NATIONAL AFFAIRS
INDO-US Joint Statement: All Bases Covered
EXPORT CONTROLS & NON-PROLIFERATION
US to support India’s full membership to Nuclear Suppliers Group, MTCR, Wassenaar Arrangement and Australia Group; India will harmonize its rules to these regimes
Entities List: Following Indian entities removed from the US list: Bharat Dynamics Ltd, Armament Research and Development Establishment, Defence Research and Development Lab, Missile Research and Development Complex, Solid State Physics Laboratory; and the four remaining subordinates of ISRO — Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, Solid Propellant Space Booster Plant, Sriharikota Space Centre and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre
India no longer categorized as ‘country of concern’: US will ‘realign’ India in its dual-use export control regulations to reflect India’s status as a strategic partner
Weather and Climate Forecasting
US and Indian inter-agency partnership to:
1. Enhance forecast systems in India in advance of the 2011 monsoon season, The agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and India's Ministry of Earth Sciences is part of a series of food security agreements formalised during President Barack Obama's visit.
2. Advance crop forecasting and strengthen agricultural market outlooks 3. Improve water resource modelling and flood forecasting for agricultural management
Food Processing
1. For an improved food value chain: Focus on marketing, cold chain logistics, and sharing of market knowledge by introducing Indian private entrepreneurs and public sector officials to US best practices, standards and technologies in cold chain infrastructure
2. Technology transfer, such as in packaging or water recycling
3. Programmes to improve quality, safety, and professional certification
AFRICA Leverage Indian capabilities in Africa by
1. Harnessing frontier technologies for food security and climateresistant agriculture;
2. Promoting conservation agriculture and natural resource management; and
3. Linking US, Indian, and African universities to improve the knowledge base for agricultural extension and innovation
COUNTER-TERRORISM
New agreement of the department of homeland security and the Indian ministry of home affairs to conduct wide-ranging dialogue on domestic security issues under DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and home minister P. Chidambaram
CIVIL SPACE COOPERATION
1. Joint Civil Space Working Group meeting to be held in 2011
2. Cooperation in planetary exploration and promote collaboration on future space missions
3. Preliminary discussion on human space flight cooperation
EARTH OBSERVATION
A joint weather and climate forecasting project to predict the impacts of climate variability on agriculture utilizing data from the ISRO Oceansat-2 mission, and similar activities
Long-term cooperation between the US Landsat and the Indian Resourcesat land imaging satellite programs
CLEAN ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE
Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Centre that will mobilize up to $100 million in public and private sector funding over five years for R&D on potential breakthrough technologies
MoU on Unconventional Natural Gas Cooperation towards helping
India achieve greater energy security in responsible ways
US pledged to spur private sector investment in clean energy infrastructure in India through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank
EDUCATION
US-India Higher Education Summit, chaired by senior officials from both countries in 2011
India signs shale gas MoU with US
Shale gas, which is locked in organic-rich sedimentary rocks, is found below the surface between two rock formations where shale acts as source for the natural gas.
Ministry also plans to include shale gas acreages in its auction of exploration blocks in 2011. The US is considered a pioneer in the area and has the only commercially viable market for the fuel. India is waking up to the prospect of the unconventional energy source. Even ONGC has initiated a pilot project and started drilling in a Bengal village. But lack of technology and know-how remains a hurdle which the US will help overcome.
India, U.S. sign pact on clean technologies
India and the United States signed an agreement on Monday to establish a virtual centre to promote research, development and deployment in the area of clean energy technologies.
Under the pact, the two countries would each contribute $5 million every year for supporting collaborative R&D projects involving academics and private sectors of both nations.
The pact will initially be valid for 10 years and can be renewed for blocks of five years at a time.
U.S., India sign MoU for global diseases detection
The United States and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding on establishing and operationalising a Global Diseases Detection Centre.
The MoU would be implemented through an agreed plan between the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), India, and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta.
Prithviraj Chavan is new Maharashtra Chief Minister
Prithviraj Chavan will be sworn in as the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra, ending 10 days of political uncertainty in the State.
The impasse was triggered by Ashok Chavan's “offer” on October 30 to quit over a real estate scam that has since also placed the activities of a group of former generals and top bureaucrats under the scanner.
