Current Affairs : August 17, 2011

Competition Commission of India imposes heavy Penalty on Real Estate Giant DLF

• The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a heavy penalty of Rs.630 Crore on real estate giant DLF for abusing its leading position
  
• CCI issued a cease and desist order against imposing unfair conditions on the buyers of its flats
  
• The Commission considered it appropriate to impose penalty at the rate of 7 per cent (totalling Rs.630.43 crore) of the average of the turnover for the last three preceding financial years on OP-1 (DLF)
  

Kendra Sahitya Akademi Awards for Children’s Literature

6 novels, 5 collections of short stories, 7 books of poetry and 1 book of folk tales and plays in 24 Indian languages were selected for the 2011 Kendra Sahitya Akademi Awards for Children’s Literature

The awards comprise a prize purse of Rs. 50,000 and a copper plaque

Bala Sahitya Puraskar for lifetime contribution to children’s literature:

Sailen Ghosh (Bengali), Shyam Dutt Parag (Dogri), Ramesh Parekh (Gujarati), Harikrishna Devsare (Hindi) and Maheswar Mohanty (Oriya)

Poetry:

Gh. Nabi Aatash (Kashmiri), Snehalata Rai (Nepali), Darshan Singh Asht (Punjabi), Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra (Sanskrit), Nuhum Hembram (Santali), M.L. Thangappa (Tamil) and Aasil Aseer Dehlavi (Urdu)

Short-Story Writers:

Maheswar Narzary (Bodo), Mayanath Jha (Maithili), Dileep Prabhavalkar (Marathi), Harish B. Sharma (Rajasthani) and M. Bhoopal Reddy (Telugu)

Novelists:

Bandita Phukan (Assamese), Siddhartha Sarma (English), Hundraj Balwani (Sindhi), N. D’souza (Kannada), Gajanan Jog (Konkani) and K. Pappootty (Malayalam)

Shantibala Devi (Manipuri) was chosen for her book of folk tales and plays

FITCH ratings sustains AAA status to US

• FITCH, a leading International credit rating agency, has confirmed the AAA status of United States
• Fitch Ratings believes that the US dollar’s position as the global reserve currency means it can tolerate higher debt to GDP levels than other ‘AAA’ rated sovereigns
• It means that the wealth and the financial suppleness of US as one of the world’s most trustworthy borrowers preserves
• The move is a reflection of the pivotal role of United States in the global financial system and the role of dollar as the reserve currency
• The FITCH ratings virtually amount to a vote of confidence for Washington’s Deficit reduction efforts
• The agency however, said that it will revisit its decision at the end of the year. 
• Two weeks ago, Standard and Poor had downgraded US ratings to double AA+
• The S&P downgrade of the US had led to volatility in the global stock markets
• Earlier, Moody’s Investor Services have confirmed its AAA rating on US but assigned a negative outlook
  

Rajya Sabha takes up impeachment proceeding against Justice Soumitra Sen

• Rajya Sabha initiated the impeachment proceedings against Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court on two grounds of misconduct
• The charges include misappropriation of large sums of money, which he received in his capacity as receiver appointed by the Calcutta High Court as a lawyer in 1984 and misrepresentation of facts before the court
• The motion for the removal of Justice Sen was moved in the house by Mr Sitaram Yechury and Mr Prasanta Chatterjee, both CPIM and Mr Arun Jaitley of the BJP
• A total of 58 members from Rajya Sabha had represented for removal of Justice Sen from his office

A Universal Health Insurance Scheme being devised by the Planning Commission

• The Planning Commission is framing up a blue print for a Universal Health Insurance Scheme
• Scheme to provide a least amount of health cover to everyone in the country
• Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna -RSBY is at present available for all BPL families and other additional categories
• Under RSBY, below poverty line households are provided health insurance cover, which entitles them to hospitalisation coverage of up to Rs 30,000
• Beneficiaries under RSBY need to pay only Rs 30 rupees as registration fee, while the central and state governments pay the premium to the insurer
• The Commission has also called for increase in public expenditure on health to 2.5% of GDP per annum by the end of 12th Plan (2012-17) from the present level of 1.4%

   

In order to impart training to workforce in MSME sector, Govt to set up 50 new Training Centres

• Government to set up over 50 new training centres for upgrading skills of workforce in the micro, small and medium enterprises, MSME sector
• The National Skill Development Corporation set up by the Government aims to provide skill training to 150 million persons by 2022
• Out of the 150 million people, 15 million will be provided skill development training
• At present, 10 training centres are being operated in the states including Kolkata, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar and Jamshedpur.
  

U.S. tobacco companies sue Federal Government over graphic warning labels

• Four major U.S. tobacco companies sued the US Federal Government
• The companies alleged that forcing them to put graphic warning labels on cigarette packages is unconstitutional

As per the companies, the new rules violate their right to free speech.

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Month: Current Affairs - August, 2011

Category: Government Schemes Current Affairs