2010 GK - 11

Australia's Neil Robertson won the Snooker World Championship at The Crucible in Sheffield, England on May, 04 2010, beating Scotland's Graeme Dott 18-13 in the final.

Jagran Prakashan Ltd (JPL), the publisher of the country's most read newspaper, Dainik Jagran, on May 6, 2010, bought the print business of Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd (MML). MML was running its print business through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Mid-Day Infomedia Ltd (MIL), which publishes newspapers such as Mid-Day, Sunday Mid-Day, Gujarati Mid-Day and Inquilab.

MML, however, would retain its radio business and its shares would continue to be listed on the bourses. MML runs seven radio stations in the country. Dainik Jagran has a readership of 54.6 million across 11 states.

In addition to Dainik Jagran, Jagran publishes l-Next, India's first bilingual compact newspaper, and City Plus, a weekly English tabloid.

Christopher Martin-Jenkins, BBC's Test Match Special commentator, will serve as the next President of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).  His one-year term will begin on October 1, 2010. This announcement was made at Lord's on May 5, 2010 during MCC's annual general meeting headed by John Barclay, the current president.

Indian and French air forces conducted an air combat exercise codenamed 'Garuda' from June 14 to 25, 2010 at the Isteres air base in France.

The Andhra Pradesh government has begun the Integrated Land Information System (ILIS) programme -Bhoobharati - to accurately survey the entire extent of agricultural land in all the districts in the State using state-of-art technology. The State government has just completed a pilot project of Bhoobharati in Nizamabad district in June 2010.

Glimpses of Indian Stock Markets, a book authored by former Executive Director of BSE, M. R. Mayya was released in May 2010.

Jessica Watson is the youngest to sail non-stop around the world: Sixteen year old Australian Jessica Watson became the youngest individual to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world when she crossed the finish line in Sydney Harbour on May 15, 2010. She had departed from Sydney, Australia on 18 October 2009, headed eastbound over the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean before coming back. Watson is writing a book about her experience, expected to be called 'True Spirit' and published by Hachette Australia.

K.N. Raj, widely respected development economist and teacher and one of the architects of the Indian Plan edifice, passed away at the age of 85 at Thiruvananthapuram on February 10, 2010. Dr. Raj was the economic adviser to Prime Ministers from Jawaharlal Nehru to P.V. Narasimha Rao. He helped draft India's First Five-Year Plan. He joined the Planning Commission at the age of 26 and quit to become a Professor of Economics at Delhi University. Dr. Raj also served as Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University. He was instrumental in setting up of Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram. The work Dr. Raj and his colleagues did for the United Nations in the early days of the CDS helped shape the contours of what later came to be called the Kerala model of development.

The film 'Road to Sangam' was released worldwide on January 29, 2010. The film is inspired by the event of discovery of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes in a bank locker some years ago. Directed by Amit Rai and starring the stalwarts like Om Puri, Paresh Rawal, Pavan Malhotra and Swati Chitnis, 'Road To Sangam' is a mix of reality with fiction to bring in the surreal influence of history with contemporary.

The third season of the Indian Premier League was played between 12 March and 25 April 2010. It was also the first ever cricket tournament that was broadcast live on YouTube.

Last year's losing finalist Chennai Super Kings defeated Mumbai Indians in the final played at D.Y. Patil stadium, Mumbai to clinch the DLF IPL -III title by 22 runs. Batting first Chennai Super Kings scored 168 runs for five wickets in 20 overs. Suresh Raina (not out) at 57 runs was the top scorer. In reply Mumbai Indians scored 146 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs, falling short of the target by 22 runs. Suresh Raina of CSK was Man of the Match in the final.

Royal Challengers completed a nine-wicket win over Deccan Chargers Hyderabad in the match for the third place at the D.Y. Patil stadium in Mumbai.

Himachal Pradesh has rolled out Himachal Hat, its first public-private partnership (PPP) tourism project on Jun 01 2010. The state government also introduced Har Gaon   Ki Kahani   (every village has a story),   another innovative scheme, to bring diversification in the tourism sector and link it with culture, livelihood and some of the untold legends of the hills.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on February 9, 2010 constituted a committee under the chairmanship of former Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan to review issues related to ownership and governance of market infrastructure institutions.

Stock exchanges, trading platforms, clearing and settlement systems, payment systems, depositories, registrars and other market intermediaries will come under the review. 

The committee will look into the ownership pattern of depositories and clearing corporations, said SEBI Chairman CB Bhave. 

