Current Affairs April 20, 2010

Appointments:
Meghalaya: 21st Chief Minister - Dr Mukul Manda Sangma
Dr Mukul Manda Sangma has been sowrn in as 21st Chief Minister of Meghalaya. He leads Congress-United Democratic Party-led five-party Meghalaya United Alliance coalition government. Bindo M Lanong of the UDP was sworn-in as Deputy Chief Minister.

List of Chief Ministers

Resignation:
Beleaguered Meghalaya Chief Minister D D Lapang has resigned, paving the way for his deputy Mukul Sangma to take over. Mr Lapang who has been facing revolt by at least 14 legislators tenders his resignation to Governor R S Mooshahary.

National Updates:
Home Minister in Dantewada Tragedy:
Home Minister P Chidambaram admits while replying a debate in Rajya Sabha that Dantewada massacre was a failure of command and control and responsibility for the lapse will be fixed right up to his level.However he rules out use of Army and Air Force in the Naxal affected areas.

On Henderson Brooks Report
Henderson Brooks report is also known as Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report which is an analysis of India China war of 1962. This sensitive report was prepared by then commandants of Indian Military Academy Lieutenant-General Henderson Brooks and Brigadier P S Bhagat. The government refuses in Lok Sabha that the report would not be made public as the report had current operational value.

1999 Jessica Lall murder Case:
Supreme Court upholds Delhi High Court verdict , the conviction and life imprisonment awarded to Manu Sharma in the the 1999 Jessica Lall murder case.

Automated Finger Print Identification Systems (AFIS)
Automated Finger Print Identification Systems (AFIS) has been introduced by the government in 22 states (including J & K ) and Pondicherry. This comes under the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS). CCTNS is a project under the national e-governance plan. Every police station in the country will be provided with a fingerprint reader for which Rs.15,000 per police station has been earmarked.

The states are : Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland, Delhi, Orissa, Goa, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, West Bengal, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

USB Pratirodh & NAYAN
USB Pratirodh & NAYAN are two e-security products launched by C-DAC. USB Pratirodh and Malware Resist has been launched for Home Users and Network Abhigam Niyantran (NAYAN) for enterprises.

Malware Resist is an anti-malware solution which protects an end system from damage caused by malware or any other rogue software by continuously scrutinizing the active programs or processes for malicious behavior. The solution helps users to protect from the Malware by quarantine the processes. NAYAN, especially developed for enterprises, addresses the access control and authentication requirements of a local area network. NAYAN controls the access to different network services at the end system level, protecting internal network from rapidly propagating threats and network misuse. (Govt. of India Press Release)

Chhattisgarh - Foreign Travel Ban
State Government of Chhattisgarh imposes a ban on all foreign travels by ministers and officers on govt expenditure for 1 years.

Assam: Chief Justice of the Gawahati High Court
Justice Ramesh Surajmal Garg has been appointed as Chief Justice of the Guwahati High Court. Previously , he was a Judge of Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Uttar Pradesh: New Tiger Reserve - Pilibhit
The central government has decided to open a new Tiger Reserve in Pilibhit of Uttar Pradesh. The government also decides to come up with more reserves in Maharashtra, Orrisa and Madhya Pradesh.

National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Zone Management
Govt decided to set up National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Zone Management under the World Bank assisted Integrated Coastal Zone Management project within the Anna University, Chennai.

Justice (Retd.) Madan Mohan Punchhi Commission:
Justice (Retd.) Madan Mohan Punchhi Commission on Centre State Relations submits its report to the Union Home Minister, Shri P. Chidambaram, in presence of Shri Dhirendra Singh, Shri V. K. Duggal, Dr. N. R. Madhava Menon and Shri Vijay Shankar (members of the commission). The Commission was constituted in April, 2007 to take a fresh look at the relative roles and responsibilities of the various levels of government and their inter-relations. It was asked to make recommendations to help address the emerging challenges.

Assam: Bamboo Technology Park at Mymlhat
Minister of Mines and Minister of Development of North Eastern Region B.K. Handique reveals about an MoU which was signed between NEC and the Ministry of Environment and Forest for setting up of a Bamboo Technology Park at State Forest College, Mymlhat. Foundation Stone of the same was laid in June 2009.

Business & Economy:
RBI : Annual Monetary Policy 2010-11
Reserve Bank of India is the apex Institution of India's monetary system and financial system and plays a leading role in organizing, running, supervising, regulating and developing the monetary and financial system. Read Here
On Mobile Banking Facility
Tii now, 32 banks have been approved to provide mobile banking facility by the Reserve Bank of India. Out of them 21 banks are providing these services. Banks are now permitted to offer this service to their customers subject to a daily cap of Rs.50,000/- per customer for both funds transfer and transactions involving purchase of goods/ services. Transactions up to Rs.1,000/- can be facilitated by banks without end-to-end encryption.

Expert Group on Energy Drinks:
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has constituted an Expert Group for formulating the standards of the energy drinks.The group will examine the scientific literature and global position on use of caffeine and non-carbonated beverages and their labeling, recommend the limit of caffeine in energy drinks and non-carbonated beverages under Food Regulations. & will suggest suitable safety and products standards of Energy Drink

Credit Guarantee Scheme for MSEs
Following the recommendations of Shri V. K. Sharma, working group on credit guarantee scheme of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGFTMSE), the RBI has mandated the banks not to insist on collateral security in case of loans up to Rs.10 lakh as against the present limit of Rs.5 lakh extended to all units of the micro and small enterprises (MSEs) sector.

Relaxations to BC Model:
Under the previous guidelines of RBI on the business correspondent (BC) model, the banks could appoint/ engage only certain select categories of individuals as BC's. In the Policy 2010-11 RBI has permitted the banks to engage any individual, including those operating Common Service Centres (CSCs), as BC, subject to banks’ comfort level and their carrying out suitable due diligence.