December (1-56) GK 2012

GYANM December 2012
General Awareness
Year: 2012 Vol. 1 Issue 9
CONTENTS
TOPICS
National News News from States Govt Initiatives Economic Indicators Economy Banking Defence Science & Technology International News Persons in News Appointments Awards & Honours Books & Authors Obituary Places in News Sports World Abbreviations 1000 Latest GK Bytes
NATIONAL NEWS
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OCTOBER 2012
INDIA 5
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The Grant Thornton Global Dynamism Index indicates that India is the fifth best country in the world for dynamic growing businesses. According to the index, India is ahead of Singapore, and Russia and only four countries Argentina, China, Uruguay and Chile are ahead of India.
IN GROWING BUSINESS
DELHI 10TH IN SHOPPERs LIST

Delhi ranks as 10th most attractive city for international travel shoppers in the AsiaPacific region, a report says. In the Globe Shopper Index, published by Global Blue, Delhi is behind Seoul and ahead of Manila, while Bangalore ranked fourteenth and Mumbai sixteenth.
INDIA PREFERRED INVESTMENT CHOICE

In a survey conducted by the consulting firm BDO Global Market Opportunity Index 2012, India ranked fourth in the top five investment destinations in the world, primarily on account of its large market size and high customer potential. The survey covered more than 1,000 senior finance officers spread across 14 countries.
INDIA TOP EXPORTER OF RICE

India has the emerged as the world's largest rice exporter in 2012 beating its Asian counterpart Thailand with shipment of 9.75 million tonnes, according to US Deptt of Agricultures latest report. Vietnam shipped 7 million tonnes to claim second position, followed by Thailand (6.5 million tonnes).
FIGURES TO REMEMBER
REPO RATE (17-04-2012) REVERSE REPO RATE MARGINAL STANDING FACILITY RATE STATUTORY LIQUIDITY RATIO CASH RESERVE RATIO BANK RATE BASE RATE (of various banks) 8.00% 7.00% 9.00% 23% 4.25% 9.00% 10-10.75%
BIODIVERSITY MEET HELD AT HYDERABAD 11th Conference of the parties (COP-11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held in Hyderabad to discuss various issues related to
INDIAS RANK IN
Economic Freedom 2012 Global Competitiveness Index Corruption Perception Index Global Hunger Index 2010 Food Security Human Development Index Global Business Confidence Index ICT Performance Index Indias Rank in IMF 111th 59th 87th 67th 66th 134th 2nd 69th 8th
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conserving the bio resources of the world and to achieve consensus among 170 member countries on the issues related to climate change and mobilization of financial resources. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh announced USD 50 million grant to strengthen the institutional mechanism for biodiversity conservation in the country.
WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is the variety of all species on earth. It is the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, their genes, and the terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems of which they are a part. Biodiversity is both essential for our existence and intrinsically valuable in its own right. Biodiversity is the life support system of our planet- we depend on it for the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. Wetlands filter pollutants from water, trees and plants reduce global warming by absorbing carbon, and bacteria and fungi break down organic material and fertilize the soil. We need to conserve biodiversity as our lives depend on it!
GYANMS GENERAL AWARENESS DECEMBER 2012
BERNANKE VISITS INDIA, MEETS SUBBARAO

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S Bernanke visited India to discuss global economic situation, monetary policies and some banking issues of mutual interest with RBI Governor D Subbarao and other top officials.
SHAH GROUP PROPOSES PRIVACY LAW

A government-appointed expert group under chairmanship of A P Shah has recommended setting up of a regulatory framework comprising of Privacy Commissioners at the Centre and regional levels to deal with privacy issues and mandatory destruction of records of telephone conversations after a specified period. The group has suggested a comprehensive legislation to protect individuals against misuse of information collected through telephone tapping, videography or any other method.
PM RESHUFFLES THE UNION CABINET

Seven Cabinet Ministers, two Ministers of State with Independent Charge and 13 Ministers of State were inducted in the Council of Ministers in reshuffle done by Prime Minister on Oct 28.
5 PACTS SIGNED WITH SPAIN

India and Spain signed five pacts, including a protocol for amending the over 19-year-old double taxation avoidance pact to check tax evasion. The two countries also signed a defence cooperation pact.
PORTFOLIO UPGRADED
Salman Khurshid Pawan Kumar Bansal Kamal Nath M Veerappa Moily Kumari Selja External Affairs Railways Parliamentary Affairs; Urban Development Petroleum & Natural Gas Social Justice
BAN LIFTED FROM TOURISM IN TIGER PARKS

The Supreme Court has lifted the ban imposed by it earlier on tourist activities in core areas of tiger reserve forests, in view of the comprehensive guidelines issued by the National Tourism Conservation Authority [NTCA] under the Wildlife Act for tourism in and around tiger reserves.
MINISTERS PROMOTED
M.M. Pallam Raju Ajay Maken Ashwani Kumar Dinesh J. Patel Harish Rawat Jyotiraditya Scindia Sachin Pilot Jitendra Singh K.H. Muniappa Bharatsinh Solanki Human Resource Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Law & Justice Mines Water Resources Power* Corporate Affairs* Youth Affairs and Sports * Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Drinking water & Sanitation*
AWARD FOR PERIYAR TIGER RESERVE

The Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR), Kerala, has won the coveted U.N.-India Biodiversity Governance award instituted by the Government of India and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the best managed protected area of the country.
4000 CRORE FOR JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS

Union Cabinet has approved Rs 4,000 crores proposal for multipronged strategy for the prevention and control of Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome. The scheme will be implemented in 60 priority districts for a period of 5 years from this year.
* Ministers of State with independent charge
NEW MINISTERS
K. Rahman Khan Chandresh Katoch Manish Tewari K. Chiranjeevi Minority Affairs Culture Information & Broadcasting* Tourism*
217 MN INDIANS ARE HUNGRY

The State of Food Insecurity in the World, an annual report brought out jointly by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme has revised the number of hungry people in world in 2010-12 downwards to 870 million, from 1 billion declared earlier. India remains home to the largest number of undernourished people in the world: 217 million (17.5%) as of 2012.
NEW MINISTERS OF STATE

Shashi Tharoor Tariq Anwar Deepa Dasmunsi Kodikunnil Suresh K.J. Surya Prakash Reddy Ranee Narah Adhir Ranjan Chaudhury A.H. Khan Chaudhury S. Sathyanarayana Ninong Ering Porika Balram Naik Kruparani Killi Lalchand Kataria HRD Agriculture Urban Development Labour Railways Tribal Affairs Railways Health Road Transport Minority Affairs Social Justice Communication & IT Defence
GREEN KUMBH YATRA FROM HYDERABAD

The worlds first Green Kumbh Yatra was launched from the COP-11 conference venue in Hyderabad on Oct. 14. The yatra will culminate at Allahabad, the site of the Maha Kumbh Mela, in January 2013. The United Nations Convention on Biodiversity secretariat will officially take part in the yatra. Aimed at mobilising masses and bringing awareness, the yatra is an environmental pilgrimage on foot and non-motorised vehicles traversing 1,125 kilometres through villages. After Allahabad, the yatra will continue across the continent and reach South Korea for COP-12 in 2014.
INDIA APPROVES NAGOYA PROTOCOL

The Central government has approved the ratification of the Nagoya Protocol on October 4. The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefits Sharing (ABS) is a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It provides a transparent legal framework for the effective implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. The Nagoya Protocol on ABS
S C RULES AGAINST AUCTION METHOD

Supreme Court has ruled that auction cannot be the only method for allocating natural resources. It said, profit maximisation cannot be the only basis for allocating natural resources. The court ruled that policy of auction has not got constitutional mandate. The apex court said that its 2G verdict was confined to allocation of spectrum and has not laid down any rule for other resources. It said, allocation of natural resources is a policy decision which should be backed by social and welfare measures.
was adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan.
FIRST MUSEUM ON INDIAN CINEMA
The first-ever museum of Indian cinema will come up in Mumbai in 2013, to mark the occasion of Indian cinema completing its 100 years, having started its journey with the screening of Raja Harishchandra in 1913. The National Museum of Indian Cinema will be set up in the premises of the Films Division.
GAAR MAY BE POSTPONED BY 3 YEARS
HOMAGE TO 1962 CHINA WAR MARTYRS

For the first time, the countrys defence establishment led by Union Defence Minister A. K. Antony paid homage to those who fought the 1962 war with China and sacrificed their lives. The Minister and the three Service Chiefs, laid wreaths at Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate, New Delhi. More than
The expert committee on GAAR (the General Anti-Avoidance Rules), headed by Parthasarathi Shome to address the concerns of foreign and domestic investors, has recommended postponement of the controversial tax provision by three years and abolition of capital gains tax on transfer of securities.
INDIA GRANTS $10 MN TO PALESTINE

India has agreed to extend development assistance of 10 million US dollars to Palestine and to support its bid for a full United Nations membership. Both countries also signed three pacts to enhance bilateral cooperation.
3,000 Indian soldiers laid down their lives during the war. Julia Gillard, Australian Prime Minister visits India. Juan Carlos I: King of Spain visits India. Anatoly Serdyukov: Russian Defense Minister visits India. Kolkata International Film Festival to be held at Kolkata from November 10. India and New Zealand signed five Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) in different fields of education. South Asian Film Festival held in Goa from 25th-28th October, for films from SAARC nations. Viswa Malayalee Mahotsavam held at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
INDIA RANKS 66TH IN FOOD SECURITY

A new global food security index shows India as a proteindeficient country and ranks it at 66th position among 105 nations surveyed. India ranked even below Sri Lanka (62).
BURUNDI PRESIDENT VISITS INDIA

India and Burundi signed three MOUs for cooperation on in the fields of Education, Health and Medicine and Rural Development. The MOUs were signed by the visiting President of Burundi Pierre Nkurunziza.
SEPTEMBER 2012
INDIA RANKS 111
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KISHENGANGA PROJECT IN ICJ
IN ECONOMIC FREEDOM
India ranks very low at 111th position in terms of economic freedom, behind countries like China, Nepal and Bangladesh, a global study has claimed in a worldwide index of 144 nations. The annual ranking, titled 'Economic Freedom of the World: 2012', is topped by Hong Kong, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland and Australia in the top-five. The index by Canada-based Fraser Institute, measure the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries support economic freedom.
India and Pakistan have concluded their arguments before International Court of Justice in the dispute over the 330-MW hydro-electric project on Kishenganga, a tributary of the Jhelum, near Bandipur in Jammu & Kashmir.
INDIA TO HELP IN TIPAIMUKH PROJECT

India has offered Bangladesh a stake in the Rs.15,000-crore Tipaimukh hydroelectric project on the Barak river in Manipur. Located about 210 km upstream of Bangladesh, the project has become controversial ever since Dhaka raised issues about lean period water discharges and impact on downstream agriculture, fisheries and environment.
INDIA RANKED 59TH IN COMPETITIVENESS
India's ranking declined by three places to 59th position in the Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013, compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF). India trails behind Brazil and South Africa by some 10 places and lags behind China by a margin of 30 positions. The global list was topped by Switzerland for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Singapore and Finland. The report noted that India's infrastructure is largely insufficient and ill-adapted to the needs of the economy. Moreover, the country also faces problem areas such as corruption and bureaucracy.
$106 MN W B AID FOR NUTRITION
The World Bank today approved a $106 million (about Rs 583 crore) credit to the government of India to improve the nutritional outcomes for children less than six years of age. India has one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world. One-third of the children are born with low birthweight, 43 per cent of children under five are underweight, 48 per cent are stunted, 20 per cent are wasted, 70 per cent are anemic, and 57 per cent are vitamin A deficient.
BARFI INDIAs ENTRY FOR OSCARS

Ranbir Kapoor starrer 'Barfi!', a love story of a deaf and mute boy set in the fairy-tale world of 1970s Darjeeling, has been nominated as Indian's entry to the Oscars next year in the foreign film category. The film has been directed by Anurag Basu.
SC UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE OF KASAB

The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack convict Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, saying that waging war against the country was the primary and foremost offence committed by the Pakistani terrorist. The Court rejected his contention that he was not given a free and fair trial in the case.
TEXTILE PACT WITH ISRAEL
India and Israel have signed pacts to boost the textiles business against the backdrop of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) being finalised between two nations as they celebrate 20 years of diplomatic relations.
India has announced a contribution of ten billion US dollars to International Monitory Fund. Ninth World Hindi Conference [WHC] held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 22-24 September, 2012. Second International Buddhist Conclave held at Varanasi on September 29.
WHO IS KASAB? Kasab, along with nine other Pakistani terrorists had landed in south Mumbai on November 26, 2008 night after travelling from Karachi by sea and had gone on a shooting spree at various city landmarks, in which 166 people were killed. While Kasab was captured alive, the other terrorists in his group were killed by security forces during the counter-terror operations.
MEET ON CHAHBAHAR PORT

India, Iran and Afghanistan held a trilateral meet to discuss ways to commercially exploit the Chahbahar port in Iran. Located in South East Iran, Chahbahar port offers tremendous opportunities for trade and commerce for India in Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan, which blocks the country's land routes.
AUGUST 2012
COALGATE SCAM DISRUPTS PARLIAMENT
Reacting to the Comptroller and Auditor Generals report on coal block allocations (coalgate scam), BJP disrupted Parliament demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who held the Coal portfolio when alleged irregularities took place. The CAG report has estimated a loss of Rs 1.86-lakh crore due to coal block allocations without auction from 2005 to 2009.
INDIA FACES DROUGHT
Monsoon rains will not be enough to save the country from its first drought in three years, says Indian Meteorological Department as it forecasted that the El Nino weather pattern should reduce rains again in the second half of the June to September season. Monsoon rains are considered deficient a drought in layman's terms - if they fall below 90 per cent of a 50-year average.
67% INDIA DEFECATES IN OPEN
According to a statement by Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Jairam Ramesh in Parliament, people of 67 per cent households in rural India defecate in the open and several states "fudge" data on building of toilets. If states were to be believed, 60 per cent households in rural India have already been provided toilets but according to 2011 Census over 33 per cent have the facility.
INDIA DONATES RICE TO YEMEN
In response to an appeal made by the United Nations to the international community to extend humanitarian assistance to Yemen, India has extended food assistance in the form of around 2,500 metric tonnes of rice valued at around $ 2 million.
WHAT IS EL NINO El Nino is a regularly occurring climatic feature. Every two to five years, El Nino reappears and lasts for several months or even a few years. El Nino takes place when warmer than usual sea water exists off the coast of South America. El Nino causes climate effects around the world. El Nino increases average ocean surface water temperature in the region. This mass of warm water is what causes climatic change around the world. WHAT IS LA NIA During a period of La Nia, the sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean will be lower than normal by 35 C. The name La Nia originates from Spanish, meaning "the girl," analogous to El Nio meaning "the boy."
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INDIA TV FEST IN GOA IN NOV

Buoyed by the robust growth in the television industry and with the advent of digitisation, Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) is set to organise an Indian Television Fest in Goa in November.
69TH NSSO TO START IN JULY

The 69th round of the National Sample Survey Organization's (NSSO) enumeration of socio-economic indicators will start in July, 2012. For the first time entire India, including Jammu and Kashmir will be covered. The survey will examine a range of indicators like size and state of houses, drinking water, sanitation, hygiene and slums.
YAMUNA EXPRESSWAY OPENED FOR TRAFFIC

The 165.5 km-long Noida-Agra Yamuna Expressway was inaugurated in Uttar Pradesh on 9th August.
$10 BN INDIAN HELP FOR GREECE

India announced 10 bn USD contributions to the IMF's additional 430 bn USD financial firewall to help the debtwracked 17-nation eurozone so that the faltering world economy is protected against the spread of any financial contagion.
India and Monaco have signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) Railways have started a double-decker air-conditioned train from Sarai Rohilla, New Delhi to Jaipur.
JULY 2012
Mr. MUKHERJEE ELECTED 13
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DELHI INVESTMENT SUMMIT ON AFGHANISTAN

India organised the Delhi Investment Summit on Afghanistan, with the support of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Afghanistan. The objective of the Summit is to attract foreign investment into Afghanistan in the light of new opportunities opening up in various sectors in that country.
PRESIDENT
Mr Pranab Mukherjee, one of the most experienced administrators, was declared elected as Indias thirteenth President. He defeated the former Speaker and opposition candidate, Mr P. A. Sangma.
COINS ON 60 YEARS OF PARLIAMENT

To commemorate the occasion of 60 years of Indian Parliament, the Reserve Bank will introduce Rs 5 and 10 denomination coins having the image of the Parliament House.
FIRST INDIAN UNIVERSITY BRANCH IN CHINA

The Karnataka-based private university - Manipal University is in talks with Tianjin University and Shanghai's Tongji University, to set up what would be China's first all-English educational institution that will provide training in Information Technology (IT) and in the sciences.
India has signed a new tax treaty with Norway that allows exchange of banking-related information for taxation purposes. India signs Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with Indonesia. International Cooperative Conference held at New Delhi on July 4, 2012. The Western Ghats of India have been included in the coveted list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.
RISING SEA LEVELS THREATEN MUMBAI

The tranquil stretches of emerald green backwaters in Mumbai and Kerala are among several locales in the western and eastern coasts facing threat from the rising sea level due to climate change. Deltas of the Ganga, Krishna, Godavari, Cauvery and Mahanadi on the east coast may also be threatened along with irrigated land and adjoining settlements, according to a Government report.
JUNE 2012
INDIA IN TOP 10 WEALTHY COUNTRIES
According to Datamonitor's 2012 Global Wealth Market Report, India is expected to experience explosive growth, and is anticipated to jump to sixth place by the end of 2012 in the world order of wealth markets. The top 10 wealth markets, in terms of dollar millionaire holdings at the end of 2011, in descending order, are the US, Japan, China, the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, Brazil, and India.
WB AND CII TO SAVE TIGER

In a bid to actively involve the private sector in the global effort to protect tiger, the World Bank and CII have teamed up to establish 'India Wildlife Business Council' that would promote the conservation of the endangered tiger species.
RED LIST FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES

The Red list of threatened species, prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has listed 132 species of plants and animals as Critically Endangered, the most threatened category, from India. Plants seemed to be the most threatened life form, with 60 species being listed as Critically Endangered.
INDIA HAS 162K MILLIONAIRE HOUSEHOLDS

In 2011, nearly 28,000 Indian households crossed the threshold to become millionaires ($1 million or Rs 5.5 crore at current prices) according to the Global Wealth Report 2012 of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). With 1.62 lakh millionaire households (1.34 lakh in 2010), India is still at 13th place in the global ranking.
INDIANS HOLD 12740 Cr IN SWISS BANKS
INDIA TO RANK 8TH IN IMF

India is set to become the eighth largest shareholder in the IMF after quota reforms which are likely to be finalised at the multilateral agencys Annual Meeting at Tokyo in October. Indias share at IMF is set to rise to 2.75 per cent from 2.44 per cent at present (11th position)
According to the latest data published by the Swiss National Bank, Switzerland, the quantum of money held by Indians in Swiss banks stood at 2.18 billion Swiss francs (about Rs. 12,740 crore) at the end of 2011, having risen for the first time in the past five years. INNOVATION ZONE FOR TELECOM INNOVATION Startup Village, said to be the first telecom incubator in the country, has tied up with Research in Motion (RIM),
manufacturers of Blackberry. RIM has set up an innovation zone' called Rubus Labs, at the Kinfra Hi-tech park, Kalamasserry, near here, to showcase telecom innovations, with a view to motivating technology entrepreneurs.
DELHI, MUMBAI TO GET MISSILE COVER
DRDO has selected Delhi and Mumbai as the first two metros to be covered under Ballistic Missile Defence system to provide a cover from the incoming enemy missiles. To ensure maximum protection against air-borne threats, DRDO will put a mix of counter-attack missiles which will be able to shoot down enemy missiles with the range of up to 2,000 km.
the state after 1952.The report of the interlocutors Dileep Padgaonkar (Head), Radha Kumar and M M Ansari ruled out a return to the pre-1953 position. It also said the state assembly will submit three names to the President for the post of Governor who will be appointed by the President. It also suggested that there should be no change in Article 356 and if the state government is dismissed, elections should be held within three months.
DTAA SIGNED WITH MALAYSIA
BUFFER ZONE FOR JARAWA TRIBALS

Government has approved a buffer zone in the 5 km radius around the Jarawa tribal settlements in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and provides for imprisonment up to seven years for those violating government norms for this area, to avoid their exploitation by photographers.
India and Malaysia today signed a double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) with a view to boosting bilateral trade and facilitating exchange of tax information.
INDIA RANKS 5TH IN CYBER CRIME

India is ranked fifth in the worldwide ranking of countries affected by cyber crime, claims a report by the Security and Defence Agenda (SDA) and McAfee.
The first Bi-lateral maritime exercise between India and Japan 'JIMEX 12' (Japan India Maritime Exercise) commenced on 09 June, off Tokyo. The 11th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) will be held from 7 to 9 January, 2013 in Cochin. It is celebrated on January 9th every year to commemorate the day of return of Mahatma Gandhi to India from South Africa in 1915. The annual World Economic Summit on India will be held in Gurgaon, Haryana in Nov. 2012. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh visited Mexico and Brazil to participate in the G-20 Summit at Los Cabos and to attend the Rio + 20 conference on Sustainable Development at Rio de Janeiro, respectively.
PER CAPITA DEBT CROSSES Rs 33,000

According to finance ministry data, the per capita debt in India was estimated at nearly Rs 33,000 at the end of March 2012. Internal debt is mainly on account of government borrowings, either from the market or even from individuals in the form of small savings schemes such as the National Savings Certificate or Public Provident Fund.
INDIA TOPS IN PRE TERM BIRTH DEATHS

According to a report published recently, India has the highest number of deaths due to premature births, and ranks 36th in the list of pre-term births globally. The ranking included 199 countries. Of the 27 million babies born in India annually (2010 figure), 3.6 million are born prematurely, of which 303,600 don't survive due to complications.
MAY 2012
PM VISITS MYANMAR AFTER 25 YEARS
Indian P M met Myanmar President Thein Sein at Naypiedaw, Capital of Myanmar, after a gap of 25 years. India extended a USD 500 million line of credit as part of 12 agreements on sectors like trade and energy signed with Myanmar, which vowed that its territory will not be allowed to be used by terrorists to target India.
INDIA 75TH IN MOTHERs INDEX

India has performed poorly on the mother and child front with its rank on the Mother's Index dropping to 76 in the list of 80 less developed countries'' category as against 75th position in 2011. The Mother's Index is based on a number of criteria such as lifetime risk of maternal death, per cent of births attended by skilled health personnel and other risk factors related to maternity. Norway tops the Index.
India and Myanmar have announced to launch a transborder bus service from Imphal to Mandalay. India would repair and upgrade the Tamu- Kalewa Friendship Road between Manipur and Myanmar.
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FOREIGN HELP FOR BLACK TIGER SHRIMP
INDIA RANKS 46
As per a World Bank survey, India now ranks 46th in global trade logistics performance, whose top five slot are occupied by Singapore, Hong Kong, Finland, Germany and Netherlands in the list of 155 countries.
IN GLOBAL TRADE
The government is planning to rope in global companies for the revival of Black Tiger shrimp farming in the country. This variety, also known as giant tiger prawns, is the most popular item in the Asian, European, and American markets.
JCC MEET WITH BANGLADESH

A host of strategic bilateral issues, including extradition treaty, Teesta water treaty and boundary implementation agreement were discussed in the first Indo-Bangla Joint Consultative Commission meeting held at New Delhi.
INTERLOCUTERS PRESENT REPORT ON J A& K

Centre's interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir have favoured setting up a Constitutional Committee to review all Central Acts and Articles of the Constitution of India to extended to
INDIA TO HOST E-9 MINISTERIAL MEETING

India will host the ninth E-9 Ministerial Review Meeting in New Delhi later in 2012 and assume the chair of the E-9 Secretariat from 2012-2014. Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan are the nine most highly-populated countries of the South (E-9).
NEWS FROM STATES

OCTOBER 2012
GOA TO ASSIST POOR WOMEN
Goa government has launched Grih Adhar scheme to provide Rs 1,000 per month to those women whose gross family income is less than Rs 3 lakh. The scheme will cover married women, divorcees and widows.
India Post celebrates 25 years of its premium service Speed Post. India has become the largest importer of arms during 2007-11 accounting for 10 per cent of global arms import as compared to Chinese share of 5 per cent. The Supreme Court has struck down the government's policy of giving subsidies to Haj pilgrims and directed that it be progressively eliminated within a period of 10 years.
ELECTIONS IN GUJARAT AND HP

Election Commission has announced that assembly elections in Gujarat will be held in two phases on 13th and 17th December while polls in Himachal Pradesh will take place on 4th November. Counting of votes for both States will be held on December 20.
APRIL 2012
PARLIAMENT TURNS 60 ON MAY 13
Indian Parliaments first sitting was held on May 13, 1952 and was marked by the address of the first Indian President Rajendra Prasad to the Houses. The same day, the first PM Jawaharlal Nehru took oath.
SACHIN, REKHA JOIN RAJYA SABHA

Sachin Tendulkar, Rekha and Anu Aga, former chairperson of Thermax Industries, a social worker and a member of the National Advisory Council, have been nominated to Rajya Sabha under Article 80 of the Constitution, which allows the
The West Bengal Govt has decided to provide 8 kg of free foodgrains every month to members of the Toto community, one of the countrys oldest tribes, which is facing extinction. Maharashtra government is planning to set up Spanish language departments in its universities. The humble house sparrow has been notified as the State bird of Delhi Jackei Shroff appointed brand ambassador of Beti Bachao Abhiyan launched by Bihar government against female foeticide.
SEPTEMBER 2012
DELHI BANS USE FO PLASTIC BAGS

In a major environment-friendly initiative, the Delhi government has decided to impose a blanket ban on manufacture, sale, storage and use of plastic bags in the national capital. Under the ban, use of plastic cover/pouch to pack magazines, invitation cards, greeting cards will also be prohibited.
President to nominate to the Rajya Sabha 12 members having special knowledge of, or practical experience in literature, science, art and social service.
TEA NATIONAL DRINK OF INDIA
Govt proposes to declare Tea as national drink by April 17 next year to coincide with the 212th birth anniversary of the first Assamese tea planter and Sepoy Mutiny leader Maniram Dewan.
SOLAR SALT FARM IN GUJARAT

A model solar farm will be established in Gujarat based on the internationally patented technology of the Central Salt Marine & Chemical Research Institute (CSMCRI) to manufacture export-grade 99 per cent NaCl (Sodium Chloride) purity salt. Gujarat produces 73% of Indias salt production.
Two day World IT Forum Meet held in New Delhi The President visits Seychelles from April 30 to May 1 and South Africa from May 1 to May 7. A commemorative stamp released on former President of India R. Venkataraman as a part of his centenary celebrations. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon visits India and received an honorary doctorate degree from Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.
Arunachal Pradesh has launched Rashtriya Aarogya Nidhi scheme to provide financial assistance upto 1.5 lakh rupees to BPL patients suffering from life threatening diseases in the form of one time grant. Tamilnadu Assembly celebrates its Diamond Jubilee on October 29 when it completes 60 years of its establishment.
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AUGUST 2012
KEROSENE FREE DELHI
Delhi Government has launched a scheme to end the use of kerosene as household fuel, as often it does not reach the intended beneficiaries. Over 3.5 lakh BPL and poor families will get free LPG cylinders and gas stoves under this scheme.
BUDDHIST CENTRE IN AR. PRADESH
Arunachal Pradesh has got its first full-fledged Buddhist centre - The Central Institute of Himalayan Culture Studies at Dahung in West Kameng district. The other three centers are in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Punjab has bagged the top position in country in the field of dairy farming with the production of 95.4 lakh MT milk annually West Bengal Assembly is celebrating its Platinum Jubilee. Germany agrees to give Rs 365 crore loan to develop urban infrastructure in Odisha.
GUJARAT TO DEVELOP COASTAL TOURISM
Planning Commission has approved Rs 1,200-crore for the Gujarat Governments plan to boost coastal tourism project which includes developing 10 beaches on the 1,600 km coastline area of Gujarat, longest amongst Indian states.
GUWAHATI TO BE HEALTHCARE HUB

