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Articles:8 London Riots: Cause & Cure8 Rising Food Prices Worldwide Causes & Cure

Cirrent Affairs:8 National Issues8 International Issues8 Economy8 India & The World8 Science & Technology8 Sports8 Awards & Prizes8 Persons in News

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Controversy continues to sur-round the death of 29-year-oldMark Duggan in north Londonon Thursday evening. His shoot-ing at the hands of police whilehe was travelling in a taxi cabsparked rioting and looting in

Tottenham on Saturday. The unrest subsequentlyspread across London and other parts of the UK inwhat police have described as copycat attacks. Of-ficers from Operation Trident the Metropolitan Po-lice unit that deals with gun crime in London's blackcommunities stopped the cab Duggan was travel-ling in during a pre-planned operation. Duggan diedof a single gunshot wound to the chest, an inquest atnorth London Coroner's Court heard on Tuesday.Thefact that a bullet had lodged in a police radio wornby an officer at the scene, raising speculation he mighthave been fired at from the vehicle. A non-police is-sue handgun was also recovered at the scene whereDuggan was shot dead, the IPCC said. However, areport said that initial tests by the National Ballis-tics Intelligence Service on the bullet found lodgedin the police radio suggested that the bullet fragments

Causes & CureCauses & Curewere from police-issue ammunition, meaning theycould not have been from a weapon fired by Duggan,casting doubt on claims that he was killed in an ex-change of gunfire. 120 people, including members ofDuggan's family and community workers, marchedto Tottenham police station in north London, only ashort distance from the scene of the shooting.Themarch was peaceful according to reports, with pro-testers calling for "justice" and an investigation. Lo-cal roads were closed and traffic diverted.

What sparked the rioting is still unclear but policesaid that certain elements, who were not involvedwith the vigil, took the opportunity to commit disor-der and physically attack police officers, verballyabuse fire brigade personnel and destroy vehicles andbuildings. "Police say the subsequent riots in otherparts of London and the UK are copycat events thathave little or nothing to do with the death of Duggan.Rioting had taken place in several London locations,including Battersea in south London, Ealing in thewest and Hackney in east London. Disturbances werealso reported in Birmingham in central England,Bristol in the southwest and Liverpool in northwest





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England.Rioting and looting was reported from sev-eral other parts of London, including Brixton in southLondon, Enfield in north London and Oxford Streetin central London, the capital's main shopping dis-trict. Yet the riots we are seeing now are fundamen-tally different from those that have gone before. Theymight, ostensibly, have been triggered by the policeshooting of Mark Duggan, a notorious gangster, innorth London; but they are fuelled by pure greed, bya belief that something can be had for nothing. Theusual brakes on such behaviour – either an apprecia-tion that it is wrong, or by the prospect that the cul-prit will be caught and punished – are largely absent.

The police introduced special powers in four areas ofLondon -- Lambeth, Haringey, Enfield and WalthamForest -- allowing stop and search without reason-able suspicion in a bid to keep rioters off the streets.Intheory, parliament could invoke powers to implementcurfews, use water canons or even call in the armedforces.However, senior politicians and police offic-ers have said that these options are unlikely to be usedunless the situation got significantly worse.The gov-ernment has yet to respond, most of them are sunningthemselves on beaches across the globe but the PrimeMinister doubtless to promise terrible retribution bevisited upon those caught rioting. He will also saythat there is no excuse for rioting or stealing and hewill set up an ‘enquiry’ which will doubtless be headedby somebody who has never been unemployed, livedon a squalid council estate. They will cite povertyand unemployment but will not accept that immi-gration has played any part or that ill-discipline inschools and indeed in many homes has any baring.They will not accept that reducing the role of moth-erhood to something to be fitted around work hascaused havoc in society for these people by and largehave their own agenda which has the unfortunate pit-fall of being utterly un-costed. Printing money andhanding it out for free would not solve the problemsfaced.

Epithets like “rabble” or “riff-raff” are too mild forthe lawless, feckless, mindless and amoral thugs whoforced passers-by to strip naked while they stole theirclothes; or who torched a furniture warehouse thathad withstood the Blitz; or who ransacked shopsacross London. But the question is what is the rootcause behind this ruthless and nonsensical riots. The‘causes’ are many and varied. They certainly includethe failure of successive governments to more fairlydistribute the nations wealth and the draconian mea-sures being taken to cut the social security budget,

but they also include the interpretation of womensrights, the willingness of governments to allow ‘fac-tory fodder’ to be imported because business sectorinsists on paying salaries so low that governmentshave to top up those wages simply in order to ensurepeople can live and the ill-discipline of generationsof ‘latch key’ children. Of course not all such kids arerioting and not all rioters are unemployed but it isthe atmosphere created which leads to these problems.It is of course no coincidence that Mr.cameroon’s veryphilosophy is to reduce the role of the state, meaningthat assistance is harder to get and takes longer toget.

They appear to believe that social safety nets can befixed on the cheap but if the rioters believe that theiractions will change this philosophy they are deluded.The solution must lie in long term if not life longemployment being found for the people which payswell and includes provision for both health care andold age. This will involve a deal of planning from thecradle to the grave but the alternative, to leave peopleincreasingly to their own devices is surely not an op-tion? Such a massive undertaking would requirechange in all sectors of the community.

We must distribute wealth more evenly and we can-not continue to refuse to use legislation to make ithappen. Of course many business people will tell youthat they would be forced to move abroad in such cir-cumstances but the time has come to treat such threatsas what they are – unpatriotic and based on greed.Theymust also stop all immigration immediately. This isnot a racial point or one of human rights. The truth isthat the population is already too big for a nation oftheir size to sustain both moves to tackle serious dep-rivation and support further immigration – our ser-vices cannot stretch to it. Perhaps in the future Brit-ain may once more be in a position to offer safety andsolace to those less fortunate, but at this juncture inthey cannot continue to countenance such ideas.

Attitudes on all sides then must change but sadly thereis little sign of compromise. The ‘camps’ are set up,lines are drawn, those who have intend to keep andthose who have not intend to take from those whohave, it is a spiral which can only lead to greater andgreater unrest. My consolation is my age which mayprevent me from having to witness the culminationof this madness but I also hope against hope that some-body will emerge with the power and the vision todrag us back from the abyss. As yet he/she are keep-ing their own counsel but you never know.





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If ever we wanted proof that Britain has been divided into two nations, then here it was. But hasn’t it alwaysbeen? You did not need to look far beneath the surface at any time over the past 200 years or more to findpeople ready to loot and rob and steal. After all, the London mob is hardly a new phenomenon. The worditself was coined in the late 17th century as the city’s population grew and aggressive crowds, fuelled byalcohol and perceived grievance, took to the streets with alarming regularity.

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Rising Food Prices WorldwideCauses & CureRising Food Prices WorldwideCauses & Cure

A sharp increase in food prices over the past coupleof years, intensifying in early 2008, has raised seri-ous concerns about food and nutrition for many poorpeople in developing countries. The key affected ar-eas are Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Central America.There are also related concerns about inflation, and –in some countries – about civil unrest. The currentsituation is distinctive because it is not just a selectfew but nearly all major food and feed commoditiesthat are seeing a ‘concurrence of the hike in worldprices’. Real prices are higher than they have beensince the 1974 price spike. When adjusted for infla-tion and the recent decline of the dollar, the food-price increases are smaller but still dramatic, carry-ing serious consequences for the purchasing power ofthe poor.

Dramatic increases in international agricultural com-modity prices began in 2006 and peaked in July 2008.An equally remarkable and rapid decline of thoseprices then ensued, accompanied by extreme volatil-ity in those prices. The trend in food prices laggedthe rapid increases in other commodity prices,withrice among the most expensive at the peak and rising

as much as crude oil. High commodity prices quicklyraised farmgate prices in developed countries. In de-veloping countries, poor market integration and bor-der barriers may have limited pass-through of theseprices to the farmgate, but there was more rapid foodprice and general inflation than occurred in manydeveloped countries. Countries were impacted to dif-fering extents, and food riots occurred in the mostaffected cases. In response to the crisis, countries fromIndia and Egypt to Vietnam and Indonesia bannedexports of rice, a staple for half the world. World foodprices rose to a record in December on higher sugar,grain and oilseed costs, the United Nations said.Anindex of 55 food commodities tracked by the Foodand Agriculture Organization gained for a sixth monthto 214.7 points, above the previous all-time high of213.5 in June 2008, the Rome-based UN agency saidin a monthly report.

Moreover, debate persists on the exogenous mecha-nisms driving these changes, which are often interre-lated (e.g., worldwide economic boom and then glo-bal recession, speculation in commodities). The goalwill be to identify factors likely to drive commodity





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prices in the future and to provide some understand-ing of the dynamics and persistence of the observedglobal price changes. There is an emerging and rea-sonable consensus among experts and academics aboutthe range of causes. However, debate is ongoing aboutthe relative contribution of these causes. There is cer-tainly no one, single cause; rather, many factors areinteracting in different, locally specific ways. Causesvary between different places and over time, as hashappened in previous commodity booms. Some arecyclical, some are structural and some are unique Thecost of food climbed 25 percent from a year earlier inDecember, based on the FAO figures.The agency’sfood-price indicator rose from 206 points in Novem-ber. Record fuel prices, weather- related crop prob-lems, increasing demand from the growing Indian andChinese middle classes, and the push to grow cornfor ethanol fuel all contributed to the crisis that year.Global food production will have to rise 70 percentby 2050 as the world population expands to 9.1 bil-lion people from about 6.8 billion people in 2010,the FAO has said.

Main factors responsible for the recent risesin food prices:-

» Weather disruptions, including serious droughts,have affected output in several key producing coun-tries (Australia, Turkey, Ukraine and parts of NorthAmerica) in the mid-2000s. This has led to two suc-cessive years of negative growth in world cereal pro-

duction.

» Under-investment in rural infrastructure and agri-cultural innovation.

» Increased demand due to use of food crops in biofuelproduction has resulted in reduced soybean and wheatcultivation.

» World production of cereals has slowed, causing adecline in stocks over the last decade. This has weak-ened the ability of the world food system to cope withshocks and created conditions in which short-termshocks cause large price increases (Wiggins,2008).High cost of oil and energy is affecting trans-portation of agricultural inputs and outputs, mechani-cal cultivation, fertilisers and pesticides.

» Increasing and changing demand in China and In-dia, due to economic growth, has led to increasedconsumer purchasing power and consequent shiftsaway from traditional staples and toward higher-valuefoods like meat and milk. However, some analysts

believe that the effect of this on world prices has beenexaggerated.

» Topsoil erosion: modern ploughing, overgrazing,fertiliser and pesticide use result in the steady deple-tion of worldwide topsoil. Water and winds carryaway the soil, when it is not fixed by plant cover. Anestimated 25 billion tons of topsoil are lost to ero-sion each year. The UN estimates that erosion hasnow seriously degraded about 40 per cent of theworld’s agricultural land.

» Increasing urbanisation often means that morepeople are becoming purchasers rather than produc-ers of food.

Food in Figures

» 93,000,000 Acres of corn planted by US farmerslast year, up 19 per cent on 2006.

» 76% Amount of US corn used for animal feed.

» 8kg Amount of grain it takes to produce 1kg ofbeef.

» 20% Portion of US corn used to produce five bil-lion gallons of ethanol in 2006-07.

» 50kg Quantity of meat consumed annually by theaverage Chinese person, up from 20kg in 1985.

» 10% Anticipated share of biofuels used for trans-port in the EU by 2020.

» $500m The UN World Food Programme's short-fall this year, in attempting to feed 89 million needypeople.

» 9.2bn The world's predicted population by 2050.It's 6.6bn now.

» 130% The rise in the cost of wheat in 12 months.

» 16 times The overall food consumption of theworld's richest 20 per cent compared with that of thepoorest 20 per cent.

» 58% Jump in the price of pork in China in the pastyear.

» $900 The cost of one tonne of Thai premier rice,up 30 per cent in a month.

It has been argued that by 2030 there will be 600 mil-lion more chronically under-nourished people in the





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world due to continued pressure on prices, in part dueto the conversion of maize away from food uses toethanol production. Demand for agricultural com-modities – food, feed, and fuel – is likely to continueto escalate. Climate change and rising energy demandcould re-accelerate food prices in the future. Ad-hocmarket and trade policies such as export bans andimport subsidies add further volatility in the interna-tional food market.

Higher food prices can have radically different ef-fects across countries and population groups. A re-cent IFPRI report provides a conceptual frameworkfor understanding these impacts, which powerfullyhighlights the complexity of cause and effect. Broadlyspeaking, at the country level, net food exporters willbenefit from improved terms of trade, although thebenefits may be offset in situations where exports arebeing banned to protect consumers. Net food-import-ing nations, however, will struggle to meet domesticfood demand.

An FAO report published inJune 2008 highlights twentytwo developing countriesthat are especially vulnerabledue to a combination of highlevels of chronic hunger(more than 30 per cent un-der-nourishment), and highdependence on imports of

petroleum products (100 per cent in most countries)and, in many cases, also of major grains (rice, wheatand maize) for domestic consumption. Food-price in-creases are having serious consequences for the pur-chasing power of the poor. Affected groups includethe rural landless, pastoralists, small-scale farmersand the urban poor. Despite the various causes of foodcrises, the hardships that individuals and communi-ties face have striking similarities across disparategroups and settings.

These include:

» Inability to afford food, and related lack of adequatecaloric intake

» Distress sales of productive assets

» Migration of household members in search of work

» Reduced household spending on healthcare, educa-tion and other necessities.

The rise in global commodity prices is fueling infla-tion everywhere particularly in developing countrieswhere food and energy forms a major percentage ofthe inflation basket.This has forced countries like In-dia and China to accelerate interest rate hikes to cooldown inflation.Rising Food Prices has caused distressin a number of places leading to food riots in Africaand have been said to be a leading cause of the revo-lutions in the Middle East.Oil Prices continues to in-crease unabated as dollar decreases with US MoneyPrinting.Commodities are touching new all timepeaks as rising global demand,finite resources,moneyprinting by developed countries fuel price hikes.Silverhas been increasing in a parabolic manner with othercommodities too showing heart-stopping jumps inprices.The rise in global wheat,rice prices has beenat a record as well.Almost all commodities have seensharp prices increase.

Specific policies are needed to deal with the chang-ing causes and consequences of high food prices, tohelp the most vulnerable people in the short term,while working to stabilise food prices by increasingagricultural production in the long term. A detailedset of policy prescriptions has been laid out in theComprehensive Framework for Action (CFA), devel-oped by the High Level Task Force on the GlobalFood Crisis. The CFA highlights two major objec-tives – meeting immediate needs, and buildinglonger-term resilience – with related outcomes andactions.





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Drive to Detect FakeDriving Licenses

The national register and national transport portal waslaunched which will make detection of fake drivinglicenses and tracking stolen vehicles easier. It willprovide information to the transport department, po-lice department and automobile dealers.The nationalregistry is a central pool of all driving licenses (DLs)and vehicles registered in India. It could be accessedfor a quick verification by all states and road trans-port offices. This could be used to prosecute errantdrivers.This system will be completely IT basedwhich will also leave no room for officials to makeany mistake.

Gorkhaland TerritorialAdministration

A tripartite agreement was signed between the Cen-tre, West Bengal government and the GorkhaJanmukti Morcha(GJM) at Pintail village nearSiliguri paving the way for the setting up of theGorkhaland Territorial Administration( GTA), anelected body for the Darjeeling hills. The new set-upwill have 50 members; 45 of them will be electedand the rest nominated. A Bill for this will be movedin the state assembly and it will be sent to the Presi-dent for assent. Elections to the new body would beheld within six months.

Ban on Non-Iodised SaltUnconstitutional

The Supreme Court of India held in its recent judg-ment that the prohibition imposed by the centre onnon-iodised salt for human consumption is unconsti-tutional. The court however said that the ban willcontinue for six months.A bench of Supreme Courtincluding Justice B Sudershan Reddy (since retired)and Justice Raveendran held that Rule 44-I of the Pre-vention of Food Adulteration Rules, 1955, was un-constitutional. The Prevention of Food Adulteration

Act was intended to ban the use of adulterated andmisbranded products. Therefore, this rule could notbe invoked to ban sale of non-iodised salt. The courtstated that if the government wanted to ban non-iodised salt it should have come out with differentlegislation.The Supreme Court gave the above rulingin response to the writ petition filed by the Academyof Nutrition Improvement challenging the ban onnon-iodised salt.The government had made the con-sumption of only iodised salt mandatory on the basisthat deficiency of iodine caused a lot of disorders likedwarfism, squint eye, lower IQ and mental retarda-tion.

HRD Ministry TookOver NCTE

The HRD (Human Resource Development) ministrysuperseded the National Council for Teacher Educa-tion through a gazette notification. All members ofthe NCTE were asked to vacate their office. Now allpowers and duties would now be carried out by offi-cials appointed by the HRD ministry.The HRD min-istry took this step because it found the large scaleirregularities in the grant of recognition to teachertraining institutes.

Special Investigation TeamOn Black Money By SC

The Supreme Court of India appointed SIT (SpecialInvestigation Team), a committee of two of its re-tired judges to follow the trail of black money stashedin foreign banks. It also asked the govt. to rev thenames of those who have accounts in foreign banksand against whom inquiries have been started. SITcomprised Justice Jeevan Reddy and Justice MB Shah.The committee set up by the Union government willbe part of the judicial panel. It will include econo-mists who have been asked by the governmentsto make a strategy to trace and bring backmoney stashed in foreign banks.The Court asked thegovernment to issue the necessary notifications forthe SIT, which will report to the court. All govern-

NATIONAL ISSUES





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ment authorities were told to cooperate with the SIT.The panel has been given power to travel to othercountries and to gather information from governmentagencies.The step taken by the Supreme Court is asnub to the government which has set up its own com-mittee to find black money and bring it back to In-dia.

Work on 2 Units ofAtomic Power Station

Inaugurated in Rajasthan

Construction work on two more units of 700 MWeach at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS)was inaugurated by Atomic Energy CommissionChairman Srikumar Banerjee. Exploratory works un-veiled uranium deposits at another site, Tummalapallespread over 35 km. At present, the country is esti-mated to have a total reserve of about 175000 tonnesof uranium. The findings are deemed as a majordevelopment. Nuclear power is considered to be ab-solutely essential to meet the growing energy needsof the country. If the economy has to grow by 9 percent per annum, 10 per cent growth in electricity pro-duction will be required.The two new nuclear unitsat Rawatbhata being constructed at an estimated costof Rs. 12000 crore and scheduled to be ready in fiveyears are on the lines of the two 700 MW reactorsunder construction at Kakrapar in Gujarat.The reac-tors were designed by the Nuclear Power Corpora-tion of India Limited by scaling up the 540 MW re-actors operating at Tarapur in Maharashtra since2005.The reactors are known to have advanced safetyfeatures, including passive safety systems that workon natural principles such as gravity, and natural con-vection and do not need operator intervention or mo-tive power to ensure reactor safety under any state ofoperations. There are two independent and diversesystems to shut down the reactor, a passive decay heatremoval system to ensure cooling of the reactor coreeven in case of total loss of power and steel-lined con-tainment to contain the entire radioactivity withinthe reactor building even in a severe accident sce-nario.

National SocialSecurity Fund (NSSF)

The Union Cabinet of India gave its approval for set-ting up a national level security fund (NSSF) for un-organized sectors named as National Social SecurityFund. The fund is likely to benefit 43.3 crore work-

ers in the unorganized sector. The fund will be ad-ministered by the National Social Security Board. Thefund was announced during the budget 2010-11 bythe Union Finance minister Pranav Mukherjee. TheMinistry of Labour & Employment will be the nodalMinistry for the operation of the Fund. According toan estimate done by the National Sample SurveyOrganisation total unemployment in both organisedand unorganized sector is 45.9 crore workers. Out ofthem, 43.3 crore workers belong to unorganizedsectorThere is an absence of social security protec-tion for unorganised workers in India despite the factthey form the most significant part of total workersin the country.

India is 10thLargest Exporter of Services

According to a latest World Trade organisation(WTO) report India achieved tenth rank in export ofservices worldwide and emerged as the 20th biggestmerchandise exporter in 2010. India stood 12th and22nd position globally in services and goods exports,respectively in 2009. In value terms India exportedservices and merchandise worth $110 billion and $216billion, respectively in 2010. India's goods exportswent up by 31 per cent in 2010, helping the countryto expand its market share to 1.4 per cent from 1.2per cent in 2009.Engineering and petroleum exportscontribute about 40% of India’s total exports.The in-crease in export was attributed to increasing demandfor Indian goods in new markets like Latin Americaand Africa. According to apex exporters body Fed-eration of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), thediversification of India's exports basket also helpedin increasing the shipments.India's services exportsshare in the world exports increased to 3 per cent in2010 from 2.6 per cent in 2009.The report rankedChina first in terms of merchandise exports followedby the U.S. and Germany. In services export, the U.S.is on the top slot followed by Germany and the U.K.

Renuka Dam ProjectHeld Up By NGT Orders

The national green tribunal ordered Himachal PradeshPower Corporation Ltd (HPPCL) to stop all construc-tion work related to the Renuka Dam project.The damon the Giri river will offer a storage capacity of 542million cubic metres of water and an installed powercapacity of 40 MW. The proposed Renuka Dam





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Project is one of the largest projects in the backwarddistrict of Sirmour in Himachal Pradesh. The stategovernments of Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana,Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan signed a Memorandumof Understanding on 12 May, 1994 for the utilizationand allocation of the waters of the Upper Yamuna .As a part of this agreement, a storage dam was to beconstructed across Giri river, a tributary of theYamuna, at Renukaji in Sirmour district of HimachalPradesh. Forest clearance to the project was cancelledby the ministry of environment and forests in Octo-ber, 2010. The assessment report mentions that about308 families will be displaced and about 37 villageswill be impacted because of the Renuka Dam project.

20 PercentRise in Tiger Population

India registered a 20 per cent increase in tiger popu-lation in 2010, according to a report- Status of tigers,co-predators and prey in India-2010 .The report statedthat the estimated population of 1, 706 individual ti-gers represents a 20 per cent increase from the lastsurvey in 2006, which estimated a number of 1,411tigers. The assessment of tigers included 17 Stateswith tiger population. The assessment of tigers is doneonce every four years and is a collaborative initiativebetween the National Tiger Conservation Authority,the Wildlife Institute of India, tiger States and out-side expertise.The increase in the numbers happenedbecause of the fact that tiger populations inUttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra andKarnataka have shown an increase in theirdensity.However, the report warned that tigers arestill in danger due to an overall 12.6 per cent loss ofhabitat. It could result into a lack of dispersal andconsequent loss of genetic exchange between popula-tions, and an increase in human-tiger conflict.

Campaign AgainstDiabetes and Hypertension

Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad launcheda campaign against diabetes and hypertension in slumsof Delhi on 19 July 2011. The mass screeningprogramme will cover slum clusters in Delhi to de-tect people affected with diabetes and hypertension.The ministry decided to screen around five crorepeople before September 2011. The UN General As-sembly will hold a special session to discuss meansto control these diseases.The screening will be con-

ducted for all pregnant women irrespective of theirage and for all people who are above the age of 30years.

