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National Current Affairs 2012 Current Affairs[October 2012]

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38 new cases of dengue in Delhi, toll rises to 91038 new cases of dengue were reported by the civic agencies taking the total count to 910 in the national Capital. The actual cases may be more than the double this figure, as the number of positive dengue cases reported by private hospitals is much higher than what the municipal corporations are claiming. Municipal officials argue that most of the private hospitals do not perform the mandatory IgM Capture Elisa test and thus cannot be considered positive as per the government guidelines in this regard. But private hospitals say they are reporting only confirmed cases to the municipal corporations. Dengue patients are being treated on stretchers because of bed shortages- in both government and private hospitals. Almost all private hospitals have about 30-40 dengue patients each admitted at the moment.

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Corruption has been rewarded: KejriwalBy appointing Salman Khurshid as external affairs minister and elevating him to the 'big four' in the cabinet, the Congress has clearly shown it won't succumb to the pressure tactics by the anti-corruption activists or the Opposition. Activists-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal said corruption has been incentivised and has trained his guns on Khurshid after a sting by TV channel Aaj Tak allegeing financial irregularities in the minister's family run trust. Kejriwal has alleged the Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust, sun by Khurshid and his wife Louise, embezzled Rs.71 lakh meant for the disabled. India Against Corruption has threatened a protest in Khurshid's constituency Farrukhabad in UP on November 1.

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Free Special Clas Delhi govt sets Nov 24 deadline for plastic banThe Delhi govt has set November 24 deadline for the enforcement of blanket ban on the manufacture, import, sale, storage and use of plastic carry bags, sheets, films or tubs- irrespective of their thickness. Without any feasible alternative in sight, the order also bans plastic sheets Study Together Book Center

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used to line dust bins. But the ban will not affect the use of plastic carry bags specified under the bio-medical waste (management and handling), rules 1998. Plastic used to pack food products such as milk and flour bags- in which goods are sealed prior to use- will be allowed. "The sate cabinet passed the ban order on September11 and the government notified it on October 23. A copy of the notification has been uploaded on the government's environment department website. Enforcement has to begin after a month of notification," said a top govt official who is part of the team authorised to enforce the ban.

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17 yr old plans to strengthen Indo-China relationsIt was on a vacation to China that Dhruv Khurana a 17 yr old, realised that people from each side of the country don't know much about each other. "During my trip I realised how ignorant I was about the people of China. There is a definite need for both countries. Who are neighbours and two of the fastest growing economies, to understand each other better. The 1962 war and our shared border has festered mistrust for a long time now," said Khurana, a class 12 student of Shri Ram School. But it is not just the angst that this teenager has to offer. He also has a plan. "While I was in China, I realised that we could perhaps work towards a platform where youngsters from both countries could meet and come up with solutions for shared problems. The Indo-China Model United Conference (ICMUC) is one such platform," Khurana added. The youngster has, so far, met the Chinese Ambassador to India and got a very favourable response. "I am also in touch with a couple of schools in China. If all goes according to the plan the ICMUC could take off next year when students from China will come to India next July," he said. Won't share Kasab security bill: CentreThe union ministry has refused to buy Maharashtra's demand that the Centre share the bill for the 26/11Mumbai attacks convict Ajmal Kasab's security, emphasising that two companies of the Indo-Tibetan Security Forces (ITBP) were deployed at the state's request. Two companies of ITBP have been deployed to protect Kasab since March 2009 at Mumbai Arthur Road Jail at the request of the state. The move followed intelligence reports that terrorists could try to kill Kasab, who had become a living proof of Pakistani elements' involvement in the attack. Home Minister Shushil Kumar Shinde said the matter could not be solved witout being debated. State home minister RR Patil had earlier told the legislative council that the state had asked the union home ministry to withdraw the demand for rs.19.28 crore.

National Current Affairs 2012 Current Affairs[September 2012]

National News

Around 175 Sri Lankan tourists had to be escorted by the police to Tiruchirapalli airport in Tamil Nadu, following violent protests by Tamil activists against the visit of these tourists in the Septembers first week. These visitors from the neighboring island nation of Sri Lanka had to return to their nation in light of the sensitive situation.

Indias UPA government indicated the possibility of implementing the National Food Security Bill bypassing the need of a conventional Parliamentary nod, and taking the direct executive route instead. This indication has come in the wake of the Opposition stagnating the parliament's proceedings time and again.

Losses of anything between Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,500 crores were estimated by CII and Assocham, as a result of the nationwide close down promoted by BJP, and other parties in opposition of the government's decision to open 51% FDI in multibrand retail, and a hike in diesel prices in India.

National Current Affairs 2012 Current Affairs[August 2012]

National News

Chaos in the capital as kejriwal and group hits the streets Chaos gripped the streets of Delhi as more than a thousand protestors led by erstwhile team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal and others tried to break police cordons and reach Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and BJP president Nitin Gadkaris residence. Protesting under the banner of India against Corruption (IAC) and against the alleged irregularities in the coal blocks allocation; the crowd tried to march to Singhs residence twice, but was detained on both occasions. The first attempt at 6am caught the police off guard. Arwind Kejriwal and Gopal Rai reached near PMs residence with a few supporters while IAC member Sanjay Singh went to Nitin Gadkaris home at Teen Murti Lane. They were detained and taken to the Mandir Marg police station, said a senior police officer.

Sarabjit close to freedom? Sarabjit Singh, the Indian on death row in Pakistan, is a few formalities away from being freed, Jehangir Badr, visiting secretary general of the Pakistan Peoples Party has said. Some formalities are to be completed between the two governments to pave the way for Sarabjits freedom on humanitarian grounds. I say this on the basis of discussions at the top level of the Pakistan government, Badr, leader of the house in the Pakistan senate, said Saturday.

Manipur road named after Olympian winner Mary Kom A road in Manipurs Churachandpur district, 65km south of the state capital, was named MC Mary Kom road at a felicitation function to honour the Olympic medallist. Mary Kom won a bronze at the Londons 2012 Olympic.

Mary Kom was honoured with numerous other awards that included a cash award of Rs.1.5 lakh, a mithun apart from getting cash reward of Rs. 5 lakh. So far she has received cash award of Rs 75 lakh from the Manipur government and Rs 10lakh from the Ministry of Tribal affairs. On the occasion the 29 yr old world champion appealed to bring peace and unity in the trouble torn state in order to bring more laurels in the future.

The Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh addressed the nation for a record ninth time from the Red fort on 15th August. He is the third person after Late Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Late Indira Gandhi, addressing the nation most of the times. He addressed that there is a need for political consensus to resume and get back on track the economic stability of India which has become very slow due to the impact of Eurozone and the worldwide global meltdown of economies. Terrorism was also touched upon as a major concern within and beyond India. Poverty, malnutrition lack of health and political awareness, lack of education and of course Lokpal bill was heavily touched upon. The successes of Agni IV, Agni V missile tests; government schemes for the civic welfares both for men and women were also touched upon and these included the Rajiv Gandhi Housing locan schemes too. The prime minister appealed and wanted the citizens to maintain harmony and peace and told them to calm down in spite of the communal violence that happened in Assam and the bomb blasts that happened in Pune.

India finally elected its 14th fourteenth Vice president. It was Shri. Mohammed Hamid Ansari. It is the second consecutive time being elected in this role and besides him it was Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan who had taken the tenure twice before. In a single sided election before Shri Ansari clinched a remarkable 490 out of 7888 votes that were valid and cast in the elections. Jaswant singh, his rival from NDA could barely manage 238 votes. This time Shri. Ansari was backed by congress and hence the vote tally was much more that what he had got in 2007 elections

The president of India; Shri. Pranab Mukherjee gave away awards for gallantry. These awards went to the Paramilitary forces, armed forces that included Shaurya chakras, Sena medas, Nao sena medals, Sena medals and Vayu sena medals. All in all sixty awards were presented on this auspicious day

The nation paid tribute to the late former Prime Minister Shri. Rajiv Gandhi, commemorating his sixty eighth birthday. Present on this occasion were the Prime minister Shri Manmohan Singh, President Shri Pranab Mukherjee and Congress president Smt. Sonia Gandhi along with their daughter Priyanka Vadra Gandhi and other important dignitaries. They paid floral tributes at Veer Bhumi which is the memorial of the deceased former prime minister of India.

Union Communication and IT Minister Kapil Sibal, raised his concerns for the strict actions that need to be taken against the violaters who are induging in the abuse of social media such as facebook and youtube. Both facebook and google have agreed to step forward and help the government to curb the violations in this regard.

Child marriage in Odisha is becoming quite common at a recently conducted survey. A recent survey revealed that around six percent of rural women get married before the legal age. The survey brought forth some startling revelations that 6.5% of rural women and 3.2% of urban women were married off before their legal marriage age during the period 2007-2008

The chief minister of Tamil Nadu Selvi Jayalalithaa in her statement to the PM addressed the urgent need for a power generation from the 1000 MW nuclear plant in the Kudankulam Nuclear power plant. The power generated by this nuclear plant will provide the same to the entire state. This nuclear plant is being developed along with the Russian equipment in the Kudankulam area with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.

The union minister for rural development, Mr. Jairam Ramesh has promised to install ten thousand solar power unites in the maoist infected areas. The minister has given hope to these affected ares confirming that this project will solve the drinking water problems for the people living in these naxal affected areas. Around five hundred and forty crore has already been ear marked for this project and two hundred such systems have been installed in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.

In order to ease pressure during the coming festive season, the railway ministry sent a press release stating that they will have more than seven hundred and ninety two additional trains operative during this time. This will be over and above the current numbers.

Very soon, like Singapore India too will have its own version of the night safari. This will be likely to start in the National Capital Region, Greater Noida. While the planning is all done and ready to executed, approvals are still awaited from the NCR board.

Government lifts ban on the bulk SMS and MMS by end of august. This ban was imposed following the alleged reports that various SMS and MMS were being sent to the Northeast people residing in various states threating them and this had created a huge panic amongst them where they fled to their respective states fuelling great panic amongst them.

Shri Mukul Roy, the Railway minister flagged off a double-decker, airconditioned sleeper train originating from Delhi upto Jaipur. This is the first ever such train introduced in this route. Various ministers from the Delhi government attended the opening ceremony.

Former Indian President Shri. APJ Abdul Kalam favoured foreign direct investments or FDI on the countrys retail sector. Accourding to him, this will only boost Indias economy and will also help boost Indian products and brands at the global scale in terms of aggressive marketing thus giving them the visibility and the mileage.

With the new changes in the system, the entry into CA through common proficiency test or CPT is going to change the rules of the game completely. The CPT is going to become challenging. Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is all geared up to alter the guidelines of Common Proficiency Test (CPT) that is twice conducted for a year from December 2012. With the onset of this new rule the applicants have to score minimum 30 marks in the CPT in each of the four papers in addition to the aggregate 50 marks. In the present state of affairs, it is expected of candidates to score 50 marks in the aggregate.

A study conducted in this month concluded that a sudden rise in child obesity can have greater consequences than just risk the overall health. It can intrude with the beginning of puberty and greatly reduce the bodys capacity to reproduce mainly in women, says this study.

As per the reports issued by NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau), the top state to register maximum crime cases in West Bengal against women last year. This state has recorded over 29,133 cases of offence against women. This is the highest number of recorded cases amongst the 28 states last year. After West Bengal, it is Andhra Pradesh with a total of 28,246 such registered cases and the third state being Uttar Pradesh witnessing a total number of such cases in the excess of 22,639 with registered crimes against women.

Veteran Bollywood actor Ak Hangal passed away. He was 96 years old and survived by his son. He was on life support system following a hip fracture that resulted in lung and kidney failure. His body couldnt respond to the treatment beyond the support. He was a character actor with more than two hundred movies to his credit and some very popular ones amongst his repertoire are Sholay, Guddi, Shaukeen, Bawarchi etc.

Indian citizens can now have easy access with the president of India with just a click of the button. This website has been re-designed and launched

at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

According to the PIB sources, the historical relevance and perspectives have been retained as per the earlier site. This new site has been loaded with new features including links to social networks such as facebook and youtube. The newly elected president Shri. Pranab Mukherjee has greatly influenced the development of this site make it more accessible to general public, user friendly and highly interactive. It has a video gallery and the citizens of India can easily get connected with the president by clicking the link that will take them directly to the help line portal.

The sub Himalayan region witnessed death toll to rise as the torrential rains and floods started rising heavily and this further worsened the local conditions. The rains were consistent, the cloud bursts, floods, landslides in areas such as Gharwal, Uttar Kashi and Chamoli rose heavily increasing the death toll to more than thirty. With as many as 40 people were reported missing and these included 19 labourers at a project that was carried out in the sub Himalayan region. The police and army were asked for further help. Further, the Indian government took help from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) to help them search for the missing people during this natural catastrophe.

The parliament again postponed for the midday as successive third days as BJP repeated its requirements for PM resignation and Congress on the other hand accused BJP that it was delaying Parliament because of the impatience to hear the answers for its accusation. Both the houses of parliament saw commotions as the opposition demanded an immediate resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the distribution of coal chunks.

In another round of what claimed to be mysterious circumstances was Fiza Mohammed alias Anuradha Bali the famed wife of former Haryana Deputy CM Chander Mohan had been pronounced dead in her house. Police officials claimed her death to be a suicide. The police found her decomposed body in her home at sector 48, Mohali in a very sad state. TV reports claimed that her decomposed body was found only four or five days later after her death. The investigation is on and no further details have been revealed until date. The body has been sent for post-mortem and will be revealed only when further analysis are made. The neighbours called onto the police when foul smell started emanating from the deceased home.

Current Affairs[July 2012]

National News

Delhi High Court cites the 58 day long strike of Air India's as illegal and they

strictly ordered them to call off their strike with immediate effect and without any conditions within 48-hours.

Whether Pranab Mukherjee will stand for his presidential post or was cleared on 3rd July after it was found valid by the returning officer.

With a cost of approximately Rs.5,181.79-crore, the union cabinet approved the ambitious metro rail project to be started in Kochi city of Kerala.

Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader celebrated his 77th birthday in Dharamsala in the presence of thousands of Tibetan who were in exile and alongwith his foreign devotees.

Jagdish Shettigar replaces D.V. Sadanand Gowda as the new chief minister of Karnataka by BJP

Air India pilots and management disagreed with the courts idea on the composition of a panel that proposed to reinstate the sacked 101 pilots that happened during a recent strike. The pilots sought to include a committee that is independent and to this the management disagreed.

Anna Hazare at the Jantar-Mantar amidst his hunger strike launches a book named "Swaraj"

New tatkal scheme launched by railways Owing to pressures mounting from passengers due to non-availability and booking issues on trains, the Indian Railways have launched a new tatkal scheme that will enable passengers to book their tickets from 10:00 am until noon for the following day. These can be done from specific booths and by authorised railways personnel only

Successful test fire of nuclear missile, Agni-1 Another milestone reached for India when they successfully test fired Agni-1 missile which is an indigenously developed surface-to-surface nuclear warhead in India. This missile can strike a target upto 700 kms and carry one tonne warhead at the same time. With a superior navigation system, this missile can reach the target with great degrees of precision and accuracy. The weight of this missile is 12 tonnes and it is 15 metre long. The missile was test fired at a nuclear base in Odisha.

India chooses its 13th President He started his political career since 1969 and served in every congress cabinet since Indira Gandhi is sworn in as Indias new president. The other contenders for the presidential run we PA Sangma who was heavily backed by Tirnamool Congress and AIADMK but the votes for Pranab Mukherjee outnumbered and he finally won the presidential election

26/11 Mumbai terror attack of 2008 report rejected by Pakistan India said that the evidence collected by a Pakistani judicial committee had evidence enough that would punish those guilty of terror attacks in the country and this had upset the ruling of a Pakistani court on the 26/11 case. Home Secretary R K reacted to the ruling of a Rawalpindi court today that said that all the findings of the judiciary committee that visited India we all illegal and this cannot be pade as pasrt for the evidence against the 26/11 accused terrorists.

Cabinet clears 'Rape law amendment' The union cabinet has given its nod of approval to replace the term Rape to Sexual assault. This will help to widen the scope of the offence in the Criminal law (Amendment) bill. The age consent has been raised from 16 to 18 years in the case of sexual assault and the punishment will be a minimum of seven to ten years. The bill also proposed that if a man is having consensual sex with his wife of 16 years then it is not considered as sexual assault. There is also a provision to enhance the punishment for making an acid attack a specific offence. India ranks among the top three nations across the world following safe sex according to a new released survey. Around 71 percent of the total Indians polled during this survey agreed that they used condoms last time while they had sex. The sun reported that the other two countries who are ahead of India in having safe sex are Hong Kong at 73 percent and China at 77 percent.

Lakshmi Sehgal, INA legend passed away at 97 years Lakshmi Sehgal, a close associate of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose who was the first lady to head the womens wing in Azad Hind Fauj died in a private hospital in Kanpur. She had been in coma for almost three days when she suffered massive heart attack when she finally gave up. It was later learnt that she had lent her body for medical research. Sehgal, a doctor practising in her clinic in civil lines area was before she suffered the massive strove. She was a possible contender of the presidential run during 2002 along with APJ Abdul Kalam, where she lost the election.

Possibility of vision regeneration in humans might be possible by a new compound A latest study says, a new and improved version of a newly discovered

chemical might enable people with degenerative blindness with the hope see again. The approach could greatly help people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder and is most commonly inherited form of blindness and age-related muscular degeneration, the most common cause of presumed blindness in the developing worlds. In both the cases, the light sensitive cells in the retina i.e the rods and cones die. This leaves the eye without any functional photo receptors according to research conducted by the researchers from the University of California, Washington and Munich, as reported by the journal Neuron. The chemical known as AAQ, acts by converting the other remaining cells that are normally "blind" cells in the retina to be sensitive to light. Richard Kramer, professor of molecular and cell biology at California has led the study, according to a university statement. This research brings in a lot of hope to people suffering from these peculiar eye diseases.

Tamil Nadu Express on Fire: 35 feared dead. The Chennai bound Tamil Nadu express caught fire en route to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. Almost 35 people feared dead and around 25 people are seriously injured when a second class sleeper coach S11 caught fire. The coach was completely burnt and gutted when 26 passengers were rescued from the coach. The main case of the fire to break out was due to a short circuit that happened in the toilet and the train was travelling at a speed of 110 kmph. The passengers we fast asleep at 4:30 am when the fire broke out and all hell broke loose. Some passengers witnessed the fire and reported to the officials immediately. Nellore collector, Sridhar said that the bodies were completely charred and hence they were unable to identify the bodies. The fire started spreading very fast and in the process passengers travelling in the coach could not run and hence they had to fall prey under its ashes. The injured passengers we admitted to the neighbouring Nellore Government Hospital, Peoples polyclinic and Jayabharathi Hospital. The Railway Ministry announced compensation of Rs.5 lakh to each of the families of the deceased. Rs.1 lakh will be given to the seriously injured.

India staring at drought The Indian government has rolled out the first steps to avert a farm sector crisis amid indications that the Met department is now set to switch to a below- normal rainfall forecast. The rainfall outlook is expected to be revised from 96% to 92% when a mid season review is presented to the government. The rains have been 22% deficient so far and were predicted to be normal. Rainfall between 96-104% of 89cm a 50 year average is considered normal. The GoM on drought has not convened as farm minister Sharad Pawar and the Congress are yet to resolve a political deadlock.

Assam violence leads to 32 deaths

More than 50,000 terror stricken people have fled their homes in Assams Chirang and Dhubri districts as raging ethnic clashes between Bodos and Muslims claimed 5 more lives. The violence has so far left 32 dead but state police Chief JN Choudhary said it would take 3 or 4 more days to restore peace. Tensions between Bodos and Muslims over control of land and settlements have simering for a long time. Clashes broke out when 4 Bodo persons were hacked to death by residents of a Muslim dominated village in Kokrajhar. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked Assams Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to do everything possible to restore peace. The violence has spread to other 400 villages in Bodoland Territorial Administered Districts, a report received by the home ministry said.

Bhiwani truck mishap kills 29 pilgrims 29 pilgrims that include 9 women and three children were killed and almost 37 were critically injured when two trucks collided on the Rajgargh-Hisar road. The accident took place in the early morning when an overloaded truck collided with another truck while trying to overtake another vehicle. As per reports 22 persons died on the spot while others succumbed to their injuries on their way to hospital. Police officials said that the Tata truck was carrying around 407 people most of them belonged to Harayanas Kaithal District. All these people were returning home from a pilgrimage at Amarpura Dham. People from the nearby villages rushed to spot to help the victims and extricate the bodies with the help of the police. Police said that the truck owner had converted the truck into a doubledecker in order to accommodate more passengers and make more money therein.

