India’s heaviest satellite GSAT-10 was launched from the Kourou launch pad in French Guiana in South America. The satellite will boost telecommunications and DTH broadcasting.

GSAT-10

· Communication satellite of India, built by ISRO

· It carries 30 communication transponders — 12 in Ku-band, 12 in C-band and 6 in extended C-band.

· It has design life of 15 years, built at a cost of Rs.750 crore.

· It will enhance telecommunication, Direct-To-Home and radio navigation services.

· It is the second satellite in INSAT/GSAT constellation with GAGAN payload after GSAT-8.

The Kelkar’s committee’s recommendations were made public by the government for an informal debate by the stakeholders. The committee has suggested bold reform measures. 

Kelkar Committe:

• A 3-member committee headed by the former Finance Secretary and 13th Finance Commission Chairman, Vijay L. Kelkar.
• Members: a) Vijay L. Kelkar b) Indira Rajaram and c) Sanjiv Mishra
• Objective: To devise the fiscal consolidation roadmap for 2012-13 to 2014-15

Recommendations:

• Tight fiscal consolidation roadmap for the government, with subsidy targets, the future course of action on administered prices of petroleum products and fiscal deficit targets.
• Pegs the fiscal deficit at 5.9% of the GDP for the current fiscal against the Budget estimate of 5.1%.
• Enforcing the proposed Food Security Bill in phases.
• Government should raise the prices of food items sold through ration shops, every time the minimum support price is revised.
• Remov the system of selling the sweetener through the ration shops.
• Instantly raising the diesel prices by Rs 4 a litre, kerosene by Rs 2 a litre and LPG by Rs 50 per cylinder. These steps, would reduce under-recoveries of oil marketing companies by Rs 20,000 crore.
• Regular raising of diesel prices until it becomes completely deregulated, and keeping subsidy at affordable level on LPG and kerosene.
• Increase the MRP of Urea by 10 per cent during the first year with any further increase being limited to any increase in the pooled gas price and in fixed
• The government should save additional Rs 20,000 crore in plan expenditure through proper prioritization and efficient use of available resources.
• On tax front, the government should review Direct Taxes Code Bill as it would result in slippages for which there is no fiscal space.
• On indirect tax front, there should be standard deduction rate from 12% to 8% in phases, pruning the list of 6% excise duty to merit goods only etc.
• The government should at least garner Rs 30,000 crore from disinvestment by making offer for sale model attractive and using exchange traded model for securities held by it in public sector units. 
• The government should set up a group to suggest monetizing government's land resources.

The Commission held that if the recommendations made by it are taken by the government, then the Centre may be able to cap its fiscal deficit at 4.6% of GDP in the next financial year and 3.9% in 2014-15.

Fiscal consolidation is a policy aiming at reducing fiscal deficit of government.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed concerns on separation of Debt Management Office (DMO) from Central Bank. The government had proposed to make DMO an independent body under the ambit of finance ministry. This would be accountable for managing the government's borrowing programme. With the increased government’s borrowings over the last few years the separation of DMO from Central Bank had gained the central stage.

As per RBI governor D Subbarao there is no conflict of interest between the debt management and the Central Bank. As per him only the Central Bank had the requisite market gauge and instruments which will help in making contextual judgments. As per him an independent debt agency, driven by narrow objectives would not be able to handle it.
As per RBI advantages of transferring debt management operations out of the central bank are exaggerated. The advantages that were stated were higher transparency, helping in debt consolidations, lowering cost of debt and resolving conflict of interest.
RBI opined that these benefits may work in few nations, but in case of India where the government borrowings are huge, sovereign debt management surpasses the exercise of merely resource raising.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been appointed as the new Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS. She will assist the agency to achieve its goal of eliminating new HIV infections among children by 2015.
Bachchan will help spreading awareness on issues related to curbing new HIV infections in children and urge for increased access to anti-retroviral treatment.

The 9^th World Hindi Conefrence concluded in Johannesburg, South Africa.

During the function a bust of Pandit Nardev Vedalankar, known as the father of Hindi in South Africa, was also  unveiled.
Vedalankar came to South Africa in 1947 from Gujarat to take up a teaching post in a Gujarati medium school in Durban. He contributed immensely for the promotion of Hindi in South Africa.