Government’sLokpal Bill, 2011

The Union Cabinet of India approved the proposalfor the enactment of a new legislation in the form ofthe Lokpal Bill, 2011. The Bill provides for the es-tablishment of the institution of Lokpal to inquire intoallegations of corruption against certain public func-tionaries and for matters connected therewith or in-cidental thereto. The Lokpal will consist of a Chair-person and 8 members. Half of the members shall bejudicial members. The Chairperson would be fromthe judiciary and only a serving or retired Chief Jus-tice of India or a Judge of the Supreme Court wouldbe eligible for being appointed as Chairperson. It willhave its own Investigation Wing and ProsecutionWing with such officers and staff as are necessary tocarry out its functions.

The All Party Meeting on Lok Pal bill agreed thatGovernment should bring before the monsoon ses-sion of Parliament a strong and effective Lokpal Billfollowing the established procedures.The Lokpal shallinquire into allegations of corruption made in respectof Prime Minister, after he has demitted office; aMinister of the Union; a Member of Parliament; anyGroup 'A' officer or equivalent; Chairperson or mem-ber or officer equivalent to Group 'A' in any body/Board/ corporation/ authority/ company/ society/trust/ autonomous body established by an Act of Par-liament or wholly or partly financed or controlled bythe Central Government; any director, manager, sec-retary or other officer of a society or association ofpersons or trust wholly or partly financed or aided bythe Government or in receipt of any donations fromthe public and whose annual income exceeds suchamount as the Central Government may by notifica-tion specify.

However, the organisations created for religious pur-poses and receiving public donations would be out-side the purview of Lokpal.The Lokpal shall not re-quire sanction or approval under Section 197 of theCode of Criminal Procedure, 1973 or Section 19 ofthe Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, in cases whereprosecution is proposed. The Lokpal will also havepowers to attach the property of corrupt public ser-vants acquired through corrupt means. The bill was





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introduced in 2005 during the UPA-one regime andis part of the Common Minimum Programme.

36% Indians SufferedFrom MDE

World Health Organization-sponsored study on Ma-jor Depressive Episode (MDE) published in the BMCMedicine journal revealed that Indians are among theworld’s most depressed. 9% of people in India re-ported having an extended period of depression withintheir lifetime, nearly 36% suffered from what is calledMajor Depressive Episode (MDE). According to thestudy, the average lifetime and 12-month prevalenceestimates of MDE were 14.6% and 5.5% in the 10high-income and 11.1% and 5.9% in the eight low tomiddle-income countries. The average age of onsetascertained retrospectively was 25.7 in the high-in-come and 24 in low to middle income countries. Thefemale: male ratio was about 2:1.Lowest prevalenceof MDE was in China (12%).

The average age of depression in India is 31.9 yearscompared to 18.8 years in China, and 22.7 years inthe US. Increased stress, lonely lives and the fallingapart of the social support systems like joint familieswas cited as a major cause of growing depressionamong Indians.The study based on interviews of morethan 89000 people in 18 different countries by 20 dif-ferent researchers stated that depression affects nearly121 million people worldwide. It is the second con-tributor to shorter lifespan for individuals in the 15-44 age group.The percentage of respondents, who hadlifetime MDE was higher in high-income (28.1%) thanin low to middle-income (19.8%) countries. When itcame to lifetime prevalence rates of depression,France (21%) and the US (19.2%) reported the high-est rates of depression. Women, according to the studyare twice as likely to suffer depression as men andthe loss of a partner, whether from death or divorce,was a main factor, the study reveals.

What is MDE?MDE is characterized by sadness, loss of interest orpleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbedsleep or appetite, low energy and poor concentration,besides feeling depressed. This is the feeling of tre-mendous helplessness, and worthlessness. Plannedsuicide is the highest among those suffering fromMDE. Those suffering from MDE don’t have thestrength to conduct day-to-day chores and becomedysfunctional.

142 CroreFor 6 DD Channels

The Information & Broadcasting (I&B) ministry inJuly 2011 approved Prasar Bharati’s proposal to com-mission and produce new content for DD- Urdu, re-gional language satellite channels like DD-Oriya,DD-India, DD-Bharati, DD-News and DD-Archives.The decision was taken considering thegrowing popularity of regional language channels andDD-Urdu. DD-Urdu was targeted at south Asianneighborhood and Indian diaspora in West Asia, Eu-rope, America and Central Asia. Sources said DD-Urdu is being run with repeat Urdu programmes ac-quired in 2007-08.The government decided to investRs 142 crore to revamp content for six Doordarshanchannels, including DD-Urdu. The new project isexpected to revitalize the channels by introducing newprogramming.DD-India, the state broadcaster’s inter-national channel, suffered the worst neglect over theyears. The I&B ministry is therefore working withthe ministry of external affairs to coordinate withmulti-system operators, who can receive DD-Indiasignal in the concerned country.

Water Allocation is NotA Matter of Judicial Review

The Supreme Court of India on 25 July 2011 stated inits ruling that water allocated by a state for a par-ticular region is not a matter of judicial review. ASupreme Court bench including Justice MarkandeyKatju and Justice CK Prasad gave the ruling.The benchgave the ruling while dismissing a plea for a direc-tion for allocation of adequate water in Kachchh dis-trict in Gujarat. The Kachchh Jal Sankat Nivara hadfiled the petition asking for release of water from theSardar Sarovar Dam by the State government to thedistrict.The Bench pointed out that all these decisionsrequired delicate balancing and consideration of com-plex social and economical issues which could not bebrought under judicial scrutiny.

Challenge to UniformSyllabus

Tamil Nadu state government filed a leave petitionin the Supreme Court which challenged the Madrashigh court order to implement SamacheerKalvi(uniform syllabus education system) in schools





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across Tamil Nadu.In its order on 18 July 2011, theMadras High Court struck down Section 3 of theUniform System of School Education (AmendmentAct 2010) as unconstitutional. This was passed by theState government seeking to defer the implementa-tion of Samacheer Kalvi which was introduced by theprevious Tamil Nadu government for the Academicyear 2011-12.

Comprehensive SurveyOn Sex Workers' Number

The Supreme Court of India on 19 July 2011 directedthe Centre, States and Union Territories to carry outa comprehensive survey to determine the number ofsex workers in India who are agreeable for rehabili-tation. A bench including Justice Markandeya Katjuand Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra in an order also di-rected the Centre and States to file affidavits withintwo weeks on suggestions and recommendations forimproving the lot of sex workers. The Supreme Courtconstituted a panel comprising senior advocates andNGOs to assist the court in monitoring the rehabili-tation work for sex workers.The apex court passedthe direction while dealing with a petition relatingto the plight of sex workers, in which the bench hadappointed senior counsel Jayant Bhushan as an am-icus curiae.

MPLADs Incresed to5 Crore Rupees

The Union Cabinet of India in its meeting on 7 July2011 decided to increase the development funds al-located to Members of Parliament under Local AreaDevelopment (MPLAD) Scheme from the existing 2crore to 5 crore rupees from the financial year 2011-12. The meeting was chaired by the Prime MinisterManmohan Singh. The enhanced total expenditure willamount to 3950 crore rupees an increase of 2370 crorerupees from the earlier 1580 crore per annum.Thecabinet also approved annual administrative expensesof 2 percent of the annual outlay under MPLADscheme to be given to the states and districts so thatthe scheme could be monitored and implementedproperly.The MPLAD scheme was launched in 1993-94. The project funded include creation of infrastruc-ture to provide education, public health, drinkingwater, sanitation and roads. It should be noted thatunder MPLAD scheme, funds are allocated to MPs ofboth Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

India Accepted

International Norms toLimit Ship Pollution

India on 21 July 2011 accepted international normsfor the prevention of air pollution emanating fromships. The norms were proposed under a 1997 proto-col of the International Maritime organisation. The1997 protocol set limits on sulphur oxide and nitro-gen oxide emissions and prohibits emissions of ozonedepleting fumes.International Maritime Organisationis an agency of the United Nations which has beenformed to promote maritime safety. It was formallyestablished by an international conference in Genevain 1948. The 1997 protocol includes Annex VItitled Regulations for the Prevention of Air Pollutionfrom Ships. Annex VI came into force in the year 2005.





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INTERNATIONAL ISSUESHina Rabbani Khar is Pak’s

New Foreign Minister

Hina Rabbani Khar was appointed as Pakistan’s newforeign minister. Khar ,34, is the youngest ministerto accept the post. This came as a big surprise for thepeople. Khar was elected twice to the national assem-bly during Musharrafs’ reign in 2002 and duringBenazir’s stint in the year 2008. She never went pub-lic to win campaign. Since she belongs to a politicalfamily it is said that for any years the seat was withheld by her father Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar andshe gives her winning credit to her political father.Rabbabi offers hope to a number of women in Paki-stan not in terms of their lifestyle but in terms of theirway to choose their lives. We have in the past fewyears the evolvement of women in Pakistan. The listincludes the likes of Fatima Jinnah to Benazir Bhutto,Asma Jahangir, Sherry Rehman and now Hina RabbaniKhar. Now women are rejecting the roles that manymen try to cast them in. Since her appointment as theforeign minister of Pakistan Khar has been continu-ously criticised because to is too young to handle for-eign affairs of Pakistan and that she holds a degree inhospitality management and she even has a degree ineconomics. But with a country with young popula-tion Khar seems to be making place for herself.

9.2 PercentUnemployment in USA

The United States Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS)revealed that the unemployment in US increased to9.2 percent for the month of June and over 14 millionpeople were jobless.This reflects the recent slowdownof economic growth. The sectors which showed theincrease in unemployment are- health care and manu-facturing, leisure and hospitality and manufacturing.USA Suspended Military Aid to PakistanUSA announced that it withheld the 800 million dol-lars aid to the Pakistan’s military. This action takenby the US government suggests that US doesn’t relycompletely on Pakistan in its fight againstterrorism.The Security forces of Pakistan were al-leged to play a role in the killing of Pakistani jour-

nalist Saleem Shahzad who wrote about infiltrationof the military by extremists. US suspension of aidcould be a result of this killing.

Asia-Europe (ASEM)Meeting

A two-day meeting of foreign ministers of the 46-nation Asia-Europe (ASEM) held in Godollo, Hun-gary. This was the 10th ASEM Foreign Ministers'Meeting. The summit was chaired by CatherineAshton, the foreign policy chief of the European Union(EU) while Hungarian Foreign Minister JanosMartonyi took over the chair on 5 July 2011. Hun-gary is the current holder of the EU's rotatingpresidency.Asian and European foreign ministers on5 July 2011 reached an agreement to cooperate closerin dealing with the non-traditional security chal-lenges. The meeting focused on increasing interna-tional collaboration in dealing with a cluster of non-traditional security threats ranging from terrorism andpiracy to food and energy security, climate change,disaster relief and management, illegal migration andinfectious diseases.Next Asia-Europe (ASEM) meetwill be held in India in 2013, while an ASEM sum-mit will be held in Vientiane, Laos in 2012.

Salient Featuresof ASEM Meet

» The meeting held discussions on regional and in-ternational issues of common interest, including de-velopments in Europe, Asia, Middle-East and the Arabworld.

» A separate plenary session was devoted to globalissues such as UN Reforms, sustainable development,environment protection, non-proliferation and disar-mament, G-8, G-20 etc.

» ASEM meet further exchanged views on, mattersrelating to economic governance and the reform ofthe international financial system, as well as, ongo-ing efforts in Europe and Asia to overcome the con-sequences of the economic and financial crisis.





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India’s Response: At the ASEM Foreign Ministers'Meeting in Godollo on 5 July 2011, India announcedthat it would host the meeting of ASEM forum in 2013.India also announced its decision to hike its financialcontribution, a 20 percent increase to the inter-re-gional forum, ASEM.

What is ASEM ?ASEM represents over half of the global populationand accounts for more than half of the globalGDP.ASEM was set up in 1996.It held its first sum-mit meeting at Bangkok.It is a forum of 46 Asian andEuropean countries. 27 countries are from the EU and19 countries are from Asia India has been participat-ing in ASEM meetings since 2007.ASEM also com-prises two international organisations, i.e. the 10-na-tion Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)and the European Union, for expanding political andsecurity, economic and socio-cultural cooperation.Outside of the government-level meetings, ASEMalso brings together, in individual fora, lawmakers,businesses and civil society groups.In the key achieve-ments of ASEM, the Trans-Eurasia Information Net-work (TEIN) a ground-breaking research and educa-tion network connecting researchers in both conti-nents are included.

South Sudan is Independent

The United Nations-African Union peacekeepingforce in Darfur welcomed the agreement signed on14 July 2011, between the Sudanese Government andthe rebel Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM). Theagreement was based on the Doha Document for Peaceof the Security Council of the UN. The General As-sembly of the United Nations admitted the Republicof South Sudan as the 193rd member of the UnitedNations on 14 July 2011. It welcomed independentSouth Sudan to the community of nations.

The protocol agreement was signed in the Qatari capi-tal, Doha. The agreement was a commitment on thepart of the Sudanese Government and the LJM to thedraft document that was required to form the basis ofa permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive peaceagreement to end the fighting that began in 2003. Anestimated 300,000 people were killed since conflicterupted in Darfur in 2003.After the UN General As-sembly adopted a resolution to acclaim the indepen-dence South Sudan became Africa’s newest country.The last country to join the world body wasMontenegro, which became the 192nd UN Member

State on June 28 2006 after it gained its independencefrom Serbia.

Resolutions And Recommendations:

» The Republic of South Sudan accepted the obliga-tions contained in the Charter of the United Nationsand solemnly undertook to fulfill them.

» Any recommendations for admission must receivethe affirmative votes of nine of the Council’s 15 mem-bers, provided that none of its five permanent mem-bers i.e. China, France, Russia, United Kingdom andUnited States voted against the application.

» The Un Security Council decided on 11 July 2011,to close the six-year-old UN Mission in Sudan(UNMIS), which was set up to assist the parties inimplementing the CPA, and called on the Secretary-General of the UN to complete the withdrawal of allits uniformed and civilian personnel, except thoseneeded for its liquidation, by 31 August 2011.

» In an unanimously adopted resolution, the Councilemphasized the need for an orderly withdrawal ofUNMIS following the termination of its mandate topave the way for the new UN Mission in the Repub-lic of South Sudan (UNMISS).

» The Council also looked forward to transfer ap-propriate staff and supplies, including the logisticsnecessary for achieving the new scope of functions tobe performed from UNMIS to the new Mission andto the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei(UNISFA).

The agreement signed between the north and the southSudan in June 2010, held that their respective forceswhich clashed repeatedly in the disputed region areto withdraw from Abyei. UN Interim Security Forcefor Abyei (UNISFA) was given the initial task ofmonitoring the complete withdrawal of forces fromall of Abyei.

World Hepatitis Day

The first official World Health Organization-supported World Hepatitis Day being coordinated inpartnership with the World Hepatitis Alliance wasobserved on 28 July 2011. The theme for the WorldHepatitis Day was This is hepatitis. The slogan forWorld hepatitis Day 2011 was Know it. Confront it.Hepatitis affects everyone, everywhere.World Hepa-titis Day was observed on 28 July 2011 to raise glo-





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bal awareness of hepatitis B and hepatitis C and en-courage prevention, diagnosis and treatment. WorldHepatitis Day serves to provide an opportunity torecognise viral hepatitis as a major global health prob-lem in order to advance prevention and control.The World Hepatitis Alliance and the WHOjointly agreed that the core global objectivesof the World Hepatitis Day campaign are to:

» Raise awareness and understanding of hepatitisamong the general public

» Secure continual support for World Hepatitis Day

» Generate a sense of urgency amongst all stakehold-ers to prioritise action

2011 DeclaredWorld Veterinary Year

FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine together withother national and international veterinary groupsdeclared 2011 as the World Veterinary Year. 2011marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of theworld’s first veterinary school in Lyon, France. WorldVeterinary Year, or Vet2011 is to celebrate the richhistory of the veterinary profession and the veteri-narians around the world who continue to protecthuman and animal health.The world’s first veterinaryschool was founded in Lyon, France, in 1761. TheAlfort veterinary school was next to come up nearParis in 1764. Both the schools were founded at theinitiative of French veterinarian Claude Bourgelat.Thus the year 2011 marks the 250th world anniver-sary of veterinary education. By setting up the world’sfirst veterinary training institutions, Bourgelat alsocreated the veterinary profession itself. Thus, 2011also marks the 250th world anniversary of the veteri-nary profession.Bourgelat was also the first scientistwho dared to suggest that studying animal biologyand pathology would help to improve understandingof human biology and pathology. 2011 also marks the250th anniversary of the concept of comparativebiopathology.

World InvestmentReport 2011

The World Investment Report 2011 was released byUNCTAD on 26 July 2011. According to the report,India’s position among the top 20 FDI recipients fellto 14th position, from 8th in 2009.

The country that saw the maximum FDI inflow in2010 was the United States at $228 billion. Chinastood at 2nd position with inflows totalling $106 bil-lion in 2010, and Brazil stood at 5th position withinflows at $48 billion.According to UNCTAD, for-eign direct investment inflows worldwide climbed 5per cent to about USD 1.24 trillion in 2010 comparedto 2009. FDI to South Asia declined to USD 32 bil-lion in 2010.

The report stated that half of the top 20 host econo-mies for FDI in 2010 were developing and transitioneconomies. UNCTAD report projected foreign di-rect investments worldwide to return to pre-crisislevels this year, with inflows expected to be up to$1.6 trillion.Cross border non-equity modes (NEMs)including contract manufacturing, servicesoutsourcing, contract farming were found to be in-creasingly shaping the global value chains.

Missile DefenceShield for Russia

Russia made an announcement on 22 July 2011 that itbuilt a missile defence shield which covers two-thirdsof the country. The new system is designed to pro-vide protection against missile attacks on Moscowand central Russia. Most of the industry is located inthis area. The missile defence system features S-300and S-400 long-range anti-missiles.The system islikely to become operational by 1 December 2011.

Truong Tan Sang isVietnam’s 9th President

Vietnam’s lawmaking National Assembly appointedTruong Tan Sang as the communist country’s newpresident on 25 July 2011 following Vietnam’s 13thNational Assembly election. Sang, an arch rival ofPrime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is the ninth presi-dent f the country, the first being revered foundingfather Ho Chi Minh. Sang succeeded Nguyen MinhTriet, who served one term.Sang had been the rulingCommunist Party's de facto number two since 2006.He had mounted an aggressive challenge for the primeminister's job before the party's January congress,which determined top leadership posts. Sang, a na-tive of southern Vietnam and a student militant im-prisoned by the then US-backed South Vietnam re-gime, Sang went on to become became mayor of HoChi Minh City. He had most recently served as the de





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facto No. 2 in charge of the Communist Party, run-ning the day-to-day affairs.Sang was imprisoned from1971-73 by the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese gov-ernment when he served as a communist fighter forthe north during the Vietnam War. It ended in 1975when the north seized control of the former southerncapital, Saigon, reunifying the country.

Ban on Wearing Veilsin Public in Italy

An Italian parliamentary commission approved a draftlaw banning women from wearing veils that covertheir faces in public.The draft passed by the constitu-tional affairs commission prohibits women fromwearing a burqa, naqib or any other garb that coversthe face.Italy is the latest European country to approvea law against the burqa. Belgium and France have al-ready banned the wearing of burqa in public.This re-cent step banning veil has ignited heated debate aboutmulticulturism in Europe. It’s related to issues of re-ligious freedom, secular traditions, female equalityand fears of terrorism.

UNSC CodemnedThe Syrian Government

The UN Security Council condemned the Syrian gov-ernment for a deadly crackdown on protesters. Thecouncil statement condemned the widespread viola-tions of human rights and the use of force against ci-vilians by the Syrian authorities.This comes as theSyrian army attack Hama, a centre of the oppositionprotest, with reports of much loss of life.Dozens ofpeople are believed to have been killed in the actionagainst Hama, with residents saying that and armytanks have now entered into Assi Square, in the cen-tre of the city of 800,000 people.

Euro Zone Summit

17-nation Euro Zone Summit was held in Brussels,capital of Belgium with the objective of finalizing asecond rescue package for debt plagued Greece andcalm the financial markets of Europe. The participat-ing nations agreed on Marshall Plan for Europe torevive the financial markets of Europe.

Besides, the nations agreed on somepoints,which is as follows:-

» The summit agreed to pour another 159 billion eu-ros into Greece to stop debt contagion across Europe.To ease Greece's debt repayments on its loans, thesummit agreed to extend them from 7.5 years to be-tween 15 and 30 years in some cases, and at a rate of3.5 percent, down from 4.5 percent.

» The Eurozone leaders welcomed the measures un-dertaken by the Greek government to stabilize publicfinances and reform the economy as well as the newpackage of measures including privatization recentlyadopted by the Greek Parliament.

» The Eurozone leaders agreed to support a newprogramme for Greece. This programme will be de-signed notably through lower interest rates and ex-tended maturities, to decisively improve the debtsustainability and refinancing profile of Greece.

» It was decided to lengthen the maturity of futureEFSF loans to Greece to the maximum extent pos-sible from the current 7.5 years to a minimum of 15years and up to 30 years with a grace period of 10years.

» All euro area Member States will adhere strictlyto the agreed fiscal targets, improve competitivenessand address macro-economic imbalances. Public defi-cits in all countries except those under a programmewill be brought below 3 percent by 2013 at the lat-est.

» The summit made a commitment to introduce bythe end of 2012 national fiscal frameworks as fore-seen in the fiscal frameworks directive.

Muammar Gadhafi’sRegime Declared Illigetimate

The Libya Contact Group in its fourth meeting heldin Istanbul, Turkey declared Libyan leader MuammarGadhafi’s regime no longer legitimate. This will po-tentially free up cash that the rebels fighting Libyanforces urgently need. In addition to the USA, the 32-nation Contact Group on Libya includes members ofNATO, the EU and the Arab League. The Group alsoformally recognized the main oppositiongroup National Transitional Council(NTC) as thecountry’s legitimate government until a new author-ity is created.





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New Visa CategoryIn Britain

Britain announced a new visa category to facilitate the immigration for exceptionally talented people fromIndia and other non-EU countries in the fields of humanities, engineering, arts and science.The new Tier1(exceptional talent) category will open on 9 August 2011 and it will have 1000 places in the first year ofoperation.There will be 500 places available between the 9 August and 30 November and a further 500places available from the December 1 to March 31, 2012. The immigration category will be overseen by fourcompetent bodies. These competent bodies will advise the UK border agency to make sure that the migrantsare the best and brightest in their field.

Famine in Two Regionsof Southern Somalia

On 20 July 2011 the United Nations declared a famine, occurring in the Bakool and Lower Shabelle regionsof southern Somalia. The UN formally declared a famine in five districts in Southern Somalia. It also ap-pealed for 300 million US dollars by August and September 2011, to bolster its response in the affected areasof Somalia.Parts of southern Somalia suffered from the worst famine in a generation, affecting over 3.7million people. More than 166,000 desperate Somalis are estimated to have fled their country to neighbouringKenya or Ethiopia.The UN estimated that humanitarian agencies needed 1.6 billion US dollars for Somaliaalone. Tens of thousands of people died across the region, most of them were children.The last time similarconditions took place in Somalia in 1992, when hundreds of thousands of Somalis starved to death.Al-Shabab,an al-Qaeda-affiliated group which controlled large swathes of south and central Somalia, had imposed a banon foreign aid agencies in its territories in 2009. However, later it had allowed limited access. An estimated10 million people are affected in East Africa by the worst drought in more than half a century.

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20

ECONOMY ISSUESRBI’s 3rd

Financial Stability Report

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its third Fi-nancial Stability Report. The report reflected RBI'scontinuing endeavour to communicate its assessmentof the incipient risks to financial sector stability. TheFinancial Stability Report is published twice a yearunder the guidance of the interim Financial PolicyCommittee. The report includes Committee's assess-ment of the outlook for the stability and resilience ofthe financial sector at the time of preparation of theReport, and the policy actions it advises to reduce andmitigate risks to stability.

FSR main findings are as follows:-1. The banking sector in India by far the most domi-nant portion of the Indian financial sector continuesto be stable and 2. The domestic financial markets have remainedstress free recently. However, a few caveats are inorder.

India FellTo 14th From 8th in FDI

The World Investment Report 2011 was released byUNCTAD. According to the report, India’s positionamong the top 20 FDI recipients fell to 14th position,from 8th in 2009 at a time when other countries inAsia were setting new records in foreign direct in-vestment (FDI) inflows. India’s FDI inflow went downto $25 billion in 2010 from $36 billion in 2009, ac-cording to a UN report.However, according to Fi-nance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, FDI inflows roseto more than $7.9 billion during April-June quarterof 2011, which was almost twice the amount receivedduring the year-ago period. During the last 10 years,India received total foreign direct investment of $176billion, while Indian companies have invested $76billion outside. India saw FDI inflows of USD 19.42billion in 2010-11. Foreign direct investment flowsinto India are currently sluggish given the uncertainglobal economic conditions.India is ranked way be-low neighbouring China, which saw FDI inflows to

the tune of USD 106 billion in 2010. China stood at2nd position with inflows totalling $106 billion in2010, and Brazil stood at 5th position with inflows at$48 billion.The country that saw the maximum FDIinflow in 2010 was the United States at $228 billion

Essar Agreement WithJurong Aromatics

Essar Projects Ltd (EPL) announced that secured anengineering, procurement and construction (EPC)contract worth $320 million from Jurong AromaticsCorp. (JAC) of Singapore. The contract forms part ofa USD 2.4-billion grassroot aromatics complex inJurong Island, Singapore, being executed by JAC. Thescope of EPL’s contract includes constructing storagetankages, jetties with loading and unloading arms,pipeline systems as well as the utilities for the entirecomplex. The project is to be executed by a subsid-iary company of EPL in Singapore.The Jurong projecthas participation from global petrochemical playerslike Glencore, SK Engineering, Sanhai and Vinmarand involves the development of a condensate split-ter and aromatics facility. The JAC project involvesthe development of a condensate splitter and aromat-ics facility in Singapore’s Jurong Island.

Standard CharteredBank Appoinyed as Custodian

The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the Employ-ees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) approvedthe appointment of Standard Chartered Bank as thecustodian of securities of the EPFO. The Central Boardof Trustees (CBT) is the apex body of the EmployeesProvident Fund Organisation. At the 196th meetingof the CBT, it also approved the appointment ofMumbai-based Chandbhoy and Jassoobhoy as Exter-nal Concurrent Auditor to audit the investments ofthe EPFO funds.A total of five crore employees cameunder the EPFO. The total fund size was Rs.3.50 lakhcrore. Of this, about Rs.60000 crore was reinvestedevery year, while Rs.40000 crore was collected an-nually.





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SEBI OkayedAll-Important Takeover Code

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)board okayed the all-important Takeover Code ac-cepting the recommendations of the Takeover Regu-lations Advisory Committee (TRAC).According to theTakeover Code passed by SEBI, mandatory open of-fer size was raised to 26% from 20% and the triggerpoint for buyout was made to stand at 25% as against15% in the past. With the passing of the TakeoverCode, companies will now need to make mandatoryopen offer for further 26% stake from public share-holders after buying 25% in takeovers.SEBI however,abolished non-compete fees to be paid by acquirersin takeover deals.

Highlights of Takeover Code:Mandatory open offer size was raised to 26% from20% and the trigger point for buyout was made tostand at 25%.

» Merchant banks to disclose track record to IPO in-vestors

» IPO forms to be made shorter and simpler.

» Non-compete fees to be paid by acquirers in take-over deals abolished.

» Public shareholders were required to be given anexit opportunity when promoters of target companysell out their stake to acquirers.

» SEBI did not accept the recommendation of TRACto provide delisting pursuant to an offer and propor-tionate acceptance.

» Sebi board decided that the existing definition ofcontrol of offers would be retained as it is.

» The SEBI board approved uniform KYC norms forall stock market transactions.

FSDC ReviewedEconomic Situation

The Financial Stability and Development Council(FSDC) headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjeereviewed the general economic situation in the lightof steep rate hike by RBI. The meeting was attendedby all financial sector regulators including Sebi chair-

man, RBI governor, PFRDA chairman, and financesecretary and chief economic advisor. The financialregulators were of the opinion that high inflation willnot be conducive to short-term growthThe relation-ship between inflation and growth was treated as acause of concern. Although the group felt that in longterm, India’s growth prospects are bright but in theshort term it seemed crucial to tackle inflation.Whilethe economy is expected to grow between 8 and 8.5per cent in 2011-12, the persistently high inflationand subsequent interest rate hikes by the RBI curtailedIndia Inc’s expansion plans and led to fears of a pos-sible slowdown. Rising fiscal deficit along with cur-rent 8% repo rate announced by the RBI was alsodeemed as a potential threat to the economy.

Repo Rate Hiked to 8%

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a bid to tame in-flationary pressure hiked the short-term indicativepolicy rate (repo rate) by 50 basis points from 7.5 percent to 8 per cent. The RBI Governor D. Subbaraoalso announced the first quarter review of MonetaryPolicy for 2011-12.The first quarter review of Mon-etary Policy for 2011-12 revealed that headline whole-sale price index (WPI) inflation rate for the first quar-ter of 2011-12 remained stubbornly close to doubledigits and inflationary pressures continued to be broad-based.The decision to raise the rate by 50 basis points,beating the market expectation of 25 basis points wastaken to drive home the fact that in the absence ofcomplementary policy responses on demand and sup-ply sides, stronger monetary policy actions arerequired.With the hike in repo rate (the rate at whichbanks borrow from the central bank) the reverse reporate (the rate at which banks park their funds with theRBI), with a spread of 100 basis points below the reporate settled at 7 per cent. Similarly, the MarginalStanding Facility (MSF) rate, with a spread of 100basis points above the repo rate, stood recalibrated at9 per cent.The hike by the central bank in rates isexpected to put further pressure on consumers as lend-ing rates of banks will be higher in the coming days.

Duty Entitlement Pass Book(DEPB) Scheme

The Union government announced restoration of thepopular duty entitlement pass book (DEPB) schemefor export of cotton with retrospective effect from 1April 2011 and on cotton yarn from 1 October 2010.





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The announcement was made in the backdrop follow-ing a sharp fall in the domestic and international pricesof these commodities.Cotton yarn had been placedunder Open General Licence for exports from April2011. The DEPB scheme for exporters had thereforebeen made effective from 1 April 2011. The govern-ment had withdrawn the scheme on cotton and cot-ton yarn in April 2010.The government’s decision waswelcomed by Confederation of Indian Textiles Indus-try that felt the move would provide relief to the cot-ton yarn sector as it was making losses due to with-drawal of export incentives and had hugeinventories.Exports of cotton were dis-incentivisedby virtue of export tax, following a sharp rise in pricesin January 2011. The DEPB scheme has also been re-stored with easing of export curbs.

What is DEPB?DEPB Scheme incorporates the concept of the old PassBook but with simplified procedures and greater cov-erage and transparency in the matter of giving creditentitlements. The entitlement rate will be pre-deter-mined so that the exporters at the time of exports cando their costing accordingly. Being a transparentscheme it does away with any discretion to the Li-censing Authority or Custom Authority and can beavailed on Pre-Export/Post-Export basis.

Anti-Dumping Duty OnImports of Gas

The Revenue Department announced it’s decision toimpose anti-dumping duty of up to USD 1.41 per kgon imports of a gas, used primarily for refrigerationpurpose with an objective to protect domestic play-ers from cheap Chinese and Japanese shipments. Theduty would range from between USD 0.69 per kg andUSD 1.41 per kg on imports of the gas from Japanand China.The restrictive duty on the import of1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane or R-134a is to be imposedfor a period of five years.The imposition of duty wasrecommended by Directorate General of Anti-Dump-ing and Allied Duties (DGAD) Ashok Chawla Panel’s Report

A government panel, headed by former finance sec-retary Ashok Chawla, set up to recommend rules forpricing of all natural resources submitted final re-port. In the final report, the panel did not suggest thatall future allocations of airwaves must be through

auctions.The final report merely stated that alloca-tion of spectrum, the airwaves on which all commu-nication signals travel, should be done through a suit-able market-related process evolved by the telecomsdepartment and the telecoms regulator.Analysts areof the opinion that Chawla's move to overturn thedraft recommendations amounts to toeing thetelecoms department's line which already rejected theauction approach for awarding second generation (2G)airwaves. The telecom department also added that thecommittee's recommendations will allow the gov-ernment to choose the benchmark for pricingairwaves.The exact quantum to be levied would bedetermined by the telecoms department in consulta-tions with regulator TRAI.The panel’s draft had alsoadded that if the road map for future release of spec-trum through auctions were to be made available, itwould temper bids in future auctions.

EPFO Appointed4 Mangers For

Pension Fund Corpus

The labour ministry-controlled Employees’ ProvidentFund Organisation (EPFO) appointed four fund man-agers for its 3.5 trillion pension fund corpus. EPFOhowever dropped top performer ICICI PrudentialAsset Management Co. Ltd from the list.The centralboard of trustees (CBT), the apex decision-makingbody of the EPFO in its meeting in New Delhi, de-cided to appoint State Bank of India (SBI), RelianceCapital, HSBC Asset Management and ICICI Securi-ties Primary Dealership Ltd. The CBT after consid-eration approved four fund managers for managingEPFO funds for a period of three years beginning 1September 2011.

Oil Ministries ActionAgainst Cairn India

The oil ministry blocked Cairn India’s plans to beginoil production from the Bhagyam oilfield which isthe second biggest find in the Rajasthan block. Cairnhad planned to put the Bhagyam oilfield into produc-tion by October to take total output from the Rajasthanblock to 175,000 barrels per day.At the meeting ofthe panel that oversees operations of the block on 10June 2011, the panel had stonewalled 2011-12 pro-duction rate, work programme and budget for theBhagyam field. The ministry wanted Cairn to calcu-





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late profit from the Rajasthan block after treating roy-alty as cost recoverable item.Cairn believed that roy-alty, which is paid by state-owned Oil and NaturalGas Corp (ONGC), is a licensee obligation and hencenot cost recoverable from revenues. Cairn’s viewswere contested by the oil ministry which made costrecovery of royalty as a precondition for allowingCairn Energy to sell 40% stake in Cairn India toVedanta Resources.The ministry insisted that it willnot approve further programme on Bhagyam unlessCairn calculates profits to be divided among stake-holders and the government after adding royalty tothe cost.

CEIB a Nodal Agencyto Share Black Money

Information

The committee set up to review the role and struc-ture of Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB)recommended that the CEIB maintain a national da-tabase of economic offences investigated by variousagencies at the Centre and in states. Maintenance ofnational database by CIEB will ensure effective coor-dination among the various enforcement and regula-tory agencies. The four member committee to studythe role of CEIB was set up in March 2011 by theFinance Ministry and was headed by S. S. Khan, re-tired member, Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT).The Union government opined that in theface of growing complexity and sophistication of eco-nomic offences better collaboration among variousagencies is required for combating tax evasion andother serious economic offences.The panel also rec-ommended a hub and spoke structure between theCEIB and enforcement agencies at the central and statelevels with the CEIB as the nodal agency for bettercollection and dissemination of financial intelligence.

India Set For BumperFoodgrains Production

in the 2010-11

According to the fourth advance estimates releasedby the Agriculture Ministry, India is set for a bumerfoodgrains production in the 2010-11 crop year at241.56 million tones,which will be a record. Wheatand pulses output are estimated to touch an all timehigh of 85.93 million tonnes and 18.09 million tonnesrespectively. The record production was attributed

to good monsoon, higher minimum support price tofarmers and focussed policy approach, particularly toenhance production of pulses and oilseeds.As per thedata prepared by the Directorate of Economics andStatistics, the record output was achieved despitedrought in 90 districts in the eastern belt, excessiverains in parts of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh and yel-low rust in some wheat-growing pockets.

Wheat Output was Estimatedto be Higher by 5.13 Million

Tonnes in 2010-11

Rice output was estimated at 95.32 million tonnes asagainst 89.09 million tonnes harvested in 2009-10.Pulses production enhanced by 3.43 million tonneswith gram at 8.25 million tones, urad at 1.74 milliontonnes and moong 1.82 million tonnes recording sig-nificant increases.

Oilseeds production was estimated at 31.1 milliontonnes against 24.8 million tonnes in the previouscrop year with a record soyabean output of 12.66million tonnes.

Coarse cereals output was recorded at 42.22 milliontonnes as compared to 33.55 million tonnes producedin 2009-10. A record output of 21.28 million tonnesof maize this year against 16.72 million tonnes pro-duced in 2009-10 contributed hugely to higher coarsecereals out.

Cotton production surged to 33.43 million bales (of170 kg each) from 24.22 million bales. Sugarcaneoutput was up at 339.17 million tonnes against 292.3million tonnes in 2009-10.

Total foodgrains output for rabi and kharif in 2009-10 was 218.11 million tonnes. The highest produc-tion in recent years was 234.47 million tonnes in2008-09.

The 12th Five Year Plan will contain all measures toaccelerate the agriculture sector growth to meet fu-ture demands. The need for a broad-based, inclusiveand sustainable second Green Revolution has there-fore been highlighted by Prime Minister ManmohanSingh.India needs two per cent per annum growth infood grain production to meet the projected demandof 281 million tonnes by 2021.





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DoT Cleared NOFN ForBroadband Connectivity

The Central Department of Telecommunications(DoT) approved Rs 30000-crore National OpticalFibre Network (NOFN) for broadband connectivityto 2500 Panchayats in India.The Telecom Commis-sion (DoT's decision-making arm) approved theproject that will be funded through the Universal Ser-vice Obligation [USO] Fund. The project will be com-pleted by 2014-15 through a special purpose vehicle(SPV). The Universal Service Obligation Fund wascreated to fund those operators who go into the ruraland non-remunerative areas to offer telecom network.Private telecom companies contribute 5 per cent oftheir annual revenues towards this fund.NFON is ex-pected to help the government implement its variouse-governance initiatives such as e-health, e-bankingand e-education, facilitating inclusive growth. 33 newmajor applications will be built using the open sourcecode. These applications will use NOFN to connectrural areas with educational institutions, health ser-vice and central government services.The broadbandproject will initially be executed by Bharat SancharNigam Limited and other PSUs like RailTel.

Amendment to CustomsAct, 1962

The Indian Cabinet approved the amendment to Cus-toms Act, 1962 to help the exchequer safeguard itsrevenues. The cabinet decided to put forth the amend-ment bill in the 2011 winter session of theparliament.The amendment will permit specificallyrecognised customs officers to assess import duty. Therecognition to customs officials would be from ret-rospective effect. The amendment bill will help thegovernment to recover customs duty worth severalthousands of crores, Soni added. Officers of the Di-rectorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) will alonehave issued notices involving customs duty to the tuneof over Rs 7500 crore. Also tax evaders will not getbenefited at the expense of exchequer on a mere tech-nical ground.

Chaturvedi Committee’sSuggestions

The committee set up by the Group of Ministers(GoM) to examine the go and no-go system for coalmining and chaired by Planning Commission Mem-ber B K Chaturvedi submitted its report. The com-mittee recommended that all projects stranded due tothe classification must be treated on their merits andcleared sans restrictions if located at the fringes ofthe forests.The committee asked the union environ-ment ministry to amend its directive mandating de-velopers to compulsorily secure Stage-I clearance aswell as facilitate green clearances in a time-boundmanner. The committee highlighted that the systemof go and no go has no legal sanction.The committeesuggested that the ministries of coal and environmentwork jointly and evolve a strategy to ensure that genu-ine cases are cleared and also the interests of the tribalsbe protected.

1200 Crore into Air India

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)approved equity infusion of Rs.1200 crore into thecash-strapped national carrier Air India. Air India hadso far received financial assistance amounting to Rs2000 crore in the last two financial years while itscumulative loss and debt burden is around Rs 67000crore.The equity induction would not only ease thecash flow situation of the company Air India whichis passing through critical financial crunch. The cashflow would also preclude borrowings from the mar-kets at high costs.The airline has a debt of Rs.4695crore on an equity base of Rs.2145 crore.

Damodaran Panel’sSuggestions

The report on Customer Service in Banks by a com-mittee chaired by M. Damodaran, former Chairmanof the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)was released on 3 July 2011. The Reserve Bank ofIndia panel recommended an increased deposit insur-ance cover of Rs.5 lakh so as to encourage individu-als to keep all their deposits in banks. The Damodaranpanel mentioned that in case of sick banks, a possi-bility to enable customers to immediately avail them-selves of a part of their insured deposits before thefinal fate of sick banks is decided should be explored.





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The recommendations were made in 3broad categories:Home Loans: The panel recommended that banksshould not impose exorbitant penal rates towards fore-closure of home loans. A policy should be devised toensure that customers are not denied of opportunityto enhance their economic welfare by making choicessuch as switching to other banks/financial entities toenjoy the benefits conferred by market competition.Measures to stop practices of discriminating betweennew and old customers with identical risk profiles onthe basis of interest rate offers were to be initiated.

Senior Citizens: There should be prioritised ser-vice to senior citizens, physically handicapped per-sons by effective crowd/people management avail-able at all branches. The panel suggested introduc-tion of provision of the SMS alerts service about bal-ance in the account at periodic intervals and aboutdue dates for submission of importantdocuments. Automatic updation of the customers tothe senior citizen category based on the date of birthwould be introduced. Pensioner may be allowed tosubmit the annual life certificate at any of the (linked)branches and not necessarily at the home branch.

Rural Areas: According to the panel banks shouldensure proper currency exchange facilities and alsothe quality of notes in circulation in rural areas.Branches should be made functioning at a time con-venient to the customers (agricultural labourers,workers and artisans).

Industrial Outlook Survey

The Reserve Bank of India launched its Industrial Out-look Survey for the July-September 2011 period. TheIndustrial Outlook Survey provides for an insight intothe perception of non-financial public and private lim-ited companies that are engaged in manufacturingactivities about their performance and futureprospects.The responsibility for conducting the re-search on behalf of the central bank was bestowed onCentre for Research Planning and Action (CERPA).The CERPA is to get in touch with several manufac-turing companies during the quarter July-Septemberfor seeking their valuable feedback so that it can beincluded in the survey. The survey is to cover non-financial private and public limited companies witha good size/industry representation. Those manufac-turing companies which are not approached byCERPA can also participate in the survey by down-

loading the survey schedule from RBI’s officialwebsite.

What is CERPA?CERPA was established in 1972 and conducts socialscience research, provides consultancy on develop-mental issues, helps planners and policymakers andprovides charitable services to the disadvantaged andpoor sections of the country.

Finance MinistriesSteps to Combat

Black Money Menace

The Finance Ministry under pressure to unearth blackmoney modified the format for reporting suspicioustransactions to help enforcement and regulatory agen-cies take prompt action to deal with the menace.Thenew reporting formats such as Suspicious Transac-tion Reports (STRs), Cash Transaction Reports(CTRs), Counterfeit Currency Reports (CCRs) andNon-Profit Organisation Transaction Reports (NTRs)-- were introduced after the Financial IntelligenceUnit (FIU) made operational its ambitious intelli-gence network project sanctioned in 2006.The ear-lier prescribed multiple data files reporting format isset to be replaced by a new XML file format. Threenew formats -account-based reporting, format andtransaction-based reporting format for filing STRs ,CTRs and NTRs and a separate reporting format tofile CCRs were introduced and notified to RBI , SEBIand IRDA and other relevant entities.The new net-work, called FINnet ( Financial Intelligence Network)deployed to tackle the menace of black money is atechnology-based secure platform for bringing to-gether investigative and enforcement agencies to col-lect, analyse and disseminate valuable financial in-formation for combating money laundering and re-lated crimes.The civil society in the recent paststepped up pressure on the government to unearthblack money and introduced various measures to crackdown on financial scams, frauds and large-scale taxevasion.

PSBs to Boost Creditto Small Industry & Farmers

The Union government suggested the state-run banksto focus on traditionally-credit starved areas, such assmall industry and agriculture, while credit demand





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from big industry moderates. Reserve Bank of Indiarevised the credit growth target to 18% from 19% in2011-12 after it raised the key rates by sharp 0. 5 per-centage points in its monetary policy review on 26July 2011. The RBI raised the repo rate for the elev-enth time since March 2010 to curb runaway infla-tion. Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee also raisedthe issue of increased lending in the agriculturesector. Currently, the banking system only covers50% of the farmers in India. The government set atarget of Rs. 475000 crore bank credit for the farmsector in 2011-12. Banks that did not meet the targetsfor agriculture lending in the last three years wereasked to step up their loan portfolios.

SEBI ProposedRegulations For Alternative

Investment Funds

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)proposed to create regulations for alternative invest-ment funds under the title SEBI (Alternative Invest-ment Fund) Regulations.These alternative investmentfund (AIF) raise capital from a number of highnetworth investors (HNIs) with an objective of in-vesting in accordance with a defined investmentpolicy for the benefit of those investors.The fundswhich would come under the proposed regulationinclude- Venture Capital Funds, PIPE Funds, PrivateEquity Fund, Debt Funds, Infrastructure Equity Fund,Real Estate Fund, SME Fund, Social Venture Funds,Strategy Fund.SEBI made it mandatory for all typesof private pools of capital or investment funds to seekregistration with SEBI. The funds could be formed ascompanies, trusts or body corporate including LLPstructure.

Growth Rate Projection to8.2 % For 2011-12 For India

The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council(PMEAC) scaled down its projection for the growthrate of the economy in 2011-12 to 8.2 per cent from8.5 per cent earlier. The estimates were made in thebackdrop of a grim economic scenario resulting fromuncertain global outlook and high domestic inflationcoupled with a subdued trend in investment and fac-tory output.The report stated that the inflation ratewould come down to 6.5 per cent by March 2012. Inits Economic Outlook for 2011-12, which was sub-

mitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lastmonth, the PMEAC had maintained that headline in-flation would remain at 9 per cent or higher till Oc-tober 2011 and thereafter ease to 6.5 per cent by theend of March 2012. The Council estimated the head-line WPI inflation rate to continue to be at 9 per centor higher in the months of July-October 2011.Thecountry's agriculture output was projected to grow at3 per cent in the current fiscal 2011-12 as against 6.6per cent in 2010-11. The 2011 monsoon was projectedto be in the range of 90 to 96 per cent of the LongPeriod Average (LPA). As a result, the farm sectoroutput expected to grow at 3 per cent.

Uniform Licence Fee ForTelecom Operators

Telecom Commission, the apex decision-making bodyof the Department of Telecom in a meeting held per-mitted imposition of a uniform licence fee of 8.5 percent on all telecom operators.Operators currently paybetween 6 per cent and 10 per cent of their annualrevenues as licence fee. Though the Telecom Regula-tory Authority of India had recommended bringingdown the licence fee to a uniform 6 per cent, a panelset up by the DoT pegged this at 8.5 per cent with anobjective to protect Government income. TheTelecom Commission overruled the TRAI suggestionsand ratified the views of the DoT committee withregard to pegging license fee at 8.5%.

India's Exports RoseBy 46.45 Per cent in 2011

According to the figures released by the CommerceMinistry on 1 August 2011 India's exports rose by46.45 per cent to $29.21 billion during June 2011.The increase in export was registered amid concernsthat the upward growth could be hit by the troubledeconomic situation in the U.S. and the European zonein the second-half. In May, exports had grown by 56.9per cent year-on-year to $25.9 billion.Owing to thespectacular rise of export in June 2011, exports grewby a hefty 45.7 per cent to $79 billion in the first quar-ter of the current fiscal 2011-12. Sectors includingpetroleum products, readymade garments, engineer-ing or pharmaceuticals posted robust expansion.





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Disclosure of Share Dealings is Mandatory

SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) board decided to make it mandatory for all promoter entitiesto disclose any considerable purchase or sale of shares by them. The decision was taken with an objective torein in insider trading by promoters without investors' knowledge.Currently, directors and top executives oflisted companies are required to make these disclosures. However following SEBI’s decision in this regard,all the promoters and persons who are part of the promoter group of a listed company would also be requiredto disclose their share dealings.The promoters would be required to make initial disclosures relating to theirshareholding at the time of becoming promoter or part of promoter group.

Food Inflation Feclined To 7.33 %

Food inflation declined to a 20 months low of 7.33 per cent for the week ended 16 July 2011. The fall in foodinflation by 0.25 percent in comparison to the week ended 9 July 2011. The dip in food inflation was a resultof cheaper pulses. For the week ended 9 July 2011 food inflation stood at 7.58 per cent.During the week ended16 July 2011, prices of pulses fell by 8 per cent year-on-year. However, prices of other items went up. Onionsbecame more expensive by 22.66 per cent and fruits became 13.90 per cent dearer on an annual basis. Potatoesbecame 10.55 per cent costlier, while milk was up 9.96 per cent. Vegetable prices were up 7.59 per cent year-on-year.

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INDIA & THE WORLDScience and TechnologyCoordination Between

India & USA

India and the United States on 18 July 2011 agreed tostep up Science and Technology coordination in NewDelhi. The areas where the coordination will be in-tensified include energy, agriculture, healthcare, nu-trition and monsoon forecasting. This was agreedupon during a meeting between Assistant to the USPresident for Science & Technology John P. Holdrenand Minister of State for Planning, Science & Tech-nology and Earth Sciences Ashwani Kumar. The meet-ing was held in the context of the ongoing Indo-USStrategic Dialogue.The Meeting stressed upon theneed to work towards making agriculture resilientand for further research on forecasting various haz-ards like cyclones.

Advisory For GermansComing to Kashmir

Germany on 25 July 2011 revised an advisory thathad cautioned against trips to Kashmir. Germany thusbecame the first European nation since 1995 to allowits citizens to visit Kashmir. Germany stated that thesituation in the Valley has calmed down consider-ably and that foreigners were not the direct target ofviolence. The decision was taken following a visitmade by German ambassador Thomas Matussek toKashmir. Kashmir used to be a favourite destinationfor western tourists especially Germans before theoutbreak of militancy in 1990.

India & Mongolia

India and Mongolia signed three agreements whichincludes defence cooperation, media exchanges andcooperation between their planning commissionsduring the visit of Indian President Prtibha Patil toMongolia. India also announced that it would extenda 20 million US dollars line of credit for setting upan India - Mongolia Joint Information Technology,

Education and Outsourcing Centre in Ulaanbaatar.Besides, India will also upgrade and modernize theRajiv Gandhi Art and Production School and the AtalBihari Vajpayee Centre of Excellence in Informationand Communication Technology.This is the first In-dian Presidential visit after a gap of 23 years; the lastwas by President R. Venkataraman.Mongolia is a landlocked central Asian country. It is also described asland of the blue skies. India still awaits the women’sreservation bill while Mongolia has 25 percent res-ervation for women in its Parliament.

India - Lithuania

The Government of India signed an Agreement andProtocol for Avoidance of Double Taxation and thePrevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxeson Income and on Capital (DTAA) with Governmentof Lithuania in New Delhi. Lithuania is the first Bal-tic country with which DTAA has been signed byIndia.The Agreement and the Protocol were signedby Prakash Chandra, Chairman, Central Board of Di-rect Taxes, on behalf of the Government of India andPetras Simeliunas, Ambassador, Republic of Lithuaniato India, on behalf of the Government ofLithuania. The Agreement further incorporates pro-visions for effective exchange of information betweentax authorities of the two countries in line with latestinternational standard, including exchange of bank-ing information and supplying of information with-out recourse to domestic interest. Further, the Agree-ment provides for sharing of information to otheragencies with the consent of supplying state.TheAgreement also has an article on assistance in collec-tion of taxes. This article also includes provision fortaking measures of conservancy. The Agreement in-corporates anti-abuse (limitation of benefits) provi-sions to ensure that the benefits of the Agreement areavailed of by the genuine residents of the twocountries. The Agreement will provide tax stabilityto the residents of India and Lithuania and will facili-tate mutual economic cooperation between the twocountries. It will also stimulate the flow of invest-ment, technology and services between India andLithuania.





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India - Japan

India- Japan CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Part-nership Agreement) enters into force . This is India’s3rd Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement(after Singapore and South Korea) and India’s firstwith a developed country. The Agreement is mostcomprehensive of all the agreements concluded byIndia so far as it covers more than 90% of trade, avast gamut of services, investment, IPR, customs andother trade-related issues. Under the India- JapanCEPA only 17.4% of the tariff-lines have been offeredfor immediate reduction of tariff to zero % by India.Tariffs will be brought to zero in 10 years on 66.32%of tariff lines to give sufficient time to industry toadjust to the trade liberalization.The Japanese side hasput 87% of its tariff lines under immediate reductionof tariff to zero. A large number of these items are ofIndia’s export interest e.g. seafood, agricultural prod-ucts such as mangoes, citrus fruits, spices, instant tea,most spirits such as rum, whiskies, vodka etc, textileproducts such as woven fabrics, yarns, synthetic yarn,readymade garments, petro chemical &chemicalsproducts, cement, jewellery, etc.The exclusion list ofJapan (where no tariff concessions are proposed)mainly consists of items such as rice, wheat, oil, milk,sugar, leather and leather products. The trade volumeof items in the Japanese exclusion list is only2.93%.India’s exclusion list contains 1538(13.62%)lines at the 8 digit level. Auto parts and agriculturaland other sensitive items have been kept out of theliberalization schedule.

Under India-Japan CEPA the Japanese governmentshall accord no less favourable treatment to the ap-plications of Indian companies than that it accords tothe like applications of its own persons for drug reg-istration. This will greatly help Indian pharmaceuti-cal companies. Under India-Japan CEPA, Indian pro-fessionals will be able to provide their services andcontribute towards further development of Japan’s ITSector. Japanese side has also agreed to conclude So-cial Security Agreement within a specified period (3years). Contractual Service Suppliers (CSS), Indepen-dent Professionals (IPs) such as Accounting, R& DServices, Tourist Guide, Market Research; and Man-agement Consulting firms now can provide servicesin Japan.

Under the India-Japan CEPA, India will be benefitedby Japanese investments, technology and world-classmanagement practices that come with it. Japan can

take advantage of India‘s huge and growing marketand resources, especially its human resources. TheAgreement which is comprehensive in nature willfurther strengthen India- Japan economic ties to thebenefit of both countries immensely. CEPA providesa win-win situation for both the countries. The IndiaJapan CEPA was signed on 16th Feb, 2011 in Tokyo.The current bilateral trade between India and Japanis a little over 12.6 billion US dollars and it is ex-pected that it will touch 25 billion US dollars by2014.

India & Pakistan

India’s foreign minister SM Krishna and his Pakistanicounterpart Hina Rabbani Khar agreed to simplifytravel procedures and increase the frequency of busservices for people of the divided Jammu and Kash-mir during the visit of latter to India. As per the agree-ment, the number of trading days will be incresedfrom two to four a week and travel for both tourismand religious purposes will be encouraged. Besides,the nations agreed to respect the list of 21 products ofpermissible items for cross-LoC trade. In addition,both sides agreed to further specify permissibleitems.India and Pakistan also agreed to convene sepa-rate meetings of the expert groups on nuclear and con-ventional confidence building measures in Islamabadin September 2011. Both nations decided to recon-vene the meeting of the joint commission that willidentify future areas of cooperation. The two nationsalso laid emphasis in setting time lines to ensure regu-lar meetings at the administration levels to sort outvisa and trading permit problems.In regard to the re-sumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan inFebruary 2011, the Foreign Ministers of India andPakistan expressed their satisfaction on the holdingof meetings, at appropriate levels, on the outstandingissues between the two countries.

India & European Union

India and the European Union finalised an interimsettlement to make sure that Made in India consign-ments of generic medicines will not be detained whiletransiting through Europe.India had moved the WTOafter consignments of generic medicines shipped toLatin America were seized by European customs au-thorities on charges of intellectual property rightsviolations. About 17 detentions took place betweenOctober-December 2008 at Amsterdam.As per thebilateral understanding between India and EU, EU





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would not only stop such detentions but also amendits regulation under which its member countries actedlike this. The settlement is interim as the EU parlia-ment is expected to take about 12-18 months to amendthe legislation.

India & South Korea

The President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil vis-ited South Korea as a part of her two-nation tour whichalso includes Mongolia. The state visit of the IndianPresident was aimed at accelerating India’s coopera-tion with South Korea.

During this visit, India and Korea signed thefollowing agreements: 1. Agreement between India and Korea for coopera-tion in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.2. MoU signed between the Ministry of External Af-fairs of India and the Ministry of Culture, sports andtourism of Korea on Media exchanges.3. Administrative Arrangement for Social Securityarrangeent.Besides these agreements, India and Korea discussedthe possibilities of cooperation in the peaceful usesof outer space. The two nations also discussed theexpansion of defence cooperation between our coun-tries In particular India and South Korea agreed toenhance cooperation and coordination in the East AsiaSummit Process as also on issues pertaining to theAsia Pacific. Both nations also examined ways ofworking together in other international fora.Themovement of people between the two countries hadincreased considerably and today apparently a 100,000Koreans are visiting India every year, and about50,000 Indians are visiting Korea every year. The Re-public of Korea (South Korea) is an important part-ner of India in North East Asia.

India - US Strategic DialogueThe Second annual meeting of the India-US strategicdialogue was held in New Delhi on 19 July 2011 tostrengthen the India-US global strategic partnership. The dialogue was held during the official visit of USSecretary of State Hillary Clinton to India. The twonations issued a joint statement at the end of the dia-logue.The main features of the statement are as fol-lowing:

» India, the United States, and Japan plan to com-mence a trilateral dialogue at senior official level.

» The two sides reaffirmed their commitment for con-sultation, coordination, and cooperation on Afghani-stan, and to work jointly in Afghanistan in capacitybuilding, agriculture, and women’s empowerment,expanding on work already underway. Both sidesagreed to Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, and inclusivereconciliation.

» The two sides intend to promote food security inAfrica through a triangular cooperation program withLiberia, Malawi, and Kenya.

» The United States looks forward to a reformed UNSecurity Council that includes India as a permanentmember.

» India-USA reiterated their commitment to furtherstrengthen counter-terrorism cooperation, includingthrough intelligence sharing, information exchange,operational cooperation, and access to advancedcounter-terrorism technology and equipment.

» India -USA reiterated that success in Afghanistanand regional and global security requires eliminationof safe havens and infrastructure for terrorism andviolent extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

» The two sides reiterated their commitment on com-prehensive sharing of information on the investiga-tions and trials relating to the November 2008Mumbai terror attack.

» The United States welcomed India’s decision tochair a plenary of the Contact Group on Piracy off theCoast of Somalia in 2012.

» The two governments signed a Bilateral AviationSafety Agreement (BASA) on July 18.

» The Women’s Empowerment Dialogue is plannedfor September 2011 in New Delhi.

» The United States created the Passport to India ini-tiative to encourage an increase in the number ofAmerican students studying and interning in India.

The Importance of Indo-USStrategic dialogue

The Strategic Dialogue provides an opportunity totake stock of the progress in bilateral relationship,bilateral cooperation, as well as to consult on globaland regional issues of interest, besides charting out ashort to medium-term roadmap of cooperation in pri-





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ority sectors for India-US. The strategic dialoguemechanism has come to be regarded as one of the veryeffective mechanisms to maintain the momentum ofdeepening and expanding global strategic partnershipbetween India and US. It was outlined by Prime Min-ister Manmohan Singh and US President Obama dur-ing Prime Minister’s state visit to Washington in No-vember, 2009.Note: The next meeting of the Indo-US Strategic Dia-logue is planned for Washington D.C. in 2012. Theinaugural Strategic Dialogue was held in June 2010.

China Agreed to IssueVisas to Karatekas

China agreed to issue visas to karatekas fromArunachal Pradesh, who will represent India in the11th Asian Karate-do Championship. The champion-ship is scheduled to be held at Quanghou City inFujjian province from 20 July 2011 to 25 July 2011.The five-member team includes three karatekas- TageSea (65kg junior boys), Rei Yadi( 53 kg junior girls)and Likha Lej(52 kg cadet boys).China had issuedstapled visas to Indian weightlifting Federation’s jointsecretary Abraham K Techi and a weightlifter fromArunachal Pradesh.China considers Arunachal Pradesha part of its territories and accuses India of illegallyoccupying it. Therefore, it denies visa to any personfrom Arunachal Pradesh.

India & Sri Lanka

India and Sri Lanka on 12 July 2011 signed an agree-ment in Colombo according to which India is to helpSri Lanka in upgrading its vocational training cen-tres in the Nuwara-Eliya district. The agreement wassigned by the Sri Lankan minister DallasAlahapperuma and the Indian High Commissioner

Ashok K Kanth.As per the agreement, India is to pro-vide equipment and facilities worth 200 million ru-pees to Sri Lanka. Moreover, India will also providemore than 2.6 million rupees to develop vocationaltraining centres in Jaffna, Vayuniya, Batticaloa andTrincomalee districts.

India and US Signed BilateralAviation Safety Agreement

The Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) be-tween India and the USA was signed by Nasim Zaidi,Secretary, Civil Aviation and J Randolph Babbitt,Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) in New Delhi.The signing took place in thepresence of Senior Officers from the Ministry, DGCA,AAI from the Indian side and FAA and USTDA fromthe US side.

BASA will facilitate reciprocal airworthiness certi-fication of civil aeronautical products imported/ex-ported between the two signatory authorities. Indianstandards would be comparable to global standardsand its aeronautical products would be accepted bythe U.S. The nascent aircraft manufacturing industryin India would be hugely benefitted and it would en-courage trade between the two nations. It would dem-onstrate that India has the capability to develop FAAcertifiable aircraft articles/appliances. It would boostthe civil aeronautical products industry which willeventually lead to self sufficiency in the sector. BASAwould encourage indigenous aircraft and aeronauti-cal products industry and the US acceptance of In-dian products will help their global acceptance. Itwould lessen the economic burden imposed on theaviation industry and operators by redundant techni-cal inspections, evaluations and testing.Prior tothis the USA has signed BASA with 24 countries.








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World’s FirstDouble Leg Transplant

Doctors in Spain performed on 15 July 2011 theworld’s first double-leg transplant, giving two newlegs to a man whose legs were severed in anaccident.The man lost both of his legs above the kneein an accident and the attempts to fit him with artifi-cial limbs were not successful.Pedro Cavadas of LaFe hospital in Valencia performed the operation. Heis the first doctor in the world to successfully trans-plant a jaw and a new tongue while doing a face trans-plant.

BARC Established LargestNuclear Desalination Plant

The Human Development Index (HDI) is directly de-pendent on two main parameters: Per Capita Elec-tricity Consumption and Female Literacy. Deliver-ing his keynote address on ‘Energy Technologies,Energy Securities and Climate Change’, Dr RChidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser to Gov-ernment of India and DAE-Homi Bhabha Professor,Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, said, “For India tobecome a ‘developed’ country, the per capita electric-ity consumption has to increase manifold. Nuclearhas to play an important role in this increase as Indialooks for a low-carbon path for its electricity pro-duction growth. India is aiming for an electricity ca-pacity of over a million MW by 2050. Expanded useof nuclear technologies offers immense potential tomeet important development needs. In fact, to satisfyenergy demands and to mitigate the threat of climatechange – two of the 21st century’s greatest challenges– there are major opportunities for expansion ofnuclear energy in those countries that choose to haveit.” Dr Chidambaram said that there should not beany fear related to nuclear energy. Lessons will belearnt from the recent Fukushima accident and morestringent security measures are being taken in thecountry and all over the world. Explaining three StageIndian Nuclear Programme, Dr Chidambaram said,“In the first stage, we have Pressurised Heavy Water

SCIENCE & TECHReactors (PHWR) which uses natural UO2 fuels andSEU/MOX fuels, the second stage there are FsatBreeder Reactors(FBRs) which use MOX/MC/ me-tallic fuel and the third stage uses thorium with TH-U233 closed cycle.

GSAT-12Reached Its Orbit

India's communication satellite GSAT-12, which wasput in orbit on 15 July 2011, reached its home in acircular geo-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 36,000km on 18 July 2011. The Polar Satellite Launch Ve-hicle (PSLV-C17) of the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO), which lifted off from the spacestation at Sriharikota on 15 July 2011, put the 1,410kg GSAT-12 in a sub geo-synchronous transfer orbit(sub-GTO) with an apogee of 21,020 km and a peri-gee of 284 km.GSAT-12 was launched to be useful intele-education, tele-medicine, disaster managementsupport, telephone services along with 12 extendedC-band transponders.

Challenges ofThe GSAT-12 operation

After GSAT-12 was put in a sub-GTO (sub geo-syn-chronous transfer orbit), the liquid apogee motor(LAM) on board was fired once each day from July16 to July 19 2011 to circularise the orbit at an alti-tude of 36,000 km. On July 16 and July 17, commandswere given from the Master Control Facility (MCF)at Hassan in Karnataka to the LAM to take thesatellite's apogee from 21,020 km to 36,000 km whenthe satellite was at its perigee. Similarly, the com-mands to the LAM to fire to take the perigee from284 km to 36,000 km were given on July 18 and July19 when the satellite was at its apogee.

What is Apogee and Perigee?Apogee and perigee refer to the distance from theEarth to the moon.

» Apogee is the furthest point from the earth.





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» Perigee is the closest point to the earth and it is inthis stage that the moon appears larger.

Source of the Water inSaturn's Upper Atmosphere

A team of Scientists led by Paul Hartogh of MaxPlanck Institute for Solar System Research recentlysolved a 14-year mystery by discovering the sourceof the water in Saturn’s upper atmosphere. The scien-tists discovered that giant jets of vapour from theplanet’s moon Enceladus is responsible for Saturn’swater. Enceladus is Saturn’s sixth largest moon and itis covered with ice and is providing water toSaturn. The water vapours appear as tiger-like stripesof gas and ice that escape at the southern pole of themoon and act as a main water-source vapour forSaturn's upper atmosphere. Enceladus consists of icygeysers that release water into space, forming a do-nut-shaped region. Due to the incremental amountof water entering Saturn's lower levels, clouds can-not be observed after it condenses.

World’s HighestEfficiency STCS

Recently world’s highest efficiency solar thermalcooling system was inaugurated at the Solar EnergyCentre in Gurgaon in Haryana. The new 100 kW So-lar Air-Conditioning System works at 30 % higherefficiency than the current available systems and hasseveral unique features. It is based on the new tripleeffect absorption cooling technology. The system hasindigenously built medium temperature high effi-ciency parabolic troughs for collection of solar en-ergy and effective solar thermal energy storage in theform of Phase Change Materials.The present systemwill cater to air-conditioning needs of 13 rooms ofSolar Energy Centre. To achieve this, 288 sq meter ofSolar Collector area has been installed which gener-ates nearly 60 kW of 210 o C Pressurized hot water.This heat is used in Vapour Absorption Machine togenerate 7 o C Chilled water which in turn circulatesthrough the Fan coil unit installed in the thirteenrooms. The major attraction of this system is that thehottest days have the greatest need for cooling andsimultaneously, offer the maximum possible solarenergy gain.The system has been developed in jointcollaboration by Solar energy Centre with M/sThermax Limited, Pune and is expected to meet the

growing demand for air-conditioning in India inhighly efficient and cost effective way through use ofdirect solar energy.

Solar Energy as a Solution

Therefore, while looking for making life more com-fortable for ourselves we must not ignore these im-pacts and must also look for solutions to overcomethe same. India being in the sunny regions of the worldwith most parts of the country receiving 4-7wh (kilo-watt-hour) of solar radiation per square meter per day250-300 sunny days in a year, Solar Energy indeedcan be a solution! But is it possible to turn the hot suninto an air-conditioning system?

EndoBarrier to Cure Diabetes

British scientists developed an implanted sleeve whichcan cure diabetes. The implanted sleeve looks like agiant sausage skin. It’s two feet long device whichcan reverse diabetes. The sleeve is made from a thinplastic.The new device is called the EndoBarrier. Itis designed to have the same effects as the surgery butfar safer. It is a plastic sleeve that lines the duode-num, meaning food can only be absorbed lower downthe intestine. The sleeve is inserted through the mouthand passed into the digestive tract using a thin tube.The implant also decreases cholesterol levels andblood pressure.

A Software to PreventStampedes

Scientists have developed a new software which canaccurately detect when crowds are starting to buildup to dangerous levels – a feat they say could helpprevent stampede deaths that often occur during fes-tivals and mass celebrations.German researchers whodeveloped the new software said that it will give se-curity staff the chance to disperse crowds to safety bypre-empting the problem.Lead researcher BarbaraKrausz, from the Fraunhofer Institute for IntelligentAnalysis and Information Systems in Sankt Augustin,Germany, said when people become trapped in ahighly congested area, they sway slowly from side toside in an effort to keep their balance.





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Evidence of Water onThe Planet Mars

NASA scientists announced on 5 August 2011 thatthey had found the first evidence of flowing water onMars. NASA confirmed that the evidence gatheredby the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter would be the firstdiscovery of active liquid water in the ground on thered planet.The US space agency said the orbiter cir-cling Mars since 2006 had monitored numerous in-stances of what appeared to be water flows occurringin several locations during the Martian spring andsummer.Time-sequence imagery of the Newton cra-ter in the southern mid-latitude region showed fin-ger-like markings spreading along several steep slopesand then fading again once colder temperatures movein.

Oxygen Molecules in OrionConstellation of Stars

For the first time, molecular variety of Oxygen hasbeen discovered in space in Orion constellation ofstars which forms clouds.While atomic oxygen hasbeen long known in warm regions of space, previousmissions looking for the molecular variety — twoatoms of oxygen bonding together — came up largelyempty-handed.NASA‘s Submillimetre Wave As-tronomy Satellite and Sweden‘s Odin mission haveboth searched for molecular oxygen and establishedthat its presence is much lower than expected.

Chemical UDCA

Sceintists found a chemical named UDCA that couldprevent abnormal heart rhythm or arrhythmia, bothin people who've had a heart attack , and in foetuses.It changes the electrical properties of myofibroblastcells, which are existing in the foetal heart and in pa-tients who suffered heart attack.UDCA could help theheart muscle conduct electrical signals more nor-mally.

Asteriod 2010TK7Discovered

Astronomers using WISE telescope found the aster-oid, named 2010TK7 which is the first known Trojanasteroid in Earth’s orbit. Trojan asteroids were pre-

dicted but never discovered until now. A Trojan as-teroid shares an orbit with a larger planet or moon,but does not collide with the planet because it orbitsaround one of two Lagrangian points.The asteroid is300 meters in diameter. It has an unusual orbit thattraces a complex motion near the L4 point. The ob-ject is about 80 million kilometers from Earth. Theasteroid’s orbit is well-defined and for at least thenext 100 years, it will not come closer to Earth than24 million kilometers.