The other members of the committee are KP Krishnan, joint secretary, Ministry of Finance, Kishor Chaukar, MD, Tata Industries, Uday Kotak, MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank. G Sethu, officer on special duty, National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM), KM Abraham, whole time member, SEBI and JN Gupta, executive director, SEBI (member secretary).

Dr. S. Ayyappan took over as the new Director-General of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) and as Secretary in the Department of Agricultural Research and Education on January 1, 2010. He replaces Mangala Rai, who retired on December 31, 2009 after two extensions.

Fiscal deficit will come down to 6.41 per cent against the estimated 6.8 per cent, as GDP would be larger in the new series for calculating national income, Chief Statistician Pronab Sen informed media on February 3, 2010. In January 2010, the Government released a new series for calculating national income by changing the base year from 1999-2000 to 2004-05.

Lok Sabha Speaker, Meira Kumar on June 4, 2010 announced the setting of a Parliamentary Friendship Group to help reinforce and renew the bonds of friendship between India and Bhutan during her address to a joint session of the Bhutanese Parliament.

The Union government has declared the Port Blair Port as a major port with effect from June 1, 2010. It has also been brought under the purview of Major Port Trusts Act. Port Blair Port becomes the country's 13th major port with territorial jurisdiction over all the 23 ports located on Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Finance Minister Naoto Kan was on June 4, 2010 elected Prime Minister of Japan succeeding Yukio Hatoyama, who resigned on June 2, 2010. Kan's endorsement by the Diet (Parliament) followed his election as the president of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the leading constituent of the ruling coalition. Hatoyama had led the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to a historic election victory in September 2009, ousting the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) which had led Japan for more than half a century.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation granted $5 million to the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) to strengthen the National Tobacco Control Programme in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, over a three-year period (2009-2012). The grant provided for the project on Strengthening of Tobacco Control Efforts Through Innovative Partnerships and Strategies (STEPS) will provide district-specific strategic response to the rapidly escalating global tobacco epidemic.

Gary Coleman, an American actor, known for his childhood role as Arnold Jackson in the American sitcom Diffrent Strokes (1978-1986) passed away on May 28, 2010.

Benigno Aquino was declared the winner of the Philippine presidential election, after the vote count from May's poll was finally concluded on June 8, 2010. Aquino secured more than 15 million votes, 5.5 million more than his nearest rival, former president Joseph Estrada.

The time-frame to achieve the target of 124 mtpa domestic steel production capacity would now be 2012-13, this is due to some slow down in investments last year because of the recession, informed Steel Secretary, Atul Chaturvedi recently. The current steel production capacity in the country is 62 mtpa, including public and private sector units. The Steel Ministry had earlier envisioned doubling the production capacity by 2011-12.

Teams in Hopman Cup comprise both Men's and Women's players. Each tie between two teams features one Men's singles, one Women's singles and a mixed doubles match.

Spain beat Great Britain 2-1 to win the Hopman Cup tennis for a third time in the final played at Perth, Australia on January 16, 2010.

Laura Robson beat Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-1, 7-6(6) to give Britain a 1-0 lead. Tommy Robredo beat World No. 4 Andy Murray 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 to level the tie at 1-1. The Spanish mixed doubles team of Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Tommy Robredo beat Laura Robson and Andy Murray 7-6(6), 7-5 to win the best of three final 2-1.

The Kerala High Court on January 5, 2009 prevented the state government from operating Shariah-based venture capital fund (VCF). A public interest litigation had pointed out that such an Islamic financial entity was against the tenets of secularism. Government owned Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) has 11 per cent stake in the venture fund registered as AI-Barka Financial Services. The logic behind the move, initiated by the KSIDC, was to open an investment avenue mainly for Muslim entrepreneurs who were reportedly averse to an interest-based system.

Award: Anupam Kher was conferred with the Presidential Award for his contribution to cinema by Sri Lankan President Mahinda   Rajapaksa,   at   the   International   Indian   Film Academy Weekend (UFA) on Jun 05, 2010.

The task force constituted to suggest steps for stimulating growth in the IT, ITeS and electronics hardware manufacturing industries has submitted its recommendations on January 21, 2010. Headed by Ajai Chowdhury, Chairman & CEO, HCL Infosystems and chairman of Task Force, and 12 other IT industry executives, the Task Force has recommended that broadband should be made readily available. The task force believes that this would lead to better access to information (search), access to transactions (pay per use applications, computing), as well as access to interactivity.

Sir Paul McCartney accepted the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song at the White House on June 2, 2010. The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is awarded to a composer or performer for their lifetime contributions to popular music.

The 55th Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was held in Oslo, Norway. German singer Lena singing the song Satellite was the winner on May 29, 2010. Second place went to Turkey, third to Romania, fourth to Denmark, and fifth to Azerbaijan.

President Barack Obama has chosen retired lieutenant general James Clapper, as his new Director of National Intelligence. He would replace Dennis Blair, who stepped down in May 2010. The post was introduced after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to oversee the 16 agencies that make up the US intelligence community.

Foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in India stood at 5.11 million in 2009, according to the figures released by the Ministry of Tourism on January 9, 2010. FTAs had a negative growth rate of -3.3% in 2009 as compared to the FTAs of 5.28 million and growth rate of 4% during 2008.

The Planning Commission on January 9, 2010 appointed Kirit Parikh, as head of the expert group to prepare a strategy for low carbon economy for India. Nitin Desai, Ajay Mathur, Jamshed Irani, and Pawan Goenka are among the other members of the 25-member group.

: India and the US concluded their first Cabinet-level Strategic Dialogue on June 4, 2010. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held the discussions at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the US State Department in Washington. Among other issues, the two countries reached an agreement to establish a Joint Clean Energy Research Centre and a Regional Global Disease Detection Centre in India. The two sides plan to hold the next Strategic Dialogue in New Delhi in the first half of 2011.

Europe's sovereign debt crisis dominated talks at the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in the South Korean city of Busan on June 4, 2010.

Ukraine has officially taken NATO membership off its agenda in a volte face on policy ardently pursued by the previous President, Viktor Yushchenko. The Ukrainian Parliament on June 3, 2010 approved in. first reading a Bill that amends a 2003 national security law to exclude the goal of integration into Euro-Atlantic security and membership in NATO.

An investigation carried out by US and South Korea has blamed a North Korean torpedo attack for the sinking of South Korean corvette Cheonan, in which 46 sailors were killed on March 26, 2010.

President Pratibha Patil went on a six day official visit to China from May 26 to 31, 2010. During her visit Patil held talks with her Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on a host of issues. Chinese leaders assured Patil of China's support to India's aspirations for a permanent UNSC seat as well as its support for India's bid to get elected as a non-permanent member.

China became India's largest trading partner in 2008, with bilateral trade reaching $52 billion. Trade fell to $44 billion in 2009. In 2009, the trade imbalance tilted heavily against India. China enjoyed trade surplus of $16 billion out of the total $44 billion bilateral trade and its exports to India nearly touched $30 billion last year.

President Patil also went to Luoyang where she dedicated the first Indian-styled Buddhist temple in China built close to the famous White Horse temple complex there. Luoyang, which falls in the province of Henan.

Trinidad and Tobago's new PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar presided over the celebrations to mark the 165th anniversary of Indian Arrival Day at Divali Nagar in Chaguanas on May 30, 2010. The holiday is held to commemorate the arrival of people from India in the country.

India is set to finalise a missile co-development project with France to manufacture a new range of Short Range Surface to Air Missiles (SRSAM). The joint project, which will involve the DRDO and French missile manufacturer MBDA, is likely to be finalised within the next few months. The Indo-French missile, which has tentatively been named 'Maitri', will replace the ageing arsenal of Russian missiles that are currently being used by the   armed   forces   to   protect   airfield   and other   vital installations.

State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Om Prakash Bhatt is set to take over as the new chairman of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA). The present chairman, M V Nair, who is the chairman and managing director of Union Bank of India, and the senior most banker chief, has relinquished the post. Bhatt will be in charge of IBA till he retires in March, 2011. The IBA acts as an important link between banks, regulator and the government. During Nair's term the industry group completed and implemented industry-wide wage negotiations including a second pension option for public sector bank employees.

The Australian police in June 2010 have been ordered to investigate Google for possible breach of privacy while taking pictures for its Street View service. The possible offences occurred while Google vehicles, mounted with 360- degree   cameras,   gathered   pictures   for   Street   View, collecting private wireless data at the same time.

The Union Finance Ministry on May 31, 2010 set up a seven-member committee called Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects, headed by UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani to advise the government on a host of IT initiatives in various areas such as income tax, the new pension system and the proposed GST (Goods and Services Tax).
The group has been given a timeframe of six months to submit its report and make recommendations on the roadmap to roll out five projects - tax information network (TIN), the new pension system (NPS), the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), the expenditure information network (EIN) and GST.