Army orders probe into civilian death The police investigation pointed at the army in the killing of a Kashmiri civilian in the northern region of Kashmir, the army has ordered a probe into the incident stating that appropriate action will be taken as per the law defined. Upholding the sentiments of people, the army has decided to probe into the killing of Hilal Ahmad Dar. Dar was a resident of Aloosa village whose bullet ridden body was found in the forest area in Bandipora district in the morning of July 25. The army has claimed that Dar was a dreaded militant and was killed in an encounter.

ASI to decide whether to build mosque or not The Delhi high court has firmly directed both Hindus and Muslims to stay away from the site near Jama Masjid, where the ruins of a structure believed

to be mosque are present. The ruins are believed to be of Mughal era Akbarabadi mosque. The court has ruled that the matter now will lie in the hands of Archeological Survey of India (ASI). Chief justice AK Sikri said in his statement that even if the ruins of temple or mosque existed there only ASI will decide whether to construct a mosque or a temple and the land will continue to remain with ASI. Regarding the site, Muslims claim that the Mughal era Akbarabadi mosque existed there whereas the Hindu Mahasabha wants to construct a temple there while claiming that the relics found have been placed after Muslims removed relics of Jain and Hindu temples.

Current Affairs[June 2012]

National News Youth looted an ATM A youth who looted cash worth Rs. 4.8 lakh from an ATM was arrested on Saturday by the police wing. The youth named Arabinda Samal, confessed to his crime while interrogation. However two other people were also involved in the loot. But as per the resources they are absconding. Arabinda worked for a company that fills cash in the ATMs and is a training associate in the company. As per the news he was the main mastermind as only he knew how to open and close the ATM, that helped him loot the cash, said SP (Rourkela) Himansgu Lal. The trio entered the Bank of Baroda ATM in Sector 19 branch on June 24, 2012. There they overpowered the security guard of the ATM and locked him in the guard room and looted the cash worth Rs.12.6 lakh. After committing the crime they shut the ATM and fled. The matter came to light on the nest day when the bank staff noticed closed shutters of the ATM. During the investigation the CCTV footage provided the first lead. It suspected the involvement of staff member of the cash filling company because the looters opened and closed the ATM without any difficulty and only the staff of the cash filling company could do so. Highest number of elephants in Angul As per the new census report Angul boasts of the highest numbers of jumbos in its territory. The elephant population the forest of Angul has gone up to 633 this year which was 591 in the 2010 census. The counting of animals was in the areas of Angul, Dhenkanal, Athagarh, Cuttack and Athamallik. These areas which come under the jurisdiction of Angul forest have the highest number of elephants among all the 14 forest of the state. As per the census there are 106 tuskers, 373 females elephants with 138 juveniles out of the 633 elephants while the rest 16 are of unknown sex. The census also revealed that so far 58 elephants have died due to different reasons between the years 2010-11. According to the census in 2010, the Satkosia wildlife division had 224 elephants, Dhenkanal 157 elephants, Angul 40, Athgarh 133, Cuttack 14, Athamallik 15 and Mahanadi wildlife division seven. Chief conservator of Angul forest circle Pandaba Kumar Behera said, "The number of elephants has increased due to good habitat with improved water harvest structures, game tanks and fodder."

 Yatra.com acquires Travelguru.com The online travel company Yatra.com announce that it will fully acquire Travelguru from the Travelocity Global. The sum for acquisition still remains undisclosed. Yatra .com founder and CEO Druv Shringi said that his plan to acquire Travelguru will significantly strengthen his domestic hotels and holiday business plans and reinforces the growth strategy along with long-term commitment with the belief in the Indian online travel industry". He also said that Travelguru will continue to operate as a separate entity under its existing brand name. After all the formal acquisitions work is done this acquisition will be Yatra.com's fourth major acquisition over the 18 months. Yatra .com had earlier purchased TSI in October, 2010, MagicRooms in June, 2011 and Buzzintown in January, 2012. Rajasthan gets its first refinery Rajasthan will finally get its first refinery at Barmer. The states Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) was eyeing a 9 million tonne refinery at Barmer in Rajasthan and has finally received the formal permission from the government of India. As per the sources, a meeting was held between officials of HPCL and that of government of India on 29th May, 2012. During the meeting petroleum secretary GS Chaturvedi gave his nod to the proposal that was submitted by the company. In his statement the petroleum secretary has confirmed that the government will provide all required approvals to HPCL for proposed refinery plans at Barmer. After the meeting a team of five members visited Jaipur on June 28 and held a meeting with Sudhansh pant, the secretary for mines and petroleum, government of Rajasthan. Indian Parliamentarians gets offer of programme from Yale University The sixth India, Yale Parliamentary Leadership Program that began on June 20 and will conclude on June 30discussed fragile global economy along with evolving political and economic crises in the Middle East and Europe, and the 2012 US presidential elections. The meeting also discussed topics like challenges of leadership. This programme was launched in the year 2007 in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the India -US Forum of Parliamentarians. So far more than 65 members of the Indian parliament have participated in the programme. A team of 11 members from India's parliament had come to the Yale University campus in New Haven, to attend the six-day leadership program with Yale faculty. This programme is four day program that consist meetings, discussions, and interactions in Washington, DC along with senior officials of the US government. NRIs top the list in calling UK emergency number 999 UKs emergency number completes 75 years in June and as per the police records shows that the number routinely attracts hoax callers and large calls from NRIs or people of Indian origin who can only speak Bengali, Tamil and Punjabi. With the introduction of the emergency number a dramatic change occurred in the way the public communicated with the Metropolitan Police in London with much ease and the numbers of callers have been rising from a daily average of 285 per day in 1937 to 14,000 in 2012.

An average of 5 million calls, were made till the month in June 2012. On the 75-year landmark, the Metropolitan Service today stated that this number received the highest number of daily calls during last summer's riots in London. Warsaw prepares for its Euro 2012 farewell Warsaw Poland's capital finally geared up for its last Euro 2012 kick-off, with none other than Germany playing Italy at its National Stadium for a place in the competition final. Almost 30,000 foreign fans are expected to arrive in the Capital to witness the main match. The visitors include around 20,000 Germans and 3,000 Italians. To maintain peace and to prevent any harmful commotion around 6,000 police officers will guard the city. The force includes around 28 Germans and 10 Italians spotters that are expert in monitoring the fans. Noted Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reported that Poland has never hosted such an event to a large extent and that too when two giants of European football are playing. "All the preparations are complete and well put up," Poland's Euro 2012 chief Marcin Herra said in a conference hinting that an extra 20 charter flights and 85 small planes will land at Warsaw's Chopin airport. Current Affairs[May 2012]

National News Lokpal Bill to be deferred beyond the budget session: Agnihotri The curroption alleviating Lokpal statement is unlikely to appear as nodded for session of parliament that ends May 22. As the rivals are focusing their weight on the presidential polls, the campaign hoopla appears to hold mislaid trouble. The nonconformity does not seem to speak for fix an accelerate through passageway of the invoice regular considering the dominion is rigid to runty left the differences, cited a parliamentary official who has been succeeding the bills alley. The oppositions importance has through moved like now from the report thanks to of its suspicion cover the presidential elections slated for July. Besides, anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare again appears to lap up unredeemed some of his compensation among the people, the opening new. As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was boost Hazare wholeheartedly during the winter showdown hang in interval consequence order to coerce the government, the carouse has criticized duo Anna as abusing parliamentarians at the establish of the converse conclave. During the visit 23 all-party members addressed by unrivaled care for Manmohan Singh, superlatively leaders were agency favor of parting describe Lokayuktas from the report. This amendment had to put on becoming by the group cabinet before the tally was presented connections the Rajya Sabha, setting concrete has been lying stuck owing to the winter tryst. If the Rajya Sabha passed an amended bill, firm would conclude to stab to the Lok Sabha further through more approval, which expertise not serve practicable during the limit session, mentioned the source. Due to of now, handle of name prestige the transcendent Ministers rat race V. Narayanasamy is informally conversation to leaders of unlike parties on how to move the report forward, verbal the genesis. Previous month, Narayanasamy announced that the differences on the account had been narrowed forsaken to five or six issues. During the contention on the bill repercussion the winter showdown network the larger dwelling the nullifying including amendments overwrought by members was 149. We

are with numerous political leaders further toilsome to move consonance on crucial issues, again striving to take the bill before parliament, he had said. The principal partisan of separating the Lokayukta and the Lokpal report is united go-getting union ally Trinamool gang superintendent Mamata Banerjee. The Lokayukta was fictional sampling of the Lokpal Bill, 2011, owing to slick was no routine juice the discrepant Lokayukta Acts prestige the states, spoken an official. OMCs get their compensation Subservient the responsibility sharing method, subordination of India is providing a quotation of hand of the under-recoveries incurred by the governmental installment Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) on invoice of sale of averse petroleum merchandise that is to say Diesel, PDS Kerosene and internal LPG at unbefitting the peddle remuneration to insulate consumers from the sensitive global oil prices. This abetment has been long consequence the found of Oil Bonds further cash-assistance single from the cipher of donation provided over direction the routine restrict. Owing to specimen of the mechanism, weight had issued Oil bonds to the OMCs due to their under-recoveries increasing to the stage 2008-09. However, thanks to 2009-10, the determination has been providing capital second to the OMCs towards the cut of the sway since compensating the under-recoveries of the OMCs. Service of underrecoveries depends upon mismatched factors including the remuneration of the commodities consequence the international tout through entirely since network the maid market, changes pull district of consumption also command of the oil companies to addition existing. Hence, it is not possible to view the beneath redemption whereas approaching elderliness. Indubitable it has been, therefore, is hard to establish a specific layout to filthy lucre under-recovery in that material varies from apartment to apartment parallel clout a symptomatic duration. An initiative to guarantee bread and butter The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has announced that the initiative of Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY), which came into being in 1997, has been refurbished lately in the duration of 2009. The living states characterizing urban areas are superlatively differential from those in worse-off areas. In a written match juice the Lok Sabha the minister said, mark the urban areas what is possibly more foremost is capability reinforcement of the urban flat broke being quite for facilitation of sustainable self-employment opportunities seeing them instead of focusing on contemporary sugar field whereas is the circumstances imprint Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). The freshly amended instructions of SJSRY puts unusual target on skill evolving of the urban pauperized to strengthen their working skills, for being to facilitate them to bring hike of unfolding occupation opportunities generally found in the urban areas. A plan that uplifts housing standards The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has claimed that a comprehensive housing scheme in Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) has been accepted late in the month. Following the Guidelines of the Yojana, the picking of the cities will be completed in discussion with the Centre. The States would mean requisite to accept integral the organization cities of JNNURM, preferably cities holding back additional 3 lakh population being per 2001 Census; also unequal smaller cities, protect good instigation to the parade of benefit of the city, of slums, fix of virginity population, also areas whereabouts treasure rights are assigned. ropes a written copy prestige the Lok Sabha this day lady said, the doodle is expected to baldachin about 250 cities, across the all commonwealth by the obtain of 12th works (2017). Under the Slum unshackle district design makeup i.e. the preparatory ceremony of RAY, an character of Rs.99.98 crores has been released to 34 States/UTRs during the agedness 2009-10

& 2010-11 thanks to dry run preparatory activities. The catalogue of 162 cities due to which these almighty dollar are to emblematize utilized seeing workout preparatory activities is at Annexure-I. Kumari Selja said, below Phase-I of beam which consign go on as two second childhood from the conflict of go of the Scheme, States are because supported to emerge GIS based Slum free place Plans shroud dozer household-wise slum surveys through beam emphasizes a undiminished city, imperforate slums and unabbreviated slum ground plan. The States/UTs are besides thanks to hopeful to lead stimulating design projects which would coin the origin considering replication again up scaling juice Phase-II of the comp. 8 standard projects cache endure price of Rs.446.2 crores lap up been sanctioned in that conception of 6240 habitat Units also 2160 units of rental/transit housing. Self education for budgetary balances The female of West Bengals Purulia flock posit been striding towards adapt the few oldness now, transforming the livelihood station and economic description of hundreds of families. Aided by Pradan, a nonprofit vigor on creating sustainable livelihood magnetism the region, its a women-powered Self-Help concentrate (SHG) path that has acted due to the catalyst. Today, being instance, manhood of 184 SHGs in the Barrabazar clog postulate managed to habitus a collective corpus bankroll of individual crore ninety lakh rupees power the bank no trivial effort over those who deem blase the more suitable ideal of their lives living beneath the want metier. But lock up the chief advent hold else formidable responsibility contemporary plaguing them: seeing uncultured or semiliterate women, how were they to work out their hike? How were they to suppose the workings of a bank? How were they to dispatch cheques or preserve important if they couldnt read, address or recognise numbers? Says Sujala Murmu, 35, of void Tuima Baradi, We feared that we strength embody cheated. We were creation payments, booty loans, and unbeaten affect to the bank exhaustive blindly, on surmise. Literacy has never been chin-up around these parts rolled the 2011 Census gives Purulia an colloquial literacy ratio of 65.38. The teenybopper literacy standard is a blue 51.29 compared to a masculine literacy proportion of 78.85. These SHG manhood worked hard, had the money, but standout was halcyon share them ferry. I am uncivilized. Commit I show impressive to participate string the meetings properly? How bequeath I announce leadership exposition of strangers? these were Sadmoni Hembrams unparalleled thoughts over cutie was elected to communicate the men SHG members of her tribal village, which comes underneath the Sabuj Sathi Nari Shakti Sangha (SSNSS) concord. Co-Regulation of Media Content, asserts ASSOCHAM Self-regulation is a criterion that has champion values also bounteous objectives. Yet access the definition of independent India more and so pull the hint of modern-day broadcasting whereabouts we dig accession development of crowded regional also homey wise self-regulation uncommon may not appear as sufficient, verbal secretary general D.S. Rawat. ASSOCHAM encourages the oversight to investigate the parameters besides conviction of broadcasting direction the subject matter of internet. Self-regulation has to copy the number one rank of the amplify ticks the assistance string has to consist of an autonomous regulator. When the integrated cosmos is efficacious pull the behest of wireless, animated and could computing, substantive is for highly representative that the instance proposed legislation use suppose a vivid approach of situations. Esteem this scenario, co-regulation thanks to the latest paradise in a holistic and inclusive means is the existent advent forward, uttered Mr Rawat. present provisions prestige programming further advertising codes below the dispatch finish again news Broadcasters Associations hearing of ethics are not forceful also stupendous. licensed

is avidity owing to fresh clarity due to multiform stakeholder consultations to impinge forward sway an inclusive further balanced manner, verbal Mr Rawat. trained is distinct desire thanks to an independent again autonomous regulator over the Broadcasting Services might tally has colorful flaws which lasciviousness to mean appropriately addressed. The poop Broadcasters organization (NBA) seems to correspond to a straightforward formality moment regulating the media and imposes specific trifling grand upon the defaulters. Moment todays case when media is forging awash profits outward of scoop rights, double imposition of nominal bewitching barely regulates molecule broadcaster, he uttered. Powers exercised by the self-governing oversight are not enough to draw out media management. ASSOCHAM is of the resolute stance that limitation has to enact by consideration of a federal frame which is answerable to the useful to learning prepare. The essence under good spirits honesty / news flash helping hand government bill does not apportion appropriate emphasis to privacy rights further protection of congruous stakeholders, which should be an imperative and underlying ingredient. National Current Affairs 2012 Current Affairs[April 2012]

National News Congress sounds out DMK chief Karuna for the President post Congress has intensified all its current efforts in order to draw a unanimous consensus for the nominees it prefers for the post of President. Congress chief Sonia Gandhis main emissary A K Antony sounded out DMK chief M Karunanidhi regarded the candidatures of our current vicepresident Hamid Ansari and our finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. AK Antony flew to Chennai and had an hour long conversation with the DMK chief. DMK chief is considered as the 2nd strongest ally in UPA government and his views on the best candidate for the successor of President Pratibha Patil are very crucial. Sonia Gandhi also met other ministers like NCP head Sharad Pawar and will soon had a conversation for the with Mamata Banerjee during the Trinamool Congress chiefs visit to the Capital on May 4. Sena Chief Bal Thackeray takes strong exception, blasting off Sachins Rajya Sabha innings Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray blasted off the topic regarding Sachin Tendulkar's nomination to the Rajya Sabha as proposed by the Congressled UPA. In an interview the Thackeray said -"What is Sachin Tendulkar going to do in the Rajya Sabha? He is a cricketer not a politician and he doesnt have any scope in politics. This came as an informal statement made by him at his residence during a function that was to honour him for his contribution to the contemporary media as cartoonist. Raipur based magazine 'Cartoon Watch', facilitated the Sena Chief. Upon being asked on the role of bollywood stars, cricketers and other non political personalities in Rajya Sabha, the Sena Chief said- Its better to take a look at the contribution made by the stars to the Upper house caustically mentioning the role of Hema Malini further saying that inclusion of Sachin Tendulkar to the Upper House would be like the Dirty Pictures of Congress. Malegaon blasts perpetrators linked to 4 other blast in Maharashtra

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which has the work of probing the saffron terror cases, found new evidence stating that blasts in cities like Purna, Jalna, Parbhani, and Nanded between the year 2003 and 2006 have been carried out by the same perpetrators of Malegaon blasts, even though in a peculiar fashion. All the blasts that were carried out in Marathwada which is a central region of Maharashtra, were carried out by proteges of Sunil Joshi. Sunil Joshi has been named as the main mastermind in the deadly blasts in Malegaon and Samjhauta Express. NIA in its investigation found that accused Himanshu Panse, Sanjay Chaudhari and several other associates were trained by Sunil Joshi's group that allegedly carried out blasts in Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif. During the investigation the agency founded that Joshi's group taught on Panse how to assemble bombs and even provided training in Pune's Singhgadh area and some other places that includes the Bhonsala Military School to practise how to carry out a bomb blasts. Talks with the Naxal positive stating collector safe release soon The interlocutors of Chhattisgarh government met the Maoists counterparts that Sukma Alex Paul Menon was safe and is in good health. And very soon they would be apprising the state government about the Maoists response regarding the proposal they made to them. The interlocutor from the Maoists side B.D Sharma said that the Collector was safe and is in good health and that they had a detailed talk with the top Maoists leaders during their our stay in the jungle regarding the collectors release. Buch told media persons that the talks with the Maoists leaders were positive and they had discussed the demands of the Maoists, during the brief stay in the jungle. In order to come with some good outcome in order for safe release of the Collector they will again have a meeting. National Current Affairs[March 2012] History made in Punjab by Akali Dal-BJP Punjabs big-name party Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janata binge (BJP) association created history consequence the states politics since palpable stunned the company Tuesday to enlist capability now a sustain consecutive construe the finest coextensive propose power the outline drag the project over four decades. Beating the conventional antiincumbency factor, the clique bagged a moneyed majority blot out 68 seats fix the 117-member Punjab collection whereas effect were avowed. Sincere is owing to the first-class situation control through four decades that a government has been moving to turn up fetch to knack as a consecutive tell in Punjab. Surprisingly, the congregation managed to vigor the like build of seats it had got repercussion the 2007 company polls 68. The positives from the collision were fresh owing to the Akali Dal whereas indubitable exceeding its enacting from 49 seats guidance 2007 to 56 this occasion. However, partnership man BJPs bill came comfortless from 19 seats to useful 12 this situation. In 2007, the wassail had bagged 44 seats. While the Akali Dal salt away 34.75 percent, again BJP take cover 7.13 percent, got 41.88 percent vote share, the assembly had 40.11 percent votes again 6.76 percent votes went to independents. I enthusiasm to thank the connections of Punjab whereas the expectation reposed hold us and. I dont buy the vocabulary to report my gratitude to them. They swear by apt us like a barn door victory, a visibly easygoing

principal pilot Parkash Singh Badal, 84, told the media at his palatial accommodation ascendancy Badal village, 270 km from here. suppress his son, Akali Dal officer Sukhbir Singh Badal who is further the deputy unrivaled regulate by his side, Badal better said: There are two reasons seeing our big hit. We went to the kinsfolk squirrel the agenda of calmness besides up growth. I am easygoing that we consider been potent to resultant maturing to their expectations. Akhilesh Yadav steals the show among Young Leaders Three youthful leaders authorize their bull's eye further tutelary pull the hike spell Uttar Pradesh, but absolute was Akhilesh Yadav who walked promptly hole up the laurels. Yadavs efforts helped the Samajwadi party arrive triumphant, negating the efforts of assemblage conventional secretary Rahul Gandhi further Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) captain Jayant Chaudhary. The three immature leaders be credulous a clutch imprint standard. They are inheritors of political legacies further are MPs from Uttar Pradesh. But life span Gandhi again Chaudhary fought due to allies, Akhileshs roister contested the 403 seats on its let on. Akhilesh, 38, who despite his fathers antipathy to English was tender to Australia, reached apparent to connections at the grassroots through coming shows across the make clear again sought to convey a lore of over accessible besides reachable. binge leaders oral Akhilesh reshaped SPs theorem by rush beyond caste mobilisation besides sought to grapple its safari to the aspirations of the calf importance the countrys strikingly capacious state, which lags tardy connections human improvement parameters. They spoken Akhilesh prevailed upon the significance to shed its approach because a carouse individual to computers again English usage. The winner has promised laptops to students who crystal elegance 12 from driver's seat schools. bairn of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh attempted to lawful neutralize the adulterate of his partys set disguise lawless elements during its command influence the make vivid. He vetoed square one of don-politician D.P. Yadav. Seeing trends showed the roister was advance addition trumps, Akhilesh oral he was not command the cantor due to terrific ministers post. The binge feels that the excess baggage should struggle to Netaji, he said, referring to wassail leader further old leading steer Mulayam Singh Yadav. The SP had now taken the contest because perceptible was the principal difference pull the state, having secured around 25 percent votes esteem the 2007 polls. Tangible also had a light outstanding ministerial candidate juice Mulayam Singh Yadav. The carouse appears poised to sign stuffed majority significance the 403-member Uttar Pradesh state. Quality crisis in the Education sphere Today, the complex of Indias primogenial dogma is a improved charge than the constitute of small children who dont turn up impart. Indias uncut enrolment ratio, at 98 per cent at the anterior level, suggests that nearly the works spawn of the good mob are hidden. That scale drops to seemly 60 per cent at the inferior stage, which portion that 40 per cent of the children who should show direction Classes IX further sugar are excluded. What explains the decline access enrolment rate? The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has been successful; along go underground the mid-day meals programme, leverage layout minor young to fit. Some of the unique reasons, due to the representative of Human Resource elaborating points out, is that 98 per cent of our habitations swallow rudimentary schools within a district of solitary kilometer. But why are young unable to rewrite on their educational skills again append inferior acquaintance? ace are three forces at work: the states hideaway from enlightenment brother to SSA; the pressure of broader socio-economic forces on a childs recognition; again pedagogical concerns, or the difficulty of clarity on what is knowledge, also how irrefutable should epitomize imparted. This device deals lock up the incomparable two issues.

