Current Affairs For February 2011

National
• 2G scam: Former Telecom Minister A.Raja sent to Tihar Jail

• Former Telecom Minister A Raja was sent to Tihar Jail in Jail in Delhi on Feb 17th
in relation to the 2G scam. He will be in judicial custody for fourteen days until
March 3rd. He was also earlier arrested by the CBI on 2nd Feb and was held in
their custody in view of the evidence they had collected against him regarding
his involvement in the 2G scam. A. Raja has been accused of issuing 2G
licenses at throw away prices creating massive losses for the exchequer.
According to the national auditor CAG, the 2G spectrum phone licenses were
sold in 2008 for a fraction of their value and this has resulted in a notional loss
of Rs. 1.76 lakh crores. The 2 G scam has created major uproar in Parliament
and has sent shock waves across the country.
• 
 ULFA, government begin Assam peace talks

• Leaders of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) met Home
Minister P. Chidambaram on Feb 10 to signify the start of the much long-
awaited peace talks aimed at ending 30 long years of insurgency in Assam.
History was created when the eight member ULFA team headed by Arabinda
Rajkhowa met Chidambaram at his North Block office for a first round of peace
talks. This is a highly significant development considering ULFA has been
trying since 1979 to carve out an independent homeland of Assam. While
ULFA has not put up any demands or finalised any agenda for talks, the
beginning of talks itself is being seen as a very positive step to restoring peace
in the state.
• 
 PM announces JPC on 2G spectrum scam

• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that his government would set up the
Joint Pariamentry Committee (JPC) to investigate the 2G spectrum scam. The
government finally agreeing to introduce the JPC does not come about as
unexpected. With the opposition being absolutely unrelenting in their demands
for the introduction of the probe, the Congress had to finally give in. The
previous years winter session in parliament ended with only ten working hours
on record. In order to ensure that the budget session does not get similarly
affected, several meetings with the different political parties were set up and
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried to bring about a compromise, which in
the end proved to be futile. In the Lok Sabha, on the first day of the budget
session the PM said “On account of the controversy relating to allocation of 2G
spectrum, the winter session of Parliament was lost. Our country can ill-afford
this...in paralyzing Parliament, we all do disservice to those who have elected
us.” Later on he also announced the introduction of the probe when he went on
to add “It is in these special circumstances that our government agrees to a
JPC...we are a functioning democracy and must try to resolve our difference is
the spirit of collaboration not competition.”
• 
 Govt to release Rs. 150 coin soon

• With the Income Tax Department celebrating 150 years of taxation in the country
the government will issue coins of Rs. 150 in denomination. The special coins
which also includes Rs 5 denomination would be released by the Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee ahead of his budget speech. The Rs 150 coin is
prepared from an alloy of copper, nickel, silver and zinc. ‘Sathyameva Jayathe’
 and ‘India’ would be engraved on the front side of the coin while the back side
will feature a portrait of portrait of 'Chanakya and lotus with honeybee'. The Rs
5 coins will also be minted in a similar fashion. This is a special occasion with
the IT department having completed 150 years of taxation from 1860 to 2010.
• 
 HC upholds Death Penalty for Kasab

• The Bombay High Court on Feb 21 confirmed the death penalty to 26/11 terrorist
Ajmal Kasab and termed the case being the rarest of rare and held that there
was "no scope of reform" of the convict. This comes nine months after the lone
26/11 terrorist who was captured alive was ordered to be sent to the gallows by
the trial court on May 6, 2010. Kasab, an LeT operative was captured alive at
Girgaum Chowpatty in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 while none other
operatives who has come with him were gunned down by the security forces at
the terror sites. Justice Ranjana Desai told Kasab through video conferencing
"Aapko saza-e-maut yeh adalat barkarar karti hai. Aap Supreme Court mein
appeal zari kar sakte hain (Your death sentence is upheld. You can appeal
before the Supreme Court,"
• 
 Godhra verdict: Ahmedabad court convicts 31, acquits 63

• A special court in Ahmedabad on February 22nd convicted 31 people and acquitted
63 including main accused Maulvi Umarji, in the 2002 Godhra train burning
incident that left 59 people dead mostly Kar Sevaks who were returning from
Ayodhya on the Sabarmati Express. This triggered the 2002 Gujarat communal
riots which left over 1200 people dead mostly Muslims. The court was the first
one to pronounce a judgment, among the nine trying the 2002 Gujarat riots
cases. The court accepted the prosecution’s contention that there was a
conspiracy behind the incident. Apart from the charges of murder, attempt to
murder and criminal conspiracy, the accused were convicted under IPC
sections 147, 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 323, 324, 325, 326 (causing
hurt), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on religious grounds),
various sections of the Indian Railways Act, Prevention of Damage to Public
Property Act and Bombay Police Act.
• Kidnapped Malkangiri Collector, junior engineer released

• Malkangiri District Collector RV Krishna and Junior Engineer Pabitra Majhi were
finally released by the Maoists after being kept for a week in captivity. The two
were abducted by the Maoists on Feb 16th and the Maoists in a letter to the
government, listed 14 demands for the safe release of the two hostages. These
included halting anti-Maoist operations by security forces, release of all political
prisoners, scrapping of accords with MNCs for land transfer and projects, and
compensation for the families of Maoist sympathizers killed in police custody.
Dandapani Mohanty and academicians G. Haragopal and R. Someswar Rao
were chosen as mediators and had discussions with the Maoists. The
negotiators had made the government agree to 14 key demands including the
release of Ganti Prsadam, Padma (wife of top Maoist Ram Krishna), and
Sriramulu Srinivas, another top Maoist. After intense round of negotiations the
government finally relented and made arrangements to secure bails for the
jailed Maoists. A further twist in the tale occurred when the Maoists released
only Majhi and held back the Collector making a fresh list of demands.
However after another round of discussion, common sense prevailed and the
Maoists released the collector a day later.
• 

 Sports News
• Cricket World Cup 2011 Officially Opened 

• The 10th edition of the ICC cricket World Cup, was officially launched on 17th Feb
with a grand opening ceremony being held in Dhaka, Bangaldesh. The stadium
was filled with spectators and evening proved to be visual spectacle with
colourful fireworks, songs and dance routines to mark the start of the eagerly
awaited event. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared the event
open amid thundering cheers while the fourteen participating Captains were
revealed to the public being carried in tricycles. Shankar Ehsaan Loy and other
popular artists performed at the venue with the show stopper being Bryan
Adams.
• 
 National Games Held in Jharkand 

• The 34th National Games, was finally held in Jharkand and the event turned to be
very successful. The games were held from 12th February 2011 to 26th
February 2011.Many athletes all over the country took part in various
disciplines and quite a few records were broken in the process. The long-
postponed 34th National Games was originally scheduled for 2007. The Games
have been deferred six times – four times due to delay in developing
infrastructure and then postponed again due to the coming of Assemble
Elections.
• 
 India start their Word cup campaign on a bright note

• India played Bangladesh at Mirpur in the first WC match of the tournament on Feb
19. India started with a bang scoring 375 with both Virender Sehwag and Virat
Kohli hitting sensational hundreds to take the match away from the hosts.
Sehwag particularly looked murderous. The Indian team was expected to be
under pressure to perform well against Bangladesh as their previous campaign
in 2007 resulted in an early exit and left many disappointed fans back at home.
• 
 Viswanathan Anand regains No.1 Ranking Again

• World Champion Viswanathan Anand played against Magnus Carlsen of Norway to
end the match in hard fought draw and finished second in the Bilbao Final
Masters chess tournament. But the icing on the cake was when the Indian ace
dethroned Carlsen from the number one ranking in Live rating list for the first
time since January this year and ended up as the top player in ratings too.
• 
 Brazilian striker Ronaldo announces retirement

• Former Brazil striker Ronaldo announced his retirement from soccer on Feb 14.
The 34-year-old three-time world player had a year end contract with
Corinthians. But a shock loss led to an early elimination from the Libertadores
Cup and violent protests from fans. Ronaldo further added that frequent injury
problems were one of the main reasons in him deciding to announce his
retirement. Thus ends a brilliant career in which he scored more than 400 goals
including a record 15 at World Cups.
•
International News
• Mubarak resigns, Egypt celebrates

• The people of Egypt went wild with celebrations after President Hosni Mubarak
resigned and handed power to the military on 11th February. For eighteen days
thousands of people had taken to the streets all over Egypt demanding the
ouster of their autocratic President who had been in power for the past thirty
 years. One of the key reasons for such public outrage has been widespread
poverty, inflation and rampant corruption in the government for many years.
Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the anti-government protests burst with joy
when the announcement was made. This has been a hard fought struggle for
the people of Egypt after many episodes of violence having been reported
between the public and Mubaraks forces.
• 
 China overtakes Japan as world's second-biggest economy

• China has now overtaken Japan as the world's second-biggest economy. Japan's
economy was worth $5.474 trillion (£3.414 trillion) at the end of 2010, figures
from Tokyo have shown while that of China's economy is closer to $5.8 trillion
for the same period. China has been enjoying a manufacturing boom for quite a
few years now and it is expected that at its current rate of growth, analysts see
China replacing the US as the world's top economy in about a decade. The US
economy is currently almost three times the size of the Chinese economy in
dollar terms.
• 
 New Zealand earthquake strikes Christchurch, killing at least 148 people

• A massive earthquake on 22nd Feb has caused massive destruction in the city of
Christchurch, New Zealand. The 6.3-magnitude earthquake was the second in
five months for the city and the death toll continues to increase with the police
having confirmed 148 deaths with 200 still missing. The damage caused has
been said to be much worse than the 7.1-magnitude quake on 4 September,
which left two people seriously injured but no fatalities. The city's historic
cathedral was one of the many buildings that got significantly damaged, while
cars lay in a mangled heap under a pile of rubble and roads cracked open with
fissures as a result of the tremors. Dazed, bleeding residents could be seen
wandering through streets strewn with debris and piles of concrete.
• 
 Libyan people take to the streets in their demand for freedom 

• Inspired by the outcomes of Tunisia and Egypt over the past few weeks the people
of Libya have also taken out to the streets in their cries for freedom against
their autocratic leader Muammar Gaddafi. Thousands of people have joined the
struggle and there have been continuous reports of frequent clashes with the
Muammars loyalists and the protesting public. Scores of people have been
reported killed in continuing violence in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, amid
escalating protests against Muammar Gaddafi's 40-year rule across the North
African nation. With each passing day the leader seems to be losing support
from people working in his own government and is also under increasing
pressure from International powers to step down.
• 
 The Kings Speech Wins Best Picture at the 83rd Annual Academy
Awards

• ‘The Kings Speech’ had a great outing at this years Oscars winning four awards.
The film won in the best picture category and its director Tom Hooper received
Best Director. Colin Firth received the award for best actor for his central role in
Kings Speech while best female actor went to Natalie Portman for Black Swan.
‘The Best Supporting Actor’ and The Best Supporting Actress’ awards were
bagged by Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for their performances in film, ‘The
Fighter’. Indian musician AR Rahman missed out on his two nominations for his
score in ‘127 hours.’
Current Affairs For March 2011

National
• Godhra verdict: 11 get death, 20 get life term
 

• A Sessions Court in Ahmedabad awarded death sentence to 11 people and life
term to twenty others on 1/3/2011. The sentence was pronounced by Additional
Sessions Judge PR Patel who had earlier convicted them of criminal
conspiracy in the Sabarmati Express train burning case on Feb 22nd. 
 The
court had accepted the prosecution's contention that there was a conspiracy
behind the incident and convicted 31 under various sections of Indian Penal
Code (IPC) like 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 120B(criminal
conspiracy). 
 They were convicted under IPC section 147, 148 (rioting with
deadly weapons), 323, 324,325,326 (causing hurt), 153A (promoting enmity
between different groups on religious grounds), various sections of the Indian
Railways Act, Prevention of Damages to Public Property Act and Bombay
Police Act. 
 The court had acquitted 63 others out the total 94 for lack of
evidence including the alleged mastermind Maulavi Hussain Umarji. Fifty nine
Kar Sevaks traveling in the S6 coach of Sabarmati Express were burnt alive
near the Godhra railway station on February 2002. This incident caused wide
spread communal riots in the State of Gujarat that resulted in the deaths of
over 100 people, most of them Muslims. Justice Patel termed the case as
“rarest of rare” and the court has given the accused 90 days to appeal in the
High court.
• SC strikes down CVC PJ Thomas' appointment

• The Supreme Court on 3/3/2011 struck down on the appointment of Chief Vigilance
Commisioner PJ Thomas after a three-judge bench headed by the Chief
Justice of India SH Kapadia delivered its verdict on a Public Interest Litigation
(PIL) that sought his removal. The apex court has observed Thomas is a
person who is tainted as he was an accused in the palmoline export scam.
CVC PJ Thomas soon thereafter submitted his resignation. This has come
about as big blow to the UPA government which is already facing several
allegations of corruption. Furthermore Thomas is the country's 14th CVC and
was selected by a three member panel that included the PM and the Home
Minister. The opposition BJP had been highly critical all along and following his
resignation demanded even the PM to step down. The PM took responsibility
for the incident and cited the reason as error in judgement. An IAS officer of
1973 batch of Kerala cadre, PJ Thomas is the eighth accused in the palmolien
case. He served as food secretary in Kerala in the early 90’s during which time
he had aggressively campaigned for the import of 1500 tonnes of palm oil from
Malaysia. Reports later emerged that price paid for the oil- palmolein was
unjustifiable high. He has since been fighting allegations of corruption, while the
case is still pending in court.
• Delhi court accepts CBI's closure report against Quattrocchi

• A Delhi court on 4/3/2011 accepted CBI’s closure report seeking to drop all charges
against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the two decade old Bofors
case. The CBI was looking at closing all criminal cases against Italian
businessman Quattrocchi, who is allegedly one of the recipients of kickbacks in
the controversial Bofors gun deal of 1986 which ended up resulting in the fall of
the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1989. Many influential figures were accused of
 receiving payoffs in the deal which involved the purchase of Bofors guns for the
Indian army. The agency has been seeking withdrawal of the case against him
as he has never appeared before any Indian court to face trial due to lack of
evidence, even though a tax tribunal had ruled in Dec 2010 that illegal
commissions were indeed paid in the deal. The agency had said that its plea to
withdraw the case has been filed with bonafide intention as it has spent a huge
amount of money on the investigation but has not been able to arrest the Italian
businessman. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav observed: "At this
moment we have to end the case therefore I allow the CBI plea to close the
case. I think the CBI has moved this application to close this case after
applying their minds, therefore there is no need of wasting public money in
continuing the investigation." Advocate Ajay Aggarwal, who objected to CBI’s
application in the court, said he would challenge the order in the Delhi High
Court.
• 
 Delhi University student Radhika Tanwar shot outside college

• Radhika Tanwar (21) a student of Ram Lal Anand College (Delhi University) was
shot dead by an unidentified man on the Dhaula Kuan foot-over bridge near
South Campus at around 10.30 AM on 8/3/2011. Radhika a second year BA
student who lives with her family in Naraina locality of West Delhi was shot
point blank by the assailant who fled the scene after shooting her in the
stomach. Passersby took the girl in an autorickshaw to Safdurjung Hospital
where she was declared brought dead. The incident has caused outrage in the
Capital which has been witnessing increasing episodes of crimes against
women, while the world was celebrating International Womens Day. The
assailant has been identified as 25 yr old Ram Singh alias Vijay who hails from
Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh. He was caught a few days later and Delhi Police
Commissioner B K Gupta said “Vijay suffers from psychopathic obsession. He
used to follow women. He followed Radhika regularly. The immediate trigger
was the snubbing of Radhika when he tried to speak to her”. The police also
went on to add Vijay “nurtured deep grudge” against the victim after he got
beaten up for harassing her and often told his friends that he would avenge the
humiliation whenever he got the opportunity. On 11/3/2011 another student
Monica Kirnapure was stabbed by four people in Nagpur while she was on her
way to class from her hostel. The twenty two year old girl lay in her pool of
blood for ten minutes, a knife sticking out of her back, asking for water. No help
came about from the bystanders until Sumedh Wanjaari hired a rickshaw to
take her to the hospital where she died en route.
• 
 SC dismisses Aruna Shanbaug's euthanasia plea

• Aruna Shanbaug a former nurse at Mumbai’s KEM hospital has been in a
vegetative state for the last 38 years after she was assaulted by a ward boy. A
Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra rejected on
7/3/2011 the euthanasia plea filed by Aruna’s friend Pinky Virani declaring ‘the
petition stands cancelled’. They also added Pinky was not allowed to appeal for
the mercy killing of Aruna as she was not the staff of KEM hospital. The bench
in its 110-page judgement saw the nursing staff of KEM hospital who have
been looking after Aruna for the past 38 years as the real next friend of Aruna
and declared the patient didn’t have a single bed sore during the period. The
apex court however allows passive euthanasia in appropriate cases which have
been permitted by the concerned high courts. They also added there is no law
in the country presently in the country on euthanasia and clarified unless the
 Parliament drafts a law, its stand on active and passive euthanasia will stay
enforced. Aruna Shanabug was sexually assaulted on November 27 1973 by
Sohanlal Walmiki who used a dog chain to subdue her which ended up cutting
the oxygen supply to her brain damaging vital functions like sight, memory and
normal movement.
• 
 Congress, DMK seat-sharing deadlock ends

• After lot of political drama the DMK and the Congress have come to a mutual seat
sharing agreement ahead of the upcoming Tamil Nadu assembly elections. The
DMK party announced on 8/3/20011 that it will contest for 121 seats while the
Congress will contest for 63 under the seat sharing deal for the April 13
Assembly polls. The Congress demand of 63 seats marks an increase of 15
seats in allocation of what they got during the 2006 Assembly elections. DMK
chief Karunanidhi was initially ready to give 60 seats to the Congress but the
Congress unrelenting demand on having 63 made him unhappy and he
threatened to pull out his ministers from the government. The Congress refused
to blink this time and after quite a few rounds of discussions the DMK finally
relented to the Congress demands. The DMK has agreed to allocate 61 seats,
up 1 seat from what they previously agreed and another two seats would be
allocated to the Congress from the other allied parties of the DMK. Under the
seat sharing formula, DMK will contest 121 seats, Congress 63, PMK 30, VCK
10, KMK 7, IUML 2 and MMK 1 for the 234-member assembly.
• 
 A.Raja’s close aide Sadiq Batcha found dead

• Sadiq Batcha, a close aide of former telecom minister A.Raja committed suicide
and was found hanging at his residence in Chennai on 16/3/2011. Sadiq
Batcha (37) who is the Managing Director of Greenhouse Promoters has been
under the CBI scanner for his suspected involvement in the 2G spectrum case
and was questioned by the agency on February 22nd. Green House
Promoters, initially a nondescript company with an equity base of Rs.100,000 in
2004, is said to have grown to over Rs.600 crore revenue company within a
very short time frame. Raja’s wife Parameshwari is said to have served as a
director in the firm but quit during 2008. Batcha hails from Raja’s constituency
Perambalur in Tamil Nadu and initially worked as a sari seller until his
friendship with the former telecom minister happened in the early
1990’s.According to the post mortem reports the cause of death has been
ascertained as asphyxia while the forensic reports are still awaited. This may
come as blow to the CBI in their investigations into the 2G scam.
• 
 TN Polls: Parties promise freebies to woo voters

• Ahead of upcoming assembly polls, the political parties of Tamil Nadu have
promised a host of freebies to woo the voting public. Top warring parties DMK
and ADMK have taken the war of freebies to a new high. While DMK in their
manifesto have announced 35 kg of free rice every month for below-poverty
line families, AIADMK has promised 20 kg of free rice for all ration-card
holders. The ruling DMK party has promised laptops to students in their first
year of college while Jayalalitha’s ADMK party promises them one as early as
eleventh standard. While the DMK plans to give women free mixes, grinders its
rivals have promised additional fans along with mixies and grinders.
Furthermore Jayalalitha in her bid to woo female voters has promised 4gms of
gold for 'Thali' (mangalsutra) free of cost to poor, besides offering cable TV
connections at subsidised rates. Some of the other freebies include four sets of
uniform and footwear for students, a hike in scholarship upto Rs 5000 from
 class 10 onwards, women self help groups get Rs10Lakh with 25 % waiver, 20
litres of mineral water a day to Below Poverty Line families, six months'
maternity leave for women and Rs 12,000 as pregnancy allowance and a host
of other promises were made. This does came as surprise since Jayalalitha
was a staunch critic of populist measures when the DMK party which came in
power in 2006, promised to offer free colour TV’s to the public and also kept up
on its electoral promise. The partie’s efforts in trying to gain an upper hand over
each other by making such steep electoral promises does raise a lot of
concerns. It does make one wonder if the State Treasury would be left with any
money if such populist measures are left unchecked.
• 
 WB polls: Cong, TMC reach seat-sharing deal
• The Congress and the Trinamool Congress reached a seat sharing agreement
ahead of the West Bengal Assembly Polls. Mamta Banerjee of Trinamool has
agreed to offer 65 seats after her rounds of discussion with the Congress party.
She had earlier agreed to give 64 seats against Congress demand of 98. The
alliance will fight against CPM led Left Front which has been in power for
almost 35 years now.Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said “In West
Bengal, Congress will contest 65 seats and TMC will contest 229. We will work
in close cooperation to win the election to defeat the Left from the state.”West
Bengal will be voting in 6 phases. The first phase voting is on April 18, second
phase on April 23, third phase on April 27, fourth phase on May 3, fifth phase
on May 7 and sixth phase is on May 10th.
• 
 Cash for votes scam creates uproar in Parliament 

• With the revelations by Wikileaks about the Congress buying MPs to win the vote-
of-confidence over the crucial Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008 came back to
haunt party when a united opposition created an uproar in Parliament. On
17/3/2011 they were demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh in view of the fresh charges that bribe was paid during the trust vote. The
government on its part was dismissive questioning the credibility of the leaks.
Also FM Pranab Mukherjee said “Each Lok Sabha is sovereign in its time. What
happened in the 14th Lok Sabha cannot be decided in the 15th Lok
Sabha...Government of the day is accountable to the 15th Lok Sabha and not
to the 14th Lok Sabha. Whatever happened in the 14th Lok Sabha has come to
an end with the end of the tenure”. On 23/3/2011 Leader of the Opposition
Sushma Swaraj made a stinging attack on the Prime Minister and said “It is the
habit of the Prime Minister to blame others. If it is price rise then (Agriculture
Minister) Sharad Pawar is responsible, if it is 2G then (former Telecom
Minister) A Raja is responsible and if it is Commonwealth Games then Suresh
Kalmadi is to blame.” The Wikileaks cable suggests that the Congress bought
the support of MPs during a vote of confidence during the controversial nuclear
deal in 2008. Three BJP MP’s walked into the Lok Sabha with Rs 3 crores in
cash and claimed that they had been offered that money to vote for the nuclear
deal and that they had planned a sting operation to prove it. Following that a
Lok Sabha committee, headed by Congress MP KCS Deo, was set up to
examine their allegations in which was found there was no evidence of the
allegations made by the BJP MP’s.
• 
 Aarushi murder case: Talwars surrender passports

• Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, parents of murdered teen Aarushi Talwar have
surrendered their passports to a local court following a direction by the
Supreme Court which also stayed their trial in the Noida double murder case.
 On 19/3/2011 the SC had stayed the CBI court order summoning the Talwars
to appear before it on 22/3/2011. The Allahabad High Court on 18/3/2011
dismissed the couples plea seeking quashing of criminal proceedings initiated
by the lower court which not only refused the closure report filed by the CBI but
also summoned the couple as accused in the case. The HC declared that it
could not prohibit the magistrate from taking cognizance of a case if prima facie
it appears that there is sufficient evidence against a person. Earlier the CBI had
file a closure report pleading closure citing lack of incriminating evidence,
however the CBI has pointed a needle of suspicion to the parents and as a
result left the option of proceeding against the Talwars with the Trial Court. The
couple had challenged the order of the Allahabad High Court which the
Supreme Court stayed on 19/3/2011 but asked the Talwars to surrender their
passports. Satish Tamta, the counsel for Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, submitted
the passports in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Puspendra
Kumar Singh. Fourteen-year-old Aarushi was found murdered at her home in
Noida on May 16, 2008. A day after, Hemraj's body was found in the same
building.
• 
 India revokes licenses of 14 'fake pilots'

• Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on 23/3/2011 revoked a total of 14
commercial pilot licenses (CPL) which means it brings an end to the flying
careers of the those accused of having submitted fake training records from
Rajasthan State Flying School to procure their licenses. The discovery of
frauds in the issuing of licenses is a worrying development to the safety of air
travel for the passengers and the industry. The fake pilot scam began
unraveling when female Captain Parminder Gulati landed her airliner on the
nose instead of the rear wheels which set the alarms ringing across many
quarters. DGCA, the airline regulator stepped in and discovered she had
submitted forged mark sheets to procure her license. Since then more pilots
have been caught guilty of the same crime. The DGCA admits there was a
lapse, and now says as much as 4000 pilot licences are now under fresh
scrutiny. On 26/3/2011 a DGCA official Pradeep Kumar(48), pilot Pradeep
Tyagi(35) and two of his touts Lalit Jain (34) and Pankaj Jain (23) were
arrested by the Delhi Police. Tyagi along with his touts used to forge mark
sheets for the fake pilots for huge a fee and also bribed Pradeep Kumar of the
DGCA for expediting those files. A person is eligible to fly a commercial aircraft
only when he or she secures a CPL, which is given out after a person
completes 200 hours of flying during the training.
• 
 Hasan Ali Remanded In Judicial Custody
• Hasan Ali is a Pune bases stud farm owner who has been accused of allegedly
stashing away 8 billion dollars in Swiss banks. It is speculated that the major
portion of the money in offshore accounts belong to some politicians and
industrialists and that Ali acts as a conduit for them and allegedly facilitates
transfer of black money from India on a commission basis. He has been under
the radar of the Income Tax (IT) department and the Enforcement Directorate
(ED) for a few years now while his premises were raided in 2007. According to
Hasan Ali’s statements he is scrap dealer with an annual income of Rs 30 Lakh
which does not tally with kind of lifestyle Ali is known for. He is known to throw
lavish parties, has a penchant for race horses and own quite a few of them and
also own an expensive fleet of cars. A little ironic for a man with humble
beginnings, whose father worked as an excise officer. Hassan Ali has been
 declared the highest tax defaulter in the country with dues allegedly over Rs
70,000 crores. Ali was arrested by the ED on 7/3/2011 under the Prevention of
Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. But a Mumbai Court on 11/3/2011
rejected ED’s plea for custodial interrogation of Hasan Ali on the grounds that
the agency had not gathered sufficient evidence and Ali was released on bail.
The Supreme Court on 17/3/2011 stayed the trial courts order, directed
custodial interrogation of Hasan Ali to ED and was also critical of Mumbai Court
Judge M L Tahaliyani's order of granting bail to Ali, saying it was "deeply
disturbed" as to the manner in which the trial court judge rejected the ED's
contention and had given a lengthy order for it. On 21/3/2011 the apex court
extended his custody with the ED for an additional three days and when that
duration came to a close a session’s court remanded Hasan Ali in judicial
custody till April 8, 2011.
• 
 Wikileaks: 'Hindutva an opportunistic issue for BJP'

• After the Congress it was the BJP’s turn to be hit by the Wikileaks phenomenon
when a US diplomat reported in the cable that senior leader of BJP declared to
him that Hindu Nationalism was an ‘opportunistic issue’ for the party. "Pressed
on the question of Hindutva, Jaitley argued that Hindu nationalism 'will always
be a talking point' for the BJP. However, he characterized this as an
opportunistic issue," a cable by Robert Blake, the Charge at the US Embassy,
to his government, had said after a meeting with Jaitley on May 6, 2005.
"Pressed on the question of Hindutva, Jaitley argued that Hindu nationalism
'will always be a talking point' for the BJP. However, he characterized this as an
opportunistic issue," a cable by Robert Blake, the Charge at the US Embassy,
to his government, had said after a meeting with Jaitley on May 6, 2005. Jaitley
a senior leader of the BJP and also leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha
, whom the cable described as "one of several aspirants to direct the next
generation of BJP leadership", said in a statement that the word opportunistic
in reference to Hindutva could be the "diplomat's own usage". He said the cable
by the diplomat in 2005 makes a reference to his conversation with him. "The
cable reflects my views on cross-border terrorism, illegal infiltration from
Bangladesh and the unfair denial of US Visa to the Gujarat Chief Minister
(Narendra Modi). “However, the use of the word "opportunistic” in reference to
nationalism or Hindu nationalism is neither my view nor my language. It could
be the diplomat's own usage,” he said. Congress on its part was quick to give it
back to the BJP. “Chickens are coming to roost, what goes out wrongly hits
back like a boomerang. People living in glass houses are taught in this manner
that they were to throw stones at others,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek
Singhvi said.
• 
 PM Manmohan Singh and PM Gilani of Pakistan engage in cricket
diplomacy

• The relations between India and Pakistan had soured post Mumbai 26/11 blasts.
With the ongoing world cup when India defeated Australia in the quarters it
became apparent that it was to face off against Pakistan in the semifinal. The
clash between the two countries generated tremendous hype in the media of
both countries. The match even took on political turns when PM Manmohan
Singh invited his counterpart Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali
Zardari to the cricket match. The invite was accepted by the PM of Pakistan
who then along with Dr Manmohan Singh reached the cricket venue on
30/3/2011 where they shook hands with players and also engaged in diplomatic
 talks which has now leased a fresh breath of air to the relations between the
two countries. As per the joint statement released in the capital on 29/3/2011
the Pakistani delegation updated India on the ongoing trial and investigation
and agreed to allow an Indian Commission to come to Pakistan to investigate
26/11 attacks. The Pak delegation assured that India's National Investigative
Agency (NIA) and Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) will cooperate
in the 26/11 investigation. India on its part provided Pakistan information with
regards to the Samjauta blast case and agreed that they would update them
once the charge sheet was filed. According to the joint statement released in
New Delhi on Tuesday, the Pakistani delegation updated India on the ongoing
trial and investigation and agrees in principle to allow an Indian commission to
investigate 26/11 attacks in Pakistan. The two countries have also agreed to
hold home secretary-level talks bi-annually.
• 
 Census 2011: Indian population increased by 181 million

• India’s population has risen to 1.21 billion in the last ten years, which is an increase
of 181 million according to the new census released on 31/3/2011. India’s
population is now bigger than population of USA, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan
and Bangladesh, says the Census report. On the positive side the overall
population growth rate is 17.6 in 2011, significantly lower than 2001 when it
was 21.15 per cent. Coming to the sex ration India has 623.7 million males and
586.5 million women. A matter of concern is that child sex ratio has slipped to
its lowest since India's independence. For every 1000 male infants, there are
914 girls. The most populous state of Indian continues to be Uttar Pradesh with
16.49 per cent share in the total population, followed by Maharashtra with 9.29
per cent, while, the least populous state is Sikkim with 0.05 per cent share in
the total population. This is the 15th Census conducted since 1872. It was
carried out in two phases, covering 640 districts and 5924 sub-districts.
•
Sports News
• ICC WC 2011 off to spectacular start 

• The ICC cricket world cup is on in full swing. The fourteen teams have all played
their group stages and 8 teams qualified to the knockout stages. The teams
that played in quarterfinals were West Indies, India, England, Australia, South
Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Among these only four teams
made it to the Semis where Pakistan and India played each other at Mohali and
Srilanka and New Zealand played against each other in Colombo. The semi
final match between India and Pakistan created unprecedented hype as the
two teams have not faced off against each other since Mumbai 26/11 attacks.
There was a never before seen rush to get the tickets for the match and people
were selling their tickets in black market at astronomical amounts. India and Sri
Lanka went on to win their semi finals respectively and face each other in the
final on April 02 , 2011.
• 
 Levon Aronian wins Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Championship

• Levon Aronian has won the 20th and final edition of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid
Chess Championship held at Monaco. He had earlier also won in 2008 and
2009 respectively. The Armenian grandmaster tied his last round game against
Sergey Karjakin and still maintained a one point lead over runner up Magnus
Carlsen of Norway. Indian chess grandmaster and World Champion
Vishwanath Anand came in at third position. With the 2011 edition the 20 year
run of one the Worlds favourite chess events comes to an end and Aronian
 having won three of the last four editions does come across as a significant
achievement.
• 
 Saina clinches Swiss Open Grand Prix

• India’s badminton ace Saina Nehwal won her first title of 2011 with a 21-13, 21-14
victory over South Korean Sung Ji Hyun in the Wilson Swiss Open Grand Prix
Gold badminton at Basil on 20/3/2011. It was her second win against the
Korean in as many meetings whom she earlier defeated in the Indonesia Open
Super Series as well. She reached the quarters of the All England
Championship also held earlier this month where she lost to Eriko Hirose of
Japan. Riding on her Swiss Open triumph Saina has regained her number
three ranking with 69721.2637 points. At first place and second place are
Shixian Wang (83506.4) and Yihan Wang (73988.9106) of China respectively.
• 
 Djokovic beats Nadal to win Indian Wells title

• Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to win the BNP Paribas Open title
at Calirfonia on 20/3/2011. The Serbian remains undefeated this year whose
victories include Australian and Dubai open, has struck a purple patch notching
up an impressive 18-0 record in 2011. He now jumps to number two in the ATP
rankings pushing Roger Federer to the third place while Rafael Nadal is still at
number one with a 14-3 record. Djokovic said "It definitely says good things. I
am playing with a lot of confidence. I'm feeling the ball well on the court. I'm
very dedicated. I have a big will to win each match. I want to keep on going and
keep on playing good tennis."
• 
 Sebastian Vettel wins Australian GP

• Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel drove a flawless race to win the season opening
Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne on 27/3/2011. Starting from pole position
Sebastian drove superbly to open more than a two second gap over runner up
Lewis Hamilton of Mclaren following the first lap. At third place was Renaults
Vitaly Petrov who made his first ever podium finish. Fernando Alonso came in
fourth with Australian Mark Webber finishing fifth at the race. They used three
stops strategies which was one more than the podium finishers. It was not a
good start to the year for Mercedes with both their drivers Michael Shumacher
and Nicco Roseberg being forced to retire.
• 
 India crowned World Champions 

• The Indian team defeated Sri Lanka win the final of the ICC World Cup becoming
the first team to lift the cup after 28 years on April 02,2011. Srilanka won the
toss and elected to bat and posted a daunting 274 on board following a superb
century by Mahela Jayawardhene. The Indian team had begun their bowling on
a bright note with ace spear head Zaheer Khan bowling a superb initial spell
but the end power over proved to be a costly affair and helped the Lankans
post a very challenging total. Indian batting started on patchy note when both
the dangerous openers lost their wickets early to Lasith Malinga who came up
with an inspired spell of fast bowling. The stadium had gone quiet but the
Indian innings was resurrected when Virat Kholi and Gautam Gambhir formed a
respectable partnership but the star of the innings was Indian Skipper
Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He promoted himself up the order ahead of the inform
Yuvraj Singh took India home with an unbeaten 91. The Captain criticized
throughout the tournament for his lack of form stepped up at the most crucial
moment with a crucial innings and hit the last ball straight down the ground for
a huge six. The nation erupted with joy and there wild celebrations all over
 India. Sachin Tendulkar was given a lap of honour when his team mates took
him on their shoulders and a happy Sachin could be seen waving at the
crowds. This is the highest successful run chase made in a World cup final and
what makes the victory sweeter is India is the first team to win a World Cup on
home soil.
•
International News
• Earthquake and Tsunami strike Japan 

• A powerful earthquake of 8.9 magnitude struck Japan on its north eastern coast on
11/3/2011. The earthquake resulted in a massive tsunami that caused wide
scale destruction and loss of thousands of lives. Cars, ships and buildings were
all swept away by the rampaging waters of the Tsunami which struck about
400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo. The port city of Sendai in Miyagi
prefecture was one of the worst affected. Ten metre waves struck the city
deluging everything that was part of it-farmlands, cars, buildings, houses etc.
Fires broke out in the city following the deluge. A cluster of two to three
hundred bodies were found in one part of this city alone. This is the most
powerful natural disaster to have struck Japan in its recorded history and is
considered 8000 times more powerful than what struck Christchurch in New
Zealand earlier this year.
 As of March 30th 2011 according to official
estimates the death toll now stands at 11,257 while another 16,344 people are
still missing. Many of the survivors who have been displaced have lost all their
property to the Tsunami. More than 173,200 people are living in the 2000
evacuation centres in the 17 prefectures mostly in the northern side of the
country. Among the worst affected prefectures which are Miyagi, Fukushima
and Iwate 146,628 displaced people have been housed in close to 1,245
evacuation centres.
• 
 Nuclear Crisis

• The massive earthquake that struck the north east coast of Japan has resulted in a
catastrophic situation at the Fukushima Nuclear power plant. When the
earthquake struck they switched off the reactor and where about to use the
onsite diesel back up power. The tsunami then struck and the back up power
also failed. Hence after losing electric power, that system could not be used.
Instead the operators are dumping seawater into the vessel and letting it cool
the fuel by boiling. But as it boils, pressure rises too high to pump in more
water, so they have to vent the vessel to the atmosphere, and feed in more
water, a procedure known as "feed and bleed." Thousands of people residing in
areas close to the plant were evacuated. Over the following days there have
been many instance of radiation exposure traced in the vicinity. Radioactive
water found in and outside reactor buildings is delaying work to restore cooling
functions of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
• 
 Libyan Uprising

• Having received inspiration from the revolutions of Egypt and Tunisia the next
country to vehemently protest against government autocracy is the North
African country of Libya. The public are fighting to bring down Muammar
Gaddafi's 41-year rule and are demanding new leadership and democratic
elections. What actually began as a series of peaceful demonstrations took
ugly turns when Gaddafi’s army tried to crush protests by using force eventually
turning into an all out civil war in the days to come. In a matter of days the
uprising had spread to other parts of Libya and Gaddafi was having trouble
 retaining control over many parts of the country. Gaddafi a harder nut to crack
than Mubarak has continued to be on the offensive and refuses to give up
power in spite of all the diplomatic pressure, much to the chagrin of his own
country men. On 19/3/2011 a multi-state coalition began a military intervention
in Libya to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which
was taken in response to the uprising in Libya. The military operations began,
with US and British forces firing over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles, the
French Air Force and British Royal Air Force[ undertaking sorties across Libya
and a naval blockade by the Royal Navy. Air strikes against Libyan Army tanks
and vehicles by French jets have since been confirmed. The situation is far
from peaceful and remains to be seen what would be the outcome of the
situation in the days to come.
• 
 Elizabeth Taylor passes away

• One of Hollywood’s greatest icons Dame Elizabeth Taylor breathed her last on
23/3/2011 due to congestive heart failure. The 79 year old actress has been in
the public eye for six decades having won three academy awards and has
acted in over 50 films. The Cleopatra star's stunning looks, including her famed
violet eyes, earned her fans around the globe and her stormy personal life that
included eight marriages received as much press interest as some of her best
works. She won two Oscars for her performances in “Butterfield 8”(1960) and
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) and a third Oscar for her humanitarian
work in 1993. The actress has also battled many health ailments undergoing as
much as 20 surgeries during the course of her life. In her later years she was a
spokeswoman for several causes, most notably AIDS research.
•
Current Affairs For June 2011

National
• Godhra verdict: 11 get death, 20 get life term
 

• A Sessions Court in Ahmedabad awarded death sentence to 11 people and life
term to twenty others on 1/3/2011. The sentence was pronounced by Additional
Sessions Judge PR Patel who had earlier convicted them of criminal
conspiracy in the Sabarmati Express train burning case on Feb 22nd. 
 The
court had accepted the prosecution's contention that there was a conspiracy
behind the incident and convicted 31 under various sections of Indian Penal
Code (IPC) like 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 120B(criminal
conspiracy). 
 They were convicted under IPC section 147, 148 (rioting with
deadly weapons), 323, 324,325,326 (causing hurt), 153A (promoting enmity
between different groups on religious grounds), various sections of the Indian
Railways Act, Prevention of Damages to Public Property Act and Bombay
Police Act. 
 The court had acquitted 63 others out the total 94 for lack of
evidence including the alleged mastermind Maulavi Hussain Umarji. Fifty nine
Kar Sevaks traveling in the S6 coach of Sabarmati Express were burnt alive
near the Godhra railway station on February 2002. This incident caused wide
spread communal riots in the State of Gujarat that resulted in the deaths of
over 100 people, most of them Muslims. Justice Patel termed the case as
“rarest of rare” and the court has given the accused 90 days to appeal in the
High court. 
 MPLAD Guidelines Changed; Easy to Implement
• The Central Government, after a decade, is escalating the yearly distribution of
MPLAD finances as of Rs.2 crore to Rs.5 crore for each MP. Dr. M.S.Gill, the
Minister of Statistics & Programme Implementation is confident that the
advantages of the plan must get to to the people at the very basic level and the
plan must as well throw in towards promoting public honor and accord. So as to
guarantee that the MPLAD finances can be used up sensibly, quickly,
successfully and productively all through the nation, the guidelines are currently
expanding their scope, being made precise and simple and effortlessly
implementable. To offer MPs a more extensive range of projects that cover
MPLAD finance, the silos of entitled things within the system are being
distended.
• The Government has lately permitted expenditure of MPLAD finance in supporting
physically challenged people and it has received large admiration. The
Government following comprehensive talk and meeting, has determined to
make huge changes in the entire system of MPLAD.
• 
 ECI witnesses the launch of IIDEM.

• The ECI (Election Commission of India) commenced the IIDEM (India International
Institute of Democracy and Election Management) - a higher center of learning,
study, guidance and addition so as to involve people in democratic practice and
election organization. The primary time of this leading institute was inaugurated
together at the Commission location by Dr. S. Y. Quraishi, Chief Election
Commissioner of India in New Delhi and Mr. Ken Nyaundi, Election
Commissioner from Kenya.
• Two more Election Commissioners Shri H. S. Brahma and Shri V.S. Sampath, were
in attendance too. Higher Officials of the Commission and officials from South
Africa and Commonwealth Secretariat were present the gathering. The initial
course of IIDEM will be starter later on in July for the Electoral Commission of
 Kenya. IIDEM has four sections. These four parts are: Voter Education and
Civic Participation, Research, Innovation and Documentation, Training and
Capacity, and International Projects and Technical Collaboration Development.
The Institute will be a countrywide and global center for exchange of nice
followings in organizing of election.
• 
 Reliance getting into the Scam Trend: 

• The investigated reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India that tacks
the involvement among Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Government
agencies heading towards enormous losses to the Government exchequer is
however a new instance of the influence of corporate over the UPA
Government to undermine official procedures that suit them in all possible
ways.
• The body has realized that the earlier DGH (Director-General of Hydrocarbons)
allowed Reliance to pump up its expansion overheads on the gas mining in the
D6 block of KG basin to a massive 8.84 billion dollars from 2.47 billion dollars.
This money in use by RIL influenced the proceeds of the Government.
Government is supposed to act against the previous DGH with immediate
effect.
• 
 2G scams unfold; Dayanidhi Maran steps down
• Dayanidhi Maran has resigened all thanks to the extensive probing by the CBI and
the Government can now pat their backs. The investigation pointed to his part
in compelling C Sivasankaran to sell his share in a leading Telecom company,
Aircel by denying to award any fresh licenses on condition that Sivasankaran
was the principal stake holder—it should have been a lot more than a twist of
fate that a group firm of the new holder endowed in Maran’s brother’s
enterprise hardly any months following it received licenses from Maran.
• As Maran resigned the day following the CBI achievement, the government cannot
be blamed of favoring him similar to that of the main villain, A Raja. Dayanidhi
Maran’s was a varied term, the understandable low downs being the Aircel
incident, in the offing with a fresh policy that permitted conceding of fresh
licenses 4 years ago at prices of 10 years back (Maran was the real
mastermind, Raja just built-up on what he established) and bullying the Tatas in
their business in the telecom industry following a TataSky row with his brother’s
Sun TV (Maran’s ministry collapsed as TDSAT thickened the plot). The merrier
times counted for increasing FDI limits to 74% accordingly of which Vodafone
emerged into the scene, and actually opening up the sector that involved huge
distance by shelling out soaring fees.
•
Sports News
• Doping cases surge up; curbing measures required

• Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports, Shri Ajay Maken has delineated
a range of measures to find out into entire doping incident and curtail this pain
in the neck. Shri Maken presented the particulars of the six point guidelines
forwarded to the executives of SAI (Sports Ministry and Sports Authority of
India) to probe into doping episode at a press conference.
• Taking into consideration the failed dope tests of eight athletes in various sports
that include HariKrishnan in long jump, Tianna Mary Thomas in 4*400 m, M/s
Mandeep Kaur, SiniJose, Priyanka Panwar in 400 m, Ashwini Akkunji, Joanna
Murmu, and Sonia in shot put and “the current inquiry thereof, it is heading for
that the Sports Ministry and Sports Authority of India must be aware of and
 concentrate on the function of the workforce support infrastructure that have
been provided to these athelets,” said Shri Ajay Maken. He further avowed that
at the same time as each doping episode engages dishonor of the entire
country, prohibition and even fear of honors and accolades being asked from
the charged athletes; the task of supporting trainers, health center executives
and extra requirements to be questioned, determined and rightfully inclined.
• Rouseau: 3rd Test between India v West Indies drawn

• 3rd test match held at the Windsor Park Stadium between India and West Indies,
the former’s first tour since the World Cup triumph ended in a disappointing
draw. KA Edwards and S Chanderpaul stood at the crease for 161 runs for the
fourth wicket. This means that India will need to wait more to win 2 test
matches in the Carribean. Chanderpaul was partnered by Kieron Edwards as
the former completed his 23rd Test century in all important 37-over toil to deny
India a victory.
• Chanderpaul dealt with all the seam bowlers India had at their disposal with no
difficulty, driving and extracting easy runs out of them and exhibiting rock-solid
defense and rotating the strike regularly as Kerion Edwards chipped in. He
stood steady at one end; he strained the Indian bowlers to shoft their attentions
totally towards Kieron Edwards, who’s supported and helped Chanderpaul to
get to another achievement is professional playing career.
•
International News
• Pravakar Sahoo – China leave India trailing

• As compared to India, China is very antagonistic in the Bangladesh market. Except
for price competition of Chinese goods, the friendly approach of Chinese sellers
and executives at the customs is a reason to smile for traders in Bangladesh.
When China comes into this scene Visa has never been a problem; China
attracts ventures from Bangladesh to chip in showings for improved data on
Chinese goods.
• Chinese sellers are all set to spruce up well-known goods on the demand of
Bangladeshi importers to provide to the price responsive local marketplace of
their South Asian neighbors. Plus, Chinese industry corporations deal with
transportations, trade intricacies, and over and over again take notes on
grievances. In a good number of industries, China is prepared for expertise
transmit, while our very own Indian industries are yet to be. The country is not
only playing with their business connections, but now has only a negligible
investment presence in Bangladesh.
• 
 Trades between India and Canada to reach $15 Billion:

• EEPC India with a purpose to accomplish considerable increase in trade for
manufacturing goods and services prepared a colloquium on being involved in
business transactions with Canada. Talking on the colloquium the Joint
Secretary Department of Commerce, Shri Arvind Mehta said, “Bearing in mind
the fact, that China now has a widespread existence in Canada this episode
could share the accomplishments on different added steps employed by the
Government of India all through this year”.
• The official further talked about the cut rate and uniqueness of the Indian producers
will be of immense assistance to Canada as it is currently counting those
countries that are a step ahead of NAFTA for trade development. The Consul
General of India, Mrs. Preeti Saran in addition was present at the event. Even
as conveying her important lecture she was buoyant that these events can
 direct to our targeted growth in trade involving the two nations.
• Acting High Commissioner, Mr. Mario-Ste-Marie, and High Commission of Canada
in New Delhi was as well in attendance. EEPC INDIA through the backing of
Indian High Commission at the Canadian Capital and Canadian High
Commission in the Indian Capital are arranging the second season of the
famous show in Toronto, “India Show”. “India Show” Toronto, Canada is being
prepared at most appropriate time with this year being confirmed as the “Year
of India in Canada” by Dr. Manmohan Singh, respected Prime Minister of our
country and Mr. Stephen Harper, his Canadian opposite number. This came in
the light of Mr. Harper’s visit to India in November 2009
• 
 Healthy Rankings for India on Global Stage:

• II, Confederation of Indian Industry and INSEAD examine on ranking countries on
innovation, known as GII, Global Innovation Index was revealed in Geneva,
Switzerland for the current year. The whole examination is a once a year
attempt to evaluate dissimilar enablers for policy makers and added share
holders such as trade and foundations to assess their dealings and impacts in
comparison with additional countries in order that they can employ valuable
measures. Formed about 4 years ago, GII examines they way nations influence
their running surroundings to excite improvement outcomes. Five posts make
up the innovation effort sub-index and these include foundations, research and
development in the human resource department, socio-economic infrastructure,
market advancements and trade advancements. The innovation production
sub-index is made up of two pillars: creative outputs and scientific outputs.
• In the overall innovation Index, the country has ranked 62 for the year 2011 when
evaluated against the position in the year 2010 of 56. Switzerland has been the
leader of all these countries, climbing from 3rd in the GII for the year 2010, 2nd
and 3rd positions are respectively held by Sweden and Singapore. Six
countries from the EU make up the Top 10 list and it also takes in Hong Kong,
the United States of America as well as Canada which are 4th, 7th and 8th.
The only emerging economy that reached the Top 30 ranks in GII was China at
29.
• Dr. Naushad Forbes, Chair of the CII Innovation Council 2011-12 and Director of
Forbes Marshall, said “At present there is some buzz about innovation in the
entire world in all types beginning from commerce to government to civilization.
Following the current economic decelerate the spotlight has swung evidently
towards the budding regions not just with respect to a thriving possible market
but also an attractive place for economical innovations.
• Analyzing this swing is vital to identify in what we are moving forward, GII is an
initial spot to do that and undeniably on the correct path Roland Berger
Professor of Business and Technology at INSEAD, Soumitra Dutta, and editor
of the examination believes that innovation is dangerous to motivating
development in both developed and budding economies, particularly for the
period of a time when the worldwide economy is current recovering from past
plummets. Except for CII, the year 2011 the added three knowledge allies in
Global Innovation Index are the WIPO (World Intellectual Property
Organization), Booze & Company and Alcatel-Lucent
•
Current Affairs For July 2011

National
• Introduction of LokPal bill in Lok Sabha

• The much awaited Lok Pal bill will be introduced in Lok Sabha. The green signal
was given by the government to Speaker Meira Kumar to allow the two day
period needed to present the bill.The Minister of State Personnel Mr. V
Narayaswamy gave the notice to Meira Kumar regarding the matter of Lok Pal
bill. Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal said that all the parties were in favour of
introducing the bill at the earliest. The copies of the bill have been distributed to
all the parties. The bill has been finalised by the government after a number of
meetings during the last month.
• The government has kept out Prime Minister and other higher judiciary from the
ambit of the bill. This decision has been strongly opposed by the all the activists
of the bill. The BJP has demanded that the bill should include the Prime
Minister into the bill. Regarding the matter the government has said that the
prime minister will be questioned if necessary but only when he has stopped
working and this can be done only in a limited amount of time i.e. 7yrs at most.
Anna Hazare has again threatened to go on hunger strike again if the
government does not introduced a lok pal bill that handles every aspect of
corruption and if the government fails to do so then he will go on strike on Aug
16.
• 
 NDA blamed for Kalmadi’s appointment

• The government has blamed NDA for the appointment of Kalmadi as the main
organizer of the CWG 2010event. Sports minister Mr Ajay Maken said in the lok
sabha that the NDA government begun the process in 2003, that led to the
appointment of Suresh Kalmadi as the chairman of the CWG committee. The
statement has been made taking in view the leaked report which balmed the
Prime minister’s office for overlooking the objections made against kalmadi’s
appointment. Suresh Kalmadi is in jail now facing charges of corruption on
large scale against him.
• 
 17 people die as lightning strikes parts of Orissa

• Around 17 people have died during the lighting in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. The
people who died included 6 women. The lighting struck parts of Orissa with the
coastal region accounting around 4 casualties. Most of the deaths occurred on
Monday Aug 2, and other deaths were reported from places like Angul,
Balasore,Deogarh, Sundergarh etc.
• The state government has announced a compensation of Rs50,000 each from the
Chief minister’s relief fund. The money will be given to the family of those
people who died because of lighting strike.
• 
 Congress flayed by BJP over Gurgaon Land deal
• The BJP asked the government about its action reaction the gurgaon land deal. The
BJP asked whether the government will take it’s stand in the similar way like
that of the Bhatta-Parsaul in the Uttar Pradesh. BJP leader Arun Jaitley said
that the government unlawfully took the land from the poor farmers, due to
which farmers are now suffering. The collective loand of the farmers was taken
unlawfully and then it was given to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable trust , quoted
Arun Jaitely.
• The Punjab and Haryana High court scolded the government for flouting the rules of
 land acquisition. The Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust was set up by Sonia
Gandhi in 2002 in order to address the concerns that Rajiv Gandhi had in his
heart. Jaitely refrained from disclosing the names of the people involved in the
scam. He said that he will not take any names, but the government should only
answer and tell the names of all those people who benefitted from the deal.
Meanwhile Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has been continuously
holding meetings against illegal land acquisition, he even flagged some rallies
against the same matter. Regarding the matter the Congress has said that now
the matter rests between the Haryana government and the High Court.
• 
 Famous artist M.F Hussain passes away
• India’s famous artist M.F.Hussain passed away in London on July 03. M.F. Hussain
took Indian art to the global stage but not without controversies. The eccentric
painter who lived barefoot died at the Brompton and Harfield NHS foundation in
London after months of prolonged illness. Born in Maharashtra Hussain began
his career as a painter by painting film posters. He was popularly known as
Picasso of India and was once a member of Rajya Sabha. He has been
awarded the nation’s 2nd highest Padma Vibhushan.
• The Picasso of India courted controversy after he showed hindu deities in nude in
his paintings, and from then he was being considered as an anti-Hindu. After
getting death threats in India he imposed exile on himself from the year 2006.
Later in the year 2010 he accepted the citizenship of Qatar that was offered to
him. The painter courted another biggest controversy by portraying “mother
India” as a naked woman. His paintings have often courted controversies and
wrath of people as his work often depicted gods and goddesses in nude form.
He was a great fan of Madhuri Dixit such that he made a film with her called
Gaja Gamini.
•
Sports News
• London Olympics 2012 began its countdown.

• With one to go ESPN star sports began its golden march to kick the London
Olympics 2012 countdown. The countdown ceremony was broadcasts across
22 countries. Olympics being revered as the biggest sports event has made
athletes to share the same anticipation like that of the rest of the world and
have set their eyes on the event going to be held just after 365 days.
• Also ESPN sports channel will broadcast the complete Olympic events for the 1st
time in the history to all of its sports fans across the globe. The London
Olympics will be the most sought after event with maximum viewer interest.
The channel will cover 302 events in all the 26 categories of sports and will
showcase almost 10,000 players and athletes from more than 200 countries.
• Moto GP champion to stay out of Japanese Grand prix

• MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner have ruled out the
possibility to participate in the Japanese Grand Prix to be held this year. Both
the racers have ride earlier for Japanese manufacturers. The reason for
withdrawal is the fear of radiation that currently exists in Japan due to the
Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. The Motegi circuit is situated near the
Fukushima nuclear power plant whose reactors were destroyed by an
earthquake and Tsunami during March this year and led to massive leakage of
radiation.
• The race was originally to be held in April 24 but was later postponed to Oct 2,
though no reason was given by the International Motorcycling Federation.
 Stoner firmly said during the Germany Grand Prix that he will not go for the
Japanese GP. Further he said that his response would the same if anything
similar would have happened elsewhere and that he is sure about the fact that
other riders will be having the same opinion. Stoner became the world
champion of the MotoGP in the year 2007.
• Former Yankees pitcher found dead

• Hideki Irabu former Yankees pitcher was found dead in his home. The 42 year old
was an excellent pitcher said former league manager Bobby Valentine. The
quircky right hander had a fabulous arm in flame throwing the ball. Los Angeles
police officials have declared Irabu’s death as suicide, disclosing no further
information. To confirm the full information the investigating team is waiting for
the autopsy report.
• Hideki was referred as the Japanese version of Ryan. Hideki arrived in the united
states in the year 1997 and he was a hard throwing bowler with smashing
speed of 98-mph. Though he was made an excellent debut with the Yankees
but later on became an object of disappointment during the next three seasons.
And then he was given a tag called as a fat toad after he failed to perform well
during an exhibition game.
• 
 Dubai to bid for Olympics 2024 instead of 2020

• The UAE national Olympics committee has decided to bid for 2024 Olympics
instead of 2020. The committee said that the infrastructure for the 2020
Olympics is 75% ready but it would be feasible if we bid for 2024 instead for
2020 so that we provide best of infrastructure to Olympics events and the
players and athletes.
• Dubai’s crowned Prince Shaikh Hamdan said that “ Hosting the Olympics would be
a matter of pride for the entire middle eastern region and we want to fully
satisfy everyone and ourselves that we are completely ready to host the games
and for this we are going to bid for 2024 Olympics instead of 2020. He further
added that our first and foremost aim is to give a world class Dubai experience
and a long lasting peace and satisfaction to the youth and to all the sports class
events.
• 
 Manchester United the most valued team in the world

• The Manchester United has been named as the world’s most valued team. The Red
Devils have been estimated for a total amount of 1.165 billion pounds
overshadowing American Franchises like the New York Yankees and the
Dallas Cowboys. The assessment has been made based keeping in mind the
total income they get and the various sponsorship deals they make throughout
the year.
• This has come as the good news for the Glazer family who bought the Club for 790
million pounds in the year 2005, how they are still in debt but this does not
deter them from being happy for making their club the most valued in the world.
• 
 Squash to be considered for the 2020 Olympics 

• On hearing the news that squash is going to be considered for the 2020 Olympics
World Squash Federation president N.Ramachandran was far more delighted.
He said that after this decision he is more confident that the game will be
included in the 2020 Olympics.
• He said that he truly believes that squash will prove to be a great sport for the
Olympics. This game fulfils all the criteria to be included in the Olympics and
that with its inclusion in the Olympics squash will attain a new level in the world
 of sports. He further added that squash has a number of high profile world
champions and that with its inclusion in the Olympics it will provide massive
participation from all over the world in the Olympics.
•
International News
Death toll rises in Syria
• Death toll rises in Syria on the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad in the city of
Hama. The military tanks pounded the city creating scenes like that of 1982
massacre. Human rights activists said that the assaults killed at least 24
civilians, included 10 in Hama. All this happened when the troops with the help
of tanks tried to control the people. This violent attack led to the death of total
134 people throughout Syria in just 3 days. 90 of the people died only in Hama.
• The government said that they have also lost more than 500 soldiers and security
officials in the violent revolt. The condition of Hama prompted many Syrians to
show and demonstrate solidarity from the start of Ramadan. Syria has been
facing international wrath for its harsh measures.
• 
 War will continue even if NATO stops bombings-Gaddafi

• Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has said that the war will go on even if the NATO
team stops bombing. This has left no room for diplomacy from the Gaddafi’s
camp in order to stop the five month long conflict. Do not even think that after
all the sacrifices we have made or our sons, brothers have made by sacrificing
their lives we will stop fighting. Nothing sort of it will happen said the Libyan
leader.
• The rebels and the western forces have continued pressure on the leader even as
the holy month of Ramadan began. The NATO has continued its bombings
forcing the loyalist of the leader to give up. Also the rebels have seized up half
of the country but they continue to loose the ground against the trained Gaddafi
forces. Regardless of the fact that whether the NATO stops bombing or not the
Gaddafi government will continue its fight till Libya is liberated said the Libyan
leader.
• 
 Hina Rabbani khar appointed as Pak’s new Foreign Minister

• Hina Rabbani Khar was appointed as Pakistan’s new foreign minister. Khar ,34, is
the youngest minister to accept the post. This came as a big surprise for the
people. Khar was elected twice to the national assembly during Musharrafs’
reign in 2002 and during Benazir’s stint in the year 2008. She never went public
to win campaign. Since she belongs to a political family it is said that for any
years the seat was with held by her father Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar and she
gives her winning credit to her political father.
• Rabbabi offers hope to a number of women in Pakistan not in terms of their lifestyle
but in terms of their way to choose their lives. We have in the past few years
the evolvement of women in Pakistan. The list includes the likes of Fatima
Jinnah to Benazir Bhutto, Asma Jahangir, Sherry Rehman and now Hina
Rabbani Khar. Now women are rejecting the roles that many men try to cast
them in. Since her appointment as the foreign minister of Pakistan Khar has
been continuously criticised because to is too young to handle foreign affairs of
Pakistan and that she holds a degree in hospitality management and she even
has a degree in economics. But with a country with young population Khar
seems to be making place for herself.
• 
 George Best’s ex wife blames phone hacking scandal for his death 

• Ex wife of late footballer George Best claimed that the phone hacking scandal lead
to Best’s death. During the investigation police found out that Best,59 died from
multiple organ failure in 2005 and that his phone was hacked by Glenn
Mulcaire who is a private investigator. Alex Best a fomer model and former wife
of Best reportedly has said that the phone hacking lead to increased pressure
on her former footballer husband which resulted in his death.
• HShe said that Best was an alcoholic and that when a person is subjected to
tremendous pressure then they ultimately turn to alcohol for some relief. But
Best had so many problems related with alcohol such that with the increasing
pressure and alcoholic problem finally lead to his death.
• 
 China to launch safety campaign after the severe train crash 

• After facing public wrath and outrage China’s rail minister ordered a two month
safety campaign and has apologized for the accident which killed around 39
people in the country’s Zhejiang province. This is the deadliest rail accident in
the province of China after the year 2008. Beijing sacked three of its rail
officials even before the investigation began.
• China’s rail minister has said that the safety campaign will extend till July and that
the campaign will focus mainly on the operation involving high speed trains.
China’s government is trying hard to calm down the people after the accident
by taking various measures as possible.


Current Affairs For August 2011

National
• Anna Hazare Arrested Congress messed it up

• The storm about the arrest of Anna Hazare and his team (virtually the whole nation)
has just put Congress in a bit of mess then even they would have imagined at
first. Anna and his followers not just maintained that their outlooks be taken on
in the panel when drafting the Lokpal Bill, but exacted that only and only their
version of the Bill be agreed too and, as a matter of fact, discussed in
Parliament by the government. Interestingly, government cannot agree to these
kinds of dictates from anybody in a parliamentary democratic system. Rather
than letting off such a great deal of steam on their appeals that the government
forwards their edition of the Bill in Parliament, Team Anna can simply have got
any one of the 545 members of the Lok Sabha to bring in the asked for Jan
Lokpal Bill. Definitely, the extremely disconcerted Opposition political parties
can leap forward even at this time and forward the Team Anna edition of the
Bill in the house.
•
• 
 Anna leaves hospital and heads to village

• Social activist Anna Hazare head to his village Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra
subsequent to his release from Medanta Medicity Hospital in Gurgaon after
development in his state, a supporter alleged. Hazare was taken to the Hospital
in uptown Gurgaon Sunday after he finished his 288-hour fast embarked upon
since August 16. “He will go to Pune and will consequently head to his village”,
revealed a member of the TEAM ANNA. Hazare was released Wednesday
once his fundamental factors were seen to be steady. As per Yatin Mehta, a
part of the doctor’s team observing Anna at the hospital, the revolutionary was
in ‘excellent state’ and ‘healthy’. Previously in the day, Anna had consumed soft
solid foodstuffs such as rice, dal and idli. ‘Following the success of his 12-day
fast, Hazare’s physical condition exhibited lot of development. His blood
pressure is 141/90, which is standard,’ Mehta understood.
• 
 Sheila Dikshit defers CAG report discussion

• Sheila Dikshit, Delhi Chief Minister on Tuesday alleged that the government cannot
remark on the CAG details pending parliament’s Public Accounts Committee
(PAC) presents its proposals. On the succeeding day of the assembly’s yearly
monsoon session, which observed tumult by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs
over the CAG and V.K. Shunglu Committee details on the CWG, the CM
stated: ‘I have told about it on numerous occasions that we cannot talk about
the CAG report as it is in possession of the PAC, which is a legitimate fraction
of parliament. We are subjected to get going against anybody when the PAC
directs so.’ Initiating a mocking assault on the BJP, Dikshit further said that the
chief opposition party in the parliament has been fooling people by initiating a
scuttlebutt as it is in front of a lot of annoyance because of repeated routs in the
last three assembly and two Lok Sabha elections in the capital
• 
 Rajya Sabha suspended over Gujarat Lokayukta row

• The Rajya Sabha was suspended for a short time Tuesday subsequent to raucous
scenes over Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley posing the subject of selection
of Lokayukta in Gujarat by the governor ‘with no meeting with the state
government’. Quickly subsequent to Jaitley lifted the subject; Chairman Hamid
 Ansari took attention to meetings and regulations of the house on discussing
subjects about people running in high offices. Jaitley said that there were
examples when even reminder to Governor had been conferred in Parliament.
BJP members stood up from their chairs to back Jaitley, which translated to
raucous scenes during the sessions due to which the house was suspended for
ten minutes.
• 
 Cities to continue living with menacing security arrangements

• Security in Indian cities is miserable. And the expectations are worse than thought
as the condition will simply get worse in time coming up. This threatening note
of concern was clouted here today by Mr. G. K. Pillai, ex-Union Home
Secretary, at the FICCI convention on S&T for Homeland Security-2011: ‘Safe
and Secure City’. Mr. Pillai alleged that with the nation going through a high
growth rate of 8 per cent, hopes of the citizens are increasing and loads of
them are swarming into cities, raising the already augmenting crime rate due to
the lack of work prospects. In the capital, for example, 82 per cent of crime is
committed by first timers, that also by adolescents between the age of 16 and
26 years old. Novel kinds of criminal actions are growing for example cyber
crimes, hacking, burglaries, snatchings, while rape, murder and car thefts are
the ones most in trend. Mr. Pillai warned against radicalization of adolescence
as this would develop them into anti-social activists and destroy their lives. He
cautioned against ghettoisation of cities as well that originates of the practice of
not giving homes on lease to someone of a certain community/religion/caste by
some other community/religion/caste community.
•
Sports News
• Speed lovers soon to see Greater Noida as their pit-stop

• The highly anticipated homologation of the Budh International Circuit (BIC), setting
for the first ever Indian Grand Prix, is all but done. Plus, the FIA team, headed
by technical director Charlie Whiting, has also given his nod to all aspects of
the 5.14m long track. As per a report declared by the Federation of Motor
Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) President, Vicky Chandhok on behalf of the
supporters JPSI, Whiting, through the first of the two days of inspection, was
mighty delighted in the fashion in which the circuit’s making has been
developing. "Mr. Charlie Whiting, the Formula One Race Director came to see
the Budh International Race circuit some time back for a premeditated custom
check," Chandhok stated in the statement. "He told us that the development
was more than all right and was beyond of what he expected from us from the
last visit he paid. He further put across assurance that the introductory Indian
Grand Prix will be a titanic triumph," he added. On the other hand the
statement read that as a general exercise for all fresh circuits, the physical
issuance of Grade-I recognition to the circuit, will be sanctioned seven days
ahead of the chief event to be held on October 30.
• 
 New Sports bill turned down by the Government

• A contentious offer that required controlling India’s and World’s most powerful
cricket board BCCI and added national sports organizations was rejected by
the government in late August, reports from the local media emerged. The
proposal that is designed to regulate these sports bodies under federal
intelligibility and responsibility laws were put forward by Ajay Maken, Sports
Minister. However, the much needed bill was rejected by the cabinet and it
asked Ajay Maken to return with a new and improvised version, one of the
 news networks of the county reported. The bill aimed to keep back no less than
25 percent of federation positions for previous players and puts a ceiling on the
age of all administrators i.e.70. A further significant prerequisite of the bill was
to get the associations under the purview of the Right to Information Act (RTI),
a milestone regulation that lets members of the public to ask for information of
the functioning of public bodies. The Board of Control for Cricket in India
(BCCI) has usually been out of the government’s purview and, unlike added
national sports federations, does not rely on the finances given by the state.
Sports bodies in India have been the focal point of numerous controversies in
recent years. The popular Indian Premier League, after previous year’s
controversial exit of its Founding Chairman Lalit Modi, has been the center of
numerous probing over charges of pecuniary indiscretions.
•
International News
• Zardari nods to cooperate with China

• Pakistan will cooperate with China to overcome terrorism and secessionism, cited
Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani President. Zardari repeated Pakistan’s pledge to
get rid of extremism and he promised China of his nation’s full cooperation in
overcoming terrorism and secessionism, reported Associated Press of
Pakistan. The Pakistani president landed in China in late August to be present
at the first China-Eurasia Expo to be hosted by Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang,
in the first week of September. He alleged Pakistan denounces terrorism in all
its types and appearances and will not relax on any attempt to get rid of it.
Zardari also talked about his daughters were on board with him on the trip,
which is a testimony of the relationships between the two nations existing since
generations. He further talked about the upcoming trip of Pakistan Peoples
Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to China later on this week to be present
at the International Political Conference and assumed it demonstrates Pakistan
and China were making efforts to fortify relations and ultimately deep-rooting
their international polity.
• 
 United States downgraded to AA+

• The United States parted company with its respected AAA credit rating for the first
time in seven decades after being downgraded by Standard & Poor's. The
country's credit rating was cut to AA+ following S&P alleged the conciliation
made by Congress and President Obama in early August to slash expenditure
and enhance the liability upper limit "doesn’t meet the level, in our view, would
be essential to even out the government's standard-term debt dynamics." The
agency was frank in its evaluation. Its statement read: "We downgraded the 70-
year long AAA rating of the United States since we think that the protracted
storm over increasing the constitutional liability upper limit and the associated
monetary policy debate point out that additional upcoming development
surrounding the increase in public expenditure, particularly on privileges, or
coming to an agreement on generating income is less probable than we
formerly understood and will stay put to a arguable and intermittent procedure,"
the ratings firm believed.
• 
 Current Affairs For July 2011
 National
Introduction of LokPal bill in Lok Sabha

The much awaited Lok Pal bill will be introduced in Lok Sabha. The green
signal was given by the government to Speaker Meira Kumar to allow the
 two day period needed to present the bill.The Minister of State Personnel
Mr. V Narayaswamy gave the notice to Meira Kumar regarding the
matter of Lok Pal bill. Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal said that all the parties
were in favour of introducing the bill at the earliest. The copies of the bill
have been distributed to all the parties. The bill has been finalised by the
government after a number of meetings during the last month.
The government has kept out Prime Minister and other higher judiciary from
the ambit of the bill. This decision has been strongly opposed by the all
the activists of the bill. The BJP has demanded that the bill should
include the Prime Minister into the bill. Regarding the matter the
government has said that the prime minister will be questioned if
necessary but only when he has stopped working and this can be done
only in a limited amount of time i.e. 7yrs at most. Anna Hazare has again
threatened to go on hunger strike again if the government does not
introduced a lok pal bill that handles every aspect of corruption and if the
government fails to do so then he will go on strike on Aug 16.

 NDA blamed for Kalmadi’s appointment

The government has blamed NDA for the appointment of Kalmadi as the
main organizer of the CWG 2010event. Sports minister Mr Ajay Maken
said in the lok sabha that the NDA government begun the process in
2003, that led to the appointment of Suresh Kalmadi as the chairman of
the CWG committee. The statement has been made taking in view the
leaked report which balmed the Prime minister’s office for overlooking
the objections made against kalmadi’s appointment. Suresh Kalmadi is in
jail now facing charges of corruption on large scale against him.

 17 people die as lightning strikes parts of Orissa

Around 17 people have died during the lighting in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. The
people who died included 6 women. The lighting struck parts of Orissa
with the coastal region accounting around 4 casualties. Most of the
deaths occurred on Monday Aug 2, and other deaths were reported from
places like Angul, Balasore,Deogarh, Sundergarh etc.
The state government has announced a compensation of Rs50,000 each
from the Chief minister’s relief fund. The money will be given to the family
of those people who died because of lighting strike.

 Congress flayed by BJP over Gurgaon Land deal
The BJP asked the government about its action reaction the gurgaon land
deal. The BJP asked whether the government will take it’s stand in the
similar way like that of the Bhatta-Parsaul in the Uttar Pradesh. BJP
leader Arun Jaitley said that the government unlawfully took the land
from the poor farmers, due to which farmers are now suffering. The
collective loand of the farmers was taken unlawfully and then it was given
to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable trust , quoted Arun Jaitely.
The Punjab and Haryana High court scolded the government for flouting the
rules of land acquisition. The Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust was set up
by Sonia Gandhi in 2002 in order to address the concerns that Rajiv
Gandhi had in his heart. Jaitely refrained from disclosing the names of
the people involved in the scam. He said that he will not take any names,
but the government should only answer and tell the names of all those
people who benefitted from the deal. Meanwhile Congress general
secretary Rahul Gandhi has been continuously holding meetings against
 illegal land acquisition, he even flagged some rallies against the same
matter. Regarding the matter the Congress has said that now the matter
rests between the Haryana government and the High Court.

 Famous artist M.F Hussain passes away
India’s famous artist M.F.Hussain passed away in London on July 03. M.F.
Hussain took Indian art to the global stage but not without controversies.
The eccentric painter who lived barefoot died at the Brompton and
Harfield NHS foundation in London after months of prolonged illness.
Born in Maharashtra Hussain began his career as a painter by painting
film posters. He was popularly known as Picasso of India and was once
a member of Rajya Sabha. He has been awarded the nation’s 2nd
highest Padma Vibhushan.
The Picasso of India courted controversy after he showed hindu deities in
nude in his paintings, and from then he was being considered as an anti-
Hindu. After getting death threats in India he imposed exile on himself
from the year 2006. Later in the year 2010 he accepted the citizenship of
Qatar that was offered to him. The painter courted another biggest
controversy by portraying “mother India” as a naked woman. His
paintings have often courted controversies and wrath of people as his
work often depicted gods and goddesses in nude form. He was a great
fan of Madhuri Dixit such that he made a film with her called Gaja
Gamini.
•
• Sports News
London Olympics 2012 began its countdown.

With one to go ESPN star sports began its golden march to kick the London
Olympics 2012 countdown. The countdown ceremony was broadcasts
across 22 countries. Olympics being revered as the biggest sports event
has made athletes to share the same anticipation like that of the rest of
the world and have set their eyes on the event going to be held just after
365 days.
Also ESPN sports channel will broadcast the complete Olympic events for the
1st time in the history to all of its sports fans across the globe. The
London Olympics will be the most sought after event with maximum
viewer interest. The channel will cover 302 events in all the 26 categories
of sports and will showcase almost 10,000 players and athletes from
more than 200 countries.
Moto GP champion to stay out of Japanese Grand prix

MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner have ruled out the
possibility to participate in the Japanese Grand Prix to be held this year.
Both the racers have ride earlier for Japanese manufacturers. The
reason for withdrawal is the fear of radiation that currently exists in Japan
due to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. The Motegi circuit is
situated near the Fukushima nuclear power plant whose reactors were
destroyed by an earthquake and Tsunami during March this year and led
to massive leakage of radiation.
The race was originally to be held in April 24 but was later postponed to Oct
2, though no reason was given by the International Motorcycling
Federation. Stoner firmly said during the Germany Grand Prix that he will
not go for the Japanese GP. Further he said that his response would the
 same if anything similar would have happened elsewhere and that he is
sure about the fact that other riders will be having the same opinion.
Stoner became the world champion of the MotoGP in the year 2007.
Former Yankees pitcher found dead

Hideki Irabu former Yankees pitcher was found dead in his home. The 42
year old was an excellent pitcher said former league manager Bobby
Valentine. The quircky right hander had a fabulous arm in flame throwing
the ball. Los Angeles police officials have declared Irabu’s death as
suicide, disclosing no further information. To confirm the full information
the investigating team is waiting for the autopsy report.
Hideki was referred as the Japanese version of Ryan. Hideki arrived in the
united states in the year 1997 and he was a hard throwing bowler with
smashing speed of 98-mph. Though he was made an excellent debut
with the Yankees but later on became an object of disappointment during
the next three seasons. And then he was given a tag called as a fat toad
after he failed to perform well during an exhibition game.

 Dubai to bid for Olympics 2024 instead of 2020

The UAE national Olympics committee has decided to bid for 2024 Olympics
instead of 2020. The committee said that the infrastructure for the 2020
Olympics is 75% ready but it would be feasible if we bid for 2024 instead
for 2020 so that we provide best of infrastructure to Olympics events and
the players and athletes.
Dubai’s crowned Prince Shaikh Hamdan said that “ Hosting the Olympics
would be a matter of pride for the entire middle eastern region and we
want to fully satisfy everyone and ourselves that we are completely ready
to host the games and for this we are going to bid for 2024 Olympics
instead of 2020. He further added that our first and foremost aim is to
give a world class Dubai experience and a long lasting peace and
satisfaction to the youth and to all the sports class events.

 Manchester United the most valued team in the world

The Manchester United has been named as the world’s most valued team.
The Red Devils have been estimated for a total amount of 1.165 billion
pounds overshadowing American Franchises like the New York Yankees
and the Dallas Cowboys. The assessment has been made based
keeping in mind the total income they get and the various sponsorship
deals they make throughout the year.
This has come as the good news for the Glazer family who bought the Club
for 790 million pounds in the year 2005, how they are still in debt but this
does not deter them from being happy for making their club the most
valued in the world.

 Squash to be considered for the 2020 Olympics 

On hearing the news that squash is going to be considered for the 2020
Olympics World Squash Federation president N.Ramachandran was far
more delighted. He said that after this decision he is more confident that
the game will be included in the 2020 Olympics.
He said that he truly believes that squash will prove to be a great sport for the
Olympics. This game fulfils all the criteria to be included in the Olympics
and that with its inclusion in the Olympics squash will attain a new level
in the world of sports. He further added that squash has a number of high
 profile world champions and that with its inclusion in the Olympics it will
provide massive participation from all over the world in the Olympics.
•
• International News
 Death toll rises in Syria

Death toll rises in Syria on the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad in the
city of Hama. The military tanks pounded the city creating scenes like
that of 1982 massacre. Human rights activists said that the assaults
killed at least 24 civilians, included 10 in Hama. All this happened when
the troops with the help of tanks tried to control the people. This violent
attack led to the death of total 134 people throughout Syria in just 3 days.
90 of the people died only in Hama.
The government said that they have also lost more than 500 soldiers and
security officials in the violent revolt. The condition of Hama prompted
many Syrians to show and demonstrate solidarity from the start of
Ramadan. Syria has been facing international wrath for its harsh
measures.

 War will continue even if NATO stops bombings-Gaddafi

Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has said that the war will go on even if the
NATO team stops bombing. This has left no room for diplomacy from the
Gaddafi’s camp in order to stop the five month long conflict. Do not even
think that after all the sacrifices we have made or our sons, brothers
have made by sacrificing their lives we will stop fighting. Nothing sort of it
will happen said the Libyan leader.
The rebels and the western forces have continued pressure on the leader
even as the holy month of Ramadan began. The NATO has continued its
bombings forcing the loyalist of the leader to give up. Also the rebels
have seized up half of the country but they continue to loose the ground
against the trained Gaddafi forces. Regardless of the fact that whether
the NATO stops bombing or not the Gaddafi government will continue its
fight till Libya is liberated said the Libyan leader.

 Hina Rabbani khar appointed as Pak’s new Foreign Minister

Hina Rabbani Khar was appointed as Pakistan’s new foreign minister. Khar
,34, is the youngest minister to accept the post. This came as a big
surprise for the people. Khar was elected twice to the national assembly
during Musharrafs’ reign in 2002 and during Benazir’s stint in the year
2008. She never went public to win campaign. Since she belongs to a
political family it is said that for any years the seat was with held by her
father Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar and she gives her winning credit to
her political father.
Rabbabi offers hope to a number of women in Pakistan not in terms of their
lifestyle but in terms of their way to choose their lives. We have in the
past few years the evolvement of women in Pakistan. The list includes
the likes of Fatima Jinnah to Benazir Bhutto, Asma Jahangir, Sherry
Rehman and now Hina Rabbani Khar. Now women are rejecting the
roles that many men try to cast them in. Since her appointment as the
foreign minister of Pakistan Khar has been continuously criticised
because to is too young to handle foreign affairs of Pakistan and that she
holds a degree in hospitality management and she even has a degree in
economics. But with a country with young population Khar seems to be
making place for herself.
 
 George Best’s ex wife blames phone hacking scandal for his death 

Ex wife of late footballer George Best claimed that the phone hacking scandal
lead to Best’s death. During the investigation police found out that
Best,59 died from multiple organ failure in 2005 and that his phone was
hacked by Glenn Mulcaire who is a private investigator. Alex Best a
fomer model and former wife of Best reportedly has said that the phone
hacking lead to increased pressure on her former footballer husband
which resulted in his death.
HShe said that Best was an alcoholic and that when a person is subjected to
tremendous pressure then they ultimately turn to alcohol for some relief.
But Best had so many problems related with alcohol such that with the
increasing pressure and alcoholic problem finally lead to his death.

 China to launch safety campaign after the severe train crash 

After facing public wrath and outrage China’s rail minister ordered a two
month safety campaign and has apologized for the accident which killed
around 39 people in the country’s Zhejiang province. This is the deadliest
rail accident in the province of China after the year 2008. Beijing sacked
three of its rail officials even before the investigation began.
China’s rail minister has said that the safety campaign will extend till
September and that the campaign will focus mainly on the operation
involving high speed trains. China’s government is trying hard to calm
down the people after the accident by taking various measures as
possible.


Current Affairs For September 2011

National
• Justice Corner between India and UK

• The Union Minister of Law & Justice of India, Shri Salman Khurshid, and the
Minister of Law & Justice of United Kingdom along with Mr. Kenneth Harry
Clarke, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice for the United
Kingdom arranged a convention in late September for the advanced reinforcing
of the cordial relationships among the two nations concerning the field of law.
The Minister from the United Kingdom was joined by some of the Federal Level
Delgates, which included:
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Khurshid, Mr. Suma
Chakrabarty;
Member of the Special Advisory Panel to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary
of State for Justice, Ms. Kathryn Laing;
The President of the Law Society of England and Wales, Mr. John Wooton;
The next delegate was the QC of the UK Bar Counci, Mr. Khawar Qureshi;
Finally, it was UK High Commissioner to India, Mr. Richard Stagg.
• The Indian Contingency that was headed by Mr. Salman Khurshid included:
The Secretary of the Legislative Department, Shri D.R. Meena;
Plus, Secretary of Justice, Shri V.K.Bhasin;
• The meeting also featured Mrs. Neela Gangadharan along with the Chairman of
Bar Council of India and Shri Ashok Parija was also in attendance at the
meeting between the two nations. Previously, the Honorable Law Minister of
India, Shri Salman Khurshid and his British counterpart Mr. Kenneth Harry
Clarke inducted a colloquium on ‘UK-India Co-operation on Emerging Legal
Sector Issues’.
• 
 Sikkim rattled by Earthquake; INR 1000 cr. for relief

• Dr. Manmohan Singh paid a visit to Gangtok that was rattled by an Earthquake. He
made an airborne study of the areas that were hugely affected by the quake all
through the state. The Prime Minister surveyed all the affected areas, such as
Mangan, Chungthang, Lachen and Lachung and also visited to see the
casualties in a Govt. Hospital of the capital. He was explained about the loss of
human life as well as property. Plus, the relief and rehabilitation attempts were
studied at a meeting that saw the Governor Mr. B.P Singh, Chief Minister Mr.
Chamling and other top ministers. Dr. Manmohan Singh later expressed his
grief and said that he was extremely distraught at the terrible loss of lives, the
injuries and the broad harm that was resulted by these tremors. He further
stated that a central team of experts will turn up in Gangtok in seven days’ time
to identify suitable designs for damaged residents meant to be rebuilt. He also
stated that all these constructions will be backed wholly by the Central
government and from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (this lone relief
fund is estimated to be worth INR 1000 cr.).
• 
 Sonia Gandhi receives Telangana Report

• Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Union Health Minsiter recently met Congress president
Sonia Gandhi and is believed to have presented details on his discussions with
party lawmakers from Andhra Pradesh on the Telangana subject, in the midst
of rising difficulty for an “early resolution” on the statehood demand. Ghulam
Nabi Azad who is also the general secretary, responsible of party affairs in the
state, is supposed to have explained Sonia Gandhi regarding the situation in
 Telangana area at the back of the two week long strike in support of the making
of a different state in the meeting. Sonia Gandhi and Azad have met for the first
time on the Telangana subject since the former returned from the United
States. Azad, who had intermingled with party officials, MPs, MLAs and MLCs
from each of the three regions of the state on the controversial statehood
demand, had said he would present the details soon. Azad was asked by Sonia
Gandhi back in July to hold discussions with leaders from Telangana,
Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra areas on the subject and draw out their
demands. Azad has been getting entrustments of ministers, MPs and MLAs
from each of the three regions since then and completed the process.
• 
 Malik talks about military re-kindling on Aflaz Guru

• Chairman of the freedom-supportive Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF),
Muhammad Yasin Malik, cautioned against another protracted period of
agitation in the valley if local sensitivities are ignored if Afzal Guru, the
mastermind behind the Parliament Attacks of 2001 is hanged. Addressing a
media conference in the valley, Yasin Malik stated that the people of Kashmir
have knowingly and cooperatively adopted more non-violent measures then
they were earlier. There has been a cooperative change from violence to non-
violence. ‘I request each and every political shade of India not to compel
Kashmiris into a new protracted period of agitation by hanging Afzal Guru. This
is not needed unless you need a change back from non-violence to violence in
Kashmir,’ he presaged. He advises to learn from what happened in the past.
‘When Maqbool Bhat was sentenced, every home in Kashmir has Maqbool
Bhat born. Don’t overlook this past veracity,’ the chairman added. Yasin Malik
also declared a series of protests for Afzal Guru’s forgiveness and also in
opposition to the ‘hypocrisy’ of the conventional political parties on the decree.
A large number of Malik’s supporters were taken into detention by police who
interfered to bring back order in the area.
• 
 CBI gives P. Chidambaram a clean chit

• In late September, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given the Home
Minister, P. Chidambaram a clean chit. The CBI robustly advocated P.
Chidambaram in the legal proceedings of the Supreme Court, asserting he
could not be blamed of not taking any actions to avert the 2G spectrum
distribution scam or revoke licenses when he was leading the charge of the
Finance Ministry. Revoking of licenses, being a chief policy decision, could
have been done only by the government and not by a single person, Mr.
Chidambaram in this case. Mr. Venugopal alleged that former Telecom Minister
A. Raja jumped the gun and issued Letters of Intent to telecom companies on
January 10, 2008. P. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister would have not
been able to revoke the licenses all by himself since the matter happens to be
a key policy subject of the Union Government. “It is not a simple matter to come
to a decision when proceedings were a part of it as well as a result of
cancellation and you cannot put together criminality against the then Finance
Minister,” Venugopal added.
• 
 Increased Earnings yet Reduced Margins for IT Professionals

• The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) have
just released data regarding the reduced margins for IT professionals. No doubt
that the earnings of the IT companies have gone up considerably all through
the first quarter of the current fiscal year, but the apprehensions have been
raised regarding the margins that have reduced as well. The chief reasons of
 such reduction in margins are believed to be: rising wage cost, currency
movement and pricing pressures, which are all influenced by the forces of
market. At present, the companies engaged in the IT sector of our country are
granted quite a lot of incentives thanks to the Software Technology Parks
(STP) plan. Apart from that, the software companies are not liable to pay some
of the most basic customs tariff. Moreover, quite a few items for the IT sector
are included in the Information Technology Agreement, and for this reason let
off from any kind of customs tariff. Section 10AA of the Income Tax Act offers
for a subtraction from the entire income of hundred per cent of profits and gains
earned by a unit that is situated in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) from the
export of items or goods or from services for the first successive review years,
of half of the ploughed back export proceeds for the subsequent five years. In
the current fiscal so far, the sector has grown by 19% already with estimated
revenue of US$ 76 billion. If such a pace is maintained the IT sector will
develop into an industry worth US$ 225 billion. This data has been provided
courtesy of Mr. Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State for Communications and
Information Technology as his written response after he was quizzed in the
Rajya Sabha.
•
Sports News
• Manoj Kumar in 2nd round of World Boxing Championships

