National Godhra verdict: 11 get death, 20 get life term A Sessions Court in Ahmedabad awarded death sentence to 11 people

e and life term to twenty others on 1/3/2011. The sentence was pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge PR Patel who had earlier convicted them of criminal conspiracy in the Sabarmati Express train burning case on Feb 22nd. The court had accepted the prosecution's contention that there was a conspiracy behind the incident and convicted 31 under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) like 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 120B(criminal conspiracy). They were convicted under IPC section 147, 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 323, 324,325,326 (causing hurt), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on religious grounds), various sections of the Indian Railways Act, Prevention of Damages to Public Property Act and Bombay Police Act. The court had acquitted 63 others out the total 94 for lack of evidence including the alleged mastermind Maulavi Hussain Umarji. Fifty nine Kar Sevaks traveling in the S6 coach of Sabarmati Express were burnt alive near the Godhra railway station on February 2002. This incident caused wide spread communal riots in the State of Gujarat that resulted in the deaths of over 100 people, most of them Muslims. Justice Patel termed the case as rarest of rare and the court has given the accused 90 days to appeal in the High court. SC strikes down CVC PJ Thomas' appointment The Supreme Court on 3/3/2011 struck down on the appointment of Chief Vigilance Commisioner PJ Thomas after a three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia delivered its verdict on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought his removal. The apex court has observed Thomas is a person who is tainted as he was an accused in the palmoline export scam. CVC PJ Thomas soon thereafter submitted his resignation. This has come about as big blow to the UPA government which is already facing several allegations of corruption. Furthermore Thomas is the country's 14th CVC and was selected by a three member panel that included the PM and the Home Minister. The opposition BJP had been highly critical all along and following his resignation demanded even the PM to step down. The PM took responsibility for the incident and cited the reason as error in judgement. An IAS officer of 1973 batch of Kerala cadre, PJ Thomas is the eighth accused in the palmolien case. He served as food secretary in Kerala in the early 90s during which time he had aggressively campaigned for the import of 1500 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia. Reports later emerged that price paid for the oil- palmolein was unjustifiable high. He has since been fighting allegations of corruption, while the case is still pending in court. Delhi court accepts CBI's closure report against Quattrocchi A Delhi court on 4/3/2011 accepted CBIs closure report seeking to drop all charges against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the two decade old Bofors case. The CBI was looking at closing all criminal cases against Italian businessman Quattrocchi, who is allegedly one of the recipients of kickbacks in the controversial Bofors gun deal of 1986 which ended up resulting in the fall of the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1989. Many influential figures were accused of receiving payoffs in the deal which involved the purchase of Bofors guns for the Indian army. The agency has been seeking withdrawal of the case against him as he has never appeared before any Indian court to face trial due to lack of evidence, even though a tax tribunal had ruled in Dec

2010 that illegal commissions were indeed paid in the deal. The agency had said that its plea to withdraw the case has been filed with bonafide intention as it has spent a huge amount of money on the investigation but has not been able to arrest the Italian businessman. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav observed: "At this moment we have to end the case therefore I allow the CBI plea to close the case. I think the CBI has moved this application to close this case after applying their minds, therefore there is no need of wasting public money in continuing the investigation." Advocate Ajay Aggarwal, who objected to CBIs application in the court, said he would challenge the order in the Delhi High Court. Delhi University student Radhika Tanwar shot outside college Radhika Tanwar (21) a student of Ram Lal Anand College (Delhi University) was shot dead by an unidentified man on the Dhaula Kuan foot-over bridge near South Campus at around 10.30 AM on 8/3/2011. Radhika a second year BA student who lives with her family in Naraina locality of West Delhi was shot point blank by the assailant who fled the scene after shooting her in the stomach. Passersby took the girl in an autorickshaw to Safdurjung Hospital where she was declared brought dead. The incident has caused outrage in the Capital which has been witnessing increasing episodes of crimes against women, while the world was celebrating International Womens Day. The assailant has been identified as 25 yr old Ram Singh alias Vijay who hails from Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh. He was caught a few days later and Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta said Vijay suffers from psychopathic obsession. He used to follow women. He followed Radhika regularly. The immediate trigger was the snubbing of Radhika when he tried to speak to her. The police also went on to add Vijay nurtured deep grudge against the victim after he got beaten up for harassing her and often told his friends that he would avenge the humiliation whenever he got the opportunity. On 11/3/2011 another student Monica Kirnapure was stabbed by four people in Nagpur while she was on her way to class from her hostel. The twenty two year old girl lay in her pool of blood for ten minutes, a knife sticking out of her back, asking for water. No help came about from the bystanders until Sumedh Wanjaari hired a rickshaw to take her to the hospital where she died en route. SC dismisses Aruna Shanbaug's euthanasia plea Aruna Shanbaug a former nurse at Mumbais KEM hospital has been in a vegetative state for the last 38 years after she was assaulted by a ward boy. A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra rejected on 7/3/2011 the euthanasia plea filed by Arunas friend Pinky Virani declaring the petition stands cancelled. They also added Pinky was not allowed to appeal for the mercy killing of Aruna as she was not the staff of KEM hospital. The bench in its 110-page judgement saw the nursing staff of KEM hospital who have been looking after Aruna for the past 38 years as the real next friend of Aruna and declared the patient didnt have a single bed sore during the period. The apex court however allows passive euthanasia in appropriate cases which have been permitted by the concerned high courts. They also added there is no law in the country presently in the country on euthanasia and clarified unless the Parliament drafts a law, its stand on active and passive euthanasia will stay enforced. Aruna Shanabug was sexually assaulted on November 27 1973 by Sohanlal Walmiki who used a dog chain to subdue her which ended up cutting the oxygen supply to her brain damaging vital functions like sight, memory and normal movement. Congress, DMK seat-sharing deadlock ends After lot of political drama the DMK and the Congress have come to a mutual seat sharing agreement ahead of the upcoming Tamil Nadu assembly elections. The DMK party announced on 8/3/20011 that it will contest for 121 seats while the Congress will contest for 63 under the seat sharing deal for the April 13 Assembly polls. The Congress demand of 63 seats marks an increase of 15 seats in allocation of what they got during the 2006 Assembly elections. DMK chief

Karunanidhi was initially ready to give 60 seats to the Congress but the Congress unrelenting demand on having 63 made him unhappy and he threatened to pull out his ministers from the government. The Congress refused to blink this time and after quite a few rounds of discussions the DMK finally relented to the Congress demands. The DMK has agreed to allocate 61 seats, up 1 seat from what they previously agreed and another two seats would be allocated to the Congress from the other allied parties of the DMK. Under the seat sharing formula, DMK will contest 121 seats, Congress 63, PMK 30, VCK 10, KMK 7, IUML 2 and MMK 1 for the 234member assembly. A.Rajas close aide Sadiq Batcha found dead Sadiq Batcha, a close aide of former telecom minister A.Raja committed suicide and was found hanging at his residence in Chennai on 16/3/2011. Sadiq Batcha (37) who is the Managing Director of Greenhouse Promoters has been under the CBI scanner for his suspected involvement in the 2G spectrum case and was questioned by the agency on February 22nd. Green House Promoters, initially a nondescript company with an equity base of Rs.100,000 in 2004, is said to have grown to over Rs.600 crore revenue company within a very short time frame. Rajas wife Parameshwari is said to have served as a director in the firm but quit during 2008. Batcha hails from Rajas constituency Perambalur in Tamil Nadu and initially worked as a sari seller until his friendship with the former telecom minister happened in the early 1990s.According to the post mortem reports the cause of death has been ascertained as asphyxia while the forensic reports are still awaited. This may come as blow to the CBI in their investigations into the 2G scam. TN Polls: Parties promise freebies to woo voters Ahead of upcoming assembly polls, the political parties of Tamil Nadu have promised a host of freebies to woo the voting public. Top warring parties DMK and ADMK have taken the war of freebies to a new high. While DMK in their manifesto have announced 35 kg of free rice every month for below-poverty line families, AIADMK has promised 20 kg of free rice for all ration-card holders. The ruling DMK party has promised laptops to students in their first year of college while Jayalalithas ADMK party promises them one as early as eleventh standard. While the DMK plans to give women free mixes, grinders its rivals have promised additional fans along with mixies and grinders. Furthermore Jayalalitha in her bid to woo female voters has promised 4gms of gold for 'Thali' (mangalsutra) free of cost to poor, besides offering cable TV connections at subsidised rates. Some of the other freebies include four sets of uniform and footwear for students, a hike in scholarship upto Rs 5000 from class 10 onwards, women self help groups get Rs10Lakh with 25 % waiver, 20 litres of mineral water a day to Below Poverty Line families, six months' maternity leave for women and Rs 12,000 as pregnancy allowance and a host of other promises were made. This does came as surprise since Jayalalitha was a staunch critic of populist measures when the DMK party which came in power in 2006, promised to offer free colour TVs to the public and also kept up on its electoral promise. The parties efforts in trying to gain an upper hand over each other by making such steep electoral promises does raise a lot of concerns. It does make one wonder if the State Treasury would be left with any money if such populist measures are left unchecked. WB polls: Cong, TMC reach seat-sharing deal The Congress and the Trinamool Congress reached a seat sharing agreement ahead of the West Bengal Assembly Polls. Mamta Banerjee of Trinamool has agreed to offer 65 seats after her rounds of discussion with the Congress party. She had earlier agreed to give 64 seats against Congress demand of 98. The alliance will fight against CPM led Left Front which has been in power for almost 35 years now.Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said In West Bengal, Congress will contest 65 seats and TMC will contest 229. We will work in close cooperation to win

the election to defeat the Left from the state.West Bengal will be voting in 6 phases. The first phase voting is on April 18, second phase on April 23, third phase on April 27, fourth phase on May 3, fifth phase on May 7 and sixth phase is on May 10th. Cash for votes scam creates uproar in Parliament With the revelations by Wikileaks about the Congress buying MPs to win the vote-of-confidence over the crucial Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008 came back to haunt party when a united opposition created an uproar in Parliament. On 17/3/2011 they were demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in view of the fresh charges that bribe was paid during the trust vote. The government on its part was dismissive questioning the credibility of the leaks. Also FM Pranab Mukherjee said Each Lok Sabha is sovereign in its time. What happened in the 14th Lok Sabha cannot be decided in the 15th Lok Sabha...Government of the day is accountable to the 15th Lok Sabha and not to the 14th Lok Sabha. Whatever happened in the 14th Lok Sabha has come to an end with the end of the tenure. On 23/3/2011 Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj made a stinging attack on the Prime Minister and said It is the habit of the Prime Minister to blame others. If it is price rise then (Agriculture Minister) Sharad Pawar is responsible, if it is 2G then (former Telecom Minister) A Raja is responsible and if it is Commonwealth Games then Suresh Kalmadi is to blame. The Wikileaks cable suggests that the Congress bought the support of MPs during a vote of confidence during the controversial nuclear deal in 2008. Three BJP MPs walked into the Lok Sabha with Rs 3 crores in cash and claimed that they had been offered that money to vote for the nuclear deal and that they had planned a sting operation to prove it. Following that a Lok Sabha committee, headed by Congress MP KCS Deo, was set up to examine their allegations in which was found there was no evidence of the allegations made by the BJP MPs. Aarushi murder case: Talwars surrender passports Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, parents of murdered teen Aarushi Talwar have surrendered their passports to a local court following a direction by the Supreme Court which also stayed their trial in the Noida double murder case. On 19/3/2011 the SC had stayed the CBI court order summoning the Talwars to appear before it on 22/3/2011. The Allahabad High Court on 18/3/2011 dismissed the couples plea seeking quashing of criminal proceedings initiated by the lower court which not only refused the closure report filed by the CBI but also summoned the couple as accused in the case. The HC declared that it could not prohibit the magistrate from taking cognizance of a case if prima facie it appears that there is sufficient evidence against a person. Earlier the CBI had file a closure report pleading closure citing lack of incriminating evidence, however the CBI has pointed a needle of suspicion to the parents and as a result left the option of proceeding against the Talwars with the Trial Court. The couple had challenged the order of the Allahabad High Court which the Supreme Court stayed on 19/3/2011 but asked the Talwars to surrender their passports. Satish Tamta, the counsel for Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, submitted the passports in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Puspendra Kumar Singh. Fourteen-year-old Aarushi was found murdered at her home in Noida on May 16, 2008. A day after, Hemraj's body was found in the same building. India revokes licenses of 14 'fake pilots' Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on 23/3/2011 revoked a total of 14 commercial pilot licenses (CPL) which means it brings an end to the flying careers of the those accused of having submitted fake training records from Rajasthan State Flying School to procure their licenses. The discovery of frauds in the issuing of licenses is a worrying development to the safety of air travel for the passengers and the industry. The fake pilot scam began unraveling when female Captain Parminder Gulati landed her airliner on the nose instead of the rear wheels which set the alarms ringing across many quarters. DGCA, the airline regulator stepped in and discovered she had

submitted forged mark sheets to procure her license. Since then more pilots have been caught guilty of the same crime. The DGCA admits there was a lapse, and now says as much as 4000 pilot licences are now under fresh scrutiny. On 26/3/2011 a DGCA official Pradeep Kumar(48), pilot Pradeep Tyagi(35) and two of his touts Lalit Jain (34) and Pankaj Jain (23) were arrested by the Delhi Police. Tyagi along with his touts used to forge mark sheets for the fake pilots for huge a fee and also bribed Pradeep Kumar of the DGCA for expediting those files. A person is eligible to fly a commercial aircraft only when he or she secures a CPL, which is given out after a person completes 200 hours of flying during the training. Hasan Ali Remanded In Judicial Custody Hasan Ali is a Pune bases stud farm owner who has been accused of allegedly stashing away 8 billion dollars in Swiss banks. It is speculated that the major portion of the money in offshore accounts belong to some politicians and industrialists and that Ali acts as a conduit for them and allegedly facilitates transfer of black money from India on a commission basis. He has been under the radar of the Income Tax (IT) department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for a few years now while his premises were raided in 2007. According to Hasan Alis statements he is scrap dealer with an annual income of Rs 30 Lakh which does not tally with kind of lifestyle Ali is known for. He is known to throw lavish parties, has a penchant for race horses and own quite a few of them and also own an expensive fleet of cars. A little ironic for a man with humble beginnings, whose father worked as an excise officer. Hassan Ali has been declared the highest tax defaulter in the country with dues allegedly over Rs 70,000 crores. Ali was arrested by the ED on 7/3/2011 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. But a Mumbai Court on 11/3/2011 rejected EDs plea for custodial interrogation of Hasan Ali on the grounds that the agency had not gathered sufficient evidence and Ali was released on bail. The Supreme Court on 17/3/2011 stayed the trial courts order, directed custodial interrogation of Hasan Ali to ED and was also critical of Mumbai Court Judge M L Tahaliyani's order of granting bail to Ali, saying it was "deeply disturbed" as to the manner in which the trial court judge rejected the ED's contention and had given a lengthy order for it. On 21/3/2011 the apex court extended his custody with the ED for an additional three days and when that duration came to a close a sessions court remanded Hasan Ali in judicial custody till April 8, 2011. Wikileaks: 'Hindutva an opportunistic issue for BJP' After the Congress it was the BJPs turn to be hit by the Wikileaks phenomenon when a US diplomat reported in the cable that senior leader of BJP declared to him that Hindu Nationalism was an opportunistic issue for the party. "Pressed on the question of Hindutva, Jaitley argued that Hindu nationalism 'will always be a talking point' for the BJP. However, he characterized this as an opportunistic issue," a cable by Robert Blake, the Charge at the US Embassy, to his government, had said after a meeting with Jaitley on May 6, 2005. "Pressed on the question of Hindutva, Jaitley argued that Hindu nationalism 'will always be a talking point' for the BJP. However, he characterized this as an opportunistic issue," a cable by Robert Blake, the Charge at the US Embassy, to his government, had said after a meeting with Jaitley on May 6, 2005. Jaitley a senior leader of the BJP and also leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha , whom the cable described as "one of several aspirants to direct the next generation of BJP leadership", said in a statement that the word opportunistic in reference to Hindutva could be the "diplomat's own usage". He said the cable by the diplomat in 2005 makes a reference to his conversation with him. "The cable reflects my views on cross-border terrorism, illegal infiltration from Bangladesh and the unfair denial of US Visa to the Gujarat Chief Minister (Narendra Modi). However, the use of the word "opportunistic in reference to nationalism or Hindu nationalism is neither my view nor my language. It could be the diplomat's own usage, he said. Congress on its part was quick to give it back to the BJP. Chickens are coming to roost, what goes out wrongly hits back like a boomerang. People living in glass houses are taught in this manner that they were to throw stones at others, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

