Jan 2013 : General Knowledge

• Union Tourism Minister  : Shri K Chiranjeevi
• Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences : Shri Jaipal Reddy
• Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) : S. Ramakrishnan.
• CyanoBacteria  : Blue Green Algae
• World's largest solar telescope : McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope : aperture size of 1.6 metres in Kitt Peak National Observatory at Arizona in the US.
• Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, and nicknamed "Black Beauty(weighs 320gm) : Martian Meteorite.
• Square Kilometer Array (SKA) telescope : World's largest radio telescope(to be built)
• SCI Chairman and Director(Finance) and MD : B K Mandal 
• Mukesh Ambani : 18th world's richest ( Bloomberg Billionaires Index)
• Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim : World's Richest.
• NASA’s Cassini mission : On Saturn' moon Titan.
• Bonn Convention : also known as Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals.
• Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation : Ajay Maken.
• Business 2012 : At a Glance .
• US Vice President : Joe Biden.
• Persons died in 2012 : At a Glance 
• Japan PM : Shinzo Abe (shin-zoh ah-bay).
• Railway Minister : Pawan Kumar Bansal.
• French President  : Francois Hollande.
• British Prime Minister: David Cameron.
• Paigam-e-Aman’ bus service between Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Jammu and Kashmir
• Maitree Express : India Bangladesh Train service.
• Xpress’ browser : Nokia fast loading browser.
• Kansai Nerolac (subsidiary of Kansai Paints Company, Japan): second largest paint manufacturer in India.
• R.K. Dubey: Chairman and Managing Director of Canara Bank
• Infosys CEO and Managing Director :  S. D. Shibulal
• Biritish telecom giant :  Vodafone
• Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister : Veerappa Moily
• State Bank Group chairman : Pratip Chaudhuri
• Working group constituted for studying gold and goal loans by Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs)  under the chairmanship of KUB Rao.
• Reserve Bank of India Governor: D. Subbarao 
• Chairman, SEBI : U. K. Sinha
• Mauritius President :Rajkeswur Purryag
• Union Minister of Steel : Shri Beni Prasad Verma
• The Government of India has so far declared five waterways as National Waterways. These are:- (i) Allahabad-Haldia stretch of the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system (1620 km); (ii) Dhubri-Sadiya stretch of Brahmaputra River (891 km); (iii) Kottapuram-Kollam stretch of West Coast Canal along with Udyogmandal and Champakara Canals (205 km); (iv) Kakinada-Puducherry stretch of the canal along with designated stretches of Godavari and Krishna Rivers (1078 km); and (v) designated stretches of East Coast Canal, Brahmani River and Mahanadi Delta (588 km). The Lakhipur-Bhanga stretch of the Barak River would be the sixth National Waterway.
• Union Minister for Commerce, Industry & Textiles : Anand Sharma.
• NH-6 is a major link for Kolkata in West Bengal to Hazira Port in Gujarat.
• Kanha National Park is a national park and a Tiger Reserve in the Mandla and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh, India. 
• In 2006 Rajinder Sachar Committee placed the socio-economic and educational status of Muslims below that of the Scheduled Castes.
• Jharkhand Governor : Syed Ahmed
• Pakistani human and civil rights activist :  Ansar Burney(key role in negotiating with Somali pirates).
• Enrica Lexie is an Italian Aframax oil-tanker involved in the shooting of two fisherman at Indian coast on 15 Feb 2012.
• Environmental Performance Index at Yale University : 
• India (125)(36.23)
• China(116)(42.24)
• Switzerland(1) (76.69)
• Anant Gupta elevated as HCL Tech CEO.
• Kachin(Jingpo People) tribe : inhabit the Kachin Hills in northern Burma's Kachin State and neighbouring areas of China and India
• Czech President : Milos Zeman
• Siju-Rewak Corridor, located in the Garo Hills of India : Major among 88 Elephant corridor(A wildlife corridor or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities (such as roads, development, or logging)).
• Jordanian prime minister  : Abdullah Ensou
• Bhutan King : King Jigme Khesar
• Megaupload founder : Kim Dotcom
• White phosphorus : an incendiary agent generally used in war to create smoke screens
• The 700-Mhz spectrum band ranges from 698 Mhz to 806 Mhz : 4G Spectrum.
• RBI has not ease its elevated interest rate, which is one of the highest in the world and the highest among BRIC countries, citing high inflation and the government’s inability to reign-in the fiscal deficit at the desired levels.
• CyberKnife technique have helped lung cancer patients. 