• Manoj Kumar (64kg), Commonwealth Gold Medalist beat Valentino Knowles of
Bahamas 17:11 to go into the second round of World Boxing Championships in
Baku, Azerbaijan. Kumar is only the sixth Indian boxer to get to this round of
the championships behind L. Devendro (49kg), Suranjoy Singh (52kg), Akhil
Kumar (56kg), Dinesh Kumar (81kg) and Vikas Krishnan (69kg). Manoj Kumar,
contesting in the light welter weight category, outplayed Knowles, a bronze
medalist at the previous year held Commonwealth Games. Following earning a
vital one-point advantage in the first round itself, the 24-year-old extended the
difference by another couple of points in the following round. He surged the
ante in the last round and was declared victories in the last three minutes of the
spell Kumar, who has emerged on the World Championships for only the
second, will now be locking horns against European champion from Ireland,
Raymond Moylette in the first of the many knockout phases. The Irishman has
defeated Arturs Ahmetovs of Latvia 16:11 in an exhilarating game. Raymond
Moylette is currently ranked 6th in the overall rankings.
• 
 Game Venues or White Elephants

• Dearth of housing services and soaring rentals has averted a number of national
sports bodies to hold their training camps or important tournaments at the high-
tech CWG venues. A few of them have started to decay inside a year-long time
of the grand games here. In the past year or so, merely a few tournaments
have been staged at the 12 CWG venues that consumed crores of rupees. The
maintenance of these top-notch stadiums is a key distress for the government
agencies. Athletics Federation of India (AFI) executive M.L. Dogra cites that
AFI chooses to organize its camps at NIS, Patiala, or at different Sports
Authority of India (SAI) centers rather than the posh Jawarharlal Nehru Stadium
due to dearth of housing services there. There was just a single tournament
held since the Commonwealth Games at the Karni Singh Shooting Range (by
NRAI) – the Sajjan Singh Memorial Championship earlier in September. DLTA,
the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association sports complex, nevertheless, is the lone
 exception, staging a whopping seven international tournaments already. These
included the high-profile junior Davis Cup and junior Fed Cup. It will also hold
the national championship in October. The complex has a housing division and
the charges per room are Rs.1000/night and the national gymnastics team
availed all its services in its recent visit.
• 
 Women’s Hockey Team heading to Australia; led by Anjum

• Women’s hockey team is all set to board for Australia under the leadership of
Striker Saba Anjum. Saba will be the captain of an 18-member Indian women’s
hockey team Down Under where they will be playing four Test matches against
the in-from Oz. Following that, the ladies form India will be contesting in a
three-nation 9-a-side International Super Series in Perth for eleven days Oct
12-24. The selections were held at the SAI Centre in Bhopal just a couple of
days back. Anjum and Jasjeet Kaur Handa, hail from Railways who would also
respectively be the captain and vice captain, on their trip. Anjum and Handa
have 232 International Caps between them. The selectors of Hockey India, BP
Govinda, Syed Ali and Rekha Bhide apart from Government Observers
Harbinder Singh and Dilip Tirkey convened the trials where the 18-member
team went through their rates of knots in the innovative 9-a-side format of the
game. India will kick start their tour with four Test matches against Oz Oct 14
onwards and will later play in the 9-a-side format which has FIH permit. It will
be for the first time that international teams will be contesting in such a
tournament and the organizers have decided with the Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting (CHOGM) that the event will take place at Perth.
•
Business and Economy Current Affairs 2011
Current Affairs [September 2011]
• Voluntary Initiative on Private Sector’s CSR

• The government will be supporting a voluntary initiative and work as a catalyst for
private sector companies to take up social, ecological and economic
responsibilities, said Veerappa Moily, Minister for Corporate Affairs. The
trajectory of general growth and development takes a positive turn when
enterprises are backed by proper policy system that promotes methodical
movement towards responsible opinion, decision making and progressive
movement aiming to reach sustainability, he said as he addressed
ASSOCHAM 3rd Global CSR Summit named ‘Indispensable to Corporate
DNA.’ “This kind of a responsible initiative on part of business appropriately
backed by government only will secure our future and make sure that total
benefits grow for people and also our planet in general, as companies press on
to make spares that can be invested once more for economic growth,” Moily
added. The rest of the speakers of the summit included: Chairperson of
ASSOCHAM National Council for Aorporate Affairs, Ms. Preeti Malhotra, and
Chairperson of ASSOCHAM National Council for Knowledge Millennium, Mr.
K.C. Mehra.
• 
 ASSOCHAM: India to be the 2nd largest steel producer by 2013

• ASSOCHAM has declared that India will be the 2nd largest steel producing nation
come 2013. At present, it produces 80 million tones of steel each year and is
ranked next to China, the United States and Japan at fourth. Enormous
infrastructure requirements of the country call for quick growth of steel
production capacities, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and
Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). In the past ten years or so, the use of steel
 increased at a multiple annual growth rate of 9.4 per cent when compared to
the GDP growth of 7.7 per cent. But high levels of growth in construction,
housing, automobiles and agriculture sectors indicate for steel demand greater
than by 12 per cent in the years to come. “At such a rate, India may very well
have installed competence to manufacture 150 million tones in the next nine
years,” believed the secretary general D.S. Rawat. The government are
resolute to fast-track the novel Mine and Mineral Development and Regulation
Act. India current has an estimated 25 billion tones of iron ore reserves but the
confirmed economically mineable reserves are merely of seven billion tones of
which the high reserve grades are just 1.3 billion tones. China – with rise in per
capita GDP 7,500 dollars from 2,600 dollars in the last ten years – has been
the one fueling the demand and makes up for almost 50 percent of the steel
production worldwide.
• 
 Construction Industry contributed only 8% to the GDP

• The National Construction Industry has been bumping with sharp and solid increase
in prices of cement, steel rods, bricks and added input material which has seen
a surge by over 30 per cent since 2009, said The Associated Chambers of
Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). As well, the industry has to
deal with acute lack of almost 40 per cent skilled construction workers. Due to
this, a number of construction projects are forced to overdue, cancellation or
paused taking place all over the nation, underlines an ASSOCHAM report on
‘Current trends in Indian construction industry.’ The cost of the laborers has
gone up by a massive 30 per cent all through the course of last two years,
ASSOCHAM studies reveal. Apart from labor, steel and cement are the chief
prerequisites and 75 per cent of the general construction outlay make up for
them, reveals the discussed ASSOCHAM study. “Raise in costs are mainly
because of increasing overall demand for goods and commodities, apart from
ever-mounting shipping and energy costs are jointly conscientious for this kind
of a climb in the sector,” said Mr Rawat. ASSOCHAM predicts revival of real
estate projects across India with onset of the annual festive season during
September-October.
• 
 Food Crop Cultivation uses 1257 Lakh Hectare of Land

• Land area used for cultivating food crops is estimated at 1257.25 lakh ha in 2010-
11. The same figure in the previous estimation 1227.80 lakh ha (2001-02).
Likewise, land under cash crops, which includes cotton, sugarcane, jute &
mesta has risen to 169.77 lakh ha during 2010-11 (145.88 lakh ha in 2001-02).
Further, production of food-grains has risen to 241.56 million tones during
2010-11 (212.85 million tones in 2001-02). The production goal of food-grains
for the year 2011-12 has been set at 245.00 million tones which are expected
to be reached bearing in mind favorable climate settings until now. To boost
production and output of food-grain crops, a variety of plans/programs like
National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna and
Macro Management of Agriculture etc. have been functioning in the nation. Shri
Harish Rawat, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries
provided all these details in written response as he was quizzed in the Rajya
Sabha.

Current Affairs For August 2011

National
• Anna Hazare Arrested Congress messed it up

• The storm about the arrest of Anna Hazare and his team (virtually the whole nation)
has just put Congress in a bit of mess then even they would have imagined at
first. Anna and his followers not just maintained that their outlooks be taken on
in the panel when drafting the Lokpal Bill, but exacted that only and only their
version of the Bill be agreed too and, as a matter of fact, discussed in
Parliament by the government. Interestingly, government cannot agree to these
kinds of dictates from anybody in a parliamentary democratic system. Rather
than letting off such a great deal of steam on their appeals that the government
forwards their edition of the Bill in Parliament, Team Anna can simply have got
any one of the 545 members of the Lok Sabha to bring in the asked for Jan
Lokpal Bill. Definitely, the extremely disconcerted Opposition political parties
can leap forward even at this time and forward the Team Anna edition of the
Bill in the house.
•
• 
 Anna leaves hospital and heads to village

• Social activist Anna Hazare head to his village Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra
subsequent to his release from Medanta Medicity Hospital in Gurgaon after
development in his state, a supporter alleged. Hazare was taken to the Hospital
in uptown Gurgaon Sunday after he finished his 288-hour fast embarked upon
since August 16. “He will go to Pune and will consequently head to his village”,
revealed a member of the TEAM ANNA. Hazare was released Wednesday
once his fundamental factors were seen to be steady. As per Yatin Mehta, a
part of the doctor’s team observing Anna at the hospital, the revolutionary was
in ‘excellent state’ and ‘healthy’. Previously in the day, Anna had consumed soft
solid foodstuffs such as rice, dal and idli. ‘Following the success of his 12-day
fast, Hazare’s physical condition exhibited lot of development. His blood
pressure is 141/90, which is standard,’ Mehta understood.
• 
 Sheila Dikshit defers CAG report discussion

• Sheila Dikshit, Delhi Chief Minister on Tuesday alleged that the government cannot
remark on the CAG details pending parliament’s Public Accounts Committee
(PAC) presents its proposals. On the succeeding day of the assembly’s yearly
monsoon session, which observed tumult by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs
over the CAG and V.K. Shunglu Committee details on the CWG, the CM
stated: ‘I have told about it on numerous occasions that we cannot talk about
the CAG report as it is in possession of the PAC, which is a legitimate fraction
of parliament. We are subjected to get going against anybody when the PAC
directs so.’ Initiating a mocking assault on the BJP, Dikshit further said that the
chief opposition party in the parliament has been fooling people by initiating a
scuttlebutt as it is in front of a lot of annoyance because of repeated routs in the
last three assembly and two Lok Sabha elections in the capital
• 
 Rajya Sabha suspended over Gujarat Lokayukta row

• The Rajya Sabha was suspended for a short time Tuesday subsequent to raucous
scenes over Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley posing the subject of selection
of Lokayukta in Gujarat by the governor ‘with no meeting with the state
government’. Quickly subsequent to Jaitley lifted the subject; Chairman Hamid
Ansari took attention to meetings and regulations of the house on discussing
subjects about people running in high offices. Jaitley said that there were
examples when even reminder to Governor had been conferred in Parliament.
 BJP members stood up from their chairs to back Jaitley, which translated to
raucous scenes during the sessions due to which the house was suspended for
ten minutes.
• 
 Cities to continue living with menacing security arrangements

• Security in Indian cities is miserable. And the expectations are worse than thought
as the condition will simply get worse in time coming up. This threatening note
of concern was clouted here today by Mr. G. K. Pillai, ex-Union Home
Secretary, at the FICCI convention on S&T for Homeland Security-2011: ‘Safe
and Secure City’. Mr. Pillai alleged that with the nation going through a high
growth rate of 8 per cent, hopes of the citizens are increasing and loads of
them are swarming into cities, raising the already augmenting crime rate due to
the lack of work prospects. In the capital, for example, 82 per cent of crime is
committed by first timers, that also by adolescents between the age of 16 and
26 years old. Novel kinds of criminal actions are growing for example cyber
crimes, hacking, burglaries, snatchings, while rape, murder and car thefts are
the ones most in trend. Mr. Pillai warned against radicalization of adolescence
as this would develop them into anti-social activists and destroy their lives. He
cautioned against ghettoisation of cities as well that originates of the practice of
not giving homes on lease to someone of a certain community/religion/caste by
some other community/religion/caste community.
•
Sports News
• Speed lovers soon to see Greater Noida as their pit-stop

• The highly anticipated homologation of the Budh International Circuit (BIC), setting
for the first ever Indian Grand Prix, is all but done. Plus, the FIA team, headed
by technical director Charlie Whiting, has also given his nod to all aspects of
the 5.14m long track. As per a report declared by the Federation of Motor
Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) President, Vicky Chandhok on behalf of the
supporters JPSI, Whiting, through the first of the two days of inspection, was
mighty delighted in the fashion in which the circuit’s making has been
developing. "Mr. Charlie Whiting, the Formula One Race Director came to see
the Budh International Race circuit some time back for a premeditated custom
check," Chandhok stated in the statement. "He told us that the development
was more than all right and was beyond of what he expected from us from the
last visit he paid. He further put across assurance that the introductory Indian
Grand Prix will be a titanic triumph," he added. On the other hand the
statement read that as a general exercise for all fresh circuits, the physical
issuance of Grade-I recognition to the circuit, will be sanctioned seven days
ahead of the chief event to be held on October 30.
• 
 New Sports bill turned down by the Government

• A contentious offer that required controlling India’s and World’s most powerful
cricket board BCCI and added national sports organizations was rejected by
the government in late August, reports from the local media emerged. The
proposal that is designed to regulate these sports bodies under federal
intelligibility and responsibility laws were put forward by Ajay Maken, Sports
Minister. However, the much needed bill was rejected by the cabinet and it
asked Ajay Maken to return with a new and improvised version, one of the
news networks of the county reported. The bill aimed to keep back no less than
25 percent of federation positions for previous players and puts a ceiling on the
age of all administrators i.e.70. A further significant prerequisite of the bill was
 to get the associations under the purview of the Right to Information Act (RTI),
a milestone regulation that lets members of the public to ask for information of
the functioning of public bodies. The Board of Control for Cricket in India
(BCCI) has usually been out of the government’s purview and, unlike added
national sports federations, does not rely on the finances given by the state.
Sports bodies in India have been the focal point of numerous controversies in
recent years. The popular Indian Premier League, after previous year’s
controversial exit of its Founding Chairman Lalit Modi, has been the center of
numerous probing over charges of pecuniary indiscretions.
•
International News
• Zardari nods to cooperate with China

• Pakistan will cooperate with China to overcome terrorism and secessionism, cited
Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani President. Zardari repeated Pakistan’s pledge to
get rid of extremism and he promised China of his nation’s full cooperation in
overcoming terrorism and secessionism, reported Associated Press of
Pakistan. The Pakistani president landed in China in late August to be present
at the first China-Eurasia Expo to be hosted by Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang,
in the first week of September. He alleged Pakistan denounces terrorism in all
its types and appearances and will not relax on any attempt to get rid of it.
Zardari also talked about his daughters were on board with him on the trip,
which is a testimony of the relationships between the two nations existing since
generations. He further talked about the upcoming trip of Pakistan Peoples
Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to China later on this week to be present
at the International Political Conference and assumed it demonstrates Pakistan
and China were making efforts to fortify relations and ultimately deep-rooting
their international polity.
• 
 United States downgraded to AA+

• The United States parted company with its respected AAA credit rating for the first
time in seven decades after being downgraded by Standard & Poor's. The
country's credit rating was cut to AA+ following S&P alleged the conciliation
made by Congress and President Obama in early August to slash expenditure
and enhance the liability upper limit "doesn’t meet the level, in our view, would
be essential to even out the government's standard-term debt dynamics." The
agency was frank in its evaluation. Its statement read: "We downgraded the 70-
year long AAA rating of the United States since we think that the protracted
storm over increasing the constitutional liability upper limit and the associated
monetary policy debate point out that additional upcoming development
surrounding the increase in public expenditure, particularly on privileges, or
coming to an agreement on generating income is less probable than we
formerly understood and will stay put to a arguable and intermittent procedure,"
the ratings firm believed.
• 
 Current Affairs For July 2011
 National
◦ Introduction of LokPal bill in Lok Sabha

◦ The much awaited Lok Pal bill will be introduced in Lok Sabha. The green
signal was given by the government to Speaker Meira Kumar to allow the
two day period needed to present the bill.The Minister of State Personnel
Mr. V Narayaswamy gave the notice to Meira Kumar regarding the
matter of Lok Pal bill. Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal said that all the parties
 were in favour of introducing the bill at the earliest. The copies of the bill
have been distributed to all the parties. The bill has been finalised by the
government after a number of meetings during the last month.
◦ The government has kept out Prime Minister and other higher judiciary from
the ambit of the bill. This decision has been strongly opposed by the all
the activists of the bill. The BJP has demanded that the bill should
include the Prime Minister into the bill. Regarding the matter the
government has said that the prime minister will be questioned if
necessary but only when he has stopped working and this can be done
only in a limited amount of time i.e. 7yrs at most. Anna Hazare has again
threatened to go on hunger strike again if the government does not
introduced a lok pal bill that handles every aspect of corruption and if the
government fails to do so then he will go on strike on Aug 16.
◦ 
 NDA blamed for Kalmadi’s appointment

◦ The government has blamed NDA for the appointment of Kalmadi as the
main organizer of the CWG 2010event. Sports minister Mr Ajay Maken
said in the lok sabha that the NDA government begun the process in
2003, that led to the appointment of Suresh Kalmadi as the chairman of
the CWG committee. The statement has been made taking in view the
leaked report which balmed the Prime minister’s office for overlooking
the objections made against kalmadi’s appointment. Suresh Kalmadi is in
jail now facing charges of corruption on large scale against him.
◦ 
 17 people die as lightning strikes parts of Orissa

◦ Around 17 people have died during the lighting in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. The
people who died included 6 women. The lighting struck parts of Orissa
with the coastal region accounting around 4 casualties. Most of the
deaths occurred on Monday Aug 2, and other deaths were reported from
places like Angul, Balasore,Deogarh, Sundergarh etc.
◦ The state government has announced a compensation of Rs50,000 each
from the Chief minister’s relief fund. The money will be given to the family
of those people who died because of lighting strike.
◦ 
 Congress flayed by BJP over Gurgaon Land deal
◦ The BJP asked the government about its action reaction the gurgaon land
deal. The BJP asked whether the government will take it’s stand in the
similar way like that of the Bhatta-Parsaul in the Uttar Pradesh. BJP
leader Arun Jaitley said that the government unlawfully took the land
from the poor farmers, due to which farmers are now suffering. The
collective loand of the farmers was taken unlawfully and then it was given
to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable trust , quoted Arun Jaitely.
◦ The Punjab and Haryana High court scolded the government for flouting the
rules of land acquisition. The Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust was set up
by Sonia Gandhi in 2002 in order to address the concerns that Rajiv
Gandhi had in his heart. Jaitely refrained from disclosing the names of
the people involved in the scam. He said that he will not take any names,
but the government should only answer and tell the names of all those
people who benefitted from the deal. Meanwhile Congress general
secretary Rahul Gandhi has been continuously holding meetings against
illegal land acquisition, he even flagged some rallies against the same
matter. Regarding the matter the Congress has said that now the matter
rests between the Haryana government and the High Court.
◦ 
 Famous artist M.F Hussain passes away
◦ India’s famous artist M.F.Hussain passed away in London on July 03. M.F.
Hussain took Indian art to the global stage but not without controversies.
The eccentric painter who lived barefoot died at the Brompton and
Harfield NHS foundation in London after months of prolonged illness.
Born in Maharashtra Hussain began his career as a painter by painting
film posters. He was popularly known as Picasso of India and was once
a member of Rajya Sabha. He has been awarded the nation’s 2nd
highest Padma Vibhushan.
◦ The Picasso of India courted controversy after he showed hindu deities in
nude in his paintings, and from then he was being considered as an anti-
Hindu. After getting death threats in India he imposed exile on himself
from the year 2006. Later in the year 2010 he accepted the citizenship of
Qatar that was offered to him. The painter courted another biggest
controversy by portraying “mother India” as a naked woman. His
paintings have often courted controversies and wrath of people as his
work often depicted gods and goddesses in nude form. He was a great
fan of Madhuri Dixit such that he made a film with her called Gaja
Gamini.
•
• Sports News
◦ London Olympics 2012 began its countdown.

◦ With one to go ESPN star sports began its golden march to kick the London
Olympics 2012 countdown. The countdown ceremony was broadcasts
across 22 countries. Olympics being revered as the biggest sports event
has made athletes to share the same anticipation like that of the rest of
the world and have set their eyes on the event going to be held just after
365 days.
◦ Also ESPN sports channel will broadcast the complete Olympic events for the
1st time in the history to all of its sports fans across the globe. The
London Olympics will be the most sought after event with maximum
viewer interest. The channel will cover 302 events in all the 26 categories
of sports and will showcase almost 10,000 players and athletes from
more than 200 countries.
◦ Moto GP champion to stay out of Japanese Grand prix

◦ MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner have ruled out the
possibility to participate in the Japanese Grand Prix to be held this year.
Both the racers have ride earlier for Japanese manufacturers. The
reason for withdrawal is the fear of radiation that currently exists in Japan
due to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. The Motegi circuit is
situated near the Fukushima nuclear power plant whose reactors were
destroyed by an earthquake and Tsunami during March this year and led
to massive leakage of radiation.
◦ The race was originally to be held in April 24 but was later postponed to Oct
2, though no reason was given by the International Motorcycling
Federation. Stoner firmly said during the Germany Grand Prix that he will
not go for the Japanese GP. Further he said that his response would the
same if anything similar would have happened elsewhere and that he is
sure about the fact that other riders will be having the same opinion.
Stoner became the world champion of the MotoGP in the year 2007.
◦ Former Yankees pitcher found dead

◦ Hideki Irabu former Yankees pitcher was found dead in his home. The 42
year old was an excellent pitcher said former league manager Bobby
Valentine. The quircky right hander had a fabulous arm in flame throwing
the ball. Los Angeles police officials have declared Irabu’s death as
suicide, disclosing no further information. To confirm the full information
the investigating team is waiting for the autopsy report.
◦ Hideki was referred as the Japanese version of Ryan. Hideki arrived in the
united states in the year 1997 and he was a hard throwing bowler with
smashing speed of 98-mph. Though he was made an excellent debut
with the Yankees but later on became an object of disappointment during
the next three seasons. And then he was given a tag called as a fat toad
after he failed to perform well during an exhibition game.
◦ 
 Dubai to bid for Olympics 2024 instead of 2020

◦ The UAE national Olympics committee has decided to bid for 2024 Olympics
instead of 2020. The committee said that the infrastructure for the 2020
Olympics is 75% ready but it would be feasible if we bid for 2024 instead
for 2020 so that we provide best of infrastructure to Olympics events and
the players and athletes.
◦ Dubai’s crowned Prince Shaikh Hamdan said that “ Hosting the Olympics
would be a matter of pride for the entire middle eastern region and we
want to fully satisfy everyone and ourselves that we are completely ready
to host the games and for this we are going to bid for 2024 Olympics
instead of 2020. He further added that our first and foremost aim is to
give a world class Dubai experience and a long lasting peace and
satisfaction to the youth and to all the sports class events.
◦ 
 Manchester United the most valued team in the world

◦ The Manchester United has been named as the world’s most valued team.
The Red Devils have been estimated for a total amount of 1.165 billion
pounds overshadowing American Franchises like the New York Yankees
and the Dallas Cowboys. The assessment has been made based
keeping in mind the total income they get and the various sponsorship
deals they make throughout the year.
◦ This has come as the good news for the Glazer family who bought the Club
for 790 million pounds in the year 2005, how they are still in debt but this
does not deter them from being happy for making their club the most
valued in the world.
◦ 
 Squash to be considered for the 2020 Olympics 

◦ On hearing the news that squash is going to be considered for the 2020
Olympics World Squash Federation president N.Ramachandran was far
more delighted. He said that after this decision he is more confident that
the game will be included in the 2020 Olympics.
◦ He said that he truly believes that squash will prove to be a great sport for the
Olympics. This game fulfils all the criteria to be included in the Olympics
and that with its inclusion in the Olympics squash will attain a new level
in the world of sports. He further added that squash has a number of high
profile world champions and that with its inclusion in the Olympics it will
provide massive participation from all over the world in the Olympics.
•
• International News
 Death toll rises in Syria

◦ Death toll rises in Syria on the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad in the
city of Hama. The military tanks pounded the city creating scenes like
that of 1982 massacre. Human rights activists said that the assaults
killed at least 24 civilians, included 10 in Hama. All this happened when
the troops with the help of tanks tried to control the people. This violent
attack led to the death of total 134 people throughout Syria in just 3 days.
90 of the people died only in Hama.
◦ The government said that they have also lost more than 500 soldiers and
security officials in the violent revolt. The condition of Hama prompted
many Syrians to show and demonstrate solidarity from the start of
Ramadan. Syria has been facing international wrath for its harsh
measures.
◦ 
 War will continue even if NATO stops bombings-Gaddafi

◦ Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has said that the war will go on even if the
NATO team stops bombing. This has left no room for diplomacy from the
Gaddafi’s camp in order to stop the five month long conflict. Do not even
think that after all the sacrifices we have made or our sons, brothers
have made by sacrificing their lives we will stop fighting. Nothing sort of it
will happen said the Libyan leader.
◦ The rebels and the western forces have continued pressure on the leader
even as the holy month of Ramadan began. The NATO has continued its
bombings forcing the loyalist of the leader to give up. Also the rebels
have seized up half of the country but they continue to loose the ground
against the trained Gaddafi forces. Regardless of the fact that whether
the NATO stops bombing or not the Gaddafi government will continue its
fight till Libya is liberated said the Libyan leader.
◦ 
 Hina Rabbani khar appointed as Pak’s new Foreign Minister

◦ Hina Rabbani Khar was appointed as Pakistan’s new foreign minister. Khar
,34, is the youngest minister to accept the post. This came as a big
surprise for the people. Khar was elected twice to the national assembly
during Musharrafs’ reign in 2002 and during Benazir’s stint in the year
2008. She never went public to win campaign. Since she belongs to a
political family it is said that for any years the seat was with held by her
father Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar and she gives her winning credit to
her political father.
◦ Rabbabi offers hope to a number of women in Pakistan not in terms of their
lifestyle but in terms of their way to choose their lives. We have in the
past few years the evolvement of women in Pakistan. The list includes
the likes of Fatima Jinnah to Benazir Bhutto, Asma Jahangir, Sherry
Rehman and now Hina Rabbani Khar. Now women are rejecting the
roles that many men try to cast them in. Since her appointment as the
foreign minister of Pakistan Khar has been continuously criticised
because to is too young to handle foreign affairs of Pakistan and that she
holds a degree in hospitality management and she even has a degree in
economics. But with a country with young population Khar seems to be
making place for herself.
◦ 
 George Best’s ex wife blames phone hacking scandal for his death 

◦ Ex wife of late footballer George Best claimed that the phone hacking scandal
lead to Best’s death. During the investigation police found out that
 Best,59 died from multiple organ failure in 2005 and that his phone was
hacked by Glenn Mulcaire who is a private investigator. Alex Best a
fomer model and former wife of Best reportedly has said that the phone
hacking lead to increased pressure on her former footballer husband
which resulted in his death.
◦ HShe said that Best was an alcoholic and that when a person is subjected to
tremendous pressure then they ultimately turn to alcohol for some relief.
But Best had so many problems related with alcohol such that with the
increasing pressure and alcoholic problem finally lead to his death.
◦ 
 China to launch safety campaign after the severe train crash 

◦ After facing public wrath and outrage China’s rail minister ordered a two
month safety campaign and has apologized for the accident which killed
around 39 people in the country’s Zhejiang province. This is the deadliest
rail accident in the province of China after the year 2008. Beijing sacked
three of its rail officials even before the investigation began.
◦ China’s rail minister has said that the safety campaign will extend till
September and that the campaign will focus mainly on the operation
involving high speed trains. China’s government is trying hard to calm
down the people after the accident by taking various measures as
possible.


