20-Sep-2009

1) Arun Majumdar is in news. Why?

Named by Obama White House as the 1st director of the US Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

ARPA-E : Organization for reducing America's reliance on foreign energy supplies, cutting Greenhouse gas emission and improving energy efficiency.

2) Excellent scheme by AP govt. Call centre to accept complaints from public on efficiency of implementation of Public Welfare Schemes.

3) Who is India's National Security Advisor currently?

M.K. Narayan

4) 27th Sep - 03rd Oct , what's the significance ?

We are celebrating the Joy of Giving Week. So what would you give and to whom?

5) What has the Nanavati commission been investigating ?

For those who don't know, its the Godhra and post-Godhra incidents.

6) Some sportsmen in news today:

a. Ai Miyazato : Golf (Women) - Japan

b. Geethu Anna Jose, Pauldurai Anitha : basket ball(Women) - India

c. Shakeh Mortaja : Atheletics(male) - India

d. Mandeep Kaur, Manjeet Kaur : Atheletics(Female) - India

e. Gaurav Gill, Musa Sheriff : Motor Sports (Team MRF)

f. Amittrajit Ghosh, Ashwin Naik : Motor Sports ( Red Rooster Racing)

g. Gaganjeet Bhullar : Golf

h. Rushmi Chakravarthy, Sanaa Bhamri : Tennis ( Women) : India

Some more on sports : Any idea , terms like 'Double-Bogey', 'Birdie' are related to which sport?

Well, that's Golf.

16-Sep-2009

1)C.N. Annadurai : Who's this man?

Well, he is the founder of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party of TN and the first non-congress CM of TN.

2)What is resolution 1172 of UNSC?

UNSC passed resolution 1172 in 1998 urging India and Pakistan to sign the NPT as well as the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in the wake of the nuclear tests both countries conducted in May that year. Since then, 1172 has been treated by the international community, and the U.S. in particular, as a dead letter as far as India is concerned.

3)Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina ended Roger Federer’s run of dominance at the U.S. Open on Monday(14-Sep-2009), stunning the top-ranked Swiss great in five sets to win in his first Grand Slam final.

4) Great Initiative : "The Government of Kerala Web-mail Edition"

This facility aims at providing email addresses to all state govt employees in Kerela as part of efforts to improve bureaucratic efficiency and speed up service delivery. Read this.

5) A very well written article on the extent to which we need nuclear weapons. Here .

6) Another beautiful piece (a speech by Sarkozy and others in France ) on a more inclusive index, rather than just the economic statistical GDP ,for measuring progress of a nation as a whole. Its here .

7)What is NCR SelfServ 32?

Its the next generation, multi-functional Automated-Teller-Machine (ATM) introduced by Global technology company NCR Corporation. Some of its advanced functions include accepting cheques without any envelope and is scalable to offer bulk cheque deposits and is in sync with the Reserve Bank of India’s current initiative of getting banks’ technology ready to offer cheque truncation.

15-Sep-2009

A big gap for me. Sorry for the discontinuity. My office, assignments and some guests at my place kept me really busy last few days. While office work is still bugging my head, the guests have left.

Well, then let's start.

1) Any idea what is MLAA?

That's Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement that has been signed between India and Hong Kong on Monday to improve the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies of both sides in investigation and prosecution of crimes. It was signed by Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran and Ambrose Lee, secretary for security, on behalf of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the People’s Republic of China.

2) Cong's austerity drive...Good thing if its not another publicity and popularity stunt for a temporary period.

3) Who's Sujata Koirala?

She's the counterpart of Nirupama Rao( Indian Foreign Secretary) from Nepal (Nepal's Foreign Secretary)

4) Civil nuclear agreement with Mongolia

The agreement for peaceful uses of radioactive minerals and nuclear energy between India and Mongolia makes that country the sixth nation after the U.S., Russia, France, Kazakhstan, and Namibia to sign the civil nuclear pact with India after the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group lifted the ban.

Mongolian President: Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj

5) Tendulkar's 44th ODI Century at Premadasa stadium in Sri Lanka

Sachin Tendulkar held centrestage at the Premadasa Stadium on 14th Sep,09 , his 44th ODI century — his fourth at this ground and his sixth in tournament finals — helping India win the Compaq Cup.

6) Dr. Norman Borlaug : Father of Green Revolution
M.S. Swaminathan : Accredited for Green Revolution in India

7) Vijender Singh achieved a ‘rare double’ by winning the country’s first boxing medals in Olympics and World championships (Bromze medal at Milan)

Coach : G.S. Sandhu

Date : 01-Sep-2009

1) Class X boards no longer a compulsion for those who want to continue in the same school for senior secondary level.

