News for Mar 2013

• Educational researcher Sugata Mitra has been awarded the million-dollar TED Prize for pursuing his idea for building the schools in the Internet.
• “Hole in the wall” experiment
• India’s national capital Delhi has been ranked last in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) evolved by the Planning Commission which makes it worst performer in the country when it comes to all key environmental parameters.
• Astronomers measured the spin rate of the super-massive black hole at the center of

Pakistan

• Pakistan regretted North Korea’s decision to conduct an underground nuclear test.
• Pakistan on Friday successfully tested the nuclear-capable Hatf-II ballistic missile with a range of 180 km(short range surface-to-surface ballistic missile)
• Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline work to start on March 11 and agreements for opening two more border crossings at Gabd and Pasni and for setting up an oil refinery in Gwadar will also be signed 
• There is impasse b/w the government and the opposition over who will be the

Kisenganga Project

What is the issue?

Pakistan had pleaded before the Court of Arbitration at The Hague that India’s construction of Project over Kishenganga was a violation of Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) signed in 1960.

What is the Project?

India is constructing Rs. 3600 crore, 330 MW, run-of-the-river, hydro-electric project on Kishenganga River (known as Neelam in Pak) which is a tributary river to Jhelum. The

Commitees and members

• Competition Commision of India : Ashok Chawla
• Expert Committee on Road Map for coal sector reforms : T.L. Shankar Committee
• Commitee for Direct Tax Code and GAAR : Parthasarathi Shome
• Suggest Amendments to Criminal Law(existing laws on safety of women) : Shri Justice (Retd) JS Verma.
• Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal : Walmart probe committee
• Commitee for sugar deregulation  : C. Rangarajan
• K. Kasturirangan (Member, Planning Commission) :  Western Ghat 
• Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission  (FSLRC), headed by former Justice B. N. Srikrishna
• Financing of Infrastructure sector : Deepak Parekh
• Illegal Mining in Odisha : Justice M B Shah Commision 
• 1.NBFC : A C Shah Committee.
  2.Final Accounts : A Ghosh Committee.
  3.Job Criteria In Bank Loans (Approach) : BD
  Thakar Committee.
  4.Modalities Of Implementation Of New 20 Point
  Programme: A Ghosh Committee.

National Food Security Bill

The revised form of the National Food Security Bill has been cleared by the Union Cabinet. As per the revised Bill:

• 67% of nation’s population (including 75% rural and 50% urban) will be entitled for subsidized grains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
• 5 kg of rice, wheat or coarse cereals at Rs. 3, 2 and Re. 1 a kg a month to every beneficiary who will be identified by the States based on parameters prescribed by the

GISAT

About GISAT:

The satellite will carry a GEO Imager with multi-spectral (visible, near infra-red and thermal), multi-resolution (50m to 1.5 km) imaging instruments. It will be placed in geostationary orbit of 36,000 km.

Functions:  

Vienna Convention

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 is an international pact that defines a framework for diplomatic relations b/w independent nations. It specifies the privileges of a diplomatic mission that enable diplomats to perform their function without fear of coercion or harassment by the host country. This forms the legal basis for diplomatic immunity. It has been ratified by 187 nations.

Summary of the Treaty:

General Figures

• India lost $123 million in black money during 2001-2010 , a US based organisation said.But China lost $2.74 trillion in the same period.
• India 2012 :
  Repo rate unchanged at 8 percent.Reverse repo stays at 7 percent.Cash reserve ratio stays at 4.25 percent.
• 3rd quarter Monetary policy of RBI : Repo rate : 7.75 % and CRR = 4%
• For 2011-12 : 

Human Development

Gender Inequality Index: It measures the loss in a country’s progress and human development because of gender inequality in three sectors: reproductive health, women empowerment and labor market participation.

Human Development Index : Human development in terms of education(literacy),per capita income and  living condition for living (high expectancy)

High Net-Worth Individual

As per Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2013:
India with 122 billionaires stood at 5th position in the list of to 10 countries with highest number of High Net-Worth Individual (HNWI).


Top 5 countries are:

1. US
2. China
3. Germany
4. UK
5. India

Who is a High Net-Worth Individual (HNWI)?
The most commonly quoted figure for membership in the high net worth “club” is $1 million in liquid financial assets. An investor with less than $1 million but more than $100,000 is considered to be “affluent”, or perhaps even “sub-HNWI”. The upper end of HNWI is around $5 million, at which point the client is then referred to as “very HNWI”. More than $50 million in wealth classifies a person as “ultra HNWI”.

Fire Ice

Japan has successfully developed new technology for extracting methane gas from a previously untapped off-shore fossil fuel resource that has been dubbed ‘fire ice’. Japan has invested several hundred million pounds in developing technology to tap methane hydrate reserves off its coast.

• What is Fire Ice?
  It is another name of Methane hydrate, which consist of methane trapped in ice, present under the continental shelves around the world. It is said to be next big energy resource.
• Earlier, it was believed to only exist in the outer space of the solar system – but now experts are saying it could be ‘the new shale gas’.
• Methane hydrate is also called Methane clathrate, hydromethane, methane ice, fire ice, natural gas hydrate, or gas hydrate.

