News Roundup - 31 October 2014

1. The Kerala High Court upheld the liquor policy of the State government, but allowed bars in four-star and heritage hotels to function in addition to those in five-star and higher categories.
2. Switzerland said information exchanged under the Swiss-India tax treaty cannot be disclosed “in principle” to a court or any other body outside the proceedings of a “specific and relevant” case.
3. Sweden officially recognised the state of Palestine, becoming the first western European Union member to do so, in a move the Palestinians hailed as “historic” and Israel denounced as “deplorable.” Seven EU members in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean have already recognised a Palestinian state — Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Romania. Non-EU member Iceland is the only other western European nation to have done so.
4. Tim Cook became the most high-profile business CEO to come out as gay.
5. WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton received 116 million shares of Facebook stock now worth nearly $9 billion when they sold their unprofitable messaging service to the social networking leader earlier this month.
6. The Reserve Bank of India has raised the limit for urban co-operative banks (UCBs) to sanction loan against gold collateral to Rs.2 lakh from Rs.1 lakh at present.

                

Credits: The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 30 October 2014

1. Government announced relaxation in foreign direct investment (FDI) rules in the construction sector to reduce the minimum built-up area from 50,000 sq. metres to 20,000 sq. metres. The minimum capital requirement for such projects has also been brought down to $5 million from $10 million. The relaxations are expected to facilitate the infusion of funds into the debt-burdened sector, thereby, ensuring faster completion of projects.
2. India ranked 142 among the 189 countries surveyed for the latest World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” report, a drop by two places from the last year’s ranking, as Singapore topped the list. The fall in ranking from last year’s 140 is mainly because other nations performed much better.  India’s ranking originally stood at 134 last year, but was adjusted to 140 to account for fresh data.
3. Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in history, won the World’s Children’s Prize on , after a global vote involving millions of children. Nobody has ever received the Nobel Peace Prize and the World’s Children’s Prize, often dubbed the ‘Children’s Nobel Prize’. The award was created in 2000 and is part a worldwide educational programme in which children learn about global issues, democracy and their own rights.
4. A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal handed death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami for crimes, which include the killings of nation’s leading intellectuals during the country’s War of Liberation in 1971.
5. Zambia's President Michael Sata — nicknamed "King Cobra" for his sharp tongue and manner — has died.
6. India is the fastest growing and third largest start-up ecosystem in the world after the U.S. and the U.K., according to a Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies) a study.

Credits: The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 26 October 2014

1. In the ongoing Indo-Pak cyber war, hackers have targeted websites of municipal bodies in Karnataka and successfully defaced as many as 66 of them. Even though the home pages and internal pages are not affected, the hackers identifying themselves as “PakCyberPyrates” breached the security and uploaded an index file, causing the defacement. They indicated that the hacking was in retaliation to the defacement of the Pakistan People’s Party’s website a few days ago by an Indian hacker with handle “Bl@ck Dr@gon” in protest against the party leader Bilawal Bhutto’s remarks on Kashmir.
2. Facebook has released an application that lets people create virtual ‘rooms’ to chat about whatever they wish using any name they would like. ‘Rooms’ software introduced in the U.S. and Britain for iPhone made its debut on Friday as Facebook tries to make peace with people unhappy that real identities are mandated for profiles at the world’s leading social network.
3. Hollywood walk of fame’s 2,531^st star given to John Denver, 17 years after his death.
4. The famous theoretical physicist professor Stephen Hawking is now on Facebook. In his first Facebook post, Prof. Hawking said: “I have always wondered what makes the universe exist. Time and space may forever be a mystery, but that has not stopped my pursuit. Our connections to one another have grown infinitely and now that I have the chance, I am eager to share this journey with you. Be curious, I know I will forever be.”
5. Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (PNHZP), popularly known as the Darjeeling Zoo, the highest altitude zoological garden in India, housing rare Himalayan animals such as red panda and snow leopard, has over 200 species of trees, shrubs, climbers, medicinal herbs, fungi and micro flora, says a study.
6. Technology giant Google is teaming up with Oxford University to advance research on artificial intelligence to ultimately enable machines to better understand human users, specifically on the fields of image recognition and natural language.
7. Iran hanged Reyhaneh Jabbari convicted of murdering a former intelligence officer she claimed had tried to sexually assault her, defying international appeals for a stay on execution. Jabbari, an interior designer, was executed for the fatal 2007 stabbing of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi.
8. Russia is set to turn back its clocks to winter time (GMT plus three hours) permanently in a move backed by President Vladimir Putin, reversing a three-year experiment with non-stop summer time (Greenwich Mean Time plus four hours) that proved highly unpopular. Russia will also revert to the full 11 zones from Kamchatka in the Pacific to Kaliningrad on the borders of the European Union (EU) — reduced to nine by previous President Dmitry Medvedev.
9. A state of emergency came into force Saturday across much of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula after 30 soldiers were killed in a suicide car bombing by suspected jihadists.
10. GSAT-16, the next national communications satellite, reached French Guiana this week and is on its way to the space port near Kourou ahead of an early December flight, European launch service company Arianespace has said. The 3,150-kg satellite is scheduled to be flown on an Ariane-5 launcher numbered Flight VA221. Built at the ISRO Satellite Centre in Bangalore, GSAT-16 was sent on a chartered cargo plane to the French Guiana capital of Cayenne. The satellite carries C-band and Ku-band transponders which will support VSAT (very small aperture terminal) services, television services and emergency communications across the country. ISRO advanced the launch date of GSAT-16 by about six months to meet increasing demand for INSAT/GSAT transponder capacity from various industry and government users, ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan recently told The Hindu . It will replace INSAT-3E, which expired a little prematurely in April, at the same 55 degrees east orbital slot over India. The assembly of the satellite, its foreign launch and insurance cost Rs.860 crore, more than half of it going towards the launch cost. ISROcontracted Arianespace to launch both GSAT-16 and later the GSAT-15 communication satellite. The national space agency is still perfecting its two-tonne-class launcher, the GSLV, and cannot launch these three-tonne-class spacecraft. It is also working on the GSLV Mark-III that can lift four-tonne payloads. The first experimental flight of MkIII is slated for November or December. The GSAT-16 will be put in orbit along with DIRECTV-14, a satellite that will provide direct-to-home television broadcasts across the U.S.