PM Manmohan Singh and PM Gilani of Pakistan engage in cricket diplomacy The relations between India and Pakistan had soured post Mumbai 26/11 blasts. With the ongoing world cup when India defeated Australia in the quarters it became apparent that it was to face off against Pakistan in the semifinal. The clash between the two countries generated tremendous hype in the media of both countries. The match even took on political turns when PM Manmohan Singh invited his counterpart Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari to the cricket match. The invite was accepted by the PM of Pakistan who then along with Dr Manmohan Singh reached the cricket venue on 30/3/2011 where they shook hands with players and also engaged in diplomatic talks which has now leased a fresh breath of air to the relations between the two countries. As per the joint statement released in the capital on 29/3/2011 the Pakistani delegation updated India on the ongoing trial and investigation and agreed to allow an Indian Commission to come to Pakistan to investigate 26/11 attacks. The Pak delegation assured that India's National Investigative Agency (NIA) and Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) will cooperate in the 26/11 investigation. India on its part provided Pakistan information with regards to the Samjauta blast case and agreed that they would update them once the charge sheet was filed. According to the joint statement released in New Delhi on Tuesday, the Pakistani delegation updated India on the ongoing trial and investigation and agrees in principle to allow an Indian commission to investigate 26/11 attacks in Pakistan. The two countries have also agreed to hold home secretary-level talks bi-annually. Census 2011: Indian population increased by 181 million Indias population has risen to 1.21 billion in the last ten years, which is an increase of 181 million according to the new census released on 31/3/2011. Indias population is now bigger than population of USA, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Bangladesh, says the Census report. On the positive side the overall population growth rate is 17.6 in 2011, significantly lower than 2001 when it was 21.15 per cent. Coming to the sex ration India has 623.7 million males and 586.5 million women. A matter of concern is that child sex ratio has slipped to its lowest since India's independence. For every 1000 male infants, there are 914 girls. The most populous state of Indian continues to be Uttar Pradesh with 16.49 per cent share in the total population, followed by Maharashtra with 9.29 per cent, while, the least populous state is Sikkim with 0.05 per cent share in the total population. This is the 15th Census conducted since 1872. It was carried out in two phases, covering 640 districts and 5924 sub-districts.

Sports News ICC WC 2011 off to spectacular start The ICC cricket world cup is on in full swing. The fourteen teams have all played their group stages and 8 teams qualified to the knockout stages. The teams that played in quarterfinals were West Indies, India, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Among these only four teams made it to the Semis where Pakistan and India played each other at Mohali and Srilanka and New Zealand played against each other in Colombo. The semi final match between India and Pakistan created unprecedented hype as the two teams have not faced off against each other since Mumbai 26/11 attacks. There was a never before seen rush to get the tickets for the match and people were selling their tickets in black market at astronomical amounts. India and Sri Lanka went on to win their semi finals respectively and face each other in the final on April 02 , 2011. Levon Aronian wins Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Championship

Levon Aronian has won the 20th and final edition of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Championship held at Monaco. He had earlier also won in 2008 and 2009 respectively. The Armenian grandmaster tied his last round game against Sergey Karjakin and still maintained a one point lead over runner up Magnus Carlsen of Norway. Indian chess grandmaster and World Champion Vishwanath Anand came in at third position. With the 2011 edition the 20 year run of one the Worlds favourite chess events comes to an end and Aronian having won three of the last four editions does come across as a significant achievement. Saina clinches Swiss Open Grand Prix

Indias badminton ace Saina Nehwal won her first title of 2011 with a 21-13, 21-14 victory over South Korean Sung Ji Hyun in the Wilson Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton at Basil on 20/3/2011. It was her second win against the Korean in as many meetings whom she earlier defeated in the Indonesia Open Super Series as well. She reached the quarters of the All England Championship also held earlier this month where she lost to Eriko Hirose of Japan. Riding on her Swiss Open triumph Saina has regained her number three ranking with 69721.2637 points. At first place and second place are Shixian Wang (83506.4) and Yihan Wang (73988.9106) of China respectively. Djokovic beats Nadal to win Indian Wells title

Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to win the BNP Paribas Open title at Calirfonia on 20/3/2011. The Serbian remains undefeated this year whose victories include Australian and Dubai open, has struck a purple patch notching up an impressive 18-0 record in 2011. He now jumps to number two in the ATP rankings pushing Roger Federer to the third place while Rafael Nadal is still at number one with a 14-3 record. Djokovic said "It definitely says good things. I am playing with a lot of confidence. I'm feeling the ball well on the court. I'm very dedicated. I have a big will to win each match. I want to keep on going and keep on playing good tennis." Sebastian Vettel wins Australian GP

Red Bulls Sebastian Vettel drove a flawless race to win the season opening Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne on 27/3/2011. Starting from pole position Sebastian drove superbly to open more than a two second gap over runner up Lewis Hamilton of Mclaren following the first lap. At third place was Renaults Vitaly Petrov who made his first ever podium finish. Fernando Alonso came in fourth with Australian Mark Webber finishing fifth at the race. They used three stops strategies which was one more than the podium finishers. It was not a good start to the year for Mercedes with both their drivers Michael Shumacher and Nicco Roseberg being forced to retire. India crowned World Champions

The Indian team defeated Sri Lanka win the final of the ICC World Cup becoming the first team to lift the cup after 28 years on April 02,2011. Srilanka won the toss and elected to bat and posted a daunting 274 on board following a superb century by Mahela Jayawardhene. The Indian team had begun their bowling on a bright note with ace spear head Zaheer Khan bowling a superb initial spell but the end power over proved to be a costly affair and helped the Lankans post a very challenging total. Indian batting started on patchy note when both the dangerous openers lost their wickets early to Lasith Malinga who came up with an inspired spell of fast bowling. The stadium had gone quiet but the Indian innings was resurrected when Virat Kholi and Gautam Gambhir formed a respectable partnership but the star of the innings was Indian Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He promoted himself up the order ahead of the inform Yuvraj Singh took India home with an unbeaten 91. The Captain criticized throughout the tournament for his lack of form stepped up at the most crucial moment with a crucial innings and hit the last ball straight down the ground for a huge six. The nation erupted with joy and there wild celebrations all over

India. Sachin Tendulkar was given a lap of honour when his team mates took him on their shoulders and a happy Sachin could be seen waving at the crowds. This is the highest successful run chase made in a World cup final and what makes the victory sweeter is India is the first team to win a World Cup on home soil.

International News Earthquake and Tsunami strike Japan A powerful earthquake of 8.9 magnitude struck Japan on its north eastern coast on 11/3/2011. The earthquake resulted in a massive tsunami that caused wide scale destruction and loss of thousands of lives. Cars, ships and buildings were all swept away by the rampaging waters of the Tsunami which struck about 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo. The port city of Sendai in Miyagi prefecture was one of the worst affected. Ten metre waves struck the city deluging everything that was part of it-farmlands, cars, buildings, houses etc. Fires broke out in the city following the deluge. A cluster of two to three hundred bodies were found in one part of this city alone. This is the most powerful natural disaster to have struck Japan in its recorded history and is considered 8000 times more powerful than what struck Christchurch in New Zealand earlier this year. As of March 30th 2011 according to official estimates the death toll now stands at 11,257 while another 16,344 people are still missing. Many of the survivors who have been displaced have lost all their property to the Tsunami. More than 173,200 people are living in the 2000 evacuation centres in the 17 prefectures mostly in the northern side of the country. Among the worst affected prefectures which are Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate 146,628 displaced people have been housed in close to 1,245 evacuation centres. Nuclear Crisis The massive earthquake that struck the north east coast of Japan has resulted in a catastrophic situation at the Fukushima Nuclear power plant. When the earthquake struck they switched off the reactor and where about to use the onsite diesel back up power. The tsunami then struck and the back up power also failed. Hence after losing electric power, that system could not be used. Instead the operators are dumping seawater into the vessel and letting it cool the fuel by boiling. But as it boils, pressure rises too high to pump in more water, so they have to vent the vessel to the atmosphere, and feed in more water, a procedure known as "feed and bleed." Thousands of people residing in areas close to the plant were evacuated. Over the following days there have been many instance of radiation exposure traced in the vicinity. Radioactive water found in and outside reactor buildings is delaying work to restore cooling functions of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Libyan Uprising Having received inspiration from the revolutions of Egypt and Tunisia the next country to vehemently protest against government autocracy is the North African country of Libya. The public are fighting to bring down Muammar Gaddafi's 41-year rule and are demanding new leadership and democratic elections. What actually began as a series of peaceful demonstrations took ugly turns when Gaddafis army tried to crush protests by using force eventually turning into an all out civil war in the days to come. In a matter of days the uprising had spread to other parts of Libya and Gaddafi was having trouble retaining control over many parts of the country. Gaddafi a harder nut to crack than Mubarak has continued to be on the offensive and refuses to give up power in spite of all the diplomatic pressure, much to the chagrin of his own country men. On 19/3/2011 a multi-state coalition began a military intervention in Libya to implement United

Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which was taken in response to the uprising in Libya. The military operations began, with US and British forces firing over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles, the French Air Force and British Royal Air Force[ undertaking sorties across Libya and a naval blockade by the Royal Navy. Air strikes against Libyan Army tanks and vehicles by French jets have since been confirmed. The situation is far from peaceful and remains to be seen what would be the outcome of the situation in the days to come. Elizabeth Taylor passes away One of Hollywoods greatest icons Dame Elizabeth Taylor breathed her last on 23/3/2011 due to congestive heart failure. The 79 year old actress has been in the public eye for six decades having won three academy awards and has acted in over 50 films. The Cleopatra star's stunning looks, including her famed violet eyes, earned her fans around the globe and her stormy personal life that included eight marriages received as much press interest as some of her best works. She won two Oscars for her performances in Butterfield 8(1960) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) and a third Oscar for her humanitarian work in 1993. The actress has also battled many health ailments undergoing as much as 20 surgeries during the course of her life. In her later years she was a spokeswoman for several causes, most notably AIDS research.

2G scam: Former Telecom Minister A.Raja sent to Tihar Jail Former Telecom Minister A Raja was sent to Tihar Jail in Jail in Delhi on Feb 17th in relation to the 2G scam. He will be in judicial custody for fourteen days until March 3rd. He was also earlier arrested by the CBI on 2nd Feb and was held in their custody in view of the evidence they had collected against him regarding his involvement in the 2G scam. A. Raja has been accused of issuing 2G licenses at throw away prices creating massive losses for the exchequer. According to the national auditor CAG, the 2G spectrum phone licenses were sold in 2008 for a fraction of their value and this has resulted in a notional loss of Rs. 1.76 lakh crores. The 2 G scam has created major uproar in Parliament and has sent shock waves across the country. ULFA, government begin Assam peace talks Leaders of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) met Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Feb 10 to signify the start of the much long-awaited peace talks aimed at ending 30 long years of insurgency in Assam. History was created when the eight member ULFA team headed by Arabinda Rajkhowa met Chidambaram at his North Block office for a first round of peace talks. This is a highly significant development considering ULFA has been trying since 1979 to carve out an independent homeland of Assam. While ULFA has not put up any demands or finalised any agenda for talks, the beginning of talks itself is being seen as a very positive step to restoring peace in the state. PM announces JPC on 2G spectrum scam

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that his government would set up the Joint Pariamentry Committee (JPC) to investigate the 2G spectrum scam. The government finally agreeing to introduce the JPC does not come about as unexpected. With the opposition being absolutely unrelenting in their demands for the introduction of the probe, the Congress had to finally give in. The previous years winter session in parliament ended with only ten working hours on record. In order to ensure that the budget session does not get similarly affected, several meetings with the different political parties were set up and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried to bring about a compromise, which in the end proved to be futile. In the Lok Sabha, on the first day of the budget session the PM said On account of the controversy relating to allocation of 2G spectrum, the winter session of Parliament was lost. Our country can ill-afford this...in paralyzing Parliament, we all do disservice to those who have elected us. Later on he also announced the introduction of the probe when he went on to add It is in these special circumstances that our government agrees to a JPC...we are a functioning democracy and must try to resolve our difference is the spirit of collaboration not competition. Govt to release Rs. 150 coin soon

With the Income Tax Department celebrating 150 years of taxation in the country the government will issue coins of Rs. 150 in denomination. The special coins which also includes Rs 5 denomination would be released by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee ahead of his budget speech. The Rs 150 coin is prepared from an alloy of copper, nickel, silver and zinc. Sathyameva Jayathe and India would be engraved on the front side of the coin while the back side will feature a portrait of portrait of 'Chanakya and lotus with honeybee'. The Rs 5 coins will also be minted in a similar fashion. This is a special occasion with the IT department having completed 150 years of taxation from 1860 to 2010. HC upholds Death Penalty for Kasab

The Bombay High Court on Feb 21 confirmed the death penalty to 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab and termed the case being the rarest of rare and held that there was "no scope of reform" of the convict. This comes nine months after the lone 26/11 terrorist who was captured alive was ordered to be sent to the gallows by the trial court on May 6, 2010. Kasab, an LeT operative was captured alive at Girgaum Chowpatty in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 while none other operatives who has come with him were gunned down by the security forces at the terror sites. Justice Ranjana Desai told Kasab through video conferencing "Aapko saza-e-maut yeh adalat barkarar karti hai. Aap Supreme Court mein appeal zari kar sakte hain (Your death sentence is upheld. You can appeal before the Supreme Court," Godhra verdict: Ahmedabad court convicts 31, acquits 63

A special court in Ahmedabad on February 22nd convicted 31 people and acquitted 63 including main accused Maulvi Umarji, in the 2002 Godhra train burning incident that left 59 people dead mostly Kar Sevaks who were returning from Ayodhya on the Sabarmati Express. This triggered the 2002 Gujarat communal riots which left over 1200 people dead mostly Muslims. The court was the first one to pronounce a judgment, among the nine trying the 2002 Gujarat riots cases. The court accepted the prosecutions contention that there was a conspiracy behind the incident. Apart from the charges of murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, the accused were convicted under IPC sections 147, 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 323, 324, 325, 326 (causing hurt), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on religious grounds), various sections of the Indian Railways Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and Bombay Police Act. Kidnapped Malkangiri Collector, junior engineer released

Malkangiri District Collector RV Krishna and Junior Engineer Pabitra Majhi were finally released by the Maoists after being kept for a week in captivity. The two were abducted by the Maoists on Feb 16th and the Maoists in a letter to the government, listed 14 demands for the safe release of the two hostages. These included halting anti-Maoist operations by security forces, release of all political prisoners, scrapping of accords with MNCs for land transfer and projects, and compensation for the families of Maoist sympathizers killed in police custody. Dandapani Mohanty and academicians G. Haragopal and R. Someswar Rao were chosen as mediators and had discussions with the Maoists. The negotiators had made the government agree to 14 key demands including the release of Ganti Prsadam, Padma (wife of top Maoist Ram Krishna), and Sriramulu Srinivas, another top Maoist. After intense round of negotiations the government finally relented and made arrangements to secure bails for the jailed Maoists. A further twist in the tale occurred when the Maoists released only Majhi and held back the Collector making a fresh list of demands. However after another round of discussion, common sense prevailed and the Maoists released the collector a day later.

