Current Affairs : January 12, 2010
Memorable Points:
- Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology is in Ludhiana
- Salman Khurshid, Minster of State for Corporate Affairs and Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) in the Government of India is Grandson of Lt Dr Zakir Husain , Third President of India.
Awards & Honours:
Roopdhar Lifetime Achievement award for 2010: Ram Sutar
Padamshree Ram V Sutar is a renowned sculptor and he is bestowed with the ”Roopdhar Lifetime Achievement award for 2010” by the Bombay Art Society in recognition of his work.
Appointments:
New Directors in ISB Board:
Three new directors have joined the board of Indian School of Business (ISB).
ICICI Bank CEO – Chanda Kochhar
Citigroup South Asia head – Mark Robinson
Cognizant Technologies vice chairman – Lakshmi Narayanan
ISB now has 33 directors in its executive board.
Other directors are ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani , NRI billionaire Lakshmi Mittal , Sunil Mittal of Bharti, Bajaj Auto Chairman Rahul Bajaj among others.
Resignations
MTNL’s chairman RSP Sinha Resigns:
MTNL’s chairman and managing director R S P Sinha who was on an ad-hoc extension has resigned from the post.
Events & Happenings:
Milan-2010
Milan-2010 is the biggest national level cultural festival organized by SRM University will be held at its campus in Kancheepuram suburban Kattankulathur from January 27 to 29. 7,000 students from across the country would participate in the festival. theme: “Celebrating Life”
International Buddhist Seminar: Vadodara
Maharaja Sayajirao University at Vadodara holds an International Buddhist seminar on January 15. It will be a 3 day event and scholars from 15 countries take part. Dalai Lama shall be taking part.
A cultural organization Buddhayan which works for the protection of Buddhist heritage in Orissa urges Orissa Government to arrange a trip of the Dalai Lama to the ‘Diamond Triangle of Buddhism’. What is Diamond triangle of Buddhism? Read Here
National Updates:
Bihar : Nawada and Purnia Women to learn economic farming.
National Agriculture Research Council in association with World Bank chooses Nawada and Purnia districts of Bihar to impart training for commercial farming to women of economically weaker sections of the society. This comes under “Economic Empowerment of Women” programme of world bank.
On Sustainable Mining Framework in National Mineral Policy
In the coming budget session, probably a new legislation is going to be introduced to give effect to National Mineral Policy. Sustainable Mining Framework which aims to protect the interest of environment, affected families and population will be the part of this new legislation. The act has been framed and it converts the powers into responsibilities and mineral exploitation into local area development.
Thomas Cook – India Post MOU:
Thomas cook will set up foreign exchange and travel bureau in Post Offices. An MOU is signed in this regard. This adds value to the portfolio of services offered by India Post. Thomas Cook will be able to leverage the vast network of India Post 1.55 lakh post offices India wide.
Integrated Sugar complex
Empee Sugars and Chemicals Limited (ESCL) is setting up an Integrated Sugar complex at Edaikkal village in southern Tirunelveli district in Tamilnadu for an investment of Rs. 515 Crore. This will be an integrated plant with a sugar factory, Co-generation Plant and an Ethanol Unit. The capacity of sugar factory would be 5,000 tonnes per day, 50 MW of Co-generation Plant and 1,00,000 liter capacity of Alcohol/Ethanol Plant. It will be commissioned in February. The power generation involves multifuels including baggasse and Biomass also.
UNESCO ‘s Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Peace
UNESCO’s Director General, Irina Bokova says this institute of peace will be set up by the end of 2010.
India’s Bid to non-permanent seat in United Nations Security Council
The security council of United Nations (UNSC) comprises 15 members each with single vote. Of these 5 are permanent members and 10 are non-permanent members. The nonpermanent members are elected for a term of 2 years by a 2/3 majority of the general assembly. Only permanent members have power to veto.