India on U.N. women panel
India has been elected to the board of a new U.N. agency to promote equality for women.
U.N. Women is the amalgamation of different United Nations bodies focused on women. It was created this year to look exclusively at gender equality and empowerment of women.
The 41-member executive board also includes the U.S. and Britain, which won seats in the donor nations category.
23 lakh kids aged below 5 died in one year in India
Around 23 lakh children, aged 1-59 months, died in India in 2005 alone. Of these, more than 60% were from five causes — pneumonia, prematurity and low birthweight, diarrhoeal diseases, neonatal infections and birth asphyxia and birth trauma. Two causes accounted for 50% (6.7 lakh) of all deaths at 1-59 months —pneumonia 3.7 lakhs and diarrhoeal diseases 3 lakhs. This has been revealed in a study by the Registrar General of India published in British medical journal “The Lancet”.
Orissa becoming Odisha
The Lok Sabha cleared the Bill to rename Orissa as ‘Odisha’ and its language as ‘Odiya’ instead of Oriya.
The Orissa (Alteration of Name) Bill was piloted by home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram in the House.
The state is called Udisa in Hindi and Orissa in English, and the language Udiya in Hindi and Oriya in English as per the constitution.
This required an amendment to the constitution and had to be approved by two-thirds majority of the house.
Justice Soumitra Sen to be impeached for misusing public funds
Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court is the second judge in the country's history to face removal proceedings in Parliament. The first was V. Ramaswami, former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, who later became a Supreme Court judge, though the motion for his removal failed.
The report of a three-member committee, headed by Justice B. Sudershan Reddy of the Supreme Court, said it felt that Justice Sen was “guilty of misbehaviour” under Article 124(4) read with Article 217(1) (b) of the Constitution.
Over 8m slumdwellers in Mumbai by 2011
A panel appointed by the housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry said the country’s slum population had grown by 17.8 million people in the last decade.
The country’s financial capital Mumbai will have around 8.68 million people living in slums by 2011, followed by Delhi with 3.16 million people estimated to be living in slums by 2011, compared to 2.3 million in 2001, according to a new methodology adopted by an expert panel appointed by the housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry.
The expert committee was set up to estimate reliable urban slum population, which has estimated the country’s slum population grown by 17.8 million people in the last decade.
2m new TB cases in India last year
India is saddled with highest burden of tuberculosis — with nearly 2 million new cases recorded in 2009. Out of an estimated 1.3 million people who died of TB in 2008.
According to World Health Organisation’s annual report, “Global Tuberculosis Control 2010,” around 4,700 die of TB daily
TB mortality rate has dropped from 30 in 1990 to 20 per 100,000 in 2009. 1.7 million died of TB in 2009
4.4 lakh new cases of MDR-TB emerging each year, and that less than 5% of those cases being properly treated
9.4 million new TB cases (including 3.3 million women) in 2009
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Scientists create “mini Big Bang”
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has succeeded in creating a miniature version of the Big Bang by smashing stripped-down lead atoms together.
European Centre for Nuclear research (CERN) research center has experiment in its Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s biggest machine by slamming beams of particles at record collision energy of 7 TeV or seven million million electron.
The reaction created temperatures a million times hotter than the Sun's core.
This was expected to cause atomic particles such as protons and neutrons to melt, producing a “soup” of matter in a state previously unseen on earth.
What is the big bang model?
According to the Big Bang model, the universe expanded from an extremely dense and hot state and
continues to expand today. A common and useful analogy explains that space itself is expanding,
carrying galaxies with it, like raisins in a rising loaf of bread. General relativistic cosmologies,
however, do not actually ascribe any 'physicality' to space. For better understanding of our solar
system, look at this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1AXbpYndGc&feature=player_embedded#!
US army gets 1st enlisted Sikh soldier since ’80s
Simran Preet Singh Lamba became the first enlisted Sikh soldier in the US army in more than two decades to complete basic training after getting a rare religious exemption for his turban and beard because the military wants his language skills.
Economy, Banking and Finance
India, US Govts give in-principle nod for $10-b infra debt fund
The Governments of India and the US have given their in-principle nod for a proposal by industry captains of both countries to set up a $10-billion fund to finance core-sector projects in India.