How does it form?
Methane hydrate is formed within marine sediments where methane is generated by chemical reactions or by microbes breaking down organic matter. The gas moves up to the sea bed where the temperature is much low. It causes the gas to cool, due to this cooling methane molecules form weak chemical bond with surrounding water molecules, producing solid mehane hydrate. This substance has long been regarded by oil and gas companies as a problem, because it can block marine drilling rigs.
Thus, Methane hydrate is a solid clathrate compound (more specifically, a clathrate hydrate) in which a large amount of methane is trapped within a crystal structure of water, forming a solid similar to ice.
How did scientists separate methane from Fire ice?
Engineers used depressurisation to turn methane hydrate to methane gas.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

The 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), concluded in Bangkok, Thailand, after granting better protection to hundreds of threatened animal and plant species.
The eight countries accused of failing to do enough to tackle the illegal trade in elephant ivory escaped sanctions. The conference found that Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, and top markets China and Thailand are making insufficient efforts to curb the trade. However, the nations avoided sanctions after 6 of them submitted draft action plans in response and China and Tanzania committed to do so by a specific date.
Possible punishment option: Under the convention, member states can halt trading with offender countries in the 35,000 species covered by the convention.   

CITES is (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is also known as the Washington Convention.

It is an international agreement b/w governments to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. 

Currently 178 nations are members of CITES, Headquarter in Geneva, Switzerland. 

CITES was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN.

It is an effort towards regulation of cross-border trade in wild animals and plants b/w countries to safeguard certain species from over-exploitation. 

Although it is legally binding on all Parties to the agreement to implement the Convention, it does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level.

Days Celebrated

• June 5 : World Environment Day
• March 8 : Mothers Day 
• September 21 : Alzheimer's day (Alzheimer’s disease is most common form of dementia (loss of memory)
• January 24 : National Girl Child Day
• Feb 28 : National Science Day
• Nov 10 : UN declared this as Malala day
• March 15 : World Consumer Rights Day
• March 20 : International Happiness Day
• April 18 : World Heritage Day
• April 21 : Civil Services Day
• April 22 : Earth Day
• Oct 11 : International day of girl Child
• May 1  : Labour Day

SEBI Amendment Bill 2013

The SEBI (Amendment) Bill, 2013, seeks to include the criterion of appointing a retired High Court judge having held the position for 7 years for heading the Tribunal.

As per the existing criteria, only a serving or retired Supreme Court judge or Chief Justice of a High Court can head the Tribunal, but the Government is finding it difficult to fill the slot.    

Commodity Transaction Tax

Commodities Transaction Tax (CTT)

• Proposed in Finance Bill, 2013 for enhancing financial resources.
• A tax which shall be levied on non-agricultural commodities futures contracts at the same rate as on equity futures that is at 0.01% of the price of the trade.
• CTT would tax trading of non-farm commodities like gold, silver and non-ferrous metals such as copper and energy products like crude oil and natural gas in India.
• Here both parties—buyer & seller of contract—will be taxed depending on the amount of contract size.
• Similar to the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) levied on the purchase and sale of equities in the stock market.
• So far, commodity transactions have been exempted from any levy.
• Agricultural commodities have been left out of CTT.

What are the Advantages of levying CTT?

• It will open up new resources for the augmentation of government finances.
• CTT would generate revenues of around Rs.45 billion to government.
• It is also aimed at bringing transparency in the commodity exchange market.

What could be the disadvantages of CTT?

• CTT has been opposed by the experts and the PMEAC had also suggested against levying such a tax.
• CTT will increase the transaction cost because traders already pay brokerage, deposit margin, brokerage, stamp duty and transaction charges.

Flexible Use of Airspace

• In the fast changing environment of air warfare and national security, there is an urgent sense of need of airspace use by the military. Therefore, sharing of airspace on a need basis, by civil and military users was an urgent national requirement.
• This will be achieved via direct routing between 7 city pairs of: Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Kolkata, Delhi–Chennai, Delhi-Hyderabad, Delhi- Begaluru, Kolkata-Chennai and Chennai-Mumbai for which the information is available.
• First step would be implementation of a National High Level Airspace Policy Body (NHLAPB) for airspace use will be set up in order to take up the job of strategic planning and assess/reassess the national airspace requirements of various stakeholders.
• The NHLAPB will be chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation with representation from Ministry of Defence, Indian Air force, Indian Navy, Indian Space Research Organization, Airport Authority of India and Directorate General of Civil Aviation. It can co-opt new members in future depending upon requirement.

Project Arrow

• Introduced in 2008 by department of Posts
• Objective: To transform the existing India Post infrastructure across the country by upgrading key postal operations such as mail delivery, remittance and banking services.
• Under the project, the exterior and interior of the post offices have undergone a transformation. Service delivery has been upgraded through information technology-enabled procedures.

Electronic Project Proposal System

The Electronic Project Proposal System (e-PPS) is a web-based system that covers the complete life-cycle of funding of R&D projects, starting from online submission of project proposals for funds, to monitoring and management of funded projects. It supports the following processes:

• Online submission of project proposals
• Evaluation of proposals by experts
• Project recommendations
• Project Monitoring

Mobile HD Voice

• Mobile HD voice is high quality voice service which enables high quality voice calls as it cuts down the background noise often heard on a regular call.
•  This service is based on AMR (Adaptive Multi Rate) wideband technology (W-AMR) which operates with nine different bit rates, providing high quality voice calls. 
• Compared to the current narrow-band speech codec device, the W-AMR speech-compression algorithm doubles voice bandwidth and produces better results.