 Credits: The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 25 October 2014

1. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB): MoU signed among 21-nations i.e. Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, as founding members of AIIB. It has an initial subscribed capital of $50 billion and is headquartered at Beijing.
2. New division in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) aiming to streamline “Centre-State” relations for foreign infrastructure investment. The new division will coordinate State delegations visiting abroad, passport issues and political clearances, as well as set up a database of State-level tie-ups and work on sister cities as also coordinate foreign dignitaries visit to Tier 2 cities. However, it will not deal with policy disagreements of the kind seen between the Centre and Tamil Nadu over Sri Lanka and with West Bengal over the Teesta accord with Bangladesh.
3. Indian Air Force personnel and their families have been asked to desist from using Chinese ‘Xiaomi Redmi 1S’ phones as these are believed to transfer data to their servers in China. 
4. Last week an Indian hacker, who uses the handle “Bl@ck Dr@gon,” reportedly defaced the website of the Pakistan People’s Party in protest against the controversial statements of its leader, Bilawal Bhutto, on Kashmir. The Pakistani hackers described him as a “script kiddie.” Now, an alliance going by the name of “Pak Cyber Pyrates” managed to deface a large number of websites of the Karnataka government and post anti-India statements. The hackers, however, did not deface the homepages, but introduced a page containing their message. The message talks of Pakistan taking over Kashmir and warns Indian hackers not to “touch Pakistani cyberspace”.
5. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has offered help in polio eradication to the government of Pakistan. He pointed out that though India was polio-free now, there was always the danger of the virus resurfacing as Pakistan accounts for 85 per cent of the world’s polio cases.
6. Google on Friday chose to record the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission’s one month in orbit around Mars with one of its popular doodles. The doodle for October 24 shows the spacecraft with part of Mars in the background. Soon, on November 5, it will also be time to celebrate the mission’s anniversary since it was launched.
7. One of the students of Super 30, the Patna-based coaching institute for IIT-JEE, to get a scholarship for pursuing higher education in Japan. The coaching institute is run by Anand Kumar for underprivileged students to crack the engineering entrance examination for the Indian Institutes of Technology [IIT]. Since its inception in 2002, over 300 students from the institute have already cracked the IIT-JEE. Japan’s industrial group GGC has also sent gift packs and sweets for the poor students.
8. Ashwika Kapur of Kolkata on Friday won the prestigious Panda Award, as part of the annual Wildscreen Film Festival held at Bristol, U.K. She is the first Indian woman to win the coveted wildlife photography award for her film on a Kakapo parrot. Ms. Kapur’s film “Sirocco — how a dud became a stud” is based on Sirocco, a Kakapo parrot, which is perhaps the only bird to have bagged a government job. The male bird was appointed as the Official Spokesbird for Conservation in New Zealand and it helps in conservation advocacy on social media.
9. Indian-American Azita Raji nominated as the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden.
10. European Union leaders have reached a deal on a comprehensive package of climate targets, including a binding 40 per cent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the level of 1990 by 2030. They also agreed at a summit in Brussels to increase the share of renewable energy consumed in the EU to at least 27 per cent and to boost energy efficiency by 27 per cent. However these targets are not binding. The breakthrough in the 28-nation bloc’s tough negotiations on its climate targets came after a compromise was reached with Poland, which strongly rejected attempts to set binding targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Poland and some other east European members of the EU are heavily dependent on coal for power generation.
11. A six-member think tank to draft the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) policy constituted. The panel, to be chaired by retired Justice Prabha Sridevan, will identifies areas in IPRs where study needs to be conducted and furnish recommendations in this regard to the Ministry. The expert group, set up by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), will also advise the government on best practices to be followed in trademark offices, patent offices and other government offices dealing with IPRs to create an efficient and transparent system of functioning in the said offices. It would also provide views on the possible implications of demands placed by the negotiating partners and prepare periodic reports on best practice followed in foreign countries. It will keep the government regularly informed of the developments taking place in IPR cases, which have an impact upon India’s IPR policy. Further, it will examine the current issues raised by industry associations and those that may have appeared in media and to give suggestions to the Ministry on such issues. Other members of the expert panel are: Pratibha M. Singh, Senior advocate; Punita Bhargava, advocate; Unnat Pandit, Cadila Pharmaceuticals; Rajeev Srinivasan, director, Asian School of Business; and Narendra K Sabarwal, retired DDG, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The panel would also give suggestions on the steps that may be taken for improving infrastructure in intellectual property offices and tribunals, it said. It will also highlight anomalies in the present IPR legislations and to advice possible solutions to the Ministry.
12. The Aditya Birla group (ABG) has announced a joint venture with a South African insurance giant, MMI holdings Ltd, to enter India’s huge health insurance market.
13. The Finance Ministry has cleared 20 FDI proposals, including six in the pharma sector, envisaging a total inflow of Rs.988.30 crore. The proposals of Fresenius Kabi Oncology for Rs.119 crore and Amneal Pharmaceuticals Company’s for up to Rs.205 crore have been approved as also Indusind Bank’s proposal seeking increase in foreign investment in the bank to 74 per cent. Tamil Nadu-based Equitas Holdings Pvt. Ltd., with the largest proposed investment in the lot, would bring foreign capital of Rs.325 crore. It is followed by Mumbai-based Tara India Fund envisaging investment of Rs.305.63 crore. Under the defence sector, proposals of Bharti Shipyard and Solar Industries India will not lead to any fund flow. Telecom player Verizon Communications India’s proposal for increase in foreign equity participation by its foreign parent from 74 per cent to 100 per cent was approved, entailing investment of Rs.2.32 crore. Meanwhile, the FIPB rejected five proposals, including Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd. (SSTL). At the same time, eight proposals, including four from the pharma sector, was rejected.
14. Bangladeshi war criminal Ghulam Azam, who led the Jamaat-e-Islami during the country’s liberation war in 1971, died at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka. Azam is the second war-crime convict to die in the hospital’s prison cell after Abdul Alim, a Minister in Gen. Ziaur Rahman’s cabinet. Azam, the brain behind the conspiracy to thwart the birth of Bangladesh, had backed a united Pakistan and led both the political and the auxiliary forces manned by Bengalis that assisted the Pakistan military.
15. A U.S. prosecutor, who successfully investigated a precedent-setting work visa fraud case against Infosys, resulting in the Indian IT giant paying a whopping $34 million in settlement, has been recognised by Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Charles Johnson for his work. Shamoil T. Shipchandler, former Eastern District of Texas federal prosecutor, and his investigative was presented with the Meritorious Service Award (Silver Medal), on October 21 in Washington DC by Mr. Johnson. This is one of the highest awards for service granted by the Secretary of Homeland Security. The award was presented to Mr. Shipchandler for investigating and bringing to justice an illegal visa fraud operation that resulted in the largest immigration settlement to date.
16. U.K. engineering group Penspen has been awarded a contract to carry out a technical feasibility study for the proposed 1,820-km pipeline Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline. The Asian Development Bank, which is helping the four nations build 56-inch diameter pipeline from Turkmenistan’s giant Galkynysh gas field to serve energy markets in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, awarded the contract to Penspen last week. The technical feasibility study is expected to take six months to complete.

