Current Affairs : April 8, 2010

• The Core Committee will be headed by Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh.
• Working group on Agricultural Production will be headed by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister Haryana.
• Working group on Consumers Affairs will be headed by Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi.
• Working group on Food and Public Distribution system(PDS) headed by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. It has been decided in a meeting prior to country wide agitation of the left on the price rise issue.

Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010
Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 was earlier drafted as Prevention of Torture Bill, 2009. Read Here

Gujarat: Kamdhenu University
After a Petroleum University and a Defense University, Gujarat, the largest milk producing state of India starts a Veterinary University in June 2010. The proposed name is Kamdhenu University. It is going to be started in Rajpura village in North Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district.

Tamilnadu: JATROPT Project
In recent times Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) has received much attention as a source of renewable oil for the production of sustainable and affordable bio-fuels. Read Here

Punjab: Rs 592 crore for development of 19 towns
The Punjab State Government gives approval to sanction Rs 592 crore for 19 towns in Mohali, Ludhiana and Jalandhar districts. This includes 10 towns of Ludhiana, 3 towns of Jalandhar and 6 Towns in Mohali. The idea is to facilities provide 100 per cent drinking water supply, sewerage including installation of sewage treatment plants, roads and street lighting.

Delhi: HC allows lawyer to argue in Hindi.
For the very first time, the Delhi High Court allows a lawyer to argue in his Mother Tongue Hindi, bypassing the official English language. Lawyer Das Goninder Singh was allowed to respond in Hindi and be asked the questions in Hindi only.

Indian Maritime University
Indian Maritime University was established as a Central University by the Government of India under an Act of Parliament (Indian Maritime University Act 2008). It is located in Chennai. Its campuses are at Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Vishakhapatnam. On 8th April 2010, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approves a financial support of Rs. 282.25 Crore to IMU.

On Digitalization of All India radio & Doordarshan
The 11th plan envisages Rs 620 crore for implementation of digitalization of transmitters, studios and connectivity programme of DD and Rs 920 crore in case of AIR. Digitalization aims at enabling people in the remotest corner of the country to receive a higher quality of AIR and DD signals.

This programme gets cabinet nod on April 8, 2010. 20 production centers are going to be covered. The decision to digitalis AIR transmission has been taken in view of the serious challenge the public broadcaster was going to face from private players in the third phase of the extension of FM Radio.

India Australia Education Deal:
India and Australia sign a major deal on education. This paves the way for setting up of India-Australia Education Council comprising experts from both countries.

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre – solar heat and light based Desalination System
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai comes up with a desalination system based on solar heat and light. The solar energy-based small and community level reverse osmosis unit has been developed for producing safe drinking wate. In this unit the feed water is passed through the membrane with the help of a DC (direct current) pump connected to the Photovoltaics panels without any batteries.

Business & Economy:
Asian Cricket Council – Nimbus Deal:
Nimbus Sport International, one of Asia’s leading sports management companies, signs a 5 year deal with Asian Cricket Council. With this deal Nimbus gets right to globally market the commercial rights of three Asia Cups from 2010 to 2014.

Fact Box: Asian Cricket Council
Conceived in 1983 as Asian Cricket Conference and rechristened in 1995 as Asian Cricket Council, it is a regional administrative body which functions as subordinate to International Cricket Council. It has 22 members (4 full test status members, 7 associate members, 11 affiliate members). 4 full test status members are Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Headquarters are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Arjun Ranatunga, former captain of Sri Lanka Cricket Team is the current President.
The officially sanctioned tournaments are Asia Cup, Asian Test Championship, ACC Trophy, and Asian Cricket Junior Tournament. Apart from this, ACC runs coaching, umpiring, and sports medicine programs. Asia Cup was conceived in 1983 to promote goodwill between Asian countries.

First Asia Cup was held in 1984 at Sharjah. India was the winner of First Asia Cup. India & Sri Lanka have won this cup for 4 times each. Pakistan only once. 2010 edition of this tournament will be held in Sri Lanka in June 2010

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No FDI in manufacturing of Cigarettes:
On 8th April 2010, India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) prohibited Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in manufacturing of cigarettes. This was a sequel to a proposal moved by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. With this move the door for foreign players Such as Japan Tobacco’s are closed for ever.

Japan Tobacco’s had a proposal to invest $100 million into its Indian subsidiary.

FDI in Cigarettes: Up till now, FDI up to 100 per cent with prior government and Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval was permitted in the manufacture of cigarettes, subject to the undertaking obtaining an industrial license under the Industrial (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951. However this policy was not in tune with the administrative decision not to grant industrial license for cigarette manufacturing

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The decision leaves the market open for dominant Indian Player ITC to increase its share in India’s cigarette market. ITC has 50 % share in India’s cigarette market. Two other major players are Godfrey Phillips and VST.

SAIL Disinvestment Proposal:
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs clears a proposal for disinvesting 10% of its share in the Steel Authority of India Ltd. which will simultaneously issue an equivalent fresh equity to mobilise an aggregate of Rs 16,000 crore in two tranches.SAIL will raise an additional 10% of the paid-up equity and the government on its part will disinvest 10% of its holding. SAIL will get an additional capital of Rs 8,000 crore, while the government will also get Rs 8,000 crore.

Fact Box: SAIL: SAIL is India’s largest steel producing company. With a turnover of Rs. 48,681 crore, the company is among the top five highest profit earning corporates of the country. Shri S.K. Roongta is the chairman of the company. As of March 2009, Government of India has 85.82 % share in the SAIL.

India’s Highest Individual Taxpayer:
As per Economic Times, Analjit Singh, the founder and chairman of Max India, a diversified business group with interests in healthcare, IT services, and financial services, is India’s highest individual taxpayer. He paid advance tax of Rs 99.7 crore . He paid a tax of Rs 13.3 crore in the previous fiscal 2008-09.

Science & Technology:
Solar Impulse:
Solar Impulse is a long-range solar-powered plane project of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, being promoted by Bertrand Piccard. Bertrand Piccard had piloted the first balloon to circle the world non-stop.

The first aircraft of this project is named HB-SIA. HB-SIA is a solar powered one-seater, capable of taking off under its own power, and intended to remain airborne up to 36 hours.

On 7 April 2010 the HB-SIA underwent an extended 87 minute test flight piloted by Markus Scherdel. In contrast to earlier tests, the April flight reached an altitude of 1,200 m (3,937 ft). The project took 6 years to create this carbon fiber aircraft.

World Economy:
World Production of Manganese
Manganese (Mn) atomic number 25 is a transition metal found a free element in nature and also in combination with iron, is the 12th most abundant element in Earth’s crust. Read Here

World Nickel Production
In terms of Mine production, over all world Nickel mine output was 1,430,000 metric tonnes. Largest chunk of this out put comes from Russia 266,000 metric tonnes. Read Here

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2010