Egg Sized Robots

Egg sized Robots developed by the scientists, can di-rectly monitor nuclear reactors and pinpoint corro-sion. These robots are underwater patrollers with cam-eras which can withstand a reactor’s extreme radio-active environment, transmitting images in real timefrom within. At present, ultrasound is used by the plantinspectors to screen lengths of pipe for cracks.Eggsized Robots were developed by Harry Asada and histeam. Harry Asada is a professor of mechanical engi-neering at Massachussetts Institute of Technology(MIT).

Science Cities BeingEstablished

National Council of Science Museums, an autonomousorganization under Ministry of Culture is responsiblefor establishment of Science Centres (including Sci-ence Cities) based on proposals received from theconcerned State Governments, subject to fulfillmentof norms.In the approved norms an estimated expen-diture of Rs.50 crores is incurred for establishmentof a Science City.Other salient features of the approved normsare as under:-i) The location of the Science City should be either aState Capital or an important city of the State havinga sizeable population of not less than 50 lakh inclu-sive its vicinity;

ii) While deciding location for a Science City, theprimary concern shall be to ensure that it can draw atleast 10 lakh visitors per year;

iii) The new Science Cities are set up preferably onlyin those places where no major Science Centre exists.





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Genetic Change that CausesMale Infertility

Scientists found a genetic change which makes menless fertile. The genetic change was found in a genecalled DEFB126. This gene codes for a protein thatclings to sperm, helping them swim through awoman’s body to fertilize the egg. Sperm lacking inthe substance find it harder to swim to theegg.However, according to the scientists a man withthe altered gene can also get his partner pregnant buttaking a longer time.

Prahar SuccessfullyTest-Fired

Short-range surface-to-surface missile developed byDefence Research and Development Organisation,Prahar was successfully test-fired on 21 July 2011from the Integrated Test Range in Balasore. Praharwhich is a single stage missile with a range of 150km and fuelled by solid propellants took off from aroad mobile launcher in Launch Complex 3 of ITR inChandipur.Several Prahar missile like multiple-rocket system Pinaka missile can be fired in one salvo.Prahar with greater accuracy will fill the gap betweenPinaka, the multi-barrel rocket system, which has arange of 45 km and the Prithvi missile that can attacktargets 250 km to 350 km away.Prahar can image,take out multiple targets and can be moved to anyplace. It can also carry conventional warheads. Praharwill be used as a road-mobile weapon similar to theBrahMos supersonic multi-role cruise missile witheach motorised transporter-erector-launcher (TEL)carrying six cannisterised, vertically-launched mis-siles armed with conventional warheads.

A separate wheeled vehicle is being developed to actas a missile resupply station, carrying six cannisteredmissile rounds.Unlike Prithvi, Prahaar boasts of athree-element flight-control system, with the thirdand final stage comprising only the manoeuvring war-head section. Prahaar is expected to replace all exist-ing Prithvi SS-150 missiles that are now deployed bythe three Missile Groups attached to the Indian Army’stwo Field Artillery Divisions.Prahar will be ex-tremely useful in emergency situations as it is multi-directional and auto loading in nature. Its launch timeis estimated to be two to three minutes and no prepa-ration is required.

Prahar which was first unveilled in 2010 in scale-model form at the Larsen & Toubro stall duringDEFEXPO 2010, would fill the gap for a battlefieldweapon system in the country's missile arsenal andwould replace the unguided Pinaka and Smerch rock-ets (90 km range).

Lophiomys ImhausiMakes Its Own Poison

A species of rat makes its own poison by gnawing ona toxic tree and then slathering poisonous spit ontospecial absorbent hairs on its flanks, a team of Ox-ford University and East African scientists havediscovered.The Crested Rat, Lophiomys imhausi, isthe first mammal ever found to acquire lethal toxinfrom a plant. It acquires the poison, ouabain, fromthe bark of ‘Poison-arrow trees’, Acokanthera, so-called because human hunters extract ouabain fromthem to coat arrows that can kill an elephant.A re-port of the research appears this week in Proceedingsof the Royal Society B.

Atlantis Reached KennedySpace Centre

With the Atlantis touching down at the Kennedy SpaceCentre on Thursday, NASA’s 30-year-old space shuttleprogramme drew to a close. The shuttle fleet has beenretired on account of the American government’s bud-get cuts, though it has announced a programme ofmanned missions farther off in outer space, includingto Mars’s orbit. For destinations in closer proximityto the Earth — for instance, the International SpaceMission — they foresee the availability of commer-cial craft to ferry astronauts. And till such servicesare on offer, Americans will rely on berths in Russia’sSoviet-era craft.

Antarctica Lake

Deep beneath the Antarctica ice sheets are at least145 lakes that are teeming with microscopicorganisms. The ice sheets are up to 4km thick. They are considered one of the greatest unexploredfrontiers on Earth. Scientists are engaged in a longterm programme to understand what type of life maysurvive in the lake water, sediments below and iceabove. Current efforts are focused on the ice above,which includes lake water frozen to the ice sheet bot-





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tom, known as accreted ice.Antarctic continent alongwith its surrounding ocean influences the climate notjust in thehigh latitudes but across the entire planet.The Polar regions are the first to be affected bychanges in climate, both in terms of rapidity and in-tensity.Among the various proxies that archive the informa-tion on palaeoclimate, the Antarctic lake sedimentsplay a pivotal role in palaeoclimate investigations.

To help Test DrugsHuman Like Liver to Be

Transplanted in Mice

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy, USA developed an artificial liver that could betransplanted into mice and allow them to metabolizedrugs as if they are humans beings. It could resultinto more accurate and efficient drug testing.To cre-ate this artificial liver, researchers cultured humanliver cells, called hepatocytes, in a controlled envi-ronment with other factors, such as mouse skincells.Afterwards scientists implanted the liver underthe skin or inside the body cavity of mice and recre-ated many of the functions of a human liver.

Blood Test to Diagnose TB CanBe Dangerous

A 12-month analysis reveals that currently availablecommercial blood tests for diagnosing active TB of-ten lead to misdiagnosis, mistreatment and potentialharm to public health. WHO is urging countries toban these tests and instead rely on accurate micro-biological or molecular tests.The use of currentlyavailable commercial blood (serological) tests to di-agnose active tuberculosis (TB) often leads to misdi-agnosis, mistreatment and potential harm to publichealth, says WHO in a policy recommendation is-sued today. WHO is urging countries to ban the in-accurate and unapproved blood tests and instead relyon accurate microbiological or molecular tests, as rec-ommended by WHO.

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SPORTS

Football

Women's Football World Cup: Japan lifted thewomen's football World Cup by defeating USA in adramatic final in Frankfurt, Germany. The victorydelivered a boost to the morale of a country which isstill coping with the earthquake and tsunamiaftermath.Goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori made two savesand the final was settled by a penalty shoot-out be-fore defender Saki Kumagai converted the spot-kickto give Japan its first World Cup title. Under captainHomare Sawa, Japan won the hearts of fans with im-pressive displays.The dramatic penalty shoot-out vic-tory over the United States helped Japan beat the USAfor the first time at the 26th attempt.

UEFA European Under-19 Championship: Spainwon the tenth edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship title in Romania beating the CzechRepublic 3-2. Spain become the first country to holdboth u-19 and u-21 title in the same year. Spain whichis European and World champion at senior level de-feated Switzerland 2-0 in the under-21 final on 25June 2011.Paco Alcácer score twice in the final 12minutes and played a significant role in helping Spainattain the title.Spain was Champion in European Un-der-19 Championship in the years 2002, 2004, 2006and 2007. The victory achieved on 1 August markedthe fourth for their coach, the irrepressible GinésMeléndez.

Copa America Cup: Uruguay won the CopaAmérica for a record 15th time on by defeating Para-guay, 3-0, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With the vic-tory Uruguay became the competition's most success-ful team. Óscar Tabárez coached Uruguay. Luis Suarezscored goal for Uruguay in the 12th minute. Forlánscored in the 42nd and the final minute of the matchfor Uruguay to win the tilte.Paraguayans have beenaiming to win their first Copa America since 1979.Paraguay had recorded draws against Ecuador, Bra-zil and Venezuela in the group stages before beatingBrazil and Venezuela after penalties in the knock-outrounds.

Most valued team in the world is Manchester United

The Manchester United has been named as the world’smost valued team. The Red Devils have been esti-mated for a total amount of 1.165 billion pounds over-shadowing American Franchises like the New YorkYankees and the Dallas Cowboys. The assessment hasbeen made based keeping in mind the total incomethey get and the various sponsorship deals they makethroughout the year. This has come as the good newsfor the Glazer family who bought the Club for 790million pounds in the year 2005, how they are still indebt but this does not deter them from being happyfor making their club the most valued in the world.

Cricket

ICC’s Peoples’ Dream XI: The InternationalCricket Council (ICC) released the list of AlltimeGreatest Test team. The ICC’s list includes four In-dian cricketers namely- batting maestro SachinTendulkar, 1983 World Cup-winning captain KapilDev, Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag. SunilGavaskar and Virender Sehwag were included foropening slot while Indian batting maestro, SachinTendulkar found the place in middle order.Four Aus-tralians, two West Indians and one Pakistani also madeit to Peoples' Dream XI as more than a quarter ofmillion people voted on ICC's official website.Tendulkar occupied the No. 4 batting spot, one slotdown Australian legend Don Bradman and one aboveWest Indian Brian Lara, who was chosen at No. 5.Kapil was chosen as the lone all-rounder beating thelikes of Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee, Jacques Kallis,Imran Khan, Gary Sobers and Frank Worrell.

Australian Adam Gilchrist won the poll for thewicket-keeping slot while spinner Shane Warne gotthe nod of online voters ahead of the likes of India'sBishan Bedi and Anil Kumble and Sri Lankan MuttiahMuralitharan. Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose andGlenn McGrath were named in the three fast bowlers'slots.Sir Don Bradman, Adam Gilchrist, ShaneWarne, Glenn McGrath, Brian Lara, Curtly Ambroseand Wasim Akram are the other players in the list.





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Swimming

2011 World SwimmingChampionship

200m Butterfly: America’s Michael Phelps wongold in the 200m butterfly event in the World Swim-ming Championship in Shanghai.The victory helpedolympic champion, Michael Phelps break his goldmedal drought in Shanghai.With the victory he wonhis third straight world title in his favourite 200mbutterfly event.The world record-holder stormedahead and fought off challenge by Japan's TakeshiMatsuda, clocking a winning time of 1min53.34sec.Matsuda timed 1:54.01 came second.

Men’s 10m Synchronised Diving: China’s HuoLiang clinched his third successive world title in themen’s 10m synchronised diving. Combining with newpartner Qiu Bo, he gave China it’s second gold medalof the world swimming championships. Huo and Qiuwon the title with 480.03 points. Huo, the first manto win three world titles in the synchronised plat-form event, had won his previous two championshipswith Lin Yue.Germany's Patrick Hausding and SaschaKlein finished second on 443.01.

Solo Free: Russia’s Natalia Ishchenko won her thirdgold at the Shanghai world championships with vic-tory in the solo free. Ishchenko had already won thesolo technical and then the duet technical withSvetlana Romashina in the main pool of the OrientalSports Centre. She won 13th world championshipsgold in total when she scored 98.550 points.Spain’sAndrea Fuentes, who had secured three bronze med-als in the Shanghai world competition so far, wonsilver on 96.520, while China’s Sun Wenyan clinchedbronze on 95.840 points in the solo freecategory.Greek swimmer Spyros Gianniotis de-throned German title-holder Thomas Lurz to win the10km crown. Gianniotis, who has repeatedly lost outto Lurz finally topped the podium after touching in1hr 54min 24.7sec in baking conditions at Jinshan CityBeach.

50m & 100m Butterfly: Brazil's Cesar Cielo andAmerican Dana Vollmer won gold medals in butter-fly events at the 2011 World Swimming Champion-ships in Shanghai.Cielo claimed the men's 50-meterbutterfly in a time of 23.10 seconds moving past Aus-tralians Matthew Targett and Geoff Huegill. The vic-

tory came only a few days after Cielo was cleared ofdoping charges by the Court of Arbitration forSport.Dana Vollmer on the other hand captured thewomen's 100-meter butterfly, edging Alicia Couttsof Australia by just 7/100ths of a second.Alicia Couttsfinished second in the women's 200-meter individualmedley, behind China's Ye Shiwen, who went fromfifth to first on the final leg and touched the wall in atime of two minutes, 8.90 seconds. Coutts was 1/10thof a second behind, while 2009 world champ ArianaKukors of the United States placed third after leadingon the final leg. Beijing Olympics gold medal win-ner Stephanie Rice of Australia was fourth.Norway'sAlexander Dale Oen won the men's 100-meter breast-stroke. He finished in a time of 58.71 Italy's FabioScozzoli stood second.

200m Individual Medley: America's Ryan Lochtebroke a 19-month record drought when he won athrilling 200m individual medley at the FINA Worldchampionships in Shanghai.Lochte out-duelled Olym-pic champion Phelps of America to win the medleyin 1min 54.00sec surpassing his 2009 World record.Phelps stood second and Hungary's Laszlo Cseh rankedthird.In a high-tempo evening at Oriental Sports Cen-tre, Australian hotshot James Magnussen delivered afifth-to-first victory in the 100m freestyle.JiaoLiuyang claimed China's fourth swimming gold inthe women's 200m butterfly.

Hockey

Single Administrative Body to control Hockeyin India: A deal was struck in a meeting betweenIndian Hockey Federation (IHF) president RK Shettyand Hockey India (HI) secretary Narinder Batra, ac-cording to which hockey will be managed by a singleadministrative body in India.The deal struck is ex-pected to This will help thwart an increasingly ag-gressive sports ministry from taking a decision onthe sport’s future into its hands as well as streamlin-ing the preparations for 2012 Olympics.As per thenew agreement signed, a Joint Executive Board (JEB)is to be put in place which will be responsible forIndia’s representation in all international and nationalevents. The JEB will have 39 members (20 from HIand 19 from IHF) while a joint Working Committeeof eight members (4 each) will be formed simulta-neously, and include joint sub-committees, to lookafter other areas. Both HI and IHF will continue toexist simultaneously in the country. However the jointworking committee will govern hockey like select-





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ing, training and fielding teams in international eventsand conduct national tournaments, including the na-tional championships.

Athletics

Folksam Grand Prix Meet : Tintu Luka coachedby P. T. Usha opened her European tour with a vic-tory in the Folksam Grand Prix meet at Karlstad,Sweden. The Indian record holder, Tintu Luka clocked2:02.58, a shade under her season best (2:02.55 atKobe) in the 800 metres event. Luka remained be-hind Lithuanian Egle Balciunate (personal best1:59.47) for most of the race before moving aheadduring the final 200 metres. Luka won 5000 SwedishKroner (Rs 34,000) for her win.

Baluciante came second in 2:02.72 while MelissaBishop of Canada was third in 2:02.80. The other In-dian runner in the fray in the Karlstad meet, GhamandaRam, came fifth in the men's 800m race in a time of1:47.25s. Briton Mukhtar Mohammed (1:45.90) tookthe gold and was followed by Sudan's Ahmad Ismail,the Beijing Olympics silver medallist, in 1:46.09 andDenmark's Andreas Bube, at 1:46.49.

Asian Athletics Championship: India finishes 8thwith a total of 11 medals in 19th Asian AthleticsChampionships 2011held in Kobe, Japan

Motor Racing

Hungarian Grand Prix: McLaren's Jenson Buttonwon the Hungarian Grand Prix. His victory markedthe celebration of his 200th Formula One start. Thevictory at Hungarian Grand Prix marked his secondvictory of 2011. He had won his first Grand Prix in2006 in Hungary. He has 11 Grand Prix races in acareer that started with team Williams in 2000.RedBull's Sebastian Vettel was second despite and in-creased his championship lead over teammate MarkWebber to 85 points. Vettel moved closer to defend-ing his title with eight races left after the mid-seasonbreak. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was third.LewisHamilton (McLaren) stood fourth while Red Bull’sMark Webber finished at number five.

British Grand Prix: Fernando Alonso won the Brit-ish Grand Prix thereby delivering Ferrari's long-awaited first win of 2011.The 29-year-old Spaniardhad in the past won the British race for Renault in2006 and woth his victory in the British Grand Prix

he secured Ferrari's first win since 2010 Korean GrandPrix. The victory marked Alonso’s 27th career vic-tory and it drew him closer to three-time winner ofthe British Grand Prix, Jackie Stewart’s record.Vettelfinished second ahead of his Red Bull teammate andpole setter Mark Webber, with McLaren's homefavourite Lewis Hamilton finished fourth.Vettel, whocrossed the line over 16 seconds behind Alonso, re-tained his lead in the drivers' championship on 204points from Webber on 124 with Alonso moving upinto third on 112.

Tennis

Canadian U-18 ITF Junior World RankingChampionship: Fourth-seed Ambika Pande becamethe first Indian tennis player ever to win the Cana-dian U-18 ITF Junior World Ranking Championship.She defeated Canada’s third seed Gloria Liang 6-4 4-6 7-6(5) in the final to win the ITF juniors U-18 eventin Vancouver.Ambika, who entered the tournamentas a lucky loser, then pulled off five straight wins.Fourth seeded Indian had defeated eighth seed TracyDong of Canada 7-6 6-4 in the semifinals. This is thefirst-ever win by an Indian junior player at this pres-tigious tournament.Ambika trains at DLTA in NewDelhi and is coached by former Indian Davis Cupplayer Vishaal Uppal. Ambika is an active player onthe Indian junior circuit and has won junior nationalseries and championship series titles.

Archery

Archery World Championship: The Indian trioof Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi andChekrovolu Swuro settled for a silver medal in theArchery World Championship at Turin after losingthe recurve event final to their Italian opponents. TheIndians lost out 207-210 even though they had a one-point lead at half-way stage.The Indians succumbedto the pressure and even the presence of Deepika, thereigning world cadet individual champion, did notinspire the Indians as they shot a very poor third endfor a score of 50 points out of 60. The Italians turnedthe table on their rivals with a fine round of 55 thateventually gave them four-point cushion that stoodthe team well.

Italy won silver at Beijing 2001 and won the worldtitle in 1999 in Riom, France. They had met the Indi-ans seven times before with 4-3 record on the head tohead clash. Italians had defeated India at the Porec





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2010 and Shanghai 2009 World Cup. The only positive the Indians carried into the final was their semifinalvictory over World champions Korea.This was the best finish by the women in the history of the Champion-ships. Their previous best was a fourth place at Madrid in 2005, where they had lost to Russia in the bronzemedal play-off.The silver is the only medal India won in the championship as the men failed to get past thefirst elimination round and none of the six archers made it to the quarterfinals in the individual events.

Ronjan Sodhi ranked No.1: Double-trap shooter and Asian Games gold medalist Sodhi ranked No.1 in theworld by the International Shooting Sport Federation(ISSF).Sodhi won gold in the World Cup Finals inTurkey in 2010.He recently won the silver medal in the Beijing World Cup to reserve a seat in the Olympics.

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AWARDS & PRIZESSangeet Natak Akademi

Awards 2010

The Akademi Fellowship (Akademi Ratna Sadasyata)and Akademi Award (Akademi Puraskar) are the mostcoveted national honours conferred on performingartists, gurus and scholars of the performing arts.These honours are decided by the Akademi's GeneralCouncil, the apex body consisting of eminent artists,scholars and nominees of the Government of Indiaand of different States and Union Territories of India.The Sangeet Natak Akademi is the country’s apexcultural body for music, dance, theatre and the arts.Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships and AkademiAwards for 2010 were presented by Vice-Presidentof India, M. Hamid Ansari. Four eminent personali-ties were conferred the Akademi's Fellowships, whilethirty-six artists and two scholars received theAkademi Awards for 2010.The highest honour ofAkademi Fellowship (Akademi Ratna Sadasyata) wasconferred on eminent vocalist Girija Devi, renowneddance guru Nataraja Ramakrishna, Dhrupad maestroRahim Fahimuddin Dagar, and Mridangam vidwanT. K. Murthy. The winners of the Akademy Fellow-ship received purse money of Rupees three lakh, be-sides an angavastram and a tamrapatra. The Fellow-ship of the Akademi is a rare honour, which is be-stowed on a very limited number of artists and schol-ars at a given time.

In the field of music, nine artists received the award.The awardees are as follows:-Chhanu Lal Mishra andYashpaul for Hindustani Vocal Music, BudhadityaMukherjee (Sitar) and Nityanand Haldipur (Flute) forHindustani Instrumental Music, SugunaPurushothaman and Mysore Nagamani Srinath forCarnatic Vocal music, Nagai R Muralidharan (Vio-lin) and Srimushnam V. Rajarao (Mridangam) forCarnatic Instrumental Music, and M. V. SimhachalaSastry (Harikatha) for Other Major Traditions ofMusic.

In the field of dance, nine practitioners received theaward. The winners are:-Malabika Mitra (Kathak),Kalamandalam Kombil Gopala Vasudevan Nair

(Kathakali), Phanjoubam Iboton Singh (Manipuri),Rathna Kumar (Kuchipudi), Aruna Mohanty (Odissi),Manik Borbayan (Sattriya), Uttara Asha Coorlawala(Creative & Experimental), Kalamandalam RamanChakyar (Other Major Traditions of Dance & DanceTheatre - Kutiyattam), and S Rajeswari (Music forDance – Bharatanatyam)

In the field of theatre also, eight persons werehonoured. They winners include playwrights D VizaiBhaskar (Telugu) and Atamjit Singh (Punjabi), direc-tors Veenapani Chawla and Urmil Kumar Thapaliyal,and actors Dilip Phabhavalkar, Banwari Taneja, MayaKrishna Rao and Swatilekha Sengupta. HarbhajanSingh Namdhari, Nazeer Ahmad Khan Warsi &Naseer Ahmad Khan Warsi, Dwijen Mukherjee,T.Somasundaram, Krishna Kumari, Chandatai JagdishTiwadi (Bharud folk theatre of Maharashtra), K.Chinna Anjanamma were some of the artists to re-ceive the award for their contribution to other Tradi-tional/Folk/ Tribal Music/ Dance/ Theatreforms.Ashok D. Ranade was honoured with the Awardfor his scholarship in music and Jaidev Taneja for hisoverall contribution to theatre.

Note:-The eminent representatives of music, danceand theatre honoured with the Sangeet Natak AkademiAward for 2010 received purse money of Rupees onelakh, an angavastram and tamrapatra.

National Award ofMinistry of Earth Sciences

The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) con-ferred its national awards for outstanding lifetimecontributions on the foundation of MoES which is on27 July. The award was conferred upon the formerDirector of the Hyderabad-based National RemoteSensing Agency, B. L. Deekshatulu, and the formerDirector of the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropi-cal Meteorology, R. N. Keshavamurthy.Dr.Deekshatulu won the award for his work in oceanscience and technology while Dr. Keshavamurthyreceived it for his contributions in atmospheric sci-ence and technology. The awards conferred by Union





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Minister for Earth Sciences Vilasrao Deshmukh carrya cash prize of Rs.1 lakh each and a citation.

Ramon MagsaysayAward for 2011

Two Indians -Nileema Mishra, a lender to the poorin Maharashtra and US-trained Indian engineer HarishHande who revolutionized the use of solar lights wereamong six people to have received the RamonMagsaysay Award for 2011.The two Indians werehonoured for their effort to harness technologies toempower their countrymen and create waves of pro-gressive change across Asia.Bangalore-based energyengineer and entrepreneur, Harish Hande runs a so-lar electricity firm that has lit up over 125000 house-holds to emerge as India's leading solar technologyfirm.He is a graduate from IIT Kharagpur and a PhDfrom the University of Massachusetts in the US. Dur-ing his graduation, he visited the Dominican Repub-lic, a leader in energy initiatives in the Caribbean.The experience he gathered there and in Sri Lankainspired him to put up smallscale, standalone solarinstallations. He established the company SELCO In-dia in Bangalore in 1995. His company provides af-fordable renewable energy services to poor villagersalong with doorstep financing and services.

Nileema Mishra was recognized for her purpose-driven zeal to work tirelessly with villagers inMaharashtra. She stove to address both aspirationsand adversities of the villagers through collectiveaction and heightened confidence. She founded theBhagini Nivedita Gramin Vigyan Niketan inMaharashtra's Bahadarpur village which has a popu-lation of around 10000. Mishra's gramin vigyanniketan provides rotating interest- free loans to farm-ers.

Other Winners: Filipino charity group AlternativeIndigenous Development Foundation, HasanainJuaini, who set up an Islamic school for girls in Indo-nesia, fellow Indonesian Tri Mumpuni who promotedmicro hydropower technology and Koul Panah whotoils to restore democracy in Cambodia were the otherwinners of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2011.

Man Booker Prize 2011

The longlist for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fic-tion - the Man Booker Dozen was announced. The

list includes 13 books. Four first time novelists andthree Canadian writers were shortlisted. The list alsoincludes three new publishers to the prize - Oneworld,Sandstone Press and Seren Books. One former ManBooker Prize winner, two previously shortlisted writ-ers and one long listed author was also named in thelist.The titles were chosen by a panel of five judgeschaired by author and former Director-General ofMI5, Dame Stella Rimington. A total of 138 books,seven of which were called in by the judges, wereconsidered for the Man Booker Dozen longlist.Thefour first time novelists on the list are Stephen Kelmanfor Pigeon Engli , AD Miller, Yvvette Edwards for ACupboard Full of Coats and Patrick McGuinness forThe Last Hundred Days.Canadian author Alison Pick,like McGuinness, is a published poet and is joined byfellow Canadians, Patrick deWitt and Esi Edugyan,on the longlist.

The list includes one former winner, AlanHollinghurst, who won the prize in 2004 for The Lineof Beauty. He was also shortlisted in 1994 for TheFolding Star. Two previously shortlisted authors alsomake the list- Irish writer Sebastian Barry (The Se-cret Scripture, 2008 and A Long Long Way, 2005)and Julian Barnes (Arthur and George, 2005, England,England, 1998 and Flaubert's Parrot, 1984). CarolBirch was longlisted in 2003 for Turn Again Home.The winner will receive £ 50,000 and each of the sixshortlisted authors, including the winner, will receive£ 2,500 and a designer bound edition of their book.

SwadhinataSammanona Award

Former Indian Prime MinisterIndira Gandhiwashonoured posthumously with the highest Bangladeshaward the Bangladesh Swadhinata Sammanona(Bangladesh Freedom Honour ). The award was meantto honour Indira Gandhi’s for her outstanding contri-butions to Bangladesh's Liberation War fought in1971. During the tumultuous days of 1971, the greatIndian leader Indira Gandhi had taken a firm, prin-cipled stand to side with the oppressed people of thenEast Pakistan. Under Indira Gandhi’s leadership In-dia sheltered 10 million Bangladeshi war refugees,lobbied for Bangladesh internationally, secured therelease of Sheikh Mujib from a Pakistani jail as wellas risked a war to hasten Bangladesh’s freedom.Theaward included a 200 tola gold medal and acitation.Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman pre-sented the award, the highest honour for any foreign





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national after 40 years of Bangladesh's independencefrom Pakistan.

The award was received by her daughter-in-law SoniaGandhi who visited Bangladesh at the invitation ofSheikh Hasina. The award recognised Indira Gandhi’sdirect support, cooperation, her strong role and uniquecontribution to Bangladesh’s independence.Bangladesh set up the honours to decorate 47 foreign-ers who helped the country during its struggle forindependence and mark the 40th anniversary of itsachievement.

Dhyan ChandAward Shabbir Ali

Former India strikerShabbir Ali, who took up full-time coaching after retirement on 26 June 2011 be-came the first footballer to win the prestigious DhyanChand award as recognition for his lifetime achieve-ment in sports. Shabbir recently helped Bengal suc-cessfully defend the Santosh Trophy in Guwahati.TheDhyan Chand Award is India’s highest award for life-time achievement in sports and was instituted in 2002.The award carries a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, a statu-ette, a ceremonial dress and a scroll of honour.Bengal’s Aparna Ghosh (basketball) was the first re-cipient of this award along with Ashok Diwan(hockey) and Shahuraj Birajdar (boxing).The All In-dia Football Federation (AIFF) could not nominateShabbir for the Dronacharya award as the guidelinesstipulate that aspirants should have coached the na-tional team.Syed Nayeemuddin remains the only foot-ball coach to recieve Dronacharya honour (1990).

Arjuna Awards for 2010

The Dinesh Khanna-led Arjuna award panel had rec-ommended increasing the number of Arjuna awardsto 19 instead of the normal 15.The selection of crick-eter Zaheer Khan and Ashish Kumar, who bagged thefirst medals for the country in gymnastics in the Com-monwealth Games and Asian Games, came as nosurprise.Swimmer Virdhawal Khade, who won theelusive Asian Games medal in Guangzhou, the firstfor the country after Khajan Singh's effort in 1986 inSeoul, was also chosen for the award.SwimmerPrasanta Karmakar who had the distinction of win-ning the Commonwealth Games and Asian Gamesmedals, was selected for the award in the paralympiccategory. The captains of the men's and women's

kabaddi teams, Rakesh Kumar and Tejaswini Bai,were chosen for the award.Tejaswini Sawant, whowon the world championship gold in shooting, alsomade the list. Archer Rahul Banerjee, a gold medal-list in World Cups and individual champion in theCommonwealth Games, was chosen for the honouras well.Asian champion and gold medallist in theCommonwealth Games, boxer Suranjoy Singh, Greco-Roman wrestler Ravinder Singh, winner of the goldmedal in the Commonwealth Games, and weightlifterK. Ravi Kumar, providing a silver lining to thetroubled sport got for the award.Hockey captainRajpal Singh, badminton ace Jwala Gutta, volleyballplayer Sanjay Kumar, footballer Sunil Chetri, whoalmost got it last year, and wushu silver medallist inthe Asian Games, Sandhya Rani Devi, were the oth-ers to be chosen for the Arjuna award.

Dronacharya Award

Five coaches were chosen for the Dronacharya award.The awardees are as follows: Ram Phal (wrestling),Devendra Kumar Rathore (gymnastics), I.Venkateswara Rao (boxing), Rajender Singh (hockey)and Kunthal Kumar Roy (athletics).Yashvir Singh,long-time coach of world champion and Olympicbronze medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar, withdrewhis nomination on 21 July evening thereby clearingthe route for Ram Phal, coach of YogeshwarDutt.Gagan Narang was selected for Rajiv GandhiKhel Ratna Award.

Mphasis Universal DesignAwards 2011

The National Centre for Promotion of Empowermentof Disabled People (NCPEDP) in association withAccessAbility and BarrierBreak Technologies an-nounced the winners of the NCPEDP-Mphasis Uni-versal Design Awards-2011 in July 2011.The awardshonour organisations and individuals for their exem-plary work in promoting the cause of accessibilityfor the disabled. The awards are given out in threecategories -- persons with disabilities, working pro-fessionals, and companies and organisations on theeve of Independence Day (15 August).The Awards willcover accessibility in the following fields: Built En-vironment, Transport, Information and Communica-tion Technology, Services and Aids and Appliances.





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Ordre National Du Merite

A female Pakistani DMG officer, Amna Imran Khan was awarded the Ordre National du Merite by PresidentNicholas Sarkozy of France. She was awarded the awarded the prestigious French knighthood for distin-guished and extra ordinary services for strengthening and promoting cooperation between the Law Enforce-ment Agencies of Pakistan and France.The Ambassador of France lauded the dynamic manner in which shepioneered a wide range of programmes for capacity building of the Law Enforcement Agencies and CivilArmed Forces of Pakistan with the assistance of French Authorities. The French Ambassador at the awardceremony highlighted rich experience of Amna Imran in her capacity as a public servant including her post-ing as Public Relations Officer with Prime Minister, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, Assistant Commissioner,Islamabad, Abbottabad, Deputy Director Anti Narcotics force, Deputy Secretary Ministry of Interior, JointSecretary to Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Rajiv GandhiNational Sadbhavana Award

SPIC MACAY is an organization,which is promoting Indian classical music and culture. 19th Rajiv GandhiNational Sadbhavana Award to be presented to the SPIC MACAY for its outstanding contribution towardsthe promotion of communal harmony, peace and goodwill.The award is given annually on 20th August








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PERSONS IN NEWSINS Sharabh

The oldest commissioned ship of the Indian Navy INS‘Sharabh’ decommissioned at the Naval Jetty at PortBlair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.Commissionedin January 1976, at Gdynia, Poland Ship had the meritof participating in many amphibious operations bothon the eastern and western seaboard of the countryand landed troops and materials on all major landingsites in the Andaman sea region.

Rajiv Awas Yojana

The Rajiv Awas Yojana is anticipated to cover about250 cities nationwide by the end of 2017.The schemewas launched in pursuance of the Government’s vi-sion of creating a slum-free India in June 2011.TheStates to select the cities in consultation with the Cen-tre. States to include all cities with over 3 Lakh popu-lation as per the 2001 Census.Scheme meant to ben-efit slum-dwellers and the urban poor.

Norman Anil Kumar BrowneMr. Norman Anil Kumar Browne is New Air ChiefMarshal.He took charge as India’s 23rd Chief of theAir Staff. He succeeded Air Chief Marshal PradeepVasant Naik.Nick-named-Charlie Browne in AirForce Circles.Currently appointed as one of the Hon-orary Aides De Camp to the President of India.Builtthe Indian Defence Wing in Tel Aviv in 1997 andserved as the DefenceAttache till July 2000

Virdhawal KhadeIndian swimmer Virdhawal Khade on 27 July 2011became the second Indian swimmer to qualify for2012 London Olympics clocking 50.34s in the 100mfreestyle event at the 14th FINA World Champion-ships in Shanghai. He qualified for the 2012 LondonOlympics in the 100-metre freestyle event.Khadethough could not make the semifinals at FINA, man-aged to cross the qualifying mark. He covered the 50mdistance in 24.08s. He finished tied 41st overall outof 105 competitors. Sandeep Sejwal was the first

swimmer to qualify for the 2012 mega event in the100 metres breaststroke event.Sharath Gayakwad hadearlier qualified for the London Paralympics 2012 inthe 100m breaststroke event.As a result of their phe-nomenal performances at the World Championships,Khade and Sejwal currently are a part of the Top 150list. Khade is ranked 122 in the 50m butterfly eventwhile Sandeep is 128th in the 100m breaststrokeevent.

Nirupama RaoMs Nirupama Rao (Former Foreign Secretary andU.S. Ambassador-designate) selected for the yearlyannual award instituted by the Sree Chithira TirunalTrust for the year 2011. Award constitutes Rs.1 lakhand a citationMs. Rao selected for the award for herrole in shaping the country’s Foreign Policy and herrich understanding of the India-China border issue.

M.F Hussain Passes AwayIndia’s famous artist M.F.Hussain passed away in Lon-don on July 03. M.F. Hussain took Indian art to theglobal stage but not without controversies. The ec-centric painter who lived barefoot died at theBrompton and Harfield NHS foundation in Londonafter months of prolonged illness. Born inMaharashtra Hussain began his career as a painter bypainting film posters. He was popularly known asPicasso of India and was once a member of RajyaSabha. He has been awarded the nation’s 2nd highestPadma Vibhushan.The Picasso of India courted con-troversy after he showed hindu deities in nude in hispaintings, and from then he was being considered asan anti-Hindu. After getting death threats in India heimposed exile on himself from the year 2006. Laterin the year 2010 he accepted the citizenship of Qatarthat was offered to him. The painter courted anotherbiggest controversy by portraying “mother India” asa naked woman. His paintings have often courted con-troversies and wrath of people as his work often de-picted gods and goddesses in nude form. He was agreat fan of Madhuri Dixit such that he made a filmwith her called Gaja Gamini.





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Pradeep KumarDefence Secretary Pradeep Kumar chosen as CVC(Chief Vigilance Commissioner). Mr. Pradeep Kumar,retires as Defence Secretary on July 31 He was cho-sen by consensus by a panel comprising Prime Min-ister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister PChidambaram and Leader of Opposition in Lok SabhaSushma Swaraj. Mr. Kumar, a Haryana cadre IAS of-ficer of the 1972 batch.

R.T.Agarwal

R.T. Agarwal is appointed as the new Director (Fi-nance) Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd.

Ashok Parija

Members of the Bar Council of India (BCI) unani-mously elected Ashok Parija as the new Chairman andZafar Ahmed Khan as the new Vice-Chairman. AshokParija succeeded Gopal Subramaniam who laid downoffice upon his resignation as Solicitor General of thecountry.The newly elected Chairman and Vice Chair-man shall continue in office along with the other of-fice bearers till April 2012.Ashok Parija is a memberfrom the State Bar Council of Orissa while ZafarAhmed Khan is BCI member from the State Bar Coun-cil of Madhya Pradesh.Election was held only for thesetwo offices in which all 19 members of the BCI wereunanimous in expressing their choice for posts ofChairman and Vice Chairman.

Mitul DesaiMitul Desai (an Indian-American), appointed as Se-nior Adviser in the U.S. State Department’s Southand Central Asia Bureau to strengthen ties with theDiaspora groups. Mr. Mitul in charge for workingout means to facilitate the US Government to put to-gether an alignment of groups to make it comfort-able for Indians in the Diaspora as well as otherDiaspora communities to make contributions togrowth

Sadananda Gowda

CM of Karnataka D V Sadananda Gowda,Elected asleader of the BJP legislature party through secret bal-lot & thus became the CM of Karnataka.

Pyeongchang

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) an-nounced that Pyeongchang (South Korea) won thevote to be the host city for the 2018 Winter Olym-pics. Pyeongchang defeated Munich (Germany) andFrance's Annecy in the voting held in Durban, SouthAfrica. Pyeongchang received a massive 63 of the 95votes cast in the first round of the secret ballot inDurban. Munich received 25 and Annecyseven.Pyeongchang is the ski resort area located180km east of Seol. The Winter Olympics will likelyput South Korea on the map as a winter sports hotspot.Only two of 21 previous Winter Games have beenin Asia after Japan hosted the event in Sapporo in 1972and again in Nagano in 1998.

Mamta Sharma

Mamta Sharma succeeded Ms Girija Vyas as the newchairperson of the National Commission for Women(NCW).Ms Sharma was a member of the RajasthanLegislative Assembly and President of Rajasthan StateWomen Congress Committee.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was honoured with Knightof the Order of Arts and Letters from the French gov-ernment by the Ambassador of France in New Delhi,Jerome Bonnafont on 13 July 2011. Aishwarya willnow receive the award on the eve of the National Dayof France. Bastille Day is the French National Day,which is celebrated on 14 July of each year.The award,meant to honour her contribution to the world of cin-ema, was to be conferred in 2008. However she couldnot receive it then due to her father's illness. AishwaryaRai Bachchan had won the Miss World title in 1994and starred in more than 40 Hindi-language films anda number of English-language films, including theSteve Martin remake of the Pink Panther.Aishwaryais the first Asian actress and the youngest Indian towin the honour.

Rajan Mathai

Rajan Mathai took charge New Foreign Secretary ofIndia.Mr. Mathai was India’s former ambassador toFrance.He is to hold office for a two-year term.Hesucceeds Nirupama Rao, who has been named India’sambassador to the US.Mr. Rakesh Sood, India’s am-





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bassador to Nepal, will succeed Mathai as New Delhi’senvoy in Paris.

Sadhana AmteA senior social worker wife of the Magsaysay Awardwinner late Shri Baba Amte popularly known asSadhana-`tai’, Sadhana Amte (86) passed away afterprolonged illness.She is survived by sons Dr Vikas,and Magsaysay Award winner Dr Prakash Amte.Shesupported her husband in establishing a rehabilita-tion colony for leprosy patients, `Anandwan’, sev-eral decades ago.She also stood by her Husband allthrough the struggle and turbulent phases of life in-cluding the Narmada Bachao Andolan.She and herHusband dreamt for humankind and their struggle toput life For the recognition of her Service she wasConferred upon many awards including ChaturangLifetime Achievement Award in the year 2007 forher notable contribution in the field of social work

J.C.D. PrabhakarThe All India Chess Federation (AICF) elected J.C.D.Prabhakar as president for the term 2011-2014 at itsannual general body meeting.

Nirupama RaoNirupama Rao (Foreign Secretary) appointed the am-bassador to the USA.Ms Rao succeeds Meera Shankaras the US Ambassador.1973-batch IFS officer tookover the office of the ForeignSecretary on August 1,2009, becoming the second woman to head the In-dian Foreign Secretary after Chokila Iyer. She was toretire in December in 2010 at the age of 60 butwasgiven an extension till July-end as the Govern-ment fixed a two-year term for the post of foreignsecretaryMs Rao’s appointment as the next ambassa-dor to USA comes as a significant development inthe backdrop of crucial Indo-US ties. Ms Rao, the firstwoman spokesperson of the MoEA (Ministry of Ex-ternal Affairs), was country’s ambassador to Sri Lankaand China before being appointed as the foreign sec-retary.

Usha AnanthasubramanianThe Government of India appointed UshaAnanthasubramanian, former general manager ofBank of Baroda (BoB) as executive director of publicsector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB). She re-placed M V Tanksale, who was elevated to the posi-tion of Chairman and Managing Director of the Cen-

tral Bank of India.Usha started her career with an-other public sector lender BoB in 1982 as a specialistofficer in planning division. She worked in variouscapacities as zonal head (southern zone), life insur-ance joint venture formation and secretary of the boardof directors, before rising to the post of general man-ager.

M V TanksaleThe Union government appointed M V Tanksale, ex-ecutive director of the country's No. 2 state-run lenderPunjab National Bank (PNB), as the new chairmanand managing director of Central Bank of India.Tanksale who began his term on 29 June 2011 willremain in office till 31 July 2013.

Brahmasree MalliyoorSankaran Namboothiri

Passed AwayEminent Sanskrit scholar and Bhagavatham propo-nent Malliyoor Sankaran Namboothiri passed awayin Kuruppanthara, near Kottayam ‘Bhagavata-Hamsam’ Brahmasree Malliyoor ShankaranNamboothiri (91) was a well known proponent ofritual narration of Bhagavatam-stories.

Naved MasoodNaved Masood took over as the New Secretary in theMinistry of Corporate Affairs.Naved Masood is a1977 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.Mr.Masood substituted Mr. D.K.Mittal who was ap-pointed as Secretary Department of Financial Servicesin the Ministry of Finance.

Naresh Chandra

Government set up Task Force to review the existingNational Security System.The Task force to suggestthe measures to fortify the security machinery in thenon-conventional areas of the Country.The Task Forceset up under the chairmanship of former Cabinet Sec-retary Mr. Naresh Chandra.

Vilasrao DeshmukhUnion Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh defeated formerIndian Captain Dilip Vengsarkar, by 47 votes to be-come the president of the Mumbai Cricket Associa-tion for the term of two years.





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1. On which date in 2010 did the UN GeneralAssembly vote unanimously to create “UNWomen”, a new body for accelerating genderequality and women’s empowerment?(1) July 1 (2) July 2(3) July 3 (4) June 30(5) None of these

2. The _ government, on July 1, 2010, signed amemorandum of understanding with theUnique Identification Authority of India.(1) West Bengal (2) Bihar(3) Kerala (4) Goa(5) None of these

3. In a new report released on July 3, 2010, __stood fist among Indian states in terms of landtitles distribution under the historic ForestRights Act.(1) Orissa (2) Chhattisgarh(3) Jharkhand (4) Assam(5) None of these

4. On which date in 2010 did the Centre declarethe Port Blair Port as a major port and broughtit under the Major Port Trusts Act?(1) June 5 (2) June 7(3) June 11 (4) June 13(5) None of these

5. The Government, on June 8. 2010, announced_ to head the promised Group of Ministers thatwill examine the modalities of enumeration ofcaste in Census 2011.(1) P. Chidambaram (2) Pranab Mukherjee(3) Kapil Sibal (4) Ambika Soni(5) None of these

6. The Sandia National Laboratories in _, NewMexico, recently announced that it isdeveloping the technique for producingsynthetic liquid fuels in solar-poweredreactors.(1) Oklahoma (2) Massachusetts(3) New Island (4) Albuquerque(5) None of these

7. India on June 3, 2010, launched its firstindigenously manufactured anti-influenzavaccine,_____that will protect people againstthe A (H1N1) flu.(1) Vaxiflu-S (2) Vaxiflu T(3) Vaviflu-A (4) Vaxiflu-X(5) None of these

8. The University of Southern California, LosAngeles, recently announced to have createda protein, ___ that helps the human immune-deficiency virus.(1) CCR2 (2) CCR5(3) CCR7 (4) CCR9(5) None of these

9. A team of researchers recently announcedplans to make an island the size of Hawaiientirely from 44 million kilogram of plasticwaste.(1) Swedish (2) Australia(3) Dutch (4) British(5) None of these

10. An international team led by of SydneyUniversity, recently discovered the protein,VEGF111, to explain the origins and treatmentof cancer in humans.(1) Bridget Murphy (2) Richard Sinclair(3) Macmillan Howard(4) Phillip Roberts(5) None of these

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11. __ Scientists, in June 2010, claimed to havemeasured the shortest-ever time interval bydiscovering the tiniest duration an electrontakes to leave the atom.(1) German (2) British(3) Australian (4) Japanese(5) None of these

12. A team at Yale University, in June 2010,claimed to have successfully implantedlaboratory-cultivated cells into lungs.(1) Monkey’s (2) Lizard’s(3) Rabbit’s (4) Rat’s(5) None of these

13. In a breakthrough study, researchers theUniversity of at Irvine recently developed thefirst “plastic antibodies(1) Oregon (2) Nebraska(3) California (4) Texas(5) None of these

14. A US-led team of scientists, in June 2010,based on analysis of the __ space missionsclaimed that Moon has hundred times morewater than was previously thought.(1) Galileo (2) Voyager(3) Apollo (4) Explorer(5) None of these

15. A NASA flying observatory, on June 8, 2010,left California on a mission to track aasteroidsampling spacecraft as it returns toEarth on a course for Australia.(1) Russian (2) Japanese(3) French (4) British(5) None of these

16. The term bit is short for as(1) Megabyte (2) binary language(3) binary digit (4) binary number(5) None of these

17. A string of eight Os and is is called a __.(1) Megabyte (2) Byte(3) Kilobyte (4) Gigabyte(5) None of these

18. A___is approximately one billion bytes.(1) Kilobyte (2) Bit(3) Gigabyte (4) Megabyte(5) None of these

19. A__is approximately a million bytes.(1) Gigabyte (2) Kilobyte

(3) Megabyte (4) Terabyte(5) None of these

10. The components that process data are locatedin the _(1) input devices (2) output devices(3) system unit(4) storage component.(5) None of these

21. All of the following are examples of inputdevices EXCEPT a(1) Scanner (2) Mouse(3) Keyboard (4) Printer(5) None of these

22. Which of the following is an example of aninput device?(1) Scanner (2) Speaker(3) CD (4) Printer(5) None of these

23. All of the following are examples of storagedevices EXCEPT(1) hard disk drives (2) printers(3) floppy disk drives(4) CD drives(5) None of these

24. The ___, also called the “brains” of thecomputer, is responsible for processing data.(1) Motherboard (2) Memory(3) RAM(4) Central Processing Unit (CPU)(5) None of these

25. The CPU and memory are located on the_(1) expansion board (2) motherboard(3) storage device (4) output device(5) None of these

26. Word processing, spreadsheet, and photo-editing are examples of __.(1) application software(2) system software(3) operating system software(4) platform software(5) None of these

27. __is a set. of computer programs used on acomputer to help perform tasks,(1) An instruction (2) Software(3) Memory (4) A processor(5) None of these

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28. System software is the set of programs thatenables your computer’s hardware devices andsoftware to work together.(1) Management (2) Processing(3) Utility (4) Application(5) None of these

29. The PC (personal computer) and the AppleMacintosh are examples of two different(1) Platforms (2) Applications(3) Programs (4) storage devices(5) None of these

30. Apple Macintoshes (Macs) and PCs usedifferent __ to process data and differentoperating systems.(1) Languages (2) Methods(3) CPUs (4) storage devices(5) None of these

31. On which date in 2010 did the Lok Sabha passthe Clinical Establishments Bill to regulateprivate hospitals and clinics across thecountry?(1) May 1 (2) May 3(3) May 9 (4) May 18(5) None of these

32. The Union Cabinet, on May 4, 2010, clearedthe proposal of the - government to revive theState Legislative Council.(1) West Bengal (2) Madhya Pradesh(3) Rajasthan (4) Tamil Nadu(5) None of these

33. The Department of Posts, on May 6, 2010.became the first government organisation tobe on the social networking site.(1) Okras (2) Facebook(3) MySpace (4) Twitter(5) None of these

34. India, on May 12, 2010, released its firstgreenhouse gas emissions inventory since1994, showing a - per cent fall in the emissionsintensity of the GDP from that date till 2007.(1) 10 (2) 18(3) 30 (4) 38(5) None of these

35. On which date in 2010 was Justice SaroshHomi Kapadia sworn in as Chief Justice ofIndia by President Pratibha Patif atRashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi?