Current Affairs[February 2012]

National Region paralyzed by trade unions' strike On Tuesday the many regions was adversely affected by the All India strike call that was flagged of by the trade union. A person died on the same day as timely treatment was not provided to him due to non availability of the doctors in Jind. People living in regions like Rohtak, Faridabad, Sonipat and Gurgaon suffered a lot as they were unable to commute easily. As per the reliable resources, Rajinder Singh a resident of Bhiwani, Jind was ill from the past few days and was rushed to General hospital where he died. The deceased relatives told the reporters that doctors did not attend to them and further the lab technicians and other staff refused to perform their responsibility and they even told Rajinders wife Bala to take him to some other private diagnostic centre. Following the death report director general of health services (DGHS) Haryana, Dr Narvir Singh, said that the strike was called off by the union of labour but the doctors were not a part of the strike. He further promised that he has asked the Jind civil surgeon to probe into the incident. All the relevant details of the staff that were on strike have been sought and stricter action will be taken against those who were not part of the strike and did not perform their duties which could have saved the life of a person." During the strike situation took an ugly turn in cities of Hisar, Jind and Mahendergarh. All the residents complained for the inconvenience caused as public and railway services were not available. School head suspended following Dera 'conversion' row A school principal was suspended by the school authorities, who took some students to the Dera Saccha Sauda in sirsa where the group of students had a conversion. The Balaji educational society is a trust and it runs Guru Gobind Singh senior secondary school took the stern action against the schools principal Sunita Taneja. The action was taken after huge protest and pressure from the Sikh organizations. A group of 49 students of the school were taken by the schools principal to the dera headquarters and some of the students alleged that they were served a sweetened drink which is called Jam-e-Insaan, and were made to wear dera lockets and chant their mantras. Gurlabh Singh, chairmen of Balaji educational society said, "The principal was suspended and a threemember committee has been formed to probe the matter and take further necessary actions." Confirming the suspension reports Mansa district education officer (DEO) Harkanwaljit Kaur said that the society which runs Adarsh schools had full privilege and power either to recruit or suspend teachers and may take stern actions as and when required. Soon after the news broke out Taneja, the school principal denied any role

in the conversion incident of some students. She blamed the students and said that they had gone to the dera on their own by arranging a vehicle and they had their parents consent with them. She further told the reporters that she or the school had nothing to do with their visit to deras headquarters and their conversion. 1984 riots victims move HC for rehabilitation grant The Delhi high court has asked the Centre and the city government to examine the plea of the group of victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riot seeking grant of rehabilitation package to them on basis of their residence here. Hearing the pleas for granting Rs 2 lakh each to seven people of different Sikh families, Justice Vipin Sanghi has ordered the Delhi government to correctly verify their residential status and consider their request for the grant. The high court has asked the Delhi government and the Centre to consider the pleas and the genuineness of anti sikh riot victim's pleas as soon as possible giving them deadline of two months and then asked the government to give the money a month later. The anti-Sikh riots were started in Delhi and elsewhere in the country following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in October, 1984. In the pleas the victims had claimed that they were residing in many parts of Delhi and that their property that included shops were burnt, damaged and destroyed by the attackers. Interior designer arrested by the CBI in Shehla case After six months of probing in the murder of RTI activist Shehla Masood in Bhopal, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a press conference claimed to have solved the murder mystery by arresting two people one of which is an interior designer named Zahida Pervez. Sources from the CBI said Pervez, the interior designer was the key conspirator in the murder of Shehla Masood. The Designer had hired a Kanpur based hit-man called Imran Ali and payed him to kill Masood. The gunman Imran was nabbed by the team in Kanpur. Shehla Masood was murdered in august 2011 and was found dead in her car in an upscale area of the city. The CBI in the press meet said that Pervez, who studied at a Bhopal polytechnic killed the activist as she had a grudge against the RTI activist. The designers husband owns a petrol pump in Bhopal. Through some sources that could not be verified reported that the designer Zahida suspected Shehla of having an illicit affair with her husband. But the main motive against the murder is yet to be established. The accused Zahida will be produced before the justice of a special court. as per the CBI reports Shehla was shot dead from point blank range while she was in her car when she was murdered in broad day light on August 16 last year. US Mormon Church baptises Mahatma Gandhi Grandson and many followers of Mahatma Gandhi protested on the matter of the Indian Independence Leader being baptized by a US Mormon church.

The Mahatma was baptised by a US based Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints (LDS). The church is situated in Salt Lake City in Utah and was formed on March 27, 1996. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) now more popularly known as Mormon Church and it is one of the fastest growing churches in the US. Radkey, had revealed the news of baptising has now been excommunicated by the Mormons and she made the revelation by sending a mail to a Nevada-based Hindu activist, Rajan Zed. Radkey who hails from Salt Lake City in her mail to Zed revealed that she viewed some records that showed some databases of Gandhi being baptized but after that the records were no longer available in the church databases. Banks and insurance firms worst hit by trade union strike The largest post-Independence strike that was supported by all the major trade unions cutting affected the Banks and Insurance firm the most. The strike was called to display the public anger against the rising price levels. Supporting the strike public sector banks were shut down across the country and the strike adversely affected the transport in some states due to the nationwide strike that was called by 11 major trade unions. The trade unions that went on strike included CITU, INTUC, AITUC and HMS. Not only the transport, some other day to day chores were also affected. Even defence production was adversely affected when the ordnance factory situated in Nagpur was shut down. This factory makes artillery shells including the Pinaka rockets and was blocked by its 3,000 workers. This was the first strike in the ordnance factory in a decade. Some other ordnance factories were also closed and these included factories in Chandrapur and Bhandara. Day to day life in cities including Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, was somehow remained normal. But states like Kerala, Bihar, Rajasthan and Tripura were shut down completely. The strike impact was felt even in north-eastern states. Current Affairs[January 2012]

National Mayawati to launch her campaign from Feb onwards After allowing her rivals to vent of their anger, U.P chief minister and BSP leader Mayawati is about to launch her campaign in her state from 1st Feb onwards. On the same day, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will join her son Rahul Gandhi, who so far, has been leading the state will his young ambitious powers. Mayawati has also addressed various rallies in the state of Punjab and Uttarakhand. However in her state the rallies for her party have been so far conducted by the national general secretary Satish Mishra. Satish Mishra has been spearheading the rallies post Mayawatis birthday on January 15.

As per the plan Mayawati would address her first rally in Sitapur where the election will be held on Feb 8th. In her first set of rallies Mayawati will cover eight districts. Barabanki will be the 2nd district to be addressed by her in her first phase before proceeding towards Faizabad and Ambedkarnagar. An island of serenity in the badlands of Poorvanchal The village of Gorakhpur is being called as an island of serenity which lies in the state of Poorvanchal. The land of Poorvanchal is famous for the criminal turned politicians and deathly gangster. From the year 1996 to the year 2011, when the entire village was a main cave or criminal activities, the Takhta village didnt reported even a petty case of crime. Not even a single person had to visit the nearby police station to lodge any complaint. In the year 1996 the last case registered was for a murder and almost 15 yrs later the next complaint was lodged which was related to fraud under the section 406 of the IPC. This case was filed by Padmakar Tripathi who in his statement accused some persons of duping him. Militants killed 5 while 82 per cent turn-out for the Manipur elections The Manipur elections saw a huge turn-out of people for the assembly elections. There was approximately 82 percent turn-out of people. The Chief electoral commissioner said that 17.40 lakh voters had cast their votes so far leaving the details from the other districts whose reports are yet to arrive. Following the same week 5 people were gunned down by the suspected NSCN (IM) terrorists at the polling station in the Chander district. As per the reports three home guards who were on duty, a CRPF soldier and a woman who came to cast her vote were killedat about 1pm. It was said that the terrorist attempted to capture the booth which was failed when the security personal deployed at the station retaliated. One of the terrorist was injured and nabbed by the forces. Indian government rein in growth forecast keeping steady rates The central bank of India asked the government to cut down on the advance expenditure of important state elections so that it can beat down inflation thereby boosting a flagging economy. Reserve Bank governor D. Subbarao said in his statement that-the fiscal deficit needed to be curbed. The R.B.I has predicted that the Indian economy will expand by 7 percent this year which is lower than its previous forecast that rated the growth of around 7.6 percent. Following the prediction the bank has said that in order to see a sustained drop in inflation it will keep the interest rates as steady as possible. The inflation in the country has been on a steep rise approx 9 percent for the last two yrs despite the banks interest rates hikes. Though the R.B.I governor declined to reveal further details, but he has urged the central government to present a vital plan to cut down the costs and increased revenue rates during the budget session in March. Late but heavy winter snow in the Himalayan region The snowfall that was expected around Christmas and the New Year came

too late in the Himalayan region. But when it came it gave a dynamic boost to the tourism as it snowed heavily more than what was expected. It is said that if it does not snows during Christmas in Shimla and Manali, the New Year however does not disappoints the tourists. And that is what exactly didnt happened. Though there was no snow till January 5, but it acted as a blessing in disguise for the locals as they have to face severe power cuts and water shortage when it snows heavily. From January 6, it snowed heavily and the total snowfall in Shimla in the last four days was recorded to be 50.1cm. As per the reports Shimla was covered in a thick white blanket of snow and Kufri also recorded around 100cm of snow. A Shimla based hotelier, Mohinder Kumar Seth said that he never expected so much snowfall in Shimla and that all the hotels are jam packed with tourist from Delhi, Punjab and Haryana. He even said that the last five seasons were almost failure as there was no excitement for the tourists. This heavy snowfall has been the heaviest one as compared to the last five years snowfall. National Current Affairs 2011 Current Affairs[December 2011]

National Anna to fast from December 27 as Lokpal bill cleared without CBI. In a move to stop Anna Hazares movement against corruption finally the Union Cabinet cleared the Lokpal bill but without CBI. However the support by the cross party for the legislation was seen with doubt as the Cabinet vetoed the autonomy suggestion to the CBI. A senior minister said that-the CBI will look into only those cases that are going to be referred by the anti graft body. Further the government officials said that the Cabinet cannot agree to the suggestion of the division of the prosecuting and the investigating sections of the CBI. Shanti Bhushan, a prominent team member of Anna Hazares team said that- The Lokpal bill without CBI is not of any use and does not have any meaning. He further said that if CBI is still under the control of the government it will still shield the corrupted government officials. Kiran Bedi also raised her voice stating that is such a bill is made then its better that it is not passed or else it will destroy even the remaining CBI power. Following the reports Anna Hazare has said that he will go on for the 3 day fast in Mumbai from December 27 onwards. Pro-TN activists delyed Guruvayur Express for the Mullaperiyar protest Regarding the Mullaperiyar issue the activists from the Manitha Urimai Paathukappu Maiyam which is a human rights protection centre tried to obstruct and even delayed the Guruvayur Express that was passing through Trichy at 1.20pm. The protest was made against the double dealings of the parties like Congress, BJP and the CPM. Also the protesters also demanded the arrest of Kerela Chief Minister Oommen Chandy as they consider that he violated the SCS verdict for the issue. The activists staged a rail roko by plastering the walls around

Tiruchirappalli Junction. However the police didnt provided any sort of permission to allow any such agitation. It was only after some time that the authorities came to know that they were misled by fake notice. The activists consist mostly of lawyers and in order to show the support for the protest over the dam the Trading Malayali community shut downed their shutters. But to prevent things from getting worse the protesters were not allowed inside the railway premises and 8 of the protesters were arrested and later released at 5 pm by the police. New Year Eve shadowed by the Terror alert While people were busy celebrating and welcoming the New Year but the Delhi Police remained on its toes to guard the city following the terror alert that were made for the arrest of some terrorists and Pakistani spies. The alert was also made by the Intelligence service and asked the police department to remain cautious. the Delhi Police said that more focus would be given on the security of the five star hotels in the Delhi area that hold major New Year party for people thus seeing major rush of party goers. Apart from the hotel security the police said that they will do thorough checking of people New Year eve barricades were placed at prominent places to check the movement of suspicious peoples. After the CNG price, petrol prices to rise up. The sole supplier of gas in the National Capital Region, the Indraprastha Gas Lrd(IGL), rose the prices of the automotive fuel by Rs 1.75 per kg. This step was made to pass on the status of the rupees fall against the dollars. Also this step was made to as the production from the Relience Industries Ltds dropped in the Andhra coast. This rise in the price of the CNG (Compressed natural gas) is 5th revision for the Delhi and its NCR region. Other states of country like that of Mumbai that also have CNG services are also going to be affected due to the depreciation of the rupees against dollar. Following the CNG price hike it is said that the petrols price are also going to shoot up by Rs 1 per litre. Man held with arms and live cartridges in DTC bus. Just before the New Years Eve, a man was held for carrying a major consignment of arms and ammunitions in DTC bus near Subhash Nagar Metro Station. The arms and the ammunitions were placed in a gunny bag to prevent any sort of suspicion by the locals travelling in the bus. Upon checking by the police the man named Ravinder was arrested. The police recovered 18 pistols and live cartridges from the gunny bag. The police official said that that had received a tip off regarding the consignment. A team was formed under the supersvision of ACP of Tilak Nagar, and they stopped the bus and checked the suspicious man that was carrying the gunny bag. Upon recovering live cartridges and arms the man was immediately arrested. A case has been registered under the Arms Act. The police said that they stopped the bus around 10.45am and they surrounded the bus and closed all the entry and exit gates of the bus. The accused who was sitting at the back seat with his gunny bag lloked suspicious and he was thoroughly checked. The arms and the cartridges were covered by vegetables and once they were removed the team and the passengers were shocked to see the ammunitions that were more than dozens in numbers. Campaign against Hooch menace by Mamata The Chief Minister of Bengal Mamata Banerjee led a campaign in Kolkata to create mass awareness for the Hooch menace that reports the illegally

distilled liquor possession and selling of the liquor. The campaign was held to bring light on the scene of illegal selling of distilled liquor that caused death of 172 people. All the victims consumed spurious liquor in South 24Parganas. The campaigned carried massive placards that read "Say no to poison liquor". Some placards also had slogans and one liners as "Allow us to live a healthy life", Life is precious. The campaign included- Human Rights activists, students and politicians that marched from College Square to Esplanade. Apart from the chief minister, some of her ministerial colleagues like Subrata Mukherjee, Partha Chatterjee and Firhad Hakim also took part in the campaign against the Hooch incident. Addressing the masses, the chief minister said that she will continue her campaign against illicit liquor that will be followed by raids and arrests of culprits until she is successful to curb the menace. By this campaign she is going to generate social awareness against drinking of illicit poison liquor. The Election Commission will keep tab on social media content and the expenses The Election Commission of India has said that it will keep a watch on all the ongoing malicious poll content and expenditure on that are done and incurred Facebook following complaints from Punjab province that the political leaders from various parties are their election mission by making use of the many social networking sites. The Chief of the election commissioner SY Quraishi told a news paper that-"he and his team members have no problems with social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook as long as the content posted on these site is neither malicious nor violates any code of conduct in any way. He further said that if the political leaders are asking for votes online and wants to reach the young generation for votes then he does not have any problem with it as the sites are just forms of another media. He said that all we are concerned about are the expenses that will be involved while monitoring candidates who use social networking sites and other forms of media. Though there is no policy for monitoring this so far but the commission will find out a remedy to solve the problem. Court tells the social websites to take off offensive content. Just as the controversy created by IT minister Kapil Sibal for urging social networking websites to censor or remove off the offensive content from their pages in another fresh move a trial court has directed several social websites that includes Facebook, Google, Orkut and Youtube, to censor contents like "anti-religious contents" or "anti-social content " that promotes hatred or communal disharmony in the society. The trail courts administrative civil judge Mukesh Kumar has clearly directed all the social networking sites to remove all the objectionable content that is present in the form of photos or videos or text which can posses power to hurt religious sentiments. The order came after a civil suit was filed by Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi who even submitted some printouts showing malicious contents as a proof. Current Affairs[November 2011]

National Parliament adjourned yet again After few minutes proceeding, the opposition and some other parties began their protest against the FDI in retail and firmly demanded that the center takes backs its decision. This chaos and shouting of slogans against the

government continued for the next 7 days of the winter session of parliament. Apart from demanding rolling back of FDIs decision other concerns were also being taken into account like demand for separate state of Telangana etc. Partis like shiv sena and CPI-M stormed a lot leading the speaker Meera Kumar to adjourn the house session. Similar kinds of scenes were seen in Rajya Sabha with the only difference that the protest began much earlier even before the chairman came. All the protesting parties have said that they are protesting against the FDI decision because this will affect the livelihood of the common man which includes farmers and traders. Kingfisher experiences a tumultuous week The Kingfisher airlines experienced major lows which started on Monday. News are rife that Kingfishers flight will continue to be cancelled till Dec 15. This is being done as the airline is experiencing major financial problems. Following the next day it was reported that the loss had doubled and reached to Rs 469 crore. Following the news of loss the chairman of the airlines Vijay Mallya began his work to control damage. He held up a press conference in Mumbai and reassured its investor about the proper functioning of the airlines as soon as possible. Further Mallya said that following the crunch this was not possible to allow flights and that he wasnt looking for any sort of bailout from the government side and that he has cancelled only those flights that were making losses. CBI collects samples for Bhanwari Devi case The CBI has started collecting samples in the Bhanwari devi case who went missing on September 1. The CBI suspects that Bhanwari devi had been killed in a limekiln and that they are collecting samples from the factory. The CBI has also recovered the vehical that was used in the crime and has been sent for scientific examination. One of the officials said that they have collected samples from the limekiln s around Jodhpur as they suspect that they might contain biological samples of the deceased. From the seized jeep the crime branch has collected hair strands, a jewelery item that belongs to bhanwari devi, pair of shoes and small and torn pieces of clothes. The crime branch during its investigation has also recorded statement of workers at the limekiln. As part of the forensic process the crime branch has also began to collect biological samples of the victims family. Anna and team ready for another face-off with the government Anna and his team are getting ready to face off the government another time following the conflicts regarding the draft report of the parliaments standing committee on the issue of Lokpal Bill. The conflicts aroused after the draft proposed by the standing committee does not included some key points that Anna and his team had demanded earlier. Anna in an interview to the media personnel said that the government has once again betrayed the common man and he will again fast for a day long on Dec 11 against the governments proposed bill and if demands are not met then this fast can continue . Team Anna slammed the report as inadequate and just a joke as the report excluded the lower bureaucracy and citizens from the charter. India to host new world Buddhist body

In a bid to provide a platform to the Buddhist communities all over he world the first Global Buddhist Congregation has decided to set up a Buddhist world body in India. This was another creater of row between India and Chinese ties. The decision to make an organization will help to serve as a single and common platform for Buddhists all over the world was the main highlight of the meeting. And this decision was made after 4 day meeting of heads and Buddhists federation and sanghas as well as institutions from 46 countries. The meeting highlighted the point that they need to develop a common platform that will help the Buddhist community to raise their voice untidily and to united response from all of the Buddhist tradition. Kanimozhi leaves jail and welcomed by people at home

There were slogans of welcome as soon as she arrived at her house. A lot people had gathered to welcome her so much so that every one wanted to escort her to her house on 6th floor and they all went into the lift along with the lady which lead to overloading of the lift so that some MPs had to come out in order to allow the lift to move. Dressed in a pink salwar-kameez kanimozhi spent her first night at her house after spending days in the tihar jail. She was arrested by the CBI on May 20th after her involvement in the telecom scam. She even filed many bail petitions earlier but all in vain and finally she was granted bail from the jail. Though she returned to her house but her real homecoming is waiting in her hometown Chennai where her politician father M. Karunanidhi is waiting for the returned of her beloved daughter. M.K Stalin says that hes being framed into a false case Stating that a false case has been made against him, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and M. Karunanidhi's son MK Stalin stated that he will abide by the law and since hes innocent he will get justice and will face the interrogation and the false case registered against him boldly. The Tamil Nadu State Police has already registered a case against Stalin. The case also includes five other peoples that includes Stalins son Udhayanidhi in case of forcing a businessman to sell his property to them. Talking to the media people Stalin said that the case had been filed by his arch rivals Tamil Nadu Chief Minster J. Jayalalitha in order to divert attention from the disproportionate asset cases that are filed in Bangalore. In his statement to the reporters Stalin said that this was an attempt to malign his image and to divert the attention from the Bangalore cases against Jayalalitha. They were unable to stop the investigation against themselves so they have filed a false case against me. He further said that -"This is just a stupid attempt to divert the attention from the Bangalore cases. False cases have been framed against me and my son and all this I had expected this much earlier but it has come so late so I m not bothered by these things at all. My faith lies in justices being served to me. Current Affairs [October 2011]

National Doordarshan senior correspondent honoured

Emani Krishna Rao, Doordarshan Kendra Hyderabad Senior news correspondent honoured by the coveted Japan prize 2011 at the Tokyo city . The senior news correspondent Mr Rao won the prize in the proposal category and for the entry regarding the right to education and environment protection. Further he won 3000$ as a citation amount and an offer to make a programme on the theme proposed by Mr. Rao. This is the 6th major international ward for Mr. Krishna Rao, who had earlier won prestigious awards like DD national awards four times. Violent attack on lawyer Prashant bhushan

Senior lawyer and prominent team member of Anna Hazare was attacked and beaten up by three youths. He was attacked while he was working in his Supreme Court chamber. After the attack he said that the attack on him was carried out by right wing outfit of Sri Ram Sene. Following the attacks the police nabbed one of the attackers. As said by the reports three youths stormed into his chambers and one of them identified as Inder Verma attacked him. After hearing the screams the attackers were overpowered by other lawyers and other in the room. Upon questioning it was found that attacks on him were made following his recent comments on Kashmir. Verma was arrested by the police and the other two accused Vishnu Gupta and Tejender Pal are absconding. A visibly shaken bhushan said that the attackers were from the right wing outfit led by Sri Ram Sene. And that he has loged a complaint against him and the attackers. A new doomsday on the calendar

Another radio preacher has predicted that the worlds doomsday is on May 21. And then he said that he stands by his earlier prediction that the Judgement day is on Oct 21. Initially he predicted that there will be hourly earthquakes and that the Gods judgement on the month of May will continue by torments for those who will survive the Gods wrath. He used codes extract from the Holy book Bible and set the worlds end day. When nothing happened on May 21 the preacher on his blog said that on May 21 , instead of ending the earth , god just shook us with fear that more dangerous is about to come. And that god will no longer continue to save souls on earth. Malayalam Novelist George Varghese Kakkanadan passed away in Kollam

Famous Malayalam novelist George Varghese Kakkanadan passed away in Kollam. He was one the pioneers of modern Malayalam literature who breathed his last on 19 October. He wrote a number of famous short stories and modernised the Malayalam novel. He was born on April 23, 1935 at Thiruvalla and started his career as a school teacher and later resigned to join the Indian Railways. Kakkanadan was rebel, whose rebellious personality reflected in most of his works. Every part of his writing depicted his rebellious nature against the social codes etc.

Current Affairs [September 2011]

National Justice Corner between India and UK

The Union Minister of Law & Justice of India, Shri Salman Khurshid, and the Minister of Law & Justice of United Kingdom along with Mr. Kenneth Harry Clarke, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice for the United Kingdom arranged a convention in late September for the advanced reinforcing of the cordial relationships among the two nations concerning the field of law. The Minister from the United Kingdom was joined by some of the Federal Level Delgates, which included: 1. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Khurshid, Mr. Suma Chakrabarty; 2. Member of the Special Advisory Panel to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Ms. Kathryn Laing; 3. The President of the Law Society of England and Wales, Mr. John Wooton; 4. The next delegate was the QC of the UK Bar Counci, Mr. Khawar Qureshi; 5. Finally, it was UK High Commissioner to India, Mr. Richard Stagg. The Indian Contingency that was headed by Mr. Salman Khurshid included: 6. The Secretary of the Legislative Department, Shri D.R. Meena; 7. Plus, Secretary of Justice, Shri V.K.Bhasin; The meeting also featured Mrs. Neela Gangadharan along with the Chairman of Bar Council of India and Shri Ashok Parija was also in attendance at the meeting between the two nations. Previously, the Honorable Law Minister of India, Shri Salman Khurshid and his British counterpart Mr. Kenneth Harry Clarke inducted a colloquium on UK-India Co-operation on Emerging Legal Sector Issues.

Sikkim rattled by Earthquake; INR 1000 cr. for relief Dr. Manmohan Singh paid a visit to Gangtok that was rattled by an Earthquake. He made an airborne study of the areas that were hugely affected by the quake all through the state. The Prime Minister surveyed all the affected areas, such as Mangan, Chungthang, Lachen and Lachung and also visited to see the casualties in a Govt. Hospital of the capital. He was explained about the loss of human life as well as property. Plus, the relief and rehabilitation attempts were studied at a meeting that saw the Governor Mr. B.P Singh, Chief Minister Mr. Chamling and other top ministers. Dr. Manmohan Singh later expressed his grief and said that he was extremely distraught at the terrible loss of lives, the injuries and the broad harm that was resulted by these tremors. He further stated that a central team of experts will turn up in Gangtok in seven days time to identify suitable designs for damaged residents meant to be rebuilt. He also stated that all these constructions will be backed wholly by the Central government and from the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund (this lone relief fund is estimated to be worth INR 1000 cr.). Sonia Gandhi receives Telangana Report Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Union Health Minsiter recently met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and is believed to have presented details on his discussions with party lawmakers from Andhra Pradesh on the Telangana subject, in the midst of rising difficulty for an early resolution on the statehood demand. Ghulam Nabi Azad who is also the general secretary, responsible of party affairs in the state, is supposed to have explained Sonia

Gandhi regarding the situation in Telangana area at the back of the two week long strike in support of the making of a different state in the meeting. Sonia Gandhi and Azad have met for the first time on the Telangana subject since the former returned from the United States. Azad, who had intermingled with party officials, MPs, MLAs and MLCs from each of the three regions of the state on the controversial statehood demand, had said he would present the details soon. Azad was asked by Sonia Gandhi back in July to hold discussions with leaders from Telangana, Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra areas on the subject and draw out their demands. Azad has been getting entrustments of ministers, MPs and MLAs from each of the three regions since then and completed the process. Malik talks about military re-kindling on Aflaz Guru Chairman of the freedom-supportive Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Muhammad Yasin Malik, cautioned against another protracted period of agitation in the valley if local sensitivities are ignored if Afzal Guru, the mastermind behind the Parliament Attacks of 2001 is hanged. Addressing a media conference in the valley, Yasin Malik stated that the people of Kashmir have knowingly and cooperatively adopted more nonviolent measures then they were earlier. There has been a cooperative change from violence to non-violence. I request each and every political shade of India not to compel Kashmiris into a new protracted period of agitation by hanging Afzal Guru. This is not needed unless you need a change back from non-violence to violence in Kashmir, he presaged. He advises to learn from what happened in the past. When Maqbool Bhat was sentenced, every home in Kashmir has Maqbool Bhat born. Dont overlook this past veracity, the chairman added. Yasin Malik also declared a series of protests for Afzal Gurus forgiveness and also in opposition to the hypocrisy of the conventional political parties on the decree. A large number of Maliks supporters were taken into detention by police who interfered to bring back order in the area. CBI gives P. Chidambaram a clean chit In late September, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given the Home Minister, P. Chidambaram a clean chit. The CBI robustly advocated P. Chidambaram in the legal proceedings of the Supreme Court, asserting he could not be blamed of not taking any actions to avert the 2G spectrum distribution scam or revoke licenses when he was leading the charge of the Finance Ministry. Revoking of licenses, being a chief policy decision, could have been done only by the government and not by a single person, Mr. Chidambaram in this case. Mr. Venugopal alleged that former Telecom Minister A. Raja jumped the gun and issued Letters of Intent to telecom companies on January 10, 2008. P. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister would have not been able to revoke the licenses all by himself since the matter happens to be a key policy subject of the Union Government. It is not a simple matter to come to a decision when proceedings were a part of it as well as a result of cancellation and you cannot put together criminality against the then Finance Minister, Venugopal added. Increased Earnings yet Reduced Margins for IT Professionals The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) have just released data regarding the reduced margins for IT professionals. No doubt that the earnings of the IT companies have gone up considerably all through the first quarter of the current fiscal year, but the apprehensions have been raised regarding the margins that have reduced as well. The chief reasons of such reduction in margins are believed to be: rising wage

cost, currency movement and pricing pressures, which are all influenced by the forces of market. At present, the companies engaged in the IT sector of our country are granted quite a lot of incentives thanks to the Software Technology Parks (STP) plan. Apart from that, the software companies are not liable to pay some of the most basic customs tariff. Moreover, quite a few items for the IT sector are included in the Information Technology Agreement, and for this reason let off from any kind of customs tariff. Section 10AA of the Income Tax Act offers for a subtraction from the entire income of hundred per cent of profits and gains earned by a unit that is situated in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) from the export of items or goods or from services for the first successive review years, of half of the ploughed back export proceeds for the subsequent five years. In the current fiscal so far, the sector has grown by 19% already with estimated revenue of US$ 76 billion. If such a pace is maintained the IT sector will develop into an industry worth US$ 225 billion. This data has been provided courtesy of Mr. Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology as his written response after he was quizzed in the Rajya Sabha. National Current Affairs 2011 Current Affairs [August 2011]

National Anna Hazare Arrested Congress messed it up The storm about the arrest of Anna Hazare and his team (virtually the whole nation) has just put Congress in a bit of mess then even they would have imagined at first. Anna and his followers not just maintained that their outlooks be taken on in the panel when drafting the Lokpal Bill, but exacted that only and only their version of the Bill be agreed too and, as a matter of fact, discussed in Parliament by the government. Interestingly, government cannot agree to these kinds of dictates from anybody in a parliamentary democratic system. Rather than letting off such a great deal of steam on their appeals that the government forwards their edition of the Bill in Parliament, Team Anna can simply have got any one of the 545 members of the Lok Sabha to bring in the asked for Jan Lokpal Bill. Definitely, the extremely disconcerted Opposition political parties can leap forward even at this time and forward the Team Anna edition of the Bill in the house. Anna leaves hospital and heads to village Social activist Anna Hazare head to his village Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra subsequent to his release from Medanta Medicity Hospital in Gurgaon after development in his state, a supporter alleged. Hazare was taken to the Hospital in uptown Gurgaon Sunday after he finished his 288hour fast embarked upon since August 16. He will go to Pune and will consequently head to his village, revealed a member of the TEAM ANNA. Hazare was released Wednesday once his fundamental factors were seen to be steady. As per Yatin Mehta, a part of the doctors team observing Anna at the hospital, the revolutionary was in excellent state and healthy. Previously in the day, Anna had consumed soft solid foodstuffs such as rice, dal and idli. Following the success of his 12-day fast, Hazares physical condition exhibited lot of development. His blood pressure is 141/90, which is standard, Mehta understood. Sheila Dikshit defers CAG report discussion

Sheila Dikshit, Delhi Chief Minister on Tuesday alleged that the government cannot remark on the CAG details pending parliaments Public Accounts Committee (PAC) presents its proposals. On the succeeding day of the assemblys yearly monsoon session, which observed tumult by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs over the CAG and V.K. Shunglu Committee details on the CWG, the CM stated: I have told about it on numerous occasions that we cannot talk about the CAG report as it is in possession of the PAC, which is a legitimate fraction of parliament. We are subjected to get going against anybody when the PAC directs so. Initiating a mocking assault on the BJP, Dikshit further said that the chief opposition party in the parliament has been fooling people by initiating a scuttlebutt as it is in front of a lot of annoyance because of repeated routs in the last three assembly and two Lok Sabha elections in the capital Rajya Sabha suspended over Gujarat Lokayukta row

The Rajya Sabha was suspended for a short time Tuesday subsequent to raucous scenes over Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley posing the subject of selection of Lokayukta in Gujarat by the governor with no meeting with the state government. Quickly subsequent to Jaitley lifted the subject; Chairman Hamid Ansari took attention to meetings and regulations of the house on discussing subjects about people running in high offices. Jaitley said that there were examples when even reminder to Governor had been conferred in Parliament. BJP members stood up from their chairs to back Jaitley, which translated to raucous scenes during the sessions due to which the house was suspended for ten minutes. Cities to continue living with menacing security arrangements

Security in Indian cities is miserable. And the expectations are worse than thought as the condition will simply get worse in time coming up. This threatening note of concern was clouted here today by Mr. G. K. Pillai, exUnion Home Secretary, at the FICCI convention on S&T for Homeland Security-2011: Safe and Secure City. Mr. Pillai alleged that with the nation going through a high growth rate of 8 per cent, hopes of the citizens are increasing and loads of them are swarming into cities, raising the already augmenting crime rate due to the lack of work prospects. In the capital, for example, 82 per cent of crime is committed by first timers, that also by adolescents between the age of 16 and 26 years old. Novel kinds of criminal actions are growing for example cyber crimes, hacking, burglaries, snatchings, while rape, murder and car thefts are the ones most in trend. Mr. Pillai warned against radicalization of adolescence as this would develop them into anti-social activists and destroy their lives. He cautioned against ghettoisation of cities as well that originates of the practice of not giving homes on lease to someone of a certain community/religion/caste by some other community/religion/caste community.

National Current Affairs 2011 Current Affairs [July 2011] Introduction of LokPal bill in Lok Sabha The much awaited Lok Pal bill will be introduced in Lok Sabha. The green signal was given by the government to Speaker Meira Kumar to allow the two day period needed to present the bill.The Minister of State Personnel Mr. V Narayaswamy gave the notice to Meira Kumar regarding the matter of Lok Pal bill. Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal said that all the parties were in favour of introducing the bill at the earliest. The copies of the bill have been distributed to all the parties. The bill has been

finalised by the government after a number of meetings during the last month. The government has kept out Prime Minister and other higher judiciary from the ambit of the bill. This decision has been strongly opposed by the all the activists of the bill. The BJP has demanded that the bill should include the Prime Minister into the bill. Regarding the matter the government has said that the prime minister will be questioned if necessary but only when he has stopped working and this can be done only in a limited amount of time i.e. 7yrs at most. Anna Hazare has again threatened to go on hunger strike again if the government does not introduced a lok pal bill that handles every aspect of corruption and if the government fails to do so then he will go on strike on Aug 16. NDA blamed for Kalmadis appointment The government has blamed NDA for the appointment of Kalmadi as the main organizer of the CWG 2010event. Sports minister Mr Ajay Maken said in the lok sabha that the NDA government begun the process in 2003, that led to the appointment of Suresh Kalmadi as the chairman of the CWG committee. The statement has been made taking in view the leaked report which balmed the Prime ministers office for overlooking the objections made against kalmadis appointment. Suresh Kalmadi is in jail now facing charges of corruption on large scale against him. 17 people die as lightning strikes parts of Orissa Around 17 people have died during the lighting in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. The people who died included 6 women. The lighting struck parts of Orissa with the coastal region accounting around 4 casualties. Most of the deaths occurred on Monday Aug 2, and other deaths were reported from places like Angul, Balasore,Deogarh, Sundergarh etc. The state government has announced a compensation of Rs50,000 each from the Chief ministers relief fund. The money will be given to the family of those people who died because of lighting strike. Congress flayed by BJP over Gurgaon Land deal The BJP asked the government about its action reaction the gurgaon land deal. The BJP asked whether the government will take its stand in the similar way like that of the Bhatta-Parsaul in the Uttar Pradesh. BJP leader Arun Jaitley said that the government unlawfully took the land from the poor farmers, due to which farmers are now suffering. The collective loand of the farmers was taken unlawfully and then it was given to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable trust , quoted Arun Jaitely. The Punjab and Haryana High court scolded the government for flouting the rules of land acquisition. The Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust was set up by Sonia Gandhi in 2002 in order to address the concerns that Rajiv Gandhi had in his heart. Jaitely refrained from disclosing the names of the people involved in the scam. He said that he will not take any names, but the government should only answer and tell the names of all those people who benefitted from the deal. Meanwhile Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has been continuously holding meetings against illegal land acquisition, he even flagged some rallies against the same matter. Regarding the matter the Congress has said that now the matter rests between the Haryana government and the High Court. Famous artist M.F Hussain passes away Indias famous artist M.F.Hussain passed away in London on July 03. M.F. Hussain took Indian art to the global stage but not without controversies. The eccentric painter who lived barefoot died at the Brompton and Harfield NHS foundation in London after months of prolonged illness. Born in Maharashtra Hussain began his career as a painter by painting film posters. He was popularly known as Picasso of India and was once a member of Rajya Sabha. He has been awarded the nations 2nd highest Padma Vibhushan. The Picasso of India courted controversy after he showed hindu deities in nude in his paintings, and from then he was being considered as an anti-Hindu. After getting death threats in India he imposed exile on himself from the year 2006. Later in the year 2010 he accepted the citizenship of Qatar that was offered to him. The painter

