feb 2015 current affairs

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February 2015 Current Affairs

1st February, 2015

Gold award for the Income Tax Department under National Award on E-

Governance 2014-15.

It gets the recognition under category 'Cat-I-Excellence in Government Process Re-

engineering' for launching the project 'TDS Reconciliation Analysis & Correction

Enabling System (TRACES)'.

Krishna Chaudhary is appointed as the Director General (DG) of the Indo-Tibetan

Border Police (ITBP).

He is currently serving as the Director General of the Railway Protection Force.

DRDO gets approval for setting up a missile launch testing facility near Krishna

Delta Complex (Andhra Pradesh).

The ecologically sensitive zone is home to endangered species 'Olive Ridley turtles'.

The construction, however, is subject to a final green clearance from Supreme Court.

Government for its part has put few precautionary measures in place to minimize the

harm to the ecology, like: No activities in night, and during the turtles’ nesting

season.

Regeneration of mangroves is also planned.

Agni-5, intercontinental ballistic missile with a strike range of over 5000 kms,

successfully test-fired from Wheeler's Island off Odisha coast.

It was the 3rd developmental test of this surface-to-surface nuclear capable missile

that can carry a nuclear warhead of over one tonne.

Few more trials are required before it becomes usable for our armed forces.

Agni Series: the previous 4 version of this series has already been inducted.

Agni-1 : 700 km range

Agni-2 : 2000 km

Agni-3 and Agni-4 : ranging from 2500 km to 3500 km

Government rakes in Rs 22557 crore from disinvestment in Coal India Ltd - the

largest ever disinvestment among Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs).

The process involves disinvestment of 5% of the paid-up equity of Government of

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India (with an option to retain additional 5% in case of oversubscription) in CIL.

What is Magna Carta?

‘Magna Carta’ is Latin and means “Great Charter”. The Magna Carta was one of the

most important documents of Medieval England.

Magna Carta is considered one of the first steps towards parliamentary democracy

and includes the principle that no one is above the law, including the king.

It was signed on 15 June 1215 at Runnymede.

It was drafted to make peace between the unpopular King and rebel barons, it

promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal

imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the

Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons.

Commons to vote on mitochondrial therapy

A radical new approach developed in the United Kingdom for the treatment of a

potentially wide spectrum of inherited — and hitherto incurable — diseases has run

into controversial waters. The technique known as ‘mitochondrial replacement

therapy’ or MRT will be decided by a parliamentary vote.

Vote in the House of Commons will decide whether the United Kingdom’s Human

Fertilisation and Embryology Authority can grant licences to allow the replacement

therapy to be conducted in U.K. clinics.

Raahgiri Day

A first of its kind event “Raahgiri day for the persons with disabilities” was organized

as a unique initiative by the Department of Empowerment of persons with

Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India

recently.

The concept is inspired by “Ciclovia” held weekly in Bagota, Columbia and now

popular all over the world known by different names viz. Open Streets, Summer

Streets, etc.

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2nd February, 2015

One-rank one-pension scheme soon

The Defence Ministry has fast-tracked work on ‘one-rank one-pension’ scheme. The

defence minister has also assured that the scheme will soon be put in place.

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One-rank one-pension scheme

This is a scheme which will ensure that soldiers of the same rank and the same

length of service receive the same pension, irrespective of their retirement date. In

simple words, it demands equal pensions for those who have retired in one particular

year, as those who retire in another year at the same position, and for the same

duration of services rendered.

PaHaL Scheme for Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG Subsidy

The Prime Minister recently reviewed, in a high level meeting, PaHaL (Pratyaksha

Hastaantarit Laabh), the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme for LPG Subsidy.

PaHaL, which covers more than 9.75 crore LPG consumers, is perhaps the world’s

largest cash transfer program as compared to similar programs in other countries,

such as China, Mexico and Brazil.

PaHaL scheme:

PaHaL aims to reduce diversion and eliminate duplicate or bogus LPG connections.

Under PaHaL, LPG cylinders are sold at market rates and entitled consumers get the

subsidy directly into their bank accounts. This is done either through an Aadhaar

linkage or a bank account linkage.

The scheme has witnessed massive enrolment in a short span of time.

The scheme will cover over 15.3 crore consumers across 676 districts of the country.

Currently over 6.5 crore consumers i.e. 43% have already joined the scheme and

will receive subsidy in their bank account.

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3rd February, 2015

Russia, China back India’s inclusion in expanded APEC

The foreign ministers of the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping, during deliberations

in Beijing, issued a comprehensive joint communiqué that called for an ambitious

reform of an international system that was respectful of the diversity of home-grown

political systems.

Russia and China have also endorsed India’s efforts to formalise rejection of

international terrorism.

The communiqué recommended India’s inclusion in an expanded Asia Pacific

Economic Cooperation (APEC), a 21-nation grouping of Pacific Rim countries.

APEC:

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum

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established in 1989 to leverage the growing interdependence of the Asia-Pacific.

APEC has 21 members.

Aim: to create greater prosperity for the people of the region by promoting balanced,

inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional

economic integration.

Government celebrates MGNREGA Divas

The Ministry of Rural Development has decided to focus intensely on convergence of

MGNREGA with other Schemes to create durable and useful assets. It has introduced

a new module to capture planning and implementation of convergence initiatives. 21

States have prepared their Convergence Plans already. Convergence has been

closely linked to measuring outcomes of works and their impact on the rural

economy.

MGNREGA:

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005, also known as the “Mahatma

Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act” is an Indian labour law and social

security measure.

Aims:

To guarantee the ‘right to work’ and ensure livelihood security in rural areas.

To create durable assets that would augment the basic resources available to the

poor.

To follow the Directive Principles of State Policy enunciated in Part IV of the

Constitution of India and conforms to the Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights that defines the right to work as a basic human right.

Kudankulam power cheaper than U.S. proposals: Russia

Russian officials recently said that the power generated under the Indo US

agreements will be much more expensive than the negotiated deals with Russia for

the “Kudankulam series.”

Details:

It is being said that the rates for electricity from units 1&2 of the Kudankulam

Nuclear Power Plant, being constructed with Russian technical assistance (in Tamil

Nadu), were almost half the price that power from proposed American designs would

cost.

Some reports say that U.S. company Westinghouse has proposed Rs.6 per kWh in

initial discussions with India, while French company Areva had spoken of Rs.6.50 per

kWh, both of which would be far higher than the estimated price of power at

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Kudankulam 1&2 at Rs.3.50 per kWh.

The proposed Rs.1,500 crore Insurance Pool which will be funded equally by state-

owned insurance companies and the government is further expected to raise the

cost/kWh.

SC stands up for man’s oldest friend

The Supreme Court has decided to stand up for man’s oldest companion by

questioning the authority of municipal bodies to pick dogs off the streets and kill

them merely because they are a “nuisance” to the public. The SC also noted that “a

faithful dog is a faithful friend.”

The SC was hearing a petition filed by People for Elimination of Stray Animals, which

had sought killing of stray dogs.

Conflicting laws:

The SC Bench has said that at the crux of the problem was the contradiction in

animal welfare laws on what constitutes “nuisance.”

On the contrary, the Animal Birth Control Rules formulated under the Central law —

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 — does not allow this. The law only

permits extermination of rabid, terminally ill or mortally wounded dogs, not

“nuisance-causing dogs.”

The case is yet to be decided by the Supreme Court.

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4th February, 2015

RBI cuts SLR by 50 basis points to provide liquidity

The RBI has reduced the statutory liquid ratio by 50 basis points to 21.50% from

22%. This will provide more liquidity to the banking system.

It will also pump up Rs.45, 000 crore to the system and hence banks may go for a

cut in lending rates.

The other tools are kept unchanged: Repo rate at 7.75% and CRR at 4%.

RBI raises forex limit

The central bank has doubled the amount of foreign exchange that an individual can

remit in a year under a scheme that allows asset purchase outside India.

Now, a person can remit up to $250,000 a year under the Liberalized Remittance

Scheme, which was started in 2004 with a view to simplify foreign exchange avenues

available to Indians.

This is the second time the limit has been raised.

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Earlier in August 2013, the RBI had gone for a drastic 62.5 per cent cut in the limit

to $75,000, when the RBI was fighting hard to stem the free fall in rupee against the

dollar.

Since, the rupee has strengthened against the dollar in 2015 the RBI has raised the

limit.

Swine flu deaths preventable: Centre

In the wake of a H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak, which has claimed 191 lives this year,

the Centre recently said mortality on account of the flu can be contained with

immediate medical intervention.

Present Scenario:

There have been 2,038 cases of H1N1 reported across the country in 2015,

with Telangana reporting the highest number of cases at 629 and 34 deaths,

followed by Delhi with 488 cases and 5 deaths, Gujarat with 309 cases and 38

deaths and Rajasthan with 205 cases and 49 deaths.

Delhi’s low mortality is attributable to the high awareness about the flu, followed by

early detection and timely treatment.

Swine Flu/H1N1:

Swine flu is contagious, and it spreads in the same way as the seasonal flu.

When people who have it cough or sneeze, they spray tiny drops of the virus into the

air. If a person comes in contact with these drops or touch a surface that an infected

person has recently touched, the person can catch H1N1 swine flu.

Pregnant women who contract the H1N1 infection are at a greater risk of developing

complications because of hormonal changes, physical changes and changes to their

immune system to accommodate the growing foetus.

Symptoms:

Most symptoms are the same as seasonal flu. They can include:

Cough, fever, sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, body aches, headache, chills,

fatigue.

If not controlled it can lead to more serious complications like pneumonia and

respiratory failure.

The antiviral drugs are sometimes prescribed to reduce the severity of symptoms.

Cyber laws not meant to curb free speech: Centre

The government recently clarified before the Supreme Court that its laws were

meant to fight cybercrime and not curb free expression.

Background:

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A bunch of petitioners had filed petitions challenging the constitutionality of certain

legal provisions in the Information Technology Act, especially Section 66 A. This

Section prescribes a punishment of up to three years in jail if found guilty of causing

“annoyance or inconvenience” on the Internet, including social media.

What the government says?

The government has been saying that it has no intention to curb the freedom of

speech and expression. It says that Section 66 A pertains to only certain Cyber

Crimes and not freedom of speech.

