Current Affairs: February 5, 2012

Court rejects the petition of Subramanian Swamy

• A Delhi Court provides a major relief to Home Minister P Chidambaram and the UPA Government, when it dismissed a petition seeking to make him an accused in the 2G Spectrum case.
• This petition was filed by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy.
• The Judge O P Saini mandated that Chidambaram did not indulge in any criminal conspiracy or derive any pecuniary advantage in the decisions taken with former Telecom Minister A Raja.
• The Judge also noted that Chidambaram was party to only two decisions – keeping spectrum prices at 2001 level and dilution of equity by two companies and these are not per se criminal.
• The court further noted that there is no evidence on record that Chidamabram was acting in pursuit of the criminal conspiracy.

Culling of poultry in Bhubneshwar begins

• Culling of poultry in the Odisha capital Bhubaneswar starts following detection of the Avian Influenza Bird Flu.
• This was after the green signal given by the centre to the State Government for culling of over 28,800 poultry birds in Central Poultry
• Development Organisation, CPDO and also all poultry population within its 3 kilometre radius.
• Prior to this, the Bhopal based High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory has confirmed bird flu (H5N1) among the poultry population of CPDO at Bhubaneswar.

China and Russia veto the UNSC Resolution on Syria

• The Russia and China have vetoed a United Nations Security Council Resolution which condemns the Syrian regime’s crackdown on public uprising and calls upon President Bashar Al Assad to abide by the Arab League time frame for political reforms in the country. The resolution also calling on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stand down.
• However, 13 members of the 15-member Security Council, including India voted in favour of the resolution.
• The resolution was prepared by European Union and Arab nations and revised amidst stiff opposition by Russia.
• From the original draft several major demands were dropped.

Freezing weather claims many lives in Europe

• Entire Europe in the grip of biggest freezing weather in many decades. The chilled weather hits the major transport hubs badly and many airports and roads blocked. The weather claims at least 200 lives so far, as the temperature plummates below -30°C.
• State of emergency has been decared in Bosnian capital Sarajevo.
• The most hit nation has been Ukraine where 100 lives lost so far.

Eid Milad-Un-Nabi celebrated

• Eid Milad-Un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Mohammad celebrated across the nation with religious fervour.
• Eid Milad-Un-Nabi or Mawlid occurs in Rabi’ al-awwal, the third month in the Islamic calendar.

Desert festival Begins in Jaisalmer

• In Jaisalmer of Rajasthan, the internationally famous Desert festival begins with all a Shobha Yatra.
• Desert festival at Jaisalmer is one of the most famous tourist attraction of Rajasthan.
• The turban competition & Mr Desert competition are some of the most important events of the festival.
• Other intersting events include the camel polo, camel decoration and camel race.

Pratyush Sinha committee indicts G Madhavan Nair & 3 more scientists in Antrix-Devas deal

• Former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair and three senior scientists get indicted by a Committee headed by Pratyush Sinha, former Chief Vigilance .
• The committee was appointed by ISRO itself. The report says that Antrix-Devas deal lacked transparency.
• The report recommends that action needs to be taken against Nair, A Bhaskaranarayana, K R Sridhara Murthi and K N Shankara, all of whom have retired.
• The report further said that there have not only been serious administrative and procedural lapses but also suggestion of collusive behaviour on the part of certain individuals.
• The report has also proposed action against 4 other people viz. S S Meenakshisundaram, Veena Rao, G Balachadran and R G Nadadur.
• Antrix is the commercial arm of ISRO. The committee was established in May last year when there were allegations of revenue losses in the allocation of space spectrum using S-band between the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation and a private company Devos multimedia .
• This agreement was reached on January 28, 2005. The high-powered committee comprising BK Chaturvedi and Roddam Narasimha reviewed the technical, commercial, procedural and financial aspects of the agreement.

The MGP withdraws support from Government in Goa

• In Goa, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party today withdraws support from the Congress-led coalition government.
• This move comes at less than a month, when Goa gets ready for the assembly polls in March.
• The move doed not affect the health of the Government. MGP has two MLAs in the 40-member Goa Assembly.

West Bengal Government constitutes Sourabh Das Committee to evaluate Panchayats

• The state Government of West Bengal constitutes a 9 member committee to evalvuate the performance of Gram Panchayat in the State.
• Mr. Sourabh Das is the State Panchayat Secretary, who is heading the Committee.
• State Government has decided to reward and penalise the Panchayat, based on their performance.

4th Cinemas International Film 2012 begins in Guwahati

• In Assam, the 4th Cinemas International Film Festival, 2012 begins Guwahati.
• It has been inaugurated by noted Assamese film star Biju Phukan.
• Around 40 movies across the world will be screened in the festival.
• The festival is jointly organised by the Cine Art Society, Asom, CineASA and State Film Development Corporation.

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Month: Current Affairs - February, 2012