PSLV C-24 successfully launches India's second navigation satellite IRNSS 1B.
Tripura maintained its top position for the fifth consecutive year by providing 87 person-days' rural jobs per household during the 2013-14 fiscal.
South Korea had successfully test-fired a new ballistic missile capable of carrying a one-tonne payload to any part of North Korea.
Multinational General Electric (GE) unveiled a low-speed turbine to generate wind energy for meeting India's unmet power needs.
Global food prices increased by 2.3 percent in March from the previous month, the highest level since May 2013, as some crops were affected due to unfavourable weather conditions, according to the United Nations food agency FAO.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that Air Marshal Mark Binskin, currently the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) vice-chief, will be the next chief of the defence, when General David Hurley steps down July 4.
Government has set up a five-member expert committee, headed by former Union Urban Development Secretary K Sivaramakrishnan, to recommend a site for the capital of successor state of Andhra Pradesh.
India ranks 102nd among the 132 countries on the Social Progress Index, a measure of human wellbeing that goes beyond traditional economic measures such as GDP or per capita income.
Europe has launched the first in a constellation of hi-tech satellites designed to monitor Earth for climate change and environmental damage and help in disaster relief operations.
US President Barack Obama has nominated Indian-American Sunil Sabharwal to a key administration post as US Alternate Executive Director at IMF.
current affairs 1 september 2012
SC orders Sahara to
refund Rs. 24,400 crore
The Supreme Court held that the economic
offences committed by Saharas must be dealt with by an iron hand and directed
the Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd. (SIRECL) and the Sahara Housing
Investment Corporation Ltd. (SHICL) to refund over Rs. 24,400 crore collected
from 2.21 crore depositors through the optimally fully convertible debentures
(OFCDs) by way of bonds.
A Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and
J.S. Khehar said they should refund the amounts collected through Red Herring
Prospectus (RHPs) dated March 13, 2008 (Rs. 17,400 crore) and October 16, 2009
(over Rs. 7,000 crore), along with 15 per cent interest to the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI) from the date of receipt of the subscription
amount till the date of repayment, within three months. The sum should be
deposited in a nationalised bank bearing the maximum rate of interest. The
court appointed the retired Supreme Court judge, B.N. Agrawal, “to oversee
whether directions issued by this court are properly and effectively complied
with by the SEBI (WTM) from the date of this order.
University of Calicut
to honour Montek, M.S. Swaminathan, Fathima Beevi
University of Calicut
will confer honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) degrees on noted agriculture
scientist M.S. Swaminathan, economist and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman
Montek Singh Ahluwalia and jurist and former Supreme Court judge Fathima Beevi.
The university had decided to hold the special convocation on September 13, but
inconvenience of the Chancellor, Governor H.R. Bharadwaj, and Mr. Ahluwalia
forced it to postpone the function. It was in December 2010 that the university
awarded an honorary D.Litt. last. Actor Mammootty, freedom fighter Captain
Lakshmi Sahgal and historian Irfan Habib were the last three recipients of
D.Litt.
R.P. Shenoy passes
away
Ramdas P. Shenoy,
former Director of the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE),
a unit under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO),
Bangalore, passed away after brief illness on August 16, according to a
statement issued by the DRDO. Considered the father of radar research and
development in the country and an internationally acclaimed expert in radar. He
was one of the first Distinguished Scientists of the DRDO and was conferred the
Padma Shri in 1987. After his retirement from the DRDO in 1989, he pursued his
research interests as a visiting professor in the Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the DRDO in 2002.
Survey of best Indian
cities
In a Makaan IQ survey
on seven top Indian cities conducted across 1,104 respondents, 12 cities were
measured on the basis of seven living parameters. The cities were Delhi/NCR,
Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh,
Kochi, Coimbatore, and Jaipur. Mumbai topped the Return on Investment (ROI)
category with 22 per cent respondents voting for it. Delhi NCR topped the
Superior Infrastructure, Planning and Development category, with a 19 per cent
vote. Delhi has seen major infrastructural development, with new roads,
flyovers, health care and sanitation facilities. Bangalore and Hyderabad topped
the good population density category, with 20 per cent respondents each. Both
have organised and planned societies and townships.
Vocational courses in
Haryana schools
Haryana will soon be
the first State to teach vocational courses in its schools. The pilot project
will be implemented in 40 schools across eight districts, including Gurgaon,
under the “National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework”. Under the
project, the students in Class IX to Class XII will be taught vocational
courses in Information Technology, Retail, Security and Automobile along with
the regular curriculum so that they can have ample employment opportunities on
passing out from the school. The project will be launched by Union Human
Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh
Hooda on September 3. Page 2 of 4 1st August 2012
New
Rajasthan housing scheme for calamity victims
Rajasthan has
launched a special housing scheme for rehabilitation of both urban and rural
poor affected by natural and manmade calamities. Termed first of its kind in
the country the special housing scheme, named Rajasthan Vishesh Awas Yojna.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced the new housing scheme, which will make
available Rs.50,000 in three instalments to the economically weak for
construction of houses in the wake of damages due to calamities. Besides
natural disasters, damages caused to the houses and dwelling places by arson
and rioting also would be considered for support under the scheme.
Drastic cut in
radiation from mobile towers
With new guidelines
radiation emission from telecom towers will come down to 1/10th of the present
level, a development that will address public health concerns. Also, the handsets to
be rolled out from domestic manufacturing units or to be imported will have
reduced absorption capacity, as per the new guidelines. The minimum distance of
a tower (with two antenna) will be 35 meter from a residential building. There
are over seven lakh towers for mobile phones throughout the country of which 95
per cent of them are already compliant with the new emission norms. On mobile
handsets, the specific absorption rate (SAR) value will now be 1.6 watts/kg
averaged over one gram of human tissue. Previously, the SAR value for handsets
was 2 watts/kg measured over 10 grams of human tissue.
China’s PoK rail link
plan gains traction
Pakistan Prime
Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf will visit China in October to push economic ties,
even as the “all-weather” allies are taking forward plans to build a railway
line from western China through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Pre-feasibility work on the proposed railway line has been completed. The
planned railway line runs from Kashgar, the old Silk Road town in China’s
far-western Xinjiang region, through the Khunjerab pass in PoK and on to
Havelian, where it will join Pakistan’s railway network. In June 2011, passenger
service began on the first segment of the line which runs from Kashgar to
Hotan, in southern Xinjiang. Work has not yet started on the line onwards from
Hotan. China is also widening and repaving the Karakoram Highway, which runs
from Kashgar through PoK to Pakistan, and is working to make it an all-weather
road. While work on the Chinese side has been completed, China is assisting
Pakistan in a $500-million effort to repave and widen the highway in Pakistan
and in PoK.
Genetics of
50,000-year-old girl reconstructed
Scientists have
reconstructed the entire genetic makeup of a girl who lived and died in a
Siberian cave more than 50,000 years ago. The young woman belonged to a long
extinct group of humans called Denisovans their existence known only from meagre
fossil remains uncovered at the Denisova cave in the Altai mountains in 2008.
They are thought to have occupied much of Asia tens of thousands of years ago.
Previous tests on the remains found they were more closely related to
Neanderthals than modern humans. Researchers in the U.S. and Germany describe
how they sequenced the girl’s genome with an accuracy once considered
impossible with such ancient specimens. The final sequence matched the quality
of modern genetic tests on living people. They sequenced single strands of DNA
taken from a little finger bone found at the scene. The bone fragments, and two
fossilised teeth, are the only remains of the Denisovans. Studies on the girl’s
genes suggest she had dark skin, brown hair and brown eyes, but other genetic
factors help shed light on the Denisovans more broadly. Comparison of genetic
material inherited separately from the girl’s mother and father points to a
population with very low genetic diversity. The team from Leipzig and Harvard
Medical School in Boston compared the Denisovan genome with similar sequences
from Neanderthals and 11 modern humans from around the world. This revealed
evidence for inbreeding, with Denisovan DNA living on in some populations alive
today.
CAG pulls up
hydro-power PSUs for project delays
The functioning of
state-run power companies has come under strong criticism from the Comptroller
and Auditor General (CAG). The CAG has faulted NHPC, THDC, SJVN and NEEPCO for
poor implementation of their hydro power projects, resulting in Rs.14,700 crore
cost over-runs. CAG has stated that delay in implementing 16 hydro power
projects by power PSUs leads to cost over-runs of Rs.14,700. Out of the 16
projects,
as many as 11 are being implemented by NHPC. The company is a joint venture
partner with the Madhya Pradesh government in another project. There are two
plants of NEEPCO and one each of THDC and SJVN. All these 16 hydro plants
together have a generation capacity of 6,794 MW. Out of them, THDC’s 400 MW Koteshwar
plant, NHPC’s 120 MW Sewa-II and 510 Teesta V are already running. The 520 MW
Omkareshwar plant - jointly owned by NHPC and the Madhya Pradesh government –
too, has started generation. NHPC's 2,000 MW Subansri lower, 800 MW Parbati-II
and NEEPCO's 600 MW Kameng are some of the ongoing projects.