Sports News Cricket World Cup 2011 Officially Opened The 10th edition of the ICC cricket World Cup, was officially launched on 17th Feb with a grand opening ceremony being held in Dhaka, Bangaldesh. The stadium was filled with spectators and evening proved to be visual spectacle with colourful fireworks, songs and dance routines to mark the start of the eagerly awaited event. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared the event open amid thundering cheers while the fourteen participating Captains were revealed to the public being carried in tricycles. Shankar Ehsaan Loy and other popular artists performed at the venue with the show stopper being Bryan Adams. National Games Held in Jharkand The 34th National Games, was finally held in Jharkand and the event turned to be very successful. The games were held from 12th February 2011 to 26th February 2011.Many athletes all over the country took part in various disciplines and quite a few records were broken in the process. The long-postponed 34th National Games was originally scheduled for 2007. The Games have been deferred six times four times due to delay in developing infrastructure and then postponed again due to the coming of Assemble Elections. India start their Word cup campaign on a bright note India played Bangladesh at Mirpur in the first WC match of the tournament on Feb 19. India started with a bang scoring 375 with both Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli hitting sensational hundreds to take the match away from the hosts. Sehwag particularly looked murderous. The Indian team was expected to be under pressure to perform well against Bangladesh as their previous campaign in 2007 resulted in an early exit and left many disappointed fans back at home. Viswanathan Anand regains No.1 Ranking Again World Champion Viswanathan Anand played against Magnus Carlsen of Norway to end the match in hard fought draw and finished second in the Bilbao Final Masters chess tournament. But the icing on the cake was when the Indian ace dethroned Carlsen from the number one ranking in Live rating list for the first time since January this year and ended up as the top player in ratings too.

Brazilian striker Ronaldo announces retirement Former Brazil striker Ronaldo announced his retirement from soccer on Feb 14. The 34-year-old three-time world player had a year end contract with Corinthians. But a shock loss led to an early elimination from the Libertadores Cup and violent protests from fans. Ronaldo further added that frequent injury problems were one of the main reasons in him deciding to announce his retirement. Thus ends a brilliant career in which he scored more than 400 goals including a record 15 at World Cups.

International News Mubarak resigns, Egypt celebrates The people of Egypt went wild with celebrations after President Hosni Mubarak resigned and handed power to the military on 11th February. For eighteen days thousands of people had taken to the streets all over Egypt demanding the ouster of their autocratic President who had been in power for the past thirty years. One of the key reasons for such public outrage has been widespread poverty, inflation and rampant corruption in the government for many years. Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the anti-government protests burst with joy when the announcement was made. This has been a hard fought struggle for the people of Egypt after many episodes of violence having been reported between the public and Mubaraks forces. China overtakes Japan as world's second-biggest economy China has now overtaken Japan as the world's second-biggest economy. Japan's economy was worth $5.474 trillion (3.414 trillion) at the end of 2010, figures from Tokyo have shown while that of China's economy is closer to $5.8 trillion for the same period. China has been enjoying a manufacturing boom for quite a few years now and it is expected that at its current rate of growth, analysts see China replacing the US as the world's top economy in about a decade. The US economy is currently almost three times the size of the Chinese economy in dollar terms. New Zealand earthquake strikes Christchurch, killing at least 148 people A massive earthquake on 22nd Feb has caused massive destruction in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. The 6.3-magnitude earthquake was the second in five months for the city and the death toll continues to increase with the police having confirmed 148 deaths with 200 still missing. The damage caused has been said to be much worse than the 7.1-magnitude quake on 4 September, which left two people seriously injured but no fatalities. The city's historic cathedral was one of the many buildings that got significantly damaged, while cars lay in a mangled heap under a pile of rubble and roads cracked open with fissures as a result of the tremors. Dazed, bleeding residents could be seen wandering through streets strewn with debris and piles of concrete. Libyan people take to the streets in their demand for freedom Inspired by the outcomes of Tunisia and Egypt over the past few weeks the people of Libya have also taken out to the streets in their cries for freedom against their autocratic leader Muammar Gaddafi. Thousands of people have joined the struggle and there have been continuous reports of frequent clashes with the Muammars loyalists and the protesting public. Scores of people have been reported killed in continuing violence in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, amid escalating protests against Muammar Gaddafi's 40-year rule across the North African nation. With each passing day

the leader seems to be losing support from people working in his own government and is also under increasing pressure from International powers to step down. The Kings Speech Wins Best Picture at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards The Kings Speech had a great outing at this years Oscars winning four awards. The film won in the best picture category and its director Tom Hooper received Best Director. Colin Firth received the award for best actor for his central role in Kings Speech while best female actor went to Natalie Portman for Black Swan. The Best Supporting Actor and The Best Supporting Actress awards were bagged by Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for their performances in film, The Fighter. Indian musician AR Rahman missed out on his two nominations for his score in 127 hours.

International Current Affairs 2010

Sri Lanka abandons Tamil version of its national anthem The Sri lankan government has decided to scrap the tamil version of the national anthem in its official and state functions. This move may possibly further alienate the tamil minorities in the country. A directive to use only the Sinhalese version as been sent by the ministry as president Rajapakse pointed out that no country uses two versions of the anthem. China reveals worlds fastest train China unveiled its new high speed train CRH380 that can clock a maximum speed of 486.1 kmph. It is said to be much faster than even the bullet trains of Japan. At a cruising speed of 380 this is certainly a major accomplishment. China on its part has gone ahead and is now working on a model that is expected to clock 600kmph. Mark Zuckerberg, Times Person Of The Year Times magazine has named Mark Zuckerberg as the person of the year . Mr Zuckerberg is the founder of thesmash hit social networking site Facebook and is also the world youngest billionaire currently. Although, Julian Assange the editor in chief of wikileaks was the pick of the time readers, but Zuckerberg won because of the scope and reach his website and how it has touched and remodeled our thoughts on social networking bringing the world that much more closer. Facebook has reached 500 million users this year all around the globe and the numbers are still counting.

National Current Affairs 2010

CBI seeking closure in Arushi Talwar case. CBI has sought closure after being unable to comprehensively solve the Arushi Talwar murder case which has hogged the limelight for over two years now. The report claims that they have hit a road block and lack of evidence as main reasons for not being able to solve the case. However the report as named the victims father Dr Rajesh Talwar as a possible suspect. Chandra Babu Naidu ends fast Telugu Desam Party president finally ended his hunger strike of eight days on the insistence of visiting leaders like Thambi Durai, Arunkumar, Amba Durai, Maitreya, Prakash Karat, Bardan, Om Prakash Choutala, Sharad Yadav and Ajit Singh. Mr Naidu undertook the fast citing that the Andhra Govt should revise its compensation package for the rain hit farmers of the state. The

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

Sports Current Affairs 2010

Saina Nehwal wins Honk Kong Open Super Series. Indias star sportswoman Saina Nehwal rallied around from a one game deficit to win 15-21, 2116, 21-17 over Wang Shixian of China. Saina finished of her year on a wonderful note and has an unmatched record compared to any Indian player with regard to winning the super series title. Sachin Tendulkar scores fifty centuries in test cricket Sachin Tendulkar scored his fiftieth test century in the second innings of the first test against South Africa at the Centurion. The master blaster scored his century in196 balls with 12 fours and one six. Even thought India lost the first test Sachins century helped about bringing some respectability to the proceedings. Incidentally he has also been named the ICC player of the year. Indian cricket teams wins its second test at Durban. The Indian team had a poor game at the centurion where they were bundled out by an innings and twenty five runs by their South African counterparts. The second test they came back with a much more inspired performance with both bat and bowl leading to their first ever win in Durban which had always troubled them in the past. India had scored 205 and 228 in their two innings while the South Africans could score only 131 and 215 respectively.The star of the match was V.VS Laxman whose 96 helped India seal victory.

Persons in News December 2010

Congress Veteran Karunakaran passes away Veteran congress leader Karunakaran finally breathed his last after a prolonged bout of illness. He was 92 and is survived by his daughter Padmaja Venugopal and son K Muraleedharan. He was a four time CM of Kerala and is affectionately called Leader by his admirers. He was known to be a master tactician and often played the role of troubleshooter for his party. Premji Donates 8,846 crores to improve education in India Aziz Premji . Chairman of WIPRO will transfer 213 million equity shares valued at 8846 crores to an irrevocable trust for charity. This will add a lot of muscle to the Aziz Premji Foundation which was set up few years back in its quest to improve the standard of education. The foundation will focus on providing quality education in rural India and the the government has also pitched in to open the Aziz Premji foundation where higher education will be provided

also agreed to this statement and feels that Pakistan has been one of the major victims of international terrorism lately. President Obama also said that Pakistan needs to take strong and immediate steps against all terrorist groups operating on Pakistani soil. Furthermore, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said that a number of terrorist groups are operating in a syndicate and working together against American interests, not just in the US but in other nations such as Afghanistan and India as well. Mr. Blake also stated that the US has welcomed every step take by Pakistan so far and that it is in full support of Pakistan as always. UNs terrorism sanctions list In a recent and sudden move, a US committee took down several names of al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists off its terrorism sanction lists. The committee said that the reason for such an action was that several of the names on the sanctions list were probably dead. The committee Chairman Thomas Mayr Harting said that following this step, the committee had started investigations into how many terrorists put on the list were actually dead. This committee was set up in 1999. New Government in Iraq Prolonged warring and quarrels between rival political factions in Iraq had caused over an eight month deadlock over the issue of forming the next government. Recently, the Iraqi Prime Minister

appealed to these political factions to work together and unite following his acceptance of the Presidents request to form the next government. Senior officials admitted that a Herculean task now lay before them, that of forming a government comprising of members of all possible political factions. The task has been made harder by the month long deadline to form the government which will preside over the countrys affair as US troops move out and power is handed back to the Iraqi people. The new government is expected to have members from all the political factions such as the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. Prime Minister Designate al-Maliki called upon al Iraqi citizens and politicians to help him in this difficult task. Friendly neighbor China Rising concerns over Chinas assertive and aggressive attitude in the Asian continent has prompted Chinas President Hu Jintao to assure all nations that China is committed to being a friendly and helpful neighbor. China has been in the news recently over its spats with neighboring nations over international borders and territories. The reason for this has been said to be Chinas interests in a group of potentially resource rich islands in the Asian Pacific. Speaking to leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Japan, President Hu said that China was committed to the regional policy of building good neighborliness and friendship. Rolls Royce sued by Qantas Australian flight safety officials have recently warned that manufacturing defects have been found in the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines. Officials further urged airlines using these engines to carry extensive checks before using them because defects present in them could lead to catastrophic failures. In the meanwhile, Qantas began court proceedings against Rolls Royce and was granted an injunction by the federal court of Australia which ensured that the airline could pursue legal action against the engine manufacturing giants. Myanmar polls called fake The first democratic polls in Myanmar after several years of military rule were held among complaints of threats, intimidation and accusations of the polls being a charade. In most constituencies, the poll was a competition between the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the National Unity Party (NUS). Several accusations were made by opposition parties against the USDP, claiming that they illegally collected advanced ballots. USA and UK officials also voiced their concerns about the transparency and fairness of these polls. Chinas slowest growth China had its slowest rate of economic growth in a year during the September quarter. In addition to this, a World Bank report hinted at a further decrease in its economic growth. One of the reasons for this has been the long term inflation that China has faced for almost two years. Chinas industrial growth has also fallen considerably in recent times. This slow growth in Chinas economy has gotten many people to believe that India might be the next economic superpower to rise because of its high levels of industrial and economic growth in recent times. Though not immediately, but experts predicted Indias rate of growth to exceed that of Chinas by a considerable margin in the next five years.

