High Court were a result of the Delhi gangrape which took place on 16 December 2012 in a moving bus. The court also said that Police Commissioner of Delhi will issue directions with immediate effect after the order is passed by the Government of Delhi to abide by the orders of the Delhi High Court.

=Zovi, the Bangalore-based online fashion retailer acquired its rival company Inkfruit in the last week of January 2013. Inkfruit is struggling as of now to raise its fresh funds. SAIF Partners and Tiger Global, the global investors triggered latest e-commerce M&A. These two investors pumped in 10 million US dollar in Zovi after merger. After the third round of investment, the overall funding which was raised by Zovi came to 25 million US dollar.

Inkfruit is the community-based customized fashion and accessories retailer. Zovi, after acquisition will offer products to a wider age group ranging from 16 years to 45 years.

There has been an increased interest in the Indian e-commerce since 2012. In 2012, there was three times increase in the e-commerce M&A deals because small players did not attract enough funds and were therefore acquired at the discounted rates.

=Scientists from NASA in the last week of January 2013 discovered an old star called TW Hydrae, which they believe could create new planets even now. TW Hydrae is 176 light years away from the Earth.

NASA announced that the disk of material which surrounds TW Hydrae could be huge enough for creating the planets in a number which could be larger than our solar system. The findings were created using the Herschel Space Telescope of European Space Agency, in the mission where NASA is also a participant.

TW Hydrae is around 10 million years old and 176 light years away from Earth, which means that it is relatively closer to the Earth as per the astronomical standards. Relatively this star is young theoretically but it has already crossed the age at which it can create the giant planets.

The scientists explained that the stars of this age usually have cleared the surrounding material, but this particular star had mass which could create as many as 50 Jupiters.

Apart from describing the state of this star, the findings of NASA also demonstrated a precise and new method for measuring the weight of the planet-forming disks. This new method can help in directly investigating the gas which is typically used for making the new planets.

=As per the latest figured of University and Colleges Admissions Services (UCAS) revealed on 30 January 2013, there is an increase of 20 percent in number of Indian students that applied for higher studies in United Kingdom in 2013 in comparison to 2012. This is the third highest increase among various countries. The first two countries that witnessed an increase include Malaysia and Italy where there was an increase of 25 percent and 22 percent respectively.

However, if absolute numbers are kept into considerations, China topped the list with 6903 applications or 9.9 percent increase. 2610 students from India, on the other hand applied for studies in UK in 2013 against 2188 in 2012. The number of Indian students applying for studies in UK can increase even more because the last date for applying is 30 June 2013.

UCAS figures revealed that students from outside European Union also increased by 9.6 percent in 2013. According to the Immigration Minister, there as an increase in the number of Indian and Chinese students who applied for courses at the British universities as well as the colleges.

The applications received by the British colleges from across the world:

•Chinese students- 6903 (9.9 percent increase over 2012) •Irish students- 5452 (0.3 percent increase over 2012) •Hong Kong students- 5046 (1 percent increase over 2012) •Singaporean students- 3457 (6.8 percent increase over 2012) •French students- 3382 (6.2 percent increase over 2012) •Malaysian students- 3233 (24.8 percent increase over 2012) •German students- 2753 (6.5 percent fall over 2012) •American students- 2713 (14 percent increase over 2012)

=NASA on 1 February 2013 marks 10th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia that perished into the atmosphere of the Earth upon its re-entry. Seven astronauts were aboard Columbia which disintegrated across southern United States. The debris of Columbia spread across 200-mile stretch from Texas to Louisiana.

NASA decided to mark the anniversary in just the low-key ceremonies in Texas as well as Florida in order to honour the crew members of Columbia along with those who died in the Challenger shuttle explosion on 28 January 1986.

Participants of the ceremony include family members of the crew who waited at Kennedy on 1 February 2003 when Columbia was about to land. The seven crew members on-board included Commander Rick Husband, co-pilot William McCool, specialists Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, David Brown, and Ilan Ramon, an Israeli fighter pilot.

Columbia broke into pieces on re-entering the atmosphere of the Earth. The cause for its explosion was attributed towards the piece of foam which dropped from external rocket tank on launch, which eventually created a hole in the shuttle wing.

=Researchers from the University of York in the last week of January 2013 revealed that the snails could help in predicting the weather conditions which existed thousands of years ago. The researchers described that a lot of information could be extracted about weather conditions that were there 1000s of years ago, through the snails.

In their study, the researchers studied the chemistry behind shells of snail which dated back to 9000 to 2500 years ago, which were recovered from the Mediterranean caves. The study was conducted by looking at the different phases in past.

A team of researchers which was led by Andre Carlo Colonese from York's department of Archaeology believed that the land snails held plethora of information about not just the palaeoclimatic conditions but also the human behaviour.

Andre Carlo Colonese described that when the research on snails was put together from various sites such as Italy and Spain, a large scale regional picture of the weather conditions that existed over western Mediterranean area could be produced.

=P.R. Vasudeva Rao became the Director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam on 31 January 2013. He succeeded S.C Chetal, who has now retired.

Dr. Rao was earlier the Director, Chemistry Group in IGCAR and is also a specialist in the field of actinide chemistry as well as a few areas of chemistry of nuclear fuel cycle. In IGCAR, Dr. Rao led various R&D programmes related to the field of chemistry.

About Dr. Rao

• Dr. Rao did graduation from Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Chennai in 1972. • He later became a part of the Department of Atomic Energy after he graduated from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Training School, Trombay. • He got his Ph.D. degree in actinide chemistry from Bombay University. • In 1978, after resigning from BARC, he joined IGCAR. He played a crucial role in establishing Radiochemistry Laboratory in IGCAR. • Various awards were bagged by him which also include Indian Nuclear Society award in 2007. • Dr. Rao’s specialty is designing and developing breeder reactors.