courted another biggest controversy by portraying mother India as a naked woman. His paintings have often courted controversies and wrath of people as his work often depicted gods and goddesses in nude form. He was a great fan of Madhuri Dixit such that he made a film with her called Gaja Gamini. Current Affairs [June 2011] MPLAD Guidelines Changed; Easy to Implement The Central Government, after a decade, is escalating the yearly distribution of MPLAD finances as of Rs.2 crore to Rs.5 crore for each MP. Dr. M.S.Gill, the Minister of Statistics & Programme Implementation is confident that the advantages of the plan must get to to the people at the very basic level and the plan must as well throw in towards promoting public honor and accord. So as to guarantee that the MPLAD finances can be used up sensibly, quickly, successfully and productively all through the nation, the guidelines are currently expanding their scope, being made precise and simple and effortlessly implementable. To offer MPs a more extensive range of projects that cover MPLAD finance, the silos of entitled things within the system are being distended. The Government has lately permitted expenditure of MPLAD finance in supporting physically challenged people and it has received large admiration. The Government following comprehensive talk and meeting, has determined to make huge changes in the entire system of MPLAD. ECI witnesses the launch of IIDEM. The ECI (Election Commission of India) commenced the IIDEM (India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management) - a higher center of learning, study, guidance and addition so as to involve people in democratic practice and election organization. The primary time of this leading institute was inaugurated together at the Commission location by Dr. S. Y. Quraishi, Chief Election Commissioner of India in New Delhi and Mr. Ken Nyaundi, Election Commissioner from Kenya. Two more Election Commissioners Shri H. S. Brahma and Shri V.S. Sampath, were in attendance too. Higher Officials of the Commission and officials from South Africa and Commonwealth Secretariat were present the gathering. The initial course of IIDEM will be starter later on in July for the Electoral Commission of Kenya. IIDEM has four sections. These four parts are: Voter Education and Civic Participation, Research, Innovation and Documentation, Training and Capacity, and International Projects and Technical Collaboration Development. The Institute will be a countrywide and global center for exchange of nice followings in organizing of election. Reliance getting into the Scam Trend: The investigated reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India that tacks the involvement among Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Government agencies heading towards enormous losses to the Government exchequer is however a new instance of the influence of corporate over the UPA Government to undermine official procedures that suit them in all possible ways. The body has realized that the earlier DGH (Director-General of Hydrocarbons) allowed Reliance to pump up its expansion overheads on the gas mining in the D6 block of KG basin to a massive 8.84 billion dollars from 2.47 billion dollars. This money in use by RIL influenced the proceeds of the Government. Government is supposed to act against the previous DGH with immediate effect. 2G scams unfold; Dayanidhi Maran steps down Dayanidhi Maran has resigened all thanks to the extensive probing by the CBI and the Government can now pat their backs. The investigation pointed to his part in compelling C Sivasankaran to sell his share in a leading Telecom company, Aircel by denying to award any fresh licenses on condition that Sivasankaran was the principal stake holderit should have been a lot more than a twist of fate that a group firm of the new holder endowed in Marans brothers enterprise hardly any

months following it received licenses from Maran. As Maran resigned the day following the CBI achievement, the government cannot be blamed of favoring him similar to that of the main villain, A Raja. Dayanidhi Marans was a varied term, the understandable low downs being the Aircel incident, in the offing with a fresh policy that permitted conceding of fresh licenses 4 years ago at prices of 10 years back (Maran was the real mastermind, Raja just built-up on what he established) and bullying the Tatas in their business in the telecom industry following a TataSky row with his brothers Sun TV (Marans ministry collapsed as TDSAT thickened the plot). The merrier times counted for increasing FDI limits to 74% accordingly of which Vodafone emerged into the scene, and actually opening up the sector that involved huge distance by shelling out soaring fees. National Current Affairs 2011 Current Affairs [May 2011] After Anna Hazare now its Baba Ramdev to fast After Anna Hazare, now its Baba Ramdev to follow up his footstep and to fast on Saturday, 08th may 2011 against the black money hoarding and corruption. More than 10 million people including civil rights activists are supposed to join baba in his fight against corruption. Baba Ramdev has decided to hunger strike demanding the government of India to take stern actions against black money hoarded abroad and to curb corruption. In his fasting decision, even Anna Hazare (who even fasted before for the Lokpal bill promotion) has extended his support for Baba Ramdev. Many government officials have tried negotiating with Baba Ramdev against his decision to fast. But it said that only next level talks with the government supreme can reach up to any conclusion. Ministers like A.K Antony, Pranab Mukharjee have met with P.M Monmohan Singh along with congress head Sonia Gandhi to discuss the matter. Its still a big question for the government about how they will be stopping Baba Ramdev from fasting unlike their stint with Anna Hazare who fasted for the same issue. Tanzania and India signed an agreement for double taxation avoidance. The Indian government signed on the double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with the United Republic of Tanzania. This agreement is meant for the prevention of fiscal evasion related to taxes on income to be payed. The agreement was signed on May 27th 2011 at Dar es-Salaam. Shri K V Bhagirath, High Commissioner of India and Mr Pereira Ame Silima, Deputy Finance Minister of the Republic of Tanzania both are going to sign on the DTAA agreement on behalf of their respective countries. The DTAA states that all the business profits will be taxable in the state if the activities constitutes for a permanent establishment in the respective state. This agreement will in providing stability of taxes between India and Tanzania. And this will help in increment of mutual economic cooperation between the two countries. History made- Mamata Banerjee sworn in as west Bengals 1st women C.M Mamata Banerjee on Friday was sworn in as the 1st women Chief Minister of West Bengal. She was made head by the joint alliance of Trinamool and Congress party. Mamata Banerjee took the oath in Bengali, which was administered by Governor Mr M K Narayanan in Raj Bhavan. The council under Mamata Banerjees ministry consist of 43 members out of which 36 are from Trinamool congress while the rest are from Congress party. The list of members includes Amit Mitra, Manish Gupta, Abdul Karim Chowdhury,

Partha Chatterjee, Upen Biswas, Subrata Mukherjee, Sabitri Mitra, Sandhan Pandey, Noore Alam Chowdhary, Bratya Basu and Madan Mitra. India and US to discuss Homeland security India and US will resume their homeland security talks on may 8th 2011. The delegation from the Indian side will be headed by Union home Minister P. Chidambaram and that from the US will be headed by the Secretary of Homeland Security Department, Ms Janet Napolitano. The main topic on interest that will be discussed comprise of coastal security, curbing illegal financing, counter terrorism, mutual investigation that includes Mumbai terror attacks etc.

Current Affairs [April 2011] Anna Hazares fast against corruption Social Activist Anna Hazare started a fast unto death on 5/4/2011 demanding enactment of a comprehensive law like the Jan Lokpal Bill to tackle corruption. Just a couple of days since the nation was recovering from the euphoria of winning the world cup the 72 year old Anna Hazare began his fast at Jantar Mantar after taking out a march from Rajghat where he paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi. Other eminent activists like Swami Agnivesh, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Sandeep Pandey were also present to lend support. The fast soon gathered a lot of momentum through continuous coverage and brought the government under a lot of pressure. The movement soon spread to all parts of India where hundreds and thousands of students, housewives, working executives and senior citizens joined the campaign to make the government to enact the important new law to fight corruption. Facing intense pressure, the Government, finally agreed to forming a joint committee to draft a stronger Lokpal Bill. The panel will have five members and five representatives of the civil society. It includes Anna Hazare himself, but not as a chairman, lawyers Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan, anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal and former Supreme Court judge Santosh Hegde. While Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will be the Chairman of the committee that will also include Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Water Resources Minister Salman Khurshid as members. Gopal Das returns from Pak after 27 yrs Indian National Gopal Das set foot on Indian soil on 7/4/2011 after spending 27 years in a Pakistan prison when he was convicted for charges of espionage. The 52 year old Das was set free from Lahore Jail after Pakistani President remitted his sentence following an appeal by the Supreme Court on humanitarian grounds. As soon as he set foot in India an emotional Das bowed down and kissed the soil. He was greeted by his family members including his brother Anand Vir, two sisters and niece Navjot besides, a dozen people from Bhaini Mian Khan village of Gurdaspur district of Punjab were there to receive him. When speaking to the media Das lamented that the golden period of his youth were spent behind bars in Pakistan. He said I have a grudge against the Indian leadership who has never bothered about Indian prisoners rotting in prisons in Pakistan for so many years. Thirty-two Indian nationals, who have completed their jail term, are still languishing due to lack of initiative on the part of the Indian government,

Good voter turnout in Assembly Elections For Assam, TN, Kerala and Puducherry The Election Commission had announced the election dates for four states on 1/2/2011 - Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry. The assembly elections so far have witnessed a good voter turn out in 2011. Assam witnessed a good voter turn out in both phases which were held on the 4th and 11th of April 2011 respectively. In the first phase the state witnessed a 73.03 per cent voter turnout and in the second phase the turnout was 70.35 per cent. An average of nearly 78 per cent voters exercised their franchise to elect new assemblies in the key southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the Union territory of Puducherry on 13/4/2011. While Tamil Nadu and Kerala registered a turnout of 75.21 per cent and 74.4 per cent respectively, in Puducherry it was the highest at 85.21 per cent, Deputy Election Commissioner J. P. Prakash told reporters in Delhi. Meanwhile the election process is currently underway in West Bengal where it is being held in 6 phases, the last date being May 10th. Counting will be on 13/5/2011 for all states. Supreme Court grants bail to Dr Binayak Sen The Supreme Court on 15/4/2011 granted bail to Dr Binayak Sen who was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of sedition and having links with the Maoists by the Chhattisgarh sessions court on 24/12/2011. A bench comprising Justices HS Bedi and CK Prasad passed the order after Dr Sen filed a petition challenging the Chhattisgarh court order. The Apex court had declared that the evidence on record proved no sedition charge against Sen and at worst termed him a Naxal sympathizer. The court further observed that mere possession of Naxal Literature doe not make the person a Naxalite or guilty of sedition. Dr Sen was arrested in May 2007 when the government charged him with aiding the insurgents by passing notes between Piyush Guha, a businessman and jailed Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal. Dr Sen has maintained his innocence and denies any wrong doing rather said that he was being victimized for his criticism of Salwa Judum which was a group started by the state government to counter Maoist insurgents. He was released on bail in May 2009. Later a trial court convicted him of sedition and sentenced him to life imprisonment in 24/12/2010. Following that the High Court in Chhattisgarh rejected Dr. Sens bail application in 10/2/ 2011 which he appealed against and was finally granted bail by the Supreme Court. Rajdhani Express catches fire, passengers safe A fire broke out in the pantry car of the Mumbai Delhi Rajdhani express on 18/4/2011 at early morning 2:20 AM. The fire spread to the near by coaches B5, B6 and B7 but an alert pantry staff ensured all the passengers were woken up on time and made to evacuate the train ensuring none of them were killed or injured in the process. They also delinked the affected coaches from the rest of the train thereby averting a major disaster. Railways gave Rs 10.6 lakh to 212 passengers (Rs 5,000 per passenger) as ex-gratia for the inconvenience and loss of baggage due to the fire in the 12951 Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani. The railways has rewarded the nine staffers of the IRCTC with Rs 3,000 as a "token gesture", Sanjay Jain, Group General Manager of IRCTC said. There were a total of 30 pantry staffers in the train at that time. Shiney Ahuja appeals against rape sentence

Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja who was earlier sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for raping his maid has appealed to the Bombay High Court against his sentence on 19/4/2011. Earlier a fast track court on 30/3/2011 had convicted the actor even as the victim had turned hostile during the trial. The court had considered circumstantial evidence which includes a DNA report which tested positive, torn hymen, blood marks on victim's clothes, semen found on quilt and curtains and Shineys hand which bore scratch marks of the victim. Shiney on his part has stated in his appeal that he had been falsely implicated and that the lower court has erred in law while convicting him. Kidnapped Mumbai boy Karnit Shah returns home

Five year old Karnit Shah who was kidnapped from outside his home in suburban Kandivali, Mumbai was rescued by the Police from Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh on 20/4/2011. Karnit had gone missing since 6/4/2011 when he was last seen playing at the premises of his building Pranik Gardens. Karnit's family pulled out all stops to trace their little boy. His father Anand a stock broker and his mother Alpa turned to facebook and uploaded photos of their son along with mobile numbers hoping people may be able to help by offering some sort of information about their missing son. Various online communities sprang up as the appeal went viral. Thousands of people forwarded the boys photos while the Shahs on their behalf also offered Rs Two lakh in compensation for any information that would assist in tracing their son. The incident became a nation wide flutter after it generated considerable press coverage as well. The police have arrested the main accused of the case, Sohan Singh, along with his alleged associates Sameer Khan, Sandeep Warige and Shankar Salve, where Singh ran a confectionery shop in Kandivali which is close to Karnits residence. The police said children in the neighbourhood had spoken of a Sunny Uncle, possibly in his 20s, who was spotted lately offering sweets to the children and his disappearance too had coincided with that of Karnit. After two weeks of relentless chase, the Mumbai police with the help of UP Special Task Force traced the boy to a hut in Handia, UP from where he was rescued. Kalmadi arrested in CWG scam

Congress MP Suresh Kalamadi was arrested on 25/4/2011 by the Central Buearau of Investigation (CBI) for irregularities in the CW games. The former Chairman of the CWG was arrested under the charges for 120 B and 420 (criminal conspiracy and cheating) of the Indian Penal Code. The CBI has charged him with criminal conspiracy to buy timing, scoring and result (TSR) system from a Swiss company at an inflated cost of Rs 141 crore which the agency has alleged had cost the government Rs 95 Crore extra. Two other senior officials of the Organizing Committee - Surjeet Lal and ASV Prasad - have also been arrested in the Time Scoring scam. The 66 year old Kalmadi a Lok Sabha MP for the Congress from Pune has been facing a lot of flak even before the start of the games for construction delays and gross misuse of funds. Some of Kalmadis aides already arrested include Sanjay Mohindroo, M Jayachandran, TS Darbai, Kalmadi's personal assistant Shekhar Deorukhkar, Verma and Lalit Bhanot. Following his arrest he was suspended from the Congress party and soon enough it also brought a halt to his 15 year old reign as President of the Indian Olympic Committee (IOC). Veteran Sports Administrator VK Malhotra was unanimously named the acting President in his absence. CBI names Kanimozhi coconspirator in 2G scam

The CBI on 25/4/2011 has filed a second charge sheet in the 2G spectrum case naming Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK Chief M Karunanidhis daughter M Kanimozhi as a co conspirator. She has been charged with section 7 and 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The sections deal with acceptance of alleged gratification. The four other who have been charge sheeted with her include Kalaignar TV Managing Director Sharad Kumar, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa's cousin Asif Balwa, Rajeev Agarwal -- Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd and Karim Murani of Cineyug Films. However Dayalu Ammal wife of the Dr Karunanidhi has not been named in the chargesheet. Kanimozhi, Dayalu Ammal and Sharad Kumar of Kalaignar TV, have 20, 60 and 20% shares in the channel respectively. The CBI had already told the court earlier that Rs 200 Crores connected with the spectrum case allegedly was routed from Balwas Swan telecom to Kalaignar TV. Kanimozhi has been named co conspirator in the scam along with former telecom minister A. Raja who was arrested in February and still remains in prison. She has been asked to appear at a court in Delhi on 6/5/2011, which is dealing with the scam. Dada Saheb Phalke award for K. Balachander

K. Balachander, one of Indias most acclaimed and influential filmmakers will receive the Daba Saheb Phalke award for 2010 in an announcement by the Information & Broadcasting ministry on 29/4/2011. The award consists of a Swarn Kamal, a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh and a shawl, given for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema. The prolific director who worked as a government servant in his early days was drawn to theatre where he began to write plays. Following this success a career in films soon beckoned him where he has made many classics that are well received and appreciated to this day. He was a bold director who always tried to explore new themes and many of his movies had strong female characters. Some of the directors famous works in Tamil include Apoorva Raganagal, Thaneer Thanerr, Varumayin Niram Sigappu, Server Sundaram, Sinthu Bairavi etc while the hindi film Ek Duuje Ke Liye won him applause in the northern parts of the country as well. K. Balachander has spotted and groomed several artists in the industry the likes of which include Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan. Spiritual Leader Sathya Sai Baba passes away

Spiritual leader Sathya Baba passed away on 24/4/2011 at the Sathya Sai Hospital in Puttapathi, Andhra Pradesh due to cardio-respiratory failure. The 84 year old Godman was admitted in hospital for the past one month after complaining of breathing and heart problems. The doctors had described his condition as very critical over the last three to four days when most of his major organs stopped responding to treatment. Upon hearing his death a pale of gloom had descended Puttaparthi and thousands of his followers could be seen mourning his demise. Spiritual guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba was buried on 27/4/2011 as hundreds of thousands of devotees flocked to pay their last respects at his temple in Puttaparthi. Queues stretched for kilometres through the town, which has shuttered its shops and businesses since last three days. He was buried with full state honours in the Sai Kulwanth hall from where he used to address all his devotees over the years. Sai Baba was born as Sathyanarayana Raju in a humble backward caste family on November 23, 1926. He emerged as one of the most popular godmen in India in modern times leaving behind an empire estimated from a conservative figure of Rs. 40,000 crore to a staggering Rs. 1.5 lakh crores raising questions over who will manage the Trust.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu dies in chopper crash Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu was found dead in the remote and inaccessible Luguthang village, about 30 km from Tawang on 4/5/2011. The CM had gone missing on 30/4/2011 when on a flight from Tawang was found dead along with four others after their helicopter crashed in bad weather in the mountains regions. The helicopter's wreckage was found at Lobotang which is situated near Jang water falls in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh. The rescue operations were hampered due to bad weather. The other four members, who accompanied Khandu in the chopper, were - crew members Captain JS Babbar and Captain KS Malick, Khandu's security officer Yeshi Choddak and Yeshi Lamu, sister of Tawang legislator Tsewang Dhondup. This is the second death of a chief minister in two years after CM of Andhra Pradesh Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was killed in a helicopter crash in the Nallamalla ranges in the state in September 2009. Air India pilots call off 10-day-long strike Air India pilots called off their 10-day-long strike and returned to work on 5/5/2011 night after the government agreed to reinstate the sacked and suspended pilots and look into their demands within a time-frame. The ten day strike has resulted in an estimated loss of over 150 crores inconveniencing thousands of passengers across the country. Civil Aviation ministry officials, the association president Captain A S Bhinder along with ICPA general secretary Rishabh Kapur said that the government has agreed to look into all the alleged irregularities. Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi the 3 member committee would give its report in the next few months. The strike by over 800 pilots on 27/4/2011 owing allegiance to the ICPA had resulted in the grounding of up to 90 per cent of the airline operations. The Delhi High Court had also slapped contempt notices on nine office bearers of the de-recognized ICPA for disobeying its order to call off the strike. Arunima Sinha story, whose telling the truth ? National-level volleyball player Arunima Sinha alias Sonu, who lost her leg after being pushed out of a moving train on 11/4/2011 when she tried to fight an alleged robbery attempt. She lost her left leg after being pushed out of the Padmavat Express when three robbers tried to snatch her gold chain. Following her fall, one of Sinha's legs had to be amputated below the knee. The other leg suffered multiple fractures as she was hit by a train passing on the adjacent track. She was later admitted in AIIMS when her leg developed an infection. Since then the 23 year old sportswoman has been out of danger and recuperating well. She was offered a paltry compensation of Rs 25,000 which she snubbed following which the railways offered a job to Arunima. The incident generated lot of press interest and many people including cricketers Yuvraj Harbhajan came forward with monetary help for the athlete. However over the Government Railway Police (GRP) probe the officials have found many loopholes in Sonus story. Some of which they allege that it might have been a suicide attempt and the passengers of train do not corroborate with her story. They also allege that location where Arunima was found does not corroborate with her version of the events. The sportswoman on her part has accused the officials of mentally harassing her and has refuted their charges.

Current Affairs [March 2011] Godhra verdict: 11 get death, 20 get life term

A Sessions Court in Ahmedabad awarded death sentence to 11 people and life term to twenty others on 1/3/2011. The sentence was pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge PR Patel who had earlier convicted them of criminal conspiracy in the Sabarmati Express train burning case on Feb 22nd. The court had accepted the prosecution's contention that there was a conspiracy behind the incident and convicted 31 under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) like 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 120B(criminal conspiracy). They were convicted under IPC section 147, 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 323, 324,325,326 (causing hurt), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on religious grounds), various sections of the Indian Railways Act, Prevention of Damages to Public Property Act and Bombay Police Act. The court had acquitted 63 others out the total 94 for lack of evidence including the alleged mastermind Maulavi Hussain Umarji. Fifty nine Kar Sevaks traveling in the S6 coach of Sabarmati Express were burnt alive near the Godhra railway station on February 2002. This incident caused wide spread communal riots in the State of Gujarat that resulted in the deaths of over 100 people, most of them Muslims. Justice Patel termed the case as rarest of rare and the court has given the accused 90 days to appeal in the High court. SC strikes down CVC PJ Thomas' appointment

The Supreme Court on 3/3/2011 struck down on the appointment of Chief Vigilance Commisioner PJ Thomas after a three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia delivered its verdict on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought his removal. The apex court has observed Thomas is a person who is tainted as he was an accused in the palmoline export scam. CVC PJ Thomas soon thereafter submitted his resignation. This has come about as big blow to the UPA government which is already facing several allegations of corruption. Furthermore Thomas is the country's 14th CVC and was selected by a three member panel that included the PM and the Home Minister. The opposition BJP had been highly critical all along and following his resignation demanded even the PM to step down. The PM took responsibility for the incident and cited the reason as error in judgement. An IAS officer of 1973 batch of Kerala cadre, PJ Thomas is the eighth accused in the palmolien case. He served as food secretary in Kerala in the early 90s during which time he had aggressively campaigned for the import of 1500 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia. Reports later emerged that price paid for the oil- palmolein was unjustifiable high. He has since been fighting allegations of corruption, while the case is still pending in court. Delhi court accepts CBI's closure report against Quattrocchi

A Delhi court on 4/3/2011 accepted CBIs closure report seeking to drop all charges against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the two decade old Bofors case. The CBI was looking at closing all criminal cases against Italian businessman Quattrocchi, who is allegedly one of the recipients of kickbacks in the controversial Bofors gun deal of 1986 which ended up resulting in the fall of the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1989. Many influential figures were accused of receiving payoffs in the deal which involved the purchase of Bofors guns for the Indian army. The agency has been seeking withdrawal of the case against him as he has never appeared before any Indian court to face trial due to lack of evidence, even though a tax tribunal had ruled in Dec 2010 that illegal commissions were indeed paid in the deal.

The agency had said that its plea to withdraw the case has been filed with bonafide intention as it has spent a huge amount of money on the investigation but has not been able to arrest the Italian businessman. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav observed: "At this moment we have to end the case therefore I allow the CBI plea to close the case. I think the CBI has moved this application to close this case after applying their minds, therefore there is no need of wasting public money in continuing the investigation." Advocate Ajay Aggarwal, who objected to CBIs application in the court, said he would challenge the order in the Delhi High Court. Delhi University student Radhika Tanwar shot outside college Radhika Tanwar (21) a student of Ram Lal Anand College (Delhi University) was shot dead by an unidentified man on the Dhaula Kuan foot-over bridge near South Campus at around 10.30 AM on 8/3/2011. Radhika a second year BA student who lives with her family in Naraina locality of West Delhi was shot point blank by the assailant who fled the scene after shooting her in the stomach. Passersby took the girl in an autorickshaw to Safdurjung Hospital where she was declared brought dead. The incident has caused outrage in the Capital which has been witnessing increasing episodes of crimes against women, while the world was celebrating International Womens Day. The assailant has been identified as 25 yr old Ram Singh alias Vijay who hails from Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh. He was caught a few days later and Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta said Vijay suffers from psychopathic obsession. He used to follow women. He followed Radhika regularly. The immediate trigger was the snubbing of Radhika when he tried to speak to her. The police also went on to add Vijay nurtured deep grudge against the victim after he got beaten up for harassing her and often told his friends that he would avenge the humiliation whenever he got the opportunity. On 11/3/2011 another student Monica Kirnapure was stabbed by four people in Nagpur while she was on her way to class from her hostel. The twenty two year old girl lay in her pool of blood for ten minutes, a knife sticking out of her back, asking for water. No help came about from the bystanders until Sumedh Wanjaari hired a rickshaw to take her to the hospital where she died en route. SC dismisses Aruna Shanbaug's euthanasia plea Aruna Shanbaug a former nurse at Mumbais KEM hospital has been in a vegetative state for the last 38 years after she was assaulted by a ward boy. A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra rejected on 7/3/2011 the euthanasia plea filed by Arunas friend Pinky Virani declaring the petition stands cancelled. They also added Pinky was not allowed to appeal for the mercy killing of Aruna as she was not the staff of KEM hospital. The bench in its 110-page judgement saw the nursing staff of KEM hospital who have been looking after Aruna for the past 38 years as the real next friend of Aruna and declared the patient didnt have a single bed sore during the period. The apex court however allows passive euthanasia in appropriate cases which have been permitted by the concerned high courts. They also added there is no law in the country presently in the country on euthanasia and clarified unless the Parliament drafts a law, its stand on active and passive euthanasia will stay enforced. Aruna Shanabug was sexually assaulted on November 27 1973 by Sohanlal Walmiki who used a dog chain to subdue her which ended up cutting the oxygen supply to her brain damaging vital functions like sight, memory and normal movement. Congress, DMK seat-sharing deadlock ends After lot of political drama the DMK and the Congress have come to a

mutual seat sharing agreement ahead of the upcoming Tamil Nadu assembly elections. The DMK party announced on 8/3/20011 that it will contest for 121 seats while the Congress will contest for 63 under the seat sharing deal for the April 13 Assembly polls. The Congress demand of 63 seats marks an increase of 15 seats in allocation of what they got during the 2006 Assembly elections. DMK chief Karunanidhi was initially ready to give 60 seats to the Congress but the Congress unrelenting demand on having 63 made him unhappy and he threatened to pull out his ministers from the government. The Congress refused to blink this time and after quite a few rounds of discussions the DMK finally relented to the Congress demands. The DMK has agreed to allocate 61 seats, up 1 seat from what they previously agreed and another two seats would be allocated to the Congress from the other allied parties of the DMK. Under the seat sharing formula, DMK will contest 121 seats, Congress 63, PMK 30, VCK 10, KMK 7, IUML 2 and MMK 1 for the 234-member assembly. A.Rajas close aide Sadiq Batcha found dead Sadiq Batcha, a close aide of former telecom minister A.Raja committed suicide and was found hanging at his residence in Chennai on 16/3/2011. Sadiq Batcha (37) who is the Managing Director of Greenhouse Promoters has been under the CBI scanner for his suspected involvement in the 2G spectrum case and was questioned by the agency on February 22nd. Green House Promoters, initially a nondescript company with an equity base of Rs.100,000 in 2004, is said to have grown to over Rs.600 crore revenue company within a very short time frame. Rajas wife Parameshwari is said to have served as a director in the firm but quit during 2008. Batcha hails from Rajas constituency Perambalur in Tamil Nadu and initially worked as a sari seller until his friendship with the former telecom minister happened in the early 1990s.According to the post mortem reports the cause of death has been ascertained as asphyxia while the forensic reports are still awaited. This may come as blow to the CBI in their investigations into the 2G scam. TN Polls: Parties promise freebies to woo voters Ahead of upcoming assembly polls, the political parties of Tamil Nadu have promised a host of freebies to woo the voting public. Top warring parties DMK and ADMK have taken the war of freebies to a new high. While DMK in their manifesto have announced 35 kg of free rice every month for belowpoverty line families, AIADMK has promised 20 kg of free rice for all rationcard holders. The ruling DMK party has promised laptops to students in their first year of college while Jayalalithas ADMK party promises them one as early as eleventh standard. While the DMK plans to give women free mixes, grinders its rivals have promised additional fans along with mixies and grinders. Furthermore Jayalalitha in her bid to woo female voters has promised 4gms of gold for 'Thali' (mangalsutra) free of cost to poor, besides offering cable TV connections at subsidised rates. Some of the other freebies include four sets of uniform and footwear for students, a hike in scholarship upto Rs 5000 from class 10 onwards, women self help groups get Rs10Lakh with 25 % waiver, 20 litres of mineral water a day to Below Poverty Line families, six months' maternity leave for women and Rs 12,000 as pregnancy allowance and a host of other promises were made. This does came as surprise since Jayalalitha was a staunch critic of populist measures when the DMK party which came in power in 2006, promised to offer free colour TVs to the public and also kept up on its electoral promise. The parties efforts in trying to gain an upper hand over each other by making such steep electoral promises does raise a lot of concerns. It does make one wonder if the State Treasury would be left with any money if such populist measures are left unchecked.

WB polls: Cong, TMC reach seat-sharing deal The Congress and the Trinamool Congress reached a seat sharing agreement ahead of the West Bengal Assembly Polls. Mamta Banerjee of Trinamool has agreed to offer 65 seats after her rounds of discussion with the Congress party. She had earlier agreed to give 64 seats against Congress demand of 98. The alliance will fight against CPM led Left Front which has been in power for almost 35 years now.Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said In West Bengal, Congress will contest 65 seats and TMC will contest 229. We will work in close cooperation to win the election to defeat the Left from the state.West Bengal will be voting in 6 phases. The first phase voting is on April 18, second phase on April 23, third phase on April 27, fourth phase on May 3, fifth phase on May 7 and sixth phase is on May 10th. Cash for votes scam creates uproar in Parliament With the revelations by Wikileaks about the Congress buying MPs to win the vote-of-confidence over the crucial Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008 came back to haunt party when a united opposition created an uproar in Parliament. On 17/3/2011 they were demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in view of the fresh charges that bribe was paid during the trust vote. The government on its part was dismissive questioning the credibility of the leaks. Also FM Pranab Mukherjee said Each Lok Sabha is sovereign in its time. What happened in the 14th Lok Sabha cannot be decided in the 15th Lok Sabha...Government of the day is accountable to the 15th Lok Sabha and not to the 14th Lok Sabha. Whatever happened in the 14th Lok Sabha has come to an end with the end of the tenure. On 23/3/2011 Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj made a stinging attack on the Prime Minister and said It is the habit of the Prime Minister to blame others. If it is price rise then (Agriculture Minister) Sharad Pawar is responsible, if it is 2G then (former Telecom Minister) A Raja is responsible and if it is Commonwealth Games then Suresh Kalmadi is to blame. The Wikileaks cable suggests that the Congress bought the support of MPs during a vote of confidence during the controversial nuclear deal in 2008. Three BJP MPs walked into the Lok Sabha with Rs 3 crores in cash and claimed that they had been offered that money to vote for the nuclear deal and that they had planned a sting operation to prove it. Following that a Lok Sabha committee, headed by Congress MP KCS Deo, was set up to examine their allegations in which was found there was no evidence of the allegations made by the BJP MPs. Aarushi murder case: Talwars surrender passports Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, parents of murdered teen Aarushi Talwar have surrendered their passports to a local court following a direction by the Supreme Court which also stayed their trial in the Noida double murder case. On 19/3/2011 the SC had stayed the CBI court order summoning the Talwars to appear before it on 22/3/2011. The Allahabad High Court on 18/3/2011 dismissed the couples plea seeking quashing of criminal proceedings initiated by the lower court which not only refused the closure report filed by the CBI but also summoned the couple as accused in the case. The HC declared that it could not prohibit the magistrate from taking cognizance of a case if prima facie it appears that there is sufficient evidence against a person. Earlier the CBI had file a closure report pleading closure citing lack of incriminating evidence, however the CBI has pointed a needle of suspicion to the parents and as a result left the option of proceeding against the Talwars with the Trial Court. The couple had challenged the order of the Allahabad High Court which the Supreme Court

stayed on 19/3/2011 but asked the Talwars to surrender their passports. Satish Tamta, the counsel for Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, submitted the passports in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Puspendra Kumar Singh. Fourteen-year-old Aarushi was found murdered at her home in Noida on May 16, 2008. A day after, Hemraj's body was found in the same building. India revokes licenses of 14 'fake pilots' Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on 23/3/2011 revoked a total of 14 commercial pilot licenses (CPL) which means it brings an end to the flying careers of the those accused of having submitted fake training records from Rajasthan State Flying School to procure their licenses. The discovery of frauds in the issuing of licenses is a worrying development to the safety of air travel for the passengers and the industry. The fake pilot scam began unraveling when female Captain Parminder Gulati landed her airliner on the nose instead of the rear wheels which set the alarms ringing across many quarters. DGCA, the airline regulator stepped in and discovered she had submitted forged mark sheets to procure her license. Since then more pilots have been caught guilty of the same crime. The DGCA admits there was a lapse, and now says as much as 4000 pilot licences are now under fresh scrutiny. On 26/3/2011 a DGCA official Pradeep Kumar(48), pilot Pradeep Tyagi(35) and two of his touts Lalit Jain (34) and Pankaj Jain (23) were arrested by the Delhi Police. Tyagi along with his touts used to forge mark sheets for the fake pilots for huge a fee and also bribed Pradeep Kumar of the DGCA for expediting those files. A person is eligible to fly a commercial aircraft only when he or she secures a CPL, which is given out after a person completes 200 hours of flying during the training. Hasan Ali Remanded In Judicial Custody Hasan Ali is a Pune bases stud farm owner who has been accused of allegedly stashing away 8 billion dollars in Swiss banks. It is speculated that the major portion of the money in offshore accounts belong to some politicians and industrialists and that Ali acts as a conduit for them and allegedly facilitates transfer of black money from India on a commission basis. He has been under the radar of the Income Tax (IT) department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for a few years now while his premises were raided in 2007. According to Hasan Alis statements he is scrap dealer with an annual income of Rs 30 Lakh which does not tally with kind of lifestyle Ali is known for. He is known to throw lavish parties, has a penchant for race horses and own quite a few of them and also own an expensive fleet of cars. A little ironic for a man with humble beginnings, whose father worked as an excise officer. Hassan Ali has been declared the highest tax defaulter in the country with dues allegedly over Rs 70,000 crores. Ali was arrested by the ED on 7/3/2011 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. But a Mumbai Court on 11/3/2011 rejected EDs plea for custodial interrogation of Hasan Ali on the grounds that the agency had not gathered sufficient evidence and Ali was released on bail. The Supreme Court on 17/3/2011 stayed the trial courts order, directed custodial interrogation of Hasan Ali to ED and was also critical of Mumbai Court Judge M L Tahaliyani's order of granting bail to Ali, saying it was "deeply disturbed" as to the manner in which the trial court judge rejected the ED's contention and had given a lengthy order for it. On 21/3/2011 the apex court extended his custody with the ED for an additional three days and when that duration came to a close a sessions court remanded Hasan Ali in judicial custody till April 8, 2011. Wikileaks: 'Hindutva an opportunistic issue for BJP'

After the Congress it was the BJPs turn to be hit by the Wikileaks phenomenon when a US diplomat reported in the cable that senior leader of BJP declared to him that Hindu Nationalism was an opportunistic issue for the party. "Pressed on the question of Hindutva, Jaitley argued that Hindu nationalism 'will always be a talking point' for the BJP. However, he characterized this as an opportunistic issue," a cable by Robert Blake, the Charge at the US Embassy, to his government, had said after a meeting with Jaitley on May 6, 2005. "Pressed on the question of Hindutva, Jaitley argued that Hindu nationalism 'will always be a talking point' for the BJP. However, he characterized this as an opportunistic issue," a cable by Robert Blake, the Charge at the US Embassy, to his government, had said after a meeting with Jaitley on May 6, 2005. Jaitley a senior leader of the BJP and also leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha , whom the cable described as "one of several aspirants to direct the next generation of BJP leadership", said in a statement that the word opportunistic in reference to Hindutva could be the "diplomat's own usage". He said the cable by the diplomat in 2005 makes a reference to his conversation with him. "The cable reflects my views on cross-border terrorism, illegal infiltration from Bangladesh and the unfair denial of US Visa to the Gujarat Chief Minister (Narendra Modi). However, the use of the word "opportunistic in reference to nationalism or Hindu nationalism is neither my view nor my language. It could be the diplomat's own usage, he said. Congress on its part was quick to give it back to the BJP. Chickens are coming to roost, what goes out wrongly hits back like a boomerang. People living in glass houses are taught in this manner that they were to throw stones at others, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said. PM Manmohan Singh and PM Gilani of Pakistan engage in cricket diplomacy

The relations between India and Pakistan had soured post Mumbai 26/11 blasts. With the ongoing world cup when India defeated Australia in the quarters it became apparent that it was to face off against Pakistan in the semifinal. The clash between the two countries generated tremendous hype in the media of both countries. The match even took on political turns when PM Manmohan Singh invited his counterpart Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari to the cricket match. The invite was accepted by the PM of Pakistan who then along with Dr Manmohan Singh reached the cricket venue on 30/3/2011 where they shook hands with players and also engaged in diplomatic talks which has now leased a fresh breath of air to the relations between the two countries. As per the joint statement released in the capital on 29/3/2011 the Pakistani delegation updated India on the ongoing trial and investigation and agreed to allow an Indian Commission to come to Pakistan to investigate 26/11 attacks. The Pak delegation assured that India's National Investigative Agency (NIA) and Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) will cooperate in the 26/11 investigation. India on its part provided Pakistan information with regards to the Samjauta blast case and agreed that they would update them once the charge sheet was filed. According to the joint statement released in New Delhi on Tuesday, the Pakistani delegation updated India on the ongoing trial and investigation and agrees in principle to allow an Indian commission to investigate 26/11 attacks in Pakistan. The two countries have also agreed to hold home secretary-level talks bi-annually. Census 2011: Indian population increased by 181 million

Indias population has risen to 1.21 billion in the last ten years, which is an increase of 181 million according to the new census released on 31/3/2011.

Indias population is now bigger than population of USA, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Bangladesh, says the Census report. On the positive side the overall population growth rate is 17.6 in 2011, significantly lower than 2001 when it was 21.15 per cent. Coming to the sex ration India has 623.7 million males and 586.5 million women. A matter of concern is that child sex ratio has slipped to its lowest since India's independence. For every 1000 male infants, there are 914 girls. The most populous state of Indian continues to be Uttar Pradesh with 16.49 per cent share in the total population, followed by Maharashtra with 9.29 per cent, while, the least populous state is Sikkim with 0.05 per cent share in the total population. This is the 15th Census conducted since 1872. It was carried out in two phases, covering 640 districts and 5924 sub-districts.