(1) May 12 (2) May 19(3) May 16 (4) May 21(5) None of these

36. India and _-_, on May 27, 2010, decided tosetup a working group to examine thepossibility of cooperation in civil nuclearenergy.(1) Britain (2) France(3) Japan (4) South Korea(5) None of these

37. President Pratibha Patil, on May 29, 2010,dedicated an Indian-style temple in the townof _ to the friendship between the people ofIndia and the people of China.(1) Shanghai (2) Beijing(3) Canton (4) Luoyang(5) None of these

38. ___, on May 1, 2010, announced spendingcuts to clinch a $146 billion internationalbailout, to save the country from bankruptcy.(1) Greece (2) Turkey(3) Italy (4) Denmark(5) None of these

39. On which date in 2010 did the State of Lawcoalition and the Iraqi National Alliance agreeto merge, brightening prospects of theemergence of a government in Iraq?(1) May 3 (2) May 6(3) May 9 (4) May 17(5) None of these

40. On which date in 2010 did Aung San SuuKyi’s National League for Democracy ceaseto exist, after attracting “automaticdissolution” upon refusing to re-register?(1) May 7 (2) May 4(3) May 16 (4) May 31(5) None of these

41. Britain’s first post-war coalition government,with _ as Prime Minister and Nick Clegg asDeputy Prime Minister, took office on May,12, 2010.(1) Tony Blair (2) Gordon Brown(3) David Cameron (4) Philip Williamson(5) None of these

42. Which countries on May 16, 2010, signed anuclear swap deal at the in Tehran, makingfresh sanctions against Iran extremelydifficult?

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(1) Brazil (2) Turkey(3) Iran (4) All of the above(5) None of these

43. The Cabinet of which coup try, on May 19,2010, approved a draft law to ban the Muslimfull-face veil from public spaces?(1) Bulgaria (2) Serbia(3) Finland (4) France(5) None of these

44. On which date in 2010 did North Koreaannounce the unilateral scrapping of its pactwith South Korea on the prevention of navalclashes between them?(1) May 23 (2) May 27(3) May 31 (4) May 19(5) None of these

45. The European Union and the internationalMonetary Fund, on May 2, 2010, agreed on a$ 146 billion package to rescue debt-riddled(1) Slovenia (2) Latvia(3) Croatia (4) Greece(5) None of these

46. On which date in 2010 did the Securities andExchange Board of India issue transparencyand disclosure norms for credit ratingagencies?(1) May 1 (2) May 3(3) May 13 (4) May 31(5) None of these

47. The Reserve Bank of India, on May 4, 2010,revised the pricing norms for _ by way of salefrom residents to non residents and vice-versa.(1) transfer of shares (2) preference shares(3) convertible debentures(4) all of the above (5) None of these

48. Merchandise exports grew by a healthy __-_per cent in March 2010 for the fifth month ina row to $19.92 billion from $12.91 billionin the same month in 2009.(1) 33.7 (2) 44.9(3) 54.1 (4) 66.6(5) None of these

49. __, one of the oldest private sector banks inthe Country in May 2010, merged with thelargest private sector bank, ICICI Bank.(1) Bank of Rajasthan(2) State Bank uf India

(3) Bank of Baroda(4) Punjab National Bank(5) None of these

50. The Central Government, on May 21, 2010,granted ‘Maharatna’ status to giant publicsector undertakings of-.(1) NTPC (2) ONGC(3) IOC and SAIL (4) All of the above(5) None of these

TEST– II: QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE

Directions-(Q. 51-60) What will come in placeof the question mark (?) in the followingquestions?51. 65% of 240 + ?% of 150 = 210

(1) 45 (2) 46(3) 32 (4) 36(5) None of these

52.3 5 2of of5 9 7 of 9450 = ?

(1) 960 (2) 480(3) 450 (4) 900(5) None of these

53. 358.085 + 42.91 + 25.55 = ?(1) 425.565 (2) 426.545(3) 426.555 (4) 425.545(5) None of these

54. 45 × 390 ÷ 26=?(1) 645 (2) 675(3) 765 (4) 745(5) None of these

55. 140% of 56 + 56% of 140 = ?(1) 78.4 (2) 158.6(3) 156.6 (4) 87.4(5) None of these

56. 3895 – 1563 + 1089 = ?(1) 3321 (2) 3527(3) 3329 (4) 3429(5) None of these

57. + =? 961 2025(1) 28 (2) 24(3) 169 (4) 256(5) None of these

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58. + −3 1 13 2 48 4 8 = ?

(1) 1 (2) 12

(3)112 (4)

314

(5) None of these59. 232.8 × 237.2 × 233.6 = 23?

(1) 13.6 (2) 12.6(3) 12.8 (4) 13.8(5) None of these

60. 2.2 × 5.6 + 17.8 = ?(1) 30.12 (2) 30.012(3) 31.12 (4) 31.012(5) None of these

61. If the compound interest accrued on anamount of Rs. 15,000 in two years in Rs.2,496, what is the rate of interest p.c.p.a.?(1) 8 (2) 10(3) 6(4) Cannot be determined(5) None of these

62. If the digits of a two digit number areinterchanged, the number formed is greaterthan the original number by 45. If thedifference between the digits is 5, what is theoriginal number ?(1) 16 (2) 27(3) 38(4) Cannot be determined(5) None of these

63. Area of a rectangle is equal to the area ofcircle whose radius is 14 cm. If the breadthof the rectangle is 22 cm, what is its length ?(1) 24 cm (2) 28 cm(3) 26 cm(4) Cannot be determined(5) None of these

64. Ages of A and B are presently in the ratio of5 : 6 respectively. Six years hence this ratiowill become 6 : 7 respectively. What was B’sage 5 years ago ?(1) 25 years (2) 30 years(3) 36 years (4) 31 years(5) None of these

65. In how many different ways can the letters ofthe word DISPLAY be arranged?(1) 5040 (2) 2520(3) 720 (4) 1440(5) None of these

66. Harshad bought 15 pieces of DVD players @Rs. 4,500 each and sold all of them at the totalprice of Rs. 81,000. What is the per cent profitearned in the deal ?

(1) 2163 (2) 20

(3) 25 (4) 20.5(5) None of these

67. 75% of a number is equal to fourfifth ofanother number. What is the ratio between firstnumber and the second number ?(1) 5:3 (2) 15: 16(3) 3:5 (4) 16: 15(5) None of these

68. Mr. More spent 20% of his monthly incomeon food and 15% on children’s education.40% of the remaining he spent onentertainment and transport together and 30%on the medical. He is left with an amount ofRs. 8,775 after all these expenditures. Whatis Mr. More’s monthly income ?(1) Rs. 40,000 (2) Rs. 35,000(3) As. 42,000 (4) Rs. 38,000(5) None of these

69. If the numerator of a fraction is increased by25% and the denominator is doubled, thefraction thus obtained is ?? What is theoriginal fraction ?

(1)23 (2)

49

(3)89

(4) Cannot be determined(5) None of these

70. P, Q and R invested Rs. 45,000, Rs. 70,000and Rs. 90,000 respectively to start a business.At the end of two years, they earned a profitof Rs. 1,64,000. What will be Q’s share in theprofit ?

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(1) Rs. 56,000 (2) Rs. 36,000(3) Rs. 72,000 (4) Rs. 64,000(5) None of these

Directions-(Q. 71-75) What will come in placeof the question mark (?) in the following numberseries ?71. 5, 6, ?, 45, 184

(1) 15 (2) 12(3) 16 (4) 9(5) None of these

72. 8, 4, 6, ?, 52.5(1) 9 (2) 12.5(3) 15 (4) 16(5) None of these

73. 5, 11, 32, ?, 444(1) 108 (2) 109(3) 96 (4) 98(5) None of these

74. 2, 3, 10, ?, 172(1) 45 (2) 39(3) 36 (4) 42(5) None of these

75. 7, 15, ?, 63, 127(1) 32 (2) 29(3) 33 (4) 31(5) None of these

Directions-(Q. 76-80) What approximate valuewill come in place of the question mark (?) inthe following questions ? (You are not expectedto calculate the exact value.)76. (35.95)2 – (24.001)2 = ?

(1) 680 (2) 700(3) 720 (4) 740(5) 730

77. 75% of 230 – ? = 64% of 249(1) 14 (2) 17(3) 22 (4) 18(5) 20

78. (24.99)2 + (31.05)2 = (?)2(1) 45 (2) 36(3) 32 (4) 30(5) 40

79. 367.85 ÷ 22.95 × 14.99 = ?(1) 280 (2) 240(3) 260 4) 220(5) 290

80. 5687.285 ÷ 4872.35 = 12 = ?(1) 5995 (2) 5905(3) 6025 (4) 6095(5) 6295

Directions-(Q. 81-85) Study the followinginformation carefully to answer these questions

Strength (Number of Students) of SevenInstitutes over theYears

Years InstitutesA B C D E F G

2002 750 640 680 780 740 620 6502003 700 600 720 800 720 580 7202004 800 620 730 820 760 640 7302005 820 660 670 760 750 560 7502006 740 760 690 790 780 650 6802007 720 740 700 810 730 630 6902008 780 700 660 840 720 660 740

81. What is the ratio between total strength ofInstitutes A, B and C together in 2003 and thetotal strength of Institutes E, F and G togetherin 2005 respectively ?(1) 103 : 101 (2) 101 : 103(3) 51 : 53 (4) 53 : 51(5) None of these

82. If in 2002, the overall percentage of studentspassed from all the Institutes is 70%, total howmany students passed in 2002 from all theInstitutes together ?(1) 3402 (2) 3420(3) 3422 (4) 3382(5) None of these

83. If from Institute B, overall 60% studentspassed for all the given years, approximatelywhat is the average number of studentspassed?(1) 430 (2) 425(3) 390 (4) 395(5) 405

84. Strength of Institute F in 2004 is what per centof the total strength of that Institute for allseven years together ? (Rounded off to twodigits after decimal)(1) 14.28 (2) 14.98(3) 12.90 (4) 14.75(5) None of these

85. What is the difference between the totalnumber of students in 2006 for all the

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Institutes together and total number ofstudents in 2008 for all the Institutes together?(1) 50 (2) 70(3) 10 (4) 30(5) None of these

Directions-(Q. 86-90) Study the following graphcarefully to answer these questions

Investments (in Iakh Rs.) of Two BusinessPartners A and B over the Year

86. What was the per cent rise in A’s investmentin 2004 from the previous year?(1) 25% (2) 20%

(3) 133 %3 (4)

233 %3

(5) None of these

87. What was the per cent rise in investment ofB in 2004 from 2001?(1) 45.6 (2) 37.5(3) 30 (4) 60(5) None of these

88. What was the per cent rise/fall in the totalinvestment of A and B together from 2002 to2005 ? (Rounded off to two digits afterdecimal)(1) 8.33% fall (2) 9.09% rise(3) 8.33% rise (4) 9.09% fall(5) None of these

89. What is the ratio between total investment ofA in 2001, 2002 and 2003 together and thetotal investment of B in these three yearstogether respectively ?(1) 5 : 6 (2) 6 : 5(3) 15 : 17 (4) 17 : 15(5) None of these

90. Investment of B in 2003 is approximatelywhat per cent of his total investment for allthe years together ?(1) 12 (2) 18(3) 20 (4) 17(5) 14

Directions-(Q. 91-95) Study the following table carefully to answer these questionsNumber of Students Appeared and Passed in an Examination from Five Different Schools over the

YearsSchool

Year A B C D EApp- Pass- App- Pass App- Pass App- Pass App- Pass

eared ed eared -ad eared -ad eared -ad earedad

2004 600 350 450 250 520 350 580 460 620 5002005 580 250 480 300 550 420 600 480 650 5502006 640 300 420 280 500 400 560 420 580 5002007 650 400 460 320 560 450 620 450 660 5502008 680 450 500 380

580 480 640 520 680 58091. What is the ratio between the total number

of students appeared from all the schoolstogether in 2004 and 2005 respectively ?(1) 286 : 295 (2) 277 : 286(3) 286 : 277 (4) 295 : 286(5) None of these

92. During 2006, which School had the highestpercentage of students passed over appeared?(1) C (2) B(3) A (4) D(5) E

93. For School D, which year had the lowestpercentage of students passed over appeared?(1) 2004 (2) 2005

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(3) 2006 (4) 2007(5) 2008

94. What was the overall percentage of studentspassed over the number of students appearedfrom all the schools together in 2007 ?(rounded off to next integer)(1) 74 (2) 73(3) 76 (4) 72(5) None of these

95. What is the ratio between average number ofstudents passed from Schools B and Crespectively for all the given years ?(1) 70 : 51 (2) 70 : 53(3) 53 : 70 (4) 51 : 70(5) None of these

Directions-(Q. 96-100) Study the followinggraph carefully to answer these questions

96. What is the difference between theexpenditure on salary to staff and loans tostaff?(1) Rs. 37,200 (2) Rs. 35,700(3) Rs. 37,500 (4) Rs. 35,000(5) None of these

97. What was the total expenditure on Electricityand Water together ?(1) Rs. 4,25,000 (2) Rs. 4,25,500(3) Rs. 4,22,500 (4) Rs. 4,25,800(5) None of these

98. What is the amount spent on Transportsubsidy and Canteen subsidy together ?(1) Rs. 3,34,000 (2) Rs. 3,43,000(3) Rs. 3,30,000 (4) Rs. 3,33,000(5) None of these

99. Amount spent on medical to staff is what percent of the amount spent on salary ?(1) 30% (2) 33%(3) 25% (4) 22%

(5) None of these100. What is the amount spent on Telephone ?

(1) Rs. 2,75,500 (2) Rs. 2,70,500(3) Rs. 2,77,500 (4) As. 2,77,000(5) None of these

TEST – III: REASONING

101. How many meaningful English words can bemade with the letters ELRU using each letteronly once in each word ?(1) None (2) One(3) Two (4) Three(5) More than three

102. Four of the following five are alike in a certainway and so form a group. Which is the onethat does not belong to that group ?(1) Plastic (2) Nylon(3) Polythene (4) Terelyn(5) Silk

103. M is sister of D. R is brother of D. F is fatherof M and T is mother of R. How is D relatedto T ?(1) Brother (2) Son(3) Daughter (4) Data inadequate(5) None of these

104. ‘JM’ is related to ‘PS’ in the same way as ‘BE’is related to … ?(1) HJ (2) HK(3) IL (4) JM(5) None of these

105. In a certain code DENIAL is written asMDCMBJ. How is SOURCE written in thatcode ?(1) TNRFDS (2) RNTFDS(3) TNRSDF (4) TRNDBQ(5) None of these

106. What should come next in the following letterseries ? M L K J I H G F M L K J I H G M LK J I H M L K J I(1) K (2) N(3) H (4) M(5) None of these

107. In a certain code ROAM is written as 5913and DONE is written as 4962. How is MEANwritten in that code ?(1) 5216 (2) 3126

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(3) 3216 (4) 9126(5) None of these

108. The positions of the first and the fifth digitsin the number 53261489 are interchanged.Similarly, the positions of the second and thesixth digits are interchanged and so on. Whichof the following will be the second from theright end after the rearrangement ?(1) 8 (2) 2(3) 3 (4) 4(5) None of these

109. How many such pairs of letters are there inthe word STORM each of which has as manyletters between them in the word as in theEnglish alphabet ?(1) None (2) One(3) Two (4) Three(5) More than three

110. Four of the following five are alike in a certainway and so form a group. Which is the onethat does not belong to that group ?(1) Blue (2) Green(3) Yellow (4) Violet(5) Black

Directions-(Q. 111-116) In each question beloware three statements followed by threeconclusions numbered I, II and Ill. You haveto take the three given statements to be true evenif they seem to be at variance from commonlyknown facts and then decide which of the givenconclusions logically follows from the threegiven statements disregarding commonly knownfacts. Then decide which of the answers (1), (2),(3), (4) and (5) is the correct answer and indicateit on the answer sheet.

111. Statements: All stamps are packets.Some packets are buckets.All buckets are tubes.

Conclusions: I. Some tubes are stamps.II. Some buckets are stamps.

III. Some tubes are packets.(1) None follows(2) Only I follows(3) Only II follows(4) Only Ill follows(5) Only II and Ill follow

112. Statements : Some doors are windows.Some windows are lamps.All lamps are candles.

Conclusions: I. Some candles are doors.II. Some candles are windows.

III. Some lamps are doors.(1) Only I follows(2) Only II follows(3) Only Ill follows(4) Only I and II follow(5) None of these

113. Statements: Some towns are villages.Some villages are lanes.Some lanes are hamlets.

Conclusions: I. Some hamlets are villages.II. Some lanes are towns.

III. Some hamlets are towns.(1) None follows(2) Only I follows(3) Only II follows(4) Only Ill follows(5) Only I and II follow

114. Statements : Some rivers are hills.No hill is taxi.All taxis are buses.

Conclusions: I. Some buses are rivers.II. Some taxis are rivers.

III. No bus is river.(1) None follows(2) Only I follows(3) Only Ill follows(4) Only II follows(5) Only either I or III follows

115. Statements: All machines are crowns.All crowns are tablets.Some tablets are bottles.

Conclusions: I. Some bottles are crowns.II. Some tablets are machines.

III. Some bottles are machines.(1) Only I follows(2) Only II follows(3) Only III follows(4) Only II and III follow(5) None of these

116. Statements: All rooms are hotels.All hotels are buildings.

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All buildings aremountains.

Conclusions: I. Some mountains are hotels.II. Some buildings are rooms.

III. Some mountains are rooms.(1) Only I and II follow(2) Only I and III follow(3) Only II and III follow(4) All I, II and III follow(5) None of these

Directions-(Q. 117-122) Study the followingarrangement carefully and answer the questionsgiven below:E % 3 R 5 # A 6 B I J @ 2 9 H U 4 © M 1 * F 7 $

W 8 P N D117. How many such consonants are there in the

above arrangement each of which isimmediately preceded by a letter andimmediately followed by a symbol ?(1) None (2) One(3) Two (4) Three(5) More than three

118. What should come in place of the question-mark (?) in the following series based on theabove arrangement ?

35A 1 @ 9 4 M * ?(1) 7WP (2) 7W8(3) $8N (4) FWP(5) None of these

119. How many such numbers are there in theabove arrangement each of which isimmediately preceded by a consonant andimmediately followed by a symbol ?(1) None (2) One(3) Two (4) Three(5) More than three

120. Which of the following is the eighth to theright of the twentieth from the right end of theabove arrangement ?(1) © (2) @(3) 3 (4) P(5) None of these

121. If all the numbers in the above arrangementare dropped, which of the following will bethe fourteenth from the left end ?

(1) J (2) ©(3) * (4) @(5) None of these

122. Four of the following five are alike in a certainway based on their positions in the abovearrangement and so form a group.Which is the one that does not belong to thatgroup ?(1) 4 U © (2) 8 W P(3) 6 B A (4) R 3 5(5) H 9 U

Directions-(Q. 123-128) In the followingquestions, the symbols @, ©, $, % and # are usedwith the following meanings illustrated.

‘P $ Q’ means ‘P is neither smaller than nor equal toQ’.‘P # Q’ means ‘P is not smaller than Q’.‘P @ Q’ means ‘P is not greater than Q’.‘P % Q’ means ‘P is neither smaller than nor greaterthan Q’.‘P © Q’ means ‘P is neither greater than nor equal toQ’.

In each of the following questions assuming thegiven statements to be true, find out which of the threeconclusions I, II and III given below them is/aredefinitely true.123. Statements F # N, N © D, D @ R

Conclusions : I. D # FII. R $ N

III. R $ F(1) None is true(2) Only I is true(3) Only II is true(4) Only III is true(5) Only II and III are true

124. Statements: B % H, H $ E, E @ KConclusions : I. K $ H

II. K $ BIII. E @ 13

(1) None is true(2) Only III is true(3) Only II is true(4) Only I is true(5) Only I and III are true

125. Statements: W @ F, F $ M, M © D

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Conclusions : I. D $ FII. W © M

III. F $ D(1) None is true(2) Only I is true(3) Only II is true(4) Only III is true(5) Only II and III are true

126. Statements: M # W, W % N, N $ BConclusions : I. N % M

II. N©MIII. M $ B

(1) Only either I or II is true(2) Only either I or III is true(3) Only either I or II and Ill true(4) Only III is true(5) None of these

127. Statements : M © T, T # J, J $ KConclusions : I. K © T

II. M © JIII. K @ M

(1) None is true(2) Only Ill is true(3) Only II is true(4) Only I is true(5) Only I and 11 are true

128. Statements: R © F, F # D, D @ MConclusions : I. R © D

II. M%FIII. M $ R

(1) None is true(2) Only I is true(3) Only II is true(4) Only III is true(5) Only I and II are true

Directions-(Q. 129-134) Study the followinginformation carefully and answer the questionsgiven below:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H are sitting around acircle facing at the centre. H is fourth to the left of Band second to the right of F. A is third to the left of Cwho is not an immediate neighbour of F. G is secondto the left of A. D is second to the right of E.129. Who is to the immediate right of F?