Viability Gap Fund

• VGF is a government’s initiative to assist private investors or entities to set up projects of high economic worth
• Private investors are not interested in building infrastructure as financial return is less so government extends its support to the investors by sharing a fraction of the cost, making the project viable.
• Typically, VGF is provided in competitively bid projects. The central government meets up to 20% of capital cost of a project being implemented in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode by a central ministry, state government, statutory entity or a local body. The state government, sponsoring ministry or the project authority can provide another 20% to attract .
• Those needing the least VGF assistance will be awarded the project. The Ministry of Finance administers the scheme. 
• Projects in a number of sectors such as roads, ports, airports, railways, inland waterways, urban transport, power, water supply, other physical infrastructure in urban areas, infrastructure projects in special eco-nomic zones, tourism infrastructure projects are generally eligible for VGF. 
• The Viability Gap Funding Scheme provides financial support in the form of grants, one time or deferred, to infrastructure projects undertaken through public private partnerships with a view to make them commercially viable. GoI has established a Viability Gap Fund to aid the PPP infrastructure projects which face the viability gap due to inherent nature of the project. 

Carbon Credit

• Carbon credit is a generic term for any tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit One Tonne of Carbon dioxide or the mass of another greenhouse gas with a carbon dioxide equivalent equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide.
• The mechanism was formalized in the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement between more than 170 countries, and the market mechanisms were agreed through the subsequent Marrakesh Accords.
• Carbon credit facility has been introduced with an aim to allow market mechanisms to drive industrial and commercial processes in the direction of low emissions or less carbon intensive approaches,this approach can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world.
• The carbon credits can also be traded on exchanges like Carbon Trade Exchange, which is like a stock exchange for carbon credits. If it is traded internationally then each transfer is validated by the UNFCCC.
• Currently there are 5 exchanges trading in carbon allowances:
  1. The European Climate Exchange
  2. NASDAQ OMX Commodities Europe
  3. PowerNext
  4. Commodity Exchange Bratislava
  5. The European Energy Exchange

Basel III

• The Basel III Guidelines are based upon 3 very important aspects which are called 3 pillars of the Basel II. These 3 pillars are as follows: 
• Minimum Capital Requirement 
• The first pillar Minimum Capital Requirement has been discussed above. This mainly for total risk including the credit risk, market risk  as well as Operational Risk . 
• Supervisory review Process 
• Basically intended to ensure that the banks have adequate capital to support all the risks associated in their businesses. 
• In India , the RBI has issued the guidelines to the banks that they should have an internal supervisory process which is called ICAAP or Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process
• Apart from that, there is another process stipulated by RBI which is actually the Independent assessment of the ICAAP of the Banks. This is called SREP or Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process.
• Market Discipline 
• The idea of the third pillar is to complement the first and second pillar. This is basically a discipline followed by the bank such as disclosing its capital structure, tier-I and Tier –II Capital and approaches to assess the capital adequacy. 

Mar 2013 : General Knowledge

•  Philippine President  : Benigno Aquino III
•  India is the largest importer of gold in the world
• Chinese President : XI jinping
• Chinese Premier : Li Keqiang
• President of Zimbabwe : Robert Mugabe
• Sarus caranes — the tallest flying birds in the world.
• Chief Election Commissioner : T.S. Krishnamurthy
• Karnataka Chief Minister  : Jagadish Shettar.
• Installed capacity of power generation in the country is about 2,12,829 MW which includes 26,920 MW from renewable sources. This constitutes 12.5% contribution of renewable.
• National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) Chairman : Balkrishna Sidram Renke
• FDI limit is below 100 per cent. While in multi-brand retail it is 51 per cent, in telecom and banking it is 74 per cent 
• Anurag G Thapliyal: Director General of Indian Coast Guard
• Nagaland CM : Neiphiu Rio

United Kingdom

• Immigration rules that would benefit high-skilled foreign workers and “exceptionally bright’’ students came into force : (however the existing limit on not allowing more than 20,700 foreign workers to come to Britain over the next two years would remain)
• Intra-company transferees (ICT) who are paid more than £152,100 will no longer need to take an English test if they want to extend their leave in the U.K
• Foreign MBA students graduating from British universities would be allowed to stay on for up to a year after graduating as part of the expanded graduate entrepreneur scheme.
• the changes would allow PhD students to stay on after their studies for up to a year and work, without having to switch courses.
• no limit on the number who can obtain a Tier 2 visa to stay and work, providing they can get a graduate-level job paying £20,300 [a year] or more
• Austerity Measure to reduce deficit ::
• Bedroom tax : Families living in government-subsidised homes will lose some of their housing benefits if they have a spare room.
  
  
  India and UK
• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed b/w India and UK to strengthen their cooperation in Earth Sciences and environmental research by sharing information on meteorology, hydrology and climate variability. 
• The MoU was inked b/w the Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) Govt. of India and UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
• Since 2008, the two countries have committed close to £150 million for joint research programmes.

Inflation Indexed Bonds

The Budget 2013-14 has proposed to introduce Inflation-Indexed Bonds or IIBs with the aim to control rising Current Account Deficit, fiscal deficit and inflation. The move by the government has been lauded by the RBI saying that the step is in line with government’s commitment to lowering inflation.

What are IIBs?

Inflation-Indexed Bonds or IIBs are are bonds where the principal is indexed to inflation. They are thus designed to cut out the inflation risk of an investment. These bonds will be linked to the inflation index of the country (Wholesale Price Index or WPI) and serve as a better investment option as compared to physical assets like real estate and gold. Higher the inflation, higher the returns.

How would IIBs help?