21-31 Jan 2013

• In order to increase the availability of pulses, especially for the people living under the low poverty line, the government has resumed import of pulses through State Governments for distribution under Public Distribution System.The thrust of the scheme is to make pulses available to the BPL card holders at least one kg. per month. For More
• Bangalore Gears Up to Host Aeroindia – 2013 .
• Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) lab, which will audit the SAR values of mobile phones; and the Next Generation Network (NGN) lab in the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC).For More. 
• Shri S. N. Ananthasubramanian,  has been elected as the President of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India . Shri Harish K. Vaid,  has been elected as the Vice President. 
• One Year Agenda for DeitY(Department of Electronics and Information Technology). 
• India and Rawanda have singed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral co-operation in Water Resources Development and Management.
• India has decided to go it alone in its second lunar mission, the Chandrayaan-2, which was originally proposed as an Indo-Russian venture. 
• India and Sri Lanka  signed two separate agreements on combating international terrorism and avoidance of double taxation.
• A voter, by pressing the Electronic Voting Machine, will know who he is voting for in an election through a printing slip which will display the name of the candidate and go into a box : Election Commission
• Heritage status for Netaji’s ancestral house
• Rajnath Singh is new BJP president 
• Uddhav Thackeray elected Shiv Sena president 
• The Justice Verma Committee formed to look into crimes against women on Wednesday ruled against recommending death penalty even in the rarest of the rare rape cases, and also did not favour lowering the age of a juvenile from 18 to 16.However they also said the minimum sentence for a rapist should be enhanced from 7 years to 10 and that life imprisonment must always mean jail for ‘the entire natural life of the convict .
• Supreme Court on Wednesday restraining airlines from levying transaction fee in any form on them.
• Indian firms gear up for the mega Thirty Metre Telescope project which will be the world’s most advanced ground-based observatory that will be operating in optical and mid-infrared wavelengths.
• Congress announced that the party’s yuvraj, Rahul Gandhi, had just been appointed vice-president
• Japan to replace Fukushima plant with world’s largest wind farm’.
• Govt will auction spectrum in 700 Mhz band, which is used for offering high-speed Internet services through fourth generation technologies, in 2014.
• INS Saryu commissioned near Andaman & Nicobar islands.
• Malaysia and Sri Lanka bans Kamal Hassan's Vishwaroopam.
• U.S. sanctions cause shortage of drugs in Iran particularly for life-threatening ones such as cancer and cardiac disorder.
• U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Denis R. McDonough, one of his top foreign policy advisors and long time trusted aide as his next Chief of Staff.
• US sentencing commission website hacked to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide.
• Milos Zeman is first directly elected Czech President.
• Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy on Sunday declared a state of emergency and a nightime curfew for one month in three restive cities after days of deadly violence.
• Multiple Entry Visa agreement between India and Bangladesh.
• OVL, the overseas arm of Oil & Natural Gas Corp., in November agreed to pay US energy giant ConocoPhillips about US $5 billion for the 8.4 per cent stake in Kashagan, the biggest oilfield discovery in over four decades get nod from all partners.
• Joint US-Japanese team, investigating into the Boeing Dreamliner’s battery problems, has shifted from the battery-maker to the manufacturer of a monitoring system. 
• UN group okays new video format (codec known as H.265) to save bandwidth .
• UK-based global conglomerate Hinduja group has signed a deal to acquire Belgian media company Alfacam, which provides TV facilities and services to broadcasters and production houses.
• P. Chidambaram will launch the much-awaited Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme (RGESS)(Under the scheme, an individual with an income of less than Rs 10 lakh would get tax incentives for investing up to Rs 50,000 in the stock market but there would be a lock—in period of one year on investments made under the scheme) in Mumbai.
• To reduce Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) from biomedical waste, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has launched a project titled "Enviornmental sound management of medical waste"
• First time a video can be embedded in the tweet itself of not more than 6 seconds.
• A secret plant (at Aldermaston — a village in Berkshire, South-East England) which enriches uranium for Britain’s nuclear warheads has been shut down over safety fears .
• Russia to ban smoking in public places from mid 2014.
• Britain introduces same-sex marriage bill.Soon it will become law after voting.
• Defence Secretary Leon Panetta announced more than 230,000 battlefront posts, many in Army and Marine infantry units and in potentially elite commando jobs, are now open to women.
• Pak Supreme Court  ordering the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file a reference within a week against the Prime Minister, Interior Minister and Pakistan Peoples Party secretary general for the questionable appointment of Tauqir Sadiq as chairman of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and then allegedly facilitating his exit from the country to avoid arrest. 
• Headley gets 35 years in jail.
• 787 Dreamliners: Japan probe finds battery not overcharged.
• King Abdullah II of Jordan has given the parliament the right to choose the prime minister, previously appointed by the crown.
• GMR synchronises Kamalanga Thermal plant Orissa with the central grid.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI),  notified the enhanced limit of investing in government securities (G-Secs) by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and long-term investors(include SEBI-registered sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), multilateral agencies, endowment funds, insurance funds, pension funds and foreign central banks. ) by $5 billion to $25 billion from $20 billion.It also hiked the investment limit in corporate bonds by these entities by $5 billion $50 billion from $45 billion.
• As part of the UPA Government’s National eGovernance Plan, the Commerce and Industry Ministry, on Monday, announced the launch of an eBiz portal aimed at providing Government-to-Business (G2B) services for India’s investor and business communities developed by Infosys in a public-private partnership (PPP) mode.The online single-window concept was visualised to enable businesses and investors to save time and costs and improve the business environment.
• Air India puts up Dreamliners for sale, leaseback.
• Home-grown GPS ‘Gagan’ likely by 2014.
• Genome sequence of 90 chickpea lines decoded(Chickpea(gram) is the second largest cultivated grain food legume in the world, grown in about 11.5 million hectares mostly by resource poor farmers in the semi-arid tropics. It contributes to income generation and improved livelihoods of smallholder farmers in African countries such as Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya, and is crucial to the food security in India.)
• Reserve Bank of India  slashed its key interest rates by 0.25 per cent and released Rs 18,000 crore additional liquidity into the system to perk up growth through reduced cost of borrowing(cutting repo rate by 0.25 per cent to 7.75 per cent and cash reserve ratio (CRR) by similar margin to 4 per cent.) 
• Boeing delivers first of 10 C-17 Globemaster III airlifters to the Indian Air Force (IAF).
• Railways addressing food complaints in real time ( call 1800111321 any time between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.)
• Software for rapid diagnosis of dengue : Dengue Decision Support System (DDSS) has been developed by U.S N. Murty.
• 3 new High Courts in the northeast — Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura — taking the total number of High Courts in the country from 21 to 24. 
• King of Bhutan(King Jigme Khesar) : Chief guest of Republic Day 2013
• India on Sunday successfully test-fired the underwater ballistic missile, K-15 (code-named B05), off the Visakhapatnam coast.
• Largest Russian naval exercise in post-Soviet era conduct nine-day exercises in the Mediterranean and Black seas.
• Myanmar : mining project in Monywa is a joint venture between a military-controlled holding company and China’s Wanbao Mining Copper Ltd., a subsidiary of NORINCO, a Chinese weapons manufacturer.Protestors wanted it to be halted. 
• Nepal to issue IDs to third gender.
• Hawaiian Surfer Garrett McNamara rides world record wave of 100ft at Atlantic Coast off Nazare.
• Israel became the first country to boycott a U.N. review of its human rights practices in which all 193 member-states submit every four years.
• Chinese company taking over management of Pakistan’s deep-sea Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.
• China's 12th Plan stresses hydropower from Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra).(4 Dams).
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved state-run ONGC Videsh’s (OVL’s) acquisition of U.S. energy major Hess Corp’s 2.7213 per cent stake in the Azeri, Chirag and the deep water portion of Guneshli (ACG) fields in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea and 2.36 per cent interest in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline in Azerbaijan for $1.001 billion.
• Vodafone-DoT collision course could jeopardise 2G spectrum auctions(acquisitions : auction guidelines have arbitrarily fixed reserve price at levels that are higher than international benchmarks.)
•  Samsung launches Galaxy Grand(powered by Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) operating system, and runs on a 1.2 GHz dual core processor)
• To prevent anaemia, the government will soon launch an ambitious programme to provide Iron Folic Acid (IFA) tablets every week to 13 crore adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years across the country. 
• Protein, known as IRHOM2, as the potential new target for drugs to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
• NASA launches communication satellite : unmanned Atlas V rocket blasted into the starry night sky carrying the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. 
• NASA Super-TIGER balloon shatters flight record carrying the Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder (Super-TIGER) experiment(Super-TIGER is flying a new instrument for measuring the rare heavy elements among the flux of high-energy cosmic rays bombarding Earth from elsewhere in our Milky Way Galaxy)
• HTC launched Butterfly has the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor.
• Blackberry released OS upgrade Blackberry 10. 
• Prof U R Rao, former Chairman, ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space is being honoured by the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) by inducting him as a Member of the highly prestigious “Satellite Hall of Fame”, Washington. 
• Indian scientist Dr C N R Rao has been conferred with China's top science award for his important contributions in boosting Sino-India scientific cooperation.
• IT to help differently abled students to ramp up the use of information technology in teaching. 
• India would flight test sub-sonic, medium range cruise missile Nirbhay, in Feb 2013.
• Twitter launches Vine, a six-second iPhone video app (a service that lets users upload videos. Just as Twitter limits posts to 140 characters, Vine limits videos to six seconds.)

Short Terms : Jan 2013

Foreign Portfolio Investment

• In economics, foreign portfolio investment is the entry of funds into a country where foreigners make purchases in the country’s stock and bond markets, sometimes for speculation.
• It is a usually short term investment (sometimes less than a year, or with involvement in the management of the company), as opposed to the longer term Foreign Direct Investment partnership (possibly through joint venture), involving transfer of technology and "know-how".
• Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI): passive holdings of securities and other financial assets, which do NOT entail active management or control of the securities's issuer.

Green Haat

• Green Haat is an initiative of Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF), Govt. of India to raise awareness on the rich forest and bio diverse heritage of the country among the growing urban population often living far off from the forests.Green Haat 2013 “Brings Nature to Our Lives”.

Red October

• Termed ‘Red October’ or Rocra for short, the cyber spying campaign was launched in 2007 and is still active.
• Russia tops the list of countries with 38 detected infections, India ranks fifth with 14 infections, after Kazakhstan (21); Azerbaijan (15); and Belgium (15). The United States is also on the list with six attacks.
• The Rocra malware, called Backdoor.Win32.Sputnik, has been stealing data both from computer workstations, removable disk drives and smartphones, including iPhones, Nokia and phones running on Windows mobile.
• It is capable of regaining control of computers cured of the malware and has even stolen documents encrypted with classified software ‘Acid Cryptofiler’ used by NATO and the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since 2011.

Sovereign Wealth Fund - SWF

• Pools of money derived from a country's reserves, which are set aside for investment purposes that will benefit the country's economy and citizens
• The funding for a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) comes from central bank reserves that accumulate as a result of budget and trade surpluses, and even from revenue generated from the exports of natural resources.

Endowment Fund

• An investment fund set up by an institution in which regular withdrawals from the invested capital are used for ongoing operations or other specified purposes.
• Endowment funds are often used by nonprofits, universities, hospitals and churches. They are funded by donations, which are tax deductible for donors.

Zones in Forest Area

• Successor to the controversial "no-go zone” concept, mining and other harmful non-forestry activities could soon be banned from forest areas identified as “inviolate”.
• Buffer zone :  one km around such protected area.

Most Favoured Nation

• The term means the country which is the recipient of this treatment must, nominally, receive equal trade advantages as the "most favored nation" by the country granting such treatment. (Trade advantages include low tariffs or high import quotas.)
• As MFN clauses promote non-discrimination among countries, they also tend to promote the objective of free trade in general.

Canada

India Canada Relations

• Both Canada and India have set a target of taking the annual bilateral trade volume to USD 15 billion by 2015 from USD 5 billion at present.
• Canada is several steps ahead from US, France and Australia in the field of civil nuclear cooperation.India intends to increase the nuclear power generation capacity from the current 3 per cent to about 25 per cent by 2050 and this provides a great opportunity for Canadian nuclear industry

Algaculture

Alga Culture Benefits 

• It also provides green bleach and ensures clean environment by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen.

India - Sri Lanka

India - Sri Lanka Relations

• India and Sri Lanka signed two separate agreements on combating international terrorism and avoidance of double taxation on 22Jan 2013.
• Also discussed the emotive issue of fishermen and rehabilitation process of Tamils in Sri Lanka besides the 13th Amendment of the Lankan constitution that gives autonomy to provinces.
• India-aided housing project UN-HABITAT is one of the three implementing agencies selected by the Indian authorities.
• Justice Verma(former Indian CJI) was to head an international fact-finding mission to assess the legal issues involved in the impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake.But due to visa rejection the delegation was to cancel visit.

Bangladesh

India-Bangladesh Relations

• Multiple Entry Visas : The new provision allowed issuance of multiple entry visas for one year compared to previous three months on medical grounds while for education purpose the visa period was extended for five years which previously was for two years and extendable on year to year basis.
• Signed two landmark agreements in jan 2013— an extradition treaty to facilitate transfer of criminals and terrorists and an agreement to liberalise the visa regime.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos)

• India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos)
• Article 97 of Unclos says that in case of a navigation incident such as collision in the high seas India cannot detain a vessel registered in another country or initiate proceedings against the crew if they are not Indian nationals.
• he Court said Article 97 will not apply in the case of Enrica Lexie(talian marines shooting incident) as the shooting was a criminal action, not a navigation incident.
• India’s Exclusive Economic Zone, a distance of 200 nautical miles from the shore, high seas where Unclos 97 could apply for collisions. 

Africa

African Union 

• The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) members - the largest economic group in Africa

India and African Countries

• Anand Sharma Raises Trade Target with Africa to USD 100 Billion.

• RWANDA : 
• India already has an MOU with Rwanda on bilateral Cooperation in the field of Agriculture, and animal resources since 2007.
• India and Rawanda have singed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral co-operation in Water Resources Development and Management on Jan 23 2013: objective of this co-operation is to realize the goal of achieving food security in Rwanda

SAR lab and NGN lab

Specific Absorption Rate

• The Telecommunication Engineering Centre has commissioned a Lab for measurement of Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) for the mobile handsets.  SAR is closely related to electric field strengths produced inside human body tissues while making calls.  Lower the value of SAR, safer the mobile handset for the human use.
• The TEC SAR Lab is one of its kind as it is the first lab in India for independent audit of SAR value, self-certified by mobile handset manufacturers and importers in India. 
• This Lab is capable of making SAR measurement for CDMA, GSM 2G and 3G mobile handsets in the frequency band of 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz.

Next Generation Network

• The Next Generation Network (NGN) lab in TEC is a unique test infrastructure in the country  which is capable of subjecting Internet Protocol (IP) based equipment for Conformance and Interoperability testing.
• NGN lab has the capability to test both IPv4 and IPv6 and the migration scenarios. The lab also supports the NGN based Interconnection and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
• The lab is upgradable from the present 1G/10G Electrical/Optical Interfaces to 40G/100G optical interfaces. The test facility can also be augmented to take care of testing of Cloud Computing based implementations.  

National Food Security Mission (NFSM)-Pulses

• The Accelerated Pulses Production Programme (A3P) has been launched under the NFSM-Pulses from Kharif 2012 for demonstration of production and protection technologies on village level compact Blocks for enhanced production of pulses as well as motivating farmers.
• The centre has taken a number of steps recently to control prices of pulses which include- 
• Reduced import duties to zero for pulses.
• Banned export of pulses (except Kabuli chana and organic pulses and lentils up to a maximum of 10000 tones per annum).
• Imposed stock limits from time to time in the case of pulses.
• Suspended Futures trading in urad and tur.

14-20 Jan 2013

• President releases a commemorative stamp on Shri Aditya Vikram Birla on the theme of ‘1st Indian Global Industrialist’.
• Krishi Karman Awards for 2011-12 go to Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Nagaland, Bihar(Rice), Haryana(Wheat), Jharkhand(Pulses) and Uttar Pradesh(Coarse Cereals).
• India, South Africa agree for Early Finalisation of India-SACU(Southern African Custom Union) PTA(Preferential Trade Agreement) Negotiations. 
• Swatch to buy luxury brand Harry Winston for $1 billion 
• GAAR will come into force from April 2016 after the acceptance of the recommendation of  Parthasarathi Shome Committee.
• Preparing to deal with any future chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) incidents, Indian scientists have devised 16 drugs that can be used for disaster management. These include an anti-cyanide drug, an anti-nerve gas drug and an anti-toxic gas drug. 
• IMD launching mobile application for weather forecast of 4 metros : application called “Indian-weather” .
• Largest-known spiral galaxy discovered : NGC 6872
• Madurai provides best mental health care after evaluation by District Mental Health Programme (DMHP).
• India wants rollback of piracy zone which was earlier decided to move the longitude marking off the high-risk area in the Arabian Sea from 65 degrees to 78 east by International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) 
• Sri Lanka's former attorney general Mohan Peiris has been appointed the new Chief Justice(44th) takes oath before President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
•  Pak SC orders arrest of PM Raja Pervez Ashraf(PM after Yousuf Raza Gilani  in corruption case .
• India’s first ‘Technology Innovation Research Centre’ at the ATDC-Training of Trainers’ Academy, Gurgaon, in collaboration with JUKI India Pvt. Ltd.
• The ATDC-JUKI TECH Innovation Centre will be a platform where industry and academia can focus on showcasing and demonstrating leading edge technology and carrying out applied ‘Research’ which is a key word in SMART (Skills for Manufacturing of Apparel through Research and Training)
• Welspun Energy: to set up a research laboratory in Gujarat for advancement of solar technology in partnership with Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI).
• Bharti Airtel said Sanjay Kapoor, CEO (India and South Asia), had resigned from the company and Gopal Vittal would take over as the head of its Indian operations.
• Book titled Pataudi: Nawab of Cricket : By Suresh Menon
• The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has decided to exclude Deccan Chronicle Holdings and include Bharti Infratel from the BSE-500 index  .
• Korean scientists develop world's first bendable lithium-ion batteries, paving way for flexible mobile devices. 
• Anant Gupta elevated as HCL Tech CEO.
• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has amended its Employee Stock Option Scheme (ESOS) and Employee Stock Purchase Scheme (ESPS) Guidelines, 1999, by prohibiting companies from dealing in their own shares in the secondary market under these schemes, with immediate effect.
• Tahawwur Rana sentenced to 14 years by US court for his role in supporting the Pakistani terrorist group that worked with Pakistan's intelligence service to carry out the 2008 Mumbai attacks and plot a follow-up strike in Denmark. 
• Union government decision allow state-run oil marketing companies to fix the price of diesel .
• Mercury treaty adopted in Geneva by 140 countries with aim to reduce global emission levels of the toxic heavy metal also known as quicksilver, which poses risks to human health and the environment and treaty is known as "Minamata Convention on Mercury".
• Prof U R Rao (former chairman ISRO) being inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame by the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI).
• NASA beams Mona Lisa to Moon with laser.
• World's most complex 2D laser beam created : The new 2-D optical phased array technology will enable advanced Light Detection And Ranging (LADAR) and other defence applications.
• Gun control by US (new restrictions on assault weapons) : Obama's outlined plan consisting of: criminal background check requirement for all gun sales; reinstatement and strengthening of the assault weapons ban that lapsed in the U.S. Congress in 2004; restoration of the ten-round limit on ammunition magazines; and rolling back of the freeze on gun violence research.
• It was the 70^th Golden Globe Awards organized at Beverly Hills. The winners of various awards are as follows:
  
  

  • Best Motion Picture Drama: Argo
  • Best Motion Picture Musical/Comedy: Les Miserables
  • Best Director in Motion Picture-Drama: Ben Affleck for Argo
  • Best Actor in Motion Picture-Drama: Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln
  • Best Actress in Motion Picture-Drama: Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty
  • Best Actor in Motion Picture or Musical or Comedy: Hugh Jackman for Les Miserables
  • Best Actress in Motion Picture Musical or Comedy: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook
  • Best Actor in a Supporting role in Motion Picture: Christoph Waltz for Dzango Unchained
  • Best Actress in a Supporting role in Motion Picture: Anne Hathaway for Les Miserables
  • Best Original Score Motion Picture: Life of Pi
•  Air India grounds all DreamLiner.(Airbourne Troubles)
• The International Tourism Mart, Guwahati 2013 is not only the first ever international tourism event to be organised in the North Eastern region, but also the first international tourism mart to focus on a specific region of India.
• The President has proclaimed the imposition of President’s Rule in Jharkhand under Article 356(1) of the Constitution.
• Even non-member can move Speaker for disqualification of defectors under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law), rules SC

AirBourne Troubles

• Federal Aviation administration in US grounded all 6 dreamlines aircraft.Taking the cue DGCA has grounded Indian Fleet.
• Reason :  Lithium ion batteries are more energy efficient but a greater fire risk.
• Impact : On 16 Jan 2013 electrolyte leaked out in a All Nippon Airways flight,gicing a burning smell.Chances of fire breaking led to emergency landing.
• Why Dreamliners : 
• 20% less fuel
• 60% less noise
• 30% larger windows with adjustable tint.
• Spacious storage

India -Vietnam Relations

• There is a 40 years of friendship and five years of strategic partnership between the two countries.
• Indian companies such as Godrej (furniture), Nagarjuna and KCP (sugar), Phillips Carbon Black, Marico, Fortis Health Care and CCL (coffee) have invested in Vietnam but none of these are big.
• Major pharmaceutical firms such as Torrent, Zydus Cadila, Glenmark and Panacea Biotech have also set up offices to promote their products in Vietnam. Incidentally, India is one of the largest exporters of pharmaceutical products to Vietnam.
• The absence of a direct flight between the two countries is a dampener to not just business but also tourism. 
• Trade between the two countries stands at around $4 billion and the aim is to take it to $7 billion by 2015.
• Inked an MoU targeted at building capacity for  developing institutional framework and identifying key areas and opportunities for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India.(Jan 2013)
• Hamid Ansari on a 4 day visit to Vietnam.[18 Jan 2013]

Constitutional Amendments

• One Hundred Seventeenth Amendment Constitutional Amendment Bill for Reservation in Promotion to SCs and STs .The Bill proposes to amend the Article 16 (4A) of the Constitution of India. The existing Article 16(4A) provides for reservation in promotion to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) which are not adequately represented in the Govt. services. The proposed amendment would amend Article 16(4A) in such a manner that it would obviate the need of collection of quantifiable data about adequacy of representation and backwardness of the class for reservation in promotion to the SCs and the STs.
• Constitution (118th Amendment) Bill, 2012 which seeks to provide special status to six backward districts in the Hyderabad Karnataka region, with provision for reservation in education and jobs for local people.
  The Bill introduces a new Article 371-J to provide special recognition for the six backward districts in north Karnataka: Gulbarga, Yadgir, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal and Bellary.
  The Bill provides for creation of a separate development board and equitable allocation of funds for development of the region. In addition to this, it will provide quota in public employment through establishment of local cadres and reservation in education and vocational training institutions for those who belong to the region by birth or domicile.
• 
  

Urban Development

Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana

• Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) aimed at providing gainful employment to the urban unemployed and under-employed poor, by financing the self employment ventures by the urban poor living below the poverty line, skills training and also through providing wage employment by utilizing their labour for construction of socially and economically useful public assets by Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation

Banking Bill

• The Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill 2011 was introduced in order to amend the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970/1980.
• Paving way for foreign investments in the sector and establishment of new private banks and also to achieve greater financial inclusion.
  The Bill does not contain controversial clauses of allowing banks to trade in futures and keeping the sector outside the purview of Competition Commission as it was earlier proposed.
• The salient features of the Bill are as follows: 
• To enable banking companies to issue preference shares subject to regulatory guidelines by the RBI; 
• Voting rights of investors in private sector banks raised to 26 %, from 10 % which will boost foreign investments.
• Cap on voting rights of private investors in PSBs raised to 10%, from 1%  
• To create a Depositor Education and Awareness Fund by utilizing the inoperative deposit accounts; 
•  To provide prior approval of RBI for acquisition of 5% or more of shares or voting rights in a banking company by any person and empowering RBI to impose such conditions as it deems fit in this regard; 
•  To empower RBI to collect information and inspect associate enterprises of banking companies; 
• CCI to regulate mergers and acquisitions and will also have power to investigate and clear mergers and acquisitions in banking industry 
• RBI allowed to supersede boards of private sector banks. 
•  To provide for primary cooperative societies to carry on the business of banking only after obtaining a license from RBI; 
• To provide for special audit of cooperative banks at instance of RBI 
•  To enable the nationalized banks to raise capital through “bonus” and “rights” issue and also enable them to increase or decrease the authorized capital with approval from the Government and RBI without being limited by the ceiling of a maximum of Rs. 3000 crore under the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970/1980.
• The Bill would pave the way for new bank licenses by RBI resulting in opening of new banks and branches. This would not only help in achieving the goal of financial inclusion by providing more banking facilities but would also provide extra employment opportunities to the people at large in the banking sector.   

Youth Affairs

Achievements for the year 2012

• National Youth Policy, 2012 :
   
• Review of NYP 2003.
• Envisages to put in place a comprehensive strategy to ensure the fullest development and realization of the potential of the youth, in the context of future socio-economic growth.
  
•  NEHRU YUVA KENDRA SANGATHAN :
  
• help set up, mentor and nurture rural youth clubs.
• Nehru Yuva Kendras established in the year 1972 with the objective of providing rural youth avenues to take part in the process of nation building
• 1987-88, (NYKS) was converted into as an autonomous organization under the Government of India.
• NEEV programme the youth is provided training in sales, marketing skills, product knowledge and process clarity by Accenture and then work for Tata Motors.Average income earned under the ‘NEEV’ programme varies from Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 15,000 per month.
  
