current affairs HEADLINES 10 April 2014 Awards for State Literacy Mission,Myanmar monks

World Bank President 2014 ,Indian football team 2014 Asian Team heroes of the EurAsia Cup2014


1.Lok Sabha candidates with corporate background, such as Nandan Nilekani and Meera Sanyal, may rank much above their political rivals on wealth charts, but many others from India Inc who are contesting polls lag behind 'netas' in accumulating assets.

2 The private sector strongly feels that India is a difficult place to do business in due to many regulations, World Bank President Jim Young Kim said, calling for necessary reform to create a better environment and spur growth.

3 The World Bank is finalising plans to lend Bangladesh a sum of $ USD2.7 billion for investment purpose, its president Jim Young Kim said.

4 Indian football team jumped seven places to 145th, the highest since August last, in the latest FIFA rankings released.

5 The Asian Team heroes of the EurAsia Cup, including India's Anirban Lahiri, will grace the Asian Tour Awards Night on April 22.

6 China's exports slumped 6.6 % year-on-year in March, raising fresh concerns over the health of the trade sector and strength of the country's slowing down economy.

7 Global solar energy sector attracted $ USD USD 7 billion worth corporate funding, including from venture capital and private equity sources, in the first quarter of 2014, says a report.

8 Central excise collection increased by nearly 2 % and service tax by 14-16 % during the FY 2013-14 for the Kolkata circle, but is short of the revised target.

9 Israel's Defense Ministry says it has launched a new observation satellite into orbit.

10 A documentary made on the life of activist Sampat Devi Pal will be screened at the 14th New York Indian Film Festival.

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current affairs 4 september 2012

Bill on sexual harassment at workplace passed

An important Bill that seeks to protect women, including domestic workers, from sexual harassment at workplace was passed in the Lok Sabha. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Bill, 2010, was passed without discussion. According to the Bill, piloted by Women & Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath, sexual harassment includes any unwelcome act or behaviour such as physical contact and advances, a demand or request for sexual favours or making sexually coloured remarks or showing pornography. The acts or behaviour direct or by implication will also include any other physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature. Non-compliance with the provisions of the law will be punishable with a fine of up to Rs 50,000. Repeated violations may lead to higher penalties and cancellation of licence or registration to do business. The bill makes it mandatory for all offices, hospitals, institutions and other workplaces to have an internal complaints redress mechanism.

Gujarat bans gutka

Gutka and pan masala will be banned in Gujarat from September 11. The government issued a notification.

Eminent educationist, activist, former civil servant Anil Bordia passes away

Eminent educationist, activist and former civil servant Anil Bordia, who played an important role in defining the country’s new education policy, died. He was 78. An Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1957 batch, Mr. Bordia was actively involved in formulation of the national education policy in 1986 and later evolved consensus on it as the Union Education Secretary from 1987 to 1992. He was instrumental in universalisation of primary education in Rajasthan and Bihar. Mr. Bordia was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 2010 in recognition of his contribution to the field of education. In 1999, UNESCO awarded him the prestigious Avicenna Gold Medal for exceptional contribution to educational development. Earlier, in 1996, he was elected Fellow of UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Centre of Educational Innovation for Development, Bangkok.

Awards for State Literacy Mission

The State Literacy Mission Authority has bagged three national level awards for its work in literacy and skill development. While Andhra Pradesh is the only State which received the Saakshar Bharat Award in the country, Vizianagaram district and P.Yeleru gram panchayat in Anantapur district received the awards under district and panchayat categories. The awards were instituted by the National Literacy Mission Authority to encourage institutions working in the field of literacy and skill development. They will be given away by Vice President Hamid Ansari at Lucknow on September 8. International Literacy Day.

‘Vitamin D hastens recovery in TB patients’

Scientists have found that vitamin D supplementation in tuberculosis patients who are on medication can clear the 'Mycobacterium tuberculosis' — the bacterium that causes TB — quickly and hasten recovery. “Vitamin D supplementation has a potential role in the prevention and treatment of TB infection,” notes a study published in the 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS )'. Vitamin D was used to treat TB before the advent of antibiotics. Its efficacy in enhancing immunity in healthy individuals who are in close contact with TB patients is also well known. In the PNAS study, the scientists conducted a randomised trial on 95 patients with pulmonary TB and who were already on TB medication. 51 patients did not get vitamin D supplementation (placebo group) and the remaining 44 got the supplementation in addition to the medication (intervention group). The group that received the supplementation showed an increase in lymphocyte count. Lymphocytes are part of the immune system and make up 45 to 50 per cent of the white blood cells in healthy people. But the numbers reduce to about 20 to 25 per cent in those with pulmonary TB.

