General Knowledge 2010

India's National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon will shortly resume the boundary talks with his Chinese counterpart. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh introduced Menon as India's new Special Representative on the boundary negotiations to the Chinese delegation during his meeting with President Hu Jintao at Brasilia on April 15, 2010 during the Brazil-Russia-lndia-China (BRIC) Summit. Menon will be India's fourth among the line of Special Representatives negotiating with China since the mechanism was created in 2003 when the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited China. Menon succeeds Brajesh Mishra, J N Dixit and M K Narayanan, all of whom served as national security advisers.

N R Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies, and his family have donated $5.2 million to Harvard University and Harvard University Press to establish a new publication series called 'The Murthy Classical Library of India' that will feature contemporary English versions of works originally composed in classical languages such as Sanskrit, Persian and Urdu, as well as literature from Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, Punjabi and other Indian languages. These books will not only translate the work into English but also be supplemented by scholarly introductions, commentary by experts and textual notes.

Solicitor General of India and noted jurist Gopal Subramanium, 52, on April 11, 2010 became the first Solicitor General to be unanimously elected chairman of the Bar Council of India (BCI). He will have a two-year term. Constituted under the Advocates Act, 1961, the BCI is the statutory body regulating the legal profession in the country, apart from being the highest disciplinary body of lawyers in India. It also lays down the standards of professional conduct and etiquette and also standards of legal education.

Actor Vidya Balan and entrepreneur Ekta Kapoor were among the women achievers who were honoured by the Young FICCI Ladies Organisation in New Delhi on April 16, 2010. The Tejasvini awardees include author Jaishree Mishra, business entrepreneur Minal Vazirani and activist Sunita Krishnan besides Priya Dutt (politics), Rama Vaidyanath (performing arts), Mary Kom (sports) and Seema Kohli (visual arts). IMC is Indian Merchants' Chamber while PHDCCI stands for Progress, Harmony and Development Chamber of Commerce and Industry (India).

The Army has agreed to acquire the indigenous surface to air 'Akash' missile. The 'in-principle' agreement came at a meeting in the Defence Ministry in April 2010. The induction will depend on the delivery schedule of Bharat Dynamics Limited, which makes the missile. The public sector undertaking is already processing orders for six additional squadrons from the Indian Air Force.  In 2008, the IAF placed orders for two squadrons of the Akash Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MR-SAM) for Rs. 1,222 crore.

The Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi Commission for Centre-State Relations has completed its task ahead of the stipulated three year period. The Commission is set to submit its report to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram soon. The seven volume report makes wide ranging recommendations in areas of internal security, Articles 355 and 356, the financial relationship including transfer of funds between Centre and the States. The commission was constituted on April 27, 2007. The Commission has come out with a 1500 page report and supplementary volumes comprising responses of important stakeholders like political parties, state governments, central government ministries, constitutional experts and civil representatives.

President Pratibha Patil unveiled the Commemorative Trophy of Assam Rifles on its 175th anniversary celebrations in New Delhi on April 17, 2010.

Professional education remains a less preferred area for girl students as 85 per cent of them enroll in conventional streams of Arts, Science and Commerce, according to the annual report of the Union HRD Ministry released on April 13, 2010. The number of girl students enrolled in different streams in 2009-10 stands at 56,49,102. Of them, only 15 per cent prefer professional courses like engineering, medicine, technology, law, veterinary science and agriculture.

Nearly 49 per cent girl students have enrolled in Arts stream followed by 20 per cent in Science and 16 per cent in Commerce, the report said. However, only five per cent of them are in Engineering stream while 3.5 per cent have taken up Medicine.

The percentage of total enrolment of women is highest in Goa (59 per cent) and lowest in Bihar (30 per cent), it said. In absolute number, Uttar Pradesh accounts for the highest enrolment (eight lakh) followed by Maharashtra (7.8 lakh).

India's quest to achieve independence in cryogenic technology for launching satellite launch vehicles suffered a setback on April 15, 2010 with the indigenous cryogenic engine in a Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D3) failing to ignite and the vehicle tumbling into the Bay of Bengal 505 seconds after it lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The mission to put communication satellite GSAT-4 in orbit thus ended in failure. The cryogenic technology is crucial to put heavy satellites in geo-synchronous transfer orbit at an altitude of 36,000 km.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) intends to launch the first in a constellation of seven satellites envisaged for the ambitious Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) project, the Indian counterpart of GPS of the US. IRNSS, which will have a range of applications including personal navigation, will be India's answer to the U.S.-operated GPS, Russia's GLONASS, European Space Agency's under-development Galileo, and China's emerging constellation, Compass. The problem with the existing constellations is that they are controlled by defence agencies in those countries. On completion, IRNSS will have all-weather, round-the-clock coverage over the Indian landmass with an extended coverage of about 1,500 km around it.

M-STrIPES or Monitoring System for Tigers'-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status, the software monitoring system launched by the Indian Government on April 15, 2010 would tiger monitoring more accurate and enhance the transparency of forest surveillance.

The government on April 13, 2010 reconstituted the National Integration Council (NIC) which will be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The NIC has 147 members, including Union Ministers, Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, the Chief Ministers of all States and Union Territories with Legislatures. Set up in the early 1960s by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the NIC held its first meeting in 1962. The council reviews matters relating to national integration and makes recommendations on such issues. The NIC aims at finding ways and means of combating the menace of communalism, casteism and regionalism. It has held 14 meetings so far, with the last one in October 2008 during the first innings of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

Kyrgyzstan government in April 2010 extended by one year the U.S. lease of the Manas airbase that serves as a transit point for NATO operations in Afghanistan.

Actor Sotigui Kouyate of Mali, who was named best actor at the Berlin Film Festival in 2009, died in Paris at the age of 74 recently. Kouyate won the award for playing a French Muslim waiting for news of his son in the wake of the 7/7 bombings in the film 'London River'.

Leading Indian women's rights activist, journalist and Head of Amnesty International's Gender Unit, Gita Sahgal, announced her decision to quit the organisation on April 9, 2010. Amnesty had suspended Sahgal in February 2010 after she criticized Amnesty for its high-profile associations with Moazzam Begg, former inmate at Guantanamo Bay, the director of a campaign group called Cageprisoners, whom she referred to as Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban. Amnesty responded that she was not suspended for raising these issues internally.

Assam has won the best performing state award for implementation of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) among North Eastern States followed by Mizoram. Rajasthan was adjudged the best performing state among the High Focus States followed by Madhya Pradesh. Tamil Nadu claimed the award among other states category followed by Haryana. The Awards were given away by the Vice President Hamid Ansari on the occasion of completion of five years of NRHM in New Delhi on April 12, 2010.

Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, is among 19 members chosen by UN chief Ban Ki-moon on March 4, 2010 for a high-level advisory group on Climate Change Financing tasked with mobilising funds pledged during the Copenhagen meet to tackle global warming. The Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change in December 2010 had failed to produce a legally-binding treaty. Instead, it settled for the Copenhagen Accord, whose key elements included a limit of 2 degree rise in global temperature; USD 100 billion in long-term financing to developing countries and USD 30 billion in short-term financing to the poorest and most vulnerable nations.

Infosys co-founder and chairman, N R Narayana Murthy and his wife Sudha Murthy have appointed Arjun Narayan as CEO of their venture capital fund Catamaran.

The European Union has approved the cultivation of GM potato - the first genetically modified food crop to get an approval there. The announcement was made by the European Commission on March 2, 2010. The potato approved by the EU has been genetically modified to produce starch composed almost exclusively of amylopectin. It will have starch content of 98 per cent, which is around 20 per cent higher than what potatoes normally have. This has industrial usage, like in paper, textile and adhesives units. The approval for cultivation of Amflora potato, which is developed by private German company BASF, has been given for industrial use and its by products for feed purposes.

Delhi based British-Indian author Rana Dasgupta has won the Commonwealth Writers' Best Book Prize on April 12, 2010 for his novel 'Solo' to win the prize money of $10,000. The 'Best First Book' prize went to Glenda Guest from Australia for her book 'Siddon Rock'.

A plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and a large swath of the country's leadership crashed in heavy fog in the Katyn forest in Smolensk in Western Russia on April 10, 2010, killing everyone aboard. The President along with his country's top military and political leadership - was to attend the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Katyn forest of 20,000 Polish officers by the Soviet secret police on the orders of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin 70 years ago during World War Two after the Red Army invaded Poland.

The Madhav Kumar Nepal government on April 11, 2010 annulled the contract awarded to the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited for printing Machine Readable Passport (MRP). The contract for printing four million passports at the rate of $4 per piece was given to an India company after previous tenders from the government were cancelled.

India's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 7.1 per cent in 2009-10 and by 9.2 per cent in 2010-11, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) which released its report in Mumbai on April 15, 2010.

The BRIC group of the world's four biggest emerging powers has a fundamental role in creating a new world order, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said at the Brazil-Russia-lndia-China (BRIC) Summit in Brasilia on April 15, 2010. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pitched for close cooperation among BRIC countries in the fields of energy and food security besides tapping potential in other sectors like trade and investment, science and technology and infrastructure.

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj inaugurated the 500th anniversary of the coronation of Sri Krishnadevaraya, who ruled Vijayanagar Empire, at Hampi in Bellary district of Karnataka on January 27, 2010.

After a 21-year glorious rule from 1509-1529, Krishnadevaraya left behind a rich legacy that included a royal city Hampi that was declared in 1986 a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

A foundation stone to build a theme park with a 25-foot-tall bronze statue of Krishnadevaraya on the banks of the Tungabhadra River was also laid during the three day event from January 27 to 29, 2010.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram released the book titled 'Hampi The Splendour That Was' on the occasion.

The Nuclear Security Summit was organised at Washington on April 12-13, 2010. The Summit was convened by the United States to address international concerns that lax national attitudes towards the physical protection of nuclear material could allow terrorists to acquire nuclear weapons. The next Nuclear Security Summit will be held in South Korea in 2012. At the Summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered to set up a Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership that would be owned and operated by India but open to collaboration with and participation by outside partners. The centre would consist of four schools dealing with Advanced Nuclear Energy System Studies, Nuclear Security, Radiation Safety, and the application of Radioisotopes and Radiation Technology in the areas of healthcare, agriculture and food.

India's gems and jewellery export has seen a 16 per cent growth from $24.49 billion in 2008-09 to $28.41 billion in 2009-10, according to a Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) study released on April 17, 2010. Cut and polished diamonds accounted for 61.74 per cent of the total exports baskets with gold jewellery comprising of 31.17 percent while colour gemstones and other accounted for 5.09 percent.

Indian Railways have carried 887.99 million tonnes of revenue earning freight traffic during fiscal 2009-10, according to a press note by Union Railways Ministry released on April 12, 2010. The freight carried shows an increase of 54.68 million tonnes over the freight traffic of 833.31 million tonnes carried during 2008-09, registering an increase of 6.56 per cent

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) announced on April 12, 2010 that it would sponsor the Test and one-day series between Pakistan and Australia in England in July. This will be the first time MCC, the owner of Lord's Cricket ground where the first of two Tests between Pakistan and Australia is scheduled to start on July 13, will be sponsoring an international series. The series comes at a time when Pakistan has become a no-go area for international cricket following a terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore last year.

Global oil demand will hit a record high this year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on April 13, 2010. The Paris-based adviser to industrialized economies in its monthly Oil Market Report said that world oil demand would reach an average of 86.60 million bpd in 2010, up from 84.93 million in 2009.

Wicketkeeper Matt Prior, spinner Graeme Swann, batsman Graham Onions, fast bowler Stuart Broad (all from England) and Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke were the 'Five Cricketers of the Year' chosen by Wisden on April 14, 2010.

The assassination of the former Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, was preventable and the failures of the investigation into her killing were deliberate, according to the report by a three-member United Nations Commission of Inquiry headed by Chile's UN ambassador Heraldo Munoz. The 70-page report was released on April 15, 2010, severely rebuked Pakistan's spy agency ISI for interfering in criminal investigations after her assassination, which subordinated law and order.

Prabeer Kumar Basu on March 2, 2010 assumed office as the new Agriculture Secretary.

This year's Pulitzer Prizes were given away on April 12, 2010. The Pulitzers are regarded as the most prestigious awards in US journalism and are given out annually by Columbia University. Each Pulitzer carries a $10,000 prize, except for the public service award, which is a gold medal.||
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| The Pulitzer Prizes in Letters, Drama, and Music|

Scientists on March 2, 2010 detected more than 40 ice-filled craters in the moon's North Pole using data from the Mini-SAR, a radar that flew aboard Chandrayaan-l. The Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR) is a payload of NASA.

India's first International Tourism Police Station was inaugurated at Mattancherry in Kochi district of Kerala on February 28, 2010 to cater to the needs of domestic and foreign tourists. Sporting blue uniforms instead of the usual khakis, policemen at this station would guide tourists on ways to register complaints, secure a new passport if necessary and provide help to renew visas. The station will also have details of tourist centres and route maps, besides providing booking facilities for hiring boats and taxis.

Dr. Y V. Reddy is the author of the recently released book India and the Global Financial Crisis: Managing Finance and Money.

This year's Pulitzer Prizes were given away on April 12, 2010. The Pulitzers are regarded as the most prestigious awards in US journalism and are given out annually by Columbia University. Each Pulitzer carries a $10,000 prize, except for the public service award, which is a gold medal.||
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| The Pulitzer Prizes in US Journalism|

            Sheri Fink of ProPublica, in collaboration with The New York Magazine         Times|

| Explanatory Reporting| Michael Moss and members of The New York Times Staff|
| Local Reporting| Raquel Rutledge of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|
| National Reporting| Matt Richtel and members of The New York Times Staff|
| International Reporting| Anthony Shadid of The Washington Post|
| Feature Writing| Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post|
| Commentary| Kathleen Parker of The Washington Post|
| Criticism| Sarah Kaufman of The Washington Post|
| Editorial Writing| Tod Robberson, Colleen McCain Nelson and William McKenzie Dallas of The Morning News|
| Feature Photography| Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post|
| Breaking News Photography| Mary Chind of The Des Moines Register|
| Editorial Cartooning| Mark Fiore, self syndicated, appearing on SFGate.com|

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the United Nations and the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) at Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on March 5, 2010 to strengthen regional cooperation to improve the ecological and socio-economic situation in the Aral Sea. The IFAS was set up in 1993 by a decision of the heads of state five Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan.

'Who Do You Trust, India?', a survey published in the March 2010 issue of magazine Reader's Digest has ranked former President and scientist A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as the most trustworthy person in its list of 100 people in India. Following Kalam are chairman of the Tata group Ratan Tata; former police chief Kiran Bedi; Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy; composer A.R. Rahman; chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand; Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh; cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, cartoonist R.K. Laxman and at tenth place, Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, Wipro head honcho Azim Premji and space scientist Madhavan Nair. The survey was conducted by online market research group Digital Edge.

New Delhi and Riyadh have vowed to jointly combat terrorism and money laundering as they signed an Extradition Treaty and several agreements to raise their cooperation to a strategic partnership covering security, economic, energy and defence areas during the three day official visit of PM Manmohan Singh to Saudi Arabia from February 27 to March 1, 2010.

Nobel Laureate Joseph E Stiglitz is the author of the book Freefall - Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy

Venu Srinivasan, Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Korea, Chennai and Chairman, TVS Motor Company was honoured by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak with the distinguished civilian honour 'Order of Diplomatic Service Merit' in recognition of his contribution in promoting Korea-India bilateral relations. 

Senior advocate Pran Nath Lekhi, one of the defence counsels in the Indira Gandhi assassination case, passed away at the age of 85 on February 28, 2010. Lekhi was appointed as government pleader when the Shah Commission was set up after the Emergency. The senior advocate also represented Satwant Singh, one of the accused in the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi. He was also the advocate for Rashtriya Mukti Morcha, a non-governmental organisation which filed a petition relating to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery case.

