CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM
September Issue
Pena Nieto 2Sep
Mexico's Electoral Tribunal formally
declared the Institutional Revolutionary
Party candidate Enrique Pena Nieto as the
nation's president-elect from December
2012 to November 2018.
President of Mexico's Electoral Tribunal
said that the tribunal should issue a Majority
Certificate for Pena Nieto, as the new
Mexican President-elect.
Nieto won presidential election on July 1,
returning his party to power after a 12-year
hiatus. The opposition coalition Progressive
Movement, however, claimed fraud and
demanded a full recount.
Atanu Sen 3Sep
SBI Life Insurance, the insurance arm of the
country's largest lender State Bank of India,
said Atanu Sen has taken over as its new
managing director and chief executive.
Sen succeeds M N Rao, who retired on
August 31.
Sen, who joined SBI in 1977 as a
probationary officer, has held posts like
chief general manager in the Mumbai circle,
deputy managing director, and chief credit
and risk officer for the bank, among others.
Referring to the growth plans, Sen said, "My
mandate will be to focus on impacting a
profitable growth and extending the reach of
life insurance to the farthest corners of the
country, thus driving life insurance
penetration."
SBI Life is a joint venture between State
Bank of India and BNP Paribas Cardif, in
which SBI owns 74%.
Altamas Kabir 5Sep
The seniormost Supreme Court Judge,
Justice Altamas Kabir, will become the 39th
Chief Justice of India from September 29.
CJI S. H. Kapadia, who is retiring on
September 28, has formally recommended
his name to the Government. It is a normal
practice for the outgoing CJI to suggest the
name of the next incumbent, based on
seniority. Justice Kabir, who was appointed
Supreme Court Judge on September 9, 2005,
will have a tenure of over nine months as
CJI. He has rendered several landmark
judgments, particularly on human rights and
election laws.
Justice Kabir, who hails from Kolkata,
became Judge of the Calcutta High Court in
1990. He was appointed Chief Justice of the
Jharkhand High Court on March 1, 2005.
He will retire on July 18, 2013.
Kaushik Basu 6Sep
Kaushik Basu, who was the chief economic
advisor in the finance ministry until July,
will take over as the chief economist at the
World Bank on October 1. World Bank
Group President Jim Yong Kim announced
Basu’s appointment.
"Having worked in ministry of finance, in
addition to his impressive academic
achievements, Kaushik is uniquely suited to
help us offer evidence-based solutions and
advice to client countries and provide
innovative excellence in leading our
development research,” Kim said in a press
release.
In his two-and-a-half-year stint in the
finance ministry, Basu gave some
pioneering thoughts on food coupons and
innovative ways to tackle corruption among
other advices.
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At a time when the Reserve Bank of India
was tightening its monetary stance to control
inflation, Basu had suggested the Turkish
model where the central bank succeeded in
tackling inflation and boosting growth
through monetary easing.
An inter-ministerial group headed by him
had suggested opening up the multi-brand
retail to foreign investment to fight food
inflation problems and augment food supply.
The Cabinet’s decision to reform the retail
sector, however, is still on hold. Basu’s
advice to fix subsidy on diesel a litre, given
out in the latest Economic Survey, is yet to
find takers among policy makers.
Earlier this month, former International
Monetary Fund chief economist Raghuram
Rajan replaced Basu as India's chief
economic adviser.
Basu, who holds a PhD from the London
School of Economics, founded the Centre
for Development Economics at the Delhi
School of Economics in 1992 and is a
founding member of the Madras School of
Economics.
He has held visiting professorial positions at
Harvard University, the Institute for
Advanced Study, Princeton University, the
London School of Economics and
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
T M Bhasin 7Sep
Following the finance ministry’s decision to
review the proposed appointments of top
posts in public sector banks, T M Bhasin,
chairman and managing director of Indian
Bank, might be heading for Bank of Baroda,
with UCO Bank CMD Arun Kaul slated to
head Bangalore-based Canara Bank.
Bhasin would now replaced by S S Mundra,
executive director of Union Bank of India,
who will now take charge of Indian Bank. R
K Dubey, ED at Central Bank of India, will
now go to Kolkata-based UCO Bank.
The ministry has also retained the earlier
recommendation regarding Allahabad Bank
and United Bank of India’s new CMDs.
Shubhalakshmi Panse of Vijaya Bank and
Archana Bhargava of Canara Bank will take
charge of the two Kolkata-based lenders,
Allahabad Bank and UBI, respectively. The
proposal for Panse to head Allahabad Bank
was immediately cleared by Chidambaram,
as she was moving to a B-category bank and
wasn’t affected by the committee’s
recommendation of disallowing lateral
movement in A-category banks.
Large banks such as BoB and Canara, with a
total business of more than Rs 3 lakh crore,
are considered A-category.
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud 11Sep
Somalia’s Parliament elected a new
President for the country, after Hassan
Sheikh Mohamud beat out his main rival,
the incumbent Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, to
become the leader of the East African
nation.
A first round of voting knocked out most of
the 22 contenders, eventually leaving just
Mohamud, a relative newcomer to politics
and a former university dean, to contend
against Ahmed, who has held the job since
2009. There were no female candidates.
In the final round of voting, Mohamud, who
campaigned on a platform of fighting
radicalisation and restoring law and order,
received 190 votes to Ahmed’s 79.
The winner will now have to appoint a
premier to form a cabinet, which could take
some weeks.
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This was the first time a Somali President
was elected inside the country since the
1980s.
P R Ravimohan 11Sep
Government has nominated the Regional
Director, Reserve Bank of India, Bhopal, P
R Ravimohan as the RBI nominee director
of Bank of India (BOI) with immediate
effect.
Bank of India has informed that Government
of India has nominated P R Ravimohan,
Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India,
Bhopal as RBI Nominee Director of the
bank in place of P K Panda with immediate
effect and until further orders.
Onno Ruhl 11Sep
World Bank has appointed Onno Ruhl as the
Country Director for India. He will replace
Roberto Zagha who retires in October.
Ruhl, a Dutch national, was previously the
Director for Operations Services and Quality
in the South Asia Region of the World
Bank.
His strong experience on finance and
operations, and his leadership skills, will
ensure that the Bank's strategy for India is
formulated and implemented in order to
support the development objectives of one
of our most important clients in these
challenging times.
Ruhl joined the World Bank in 1993 and has
held various positions within the Bank in
east and central Asia and Africa. Prior to
working in the Bank, Ruhl was with the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
Netherlands government and was also the
Alternate Director on the Board of the
Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.
Tilak Kumar 14Sep
K.N. Tilak Kumar, Joint Managing Director
of The Printers (Mysore) Ltd. and Editor of
Deccan Herald, was elected president of The
Indian Newspaper Society for 2012-13, at its
73rd annual meeting. He succeeds Ashish
Bagga of India Today.
According to a press release from V.
Shankaran, secretary-general of the society,
the other newly elected office-bearers are
Ravindra Kumar (The Statesman), deputy
president; Kiran B. Vadodaria (Sambhaav
Metro), vice-president; and Sanjay Gupta
(Dainik Jagran, Varanasi), honorary
treasurer.
The 45 members of the executive committee
include K. Balaji, Director, The Hindu;
Akila Urankar of Business Standard; M.
Venkatesh of Hindustan Times; Manoj
Kumar Sonthalia of The New Indian
Express; Maheshwer Peri of Outlook; Jayant
Mammen Mathew of Malayala Manorama;
R. Lakshmipathi of Dinamalar; and Shailesh
Gupta of Mid-Day.
The INS has on its panel of members over
1,000 dailies, bi-weeklies, weeklies,
fortnightlies and monthlies, published in 18
languages from all over the country. It was
set up to give the newspaper industry
direction, cohesion, and foster mutual coordination.
Shailesh Gupta 15Sep
Shailesh Gupta, director (marketing) of
Jagran Prakashan, has been elected
Chairman of the Audit Bureau of
Circulations (ABC) for 2012-2013.
Syed Mahmood Ahmad, executive vicepresident (marketing) of ITC, is the Deputy
Chairman.
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Six more members of the Council of
Management for the ABC have also been
elected.
Narayan Rao 21Sep
News Broadcasters Association (NBA),
which represents private news and current
affairs broadcasters, announced the reappointment of K V L Narayan Rao as its
president.
Rao is the executive vice-chairperson of
NDTV group. In the annual general body
meeting, the association also reappointed
Zee News Ltd CEO Barun Das as its vicepresident and Ashok Venkatramani (CEO,
ABP News, MCCS Pvt Ltd) as honorary
treasurer, an NBA statement said.
NBA has 22 news and current affairs
broadcasters as its members.
The other members of the NBA board
include Rajat Sharma (chairman,
Independent News Services), Sunil Lulla
(MD and CEO, Times Global Broadcasting
Company), Saikumar Balasubramanian
(Network 18 Group CEO), Anil Mehra (TV
Today News Network director) and
Anuradha Prasad (News 24 Broadcast India
CMD).
Rakesh Mohan 24Sep
Former deputy governor of the Reserve
Bank of India, Rakesh Mohan, is tipped to
join the International Monetary Fund as
executive director on the board of the
International Monetary Fund. He will get
three-year tenure at the Fund. He will
replace Dr Arvind Virmani, whose threeyear tenure is coming to an end.
As an executive director, Dr Mohan will be
representing India along with Bangladesh,
Bhutan and Sri Lanka on the 24-member
Executive Board of the IMF, which is
responsible for conducting the day-to-day
business of the multilateral financial
institution.
Dr Mohan has been part of the top policymaking teams in several organisations in
India for the past several years. He served
two stints as RBI deputy governor - one
from September 9 2002 to October 31, 2004
and the other from July 2, 2005 to June 10,
2009.
In between those two stints, Dr Mohan
served as secretary in the department of
economic affairs in the Union finance
ministry. He has earlier held several
important positions including that of the
economic advisor in the industry ministry
and director general of the National Council
of Applied Economic research. After
relinquishing charge as RBI deputy
governor in June 2009, Dr Mohan has been
teaching in international universities
including at the Stanford University and the
University of Yale.
In recent times, the government has been
nominating economists to the IMF as
executive director. Arvind Virmani was
chief economic advisor in the finance
ministry before joining the IMF in October
2009. And now it is Rakesh Mohan.
Virmani's predecessor was an IAS officer,
Adarsh Kishore, a former finance secretary.
Shumsher K Sheriff 25Sep
Shumsher K Sheriff, an IAS officer of 1977
batch, has been appointed as the new
Secretary General of Rajya Sabha.
According to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat,
Sheriff would take over on 1st of next month
on completion of the term of the incumbent,
Dr V K Agnihotri. He would hold the office
of Secretary General in the rank and status
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of Cabinet Secretary, on deputation, till
August next year. Thereafter, he would
continue in the same capacity for a further
period of two years from September one,
2013, on contractual basis.
Currently posted as Secretary to the VicePresident, Sheriff has 35 years of
administrative experience in government
and has held various positions in states, the
Centre as well as international assignments.
Sandeep Patil 28Sep
Former cricketer Sandeep Patil has been
appointed as the Chairman of the Indian
cricket selection committee. The new
selection committee was appointed by the
Board of Control for Cricket in India - BCCI
during its Annual General Meeting AGM
held in Mumbai.
In the newly appointed five member
committee, Mohinder Amarnath has been
replaced by Vikram Rathore to represent
North Zone. The south zone will be headed
by Roger Binny while the Central Zone will
be represented by Rajender Singh Hans.
Former India wicketkeeper Saba Karim will
be chief selector from East Zone.
Chandrakant Pandit has been appointed as
the Chairman of junior selection committee.
The new selection panel was appointed as
four members of the earlier panel namely
Kris Srikkanth, Narendra Hirwani, Surendra
Bhave and Raja Venkat had completed their
term.
The BCCI today also announced a hike in
remuneration for the selectors. The senior
selection committee members' remuneration
has been raised from Rs. 40 lakh to Rs. 60
lakh, whereas for the junior selectors, the
remuneration has been raised from Rs. 20
lakh to Rs. 40 lakh.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai,
BCCI Chairman N Srinivasan said the new
look committee has been appointed after
extensive discussion and consultation.
Justifying Amarnath’s removal, Srinivasan
said that the term of all the members of
selection committee is one year. He added
that a selector’s tenure can be extended
annually for a maximum of four years.
Talking about the new Chief Selector,
Srinivasan said that Sandeep Patil is a man
of huge stature whose credentials are
unmatched.
One of India’s stylish batsman and medium
pace bowler, Sandeep Patil played 29 test
matches and 45 ODIs for India. He was also
a member of the 1983 world cup winning
Indian cricket team. During the 2003 World
Cup, he coached the cricket team from
Kenya and helped them reach the semifinal
stage.
Nirmal Verma 28Sep
Former naval chief Nirmal Verma has been
appointed India's new high commissioner to
Canada. Verma's appointment was cleared
by the President after PMO recommended
his name.
Verma's appointment is interesting because
the external affairs ministry had earlier
recommended additional secretary Basant
Gupta's name for the position. Gupta, who
heads the passport and visa division of
MEA, is said to be close to foreign minister
S M Krishna. He played a key role in
implementing Krishna's initiative to open
Passport Seva Kendras across the country.
PMO, however, rejected his candidature and
asked MEA to instead recommend Verma.
The foreign ministry had no choice but to
recommend the former Navy chief.
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Doctor of Letters 1Sep
University of Calicut will confer honorary
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) degrees on noted
agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan,
economist and Planning Commission
Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia
and jurist and former Supreme Court judge
Fathima Beevi.
It was in December 2010 that the university
awarded an honorary D.Litt. last. Actor
Mammootty, freedom fighter Captain
Lakshmi Sahgal and historian Irfan Habib
were the last three recipients of D.Litt.
Mammootty accepted the honour from the
Chancellor in person and Dr. Habib and
Captain Sahgal were represented by others.
No posthumous degree.
Although the university had decided to
confer D.Litt. on Malayalam novelist
Kovilan, his death a few months before the
convocation deprived him of the honour.
University of Calicut rules do not permit
conferring of a degree posthumously.
The awardees
Besides Mammootty, Dr. Habib and Captain
Sahgal, the university had conferred D.Litt.
oneducationist and first Vice-Chancellor of
the university M.M. Ghani; freedom fighter
and founder of Mathrubhumi K.P. Kesava
Menon; writers S.K. Pottekkad, Vaikom
Mohammed Basheer, Kamala Suraiyya,
M.T. Vasudevan Nair and N.V. Krishna
Warrier; jurist V.R. Krishna Iyer; chief
physician and managing trustee of Kottakkal
Arya Vaidya Sala Aryavaidyan P.K.
Warrier; artist M.F. Husain; educationist and
former chairman of the University Grants
Commission Arun Nigavekar; and
educationist Amrik Singh.
Award of Recognition 13Sep
The Ozone Secretariat of the United Nations
Environment Programme honoured India
with the Award of Recognition for its
success in reducing emissions of Ozone
depleting Substances (ODS) contributing to
the protection of Earth's Ozone layer. The
Award was received by Secretary, Ministry
of Environment and Forests, T.Chatterjee at
a function held in New Delhi, to mark the
25th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol
and 18th International day for preservation
of the Ozone Layer. India has phased out
production and consumption of
Chloroflurocarbons (CFCs),
Carbontetrachloride(CTCs) and halons in
2010, except the use of pharmaceutical
grade CFCs in manufacturing of Metered
Dose Inhalers for Asthma and Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases patients.
T Chatterjee said, India has already phased
out production of 34500 tonnes of Ozone
Depleting Substances and consumption of
24100 tonnes of Ozone Depleting Products.
Chatterjee said, the Indian industry is
gearing up for the chalenging task of phase
out of Hydrochloroflurocarbons HCFCs in
the coming years. The freeze will be from
1st January next year on the baseline of both
production and consumption and will follow
10 per cent reduction from the base line in
2015. Chatterjee said, India expects to phase
out all HCFCs by 2030.
India is the second largest producer and
consumer of HCFCs in the developing
world. Chatterjee also said, India and the
USA are working together on effective
approaches to facilitate understanding of
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stakeholders on issues related to HFCs.
Apollo Hospitals 18Sep
The Apollo Hospitals Group has bagged the
Asian Hospital Management Awards 2012
in four categories.
It received awards for customer service,
corporate social responsibility, cost
reduction and patient safety. The Apollo
Hospital in Delhi received an award for its
‘Community Outreach programme,’ while
the one in Kolkata received recognition for
its ‘Increased productivity through reduction
of length of stay’.
The awards were given in 11 categories, for
which 363 entries from 89 hospitals in 12
countries were received. Sangita Reddy,
Executive Director, Operations, described it
as a proud moment for all at the Apollo
Hospitals Group.
P C Appreciation Award 19Sep
Odisha based Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys
Ltd (IMFA)- Choudwar division, has bagged
the prestigious 'Pollution Control
Appreciation Award- 2012. The award was
given by the State Pollution Control Board
(SPCB), in recognition of effective pollution
control measures and adoption of sound
environmental management practices by the
company. B D Sahu, executive vice
president (operations), IMFA-Choudwar,
received the award from Bijayashri Routray,
state minister for forest and environment, at
the 29th Foundation Day ceremony of the
SPCB.
Business Leader of Year 19Sep
The jury for The Economic Times Awards
for Corporate Excellence 2012 met this
week in Mumbai to anoint the winners of
India's biggest, most-anticipated business
awards.
The Business Leader Award for the year
2012 goes to Anil Agarwal, chairman,
Vedanta Resources. A true rags-to-riches
success story, Agarwal started out as a trader
of scrap metals, and today runs a global
natural resources conglomerate, which
successfully completed a major acquisition that of Cairn India - during the last year.
The Company of the Year for 2012 goes to
HDFC Bank, India's most valuable bank by
market capitalization, a milestone that it
achieved this year.
Jubilant Foodworks, the jury's choice for the
Emerging Company of the Year, has set a
scorching benchmark of 50% growth in the
quick-service restaurant industry, after one
of the most successful IPOs in recent years.
From a long list of innovators in different
fields, the jury picked Devi Prasad Shetty,
the founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya and its
pioneering model of low-cost, high-volume
healthcare. Shetty, who plans to add 30,000
beds to his chain of hospitals in India and
abroad, has also collaborated with the
Karnataka government to design the world's
cheapest health insurance scheme, which
currently covers over four million people in
the state.
The Global Indian of the Year for 2012 is
Anshu Jain, the co-CEO of Deutsche Bank.
Among the few foreigners who have headed
a major European bank, Jain exemplifies
what this category of ET Awards is about: to
honour an Indian who has excelled against
competition in a global environment.
From bringing telephony to the masses in
the 1980s to his new challenge of creating a
nationwide broadband backbone, Sam
Pitroda, who won the Policy Change Agent
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Award, has worked towards the dream of
democratizing information.
This year's Corporate Citizen of the Year
Award has a new mandate: to celebrate a
large company that has made significant
progress on social, environmental and
governance challenges. The Aditya Birla
Group, the 2012 winner, has pursued
sustainable economic independence; put in
place a "triple bottomline accountability",
represented by economic success,
environmental responsibility and social
commitment, which it hopes will integrate
the interests of all stakeholders into the core
DNA of the group.
The final award, Lifetime Achievement,
goes to a man who didn't work until the age
of 32. Fifty years later, P R S Oberoi,
chairman, East India Hotels, is still very
much in the driver's seat, fending off
takeover threats and leading an expansion
plan for the hotel group that he has
transformed, taking it so far upscale that it
needed a term that was new to the hotel
trade to describe it: "super deluxe".
The jury for the ET Awards 2012 was
chaired by Deepak Parekh, chairman of
HDFC. The other members included K V
Kamath, chairman emeritus, ICICI Bank and
chairman, Infosys Technologies; Kumar
Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla
Group; A M Naik, chairman & managing
director, Larsen & Toubro; Chanda
Kochhar, managing director & CEO, ICICI
Bank; Kris Gopalakrishnan, executive cochairman, Infosys; and Cyril Shroff,
managing partner, Amarchand & Mangaldas
& Suresh A Shroff & Co.
Congressional Gold Medal 20Sep
Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi has received prestigious Congressional
Gold Medal, a rare honour bestowed to any
foreign leader by the U.S. administration.
The National League for Democracy leader
also met President Barack Obama on a day
when the U.S. lifted additional sanctions on
Myanmar.
“This is one of the most moving days of my
life, to be here in a house undivided, a house
joined together to welcome a stranger from a
distant land. This is a moment for which I
have been waiting for many years,” Ms. Suu
Kyi said moments after receiving the
honour.
An emotional Suu Kyi also addressed a
gathering of top American lawmakers, in
which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
former First Lady Laura Bush was present.
Saraswati Samman 20Sep
The noted Tamil writer Dr A.A Manavalan
has been conferred on the 21st Saraswati
Samman for the year 2011. The award was
given to him by the Corporate Affairs
Minister M. Veerappa Moily for his book
'Irama Kathaiyum Iramayakalyum'
published in 2005. The award-winning book
is a comparative study of 48 Ramayanas in
the languages including Pali, Sanskrit,
Prakrit, , Tamil, Telugu and Assamese. The
Saraswati Samman carries a cash award of
7.5 lakh rupees and a citation.
Solidarity Award 25Sep
The Gurdwara in Wisconsin, which
experienced a shooting spree by a white
supremacist last month, leaving six
worshipers dead, will receive the “2012
Solidarity Award” by an eminent American
Muslim organization.
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The award by Washington-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) would
be presented to a Gurdwara representative at
the organization’s banquet and Leadership
Skills Training Conference on September in
Virginia.
“The Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin,
was the site of an August shooting spree by
a white supremacist that left six worshipers
dead. It will receive the award for friendship
and solidarity with the American Muslim
community,” CAIR said.
The Islamic Society of Joplin, which was
destroyed by a suspicious fire in the same
month, after an unsuccessful arson attempt
in July that was caught on a surveillance
camera would receive “2012 Courage
Award.”
“Its award is for courage in the face of
adversity,” CAIR said.
Aishwarya Rai 25Sep
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the newly
appointed UN Goodwill Ambassador for
UNAIDS, says she does not want to be just a
“poster girl” for the organisation but will
help break social barriers and stigmas that
are attached with the disease.
In her new role, Aishwarya will help raise
awareness on issues related to stopping new
HIV infections in children and advocate for
increased access to anti-retroviral treatment.
UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe
announced Aishwarya’s appointment as the
Goodwill Ambassador.
Aishwarya said it is an “honour and
privilege” to be working with the UN and
focusing on the work that needs to be done
in the area of AIDS/HIV.
Nuclear Society’s Awards 26Sep
T.S. Subramanian, Associate Editor,
Frontline, Chennai, and R.K. Singh, Head,
Media Relations and Public Awareness
Section, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Trombay, have been selected for the Indian
Nuclear Society’s “INS Outstanding Service
Award” for 2011 for Science
Communication.
They were selected for their work in
popularising science and technology,
particularly in nuclear-related areas, among
teachers, students and the public. The award
carries a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh each and a
citation.
The awards committee also selected D.D.
Bawalkar, former Director of Raja Ramanna
Centre for Advanced Technology in Indore,
and Ramendra Gupta, former Chairman and
Managing Director of Uranium Corporation
of India Limited, to receive the INS Homi
Bhabha Lifetime Achievement Award for
2011. They will receive a cash award of Rs.
2.5 lakh each and a citation.
Dr. Bawalkar and Gupta were selected for
their achievements in research, development
of technology, maintenance of safety and
spreading education in nuclear science and
technology.
The awards will be presented on November
7 during the inaugural function of the 23
annual conference of the INS to be held in
Mumbai.
The INS is a professional organisation of
nuclear scientists and technologists from all
over the country.
Subramanian has written extensively in The
Hindu and Frontline on nuclear power from
1985. He has also interviewed several
former Chairmen of the Atomic Energy
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Commission and Directors of the Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre.
Swedish Right Livelihood Award 28Sep
Dr. Sima Samar, well known human rights
and women’s right advocate and activist of
Afghanistan has jointly won prestigious
Swedish Right Livelihood Award. Dr. Sima
Samar who is currently the Chairperson of
Afghanistan’s Human Rights Commission,
has shared this award with American
political theorist Gene Sharp. In a statement
the right Livelihood Award Foundation has
said that the Dr. Samar has been honoured
for her longstanding and courageous
dedication to human rights, especially the
rights of women in one of the most complex
and dangerous regions in the world.
A medical doctor by profession Dr. Samar
has also served as Afghanistan’s Minister of
Women’s Affairs and Vice Chairperson of
the Emergency Loya Jirga. The Right
Livelihood Award was instituted by a
Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von
Uexkull in 1980 for honouring efforts in the
fields of environment and international
developments. The award is also called
alternative Nobel Prize. It carries a prize
sum of 193,000 US dollars.
Syed Mustafa Siraj 5Sep
Bharat has lost its voice. A voice that
answered to the name of Syed Mustafa Siraj
fell silent as the veteran Bengali writer
passed away after a brief illness in Kolkata.
Siraj, a Sahitya Akademi winner for his
novel, Aleek Manush, in 1994, penned over
300 short stories and 150 novels. Though
Siraj wrote for adults as well, and lately for
children, he always strived to bring the scent
of the soil to his works. His was a realist
narrative, quite removed from the mysticism
and romanticism that characterised much of
contemporary Bengali literature. No selfaggrandisement, he was a master of the
unsaid word.
Though in the autumn of his life he came
across as somewhat wistful, with memory
being only a selective companion, he
retained his innate earthiness till the end:
even when he occupied urbanscape! He
always had an ear to the ground that helped
him talk about man and nature at a time
when more and more writers were lost to
urban India. His characters, his plots,
settings of his novels and short stories were
all about rural Bengal and by extension
about Bharat that is increasingly
disappearing from the literary map of the
country.
In recent years, Siraj’s worth came to be
appreciated by a wider section of people,
thanks to noted Bengali filmmaker Anjan
Das, who picked Siraj’s story Ranir Ghater
Brittanto to make Faltu, a feature film that,
like the book, talked of an orphan’s struggle
as part of a village populated by people from
the other side of Bengal. Set in Ranighat in
Murshidabad, the film only strengthened a
feeling among cinemagoers what literati
knew all along Murshidabad, where Siraj
was born in 1930, played a central role in his
writings. In fact, his origins reflected
consistently in his works. His much-lauded
Aleek Manush was based in Murshidabad
and focused on the different cults within the
Muslim community there.
Incidentally, Siraj, though born in a Muslim
household, was against any organised
religion and believed that he was free of any
denomination. The fact that he respected
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people’s beliefs probably helped him find a
larger circle of readership when he started
penning a series called Detective Colonel.
Bill Moggridge 11Sep
Bill Moggridge, a top British industrial
designer who created the first laptop
computer in 1979, has died.
The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National
Design Museum said 69-year-old
Moggridge, its director since 2010, died
from cancer.
Describing him as an outspoken advocate
for the value of design in everyday life, the
National Design Museum said Moggridge
pioneered interaction design and integrated
human factors into the design of computer
software and hardware.
His computer, the Grid Compass, was
designed in 1979 and initially used by the
US military. It retailed at USD 8,150 and
was installed on board the space shuttle
Discovery in 1985.
The magnesium-cased device was
distinctive because the screen display folded
down over the keyboard.
Moggridge founded a London-based design
company in 1969, which is now a global
consultancy firm called Ideo.
He also became visiting professor in
interaction design at the Royal College of
Art in London and consulting associate
professor in design at Stanford University,
California.
He was the author of Designing Media
(2010), which examines the connections
between traditional media and the emerging
digital realm, and Designing Interactions
(2006), which explores how interaction
design transforms daily life.
In 2010 he was given a lifetime achievement
award by the Duke of Edinburgh.
K S Sudarshan 16Sep
K.S. Sudarshan, who needled the then Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other BJP
leaders during his nine-year tenure as RSS
chief, died.
A known votary of ‘swadeshi’, Kuppahalli
Sitaramayya Sudarshan differed with the
economic policies of the BJP-led
government for its continuance of the
liberalisation programme started in 1991.
He became the RSS head in 2000 when the
NDA was in power.
Born on 18 June, 1931 in Raipur, Sudarshan
did his Bachelor of Engineering in
Telecommunications.
He had served as RSS Pracharak for six
decades. Sudarshan became its
Sarsanghachalak (chief) in 2000 succeeding
Rajju Bhaiya.
He stepped down from the post due to poor
health.
A native of Kuppahalli village in Mandya
District of Karnataka, Sudarshan was known
among the Sangh workers for his physical
training.
During his nine-year tenure, he stressed on
economic sovereignty and construction of
the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Dinesh Thakur 21Sep
Noted Hindi film actor and theatre director
Dinesh Thakur, known for his lead role in
Rajnigandha, passed away. Thakur had been
ailing for the past three years. “He suffered
from multiple organ failure,” Atul Tiwari,
theatre personality and a friend of Thakur
told.
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Konda Laxman 22Sep
Noted freedom fighter, former Minister and
Telangana protagonist Konda Laxman
Bapuji died.
Born in Wankhidi village in Adilabad
district on September 27, 1915, Bapuji
participated in ‘Vandemataram’ and Quit
India movements and fought against the
Nizam’s rule for the liberation of Hyderabad
State. Later, he participated in the ‘nonmulki’ agitation in 1952 and gave up his
Minister’s post in support of the demand for
statehood to Telangana in 1969.
He was active in the Telangana agitation till
his death and even tried to convince the
leaders of Seemandhra on the need for a
separate State. Bapuji was elected to the
Assembly four times twice each from
Adilabad and Nalgonda districts with his last
term being during 1972-78 from Bhongir.
He served as a Minister in the Cabinets of
Kasu Brahmananda Reddy and Damodaram
Sanjivaiah and as Deputy Speaker of the
Assembly.
Brajesh Mishra 29Sep
Brajesh Mishra, India’s first National
Security Adviser and the man who
supervised the testing and incorporation of
nuclear weapons as an integral part of the
country’s security strategy, died.
From being closely involved in the planning
for the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests to
pushing for a deeper engagement with the
United States and attempting to mend ties
with both Pakistan and China, Mishra
stepped out of the bureaucratic mould to
implement in a finely detailed fashion the
broad vision of foreign policy that Atal
Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister had
sketched out for India.
Under constant attack from the Rashtriya
Swyamsevak Sangh, which laid the blame
for many of the Vajpayee Government’s
foreign policy initiatives at his door,
Mishra’s path was made smoother by the
presence of Jaswant Singh and Yashwant
Sinha at the helm in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs who also subscribed to the notion of
closer engagement with the US and building
bridges with Pakistan.
But the true secret of his success lay in his
ability to leverage his position as NSA and
Principal Secretary to Vajpayee to emerge as
a policy czar who always had the final word
on diplomatic and security related questions.
Mishra had seen the trappings and play of
power right from his father, Dwarka Prasad
Mishra’s days in the Congress Party that
culminated in him being named Chief
Minister of Madhya Pradesh. He became a
diplomatic practioner himself after joining
the Indian Foreign Service in 1951. He
served in various positions, including as
Ambassador to Indonesia and India’s
Permanent Representative at the United
Nations.
In January 1980, he read out an official
Indian brief on the situation in Afghanistan
at a special emergency session of the UN
General Assembly defending the Soviet
Union’s invasion of that country. He would
later tell friends how he had been conflicted
over that speech, whose line he personally
disagreed with.
Though he spent his days in the Foreign
Service during the Cold War, Mishra was
able to grasp early in his stint as Prime
Minister Vajpayee’s Principal Secretary the
need to get closer to the US. But before that
could happen, there were several issues to be
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settled closer to home such as the aftermath
of the Kandahar hijacking, the Kargil
conflict and the holes it exposed in India’s
defence planning. There was also the need to
fix the one faux pas the Vajpayee
government committed on his watch:
blaming China – in a letter to US President
Bill Clinton for having forced India to
conduct Pokhran-II. Seizing the opportunity
to play one Asian giant against another, the
US promptly leaked the letter to the New
York Times. Five years later, however,
Mishra had undone the damage, taking
India’s relations with China to a new level
with the appointment of Special
Representatives to expedite a solution to the
boundary issue.