Diplomatic bag from 1966 crash found

In a classic case of “better late than never”, the Indian embassy in Paris is set to receive a tattered diplomatic bag sent by the External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi 46 years ago and believed, until now, to have been destroyed in an Air India plane crash. Dr. Homi Bhabha, pioneer of India’s nuclear programme, was among the 117 people killed in the crash near the summit of Mont Blanc in the Alps on January 24, 1966. The jute

bag, stamped “Diplomatic mail” and “Ministry of External Affairs”, was reportedly found by mountain rescue worker Arnaud Christmann and his neighbour Jules Berger last month near the site of the crash. They also found pieces of the plane’s cabin, a shoe, and cables.The ill-fated Air India flight had taken off from Bombay and was on its way to New York when it crashed.

Myanmar monks back president's anti-Rohingya plan

Hundreds of Buddhist monks in Myanmar have staged a rally in support of the president and his proposal to send the members of a Muslim minority group to another country. The latest indication of deep sentiment against the Rohingya minority in Mandalay after June violence with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists that left 80 people dead and tens of thousands displaced. The monks held a banner saying, "Save your motherland Myanmar by supporting the president." President Thein Sein suggested in July that Myanmar send all Rohingya to any country willing to take them, a proposal quickly opposed by the UN refugee agency. Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be illegal migrants from Bangladesh but Bangladesh also rejects them, rendering them stateless. The UN estimates that 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar.

RPower starts mining at Sasan

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power has commenced production of coal at mines allocated to it in Sasan, Madhya Pradesh. Coal from the mines, produced ahead of schedule, will be used to generate electricity at the company’s Sasan Ultra Mega Power Plant. There will be annual production of 20 million tonnes from the Moher and Moher-Amlohri coal mines associated with the Sasan project. “For the Sasan mines, we have deployed the largest, mining equipment ever used in Indian mining history to produce coal,” J. P. Chalasani, CEO, Reliance Power, said.

Tata Motors launches Xenon pick-up

Tata Motors, has launched the Xenon pick-up. The Xenon will be offered in single and dual cab versions with price starting at Rs.5.44 lakh for the single cab and Rs.6.34 lakh for the dual cab variant. There are four colour options — Arizona Blue, Mineral Red, Arctic Silver and Arctic White. Tata Xenon single cab also comes with power steering, adjustable steering column, and cushioned bucket seats in front. The dual cab variant comes fully-loaded with features such as HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), power windows, central locking, and seats with lumbar support as standard fitments.

Sundaram Business Services enters U.K. market

Sundaram Business Services (SBS), the BPO arm of Sundaram Finance, has announced its foray into the U.K. BPO market. The company will offer in the U.K. services in areas such as fund accounting and equity research support to mid-sized accounting firms, broking houses and hospitality companies that have an outsourcing requirement of 10-50 seats. The company has already a presence in the Australian BPO market. The company said there were around 3,000 accounting firms in the U.K., the second biggest BPO market in the world after the U.S. It believed that there would be a huge potential to be tapped.

Atanu Sen is new MD & CEO of SBI Life

Atanu Sen has taken over as the new Managing Director and CEO of SBI Life Insurance from M. N. Rao, who retired on August 31. His previous assignment was Deputy Managing Director and Chief Credit and Risk Officer of SBI.

Hero MotoCorp forays into global mkt

India’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp forayed into the international market under its newly incorporated brand identity by launching as many as 14 models in Sri Lanka. The company, which went solo after breaking up its erstwhile joint venture with Honda, has appointed ABANS Group as its sole distributor in the island nation to sell the products through a channel of 50 outlets. “The Sri Lankan market plays a significant role in the company’s plans to expand its global footprint and so it has chosen the country as the first international market to launch the new brand identity, Hero MotoCorp Managing Director Page 3 of 4 4th Septmeber 2012

and CEO Pawan Munjal told. Sri Lankan cricket star Kumar Sangakkara introduced the 125cc motorcycle ‘Glamour’, while Miss Sri Lanka Stephanie Siriwardhana unveiled the scooter ‘Pleasure’.

