24/02/2010 : Silda Camp - West Midnapore - Naxalites killed 24 soldiers of Eastern frontier rifles.
24/02/2010 : Budget :
(1). Only Parliament can authorise the government to collect funds by way of taxes, duties and borrowings. All govrnment expenditure needs Parliament's approval
(2). The Finance Minister prepares the Union Budget & budgets of states under President's Rule
(3).State Organs involved :
(a). The Planning Commission : Sets overall targets for ministeries
(b). The Comptroller & Auditor General : Keep a tabs on accounts
(c). Administrative Ministries : State their requirements and plan priorities
(4). Budget Circular: The Budget division of the department of economic affairs (DoE) issues a budget circular to all Union Ministries, all states and UTs, autonomous bodies and departments and three arms of the defence forces for preparing revised estimates for the current financial year and the budget estimates for the next financial year.
(5). Consulatations / Pre - Budget Meetings : Extensive consultations are held with all stake-holders -- union administrative ministeries, state governments, industry, political parties, economists and civil society groups
(6). The Finance Ministry undertakes an intense internal assessment. Spending priorities are assessed by the departments of economic affairs and expenditure. Revenue Mobilisation assessed by the department of revenue. Policy goals assessed by the department of economic affairs
(7). Once the pre-budget meetins are over, a final call on the tax proposals is taken by the finance minister, in consultation with the PM.
(8). Budget Presentation : The President address the Budget session of Parliament
(9). By convention, since 1999, budget is being presented at 11 AM
(10). The FM presents the Budget in the Lok Sabha
(11). The Budget speech of the FM has two parts. Part A deals with general economic survey and policy statements while Part B contains taxation proposals
(12). The annual financial statement is tabled in Rajya Sabha after the FM's speech
(13). No discussion follows the budget presentation
(14). A few days later, the Lok Sabha discusses the Budget as a whole and not the details for 2-3 days
(15). The FM replies at the end of the discussion
(16). A vote on account for expenditure for the next two months of the ensuing financial year is obtained from Parliament
(17). The house is adjourned for a fixed period
(18). During this period, demands for grants are considered by standing committees of Parliament
(19). The standing committee reports are presented to the House, which discusses and votes on demands for grants
(20). The speaker puts all the outstanding demands to the vote of the House. The Lok Sabha has the power to pass or reject any demand or even to reduce the amount of grant
(21). In the Rajya Sabha, there is only a general discussion
(22). The government introduces the Appropriation Bill, which authrosies the govt to spend out of the Consolidated Fund of India
24/02/2010 : Government-appointed committee headed by Ram Pradhan - 26/11 terror strikes investigation
24/02/2010 : Turkish President Abdullah Gul
24/02/2010 : Magsaysay Awards, 2009 - Deep Joshi, from India. He is being recognized for "his vision and leadership in bringing professionalism to the NGO movement in India, by effectively combining 'head' and 'heart' in the transformative development of rural communities." - 5 forigners also got this award. Joshi founded in 1983 the Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), an NGO, along with one Vijay Mahajan.
24/02/2010 : Ashok Chakra,2009 - Major Mohit Sharma, who laid down his life fighting militants infiltrating from Pakistan into J&K in March 2009, has been awarded with Ashok Chakra, the highest peacetime gallantry award of the country, along with Major D. Sreeram Kumar.
24/02/2010 : Jnanpith Award, 42nd - Eminent Sanskrit poet Satya Vrat Shastri has been presented the prestigious 42nd Jnanpith Award. The award was conferred to him by the Princess of Thailand, Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, for his "outstanding contribution to the enrichment of Indian literature." He is the first Sanskrit poet to be conferred the award since its inception.
24/02/2010 : Stockholm Water Prize, 2009 - Indian sanitation expert Bindeshwar Pathak has been awarded the Prize, the most prestigious award for outstanding achievement in water-related activities. The founder of Sulabh Sanitation Movement in India, Pathak is known around the world for his wide-ranging work in the sanitation field.
