News Roundup - 14 October 2014

1. Observing that the investigating officer first “decided the end result and then carried out investigation and prepared the final report”, a Special court on Monday rejected the CBI plea to close a case of allocating a coal block illegally to Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Limited.The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) imposed a ban on realty major DLF and its top executives from accessing the capital markets for three years, for suppressing information in its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus and for sham transactions.
2. French economist Jean Tirole on Monday won the Nobel prize for economics for research on market power and regulation that has helped policy-makers understand how to deal with industries dominated by a few dominant companies.
3. Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran stayed away from a ceremony on Monday in which President Mahinda Rajapaksa re-launched train services to Jaffna. 
4. Iceland has closed down a website believed to be used by IS, according to the authority responsible for the country’s Internet domain name “.is”. Internet in Iceland Inc, or ISNIC, said in a statement late on Sunday that it had “suspended domains that were used for the website of a known terrorist organisation”. The site “khilafah.is” — which ISNIC said was run by a group calling itself Islamic State — was believed to have been online since mid-September.
5. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, a space transport services company, recently said that he thinks robots could wipe humans like spam. He warned that AI (Artificial Intelligence) was developing so rapidly that humans would eventually be caught out. He thinks that AI could be potentially more dangerous than nuclear weapons.
6. Green Day and The Smiths are among the 90’s bands that have been nominated for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Other bands include Nine Inch Nails, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sting, and Bill Withers who have received a nomination, which requires a 25-year recording history. Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts have also been nominated for the honour.

Credits - The Hindu, Google.

News roundup - 13 October 2014

1. Centre to decide the inflation targets for RBI to achieve. Till now, it was RBI’s decision.
2. Pakistan has written to UN Secretary General Ban-ki-moon on the security situation along the Line of Control and the International Border, and sought the world body’s intervention. In the letter, Adviser to the Pakistan Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz accused India of “deliberate and unprovoked violations of the ceasefire agreement.”Asking the U.N. Secretary-General to circulate the letter as an official document of the Security Council, Mr. Aziz said Islamabad believes that the world body has an important role to play in promoting the objective of peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue.
3. The contentious and long-pending issue of codification of privileges of Parliament and State Assemblies and their members will be debated at a two-day meeting of whips of Parliament and State legislatures that commences in Goa on October 13.
4. Probe into the October 2 explosion in Bardhaman have indicated that extremists may be taking sanctuary in Bengal. One of those arrested — suspected of belonging to the banned JMB — allegedly confessed that the bombs were being assembled for terror strikes across the border.
5. Green-rated buildings are falling below the minimum benchmarks of their official star rating by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), says a report — “Building sense beyond the green façade of sustainable habitat” — by the Centre for Science and Environment released recently.
6. Masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh will be among 300 works displayed at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The museum, built at a cost of €500 million and set to open in December 2015, will feature paintings and sculptures from 13 of France’s most renowned collections spanning from pre-Bronze Age to Pop Art. Many of France’s grand museums, including the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay and the Palace of Versailles will loan art to Abu Dhabi as part of a 30-year collaboration with the Emirate worth €1 billion. The 64,000 sq.m. Louvre Abu Dhabi, built on the island of Saadiyet in the oil-flush Emirate, will have 6,000 square metres dedicated to permanent installations and 2,000 set aside for temporary exhibitions. Hovering above the complex will be a giant, 180-metre dome perforated with designs that will project light patterns in the shape of palm trees on the exhibition space below. In 2007, Abu Dhabi paid $520 million just to use the name of Paris’ world famous art museum.
7. Noted lyricist Sameer will be honoured with the National Kishore Kumar Award for 2012–13. The award is given in the fields of direction, screenplay and lyrics turn by turn every year.
8. Naomi Campbell mistakenly called Malala Yousafzai “malaria” on Instagram while congratulating the Pakistani activist on winning Nobel Peace Prize. The model wrote: “Congratulations malaria on your #noblepeaceprize #2014 #Respect #joy #ithalljuststarted.”
9. Yal Devi Express to be inaugurated on Ocotber 13, from Omanthai to Jaffna after 25 years when it was stopped due to civil war.
10. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered thousands of troops to withdraw from the border with Ukraine ahead of diplomatic talks on bringing peace to the Western-backed, former Soviet republic.
11. The India-West Indies match in Visakhapatnam, scheduled to be held on Oct 14, has been cancelled in view of Cyclone Hudhud.
12. Ajay Jayaram registered the biggest triumph of his career, winning the $50,000 Yonex Dutch Open Grand Prix badminton tournament and defeated Indonesia’s Ihsan Maulana Mustofa.
13. India has been allotted the inaugural leg of the Asia Cup world-ranking archery tournament early next year. The Asia Cup, which will replace the Asian GP, will be held on the format of the annual World Cups and fetch valuable ranking points for the archers. According to a top Archery Association India (AAI) official, the first leg will be conducted in Delhi in the second week of January. The second and third legs have been allotted to Bangkok (March) and Tehran (June).
14. Roger Federer claimed one of the few titles to have previously eluded him after he overcame a sluggish start to beat injured Frenchman Gilles Simon in the final of the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
15. Lewis Hamilton won the inaugural Russian Formula One Grand Prix. This is his fourth straight victory.

