July 1-7 Current Affairs

National Updates
Sharad Pawar ICC chief

Former BCCI President Sharad Pawar formally took over as the International Cricket Council President, succeeding Englishman David Morgan. The 70-year-old Pawar, who is also a serving union minister in the Indian government, begins a two-year term as ICC President and on taking over lauded Morgan for his "impressive innings" during the last two years.

Pawar is the second Indian to head the ICC after Jagmohan Dalmiya, who was at the helm from 1997 to 2000.

Amethi to be part of new district in Uttar Pradesh

The Uttar Pradesh government created a new district, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar, named after the social reformer from Maharashtra. To be carved out of Sultanpur and Rae Bareli districts, the new district will include Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, represented by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. Formerly a town and nagar panchayat of Sultanpur district, Amethi becomes part of the State's 72nd district. Gauriganj, an Assembly segment of the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, will serve as the headquarters of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar.

Rajasthan takes PPP route for houses for the poor

Real estate firm Falcon Realty has signed an agreement with the Rajasthan Government to develop housing project under public-private partnership (PPP) model. The Rajasthan Government has chosen Falcon Realty to construct over 1.25 lakh houses in the next five years for weaker sections of the society.

Haryana fourth in educational index

Haryana has been adjudged fourth in all-India ranking in the Educational Development Index generated by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) for 2008-09.

The fourth edition of the Educational Development Index was generated by NUEPA, New Delhi, on 21 indicators divided into four components including access, infrastructure, teachers and outcome.

Jharkhand gets award for success in insurance scheme

Jharkhand earned kudos for successfully implementing the Centre's flagship health insurance scheme for poor families in spite of the Naxal menace. Union Ministry for Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge presented the award to Jharkhand, where 16 districts out of 24 are affected by Maoist violence, for its contribution in providing health care benefits to BPL families

Within one year, the state has covered four lakh BPL families under RSBY in six districts including Ranchi, Kuti, Garwha, West Singhbhum, Dhanbad and Deoghar, Patnaik said. Significantly, the state achieved 85 per cent enrolment under RSBY in Garwha district, which is Naxal hotbed.

Army plans exercises with U.S., Russia, China

The Indian Army is preparing for a series of bilateral exercises to carry out counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism drills along with the armies of the United States, Russia and China.

The U.S. Special Forces will be in India this August for the ‘Vajra Prahar' exercise to be held at Belgaum, Karnataka. The exercise is part of the series of bilateral exercises that the armies of India and the United States have each year, with ‘Shatrujeet' and ‘Yudh Abhyas' being the other two. ‘Yudh Abhyas' was held in October 2009 at Babina district in Uttar Pradesh.

The second bilateral engagement will be with Russia during October to be held near Ranikhet, Uttarakhand. The last in the series will be the ‘Hand-in-Hand' war game with China to be held there. India had hosted the Chinese Army for the exercise in December 2008 at Belgaum. The first edition was held in Kunming, China during 2007.

No tax on fliers to North East and J&K

Domestic passengers flying in and out of the northeast and out of Jammu and Kashmir will not have to pay the 10.3% service charge on airfares.  The new cess for both business and economy domestic travellers will be Rs 103 or 10.3% of gross ticket value, whichever is lower. For economy class international flyers, it will be Rs 515 or 10.3% of ticket value, whichever is less.

World Bank approves $430 million to MUTP

The World Bank on Tuesday approved $430 million to finance the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) 2A to improve the suburban railway system in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region – one of the world's largest urban centres with a population of 18 million in 2001.

