Kalraj Mishra, the Union Minister for MSMEs, inaugurated the “Centre of Excellence” located in Indian Institute of Science (IISc) campus, Bengaluru.Rajasthan crude oil production fields
Cairn India has received environmental nod for raising crude oil production from its prolific Rajasthan fields by 50% to 300,000 barrels per day (15 million tons a year).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was presented a copy of the first ranking of the top 100 universities of BRICS member nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Uttar Pradesh Governor B L Joshi resigned.
Union Health Minister Dr. Harshvardhan has given consent for setting up of the Regional Institute of Paramedical Sciences in AIIMS Bhopal.
Prince Zeid al Hussein of Jordan, a veteran diplomat and campaigner for international justice, will become the first UN human rights chief from the Muslim and Arab world’s following his unanimous election by the UN General Assembly.
Government appoints former Chief Justice of India RC Lahoti as arbitrator in Vodafone tax case.
Foreign direct investment into China fell 6.7 per cent year-on-year to $8.6 billion in May amid a steady drop in inflows from the US, European Union and Japan.
National
French honour for first V-C of Vidyapeetha
The awarding of
the French Government’s coveted title of ‘Chevalier’ to noted Sanskrit scholar
N.S.
Ramanuja
Tatacharya has been welcomed by his disciples in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
French ambassador
to India Francois
Richier formally presented the “Ordre National de la’Legion d’honneur” to
Dr.Tatacharya at
Puducherry. The ‘Chevalier’
title is the highest recognition to Sanskrit at the international level and it
is yet
another jewel on
Dr. Tatacharya’s already-dazzling crown, who is a recipient of a dozen awards
and titles
including the
President’s Certificate of Honour from the Government of India in 1986.
Himachal to tag satellite collars on snow leopards
They’ve been
captured on camera. Wildlife officials now want to tag satellite collars on the
elusive and highly
endangered snow
leopard in the steep and rocky cliffs of Himachal Pradesh’s Spiti Valley, the
country’s first
collaring attempt
on this wildcat species. The State’s Wildlife Department is already monitoring
the snow
leopards through
cameras in the Spiti Valley, the state’s northernmost part which borders Tibet.
The
department, in
partnership with Mysore-based Nature Conservation Foundation, has installed 60
camera
traps (automatic
cameras) in the valley. This (collar installation) is part of the Central
Government’s Snow
Leopard
Conservation Project which was launched in five trans-Himalayan States,
including Himachal, in
January 2009. The
presence of a sizable population of prey species like the Asiatic ibex, a wild
goat species,
the Himalayan
blue sheep and the wolf indicates the valley supports a good population of the
wildcats.
The snow leopard,
a graceful golden-eyed animal with thick fur, padded paws and a long tail, is
found in
rocky regions at
an altitude of 2,700 to 6,000 metres. Apart from the Spiti Valley, the State’s
Pin Valley
National Park,
the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary, the Great Himalayan National Park and the Pangi
and
Bharmour areas of
Chamba district have a sizeable population of the snow leopard.
Cash transfer
finds place in Govt calendar
The much-talked
about Direct Cash Transfer Scheme is the first among the various Government schemes
highlighted in
the ‘Government of India- Wall Calendar 2013’ released. The calender based on
the theme
‘Bharat Nirman-
Sabka hit, Sabka Haq’, was released by the Department of Audio Visual
Publicity. While the
month of January
displays the Aadhar-based Direct Cash Transfer Scheme, February shows PM’s
15-point
programme for
welfare of minorities. March displays ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’, April the - Mid
Day Meal
Scheme while
Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) is the
picture
for the month of
May. Immunisation (June), Saakshar Bharat Abhiyan (July), Janani Shishu
Suraksha
Karyakaram
(August), Empowerment of scheduled castes (September), Pradhan Mantri Gram
Sadak Yojana
(October), Rajiv
Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (November) and the Indira Awas Yojana
(December)
are the other
schemes displayed in the calendar. Frank Noronha is chief of DAVP.
