May 10, 2013

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 the spiral galaxy NGC 1365 by using new data from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton X-ray satellites. 
    • A black hole’s gravity is so strong that, as the black hole spins, it drags the surrounding space along. The edge of this spinning hole is called the event horizon.
    • The spiraling matter collects into an accretion disk, where friction heats it and causes it to emit X-rays. Scientists measured X-rays from the center of NGC 1365 to determine where the inner edge of the accretion disk was located. 
  • “Walking with Lions : Tales from a Diplomatic Past” Book by K Natwar Singh
  • Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal will take the position of Director General of Indian Coast Guard
  • Neiphiu Rio takes oath as the Chief Minister of Nagaland for the third consecutive term
  • Holders of Indian Depository Receipts (IDRs) will now have an option to convert it into shares of the issuing company.
    • This move of allowing for two-way fungibility of IDRs will encourage greater foreign participation in the Indian capital market.
    • So far only the UK-based banking major Standard Chartered PLC was listed as an IDR. 
  • Bhabha Atomic Research Centre which is India’s state-owned research establishment has claimed to be developing the world’s largest magnet, weighing 50,000 tons. It would be bigger than the one at the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at CERN in Geneva.
    • It will play a significant role in the India-based Neutrino Observatory coming up 4,300 feet below a cave in a mountain in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
  • Bharti Airtel has launched high quality voice service for its subscribers in Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi and Nigeria in the African sub-continent. 
  • The Finance Ministry has cleared the proposal of Malaysian budget airline AirAsia’s proposal to launch an airline in India with Tata Sons. 
  • The Ministry of Communications and IT has launched the `Electronics Project Proposal System (e-PPS), developed by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, through the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
  • India’s First All Women Employees Post Office at Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi.This office is Project Arrow office.
  • The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) cleared Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA) by civil and military users.
  • The world’s largest biogas plant was inaugurated on Finland’s western coast as the country seeks to cut its use of foreign coal.
  • The Union Government will provide a financial assistance of Rs 41.21 crore to protect Pashmina goat which produces world-famous fine luxury fibre. 
    • The Changthangi or Pashmina goat is a breed of goat from Tibet or neighbouring areas in the Ladakhi Changthang, usually raised for meat or cashmere wool (known as pashmina once woven).
    • Noori, the world's first cloned Pashmina goat, was cloned at the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandary of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST) in Shuhama.
  • Rajya Sabha cleared a Bill envisaging for broadening the criterion for appointment of Presiding Officer of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT). 
    • SAT is a statutory body that adjudicates on appeals against orders passed by SEBI. 
    • 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. 
  • NASA’s Curiosity rover, which is exploring Mars, has identified sulphur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon – some of the key chemical ingredients required to support life – in the powder it drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet.
    • The Yellowknife Bay area, which the rover is exploring, was the end of an ancient river system
    • The Grey substance:
      • Scientists were astonished to find a mixture of oxidised, less-oxidised, and even non-oxidised chemicals providing an energy gradient of the sort many microbes on Earth exploit to live
  • Government and the RBI have decided to launch one billion pieces of Rs 10 bank notes made of plastic on a field trial basis in 5 cities viz. Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Bhubhaneswar and Shimla.
    • Primary goal of introduction of polymer notes is to increase its life, it could also help in combating counterfeiting.  
  • 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).
  • The United Arab Emirates (UAE) inaugurated the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant- Shams 1, a $600-million project produce 100 Megawatt of electricity which can suffice electricity needs of 20,000 homes.
  • Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has issued guidelines on ‘product labelling’ with colour coding for mutual funds.
    • The front page of initial offering application forms will carry product labels with details about the schemes.
    • The labels would have to be placed in common applications forms and advertisements.
    • Blue colour : Low risk
    • Yellow color : Medium risk
    • Brown color: High risk
  • Legislation named the “H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2013” has been introduced in the US which is aimed at eliminating fraud and abuse of the H-1B visa programme, but provisions of which would make it difficult for Indian-Americans to get this popular work visa.
    • It has been observed that the H-1B programme is being abused by companies which are hiring foreign workers slashing the opportunities of US workers.
  • The Fatehpur Sikri group of monuments in Agra has been conferred with the prestigious National Tourism Award 2011-12 for “the best maintained and disabled-friendly monument”.
  • Egypt’s first elected President Mohamed Morsy who is on visit to India have expressed keenness to join the BRICS and hoped to see itself in the E-BRICS (E stands for Egypt).
    EBRICS = Egypt + BRICS nations
  • Infosys has partnered with India Post to implement and manage a platform that will transform the latter’s rural operations. Infosys will facilitate India Post’s Rural Systems Integration (RSI) program.
    • Infosys has partnered with India Post to implement and manage a platform that will transform the latter’s rural operations. Infosys will facilitate India Post’s Rural Systems Integration (RSI) program.
  • Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is creating a GEO Imaging Satellite (GISAT) which it plans to launch during 2016-17.    
  • Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund have agreed to provide a bail out package of up to 10 billion euros to Cyprus.
    • Previously, debt packages were given to Greece worth some 380 billion euros ($496 billion), Ireland’s 85 billion euros, Portugal’s 78 billion and 41 billion for Spanish banks.
  • United Nations observed first ever “International Day of Happiness” on March 20, 2013. The aim of the day is to recognize the importance of happiness as a universal objective.
    • The idea for this day came from a Bhutanese concept, proposed by the Fourth King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck. In the 1970s, the country adopted the goal of “Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product.”
    •  The initiative takes a ‘holistic approach’ to development giving equal importance to non-economic aspects of life. 
    • Bhutan, despite its low literacy rates and life expectancy, was ranked as the 8th happiest nation in the world in 2006
  • Caretaker Prime Minister Justice (retired) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso took oath as sixth caretaker Prime Minister of  Pakistan. 
  • Arunachal Pradesh became the first state to introduce e-GPF.
  • UN General Assembly (UNGA) declared 2013 as the UN International Year of Water Cooperation via its resolution : A/RES/65/154.
  • Harmanpreet Kaur was named the Captain of the Indian women’s Cricket team, she replaced Mithali Raj. Poonam Raut was named as the Vice-Captain of the team.
  • Malala Yousafzai inked a deal for around USD 3 million to publish her memoir in a book, titled “I am Malala” that will be published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson in the UK and Commonwealth and by Little, Brown in the rest of the world.

  • The Cairn-ONGC Joint Venture (JV) has started production from the Aishwariya field.  This is the third largest discovery in the Rajasthan Block.
    The Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya (MBA) fields have gross recoverable oil reserves and resources of approximately 1 billion barrels.
    • Production from the Rajasthan Block currently contributes more than 23% of India’s domestic production.
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