General Awareness Updates August 2012

Persons in News

Bujar Nishani has been elected the new President of Albania.

Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud has died, aged 78. His 76year-old brother, Prince Salman, was appointed as the next heir to King Abdullah, who is thought to be 89.

Pakistans Supreme Court disqualified Yusuf Raza Gilani from his post as the prime minister of Pakistan. In February this year, Pakistan SC summoned Mr Gilani to charge him with contempt of court over his refusal to ask Switzerland to investigate President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also the head of the ruling Pakistan People Party, for money laundering. Mr Gilani told the court he would never think of violating judicial orders, but said he could not write the letter because the head of state he enjoyed immunity under the constitution. The allegations against Mr Zardari date back to the 1990s, when he and his late wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, are suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder an estimated U.S.$12m allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs inspection contracts. The Swiss shelved the cases in 2008 when Mr Zardari became president. Mr Gilani was succeeded by Raja Parvez Ashraf, a stalwart of the ruling PPP, as Pakistans 25th Prime Minister as the country struggled to come out of its latest political crisis. The 61-year-old Mr Ashraf, a staunch loyalist of the Bhutto family, was pitched forked into the hot seat after the original choice Makhdoom Shahbuddin faced an arrest warrant. But the new leader himself is dogged by corruption charges relating to his tenure as power minister.

Hosni Mubarak, Egypts former president, and Habib al -Adli, his interior minister, were sentenced to life in prison for their role in the brutal suppression of protesters in last years uprising. Six security chiefs were acquitted. Mr Mubarak and his two sons were cleared of separate corruption charges. But thousands protested in CairosTahrir Square, as anger grew that no one had been convicted of actually carrying out the killings.

Mohamed Morsi Isa al-Ayyat won the historic post-Hosni Mubarak presidential polls in Egypt, beating his rival and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to become the

General Awareness Updates August 2012

countrys first freely elected President. Mr Morsi won the presidential run -off with 51.73 per cent of the vote. Mr Morsi has been a leading figure of the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been banned under the Hosni Mubarak regime for its radical Islamist ideology. In 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood floated the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) to fight elections to the Egyptian parliament.

A military court in Tunisia sentenced toppled president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali to 20 years imprisonment in absentia on various charges including incitement to murder. Mr Ben Ali, who is exiled in Saudi Arabia, was found guilty of inciting disorder, murder and looting, the court said in its verdict over the deaths of four youths, shot dead in t he town of Ouardanine in January 2011. Four protesters were shot dead in the eastern coastal town as they tried to prevent the flight of Mr Ben Alis nephew Kais, a day after the dictator Ali flew out of the country on January 14. Mr Ben Ali faces countless trials and has already been sentenced to more than 66 years in prison on a range of other charges including drug trafficking and embezzlement. He and his wife are the subject of an international arrest warrant, but Saudi authorities have not responded to Tunisian extradition requests. A military prosecutor is also seeking the death penalty against the former president over a similar incident which saw at least 22 people killed in pro-democracy protests in the towns of Thala and Kasserine in late December 2010 and January 2011. The weeks of protests that started in December 2010 toppled one of the most tightly controlled regimes in the Arab world and also set off a wave of protests which became known as the Arab Spring and is still sweeping the region.

Elinor Ostrom, the first and only woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, has died, aged 78. She won the Nobel Prize in 2009 for her work on resource sharing. She shared the prize, officially known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, with University of California economist Oliver Williamson, who also studied the way economic decisions are made outside markets.

Britain celebrated

the

60th

year

of Queen

Elizabeths reign

with

four-day

extravaganza that included a flotilla of 1,000 boats on the River Thames, a star-studded concert in front of Buckingham Palace and a thanksgiving service at St Pauls Cathedral. Queen Elizabeth II assumed the monarchy in 1952.