Credits: The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 24 October 2014

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a package of Rs. 745 crore for the reconstruction of flood-ravaged houses and hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir. Of this, Rs. 570 crore has been allocated for the reconstruction of houses and Rs. 175 crore for restoration of six hospitals.
2. In the wake of repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the border, the Indian forces have not offered sweets to their counterparts on the occasion of Diwali.
3. N. Gopalaswami - Chairman of the Chennai-based ‘Kalakshetra,’ the institution founded by Rukmini Devi Arundale to nurture India’s artistic traditions.
4. A Pakistani court ordered the media regulatory authority, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA),  to restore transmission of a news channel (ARY News) supportive of anti-government protests organised by cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan.
5. Nokia third quarter profits more than quadrupled from a year ago, helped mostly by a one-off tax-related gain. Between July and September, the net profit jumped more than four times to 757 million euro ($959 million) compared to a year earlier, which sold its struggling mobile phone business to Microsoft last year. The group took a charge for its navigation application business HERE, raising a previous estimate of 1.2 billion euro to 2 billion euro. But that was more than offset by a 2-billion euro tax gain arising from its businesses in Germany and Finland. Excluding that exceptional income, the company was still posting an operational loss, which reached 810 million euro for the quarter.
6. The National Green Tribunal has asked the Assam government to submit a status report on the present condition of the Deepor Beel, a large natural wetland, which is a Ramsar site and an important destination of migratory birds. A  detail report on whether any municipal solid waste was being dumped on Deepor Beel and if any construction activities were going on in and around the wetland. It also asked if the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority and the Guwahati Municipal Corporation were following rules.
7. The Union Housing and Poverty Alleviation Ministry has earmarked a special component for providing rental accommodation to the homeless and migrant workers in urban areas. Under its flagship Rs. 35,810-crore Housing for All by 2022 project, the Ministry will offer them a place to stay for a stipulated period and monthly rent.

Credits: The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 22 October 2014

1. Mohan Lal Khattar to be 21^st Chief Minister of Haryana.
2. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge has started its 20th year of uninterrupted run at the iconic Maratha Mandir cinema hall, Maharashtra. Since its release on October 20, 1995, the classic love story has won over the hearts of generations and is still watched by the youth, often playing to packed houses during its daily 11:30 a.m. show, said the production house Yash Raj Films. The film will complete 1000 weeks at the box office on December 12. 
3. India secured a second consecutive two-year term at U.N. Human Rights Council. Three other countries including Indonesia, Bangladesh and Qatar were elected.
4. The longest railway tunnel (3235 m) in the north-east on the newly constructed Lumding–Silchar broad gauge line in Assam has been scooped out. The tunnel connects the New Haflong railway station with Jatingalumpur railway station and goes under Haflong town.
5. Kerala introduces educational package for tribal pre-primary children in their own language, as a pilot project in Attappady block in Palakkad district. Titled Early Childhood Curriculum Care and Education (ECCCE), it will be implemented in anganwadis in tribal areas with the active participation of government agencies.
6. Centre rolled out reforms to manage government expenditure through speedy project approvals, decentralisation of more financial powers to Ministries and reduced transaction costs. This is expected to lift GDP by 0.5-1 percentage point. The Secretary of an administrative Ministry can now approve schemes and projects that cost up to Rs. 100 crore, up from the present Rs. 25 crore. The Union Cabinet’s approval will be needed only for those that cost more than Rs. 1,000 crore, not Rs. 300 crore.
7. HDFC Bank Q2 2014-15 (Jul-Sep, 2014) 20 % rise in net profit, its slowest growth in the past five quarters, at Rs.2,381.50 crore despite a healthy jump in core interest income and margins, against Rs.1,982.32 crore in the July-September quarter of the last fiscal. Net interest income grew 23.1 per cent to Rs.5,511 crore, while other income grew 11 per cent at Rs.2,047 crore restricted by a halving of its forex and derivative revenue at Rs.221.70 crore.
8. Tata’s Jaguar Land Rover inaugurated its first overseas factory in China with an investment of over $1.7 billion to consolidate its position in the world’s largest car market & also rolled out its premium luxury Range Rover Evoque.
9. Centre launched a web portal that will contain digitised content from museums across the country. Digitisation is done using the Jatan Collection Management Software. The software and the web portal have been developed by Centre of Development of Advanced Computing, Pune.
10. Government orders NSEL (National spot exchange ltd) to merge with its parent holding company FTIL (Financial Technologies India Ltd).
11. Mayank Ashar appointed MD & CEO Cairn India.
12. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah criticised the ‘Kashmir million man march’ scheduled to take place in London later this month. Challenging the organisers to hold the march in the State, Mr. Abdullah said it was easier to do such things at cosy places in the West.
13. DNA testing is the most legitimate and scientifically perfect means a man can use to establish his wife’s infidelity, the Supreme Court has held.
14. The International Boxing Association (AIBA) Executive Committee Bureau decided to provisionally suspend L. Sarita Devi, her coaches (Messrs Gurbakhsh Singh Sandhu, Blas Iglesias Fernandez and Sagar Mal Dhayal) as well as Indian chef-de-mission in the Incheon Asian Games, Adille J. Sumariwalla (who were all present at the Games in Korea) and not to allow any of them to participate at all levels of AIBA competitions, events and meetings until further notice.
15. JSW Steel: Net profit up 6.5 times at Rs. 762 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014, against Rs.101 crore in the same period last year. The gross turnover increased by 5 per cent to Rs.12,996 crore for the said quarter from Rs.12,325 crore. Net sales income also improved by 5 per cent to Rs.11,886 crore from Rs.11,308 crore. During the quarter, the company has made a provision of Rs.168.32 crore towards carrying value of its investments in US Plate & Pipe mill and also made a provision of Rs.21.20 crore towards cancellation of the allotment of coal blocks. On a consolidated basis, the JSW Steel group for the reviewed quarter posted a profit after taxes and share of profit/(loss) of associates of Rs.749 crore as compared to a net loss of Rs.116 crore for the same period last year. The gross turnover increased to Rs.14,859 crore from Rs.13,866 crore. Net sales income increased by 7 per cent to Rs.13,692 crore from Rs.12,796 crore. During the quarter, the company reported highest ever crude steel production of 3.30 million tonnes while saleable steel sales volume stood at 3.07 million tonnes.