The last time India had a seat at the Council was in 1992. In 1996, Japan won with India trailing behind with approximately 40 votes. The voting for the term starting in 2011 is coming up in October 2010. India needs two-thirds of the General Assembly vote, which adds up to about 128 member states supporting it. India’s sole competitor is Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan has backed out of this race. So India inches a little closer. However still, there is no guarantee that India wins this by getting votes of 128 members.
On Food Mega parks:
Government of India plans to attract Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion) investments in next five years from the private sector in the food processing industry. There are also plans to boost agricultural sector and reduce wastage by setting up mega food parks, cold storage chains as well as making investments in research and development and in training of personnel’s. An expression of interest has been floated to 30 mega food parks across India by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012). Each parks would require a fund of Rs. 100 Crore and Govt. wishes to fund 50% rest expecting from the private players and financial institution.
On Euro-IV Grade Fuel
As per Petroleum secretary R S Pandey, all state-run oil firms will supply Euro-IV grade petrol and diesel in 13 big cities and Euro-III complaint petrol in rest of the country from April 1 , rest of the country after six months.
The Euro IV standard specifies a maximum of 50 parts per million of sulfur in petrol and diesel. Euro-III fuel specifications call for a maximum of 350 parts per million of sulfur will be sold in the rest of the country.
These specifications were earlier committed to Supreme Court.
Business & Economy
Cadbury rejects Kraft takeover offer
Cadbury has rejected the takeover offer of Kraft Foods, US based company citing its outstanding financial performance.
Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA) Process Integration Pack (PIP)
Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA) Process Integration Pack (PIP) has been co developed by Wipro and Oracle corporation. This Process Integration Pack is for retail industry. This will provide customers a pre-configured, supportable and upgradeable integration of the retail merchandising execution applications with the financial operation control applications. This process addresses some of these key financial operation control processes for retail merchandising system including – Inventory Valuation, Revenue Recognition and Merchandising Procure to Pay.
The Oracle AIA PIP integrates Oracle Retail Merchandise Operations Management and the Oracle E-Business Suite Financials using Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA).
This development has been done under master services agreement signed in 2009 as a larger co-innovation agenda between Oracle and Wipro.
SBI : 27000 recruitments
State bank of India has plans to recruit 20,000-22,000 people in the clerical posts and 5,500 people at the probationary officer level and open 1000 new branches.
2010 Quality of Life Index: India on 88
2010 Quality of Life Index is published by travel magazine International Living. India is 88th best country in the world to live in, leaving behind nations like Russia and China and moves up 35 places in a year. Bhutan is ahead of India. India is second best place in the subcontinent. Last year India ranked after Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Airtel to Acquire Warid Telecom
Airtel acquires 70 per cent stake in Warid Telecom of Bangladesh for $300 mn. The company belongs to Dhabi Group and offers mobile telecom services with a user base of over 2.9 million in Bangladesh. After this acquisition Airtel’s overall investment in the company would be around $1 billion.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) annual study on TSR
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)’s annual study on Total Shareholder Return shows that Lupin , an Indian generics maker , gave an annualized average TSR of 29.9 per cent, ahead of the 18.4 per cent of Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical, the world’s largest generics maker. Teva is next on the list.
Public sector banks throw hands up on Credit growth
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had projected a credit growth of around 20 per cent for the year-ending March 2010. However companies put expansion plans on hold subsequently and individuals deferred purchase of apartments and automobiles. RBI had revised the estimate to 18 per cent. During the year-ended December 18, 2009, bank credit growth was estimated at 11.25 per cent after hitting a 10-year low of 9.8 per cent. Major banks like SBI and Union Bank have admitted that they miss credit targets. SBI willing to match 18% while Union Bank says 15% by March end.
Today’s Questions:
Which are world’s Highest city and Capital City?
Who was Ma Tint Tint?
What is Therm?
Which mythical charecter in the Greek Mythology, turns a person to a stone if the person looks at?
Who won the first Wimbledon Title?
What are the main functions of Inter-state Council?
The above 5 questions are part of Daily Current Affairs 20 MCQs Series in GKToday Android Application. This series can be subscribed in the app only for Rs. 799/- for entire year. Download NowRelated Posts
Month: Current Affairs - January, 2010