While Mishra piloted this multi-pronged
policy, building new relations for India with
powers like the US and China, he worked
hard to keep old ally Russia reassured that
closer engagement with others did not
automatically mean estrangement with
Moscow.
That Mishra was able to guide Indian
foreign policy from the tight corner it found
itself during the 1998-2002 period was
partly attributable to the high growth rates
the Indian economy registered, which made
the country too attractive a market for the
western world to shun.
Six years was too short a time for him to
realize many of the moves initiated during
his tenure as NSA but the Manmohan Singh
Government did acknowledge his
contribution, especially to the Indo-US
nuclear deal, by bestowing him with the
Padma Vibhushan.
Pravasi Suraksha Yojana 1Sep
The Government has launched a scheme
called, Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Suraksha
Yojana, for Indian workers holding
Emigration Check Required, ECR, passports
and a valid work permit in an ECR country.
The Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs,
Vayalar Ravi said that this scheme
encourages and enables Overseas Indian
workers to save for their return and
resettlement and to save for their old age by
providing a co-contribution from the
government.
He said the scheme also provides a free Life
Insurance Cover against natural death. He
however said there is no proposal to
introduce a special package for Indian
workers returning to India from conflictridden countries.
Gram Panchayats 1Sep
All Gram Panchayats in the country will be
connected through the Optic Fibre Cable in
single phase and in two years. This
information was given by the Minister of
State of the Communications and
Information Technology, Milind Deora in a
written reply in the Rajya Sabha. He said,
the government had approved the scheme
for creation of National Optical Fibre
Network last year for providing broadband
connectivity to 2.5 lakh village panchayats
through optical fibre cable.
Rangarajan Panel 4Sep
The Rangarajan Committee, set up earlier
this year by the prime minsiter’s office
(PMO), has recommended total decontrol of
the sugar industry by doing away with the
levy sugar obligation, release mechanism
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and freeing of export-import. While
recommending the Centre’s Fair and
Remunerative price (FRP) as the base price
for sugarcane, the panel has suggested a
profit-sharing mechanism so that farmers,
too, benefit from higher sugar prices.
A brief of the report was circulated to the
food ministry, last week. The committee has
also recommended doing away of the state’s
power to reserve sugarcane area for mills,
implying farmers can sell to any sugar mill
they wish, said a person familiar with the
development. It has also suggested the
current minimum distance of 15km between
two mills be removed. The most important
suggestion is on sugarcane pricing that can
in effect mean an end to states’ power to set
a different and higher price.
According to the report, mills will initially
pay the FRP to farmers during the season.
Thereafter, another price will be calculated
every quarter taking 70 per cent of a mill’s
sugar price realisation and five per cent of
the realisation from by products. If this price
exceeds the FRP, the difference will be paid
to farmers. If this price is below FRP, then
farmer will get only FRP. The sugarcane
area reservation and sugarcane pricing has
been a big political tool for states like Uttar
Pradesh. UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav
had vehemently opposed decontrol in this
meeting with Rangarajan last month.
The committee has said state governments
should buy sugar for PDS from open market
and government should pass on the cess of
Rs 24 it collects on every quintal of sugar to
state governments to fund market purchase.
Currently, the cess goes to the Sugar
Development Fund. This fund is used to
grant low interest loans to industry for
sugarcane development, plant
modernisation, ethanol and power projects.
Rangarajan has suggested doing away with
this fund.
Sugar is one of the most controlled
industries in India. Attempts to decontrol it
were made in 1971-72 and in 1978-79, only
to be rolled back. The government has over
the years eased earlier controls in other
major industries like steel and cement. Mills
can sell in the open market only according to
the release orders issued each month by the
directorate of sugar in the Union
government.
It gives mill-wise sales quotas. Mills cannot
sell above this and a penalty is levied if they
fail to sell within the stipulated month. Also,
the government directs how much mills are
to sell (presently, 10 per cent) of their output
to it, at a price it fixes, for distribution
through the ration shop system.
Exports are subject to government order,
too. For that matter, cane procurement by
mills is also decided by the government in
addition to the catchment area and price.
The committee headed by C Rangarajan,
chairman of Prime Minister’s Economic
Advisory Council (EAC) included former
Chief Economic Advisor, Kaushik Basu,
CACP Chairman Ashok Gulati, the
Secretaries of Agriculture, Food and Public
Distribution, Secretary EAC, K P Krishnan
and the former secretary of Food and Public
Distribution Nand Kumar who is presently a
member of National Disaster Management
Authority as members.
This is not the first committee set up by the
government to study reforms in the sugar
industry. Recommendations of the Tuteja
Committee and Thorat Committee are yet to
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see light of the day.
DRDO Missiles 4Sep
At the tightly guarded “Missile Complex”
outside Hyderabad, three Defence Research
& Development Organisation (DRDO)
laboratories will, for the first time, provide
the military with a range of indigenous
tactical missiles. With India’s air defence
network in tatters and its warships
desperately needing protection from
incoming anti-ship missiles, the defence
ministry blocked foreign purchases to give
the DRDO time to develop indigenous
missiles.
Now, over the coming decade, the military
is poised to worth Rs 1 lakh cr in 10 yrs
buy about Rs 1 lakh crore worth of DRDOdeveloped missiles. Top DRDO scientists
say indigenous missiles would cost barely
half as much as a foreign alternative.
The Director of the pivotal Defence R&D
Laboratory (DRDL), A K Chakrabarti,
confirmed to Business Standard during an
exclusive visit to the Missile Complex that
the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Army had
already placed orders worth Rs 24,000 crore
for Akash surface-to-air missiles. He said
the navy had ordered Long Range-Surface to
Air Missiles (LR-SAMs) worth more than
Rs 2,600 crore for the navy’s destroyers and
frigates that were under construction. And
Subir Kumar Chaudhary, the director of
DRDL’s sister laboratory, Research Centre
Imarat (RCI), revealed the air force had
ordered Rs 8,600 crore worth of Medium
Range-Surface to Air Missiles (MR-SAMs).
V G Sekharan, director of the Advance
Systems Laboratory (ASL), which
developed the Prithvi and Agni ballistic
missiles, declined to quantify the values or
numbers of ballistic missiles ordered by the
Strategic Forces Command, which operates
India’s nuclear deterrent. Informed Ministry
of Defence (MoD) sources estimate more
than Rs 10,000 crore worth of missile
systems have been delivered, or are on order
for, the five missile groups already in
service: two holding Prithvi missiles; a third
holding Agni-I missiles; a fourth holding
Agni-II missiles; and a fifth now being
raised with Agni-III missiles.
In addition, a DRDO joint venture with
Russia is producing and delivering Brahmos
supersonic cruise missiles for the Army and
Navy. Besides this, DRDL scientists claim
they are close to success on the Nag antitank guided missile (ATGM); and some way
from success on the air-to-air missile, Astra.
The Nag and Astra could yield large orders
when they meet user requirements in testing.
The DRDO has a monopoly on strategic
ballistic missiles like the Prithvi and Agni
series, since the Missile Technology Control
Regime (MTCR) prohibits signatories from
exporting missiles with ranges above 300
kilometres. Now, there is relief within the
DRDO that military is ordering even tactical
missile systems like the Akash, which faces
international competition.
“The strategic missile programme has no
competitors. But the tactical missile
programmes are always under threat from
foreign alternatives. If you don’t deliver (the
missile systems) in time, or with the
required quality, the users will buy from
abroad,” says Chaudhary, the RCI director.
Leading the charge of successful tactical
missiles is the Akash, which the Army and
Air Force steadfastly rejected for two
decades, leaving Army strike corps and IAF
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bases woefully unprotected as their vintage
Russian missile systems became
obsolescent, and then obsolete. But the MoD
repeatedly turned down army and IAF
demands to import foreign missile systems,
backing the indigenous Akash. In 2008-09
the Air Force reluctantly ordered two
squadrons of Akash for protecting the key
air bases of Pune and Gwalior. Being
assembled by Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL)
in Bangalore, the first of these will enter
service this month, followed by the second
in June 2013.
After that initial order, the IAF lost no time
in embracing the Akash. In 2010, it ordered
another six squadrons of the Akash, for
protecting its bases in the north-east, on the
Sino-Indian border. In March 2011, the
Army placed a whopping order for two
Akash regiments. Bharat Dynamics Ltd will
build the Army version, mounted on the
infamous Kolos Tatra. Trials of the first
Tatra-mounted Akash system are scheduled
for June 2013.
The DRDO says it conducts regular test
firing, along with the military. “The IAF
was pleased with its Akash firing tests, most
recently in May-June 2012, when it fired
five missiles at difficult incoming targets,
which were flying just 30 metres high at
almost the speed of sound. Four out of those
five missiles destroyed their targets,” says
Chakrabarti.
The Akash system’s Rohini radar picks up
enemy fighters out to 120 kilometres,
shooting them down at ranges of 25-30
kilometres, and altitudes of up to 18,000
metres (60,000 feet). Ongoing R&D has also
given Akash “a low-altitude interception”
capability, enabling it to shoot down aircraft
that are just three kilometres away. This is
the first instalment of a three-part series.
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles 6Sep
Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) is the
deceptively bland name that obscures from
public view the Defence Research &
Development Organisation’s (DRDO’s)
most glamorous laboratory. At the DRDO
missile complex in Hyderabad, ASL
develops the ballistic missiles that, in the
ultimate nuclear nightmare, will carry Indian
nuclear weapons to targets thousands of
kilometres away. Foreign collaboration is
seeping into many areas of R&D, but ASL’s
technological domain the realm of strategic
ballistic missiles — is something that no
country parts with, for love or for money.
No foreigner would ever set foot in ASL.
But Business Standard has been allowed an
exclusive visit. The erudite, soft-spoken
director of ASL, Dr V G Sekharan,
describes the technologies that were
developed for the DRDO’s new, 5,000kilometre range Agni-5 missile, which was
tested flawlessly in April. He reveals
nothing except restraint stood between India
and an intercontinental ballistic missile
(ICBM) that could strike a target anywhere
on the globe.
ICBMs have ranges above 5,500 kilometres,
a threshold that the Agni-5 already sits on.
For India, a more strategically relevant
range would be about 7,500 kilometres,
which would cover the world except for the
Americas.
“Going up from 5,000 kilometres to, let us
say, 7,500 kilometres requires only
incremental changes, which we have already
assessed. We would need a more powerful
booster, which we could make ourselves at
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ASL; and we would need to strengthen some
of the systems, such as heat shielding, that
are already flying on the Agni-V,” says
Sekharan.
For now, however, ASL is not developing
an ICBM. Instead, its focus is on
“operationalising” the Agni-V, which
involves putting it into a canister and
conducting three to four test-launches from
the canister. When the Agni-V enters service
with the Strategic Forces Command (SFC),
which operates India’s nuclear deterrent, it
will be delivered in hermetically sealed
canisters that safeguard the road-mobile
missiles for over a decade, while they are
transported and handled.
Launching a ballistic missile from a canister
is a technological feat that ASL has
perfected with smaller missiles, and will
now modify for the bigger Agni-V. Since
the missile’s giant rocket motors cannot be
fired while it is inside the canister, a gasgeneration unit at the bottom of the canister,
below the missile, generates a massive boost
of gas that ejects the missile from the
canister.
“The gas pushes the Agni-V out, like a
bullet from the barrel of a gun. In less than
half a second, the 50-tonne missile clears the
canister by 15 metres, and that is when the
rocket motor can safely ignite. In 30
seconds, the Agni-V breaks the sound
barrier and, in 90 seconds, it has left the
atmosphere,” explains Sekharan.
The DRDO has promised the armed forces
that the Agni-V will be test-fired from a
canister in early 2013. ASL is on track to
achieve that target, says Sekharan. Within a
couple of months, a “pop-up test” will be
conducted with a canister, in which the gas
generator ejects a dummy missile.
Meanwhile, the actual missile is being
integrated with the canister.
The Agni-V project funding has already
been cleared by the political council of the
Union cabinet, a fast-track procedure for
strategic projects that eliminates
cumbersome MoD sanctions. This allows
ASL to place orders for the materials and
sub-systems that will go into the first few
Agni-V missiles, taking care of production
lead times. ASL scientists recount that
“maraging steel” for the canister takes two
years to be delivered by specialist defence
PSU, Midhani. The rocket motor casings
take another one year.
On the question that exercises strategic
analysts the world over — is ASL
developing “multi independently-targetable
re-entry vehicles”, or MIRVs — Sekharan
remains ambiguous: “I can say we are
working on MIRV technologies. The key
challenge — the “post-boost vehicle”, which
carries the multiple warheads — is not a
technology challenge, merely an engineering
one. DRDO will acquire and demonstrate
the capability for MIRVs by 2014-15. But
the decision to deploy MIRVs would be a
political one.”
MIRVs are multiple warheads, up to ten,
which would be fitted atop a single Agni-V.
These would be a mix of nuclear bombs and
dummy warheads to confuse enemy air
defences. Each warhead can be programmed
to hit a different target; or multiple warheads
can be directed at a single target, but with
different trajectories.
Interestingly, Sekharan reveals that the
DRDO does not need sanction to begin work
on such technologies. “The decision-making
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works like this: we demonstrate the
technology and the capability. Then the
government decides, keeping in mind the
big picture.”
“In the Agni-V, the government didn’t say,
‘we have a threat perception… I need a
long-range missile.’ It was the DRDO that
said that we now have the capability to
enhance the Agni-III to 5,000 kilometres,
and so the government sanctioned the
project.”
Meteorological Satellite 7Sep
Under fire for failing to accurately predict
monsoon rains in half of the years since
2007, the government said it was planning to
launch a meteorological satellite INSAT-3D
to monitor atmospheric characteristics like
cloud motion winds, vertical profiles of
humidity and temperature, total perceptible
water, sea surface temperature over Indian
ocean and outgoing radiation. The satellite
will be launched in 2013.
Crop Loan Waiver 7Sep
The government will release Rs 10,901
crore to state-run banks to enable interest
subvention for short-term crop loans up to
Rs 3 lakh to farmers for the current financial
year. Public sector banks (PSBs) provide
such a subvention to enable short-term crop
loans at seven per cent interest. Also, a three
per cent subvention is given to those who
start repaying their loans within the first
year of disbursal.
Of the total, Rs 7,634 crore is to go to PSBs,
regional rural banks & cooperative banks for
a subvention on their own funds. The
remaining Rs 3,267 crore is to go to the
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development (Nabard), for refinance to
cooperative banks and RRBs.
The Cabinet also approved Rs 442 crore as
interest subvention for small and marginal
farmers having Kisan Credit Cards against
negotiable warehouse receipts, for postharvest. This subvention also helps farmers
get loans at seven per cent. The government
has been subsidising short-term crop loans
to farmers since 2006-07.
In 2009-10, an additional subvention of one
per cent was provided to farmers who repaid
on time. This was increased from two per
cent in 2010-11 to three per cent in 2011-12.
The cabinet also cleared a proposal to revive
Nepa Mills, the government-run newsprint
maker, through infusion of Rs 234 crore and
restructuring of its equity and loans.
Development Aid 11Sep
India extended development assistance of 10
million US dollars to Palestine and extended
support to its bid for a full United Nations
membership. Both countries also signed
three pacts to enhance bilateral cooperation.
The MoUs have been signed to establish
India-Palestine centre of Excellence in
Information and communication technology,
for providing vocational training and
construction of two schools. Under the
MOU's the Jawaharlal Nehru Secondary
School for Girls in Asera Al Shamalyeh and
the Jawaharlal Nehru Secondary School for
boys in Abu Dees will be constructed and
equipped to impart education. The pacts
were signed by External Affairs Minister
S.M Krishna and M S Erakat, Executive
committee Member of PLO, after delegation
level talks between the visiting Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi
this morning.
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Coastal Radar Network 12Sep
Defence Minister A.K. Antony will
inaugurate coastal radar network in Kochi.
The first two clusters of the project were
inaugurated in Mumbai and Porbandar by
the Minister on August 25. The network was
first recommended by the Group of
Ministers formed in the aftermath of the
1999 Kargil war.
The project implementation on the mainland
and the island territories is expected to be
completed by September and March 2013
respectively.