The Assam government is aiming to turn Guwahati into a regional hub for healthcare catering to patients not only from the North-East but also from neighbouring countries of Bhutan and Bangladesh.
JULY 2012
RIGHT TO SERVICE IN KERALA
The govt in Kerala has passed the Kerala State Right to Service Bill, 2012, entitling the citizens to assert their right to all the services that each government department is supposed to provide them.
NO FEE FROM GIRLS IN UP

The Uttar Pradesh government has waived off tuition fees for girl students of all sections of the society from Class IX to XII in all government, aided and non-aided recognised schools of UP Board.
BIHAR GROWTH SHINES AT 16.71%

Amid economic slowdown, Bihar economy grew at a rate of 16.71 per cent in comparison to its performance in the previous fiscal.
KERALA TO BE FULLY DIGITAL
The Rajasthan government has decided to ban the production, storage, distribution and sale of gutkha in State. About 18 lakh laptops and 26 lakh computer tablets will be distributed to students who passed out of classes 10 and 12 in Uttar Pradesh, during the current academic session. Govt has cleared the Rs.5,128-crore Kochi Metro Rail project for Kerala state.
Kerala govt plans to promote the e-governance platform to become the first fully digital State by March, 2013. Every citizen would be given an e-mail ID based on the UID Aadhaar. All government transactions and applications would be handled through e-mail.
KERALA NIRMAL STATE
Very soon, Kerala will be declared Nirmal state, i.e. - open defecation free state. Among the small states, Sikkim has
already achieved the Nirmal status.
Maharashtra is one of the highest users of tobacco in the country with 43 per cent adult males and 19 per cent adult females addicted to it. Karnataka Legislative Assembly celebrates 60th anniversary of its establishment. The Tripura Govt has decided to allow its male employees a 7 days paternity leave.
JUNE 2012
RIVER LAKE LINKING PROJECT IN MP
Madhya Pradesh has launched the country's first ever riverlake linking project in the water-scarce Bundelkhand region. The Harpura irrigation and river-lake link project will link the perennial Jamni River to the nearby lakes and water bodies built during the Chandel era, providing irrigation to an additional 1,980 hectares of land.
DELHI INDIAS MOST COMPETITIVE CITY

Delhi has been named the most competitive city in India, securing 68th rank in the list of 120 of the worlds major cities compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) research report by Citi. Mumbai ranked 70th in the index, followed by Bangalore, Indias Silicon Valley, at 79th rank, Pune at 97, Chennai at 105 and Kolkata at 106.
LAND RECORDS THROUGH SATELLITE
Village Kurbanpur of district Ambala, Haryana, has become the first village of the country to make available the fully computerized land records of all its farmers through satellite.
It is very important to attain coaching for competitive exams as the syllabus is vast and with effective coaching, it becomes easier for a student to achieve the desired results. I am thankful to Gyanm for their perpetual support.
VIJAY PAUL (SSC TIER II) 8
MAY 2012
KARNATAKA TOPS IN FISH PRODUCTION
Karnataka has emerged as the leading coastal state with highest growth of fish production. With about five lakh tonnes of annual fish production, Karnataka accounts for almost six per cent of overall fish production in India which is currently estimated at about 91 lakh tonnes
Assam and West Bengal have announced to start a State TV news channel for presenting the official side of developments. Around 5,200 French nationals from Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam exercised their franchise in the first round of the French Presidential elections. Patna to get Asias first Dolphin Research Centre.
KERALA BANS GUTKA/ TOBACCO PRODUCTS

The Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala has banned manufacture and sale of gutka and pan masala containing tobacco in the state with immediate effect. Kerala is the second state to ban the use of gutka and pan masala after Madhya Pradesh.
GOVT INITIATIVES
OCTOBER 2012
PM LAUNCHES AADHAAR BASED SERVICES
The much awaited Aadhaar enabled system for direct cash transfer to beneficiaries under social schemes such as MNREGA and pension was launched on Oct. 20, on second anniversary of Aadhaar project by Prime Minister at Dudu, district Jaipur, Rajasthan. The payment mechanism is aimed at checking corruption and pilferage in the social sector schemes that seek to promote financial inclusion. In the last two years, the UIDAI has generated over 20 crore Aadhaar numbers.
MAHA TO WAIVE WEAVER LOANS
Maharashtra Government has announced waiving off loans to the tune of Rs 50,000 borrowed by the weavers and handloom workers till March 31, 2010.
NEW HEALTH SCHEME IN MP

In Madhya Pradesh, a consolidated scheme has been introduced to provide health services in all 52 thousand villages of the state. Sampoorna Swasthya Sabke Liye scheme contains all the health scheme of the central and state government. Under this Scheme, the smallest unit Gram Arogya Kendra will be work at village level.
NATIONAL POLICY ON ELECTRONICS 2012

The Cabinet has cleared the National Policy on Electronics 2012, which aims to make the domestic electronic hardware manufacturing segment a $400-billion industry by 2020, involving investment of about $100 billion and employment to around 28 million people at various levels.
The Uttar Pradesh Government has decided to give Rs 1,000 per month as unemployment allowance to the youth between 30 and 40 years of age. The Uttarkhand Government has decided to give allowance to the unemployed educated youth. Karnataka has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mizuho Corporate Bank of Japan for mutual co-operation and investment promotion. Zila Parishad of distict Kurukshetra, Haryana has won the National Panchayati Raj Award for successfully implementing all Central Government schemes. High Altitude Cloud Physics Laboratory opened at Mahabaleshwar (Maharashtra)
NEW LAND BILL CLEARED
The Group of Ministers has cleared the controversial land bill, The Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition' Bill, suggesting that the consent of 66% of the affected people would be required for acquisition of land for private and PPP projects, instead of 80% proposed earlier.
NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE BOARD

The Union Cabinet has approved setting up of a National Automotive Board (NAB), a body that would act as a facilitator between the government and the automobile industry, and promote R&D activities in the sector.
APRIL 2012
HP TO BECOME CARBON NEUTRAL STATE
HARSHER PENALTY FOR PORN MMS

The Cabinet has approved amendments to the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 as per which sending a pornographic multimedia message and emails may land you in jail for up to three years. It may also attract a fine between Rs.50,000 and Rs.100,000 for first conviction. A second conviction will invite an imprisonment of not less than two years, but which may extend to seven years, and a fine between Rs.100,000 and Rs.500,000.
World Bank has agreed to provide a $200 million loan to the State in order to enable it become the country's first carbon neutral State' by 2020.
Countrys first Radio frequency identification, RFID, Technology Based Electronic Toll Plaza started at Chandimandir, Panchkula, Haryana, on Zirakpur Parwanoo Highway. Assam launched the biggest river cruise of the country, MV Mahabahu in Guwahati Assam celebrates Platinum Jubilee (75 years) of its Legislative Assembly
All public data will now be freely available at the click of a mouse with the launch of a national data portal next month. Government portal data.gov.in, that will be used to share
GOVT TO LAUNCH DATA PORTAL
official data with the public, is set to be fully functional soon. The framework will be provided by National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP).
NIRMAL BHARAT YATRA LAUNCHED

Govt. has launched a 2000 kms Nirmal Bharat Yatra from October 3 from the Gandhi Ashram located in Sevagram in Wardha (Maharashtra) to promote the message of making the country open defecation-free and ensuring proper sanitation in rural areas. Actor Vidya Balan has been made the brand ambassador of the campaign which will end on November 17 in Bettiah, Bihar.
30 per cent of the products must be procured from small scale industries which have a total investment in plant and machinery not exceeding $1 million. Fresh agricultural produce, including fruits, vegetables, flowers, grains, pulses, fresh poultry, fishery and meat products, may be unbranded. Retail chains will be allowed only in cities with a population of more than 10 lakh as per 2011 Census. State governments/Union Territories (UTs) would be free to take their own decisions in regard to implementation of the policy.
GOVT APPROVES COMPUTERISATION OF PDS

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the first phase of the end-to-end computerization of Targeted Public Distribution System. This will kickstart the process of integration of Aadhar number into the PDS system, which will improve targeting of the subsidized grains and reduce leakages. The digitization of records of beneficiaries will help in weeding out fake ration cards and better targeting of subsidies.
GOVT OPENS DOORS TO FDI
To fight out the allegation of the policy paralysis, the government unleashed big-ticket reforms in the FDI sector to attract foreign investment to heal ailing economy. Main proposals approved by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs included:
49% FDI IN PENSION/INSURANCE

Signaling the government's intent to continue with reforms to boost economic growth and investor sentiment, the Union Cabinet has approved bill allowing 49% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in insurance and pension funds. The two proposals have evoked wide spread protest from various political parties. Two other less contentious economic legislations one modernising the Companies Act and another, the Forward Contracts Bill, empowering the regulator of commodities markets were also approved by the cabinet.
allowing 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail, 100 per cent FDI in single brand retail 49 per cent FDI in civil aviation to help domestic carriers to allow 49 per cent FDI in two power exchanges Increase the limit from 49 per cent to 74 per cent in the broadcasting sector. 100 per cent FDI in single brand retail would be notified soon. The Cabinet also announced disinvestment of its equity in four public sector companies to raise Rs. 15,000 crore.
PMO PUSHES FOR REFORMS

The Prime Minister's Office has drawn up a list of reforms that can be implemented by the executive and will have the effect of unlocking investments and removing hurdles for expansion of projects. These include setting up a railway tariff authority, nudging RBI to issue new bank licences, putting in place a new policy for pricing of natural gas, and ensuring faster clearances for private sector oil and gas producers like Cairn and RIL
A high-power National Committee on Direct Cash Transfers has been constituted under Chairmanship of the Prime Minister to reduce corruption at the grass root level.
SEPTEMBER 2012
MANY 'RIDERS IN MULTI-BRAND RETAIL
DIRECT SUBSIDY FOR KEROSENE

To check the black marketing of cheap kerosene sold through the Public Distribution System, Government has decided to deposit subsidy on the fuel directly in the bank accounts of intended beneficiaries. Under the new scheme, ration card holders would get kerosene at market rates from PDS shops. The new scheme is being implemented in Maharashtra state.
ONLY 6 SUBSIDISED LPG CYLIDERS

The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has decided to restrict the supply of subsidised LPG cylinders to six for each household annually to reduce losses of oil marketing companies. During the fiscal, even after this measure, the companies are estimated to lose above Rs 32,000 crore on domestic LPG.
The 51% FDI in multi-brand retail notification has set a number of conditions aimed at securing the interest of common man. Major stipulations include: A minimum investment of $100 million, 50 per cent of which should be invested in back-end infrastructure.
SAKSHAM TO FOCUS ON ADOLESCENT BOYS

The Centre has decided to launch a scheme to empower adolescent boys by educating them on gender sensitivity and moral behaviour. Launched by the Ministry of Women and
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Child Development, the scheme known as Saksham aims to target young boys in the age group 10-18 years for their holistic development by giving lessons in gender sensitivity and inculcating in them respect for women.
340 LAKH TO BE COVERED UNDER RSBY

The government will cover three crore 40 lakh families under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana during the current financial year. The government has launched the scheme to provide smart card based cashless health insurance cover of 30 thousand per annum on a family floater basis to BPL families in the unorganised sector.
TRC MUST FOR FOREIGN INVESTORS
India has made it mandatory for all foreign investors to furnish a tax residency certificate of their home country to claim benefits under the double taxation avoidance agreement. This will make the process of claiming tax credit easier for foreigners by removing the arbitrariness in the earlier regime.
I T POLICY ANNOUNCED
The government has approved the National Policy on Information Technology, which aims to make at least one individual in every household e-literate among other objectives. The industrys goal is to reach USD 100 billion turnover and USD 200 billion of exports by 2020.
NEW RADIATION NORMS FOR MOBILE TOWERS

New norms for mobile towers, in which the Electromagnetic Frequency (EMF) exposure limit from Base Station Emission is lowered to one-tenth of the existing level, became effective from Sep. 1, 2012. Non-compliance of EMF standards will attract a penalty of Rs 5 lakh per tower.
MILLETS IN MID DAY MEAL SCHEME
The Centre has asked states to introduce millets in mid-day meal schemes in schools to boost demand for the nutritious grain. The mid-day meal, which is the largest government
The government has made electronic payment of customs duty mandatory in order to further reduce transaction cost of the importers. The govt is negotiating with the World Bank to set up a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Institute in the country.
school feeding programme, has a food grain requirement of 28.50 lakh tonnes in 2012-13, which includes 23.8 lakh tonnes of rice and 4.7 lakh tonnes of wheat.
AUGUST 2012
NREGA FOR 150 DAYS IN DROUGHT AREAS

To offer some relief to farmers in drought-affected states, a ministerial panel has decided to increase the number of guaranteed work days under MGNREGA to 150 days (only in drought affected areas) and cut interest rates on crop loans to 7 per cent for one year in such areas.
COMMITTEE FOR BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT

Government has set up a committee, headed by former Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman M. Damodaran to suggest ways to improve the climate for doing business in the country as figures showed foreign direct investment in India has come down by 78 percent in June, 2012.
COMMITTEE TO IMPROVE PANCHAYATS

Govt has set up a committee under chairmanship of Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar to examine how panchayats can be leveraged for more efficient delivery of public goods and services. The committee will also suggest ways to encourage States to devolve the three Fs funds, functions and functionaries to panchayats.
RAJIV HOUSING LOAN SCHEME
Govt plans to launch the Rajiv Housing Loan Scheme to provide financial assistance to urban poor for house construction. Under this scheme, people belonging to the economically weaker sections would be given relief on interest for housing loans of less than Rs 5 lakh.
BILL PASSED TO CURB SEXUAL HARASSMENT

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Bill, 2010, that seeks to protect women, including domestic workers, from sexual harassment at workplace, has been passed in the Lok Sabha. Sexual harassment includes any unwelcome act or behaviour such as physical contact and advances, a demand or request for sexual favours or making sexually coloured remarks or showing pornography.
COMPLETE BAN ON CHILD LABOUR

The government has cleared a proposal to put a complete ban on employment of children up to the age of 14 both in hazardous and non-hazardous work by amending the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. As per the provision of the proposed law, a person found guilty of giving employment to children would be liable to a maximum three years imprisonment or fine up to a maximum of 50,000 rupees.
CAREER COUNSELLING
AT GYANM COLLEGE
OF COMPETITIONS
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PAK ALLOWED FDI IN INDIA

The Reserve Bank has notified that a citizen of Pakistan or an entity incorporated in that country may, with the prior approval of the Government of Indias Foreign Investment Promotion Board, purchase shares and convertible debentures of an Indian company under the Foreign Direct Investment Scheme. FDI is, however, not permitted in sectors/activities pertaining to defence, space and atomic energy and sectors/activities prohibited for foreign investment.
population under the ambitious programme to provide them legal right to highly subsidised foodgrains. Under the changes being proposed, each beneficiary would be entitled to get five kg foodgrains per month (rice at Rs 3; wheat at Rs 2 and millets at Rs 1 per kg) from ration shops.
NATIONAL POLICY FOR CHILDREN REVISED

The Women and Child Development ministry has revised the National Policy for Children for the first time since it was adopted in 1974. Some of the key priorities listed in the draft are making survival, health, nutrition, development, education, protection as basic rights of every child. As per the policy draft, every child has a right to be safeguarded against hunger, deprivation and malnutrition and the State would commit to securing this right through access, provision and promotion of required services and supports for holistic nurturing.
INDIA CHINA SET UP TRADE GROUP
India and China have agreed to set up a joint working group to resolve the bilateral trade concerns and strengthen economic cooperation. India raised its concerns over widening trade deficit with China while China expressed its worries on visa rules and duty hike on power equipment imports by India.
BILL TO ABOLISH INSANITARY LATRINES

The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012, aims to get rid of insanitary latrines within nine months of its notification. An insanitary latrine is defined as a toilet where excreta is cleaned or manually handled before complete decomposition. Employing or hiring people for cleaning septic tanks and sewers within one year of the notification of the Act can
COLD WAVE/FROST ARE NATURAL CALAMITY
attract imprisonment up to two years and a fine of Rs. 2 lakh for the first violation. Subsequent instances will attract imprisonment up to five years and a fine of Rs. 5 lakh.
Damage to crops due to cold wave and frost would now be eligible for central and state assistance following the government's decision to consider such weather condition as natural calamity. At present, cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloud burst and pest attack are treated as natural calamities and are eligible for relief under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
COMMITTEE TO REVIEW TAXATION

Govt has constituted a Committee to Review Taxation of Development Centres and the IT Sector. The Committee will engage in consultations with stakeholders and related government departments to finalise the Safe Harbour provisions announced in Budget 2010 sector-by-sector. It will also suggest the approach to taxation of Development Centres.
BILL TO ENLARGE TERRORIST ACT
The Union Cabinet has approved amendments in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act by including unlawful financial activities like money laundering, terror financing and circulation of fake Indian currency in the definition of terrorist act. The Bill also enhances the period - from two to five years - for which an association involved in terrorist acts, including terror financing, will be declared unlawful. The bill now will be placed before Parliament for approval.
GOVT HIKES STAKE IN IFCI
The Union Cabinet has approved the conversion of OCDs (optionally convertible debentures) worth Rs. 923 crore held by the government in The Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) into equity, increasing govt stake in IFCI to 55.57 per cent.
WHAT IS A DEVELOPMENT CENTER Many MNCs carry out activities such as product development, analytical work, software development, etc. through captive entities in India. These are popularly called Development Centres. Over 750 MNCs have such centres at over 1100 locations in India. These Centres provide high quality jobs to our scientists, and indeed make India a global hub for such Knowledge Centres.
NEW BOARD FOR OIL&GAS PROJECTS The government has decided to set up a Project Clearance Board for speedy one time clearances to oil and gas projects. This will include security aspects. It is to be set up on the lines of Foreign Investment Promotion Board-FIPB. NO SERVICE TAX ON REMITTANCES The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), has clarified that remittances from abroad would not attract service tax. As the amount of remittance comprises money, the activity does not comprise a service and thus not subjected to service tax, it said.
JULY 2012
PRODUCER PRICE INDEX FROM RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D. Subbarao has proposed a Producer Price Index (PPI), which would measure the average change over time in the sale prices of domestic goods and services. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) does not capture the price movement of services. Also, it is a hybrid of consumer and producer price quotes. In contrast, PPI measures price changes from the perspective of the seller. Sellers and purchasers prices differ due to government subsidies, sales and excise taxes, and distribution costs.
FRP FOR SUGARCANE Rs 170/QTL

The cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) has increased the statutory minimum price for sugarcane by 17.25% to compensate farmers for rising cultivation costs.
FOOD BILL TO COVER 70%
The government has decided to expand the scope of Food Security Bill to cover about 70 per cent of the country's
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Sugar mills will have to pay farmers at least Rs 170 per quintal as the fair and remunerative price (FRP) for cane in the new season starting October 1, up from Rs 145/quintal in the current season.
toilets, proper signages in and around the premises of the heritage site, are taken care of.
DRDO TO BUILD BIO TOILETS
JUNE 2012
IDENTIFY BPL TRIBAL FAMILIES: RAMESH
Rural Development Minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh has directed Chief Ministers of all the states to ensure that all efforts should be made to identify the BPL tribal families and make them eligible for the Indira Awaas Yojana and the National Social Assistance Programme.
Rural Development Ministry has announced that they would soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the DRDO, Ministry of Defence for installation of bio-toilets in 1000 gram panchayats across the country. The project will cost Rs 400crores.
GOVT FUNDS FOR SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

Union Rural Development Ministry has announced that each Panchayat in the country will get twenty lakh rupees for solid waste management. For setting up of solid waste management systems, central funding will be 70 per cent and the remaining 30 per cent will have to be borne by the States.
CAs TO AUDIT NREGA ACCOUNTS
Chartered Accountants will begin certification of accounts under MGNREGA scheme at randomly selected village panchayats from April 2013. Every year, 20 per cent of the village panchayats in the country will be randomly selected for CA certification.
Rs. 10,000 FOR HOUSEHOLD LATRINES

In a bid to banish the spectre of open defecation within a decade, the government has increased its spending on toilets for rural areas, hiking the amount to be spent for a household latrine from the existing Rs.4,600 to Rs.10,000 under Total Sanitation Campaign now renamed as the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA). Under the revised scheme, toilets will be built using Rs.3,200 from the Centre and Rs.1,400 from the State government. The homeowner will contribute Rs.900, while the remaining Rs.4,500 will be leveraged through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
MORE EXEMPTIONS FROM SERVICE TAX
The government has decided to exempt 14 more services from payment of service tax by July 1. Advocates with a turnover of up to Rs 10 lakhs, companies engaged in construction of metro projects, law firms, and entities providing public conveniences will not have to pay 12 per cent service tax.
ENHANCED SERVICE TAX FROM JULY 1

From July 1, all services except those in the negative list will be taxed, as was decided in the 2012-13 budget proposals. The Budget also hiked the service tax rate by two per cent to 12 per cent. Services like metered taxis, auto rickshaws, betting, gambling, lottery, entry to amusement parks, transport of goods or passengers and electricity distribution by discoms have been kept in the negative list. Other important services which will not attract the tax include funeral, burial, mutate services and transport of deceased. Govt defines service as "any activity carried out by
RS 36,000 CRORE FOR SANITATION
Seeking to give a big boost to sanitation in rural areas, Planning Commission has allocated a sum of Rs 36,000 crores for improving sanitation in rural areas during the 12th Five Year Plan, up from Rs 7800 Crore in the previous Plan.
RLY TO OFFER CONCESSION TO PATIENTS
a person for consideration".
Railways has decided to grant 50 per cent concession in train fares to patients suffering from aplastic anaemia and sickle cell anaemia for their onward and return journey when they go for treatment or periodical check-up to recognised hospitals.
EXPORT OF MILK POWDER ALLOWED
The government has lifted ban on exports of skimmed milk powder (SMP) to improve finances of dairy firms and help milk producers. However ban continues on exports of milk and cream, concentrated or containing added sugar or other sweetening matter, including whole milk powder, dairy whitener and infant milk foods.
DEPTT FOR DISABILITY AFFAIRS

The government has created a separate department of Disability Affairs, which was earlier part of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, to cater to the needs of an estimated 2.1-crore-strong disabled population of the country.
Rs 1,100 Cr FOR NATGRID

The govt has approved Rs.1,100 crore for purchase of hitech equipment for the National Intelligence Grid - NATGRID that will pool information from 21 categories of database. The NATGRID was conceptualised after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks to facilitate robust information sharing by 11 security and law enforcement agencies.
CLEAN INDIA CAMPAIGN

Govt has launched Clean India Campaign from Qutab Minar in New Delhi. The project aims to sensitize young people about environment cleanliness. Under the project, all issues including providing drinking water facilities, renovation of
Gyanm is like second home to me where I used to spend whole day and study for hours. The teachers are cooperative and cleared all my doubts. Mock tests are conducted in an environment which is next to the real exam. Overall I would like to thank the Gyanm team for their efforts.
JAVED KHAN (SSC TIER II, AAI, RAILTEL, SAIL)
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TWO NEW MEGA PORTS

Govt has decided to set up two major new ports in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh as part of a maritime agenda that includes a ramp up of port infrastructure by 2020.
MAY 2012
CENTENARY AWARD FOR FILMS
To celebrate the 100th year of Indian cinema, the I&B ministry has instituted a Centenary Award (of Rs 10 lakh) which will be given to a path-breaking Indian or International film every year at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.
INDUSTRY PROMOTION BOARD SET UP Government has set up a high-level Manufacturing Industry promotion Board (MIPB) under Commerce and
Industry Minister Anand Sharma to boost manufacturing sector.
ISEET TO REPLACE IIT-JEE/AIEEE

From 2013, aspiring candidates for IITs and other central institutes like NITs and IIITs will have to sit under new a format of entrance test which will also take plus two board results into consideration. The new exam - ISEET (Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test) will replace the IITJEE and AIEEE. For admission to all the centrally funded institutes, there would be 40 percentage weightage for performance in Class XII (after normalisation of marks), 30 per cent weightage to performance in main and 30 per cent in the advanced test.
HEALTH INSURANCE UP TO 65 YEARS
IRDA has proposed to make it mandatory for health insurers to provide policy cover to people up to 65 years and settle all claims within a month.
TRACKING SYSTEM FOR MEGA PROJECTS

Prime Minister has approved setting up of an Investment Tracking System to ensure speedy implementation of mega projects envisaging outlay of over Rs 1,000 crore. The step has been taken in view of declining growth rate and need to arrest economic slowdown. While implementation of public sector projects of over Rs 1,000 crore will be tracked by the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, those in the private sector would be monitored by the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance.
'ONE MP - ONE IDEA' SCHEME UNDER MPLAD
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has announced a new scheme 'One MP - One Idea' under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS). An 'One MP - One Idea' Competition will be held in each Lok Sabha constituency annually to select the three best innovative ideas received from the local people regarding developmental projects in the constituency.
COMMITTEE TO REVIEW POVERTY LINE

The government has set up a technical panel to review the Tendulkar Committee methodology for deciding the poverty line for which it has been facing increasing criticism in recent months. The technical group panel headed by the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman Dr. C. Rangarajan will "revisit the methodology for estimation of the poverty and identification of the poor. Based on the methodologies suggested by Tendulkar Committee those who consume more than Rs.28.65 per daily in cities and Rs.22.42 in rural areas were not poor.
NATIONAL TELECOM POLICY 2012 ANNOUNCED

The Cabinet has approved the National Telecom Policy-2012 that proposes to abolish roaming charges on mobile phones and allow users to retain the same number across the country.
THE THRUST AREAS OF NTP 2012

Rural Teledensity To improve rural teledensity from the current level of around 39 to 70 by the year 2017 and 100 by the year 2020 2. Broadband Broadband For All at a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps 3. Domestic Manufacturing - Making India a global hub 4. Convergence of Network, Services and Devices 5. Liberalization of Spectrum - any Service in any Technology 6. Simplification of Licensing regime - Unified Licensing, delinking of Spectrum from License, Online real time submission and processing 7. Consumer Focus - Achieve One Nation Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation Free Roaming 8. Resale of Services 9. VOIP Voice over Internet Protocol 10. Cloud Computing Next Generation Network including IPV6 1.
PF INTEREST RATE REVISED TO 8.8%
The government has increased interest rates on General Provident Fund, GPF, State Provident Funds and Special Deposit Scheme, SDS, for the current financial year to 8.8 per cent. The rates were currently at 8.6 per cent.
MANDATORY RURAL POSTING FOR MBBS

Government has decided to make one year rural posting compulsory for doctors and include it in the MBBS course curriculum. Doctors will be attached with the Health Ministrys flagship programme National Rural Health Mission during the year-long rural posting which will also help improve health care services in villages.
GOVT GRANTS WOMEN SHARE IN PROPERTY
Govt has extended the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) to domestic workers. India and Bahrain have signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement.
The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, approved by the cabinet, will give the woman, in case of divorce, half a share in her husband's residential property, regardless of whether the property was acquired before or during the marriage. This is the first time that the woman's share in marital property has been made part of the marriage legislation.
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415 LAWS REPEALED