As per RBI, IIBs would help in:

• Boosting domestic savings and reversing the declining savings-to-GDP ratio.
• Providing households and other investors a competitive option against gold and real estate. In the wake of rising inflation last year, there was considerable flow of investments from financial savings to safe-haven assets like gold that resulted into higher imports of the metal. This led to current account deficit or CAD widening to 4.9% of GDP at the end of September 2012.
• Giving investors choice to use IIBs as good hedging instruments against inflation. 

Environmental Performance Index

Environmental Performance Index

• Started by Planning Commission
• Objective: To measure of environmental well-being of states. 
  Analysis of data supplied by 35 states and union territories.
• Reflects states’ performance on 16 Green Indicators under 5 categories 

5 Categories:

1. Air Pollution (nitrogen and sulfur oxides, respiratory SPM)
2. Forest (total forest area, increase/decrease in forest cover, afforestation efforts)
3. Water Quality (domestic waste water, surface water quality, ground water extraction)
4. Waste management (municipal solid waste, biomedical and hazardous waste handling capacity)
5. Climate change preparation (use of renewable sources of energy, mini hydro, electricity intensity of state GDP, disaster preparedness, energy efficiency) 

Best Performers

1. Andhra Pradesh
2. Sikkim
3. Himachal Pradesh
4. Madhya Pradesh
5. Maharashtra 

A score of one means the state is characterized by cleaner environment.

News for Feb 2013

• Milos Zeman has won presidential poll of Czech Republic
• Timbuktu Manuscript : 
• A majority of these manuscripts are written in Arabic and deal with subjects like art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran. These manuscripts date b/w the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e. from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan).
• Here the ancient manuscripts were preserved at the Ahmed Baba Centre for Documentation and Research, which housed between 60,000 and 100,000 manuscripts.
• A new campaign called ‘Green Kumbh’ is going hand in hand with the onging Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. The green initiative which is being lead by Swami Chidanand Saraswati of Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh who is also the force behind the Clean Ganga campaign
• Objective: The initiative is designed to beautify the grounds of Kumbh and its environs, while protecting the health and well-being of festival attendees.  Besides, this program will spread awareness and education about the importance of being “green”, thus informing and motivating festivals-goers from all over the world to become stewards of the environment around them. Under this campaign various programs like tree plantation, providing free eco friendly toilets, and solid waste management are being organized at Kumbh Mela and its surroundings.
• SpiceJet has become the only private Indian airline to offer flights to China. The low cost carrier will launch four weekly flights from New Delhi to Guangzhou.
•  An Expert Committee has been set up by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting under the chairmanship of Sam Pitroda has with the task of reviewing the institutional frame work of Prasar Bharati including its relationship with Government, its continuing role as a public broadcaster and steps needed to ensure technical up-gradation of the organization. 
• Review the status of implementation of the suggestions given by various committees that have undertaken study of Prasar Bharati, namely, the Sengupta committee, the Bakshi Committee and the Narayanamurthy committee and suggest a road map ahead for enhancing the reach and potential of Prasar Bharati.
• Recommend measures to digitize the archival material in the possession of Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR)
• To suggest ways of using the new media to deliver digital content – both in broadcast mode (DTH) and in a demand-based mode (Free on social media like You-Tube, and on payment through IPTV).
• Scientists have discovered a 10-million-year old star named TW Hydrae located 176 light years far from Earth may still be giving birth to new planets
• The findings were made using the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Telescope.
• International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), have succeeded in decoding the genome sequence of the CDC Frontier chickpea variety
• Office 365 as a service in the Internet cloud
• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has allowed the erstwhile Hyderabad Stock Exchange (now Hyderabad Securities and Enterprises Limited (HSEL)) to exit as a stock exchange.
• India has stumbled nine places to 140^th position in the list of 179 countries in the latest World Press Freedom Index2013.
• Indian American Rangaswamy Srinivasan, has been nominated by President Barack Obama for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
• iscovery that an ultraviolet excimer laser could be used to etch a living tissue without causing any thermal damage to surrounding areas. He named the phenomenon Ablative Photodecomposition (APD)
• These excimer lasers led to the development of now famous lasik lasers used in eye and dental surgery.
• The first triangular India-US-Africa partnership in agricultural training was inaugurated by India and the US at the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), Hyderabad.
• The objective of this program is to improve agricultural productivity, strengthen agricultural value chains, and support market institutions in 3 African countries namely Kenya, Liberia, and Malawi.
• The Programme is being implemented by India’s National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), Hyderabad, and the Chaudhary Charan Singh National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM), Jaipur.
• The British Government, for the first time, has declared to impose a ban over the sale of five species of invasive non-native aquatic plants
•  Water fern
• · Parrot’s feather
• · Floating pennywort
• · Water primrose
• · Australian swamp stonecrop
• Two PSUs BHEL and GAIL have been conferred with the Maharatna status by the government
• A Maharatna firm can take investment decision of up to Rs 5,000 crore without going to the government.
• For Navratna firms, this limit is Rs 1,000 crore.
• P.R. Vasudeva Rao has been appointed as the new director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR).
• SEBI is planning to introduce color-coded Mutual Fund  (MF) products which will inform investors about the level of risk involved with the instrument.
• India handed over a Dornier 228 surveillance aircraft (by HAL)to Seychelles. The maritime surveillance aircraft will be used to guard the extensive coastline of the island nation in the Indian Ocean.
• A secretary level committee has been constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to assist the PM’s council on climate change in implementing the 8 missions of the National Action Plan of Climate Change (NAPCC)  headed by Pulok Chatterji
• Scientists at Berkeley Lab have created the world’s first genome-wide digital atlas of gene enhancers in the brain, the switches that tell genes when and where they need to be switched on or off.
• India’s largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank has partnered with Aircel to launch a mobile banking service, ‘Mobile Money’.First launched in TN
• Rare migratory bird Whooper Swan was spotted in Pong Dam lake of Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh after 113 years.
• Whooper Swans, which migrate from Central Asia and Europe and are rare migrants to India,
• The 10^th International Heavy Haul Association (IHHA) Conference will be hosted by the Indian Railways in New Delhi.
• South Africa was declared as the world number one team in the ICC Test Cricket Rankings. It is followed by England, Australia, Pakistan and India.
• Linear projects, such as roads, transmission lines and gas pipelines will not have to seek consent of gram sabhas to get clearance under the Forest Rights Act as the Environment Ministry has exempted these projects from it. 
• 30 Indian software product companies have decided to form a new association called the Indian Software Product Industry Round Table, or “iSpirt”.
• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became the first Iranian leader to visit Egypt after Tehran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. He visited Egypt capital Cairo for attending the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
• Dell’s sale is the highest-priced leveraged buyout of a technology company.
• Researchers have discovered the world’s largest prime number which consists of over 17 million digits.
• The number has now shot up to 2 multiplied by itself 57,885,161 times minus 1.
• The finding was made as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS).
• GIMPS is a distributed computing project designed to discover a particular kind of prime number first identified in the 17th century
• The Mersenne prime numbers are rare which occur in the form 2 multiplied by itself p times minus 1, where p is itself a prime number. Thus its general form is 2^p-1. 
• The latest finding is only the 48^th  Mersenne prime ever found and the 14th discovered by GIMPS. 
• Ranchi Rhinos has won the maiden Hockey India League (HIL). They defeated Delhi Waveriders in the final match of the tournament
• Hero Goal of the Day: Manpreet Singh
• Man-of the-Match: Mauritz Furtse
• What is Rex ?
  
