clipped from mail.google.com26th November, 2006 to 31st December, 2006
1. The Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee, appointed by the Prime Minister to evaluate the social, economic and educational status of Muslims, has submitted its report. The Committee finds that the Muslim Community in India is 'deprived' and 'neglected' and has made far reaching recommendations. This is the first systematic study of the Muslim Community in Independent India.
þ Set up an Equal Opportunity Commission to address concerns of deprived minority groups. o Create a national data bank on various socio-religious categories. þ Designate Arzal Muslims as S.C.s or Most Backward Cates and evolve affirmative action measures. o Institute a nomination procedure for participation of minorities in public bodies. o Initiate steps to increase the employment share of Muslims. o Provide legal mechanisms to address complaints of discrimination. o Establish a delimitation procedure that rules out reserving constituencies with high minority population for S.C.s o Promote religious tolerance by initiating a process to evaluate textbooks for appropriate social values. o Evaluate the extent of development benefits for different socio- religious categories. o Evolve a University Grants Commission and link financial allocation to diversity in student population. o Evolve criteria a facilitate admissions to the most backward socio-religious categories in universities. o Provide financial and other support to initiatives built around occupations where Muslims are concentrated and that have growth potential. o Work out mechanisms to link madrassas to higher secondary schools and recognize madrassa degrees for eligibility in defence, civil and banking examinations. o Devise teacher-training components that highlight diversity and sensitise teachers to the aspirations of Muslims. o Set up a national Wakf Development Corporation with a revolving corpus fund of Rs. 500 crores. |
After the submission of the report, the government has setup a 13 member high level committee under the Chairmanship of, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, M.A.A. Fatmi. to examine the education related recommendations made by the Sachar Committee.
2. In a significant judgment with far-reaching consequences, the Supreme Court held that no prior sanction from the competent authority was required to prosecute a public servant, including present and former ministers, in corruption cases.
3. India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are exploring ways of establishing joint ventures in third countries, as part of their growing economic partnership. Union Minister Mr. Kamal Nath pointed out that India and the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were in the process of anchoring a Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement by 2007. The GCC comprises Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Oman.
4. Sunita Williams became the second woman of Indian origin after Kalpana Chawla to venture into space in the U.S. shuttle Discovery. The shuttle left on December 9th 2006 and returned to earth on December 22nd, 2006. It was on a repair machine to the International Space Station.
5. The India-Japan Friendship Year 2007 was jointly launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe.Dr. Singh said the friendship year had been launched to mark the 50th anniversary of the cultural agreement between the two countries. Dedicated rail freight corridors with computerised control from New Delhi to Mumbai and to Kolkata were among the projects announced by PM Manmohan Singh and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
6. The Turkish film `Angel's Fall' directed by Semih Kaplanoglu and the Bangladeshi film `Forever Flows' by Abu Sayeed shared the prestigious Golden Crow Pheasant Award (Suvarna Chakoram) in the 11th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK).
7. The Lok Sabha unanimously passed the bill to extend 27 per cent reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Central Higher education institutions, barring minority establishments and those located in designated tribal areas. The bill is termed as `The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Bill, 2006'. Besides minority educational institutions, the new policy will not be applicable to Central educational institutions established in tribal areas referred to in the sixth schedule of the Constitution, Institutions of Excellence besides those involved in Research and are of strategic importance and specialized programmes including at the post-doctoral level.
8. India is putting in place, a superior monitoring system to track ships plying near its coast. It is named as national Automatic Identification System (AIS). The transmission of information will be through VSAT (satellite dishes) links instead of very ultra high frequency transmission used by the present INSPIRES (Indian Ship Position Reporting System) that has been functional for the past 10 years.
9. According to a report by the International Labour Office (of the International Labour Organization), advance of HIV/AIDS is significantly reducing economic and employment growth. As per the report, 39.5 million people were now living with HIV/AIDS with a vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa. 43 countries in the world were badly hit with HIV infected people.