Coal secretary
objects to blocks cancellation to JSPL, Usha Martin
The top bureaucrat in the coal ministry has
raised objections over recommendations from his second-in-command to scrap
allocation of Jitpur and Lohari coal blocks given to Jindal Steel and Power Ltd
and Usha Martin Ltd, respectively. “In the absence of such guidelines, it is
not understandable on what basis the IMG (inter-ministerial group) has taken
such a decision..." coal secretary S K Srivastava wrote on file on August
21. The IMG is headed by additional secretary in the ministry, Zohra
Chatterjee. Srivastava's objections are based mainly on IMG's decision being
based on status report of December 2011 and absence of guidelines.
Hints at JLR plant in
Saudi Arabia
Ratan Tata has said
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is examining the possibility of setting up an assembly
plant in Saudi Arabia to benefit from the upcoming multi-billion integrated
aluminium complex in the country. With JLR going for more aluminium content in
its products, Mr. Tata said the company could benefit in the long-term from
“very competitive” aluminium from the project. Saudi Arabian mining firm
Ma’aden, in a joint venture with Alcoa, is undertaking a $10.8 billion project
to set up, what has been dubbed, as the world’s largest vertically integrated
aluminium complex. The plant is envisaged to have an initial production
capacity of 50,000 units annually.
Chola MS launches
motor policies online
Cholamandalam MS
General Insurance Company has introduced ‘Policy on the Go’, a mobile
application to generate quotes and issue motor policies online, thus bringing
down the turnaround time from four days to just a few hours. The insurance
agents and direct sales teams of Chola MS can now use their Android-run smart
phones to fill in insurance applications. The mobile application will generate
instant quote, taking into account various factors, including the year of
registration, engine number and so on. Once the customer cheque is realised,
the policy will be issued and e-policy will be sent to the customer.
Private sector to add
45 GW of power generating capacity in 12th plan
Planning Commission
is banking high on private sector for power generation in the 12th plan
(2012-17). The
panel in the final document of 12th plan says that share of the private sector
in power generation is likely to nearly double in the 12th plan. The document
says that private sector is likely to add over 45 gigawatt (GW, 1 GW = 1,000
mega watt or MW) of power generating capacity in the next five years. In the
11th plan, private sector added 24 GW power generating capacity which was
commendable in comparison of its share of 2 GW in the 10th plan. Private
companies contributed 26 per cent - Rs1,66,000 crore - of the total investment
of Rs6,18,000 crore in the power sector during the 11th plan.
India's economy grows
at 5.5% in April-June quarter
India's economy grew at a
higher-than-expected 5.5 percent in the quarter ending June, against analysts'
forecast of 5.3 percent, government data showed. The manufacturing sector grew
an annual 0.2 percent during the quarter, while farm output rose 2.9 percent.
Economic growth was at 5.3 percent in the quarter ending March. Economic growth
in Asia's third-largest economy slipped to 6.5 percent in 2011/12 fiscal year
ending in March from an annual rate of 8.4 percent in the two previous fiscal
years.
Fiat India loses Rs
432cr decade-old excise case
Fiat India has lost
an almost decade-old battle with the excise department which had slapped a Rs
432 crore duty on the company for Uno cars sold below cost price between 1996
and 2001. Justice H L Dattu of the Page 4 of 4 1st August 2012
Supreme
Court set aside the order passed by the Customs Excise and Service Tax
Appellate Tribunal and restored the order by the adjudicating authority. The
excise department had discovered that the company was importing car kits in
completely knocked down (CKD) and semi-knocked down condition and the cost of
production of a single car was Rs 3,80,883 (CKD) and Rs 3,98,585 (SKD),
respectively, against the assessable value of Rs 1,85,400.
Lenovo to launch
smartphones in India: Report
The world's second-largest computer maker
Lenovo is all set to launch smartphones in India. According to a report in
Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the company "will bring smartphones to India, the
Philippines and Indonesia to gain more heft and experience before entering developed
markets such as the US." Lenovo entered the smartphone segment in China
around two years ago. According to recent IDC data, domestic vendor Lenovo has
knocked off Apple from its second place in China, the world's largest mobile
market. Lenovo, which makes the LePhone, took 11 percent market share in China.
Bolt cruises to 200m
win to wow Zurich
Crowd favourite Usain Bolt coasted to victory in the
men's 200m in the Diamond League, clocking a meet record of 19.66 seconds in
inclement weather conditions. Bolt, fresh from his second successive triple
gold haul at the Olympics, came into the final stretch just ahead of compatriot
Nickel Ashmeade on his inside. Jamaicans also took third and fourth spots in
the shape of Jason Young (20.08) and Olympic bronze medallist Warren Weir
(20.18).
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