The government also says nobody can file a complaint saying something caused me

annoyance or inconvenience. The provisions of the Act require a serious obstruction.

But who decides the seriousness of the obstruction is the issue.

Cyber Attacks posed a clear and present danger to the security apparatus. The court

is yet to decide on the matter.

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5th February, 2015

Finance panel report not unanimous

With the finance commission member submitting a dissent note, it is now evident

that the report of the 14th finance commission is not unanimous. The commission

was headed by Y.V. Reddy.

The report was submitted in December 2014.

The commission has recommended a 42 per cent share of Central tax revenues for

States for the period from April 1, 2015, to March 31, 2020. The dissent note has

recommended that the States share could be 38 per cent.

The recommendations of the previous panels were only for statutory transfers, but

the present commission’s recommendation of 42 per cent is for total transfers of

funds from the Centre to the States under all heads. Besides statutory transfers, it

includes non-Plan funds and Plan allocations that the erstwhile Planning Commission

made.

Previous experience:

The Third Finance Commission too had a dissent note, and the then Union

government accepted it, rejecting one of the recommendations of the panel.

Finance Commission: It is a constitutional body constituted under article 280 of the

Indian Constitution by the President of India after every five years.

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It is a quasi-judicial body consisting of a Chairman and four members appointed by

the President and hold office during his pleasure.

It was formed to define the financial relations between the Centre and states.

They submit their recommendations to the president which are advisory in nature.

Functions of the Finance Commission:

Distribution of net proceeds of taxes between Centre and the States, to be divided as

per their respective contributions to the taxes.

Determine factors governing Grants-in Aid to the states and the magnitude of the

same.

To make recommendations to president as to take the measures needed to augment

the Consolidated Fund of a State to supplement the resources of the panchayats and

municipalities in the state on the basis of the recommendations made by the Finance

Commission of the state.

Beneficial algal species discovered

Two new bloom-forming algal species were discovered recently off the west coast of

India. These two species have excellent carbon capture properties — ability to absorb

carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reduce global warming — and are also

promising candidates for use as bio fuels.

The two species are:

1. Ulva paschima Bast.

2. Cladophora goensis Bast.

Some facts:

Both of the newly discovered species are endemic and bloom-forming.

As they are endemic, their cultivation is not going to cause any environmental harm.

i.e., they are not bio invasive species.

Bloom forming indicates spontaneous growth. There is no need for

fertilizers/pesticides or any expensive cultivation systems such as photo bioreactors

for their cultivation.

These can grow sporadically at shorelines and can sequester CO2.

These newly discovered algae have profound sequence differences from previously

discovered algae.

Indian firms need to do more to avoid climate change risks

According to a new report by CDP, an international NGO formerly called Carbon

Disclosure Project lack of preparation leaves supply chains in Brazil, China, India and

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the U.S. more vulnerable to climate change risks than those in Europe and Japan.

What the report says?

Suppliers in India and Canada are not doing enough to manage climate change risks.

Indian companies, in particular, demonstrate a low propensity to reporting on

emissions.

Neither Croatia nor Serbia committed genocide during violent break-up of

Yugoslavia: International Court of Justice

Both the nations were absolved of the genocidal charges - alleged against each other

- as the tribunal could not establish 'Intent for genocide'.

Though forces of both countries had committed crimes during the 1990s conflict, but

there was no proof to establish that it was done with aim to 'destroy a community in

whole or in part' - a mandatory precondition to prove genocide.

Centre forms a high level panel to suggest a framework to monitor CSR

activities done by companies.

It will be headed by former Home Secretary Anil Baijal.

As per the new company act 2013, certain class of profitable companies has to spend

at least 2% of their three-year average annual net profit towards Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR) activities.

LC Goyal is appointed as the new Home Secretary for a 2-year stint.

Incumbent Anil Goswami was fired for using his position to stall the arrest of

Saradha scam accused Matang Sinh - a former Congress minister at the Centre.

Noted sculptor and artist Mrinalini Mukherjee passes away at 65.

Her artistic works are known for the use of knotted hemp fibre, ceramics and cast

bronze.

The exhibitions of her work have been held abroad in the countries like UK and

Europe.

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6th February, 2015

The Roongta committee, set up to suggest reforms in Central Public Sector

Enterprises (CPSEs), submits report.

Some of the suggestions recommended by the committee includes better corporate

governance, more autonomy to Boards of PSUs, better utilization of resources and

transparency and fixing tenures of CMDs of PSU companies.

Ministry of Mines assign more powers to States; to notify 31 major minerals

as minor minerals

As opposed to major minerals, the regulatory and administrative jurisdiction of minor

minerals falls under the purview of State governments.

The decision empowers States to customize regulatory framework to suit local

conditions.

These include the powers to frame rules, prescribe rates of royalty, contribution to

District Mineral Foundation, the procedure for grant of mineral concessions etc.

These 31 minerals account for over 55% of the total number of leases and nearly

60% of total leased area.

After agriculture, mining is the second largest employer in the country.

Kolkata becomes the 1st metro city in India to be covered by free Wi-Fi (4G)

service.

The service, launched from Park Street area, will soon engulf the other parts of the

megacity (and beyond) in a phased manner.

The whole city is expected to come under the Wi-Fi coverage by mid-April in 2015.

Reliance Jio is the service provider for this project.

MO Garg assumes charge as the Director General of the Council of Scientific &

Industrial Research (CSIR).

Earlier, He was the Director of CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP),

Dehradun.

Justice Madan Mohan Das is appointed to probe the multi-crore chit fund

scam in Odisha.

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The post was vacant after the demise of the incumbent Justice Radha Krushna Patra.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) bags Rs 1090 Crore contract for supplying

14 Do-228 aircraft to Indian Air Force.

The deal also includes six reserve engines, one flight simulator and associated

equipments.

Advantages of 'DO-228'

The Aircraft enjoys several in-built features such as highest fuel carrying capacity in

its class (2850 litres) due to integral fuel tanks in wings.

Short take-off and landing capability- the aircraft can take off from around 700 m

and land within 575 m- essentially required for operations from short and semi-

prepared airfields

Low structural weight ensured through use of advanced composite materials.

High wing design for unobstructed view and radar coverage.

Wide wheel base for better stability.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

HAL is a government-owned aerospace and defence company based in Bangalore.

Its primary job is to manufacture Aircraft, Navigation and related Communication

equipments and manage airports operation.

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7th February, 2015

Bhalchandra Nemade wins Jnanpith

Bhalchandra Nemade has been selected for the 50th Jnanpith Award for 2014.

Nemade is the fourth Marathi writer to win the honour.

About the Award:

The Jnanpith Award is one of the two most prestigious literary honours in the

country. The award was instituted in 1961.

Eligibility:

Any Indian citizen who writes in any of the official languages of India is eligible for

the honour.

Prior to 1982, the awards were given for a single work by a writer; since then, the

award has been given for a lifetime contribution to Indian literature.

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Seven women writers have won the award so far.

India Votes

The first copy of Election Commission’s prestigious publication ‘INDIA VOTES’ was

presented to the President of India recently.

About the Book:

The book ‘INDIA VOTES’ attempts to encapsulate the most critical and outstanding

features of the Indian elections for a concise yet comprehensive, fact-filled and

inside-eye view of the Indian elections, with special emphasis on the 2014 Lok Sabha

Election, which became famous as the largest democratic exercise on earth so far.

The book traces the details of the process of the elections right from the training of

the electoral teams at ECI Headquarter to the grassroots levels, through the process

of the precise and thorough planning for the process.

Collegium system to continue until NJAC is in place

The union law minister recently said that the old collegium system for appointing

judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts would continue until the National

Judicial Commission is put in place.

The issue has come to the fore due to some media reports which claimed that there

was a tug-of-war between the government and the highest judiciary.

There are also petitions pending in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the

NJAC Act, 2014.

The NJAC restores the political class’s role in the appointment of judges to the

Supreme Court and the High Courts.

Both the Constitution Amendment Bill and the NJAC Bill were passed by Parliament in

August 2014 and have also received President’s assent after ratification by 16 State

legislatures.

NJAC:

NJAC is a proposed body responsible for the appointment and transfer of judges to

the higher judiciary in India. It seeks to replace the collegium system of appointing

the judges of Supreme Court and 24 High Courts with judicial appointments

commission wherein the executive will have a say in appointing the judges.

Details:

A new article, Article 124A, (which provides for the composition of the NJAC) will be

inserted into the Constitution.

It provides for the procedure to be followed by the NJAC for recommending persons

for appointment as Chief Justice of India and other Judges of the Supreme Court

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(SC), and Chief Justice and other Judges of High Courts (HC).

It also seeks changes in articles 124,217,222 and 231.

The commission will consist of the following members:

Chief Justice of India (Chairperson, ex officio)

Two other senior judges of the Supreme Court next to the Chief Justice of Indi, ex

officio

The Union Minister of Law and Justice, ex-officio

Two eminent persons (to be nominated by a committee consisting of the Chief

Justice of India, Prime Minister of India and the Leader of opposition in the Lok

Sabha or where there is no such Leader of Opposition, then, the Leader of single

largest Opposition Party in Lok Sabha), provided that of the two eminent persons,

one person would be from the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes or OBC or

minority communities or a woman. The eminent persons shall be nominated for a

period of three years and shall not be eligible for re-nomination.

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8th February, 2015

Prithvi-II missile successfully test fired

Prithvi-II missile was successfully test fired recently.

Quick facts:

The missile is indigenously developed nuclear capable surface-to-surface missile with

a strike range of 350 km.

The missile is thrusted by liquid propulsion twine engines.

It uses advanced inertial guidance system with maneuvering trajectory.

It is the first missile to be developed by DRDO under India’s prestigious IGMDP

(Integrated Guided Missile Development Program).

GARUDASHAKTI-III

What is it?

It is the 3rd exercise in the ongoing series of joint exercises between armies of India

and Indonesia.

Aim of the exercise:

The exercise is aimed at building and promoting positive military to military relations

between the armies of the two nations.

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HADR Exercise

HARD exercise was recently conducted in the Lakshadweep islands.

What is it?

It is a large scale Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) exercise

involving more than 20 ships from the Western and Eastern Fleet and various aircraft

of the Indian Navy.

The Exercise involves setting up medical camps, provision of food, shelter from the

elements, restoration of basic facilities and limited restoration work till the situation

stabilised. This Exercise will further underscore the nation’s capabilities in being the

‘first responder’ in the region during times of humanitarian crises.

Sailab Se Salamati Tak

It is a Cycle Expedition from Srinagar to Delhi conducted by the Indian Army

recently.

Aim: It is aimed at creating awareness amongst the masses about the damage

caused by floods in the State of J&K in September2014; highlight the challenges

faced by the locals during the floods and wellbeing of the affected persons after the

combined rescue efforts by various Govt & Non Govt agencies.

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9th February, 2015

India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal come together to finalize a Motor Vehicles

Agreement (MVA) for a seamless transit of passenger and cargo vehicles among

them.

The agreement will enable passenger, personal and cargo vehicles to transit without

the need for costly and time-consuming trans-shipment (loading and unloading) of

goods and passengers at the border crossings.

It is expected to be signed at a meeting of Transport Ministers of the four countries

to be held soon this year.

The economic corridor would also boost people to people contact apart from

enhancing trade benefits.

Centre to create 3 sub-groups of Chief Ministers within NITI Aayog on following

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themes.

Sub-group to study the 66 Centrally Sponsored Schemes and recommend which to

continue, which to transfer to states, and which to cut down.

Sub-group to recommend how NITI Aayog can promote skill development and

creation of skilled manpower within states.

Sub-group to decide on institutional mechanisms to be evolved, and technological

inputs, for ensuring that commitment to Swachh Bharat becomes a part of our life.

Each state has also been asked to form task forces under the Aayog.

One task force would focus on poverty alleviation.

While the other would focus on future development of agriculture in the state, and

how the Centre can assist the state in this regard.

Centre to infuse Rs 6990 crores in 9 Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in the Current

Year on basis of new criteria based on Efficiency Parameters.

As per the new criteria, the banks which are more efficient would be rewarded with

extra capital for their equity so that they can further strengthen their position.

National Awards for Excellence in Hospitality Education 2012-13 conferred.

The annual awards were given in four categories including those to individual

students for excellence in academic performance, Best Teachers Awards, Best

Institute Award, and Special Awards.

It aims to recognize academic excellence in hospitality education.

Election Commission experimented with several 'Model Polling Booths' in the

recently concluded Delhi assembly election.

Let’s see what it is all about.

A Model Polling Booth is expected to have the following additional features which

separate it from the regular ones.

A display board conveying the name of location, polling station number, Assembly

Constituency, District, ECI symbol, National Emblem and Logo of the state.

Emergency light for power back up, Stickers with Logos of ECI on three sides of the

Voting Compartment.

Furniture for polling personnel as well as in the waiting lounge.

Drinking water, Queue manager in steel with nylon separator.

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First aid facility, Volunteers for assisting disabled persons and senior citizens

Decoration of Polling Station.

Comment

The experiment evoked a mixed reaction as many of them lacked the very same

facilities which they promised to provide to the voters.

But all is not lost as a fraction of them did live upto the expectation offering

impressive experience to the people using them.

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10th February, 2015

Government launched the National Deworming initiative to protect more than 24

crore children in the ages of 1-19 years from intestinal worms, on the eve of the

National Deworming Day (Feb 10), at Jaipur.

Albendazole tablets will be given to all targeted children; half tablet to 1-2 years

children and one full tablet for 2-19 years.

In the first phase about 14 crore children across eleven States/UT of Assam, Bihar,

Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya

Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Tripura will be covered.

While nearly 10 crore will be targeted in the second phase.

Japan to have a high-tech hotel, 'Henn-na Hotel', with humanoid

robots as staffs in Nagasaki.

The multilingual robots - fluent in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and English - will

check in guests, carry bags, make coffee, clean rooms, and deliver laundry.

However, these robots for the time being would be supplemented with a human

staff.

The hotel plan to have more than 90 percent of hotel services operated by robots in

near future.

Rajasthan to have the nation's largest solar plant with 10,000 MW capacity,

thanks to Adani Enterprises.

The joint project will come up over the next 10 years at an estimated investment of

about Rs 40,000 crore.

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Haryana government to launch 'Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan' to make the

people digitally literate.

Training would be imparted in 2 levels to at least one person from every household.

The first level would enable the trainee to operate a computer or digital access

devices, send and receive emails, and surf the internet for information.

The advance level-2, would empower people avail themselves of various

government-to-citizen and business-to-citizen services besides basic level IT literacy.

Central Silk Board opens high capacity 'Silkworm Egg Cold Storage Plant'

at Mysore.

Cold Storage Plants are indispensable in silkworm egg production system, principally

to enable uninterrupted and continuous supply of basic and commercial silkworm

seed.

The silkworm eggs are preserved in these cold storage plants for short term or long

term (up to 10 months) to regulate seed supply, matching the demand.

The plants also oversee systematic incubation of silkworm eggs prior to its dispatch

to farmers.

National Silkworm Seed Organization (NSSO), the mulberry silkworm seed

production and management arm of Central Silk Board, operates the cold storage

plants set up at Mysore, Hosur and Dehradun to manage its seed production and

distribution across the country.

National Security Guard (NSG) to conduct 15th International Seminar on Counter

IED Strategy (Feb 10-11, 2015) at NSG Training Centre, Manesar, Gurgaon.

The theme for the seminar is 'Addressing Vulnerabilities in CI-IED Strategy'.

Apart from leading security agencies of the country, the Seminar also features global

experts for exchange of expertise, ideas and experiences.

Vodafone India appoints Naveen Chopra as Chief Operating Officer, succeeding

Sunil Sood from April 1, 2015.

Sunil Sood is going to take over as Managing Director and Chief Executive

Officer from the same date.

New Web Based System inaugurated to make Payment process for National

Highways' works more transparent efficient, time bound and result oriented.

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11th February, 2015

Facebook to give free internet to users in India through 'Internet.org' in a

partnership withReliance Communications.

The service is accessible only to Reliance subscribers who can now access few chosen

(33 at present) websites and services for free.

What are Free:

News websites such as BBC News, IBNLive, Times of India; Educational services such

as Wikipedia, Translator, wikiHow; sports websites; Health and welfare services such

as BabyCentre, iLearn, Socialblood and so on.

How to avail:

Log on to www.internet.org or call toll free number 1800 300 25353 to register. Its

also available as an app on play store.

Where?

At present, the facility is only limited to the telecom circle of Mumbai, Maharashtra,

Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Internet.org is a Mark Zuckerberg's initiative to provide free internet in a limited way

to mobile users in developing countries.

Centre amends the Kerosene order, 1993 (Restriction on Use and Fixation of

Ceiling Price) to ease the sale and availability of white Kerosene (market priced

Kerosene).

All the activities of storage, transportation and sale of non-PDS Kerosene have now

been freed of regulatory control.

The move is expected to reduce demand for diverted PDS Kerosene by improving

availability of non-PDS Kerosene in the open market and thus meet the demand of

Kerosene for various legitimate end uses for the industry and for individual

consumption by those who can afford it at market price.

ICICI Bank launches 'Pockets' - India's first digital banking service - enabling

users to instantly send money to any e-mail id, mobile number, friends on

Facebook and bank account.

Anyone, including those who are not customers of ICICI Bank, can easily download

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the e-wallet from Google Playstore, fund it from any bank account in the country and

start transacting immediately.

Customers can also request for a physical card to use it at any retail outlet.

Indian Navy conducts HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster

Relief) exercise at Lakshadweep.

The large scale Disaster Relief drill involved setting up medical camps, provision of

food, shelter from the elements, restoration of basic facilities and limited restoration

work in the wake of major cyclone and related loss.

Mining Indaba 2015: a global event on mining, kicks off at Cape Town, South

Africa.

India has also sent team to market its mining sector to attract global investment,

technology and expertise.

Eighteen mining Ministers from countries like South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Angola,

Sudan, Nigeria, Gabon, Eritrea, Kenya, Mali and others are participating into this

event which is held every year in South Africa.

Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate Indian economist, is honoured with the inaugural

Charleston-EFG John Maynard Keynes Prize for his contribution to society.

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12th February, 2015

Sports Ministry has revised the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar Scheme to

boost corporate money into promotion of Sports in the country.

The program was introduced in 2009 to encourage and promote involvement of

corporates, sports promotion boards etc, in the promotion and development of sports

in the country.

In the revised scheme, Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar will be given in following four

categories:

Identification and nurturing of budding/young talent

Encouragement of sports through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Employment of sportspersons and sports welfare measures

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Sports for Development

Notable Changes

Companies can now dedicate their mandatory 2% funds under CSR to promotion of

Sports in the country under the newly added category 'Encouragement of sports

through Corporate Social Responsibility'.

For the same, 'Training to promote rural sports, nationally recognized sports,

Paralympic sports and Olympic sports' have been included in the Schedule VII of the

Companies Act 2013.

As for NGOs, a separate category 'Sports for Development' is included in the revised

scheme to recognize the contributions of NGOs working in Sports field.

Global Environment Facility (GEF) agrees to take up pilot projects in four Indian

cities for promoting 'green urban practices'.

The four cities for the implementation are soon to be identified through consultations

between GEF and Ministry of Urban Development.

GEF is a financial mechanism to support countries in efforts to achieve the goals of

United Nations Conventions covering climate change, biodiversity, Ozone layer

depletion, land degradation etc.

GEF is also working on an Integrated Program on Sustainable Cities to develop

conceptual models on integrated urban design, planning and management for

resilient and sustainable development.

US and other Western nations shut their embassies in Yemen amidst growing security concerns.

The country, in a civil war since long, has finally succumbed to the Houthi rebels who

now enjoy the control over the state.

Tribal Affairs Ministry is going to hold the first National Tribal Festival "VANAJ"

from February 13-18, 2015.

The festival is meant to conserve and promote the distinctive tribal cultures.

Such exhibitions alsp promotes diversity and national integration.

There will also be exhibition and sale of tribal products, medicines, paintings, art and

handicrafts etc at the festival.

The Ambedkar National Merit Award 2014 given to 84 Students.

The prizes are given to three SC/ST students scoring highest marks in the

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Secondary/Sr. Secondary examinations conducted by all the State Education Boards

and Councils etc.

In case none of the first three eligible students are girls, the girl students scoring the

highest marks are given special award.

Eminent journalist Vinod Mehta bags Yash Bhati Samman 2015.

The Award, given by Uttar Pradesh government, was introduced by Mulayam Singh

Yadav in 1994 to honour people for their excellence in literature, fine arts, folk and

classical music and sports.

He is credited with launching a number of successful publications such as the Sunday

Observer, Indian Post, The Independent, The Pioneer (Delhi edition) and Outlook.

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13th February, 2015

Danish photographer Mads Nissen wins World Press Photo of the year 2014 for

his image depicting gay couple during an intimate moment in St Petersburg,

Russia.

The annual prize, into its 58th edition, carries a cash prize of 10,000 euros.

The photo also won first prize in the Contemporary Issues category.

Conservative Russia treats the LGBT people (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender)

unfairly and this Sexual minority often has to suffer legal and social discrimination,

harassment, and even violent hate-crime attacks from religious and nationalistic

groups.

West toils hard with Russia to reach another ceasefire in Ukraine; ensues fragile

peace beginning February 15.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France reached the ceasefire after a

marathon negotiation in Belarus.

The major takeaway of the peace deal includes weapon withdrawals and prisoner

exchanges, but a lot of key issues remain unsettled.

Ukraine gets to regain the control of breakaway eastern regions and its border with

Russia, While Russia reclaims the power to keep Ukraine from ever becoming part of

NATO.

Sagging Russian economy due to Western sanctions has played a key role in getting

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Russia to agree to the peace agreement.

However, There's many a slip between cup and the lip here, as any untoward

incident from either side can sabotage the breakthrough.

Thousands of people have died in almost a year of fighting in the region.

The peace accord is very similar to the ceasefire agreed last September, which came

apart within few days.

National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa) to organize Lok Adalats throughout the

country Once in every Month to help clear the judiciary bottleneck.

The series, to handle different subjects every month, will kickstart with clearing

cheque bounce and other bank recovery matters on February 14.

The aim is to reduce pendency as well as prevent additional litigation flooding the

courts, where settlements are possible.

These Lok Adalats will be held across the country in the Supreme Court, the High

Courts, District Courts and the Taluk level Courts.

Once so disposed of by settlement, there will be no further appeal in these cases.

Microsoft acquires popular calendar apps maker 'Sunrise' for $100 million.

Gurpreet Singh, Indian American researcher at Kansas State University (KSU),

bags $500,000 National Science Foundation CAREER award for his research

on nanosheets.

He, assistant professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering there, received the

award for his project, "Scalable liquid exfoliation processing of ultrathin two-

dimensional metal dichalcogenides nanosheets for energy storage devices".

What this means?

He is looking to develop ultrathin metal sheets, to help produce better rechargeable

batteries and super capacitors.

The project may also yield catalysts for photo electrochemical hydrogen production.

The prize money will also help him fund educational activities and workshops for high

school students and teachers.

About the Prize

The National Science Foundation's 'Faculty Early Career Development Program' is

one of the foundation's most prestigious awards for supporting early career faculty.

Centre has decided to scrap 125 Toll Plazas in the country to ensure smooth and

hassle free ride for the public.

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Points to Remember

It’s notable that the country loses about 2-3 per cent of its GDP due to unproductive

traffic jams.

The selected 125 plazas are those where either the cost has been recovered or

where the collection is no longer viable.

Passenger and non-commercial vehicles account for only 14-15 per cent of total

revenue collected from tolls.

Government also plans to roll out e-tolling facility across the major Toll Plazas to

reduce traffic jams.

The plan is also afoot to make all public-private partnership projects with under Rs

100 crore of investment toll-free.

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14th February, 2015

India to get $8 million fund from World Bank for Sustainable Livelihoods and

Adaptation to Climate Change (SLACC) Project.

The project aims to improve adaptive capacity of the rural poor engaged in farm-

based livelihoods to cope with climate variability and change in Bihar and Madhya

Pradesh.

It will also inculcate the best practices and lessons into the central National Rural

Livelihoods Mission.

Climatic hazards affect the availability of natural resources, adversely affect the

livelihoods of the poor by impacting production, affecting incomes and preventing

building up of assets.

National Rural Livelihoods Mission is the implementing agency.

The villages adopted under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) will now get

rural roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) on priority basis.

To accomodate this, the Union government has approved amendments in the PMGSY

guidelines.

These roads will be maintained by the respective State governments up to prescribed

standards and even beyond the built in period of first five years.

As per the amended Guidelines, States will give priority to all roads leading to the

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Gram Panchayats identified under SAGY irrespective of Comprehensive New

Connectivity Priority List (CNCPL) to include all eligible unconnected habitations in

the selected Gram Panchayats.

In case of upgradation of roads, priority shall be given to the roads which have

Pavement Condition Index (PCI) Value-I & II in the Gram Panchayats identified

under SAGY.

Railway set up 8-member Committee, headed Mohd Jamshed, to review Traffic

Growth in passenger and freight.

It will identify factors and issues affecting growth of traffic (Freight & Passenger) and

suggest a plan of action on Traffic Optimization and removing bottlenecks both in

short term (during 2015 -16) and long term (during 2018-19).

The Committee will submit its report within a period of six weeks from the date of its

constitution.

Inaugural renewable energy global investors meet & expo, Re-invest 2015 to kick

off on February 15, at vigyan bhawan, New Delhi.

Over 2500 delegates and exhibitors from 45 countries will participate in this event

with intent to invest in the country in the renewable energy sector.

It also aims to evolve innovative financial models for funding and to ensure the

partnership of states and the centre in harnessing renewable energy.

Centre brings in new reforms in Ship repair sector; registration of Ship Repair

Units (SRUs) with Directoraate General (Shipping) no longer required.

The Ministry of Shipping intends to promote ease of doing business in this sector

with cutting unnecessary and outdated red tapes.

The concessions and facilities extended to Ship Repair Units include provision of bond

facilities, duty free import of components, raw materials, consumables and capital

goods; and exemption of Central Excise duty on locally available components and

raw materials by the Department of Revenue.

Earlier, to avail these concessions, SRUs were required to be registered with DG

(Shipping).

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15th February, 2015

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MoEF seeks enhanced budget for National Adaptation Fund

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has demanded

enhanced budgetary allocation for the National Adaptation Fund.

In 2014, the government allocated Rs. 100 crore to set up the Fund but this is way

short of what is needed for adaptation programmes.

The Ministry is keen that some allocation be made in all Ministries so that climate

change is integrated into planning.

The government had doubled the coal cess to finance clean energy research but

there is no new proposal from the ministry to increase the cess further.

National Adaption Fund:

It was set up in July, 2014 with an initial allocation of Rs.100 cr.

This fund will assist national and state level activities to meet the cost of adaptation

measures in areas that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate

change.

India’s forest cover up by 5,871 sq. km

The report of Forest Survey of India, released recently, points out that West Bengal’s

forest cover has increased by 3,810 sq km, which is followed by Odisha where

increase in forest cover has been 1,444 km and Kerala where the increase has been

about 622 sq km.

Important observations made:

The report says that of the 5,871 sq km increase in the forest cover of India, West

Bengal accounts for nearly 64 per cent of this rise. West Bengal, a state with high

population density, has only 18.93% forest cover.

The report says that States from northeast like Nagaland, Arunanchal Pradesh,

Tripura and Manipur, whose forest cover comprises over 75 percent of the State’s

area, have shown a decrease in forest cover. The main reason for this is attributed to

the biotic pressure and shifting cultivation in the region.

In Andhra Pradesh, a State with 16.77 percent of its area covered by forest, there

has been a decrease of 273 km of forest area.

The forest cover has decreased by 176 sq km in Madhya Pradesh and 53 km in

Chhattishgarh and it has increased by 496 sq km in Jharkhand and 446 sq km in

Bihar.

Samudra Ratnakar in quest for energy security

Geological Survey of India (GSI)’s state-of-the-art research ship Samudra

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Ratnakar recently set sail to locate gas hydrates below the sea-bed off the east coast

and off Kanyakumari.

The ship uses multi-channel seismic survey technique. Under this the ship will be

capable to send high-energy sound waves deep into the sea-bed and record the

waves that echo back through hundreds of hydro phones laid on the surface of the

sea.

Mridaparikshak

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) recently presented to the nation

‘Mridaparikshak’, a MINILAB that can determine soil health.

What is it?

Mridaparikshak is a digital mobile quantitative minilab/soil test kit to provide soil

testing service at farmers’ doorsteps.

Important features:

Mridaparikshak determines all the important soil parameters i.e. soil pH, EC, organic

carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur and micronutrients like

zinc, boron and iron.

It also provides crop and soil specific fertilizer recommendations directly to farmer’s

mobile through SMS.

It is highly compatible with soil health card.

Mridaparikshak comes with soil sampling tools, GPS, balance, shaker, hot plate, and

a Smart Soil Pro, an instrument for determining the soil parameters and displaying of

fertilizer nutrient recommendations.

It can be operated by young educated farmers/rural youths with short training.

Meeting of the National Council for Promotion of Sindhi Language

The first meeting of the newly reconstituted Governing Council of National Council for

Promotion of Sindhi Language (NCPSL) was held recently in New Delhi under the

Chairpersonship of Human Resource Development Minister.

Several key decisions like increasing the award money etc. were taken at the

meeting.

It was also decided in the Meeting to provide Rs.1.00 crore for the establishment of

Sindhi Chair in Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati University, Ajmer.

About National Council for Promotion of Sindhi Language (NCPSL):

NCPSL is an Autonomous body, fully funded and established by the Government of

India, Ministry of H.R.D. Department of Education to Promote, develop and

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propagate Sindhi Language. It was established in 1994.

Objectives of the Council:

To promote, develop and propagate Sindhi Language.

To take action for making available in Sindhi Language, the knowledge of Scientific

and Technical Terminological development as well as the knowledge.

To advise the Government of India on issues connected with Sindhi Language and

advising on education as may be referred to it.

To undertake any other activity for the promotion of Sindhi Language as may be

deemed fit by the Council.

The constitution of India has enjoined upon the government of India to ensure the

development of all languages included in the eighth schedule of the Indian

Constitution.

Eleven government services launched on eBiz Portal

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce &

Industry recently announced the launch of 11 Central Government Services on eBiz

portal. These services are required for starting a business in the country.

