Current Affairs : March 23, 2010

World Meteorological Day
Each year, on 23 March, the World Meteorological Organization, its 189 Members and the worldwide meteorological community celebrate World Meteorological Day around a chosen theme. This day commemorates the entry into force, on that date in 1950, of the WMO Convention creating the Organization. Subsequently, in 1951, WMO was designated a specialized agency of the United Nations System. This year, the theme is “60 years of service for your safety and well-being”.

Appointments
India head of State Bank of Mauritius – Suvalaxmi Chakraborty
State Bank of Mauritius Group appoints Suvalaxmi Chkraborty as its new chief executive for India operations. She was earlier with ICICI Bank.

Chief Justice of Orissa High Court : Justice V.Gopalagowda
Hon’ble Justice V.Gopalagowda ,Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court has been appointed as the next Chief Justice of Orissa High Court.

BMW India President: Andreas Schaaf appointed BMW India president
BMW appointments Andreas Schaaf as president of BMW India, succeeding the incumbent Peter Kronschnabl, who has been appointed president of BMW Russia. Andreas Schaaf is currently vice-president, sales and marketing, BMW Korea.

National Updates:
New Scheme: Mega Housing Project for Central Para Military Forces
Ministry of Home Affairs launches a Mega Housing project with an aim to address the housing needs of the Central Para Military Forces(CPMF). This ambitious mega housing project envisages construction of about 1,00,000 houses across the country. This will be done through the Public Private Partnership mode in about four years.

Housing Satisfaction level:
The housing satisfaction level among Central Para Military Force personnel is 15.4% which is low and considered to be a demotivating factor. Until now CPWD has been constructing houses for the force personnel and the pace of construction has been less than what is required to meet the authorized satisfaction level of 25% for the force personnel. By the conventional approach, on an average about 4,000 houses are added every year.

The provision of additional houses for the Force personnel is seen as a measure to boost the morale and motivation level of CPMF personnel, which is also expected to contribute to their operational efficiency.

Location:
245 sites have been identified by the Ministry of Home affairs for paramilitary forces. Out of them 30 sites have been taken for a pilot project.

PM Speaks on Infrastructure in 12th Plan:
Investment on Infrastructure has been kept Rs 45.6 lakh crore in the 11th plan period. The Prime Minister says that, aiming at 10% annual growth, investment in infrastructure sector should be doubled to an ambitious $1 trillion by 2017. It will be 4 times than the 10th plan expenditures. Pm further clears that Infrastructure means not only the structure in the modern part of our country but broadly to include highways and roads of all kinds including rural roads, railways, air and water transport, irrigation, electric power, telecommunications, water supply and sewerage system..

Goa : Tourism for 11th Plan:
Goa has released a new Tourism Policy. The government had earmarked Rs 150 crore for the 11th plan period, which was about 7 times over the Tenth plan allocation. Goa accounts for 8 to 10 per cent of foreign tourist arrivals in India, earning 700 million USD from this international tourist destination every year. Of the foreign tourists, UK, Russia and Germany account for about 50 per cent of the arrivals and other countries 6 per cent during 2005-09.

Maharashtra: Economic Survey
Maharashtra’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) was 8.6 per cent in 2009-10. It has jumped from 3.4 per cent 2008-9. The growth mainly was triggered by Service sector which has shown a 10.4 per cent growth against 7% growth in the industries sector. Agriculture has shown 1.8% . Agriculture had shown negative 19.3% in 2008-9. The per capita state Income at current prices is estimated at Rs 54,867 in 2008-09, against Rs 49,058 during 2007-08.

During the decade 1991-2001, total in-migrants in the state were 32.8 lakh out of which 32 lakh persons (3.3 per cent of total population) were in-migrants from other states of the country.

West Bengal : Well Done Abba
Well Done Abba is a 2010 political satire Hindi film directed by veteran filmmaker and Dadasaheb Phalke award winner Shyam Benegal, starring Boman Irani, Minissha Lamba and Sammir Dattani in pivotal roles. Its releasing on March 26.

Kerala: Coca-Cola Slapped Compensation for Environment Damage
Coca-Cola’s subsidiary, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd (HCBPL) which operates 52 bottling plants in India has been held responsible for depleting groundwater and dumping toxic waste around its Palakkad plant between 1999 and 2004. It been asked to pay $47 million compensation for causing environmental damage at its bottling plant in Kerala.

Protests by farmers, complaining against pollution, forced HCBPL to close down the unit in 2005. The company operates 52 bottling plants in India. (Link)

Business & Economy:
BSNL & Intel India: Meri Manzil Mera Pehela Kadam
Intel India and BSNL join hands. The duo will cover the rural masses under Meri Manzil Mera Pehela Kadam programme by making personal computers and broadband accessible and available to the masses. This programme envisages to cover the entire spectrum of connectivity solutions from BSNL and range of devices based on Intel processors including the Intel Atom Processor based Netbooks and Nettops.

Updates on Some Power projects in Bhutan by Indian Companies:
NHPC is India’s largest hydropower producer. On 23 March NHPC signs an agreement with Government of Bhutan for providing engineering and consultancy services, relating to pre-construction activities of Mangdechhu Hydroelectric Project (720 MW). The detailed project report DPR was submitted earlier for this project by NHPC.

Its worth notable that NHPC a Miniratna category company is trying to give a major thrust to its overseas operations by setting up power projects in Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal. NHPC is preparing detailed project reports (DPR) for 3 more hydel projects in Bhutan with a total capacity of around 3,800 mw. Three other DPRs that would include Chamkarchhu-I and II, and Kuri-Gongri totalling 3,040 mw. Once the DPRs are completed, the company will pitch for implementing and executing these projects.’

On the other hand, Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Limited which is a Joint Venture of Govt. of India & Govt. of UP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Deptt. of Energy, Royal Govt. of Bhutan for updating of ‘Detailed Project Report’ (DPR) of 4060 MW Sankosh Multipurpose Project in Bhutan. Sankosh project is a part of the Govt of India’s initiative of developing 10,000MW of hydro power in Bhutan by year 2020 and constitutes almost 40% of total target.

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