 Credits: The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 21 October 2014

1. Centre recommended the promulgation of an Ordinance to acquire the land of 214 coal blocks mines whose allocations were quashed by the Supreme Court last month. It also approved a plan for e-auctioning the cancelled blocks to end-user private players of coal from the power, steel and cement sectors. Government entities, including public sector units such as NTPC and State Electricity Boards, however, will not have to go through the auction route as a pool of coal mines will be reserved for allocation to them from the cancelled blocks. The proceeds from the e-auction of coal mines will go entirely to the States where they are located — mainly in Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. In the first round of e-auction to be completed within the next three to four months, only end-users would be eligible to bid for captive mines and trading in coal would be barred. The land to be acquired back from owners of mines that stand de-allocated following the Supreme Court ruling would be valued by an independent authority under the Coal Nationalisation Act.
2. Sri Lanka will hold a snap presidential election in January, nearly two years ahead of schedule, that could send the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa into office for a record third term.
   India China agree to establish a egular meeting mechanism between the two military headquarters of neighbouring military areas and border troops, set up new meeting posts in the border areas and have hotlines between military headquarters.
3. The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has found large-scale illegal mining of iron and manganese ore in the forest lands of Odisha. As per the details given by the Odisha Forest Department, 286.392 lakh MT of iron ore, valued at Rs.13,898.20 crore has been excavated from the forest land without approvals under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Out of the above, 67.74 lakh MT was illegally excavated during the years 1985-98, 54.38 lakh MT from November 17, 2002 to February 15, 2005 and 164.27 lakh MT from August 15, 2005 to August 27, 2009.
4. Laser physicists in Australia have built a tractor beam that can repel and attract objects, using a hollow laser beam that is bright around the edges and dark in its centre, the Australian National University (ANU) announced. It is the first long-distance optical tractor beam and moved particles one-fifth of a millimetre in diameter a distance of up to 20 cm, around 100 times further than previous experiments. It could be used, for example, in controlling atmospheric pollution or for the retrieval of tiny, delicate or dangerous particles for sampling. Unlike previous techniques, which used photon momentum to impart motion, the ANU tractor beam relies on the energy of the laser heating up the particles and the air around them. The ANU team demonstrated the effect on gold-coated hollow glass particles. The particles are trapped in the dark centre of the beam. Energy from the laser hits the particle and travels across its surface, where it is absorbed creating hotspots on the surface. Air particles colliding with the hotspots heat up and shoot away from the surface, which causes the particle to recoil, in the opposite direction. To manipulate the particle, the team moves the position of the hotspot by carefully controlling the polarisation of the laser beam.
5. Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s first leader from outside the political and military elite, was sworn in President.
6. Idea Cellular of the Aditya Birla group reported 68 per cent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs.755.88 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014, as compared to Rs.447.61 crore for the same period last year.
7. Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) reported 33 per cent growth in net profit at Rs.2,184 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014, as compared to Rs.1,640 crore in the same period last year.
8. The government allowed private defence manufacturing firms to sell equipment to state-run entities without prior approval. However, permission would be required to sell to non-government entities. The Ministry also removed the cap on the annual production capacity for defence-related equipment. However, licensed firms would be required to submit their production returns to the government every six months. Further, as a measure of ease of doing business, two extensions of two years each in the initial validity of three years of the industrial licence would be allowed up to seven years. According to a World Bank report, India has slipped three positions to 134th spot in the latest ‘ease of doing business’ list, which is topped by Singapore.
9. WHO declares Nigeria Ebola-free.
10. Centre to host a four day World Ayurveda Congress in Delhi from 6-9 November 2014. The conference would be inaugurated by PM and attended by delegates and Health Ministers from 24 countries. The Centre will support institutions to carry out research, create a database and offer treatment based on established practices in Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Siddha and Unanni systems. An All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) is coming up at Jasola in Delhi. It will admit the first batch of post-graduate students during the academic year 2015-16. A 200-bed hospital will also become functional in about six months. The North Eastern Institute of Folk Medicine (NEIFM), a national institute established under the Department of AYUSH, at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh will also become operational by next year. The aims and objectives of the NEIFM are to survey and create a database of folk medicine practices and therapies prevalent in the region.

Credits : The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 20 October 2014

1. Sultan of Johor Cup – India beats Great Britain to retain the cup.
2. Kremlin Cup ATP - Marin Cilic of Croatia beats Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut. 
3. CBI filed FIR against Jindal Strips Ltd (now known as Jindal Steel and Power Ltd) & unknown public officials for alleged cheating and corruption in the coal block allocations during 1993-2005 period. The case pertains to allocation of Gare Palma IV/1 coal block.
4. Haryana Polls : BJP wins 46 out of 90 seats and gets majority.
5. Maharastra Polls: Of the total 288 seats BJP won 122, Shiv Sena 63, Congress 42, NCP 41,MNS 1.

Credits: The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 19 October 2014

