World news 15 november 2012
National:
IAEA team finds defects at Rawatbhata
The safety
review of units 3 and 4 of the atomic power station at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan
by the
International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has ended with the inspection team identifying
certain
deficiencies
in the operations of the units. The team has found problems in the maintenance
of the
fire doors
and electrical cables and has flagged a need for improvements in certain
aspects of the
surveillance-testing
programme and the system for root cause analyses. This is the first safety
review of an
Indian nuclear power plant under the IAEA’s ‘Operational Safety Review Team
[OSART]’
programme.The review was conducted at the request of the Central government.
The
team
comprised experts from Canada, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia
and Sweden,
apart from the IAEA itself. The OSART programme was launched in 1982 and teams
of
international experts have already conducted 170 such reviews before coming to
India and
Rawatbhata.
Harish Khare, T.N. Ninan bag Nehru Fellowship
Senior
journalists T.N. Ninan and Harish Khare have been awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru
Fellowships,
the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund announced on the occasion of 123rd birth
anniversary
of the country’s first Prime Minister. Mr. Ninan was awarded the fellowship for
his
project ‘India:
The Next Decade,’ while Mr. Khare bagged the fellowship for his ‘Governing
India
in the 21 st
Century: Reinventing Nehruvian Executive Leadership Model.’ With this, the Fund
has
so far
awarded 151 fellowships. Mr. Ninan is the Chairman and Chief Editor of Business
Standard ,
while Mr.
Khare is a former media adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
V.O. C. Port Trust wins ‘Gold Award’
The
Greentech Foundation, an agency recognized by the Ministry of Shipping, New
Delhi, has
awarded ‘Gold
Award’ for outstanding achievement in environment management to the V.O.
Chidambaranar
Port Trust for the year 2012. This Foundation has been giving awards for
environmental
excellence and implementing environment management system in different sectors
like
manufacturing, steel, coal, oil, port and service, every year. A green cover
has been created to
combat
pollution levels in the Port area.
President honours exceptional kids
President
Pranab Mukherjee has conferred awards on exceptional children as well as people
and
institutions
who have worked for the welfare and development of children on the occasion of
Children’s
Day. The National Award for Exceptional Achievement was instituted in 1996 to
give
recognition
to children with exceptional abilities who have achieved outstanding status in
various
fields.
Children between the age of 4 to 15 years who have shown exceptional
achievements in any
field
including academics, arts, culture and sports etc. are considered for this
award. A gold medal
along with a
cash prize of Rs.20,000 and a certificate was conferred on Master Harsh
Bandhey.
Silver
medals along with cash prize of Rs.10,000 and a certificate were given to 25
awardees for the
year 2012.
International:
Indian awarded top education prize in Doha
An Indian
scholar has been awarded the USD 500,000 WISE prize for innovation in the field
of
education,
for his relentless work of providing low cost education to children in Mumbai
slums.
Madhav
Chavan, a former Chemistry lecturer was awarded at the fourth World Innovation
Summit
for
Education (WISE) in the Qatari capital Doha, before more than 1,200 innovators
from over 100
countries,
including figures from the worlds of social enterprise, business, government,
media and
education.
'Omnishambles' is word of year: Oxford
'Omnishambles'
has been chosen as word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary after it
was
coined by a
BBC TV's satirical political series to describe a badly mismanaged situation
and gaffes.
'Omnishambles'
has been crowned the Oxford University Press' top term for year 2012. It is
defined as
"a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterised by a
string of
blunders and
miscalculations". Oxford University Press annually tracks how the English
language is
changing and
chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year.
India second in demanding user info: Google
The Indian
government ranked second in demanding Web user information next only to the
U.S.
government
from Google in the six-month period from January to June 2012, according to the
‘Transparency
Report’ published by the Web services major. The Indian government both by way
of
court orders
and by way of requests from police/executives requested Google to disclose user
information
2,319 times over 3,467 users/accounts. Google fully or partially complied with
the
request to
the tune of 64 per cent. Only the U.S. government requested more data during
the period
7,969
requests over 16,281 accounts; compliance rate: 90 per cent.
Technology:
'Mount Kilimanjaro may become ice free by 2060
The peaks of
Mount Kilimanjaro - world's highest free-standing mountain - may be ice-free as
soon
as 2060,
scientists have warned. Researchers with NASA's Earth Observatory, have found
that
between 1912
and 2011, the mass of ice on the summit of the 19,341ft dormant stratovolcano
in
Tanzania
decreased by more than 85 per cent. Kimberly Casey, a glaciologist based at the
US space
agency's
Goddard Space Flight Centre, who visited the mountain earlier this year, also
noticed
Kilimanjaro's
north ice field had separated. The glacier had been developing a hole since the
70s,
but this is
the first year in which it had been seen to divide in two. The views from the
top of Mount
Kilimanjaro
are as surreal as they are spectacular.
Business & Economy:
France Senate approves 'Nutella' tax
The Senate
in France approved the so-called Nutella amendment that would quadruple the tax
on
palm oil, a
key ingredient in chocolate spread, to discourage consumption of the oil rich
in saturated
fat. The
amendment which would take the tax on palm oil from around 100 euros now to 400
euros
was approved
yesterday by a vote of 212 to 133 despite protests from major palm producing
nations
Malaysia and
Ivory Coast. Malaysia, the world's number two palm oil producer, has called the
move
against the
oil unfounded and irresponsible, noting that the French get most of their
saturated fats
from eating
meat and cheese. Ferrero, the maker of Nutella, has said it won't change the
recipe of
the product
as using palm oil means it doesn't need to hydrogenate the oil, which causes
trans fatty
acids which
are also notoriously bad unhealthy.
Golconda diamond fetches world record price
The rare 76
carat diamond mined from erstwhile Golconda kingdom, named after its first
known
owner
Archduke Joseph August of Austria, was sold for a record price of €16.9 million
(about Rs.
118 crore)
at an auction in Geneva. Christie’s, the auction house which conducted the
sale,
described
the diamond as cushion shaped, colourless, internally flawless and of superb
quality. Kohi-
noor and
Hope. The three diamonds were mined from Golconda or Kollur mines and left
Indian
shores many
years ago. Some of the best diamonds of the world were mined in Kollur on the
banks
of Krishna
river in the present day Krishna and Guntur districts that formed part of the
Golconda
Kingdom.
Some of the other famed diamonds excavated from the Golconda mines are Darya-e
Nur
( the largest
at 185 carats and the finest among the crown jewels of Iran), Nur-Ul- Ain, the
Regent
and the
Wittelsbach.
Vodafone makes no provision for tax claim
British
telecom giant Vodafone has decided against making a provision in its
balance-sheet for the
over
Rs.11,000 crore tax claim made by Indian authorities for its 2007 deal to
acquire stake in
Hutchison-Essar.
The Income-tax Department had raised a Rs.11,218 crore tax demand (including
Rs.7,900
crore tax demand and the remaining interest) from Vodafone for its acquisition
of
Hutchison
stake in Hutchison-Essar in 2007 through a deal in Cayman islands. But the
Supreme
Court struck
down the tax claim.
BMW ‘Born Electric’ prototypes unveiled
The BMW
Group unveiled a sneak preview of two prototypes of ‘BMW-i Born Electric’, the
next
generation
BMW i3 Concept, and the BMW i8 Concept Roadster. With its zero-emissions
allelectric
engine and a
range of 80-100 miles, the BMW i3 Concept is designed mainly for city use.
The company’s
global tour has only New York as the stop for the U.S.. The worldwide tour
includes
Rome, Ddorf,
Tokyo, London, Paris and Shanghai. The BMW i3 and i8 will become the first
purpose-built
electric and hybrid-electric production vehicles to be made primarily from
carbon
fibre when
they become available for customers in 2013 and 2014, respectively,
Himalaya Drug wins trademark battle over Liv. 52
Himalaya
Drug Company has won a 15-year-old legal battle over its medicine Liv.52 with
the Delhi
High Court
holding that homoeopathic firm SBL Limited infringed the trademark by coming up
with its own
preparation named as Liv-T. The court set aside its single judge bench
judgement
which had
held that SBL Limited did not infringe trademark Liv.52 of Himalaya Drug
Company,
registered
in 1957, in making its own medicine Liv-T.
Sport:
Bett wins Athens Classic Marathon
Kenya’s
Raymond Bett won the 30th Athens Classic Marathon in a new fastest time of two
hours,
11 minutes
and 35 seconds. The 28-year-old Bett was followed across the line by five of
his
countrymen,
with the second place going to Paul Kosgei, who clocked 2:12.20 and Alex Kirui
in
third at
2:12.26s. Bett beat the previous race record set last year by Morocco’s
Abdelkerim Boubker
by five
seconds. The women’s race was won by 29-year-old Kenyan Consalater Chemtai
Yadaa in a
time of 2:40.00, beating out
Ukraine’s Svitlana Stanko who finished seven seconds behind.
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