24 January 2012

• Pervez Musharraf : Former President of Pakistan
• Upper house of  Pakistan's Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution to arrest the former President on his arrival int the country
• KC Chandrasekharan Nair : CFO of Technopark and Secretary & Registrar of Technopark Technology Business Incubator (T-TBI)
• Certified as InfoDev (World Bank) Group Trainer
• VP Nishadh, Shahasad & CK Anshif : Children won National Bravery Awards
• Patadiya Mittal : conferred Geeta Chopra Award for bravery
• Joao Cravinho : Ambassador & Head of European Union (EU) Delegation to India
• India-EU join hands for anti-piracy military operations in the Indian Ocean
• India-EU Summit to held @ New Delhi on this Feb 10
• European Union countries shift ban of oil & oil products from Iran to July 1 due to economic crisis
• Uri Rosenthal : Dutch Foreign Minister
• Sergei Lavrov : Russian Foreign Minister
• Syria rejects Arab League's plan to end crisis
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• Egypt sits for the first Parliament since Hosni Mubarak was ousted
• Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom & Justice Party won major votes in the polls
• Mohamed Saad El-Katatny : Secretary General of Freedom & Justice Party
• Elected Speaker of Egypt's first freely elected Parliament
• Croatia won a majority vote to join European Union by next year as its 28th member
• William Ruto & Uhuru Kenyatta : Top Presidential hopefuls of Kenya
• International Criminal Court (ICC) said that charges against them for dropping bombshell in presidential campaigns 4 years ago had been confirmed
• Arup Roy Chaudhary : Chairman & MD of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)
• NTPC to sign 50:50 Joint-Venture with Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) for the 1320 MW Khulna Power Project in Bangladesh
• M Rafeeque Ahmed : President of Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO)
• VA Joseph : MD of South Indian Bank
• BC Tripathi : Chairman & MD of GAIL (India)
• Anand Sharma : Union Minister of Commerce & Industry
• Ranji Trophy Cricket : Final held @ MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
• Rajasthan bt Tamil Nadu to clinch the title for the second time in a row
• Hrishikesh Kanitkar : Rajasthan Captain
• Vineet Saxena : Man of the Match of the final
• Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) announced Rs.1.3 Cr for the State Team for regaining the title
• CP Joshi : President of RCA
• Tilakaratne Dilshan : Resigned as Sri Lankan Cricket team Captain
• Mahela Jayawardene : Took over as new Captain
• Angelo Mathews : Vice-Captain

23 January 2012

• Ashok Gehlot : Rajasthan CM
• Okram Ibobi Singh : Manipur CM
• Sam Pitroda : Adviser to PM on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovation
• MV Nair : Head of expert committee on Padmanabhaswamy Temple treasures
• 57th National School Athletic Meet : @ Ludhiana
• Kerala assures 15th straight overall title
• 52nd Kerala State School Arts Fete : Kozhikode emerged winners for 6th time in a row
• Hamid Karzai : Afghanistan President
• Zabadani : a City in Syria
• First city to fall under the control of Free Syrian Army, rebel of Syria's army group
• Free Syrian Army wrested most of the city from the Govt's control
• Bashar al-Assad : President of Syria (Political party : Ba'ath)
• Jst Markandey Katju : Chairman of Press Council of India
• Chandrasekharaiah : Former Karnataka High Court Judge
• Sworn in as Karnataka Upalokayukta amid controversy that he was illegally benefited from the allotment of a housing society site
• HR Bhardwaj : Karnataka Governor
• DV Sadananda Gowda : Karnataka CM
• SR Bannurmath : Former Kerala High Court Judge was among nominees for the post who was rejected due to similar allegations
• Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) Memorial : @ Colombo, Sri Lanka
• APJ Abdul Kalam, former & 11th Indian President, visited the memorial
• For the First time a former Commander-in-Chief of Indian armed forces is visiting the memorial since it was established
• China Investment Corporation (CIC) acquired 8.68% stake in Thames Water, Britain's largest water & sewerage company, for about 1b Pound
• Martin Dempsey : US Joint Chief of Staffs
• Leon Panetta : US Defence Secretary
• Ehud Barak : Israel Defence Minister
• Ayatollah Khamenei : Supreme Leader of Iran
• Laura Dekker : Dutch teen Sailor of age 16 years & 4 months became Youngest Sailor to Circumnavigate the World without any assistance
• She broke the record of Australian Jessica Watson by eight months, who achieved it 3 days short an year
• Guppy : the yacht in which she completed the voyage
• He sailed into the harbour of Dutch Caribbean Island Sint Maarten, from where she left
• The record will not be entered in The Guinness Book of World Records as they are not recognising records of minors
• India won Hockey Test series against South Africa 3-1
• Francesco Totti : Italian Football Player
• Club captain of AS Roma
• Set record in Italian League as most goal scorer for a club with 211 goals for the club
• Previous record holder was Swedish Gunnar Nordahl of AC Milan with 210 goals