1. Government de-regulated the price of diesel and announced a new price for domestically produced natural gas. Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme for liquefied petroleum gas relaunched.
2. Cabinet has decided that LPG subsidy will be provided on a per-kg basis instead of a per-cylinder basis. LPG subsidy will for the first time become available to slum dwellers and migrant labourers as it will apply to all purchase of LPG irrespective of cylinder size. Earlier smaller sized cylinders were excluded from the subsidy. The subsidy will be provided through direct cash transfers to plug leakages.
3. Cabinet approved India’s participation in the Chahbahar port project in Iran. This will give significant geo-strategic advantage to India by way of smooth access to Afghanistan. An Indian Joint Venture (JV) company will lease two fully constructed berths the port’s first phase for a period of 10 years, with an investment of $ 85.21 million within 12 months. Located along the Makran coast in the Gulf of Oman, Chahbahar is in close proximity to the Strait of Hormuz which facilitates about 40 per cent of the world’s oil trade, and hence has significant strategic implications for India. The road or rail link from Chahbahar would provide India the shortest access to Pashtun areas of Afghanistan, from the Nimroz province. Not only would it allow India to gain easier access to Afghanistan and central Asia without having to depend on Pakistan, it is also being touted as India’s answer to Chinese control over Pakistan’s Gwadar port, just 76 km from Chahbahar. The port was a dream project of former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, who had inked a MoU for its joint development with the then Iranian president Mohammad Khatami in 2003.
4. Prompted by controversy over dangerous research and recent laboratory accidents, the White House announced that it would temporarily halt all new funding for experiments that seek to study certain infectious agents by making them more dangerous.
5. Twenty-two people, most of them women and children, have been hacked and clubbed to death by Ugandan rebels in the troubled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) just days after a similar massacre. The Ugandan rebels have committed strings of atrocities since they were chased into neighbouring Congo by the Ugandan army in the 1990s. The Congolese army, supported by U.N. peacekeepers from the MONUSCO stabilisation mission, had dealt the rebels a series of severe blows earlier this year. 
6. One of Thailand’s most prominent scholars, Sulak Sivaraksa,  is the target of a criminal complaint on charges of  lese majeste for comments he made about a Thai king who died more than 400 years ago.
7. Rome’s Mayor has registered 16 gay marriages entered abroad in open defiance of Italy’s law. Gay marriage is illegal in Italy.

Credits: The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 18 October 2014

1. The West Indies’ cricket tour of India has been called off midway because of a dispute over wages among the players, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA).
2. The NDA government informed the Supreme Court that the names of persons with black money in foreign banks could not be revealed as under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, confidentiality had to be maintained and the names revealed by the German authorities could not be made public and should be used only for tax purposes.
3. The first indigenously designed & developed long-range sub-sonic cruise missile, Nirbhay, was test-fired for a range of over 1,000 km from the Integrated Test Range in Balasore, Odisha.
4. Review of National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) announced. A Centrally-funded scheme, the NPCB was launched in 1976 to reduce the prevalence of blindness. The Rapid Survey on Avoidable Blindness conducted during 2006-07 showed a reduction in the prevalence of avoidable blindness from 1.1 per cent in 2000 to one per cent in 2006, the current target is 0.3% by 2020. Concept of ‘vision ambassadors’ — volunteers who act as link between donors and eye banks — being followed in Bangalore may be replicated elsewhere. India has the largest burden of global blindness — about 3.5 million with 30,000 new cases being added each year.
5. The micro-blogging site Twitter has added a new feature to allow its users to listen music directly from the twitter stream on mobile devices. Developed with the Berlin-based audio-streaming service SoundCloud, the Twitter “audio card” lets users discover and listen to audio directly on both iOS and Android devices.
6. The U.S.-based National Institutes of Health (NIH) will fund a study on providing better care for people suffering from diabetes and depression in India. The study will be carried out by the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), Chennai; the All India Institute of Medical Sciences; New Delhi; and the Endocrine and Diabetes Centre, Visakhapatnam. University of Washington Seattle and Emory University will be the partner institutions in the U.S.
7. Indian and Chinese diplomats agreed to defuse tensions of the past three months at a two-day meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) in Delhi. But a month after Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to restarting the high-level talks of Special Representatives on border issues, India is yet to announce its nominee for the dialogue.
8. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Switzerland had agreed to share information on Indians stashing illicit money there in certain cases but blamed a 1995 agreement as the constraining factor in disclosing their names. He said the Swiss authorities agreed to give information related to HSBC and Liechtenstein lists, provided there was independent evidence collected by Indian authorities. Besides, the Swiss would “confirm the genuineness or otherwise” of details of foreign accounts of Indian citizens procured by intelligence agencies.
9. Nigeria’s military and presidency on Friday claimed to have reached a deal with Boko Haram militants on a ceasefire but released contradictory statements on whether a deal for the release of more than 219 kidnapped schoolgirls was in place. 
10. Israel is building vertical cemeteries. The world’s tallest existing cemetery is the 32-storey high Memorial Necropole Ecumenica in Santos, Brazil. In Tokyo, the Kouanji is a six-storey Buddhist temple where visitors can use a swipe card to have the remains of their loved ones brought to them from vaults on a conveyer belt system. Versions of stacked cemeteries already exist in some shape or form in places like New Orleans and across Europe, in Egypt’s Mountain of the Dead, in China and in the amphitheatre-like Pok Fu Lam Rd Cemetery in Hong Kong. But only in Israel does the phenomenon appear to be part of a government-backed master plan. Aside from those who have already purchased their future plots, individual outdoor graves are no longer offered to the families of the more than 35,000 Israelis who die each year. The first space-saving option is to put graves on top of each other separated by a concrete divider and have a shared headstone. This is common among couples and even whole families. The second option is stacking the dead above ground into niches built into walls, a bit like in a morgue, but adorned with headstones. The third, and most revolutionary option, is to be buried in a building where each floor resembles a traditional cemetery, without the blue sky above.
11. A Pakistani court has restrained the government from initiating work on two proposed nuclear power plants at Karachi to be built with Chinese help unless environmental safeguards are adhered to.
12. The Team formed for emergency response on Ebola that is under the African Union Commission Social Affairs has urged the Indian government to lend support with medical human resources.
13. Attorney Ron Klain to coordinate the U.S. response to Ebola as it spreads beyond West Africa.
14. An Indian engineer, Ketankumar Maniar, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by deportation for stealing trade secrets from medical technology giant Becton Dickinson and another New Jersey company. 
15. World Trade Organisation Director-General Roberto Azevedo has said that more than two months after the deadline on the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) had passed and despite intensive consultations, no solution to the Bali decisions impasse has been found. He said there seemed to be an ‘overarching reluctance’ to put other issues on hold while a ‘permanent solution’ was sought on Public Stockholding.In July, India refused to ratify the TFA protocol unless there was ‘satisfactory’ progress on the Public Stockholding proposal crucial to protecting India’s minimum support prices for its farmers against the WTO’s prescribed caps for which India wanted a ‘permanent solution’. The WTO Ministers had set December 31 as the deadline for the post-Bali work program to find the permanent solution.
16. IFCI to raise money through a public issue of secured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) at a face value of Rs.1,000 each, amounting to Rs.250 crore (base issue size) with an option to retain oversubscription aggregating up to Rs.2,000 crore. The NCDs would be listed on the BSE and the National Stock Exchange.
17. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital & Research Centre. The hospital was set up in 1925 and was Mumbai’s first general hospital. In its 90th year, it has been completely rebuilt by Reliance Foundation into a modern 19-storey tower and two heritage wings. The hospital has collaboration with John Hopkins, MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Southern California. It has all modern facilities. The general wards of the hospital will have the same level of treatment for the citizens at the bottom of the pyramid. The hospital has an outreach program that now covers over 3.10 lakh individuals in the vicinity, providing preventive and primary healthcare on a digital platform virtually free of costs, Reliance Foundation said.
18. PM Modi in Combined Commanders ConferenceIndia had to be prepared for a changing world, which demanded new thinking with regard to economic, diplomatic and security policies.Asked to achieve a greater synergy among the three wings of the armed forces. Emphasised that an atmosphere of peace and security was essential to enable India achieve its goals of economic development.Assured them of his government’s commitment to provide adequate resources to ensure full defence preparedness, overcome shortages and meet modernisation needs. He said the idea of Digital India should also extend to Digital Armed Force.Asked to be ready for “less predictable” security challenges as technological challenges would make responses more difficult to keep pace with. Domination of cyber space will become increasingly important.

