Current Affairs Persons In News

J a n u a r y t o O c t o b e r

Gangadri

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OCTOBER

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Indian Newspaper Society elects Ravindra Kumar as its President October 2nd, 2013

Ravinder Kumar, Editor of ‘The Statesman’ newspaper has been elected as the president of

the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) for the year 2013-14.

About Indian Newspaper Society:

Founded in 1939 as Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society which was later renamed as the Indian

Newspaper Society (INS), formerly Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society, plays the role of a

central organization of the Press of India

Ranjib Biswal is the new IPL chairman October 2nd, 2013

Chief of the Odisha Cricket Association, Ranjib Biswal was appointment as the new Chairman of the

IPL who succeeds Rajiv Shukla, who resigned at the end of his tenure.

Biswal has been with the Indian cricket team as a ‘permanent manager’ through some of its most

memorable triumphs, including the 2011 50-over World Cup win at home.

N Srinivasan re-elected BCCI president October 2nd, 2013

Narayanaswamy Srinivasan has been re-elected as the president of the Board of Control

for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a third term.

Rahul Dravid is brand ambassador for National Tobacco Control Campaign October 2nd, 2013

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare named former Indian cricket team captain Rahul

Dravid as the brand ambassador for its National Tobacco Control Campaign. The national anti-

tobacco control campaign pursues the goal of World Health Assembly which 30% relative

reduction in tobacco use by 2025.

Anna Hazare receives Allard Prize for International Integrity October 2nd, 2013

Indian social activist Anna Hazare has been honored with the inaugural Allard Prize

for International Integrity conferred by the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Law at a

function held in Vancouver, Canada.

The Allard Prize is one of the world’s largest awards recognizing efforts to

fight corruption and to promote human rights.

The Allard Prize is awarded to an individual, movement or organization that has displayed

extraordinary courage and leadership in combating corruption, especially through promoting

transparency, accountability and the rule of law. The prize money for the award is $100,000.

German polls: Angela Merkel victorious October 2nd, 2013

Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel won a third term by in German elections. Her conservative

Union bloc – the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) won

41.5% of vote, but just missed an absolute majority.

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Sri Srinivasan becomes Judge of US Court October 1st, 2013

Sri Srinivasan was sworn in as judge of the US Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The court is the second most powerful court of the United States. Srinivasan has become the first

Indian-American to be on the bench of the US Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit.

He was born in Chandigarh. His parents migrated to the United States in 1970s.

Randall Oliphant becomes chairman of the World Gold Council October 1st, 2013

Randall Oliphant, Executive Chairman of the Canadian gold producer New Gold Inc., has been

appointed as the Chairman of the World Gold Council (WGC) . He took over the charge from Ian

Tefler.

What is World Gold Council (WGC)?

The World Gold Council is the market development organization for the gold industry. It is located in

United Kingdom (UK) and operates in India, the Far East, Europe and the US. Its operation domain

includes the investment, jewellery, technology sectors and engaging in government affairs. The WGC

seeks to provide industry leadership, whilst stimulating and sustaining demand for gold. It provides

insights into the international gold markets, helping people to better understand the wealth

preservation qualities of gold and its role in meeting the social and environmental needs of society.

The Council has 23 members who include the world’s leading and most forward thinking gold mining

companies.

Liu Shiwen of China clinched Women’s Table Tennis World Cup 2013 October 1st, 2013

Chinese table tennis player Liu Shiwen clinched Women’s Tennis World Cup 2013 after beating

teammate Wu Yang in the final play of the tournament held in Kobe, Japan. Liu had won the World

Cup in Guangzhou in 2009 and in Huangshi one year back. It was her third world cup victory.

PM approves setting up of 7th Central Pay Commission October 1st, 2013

The Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh has approved the constitution of the Seventh Central

Pay Commission (CPC). If we go by the average time of 2 years taken by a Pay Commission to

submit its recommendations, it is expected that the recommendations of this Pay Commission will be

implemented with effect from January 1, 2016.

Key points on the Central Pay Commissions

First CPC was constituted under the Chairmanship of Srinivasa Varadachariar in May 1946 and its

report was submitted by 1947. The first Central Pay Commission was based on the basic idea of

living wages to employees.

The 6th Central Pay Commission under the Chairmanship of B.N.Srikrishna was approved in July

2006.

The 7th CPC will recommend on the salaries, allowances and pensions of around 80 (50 lakh

employees + 30 lakh pensioners) employees/pensioners of the Central Government, including Defence and Railways.

The CPC is constituted by the Union Government of India after almost every 10 years in order to

revise the pay scales of employees. The recommendations of Pay Commission are always followed

by all the states in India after a few changes.

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SEPTEMEBER

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Rajan Committee’s new methodology to replace ‘special category’ status for devolution

of funds to States September 29th, 2013

The panel set up by the government under the chairmanship of the then Chief Economic Advisor

Raghuram Rajan (now RBI governor) has suggested ending the ‘special category’ criteria for

providing additional assistance to poorer states.

Why did the government set up the Rajan Committee?

The Union Government set up Raghuram Rajan Committee amid demands for “special category”

status by Bihar and some other status to get additional financial assistance from the Centre. The

Committee was tasked to suggest methods for identifying backwardness of states using a variety of

criteria and also to recommend how the criteria may be reflected in future planning and devolution of

funds from the central government to the states.

What are the key recommendations of the Rajan Committee?

The Rajan Committee has made two key recommendations for devolution of funds to states. They

are:

a) A new methodology based on a ‘Multi Dimensional Index (MDI)’.

Depending on the scores of the 28 states on the MDI, they will be split into 3 categories:

1. Least developed

2. Less developed

3. Relatively developed

b) Each state should get a basic fixed allocation and an additional allocation depending on its

development needs and development performance.

As per the Committee, these two recommendations, along with the allocation methodology, will

effectively subsume what is now “Special Category” status.

According to the MDI scores:

Least Developed states: Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Arunachal

Pradesh, Assam,Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Less Developed states: Manipur, West Bengal, Nagaland,Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and

Kashmir, Mizoram, Gujarat, Tripura,Karnataka, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh.

Relatively Developed states: Goa, Kerala, Tamil

Nadu, Punjab,Maharashtra, Uttrakhand and Haryana.

The Department of Economic Affairs will soon examine the report and take necessary action.

Sarah Outen: First woman to row solo from Japan to Alaska September 29th, 2013

Sarah Outen (28), an adventurer from Britain who spent 150 days at sea to become the first

woman to row solo from Japan to Alaska. She started from Choshi, Japan and sailed 3,750 miles

(6,034 km) to reach Aleutian Island in Alaska. It is part of her plan for a global trek by an ocean

rowing shell, kayak and bike.

Indian-origin scientist discovers universal flu vaccine September 29th, 2013

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A team of researchers led by Professor Ajit Lalvanifrom the National Heart and Lung Institute at

Imperial College London have discovered a new way of combating viral flu infections. He has

developed a roadmap to develop universal flu vaccine.

What is the approach to develop universal flu vaccine?

Scientists investigated why some people resist severe illnesses of influenza virus. They found that

the people who evade severe flu illnesses had more CD8 T cells in their blood at the start of the

pandemic.CD8T cells are a type of virus killing immune cell. They concluded that a vaccine which

can stimulate the body to produce more of these cells could be effective at preventing flu viruses,

including new strains that infect humans from birds and pigs.

How CD8T cells function differently than normal antibodies?

The specific quality of CD8T cells which renders it the potential to kill different strains of flu viruses is

that it attacks the core of the virus unlike normal antibodies which target the surface of a virus. The

flu virus rapidly changes its surface which makes older vaccine less effective. However, CD8T cells

attack the core of the virus which remains the same. So, even if the virus changes its outer structure

it would not affect the potential of CD8T cells to target them.

Union Government sets up Committee for evaluation of research and rankings September 29th, 2013

In the wake of India’s low performance in the rankings of higher educational institutions in world, the

Union Government of India formed a committee under the chairmanship of K. Vijay Raghavan,

Secretary of Department of Biotechnology for evaluation of research and rankings by promoting

healthy competition among institutions, departments and individual researchers.

What would the committee on evaluation of research and rankings do?

The committee will review the current funding of research and it will also devise a strategy for

selective approach in allocation of funds to academic institutions to encourage research. It will also

ensure that some of the institutions reach the global benchmarks in research.

John W. Ashe is the President of UNGA for its 68th session September 27th, 2013

The United Nations General Assembly elected by acclamation Ambassador John W. Ashe of Antigua

and Barbuda as President of its upcoming 68th session.

Made up of all the 193 Member States of the United Nations, the General Assembly provides a

forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of internationalissues covered by the UN

Charter. It meets in regular session intensively from September to December each year, and

thereafter as required.

Virat Kohli appointed as brand ambassador of BSF September 27th, 2013

The Border Security Force has appointed Indian cricketer Virat Kohli as its brand ambassador. It

is important to note that any central force in India has appointed its brand ambassador. BSF is the

second largest paramilitary force of India that guards two crucial Indian borders

with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Virat Kohli has been roped in for strengthen the appeal of 2.5 lakh personnel strong BSF.

Aamir Khan chosen for U.S. award for ‘Satyamev Jayate’ September 23rd, 2013

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Bollywood actor Aamir Khan has been chosen for a U.S. award for his television show ‘Satyamev

Jayate’ along with renowned American director Kathryn Bigelow and the International Center on

Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). They will be awarded at the inaugural awards by the America Abroad

Media (AAM) in Washington DC. As per AAM, their work exemplifies the power of media to inform,

educate and empower citizens about the critical social and public policy issues of our time.

Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola is Miss Muslimah World 2013 September 22nd, 2013

Nigerian beauty Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola (21) was announced the winner of the Miss Muslimah

World contest organised by the World Muslimah Foundation in Jakartha, Indonesia. The event was

held exclusively for Muslim women, who were assessed not only for their appearance (in Islamic

dress) but also for their piety, religious knowledge and understanding of the Quran. Participants were

asked to talk to people through their path to the religion and what wearing a headscarf meant to

them.

The Miss Muslimah World is an annual Islamic beauty pageant held at Indonesia. This year,

for the first time, the organizers allowed foreign participants from

Iran, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Brunei and Nigeria to take part.

Nina Davuluri : First Indian American to become Miss America September 20th, 2013

Nina Davuluri has become the first winner of the Miss America 2014 from an Indian background.

Previously, she won Miss New York 2013.

Nina Davuluri was born in Syracuse, New York to Telugu parents of Hindu faith. Her mother Sheila

Ranjani, software engineer, and father Davuluri Koteshwara Choudhary, gynecologist, both hailed

originally from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf honored with Indira Gandhi Peace Prize September 14th, 2013

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Indira Gandhi peace prize on Liberian President

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in recognition of her inspiring efforts for ensuring the return of peace,

democracy, development, security and order in Liberia and for her strong interest in the

consolidation and betterment of relations between both the countries.

About Ellen Johnson Sirleaf:

Current President of Liberia.

Earlier, served as Minister of Finance under President William Tolbert from 1979 until the

1980 coup d’état, after which she left Liberia and held senior positions at various financial

institutions.

Won the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006, and she was a successful

candidate for re-election in 2011.

First democratically elected women Head of State of any African country.

Awarded 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel

Karman of Yemen.

Obama nominates person of Indian origin to key post September 14th, 2013

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US President Barack Obama has nominated Indian-American Puneet Talwar as assistant secretary

of state for political military affairs.

Talwar has served Obama’s top advisor on the Middle East region for over four years. He is

the second Indian-American to be nominated as the assistant secretary position in the state

department. In July, 2013,Nisha Desai Biswal was nominated as the assistant secretary of state

for South and Central Asia. Both the nominations are yet to be confirmed by the Senate. If confirmed

by the Senate, Talwar, will provide policy direction in the areas of international security, security

assistance,defence strategy and plans, military operations, and defence trade.

WHO praises India’s efforts in eliminating Polio September 12th, 2013

India’s efforts in eliminating polio have been exalted by WHO which said the country has not

reported a single case of polio in the last 30 months.

WHO Director General Margaret Chan said India accomplished the feat even as 194 countries in

the world were pondering whether it can interrupt the transmission of polio. She urged other nations

in the South–East region to introduce universal access to healthcare. She complimented India’s

healthcare initiatives in improving the health of its mothers and children.

She also expressed concern over the increasing incidence of heart disease which caused 9.4 million

deaths every year. High blood is a main contributor to heart diseases and more than one in three

adults across the world is suffering from high blood pressure.

Thomas Bach is new President of International Olympic Committee September 12th, 2013

Thomas Bach (59) from Germany has been elected as the President of the InternationalOlympic

Committee (IOC). He is the first Olympic gold medallist to become the President of the IOC. He will

succeed Jacques Rogge, who stepped down after 12 years in service.

Who is Thomas Bach?

Thomas Bach is a German former fencer and is the President of the International Olympic Committee

and the German Olympic Committee. He won a gold medal in the team foil event at the 1976

Summer Olympics.

Mamnoon Hussain sworn in as Pakistan President September 11th, 2013

India-born Mamnoon Hussain sworn in as the 12th President ofPakistan. He was administered

the oath by Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Hussain, born in Agra, India, is also a textile businessman. He tenured as

the Governor of Sindh for a very short period when his appointment was dismissed by a military

coup d’état in 1999. succeeded Asif Ali Zardari.

Current Affairs: Top Headlines September 6, 2013 September 6th, 2013

Zubin Mehta conferred with Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony

Renowned western classical music maestro Zubin Mehta was conferred with the Tagore Award for

Cultural Harmony for year 2013. The award was presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at a lively

function at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Mehta is second person after late sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar

to receive Tagore Award for cultural harmony.

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Deepak Sandhu: First woman Chief Information Commissioner of India

Deepak Sandhu, former Indian Information Service officer of 1971 batch, became the first woman

Chief Information Commissioner of the country. She was administered the oath of office by President

Pranab Mukherjee at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Gareth Bale signs 100 million euros contract with Real Madrid

Footballer Gareth Bale signed a six-year contract with Real Madrid on a humongous fee of 100

million euros ($132 million) which is a new world record making it a biggest transfer of

a football player in the world. Previously, the record was with Cristiano Ronaldo when Madrid paid

93 million euros to Manchester United for his transfer in 2009.

Who is Gareth Bale?

Gareth Frank Bale is a Welsh footballer who plays for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and

the Wales national team as a winger. Bale is described by his admirers as a footballer with

“tremendous speed, great crossing ability, a great left foot and exceptional physical qualities”.Bale

was awarded PFA Young Player of the Year, the PFA Players’ Player of the Year and the FWA

Footballer of the Year awards during the season 2012–13.

NSA snooped on Brazilian President’s phones and email content September 5th, 2013

The secret documents disclosed by the NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden in June have revealed

that NSA spied on the content of telephone calls, emails and cellphone messages of Brazilian

President Dilma Rousseff and her key aides. The secret document mentions

bothBrazil and Mexico placing them in a group of nations that are being closely monitored as a

“challenge” by the U.S. Headlined “Friends, Enemies, or Problems?” The list starts with Brazil

and Egypt. It showsIndia at number 3 and concludes with Turkey and Mexico. The document

dismantles the NSA’s operation whose goal was “to improve understanding of the methods of

communication and the interlocutors of the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, and her top aides.”

Current Affairs: Top Headlines for September 4, 2013 September 4th, 2013

Raghuram Rajan becomes 23rd RBI Governor

Noted economist Raghuram Rajan became the new RBI Governor as he took charge from the

outgoing Governor D Subbarao. Rajan has been an Economics Professor and has also served as chief

economist at theInternational Monetary Fund. Rajan, who is known for having forecasted 2008 global

financial crisis has taken charge of the vital position at time when rupee has declined nearly 20%

against dollar and the problem of widening current account deficit and declining forex reserve has

become serious.

Union Cabinet gives nod to set up “National Institute of Solar Energy”

The Union Cabinet approved the proposal for setting up of an autonomous “National Institute of Solar

Energy” (NISE) to function as apex national body for research and technology development and

related activities in the area of solar energy technologies in the country. The institute is to be set up

by converting the Solar Energy Centre (SEC), Gurgaon with a long term vision to develop it as a

world class institute.

Housing loans should be linked to stages of construction: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India has stated that housing loans from banks to individuals should be linked

to the stages of construction. It said such loan products, popularly called 80:20 or 75:25 schemes,

are likely to make the banks as well as their home loan borrowers susceptible to additional risks. It

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added that upfront disbursals of lump sum loans should not be made in case of incomplete or under-

construction housing projects.

SJAM to honor Tedulkar with ‘Century of Centuries’ award

Sports Journalists’ Association of Mumbai (SJAM) has selected famous batsman Sachin Tendulkar for

a special ‘Century of Centuries Award’. The Little Master has been chose for the award for scoring

100 international hundreds.

Malala inaugurates new Birmingham Library

Famous brave schoolgirl and education activist Malala Yousufzai was the chief guest at the opening

ceremony of the new Birmingham Library which will now be the largest in Europe. On this occasion

she delivered a moving speech in which she called for peace and advocated free education for

children around the world.

Verizon Communications to acquire Vodafone’s 45% in JV for $130 billion

Verizon Communications has decided to acquire Vodafone Group’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless for

$130 billion. The deal will be the third biggest acquisition in corporate history, after Vodafone’s 1999

takeover of Germany’s Mannesmann for $203 billion and AOL’s $165 billion buyout of Time Warner in

2000. It also marks British telecom heavyweight Vodafone’s exit from the US mobile market.

Microsoft to buy Nokia for $7.2 billion

Software behemoth Microsoft Corp will buy Nokia’s business and its patents for 5.44 billion euros

with the aim to enter into mobile market. The deal will include Nokia’s mobile phones and smart

devices business units as well as operations including all Nokia devices and services –related

production facilities, sales and marketing activities and related support functions.

Birth certificate, Passport or Aadhaar card alone no proof of citizenship: Bombay HC

The Bombay high court, in a judgement, held that if an individual was born after July 1, 1987 then

merely having a birth certificate, passport or even an Aadhaar card is not enough to prove that

he/she is an Indian citizen. As per Indian Citizenship laws, a person born in India after July 1, 1987

cannot claim automatic citizenship unless at least one of the parents is an Indian.

September 3rd, 2013

Moortidevi award to Haraprasad Das

Noted poet, Haraprasad Das has been honored with the Moortidevi Award for 2012 for ‘Vamsha’, a

poetic recreation of the Mahabharata in contemporary dialect, which has been heralded as a post-

modern masterwork.

Washington moves USS Nimitz towards Red Sea

In what could be seen as a surge in tension in the West Asia region, the Washington has moved the

aircraft carrier USS Nimitz towards the Red Sea, though the warship had not yet received orders to

support a strike on Syria. US President Obama and his team are lobbying hard to seek US Congress

approval for a military strike against the Syrian regime over the use of chemical weapons in the

country. Russia has warned that any US military aggression in Syria would derail the Geneva peace

plan and has suggested US Congress to take a balanced view of the situation in Syria.

IAF inducts C-17 Globemaster III heavy-lift transport aircraft

The Indian Air Force inducted three Boeing C-17 Globemaster III,heavy-lift transport aircraft into

the newly-formed 81 ‘Skylord’ Squadron at the Hindan Air Base, Delhi. C-17 has the potential to

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carry 75 tonnes of load which is almost double the capacity of Russian IL-76 in the IAF inventory

which can carry only around 40 tonnes. It will boost up IAF’s flexibility in terms of operational

response and with the heavy lift capability it could easily move troops and heavy tanks to required

locations.

PM unveils Gandhi Heritage Portal

Prime Minister Dr. Mamohan Singh launched the Gandhi Heritage Portal. The portal has been

designed to review the message of non-violence to the world as well as to the Indian youth, besides

highlighting significant aspects of the freedom struggle and Gandhiji’s message and humanism. The

portal is conceived around The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. It makes available the critical

works in three languages: English (100 volumes), Hindi (97 volumes) and Gujarati (82 volumes).

These volumes are interlinked to provide easy navigation from one text and language to the other.

Diana Nyad becomes first person to swim from Cuba to US without shark cage

American long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad (64) became the first person to swim across 166-km

long Florida Strait from Cuba to the United States without a shark cage. It took her about 53 hours

after beginning from Havana. It was her 5th attempt when set a record for the longest ocean swim

without a shark cage or flippers.

Current Affairs: Top Headlines for September 1, 2013 September 1st, 2013

Curiosity to take pictures of solar eclipse

Mars rover Curiosity took pictures of the planet’s moon, Phobos, eclipsing the sun. NASA’s Curiosity

rover landed on the red planet in August 2012 for a 2-year mission to study if the planet similar to

Earth in the solar system ever had the chemical ingredients for supporting life.

Pakistan not considering granting MFN status to India

Pakistan’s Finance Minister has communicated that, at present, it is not in talks to grant of Most

Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India. The remarks came within days of World Bank suggesting in a

report that Pakistan will benefit from granting the MFN status to India. Pakistan already enjoys the

MFN status which India extended to it in 1996. The bilateral trade between the countries was at

$2.35 billion in 2012-13, as against $1.93 billion in fiscal 2011-12.

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AUGUST

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Current Affairs: Top Headlines for August 31, 2013 August 31st, 2013

India registers 4.4% GDP growth in Q1 slowest in 4 years

The first quarter of the current fiscal has been slowest in over 4 years with GDP growth of 4.4%. The

decline implies a deepening slowdown and aggravating the widespread negative sentiment brought

on by the sharp depreciation of rupee depreciation and plunging stock markets.

Exclusive satellite for Indian Navy GSAT-7 launched

The European Ariane 5 rocket put it space India’s first military communication satellite GSAT-7 which

was launched from the Kourou space port of French Guiana space in South America. The satellite will

serve exclusively to Indian Navy. The satellite is expected to enhance the country’s maritime security

and intelligence collection by covering a wide region on either coasts of the Indian Ocean region.

7000 tickets/min will be the booking speed of IRCTC website

The Centre for Railway Information System is developing ‘next generation’ e-ticketing system for

IRCTC’s website which will have an efficiency to book 7200 tickets e-tickets per minute. It will render

the website to perform faster and hassle free access even at peak time and have high availability

and business continuity, scalability to meet the needs of future growth and security to prevent frauds

and unauthorized access.

‘Mars One’: 8,000 Indians register for one-way trip to the Red Planet

So far 8,107 Indians have registered for the one-way trip to Mars and to live on the red planet, as

‘Mars One’ project is planning to set up a colony there in the next 10 years. A not-for-profit initiative,

‘Mars One’, intends to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023 and is signing up

those inclined to fly there. India has fourth highest number of participants among other nations of

the world.

The top 10 nations to register are the USA (37,852), China (13,124),Brazil (8,686), India (8,107),

Russia (7,138), Britain (6,999), Mexico(6,771), Canada (6,593), Spain (3,621)

and Philippines (3,516).

Saudi Arabia makes domestic violence a criminal offence

The cabinet of Saudi Arabia approved a new law that criminalizes domestic violence, usually

targeting women and children. The Protection from Abuse law is meant for protecting people from all

forms of abuse and providing them shelter as well as social, psychological, and medical help.

Solution for Global Hunger: Study shows instant noodles can play key role to battle

global hunger August 28th, 2013

Instant Noodles a solution to Global Hunger:

As per a latest study by Deborah Gewertz, Professor of Anthropology at Amherst College in

US, instant noodles can play a significant role in combating the challenge of global hunger

which is aggravating with the increasing population.

The study examines the history, manufacturing, marketing and consumption of the ubiquitous

foodstuff and suggests that instant noodles will have an increasingly important global role in the

future.

As per the study, instant noodles are served in variable forms and have already shown a remarkable

potential to be a part of diverse lives. Researchers expect that the calories provided by the tasty,

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convenient, cheap, shelf-stable, industrially prepared instant noodles will remain important as food

becomes scarcer in the future.

What is the origin of Instant Noodles?

Instant noodles were invented by Taiwan-born inventor Momofuku Ando in Japan.

They were first marketed on August 25, 1958, by Ando’s company Nissin under the brand

name Chikin Ramen.

In India the most popular brand is Nestle’s Maggi which is regarded in popular culture as a two-

minute noodle.

Parthasarathi Shome appointed as chairman of TARC August 28th, 2013

The government has set up a 7-member Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC) which

will be headed by Parthasarathi Shome.

What will be major tasks before Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC) ?

The TARC will revisit tax laws and suggest measures for putting in place a stable and non-adversarial

tax administration. Some other key taskswill be:

Review the current mechanism of dispute resolution covering time and compliance cost and

recommend steps for strengthening them for both domestic and international taxation.

Reviewing the existing mechanism and recommend measures for deepening and widening the

base of tax and taxpayers.

Suggest a system to enforce better tax compliance — by size, segment and nature of taxes and

taxpayers, that should cover methods to encourage voluntary tax compliance.

Suggest measures for strengthening the database and inter-agency information sharing, not just

between the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Excise and Customs

(CBEC) but also with the banking and financial sector and other agencies such as Central Economic

Intelligence Bureau (CEIB), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and Enforcement Directorate to

ensure improved tax compliance through sharing of such information.

Brigalia Bam honored with Gandhi Peace Prize August 28th, 2013

Brigalia Bam, former head of South Africa’s election body, received the prestigious Mahatma

Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation recognizing her commitment to

democracy. Bam was conferred with this honor for ensuring free and fair elections since the

establishment of democracy in 1994 when anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela was elected the

country’s first democratic president.

About Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize:

The Prize was established in 2003 to mark the centenary of Indian Opinion, a newspaper started

by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa. He began his socio-political life in the country and fought for

justice, peace and reconciliation.

England wins Ashes 2013 August 28th, 2013

England clinched Ashes 2013 series with 3-0 win over arch-rivalsAustralia. The fifth and last test

match played at the Oval stadium ended in a draw.

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Key Players of Ashes Test Series 2013:

Man of the Series (England): Ian Bell

Man of the Series (Australia): Ryan Harris

Robert Mugabe takes oath as the President of Zimbabwe August 26th, 2013

Veteran leader Robert Mugabe took oath as Zimbabwe’s President for another 5 year term.

The presidential elections in Zimbabwe were marred by controversy with the opposition leader

Morgan Tsvangirai alleging that the election was flawed, with registration problems that may have

prevented up to a million people from voting.

The former colonial power Britain has called for an independent investigation into the conduct of the

election which Mr. Mugabe officially won by a landslide.

Top tech cos join hands to launch ‘Internet.Org’ August 24th, 2013

Seven of the world’s tech giants (Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and

Samsung) collaborated to launch Internet.org with an aim to make Internet access affordable

for people across the globe.

The initiative will be headed by Facebook Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

What is “Internet.org” ?

Internet.org is an initiative of Facebook and six other technology giants, namely Ericsson,

MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung.

The partners will collaborate towards developing lower-cost, higher-quality smartphones and

deploying Internet access in undeserved communities.

The endeavour is to overcome current challenges, including developing technologies that make

mobile connectivity more affordable and decrease the cost of delivering data to people worldwide.

The partners will develop joint projects, share knowledge, and mobilise industry and governments

to bring the world online.

Focus will be on developing technologies that make mobile connectivity more affordable and

decrease the cost of delivering data to people worldwide.

Sharing tools, resources and best practices, Internet.org partners will explore solutions in three

major opportunity areas:affordability, efficiency, and business models.

In order to achieve its goal of connecting the two-thirds of the world who are not yet online,

internet.org will focus on three key challenges in developing countries:

1. Making access affordable (Affordability)

2. Using data more efficiently (Efficiency)

3. Helping businesses drive access (Business Models)

AFFORDABILITY

No one should have to choose between access to the internet and food or medicine. Internet.org

partners will join forces to develop technology that decreases the cost of delivering data to people

worldwide, and helps expand internet access in underserved communities.

EFFICIENCY

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Transmitting data—even a text message or a simple web page—requires bandwidth, something

that’s scarce in many parts of the world. Partners will invest in tools and software to improve data

compression capabilities and make data networks and services run more efficiently.

BUSINESS MODELS

Connecting billions of people will be a massive global effort that requires ongoing

innovation. Developers, mobile operators and device manufacturers will work together to introduce

business models that give people more ways to go online.

Bradley Manning sentenced to 35-year imprisonment August 24th, 2013

The U.S. soldier Bradley Manning was convicted of the biggest disclosure of classified data in the

nation’s history by leaking files to WikiLeaks and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Who is Bradley Manning?

Bradley Manning is a United States Army soldier who was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on

suspicion of having passed classified material to the website WikiLeaks. He was ultimately charged

with 22 offenses, including communicating national defenceinformation to an unauthorized source

and aiding the enemy. He was convicted in July 2013 of most of the charges, including several

violations of the Espionage Act, but was acquitted of aiding the enemy, the most serious charge.

Manning in 2010 turned over more than 700,000 classifiedfiles, battlefield videos and diplomatic

cables to WikiLeaks,a pro transparency website. He was working as a low-level intelligence analyst in

Baghdad when he handed over the documents thereby catapulting WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian

Assange into the international spotlight.

Maharashtra govt. clears anti-superstition law August 24th, 2013

The Maharashtra government decided to promulgate an ordinance to enact a long-pending bill to

uproot black magic, blind faith and superstitious beliefs. The step has come following the death of

anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar . A prime supporter of the law, Dabholkar was shot

dead in Pune which led to sparking outrage across the state. The Anti-Superstition Bill was first

introduced in 1995 in the state legislature and was redrafted at least 29 times. Its clearance was

delayed several times due to stiff opposition from various quarters’ especially Hindu groups which

claimed it to be “anti-Hindu”.

Who was Narendra Dabholkar?

Narendra Achyut Dabholkar was an Indian rationalist and author from Maharashtra. He was

the founder-president of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) -”Committee for

Eradication of Superstition in Maharashtra”, and campaigned against superstitions, confronting

dubious tantriks and claimed holy men who promised ‘miracle cures’ for ailments. He criticized the

country’s “godmen”, self-styled Hindu ascetics who claim to perform miracles and have many

followers.

He was the founding member of Parivartan, a rehabilitation centre located in Satara and served as

vice president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA). Dabholkar was the editor of

a renowned Marathi weekly Sadhana.

“Ug99 is not an immediate threat to India’s crops” – Scientist Ronnie Coffman August 20th, 2013

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As per noted scientist Ronnie Coffman from College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell

University (US), India does not face any immediate threat from the Ug99 wheat rust disease that

hits the stem of a wheat plant. However it has to be prepared.

What is Ug99?

Ug99 is a lineage of wheat stem rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici), which is present

in wheat fields in several countries in Africa and the Middle East and is predicted to spread rapidly

through these regions and possibly further afield, potentially causing a wheat production disaster

that would affect food security worldwide. It can cause up to 100% crop losses and is virulent against

many resistance genes which have previously protected wheat against stem rust.

So far the Indian sub-continent had been safe. If the disease were to hitAfghanistan, Pakistan and

India, it would hurt wheat availability around the globe. The spread of the wind-blown

disease would depend on the west-east air flow pattern.

What are the possible remedies to tackle Ug99?

India, which has been one of the biggest sources of providing plant material for developing rust

resistant varieties for the world, may use its rust resistant varieties of wheat to replace the wheat

which is vulnerable to Ug99. Furthermore, the disease can be kept under control by surveillance and

fungicide sprays with full participation of farmers.

What is the status of Wheat production in India?

The wheat production in India is steadily increasing and currently it is preparing to boost its output

to a record level of 100 million tonnes in 2015. India is the second largest wheat producer and

consumer in the world. In 2012-13, the country produced 92.46 million tonnes of wheat. This is

13.2% of the world’s production.

U.N. Chief asks nations to contain declining Official Development Assistance (ODA) August 20th, 2013

Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary-General, has expressed concerns over the continuous decline

in Official Development Assistance (ODA) and has asked the nations to reverse the fall.

In a progress report to the U.N. General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs), Mr. Ban expressed concern at the drop in ODA — which comes under MDG8, the global

partnership — over the past two years.

ODA fell by 4% in real terms in 2012, following a 2% dip in 2011, according to the Organisation

for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Since reaching a peak in 2010, ODA has

fallen by 6% in real terms.

As per the report, ODA will remain crucial to leverage other finance, particularly for the least

developed countries and those emerging from conflicts and disasters. The report asks donors to

establish a timetable for meeting ODA targets and enhancing the principles on development

effectiveness, as set out in Busan, South Korea, where ownership of development strategy by aid

recipients was emphasized.

What is Official Development Assistance (ODA)?

Official Development Assistance is defined as those flows to countries and territories on the the list of

recipients of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-

operation and Development (OECD) and to multilateral development institutions which are:

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1. provided by official agencies, including state and local governments, or by their executive

agencies; and

2. each transaction of which:

is administered with the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing

countries as its main objective; and

is concessional in character and conveys a grant element of at least 25% (calculated at a rate of

discount of 10% )

Government sets up high-level panel to map status of tribals August 20th, 2013

The Government has set up a high level panel to prepare a position paper on the socio-

economic, health and educational status of tribals and also recommend policy initiatives as well as

effective outcome-oriented measures to improve development indicators and strengthen public

service delivery to STs.

India has around 8.6% people belonging to tribal community. The population is concentrated in the

north-east, particularly in Nagaland,Mizoram, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, and in those parts

now overrun by Maoists — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissaand parts

of Bihar and Maharashtra.

Who will be the members of the Committee?

Virginius Xaxa, noted tribal expert and eminent sociologist, who was recently appointed member of

the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, will be the head of the Committee.

Other members include Usha Ramanathan, Joseph Bara, K.K. Misra, Abhay Bang and Sunila

Basant, all of whom are familiar with the problems of tribals and come from diverse backgrounds —

Law, History, Anthropology, Medicine and Administration.

IAAF World Championships: Bolt wins 200 meters, Kiprotich bags marathon gold August 20th, 2013

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won his second gold medal of the World Athletic Championships

being held in Moscow, Russia,cruising through the finish line to win the men’s 200 meters. The

100-meter champion won the race in 19.66 seconds for his third straight world title in the 200.

Warren Weir of Jamaica was second in 19.79 and Curtis Mitchell of the United States took bronze in

20.04.

In Marathon, Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda beat two Ethiopian rivals in the final

two kilometres to win the world championship marathon.

Rafael Nadal wins men’s singles title in Rogers Cup 2013 August 20th, 2013

Rafael Nadal of Spain defeated Canada’sMilos Raonic in the final of the men’s Rogers Cup

2013 in Montreal, Canada.

This is the Nadal’s third Rogers Cup title. He also won Rogers cup in 2005 and 2008. This triumph

brought Rafael Nadal his 25th ATP World Tour Masters title. As per the latest ATP world rankings

Rafael Nadal moves to third rank and Milos Raonic rose to tenth rank and also became the first

Canadian to be ranked in the top 10 on the ATP Tour.

The top position is held by Serbian player Novak Djokovic.

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About Canadian Open/ Canada Masters/ Rogers Cup

The Canadian Open (also known as the Canada Masters), currently sponsored as the Rogers Cup

presented by National Bank. Held in Canada.

Annual tennis tournament

Men’s competition is a Masters 1000 event on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour.

The women’s competition is a Premier 5 tournament on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA)

tour.

Played on hard courts.

Ibrahim Keita wins Mali presidential election August 20th, 2013

Mali’s former Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has won the presidential election runoff. He

now faces a tough task of rebuilding a country reeling under more than a year of turmoil including a

military coup and war. Mali’s first election since 2007 was seen as vital for unlocking more than $4

billion in aid promised byinternational donors who halted contributions in the wake of last year’s coup

that ignited an Islamist insurgency and a French military offensive.

Noted Kamaicha player Sakar Khan passed away August 20th, 2013

Renowned Rajasthani folk musician Sakar Khanknown for the melodious bow and string

instrument Kamaicha passed away in Jaisalmer,Rajasthan.

Sakar Khan:

He belonged to the traditional Manganiyar folk musician community of Rajasthan and learned to play

the Kamaicha from his father Chunar Khan who is known as a legend among the folk musicians of

the state. Sakar Khan had performed with the well known American violinist Yehudi

Menuhin and George Harrison of The Beatles and also performed at

major international festivals in the US, France, Japan and USSR.

He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2012, the Tulsi Samman by the Madhya

Pradesh government in 1990 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1991.

What is Kamaicha?

The Kamaicha,also known as the Kamancha and Kamancheh is one of the oldest bowed

instruments of the world and is found across the globe with several regional variations.

In Kashmir it is known as saaz-i-kashmir and is often compared to the middle-

eastern instrumentRaba’ab.

It has a goat skin spherical sound box with three or four strings (made either with silk or metal) and

14 sympathetic metal strings.

Committee to be set up to suggest establishment of Universities for Research &

Innovation August 19th, 2013

The Government has decided to set up a Committee for suggesting changes to the provisions of

the Universities for Research and Innovation Bill, 2012 and suggest a roadmap for future.

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What does the ‘Universities for Research & Innovation Bill, 2012’ provides for?

The Bill provides for establishment and incorporation of Universities for Research and

Innovation which would work towards makingIndia a global knowledge hub. They would set

benchmarks for excellence for other institutions of higher learning through path breaking works and

by promoting teaching, learning and research.

What is the task before the Committee?

The Committee headed by Prof. Ramakrishna Ramaswamy, Vice Chancellor, University

of Hyderabad, has been set up for recommending changes to the provisions of the Universities for

Research and Innovation Bill, 2012 and to suggest a roadmap for future.

Shree Ganeshan Chundan wins Nehru Trophy Boat Race 2013 ugust 19th, 2013

Shree Ganeshan Chundan, the snake boat of the St Francis Boat Club, Harippad won the

61st edition of the Nehru Trophy Boat Race 2013 held in Punnamada Lake in Alleppey

(Alappuzha), SouthKerala. This is the second consecutive win for Shree Ganeshan that was

captained by Arunkumar, Karthikapally. Ganeshan was honoured with the silver trophy that was

donated by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952 with his signature embossed on it.

About the Nehru Trophy Boat Race:

The practice of the boat race started in 1952 after the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru

visited the area in Kerela. The villagers held a boat race to honour his visit in the area.

The Nehru Trophy Boat Race is conducted every year on the second Saturday of August. Nehru

donated a silver trophy to the winners of the race and since then the competition is held by his

name.

The main attraction of the contest remains the snake boats, which are locally known as Chundan

Vallam, which means Beaked Boat. Snake boats have been named following its structure that is

long and narrow in shape and 36 to 42 meter in its length.

Famous French tennis player Marion Bartoli retires August 18th, 2013

Marion Bartoli declared her retirement thereby ending her tennis career just six weeks after winning

Wimbledon. Bartoli is currently ranked 7th in the world.

Marion Bartoli:

Marion Bartoli is a former French no. 1 professional tennis player. She won the 2013 Wimbledon

Championships singles title after previously being runner-up in 2007, and was a semi-finalist at the

2011 French Open. She also won seven Women’s Tennis Association singles titles and three doubles

titles. Bartoli is currently ranked 7th in the world.

Noted naturalist Zafar Futehally passes away August 18th, 2013

India’s one of the best known naturalists and ornithologists Zafar Futehally (93) passed away.

Zafar Futehally:

Born in Andheri, Mumbai in 1920.

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He led the conservation movement in India serving as a link between conservationists and

corporates.

He also founded Newsletter for Birdwatchers a periodical that helped birdwatchers around

India to communicate their observations. It was a vital publication and served to document

observations at a time when there was no digital documentation and there were few scientific

studies on wildlife in the country.

Mr. Futehally was associated for 60 years with the Bombay Natural History Society of which he

was honorary secretary for 16 years till the 1970s.

Usain Bolt regains 100-meter gold at worlds August 18th, 2013

Six-time Olympic gold medalist, Usain Bolt, regained World 100 meter title as he won the race

in 9.77 seconds at the IAAF World Athletics Championships held in Moscow. Bolt finished ahead

of Justin Gatlin of the U.S. (9.85) and Jamaican Nesta Carter (9.95).

Bolt had previously won the event at the World championships in Berlin in 2009 where he set

the current world record of 9.58 seconds.

Other Winners at IAAF World Athletics Championship 2013:

Olympic decathlon champion Ashton Eaton of the U.S. won gold in the event.

Olympic winner Brittney Reese of the U.S. won the women’s long jump for the third consecutive

time with a leap of 7.01 meters.

Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia won the women’s 10,000 meter title for the third time.

Sandra Perkovic of Croatia won the women’s discus.

Aleksandr Ivanov of Russia won the men’s 20-kilometer walk.

Hassan Rouhani is the new President of Iran August 15th, 2013

Hassan Rouhani sworn as the new President of Iran in the ceremony held at the Iranian Parliament

in Tehran. Rouhani, who will have 4-year tenure as President, is the 7th (different) President of Iran

after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. He secured a little over 50% votes to win the election and

succeeded Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Some facts about the election of the President in Iran:

The President of Iran is elected as per rules envisaged in the country’s Constitution. As per the

Constitution of Iran, the President is elected by an absolute majority of votes polled by the voters.

The President must be elected from among religious and political personalities. The President is

elected for 4-year term by the direct vote of the people. His re-election for a successive term is

allowed only once.

PV Sindhu creates history by winning Bronze in World Badminton Championship August 15th, 2013

PV Sindhu created history as she won bronze medal in the WorldBadminton Championships

Although she lost in the semifinal to Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, she became the first Indian

to win a women’s singles medal in the World Badminton Championship.

PV Sindhu holds both junior and senior national titles after thelegendary Prakash Padukone

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In past, Prakash Padukone had won the men’s singles bronze in 1983 at Copenhagen. Jwala Gutta

and Ashwini Ponnappa won another bronze in women’s doubles in the 2011 edition.

Parimarjan Negi regains Politiken Cup August 12th, 2013

Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi (Born: February 9, 1993 (age 20))put up a brilliant performance to

regain the Politiken Cup chess Title in Copenhagen,Denmark. Parimarjan had recently won the

DCInternational Open in US and tied for the top place in the World Open. The youngest international

Grandmaster in chess won the same tournament in 2009. This was Negi’s second title in the last

three outings.

Parimarjan Negi studies in the Amity International School and has won various tournaments

there. Negi became the youngest Grandmaster inIndia on July 1, 2006 by drawing with Russian

Grandmaster Ruslan Sherbakov and finished with six points from nine rounds of the Chelyabinsk

Region Superfinal chess tournament in Satka.

Parimarjan Negi replaces Pendyala Harikrishna as India’s youngest ever Grand Master.

Hassan Rouhani is the new President of Iran August 12th, 2013

Hassan Rouhani sworn as the new President of Iran in the ceremony held at the Iranian Parliament

in Tehran. Rouhani, who will have 4-year tenure as President, is the 7th (different) President of Iran

after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. He secured a little over 50% votes to win the election and

succeeded Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Some facts about the election of the President in Iran:

The President of Iran is elected as per rules envisaged in the country’s Constitution. As per the

Constitution of Iran, the President is elected by an absolute majority of votes polled by the voters.

The President must be elected from among religious and political personalities. The President is

elected for 4-year term by the direct vote of the people. His re-election for a successive term is

allowed only once.

Agni V missile expected to be operational by 2015 August 6th, 2013

According to Tessy Thomas, director, Agni Missile Project, DefenceResearch and

Development Organisation (DRDO), two or three more successful test firings, the Agni V

missile is likely to be operational by 2015.

Salient features of Agni V

Intercontinental ballistic missile developed by the Defence Research and Development

Organisation (DRDO) of India.

Part of the Agni series of missiles, one of the missile systems under the original Integrated

Guided Missile Development Programme.

Range of 5,500–5,800 km.

It will allow India to strike targets across Asia and into Europe.

A 3 stage solid fuelled missile with composite motor casing in the second and third stage.

Carry MIRV (Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles) payloads. A single

MIRV equipped missile can deliver multiple warheads at different targets.

Incorporate advanced technologies involving ring laser gyroscope and accelerometer for navigation

and guidance.

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First successfully test-fired by DRDO from Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa on April 19, 2012.

With this, India joined an “elite nuclear club” that also included China, Russia, France, the US,the

UK and possibly Israel.

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JULY

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Bollywood’s Cop Jagdish Raj passed away July 31st, 2013

Jagdish Raj (85), a noted veteran actor passed away. Raj had the record ofplaying a police officer

144 times in various Bollywood films. He was an ideal police officer for generations in Indian

films.

About Jagdish Raj – The Bollywood’s Cop:

Born on 1928 in Sargodha, Pakistan. Acted in films from 1960 till retirement in 1992. He was best

known for being cast a record 144 times as a police officer. Some of his popular movies include

“Deewar”, “Don”, “Shakti”, “Mazdoor”, “Imaan Dharam”, “Gopichand Jasoos”, “Silsila”,

“Aaina” and “Besharam“.

India’s K. Jennitha Anto wins IPCA World Women’s Chess Championship July 31st, 2013

India’s K Jennitha Anto won the 13th IPCA World Women’s Individual Chess Championship

title organised by the Interntional Physically Disabled Chess Association, at Velke Losiny in

the Czech Republic.

She bagged the Woman International Master title. The WIM title would allow her direct entry in

many of the National events for women except the premier. 49 physically challenged players of from

15 countries competed in the IPCA event.

K.D. Singh is the new President for the IHF July 31st, 2013

K.D. Singh who is presently one of the vice-presidents of Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) will

now be its president. He will take the charge from Dinesh Reddy who stepped down as the president

of the due to his inability to continue with the responsibility.

Mamnoon Hussain is Pakistan’s new President July 31st, 2013

Mamnoon Hussain, the candidate of PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has been elected

as the 12th President of Pakistan. Members of the national Parliament and provincial assemblies in

Pakistan voted for the country’s new President.

Hussain, born in Agra, India, is also a textile businessman. He also tenured as

theGovernor of Sindh for a very short period when his appointment was dismissed by a military

coup d’état in 1999. He will take over the President office on September 8, 2013 succeeding Asif Ali

Zardari who did not seek re-election and is retiring.

Parliament to approve “1974 Indira-Mujib pact” July 31st, 2013

The government will bring a constitutional amendment Bill in Parliament during the forthcoming

session for implementation of theIndo-Bangla land boundary agreement. Indiaintends to ratify

the 1974 Indira-Mujib pact fordemarcation of boundaries and for exchange of 161

adversely held enclaves with a population of about 50,000 people.

Both the countries have discussed the modalities for implementation of the extradition

treaty signed that will give the way for deportation of ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia,

currently lodged in a Bangladeshi jail.

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India has also conveyed Bangladesh to ensure the release the remaining six Indians who were

abducted by different Indian insurgent groups like NSCN, PLA and NDFB to that country. The six are

part of 13 people whom the insurgents had kidnapped and taken to Bangladesh.

Urdu Ghazals penned by Veer Savarkar during his Jail Term in Andaman discovered July 31st, 2013

A notebook containing two patriotic Ghazals written by legendary patriot Veer Savarkar has been

discovered by a Dadar based institute. The Ghazals in Urdu were written by the freedom fighter

during his 11-year imprisonment in the Andaman Cellular Jail.

About Veer Savarkar:

Born on 28 May, 1883 in village Bhagur, near Nashik,Maharashtra , Vinayak Damodar

Savarkar commonly known as Swatantryaveer Savarkar was a freedom fighter.

Renowned social reformer, writer, dramatist, poet, historian, political leader and philosopher.

Pioneer of the movement for religious reform in Hindu culture by doing away the caste system

prevalent within it. He coined the term Hindutva.

He was the founder of the student societies that includedAbhinav Bharat Society and

the Free India Society.

His published work the Indian War of Independence about the Indian rebellion of 1857 was

banned by British authorities.

WikiLeaks party launched by Julian Assange to contest Australia polls July 30th, 2013

Julian Assange (42), an Australian citizen and founder of WikiLeaks has launched his Australian

political party WikiLeaks via a video link from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The party was

created in part to support Julian Assange’s bid for a Senate seat in Australia in the 2013 election.

The Constitution of the WikiLeaks Party lists its objectives which include the protection of human

rights and freedoms; transparency of governmental and corporate action, policy and information;

recognition of the need for equality between generations; and support of Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander self-determination.

Who is Julian Assange?

Julian Assange was born in Townsville, Queensland and is a sixth-generation Australian. Assange is

an Australian editor, activist, political talk show host, computer programmer, publisher and a

journalist. He is famous as editor-in-chief and founder of Wikileaks.

What is WikiLeaks?

It is a media website which is an international, self-described, not-for-profit organization

publishing submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources,

news leaks, and whistle-blowers.

It made grabbed international attention when it released some of the confidential information

of the US linked to Afghanistan war including equipment expenditure and holdings.

In 2010 it revealed U.S. State department diplomatic cables.

Why Sweden wants to extradite Julian Assange?

Sweden alleged Assange of committing molestation of two women during his visit to the country. A

European Arrest Warrant and an Interpol red notice was released against him. He is currently hiding

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in British Embassy. His request to Britain for political asylum was denied. Recently, Ecuadorhas

granted political asylum to Assange which has resulted into a stand-off between the two countries.

Why Assange wants to contest poll?

Assange will be a candidate for a Victorian seat in the Australian governing body in the national

elections later this year.

The WikiLeaks Party will focus on seven fields among them academics; journalists and human

rights activists will be included.

Assange aims to field candidates from New South Wales and Western Australia. The party’s main

agenda is to make sure that the government in power does their job and

therebyscrutinizing the government’s activity.

WikiLeaks Party’s major values of transparency, accountability and justice will help them

examine any crucial issues for Australians: tax reform, asylum seekers, climate change policy and

other fields.

Suresh Chandra Mohanty – The new president of Institute of Cost Accountants of India

(ICAI) July 30th, 2013

Suresh Chandra Mohanty will succeed Rakesh Singh to become the new President of

the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) for the year 2013-14.

Mr. A. S. Durga Prasad has been elected as the vice president of ICAI.

What is Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) ?

Established on May, 28, 1959 under the Cost and Works Accountants Act, 1959 enacted by the

Parliament to regulate the profession of Cost and Management Accountancy in India.

It is a professional management accounting institute of India

It is governed by a council of 20 members of whom 15 persons are elected from among the

members of the Institute and 5 persons are nominated by the Government of India.

It is a member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), The Confederation of Asian

and Pacific Accountants (CAPA) and The South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA).

Kumar Mangalam Birla steps down from RBI Board July 30th, 2013

Kumar Mangalam Birla who was nominated as a member of the directors of the Central Board of

the RBI in 2006 stepped down from RBI Board.

Why did K.M.Birla stepped down from the RBI Board?

To avoid any conflict of interest as few weeks back his group firm applied for a bank license.

Among the 26 entities his group firm “Aditya Birla Nuvo” is one of the entities which have

applied for a bank license.

The RBI is expected to grant new licenses by March 2014 as the last date for applying for a bank

license expired on July 1, 2013.

Froome wins the 100th Tour de France title July 30th, 2013

Britain’s Christopher Froome who belongs to Team Sky (28) has clinched the 100th edition of

Tour deFrance title of 2013. Colombian Nairo Quintana of Movistar bagged the second

place.

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Christopher Froome has became the second successive Briton to win the race after

teammate and compatriot Bradley Wiggins Froome who made history as Britain’s first winner in

2012, when Froome finished runner-up.

Results of Tour de France:

Froome won his first ever yellow jersey with a winning

Nairo Quintana, who stood at second position, secured the white jersey for the best young rider

and the best climber’s polka dot jersey.

Slovakian Peter Sagan of Cannondale won the point’s competition’s green jersey for the second

successive year.

“George Alexander Louis”- Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to baby boy July 28th, 2013

Britain has a new future king after the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a baby boy. Britain’s

Prince William and his wife Kate have named their son as “George Alexander Louis”. He will be

known as Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge. Britain is likely to be ruled by kings for 80

years or more when the Prince of Wales succeeds the Queen.

Prince Philippe is Belgium’s 7th King July 28th, 2013

Belgium’s King Albert after a 20-year reign stepped down the throne which has

been overtaken by his son Philippe who took the oath before parliament to become Belgium’s

seventh king at the royal palace in the presence of Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo who holds the

political power in the 183-year old parliamentary democracy.

Indian woman scientist Sunetra Gupta’s portrait to be displayed in UK July 28th, 2013

Kolkata (India) born chemist and physicist Sunetra Guptahas joined leading female scientists

like Marie Curie at the art exhibition at the prestigious Royal Society.

The exhibition titled “Does it Make a Difference?“ displays drawings made by few great artists to

celebrate the leading women in the field of science.

About Sunetra Gupta:

Born in 1965 in Kolkata, completed her education from University of London, Princeton University.

She is now a professor at Oxford University.

Her major area of work is the evolution of diversity in pathogens with a major focus on

the infectious disease agents that are responsible for malaria, influenza and bacterial

meningitis.

The writer scientist has a simultaneous career as a novelist as well and has written five highly

praised novels. In 1970s and 80s and wrote her first works of fiction in Bengali. She was highly

praised for her works such as “Moonlight into Marzipan”, “The Glassblower’s Breath”

and “So Good in Black”.

She won the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award for her scientific achievements.

Poverty in India decreases to 21.9% in 2011-12: Planning Commission July 28th, 2013

As per Planning Commission, poverty ratio in the country has dropped to 21.9% in 2011-12 from

37.2% in 2004-05 on account of increase in per capita consumption.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 29

Planning Commission on Poverty:

Using the Tendulkar methodology for determining the poverty line, the national poverty line in

rural areas has been estimated at Rs 816 per capita per month in villages and Rs 1,000 per capita

per month in urban areas in 2011-12.

It implies that persons whose consumption of goods and services exceed Rs 33.33 in cities and Rs

27.20 per capita per day in villages are not poor.

For a family of five, the all India poverty line in terms of consumption expenditure would amount

of Rs 4,080 per month in rural areas and Rs 5,000 per month in urban areas. The poverty line

however will vary from state to state.

In 2011-12, the percentage of BPL (Below Poverty Line) people is estimated at 25.7% in rural

areas, 13.7% in urban areas and 21.9% for the country as a whole.

It shows an improvement in poverty figures if compared to those in 2004-05 when it was 41.8% in

rural areas, 25.7% in cities and 37.2% in the country as a whole.

In terms of numbers, there were 26.93 crore people below poverty line in 2011-12 as compared to

40.71 crore in 2004-05.

How the estimates of poverty level in India have been made?

This ratio for 2011-12 is based on the methodology suggested by Suresh Tendulkar

Committee which takes into consideration the money spent on health and education besides calorie

intake to fix a poverty line. As per the Commission, the decrease in poverty is mainly on account of

rising real per capita consumption figures which made the 68th round of National Sample Survey on

Household Consumer Expenditure in India in 2011-12 the basis for tabulating poverty.

Note: A separate committee under Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC)

chairman C. Rangarajan will revisit the Tendulkar Committee methodology for estimating

poverty. The Committee is expected to submit its report by mid 2014.

Educomp ties up with HCL Infosystems for its ‘Life Cycle’ Services July 27th, 2013

HCL Infosystems Ltd and Educomp Solutions Ltd. have signed an agreement. As per the agreement,

HCL Infosystems will provide life cycle services for existing and new Educomp classrooms

across India. Life Cycle services include providing break-fix support and field repair services along

with managing new installations in the Educomp Classrooms.

About Educomp Solutions Ltd:

Educomp is one the leading providers of technology enabled educationsolutions and services for K-12

(from Kindergarten to to Class 12) institutions. The company was set up in 1994 by Mr. Shantanu

Prakash and was initially engaged in setting up and maintaining of computer labs in private schools

and in government schools on contract basis.

P Sathasivam is the Chief Justice of India July 25th, 2013

Justice Palanisamy Sathasivam took over the post from Justice Altamas Kabir who served as

the Chief Justice of India for over 9 months. Justice Sathasivam was elevated to the Supreme

Court in August, 2007 and would renounce office on April 26, 2014.

Brief introduction about Justice Sathasivam:

Started off as an advocate at Madras. There after he was appointed as a permanent Judge of the

Madras High Court in January, 1996. Later transferred to the Punjab andHaryana High Court in April,

2007.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 30

Major Judgements by Justice Sathasivam :

A bench of Justice Sathasivam and Justice B S Chauhan had upheld the conviction of actor Sanjay

Dutt and several others in the Mumbai blasts case.

The bench had castigated Pakistan and its intelligence agency ISI for training the perpetrators of

the 1993 blasts and unable to discharge its obligation under international law to prevent terrorist

attacks emanating from its territory.

Another Bench led by Justice Sathasivam had set aside the conviction of Pakistani scientist

Mohammed Khalil Chisti.

Swiss tennis legend Martina Hingis included in Tennis Hall of Fame July 24th, 2013

Swiss tennis legend Martina Hingis (32) was inducted in Tennis Hall of Fame. She has become

the fourth youngest member to be inducted in the Tennis Hall of Fame after Tracy Austin

(30), Bjorn Borg (31) and Hana Mandlikova (32).

Bhim Sain Bassi, the next Police Commissioner of Delhi July 22nd, 2013

Neeraj Kumar who will be retiring on this month end will be replaced by Bhim Sain Bassi, a 1977

batch Indian Police Service officer as the next Police Commissioner of Delhi.

Mr. Bassi & his Achievements :

He cleared the Union Public Service Commission examination at the age of 21 and was appointed

as an Assistant Superintendant of Police in Pondicherry in 1980.

Served in various capacities in Delhi and other parts of the country, including Chandigarh, Goa

and Arunachal Pradesh,.

Mr. Bassi, who is a Commerce graduate from the Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University,

also has a Law degree.

Conferred the President’s Police Medal for distinguished service and the Police Medal for

meritorious service.

Bengaluru International Airport renamed as “Kempe Gowda International Airport” July 21st, 2013

Union Cabinet approved the new name for Bangalore’s BengaluruInternational Airport (BIA) to

Kempe Gowda International Airport

Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) is the one and the only airport serving the Bangalore region. It

is owned by Bengaluru International Airport Pvt. Limited (BIAL) a majority of 74% held by GVK

Group, Zurich Airport and Siemens Projects, along with two government

bodies,Infrastructure Development Corporation KSIIDC and the Karnataka State Industrial.

Who was Hiriya Kempe Gowda or Bengalooru Kempe Gowda?

Hiriya Kempe Gowda (also Kempe Gowda I or Bengalooru Kempe Gowda) was a ruler under the

Vijayanagara Empire.

Considered to be the founder of the metropolis of Bangalore, the capital of the Indian state of

Karnataka.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 31

Kempe Gowda was a well educated and successful ruler.

Famous for his reformist thinking, he led the foundations of a modern city with successful planning

and building the present city building many temples and water reservoirs in Bangalore.

One of his social reforms was to disallow the custom of cutting-off the last two fingers of the left

hand of the married women during “Bandi Devaru”, an important custom of Morasu Vokkaligas.

“An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradiction” – A book by Jean Dreze and

Amartya Sen released July 21st, 2013

In their book “An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradiction”, Amratya Sen along with Jean Drèze,

have presented a view of the conditions of contemporary India with a collection of the wealth of

revealing data. The book presents the booming maintenance of the world’s largest democracy and

achievements of India since independence. They have also discussed about the prevalent flaws in the

development strategy of the nation. Major focus is over the role of human capabilities as an end in

them and as a means of further progress.

About the Authors

Jean Drèze

An Indian citizen since 2002 and lives in India since then

Taught at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the DelhiSchool of Economics (DSE).

Currently a visiting Professor at Allahabad University.

Co-authored Amartya Sen in books named “Hunger and Public Action” and “India: Development

and Participation”

Co-author of the Public Report on Basic Education in India

Amaryta Sen

An Indian economist and philosopher

Wn Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 1998 for making contribution to welfare economics and

social choice theory

A professor at Thomas W. Lamont University

A Professor of Philosophy and Economics, at Harvard University.

Some of the books authored by him include:

The Argumentative IndianInequality reexamined

The Idea of Justice

Poverty and Famines

Commodities and Capabilities

Hunger and Republic Action

Development as Freedom

Choice, Welfare and Measurement

Rationality and Freedom

Identity and Violence the illusion of Destiny

“Helicopter Shot” discoverer Santosh Lal, a friend of M.S.Dhoni dies

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 32

July 21st, 2013

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s childhood friend Santosh Lal , a first-class cricketer who invented helicopter

shot passed away.

British Government decorates Krishna Menon’s London home with blue plaque July 20th, 2013

In commemoration to V.K. Krishna Menon’s long and eventful association with London, the British

government has decided to put up an English Heritage blue plaque at the house where he lived when

he first moved to the city. Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel are among the other

Indian leaders previously honoured by English Heritage.

Who was V.K. Krishna Menon?

(Born: May 3, 1896, died October 6, 1974)

Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon was an Indian nationalist, diplomat and statesman. He

was India’s first High Commissioner to the UK and later became Defence Minister of India from 1957

to 1962.

Menon in the UK

While his stay in the UK, he served as a Labour councillor for the Borough of St. Pancras in

1930s, and is still remembered for introducing travelling libraries and children’s corners. During the

Second World War, he served as an air warden around Camden Square, where he lived at the time,

and in 1955 St. Pancras conferred on him the Freedom of the Borough, the only other person

so honoured being George Bernard Shaw. He was described by the former Labour Prime

Minister, James Callaghan as “the embodiment of the movement within Britain for India’s freedom.”

Menon in India:

Menon was noted for his eloquence, brilliance, and forceful, highly abrasive persona. He inspired

widespread adulation and fervent detraction in both India and the West; to his supporters, he was an

unapologetic champion of India in the face of Western imperialism. Returning to India, he was

repeatedly elected to both houses of the Indian parliament from constituencies as varied as Bombay,

Bengal, and his native Kerala, and served as Minister of Defense, overseeing the modernization of

the Indian military and development of the Indian military-industrial complex, and spearheading the

Indian annexation of Goa. He resigned in the wake of the Sino-Indian war, following allegations of

India’s military unpreparedness, but remained counselor to Nehru, Member of Parliament and elder

statesman until his death.

As as Minister of Defense, overseeing the modernisation of the Indian military and development of

the Indian military-industrial complex, and spearheading the Indian annexation of Goa. He resigned

in the wake of the Sino-Indian war, following allegations of India’s military unpreparedness, but

remained counselor to Nehru, member of parliament and elder statesman until his death.

Who are the other Indian leaders honored with Blue Plaque previously?

Other Indian leaders namely Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Jawaharlal Nehru and

Sardar Patel have been honoured by this English Heritage, previously.

Why is the significance of blue plaque?

The Blue Plaque Scheme of London was founded in 1866 is run by the William Ewart MP and the

Royal Society of Arts to commemorates the association between the notable figures of past and

Britain’s famous residents. More than 760 plaques have been placed across London by now. It is a

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 33

uniquely successful means of connecting people and place. The Royal Society launched the scheme

in 1867 with the unveiling of a commemorative tablet for Lord Byron.

Jharkhand: Hemant Soren government wins trust vote July 19th, 2013

Hemant Soren (37) has been sworn in as Chief Minister of the coalition government led

by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. Soren, son of JMM chief Shibu Soren, was administered the oath

of office and secrecy by Governor Syed Ahmed after President Pranab Mukherjee revoked the nearly

six-month-long Central rule in the State.

The President had imposed the rule exercising the power from Article 356 (1) of the Constitution

after the resignation of Chief Minister Arjun Munda (BJP) in January 2013 when the party was

reduced to minority after the JMM had withdrew its support.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren won the vote on confidence motion in the state Assembly

Eminent Carnatic vocalist Nookala passed away July 19th, 2013

Eminent Carnatic vocalist Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana, a recipient of Padma

Bhushan, passed away.

About Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana:

Born: 1923 at Anakapalle in Andhra Pradesh, he was famously called

“Mahamahopadhyaya” by his students and music lovers.

Prominent gastroenterologist Rangabashyam passed away July 19th, 2013

Renowned surgical gastroenterologist, surgeon and teacher, N. Rangabashyam, passed

away.

PDP victorious in Bhutan General Assembly polls July 19th, 2013

Led by Tshering Tobgay, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has registered their

victory in the polls to the General Assembly of Bhutan. It won 32 out of 47 seats, while

the outgoing party, the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), managed to retain the

remaining seats in the election.

The focus of the PDP’s election campaign in the last few days was the“strained India-

Bhutan relations”- where it laid the blame for withdrawal of subsidy on LPG and

kerosene among other things, on the mishandling by the DPT.

Founder of Bose Corporation, Amar Bose passed away July 19th, 2013

Amar Gopal Bose (83), Indian-American founder, Chairman and academic behind the

revolutionary sound systems of Bose Corporation, passed away in Wayland,

Massachusetts.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 34

Veteran actor Pran passed away July 18th, 2013

Legendary Bollywood actor and Dadasaheb Phalake Award winner Pran Krishan Sikand

(83), popularly known as Pran, passed away.

In News: Solar Impulse July 17th, 2013

Solar Impulse has been in news recently for completing a transcontinental trip

across the US, despite a rip in the fabric of one wing.

Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range solar powered aircraft project developed

at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The aircraft took off

from Mountain View, California on May 3, 2013 and took a coast-to-coast journey

across the domestic United States before touching down at John F.

Kennedy International Airport in New York on July 6, 2013.

Who were the pilots for Solar Impulse?

Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg and fellow pilot Bertrand Piccard piloted the aircraft. The

men had taken turns flying the spindly, long-winged plane across the country.

Features of Solar Impulse:

Powered by 12,000 solar cells

Flies in the dark by reaching high altitudes during the day and gliding downward over

long distances by night

Uses no fossil fuels

Flying speed of around 70 kilometers per hour

Runs on 4 electric propellers powered by solar cells mounted on the plane’s 63-meter

wingspan

Drawbacks of Solar Impulse:

Tiny cockpit

Vulnerability to turbulence

Lack of a toilet

Future Plans for Solar Impulse:

The current aircraft model, the HB-SIA, is soon to be phased out as the Swiss team

prepares test flights in 2014 of the second-generation aircraft, the HB-SIB. The next

plane is expected to be 10% larger, with more power, reliability, an auto-pilot function

and a toilet so that pilots can make the four to six-day long trips that will be part of its

journey across the world in 2015.

Ireland passes legislation allowing abortion July 17th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 35

After intense two-day debate, the Irish Parliament passed a watered-down legislation

allowing abortion under limited circumstances. It would now need the approval from the

Upper House.

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013, Ireland:

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013 would permit abortion if the mother’s

life is in danger. It would also extend to women who are deemed suicidal if refused

abortion. In effect, the bill simply gives effect to a 1992 Supreme Court ruling allowing

doctors to perform abortion to save a mother’s life. Successive governments failed to

legislate on it because of stiff opposition from the aggressive pro-life lobby.

Background:

It can be recalled that due to lack of such provisions Savita Halappanavar, a young

Indian dentist, died in an Irish hospital last October after being refused abortion despite

apparent risk to her life. An inquiry found that she could have been saved if doctors had

agreed to her request for termination. The incident was followed by widespread outrage

and protest.

About Savita Halappanavar:

Savita Halappanavar’s death has led to a widespread protests in Ireland and a call to

re-look at the abortion laws.

She was 31 year old dentist originally from Belgaum,India who moved to Ireland in

2008.

She died on October 28, 2012 in Galway, Ireland.

Her death led to widespread protests, in Ireland, India, Englandand other countries

and a call to re-look at the abortion laws.

She suffered miscarriage when she was 17 weeks pregnant.

Egypt issue arrest warrant against Muslim Brotherhood leader July 17th, 2013

Egypt’s current leadership has issued a warrant for the arrest of the supreme leader of

Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie and nine other leading Islamists on the charger

of instigating violence in the opposition of the military coup which led ouster of

President Mohamed Morsy.

Hazem el-Beblawi is Egypt interim Premier July 15th, 2013

Liberal economist Hazem el-Beblawi has been appointed as Egypt’s interim Prime

Minister by Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour. The President has also appointed

Nobel-laureate Mohamed ElBaradei as Deputy President with responsibility for foreign

affairs.

Mr. Mansour who was appointed to the post after a recent military coup overthrew

President Mohamed Morsy has declared that changes would be made to the

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 36

Constitution, which would be put to referendum, paving the way for parliamentary

elections early in 2014.

Tagore Award to be conferred on Zubin Mehta July 12th, 2013

Zubin Mehta, western classical music conductor of Indian-Parsi origin, will be honored

with the Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony 2013 in recognition of his outstanding

contribution to cultural harmony. He has been unanimously chosen for this by a four-

member jury — led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and comprising Chief Justice

ofIndia Justice Altamas Kabir, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj

and former Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Mohamed ElBaradei is the interim PM of Egypt July 10th, 2013

Former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed

ElBaradei who is also the liberal opposition leader in Egypt has been named as Egypt’s

new Prime Minister to head a caretaker government. ElBaradei leads an alliance of

liberal and left-wing parties, the National Salvation Front.

Baradei and the IAEA were jointly honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

ElBaradei also played a key role in recent politics in Egypt, particularly the 2011

uprising which dethroned President Hosni Mubarak, and in the 2013 revolution that

ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

Andy Murray becomes the first Briton in 77 Years to clinch Wimbledon

Men’s Single title July 10th, 2013

Andy Murray of Britain created history when he defeated Serbian star player Novak

Djokovic at Center Court of London to become the first Briton in 77 years to win

the Men’s Singles Title at Wimbledon 2013. Earlier he was Fred Perry, who won his

last Championship in 1936.

Winners of other formats at Wimbledon:

·Mixed Doubles – Final: Daniel Nestor of Canada and Kristina Mladenovic of France.

· Girls’ Doubles – Championship – Final : Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova

of the Czech Republic

· Boys’ Singles Championship – Final: Gianluigi Quinzi of Italy

·Boys’ Doubles Title – Final: Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia.

· Wheelchair Gentlemen’s Doubles Title – Final: Shingo Kunieda of Japan and

Stephane Houdet of France.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 37

· Wheelchair Ladies’ Doubles Title – Final: J. Griffioen and A. Van Koot

of Netherlands.

· Sr. Gents Invitation Doubles – Final: Pat Cash and Mark Woodforde of

Australia.

· Ladies’ Invitation Doubles – Final: L. Davenport of USA and Martina Hingis

of Switzerland.

· Gentlemen’s Invitation Doubles – Final: Thomas Enqvist ofSweden and Mark

Philippoussis of Australia.

Edward Snowden gets asylum offer from Venezuela, Nicaragua July 7th, 2013

Defying the US warnings to countries to not extend asylum to Snowden arguing that he

is wanted on charges of espionage and leaking classified information, two Latin

American countries – Venezuela and Nicaragua – offered asylum to Edward Snowden

who disclosed the US clandestine electronic surveillance programme.

Snowden, who first fled to Hong Kong, is currently stranded at the Moscow airport

transit. The CIA whistleblower Snowden had applied for asylum in more than two dozen

countries, including India. The request was denied by India and majority of the

countries.

But announcements by presidents of Nicaragua and Venezuela offering asylum could be

viewed as a big disappointment for the US, which had been asking countries not to

grant Snowden an asylum and he be returned to the country.

R. Chandrasekhar appointed as NASSCOM President July 7th, 2013

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), has

appointed R. Chandrasekhar (60), the former Secretary Department of

Telecommunications (DoT), as its president. Chandrashekhar will take over current

Nasscom President Som Mittal, whose tenure ends in January 2014. Mr. Chandrasekhar

is a 1975 batch IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh and as the Secretary of DoT drew

policies around licensing, spectrum management, National Broadband Plan and the

National Telecom Policy 2012, among others.

Military coup in Egypt removes Morsy July 7th, 2013

The recently elected Islamist President of Egypt Mohamed Morsy has been removed

from power in a military coup staged under the leadership of General Abdel Fattah

al-Sisi, head of Egypt’s armed forces who issued a declaration suspending the

Constitution and appointing the head of the constitutional court as interim head of

state.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 38

Chief Justice Adly Mansour declared interim President of Egypt July 7th, 2013

The Chief Justice of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mansour has taken over

as the interim President of the nation’s hours after the military ousted Islamist

President Mohammed Morsy and launched a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the

group from which Mr. Morsy belongs.

The supreme leader of the Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie has also been arrested. Mr.

Morsy who a year ago became Egypt’s first freely elected President, has been held in an

unknown location since the generals removed him.

Parveez Rasool is the first J&K cricketer in Team India July 7th, 2013

Parveez Rasool (24) created history by becoming the first cricketer fromJammu and

Kashmir to be named in the Indian team as the selectors chose to rest captain

Mahendra Singh Dhoni and four other key players for the upcoming ODI tour

of Zimbabwe. The all-rounder has got the nod in the 15-member squad for the five-

match ODI series to be held from July 24 to August 3 at Harare and Bulawayo.

Father of Mouse: Douglas Engelbart passed July 6th, 2013

Douglas C. Engelbart, a technologist who ideated the computer mouse and laid

out a vision of an Internet decades before others brought those ideas to the mass

market, passed away.

Ms Sujata Singh will be next Foreign Secretary of India July 5th, 2013

Ms Sujata Singh (59), envoy to Germany, will be India’s next foreign secretary after an

approval of her appointment by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Sujata Singh is a

1976 batch IFS officer who will succeed the current Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai

who set to retire on July 31, 2013. She will be the third woman to head the services

after Chokila Iyer and Nirupama Rao.

India rejects Snowden’s request seeking political asylum July 5th, 2013

India turned down USA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s request seeking political

asylum. The Indian Embassy in Moscow had received a communication containing a

request for asylum.

Earlier, Snowden, currently sheltered in the transit zone of Moscow airport, has sought

asylum in 20 countries, including India. These asylum requests have been filed

by Sarah Harrison, legal advisor of WikiLeaks in the matter of Snowden.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 39

The requests were made to a number of countries

including Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany,

India, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland,Spain, Swiss

Confederation, Venezuela.

Snowden is wanted in the US on the charges of espionage and leaking

classified documents. Documents leaked by him last month revealed a

systematic and large-scale surveillance of phone and internet communications

by the NSA around the world.

Najeeb Jung appointed as new Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi July 3rd, 2013

President Pranab Mukherjee appointed Najeeb Jung (62), former Vice-Chancellor of

Jamia Millia Islamia, as the new Lieutenant-Governor ofDelhi. He will replace Tejendra

Khanna.

Mr. Jung had joined the Indian Administrative Services in 1973 and served at various

positions at the Centre and Madhya Pradesh. He had quit IAS after serving as Joint

Secretary (Exploration) in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Obama nominates James Comey as next FBI director June 29th, 2013

The US President Barack Obama nominated James Comey as the next FBI (Federal

Bureau of Investigation) Director. James Comey has been a registered Republican and

former Justice Department official under President George W. Bush. The US senate is

yet to confirm his nomination. He is likely to take charge from the outgoing Robert

Mueller who held the post since 2001.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 40

JUNE

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 41

Sheikh Abdullah named new PM of Qatar June 29th, 2013

The former PM of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani has been excluded from the

government and has been replaced with the former minister of state for internal affairs

Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani as announced by country’s new Emir

who recently ascended to the throne after the previous Emir transferred the power to

his son Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim.

In the new government, Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani has been

named both the Prime Minister and Interior Minister.

Kevin Rudd takes oath as new Australian Premier June 28th, 2013

Kevin Rudd has been sworn in as Prime Minister of Australia. He ousted the

incumbent Julia Gillard as leader of the Labor Party. The leadership change comes

ahead of an election scheduled in September 2013.

Julia Gillard was first woman PM of Australia and she was also the first woman Leader of

the Labor Party.

Kevin Rudd is the new leader of the Labor Party and previously and was previously

Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, and Labor Leader from 2006 to 2010.

Ramnik Narsey is the interim head of Wal-Mart India June 28th, 2013

Ramnik Narsey has been appointed as the interim head of U.S.-based retail

giant Wal-Mart for its India operations as its head of Indianbusiness Raj Jain has

left the company.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., branded as Walmart, is an American multinational retail

corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores.

The company is the world’s third largest public corporation, according to the Fortune

Global 500 list in 2012, the biggest private employer in the world with over two million

employees, and is the largest retailer in the world.

Oprah Winfrey leads the list of Forbes Most Powerful Celebrities June 27th, 2013

World famous talk show host Oprah Winfrey has been assigned the top spot in the

Forbes’ annual Celebrity 100 ranking of the most powerful celebrities. She leads a

female-dominated top 10 that includes Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Madonna, Taylor

Swift and Ellen DeGeneres.

As per the rankings of Most Powerful Celebrities:

1. Oprah Winfrey

2. Lady Gaga

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 42

3. Steven Spielberg

4. Beyonce Knowles

5. Madonna

6. Taylor Swift

7. Bon Jovi

8. Roger Federer

9. Justin Bieber

10. Ellen DeGeneres

Qatar ruler transfers power to son June 26th, 2013

Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the ruler of Qatar has transferred the reign of the

nation to the 33-year-old crown prince Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani putting a

new generation in charge of the Gulf nation’s vast energy wealth and its rising political

influence.

The new ruler is likely begin the process of putting together a new government that

may be in direct contrast to the old guard leaders across the Western-backed Gulf Arab

states.

V K Duggal appointed as nodal officer for relief & rescue operations in

Uttarakhand June 24th, 2013

The government appointed former top Union home secretary V K Duggal as the nodal

officer for relief and rescue operations in flood hit Uttarakhand, saying lack of proper

coordination was hindering its mitigation efforts.

The relief and rescue operations are going on in the flood-ravaged areas

of Uttarakhand with the combined efforts of the Army units along withAirforce and

ITBP. There was an impression that lack of coordination among different agencies

involved in the relief and rescue operations was hampering the government’s mitigation

efforts.

Amol Rajan: U.K.’s first non-white editor June 23rd, 2013

Amol Rajan, a Kolkata-born journalist, has created history by becoming the first

non-white editor of a British national newspaper, The Independent. This is for the

first time in the history of Fleet Street which has been a dominance of whites at top

posts.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 43

Mr. Rajan moved to Britain at the age of three and studied English at Cambridge

University. Before joining The Independent as a reporter, he worked briefly for the

London Evening Standard and Channel 5.

What is Fleet Street?

Fleet Street is a street in the City of London named after the River Fleet, London’s

largest underground river. It was the home of British national newspapers until the

1980s. Even though the last major British news office, Reuters, left in 2005, the

term Fleet Street continues to be used as ametonym for the British national press.

Hassan Rouhani wins Iran’s presidential polls June 21st, 2013

Hassan Rouhani has been elected as the new President of Iran as he clinched victory by

getting the needed 50% votes. The winning candidate needed more than 50% of all

ballots cast, including invalid ones, to avoid a run-off. Rouhani will succeed Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad. Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei congratulated Mr Rouhani

on his victory. Iran has been suffering economic hardship, with rising unemployment, a

devalued currency and soaring inflation.

S. Ramadorai is the Chairman of AirAsia India June 19th, 2013

Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia, has announced S. Ramadorai, former TCS chairman,

as the Chairman of AirAsia India.

A few days back, Ratan Tata was announced as the Chief Advisor for the upcoming low-

cost carrier.

Ramadorai is currently adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the National

Council on Skill Development, and holds a Cabinet minister’s rank. He is also Vice-

Chairman of TCS.

Kanji Ram – First Hindu member in Pakistan’s Punjab Assembly in 16 years June 19th, 2013

It is for the first time in 16 years, a Hindu has been nominated to be a member

of Pakistan’s Punjab Assembly as a lawmaker. Recently, the first ever Sikh became a

member of the House since the country’s creation in 1947.

Kanji Ram is only the second Hindu to be part of the provincial assembly after Seth

Bharta Ram, who was elected a lawmaker in 1997. Ram and Sikh representative

Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora were both nominated by the PML-N to seats in the

Punjab Assembly reserved for non-Muslims.

Knighthood to Indian-origin sculptor Anish Kapoor June 19th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 44

Indian-origin sculptor Anish Kapoor has been honoured with knighthood, one of the

highest honours in Britain, by Queen Elizabeth II in her birthday honours list 2013 for

services to Visual Arts.

Twenty-four other people of Indian-origin have also been chosen for honours

including Jasvinder Sanghera, founder, Karma Nirvana, for services to victims of

forced marriage and honour-based violence. She is made a Commander of the

Order of the British Empire (CBE).

John W. Ashe elected as the President of UNGA for its 68th session June 19th, 2013

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) elected by acclamation Ambassador John

W. Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda as President of its upcoming 68th session.

After being elected, Mr. Ashe announced that the world body would launch an agenda

for sustainable development for all.

The UNGA, which has 193 Member States of the United Nations, provides a forum for

multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of internationalissues covered by the UN

Charter. It meets in regular session intensively from September to December each

year, and thereafter as required.

PM Manmohan Singh takes oath as Rajya Sabha member for fifth

consecutive term June 19th, 2013

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took oath as member of Rajya Sabhaafter being re-

elected from Assam. Singh was recently elected a member of Rajya Sabha (Upper

House of Indian Parliament) from Assam for the fifth consecutive term. The election to

the two Rajya Sabha seats from Assam had taken place on May 30, 2013 and Congress

had won both the seats.

39th G8 summit held in Northern Ireland June 18th, 2013

The 39th G8 summit was held on June 17-18, 2013 at Lough

Erne, Northern Ireland of United Kingdom. The summit was presided over by the

U.K.

The official theme of the summit was tax evasion and transparency. However,

the Syrian civil war dominated the talks. A seven-point plan on Syria was agreed after

much debate. Other agreements included a way to automate the sharing of tax

information, new rules for mining companies, and a pledge to end payments for kidnap

victim releases. The United States and the European Union agreed to begin talks

towards a broad trade agreement.

Besides eight nations, Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission,

and Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council were also a part of the

meet.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 45

Who are the members of G8?

G8 nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,Russia, the USA and

UK.

British government warns airlines not to fly Snowden to the U.K.

The U.K. government has warned air carriers not to fly the U.S. National Security

Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden to Britain as he is “highly likely to be refused

entry”. Mr. Snowden, who was last seen inHong Kong, has not publicly said whether he

wishes to come to Britain.

Who is Edward Snowden?

Edward Snowden, who has been in news headlines for past few weeks, is a

whistleblower who revealed the secret spying program PRISM which the National

Security Agency (NSA) of the US has been using for mass electronic surveillance

throughdirect access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other

US internet giants which allows it to collect material including search history, the

content of emails, file transfers and live chats.

He is an American former technical contractor and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

employee who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a contractor for the National Security

Agency (NSA), before disclosing details of classified NSA mass surveillance programs to

the press. Snowden shared classified material on top-secret NSA programs including

the PRISM surveillance program with The Guardian and The Washington Post, both of

whom published their first exposés in June 2013. Snowden said his disclosure of PRISM

and FISA orders related to NSA data capture efforts was an effort “to inform the public

as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.”

Snowden, who now faces arrest by the US, has flown to Hong Kong.

Fact Box: Who was William Lambton? June 13th, 2013

Lieutenant-Colonel William Lambton was a British soldier, surveyor, and geographer.

He made remarkable contribution as the Superintendent of the Trigonometrical

Survey of India, which he began in 1802.

He launched his work from St Thomas Mount in Chennai and mapped the south India.

Trigonometrical Survey of India was launched by the British who had conquered

vast territories in India but didn’t have geographic knowledge of the areas they

conquered. An extensive survey was essential for their administrative purposes,

which eventually became the Great Trigonometrical Survey.

He took part in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799. After the capture of Mysore

Lambton proposed that the territory be surveyed, using the new techniques of

geodesy employed by William Roy in Great Britain, and this was approved.

It was Lord Wellesley who realized the necessity of a survey in the southern part of

India after the fall of Srirangapatnam in 1799. Three surveys started

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 46

simultaneously. While Francis Buchanan started the agricultural survey of Malabar

and Mysore, Colin Mackenzie began a survey based on topography. William Lambton,

who participated in the Mysore war in 1799, was made the superintendent of the

Trigonometrical Survey.

Dhoni stands at 16th spot on Forbes list of highest-paid athletes June 8th, 2013

As per the Forbes latest rankings of the highest paid athletes in the world, India skipper

M S Dhoni, with earnings of $31.5 million, has been ranked at 16th place as leaped 15

positions from his previous 31st rank in 2012.

US golfer Tiger Woods is at the pinnacle of the list with total earnings of $78.1

million last year.

The magazine said 31-year-old Dhoni moved up 15 positions this year. In 2012, he was

placed at 31st position.

Top 10 on the Rankings:

Rank Name Country Pay (Salary + Endorsements) ($) Sport

1. Tiger Woods USA 78.1m Golf

2. Roger Federer Switzerland 71.5m Tennis

3. Kobe Bryant USA 61.9m Basketball

4. LeBron James USA 59.8m Basketball

5. Drew Brees USA 51m Americanfootball

6. Aaron Rodgers USA 49m American football

7. Phil Mickelson USA 48.7m Golf

8. David Beckham UK 47.2m Soccer

9. Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal 44m Soccer

10. Lionel Messi Argentina 41.3m Soccer

NAC re-constituted, tribal expert Virginius Xaxa replaces Aruna Roy June 7th, 2013

Union Government has restructured the National Advisory Council by inducting

eminent sociologist Virginius Xaxa into the 12-member panel headed by Sonia

Gandhi. Xaxa is a Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati and has

worked extensively on tribal communities of the country

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 47

Aruna Roy who had criticised PM Manmohan Singh for refusing to pay the beneficiaries

of the MGNREGA in line with the Minimum Wages Act, had written to Sonia Gandhi

requesting not to consider her for another term of the Council and result was that her

request was accepted.

Some facts about National Advisory Council (NAC):

The NAC comprises prominent professionals chosen from diverse fields of development

activity who serve in their individual capacities.

NAC provides inputs in the formulation of policy by the Government and supports the

Government in its legislative workings.

NAC has a special focus on social policy and the rights of the disadvantaged groups.

It must be noted that the term of panel has been made co-terminus with the term of

the present government.

Fact Box: Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) June 7th, 2013

K R Kamath re-elected as IBA’s Chairman

K R Kamath, the chairman and managing director of Punjab National Bank (PNB), has

been re-elected as the Chairman of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) for 2013-14

tenure.

Indian Banks’ Association (IBA)

Established on September 26, 1946.

It is an association of Indian banks and financial institutions. It is based in Mumbai.

Currently represents a total of 173 banking companies which are operating

in India.

Objective: Strengthening, development and coordination of the Indian banking. It

also facilitates various member banks.

The Managing Committee of the IBA consists of a chairman, three deputy

chairmen, one honorary secretary as well as 26 members.

Susan Rice will be US National Security Adviser

June 7th, 2013

President Barack Obama to appointment Ms Susan Rice as national security adviser for

US Govt. Ms Susan Rice who currenttly US ambassador at the UN, will take over the

position in July 2013 from Mr Tom Donilon.

The decision to appoint Ms Rice is a noncompliant gesticulate towards Republicans in

Congress. The position of national security adviser does not necessitates Senate

confirmation. Ms Rice’s appointment underscores the President Obama’s orientation for

filling his inner circle with people he knows well.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 48

Tomas Brunegard is new WAN-IFRA president June 7th, 2013

Tomas Brunegård, chairman of Sweden’s Stampen Media Group, has been elected as

the new president of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

(WAN-INFRA).

He will have a two-year term. He succeeds Jacob Mathew of the Kerala-based Malayala

Manorama .

The 65th World Newspaper Congress, the 20th World Editors Forum, and the

23rd World Advertising Forum were held in Bangkok.

About WAN-IFRA

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries

in Singapore and India, is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news

publishers.

It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000

companies in more than 120 countries.

Its core mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and

editorial integrity and the development of thriving businesses.

Nawaz Sharif takes oath to the PM office of Pakistan June 6th, 2013

Nawaz Sharif of PML-N party has sworn in as the Prime Minister ofPakistan for his

3rd term after formally being elected as the Prime Minister by the National Assembly.

Sharif has regained the reigns of Pakistan after 14 years after he was forced to leave

the office in a military coup and went into exile. He was sworn-in by the President Asif

Ali Zardari. Sharif is a leading industrialist of Pakistan and the owner of Ittefaq Group, a

leading business conglomerate of Pakistan.

Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP): UGC forms advisory

committee on DU’s new format June 5th, 2013

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has set up an advisory committee, headed

by S. K. Joshi, member UGC and former Director-General of CSIR, to monitor the

progress of the implementation of the new Four-Year Undergraduate Programme

(FYUP) being introduced by Delhi University. The panel will also offer corrective advice

on the issue of curriculum.

There is a widespread confusion and protest over the new four-year format of

undergraduate degree courses being implemented by the DU.

Scripps National Spelling Bee contest: Indian-Americans dominate for 6th

consecutive year June 4th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 49

Indian-American Arvind Mahankali (13) won the Scripps National Spelling

Bee contest, as children from the community created history by dominating the

prestigious contest for the 6th year in a row, holding top three positions this year.

This is the sixth consecutive year that an Indian-American has won the

contest, which was watched live by millions of people in the United States.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee (commonly called the National Spelling Bee) is an

annual spelling bee held in the United States. Anyone who is in eighth grade or below

and is under 16 years old is eligible for this contest. Participants from countries other

than the U.S. must be regional spelling-bee winners as well. The winner of the Scripps

National Spelling Bee receives a $30,000 cash prize

A ‘spelling bee’ is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell

words.

Noted filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh passes away June 1st, 2013

Noted film-maker Rituparno Ghosh (49) Indian Bengali film director, who created a new

wave in Bengali cinema with his thought-provoking work passed away. He made 19

movies and won 12 National Awards and several international honours

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 50

MAY

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 51

Kushal Singh selected as chairperson of NCPCR May 31st, 2013

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has appointed Kushal Singh as the

chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

66th Cannes Film Festival: Top honor to ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’ May 31st, 2013

Recently concluded 66th Cannes Film Festival held in Cannes,France conferred

honors on some of the best films from across the world. The top award- the

Palme d’Or went to Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie D’Adèle

Chapitres) directed by French-Tunisian filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche.

The film which starred Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux is cinematic adaptation of

a novel by Julie Maroh.

Other Awards

Grand Prix: Inside Llewyn Davis directed by Coen brothers

Jury Prize: Like Father, Like Son directed by Hirokazu Kore-Eda

Best Director Prize: Mexico’s Amat Escalante for his film Heli

Best Actor prize: Bruce Dern for Nebraska

Best Actress prize: Berenice Bejo of France for her role in The Past

Philippines objects to Dan Brown’s ‘Inferno’ May 30th, 2013

The Philippines government has objected to poor description of its capital in the Dan

Brown’s latest novel “Inferno” which describes the capital Manila as “the gates of

hell”. The book includes a character who is visiting the city and taken aback by poverty,

crime and the sex trade.

Who is Dan Brown?

Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for the 2003

bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code.

Along with The Da Vinci Code, his novel Angels and Demonshas been adapted

into films.

Gold and Silver coins with Sachin Tendulkar’s face, signature launched May 28th, 2013

On the occasion of ‘Akshaya Tritiya’ Valuemart Gold and Jewels launched a

limited edition of Sachin Tendulkar Gold and Silver coins, with the senior cricketer’s

face and signature embossed on them. The 24 karat gold coin is priced at Rs 34,000

and will be available on website of Valuemart Gold and leading jewellery stores across

the country.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 52

Tendulkar has been signed as the brand ambassador of the company.

‘God of Cricket’ Tendulkar retires from IPL May 28th, 2013

Sachin Tendulkar announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League soon after

Mumbai Indians won their maiden title. He won’t be playing in IPL next season. This is

the second format from which Tendulkar has announced his retirement after having

called quits from the ODIs in December 2012. In 78 IPL matches, Tendulkar scored

2334 runs at an average of 34.83 and a strike rate of 119.81. He scored one century

and 13 half-centuries.

China ink MoU with Pak to build transport corridor passing through PoK May 27th, 2013

Chinese PM Li Keqiang, who recently concluded his India visit followed by two-day visit to Pakistan, signed an MoU with Pakistan which aims at formulating long term plan b/w both countries for the China-Pakistan economic corridor project and gradually push forward its construction.

What is India’s concern?

China is going ahead with the project which is expected to pass through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) despite objections from Indian side. In 2012, both China and Pak completed a pre-feasibility study for a railway line linking Kashgar, in Xinjiang, to Havelian, running through the Khunjerab Pass and PoK.

Why China is building the corridor?

China intends to link the Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea in Pakistan (which it has recently gained from Pakistan for its development and management) to far western Xinjiang region of China. The corridor will speed up development in Xinjiang, which has seen intermittent unrest, and also open up a new route for China’s energy imports from West Asia.

Forbes releases world’s top 100 ‘Most Powerful Women List’ May 25th, 2013

Forbes magazine has released the list of World’s 100 Most Powerful Women Leaders for

the year 2013. From India, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and India-

origin PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi stand among the top 10 in the list of most powerful

women in the world.

Sonia Gandhi stands at 9th, while Indra Nooyi is ranked at 10th on the chart.

Other Indians in Top 100

Chanda Kochhar (ranked 65th): ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (85th) : Founder of Biccon has secured the 85th position on

the global list.

Padmasree Warrior (57th) : Cisco Systems Chief Technology and Strategy Officer

How they arrived at these rankings?

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 53

A list of influential individuals was prepared from seven different categories or power

bases:

1. Billionaires

2. Business

3. Lifestyle (including entertainment and fashion)

4. Media

5. Nonprofits and NGOs

6. Politics

7. Technology

Then individuals in each of the above categories were weighted by using three

metrics:

1. Money

2. Media presence

3. Impact

Who is the most powerful women in the world?

German chancellor Angela Merkel has been named as the most powerful woman in

the world for the third successive year. She is followed byBrazilian President

Dilma Rousseff who is at second spot whileMelinda Gates, co-chairman of the Bill

and Melinda Gates foundation inthird.

Others on the list include Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at rank 6th, Christine IMF

Managing Director Christine Lagarde at 7th, Oprah Winfrey at 13th and Aung San Suu

Kyi at 29th.

Arunima Sinha becomes First Indian Amputee to conquer Mt Everest May 22nd, 2013

Arunima Sinha, a former national level volleyball player who lost one of her legs after

being thrown off a moving train of Padmawati Express for resisting a chain-snatching

attempt by some criminals, has become the first Indian amputee to conquer Mt Everest.

She received training at the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) camp in Uttarkashi

last year under the guidance of Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to conquer Mt

Everest.

Anshu Jamshenpa from Arunachal Pradesh scales Everest for third time May 22nd, 2013

Anshu Jamshenpa of Arunachal Pradesh achieved success in scaling the Mount

Everest for the third time.

She already keeps the record of being the only mother in the world to have scaled the

Mount Everest twice in 10 days.

Anshu Jamshenpa was among the six mountaineers from the north-east to make it

to the summit. Among the six were David Zohmangaiha of Mizoram, Tarun Saikia

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 54

of Assam and Wangsuk Myrthong of Meghalaya, who became the first mountaineers

from their States to have successfully scaled the Mount Everest. Assam Chief Minister

Tarun Gogoi announced a financial assistance of 20 lakh rupees to Saikia for his

achievement.

Expert panel to assess Backwardness of States May 19th, 2013

Following the Budget announcement, the Union Government has set up an expert panel

under the chairmanship of Raghuram G Rajan, Chief Economic Adviser to evolve a

composite index to measure backwardness of states. The move has come amid

demands from Bihar to get special status. To determine the backwardness of the States

measures like distance of the State from the national average under criteria such as per

capita income and other human development indicators will be considered besides

evolving a Composite Development Index of States.

What are the present criteria for determining the backwardness of States?

The present criteria for determining backwardness are based on terrain, density of

population and length of international borders.

Committee Members:

Chairman: Raghuram G Rajan,

Other Members: Shaibal Gupta, Bharat Ramaswami, Najeeb Jung, Nirija G Jayal and

Tuhin Pandey.

Fact Box: Justice Radha Binod Pal May 18th, 2013

David Beckham announces retirement from professional football May 18th, 2013

World-famous footballer and former England skipper David Beckham has announced his

retirement from professional football to conclude his celebrated career of more than two

decades. He will take retirement after the end of this season.

Key achievements of David Beckham

Joined Manchester United as a 14-year-old in 1992 and made 398 appearances.

Won the Champions League, six Premier League titles and two FA Cups with

Manchester United.

Earned 115 caps for England, most capped outfield player of in the history of

England.

Won 19 trophies of which 10 are League titles.

Only English player to win Championship titles in 4 different countries

Key member of the Treble Team and helped it in addition of Champions League, 2

FA Cups, 1 Intercontinental Cup and 4 Community Shields to a long list of its

victories.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 55

First English player who scored in 3 consecutive World Cup Finals.

Helped the English team to clinch French League 1 Championship in 19 years.

What is a Treble Team?

‘Treble Team’ is a term associated with football which refers to a team that wins

three trophies in a single season.

Devas investors move The Hague against Antrix May 18th, 2013

Investors companies of Devas have moved the Permanent Court of Arbitration

(PCA) in The Hague (Netherlands) against Antrix Corporation — the Indian Space

Research Organisation’s (ISRO) commercial arm. The Court has formed a panel to

hear the multi-million dollar claim slapped by Devas Multimedia and its U.S. associates

(who invested in the deal through foreign direct investment routed viaMauritius) against

the Government of India following the cancellation of the deal for the launch of two

satellites and the allocation of S-band spectrum to Devas.

Dinesh Thakur to get Rs 244 crore for exposing dubious manufacturing

practices of Ranbaxy May 17th, 2013

Dinesh Thakur, a former director of research information at Ranbaxy, who is a

whistleblower on the deficient manufacturing practices of Ranbaxy will get Rs 244

crore ($48 million) for his act.

Siddaramaiah gains control as CM of Karnataka May 17th, 2013

NRI Sunil Chopra becomes Deputy Mayor of a London Borough May 17th, 2013

Delhi-born NRI Sunil Chopra has been elected as the Deputy Mayor of a London

Borough.

Chopra, General Secretary of the Indian Overseas Congress, London, is the first and

only Indian-origin elected councillor in London Borough of Southwark Council, which has

only 1.5 % population of Indian-origin people. While he was in Delhi, he became the

first President of College of Vocational Studies in Delhi. He was Vice President of Youth

Congress Delhi and was also the President of NSUI, Delhi.

Eminent Islamic scholar Asghar Ali Engineer passed away May 15th, 2013

Famous Islamic scholar, Asghar Ali Engineer (73) passed away in Suburban Santa Cruz,

Mumbai.

President launches ‘Bichitra’: An online collection of Tagore’s work May 9th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 56

President Pranab Mukherjee launched ‘Bichitra’, an online collection of Rabindranath

Tagore’s works. He praised the initiative saying the website would inculcate the essence

of humanity and eternal values of civilisation as propagated by Tagore in his creations.

About Bichitra:

‘Bichitra’ is sponsored by the Centre on the occasion of Tagore’s 150th birth

anniversary to promote research on his work worldwide.

The Web site, in English and Bengali, will have all variant texts and all specialized

tools needed by Tagore scholars.

Chief components on the website will be digital images of all available manuscripts

and all important printed versions totalling 47,520 pages of manuscripts and 91,637

pages of printed booksand journals.

Fact Box: “Factory Asia” May 6th, 2013

Chief Economic Advisor Raghuram Rajan recently held that India is looking forward to

introduce the concept of ‘Factory Asia’ in economy to develop rapid production

networks. Factory Asia is concentrated whereinfrastructure is good and there is a large

pool of untapped potentially productive labour.

What is the concept of “Factory Asia”?

The concept works on the model of manufacturing and producing parts and components

by various Asian developing economies to utilise resources efficiently which are

assembled into finished product and exported to developed economies. Thus, Factory

Asia refers to the model of regional production networks connecting different Asian

economies, producing parts and components that are then assembled, with the final

product shipped largely to advanced economies.

It started with economic liberalization in China in the late 1980s, aided by rapid

development of production networks. The group comprises, among others,

China, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.

Objectives:

Boost the exports,

Increase employment opportunities,

Lift millions of population out of poverty.

As per Rajan there are four challenges that will take India to Factory Asia:

1. Supply Chain Management: Provide organised infrastructure to smoothen inter and

intra state as well as country connectivity Project costing $90 billion initiated to

develop the 1483Km DMIC (Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor) which will have

six-lane highways, nine industrial townships, three ports and six airports.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 57

2. Making India Investor friendly: As Indian investors are risk-averse, effort is

required to bring awareness of potential growth to investors facilitating utilisation of

undeployed resources.

3. Reforming Labour laws: Easing of stringent labour laws to increase employment

rate.

4. Skill development: Invest in skills, technologies and private sector to move beyond

low cost manufacturing and ensure economic growth.

Nation bids adieu to Sarabjit Singh with state honors May 4th, 2013

The mortal body of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh was consigned to flames in his village

with full state honors amid mournful emotions.

Sarabjit Singh:

Indian citizen from Bhikhiwind, Punjab.

Inadvertently crossed the zero-line, bordering with Pakistan in 1990, in an inebriated

state while working in his fields which run along the border.

Arrested by the Pakistan Rangers and was charged by the Lahore police alleging his

role Lahore bombings.

Tried in the Lahore HC and was sentenced to death in 1991.

His all mercy petitions were rejected but his death sentence was repeatedly

postponed by the Government of Pakistan.

He succumbed to the serious injuries he received when he was brutally attacked by

six fellow prison inmates.

Punjab (India) assembly declared him a National Martyr.

Supreme Court questions ‘Z security’ for Mukesh Ambani May 3rd, 2013

The Supreme Court questioned ‘Z’ security to industrialist Mukesh Ambani when the

government was unable to provide security to the common man. The Apex court asked

“Why is state providing security to such person when the rich can afford to hire private

security personnel?”

In a brief order, the Bench directed all States to inform the Delhigovernment of the

movements of their VIPs and violation of the rule would be viewed seriously. The court

suggested for the creation of a mechanism to assess security threat of VIPs. It

expressed concern over security cover being provided even to persons who faced rape

or murder charges, and said this must be stopped. The Bench said unless there was

specific information about threat perception, no VIP security should be provided to

these persons.

What is Z security?

Depending upon the threat perception the security cover has been classified

into four categories:

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 58

Z+ category: security cover of 36 personnel, highest level

Z category : 28 personnel (security cover by the Delhi police or the ITBP or

CRPF personnel)

Y category : 11 personnel

X category : 2 personnel

The Special Protection Group (SPG) protects the Prime Minister ofIndia. It is one

of the eight Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).

The Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) are the following police forces of the central

government of India:

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) [Includes Rapid Action Force (RAF) and

Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA)]

Border Security Force (BSF)

Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)

Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)

Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)

Railway Protection Force (RPF)

National Security Guards (NSG) [Included Special Protection Group (SPG)]

Abdul Hamid is the new Bangladesh President May 3rd, 2013

Abdul Hamid was sworn in as 17th Bangladesh President replacing Zillur Rahman, who

died last month. Abdul Hamid was previously the parilamentary speaker of Bangladesh

Assembly.

Historical background

Parliament speaker and acting President since March 14 when Mr. Rahman went for

medical treatment to Singapore.

Member of the Awami League.

A former lawyer.

Political career began when he joined Bangladesh Chhatra League in 1959.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 59

APRIL

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 60

Government sets up Inter-ministerial Committee to boost exports from

MSMEs April 30th, 2013

Govt sets up Inter-ministerial Committee for promoting exports of Micro,Small and

Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

Why need for the Inter-Ministrial Committee?

Revival of exports which were affected by global economic slowdown ( exports

decline to USD 300 billion as against projected USD 360 billion)

Overcoming the widening trade deficit gap as it resulted into increase in current

account deficit (CAD crossed 6.7% of GDP in Q3 of fiscal year 2012-13).

Suggest Long and short term measures to enhance exports.

Committee Members:

Chairman: R S Gujral (Finance Secretary)

Other Members-

S R Rao (Commerce Secretary)

Sumit Bose (Revenue Secretary)

Madhav Lal (MSME Secretary)

Rajiv Takru (Financial Services Secretary )

Raghuram Rajan (Chief Economic Adviser)

Classification of MSMEs:-

MSME sector are classified into 2 classes with the following criteria:

1. Manufacturing or production enterprises

Enterprises Investment in plant & machinery

Micro Enterprises < Rs.25 lacs

Small Enterprises > Rs.25 lacs and < Rs.5 crores

Medium Enterprises > Rs.5 crores and < Rs.10 crores

2. Service enterprises

Enterprises Investment in equipments

Micro Enterprises < Rs.10 lacs

Small Enterprises > Rs.10 lacs and < Rs.2 Crores

Medium Enterprises > Rs.2 Crores and < Rs.5 Crores

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 61

Contribution of MSME sector to Indian Economy

Around 40% of total exports.

Over 8% to gross domestic product (GDP).

Contributes around 45% of India’s manufacturing output.

Provides employment to about 60 million persons through 26 million enterprises.

Indian Guinness record holder Sailendra Nath Roy passed away April 30th, 2013

Indian Stuntman Sailendra Nath Roy (48) passed away due to heart failure during his

record try at Teesta River in Siliguri, West Bengal.

He is registered in the Guinness Book of World Records by the farthest distance

travelled on a zip wire using hair.

Takehiko Nakao the new president of ADB assumes office April 29th, 2013

Takehiko Nakao, Japan’s former vice finance minister, who was elected president of the

Asian Development Bank (ADB) by its Board of Governors, ahead of the bank’s annual

meet in New Delhi, assumed office.

He was elected subsequent to resignation by the former president of ADB Haruhiko

Kuroda in March 2013 to take up his assignment as Bank of Japan governor.

Haruhiko Kuroda

Earlier in March 2013, Japan’s Parliament approved Haruhiko Kuroda, a Finance Ministry

veteran to become the Governor of the Central Bank of Japan. Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda was

the President of ADB since February 2005 and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of

Directors.

Anil Goswami is the new Home Secretary April 29th, 2013

Anil Goswami, a senior IAS officer from J&K cadre, has been appointed as the new

Home Secretary and will have two-year tenure. He is the first bureaucrat from J&K

cadre to be placed at the top ranked post. His name was cleared by the Appointments

Committee of Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Etihad takes 24% stake in Jet Airways for USD 379 million April 28th, 2013

The Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad Airways took a 24 % minority stake in Jet

Airways for USD 379 million. This investment by Etihad Airways is the first in an

Indian airline after the govt relaxed restrictions on overseas carriers buying into its

aviation industry in 2012 i.e. since the change in FDI policy.

Jet’s founder and non-executive chairman Naresh Goyal, who was before

acrimoniously opposed to opening up of FDI involvement for foreign airlines, was the

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 62

first to move instantly after the government permitted international carriers to

pick up a maximum of 49 % stake in domestic airlines in September 2012.

Narasimhan Ravi elected as new President of the ‘Editors Guild of India’ April 26th, 2013

Narasimhan Ravi has been unanimously elected as the president ofEditors Guild

of India. Mr. Ravi is the director of Kasturi and Sons Limited , publisher of “The Hindu”

newspaper. Narasimhan Ravi will succeed T N Ninan, Chairman and Editorial Director of

” BusinessStandard”. Mr. Ravi has been elected President of the Editors Guild of India

for a tenure of 2 years.

Editors Guild of India:

An organization of editors of news papers and magazines in India.

Established in 1977 just after the Emergency.

Ajay Devgn, Runa Laila SAARC ambassadors for HIV/AIDS April 26th, 2013

Ajay Devgn (Bollywood actor), Runa Laila (Bangladeshi singer) and Sharmeen Obaid-

Chinoy ( Oscar-winning Pakistani filmmaker) have been named as SAARC Goodwill

Ambassadors for HIV/AIDS ‘ for advocacy and awareness on HIV/AIDS in SAARC

member states.

January 2009: The SAARC goodwill ambassador for HIV/ AIDS programme

commenced.

Bollywood actress Shabana Azmi was the first mascot for the SAARC goodwill

ambassador for HIV/ AIDS programme.

Eminent Jurist Justice JS Verma passed away April 25th, 2013

Justice JS Verma (80), former Chief Justice of India, passed away.

He was in news recently for heading a committee set up by the Government

of India to suggest changes in law to combat crimes against women.

He was 27th Chief Justice of India.

Chris Gayle scores fastest century in cricket history during IPL game April 24th, 2013

Chris Gayle (the cricketer from West Indies) set a new record in Cricket when he hit the

fastest century in the history of professional cricket during a cricket match of IPL

(Indian Premier League) tournament at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Chris

Gayle playing for Team Bangalore (Royal Challengers Bangalore) hit an unbeaten with

175 off 66 balls with his 100 coming in just 30 balls, the fastest ever in Cricket history

in any form of the game. Gayle hit 17 sixes and 13 fours during his entire innings.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 63

Mahatma Gandhi among top three most admired leaders of the world:

Survey April 24th, 2013

Mahatma Gandhi figures among the top three most admired leaders of the world as per

a global survey of CEOs conducted by accountancy firm PwC. As part of its yearly

survey, PwC recently asked 1,400 CEOs from around the world “which leaders they

most admired, and what they most admired about their actions”.

The TOP 10 most admired leaders of the world:-

1. Winston Churchill

2. Steve Jobs

3. Mahatma Gandhi (*Indian)

4. Nelson Mandela

5. Jack Welch

6. Abraham Lincoln

7. Margaret Thatcher (*Only woman in top-10)

8. Ronald Reagan

9. John F Kennedy

10. Bill Clinton

Indian "Human Computer" Shakuntala Devi passes away April 24th, 2013

World-renowned Indian prodigy mental calculator and astrologer Shakuntala

Devi (83) passed away. She was known as “Human Computer”.

Shakuntala Devi was born in Bangalore, India and in her initial childhood years she

worked in Circus and road-shows with her father where she displayed her amazing

ability at number crunching.

She developed the concept of ‘mind dynamics’.

Renowned singer Shamshad Begum passed away April 24th, 2013

Famous playback singer of Hindi film industry Shamshad Begum (94) passed away.

Some of her popular Hindi songs to her name include Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar, Kajra

Mohabbat Wala and Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon, Saiyan Dil Mein Aana Re, Chod

Babul Ka Ghar, Leke Pehla Pehla Pyar, Kahin Pe Nigahen Kahin Pe Nishana.She

was among the most sought-after female playback singers of 40s.

She was conferred with the third-highest civilian honour of India, Padma Bhushan.

Aruna Bahuguna – First women special DG CRPF April 20th, 2013

Aruna Bahuguna, Senior IPS Officer (1979-batch Andhra Pradesh cadre officer)

appointed Special Director General of CRPF, India’s largest paramilitary force. She

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 64

became the first women officer to be appointed to the top position. Her husband

S. Jayaraman is also an IPS officer of the 1977 batch of West Bengal cadre and is

presently special secretary in the Union home ministry handling internal security.

Sahara Q Shop enters Guinness World Records April 20th, 2013

Sahara Q Shop: The retail business of Sahara IndiaPariwar, recently entered into the

Guinness World Records as it opened record 315 outlets in 10 states of India, just at

one time on April 1, 2013.

‘Q shop’ (Quality shop)

Sher-i-Kashmir Award: Navjot becomes youngest recipient athlete of Jammu

and Kashmir to be conferred April 20th, 2013

Navjot Singh (16 years) became the youngest athlete of Jammu and Kashmir to be

conferred with the Sher-i-Kashmir Sports Award. He was declared the best sportsperson

for 2008-09. Navjot received the award at an impressive investiture ceremony hosted

after a gap of 22 years.

Sher-i-Kashmir Sports Awards

Established in 1978.

After 1991 when the militancy began in J&K, the awards stopped.

The awards returned in 2002 to be continued since then.

Nicolas Maduro declared president-elect Venezuela April 20th, 2013

Nicolás Maduro Moros, the acting President of Venezuelaafter the death of late leader

Hugo Chavez has been declared as the winner of a special election held in Venezuela for

the post of the President. The results of the election have triggered protests and there

is a demand for recount by the opposition.

Moros was formerly the Vice President of Venezuela and the Minister of Foreign Affairs

under President Hugo Chávez. The constitutionality of his election to the office of

President has been questioned by the opposition.Venezuela’s acting President Nicolas

Maduro was proclaimed the winner of an election to succeed late leader Hugo Chavez

triggering protests as the opposition demanded a recount.

India’s first and ONLY Women Chief Election Commissioner Ramadevi

passed away April 18th, 2013

Ms. V.S. Ramadevi (79), former Governor of Karnataka and former Chief Election

Commissioner of India, passed away.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 65

Ms. V.S. Ramadevi First woman to became Chief Election Commissioner of

India.

Fact Box: K. Kasturirangan High-Level Working Group April 18th, 2013

K. Kasturirangan-led 10-member panel High-Level Working Group (HLWG)

Presented its report on Western Ghats to MoEF (Ministry ofEnvironment and

Forests)

K. Kasturirangan-led 10-member panel High-Level Working Group (HLWG) has

prepared a report on Western Ghats which suggests for ban on development activities

in 60,000 sq km ecologically sensitive area spread

over Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Objective: K.Kasturirangan panel was formed to study and advise Govt on the earlier

report of ecologist Madhav Gadgil-led Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel

(WGEEP).

‘Baby Nobel’ or Won John Bates Clark Medal for Delhi-born US economist

Raj Chetty April 17th, 2013

33 year old Delhi-born Raj Chetty, a professor in the Department of Economy at the

Harvard University whose ground-breaking work was quoted by US President Barack

Obama in his 2012′s State of the Union Address, has won the esteemed John Bates

Clark medal, oftentimes keyed as the ‘Baby Nobel’.

Chetty is the first person of Indian-origin to win this award.

John Bates Clark medal “Baby Nobel”

Awarded to an American economist under the age of 40 who is adjudged to

have made a “significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge”.

Widely regarded as one of the field’s most prestigious awards, second only to the

Nobel in economic science.

Was awarded biennially from 1947-2009

From 2010 onwards it has been awarded annually.

Sania joins as 4th Vice President of of ITPA April 17th, 2013

Sania Mirza joined as the fourth Vice-President of the freshly formedTennis body

in India : ITPA (Indian Tennis Players Association). Sania, was the first female player

from India to win a Grand Slam. Sania now plays only in doubles as she gave up her

singles career due to injuries.

The 4 Vice-Presidents of the ITPA are:

1. Leander Paes

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 66

2. Mahesh Bhupathi

3. Somdev Devvarman

4. Sania Mirza

President of ITPA:

Jaideep Mukherjea

Pioneering Polio Vaccine Developer Hilary Koprowski passes away April 17th, 2013

Dr. Hilary Koprowski (96), the Polish-born virologist who developed the first successful

oral vaccination for polio.

President appoints two new judges to Supreme Court April 16th, 2013

The President elevated PUNJAB and Haryana HC Chief Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri

and Madhya Pradesh HC Chief Justice Arvind Bobde as judges of the Supreme Court.

Thus, total strength of judges in Supreme Court is now : 30

The approved strength of the court, including the Chief Justice of India, is 31.

Justice Bobde (56) will retire in April 2021 and Justice Sikri has a a tenure in the

Supreme Court till March 2019.

IVF Pioneer Sir Robert Edwards passed away April 16th, 2013

Sir Robert Edwards (87), who eveloped the technique of in vitro fertilisation with Dr

Patrick Steptoe passed away. He pioneered In vitro fertilisation (IVF) technique helped

in the birth of Louise Brown in 1978, the first test tube baby and then bring more than

4 million children into the world.

Robert G. Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010 for

the development of IVF.

In vitro fertilisation (IVF):

‘in vitro’: from the Latin means ‘in glass’

It is a method by which an egg is fertilised by sperm outside the body: in vitro.

a key treatment for infertility

The process requires supervising a woman’s ovulatory procedure, taking out ovum or

ova (egg or eggs) from the woman’s ovaries and allowing sperm fertilize them in a

fluid medium in a laboratory.

Natural cycle IVF : When a woman’s natural cycle is supervised to gather a

naturally picked out ovum (egg) for fertilization.

In 1978, the first successful “Test Tube Baby” (a colloquial term for babies conceived

as the result of IVF), Louise Brown was born as a result of Natural Cycle IVF

technique.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 67

Vice President Releases Book ‘Religion, Law & Society-Across the Globe’ April 15th, 2013

“Religion, Law & Society- Across the Globe”, a book authored by Prof. Tahir

Mahmood was released by The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari. The book

provides insights into a range of complex and inter-linked matters of constitutional and

socio-legal importance.

Prof. Tahir Mahmood:

Renowned jurist well-known for his expertise in religion and the law, human rights

and civil liberties, particularly the law pertaining to the educational rights of

minorities.

He held various prestigious positions like: Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi;

Chairman, National Commission for Minorities; Member, National Human Rights

Commission; and Jurist-Member, Ranganath Misra Commission.

A member of the Law Commission of India from 2006-10.

Professor Mahmood is the first Muslim to be named to the Law Commission of India

and he was the only permanent member of the Eighteenth Commission.

Dadasaheb Phalke award for legendary actor Pran April 15th, 2013

Pran Krishan Sikand, popularly known as Pran,will be conferred with the prestigious

Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

Pran is the 60th film personality to receive this honour. In 2011, Soumitra Chatterjee

was honored with this award and then in the year 2012, no one was conferred this

award.

Pran has acted in more than 350 films from 1942 – 2007 and is known as a movie

villain and character actor in Hindi cinema.

Dadasaheb Phalke Award:

India’s highest award in cinema

Conferred yearly by the Government of India for lifetime contribution to Indian

cinema.

Award comprises a Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) medallion, a cash prize of INR 1

million and a shawl.

Binod Bihari Chowdhury April 15th, 2013

Legendary anti-British revolutionary and Chittagong Armory raid famed Binod Bihari

Chowdhury (102) passed away.

Citizenship: Bangladeshi

Titles: “Biplobi” (Revolutionary), “Agnipurush”

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 68

He was a recipient the Independence Day Award, the highest civilian award

in Bangladesh. He was our last remaining link to a decisive part of sub-continental

history.

Industrialist RP Goenka Passed away April 15th, 2013

The pioneer of the RPG Enterprises, Shri R.P. Goenka (Rama Prasad Goenka) passed

away. He established RPG Enterprises in the year 1979. It included Phillips Carbon

Black, Asian Cables, Agarpara Jute Mill and Murphy India, CESC, CEAT, Spencer’s,

Saregama, etc.

He was known as India’s “Takeover Specialist” as he his mark in diverse businesses,

ranging from tyre to music.

Fact Box: Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development

(AFPPD) April 14th, 2013

PJ Kurien – New Chairman of Asian forum of Parliamentarians

Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, PJ Kurien elected as the Chairman of the prestigious

Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD). He replaced

Yasuo Fukuda, former Prime Minister of Japan as the Chairman of AFPPD. PJ Kurien is

also the Chairman of the Indian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and

Development.

Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD)

Established in 1981 as a regional NGO which serves as a coordinating body of 25

National Committees of Parliamentarians on Population and Development.

Uhuru Kenyatta sworn in as Kenya’s new President April 10th, 2013

Uhuru Kenyatta sworn in as Kenya’s fourth Presiden. Uhuru won with 50.07% of the

vote, but the win was challenged by outgoing PM Raila Odinga and civil society groups,

who complained of myriad anomalies in the voting process, but the Supreme

Court upheld Kenyatta’s win.

Uhuru Kenyatta along with his deputy William Ruto are controversial figures as they are

facing charges by theInternational Criminal Court (ICC) over crimes against humanity

for their alleged role in Kenya’s 2007 presidential elections.

Pervez Musharraf’s nomination papers for the General Elections rejected for

second time April 10th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 69

Former Pakistan President Gen. (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s nomination papers for

upcoming general elections were rejected for the second time.

Pervez Musharraf had filed the nomination papers from four seats- Karachi, Islamabad,

Chitral and Kasur.

Why Musharraf’s nomination papers were rejected:

Amongst several other reasons, the key reasons cited were:

Musharraf had twice violated and subverted the Constitution by violating Articles 62

and 63 of the Constitution of Pakistan, which specify that candidates should have a

"good character" and be "sagacious, righteous and non-profligate".

Musharraf is also an accused in 4 cases, including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Historian, epigraphy expert Prof Bratindra Nath Mukherjee passed away April 8th, 2013

Famous historian and an expert in epigraphy Padma Shri awardee, Professor Bratindra

Nath Mukherjee (79) passed away.

Nokia, Samsung India’s most trusted brands – The Brand Trust Report,

India Study – 2013 Prle April 6th, 2013

As per a recent report by the Brand Trust Report, India Study – 2013,Nokia,

Samsung and Sony are the India’s three Most Trusted Brands for this year. Nokia is the

most trusted brand for the third consecutive year.

The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2013 (BTR 2013) report lists India’s 1100 Most

Trusted Brands from 211 categories, by conducting a comprehensive primary research

based on 61 attributes called the Brand Trust Matrix.

India’s most Trusted brands as per The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2013 (BTR

2013) are as follows:-

1. Nokia

2. Samsung

3. Sony

4. BMW

5. Tata

6. Godrej

7. Reliance

8. Bajaj

9. Airtel

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 70

10. LG

Particular Category: MOST Trusted -

Aerated Soft Drinks Category:

Coca Cola

Four-wheeler car brand:

Nano

Infrastructure brand:

HCC

Real Estate:

DLF

Education:

IIT

Biscuit brand:

Parle-G

Chocolate Bars:

Cadbury’s DairyMilk

Global Bodies:

WHO

Ayurveda:

Dabur

Internet:

Google

Personality:

Anna Hazare

NGO:

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 71

Being Human

Technology brand:

Apple

Airline:

Indigo Airlines

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was re-inducted into BJP’s Central

Parliamentary board

April 1st, 2013

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was re-inducted into BJP’s Central Parliamentary

board, the top decision-making body of BJP. Narendra Modi was back in party’s top

body after a gap of 6 years by BJP President Rajnath Singh. Modi has been projected by

a part within BJP as it’s Prime Ministerial candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Harmanpreet Kaur – New captain of Indian Women’s Cricket Team April 1st, 2013

Harmanpreet Kaur was named the Captain of the Indian women’s Cricket team, she replaced

Mithali Raj. Poonam Raut was named as the Vice-Captain of the team.

Malala Yousafzai inks 3 million US Dollar deal to publish her memoir April 1st, 2013

Malala Yousafzai inked a deal for around USD 3 million to publish her memoir in a book, titled “I am

Malala” that will be published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson in the UK and Commonwealthand

by Little, Brown in the rest of the world.

Malala Yousafzai:

A school student and education activist from the town of Mingora in the Swat District

of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. She is famous for her education and women’s rights

activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban has at times opposed girls from attending school.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 72

MARCH

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 73

India wins the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by a defeating Australia 4-0 in Test Series March 29th, 2013

India completed a historic 4-0 clean sweep against Australia by recording an emphatic six-wicket

victory in the fourth and final cricket Test.

Border–Gavaskar Trophy

A Test cricket series played between India and Australia.

If the series is drawn, then the country holding the trophy retains it.

The series is named after Australia’s Allan Border and India’s Sunil Gavaskar, who both scored

over 10,000 Test runs in their career

Babasaheb Neelkanth Kalyani nominated as the Chairman of IJBLF March 29th, 2013

The Govt of India has nominated Babasaheb Neelkanth Kalyani (the Chairman and Managing Director

of Bharat Forge Limited) as the Chairman of the India-Japan Business Leader’s Forum (IJBLF).

India-Japan Business Leader’s Forum (IJBLF)

Objective: Leveraging the trade and investment between India and Japan. Thus, guiding business

developments between the two nations.

The forum has 15 members including Business tycoons like Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Bharti

Mittal,Deepak Parekh, S. Gopalkrishnan, N Chandrasekaran, Adi Godrej, etc.

Two-time Pulitzer winner Anthony Lewis passes away March 29th, 2013

Two-time Pulitzer winner Anthony Lewis (85) passed away. Anthony Lewis was a longtime New York

Times columnist.

He took up such causes as free speech, human rights and constitutional law.

In 1955, Anthony won his first Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his report on a civilian

employee of the U.S. Navy, who had been dismissed from his job on the basis of false allegations

by anonymous informers.

In 1963, Anthony won a second Pulitzer Prize in 1963, again in the category National Reporting,

for his coverage of the U.S.Supreme Court. Anthony’s famous 1964 book, “Gideon’s Trumpet,” told

the story of a petty thief whose fight for legalrepresentation led to a landmark Supreme Court

decision.

Anil Ananthaswamy wins British Physics journalism prize March 29th, 2013

Anil Ananthaswamy, a London-based Indian-origin writer has won the inaugural Physics Journalism

Prize. Anil Ananthaswamy, a consultant at New Scientist Magazine and author of ‘The Edge of

Physics’.

Anil’s article ‘Hip Hip Array’, that “brings to life” on the Square Kilometre Array,

an international project to design and build the largest radio telescope ever conceived, made him the

winner.

British Physics journalism prize

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 74

The prize sponsored by the Institute of Physics (IOP) and theScience and Technology Facilities

Council (STFC).

Objective: To inspire the next generation of physicists by encouraging journalists to spread

awareness about the complex subject.

Offers an expenses paid trip to Japan to visit world-leading facilities carrying out research at the

frontiers of physics.

Justice (retd) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso takes over as Pakistan’s 6th interim PM March 29th, 2013

Caretaker Prime Minister Justice (retired) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso took oath as sixth caretaker Prime

Minister of Pakistan. Justice Khoso held that the caretaker set-up was not going to stay for more

than the stipulated period and maintained that elections would be held on time.

Tiger Woods Reclaims No. 1 Ranking with Win at 2013 Arnold Palmer Invitational March 29th, 2013

With his eighth career win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Woods reclaimed the world No.1 ranking

for the first time since 2010. Woods replaces Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy atop the world

rankings.

Nikhil Kumar new Governor of Kerala March 29th, 2013

Nikhil Kumar sworn in as the 20th Governor of Kerala.

Former Indian Police Service officer Nikhil Kumar had earlier also served as Nagaland governor, the

head of the NSG (National Security Guard) and was a Congress MP.

Navneet Kaur Dhillon Crowned Miss India 2013 March 29th, 2013

Navneet Kaur Dhillon won Pond’s Femina Miss India 2013

Sobhita Dhulipala, from Mumbai won first runner up and actress Zoya Afroz (18) from Lucknow was

awarded second runner up. This year was the 50th anniversary of the competition. Ms Dhillon, who

also won the Femina Miss Glowing skin award. She will go on to represent India at the next Miss

World contest.

India has won international titles 34 times, second only toVenezuela.

Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe passed away March 29th, 2013

Chinua Achebe – Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic.

He was best known for literary work “Things Fall Apart (1958)” – the novel which is the most widely

read book in modern African literature. best known for his first novel and magnum opus,[4] Things

Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature.

Google invites Narendra Modi to address Big Tent Activate Summit March 28th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 75

Narendra Modi is the first CM from India who has been invited to address the Google Big Tent

Activate Summit 2013 on March 21 through Google+ hangout on the theme ‘Technology in

Politics’.

What is Big Tent Summit?

Big Tent summits are meets organized by Google providing a platform to bring together experts

from various fields, political leaders, thinkers to discuss on a variety of issues.

Damodaran committee report on business climate very soon March 28th, 2013

Damodaran Committee, which was set up last year under the chairmanship of former SEBI chief

M Damodaran to suggest ways to improve the country’s overall business environment, is expected

to submit its report by the end of March 2013.

The panel was formed amid concerns among industry and investors about perception of policy

paralysis and lack of required economic reforms.

Eminent businessmen and industrialists such as Anand Mahindra, Kumar Mangalam Birla

and Y.C Deveshwar, besides senior government officials are part of the panel.

Bangladesh President Mohammad Zillur Rahman passed away March 28th, 2013

President of Bangladesh, Mohammad Zillur Rahman, died at a Singapore hospital where he was

being treated for kidney and respiratory problems.

Morsy proposes ‘E-BRICS’ March 26th, 2013

Egypt’s first elected President Mohamed Morsywho is on visit to India have expressed keenness

to join the BRICS and hoped to see itself in the E-BRICS (E stands for Egypt).

EBRICS = Egypt + BRICS nations

National Bioscience Award 2012 March 21st, 2013

S. Venkata Mohan of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, here has won the National

Bioscience Award for 2012, awarded by the Department of Biotechnology, for scientists below 45.

He has won the prize for his contributions towards developing technologies for production of clean

bio-fuels from waste.

Kelkar-chaired committee to suggest plans for enhancing domestic oil production March 20th, 2013

A committee headed by Vijay Kelkar would formulate a roadmap for ramping up domestic

output of oil and gas and sustainable reduction in import dependency by 2030. The

Committee has to present its report to the Government within six months.

The panel would devise an institutional mechanism for appraisal of Indian sedimentary basins to

the extent of 75 % by 2015 and 100% by 2025.

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Besides, it would review the mechanism to acquire acreages abroad for exploration and production

as well as for pursuing diplomatic and political initiatives for import of gas from neighbouring and

other countries with emphasis on trans-national gas pipelines.

Xi proposes 5-point formula to boost ties with India March 20th, 2013

The newly elected President of China Xi Jinping held that the resolution of the boundary dispute

b/w India and China “won’t be easy” and pending its final settlement “peace and tranquility” should

be maintained on the border without affecting the overall relationships.

Xi proposed 5-point formula to improve ties with India:

1. China and India should maintain strategic communication and keep the bilateral relations on

the “right track”.

2. Both nations should tap each other’s comparative strengths and expand win-win

cooperation in infrastructure, mutual investment and other areas.

3. Both countries should strengthen cultural ties and constantly increase the mutually expanding

friendship between the two countries.

4. The two countries should expand coordination and collaboration in multi-lateral foray to

jointly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries and tackle global

challenges.

5. Both should accommodate each other’s core concerns and properly handle problems and

differences existing between the two countries.

Kimi Raikkonen bags formula 1 Australian Grand Prix 2013 March 20th, 2013

Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus team has won the Australian Grand Prix 2013.

Kimi Raikkonen:

Finnish racing driver.

Drives in Formula One now for Lotus Team.

New editor of TIME International – Bobby Ghosh March 16th, 2013

Famous Indian journalist Bobby Ghosh has been made the the new editor of

TIME International.Bobby joined TIME in 1998 after doing journalism in India.

He is the first non-American to be named World Editor in TIME’s more than 80 years.

President of ADB Mr. Kuroda become Governor of Central Bank of Japan March 16th, 2013

Japan’s Parliament approved Haruhiko Kuroda, a Finance Ministry veteran to become the Governor of

the Central Bank of Japan.

Mr. Kuroda will try to make efforts to break the world’s third-largest economy out of its long bout of

deflation.

Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda is the President of ADB since February 2005 and the Chairperson of ADB’s

Board of Directors.

The founder-chairman of Dr Reddy’s Labs, Dr. Kallam Anji Reddy passed away March 16th, 2013

Kallam Anji Reddy (73), the founder-chairman of Dr Reddy’s Labs passed away.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 77

Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi sworn in Nepal Prime Minister amid protest March 15th, 2013

Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Nepal. President Ram Baran Yadav

admistered the oath of office to him. Regmi will continue to hold the position of the Chief Justice

without actively engaging in the day to day affairs of the court.

Regmi’s government’s key tasks will be:

To hold elections by June 21, 2013

To choose a new Constituent Assembly to write a constitution.

Tan Twan Eng wins Asia’s top literary prize – The Man Asian Literary Prize March 15th, 2013

Tan Twan Eng won the Asia’s top literary prize “Man Asian Literary Prize” for his novel ‘The Garden of

Evening Mists’,for the year 2012.

He became the first Malaysian author to win Asia’s most prestigious literary prize.

The author won with his novel The Garden of Evening Mists, which is only the second time the Man

Asian Literary Prize has been won by a novel originally written in English. All previous winners,

except Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco (2008), won as English translations.

Xi Jinping assumes President’s office in China March 15th, 2013

Xi Jinping has assumed charge of President’s office in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. He

takes over outgoing president Hu Jintao.

Renowned painter Ganesh Pyne passed away March 15th, 2013

Legendary painter Ganesh Pyne (76) passed away in Kolkata.

Princess Lilian of Sweden passes away March 15th, 2013

Princess Lilian (97) of Sweden passed away. She had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Her

romance with husband Prince Bertil became one of Sweden’s best-known love stories.

New Pope: Jorge Mario Bergoglio takes “Francis” as name March 14th, 2013

Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been elected as new pope of the Catholic Church.

266th pope

Native of Argentina.

Became first pontiff from outside Europe in more than a millennium since Syrian-born Pope

Gregory III, who died in 741. Thus, he is thefirst non-European pope since the 8th century.

He has chosen the name Pope “Francis”. He is now both the leader of the Catholic Church and

sovereign ruler of the Vatican City State.

Fact Box: Prisoner X

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 78

March 12th, 2013

‘Prisoner X’ worked for Israel: Australia

Australia acknowledged for the first time that the dual Australian-Israeli citizen who died in a

maximum-security Israeli prison had been working for Israel. Australia has raised the possibility of a

diplomatic fuss if the man’s Australian passport was used for espionage.

Who is Prisoner X?

Prisoner X, Mr. X and Mister X were proxy names for Ben Zygier while he was imprisoned in

Israel in strict secrecy for unspecified crimes at Ayalon Prison.

Ben Zygier was an Australian-Israeli citizen.

World banks estimates Indian economy to grow over 6% by 2013-14 March 12th, 2013

World Bank estimated India’s economy to grow by 6% in 2013-14.

This estimation was made by the World Bank Chief Jim Young Kim who was on his first visit to India

after taking over as President of the World Bank Group July 2012.

President appoints Ashwani Kumar and S.C. Jamir as new Governors of Nagaland and

Odisha respectively March 12th, 2013

President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday appointed former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)

Director Ashwani Kumar and senior Congress leader S.C. Jamir as Governors

of Nagaland and Odisha respectively.

RBI chief rules out a revision in inflation goal March 11th, 2013

The RBI Governor D. Subbarao has ruled out any revision in its inflation goal while addressing a

meeting over the subject “Is there a new normal for inflation?”

Mr. Subbarao asserted that:

Much of Indian Economy’s inflation is driven by supply constraints and these could be corrected by

appropriate policies and their effective implementation.

Accepting a new normal for inflation not only doesn’t has a theoretical or empirical support, but it

means the moral hazard of policy inaction in dealing with supply constraints.

There is no empirical evidence to establish that the benefits of higher growth outweigh the cost of

welfare loss associated with higher inflation.

Neither theory nor empirical evidence presents a credible case for acquiescing in a new normal for

inflation in India

Delhi court frames Irom Sharmila under attempt to suicide March 10th, 2013

A Delhi Court has framed the charges of attempting to suicide against social activist Irom Sharmila.

Who is Irom Sharmila?

Irom Sharmila who is also known by his sobriquet‘Iron Lady of Manipur’,

Outstanding parliamentarian award to Jaitley, Karan Singh, Sharad Yadav

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 79

March 10th, 2013

The Indian Parliamentary Group (IPG) has approved Outstanding Parliamentarian Award to three

leaders viz. BJP leader Arun Jaitley, Congress MP Karan Singh and JD(U) MP Sharad Yadav for the

years 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Mukul Sangma once again becomes CM of Meghalaya March 8th, 2013

Mukul Manda Sangma of Congress party has sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Meghalaya for the

second consecutive time.

Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu visits India March 8th, 2013

Nobel laureate and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is also regarded as

South Africa Moral Conscience, made a visit to Kochi inIndia and expressed his gratitude for our

freedom heroes.

Bangaladeh confers Liberation War Honour on Pranab Mukherjee March 8th, 2013

Bangladesh has extended his gratitude by conferring Liberation War Honor Award on Indian

President Pranab Mukherjee, for his "outstanding contribution" to the 1971 war even as the country

sees a massive youth-led uprising for "justice" for those who died in the conflict.

India, during the tenure of Indira Gandhi as PM, had fought the 1971 war against

East Pakistan for the independence and creation of Bangladesh.

Mukherjee, in his acceptance speech made on June 15, 1971 in Rajya Sabha for a

discussion over India’s role in the war, had suggested that India should accord

diplomatic recognition to the government of Bangladesh in exile in Mujibnagar.

In 2011, Bangladesh had conferred its highest honor, the Bangladesh Freedom Honour,

former Indian premier Indira Gandhi posthumously, for her contribution to the creation

of Bangladesh.

Mukesh Ambani titled India’s richest person for 6th year in a row March 8th, 2013

As per an annual ranking released by business magazine Forbes, Mukesh Ambani with a networth of

$21.5 billion has retained his title as India’s richest person for sixth year in a row. Mexican business

mogul Carlos Slim, with a networth of $73 billion, has been ranked as wealthiest in the world for the

fourth consecutive year. On the global rankings, Mukesh Ambani is placed 22nd, while the second-

richest Indian Lakshmi Mittal is at 41st rank with a networth of $16.5 billion.

Top 5 richest people:

1. Carlos Slim

2. Bill Gates

3. Amanacio Ortega

4. Warren Buffet

5. Larry Ellison

Rajasthani writer Hariram Meena chosen for Bihari Puraskar March 6th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 80

Famous Rajasthani author Hariram Meena will be conferred with the Bihari Puraskar for 2012 for his

Hindi novel ‘Dhooni Tape Teer’. The novel is based on sacrifices of scores of tribal people at Mangarh

mountains near Banswara in Rajasthan on November 17, 1913 when British forces had resorted to

gunfire to contain their revolt.

About Bihari Puraskar

Bihari Puraskar was instituted by the K K Birla Foundation in 1991 and is given annually to

Rajasthani writers for outstanding literary works in Hindi or Rajasthani published in the past 10

years. The award carries a citation and a cash purse of Rs 1 lakh. The Foundation also gives other

prestigious awards — Saraswati Samman and Vyas Samman — for extraordinary literary works.

‘International Women of Courage Award’ to Delhi victim March 6th, 2013

United States to honor the 23-year-old Delhi braveheart with theInternational Women of

Courage Award. The first lady Michelle Obama and the secretary of state John Kerry will present

the award.

Neiphiu Rio: New CM o Nagaland CM March 6th, 2013

Neiphiu Rio takes oath as the Chief Minister of Nagaland for the third consecutive term.

The Naga People’s Front (NPF)-led DAN, having 40 elected members, along with the support of seven

Independents, had staked claim to form the government.

Budget Box: Changed GAAR provisions to come into effect from April 2016 March 3rd, 2013

As announced in the current Budget, the modified version of controversial General Anti Avoidance

Rules (GAAR) provisions will be implemented from April 2016. The modified provisions maintain

the basic thrust and purpose of GAAR.

The government had formed an expert committee chaired byParathasarthi Shome to give

recommendations on the anti-avoidance tax proposals. The panel had recommended to defer

GAAR by 3 years and abolition of short-term capital gains tax.

Impermissible tax avoidance arrangements will be subjected to tax after a decision is made through

a well laid out procedure involving an assessing officer and an Approving Panel headed by a Judge.

The Finance Bill 2013—14 proposes to set up a Tax Administration Reform Commission to

review the application of tax policies and tax laws and submit periodic reports that can be

implemented to strengthen the capacity of our tax system.

A Standing Council of Experts will be set up in the Finance Ministry to examine

the international competitiveness of the Indian financial sector. It will periodically examine the

transaction costs of doing business in the Indian market, and provide suggestions to Government for

necessary measures.

‘Walking with Lions: Tales from a Diplomatic Past’ a book by Natwar Singh released by

Vice President March 3rd, 2013

“Walking with Lions : Tales from a Diplomatic Past”

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A book authored by Shri K. Natwar Singh, former Union Minister for External Affairs was released by

the Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari.

Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal to be new Director General of Indian Coast Guard March 3rd, 2013

Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal will take the position of Director General of Indian Coast Guard

succeeding the present Director General Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan

Sugata Mitra wins TED Prize for Extraordinary Creativity March 1st, 2013

Educational researcher Sugata Mitra has been awarded the million-dollar TED Prize for pursuing his

idea for building the schools in the Internet. Mitra is Professor of Educational Technology at the

School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK. He is best

known for his "Hole in the Wall" experiment, and widely cited in works on literacy and education.

About TED Prize:

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) prize is a one-million dollar prize given to people

with extraordinary creativity. At the annual conference of TED, the winner talks about the wish to

bring changes in the world.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 82

FEBRUARY

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 83

Fact Box “Anubhuti” Railway Coaches February 28th, 2013

Owing to increased popularity of Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains, there is also a demand for higher

travel comfort. Thus, was felt the need for the special AC luxury class by Railway Minister and

named ‘Anubhuti’coaches. These with more facilities would be introduced in Shatabdi trains at the

earliest.

Pope Benedict XVI will be known as ‘emeritus Pope’ – Vatican February 28th, 2013

The Vatican announced that the Pope Benedict XVI will be known as ‘emeritus Pope’. It also held

that the Pope after his retirement will continue to wear a white cassock and will be still addressed

as “Your Holiness Benedict XVI” and will have the additional title of “Roman pontiff emeritus”.

Park Geun-hye sworn in as South Korea’s first woman President February 28th, 2013

Park Geun-hye sworn in as South Korea’s first woman President.

Rajya Sabha approves President’s Rule in Jharkhand February 28th, 2013

The Rajya Sabha approved the proclamation of the President’s Rule inJharkhand.

Arjun Munda resigned as Chief Minister of Jharkhand after his government lost majority last month

as the JMM withdrew support to the BJP-led government.

On January 18, 2013, Jharkhand was brought under the President’s Rule for the 3rd time since its

formation 12 years ago.

The Rajya Sabha approved the proclamation with a voice vote after a debate.

Arun Tadanki Yahoo! India MD resigns February 28th, 2013

Arun Tadanki, Managing Director, India & Southeast Asia, declared his decision to leave Yahoo.