New panel to study Vedanta mine impact on tribals

Dongria Kondhs of Lanjigarh in Orissa may have received some respite, with the government setting up yet another committee to reconsider how a proposed Vedanta mine in the area could affect the tribe. Environment and Forests Ministry constituted the four-member committee to make recommendations on a proposal to divert over 660 hectares of forest land for the Lanjigarh Bauxite mines, submitted by the Orissa Mining Corporation for a project to be implemented jointly with Vedanta Aluminium. It will be headed by National Advisory Council member N.C. Saxena. The committee will examine, apart from the diversion of the land which comes under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, issues of settlement of rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

India has just one operation theatre per one lakh people

A latest study by the Harvard School of Public Health has found that while the South-East Asia region has just 2.6 OTs per 1 lakh population, the number is as low as 1.3 OT per 1 lakh population in India and Pakistan. What’s worse, the surgical facilities that are available don’t have the basic safety equipment necessary for safe surgery — such as oxygen monitors.

 Eastern Europe has the highest number of OTs per 1 lakh population — 25.1 — followed by Asia Pacific (high income countries) 24.3, Central Europe 15.7, Western Europe 14.7, North America and Australasia 14.3, Central Asia 11.7 and the Caribbean 10.4 OTs per 1 lakh population. South-East Asia comes right at the end of the heap with 2.6 OTs. The worse are Oceania at 1.9, sub-Saharan Africa (central) 1.2, sub-Saharan Africa (east) 1.1 and sub-Saharan Africa (west) 1.

International Updates

U.S. House passes financial reform bill

THE UNITED States Senate has passed a massive financial overhaul proposal on Thursday July 15 afternoon, capping more than a year of intense debate and delivering President Obama his second major legislative victory. The bill was cleared with a 60-39 Senate vote and goes to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature.

The financial reform legislation was President Barak Obama’s one of the top domestic priority after the passage of health care legislation. The financial reform bill was the second historic legislative triumph this year for President Barak Obama, who signed a bill overhauling U.S. health care in March.

Komorowski wins Polish presidential election

Bronislaw Komorowski won Poland's runoff presidential elections.

Mr. Komorowski, of the centre-right Civic Platform party, gained 53.01 per cent of the vote. Opponent Jaroslaw Kaczynski, of the right-wing Law and Justice party, received 46.99 per cent of the vote.

Nepal Prime Minister resigns

Nepal's Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned after 13 months in power, in a move to break the political deadlock as he succumbed to intense pressure from the opposition Maoists to make way for a "consensus" national government.

Another Indian-American in Team Obama

The Obama government has nominated yet another Indian-American, Nisha Desai Biswal, to a senior position within its administration. Ms. Biswal has been nominated to the post of Assistant Administrator for Asia in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

If her appointment is confirmed, Ms. Biswal will join the large and growing club of Indian-American Obama appointees, which includes USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, First Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, Special Representative to Muslim communities Farah Pandith, Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs at the State Department Richard Verma, U.S. Attorney for Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, and actor Kal Penn, until last month the White House Associate Director of the Office of Public Liaison.

Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus launch customs union

After years of discussions Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus have launched a customs union as a first step towards forming a broader EU-type economic alliance of former Soviet states.

Meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, the leaders of the three nations signed a declaration stating that the customs union comes into effect on July 6. The meeting was held on the sidelines of a summit of the Eurasian Economic Community (Eurasec).

Kyrgyzstan President sworn in

The first woman President in Central Asia was sworn in Kyrgyzstan after bloody ethnic violence in the country's southern regions claimed hundreds of lives. Ms. Rosa Otunbayeva (59) has been elected as the president.

 Ms. Otunbayeva came to power during a popular revolt that overthrew President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in early April in what was a second violent change of government in the small Central Asian state in five years.

Vostok 2010 - Largest war game in Russia's Far East

President Dmitry Medvedev called on the Russian armed forces to guarantee the country's security in the Asia-Pacific region “in the face of existing challenges” as the military displayed their power in the largest war games ever staged in the Russian Far East.

 Over 20,000 troops, 70 combat planes as well as 30 Russian warships are taking part in the Vostok-2010 war games currently active in several Russian regions bordering China and Mongolia. The war games began June 29 and will continue until July 8.

For the first time in Russia's modern history the military exercises involve warships of three fleets — the Black Sea, Pacific and Northern Fleets.