How is it helpful?

With the integration of the 11 services on eBiz portal, a business user can avail all

these 11 services 24*7 online end-to-end i.e., online submission of forms,

attachments, payments, tracking of status and also obtain the license/permit from

eBiz portal.

The eBiz platform enables a transformational shift in the Governments’ service

delivery approach from being department-centric to customer-centric as a single

window portal.

eBiz is one of the integrated services projects and part of the 27 Mission Mode

Projects (MMPs) under the National E-Governance Plan (NEGP) of the Government of

India.

eBiz is being implemented by Infosys Technologies Limited (Infosys) under the

guidance and aegis of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry

of Commerce & Industry, Government of India.

The focus of eBiz is to improve the business environment in the country by enabling

fast and efficient access to Government-to-Business (G2B) services through an

online portal. This will help in reducing unnecessary delays in various regulatory

processes required to start and run businesses.

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Aim of the Project:

This project aims at creating an investor-friendly business environment in India by

making all regulatory information – starting from the establishment of a business,

through its ongoing operations, and even its possible closure – easily available to the

various stakeholders concerned. In effect, it aims to develop a transparent, efficient

and convenient interface, through which the government and businesses can interact

in a timely and cost effective manner, in the future.

‘Soil Health Card’ scheme

The Soil Health Card scheme was recently launched by the Prime Minister. Under this

scheme the Centre plans to target over 14 crore farmers in the next three years to

check the excess use of fertilisers.

About the Scheme:

It is a scheme to provide every farmer a Soil Health Card in a Mission mode. It is a

scheme under which the Central Government provides assistance to State

Governments for setting up Soil Testing Laboratories for issuing Soil Health Cards to

farmers.

The scheme will be implemented in all states to promote soil testing services, issue

of soil health cards and development of nutrient management practices.

State Governments have adopted innovative practices like involvement of

agricultural students, NGOs and private sector in soil testing, determining average

soil health of villages, etc., to issue Soil Health Cards.

The state governments will prepare yearly action plan on the issue and the cost will

be shared in the ratio of 75:25 between the Centre and states.

The scheme assumes importance as the imbalanced application of fertilisers have

caused deficiency of primary nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium),

secondary nutrients (such as sulphur), and micro-nutrients (boron, zinc, copper etc.)

in most parts of country.

Though a few states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh

have made progress in soil testing but no uniform norms are followed in the country

for soil analysis and distribution of soil health cards. The central scheme aims to

address this issue.

Soil Health Cards:

A Soil Health Card is used to assess the current status of soil health and, when used

over time, to determine changes in soil health that are affected by land

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management.

A Soil Health Card displays soil health indicators and associated descriptive terms.

The indicators are typically based on farmers’ practical experience and knowledge of

local natural resources.

The card lists soil health indicators that can be assessed without the aid of technical

or laboratory equipment.

The card, which will carry crop-wise recommendation of fertilisers required for farm

lands, will help farmers identify health of soil and judiciously use soil nutrients.

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16th February, 2015

Nagesh Kukunoor's 'Dhanak' - meaning rainbow - wins laurels at the

65th BerlinInternational Film Festival.

It received two prizes - a Grand Prix (prize) for the being the Best Feature-length

film and the Special Mention for the Best Feature Film by The Children's Jury for

Generation Kplus.

Ashton Carter gets Senate nod as the new Defense Secretary of the US.

He will succeed Chuck Hagel as the 25th chief of Pentagon.

The post is pretty much similar to the Defense Ministers around much of the world

and gives the office-bearer power to control the mighty US Military.

Indian football captain 'Sunil Chhetri' wins Player of the Year award 2014 from All

India Football Federation.

It’s his 4th award here after winning the same in 2007, 2011 and 2013.

He thus creates the national record for winning this honour the most number of

times (4 times) leaving behind IM Vijayan who had 3.

In women's category, the prize went to striker Bala Devi.

Sandesh Jhingan bagged the Emerging Player of the Year 2014 award and Santosh

Kumar won the Best Referee 2014 award.

China picks all-weather friend Pakistan to have its largest overseas embassy in

the world.

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The communist giant, being as secretive as it is, has kept the details of the newly

opened embassy in Islamabad behind the wraps.

China maintains large diplomatic missions abroad including Washington, New York

and New Delhi. Its mission in New Delhi has over 300 personnel.

UN Security Council adopts a unanimous resolution on Yemen crisis; urge

shiite Houthi rebels to cede power and release President Mansour Hadi and his

Cabinet from captivity.

The resolution - drafted by Britain and Jordan - call for a UN-brokered peaceful

settlement of the power struggle in the poorest republic of the Arab peninsula.

The resolution, however, is not expected to make much impact on the rebels who are

sitting pretty with control over the capital and much of the state.

Videocon-BPCL consortium discovers large crude oil reserve in Sergipe

basin off Brazil's Northeast coast.

The result obtained in this well confirms the extension of the light oil reservoirs

previously discovered by the 'Farfan' discovery well.

The large scale and volume and light oil discovery will enable one of the lowest cost

producing giant oil fields in the world.

The 3rd partner of the group is Brazilian state-owned company Petrobras which holds

60 per cent stake in the venture; thrice of what Videocon and BPCL (20% each)

owns individually.

About the Oil reserve

The well 3-SES-186 was drilled 103 km from the city of Aracaju, Brazil, and 10 km

from the discovery well in 2,467 meter of water.

The well will be drilled to 6,060 meters.

This accumulation is part of the exploratory project in the deepwater Sergipe-

Alagoas basin.

In addition, the well found presence of a new light oil accumulation with a total

thickness of 68 metres in shallower reservoirs.

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17th February, 2015

India gifts Sri Lanka a civil nuclear deal as a note of thanks to the visiting

President Maithripala Sirisena for his pro-India stance.

This is the first such deal for Sri Lanka with any country in the world.

The two countries have also signed three other pacts, on cooperation in agriculture,

culture, and Sri Lanka's participation in the Nalanda University Project.

India and Indonesia jointly nominate 'Archives of Bandung Conference (1955)' for

listing in UNESCO's "Memory of the World Register".

India-born Punit Renjen is appointed as the new CEO of US-based accounting

firm Deloitte.

This will make him the first ever Indian-origin person to head one of the Big-Four

audit firms in the world.

The other 3 of the Big-Four are PwC, KPMG and EY.

Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, enterprise risk and financial advisory

services with more than 200,000 professionals in over 150 countries.

Professor Srikanth Jagabathula wins $500,000 National Science Foundation

(NSF) CAREER award for developing data-driven modelling and learning

techniques to improve the accuracy of operational decision making.

The prize money will help him further his research over the next five years.

He, an IIT Bombay alumnus, teaches at the New York University Stern School of

Business.

The announcement has come just few days after another Indian researcher Gurpreet

Singh received the same award for his research on nanosheets.

The National Science Foundation's 'Faculty Early Career Development Program' is

one of the foundation's most prestigious awards for supporting early career faculty.

Balasubramaniam Venkataramani is appointed as the MD & CEO of Multi

Commodity Exchange (MCX) Limited.

The post was managed by the interim head PK Singhal since the resignation of last

MD & CEO Manoj Vaish in May 2014.

10th biennial "Aero India Show" to take place at Air Force Station,

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Yelahanka, Bengaluru from 18 to 22 Feb 2015.

The premier aerospace exhibition serves as a platform for India to bolster business

opportunities in International aviation sector.

The theme of this year's show will be "Make in India".

34 countries, including US and France, will be represented by their defense

manufacturing firms at the event.

RR Patil, former Maharashtra Home Minister and NCP leader, dies at 57.

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18th February, 2015

Government has imposed an anti-dumping duty on imports of cheap graphite

electrodes to protect the domestic manufacturers.

These below-cost 'Graphite electrodes' - used in melting of steel - are killing the

competition by selling them at a price much lower than even the cost of production.

The duty - ranging between $278.19 and $922.03 per ton - will be in effect for 5

years.

Background

The move is in tune with the recommendations of the Directorate General of Anti-

Dumping Duty (DGAD) who had earlier conducted investigation regarding the same

(dumping charges) on the complaints of domestic manufacturers - HEG and Graphite

India.

What is Anti-Dumping Duty?

It is the duty imposed by the government on imported products with prices less than

their domestic counterparts.

This increases the cost of the imported items to a level competitive to the domestic

industry.

The tool is employed by countries to give level-playing field to their domestic

industry which would otherwise be priced out of the market.

Anti-Dumping Duty is imposed under the multilateral WTO regime and vary from

product to product and from country to country.

The authority to impose Anti-dumping duty in India rest with Union Finance Ministry;

who does it on the recommendation of Union Ministry of Commerce.

The 5th India-Myanmar Joint Trade Committee (JTC) meeting concludes in Nay

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Pyi Taw.

Both neighbours decided to strengthen the trade relations especially in the field of

promoting two-ways investment, infrastructure development particularly to promote

border trade, connectivity, agriculture, energy, skill and entrepreneurial

development, pharmaceutical and people-to-people contacts.

India offered assistance to develop infrastructure at the border trade points, upgrade

trade training institutes in Yangon, and also provide training to Myanmar officials on

WTO and international trade related issues besides supporting subsidized direct

shipping links between India and Myanmar to promote bilateral trade.

A land custom station will be jointly set up the at the Zawkhatar in Mizoram. The

next Joint Trade and Investment Forum in Chennai.

Infosys to acquire automation startup 'Panaya Technology' in a deal worth

Rs 1200 crore.

Panaya would help Infosys reduce risks, costs and time by inducing automation to

several service lines through cloud computing.

Panaya's strength is in utilizing hard core math to solve problems such as upgrades,

extensions, testing, etc.

Infosys - Indian software giant - is looking to renew and differentiate its offerings

from being service based to software focused.

RE-INVEST 2015 concludes with staggering commitments worth 2,66,000

MW of Green Energy.

The promise came from 14 banks and financial institutions, 8 PSUs and private

manufacturers, and 15 private sector companies.

Re-invest 2015 was global investors meet & expo aimed to attract foreign

investment in the country in the renewable energy sector.

2800 delegates from 42 countries participated in the three day RE-INVEST 2015.

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19th February, 2015

Scientists have developed a digital Soil Testing Kit "Mridaparikshak" to help

farmers figure out a way to improve crop productivity.

The portable, affordable and scientifically reliable device is quite easy to use for the

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farmers.

Key Points

It can determines all important soil parameters like soil pH, organic carbon, available

nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur and micronutrients like zinc, boron and

iron.

Based on the above findings, it will provide vital information to farmers and suggest

them right type of inputs to improve productivity and avoid losses.

The provided recommendations - like on crop and soil specific fertilizers - will directly

reach the farmer's mobile through SMS.

The kit or the so called 'Mini-Lab' is also compatible with Soil Health Card.

It comes with soil sampling tools, GPS, balance, shaker, hot plate, and an instrument

for determining the soil parameters and displaying of fertilizer nutrient

recommendations.

The Brain Behind It

The development is an outcome of the initiative of ICAR and the concerted efforts by

a team of scientists of ICAR-IISS, Bhopal in collaboration with M/s Nagarjuna

Agrochemicals Pvt Ltd, and Hyderabad.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to be used to verify insurance claims on ruined crops

in Gujarat.

The UAV will survey the fields mapping the crop diseases to assist insurance

companies in settling claims.

Weather forecaster 'Skymet', along with the AIC and Gujarat government; have

already conducted a pilot operation last year on groundnut crop where it used

satellite remote sensing technologies and drones across 10 villages in Morbi district

of Gujarat.

The service may also be extended to the neighbouring state of Rajasthan.

100 people - including 3 Indians - are shortlisted for one-way trip to Mars under

Mars One Project.

The lucky ones are Ritika Singh, Shradha Prasad and Taranjeet Singh Bhatia.

Fifty men and fifty women have been selected from over 2 lakhs candidates globally

to take this trip to Mars in 2024.

The Project aims to set up a permanent human colony on Mars. Crews of four - after

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extensive survival training - will depart every two years, starting in 2024. The

mission, however, will launch an unmanned mission much earlier in 2018.

Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport has been chosen as the best

airport among the world's most performing airports in the 25-40 million

passengers per annum category by the Airport Council International (ACI).

The Delhi Airport bags the annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) award, which

recognises and rewards the best airports in the world based on Geneva-based ACI's

ASQ passenger satisfaction survey.

Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International (CSI) airports also find its place in the top

5 list.

Veteran Telugu filmmaker Daggubati Ramanaidu dies at 78.

He holds the Guinness World Record for producing the highest number of films - over

150 films across several languages.

He also tried his hands in Hindi with films like 'Prem Qaidi' and 'Hum Aapke Dil Mein

Rehte Hain'.

Padma Bhushan and the Dadasaheb Phalke awards are few of the notable prizes won

by him for his significant contribution to the industry.

He is the father of actor Venkatesh while Rana Daggubati is his grandson.

Haryana state government decides to set up Gram Sachivalayas (village

secretariats) to increase efficacy in delivery of public services.

Gram Sachivalayas will bring Gram Panchayat and village-level functionaries of all

departments under one roof for better functioning and coordination.

It will also ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability in the working of Gram

Panchayat and other agencies engaged in the process of rural development.

All village secretariats will be set up within three years.

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20th February, 2015

PM to inaugurate first train from Arunachal Pradesh to Delhi today on its 29th

'statehood day' anniversary.

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The train will be a weekly AC Express train (22411/22412) connecting Naharlagun

with national capital.

The 21.75-km new rail line - connecting Itanagar with Harmuti in northern Assam -

will also be dedicated to nation.

Indian swim team creates the World Record for the longest open water swim in

the world.

The six-man relay team, led by Wing Commander Paramvir Singh, swam from Goa to

Mumbai covering a total distance of 433.11 kms in 156 hours.

The previous record belonged to an Israeli team which had clocked a total distance of

380 kms in 123.2 hrs.

Indian Railways to videograph passengers at the time of boarding on select

sensitive routes to enhance security measures.

Railways will also set up a commando training centre to provide specialised training

to RPF personnel to be deployed in trains passing through Maoist-affected areas.

Railway will also provide trained security escorts on Maoist-infested regions.

To train the RPF manpower for this new role, the Public transporter is soon going to

set up a commando training centre.

As for women, a separate Mahila Vahini will be created soon out of the women RPF

personnel.

Government sets up the 'Hindi Salahkar Samiti' to advise Ministry of Corporate

Affairs on 'progressive use' of Hindi language.

The panel will also give recommendations in regard to the implementation of the

provisions relating to Hindi contained in the Constitution (Official Languages Act and

Rules) and Policy decisions of the 'Kendriya Hindi Samiti' and instructions issued by

the Home Ministry relating to Hindi.

The tenure of the members of the Samiti shall ordinarily be three years from the

date of its constitution.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and National Aeronautical Laboratory (NAL)

will jointly take up design, development and manufacture of 70 to100-seater

regional civil aircraft through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

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A 'green-field facility' for manufacture of Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) and Naval

Multi-role Helicopter (NMRH) in Timkur District, Karnataka is also in the pipeline.

These are some of the measures taken by DPSU to Boost HAL capability.

Printing of Union Budget 2015-16 documents commenced with Halwa Ceremony;

over 100 officials involved in the making of Union Budget to be Locked In till it

gets presented in Lok Sabha by the Finance Minister on 28th February, 2015.

The lock-in is done to maintain the secrecy of the Budget preparation process as

leakage of such sensitive information may be exploited by stakeholders.

Mathews Plamoottil - a zoology professor at Kollam's Baby John memorial

government college - has discovered 4 new species of fish in Kerala.

The new new species have been named Puntius nelsoni, Puntius nigronotus,

Systomus chryseus and Systomus rufus.

The Four Species:

Puntius Nelsoni

The body and fins of this species are yellowish in colour.

The head is deeper, the snout is shorter and the mouth wider.

This species was discovered at Kallumkal in Thiruvalla, at the place where Pamba

and Manimala rivers merge.

Puntius Nigronotus

It was discovered at Mananthavady in the hilly Wayanad district.

Its dorsal fin is black in colour, the lateral line scales are greater than its closest

relatives and its dorsal fin has more rays.

Systomus Chryseus

It was discovered from Keezhvaipur near Thiruvalla.

It is golden in coloured and its pectoral fin is greatly elongated.

Systomus Rufus

It was discovered from Venpala, also near Thiruvalla.

Its fins are red in colour.

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21st February, 2015

'Anil Kumble' to become the 4th Indian cricketer to be inducted into the ICC

Cricket Hall of Fame.

Bishen Singh Bedi, Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar are the other three to feature in

this coveted list that includes cricketing greats of all time.

He will be felicitated and inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame during the World

Cup match between India and South Africa in Melbourne on 22nd February.

India to get $50 million loan from Asian Development Bank (ADB) to boost Power

Generation Capacity in Assam.

The signed 'loan agreement' aims to build up the capacity of power generation and

distribution systems to meet the growing energy demand in the state of Assam.

Over a third of households in the State face daily electricity cuts of 5 to 6 hours

crippling normal life and businesses alike.

In peak periods, Assam has to buy up to 15% of its power from independent

producers at very high cost.

The project will finance investments to augment and improve generation capacity

through the replacement of an inefficient generating plant and construction of new

hydropower plant.

'Airtel' inks partnership pact with UNICEF to provide health, education and youth-

focused content to its customers in 17 African countries.

The collaboration aims to improve people's access to health and education-related

information from various innovative projects supported by UNICEF.

The partnership extends across 17 countries in Africa including: Kenya, Malawi,

Madagascar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Chad,

DRC, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

New railway line from Hazaribag to Koderma (Jharkhand) inaugurated by PM

Narendra Modi.

Hazaribag, with the inauguration of its first ever railway station, has now come on

the Railway map of India.

The project, which started 16 years ago, is the first stage of the Hazaribagh-

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Koderma- Barkakana-Ranchi railway line of the East-Central Railway.

Government is celebrating Matribhasha Divas today (Feb 21) across the nation.

It’s to preserve and promote some 3000 mother tongues across the country.

All schools, colleges, universities and language-related institutions under both central

and state governments would celebrate the occasion by holding seminars, workshops

and special lectures on the importance of mother tongue.

Tapan Misra assumes charge as the Director of the ISRO's Space Applications

Centre (SAC).

The eminent scientist was earlier serving as the deputy Director of Microwave

Remote Sensing Area of SAC, Ahmedabad.

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23rd February, 2015

Ranchi ruled the roost once again at the Hockey India League by winning it

second time in its 3 years short history.

The outfit - now known as 'Ranchi Rays' - defeated 'Punjab Warriors' in the final by a

3-2 scoreline in the penalty shootout after the regular time yielded a 2-2 tie.

The city franchise - earlier called 'Ranchi Rhinos' - had also grabbed the inaugural

title in 2013.

Despite the overhaul in stakeholders, the team has almost maintained the same

squad as earlier.

India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni co-owner the franchise with Sahara

Group being the complementary partner.

Moreover

Defending champions Delhi Waveriders finished third after beating Uttar Pradesh

Wizards 2-1 in the third-fourth place play-off match.

The annual competition is in the line of 'Indian Premier League' and is organised by

the top governing body of the game 'Hockey India'.

So far, the championship feature only six teams namely: Ranchi Rays, Punjab

Warriors, Uttar Pradesh Wizards, Delhi Waveriders, Kalinga Lancers and Dabang

Mumbai.

Awards

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Winning skipper 'Ashley Jackson' (England) is honoured with "Player of the

Tournament" title while drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh (Dabang Mumbai) became

'The Most Promising Player'.

Uttar Pradesh Wizards grabbed the 'Fair Play' title.

PR Sreejesh (UP Wizards) won the 'Dhruv Batra Motivator of the Tournament Award'.

DRI makes the biggest seizure of Mephedrone, a stimulant drug of the

amphetamine class, in Indian history.

The drug, captured by 'Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI)' is worth almost Rs

30 crore in the world market.

This is also one of the biggest seizures of a psychotropic substance in recent times.

The drug goes around in the market with its street name 'Meow Meow' - taken from

its chemical name 4-methylmethcathinone, or M-CAT.

Dilip Shanghvi overtakes Mukesh Ambani as the richest Indian in terms of market

value.

