News Roundup - 25 December 2014

1. Three years after a Supreme Court judgment legalised passive euthanasia under “exceptional circumstances,” the government has fully endorsed the apex court’s guidelines giving High Courts the power to decide on applications seeking permission to withdraw life support in the best interest of the patient.
2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 102nd Indian Science Congress at Mumbai on January 3.
3. CIL and GAIL, along with Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF) and Fertilizer Corp of India Ltd (FCIL), will set up an integrated coal gasification-cum-fertilizer and ammonium nitrate complex at Talcher in Odisha by 2019.
4. Senior IAS officer S. Bhattacharya has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of Coal India Ltd. (CIL).

Credits: The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 23 December 2014

1. The 13th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas will be held in Gujarat from January 7 to 9. Gujarat has been chosen as the partner State as 2015 happens to be the 100th year of Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa.
2. Over two decades after it was first published, the first revised English edition of “Why I Assassinated Gandhi” – which includes Nathuram Godse’s statement before the court at the Red Fort trial in its “unabridged form,” the judgment and his will – is back in circulation. The revised edition has been compiled and edited by Virender Mehra. Farsight Publishers and Distributors — which brought out the revised edition six months ago in arrangement with Surya Bharti Prakashan, the original publishers of the book in 1993 — maintained that they took up the task because “both sides” of the assassination should come out. The ban on Nathuram Godse’s statement to the special court was lifted by the Bombay High Court in 1968.
3. Princess Cristina, the sister of Spain’s King Felipe VI, will be the first member of the royal family ever to appear in the dock after a judge on Monday ordered her to be tried for tax fraud. The historic decision comes after four years of investigations that plunged the royal family into crisis and contributed to the abdication of King Juan Carlos in June. She is accused of taking part in tax evasion by her husband, the former Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin. He is accused of embezzling and laundering millions of euros in public funds. Princess Cristina Federica of Bourbon and Greece is the youngest daughter of Juan Carlos and sixth in line to the Spanish throne. She married Urdangarin in 1997 in a glittering ceremony in Barcelona. The case is a big headache for King Felipe who took the throne on June 19 promising an “honest and transparent monarchy”.
4. The son of kung fu star Jackie Chan, Jaycee Chan, has been charged with providing a venue for others to use drugs.
5. Opening up of the coal sector and upgradation of state-run Coal India and its subsidiaries are vital for scaling up domestic production of the dry fuel, as per the final report of the Advisory Group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal, and Renewable Energy.
6. Jet Airways (India) concluded a $150-million (about Rs.945 crore) five-year syndicated loan facility, which was fully subscribed by banks spread across the Middle East region. 

Credits : The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 22 December 2014

1. India may end support to Palestine at UN. It is in stark contrast with the policy till now. Starting with 1974 when India voted against partition of Palestine. In 1974, it became the first non-Arab State to recognise Palestine Liberation Organisation as the sole, legitimate representative of Palestinians. In 1988, it became one of the first countries to recognise the state of Palestine. In 1996, it opened representative office in Gaza.In 1999, it co-sponsored the draft resolution on right of Palestinians to self-determination. In 2003, it voted against building of separation wall by Israel.In 2011, India voted to admit Palestine as full member of the UNESCO. In 2012, it voted to grant Palestine non-observer State status at UN. In 2014, it supported UNHRC resolution to launch probe into Israel's offensive in Gaza.
2. Only 21.62 crore people (17% of total population) were covered by health insurance at the end of March 2014, as per estimate by IRDA. However, as per World Bank Report released in Oct 2012, "Government-Sponsored Health Insurance in India: Are you Covered?", over 30 crore people (>25%  of total population).

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News Roundup - 20 December 2014

1. China is setting the stage for linking southeast Asia with its New Silk Road initiative, through a railway corridor that would connect the country’s Yunan province with Thailand and Laos.
2. Pakistan became an associate member of CERN, the world’s top particle physics lab for nuclear research, allowing the nuclear-armed country to have more access to the Swiss-based facility’s research.
3. Australian Engineering Group Downer EDI has won a $2-billion contract from Adani group’s Carmichael Coal Mine project in Queensland in one of the largest deals of its type signed in the country in recent years.
4. Online restaurant search firm Zomato acquired Italy’s restaurant search service Cibando. Cibando has 82,000 restaurants listed across various cities in Italy and has now a 10-member team. Zomato said it would invest $6 million in Italy over the next two years to grow the team and the business in the country. This is Zomato’s fifth acquisition. Zomato acquired MenuMania in New Zealand, Lunchtime in Czech Republic, Obedovat in Slovakia, and Gastronauci in Poland recently.
5. Apart from subsuming various Central indirect taxes and levies and State taxes, the Constitution (122^nd Amendment) Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha, confers simultaneous power to Union and State legislations to legislate on Goods and Service Tax (GST). All goods and services, except alcoholic liquor for human consumption, will be brought under the purview of GST. Petroleum and petroleum products have also been constitutionally brought under GST. However, it has also been provided that petroleum products shall not be subject to the levy of GST till notified at a future date on the recommendation of the GST Council. The present taxes levied by the States and the Centre on petroleum and petroleum products, i.e., Sales Tax/VAT, CST and Excise duty only, will continue to be levied in the interim period.