International Current Affairs October 2011

International News
• Unemployement rates down in U.S

• New employees added by the U.S were less than what was expected but the latest
data on job employement showed that unemployement rates in the U.S went
down which gave U.S President Barack Obama a new boost to fight against
un-employement. In Octobar itself payrolls for non-farm organisations were up
by 8000, making a jump on the payrolls amount in September.Analysts have
said that though the employement rate will evolve rapidly, but the pace at which
the growth will depend is still slow to keep pace with the country’s population.
•
• Libyan dictator Gaddafi captured and killed

• Libyan rebels captured toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his home town Sirte
after taking control over his home town and consequently killed him in bid to
take revenge for all the haunting massacre he performed. Though the initial
reports claimed that Col Gaddafi was wounded when he was caught but later
reports confirmed that he was killed by bullet shots forged into his head. A
video showed that Gaddafi before being killed was severely wounded, beaten
and mocked by the rebels and that after he died his body was taken on for
display to the nearby locals. Even his son Mo’tassim were killed in crossfire
when he was trying to escape and that the bodies of both Col Gaddafi and
Mo’tassim were buried on an unknown desert location in order to prevent their
graves from converting into a shrine by any remaining follower of the dictator.
After the news of Gaddafi’s assassination broke out wild celebrations were
performed in the city that is being secured by the NTC forces.
•
• Industrial growth improving

• The industrial production of India expanded but less than what was expected in the
August month giving more evidences of Asia’s third largest economy’s
industrial development slowdown.Industry expert say that the reason for
slowdown is the soaring interest rates and high inflation ratio in the country.The
growth lagged by 4.1 percent as compare to the growth in the August month
but there was only slight improvement in the growth that was calculated in the
month of July.
•
• Delivery of arms to Taiwan by U.S moving at snail’s pace

• Reports say that the transfer of U.S arms to Taiwan is moving at a very slow pace
in contrary to what was expected. The chief for the U.S –China ties that
slowdown is affecting several major weapons system transfer.The 2011 annual
report showed that only 4 out of 60 Hawk helicopters for e.g. were placed in
mid October even though the U.S administration informed the makers of the
planned sale meant for Taiwan.The lag between the transfer of important and
sophisticated weapons to Taiwan may lead to rise of question about the lack of
urgency either on the U.S side or Taiwan’s side or for both.
•
• Punjab militancy being revived by ISI

• As suggested by the U.S reports , the Inter- Services Intelligence of Pakistan is
continuing its activities to create instability in India. ISI is a spy agency which
 has close links with the Islamic terrorist organisation, is now focusing on
Khalistani extremist groups to train them and to send them to create terrorism
in the Punjab province. In the month of October the terrorist group Lashkar- e –
Taiba which is being backed by the ISI agency joined hands with the Khalistani
extremist groups Babbar Khalsa to make terror strikes in the Indian state
Punjab and in its capital city New Delhi. Their previous attempt of attack was
foiled by the security personnel when they caught a huge cache of explosive
from a car in Ambala city.
•
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke up in a news conference

• Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai spoke during a news conference in Kabul
about the so called reality check imposed on him as said by U.S secretary of
state Hillary Clinton during her visit to Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid
Karzai said that as said he will be cooperating with neighbouring country
Pakistan on both the topics related to war and economic development. He
further said that he considers its neighbouring country Pakistan as his twin
brother and that he will be by Pakistan’s side whenever the former needs any
sort of assistance.
•
• 7.2 Richter scale earthquake hits Turkey

• An earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale hit Turkey killing a number of
people on 23 October. As per the reports approximately 93 people died in the
Van province and around 45 died in the Erics district. As the rescue operation
is going on it is said that the death toll will rise a more bodies will be evacuated
from the debris. The earthquake depth was 20 kilometres with its epicentre 16
kilometre away from the Van city’s north east region. Not only this after the
massive earthquake the eastern part of Turkey was struck by a series of
powerful jolts with their centre in the north of Van that made things more worse
than ever. After 7.2 , the Turkish region experienced two more jolts measured 6
and 5.6 on the Richter scale. Scientists say that turkey is prone to earthquakes
as it lies in the major geological fault lines.
•
• Vietnam and Indian signed a total of 6 agreements

• Vietnam and India have signed a total of six agreements that included joint oil
exploration in South China Sea. The agreement was signed during the
Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang’s visit to India. The agreement
included the following things: Friendship pact Oil exploration in South China
Sea The Extradition Treaty between the two countries Cooperation in sports
and tourism Not only this both the countries also signed a Security Dialogue
between their home ministries. And both the countries have decided to
increase their trade target by 8 million dollars by the year 2015. The present
trade target is around 2.8 million U.S dollars. And both the countries discussed
the situation regarding the Oil exploration on the South China Sea.
•
National
• Doordarshan senior correspondent honoured

• Emani Krishna Rao, Doordarshan Kendra Hyderabad Senior news correspondent
honoured by the coveted “Japan prize 2011” at the Tokyo city . The senior
news correspondent Mr Rao won the prize in the proposal category and for the
 entry regarding the right to education and environment protection. Further he
won 3000$ as a citation amount and an offer to make a programme on the
theme proposed by Mr. Rao. This is the 6th major international ward for Mr.
Krishna Rao, who had earlier won prestigious awards like DD national awards
four times.
•
• Violent attack on lawyer Prashant bhushan

• Senior lawyer and prominent team member of Anna Hazare was attacked and
beaten up by three youths. He was attacked while he was working in his
Supreme Court chamber. After the attack he said that the attack on him was
carried out by right wing outfit of Sri Ram Sene. Following the attacks the police
nabbed one of the attackers. As said by the reports three youths stormed into
his chambers and one of them identified as Inder Verma attacked him. After
hearing the screams the attackers were overpowered by other lawyers and
other in the room. Upon questioning it was found that attacks on him were
made following his recent comments on Kashmir. Verma was arrested by the
police and the other two accused Vishnu Gupta and Tejender Pal are
absconding. A visibly shaken bhushan said that the attackers were from the
right wing outfit led by Sri Ram Sene. And that he has loged a complaint
against him and the attackers.
•
• A new doomsday on the calendar

• Another radio preacher has predicted that the world’s doomsday is on May 21. And
then he said that he stands by his earlier prediction that the Judgement day is
on Oct 21. Initially he predicted that there will be hourly earthquakes and that
the God’s judgement on the month of May will continue by torments for those
who will survive the God’s wrath. He used codes extract from the Holy book
Bible and set the world’s end day. When nothing happened on May 21 the
preacher on his blog said that on May 21 , instead of ending the earth , god just
shook us with fear that more dangerous is about to come. And that god will no
longer continue to save souls on earth.
•
• Malayalam Novelist George Varghese Kakkanadan passed away in Kollam

• Famous Malayalam novelist George Varghese Kakkanadan passed away in
Kollam. He was one the pioneers of modern Malayalam literature who breathed
his last on 19 October. He wrote a number of famous short stories and
modernised the Malayalam novel. He was born on April 23, 1935 at Thiruvalla
and started his career as a school teacher and later resigned to join the Indian
Railways. Kakkanadan was rebel, whose rebellious personality reflected in
most of his works. Every part of his writing depicted his rebellious nature
against the social codes etc.
•
Sports Current Affairs 2011
India won the series against rival team England by 5-0
India won the 5 day test series against England by 5-0 in the final match that the team
played in Kolkata. Indian team stopped the English team at only 176 runs in the final
match and themselves scored a challenging 271 in 37 overs at the Eden Gardens
stadium. Indian team member Ravindra Jadeja scored a whooping score of 4-33 and
off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin scored 3-28. Following the match Ravindra Jadeja
was declared Man of the Match, while Mahendra Singh Dhoni was awarded with Man
of the Series title. So far the Indian team has won the 5-0 series only three times in
which two series were won against Englan(2008-09) and New Zealand(2010-11).

Olympic gold medallist won a Silver in ongoing 4th Asian Airgun Shooting
Championship
Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra won a silver in the air rifle shooting
championship at the 4th Asian Airgun championship that was held in Kuwait. Bindra
scored 594 in qualification round and then 103.6 in the final countdown. The Gold
medal went to his Chinese counterpart who scored 2.6 more points in qualification
round. During the Beijing Olympics Bindra defeated Zhu Onian and grabbed the Gold
medal to become the first Indian shooter to won a gold medal in the Olympics.
Similarly Satyendra Singh won the bronze by scoring 593 in the qualification round
and 103.7 in the finals. Another Indian shooter Gagan narang who won
Commonwealth games gold medal secured 7th position by scoring 694.5.

CWG gold medallist Krishna Poonia gets another gold medal at the
Halloween Throws Meet
CWG gold medallist Krishna Poonia gets another gold medal at the Halloween
Throws Meet Poonia had also made a place for herself at the incoming 2012 games
by scoring the B qualification standard of 59.50m after her another win at the Fling
Throw Meet in Portland. She had been rigorously training at the Throws Centre at
Concordia University such that she crossed the phenomenal mark of 62m in her final
attempt. Though, her last throw was below the best mark (63.97m) that she scored in
April 2010 at Chula Vista but she performing at best consistent pace.

Boxing champion MC Mary Kom won gold medal at the 12th Senior women’s
boxing championship
Five time world champion MC Mary Kom won another gold mdeal at the 12th senior
women’s boxing championship. She defeated Pinki Jangra in the 51kg category in the
summit clash on the final day, in Bhopal. In the feather weight division , bronze
medallist Pwilao Baumatary of Assam settled for a silver after she lost to Mandakini
Chann of AIP. In the light weight category Neetu Chahal of Haryana won the gold
coin after defeating Preeti Beniwal of the IABF team. Neetu won by 12-5 and similary
Kavita Goyat of Delhi defended her gold medal in the middle weight category.

Former Commonwealth games secretary general Kamlesh Sharma re-

appointed
Former CWG secretary general Kamlesh Sharma was again re appointed for the
same post on 30th oct. The leaders of CWG agreed to appoint Kamlesh at the 21st
Commonwealth Heads of Govt. Meeting(CHOGM) that was held in perth, Australia.
Sharma earliar served as an Indian Diplomat and now after his re appointment he will
serve a four year term that is going to begin in April 2012. Kamlesh sharma’s
background He was first selected as the secretary general for the commonwealth
games during the 54 nation summit that was held in Kampala. And he took the seat
from Sir Don McKinnon of new Zealand on 1st april 2008.
 Corporate Lobbyist Nira Radia announces exit from Communication
business
Lobbyist and provider of public relation services Nira Radia announced her exit from
the communication business. For her exit she gave personal and family priorities as
supreme reasons. She had been in news recently for the 2G controversy when tapes
of conversation leaked and were being circulated in the media. The controversy
related to the 2G spectrum engulfed many government officials for undercharging
telephone companies for allocating frequency licences.
International Current Affairs 2010
Sri Lanka abandons Tamil version of its national anthem (13th Dec 2010)
The Sri lankan government has decided to scrap the tamil version of the national
anthem in its official and state functions. This move may possibly further alienate
the tamil minorities in the country. A directive to use only the Sinhalese version as
been sent by the ministry as president Rajapakse pointed out that no country uses
two versions of the anthem.
China reveals world’s fastest train (8th Dec 2010)
 China unveiled its new high
speed train CRH380 that can clock a maximum speed of 486.1 kmph. It is said to
be much faster than even the bullet trains of Japan. At a cruising speed of 380 this
is certainly a major accomplishment. China on its part has gone ahead and is now
working on a model that is expected to clock 600kmph.
Pakistan’s Initiative against Terrorism (23th Nov 2010)
Pakistan has been the victim of international terrorism in the past few months. As a
result of this, a top US official recently said that Islamabad should begin to crack
down on terrorists and terrorist groups operational within the country immediately.
Barrack Obama, President of the United States of America has also agreed to this
statement and feels that Pakistan has been one of the major victims of
international terrorism lately. President Obama also said that Pakistan needs to
take strong and immediate steps against all terrorist groups operating on Pakistani
soil. Furthermore, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert
Blake said that a number of terrorist groups are operating in a syndicate and
working together against American interests, not just in the US but in other nations
such as Afghanistan and India as well. Mr. Blake also stated that the US has
welcomed every step take by Pakistan so far and that it is in full support of
Pakistan as always.
Mark Zuckerberg, Times Person Of The Year (16th Nov 2010)
Times magazine has named Mark Zuckerberg as the person of the year . Mr
Zuckerberg is the founder of thesmash hit social networking site Facebook and is
also the world youngest billionaire currently. Although, Julian Assange the editor in
chief of wikileaks was the pick of the time readers, but Zuckerberg won because of
the scope and reach his website and how it has touched and remodeled our
thoughts on social networking bringing the world that much more closer. Facebook
has reached 500 million users this year all around the globe and the numbers are
still counting.
UN’s terrorism sanctions list (16th Nov 2010)
In a recent and sudden move, a US committee took down several names of al-
Qaida and Taliban terrorists off its terrorism sanction lists. The committee said that
the reason for such an action was that several of the names on the sanctions list
were probably dead. The committee Chairman Thomas Mayr Harting said that
following this step, the committee had started investigations into how many
terrorists put on the list were actually dead. This committee was set up in 1999.
Friendly neighbor China (15th November 2010)
Rising concerns over China’s assertive and aggressive attitude in the Asian
continent has prompted China’s President Hu Jintao to assure all nations that
China is committed to being a friendly and helpful neighbor. China has been in the
news recently over its spats with neighboring nations over international borders
and territories. The reason for this has been said to be China’s interests in a group
of potentially resource rich islands in the Asian Pacific. Speaking to leaders at the
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Japan, President Hu said that China
was committed to the regional policy of building good neighborliness and
friendship.
New Government in Iraq (11th Nov 2010)
Prolonged warring and quarrels between rival political factions in Iraq had caused
over an eight month deadlock over the issue of forming the next government.
Recently, the Iraqi Prime Minister appealed to these political factions to work
together and unite following his acceptance of the President’s request to form the
next government. Senior officials admitted that a Herculean task now lay before
them, that of forming a government comprising of members of all possible political
factions. The task has been made harder by the month long deadline to form the
government which will preside over the country’s affair as US troops move out and
power is handed back to the Iraqi people. The new government is expected to
have members from all the political factions such as the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis.
Prime Minister Designate al-Maliki called upon al Iraqi citizens and politicians to
help him in this difficult task.
Myanmar polls called fake (10th November 2010)
The first democratic polls in Myanmar after several years of military rule were held
among complaints of threats, intimidation and accusations of the polls being a
charade. In most constituencies, the poll was a competition between the Union
Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the National Unity Party (NUS).
Several accusations were made by opposition parties against the USDP, claiming
that they illegally collected advanced ballots. USA and UK officials also voiced their
concerns about the transparency and fairness of these polls.
Rolls Royce sued by Qantas (8th November 2010)
Australian flight safety officials have recently warned that manufacturing defects
have been found in the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines. Officials further urged
airlines using these engines to carry extensive checks before using them because
defects present in them could lead to catastrophic failures. In the meanwhile,
Qantas began court proceedings against Rolls Royce and was granted an
injunction by the federal court of Australia which ensured that the airline could
pursue legal action against the engine manufacturing giants.
China’s slowest growth (5 November 2010)
China had its slowest rate of economic growth in a year during the September
quarter. In addition to this, a World Bank report hinted at a further decrease in its
economic growth. One of the reasons for this has been the long term inflation that
China has faced for almost two years. China’s industrial growth has also fallen
considerably in recent times. This slow growth in China’s economy has gotten
many people to believe that India might be the next economic superpower to rise
because of its high levels of industrial and economic growth in recent times.
Though not immediately, but experts predicted India’s rate of growth to exceed that
of China’s by a considerable margin in the next five years.
India gets UNSC non-permanent seat (12 October 2010)
The biggest news on the international front for India has been its inclusion into the
UNSC as a non-permanent member after a gap of 19 years. Even as India’s
acclamation for a non-permanent bench on the body that includes fifteen members
in total was an inevitable cessation afterwards Kazakhstan back out of the chase
for the Asian bench beforehand in early January. India got an unbelievable 187 of
the 191 votes in the UN General Assembly ballot on October 14th 2010. India's
previous spell in the Security Council was way back in 1992. Almost immediately
afterwards India's appointment, Indian agent to the United Nations Hardeep Singh
Puri put it straight that New Delhi would make use of this couple of year valid span
to build assurance and accord a feeling of aplomb to the five non changing
associates (famously known as the P-5) - the United States of America, Russia,
Britain, France and China. Considering that Brazil, a running affiliate of the United
Nation Security Council, and South Africa and Germany, which got appointed with
India, on October 14th were as well in contention for a permanent membership, he
stated: 'Of course everybody of us will attempt to bring into play the two years we
need to render our allies a feeling of aplomb and formulate trust and faith so that
they are at ease with our role playing in the United Nation Security Council on a
continued period of time'.
India and Mozambique sign 3 agreementss (5 October 2010)
India and Mozambique came together and signed three agreements and a credit
band of 500 million United States dollars has been advanced to that nation state
for works regarding the infrastructure, agronomics and power during a convention
that featured President of Mozambique Armando Guebuza and Prime Minister of
India Dr. Manmohan Singh. Guebuza and Singh, who captivated entrustment level
converses, resolved to actualize an affiliation following the lines of superior political
meeting, deepening of bread-and-butter collaboration, deepening of defense and
aegis collaboration, distinctively to get hold of sea lanes in opposition to piracy
and, cooperation in competence building and human resource (or workforce)
development. “Both of us together accord to the aforementioned Indian Ocean
association and we carve up familiar issues. It is in our alternate absorption to
ensure the assurance and aegis of sea lanes of communication in the Indian
Ocean,” Dr. Manmohan Singh said in a collective journalist statement. India will
back the enactment in preparation and setting up organizations in Mozambique to
back capacity building in the coal business and will as well back the ability
formation for the defense and patrolling personnel of that nation state, the Prime
Minister alleged. Conveying worry over the assurance and aegis of sea lanes in
Indian Ocean, Guebuza promised India it will accommodate all practical aid to
safeguard them.
Indians freed from Malay traffickers: (3 September 2010)
Not less than 24 Indian men who were discovered bound up in a residence in a
Malaysian boondocks were successfully freed from the arrest and two Pakistani
men supposedly engaged in a human trafficking guild were detained with
immediate effect. "Inquiries into the matter exposed that those people, age-old
amid 20 and 30, were from Uttar Pradesh. If the reports of the media are to be
trusted, the victims landed on to the capital’s intl. airport four months back, afore
getting picked by the accused people who were apparently looking for workers in
an industrial unit in Johor," he said. He further stated that the two men promised
the Indian workers appealing wages as the bait. It is once again proved that
Malaysia is a magnet for wide spread drug peddling and human trafficking.
Unemployed workforce looking out for jobs is brought for added transfers to other
Southeast Asian countries and to Australia.
Indians to lead FIDE: (September 2010)
Indians have already proved their metal in various sports at the international level.
Tennis, Cricket, Shooting, Boxing and also Chess. After Vishwanathan Anand,
another lot of Indians are about to triumph on the World Chess Podium. D.V.
Sundar has been elected has the President of the world body for the sport of
chess, FIDE at Russia. Apart from that, the president for the Asian Continent was
Mr. Dongre and Commonwealth Chess Federation President was revealed in the
name of Mr. B.S. Chahuhan, a press statement by the All India Chess Federation
revealed.
Make way for the new breed: ( September 2010)
The new world power calendar for 2010 has once again predicted that New Delhi’s
dominance in the world will see acceleration by 2025. Among the able coalition,
the country has been placed at the fourth position afterwards the US, China and
the European Union. ‘The Global Governance 2025’ was together brought out by
the National Intelligence Council (NIC) of the US and the European Union’s
Institutes for Security Studies (EUISS). In the current year, the US leads the lot of
able countries/regions, cumulatively for about 22 percent of the worldwide
supremacy. The US is chased by China at 12 percent, European Union at 16
percent and India at eight percent. India comes next to Japan, Russia and Brazil
with beneath than 5 percent apiece. Following these global statistics, by 2025 the
ability of the US, EU, Japan and Russia will cut down although that of China, India
and Brazil will boost but this surge will see the positions unchanged. By 2025, the
United States of America will continue to be the most dominating nation, but it will
be possessing just a bit above 18 percent of the global authority. The US will be
carefully trailed by China with 16 percent, European Union with 14 percent and
India with 10 percent looking to overleap.
Mission Accomplished (19 August 2010)
The United States have finally started pulling its troops out of Iraq. President
Barack Obama has confirmed that the US plans to withdraw significant number of
combat troops from Iraq stating that the war was nearing an end. The remaining
force of 50,000 soldiers will train Iraqi security forces and provide security for
ongoing US Diplomatic efforts.
Australia with a hung parliament (23 August 2010)
Australians failed to elect a new government in the polls held in August and were
left with a hung parliament. The non-result elections between Julia Gillard’s Labor
and Abbott’s Liberal party led to the first hung parliament in Australia since World
War II. Three key Independents are now in the process of deciding which party to
support to form a government.
Pakistani cricketers tainted (30 August 2010)
The Game of cricket gets murkier with alleged match-fixer Mazhar Majeed’s claim
of having rigged games played by Pakistan for three years. The British Police
recovered cash from hotel rooms of Pakistani players involved in spot fixing.
Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammed Asif were interviewed and their
mobiles confiscated after Majeed’s confession. The Anti-Corruption Unit of the ICC
will probe all 82 international matches played by Pakistan during this time. The
news came as a bolt for the flood-stricken and violence-plagued country where
cricket is the national sport.
Pakistan Floods (2 August 2010)
In the worst flooding disaster in 80 years the floodwaters have affected about one-
fifth of the country washing away millions of hectares of crops, submerging villages
and destroying roads, bridges, schools, electricity and communication setting back
the infrastructure by many years. Disease is fast spreading in these flood affected
areas and there have been warnings that dams in the south may burst. It is
estimated that the floods in Pakistan have displaced people thrice the number
displaced during partition.
Hike in Visa fee (11 August 2010)
The Obama Regime has raised H-1B and L1 visa fees to protect its borders from
illegal Mexican immigrants. This additional fee would be used to build operating
bases and deploy unmanned aerial surveillance to beef up U.S.-Mexico border
security. The impact of this hike will be substantial on Indian IT companies that
account for approximately 50,000 H1 and L1 visas per year.
Mosque near ground Zero(28 August 2010)
A New York city panel has cleared the way for the construction of a mosque near
ground zero that has been causing a political uproar over religious freedom. The
proposed construction of the mosque near ground zero has sparked debate all
around the country. President Barack Obama, however, supported the right of
having a mosque by asserting that Muslims have the same right to freedom of
religion as everyone else in America.
China to launch space station(17 August 2010)
Having finished the first module of a planned space station and testing its
electronics and other systems China is all set to launch it into orbit next year.
Changes were being made to the rocket that will carry the 8.5ton Tiangong 1
module into a set orbit. No finishing or manning dates have been given for the
space station. The official Xinhua news agency said that The Shenzhou 8
spacecraft and Shenzhou 9 and 10 spacecraft would dock with it in the second half
of 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Online route(30 August 2010)
Oxford English Dictionary that has been in print for over a century may never
appear in print for the future generations. The word reference Bible is likely to
loose its existence to its online version. With the digital books becoming popular,
the format that the 3rd edition, currently being worked upon, will take is anybody’s
guess.
Japan Elections(10 July 2010)
Democratic Party of Japan suffered a heavy blow in the elections for the upper
house of Japan’s Diet (parliament) when it won ten seats fewer than expected thus
loosing its majority. DPJ will now have to look for new coalition partners to restore
its majority in the upper house and enable it to easily pass laws through the Diet
legislature. After breaking the 55 year period of dominance of the Liberal
Democratic Party and naming Naoto Kan the new prime minister just a month back
 the results have baffled the DJP.
July 15th Summit, Islamabad(15 July 2010)
Failed talks between Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna and the Pakistani
counterpart Mr. Shah Mehmood Qureshi's have once again proved that whenever
efforts were initiated by India to improve the relations between the two countries.
The Pak leaders and officials took deliberate steps to derail the process conveying
a clear message to India that the talks can continue only on its terms.
Gulf of Spill(15 August 2010)
More than three months after the April 20 explosion aboard the BP-leased
Deepwater Horizon oil platform, which killed 11 workers and sank the rig gushing
oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the most severe US environmental disaster ever is close
to coming to an end. In an operation called “static kill” 2,300 barrels of mud was
forced down into the well’s opening overnight pushing the crude back down to its
source. A cap over the wellhead has shut in leaking oil since July 15 and the static
kill — also known as bull heading — probably would not have worked without the
cap in place.
Genocide(12 July 2010)
Omar-al-Bashir, President of Sudan has been charged with three counts of
genocide over the Darfur Conflict, he was convicted by the International Criminal
Court at The Hague. It is for the first time that a court has accused anyone of
genocide.
Jacob Lew the new Budget Director(13 July 2010)
President Barack Obama has chosen Mr. Jacob Lew as his new budget director.
This is Mr. Lews second stint with the federal budget.
Current Affairs [June 2010]
• Julia Gillard become Australia’s first women Prime Minister replacing Kevin Rudd
following a sudden revolt against him.
• No more time for sorrow’ written by Robert Beeman. The author predict that terrorist
will set off an atom bomb in the USA by 2013.
• Tuvalu become 187th member of IMF (International Monetary Fund). The island is
located in the Pacific Ocean.
• Kyrgyzstan voted for a new constitution in a referendum. It is Central Asia’s first
parliament democracy.
• G-20 summit held at Toronto, Canada.
Current Affairs [May 2010]
• G-15 summit was held at Tehran on 16-17 May.
• Bangladesh handed over Ranjan Daimary of the National Democratic Front of
Bodoland to India. The group was responsible for serial bombing in Assam in
2008.
• National League for Democracy (NLD) party of Myannmar’s democracy leader
Aung San Sui Kyi was abolished after deadline to re-register as a political party
was over.
• EU-IMF provide a $ 1 trillion rescue package to the Greece to resolve its debt
crises.
• Pakistan successfully test fired two short range ballistic missiles, Shaheen I( range
650 Km) and Ghazani (range 290 Km) capable of carrying nuclear war heads
 and striking Indian cities.
Current Affairs [April 2010]
• Belgium became the Europe’s first country to ban burqa.
• Pakistan’s National assembly passed a bill that takes away the President’s power to
dissolve parliament, dismiss a elected government and appoint the three
services Chiefs. Pakistan’s parliament passes 18th amendment which was later
signed by Presient cutting President’s powers.
• USA and Russia signed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty(START) that allowed a
maximum of 1550 deployed overheads, about 30% lower than a limit set in
2002. The treaty was signed in the Progue Castle.
• Emergency was imposed in Thailand.
• Nuclear Security Summit held at Washington.It was a 47 nation summit wherein
P.M. announced setting up of a global nuclear energy centre for conducting
research & development of design systems that are secure, proliferation
resistant & sustainable.
• PM visit USA & Brazil, a two nation tour. He attended Nuclear Security Summit in
USA & India- Brazil-S.Africa(IBSA) and Brazil-Russia-India-China(BRIC)
summit in Brasilia (Brazil).
• 16th SAARC Summit held in Bhutan in 28-29 April. The summit was held in Bhutan
for the first time. It is the silver jubilee summit as SAARC has completed 25
years. The summit central theme was ‘Climate Change’. The summit
recommended to declare 2010-2020 as the “Decade of Intra-regional
Connectivity in SAARC”. The 17th SAARC summit will be held in Maldives in
2011.
Current Affairs [March 2010]
• China will launch in 2011 unmammed space mode ‘ Tiangong I’ for its future space
laboratory.
• US internet giant Google close its business in China.
• India’s largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel buy Zain’s Africa operations for
an enterprise value of $ 10.7 billion (Rs 49000 crore). Currently Bharti’s non-
India operations include Sri Lanka & Bangladesh.
• Russia abolished two of its eleven time Zones.
Current Affairs [February 2010]
• NATO forces carried out Marjah operation (dubbed Moshtarak) against Taliban
forces in Afghanistan.
• European Union summit was held in Brussels. EU & IMF decided to giving support
to Greece in its struggle to bring its ballooning budget deficit under control. EU
President is Herman Van Rompuy.
• Iran’s President Mahmood Ahmedinejad declared that Iran had produced first batch
of 20 % enriched uranium and now Iran became a nuclear state.
• Iran launched ‘Kavoshger -3 rocket’ capable of carrying a satellite. It carried a
mouse, worms & two turtles.
Current Affairs [January 2010]
• Gilgit Baltistan region elected its first Chief Minister Mehdi Shah on the basis of
Gilgit Baltistan Empowerment & Self Governance Order 2009. The new
appointed CM declare the Gilgit Baltistan region as 5th province of Pakistan.
The Indian Govt has, however, of the view that the region was part of J & K,
and thus objected to the remarks of CM.
• Venezuela devalued it currency ‘Bolivar’.
• A massive earthquake strike Haiti, the Carribbean nation. Capital of Haiti is Port-au-
Prince.
• Mahinda Rajapaksa won a second term as Sri Lanka’s President. He belongs to Sri
 Lanka Freedom Party.
National Current Affairs 2010

CBI seeking closure in Arushi Talwar case (13th Dec 2010)

