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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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." Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM (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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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 Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved. CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM 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. Copyright © 2012 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved.