Current Affairs March 24, 2010

Awards & Honors:
Tepa Samman – Archana Puran Singh
Radha Lala Amarnath Samruti Tepa Samman was conferred to TV actress Archana Puran Singh at 40th Akhil Baharatiya Tepa Sammelan, Ujjain Madhya Pradesh.

Punjab University Awards:
Vigyan Ratna Award was conferred upon Prof Yash Pal and Udyog Ratna Award upon industrialist S P Oswal by Punjab University Chandigarh.

National Updates:
Montek Singh’s statement on Infrastructure investments:
The Planning Commission says investment in infrastructure will come close to $500 billion in the five years to 2012. Deputy chairman of the Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia says money put into the telecom sector will contribute most to reaching the $500 billion target laid out in the 11th five-year plan.

e-certificate project
Govt. of India is planning to put the degrees online and ease verification. In this context a task force is appointed to create a national database of academic qualifications to ensure confidentiality, authenticity, online verification and easy retrieval of degrees. This task force is going to submit its report soon. The universities and education boards will be asked to upload degrees as the database is implemented. The database will also create a new system of storing hard copies of documents.
The aim of the project will be to create a national database of academic qualifications to ensure confidentiality, authenticity, online verification and easy retrieval of degrees.
Its worth noting that more than 25 lakh students get their degrees every year and 95 lakh students clear secondary school examination.

What is DIN?
DIN stands for Document Index Number. It will be aloted to taxpayers from october 2010. It will become essential while filing the annual income tax return of the financial year (2010-11) after ‘insertion of new Section 282B’ in the Income Tax Act.

Assam: What is bhut jolokia?
bhut jolokia is the name of a chilli found in Assam and officially recognised as the hottest chilli on the planet by Guinness World Records.The hotness of the bhut jolokia is measured in Scoville heat units and comes in at a massive 1,001,304, which is nearly twice as hot as Mexico’s red savina that used to hold the record at 577,000.Bhut jolokia is more than 1,000 times stronger than the average cooking spice.

Now, Indian army has developed a grenade made using the bhut Jolokia. It can be used as a crowd control grenade as well as force a terrorist to come out of his hideout. When deployed, the grenade showers the targets with a dust so spicy that in trials subjects were blinded for hours and left with breathing problems. The grenade is a nontoxic weapon.

Business & Economy:
SBI : Village Adoption Scheme- “SBI Ka Apna Goan”.
Village Development Scheme which was introduced and gradually faded away in 1960s, is being revived by State bank of India under its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) scheme “SBI Ka Apna Goan”.In this context, SBI launches efforts in Uttarakhand and other states to adopt villages with the active support of village panchayats. The idea is to achieve 100% Financial Inclusion. The Bank launches surveys for identifying the villages. The scheme will also promote Self Help groups.

Euro-IV
From 1 April, oil companies will begin selling cleaner burning Euro-IV compliant fuels in 13 major cites. Oil companies have spent an estimated Rs40,000 crore upgrading to the new fuels.

I-Pill
Piramal Healthcare buys the rights to emergency contraceptive drug Cipla’s I-pill for Rs95 crore .

ICICI Bank: Entry to Singapore
ICICI Bank gets a green signal from Singapore’s regulators to begin retail operations in that country. The approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore allows ICICI to open branches, take deposits, and give out loans like a local bank. As part of a 2005 agreement, India and Singapore agreed to open up their financial sectors to each other. In 2008 SBI got approval to start operations in Singapore. And India has already allowed Singapore’s DBS to open more branches locally.

Maruti: 1 million cars a year
India’s number one car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, joins a select club of global automobile makers. On 23 March, it became the first automobile company in India to produce one million (10 lakh) cars in a year.

People in News
Captain Tejdeep Singh Rattan : First Turbaned Sikh in US Army
Captain Tejdeep Singh Rattan was recruited and commissioned by the US Army in 2006 as a part of the Health Professionals Scholarship Program. After completing his final year of dental school, he joined the US Army Officer Basic Course.. Now he has graduated from the Army Officer Course and is the First turbaned Sikh officer to complete basic training in the US army in over two decades.
After completing his education, he was told that he must remove his religiously mandated turban and unshorn hair before he began active duty. Later, he submitted a request to the army asking that he be allowed to maintain his turban and beard while serving the army. In December, the army granted his request for accommodation.

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