Current Affairs : April 12, 2010

Events / Happenings & Observances:
Hyderabad: International Congress of Mathematics
International Congress of Mathematics will be held in Hyderabad in August 2010. This will be for the first time that this Congress will be hosted in India. The Fields Medal will also be announced in the congress. Fields Medal is considered as equivalent to the Nobel Prize in Mathematics.

TechED 2010
TechED 2010 is a much awaited technology conclave in India for developers, IT professionals and technology and business decision makers and would bring together over 50,000 of the best technical minds from nearly 100 towns and cities in the country. Its launched in Bangalore and Microsoft launches Visual Studio 2010 & .NET Framework 4 in this event.
Appointments:
MasterCard CEO – Ajay Banga
MasterCard announces on April 12, 2010 that Ajay Banga, currently MasterCard’s president and chief operating officer, has been named by the Board of Directors to serve as the company’s president and chief executive officer, effective July 1, 2010. The company also announced that Banga would become a member of MasterCard’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. Banga will succeed Robert W. Selander, who has been MasterCard’s chief executive officer since March 1997.

Awards & Honors:
Pulitzer Prize 2010
The Pulitzer Prize is a United States Award for newspaper journalism, literature and musical composition. These awards are administered by Columbia University, USA. Read Here

Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2010
Established in 1987, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize are organized and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation, an intergovernmental organization working in the 53 countries of the Commonwealth of Nations & Macquarie Group Foundation. Read Here

NRHM Awards 2010
Vice President M. Hamid Ansari presented “National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) awards” to the States for their success in implementation of the Mission at a function to commemorate the ‘Five Years of NRHM’ organized by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. The Winner states are :

  • Best performing State Award in North East : First : Assam , Second : Mizoram
  • Best performing State Award among High Focus States: First : Rajasthan , Second : Madhya Pradesh
  • Best performing award among other states: First : Tamil Nadu , Second: Haryana

National Updates:
National Integration Council (NIC) is reconstituted
National Integration Council (NIC) has been reconstituted. To be chaired by the Prime Minister of India, it has 147 members including Union Ministers, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Chief Ministers of all States & Union Territories with Legislatures, leaders of national political parties & regional political parties, Chairperson of National Commissions, eminent media persons, public figures, representatives of business and women’s representatives.
The full List of the members is Here

North East : Biometric Ration Cards
The centre takes a decision to introduce the biometric ration cards in North East to check the pilferage of the highly-subsidized rice meant for poor people living under Below Poverty Line.

Kerala : Annual Plan:
Annual Plan for Kerala for year 2010-2011 has been finalized today at Rs 10,025 crore in a meeting between Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan.

New Delhi: Delhi Urban Mass Transit Authority (DUMTA),
On April 12, 2010 the Delhi cabinet approves a bill for setting up Delhi Urban Mass Transit Authority (DUMTA). The bill provide for setting up of DUMTA for comprehensive planning, development and regulation of integrated multi-modal public transport for sustainable public transport. The objective to set up this authority is to create an integrated authority to handle constructing and managing road network, traffic police and transport department as the former two do not come under Delhi government.

Abroad:
Cayman Trough : World’s deepest undersea volcanic vents
The Cayman Trough also known as Bartlett Deep is located in Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. It is the deepest point in the Caribbean Sea and forms part of the tectonic boundary between the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate. A UK team from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton (NOCS), equipped with an autonomously controlled, robot submarine, began mapping the full extent of the trench and discovered black smokers on the ocean floor at a depth of 3.1 miles (5 kilometers), the deepest yet found. These are world’s deepest undersea volcanic vents.

Greece Debt Crisis: 30 Billion Euro Package
To stamp out Greece’s fiscal crisis and restore confidence in the euro, the European governments put together a loan package worth 30 Billion Euro for debt-burdened Greece. The finance ministers of 16 countries decided to offer the loans at three-year interest rates of around 5 per cent in case Greece needs the money. This is the first time that Euro is facing such a grim test since it was introduced in 1999. The step to bail out Greece is indirectly related to currency’s viability as well.

Sports:
India Wins Kabaddi World Cup:
India is the winner of Pearls World Cup Kabaddi Punjab 2010. Indian team led by Mangat Singh Mangi Bagga , defeated Pakistan in the final. Indian Team received Rs. 1 Crore.

The above 5 questions are part of Daily Current Affairs 20 MCQs Series in GKToday Android Application. This series can be subscribed in the app only for Rs. 799/- for entire year. Download Now

Month: 

Leave a Reply