The Govt has repealed 415 obsolete and redundant laws and 17 Acts were in various stages of being withdrawn and another nine Acts were under examination for repeal or amendment. Law Minister Salman Khurshid said 1382 laws had been identified redundant by a special commission set up by the government.
should treat all movable and immovable assets of a married couple or a couple living together as joint property and which can be divided at the time of separation/desertion, regardless of who has bought the property, the minister said.
SEPARATE ACT FOR SIKH MARRIAGES
RAILWAYS TO LAUNCH SIMRAN

All trains, including Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto, will be monitored by a satellite-based navigation system Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation (SIMRAN) by next year as part of the Railways' effort to provide accuracy about their movement. (Indian railways have now introduced are new application Rail Radar enables the commuters to know the location of a train on a map and visualize the running-train network on Google maps. The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), the information technology (IT) arm of the Indian Railways has developed the application.)
Parliament has passed an act enabling registration of marriages of Sikhs under the Anand Marriage Act, 1909 meeting a long-standing demand of the community for a separate provision for them instead of being included under the Hindu Marriage Act. The Anand Act, enacted in 1909, had no provision for registration of marriage which continued to be registered under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
BUSINESS CONFIDENCE INDEX
MORE SERVICES UNDER MGNREGA

The Centre will include a number of additional activities in the work schedule of its flagship programme MGNREGS to boost the performance of the scheme. The new list has 30 different categories of work related to agriculture, rural sanitation, drinking water, watersheds, fisheries and livestock.
The Corporate Affairs Ministry plans to bring out a Business Confidence Index (BCI), which would be an indicator of optimism of business managers in the country. The index would help measure the business sectors perception based on political and economic situation. This would enable to bring out the right pulse and vibrancy in the economy.
RLYS TO PLANT 1CRORE SAPLINGS
The Railways has fixed a target of planting one crore saplings on its land in the current financial year. In the last three years, about two crore and sixty-one lakh saplings were planted. This drive is part of the Railways' commitment to improve the environment as also to safeguard its land from unauthorized occupation.
TCS ON GOLD PURCHASES ABOVE 2LAKH
According to the Finance Bill, it is now mandatory for the seller of jewellery to collect tax at the rate of 1% from the sale amount from the buyer for all cash transaction exceeding Rs 500,000 and deposit it with the Government. (Earlier the limit proposed was 2 lac only).
PLIF FOR INDIAN WORKERS ABROAD The government is promoting a new Pension and Life Insurance Fund (PLIF) scheme in a bid to provide
financial security to poor Indians working abroad. PILF is for Indian workers aged between 18 and 50 who have a work permit or employment contract and whose passports carry the 'Emigration Clearance Required' stamp.
NOTIFICATION OF TB MANDATORY
The Centre has declared Tuberculosis, TB as a mandatory notifiable disease with immediate effect. Notification of TB cases by all healthcare providers will help patients better access to quality diagnosis and treatment.
7 YR JAIL FOR HITTING CHILDREN
TAX REBATE TO PE FUNDS

The government has decided to cut the long-term capital gain tax on investments made by private equity funds (PE Funds) into shares of unlisted companies, from 20 per cent to 10 per cent, to bring them at par with FIIs, which are taxed at 10%.
The government has put its foot down against corporal punishment and ragging and is proposing changes in the law that would send offenders to up to seven years in jail. To protect children in educational institutions, the government has for the first time defined corporal punishment and ragging in the proposed changes to the Juvenile Justice Act, which is being renamed as the Child Justice (Care, Protection and Rehabilitation of Children) Act.
1000 ATMs BY INDIA POST
The Department of Post plans to set up 1000 ATMs at post offices and convert them into banks for taking core banking to unbanked population using the vast postal network. There are 154,688 post offices in the country, the largest postal network in the world. Of these 25,154 are departmental post offices and the rest Gramin Dak Sewak (GDS) managed post offices which are predominantly in the rural areas.
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RIGHT TO MARITAL PROPERTY ACT
A panel set up by the Planning Commission has recommended enactment of a comprehensive Right to Marital Property Act, applicable to all communities, which
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The government has increased interest rates on Special Deposit Scheme (SDS) and State Provident Funds for the year 2012-13 to 8.8 per cent from 8.6 per cent at present. The new rate will be applicable from April, 1, 2012. Government has decided to set up a call centre with a portal for receiving RTI applications. Lok Sabha has approved a bill to establish separate High Courts for Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura. Railways has increased the distance that could be covered under the Izzat' monthly season ticket scheme from 100 kms to 150 kms. Government has decided to complete the digitalisation in the cable TV sector in a phased manner. It has been decided to completely change over from analog to digital services by December 2014.
GREEN CHANNEL PAYMENT BY GOVT

In a unique move to usher in green banking and enhance transparency and accountability in public dealings of the Central Government, wef April 1, 2012, all payments above Rs. 25,000 will be credited directly to the bank accounts of payees.
The government plans to raise India's share in the global foreign direct investment (FDI) to 5 per cent by 2017 by streamlining policies for attracting investments.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
OCTOBER 2012
WB LOWERS GROWTH RATE TO 6%
The World Bank lowered India's growth projection for the current fiscal to 6% from 6.9% estimated in June this year, and warned that the possibilities of a worse performance are high. The bank said that the country will face a significant slowdown from the recovery it made between 2009 and 2011 owing to global uncertainties playing havoc with current account, low business confidence caused by lack of policy initiatives and ballooning fiscal imbalances.
APRIL 2012
Rs 23000CR FOR DISASTER MANAGEMENT
With an aim to effectively manage disasters, the Government has allotted Rs 23,000 crore for developing disaster management infrastructure at the state, district and panchayat levels across the country.
$1BN SWF FOR IMPORTING FERTILSERS
Amid depleting resources and rising global prices of soil nutrients, the Fertiliser Ministry has proposed a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) of $ 1 billion to acquire such assets abroad. India imports about 6 million tonne each of potash and urea and 7 million tonnes of Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) every year.
FITCH LOWERS GROWTH RATE TO 6%
NEW REGULATIONS FOR MOBILE BANKING

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI, has issued the new regulations for mobile banking asking mobile companies to enable the banks to complete a transaction within ten seconds.
International ratings firm Fitch lowered Indias growth projection for the current fiscal to 6 per cent from 6.5 per cent estimated earlier citing challenging economic outlook. Firm said the high fiscal deficit left little room for government for fiscal easing and increasing spending. Further, weak investments were affecting supply capacity and thereby pointing towards weaker growth outlook.
UN ESACP PEGS GROWTH AT 5.9%

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said Indias growth has been slowing down since 2011, mainly on account of "severe" monetary tightening by the Reserve Bank of India. "India is projected to grow at 5.9 per cent in 2012-13 compared with 6.5 per cent in 2011-12," UN ESCAP said in the report titled 'South and South-West Asia Development Report 2012-13'.
MANDATORY E RETURNS FOR OVER RS 10 LAKH
Government has made it mandatory for individuals with income of over Rs 10 lakh to file their tax returns for 201112 electronically.
NEW BILL FOR GOVT PURCHASES

The Union Cabinet has approved the Public Procurement Bill that seeks to regulate government purchases of above Rs 50 lakh through a transparent bidding process.
ADB SLASHES GROWTH RATE TO 5.6%
CHAUDHURI COMMITTEE TO REVISE WPI

Government has set up a committee headed by Saumitra Chaudhuri to revise the WPI to take into account structural changes in the economy since 2004-05 and present a better picture of price situation.
The Asian Development Bank has slashed its growth forecast for India to 5.6% for current fiscal compared to 7% reported earlier, citing sluggish global demand and low agricultural production due to weak monsoon. Recently, India has suffered downward growth revisions from all quarters with a majority of private analysts revising the growth in the range of 5.5%.
TRADE DEFICIT AT 11 MONTHS HIGH
GOVT TO SET UP 10 SPICE PARKS
The government will set up 10 spice parks across the most strategic locations in the country by the end of this year to promote export of spices. Three such parks have already been set up.
India's exports contracted for the fifth straight month in September while imports rose marginally, pushing up the trade deficit to an 11-month high of $18.1 billion. Exports contracted 10.8% from a year ago to $23.7 billion, while imports rose 5.1% to $41.8 billion on a 31% rise in oil imports to $14.1 billion.
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INDUSTRIAL GROWTH SLOWS DOWN TO 2.7%

Industrial growth slowed to 2.7 per cent in August due to poor show by the manufacturing sector and contraction in capital goods output. Industrial output in the April-August period this fiscal was 0.4 per cent, down from 5.6 per cent in the same period in 2011-12. The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, grew at slow rate of 2.9 per cent in August, as against 3.9 per cent in the same month last year.
5.5% GROWTH IS NOT BAD KPMG

According to worlds leading audit company KPMG, India's GDP growth at 5.5% is better than many countries in the current environment of global economic slowdown. World's largest economy, the US, grew at 1.5 per cent in 2011 (versus 3.1 per cent in 2010) while, Germany's GDP grew at 3 per cent (3.7 per cent in 2010)
STANCHART CUTS GROWTH RATE TO 5.4%

Standard Chartered Bank has cut India's economic growth forecast for the current financial year to 5.4 per cent from 6.2 per cent, citing slowing consumer spending and a slack in pickup in investment activity in the fiscal first half.
CORE SECTOR GROWTH SHRINKS TO 2.1%

In a further confirmation of the continued sluggishness in the economy, the growth rate of the eight core sector industries decelerated to 2.1 per cent in August from 3.8 per cent in the same month a year ago, mainly owing to contraction in output of crude oil, natural gas, fertilizers and cement. The data revealed that the cumulative growth rate of the core sector during the April-August period this fiscal also declined to 2.8 per cent from a comparatively healthier 5.5 per cent expansion achieved in the like five months of 2011-12.
GROWTH FORECAST DOWN TO 5.1%

Leading international rating agency Morgan Stanley has cut India's economic growth forecast to 5.1 per cent citing a combination of weak external demand, low private investment and poor government finances. It also reduced its estimate of GDP growth for 2013/14 to 6.1 per cent from 6.6 per cent.
SEPTEMBER 2012
Q1 GDP VALUED AT Rs 21.79 TRILLION
As per latest data from CSO, Indias GDP at factor cost at current prices in first quarter of 2012-13, is estimated at Rs 21,78,778 crore, as against Rs 19,19,286 crore in Q1, 201112, showing an increase of 13.5 per cent. The economic activities which registered significant growth in Q1 of 201213 over Q1 of 2011-12 are 'construction' at 10.9 per cent, 'financing, insurance, real estate and business services' at 10.8 per cent and 'community, social and personal services' at 7.9 per cent.
TARGET FOR 12TH FYP LOWERED TO 8.2%

In view of fragile economic recovery, Plan panel has decided to lower annual average economic growth rate to 8.2 per cent in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) from 9 per cent envisaged earlier. Once, the full Planning Commission approves the growth target, it would be vetted by the Union Cabinet and then it would be placed before the country's apex decision making body National Development Council (NDC) for final approval. The NDC is headed by the
IMF CUTS GROWTH RATE TO 6.1%
In its latest World Economic Outlook projections, the IMF has cut its 2012 growth estimate for the Indian economy by 0.7 percentage points to 6.1 per cent. In 2010, the Indian economy grew by 10.8 per cent, according to the IMF data. In 2011, this slowed to 7.1 per cent.
Prime Minister with all chief ministers and union cabinet ministers on board. It is the final authority to finalise the five-year policy document.
Q1 FISCAL DEFICIT OVER 51%

Fiscal deficit during April-July reached 51 per cent of the budgetary estimate of Rs 5.13 lakh crore, raising fears of the government breaching its fiscal deficit target of 5.1 per cent of GDP for the current year. This shows that the slowing growth is taking its toll on revenues while government was unable to control its expenditure. This will also discourage the Reserve Bank from easing monetary policy and give the rating agencies reason to carry out their threat of downgrading India's sovereign rating to junk grade.
S&P CUTS INDIAs GROWTH PROJECTION
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has slashed India's growth forecast for the current fiscal by a percentage point to 5.5 per cent from 6.5 per cent, in line with the April-June quarter growth of 5.5 per cent. S&P also cut China's growth to 7.5 per cent from 8 per cent for 2012 calendar. Agency has slammed the country for its policy and infrastructure that have slowed down investments.
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AUGUST 2012
PM PROJECTS GROWTH OF OVER 6.5%
Prime Minister has projected Indias economic growth in the current fiscal to be a little higher than 6.5 per cent achieved a year ago. The 6.5 per cent GDP growth in 2011-12 was the lowest in nine years. The governments original GDP projection for 2012-13 was 7.6 per cent. PMs views are in contrast to view of major private forecasters including Citi, CLSA, Crisil and Moodys who trimmed their forecast to as low as 5.5 per cent citing inaction on the policy front as one of the reasons for slowdown in economic activities.
JULY 2012
INDIAs GDP TO CROSS $ 5 TRILLION
Business information and knowledge provider Dun & Bradstreet in its publication, India 2020 - economy outlook, has forecasted that India's GDP will cross the US$ 5 trillion mark by 2020 despite the economy slowdown.
FOOD PRODUCTION CROSSES 257 MN
PLG COMM PROJECTS 6% GROWTH

While RBI has projected economic growth of 6.5 per cent, the PMEAC Chairman C. Rangarajan expects it to be higher than 6.5 per cent, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia feels that country should brace up for lower GDP growth of close to six per cent this fiscal as the deficient monsoon could pull down overall economic growth. In 2011-12, the economy grew at 6.5 per cent.
The government has pegged the country's total foodgrains production at an all-time high of more than 257 million tonnes, for the 2011-12 crop year. The massive growth was on account of implementation of several schemes including 'Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern region' in the 11th Five year plan (2007-12). Crop Rice Wheat Pulses Production in 2011-12 (million tonnes) 104.32 93.90 17.21
CRISIL CUTS GROWTH RATE TO 5.5%

CRISIL has cut India's real GDP growth forecast for 2012-13 to 5.5% from its June estimate of 6.5%. The forecast has been scaled down, in view of deficient rainfall and deterioration in the Eurozone growth outlook.
JUNE 2012
GDP RATE SINKS TO 6.5% UN GROWTH LOWERS GROWTH RATE FOR INDIA
The countrys economic growth rate for 2011-12 slipped to 6.5% as compared to 8.54% for the year 201011. The growth has been hit hard by global woes and domestic problems. For the quarter ending 31 March, 2012 GDP growth rate was 5.3 per cent as compared The United Nations (UN) to has sharply lowered its growth a forecast robust for 9.2 per India for cent the year 2012 to 6.7% from an expansion in the same citing weakening domestic earlier estimate of 7.7% quarter of the previous year. The main culprit has been demand particularly in private investment due the to manufacturing sector which, along with the farm segment, aggressive monetary tightening and standstill in policy fared poorly. decisions as the major reasons.
ODI TAKES A DIP IN JULY

Latest RBI data shows that overseas direct investment by Indian companies declined to $1.24 billion in July from $3.53 billion a month earlier. As many as 459 deals took place last month involving Indian firms, leading to an overseas equity investment of $436.14 million as compared to $341.71 million in June.
SURGE IN RURAL EXPENDITURE
As per provisional data released by India's statistics office, monthly per capita rural consumption rose 18% in real terms in 2011-12 to Rs 707.24 (2004-05 prices) from Rs 599.06 in drought hit 2009-10. This has led to increase in rural consumption. In the same period, urban consumption rose 13.3% to Rs 1,359.75 from Rs 1,200, explaining the narrowing of the rural-urban divide.
INDIA FACING STAGFLATION MOODYs

Global financial services firm Moody's has stated that Indian economy is facing stagflation, where growth is slow and inflation high, and cautioned that the Reserve Bank cannot be too aggressive in cutting interest rates. Wholesale price-based inflation ticking up to 7.5 per cent year-on-year in May due to supply-side factors, can add to the problems at the RBI.
POOREST LIVING AT BELOW Rs 17PER DAY

As per the National Sample Survey Organisation's (NSSO) 68th round of survey on household consumer expenditure for the period July 2011 to June 2012, the poorest 10 per cent of India's rural population had an average monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) of Rs 503.49 per month(Rs 17 a day). Their urban counterparts are only slightly better with daily per capita expenditure of Rs 23.40, with average MPCE of Rs 702.26.
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EMPLOYMENT TAKES A HIT

According to the RBI's macro economic and monetary development report, the fourth quarter of FY 2012 recorded the lowest employment creation in two years. The rate of employment slowed from 0.98 million in 2010-11 to 0.08 million in the fourth quarter of 2011-12. Sectors that have been worst hit is the IT/BPO sector, were the employment declined from 0.670 million in 2010-2011 to 0.104 million.
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SAVINGS EXPECTED TO RISE

A high-powered working group led by Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Subir Gokarn has projected that country's savings rate may rise to around 38-39% of GDP by the end of 12th Five Year Plan if economic growth returns to 8% level. The savings rate was 33.3% at the end of March 2012.
The government has prepared a Strategy Paper for doubling India's merchandise exports to 500 Billion US dollars by 2013-14. Govt has fixed four percent growth rate for agriculture during the 12th Five Year Plan.
EXPORTS TARGET SET AT $360 BN

The govt has unveiled a 7-point strategy to boost exports which include extension of 2% interest subvention scheme for exporters by one year till 31st March 2013. The sevenpillars would also include efforts to increase exports from the north-east region and provide incentive for manufacturing of green goods. Govt plans to achieve 20 per cent increase in exports to $360 billion in the current fiscal from $303 billion during 2011-12.
APRIL 2012
S&P DOWNGRADES INDIA
In a wake-up call to the government to put its act together on the macroeconomic front, global rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has scaled down India's credit rating outlook from stable' (BBB+) to negative' (BBB -) with a warning of a downgrade if there is no improvement in the fiscal situation and political climate. The S&P also lowered the rating outlook of the country's 10 top banks.
FISCAL DEFICIT RUNS TO 5.76%
The government's fiscal deficit during 2011-12 worked out to be 5.76 per cent of GDP, lower than 5.9 per cent projected in the revised estimates in the Budget, against the original target of 4.6 % of GDP. Fiscal deficit, the difference between the government's total receipts and expenditure, stood at Rs.5,09,731 crore in 2011-12, as per provisional data released by Controller General of Accounts (CGA
WHAT DOES RATINGS SIGNIFY Outlook indicates potential direction of ratings in short to medium term, typically six months to two years. Stable outlook means that the ratings are not going to change. Negative outlook indicates that the ratings might be downgraded, while positive outlook means that the ratings may be upgraded. Ratings agencies also give developing or evolving outlook, which indicate that the ratings might be lowered or upgraded.
As per FAO data, world output of rice rose by 2.6 per cent to all-time high of 480.1 million tonnes in 2011, Prime Minister has set an investment target of Rs 2 lakh crore for core sector projects in the current fiscal in a bid to revert back to 9 per cent economic growth.
CRISIL RELEASES NEW INDEX CCII

Rating agency Crisil has released a new monthly inflation index - the Crisil Core Inflation Indicator (CCII), derived from the existng Wholesale Price Index (WPI), in a bid to capture demand-side pressures on prices.
MAY 2012
RECORD FDI IN 2011-12
Undeterred by a slowdown in growth, India's foreign direct investment flow touched a record $50 billion in 2011-12, the highest since investments were opened up in 1996. With an eight-fold increase, India attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) of $ 8.1 billion in March, the highest ever monthly inflows. British energy major BP's investment of $8.9 billion into India in March 2012 as part of its deal with Reliance Industries earlier this year, played a significant role in helping the country reach the record investment figure.
IT exports from India totalled about $69.7 billion during financial year 2011-12, constituting roughly 23% of total exports.
ECONOMY
OCTOBER 2012
12TH FIVE YEAR PLAN APPROVED
The govt has approved the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) document that seeks to achieve annual average economic growth rate of 8.2 percent. Now it will be put up before the National Development Council (NDC) for approval. The projected average rate of gross capital formation in the 12th Plan is 37 per cent of GDP. The projected gross domestic savings rate is 34.2 per cent of GDP.
I never thought that I will be able to clear the PO exam in the first attempt. This is all because of the efforts and confidence that the Gyanm team has put in us. So I owe my success to the faculty members of Gyanm for their guidance and good wishes.
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KELKAR COMMITTEE SUBMITS ITS REPORT
The Vijay Kelkar Committee on Fiscal Consolidation has recommended four pillars under which the government can lower its fiscal deficit to 5.2% of GDP in FY13, and further to 4.6% and 3.9% in FY14 and FY15, respectively.
Improve Tax measures and administration: penalize non-compliance on tax payments, review commodities that attract excise tax duty of 6% or lower and prune the negative list on services tax.
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Increase disinvestment proceeds and consider monetizing govts land resources. Cut subsidies on diesel, LPG cylinder and kerosene. Economise on Plan Expenditure: The increase should not be more than 15% and 18% year on year (yo-y) in FY14 and FY15 respectively.
FM PRESENTS 5 YR FISCAL ROADMAP

Finance Minister presented a five-year plan on Oct. 29 to repair government finances that targets a sustainable fiscal deficit of 3% of GDP by 2016-17 and promises to keep the fiscal slippage this year to the minimal. Picture below explains the plan:
FIVE YEAR FISCAL ROADMAP
KELKAR FOR FULL REVIEW OF DTC

The Vijay Kelkar Committee has recommended a comprehensive review of the Direct Taxes Code Bill and bringing in more services in the tax net. The Committee also recommended amendment to the law to make quoting PAN or the UID mandatory in all electronic transactions including bank accounts, fixed deposits with banks, salary payments and immovable property transactions, irrespective of the amount or level of transaction to minimize income leakages.
14TH FINANCE COMMISSION APPROVED

The Union Cabinet has approved constitution of the 14th Finance Commission. Former Reserve Bank Governor Y V Reddy is tipped to be appointed as chairman thereof. The finance commission suggests formula for sharing of tax proceeds between Centre and states. The Commission will lay down principles governing the grants-in-aid to states and other local bodies for five-year period beginning April 1, 2015. The 13th Finance Commission was headed by former
FOODGRAIN STORAGE CAPACITY TO GO UP
Finance Secretary Vijay Kelkar.
The country's total covered storage capacity for foodgrains is likely to increase to about 71 million tonnes in the next two years on the back of construction of godowns in 19 states by FCI. In addition, the Food Ministry has approved construction of modern silos with a total capacity of 2 million tonnes, which will commence in the next two years. The country has been facing huge problem of foodgrain storage in the past few years on account of record production of foodgrains.
ECONOMIC PACKAGE FOR BACKWARD REGIONS

The government has approved a Rs 3,150 crore package for development of backward regions in Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Under the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF), which was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), Rs 1,500 crore will provided to Bihar as Special Plan Assistance.
DISINVESTMENT APPROVED IN NDMC
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The government has approved 10 per cent stake sale in the iron ore mining major NMDC (National Mineral Development Corporation) that could fetch over Rs 7,000 crore. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has cleared sale of about 39 crore equity of NMDC of face value of Rs 1 each through the Offer for Sale (OFS) route. At present, the government holds 90 per cent stake in the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC).
SEBI APPROVES ELECTRONIC IPO

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has decided to introduce electronic IPOs from January 1, 2013. The facility to submit the application forms would be available in more than 1000 locations which are part of the nationwide broker network of the stock exchanges. In the first phase, around 400 broker centres would be covered by January 1, 2013 and the remaining centres would be covered by March 1, 2013.
The Corporate Affairs Ministry has extended the deadline for companies for making filings in the new reporting format, XBRL, to December 15, as per International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). XBRL or eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), that replaces PDF format, is expected to bring in more transparency when it comes to furnishing of financial statements by the companies.
TIME EXTENDED FOR XBRL
UNIFIED FINANCIAL AGENCY SOUGHT

The Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission, headed by former Justice B. N. Srikrishna, has suggested that key regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) should be merged into a Unified Financial Agency (UFA). FSLRC was set up to recast the
SINGLE STATEMENT FOR ALL INVESTMENTS
SEBI proposes to bring more classes of financial instruments, including insurance policies, bank fixed deposits and post office deposits under the ambit of asset categories that can be held in demat or electronic form. The proposed move is expected to make it simpler to maintain and safe-keep various kinds of financial instruments, as the risks like loss and theft get minimised in demat form, as compared to the physical paper form. Further, it will enable the investor to view all his investments in a single statement.
financial sector legislations in tune with the contemporary requirements of the sector. At present, there are over 60 Acts and multiple rules and regulations that govern the financial sector.
PAREKH FOR 100% FDI IN TELECOM
SMS SERVICE FROM BSE AND NSE
To enhance transparency in Stock market tradings, the Bombay Stock Exchange has decided to provide SMS of transaction details to mobile phones and Email accounts of investors. The move, a first of its kind in the country, is aimed at checking unauthorised stock market trades through investor accounts. The National Stock Exchange, Nifty's SMS service has also been started from the 15th Oct.
The high-level committee on financing of infrastructure, headed by HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, has recommended for 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the telecom sector. The limit at present is 74 percent. The panel also suggested raising prices of natural gas, electricity and rail fares.
SEBI approves MCX Stock Exchange Ltd (MCX-SX) to deal in shares and related instruments
SEPTEMBER 2012
LIC LAUNCHES JEEVAN DEEP
Life Insurance Corporation of India has launched a micro insurance product, Jeevan Deep. This product, which commemorates the Corporations 56th anniversary, is its third after Jeevan Madhu and Jeevan Mangal, targeted at the economically weaker section. Under the scheme, the minimum sum assured is Rs 5,000 and the maximum is Rs 30,000.
AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN EXPORTS
The President gave away 46 Niryat Shree Awards to exporters for their excellent performance and 6 Niryat Bandhu Awards to Export Promotion Councils and Banks for their support to the exporting community.
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NSE LAUNCHES EMERGE

Top stock exchange NSE has launched operations of its new trading platform for SMEs, Emerge, in Delhi. The platform would help in developing the eco- system and provide the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) a much-needed avenue to raise capital from the equity market.
operations in India. Besides, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) cleared nine other FDI proposals amounting to about Rs 260 crore.
NEW SEBI RULES FOR MFs AND IPOs

According to new Sebi rules for MFs and IPOs, Investments in mutual funds will become more expensive, but retail investors will be assured of a minimum number of shares in initial public offers. It has also recommended that tax benefits should be allowed to equity MF investors under the proposed Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme (RGESS). Other proposals include: Service tax should be charged to ultimate investor, not to the asset management company (AMC) as is the practice at present. Retail investors in IPOs should be assured a minimum lot of shares. There should be a cap of 25 percent of IPO size to the funds for general corporate purposes. Currently, there is no such cap. The minimum application limit in IPOs has also been raised from Rs 5,000-7,000 to Rs 10,000-15,000.
IRDA REVISES IPO GUIDELINES
Insurance regulator, IRDA, has come out with draft regulations for general insurance companies to raise capital through public issue of shares. The draft regulations stipulate that a company can come out with a public issue only on completion of 10 years from the date of commencement of business, or such other period as may be specified by the Central Government.
INVESTMENT TRACKING SYSTEM FOR MEGA PROJECTS
Large uranium deposits have been discovered at Rohil in Rajasthans Sikar district.
The Government has set up an Investment Tracking System for Projects with an investment of Rs.1000 crore and above. The purpose of this mechanism is to periodically monitor implementation of projects and identify systemic issues and attempt to have these resolved. Under this system, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) will track all such Public Sector Projects and the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance will monitor these projects in private sector.
IFRS IMPLEMENTATION BY APRIL 1, 2013
Govt plans to implement internationally accepted reporting rules, IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), from April 1 next year. This will be done even if the proposed new direct taxes code is not ushered in by that date.
AUGUST 2012
CONVERSION OF IDRs ALLOWED
Financial regulators RBI and SEBI have allowed partial flexibility in conversion of Indian Depository Receipts (IDRs) into equity shares by investors, while capping the funds to be raised through IDRs at USD 5 billion. The move is expected to help in attracting foreign entities to list their IDRs on domestic bourses.
INFOSYS IS INDIA POST TECHNOLOGY PARTNER
India Post has chosen Infosys as its technology and consulting partner to integrate its delivery of financial products across its network of 1.5 lakh post offices in the country.
ECB NORMS FOR HOUSING RELAXED

India has eased overseas borrowing rules to allow easier access to cheap dollar funds to housing finance companies such as HDFC, small industry financier SIDBI and permitted non-resident entities to provide rating enhancement facility Overseas debt costs between 6% and 8% compared with 1113% for domestic debt, making it an attractive option for companies that have intensive import requirement to Indian borrower.
DIP IN INVESTMENT IN NEW PROJECTS

According to the Annual Report of the Reserve Bank released recently, the deceleration in growth of economy that began in the past fiscal when GDP growth had slipped to a nine-year low of 6.5 percent and continuing in this fiscal, has been primarily led by a near 50 percent dip in new investments in large projects. Total fixed investment by large firms in new projects, which were sanctioned financial assistance during FY12, dropped by a whopping 46 percent to about Rs 2.1 trillion from Rs 3.9 trillion a year ago.
DIRECT E-PAYMENT FOR NREGA WORKERS

Workers under the MNREGA across the country would soon get their payments directly, a step taken by the Government to weed out corruption in the ambitious rural job guarantee scheme. Rural Development Ministry along with Finance Ministry and UIDAI have decided to seed in the Aadhaar numbers of MNREGA workers in NREGASoft and to achieve complete 'eDisbursement' for MNREGA workers in 46 districts. Banking correspondents equipped with Aadhaar-enabled micro ATMs will visit the doorsteps of MNREGA wage earners to distribute their payments.
DAHEJ SEZ FIGURES IN TOP 50 IN WORLD

Dahej Special Economic Zone (SEZ) near Bharauch, Gujarat, has figured among the top 50 Global Free Zones of the Future in a study conducted by FDI Magazine that has surveyed 600 free zones across 120 countries. Dahej is the only Indian free zone included in the list. Dahej SEZ exported goods worth Rs 865 crore in 2011-12 and is expected to cross Rs 1,200 crore in current year.
WALT DISNEY TO INVEST 1000 CRORE

The government has cleared entertainment major Walt Disney's FDI proposal of Rs 1,000 crore to expand its
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INDIA TO IMPORT COTTON

Textile mills have started importing cotton and are likely to purchase 2 million bales in 2011-12 marketing year ending next month, as excess exports have led to shortage of the fibre in the domestic market. India, the world's second largest cotton grower, has exported about 12.5 million bales (of 170 kg each) in 2011-12 marketing year (OctoberSeptember) so far.
QFIs CAN INVEST UPTO $ ONE BILLION

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), on Wednesday, issued guidelines allowing overseas individual investors to invest up to $1 billion in corporate bonds and debt schemes of mutual funds without any lock-in period. QFIs or overseas individual investors are permitted to invest in corporate debt securities without any lock-in or residual maturity clause and mutual fund debt schemes subject to a total overall ceiling of $1 billion.
2G SPECTRUM PRICE FIXED

The Union Cabinet has fixed a reserve (minimum) price of Rs. 14,000 crore for 5 MHz of pan-India 2G spectrum in the 1800-MHz GSM band for auctioning spectrum to be vacated by companies whose 122 licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012. The reserve price for 5 MHz of CDMA spectrum has been put at Rs. 18,200 crore, 1.3 times the price of GSM spectrum. The Supreme Court had directed the Government of India to complete the auction by the end of August. Now, said deadline has been extended to January, 2013.
SWIFT TO OPEN JOINT CO IN INDIA

Belgium-based financial transaction SMS provider SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunications) is working on a partnership with eight leading Indian banks to form a joint company by 2012-end to expand its footprint in banking and financial sector of India.
IOC, RIL IN FORTUNE TOP 100

Eight Indian companies figure in the list of worlds 500 largest companies compiled by Fortune magazine. Indian Oil has cornered the 83rd spot and Reliance Industries (99) is the first Indian private firm to make into the top 100 list. The other Indian companies in the list are: Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, ONGC and State Bank of India.
AND NOW A NO FRILL DEMAT A/C

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has asked all depository participants (DPs) to make available a Basic Services Demat Account (BSDA) with limited services and reduced costs for retail individual investors if the value of securities held in the demat account does not exceed Rs.2 lakh at any point of time. An individual can have only one BSDA in his/her name across all depositories. The annual maintenance charges (AMC) structure for BSDA would be on a slab basis. If the value of holding is up to Rs.50,000, there
ONLINE TRADING IN G-SECS
will be nil AMC and for Rs.50,001-200,000, the AMC will be up to Rs.100.
The Reserve Bank has introduced Internet-based platform for trading of government securities in secondary market for gilt account holders. The web-based NDS-OM (Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching) system module will facilitate buying and selling of government bonds or securities online to the gilt account holders (GAH).
JULY 2012
MOBILE REMITTANCE SCHEME FROM INDIA POST
Postal Department is launching an instant money remittance scheme, mobile remittance scheme, in tie-up with the BSNL infrastructure by next month. In the first phase the scheme will be implemented in selected states like Kerala, Bihar, New Delhi and Punjab
WHAT ARE GILTS Gilt-edged securities are bonds issued by national governments. The term is of British origin, and originally referred to the debt securities issued by the Bank of England, which had a gilt (or gilded) edge. Hence, they are known as gilt-edged securities, or gilts for short. Today the term is used in the United Kingdom as well as some Commonwealth nations, such as South Africa and India.
DISINVESTMENT IN SAIL
The government has approved the sale of 10.82 per cent of its stake in Steel Authority of India (SAIL), which may fetch the exchequer over Rs 4,000 crore. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), headed by Prime Minister cleared SAIL public offer.
The government has extended by one year the one per cent interest subvention scheme on housing loans of up to Rs 15 lakh, provided the cost of the house does not exceed Rs 25 lakh. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has made e-filing of income-tax returns mandatory for all assessees whose annual earnings exceeded Rs. 10 lakh during the fiscal 2011-12.
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JUNE 2012
RBI conducted its first Mid-Quarter Monetary Policy Review on 18th June 2012. Following are the highlights of the review: No change in key policy rates as inflationary pressures are still high Export refinance limit raised to release extra Rs 30,000 crore in the market
REVIEW OF MONETARY POLICY
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Global economic conditions have further deteriorated since April, 2012 Domestic economic situation raises several concerns as several factors besides high interest rates are more responsible for slowdown
FII LIMIT RAISED TO $ 20 BILLION

To arrest the rupee slide, RBI has increased FII limit in govt bonds to USD 20 billion. Long term investors like Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), multilateral agencies, endowment funds, insurance funds, pension funds and foreign central banks would be allowed to invest in government debts up to USD 20 billion. On the other hand Indian companies in manufacturing and infrastructure sector have been allowed external commercial borrowings up to USD 10 billion for refinancing rupee loan.
WHAT IS MSP To ensure remunerative return to the farmers, government announces minimum support price for various agriculture products. These agriculture products are procured by government through Food Corporation of India and various state organizations at the MSP.
SMART WOMEN FROM HDFC LIFE

Private insurer HDFC Life has launched the countrys first ever women-centric plan Smart Woman. The plan gives women in age group of 18-45, a unique platform to meet their financial goals apart from offering them specific benefits in their critical life stage. Pregnancy-related complications, cancer of the female organs and death of a spouse are covered under this plan.
SEBI MAKES E-VOTING MANDATORY

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has made electronic voting mandatory for top 500listed companies in respect of the matters which are to be decided by postal ballot. This would help shareholders participate in decisionmaking without being physically present in the meetings.
INFLATION EXPECTATION SURVEY BY RBI

The Reserve Bank has launched the 28th round of its annual inflation expectation survey on June, 1. The survey will help the central bank with monetary policy formation. The survey, based on individual consumption patterns, will be conducted across 4000 households spread over 12 cities.
WB FOR WIDER PF NETWORK
The World Bank has urged India to make provident fund membership compulsory for all formal sector staff and urgently raise the 6,500 wage ceiling for mandatory PF contributions. The Bank has also advised to reduce the threshold for bringing firms under the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) net from 20 staff to 10.
SEBI MAY CLOSE DEFUNCT STOCK EXCHANGES

According to a recent directive of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the defunct stock exchanges and those which are not able to maintain a turnover of Rs.1,000 crore will have to close shop within two years. Failure to do so may invite compulsory derecognition from SEBI.
RELIEF FOR ORPHAN INSURANCE POLICIES
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority has asked the insurance companies to allot the lapsed orphan' life insurance policies to other individual insurance agents with valid license for rendering effective service to the policyholders. Orphan' policies refer to the policies booked by an insurance agent whose services are subsequently terminated, removed or deleted from the rolls of the insurer, rendering the policies orphan.
157 HYDRO POWER PROJECTS IN NE
MORE CUSTOM FREE ITEMS FROM CHINA

The Centre has allowed five additional items - readymade garments, shoes, quilts & blankets, carpets and local herbal medicines to the list of goods exempted from customs duty for import through border trade with China from Nathula in Sikkim after six years.
Even as anti-mega dam groups and organisations in Assam have intensified their agitation, demanding a halt to the ongoing 2,000-MW Lower Subonsiri hydroelectric project of NHPC Limited at Gerukamukh on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border, the Union government has decided to go ahead with 157 hydro power schemes with an installed capacity of 57,672 MW in the North-East, including Sikkim, for meeting the shortfall in the country's power generation.
RELIANCE TO INVEST Rs1 TRLN
Reliance Industries has announced investment of Rs 100,000 crore in next 4-5 years in core businesses of petrochem and oil and gas as well as in new sectors of retail and telecom, to double its operating profits.
MSP HIKED
In view of rising input costs, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has announced Rs 170 per quintal hike in support price of paddy to farmers at Rs 1,250 for the 2012-13 crop year (July-June). Prices for other major crops have been fixed as under: Crop Urad Soyabeen Sunflower Maize and Bajra Rs. / Quintal 4300 2200 3700 1175
The govt has imposed anti-dumping duty on imports of plain gypsum plaster boards from China, Thailand, Indonesia and the UAE. The Competition Commission of India has imposed more than six thousand crore rupees as penalty on 11 Cement Companies for price cartelisation. India has set a bilateral trade target of $15 billion with Brazil by 2015 and sought its investments support in the infrastructure sector. India has committed a $100-million line of credit to Nigeria for upgrading its power sector
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MAY 2012
$ 6.25 BILLION ADB LOAN TO INDIA
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide assistance of USD 6.25 billion to India over three years for various projects, including those in the energy and education sectors. The lending is to support inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth".
Deutschland AG. (Euler Hermes) on May 7 at Berlin, Germany. The loan will be primarily used to finance goods and services procured from German suppliers as part of RIL's petrochemicals expansion projects at Jamnagar, Hazira, Silvassa and Dahej in India.
RISE IN GHG EMISSIONS LEVELS

Indias greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rose 4.2 per cent to 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent compared with 1994 levels. The energy sector accounted for 67.4 per cent of total GHG emissions, followed by agriculture at 23.3 per cent, industrial processes at 6 per cent and waste sector 3.4 per cent.
RECORD WHEAT PROCUREMENT
Helped by bumper production, wheat procurement in the country has grown to a record 32.6 million tonnes (mt) this year so far and is expected to grow further as states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh still seeing daily crop arrival of up to 150,000 tonnes. Punjab and Haryana, known as food bowls of the country, have contributed record 12.8 mt and 8.6 mt of the grain respectively this year.
INDO RUSSIAN TRADE HOUSE
SWISS BANK DEPOSITS BELOW 10K Cr

According to a white paper tabled in the LS on May 21, total deposits of Indians in Swiss banks declined by more than Rs 14,000 crore during the 2006-10 period. The deposits stood at Rs 9,295 crore at the end of 2010 compared to Rs 23,373 crore in 2006.
The first Russian-Indian trade house has been opened in Mumbai. This will be followed by the opening of the similar center in Moscow also. The project aims at promoting trade and investment between two countries.
4 G SERVICES LAUNCHED AT KOLKATA

Telecom major Bharti Airtel became the first player India to launch the 4G services, at Kolkata. A successor to the 3G and 2G families, 4G is expected to be five times quicker than 3G services. It would offer services such as high-definition mobile TV and video conference on mobile.
INDIA SIGNS GSPA FOR TAPI GAS Union Cabinet has signed the Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) for buying gas from Turkmenistan
through the $7.6 billion Turkmenistan-Aghanistan-PakistanIndia (TAPI) pipeline. The 1,735 kilometres pipeline will run from the Turkmenistan gas fields (Dauletabad gas field) through Afghanistan and Pakistan to Fazilka in Punjab, India.
ROUTE RESS THROGH MFs-SEBI
Sebi has asked the government to route tax-saving Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme (RESS) through mutual funds. Sebi feels that first time investors may not have adequate information about the stock market and so they should enter the market through institutional investors like mutual funds.
The Government has decided to allow export of one million tonnes of Sugar. Govt has decided to cut crude oil import from Iran by 11 per cent to 15.5 million tonnes in 201112. India has decided to convert 200 million US Dollars as grant to Bangladesh, out of the One billion US Dollar credit being provided by India to Bangladesh.
APRIL 2012
DTC IMPLEMENTATION BY APRIL 1, 2013
India will implement the direct tax code (DTC) from April 1, 2013, Finance Secretary R.S. Gujral told a television channel. The code, which will replace existing Indian Income Tax Act 1961, intends to cut tax rates, bring more people and companies under the tax net, phase out profit-linked exemptions for companies and replace them with investment-linked incentives.
RAJIV GANDHI EQUITY SAVINGS SCHEME This is the first-ever tax benefit scheme announced by the government to encourage retail investors participation in the equity market. By offering this scheme, the government aims at channelising household savings into stock markets. Under the scheme the government had announced 50 percent tax deduction to retail investors with annual income of less than Rs 10 lakh for investment up to Rs 50,000 in a year with a lock-in period of three years. A retail investor can avail the scheme only once in a life time.
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$ 2 BN CURRENCY SWAP FOR SAARC
Reserve Bank of India will offer Swap Arrangement of two billion dollars both in foreign currency and Indian currency to SAARC nations. The swap will be offered in US dollar, Euro or Indian Rupee against the domestic currency or domestic currency denominated government securities of the requesting country.
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$ 2 BILLION LOAN FOR RIL
Reliance Industries (RIL) has signed a $ 2 billion (Rs 10800 crore) loan with nine banks covered by Euler Hermes
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GST EXPECTED BY APRIL 1, 2013

The much-awaited unified Goods and Services Tax (GST) is likely to come into effect from April 1, 2013.
BANKING
OCTOBER 2012
CRR CUT DOWN TO 4.5%
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) slashed the CRR by 25 bps to 4.25% but kept the other key policy rates unchanged in its Second Quarter Review of Monetary Policy for 201213 on Oct. 30. The CRR cut is meant to inject Rs 17500 crore into the banking system. The FY13 growth forecast has been cut to 5.8% from 6.5%. The bank sees a reasonable likelihood of easing in the fourth quarter of the current financial year.
7 PROJECTS SPONSORED BY WORLD BANK

World Bank is supporting seven projects, worth about Rs 22,426 crore, across the country to improve delivery in centrally-funded schemes. The projects include: Project Name National Rural Livelihoods Project PMGSY Rural Roads Project Vocational Training India Project Technical Engineering Education Improvement Project (Rs. in crore) 5,106 7,826 1,492 1,487 2,579 1,357 2,579
Quality
Secondary Education Project Third National HIV/AIDS Control Project National Vector Borne Disease Control and Polio Eradication
MORE PROVISONING FOR RESTRUCTURED A/Cs
OVER 48% FARMERS UNDER DEBT

According to a National Sample Survey Organisation report on indebtedness of farmer households, of the 89.35 million farmer households, 43.42 million households are under debt. Source wise, banks (36%) have largest share, followed by moneylenders (26%) and co-operative societies (20%).
RBI has raised the provisioning norms for restructured standard accounts (bad loans that have been converted to normal by restructuring their repayment schedules) from 2% to 2.75% and also hinted that banks that do not comply with rules related to bad loans will face penalties from the regulator.
BANKS DIRECTED TO SHARE CREDIT INFO

The Reserve Bank of India has directed banks to share information on credit exposure among them. Banks failing to adhere to this directive would be viewed seriously by the RBI and banks would be liable to action, including imposition of penalty.
NO TAX ON P-NOTES
Holders of participatory notes, or P-notes, will have no tax liability now and a clarification on these notes will be issued in due course by the Finance Minister.
What are participatory notes? Participatory notes are offshore derivative instruments issued by foreign institutional investors with Indian shares as underlying to other overseas investors. These are issued by foreign portfolio investors registered with the SEBI to investors overseas and they offer the buyer anonymity. Why are they used? These instruments aid investors who do not want to register with Sebi and reveal their identities to take positions in the Indian market.
2% SUBVENTION ON BANK CROP LOANS

The Reserve Bank has advised that all public sector banks will get an interest subsidy (subvention) of 2 per cent per annum against short term production loan (crop loan) up to Rs 3 lakh to farmers during the year 2012-13. This subvention will be available on the condition that banks do not charge more than 7% interest on short-term production credit up to Rs 3 lakh.
The World Bank has sanctioned 32 crore rupees for Rural Electrification at Sagar Island in Sunderbans of West Bengal.
SBI OPENS BRANCHES IN SOUTH AFRICA

India's largest bank SBI has opened two new branches in South Africa to tap business opportunities being provided by growing trade between the two countries. The branches have been opened in Chatsworth and Laudium (Pretoria), South Africa.
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PRIORITY SECTOR LENDING NORMS REVISED

The Reserve Bank of India has revised the definition of priority sector to include corporates and firms engaged in agriculture and allied activities in direct finance to agriculture, up to a limit of Rs 2 crore. Further, RBI has also raised the priority-sector lending limit for medium and small enterprises in the service sector to Rs 2 crore from Rs 1 crore. The per unit housing cost limit for housing projects for construction of homes exclusively for weaker section has been raised from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh per unit.
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10 RUPEE NOTE MAY BECOME HISTORY

RBI plans to replace the Rs 10 note completely with coins, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) wants to replace the Rs 10 note with coins, like the Re 1 and Rs 2 notes in the 1990s and the Rs 5 note more recently. The RBI's preference for coins has to do with the cost of production and life span of a note.
STANDARDISATION OF CHEQUES
The Reserve Bank has directed all banks to issue cheques with uniform features conforming to Cheque Truncation System (CTS) 2010 standard by end September. The homogeneity in security features act as deterrent against frauds and the fixed field placement specifications facilitate straight-through-processing at drawee banks' end through the use of optical or image character recognition technology.
BANK NPAs TO CROSS Rs.2 TRILLION

According to industry body Assocham, the net nonperforming assets (NPAs) of the banking sector are expected to cross Rs 2 lakh crore by the end of March 2013, from Rs 1.57 lakh crore in June, 2012, mainly due to slowdown in the economy. It said that existing exposure of banks to poor performing sectors like power; aviation, highways, microfinance institutions, ports and telecommunication have lead to high levels of stress assets. Apart from this, growing slackness in performance of SMEs and agriculture sector are signs enough to show that banks' NPAs are bound to rise, it added.
ATMs DROP CASH RETRACTION SYSTEM
Reserve Bank has agreed to National Payments Corporation of India's proposal for removing the cash retraction system from all ATMs to deal with the increasing number of fraudulent claims about non-receipt of cash. Accordingly, the banks have done away with this system in all the ATMs. This system enables the ATM to take back the currency if it is not removed within a certain time.
HDFC ROPES IN IOC- KSKs AS BC

HDFC Bank has announced a tie-up with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. as per which its rural petrol pump outletsKisan Seva Kendras (KSKs) will act as the Bank's Business Correspondents (BCs) to make modern banking services available to the people residing in semi-urban and rural India.
NO FEE FOR NEFT UP TO Rs. 1 LAKH
The RBI sets up Financial Inclusion Advisory Committee headed by its Deputy Governor K. C. Chakrabarty to push up efforts to promote financial inclusion.
To promote cashless transactions, the Finance Ministry has asked public sector banks to take steps to reduce the fee to zero for electronic transfer of funds up to Rs one lakh. Currently, most banks charge a maximum fee of Rs 5 per transfer of funds up to Rs 1 lakh from one account to another through National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system.
3 TIER SYSTEM FOR EDUCATION LOANS
SEPTEMBER 2012
BANKS NEED 5 LAC CR FOR CAPITAL
The Reserve Bank of India has estimated that the Indian banks will require an additional capital of Rs 5 lakh crore to meet the new global banking norms, Basel III. Out of this, Rs 1,75,000 crore will be core capital (tier-I) and Rs. 3,75,000 in non equity capital (tier-II). The government, which owns 70 per cent of the banking system, will have to pump in Rs 90,000 crore equity to retain its shareholding in the Public Sector Banks (PSBs). The new norms are to be implemented from January 1, 2013 in a phased manner and should be in place by banks by March 2018.
The Finance Ministry has asked public sector banks to put in place a three-tier grievance redressal mechanism to sort out problems being faced by students in obtaining education loans. Applicants should be advised of the mechanism at the branch, zonal office and head-office levels at the time of submission of loan application. Besides, the banks should introduce a system of review by the next higher authority where application for education loan is rejected.
CONSOLIDATION OF RRBs
The Finance Ministry is considering a proposal to further consolidate the number of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) to 55 for improving their efficiency and to better serve the rural economy. There are 82 RRBs sponsored by various public sector banks across the country with a network of about 16,000 branches.
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BANKS ALLOWED TO USE SMERA RATINGS

The Reserve Bank has advised that banks may use ratings of SME Rating Agency of India (SMERA), in addition to grades provided by other agencies, to assign risks to loans for the purpose of computing capital adequacy requirements. Currently, five rating agencies CARE, CRISIL, FITCH India, ICRA and Brickwork are authorised by the RBI to provide risk weight to loans.
SBI TO INCREASE PoS TERMINALS
State Bank of India is targeting to massively increase its point of sale (PoS) terminals to one lakh by next March from the current 18,500. Private sector Axis Bank is the market leader in the merchant acquisition business with nearly 2.30 lakh PoS terminals.
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SIDBI LAUNCHES SMALLB.IN

The Finance Ministry, in association with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), has launched an online portal smallB.in to support the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector. To begin with, the Ministry will work in tandem with four banks Dena Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Corporation Bank and Indian Bank to extend credit to MSMEs and prospective entrepreneurs. This initiative will be extended to a cluster of 110 specialised branches across the country,
RRBs ALLOWED BRANCHES IN TIER II CITIES

The Reserve Bank has allowed regional rural banks (RRBs) to open branches in Tier-II cities (with population of 50,000 to 99,999 as per census 2001) without taking its prior permission.
FOCUS ON 'URBAN FINANCIAL INCLUSION'

The government has asked banks to focus on 'Urban Financial Inclusion' to ensure at least one bank account per family among poor in cities. The 'Urban Financial Inclusion' campaign would cover urban poor, slum dwellers and inhabitants of urban/metro villages. As per 2011 census, about 58.7 per cent households had reported availing of banking facilities.
SBI TO ADD 1200 BRANCHES

The State Bank of India plans to add 1,200 branches this fiscal. The bank had added 645 branches in fiscal 2011-12. SBI has a network of 14,127 branches (as at the end of the June 2012). Its nearest public sector competitor, Punjab National bank has 5,697 branches while its nearest private sector competitor ICICI Bank has around 2,755 branches.
BANKS TO OPEN ONE A/C PER FAMILY

The government has asked public sector banks to ensure one account per family to facilitate direct transfer of subsidy under 32 central schemes. Banks should use the latest voter list as a reference for verifying that every household has a bank account. As per 2011 census, out of total around 25 crore households, only about 58.7 per cent households had reported availing of banking facilities.
AXIS BANK TO WAIVE EMIs

Axis Bank has launched a home loan product with a built-in equated monthly installment waiver scheme. The bank has decided to waive off the last 12 EMIs of customers with good credit history and pays his EMI on time.
The Finance Ministry has declined permission to Iran's Parsian Bank to open a branch in India apparently due to security concerns and threat of money laundering. Reserve Bank has permitted Indians to invest in Pakistan to promote bilateral trade and investment. Nabard to offer free SMS-based weather and crop advisory services to over 50,000 farmers in 10 districts in Maharashtra on a pilot project.
RBI INTRODUCES NEW BASIC ACCOUNT

The RBI has asked banks to drop the no-frills tag from the basic saving accounts as the nomenclature has become a stigma. It has asked banks to provide the zero balance facility in the basic banking accounts along with ATM-cumdebit cards without any extra charge. The central bank had introduced no-frills accounts in 2005 to provide basic banking facilities to poor and promote financial inclusion. The Reserve Bank has asked banks to convert the existing no-frills accounts into Basic savings bank deposit accounts.
AUGUST 2012
FM DEMANDS MORE FROM BANKS
Mr. P Chidambaram, Finance Minister has directed public sector banks to cut interest rates and provide cheaper credit at lower EMIs so as to induce spending on durable goods to promote manufacturing growth. Other important directives included: Reschedule the short-term loans in to long-term for farmers in drought-affected States, in view of the deficient monsoon Revise the sanction norms of education loans to ensure that eligible students are not turned back. Double the number of ATMs in two years from the current 63,000 and also provide the facility of cash acceptance.
FD RULES REVISED
The RBI has asked all banks to modify Fixed Deposit (FD) account opening forms to allow pre-mature withdrawal of FD, without any penalty, on death of one of the joint account holders. Under the modified norms, it would be easier for the surviving joint account holders of FD with 'either or survivor' or 'former or survivor' mandate to go in for premature withdrawal of FD in the event of death of the other.
PAK TO OPEN BANKS IN INDIA
Pakistan's central bank has allowed two banks the National Bank of Pakistan and the United Bank Ltd to open branches in India as part of efforts to normalise economic and trade relations between the two countries. State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of India (BoI) are the two Indian banks that have been allowed to operate in Pakistan.
KCC NORMS RELAXED
The Reserve Bank has relaxed the repayment norms for Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) to help over 10 crore farmers tide over the difficult financial situation due to deficient monsoon. RBI has removed the clause pertaining to mandatory repayment of loans by card holders within a year and gave freedom to banks to fix the repayment period as per the anticipated harvesting and marketing period for the crops for which a loan has been granted.
BANKS TO ISSUE MULTI-CITY CHEQUES
With a view to improving customer services and speeding up fund transfer, the Reserve Bank has asked all CBS (core banking solutions)-enabled banks to issue 'payable at par'/'multi-city' cheques only to all eligible customers and not to collect any clearing charges on them. A 'payable at par' or 'multi-city' cheque of a bank can be cleared by any branch of the same bank in the country.
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PENALTY FOR DELAY IN LOCAL COLLECTION

The Reserve Bank of India has asked banks to reframe their Cheque Collection Policies (CCPs) to include compensation payable for the delayed period in the case of collection of local cheques or else they should pay compensation at savings bank interest rate for the period of delay. In case of local cheques, banks should permit usage of the shadow credit afforded to the customers' account immediately after closure of relative return clearing and in any case, withdrawal has to be allowed on the same day or maximum within an hour of the commencement of business on the next working day, subject to usual safeguards.
committee among other thing will include suggesting appropriate mechanism for consolidation by way of amalgamation, merger, takeover, liquidation and delayering. The committee will be headed by NABARD Chairman Prakash Bakshi.
FOREX EARNINGS NORMS RELAXED

The Reserve Bank has allowed corporates and exporters to keep their entire forex earnings in the respective foreign currency for a limited period. As per the existing provision, 50 per cent of Exporters Earning in Foreign Currency (EEFC) are required to be converted into rupee. Compulsory conversion of a portion of foreign exchange into rupee was enforced to deal with sharp volatility of in the forex market since March this year.
PRODUCERS ORGANISATION DEV FUND
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has created a Producers Organisation Development Fund to comprehensively support producer organisations across the country. The fund will give support for capacity building by these organisations.
16,000 CRORE DIVIDEND FROM RBI

The Reserve Bank of India has approved transfer of 160.1 billion rupees ($2.9 billion) dividend or surplus profit to the government for the accounting year ended June 30. The RBI follows a July-to-June accounting year. In the previous year, it paid a dividend of 150.09 billion rupees.
ALL WOMEN BANK IN KARNATAKA

Karnataka has decided to establish three all-woman banks in Mangalore, Shimoga and Raichur. They would be run by female employees and only women customers would be entertained.
RBI FIXES NEW ITE NORMS

The Reserve Bank of India has issued draft guidelines prescribing quantitative limits for banks financial intra-group transaction and exposures (ITEs) and prudential measures for the non-financial ITEs. The guidelines are to ensure that banks engage in the ITEs in a safe and sound manner in order to contain the concentration and contagion risk arising out of ITEs.
CLICK 2 CARD FROM SBI CARDS
Credit card issuer SBI Cards has launched its online application service Click2Card, allowing customers to apply online for issuance of a credit card by simply entering their details on a secure web interface. IDBI Bank has launched a floating interest rate retail term deposit (FRTD). The rate of interest on the FRTD will move in tandem with a reference rate, which is the average yield at the 364-Days Treasury Bills auctions undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during the preceding three months.
IDBI LAUNCHES FLOATING RATE FD
JULY 2012
RBI CUTS SLR TO 23 PER CENT
Announcing its first quarterly review of the monetary policy, RBI decided to give priority to control the inflation and so made no changes in its key policy rates Repo rate and CRR. However, to give some relief to bankers in terms of enhanced liquidity, it relaxed the Statutory Liquidity Ratio by 100 basis points to 23 per cent, wef fortnight beginning August 11, 2012. Not foreseeing any improvement in the economic scenario in the domestic and global markets in the immediate future, it has lowered the growth projections for Indian economy for 2012-13 from 7.3 to 6.5 per cent. The overall stance of monetary policy is intended to: contain inflation and anchor inflation expectations; support a sustainable growth path over the mediumterm; and continue to provide liquidity to facilitate credit availability to productive sectors.
OVER 2481 CRORE IN UNCLAIMED DEPOSITS
As per recent RBI data, over Rs. 2481 crores was lying in 1,12,49,844 unclaimed deposits accounts(a/cs which had not been operated upon for 10 years), with 85 nationalised, public sector, private sector, foreign and other banks operating in the country as on December 31, 2011.
SBI CHIEF AGAINST KEEPING CRR
State Bank of India Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri has made a strong pitch for the abolition of cash reserve ratio (CRR), saying that keeping these funds with the Reserve Bank without any interest was costing the banking system about Rs 21,000 crore. RBI should either do away with CRR or compensate the banks for the losses incurred as the banking system was not earning any interest on it. Banks are required to keep cash equal to 4.50 per cent of their deposits with RBI. However, Dr. K.C. Chakrabarty, Dy. Governor, RBI snubbed Chaudhuri for his remarks telling him that he has to find "some other place" if he could not work as per the central bank's regulatory environment.
PRIORITY SECTOR GUIDELINES REVISED
COMMITTEE TO REVIEW COOP CREDIT

The Reserve Bank of India has decided to constitute a committee to review the existing short term cooperative credit structure (STCCS). The terms of reference of the
(BASED ON M.V. NAIR COMMITTEE REPORT) The following important activities, among others, form part of priority sector lending as per the revised guidelines: All loans to Micro and Small manufacturing enterprises. Loans up to Rs.1 crore to Service enterprises. Housing Loans upto Rs. 25 lakh in metropolitan centres of population above `10 lakh and Rs.15 lakh at other centres.
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Education Loans upto Rs.10 lakh in India and Rs. 20 lakh abroad. Loans for housing projects exclusively for economically weaker sections and low income groups, provided the cost does not exceed Rs.5 lakh per dwelling unit. Overdrafts upto Rs.50000/- in No-Frills account. Loans to individuals other than farmers upto Rs.50000/to prepay their debt to non- institutional lenders.
structure, electronic transfer of fund up to Rs 1 lakh attracts a maximum charge of Rs 5 per transaction. The move is aimed at promoting cashless transactions.
GOVT SETS LIMIT FOR BULK DEPOSITS

The government has directed banks to cap bulk deposits and certificates of deposit at a combined 15% of all deposits. The finance ministry said banks cannot raise more than 25% of their year-end bulk deposit base in the final quarter of the fiscal year. The government has defined bulk deposits as
WHAT ARE PRIORITY SECTOR ADVANCES: The priority sectors are broadly taken as those sectors of the economy which, if not designated as priority sectors, may not get timely and adequate credit. Typically these are small value loans to farmers for agriculture and allied activities, micro and small enterprises, poor people for housing, students for education and other low income groups and weaker section. Banks are required to allocate 40% of their total loans to priority sector.
deposits accepted at rates above card rates, irrespective of the amount.
HIGHER CAPITAL MOOTED FOR NEW BANKS

Responding to the RBIs draft guidelines for licensing of new banks in the private sector, Banks and institutions have suggested to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that the minimum capital required for the proposed non-operative holding company (NOHC) of new banks in the private sector should be Rs. 1,000 crore instead of Rs. 500 crore.
HIGHER PSL TARGETS FOR FOREIGN BANKS

Foreign banks having 20 or more branches in the country will be brought on par with domestic banks for priority sector targets in a phased manner over a maximum period of 5 years starting April 1, 2013 while foreign banks with less than 20 branches will have no sub targets within the overall priority sector lending target of 32 per cent.
RBI CAPS MDR TO 1%

The Reserve Bank of India has decided to cap Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) for transactions undertaken with debit cards to not exceeding 0.75 percentage point of the transaction amount up to Rs.2,000 and not exceeding one percentage point for transactions above Rs.2,000, with effect from July 1. Till now, MDR for debit and credit cards has been similar in India.
COMMITTEE FOR BANK RECOVERY

The rise in bad loans has prompted the government to mandate a committee headed by Sh. P L Gairola, the former head of Dena Bank to suggest measures to ensure faster recovery of such assets. The move is aimed at optimising capital, which is locked up in the form of loss assets in the books of banks.
JUNE 2012
RBI ENHANCES ECR TO 50%
The Reserve Bank has decided to enhance the Export Credit Refinance (ECR) limit to 50 percent of the outstanding rupee export credit for banks, from 15 percent at present, with a view to inject Rs. 30,000 crore into the banking system.
RBI PERMITS FACTORING NBFC

The Reserve Bank of India has introduced a new category of NBFCs, Non-Banking Financial Company-Factors and stipulated that every company seeking registration as NBFCFactors would have a minimum net-owned fund (NOF) of Rs.5 crore. Factoring is a financial transaction where a
RBI ALLOWS WHITE LABEL ATMs

Reserve Bank of India has decided to allow non-bank entities with minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore to operate ATMs, essentially a banks' domain till date. The ATMs called White Label ATM will be set up under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007. The ATMs licensed to banks but serviced
business entity, usually a manufacturer, sells its receivables to a third-party, called a factor at discounted prices.
and managed by third party are called Brown Label ATM.
MOBILE BANKING JUMPS FIVE FOLD

According to the RBI, banking through mobiles increased five-fold to Rs 1,140.6 crore between January and May compared with the same period a year ago.
ONE ACCOUNT PER FAMILY

The Finance Ministry has asked banks to ensure that at least one person per family across the country has a bank account by the end of this year. As per the 2011 Census, 40 per cent of the families are not in the banking system. Bank account for every family will help the Government and its agencies to use it for electronic fund transfer of wages, salaries directly into the account to reduce leakages.
MINISTRY BANS TAKEOVER OF LOANS

The Finance Ministry has banned public sector banks from taking over loan accounts from those banks where their current chairman and managing director (CMD) or executive director (ED) had worked earlier. Ministry is of the view that poaching loans from another bank may result in unhealthy practices and may also result in bad loans.
PENSION ACCOUNT TARGET FOR PSBs

Finance Ministry has directed that every rural and urban branch of Public Sector Banks will have to generate 150 and 50 subscriptions, respectively, every year for the New Pension Scheme called Swavalamban. This is to ensure that the NPS is available to all citizens in the unorganised sector and the economically disadvantaged sections of society.
NEFT CHARGES SLASHED

Reserve Bank has slashed charges for electronic transfer of funds (NEFT) for amounts of upto Rs 10,000 to a maximum of Rs.2.50, from August 1, 2012. As per the existing fee
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THREE SMS TO DEFAULTERS

As per new guidelines from Finance Ministry, three SMS and a phone call is all a loan defaulter would now get by way of a warning before a bank sends recovery agents to his house. Guidelines have been issued to speed up the recovery of bank loans. The RBI has extended the 2 per cent interest subvention scheme by another year, up to March 31, 2013, on rupee export credit to the labour-oriented and small scale sectors to cushion them from slowdown in U.S. and European markets. Exporters of handicrafts, handlooms, readymade garments, processed agriculture products and carpets will be eligible for interest subvention.
operating in Chhattisgarh, after bidding 0.19%. In other words, the company will be paid 0.19% of the value of the transactions handled by it.
GOVT TO INFUSE CAPITAL IN RRBs

The government has approved Rs 632 crore capital infusions in cash-starved regional rural banks (RRBs) to improve their capital adequacy and lending capacity to the agriculture sector. The capital of RRBs is shared by centre, states and the sponsor bank in the ratio of 50, 15 and 35 per cent respectively. Hence, in essence, these 16 RRBs would get Rs 1,264 crore of fresh capital if all stakeholders contribute in proportion to their shares for recapitalisation.
2% INTEREST SUBVENTION EXPORT CREDIT
BANK LOANS: BAD FOR ONE- BAD FOR ALL

According to recent guidelines issued by the finance ministry, failure to repay loan of one bank could result in an account being classified as a bad loan by all banks. This rule will prevent the companies to seek concession from another bank by skipping payment to another bank.
India's first "talking" ATM for visually impaired has been installed by Union Bank of India at Ahmadabad.
Chinatrust Commercial Bank, the only Taiwanese bank operating in India, will be opening its second branch in India at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, the first being at New Delhi. RBI has advised that Banks cannot give additional interest rate benefit of one per cent per annum to their own staff on deposits under FCNR (B), NRE and NRO accounts. RBI to issue soon currency notes of Rs 20 denomination with the new rupee symbol. The govt has decided to extend pension to regional rural bank (RRB) staff at a par with the existing scheme available in the banking industry. The fourth largest bank of USA, Wells Fargo has decided to shift a large number of its jobs to India, as part of its plan to trim costs.
PAY FEE THROUGH PRE PAID CARDS
RBI has allowed payment of school and college fees and taxes through pre-paid payment cards, besides buying rail and air tickets, within the prescribed limit of Rs 10,000. The pre-paid cards are mainly issued by banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) on payment of specified amount and are used for purchasing goods and services from limited outlets.
MORTGAGE GUARANTEE COMPANY BY NHB
Housing finance regulator, National Housing Bank, has received nod from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to float its mortgage guarantee company. International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) will partner NHB in forming the mortgage guarantee company. A mortgage guarantee company provides credit guarantee to housing finance companies and banks on behalf of home loan borrowers.
MAY 2012
MORGAN STANLEY GETS BANKING LICENSE

Leading US bank Morgan Stanley has received an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a banking license. The licence would enable Morgan Stanley to expand its offerings to wealth management, corporate banking and foreign exchange from its current services such as advising clients on takeovers.
NO FORECLOSURE CHARGES ON HOME LOANS

The RBI has directed banks not to levy charges for foreclosure / prepayment of home loans with floating interest rate. This will lead to reduction in the discrimination between existing and new borrowers, and increased competition among banks will result in finer pricing of the home loans. Further, foreclosure charges are seen as a restrictive practice deterring the borrowers from switching over to cheaper available source
RBI ISSUES BASEL III GUIDELINES
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued the final guidelines for implementation of Basel III capital regulation in India, which would be effective from January 1, 2013, in a phased manner, to be fully implemented by March 31, 2018.
NRIs CAN SEND 30 REMITTANCES
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted NRIs to send remittances more frequently. Resident Indians are now allowed to receive as many as 30 remittances from NRI friends and relatives during a year as against 12 earlier.
FINO BECOMES BC FOR CHHATTISGARH FINO (Financial Information Network and Operations), has
won the State Bank of India tender to become the common Banking Correspondent company for all public sector banks
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Banks have to maintain Tier I capital, or core capital, of at least 7 per cent of their risk weighted assets on an ongoing basis, as against 6 per cent at present. The total capital ratio, including Tier I and Tier II, must be at least 9 per cent, unchanged from the current requirement. Banks also have to build up capital buffers, called Capital Conservation Buffer, which can be drawn down during a stressed period. This buffer will be in addition to the minimum total capital requirement of 8 per cent. In addition, the RBI has also recommended a countercyclical capital buffer, the purpose of which is to protect the banking sector from periods of excess aggregate credit growth.
TAX RELIEF TO FOREIGN BANKS

Govt has decided to exempt foreign banks from paying tax for setting up local units as it looks to ring-fence such units against external economic shocks. Existing laws require overseas banks to pay up to 30 percent of the market value of their assets as capital gains and stamp duty while converting branches to a new entity.
RBI TO REGULATE MFIs
WHAT ARE BASEL GUIDELINES Basel is the name of a place in Switzerland where headquarters of the Bank for International Settlements is located. It is an intergovernmental body which coordinates regulations in the fields of financial services to promote international financial stability. It issues guidelines to regulate the banking business world over. It has a Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) which is known for the Capital Adequacy Norms issued by it in 1988, as per which banks are required to maintain a capital adequacy ratio of not less than 8 per cent of their risk weighted assets. In 2004, it issued Basel II guidelines comprising of three pillars. In 2010, it issued the present Basel III guidelines.
Union cabinet has approved a bill aimed to bring microlenders under the RBIs control. The bill proposes to make it mandatory for micro-finance institutions (MFIs) to be registered with RBI and to have minimum net-owned funds of 5 lakh rupees. The maximum interest that the Micro Finance institutions can charge is 26%. This bill is sequel to the Y.H.Malegam committee report on MFIs.
INTEREST ON EXPORTS DEREGULATED
With a view to increasing the availability of funds to exporters, RBI has decided to allow banks to determine their interest rates on export credit in foreign currency with effect from May 5, 2012.
NEW NORMS FOR PREMATURE FD PAYMENTS

The Reserve Bank of India has removed restrictions imposed on banks which earlier prevented lenders from levying penalty on customers for foreclosure of some term deposits. Banks are now free to formulate their own interest rate policies on foreclosure of term deposits for better assetliability management.
RBI CAUTIONS BANKS ON LENDING TO NBFCs
The Reserve Bank of India has set a deadline of six months for banks to reduce their exposure to such non-banking finance companies or NBFCs which have half of their total financial assets in gold loans, from 10% of their capital funds to 7.5%.
AXIS BANK JOINS HANDS WITH AIRTEL
INTEREST RAISED ON FCNR (B) DEPOSITS

To attract inflows in view of falling rupee, the Reserve Bank has raised the interest rate ceiling on NRI deposits in foreign currencies by up to 3 per cent. Interest rate ceiling on Foreign Currency Non-Resident FCNR (Bank) deposits of banks has been raised from 125 basis points (bps) (1.25 per cent) above the corresponding LIBOR or rates to 200 bps for maturity period of 1 year to less than 3 years, and to 300 bps for maturity period of 3 to 5 years.
Bharti Airtel and Axis Bank have established a partnership to introduce mobile banking and payment services in India.
RBI REVISES COLLECTION CHARGES
In a relief to customers, the Reserve Bank has asked the banks to fix a uniform fee for collection of cheques of over Rs 1 lakh, instead of levying it as a percentage of the value of the instrument.
BANKS TO VERIFY Rs100 & ABOVE NOTES

RBI has directed banks to ensure that cash receipts in the denominations of Rs 100 and above should not be put into re-circulation without the notes being machine processed for authenticity. All bank branches with average daily cash receipt of Rs 50 lakh and above, within a definite time frame.
NRI A/C RULES RELAXED

The Reserve Bank allowed non-resident Indians (NRIs) to transfer funds from non-resident ordinary (NRO) account to Non-Resident External (NRE) account subject to a ceiling of $1 million in a financial year. While, an NRE account is for depositing income from abroad, NRO account is mainly for putting Indian incomes. In case of NRE account, only NRIs can become joint account holders but for NRO account, both resident and non-resident can become joint account holders.
SMART NEW KCC CARD

Revising the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked the banks to issue smart cardcum-debit-card to farmers for hassel-free transactions. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will design the card of the KCC to be adopted by all the banks with their branding.
NRI INFLOWS JUMP 3 TIMES

Monies that NRIs deposited into Indian banks trebled to a record $11 billion in 2011-12. Interest rates that NRIs earn on rupee deposits were freed in December. In the previous five years, inflows of NRI money averaged $2.9 billion.
GOVT TO TAKEOVER NHB FROM RBI
To enable RBI to focus on its supervisory function and avoid clash between its regulatory and ownership roles, govt has decided to transfer shareholding of RBI the country's central bank in the National Housing Bank to the Centre.
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SBI plans to float a $1-billion (Rs 5,500 crore) debt bond issue by August to raise funds for its expansion plans. The Reserve Bank is holding gold reserves of 557.75 tonne valued at USD 27.02 billion, accounting for 9.2 per cent of foreign exchange reserves. The RBI has ordered exporters to convert half of their foreign exchange earnings kept in bank accounts into Indian rupee to prop up the falling value of rupee. There are 93,659 branches of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) functioning in the country as on 31st March, 2012, out of which 34,671 branches are in rural areas and 24,133 are in semi-urban areas, which together constitute about 63% of the total bank branches. State Bank of India has become largest provider of housing loans crossing a record Rs.one lakh crore mark covering 20 lakh families. SBI plans to merge its two subsidiaries, namely, Satate Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Patiala with itself by the end of this year. South Korea-based Woori Bank, a part of Woori Financial Group, has launched its first branch in India at Chennai.
Bank Rate also stands revised to 9%. The move to

cut rates comes in the backdrop of a slowdown in growth which decelerated to 6.1 per cent in the third quarter of last year. Headline WPI inflation had moderated to below 7 per cent by end March although there are fears that it will flare up again. The RBI has, therefore, played it safe by projecting an inflation target of 6.5 per cent by March 2013.
Its GDP projection for 2012-13 is 7.3 per cent.
MICR & IFSC CODE MADE MANDATORY

The Reserve Bank has made it mandatory for all banks to print the MICR and IFSC code on the passbook and statement of account of customers. MICR code is necessary for all electronic clearing services (ECS) transactions. IFSC code is a pre-requisite for national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) and real time gross settlement (RTGS) transactions.
INDO PAK BANK BRANCHES

India and Pakistan have agreed to allow banks from both sides to open branches in each other's territory amid a renewed attempt at reviving relations. The two central banks - Reserve Bank of India and State Bank of Pakistan will invite applications from interested commercial banks.
APRIL 2012
ANNUAL POLICY STATEMENT FROM RBI
RBI announced its annual Monetary and Credit Policy for the year 2012-13. Following are some major points of the policy.
LOAN LIMIT RAISED FOR HSG AGENCIES
RBI has decided to increase the limit from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for the bank loans extended to non-governmental agencies, approved by NHB for their refinance, for onlending for the purpose of construction or reconstruction of individual dwelling units or for slum clearance and rehabilitation of slum dwellers.
Repo Rate Down To 8%: The RBI has cut key
policy rates for the first time in 3 years on April 17. The repo rate (the rate at which the RBI lends money to banks) was cut by 50 basis points from 8.50 per cent to 8.00 per cent. Consequently, reverse repo rate (normally fixed at a spread of 100 basis points below the repo rate) is now 7.0 per cent.
ACCOUNT TRANSFERABILITY MADE EASY

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has made it mandatory for banks to allow transfer of accounts from one branch to another without insisting on opening a fresh account or making the customer undergo the full know your customer process again. Earlier, since the account holder's information was maintained with parent branch, banks used to insist that customers go through the account opening procedure all over again when they shifted to a different location.
The Marginal Standing Facility rate, which has a

spread of 100 basis points above the repo rate, is now at 9.0 per cent. Banks have been given some relief on the liquidity front. The RBI has decided to raise the borrowing limit of scheduled commercial banks under the marginal standing facility (MSF) from one per cent
UCIC FOR BANK CUSTOMERS

RBI has asked banks to allot a Unique Customer Identification Code (UCIC) to existing individual customers by end-April, 2013. The unique number will help identify a single customer for various services in a bank.
to two per cent of their net demand and time liabilities.
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RBI APPROVES BRICKWORK RATINGS

The Reserve Bank has approved Brickwork Ratings as an eligible Credit Rating Agency (CRA) for bank loans/facilities. With this approval from the RBI, Brickwork has become a full service rating agency in the country.
banks under a compromise solution thrashed out between the Reserve Bank of India and the government. A policy revamp in 2009 had said that any considered foreign company with more than 50% overseas investment would be considered foreign-owned. As per this rule, many private banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, ING Vysya, Development Credit Bank, Federal Bank, IndusInd Bank and YES Bank became foreign banks under the FDI policy.
ADVERTISING ALLOWED ON ATMs

The Finance Ministry has allowed banks to advertise either their own products and services or those of broking firms, mutual funds, insurance companies and pension funds on the ATM screen. As per National Payment Corporation of India's data, the 77 banks that are connected to its National Financial Switch collectively had a network of 91,324 ATMs.
BANKS TO POPULARISE EFTs

Finance ministry has advised banks to popularise electronic funds transfers to reduce usage of cheques and bank drafts that are prone to fraud, assuring them that electronic
transfer of funds will have same legal protection as the traditional banking Instruments.
1000 ATMs BY DEPTT OF POSTS RRB/ COOP BANKS ALLOWED EFT

To popularise electronic transfer of funds, the Reserve Bank has allowed regional rural banks (RRBs) and cooperative banks to participate in the centralised payment systems. With this, all the banks can now transfer funds electronically through real time gross settlement system (RTGS) and national electronic funds transfer (NEFT). The Department of Post (DoP) is planning to set up 1,000 automated teller machines (ATMs) across six states --Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu -- under its ongoing modernisation plan. The department will computerise all its 1.55 lakh post offices across the country by 2013 with over 24,000 department post offices already computerised by March.
24X7 BANKING BY PNB

Punjab National Bank has decided to set up 'E-Lobby branches to provide 24x7 services to the customers. These branches will have one ATM, cash deposit kiosk, pass book printing terminal, cheque deposit machine and two Internet banking terminals.
CHEQUES VALIDITY CUT TO 3 MONTHS
CONSORTIUM LENDING ABOVE 150 CR

The finance ministry has asked state-run banks to adopt a consortium lending approach for loans above 150 crore. The consortium lending approach has a common agreement for a group of banks, in which a lead bank assesses borrowers' funding requirements, sets common terms and conditions and disseminates information about borrower's performance to other lenders. However, the government has exempted six large state-run banks SBI, PNB, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda - from mandatorily adopting this approach.
NPCI LAUNCHES RUPAY CARD

After years of preparation and soft launch, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) commercially launched RuPay Card on March 26, with major banks such as SBI, BoB, UBI, BoI, Corporation Bank and Axis Bank launching their domestic debit cards on the RuPay platform. This makes the country second after China to have an indigenous electronic payment card. Adoption of the RuPay Card will help banks save Rs 250-300 crore annually as NPCI charges are cheaper by up to 40 per cent than what banks pay to foreign cards like Visa and Master Card.
From first April, Banks will stop honouring cheques and drafts if they are not presented within three months of the date of issue as against six months earlier. The RBI directive is in view of complaints that some persons were taking undue advantage of the six-month validity period and circulating these instruments like cash.
ICICI BANK, HDFC BANK TO LOOSE FOREIGN BANK STATUS

Private sector banks, such as ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, which have majority foreign holding will not be
FirstRand Bank (of South Africa) has started its retail and commercial banking operations in India. The Union Cabinet has allowed private banks to raise voting rights to 26%, from 10% at present, irrespective of their share holding pattern. State Bank of India has launched the State Bank Virtual' card, an electronic debit card for e-commerce that can be created by a customer using the bank's Internet Banking facility. Reserve Bank has asked banks not to levy any foreclosure charges or pre-payment penalties on home loans on a floating interest rate basis
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DEFENCE
OCTOBER 2012
Rs 8000 CRORE APPROVED FOR MISSILES
Govt has cleared proposals of over Rs. 8,000 crore for procuring around 10,000 Invar missiles from Russia for the Armys T-90 tanks and over 200 air-launched versions of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles for the IAF.
ARMY TEST FIRES AGNI-I MISSILE

India has successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable Agni-I ballistic missile, with a strike range of 700 km, as part of the Armys user trial from a test range at Wheeler Island off Odisha coast. The surface-to-surface, single-stage missile, powered by solid propellants, was testfired from a mobile launcher.
NAVY GETS INS SAHYADRI

INS 'Sahyadri', a stealth warship armed with an array of missiles, commissioned by Indian Navy's for enhancing its anti-submarine capabilities. It is the last of the Shivalik Class Project-17 warships, after INS Shivalik and Satpura.
INDIA FIRES PRITHVI - II

India has successfully test-fired its nuclear- capable surface to surface Prithvi-II ballistic missile with a strike range of 350 km from a test range near Balasore in Odisha.
India test-fired its nuclear-capable strategic missile AgniIV with a strike range of about 4000 km The Defence Ministry has cleared a proposal to procure 56 transport aircraft, at an estimated price of Rs. 12,000 crore, for the Air Force to replace the ageing Avro planes. India test-fired the 290-km BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the integrated test range at Chandipur off the Odisha coast. The Air Force will acquire 75 Swiss-made Pilatus PC-7 basic trainer aircraft to replace the ageing Kiran aircraft at a cost of over Rs.2900 crore.
DHANUSH TESTED SUCCESSFULLY

India successfully test-fired its nuclear-capable ballistic missile Dhanush on Oct. 5, from the naval ship INS Subhadra in the Bay of Bengal off the Odisha coast. With a pay-load capacity of 500 kg, Dhanush is a naval version of the nuclear-capable ballistic missile Prithvi. It is capable of carrying both conventional as well as nuclear warheads and can strike targets in the range of 350 kms.
Indian Air Force celebrated its 80th anniversary on 8th October.
SEP-AUG 2012
India successfully test-fired Agni-III, a surface-to-surface ballistic missile having a strike range of over 3,000 km, from Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast.
JUNE 2012
INS VINDHYAGIRI
(F-42), the sixth and the last of the Nilgiri class of frigates, which was damaged in an accident last year, has been decommissioned by Indian Navy.
LAKSHYA I TESTED
DEDICATED SATELLITE FOR NAVY
The pilotless target aircraft Lakshya-1 was successfully testflown from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, near Balasore, Odisha.
SAMUDRA PAHEREDAR FOR COAST GUARD

The Indian Coast Guard has commissioned the Samudra Paheredar, the indigenously built pollution control vessel, specially designed to mitigate any marine oil spill. The ship also has infrared surveillance system which can detect any oil spill even of minor nature, and thereafter dissolve or disintegrate oil. It could also carry out tasks such as surveillance, interception, search and rescue and medical evacuation.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has built a dedicated satellite GSAT-7 for the Navy which will be launched in a few months by an Ariane-5 rocket from the Kourou Island in French Guiana. The Navy will use it to communicate with its submarines, frigates, destroyers and aircraft from its centres on the shore.
Russia has completed the refitting of the INS Sindhurakshak, the Indian Navys Kilo-class dieselelectric submarine. INS Vikramaditya, newly refurbished aircraft carrier, converted from the erstwhile Soviet war ship Gorshkov, took to the sea for the first time on 8th June from the Sevmash shipyard in Russia.
PRITHVI II TESTED SUCCESSFULLY
India test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable 'Prithvi-II' ballistic missile from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, off Odisha coast as part of a user trial by the Army. It has the capability to carry 500 kg of warheads with a strike range of 350 km.
MAY 2012
AKASH TEST FIRED SUCCESSFULLY
India test-fired two indigenously developed surface-to-air anti-aircraft 'Akash' missiles from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near Balasore, Odisha. The double testfire came after trials of the missile, with a range of 25 km and capable of carrying a warhead of 60 kg to neutralise aerial targets, on 24th and 26th May.
AGNI II TEST FIRED SUCCESSFULLY
India successfully test-fired Agni-II, its nuclear capable Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) with a strike range of 2000 km, from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast.
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NAVY STARTS INS DWEEPRAKSHAK

As part of its efforts to augment the security of the strategically significant Lakshadweep archipelago, the Navy commissioned a full-scale naval base, INS Dweeprakshak, at Kavaratti on April 30.
one tonne. With this, India joined the elite missile club of the US, Russia, France and China.
INS CHAKRA JOINS INDIAN NAVY
ULTRA-LIGHT HOWITZERS FOR ARMY

Defence Ministry has cleared a Rs. 3,000-crore proposal to buy 145 ultra-light howitzer (ULH) M777 BAE Systems guns from USA. They can be air-dropped in a high-altitude position by a chopper in inaccessible areas. The guns can be deployed in high-altitude areas in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.
The nuclear-powered attack submarine INS Chakra, with lethal "hunter-killer'' and intelligence-gathering capabilities'', was formally inducted into Indian Navy on a 10-year lease from Russia at a cost of around $1 billion on April 4. It is a Akula-II class- K-152 Nerpa sub marine. With this India has become 6th country in world to have nuclear sub marine, the other 5 being USA, UK, Russia, China and France.
NAVY INDUCTS INS TEG
AKASH MISSILE TEST FIRED

India test fired successfully its indigenously-developed surface-to- air Akash missile from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, about 15 km from Balasore, Odisha. It will boost its air defence shield and re-validate operational efficacy of India. The missile has a strike range of 25 km with a warhead of 60 kgs.
To give a boost to its naval warfare capability, India inducted a new warship into its fleet, INS Teg. It is the first of three guided missile stealth frigates of the modified INS Talwarclass that India commissioned in Russian shipyard Yantar. INS Teg will be followed by induction of INS Tarkash and INS Trikand in the next one year or so.
MALABAR - JOINT OPERATION WITH US NAVY

The Annual India - US Bilateral Naval exercise Malabar was held in the Bay of Bengal in second week of April. Frontline units from the navies of the two countries took part in the 10 day exercise. Phase I of the at-sea training was conducted in the vicinity of Chennai while Phase II was conducted in the Bay of Bengal and west of the Nicobar Islands.
APRIL 2012
SHOORVEER EXERCISE IN THAR DESERT
The first week of May will witness one of the biggestever war games of the Army in the Thar Desert. The forces are gearing up for Shoorveer a war game and military training exercise to be held in the districts of Hanumangarh, Sri Ganganagar and Bikaner in Rajasthan. The exercise will see the deployment of more than 200 tanks and over 60,000 troops in the border State. Shoorveer comes close on the heels of the Army's Vijayee Bhava exercise in Suratgarh and Sudarshan Shakti in Barmer district.
PINAKA TEST FIRED SUCCESSFULY
LCA TESTED FOR NAVY

The indigenously built Light Combat Aircraft Tejas - NP1 made its maiden flight on April 27 in Bangalore. With this India has crossed a major milestone in Design, Development, Manufacturing and Testing of a four plus generation Carrier Borne Fly-by-Wire STOBAR (Short take-off but arrested recovery) aircraft.
India's multi barrel rocket launcher weapon system 'Pinaka' which can neutralise a large area with a rapid salvo of rockets was once again successfully test fired at Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE) at Chandipur about 15 km from Balasore, Odisha. With a strike range of 40 km, 'Pinaka' could fire a salvo of 12 rockets in 44 seconds.
WIN
THE GAME OF EXAMS !
AGNI-V TEST FIRED SUCCESSFULLY

India took a giant leap in fortifying its strategic capability by successfully test-firing its nuclear capable Agni-V Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) with a strike range of 5,000 km, bringing China and the neighbouring region under its cover. The surface-to-surface missile was launched from a mobile platform from the Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast. The sophisticated missile can carry a nuclear warhead of more than
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

OCTOBER 2012
The GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (Gagan) system is a part of the modernisation plan for air traffic management and communication-navigation-surveillance system as mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Its functioning will be facilitated by the communications satellite GSAT-10 launched recently. Gagan will be made operational by June - July 2013.
GAGAN TO BE OPERATIONAL BY JULY, 2013
the surface of Mars. The one-tonne mobile lab is the largest rover ever sent to Mars, and its high-speed landing was the most daring to date, using a rocket-powered sky crane to lower the six-wheeled vehicle gently to the red planet s surface.
SCIENTIST DISCOVER GOD PARTICLE
GSAT 10 LAUNCHED BY ARIANE-5
India has launched its heaviest ever satellite - the GSAT-10, on board Ariane-5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana. The satellite will be controlled from the Master Control Facility (MCF) of ISRO in Hassan in Karnataka.
AUSTRALIA SETS UP HUGE RADIO TELESCOPE
Australia has set up a colossal radio telescope that will allow astronomers to detect distant galaxies and explore the depths of the universe with unprecedented precision. The Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope, at the remote Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the Western Australian desert, is made up of 36 antennas, each 12 meters in diameter.
In a 'quantum' leap in physics, scientists have claimed to have spotted a sub-atomic particle "consistent" with the Higgs boson or 'God particle', believed to be a crucial building block that led to the formation of the universe. Scientists at CERN (European Centre for Nuclear Research), Switzerland, made the historic announcement, in a major milestone in the 50-year search for the elusive Higgs that is believed to have been responsible for lending mass to the particles that eventually formed the stars and the planets after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
RAILRADAR: A new online application launched by the Railways, where one can find the exact location of 6,500 trains on a Google map on a real-time basis. Microsoft has launched its latest computer operating system Windows 8 in 37 languages in 140 worldwide markets.
ENJOY ULTRA HIGH DEFINITION TV

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has finalised standards that promise to revolutionise television viewing with ultra high-definition pictures of stupendous clarity and size in the coming years. At present, the HDTV, which has been replacing standard definition TV comes in two formats 1280 x 720 pixels and 1920 x 1080 pixels, the latter being often called full HD. In contrast UHDTV picture sizes will be of the order of up to 32 mega pixels in size (7680 x 4320 pixels).
SEPTEMBER 2012
GISAT AN EYE IN THE SKY
Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad is developing a satellite called the Geo-Imaging Satellite or GISAT that will keep an eye on the country to alert authorities of trouble spots, natural disasters, floods and forest fires within, say, five minutes of the event. More importantly it will also keep a watch over our sensitive borders, from a height of 36,000 kilometers. GISAT will be fixed in a geo-stationary orbit, always looking over the same region, synchronised to the Earth's 24-hour rotation.
APPLE LAUNCHES MOUNTAIN LION

Apple has launched the next generation of its operating system for its Mac range of personal computers. Called OS X Mountain Lion, the new OS is fully integrated with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, bringing to its desktops (iMac) and notebooks (Macbooks) some salient features of its iOS mobile operating system.
100TH SATELLITE FROM ISRO
ISRO launched its 100th satellite on 9th September when the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C21 (PSLV-C21) blasted off from Sriharikota. It carried two satellites - French earth observation satellite SPOT 6 along with a micro-satellite Proiteres from Japan into a 635-km polar orbit. With a weight of 712 kg, SPOT 6 is the heaviest satellite to be launched by PSLV for an international customer. First satellite from ISRO was Aryabhatta launched in 1975 by a Russian rocket.
NEW PLANET DISCOVERED
Astronomers have claimed to have discovered a planet that may be capable of supporting human life. The planet is 22 light years away and is formally known as Gliese 581g, an Australian daily has reported. A study by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington shows that the planet is twice the size of earth.
AUGUST JULY 2012

CURIOSITY LANDS ON MARS
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States opened a new chapter in the history of interplanetary explor-ation on 6th August when its $2.5 billion nuclear-powered robot, Curiosity, beamed back pictures from
ASTROSAT FIRST ASTRONOMY SATELLITE
India will launch Astrosat, the astronomy satellite in polar circular orbit in 2013, to study the Universe at multiwavelengths for the first time. The 1.6-tonne satellite will be launched from the Sriharikota spaceport off the Bay of Bengal coasts in Andhra Pradesh, onboard a 300-tonne rocket with five scientific instruments to study at multiple
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wavelengths. The instruments include a soft X-ray telescope, an ultraviolet imaging telescope, an imager and a sky scanning monitor.
IPv6 THE NEW INTERNET PROTOCOL

A number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), hardware makers and websites, including a few from India, will start running IPv6, a new generation Internet protocol, permanently from June 6. It is part of a global effort to move away from the IPv4 regime that now rules the cyberspace.
NEW MOON TO PLUTO DISCOVERED

US astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a fifth and tiniest moon yet orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto. The newly discovered moon, provisionally named S/2012 (134340) 1 until it gets a proper name, could help reveal more on how the Pluto system came into existence and evolved ever since.
DEEP SEA DRILLING RECORD

A Japanese deep-sea drilling probe has set a world record for depth, reaching 25,400 feet below the sea surface. The probe named Chikyu, operated by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, was digging the seabed off Japan's northern coast to take fault samples and study last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami.
ISRO HOLDS COSPAR AT MYSORE
ISRO hosted the 39th Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) with the theme 'Space - for the benefit of Mankind' at Infosys Campus, Mysore during 14th22nd July. More than 2,500 scientists and students from 75 countries will witness presentations on over 3600 scientific papers, posters and reports.
APRIL 2012
RISAT 1 CREATES HISTORY
Country's first indigenous all-weather Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-1), whose images will facilitate agriculture and disaster management, was launched successfully on April 26 on board the PSLV-C19 from in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, about 90 kilometres north of Chennai. The 1,858 kg spacecraft is countrys heaviest ever launched satellite and is capable of taking images in total cloud conditions also.
JUNE 2012
MICROSOFT LAUNCHES SURFACE
The technology firm Microsoft has unveiled its own tablet computer Surface to compete against Apple's hugely successful iPad. The touch screen computer has been designed to operate as a Personal Computer with other attachable keyboard cover and as a TV viewing platform.
BIGGEST OPTICAL TELESCOPE IN CHILE
GSAT 11 TO BE LAUNCHED BY 2014

ISRO plans to launch its biggest ever spacecraft, the 5,000kg GSAT-11, by 2014. The advanced commu-nication satellite, GSAT-11, will be double the capacity and size of the present buses, and will be built over the next two years. GSAT-11 will have 32 transponders in the Ka and Ku bands.
The European Southern Observatory has decided to set up the European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT in Chile. The 1.35-billion dollars scheme entails building a telescope with a massive light-catching mirror 39.3 metres wide, several times the size of the biggest optical telescopes today
SOLAR POWERED AIRCRAFT

Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard has flown his way into the record books by completing the world's first intercontinental flight in a giant solarpowered plane Solar Impulse. Mr. Piccard completed a 19 hours flight, covering 830 kilometers from Madrid, Spain to Rabat, Morocco in an experimental carbon-fiber aircraft, powered by solar cells.
SYNRIAM LAUNCHED TO FIGHT MALARIA

India launched its first indigenously manufactured antimalaria new-age drug Synriam. The drug, produced by Ranbaxy Laboratories, has been formally introduced for marketing. Malaria claims half a million lives every year globally and India contributes to 77 per cent of the 2.5 million cases reported annually from South East Asia.
WORLDS LARGEST TELESCOPE AT LADDAKH

To find out more about the secrets of universe, the world's largest telescope at the highest altitude is being established at at Hanle, Ladakh by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). Called MACE (Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment) Telescope, the 21-meter instrument would enable the study of high energy cosmic gamma-ray sources in the hitherto unexplored energy range of 20 to 100 GeV (giga electron volt) and beyond five Tev (tera electron volt).
MAY 2012
SPACE-X DRAGON JOINS SPACE STATION
SpaceX of USA became the first private commercial outfit to dock its own cargo capsule at the International Space Station, marking a new era for private spaceflight. The California-based SpaceX is owned by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk. With no humans on board, the capsule delivered about a half tonne of supplies and science equipments for the ISS.
NETRA TO COMBAT NAXALITES

Netra is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), a camera in the sky, used by the security forces in the Naxalite areas of Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. The 'Netra' plane that weighs just one-and-a-half kilos uses four propellers to remain airborne. It has high-resolution cameras and state-of-the-art thermal sensors.
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INTERNATIONAL
OCTOBER 2012
SRI LANKA QUIZZED ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Ninety nine countries have posed questions to Sri Lanka on the countrys Human Rights record that will be reviewed at United Nations Human Rights Commission headquarters in Geneva. It is reported that US, UK and Canada have submitted tough questions relating to investigations of war crimes, resettlement of displaced people and progress on political settlement including elections to the Northern Province in Sri Lanka.
Rs. 7800CR LOAN FROM JAPAN

The government has signed a loan agreement of Rs 7,802.17 crore with Japan to fund four projects related to infrastructure and water. Japan has committed loan of Rs 313.62 crore for campus development project of IIT, Hyderabad, Rs 3,572.73 crore for Tamil Nadu transmission system improvement project, Rs 2,211.52 crore for Rajasthan rural water supply and fluorosis mitigation project (Nagpur) and Rs 1,704.30 crore to fund Delhi water supply management project.
GOOGLE LAUNCHES TABLET NEXUS 10
Google has unveiled a large-format tablet computer Nexus 10 to compete against the original iPad as part of a revamped line of its Nexus devices. It will be "the highest resolution tablet on the planet" and would offer settings for multiple user accounts, claimed Google.
Australia proposes to teach Hindi in its schools. Hurricane Sandy lashes NE USA, causing widespread devastation around New York, affecting over 5 crore people. Lahore city officials have decided to rename the Shadman Chowk in Lahore after the heroic Indian revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, on his 105th birth day.
JAPAN LAUNCHES MICRO SATELLITE NIWAKA
SEPTEMBER 2012
JAPAN TO QUIT NUCLEAR POWER
Japan has unveiled a plan to phase out nuclear power by 2030, in a major policy shift after last year's Fukushima disaster. Under proposals put forward by a government panel, the reactors would be shut down completely by the year 2040. Before the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power supplied about a third of Japan's energy needs.
A palm-sized Japanese satellite in orbit around Earth will flash a Morse code message that will be visible around the world from next month. Researchers hope the satellite; measuring 10 centimeters (four inches) cubed and launched from the International Space Station will become the first orbiter to transmit an LED message across the night sky.
RUSSIAN ARMY TO STAY IN TAJIKISTAN

Russia and Tajikistan have signed an agreement allowing Russian troops to stay at a military base in Tajikistan until 2042. In return, Russia will admit more Tajik labourers to boost financial health of Tajikistan.
ANTI JAPAN PROTESTS IN CHINA
BANGLADESH HONOURS 52 INDIANS

Bangladesh has honoured foreign friends who contributed to achieve the nations independence from Pakistan in 1971. Of the 61 recipients of the award in the third phase, 52 are from India and the rest are from Nepal, the United States, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Australia, Sweden, and Italy.
Tension between Tokyo and Beijing on the issue of disputed island in east China sea has lead to wide spread anti japan protests taking place in China. The protests started after Japan said it had agreed a deal to buy a chain of disputed islands in East China Sea from their private Japanese owner. China has maintained its sovereignty over the islands which are also claimed by Taiwan.
PAK TEST FIRES BABUR (HATF-VII)

Pakistan has successfully test-fired its cruise missile - the Babur (Hatf-VII) that can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads over a range of 700 km.
BOND-007 CELEBRATES 50 YEARS

James Bond 007, the suave British spy on the silver screen celebrated 50 years of its creation on October, 5. Bond appeared in a film for the first time in the now classic Dr. No , released on October 5, 1962, introducing himself with the immortal line, The names Bond... James Bond. Skyfall, the 23rd and latest Bond film, was released on October 23.
INDIAN STUDENTS MAY BE DEPORTED

Up to 500 foreign students of the crisis-hit London Metropolitan University (LMU) could be deported after the UK Border Agency (UKBA) reportedly determined that they had no legal right to stay in Britain because of problems with their visas. Govt recently revoked the license of LMU.
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A weeklong film festival to mark 100 years of Indian Cinema was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. China launches its first aircraft carrier - Liaoning The fifth meeting of the SAARC Home Ministers held in Male, Maldives.
FOOD ASSISTANCE TO NORTH KOREA

According to a UN report, North Korea needs immediate food assistance after heavy rains killed scores of people and submerged vast swaths of farmland.
AUGUST 2012
IRAN TO SUPPLY OIL IN INSURED TANKERS
Faced with problems of its customers not being able to import oil due to lack of adequate insurance for ships, National Iranian Oil Company has offered India and other countries the use of fully insured Iranian vessels. Almost all international insurance companies have stopped insuring oil tankers coming from Iran due to recent sanctions imposed by USA and its European allies on Iran.
Saudi Arabia is planning to build a city exclusively for women to encourage career oriented females within its strict Sharia law.
JULY 2012
S KOREA TO MINE IN INDIAN OCEAN
South Korea has announced that it has secured exclusive rights to explore and develop a deep sea mine in the resource-rich Indian Ocean that can produce over USD 300 million worth of minerals like gold, silver and copper per year. The International Seabed Authority (ISA) last week unanimously agreed to recognise South Korea's rights to the offshore mine that lies across an area of 10,000 square kilometers in the Indian Ocean.
CHINA TESTS ICBM DONFENG-41
China has announced testing of a new generation of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Dongfeng-41, with a strike range of 14,000 km and capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads.
ADB TO TRADE IN RUPEE ALSO
16TH NAM SUMMIT HELD AT TEHRAN
16th summit of Non Aligned Movement nations was held at Tehran, Iran. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attended the summit. The relevance of NAM is evident in the gathering of the member nations, who have defied a unipolar world order and the hegemony of the West and its allies to come together in Iran, despite the sanctions and the threats being issued on a regular basis by Washington and Tel Aviv.
The Asian Development Bank has approved the inclusion of Rupee and Renminbi in their Trade Finance Programme, which so far had the dollar, euro and yen currencies only. Now ADB will finance regional trade in Indian rupee and Chinese Renminbi also.
THE WORLD POPULATION DAY

Health Services.
The World Population Day was celebrated on July 11. The theme for this year is Universal Access to Reproductive
consider themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2012, the movement has 120 members and 17 observer countries. The organization was founded in Belgrade in 1961, and was largely the brainchild of Yugoslavia's president, Josip Broz Tito; India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru; Egypt's second president, Gamal Abdel Nasser; Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah; and Indonesia's first president, Sukarno. All five leaders were prominent advocates of a middle course for states in the Developing World between the Western and Eastern blocs in the Cold War.
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries
World Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11 every year, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, approximately the date on which the world's population reached five billion people.
SIX NATION MEET ON IRAN IN ISTANBUL
APPLE WINS CASE AGAINST SAMSUNG
In a massive victory in its patent case against Samsung, technology giant Apple has won more than 1 billion dollars after a California jury held that the South Korean firm violated a series of Apples patents pertaining to software and design of mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad.
Six major world powers - US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China held technical expert level talks with Iran in Istanbul in July 2012. The meeting is aimed at seeking clarifications from Iran on the proposals made by the six major world powers to Iran at Moscow round of talks. Iran says its rights of uranium enrichment are non negotiable and its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes. Western nations allege Iran is trying to develop atom bomb under the cover of its nuclear program.
$16 BN AID FOR AFGHANISTAN

About 70 countries pledged $16 billion in a donors conference held at Tokyo for urgently needed development aid for Afghanistan over the next four years, when most foreign troops will leave the country.
CONTEMPT NOTICE TO PAK PM
For the second time this year, contempt of court proceedings were initiated against a Pakistan Premier by the Supreme Court when current PM Raja Parvez Ashraf was asked to appear before it on August 27 and show cause why he should not be held in contempt of the court for refusing to write to the Swiss authorities asking them to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
IT giant Microsoft has reported a loss of $492 million in the June quarter, for the first time in nearly three decades, primarily due to lower online advertising business.
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JUNE 2012
APPLE-I SOLD FOR $374,000
A rare surviving first model of the Apple computer a stripped down, clunky device that bears no resemblance to todays sleek gadgets sold for $374,000 at an auction by Sothebys in New York. The Apple I computer was created by Apple co-founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs and sold in 1976.
END OF EMERGENCY IN EGYPT

Egypt's decades-old state of emergency came to an end on May 31 as its last renewal expired. Egypt has been under a state of emergency continuously since President Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981, allowing authorities to detain people without charge and try them in emergency security courts. Egypt elected its new President Mohmd Mursi recently to signal the new democratic regime.
BOKO HARAM STRIKES AGAIN IN NIGERIA

Nigerias dreaded Islamist militant group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for recent deadly attacks on churches that left at least 52 people dead and 131 others wounded. Boko Haram wants to impose Islamic sharia law in Nigeria.
PAK SEEKS INDIA HELP TO FIGHT POLIO

A nine-member Pakistani delegation has arrived in India to learn from its experience of polio eradication. Pakistan saw a manifold rise in polio cases this year, and is one of the three countries, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, where the infectious viral disease is still prevalent. India became poliofree in January this year, after one full year without a single case being reported. It has subsequently been removed from the WHO list of polio-endemic countries.
TOKYO MOST EXPENSIVE CITY

Global HR services firm Mercer's survey of 214 cities worldwide has ranked Tokyo as the most expensive, while Karachi is the least costly place for expatriates. New Delhi has slipped to 113th position (from 85 last year), while Mumbai is at 114th place (from 95).
INTERNATIONAL NORTH SOUTH TRANSPORT CORRIDOR

A three-day meeting of experts from 16 countries discussed ways to smoothen the way for the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC). The corridor would radically reduce cargo transportation time between India on one side and Central Asia and Russia on the other, with Iran being the pivot.
MASSIVE ANTI PUTIN PROTESTS IN MOSCOW

Tens of thousands of Russians flooded streets in Moscow to protest against President Vladimir Putin's rule in what appeared to be the biggest opposition rally yet. This is despite the fact that Putin recently increased fines on illegal protests and violations from 5,000 roubles to as much as 300,000 roubles ($9,000) for participants and 1 million roubles ($30,000) for organisers.
SCO SUMMIT AT BEIJING
WORLD FOOD PRICES TAKE A DIP

The FAO Food Price Index, which measures monthly price changes for a food basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 204 points in May, down from 213 points in April. The prices dropped in May for a second month in a row, hit by steep falls in dairy products, sugar and other commodities, and are likely to fall further in the coming months.
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit was held at Beijing on 6th June. India has the observer status in SCO. Foreign Minister SM Krishna attended the meet. Afghanistan received observer status at the 2012 SCO summit in Beijing, China on June 6, 2012.
8 LAKH REFUGEES IN 2011

Conflicts around the world produced 800,000 refugees in 2011. A report issued by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says that currently there are more than 43.7 million refugees in the world which also include internally displaced people.
RUSSIA TESTS ITS TOPOL ICBM
The Russian Strategic Rocket Forces, RVSN (Russian name) has successfully test-fired a Topol RS-12M Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, ICBM. The RS-12M Topol is a single-warhead ICBM with a maximum range of 10,000 km and can carry a nuclear warhead.
CHINA ACHIEVES FIRST SPACE DOCKING

China completed its first manned space docking on June 18 as the spacecraft Shenzhou-9 (Divine Grace), carrying three astronauts including the country's first spacewoman- Liu Yang, successfully coupled with an orbiting space lab Tiangong-1 or 'Heavenly Palace in a major milestone for its ambitious space programme.
EARTH SUMMIT 2012

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from June 20. Also known as Rio+20 or Rio Earth Summit 2012. India pushed for upholding the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility, CBDR, at the summit.
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In Egypt, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood partys Mohammed Mursi has won the Presidential elections In Israel, a bust of Rabindranath Tagore has been unveiled at the prestigious Hebrew University at Jerusalem to mark the 150th birth anniversary of the Nobel laureate. International conference on dealing with the issues related to maritime piracy held at Dubai
The Philippine government has decided to allow Indian nationals who are regular international travellers to enter the country without a visa and stay for up to 21 days.
been marred by demands for the country to be divided into states along ethnic lines.
HATF-IX MISSILE TESTED BY PAKISTAN
Pakistan (May 29) successfully carried out a test of its indigenous quick reaction tactical nuclear-capable Hatf-IX missile with a range of 60 km, aimed at "deterring evolving threats at shorter range."
UN MEET ON CLIMATE HELD AT BONN
MAY 2012
UN Climate Change Meeting held at Bonn, Germany to discuss the further amendments to the Kyoto Protocol and to review the other major decisions taken at historic UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that took place in Durban in Nov, 2011. Next round of UNFCCC will be held at Doha by the end of this year.
WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY

World press freedom day was celebrated on May 3. The United Nations General Assembly declared 3rd May the World Press Freedom Day in 1991 to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression.
HUNGER ALLEVIATION FUND

A report on food security and Poverty released by ADB in Manila, Philippines suggested creation of a hunger alleviation fund by the nations of Asia and the Pacific to deal with the problem of rising prices of commodities.
CHINA ISSUES SMART PASSPORTS
The new passports issued by China have an electronic chip inside with personal information. Besides name and date of birth, the chip contains the holders finger prints and signature. Paper photos will also be replaced by digital ones. In addition to increased security, the E-passport is seen as an important step toward automatic processing at customs points.
Switzerland has agreed to provide details of secret bank accounts of individuals sought by India even on the basis of limited information, under a mutual DTAA inked on April 20 this year. Time magazine has selected Sanjay Leela Bhansalis classic epic Devdas as one of the 10 all time best films of this millennium. The Netherlands to host Nuclear Security Summit in 2014. A major university centre dedicated to the life and works of Rabindranath Tagore has opened in Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland to mark his 150th birth anniversary.
$ 80,000 FINE ON AIR INDIA
Ailing Air India has been slapped a fine of $80,000 by US authorities for failing to post customer service and tarmac delay contingency plans on its website and for not adequately informing passengers about its optional fees.
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM IN AFRICA
APRIL 2012
GLOBAL RISE IN FOOD PRICES
Global food prices rose by 8 per cent between December 2011 and March 2012 on account of high oil prices, adverse weather conditions and increased food imports by Asia, a World Bank report stated.
The three-day meeting of the World Economic Forum on Africa was held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
INDIA SHOULD SIGN NPT: JAPAN

Visiting Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, Koichiro Gemba, has called upon India to sign the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty (NPT) so that the two countries can cooperate for development of nuclear energy.
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JAPAN BECOMES NUCLEAR POWER FREE

Japans Hokkaido Electric Power Co has shut down the country's 50th and last active nuclear reactor at Tomari, leaving the world's third-biggest user of atomic energy with no nuclear-derived electricity for the first time since May, 1970.
NEPAL CABINET RESIGNS EN MASSE