Industrial production growth slows to 4.4 % in September
India's industrial production grew at a disappointing 4.4 per cent in September as compared to 8.2 per cent in the same month of the previous fiscal.
Forex reserves cross $300 billion
The country's foreign exchange reserves breached the $300-billion mark for the first time since 2008 with an addition of $2.2 billion last week (November 5) on the back of a healthy rise in foreign currency.
India's foreign exchange reserves had earlier touched $300 billion in March 2008, before the setting-in of the global slowdown in September that year.
Deaths
Noted economist L C Jain dead
Well-known Gandhian and Magsaysay Award winner L.C. Jain passed away.
An economist, organiser, commentator and activist, Mr. Jain spent more than six decades of his life as an impassioned crusader for what Mahatma Gandhi called India's second freedom struggle — the fight against socio-economic oppression.
Sports
Asian Games Medal Tally
India is in 8th position with one gold medal, 4 silver medals and 3 bronze medals in Asian Games 2010 Medal Tally.
China is in first position with 58 gold medals, 22 silver and 21 bronze medals. South Korea is on second position with total 52 medals and Japan is on third Position with total 63 medals.
Asiad 2010: Pankaj Advani Won First Gold for India
Indian ace billiards player Pankaj Advani won gold medal in Asian Games men's singles, it was India's first gold medal in Asiad 2010. The defending Champion won against Myanmar top seed OoNay Thway with 3-2 (33 - 100, 100 - 61, 12 - 101, 101 - 4, 100 - 45) in the final clash.
Chirag United clinches Durand Cup
Mohammad Rafique struck the all important goal as Chirag United today edged past JCT 1-0 to clinch the Durand Cup football tournament title, the first triumph for the Kolkata side in any major tournament. Chirag also became the fourth team from Kolkata to win the world''s third oldest football tournament.
Lorenzo wins Valencia GP
Spanish world champion Jorge Lorenzo won the Valencia Grand Prix.
Vettel wins Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and F1 World Championship
Sebastian Vettel has become the youngest ever formula one world champion after a stunning drive at Yas Marina Circuit.
The Red Bull driver dominated the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from start to finish.
More Current Affairs
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)
CAG office had completed 150 years of existence. Sir Edmund Drummond was appointed the first Auditor General on November 16, 1860, and V. Narahari Rao was appointed the first Comptroller and Auditor General of Independent India in 1948.
INDO-US Joint Statement: All Bases Covered
US to support India’s full membership to Nuclear Suppliers Group, MTCR, Wassenaar Arrangement and Australia Group; India will harmonize its rules to these regimes
Entities List: Following Indian entities removed from the US list: Bharat Dynamics Ltd, Armament Research and Development Establishment, Defence Research and Development Lab, Missile Research and Development Complex, Solid State Physics Laboratory; and the four remaining subordinates of ISRO — Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, Solid Propellant Space Booster Plant, Sriharikota Space Centre and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre
India no longer categorized as ‘country of concern’: US will ‘realign’ India in its dual-use export control regulations to reflect India’s status as a strategic partner
Weather and Climate Forecasting
US and Indian inter-agency partnership to:
1. Enhance forecast systems in India in advance of the 2011 monsoon season, The agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and India's Ministry of Earth Sciences is part of a series of food security agreements formalised during President Barack Obama's visit.