National Current Affairs [November 2010] Sensex drops 458 points The Bombay Stock Exchange recently fell by a total of 458 points. The reasons for the underperformance of the Indian Equity market have been said to be the series of scams that were unearthed from mid November. Just last month, CBI officials discovered a bribe for loan scandal that involved several officials from financial firms and a few state run banks. The 10.8% rise in industrial growth since last month could not help and several indices ended with huge losses. Major loses were mainly suffered by PSUs, realty, consumer durables and healthcare. Satyam Trial Case The examination of the first witness in the infamous multi crore Satyam Computer accounting scam would begin from the first of November Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court. CBI officials submitted a list of six witnesses to the courts who were officials of a number of different banks. All ten accused including company founder B Ramalinga Raju were present in court during the hearing of the case. The DIG of police who operates under the department of CBI said

that the agency requested permission to set up LCD projectors and screens in the court so that both parties could observe and take notes on all the documents that would be brought up in court. Since cases in the Supreme Court need to be resolved at the earliest, CBI officials submitted close to a thousand documents to the court to speed up the prosecution. The bail of the owner of company and the other 5 individuals associated has been rejected. Baba Ramdev Temple under threat An anonymous letter was received at the Ramdev Baba temple in Jaisalmer that contained threats to blow up the temple on November 9th. District Collector G S Kushwaha received this letter by normal post. Following this letter security around the temple and the surrounding complex was tightened by posting additional number of policeman around the temple complex. Around 5 million devotees are said to visit the temple every year. Ashok Chavans fate Disgraced Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chauhans would be decided after the Diwali holiday season, i.e. after November 8th said the Congress party. Recently Chief Minister Ashok Chauhans name had come in the Adarsh Housing Society scam. Following this allegation, Mr. Ashok Chauhan immediately offered to resign from his post. No mention of either the Adarsh Housing Society scam or the commonwealth Games fiasco was made by the Congress in its AICC session. Also present at the meeting were Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, Common Wealth Games Organizing Committee Chaiperson Suresh Kalmadi, Heavy Industries Minister and former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Maharashtra PCC President Manikrao Thakre. Adjournment of Ajmer Dargah blast case The hearing of the Ajmer Gargah blast case was recently adjourned to November 8 by a sessions court due to leave taken by the presiding judge. Over an 800 page charge sheet was produced before the court of the Additional Chief Judge Magistrate on the 22nd of October by the Rajasthan ATS. The five accused in the case have alleged links with the radical Hindu group Abhinav Bharat. Only one accused was brought to the court while the other two are being questioned about the Hyderabad Mecca blast case. The accused have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code like conspiracy to murder, attempt to murder and murder. Over one hundred and thirty witnesses have been cited by the prosecution of the case. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjees concern The finance minister of the country Pranab Mukherjee recently raised his fears over the rising of inflation in the country. Minister Mukherjee said that the Reserve Bank of India would take steps at its next monetary policy review to check rising prices because of increased inflation. He further added that rising food prices were solely the reason for this sudden inflation. Inflation for the month of September was estimated to be close to 8.6% much above the acceptable rate of 5%. As said by Finance Minister Mukherjee, food prices had the highest amount of inflation which in Mid October was estimated to be over 13%. Recently, Minister Pranab Mukherjee was in talks with the Reserve Bank of India Governor over the the possible rate hike action by the Central Bank. The global financial crisis, which was worsened by the total collapse of financial firm Lehman Brothers, is being said to be the reason behind the RBIs recent reversal of its soft monetary policy that it started back in September 2008. Adding to these has been the sudden drop in industrial growth from 15.2% to 5.6%. To combat the aforementioned rise in inflation, the Reserve Bank of India has hiked its key short term lending and borrowing times several times this year. Protest during Obama visit by Bhopal Gas tragedy victims Victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy are said to be planning to stage a protest at Jantar Mantar on the 8th of November, during the time of US President Barrack Obamas visit to the capital. Several tonnes of the poisonous gas methyl iso-cyanide, leaked from the Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal in 1984, killing over 3000 people the same night and causing the deaths of over 25000 people over the subsequent years. Five different voluntary organizations working for the gas tragedy victims recently held a press conference where they stated that they would be requesting to President Obama to use his Presidential powers to bring the Union Carbide Corporation to Indian Courts and be answerable to them. The verdict of this case many years back had found seven top officials of this corporation to be guilty but as these guilty persons were bailed out within minutes of the verdict, many people till date question the justice imparted in the case. The

voluntary organizations further added that hundreds of people regularly fall sick and die every month due to the long term poisonous effects of the leaked gas on the soil and water. They further plan to ask President Obama for his help as the US government has been largely unhelpful these last few years. The sit in protest organized by the voluntary organizations is said to be comprised of over 5000 gas tragedy victims. Sports Current Affairs [November 2010] Chelsea lose third match out of fourth Birmingham City defeated Chelsea by a score of 1-0 at Birmingham City making this the third defeat to be suffered by Chelsea in the four matches that it has played so far. This win helped Manchester United to move up in the English Premier League rankings. Birmingham gained three points in the rankings thanks to the one and only winning goal scored by its player Lee Bowyer. Newcastle lost 5-1 to Bolton while West Ham lost 3-0 to Liverpool alongside Blackpool and Stoke who claimed their respective victories. In their game against Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea let slip past their initial lead of 2-0, to finally lose the game at a score of 3-2. The game was at a score of 2-0 till half time with Chelsea winning but a combination of lack of concentration in players and simple bad luck cost Chelsea the match. Cricket in 2014 Asian Games Rumors recently originated that cricket had been removed from the list of proposed sports and events of the 2014 Asian games. The reason for these rumors has been said to be the decision of the Olympic Committee of Asia to limit the number of sporting events in the Asian games to a maximum of 35. However, these fears proved out to be false as the OCA recently confirmed the inclusion of cricket in the list of sporting events for the Asian games 2014. For the time being cricket and karate have been confirmed as two out of the seven non Olympic events in these games while the other five are still to be decided. However, South Korean organizers are said to not be in support of this decision. Nadal and Clijsters Rafael Nadal continues to hold the top spot in the ATP rankings with his score being close to 11900 points while Roger Federer holds the spot of number two. On the other hand Kim Clijsters fell to the third position in the WTA rankings released recently followed by Serena Williams on the fourth position. Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Following his win in the Korean Grand Prix, third position in Brazil and third position in the qualifiers of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari looked like the possible winner. However the title slipped out of his hands, much to his surprise and landed into the hands of Vettel making him the youngest Formula One champion in the history of F1 racing aged just 23 years.

Persons in News November 2010 Leslie Nielson passes away Beloved actor Leslie Nielson best remember as bumbling police detective Lt. Frank Drebin of the Naked Gun series of movies, passed away recently aged 84 from complications arising as a result of Pneumonia. He was surrounded on his death bed y his loving wife, friends and long time agent. Leslie Nielson had over a 60 year long career in motion pictures which started back in the 1950s. He was initially cast as a leading man in serious movies such as The Forbidden Planet and Poseidon Adventure. The former flopped while the latter was a big success in its time. However, Nielson soon found his forte in comedy movies when he first acted in the 1980 comedy motion picture, Airplane. The movie was a huge hit and Nielsons popularity as a comedy actor soared. He then appeared in a number of comedy movies, the most famous of them being the Naked Gun series, all of which were big hits. Some of these were repossessed, Dracula- dead and loving it and Spy hard. Leslie was married thrice in his lifetime and has two daughters with his second wife.

I-phone versus Google Android Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Inc. recently praised the operating system on Googles smart phones. The operating system called Android was further praised by Mr. Wozniak who said that these phones had more features to offer as compared to the I-phone. He however, further added that while Googles smart phones offer people more number of choices, Apple I-phones on the other hand were much better in terms of quality Indians freed from Malay traffickers: Not less than 24 Indian men who were discovered bound up in a residence in a Malaysian boondocks were successfully freed from the arrest and two Pakistani men supposedly engaged in a human trafficking guild were detained with immediate effect. "Inquiries into the matter exposed that those people, age-old amid 20 and 30, were from Uttar Pradesh. If the reports of the media are to be trusted, the victims landed on to the capitals intl. airport four months back, afore getting picked by the accused people who were apparently looking for workers in an industrial unit in Johor," he said. He further stated that the two men promised the Indian workers appealing wages as the bait. It is once again proved that Malaysia is a magnet for wide spread drug peddling and human trafficking. Unemployed workforce looking out for jobs is brought for added transfers to other Southeast Asian countries and to Australia. Indian to lead FIDE: Indians have already proved their metal in various sports at the international level. Tennis, Cricket, Shooting, Boxing and also Chess. After Vishwanathan Anand, another lot of Indians are about to triumph on the World Chess Podium. D.V. Sundar has been elected has the President of the world body for the sport of chess, FIDE at Russia. Apart from that, the president for the Asian Continent was Mr. Dongre and Commonwealth Chess Federation President was revealed in the name of Mr. B.S. Chahuhan, a press statement by the All India Chess Federation revealed. Make way for the new breed: The new world power calendar for 2010 has once again predicted that New Delhis dominance in the world will see acceleration by 2025. Among the able coalition, the country has been placed at the fourth position afterwards the US, China and the European Union. The Global Governance 2025 was together brought out by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) of the US and the European Unions Institutes for Security Studies (EUISS). In the current year, the US leads the lot of able countries/regions, cumulatively for about 22 percent of the worldwide supremacy. The US is chased by China at 12 percent, European Union at 16 percent and India at eight percent. India comes next to Japan, Russia and Brazil with beneath than 5 percent apiece. Following these global statistics, by 2025 the ability of the US, EU, Japan and Russia will cut down although that of China, India and Brazil will boost but this surge will see the positions unchanged. By 2025, the United States of America will continue to be the most dominating nation, but it will be possessing just a bit above 18 percent of the global authority. The US will be carefully trailed by China with 16 percent, European Union with 14 percent and India with 10 percent looking to overleap.

National Current Affairs [September 2010] PM and Sonia Gandhi inaugurate UID: The Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and UPA Arch Sonia Gandhi shaped a record by accordingly ablution the world's aboriginal ID activity on September 29th 2010 forth with Nilekani, the arch man of the ministry is acclimated to accommodate Unique Identification Numbers for India's citizens (cumulatively well in billions), by rendering them the aboriginal collection of twelve digit figures to ten clannish. The PM as well as the UPA Chief were collectively congratulated in the presence of former Infosys headman. This ID Card is assumed to be nations biggest ever tech adeptness action alleged 'Aadhaar'(base), that is due to be issued to all Indians to accommodate them within a lucrative nationally accurate and absolute individual antecedent of character affidavit through an authenticity vault and that will help to accomplish supply processes transparent. Biometric following abstracts include fingerprints and an iris browse getting acclimated for the aboriginal time wherever in the planet.

Yamuna raises its bar, causes menace: The baptize akin in the river rose to 206.70 accent recently, 1.87 accent aloft the crisis mark of 204.83 accent and is acceptable to go up added as neighboring Haryana would absolution added water in the river, a chief official of the flood ascendancy administration said. Waters from the flood reached into vicinities like of the local areas as well (Yamuna and Sonia Vihar, Usmanpur, Jaitpur are a few). A large number of localities that reside in the areas forth the banks of the river were apparent lined up on the footpaths on the ITO arch with whatsoever they had of their possessions. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had on Friday requested the inhibiters not to get into agitation and said all basic measures are getting put into abode to accommodated any possible occurrence. Over 100 cadre from National Disaster Response Force, were soon deployed to abetment the bounded authorities. The ascent Yamuna has affected the Northern Railways to abolish 25 trains and absent 36 others. The cancelled train were prominent ones (Kalka and Brahamaputra Mail, Shalimar, A.A. and G.N. Express, etc). The 90 trains that have to be detoured included the most heavily commuted ones and this has disrupted the life of the general public paralyzing their usual movements, a Northern Railway spokesmen stated. Ayodha Verdict finally out, Allahabad Bench applauded: Culminating 60 years of anfractuous proceedings, asserts and counter-claims, optimism and desolation, Allahabad HC conventions in favor of improvised Ram temple on quarreled site; the remaining of acreage to be disconnected amid Hindus & Muslims. In what is conceivably the most of eagerly anticipated judgment in contempt times, a breach adjudication dispensed out by a three-member bank of Allahabad High Court were in full abounding of the claims of the Hindu petitioners while acclimation a three-way analysis of the acknowledged land. The cardinal provided acknowledged permit to the temporary Ram temple that came up afterwards the annihilation of the acknowledged anatomy in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. The entire panel of adjudicators the prominent faces of the country (Justice Agarwal, Khan and Sharma) was very much in favor of the acceptance that captivated the acknowledged land was the native land of the Hindu deity. Mr. Sharma and Mr. Agarwal settled with the long-held affirmation of the Sangh Parivar and an area of archaeologists that the acknowledged anatomy cannot be advised as an Islamic place of worship as it came into actuality adjoins the credo of Islam. Lights, Camera and Applause: The 57th Edition of the National Film Award ceremony was concluded for the year 2009 in the month of September. The awards were given away in three groups namely, finest Feature Motion Picture Class led by Chairpersonship of Mr. Sippy, Non Feature Motion Picture Group led by Chairpersonship of Mr. Pandey, and Script on Movies beneath the Chairpersonship of Mr. S. Bandhopadhyay. The following were the recipients of a few awards in various nominations: a. Motion Picture: Malayalam flick KuttySrank b. I.G.A. for the Best first appearance movie : Hindi movie Lahore for the Direction c. Box office blockbuster (widespread entertainment): Hindi 3 Idiots d. N.D.A. for the Best motion picture on Patriotic Spirit: Hindi Delhi 6 e. Best motion picture on Societys Matters: Bollywood - Well Done Abba f. Motion Picture for Kids: Tied between Keshu (Malayalam) and Putaani Party (Kannada) g. Direction: Rituparno Ghosh for Abohoman h. Actor: Amitabh Bachcha for Auros role i. Actress: Ananya Chatterjee j. Childs Performance: Tollywoods Pasanga k. Male Singer: Rupam Islam in Bengali l. Female Singer: Neelanjana Sarkar in Bengali

Sports Current Affairs [September 2010] Kalmadi and Co. pocket Common mans Wealth: The contempt letters of forgery and fraud in Commonwealth Games resulted in an abnormally affliction of our nations picture. The bulk of finances used up on modernizing the venues for Commonwealth Games accommodate a prima facie affirmation of ample calibration enticement in

the alignment of Commonwealth Games. The abstracts accessible on the Commonwealth Games website reveals that the amount of refurbishing the JNU stadium was USD 215 million; the IGI Stadium USD 150 million; the Hockey stadium (named after Dhyan Chand) USD 60 million; and the Shooting Alleys USD 35 million. An absolute sum of USD 10150 million was spent on renovations. The costs incurred in the advance of the lone cricket stadium in Delhi were USD 20 million. For the LBS stadium in Hyderabad was USD 18 million, and architecture of a contemporary and technology studded stadium in the city of oranges amounted USD 19 million. It is acute that the Central Government anon adjustment a top akin analysis into this arrangement and the dealings embarked on. It is abominable that such all-embracing abusage of communal resources has taken abode in the name of the Commonwealth Games. The accusations of inducement ambit from favoritism in accolade of affairs to big-ticket appoint of accessories for training and abrupt accretion in the costs of architecture treaties. Bridge Collapses; Casualties cross double figures: Reportedly not less than 27 people were afflicted afterwards an under-construction foot over bridge burst within the close proximity of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the capital area of the Commonwealth Games, bidding the Organizing Committee (OC) to awning up by giving a statement or in other words a false sense of complacency and assurance that everything is being taken care of. The arch was to hotlink the amphitheater to parking for delegates and athletes. The Urban Development Minister, Jaipal Reddy has dismissed the pressures by quoting it is a negligible incident. The Public Works Department (PWD) has urged for an acoount of the structure from the builders. Later the aforementioned day, Organizing Committee Secretary General Lalit Bhanot addressed reporters: "We will put up a great show. He said the venues will be all set in the days to come and there would be added sprucing to accommodate top notch standards. However, the mishap is a concern to the CWG organizers, who are already nabbed amidst accuse of laziness and fraud for the XIX Edition. Previously, Mike Hooper, the main controller of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), remarked on the condition of hygiene at the Games Village as dirty. Chennai are the Super Kings of Twenty20 Cricket: The Mahendra Singh Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings are the champions of the second edition of the AirTel Champions League Twenty20 hosted by South Africa from September 10th to September 26th. Chennai Super Kings defeated their fellow finalists in some fashion by 8 wickets in the final of the Champions League T20 2010.Warriors had won the toss earlier and decided to bat first but bootless to account an appropriate target, but only capable to set a minimal total of mere 128 runs for 7 wickets. Only Davy Jacobss denticulate 34 runs were the notable contribution and was also the best from the entire batting lineup of the Warriors. Muttiah Muralidaran was the most booming bowler scalping 3 wickets for only 16 runs. Ashwin got a couple of wickets for 16 runs as well. Chennai Super Kings started off in some style by baking batting by Murali Vijay who denticulate a 58 run total. Michael Hussey fabricated 42 handy runs to the total. The Opening brace fabricated 103 runs which fabricated their way of triumph easier than it ever seemed. With this Murali Vijay became the highest run getter of the second edition of the Champions League Twenty20. He was facilitated with the Man of the Match Award. With such great triumph on the world stage, the Indian and CSK captain has silenced his critics and is still in contention to be the best ever captain in the world today.