Apart from Nilekani, the other members of the committee are SEBI Chairman C.B. Bhave, IT Secretary R. Chandrasekhar, former chairman PFRDA Dhirendra Swarup, former Member (CBDT) S.S. Khan, former Member (CBEC) P.R.V Ramanan, and President of ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, Nachiket Mor.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on June 2, 2010 set up a committee, headed by former Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman Meleveetil Damodaran, to look into the issue of services offered by banks to retail and small borrowers and suggest a mechanism to expedite grievance redressal.

The committee will review the role of the board of directors of banks and the role of regulators in customer service issues.

Other members of the committee are P Rajyalakshmi Rao, former member of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, New Delhi, Ashok Rawat of All India Bank Depositors' Association, M V Nair, chairman, Indian Banks' Association and chairman and managing director, Union Bank of India, B. M. Mittal, chief executive officer, Banking Codes and Standards Board of India, M S Sundara Rajan, former chairman and managing director of Indian Bank and S Gopalakrishnan, former chairman and managing director, Vijaya Bank, Chennai. Kaza Sudhakar, chief general manager of customer service department of the RBI, will be the member secretary.

The Government has announced amendments to the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules on June 04, 2010. The amended rules make it mandatory for all listed companies to have a minimum public shareholding of 25 per cent.
Those below this level will have to get there by an annual addition of at least 5 per cent to public holding.

The rules till now had also set the minimum float at 25 per cent, but stock exchanges and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had the power to waive or relax this for public sector undertakings and companies in the information technology, media, entertainment and telecommunications sectors.

Utility vehicle major, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Dunlop India owners, Ruia Group, are among the six players shortlisted for bidding for the bankrupt South Korean SUV maker SsangYong Motor Company owned by Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC). SsangYong products include sports utility vehicles Rexton II, New Kryon and Actyon, luxury car, Chairman and multi-purpose vehicle Rodius.

ns tax from the payment made to Hutchison for acquiring the latter's  stake in  an  Indian telecom venture. Vodafone had paid $11.2 billion to acquire Hutch's 67%.

Nine telecom service providers, including state-run PSUs BSNL and MTNL have collectively paid Rs 67,719 crore to the government as on June 01, 2010 for winning the 3G spectrum in the recently-concluded auction.

Indian pharmaceutical company Sun Pharma is involved in a legal battle for the takeover of Israeli pharmaceutical company Taro.
New York-based   investment   banking   firm Guggenheim Securities on May 27, 2010 offered to buy out Sun Pharma's stake in Taro on behalf of its clients. Sun declined to accept the offer.
Sun Pharma and Taro have been locked in a cross-country legal battle, ever since Taro unilaterally terminated the agreement between them, a year after it was formalised in May 2007.

Currently, Sun Pharma is the largest shareholder with 36% equity in Taro acquired at a cost of $110 million. A decision on the validity of termination of the merger agreement by Taro is still pending before the Israel Supreme Court.

Taro promoter Barrie Levitt and family hold 12 per cent shares and by the Israeli law, they still command about two-third voting rights on management decisions. Sun has to acquire another 12 per cent shareholding of the promoter family to gain management control of Taro.

BT, formerly known as British Telecom, was on June 3, 2010 appointed consultant to Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore to help develop software for testing telecom equipment for the presence of for spyware or malware that could be a possible security threat.

Once the laboratory is set up by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), India will have the capacity to test equipment, instead of depending on global testing agencies.

The development comes at a time when Chinese telecom equipment providers, Huawei and ZTE, are facing security issues in launching their products in India following a home ministry directive.

The Marico Innovation Foundation's 'Innovations for India Awards' for 2010 were presented on May 17, 2010 in Mumbai. Following is the list of winners.

Business - Reliance Industries Ltd: Deep Water Oil and Gas Exploration (KGD6) and Tutor Vista Global Pvt Ltd
Business for Social - Tata Chemicals Ltd & TERI
Social - GOONJ and PRS Legislative Research
Public Service - Government of Gujarat: Jyotigram Yojana-Power and Irrigation Reform and Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR): Innovation in Ladakh

The twelve day International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) at Hyderabad concluded on June 4, 2010.

The WTDC adopted the Hyderabad Action Plan, outlining a road map to foster the global development of information and communication technology (ICT) networks and services over the next four years with more emphasis on emergency telecommunications.

India's PJ Thomas was the WTDC chairman while Hanadoun Toure was the ITU secretary-general.