Current Affairs National October 2009

1. PRB Act regulates printing presses and newspapers, and also governs the registration of newspapers.
2. The PRB Act spells out the rules that newspapers have to conform with to be published in India. PRB Act is a regulatory law which enables the Government to regulate printing presses and newspapers by a system of registration and to preserve copies of books and other matter printed in India.
3. The earliest surviving enactment specifically directed towards the press was passed in 1867, and major amendments were carried out in this Act in 1955 following the recommendations of the First Press Commission in 1953, consequent upon which the Office of the Registrar of Newspapers of India (RNI) was created and started functioning in 1956.

October 14, 2009: Arnold vetoed ‘kirpan’ bill
A bill to educate law enforcement officers about the religious significance of ‘kirpans’ was vetoed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who found it “unnecessary”, drawing angry reaction from the Sikh community in the US. The bill was passed unanimously in both Houses, by 77-0 in the Assembly and by 36-0 in the Senate. The bill Bill AB 504 was introduced in February 2009 by Assembly member Warren Furutani to use education to help stem the arrests of Sikhs for carrying kirpans in California.

October 13, 2009: India and China to treble HNI population by 2018: Report
According to the Asia-Pacific Wealth Report released by Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and Capgemini, India and China are likely to treble the high net worth individuals’ population and add $ four trillion to its wealth by 2018. The combined wealth of Asia Pacific’s HNWIs is estimated to grow at 8.8 per cent annually till 2018, which is faster than the global average of 7.1 per cent.

October 13, 2009: Albania wanted Mother Teresa’s remains, India rejected
The Albanian Prime Minister, Mr Sali Berisha, had asked New Delhi for her remains to be given to Albania by the 100th anniversary of her birth in August 2010. India has rejected Albania’s demand for Mother Teresa’s remains, saying she was an Indian citizen — a decision widely welcomed in this country where the Nobel prize winner spent her life tending to the poor and needy. Mother Teresa was an Indian citizen and there was no question of returning her remains. It was reacting to a demand by Albania, the country where she was born on August 26, 1910. Mother Teresa, who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003, is buried at the courtyard of the Missionaries of Charity headquarters in Kolkata. She died in 1997.

October 14, 2009: Court notice to Rajasthan Government on inaction on Deorala Sati Incident
The Rajasthan High Court has issued a show-cause notice to the State Government on its alleged inaction in pursuing cases against those accused of glorification of the infamous Deorala sati on 1987. The court thus responded to four writ petitions filed in the Court on May 22, 2008, by various human rights and women’s organisations including PUCL and Rajasthan University Women’s Association, Justice Prem Shankar Asopa asked the Government to explain why it did not go for an appeal against the acquittal in 2004 of those accused under the Sati (Prevention) Act. (Patrika)

October 15, 2009: Documentation of 2.65 lakh manuscripts starts in Andhra Pradesh
A big programme of listing, identifying and authenticating 2.65 lakh ancient manuscripts collected from repositories, institutions and individuals was launched in Andhra Pradesh by States Minister for Information and Public Relations and Tourism J. Geetha Reddy.

A survey for collecting rare and old manuscripts was launched in the State in 2006 under National Manuscripts Mission (NMM) with Government Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Institute, Tarnaka, identified as the nodal centre. It yielded a rich collection of palm-leaf and other old manuscripts in 16 languages, including Telugu, Sanskrit, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Urdu, Arabic and Persian from private collections of individuals, libraries and institutions such as Salar Jung Museum, State Museum, etc. (The Hindu)

October 14, 2009: ‘Missing link’ pterosaur found in China
Chinese and British palaeontologists have identified a crow-sized fossil which fills a key gap in our understanding of the mysterious flying reptiles known as pterosaurs. Named as Darwinopterus modularis in honour of Charles Darwin.

Darwinopterus appears to be intermediary between primitive, long-tailed pterosaurs — sometimes called pterodactyls — and their descendants, who were short-tailed, more sophisticated flyers that sometimes reached gigantic sizes. (CNN)

October 15, 2009: India-US Education Council
India and the US are proposing to set up an India-US Education Council. This Council is slated to include representatives of Industry and Education. The Council will coordinate the moving forward of bilateral relations in education between the two countries. This was discussed during the meeting of the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Kapil Sibal and Mr. William Burns, the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs recently in new Delhi.

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Month: Current Affairs - October, 2009