Business And Economy 2010 A 10 % dip in exports, targets seems unlikely: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) predicted arrears of abutting to 10 per cent in exports ambition for accepted budgetary due to arrest in exports advance rate. This is for the reason that developing countries, like India, are those that are already going in for budgetary alliance as their economies initiated fractional cycle aback of relief packages, affect of which will be significantly seen on Indias consign gain in the ongoing fiscal, said Secretary General, ASSOCHAM, Mr. D.S. Rawat. Approximations acknowledge that abutting to $US 20 billion of exports gain are captivated in countries; including various European countries in which sprawl in demand and consumption behaviors are getting carefully followed.

As an aftereffect of budgetary consolidation, Indias export transaction that nurtured at the amount of 32.6 per cent in April 2010, it cut down to 35.1 per cent in the afterward months afore advancing along to a point of 30.4 per cent in June, which slithered at dreadfully lower akin of 13.2 per cent in July this year and change about trend will abide with a few enhancements round about in the remainder of the months of this fiscal, cumulatively astringent dip down of exports returns reaching at a point $US 180 billion by March 31st, 2011, said the Secretary General of the body. Five Indian States; Top Investment Magnets: Gujarat has come into view as a baton of the part of 5 apex parts of India i.e. West (Maharashtra), South-East (Orissa), South (AP and Karnataka), in molding to be the top preferred investment pit stops and in alluring 52.42 % of cumulative investment of tons of Indian rupees for 20 States, according to a generalization undertaken by ASSOCHAM. While making the study public, Chamber Secretary General, Mr. D S Rawat reported that Mahatma Gandhis home state has alone drawn investment proposals of USD 268375 million, Maharashtras also close to a staggering USD 231378 million, Orissa a gigantic USD 220171 million, AP a mountaineering USD 180794 million, Karnataka a whopping USD 163791 million and the rest 15 states short listed equal to USD 1377299 million amounting for only proposals. The heaviest bulk of investment has gone into ( in terms of percentages) electricity sector (40.3), the service sector (22.6 ), manufacturing industry (22.1 ), realty and property division (9.9), mining (2.4) and irrigation (2.3). India tipped to become vehicle giants: India has already accomplished this great landmark well around 6 years advanced of the decided missions, quoted by the Secretary for Ministry of Heavy Industry, Mr. B S Meena who highlighted this while speaking in New Delhi at the Roundtable Conference. Meena added that for the time span up to August 2010, the achievement of the automobile segment has been acutely commendable with the assorted manufacturing of cars growing at 32.4% over the same epoch the previous year. The commuter vehicles, business cars and bike segments have all embarked on the absorbing advance ante of 32%, 49% and 31% appropriately during this interlude, he further stated. The Secretary also brought to light that it is anticipated that the measurement of the Indian commuter cars articulation in 2020 will be abutting to nine million units and twowheelers approx. thirty million pieces. Light motor vehicles construction in India is probable to accustom the superlative rate of progress. The achievement of such a degree would place India as one of the top 5 car creating nations all across the globe by the year 2020 with the local utilization growing by 4-folds to US 120 billion dollars

International Current Affairs [August 2010] Mission Accomplished The United States have finally started pulling its troops out of Iraq. President Barack Obama has confirmed that the US plans to withdraw significant number of combat troops from Iraq stating that the war was nearing an end. The remaining force of 50,000 soldiers will train Iraqi security forces and provide security for ongoing US Diplomatic efforts. Australia with a hung parliament Australians failed to elect a new government in the polls held in August and were left with a hung parliament. The non-result elections between Julia Gillards Labor and Abbotts Liberal party led to the first hung parliament in Australia since World War II. Three key Independents are now in the process of deciding which party to support to form a government. Pakistani cricketers tainted The Game of cricket gets murkier with alleged match-fixer Mazhar Majeeds claim of having rigged games played by Pakistan for three years. The British Police recovered cash from hotel rooms of Pakistani players involved in spot fixing. Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammed Asif were interviewed and their mobiles confiscated after Majeeds confession. The AntiCorruption Unit of the ICC will probe all 82 international matches played by Pakistan during this

time. The news came as a bolt for the flood-stricken and violence-plagued country where cricket is the national sport. Pakistan Floods Annual monsoons rains have led to flooding in Pakistan leading to the death of 1500 people and rendering thousands homeless. In the worst flooding disaster in 80 years the floodwaters have affected about one-fifth of the country washing away millions of hectares of crops, submerging villages and destroying roads, bridges, schools, electricity and communication setting back the infrastructure by many years. Disease is fast spreading in these flood affected areas and there have been warnings that dams in the south may burst. It is estimated that the floods in Pakistan have displaced people thrice the number displaced during partition. Hike in Visa fee The Obama Regime has raised H-1B and L1 visa fees to protect its borders from illegal Mexican immigrants. This additional fee would be used to build operating bases and deploy unmanned aerial surveillance to beef up U.S.-Mexico border security. The impact of this hike will be substantial on Indian IT companies that account for approximately 50,000 H1 and L1 visas per year. Mosque near ground Zero A New York city panel has cleared the way for the construction of a mosque near ground zero that has been causing a political uproar over religious freedom. The proposed construction of the mosque near ground zero has sparked debate all around the country. President Barack Obama, however, supported the right of having a mosque by asserting that Muslims have the same right to freedom of religion as everyone else in America. China to launch space station Having finished the first module of a planned space station and testing its electronics and other systems China is all set to launch it into orbit next year. Changes were being made to the rocket that will carry the 8.5ton Tiangong 1 module into a set orbit. No finishing or manning dates have been given for the space station. The official Xinhua news agency said that The Shenzhou 8 spacecraft and Shenzhou 9 and 10 spacecraft would dock with it in the second half of 2011 and 2012 respectively. Online route Oxford English Dictionary that has been in print for over a century may never appear in print for the future generations. The word reference Bible is likely to loose its existence to its online version. With the digital books becoming popular, the format that the 3rd edition, currently being worked upon, will take is anybodys guess.

National Current Affairs [August 2010] Nuclear liability bill passed Nuclear liability bill which was adopted by Rajya Sabha has now been approved by the process of Voice vote. The session of the Parliament lasted 48 hours extra than the scheduled time so that the legislation can be easily passed and approved. A total of 18 amendments were introduced in this bill by Lok Sabha before processing it further. Soon the bill was selected for a considerable hike in the liability of operator. This liability has now become 3 times then what it was in the past and now holds a value of rupees 1500 crores in total. By virtue of progression of this bill and significant increase in the liability many overseas companies have shown their interests in setting up reactors in India. Special accidental care will now be provided for the employees operating in the various sections of the nuclear plants. The decision and the passing of the bill had been strongly opposed by the BJP leaders as they found it insignificant. Swiss Bank Access Swiss Authorities will provide information to India on cases of tax fraud and tax evasion from January 1,2011under the reworked double tax agreement (DTA) signed by India and Switzerland. The Indian Authorities can now seek information about the account holders in Swiss banks who have a case filed against them for tax evasion. Government Intervention for CWG PM and his select team of ministers takeover as CWG supervisors. Indian Prime Minister

Dr.Manmohan Singh took over the reigns of the forthcoming games in the wake of scandals and unfinished work surrounding the event. Committee of Secretaries, headed by a Cabinet Secretary, will now supervise the mega event to be held in October overtaking Organizing Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi. Bhopal Case reopened The Supreme court of India has reopened the Bhopal Gas leak case in response to Governments petition for harsher punishment to the guilty for the worst tragedy of its kind in which at least 7,000 people perished within days of the release of the toxic methyl isocyanate gas at the Union Carbide pesticide plant on 3 December 1984, and a further 15,000 died later from exposure to the gas. The tragedy left countless others with lifelong damage to their health. CSAT to replace the civil services prelims The new Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) will replace the existing civil services (preliminary) examination from 2011. The new scheme will test the candidates for their aptitude for civil services as well as their ethical and moral dimension of decision-making. There will now be two common papers with equal weightage in place of one common paper (general awareness) and one optional paper (any particular subject of choice). The civil services main exam and the interview will remain the same as of now. Rahul creates controversy Wherein one place Mamta Banerjee is speaking in the favour of naxals and now Rahul Gandhi is sharing a dias with a suspected Maoist , this is the approach of the government in the fight against naxals. Member Parliament salaries hiked Parliament recently in Delhi has made a decision to increase the salaries of MPs. A hike of about rupees 35000 will be introduced in the salary of each MPs thus taking it from figures like 20,000 to 55,000 or so. Because daily allowance has an important role to play hence parliament has also decided to exactly double the allowances issued daily to each Member of Parliament. Hence daily allowance of rupees 1000 will now become 2000. This daily allowance will be issued only when the parliament session is in progress. Other than the daily allowances the official expenses for every office per month have now been considerably raised and touch a 50,000 amount. That is not all the travel and conveyance charge issued will now become 4 times which were earlier around rupees 1,00,000. Retired members will now get a monthly pension of around rupees 20,000 which was around 10,000 in the past times. Commonwealth with less green Approximately 40,000 trees have been either felled or transplanted for Delhis preparation of Commonwealth Games 2010. Apart from the financial burden of creating world class infrastructure and transport facilities Delhites have to bear the loss of its green cover as the compensatory plantation cannot in any way compensate for the loss of a fully grown, mature tree. Blackberry controversy Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of Blackberry has finally surrendered to Indian security agencies demand for access to their server. The company has proposed for lawful access to its services including the messenger as well as the enterprise with immediate effect and the company would have to set up a server in India if it does not work to the satisfaction of Indian agencies. The security agencies already had access to voice data, SMS and general emails sent through Blackberry devices but Blackberry email and messaging services that are highly encrypted were major concerns for the security agencies. With this understanding in place the government has decided to serve notices to Google and Skype also to fall in line. Direct tax code The Government deferred the direct tax code(DTC) by yet another year to April 2012 causing yet another disappointment to the taxpayers. Women taxpayers suffered a bolt as the preferential treatment meted out to them earlier is now proposed to be withdrawn. Senior citizens, however, enjoy a higher exemption limit. The bill that replaces the Income Tax Act 1961 seeks an increase in exemption threshold of individuals from Rs.1.6 lakh currently to Rs.2lakh. The corporate taxes will be reduced to a flat 30%. Leh hit by flood A cloudburst on the intervening night of August 5 and 6 has led to flash floods and mudslides in

the Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir. The cloudburst and the following floods have claimed over 175 lives and injured about 400 people, besides causing widespread damage to public and private property. The worst hit Chuglamsar has just turned into debris all over. More rich than poor Indians National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has estimated in its report, "How India Earns, Spends and Saves", that despite the economic slowdown of the last three years, the number of high-income households in India has exceeded the number of low-income households. Households with high income or earnings have grown by over 3.7% in total and now touch the mark of around 21%. That is not all also the households with low income sources have fallen by around 3.2% and gone down to a mark of 18%. CWG Anthem When everything is being prepared for the common wealth coming up in October then how could Music maestro A R Rahman stay away from it. Yes, the musician has launched the theme song for the Commonwealth Games 2010 that has the best lyrics covering khelo oh yaaro,,jeeto oh yaaro. During the launch of this theme song honorable Chief Minister Shiela Dixit, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi were present in the ceremony. CWG breeding mosquitoes The fingers are already crossed and people fear further delay in the common wealth problems. When the earlier hurdles are not getting removed and new problems are coming into view. The sincere attention is being drawn by the mosquitoes breeding in various dumps. Because of heavy rainfall in the country water is collected in almost every venue and mosquitoes have converted these venues into their favorite breeding places and are increasing the fear of dengue disease. Yet another marine disaster A foreign cargo ship MV Khalijia-111 which collided with MSC Chitra which was carrying about 1,200 containers with over 266 tonnes of fuel about 10 km off Mumbai harbour has spilled oil into the Mumbai seas. The collision tilted MSC Chitra vessel causing 300 containers carrying oil to tumble into the Mumbai waters creating a thick oil slick two to three kms around the vessel Chitra causing a serious threat to the marine life. Indias Independence August 15th, 2010 India celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its independence. IBM Number two employer IBM is the second largest private sector employer in India after TCS . The company has more than one lakh people on its rolls.

Sports Current Affairs [August 2010] Sehwag denied century A deliberate no ball by the Srilankan off-spinner Suraj Randiv to prevent Virendar Sehwag from completing his century in the tri-series has left a bad taste in the mouth for all cricket lovers. Indians were just short of 5 runs from destination called victory and the opening batsman VEERU was just a run away from his ton. At the same time Lankan skipper chose spinner S. Randiv to come in and bowl. On the third bowl of his spell Virender Sehwag sent the bowl out of the fence with a huge six but the turning point was that it was a no ball which defended Virender Sehwag from completing his century. As per the declaration of the match referee it was been found out that it was an intentional attempt. Shooting Gold Tejaswini Sawant created history by becoming Indias first female shooter to clinch gold at the World Shooting Championship held in Munich, Germany. The 29-year-old, who shot a score of 597/600 (100, 100, 100, 99, 99, 99), equaling the world record in the process, won the 50m rifle prone event Sri Lanka wins the tri series The host Sri Lanka eight wicket victory over India in Dambulla represents its 25th win in a tournament final. Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara'who won the toss decided to bat against India in the tri-series final. The Sri Lankans won the match by 74 runs in this game. With this it

became the second team to win a tournament final on 25 occasions. Australia has won 52 tournament finals. First Indian US PGA Tour winner Arjun Atwal has become the first Indian Golfer to win the US PGA tour. Atwal, who started playing at the age of fourteen, became one of the leading players on the Asian Tour and the European tour. He is the the first native East Indian golfer to become a member of, and later win the U.S. PGA Tour.