Personally, I do not support the step but we shall get to know with time if this is going to help.

2) Nirmal Verma : so far Vice Admiral, now the New Navy Admiral.

3) Julia Gillard : Australia Deputy PM and Minister for Education

4) About 24 parliamentary standing committees constituted on 31st Aug :

1. T. Subbarami Reddy - Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology and Environment and Forests
2. M. Venkaiah Naidu - Standing Committee on Home
3. Shanta Kumar - Committee on Commerce
4. Sushma Swaraj - Committee on External
5. Murli Manohar Joshi - Committee on Finance
6. Sumitra Mahajan - Committee on Rural Development
7. Ananth Kumar - Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers
8. Dara Singh Chauhan - Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment
9. Sitaram Yechury - Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture
10. Basudeb Acharia - Committee on Agriculture
11. Mulayam Singh Yadav - Committee on Energy
12. Amar Singh - Committee on Health and Family Welfare
13. T.R. Baalu - Committee on Railways
14. Jayanthi Natarajan - Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice
15. Rao Inderjit Singh - Panel on Information Technology
16. Satpal Maharaj - Committee on Defence
17. Hemand Biswal - Committee on Labour
18. Vilas Muttemwar - Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution
19. Beni Prasad Verma - Committee on Water Resources
20. Aruna Kumar Vundavalli - Petroleum and Natural Gas
21. Akhilesh Das Gupta - Committee on Industry
22. Kalyan Banerjee - Committee on Coal and Steel
23. Sharad Yadav - Parliamentary Standing Committee on Urban Development
24. Oscar Fernandes - Committee for Human Resource Development

5) SMS for LPG : A huge relief. Read this

I know what kind of a pain it is to book for refill of cylinder and I guess every single or married person who has a LPG connection in Hyderabad knows this, especially BPCL. Let's see how this works. A lot of good things are planned but very few are effectively implemented by the Indian Govt.

6) Amazing : See this

Biometric scanners in Home Ministry offices to reecord time in and time out of employees by their fringerprints. This is done to inculcate the sense of punctuality amongst the staff of the ministry. Its really a pleasure to see that such things are happening in India. I hope this works.

7) 'Fishermen Protection Act' to be passed shortly.

This is similar to the Forests Rights Act. The Government would aslo shortly amend the CRZ (Coastal regulation Zone) Act 1991 to safeguard the livelihood of traditional fishermen and toddy tappers of Goa as siad by Jairam Naresh, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests.

8) Reasons for increase in Sugarcane price:

1. Non-payment of sugarcane arrears to farmers in the last two seasons
2. Farmers shifting to other crops whose minimum support price was raised
3. Lower acreage
4. Lower productivity
5. Lower sucrose content in cane due to a deficient monsoon in the south
6. Fall in recovery rates and
7. Diversion of the area under sugarcane in the current season

9) G. Madhavan Nair : ISRO Chairman

Chandrayaan-1 : Best example of 'Low Cost Planetary Mission' of which India is a pioneer.
Chandrayaan-2 and Mars mission being planned by ISRO.

10) Winner of the 2009 Ramon Magsaysay Award, Deep Joshi of India

Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno awarded the honour during a ceremony in Manila on Monday. Mr. Joshi is being recognised for “his vision and leadership in bringing professionalism to the NGO movement, by effectively combining ‘head’ and ‘heart’ in the transformative development of rural communities.

11) Any idea what is F-16IN.

Super Vipers, tailored to suit the requirements of the Indian Air Force, from the stables of aerospace giant Lockheed Martin vying for the IAF’s medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal, worth over $10 billion.

Features:

1. Single-engine, fourth generation multi-role F-16
2. Operates in the air forces of 25 nations
3. The largest Western fighter programme, with over 4,400 aircraft being built
4. The second of the MMRCA contenders to fly in here trials
5. A number of advanced features incorporated
6. Electronically scanned array radar
7. A unique electronic warfare suite that was requested by the IAF

12) A burning example how good policies do not lead to good results until effective implementation is included in the execution part of the policy.

Even though one of the objectives of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was that all children should be in school including the Education Guarantee Centre, the Alternate School and the ‘Back-to-School’ camp by 2003, and all children should complete five years of primary schooling by 2007, Assam still has 3,39,100 children who do not go to school.

To read further on this click here.