Axis Bank Q2 results (July to September 2014)

Net profit of Rs.1,610.71 crore (Rs.1,362.31 crore Q2 2013), 18% rise.
Core operating revenue rose 17% yoy to Rs.5,171 crore.
 Net interest income rose 20% yoy to Rs.3,525 crore (Rs.2,937 crore Q2 2013).
 Other income (comprising fee, trading profit and miscellaneous income) rose 10% to Rs. 1,948 crore (Rs. 1,766 crore Q2 2013).
Advances grew 20% to Rs.2,42,198 crore. Retail advances stood at Rs.94,321 crore as on 30.09.14 (Rs.71,035 crore as on 30.09.2013).Savings bank deposits grew 20%  to Rs. 79,875 crore as on 30.09.14.
Gross NPAs 1.34% & Rs.3,613 crore as on 30.09.14 (Rs.3,463 crore as on 30.06.14)
Net NPAs  0.44%
During the quarter, the bank added Rs.911 crore to gross NPAs. Recoveries and upgrades were Rs. 164 crore and write-offs were Rs. 597 crore. The cumulative value of net restructured advances as on September 30, 2014, stood at Rs. 6,690 crore.

Cadila Healthcare is voluntarily recalling 5,400 bottles of anti-hypertension drug Atenolol tablets in the U.S. for failing to meet specifications.

The Reserve Bank of India has signed a pact with the Central Bank of Kenya for exchange of information and supervisory cooperation. With this, the RBI has signed 22 such MoUs and one Letter for Supervisory Co-operation.

HCL Technologies, Q1 July-September 2014
32.3 per cent jump in net profit at Rs.1,873 crore in the first quarter ended September 30, 2014-15, driven by strong demand for outsourcing services in its biggest market - the Americas (last year Rs.1,416 crore).

Credits: The Hindu, Google

News Roundup - 17 October 2014

1. Former IMF economist Arvind Subramanian appointed as the Chief Economic Adviser and Rajasthan cadre IAS officer Rajiv Mehrishi appointed as the finance secretary. The medium term fiscal policy envisages a progressive reduction of the deficit to three per cent of the GDP by 2016-17.
2. The report of the Justice B.K. Somasekhara Commission of Inquiry that probed the 2008 church attacks in Mangalore was rejected by the State Cabinet. Besides giving a clean chit to the then BJP government, the report had exonerated the Hindutva organisations after referring to their involvement in its interim report. Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra said it was unacceptable that a judicial commission in its final report contradicts the findings of its interim report. The Opposition BJP said the government was politicising an old issue.
3. Satya Nadella, the Indian-American CEO of Silicon Valley giant Microsoft, has expressed regret in an internal memo for a remark that he made one week ago suggesting that women employees should rely on good karma rather than asking for a pay raise.
4. Vanita Gupta (39), an Indian-American attorney has been appointed to a senior role in the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division.
5. Sanjaya Rajaram awarded the World Food Prize in recognition of his significant contributions to global wheat production. He has developed some 480 wheat varieties that have been released in 51 countries across six continents and an estimated 58 million hectares. It has helped secure a 1.3 per cent rise in global wheat production per annum in the last four decades.
6. The Sri Lankan government has expressed concern after European Union (EU) judges struck down anti-terrorism sanctions imposed on the LTTE. The EU had proscribed the LTTE as a terrorist organisation in May 2006. Apart from the EU, the LTTE is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the USA, India, Canada, the U.K. and Sri Lanka.
7. The creation of an Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi “heritage arc”, setting up a Mughal museum in Agra, organising travel marts and reducing value added tax (VAT) on aviation turbine fuel marked the newest attempts to promote tourism in Uttar Pradesh.
8. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday unveiled new measures for the youth, workers and employers to improve ease of doing business for enterprises while expanding government support for training workers. Mr. Modi also launched the Universal Account Number scheme (UAN) for all Provident Fund contributors which will allow portability and online tracking of PF benefits.
9. Canadian firm Novadaq Technologies inked an exclusive distribution pact with Kirloskar Technologies Private Ltd for distribution of  fluorescence imaging technologies in India. T
10. Ranbaxy Laboratories, agreed to pay $39.75 million to settle litigation concerning its participation in Texas Medicaid, the U.S. federal-state healthcare program for people with low incomes. The litigation related to the manner in which Ranbaxy historically reported pricing data to Texas Medicaid for some drugs, Ranbaxy said in a statement.
11. Exports of leather and leather products increased by 22 per cent to $3.488 billion in the first six months of the current financial year from $2.869 billion in the same months in the previous year.
12. The Exim Bank of India aims to boost project exports to over $50 billion from the current levels of $27 billion in the next five years through its innovative initiatives and by leveraging the increasing opportunities in Asia and Africa.
13. Google unveiled new Android software, to be dubbed ‘Lollipop’.  
14. ISRO to launch GSLV Mark III. The GSLV Mark III will help ISRO put heavier communication satellites of INSAT-4 class into orbit. These satellites weigh anywhere between 4,500-5,000 kg. The vehicle is 42.4 metre tall compared to the other GSLV which is 49 metre. It will be a three-stage vehicle. The vehicle envisages multi-mission launch capability for GTO (geo transfer orbit), LEO (low earth orbit), Polar and intermediate circular orbits.
15. The Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, whose Block-III variant has perfected a surgical strike capability, is set to further expand its target engagement envelope by attaining a ‘near vertical dive capability’ to shock the enemy hidden behind mountains. 