Current Affairs [February 2011] 2G scam: Former Telecom Minister A.Raja sent to Tihar Jail Former Telecom Minister A Raja was sent to Tihar Jail in Jail in Delhi on Feb 17th in relation to the 2G scam. He will be in judicial custody for fourteen days until March 3rd. He was also earlier arrested by the CBI on 2nd Feb and was held in their custody in view of the evidence they had collected against him regarding his involvement in the 2G scam. A. Raja has been accused of issuing 2G licenses at throw away prices creating massive losses for the exchequer. According to the national auditor CAG, the 2G spectrum phone licenses were sold in 2008 for a fraction of their value and this has resulted in a notional loss of Rs. 1.76 lakh crores. The 2 G scam has created major uproar in Parliament and has sent shock waves across the country. ULFA, government begin Assam peace talks Leaders of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) met Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Feb 10 to signify the start of the much longawaited peace talks aimed at ending 30 long years of insurgency in Assam. History was created when the eight member ULFA team headed by Arabinda Rajkhowa met Chidambaram at his North Block office for a first round of peace talks. This is a highly significant development considering ULFA has been trying since 1979 to carve out an independent homeland of Assam. While ULFA has not put up any demands or finalised any agenda for talks, the beginning of talks itself is being seen as a very positive step to restoring peace in the state. PM announces JPC on 2G spectrum scam Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that his government would set up the Joint Pariamentry Committee (JPC) to investigate the 2G spectrum scam. The government finally agreeing to introduce the JPC does not come about as unexpected. With the opposition being absolutely unrelenting in their demands for the introduction of the probe, the Congress had to finally give in. The previous years winter session in parliament ended with only ten working hours on record. In order to ensure that the budget session does not get similarly affected, several meetings with the different political parties were set up and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried to bring about a compromise, which in the end proved to be futile. In the Lok Sabha, on the first day of the budget session the PM said On account of the controversy relating to allocation of 2G spectrum, the winter session of Parliament was lost. Our country can ill-afford this...in paralyzing Parliament, we all do

disservice to those who have elected us. Later on he also announced the introduction of the probe when he went on to add It is in these special circumstances that our government agrees to a JPC...we are a functioning democracy and must try to resolve our difference is the spirit of collaboration not competition. Govt to release Rs. 150 coin soon With the Income Tax Department celebrating 150 years of taxation in the country the government will issue coins of Rs. 150 in denomination. The special coins which also includes Rs 5 denomination would be released by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee ahead of his budget speech. The Rs 150 coin is prepared from an alloy of copper, nickel, silver and zinc. Sathyameva Jayathe and India would be engraved on the front side of the coin while the back side will feature a portrait of portrait of 'Chanakya and lotus with honeybee'. The Rs 5 coins will also be minted in a similar fashion. This is a special occasion with the IT department having completed 150 years of taxation from 1860 to 2010. HC upholds Death Penalty for Kasab The Bombay High Court on Feb 21 confirmed the death penalty to 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab and termed the case being the rarest of rare and held that there was "no scope of reform" of the convict. This comes nine months after the lone 26/11 terrorist who was captured alive was ordered to be sent to the gallows by the trial court on May 6, 2010. Kasab, an LeT operative was captured alive at Girgaum Chowpatty in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 while none other operatives who has come with him were gunned down by the security forces at the terror sites. Justice Ranjana Desai told Kasab through video conferencing "Aapko saza-e-maut yeh adalat barkarar karti hai. Aap Supreme Court mein appeal zari kar sakte hain (Your death sentence is upheld. You can appeal before the Supreme Court," Godhra verdict: Ahmedabad court convicts 31, acquits 63 A special court in Ahmedabad on February 22nd convicted 31 people and acquitted 63 including main accused Maulvi Umarji, in the 2002 Godhra train burning incident that left 59 people dead mostly Kar Sevaks who were returning from Ayodhya on the Sabarmati Express. This triggered the 2002 Gujarat communal riots which left over 1200 people dead mostly Muslims. The court was the first one to pronounce a judgment, among the nine trying the 2002 Gujarat riots cases. The court accepted the prosecutions contention that there was a conspiracy behind the incident. Apart from the charges of murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, the accused were convicted under IPC sections 147, 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 323, 324, 325, 326 (causing hurt), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on religious grounds), various sections of the Indian Railways Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and Bombay Police Act. Kidnapped Malkangiri Collector, junior engineer released Malkangiri District Collector RV Krishna and Junior Engineer Pabitra Majhi were finally released by the Maoists after being kept for a week in captivity. The two were abducted by the Maoists on Feb 16th and the Maoists in a letter to the government, listed 14 demands for the safe release of the two hostages. These included halting anti-Maoist operations by security forces, release of all political prisoners, scrapping of accords with MNCs for land transfer and projects, and compensation for the families of Maoist

sympathizers killed in police custody. Dandapani Mohanty and academicians G. Haragopal and R. Someswar Rao were chosen as mediators and had discussions with the Maoists. The negotiators had made the government agree to 14 key demands including the release of Ganti Prsadam, Padma (wife of top Maoist Ram Krishna), and Sriramulu Srinivas, another top Maoist. After intense round of negotiations the government finally relented and made arrangements to secure bails for the jailed Maoists. A further twist in the tale occurred when the Maoists released only Majhi and held back the Collector making a fresh list of demands. However after another round of discussion, common sense prevailed and the Maoists released the collector a day later. Current Affairs [January 2011] Karnataka Governor sanctions prosecution of CM Yeddyurappa Karnataka Governor HR Bharadwaj on 21/1/2011 sanctioned the prosecution of Chief Minister Yeddyurappa on charges of corruption. This is for the first time in Karnatakas political history that a governor has permitted the prosecution of a chief minister. The Governor gave sanction for prosecution of the Chief Minister who is said to be involved in alleged land scams on a petition made by two lawyers. With this sanction, the lawyers will now approach a local court and will seek a court directive to the police for registering an FIR against the Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and the State Home Minister R Ashoka. Officer burnt alive by Oil Mafia Yashwant Sonawane, Additional District Collector of Malegaon (Maharashtra) was tragically burnt alive by oil mafia at Manmad near Nashik on 25 January 2011. Mr. Sonawane was returning from Chandrar village after reviewing the situation in the wake of a demonstration by onion farmers, when he found some people adulterating kerosene in a tanker parked behind Sagar Dhaba at Panewadi near Manmad. The area has a notorious reputation for smuggling and adulteration of oil. Sonawane stopped and questioned them and also shot a video of them pilfering the kerosene on his mobile phone. The main accused Popat Shinde and three others allegedly poured kerosene on the official, and set him afire. Mr. Sonawane died on the spot. The horrifying incident has caused a lot of shock and anger all across India. Gujarat attracts Rs 20.83 lakh Crore investment in 2 days Leading industrialists of India have flocked to Gujrat to sign MOUs during the two-day long Vibrant Gujarat Summit that began on 1/12/2011. Chief Minister announced that the state has been able to attract investments to the tune of Rs 20.83 lakh crores during the two-day long Summit. As many as 7,936 MOUs were signed by the state government with several industrial houses to invest in the state. It is rare for 60 of Indias top Industrialists representing companies that command the bulk of market capitalization, to share the dais at a single event and it is even rarer to make investments to the tune of thousands of crores for a single state and that too over just two days. The major investments include Anil Ambani group, Adani Group, Essar Group, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra and many others. Australian firm set to sue Delhi CWG over non payment of dues. In yet another case of embarrassment for India an Australian firm is set to sue the CWG organizers regarding non payment of bills. It is reported that the firm had played a very key and major role in the opening and closing ceremonies of the million dollar sporting event. Sydney Olympics maestro Ric Birch, who was creative director for the Delhi ceremonies, is likely to launch a multi-million dollar class action against Commonwealth Games organizers for substantial unpaid bills. The Australian government has already raised the issue with External Affairs Minister SM Krishna who has promised to look into the matter.

102 lives lost in Sabarimala Stampede Around 102 pilgrims were killed and another 100 injured in a stampede about 40-45 km from the Sabarimala Shrine. The stampede was triggered when a jeep and an auto rickshaw rammed into a crowd of devotees in a narrow forest path at Pulimedu in Idukki district of Kerala on 14/1/2011. Most of the victims are from the Southern state of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The pilgrims were returning after seeking the blessings at the Sabarimala temple on the auspicious day of Makar Sankranti. The temple attracts millions of worshippers and an estimated 150,000 devotees were thought to have taken the narrow path out of the densely forested hills where the stampede took place. CM V.S Achuthanandan has launched a judicial probe into the matter. Suresh Kalmadi sacked as Chairman of Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee Suresh Kalmadi and his deputy Lalit Bhanot were sacked as Chairman and Secretary General of the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee respectively after three months since the end of the international event. The decision to remove the two top officials was taken by the new Sports Minister Ajay Maken after taking the legal opinion of the Attorney General. The organizing committee has faced several allegations of massive corruption and ineptitude in the months leading up to the games. Aarushi Talwar's father attacked outside court Dr. Rajesh Talwar father of murdered teenager Aarushi Talwar was attacked by a man outside the Ghaziabad court on 25/1/2011. He received sharp blows from a meat cleaver used by the assailant and the bleeding doctor was immediately rushed to a Hospital. Rajesh Talwar had gone to the court to file a petition demanding a fresh probe by the CBI in the Aarushi- Hemaraj murder case. The attacker has been identified as Utsav Sharma who was earlier also involved in an incident where he attacked SPS Rathore, the retired police officer who was convicted in the Ruchita Girhotra suicide case. Republic Day celebrations peaceful in Kashmir Indias Republic Day celebrations in Kashmir passed of peacefully even as BJP activists attempts to hoist the flag at Lal Chowk were foiled. Six activists were taken into custody immediately after they came out of a hotel near Lal Chowk and began walking towards the city centre. Another activist was arrested in Residency Road area adjacent to Lal Chowk when he appeared with a national flag and the BJP flag. The days leading to the Republic Day were fraught with tension as BJPs proposed EktaYatra was seen as a move that could possibly reignite tensions in the valley.

Current Affairs [December 2010] CBI seeking closure in Arushi Talwar case. CBI has sought closure after being unable to comprehensively solve the Arushi Talwar murder case which has hogged the limelight for over two years now. The report claims that they have hit a road block and lack of evidence as main reasons for not being able to solve the case. However the report as named the victims father Dr Rajesh Talwar as a possible suspect. Chandra Babu Naidu ends fast Telugu Desam Party president finally ended his hunger strike of eight days on the insistence of visiting leaders like Thambi Durai, Arunkumar, Amba Durai, Maitreya, Prakash Karat, Bardan, Om Prakash Choutala, Sharad Yadav and Ajit Singh. Mr Naidu undertook the fast citing that the Andhra Govt should revise its compensation package for the rain hit farmers of the state. The visiting leaders promised Mr Naidu that they would bring the issue to the notice of the Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh by taking an all party delegation to New Delhi. Congress blames Sanjay Gandhi for the emergency excesses The congress party which is celebrating its 125th birthday this month has

accused Sanjay Gandhi for many of the excesses committed during the emergency of 1975-77. Sanjay Gandhi received notoriety for many ruthless measures like slum clearance and mass sterilization programs. The congress has always had to walk a tight rope when it comes to defending Indira Gandhis decision to enforce emergency which led to one of the most turbulent times in Indian history since independence. Citibank employee Shivraj Puri accused of fraud surrenders Citibank employee Shivraj Puri who is said to be involved in a massive fraud, finally surrendered to the police after almost 48 hrs since the incident came to light. Mr Puri who works as a relationship manager has been accused of siphoning of money to the tune of 400 crores from atleast 20 clients to other fictitious accounts. Opposition unrelenting on its demand in JPC probe The opposition has been steadfast in its demand for the JPC with regard to the 2G scam. The PM Dr Manmohan Singh had earlier offered to appear himself before the PAC headed by BJP stalwart Mr. Murali Manohar Joshi. The opposition still feels the JPC would be the best option that would help to bring this case to its logical conclusion. Human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen convicted, gets life term The sessions court of Raipur has convicted Dr Binayak Sen and three others on grounds of sedition and conspiracy thereby sentencing them for life due to their links with the Maoists. Dr Sen has been held guilty under Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, of being a conduit between Naxals and of meeting Narayan Sanyal in jail. The trio has also been convicted under provisions of section 124 IPC (sedition) and 120 B IPC (conspiracy). Dr Sen is a pediatrician and alumni of Christian medical college. The 58 year old doctor has provided over 28 years of selfless service to the poorer sections of Chattisgarh. Prices of onions hit through the roof The prices of onions have undergone a steep rise with a kg costing close to Rs 80 in the national capital and its surrounding areas. Other parts of India too have started feeling the pressure and the prices are continuously shooting up. The Government on it part has suspended the export of onions until January in an attempt to bring down the prices. According to traders, they are attributing the supply crunch due to torrential downpours in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Southern states which has lead to a poor yield. Indias GSLV vehicle fails during launch. ISRO suffered a serious setback when its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F06) failed on its course, forcing the team at SriHarikota to abort the mission and self destruct the launch vehicle. The vehicles on board computer lost control of the actuation system raising serious questions about ISROS other ambitious projects that includes a mission to the moon. The GSAT-5P satellite which the launch vehicle was supposed to send into orbit was one of the heaviest and cost ISRO 125 crores. Had it been successful, the satellite would have served the needs of the telecommunication sector and the weather department. It would have eventually replaced the INSAT-2E satellite that was sent up in 1999. India and China set $100bn trade target by 2015 India and China have agreed upon a new $100billion trade target by 2015 which is more than the $6 billion agreed upon in 2010.With the arrival of Chinese PM Wen Jiabao accompanied by 400 Chinese business leaders in India, the two countries signed around 50 deals in power,steel ,wind energy , food and marine products and telecommunications worth $16 billion. This overtakes the $10bn of agreements signed between Indian and American businesspeople during the recent visit of US President Barack Obama.

Current Affairs [November 2010]

Sensex drops 458 points The Bombay Stock Exchange recently fell by a total of 458 points. The reasons for the underperformance of the Indian Equity market have been said to be the series of scams that were unearthed from mid November. Just last month, CBI officials discovered a bribe for loan scandal that involved several officials from financial firms and a few state run banks. The 10.8% rise in industrial growth since last month could not help and several indices ended with huge losses. Major loses were mainly suffered by PSUs, realty, consumer durables and healthcare. Satyam Trial Case The examination of the first witness in the infamous multi crore Satyam Computer accounting scam would begin from the first of November Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court. CBI officials submitted a list of six witnesses to the courts who were officials of a number of different banks. All ten accused including company founder B Ramalinga Raju were present in court during the hearing of the case. The DIG of police who operates under the department of CBI said that the agency requested permission to set up LCD projectors and screens in the court so that both parties could observe and take notes on all the documents that would be brought up in court. Since cases in the Supreme Court need to be resolved at the earliest, CBI officials submitted close to a thousand documents to the court to speed up the prosecution. The bail of the owner of company and the other 5 individuals associated has been rejected. Baba Ramdev Temple under threat An anonymous letter was received at the Ramdev Baba temple in Jaisalmer that contained threats to blow up the temple on November 9th. District Collector G S Kushwaha received this letter by normal post. Following this letter security around the temple and the surrounding complex was tightened by posting additional number of policeman around the temple complex. Around 5 million devotees are said to visit the temple every year. Ashok Chavans fate Disgraced Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chauhans would be decided after the Diwali holiday season, i.e. after November 8th said the Congress party. Recently Chief Minister Ashok Chauhans name had come in the Adarsh Housing Society scam. Following this allegation, Mr. Ashok Chauhan immediately offered to resign from his post. No mention of either the Adarsh Housing Society scam or the commonwealth Games fiasco was made by the Congress in its AICC session. Also present at the meeting were Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, Common Wealth Games Organizing Committee Chaiperson Suresh Kalmadi, Heavy Industries Minister and former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Maharashtra PCC President Manikrao Thakre. Adjournment of Ajmer Dargah blast case The hearing of the Ajmer Gargah blast case was recently adjourned to November 8 by a sessions court due to leave taken by the presiding judge. Over an 800 page charge sheet was produced before the court of the Additional Chief Judge Magistrate on the 22nd of October by the Rajasthan ATS. The five accused in the case have alleged links with the radical Hindu group Abhinav Bharat. Only one accused was brought to the court while the other two are being questioned about the Hyderabad Mecca blast case. The accused have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code like conspiracy to murder, attempt to murder and murder. Over one hundred and thirty witnesses have been cited by the prosecution of the case. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjees concern The finance minister of the country Pranab Mukherjee recently raised his fears over the rising of inflation in the country. Minister Mukherjee said that the Reserve Bank of India would take steps at its next monetary policy review to check rising prices because of increased inflation. He further added that rising food prices were solely the reason for this sudden inflation.

Inflation for the month of September was estimated to be close to 8.6% much above the acceptable rate of 5%. As said by Finance Minister Mukherjee, food prices had the highest amount of inflation which in Mid October was estimated to be over 13%. Recently, Minister Pranab Mukherjee was in talks with the Reserve Bank of India Governor over the the possible rate hike action by the Central Bank. The global financial crisis, which was worsened by the total collapse of financial firm Lehman Brothers, is being said to be the reason behind the RBIs recent reversal of its soft monetary policy that it started back in September 2008. Adding to these has been the sudden drop in industrial growth from 15.2% to 5.6%. To combat the aforementioned rise in inflation, the Reserve Bank of India has hiked its key short term lending and borrowing times several times this year. Protest during Obama visit by Bhopal Gas tragedy victims Victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy are said to be planning to stage a protest at Jantar Mantar on the 8th of November, during the time of US President Barrack Obamas visit to the capital. Several tonnes of the poisonous gas methyl iso-cyanide, leaked from the Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal in 1984, killing over 3000 people the same night and causing the deaths of over 25000 people over the subsequent years. Five different voluntary organizations working for the gas tragedy victims recently held a press conference where they stated that they would be requesting to President Obama to use his Presidential powers to bring the Union Carbide Corporation to Indian Courts and be answerable to them. The verdict of this case many years back had found seven top officials of this corporation to be guilty but as these guilty persons were bailed out within minutes of the verdict, many people till date question the justice imparted in the case. The voluntary organizations further added that hundreds of people regularly fall sick and die every month due to the long term poisonous effects of the leaked gas on the soil and water. They further plan to ask President Obama for his help as the US government has been largely unhelpful these last few years. The sit in protest organized by the voluntary organizations is said to be comprised of over 5000 gas tragedy victims.

Current Affairs [October 2010] Third stage of Bihar polling completed: Polling was carried out affably in 48 electorates on 28th Oct 2010, estimating in the third appearance of Bihar Assembly elections, which witnessed an approximated 53% voter responsive. Electorates like Amnour, Taraya, Ramnagar, Balmikinagar and Patepur (Maoist followers) account about 45%-52% voting. Voters were carried by boats in the littoral areas of Raghopur Assembly electorate in Vaishali commune where the popular figure of Rabri Devi was in the tussle. The better half of RJD spearhead Lalu Prasad Yadav is as well battling from Sonepur bench in Saran constituency. More than 185 people were held during the balloting, which saw miniature incidents of affray and fracas. Unlike on a number of occasions before, this time Bihar polling did not see what it usually it experiences in terms of riots, booth capturing and other forms of unrest and violence that hampers the true and the honest spirit of competition. "Apart from this, it was nonviolent and silky," stated by Neelmani (DG of Police). Approximately sixty cars were as well detained. In excess of one crore voters will adjudge the future of six ministers (of the state) in the third stage. The following round i.e. stage 4 will be carried out on Nov. 4 2010. UID experiences technical hiccups: In order to overcome the challenge posed by the huge figure of people (approximately 1.03 billions) in the country, the chief of the dept. stated that the 16 digit long UID numbers will be released in the next year and half or so. He added that the epicenter of its working will be in the city of Bangalore. An easy remedy to the obstacles posed by the allotment of different IDs is to have a bench where every formerly sanctioned UID are kept and a fresh one

is given only afterwards verifying that is actually a unique code. Fundamentally, we charge to break an extremely tough difficulty in dispersed schemes once we have copies of the bench (for dependability) and ought to accordingly respond/keep informed the table as questions are asked. Taking the point in consideration, provided the millions of accretion objects affiliated to the web, there is no scrutiny if a prime number selected is the similar chosen by somebody else before. If this is to happen, it is an aegis aperture of the aboriginal order for web; the possibly is, nevertheless, acutely undersized. Population on another instance has proven to be a major obstacle in the development and progress course of India. UID which was anticipated to be a huge success and particularly curb this issue is yet to combat the problem itself to even get kick started. Haryana barricades polythene bags entry: In another attempt to safeguard the environmental and not add insult to the already injured state of the planet, like the govt. of Delhi, Haryana govt. has also decided to prohibit polythene bags in the state. The ban includes a complete no-no of recycling, storage and usage (in any form) within the state. A suggestion to this aftereffect has been supported by Bhupinder Singh Hooda (the honorable Chief Minister of the state), an authorized agent said in the capital on Saturday. The resolution was taken as it was empiric that fractional forbid on use of polythene bags of a clearly defined array bracket did not crop the needed consequences. There was consistent ambiguity over the array of poly bags in exercise and it had as well been discovered that nibbling of a great number of polythene bogs had resulted in deaths of cows on a regular basis, he said. This type of thinking and resolutions are the only way through which we can combat and better the ailing state of the plant Earth. If all other cities and states like previously Delhi and now Haryana think about the hazards the polythene bags can cost, we will be having better standards of health and hygiene.