Under Phase-II, 38 additional remote radar
sites would be established. The project
envisages fitment of high end surveillance
gadgets frequency diversity radar, electrooptic sensors, VHF sets and met equipment
on lighthouses and masts. When installed
fully, sensors would provide near gap free
electronic surveillance of the entire Indian
coast line up to the 25 nautical miles from
the coast.
Antony is also scheduled to flag off INS
Sudarshini, a three-masted barque (sail
ship), which will undertake a historic Asean
voyage from September 15. During its
voyage, the ship will touch 18 ports and
conclude its trip in April next.
INS Sudarshini is the second sail training
ship of the Navy. It was commissioned by
Vice-Admiral K.N. Sushil, Flag Officer
Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval
Command (SNC) at Naval Base, Kochi, in
January. The ship is follow-on the class of
INS Tarangini, which joined the SNC in
1997.
Expediture for Roads 13Sep
Aimed at sprucing up the country's roads
and bridges to bolster economic growth, the
Planning Commission has projected Rs 9.2
lakh crore expenditure over the next five
years.
"The total investment is projected at Rs
9,02,071 crore during the 12th Plan (201217), of which Central and States'
investments' will be Rs 3,58,845 crore and
Rs 2,66,851 crore respectively," Planning
Commission has said in a note.
The Commission is aiming at an annual
average economic growth of 8.2% during
the Plan.
While the investment from the states and
Centre would account for 68% of the total
projected investment, the remaining 32% or
Rs 2,94,374 crore, it hopes, will come from
the private sector.
The total investment in roads and bridges
during the 11th Plan stood at Rs 5,16,180
crore, in which the Centre's contribution was
42.85% or Rs 2,21,649 crore.
States had contributed Rs 1,91,517 crore or
37.02% and the remaining 20.13%, valued
at Rs 1,03,014 crore, came from the private
sector.
The Commission expects the central
investment to grow at a compounded annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 12% during the Plan
in view of the ability of National Highways
Authority of India (NHAI) to raise market
borrowings for national highways.
"The states' investment is expected to grow
at a CAGR of 9% on account of renewed
emphasis in the states to allocate more
budgetary resources for state roads," it said.
The investment from the private sector is
being expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.8%
in central roads and 16.6% in states' roads.
The actual investments during the 10th Plan
period stood at Rs 1,52,616 crore on roads
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and bridges.
Aviation Sector 15Sep
The Cabinet Committee on Economic
Affairs approved 49 per cent foreign direct
investment (FDI) in the aviation sector,
allowing foreign carriers to pick up stake in
domestic airlines. This is likely to pave way
for the much-needed equity infusion into
domestic carriers, including loss- making
Kingfisher Airlines, which are passing
through turbulent times as majority of them
are crying for funds to support their
operations. “Though FDI of up to 49 per
cent, 75 per cent and 100 per cent was there
in the aviation sector, foreign airlines were
not allowed,’’ Civil Aviation Minister Ajit
Singh told reporters after the Cabinet
meeting.
Current norms
Current FDI norms allow foreign investors,
not related to airline business, to directly or
indirectly own an equity stake of up to 49
per cent in an Indian carrier. Allowing
foreign airlines to pick up stakes in Indian
carriers has been a long-pending demand of
the aviation sector.
The Indian aviation industry and the
domestic carriers are suffering losses
because of high taxes on jet fuel, high
airport fees, costlier loans, poor
infrastructure, and cut-throat competition.
Except IndiGo, all airlines have posted
losses in the financial year ending March 31.
Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines, which is
burdened with a debt of over Rs.7,000 crore,
and is operating with a bare minimum fleet,
has been the most vocal supporter of
allowing FDI in the sector.
The opening of the sector to foreign airlines
may, however, bring good news for
passengers who would benefit from more
competitive fares, better product and
services and better international
connectivity.
Foreign carriers such as British Airways and
Virgin Atlantic Airways have expressed
interest in investing in Indian carriers.
However, Lufthansa Airlines said it had no
plans to make further investments in Indian
carriers.
AIDS Fight 16Sep
India's anti-AIDS fight is all set to receive
the highest increase in fund allocation for
the 12th five-year Plan.
At a time when the adult HIV prevalence at
the national level has continued its steady
decline from estimated level of 0.41% in
2000 through 0.36% in 2006 to 0.31% in
2009, the department of AIDS Control is all
set to see a 626% increase - from Rs 1,500
crore in the 11th Plan to Rs 9,394 crore for
2012-17. The estimated number of new
annual HIV infections has declined by more
than 50% over the past decade. It is
estimated that the nation had approximately
1.2 lakh new HIV infections in 2009 as
against 2.7 lakh in 2000.
The overall health budget will see a 333%
increase from Rs 84,339 crore to Rs 280,551
crore according to the latest paper sent by
the Planning Commission to the health
ministry.
Fastest Supercomputer 17Sep
The government has drawn a blueprint for
developing the next generation of
supercomputers that could be 61 times faster
than existing machines.
Telecom and IT Minister Kapil Sibal is
understood to have written to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh sharing the roadmap to
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develop "petaflop and exaflop range of
supercomputers" at an estimated cost of Rs
4,700 crore over 5 years.
He has said that C-DAC has developed a
proposal with a roadmap to develop a
petaflop and exaflop range of
supercomputers in the country with an
outlay of Rs 4,700 crore.
A petaflop is a measure of a computer s
processing speed and can be expressed as a
thousand trillion floating point operations
per second. Exaflop is one quintillion
computer operations per second. Simply put,
one exaflop is thousand times faster than
one petaflop.
The fastest supercomputer in the world,
Sequoia, has registered a top computing
speed of 16.32 petaflops which is equivalent
of computing of power from over 7.8 lakhs
high-end laptops put together.
If the Indian government approves building
exaflop supercomputers, these will be at
least 61 times faster than Sequoia.
India's top supercomputer is present ranks
58th globally in terms of computing speed.
Sibal has cited the past record of Center for
Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) which was set up in 1987 by then
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi after
technologically advanced nations denied
supply of supercomputer to India in mid1980s.
"The Minister has written that C-DAC
developed first supercomputers in the
country, the PARAM series. Presently
Param Yuva with 54 teraflop computing
power is serving many researchers through
Garuda Computing Grid.
Sibal has proposed that Department of
Electronics and Information Technology
(DEITY) should be given tasks to coordinate
overall supercomputing activities in the
country as it has been done in the past.
The proposal made in the letter says that
DEITY should be given tasks to set up a
National Apex Committee to oversee the
implementation of the proposed
Supercomputing Mission and C- DAC
should establish peta and exascale
supercomputing facilities and development
activities.
Open-defecation Free 19Sep
The government has setup the target to make
India open-defecation free in next ten years.
Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation
Jairam Ramesh said Kerala will become
open defecation free state from 1st of
December this year. He said Sikkim has
already become open defecation free.
He informed that Himachal Pradesh will be
the next open defecation free State in April
next year. The minister said that the centre
has also targeted around thirty thousand
gram panchayat as Nirmal Gram Panchayat
under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in the current
fiscal. He said during last ten year only
twenty eight thousand gram panchayat could
become Nirmal Gram Panchayat. Ramesh
said that his ministry has set NonGovernment Organisations', who will do
independent social audit and evalutation of
Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. He said for this
purpose 30 NGO's has been selected.
The minister said there are 13 lakh
Aganwadi workers and about eight and a
half lakh ASHA workers in the country and
their services can be utilised for sanitation.
Agni-IV 20Sep
India successfully test-fired nuclear weapons
capable Agni-IV for its full range of 4,000
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km from the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha
coast.
The missile lifted off from a road mobile
launcher and after zooming to an altitude of
over 800 km, it re-entered the atmosphere
and impacted near the pre-designated target
in the Indian Ocean with remarkable degree
of accuracy following a 20-minute flight.
Carrying a payload of explosives weighing a
tonne, the missile re-entered the atmosphere
and withstood searing temperatures of more
than 3,000°C.
The developmental trial of the long range
ballistic weapon system was conducted by
missile technologists of the Defence
Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO), which designed and developed it.
Agni-IV would be inducted into the services
next year after undertaking one more
developmental trial. The mission confirms
reliability and robustness of the missile. It
demonstrates India's missile technology has
become highly mature and we can now
design any missile for any mission,
depending on the threat profile.
Technologically, today we are at par with
the best in the world. We have complete
industrial infrastructure which helped us to
realise Agni-IV.
He said the series of successful missions
Agni-V, followed by Agni-I, Agni-II,
Prithvi-II and Agni-IV now showed that
these missiles could be launched on demand
in a very short time.
Coast Guard Academy 27Sep
The youngest and smallest of the four armed
forces under the defence ministry, the Indian
Coast Guard (ICG) is now finally set to get a
training academy of its own under the
ongoing revamp of the country's coastal
security infrastructure.
The cabinet committee on security, chaired
by PM Manmohan Singh cleared the setting
up of the ICG academy at Azhikkal in
Kannur district of Kerala at a cost of Rs 661
crore, which includes land, infrastructure
and manpower needs.
The state government has offered 164 acres
of land at Azhikkal for the academy. The
ICG needs professionally trained officers
and enrolled personnel to carry out its
mandate at sea to meet the ever-changing
challenges in the field of maritime security.
The proposed academy, the second major
military academy in Kerala after the Indian
Naval Academy (INA) at Ezhimala, will be
capable of training 650 trainees as well as
catering to the training needs of naval, BSF
(water wing) and marine police personnel.
INA itself is poised for a major expansion at
a cost of around Rs 340 crore to ensure the
existing annual capacity of 750 trainees can
be taken up to 1,200 cadets from 2015
onwards.
The government decided to bolster the
"assets" and manpower of ICG, which has
suffered from relative neglect since it came
into existence in August 1978, after being
jolted by the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai
four years ago.
"Apart from using Navy's training facilities,
ICG also has a makeshift training centre at
Kochi. But these temporary arrangements
have proved to be inadequate due to
growing needs of ICG," said the official.
Plans are afoot to ensure Coast Guard can
increase its force-levels to around 200 ships
and 100 aircraft by 2018 to effectively
tackle its operational tasks, which include
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piracy and the terror threat emanating from
sea.
At present, ICG is making do with about
110 "surface units'', including just six
advanced and 11 other offshore patrol
vessels, and 51 "air units'' comprising 28
Dornier surveillance aircraft, 19 Chetak and
four Dhruv helicopters.
Moreover, it has 1,714 officers, 9,196
enrolled personnel and 1,553 civilians. This
when at least triple those numbers are
required to effectively protect India's vast
5,422-km coastline, 1,197 islands and 2.01
million sq km of exclusive economic zone
(EEZ).
India's EEZ, incidentally, will expand by
another one million sq km after the proposed
delimitation of the continental shelf, which
will then make it almost equal to the
country's actual landmass.
Rabies Control 28Sep
Acknowledging that rabies is a major public
health challenge in India, the government
proposes to make it a priority disease for
control under the 12th Five Year Plan.
A viral zoonotic disease primarily infecting
domestic and wild animals, rabies spreads to
people through close contact with infected
saliva via bites and scratches. There is no
treatment available globally after the disease
develops. An estimated 20,000 deaths occur
annually in India due to rabies.
While dogs are the main host and
transmitters, others responsible for the
disease are cat, mongoose, monkeys and
such other warm-blooded animals.
But the disease is preventable.
Strategies to prevent death due to rabies
were developed through a pilot project
during the 11th Plan and these strategies are
proposed to be implemented countrywide in
the 12th Plan, officials in the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare told. The 11th
Plan targeted reduction of rabies deaths in
humans by at least 50 per cent by the end of
the Plan period in the pilot project that
covered Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Pune,
Madurai and Delhi.
As of now, India does not have a
comprehensive national rabies control
programme. Various organisations are
involved in control activities without any
inter-sectoral coordination. The existing
prevention activities are being carried out by
municipal bodies, but no tangible results
have been achieved.
Experience gained from the implementation
of the pilot project indicates that the strategy
is feasible, reproducible and implementable.
It is now proposed to roll out a
comprehensive control strategy for both
human and animal components in the 12th
Plan. All 35 States/UTs will be covered for
the human component and the animal
component will be piloted in selected 30
cities.
The programme will include training health
professionals to deal with animal bites,
awareness creation and minimising animal
bites. On the veterinary side, the focus is on
sterilisation and vaccination of dogs, with a
larger involvement of civil society and
municipal bodies.
Advocating the need for greater awareness
of the disease, the World Health
Organisation (WHO) says children and poor
people are particularly vulnerable.
The disease claims 55,000 human lives
across the world every year, mostly in
Africa and Asia. The number of animal bites
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in India, however, is not reliably known,
though some studies have estimated it to be
as high as 17.4 million a year. The last
survey conducted by the Association for
Prevention and Control of Rabies in India in
2003 was supported by the WHO and it put
the number of deaths at 20,000. About 90
per cent of the mortality and morbidity here
is associated with dog bites.
Modern, safe and effective anti-rabies cell
culture vaccines are being used for postexposure treatment in India after the
government banned the production and use
of nervous tissue vaccine in December 2004.
Intradermal rabies vaccination has been
promoted at the State level in designated
rabies clinics.
The WHO says prevention of human rabies
is possible through mass dog vaccination,
promotion of responsible dog ownership and
dog population control programmes with a
partnership approach. Many countries in
South America and Asia have successfully
used this strategy to eliminate transmission
of rabies.
However, this is a challenge for India as it
has a large population of dogs (around 25
million) and very low vaccination coverage.
AC Train Fares 28Sep
Travelling by train in air-conditioned
comfort will get more expensive from
October 1 with the finance ministry
prevailing upon the railways to levy service
tax on AC travel and freight movement.
Passenger fares will go up by 3.7% across
all AC classes as will freight charges.
Service tax at the rate of 12.36% will be
levied on auxiliary services provided at
stations such as catering and parking.
The levy will also apply to tickets bought in
advance for journeys after October 1. If the
tickets have been issued excluding service
tax, the difference will be collected either by
TTEs on trains or by booking offices before
commencement of the journey.
The decision to impose service tax was
taken after a meeting between newly
appointed railway minister CP Joshi and
finance minister P Chidambaram amid
indications that the railways, under the new
regime, is set to accelerate its reforms
agenda as suggested by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission
which also included a hike in passenger
fares.
Next on the menu is expected to be
Cabinet's clearance of railways' public
private partnership (PPP) models.
The move has come after the transporter
realized the need to make more investorfriendly policies after measures such as
railway infrastructure investment initiative
(R3i) and rail connectivity to coal and iron
ore mines failed to attract expected private
investment.
Now, the transporter has proposed that
customers setting up sea ports and large
mines need efficient railway connectivity for
which the provision of first-to-last-mile
connectivity should be construed as an
integral part of the main project.
It was proposed that rail connectivity to
ports and mines would be developed by the
owner or concessionaire as private railway
lines by acquiring land and making
investments. This would be declared as a
non-government railway (NGR) for public
carriage of goods.
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For another PPP model, the transporter said
for many doubling/third or fourth line
projects which promise quick pay-off, some
of these lines could be taken up under
competitive bidding for concession periods
raging between 15-20 years.
Bushehr Reactor 2Sep
A senior Iranian nuclear official says the
sole reactor at the country’s Bushehr nuclear
power plant has reached full capacity.
Iranian deputy nuclear chief Mohammad
Ahmadian said that the reactor was brought
to its “full capacity of 1,000 megawatts”.
The reactor went into operation for the first
time last year at minimum capacity.
The Islamic Republic built the nuclear
power plant in the southern Iranian port of
Bushehr with Russian help.
The facility is a cornerstone of Iran’s drive
to become a technological leader among
Muslim nations, with efforts such as a space
programme and long-range missile
development.
The United States and some of its allies
believe the Bushehr plant is part of an
Iranian attempt to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran denies the accusation.
India- Tajikistan agrees 3Sep
India and Tajikistan signed six agreements
in the field of sports, health, culture,
education, labour, textiles and energy. The
agreements were signed in New Delhi
following delegation level talks between the
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the
visiting president of Tajikistan Emomali
Rahmon. Dr. Manmohan Singh said that
both the countries have agreed to elevate
their relations to a strategic partnership.
Elaborating that Tajikistan is a key partner
of India in the central Asian region, Dr.
Singh said that both the nations have
stressed the need to enhance trade and
investment between them. He said, India
will send a delegation from public and
private sector to explore investment in free
economic zones in Tajikistan.
Besides agreeing to deepen counter
terrorism cooperation, both the countries
also agreed to have a strong defence
mechanism. Both the sides also exchanged
views on present situation in central Asian
region and security transition in
Afghanistan. Both sides identified
information technology, bio-technology,
mining, tourism, pharmaceuticals among
other sectors as high potential area. Dr.
Singh said that India will increase training
slots for Tajikistan from 100 to 150 under
India Technology and Eco Training
Programme.
Skill Development 3Sep
India and Mauritius have proposed to sign a
MoU in the area of training and skill
development. Under the agreement trainers
from Mauritius would come to India for
training and return to train their people in
the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises
sector. Maria Francesca Mireille Martin,
Minister of Gender Equality, Child
Development and Family Welfare, Republic
of Mauritius called on Shri Vayalar Ravi,
Minister of Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises in New Delhi. Ravi said,
Mauritius has also sought India’s help in
formulating specific programmes for
promoting women entrepreneurship in their
country.
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ICFRE, Chinese Academy 6Sep
The Indian Council of Forestry Research
and Education (ICFRE) and the Chinese
Academy of Forestry (CAF) have signed an
agreement to foster cooperation between
India and China in identified fields of
research and develop action plan on
industrial bamboo products.
The MoU was signed in Beijing by V K
Bahuguna, director general, ICFRE, and
Zhang Shougong, president, CAF.
The MoU between the two institutions will
facilitate cooperation between the two
neigbouring countries on identified areas of
research. Bahuguna and Shougong also
discussed emerging areas of mutual interest
like climate change, forest ecosystems,
forest hydrology etc.
The MoU also paves the way to develop an
action plan with the primary emphasis on
bamboo cultivation and development of
industrial bamboo products and
improvement programme for important tree
species like teak, sisso, sandalwood and
eucalyptus among others.
Appreciating the Chinese expertise in the
area of bamboo cultivation and technologies
for bamboo products, Bahuguna said that
same could be shared with the council in an
institutionalised manner for livelihood
support, especially the people in rural and
forest fringe areas.
According to Bahuguna, this long-term
bilateral collaborative programme has
tremendous scope for exchange of
technologies in the area of bamboo
improvement, product development and tree
improvement in a bid to address livelihood
issues and promote sustainable forest
management.
India and China are taking long strides in
developing linkages and collaborations in
the field of forestry and environment,
outlined in the objectives under the umbrella
of BRICS Cooperation Agreement.
In the 3rd BRICS Cooperative Agreement
meeting held in the Ministry of Environment
and Forests this year, it was decided that the
programme of ICFRE will be given highest
priority.
A six-member high-level Chinese
delegation, headed by Zhang Shougong, had
earlier visited ICFRE, Dehradun, in
December 2011, laying the foundation of the
collaboration between the two institutions.
The delegation had interacted with ICFRE
officials to identify research areas for
cooperation in the areas of forestry sciences,
developing the draft of the agreement.
India, Saudi Arabia 11Sep
Taking their defence cooperation to an
enhanced level, the first meeting of IndiaSaudi Arabia joint committee on defence
cooperation was held in New Delhi.
Both sides expressed their interest in further
enhancing defence exchanges and
interactions between their armed forces.
Proposals for exchange of high level visits,
training exchanges and functional exchanges
in various areas were discussed and will be
finalised over the coming weeks.
The 11-member Saudi Arabian delegation
was headed by Major General Suleiman
Saleh Al-Khalifa, Chief of the Armed
Forces Operations, while the Indian
delegation was led by Joint Secretary,
Ministry of Defence.
The establishment of the joint committee
had been decided during the meeting of the
Defence Minister A K Antony with the
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Saudi Defence Minister (now the Crown
Prince) Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al
Saud during his first ever visit to Saudi
Arabia in February this year. The joint
committee was mandated to formulate a
programme to develop area of cooperation
between the defence establishments of both
countries.
The visit of Antony to Saudi Arabia on
February 13-14, 2012 was the first ever visit
by an Indian Defence Minister to the
Kingdom. The visit aimed at further
strengthening the bilateral relationship, the
foundation of which was laid by the high
level visits by King Abdullah to India in
2006 and Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh’s visit to Saudi Arabia in 2010.
Commonwealth Parliamentary
Conference 11Sep
The 58th Annual Commonwealth
Parliamentary Conference was inaugurated
by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in
Colombo. Welcoming the parliamentarians
from 54 nations, Sri Lankan President said
that the opportunity should be used to
interact with all shades of opinion in the
country and take back informed opinion on
the state of democracy and human rights.
Later in the day, regional group meeting of
India will be held. The opening plenary will
be addressed by CPA Secretary General Dr.
William F. Shija and Commonwealth
Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma.
The conference will deliberate upon rule of
law and human rights, role of parliaments in
conflict resolution and peace-building,
gender-responsive governance, terrorism,
and youth unemployment.
The highlights of the conference will be the
meeting of the General Assembly of the
CPA, workshops on important and relevant
topics, the Executive Committee Meeting,
the Conference of Small Branches and the
Meeting of the Steering Committee of the
Women Parliamentarians.
India -Czech Republic 11Sep
India and the Czech Republic have agreed to
double bilateral trade in the next three years.
This was decided in a bilateral meeting
between Minister for Commerce Industry
and Textile Anand Sharma and his
counterpart M Kuba in Brno at Czech
Republic.
Both countries also agreed to launch Joint
Working Groups, JWGs, in areas of skills
and innovation, heavy engineering, life
sciences and pharmaceuticals. Sharma called
on the Czech President Vaclav Klaus, and
Prime Minister Petr Necas and discussed
measures to deepen bilateral engagement
with these Czech leaders. The discussions
also focussed on sectors of mutual interest
such as mining, auto, heavy industries,
power generating equipment and technical
textiles.
Earlier, both the ministers jointly
inaugurated the five day India Show. The
show is being organized jointly by the
Ministry of Commerce and Industry and
Engineering Export Promotion Council,
EEPC, India.
Over 135 companies belonging primarily to
India’s engineering sector are participating,
showcasing their strengths and capabilities
with respect to Indian products, technologies
and services during the entire week.
Bangladesh- Bhutan 11Sep
Bangladesh and Bhutan signed a
memorandum of understanding for
cooperation in Agriculture between the two
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countries. Bangladesh's Agriculture Minister
Begum Matia Chowdhury and visiting
Bhutanese Agriculture and Forests Minister
Lyonpo Dr. Pema Gyamtsho signed the
MoU at the Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka
on behalf of their respective governments.
Bangladesh's Agriculture Minister Begum
Matia Chowdhury said the MOU will
facilitate technical cooperation in the field of
agriculture and also enable promotion of
technology transfer between Bangladesh and
Bhutan. Bhutanese Agriculture and Forest's
Minister Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho is leading
a five member delegation from his country
which is on a five day tour to Bangladesh.
During their visit, the Bhutanese delegation
is also scheduled to visit Bangladesh
Agriculture Research Council, seed centre of
Bangladesh Agriculture Development
Corporation at Gazipur, Bangladesh
Agricultural Research Institute and
Bangladesh Academy of Rural Development
at Comilla.
EC & Egypt 18Sep
The Election Commission of India and the
Supreme Presidential Committee of Egypt
signed an MOU for mutual sharing and
cooperation in Electoral Management &
Administration. The MOU's were signed by
the Visiting Secretary General of the
Supreme Presidential Committee of Egypt,
Justice Hatam Bagato and Chief Election
Commissioner of India V.S Sampath in New
Delhi. Speaking on the ocassion V.S
Sampath said, under the MOU signed, both
countries will share knowledge and
experience including, technology used in
elections. He said the pact also provides for
prevention of fraud and voter education. He
said mutual exchange program between the
electoral bodies of India and Egypt will go a
long way in improving and updating the
election process to ensure conduct of free
and fair polls.
The CEC V.S Sampath also lauded Egypt
for the succesful conduct of Presidential
Polls under challenging circumstances. The
Visiting Secretary General of Supreme
Presidential Committee of Egypt Justice
Hatam Bagato said, Egypt and India have
shared historic ties and the bilateral
cooperation on the electoral front promises a
better future for the people of both countries.
Credit to Burundi 18Sep
India has extended a line of credit of 40
million U S Dollar development assistance
to Burundi. Both countries also signed
MOU's in areas of health and medicine,
Education and Urban Development. The
MOU's were inked in the presence of
visiting President of Burundi, Pierre
Nkurunziza and Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh. Speaking on the occasion after the
inking of the Mou’s, Prime Minister Dr.
Manmohan Singh said, India will set up an
Information and Technology Excellence
Centre in Burundi.
Dr. Singh said the MOU's signed will enable
both countries to continue to undertake
structured co-operation in the respective
areas. He said, both sides have decided to
further enhance bilateral co-operation over a
wide range of areas. The two leaders held
delegation level talks at the Hyderabad
House in New Delhi this morning. They
discussed wide ranging issues including
bilateral, regional and international issues
including piracy and UN reforms. Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh said, he asked
Burundi to facilitate Indian investments in
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agriculuture, infrastructure and
manufacturing sectors in line with Burundi's
national development aims. Dr. Singh said,
the Burundi President’s visit has rendered a
fresh impetus to boost bilateral relations.
Conference on Consumer Rights 20Sep
The first ever Dubai World Conference on
Consumer Rights will be held at the World
Trade Center in Dubai on April1-3, 2013.
The initiative has been organized by the
Department of Economic Development in
Dubai to share and learn from the best
practices and their applications in the
consumer rights protection. Experts from the
Government, public and private sector,
economists, academicians etc. would discuss
measures to enhance transparency and
impartiality in the retail sector. Another
attraction of the conference will be the
Power Brands Exhibition where over 50
leading brands would showcase their best .It
will also provide a platform to the
consumers, investors and traders to ensure
that all the voices are heard.
The Director General of Dubai Economic
Development Department, Sami Al Qamzi
said that the conference would bring
together the views from various sectors and
encourage best practices in commercial
activities.
Liaoning 26Sep
In a reflection of China’s increasing
maritime ambitions, the country
commissioned its first aircraft carrier in an
event hailed by top officials as being of “farreaching significance” and coming amid
rising regional tensions.
The unveiling of the 300 metre-long
Liaoning, a refurbished and upgraded
version of the Soviet carrier Varyag which
China purchased from Ukraine, came after
years of sea trials and tests to fit the carrier
with weapons and engines.
The Liaoning was commissioned by the
People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in
the port city of Dalian the capital of the
north-eastern province after which the
carrier is named.
Premier Wen Jiabao, who presided over the
commissioning along with President Hu
Jintao and top PLA officials, said China’s
first aircraft carrier would be of great and
far-reaching significance in inspiring
patriotism, national spirit and driving
national defence technologies.
The commissioning of the Liaoning makes
China the tenth nation to have an aircraft
carrier. The development comes amid rising
strains between China and Japan over the
disputed Diaoyu or Senkaku islands in East
China Sea.
Free Trade Base 2Sep
India and 10-member ASEAN countries
have agreed to widen the base of free trade
agreement between them by including
services and investments. Commerce and
Industry minister Anand Sharma, who was
in Siem Reap, Cambodia, to attend the 10th
ASEAN-India Economic Ministers
Consultations, reviewed the progress of talks
with his ASEAN counterparts. The ministers
agreed to intensify negotiations towards
conclusion of the ASEAN-India Trade in
services and investment agreement.
India would be hosting a meeting of the
Working Group on services and investment
in the second half of September to conclude
negotiation before the ASEAN-India
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Commemorative Summit in December in
New Delhi. Both the sides have already
operationalised free trade pact in goods in
January last year. Both the sides are
intensely engaged to include services and
investments in the Free Trade Agreement.
Since 2011, bilateral trade has increased by
43 per cent to over 79 billion US Dollars.
India is the sixth largest trading partner of
ASEAN.
Trade Promotion Office 3Sep
The office of the Indian Chamber of
Commerce was officially launched to
promote economic, trade and investment ties
between India and Cambodia.
The office is to act on behalf of Indian
business organisations and individuals for
business facilitation, regulatory exchange as
well as to promote India-Cambodia
economic and bilateral relations.
"It will act as the platform to guide Indian
investments into Cambodia," the press
release said.
Speaking at the event, Debasish Pattnaik,
president of the Indian Chamber of
Commerce in Cambodia, said the office was
to be a liaison between Cambodian and
Indian business houses and representing the
private sector by showcasing the multiple
opportunities both countries have to offer to
each other.
"Our goal is to offer access to resources and
network opportunities for anyone interested
or active in investment or trade amongst
Cambodia or India," said Pattnaik, who is
also vice chairman and CEO of a Cambodiabased D&D Pattnaik Group of Companies.
Indian Ambassador to Cambodia Dinesh K.
Patnaik said the commerce office would
help strengthen and promote trade and
investment relations between the two
countries.
According to the figures from India's
Embassy to Phnom Penh, trade between
India and Cambodia was at $72 million in
2011. Of this India exports to Cambodia
were at $64 million.
Last year, India's private investment in
Cambodia was $85 million in sugar
plantations, sugar factories, power plants,
and rice milling facilities.
"I believe that with the presence of the
Indian Chamber of Commerce here, the
bilateral trade and investment will be
growing in multiple fold in coming years,"
Pan Sorasak, Cambodian secretary of state
at the ministry of commerce, said at the
event.
Basel III 5Sep
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor,
D. Subbarao said that the Basel Committee
was working on establishing a minimum set
of principles for domestic systemically
important banks (D-SIBs), including some
large banks in India.
This committee will also prescribe norms for
higher loss absorbency (HLA) capital
standards for them as also evolve a sound
resolution mechanism for D-SIBs.
“The moral hazard relating to too-big-to-fail
institutions which encourages risky
behaviour by larger banks has been a huge
issue on the post-crisis reform agenda,” said
Dr. Subbarao while inaugurating the annual
FICCI-IBA Banking Conference.
Basel III seeks to mitigate this externality by
identifying global systemically important
banks (G-SIBs) and mandating them to
maintain a higher level of capital dependent
on their level of systemic importance. The
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list of G-SIBs is to be reviewed annually. At
present, no Indian bank appears in the list of
G-SIBs.
Subbarao said that effective implementation
of Basel III was going to make Indian banks
stronger, more stable and sound so that they
could deliver value to the real sectors of the
economy.
“By far, the most important reform is that
there should be a radical change in banks’
approach to risk management. Banks in
India are currently operating on the
Standardised Approaches of Basel II,” said
Dr. Subbarao.
The larger banks needed to migrate to the
Advanced Approaches, especially as they
expanded their overseas presence. The
adoption of advanced approaches to risk
management would enable banks to manage
their capital more efficiently and improve
their profitability.
This graduation required three things,
according to the RBI Governor. First and
most important, a change in perception from
looking at the capital framework as a
compliance function to seeing it as a
necessary pre-requisite for keeping the bank
sound, stable, and, therefore, profitable;
second, deeper and more broad-based
capacity in risk management; and finally,
adequate and good quality data.
The RBI estimates that Indian banks need an
additional capital requirement of Rs.5 lakh
crore, of which, non-equity capital will be of
the order of Rs.3.25 lakh crore while equity
capital will be Rs.1.75 lakh crore.
The RBI Governor said that the amount the
market would have to provide would depend
on how much of the recapitalisation burden
of public sector banks (PSBs) the
government would meet.
However, he said that the amount that the
market would have to provide would be in
the range of Rs.70,000 crore to Rs.1 lakh
crore depending on how much the
government would provide.
Over the last five years, banks had revised
equity capital to the tune of Rs.52,000 crore
through the primary markets. Raising an
additional Rs.70,000 crore to Rs.1 lakh crore
over the next five years from the market
should, therefore, not be an insurmountable
problem.
Fund to IMF7Sep
India has announced a contribution of ten
billion US dollars to International Monitory
Fund, IMF. It is in line with commitments
made by other G 20 member countries
towards enhancement of IMF resources for
crisis prevention and resolution. This was
informed by the Minister of State for
Finance, Namo Narain Meena. He said, the
funds would be released in a phased manner
as and when IMF calls upon India to make
the resources available. Meena said that
apart from India, China has also announced
43 billion US dollars contribution to IMF
while Russia and Brazil have agreed to give
10 billion US dollars each to IMF.
Steel Imports 11Sep
India's finished steel imports could rise to
around 8 million tonnes in 2012-13, a top
industry executive said, up about 18 percent,
as a lack of domestic supplies means India
bucks a global trend of weak demand for the
construction material.
Imports have already soared 53 percent in
April to July as local steelmakers,
scrambling for raw materials like iron ore
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due to environmental and legal delays, run
below capacity and are unable to meet
demand in Asia's third-largest economy.
FDI Proposals 11Sep
The government said it has cleared 21
foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals
worth Rs 2,410 crore, including eight from
the pharmaceutical sector.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board
(FIPB) in its meeting held on August 24 had
approved 21 FDI proposals, which include 8
proposals worth Rs 1,842.55 crore relating
FDI in brownfield pharmaceutical sector, the
Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The board, headed by Department of
Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind
Mayaram, cleared the proposal of Pfizer Ltd
for "induction of foreign equity in an
operating-cum-investing company to carry
out the business in pharmaceutical sector" to
the tune of Rs 800 crore.
Also Sterlite Networks, Dadar and Nagar
Haveli, plan to bring in FDI worth Rs 500
crore for telecom business was cleared.
Further, Mumbai based Arch Pharmalabs'
proposal for inducting Rs 372 crore of
foreign investment for manufacture and sale
of active pharmaceutical ingredients has
been approved.
FIPB also approved the proposal of The
Wall Street Journal for change in the foreign
collaborator by way of overseas merger
within group companies.
Besides, nod was given to D B Corp to
increase the foreign equity participation to
carry out the business of publication of
newspapers including the business of
developing, editing, publishing, printing,
distributing and marketing newspapers and
other publications and FM radio business.
The statement further said the eight pharma
proposals cleared by the board are subject to
certain conditions.
These pharma companies would be required
to maintain for the next five years the
quantitative level of NLEM (National List of
Essential Medicines) drugs production
annually at the time of induction of foreign
investment.
Besides, the Research & Development
expenses annually incurred by the investee
company at the highest level in the three
preceding years to the induction of foreign
investment will be maintained in value terms
annually over the next five years post
induction of FDI.
Other proposals which have been approved
are those of Sutures India, Bangalore (Rs
200 crore), B Braun Singapore, Singapore
(Rs 248.40 crore), Stellence Pharmscience,
Bangalore (Rs 100 crore) and Zim
Laboratories, Nagpur (Rs 50.44 crore).
India allows FDI in most of the sectors
through automatic route, but approval of
FIPB is required in certain sensitive sectors,
like telecom.
A FDI inflow in the country in 2011-12 was
$36.50 billion.
Tata Motors in Indonesia11Sep
Tata Motors announced its foray into
Indonesia with the setting up a whollyowned Jakarta-based subsidiary and plans to
launch its products in 2013.
The company will foray into both passenger
and commercial vehicles through its arm PT
Tata Motors Indonesia.
Indonesia is a key market for Tata Motors,
which has a wide range of products from
small cars to buses in passenger vehicles and
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from 0.5T mini-trucks to 49T heavy trucks
in commercial vehicles.
Tata Motors is also evaluating options for
setting up a manufacturing base in Indonesia
to serve the country and the ASEAN region,
it said, adding commercial launch and local
assembly would happen in 2013.
Significant investments will also be planned
for component localisation, the company
said without elaborating.
Tata Motors is also participating in the 20th
Indonesia International Motor Show,
starting in Jakarta on September 20. It will
display 14 Tata passenger and commercial
vehicles, being considered for introduction
in Indonesia progressively.
The display includes a special green pavilion
of Tata CNG vehicles, whose need is
growing in Indonesia.
By the time of the launch in 2013, PT Tata
Motors Indonesia will have about 10 to 15
dealers nationwide, offering sales, service
and spare parts.
Over a period of three years, the company
will set up a country-wide network of about
60 full-service dealers, about 100 other
workshops and about 300 more spare parts
retailers.
ECB Norms for Infrastructure
Companies 12Sep
Giving a boost to infrastructure sector
funding, the Reserve Bank of India, relaxed
the external commercial borrowings (ECB)
norms to help companies raise more funds
from overseas markets.
The RBI has allowed companies engaged in
the infrastructure sector to raise bridge
finance from overseas markets under the
automatic route.
“On a review, it has been decided to allow
refinancing of such bridge finance (if in the
nature of buyers’/suppliers’ credit) availed
of, with an ECB under the automatic route,”
the central bank said in a notification.
Under the earlier provision, the companies
were required to take permission of the RBI
for raising bridge finance, which is a kind of
interim arrangement for short-term credit.
The RBI through a separate notification, has
also allowed companies in the infrastructure
sector to raise ECB up to a maximum period
of five years for importing capital goods.
Under the new norms, trade credit should
not be for a period of less than 15 months
and also not in the nature of short-term
rollover finance.
Earlier, the companies could raise ECBs for
a period ranging from one year to three
years.
The RBI notification further said that the allinclusive costs, which include arranger fee,
upfront fee, management fee among others,
of such borrowing should not be over 3.5
per cent of six months Libor.
The credit facility would be available up to
$20 million per transaction for import of
capital goods as classified by the Directorate
General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).
The RBI has also relaxed the ECB norms for
repayment of rupee loans within the overall
ceiling of $20 billion.
As per the RBI notification, the permissible
limit of ECB has been increased from 50 per
cent to 75 per cent of the average foreign
exchange earnings realised during the past
three financial years or 50 per cent of the
highest forex earning in a year. The limit of
the maximum ECB which can be availed of
by an individual or group company under
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the scheme has been pegged at $3 billion.
Bilateral Trade 12Sep
India and the Czech Republic have agreed to
double bilateral trade in the next three years.
This was decided in a bilateral meeting
between Minister for Commerce Industry
and Textile Anand Sharma and his
counterpart M Kuba in Brno at Czech
Republic.
In the meeting both countries had also
agreed to launch Joint Working Groups,
JWGs, in areas of skills and innovation,
heavy engineering, life sciences and
pharmaceuticals. Sharma called on the
Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Prime
Minister Petr Necas and discussed measures
to deepen bilateral engagement with these
Czech leaders. The discussions also
focussed on sectors of mutual interest such
as mining, auto, heavy industries, power
generating equipment and technical textiles.
Earlier, both the ministers jointly
inaugurated the five day India Show. The
show is being organized jointly by the
Ministry of Commerce and Industry and
Engineering Export Promotion Council,
EEPC, India.
Over 135 companies belonging primarily to
India’s engineering sector are participating,
showcasing their strengths and capabilities
with respect to Indian products, technologies
and services during the entire week.
ICICI Bank 12Sep
ICICI Bank has opened a new branch at the
Mahanadi Vihar area in Cuttack.
The new branch was inaugurated by P S
Venkataswaram, deputy general manager,
Reserve Bank of India (RBI)-Odisha.
The branch will offer the entire range of
ICICI Bank’s products including deposits,
jewel bonds, home loans, auto loan and
privilege banking to customers.
This branch will remain open for customer
transactions from 9 am to 6 pm, Monday to
Friday and also on Saturday from 9 am to 2
pm. ICICI Bank has a network of 2,766
branches and 9,363 ATMs across the
country. The bank services its large
customer base through a multi-channel
delivery network of branches, ATMs, call
centres and internet banking to ensure that
the customers have access to its services at
all times.
FDI Floodgates 15Sep
United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government opened the FDI floodgates
across sectors ranging from aviation to
retail, and media to power in a single stroke.
In another step signalling a reform push,
could fetch the exchequer around Rs 15,000
crore, disinvestment in four PSUs Nalco,
MMTC, Hindustan Copper (HCL) and Oil
India was also okayed by the Union Cabinet.
Domestic airlines, in screaming need of
funds, have been allowed up to 49 per cent
foreign direct investment (FDI) from global
airlines. FDI in India’s multi-brand retail,
where global chains like Walmart, Carrefour
and Tesco have been waiting for several
years to enter, will be capped at 51 per cent;
but, it will be up to states to take a final call.
The policy on single-brand retail, too, has
been diluted to clear the way for the likes of
the euro 25-billion Swedish furniture
company IKEA to set up shop and invest
freely in India. The norm mandating 30 per
cent sourcing from the country’s micro,
small and medium enterprises (MSMEs),
cleared by the Cabinet last year, has been
tweaked. Now, it would be 30 per cent
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mandatory sourcing from India, preferably
from MSMEs. IKEA had told the
government in its India proposal that it
would be impossible to follow the 30 per
cent MSME sourcing norm.
The government’s FDI spree didn’t end
there —broadcasting services such as direct
to home (DTH) and cable could attract up to
74 per cent foreign investment, up from 49
per cent. Power exchanges have been
allowed to receive up to 26 per cent FDI and
23 per cent foreign institutional investment.
BOLD DECISIONS, FRENETIC
ACTIVITY
FDI IN RETAIL
Today’s move: 51% FDI allowed in multibrand retail, but subject to state
governments’ permission
Background: The govt had cleared 51% FDI
in multi-brand retail last year, but the
decision was put on hold due to political
opposition
Also approved
•FDI of up to 74% allowed in the
broadcasting sector
•49% foreign investment (26% FDI, 23%
FII) allowed in power trading exchanges
FDI IN AIRLINES
Today’s take-off: Cabinet approves foreign
airlines to invest up to 49% in the country’s
airlines
* Earlier stance: Foreign entities other than
airlines were allowed to own an equity stake
of up to 49% in Indian carriers
* Stocks soar*: Earlier in the day, aviation
stocks rose on buzz that Cabinet might
approve FDI
•Kingfisher: Rs 10.81 (+ 7.88%)
•SpiceJet:
Rs 34.50 (+ 4.39%)
•Jet Airways: Rs 368.35 (+1.97%)
*Friday’s closing stock price on BSE
DISINVESTMENT PUSH
New on the block: Cabinet has approved
stake sale in four PSUs: •Hindustan Copper:
9.59%
•Nalco: 12.15%
•Oil India: 10%
•MMTC: 9.33%
In the works
•RINL, NMDC, SAIL, BHEL, NLC already
in pipeline
•Govt preparing for offer-for-sale route for
Nalco, NMDC and NLC
•ETF and buyback of shares by CPSEs
being looked at
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata
Banerjee, a key UPA constituent, has
opposed the FDI move, while BJP, the main
Opposition party, argues the government has
allowed FDI under foreign pressure.
Loan Recast 15Sep
With debt recasts rising substantially over
the past two years and a major part of such
loans threatening to slip to the nonperforming category, Indian banks’
credibility will be at stake in case of a latter
scenario, the Reserve Bank of India said.
The central bank said market participants
were using the proportion of restructured
standard advances to gross advances as an
indicator to measure the stress on banks and
there was a perception that a significant
portion of these assets would turn into nonperforming assets (NPA).
“The gross NPA ratio, hitherto the main
financial ratio to gauge the level of
impairment in the banking sector’s assets, is
now being complemented with the ratio of
restructured standard advances to gross
advances as a measure of latent impairment
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of financial assets,” said B Mahapatra,
executive director of RBI.
“This is in view of the perception by some
market players that a significant portion of
these standard advances are actually
impaired or will turn non-performing with
passage of time.
A loan is restructured by banks if a borrower
faces difficulty in repaying. If a standard
advance is restructured, then except for a
few categories such as commercial real
estate and personal loans, banks can
continue to classify the asset as standard
even after the recast.
Since asset classification is downgraded
following the debt recast, banks need to
make lower provisioning.
If an asset become sub-standard or nonperforming, banks need to have higher
provisioning, which hurts their bottom line.
However, banks are now criticised for using
the debt recast tool to defer the inevitable,
that is, restructuring a loan which does not
have the potential of becoming a regular
one.
The working group (Mahapatra committee)
observed that there has been an
extraordinary rise in the level of restructured
‘standard’ assets, even surpassing the
quantum of gross NPA of the banking
sector.
ENUMERATING ADVANCES
9-Mar 10-Mar 11-Mar 12-Mar
Gross advances 27,93,572 32,71,896
40,12,079 46,55,271
Standard advances 27,25,350 31,90,080
39,17,991 45,29,236
Restructured advances
(of Standard) 60,379 97,834 1,06,859
2,18,068
Gross NPAs 68,222 81,816 94,088 1,37,102
Gross NPAs (in %) 2.44 2.5 2.35 2.94
Restructured standard advances as % of
gross advances 2.16 2.99 2.66 4.68
Amounts in Rs crore
Source: RBI
As at-end March 2012, while the gross NPA
of Indian banks were Rs1.37 lakh crore,
restructuring was to the tune of Rs2.18 lakh
crore. It its report, the Mahapatra committee
had suggested all restructured assets would
have to classified as NPA. The panel had
suggested abolition of the forbearance after
two years and in the interim, increasing the
standard asset provisioning requirement to
five per cent from the present two per cent.
Cash Reserve Ratio 17Sep
The Reserve Bank of India,RBI, has
released the Mid-Quarter Review of
Monetary Policy 2012-13.
Much to the relief of bankers, the RBI has
reduced the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by
25 basis points from 4.75 per cent to 4.50
per cent. CRR is the amount of money that
banks have to keep with RBI.
The RBI has said this cut in CRR will bring
in additional liquidity of 170 billion in the
banking system. CRR cut would be effective
from September 22. RBI has kept all the
other key policy rates unchanged.
The policy repo rate under the Liquidity
Adjustment Facility - LAF remains at 8 per
cent. Consequently, the reverse repo rate
will remain unchanged at 7.0 per cent.
Repo rate is the rate at which RBI lends
money to banks while the Reverse Repo rate
is the rate at which RBI borrows money
from banks. The Marginal Standing Facility
- MSF rate and the Bank Rate remains at 9.0
per cent.
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Lauding the government’s economic
reforms, RBI has said that Government has
undertaken long anticipated measures
towards fiscal consolidation which should
contribute to both greater capital inflows and
in the long run towards higher productivity,
particularly in the food supply chain.
It adds that although domestic growth
continues to be weak amidst a negative
investment climate; the recent reform
measures have started to reverse sentiments.
But maintaining that inflationary pressures,
both at wholesale and retail levels are still
strong and persistent; RBI has said that the
primary focus of monetary policy remains
the containment of inflation and anchoring
of inflation expectations.
RBI has said that economic growth has
remained sluggish while money supply,
bank credit and deposits have moderated.
On the rainfall front, RBI has said late rains
have augmented storage in reservoirs which
should improve prospects for the rabi crop,
mitigating to some extent the concerns about
agricultural prospects.
Kharif sowing however is still below
normal. RBI has further said that global
economic situation is also not good; exerting
pressure on global asset prices, and
particularly, commodity prices.
SBI get Capital 17Sep
The Finance Ministry is actively looking
into a proposal to infuse Rs 4,000 crore in
State Bank of India to boost its capital base,
and a decision in this regard would be taken
in the next few months.
The bank has submitted its capital
requirement plan and the Finance Ministry is
considering the proposal of SBI for the
capital infusion of about Rs 4,000 crore for
the current fiscal.
The decision would be taken in the next
couple of months.
Last fiscal, the government had infused Rs
7,900 crore in SBI to increase the Tier-I
capital of the bank.
Following the capital infusion in March
2012, the government holding in the bank
rose to 61.58% from 59.4%.
SBI had raised over Rs 16,000 crore through
a rights issue in 2008. In the last SBI rights
issue, government's contribution was in the
form of bonds instead of cash.
The government has already said it will
infuse about Rs 15,500 crore in public sector
banks during the current fiscal to enhance
their financial strength.
"I understand the problems, the constraints
under which the Indian banking system is
suffering for some time. We are trying to
help them as you have noticed in the last
two years in order to build up the capital
adequacy of the Indian banking system
particularly public sector banks, I have
injected Rs 32,000 crore," the then Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said.
"To improve the capital adequacy of the
public sector banks, I am going to provide
around Rs 15,500 crore in 2012-13 because
we want our banks should have adequate
capital so that they can be in a position to
compete with the others," he had said.