CBI has sought closure after being unable to comprehensively solve the Arushi
Talwar murder case which has hogged the limelight for over two years now. The
report claims that they have hit a road block and lack of evidence as main reasons
for not being able to solve the case. However the report as named the victims
father Dr Rajesh Talwar as a possible suspect.
Chandra Babu Naidu ends fast (13th Dec 2010)
Telugu Desam Party president finally ended his hunger strike of eight days on the
insistence of visiting leaders like Thambi Durai, Arunkumar, Amba Durai, Maitreya,
Prakash Karat, Bardan, Om Prakash Choutala, Sharad Yadav and Ajit Singh. Mr
Naidu undertook the fast citing that the Andhra Govt should revise its
compensation package for the rain hit farmers of the state. The visiting leaders
promised Mr Naidu that they would bring the issue to the notice of the Prime
Minister Mr Manmohan Singh by taking an all party delegation to New Delhi.
Congress blames Sanjay Gandhi for the emergency excesses (13th Dec 2010)
The congress party which is celebrating its 125th birthday this month has accused
Sanjay Gandhi for many of the excesses committed during the emergency of 1975-
77. Sanjay Gandhi received notoriety for many ruthless measures like slum
clearance and mass sterilization programs. The congress has always had to walk a
tight rope when it comes to defending Indira Gandhis decision to enforce
emergency which led to one of the most turbulent times in Indian history since
independence.
CBI seeking closure in Arushi Talwar case (13th Dec 2010) 
 Citibank
employee Shivraj Puri accused of fraud surrenders
 Citibank employee Shivraj
Puri who is said to be involved in a massive fraud, finally surrendered to the police
after almost 48 hrs since the incident came to light. Mr Puri who works as a
relationship manager has been accused of siphoning of money to the tune of 400
crores from atleast 20 clients to other fictitious accounts.
Opposition unrelenting on its demand in JPC probe (13th Dec 2010) The
opposition has been steadfast in its demand for the JPC with regard to the 2G
scam. The PM Dr Manmohan Singh had earlier offered to appear himself before
the PAC headed by BJP stalwart Mr. Murali Manohar Joshi. The opposition still
feels the JPC would be the best option that would help to bring this case to its
logical conclusion.
Human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen convicted, gets life term (13th Dec 2010)
The session’s court of Raipur has convicted Dr Binayak Sen and three others on
grounds of sedition and conspiracy thereby sentencing them for life due to their
links with the Maoists. Dr Sen has been held guilty under Chhattisgarh Special
Public Security Act 2005, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, of being a
conduit between Naxals and of meeting Narayan Sanyal in jail. The trio has also
been convicted under provisions of section 124 IPC (sedition) and 120 B IPC
(conspiracy). Dr Sen is a pediatrician and alumni of Christian medical college. The
58 year old doctor has provided over 28 years of selfless service to the poorer
sections of Chattisgarh.
Prices of onions hit through the roof (13th Dec 2010) The prices of onions have
undergone a steep rise with a kg costing close to Rs 80 in the national capital and
its surrounding areas. Other parts of India too have started feeling the pressure
and the prices are continuously shooting up. The Government on it part has
suspended the export of onions until January in an attempt to bring down the
prices. According to traders, they are attributing the supply crunch due to torrential
downpours in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Southern states which has lead to a poor
yield.
Indias GSLV vehicle fails during launch. (13th Dec 2010) ISRO suffered a
serious setback when its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F06)
failed on its course, forcing the team at SriHarikota to abort the mission and self
destruct the launch vehicle. The vehicles on board computer lost control of the
actuation system raising serious questions about ISROS other ambitious projects
that includes a mission to the moon. The GSAT-5P satellite which the launch
vehicle was supposed to send into orbit was one of the heaviest and cost ISRO
125 crores. Had it been successful, the satellite would have served the needs of
the telecommunication sector and the weather department. It would have
eventually replaced the INSAT-2E satellite that was sent up in 1999.
India and China set $100bn trade target by 2015 (16th Dec 2010)
India and China have agreed upon a new $100billion trade target by 2015 which is
more than the $6 billion agreed upon in 2010.With the arrival of Chinese PM Wen
Jiabao accompanied by 400 Chinese business leaders in India, the two countries
signed around 50 deals in power,steel ,wind energy , food and marine products
and telecommunications worth $16 billion. This overtakes the $10bn of
agreements signed between Indian and American businesspeople during the
recent visit of US President Barack Obama.
Sensex drops 458 points (November 2010)
The Bombay Stock Exchange recently fell by a total of 458 points. The reasons for
the underperformance of the Indian Equity market have been said to be the series
of scams that were unearthed from mid November. Just last month, CBI officials
discovered a bribe for loan scandal that involved several officials from financial
firms and a few state run banks. The 10.8% rise in industrial growth since last
month could not help and several indices ended with huge losses. Major loses
were mainly suffered by PSUs, realty, consumer durables and healthcare.
Satyam Trial Case (2 November 2010)
The examination of the first witness in the infamous multi crore Satyam Computer
accounting scam would begin from the first of November Additional Chief
Metropolitan Magistrate Court. CBI officials submitted a list of six witnesses to the
courts who were officials of a number of different banks. All ten accused including
company founder B Ramalinga Raju were present in court during the hearing of
the case. The DIG of police who operates under the department of CBI said that
the agency requested permission to set up LCD projectors and screens in the court
so that both parties could observe and take notes on all the documents that would
be brought up in court. Since cases in the Supreme Court need to be resolved at
the earliest, CBI officials submitted close to a thousand documents to the court to
speed up the prosecution. The bail of the owner of company and the other 5
individuals associated has been rejected.
Baba Ramdev Temple under threat (2 November 2010)
An anonymous letter was received at the Ramdev Baba temple in Jaisalmer that
contained threats to blow up the temple on November 9th. District Collector G S
Kushwaha received this letter by normal post. Following this letter security around
the temple and the surrounding complex was tightened by posting additional
number of policeman around the temple complex. Around 5 million devotees are
said to visit the temple every year.
Ashok Chavan’s fate (5 November 2010)
Disgraced Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chauhan’s would be decided after
the Diwali holiday season, i.e. after November 8th said the Congress party.
Recently Chief Minister Ashok Chauhan’s name had come in the Adarsh Housing
Society scam. Following this allegation, Mr. Ashok Chauhan immediately offered to
resign from his post. No mention of either the Adarsh Housing Society scam or the
commonwealth Games fiasco was made by the Congress in its AICC session. Also
present at the meeting were Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, Common Wealth
Games Organizing Committee Chaiperson Suresh Kalmadi, Heavy Industries
Minister and former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and
Maharashtra PCC President Manikrao Thakre.
Adjournment of Ajmer Dargah blast case (27 November 2010)
The hearing of the Ajmer Gargah blast case was recently adjourned to November
8 by a sessions court due to leave taken by the presiding judge. Over an 800 page
charge sheet was produced before the court of the Additional Chief Judge
Magistrate on the 22nd of October by the Rajasthan ATS. The five accused in the
case have alleged links with the radical Hindu group Abhinav Bharat. Only one
accused was brought to the court while the other two are being questioned about
the Hyderabad Mecca blast case. The accused have been booked under various
sections of the Indian Penal Code like conspiracy to murder, attempt to murder and
murder. Over one hundred and thirty witnesses have been cited by the prosecution
of the case.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s concern (29 November 2010)
The finance minister of the country Pranab Mukherjee recently raised his fears
over the rising of inflation in the country. Minister Mukherjee said that the Reserve
Bank of India would take steps at its next monetary policy review to check rising
prices because of increased inflation. He further added that rising food prices were
solely the reason for this sudden inflation. Inflation for the month of September was
estimated to be close to 8.6% much above the acceptable rate of 5%. As said by
Finance Minister Mukherjee, food prices had the highest amount of inflation which
in Mid October was estimated to be over 13%. Recently, Minister Pranab
Mukherjee was in talks with the Reserve Bank of India Governor over the the
possible rate hike action by the Central Bank. The global financial crisis, which was
worsened by the total collapse of financial firm Lehman Brothers, is being said to
be the reason behind the RBI’s recent reversal of its soft monetary policy that it
started back in September 2008. Adding to these has been the sudden drop in
industrial growth from 15.2% to 5.6%. To combat the aforementioned rise in
inflation, the Reserve Bank of India has hiked its key short term lending and
borrowing times several times this year.
Protest during Obama visit by Bhopal Gas tragedy victims (6 November 2010)
Victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy are said to be planning to stage a protest at
Jantar Mantar on the 8th of November, during the time of US President Barrack
Obama’s visit to the capital. Several tonnes of the poisonous gas methyl iso-
cyanide, leaked from the Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal in 1984, killing over 3000
people the same night and causing the deaths of over 25000 people over the
subsequent years. Five different voluntary organizations working for the gas
tragedy victims recently held a press conference where they stated that they would
be requesting to President Obama to use his Presidential powers to bring the
Union Carbide Corporation to Indian Courts and be answerable to them. The
verdict of this case many years back had found seven top officials of this
corporation to be guilty but as these guilty persons were bailed out within minutes
of the verdict, many people till date question the justice imparted in the case. The
voluntary organizations further added that hundreds of people regularly fall sick
and die every month due to the long term poisonous effects of the leaked gas on
the soil and water. They further plan to ask President Obama for his help as the
US government has been largely unhelpful these last few years. The sit in protest
organized by the voluntary organizations is said to be comprised of over 5000 gas
tragedy victims.
Third stage of Bihar polling completed (28 Oct 2010)
Polling was carried out affably in 48 electorates on 28th Oct 2010, estimating in the
third appearance of Bihar Assembly elections, which witnessed an approximated
53% voter responsive. Electorates like Amnour, Taraya, Ramnagar, Balmikinagar
and Patepur (Maoist followers) account about 45%-52% voting. Voters were
carried by boats in the littoral areas of Raghopur Assembly electorate in Vaishali
commune where the popular figure of Rabri Devi was in the tussle. The better half
of RJD spearhead Lalu Prasad Yadav is as well battling from Sonepur bench in
Saran constituency. More than 185 people were held during the balloting, which
saw miniature incidents of affray and fracas. Unlike on a number of occasions
before, this time Bihar polling did not see what it usually it experiences in terms of
riots, booth capturing and other forms of unrest and violence that hampers the true
and the honest spirit of competition. "Apart from this, it was nonviolent and silky,"
stated by Neelmani (DG of Police). Approximately sixty cars were as well detained.
In excess of one crore voters will adjudge the future of six ministers (of the state) in
the third stage. The following round i.e. stage 4 will be carried out on Nov. 4 2010.
UID experiences technical hiccups (Oct 2010)
In order to overcome the challenge posed by the huge figure of people
(approximately 1.03 billions) in the country, the chief of the dept. stated that the 16
digit long UID numbers will be released in the next year and half or so. He added
that the epicenter of its working will be in the city of Bangalore. An easy remedy to
the obstacles posed by the allotment of different IDs is to have a bench where
every formerly sanctioned UID are kept and a fresh one is given only afterwards
verifying that is actually a unique code. Fundamentally, we charge to break an
extremely tough difficulty in dispersed schemes once we have copies of the bench
(for dependability) and ought to accordingly respond/keep informed the table as
questions are asked. Taking the point in consideration, provided the millions of
accretion objects affiliated to the web, there is no scrutiny if a prime number
selected is the similar chosen by somebody else before. If this is to happen, it is an
aegis aperture of the aboriginal order for web; the possibly is, nevertheless,
acutely undersized. Population on another instance has proven to be a major
obstacle in the development and progress course of India. UID which was
anticipated to be a huge success and particularly curb this issue is yet to combat
the problem itself to even get kick started.
Haryana barricades polythene bags entry (Aug 2010)
In another attempt to safeguard the environmental and not add insult to the already
injured state of the planet, like the govt. of Delhi, Haryana govt. has also decided
to prohibit polythene bags in the state. The ban includes a complete no-no of
recycling, storage and usage (in any form) within the state. A suggestion to this
aftereffect has been supported by Bhupinder Singh Hooda (the honorable Chief
Minister of the state), an authorized agent said in the capital on Saturday. The
resolution was taken as it was empiric that fractional forbid on use of polythene
bags of a clearly defined array bracket did not crop the needed consequences.
There was consistent ambiguity over the array of poly bags in exercise and it had
as well been discovered that nibbling of a great number of polythene bogs had
resulted in deaths of cows on a regular basis, he said. This type of thinking and
resolutions are the only way through which we can combat and better the ailing
state of the plant Earth. If all other cities and states like previously Delhi and now
Haryana think about the hazards the polythene bags can cost, we will be having
better standards of health and hygiene.
PM and Sonia Gandhi inaugurate UID: (28 Sep 2010)
The Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and UPA Arch Sonia Gandhi shaped
a record by accordingly ablution the world's aboriginal ID activity on September
29th 2010 forth with Nilekani, the arch man of the ministry is acclimated to
accommodate Unique Identification Numbers for India's citizens (cumulatively well
in billions), by rendering them the aboriginal collection of twelve digit figures to ten
clannish. The PM as well as the UPA Chief were collectively congratulated in the
presence of former Infosys headman. This ID Card is assumed to be nation’s
biggest ever tech adeptness action alleged 'Aadhaar'(base), that is due to be
issued to all Indians to accommodate them within a lucrative nationally accurate
and absolute individual antecedent of character affidavit through an authenticity
vault and that will help to accomplish supply processes transparent. Biometric
following abstracts include fingerprints and an iris browse getting acclimated for the
aboriginal time wherever in the planet.
Yamuna raises its bar, causes menace: (28 Sep 2010)
The baptize akin in the river rose to 206.70 accent recently, 1.87 accent aloft the
crisis mark of 204.83 accent and is acceptable to go up added as neighboring
Haryana would absolution added water in the river, a chief official of the flood
ascendancy administration said. Waters from the flood reached into vicinities like
of the local areas as well (Yamuna and Sonia Vihar, Usmanpur, Jaitpur are a few).
A large number of localities that reside in the areas forth the banks of the river
were apparent lined up on the footpaths on the ITO arch with whatsoever they had
of their possessions. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had on Friday requested the
inhibiters not to get into agitation and said all basic measures are getting put into
abode to accommodated any possible occurrence. Over 100 cadre from National
Disaster Response Force, were soon deployed to abetment the bounded
authorities. The ascent Yamuna has affected the Northern Railways to abolish 25
trains and absent 36 others. The cancelled train were prominent ones (Kalka and
Brahamaputra Mail, Shalimar, A.A. and G.N. Express, etc). The 90 trains that have
 to be detoured included the most heavily commuted ones and this has disrupted
the life of the general public paralyzing their usual movements, a Northern Railway
spokesmen stated.
Ayodha Verdict finally out, Allahabad Bench applauded: (Sep 2010)
Culminating 60 years of anfractuous proceedings, asserts and counter-claims,
optimism and desolation, Allahabad HC conventions in favor of improvised Ram
temple on quarreled site; the remaining of acreage to be disconnected amid
Hindus & Muslims. In what is conceivably the most of eagerly anticipated judgment
in contempt times, a breach adjudication dispensed out by a three-member bank of
Allahabad High Court were in full abounding of the claims of the Hindu petitioners
while acclimation a three-way analysis of the acknowledged land. The cardinal
provided acknowledged permit to the temporary Ram temple that came up
afterwards the annihilation of the acknowledged anatomy in Ayodhya on
December 6, 1992. The entire panel of adjudicators – the prominent faces of the
country (Justice Agarwal, Khan and Sharma) – was very much in favor of the
acceptance that captivated the acknowledged land was the native land of the
Hindu deity. Mr. Sharma and Mr. Agarwal settled with the long-held affirmation of
the Sangh Parivar and an area of archaeologists that the acknowledged anatomy
cannot be advised as an Islamic place of worship as it came into actuality adjoins
the credo of Islam.
Lights, Camera and Applause: (Sep 2010)
The 57th Edition of the National Film Award ceremony was concluded for the year
2009 in the month of September. The awards were given away in three groups
namely, finest Feature Motion Picture Class led by Chairpersonship of Mr. Sippy,
Non Feature Motion Picture Group led by Chairpersonship of Mr. Pandey, and
Script on Movies beneath the Chairpersonship of Mr. S. Bandhopadhyay.
The following were the recipients of a few awards in various nominations:
• Motion Picture: Malayalam flick – KuttySrank
• I.G.A. for the Best first appearance movie : Hindi movie – Lahore for the Direction
• Box office blockbuster (widespread entertainment): Hindi – 3 Idiots
• N.D.A. for the Best motion picture on Patriotic Spirit: Hindi – Delhi 6
• Best motion picture on Society’s Matters: Bollywood - Well Done Abba
• Motion Picture for Kids: Tied between Keshu (Malayalam) and Putaani Party
(Kannada)
• Direction: Rituparno Ghosh for Abohoman
• Actor: Amitabh Bachcha for Auro’s role
• Actress: Ananya Chatterjee
• Child’s Performance: Tollywood’s Pasanga
• Male Singer: Rupam Islam in Bengali
• Female Singer: Neelanjana Sarkar in Bengali
Nuclear liability bill passed (Aug 2010)
Nuclear liability bill which was adopted by Rajya Sabha has now been approved by
the process of Voice vote. The session of the Parliament lasted 48 hours extra
than the scheduled time so that the legislation can be easily passed and approved.
A total of 18 amendments were introduced in this bill by Lok Sabha before
processing it further. Soon the bill was selected for a considerable hike in the
liability of operator. This liability has now become 3 times then what it was in the
past and now holds a value of rupees 1500 crore’s in total. By virtue of progression
of this bill and significant increase in the liability many overseas companies have
shown their interests in setting up reactors in India. Special accidental care will
now be provided for the employees operating in the various sections of the nuclear
plants. The decision and the passing of the bill had been strongly opposed by the
BJP leaders as they found it insignificant.
Swiss Bank Access (Aug 2010)
Swiss Authorities will provide information to India on cases of tax fraud and tax
evasion from January 1,2011under the reworked double tax agreement (DTA)
signed by India and Switzerland. The Indian Authorities can now seek information
about the account holders in Swiss banks who have a case filed against them for
tax evasion.
Government Intervention for CWG (28 Aug 2010)
PM and his select team of ministers takeover as CWG supervisors. Indian Prime
Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh took over the reigns of the forthcoming games in the
wake of scandals and unfinished work surrounding the event. Committee of
Secretaries, headed by a Cabinet Secretary, will now supervise the mega event to
be held in October overtaking Organizing Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi.
Bhopal Case reopened (Aug 2010)
The Supreme court of India has reopened the Bhopal Gas leak case in response
to Government’s petition for harsher punishment to the guilty for the worst tragedy
of its kind in which at least 7,000 people perished within days of the release of the
toxic methyl isocyanate gas at the Union Carbide pesticide plant on 3 December
1984, and a further 15,000 died later from exposure to the gas. The tragedy left
countless others with lifelong damage to their health.
CSAT to replace the civil services prelims (Aug 2010)
The new Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) will replace the existing civil services
(preliminary) examination from 2011. The new scheme will test the candidates for
their aptitude for civil services as well as their ethical and moral dimension of
decision-making. There will now be two common papers with equal weightage in
place of one common paper (general awareness) and one optional paper (any
particular subject of choice). The civil services main exam and the interview will
remain the same as of now.
Rahul creates controversy (Aug 2010)
Wherein one place Mamta Banerjee is speaking in the favour of naxals and now
Rahul Gandhi is sharing a dias with a suspected Maoist , this is the approach of
the government in the fight against naxals.
Member Parliament salaries hiked (Aug 2010)
Parliament recently in Delhi has made a decision to increase the salaries of MPs.
A hike of about rupees 35000 will be introduced in the salary of each MPs thus
taking it from figures like 20,000 to 55,000 or so. Because daily allowance has an
important role to play hence parliament has also decided to exactly double the
allowances issued daily to each Member of Parliament. Hence daily allowance of
rupees 1000 will now become 2000. This daily allowance will be issued only when
the parliament session is in progress. Other than the daily allowances the official
expenses for every office per month have now been considerably raised and touch
a 50,000 amount. That is not all the travel and conveyance charge issued will now
become 4 times which were earlier around rupees 1,00,000. Retired members will
now get a monthly pension of around rupees 20,000 which was around 10,000 in
the past times.
Commonwealth with less green (Aug 2010)
Approximately 40,000 trees have been either felled or transplanted for Delhi’s
preparation of Commonwealth Games 2010. Apart from the financial burden of
creating world class infrastructure and transport facilities Delhites have to bear the
loss of its green cover as the compensatory plantation cannot in any way
compensate for the loss of a fully grown, mature tree.
Blackberry controversy (Aug 2010)
Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of Blackberry has finally surrendered to
Indian security agencies’ demand for access to their server. The company has
proposed for lawful access to its services including the messenger as well as the
enterprise with immediate effect and the company would have to set up a server in
India if it does not work to the satisfaction of Indian agencies. The security
agencies already had access to voice data, SMS and general emails sent through
Blackberry devices but Blackberry email and messaging services that are highly
encrypted were major concerns for the security agencies. With this understanding
in place the government has decided to serve notices to Google and Skype also to
fall in line.
Direct tax code (Aug 2010)
The Government deferred the direct tax code(DTC) by yet another year to April
2012 causing yet another disappointment to the taxpayers. Women taxpayers
suffered a bolt as the preferential treatment meted out to them earlier is now
proposed to be withdrawn. Senior citizens, however, enjoy a higher exemption
limit. The bill that replaces the Income Tax Act 1961 seeks an increase in
exemption threshold of individuals from Rs.1.6 lakh currently to Rs.2lakh. The
corporate taxes will be reduced to a flat 30%.
Leh hit by flood (Aug 2010)
A cloudburst on the intervening night of August 5 and 6 has led to flash floods and
mudslides in the Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir. The cloudburst and the
following floods have claimed over 175 lives and injured about 400 people, besides
causing widespread damage to public and private property. The worst hit
Chuglamsar has just turned into debris all over.
More rich than poor Indians (Aug 2010)
National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has estimated in its
report, "How India Earns, Spends and Saves", that despite the economic
slowdown of the last three years, the number of high-income households in India
has exceeded the number of low-income households. Households with high
income or earnings have grown by over 3.7% in total and now touch the mark of
around 21%. That is not all also the households with low income sources have
fallen by around 3.2% and gone down to a mark of 18%.
CWG Anthem (Aug 2010)
When everything is being prepared for the common wealth coming up in October
then how could Music maestro A R Rahman stay away from it. Yes, the musician
has launched the theme song for the Commonwealth Games 2010 that has the
best lyrics covering khelo oh yaaro,,jeeto oh yaaro. During the launch of this theme
song honorable Chief Minister Shiela Dixit, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and OC
Chairman Suresh Kalmadi were present in the ceremony.
CWG breeding mosquitoes (Aug 2010)
The fingers are already crossed and people fear further delay in the common
wealth problems. When the earlier hurdles are not getting removed and new
problems are coming into view. The sincere attention is being drawn by the
mosquitoes breeding in various dumps. Because of heavy rainfall in the country
water is collected in almost every venue and mosquitoes have converted these
venues into their favorite breeding places and are increasing the fear of dengue
disease.
Yet another marine disaster (Aug 2010)
A foreign cargo ship MV Khalijia-111 which collided with MSC Chitra which was
carrying about 1,200 containers with over 266 tonnes of fuel about 10 km off
Mumbai harbour has spilled oil into the Mumbai seas. The collision tilted MSC
Chitra vessel causing 300 containers carrying oil to tumble into the Mumbai waters
creating a thick oil slick two to three kms around the vessel Chitra causing a
serious threat to the marine life.
India’s Independence (Aug 2010)
August 15th, 2010 India celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its independence.
IBM Number two employer (Aug 2010)
IBM is the second largest private sector employer in India after TCS . The
company has more than one lakh people on its rolls.
Noose tightening for Politicos in Sohrab case (July 2010)
Sohrab case getting murkier with CBI stepping up pressure on top Gujarat IPS
Officers P.C.Pande, O.P.Mathur and Geeta Johri for their suspected involvement
in scuttling the probe at the behest of former Gujarat Minister of State for home
Amit Shah. Two Rajasthan BJP leaders Gulabchand Kataria and Om Mathur are
also facing the CBI heat.
 Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed in a fake encounter and
his wife who was a witness to her husband’s abduction was also later eliminated.
The agency is investigating the police-politico nexus behind the killings.
Chidambaram confident of overcoming maoist problem in three years (July
2010)
Addressing a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for the ministry
of home affairs, P Chidambaram informed that in a meeting of chief ministers of
seven Naxal-affected states on July 14, a decision of unified command was agreed
to namely in-- West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand -- for anti-Naxal
operations. A two-pronged strategy of initiating development and police action in
the affected areas was designed to overcome Maoist problem after consultations
with the Naxal-affected states
Grooming for a succession? (July 2010)
Noel Tata, chairman Ratan Tata’s brother has been installed as the chairman and
 CEO of Tata Investment Corp and the MD in Tata International while relinquishing
his executive position in Trent Ltd within the last two months. There is speculation
that these moves are in line with the group’s succession plan for top job i.e. the
Chairmanship of Tata Sons in 2012 when Ratan Tata steps down.
Applaud or embarrassment? (July 2010)
According to top sources from Central Vigilance Commission, fake certificates
were being routinely issued to pass substandard work and material to the vendors
of Commonwealth Games 2010 leading to huge gains for the contractors and
vendors. All these certificates were issued without ground verification or technical
examination. The compromise, herein, in the quality of materials and workmanship
poses a serious threat to the sports personnel from countries all over the world
lending a shameful picture of India and hence jeopardizing our ability to host such
events in the future.
Valley stir (July 2010)
Following the imposition of curfew in wake of the protest by Syed Ali Geelani
demanding the release of dozens of arrested separatist leaders, violence was
triggered in the valley due to a spate of civilian killings by security personnel
leading to an indefinite curfew being clamped in Srinagar. Educational institutions,
shops, post offices, banks, public transport and other business establishments
were closed as a precautionary measure. The protests are part of the separatists'
'Quit Kashmir' programme.
Current Affairs [June 2010]
• In the Global Peace Index 2010, India ranked at 128.
• 2010 Failed State Index- Somalia top the list followed by Zimbabwe, Sudan &
Chad. India is ranked at 87 place out of 177 countries. Norway in ranked at the
bottom of the list.
• President Rule imposed in Jharkhand.
• Amar Singh launches a new party ‘Akhil Bhartiya Lok Manch’.
• South African president Jacob Zuma visited India.
• Turkmenistan President Gurbaguly Bardimuhamedov visited India.
• Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited India. India signed 7 pacts with Sri
Lanka. India will assist in building 50000 houses in the northen & eastern
provinces of Sri Lanka.
• Bangladesh Govt has requested to rename the train linking West Bengal to Tripura
via Banglades as ‘ Sonar Tori’. Earlier the name of the train as envisaged in the
Railway Budget 2010 is ‘Epar Bangla Opar Bangla’. Sonar Tori is a collection of
poems written by Rabindranath Tagore, whose 150th birth anniversary is being
celebrated in 2010.
• Maharastra will become first state in the country to have a real estate regulatory
authority.
• BWA- Broadband Wireless Access. The BWA spectrum was auctioned by the Govt.
BWA Spectrum is essential for rolling out WiMAX services enabling hand held
devices and laptops to access Intranet. It will allow firms to offer high speed
Net, Web telephony & TV Services. The govt fixed Rs.1750 crore as base rate
for BWA license. The auction was held for 117 rounds and in 16 days.
Rs.12848 crore was the pan India BWA license price which was won by Infotel
Broadband services ( in all 22 circles). The Govt auctioned the BWA license for
a total of Rs.38,543 crore. Mumbai had the highest bid of Rs.2293 crore
 followed by Delhi with Rs.2241 crore respectively.
• India signed Civil Nuclear agreement with Canada. The agreement was signed by
Manmohan Singh and Canada’s PM Stephen Harper. Canada is the 8th nation
to enter into such an agreement with India. Canada served nuclear ties with
India in 1974 when India conducted its first nuclear test at Pokhran in 1974.
India’s nuclear power programme is based on the CANDU ( Canada Deuterium
Uranium) reactor.
• India become a full fledged member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a
34 member inter governmental body that devises policies at both national &
international levels to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. FATF
membership will enable Indian authorities to access information on suspect
accounts in nations such as Switzerland & UK. India become its 34th member.
Current Affairs [May 2010]
• Naxalites killed 47 people in a landmine blast between Dantewada and Sukma in
Chattisgarh.
• Test fire of nuclear capable Agni-II missile was successfully carried out from
Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa on 17th May. Agni II has a range of
2000Km. It is 20m long two stage solid propelled ballistic missile. It was
developed by Advanced System Laboratories alongwith DRDO & Bharat
Dynamics Ltd.
• Supreme Court in a recent judgement upheld a rule that allows the adjustment of
reserved category candidate SC/ST/OBC against their quota seats even if they
manage to qualify an examination for govt services on merit.
• National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is the monitoring
authority for the Right to Education Act which became effective from April 1,
2010.
Current Affairs [April 2010]
• Naxals killed about 75 CRPF personal at Chintalnar-Tarmetla village in Dantewada
distt ,Chhattisgarh. Government appoint E.N. Rammohan, to probe the
incident.
• Uninque Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) now known as Aadhaar. It’s
Chairman is Nandan Nilekani. It will assign 16 digit identification number to all
residents in India.
• NTRO- National Technical Research Organisation. The organization came to
limelight after allegation of phone tapping of politicians.
• Indian navy commissioned India’s first indigenously built stealth warship ‘ INS
Shivalik’. The other stealth warship to be built are named as ‘INS Sahyadri’ and
INS Satpura’.
• Right To Education Act is notified and will become a legally enforceable from 1 April
2010. Key features of RTE Act are : All children in 6-14 age group must get free
and compulsory eduction; No child shall be held back,expelled or required to
pass a board examination till Class VIII; There must be 25 % reservation for
poor children even in private & minority schools; There must be one teacher for
every 30 students; A child rights commission will look into violations of the RTE
law.
• Govt start Census 2011. It is the 15th Census. It is in two phase. The first phase is
called –House listing & Housing Census and the second phase is called
decadal headcount which will be held in Feb 2011. The Registrar General of
India is C Chandramouli.
Current Affairs [March 2010]
• Govt launched National Mission for Empowerment of Women aimed at inter-
sectoral convergence of all pro- women programmes.
• Constitution 108th Amendment Bill 2008 commonly known as women’s reservation
bill was passed by Rajya Sabha by 186 in favour 1 against 39 abstained
(Current strength of Rajya Sabha is 233). The bill seeks to reserve a third of the
seats on the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for 15 years on a rotational
basis. It was first introduced in 1996. Sharad Joshi, an independent MP is the
only MP which cast vote against the bill. In the present Lok Sabha, there are 59
women MPs out of 543 MPs. Total MLAs in 29 state assemblies in India are
4093.
• Yamunanagar (Haryana) and Vishakhapatnam (AP) are choosen for a pilot project
on saving household energy by replacing incandescent lamps with CFLs
(Compact Fluorescent Lamps).
• Earth Hour 2010 has been celebrated on 27 March organized by World Wide Fund
for Nature, India. Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru are official Earth Hour Cities
among 15 Indian cities.
• Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia visit India in March 2010.
• Supreme Court allowed religion based 4 % reservations in Govt jobs & educational
institutes in Andhra Pradesh. It extended the benefit to 14 OBC in muslims in
the state. The matter is further referred to Constitutional bench of Supreme
Court.
• ’Bold Kurushetra’ a joint armour exercise between India and Singapore was held at
Jhansi(UP).
• Prohibition of unfair practices in technical, medical educational institutions &
universities Bill is passed by Govt. It provided for 3 year imprisonment and a
fine of upto Rs 50 lakh for higher education providers guilty of misleading
students.
• Govt approved Foreign Educational Institution (Regulation of Entry & Operation) Bill
2010. It provides foreign universities to set up campuses in India.
• Govt amends Anti Hijacking Act 1982. It now provides for death sentence to the
hijackers.
• Govt starts the scheme for creation of the National Population Register (NPR) of
Indian residents. The project will cover an estimated 1.2 billion people and total
cost of the project will be Rs. 3539.24 crore.
• India became 1st country in the world to have a ‘manoeuvrable’ supersonic cruise
missile, when it successfully test fired 290 km range Brahmos missile.
• Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu visit India in March 2010.
Current Affairs [February 2010]
• Kirit Parikh committee , set up to review petro pricing regime, submit its
recommendation. Its major recommendation are to deregulate the prices of
petrol & diesel as per market prices, reduce the subsidy on LPG.
• India signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with the UK, which became the
8th country to enter into such a pact, since the lifting of atomic trade embargo
in 2008.
• Govt set up a panel under the Chairmanship of former Justice B N Srikrishna which
would consider the demand for splitting Andhra Pradesh.
• India and Denmark signed a social security pact which will relieve their workers
from double taxation and provide for cooperation in areas of labour market
expansion and orderly migration.
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits Saudi Arabia in Feb 2010. He was the first
Indian PM in 28 years to visit the gulf country. Saudi Arabia is India’s largest
supplier of crude oil ( 23 %) followed by Iran ( 17 %) and Nigeria ( 11 %). India
is offering upto 10 % equity to Saudi petroleum firm Saudi Aramco in a refinery
being built in Orissa. PM addressed the Shoura council of Saudi Arabia.
• Constitution 111th Amendment – Proposes to incorporate a new Part ( Part IX B) in
the Constitution so as to provide for legal framework to regulate the functioning
of cooperative societies. A new Article ( Article 43 B) is also proposed to be
inserted in Part IV of the Constitution (Directive Principles of State Policy) for
the States to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning of
cooperative societies.
• Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2009 commonly known as Nuclear Liability Bill
will be introduced by Govt in Parliament in Winter session 2010. The draft bill
aims at limiting the liability of a nuclear plant operator to Rs. 300 crore in the
eventuality of an accident. The bill provides for the penalty to be paid by the
operator and not the supplier companies which would mainly be American in
this case. India has entered into civil nuclear cooperation agreement with eight
countries so far.
Current Affairs [January 2010]
• Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visit India in Jan 2010. She belongs to
Awami League Party. The two countries signed five agreements – on mutual
legal assistance in criminal matters, on transfer of sentenced persons and on
combating international terrorism, organized crime & illicit drug trafficking
besides MOU on cooperation in the power sector and on cultural exchanges.
India give Bangladesh a $ 1 billion line of credit, the biggest it has given to any
country so far.
• South Korea President Lee Myung Bak visit India in Jan 2010. The two countries
decided to double the bilateral trade to $ 30 billion by 2014. Four facts were
signed between two countries – cooperation in peaceful use of outer space, IT,
science & technology for the year 2010-12 and transfer of sentenced persons.
South Korean President was also the chief guest at 2010 Republic Day Parade.
• Gujarat Local Authorities Law (amendment) Bill 2009- The Bill makes it the duty of
a qualified voter to vote during elections to local bodies. Voting is compulsory,
but the Bill allows voters to cast their vote in favour of none of the candidates.
Election officers will declare those who fail to vote defaulter, and serve them a
notice.
• India and China has decided to start joint military exercise from 2011.
• Najib Razak, Malaysia Prime Minister visit India in Jan 2010.
• Govt launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Key highlights of the
mission are :
◦ To create an enabling policy framework for the deployment of 20,000 MW of
solar power by 2020.
◦ To create favourable conditions for solar manufacturing capability for
indigenous production and market leadership.
◦ To promote programmes for off grid applications, reaching 1000 MW by 2017
and 2000 MW by 2022.
◦ To achieve 15 million sq. meters solar thermal collector area by 2017 and 20
million by 2022.
◦ To deploy 20 million solar lighting systems for rural areas by 2022.
• New Governors appointed : a) M K Narayanan – West Bengal, b)Shivraj Patil –
Punjab, c) Mohsina Kidwai – Jharkhand, d) Shekhar Dutt – Chhattisgarh, e) E
S L Narasimhan – Andhra Pradesh.
• Govt plans to create a National Gas Highway Development Authority. The present
Gas Pipeline Density in India is 3.29 Km per 1000 Sq.Km.
• Govt plans to set up a National Green Tribunal to control Carbon Emissions and
pollution. It will be responsible for implementing the low carbon roadmap to be
set forth in the 12th Five Year Plan.
Sports Current Affairs 2010
Sachin Tendulkar scores fifty centuries in test cricket (19th Dec 2010)
Sachin Tendulkar scored his fiftieth test century in the second innings of the first
test against South Africa at the Centurion. The master blasted scored his century
in196 balls with 12 fours and one six. Even thought India lost the first test Sachin’s
century helped about bringing some respectability to the proceedings. Incidentally
he has also been named the ICC player of the year.
Indian cricket teams wins its second test at Durban. (16th Dec 2010)
The Indian team had a poor game at the centurion where they were bundled out by
an innings and twenty five runs by their South African counterparts. The second
test they came back with a much more inspired performance with both bat and
bowl leading to their first ever win in Durban which had always troubled them in the
past. India had scored 205 and 228 in their two innings while the South Africans
could score only 131 and 215 respectively.The star of the match was V.VS
Laxman whose 96 helped India seal victory.
Saina Nehwal wins Honk Kong Open Super Series. (12th Dec 2010)
Indias star sportswoman Saina Nehwal rallied around from a one game deficit to
win 15-21, 21-16, 21-17 over Wang Shixian of China. Saina finished of her year on
a wonderful note and has an unmatched record compared to any Indian player
with regard to winning the super series title. Current Affairs
Chelsea lose third match out of fourth (16th Nov 2010)
Birmingham City defeated Chelsea by a score of 1-0 at Birmingham City making
this the third defeat to be suffered by Chelsea in the four matches that it has
played so far. This win helped Manchester United to move up in the English
Premier League rankings. Birmingham gained three points in the rankings thanks
to the one and only winning goal scored by its player Lee Bowyer. Newcastle lost
5-1 to Bolton while West Ham lost 3-0 to Liverpool alongside Blackpool and Stoke
who claimed their respective victories. In their game against Tottenham Hotspur,
Chelsea let slip past their initial lead of 2-0, to finally lose the game at a score of 3-
2. The game was at a score of 2-0 till half time with Chelsea winning but a
combination of lack of concentration in players and simple bad luck cost Chelsea
the match.
Cricket in 2014 Asian Games (15th Nov 2010)
Rumors recently originated that cricket had been removed from the list of proposed
sports and events of the 2014 Asian games. The reason for these rumors has
been said to be the decision of the Olympic Committee of Asia to limit the number
of sporting events in the Asian games to a maximum of 35. However, these fears
proved out to be false as the OCA recently confirmed the inclusion of cricket in the
list of sporting events for the Asian games 2014. For the time being cricket and
karate have been confirmed as two out of the seven non Olympic events in these
games while the other five are still to be decided. However, South Korean
organizers are said to not be in support of this decision.
Nadal and Clijsters (Nov 2010)
Rafael Nadal continues to hold the top spot in the ATP rankings with his score
 being close to 11900 points while Roger Federer holds the spot of number two. On
the other hand Kim Clijsters fell to the third position in the WTA rankings released
recently followed by Serena Williams on the fourth position.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Nov 2010)
Following his win in the Korean Grand Prix, third position in Brazil and third
position in the qualifiers of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari
looked like the possible winner. However the title slipped out of his hands, much to
his surprise and landed into the hands of Vettel making him the youngest Formula
One champion in the history of F1 racing aged just 23 years. Current Affairs
A century of Medals in CWG 2010: (15th Oct 2010)
Thanks to the final in the woman badminton category that India was able to taste
the sweet gland of a century tally of medals for the very first time in any CWG
edition. India had tallied 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze medals which
cumulatively read 101 medals. Even though India were shattered to an 8-0 defeat
by the Aussies the woman shutters’ heroics steered them to a total of medals that
read 101. India finished ahead of England (142) and behind Australia (177). The
culminating day (Oct 14th) saw the quest of an unimaginable 2nd place finish
thanks to Jwala and Ashwini. They defeated Singapore’s Sari Shanti Mulia and
Yao Lei with some ease and become the lone pair so far to win gold in women
badminton (doubles). But the cherry on the cake was put by Indian badminton
pioneer – Saina Nehwal. The hosts scalped addition one inclusive of a bronze
medal when our table tennis masters Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das won in the
doubles for women bronze medal final round alongside the Australian pair. Tan
Zed Vivian and Peri Campbell-Innes. But the finals for the hockey men were a
match to forget as they were thumped by the Kangaroos scoring 8 past their goal.
Going into this match with some resilient attitude as shown in the semis, the
Aussies brought them to ground by outplaying them with power play.
Master Blaster’s the Best; ICC admits:
 Sachin Tendulkar (quite unsurprisingly)
was shortlisted for the most decorated cricketing accolade in contempt period, an
award given to the greatest cricketer for the year that is named after Sir Garfield
Sobers. The Master Blaster turned out to be the second Indian to win the accolade
following the success of Rahul Dravid in the same award six years before. Afterwards
accumulating 1,000 runs in Test match cricket this calendar year more to the point
becoming the aboriginal cricketer to score a double century in LOI cricket playing
against South Africa on Feb 24th 2010 in Gwalior, Sachin completed a double of
awards at the even by also winning the famous – LG People’s Choice Award. The
Men in Blue had a lot extra to applaud about as their striking opener, Virender
Sehwag, with 1,282 runs in the game’s longer adaptation, was chosen as the Test
Cricketer of the Year and M.S. Dhoni was selected as the captain of a World Test XI.
In the previous, Sehwag’s Delhi team mate as well as opening partner, Gautam
Gambhir was given this privilege. Decorated Indian off-spinner, B.S. Bedi was
introduced into the Hall of Fame (for ICC) forth along with the legendary West Indies’
fast bowlers Garner and Walsh and Rachael Heyhoe Flint (ex-England women
cricketer) The LOI (also known as ODI) Player of the Year was bagged by the South
African cricketer A.B. de Villiers.
Kangaroos see BLUE in India:
 In a highly anticipated and evenly fought cricket
competition between two giants of the beautiful game of cricket between India and
Australia, the former proved to be good for the Aussies. The Australian team over a
period of time has seen its main workforce in Gilchrist, Hayden, McGrath and others
retiring had to rely majorly on the young breed of players lacking experience of play in
the Indian subcontinent. India had slipped its rank down a bit from No. 1 and was in a
quest to get it back. That’s what actually transpired. Thanks to the great heroics of
Sachin along with the rest of his teammates India were not only able to beat the
Aussies but finish it as a clean sweep which the team Down Under hadn’t
experienced for quite some time. Sachin’s double ton was the highlight of the series
and imperative in order to retain the coveted Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Apart from the
Test Series, India also won the ODI series without losing single game (1-0). Two of
the three matches were abandoned due to bad weather conditions while the sole
game played, India convincingly beat the Australians thanks to a solid partnership
between Suresh Raina and Mohit Tiwary. The partnership between the two batsmen
helped India to chase down a total just under 300.
Current Affairs [September 2010]
• Kalmadi and Co. pocket Common man’s Wealth:
 The contempt letters of
forgery and fraud in Commonwealth Games resulted in an abnormally affliction
of our nation’s picture. The bulk of finances used up on modernizing the venues
for Commonwealth Games accommodate a prima facie affirmation of ample
calibration enticement in the alignment of Commonwealth Games. The
abstracts accessible on the Commonwealth Games website reveals that the
amount of refurbishing the JNU stadium was USD 215 million; the IGI Stadium
USD 150 million; the Hockey stadium (named after Dhyan Chand) USD 60
million; and the Shooting Alleys USD 35 million. An absolute sum of USD
10150 million was spent on renovations. The costs incurred in the advance of
the lone cricket stadium in Delhi were USD 20 million. For the LBS stadium in
Hyderabad was USD 18 million, and architecture of a contemporary and
technology studded stadium in the city of oranges amounted USD 19 million. It
is acute that the Central Government anon adjustment a top akin analysis into
this arrangement and the dealings embarked on. It is abominable that such all-
embracing abusage of communal resources has taken abode in the name of
the Commonwealth Games. The accusations of inducement ambit from
favoritism in accolade of affairs to big-ticket appoint of accessories for training
and abrupt accretion in the costs of architecture treaties.
• Bridge Collapses; Casualties cross double figures:
 Reportedly not less than
27 people were afflicted afterwards an under-construction foot over bridge burst
within the close proximity of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the capital area of
the Commonwealth Games, bidding the Organizing Committee (OC) to awning
up by giving a statement or in other words a false sense of complacency and
assurance that everything is being taken care of. The arch was to hotlink the
amphitheater to parking for delegates and athletes. The Urban Development
Minister, Jaipal Reddy has dismissed the pressures by quoting it is a negligible
incident. The Public Works Department (PWD) has urged for an acoount of the
structure from the builders. Later the aforementioned day, Organizing
Committee Secretary General Lalit Bhanot addressed reporters: "We will put up
a great show. He said the venues will be all set in the days to come and there
would be added sprucing to accommodate top notch standards. However, the
mishap is a concern to the CWG organizers, who are already nabbed amidst
accuse of laziness and fraud for the XIX Edition. Previously, Mike Hooper, the
main controller of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), remarked on
the condition of hygiene at the Games Village as “dirty.”
• Chennai are the Super Kings of Twenty20 Cricket:
 The Mahendra Singh Dhoni
led Chennai Super Kings are the champions of the second edition of the AirTel
Champions League Twenty20 hosted by South Africa from September 10th to
 September 26th. Chennai Super Kings defeated their fellow finalists in some
fashion by 8 wickets in the final of the Champions League T20 2010.Warriors
had won the toss earlier and decided to bat first but bootless to account an
appropriate target, but only capable to set a minimal total of mere 128 runs for
7 wickets. Only Davy Jacobs’s denticulate 34 runs were the notable
contribution and was also the best from the entire batting lineup of the Warriors.
Muttiah Muralidaran was the most booming bowler scalping 3 wickets for only
16 runs. Ashwin got a couple of wickets for 16 runs as well. Chennai Super
Kings started off in some style by baking batting by Murali Vijay who denticulate
a 58 run total. Michael Hussey fabricated 42 handy runs to the total. The
Opening brace fabricated 103 runs which fabricated their way of triumph easier
than it ever seemed. With this Murali Vijay became the highest run getter of the
second edition of the Champions League Twenty20. He was facilitated with the
Man of the Match Award. With such great triumph on the world stage, the
Indian and CSK captain has silenced his critics and is still in contention to be
the best ever captain in the world today.
Current Affairs [August 2010]
• Sehwag denied century
 A deliberate no ball by the Srilankan off-spinner Suraj
Randiv to prevent Virendar Sehwag from completing his century in the tri-series
has left a bad taste in the mouth for all cricket lovers. Indians were just short of
5 runs from destination called victory and the opening batsman VEERU was
just a run away from his ton. At the same time Lankan skipper chose spinner S.
Randiv to come in and bowl. On the third bowl of his spell Virender Sehwag
sent the bowl out of the fence with a huge six but the turning point was that it
was a no ball which defended Virender Sehwag from completing his century.
As per the declaration of the match referee it was been found out that it was an
intentional attempt.
• Shooting Gold
 Tejaswini Sawant created history by becoming India’s first female
shooter to clinch gold at the World Shooting Championship held in Munich,
Germany. The 29-year-old, who shot a score of 597/600 (100, 100, 100, 99, 99,
99), equaling the world record in the process, won the 50m rifle prone event
• Sri Lanka wins the tri series
 The host Sri Lanka’ eight wicket victory over India in
Dambulla represents its 25th win in a tournament final. Sri Lankan skipper
Kumar Sangakkara'who won the toss decided to bat against India in the tri-
series final. The Sri Lankans won the match by 74 runs in this game. With this it
became the second team to win a tournament final on 25 occasions. Australia
has won 52 tournament finals.
• First Indian US PGA Tour winner
 Arjun Atwal has become the first Indian Golfer
to win the US PGA tour. Atwal, who started playing at the age of fourteen,
became one of the leading players on the Asian Tour and the European tour.
He is the the first native East Indian golfer to become a member of, and later
win the U.S. PGA Tour.
Current Affairs [July 2010]
• Saina Nehwal: A smash hit
 The Indian Open Grand Prix Gold, the Singapore
Open Super Series and then the Indonesian Open Super Series at Jakarta
have given enough reasons to Saina to celebrate. The World No.3 defeated a
fighting Sayaka Sato of Japan 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 in the badminton finals. Just
two notches away from the badminton World No. 1, Saina is now indisputably
India's top female athlete.
• Khel awards
 Saina Nehwal to be conferred the country’s top sporting honour-the
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. While Jhulan Goswami skipper of womens
cricket team, boxer Dinesh Kumar and Sandeep Singh are tipped to receive the
 Arjuna Awards in recognition of their outstanding achievements during the last
one year, Footballer Sunil Chhetri and Deepak Mondal have also been
nominated for the award that will be given away in Rashtrapati Bhawan on 29th
Aug by President Pratibha Patil.
• World cup for Spain
 In a historic football victory Spain lifted their first-ever World
Cup after defeating Netherlands 1-0 in Johannesburg. Andres Iniesta secured
the only goal of an enthralling final against the Netherlands four minutes from
the end of extra-time on Sunday leading his team to victory.
Current Affairs [June 2010]
• French Open 2010 :
◦ Men’s singles – Rafael Nadal defeated Robin Soderling. He is the second
person after Bjorn Borg to win 5th French Open titles.
◦ Women’s singles- Francesca Schiavone (Italy) defeated Samantha Stosur
(Australia). She became first Italian women to won the French open.
◦ Men’s Doubles- Daniel Nestor & Nenad Zimonjic defeated Lukas Dlouhy &
Leander Paes.
◦ Women’s Doubles- Serena Williams & Venus Williams defeated Kveta
Peschke & Katarina Srebotnik.
◦ Mixed Doubles – Katarina Srebotnik & Nenad Zimonjic defeated Yavoslava
Shvedova & Julian Knowle.
• Saina Nehwal defeated Choo Wong Mew to win women’s single title in Yonex-
Sunrise Indian Open badminton championship. In the Men’s singles Yunus
Alamsyah won the title.
• Saina Nehwal defeated Japan’s Sayaka Sato to win women’s singles title in
Indonesian Open Super Series 2010.
• Indian Ronjan Sodhi won the double trap gold medal at ISSF World Cup in Lonato,
Italy.
• India defeated Sri Lanka to won Asia Cup(Cricket) 2010. India won the title after 15
years i.e. it won the cup in 1995.
• Saina Nehwal won the Women’s singles title in Singapore Super Series badminton
championship 2010 defeating China’s Tzu Ying Tai. It was her 2nd consecutive
title.
• 3000th ODI( One day international) cricket match was played between England &
Australia.
Current Affairs [May 2010]
• England won 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating Australia.
The tournament was held at West Indies. Kevin Pieterson of England has been
declared as Player of the Tournament.
• Australia won 2010 Women’s World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating New
Zealand.
• India and South Korea were declared joint winner of 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah
Hockey Cup, after suspension of the final match due to heavy rains.India’s
Sardar Singh has been declared as Best Player of the Tournament. Australia
won the Bronze medal. The tournament was held at Ipoh (Malaysia). India had
won the tournament earlier in 1985, 1991, 1995 & 2009.
• China won Thomas Cup ( Men’s Badminton) defeating Indonesia.
• In the World Youth Boxing Championship, held at Baku, Azerbaijan, India won 1
Gold & 1 Silver. Gold medal was won by Vikas Krishan and Silver medal was
won by Shiva Thapa.
• India won bronze medal in the 2nd Asian Paragliding Championship held at
Nishiewa, Japan.
• World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand retained his title after defeating
 Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the World Chess Championship 2010.
Current Affairs [April 2010]
• IPL3 season won by Chennai Super Kings defeating Mumbai Indians.
• Youth Olympics Games 2010 to be held in Singapore in Aug 2010.
• World Youth Championship was held at Baku, Azerbaijan.
• Lawn tennis legend Martina Navratilova diagnosed with Breast Cancer.
• ‘Jumbo’ chosen as 2011 World Cricket Cup Mascot.
• World Kabbadi Cup 2010- India defeated Pakistan to won World Cup Kabbadi 2010
held at Ludhiana.
• Pankaj Advani won the Asian Billiards Championship defeating Singapore’s Peter
Gilchrist for the consecutive third time.
• Badminton Asia Championship, Delhi :
◦ Men’s singles – Lin Dan defeated Wang Zhenguing
◦ Women’s singles-Li Xiurei defeated Liu Xin.
Current Affairs [March 2010]
• Tamil Nadu defeated West Bengal to won Vijay Harare Cricket Trophy.
• Australia won World Hockey Cup 2010 defeating Germany. India ranked at 8th
place.
• India won six gold medal in the Commonwealth Boxing Championship held at Delhi.
• Two new IPL teams, Kochi was auctioned for Rs 1533 crore and Pune was
auctioned for Rs 1702 crore. Kochi was auctioned to Rendezvous Adventure
Sports Ltd. Pune was auctioned to Sahara Adventure Sports Ltd.
Current Affairs [February 2010]
• Sachin Tendulkar became first player in the world to score a double century in ODI
(One day International). He scored 200 (Not out) against South Africa.
• 11th South Asian Games 2010 : Held at Dhaka, Bangladesh from 29 Jan to 8 Feb.
Originally scheduled to take place in 2009, but due to general elections in
Bangladesh, the games were held in 2010. This was the third time that the
Dhaka hosted the Games, thus becoming the first city to hold the games three
times. 8 countries participated in the games in 23 different sports, including T20
cricket, which was introduced for the first time in SAG. The 8 countries included
are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan & Sri
Lanka. 1The logo of the games was ‘Kutumb’, a flying doel , which is the
national bird of Bangladesh. The mascot of the games featured a magpie robin,
which was holding the torch to begin the games. The final medal tally include :
India - 1st place with 90 G 55 S 29 B Total 174, Pakistan- 2nd place with 19 G
25 S 36 B Total 80, Bangladesh- 3rd place with 18 G 23 S 56 B Total 97.
• West Zone won Duleep Trophy ( 2009-10) defeating South Zone.
• India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar won the Asian Tour International Trophy 2010. It is his
2nd consecutive title.
• Euro 2012 to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.
• 2010 Winter Olympic Games were held at Vancouver, Canada. Mascot of the game
was MIGA (a sea bear), QUATCHI( a sasquatch) and SUMI (animal guardian
spirit). The logo of the games was Ilnaaq meaning Friend in Inuktut. There were
86 events in 7 sports. The games were held from 12 Feb to 28 Feb. Final
medal tally. Canada- 14 G 7 S 5 B, Germany- 10 G 13 S 7 B, USA- 9 G 15 S
13 B.
• IOC (International Olympic Committee ) has approved ICC (International Cricket
Council) bid to join the Olympic games 2020. The first time cricket was included
in the Olympic games was in Paris Olympic 1900.
• 11th World Hockey Cup 2010- To be held in Delhi, India. This is 2nd WHC which
India is hosting. India also hosted the WHC in 1982 at Mumbai. 12 countries
 participated in the tournament. WHC is held in the years between two summer
Olympics. First WHC was held at Barcelona in 1971. Pakistan has won the cup
four times, Netherland three times, Germany two times, India & Australia once
each. India won the WHC in 1975.
• Commonwealth Shooting Championship was held in New Delhi in Feb 2010. India
stood at first place with 35 Gold 25 Silver and 14 Bronze. England stood at 2nd
place with 4 gold and Wales stood at 3rd place.
Current Affairs [January 2010]
• U-19 World Cup 2010 held in New Zealand from 15 – 30 Jan 2010. Javagal Srinath
from India appointed as one of the match referee for the tournament.
• Australia won the U-19 World Cup for the third time defeating Pakistan. India is
placed at 6th rank. Australia won the cup for the third time.
• Rafael Nadal won the Capitala World Tennis Championsip, held at Abu Dhabi
defeating Robin Soderling.
• Magnus Carlsen becomes the youngest World No.1 chess player at the age of 19
years breaking the Garry Kasparov’s record when he became the world’s top
ranked chess player at the age of 22 years in 1985. Magnus Carlsen is the 5th
player after Kasparov, Kramnik, Topalov and V.Anand (India) to cross the 2800
ELO rating. In the Jan 2010 FIDE ranking, Carlsen stood at 1st place, Topalov
at 2nd place and V Anand at 3rd place.
• Marin Cilic defeated Staniglas Wawrinka to won Men’s singles title of Aircel
Chennai Open.
• Pakistan’s cricketer Shahid Afridi was banned for two T20 internationals after he
was found guilty of ball tempering in a ODI against Australia.
• Corus Chess Grandmaster Tournament won by Magnus Carlsen. V.Anand of India
ranked at 4th place. Hopman Cup 2010- Spain defeated Great Britain.
• Australian Open 2010 : Women’s Single- Serena William defeated Justin Henin. It
is Serena’s 5th Australian Open title. It is also Serena’s 12th Grand Slam title
equaling the record of Billie Jean King.
• Men’s Single- Roger Federer(Swiss) defeated Andy Murray(Britain). It is Federer’s
4th Australian Open title. It is Federer’s 16th Grand Slam title.
• Men’s Double- Mike Bryan & Bob Bryan defeated Daniel Nestor & Nenad Zimonjic.
• Women’s Double – Serena Williams & Venus Williams defeated Cara Black & L
Huber.
• Mixed Double – Laender Paes (India) & Cara Black (Zimbabwe) defeated Ekterina
Makasova & Jaroslav Levinsky. It is Paes’s 11th Grand Slam title.
Places in News