Ten journalists on March 3, 2010 have been selected to spend time with rural communities, understand their anxieties and specialise in covering the country's rural crises, through an initiative of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.

The recipients of the Inclusive Media Fellowship are:
Mahim Pratap Singh of The Hindu -to work on the impact of distress migration on nutrition security and livelihoods in five districts of Orissa.

Joaquim Fernandes of The Times of India - to work on the impact of mining on agriculture and rural livelihoods)

Al Ngullie of The Morong Express - to work on economic and political tensions in rural Dimapur

Harikishan Sharma of Amar Ujala - to work on the impact of rural health schemes on the BPL families of Mewat region of Haryana)

Vishav Bharti of Hindustan Times - to work on agricultural labourers, debt and suicides in rural Punjab

Arvind Kumar Thakur of Prabhat Khabar - to work on the aftermath of the acute drought in Palamau district of Jharkhand

Rajesh Sinha of Tehelka - to work on the impact of the forests Rights Act on the tribal people of Jharkhand

Mira and Kavita of Khabar Laharia and Nai Dunia - to work on women and Panchayati Raj in Banda and Chitrkoot districts of U.P

Pankaj Jaiswal of Hindustan Times - to work on traditional water harvesting techniques and grain banks of Bundelkhand)

Sumit Pande of CNN-IBN - to work on marginal farmers and de-notified tribes of Maharashtra and U.P

Indian batsman Virender Sehwag was on Apr 14, 2010 named 'Wisden Cricketer of the Year' for the second year in succession. The award, which was instituted in 2004, has Australian captain Ricky Ponting, spinner Shane Warne and England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff among its past winners.

Sehwag averaged 70, with a strike-rate of 108.9, in the Tests he played in 2009. In one-day internationals, Sehwag had a strike-rate of 136.5 while averaging 45. The award, which was instituted in 2004, has Australian captain Ricky Ponting, spinner Shane Warne and English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff among its past winners.

India Aviation 2010, the second International Exhibition and Conference on Civil Aviation was organised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) in Hyderabad from 3 to 7 March, 2010.

France was the partner country while USA was the focus country. There were country pavilions from Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Russia and the Netherlands. 40 different types of Aircraft were on display.

HJT-16 Kiran Mk II, an aircraft of Navy's Goa-based Sagar Pawan Aerobatic Team (SPAT) fleet crashed into a building while performing at the air show-India Aviation 2010-at the Begumpet airport in Hyderabad killing both pilots. The IAF operates the Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team (SKAT).

'The Last Sunset: Rise and Fall of the Lahore Durbar' - a book authored by former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh was released on March 4, 2010. He served as the Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007 and presently represents the Patiala assembly segment of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) is a song by Colombian singer Shakira. It features South African band Freshlyground. It was the official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup released on May 11, 2010 for digital download.

President Pratibha Patil gave away Stree Shakti Puruskar for year 2008 and 2009 to eminent personalities drawn from diverse fields and launched the National Mission for Empowerment of Women on the occasion of International Women's Day on March 08, 2010. There are six awards instituted in the name of eminent women personalities of Indian history like Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar, Kannagi, Mata Jijabai, Rani Gaidenlou Zeliang, Rani Laxmibai and Rani Rudramma Devi. Each award carries a cash prize of Rs. 3 lakh and citation.

The list of the Awardees for Stree Shakti Puraskar 2008 and 2009 is:
STREE SHAKTI PURASHKAR 2008
Rani Lakshmi Bai Award: Dr. Sunita Devi, Haryana
Kannagi Award: Maha Jabeen, Andhra Pradesh
Rani Gaidinliu Zeliang Award: Jhingubai Shrawan Bolake, Maharashtra
Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Award: Hina A. Shah, Gujarat

STREE SHAKTI PURASHKAR 2009
Kannagi Award: Phoolbasan Bai Yadav, Chhattisgarh
Rani Gaidinliu Zeliang Award: Dr. Ved Kumari Ghai, J&K
Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Award: Rashmi Singh, Delhi
Rani Rudramma Devi Award: Sugatha Kumari, Kerala