During 2011-12, public sector banks got Rs
12,000 crore for improving their capital
adequacy ratio.
The government pumped in Rs 20,157 crore
in public sector banks in 2010-11 to
maintain tier I capital at 8% and increase
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government's equity in some banks to 58%
in 2010-11.
TIMELINE: Changes 17Sep
The RBI left interest rates unchanged but cut
the cash reserve ratio for banks, saying the
primary focus of monetary policy remains
fighting inflation, days after the government
unveiled a spree of reforms to boost growth
and improve its fiscal position.
The Reserve Bank of India held the policy
repo rate at 8 percent, and subsequently, the
reverse repo rate was left unchanged at 7.00
percent.
The RBI cut the cash reserve ratio, the share
of deposits banks must keep with the central
bank, by 25 basis points to 4.5 percent.
It also left the minimum requirement for
banks' government bond holdings at 23
percent of deposits.
Following is a timeline of changes to the
repo rate since June 2000.
* RATE (percent) EFFECTIVE DATE
(day-month-year)
6.25% 02-11-2010
8.00% 17-04-2012
9.00% 29-07-2008
8.50% 25-10-2011
8.50% 24-06-2008
8.25% 16-09-2011
8.00% 11-06-2008
8.00% 26-07-2011
7.75% 30-03-2007
7.50% 16-06-2011
7.50% 31-01-2007
7.25% 03-05-2011
7.25% 30-10-2006
6.75% 17-03-2011
7.00% 25-07-2006
6.50% 25-01-2011
6.75% 08-06-2006
6.00% 16-09-2010
5.75% 27-07-2010
5.50% 02-07-2010
5.25% 20-04-2010
5.00% 19-03-2010
4.75% 21-04-2009
5.00% 04-03-2009
5.50% 02-01-2009
6.50% 08-12-2008
7.50% 03-11-2008
8.00% 20-10-2008
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6.50% 24-01-2006
13.00% 22-06-2000
6.25% 26-10-2005
13.50% 21-06-2000
6.00% 31-03-2004
14.00% 20-06-2000
7.00% 19-03-2003
13.50% 19-06-2000
7.10% 07-03-2003
10.85% 14-06-2000
7.50% 12-11-2002
9.55% 13-06-2000
8.00% 28-03-2002
9.25% 12-06-2000
8.50% 07-06-2001
9.05% 09-06-2000
8.75% 30-04-2001
9.00% 07-06-2000
9.00% 09-03-2001
9.05% 05-06-2000
* Note: Prior to October 29, 2004, the repo
rate was known as the reverse repo rate.
Nabard Credit 21Sep
The National Bank for Agriculture and
Rural Development (NABARD) has
projected a credit outlay of Rs 85,000 crore
for Odisha during the 12th plan period
(2012-17).
“Out of total estimated credit outlay of Rs
85,000 crore for the five year period,
agriculture sector will be allotted Rs 40,000
crore, non-farm sector Rs 23, 000 crore and
the balance is earmarked for other
activities,” said KK Gupta, Chief General
Manager, NABARD( Odisha Regional
Office).
He said, details of the credit plan is being
chalked out in consultation with the bankers
and the credit amount will be 2.5 times more
than what it was in 11th five year plan.
10.00% 06-11-2000
10.25% 13-10-2000
13.50% 06-09-2000
15.00% 30-08-2000
16.00% 09-08-2000
10.00% 21-07-2000
9.00% 13-07-2000
12.25% 28-06-2000
12.60% 27-06-2000
13.05% 23-06-2000
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It may noted, the outlay for the state credit
plan is prepared by the NABARD annually
for all districts.
For the first fiscal of the 12th plan, the
Annual Credit Plan has been pegged at Rs
29,927.41 crore, an increase of 20 percent
over the credit plan of Rs 25,019.39 crore
fixed for 2011-12.
Of the total plan of Rs 29,927.41 crore for
2012-13, agriculture sector has been allotted
Rs 14,838.91 crore (about 60 per cent). The
sum allocated for the crop production is Rs
10,401.05 crore and Rs 4,437.85 crore has
been earmarked for term investment in
agriculture and allied activities. Similarly,
the non-farm sector including agro and food
processing has been allocated Rs 3,961.97
crore while other priority sectors have got
Rs 11,126.54 crore.
Gupta informed, for providing marketing
platform to the artisans and craftsman
NABARD for first time has partnered
Odisha Rural and Urban Producers’
Association (ORUPA) for a product
exhibition cum sale “NABARUPAChanging Face of Rural Crafts-2012” in the
state.
Cairn Energy 24Sep
Cairn Energy of the U.K., which last year
sold majority stake in its Indian unit to
mining group Vedanta, is selling a little less
than half of its remaining 18.3 per cent
shareholding in Cairn India for up to $940
million.
Cairn Energy, through Citigroup Inc, is
selling 15.3 crore shares or 8 per cent of
Cairn India in the range of Rs.317.90 to
Rs.328.30 a share.
Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy had in June
sold 6.67 crore or 3.5 per cent stake in Cairn
India for about $360 million.
It had, in the run up to seeking government
approvals for selling 40 per cent of its stake
in Cairn India to Vedanta, claimed that it
would retain about 22 per cent interest in the
company to give it “the strength and
flexibility to explore new opportunities for
delivering transformational growth.’’
But in less than a year from receiving all
approvals, the company has decided to sell
off all its shareholding in Cairn India and
exit the country. Following the sale, Cairn
Energy would retain about 10.3 per cent
shareholding in Cairn India.
India’s Growth Forecast 25Sep
Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has lowered the
growth forecast for India to 5.5 per cent for
this fiscal, from 6.5 per cent projected
earlier, citing “volatile” global economic
situation.
According to S&P, Asia-Pacific is feeling
the pressure of ongoing global economic
uncertainty, and it has lowered India growth
forecast by one percentage point to 5.5 per
cent for this fiscal from 6.5 per cent earlier.
Lack of monsoon rains has affected India,
“for which agriculture still forms a
substantial part of the economy”, the report
said. Moreover, “global investors have
become more critical of India’s policy and
infrastructure shortcomings which was
recently highlighted by the power outage in
early August that affected 20 of India’s 28
States,” the report added.
According to S&P credit analyst Andrew
Palmer, “Any worsening of the economic
conditions in the eurozone will increase
contagion risk for Asia Pacific, given the
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region’s, particularly the open economies’,
sensitivity to capital flows and trade.”
S&P has lowered the base case forecasts of
2012 real GDP growth by about half a
percentage point for some countries, with
China’s revised to 7.5 per cent (from 8 per
cent); Japan to 2 per cent (from 2.5 per
cent); Korea to 2.5 per cent (from 3 per
cent); Singapore to 2.1 per cent (from 2.5
per cent); and Taiwan to 1.9 per cent (from
2.5 per cent).
Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley had also
lowered India’s growth forecast to 5.1 per
cent for the current fiscal from its earlier
estimate of 5.8 per cent; HSBC to 5.7 per
cent from 6.2 per cent and Standard
Chartered to 5.4 per cent from 6.2 per cent
projected earlier.
The growth rate in the first quarter (AprilJune), according to the data released by the
government, has slipped to 5.5 per cent,
from 8 per cent in the same period last
fiscal.
HDFC Bank 25Sep
HDFC Bank in association with Diners Club
International, a business unit of Discover
Financial Services, launched a range of
credit cards. The HDFC Bank Diners Club
International Credit Cards are available in
three variants HDFC Bank Diners Club
Black, HDFC Bank Diners Club Premium
and HDFC Bank Diners Club Rewardz.
This is the third such range of credit cards
that the bank has launched in the last three
months. In August they launched a cobranded credit card with Jet Airways. And in
September, for Teacher’s Day they launched
a Teacher’s Platinum Card.
The newly launched range of cards is aimed
at the bank’s high net worth clients. The
card holders direct access to the Diners Club
Airport Lounge Program spread over 450
lounges worldwide. In addition, the
cardholder would be able to exchange global
reward points for miles on major airlines
and hotels.
The Cardholders would also have exclusive
benefits and offers at Taj properties, Taj
Safaris, Taj Air and Small Luxury Hotels
Group. Additionally, the cardholders would
be privy to instant global recognition
reflecting their status and preferences
through a dedicated and elite concierge
program - HDFC Bank Diners Club
Concierge.
Zero Charges 26Sep
The Finance Ministry has asked public
sector banks to take steps to reduce the fee
to zero for electronic transfer of funds up to
one lakh rupees. In a recent communication
to the state-owned banks, the Ministry had
asked them to reduce the National Electronic
Funds Transfer, NEFT charges to zero, for
value up to 1 lakh rupees.
At present, most banks charge a maximum
fee of 5 rupees per transfer of funds up to 1
lakh rupees from one account to another
through NEFT system. Transfer of funds up
to 10,000 rupees through NEFT system
attracted a maximum charge of 2.50 rupees
per transaction. The government has been
asking banks to encourage transactions
through e-payment channels so as to reduce
the number of transactions through cheques
and other expensive modes of transactions
The public sector banks have also been
asked to identify top 20 per cent branches in
respect of business volumes to bring down
the number of cheque based transactions by
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CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM
at least one-fifth in the current financial
year.
The banks have also been asked to ensure
that all payments and disbursements by
them, except sundry payments, are made
only electronically.
Reforms for Mutual Fund Sector 27Sep
Market regulator Securities and Exchange
Board of India has notified wide-ranging
reforms for mutual fund sector, which would
provide incentives to fund houses for
expanding to small cities.
Sebi said in a notification that the changes,
which would come into effect from next
month, would require fund houses to make
half-yearly financial results within one
month of the end of every six-month period.
The decisions were approved by Sebi's
board in its last meeting on August 16 with
an aim to re-energise the mutual fund
industry, by expanding its distribution
network among other steps.
Best Price Outlet 27Sep
Bharti Walmart, the business-to-business
(B2B) joint venture between Bharti
Enterprises and Walmart Stores Inc for
wholesale and cash-and-carry operations in
India, said its total investment in Andhra
Pradesh had crossed $20 million with the
opening of its first Best Price Modern
Wholesale cash-and-carry store in
Hyderabad and the third in the state after
Guntur and Vijaywada.
Spread over 53,000 square feet, the Best
Price store in Hyderabad is situated at Pillar
no 267 at Sivarampally in Rajendranagar
area and is the JV's eighteenth outlet in the
country. Bharti Walmart, which launched its
first B2B Best Price Modern Wholesale
cash-and-carry store in Amritsar in May
2009, today also has stores in Amritsar,
Zirakpur, Jalandhar, Kota, Bhopal,
Ludhiana, Raipur, Indore, Meerut, Agra,
Lucknow, Jammu, Aurangabad, Bhatinda
and Amravati.
According to the company, the store has
created over 180 jobs direct in Hyderabad
and surrounding areas and 60,000 business
members, comprising restaurant owners,
hoteliers, caterers, fruit and vegetable
resellers, kirana stores, offices and
institutions, had already registered with the
one-stop B2B store.
The outlet will stock over 5,000 items,
including a wide range of fresh, frozen &
chilled foods, fruits and vegetables, dry
groceries, personal and home care items,
hotel and restaurant supplies, apparel, office
supplies, electronic goods, and other general
merchandise items.
According to Bharti Walmart, several
products available at the outlet have been
locally sourced from Hyderabad and
surrounding areas. These include FMCG
foods, dairy, frozen and bakery items,
tobacco, personal care, food and non-food
commodities, office supplies, and general
merchandise.
Kelkar Panel 29Sep
The Vijay Kelkar committee recommended
in its report made public that the
government prune its subsidies, check plan
expenditure, raise at least Rs 30,000 crore
from disinvestment and shore up tax-toGDP ratio to restrict fiscal deficit at 5.2 per
cent of the gross domestic product (GDP)
for the current financial year.
The committee warned that fiscal deficit
could widen to 6.1 per cent of GDP, against
the Budget Estimate of 5.1 per cent, if the
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government did not act. It said the Budget
had overestimated tax receipts by Rs 60,000
crore and underestimated subsidies by Rs
70,000 crore.
The government, however, with the food
security Bill on its mind, was quick to
distance itself from the committee’s
recommendations on subsidies. Economic
Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram told:
“Some recommendations appear contrary to
the government’s declared objective of
sustained and inclusive growth.”
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
•Immediately hike prices of diesel by Rs 4 a
litre, kerosene by Rs 2 a litre and LPG by Rs
50 a cylinder
•Hike prices of food items at ration shops
every time MSP is revised
•Implement Food Security Bill in phases
•Review Direct Taxes Code
•Set up group to suggest on monetising the
government’s land resources
The panel recommended the proposed Food
Security Bill be implemented in phases.
Mayaram said: “The government has
reiterated its intention of ensuring food
security for all.”
The panel said it wanted the government to
increase the prices of food items sold
through ration shops every time the
minimum support price was revised.
Besides, it recommended that selling of
sugar at ration shops be discontinued.
The committee also suggested that the prices
of diesel be raised immediately by Rs 4 a
litre, kerosene by Rs 2 a litre and LPG by Rs
50 a cylinder. It said these steps would
reduce underrecoveries of oil marketing
companies by Rs 20,000 crore. However,
analysts’ estimates suggest that the
government’s recent steps are good enough
to reduce the under recoveries by Rs 20,300
crore.
The panel further recommended increasing
the price of diesel at regular intervals, until
it became completely deregulated, and
keeping the subsidy on LPG and kerosene at
affordable levels.
The Kelkar panel favoured the proposal to
increase the maximum retail price of urea by
10 per cent during the first year, with any
further increase being limited to any
increase in the pooled gas price.
The panel made a case for the government
saving additional Rs 20,000 crore in Plan
expenditure through proper prioritisation
and efficient use of available resources.
FISCAL ROAD MAP
Scenarios outlined by the Kelkar panel
(% of GDP)
Total receipts
BUDGET WITH
ESTIMAT
OUT
E REFORM
WITH
REFORM
9.6
9.1
9.4
10.6
10.1
10.3
0.4
0.2
0.4
14.7
15.2
14.6
Non plan expenditure
9.5
10.2
9.8
..of which subsidies
1.9
2.6
2.2
Plan expenditure
5.1
5
4.8
Fiscal deficit
5.1
6.1
5.2
Revenue deficit
3.4
4.4
3.7
45.5
46.7
46.1
Gross tax revenue
Non-debt capital receipts
Total expenditure
Debt
On the tax front, it said the government
needed to review the Direct Taxes Code Bill
and bring more services in the tax net.
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Besides, it wanted the finance ministry to
tone its tax administration.
On the indirect taxes, it suggested
progressively cutting excise duty from 12
per cent to 8 per cent to align it with the
GST rate.
The Kelkar panel added that the government
could garner Rs 30,000 crore from
disinvestment by making the offer-for-sale
model attractive and using the exchangetraded model for securities held by it in
public sector units. It also wanted the
government to set up a group to suggest on
monetising the government’s land resources.
The panel said the Centre might be able to
cap its fiscal deficit at 4.6 per cent of GDP
in the next financial year and 3.9 per cent in
2014-15, if the steps suggested by it were
implemented.
Spectrum Fee 29Sep
The Ministry of Communications and
Information Technology has decided to
waive off spectrum fee for Community
Radio Services, CRS. This follows requests
received from National Advisory Council,
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
and the Community Radio Association.
Communications and IT Minister Kapil
Sibal has asked Department of Telecom to
evolve detailed guidelines by the 12th of
next month, to ensure that the spectrum is
optimally used and the channels use these
airwaves only to inform and empower the
common man. It was felt that in the interest
of inclusive and informed society, it is apt
that government provides the spectrum or
airwaves for CRS at zero cost. Although this
may result in an opportunity cost of not
more than 25 lakh rupees to the government,
the cost is far outweighed by the benefit of
informed, empowered and inclusive local
communities and the nation.
CRS plays a vital role in building vibrant
communities, in mobilizing groups to action
by informing and empowering citizens, in
giving voice to the marginalized groups of
society. It also helps in bringing community
needs to the attention of local and even
national governments. CRS can prove to be
an excellent tool for managing plurality in a
society and for fostering democracy.