Gujarat attracts Rs 20.83 lakh Crore investment in 2 days

Leading industrialists of India have flocked to Gujrat to sign MOU’s during the two-day
long Vibrant Gujarat Summit that began on 1/12/2011. Chief Minister announced that
the state has been able to attract investments to the tune of Rs 20.83 lakh crores
during the two-day long Summit. As many as 7,936 MOUs were signed by the state
government with several industrial houses to invest in the state. It is rare for 60 of
India’s top Industrialists representing companies that command the bulk of market
capitalization, to share the dais at a single event and it is even rarer to make
investments to the tune of thousands of crores for a single state and that too over just
two days. The major investments include Anil Ambani group, Adani Group, Essar
Group, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra and many others.

Karnataka Governor sanctions prosecution of CM Yeddyurappa

Karnataka Governor HR Bharadwaj on 21/1/2011 sanctioned the prosecution of Chief
Minister Yeddyurappa on charges of corruption. This is for the first time in
Karnataka’s political history that a governor has permitted the prosecution of a chief
minister. The Governor gave sanction for prosecution of the Chief Minister who is said
to be involved in alleged land scams on a petition made by two lawyers. With this
sanction, the lawyers will now approach a local court and will seek a court directive to
the police for registering an FIR against the Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and the State
Home Minister R Ashoka.

Daring robbery in Chandigarh Jewellery Showroom

Unidentified persons looted a Tanishq showroom on the wee hours of the morning
on 12/1/2011. The burglars around ten to fifteen in number came in dressed as
cops and tied the hands of the two security guards stationed outside the
showroom. They then barged into the shop and started removing all the jewellery
from the shelves. Within an hour and a half they wiped the shop clean to the tune
of 15 crores. The Panchkula and Haryana police are looking at the possible
involvement of the Badri gang. Rajesh Badri its ringleader is the most wanted
criminal of the Haryana Police. The police have now released the CCTV footage of
the showroom where you can see the burglars looting the shop.

Kolkatta angry over Ganguly snub

While the auctions of IPL-4 were eagerly awaited, it was a well known fact that star
player Saurav Ganguly was not retained by the Kolkotta Knight Riders. Now with
the auctions over the Prince of Kolkatta has still remained unsold which has come
about as a rude shock to the cricketing world. This has caused major
embarrassment to the star batsmen and his fans haven’t taken to it lightly. In many
parts all over Kolkatta , angry fans burnt the effigies and posters of Shahrukh Khan
who is the owner of Kolkatta Knight Riders.

Indian fisherman killed by SL Nayy over Pudhukottai Coast

In a fresh incident of attack on Indian fishermen by SriLankan Navy, one was killed
after they opened fire on three fishermen as they had gone fishing at the Palk
Straits at the Pudhukottai Coast. India on its part has summoned Sri Lankan High
 Commissioner Prasad Kariyawasam to lodge a strong complaint over the shooting
by the Navy. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has sought a detailed report
from the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo, who has taken up this matter with
the Lankan government.

Gujarat attracts Rs 20.83 lakh cr investment in 2 days

Leading industrialists of India have flocked to Gujrat to sign MOU’s during the two-
day long Vibrant Gujarat Summit that began on 12/1/2011. Chief Minister
announced that the state has been able to attract investments to the tune of Rs
20.83 lakh crores during the two-day long Summit. As many as 7,936 MoUs were
signed by the state government with several industrial houses to invest in the
state. It is rare for 60 of India’s top Industrialists representing companies that
command the bulk of market capitalization, to share the dais at a single event and
it is even rarer to make investments to the tune of thousandths of crores for a
single state and that too over just two days. The major investments include Anil
Ambani group, Adani Group, Essar Group, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra
and many others.

Hundreds of youths apply for Police jobs in Kashmir

Just a few months back youths of Kashmir could be seen thronging the streets of
Kashmir raising massive protests against the security forces of the State. On
12/1/2001 the youths had assembled in hundreds outside a security force camp in
Kashmir. They had all come to secure a job as constable in the State Police. The
state has a high rate of unemployment and this incident would have attracted not
much attention under normal circumstances. But the fact that many of these youths
were believed to be involved in clashes with police last year makes the recent
development notable.