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News Roundup - 19 December 2014

1. Pakistani authorities detain Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a key planner of the 2008 Mumbai attack, for three more months. He was granted bail by a court that caused an outrage in India.
2. Government has decided to pay 8.75% interest on provident fund for 2014-15.

Credits: Google.

News Roundup - 18 December 2014

1. The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has suspended former world champion and multiple Asian winner L. Sarita Devi from all levels of boxing activities for one year, starting from October 1 2014 (the date of the Asian Games medal ceremony). She will however be able to participate in the qualifying events for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
2. Tashi Malik and Nungshi Malik from Dehradun scaled Mount Vinson, Antarctica’s highest mountain at 4,892 metres and’ have become the world’s first twins and siblings to climb the highest peaks on the seven continents. The 23-year-old twins accomplished their “Mission 2 for 7” on Tuesday night (IST) when they conquered the mountain. The mission, which they have dedicated to the cause of the Indian girl child, started by conquering Mt. Kilimanjaro in February 2012. The mission progressed as they conquered Mt. Everest in May 2013; Mt. Elbrus in August 2013; Mt. Aconcagua in January 2014; Mt. Carstensz Pyramid in March 2014; and Mt. McKinley in June 2014.
3. United States announced a “historic” thaw in relations with Cuba, saying it would work to re-establish diplomatic ties with Havana and ease long-standing trade and travel sanctions. The United States imposed a trade embargo against Cuba — the Cold War foe closest to its shores — in 1960 and the two countries have not had diplomatic relations since 1961. It hurt the Caribbean island state’s economy, but it failed to unseat the Havana governments led first by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and latterly by his brother Raul.
4. USAID head Rajiv Shah announced that he is going to step down.
5. U.K. on Wednesday announced its first woman Bishop, Reverend Libby Lane (Bishop of Stockport), exactly a month after historic change was made to the law to end centuries of male domination of the Church of England.
6. Microsoft is looking at starting a pilot project of its ‘White-Fi’ technology that uses the unused spectrum in frequencies used for broadcasting of television signals, and is likely to offer solution to tackle the problem of last mile broadband connectivity in the country. The pilot, once started, is expected to last for about three months. Other countries where Microsoft has helped implement the technology are Kenya, Singapore, the U.S. and London. The 200-600 MHz frequency is used for TV channels to carry data. In India, 93 per cent of this spectrum is not utilised.
7. India is on track to achieve projected 5.5 per cent economic growth rate in 2014-15 - Asian Development Bank.

 Credits: The Hindu, Google.

News Roundup - 16 December 2014

1. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan honoured with a special award at the glittering Miss World 2014 ceremony in London for her charity work since being crowned Miss World in 1994. South African beauty Rolene Strauss crowned Miss World 2014. Miss Hungary, Edina Kulcsar, was the runner-up and Miss United States, Elizabeth Safrit, came in third.
2. The creator of the Rock Garden, Nek Chand, attended the function to celebrate his 90th birthday in Chandigarh.
3. Google is one of the major U.S. corporations researching the power of colour in the working world. 
4. Denmark will lay claim to energy-rich, but contested territory around the North Pole by submitting data to the U.N. which it says demonstrates the area is an extension of its continental shelf. The Danish government said it would tell the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf that data collected since 2002 supports its claim to ownership over an area of about 895,000 sq. km beyond the current nautical borders of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory. Norway already lays claim to an area overlapping the one outlined in the Danish submission to the U.N., and there is “potential overlap with Canada, the Russian Federation and the U.S.
5. Vienna school officials have ordered the closure of a Saudi Arabian school accused of teaching anti-Semitism, after it refused to comply with a request to identify the institution’s director and teachers.
6. Declining for the fifth straight month, wholesale inflation dropped to a six-year low of 0 per cent in November. The data, however, shows a larger drop than the actual decline in prices owing to favourable statistical illusion of a high base: wholesale inflation growth was 7.5 per cent in November, 2013. Wholesale food inflation was down to 0.6 per cent against 19.7 per cent in November, 2013, with prices of cereals, rice, wheat, vegetables and onions falling. However, potatoes and milk continued to show high inflation. While potato prices grew at the rate of 34 per cent, the rate of rise in milk prices was 10 per cent. Rice and pulses too rose but at slower pace of 5.6 per cent and 4.4 per cent. With global crude prices down nearly 40 per cent since June, wholesale inflation in fuels came in at minus 4.9 per cent against 11.08 per cent in November, 2013. The dip in producer prices comes days after consumer price inflation abated to an 8-year low of 4.4 per cent.
7. Vistara received its air operator permit (AOP) from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Vistara is a 51:49 joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines Ltd. The company, which will be headquartered at New Delhi, will begin operations with its fleet of brand new Airbus A 320-200s. It will soon make an announcement on the start of sales, routes and schedules.
8. Mastek said its 100 per cent subsidiary Majesco, which is into core insurance systems and services, entered into a definitive merger agreement with the U.S.-based Cover-All Technologies Inc. in a 100 per cent stock-for-stock transaction. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter 2015 and both companies will continue to operate as separate entities until then.

 Credits: The Hindu, Google.