Awards & Honours

General Awareness Updates August 2012

Rockefeller Foundation honours Ratan Tata with Lifetime Achievement Award
Tata Sons Chairman, Ratan Tata (right), has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation in New York for his innovation in philanthropy. He was honoured by the Foundation for incorporating public good into the business model of the Tata Group. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Tata said that businesses should be sensitive to the fact that they are making a difference in places where they operate and they have to do things to help the community prosper. This is all the more evident in the developing world where disparities are so huge. If the industry is not sensitive to it, they would encourage a backlash to take place and many companies that go overseas are getting to understand the need to do this and those that do not are really hurting the reputation of other industries, Mr Tata said. When you see in places like Africa and parts of Asia abject poverty, hungry children and malnutrition around you, and you look at yourself as being people who have well being and comforts, I think it takes a very insensitive, tough person not to feel they need to do something, not just by providing material support but by playing a role in helping give prosperity to the community in which they belong, Mr Tata added. He said employees in his organisation have gained a certain spirit of being part of a community in which they operate. It has become the DNA of the organisation to play a role in the community, he added. Mr Tata gave the example of a voluntary group in his organisation in which employees get leave from their jobs to help victims of natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes in India. He said Tata employees help in rebuilding and adopting villages and then return to their jobs.

Sports

MOTORRACING British Grand Prix, Silverstone Winner: Mark Webber (Australia) Second: Fernando Alonso (Spain) Third: Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal Winner: Lewis Hamilton (G. Britain / McLaren-Mercedes) Second: Romain Grosjean (France/ Lotus-Renault)

General Awareness Updates August 2012

Third: Sergio Perez (Mexico / Sauber-Ferrari) European Grand Prix, Valencia (Spain) Winner: Fernando Alonso (Spain / Ferrari) Second: Kimi Raikkonen (Finland / Lotus-Renault) Third: Michael Schumacher (Germany / Mercedes)

TENNIS 2012 Wimbledon Championships Mens Singles Winner: Roger Federer (Switzerland) Runner-up: Andy Murray (UK) Womens Singles Winner: Serena Williams (USA) Runner-up: Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) Mens Doubles Winners: Jonathan (Denmark) Runners-up: Robert (Romania) Womens Doubles Winners: Serena Williams (USA)/ Venus Williams (USA) Runners-up: Andrea Hlavckov (Czech Republic) / Lucie Hradeck (Czech Republic) Mixed Doubles Winners: Mike Bryan (USA) / Lisa Raymond (USA) Runners-up: Leander Paes (India) / Elena Vesnina (Russia) 2012 French Open, Roland Garros Mens Singles Winner: Rafael Nadal (Spain) Runner-up: Novak Djokovic (Serbia) Womens Singles Winner: Maria Sharapova (Russia) Runner-up: Sara Errani (Italy) Mens Doubles Winners: Daniel Nestor (Canada) / Max Mirnyi (Serbia) Runners-up: Bob Bryan / Mike Bryan (U.S.) Womens Doubles Winners: Sara Errani / Roberta Vinci (Italy) Runners-up: Maria Kirilenko / Nadia Petrova (Russia) Mixed Doubles Winners: Sania Mirza / Mahesh Bhupathi (India) Lindsteadt (Sweden)/Horia Tecau Murray (UK)/Fredrick Nielsen

General Awareness Updates August 2012

Runners-up: Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (Poland) / Santiago Gonzalez (Mexico)

Economy & Business

After

three

days

of

tense

parliamentary

debate,

179

lawmakers out of the chambers 300 voted in favour of a centrist coalition led by conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras (right) that has promised to ease austerity measures while still meeting demands of EU-IMF creditors. The outcome of the vote was never really in doubt and aligned exactly with the 179 seats held by the Samaras-led coalition that unites his conservative New Democracy party with the socialist PASOK and the much smaller Democratic Left. With parliament protocol now over, the Samaras cabinet must immediately tackle the mammoth task of turning crisis-wracked Greecearound while keeping the trust of EU-IMF creditors who hold the power to keep the countrys finances afloat. The government said its first goal, along with carrying through a raft of reforms and privatizations will be to secure an extension to the tight budget deadlines set out in Greeces second 130-billion bailout plan. But Greeces new Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras warned lawmakers that winning any kind of reprieve from lenders will not be easy as EU and IMF officials have shown stiff resistance to any talk of renegotiation, especially one that comes with a price tag.

General Awareness Updates August 2012

Former Goldman Sachs Managing Director Rajat

Gupta (right) was found guilty of illegally tipping off his friend Raj Rajaratnam of confidential market information, in one of Americas biggest insider trading cases. After three weeks of trial, a U.S. court held the 63year-old guilty of providing insider information to Galleon hedge fund founder Mr Rajaratnam, who was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison for insider trading. Mr Gupta was found guilty by a federal court

in Manhattan on four counts, out of six. The court will pronounce the sentence on 18thOctober. The conviction marks a tragic fall for the Kolkata-born financial wizard, who rose from a modest background to become a force to reckon with at the Wall Street. One of the jurors said it was a difficult decision for them but the evidence against him was overwhelming. He said Gupta was a person who came to the U.S. and rose through the ranks. He led a story book life and had full support of the family as he saw during the trial. Mr Gupta was convicted on three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy for passing confidential boardroom information about Goldman and Proctor & Gamble companies to the hedge fund that earned millions of dollars trading on his tips. He was acquitted of two counts of securities fraud. Mr Gupta was found guilty for passing information about the U.S.$5 billion investment by Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway Inc, and of providing information to Mr Rajaratnam in October 2008 about Goldman stock. There were five security fraud charges and once conspiracy charge against him. Out of the five security fraud charges, he was found guilty on three and on the lone conspiracy charge.

In

the

largest

healthcare

fraud

settlement

in

U.S.

history,

pharma

giant GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges that it unlawfully promoted certain prescription drugs and will pay U.S.$3 billion to resolve the allegations. The U.S. Justice Department said GSK failed to report certain safety data and undertook alleged false price reporting practices. The U.S.$3 billion dollar resolution is the largest payment ever by a drug company.

General Awareness Updates August 2012

GSK will plead guilty to three criminal counts, including two counts of introducing misbranded drugs, Paxil and Wellbutrin for trading and one count of failing to report safety data about the drug Avandia to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In the criminal information, the government alleges that from 1998 to 2003, GSK unlawfully promoted Paxil for treating depression in patients under age 18, even though the FDA had never approved it for paediatric use. GSK participated in preparing, publishing and distributing a misleading medical journal article that misreported that a clinical trial of Paxil demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of depression in patients under age 18, when the study failed to demonstrate efficacy.

In a move to bring uniformity in the sector, the Central Government has decided to charge 8 per cent of gross revenue as licence fee from all telecom service providers across all categories and services from 2013-14. At present, the Department of Technology (DoT) is charging licence fee in the range of 6-10 per cent depending upon type of service and circle. A uniform annual licence fee rate of 8 per cent of AGR shall be adopted across all categories of service areas (Metro A, B and C categories) of UAS/CMTS/Basic service licences in two steps starting from July 1, 2012. Starting July 1, the DoT will impose a fee ranging from 7 to 9 per cent on operators depending on the category of the circle while from April 1, 2013, onward, the uniform fee of 8 per cent will be charged.

Contraction in capital goods and mining sectors pulled down the industrial growth to 2.4 per cent in May, prompting the government to suggest that RBI cut interest rates in the forthcoming policy review on July 31. In view of high inflation, the RBI in its policy review last month did not cut rates, although there was intense pressure from the industry. During the first two months of this fiscal (April-May), the industrial growth rate decelerated sharply to 0.8 per cent from 6.2 per cent in the same period of 2011-12. Also there was a contraction in April at (-) 0.9 per cent, as against 0.1 per cent growth reported previously. Growth in factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 6.2 per cent in May 2011. Meanwhile, the industrial growth rate for April 2012 was revised to 0.9 per cent, from 0.1 per cent reported earlier. For the first two months of the current fiscal, April-May, the industrial growth is sharply lower at 0.8 per cent, compared to 5.7 per cent in the year-ago period. According to the data, the capital goods output declined 7.7 per cent in May, as against a growth of 6.2 per cent in the same month last year. Mining output

General Awareness Updates August 2012

contracted by 0.9 per cent in May, as against growth of 1.8 per cent in the same month a year ago. The manufacturing sector which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index did not perform well as it grew a meagre 2.5 per cent, as against 6.3 per cent in May 2011. Consumer Durables production showed a faster growth rate of 9.3 per cent in May, as compared to 5.1 per cent in the same month last year. The consumer non-durables segment output growth remained flat at 0.1 per cent in May, as against 9 per cent in the same month last year. Power generation witnessed a slower growth of 5.9 per cent during May, compared to 10.3 per cent in the same month a year ago. In all, 12 of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during May as compared to the same month a year ago.

