Current affairs 31 December 2012
Named
for Pushkin Award
K. Govindan Nair,
former Head of the Department of Russian, University of Kerala, has won the
Pushkin
Award of the
Russian Federation. The Pushkin Award is given by the Federation to citizens of
India for
overall
contribution in popularisation of Russian culture, language, and literature.
The first Keralite to get a
PhD in Russian
Literature and the first Indian teacher in the Department of Russian of the
Kerala University.
Gandhiji's
40-feet tall bust to be installed at Gandhi Maidan
Mahatma Gandhi's
40-feet tall bust will be installed on January 30,2013 at the historic Gandhi
Maidan in
Patna on his 65th
death anniversary. The bust, which is made of bronze metal and is in three
pieces, has
been made by a
Delhi-based firm. Gandhi's bust was set for installation on his 143rd birth
anniversary on
October 2, 2012,
but got delayed due to various reasons.
Gujarat
BSF gets MoD nod for women battalion
The Ministry of
Defence has given its go-ahead to the Gujarat Frontier of Border Security Force
(BSF) to
raise a battalion
of women personnel to guard the Munabao railway station on the India-Pakistan
border in
Rajasthan. This
will be the second such battalion of the BSF after Punjab. The Gujarat Frontier
had written to
the Ministry a few
months ago requesting to form a women battalion for the Munabao railway station
in
Barmer district
where New Thar Express halts. There will be 100 constable-rank women in the
battalion who
will be stationed
at all BSF outposts of the Frontier for a small period before being permanently
stationed at
Munabao.
U.P
Govt plans Aadhar-based payment of scholarships in five districts
The Department of
Social Welfare is planning to launch Aadhar-based payment of scholarships for
students
on a trial basis
in five districts of Uttar Pradesh. On the recommendations of the Government of
India (GoI),
the department is
planning to hold special camps in these districts for getting students enrolled
for the unique
identification
(UID) numbers. The trial will cover post-matric scholarship and fee
reimbursement schemes for
schedule castes
and schedule tribes, other backward castes, minorities as well as general
category
students. Apart
from the scheme for general category students, which is funded by the state
government, the
scholarships of
all other categories are partly or fully financed by the GoI. The selected
districts are Lucknow,
Kanpur, Ghaziabad,
Gautam Buddha Nagar and Agra. The Government of India has decided that in the
second phase of
the Aadhar scheme in Uttar Pradesh, the collection of biometric data for Aadhar
number is
to be done by the
Directorate of Census, rather than the Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI).
Gujarat
plans Knowledge Cities on lines of S Korea, Taiwan
The Gujarat
government is planning to set up Knowledge Cities, hubs of academia, research,
technology
and industry, for
promoting innovation, on the lines of countries such as South Korea and Taiwan.
Hshinchu
Technology park of
Taiwan and Gwangju Metropolitan City in South Korea are examples of this model.
Gujarat currently
has around 51 universities and over 1,400 institutes of higher education
catering to over 7
million students.
However, only a few institutes have active tie-ups with international
institutes.
MoD
clears mega deals for radars, missiles, Navy vessels, AWACS
Defence ministry
has cleared proposals to buy several thousand crore worth of military hardware,
including
four hydrographic
survey vessels for the Navy for Rs 2,324 crore and two Phalcon airborne warning
and
control systems
(AWACS) for the Air Force for Rs 3,306 crore. Israel, which has emerged as a
leading arms
supplier to India,
will rake in a major chunk of these contracts.
Wildlife
management hits a low in Assam in 2012
Assam, famed for
its national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, faced one of its worst years in
wildlife
management as it
lost an estimated 800 animals, including one-horned rhinos, during 2012. Among
the
positives in the
wildlife sector was a healthy population of Royal Bengal Tiger in Kaziranga
National Park
with 114 animals
captured by the camera trapping method. Another major achievement was the
successful
shifting of 18
rhinos to Manas National Park, including one which strayed out of the Park,
along with others
from Kaziranga and
Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary. Seventy rhinos died in the Kaziranga Park -- 25
killed by
poachers, 22 dying
due to natural causes and 23 drowned in floods.