Credits: The Hindu, Google

News Roundup - 16 October 2014

1. IndiGo, which has grown to be the biggest airline by domestic market share, placed an order for 250 single-aisle aircraft, valued at $25.70 billion (Rs.1.50 lakh crore) at $102.8 million per aircraft.
2. The Union Health Ministry has issued a notification making it mandatory for cigarette manufacturing companies to carry statutory warning against smoking on both sides of a cigarette pack and covering at least 85 per cent of the packaging (60% picture and 25% legend). Beginning April 1, 2015, every cigarette packet will carry the statutory warning on both sides with pictorial depiction of throat cancer and a message in English, Hindi or any Indian language. As per government data, the total economic costs attributable to tobacco use from all diseases in India for people in the 35-69 age group was more than Rs. 1.4 lakh crore in 2011 and the cost of premature mortality was highest in the 40-44 age group for both men and women. As per the report ‘The Cigarette Package Health Warnings: International Status Report 2014’ released in Moscow on Tuesday, India has slipped to 136th position in the list of 198 countries that warn smokers about the hazards of smoking through graphic pictures on cigarette packages. The report says though India was one of the first countries to sign and ratify the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, it has not complied with the minimum rules. 
3. China on Wednesday sharply reacted to India’s plans to construct a road network along the McMahon line in Arunachal Pradesh and expressed hope that India will not take any action which may complicate the situation before a final settlement is reached to end the boundary dispute.
4. Canada wants to share its expertise and help India meet its target of ‘Housing for All by 2022.’ It said Canada had expertise in wood-based housing technology that enables multi-story construction that India could consider to meet its ambitious housing targets & that the life span of such houses was about 60 years and was amenable for renewal.  Canada also offered technology for waste water recycling.
5. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has received the Euromoney’s Central Bank Governor of the Year Award 2014 in Washington 
6. The Tatas received the first Vistara A320 aircraft painted with the airline’s livery. The aircraft landed at Delhi airport where the airline will be based. Vistara, the 51:49 per cent joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines is gearing to launch domestic operations soon.
7. Ashok Leyland will start manufacturing and marketing electric and hybrid buses in India from next year, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make-in India’ campaign. The company is looking to bring a range of vehicles from its U.K. arm Optare to India.
8. A Saudi court on Wednesday sentenced prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr to death after convicting the anti-government protest leader of “sedition”. Nimr, a driving force behind 2011 protests against Saudi Arabia’s Sunni authorities in the Eastern Province, was also convicted of seeking “foreign meddling” in the country, a reference to Iran & “disobeying” the kingdom’s rulers and taking up arms against security forces.
9. The railways are learning a few lessons from the decision to extend the concept of airline-type dynamic pricing to half of the tatkal tickets on offer in about 80 trains.
10. Stating that the CBI probe was conducted in a “clandestine manner” a special court here on Wednesday rejected a closure report in the coal blocks allocation scam and asked the agency to further investigate the case.
11. India feels that a “constructive dialogue” is the best way out of the difficult situation in Ukraine and wants all sides to abjure violence and work towards a peaceful, negotiated solution to bring peace and stability to the area. India and Finland signed 19 agreements that ranged from a bio-refinery in Numaligarh, Assam to cooperation in the field of bio-technology, education and nuclear safety. They also want to double their trade of $1.5 billion in the next three years even as they focus on knowledge-based education and research cooperation. Finland also felt that India was a “natural claimant” to a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. However, the Finnish leader clarified to the press that his country did not want any extension of the veto right to new members of the U.N. Security Council. On climate change, Mr. Mukherjee said the world must be careful in using the resources of the Arctic and not repeat the mistakes of the Industrial Revolution.
12. The World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-I) has cracked the secret codes used for illegal online trade of animals, reptiles and mammals. The breakthrough was made by TRAFFIC, the wildlife crime control wing of the organisation.
13. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have questioned the technical feasibility of the ‘Mars One’ project that aims to establish the first human colony on the Red Planet by 2025. ‘Mars One’ is a non-profit organisation based in the Netherlands that has put forward conceptual plans to establish a permanent human colony on Mars. The mission plans to initially send four astronauts on a one-way trip to Mars where they would spend the rest of their lives building the first permanent human settlement.
14. In a bid to boost winter tourism, Uttarakhand has extended the Char Dham yatra all year round. The annual pilgrimage — undertaken over six months at Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath — will now continue at the winter abodes of the idols, which are moved out of the snow-bound shrines.
15. Blosom, a 6-foot 4-inch cow owned by a U.S. woman, was recently dubbed the world’s tallest and will be included in the 2016 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
16. Facebook and Apple are covering the costs for female employees to freeze their eggs to delay childbearing, which could hamper their careers.
17. The BBC’s website was blocked in China after a video of Hong Kong police beating and kicking a pro-democracy protester began circulating online. The move appears to be the first time BBC’s English-language website has been completely blocked in China since December 2010, when it was inaccessible for days before the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony for Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
18. 2014 Man Booker Prize: Australian writer Richard Flanagan for “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”
19. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has set December 2015 as the deadline for implementing long-term additional safety measures in nuclear installations.
20. Yoga guru Baba Ramdev said the website that has been selling a “health package” as a preventive measure against Ebola fraudulently used his name. (http://www.ramdevmedicine.com/)
21. Switzerland on Wednesday said it would examine Indian requests for banking information on a priority basis and provide requested details in a time-bound manner.