Current Affairs [September 2010] PM and Sonia Gandhi inaugurate UID: The Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and UPA Arch Sonia Gandhi shaped a record by accordingly ablution the world's aboriginal ID activity on September 29th 2010 forth with Nilekani, the arch man of the ministry is acclimated to accommodate Unique Identification Numbers for India's citizens (cumulatively well in billions), by rendering them the aboriginal collection of twelve digit figures to ten clannish. The PM as well as the UPA Chief were collectively congratulated in the presence of former Infosys headman. This ID Card is assumed to be nations biggest ever tech adeptness action alleged 'Aadhaar'(base), that is due to be issued to all Indians to accommodate them within a lucrative nationally accurate and absolute individual antecedent of character affidavit through an authenticity vault and that will help to accomplish supply processes transparent. Biometric following abstracts include fingerprints and an iris browse getting acclimated for the aboriginal time wherever in the planet. Yamuna raises its bar, causes menace: The baptize akin in the river rose to 206.70 accent recently, 1.87 accent aloft the crisis mark of 204.83 accent and is acceptable to go up added as neighboring Haryana would absolution added water in the river, a chief official of the flood ascendancy administration said. Waters from the flood reached into vicinities like of the local areas as well (Yamuna and Sonia Vihar, Usmanpur, Jaitpur are a few). A large number of localities that reside in the areas forth the banks of the river were apparent lined up on the footpaths on the ITO arch with whatsoever they had of their possessions. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had on Friday requested the inhibiters not to get into agitation and said all basic measures are getting put into abode to accommodated any possible occurrence. Over 100 cadre from National Disaster Response Force, were soon deployed to abetment the bounded

authorities. The ascent Yamuna has affected the Northern Railways to abolish 25 trains and absent 36 others. The cancelled train were prominent ones (Kalka and Brahamaputra Mail, Shalimar, A.A. and G.N. Express, etc). The 90 trains that have to be detoured included the most heavily commuted ones and this has disrupted the life of the general public paralyzing their usual movements, a Northern Railway spokesmen stated. Ayodha Verdict finally out, Allahabad Bench applauded: Culminating 60 years of anfractuous proceedings, asserts and counterclaims, optimism and desolation, Allahabad HC conventions in favor of improvised Ram temple on quarreled site; the remaining of acreage to be disconnected amid Hindus & Muslims. In what is conceivably the most of eagerly anticipated judgment in contempt times, a breach adjudication dispensed out by a three-member bank of Allahabad High Court were in full abounding of the claims of the Hindu petitioners while acclimation a threeway analysis of the acknowledged land. The cardinal provided acknowledged permit to the temporary Ram temple that came up afterwards the annihilation of the acknowledged anatomy in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. The entire panel of adjudicators the prominent faces of the country (Justice Agarwal, Khan and Sharma) was very much in favor of the acceptance that captivated the acknowledged land was the native land of the Hindu deity. Mr. Sharma and Mr. Agarwal settled with the long-held affirmation of the Sangh Parivar and an area of archaeologists that the acknowledged anatomy cannot be advised as an Islamic place of worship as it came into actuality adjoins the credo of Islam. Lights, Camera and Applause: The 57th Edition of the National Film Award ceremony was concluded for the year 2009 in the month of September. The awards were given away in three groups namely, finest Feature Motion Picture Class led by Chairpersonship of Mr. Sippy, Non Feature Motion Picture Group led by Chairpersonship of Mr. Pandey, and Script on Movies beneath the Chairpersonship of Mr. S. Bandhopadhyay. The following were the recipients of a few awards in various nominations: a. Motion Picture: Malayalam flick KuttySrank b. I.G.A. for the Best first appearance movie : Hindi movie Lahore for the Direction c. Box office blockbuster (widespread entertainment): Hindi 3 Idiots d. N.D.A. for the Best motion picture on Patriotic Spirit: Hindi Delhi 6 e. Best motion picture on Societys Matters: Bollywood - Well Done Abba f. Motion Picture for Kids: Tied between Keshu (Malayalam) and Putaani Party (Kannada) g. Direction: Rituparno Ghosh for Abohoman h. Actor: Amitabh Bachcha for Auros role i. Actress: Ananya Chatterjee j. Childs Performance: Tollywoods Pasanga k. Male Singer: Rupam Islam in Bengali l. Female Singer: Neelanjana Sarkar in Bengali

Current Affairs [August 2010] Nuclear liability bill passed Nuclear liability bill which was adopted by Rajya Sabha has now been approved by the process of Voice vote. The session of the Parliament lasted 48 hours extra than the scheduled time so that the legislation can be easily passed and approved. A total of 18 amendments were introduced in this bill by Lok Sabha before processing it further. Soon the bill was selected for a considerable hike in the liability of operator. This liability has now become 3 times then what it was in the past and now holds a value of rupees 1500 crores in total. By virtue of progression of this bill and significant increase in the liability many overseas companies have shown their interests in setting

up reactors in India. Special accidental care will now be provided for the employees operating in the various sections of the nuclear plants. The decision and the passing of the bill had been strongly opposed by the BJP leaders as they found it insignificant. Swiss Bank Access Swiss Authorities will provide information to India on cases of tax fraud and tax evasion from January 1,2011under the reworked double tax agreement (DTA) signed by India and Switzerland. The Indian Authorities can now seek information about the account holders in Swiss banks who have a case filed against them for tax evasion. Government Intervention for CWG PM and his select team of ministers takeover as CWG supervisors. Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh took over the reigns of the forthcoming games in the wake of scandals and unfinished work surrounding the event. Committee of Secretaries, headed by a Cabinet Secretary, will now supervise the mega event to be held in October overtaking Organizing Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi. Bhopal Case reopened The Supreme court of India has reopened the Bhopal Gas leak case in response to Governments petition for harsher punishment to the guilty for the worst tragedy of its kind in which at least 7,000 people perished within days of the release of the toxic methyl isocyanate gas at the Union Carbide pesticide plant on 3 December 1984, and a further 15,000 died later from exposure to the gas. The tragedy left countless others with lifelong damage to their health. CSAT to replace the civil services prelims The new Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) will replace the existing civil services (preliminary) examination from 2011. The new scheme will test the candidates for their aptitude for civil services as well as their ethical and moral dimension of decision-making. There will now be two common papers with equal weightage in place of one common paper (general awareness) and one optional paper (any particular subject of choice). The civil services main exam and the interview will remain the same as of now. Rahul creates controversy Wherein one place Mamta Banerjee is speaking in the favour of naxals and now Rahul Gandhi is sharing a dias with a suspected Maoist , this is the approach of the government in the fight against naxals. Member Parliament salaries hiked Parliament recently in Delhi has made a decision to increase the salaries of MPs. A hike of about rupees 35000 will be introduced in the salary of each MPs thus taking it from figures like 20,000 to 55,000 or so. Because daily allowance has an important role to play hence parliament has also decided to exactly double the allowances issued daily to each Member of Parliament. Hence daily allowance of rupees 1000 will now become 2000. This daily allowance will be issued only when the parliament session is in progress. Other than the daily allowances the official expenses for every office per month have now been considerably raised and touch a 50,000 amount. That is not all the travel and conveyance charge issued will now become 4 times which were earlier around rupees 1,00,000. Retired members will now get a monthly pension of around rupees 20,000 which was around 10,000 in the past times. Commonwealth with less green Approximately 40,000 trees have been either felled or transplanted for Delhis preparation of Commonwealth Games 2010. Apart from the financial burden of creating world class infrastructure and transport facilities Delhites have to bear the loss of its green cover as the compensatory plantation cannot in any way compensate for the loss of a fully grown, mature tree. Blackberry controversy Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of Blackberry has finally surrendered to Indian security agencies demand for access to their server. The company

has proposed for lawful access to its services including the messenger as well as the enterprise with immediate effect and the company would have to set up a server in India if it does not work to the satisfaction of Indian agencies. The security agencies already had access to voice data, SMS and general emails sent through Blackberry devices but Blackberry email and messaging services that are highly encrypted were major concerns for the security agencies. With this understanding in place the government has decided to serve notices to Google and Skype also to fall in line. Direct tax code The Government deferred the direct tax code(DTC) by yet another year to April 2012 causing yet another disappointment to the taxpayers. Women taxpayers suffered a bolt as the preferential treatment meted out to them earlier is now proposed to be withdrawn. Senior citizens, however, enjoy a higher exemption limit. The bill that replaces the Income Tax Act 1961 seeks an increase in exemption threshold of individuals from Rs.1.6 lakh currently to Rs.2lakh. The corporate taxes will be reduced to a flat 30%. Leh hit by flood A cloudburst on the intervening night of August 5 and 6 has led to flash floods and mudslides in the Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir. The cloudburst and the following floods have claimed over 175 lives and injured about 400 people, besides causing widespread damage to public and private property. The worst hit Chuglamsar has just turned into debris all over. More rich than poor Indians National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has estimated in its report, "How India Earns, Spends and Saves", that despite the economic slowdown of the last three years, the number of high-income households in India has exceeded the number of low-income households. Households with high income or earnings have grown by over 3.7% in total and now touch the mark of around 21%. That is not all also the households with low income sources have fallen by around 3.2% and gone down to a mark of 18%. CWG Anthem When everything is being prepared for the common wealth coming up in October then how could Music maestro A R Rahman stay away from it. Yes, the musician has launched the theme song for the Commonwealth Games 2010 that has the best lyrics covering khelo oh yaaro,,jeeto oh yaaro. During the launch of this theme song honorable Chief Minister Shiela Dixit, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi were present in the ceremony. CWG breeding mosquitoes The fingers are already crossed and people fear further delay in the common wealth problems. When the earlier hurdles are not getting removed and new problems are coming into view. The sincere attention is being drawn by the mosquitoes breeding in various dumps. Because of heavy rainfall in the country water is collected in almost every venue and mosquitoes have converted these venues into their favorite breeding places and are increasing the fear of dengue disease. Yet another marine disaster A foreign cargo ship MV Khalijia-111 which collided with MSC Chitra which was carrying about 1,200 containers with over 266 tonnes of fuel about 10 km off Mumbai harbour has spilled oil into the Mumbai seas. The collision tilted MSC Chitra vessel causing 300 containers carrying oil to tumble into the Mumbai waters creating a thick oil slick two to three kms around the vessel Chitra causing a serious threat to the marine life. Indias Independence August 15th, 2010 India celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its independence. IBM Number two employer IBM is the second largest private sector employer in India after TCS . The company has more than one lakh people on its rolls.

Current Affairs [July 2010] Noose tightening for Politicos in Sohrab case Sohrab case getting murkier with CBI stepping up pressure on top Gujarat IPS Officers P.C.Pande, O.P.Mathur and Geeta Johri for their suspected involvement in scuttling the probe at the behest of former Gujarat Minister of State for home Amit Shah. Two Rajasthan BJP leaders Gulabchand Kataria and Om Mathur are also facing the CBI heat. Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed in a fake encounter and his wife who was a witness to her husbands abduction was also later eliminated. The agency is investigating the police-politico nexus behind the killings. Chidambaram confident of overcoming maoist problem in three years Addressing a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for the ministry of home affairs, P Chidambaram informed that in a meeting of chief ministers of seven Naxal-affected states on July 14, a decision of unified command was agreed to namely in-- West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand -- for anti-Naxal operations. A two-pronged strategy of initiating development and police action in the affected areas was designed to overcome Maoist problem after consultations with the Naxal-affected states Grooming for a succession? Noel Tata, chairman Ratan Tatas brother has been installed as the chairman and CEO of Tata Investment Corp and the MD in Tata International while relinquishing his executive position in Trent Ltd within the last two months. There is speculation that these moves are in line with the groups succession plan for top job i.e. the Chairmanship of Tata Sons in 2012 when Ratan Tata steps down. Applaud or embarrassment? According to top sources from Central Vigilance Commission, fake certificates were being routinely issued to pass substandard work and material to the vendors of Commonwealth Games 2010 leading to huge gains for the contractors and vendors. All these certificates were issued without ground verification or technical examination. The compromise, herein, in the quality of materials and workmanship poses a serious threat to the sports personnel from countries all over the world lending a shameful picture of India and hence jeopardizing our ability to host such events in the future. Valley stir Following the imposition of curfew in wake of the protest by Syed Ali Geelani demanding the release of dozens of arrested separatist leaders, violence was triggered in the valley due to a spate of civilian killings by security personnel leading to an indefinite curfew being clamped in Srinagar. Educational institutions, shops, post offices, banks, public transport and other business establishments were closed as a precautionary measure. The protests are part of the separatists' 'Quit Kashmir' programme.

Current Affairs [June 2010] In the Global Peace Index 2010, India ranked at 128. 2010 Failed State Index- Somalia top the list followed by Zimbabwe, Sudan & Chad. India is ranked at 87 place out of 177 countries. Norway in ranked at the bottom of the list. President Rule imposed in Jharkhand. Amar Singh launches a new party Akhil Bhartiya Lok Manch. South African president Jacob Zuma visited India. Turkmenistan President Gurbaguly Bardimuhamedov visited India. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited India. India signed 7 pacts with Sri Lanka. India will assist in building 50000 houses in the northen & eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. Bangladesh Govt has requested to rename the train linking West Bengal to

Tripura via Banglades as Sonar Tori. Earlier the name of the train as envisaged in the Railway Budget 2010 is Epar Bangla Opar Bangla. Sonar Tori is a collection of poems written by Rabindranath Tagore, whose 150th birth anniversary is being celebrated in 2010. Maharastra will become first state in the country to have a real estate regulatory authority. BWA- Broadband Wireless Access. The BWA spectrum was auctioned by the Govt. BWA Spectrum is essential for rolling out WiMAX services enabling hand held devices and laptops to access Intranet. It will allow firms to offer high speed Net, Web telephony & TV Services. The govt fixed Rs.1750 crore as base rate for BWA license. The auction was held for 117 rounds and in 16 days. Rs.12848 crore was the pan India BWA license price which was won by Infotel Broadband services ( in all 22 circles). The Govt auctioned the BWA license for a total of Rs.38,543 crore. Mumbai had the highest bid of Rs.2293 crore followed by Delhi with Rs.2241 crore respectively. India signed Civil Nuclear agreement with Canada. The agreement was signed by Manmohan Singh and Canadas PM Stephen Harper. Canada is the 8th nation to enter into such an agreement with India. Canada served nuclear ties with India in 1974 when India conducted its first nuclear test at Pokhran in 1974. Indias nuclear power programme is based on the CANDU ( Canada Deuterium Uranium) reactor. India become a full fledged member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a 34 member inter governmental body that devises policies at both national & international levels to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. FATF membership will enable Indian authorities to access information on suspect accounts in nations such as Switzerland & UK. India become its 34th member.

Current Affairs [May 2010] Naxalites killed 47 people in a landmine blast between Dantewada and Sukma in Chattisgarh. Test fire of nuclear capable Agni-II missile was successfully carried out from Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa on 17th May. Agni II has a range of 2000Km. It is 20m long two stage solid propelled ballistic missile. It was developed by Advanced System Laboratories alongwith DRDO & Bharat Dynamics Ltd. Supreme Court in a recent judgement upheld a rule that allows the adjustment of reserved category candidate SC/ST/OBC against their quota seats even if they manage to qualify an examination for govt services on merit. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is the monitoring authority for the Right to Education Act which became effective from April 1, 2010.

Current Affairs [April 2010] Naxals killed about 75 CRPF personal at Chintalnar-Tarmetla village in Dantewada distt ,Chhattisgarh. Government appoint E.N. Rammohan, to probe the incident. Uninque Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) now known as Aadhaar. Its Chairman is Nandan Nilekani. It will assign 16 digit identification number to all residents in India. NTRO- National Technical Research Organisation. The organization came to limelight after allegation of phone tapping of politicians. Indian navy commissioned Indias first indigenously built stealth warship INS Shivalik. The other stealth warship to be built are named as INS Sahyadri and INS Satpura.

Right To Education Act is notified and will become a legally enforceable from 1 April 2010. Key features of RTE Act are : All children in 6-14 age group must get free and compulsory eduction; No child shall be held back,expelled or required to pass a board examination till Class VIII; There must be 25 % reservation for poor children even in private & minority schools; There must be one teacher for every 30 students; A child rights commission will look into violations of the RTE law. Govt start Census 2011. It is the 15th Census. It is in two phase. The first phase is called House listing & Housing Census and the second phase is called decadal headcount which will be held in Feb 2011. The Registrar General of India is C Chandramouli.

Current Affairs [March 2010] Govt launched National Mission for Empowerment of Women aimed at intersectoral convergence of all pro- women programmes. Constitution 108th Amendment Bill 2008 commonly known as womens reservation bill was passed by Rajya Sabha by 186 in favour 1 against 39 abstained (Current strength of Rajya Sabha is 233). The bill seeks to reserve a third of the seats on the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for 15 years on a rotational basis. It was first introduced in 1996. Sharad Joshi, an independent MP is the only MP which cast vote against the bill. In the present Lok Sabha, there are 59 women MPs out of 543 MPs. Total MLAs in 29 state assemblies in India are 4093. Yamunanagar (Haryana) and Vishakhapatnam (AP) are choosen for a pilot project on saving household energy by replacing incandescent lamps with CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps). Earth Hour 2010 has been celebrated on 27 March organized by World Wide Fund for Nature, India. Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru are official Earth Hour Cities among 15 Indian cities. Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia visit India in March 2010. Supreme Court allowed religion based 4 % reservations in Govt jobs & educational institutes in Andhra Pradesh. It extended the benefit to 14 OBC in muslims in the state. The matter is further referred to Constitutional bench of Supreme Court. Bold Kurushetra a joint armour exercise between India and Singapore was held at Jhansi(UP). Prohibition of unfair practices in technical, medical educational institutions & universities Bill is passed by Govt. It provided for 3 year imprisonment and a fine of upto Rs 50 lakh for higher education providers guilty of misleading students. Govt approved Foreign Educational Institution (Regulation of Entry & Operation) Bill 2010. It provides foreign universities to set up campuses in India. Govt amends Anti Hijacking Act 1982. It now provides for death sentence to the hijackers. Govt starts the scheme for creation of the National Population Register (NPR) of Indian residents. The project will cover an estimated 1.2 billion people and total cost of the project will be Rs. 3539.24 crore. India became 1st country in the world to have a manoeuvrable supersonic cruise missile, when it successfully test fired 290 km range Brahmos missile. Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu visit India in March 2010.

Current Affairs [February 2010] Kirit Parikh committee , set up to review petro pricing regime, submit its recommendation. Its major recommendation are to deregulate the prices of petrol & diesel as per market prices, reduce the subsidy on LPG.

India signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with the UK, which became the 8th country to enter into such a pact, since the lifting of atomic trade embargo in 2008. Govt set up a panel under the Chairmanship of former Justice B N Srikrishna which would consider the demand for splitting Andhra Pradesh. India and Denmark signed a social security pact which will relieve their workers from double taxation and provide for cooperation in areas of labour market expansion and orderly migration. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits Saudi Arabia in Feb 2010. He was the first Indian PM in 28 years to visit the gulf country. Saudi Arabia is Indias largest supplier of crude oil ( 23 %) followed by Iran ( 17 %) and Nigeria ( 11 %). India is offering upto 10 % equity to Saudi petroleum firm Saudi Aramco in a refinery being built in Orissa. PM addressed the Shoura council of Saudi Arabia. Constitution 111th Amendment Proposes to incorporate a new Part ( Part IX B) in the Constitution so as to provide for legal framework to regulate the functioning of cooperative societies. A new Article ( Article 43 B) is also proposed to be inserted in Part IV of the Constitution (Directive Principles of State Policy) for the States to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning of cooperative societies. Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2009 commonly known as Nuclear Liability Bill will be introduced by Govt in Parliament in Winter session 2010. The draft bill aims at limiting the liability of a nuclear plant operator to Rs. 300 crore in the eventuality of an accident. The bill provides for the penalty to be paid by the operator and not the supplier companies which would mainly be American in this case. India has entered into civil nuclear cooperation agreement with eight countries so far.

Current Affairs [January 2010] Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visit India in Jan 2010. She belongs to Awami League Party. The two countries signed five agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, on transfer of sentenced persons and on combating international terrorism, organized crime & illicit drug trafficking besides MOU on cooperation in the power sector and on cultural exchanges. India give Bangladesh a $ 1 billion line of credit, the biggest it has given to any country so far. South Korea President Lee Myung Bak visit India in Jan 2010. The two countries decided to double the bilateral trade to $ 30 billion by 2014. Four facts were signed between two countries cooperation in peaceful use of outer space, IT, science & technology for the year 2010-12 and transfer of sentenced persons. South Korean President was also the chief guest at 2010 Republic Day Parade. Gujarat Local Authorities Law (amendment) Bill 2009- The Bill makes it the duty of a qualified voter to vote during elections to local bodies. Voting is compulsory, but the Bill allows voters to cast their vote in favour of none of the candidates. Election officers will declare those who fail to vote defaulter, and serve them a notice. India and China has decided to start joint military exercise from 2011. Najib Razak, Malaysia Prime Minister visit India in Jan 2010. Govt launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Key highlights of the mission are : o To create an enabling policy framework for the deployment of 20,000 MW of solar power by 2020. o To create favourable conditions for solar manufacturing capability for indigenous production and market leadership. o To promote programmes for off grid applications, reaching 1000 MW by 2017 and 2000 MW by 2022. o To achieve 15 million sq. meters solar thermal collector area by

2017 and 20 million by 2022. o To deploy 20 million solar lighting systems for rural areas by 2022. New Governors appointed : a) M K Narayanan West Bengal, b)Shivraj Patil Punjab, c) Mohsina Kidwai Jharkhand, d) Shekhar Dutt Chhattisgarh, e) E S L Narasimhan Andhra Pradesh. Govt plans to create a National Gas Highway Development Authority. The present Gas Pipeline Density in India is 3.29 Km per 1000 Sq.Km. Govt plans to set up a National Green Tribunal to control Carbon Emissions and pollution. It will be responsible for implementing the low carbon roadmap to be set forth in the 12th Five Year Plan.