• Researchers have built the world’s first complete bionic man named “Rex”.
• has the face of a man, prosthetic limbs, a functional artificial blood circulatory system and artificial organs, including a pancreas, kidney, spleen and trachea
• India signed a Social Security pact with Austria. As per the pact, the Indian professionals working in Austria would be exempted from paying the social security contribution of the country, if such payments are already made in India. 
• Social security contribution is similar to India’s Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
• The 9^th biennial Aero India air show at Air Force Station, Yelahanka in Bangalore
• India bagged 46 Medals in 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Pyeongchang (South Korea)
• The mascots were Ra, In and Bow.
• They are the world’s largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 4 million athletes in 170 countries.
• 2015 – Games to be held at Los Angeles, California
• The government of Scotland has outlined a transition plan to independence in case the people of the country give "Yes" vote in the autumn 2014 referendum in which the people will be asked whether Scotland should be an independent nation or not
• The UK currently consists of 4 countries:
  
  1. Scotland
  2. England
  3. Wales
  4. Northern Ireland
• Twitter has launched the first ‘pay-by-tweet’ service with American Express (Amex) which will allow its cardholders to purchase products simply by sending a short message
• India’s GDP growth projections by other agencies for current fiscal 2012-13:
  
• As per the RBI: 5.5%
• As per the Finance Ministry: 5.7 to 5.9%
• As per the IMF: 5.4%
• As per the CSO : 5%
• ‘Operation Three Star’ was the code name of the top secret execution plan in which Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was sent to gallows in the high-security Tihar Jail
• Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he would resign at the end of this month after as the head of the Catholic Church citing old age and poor health to continue.
• The last Pope who resigned was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped aside in 1415 amid a schism within the Church.
• A panel has been set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) with the objective to review how elephant reserves and corridors across the country can get a higher level of legal protection under existing green laws. 
• The panel will be chaired by Vinod Rishi, retired senior forest officer, along with the director of Project Tiger as member convener.
• The Ministry of I&B (Information and Broadcasting) launched the ‘My India Initiative-A Digital Volunteer Programme’.
• The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has raised the equity investment limit for the Insurance companies to 15% up from existing 10%.
• IRDA also gave nod to standard proposal form to record full details of a policyholder as per the KYC norms for sale of life insurance products.
• India’s new stock exchange MCX-SX has started trading in equities, competing against the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
• MCX-SX is the third national equity market trading platform.
• India’s oldest stock exchange is BSE
• The benchmark index for the MCX-SX is called SX-40, just like BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty.
• SX-40
• A free-float based index of 40 large-cap and liquid stocks, representing diverse sectors of the economy.
• Base value: 10,000
• Base date: March 31, 2010
• The index will measure the economic performance with better representation of various industries and sectors based on ICB, a leading global classification from Britain’s FTSE.
• As per a recent study, life on Earth faces danger from a catastrophic “Supervolcano” which seismologists say is due to erupt in ‘200 million years’ time.
• Hotspot plume supervolcano eruptions are like those during the past 2 million years at Wyoming’s Yellowstone caldera, which covered North America with volcanic ash. Massive flood basalt eruptions that formed “large igneous provinces” like the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia River basalts 17 million to 15 million years ago, India’s Deccan Traps some 65 million years ago and the Pacific’s huge Ontong Java Plateau basalts, which buried an Alaska-sized area 125 million to 199 million years ago.
• Iran test-fired a surface-to-surface cruise missile named “Ghader”, which means Capable in Farsi, in international waters near the Strait of Hormuz
• Surface-to-surface, ground-to-ship cruise missile
• Range of 200 kilometres
• Highly advanced with radar, satellite communications, precision in target destruction, as well as range and radar-evading mechanism
• Asteroid 2012 DA14 fly-by closest to Earth
• Newly discovered asteroid 2012 DA14 flew by closest to Earth.
• DA14 is the largest known object of its size which passed this close without making any impact.
• It shot past in a south-north direction above Earth on Feb 15-16, 2013.
• About 2012 DA14
• It is a near near-Earth asteroid with an estimated diameter of 50 meters (160 ft) and an estimated mass of 190,000 metric tons. It was detected in February 2012 by La Sagra Observatory in southern Spain.
• The head of Italian firm Finmeccanica, Giuseppe Orsi, has been arrested in Milan in connection with charges that bribes were paid to secure an Indian defence helicopter deal worth Rs 3600 crore.
• It is suspected that Italian firm Finmeccanica paid bribes to Indian political parties to secure a defence deal worth Rs 3600 crore signed in 2010 for sale of 12 three-engine AW-101 AgustaWestland VVIP choppers produced by Finmeccanica’s subsidiary AgustaWestland to Indian Airforce