Life Living Alphabet A-Z

Avoid Negative Sources, Thoughts, People...
Believe in Yourself...
Consider things from all angles...
Enjoy Life Today. Tomorrow may not come...
Family and Friends are Hidden Treasures... Gift of God to you...
Give more than you Planned to Give...
Hang on to your Dreams...
 Ignore those who Discourage you...
Just Do it...
Keep doing no matter how hard it seems... It will become easier...
Love yourself First and Most...
Make it Happen...
Never Lie, Cheat or Steal... Always strike a fair deal...
Own up your Mistakes... That is the least you can do...
Practice makes your Perfect...
Quitters Never Win and Winners Never Quit...
Read, Study and Learn everything Important in your Life...
Stop Procrastination...
Take Control of your Destiny...
Understand yourself better to understand others...
Visualize it...
Want it more than anything...
Xcellerate your efforts...
You are Unique of God's Creation... Nothing can Replace you...
Zero in your target and Go for it...

22 January 2012

• P Chidambaram : Union Home Minister
• Handed over resident ID cards to villagers of Prothrapur in Andaman & Nicobar Islands to boost maritime security
• IIT Roorkee : Oldest Autonomous Engineering School of Asia
• Submits its analysis on Mullaperiyar Dam; Reveals a gloomy result
• Kerala Legal Services Authority (KELSA) preparing Malayalam translations of Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act
• N Murali : Director of The Hindu
• President of The Music Academy, Chennai
• Mamata Banerjee : West Bengal CM
• Government to open marketing outlets for Self-Help Groups (SHGs)
• Indian Naval Academy : @ Ezhimala, Kochi
• Simulator-based training introduced for cadets for training them in Bridgemanship (Art of handling warship at sea) & Navigation skills
• Academy likely to get a gunner simulator
• Hari Kunzru, Ruchir Joshi, Amitava Kumar, Jeet Thayil : Writers who read from Salman Rushdie's banned book The Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Literature Festival
• They left Jaipur to avoid an arrest for reading from the banned book
• William Dalrymple : Co-Director of Jaipur Literature Festival
• Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry proposed an additional excise duty of Rs.80000 on diesel driven cars in the coming budget
• Shehan Karunatilaka : Singapore-based Sri Lankan writer
• His novel "Chinaman" won him 2012 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature carrying $50000 at the Jaipur Literature Festival
• The book refers to Pradeep Sivanathan Mathew, a former cricketer (left-arm unorthodox spinner) of Sri Lanka, who was often described as Chinaman
• Mahinda Rajapaksa : Sri Lankan President
• Sri Lanka launched a Tri-lingual Initiative in the presence of APJ Abdul Kalam, former Indian President
• Aimed at ensuring that all Sri Lankans learn Sinhalese, Tamil & English
• 2012 declared year of Tri-lingual Sri Lanka
• Julia Gillard : Australia PM
• Labor Party : Minority Ruling party of Gillard
• A key independent MP withdrew his support to the govt after PM broke an agreement on gambling reforms
• Yemen's Parliament granted immunity from prosecution for the outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh
• Muslim Brotherhood : One of the World's Largest Islamic Movements
• Egypt's Islamists led by Muslim Brotherhood clinched majority two-third seats in the Parliamentary Elections
• The first polls after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, Former President of Egypt
• International scientists agree to a two-month halt to controversial research on a bird flu virus that may be easily passed among humans & could cost millions of lives
• Nirmal Chandra Jha : Chairman of Coal India Ltd (CIL)
• Godrej Consumers Products Ltd (GCPL) to acquire 60% stake in Cosmetica Nacional (Chile)
• GCPL will allot 16.7m shares to Baytree Investments (Mauritius)
• Adi Godrej : Chairman of GCPL
• Anand Sharma : Union Minister of Industry & Commerce
• Rajiv Kumar : Director General of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI)
• India Show : to be held @ Lahore for improving economic & commercial relations between India & Pakistan
• Jointly promoted by FICCI, Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Trade Development Authority of Paksitan (TDAP)
• Diptayan Ghosh : won his maiden International Master norm in Parsvnath International Chess Championship @ New Delhi
• 12th Asian Shooting Championship : @ Doha, Qatar
• Manavjit Singh Sandhu : Won gold in Trap event
• Won an Olympic quota
• Imran Hasan Khan : Won Olympic quota in 50m Rifle 3-Position event
• Sanjeev Rajput : Won gold in 50m Rifle 3-Position event
• Gagan Narang : Won bronze in 50m Rifle 3-Position event
• VK Malhotra : Acting President of Indian Olympic Association (IOA)
• To continue IOA President
• Suresh Kalmadi : IOA President out on bail on Commonwealth Games corruption case expressed his inability to focus on the job
• FGS Luebeck : a German warship of European Naval Force (Eu Navfor)
• Rescues an Indian dhow & its 15-member crew captured by Somali pirates
• "In a marriage between a tribal woman and a forward caste man the offspring will get tribal status if the child is brought up in the mother's environment" : Supreme Court
• A bench of Justices Aftab Alam & Ranjana Desai
• Vikram Dutta : Indian-US Entrepreneur sentenced to 20 years in prison by Manhattan Federal Court, New York for money laundering
• For using his perfume distribution business to launder millions of dollars for Mexican drug dealers
• Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL)
• 1 dead & 5 injured in a blast inside the refinery
• 5th incident at MRPL since 2009
• Lekshmi Kumaran : Deputy GM (Corporate Communications) MRPL
• MRPL was awarded "Unnatha Suraksha Puraskar" in 2009 & 2010 by Karnataka Chapter of the National Safety Council of India

The Internet Unplugged

Article on The Hindu dated 22 Jan 2012

With the increasing lure of the Internet, think of the psychological and sociological implications of 24/7 connectivity.

The seductive pull of digital devices is evident in our round-the-clock dependence on them. Mobiles beep us out of sleep. Checking e-mail is as habitual as brushing teeth. Digital calendars flash the day's appointments. We listen to the radio on our mobiles, watch TV on the computer and connect with friends through social networking sites. It is not unusual for siblings to text each within the same house or for parents to check Facebook updates to stay abreast of their children's doings.

In 2009, American children between the ages of two and 11 were spending around 11 hours a week online, while young adults were clocking around 19 hours. In India too, As connectivity expands, we must consider the psychological and sociological implications of being tethered to these devices. 24/7 connectivity is shaping our thinking, reading and interactions with each other. Without a doubt, the Net is a wonderful repository of information. We can verify facts, check multiple sources, connect with people, compare opinions and share information.

The democratic access to information that the Net provides is indeed its most potent feature. However, information does not automatically translate into knowledge unless it is analysed and evaluated. Ironically, the Net, by way of its design, does not promote focused thinking, deep analysis or critical reflection; the tools of mind that are essential for reaping its benefits.

No sustained focus

Adults complain that children nowadays don't read books. Even grown-ups are losing the ability to maintain sustained focus on a book as reading on a screen is different in sensory and psychological ways. When we read on the Net, we are led astray by hyperlinks and often only remember the bare essence. In contrast, traditional book perusal allows us to pause and ponder. Psychologist Maryanne Wolf, writes that the act of book reading is “enriched as much by the unpredictable indirections of the reader's inferences and thoughts as by the direct message to the eye from the text.” During screen reading, we tend to follow preset hyperlinks instead of forging our own associations.

A study by two Canadian researchers found that people's comprehension of a short story was better when they read it in print form as opposed to a “Web version”. Even if we ignore hyperlinks, we continually have to make split-second decisions to disregard them. Moreover, design consultant Jakob Nielsen found that people read only around 18 per cent of a Web page. ‘Skimming' and ‘scanning' describe the act of gleaning information on the web. According to author Nicholas Carr, e-books provide “all the distractions of the networked computer,” thereby destroying the “linearity of the printed book” and the “calm attentiveness it encourages in readers.”

Digital devices also encourage us to flit from task to task and erode our patience. Even as we work, e-mail updates, news flashes, SMS alerts and download reminders vie for our limited attention. Slow Internet connections frustrate us. People text each other, expecting a response in minutes. As we get accustomed to the instant gratification of digital devices, we grow more intolerant of pauses and fill our lives with trivial titbits, seldom indulging in self-reflection.

Ironically, as technology brings us ever so close virtually, real distances between people are growing. For many youngsters, social networking sites are the main forum of interaction. As they spend more time online, they have less time for actual interactions, which, in turn, makes them more isolated. In a self-perpetuating cycle, they turn again to the online world to quell their loneliness.

