Current Affairs : July 15, 2011

Italian Senate approves AUTERITY BUDGET

• The Italian senate approved an AUSTERITY BUDGET worth $ 68 billion in an effort to prevent the European debt crisis from engulfing the country. Italy has one of the major debt mountains in the Eurozone and wants to avoid any need for a bail-out.
  
• The IMF (International Monetary Fund) asked Italy to ensure decisive implementation of spending cuts
  
• As per the IMF, Italy must make efforts to reduce public debt, maintain the stability of its financial sector and introduce structural reforms to boost growth
  
• A budget imposed on a country by its government with the goal of reducing the national deficit by way of cutting consumer spending
  

Krishi Karman Awards

• Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will honoured 5 states, for achieving high food grain production in 2010-11 fiscal
  
• Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to deliver 83rd Foundation Day Lecture of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on 16^th July 2011
  
• The 5 Awardees are:
  
• Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Assam and Tripura
  
• The award carries ` 2 Crore in cash for over total food production and
  

  ` 1 Crore for each of the 4 Crops included in food grains
  

• Chief Ministers of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Assam and Chhattisgarh received the Krishi Karman awards
  
• Agriculture Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Tripura, Maharashtra and Karnataka received the awards on behalf of their States
  

Railways to eliminate all unmanned level crossings by 2016

• The New Railway Minister, Dinesh Trivedi unveiled an 11-point programme to modernize the Railways and announced that there will be no unmanned crossings by 2016 
  
• Currently, there are 32,694 level crossings across the country, of which 14,853 are unmanned
  
• As per the Official data, 229 people were killed at unmanned level crossings in 2010-11 and 95 in 2011-12
  

Govt worried over declining child sex ratio in rural areas

• The Government is worried over the declining child sex ratio in the rural areas
  
• As per Registrar General and Census Commissioner Mr. Chandramauli the urban malice has moved to the rural areas which is worrisome
  
• Census 2011 marks a considerable fall in child sex ratio in the age group of 0 to 6 Years
  
• The fall has been 15 points in the rural areas and 4 points in urban areas in the last decade
  
• Delhi has recorded the lowest while Andaman and Nicobar Islands the highest child sex ratio in rural areas
  
• Haryana has recorded the lowest and Nagaland the highest child sex ratio in urban areas
  

Guru Purnima

• Guru Purnima observed in traditional way of worship and to mark the respect for the Gurus
  
• The ancient city of religious faith and learning Varanasi (in UP) has a special day today
  
• Varanasi is one of the important seats of learning of classical singing and music in India
  
• As per tradition at some places disciples perform their musical talent before the gurus to show their skill what they had learnt from them
  
• Early in the Morning , a large number of people were reach various Ghats of Ganga in Varanasi and in Allahabad to take holy bath and offer traditional worships on the occasion of Guru Purnima
  

President Ms Pratibha Devi Singh Patil calls for war against black money

• Speaking at the concluding ceremony of the year long celebrations commemorating 150 years of Income Tax in the country, the President Ms Pratibha Devisingh Patil emphasized that the war against black money has to be fought both domestically and through cross border measures
  
• Ms Patil stressed the need for better global cooperation to track down tax evaders taking shelter in other countries
  
• As per the President an environment of voluntary tax compliance has to be fostered and nurtured in the country
  
• She also emphasized that the importance of meeting tax obligations has to be ingrained in the minds of children as they can be made tax responsible citizens of tomorrow
  

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C17) Successfully Launches GSAT – 12 Satellite

• In a historic achievement, the 18^th consecutive flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV C-17 has successfully placed India’s latest communication satellite GSAT-12, in a Sub Geosynchronous Transfer orbit
  
• India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C17) successfully launched GSAT-12 communication satellite on July 15, 2011 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota
  
• The launch of PSLV-C17 was the 18th successive successful flight of PSLV
  
• After about 20 minutes of flight time, GSAT-12 was successfully injected into sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (sub-GTO) with a perigee of 284 km and an apogee of 21,020 km with an orbital inclination of 17.9 deg
  
• ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC)’s ground station at Biak, Indonesia acquired the signals from GSAT-12 immediately after the injection of the satellite
  
• The solar panels of the satellite were deployed automatically
  
• This is the nineteenth mission of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and the second flight that employs PSLV-XL configuration
  
• It has 4 stages using solid and liquid propulsion systems alternately
  
• The first stage also has six solid propellant strap-on motors (PSOM-XL), each carrying 12 tonnes of solid propellants for higher payload capability
  

Government approves creation of extra storage capacity

• The Government has accepted establishment of extra storage capacity of about 152 Lakh tonne food grains
  
• To be taken up in 19 states in the initial phase in
  public private partnership mode