Today’s Headlines: Current Affairs

March 23, 2009

1. England and South Africa have emerged as the front-runners to host the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after the BCCI decided, following days of inconclusive negotiations with the Indian home ministry and various state governments, to shift the tournament out of India. The venue and new schedule will be announced soon. Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, said the tournament had been relocated “because of the extraordinary situation existing this year.” The 45-day tournament clashes with the forthcoming general elections in India and there had been concerns over security.

2. The US government’s controversial restriction on companies from hiring skilled foreign workers with non-immigrant H-1B visas will continue for only two years, the immigration department has said. As part of a stimulus package passed last month for revival of the economy, President Barack Obama signed a new law, named “Employ American Workers Act”, which makes it difficult for the companies having received government bailout funds to hire H-1B foreign workers.

3. Jade Goody, a one-time dental assistant whose final days were as closely chronicled in the media as her controversial appearances on reality television, died of cervical cancer Sunday

4. Scientists at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur have devised an artificial Scientists at IIT Kharagpur that could save lives for just Rs 1 lakh. heart that could save lives for just Rs 1 lakh. The Total Artificial Heart (TAH) — said to be the first such in the country — has been developed by a team of scientists at IIT-Kgp’s school of medical science and technology.

5. Bollywood actress Amisha Patel will contest the Lok Sabha election from Rajkot in Gujarat on a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ticket.

6. India’s first student-made satellite will take off from Sriharikota either on April 5 or 6, riding piggyback on ISRO’s Risat satellite until it separates and flies into its own designated orbit. Called Anusat, the micro-student satellite will be launched by the four-stage PSLV. It has been designed and developed by 37 aerospace engineering students with the help of 10 of their teachers of the prestigious Madras Institute Of Technology, the alma mater of former President and rocket scientist A P J Abdul Kalam.

7. Mohan Madhukar Bhagwat, a 58-year-old veterinary doctor, is one of the youngest to head the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Bhagwat is seen as an unifier within the Sangh Parivar. Bhagwat was born on September 11, 1950, in Chandrapur in Vidarbha. Eldest of three brothers and a sister, Bhagwat did his schooling from Lokmanya Tilak Vidyalaya and then his first year BSc from Janata College, both in Chandrapur.

8. Bank Muscat on Sunday said it has sold 81 per cent of its stake in India’s second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank and has received around 39 million rials ( Rs 507 crore) in pre-tax profits from the sale.

9. England clinched their third World Cup title after beating New Zealand by four wickets in a low scoring final at the North Sydney Oval . Riding on the four-wicket haul of all-rounder Nicky Shaw, England bundled out New Zealand for 166 in 47.2 overs, before achieving the target with 23 balls to spare. Shaw, who became the first bowler to scalp four wickets in the final of an Women’s World Cup, creditably capitalised on morning weather condition to stiffle the opponent batting line-up and reached her best ODI figure of 4-34.

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