When we meet in person, we exchange a lot of information through our facial expressions, body language and tone of voice. Many a time, human beings convey their intent nonverbally. As our children increasingly replace face-to-face exchanges with online ones, we will gradually lose our ability to discern and interpret subtle and more nuanced aspects of human interaction.

When adults first get on to social networking sites, they experience an initial burst of euphoria as they discover long forgotten friends. However, this rush of excitement soon subsides as most long lost friends typically don't connect beyond superficial exchanges. As MIT professor, Sherry Turkle writes, “We don't count on cyber friends to come by if we are ill, to celebrate our children's successes, or help us mourn the death of our parents.” She warns that when friends become ‘fans,' we depersonalise our interactions by treating all our family, friends and acquaintances as a single unit. The quintessence of friendship is to be known and treated as an individual; social networking sites redefine this very human need.

Ranking systems

The online world also perpetuates ranking systems. Search engines rank sites based on the number of links, visitors, the duration of each visit etc. Likewise, social networking sites advertise the number of friends a person has, the number of people who like a post or agree with a person's views. Thus, hierarchies that didn't exist suddenly materialise. In the pre-Internet days, we also had popular and not so popular kids at school. But, unlike today, a person's popularity was not indexed for everyone to see. Moreover, most online ranking systems are based on numerical indices and more does not always mean better. By simplifying issues into binary choices of ‘like' or ‘dislike', ‘agree' or ‘ disagree', we engage less in sophisticated thinking.

By no means should we avoid using digital devices. Their benefits definitely outweigh their drawbacks. However, we need to ensure that we retain essentially human qualities like reflective thinking and empathising. Thus, parents and educators should engage in and encourage contemplation and old-fashioned communication. As technology writer Edward Tenner aptly writes, “It would be a shame if brilliant technology were to end up threatening the kind of intellect that produced it.”

The author ARUNA SANKARANARAYANAN is Director, PRAYATNA

Email: arunasankara@gmail.com

21 January 2012

• Rani Abbakka : Indian Coast Guard's First Inshore Patrol Vessel
• Commissioned by MM Pallam Raju, Union Minister of State for Defence at Vishakhapatnam
• Indigenously built by Hindustan Shipyard Ltd
• NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2011 : National Insurance Company Ltd
• NSR Chandraprasad : Chairman & MD of National Insurance
• Vodafone Group : UK Based
• Supreme Court set aside 2007 verdict of Bombay High Court asking Vodafone's Indian arm to pay Rs.11000 Cr Income-Tax to Indian Government for acquiring majority stake in Cayman Islands based Hutchinson-Essar
• Also directed Income-Tax Department to return Rs.2500 Cr deposited by Vodafone International Holdings along with 4% interest
• Vittorio Colao : Vodafone Group Chief Executive
• Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) sets up core committee to study the verdict
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• Salman Khurshid : Union Law Minister
• Rajiv Kumar : Secretary General of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI)
• Anand Desai : Indo-American Chamber of Commerce National President
• Dinesh Kanabar : Deputy CEO & Chairman (Tax) of KPMG India operations
• The Satanic Verses : Novel written by Indo-British Salman Rushdie
• Banned in India and several other countries
• Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) : Inaugurated at Diggi Palace, Jaipur
• Inaugurated by Ashi Sangay Choden Wangchuk, Queen Mother of Bhutan
• Many writers read some passages of The Satanic Verses amid controversies of keeping away Rushdie  from participating in the festival
• William Dalrymple : Co-Director of JLF along with Namita Gokhale
• ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) Global Cadet Challenge (U-15) : held @ San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Asia Won beating North America
• Mariya Rony (India [Kerala]), Liu Gaoyang (China), Lee Seui (South Korea) & Doo Hai Kem (Hong Kong) consist the Asian team
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asked Telecom companies to block bulk international SMS
• SH Kapadia : Chief Justice of India
• VK Singh : Indian Army Chief
• Marc Grossman : US Representative to Afghanistan & Pakistan (AfPak)
• Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani : Pakistan Army Chief
• Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha : Head of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
• Both of them were accused of acting unconstitutional & illegal in the memo scandal
• Tensions going on between military and civilian leadership in Pakistan
• Yousuf Raza Gilani : Pakistan PM
• Asif Ali Zardari : Pakistan President
• Afghan soldiers open fire on French soldiers of NATO in Taghab valley of Kapisa
• French President Nicolas Sarkozy suspended all the French operations
• If security conditions are not clearly established, then French forces will pull out of Afghanistan earlier than the currently fixed 2013 end
• Francesco Schettino : Captain of the wrecked Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia
• He is now kept in house arrest of manslaughter & abandoning ship
• Passenger revealed that he was drinking as ship hit rocks and wrecked
• Concern rises as more cracks were found in wings of Airbus A380 Superjumbo Aircraft (World's largest passenger airliner)
• Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) reported its first quarterly profit drop in more than two years
• RIL to support its under-performing shares through a $2.1b share buy-back
• Tata Sons, holding company of Tata Group, increase its stake in Tata Steel by converting 1.2 Cr warrants into equal number of equity shares
• United Spirits to raise $225m via FCCB (Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds)
• Azim Premji : Chairman of Wipro
• S Gopalakrishnan : Executive Co-Chairman of Infosys
• Nikos Kardassis : CEO of Jet Airways
• David Nalbandian : Argentine Tennis Player
• Fined $8000 for throwing water at a staff member following his loss to John Isner (US) in Australian Open
• Indian Boxers Dilbag Singh & Praveen Kumar and Indian Cyclist Vikram Duhan were suspended for two years by National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (NADDP)
• They were tested positive for stimulant methylhexaneamine (MHA)
• The Cat's Table : Literary Voyage of Sri Lankan poet, novelist & essayist Michael Ondaatje
• He had won Booker for The English Patient that was later turned into a Oscar-winning film by Walter Murch
• The Last Jet-Engine Laugh : written by Ruchir Joshi
• Tarun Tejpal : Author & Publisher of Tehelka, Indian weekly