Persons in News [July 2010] Michael Kirk Douglas diagnosed with throat cancer Michael Kirk Douglas, winner of three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards, was diagnosed with throat cancer in August this year. He received the AFI (American Film Institute) Life Achievement Award in 2009. The 65-year-old actor, a heavy smoker, was informed of his condition labeled as Stage 4 cancer after his doctor's appointment for an extremely sore throat. Douglas who is to undergo chemotherapy and radiation is optimistic about his chances for recovery Archie Panjabi Recently 62nd Emmy awards were held and the best part was to hear about actress Archie Panjabi from the Indian-origin who has won the award for best supporting actress in the movie The Good Wife. Her performance has been rated to be the best in the international release recognized as Bend it like Beckham. Many others were nominated for the same designation but because the best performance deserves to be on the top hence the results proved it and Archie Panjabi took the award. Anil Aggarwal to overtake Mukesh Ambani It was Anil Aggarwal who laid the foundation of Vedanta Resources Corporation, a UK based corporation and all by the virtue of it that he has been designated as the non-resident Indian billionaire. By this effort he has become the largest promoter of a corporate house thus overtaking Mukesh Ambani. Pallava Bagla Pallava Bagla from India has won the David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism by American Geophysical Union (AGU). Pallav won this award for his articles on the impact of change in climate on the Himalayan glaciers. Bagla is an author and freelancer for BBC and the likes. His latest book is "Destination Moon: India's Quest for Moon, Mars and beyond".

Japan Elections Democratic Party of Japan suffered a heavy blow in the elections for the upper house of Japans Diet (parliament) when it won ten seats fewer than expected thus loosing its majority. DPJ will now have to look for new coalition partners to restore its majority in the upper house and enable it to easily pass laws through the Diet legislature. After breaking the 55 year period of dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party and naming Naoto Kan the new prime minister just a month back the results have baffled the DJP. July 15th Summit, Islamabad Failed talks between Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna and the Pakistani counterpart Mr. Shah Mehmood Qureshi's have once again proved that whenever efforts were initiated by India to improve the relations between the two countries. The Pak leaders and officials took deliberate steps to derail the process conveying a clear message to India that the talks can continue only on its terms. Gulf of Spill More than three months after the April 20 explosion aboard the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil platform, which killed 11 workers and sank the rig gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the most severe US environmental disaster ever is close to coming to an end. In an operation called static

kill 2,300 barrels of mud was forced down into the wells opening overnight pushing the crude back down to its source. A cap over the wellhead has shut in leaking oil since July 15 and the static kill also known as bull heading probably would not have worked without the cap in place. Genocide Omar-al-Bashir, President of Sudan has been charged with three counts of genocide over the Darfur Conflict, he was convicted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague. It is for the first time that a court has accused anyone of genocide. Jacob Lew the new Budget Director President Barack Obama has chosen Mr. Jacob Lew as his new budget director. This is Mr. Lews second stint with the federal budget.

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

Sports Current Affairs [July 2010] Saina Nehwal: A smash hit The Indian Open Grand Prix Gold, the Singapore Open Super Series and then the Indonesian

Open Super Series at Jakarta have given enough reasons to Saina to celebrate. The World No.3 defeated a fighting Sayaka Sato of Japan 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 in the badminton finals. Just two notches away from the badminton World No. 1, Saina is now indisputably India's top female athlete. Khel awards Saina Nehwal to be conferred the countrys top sporting honour-the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. While Jhulan Goswami skipper of womens cricket team, boxer Dinesh Kumar and Sandeep Singh are tipped to receive the Arjuna Awards in recognition of their outstanding achievements during the last one year, Footballer Sunil Chhetri and Deepak Mondal have also been nominated for the award that will be given away in Rashtrapati Bhawan on 29th Aug by President Pratibha Patil. World cup for Spain In a historic football victory Spain lifted their first-ever World Cup after defeating Netherlands 1-0 in Johannesburg. Andres Iniesta secured the only goal of an enthralling final against the Netherlands four minutes from the end of extra-time on Sunday leading his team to victory.

Persons in News [July 2010] Fidel Castro Fidel Castro a Cuban revolutionary visited Havana scientific facility; it was his first public appearance. The former Cuban President, now 83, who went into seclusion four years back after falling ill looked healthy said the reports. Roman Polanski The Swiss government rejected US governments request to extradite Roman Polanski where he is charged with unlawful sex with a minor on the ground that the US authorities failed to provide confidential testimony about Polanski's sentencing procedure in 1977-1978. Polanski, who has been held under house arrest in Switzerland since December, has been declared a free man by the Swiss authorities. However, the American prosecutors vowed to continue their pursuit of the film director

International Current Affairs [June 2010] Julia Gillard become Australias first women Prime Minister replacing Kevin Rudd following a sudden revolt against him. No more time for sorrow written by Robert Beeman. The author predict that terrorist will set off an atom bomb in the USA by 2013. Tuvalu become 187th member of IMF (International Monetary Fund). The island is located in the Pacific Ocean. Kyrgyzstan voted for a new constitution in a referendum. It is Central Asias first parliament democracy. G-20 summit held at Toronto, Canada.

National Current Affairs [June 2010] In the Global Peace Index 2010, India ranked at 128. 2010 Failed State Index- Somalia top the list followed by Zimbabwe, Sudan & Chad. India is ranked at 87 place out of 177 countries. Norway in ranked at the bottom of the list. President Rule imposed in Jharkhand. Amar Singh launches a new party Akhil Bhartiya Lok Manch. South African president Jacob Zuma visited India.

Turkmenistan President Gurbaguly Bardimuhamedov visited India. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited India. India signed 7 pacts with Sri Lanka. India will assist in building 50000 houses in the northen & eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. Bangladesh Govt has requested to rename the train linking West Bengal to Tripura via Banglades as Sonar Tori. Earlier the name of the train as envisaged in the Railway Budget 2010 is Epar Bangla Opar Bangla. Sonar Tori is a collection of poems written by Rabindranath Tagore, whose 150th birth anniversary is being celebrated in 2010. Maharastra will become first state in the country to have a real estate regulatory authority. BWA- Broadband Wireless Access. The BWA spectrum was auctioned by the Govt. BWA Spectrum is essential for rolling out WiMAX services enabling hand held devices and laptops to access Intranet. It will allow firms to offer high speed Net, Web telephony & TV Services. The govt fixed Rs.1750 crore as base rate for BWA license. The auction was held for 117 rounds and in 16 days. Rs.12848 crore was the pan India BWA license price which was won by Infotel Broadband services ( in all 22 circles). The Govt auctioned the BWA license for a total of Rs.38,543 crore. Mumbai had the highest bid of Rs.2293 crore followed by Delhi with Rs.2241 crore respectively. India signed Civil Nuclear agreement with Canada. The agreement was signed by Manmohan Singh and Canadas PM Stephen Harper. Canada is the 8th nation to enter into such an agreement with India. Canada served nuclear ties with India in 1974 when India conducted its first nuclear test at Pokhran in 1974. Indias nuclear power programme is based on the CANDU ( Canada Deuterium Uranium) reactor. India become a full fledged member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a 34 member inter governmental body that devises policies at both national & international levels to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. FATF membership will enable Indian authorities to access information on suspect accounts in nations such as Switzerland & UK. India become its 34th member.

Sports Current Affairs [June 2010] French Open 2010 : o Mens singles Rafael Nadal defeated Robin Soderling. He is the second person after Bjorn Borg to win 5th French Open titles. o Womens singles- Francesca Schiavone (Italy) defeated Samantha Stosur (Australia). She became first Italian women to won the French open. o Mens Doubles- Daniel Nestor & Nenad Zimonjic defeated Lukas Dlouhy & Leander Paes. o Womens Doubles- Serena Williams & Venus Williams defeated Kveta Peschke & Katarina Srebotnik. o Mixed Doubles Katarina Srebotnik & Nenad Zimonjic defeated Yavoslava Shvedova & Julian Knowle. Saina Nehwal defeated Choo Wong Mew to win womens single title in Yonex-Sunrise Indian Open badminton championship. In the Mens singles Yunus Alamsyah won the title. Saina Nehwal defeated Japans Sayaka Sato to win womens singles title in Indonesian Open Super Series 2010. Indian Ronjan Sodhi won the double trap gold medal at ISSF World Cup in Lonato, Italy. India defeated Sri Lanka to won Asia Cup(Cricket) 2010. India won the title after 15 years i.e. it won the cup in 1995. Saina Nehwal won the Womens singles title in Singapore Super Series badminton championship 2010 defeating Chinas Tzu Ying Tai. It was her 2nd consecutive title. 3000th ODI( One day international) cricket match was played between England & Australia.

Persons in News [June 2010] Former CJI K G Balakrishnan is appointed as Chairman of National Human Rights Commission.

O P Bhatt has been elected as Chairman , Indian Bankers Association for the year 2010-11. Tenzin Norzon, a resident of Varanasi crowned as Miss Tibet 2010. J G Farrell won the Lost Man Booker Prize for his novel Troubles. Sachin Tendulkar conferred with Indian Air Forces honorary rank of Group Captain. Till now 21 persons have been granted honorary ranks by the IAF. The first person was Raja of Jawhar- Raja Yaswant Rao in 1994. Tendulkar is the first sportsperson to be conferred with this honour. Sharad Pawar will be 7th President of ICC. He become 2nd Indian after Jagmohan Dalmia to occupy the position. He succeeded David Morgan. Wrestler and 1970s Asian Games Gold medalist, Chandagi Ram Kaliram died.

Misc Issues [June 2010] India and France held a joint air combat exercise in France called Garuda IV. Cyclone Phet hit Gujarat coast . Indigenous developed vaccine Vaxiflu-S against swine flu (H1N1) is launched. Mars-500 : An experiment to study the effect of long isolation to better understand how a real space crew should cope with stress and fatigue. The experiment is conducted by Russia, China and The European Space Agency at Moscow. A total of 520 days are required to travelled to and back form Mars planet. Capital Gate Tower in Abu Dhabi has been certified at worlds furthest leaning manmade tower. The tower leans at 18 degrees, over four times angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. World Blood Donor Day- 14 June. Theme of 2010 is Celebrating your gift of blood. World Environment Day 5 June. Theme of 2010 is Biodiversity : Connecting with Nature. Statistics Day- 29 June. Celebrated in honour of Prof P C Mahalanobis. Govt made it mandatory for companies listed on the stock exchange to raise public shareholding to 25 %. Craig Venter created first living cell created synthetically by human being. Bharti Airtel acquire Kuwait based Zain Telecoms African business for $ 10.7 billion or Rs. 48,150 crore. Bharti now become 5th largest telecom company in the world. Broadband users in India as on March 2010 was 8.75 million. Forbes list 1011 billionaires in the world. It included 14 women, 7 of whom are from China. India has 1.27 lakh millionaires in 2009, a rise of 50.9 %. HNWI (high net worth individual) are defined as those having investible assets of $ 1 million or more.

G-15 summit was held at Tehran on 16-17 May. Bangladesh handed over Ranjan Daimary of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland to India. The group was responsible for serial bombing in Assam in 2008. National League for Democracy (NLD) party of Myannmars democracy leader Aung San Sui Kyi was abolished after deadline to re-register as a political party was over. EU-IMF provide a $ 1 trillion rescue package to the Greece to resolve its debt crises. Pakistan successfully test fired two short range ballistic missiles, Shaheen I( range 650 Km) and Ghazani (range 290 Km) capable of carrying nuclear war heads and striking Indian cities.

National Current Affairs [May 2010] Naxalites killed 47 people in a landmine blast between Dantewada and Sukma in Chattisgarh. Test fire of nuclear capable Agni-II missile was successfully carried out from Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa on 17th May. Agni II has a range of 2000Km. It is 20m long two stage solid propelled ballistic missile. It was developed by Advanced System Laboratories alongwith DRDO & Bharat Dynamics Ltd.

Supreme Court in a recent judgement upheld a rule that allows the adjustment of reserved category candidate SC/ST/OBC against their quota seats even if they manage to qualify an examination for govt services on merit. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is the monitoring authority for the Right to Education Act which became effective from April 1, 2010.

Sports Current Affairs [May 2010] England won 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating Australia. The tournament was held at South Africa. Kevin Pieterson of England has been declared as Player of the Tournament. Australia won 2010 Womens World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating New Zealand. India and South Korea were declared joint winner of 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup, after suspension of the final match due to heavy rains.Indias Sardar Singh has been declared as Best Player of the Tournament. Australia won the Bronze medal. The tournament was held at Ipoh (Malaysia). India had won the tournament earlier in 1985, 1991, 1995 & 2009. China won Thomas Cup ( Mens Badminton) defeating Indonesia. In the World Youth Boxing Championship, held at Baku, Azerbaijan, India won 1 Gold & 1 Silver. Gold medal was won by Vikas Krishan and Silver medal was won by Shiva Thapa. India won bronze medal in the 2nd Asian Paragliding Championship held at Nishiewa, Japan. World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand retained his title after defeating Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the World Chess Championship 2010.

Persons in News [May 2010] Gita Gopinath an Indian origin associate professor at Harvard Univ has been appointed a full professor, the first Indian woman in the Institutions history to ge given this appointment. Former Vice President of India, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat died. Rima Fakih was crowned Miss USA 2010. She became the first ever muslim American Miss USA. She is of Lebanese muslim descent. Singer Christina Aguilera was named Ambassador against hunger by the United Nations World Food Programme. Rushanara Ali became first person of Bangladesh origin to be elected to the British Parliament. David Cameron elected Prime Minister of Britain. Nick Clegg became the Dy Prime Minister. Britain gets first coalition govt since World War-II. It is between Conservative and Liberal Democrats. Justice S H Kapadia sworn as new Chief Justice of India. Hari S Bhartia elected as President of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) for 2010-11. Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail unassisted around the world in a yatch.

Awards Current Affairs 2010 [May 2010] Vandana Shiva has been awarded Sydney Peace Prize 2010 for her work in the field of social justice.

Misc Issues [May 2010] International Mosaics Festival was held in Tunisia. Aman ki Asha- the name of the Indo Pak Business Meet held at New delhi. International Museum Day- 18 May. Yours Sincerely written by Natwar Singh. The Duel written by Tariq Ali. The Promise :President Obama, Year One written by Jonathan Alter

International Current Affairs [May 2010] G-15 summit was held at Tehran on 16-17 May. Bangladesh handed over Ranjan Daimary of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland to India. The group was responsible for serial bombing in Assam in 2008. National League for Democracy (NLD) party of Myannmars democracy leader Aung San Sui Kyi was abolished after deadline to re-register as a political party was over. EU-IMF provide a $ 1 trillion rescue package to the Greece to resolve its debt crises. Pakistan successfully test fired two short range ballistic missiles, Shaheen I( range 650 Km) and Ghazani (range 290 Km) capable of carrying nuclear war heads and striking Indian cities.

