Current Affairs : January 11, 2010

Awards & Honors:
Nani Palkhivala Award -Maja Daruwala
Mrs. Maja Daruwala is the Director of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi. She has been awarded the prestigious Nani A Palkhivala Award for the protection and preservation of civil liberties in India. The award was instituted by Nani A Palkhivala Memorial Trust.

Appointments:
Ajit Rangnekar: Dean Indian School of Business
The Executive Board of the Indian School of Business (ISB) appoints Ajit Rangnekar as the Dean of the ISB for a term of five years.

National Updates:
Rajasthan: First State in India to launch Web enabled online answering system
The Rajasthan Legislative Assembly becomes the first state in the country to have online question answering system as today it activates its web enabled online answering information system for quick online filing of questions by the members, answers to them and effective and live communication between the Assembly and state government departments.

Karnataka: Caravan Tourism after Golden Chariots
After successful launch of The Golden Chariot, a luxury train in south India which is being operated by The Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation collaboration with Indian Railways, the state tourism department plans to introduce "Caravan Tourism". This enables the tourists to visit remote areas of attraction without worrying for hotel accommodation.

On Proposed Nuclear Parks
Central Government plans to set up 5 nuclear parks in the country. Each park would have the capacity of generating nearly 10,000 MW energy. These would be set up at Kudarkulam in Tamil Nadu, Jaitapur in Maharashtra, Mithivindhi in Gujarat, Haripur in West Bengal and Kovada in Andhra Pradesh. Russia and France would be providing the nuclear reactors for Kudarkulam and Jaitapur. Nuclear Park at Haripur in East Midnapore district of West Bengal is facing opposition due to environment issue, impact study of the site was already completed and Base-line study would be done in the coming few months. (collected from a lecture of Srikumar Banerjee at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata)

Successful testing of Astra

Astra which is an active radar homing Beyond visual range air to air missile (BVRAAM) developed by DRDO is the first air-to-air missile developed by India. It is an advanced missile that enables fighter pilots to lock-on and shoot down enemy aircraft 80 km away. On 11 January India test fired two ‘Astra’ from its Integrated Test Range (ITR) off the Orissa coast. The Test was successful.

The Astra missile is 3.8 meter long having a diameter of 1.78 meter and weighs around 154 kilograms. The missile can carry a warhead of 15 kg. Astra is more advanced to the BVR missiles as it is a single-stage solid fuel missile. It's capable of engaging and destroying highly maneuverable supersonic aerial targets.

What is Raman Chair?
Read here

Sachin Endorses BMC's 'Save Water' campaign
Sachin Tendulkar shoots for an advertisement campaign for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's 'Save Water' campaign at MCA ground in Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai. He says: 'Paani wachwa, Mumbai jagwa' in Marathi and 'Paani ki raksha, Mumbai ki Suraksha'in Hindi.

In which part of India, maximum people use Tobacco?
The Northeastern region exhibits highest rates of tobacco use - in Mizoram more than 80 per cent of men use some form of tobacco, followed by Tripura (76 per cent) and Assam (72). Arunachal Pradesh is the second largest state whose people chew tobacco products after Mizoram.

Jairam Ramesh : BtBrinjal Yatra
Our Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is going to hold a series of public meetings across the country to popularize Bt brinjal BtBrinjal was cleared by the country's bio-technology regulator last year for its commercial cultivation. Read: Story of BtBrinjal

The places are Kolkata, Bhubneshwar, Ahamedabad, Hyderbad, Bangalore, Nagpur & Chandigarh. Various stakeholders including scientists, agriculture experts, farmer’s organizations, consumer groups and NGOs who have been opposing the genetically modified brinjal will attend these meetings.

Mahyco Monsanto biotech, joint venture between Hyderabad based Mahyco and US-based Monsanto, along with University of Agriculture Sciences, Dharawad, and Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore are promoting this.

What is 'ePost Corporate' scheme of Department of Posts?
Department of Posts had introduced ePOST service in 2004. The latest in the series is 'ePost Corporate', which is available to the individuals for quite some time. For corporate customers, department has introduced ePOST corporate service that will enable the customers to send ePost from their premises for any destination across the nation. It costs just Rs 6 per ePost message of A4 size. Corporate can design their own templates and send them to multiple addresses through ePost corporate.

Department now targets the corporate for this scheme, launched now in Kerala and will be expanded throughout the country.

Can Skyline be a trademark?
Recently Supreme Court rules that Skyline is not a specific word on which a company can make a trade mark claim. It is a generic name. In India 117 companies including software firms are using the word as part of their name. In the US there are 10 educational institutions with the same name as the first word. In the UK also there are two such institutions. Therefore, one company could not stake claim to the word in the name of trademark.

India & World:
UNESCO : International Year of Rapprochement of Cultures : Tagore in Interdisciplinary programme.
Aiming to build bridges between cultures and people , the year 2010 will be celebrated as the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures by UNESCO. The goal of the International Year consists in making the rapprochement of cultures the hallmark of all policy-making at local, national, regional and international levels, involving the greatest number of relevant stakeholders. UNESCO would be setting up an interdisciplinary programme around the works of three great poets. The works of three resoundingly human and universal voices, Rabindranath Tagore, the Chilean Pablo Neruda and Aime Cesaire from Martinique would form the basis of the programme

Who is Olafur Ragnar Grimsson ?
Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, Iceland President arrives Mumbai, for a 6 day visit to India. On January 13, when he reaches to Delhi , he will be conferred upon Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding-2007. some agreements will be signed so we shall follow up.

Director General of UNESCO Irina G Bokova in India
Director General of UNESCO Irina G Bokova is the first 'international' speaker in the ongoing IGNOU's Silver Jubilee special lecture Series. She took charge in November 2009 and this is her first official visit to India.

Who is Valentino Rossi ?
Valentino Rossi is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion and is known as most successful motorcycle racers of all time. Won 9 Grand Prix World Championships and is one of the highest earning sports personalities in the world. He is in New Delhi and decorates the Yamaha motorbike pavilion at the 2010 Auto Expo. He drives for the Fiat Yamaha Team.

Global Affairs:
Ever Heard of Coca Colla?
Read here.

Sports:
74th Senior National Badminton Championship : Results: