News for April 2013

• Harmanpreet kaur  : Captain of India's Women Cricekt Team
• J & K recommend to include Gojjri in 8th Schedule of constitution.
• For SHG KYC norms will be only verified for office bearers.
• NTPC : most efficient MahaRatna of 2012 by Dalal Street Investment Journal
• ILEAL interposition : potent weapon to fight Type 2 Diabetes(less insulin produced)
• As per the IRDA (General Insurance – Reinsurance) Regulations 2013, Foreign reinsurers who have a credit rating of at least BBB from Standard & Poor’s Corp. or an equivalent rating by any other international agency for the past five years, can reinsure(insurance to Insurance Companies) Indian insurers.
• In the reinsurance framework, multiple insurance companies share the risk by purchasing insurance policies from other insurers in order to limit the total loss the original insurer would face in the case of a disaster.
• India Ratings, formerly known as Fitch India, is a wholly owned subsidiary of global ratings major Fitch Group.
• UN Arms Trade Treaty  passed in UN : 
• 154 voted YES
• 3 said NO : Syria,Iran,N Korea
• 23 including India,China,Myanmar,Egypt,Russia,Sri Lanka etc abstain
• Pak voted in favour.
• Covers :
• Under its ambit, the ratifying nations are required to accept fixed international standards for conventional weapons sales, linked to the protection of human rights.
• The treaty covers weapons such as tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large-calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers, and small and light arms.
•  However, the treaty doesn’t explicitly cover predator drones and grenades.
• Karatmeter (also spelt as caratometer): 
• A scientific and non-destructive method for testing the purity of Gold.
• Uses X-rays to give an exact reading of the purity of gold in about 3 minutes.
• Other ways to determine the gold content include – melting Gold down, the touchstone method or XRF (x-ray fluorescence) method.
• Novartis AG – The Swiss drug maker’s 7-year fight to win an Indian patent for its megahit  anti-cancer drug “Glivec ” finished with the Supreme court dismissing the company’s appeal.
• The Supreme Court ruled that the Novartis’s application for patent on the beta-crystalline salt was known prior to 1995 through an earlier patent Novartis held, and therefore the company can’t be given any patent for this drug for being novel
• Brand Trust Report , India study 2013 : 
• Nokia,Samsung,Sony
• Mapathon  2013 was a contest from Feb 12, 2013 – Mar 25, 2013  in which Google asked users to add information about their local areas for its online map services.
• Reliance Jio Infocomm (owned by Mukesh Ambani) and Reliance Communications (owned by Anil Ambani) inked a definitive agreement for Rs. 1,200 crore for sharing of Rcom’s nationwide optic fiber network. Rs. 1,200 crore as one time indefeasible right to use (IRU) fees for sharing RCOM’s nationwide inter-city fiber optic network infrastructure.
• Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJI), (formerly Infotel Broadband), won 4G spectrum for pan-India services in 2010, but the company is yet to launch its services. 
•  Uhuru Kenyatta sworn in as Kenya’s fourth Presiden. Uhuru won with 50.07% of the vote, but the win was challenged by outgoing PM Raila Odinga and civil society groups, who complained of myriad anomalies in the voting process, but the Supreme Court upheld Kenyatta’s win.
• NPHCE launched during 11th Plan period by The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare  keeping in view the recommendations made in the “National Policy on Older Persons”  as well as the State’s obligation under the “Maintenance & Welfare of Parents & Senior Citizens Act 2007”.
• Govt. announced that the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT)  subsidy scheme to be being extended to 78 more districts in July 2013.
• Rolled out in 43 districts in Phase I in January, 2013.
• LPG subsidy will be included in this as the scheme is expanded in a phased manner to cover 20 districts by May 15, 2013.
• The scheme will be expanded to include post offices from October, 1 2013.
• Former Pakistan President Gen. (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s nomination papers for upcoming general elections were rejected for the second time.
• Musharraf had twice violated and subverted the Constitution by violating Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution of Pakistan, which specify that candidates should have a "good character" and be "sagacious, righteous and non-profligate". 
• Musharraf is also an accused in 4 cases, including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
• P J Kuriewn,Deputy Chairman of Rajya sabha is elected as the Chairman of Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development(AFPPD).He replaced Yasuo Fakuda ,former PM of Japan.
• VOR = VHF Omni Directional Range; VHF = Very High Frequency was commissioned recently by the Airport Authority of India at Ludhiana Airport, Punjab.
• Odisha Legislative Assembly adopted a Resolution for Special Category Status for second time.
• Religion, Law & Society- Across the Globe : , a book authored by Prof. Tahir Mahmood was released by The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari. The book provides insights into a range of complex and inter-linked matters of constitutional and socio-legal importance.
•  Pran Krishan Sikand, popularly known as Pran will be conferred with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
• Pran is the 60th film personality to receive this honour.  In 2011, Soumitra Chatterjee was honored with this award and then in the year 2012, no one was conferred this award.
• Conferred yearly by the Government of India  for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema.
• President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the status of ‘Miniratna – Category 1′ on the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (Neepco).
• Miniratna - Category I
• Criteria : : PSEs (Pubic Sector Enterprises) which have been making profits continuously for the last 3 years or earned a net profit of Rs. 30 crore or more in one of the 3 years.
• Benefits granted : : Granted certain autonomy viz. incurring capital expenditure without government approval up to Rs. 500 crore or equal to their net worth, whichever is lower
• Category II
• Criteria : : PSEs which have been making profits for the last 3 years continuously and having a positive net worth.
• Benefits granted : :  Autonomy of incurring the capital expenditure without government approval up to Rs. 300 crore or up to 50% of their net worth whichever is lower.
•  Legendary anti-British revolutionary and Chittagong Armory raid famed Binod Bihari Chowdhury (102) passed away.
• Citizenship:  Bangladeshi
• Titles: Biplobi , Agnipurush
• Recipient of Independence Day Award  the highest civilian award in Bangladesh.
• Early 1930: Binod Bihari Chowdhury joined the anti-British revolutionary group “Jugantar”  
• PM visited Germany and many documents Inked.
• Andhra Pradesh: ‘Amma Hastham’ scheme for white cardholders 
• 9 essential item mentioned in the scheme includes a kilo of :
• 1 kg toor dal, 1 litre palm oil, 1 kg whole meal atta, 1 kg wheat, half kg sugar, 1 kg salt, quarter kg chilli powder, half kg tamarind and 100 grams turmeric powder.
• Manipur bags overall team Champion for 22nd time in North East Game 2013
• World Bank would lend b/w $3 to 5 billion every year to India under a new 4-year plan that focuses on poverty alleviation in 7 low-income Indian states: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
• Sir Robert Edwards (87), who eveloped the technique of in vitro fertilisation with Dr Patrick Steptoe passed away. He pioneered In vitro fertilisation (IVF) technique helped in the birth of Louise Brown in 1978, the first test tube baby and then bring more than 4 million children into the world.
• Robert G. Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010 for the development of IVF.
• The process requires supervising a woman’s ovulatory procedure, taking out ovum or ova (egg or eggs) from the woman’s ovaries and allowing sperm fertilize them in a fluid medium in a laboratory.
• WTO Global Trade Growth Forecast for 2013 Lowered to 3.3%
• Sania joins as 4th Vice President of of ITPA(Indian Tennis Player Association) along with 
• Leander Paes
• Mahesh Bhupathi
• Somdev Devvarman
• President of ITPA: Jaideep Mukherjea
• The existing structure of tennis administration in India i.e. All India Tennis Association (AITA governing body of Tennis in India), is unable to represent or adequately address contemporary issues faced by the players in the India. Thus, there was a need for a separate body like ITPA which is modelled on the  functioning of the ATP, which encourages players to make decisions for the benefit of the sport.
• Pioneering Polio Vaccine Developer Hilary Koprowski passes away
• Union Government approved a project for creation of NOFN (National Optical Fibre Network) that will help in connecting all the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats (GPs) in India via Optical Fibre Cable (OFC).
• Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) is the SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) for the implementation of NOFN.
• Contribution of Union Govts via furnishing of free Right of Way (RoW) for setting OFC. 
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recognized Somalia’s new government after a 22 year break in relations with the once disorderly nation. 
• The U.S. officially acknowledged the African nation’s new government in January 2013, the first time the U.S. had acknowledged a Somali government since 1991, when warlords overturned longtime authoritarian Siad Barre and then turned on one another.
• The IMF declared it was acknowledging the Somali government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who took office in September 2012.
• The piglet, known as ’Pig 26′ created via a process called ‘gene editing’ at Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute which is immune to disease
• It is immune to African swine fever which can kill within 24 hours of infection.
• It is conceived that the development of piglet ‘pig 26’ , could pave the way for future development of GM meat.
• India’s first and ONLY Women Chief Election Commissioner (from Nov 26 1990 to Dec 11 1990)V S Ramadevi passed away.
• ‘Baby Nobel’ or Won John Bates Clark Medal for Delhi-born US economist Raj Chetty Prof in Harvard University
• Supreme Court orders transfer of some Asiatic Lions from Gujarat’s Gir to MP’s Kuno
• Sahara Q Shop: The retail business of Sahara India Pariwar, recently entered into the Guinness World Records as it opened record 315 outlets in 10 states of India, just at one time on April 1, 2013.
• Sher-i-Kashmir Award: Navjot becomes youngest recipient athlete of Jammu and Kashmir to be conferred
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest release of the  World Economic Outlook (WEO)  slashed the economic growth projection of India to 5.7% for the calendar year 2013, from its earlier prediction of 5.9%.
• Indian Govt. has projected India’s economic growth at 6.2-6.7% in 2013-14, while the ADB (Asian Development Bank) recently projected Indian economic growth at 6% during 2013-14.
• IMF slashed the global outlook to 3.3% from 3.5% predicted in January 2013
• Google Glass : 
• Developed under the Project Glassresearch and development project
• Developed by Google X Lab
• An embedded screen in the upper-right-hand corner of the right-hand lens provides resolution which is equivalent of a 25in HD (High Definition) screen from 8 feet away.
• New hard plastic voter identity cards to be issued by EC
• Indian Coast Guard Ship C-402, the second of the series of 36 Interceptor boats designed and built by L&T, Surat was commissioned at Naval Dockyard in Mumbai
• Aruna Bahuguna – First women special DG CRPF
• S. Gopalakrishnan new head of CII
• India and Singapore ink MoU on Air Services
• GAIL was given status of Maharatna in feb 2013
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia (The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission) recently launched the  IBIN – ‘India Backbone Implementation Network’ with India@75.
• Top recipients of global remittances in the world by World Bank :
• India (USD 69 billion)
• China (USD60 billion)
• The Philippines (USD24 billion)
• Mexico (USD23 billion)
• Nigeria and Egypt (USD21 billion each).