The Sun Pharma's founder and MD, is worth about Rs 1.46 lakh crore thanks to his

63 per cent stake in three group companies - Sun Pharma, Sun Pharma Advanced

Research and Ranbaxy Laboratories.

Mukesh Ambani, on the other hand, holds a total of 45 per cent stake in RIL and

Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, accounting for a wealth of Rs 1.32 lakh crore as

per BSE.

The turnaround is majorly due to the rising stock value of Sun Pharma companies in

the market.

Death toll rises to 385 in Saudi Arabia due to MERS (Middle East Respiratory

Syndrome) Virus.

The Virus belongs to a family of viruses known as coronaviruses which include both

the common cold and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Exercise GARUDA SHAKTI-III, the 3rd edition of joint exercises between armies

of India andIndonesia, concludes at Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare

School in Vairengte, Mizoram.

The scope included sharing experience in counter terrorism and conduct of joint

counter insurgency training at platoon level aimed at neutralizing of terrorist threat.

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The exercise aim to bolster bilateral military relations between the armies of the two

nations.

Somdev Devvarman clinches $100,000 ATP Challenger Delhi Open title beating

Yuki Bhambri in the final.

The doubles crown went to the pair of Egor Gerasimov and Alexander Kudryavtsev

who beat Riccardo Ghedin and Toshihide Matsui in the final.

Centre rolls out Web-Portal to deliver e-certificates to the pass-outs from

various NCVTcourses including ITI pass-outs.

The system is designed as a self-service digital platform to deliver various services to

current and prospective trainees of the vocational training system, apprenticeship

trainees, employers/establishments, ITIs and other institutions, as well as

States/UTs.

The portal “www.ncvtmis.gov.in” is part of the Digital India Initiative and seeks to

improve the governance of vocational training across the field institutions of DGE&T

by providing high degree of transparency, better analytics for decision making, and

improved access to citizen services.

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24th February, 2015

Himachal Pradesh to present the first ever 'paperless state budget' in the country

on March 11.

All documents related to budget estimates would be made available online and only

around 10 budget copies would be printed for record.

Being the country's first green assembly the state save Rs 15 crore and 6000-odd

trees every year due to paperless day-to-day functioning.

The 8th India-Nepal battalion level combined Military Exercise "Surya Kiran" kicks

off at Integrated Army Training Centre, Saljhandi, Nepal.

The focus of the drill is to practice Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorist

Operations in mountainous and jungle terrain.

The training also includes facets of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief

measures to be taken during Pandemic, Epidemic and various other calamities.

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Aviation aspects and environmental conservation are also included in the scope of

this exercise.

Mohamed Nasheed, the first democratically elected President of Maldives, has

been arrested under anti-terrorism laws amid suspicions that he would try to flee

the island nation to escape punishment.

He had to step down in 2012 in a coup after mass protests broke out over his order

to arrest a prominent judge Abdulla Mohamed.

Ram Niwas Goel gets unanimously elected as the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly;

Bandana Kumari to be the Deputy Speaker

Both MLAs belong to the ruling party AAP who swept to power in Delhi winning

overwhelming 67 out of 70 seats.

National Pension System (NPS) has launched a new website to provide proper and

effective information dissemination to the stakeholders.

The National Pension System Trust has been set-up and constituted by Pension Fund

Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) for taking care of the assets and funds

under the National Pension System (NPS) in the interest of the beneficiaries

(subscribers).

Purnendu Dasgupta - a chemistry professor at the University of Texas - has

bagged the coveted J Calvin Giddings Award 2015 for his contribution in the field

of analytical chemistry.

He will receive a plaque and cash prize as the reward.

The Award

The annual national award is given by the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division

of Analytical Chemistry.

It honors a scientist who has enhanced the personal and professional development of

analytical chemistry students by publishing influential textbooks, designing new

approaches to analytical chemistry, mentoring students, developing and publishing

innovative experiments, or designing improved equipment.

The Awardee

He - author of over 400 scientific papers - holds 25 research patents in US that earns

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him over $18 million in research grants.

His notable work includes methods for environment-friendly analysis of arsenic in

drinking water, rapid analysis of trace heavy metals in the atmosphere, and the

development of a NASA-funded ion chromatograph for testing extraterrestrial soil -

such as on Mars.

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25th February, 2015

Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill,

2014 cleared by both houses of Parliament.

It makes it quick and easier to evict unauthorized occupants from public properties

like those under Metro Rail Corporations, Public Transport Companies, Municipalities'

assets etc.

The Amendment Bill will empower those entities with Centre and States owning more

than 51 % of their Paid Up capital under the definition of public premises.

The move will enable quick execution of infrastructure projects by imposing stricter

time frames for completing eviction proceedings.

Eviction of unauthorized occupants of government bungalows will also be

streamlined.

At present, Lengthy legal procedure allow unauthorized occupants to continue to use

the government accommodation by paying paltry amount either by way of rent or

penalty.

Calls to get cheaper as TRAI brings down 'Interconnection Usage Charges' from

20 to 14 paiseper minute for mobiles.

The charges have entirely been eliminated for landlines.

If customer of a service provider 'A' makes a call to someone using the services of

another provider 'B'; 'A' is required to pay interconnection usage charge to 'B'.

These charges seem to benefit a provider with greater network base whereas those

with small subscriber volume often end up paying money to the former.

14th Finance Commission recommends 42% share for states from central tax

revenue.

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Centre has accepted the proposal submitted by the panel - headed by former RBI

Governor YV Reddy - for the 5 year period from 2015-16 to 2019-20.

At present, states get 32 percent of the central tax revenue.

Delhi Government develops a mobile application "mLiquorSaleCheck" to provide

real time product information on liquors to end-users.

The mobile app will scan the unique barcode present on every liquor bottle to prove

its authenticity to the consumer, apart from revealing other information like the

brand name and size.

It will help the authorities to better control the sale of illicit liquor in the city.

RK Pachauri, Chairman of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change) resigns from his post, after being embroiled in a sexual harassment

case.

He has been accused of the same by a 29-year-old female researcher of TERI.

Foundation stone laid for Apparel and Garment Making Centre at

Dimapur, Nagaland.

It’s been established under the NERTPS (North East Region Textile Promotion

Scheme) which is an umbrella scheme for the development of various segments of

textiles like silk, handlooms, handicrafts and apparels & garments.

For local entrepreneurs with requisite background, required facilities to start a unit

will be provided in ‘plug and play’ mode here.

Once such entrepreneurs get established, they can set up their own units, allowing

the facility to be provided to new entrepreneurs.

Each state will get one such centre with three units.

The program aims to boost the textile industry in the North East region.

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26th February, 2015

There are 6 new IIMs being established by the government in the states of Bihar,

Odisha, Maharashtra, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

IIM Bihar will come up near Bodh Gaya under the mentorship of IIM Indore.

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IIM Odisha will come up near Bhubaneswar under the mentorship of IIM Calcutta.

IIM Maharashtra will come up near Nagpur under the mentorship of IIM Ahmedabad.

IIM Punjab will come up near Amritsar under the mentorship of IIM Kozhikode.

IIM Himachal Pradesh will come up near Sirmaur under the mentorship of IIM

Lucknow.

IIM Andhra Pradesh will come up near Visakhapatnam under the mentorship of IIM

Bangalore

Centre considering proposal for simplifying the permit system for Green Lake

Trekking in Sikkim.

It notable that the entire areas of the States of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland have

been excluded from the Protected Area Permit (PAP) regime till Dec 31, 2015 for

foreign tourists subject to certain conditions.

The PAP Act requires foreigners to obtain a Protected Area Permit (PAP) to visit

certain security-sensitive areas in India.

Even Indian citizens - not residents of those areas - require an Inner Line Permit

(ILP) to enter these places.

However that is relatively easier to get as compared to PAP. Certain relaxations have

also been allowed in PAP regime in Arunachal Pradesh.

Each block of India to have a sports complex; both for indoor and outdoor games.

Centre will construct them under the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan scheme.

Each complex will come up over a 6-7 acres area with an approx cost of Rs 1.6 crore

(80 lakh each for indoor and outdoor).

There is also provision of providing Sports Equipments worth Rs 15 lakh by the union

Sports Ministry.

Selection of the blocks is to be done by the respective State Government.

Union Cabinet clears the implementation of the scheme for setting up of 15000

MW of Grid- connected Solar PV Power projects under the National Solar Mission.

It will be done through NTPC/ NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) in three

tranches as following...

3000 MW under Tranche-l under mechanism of Bundling with Unallocated Coal based

Thermal Power and fixed levellised tariffs.

5000 MW under Tranche-ll with some support from government to be decided after

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getting some experience while implementing Tranche-l.

7000 MW under Tranche-Ill without any financial support from the centre.

There are 37,935 second appeals/complaints pending with the Central

Information Commission at present.

As per Right to Information Act, 2005, the RTI applications and first appeals are

required to be mandatorily disposed off within 30 days of their receipt.

However, no time limit has been prescribed for disposal of 2nd appeal/complaint by

the Central Information Commission.

Year 2015 is going to be celebrated as the 'Year of Active Pharmaceutical

Ingredients' in a reformative step to make India self-sufficient in Bulk Drugs.

What is API or Bulk-Drug?

A 'Bulk-Drug' or API is the chemical element of a medicine which lend the product

power to heal ailments.

Since the ingredient is biologically active, any anomalies in its quality may also have

negative side-effects on the user; thats why it come under tight regulations.

Poorly manufactured and contaminated API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) may

also lead to death in extreme cases.

Key Points

India is overly dependent on import from a single source for basic chemicals,

intermediates and APIs for many commonly used medicines.

To avoid the price and supply risks and ensure sustained availability of APIs, we

need to be self- sufficient in the manufacturing of this vital component.

This also is in tune with our ambitious 'Make in India' project.

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27th February, 2015

Centre instructs NHAI to set up call centres for help to road accident victims on

the National Highways.

To ensure better emergency care of the accident victims, three pilot projects has

been launched one each on Gurgaon-Jaipur section of NH-8, Vadodara-Mumbai

stretch of NH-8, and Ranchi-Mahulia of NH-33 for providing cashless treatment to

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road accident victims for 48 hours at expenditure up to a limit of Rs. 30000.

GPS enabled ambulances connected with a central control room through a toll-free

number 1033, are stationed at intervals of 20 km to transport the injured to the

hospitals for treatment within an hour.

As per Rule 10 of Rules Regulations, 1989 under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, every

driver shall, on the approach of a fire service vehicle or of an ambulance allow it free

passage by drawing to the side of the road.

Implementations of provisions of Motor Vehicles Act and Central Motor Vehicles Rules

come under State Government.

Women will be accorded priority under the Swachh Bharat Mission while

constructing community and public toilets.

One community toilet seat per 25 women and one public community toilet seat per

50 women will be built under the Mission as against one seat per 35 and 100 men

respectively.

There are 44 lakh Public Toilets in the Country as per 2011 Census.

Maharashtra tops the list with 22 lakh public toilets followed by Tamil Nadu with 7

lakhs, and Karnataka with 2.26 lakhs.

Swachh Bharat Mission aims to build 1.04 crore household toilets and five lakh

community and public toilet seats by 2019.

Centre decides to set up two new major ports, one each at Sagar in West

Bengal and the other at Dugarajapatnam in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.

List of countries India has signed agreement for peaceful uses of space

technology.

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany,

Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,

Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Peru, Republic of Korea, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Syria,

Thailand, The Netherlands, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America and

Venezuela.

These pacts cover Research and Development (R&D) in space science, technology

and applications.

AFMC Pune gets the Raksha Mantri's Trophy - 2014 for being the Best Hospital of

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the Armed forces.

AFMC Lucknow becomes the 2nd Best Service Hospital.

The Raksha Mantri's Trophy was instituted in 1989 to create a healthy competition

among the Command Hospitals of the Army and its equivalent Hospitals in the Navy

and Air Force.

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28th February, 2015

The Economic Survey 2014-15: GDP at market prices for 2015-16 is expected to

be 8.1-to 8.5per cent.

It states that Indian economy appears to have now gone past the economic

slowdown, persistent inflation, elevated fiscal deficit, slackening domestic demand,

external account imbalances and oscillating value of the rupee.

India ranks as the 4th largest start-up hub in the world with over 3100 start-

ups in the country.

As per the Economic Survey 2014-15 report, IT and IT-enabled Services makes up

the single largest contributor to India's Services exports directly employing nearly 35

lakh people.

A special Juvenile Police Unit is to be created in every district and city under

Section 63(3) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.

The purpose of setting up these units is to coordinate and to upgrade police

treatment of the juveniles and the children.

National Food Security Act has so far been implemented in 11 States.

These are: Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,

Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan.

The Act covers up to 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban

population of the country for receiving food grains at subsidized prices under

Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).

This Coverage has been delinked from poverty estimates and is large enough to

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include all the needy households.

Mission Indradhanush to provide immunization against 7 Life-Threatening

Diseases namely diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis,

measles and hepatitis B.

In addition, vaccination against Japanese Encephalitis and Haemophilus influenza

type B will be provided in selected districts/states of the country.

Vaccination against tetanus will be provided to the pregnant women.

Four special vaccination campaigns will be conducted between March and June 2015

and this will cover all children under two years of age and pregnant women for

tetanus toxoid vaccine.

The nationwide scheme was launched in December 2014, with an aim to cover all

those children who are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated

Country observes 'National Science Day' today (Feb 28) with the theme 'Science

for Nation Building'.

National Science Day (NSD) is celebrated every year on 28th February to mark the

discovery of the ‘Raman Effect’, for which a Nobel Prize winning research paper

submitted by CV Raman was accepted on that day.

National awards for the year 2014 for Science & Technology popularization will also

be bestowed on the occasion.

Indian Navy concludes its month-long annual war drill TROPEX (Theatre Level

Readiness and Operational Exercise).

The exercise involved large scale naval manoeuvres in all three dimensions viz.

surface, air and underwater, across the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and the Indian

Ocean.

The month long exercise was aimed to assess the operational readiness of naval

units, validate the Navy's war fighting doctrine and integrate newly included

capabilities in its 'Concept of Operations'.

The exercise also provided the Indian Navy with an opportunity to validate its

network centric warfare capabilities, with effective utilisation of the recently launched

Indian Navy's Satellite, GSAT 7.

Jagmohan Dalmiya unanimously elected as the new President of the BCCI for a 3-

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year stint.

BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) - the governing body of cricket in India -

is the richest Cricket body in the world.

Other appointments

Anurag Thakur: Secretary, Amitabh Choudhary: Joint Secretary and Anirudh

Chaudhry: Treasurer

Arun Singh is appointed as the new Indian Ambassador to US.

The post was lying vacant since the incumbent S Jaishankar was promoted as the

Foreign Secretary of India by the centre.

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Highlights of the Union Budget 2015

Fiscal deficit

Fiscal deficit seen at 3.9 per cent of GDP in 2015/16

Will meet the challenging fiscal target of 4.1 per cent of GDP

Remain committed to meeting medium term fiscal deficit target of 3 per cent of GDP

Current account deficit below 1.3 per cent of GDP

Jaitley says have to keep fiscal discipline in mind despite need for higher investment

Growth

GDP growth seen at between 8 per cent and 8.5 per cent y/y

Aiming double digit growth rate, achievable soon

Inflation

Expects consumer inflation to remain close to 5 per cent by March, opening room for

more monetary policy easing

Monetary policy framework agreement with the RBI clearly states objective of

keeping inflation below 6 per cent

"One of the achievements of my government has been to conquer inflation. This

decline in my view represents a structural shift."

Revenues

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Revenue deficit seen at 2.8 per cent of GDP

Non tax revenue seen at Rs 2.21 trillion

Agricultural incomes are under stress

Disinvestment

Government targets Rs 410 billion from stake sales in companies

Total stake sale in 2015/16 seen at Rs 695 billion

Market reforms

Propose to merge commodities regulator with SEBI

To bring a new bankruptcy code

Jaitley says will move to amend the RBI act this year, and provide for a monetary

policy

Committee

To set up public debt management agency

Proposes to introduce a public contract resolution of disputes bill

To establish an autonomous bank board bureau to improve management of public

sector banks

Policy reforms

To enact a comprehensive new law on black money

Propose to create a universal social security system for all Indians

To launch a national skills mission soon to enhance employability of rural youth

To raise visa-on-arrival facility to 150 countries from 43

Allocates Rs 346.99 billion for rural employment guarantee scheme

Borrowing

Gross market borrowing seen at Rs 6 trillion

Net market borrowing seen at Rs 4.56 trillion

General anti-avoidance rules (GAAR)

Government defers rollout of anti-tax avoidance rules GAAR by two years

GAAR to apply prospectively from April 1, 2017

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Retrospective tax provisions will be avoided

Taxation

To abolish wealth tax

Replaces wealth tax with additional 2 per cent surcharge on super rich

Proposes to cut to 25 per cent corporate tax over next four years

Corporate tax of 30 per cent is uncompetitive

Net gain from tax proposals seen at Rs 150.68 billion

Jaitley proposes modification of permanent establishment norms so that the mere

presence of a fund manager in India would not constitute a permanent establishment

of the offshore fund, resulting in adverse tax consequences.

Proposes to rationalise capital gains tax regime for real estate investment trusts

Expects to implement goods and services tax by April 2016

To reduce custom duty on 22 items

Basic custom duty on commercial vehicle doubled to 20 per cent

Proposes to increase service tax rate and education cess to 14 per cent from 12.36

per cent

Plans to introduce direct tax regime that is internationally competitive on rates

without exemptions

Exemptions for individual tax payers to continue

To enact tough penalties for tax evasion in new bill

Tax department to clarify indirect transfer of assets and dividend paid by foreign

firms

Infrastructure

Investment in infrastructure will go up by Rs 700 billion in 2015/16 over last year

Plans to set up national investment infrastructure fund

Proposes tax-free infrastructure bonds for projects in roads, rail and irrigation

projects

Proposes 5 "ultra mega" power projects for 4,000MW each

Second unit of Kudankulam nuclear power station to be commissioned

Will need to build additional 100,000km of road

Ports in public sector will be encouraged to corporatise under Companies Act

Expenditure

Plan expenditure estimated at about Rs 4.65 trillion

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Non-plan expenditure seen at about Rs 13.12 trillion

Allocates Rs 2.46 trillion for defence spending

Allocates Rs 331.5 billion for health sector

If revenue improves, hope to raise budgeted allocations for rural job scheme by Rs

50 billion

Investment

Propose to do away with different types of foreign investment caps and replace them

with composite caps

To allow foreign investment in alternative investment funds

Public investment needed to catalyse investment

Gold

To develop a sovereign gold bond

To introduce gold monetisation scheme to allow depositors to earn interest

To introduce Indian-made gold coin to reduce demand for foreign gold coins

Subsidies

Food subsidy seen at Rs 1.24 trillion

Fertiliser subsidy seen at Rs 729.69 billion

Fuel subsidy seen at Rs 300 billion

We are committed to subsidy rationalisation based on cutting leakages

Highlights of Railway Budget 2015-16

Rs 8.56 lakh crore investment plan for the period 2015-2019

To increase daily passenger carrying capacity from 21 million to 30 million in 5 years

Increase track length by 20% to 1, 38,000 kms over next 5 years

To increase freight carrying capacity from 1 billion to 1.5 billion tones in 5 years

Plant proposed to convert waste to energy

17,000 toilets in coaches to be replaced by bio-toilets

All-India 24/7 helpline number 138 to be launched\

Toll free number 182 to be launched for women and safety issues

“Operation 5 minutes” and hot button for purchase of universal tickets

Online booking of retiring rooms and wheelchairs on select stations

Rs 120 crore to equip major stations with lifts and escalators

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Allotment for passenger amenities raised by 67%

Open bids for station development

84% rise in capital allotment to develop 1200 kms at Rs 8686 crore

Evaluation studies undertaken for bullet trains

Innovation council called Kayakalp to promote technology development and

manufacturing

Railway research centres to be set up in select universities

Introduction of bar coded/RFID for tracking of parcels and freight wagons

Upgradation of equipment for examination of tracks

To tap insurance and pension funds and also multi-lateral and bi-lateral funds

Development of unmanned audio and visual warning system at unmanned crossings

with ISRO

Special training in soft skills for frontline staff

To set up full-fledged university in 2015-16

Setting up environment directorate for focus on environment management

25.1,000 MW solar plant with the help of MNRE

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feb 2015 current affairs

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