Today Current News 8 October 2013

Today Current News 8 October 2013

Americans, German win Nobel Medicine Prize

US scientists James Rothman and Randy Schekman and Thomas Suedhof of Germany have won the Nobel prize in medicine for their discoveries of the "machinery regulating vesicle traffic", a major cellular transport system.

The Nobel committee said their research on “vesicle traffic” the transport system of our cells helped scientists understand how “cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time” inside cells.

Disturbances to the system can contribute to diabetes and neurological and immunological disorders, the committee said.

The Nobel committee said Dr. Schekman discovered a set of genes that were required for vesicle transport, while Dr. Rothman revealed how proteins dock with their target membranes like two sides of a zipper. Dr. Suedhof found out how vesicles release their cargo with precision.

The awards in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics will be announced by other prize juries this week and next. Each prize is worth 8 million Swedish kronor ($1.2 million).

Note: Dr. Rothman, 62, is a professor at Yale University while Dr. Schekman, 64, is at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Suedhof, 57, joined Stanford University in 2008.

Dr. Rothman and Dr. Schekman won the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for their research in 2002: an award often seen as a precursor of a Nobel Prize.

Established by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Prizes have been handed out by award committees in Stockholm and Oslo since 1901. The winners always receive their awards on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896.

Last year’s medicine award went to Britain’s John Gurdon and Japan’s Shinya Yamanaka for their contributions to stem cell science.

RBI eases borrowing for banks, cuts MSF

In another move to ease liquidity for banks, the Reserve Bank of India on Monday eased interest rate on borrowings under the marginal standing facility (MSF) by 50 basis points to 9 per cent.

One bps is one hundredth of a percentage point.

Under the MSF facility, all scheduled commercial banks can borrow overnight from the RBI up to 1 per cent of their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL). The facility is available for banks on all working days, except Saturdays.

Open market operations are the buying and selling of government securities in the open market in order to expand or contract the amount of money in the banking system. Purchases infuse money into the banking system.

The MSF facility was introduced in 2011 by the RBI in order to contain volatility in the inter-bank overnight market. The interest rate was fixed at 100 bps above the repo rate. Repo rate is the rate at which scheduled commercial banks borrow from RBI for the short term.

                  

GlaxoSmithKline aims to market world's first malaria vaccine

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline will seek marketing approval for the world's first malaria vaccine next year after trial data showed the shot significantly cut cases of the disease in African children.

The vaccine known as RTS,S was found, after 18 months of follow-up, to have almost halved the number of malaria cases in young children in the trial, and to have reduced by around a quarter the number of malaria cases in infants.

It added that the United Nations health agency, the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO), has indicated it may recommend use of the RTS,S vaccine from as early as 2015 if EMA drugs regulators back its licence application.

Malaria, a mosquito-borne parasitic disease, kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, mainly babies in the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and scientists say an effective vaccine is key to attempts to eradicate it.

Taj Mansingh to be run by Tatas for six more months

Tatas have been allowed to operate the Taj Mansingh hotel in New Delhi for another six months, pending the Solicitor General's opinion on whether the Tatas should get the right of first refusal in an impending auction to find a new operator for the hotel.

Indian Hotels CompanyLtd, the Tata group firm, which operates the Taj Mahal hotel under an ongoing lease that expires on October 10, 2013, has been asked by the New Delhi Municipal Council to run the hotel till March 31, 2014, or earlier, if the auction process is completed.

This is the third extension that Taj has got since its 33-year lease for the iconic hotel expired in October 2011. 

In its meeting on June 27, the NDMC council had decided to seek a legal opinion from the S-G on the modus operandi of the auction. 

Thereafter, the ministry of home affairs, which is the administrative ministry for NDMC, gave its go-ahead to the council to seek his opinion in early September.

Gujarat, in the meanwhile, will get 24 lakh tonnes from the current allocation of 13.5 lakh tonnes per annum at present.

Wigneswaran takes oath as Northern Province CM of Sri Lanka

Former Supreme Court judge C.V. Wigneswaran was on Monday sworn in the first chief minister of Sri Lanka’s northern province, most of which was under LTTE's control for nearly 30 years.

 Justice Wigneswaran took oath before President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the chief minister after his party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), won the provincial council elections held Sep 21.

TNA leader R. Sampanthan said the decision for Justice Wigneswaran to take oath before the President was made in consonance with the commitment of the TNA to ensure that the Tamil people are able to live in security, safeguard their self respect and dignity.

At the northern provincial council elections, Justice Wigneswaran secured 132,255 votes in Jaffna to come first in the TNA list followed by the wife of a former rebel, Anandi Sasithran, who got 87,870 votes.

Nadal tops ATP rankings

Spain’s Rafael Nadal returned to the top of the ATP rankings for the first time in more than two years on Monday, overtaking Serbian Novak Djokovic, who dropped to second.

 Nadal moved into the top spot of the rankings with 11,160 points to 11,120 for Djokovic. It is the first time Nadal has headed the table since July 2011. Djokovic had kept the ranking for 101 weeks.

Former world number one Roger Federer dropped another spot in the standings. A week after falling to number six, the Swiss landed at number seven this week.

Mukul Mudgal  member panel to probe IPL spot-fixing 

In a setback to N Srinivasan, Supreme Court proposes 3-member panel headed by Former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana HC Mukul Mudgal to independently probe into IPL spot-fixing scandal.

The Supreme Court rejected BCCI's suggestion for setting up a special committee to probe the IPL spot-fixing scandal and proposed a three-member panel headed by former Punjab and Haryana Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal to examine the issue. 

It asked the counsel of BCCI and Cricket Association of Bihar(CAB), which are at loggerheads on the issue of fresh probe in the scandal, to seek instructions on the proposed panel and posted the case for hearing for tomorrow when a formal order would be passed on it. 

The court was hearing cross appeals filed by BCCI and CAB challenging Bombay High Court's order which had declared BCCI's probe panel in the scandal as illegal.

The apex court had on August 30 heard the petition filed by Aditya Verma, Secretary, CAB, challenging the high court's order refusing to appoint a fresh committee to probe the scam. 

Justice A.P. Shah to head panel on road safety

The Supreme Court on Monday decided to appoint former Delhi High Court Chief Justice A.P. Shah to head a committee which has been deliberating on broad guidelines for protection of good Samaritans rendering assistance to accident victims.

The apex court also decided to include two retired IPS officers — D.R. Karthikeyan and B.L. Vohra — in the panel which will also suggest measures to provide timely help to road mishap victims in view of growing number of such causalities on the highways also.

A bench, comprising chief justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said Justice Shah will replace retired judge of the Delhi High Court V.S. Agrawal who has expressed his inability due to personal reasons to continue with the panel.

The committee will also take into consideration various reports filed by state-owned expert departments on road safety

The petitioners said the identity of the person helping to bring the victim to hospital should not be revealed and he/she should not be compelled to visit the police station or appear as a witness in the court.