• NATIONAL SERVICE SCHEME (NSS) :
  
• aimed at developing qualities of good citizenship and spirit of Volunteerism among youth and to provide them an opportunity to work with the people in the villages and slum dwellers. 
• The scheme seeks to achieve its objectives through twin approach i.e. “Campus to Community” and “College to Village”.
  
• National Programme for Youth Adolescent Development(NPYAD) :
  
• RAJIV GANDHI NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF YOUTH DEVELOPMENT (RGNIYD):
  
• Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development has been declared as an Institute of National Importance and, to this effect, the RGNIYD Act has been notified to commence w.e.f. 19.11.2012.
  
• INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION (IC) :
  
• Exchange of Youth Delegations with friendly countries.
  
• YOUTH HOSTEL :
   
• Built to promote youth travel and to enable the young people experience the rich cultural heritage of the country.
• The construction of the Youth hostels is a joint venture of the Central and State Governments.
  

Health Sector

• Several new initiatives have been envisaged during 12th Plan period. 
• Strengthening of Sub-Centres, which are the first port of call for the community for healthcare services in the remotest and inaccessible areas by providing additional manpower.
• The District Hospitals would be equipped to become strong hubs for advanced secondary and multi-speciality care.
• To cope with the increasing load at government facilities, 20,000 additional beds for mothers and children have been approved for District Hospitals and Community Health Centres.
• It is proposed to introduce universal screening for all children for disease, disability and deficiency which would be followed up by free treatment where required.
• Medicines account for 70% of out of pocket expenditure. It is proposed to ensure availability of free generic medicines to everyone coming to a government health facility.
• Another area would be the launch of an urban health initiative to address health concerns of urban poor specially those living in the urban slums.  

20th Law Commission

• Justice D. K. Jain, Judge, Supreme Court of India, will be the Chairman of the Twentieth Law Commission of India from any day after 24^th January 2013 on his retirement from the Supreme Court. 
• The Terms of Reference of the Twentieth Law Commission include the following :
• Review/Repeal of obsolete laws
• Law which affects Poverty
• Keep under review the system of judicial administration to ensure that it is responsive to the reasonable demands of the times and in particular to secure.
• Examine the existing laws in the light of Directive Principles of State Policy and to suggest ways of improvement and reform.
• Examine the existing laws with a view for promoting gender equality
•  Revise the Central Acts of general importance
•  Recommend to the Government measure for making the statute book up-to-date
• Consider and to convey to the Government its views on any subject relating to law and judicial administration.
• The Twentieth Law Commission was constituted through a Government Order with effect from 1^st September, 2012. It has a three-year term ending on 31^st August, 2015.