Telangana tense after release of SKC Report

As the Srikrishna Committee report was made public on 6/1/2011, pro Telangana
organizations have already started protests. Student unions and political parties
have already announced plans to agitate and call for bandh. Osmania University
which often is the hot bed for pro Telangana student activity is already on the boil
and there have been incidents of student clashes with the police forces the
moment the report was released. The students indulged in sloganeering and stone
pelting. It is expected Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar
Rao may announce another fast to make for his demands for a separate state of
Telanga.
Telangana issue has been generating a lot of news for the past couple of years.
It’s an issue about which many people have been very passionate and has led to
the loss of many lives. Infact the Telangana issue has been around for over many
years now. Here is a look at what has happened over the years and why the
Telangana issue still stands unsolved as it does today.
What is Telagana? : Telangana is a region in Andhra Pradesh and was originally a
princely state, ruled by the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh today
as it stands, can be divided into three regions – Telangana, Rayalaseema and
Coastal Andhra. The Telangana region comprises of districts in Western and
Central Andhra Pradesh (Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak, Warangal,
Khammam, Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Nalgonda, and Mahaboobnagar) It
comprises 10 of Andhra Pradesh’s 23 districts. It accounts for 119 seats out of the
294 seats in Assembly.
Telegana at the time of Independence : After Independence, the Nizam of
Hyderabad wanted to retain his hold over the state. But the Government of India
had other plans and amalgamated his state on 17th September 1948 by force. On
a historic note, Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra were part of the Madras Province
under the British Empire. However post independence Rayalaseema and Coastal
Andhra were separated from the Madras State in 1953 and were merged with the
Telangana region of Hyderabad in 1956 to form the state of Andhra Pradesh. The
remaining parts of the Telangana region were merged with Karnataka and
Maharashtra. This was the first state that was carved out on linguistic lines in the
country.
Demands for a separate Telangana State : Demands for carving out a separate
Telangana State became more buoyant during 1969. There are quite a few
reasons for this:- There were distinct differences between Telangana and Andhra
Regions. Andhra that was initially a part of Madras presidency had much better
standards of development and education. Telangana on the other hand was more
feudal in its approach and much less developed. The Telangana people had
reservations also because they feared they would lose out on many jobs with the
merger The cultural differences too were apparent. Under the rule of the Nizam the
Telangana region bore influences of Northern India. The kind of festivals being
celebrated too was different.
The 1969 Agitation : This was primarily a student protest which erupted in the
regions of Telangana with Osmania Univeristy proving to be the hot bed of it all.
The protests became massive with huge numbers of people taking part in the
agitation. Over 350 people lost their lives in lathi charge and police firing. Former
Congress leader Channa Reddy who defected to form his own party the
‘Telangana Praja Samithi’ later diluted the impact of the agitation as he merged
with the Congress. Channa Reddy was also the same person responsible for
raising slogans like ‘Jai Telangana’. The Prime Minister Indira Gandhi later went on
to make him the Chief Minister after which the movement collapsed. After this P.V
Narasimha Rao was also made the Chief Minister in 1971. He was also from the
Telangana region.
The role of K Chandrasekhar Rao: K Chandrasekhar Rao was a member of the
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) during the 1990’s. While hoping for a ministerial birth
he only got that of a deputy speaker following the 1999 elections. KCR quit TDP in
2001 and set about to form the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) which he
announced would fight for the formation of a separate Telangana State. The timing
could not have been more perfect for KCR considering the fact the people of
Telangana were already feeling looted. There was already a strong feeling gaining
ground that the surplus produced by them was being rerouted to the finance body
so that it could be used to develop the rest of the state. In the elections of 2004 YS
Rajashekara Reddy and KCR decided to join hands after YSR promised him the
formation of a separate Telangana State. But later YSR backtracked and sent a
report to the Congress against the formation of the Telangana State. TRS withdrew
support from the Congress led coalition government on the grounds of alleged
indecision by the government over the delivery of its electoral promise to create a
separate Telangana state.
 Soon the Telangana also ended up being a deeply political issue. Parties could
often be seen flip flopping on their stand on the Telangana issue. The Congress
and TDP are a divided house while Praja Rajyam and CPM are for a united
Andhra. On the other hand the BJP and CPi are supporting the formation of s
separate Telangana.
On November 29, 2009, KCR took a fast until death demanding that the Congress
Government introduce the Telangana bill in the parliament. Student’s rallies and
people from various organizations took part in the demands and there were
massive protests in many regions of Telangana. With KCR’s health fast failing the
centre was forced to look into issue and finally gave into his request of a separate
state making KCR end his 11 day fast.
Srikrishna committee headed by Justice BN Srikrishna was then set up to look into
wether a separate state should be carved out or a united Andhra must remain. The
committee was constituted by the Government of India in 3 February 2010 and
expected to submit its report on 30 December 2010 to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
As part of the committee they invited people from all sections of the society and
also toured the entire state where they got the opinions of a lot of people on what
they felt about the issue. The SriKrishna Report was released on the internet to the
public on 6 January 2011.
The issue is still being contemplated in the political circles.
People in news

Anna Hazare
Kisan Baburao Hazare born in 15 June 1937, popularly known as Anna Hazare
pronunciation is an Indian social activist and a prominent leader in the 2011 Indian
anti-corruption movement, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of
Mahatma Gandhi.Hazare also contributed to the development and structuring of
Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Parner taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra,
India. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan the third-highest civilian award by the
Government of India in 1992 for his efforts in establishing this village as a model
for others.
 
 Anna Hazare started an indefinite hunger strike on 5 April 2011 to
exert pressure on the Indian government to enact a stringent anti-corruption law as
envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill, for the institution of an ombudsman with the
power to deal with corruption in public places. The fast led to nation-wide protests
in support of Hazare. The fast ended on 9 April 2011, a day after the government
accepted Hazare's demands. The government issued a gazette notification on the
formation of a joint committee, consisting of government and civil society
representatives, to draft the legislation.
 
 For the year 2011 Foreign Policy
magazine has named him among top 100 global thinkers.Anna has been ranked
as the most influential person in Mumbai by a national daily newspaper.He has
faced criticism for his authoritarian views on justice, including death as punishment
for corrupt public officials and his alleged support for forced vasectomies as a
method of family planning.

Arvind Kejriwal
Arvind Kejriwal a prominent team member of Anna Hazare returned Rs 9.2lakhs
that were due on him to the government but at the same time telling the centre that
they should not see this as an admission to the mistake that was hurled at
him.Kejriwal along with the amount wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh emphasising that he is paying the due by taking loans from his fellow friends
and that for helping him pay his dues they should not be bothered by anyone.
The news of pending dues come to light when the Income Tax dept renewed
notices showing that an amount of Rs 9.2 lakh is due on kejriwal and that he
should return the amount as soon as possible. The I.T dept claimed that the due is
valid because he violated rules of the government by quitting the service before
completing 3yrs and also he went on study leave abroad on full pay.Responding to
the allegations Kejriwal said that he is being dragged into unnecessary controversy
because he took no paid leave and that he resigned from his job after fulfilling all
the conditions.
In his 4page letter to the P.M, Kejriwal said that he is enclosing a cheque of Rs
9,27,787 , the amount the I.T dept told was due on me, but this move should not
be interpreted as my admission to the mistake which he hasn’t done. In his letter
he further said that he won’t be accepting the mistake that he never did and that he
has paid the complete amount as a token of protest. Thereby appealing the P.M to
instruct the finance ministry to accept his due and his resignation as once his
resignation is accepted he has the right to reclaim his due by approaching the
judiciary of India.
At last he concluded the letter saying that such kind of attempts by the government
will not tarnish the fight against corruption in fact this will strengthen the movement.

Baba ramdev
Baba Ramdev is a renowned Yoga teacher. His yoga sessions have attained
immense popularity and reaches across to millions of homes. He is the host of a
program named 'Divya Yog' that airs on Aastha TV everyday, at 5 am in the
morning. This has enabled people to practice yoga from the comforts of their
homes. He is also one of the founders of the Divya Yoga Mandir Trust that aims to
popularize Yoga. Baba Ramdev has been among the forefront of new channels off
late. His organized fast against corruption at the Ramlila maidan in New Delhi
generated a lot of controversy when it was cracked down by the police.
 
 Early
days : Ramdev was born as Ramkishan Yadav in 1965 at Alipur, in the
Mahendragarh district of Indian state of Haryana to Gulab Devi and Ram Nivas
Yadav. He hailed from a poor family and after his eighth grade joined a yogic
monastery (gurukul) in Khanpur village. There, he started learning the techniques
of Yoga, along with the Sanskrit language. Eventually he renounced worldly life
becoming an ascetic and adopted the name of Swami Ramdev.
 
 After this he
went to Jind district where he joined the Kalva gurukul. He started conducting yoga
sessions for the people of the village there. It is also widely believed he has also
traveled to the Himalayas where he had spent a considerable amount of
time.
 
 There, he started teaching Yoga to the villagers across Haryana. It is
believed that some time later, he traveled to the Himalayas, spending a number of
years there. Thereafter, he went to Haridwar and till date, the city serves as his
base.
 
 In 1995, Ramdev established Divya Yoga Mandir Trust with Acharya
Karamveer and Acharya Balkrishna. Acharya Karmaveer is well-versed in Yoga
and Veda while Acharya Balkrishna is a physician with a degree in
Ayurveda.
 
 His Yoga Pranayama educational show is broadcast on numerous
TV channels daily. He has been conducting Yoga science camps regularly all over
the country, and sometimes abroad as well.
 
 Baba Ramdev has also courted lots
of controversies as well. His fast against corruption created tremendous new buzz
in media recently. Thousands of people had assembled for the fast which suddenly
cracked down by the police a few hours later in middle of the night. Ramdev’s
demands to the government was bringing back black money that was held up in
banks abroad. While he himself has been accused of amassing huge sums of that
is said to run into thousands of crores. It remains to be seen what would be the
outcome of this issue.

Dr. Manmohan Singh

Dr. Manmohan Singh (26th September 1932, Born in Gah,Punjab), is the
fourteenth Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Pandit
Jawahar Lal to return to power after completing a full five-year term in office. Dr
Manmohan Singh also happens to be one of the most accomplished and highly
qualified Prime Ministers to have served the country. He has been known to be a
man of impeccable integrity and honesty and is well regarded for his academic
approach to work. Over the years he has led a long and distinguished career both
as a bureaucrat and politician. Some of the key reforms and policy changes that he
brought about are responsible for the economic boom that the country enjoys
today.
Academic Qualification
BA (Hons) in Economics, Punjab University (1952)
MA (First Class) in Economics, Punjab University (1954)
Honours degree in Economics, Cambridge (1957)
Phd in Economics, Oxford (1962)
Biography

Early years
 Dr Manmohan Singh was born to Gurmukh Singh and Amrit Kaur in
Gah,Punjab(now part of Chakwal District, Pakistan) into a Sikh Family. He lost his
mother at a young age and was raised by his grandmother whom he was very fond
of. Dr Singh was a studious and hardworking student right from his schools days
often studying under candle light due to unavailability of electricity in his village.
During Partition his family moved to erstwhile India and settled in Amritsar where
he secured admission in Hindu College. Dr Singh continued to excel in his studies
and went on to complete his masters in economics in 1954 from Punjab University
in Chandigarh. He then left abroad for further studies and completed his doctorate
in Economics in 1962 after which he returned to India taking up teaching jobs as a
lecturer in Punjab University and Delhi School of Economics. He is married to
Gursharan Kaur and the couples have three daughters.
During 1971 he joined the civil service as an economic adviser to the Ministry Of
Commerce. His contribution was well appreciated and by 1972, was appointed the
Chief Economic adviser in the Ministry of Commerce. After that he was appointed
the Governor of Reserve Bank of India in 1982 and tenure lasted three years.
Following this he also served as Deputy Chairman for the Planning Commission
from 1985-87.
Emergence of Dr Singh’s Political Journey

Dr Singh made his transition from being a bureaucrat to that of a politician in 1991.
He was appointed member in the Rajya Sabha and became the finance minister in
Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao's government in the same year. PM Rao was
on the lookout for an able person to handle finance and appointing Dr Singh to the
post changed the face of Indian Economy the effect of which we continue to
witness today. This came about at a crucial time especially considering the early
1990’s which were a particularly difficult period for India when it seemed close to a
meltdown.
a) Faced with severely depleted currency reserves and balance of payment issues
India was on the verge of defaulting on its foreign loans.
b) The death of Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE had led to an upsurge in Hindu Nationalism
and the economy was in very a bad shape.
c) With the PM’ support he initiated several reforms that were aimed at doing away
with the infamous red tape and opening up the economy to liberalization. He wanted
to do away with the quasi socialist policy that was adhered to for four decades since
independence.
d) He took up several measures to end protectionism and opened the economy to
foreign investment so that India would evolve into a mixed economy and also save
itself from bankruptcy.
e) He devalued the rupee in order to encourage exports, loosened restrictions on
foreign investment and slashed tax rates. f) With these measures the economy got a
new lease of life and Indian Industry began to show encouraging signs of growth and
progress. Inflation also was brought under control.
g) In those five years ( 1991 – 96) he carried out reforms that resulted in the end of
License Raj System. This helped boost the Indian Economy to attract greater
international trade and investments. He rebuilt India's foreign reserves, which now
stands over pound stg. 66 billion ($170 billion) after being less than pound stg. 1
billion.
PM Rao completed his tenure in office but his administration was rocked by
accusation of corruption and scandals. Dr Singh however was well appreciated for
his reforms. He stayed with the Congress which then went through a lean phase
suffering defeats in the elections of 1996, 1998 and 1999. A surprise coalition win
in the 2004 for the Congress came about under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi.
However Sonia Gandhi declined and Dr Singh was made PM making him the first
Sikh Prime Minister of the country.
Controversies

The Congress created a good impression of governance inspite of facing a

prolonged battle with the coalition partners and opposition with regards to the
nuclear deal in their first term. But the ride has become less smooth over Dr
Singh’s second consecutive term in office. The second term was rocked by huge
corruption scandals that have shocked the country. The CWG scam and the 2G
scam have rocked parliament and has put the party in many an embarrassing
situations. The scams highlight massive corruption and Dr Singh though
considered to be an honest individual has not been able to defend many of the
charges leveled against his party or coalition members properly. It remains to be
seen how the charges are tackled and whether the crooks are brought to justice by
the government over the next few months.

Awards:

• 2000 Conferred Annasaheb Chirmule Award by the W.LG. alias Annasaheb

Chirmule Trust setup by United Western Bank Limited, Satara, Maharashtra
• 1999 Received H.H. Kanchi Sri Paramacharya Award for Excellence from Shri R.
Venkataraman, former President of India and Patron, The Centenarian Trust
• 1999 Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi.
• 1997 Conferred Lokmanya Tilak Award by the Tilak Smarak Trust, Pune
• 1997 Received Justice K.S. Hegde Foundation Award for the year 1996
• 1997 Awarded Nikkei Asia prize for Regional Growth by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun
Inc. (NIKKEI), publisher of Japan’s leading business daily
• 1996 Honorary Professor, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi
• 1995 Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award of the Indian Science Congress
Association for 1994-95
• 1994 Asiamoney Award, Finance Minister of the Year
• 1994 Elected Distinguished Fellow, London School of Economics, Centre for Asia
Economy, Politics and Society
• 1994 Elected Honorary Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
• 1994 Honorary Fellow, All India Management Association
• 1993 Euromoney Award, Finance Minister of the year
• 1993 Asiamoney Award, Finance Minister of the Year
• 1987 Padma Vibhushan Award by the President of India
• 1986 National Fellow, national Institute of Education, N.C.E.R.T.
• 1985 Elected President, Indian economic Association
• 1982 Elected Honorary Fellow, st. John’s College, Cambridge,
• 1982 Elected Honorary Fellow, Indian Institute of bankers
• 1976 Honorary Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
• 1957 Elected Wrenbury Scholar, University of Cambridge, U.K.
• 1955 Awarded Wright’s Prize for distinguished performance, & St. John’s college,
Cambridge, U.K.
• 1956 Awarded Adam Smith Prize, University of Cambridge, U.K.
• 1954 Uttar Chand Kapur Medal, Panjab university, for standing first in
M.A.(Economics), panjab University, Chandigarh
• 1952 University Medal for standing First in B.A. Hon.(Economics),panjab University,
Chandigarh



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Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (Born May 14, 1984) is an American software developer
and co founder of the hit social networking site ‘Facebook’, He currently serves as
its CEO and President. Facebook founded in 2004 has gone on to register more
than 600 million users making Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire on the planet.
He was recently also voted ‘Times Person of the Year’.

Early Childhood

Mark Zukerberg was born to Edward Zuckerberg who was a dentist and Karen
Zuckerberg who was a psychiatrist. He was raised at Dobbs Ferry, New York along
with his three sisters Randi, Donna, and Arielle.
Mark was into programming since he started middle school. He started with
programming games and applications. His father taught him Atari BASIC
Programming in the 1990s, and later hired software developer David Newman to tutor
him privately. He did his schooling from Ardsley High School and his junior year from
Phillips Exeter Academy.
During his high school years Zuckerberg, built a music player called the Synapse
Media Player that used artificial intelligence to learn the user's listening habits.
Microsoft and AOL tried to buy Synapse and hire Zuckerberg which he declined and
instead went on to join Harvard in the fall of 2002.
Harvard Years

Zuckerberg initially came up with a site called Facemash. It was a Harvard-specific

photo rating site that operated on the likes of HotOrNot.com but instead used
photographs taken from Harvard's online photo address database (the students used
to call it facebook), without actually obtaining the subjects' permission. The site
became an over night sensation and presented the user with two randomly selected
pictures of Harvard students and then let the user vote on which one was hotter.
Zuckerberg was reprimanded for this by the Harvard administration and placed on
academic probation.
Impressed at his programming skills some of his fellow students invited him to work
on a social networking site called Harvard Connection. Zuckerberg accepted the offer,
however he hardly turned up for the meetings and soon after, began working on his
own social network that was inspired by the idea of the students working on the
Harvard Connection. Zuckerberg named it ‘The Facebook’. And soon Zuckerberg’s
creation started getting lot of attention with new members pouring in. When the
people behind Harvard Connection came to know about this, they claimed that
Zuckerberg had actually stolen their idea. Zuckerberg on his part has maintained to
this day that the above two were very different types of social networks. Finally an
initial settlement was reached between the two parties, but with Facebook reaching
unprecedented success the legal disputes still continues to this day.
Facebook

Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook with Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and

Eduardo Saverin. The site allowed users to post their profiles and photos and
communicate with other users. The group ran the site initially called
‘theFacebook.com’ from their dorm room at Harvard until June 2004. Later on,
Zuckerberg dropped out of college to devote himself fulltime to Facebook and
moved his company to Palo Alto, California. It was around this time that
Zuckerberg came in touch with Sean Parker who was one of the cofounders of
Napster. Sean Parker like Zuckerberg was a very good programmer and earned
the ire of music labels when they discovered that their music was being
downloaded by the people for free. He helped Zuckerberg snap up deals with big
players who would help to propel the platform of Facebook into the big league. In
2005, Zuckerberg's enterprise got a huge boost from the venture capital firm Accel
Partners. Accel invested $12.7 million into Facebook which until then was only a
‘college-only network’. Soon after adding high schools and international schools,
Facebook had more than 5.5 million users in December 2005. The site soon
attracted the interest of other companies, wanting to buy it and make it the popular
online social hub. However, Zuckerberg turned down offers from Yahoo! and MTV
Networks. Instead he has focused on growing the site, continuously adding more
features to Facebook. The company has also opened up the site to outside
developers, allowing them to offer their games through Facebook. There are more
than 600 millions users in Facebook according to current estimates.
Today Facebook has become an important part of our lives today. The story of its
origins has inspired Hollywood to come out with a movie called “Social Network”
which has given people never before seen insight into how Facebook came about
and why it stands as it stands today. The movie has ushered in some negative
publicity for its co founder Mark Zuckeberg, who has also recently been in the
news for donating half his wealth to charitable causes and also for being the Times
Person of The Year beating even the likes of Julian Assange of Wikileaks.

Andimuthu Raja
A.Raja (born May 10, 1963, Perambalur, Tamil Nadu) is a politician and member
of the the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. After becoming a third time
member in the fifteenth Lok Sabha he served as cabinet minister heading the
ministry of communications and information technology in the current Manmohan
Singh government. He was asked to resign following accusations of corruption in
relation to the 2G scam that has made him privy to continuous media attention and
scrutiny. The scam has cost the government 1.76 lakh crore.
Academic Qualification

Bsc - Government Arts College, Trichy

BL - Government Law College, Madurai
ML - Government Law College, Trichy.

Biography

A.Raja’s political journey started when he became a first time member of the 11 Lok
Sabha in 1996. This DMK loyalist has also been the Union minister of state in 2000
and 2003 where he was in charge of rural development and that of health and family
development respectively. A. Raja was re elected and became a third time member in
the 15th Lok Sabha where he ended up heading the ministry for communications and
information technology. His tryst with public life started right from his college days
when he became part of the Dravidar Kazhagam founded by E.V.R Periyar. He has
also presided over as president in Dr Ambedkar Thinkers Forum and has been the
secretary of the Rationalist Forum and Tamil Ilakkiya Peravai(Literary movement)
during his days in Perambalur. He is also a writer and has contributed many articles
to many English and Tamil dailies. He is married to M.A Parameshwari and they have
one child.

Controversy

A.Raja’s term as minister of communications and technology has been full of

controversy. He has been accused of massive corruption and is the chief accused in
the 2G scam which has rocked the nation. A.Raja on his part has flouted many of the
norms and procedures that were to be followed. The scam has cost the government
Rs.1.76 lakh crores. The issue dates back to 2008 when the government had
announced that they would issuing 2G licenses for private telecom players. On this
front Raja faces several allegations. Some of them which are:
• Entry fee for the 2G licenses in 2008 were the same as it was in 2001. That in its
self amounts to huge loses plus the mobile user base had shot up from 350
million in 2008 than the 4 million back in 2001.
• Rules were changed after the process had begun. The cut off dates for applications
had been advanced by a week. Licenses were handed out on a first come first
serve basis instead of allowing auctions and inviting bids from the telecom
companies.
• Raja was accused of ignoring the advice of Finance Ministry, Law Ministry and
Telephone Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). TRAI on the other hand had
recommended auctioning of spectrum licenses according to market rates.
• Raja is also accused of showing favoritism. Back in 2008 9 companies received
scarce airwave licenses for 2G spectrum and as many as 122 circle wise
licenses were issued. New players like SWAN TELECOM and UNITECH
received licenses without any prior experience in spite of one of them not
meeting the eligibility criteria. Swan Telecom then received the license for $340
million and managed to sell a 45% stake to UAE’s ETISALAT for for $900
million. This ballooned the companies’ valuation to $2 billion. And they did all
this without getting a single subscriber. UNITECH too has a similar story. After
paying $365 million as license fee they sold a 60% stake to Norway’s
TEALENOR for $1.36 billion. This helped its valuation to soar to almost two
billion dollars and again they did all this without gaining a single subscriber.
 And all the nine companies paid DoT only Rs. 10,772 crore for 2G licenses.
With intense media scrutiny and pressure from the opposition, Raja was forced to
resign. He has been subject to constant criticism from all quarters and has been
questioned by the CBI of late. The opposition on its part has been demanding a JPC
probe to look into the 2G scam which the congress party has refused. The parliament
as a result has not functioned smoothly for most of the winter with the 2G issue being
the only bone of contention. The Congress government on its part has setup the PAC
which is headed by BJP leader Mr. Murali Manohar Joshi which will look into the 2 G
scam.

Nira Radia
Nira Radia is a PR consultant and corporate lobbyist. She heads four PR
companies: Vaishnavi Corporate Communications, Neosis Strategic Consulting
Services, Vitcom Consulting and Neucom Consulting. She has attracted a lot of
controversy of late over her secretly recorded conversations with some prominent
journalists and politicians which are now popularly called the Nira Radia Tapes.
The Income Tax department received authorization from the home ministry and
started tapping Nira Radias phone for 300 days during 2008-2009 after raising
suspicions over her possible involvement in money laundering and several
financial irregularities.
The phone recordings ended up unveiling the 2G scam which has created a lot of
attention and controversy. According to reports the 2G scam has cost the government
a loss of Rs1.76 lakh crores which led to the resignation of A. Raja who was head of
ministry of communications. The conversations have Nira Radia lobbying for and with
corporate houses, politicians and journalists. Prominent personalities like Vir Sangvi,
Bharka Dutt, Ratan Tata, Kanimozhi, A. Raja etc have been revealed to have had
conversations with her where some form of lobbying had taken place. She is also
accused of amassing wealth to the tune of 300 crores over a short period of nine
years.

Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor (born 9 March 1956) is a member of the Indian Parliament from the
Thiruvananthapuram constituency in Kerala. A prolific author, columnist, journalist
and human rights advocate, he has previously served as the United Nations
Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information and the
Indian Minister of State for External Affairs. Career:
Shashi Tharoor career in the United Nations began in 1978 as a staff member of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. In January 2001,
he was appointed as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public
Information, and as the head of Department of Public Information. In 2006, Tharoor
was nominated by the Government of India for the post of UN Secretary General.
Tharoor came a close second (behind Ban Ki-moon) in each of the four straw polls
conducted by the UN Security Council and won the online poll conducted by the
BBC News website.
In March 2009, Shashi Tharoor contested the Indian General Elections in 2009 as
Congress Party candidate from Thiruvananthapuram (Lok Sabha constituency) in
Kerala. Despite being criticized as an "elite outsider" he went on to win defeating
his nearest CPI rival P. Ramachandran Nair by a margin of approximately 100,000
votes. Subsequently Shashi Tharoor was selected as Minister of State in the
Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. On 28 May 2009 he was
 sworn in as the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs.
Literary career:
Tharoor has written numerous books in English. Most of his literary creations are
centred on Indian themes and they are markedly “Indo-nostalgic.” Perhaps his
most famous work is The Great Indian Novel, published in 1989, in which he uses
the narrative and theme of the famous Indian epic Mahabharata to weave a
satirical story of Indian life in a non-linear mode with the characters drawn from the
Indian Independence Movement.
Controversies:
Tharoor has often been under fire for being a perpetual victim of the foot-in-mouth
syndrome. Mostly over his twitter posts (tweets), Tharoor has often faced the
media’s ire. A joke in which Tharoor, responding to the question as to whether he
would travel in "Cattle Class", replied that he would do so. The media claimed that
he equated the traveling public to cattle and also taunted his party, the Indian
National Congress over their austerity drive. The latest controversy which lead to
his resigning from the ministry has been regarding the IPL and Lalit Modi. Lalit
Modi published the shareholders details of Kochi-IPL team's franchise owners,
Rendezvous Sports World (RSW) group in his Twitter account and also mentioned
that he was asked by an influential Union Minister to not get into details of
Sunanda Pushkar who was given a sweat equity of approximately 4.5 per cent of
total equity (estimated worth Rs 70 crore) in Kochi IPL team. In an official
statement, Tharoor denied having made any financial gains from the sale or having
pressured Modi in any way. He further accused Modi of trying to delay and
discredit the new owners so that the franchise can be re-awarded elsewhere.
Under severe push from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee combine, the Congress core committee decided to ask for
Tharoor's resignation.18 April 2010 Shashi Tharoor resigned from the post of
Minister of State in MEA after being instructed to do so by the Indian Prime
Minister.
Awards:
• 1976, Aged 20, Wins the Rajika Kripalani Young Journalist Award for the Best
Indian Journalist under 30.
• 1990 – Wins the Federation of Indian Publishers' Hindustan Times Literary Award
for the Best Book of the Year for The Great Indian Novel.
• 1991 – His book The Great Indian Novel wins the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for
the Best Book of the Year in the Eurasian Region.
• 1998 – Awarded the Excelsior Award for excellence in literature by the Association
of Indians in America (AIA) and the Network of Indian Professionals (NetIP).
• May 2000 – Conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in International
Affairs by the University of Puget Sound
• January, 1998 – Named Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum
in Davos, Switzerland
• 15 March 2009–Presented with the Hakim Khan Sur Award for National Integration
by the Maharana of Udaipur.
• 2004 – Awarded the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India’s highest honor
for non-resident Indians. But did not accept it at the time owing to UN rules
prohibiting acceptance of governmental honors.
• 2007 – Went on to accept the award after having resigned from the position of
 Under Secretary General at the UN.
• May 2008 – Conferred a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the University of Bucharest,
Romania.
• January 2009 – Awarded the Zakir Hussain Memorial "Pride of India" Award.
• October 2009 – Awarded GQ's Inspiration of the Year Award at its Man of the Year
Awards.
• February 2010 – Awarded the Sarva Deshiya Prathibha award by the Pazhassiraja
Charitable Trust, Kozhikode.
• March 2010 – Awarded "New Age Politican of the Year" Award by NDTV at its
Indian of the Year awards.
• 5 March 2010 – Awarded the Fifth IILM Distinguished Global Thinker Award in New
Delhi.
• 11 March 2010 – Awarded Digital person of the year at the first ever Indian Digital
Media Awards (IDMA) for popularizing the digital medium in India.

Literary works:
Fiction
• Riot (2001)
• Show Business (1992)
• The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories (1990)
• The Great Indian Novel (1989)
Non-fiction
• Shadows Across the Playing Field: Sixty Years of India-Pakistan Cricket [with
Shaharyar Khan] (2009)
• The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India in the 21st
Century (2007)
• Bookless in Baghdad (2005)
• Nehru: The Invention of India (2003)
• India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997)
• Reasons of State (1982)
Illustrated books
• Kerala: God’s own country (2002) [with artist M.F. Husain]
L'Inde (French) and India (English) (2008) [with photographer Ferrante Ferranti]