Rail Budget 2013: Highlights February 28th, 2013

Highlights of the Rail Budget 2013-14 as presented by Railway Minister Mr. P.K. Bansal

relating to the following Headings:

Manufacturing:

A new wheel factory to be set up at Rae Bareli

A greenfield Mainline Electrical Multiple Units (MEMU) manufacturing facility at Bhilwara

(Rajasthan) in collaboration with State Government and BHEL.

Six more Rail Neer bottling plants to be set up

Coach Manufacturing Unit in Sonepat District (Haryana) in collaboration with State Government.

A Midlife Rehabilitation Workshop at Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh) in

collaboration with the State Government.

Bikaner and Pratapgarh workshops to undertake POH of BG wagons.

Justice (Retd) Ms Usha Mehra Commission Submitted its Report February 26th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 84

Justice (Retd) Ms Usha Mehra Commission submitted its report to the Government.

The Commission was constituted on 26th December, 2012.

Objective: To enquire into various aspects of the incidence of brutal assault to a young woman

in Delhi on December 16, 2012.

The Commission was asked to submit its report within 3 months and the Commission has submitted

it before time.

Hari Shankar Singhania, leading industrialist, passes away February 26th, 2013

Hari Shankar Singhania (79), one of India’s most distinguished industrialists, passed away.

Singhania was president of JK Organization

In 2003, he was awarded Padma Bhushan

He was the second Indian to serve as president ofInternational Chamber of Commerce, Paris,

during 1993-94.

Fact Box: Kishenganga Hydro-electric project (KHEP) February 26th, 2013

Court of Arbitration the Court permits India to go ahead with the construction of the Rs.

3600 crore KHEP

In a key decision, the Court of Arbitration the Court chaired by Stephen M. Schwebel, at the Hague

has permitted India to go ahead with the construction of the Rs. 3600 crore Kishenganga Hydro-

electric project (KHEP) in North Kashmir. The court eliminated Pakistan’s plea that this was a

violation of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.

Thus, India can go ahead with the diversion of the waters of Kishanganga for hydro-electric power

generation.

Kishanganga is a tributary of Jhelum.

Kishenganga is called ‘Neelam’ in Pakistan.

KHEP is a 330 MW run-of-the-river Kishenganga project.

Project is under construction by the NHPC (National Hydro Power Corporation) in Gurez valley near

Bandipura in north Kashmir.

What was Pakistan’s contention?

Pakistan had contended that as per the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, the following are impermissible:

1. The KHEP’s planned diversion of the waters of the Neelum (or Kishenganga)

2. The use of the drawdown flushing technique both at the KHEP and at other Indian hydroelectric

projects that the Treaty regulates.

Pakistan had raised objections to the above holding that it will affect Pakistan’s water availability

downstream and thus it sought setting up of a Court of Arbitration on May 17, 2010.

What was India’s contention?

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India had asserted that both the design and planned mode of operation of the KHEP are in full

conformity with the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960.

What is the verdict of the Court of Arbitration?

A Court of Arbitration was set up under the chairmanship Stephen M. Schwebel was set up on May

17, 2010 at The Hague.

The members of the Court of Arbitration visited India and Pakistan for site inspection in June,

2011.

The court eliminated Pakistan’s plea that this was a violation of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.

Thus, India can go ahead with the diversion of the waters of Kishanganga for hydro-electric power

generation.

At the same time, the court has confined India from adopting the drawdown flushing technique for

clearing sedimentation in the run-of-the river project.

Thus, now India will have to adopt a different flushing technique for clearing sedimentation in the

run-of-the river project.

The Court had limited India from constructing any permanent works on or above Kishenganga at

Gurez that may suppress the restoration of the full flow of the river.

The court has permitted India to construct a temporary by-pass tunnel for diversion of waters.

AirAsia seeks Indian govt’s nod to join hands with Tata Group to enter country’s

aviation February 24th, 2013

Malaysia’s no-frills carrier AirAsia has sought the approval of the Indian Government to join hands

with the Tata Group to enter the aviation sector.

This would be the first investment in the sector by a foreign airline after the Government

raised the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit from 26% to 49% in 2012.

AirAsia has applied to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to take a 49% stake in a

venture with Tata Sons Ltd., and Arun Bhatia’s Telestra Tradeplace.

Telestra Tradeplace is an investment holding company of Arun Bhatia. One of its group

companies is Hindustan Aerosystems Pvt Ltd., which manufactures and supplies precision

components for the aerospace industry. If FIPB grants clearance to the proposal, the airline

operators would then need approval from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to start

operations.

Tech tycoons institute Breakthrough Prize for Life Sciences February 24th, 2013

Technology magnates, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Facebook founder Mark

Zuckerberg, have launched a $15-million annualBreakthrough Prize for Life Sciences to reward

outstanding scientific achievements in life sciences.

T.S. Vijayan is new IRDA chairman February 24th, 2013

Former chairman of Life Insurance Corporation, T.S. Vijayantook over as the chairman of

the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).

Viswanathan Anand wins Grenke Classic February 22nd, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 86

World chess champion Viswanathan Anand scored an emphatic victory over German Arkadij

Naiditsch to clinch the Grenke Chess Classic trophy.

SEWA founder Ela Bhatt conferred with Indira Gandhi Peace Prize February 21st, 2013

Self-Employed Women’s Association of India(SEWA) founder Ela R Bhatt has been conferred

with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for the year 2011.

The Prize has been awarded to Bhatt for her lifetime achievements in comprehensively empowering

women in India and elsewhere through grassroots entrepreneurship.

Chandrasekhar Committee meets set pathway to unify foreign investments norms February 20th, 2013

The K.M. Chandrashekhar committee formed to unify foreign investment norms met for the first

time.

Objective: To relax entry norms for a diverse category of foreign investors such as FDI / FII/

QFI/NRI/FVCI and the like.

Two sub-committees

Two sub-panels have been set up with following objective:

1. The first one will harmonize the FDI/FII categories keeping in mind that not all FII investment is

short-term, and FII investments above a particular threshold should be deemed FDI.

2. The second sub-committee would look to fortify Know Your Client (KYC), and process related

issues. This has been mooted to do away with the registration need of FIIs with SEBI, once KYC is

strengthened.

The panel discussed the feasibility of entrusting the responsibility of KYC to Qualified Depository

Participants (QDPs) after elevating them to a custodial depository participant (CDP).

Bhaskar Rao appointed as Lokayukta of Karnataka February 20th, 2013

Former Chief Justice of Karnataka, Bhaskar Rao, has been appointed as the Lokayukta of Karnatka.

The chair of the anti-corruption ombudsman was vacant after previous Lokayukta Justice Shivraj V.

Patil was forced to resign after the media expose of illegal land allotments in 2011.

First corporate sponsorship for Padma Shri Girisha Hosanagara February 20th, 2013

High-jumper Padma Shri awardee Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda who bagged silver

medal in London paralympics has become brand ambassador of nutrition company Herbalife.

Asoke Kumar Mukerji – The next Permanent Representative of India to the UN February 20th, 2013

Asoke Kumar Mukerji, currently Special Secretary at headquarters, has been appointed as the next

Ambassador/Permanent Representative ofIndia to the United Nations at New York.

Golden Bear to ‘Child’s Pose’: Berlinale February 20th, 2013

Child’s Pose (Poziţia Copilului) by Romanian director Călin Peter Netzer was awarded the

Golden Bear at the 63rd Berlin InternationalFilm Festival.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 87

The Alfred Bauer Prize (Silver Bear) went to ‘An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker’ by Danis

Tanović

Best Director Award was given to David Gordon Green for ‘Prince Avalanche’.

India-based documentary ‘Salma’ by British filmmaker Kim Longinottobagged the second

place in Panorama Audience awards at Berlinale.

American philosopher and law expert Ronald Dworkin passed away February 20th, 2013

American philosopher and constitutional law scholar Ronald Dworkin (81), who debated that the law

should be founded on moral integrity, has passed away. He was widely known and one of the most

quoted legalscholars in the U.S. and also an expert on British law.

Mohan Parasaran is new Solicitor General of India February 16th, 2013

Mohan Parasaran has been appointed as the new Solicitor General ofIndia following the resignation

of senior advocate Rohinton Nariman from the post. Mr Parasaran, who is currently the Additional

Solicitor General, is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court.

What is the job of SG?

The Solicitor General appears on behalf of, and advises, the union government on various cases.

Parle-G is now India’s first homegrown Rs 5K crore FMCG brand February 16th, 2013

The1939 born Parle-G glucose biscuit brand of Parle Products has become the first Indian FMCG

brand to cross the Rs 5,000-crore mark in retail sales in a year.

Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty appointed as new chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi February 16th, 2013

Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty , a 1970 batch retired IAS officer has been appointed as the new

chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi. The appointment was cleared by the President Pranab Mukherjee.

Horacio Zeballos defeats Rafael Nadal to win VTR Open February 15th, 2013

Horacio Zeballos of Argentina defeated Rafael Nadal of Spain to win the VTR Open held in Chile.

Fact Box: ‘Operation Three Star’ February 15th, 2013

‘Operation Three Star’ was the code name of the top secret execution plan in which Parliament

attack convict Afzal Guru was sent to gallows in the high-security Tihar Jail on February 9, 2013.

Afzal Guru was found guilty of conspiring and sheltering the militants who attacked Parliament on

December 13, 2001, in which nine persons were killed.

Prime Minister of Bhutan visited India February 15th, 2013

Prime Minister of Bhutan, Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley made a home visit to India.

His visit was aimed at improving India-Bhutan bilateral ties.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 88

Lifetime Grammy Award to Ravi Shankar posthumously February 12th, 2013

Late sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy award,

which was jointly accepted by his musically gifted daughters Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones.

“Ranchi Rhinos” wins Hockey India League February 12th, 2013

Ranchi Rhinos has won the maiden Hockey India League (HIL). They defeated Delhi Waveriders in

the final match of the tournament. With this Delhi Waveriders took second position followed by Uttar

Pradesh Wizards.

Awards from the Hockey India League (HIL):

Hero Goal of the Day: Manpreet Singh

Man-of the-Match: Mauritz Furtse

Fair-Play Award: Ranchi Rhinos

Hero Player of the Tournament: Sardar Singh

Ponty Chadha Trophy for Upcoming Player of the Tournament: Mandeep Singh

Airtel Award for Most Goals in the Tournament: Delhi Waveriders

Government nominates C R Naseer Ahmed on the Board of Directors of Syndicate Bank February 11th, 2013

The Central Government has nominated Mr. C R Naseer Ahmed as part-time non-official director on

the Board of Directors of the Bank for a period of three years from February 01, 2013 or until further

orders, whichever is earlier.Source.

Dell ready to become private in $24 billion deal February 11th, 2013

PC manufacturer Dell is ready to go private in a $24.4-billion buyout. The company which is facing

slump will pay its stockholders $13.65 per share to leave the company on its own. The company will

be sold to a group of investors that includes investment firm Silver Lake. Once this is done, DELL

will stop trading on the NASDAQ.

Dell did rapid growth through the 1990s which brought its founderMichael Dell into one of the

world’s richest people. Michael Dell, who owns nearly 16% stake in the company, will remain the

CEO after the sale closes. Dell’s sale is the highest-priced leveraged buyout of a technology

company.

What is a “Leveraged buyout (LBO)”?

LBO = Acquisition of a company (or a part of a company or it can also be single asset like a real

estate) using a substantial amount of borrowed money (bonds or loans / debt) to meet the cost of

acquisition.

The financial buyer (e.g. private equity fund) puts a small amount of equity (relative to the total

purchase price) and utilizes leverage (debt or other non-equity sources of financing) to fund the

rest of the amount that is paid to the seller.

LBOs can have many different forms such as Management Buy-out (MBO), Management Buy-in

(MBI), secondary buyout, tertiary buyout, etc.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 89

Can LBO be employed in public companies also?

YES. Though, mostly LBOs occur in private companies, but it can also be employed with public

companies.

The +ves of Leveraged buyout::

In LBO transactions, financial buyers seek to generate high returns on the equity investments and

use financial leverage (debt) to increase these potential returns.

Financial backers of Dell are of the view that it will be easier to engineer a turnaround without

having to pander to the stock market’s fixation on whether the company’s earnings are growing

from one quarter to the next.

Taking the company private will leave it without publicly traded shares to attract and reward

talented workers or to help buy other companies.

The -ves of Leveraged buyout:

LBOs need companies to reserve some of their incoming cash to reduce the debt taken on as part

of the process of going private.

The obligations mean Dell will have less money to invest in innovation and expansion of

its business.

Equity holders – Risk arises due to significant financial leverage. Interest amount that has to be paid

for the debt taken by the company are are "fixed costs" and thus they can in future force the

company into default if they not paid.

Debt holders – The debt holders assume the risk of default compared with higher leverage as well,

but as they have claims on the assets of the company, they are likely to realize a partial, if not full,

return on their investments, even in bankruptcy.

What is “Management Buyout (MBO)”?

MBO is quite similar to a LBO, but the difference is that in an MBO the Management Team of the

target company acquires the company instead of a financial sponsor as in case of a LBO.

Example: Mr. Ram is the sole owner of XYZ company. Mr. Ram is now 65 years old and is set to

retire in coming months and exit the business. Now, the Higher Management Team at the company

believes strongly that the company has good future ahead and so the Management people come

together and they buy out the Mr. Ram’s (owner’s) equity in the company and assume control in the

XYZ company.

Sharad Sharma becomes ED of Geojit BNP Paribas February 9th, 2013

Sharad Sharma has been appointed as the Executive Director of Geojit BNP Paribas to oversee the

company’s operations. Satish Menon, also the Executive Director, will be responsible for

all business lines.

- BNP Paribas is a French global banking group, headquartered in Paris.

- BNP Paribas was formed in 2000 via the merger of Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) and Paribas in

2000.

- Bloomberg and Forbes in 2012 ranked BNP Paribas as the 3rd largest bank in world on basis of the

total assets held by the bank.

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- SBI Life Insurance is a Joint-Venture b/w SBI (74%) and BNP (26%) Paribas Assurance.

- ‘Geojit’ was a company started in 1987 by Mr. C. J. George and Mr. Ranajit Kanjilal. In 1994, it

became a Public Limited Company named ‘Geojit Securities Ltd’.

- In 2007, BNP Paribas took a stake majority stake in Geojit Securities Ltd. and consequently,

evolved ‘Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd.’

L.N. Tallur wins Skoda Art Prize 2012 February 9th, 2013

Renowned artist L.N. Tallur from Karnataka, whose works portray majorly the underbelly of India,

has won the Rs. 1 million Skoda Prize 2012 forcontemporary art.

In his exhibition titled “Quintessential” Mr. Tallur narrates his theory of‘5th dimension’. He

believes, when an object of art is ‘museumised’,it creates a fifth dimension, and is a further

addition to Einstein’s 4 dimensions (time-space).

Artist Rohini Devasher won the Skoda’s 2012 Art India Breakthrough Artist Award.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad becomes first Iranian leader to visit Egypt since Islamic

Revolution of 1979 February 9th, 2013

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became the first Iranian leader to visit Egypt after Tehran’s

1979 Islamic revolution. He visited Egypt capital Cairo for attending the summit of the Organisation

of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Thirty Software companies detach from NASSCOM to form “iSpirt” February 9th, 2013

30 Indian software product companies have decided to form a new association called the Indian

Software Product Industry Round Table, or “iSpirt”.

Why this separation?

Software companies involved in forming the new group have felt the need to create a new body

which would be a group of Software Products companies rather than IT services companies like

TCS, Infosys, and Wipro etc. which dominate NASSCOM. The objective is to bring all the software

product companies (large and small) to share expertise and experiences, and create a larger

awareness in society and government about the critical role the industry can play and something

they believe they cannot effectively do under the larger NASSCOM umbrella. They have named the

new body as Indian Software Product Industry Round Table, or iSpirt. Founding companies

include Tally Solutions, QuickHeal, InMobi, Nucleus software, and industry stalwarts. The idea is to

create and promote mass-solution software that can be bought off the shelf, like MS Windows or

Office. The new association’s members want to offer education software for all schools rather than

just IITs/IIMs.

The thirty founding members are led by Bharat Goenka, co-founder ofTally Solutions, Sharad

Sharma, former head of Yahoo India R&D, startup mentor and founder of Brand

Sigma, Naveen Tewari, founder of In-Mobi , and Vishnu Dusad, founder of Nucleus Software.

Jackie Chan, Mo Yan selected as members of Chinese parliament February 8th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 91

Movie star Jackie Chan and the 2012 winner of Nobel prize for literature Mo Yan has been selected

as members of one of the houses of Chinese parliament, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative

Conference (CPPCC).

Famous Bengali Painter Shanu Lahiri passed away February 8th, 2013

Famous painter of Bengal School, Shanu Lahiri (85) passed away. She was the winner of President’s

Gold Medal.

Rohinton Nariman submits resignation from Solicitor General of India February 8th, 2013

The Solicitor General of India, senior advocate Rohinton F Narimanhas resigned from the post

amid speculation that the decision came over his differences with the Law ministry. Nariman has not

stated any reason for quitting his post.

The Solicitor General of India is the second senior most law officer of the country.

Naseer Ahmed is the new Director of Syndicate Bank February 8th, 2013

C R Naseer Ahmed has been appointed as the Director of Syndicate Bank. The Government

of India has nominated Ahmed as part-time non-official director on the Board of Directors of

Syndicate Bank for a period of 3 years.

South Africa tops ICC Rankings for Test Cricket February 7th, 2013

South Africa was declared as the world number one team in the ICC TestCricket Rankings. It is

followed by England, Australia, Pakistan and India. India was at 5th spot.

South African batsman Hashim Amla has emerged as the best batsman in the category and with

this he became the first batsman to hold the number one position in both Test and One-day format

of the game since 2007, before this Ricky Pointing was the cricketer to achieve this feat.

In the bowling rankings, Dale Steyn, the South African bowler held the top spot followed by his

teammate, Vernan Philander.

Pragyan Ojha is the only one from Indian side to figure in the top ten bowlers in the test rankings.

McGrath and Turner enter Australian Cricket Hall of Fame February 7th, 2013

Renowned pace bowlers Glenn McGrath and Charlie Turner have been inducted into the

Australian Cricket Hall of Fame. Charlie Turner took 6-15 on test debut at Sydney in 1887. He died in

1944. Turner took 101 wickets in 17 test matches b/w the time period of 1887 and 1895.

Michael Clarke bags his 4th Allan Border Medal February 7th, 2013

Australian Cricket Team’s skipper Michael Clarke has won his fourth Allan Border Medal. Previously,

he won the medal in 2005, 2009 and 2012 medals. With this Clarke equalized Ricky Ponting who had

also achieved this feat in past.

Functioning of Prasar Bharati to be examined by study groups February 7th, 2013

The Sam Pitroda-led expert panel has set up 11 study groups for examining the Government-

Prasar Bharati ties, its financing, aspects related to content, presentation and other issues.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 92

Vasudeva Rao is new Director of IGCAR February 5th, 2013

P.R. Vasudeva Rao has been appointed as the new director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for

Atomic Research (IGCAR).

About IGCAR

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) is a premier atomic research centre of India.

The centre is involved in broad based multidisciplinary programme of scientific research and

advanced engineering directed towards the development of Fast Breeder Reactor technology. It is

located in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu.

Obama honors Indian American Scientist February 5th, 2013

Indian American scientist Rangaswamy Srinivasan has been honored with the prestigious 2011

National Medal of Technology and Innovation by U.S. President Barack Obama.

For more about Rangaswamy Srinivasan:Click Here

India Cements appoints M S Dhoni as its Vice President February 5th, 2013

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been appointed as vice-president of India Cements, a

company which is headed by BCCI President N Srinivasan.

India Cements are the owners of IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings of which Dhoni has been the

captain since 2008 and Srinivasan is the Managing Director-cum-vice-chairman of the company.

John Kerry new Secretary of State in Obama’s govt February 4th, 2013

Democratic Senator from Massachusetts and former presidential candidate John Kerry chosen as U.S.

President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State. He replaced incumbent Ms Hillary Clinton.

Mr. Kerry had lost out to George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.

Expert panel under chairmanship of Sam Pitroda constituted to review functioning of

Prasar Bharti February 2nd, 2013

An Expert Committee has been set up by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has with the

task of reviewing the institutional frame work of Prasar Bharati including its relationship with

Government, its continuing role as a public broadcaster and steps needed to ensure technical up-

gradation of the organization. The panel will be chaired by Sam Pitroda (Advisor to the Prime Minister

of India on Public InformationInfrastructure & Innovations).

Bharti Airtel appoints Manoj Kohli as it MD February 2nd, 2013

World’s 4th largest mobile operator by customers, Bharti Airtel, will appoint Manoj Kohli as its

Managing Director.

Kohli’s elevation will see Bharti Airtel founder Sunil Mittal become its executive chairman.

Czech elects Milos Zeman as its President February 2nd, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 93

Milos Zeman has won presidential poll of Czech Republic by his defeating opponent Foreign Minister

Karel Schwarzenberg. Mr Zeman will replace current president Vaclav Klaus, who completes his term

in March,2013 after his 10 years regime.

Mr. Zeman is the supporter of further integration of the European Union.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 94

JANUARY

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 95

At 105, Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan is the oldest to get Padma Award January 31st, 2013

Hindustani vocalist Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan (105) has become the oldest person to be chosen

for this year’s Padma Shri award.

Previously, in 2011, India’s first woman photo-journalist Homai Vyarawala was honoured with the

Padma Vibushan at the age of 97. She passed away in 2012.

Khan is also a poet who has penned around 2000 compositions under the pseudonym ‘Rasan Piya’.

World’s oldest marathoner to retire January 30th, 2013

World’s oldest marathon runner, 101-year-old Fauja Singh, from Ilford, east London, has

announced retirement from the sport after taking part in the after Hong Kong marathon which will be

held inFebruary 2013. Singh is fondly known as ‘Turbaned Tornado’ among his fans.

He entered the records as the world’s oldest marathon runner after his show in Toronto marathon.

To know more about the ‘Turbaned Tornado’ Fauja Singh: Click Here.

Shiv Sena elects Uddhav Thackeray as its President January 30th, 2013

Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray (52) was formally elected as the president of

the party.

There will be no post of Shiv Sena ‘pramukh’, which was held by late party supremo Bal Thackeray

for over four decades.

Kirti Chakra to Army Major Abup J Manjali January 29th, 2013

Major Abup J Manjali of the Rashtriya Rifles has been awarded the Kirti Chakra on this Republic Day

for the exhibition of exceptional valor in counter- terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Manjali is the only soldier to be awarded the second- highest peacetime gallantry award Kirti Chakra

on this Republic Day.

SRK tops Forbes India Celebrity 100 chart January 28th, 2013

Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan stood at the pinnacle of inaugural Forbes India Celebrity 100 list.

The 2nd spot was held by Salman Khan, while Indian cricket skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni stood at

the 3rd place in the list.

Top 3 earners during October 2011 to September 2012:

Shah Rukh Khan- Rs 202.8 crore.

Salman Khan – Rs 144.2 crore

Dhoni – Rs 135.16 crore

Ameet Shah appointed to US Dept committee on renewable energy January 28th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 96

The Co-Chairman of Astonfield Renewable Resources Ltd, Ameet Shah, has been appointed to the

US Department of Commerce’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee

(RE&EEAC).

Astonfield’s 12.3 MW solar photovoltaic plant in Nayaka of Patan district of Gujarat, was

sanctioned under the Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA).

US Senators introduce Malala Yousufzai Scholarship Act January 28th, 2013

A bill in the name of Pakistani peace activist MalalaYousafzai has been introduced by two top

American Senators.

The legislation named ‘Malala Yousufzai Scholarship Act’ is aimed at expanding scholarship

opportunities for disadvantaged young women in Pakistan.

The bill would require a 30 % increase in the number of scholarships awarded under the program for

the next four years, and that these additional scholarships be awarded solely to women.

The Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act would expand and enhance an existing United States Agency

for International Development (USAID)scholarship program called the Merit and Needs-Based

Scholarship Program.

The USAID program provides scholarships for university studies

inagriculture or business administration to economically disadvantaged young men and women from

rural areas of Pakistan.

Indian author U.R.Ananthamurthy in race for the International Man Booker Prize for

Fiction 2013 January 26th, 2013

Indian Kannada author U.R.Ananthamurthy (80) is one among the ten authors shortlisted for the

prestigious International Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2013. Ananthamurthy became famous with his

novel“Samskara” launched in 1966.

The International Man Booker Prize is presented by UK to a living author of any nationality for a

body of work published in English or generally available in English translation. It is a biennial

event whichawards an author for his lifetime work.

Bhutan king igme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck to be Republic Day parade chief guest January 24th, 2013

Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck will be the chief guest at India’s 64th Republic Day

parade on Jan 26, 2013.

Intel to make an interface to help Stephen Hawkins communicate faster January 24th, 2013

Intel , the world’s largest and most valued chip maker, has revealed that it is working on an

interface that will boost the scientist’s speech to up to 10 words per minute. Currently, Hawkins rate

of communication is 1 word per minute. Hawking has a motor neurone disease related

toAmyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years. He is almost

entirely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device.

Virat Kohli becomes second fastest Indian to score 4000 runs in ODIs January 24th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 97

Indian cricket star Virat Kohli became the fastest Indian to score 4000 runs in One Day

Internationals (ODIs). Virat Kohli played 96 ODI matches and 93 innings to reach this milestone.

Before Sourav Ganguly was the fastest Indian to score 4000 runs in ODI who had played 105 inning.

Rajnath Singh takes charge as new BJP president January 24th, 2013

The BJP unanimously elected Rajnath Singh as its president. Singh replaced Nitin Gadkari who had

been on the post since 2009.

IOC asks Lance Armstrong to return bronze medal won at 2000 Sydney Olympics January 24th, 2013

The International Olympics association has requested the discredited cyclist Lance Armstrong to

return the Olympic bronze medal he won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics Games. The cyclist was

stripped off all the seven Tour de France medals he had won after a report from the US Anti-Doping

Agency (USADA) accused him of leading a massive doping programme on his teams.

S S Mundra appointed as the new CMD of BoB January 24th, 2013

S S Mundra has been appointed by the Government of India as theChairman and Managing

Director (CMD) of India’s second largest lender- Bank of Baroda. He is the former Executive

Director of Unionbank of India.

U.R. Rao to be inducted in Satellite Hall of Fame January 24th, 2013

The former ISRO chairman, Prof. U.R. Rao, will be inducted the prestigious international Satellite Hall

of Fame. The USbased Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) is honoring him for his

contribution to the field of satellite-related aerospace scientific research.

Prof. Rao, who served as Secretary, Department of Space, and Chairman of the Space Commission

for 10 years from 1984, will join the club of some 40 space personalities who include Arthur Clarke.

Currently, Rao is the chairman of the governing council of the Physical Research Laboratory,

Ahmedabad.

Rahul Gandhi – Vice President of Congress January 23rd, 2013

Congress has selected Rahul Gandhi as its Vice-President. The decision was finalized in the Congress

Chintan Shivir held at Jaipur. It was organized to discuss Congress’ strategy for elections in 2014.

Rahul is only the third vice-president in Congress history after Arjun Singh who held the post under

Rajiv Gandhi in 1986, and Jitendra Prasada under Sitaram Kesari in 1997.

Obama takes oath for another term as US president January 23rd, 2013

Barack Obama has been officially sworn in for a second consecutive term as US President. Obama

delivered the oath in the Blue Room of the White House with First Lady Michelle.

Hockey India appoints Roelant Oltmans as High Performance Director January 22nd, 2013

Legendry Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans has been appointed as High Performance Director

by Hockey India to oversee the affairs of its senior and junior national teams.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 98

Oltmans brings with him an experience of 14-years of coaching Dutch team, which under his

guidance clinched the gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics, two FIH World Cups, three FIH Champions

Trophy and the Euro Hockey League.

Indian researcher to receive Alzheimer’s drug discovery award January 22nd, 2013

Mahaveer Golechha, a London-based Indian researcher will be honored with Alzheimer’s Drug

Discovery Foundation’s ‘Young Investigator Scholarship Award’ at the 7th Annual Drug Discovery for

Neurodegeneration Conference San Francisco.

Why this award?

The award is being given to him to recognize his outstanding research on‘Naringin’, a bioflavonoid

found in grape fruits and citrus fruits. He has discovered thatnaringin bears significant "anti-

Alzheimer activity"and will form the basis of further research to develop as a cure for the

degenerative disease related to old age, which worsens as its progresses and eventually leads to

death.

Wei Wei is new Chinese Ambassador to India January 20th, 2013

China has appointed Wei Wei (57) as new ambassador toIndia, succeeding Zhang Yan. The

appointment was made by President Hu Jintao in accordance with a decision made by the Standing

Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature

Zhao Jiang is China’s first Tamil author January 20th, 2013

Zhao Jiang or Kalaimakal has become first Chinese author to write a book in Tamil. She has authored

a book titled“China’s Travel Attractions” which introduces the reader with the history

and culture of Beijing, Shanghai and Tibet. Currently, Jiang is the director of the government-run

China Radio International’s (CRI) Tamil station, which commands an significant number of audience

in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singaporeand Europe.

Saina Nehwal becomes world No. 2 January 19th, 2013

Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal once again attained world no.2 position in the latest Badminton

World Federation (BWF) rankings. Previously, she had achieved this feat in 2010.

Marathi writer Jyotsna Deodhar passed away January 19th, 2013

Acclaimed Marathi writer Jyotsna Deodhar (86) passed away. She also worked as an All India Radio

(AIR) programme producer, Deodhar authored over 40 books which included novels and short stories

that won her critical applaud. Her novels include ‘Ghar Gangechya Kathi’, ‘Udhvasta’,

‘Padzad’. She became famous in Maharashtra with her radio programme in Marathi

titled ‘Gruhini’that highlighted women’s issues.

Mohammad Tahir-ul-Qadri – New face in Pakistan Politics January 19th, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 99

Mohammad Tahir ul-Qadri is a Pakistani politician, former law professor and a Sufi scholar.He

was the former professor ofinternational constitutional law at the University of the Punjab. Qadri is

also the founder and Chairman of Minhaj-ul-Quran International. He is currently in news for running

a political campaign for a “democratic revolution”. He called for a "million-men" march in

Islamabad to protest government corruption.

Mohan Peiris is the new Chief Justice of Sri Lanka January 18th, 2013

Former attorney general of Sri Lanka, Mohan Peiris, has been appointed as the new Chief Justice of

Sri Lanka after the dismissal of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake following her

impeachment.

Kamal Nath to lead Indian delegation in WEF meet January 18th, 2013

PM Manmohan Singh has selected urban development and parliamentary affairs minister Kamal

Nath to lead the Indian team in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual summit

in Davos, Switzerland. The team has 3 other ministerial members:

Commerce & industry minister Anand Sharma

Heavy industry minister Praful Patel

Power minister Jyotiraditya Scindia

Indian-origin politician to be ‘First Woman Speaker of Singapore Parliament’ January 16th, 2013

Halimah Yacob, a politician of Indian-origin, will be the first woman Speaker of Singapore’s

Parliament when she replaces Michael Palmer, who was forced to resign over his extra-marital affair.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong would nominate Halimah as the next Speaker.

Halimah (58) is an Indian-origin Muslim, is a former labour lawyer and a Member of Parliament from

the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).

Simon Taufel to be first umpire to deliver Cowdrey Lecture January 16th, 2013

Retired umpire Simon Taufel of Australia will become the first umpire to deliver the esteemed MCC

Spirit ofCricket Cowdrey Lecture.

The lecture was introduced in 2001 in remembrance to former Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)

president Colin Cowdrey, who played a major role in the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ being enshrined in the

preamble of the Code of the Laws of Cricket in 2000.

R. K. Dubey assumed charge as CMD of Canara Bank January 16th, 2013

R.K. Dubey has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director ofCanara Bank.

Raj Kumar Goyal is new ED of Central Bank of India January 16th, 2013

Raj Kumar Goyal has been appointed as the new Executive Director of Central Bank of India. Goyal

comes in place of Rajeev Kishore Dubey, who has taken over the control of Canara Bank as its

Chairman & Managing Director.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 100

Internet Activist Aaron Swarth died January 15th, 2013

Internet activist and co-founder of Reditt, Aaron Swarth(26), died. He was computer genius was

the developer of the early version of the RSS (Rich Site Summary) – web feed system. He was facing

federal charges in cases of a controversial fraud and hacking allegations.

What is RSS feed?

RSS (Rich Site Summary) feed, in general, is a format which allows the users to find out content

from the sites, where updates keeps on changing regularly like a news website or a blog.

Chief Justice of Srilanka removed by President Rajapaksa January 15th, 2013

After the Parliament of Sri Lanka passed the impeachment motion with two-third majority against

Chief Justice Shirani Bandarnayake, President Mahinda Rajapaksa dismissed her from the office. She

is the first to be impeached in the country’s history.

Jayashri competes for Oscar January 14th, 2013

Playback singer Bombay Jayashri Ramnath, along with composer Mychael Danna, has been

nominated in the Original Song category for the lullaby song she sung in film “Life of Pi” directed

by Ang Lee. It is for the first time a Tamil song has been nominated for Oscars.

Rajiv Takru appointed as Financial Services Secretary January 13th, 2013

1979-batch IAS officer Rajiv Takru has been appointed as Financial Services Secretary in the Finance

Ministry.

Mr. Takru will take over as Secretary, Department of Financial Services, from outgoing Dinesh Kumar

Mittal.

President confers Pravasi Bharatiya Samman on NRIs January 13th, 2013

President Pranab Mukherjee honored 15 NRIs with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awards.

Mauritius President Rajkeswur Purryag, who was the chief guest at the inaugural of the Pravasi

Bharatiya Divas, was also one among the awardees.

Other Recipients of the Award:

1. Ashok Shambhomal Vaswani

2. Rajkeswur Purryag

3. Tan Sri Ravindran Menon

4. Rasik Vihari Joshi

5. Satendra Kumar Singh

6. Gilbert Canabady Moutien

7. Mohammed Rabeeh Karuvanthodi

8. Ismail Ebrahim Ebrahim

9. Bava Pandalingal

10. Patricia Maria Rozario

11. Narendra Ramakrishna Kumar

12. Subash Razdan

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 101

13. Gursharan Singh Chhatwal

14. The Australia India Society of Victoria

15. The Indian Doctors Forum, Kuwait

France honors Malala with Simone de Beauvoir Prize January 13th, 2013

France honored Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban for campaigning

for girls’ education, withSimone de Beauvoir Prize for Women’s Freedom. Malala Yousafzai was

undergoing treatment at a British hospital and is awaiting reconstructive surgery on her skull.

Rangarajan opines to increase taxes on “super-rich” January 13th, 2013

The chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council C. Rangarajan has suggested that

increasing taxes on the “super-rich” could be one of the ways to improve the tax-to-GDP ratio.

He opined two ways to improve tax-to GDP ratio:

To introduce an additional slab at a higher marginal tax rate.

To keep the tax structure as it is and impose a surcharge on the income above a certain level.

He suggested that the “super-rich” should be determined on the basis of income and said that for

those in the lower income level the current tax structure is good.

Lionel Messi creates record by winning 4th FIFA Ballon d’Or January 12th, 2013

Lionel Messi an Argentine footballer added yet another feather in his cap as he won an

unprecedented fourth, consecutive, Ballon d’Or at a FIFA gala in Zurich. The awards makes Messi’s

status as the greatest player of his generation after he left behing Real Madrid rival Cristiano Ronaldo

and Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta for the prize. Messi received a vote share of 41.60 percent

to 23.68 for Ronaldo and 10.91 for Iniesta.

Messi scored a staggering 91 goals in all competitions in 2012.

Golden Cleats Awards to Bolt and Fraser-Pryce January 12th, 2013

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the Jamaica Athletics Administrative

Association (JAAA) 2012 Golden CleatsAwards.

Bolt and Fraser-Pryce took the male and female athletes of the year awards for their astounding

performances at the London Olympic Games.

Nishant Rao is new India manager of LinkedIn January 12th, 2013

LinkedIn appointed Nishant K Rao as the new Country Manager for itsIndia operations. His

appointment came as the former Country Manager Hari V Krishnan was promoted for a larger role as

the Managing Director of Asia-Pacific and Japan.

Air Marshal Kulwant Singh Gill takes charge as new commandant of NDA January 12th, 2013

Air Marshal Kulwant Singh Gill took charge as the new commandant of the

National Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla, Pune.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 102

Jharkhand CM Arjun Munda resigns January 12th, 2013

Chief Minister of Jharkhand Arjun Munda submitted his resignation to Governor Syed Ahmed. He

resigned after the BJP-led government lost the support from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). Mr.

Munda recommended that the Governor dissolve the Assembly to facilitate fresh elections

Justice D K Jain to head 20th Law Commission January 12th, 2013

Justice D K Jain, who is about to retire from Supreme Court, has been appointed as the chairman of

the 20th Law Commission of India.

Kohli wins ‘CEAT International cricketer of the year’ January 12th, 2013

Virat Kohli has won the ‘CEAT international cricketer of the year’ 2011-12 award.

Other Awards:

‘CEAT Indian youngster of the year’ : Unmukt Chand (captained Indian team to victory in the

under-19 World Cup)

Team of the year: Pakistan

‘Lifetime achievement award’: Zaheer Abbas

Under India-Pakistan special awards:

Best batsman-ODI: Inzamam-ul-Haq

Best batsman-Test: Sunil Gavaskar

Best bowler-Test: Kapil Dev

Best bowler-ODI: Wasim Akram

‘CEAT audience choice awards’: Virender Sehwag and Saeed Anwar

PM Manmohan Singh ranked 19th most followed leader on Twitter January 12th, 2013

As per latest study released by Digital Policy Council, India’s PM Manmohan Singh has become the

19th most followed leader in the world on social networking website Twitter. Leaders like David

Cameron and Julia Gillard ranked below him.

US President Barack Obama is the stood at the top as most followed leader, followed

by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Sunmeet Kaur becomes first woman to win Rs 5 crore on KBC January 10th, 2013

Sunmeet Kaur Sawhney from Mumbai has become the first women to win Rs 5 crore on the popular

game show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’. She answered all 13 questions correctly to gain the windfall.

She is actor Manmeet Singh’s wife.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 103

Haradhan Bandopadhyay passes away January 10th, 2013

Famous screen and theater actor Haradhan Bandopadhyay (86), who had starred in many films of

legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray, passed away.

He was honored with "Banga Vibhushan" in 2012 by the Bengal government.

Tulsi Gabbard: First Hindu American Congresswoman takes oath on Gita January 8th, 2013

Tulsi Gabbard- American politician and the Congresswoman for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district

She has become the first Hindu American ever to be sworn in as a member of the US House of

Representatives. She is also the first ever US lawmaker to have taken oath of office on the

holy Bhagavad Gita. She was previously also the youngest woman in the United States to be

elected to a state legislature (Hawaii)

McGrath inducted into ICC Hall of Fame January 8th, 2013

Legendary pacer of Australia, Glenn McGrath inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

It will be a thirdentry in 2012-13 after Enid Bakewell and Brian Lara.

McGrath will be 68th male member of the Hall of Fame.

CJI inaugurates fast track court to try sexual offences in Delhi January 8th, 2013

Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir inaugurated first of the four fast track courts in

Saket, Delhi to hear cases of sexual offence cases against women. Other fast track courts would start

operating from January 3, 2013 at Rohini, Tis Hazari and Dwarka in New Delhi. The Delhi bus rape

case would be the first rape case to be heard in the fast-track court where hearing will take place on

daily trial basis.

Freedom fighter Pandit Ram Sanehi Shukla passed away January 8th, 2013

Eminent freedom fighter and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Ram Sanehi Shukla (98) passed

away. Shukla joined the freedom movement as a student and was jailed several times in the pursuit

of freedom. He was from Sahebpur Village under Mariahu tehsil in Jaunpur district ofUttar Pradesh.

Indian origin scientist Venkatesh Mannar gets Canada’s highest civilian award anuary 8th, 2013

Indian origin scientist Venkatesh Mannar who is President of Micronutrient Initiative, Canada, has

been conferred with Canada’s ‘highest’ civilian award – the Order of Canada.

Order of Canada award is given to recognize a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to

the community and service to the nation to people in all sectors of Canadian society.

What is Mannar’s contribution?

Mannar has been working for 40 years to alleviate debilitating micronutrient deficiencies among the

world’s most vulnerable. He is attached with Micronutrient Initiative which is a not-for-profit

organization which endeavors to ensure that the world’s most vulnerable – especially women and

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 104

children – in developing countries get vitamins and minerals they need to survive and grow through

supplements and a food fortification programme.

Women’s history pioneer Gerda Lerner died January 8th, 2013

Gerda Lerner (92), a groundbreaker in the field of women’s history and founding member of the

National Organization for Woman, passed away.

Mukesh Ambani ranked 18th richest person in the world January 8th, 2013

As per Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Chairman & MD of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani has

been ranked asthe 18th richest person in the world with a personal wealth of $24.7 billion in 2012.

As per the rankings top 5 positions are grabbed by:

1. Carlos Slim Helu, Mexico, Telecommunication Business with holdings in America Movil (the

largest mobile phone operator in the Americas). He retains the title of richest person on

Earthfor the entire year 2012 with net worth USD 70 billion.

2. Bill Gates, Microsoft founder

3. Amancio Ortega, founder of retailer Inditex SA.

4. Warren Buffett, American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Chairman & CEO of

Berkshire Hathaway

5. Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA founder

Ireland honors Malala with Peace Prize January 8th, 2013

Social activist Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan who was shot at by a Taliban gunman in 2012, will be

awarded with Ireland’s esteemedTipperary International Peace Prize for 2012 in recognition to

her courage and determination to speak out in support of equal access to education for every child.

Malala is the second Pakistani to get the award. In 2007, it was given toBenazir Bhutto.

Justice Amitava Roy is the new Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court January 8th, 2013

Justice Amitava Roy was sworn in as the Chief Justice ofRajasthan High Court.

He replaced previous chief justice Arun Kumar Mishra who has been transferred to Kolakata High

Court.

Asif Ibrahim appointed as chief of Intelligence Bureau January 6th, 2013

Syed Asif Ibrahim

A 1977 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IPS officer.

Took charge as director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

Ibrahim is the first Muslim to hold the top post in IB.

Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini “Lady of the Cells” passed away January 6th, 2013

“Lady of the Cells”, as she was known in Italy, Rita Levi-Montalcini (103) passed away. She

was a biologist who conducted underground research in defiance of Fascist persecution and later won

a Nobel Prize for helping unlock the mysteries of the cell.

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 105

Her major contribution:

Her most significant work was: isolating the Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) from observations of

certain cancerous tissues that cause extremely rapid growth of nerve cells.

Y.V. Reddy to be the chairman of 14th Finance Commission January 6th, 2013

The constitution of the 14th Finance Commission has been announced by the government. The

Commission will have 5 members which will be headed by former RBI Governor Y.V. Reddy. The

panel is to submit its report by October 31, 2014.

Who are the members of the panel?

Members of the Panel:

Chairman: Dr. Y.V. Reddy

Former Finance Secretary Sushma Nath

NIPFP Director M. Govinda Rao

Planning Commission Member Abhijit Sen

Former Acting Chairman of National Statistical CommissionSudipto Mundle.

Urjit Patel is the new deputy governor of RBI January 6th, 2013

Urjit Patel succeeded Subir Gokarn to become new deputy governor at the Reserve Bank

of India.

SC upholds appointment of Gujarat Lokayukta January 6th, 2013

In what is being seen as a setback to Gujarat CM Narendra Modi government, the apex court upheld

the appointment of Justice R.A. Mehta as Lokayukta by the Governor as it was done in consultation

with the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court.

Vanitha Narayanan becomes IBM India MD January 6th, 2013

Vanitha Narayanan has been appointed as managing director of IBM India by the company. She

replaced Shanker Annaswamy.

Sanjiv Bhatt honored with Mother Teresa Award January 3rd, 2013

Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt honored with theMother Teresa

Memorial International Award for Social Justice for 2012. The Harmony foundation who

recognized Bhatt as one who stood against communal forces to ensure protection of the vulnerable

and insecure minorities.

Sanjiv Bhatt: He is an Indian Police Service officer in Gujarat who is currently suspended. He is

known for his role in filing an affidavit in theSupreme Court against the CM of Gujarat, Narendra

Modi, concerning Modi’s alleged role in 2002 Gujarat riots.

Bhakti Sharma: World’s youngest to cross seven seas January 3rd, 2013

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Current Affairs Persons In News Page 106

22-year old Bhakti Sharma from India is the youngest in the world to have crossed seven

seas, including four oceans.Besides, she is only the third person in the world to have swum

across the Arctic Ocean, and is now targeting the Antarctic Ocean to become the youngest to swim

in all five oceans.

Bhakti, who belongs to Udaipur (Rajasthan), has also been conferred with the Tenzing Norgay

National Adventure Award 2012 for water adventure, by the President.

Kamal Nath appointed as new ex-officio chairman of Planning Commission January 1st, 2013

Prime Minister’s office has re-constituted the Planning Commission by appointing parliamentary

affairs and urban development minister Kamal Nath as the new ex-officio member of the Plan panel

in place of rural development minister Jairam Ramesh.

Other ex-officio members are:

Finance Minister P Chidambaram

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar

Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde

Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad

Chemicals and fertilisers minister M K Alagiri

Communications minister Kapil Sibal

Law minister Ashwani Kumar

HRD minister M M Pallam Raju

Minister of state for planning Rajeev Shukla

National Development Council (NDC) will be headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Council

is the supreme policy-making body in the country. Besides central ministers, the Commission’s

members include all Chief Ministers and regular members.

Ramanujan’s mysterious deathbed Theory proven correct January 1st, 2013

A cryptic deathbed theory given by India’s mathematics genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, has now

been proven correct and it could also explain the behavior of black holes.

Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for the Year 2012 January 1st, 2013

The General Council of Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama,

New Delhi honored 3 renowned personalities in the field of performing arts as Sangeet Natak

Akademi Fellows. These are:

1. N. Rajam

2. T.H.Vinayakram

3. Ratan Thiyam

U.S.General Norman Schwarzkopf who led Operation Desert Storm died January 1st, 2013

The retired US General Norman Schwarzkopf who led the U.S. Forces for a victory in the first Gulf

War in Operation Desert Strom in 1991 died.

Operation Desert Storm

Current Affairs Persons In News 107

Current Affairs Persons In News Page 107

Operation Desert Storm is the codename of the Gulf War fought in 1991 by a U.N.-authorized

Coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq during the regime of

President Saddam Hussein in response to Iraq’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait. The Coalition

forces drove out the forces of Iraq from the country and gained the victory in the war.

Italy’s parliament dissolved January 1st, 2013

Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament following the resignation of Prime Minister

Mario Monti.

Monti resigned early after former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right People of Freedom party

(PdL) withdrew support from the emergency cabinet.

John Kerry nominated as next secretary of state for USA January 1st, 2013

US President Barack Obama nominated John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the 2004 Democratic presidential

candidate, was nominated after UN ambassador Susan Rice, withdrew her name from considerations.

“Gangnam Style” – Collins dictionary’s words of the year January 1st, 2013

Collins dictionary has named “Gangnam Style”, as one of the top 12 words of the year, one word

from each month. The Gangnam Style video also entered Guiness World Records for being most

watched YouTube video starring Korean singer ‘Psy’.