• A meteor which was about 17 metres across and weighed 10,000 tons impacted Earth nearly 30 to 50 km above the ground near Russian city Chelyabinsk
• NASA has claimed to have discovered the youngest black hole, named W49B, in Earth’s galaxy or the Milky Way
• The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has held that its decision of cancellation of the environmental clearance granted to Vedanta for the Lanjigarh Bauxite mining project in Odisha was right and that forest land cannot be diverted under the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
• Inhabitants : Dongria kondh 
• Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA) founder Ela R Bhatt has been conferred with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for the year 2011.
• Around 140 nations will adopt the world’s first legally binding treaty on mercury
• T.S. Vijayan took over as the chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).
• World football’s governing body FIFA has announced that goal-line technology will be used during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. 
• A method to determine whether the Football has completely crossed the goal line or not using an electronic device
• FIFA has already approved two systems – Hawk Eye and GoalRef. The Hawk Eye system, used in cricket and tennis, involves the strategic placing of cameras from different points within the stadium while GoalRef uses an electronic chip inside the ball.
• The Kerala Abkari Act Amendment Ordinance 2013 has been given approval by the Kerala Cabinet. With this amendment, the age limit for buying and selling liquor has been raised from 18 to 21
• As per the white paper, the illicit money transferred outside India may come back to India through various methods such as hawala, mispricing, foreign direct investment (FDI) through beneficial tax jurisdictions, raising of capital by Indian companies through global depository receipts (GDRs) and investment in Indian stock markets through participatory notes.
• Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) pilot projects along four metro corridors and another pilot project near Karkardooma in Delhi.  It will be implemented by the UTTIPEC (Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre) which is working to develop a vision and strategy for the creation of a mass-rapid transport system in the Capital. The UTTIPEC, which is a division of the Delhi Development Authority.
• It is a mixed-use residential and commercial area in such a fashion so as to maximize access by Transit and Non-motorized transportation. In a TOD residential and commercial districts are located near and around a transit station/corridor which provides high quality service, good walking area, good parking management and many other design features that facilitate transportation use and maximize overall availability.
• TOD is designed in order to maximize access to public transport. It would make public transport the first choice of travel for all sections of society.
• Reduced household driving and thus lowered regional congestion, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
• Walkable communities that accommodate more healthy and active lifestyles.
• The Court of Arbitration the Court chaired by Stephen M. Schwebel, at the Hague has permitted India to go ahead with the construction of the Rs. 3600 crore Kishenganga Hydro-electric project (KHEP) in North Kashmir. The court eliminated Pakistan’s plea that this was a violation of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.
• Kishanganga is a tributary of Jhelum.
• Kishenganga is called ‘Neelam’ in Pakistan.
• KHEP is a 330 MW run-of-the-river Kishenganga project.
• Project is under construction by the NHPC (National Hydro Power Corporation) in Gurez valley near Bandipura in north Kashmir.
• At the same time, the court has confined India from adopting the drawdown flushing technique for clearing sedimentation in the run-of-the river project.
• Thus, now India will have to adopt a different flushing technique for clearing sedimentation in the run-of-the river project.
• Every year February 28 is celebrated as the National Science Day Rashtriya Vigyan Diwas (राष्ट्रीय विज्ञान दिवस).
• 1928- To mark the discovery of the Raman effect by Indian physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman on February 28, 1928. For this discovery, Sir C.V.Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.
• 2013- The American Chemical Society designated the ‘Raman Effect’ as an International Historic Chemical Landmark.
• Theme for the National Science Day 2013 – “Genetically Modified Crops and Food Security”
• ISRO launched Indo-French satellite SARAL and six foreign mini and micro spacecraft from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Thus, PSLV-20 successfully puts seven satellites in orbit.
• Besides SARAL, the other 6 mini and micro spacecrafts were:
  
  1. Micro-satellite UniBRITE from Austria
  2. Micro-satellite BRITE from Austria
  3. AAUSAT3 from Denmark
  4. STRaND from United Kingdom
  5. Micro-satellite NEOSSat from Canada
  6. Mini-satellite SAPPHIRE from Canada

EUROPA

Moon of Jupiter

6th closest moon of Jupiter

Discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei

Slightly smaller than Earth’s Moon

Composition:

• - Primarily made of silicate rock
• - Likely has an iron core
• - Thin atmosphere composed mainly of oxygen
• - Surface is composed of water ice and is one of the smoothest in the Solar System.