Credits: The Hindu, Google

News Roundup - 12 October 2014

1. PM Narendra Modi unveiled a blueprint for the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) on Jayaprakash Narayan’s birth anniversary i.e. October 11. The scheme encourages Members of Parliament from both Houses to identify and develop one village from their constituency as a model village by 2016, and two more by 2019, covering over 2,500 villages of the 6 lakh villages country-wide.
2. Vayalar Literary Award - Novelist and short story writer K.R. Meera for her novel ‘Aaraachaar’ (Hangwoman).
3. A cafe opened this week in the English city of Bristol, dishing up meals made from thrown-away supermarket food rescued from waste skips. Discarded food from some of the city’s restaurants is also being recycled at Bristol’s newest eatery, Skipchen, a play on the word kitchen. Skipchen is being run as a not-for-profit cafe by campaigners who want to highlight the amount of edible food thrown away every day.
4. A British former army Major, Major Robert Armstrong, who was awarded a top bravery medal for service in Afghanistan has had it withdrawn by Queen Elizabeth II after an investigation.
5. Uttarakhand to develop 42 sq km Tehri reservoir for adventure tourism.
6. The Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the country’s aviation regulator, is acting tough, months ahead of the arrival of a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) team to check if India qualifies for a safety upgrade. Three aircraft were grounded this week for “significant and substantive” safety lapses. As many as 131 Jet Airways pilots were issued show-cause notices last month as the validity of their pilot proficiency checks expired.

Credits: The Hindu, Google

News Roundup - 11 October 2014

1. Nobel Peace Prize – Jointly to Malala (Pakistan) & Kailash Satyarthi (India).
2. Infosys announces 100% average bonus to its 1.65 lakh emloyees.
3. Cyclone Hudhud intensifies into a severe cyclonic storm and may pummel vizag coast.
4. Norway's King Harald V backs India's investment in polar research. President Pranab Mukerjee is visiting Oslo on Oct 13 & 14 - the first ever visit by Indian Head of State.
5. IAS officer Abhishek Singh, husband of Durga Shakti Nagpal whose suspension as SDM had triggered a controversy, was on Saturday suspended by the UP chief minister for allegedly treating a dalit teacher in an "inhuman" manner in Mathura district.
6. The Supreme Court asked the Centre on Friday to consider, and dispose of, a representation on the Law Commission recommendation to make the court a national court of appeal to decide only constitutional issues.
7. The Gujarat High Court scrapped the ‘snoopgate’ panel set up by the State government to probe the alleged spying on a woman architect by the State machinery, in response to a joint petition filed by the woman and her father. Their plea was that the inquiry violated their right to privacy.
8. A US state appellate court has heard arguments here about whether a chimpanzee can be considered a “legal person,” and — with human aid — sue for his freedom.
9. Renowned Bharatnatyam danseuse Leela Samson has resigned as chairperson of Sangeet Natak Akademi.
10. On his maiden trip to India, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on Friday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss digital expansion in the country.
11. At least 100 Indian websites have been defaced by Pakistani hackers over the last two days. The hacked websites include those of Chennai Medical College Hospital and Research Centre (www.cmchrc.ac.in) and singer Daler Mehndi (www.dalermehndi.com). The hacked websites not only carried anti-India messages and pictures under Pakistan Zindabadheadline, but also derogatory statements against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The present round of cyber war between India and Pakistan began after Indian hackers defaced the website of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) following its leader Bilawal Bhutto’s remarks on Kashmir. Pakistani hackers, who retaliated by targeting the website of the Press Club of India, have continued their offensive on other Indian websites.
12. ‘Spider-Man’ creator Stan Lee is looking forward to make his first Bollywood movie based on Indian superhero ‘Chakra the Invincible’. Lee and entertainment company Graphic India are looking at making a grown-up version of Chakra tackling his arch-enemy, Boss Yama, against the spectacular backdrop of Mumbai.
13. Factory output growth slowed to 0.4% in August 2014 (0.5% in July-14). 
14. The Election Commission said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s radio broadcast on October 3 had not violated the Model Code of Conduct.
15. A time capsule that had been hidden in the head of a lion statue atop a historical landmark in Boston for more than a century yielded one surprise Thursday — a hardcover book. The time capsule was sealed inside the lion’s head since 1901 and then forgotten until recently. The plan is to put a new time capsule in the lion’s head, this one made of titanium. The society is currently soliciting suggestions of what to put in it, but said one item will be a medal from the 2013 Boston Marathon, during which three people and 260 were injured in a bombing.
16. India’s new health policy which calls for recognition of mental disorders and a more accessible and holistic treatment of mental illnesses also pushes for decriminalisation of attempted suicide.
17. Activists in Saudi Arabia said this week they are revving up a right to drive campaign using social media in the world’s only country that bans women from getting behind the wheel.
18. China and Russia have begun implementing their $400 billion mega-gas deal — a strategic project that would allow Moscow to lower its dependence on the European market, and open prospects of tapping the growing energy demand in the Asia-Pacific, with Beijing as the star consumer.
19. Jihadists captured the headquarters of Kurdish fighters defending the battleground Syrian town of Kobane.
20. Microsoft’s CEO suggested on Thursday that women in technology should not ask for raises but have faith in the “system”, bringing a torrent of criticism and causing the executive to backtrack after the statement.
21. Bombay High Court ruled in favor of Vodafone against Income Tax over transfer pricing case.

Credits : The Hindu, Google, Times of India, Indian Express.

News Roundup - 10 October 2014

1. Karnataka Govt has launcher two schemes - Manochaitanya and Manasadhara — to provide free treatment, counselling and medicin es to people suffering from mental disabilities and their rehabilitation. Under this, every Tuesday will be observed as “Super Tuesday”.
2. Veteran journalist M V Kamath dead.
3. Petronet LNG Limited is looking to city gas supply, KSRTC buses running on compressed natural gas (CNG) and smaller consumers outside the pipeline network to immediately boost business.
4. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim launched the Global Infrastructure Facility (GIF). The GIF is aimed at mobilising the private sector to help tackle the massive infrastructure deficit now facing developing countries and emerging markets such as India. The World Bank estimates that these countries need $1 trillion a year in extra investments through 2020 and with public purses stretched, it is significant that the heads of some of the world’s leading institutional investors such as insurance and pension funds will be signing up as partners in the GIF. Mr Kim also said that the potential economic impact of the Ebola epidemic could be as high as $32.6 billion by 2015 end, if not contained.
5. Nobel literature Prize: Patrick Modiano (France) - for his enigmatic novels rooted in the trauma of the Nazi occupation and his own loveless childhood.
6. Scientists have discovered that the Black Hole named P13 lies on the outskirts of the galaxy NGC7793 about 12 million light years away from earth, is ingesting a weight equivalent to 100 billion hot dogs every month. This is nearly 10 times faster than previously thought possible.
7. The Puducherry government and Kamarajar Port Limited (KPL), Chennai, have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for developing the Puducherry Port.
8. World Post Day – October 9
9. Lisa Su becomes the first women to head AMD after her promotion as CEO.
10. A purchase scam running into Rs. 4.63 crore in the State-owned Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Ltd. (KSDL), makers of the famed Mysore Sandal Soap, has come to light.