24/02/2010 : The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence -
(1). Businesswoman of the Year: Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia Industries.
(2). Entrepreneur of the Year: G.V.K. Reddy, Chariman, GVK Group.
(3). Emerging Company of the Year: Idea Cellular.
(4). Global Indian of the Year: Ram Charan, Management Guru and Thinker.
(5). Corporate Citizen of the Year: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
(6). Company of the Year: Hero Honda.
(7). Business Reformer of the Year: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
(8). Policy Change Agent of the Year: Jean Dreze, Instrumental in conceptualising NREGS.
(9).Lifetime Achievement Award: Keshub Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra.
24/02/2010 : "Jinnah -India, Partition, Independence" - Author Mr Jaswant Singh
24/02/2010 : Bhishma-First Indian built T-90 tank - The first batch of India's indigenously built state-of-the-art T-90 main battle tanks, named Bhishma, with features like protection from nuclear attack, were handed over to the army on August 24, 2009 at a function in Avadi, Tamil Nadu. The tanks are being manufactured at the Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF).
24/02/2010 : Mangala Oil fields - The Mangala oil fields of Cairn India in Barmer, Rajasthan were inaugurated by Prime minister Manmohan Singh on August 29, 2009. The fields will help India curtail its oil import bill, which is to the tune of $20 billion, to a large extent. Mangala's peak production of 1.25 lakh barrels per day (bpd) will be reached in the first half of 2010. Along with two other fields 'Bhagyam and Aishwarya' the aggregate peak production of Cairn India will be 1.75 lakh bpd, which is 20 per cent of India's domestic production. The three fields are expected to save the country $1.5 billion annually as import bill over the next 10 years. It would also earn the government $30 billion through taxes, royalties and profit petroleum.
24/02/2010 : Twenty-five years after it established Dakshin Gangotri, the first permanent research station in the South Polar Region, India is all set to build the third such centre in Antarctica to take up cutting-edge research in various fields. The new station, tentatively named Bharti, is scheduled to be operational by 2012, making India a member of an elite group of nine nations that have multiple stations in the region. Dakshin Gangotri, set up in 1984, was buried in ice and had to be abandoned in 1990, a year after India set up Maitri, the second station. The National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa, will set up the new station on Larsmann Hill, 3,000 km from Schirmacher Oasis, where Maitri stands. While Maitri was more than 100 km from the Antarctic Sea, Bharti will be on a promontory by the sea.
24/02/2010 : The National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa.
24/02/2010 : Bhuvan: Indian version of Google Earth. Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), a part of ISRO, had a lead role in designing and developing 'Bhuvan'. NRSA scientists developed the content using data provided by Indian satellites like Resourcesat-1.
24/02/2010 : World Tiger Summit - India will host World Tiger Summit in 2010 where wildlife experts from various countries are expected to congregate to deliberate on conservation of diminishing striped cats in the wild. Rajasthan will be hosting the World Tiger Summit at Ranthambore in October or November.
23/02/2010 : Nyoma - This is the third such airstrip that has been activated along the LAC in Ladakh. On September 18, 2009, an AN-32 aircraft landed at Nyoma, where an advanced landing ground (ALG) has been readied for faster deployment of troops and moving supplies to troops based at forward posts. The landing strip is 23-km inside Indian Territory and is at an altitude of 13,300 feet. An ALG means: where the landing strip comprises hard compacted earth but is not paved with concrete. Earlier, in May 2008, the IAF had activated Daulat-Beg-Oldie (DBO), the highest airfield in the world situated at an altitude of 16,200 feet.
23/02/2010 : India launches OceanSat-2 - On September 23, 2009, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched seven satellites in 1,200 seconds with the help of its most trusted Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, from the Sriharikota spaceport on Andhra Pradesh coast. The satellite is intended for identification of potential fishing zones, weather forecasting and other trends of the sea, coastal zone studies and providing inputs for general meteorological observations.
India placed its second Ocean observation satellite Oceansat-2, along with six other nano satellites, including two German Rubinsat - Rubin 9.1 and Rubin 9.2 and four Cubesats - the Beesat (assembled by Technical University, Berlin), UWE-2 (University of Wuerzburg, Germany, ITU-pSat (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey) and SwissCube-1 (Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, Switzerland.
Earlier, in April 2008, ISRO had launched 10 satellites in one go.
23/02/2010 : Dr Norman Borlaug - American agronomist, humanitarian, and Nobel laureate , the father of the Green Revolution
23/02/2010 : El Nino disrupts weather patterns around the world, causing drought in Indonesia, Australia, India and eastern Brazil, and unusually heavy rainfall in the US Gulf Coast and parts of South America. It also lowers sea surface temperatures in the Caribbean and Atlantic, which helps prevent the formation and intensity of hurricanes in that region.
23/02/2010 : India in Turmoil - Written by former Delhi police chief Ved Marwah
23/02/2010 : Vyas Samman, 2008 - Mannu Bhandari has been honoured for her novel "Ek Kahani Yah Bhi". The award consists of a citation and prize money of Rs 2.55 lakh.
23/02/2010 : Saraswati Samman, 2008 - Dr Lakshminandan Bora has been honoured with the award for his Assamese novel "Kayakalpa". The awards consists of a citation and prize money of Rs 5 lakh.
23/02/2010 : Rio de Janerio - Capital of Brazil, this city will host the 2016 Olympics. With this the Olympic Games head for South America for the first time.
23/02/2010 : Kumharia - The Central government has approved this site in Fatehabad district of Haryana to set-up a nuclear power project by Nuclear Power Corporation of India.
23/02/2010 : Bengaluru - The meeting of Foreign Ministers of RIC (Russia-India-China) was held here in October 2009.
23/02/2010 : Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration, 2008 - Noted journalist from Jammu and Kashmir Balraj Puri has been given the prestigious award "for his yeoman work in promoting and preserving the spirit of national integration in the country".
23/02/2010 : Booker Prize, 2009 - British author Hilary Mantel has won the prize for her novel Wolf Hall
23/02/2010 : Nobel Prizes 2009
(1). Peace - US President Barack Obama - created a new climate in international politics.
(2). Literature - Romanian-born German writer Herta Mueller
(3). Economics - Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson of the United States
(4). Chemistry: India-born structural biologist, Dr Venkatraman 'Venky' Ramakrishnan. Worked on protein-producing ribosomes, and its translation of DNA information into life. He shares the Prize with Dr Thomas Steitz of Yale University, Connecticut, and Dr Ada Yonath of Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
(5). Physics: Three scientists, Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, who created the technology behind digital photography and helped link the world through fibre-optic networks.
(6). Medicine: Three American scientists, Australian-born Elizabeth Blackburn, British-born Jack Szostak and Carol Greider, share the award for the discovery of a built-in protection device in chromosomes, a finding that sheds light on ageing and may help in the fight against cancer.
22/02/2010 : NAFED Managing Director C. V. Ananda Bos
22/02/2010 : National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) has decided to extend its 'Farm Gate to Home Gate' campaign (the sale of essential commodities at low prices) to more States to help hold the price line of essential commodities.
22/02/2010 : Bharat Nirman, a programme to build rural infrastructure, was launched by the Government of India in 2005 to be implemented in a period of four years from 2005-06 to 2008-09. Bharat Nirman project has six components :
(1). Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission (Department of Drinking Water Supply )
(2). Rural Housing - Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY)
(3). Telecommunication and Information Technology
(4). Rural Roads (Ministry of Rural Development)
(5). Electrification
(6). Irrigation
22/02/2010 : Professor Yash Pal of India has been awarded UNESCO's annual Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science, jointly with Trinh Xuan Thuan of Vietnam.
Established in 1951, the Kalinga rewards honour a person who has helped interpret science, research and technology for the general public.