The Constituent Assembly of Nepal failed to come to agreement on the new constitution and PM Mr,. Bhattarai has called for election on November 22 to resolve the constitutional impasse. Efforts for a new constitution have
HATF-4 IRBM TESTED BY PAKISTAN

Pakistan test-fired an "improved version" of the nuclearcapable Hatf-4, also called Shaheen 1A intermediate range ballistic missile that can hit targets in India. It is expected to have a range of over 1000 kilometers.
LT. GEN. K S BRAR (RETD.): was in news as he was attacked by alleged militants in Central London. He had led Operation Blue Star in 1984 to flush out pro Khalistani militants from the Golden Temple, Amritsar. MALALA YOUSAFZAI: She is the 14-year-old peace activist who became the voice of girls in Swat in Afghanistan when the Taliban controlled the valley in 2008. She was recently shot at and seriously injured by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), triggering a nationwide wave of revulsion at not just terrorists but also their supporters.
GILANI GUILTY OF CONTEMPT OF COURT

Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani was held guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to imprisonment till the rising of the Bench of the Supreme Court hearing the case. He was accused of not complying with SCs order to reopen corruption cases against countrys President Asif Ali Zardari.
SEPTEMBER 2012
AISHWARYA RAI BACHCHAN
Bollywood actress has been appointed the UN Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS to raise awareness on issues related to new HIV infections in children and to advocate for increased access to anti-retroviral treatment.
G-20 CALLS TO COMBAT MONEY LAUNDERING The G-20 Finance Ministers has called upon all nations to
sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance for comprehensive exchange of information to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. G-20 is a grouping of rich and developing countries.
ASEEM TRIVEDI
G-8 MEET AT WASHINGTON

Summit of Foreign Ministers of the G-8 nations was held at Washington to discuss a range of country-specific, regional and transnational topics. The Group of Eight comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
25 years old cartoonist from Kanpur was in news as he was charged with sedition for putting up banners mocking the Constitution during a rally in Mumbai.
MAMATA BANERJEE
West Bengal Chief Minister figures in the list of 50 most influential people in the world of finance as rated by Bloomberg Markets magazine. The list also includes names like American business magnate Warren Buffett, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Hyundais chairman Chung Mong Koo and America Movils chairman Carlos Slim.
SUU KYI SWEEPS MYANMAR BY-ELECTIONS

Myanmar pro-democracy leader and Noble Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has won her first-ever seat in parliament. Her National League for Democracy party has so far won 40 of the 44 seats it contested in Myanmars first by-elections in last almost 50 years.
SMITA SHAH
Meeting of Foreign Ministers of RIC countries held at Moscow, Russia. RIC stands for Russia, India and China. BRICS finance Washington, USA. Ministers Meeting held in
The first Indian-Americ an business women selected as a Democratic National Convention parliamentarian in USA. Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi, an anti-submarine warfare specialist, took over as Chief of Indian Navy from Admiral Nirmal Verma.
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS
The US envoy to Libya was in news as he was killed by violent protesters in Benghazi, Libya. The protest was against a US film Innocence of Muslims which allegedly portrayed Prophet Mohammed in an insulting manner.
13th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD was held in Doha, Qatar from April 21-26. It focused on trade, investment and development issues.
INNOCENCE OF MUSLIMS
A US film produced recently evoked wide spread violent protests for its anti Muslim contents, causing insult to Prophet Mohammed, in a number of Muslim countries like Libya, Egypt, Yemen killing several persons, including US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.
PERSONS IN NEWS
OCTOBER 2012
FELIX BAUMGARTNER: Supersonic skydiver from Austria was in news for his death-defying, record-breaking leap from the edge of space at about 39 kms, breaking the sound barrier at a sky diving speed of 1,342-kmph on October 14, landing in a desert in New Mexico. DIEGO MARADONA: Football legend from Argentina visited Kannur, Kerala on a private tour. AISHWARYA RAI: Appointed International Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS, the joint UN programme on AIDS and HIV.
STEPHEN HAWKING
Britains most famous living scientist and universally admired for his courage in overcoming a potentially debilitating disability was in news as he inaugurated the London paralympics. He is now almost entirely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device.
MITT ROMNEY
Republican partys candidate selected for contesting US Presidential election against Barack Obama (of Democratic party). The elections are held every four years on the
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Election Day which is Tuesday falling between 2nd and 8th November. This year it is their 57th election and will be held on 6th November.
SUNITA WILLIAMS
Indian-American NASA astronaut was in news as she created a new world record for spending highest number of hours in spacewalk by a female astronaut. Williams has conducted six spacewalks for 44 hours and 2 minutes. Currently, she is on a mission to International Space Station. She also holds the record for spending highest number of days in space 195.
ASHOKE SEN: Indian physicist received the first Fundamental Physics award for his contribution to the ''String Theory''. The three million dollars award, started by Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner, is the highest cash award in the world. VANYA MISHRA: Miss India 2012 lost the Miss World title to Miss China Wenxia Yu, however, she won Miss World Beauty with a Purpose and Miss Multimedia titles.
GENERAL
LIANG
GUANGLIE:
Chinese
Defence
JULY 2012
KULANDAI FRANCIS: has been awarded Magsaysay
award for his efforts for eradicating poverty and empowering more than one lakh rural women for 35 long years. His organisation, the Integrated Village Development Project provides vocational training to rural students
Minister who visited India recently. MAHMOUD ABBAS: The President of Palestine who visited New Delhi recently.
MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA:
India on a official tour.
Sri Lankan President visited
DWIJENDRA LAL ROY:
AUGUST 2012
JULIAN ASSANGE:
Australian founder of international whistle blowing website Wikileaks has sought asylum in Ecuador by entering its embassy in London, UK. He is wanted by Sweden in some alleged sexual offences committed by him in Stockholm, Sweden.
Eminent Bengali poet and musician was in news as his 150th birth anniversary celebrations started in West Bengal.
JUNE 2012
RAJAT GUPTA: One of the most successful Indian Americans on Wall Street, the 63-year-old former Goldman Sachs director was found guilty by a Manhattan (USA) court of passing confidential market information to Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, in one of America's biggest insider trading cases.
LAKHDAR
BRAHIMI: Former Algerian foreign minister was in news as he was appointed UN and Arab League envoy to Syria for brokering peace in war torn country. ANDERS BEHRING BREIVIK: A Norwegian citizen was
in news as he was sentenced to 21 years prison for his massacre of 77 people in July 2011 in Norway as part of his anti-Muslim crusade.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: Record seven Tour de France
titles holder cycling champion from USA was in news as he was banned for life by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after concluding he used banned substances. Lance was the hero of millions of cancer survivors as he himself fought cancer bravely.
WHAT IS INSIDER TRADING Insider trading is best understood as a type of securities related fraud. In this, fraudsters exploit positions of privilege to improperly source, access and utilise the Price Sensitive Information (PSI) to derive financial benefit from the share market by purchasing large number of such shares in advance whose prices are expected to increase in the near future.
SUDARSHAN PATTNAIK: Internationally-acclaimed sand artist from Odisha has won the first prize in the Copenhagen International Sand Sculpture Championship 2012, held in Denmark. Mr. Pattnaik created a 20-foot-high sand sculpture on Save the Ocean. JUSTICE MADAN BHIMARAO LOKUR: was sworn in as 26th judge of the Supreme Court, still five short of the sanctioned strength of 31 judges. FERNANDO LUGO: President of Paraguay was impeached by the Parliament over his poor handling of a deadly land dispute. LIU YANG: 33 years old air force pilot of China got the honour to become Chinas first woman astronaut and world's 57th space woman when she went up in spaceship Shenzhou-9 that docked with the Spacelab Tiangong-1.
DR B.R. AMBEDKAR: Father of the Indian Constitution

was voted as the Greatest Indian in a poll spearheaded by History TV18 and CNN IBN. Nearly two crore votes were cast, making him the most popular Indian figure.
RIAD HIJAB: Syrias Prime Minister has joined the antiregime revolt. He fled abroad, in a major blow to President Bashar Al-Assad.
HAMID ANSARI: re-elected as Vice-President of India.

He is only the second Vice-President to get a second consecutive term after S. Radhakrishnan, who enjoyed two terms from 1952 to 1962.
The vice president of India is ex officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha and is elected by members of both houses of the Parliament i.e. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
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ALLEN STANFORD: Financier and cricket mogul (62) of USA was in news as he was sentenced to 110 years in jail for running a $7-billion Ponzi scheme (fraudulent investment scheme) LEON PANETTA, the US Defence Secretary, was in New Delhi for a two-day visit to India. YOUSUF RAZA GILANI: Pakistans Prime Minister was disqualified from holding office by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, two months after convicting him of contempt of court. SNIGDHA NANDIPATI: 14years old eighth-grade student from San Diego, California was in news as she won this year's prestigious Spelling Bee Competition in USA. She correctly spelled the French word guetapens to be declared the national champion. HOSNI MUBARAK: 84 years old ousted Egyptian President was sentenced to life in prison after a court in Cairo found him guilty of complicity in the killing of over 800 protesters during the popular uprising against his 30-year rule last year. According to the latest information Mr. Hosni Mubarak is on life support system and is being kept clinically alive. CHARLES TAYLOR: Former President of Liberia was sentenced to 50 years in jail by a U.N.-backed war crimes court for arming rebels in Sierra Leone in return for blood diamonds. REHMAN MALIK: Pakistan's Interior Minister was suspended by the Supreme Court of Pakistan from the membership of parliament on the ground that he had failed to provide proof of renouncing his British citizenship, raising questions over his continuance as a minister.
ranked India-born Indra Nooyi at the 3rd spot and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at No 6. JACQUES ROGGE: President of the International Olympic Committee. MICHAEL HANEKE: Austrian director won the Cannes film festival's top honor, the Palme d'Or, for the picture "Love" (Amour), his acclaimed tale of an elderly couple facing the inescapable, yet no less tragic march of death.
APRIL 2012
SARASVAT, V K: Director of DRDO was in news due to success in testing of Agni V missile. TESSY THOMAS: Project Director in DRDO who guided the team of scientists to successfully test Agni-V, the fiercest weapon in India's armour. Also known as Missile Women or Agniputri. DR K RADHAKRISHNAN: Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), credited with successful launch of RISAT-1, Indias first all weather day-night viewing satellite. N VALARMATHI: First lady Project Director of a remote sensing satellite mission, credited with successful launch of RISAT-1. ZOHRA SEHGAL: The grand old lady of Indian cinema, veteran actress, Padma Vibhushan Awardee, turned 100 years old. HANS RAJ HANS: Famous Punjabi singer has been appointed visiting professor of Sufism in the San Jose University of California, USA. NANCY J POWELL: Ambassador of the United States to India who took charge of her office in India.
MAY 2012
SAADAT HASAN MANTO: Veteran short story writer of Indian origin who later migrated to Pakistan after the partition. His 100th birth anniversary falling on 11th May, 1912 is being celebrated with great fervor in both India and Pakistan. Known for his famous story Toba Tek Singh. GIRIRAJ KISHORE: Verteran Writer and Gandhian was in news as he returned his Padma Shri award to protest against the auction of items belonging to Gandhi. A R RAHMAN: Oscar-winning musician has been conferred with his first American Honorary Doctorate by the Miami University, Ohio, USA. It is Rahmans fourth doctorate. He has previously been honoured by Aligarh Muslim University, Anna University and Middlesex University in the UK. SAM PITRODA: Advisor to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has been conferred with an honorary degree by New York University's Polytechnic Institute, which is considered among the U.S.' most prestigious and oldest private schools, specialising in engineering and technology. HILLARY CLINTON: US Secretary of State has been named No 1 in the World's 20 Most Powerful Moms list which also
APPOINTMENTS
OCTOBER 2012
PRANAY SAHAY, IPS: Director General, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) SHUBHALAKSHMI PANSE: Chairperson and Managing Director of Allahabad bank. HUGO CHAVEZ: President of Venezuela (re-elected)
SEPTEMBER 2012
ALTAMAS KABIR: appointed the 39th Chief Justice of India from September 29. RAMESH ABHISHEK: Chairman of commodity markets regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC). KAUSHIK BASU: Chief economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank
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JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS: President of Angola (re elected) HASSAN SHEIKH: President of Somalia
RAHUL KHULLAR: Chairman, Authority of India (TRAI) RATAN KUMAR Commission SINHA:
Telecom
Regulatory Energy
Chairman,
Atomic
AUGUST 2012
SUMIT BOSE: Revenue Secretary, Central Govt RAGHURAM G RAJAN: Chief Economic Advisor to Finance Minister SUSHIL KUMAR SHINDE: Union Home Ministry, Also Leader of the House in Lok Sabha P CHIDAMBARAM: Union Finance Minister JIN-YONG CAI: CEO of International Finance Corporation of the World Bank. (From China)
GOOLAM E. VAHANVATI: Attorney-General (re appointed for two more years) VIDYA BALAN: Ambassador for Total Sanitation Campaign of Govt. of India. FRANCOIS HOLLANDE: President of France, from Socialist party, defeating Nicolas Sarkozy JEAN-MARC AYRAULT: Prime Minister of France. DAVID RICHARDSON: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the International Cricket Council TOMISLAV NIKOLIC: President of Serbia
JULY 2012
JAGADISH SHETTAR: Chief Minister of Karnataka JAWAHAR THAKUR: Controller General of Accounts (CGA). HESHAM QANDIL: Prime Minister of Egypt NKOSAZANA DLAMINI-ZUMA: First woman Head of African Union Commission (from South Africa) ENRIQUE PEA NIETO: President of Mexico
APRIL 2012
FIVE NEW GOVERNORS APPOINTED B.V. Wanchoo Dr. Ajij Quershi Ms Margaret Alwa ESL Narasimhan K. Sankar narayanan Goa Uttarakhand Rajasthan Andhra Pradesh Maharashtra
JIM YONG KIM: President, World Bank, he is a KoreanAmerican physician. SALMAN BASHIR: High Commissioner of Pakistan to India. JUSTICE DALVEER BHANDARI: Elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
JUNE 2012
SEKHAR BASU: Director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay, Mumbai. V.S. SAMPATH: Chief Election Commissioner of India D.K. JOSHI (Vice-Admiral): (w.e.f. Sep. 1) Chief of the Indian Navy
AWARDS & HONOURS

OCTOBER 2012
NOBEL PRIZES FOR 2012 DECLARED
Nobel prize for Chemistry Winner Robert Lefkowitz, USA and Brian Kobilka, USA Serge Haroche, France and David Wineland, USA John Gurdon, Britain and Shinya Yamanaka, Japan Mo Yan, China Work done for studies of proteins that let body cells respond to signals from the outside. for work in quantum physics that could one day open the way to revolutionary computers. for the 'reprogramming' of the fate of cells, For his hallucinatory realism with which he merges folk tales, history and the contemporary. for over six decades contributed to the
D.K. MEHROTRA: Chairman, LIC of India BUJAR NISHANI: President of Albania ANTONIS SAMARAS: Prime Minister of Greece MOHAMMED MURSI: President of Egypt RAJA PARVEZ ASHRAF: Prime Minister of Pakistan from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). FATOU BENSOUDA: Lawyer from Gambia has been sworn in as Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at Hague, Netherland. ANSHU JAIN: Co-CEO, Deutsche Bank S R RAO: Union Commerce Secretary PRADEEP KHOSLA: Chancellor of the University of California, USA. He is alumni of IIT Kharagpur.
Physics
Medicine (Physiology) Literature
MAY 2012
Peace prize
European Union
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Economics
Alvin Roth, USA and Llyod Shapley, USA
advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe. for studies on the match-making that takes place when doctors are coupled up with hospitals; students with schools; and human organs with transplant recipients.
AUGUST 2012
TOP SPORTS AWARDS DECLARED
RAJIV GANDHI KHEL RATNA AWARD - 2012: 1. 2. Shri Vijay Kumar Shri Yogeshwar Dutt Shooting Wrestling
Apart from a medal and a citation, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardees will receive a cash prize of Rs.7.5 lakh each and Arjuna Awardees will receive statuettes, citations and cash prize of Rs.5 lakh each.
STORY OF NOBEL PRIZES The Nobel Prize is an international award of highest level given annually since 1901 for outstanding achievements in six fields - Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Economics and Peace the prizes were started by Nobel Academy set up by great Sweedish scientist Alfred Nobel. The prize consists of a medal, a personal diploma, and a prize amount (reduced recently by 20%) of Swedish Kroner 8 million (roughly $ 1.1 million). In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank (Bank of Sweden) instituted the prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. The peace prize is decided by the Parliament of Norway. These awards are announced every year in the month of October.
MAN BOOKER PRIZE FOR FICTION: Hilary Mantel for her book 'Bring up the Bodies'. She made history by becoming the first woman and first British author to become a two-time winner of this prestigious award. SHARMILA TAGORE: Awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by the Edinburgh Napier University for her outstanding contribution to Indian cinema. GOLDEN PEACOCK AWARD: Analjit Singh, Max India founder and Vodafone Chairman, for personal leadership and his contribution to society. 27TH INDIRA GANDHI AWARD FOR NATIONAL INTEGRATION: Gulzar, the noted poet, lyricist and filmmaker "for his yeoman work in promoting and preserving the spirit of National Integration." 11TH ECONOMIST CROSSWORD BOOK AWARD 2012: To Aman Sethi for his book A Free Man
ARJUN AWARDS 2012

Sl. No. Name 1. 2. 3. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Ms. Deepika Kumari Ms. Laishram Bombayla Devi Ms. Sudha Singh Ms. Kavita Ramdas Raut Ms. Ashwani Ponnappa Mr. Parupalli Kashyap Mr. Aditya S. Mehta Mr. Vikas Krishan Mr. Yuvraj Singh Mr. Sardar Singh Mr. Yashpal Solanki Mr. Anup Kumar Mr. Samir Suhag Ms. Annu Raj Singh Mr. Omkar Singh Mr. Joydeep Karmakar Ms. Deepika Pallikal Mr. Sandeep Sejwal Ms. Ng. Sonia Chanu Mr. Narsingh Yadav Mr. Rajinder Kumar Ms. Geeta Phogat Mr. M. Bimoljit Singh Mrs. Deepa Mallick Mr. Ramkaran Singh Discipline Archery Archery Athletics Athletics Badminton Badminton Billiards & Snooker Boxing Cricket Hockey Judo Kabaddi Polo Shooting Shooting Shooting Squash Swimming Weightlifting Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling Wushu Athletics Paralympics Athletics Paralympics
SEPTEMBER 2012
Moorti Devi Award-2010*: Prof. Gopi Chand Narang for the book Urdu ghazal aur Hinduatani jehan-o-tehzib.
(also awarded Pakistans top civilian award Sitara e Imtiaz)
Moorti Devi Award-2011*: Dr. Gulab Kothari for his book Main hi Radha, Main hi Krishna.
*This
award is given by Bhartiya Jnanpith Trust for recognising a persons contribution to Indian philosophy and cultural heritage in any language
GOLDEN LION for best film at the 69th Venice Film Festival: Korean film Pieta directed by Kim Ki-duk.
DRONACHARYA AWARD (for excellence in coaching) Veerendra Purnia (Athletics) Sunil Dabhan (Kabaddi) Yashweer Singh (Wrestling) Harindra Singh (Hockey) Satyapal Singh (para athletics) Bhavani Mukherjee (Table Tennis) J.N. Bhatia (Athletics Lifetime achievement award) B.I. Fernandez (Boxing)
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DHYANCHAND AWARD(Lifetime achievement award) Jagrajsinghman (Athletics) Gundeep Kumar (Hockey) Vinod Kumar (Wrestling) Sukhbeer Singh Tokan (para sports) FUKUOKA PRIZE: Vandana Shiva, Indian environmental philosopher and activist. Awarded by Fukuoka city government in Japan on people who contribute to academia, arts, and culture in Asia SITARA-I-IMTIAZ: (Star of Excellence) Professor Gopi Chand Narang, eminent Urdu litterateur from India. It is the third highest civilian honour bestowed by Pakistan MISS WORLD 2012: Wenxia Yu of China, Ordos city in Inner Mongolia, China. NORMAN BORLAUG AWARD in Field Research and Application: Aditi Mukherjee for her work in transforming access to water for thousands of farmers in West Bengal. RAJIV GANDHI MANAV SEVA AWARDS Mr. R Ravi Kumar, Swami Japananda and Mr. N Thungdemo Kikon have been selected for the Rajiv Gandhi Manav Seva Awards for the year 2011 for their contribution in the field of child protection and welfare service to children. The Rajiv Gandhi Manav Seva Award is conferred on three individuals each year who make outstanding contribution in the field of child protection and child development for over ten years. THE 2012 SASTRA RAMANUJAN PRIZE: Professor Zhiwei Yun, USA. The SASTRA Ramanujan Prize was established in 2005 and is awarded annually for outstanding contributions by very young mathematicians to areas influenced by the genius Srinivasa Ramanujan. The age limit for the prize has been set at 32 because Ramanujan achieved so much in his brief life of 32 years
BANGA BIBHUSAN: West eminent actor Suchitra Sen
Bengal's
highest
award to
RATAN TATA: Tata Group Chairman, was conferred The Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun' title at Tokyo by Japan Govt for his contribution in strengthening economic relations between Japan and India. PALME D'OR: Best Film Award at Cannes Film Festival won by Australian film Love
APRIL 2012
TEMPLETON PRIZE: leader Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual
International Indu Sharma Katha Samman2012: Pradeep Saurabh for his Hindi novel Teesri Tali.
BOOKS & AUTHORS

OCTOBER 2012
India Grows at Night by Gurucharan Das Ad katha: The story of Indian Advertising by Anand Halve and Anita Sarkar Sethji by Shobhaa De London Company by Farukh Dhondy Indias Tryst with Destiny by Jagdish Bhagwati &Arvind Panagariya Joseph Anton - by Salman Rushdie The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng Swimming Home by Deborah Levy The Lighthouse by Alison Moore The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowlings Ending Corruption? How to Clean up India by N. Vittal, Former CVC of India Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James What Young India Wants by Chetan Bhagat No Easy Day by Mark Owen, Kevin Maurer Ministry of Hurt Sentiments by Altaf Tyerwala A Free Man by Aman Sethi
JUNE 2012
IIFA 2012 AWARDS: SINGAPORE
Best Actor: Ranbir Kapoor for movie Rockstar Best Actress: Vidya Balan for movie The Dirty Picture Best Film: Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara Best Director: Zoya Akhtar for Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons has been awarded the prestigious award by Rockefeller Foundation, New York for his innovation in philanthropy. WORLD FOOD PRIZE: Daniel Hillel, Israeli scientist, for his radically innovative way of bringing water to crops in arid and dry-land regions.
OTHER IMPORTANT BOOKS

11/22/63by Stephen King A Better India, A Better World by N.R. Narayana Murthy A Shot at History - My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold: Autobiography by Abhinav Bindra, Olympic shooting champion co authored by Rohit Brijnath Aleph by Paulo Coelho Assault on Merit The Untold Story of Civil Military Relations by R K Anand Barack Obama: The Making of the Man by David Maraniss Beyond the lines: An Autobiography by Kuldip Nayar Bishan, Portrait of a Cricketer by Suresh Menon Breakout Nations: Ruchir Sharma Can Love Happen Twice: Ravinder Singh Can't Is Not An Option: My American Story BY Nikki Haley, Governor of South Carolina, USA Confront and Conceal by David Sanger Corporate Chanakya by Radhakrishnan Pilliai Decoding Rahul Gandhi by Aarti Ramachandran
MAY 2012
EXCELLENCE IN CINEMA AWARD: Shyam Benegal, veteran filmmaker. The award is conferred by the South Asian Cinema Foundation, London AMBEDKAR WOMEN'S WELFARE AWARD: Suwalka, a social activist from Tonk, Rajasthan
Maya
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End This Depression Now by Paul Krugman Eunuch Park by Palash Krishna Mehrotra, Fierce FocusAutobiography of Greg Chappell Gendering Colonial India by Charu Gupta Great By Choice: by Morten T Hansen Jim Collins Hunger and Public Action by Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen I Am ZlatanAutobiography of Zlatan Ibrahimovics, international football player from Sweeden Iconic Shrines of Kashmir by The Chinar Corps of Indian Army in Kashmir. Imagine by Jonah Lehrer In the Name of Love by Katy Price Indira Nooyi A Biography by Annapoorna Killing Lincoln: Bill OReily and Martin Dugard Lucknow Boy: A Memoir by Vinod Mehta Maharani by Ruskin Bond March of Aryans Bhagwan S Gidwani Mis-measuring Our Lives by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, Jean-Paul Fitoussi Narcopolice by Jeet Thayil Nirbasan (Exile) by Taslima Nasreen Non Stop India by Mark Tully Of Economics, Policy and Development by (Late)I G Patel: Edited by Deena Khatkhate and Y V Reddy Pakistan on the Brink by Ahmed Rashid Pax Indica by Shashi Tharoor Poor Little Rich Slum by Rashmi Bansal & Deepak Gandhi Poriborton (The Change) a book by Mamta Banerjee, CM of West Bengal Rebirth by Jahnavi Barua Reverse Innovation by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble Revolution 2020 by Chetan Bhagat River of Somke By Amitabh Ghosh Sachin: Born to Bat by Khalid A H Ansari Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh SEAL Target GeronimoThe Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden by Chuck Pfarrer Sonia Gandhi: An Extraordinary Life, An Indian Destiny by Rani Singh Steve Jobs: Genius by Design by Jason Quinn Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson That used to be US by Thomas Friedman The 3rd Alternative by Stephen R Covey The Affair by Lee Child The Best Quest by Laeeq Futehally The Best Thing About You is You by Anupam Kher The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey The Coalition of Competitors: The Story of Nasscom and the IT Industry: by Kiran Karnik The Drop: by Michael Connelly The Habit of Winning by Prakash Iyer The High Performance Entrepreneur by Subroto Bagchi The Householder by Amitabha Bagchi The Immortals of Meluha: by Amish Tripathi The Litigatorsby John Grisham The Magic by Rhonda Byrne The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Economy by Chetan Ghate
The Rolling Stones: Fifty Years by Christopher Sandford The Second World War by Antony Beevor The Secret by Rhonda Byrne The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: by Robin S Sharma The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins The Sense of An Ending: Julian Barnes The Sins Of The Father by Jeffrey Archer The Steve Jobs Way Jay Eliot and William L Simon The TCS story and Beyondby S Ramadorai The Unfinshed Memoirs by Sheikh Mujibur Rehman The Winning Way: Learnings From Sport for Managers by Harsha and Anita Bhogle Tiger Head Snake Tails: Jonathan Fenby Time Guerrilla Memoires of Fidel Castro, great revolutionary and ex President of Cuba. Turning Point A Journey Through Challenges by A P J Abdul Kalam Unusual People Do Things Differently by T G C Prasad Whatever the OddsAutobiography of DLF Chairman K. P. Singh When China Rules The World by Martin Jacques Wit and Wisdom Pickings from the Parsee Punch by Mushirul Hasan
OBITUARY
OCTOBER 2012
YASH CHOPRA: Legendary film producer and director, known as King of Romance. His last film Jab Tak Hai Jaan will be released on Diwali, Nov. 13. SUNIL GANGOPADHYAY: Sahitya Akademi President Noted Bengali littrateur and
JASPAL BHATTI: Popular satirist and film-maker from Punjab, the man behind hit comedy shows like Ulta Pulta and Flop Show. DINESH THAKUR: Renowned theatre and film artist BRAJESH MISHRA: Indias first National Security Adviser and ambassador to UNO. He was the man who supervised the testing and incorporation of nuclear weapons as an integral part of the countrys security strategy. ERIC HOBSBAWM: One of Britain's leading historians and most significant Marxist intellectual of the past half century. PRINCE NORODOM SIHANOUK: Combodia Former king of
SEPTEMBER 2012
DR VERGHESE KURIEN: Architect of the Operation Flood, fondly known as the Milkman of India, father of White Revolution which made India the leading producer of milk in the world, accounting for 17% of total production. He formed Anand Milk Union Ltd (Amul), one of the
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top Asian brands with a turnover of nearly Rs 13,000 crore. He was also founder of National Dairy Development Board. G. KASTURI: Former Editor of The Hindu and former Managing Director of The Hindu Group. RANGANATH MISRA: The former Chief Justice of India K S SUDARSHAN: Ex chief of Rashtriay Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) SYED MUSTAFA SIRAJ: Veteran Bengali writer from Kolkata, West Bengal ANIL BORDIA: Eminent educationist, activist and former civil servant from Rajasthan
HIREN BHATTACHARYYA: Celebrated Assamese poet and winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award and several honours DARA SINGH: Noted wrestler-turned film actor BIKRAM KESHARI ROY BURMAN: Anthropologist from West Bengal Noted scholar and
STEPHEN R. COVEY: Author of the bestselling motivational books like "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," First Things First,the 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, the leader in me, The Speed of Trust. YITZHAK SHAMIR: Famous leader and two times Prime Minister of Israel JOAN DUNLOP: A global leader in addressing womens issues, from USA
AUGUST 2012
AVTAR KISHAN HANGAL: Veteran actor, popularly known as A.K. Hangal and best remembered for his role as Rahim Chacha in the iconic film Sholay. NEIL ARMSTRONG: The legendary US astronaut who, in 1969, became the first man to set foot on the moon. MELES ZENAWI: Prime Minister of Ethopia TONY SCOTT: Prominent Hollywood film director (68), whose signature works included Top Gun, was in news as he jumped to his death from a bridge in San Pedro, California, USA. VILASRAO DESHMUKH: Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences and ex-Chief Minister of Maharashtra. ASHOK MEHTA: Noted cinematographer of Hindi movies
JUNE 2012
MEHDI HASSAN: India-born legendary ghazal maestro from Karachi (Pakistan) DIPANKAR MUKHERJEE: Renowned trade union leader NORA EPHRON: Noted film Director & Writer from New York ACHALA SACHDEV: Veteran Hindi films actress GAJANAN Rajasthan VERMA: Eminent poet and lyricist from
MAY 2012
CARROLL SHELBY: Veteran race car driver and automobile manufacturer from USA, who created the best known US sports cars of the 1960s the AC Cobra and the Shelby Mustang. CARLOS FUENTES: Noted novelist from Mexico DONNA SUMMER: Legendary pop singer from USA
JULY 2012
RAJESH KHANNA: The charismatic suoer star of Indian cinema LAKSHMI SAHGAL Freedom fighter and a close associate of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in his Indian National Army MRINAL GORE: Veteran socialist, known for her dauntless activism on the issues of price rise, water rights and womens empowerment. Prof. P N DHAR: An eminent economist who served as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the 1970s P.M. RUNGTA: Former President of Board of Control for Cricket in India
PLACES IN NEWS
OCTOBER 2012
MINBYAR TOWNSHIP: A town near Sittwe in border
state of Rakhine, Myanmar was in news due to violent clashes there between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.
ABYEI a 10,000 sq km oil-rich territory on Sudan and

