Official Amendments to Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011

• The Union Cabinet has approved the proposals submitted by the Department of Personnel & Training for moving official amendments to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011.
  
  Recommendations : 
• The phrase ‘connected with political parties’ to be replaced with 'affiliated with political parties’. 
• Fifth member of the Selection Committee (i.e., eminent jurist) to be nominated by the President on recommendation of the other four members of the Selection Committee, viz. Prime Minister, Speaker (Lok Sabha), Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha) and Chief Justice of India.
•  Government has decided to exempt only such bodies or authorities established, constituted or appointed by or under any Central or State or Provincial Act providing for administration of public religious or charitable trusts or endowments or societies for religious or charitable purposes registered under the Societies Registration Act. 
•  Political parties exempt from the purview of the Lokpall Bill 2011, as they are already covered under the Representation of People’s Act. 
•  Lokpal can order investigation against a public servant, in case a prima facie case exists, after calling for explanation from the public servant. 
•  Opportunity to be given to public servant to be heard. 
•  Lokpal to have power to grant sanction for prosecution of public servants. 
•  Amendments for strengthening CBI accepted, except the one which seeks approval of Lokpal for transfer of officers of CBI investigating cases referred by Lokpal. 
• Whistle Blowers Protection Bill 2011 to protect identity of whistleblowers and safeguard against their victimization, passed by Lok Sabha. 
• Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Bill 2011 introduced in Parliament. The Bill elaborately covers definition of ‘benami’ property and transaction, and prohibits benami transactions. 
• Stringent punishment for ‘benami’ transactions under the Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Bill. 

Spain

• Spain is the 4th largest producer of wind generated power and is top-ranked worldwide in terms of photovoltaic solar power capacity.
• The Solar Platform of Almeria (PSA), run under the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness is considered one of the largest and best R&D facilitates for Concentrating Solar Power Technologies.

India and Spain Relations 

• India is the fifth largest country in the world in terms of wind power installed capacity. In addition, India’s National Solar Mission aims to facilitate the installation of 20000 MW of grid connected power capacity by 2020.  
• The joint Indo-Spanish programme for Technological cooperation in Renewable Energy was developed 

Lakes

• Wular Lake in Kashmir 
• Kolleru Lake in Andhra Pradesh
• Chilika Lake in Odisha

Short Terms : Feb 2013

Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) 

• Based on international standard of transparency and exchange of information, information must be foreseeably relevant to the administration and enforcement of the domestic laws of the Contracting Parties concerning taxes covered by the agreement.
• Also provides for tax examination abroad and has specific provisions for providing banking and ownership information.
• The requesting state has to provide some minimum details about the information requested in order to justify the foreseeably relevance criteria which is to be treated as secret.

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.
• Your country holds several billion dollars in forex reserves. Normally, these would just lie there, growing at a paltry interest rate. SWFs are a way to improve the country’s finances as well as hedge against future crises.
• Sovereign wealth funds are usually created out of huge current account surpluses – where a country has more dollars that it can spend by exporting more than importing over a sustained period of time. This is why China has several sovereign wealth funds. Norway, which obtained a bonanza from the discovery of North Sea oil, created a fund to invest this unexpected wealth for meeting the needs of future generations.
• Now consider India’s case. This year we will run a current account deficit (CAD) of nearly 5 percent of GDP – even worse than in 1991.Since we dont have surplus hence not a good idea for India to have this type of fund

Sahara Debenture Scandal

Vocabulary : Jan 2013

• Bluntly : बिना किसी बनावट के : in a blunt direct manner 
• Synonyms : bluffly, brusquely 
• Apartheid : रंग-भेद : a political system in which people of different races were separated
• Synonyms : segregation
• Prejudice : पूर्वाग्रह , भेदभाव : an opinion formed beforehand, esp an unfavourable one based on inadequate facts.
• Synonyms : Bias , Preconception
• Comprehend : समझना : to understand something completely.
• Synonyms : Apprehend , Perceive , Savvy
• Privy : गुप्त जानकारी के संबन्धित : to be told information that is not told to many people
• Synonyms : Toilet , Secluded , Secret
• Commence : आरम्भ होना : to begin something
• Synonyms : Begin , Lead Off, Embark on
• Vexed : विवादास्पद : difficult to deal with and causing a lot of disagreement and argument
• Synonyms : Harassed ,Controversial
• Slumber : अल्पनिद्रा : sleep 
• Synonyms : Sleep , Nap ,Doze
• Bourse : सराफ़ा : a stock market 
• Blizzard :बर्फ़ानी तूफ़ान : severe snow storm
• Memoir : वृतांत : a book or other piece of writing based on the writer's personal knowledge of famous people, places or events
• Ultra Vires : Beyond the powers.

Space Mission For 12th Year Plan

Space Missions 

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has submitted a plan for 58 space missions to be undertaken as a part of 12th Five Year Plan, 2012-17.
• The Missions planned for 12^th Five Year plan also encompasses 33 Satellite missions and 25 Launch Vehicles missions. 

Details :

Sl No	Mission		Objective
SATELLITE MISSIONS
1	SARAL	Satellite with Argos and Altimeter for Oceanography studies.
2	CARTOSAT-2C	High resolution Cartography satellite for mapping applications for special users.
3	CARTOSAT-2D
4	RESOURCESAT-2A	Satellite for Natural Resource Survey applications.
5	OCEANSAT-3	Satellite for Ocean and Coastal studies.
6	CARTOSAT-3	Advanced very high resolution cartography satellite.
7	GISAT	Geo Imaging Satellite for monitoring and Disaster Management applications.
8	GSAT-9	Communication satellite to augment the INSAT system with C band Transponders
9	GSAT-10	Communication satellites to augment the INSAT system with C and Ku band Transponders
10	GSAT-15
11	GSAT-16
12	GSAT-17
13	GSAT-18
14	GSAT-14	Experimental Communication Satellites
15	GSAT-11S
16	GSAT-6	Multi-media Mobile communication satellites for strategic applications.
17	GSAT-6A
18	GSAT-7	Communication satellite for special users.
19	GSAT-Ka	Advanced Ka band satellite for VSAT communications.
20	GSAT-11
21	GSAT-19E	New generation experimental communication satellite.
22	INSAT-3D	Advanced Meteorological Satellite
23	IRNSS-1	Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) for satellite based positioning services – The constellation consists of Seven IRNSS satellites.
24	IRNSS-2
25	IRNSS-3
26	IRNSS-4
27	IRNSS-5
28	IRNSS-6
29	IRNSS-7
30	ASTROSAT	Multi-wavelength Space Astronomy Observatory for scientific investigations.
Sl No	Mission	Objective
31	MARS ORBITER	Technological mission to reach Martian orbit and studying the surface and atmospheric features of Mars.
32	CHANDRAYAAN-2	Scientific investigations of Lunar surface with in-situ measurements.
33	ADITYA	Scientific Satellite for study of Sun and Solar Corona phenomena.
LAUNCH VEHICLE MISSIONS
34	PSLV – C20	Launching of SARAL Satellite into Polar Orbit.
35	PSLV – C 21	Launching of French satellite SPOT-6 on commercial basis.
36	PSLV – C22	For launching of IRNSS-1 satellite.
37	PSLV – C23	For launching of IRNSS-2 satellite
38	PSLV – C24	For launching of IRNSS-3 satellite
39	PSLV – C25	For launching of MARS orbiter.
40	PSLV – C26	For launching of Astrosat into near earth orbit.
41	PSLV – C27	For launching of Cartosat-2C into Polar orbit.
42	PSLV – C28	For launching of IRNSS-4 satellite.
43	PSLV – C29	For launching of IRNSS-5 satellite.
44	PSLV – C30	For launching of IRNSS-6 satellite.
45	PSLV – C31	For launching of Resourcesat-2A into polar orbit.
46	PSLV – C32	For launching of Cartosat-2D in to polar orbit.
47	PSLV – C33	Commercial Launch Service
48	PSLV – C34	For launching of IRNSS-7 satellite.
49	PSLV – C35	For launching of Oceansat-3 satellite into polar orbit.
50	PSLV- C36	For launching of Cartosat-3 satellite into Polar orbit.
51	GSLV – D5	Development flight with indigenous cryogenic stage for launching GSAT-14satellite.
52	GSLV – D6	For launching of GSAT-6 into Geosynchronous transfer orbit.
53	GSLV – F8	For launching of Chandrayaan-2
54	GSLV – F09	For launching of GSAT-9 communication satellite.
55	GSLV – F10	For launching of GISAT satellite into Geosynchronous transfer orbit.
56	GSLV – F11	For launching of GSAT-6A satellite.
57	GSLV - Mk III-X1	Experimental test flight.
58	GSLV – Mk III D1	First developmental flight of GSLV Mk III  for launching GSAT-19E satellite