Time Line:

• 1610 – Discovered by Galileo Galilei
• 1989 – The Galileo mission was launched which provided the bulk of the present data that we have on Europa.
• 2022 – JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer), the next mission to Europa by the European Space Agency.

“Europa” is most promising in habitability in universe after Earth: NASA
It could be habitable. Europa which bears an ocean, a thin shelf of ice and oxidants on its surface is far more likely to be habitable than the desert-covered Mars.
Europa’s evident youth and smoothness of the surface have led to the theory that a water ocean exists underneath it, which could possibly be a home for extraterrestrial life.

This theory suggests that the heat energy from tidal flexing is the reason behind the ocean to stay in liquid state and causes geological activity very similar to the plate tectonics.

NASA Mission “Clipper”:

• The mission follows the success of Cassini, a probe that closely explored Titan, a moon of Saturn.
• NASA will send a spacecraft to Jupiter’s orbit and conduct a number of fly-bys to study Europa in its entirety.
• Clipper could be launched by 2021 and would take a further three-six years to reach Europa.

* As per scientists, Enceladus, the 6^th largest moon of Saturn, could also be habitable.

Mercury Treaty

Objective: The Treaty aims at reducing global emission levels of the toxic heavy metal also known as quicksilver, which poses risks to human health and the environment.

Nations will be asked to ink the treaty next October in Minamata, Japan, in honour of the town’s inhabitants who for decades have suffered the consequences of serious mercury contamination.

Mercury is found in products ranging from electrical switches to thermometers to light-bulbs, to amalgam dental fillings and even facial creams, and large amounts of the heavy metal are released from small-scale gold mining, coal-burning power plants, metal smelters and cement production.

Mercury poisoning affects the body’s immune system and can lead to problems including psychological disorders, loss of teeth and problems with the digestive, cardiovascular and respiratory tracts. It also affects development of the brain and nervous system and poses the greatest risk to fetuses and infants.

As per UNEP : 

• Concentrations in deeper waters have increased by up to 25%
• Much human exposure to mercury is through the consumption of contaminated fish.
• Around 200 tonnes of the substance are deposited in the Arctic every year.

Dongria Kondh

The Dongria Kondh, a primitive tribal group [now termed as particularly vulnerable tribe], has been protecting more than 7 sq. km. of the sacred undisturbed forests on top of the mountain, where the proposed mining lease area of the Lanjigarh bauxite mining lease is located. They consider the land and forests sacred to their deity. Diversion of these sacred areas for mining will undermine the customary rights of the Dongria Kondhs to protect their sacred places of worship and thereby amount to a violation of their fundamental right to manage their own affairs in the matter of religion and fundamental right to conserve the culture of their own. It was also in direct violation further of the specific provisions of the Forest Rights Act.

As per Govt. the Lanjigarh bauxite mining lease is located in Scheduled Areas as referred to in Clause (1) of Article 244 of the Constitution. Circumscribing or extinguishing of forest rights in such areas shall not be in conformity with the provisions of the clause-5 of the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution.

Endangered Species

• River dolphin is a critically endangered species in India and therefore, has been included in the Schedule I for the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• Lion tailed Macaque : The lion-tailed macaque, or the wanderoo, is an Old World monkey endemic to the Western Ghats of South India.And is now removed from World's 25 most endangered species.
• Western Hoolock : The western hoolock gibbon (Hoolock hoolock) is a primate from the Hylobatidae (gibbon) family. The species is found in Assam,Bangladesh and in Myanmar west of the Chindwin River.And is now removed from World's 25 most endangered species.
• The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has strongly recommended that sea cucumber, a marine organism found in the coral reef areas, be retained in Schedule I Category of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 on Feb 2013. Schedule I contains the list of most endangered species and gives them highest level of protection.
• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has put vultures on its list of ‘critically endangered’ species.
• Long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus), also known as the Indian vulture (44,000) 
• Why Vulture numbers were fast declining in India?
• Diclofenac , a painkilling drug administered to cattle, is the main cause of mass extinction of vultures. 
• Vultures, which have a digestive system robust enough to even digest disease-causing pathogens found in rotting meat of dead, do not have a critical enzyme that breaks down diclofenac and die of renal failure after eating carcasses of cattle administered the drug. 
• Vultures feeding on cattle either die from acute kidney failure within a few days or lose their ability to reproduce. 
• Endangered species are the King cobra, Indian crocodile (mugger), South Andaman krait and four kinds of turtles namely, Red-crowned Roofed Turtle, Bengal Roof Turtle, Jaggedshelled turtle and Hawksbill turtle. These species were identified to be extinct forever.
• Manipur-brow antlered deer(Sangai) or dancing deer : Endangered species

Priority Sector Lending

What is Priority Sector Lending?

Priority Sector Lending is an important role given by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to the banks for providing a specified portion of the bank lending to few specific sectors like agriculture or small scale industries. Basically this is meant for all round development of the economy apart from only focusing on the financial sector.

Priority sector lending to minorities is one of the schemes covered under prime minister’s new 15 point programme for the welfare of minorities.

Are there minimum limits?

The limits are prescribed according to the ownership pattern of banks. While for local banks, both the public and private sectors have to lend 40 % of their net bank credit, or NBC, to the priority sector as defined by RBI, foreign banks have to lend 32% of their NBC to the priority sector.

Are there specific targets within the priority sector?