10. Chairman of the Railway Board J.P. Batra has been elected Chairman of the International Union of Railways (UIC), a Paris-based world organisation for international cooperation among railways and promotion of rail transport mode.
11. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is being "actively evaluated" by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) for `navratna' status. For HAL, which is already a category I "miniratna", a "navratna" status would mean less Government controls and more financial autonomy. The present "navratnas" are: Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Gas Authority of India Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, National Thermal Power Corporation Limited, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited and Steel Authority of India Limited.
12. Indian companies Strand Life Sciences and Drishtee are among 47 `visionary' firms worldwide selected by the World Economic Forum as `Technology Pioneers 2007' for their life-changing innovations. This was announced by the Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, Peter Torreele. The Technology Pioneers are nominated by the world's leading venture capital and technology companies and are recognised for their innovations that have the potential for long-term impact on business and society.
13. For the first time in the History of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Sensex crossed the 14000 mark.
| BACKGROUNDER First compiled in 1986, the Sensitive Index, in short, SENSEX is a basket of 30 constituent stocks (30 points) representing a sample of large, liquid and representative companies. These companies have the largest and most actively traded stocks and are representative of various sectors, on the Exchange. They account for around one-fifth of the market capitalization of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The base year of SENSEX is 1978-79 and the base value is 100. The index is widely reported in both domestic and international markets through print as well as electronic media. The Sensex is generally regarded as the most popular and precise barometer of the Indian stock markets. Incorporated in 1992, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) is one of the largest and most advanced stock markets in India. The NSE is the world's third largest stock exchange in terms of transactions. There are a total of 23 stock exchanges in India, but the BSE and NSE comprise 83% of the volumes. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), established in 1992, regulates the stock markets and other securities markets of the country. |
14. Infosys has become the first ever Indian firm to enter the prestigious Nasdaq-100 Index, joining the elite group like Google, Yahoo and Oracle, following its resounding success in its third sponsored American Depository Share offering.
15. Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani has been named `Businessman of the Year' for 2006 by Forbes Asia for his `nimble' stewardship in keeping the company ahead of peers in the global outsourcing phenomenon.
16. Hutchison Essar entered into a strategic alliance with Japan-based NTT DoCoMo to provide mobile Internet services to its customers. DoCoMo will license its patented technology `i-mode' to Hutch for offering mobile Internet on GSM (Global System for Mobile communication), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) networks.
17. The Union Government introduced a Bill in the Lok Sabha to amend the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, in a bid to develop the country's securitisation market for facilitating listing and trading of securitised certificates or instruments. Introduced by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, the Bill provides for vesting the powers of regulation with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
| Securitisation is the process of conversion of existing assets or future cash flows into marketable securities. Assets that can be securitised include car loans, housing loans, credit card payments and receivables like rentals. |
18. According to an International Collaborative study Air pollution is threatening the quality of life in Asia: According to the report about 6,00,000 Asians die prematurely each year due to air pollution.
19. The Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2006, to check cyber crimes was introduced in the Lok Sabha. The crimes covered included publication of sexually explicit material, video voyeurism, breach of confidentiality, leakage of data by intermediaries, e-commerce frauds identity and video voyeurism. The new forms of crime that have emerged in the wake of Internet revolution have necessitated the amendment of the Information Technology Act of 2000. The Bill seeks to amend the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure to address the crimes.
20. The four-day Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Human Settlements had set the mechanism and agenda for future regional cooperation. It adopted the `Delhi Declaration' calling for the transformation of urban areas into better-managed, more inclusive and sustainable towns and cities.
21. The Lok Sabha passed the Scheduled Tribes and other traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights ) Bill, 2005, seeking to recognize the vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land of forest-dwelling scheduled tribes and other traditional forest-dwellers. The Bill which was originally tabled in 2005, has been redrafted and includes other traditional forest dwellers also instead of the only the Scheduled Tribes. The dwellers would have to be residing in forest land for three generations (one generation is defined as 25 years by the bill) or 75 years for entitlement to land rights and the rights to collect and market the forest products to the dwellers. Now, each family would be entitled to four hectares of forest land as against 2.5 hectares envisaged in the previous bill.
22. The Prime Minister released the India Rural Infrastructure Report. The report sponsored by the Ratan Tata Trust.
| FINDINGS OF THE REPORT Rural India — is a home to 70 per cent of the country's population — would require Rs.92,690 crore (at 2002-03 prices) for providing telecom connectivity, Rs.55,243 crore would be necessary for power supply, Rs.5,892 crore for roads and transport and Rs.4,488 crore for water and sanitation. According to the report Rural infrastructure development requires an estimated sum of Rs.1,58,313 crore. The report advocated greater decentralization of regulation and ownership, greater reliance on user fees to recover cost and provide for sustainable operation and maintenance, and greater use of micro finance to build demand for services. |
Releasing the report, the Prime Minister outlined five major challenges: ¢Revitalization of the rural economy ¢ Improved delivery of essential public services ¢ Improved management of urban areas ¢ Financial system for greater inclusion and increased global integration ¢ A regulatory culture to facilitate cost-effective private investment in infrastructure.
23. Reliance creates `Zapak', India's largest gaming portal .Zapak is the creation of the Reliance ADA Group, and it aims to become India's hottest games portal — it is the largest with over 150 games, many of them well-known international titles like "Heli Attack" and "Four Wheel Fury", but quite a few are original made-in-India content.
24. United States President George W. Bush, signed the historic legislation allowing civilian nuclear trade with India. It ends India's 30-year nuclear isolation. It paves the way for India to stop spread of nuclear weapons. India's energy requirements will double by 2015.
25. Eminent space scientist, former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation and Rajya Sabha member. Dr.Kasturirangan has been appointed by Pope Benedict XV1 as an Academician of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. It is considered the most prestigious academy in the world. He is the fourth Indian scientist to get the honour after C. V. Raman, M. G. K. Menon and C. N. R. Rao.
26. The Union Government disclosed the much-awaited policy on setting up city gas distribution projects that allows companies to have monopoly for a certain period in selling natural gas to households and automobiles. City Gas Distribution (CGD) projects will have marketing exclusivity.
27. Scientists have discovered at least 52 new species of animals and plants on the southeast Asian island of Borneo. WWF International said that the new discoveries, made between July 2005 and September 2006, include 30 fish species, two tree frogs and plant species. One of the fish species is a miniature, the world's second-smallest vertebrate.
| Among the creatures that were new to science were six Siamese fighting fish, and a catfish. The catfish, which can be identified by its colour pattern, is named Glyptothorax. While these species were spotted in Indonesian waters, the 8.8 mm-long Paedocypris micromegethes was discovered in Malaysia's backwater streams and peat swamp forests. |
28. Eradicating Polio is proving to be a tough task in India. 1,763 people contracted Polio in the year 2006, in India. Moradabad district in western Uttar Pradesh has registered the highest number of Polio cases of any district in the country. 190 countries of the world are Polio free, due to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative of the WHO, Rotary International, UNICEF and a few other International Organisations. The disease remains endemic in India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria.
29. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan has been appointed as the 37th Chief Justice of India. He succeeds Justice Y.K. Sabharwal.
30. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in infrastructure companies in the securities market — stock exchanges, depositories and clearing corporations — with a separate FDI cap of 26 per cent and FII (Foreign Institutional Investment) cap of 23 per cent. This will be in compliance with the SEBI regulations.
31. The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to impose non-military sanctions on Iran for its failure to end its nuclear enrichment programme.
32. India has the largest number of people living with Diabetes, according to the Diabetes Atlas released by the International Diabetes Federation's. India has 40.9 million people with diabetes, followed by China at 39.8 million.