News Roundup - 9 October 2014

1. Kerala would become the first State to have high-speed Internet connecting all the panchayats in the State by March 2015.
2. Nobel Prize in Chemistry - Eric Betzig (American), William Moerner (American) and Stefan Hell (Germany) won for finding ways to make microscopes more powerful than earlier, allowing scientists to see how diseases develop inside the tiniest cells.
3. Six days after the “accidental blast” in West Bengal’s Bardhaman district, the four arrested in the case have been charged under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials said. 
4. America’s prestigious Georgetown University has appointed its first Hindu priest, Pratima Dharm, to serve the religious needs of its Hindu students, whose numbers have increased in recent years.
5. Following the discontinuation of subsidy to naphtha-based urea manufacturers from October 1, the Madras Fertilizers Ltd. (MFL) shut its urea plant on Wednesday. MFL is the third plant in the South in the last one week to discontinue its operations. Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd. (MCFL) and Southern India Petrochemicals Ltd. (SPIC) have already shut down their urea operations. 
6. Infosys bids farewell to Kris Gopalkrishnan (non-Executive Vice-Chairman) & Narayan Murthy (non-Executive Chairman). They had stepped down on June 14 as Exe. Vice-Chairman and Exe. Chairman resp but continued in non-Executive capacity.
7. UAE-based Gulf Petrochem has made an open offer to the public shareholders of Sah Petroleums to acquire up to 26 per cent in the company. Sah Petroleums is a leading manufacturer of industrial and automotive oil lubricants.
8. Visual browser, Blippar, enterd Indian market.
9. Shareholders of Sterling Holiday Resorts (India) Ltd. (SHRIL) approved the scheme of arrangement and amalgamation with Thomas Cook Insurance Services (India) Ltd. and Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.
10. Gulf Oil Lubricants India, a part of the Hinduja group, and Mahindra & Mahindra have announced a partnership under which Gulf Oil Lubricants will manufacture and supply ‘Mahindra Genuine Oil.’ This would be under the brand name, Mahindra M-Star Super, for its dealer workshop network along with Mahindra-Gulf co-branded lubricant line for the Bazaar segment, which would be under the brand name, Gulf XHD M Tractor, based on M&Ms MKM (Mileage ka Master) platform.