(1) H (2) A(3) G (4) Data inadequate

(5) None of these130. Who is third to the left of A ?

(1) C (2) F(3) B (4) Data inadequate(5) None of these

131. In which of the following pairs is the firstperson sitting to the immediate left of thesecond person ?(1) EH (2) CE(3) AF (4) DB(5) None of these

132. Which of the following pairs represents theimmediate neighbours of E ?(1) DH (2) HC(3) CA (4) Data inadequate(5) None of these

133. Who is to the immediate right of H?(1) E (2) C(3) H (4) Data inadequate(5) None of these

134. Who is to the immediate right of B?(1) D (2) E(3) F (4) Data inadequate(5) None of these

Directions-(Q. 135-140) In each question belowis given a group of letters followed by fourcombinations of digits/symbols lettered (1), (2),(3) and (4). You have to find out which of thecombinations correctly represents the group ofletters based on the following coding system andthe conditions and mark the letter of thatcombination as your answer. If none of thecombinations correctly represents the group ofletters, mark (5) i.e. ‘None of these’ as youranswer.

Letters : F P M R E K D A I H T U J WDigit/Symbol : 6 5 4 * 8 1 2 © 7 3 $ @ % 9Conditions :

(i) If the first letter is consonant and the last letteris a vowel, their codes are to be interchanged.

(ii) If both the first and the last letters are vowelsboth are to be coded as the code for the lastletter.

(iii) If both the first and the last letters areconsonants, both are to be coded as the codefor the first letter.

135. IPDTWU

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(1) 752$97 (2) 752$9@(3) @52$9@ (4) @52$97(5) None of these

136. AJFIKD(1) ©1 %672 (2) ©%671©(3) 2%671© (4) 2%6712(5) None of these

137. EWMAPH(1) 894©53 (2) 394©58(3) 894©58 (4) 8945©3(5) None of these

138. HMUIWA(1) 34@79© (2) 34@793(3) ©4@79© (4) ©4@793(5) None of these

139. DAHITJ(1) 2©37$% (2) %©37$%(3) %©37$2 (4) 2©37$2(5) None of these

140. MUPRKE(1) 4@5*18 (2) 8@5*14(3) 8@5*18 (4) 4@5*14(5) None of these

Directions-(Q. 141-150) Study the followinginformation carefully and answer the questionsgiven below.

Following are the conditions for selecting ChiefManager-Sales in an organization. The candidate must:

(i) Be graduate in any discipline with at least 60per cent marks.

(ii) Have secured at least 55 per cent marks in theselection process.

(iii) Be at least 30 years and not more than 40years as on 1.5.2009.

(iv) Be a post graduate degree/ diploma holder inMarketing/ Sales Management.

(v) Have post qualification work experience of atleast eight years in the Sales/Marketingdivision of an organisation.If the case of a candidate who satisfies all the

conditions EXCEPT(1) At (ii) above but has secured more than 65

per cent marks in graduation, the case is tobe referred to GM-Sales.

(2) At (v) above but has post qualification workexperience of at least five years asManagerSales in an organization, the case is

to be referred to VP-Sales.In each question below details of one candidate

are given. You are to take one of the following coursesof action based on the information and the conditionsand sub-conditions given above and mark the letterof that course of action as the answer. You are not toassume anything other than the information providedin each case. All these cases are given to you as on01.05.2009. Give answers

(1) If the candidate is to be selected.(2) If the candidate is not to be selected.(3) If the data provided are inadequate to take a

decision.(4) If the case is to be referred to the GM-Sales.(5) If the case is to be referred to the VP-Sales.

141. Joseph D’Souza was born on 18th February1979. He has secured 60 per cent marks ingraduation and 55 per cent marks in theselection process. He has been working for thepast six years as Manager-Sales in anorganization after completing his postgraduate diploma in Sales Management.

142. Mohan Das was born on 25th March 1976.He has secured 60 per cent marks in bothgraduation and the selection process. He is afirst class post graduate degree holder inManagement. He has been working for the lasteight years in the sales division of anorganization.

143. Kalpesh Mehta was born on 16th February1970. He has secured 68 per cent marks ingraduation and 58 per cent marks in theselection process. He has been working for thepast six years as Manager-Sales in anorganization after completing his postgraduate diploma in Sales.

144. Abhinav Shukla has secured 62 per cent marksin graduation and 58 per cent marks in theselection process. He has been working in themarketing division of a company for the pastnine years after completing his post graduatediploma in Marketing with 55 per cent marks.He was born on 5th August 1974.

145. Akash Malhotra was born on 6th April 1975.He has been working in the sales division ofa company for the past ten years aftercompleting his post graduate diploma in

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Marketing Management. He has secured 65per cent marks in graduation and 56 percentmarks in the selection process.

146. Pravin Vohra was born on 2nd July 1972. Hehas been working in the sales division of anorganization for the past ten years aftercompleting his postgraduate degree in SalesManagement with 50 per cent marks. He hassecured 68 per cent marks in graduation and50 per cent marks in the selection process.

147. Meena Srivastava has been working in theSales division of an organization for the pasttwelve years after completing her postgraduatedegree in sales management with 65 per centmarks. She has secured 58 per cent marks ingraduation and 57 per cent marks in theselection process. She was born on 12th May1976.

148. Mita Keswani has been working in themarketing division of an organisation for thepast eleven years after completing her postgraduation. She has secured 62 per cent marksin the selection process and 70 per cent marksin graduation. She was born on 2nd November1978.

149. Jayant Sahu has secured 52 per cent marks inthe selection process and 72 per cent marksin graduation. He has been working for thepast twelve years in the marketing division ofa company after completing his postgraduation in Marketing Management. He wasborn on March 19, 1972.

150. Seema Mahajan was born on July 12, 1973.She has secured 56 per cent marks in theselection process. She has been working in thesales division of an organisation for the pastthirteen years after completing her postgraduate degree in Sales Management. Shehas secured 59 per cent marks in graduation.

Each question below is followed by twoarguments numbered I and II. You have to decidewhich of the argument is a ‘strong’ argument and whichis a ‘weak’ argument. Give answers

(1) If only argument I is strong.(2) If only argument II is strong.(3) If either argument I or II is strong.(4) If neither argument I nor II is strong.

(5) If both arguments I and II are strong.151. Statement : Should the sale of all the toys

made in China be banned in India ?Arguments:

I. Yes, these are very cheap and hence willput the local toy manufacturers out ofbusiness.

II. No, Indian toys are of much better qualityand their sale will not be affected.

152. Statement : Should there be no examinationupto IX Std. in all the Schools in India ?Arguments:

I. No, students need to go through theprocess of giving examinations right fromthe young age.

II. Yes, this will help students to think laterallyand achieve their creative pursuits.

153. Statement : Should there be only a uniformrate of income tax irrespective of the levelof income ?Arguments

I. Yes, this will substantially reduce the workof the officials of the income taxdepartment.

II. No, this will reduce Govt. tax collectionto a large extent.

154. Statement : Should there be only two politicalparties in India ?Arguments

I. Yes, in many developed countries there areonly two political parties.

II. No, Indian electorate is not matured toselect between only two political parties.

155. Statement : Should the sale of tobaccoproducts be restricted to only few outlets ineach city/ town ?Arguments

I. Yes, this will substantially reduceconsumption of tobacco products.

II. No, those who want to purchase tobaccoproducts should get them at convenientlocations.

Directions-(Q. 156-160) In each question belowis given a statement followed by two assumptionsnumbered I and II. An assumption is somethingsupposed or taken for granted. You have toconsider the statement and the following

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assumptions and decide which of theassumptions is implicit in the statement. Giveanswers(1) If only Assumption I is implicit.(2) If only Assumption II is implicit.(3) If either Assumption I or II is implicit.(4) If neither Assumption I nor II is implicit.(5) If both Assumptions I and II are implicit.

156. Statement : A major retail store announcedthirty per cent reduction on all food itemsduring the weekend.Assumptions

I. People may still prefer buying food itemsfrom other stores.

II. Large number of customers may visit theretail store and buy food items.

157. Statement: The railway authority hasrescheduled the departure time of many longdistance trains and put up the revised timingon its website.Assumptions

I. The passengers may note the change indeparture times from the website.

II. The passengers may be able to notice thechange and board their respective trainsbefore departure.

158. Statement : The school authority has decidedto give five grace marks in English to all thestudents of Std IX as the performance of thesestudents in English was below expectation.Assumptions

I. Majority of the students of Std. IX maystill fail in English even after giving gracemarks.

II. Majority of the students of Std. IX maynow pass in English after giving gracemarks.

159. Statement: The civic administration has askedthe residents of the dilapidated buildings tomove out as these buildings will bedemolished within next thirty days.Assumptions :

I. The civic administration may be able todemolish these buildings as per schedule.

II. The residents of these buildings mayvacate and stay elsewhere.

160. Statement : The captain of the school football

team selected only fourteen players to playall the eight matches of the interschoolfootball competition.Assumptions

I. There may be adequate number of footballPlayers for all the matches.

II. The captain may be able to play in all thematches.

Directions-(Q. 161-165) Below in each questionare given two statements I and II. Thesestatements may be either independent causes ormay be effects of independent causes or acommon cause. One of these statements may bethe effect of the other statement. Read both thestatements and decide which of the followinganswer choice correctly depicts the relationshipbetween these two statements. Give Answers :(1) If statement I is the cause and statement II is

its effect.(2) If statement II is the cause and statement I is

its effect.(3) If both the statements I and II are independent

causes.(4) If both the statements I and II are effects of

independent causes.(5) If both the statements I and 11 are effects of

some common cause.161. I. Govt. has decided to distribute part of the

foodgrain stock through PublicDistribution System to people belowpoverty line.

II. There has been bumper khariff crop forthe last two seasons.

162. I. Most of the students enrolled themselvesfor the educational tour scheduled for nextmonth.

II. The school authority cancelled theeducational tour scheduled for next month.

163. I. The prices of fruits have droppedsubstantially during the last few days.

II. The prices of foodgrains have increasedsubstantially during the last few days.

164. I. The road traffic between the two towns inthe state has been disrupted since lastweek.

II. The rail traffic between the two towns inthe state has been disrupted since last

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week.165. I. Heavy showers are expected in the city

area during next forty-eight hours.II. The inter-club cricket tournament

scheduled for the week was called off.Directions (Q. 166-175) : In each of thequestions given below which one of th eanswerfigures on the right should come after theproblem figure on the left, if the sequence werecontinued ?

166.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

167.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

168.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

169.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

170.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

171.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

172.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

173.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

174.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

175.

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(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

TEST – VI: ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Directions (Q. 176-183) : Read the followingpassage carefully and choose the most suitableanswer to each question:

When I came home from the hostel for the firsttime, I was looking quite pulled down and pale. ThereI had lost interest in food and this naturally showed inmy lacklustre face and sunken eyes. I must have lookedlike a rogue when I stepped out of the tonga, for, myfather, from the terrace, showered me with his patentset of four-letter words, "You buffoon", "good-for-nothing fellow", etc. He was an officer, yet his stockof four-letter words was rather limited and so hewelcomed me with a softer set of words and did notcare to see me again. But after the vacation when I setoff for the hostel, there was a servant walking withme with a huge tin of home-made ghee and a largesack of super-fine rice. He cooked my food separatelyin the hostel. By and by I grew pink and hefty. Igenerally survived on rice and slept a lot. I am fondof sleep till date. Once I slept for thirty-six hours at astretch. Having a short nap after the breakfast is myhobby almost. For that I have been missing my lunchtoo. At night also it is extremely painful for me tokeep awake after dinner. Evenings have alwaysappeared ominous to me; so this part of the day I spenteither in making preparations for supper or in goingfor a film show. My interest in films has been of aclassical kind, in items like who has produced the film,who all have acted in it, etc. Almost the same amountof time as I spent in viewing a film did I spend inprocuring information about these. Raising a debateand making an issue of a non-issue is my favouritepastime.176. How did the author look when he returned

home from the hostel?(1) worthless (2) angry(3) depressed (4) clownish(5) None of these

177. In the tone of the father, there was

(1) warmth (2) arrogance(3) affection (4) taunt(5) request

178. The speaker had come home because of(1) home-sickness (2) vacation(3) bad health(4) financial difficulties(5) None of these

179. In whose company did he leave for the hostel?(1) orderly (2) cook(3) servant (4) ma id-servant(5) owner

180. What was his hobby?(1) to have a long sleep after lunch(2) to miss his lunch once a week(3) to go for a long walk after breakfast(4) to enjoy a short sleep after breakfast(5) None of these

181. How did he spend his evening?(1) in cursing himself(2) in making preparations for supper(3) in preparing his own food(4) in sleeping(5) None of these

182. What does the expression 'classical kind' standfor?(1) films as pure entertainment(2) critical approach to films(3) films as a means of information and

entertainment(4) interest in all the aspects of films(5) None of these

183. What was his favourite pastime?(1) making an issue of a non-issue.(2) teasing/provoking people for nothing.(3) giving information about films.(4) treating people as 'good-for-nothing'

fellows.(5) None of these

Directions (Q. 184-185) : Choose the one whichbest expresses the SAME meaning of the givenwords.

184. Pulled down(1) ugly (2) weak(3) miserable (4) worthless

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(5) None of these185. Set off

(1) invest money (2) start a business(3) begin a journey (4) run a race(5) None of these

Directions (Q. 186-187) : Choose the wordOPPOSITE in meaning to the given word.

186. Lacklustre(1) bright (2) colourful(3) inspiring (4) evergreen(5) None of these

187. Favourite(1) opportunistic (2) timely(3) bitter (4) hateful(5) None of these

Directions (Q. 188-192) : Rearrange thefollowing eight sentence a, b, c, d, e, f, g, and hin a proper sequence to construct a meaningfulparagraph. Then answer the questions givenbelow.(A) But there is a large middle ground, consi-sting

of people who support privatisation as apolicy.

(B) So we hope he will not mind setting all thedoubt at rest.

(C) But they are increasingly worried by reportsof rampant crony capitalism.

(D) These are not questions that would probablydisturb either ideological extreme-both campshave already made up their minds and noamount of argument is going to convince themotherwise.

(E) However, some disturbing questions regardingBALCO remain.

(F) This group does not wish to needlesslyimpugn anyone's integrity.

(G) Disinvestment minister has been largelycooperative with the media,

(H) But this group would like to be sure that thegovernment's dealings are completely aboveboard.

188. Which of the following should be EIGHTHstatement after rearrangement?(1) A (2) B(3) C (4) H

(5) F189. Which of the following should be SECOND

statement after rearrangement?(1) B (2) A(3) C (4) H(5) D

190. Which of the following should be FIFTHstatement after rearrangement?(1) F (2) E(3) H (4) G(5) C

191. Which of the following should beSEVENTH statement after rearrangement?(1) D (2) B(3) G (4) H(5) E

192. Which of the following should be FIRSTstatement after rearrangement?(1) A (2) C(3) F (4) E(5) H

Directions (Q. 193-203) : Fill in the blanks withthe help of the alternatives given.

The feeling of insecurity among the people hasincreased even though there is 58 use of the para-military and the military. The excesses 59 by the twoforces, particularly by the first, do not 60 the type ofanger it should because they are seen 61 those whoare trying to disintegrate the country. Even a 62 formore say in the administration is shouted down.Human rights organisations and civil liberty activistsare considered a 63 if not unpatriotic. Even the 64cases of cruelty are not pursued by the government65 the inquiry should 66 the forces and 67 theinstrument on which it has come to depend.193. (1) reduced (2) little

(3) free (4) generous(5) liberal

194. (1) displayed (2) condoned(3) committed (4) cleared(5) clumsy

195. (1) suppress (2) convey(3) evoke (4) resist(5) provoke

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196. (1) fighting (2) supporting(3) ignoring (4) obeying(5) denying

197. (1) desire (2) plea(3) prayer (4) demand(5) hope

198. (1) boon (2) help(3) threat (4) nuisance(5) crime

199. (1) new (2) concealed(3) blatant (4) minor(5) old

200. (1) lest (2) till(3) for (4) because(5) until

201. (1) degrade (2) demoralise(3) derail (4) disperse(5) divert

205. (1) lose (2) change(3) raise (4) blunt(5) gain

Directions (Q. 203-207) : Read the sentence tofind out whether there is any error in it. Theerror, if any, will be in one part of the sentence.The number of that part is the answer. If thereis no error the answer is 5.

203. They usually comes /to our house/whenever1 2 3

they pass /through our hometown. /4

No error5

204. Poonam used to /work for almost ten /hours1 2 3

in the organisation /where she has employed.4

/ No error5

205. The scooter would /not start even though /1 2

he tried/for a long time./No error3 4 5

206. Janaki was waving /to us but we could/1 2

not see her /at that distance. /No error3 4 5

207. Neither Munna nor /his assistants was1 2

present / at the party /though all were3 4

invited. /No error5

Directions (Q.208-212) : Pick out the mosteffective word to fill in the blank to make thesentence complete.

208. Vikas had to __some money by doing part-time work.(1) get (2) collect(3) accept (4) adjust(5) earn

209. Dileep was _____ late when he reached schoolthat day.(1) fully (2) very(3) always (4) adjust(5) too

210. The children ___ crackers to celebrate thevictory of their team.(1) released (2) fired(3) shot (4) broke(5) burst

211. Sanjeev is always very _____ in the classroomand answers most of the questions correctly.(1) lost (2) uneasy(3) moving (4) concentrated(5) attentive

212. Hari's factory can ____ out around 100 piecesper day, so by Tuesday he can complete theorder.(1) turn (2) produce(3) prepare (4) complete(5) give

Directions (Q. 213-215) : Find out the wronglyspelt word in each question given below.

213. (1) morality (2) jewelery(3) paragraph (4) rattling(5) All are correct

214. (1) claimant (2) generation(3) concurrent (4) disiple(5) All are correct

215. (1) shoot (2) subtle(3) thrift (4) slight

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(5) All are correctDirections (Q. 216-218) : Choose the wordwhich is most nearly the SAME in meaning,according to the passage.

216. Quiet(1) sorry (2) kind(3) grim (4) peaceful(5) silent

217. Muttered(1) apologised (2) grumbled(3) thought (4) addressed(5) reminded

218. Severe(1) sad (2) serious(3) deep (4) bad(5) intense

Directions (Q. 219-220) :Choose the word whichis most OPPOSITE in meaning, according to thepassage.

219. Just(1) unbiased (2) only(3) cruel (4) unfair(5) foolish

220. Lavishly(1) miserly (2) minutely(3) extravagantly (4) financially(5) doubtfully

Directions (Q. 221-225): Rearrange thefollowing eight sentences a, b, c, d, e, f, g and hin a proper sequence to construct a meaningfulparagraph. Then answer the questions givenbelow.(A) It was a series of great American critics who

sounded the alarm, with books such as theclosing of the American mind and the westerncanon.

(B) Of course the problem is not unique to Britain.(C) Will our leading writers and academics rise

up and with one voice protest against theministerial murder of English literature?

(D) But where are the British Bloms and Bellows?(E) Even if they agree to attack a Labour

Government, which they cannot, they woulddisagree about the issue.

(F) To denounce the philistines in Downing streetmight be punished by the loss of subsidies andperks, invitations and honours.

(G) Like hell they will(H) Expensively educated for the most part, our

literary intelligensia is not inclined to take riskfor the masses.

221. Which of the following should be THIRDstatement after rearrangement?(1) B (2) D(3) E (4) G(5) F

222. Which of the following should be FIFTHstatement after rearrangement?(1) A (2) C(3) E (4) H(5) G

223. Which of the follow should be FIRSTstatement after rearrangement?(1) B (2) C(3) A (4) F(5) H

224. Which of the following should be EIGHTHstatement after rearrangement?(1) b (2) a(3) g (4) h(5) f

225. Which of the following should be SIXTHstatement after rearrangement?(1) e (2) h(3) d (4) b(5) g

ANSWERS1 . (3) 2. ( 1) 3. (2) 4. (2) 5. (2) 6. (4) 7 . (1 ) 8. (2) 9. (3) 10. (1 )

11 . (1 ) 12. (4) 13. (3) 14. (3) 15 . (2) 16. (3) 17 . (3) 18. (3) 19. (3) 20. (3)21. (4) 22. (1) 23. (2) 24. (4) 25. (2) 26. (1) 27. (2) 28. (4) 29. (1) 30. (3)31. (2) 32. (4) 33. (4) 34. (3) 35. ( 1) 36. (3) 37. (4) 38. (1) 39. (2) 40. (1)41. (3) 42. (4) 43. (4) 44. (2) 45. (4) 46. (2) 47. (4) 48. (3) 49. (1) 50. (4)51. (4) 52. (4) 53. (2) 54. (2) 55. (5) 56. (5) 57. (5) 58. (3) 59. ( 1) 60. (1)61 . (1 ) 62. (4) 63. (2) 64. (4) 65. ( 1) 66. (2) 67. (4) 68. (5) 69. (3) 70. ( 1)71 . (5) 72. (3) 73 . (1 ) 74. (2) 75. (4) 76. (3) 77. (1 ) 78. (5) 79. (2) 80. (4)81. (2) 82. (1) 83. (5) 84. (4) 85. (3) 86. (5) 87. (4) 88. (2) 89. (1) 90. (5)91. (2) 92. (5) 93. (4) 94. (1) 95. (4) 96. (5) 97. (2) 98. (4) 99. (1) 100. (3)

101 . (3 ) 102. (5) 103. (4) 104. (2) 105. (1 ) 106. (4) 107. (3) 108. (2) 109. (4) 1 10. (5)1 11 . (4) 1 12 . (2) 1 13 . (1 ) 1 14 . (5) 1 15 . (2) 1 16. (4) 1 17 . (2) 1 18 . (3) 1 19. (4) 120. (1 )121 . (3 ) 122. (3) 123. (3) 124. (2) 125. (1 ) 126. (3) 127. (4) 128. (1 ) 129. (2) 130. (3)131 . (4) 132. (2) 133. (1 ) 134. (5) 135. (3) 136. (5) 137. (1 ) 138. (4) 139. (4) 140. (2)141 . (5) 142. (3) 143. (5) 144. (1 ) 145. (1 ) 146. (4) 147. (2) 148. (3) 149. (4) 150. (2)151 . (5) 152. (1 ) 153. (2) 154. (4) 155. (3) 156. (2) 157. (5) 158. (2) 159. (5) 160. (3)161 . (2) 162. (4) 163. (3) 164. (5) 165. (1 ) 166. (1 ) 167. (2) 168. (5) 169. (1 ) 170. (1 )171 . (2) 172. (5) 173. (2) 174. (1 ) 175. (1 ) 176. (1 ) 177 . (2) 178. (2) 179. (3) 180. (5)181 . (2) 182. (4) 183. (1 ) 184. (2) 185. (3) 186. (1 ) 187. (2) 188. (2) 189. (5) 190. (1 )191 . (3 ) 192. (4) 193. (5) 194. (3) 195. (3) 196. (1 ) 197. (4) 198. (4) 199. (3) 200. (1)201. (2) 202. (4) 203. (1) 204. (4) 205. (1) 206. (4) 207. (2) 208. (5) 209. (5) 210. (2)211 . (5) 212. (1 ) 213. (2) 214. (4) 215. (5) 216. (5) 217 . (2) 218. (5) 219. (4) 220. (1)221. (2) 222. (5) 223. (1) 224. (5) 225. (1)



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