Credits: The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 15 October 2014

1. Wholesale price inflation dropped to a near five-year low in September to 2.38 per cent, helped by moderation in food and fuel prices.
2. The memoir of Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient and an icon of education rights, I am Malala: the girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban , is being translated into four Indian languages — Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi.
3. Petrol price was cut by Re. 1 a litre with effect from Tuesday midnight.  In Delhi, the new price is Rs. 66.65 a litre.
4. The proportion of underweight children in India might have declined from 45.1 per cent in 2005-06 to a historic low of 30.7 per cent last year, new provisional data from a survey conducted by the government and UNICEF shows.
5. Group BPCE, which includes Banque Populaire and Caisses d’Epargne, announced the service called S-money in France. It will be used to make payments via twitter. Users tweet a payment request to S-money, which then requires an authentication code before sending the amount and a tweet to the destination confirming the payment for all the world to see.
6. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has said religious or national background is not such a big issue when asked whether it was appropriate to mention the religious affiliation of Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai in their Nobel Peace Prize Citation. The Nobel Committee, which is independent of the Norwegian government, has in the past made controver-sial choices such as granting the Peace Prize to Barack Obama and the European Union in recent years. However, the Norwegian government has faced the maximum fire for the actions of the Nobel Committee for granting the Peace Prize in 2010 to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, currently serving a jail term.
7. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday downplayed appearance of Islamic State (IS) flags in the Kashmir Valley as an act by “some foolish’’ young persons.
8. India lost a case filed by the U.S. in the WTO against restrictions it imposed on poultry imports from America as it felt restrictions imposed by India were “inconsistent” with international norms. In March 2012, the U.S. dragged India to the WTO against India’s ban on imports of certain American farm products, including poultry meat and eggs. India had banned imports of various agricultural products from the U.S. in 2007, as a precautionary measure to prevent outbreaks of avian influenza in the country.
9. 13 agreements signed between New Delhi and Oslo - from a statement of intent between the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and setting up a state-of-the-art fish farming unit outside Delhi, also had IIT-Kanpur, Hyderabad University and several other educational institutions reaching accord with their Norwegian counterparts. Norwegian tourists would soon be given the visa-on-arrival facility and Oslo would open a new consulate in Mumbai. As Mr. Mukherjee suggested that Norway’s $900-billion pension fund would increase its exposure to India, given the new Narendra Modi government’s intent to create an enabling business climate, Ms. Solberg said pension fund decisions were made independently of the government.
10. The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Centre and Bihar, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh to restrict export or transport of livestock to Nepal by road and on foot for sacrifice for the Gadhimai festival in November. The petition pertained to the mass transport of animals from India for being ritually sacrificed at Bariyarpur every five years where over 5 lakh animals are slaughtered over two days. The festival is the largest animal sacrifice event in the world.
11.  Rule 135-B: “ No cosmetic that has been tested on animals after the commencement of Drugs and Cosmetics (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2014 shall be imported into the country.” The notification will come into effect on November 13, 2014 (30 days from the date of notification). Historic victory, says Humane Society International.
12. Mumbai Film Festival organised by the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image: Aishwarya Rai gave away the lifetime achievement award to veteran French actress Catherine Denevue, Akshay Kumar presented Helen the lifetime achievement award. The festival began with the screening of Susanne Bier’s period drama Serena starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. About 185 films from 65 countries will play in this year’s edition over the next week in venues around Mumbai.
13. A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C26) carrying the 1,425-kg Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS-1C) will be launched from Sriharikota at 1.32 a.m. on Oct 16, 2014. The IRNSS-1C, part of a constellation of seven satellites, will help in terrestrial, aerial and sea navigation. Civilian aircraft can use them for cruising, approaching an airport to land and during landing. In defence, they will aid missiles to reach their targets accurately or in way-pointing them to circumvent hills. The atomic clocks on the satellites will help missiles in executing their manoeuvres at the appointed time.
14. Corporates including Infosys, Maruti Suzuki, JK Tyres, TCS, Toyota Kirloskar and Bharti Foundation pledged to set aside money from their Corporate Social Responsibility funds for building toilets for girls in government schools. As per the latest available data, 1,01,768 government schools across the country do not have separate toilets for girls. The August 15, 2015 deadline for girls’ toilets in all government schools was set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech. HRD Ministry said the NTPC had indicated a commitment to construct 24,000 toilets and Infosys had blocked 109 schools in Bhubaneswar.
15. Canada is deeply troubled by the recent LoC violations, and supports India in its fight against terror, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird told Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday.
16. An inspector with the Jammu and Kashmir Police has bagged the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award 2014 instituted by the U.N. for her “exceptional achievements” while serving with the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. Shakti Devi, 38, currently deployed in the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), was also cited for her efforts towards helping victims of sexual and gender-based violence. The award is instituted by the U.N. Police Division.
17. Girl students have been banned from attending classes in a state government-affiliated madrasa for lack of separate sitting area. According to officials of Madrasa Azizia in Biharsharif, the district headquarters of Nalanda, a “diktat” has been issued saying girl students would no longer be enrolled and those already enrolled would not be allowed into the premises for lack of separate seating arrangement for them. Madrasa Azizia is run by Soghra Wakf Estate Committee. Interestingly, girl students of the madrasa and of several other such schools of the state have been getting free bicycles, uniforms and other government freebies.
18. The British House of Commons voted overwhelmingly in favour of recognising Palestine as a state alongside Israel. Although it is the government and not the House of Commons that recognises states, the voting result at 274 to 12 will strengthen the moral case for Palestine internationally while simultaneously isolating Israel for its illegal occupation of Palestine.
19. Indirect tax collections, comprising excise, customs and service tax, stood at Rs.2.42 lakh crore in the first six months of 2014-15 as against Rs.2.29 lakh crore in the corresponding period a year ago, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. The growth at 5.8 per cent is far less than 25 per cent annual increase envisaged in the budget for 2014-15.
20. Exports rose by a marginal 2.73 per cent to $28.9 billion in September, but the trade deficit more than doubled to $14.2 billion in the month due to a surge in gold imports. The trade deficit was $6.12 billion in September, 2013. Gold imports during the month under review increased manifold to $3.75 billion compared to $682.5 million in same month last year. Overall imports jumped by about 26 per cent to $43.15 billion. During the April-September period, exports registered a growth of 6.47 per cent at $163.7 billion. Imports during the period grew by 1.57 per cent to $234 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $70.39 billion in the first half of the current fiscal. Export growth had slipped by 2.35 per cent at $26.95 billion in August. 
21. In a high-profile case dating back to over 12 years, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has found former Tata Finance Managing Director Dilip Pendse had executed ‘illegal transactions’ in stocks of four firms, including Infosys and erstwhile Telco. The latest order prohibits Mr. Pendse from accessing capital markets for two years.
22. Norway voted to extend military service to women, saying the step was meant to expand the talent pool for its armed forces. The new policy will come into effect in 2016, bringing the NATO country, which operates a weak form of mandatory military service, more in line with Israel than other European nations.
23. Pakistan has launched a housing project in Mannar, where India is currently building 6,000 homes for families displaced during Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war.

Credits: The Hindu, Google.