2. Advance crop forecasting and strengthen agricultural market outlooks 3. Improve water resource modelling and flood forecasting for agricultural management
Food Processing
1. For an improved food value chain: Focus on marketing, cold chain logistics, and sharing of market knowledge by introducing Indian private entrepreneurs and public sector officials to US best practices, standards and technologies in cold chain infrastructure
2. Technology transfer, such as in packaging or water recycling
3. Programmes to improve quality, safety, and professional certification
AFRICA Leverage Indian capabilities in Africa by
1. Harnessing frontier technologies for food security and climateresistant agriculture;
2. Promoting conservation agriculture and natural resource management; and
3. Linking US, Indian, and African universities to improve the knowledge base for agricultural extension and innovation
COUNTER-TERRORISM
New agreement of the department of homeland security and the Indian ministry of home affairs to conduct wide-ranging dialogue on domestic security issues under DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and home minister P. Chidambaram
CIVIL SPACE COOPERATION
1. Joint Civil Space Working Group meeting to be held in 2011
2. Cooperation in planetary exploration and promote collaboration on future space missions
3. Preliminary discussion on human space flight cooperation
EARTH OBSERVATION
A joint weather and climate forecasting project to predict the impacts of climate variability on agriculture utilizing data from the ISRO Oceansat-2 mission, and similar activities
Long-term cooperation between the US Landsat and the Indian Resourcesat land imaging satellite programs
CLEAN ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE
Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Centre that will mobilize up to $100 million in public and private sector funding over five years for R&D on potential breakthrough technologies
MoU on Unconventional Natural Gas Cooperation towards helping
India achieve greater energy security in responsible ways
US pledged to spur private sector investment in clean energy infrastructure in India through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank
EDUCATION
US-India Higher Education Summit, chaired by senior officials from both countries in 2011
India signs shale gas MoU with US
Shale gas, which is locked in organic-rich sedimentary rocks, is found below the surface between two rock formations where shale acts as source for the natural gas.
In line with efforts to expand ties with Washington into areas of unconventional and frontier technologies, India has signed an MoU with the US for cooperation in identifying and tapping gas trapped in layers of sedimentary rocks, commonly known as shale gas.
Ministry also plans to include shale gas acreages in its auction of exploration blocks in 2011. The US is considered a pioneer in the area and has the only commercially viable market for the fuel. India is waking up to the prospect of the unconventional energy source. Even ONGC has initiated a pilot project and started drilling in a Bengal village. But lack of technology and know-how remains a hurdle which the US will help overcome.
India, U.S. sign pact on clean technologies
India and the United States signed an agreement on Monday to establish a virtual centre to promote research, development and deployment in the area of clean energy technologies.
Under the pact, the two countries would each contribute $5 million every year for supporting collaborative R&D projects involving academics and private sectors of both nations.
The pact will initially be valid for 10 years and can be renewed for blocks of five years at a time.
U.S., India sign MoU for global diseases detection
The United States and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding on establishing and operationalising a Global Diseases Detection Centre.
The MoU would be implemented through an agreed plan between the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), India, and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta.
Prithviraj Chavan is new Maharashtra Chief Minister
The impasse was triggered by Ashok Chavan's “offer” on October 30 to quit over a real estate scam that has since also placed the activities of a group of former generals and top bureaucrats under the scanner.
India on U.N. women panel
India has been elected to the board of a new U.N. agency to promote equality for women.
U.N. Women is the amalgamation of different United Nations bodies focused on women. It was created this year to look exclusively at gender equality and empowerment of women.
The 41-member executive board also includes the U.S. and Britain, which won seats in the donor nations category.
23 lakh kids aged below 5 died in one year in India
Around 23 lakh children, aged 1-59 months, died in India in 2005 alone. Of these, more than 60% were from five causes — pneumonia, prematurity and low birthweight, diarrhoeal diseases, neonatal infections and birth asphyxia and birth trauma. Two causes accounted for 50% (6.7 lakh) of all deaths at 1-59 months —pneumonia 3.7 lakhs and diarrhoeal diseases 3 lakhs. This has been revealed in a study by the Registrar General of India published in British medical journal “The Lancet”.
Orissa becoming Odisha
The Lok Sabha cleared the Bill to rename Orissa as ‘Odisha’ and its language as ‘Odiya’ instead of Oriya.
The Orissa (Alteration of Name) Bill was piloted by home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram in the House.
The state is called Udisa in Hindi and Orissa in English, and the language Udiya in Hindi and Oriya in English as per the constitution.
This required an amendment to the constitution and had to be approved by two-thirds majority of the house.
Justice Soumitra Sen to be impeached for misusing public funds
The report of a three-member committee, headed by Justice B. Sudershan Reddy of the Supreme Court, said it felt that Justice Sen was “guilty of misbehaviour” under Article 124(4) read with Article 217(1) (b) of the Constitution.
Over 8m slumdwellers in Mumbai by 2011
The country’s financial capital Mumbai will have around 8.68 million people living in slums by 2011, followed by Delhi with 3.16 million people estimated to be living in slums by 2011, compared to 2.3 million in 2001, according to a new methodology adopted by an expert panel appointed by the housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry.
The expert committee was set up to estimate reliable urban slum population, which has estimated the country’s slum population grown by 17.8 million people in the last decade.
2m new TB cases in India last year
India is saddled with highest burden of tuberculosis — with nearly 2 million new cases recorded in 2009. Out of an estimated 1.3 million people who died of TB in 2008.
According to World Health Organisation’s annual report, “Global Tuberculosis Control 2010,” around 4,700 die of TB daily
TB mortality rate has dropped from 30 in 1990 to 20 per 100,000 in 2009. 1.7 million died of TB in 2009
4.4 lakh new cases of MDR-TB emerging each year, and that less than 5% of those cases being properly treated
9.4 million new TB cases (including 3.3 million women) in 2009
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Scientists create “mini Big Bang”
European Centre for Nuclear research (CERN) research center has experiment in its Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s biggest machine by slamming beams of particles at record collision energy of 7 TeV or seven million million electron.
The reaction created temperatures a million times hotter than the Sun's core.
This was expected to cause atomic particles such as protons and neutrons to melt, producing a “soup” of matter in a state previously unseen on earth.
What is the big bang model?
According to the Big Bang model, the universe expanded from an extremely dense and hot state and
continues to expand today. A common and useful analogy explains that space itself is expanding,
carrying galaxies with it, like raisins in a rising loaf of bread. General relativistic cosmologies,
however, do not actually ascribe any 'physicality' to space. For better understanding of our solar
system, look at this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1AXbpYndGc&feature=player_embedded#!
US army gets 1st enlisted Sikh soldier since ’80s
Simran Preet Singh Lamba became the first enlisted Sikh soldier in the US army in more than two decades to complete basic training after getting a rare religious exemption for his turban and beard because the military wants his language skills.
Economy, Banking and Finance
India, US Govts give in-principle nod for $10-b infra debt fund
The Governments of India and the US have given their in-principle nod for a proposal by industry captains of both countries to set up a $10-billion fund to finance core-sector projects in India.
Industrial production growth slows to 4.4 % in September
India's industrial production grew at a disappointing 4.4 per cent in September as compared to 8.2 per cent in the same month of the previous fiscal.
Forex reserves cross $300 billion
The country's foreign exchange reserves breached the $300-billion mark for the first time since 2008 with an addition of $2.2 billion last week (November 5) on the back of a healthy rise in foreign currency.
India's foreign exchange reserves had earlier touched $300 billion in March 2008, before the setting-in of the global slowdown in September that year.
Deaths
Noted economist L C Jain dead
An economist, organiser, commentator and activist, Mr. Jain spent more than six decades of his life as an impassioned crusader for what Mahatma Gandhi called India's second freedom struggle — the fight against socio-economic oppression.
Sports
Asian Games Medal Tally
India is in 8th position with one gold medal, 4 silver medals and 3 bronze medals in Asian Games 2010 Medal Tally.
China is in first position with 58 gold medals, 22 silver and 21 bronze medals. South Korea is on second position with total 52 medals and Japan is on third Position with total 63 medals.
Asiad 2010: Pankaj Advani Won First Gold for India
Indian ace billiards player Pankaj Advani won gold medal in Asian Games men's singles, it was India's first gold medal in Asiad 2010. The defending Champion won against Myanmar top seed OoNay Thway with 3-2 (33 - 100, 100 - 61, 12 - 101, 101 - 4, 100 - 45) in the final clash.
Chirag United clinches Durand Cup
Mohammad Rafique struck the all important goal as Chirag United today edged past JCT 1-0 to clinch the Durand Cup football tournament title, the first triumph for the Kolkata side in any major tournament. Chirag also became the fourth team from Kolkata to win the world''s third oldest football tournament.
Lorenzo wins Valencia GP
Spanish world champion Jorge Lorenzo won the Valencia Grand Prix.
Vettel wins Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and F1 World Championship
Sebastian Vettel has become the youngest ever formula one world champion after a stunning drive at Yas Marina Circuit.
The Red Bull driver dominated the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from start to finish.
More Current Affairs
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)
CAG office had completed 150 years of existence. Sir Edmund Drummond was appointed the first Auditor General on November 16, 1860, and V. Narahari Rao was appointed the first Comptroller and Auditor General of Independent India in 1948.
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