7-13 Jan : News

• ‘Nirbhaya’ mobile app to help women in distress.
• Wockhardt,  received final approval from the United States Food & Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) to market Lamotrigine, a drug used to treat epilepsy.
• GMR Infrastructure today said it has terminated its contract with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for building the Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad Highway project.(a Public-Private Partnership)
• B. K. Mandal, Director (Finance) of the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), has assumed additional charge as Chairman & Managing Director .
•  900 foot-wide asteroid Apophis to pass by Earth.
• Hunting of Houbara bustards, taxonomically classified as Clamydotis undulata,in Pak.It do winter migration and affected the desert eco-system.Convention of the International Trade in Endangered Species has classified it as an endangered migratory bird. 
• Illiquid stocks (are those that can not be sold easily because they see limited trading. They pose higher risks to investors because it is difficult to find buyers for them, as compared to the frequently traded shares) : bourses caution investors
• Indian-origin politician Halimah Yacob (58) is set to become the first woman Speaker of Singapore’s Parliament next week replacing Michael Palmer.
• GAIL (India) has announced the successful commissioning of the Dabhol LNG terminal located at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, around 340 km south of Mumbai.
• Eligibility criteria stands slightly diluted in that a retired judge of a High Court with seven years of experience would now be eligible for appointment as SAT chief.Earlier only a retired judge of the Supreme Court or a former Chief Justice of a High Court was eligible.  
• Government raises assistance to poor :
• Raised the amount of assistance from Rs 45,000 to Rs 70,000 for construction of a dwelling unit.
• For hilly and other difficult areas, the grants for constructing houses under the Indira Awaas Yojna (IAY) have been increased from Rs 48,500 crore to Rs 75,000.
• There will also be a provision now of loan up to Rs 20,000 — up from Rs 10,000 — with four per cent interest for buying land for the house.
•  Justice (Retd.) (Ms.) Usha Mehra Commission has been set up under Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 to enquire into various aspects of the shocking incident of rape and brutal assault of a young woman in Delhi on 16.12.2012 and to identify the lapses, if any, on the part of the police or any other authority or person that contributed to the occurrence.
• Attested photocopy of Ration Card with photograph and Nationalised Bank Passbook with photographs (attested by Gazetted Officer or the Chief Reservation Supervisor or Station Manager/Station Master. )shall also be accepted as a prescribed proof of identity only in case of reserved tickets booked through computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters, for undertaking journey in Sleeper (SL) and Second Reserved Sitting (2S) classes.
• Sri Lanka's first woman  Chief Justice  Shirani Bandarnayake sacked after impeachment from parliament on corruption charges.
• Online activist, programmer Aaron Swartz (co founder of reddit and activist fought to make online content free to public) (He is on a trial on accusations to stole millions of journals from an archive to make that public free)dies in NY .
• Protest at Vedanta headquarters.(it is embroiled over its plans to mine tribal land in Orissa regarded sacred by the Dongria Kondh tribe.It is London listed company).
• Air India on Thursday launched a daily flight on the Delhi-Paris-Delhi sector with a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
• SpiceJet, slashed air fares substantially by offering a limited-period sale of 10 lakh seats across its domestic network for an all-inclusive fare of Rs. 2,013. 
• Moily seeks Kazakhstan support for OVL’s bid to buy 8.4% ConocoPhillips’ stake
• India was ranked 38th in terms of its risk management effectiveness and 32nd for its resilience to global risks. Singapore was ranked on top in both these surveys bt World Economic Forum.
• RBI has issued revised guidelines for Credit Default Swaps (CDS) for corporate bonds.
• besides listed corporate bonds, CDS shall be permitted on unlisted but rated corporate bonds even for issues other than infrastructure companies.
• users will be allowed to unwind their Credit Default Swaps bought position with original protection seller at mutually agreeable or the Fixed Income Money Market and Derivatives Association of India (FIMMDA) price.
• DS will be permitted on securities with original maturity up to one year like Commercial Papers, Certificates of Deposit and non-convertible debentures with original maturity less than one year as reference / deliverable obligations.
• Turkey removes duty on Indian cotton yarn imports.
• The Governor of Karnataka can appoint the Lokayukta or the Upalokayukta only on the advice tendered by the Chief Minister, and the Chief Justice of the High Court is only one of the consultees, and his views will have no primacy : Supreme Court
• CJI constitutes Special Bench to hear crimes against women.
• The 121-km stretch of Lakhipur-Bhanga of the Barak river will soon become a national waterway, the sixth in the country,integrating the waterways in the northeast and helping cargo transport through Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.
• Railway Minister P.K. Bansal o announced an across-the-board hike in passenger fares ,the hike comes into effect from January 21.
• Arjun Munda resigns, recommends fresh polls in Jharkhand.
• Kargil gets first civil air connectivity
• Notice to Centre on de-licensing cancer drugs(Gardasil and Cervarix — are unproven and hazardous human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines being marketed in India by MSD Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd. and GlaxoSmithKline Ltd.)
• T.N. tops in implementation outcomes of NRHM.
• President releases a commemorative postage stamp on ‘silk letter movement’ .
• President launches the National Immunization Day, 2013 on the day India completes two years without a single case of polio.
• Dr Veerappa Moily Launches LPG Customer Empowering Initiatives as part of Project Lakshya .
• Distributors to be rated based on delivery performance; 
• Mobile applications now available; 
• Pilot on Web enabled distributor portability launched
• Apply online for LPG connection
• Union Minister of Steel, Shri Beni Prasad Verma congratulated the Indian steel industry on being the number one in terms of growth rate in steel production amongst the top ten steel producing countries(April - November’12, the Indian steel industry achieved a growth rate of 5.36%) 
• Amendment to Section 15M of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act, 1992: to enlarge the field of selection for the post of Presiding Officer (PO) of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), by including sitting or retired judge of a High Court with a minimum seven years of service, as a Judge of a High Court as one of the qualification(The SAT was set up under Section 15K of the SEBI Act, 1992 to adjudicate upon the appeals against the decisions of SEBI.)
• Enhancement of unit assistance under the Indira Awaas Yojana :
• Enhancement of unit assistance under the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) from Rs. 45,000/- to Rs. 70,000/- in plain areas and from Rs. 48,500/- to Rs. 75,000/- in hilly/difficult/LAP district;
• Enhancement of unit assistance provided for homestead site to rural Below Poverty Line (BPL) households who have neither agricultural land nor a house site for purchase/acquisition of a homestead site from Rs.10,000/- to Rs.20,000/-. This was a major point in the Agreement between Govt. of India and Jan Satyagraha on 11th October 2012 at Agra.
• (The IAY is a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development and aims at addressing rural housing issues by providing grant for construction / upgradation of dwelling units of BPL families especially giving priority to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, freed bonded labourers and physically challenged persons)
• Declaring National Institute of Design (NID),Ahmedabad, by Parliament by law as an institution of National Importance.
• President confers the Honorary Rank of General of the Indian Army on General Gaurav Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana Chief of the Army Staff, Nepalese Army.
• National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 ,mission document for the NMEM (objectives of the National Mission for Electric Mobility (NMEM) are National energy security, mitigation of the adverse impact of vehicles on the environment and growth of domestic manufacturing capabilities) launched.

25-31 Dec : News

• Pak to lift ban on YouTube after over three months ban.
• Guidelines say that no new tourism infrastructure should be permitted in core and critical tiger habitats.
• BeiDou Navigation Satellite System : Chinese Navigation system (like GPS) launched in China and Asia-Pacific region.
• C/2012 S1 (ISON) : Supercomet to outshine moon in 2013.
• According to McKinsey & Company report : Internet currently contributes a modest 1.6 per cent to India's GDP. This could grow to 2.8 to 3.3 per cent by 2015,this would increase Internet’s contribution to GDP from $30 billion now to nearly $100 billion in 2015 and around 2.2 crore jobs will be generated by 2015.
• Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act — equipped the U.S. government to act against any website hosting content that it believes infringes copyrights, even those hosted overseas.
• SARAL, a satellite meant for studying the ocean currents and sea surface heights launched postponed: 400-kg SARAL (Satellite for Argos-3 and Altika) has two payloads: Argos-3 for data collection and Altikameter for measuring the height of the sea surface. These payloads from French space agency CNES.Others which accompany SARAL : 148-kg Sapphire and the 82-kg NEOSSAT, both from Canada(NEOSSAT (Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite) is “the world’s first space telescope dedicated to detecting and tracking asteroids and satellites.); two nano-satellites for astrophysics, BRITE and UniBRITE, from Austria; and AAUSAT from Denmark. 
• SMS completed 20 yrs.
• K-15(underwater missile) set to join Arihant(India’s nuclear-powered submarine)(which is powered by an 80-MWt reactor that uses enriched uranium as fuel and light water as coolant and moderator)
• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), on Friday, appointed S. Raman as its whole-time member for five years. 
• Putin signs Anti-US adoption Bill : banning Americans from adopting Russian children.
• Myanmar will allow private daily newspapers starting in April for the first time since 1964 : freedom of expression.
• India pays more to UN budget.
• The United Nations ended its peacekeeping mission in East Timor(island in S Asia under Indonesia) on Monday, leaving the country. 
• New constitution has been signed into law by President Mohamed Morsy in Egypt.
• Shinzo Abe (shin-zoh ah-bay) as Japan’s new Pime Minister.
• China launched service on the world’s longest high-speed railway  with trains scheduled to run 2,298 kilometres between Beijing and Guangzhou in about eight hours at 300km/hr.
• Inventor at IBM, Rangaswamy Srinivasan, has been nominated by U.S. President Barack Obama for the prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation.(discovered that an ultraviolet excimer laser could etch living tissues in a precise manner with no thermal damage to the surrounding area now used in Lasik surgery to correct lenses) 
• State Bank of India (SBI) has launched State Bank MobiCash Easy with Oxigen in Delhi Mumbai only, a mobile wallet which offers facilities such as fund transfer, bill payment, balance inquiry, mini statement, mobile top-ups and DTH recharge.
• India has emerged the world’s largest rice exporter, displacing Thailand from its leadership position, with rice exports in marketing year 2011/12 (October-September) placed at a record 10.4 million tonnes. 
• Parliament  passed -- Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, and Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, so that corporate houses to enter the banking sector and India will have 2-3 world sized banks.
• Wheat MSP raised to Rs. 1,350 a quintal.
• The government announced additional incentives for exporters, hit hard by the global slowdown, that include extension of two per cent interest subsidy for one more year till March 2014.
• Indian Coast Guard Station Mayabunder, the first CG Station in the North Andaman Islands was commissioned.
• Asia’s First Bio-Safety Level-IV Laboratory established by ICMR with support from Department of Science & Technology at Pune

