Current Affairs March 30, 2010

• ICRISAT has designed a highly-productive, low pressure drip irrigation system called the ‘African Market Garden’ for reducing poverty and improving nutrition in the Sahelian Region of Africa.
• AVRDC helped towards choosing the vegetables suitable to the region and their management.

Appointments/ Elections:
Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee – Air Chief Marshal P V Naik
Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal P V Naik takes over as Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), receiving the baton of Chairman, COSC from outgoing Army Chief, General Deepak Kapoor.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Market Head Western Region: Leena Gidwani
Leena Gidwani has been appointed by The Royal Bank of Scotland Group as Market Head, Western Region, for its private banking business in India.

National Updates:
Andhra Pradesh: Jute Park
There are six Jute parks to be constructed in the country as part of the Union Ministry of Textiles’ decision. Vizag jute park is one of the six parks coming up as part of textile ministry’s decision to promote jute diversified products. This will be established at Sabbavaram Mandal in Vishakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. It will involve Rs. 500 Crore as investment and 150 acres of land and would provide employment to 20000 people.

Haryana: Cow Commission (Gau Ayog)
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announces formation of a ‘Gau Ayog’ (Cow Commission) to protect cows.

Chhattisgarh: Rs 4 crore for elephant sanctuaries
State Government of Chhattisgarh allocates 4 Crore Rupees for the coming year to develop two sanctuaries for elephants. Apart from this the centre had granted 1.5 crore to the state for its proposed ”Project Elephant” for this fiscal.

Punjab: Sustainable Agri Program of Bharti Walmart
Bharti Walmart Private Limited is a 50:50 JV between Bharti Enterprises and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. which came into existence in August 2007. The company is involved in wholesale cash-and-carry and back-end supply chain management operations in India.
The company unveils its Sustainable Agricultural Program in Haider Nagar village in Sangrur district of Punjab. Its a community development programme, provides closed loop sanitation and energy-efficient modern solutions through community toilets and bio-gas plants to the community. The idea is to mitigate practices that impact the yield and quality of the farm produce being supplied to organized retail stores.

Company says that this initiative forms part of Bharti Walmart’s objective to set up an efficient and robust supply chain that maximizes value for farmers and retailers.

Arunachal Pradesh: Greenfield Airport project
Arunachal Pradesh does not have an airport of its own. The nearest airport is Lilabari in Assam, 57 km from Naharlagun and 67 km from Itanagar. Another airport is at Tezpur in Assam, which is approximately at same distance. On March 28, 2010 Union Environment Ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee for Building Construction has given an approval to Rs 696.66 crore Green Field Airport project in Itanagar.

This will be the first Greenfield airport in the Northeast state.

Tamilnadu: Pennagaram Bypoll
Pennagaram assembly seat got vacant after death of P N Periannan. In the bypoll,P N P Inbasekaran, son of P N Periannan from the ruling DMK in retains the Pennagaram Assembly seat in the bypoll.

Business & Economy:
Six nanos to Smile Train
Smile Train is world’s largest cleft charity. It is an international charity co-founded in 1999 by Brian Mullaney and Charles Wang with the mission of providing free cleft lips and palate surgery for children in developing countries , provies free cleft-related training for doctors and medical professionals. It operates in 76 countries including India. Smile Train is working with 400 doctors in 180 partner hospitals across India and has helped over 2,00,000 children. It operates 50,000 children a year, the number which is increasing by 20 per cent annually. The organization aims to make India cleft free by 2015.

Tata Sons chairman, Ratan N Tata doonates six Tata Nanos Smile Train. These cars will be used in Smile Train partner hospitals.

Murugappa Group – DBS Bank Deal
Murugappa Group (HQ. Chennai) is a business conglomerate. The group had entered into partnership with DBS Bank, Singapore in 2005 to enter into consumer loan business. It buys 37.48 per cent stake in DBS Bank making it to hold controlling stake in their joint venture company Cholamandalam DBS Finance Ltd

On NAFED BARC Tie Up
An MOU will be signed in April by National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) & Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) to distribute high-yielding varieties of seeds to farmers. BARC has been developing high-yielding varieties of seeds at the nuclear agriculture and biotechnology division, NAFED will work to disseminate them.

• BARC has developed at least 38 new crop varieties by combining mutation and recombination breeding.
• The Ministry of Agriculture has already notified these varieties for commercial cultivation.
• ‘The varieties include 20 in oilseeds, 14 of groundnut, three of mustard, two of soyabean and one of sunflower; 16 in pulses, seven in green gram or moong, four in black gram, four in pigeon pea or tur, and one each in cowpea ( chowli), rice and jute.
• Some of these varieties have been distributed and cultivated in states but this will be for the first time that they will be distributed at national level.

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Month: Current Affairs - April, 2010