South Sudan border which is claimed by both sides, was in news due to frequent violent skirmishes there between the two communities - Misseriya tribes allied to the North and Ngok Dinka people who consider themselves South Sudanese.
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NEW YORK: The city and areas around it were lashed by the devastating hurricane Sandy causing widespread damage.
JULY/JUNE 2012
KOKRAJHAR
District and town in Assam was in news due to violent clashes between local Bodo community and immigrant Bangladeshis, claiming over 40 lives.
SEPTEMBER 2012
GHOGALGAON:
A small village in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh was in news as scores of villagers launched a jal satyagraha there by standing in neck deep waters of Narmada river for 17days, demanding reduction in the water level of Omkareshwar dam to 189 metres from the current 190.5 metres. Ultimately, State govt acceded to their demands.
TIPAIMUKH
Multipurpose mega hydel project on the river Barack in Manipur was in news as it has led to a dispute between India and Bangladesh over sharing of water rights. It has also not gone down well with the people of Manipur who will have to be relocated because of the dam reservoir.
RAKHINE
State in western Myanmar witnessed widespread violent clashes between Buddhist and Muslim communities forcing some ninety thousand Muslims to flee from their homes.
HARDA: Place in district Harda, MP, was in news as over

250 affected people of the Indira Sagar project on river Narmada had been observing jal satyagraha by standing in neck-deep waters and demanding proper rehabilitation, compensation and a reduction in the level of the dam waters from 262 to 260 meters. However, they were removed forcefully by the local police.
LAGOS
Commercial capital of Nigeria was the site of a plane crash killing over 153 people when a passenger plane crashed into a residential building shortly after takeoff from Lagos.
HOULA
The grisly massacre at in a cluster of villages at Houla in Syria's Homs province led to worldwide condemnation of the Syrian government. The incident involved killing of over 100 people, including dozens of children and women.
MUDALPATTI: Place near Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu was in

news as over 38 persons were killed in a fire accident at a cracker factory. Allahabad University, known as the Oxford of the East, the fourth-oldest university in the country, turned 125 on September 23, 1887.
MAY 2012
KODUMANAL: A village in Erode district of Tamil Nadu
was in news due to discovery of a variety of artefacts from four trenches in the habitational mound which revealed an industrial complex that existed around fourth century BCE. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Pranahita-Chevella Sujala Sravanthi project: A hydel project across Pranahita River, which is a major tributary of Godavari River, being established jointly by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The major benefit of increased irrigation from this project will go to Andhra Pradesh.
KARACHI: Port town of Pakistan was in news as around

300 people were killed in a fire that broke out in a local garment factory on Sep. 11.
FEUGO VOLCANO: in Guatemala was in news due to its

sudden eruptions.
AUGUST 2012
MANESAR: Industrial town near Gurgaon, Haryana, was
in news due to violent protests, arson by workers of Maruti Udyog Ltd, causing widespread damage to its car plant. It also lead to the death of one of their General Manger and seriously injured several other senior managers. KAMRA: Pakistan Air Forces Minhas Base station near Islamabad was in news as it was attacked by terrorists.
SPORTS WORLD
OCTOBER 2012

Saina Nehwal beats Juliane Schenk of Germany to win the Denmark Open Super Series Premier Trophy (badminton) at Odense, Denmark. Pankaj Advani won his seventh World Billiards title when he outclassed defending champion Mike Russell in the finals at Leeds in UK Sachin Tendulkar: has been honoured by the Australian government with the membership of the Order of Australia, an honour rarely awarded to nonAustralians. Anil Kumble: Former Indian cricket captain appointed chairman of ICC's Cricket Committee.
ALEPPO: Commercial capital of Syria was in news due to

heavy battle going on there between state forces and the rebels, killing over hundreds of civilians.
OAK CREEK: Place in Wisconsin state of USA where six

persons were killed in a bloody shoot out in a Sikh Gurdwara.
IRAN: was in news due to twin earthquakes that

devastated many villages in northwest Iran killing over 300 people most of them women and children and injured 3,037.
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Saina Nehwal: The London Olympics bronze medallist in badminton was in news as she flew in a Kiran aircraft of the Indian Air Force from an airbase near Hyderabad. Babita Kumari: She is the third Indian woman wrestler to grab a medal at any International Wrestling meet when she clinched a bronze in World Wrestling Championship held at Edmonton, Canada. First Indian women to win an international medal in wrestling was Alka Tomar and second, Geeta Phogat, elder sister of Babita. West Indies won the ICC T-20 Cricket World Cup captained by Darren Sammy, after defeating host Sri Lanka at Colombo, Sri Lanka. Marlon Samuels of West Indies was declared Man of the Match. Australia beats England to lift ICC T-20 Cricket World Cup for women at Colombo, Sri Lanka. East Zone lifts Duleep Trophy (cricket) defeating Central Zone at Chennai. East Bengal won the Federation Cup (Football) beating the Dempo SC at Siliguri, West Bengal.
MATTHEW HAYDEN: Former Australia Test opener has decided to retire from all forms of cricket. MAHESH BHUPATHI AND ROHAN BOPANNA have been banned by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) from representing India in international events till the end of June 2014. India beats New Zealand in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania group I in tennis at Chandigarh.
India beats Cameroon to win Nehru Cup of Football at New Delhi. The ICC Men's World Twenty20 Tournament starts in Sri Lanka.
The ICC Women's World Twenty20 Tournament starts in Galle, Sri Lanka. ANDY MURRAY of UK won US open tennis grand slam defeating defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia. SERENA WILLIAMS of USA captured her 15th Grand Slam title and fourth career US Open Tennis crown at Flushing Meadows, New York, by beating World No 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. TIGER WOODS: Became the first golfer to make more than $100 million in earnings on the PGA Tour in USA.
Rest of India beat Rajasthan to lift Irani Cup 2012(of cricket) at Bangalore. Team India B beat India A to win the N.K.P. Salve Challenger Trophy of cricket at Rajkot, Gujarat. The 28th National junior athletics championships held at Lucknow, UP. Sebastian Vettel: The German Champion of Red Bull team recorded a stupendous victory in the Indian Grand Prix for the second successive year, at the Buddh International Circuit, Noida, UP. Michael Schumacher: Legendary F-1 champion (43) from Germany, arguably the most successful driver in Formula One car races (91 wins), announced his retirement from the sports. Tony Greig: Former England captain was in news as he has been diagnosed with lung cancer.
AUGUST 2012
HIGHLIGHTS OF LONDON OLYMPICS2012
MICHAEL PHELPS STAR OF ALL TIMES
Michael Phelps of USA became the greatest swimmer of all time and the most decorated Olympian of all times when he won a record 22nd Olympic medal at the London Games. His tally includes 18 gold and two silver and bronzes each; he won in 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics. He also became the sports man to win highest numbers of medals in London Olympics, winning four gold and two silver medals.
USAIN BOLT:
SEPTEMBER 2012
GIRISHA WINS SILVER IN PARALYMPICS
H N Girisha of Karnataka gave India its first medal at the London Paralympic Games after bagging silver in the Men's High Jump event. Girisha with impairment in his left leg, sailed over a height of 1.74m using scissors technique.
Charismatic sprinter from Jamaica succeeded in wining gold in both 100m and 200m races at London Olympics. He is the first man to win both these races at two Olympics. MOHAMMED "MO" FARAH: international track and field athlete. 10,000 m and 5000 m race. Somali-born British He won gold in both
Ye Shiwen: Chinese swimmer. She won gold medals in the 400 metres (world record) and 200 meters (olympic record). David Rudisha: Medium distance runner from Kenya. He is the only person in world to have broken the 1 minute 41 second barrier for 800 mt race by clocking a time of 1:40:91 seconds at London Olympics.
ICC ANNOUNCES 2012 AWARDS

VIRAT KOHLI: Cricketer of the Year - ODI, KUMAR SANGAKARA: Cricketer of the Year, ICC Test Cricketer of the Year, the People's Choice Award. SANDEEP PATIL selected as Chairman of the National Selection Committee of BCCI RONJAN SODHI: India's ace double trap shooter won a silver medal at the ISSF World Cup in Slovania. DEEPIKA KUMARI: India's top archer won the silver medal at Archery World Cup at Tokyo, Japan.
FINAL MEDAL TALLY

Country USA China Britain Gold 46 38 29 Silver 29 27 17 Bronze 29 23 19 Total 104 88 65
52
INDIA SHINES IN OLYMPICS

Sports persons from India created history in Olympics 2012 at London by winning highest ever 6 individual medals Sports Person Vijay Kumar Sushil Kumar Gagan Narang Saina Nehwal M.C. Mary Kom Yogeshwar Dutt Medal Silver Silver Bronze Bronze Bronze Bronze Sports Shooting Wrestling Shooting Badminton Boxing Wrestling
IAF TEAM CREATES WORLD RECORD IN SWIMMING An Indian Air Force, IAF swimming team has created a record by successfully crossing the English Channel between the United Kingdom and France twice within a fortnight. The marvelous feat makes Delphinus the first team in the world to have crossed the Channel twice in the same year and that too in the first tide which is considered the toughest. Led by their Skipper Mithali Raj, Indian women defeated England to win their first cricket ODI in London. The National youth athletics championship held at Bangalore was won by Kerala. Spain lifted the prestigious Euro Cup in Football, defeating Italy at the finals played at Kiev, Ukraine. Fernando Torres of Spain won the Golden Boot Award for the top scorer in the Euro Cup. Andres Iniesta of Spain was named Player of the Tournament of Euro Cup by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Kim Clijsters of Belgium, veteran tennis player announced her retirement from the tennis after playing in US Open. RAFAEL NADAL: Defending Olympic tennis champion from Spain has decided to pull out of the London Summer Olympics 2012, with an undisclosed fitness problem. WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO, boxing champion from Ukraine defeated Tony Thompson of USA to win WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight boxing title belts at Berne, Switzerland. Roger Federer of Switzerland defeated Andy Murray of Britain to win a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon title and 17th grand slam crown at London, UK. Serena Williams of USA won the womens Wimbledon defeating Agnieszka Radwanskw of Poland at London, UK. Mark Webber of Australia with his Red Bull team won the British Grand Prix F-1 championship beating Fernando Alonso (Spain) of Ferrari. MARK BOUCHER: South African wicketkeeper has retired from international cricket after suffering a severe eye injury during his countrys tour match against Somerset. BRETT LEE: One of the most fearsome pace bowlers in modern era from Australia has announced his retirement from international cricket.
2012 PARA OLYMPICS IN LONDON
The 2012 Para Olympic Games started in London on August 29 and will conclude on September 9. Over 4200 contestants from 166 countries will take part in games.
DHONI ENTERS BIKE RACING

Cricketer M S Dhoni has floated his own motor bike racing team named as MSD R-N Racing Team India. The team will participate in the 17-race championship in the 10th race at Brno, Czech Republic and is expected to compete full season in 2013.
INDIA LIFTS UNDER 19 ICC WORLD CUP

Captain Unmukt Chand led from the front with a magnificent hundred (unbeaten111) as India Under-19 lifted their third World Cup title after beating formidable defending champions Australia by six wickets in the final in Townsville, Australia on 26th August. He was also declared as Man of the match. V.V.S. Laxman, ace Indian batsman announces his retirement from international cricket at Hyderabad.
JULY 2012
Shooter Gagan Narang won the first medal for India in London Olympics when he clinched bronze in the 10 metre air rifle event with an overall score of 701.1. M C Mary Kom: Five-time boxing world champion has become the first Indian woman and the fifth sportsperson overall to hold an honorary rank in the country's defence forces as she will be made a Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army.
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53
JUNE 2012
SAINA NEHWAL lifted the Thailand Open Grand Prix badminton gold title beating Thailands Ratchanok Inthanon in Bangkok. Saina Nehwal won the Indonesia Open Super Series title after beating China's Xuerui Li in Jakarta, Indonesia. Sachin Tendulkar was presented the Wisden India Outstanding Achievement Award at Dubai for completing a century of 100 international hundreds. Tendulkar had achieved the milestone while playing against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in March. Harmeet Desai defeated Belgian Cedric Nuytin to win the gold medal in the Under-21 men's final of the Brazil Open Table Tennis in Santos, Brazil becoming the first Indian to achieve such a feat. Indu Chaudhary and Sakshi Malik won the gold medals in the 44kg and 63kg weight categories in the Asian Junior Wrestling Championship at Almaty, Kazakhstan Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi of India won their second Grand Slam title and first French Open trophy together after crushing Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Santiago Gonzalez in the mixed doubles final of French Open at Paris. Chhattisgarh clinched both the boys and girls titles in the 63rd National junior basketball championship held at Puducherry. Indian women team won the gold in kabaddi by defeating Thailand in the third Asian Beach Games held in Haiyang (China). National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships held at Hyderabad. Russia's Maria Sharapova became the 10th woman in tennis history to win all four Grand Slam titles on June 9 when she defeated Sara Errani of Italy in the French Open final (women) at Paris. Spains Rafael Nadal clinched a record seventh French Open tennis title defeating world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia at Paris. New Zealand beat Argentina in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup men's hockey at Ipoh, Malaysia LASITH MALINGA: The International Cricket Council has chosen Sri Lanka's star pacer as the official Event Ambassador for the World Twenty20 Championships to be held in Sri Lanka from 18th Sep, 2012. KEVIN PIETERSEN: Former England skipper has announced his retirement from international limited overs cricket(ODI and T-20).
Deepika Kumari won her first World Cup individual Archery (recurve) gold medal at Antalya, Turkey. World Chess Title: Between defending champion Vishwanathan Anand and Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand. Wenlock & Mendeville: names of mascots of London Olympics Inspire a Generation is the official slogan for the London Olympics. The official Olympic motto is taken from the Latin "Citius, Altius, Fortius" - which means "Faster, higher, stronger. David Richardson has been named new chief executive officer (CEO) of the International Cricket Council World Snooker Championship won by Ronnie O'Sullivan (UK) beating Alister Carter (UK) at Sheffield, England.
APRIL 2012
5th edition of IPL started at Chennai at MA Chidambaram Stadium on April 4th. Shiv Thapa, the 17-year-old boxer from Assam is the youngest Indian boxer in the bantam weight (56kg) to participate in London Olympics. Aditya Mehta wins Asian Snooker Championship defeating Pankaj Advani at Panaji, Goa Pankaj Advani won the 11th ONGC Asian Billiards Championship title held at Panaji, Goa, after defeating Thawat Sujaritthurakarn of Thailand.
ABBREVIATIONS
AYUSH AERB AICTE APDRP Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy Atomic Energy Regulatory Board All-India Council for Technical Education Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (meant for improving commercial viability of electricity power distribution). Adsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation A forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries (styled "member economies) that seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Group of Brazil, South Africa, India and China for the purpose of safeguarding their interests under Kyoto protocol Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment Compounded Annual Growth Rate Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology Confidence-Building Measures Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems Committee for Internet-Related Policies (at UNO). Central Public Sector Units Convention on Supplemental Compensation (for international nuclear liability) Defence Avionics and Research Establishment Duty Drawback Scheme for exporters (in place of DEPB)
APEC
ASEAN BASIC
MAY 2012
Viswanathan Anand: Indian Grandmaster beat challenger Boris Gelfand of Israel to win the World Championship crown at Moscow for the fifth time and fourth in a row. Services have won this year's Santosh Trophy (Football) defeating Chennai at Cuttack, Odisha. China lifted both, Thomas Cup for Mens Badminton and Uber Cup for Womens Badminton, defeating South Koreans in both the events at Wuhan, China Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed the defending champions Chennai Super Kings to win IPL title at the MA Chidambaram stadium, Chennai. WIM KOEVERMANS, former Dutch international footballer appointed as the chief coach of the Indian football team for a two-year term. Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi won the Asian continental chess championship held at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
BIKRA CAGR CAPART CBMs CCTNS CIRP CPSU CSC DARE DDS
54
DEPB DGCA DRDO EAS EPFO ETC FIEO FINO FMCG GSLV IAEA ICDS IDFC IIFCL IOR-ARC
IUCN MCOCA MICE NADA NCDEX NCTC NELP NSSF NPCIL NSSF NSSO PSLV PTCT RFID RISAT RINL RKVY SAARC SAFTA SAI SFIO TDSAT TRIPS TUFS UDRS UNHCR UNRWA USB VLSI
Duty Entitlement Pass Book for exporters (since withdrawn) Directorate General of Civil Aviation Defence Research and Development Org. East Asia Summit Employees' Provident Fund Organisation Electronic Toll Collection (at toll plaza) Federation of Indian Export Organisations Financial Inclusion & Network Organisation Fast Moving Consumer Goods Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle International Atomic Energy Agency Integrated Child Development Service Infrastructure Development Finance Company India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd. Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation A group of 18 nations forming a ring around Indian Ocean to promote trade and economic cooperation among members. International Union for Conservation of Nature Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act Business referring to Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions National Anti Doping Agency National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange National Counter-Terrorism Centre New Exploration Licensing Policy (oil & natural gas) National Small Savings Fund Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited National Small Savings Fund National Sample Survey Organisation Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle Parent to Child-Transmission (of HIV) Radio Frequency Identification Radar Imaging Satellite Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation South Asian Free Trade Agreement Sports Authority of India Serious Fraud Investigation Office Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal. (Agreement on) Trade-Related Aspects of Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (for textiles)
DAYS & DATES

International Non- violence Day Birth day of Gandhi Ji & Shastri Ji World Habitat day World Teacher's Day World Wild animal Day Indian Air Force Day World Post Day The World Mental Health Day: World Food Day United Nation (UN) Day 2nd October 2nd October 3rd October 5th October 6th October 8th October 9th October 10th Oct 16th October 24th October
ET CETRA
EYE CONTROLLED TV
A prototype of an eye-controlled television that uses a sensor placed on a table in front of the user to track the eye movements has been unveiled in Berlin. Users control the set by staring at the top or bottom of the screen to activate a user-interface. The users can then change the volume, switch channel or carry out other functions by looking at icons shown on the display.
NAGALAND MAKES BAMBOO GUITAR

Nagaland Bamboo Resource Centre (NBRC) in Dimapur, Nagaland has launched the first ever bamboo guitar on the occasion of 'World Bamboo Day' on Sep. 18. The much anticipated 'Bamboo Guitar' is made of laminated strips of the bamboo.
RIDE A BIKE MADE OF CARDBOARD

An Israeli engineer has developed a bicycle where everything apart from the brakes and chain is made of cardboard including the seat. The bike is stronger than carbon fibre and can carry riders weighing up to 220 kg.
WORLDS LARGEST DIAMOND MUSEUM

The Treasury of National Jewels, managed by the Central Bank of Iran, opened recently, is one of the largest museums of precious stones in the world. The diamonds from India include the worlds largest pink diamond the famous Darya-i-Noor or Sea of Light. This is the sister diamond to the worlds largest cut diamond, the Koh-iNoor, which is its Persian name and means Mountain of Light.
Umpire Decision Review System

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UN Relief and Works Agency Ultra Small Branch (of a Bank) Very Large Scale Integration (process of creating integrated circuits-ICs e.g. micro processor) World Anti Doping Agency West Asia and North Africa (the countries here are facing civil war) Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access
NASA TO DEVELOP SUPERSONIC AIRCRAFT
WADA WANA WiMAX
A new type of Ninja style aircraft that spins 90 degrees in air for efficient faster-than-sound flight and virtually zero sonic boom has been selected by NASA for further development. The plane is created in a way that will allow it to take off from the ground, and then turn on its side once it reaches supersonic atmospheric levels so that it can continue its flight into the uppermost parts of space.
55
GENERAL ANTI-AVOIDANCE RULES (GAAR)

Government has decided to postpone imposition of General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) to next year. A look at why GAAR has caused panic among investors: What are general anti-avoidance rules? These rules, originally proposed in the Direct Taxes Code, are targeted at arrangements or transactions made specifically to avoid taxes. The government had decided to advance the introduction of GAAR and implement it from the current financial year itself. More than 30 countries have introduced GAAR provisions in their respective tax codes to check evasion. What are the implications? GAAR allows tax authorities to call a business arrangement or a transaction 'impermissible avoidance arrangement' if they feel it has been primarily entered into to avoid taxes. Once an arrangement is ruled 'impermissible' then the tax authorities can deny tax benefits. Most aggressive tax avoidance arrangements would be under the risk of being termed impermissible. The rule can apply on domestic as well as overseas transactions. What were the key concerns? GAAR is a very broadbased provision and can easily be applied to most tax-saving arrangements. Many experts feel that the provision would give unbridled powers to tax officers, allowing them to question any tax saving deal. Foreign institutional investors are worried that their investments routed through Mauritius could be denied tax benefits enjoyed by them under the Indo-Mauritius tax treaty. The proposal had spooked stock market as FII inflows dropped on concerns, and the rupee hit a low of Rs 53.47 to the dollar. What has the govt done now? It has postponed GAAR to the next financial year. This will give a breather to tax payers and also allow the government time to frame clear rules after consultations with stakeholders. Govt has also clarified that the onus to prove that an arrangement is 'impermissible' will lie with the tax department. The GAAR panel, the final body that will decide on the applicability of the law, will include an independent member. Source: The Economic Times, May 8, 2012.
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GYANM December 2012

DELHI 10TH IN SHOPPERs LIST

INDIA PREFERRED INVESTMENT CHOICE

INDIA TOP EXPORTER OF RICE

GYANMS GENERAL AWARENESS DECEMBER 2012

BERNANKE VISITS INDIA, MEETS SUBBARAO

SHAH GROUP PROPOSES PRIVACY LAW

PM RESHUFFLES THE UNION CABINET

5 PACTS SIGNED WITH SPAIN

BAN LIFTED FROM TOURISM IN TIGER PARKS

AWARD FOR PERIYAR TIGER RESERVE

4000 CRORE FOR JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS

* Ministers of State with independent charge

217 MN INDIANS ARE HUNGRY

NEW MINISTERS OF STATE

GREEN KUMBH YATRA FROM HYDERABAD

GYANMS GENERAL AWARENESS DECEMBER 2012

INDIA APPROVES NAGOYA PROTOCOL

S C RULES AGAINST AUCTION METHOD

was adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan.

FIRST MUSEUM ON INDIAN CINEMA

GAAR MAY BE POSTPONED BY 3 YEARS

HOMAGE TO 1962 CHINA WAR MARTYRS

INDIA GRANTS $10 MN TO PALESTINE

INDIA RANKS 66TH IN FOOD SECURITY

BURUNDI PRESIDENT VISITS INDIA

KISHENGANGA PROJECT IN ICJ

INDIA TO HELP IN TIPAIMUKH PROJECT

INDIA RANKED 59TH IN COMPETITIVENESS

$106 MN W B AID FOR NUTRITION

GYANMS GENERAL AWARENESS DECEMBER 2012

BARFI INDIAs ENTRY FOR OSCARS

SC UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE OF KASAB

TEXTILE PACT WITH ISRAEL

MEET ON CHAHBAHAR PORT

INDIA FACES DROUGHT

67% INDIA DEFECATES IN OPEN

INDIA DONATES RICE TO YEMEN

Focused Classes on GK by faculty

JOIN GYANM FOR

GYANMS GENERAL AWARENESS DECEMBER 2012

INDIA TV FEST IN GOA IN NOV

69TH NSSO TO START IN JULY

YAMUNA EXPRESSWAY OPENED FOR TRAFFIC

$10 BN INDIAN HELP FOR GREECE

DELHI INVESTMENT SUMMIT ON AFGHANISTAN

COINS ON 60 YEARS OF PARLIAMENT

FIRST INDIAN UNIVERSITY BRANCH IN CHINA

RISING SEA LEVELS THREATEN MUMBAI

WB AND CII TO SAVE TIGER

RED LIST FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES

INDIA HAS 162K MILLIONAIRE HOUSEHOLDS

INDIANS HOLD 12740 Cr IN SWISS BANKS

INDIA TO RANK 8TH IN IMF

DELHI, MUMBAI TO GET MISSILE COVER

DTAA SIGNED WITH MALAYSIA

BUFFER ZONE FOR JARAWA TRIBALS

INDIA RANKS 5TH IN CYBER CRIME

PER CAPITA DEBT CROSSES Rs 33,000

INDIA TOPS IN PRE TERM BIRTH DEATHS

INDIA 75TH IN MOTHERs INDEX

FOREIGN HELP FOR BLACK TIGER SHRIMP

JCC MEET WITH BANGLADESH