Ssoftware Market 29Sep
The enterprise software market in India is
projected to grow 13.7% in 2012, as revenue
reaches $3.45 billion in 2012; according to
Gartner, Inc. India's enterprise software
market is forecast to maintain its strong
performance, with an estimated compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.6% from
2011 to 2016 - the highest growth rate in the
world.
The increasing globalization of the Indian
economy is leading to a growing need for
modern software with the latest features and
improved functionality.
"With Indian enterprises continuing to
embrace IT to improve productivity and
drive growth, penetration of information
communication technology (ICT)
infrastructure has been growing rapidly
during the past decade. The primary drivers
of growth have been domestic demand, the
growing maturity of users and incremental
enhancements in the technology," said
Asheesh Raina, principal research analyst at
Gartner. "India also enjoys a rich presence
of international software and hardware
vendors, backed by a very strong ecosystem
of system integrators, service providers and
business partners."
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In 2012, India will be the fourth largest
enterprise software market in Asia/Pacific.
The country is forecast to account for 11.4%
of the region's total revenue of $30.30
billion this year, the equivalent to 1.24% of
the total worldwide software of market share
of $278 billion.
By 2016, India's share of the software
market in Asia/Pacific is expected to reach
12.68%, representing $5.98 billion in
revenue, or 1.66% of total worldwide
software market revenue of $359 billion. In
comparison to other countries in the
Asia/Pacific region, such as China (with
26.34% share of regional spending in 2011),
the software market in India is still relatively
small and evolving.
Vaccine Market 29Sep
India's vaccine production sector is likely to
expand dramatically to an estimated size of
$871 million by 2016, says a report.
In 2011, it was estimated to be $350 million.
The report said it anticipates a sizeable shift
in the industry landscape, as the most
promising future growth opportunities for
the production and sale of vaccines come
from emerging economies such as India and
China.
Concerns regarding the emergence of
bioterrorism and Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome ( SARS), in addition to the search
for cancer vaccines, are the drivers for the
fast expansion of the India's vaccine
production sector, said the new report from
pharmaceutical industry experts GBI
Research.
The second most populous country in the
world has emerged as a major vaccine
producer in recent years, focusing efforts on
geographical regions where vaccines are not
funded by the UN or charitable
organisations.
As a result, exports constituted 65% of the
Indian vaccines market last year, GBI
Research said.
Global vaccines market expanded
significantly during 2005-2011, with major
pharmaceutical players such as
GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Merck and Pfizer
posting notable profits and the US recording
the largest share in the world.
In January 2008, the Indian government
cancelled the licences of three vaccineproducing units - the Central Research
Institute, the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin
Vaccine Laboratory and the Pasteur Institute
of India - on account of non-compliance
with good manufacturing practices (GMP).
But in April 2011, ministry of health and
family welfare launched a National Vaccine
Policy (NVP), stressing upon the future
significance of the vaccine industry, the GBI
Research said in a statement.
Nehru Cup Final 3Sep
India win Nehru Cup football tournament
after beating Cameroon 5-4 via penalty
shootout.
In the final played at the Jawaharlal Nehru
Stadium in New Delhi, India showed nerves
of steel to overcome Cameroon 5-4 via
penalty shootout and retain the Nehru Cup
football.
The match went into tie-breaker after the
two teams were locked 2-2 at the end of 120
minutes of play.
Gouramangi Singh (19th minute) and Sunil
Chhetri (77th) scored for India in the
regulation time, while Makkon Thierry
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(29th) and Kingue Mpondo (54th) found the
net for Cameroon.
In the tiebreaker, Robin Singh, skipper
Chhetri, Denzil Franco and Mehtab Hosain
struck to ensure that India managed a clean
slate.
Taking the final shot, Makkon hit the post to
leave Cameroon shattered, and the Indians
jubilant. Ashu C Tambe, Ousmalia, Bebey
Kingue Paul and Mpondo scored for the
visitors in the shootout.
US Open Men's Singles 11Sep
Andy Murray of Britain finally claimed his
maiden grand slam title after defeating
defending champion Novak Djokovic, of
Serbia in a five set marathon in the Men's
Singles final of the US Open Tennis. Murray
won 7-6, 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 in a match that
lasted almost five hours. He took the
opening two sets before Djokovic staged a
remarkable comeback to send the match into
a fifth set. Murray then turned up the heat
again in the fifth set on his way to victory
against Djokovic in the title clash. He
became the first Briton to win the US Open
since Fred Perry in 1936.
Virender Singh 12Sep
India's Virender Singh won the bronze
medal in the Men's 84 kgs free style
category in the third World Deaf
Championship at Sofia, the capital of
Bulgaria. The Indian team ended up at the
seventh place in the championship overall.
ICC T-20 Rankings 25Sep
The International Cricket Council has
named England’s Sarah Taylor and Lisa
Sthalekar of Australia as the top batsman
and bowler in the women’s T-20 format.
The top 20 list in the Women’s T-20 format
includes five batters each from Australia and
England, three from West Indies and two
each from India and New Zealand. England
captain Charlotte Edwards is in second spot
in the batting table and trails Sarah Taylor
by just nine ratings points at 682. India’s
Satr batter Mithali Raj is at number three
with 652 points while Harpreet Kaur stands
at Sixth position with 587 points. Among
the bowlers, Jhulan Goswami is at number
two with 653 points after Lisa Sthalekar
who leads the table with 666 points.
Sthalekar also leads the all-rounders'
category with 356 ratings points with 604
runs and 56 wickets. India’s Amita Sharma
is in fifth place in the All rounder’s category
with 252 points.
Global Competitiveness 6Sep
India's ranking on a competitiveness scale
has slid by three notches from last year, to
59th position in the world for 2012-13 and
by 10 places compared to its peak in 200910, in a global report by the World
Economic Forum (WEF).
While allegations over corruption continued
to hog the headlines in India, the business
community placed infrastructure ahead of
this issue in a list of their worries, according
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to the report.
India Inc also raised concern about the lack
of reforms in the country and the
government was seen to be not able to carry
these out, WEF said, adding politicians had
been losing confidence of the people.
Once ahead of Brazil and South Africa,
India now trails these two by some 10 places
and lags China by 30 positions, the report
noted.
WEF attributed the poor ranking to India’s
“disappointing” performance in areas
considered to be basic factors for
competitiveness. “The country’s supply of
transport, ICT (information and
communication technology) and energy
infrastructure remains largely insufficient
and ill-adapted to the needs of the
economy,” the report said.
It reported the Indian business community
repeatedly cited infrastructure as the single
biggest hindrance to doing business, well
ahead of corruption and bureaucracy.
The picture is even bleaker in health and
basic education, it said, while noting slow
improvement in these since 2006. “Despite
improvements across the board over the past
few years, poor public health and education
standards remain a prime cause of India’s
low productivity,” WEF said.
The report said discontent within the
business community remains high about the
lack of reforms and the perceived inability
of the government to push these through.
“Indeed, public trust in politicians has been
weakening for the past three years,” it said.
Once ranked a satisfactory 37th in this
dimension, India now ranks 70th.
Meanwhile, the macroeconomic
environment continues to be characterised
by large and repeated public deficits and the
highest debt-to-GDP ratio among BRICS
countries.
"On a more positive note, inflation returned
to single-digit territory in 2011," said WEF.
Despite these considerable challenges, India
does possess a number of strengths in the
more advanced and complex drivers of
competitiveness. It can rely on a fairly well
developed and sophisticated financial
market that can channel financial resources
to good use and it boasts reasonably
sophisticated and innovative businesses, said
the report. Adding, “This reversed pattern of
development is characteristic of India.”
Monorail in Hubli-Dharwad 12Sep
The Hubli-Dharwad administration was
given a glimpse of how monorail could
rovolutionise commuting in Hubli-Dharwad.
A preliminary meeting in connection with
the proposed monorail project for HubliDharwad was held at the deputy
commissioner’s office.
Deputy Commissioner Sameer Shukla,
Hubli-Dharwad Urban Development
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Authority chairman Lingaraj Patil, officials
of the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal
Corporation, Engineering Projects India
(EPI) Limited and the Malaysian company
Scomi participated in the meeting.
The EPI and Scomi officials made a
presentation on monorail. They said, the
project would require an investment of Rs
150 crore per km. They added that it would
be ideal to take up such projects as a PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP) model.
Shukla told that the EPI and Scomi have
proposed to take up the monorail project for
Hubli-Dharwad as a PPP model. They have
been provided the traffic study report
conducted by the Directorate of Urban Land
Transport (DULT) in 2009 and was told to
identify routes for the proposed project to
make it viable and submit a feasibility report
on taking up the monorail project on a PPP
model.
Global B-schools 17Sep
The Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is once again the only
Indian institute to be ranked among top 10
global B-schools in the Financial Times
(FT) Masters in Management 2012
Rankings. IIM-A was ranked for its flagship
post graduate programme in management
(PGP).
The FT report ranks the top 70 programmes
in general management that do not require
students to have prior work experience for
admission to the masters programme or, in
other words, pre-experience masters
degrees.
However, IIM-A slipped three places from
rank seven last year to 10th rank in 2012 FT
rankings. Moreover, in 2010, IIM-A had
debuted at the FT Masters in Management
Rankings at the eighth rank.
In addition, the premier B-school is ranked
number one in terms of placement success
and number five in careers rank.
The rankings give weightage to weighted
salary in US$, value for money, careers,
placement success, international students
and faculty, women students and faculty,
course fee and length, among others.
Economically Confident Country 19Sep
India's economic confidence has shot up by
8 points to 68% in the month of August
compared to the previous month, according
to the 'Ipsos Economic Pulse of the World'
survey. This makes India the fourth most
economically confident country in the world
after Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Germany.
India's economic confidence, said a report
by Ipsos, has got a major boost due to recent
big-bang economic reforms such as the hike
in diesel prices, FDI in retail, aviation and
broadcasting, disinvestment in 4 public
sector undertakings and cut in cash reserve
ratio (CRR) by the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI).
Mick Gordon, CEO of Ipsos in India said,
Union Government of India unleashed a
burst of economic policy reforms that
included steep rise in heavily subsidized
diesel price, limit on cooking gas subsidy for
consumers and foreign investments into
critical sectors such as aviation and retail,
raising the hope that expected fiscal breach
will now be lower and investments will pick
up. Borrowers could see better days ahead as
banks are expected to cut lending rates
following the RBI's decision to unlock Rs
17,000 crore by slashing CRR by 25 basis
points. The liquidity infusion would ensure
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adequate flow of credit to productive sectors
of the economy.''
Slightly less than a half of Indian citizens
(48%) believe their local economy which
impacts their personal finance is good, a
marginal rise of 2 points and an optimistic
53% people expect that the economy in their
local area will be stronger in next six
months.
The online Ipsos Economic Pulse of the
World survey was conducted in August
2012 among 20,915 people in 24 countries.
The average global economic assessment of
national economies remains static from last
month as 38% of global citizens rate their
national economies to be 'good'. Countries
with the strongest proportion of citizens
expecting their local economies to be
'stronger' six months from now include
Brazil (65%) followed by India (53%),
Saudi Arabia (47%), Mexico (41%),
Argentina (40%) and China (38%).
BS 25999 Certification 25Sep
At a special function held in Mumbai, RM
Malla, CMD, IDBI Bank, received the
globally recognized BS 25999 certificate
from Sandeep Das, director-strategy &
business development, Intertek India, which
is an international certification agency.
As a result, the bank became the first public
sector bank in the country to receive the
certification for its business continuity
management (BCM) process, for
comprehensive coverage of major business
& support functions. BCM involves
protection of human lives and continuity of
business in case of disasters.
The certification validates the robustness of
BCM in the bank, in the event of disaster. It
aptly demonstrates the bank's commitment
towards enhancing customer satisfaction,
quality of customer service delivery,
improvement in organizational performance
and regulatory compliance.
The bank is the youngest new generation
public sector universal bank that rides on a
cutting edge core banking Information
Technology platform. This enables the bank
to offer personalized banking and financial
solutions to its clients through its 998
branches and 1590 ATMs. The bank had an
aggregate balance sheet size of Rs 2,71,899
crore and total business of Rs 3,59,527 crore
as on June 30, 2012. The bank's operations
during the quarter ended June 30, 2012
resulted in a net profit of Rs 427 crore. The
bank is the youngest new generation public
sector universal bank that rides on a cutting
edge core banking Information Technology
platform. This enables the bank to offer
personalized banking and financial solutions
to its clients through its 998 branches and
1590 ATMs. The bank had an aggregate
balance sheet size of Rs 2,71,899 crore and
total business of Rs 3,59,527 crore as on
June 30, 2012. The bank's operations during
the quarter ended June 30, 2012 resulted in a
net profit of Rs 427 crore.
Economic Freedom List 25Sep
India ranks very low at 111th position in
terms of economic freedom, behind
countries like China, Nepal and Bangladesh,
a global study has claimed in a worldwide
index of 144 nations.
The annual ranking, titled 'Economic
Freedom of the World: 2012', is topped by
Hong Kong, followed by Singapore, New
Zealand, Switzerland (8.24) and Australia in
the top-five.
The index has been prepared by Canada-based
public policy think-tank, Fraser Institute, in
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cooperation with independent institutes in 90
nations and territories, and claims to measure the
degree to which the policies and institutions of
countries support economic freedom.
India's ranking has fallen from 103rd last year,
while Hong Kong has retained its top slot, the
report said.
Canada is ranked sixth on the list, while others in
the top-ten include Bahrain, Mauritius, Finland and
Chile. The countries with lowest level of economic
freedom are -- Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Republic of
Congo and Angola.
India shares its 111th position with two other
countries, Iran and Pakistan, while those ranked
lower include Guyana, Syria and Nigeria.
India has scored an overall rating of 6.26 in the
economic freedom index as against an average
global scrore of 6.83.
In the economic freedom index, China is at 107th
position with a score of 6.35, Bangladesh at 109th
with a score of 6.34 and Nepal is at 110th position
(6.33).
The report said that Hong Kong offers the highest
level of economic freedom worldwide, with a
score of 8.90 out of 10, followed by Singapore
(8.69), New Zealand (8.36), Switzerland (8.24),
Australia and Canada (each 7.97), Bahrain (7.94),
Mauritius (7.90), Finland (7.88) and Chile (7.84).
"Governments around the world embraced heavyhanded regulation and extensive spending in
response to the US and European debt crises,
reducing economic freedom in the short term and
prosperity over the long term," the report noted.
But the slight increase in this year's worldwide
economic freedom score is encouraging.
Impressively, all five continents are represented in
the global top 10.
The report noted that on an average, the poorest 10
per cent of people in the freest nations are nearly
twice as rich as the average population of the least
free countries.
Interestingly, the US, which is considered a
champion of economic freedom among large
industrial nations, continues its protracted decline
in the global rankings. This year, the US plunged
to its lowest-ever ranking of 18th, after being
ranked at as high as second position in 2002.
The decline is attributed to higher spending and
borrowing on the part of the US government.
The rankings and scores of other major economies
include -Japan (20th), Germany (31st), Korea
(37th), France (47th), Italy (83rd), Mexico (91st),
Russia (95th) and Brazil (105th).
Food Security Index 27Sep
India ranked 66th in the 2012 Global Food
Security Index, released by American chemical
company DuPont.
Based on a survey of 105 countries, Index ranks
India much lower than China, which stood at 39,
although higher than its other neighbours
Bangladesh (81) and Pakistan (75). "India is
ranked 66 in the list of 105 countries, scoring
slightly higher in the category of 'availability' than
in other two categories of 'affordability' and
'quality and safety'," DuPont executive vice
president James C Borel said.
World Tourism Day 28Sep
World Tourism day is being observed across the
globe to create awareness on the significance of
tourism within the international community and
demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political
and economic values worldwide. This year, the
theme is -Tourism and Sustainable Energy:
Powering Sustainable Development. The theme
aims to highlight the role of tourism in a brighter
energy future in which the world’s entire
population has access to modern, efficient and
affordable energy services. It is also an opportunity
to ensure international tourism continues to play a
role in tackling the major energy challenges of
present time, being addressed by the 2012 United
Nations International Year of Sustainable Energy
for all.
In his message, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki
Moon has said that as one of the world’s largest
economic sectors, tourism is especially well-placed
to promote environment sustainability, green
growth and our struggle against climate change
through its relationship with energy.
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