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease in which the body either does not produce or does not fully utilise insulin. As result, it cannot properly metabolise carbohydrates and to a lesser extent, protein and fat. Glucose ( sugar ) builds up in the blood; to rid the body of the excess, the kidneys begin to excrete it in the urine. Although excessive glucose is circulating, the brain and other tissues that need it for fuel are unable to use it. The body begins to break down fat and protein in an attempt to provide an alternate source of fuel, resulting in serious biochemical imbalances. In the meantime, the high levels of glucose are damaging structures throughout the body, increasing the risk of complications such as heart attack, blindness, kidney failure, stroke and painful nerve problems. Despite effective treatments, diabetes is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. There are two major forms of diabetes: Type I, in which the body stops making insulin completely, and Type II in which the body produces inadequate insulin or is unable to use it fully. There is no cure for either type of diabetes, but the disease can be controlled with a combination of therapies. |
33. Professor Terence Tao of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), was awarded the 2006 SASTRA's Ramanujan Prize at the International Conference on Number Theory and Combinatorics at the Srinivasa Ramanujan Centre, SASTRA University, Kumbakonam for revolutionary contributions to several areas of mathematics.
The Green-Tao theorem resolves an important special case of the Erdös-Turan conjecture. One of the most famous unsolved problems in mathematics is the Prime Twins Conjecture, which asserts that there are infinitely many prime pairs that differ by 2. Professor Tao and Professor Green proved in 2003 that there are arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of primes.
34. June 29 will be observed as "National Statistical Day" across the country. The day marks the birth anniversary of Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, the doyen of Indian statistics and founder of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata.
35. Indian naval landing ship, INS Shardul, to be based on western seaboard for the first time. INS Shardul can carry 11 main battle tanks, 10 army vehicles, 500 troops. It Will be the first landing ship based on India's western seaboard. It was built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Kolkata. INS Shardul will be the first ship to be commissioned from INS Kadamba, the Navy's most modern and state-of-the-art operational base at Karwar (on India's west coast)
36. The Centre plans to declare 2007 as "Water Year — Year of More Crop and Income Per Drop of Water". This is based on the recommendations of the Advisory Council on artificial recharge of groundwater chaired by Shri. Saifuddin Soz.
37. North Korea has declared itself as a nuclear power. This declaration was made by North Korea's representative Kim Kye Gwan during the plenary session of the six party talks in Beijing.
| LIST OF COUNTRIES WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS | ||
| Country | Warheads Active / Total | Year of the First Test |
| 1. United States | 5,735 / 9,960 | 1945 |
| 2. Russia | 5,830 / 16,000 | 1949 |
| 3. United Kingdom | 200 | 1952 |
| 4. France | 350 | 1960 |
| 5. China | 130 | 1964 |
| 6. India | 40-50 | 1974 |
| 7. Pakistan | 30-52 | 1998 |
| 8. North Korea | 1-10 | 2006 |
38. The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Sri Lanka Government signed an agreement for setting up of a 500 MW coal-based thermal plant in Trincomalee district. The project, involving an investment of $500 million, would be implemented by a joint venture company to be formed with a stake of 50 per cent each by NTPC and CEB, and would be funded with a debt equity ratio of 70:30.
39. The former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was executed on 30th December, 2006, bringing to an end an era which has left a powerful imprint on West Asia. Mr. Hussein's two co-defendants, the former military intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim-al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed-al-Bandar, a former chief judge, would be executed at a later date. An Iraqi court sentenced all the three to death on November 5 following a controversial year long trial over the 1982 killings of 148 Shias in the town of Dujail.
40. The West Bengal Assembly passed the Calcutta Hackney Carriage (Amendment ) Bill abolishing the hand-pull rickshaw.
41. Parliament has given its nod for the bill to accord Central University status to the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad.
42. The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan demits office on the 31st December, 2006.
The information presented above has been collected from a variety of sources. Brain Tree exercises due care and caution in collecting the data before publication. Inspite of this, if any omission, inaccuracy or printing errors occur with regard to the data, Brain Tree will not be held responsible or liable. |
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