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

Sports Current Affairs [May 2010] England won 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating Australia. The tournament was held at South Africa. Kevin Pieterson of England has been declared as Player of the Tournament. Australia won 2010 Womens World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating New Zealand. India and South Korea were declared joint winner of 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup, after suspension of the final match due to heavy rains.Indias Sardar Singh has been declared as Best Player of the Tournament. Australia won the Bronze medal. The tournament was held at Ipoh (Malaysia). India had won the tournament earlier in 1985, 1991, 1995 & 2009. China won Thomas Cup ( Mens Badminton) defeating Indonesia. In the World Youth Boxing Championship, held at Baku, Azerbaijan, India won 1 Gold & 1 Silver. Gold medal was won by Vikas Krishan and Silver medal was won by Shiva Thapa. India won bronze medal in the 2nd Asian Paragliding Championship held at Nishiewa, Japan. World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand retained his title after defeating Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the World Chess Championship 2010.

Persons in News [May 2010] Gita Gopinath an Indian origin associate professor at Harvard Univ has been appointed a full professor, the first Indian woman in the Institutions history to ge given this appointment. Former Vice President of India, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat died. Rima Fakih was crowned Miss USA 2010. She became the first ever muslim American Miss USA. She is of Lebanese muslim descent.

Singer Christina Aguilera was named Ambassador against hunger by the United Nations World Food Programme. Rushanara Ali became first person of Bangladesh origin to be elected to the British Parliament. David Cameron elected Prime Minister of Britain. Nick Clegg became the Dy Prime Minister. Britain gets first coalition govt since World War-II. It is between Conservative and Liberal Democrats. Justice S H Kapadia sworn as new Chief Justice of India. Hari S Bhartia elected as President of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) for 2010-11. Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail unassisted around the world in a yatch.

Awards Current Affairs 2010 [May 2010] Vandana Shiva has been awarded Sydney Peace Prize 2010 for her work in the field of social justice.

Misc Issues [May 2010] International Mosaics Festival was held in Tunisia. Aman ki Asha- the name of the Indo Pak Business Meet held at New delhi. International Museum Day- 18 May. Yours Sincerely written by Natwar Singh. The Duel written by Tariq Ali. The Promise :President Obama, Year One written by Jonathan Alter.

Belgium became the Europes first country to ban burqa. Pakistans National assembly passed a bill that takes away the Presidents power to dissolve parliament, dismiss a elected government and appoint the three services Chiefs. Pakistans parliament passes 18th amendment which was later signed by Presient cutting Presidents powers. USA and Russia signed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty(START) that allowed a maximum of 1550 deployed overheads, about 30% lower than a limit set in 2002. The treaty was signed in the Progue Castle. Emergency was imposed in Thailand. Nuclear Security Summit held at Washington.It was a 47 nation summit wherein P.M. announced setting up of a global nuclear energy centre for conducting research & development of design systems that are secure, proliferation resistant & sustainable. PM visit USA & Brazil, a two nation tour. He attended Nuclear Security Summit in USA & IndiaBrazil-S.Africa(IBSA) and Brazil-Russia-India-China(BRIC) summit in Brasilia (Brazil). 16th SAARC Summit held in Bhutan in 28-29 April. The summit was held in Bhutan for the first time. It is the silver jubilee summit as SAARC has completed 25 years. The summit central theme was Climate Change. The summit recommended to declare 2010-2020 as the Decade of Intraregional Connectivity in SAARC. The 17th SAARC summit will be held in Maldives in 2011.

National Current Affairs [April 2010] Naxals killed about 75 CRPF personal at Chintalnar-Tarmetla village in Dantewada distt ,Chhattisgarh. Government appoint E.N. Rammohan, to probe the incident. Uninque Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) now known as Aadhaar. Its Chairman is Nandan Nilekani. It will assign 16 digit identification number to all residents in India.

NTRO- National Technical Research Organisation. The organization came to limelight after allegation of phone tapping of politicians. Indian navy commissioned Indias first indigenously built stealth warship INS Shivalik. The other stealth warship to be built are named as INS Sahyadri and INS Satpura. Right To Education Act is notified and will become a legally enforceable from 1 April 2010. Key features of RTE Act are : All children in 6-14 age group must get free and compulsory eduction; No child shall be held back,expelled or required to pass a board examination till Class VIII; There must be 25 % reservation for poor children even in private & minority schools; There must be one teacher for every 30 students; A child rights commission will look into violations of the RTE law. Govt start Census 2011. It is the 15th Census. It is in two phase. The first phase is called House listing & Housing Census and the second phase is called decadal headcount which will be held in Feb 2011. The Registrar General of India is C Chandramouli.

Sports Current Affairs [April 2010] IPL3 season won by Chennai Super Kings defeating Mumbai Indians. Youth Olympics Games 2010 to be held in Singapore in Aug 2010. World Youth Championship was held at Baku, Azerbaijan. Lawn tennis legend Martina Navratilova diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Jumbo chosen as 2011 World Cricket Cup Mascot. World Kabbadi Cup 2010- India defeated Pakistan to won World Cup Kabbadi 2010 held at Ludhiana. Pankaj Advani won the Asian Billiards Championship defeating Singapores Peter Gilchrist for the consecutive third time. Badminton Asia Championship, Delhi : o Mens singles Lin Dan defeated Wang Zhenguing o Womens singles-Li Xiurei defeated Liu Xin.

Persons in News [April 2010] Shashi Tharoor (born 9 March 1956) is a member of the Indian Parliament from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in Kerala. A prolific author, columnist, journalist and human rights advocate, he has previously served as the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information and the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs. Lalit Modi (born 29 November, 1963 Delhi, India) is an Indian cricket administrator and businessman. He is best known for his stint as the Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League and the Chairman of the Champions League from 2008 to 2010. He is also the Vice President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) since 2005 and Vice President of the Punjab Cricket Association.

Economics & Commerce [April 2010] India became the 7th largest shareholder in World Bank. Indias voting rights has gone up to 2.91 %. The USA has highest voting rights of 15.85 % followed by Japan with 6.84 % and Germany with 4 %. Govt proposed that concept of GGDP Green Gross Domestic Product to be introduced in the country by 2015. In 2012 India will host the Rio+20 conference on biological diversity. Government approved disinvestment of 20% of share in SAIL in this financial year. Indias total external debt as on December 2009 is 251 billion. Indias Gems & Jewellery export grow by 16% to $28.41 billion in 2009-2010. RBI announced the credit policy. The CRR has been raised from 5.75 % to 6 %. The Repo rate has been raised from 5 % to 5.25 %. The reverse repo rate has been raised from 3.5 % to 3.75 %.

Awards Current Affairs 2010 [April 2010] 19Th Bihari Puraskar 2009 has been awarded to Hemant Shesh for his collection of poetry Jagah Jaisi Jagah. 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the best first Book was awarded to Glenda Guest for the novel Siddon Rock. Rana Dasgupta won Commonwealth Writers Prize for best Book 2010 for book Solo. Carl Zeiss wildlife conservation award was won by Joydip Kundu. Amitav Ghosh won the Dan David Prize alongwith Margaret Atwood for Rendition of the 2oth century.

Misc Issues [April 2010] Decision Points memoir of former US President George W Bush. A variety of mango has been named after Sachin Tendulkar. Scientist create element 117 from calcium & Berkelium. International congress of Mathematicians will be hosted by India for the first time in August 2010 at Hyderabad. The congress has been held once every four years since 1897except the breaks during two world wars. Government will opened four new campuses for the IIMC(Indian Institute of Mass Communication) at Nagpur, Kochi, Jammu and Aizawl. Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Derjeeling become first zoo in the country to install infrared night vision cameras in the enclosures housing endangered snow leopard. Hindutva, Sex & Adventure written by Mark Tully. Gorumara National Park, Jalpaigudi has been declared the best among the 235 national parks & sanctuaries in the country by the MOEF. Gandhi-Naked Ambition written by Jad Adams. India ranks 5th in the Worlds cybercrime ranking for 2009 after US, China, Brazil & Germany. India lauched GSLV from Sriharikota on 15 April 2010. However the launch was failed in the third stage. The launch was important as GSLV-D3 was the third developmental mission of Indias GSLV during which ISROs indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage (CUS) was to be flight tested. This is the 6th flight of GSLV, but the first one to test Indian made cryogenic upper stage. GSLV-D3 was to launch the GSAT-4 satellite into an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. The total flight of the vehicle was planned to be 1022 seconds. India likely to complete building its first strategic crude oil storage by Oct 2011. India is building underground storage at Visakhapatnam in AP and Padur in Karnataka to store about 5.33 million tones of crude oil which is enough to meet nations oil requirement for 13-14 days. India will join nations like the US, Japan & China that have strategic reserves.

Persons in News [2010] Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra was sworn in as Judge of Supreme Court of India. She became the 4th women judge to be elevated to the Supreme Court of India. Justice S H Kapadia will be next Chief Justice of India. Mukul Sangma shown in as Meghalaya Chief Minister. Polands President Lech Kaczynski died in a air crash at Moscow. Juan Antonia Samaranch, Former President of International Olympic Committee (IOC) died.

International Current Affairs [March 2010] China will launch in 2011 unmammed space mode Tiangong I for its future space laboratory.

US internet giant Google close its business in China. Indias largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel buy Zains Africa operations for an enterprise value of $ 10.7 billion (Rs 49000 crore). Currently Bhartis non-India operations include Sri Lanka & Bangladesh. Russia abolished two of its eleven time Zones.

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

Sports Current Affairs [March 2010] Tamil Nadu defeated West Bengal to won Vijay Harare Cricket Trophy. Australia won World Hockey Cup 2010 defeating Germany. India ranked at 8th place. India won six gold medal in the Commonwealth Boxing Championship held at Delhi. Two new IPL teams, Kochi was auctioned for Rs 1533 crore and Pune was auctioned for Rs 1702 crore. Kochi was auctioned to Rendezvous Adventure Sports Ltd. Pune was auctioned to Sahara Adventure Sports Ltd.

Persons in News [March 2010] Rajan Bharti Mittal appointed President FICCI. Major Dimple Singla became first women army officer in the country who has been sentenced to imprisonment for corruption.

Bhubneshwar Kalita has been choosen as the Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent at Commonwealth Games 2010. Cricketer Kapil Dev has been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. Former Supreme Court judge P V Reddy appointed as Chairman, Law Commission of India. Lt Gen V K Singh appointed as new Army Chief. Sonia Gandhi appointed head of National Advisory Council. NAC advice the govt on policy matters, monitor flagship programmes and prepare the ground for other pro-poor legislatures. Lyricist Javed Akhtar, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Dr Ram Dayal Munda, Dr Balchandra Mungekar and Kannada Actress B Jayashree are among other persons nominated to Rajya Sabha. Austrian base jumper Felix Baumgartnar will became the first person to leaps from the edge of space at a height of 37 km above earths surface. He become the first man to break the speed of sound hitting a top speed of about 11000km/hr. He will jump on 11 April 2010. Katie Spotz became the youngest person to complete a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepal Ex Prime Minister died. He was 5th time Nepal PM.

Awards Current Affairs 2010 [March 2010] Oscar Awards 2010 o Best Director- Kathryn Bigelow for The Heart Locker. She became first women to win the Oscar for best director. o Best Film- The Heart Locker. o Best Actor- Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart. o Best Actress- Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side. o Best Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz for Inglorious Basterds. o Best Supporting Actress MoNique for Precious. o Best foreign language film- The Secret in their Eyes, from Argentina. Amitabh Bachchhan honoured with lifetime achievement award at 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival. Surjit Pater has been awarded with 19th Saraswati Samman 2009 for Lafzan Di Dargah. Moortidevi Award was given to the Law Minister M Veerappa Moily for his work Shri Ramayan Mahanveshanam. Vyas Samman 2009 was awarded to Amar Kant for his work Inhin Hathiyaron Se.

Misc Issues [March 2010] Brahan Natyanjali 2010 festival was organized to celebrate 1000 years of Tanjavur temple in Tamil Nadu which was built by Chola emperor Rajaraja Chola in 1010 AD. 192 year old Presidency College of Kolkatta (Indias oldest college) converted into Presidency University. It became 18th state university in West Bengal. Railways started Maharajas Express from Kolkatta to Delhi. It is a tourist train having stoppage at Gaya, Varanasi, Bandhavgarh, Gwalior, Khajuraho and Agra. The book Way to go written by Upamanyu Chatterjee. The book Wide Angle written by cricketer Anil Kumble. The book El Sari Rojo written by Javier Moro, is on the life of Sonia Gandhi. World TB Day celebrated on 24 March. Constitution 112th Amendment Bill 2009 seeks to amend following clauses of Article 243T of the Constitution that provides for reservation of seats for SC & ST and also for women in Urban Local bodies : a) In clause (2) for the word one third, the word one half shall be substituted, b) In clause (3) the word one third , the word one half shall be substituted.

NATO forces carried out Marjah operation (dubbed Moshtarak) against Taliban forces in Afghanistan. European Union summit was held in Brussels. EU & IMF decided to giving support to Greece in its struggle to bring its ballooning budget deficit under control. EU President is Herman Van Rompuy. Irans President Mahmood Ahmedinejad declared that Iran had produced first batch of 20 % enriched uranium and now Iran became a nuclear state. Iran launched Kavoshger -3 rocket capable of carrying a satellite. It carried a mouse, worms & two turtles.

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

Sports Current Affairs [February 2010] 11th South Asian Games 2010 : Held at Dhaka, Bangladesh from 29 Jan to 8 Feb. Originally scheduled to take place in 2009, but due to general elections in Bangladesh, the games were held in 2010. This was the third time that the Dhaka hosted the Games, thus becoming the first city to hold the games three times. 8 countries participated in the games in 23 different sports, including T20 cricket, which was introduced for the first time in SAG. The 8 countries included are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan & Sri Lanka. 1The logo of the games was Kutumb, a flying doel , which is the national bird of Bangladesh. The mascot of the games featured a magpie robin, which was holding the torch to begin the games. The final medal tally include : India - 1st place with 90 G 55 S 29 B Total 174, Pakistan- 2nd place with 19 G 25 S 36 B Total 80, Bangladesh- 3rd place with 18 G 23 S 56 B Total 97. West Zone won Duleep Trophy ( 2009-10) defeating South Zone.