Credits: The Hindu, Google

News Roundup - 8 October 2014

1. Karnataka High Court on Tuesday refused to release Ms Jayalalitha on bail and rejected her plea for suspending the four-year prison sentence imposed by the trial court on September 27 in the disproportionate assets case. The court also rejected similar pleas of the other convicts in the case — V.K. Sasikala, V.N. Sudhakaran and J. Elavarasi.
2. Flipkart issued an apology for the troubles that customers faced during the much-publicised ‘Big Billion Day’ deal on Monday.
3. Nobel Prize in Physics: Isamu Akasaki (Japan), Hiroshi Amano (Japan) and naturalized U.S. citizen Shuji Nakamura won for inventing blue light-emitting diodes, a breakthrough that has spurred the development of LED technology. 
4. After Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in Abbottabad, his body was kept in a heavy black bag of 300 pounds of iron chain and dropped into the sea, former Mr. Panetta has said. “Bin Laden’s body was prepared for burial according to Muslim traditions… placed inside a heavy black bag,” Mr. Panetta wrote in his book.
5. A British judge on Tuesday said Bahrain’s Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa did not have legal immunity from prosecution following a review requested by a Bahraini torture survivor. The decision has no immediate effect on the prince, who is not being prosecuted and considers Britain a home-from-home. It could, however, lead to his arrest if the case is pursued. 
6. The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has upheld the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s order against Angel Broking in case related to violations of stock broker norms and fraudulent dealings in shares of Sterling Green Woods.
7. The European Union’s competition authority is opening a formal investigation of Amazon’s European corporate income tax practices. The EU’s executive Commission said on Tuesday it is probing whether a tax agreement struck between the online retailer and the government of Luxembourg where Amazon records most of its European profits does constitute illegal state aid, distorting competition. The Commission says a 2003 tax arrangement with Amazon EU Sarl ensures that most of Amazon’s profits made in the 28-nation bloc “are recorded in Luxembourg but are not taxed in Luxembourg.”
8. Global private equity major Goldman Sachs has sold its entire 73 per cent stake in City View Bangalore Properties to a joint venture floated by Blackstone and realty player Embassy Group for an undisclosed amount, exiting the project after several failed attempts since 2012.
9. Nokia suspends handset manufacturing at its Chennai plant citing termination of the services agreement with Microsoft. The Sriperumbudur facility near here was one of its biggest plants globally.The plant was not part of Microsoft’s $7.2-billion acquisition of Nokia’s handset business due to a tax dispute with the Union government. Nokia is also facing a commercial tax case with the Tamil Nadu government.
10. Gross direct tax collections were, however, up 15 per cent at Rs.3.46 lakh crore during the April-September period of 2014-15 fiscal, as against Rs.3.01 lakh crore a year-ago, the statement added. The government has fixed the direct tax collections target of over Rs.7.36 lakh crore for 2014-15, which is 15 per cent higher than the last fiscal’s revised estimates. Gross collections of corporate taxes increased by 15.31 per cent to Rs.2.22 lakh crore during April-September from Rs.1.93 lakh crore in the year-ago period, the statement said.
11. Net direct tax collections have risen only by 7.09 per cent to Rs.2.69 lakh crore in the first six months of the current fiscal from Rs.2.51 lakh crore in the same period in the previous year, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
12. Centre has cleared 19 pending defence sector projects, including that of Reliance Aerospace Technologies, Bharat Forge, Mahindra Telephonic Integrated Systems, Tata Advanced Materials and Punj Lloyd.
13. U.S.-based Rockwell Collins and home-grown Zen Technologies  entered into an agreement to tap the Indian defence market.               
14. The Reserve Bank of India said banks could shift their excess bond holdings to trading portfolios from the held-to-maturity (HTM) basket thrice a year (currently once a year) from 2015 to deepen the government securities market.
15. India to grow at 5.6% (up from previous estimate of 5.4%) in 2014 and 6.4%(unchanged) in 2015 – WEO (World Economic Forum).
16. New Museum in Rashtrapati Bhavan is expected to be ready by Oct 16 and is housed inside a heritage structure which previously was the ‘garages’ of the Rashtrapati Bhavan & is spread over 10,000 sq. metres.
17. India launched an ingeniously manufactured microscope, Broad Spectrum Confocal Microscope,  that generates 3D images of objects. It uses an infra red beam which passes through a patented photonic crystal fibre made by the Central Glass and Ceramics Research Institute (CGCRI), Kolkata. The microscope was developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) along with Vinvish Technologies, Thiruvananthapuram, under the New Millennium Indian Technology Initiative. Priced between Rs.1.25 cr to Rs.1.5 cr, these will be cheaper than the import price of Rs.4 cr.
18. Former New York Mayor and philanthropist billionaire Michael Bloomberg granted an honorary knighthood from Britain for his “prodigious entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavours, and the many ways” in which they have benefitted British-U.S. relations.

Credits: The Hindu, Google.