22/02/2010 : Oil exploration firm Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has stumbled upon a reserve of uranium while carrying out exploration work at the Borholla oilfield in Jorhat district. This is the first time that uranium traces have been found in an Assam oilfield although other north-eastern States like Meghalaya have rich reserves.
22/02/2010 : Commander Dilip Dhonde of the Indian Navy, the first Indian to attempt to circumnavigate the world alone, reached Christchurch in New Zealand on November 21, 2009, after covering 9,000 nautical miles on Mhadei, the Indian Naval Sailing Vessel.
22/02/2010 : India's nuclear programme crossed a milestone with fifth unit of the 220 megawatt Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (Raps-5) attaining criticality. With this, the number of operating nuclear power reactors in India has gone up to 18, increasing the total atomic power generating capacity from 4,120 MW to 4,330 MW.
Attaining criticality in the jargon of the atomic scientists means the start of self-sustaining nuclear fission chain.
22/02/2010 : Aerospace and Engineering major QuEST Global has launched India's first aerospace special economic zone (SEZ) at Belgaum, Karnataka, for development and manufacture of aerospace precision engineering products. The SEZ has come up on a 300 acre site at an investment of Rs 150 crore.
22/02/2010 : Darrah National Park - Rajasthan will soon have its third tiger reserve after Ranthambore and Sariska. The new tiger reserve will come up at Darrah National Park, 50 km from Kota.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has given a nod to the project and the first tiger is likely to be relocated to Darrah by 2011.
At present, Darrah National Park is spread over an area of 250 sq km and is separated from Ranthambore by another 250 sq km stretch which houses Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary. The park has three wildlife sanctuaries - Darrah, Chambal and Jaswant Sagar. The park has another positive side - a permanent source of water from the Chambal Basin.
Meanwhile, with an aim to protect and increase tiger population, the state government has finalised a proposal to form a tiger conservation foundation. The foundation, which will also deal with rehabilitation of the big cats to reserve parks with lesser population, is being set up as per the provisions of the Wildlife Conservation Act.
22/02/2010 : Kisan Vision Yojna
Kisan Vision Yojana is an ambitious project of Indian Railways to set up cold chain facilities across the country for fresh fruit and vegetables. The first pilot project is being set up at Singur in West Bengal. The aim of the project is to provide linkage between production clusters with consumption centres.
As much as Rs 35,000 crore worth of farm produce is wasted every year due to lack of proper storage. If this pilot project is successful, Railways will build similar perishable cargo centres at Nashik, Azadpur Mandi in Delhi, New Jalpaiguri, Dankuni and Mecheda.
Container Corporation of India (CONCOR), which operates inland container depots for Railways, will provide container facilities between production clusters and consumption points. CONCOR's subsidiary, Farm and Health Enterprises will provide infrastructure support to these facilities.
22/02/2010 : Language issue and the Indian Constitution
Article 343 of the Constitution and the Official Languages Act says that the official language of the Union will be Hindi. However, the attempt to adopt Hindi as the official language was strongly opposed by several non-Hindi speaking States, especially Tamil Nadu, which erupted in violent protests leading to a compromise in allowing the use of English also for official purposes. Thus, the Constitution and the act allowed English to be used for transaction of business in Parliament, by Centre and States and for certain purposes in High Courts for 15 years. Later, the act was amended in 1967 to allow continuation of English for official purposes.
Originally, the Constitution listed fourteen languages 'Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu' in Eighth Schedule, in 1950. Since then, the list has been expanded thrice, once to include Sindhi, second time to include Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali and yet again to add four more languages ' Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri' bringing total to 22 Scheduled languages.
The three-language formula recommends the study of a modern Indian language, preferably a south Indian language, apart from Hindi and English in Hindi-speaking States and the study of the regional language along with Hindi and English in non-Hindi speaking States.
In 2004, the Government of India declared that languages that met certain requirements could be accorded the status of a "classical language" in India.
No comments:
Post a Comment