India successfully test-fires 290-km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile off the coast of Karwar.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan announced a ten-member Panel of Chairpersons.
NABARD has reduced the rate of interest by 20 basis points (bps) on their long term refinance facility to banks with an objective to promote investments in agriculture. The new rates will be applicable from 6 June 2014.
The 2015 edition of the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards will be staged in Shanghai, China.
The Chinese navy will participate in the US' Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) multinational naval exercises for the first time this year.
Touching a new high, India's tennis ace Sania Mirza became world number six in doubles, her career-best ranking.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was named as the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, while Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad was declared the Leader of the Opposition.
Mahindra and Mahindra Executive Director Pawan Goenka has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), for a term of three years.
Auto components maker Samvardhana Motherson International Ltd (SMIL) has inked a 50:50 joint venture pact with Italy's Magneti Marelli Spa to enter the automotive shock absorbers segment in the Indian market.
Current affairs 29 December 2012
National:
Government
panel to set poverty mark for rural schemes
The Centre has set
up an expert committee to determine the poverty mark to identify beneficiaries
of rural
development
ministry's programmes. The committee, to be headed by Planning Commission
member Abhijit
Sen, will examine
the figures of the socio-economic caste survey to decide who is below the
poverty line in
terms of deserving
the rural welfare schemes focused on poor like Indira Awas Yojana, old-age
pension and
national rural
livelihood mission. The committee, which is to give its report by March-end,
includes Kirit
Parikh, Mahendra
Dev, Nikhil Dey, Dr Himanshu and P P Mitra.
A
historic rail link to Kashmir Valley
Northern Railway
made history as the first train chugged through India’s longest railway tunnel
in the Pir
Panjal mountain
range, connecting Kashmir Valley to Banihal town on the Srinagar-Jammu national
highway.
The train services
between Banihal and Kashmir Valley will start in February or March 2013 while
the entire
railway project
connecting the Valley with the rest of the country will be completed by 2017.
While the
Baramulla-Srinagar-Qazigund
link has been functional for the past four years, this was the first time that
a
train has crossed
the mighty Pir Panjal Mountain range. The highlight of the Qazigund-Banihal
link is the
11.21-km tunnel,
the longest railway tunnel in India, which has reduced the distance between the
two towns
by half. The
tunnel, which was constructed by Hindustan Construction Corporation (HCC), will
reduce the
travel distance
between Qazigund and Banihal from 35 kilometres (by road) to just 17.5
kilometres (by train).
The Pir Panjal
tunnel, which is the second longest in Asia. The tunnel is 8.40 metres wide
with a height of
7.39 metres. There
is a provision of a three-metre-wide road along the length of the tunnel for
the purpose of
maintenance and
emergency relief.
Israel
Grants Scholarships to 66 Outstanding Indian Researchers
For the first
programme of its kind time, almost 66 Indian Post-Doctoral Scholars will travel
to Israel, to
pursue research at
top universities. The researchers will benefit from three-year scholarships
granted by the
government of that
country.
Panel
submits probe report on Vadra's land deal
A Haryana
Government-appointed committee, that probed the orders of senior IAS officer
Ashok Khemka
cancelling the
sale of over 3 acre of land to realty major DLF in a deal with Robert Vadra,
son-in-law of
Congress President
Sonia Gandhi. The three-member committee, headed by Additional Chief Secretary
(Revenue) Krishan
Mohan, submitted its report to Haryana Chief Secretary PK Chaudhary. Khemka, as
the
then Director
General Consolidation of Holdings and Land Records-cum-Inspector General of
Registration,
had ordered
cancellation of the land deals.
International:
China
opens its first subway crossing Asia's longest river
After launching
the world's longest high-speed rail line, China has opened its subway line
across the mighty
Yangtze River to
connect the two sides of Wuhan, the most populous city in Central China. The
metro link
passes through a
27-km tunnel linking Wuchang and Hanku, two major urban areas in Wuhan city,
the
capital of Hubei
Province. The two stations are separated by the Yangtze River, China's longest
waterway.
The trains will
only take three minutes to run under the Asia's longest Yangtze River. Yangtze
is the world's
third longest
river.
Putin
OKs law to bar US adoption of Russian kids
Russian President
Vladimir Putin has signed into law controversial parliamentary legislation
banning the
adoption of
Russian children by American families. The law - a retaliation for a United
States law punishing
Russian officials
implicated in the 2009 prison death of the whistle-blowing attorney Sergei
Magnitsky - will
come into force on
January 1,2013.
Business & Economy:
Raman
takes over as whole-time member of SEBI
The Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has appointed S. Raman as its whole-time member
for
five years. Before
his appointment as whole-time member, Mr. Raman served as Chairman and Managing
Director of Canara
Bank from September, 2010, to September, 2012.
Three
DTH players pull the plug on ESPN, Star Cricket HD channels
Three of the
country’s six direct-to-home (DTH) service providers have stopped showing high
definition
channels Star
Cricket and ESPN ahead of the much anticipated India-Pakistan series. Airtel Digital
TV, Sun
Direct and Dish TV
have stopped these channels on their platforms alleging hike in prices. Airtel
Digital TV,
the DTH service
arm of Bharti Airtel, has also stopped showing the standard versions of ESPN,
Star Cricket
and Star Sports on
its platform for some of its customers.
Sport
India
is runner-up
India lost 4-5 to Pakistan in a
high-scoring final of the second Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament.
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