1-6 Jan : News

• SC ordered that all drug trials(illegal clinical trials) will be done under the supervision of the Union Health Secretary.
• Union Home Minister Shri Sushilkumar Shinde will launch pilot programme of Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) on 4 Jan 2013 in New Delhi. CCTNS is a Mission Mode Project under the National e-Governance Plan of Government of India.
    CCTNS aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing .
• PM Unveils New Science, Technology and Innovation Policy at Centenary Session of Indian Science Congress.
• Supreme Court upheld the appointment of Justice R.A. Mehta as Lokayukta in Gujarat by Governor Kamla Beniwal
• The U.S. Senate, approved legislation  that would allow tax rates to rise only on affluent Americans while temporarily suspending sweeping, across-the-board spending cuts. 
• No Journalistic Activities Permitted on Tourist Visa . 
• 14th Finance commission constituted as mandated by the Article 280 of the constitution.
• Incredible India-2013 Calendar is based on the theme “Find What You Seek”.
•  24th road safety week begins  from 1st January to 7th January 2013 with theme “Stay Alive, don’t drink and drive".
• India is expected to start building the world's largest solar telescope on the icy heights of Ladakh to study the sun's atmosphere and understand the formation of sun-spots and their decay process.Rs 300-crore project is expected to come up at either Hanle or Merak, which is very near to the Ladakh's Pangong lake along the Line of Actual Control with China.   
• Internet celebrates its 30th birthday 
• Linux community has been particularly offended by the operating system’s Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), or popularly known as Secure Boot.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug ,Sirturo, known chemically as bedaquiline,that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades. 
• Environment ministry has given states up to February 15 to finalise no-go areas for industry around the 600 plus national parks and sanctuaries. If the states do not submit their proposals by the deadline, the centre will impose a 10 km area around these protected wildlife zones as eco-sensitive zones where some kind of development projects would be completely banned and others restricted.
• Bharti Infratel in FTSE Global Equity indices (FTSE, which is a part of the London Stock Exchange Group, is a world-leader in the provision of global index and analytical solutions.)
• A committee ,headed by IIM-Ahmedabad’s Prof Ravindra H Dholakia,was set up today to suggest measures to lower the high costs of Air India’s operations and improve utilisation of resources in line with best global practices to help the state-run carrier achieve the goals of its turnaround and financial restructuring plans.
• SEBI moot norms for corporate governance : 
• all listed companies must appoint an independent director as a lead director, who could chair the meetings of independent directors and act as a liaison between independent directors and management/board/ shareholder.
• The board should set a corporate culture and the values by which executives throughout a group will behave. The board should eliminate policies that promote excessive risk-taking for the sake of short-term increases in stock price performance and ensure that a risk/crisis management plan is in place.
• disclosure of ratio of remuneration paid to directors and their median staff salary.
•  SEBI suggested for stronger share buy-back norms :( The repurchase of outstanding shares (repurchase) by a company in order to reduce the number of shares on the market. Companies will buy back shares either to increase the value of shares still available (reducing supply), or to eliminate any threats by shareholders who may be looking for a controlling stake.)
• companies complete the buy back in three months. To ensure that only serious companies launch the buyback programme, it is further proposed that these companies be mandated to put 25 per cent of the maximum amount proposed for buy back in an escrow account.
• the companies, which are unable to buyback all the targeted shares (or proposed amount), should be barred from coming up with another repurchase offer for one year.
• companies should disclose the number of shares purchased and the amount utilised to the exchanges on a daily basis.
• the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) allowed those overseas entities having acquired debt investment(Investment in a firm or project through purchase of bonds or debentures) limits in the past one year to re-invest up to half of their maximum debt security holdings during 2013. 
• South Korea court orders first chemical castration for child abuse.
• Al Jazeera buys US Current TV network(previously nation’s second-largest TV operator, Time Warner Cable Inc).
• Obama signed the annual defence policy bill  authorising $633 million in spending.( National Defence Authorisation Act 2013 : 
• ban on health insurance coverage for abortion for servicewomen and military dependents who are survivors of rape and incest was struck down
• Language that could lead to claims of a right to discriminate.
• Guantánamo will remain open.)
•  U.S. is forging ahead with its the giant $500 million effort to refurbish the massive Kajaki dam(on Helmand River) and hydro-electric power system in Afghanistan.
• Amerish B. ‘Ami’ Bera (47), an Indian-American Democrat from California; and Tulsi Gabbard (31), the first Hindu ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and a Democrat from Hawaii, created history as they were sworn in as members of the 113th Congress.  
• Malala Yousafzai, the teenaged Pakistani schoolgirl shoTipperary International Peace Prize for 2012t by a Taliban gunman last year, is to be given Ireland’s prestigious  for her courage and determination to speak out in support of equal access to education for every child.
• ‘CAG has power to audit oil & gas blocks’ : Rangarajan Panel 
• Reserve Bank of India Governor D. Subbarao will now be directly in-charge of the Monetary Policy Department. 
• Talks with Etihad on for stake sale, says Jet  Airways