Current Affairs January 5, 2009

First Infosys prize:
Infosys prize has been instituted by Infosys to reward and recognise outstanding inventions or discovery or a cumulative body of work done in India in five major disciplines: engineering and computer science, life sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences and social sciences. Recently these awards were distributed. Upinder Singh, Daughter of PM Man Mohan Singh was one of the awardees.

Events & Happenings:
344th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh
344th birth anniversary of 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, founder of Khalsa is observed today.

Think Thyroid Month
Indian Thyroid Society (ITS) has marked January has Think Thyroid Month and decides to hold testing camps across the country that would screen 1.5 lakh patients this month.

What is Thyroid?
Its one of largest endocrine gland in the body , located below thyroid carliage or Adam's apple. The primary function of the thyroid is production of the hormones thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), and calcitonin. Thyroid disease is a medical condition impairing the function of the thyroid.

People in News:
Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu
Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu has become the first Indian woman to ski to the South Pole. Dharmshaktu, a 38-year-old mountaineer and outdoor instructor based in Delhi, was part of an all-women expedition of that skied for nearly eight-nine hours daily for 40 days, braving chilly winds, sub-zero temperatures, the vast emptiness of Antarctica and carried 80 kg of load on their backs to reach the South Pole.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Commonwealth, the team of eight women from Britain, Brunei, Cyprus, Ghana, India, Jamaica, New Zealand and Singapore were selected for the Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition and Reena was among the selected.

National Affairs :
E-Dharini Project
e-Dharini is the new e-registration project of the Orissa state government read full article here

What is Delivery Monitoring Unit ?
The Delivery Monitoring Unit (DMU) in the Prime Minister Office on January 5th, reviewed progress in the 18 flagship programmes. The DMU sitting was chaired by Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. read here what is Delivery Monitoring Unit..

Primary Producer Companies:
The concept of primary producers’ companies (PPC) is a decade old phenomena, however no substantial success has been achieved till now. Full Article

Jan Kranti Party of Kalyan Singh:
Kalyan Singh has launched a new political party-Jan Kranti Party on his 78th birthday. His son Raj bir singh will be the national president.

States Authorized more power for Panchayats
Government has issued new guidelines to states which empower them to authorise panchayats to prepare and implement economic development and social justice plans that will make them function as independent units of self governance.
The guidelines from Ministry of Panchayat include the ways for panchayats' devolution of functions, funds and functionaries be kept track of through 'activity mapping'.
These guidelines are based upon recommendations from 2nd ARC's sixth report on local governance, provides for clear delineation of functions for each level of local governance.

Second Yog Peeth of Baba Ram Dev:
Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Yog Peeth in Hardwar will set up second Yog Peeth in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh as per a news.

Dog Breeding Center of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)
Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has launched in Ghaziabad its own Dog Breeding Center keeping in view the rising demand for sniffer dogs at airports and Delhi Metro and for the coming Commonwealth Games.

Please note that BSF is the first paramilitary force in the country to have a sniffer dog breeding/ training centre. CISF has thus become second.

Patanjali Food and Herbal Park
Stated to be the biggest such food unit in the world, Patanjali Food and Herbal Parkhas been inaugurated in Haridwar. It will provide direct employment to 7000 people and has been set up with the cost of Rs. 500 crore.

Problems of the Migrant Workers:
As per a World Bank report, India is the largest recipient of workers' remittance with $52 billion in 2009. Most significant role played is not of high skilled NRI's byt un-skilled and semi-skilled migrants. Govt of India organises Pravasi Bhartiya Divas to take care the issues of Industrialist non-resident Indians , however there is a need for the government to do something in line with this celebration, for the unskilled labour of the country who go abroad to earn and send back earnings to support their families.

2 Million Mobile Internet Users and Growing:
A study done by IAMAI-IMRB reveales that more than 2 million people in India access the web through their mobile phones and other mobile devices on an active basis.

Rio +20 CBD Conference
India will host the eleventh Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October 2012. This is called 'Rio + 20' CBD Conference and will commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit, held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro . 10th summit will be held in Nagoya japan in October.

Total Number of Telephones:

• Total number of telephones in the country is 5,432.00 lakh as on 30th November 2009; as compared to 3741.26 lakh as on 30th November 2008.
• The overall tele-density improved further to 46.32% in November 2009 as compared to 32.34% as on November 2008.
• At the end of September 2009, 7.21 lakh broadband connections were provided.
• The total number of existing ISP licences is 370 at the end of October 2009.
• Under Bharat Nirman Programme, 408 VPTs were provided in the month of October 2009. Thus, out of the targeted 62,302 villages, a total of 60,208 villages have been provided with VPTs till October 2009.

Stamp on Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth
A commemorative postage stamp dedicated to the 20th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth was released by PM Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.

First Disable Friendly Website of a Ministry in India:
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is the first Central Ministry to make its website “Accessible website" and is a significant contribution in addressing the profound social disadvantages faced by the Persons with Disabilities.

Use of assistive technologies persons with visual impairment can use a ‘Screen Reader Software’ which speaks the text that appears on a computer monitor. Persons who have difficulty using a mouse can use ‘Voice Recognition Software’ which enables working on the computer with verbal commands. The website provides features like Iconic learning for mentally retarded and autistic persons, Keyboard support for those with visual or upper limb impairment; Navigation facilitation for those with visual and learning disabilities; Transcripts for audio- video content for the hearing impaired, and changes in colour schemes to name a few. The above accessibility features are also useful for senior citizens.

No. of ASI protected Monuments
There are 3675 monuments/sites declared as of national importance in India.

International Affairs :

Article : Russia Belarus Energy Dispute