Global credit rating agency Fitch cut credit rating outlook to negative of 11 financial entities including SBI, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, and Axis Bank. The action came just a week after revising Indias outlook to negative. The outlook revision of the financial institutions reflects their close linkages with the sovereign by virtue of their high exposure to domestic counterparties and holdings of domestic sovereign debt. The list of downgraded entities includes six government banks (including an international banking subsidiary of a government bank) and two private banks. These include Bank of Baroda, Bank of Baroda (New Zealand) Ltd (BOBNZ), Canara Bank, and IDBI Bank. Besides two wholly owned government institutions Export-Import Bank of India and Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (HUDCO) have also been similarly downgraded. Besides, the outlook of IDFC Ltd and Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd outlook has also become negative. However, Fitch said the banks continue to have reasonable customer deposit base, domestic franchises and adequate capital. The non-banking financial entities, meanwhile, lack the funding advantage, which puts them more at risk during times of increased market volatility, it said.

Miscellaneous-1

The tranquil stretches of emerald green backwaters in Mumbai and Kerala are among several locales in the western and eastern coasts facing threat from the rising sea level due to climate change. Deltas of the Ganga, Krishna, Godavari, Cauvery and Mahanadi on the east coast may also be threatened along with irrigated land and adjoining settlements, according to a Government report. It is estimated that sea level rise by 3.5 to 34.6 inches between 1990 and 2100 would result in saline coastal groundwater, endangering wetlands and inundating valuable land

General Awareness Updates August 2012

and coastal communities. The most vulnerable stretches along the western Indian coast are Khambat and Kutch in Gujarat, Mumbai and parts of the Konkan coast and south Kerala, says the Central Government report submitted to the UN. The report Indias Second National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was prepared by multi-disciplinary teams and other stakeholders comprising more than 220 scientists belonging to over 120 institutions. The study, using digital elevation model data (90m resolution), digital image processing and GIS software, showed that estimated inundation areas are 4.2 sq km and 42.5 sq km in case where the sea level rise is 1.0 m and 2.0 m respectively in the region surrounding Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu). Kochi region is directly connected to the backwaters; a lot of inland areas are far from the coast, but adjacent to the tidal creeks, backwaters and lakes. In Paradip (Odisha), the variations in topography are not smooth and low-lying areas are large and connected to tidal creeks and river inlets. According to the report, this area seems to be the most vulnerable as about 1128 sq km falls under inundation zones for a 2 m rise in sea level. Also, 478 sq km may be inundated in Paradip coastal region for a 1 m sea level rise. All the creeks, estuaries and low lands adjacent to the shoreline increase the risk of inundation and the extent of probable inundation zone goes up to approximately 40 km landward. Thus, Kochi region is vulnerable even in the interior land areas. The study also showed that all the three regions considered for impact studies are highly vulnerable to sea level rise. The impact assessment will provide useful information for different sectors such as ports and infrastructure development near the coast and for planners and policymakers to develop long-term adaptation measures.

China completed its first manned space docking as a spacecraft carrying three astronauts including the countrys first spacewoman, successfully coupled with an orbiting module, in a major milestone for its ambitious space programme. With this China has become only the third country after the U.S. and Russia to achieve a manned docking. This is the fourth time China has launched a manned mission into space. It is regarded as a prelude to Chinas plans to send a manned mission to Moon in the next few years. China conducted its first manned mission in 2003 followed it up in 2005 and 2008. The three astronauts on board Shenzhou-9 (Divine Craft) will now enter the orbiting space lab Tiangong-1 or Heavenly Palace, that will give another boost to Chinas goal of completing a space station by 2020.

General Awareness Updates August 2012

The astronauts are Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang, and Chinas first woman astronaut Liu Yang. Ms Yang, 33, an air-force pilot, is Chinas first woman astronaut and the worlds 57th space woman. The first woman in space was former Soviet Union cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who entered space and history in June 1963; later women from the U.S., UK, France,Canada, Japan, and South Korea have also been to space.

Miscellaneous-2
Monsoon plays truant, aggravates already dismal economic scene
Indias crucial monsoon will be normal this year but with less heavier rains as the weather office marginally downgraded its earlier forecast. Quantitatively, monsoon season rainfall for the country as a whole will be 96 per cent of the long period average, Laxman Singh Rathore, Director General, IndiaMeteorological Department (IMD) said. In April, the IMD had said the country would receive 99 per cent rains of the long period average (LPA). A normal monsoon means rainfall between 96-104 per cent of 50-year average rains during the four-month season from June to September. The LPA has been pegged at 89 cm. Most parts of the country are expected to receive good rains in July-August, the crucial months for the countrys trillion -dollar economy which depends largely on rain-fed agriculture. Rains in July this year are likely to be 98 per cent of the long period average, while the rainfall in August is forecast to be 96 per cent of the LPA. The Northwest region, including Punjab and Haryana, considered to be Indias granary states, are expected to receive below normal rains at 93 per cent of the LPA, according to the IMD. Monsoon arrived four days late over Kerala on 5th June and is yet to pick up steam due to a string of atmospheric storms in the south-east Asian region which had affected the monsoon current.

Develop scientific temper and culture of tolerance

Expressing concern over growing intolerance among people of dissent, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh favoured a rational discourse because narrow mindedness might affect creative instincts. The Prime Minister noted that people are losing the ability to engage in rational discourse where different points of views are expressed. Public debate was often hostage to sensationalism. I sometimes fear that a growing culture of narrow mindedness may affect the creative, innovative and imaginative

General Awareness Updates August 2012

instincts of the countrys youth, he said. I have been observing a growing intolerance among our people of dissent and opinions that contradict the prevailing orthodoxy. We seem to be losing the ability to engage in a rational discourse where different points of views are expressed, Dr Singh noted. He said Indian civilization has a rich tradition of preserving social harmony and promoting conciliation by accommodating different viewpoints, identities and cultural differences. We should strengthen these impulses through the propagation of a scientific temper and an enlightened understanding of the meaning of freedom of expression, Dr Singh said. Speaking at the inception ceremony as a general president of the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) on the occasion of its centenary, he said the theme for Congress in the city next year would be Science for Shaping Future of India. Dr Singh took over as the General President of Science Congress which is a rare honour for a Prime Minister since Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It is a theme that might have resonated just as well 100 years ago when the association came into being, he said. I would sign al the full support and commitment of the government to Indian science as it passed through a critical decade of innovation, he said at the Calcutta University. Our problems are overwhelming and need scientific solutions, he said. We have to use our abundant intellectual resources to find new pathways of development that use our scarce natural resources judiciously. He further said that, We did not use science and technology in our development processes as much as we should have. We did not build local capacities that could meaningfully address problems of development in a decentralised manner using this knowledge. Also, the Prime Minister laid the foundation of the unified campus of the Bose Institute in Salt Lake. The new campus will bring all departments and research activities of the Institute, founded by celebrated scientist Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, under one roof. The unified campus of the Institute is likely to be fully operational within next two years.

India-China to step up defence & economic ties

India and China agreed to step up their defence and security dialogue and work to take steps to ensure that the two countries achieve a U.S.$100 billion trade target by 2015. Indias Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao spoke of the need to continue with this dialogue at their meeting on the sidelines of the Rio+20 Environment Summit. Indias Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said that during the discussion on trade and economic cooperation Prime Minister Singh invited Chinese investment in infrastructure

General Awareness Updates August 2012

in India. He said the two leaders also discussed the issue of trans-border rivers flowing in India and China during which Beijing agreed to transfer of information in this regard to New Delhi. It is believed that this move sent a strong signal from China on sharing of information with India on the rivers issue. This was also important since India was a lower riparian country. Defence and strategic dialogue (between India and China) should continue and be stepped up, Mr Mathai said. The two countries have already agreed to establish a strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity. They have also reiterated their intention to promote regular ministerial-level exchanges and make full use of the strategic dialogue and other bilateral dialogue mechanisms. On the boundary question, Dr Singh and Mr Jiabao said the Special Representatives of the two countries have been asked to prepare a joint work done so far. The two leaders also spoke of the joint mechanism set up by the two countries. Chinese authorities have already given the green light for Indian exports of basmati rice following a long and tortuous six-year process that has been seen as underscoring the difficulties of navigating the complex bureaucratic hurdles that bar entry into the China market. Negotiations were on since 2006, when President Hu Jintao visited India. It took another visit from Mr Jintao six years later, when he travelled to New Delhi for the BRICS Summit in April this year, to give the final push to a long-running process. Indian exporters can begin shipping basmati rice to China after both countries agree on a mutually satisfactory quarantine protocol. On the trans-border rivers issue, China has maintained that its hydropower project on Brahmaputra river in Tibet was not obstructing the water flow to India. It has also said that its dam was not big enough to affect the lower riparian regions like in India. But Arunachal Pradesh government says that the Brahmaputra river was suddenly found to have almost dried up at a town in the state; Tsangpo river is the Tibetan name for Brahmaputra. It originates from Angsi glacier, located on the northern side of the Himalayas in Burang County of Tibet.

Higgs boson, the God particle, discovered

In a quantum leap in physics, scientists have claimed to have spotted a sub -atomic particle consistent with the Higgs boson or God particle, believed to be a crucial building block that led to the formation of the universe. Scientists at Switzerlands CERN research centre made the historic announcement, in a major milestone in the 50-year search for the elusive Higgs, that is believed to have been responsible for lending mass to the particles that eventually formed the stars and the planets after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.

General Awareness Updates August 2012

We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature, said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer in Geneva. The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particles properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our Universe, Mr Heuer said. Joe Incandela, the leader of CMS, one of the two teams at the worlds biggest atom smasher, told a packed audience of scientists at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) that the data has reached the level of certainty needed for a discovery. But he did not yet confirm that the new particle is indeed the tiny and elusive Higgs boson, which is believed to give all matter in the universe size and shape. A second team of physicists ATLAS also claimed they have observed a new particle, probably the elusive Higgs boson. We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 Sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV, said ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti, but a little more time is needed to prepare these results for publication. A 5 Sigma that translates into over 99 per cent certainty of discovery, is required before a particle is declared as being discovered. Plus, the Higgs is believed to lurk at the lower ends of the energy spectrum between 120 and 140 GeV. The particle was hypothesized in 1964 by six physicists, including Briton Peter Higgs, whose name it came to bear. Boson, on the other hand, is derived from the surname of Indian physicist, Satyendra Nath Bose, a contemporary of Albert Einstein. His work on Quantum Mechanics was adopted by Mr Einstein, who extended it to the concept of the Bose-Einstein condensate a dense collection of bosons, sub-atomic particles with integer spin. For 50 years, finding the missing Higgs was one of the most puzzling riddles of Quantum Physics, and led scientists to set up the 3 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the worlds biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. The 27 -km looped pipe set up in a tunnel 100 metres underground on the Switzerland-France border created artificially simulated conditions similar to the Big Bang, triggering collisions between accelerated particles. In the LHC experiment, two beams of protons are fired in opposite directions to smash millions of particles into each other every second, a set up that recreates conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. This is the time when the Higgs field is believed to have come into play. The Higgs particles are believed to have transferred mass to the millions of other particles in the process of creation of the universe. The scientists then look into conditions that might point to the existence of the mysterious particle. As the Higgs cannot be seen, its existence is only to be inferred from circumstances. The Standard Model a hypothesis devised in the 1970s to explain the events after the Big Bang identifies the building blocks for matter. Finding the

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Higgs particle would validate the Standard Model that is a hugely successful theory but has several gaps, the biggest of which is why some particles have mass but others do not. Without the Higgs boson, the universe could not exist, as everything would behave as light does, floating freely and not combining with anything else, the scientists believe.