Domestic banks have to lend 18 % of NBC to agriculture and 10 % of the NBC has to be to the weaker section. However, foreign banks have to lend 10 % of NBC to the small-scale industries and 12 % of their NBC as export credit. However, for the balance, there are a vast number of sectors that banks can lend as priority sector. The Reserve Bank has a detailed note of what constitutes a priority sector, which also includes housing loans, education loans and loans to MFIs, among others.

What if a bank does not achieve priority sector lending targets?

Domestic banks having a shortfall in lending to priority sector/ agriculture are allocated amounts for contribution to the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund ( RIDF ) established in NABARD. In case of foreign banks operating in India, which fail to achieve the priority sector lending target or sub-targets, an amount equivalent to the shortfall is required to be deposited with SIDBI for one year.

Antyodaya Anna Yojana

What is Antyodaya Anna Yojana?

• AAY was launched by the cetral government in December 2000.
• Under the scheme 1 crore of the poorest among the BPL families covered under the targeted public distribution system are identified.
• Twenty five kilograms (kg) of food grains were made available to each eligible family at a highly subsidized rate of Rs. 2 per kg for wheat and Rs.3 per kg for rice. This quantity has been enhanced from 25 to 35 kgs with effect from April, 2002.
• The scheme has been further expanded in June 2003 by adding another 50 lakh BPL families. 

My India Initiative-A Digital Volunteer Programme

The Ministry of I&B (Information and Broadcasting) launched the ‘My India Initiative-A Digital Volunteer Programme’. 

Objective: To disseminate the development messages across the Social Media platforms by registering citizens as volunteers in an effort to contribute positively towards nation building. The programme will have real time engagement through the Social Media tools.

Indian Defence

Precision-Guided Munitions (PGMs)

• Precision-Guided Munitions (PGMs) are miniaturized missiles with small seekers, actuators and on-board computers and will be integrated with tactical missiles having a range of 100-200 km. 
• PGMs could prevent collateral damage while attacking multiple targets in a war scenario with sub-metre accuracy.
•  PGMs could be integrated with a surface-to-surface missile or an air-to-surface missile.

Wankel

• India has developed its own propulsion engine for future UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). The 55-hp engine named “Wankel” is developed by three national research agencies – National Aerospace Labs, Aeronautical Development Establishment, and the Vehicle Research and Development Establishment
• Wankel will be used to power the home-grown UAVs Nishant, Lakshya and Rustom-1 and 2 versions used to observe and survey border areas.

NAVY

• K-15(underwater ballistic missile or Sagarika) (Distance : 700 km): 
• set to join Arihant (India is only the fifth country to have such a missile -- the other four are the United States, Russia, France and China.)
• 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.
• INS Saryu :
•  maritime surveillance around Andaman and Nicobar islands.Built at Goa Shipyard Limited, the 105-meter vessel is the first of the four new class naval off shore patrol vessels (NOPVs)
• Scorpène class submarines are a class of diesel-electric attack submarine jointly developed by the French DCN and the Spanish company Navantia and now by DCNS. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion (AIP).India has S50-55 submarines.Test Depth > 300 m.
• Dhanush : 
• Naval version of Prithvi missile
• Nuclear capable
• Ballistic missile
• Range: 350km
• Brahmos :
• 290- km range
• supersonic cruise missile
• capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kg
• eveloped by Indo-Russian joint venture. 
• It is a two-stage missile, the first one solid and the second one ramjet liquid propellant
• Already inducted into Army and Navy.Airforce version is in final stage
• INS Nireekshak: 
• Indian Navy’s deep sea diving support vessel. 
• With an on-board submersible capsule called ‘Bell’, assisted in the conduct of the exercise providing safety back-up. 
• INDIAEX-2012 is unique since it will demonstrate the rescuing of trapped submariners from deep under the sea. naval exercise with US.
• P-8I
• A derivative of Boeing 737-800 long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.
• It may take the place of the Navy’s Russian Tupolev Tu-142M maritime surveillance turboprop.
• It is Indian variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing is developing for the U.S. Navy.
• Cater for surveillance in Indian Ocean 

AIR FORCE

• Astra, India’s air-to-air missile.Weighs 168 kg and is 3.8-metres long.Will be fired from aircraft such as Sukhoi-30 MI, MiG-29 and the Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas 
• Air to Air
• Beyond Virtual Range (BVR)
• Single stage solid fuelled
• Capable of engaging and destroying highly maneuverable supersonic aerial targets
• Prithvi-II missile : 
• Surface to surface ballistic missile 
• Indigenously developed by DRDO
• Variants: Prithvi-I for the Army; Prithvi-II for the Indian Air Force; and the Dhanush for the Navy
• Single-stage, Liquid-propelled
• Advanced inertial navigation, control and guidance system 
• Payload capacity: 500-1,000 kg 
• Range: 350 km

ARMY

• Sub-sonic, medium range cruise missile Nirbhay
• developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a DRDO lab.
• All-weather low-cost medium-range cruise missile with stealth and high accuracy.
• Range of 1,000 km
• It will carry a ring laser gyroscope for high-accuracy navigation and a radio altimeter for the height determination.
• Capable of carrying nuclear warhead
• Capable of flying at different altitudes ranging from 500 m to 4 km above the ground.
• Navy,Army and Airfoce can use it
• Nirbhay will supplement the Brahmos cruise missile by carrying warheads beyond the 300-km range
• Agni IV :
• Nuclear capable ballistic missile
• Range: 4000kms 
• Equipped with Avionics, 5th generation on Board Computer 
• Fitted with Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (RINS) and Micro Navigation System (MINGS) for advanced accuracy.

General Knowledge

• National Defence Academy : Pune
•