Switzerland
freezes $300 m of Mubarak sons’ assets
Swiss authorities
have frozen $300 million sitting in Credit Suisse accounts in Geneva held by
the sons of
deposed Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak. The funds are held in accounts belonging to Alaa and
Gamal
Mubarak, sons of
the ex-president who are currently being held in an Egyptian prison. The
brothers are
accused of using
their position as scions of Egypt’s longtime ruler to help themselves to
villas, luxury cars
and stakes in the
country’s key companies. According to the newspaper, the funds were deposited
at the
Credit Suisse in
2005, which was after Switzerland tightened rules governing transactions by
politically
exposed
depositors.
China
tightens law against internet use
China has
tightened control over Internet usage making it mandatory for the users to
register with their real
names with the
service providers, belying expectations of opening up after once-in-a-decade
leadership
change. The
Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) China’s Parliament
has
approved the draft
stating that it was aimed at protecting personal information. According to
China Internet
Network
Information Centre (CINIC), 274 million Chinese people had microblog accounts
as of June 2012.
23
Indian-origin figure in Queen's New Year Honours List 2013
Mark Ramprakash, a
former English cricketer of Indian descent, is among the 23 people of Indian
origin who
figure in the
Queen's New Year Honours List 2013. Ramprakash, a right-handed batsman who
played for
England between
1991 and 2001, has been given the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for
services to
sport. Geetha
Nagasubramanian, consultant gynaecologist, also gets an MBE for services to
women and
young People. Vina
Mayor, also gets the same honour for services to the National Health Service
(NHS).
Beijing
14th safest city in China, Lhasa tops the list
China's capital
city Beijing is less safe when compared to most of China's other major cities,
a recent survey
conducted by the
government-owned China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) has revealed. The
Tibetan
capital of Lhasa
has been ranked as the safest followed by Shanghai. Guiyang, capital of Guizhou
province,
got the lowest
marks for safety by its residents. People in coastal cities in east China and
municipalities feel
much safer than
those in other regions of the country.
Bacteria causing UTI infections becoming immune to drugs
E coli bacteria, a
major cause for urinary tract infections (UTI), is increasingly becoming
resistant to the most
prescribed
antimicrobial, ciprofloxacin (Cipro) drug used for treating the disease. Indian
Journal of Medical
Research (IJMR),
the study also warns that the patients mostly get infected from the pathogens
including E
coli producing
UTIs from the hospitals and other sources. The disease is caused by variety of
microorganisms
such as E coli,
which affects different locations of urinary tract system. E coli accounts for
75 per
cent to 95 per
cent of UTIs. Of the 4,956 culture positives, E coli was the most common (59%)
isolate.
Seventy three per
cent of all Ecoli isolates were found to be resistant to Ciprofloxacin.
Panel to assess if HP can provide 15 lakh laptops
The Uttar Pradesh
government is assessing the supplying capacity of Hewlett Packard (HP), which
has
quoted the lowest
bid for supplying 15 lakh laptops that the government will distribute among
students who
passed Class XII
in 2012 and are pursuing higher education. The assessment of the supplying
capacity has
to be done by a
high-level committee formed under Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani. The matter has
come to
the table of the
chief secretary after a technical committee, formed under the UP Electronics
Corporation
Limited Managing
Director Prabhat Mittal, found that four companies qualified for supplying
laptops. HP
quoted a price of
Rs 19,058, including duty and taxes, for each unit of laptop, HCL quoted Rs
21,983,
Lenovo quoted Rs
23,919 while Acer made the highest bid of Rs 25,199.
Clarke on top in ICC rankings with career-best points
Australian cricket
captain Michael Clarke has reached a career-best 900 points to retain the top
spot in the
ICC Test Rankings
for batsmen after his side’s innings and 201-run win against Sri Lanka in
Melbourne. The
win guaranteed
Australia an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Clarke began the
Test on 888
ratings points and
earned 12 ratings points for his knock of 106 to become only the seventh
Australian
batsman to achieve
the rare distinction as he retained his position at the top of the batting
table. Don
Bradman, Ricky
Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Doug Walters, Neil Harvey and Mike Hussey are the
other
Australian batsmen to break the
900-point barrier.
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