Morgan Stanley cuts growth forecast to 5.1%

Citing high fiscal deficit and renewed weakness in external demand, Morgan Stanley lowered India’s growth forecast to 5.1 per cent for the current fiscal, from its earlier estimate of 5.8 per cent.

Calling for immediate policy action by the government, it warned that in the absence of such a step the GDP growth could slide even deeper to 4.3 per cent in 2012-13. The brokerage has also slashed the GDP growth forecast for 2013-14 to 6.1 per cent, from 6.6 per cent earlier.

Banks to give uniform cheques

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed all banks to issue cheques with uniform features conforming to the Cheque Truncation System ( CTS) 2010 standard. The homogeneity in security features act as a deterrent against frauds, and the fixed field placement specifications facilitate straight-through processing at drawee banks' end through the use of optical or image character recognition technology, RBI said. Adherence to CTS-2010 standards has inherent advantages as the security features in cheque forms help the presenting banks to identify the genuineness of the drawee banks' instruments while handling them in the image-based scenario. To ensure the time-bound migration to CTS-2010 standard cheque formats, all banks are advised to arrange only "multi-city or payable-at-par CTS-2010 standard cheques not later than September 30, 2012".

Samsung Galaxy Y CDMA for MTS launched

Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited ( SSTL) that nationally operates its telecom services under the MTS brand with over 16 million wireless customers has launched smartphone Galaxy Y from Samsung on its network to offer data experience to its customers. Priced in the sub-Rs 8000 category, Samsung Galaxy Y smartphone is powered with 600MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). Samsung Galaxy Y on MTS networks comes with an easy recharge of Rs 493 and unlimited data and voice benefits for three months. The device facilitates easy access to high speed data for Live TV and seamless video streaming on the move. Galaxy Y also provides easy access to Google Mail, YouTube, Google Talk and Google Maps.

'Toshiba, Hitachi, others to invest $1.53 bn on wind power

Toshiba, Hitachi, JFE Steel and three other companies plan to invest 120 billion yen ($1.53 billion) over a decade to set up offshore wind turbines. Potential sites for the project, which will have a production capacity of 300,000 kilowatts, include areas off the coast of the Kyushu region in southern Japan. The Japanese environment ministry has estimated the country can eventually build 1,600 gigawatts of offshore wind power capacity.

Tech Mahindra to buy Hutch's India BPO business

Mahindra Group's IT services company, Tech Mahindra is all set to buy Hutch's India BPO business for close to $100 million. As part of the deal, Hutch has also made a revenue commitment of $1 bn over the next 5-7 years to Tech Mahindra. Hutch's India BPO business caters to three geographies UK, Australia and Ireland. This deal is expected to give a revenue boost to Tech Mahindra and give it a much larger BPO footprint. UK-based Serco was also in the race for the deal.

Ericsson may buy Nokia Siemens unit: Report

Ericsson, the world's top mobile network infrastructure supplier, is in pole position to buy the business support systems (BSS) unit of rival Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN). Ericsson and NSN, a joint venture between Nokia Oyj and Siemens AG,Sweden-based Ericsson has been expanding rapidly in BSS and operations support systems (OSS), last year buying Telcordia in the United States for $1.1 billion. A recent survey by consultancy Gartner ranked Ericsson top globally by revenues in OSS and BSS services, including sales acquired with Telcordia.

Girisha bags first Paralympic medal for India

Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda gave India its first medal at the Paralympic Games after bagging a silver in the Men's High Jump F42 event. Iliesa Delana of Fiji won the gold, while Lukasz Mamczarz of Poland settled for bronze.

Jenson Button wins Belgian Grand Prix

Jenson Button claimed his second win this year and 14th of his career when he drove to a comprehensive victory in an incident and accident-packed Belgian Grand Prix. Button, the 2009 champion, came home 13.624 seconds ahead of second-placed defending champion German Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull with Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus completing a podium of champions by coming home third.