EU cuts GSP+ concessions for Sri Lanka

The European Union (EU) on Monday announced that Sri Lanka would temporarily lose its General Services Preferential (GSP) + tariff concessions, mainly to the apparel sector, from August 15 following the decision of the island nation to reject a conditional offer by the Union. The EU had set July 1 as the deadline for Sri Lanka to accept 15 specific conditions to be fulfilled within a time-frame of six months.

Colombo rejected the offer saying it amounted to interference in the internal affairs of the country and asserted it was not prepared to barter its sovereignty for the sake of EU concessions to the tune of $150 million.

W.S. Merwin is America's new poet laureate

W.S. Merwin will take up the mantle of America's Poet Laureate. The 82-year-old poet has won the Pulitzer prize twice and is the author of more than 30 books of poetry and prose.

Seven-year jail term for “Dr. Death”

 A Indian-born U.S. citizen Jayant Patel (60) surgeon dubbed “Dr. Death” in Australia for a string of botched operations was sentenced to seven years in prison for killing three patients and permanently harming another.

Sikhs need not remove turban at British airports

Sikh passengers at British airports will no longer be forced to remove their turbans for security checks, following protests from the community that the practice was “offensive.” Under new security measures introduced in May, airport staff were given powers to remove turbans if they set off metal detector alarm. In future, however, Sikhs will have their turbans scanned by a hand-held wand.

General Petraeus Takes Command

General David Petraeus formally assumed command of the 130,000-strong international force in Afghanistan.

Petraeus succeeded general Stanley McChrystal, who was fired last month for intemperate remarks he and his aides made to Rolling Stone magazine about Obama administration officials who were mostly on the civilian side.

Sarkozy linked to L'Oreal scandal

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Labour Minister Eric Woerth, who doubles up as the ruling right-wing party's treasurer, are alleged to have received cash payments from Lilian Bettencourt, Europe's wealthiest woman who owns the cosmetics giant L'Oreal.

Banking, Economy and Finance

RNRL-RPower merger at 4:1 swap

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) company Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) will merge with Reliance Power (RPower), another group firm, in a 4-for-1 share swap deal. After the merger, shareholder of RNRL will get one share of RPower for every four shares of RNRL held on the record date.

RNRL is the company which is mandated to supply gas to RPower that will run the latter’s electricity generation plants. Analysts feel that post merger, the combined entity will enjoy economies of scale since the supply of gas and also its usage will be controlled by one company.

Facts:

• RNRL shareholders will get one share of RPower for 4 shares 
• RPower to derive substantial benefit from RNRL’s gas supply pact with RIL 
• Push for RPower's plan to set up up to 10,000 MW gasbased plants
• RPower to benefit from gas from RNRL’s  4 CBM blocks 
• Enhanced reliability and cost efficiency for RPower through RNRL’s coal supply logistics and shipping business 
• RNRL shareholders to benefit from RPower’s planned generation portfolio of 37,000 MW and substantial coal reserves 
• RPower to have over 6 million shareholders, the world’s largest shareholding family

Food inflation dips to 12.92 per cent

Food inflation declined, by 3.98 percentage points, to 12.92 per cent for the third week of June, as the rate of rise in the prices of cereals and vegetables dropped owing to a high base effect.

Exports jump 35 per cent to $16 billion in May

Exports rose by 35.1 per cent in May to $16.1 billion year-on-year, but the trouble brewing in some European economies may weigh on future demand.

Imports also surged by 38.5 per cent in May to $27.4 per cent, indicating a rapid pace of domestic economic activity and leading to a trade gap of $11.29 billion during the month under review.

RBI for cap on private banks' CEOs salaries

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposed limiting annual salary increases of CEOs or wholetime directors of private banks to 10-15 per cent, besides a provision for slashing remuneration in case of poor financial showing.

The proposals were part of the draft regulations on compensation of private sector, local area and foreign banks and are significant given the fact that high salaries and bonuses of bankers (despite their institutions faring badly) were blamed for the 2008 global financial meltdown.

MRPL to export petroleum products to Mauritius

India has signed a three-year agreement to export fuel worth $2 billion to Mauritius and also agreed to look into the possibility of setting up a refinery in the Island nation. The agreement was signed by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Limited (MRPL) and Mauritius State Trading Corporation.

Awards

Perelman rejects award

Russia's math whizz Grigori Perelman has finally turned down a $1,000,000 prize he won for having solved a century-old puzzle. The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) in March awarded its Millennium Prize of $1 million to the reclusive mathematician for proving the 106-year-old Poincaré conjecture, a theorem about the nature of multidimensional space.

Basheer award for Ronald Asher

Edinburgh Ronald E. Asher has been selected for the Vaikom Mohammed Basheer memorial literary award instituted by Pravasi Doha. The award comprises Rs.50,001, a sculpture designed by Artist Namboothiri and citation.

Dr. B.C. Roy Memorial Award (Bidhan Chandra Roy)

On the birth anniversary of B.C. Roy, eminent physician and former Governor of West Bengal, observed throughout the country as Doctor's Day, Chennai honoured some of its renowned physicians and surgeons. The awardees included

C.V.Bhirmanandam, former Vice Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, and

cardiologist; Bennet, a nephrologist, who has also served as Director of Medical Education;

Mathangi Ramakrishnan, senior plastic surgeon;

M.G.Muthukumarasamy, surgeon and former Vice-Chancellor, Annamalai University.

It was also awarded to B.Palaniappan, senior gynaecologist; Panchanadham Madanagopalan, former director of Pathology, Madras Medical College; A.Rajasekharan, urologist and former president, National Board of Examinations and nephrologist; T.P.Saraswathi, gynaecologist and former director, Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology; A Sundaram, senior diabetologist; S.Thanikachalam, senior cardiologist and former Vice-Chancellor, Sri Ramachandra University.

The Hindu of the Year 2010 Award - P .Parameswaran

Deaths

Industrialist, philanthropist Obul Reddy passes away

P. Obul Reddy, industrialist, philanthropist and patron of the arts, passed away. He was 85. Mr. Reddy, who was one of the first industrialists from the South to enter into the television business, was the proprietor of the firm that sold the popular Dyanora TV sets. He was also the former managing director and founder of Nippo Batteries, and was the managing director of Panasonic India, formerly the Indo Matsushita Company.

Journalist dead

M. Kunhikannan, journalist, social worker, and Gandhian, died. Born on July 9, 1926 in Kannur district, he became a Congress worker in 1945. He was elected president of the Kannur District Congress Committee in 1960. He joined theMathrubhumi daily as a reporter in Wayanad in 1970. He was former president of the Wayanad Press Club. 

‘Swatch’ Hayek dies at 82

Nicolas Hayek, chairman and former CEO of the giant Swiss watch-manufacturing firm Swatch, has died. Nicolas G Hayek's greatest merit was his enormous contribution to the saving of Swiss watch industry and foundation and the commercial development of the Swatch Group.

SPORTS

Wimbledon 2010 Tennis

Men’s Singles	Rafael Nadal (Spain)
Women’s Singles	Serena Williams (USA)
Men’s Doubles	Jürgen Melzer (Austria) and Philipp Petzschner (Germany)
Women’s Doubles	Vania King (USA) and Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan)
Mixed Doubles	Leander Paes (India) and Cara Black (Zimbabwe)

Sharath Kamal wins U.S. Open

A. Sharath Kamal won the biggest title of his career when he claimed the honours in the US Open table tennis championship by beating Slovakia's Keineth Thomas in the final at Michigan. Sharath won 11-9, 5-11, 8-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-9 to take the top prize of $10,000.

Jung-moo quits

South Korea's Huh Jung-moo announced he would resign as coach of the national football team. 

More current affairs:

• In the customer satisfaction index survey conducted by Development and Research Services, a New Delhi-based agency, the Coimbatore Airport has bagged 84 per cent satisfaction rate as against 77 per cent last year.
• India’s 1st Naval fighter INSAS 300 squadron turns 50