Only 5 of 53 pvt varsities inspected by UGC in order
In a poor
reflection of the country’s regulatory mechanism in the education sector, the
HRD Ministry has
informed the
Rajya Sabha that only five private universities of the 53 inspected by the UGC
were found to be
in order. The
University Grants Commission (UGC) has inspected over a third of the 145 private
universities
in the country
and found only five of them in order. Private universities can be established
either by the
Central
Government by an Act of Parliament or by State Governments by an Act of State
legislature.
Bhanu Athaiya returns Oscar fearing theft
Renowned
Bollywood costume designer Bhanu Athaiya has returned her Oscar statuette, the
first to be won
by an Indian, to
its original owner, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Los
Angeles, for
safekeeping
fearing it could meet the same fate as Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel medal which
was stolen.
The statuettes
were couriered in a special container and have been received by the Academy.
International
CIA ‘tortured and sodomised’ terror suspect
CIA agents
tortured a German citizen, sodomising, shackling, and beating him, as
Macedonian state police
looked on, said
the European court of human rights in a historic judgement. In a unanimous
ruling, it also
found Macedonia
guilty of torturing, abusing, and secretly imprisoning Khaled el-Masri, a
German of
Lebanese origin
allegedly linked to terrorist organisations. Mr. Masri was seized in Macedonia
in December
2003 and handed
over to a CIA “rendition team” at Skopje airport and secretly flown to
Afghanistan. It is the
first time the
court has described CIA treatment meted out to terror suspects as torture.
European Court of
Human Rights
unanimously found that Mr. el-Masri was subjected to forced disappearance,
unlawful
detention,
extraordinary rendition outside any judicial process, and inhuman and degrading
treatment.
90 nations sign Net treaty amid split
Envoys from
nearly 90 nations signed the first new U.N. telecommunications treaty since the
Internet age,
but the U.S. and
other Western nations refused to join after claiming it endorses greater
government control
over cyberspace.
The head of the U.N. telecoms group pushed back against U.S. assertions,
defending the
accord as
necessary to help expand online services to poorer nations and add more voices
to shape the
direction of
modern communications technology. The negotiations pitted the West’s desire to
preserve the
unregulated
nature of the Net against developing countries yearning for better Web access
and strong—arm
states such as
Iran and China that closely filter cyberspace.
Around 1.06 lakh people missing after war in Sri Lanka
Author of a book
on the internal conflict in Sri Lanka involving its armed forces and rebel LTTE
said around
1.06 lakh persons
were missing in LTTE-controlled areas after the war. Having worked as a BBC
correspondent in
Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2004, Frances Harrison said she had accessed World Bank
population data
in this regard to substantiate her claim. Harrison said she had accessed the
World Bank data
on population of
Mullaitheevu, Kilinochi, Vavuniya and Mannaar in the island nation, which she
said, revealed
that 1.06 lakh
persons were "missing" after the war. Author of the book "Still
Counting the Dead," which is set
to be released in
Tamil soon, said it was based on tales of survivors including a former rebel, a
nurse, a nun
and a teacher,
among others.
Business & Economy:
RBI extends deadline for new cheque standard
The Reserve Bank
of India (RBI), has extended the deadline given to migrate to new-look cheques
(CTS-
2010 Standard
cheques), with more security and standardised features, to March 31, 2013.
Earlier, it had set
a December 31
deadline. Banks were in the process of issuing new-look cheques to all its
customers by
December 31, 2012.
‘Cheque Truncation System (CTS)-2010 standard’ is a set of benchmarks towards
achieving
standardisation of cheques issued by banks across the country. These include
provision of
mandatory minimum
security features on cheque forms such as quality of paper, watermark, bank’s
logo in
invisible ink,
void pantograph and standardisation of field placements on cheques.
IOC retains top slot in Fortune 500 India list
Indian Oil
Corporation (IOC) is the biggest company in terms of revenue, followed by
Reliance Industries,
according to the
Fortune 500 list of Indian companies for 2012. IOC is the biggest company with
annual
revenue of
Rs.4,20,287 crore, followed by Mukesh Ambani-led RIL with a full-year revenue
of Rs.3,67,539
crore. Bharat
Petroleum Corporation is at the third spot with a revenue of Rs.2,14,866 crore.
The three firms
IOC, RIL and BPCL
have retained their last year’s respective ranks. Hindustan Petroleum
Corporation is
ranked fourth
with annual revenue of Rs.1,87,693 crore and State Bank of India is ranked
fifth with
Rs.1,77,033 crore
revenue.
CBEC cuts import tariff value of gold
Central Board of
Excise and Customs ( CBEC) has slashed the import tariff value of gold
marginally to $550
per 10 grams amid
weak global prices of the precious metal. The tariff value of silver has,
however, been
hiked marginally
to $1,062 a kg. The tariff value is the base price on which the customs duty is
determined to
prevent
under-invoicing. The import tariff value of brass scrap has been increased to
$4069 from $4,029 a
tonne in the
review period.
Delhi's Nehru Place among world's top 30 notorious IT markets
Indian capital's
famous Nehru Place market has been placed among the top 30 notorious IT markets
of the
world that deal
in goods and services infringing on intellectual property rights. "Nehru
Place is reportedly one
of the many
markets in major cities throughout India that are known for dealing in large
volumes of pirated
software, pirated
optical media containing movies and music, and counterfeit goods," said US
Trade
Representatives
(USTR). Among other internet and physical markets that exemplify marketplaces
that deal
in infringing
goods and services, facilitating and sustaining global piracy and counterfeiting
include Urdu
Bazaars in
Karachi and Lahore. However, China has the largest number of notorious markets
listed in the
report.
Pratyush Kumar to head Boeing India
US-based Boeing,
a leading maker of airplanes, has named Pratyush Kumar as President of Boeing
India.
He succeeded
Dinesh Keskar, who returned to Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Kumar, an IIT
graduate, was
Delhi-based
president and CEO of GE Transportation for South Asia. Before joining GE in
2003, Kumar
founded a biotech
start-up in Boston. He began his career as a McKinsey and Company management
consultant in its
Atlanta and Delhi offices.
Second biggest SIM card supplier in India
A Chinese company
has emerged as the second biggest supplier of SIM cards for mobile phones in
India
this year. The
government-controlled Eastcompeace Technology is supplying the phone chips to
Reliance
Communications,
Tata Teleservices, Airtel and Vodafone, besides providing SBI with smart cards.
The
company is the
biggest player in Pakistan. Its India operation is the largest, with revenue
worth $18 million
followed by
Pakistan ($9m), Russia ($6m) and South Africa ($4m).
Sport
Anjali clinches a bronze
Anjali Bhagwat
managed to win a bronze medal behind two Chinese who set a World record 400 out
of 400
in women’s air
rifle in the fifth Asian Air Gun championship in Nanchang, China. Anjali had to
fight it out for
the bronze
against another Chinese and won the medal by a 0.2 point margin, with a total
of 500.4. She shot
397 in
qualification and 103.4 in the final to outwit the Chinese Chang Jing who shot
398 in qualification but
only 102.2 in the
final. It was only her third Asian level medal for Anjali who had won the air
rifle bronze in
Nanjing in 2008
and the standard rifle prone silver in Langkawi in 2000.
Ashour regains world crown
Former champion
Ramy Ashour regained the world title with a marathon 2-11, 11-6, 11-5, 9-11,
11-8 win over
Egyptian
compatriot Mohammed El Shorbagy. Earlier, Ashour was assured of the world No. 1
ranking after
he beat defending
champion Nick Matthew in the semifinals. The 21-year-old Shorbagy had beaten
the topseeded
world No. 1 James
Willstrop in the semifinals.
Narain and Karun win ROC Asia
India’s Narain
Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok won the 2012 Race of Champions Asia and qualified
for the
Nations Cup where
they will be in the same group as defending champion Germany, which has
Sebastian
Vettel and
Michael Schumacher in its ranks. Team India defeated Japan 2-0 in the final
with four wins out of
six races. Both
the Indian drivers won three out of their four races. The ROC, being staged for
the 25th
consecutive year,
brings together the world’s best drivers from motorsport’s main disciplines,
including
Formula One,
world rally, touring cars, Le Mans, MotoGP, Indycar and the X-Games. The
drivers battle it out
head-to-head in identical machinery.
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