Indias Gaganjeet Bhullar won the Asian Tour International Trophy 2010. It is his 2nd consecutive title. Euro 2012 to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. 2010 Winter Olympic Games were held at Vancouver, Canada. Mascot of the game was MIGA (a sea bear), QUATCHI( a sasquatch) and SUMI (animal guardian spirit). The logo of the games was Ilnaaq meaning Friend in Inuktut. There were 86 events in 7 sports. The games were held from 12 Feb to 28 Feb. Final medal tally. Canada- 14 G 7 S 5 B, Germany- 10 G 13 S 7 B, USA9 G 15 S 13 B. IOC (International Olympic Committee ) has approved ICC (International Cricket Council) bid to join the Olympic games 2020. The first time cricket was included in the Olympic games was in Paris Olympic 1900. 11th World Hockey Cup 2010- To be held in Delhi, India. This is 2nd WHC which India is hosting. India also hosted the WHC in 1982 at Mumbai. 12 countries participated in the tournament. WHC is held in the years between two summer Olympics. First WHC was held at Barcelona in 1971. Pakistan has won the cup four times, Netherland three times, Germany two times, India & Australia once each. India won the WHC in 1975. Sachin Tendulkar became first player in the world to score a double century in ODI (One day International). He scored 200 (Not out) against South Africa. Commonwealth Shooting Championship was held in New Delhi in Feb 2010. India stood at first place with 35 Gold 25 Silver and 14 Bronze. England stood at 2nd place with 4 gold and Wales stood at 3rd place.

Science and Technology Current Affairs [February 2010] USA Space agency NASA launched Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to discover the causes of extreme solar activity such as sun spots and solar winds & flares. GANGES- Global Advisory Network Group on environmental sciences. It was created by Govt for environment research work. Agni-III ballistic missile with a range of 3500 Km was successfully launched from Wheeler Island, Orissa. Ht Cotton Herbicide Tolerant Cotton. The variety of Ht Cotton in MON 1445. The variety can withstand herbicides (weed killers) for better productivity and is under trail. Cervical cancer is caused by HPV- Human Papilloma Virus. South Korea has worlds highest average connection speed at 14.6 Mbpd in Internet links. Japan has 2nd highest average speed. Scientist deciphered the genetic blueprint of South Africas Archbishop Desmond Titu.

Persons in News [February 2010] Horst Kochler , Germany President visit India in Feb 2010. Abdullah Gul, Turkey President visit India in Feb 2010. Economist Kokkadan Nandanath Raj, who made a significant contribution in the preparation of first Five Year Plan(1951-56) died. Sharad Chandra Sinha is appointed as Director General of National Investigation Agency(NIA). Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President visit India in Feb 2010. Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob of Malaysia appointed Chairman, International Atomic Energy Agency. Govt appointed R S Pandey as its mediator for talk with NSCN(IM) in Nagaland to carry forward the peace process. Former Justice P V Reddy will be appointed as Chairman, Law Commission of India. Ram Baran Yadav, Nepal President visit India in Feb 2010. It was the first visit by Yadav to any foreign country after taking over as Nepals President. Yadav is the first President of Nepal since monarchy ended in 2008. India extended $ 250 million soft line of credit to Nepal.

Rajinder Singh became first non-white and also first Asian member of the right wing British National Party, after it amended its constitution to allow black and Asian to be its member. Amitabh Bachan became the brand ambassador of Gujarat state. Amnesty International, the global human right organization has appointed Salid Shetty as its next Secy General from June 2010. He will be the first Indian to head the organization. Shah Rukh Khan & Kajol become the first Indian bollywood actors to ring the opening bell of the worlds biggest stock exchange NASDAQ. Rajiv Satav appointed President, Indian Youth Congress. Katrina Kaif awarded with 2009 Excellence in Performing Arts Award established by ASSOCHAM. M H Hussain, famous painter accepted citizenship of Qatar.

Economics [February 2010] Planning Commission grant special category status to the Bundelkhand region comprising 9 distt of Uttar Pradesh and 15 distt of Madhya Pradesh for the irrigation projects. Under special category status, state govt can seek 90 % grant assistance from the centre and 10 % as loan. Govt revises base year for the calculation of National Income from 1999-2000 to 2004-2005. The GDP for 2009-10 will be Rs. 55,74,449 crore and the fiscal deficit for the corresponding period will be 6.4 %. Capital Control Foreign capital inflows in the form of loans and equity that are allowed in a restricted form are said to be controlled. The capital inflows include foreign borrowings by Indian corporate and businesses, NRI deposits and portfolio flow from institutional investors into the stock market. Loans to Govt and short term trade credit are also included. India had control on both capital account transactions as well as on current account with the local currency fixed by the Central Bank. In 1991, rupee was first made convertible on the current account. In 1994, Govt allows foreign portfolio investments. Govt will replace Benchmark Prime Lending System (BPLR) with Base rate system from 1 April 2010 to make bank lending more transparent. It provided for minimum rate for all types of loans for banks.

Misc Issues [February 2010] Milan 2010, a biennial meeting of navies of Asia Pacific countries held at Port Blair in Feb 2010. 12 countries of Asia Pacific Region participated in it. It is the 7th edition of Milan exercises. It is a biennial exercise of Asia Pacific maritime navies, hosted by the Indian Navy. First Milan exercise was held in 1995. Vayu-Shakti name given to IAF exercise conducted at Pokhran range in the Thar desert in Feb 2010. IAF is the 4th largest air force in the world after USA, Russia and China. Bo language of Andaman become extinct. Its last speaker died. As per Indian Meteorological deptt, 2009 was the warmest year since 1990. The annual mean temperature for 2009 was 25.55 degree celcius for the country s as a whole. Uttarakhand became first state in the country to ban the cultivation of Bt Brinjal ( Countrys first Genetically Modified food crop). Bt Brijnal is a genetically modified crop which has a special gene- Cry1AC, inserted to make it poisonous to pests. GM Crops resists pests and give better yields as well as nutrition. Bt Brinjal is developed in India by Mahyco company. GM foods are derived from organisms whose DNA has been modified through genetic engineering. China ranked 1st in the wind power capacity in the world. India is at 5th place with 10925 MW capacity. The five top nations in the order of wind power capacity are China, US, Spain, Germany & India. Eurozone is a economic and monetary union of 16 EU member states which have adopted the euro currency as their sole legal tender. PIIGS countries include Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece & Spain.

17 army jawans killed in a avalanche at High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) at Khilanmarg, J&K. West Bengal govt reserved 10 % of govt jobs in the state for poor muslims. China will celebrate 2010 as Year of Tiger. India has a road network of 33 lakh km and is second largest in the world. It included 200 km of expressway, 70548 km of national highways, 131899 km of state highways, 467763 km of major district roads and 26.5 lakh km of rural & other roads. The Golden Quadrilateral joining four metro cities of Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkatta, has a length of 5846 km. Taj Mahotsav organized by UP govt in Feb 2010 with the theme Ek Utsav Prem Ka. Vancouver city, Canada named as the Worlds most livable city as per survey conducted by Economics Intelligence Unit. Delhi is ranked at 113th place and Mumbai at 117th place. 16th Conference of Parties (COP) will be held in Dec 2010 at Mexico. The 15th COP was held in Copenhagen in Dec 2009. Hyderabad International Airport has been named amongst the worlds five top airports. Other four airports are Seol, Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing. 1000 faces for 1000 tigers campaign was launched in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The campaign aims to help double the number of wild tigers in Malaysia by 2022. Sachin Tendulkar features in BMCs Save Water Campaign. Indian Navy inducted Russian built MiG 29 K fighters planes. Basic Capabilities Index 2009- India received 68 points. The index was published by Social Watchs. The highest BCI points was given to Iran having 97 points and lowest points 44 was given to Chad. K R Sridhar, an US based Indian scientist invented Bloom Box- which convert air and virtually any other fuel source into clean electricity. The box uses solid oxide fuel cells and can generate 100 KW of power. Present life expectancy of life at birth in India is 63.4 yrs. The highest expectancy of life is in Australia of 81.4 yrs, 81 yrs for France and 79.3 yrs for England. World Cancer Day 04 Feb International Condom Day 14 Feb

International Current Affairs [January 2010] Gilgit Baltistan region elected its first Chief Minister Mehdi Shah on the basis of Gilgit Baltistan Empowerment & Self Governance Order 2009. The new appointed CM declare the Gilgit Baltistan region as 5th province of Pakistan. The Indian Govt has, however, of the view that the region was part of J & K, and thus objected to the remarks of CM. Venezuela devalued it currency Bolivar. A massive earthquake strike Haiti, the Carribbean nation. Capital of Haiti is Port-au-Prince. Mahinda Rajapaksa won a second term as Sri Lankas President. He belongs to Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

National Current Affairs [January 2010] Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visit India in Jan 2010. She belongs to Awami League Party. The two countries signed five agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, on transfer of sentenced persons and on combating international terrorism, organized crime & illicit drug trafficking besides MOU on cooperation in the power sector and on cultural exchanges. India give Bangladesh a $ 1 billion line of credit, the biggest it has given to any country so far.

South Korea President Lee Myung Bak visit India in Jan 2010. The two countries decided to double the bilateral trade to $ 30 billion by 2014. Four facts were signed between two countries cooperation in peaceful use of outer space, IT, science & technology for the year 2010-12 and transfer of sentenced persons. South Korean President was also the chief guest at 2010 Republic Day Parade. Gujarat Local Authorities Law (amendment) Bill 2009- The Bill makes it the duty of a qualified voter to vote during elections to local bodies. Voting is compulsory, but the Bill allows voters to cast their vote in favour of none of the candidates. Election officers will declare those who fail to vote defaulter, and serve them a notice. India and China has decided to start joint military exercise from 2011. Najib Razak, Malaysia Prime Minister visit India in Jan 2010. Govt launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Key highlights of the mission are : o To create an enabling policy framework for the deployment of 20,000 MW of solar power by 2020. o To create favourable conditions for solar manufacturing capability for indigenous production and market leadership. o To promote programmes for off grid applications, reaching 1000 MW by 2017 and 2000 MW by 2022. o To achieve 15 million sq. meters solar thermal collector area by 2017 and 20 million by 2022. o To deploy 20 million solar lighting systems for rural areas by 2022. New Governors appointed : a) M K Narayanan West Bengal, b)Shivraj Patil Punjab, c) Mohsina Kidwai Jharkhand, d) Shekhar Dutt Chhattisgarh, e) E S L Narasimhan Andhra Pradesh. Govt plans to create a National Gas Highway Development Authority. The present Gas Pipeline Density in India is 3.29 Km per 1000 Sq.Km. Govt plans to set up a National Green Tribunal to control Carbon Emissions and pollution. It will be responsible for implementing the low carbon roadmap to be set forth in the 12th Five Year Plan.

Sports Current Affairs [January 2010] U-19 World Cup 2010 held in New Zealand from 15 30 Jan 2010. Javagal Srinath from India appointed as one of the match referee for the tournament. Australia won the U-19 World Cup for the third time defeating Pakistan. India is placed at 6th rank. Australia won the cup for the third time. Rafael Nadal won the Capitala World Tennis Championsip, held at Abu Dhabi defeating Robin Soderling. Magnus Carlsen becomes the youngest World No.1 chess player at the age of 19 years breaking the Garry Kasparovs record when he became the worlds top ranked chess player at the age of 22 years in 1985. Magnus Carlsen is the 5th player after Kasparov, Kramnik, Topalov and V.Anand (India) to cross the 2800 ELO rating. In the Jan 2010 FIDE ranking, Carlsen stood at 1st place, Topalov at 2nd place and V Anand at 3rd place. Marin Cilic defeated Staniglas Wawrinka to won Mens singles title of Aircel Chennai Open. Pakistans cricketer Shahid Afridi was banned for two T20 internationals after he was found guilty of ball tempering in a ODI against Australia. Corus Chess Grandmaster Tournament won by Magnus Carlsen. V.Anand of India ranked at 4th place. Hopman Cup 2010- Spain defeated Great Britain. Australian Open 2010 : Womens Single- Serena William defeated Justin Henin. It is Serenas 5th Australian Open title. It is also Serenas 12th Grand Slam title equaling the record of Billie Jean King. Mens Single- Roger Federer(Swiss) defeated Andy Murray(Britain). It is Federers 4th Australian Open title. It is Federers 16th Grand Slam title. Mens Double- Mike Bryan & Bob Bryan defeated Daniel Nestor & Nenad Zimonjic.

Womens Double Serena Williams & Venus Williams defeated Cara Black & L Huber. Mixed Double Laender Paes (India) & Cara Black (Zimbabwe) defeated Ekterina Makasova & Jaroslav Levinsky. It is Paess 11th Grand Slam title.

Science and Technology Current Affairs [January 2010] 97th Indian Science Congress held at Tiruvananthapuram in Jan 2010. The theme of this year congress was Science & Technology of 21st Century- National Perspective. The longest annular solar eclipse on the third millennium occur on 15 Jan 2010. The next annular solar eclipse will be visible in year 3043. Annular eclipse is occurred when the sun is visible like a ring of fire, with the moon darkening its centre. The last annular solar eclipse visible from India was occurred in 1976. In July 2010 also, a total solar eclipse will be occurred. There are three strains of wild Polio virus namely P1, P2 & P3. Type 2 wild Polio virus (P2) was eliminated from the world in 1999. First public hearing on the introduction of Bt Brinjal (First Genetically Modified Food Crop in India) was held in Kolkatta. Seven such public hearing are being organized by Centre for Environment Education, for opinion of public in respect of introduction of Bt Brinjal. 2nd hearing was held at Hyderabad. 50th anniversary of creation of LASER is being celebrated in 2010. Theodore Maiman constructed the first LASER in May 1960. LASER stands for Light Amplification for Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Charles H Townes was father of MASER.

Persons in News [January 2010] Billy Arjan Singh, wildlife conservationist and Padma Shri awardee died. P D Dinakaran, Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court faces impeachement motion. The process was initiated in the Parliament. He is the first High Court Chief Justice against whom impeachment motion have been initiated. Justice V Ramaswami is the only judge to have faced impeachment proceedings in parliament. Justice V S Sirpurkar appointed to head a three member panel to look into allegation of land grab and misconduct against Chief Justice P D Dinakaran in the wake of impeachment motion initiated against him in Parliament. Fahmida Mirza is the first woman Speaker of Pakistan National Assembly. Ricky Ponting, Australian cricket team captain, has been named as ESPN Cricinfo Player of the Decade for 2000. Jyoti Basu, former West Bengal Chief Minister, died. Mrinal Pande, appointed as Chairman, Prasar Bharti Board. Lee Myung Bak, South Korea President was the Chief Guest at 2010 Republic Day Parade. Shiv Shankar Menon is appointed as National Security Advisor. Vikram Srivastava appointed as Director General of CRPF(Central Reserve Police Force). Ranjit Kumar Bhatia appointed as Director General of ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police).

Books & their Authors [January 2010] All that you cant leave behind written by Soumya Bhattacharya. We Must Have No Price written by Arun Sourie. Train to India- Memories of another Bengal written by Maloy kumar Dhar. Not by Reason alone : The Politics of Change written by N K Singh. Five Point Someone written by Chetan Bhagat. Nehru : The invention of India written by Shashi Tharoor. The Museum of Innocence written by Orhan Panuk. Thoughts on Linguistic States written by B R Ambedkar.