Right Side Brain vs Left Side Brain

Hai Friends... Check this out....

This is because your Right Side Brain cheats your Left Side Brain...

The Right Side Brain first recognised the arrow symbol before the Left Side decoded the content of the message...

20 January 2012

• P Chidambaram : Union Home Minister
• Nandan Nilekani : Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia : Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission
• Sheikh Hasina : PM of Bangladesh
• Suresh Kalmadi : Former Chairman of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee
• Kerala nod for Rs.85 Cr Tourism Projects
• Harish Khare : Resigned as Media Adviser to PM
• Pankaj Pachauri : NDTV India Senior Editor & Anchor to take over as Communications Adviser to PM
• Pulok Chatterjee : Principal Secretary to PM
• Pradeep Maharathy : Odisha Agriculture Minister stepped down amid criticism in Pipili gang rape case
• Jayanthi Natarajan : Union Minister of State of Environment & Forests
• Exercise begins to map forest areas inviolate to miners
• IndOOS : Indian Ocean Observing System
• To collect data relating to climate, monsoon, cyclones & related phenomena
• Jointly established by many countries including India
• Planned to deploy 46 buoys called RAMA (Research Mooted Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis) for meteorological & oceanographic studies in Indian Ocean out of which 30 are deployed
• Pirates in western Indian Ocean especially in the Arabian Sea causing a blow to scientists that the buoys cant be deployed in the pirate infected areas
• Yousuf Raza Gilani : PM of Pakistan
• Asif Ali Zardari : Pakistan President
• News International : Rupert Murdoch's British Media Group
• Paid millions of pounds in compensating victims of phone-hacking by the now defunct News of the World
• US Lawmakers change their stand on piracy bills SOPA & PIPA
• Detailed news
• Nippon Life Insurance buys 26% in Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM), Idnia's second largest Asset Management Company (AMC)
• $290m deal signed by Anil Ambani (Chairman of Reliance Capital) & Yoshinobu Tsutsui (President of Nippon Life)
• Food Inflation remains in negative zone
• Centre ask Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), the oil regulator, to determine marketing margin charged by private & public sector gas marketing companies for natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG) & coal bed methane (CBM) gas
• Antonio Perez : Chairman & Chief Executive of Eastman Kodak Co
• Kodak files for bankruptcy
• Company has not seen annual profit since 2007, liabilities exceeds assets
• Marcos Baghdatis : Cyprus Tennis Player
• In 2012 Australian Open he lost a match to Stanislas Wawrinka (Swiss)
• During a break between sets he broke four of his tennis rackets to vent frustration on losing a set
• He was fined $800 for the act
• Somdev Devvarman : Indian Tennis Player
• Will get $6000 per month for 24 months for hiring personal coach and other preparation related expenses for the London Olympics
• Sports Ministry so far sanctioned $318000 for 7 tennis players under Operation Excellence for London Olympics 2012 (OPEX 2012) scheme through National Sports Development Fund (NSDF)
• All players will get $6000 per month
• Devvarman is getting the lion's share
• Ajay Maken : Union Sports Minister
• Baramathi all-India T20 Cricket Tournament : held @ Pune
• Western Railway bt State Bank of Travancore (SBT)

Choking Off Free Speech On The Web

Editorial on The Hindu dated : 20 Jan 2012 

With 4.5 million signatures on a Google petition and one million messages sent to the United States Congress via the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in a single day, January 18, advocates of a free Internet have mounted a determined bid to stall new legislation that can chill free speech. The global chorus against two Bills that are winding their way through the American legal system is growing.

The two draft laws in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, now known around the world by the acronyms SOPA and PIPA (for Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act), have raised a storm on the Internet. They are seen as updated versions of the “Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act” (COICA) which could not make progress in the Senate earlier. In a small victory for opponents, key movers of the Bills have backtracked a little, as Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, Ebay, Zynga, Linkedin and AOL, among others, provide heft to the protests. Wikipedia went dark for 24 hours to make the point and when it was back, it said “millions of people have spoken in defence of a free and open Internet.”

Vague definitions

What makes the two laws obviously detrimental for free speech worldwide is their focus on poorly defined “rogue” websites that are not based in the United States. The definitions in the draft legislation are vague in the assessment of not just free speech advocates, but most major technology companies. The legal tools to punish “infringing” websites as originally drafted in SOPA included a provision for Domain Name System blocking, and denying them the ability to exist as an address on the Internet. The firestorm of protest from U.S. voters that virtually “melted the servers” of Congress has forced the sponsors of the two laws to announce that the DNS blocking provision is now off the table.

Yet, the two Bills are far from dead and there is still plenty to worry about. The attempt to introduce strong-arm measures must be viewed against the backdrop of a persistent effort in the U.S. to use judicial processes to access personal data about individuals abroad using services such as Twitter, in the wake of the WikiLeaks expose. It makes matters more difficult that the U.S. court order prohibits the disclosure of its contents. Are there more technology companies that were covered, that have not come to light, for instance?

Moreover, the new Bills aim to create a procedure to blacklist inconvenient websites and censor them. They have many other weapons to kill websites. These include ordering search engines to remove them from results, prohibiting distribution of advertising, and, quite akin to the WikiLeaks experience, stopping companies such as PayPal or Visa from processing their financial transactions.

It is natural that the prevailing sentiment among international users of the Internet, who have either themselves experienced or have closely observed its power to bring communities together in the Middle East, North Africa and the Occupy movement cities, is “We are all Americans now.” They have no Congressman or Senator to call and petition, but they have made known their opposition to the two Bills widely online. There is a legitimate fear that if the new legal provisions go into force, technology companies coming under U.S. legal jurisdiction could be compelled, or perhaps even be willing, to disclose information on them. Some may simply react to domestic political imperatives and purge foreign websites with an inconvenient point of view. It is important to remember that unlike the existing scheme of filtering — where individual pages and search links are removed — the omnibus penal provisions in SOPA can erase the presence of entire websites.

Ironically, strong fears haunt U.S. companies as well. Some of them dread a new, high-cost technology landscape emerging in America, driving innovation, online traffic, and thus jobs and commerce to other countries that guarantee freedom. In this balkanised future, a social networking website may prefer, say, Iceland, where activists hosted early initiatives of WikiLeaks.

The “group of nine” technology companies including Google and Yahoo! that wrote the joint petition to Congress pointed to a McKinsey study that shows 3.4 per cent of GDP in 13 countries is accounted for by the Internet. In the U.S., the contribution is even larger. The Internet has increased the productivity of small and medium-sized businesses by as much as ten per cent. Trying to put in new conditions at the behest of traditional media companies including those trying to save old models of distribution and profits (for which they massively funded a lobbying campaign during 2011), can crimp growth and the new ventures.

That message is not lost on the White House, and a statement released by the Obama administration says it “will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.” Whether through a veto or through legislative defeat, halting the progress of SOPA and PIPA will be crucial to online communities that fear direct, creeping censorship of the Internet.

Not new

Censoring of Internet content is not new. All search engines remove content and filter search results based on directions and orders issued in different countries to meet the requirements of domestic laws. The toxic potential of SOPA and PIPA lies in their capacity to comprehensively throttle free speech, at least until a new competitive set of alternatives emerges on the Internet. All dimensions of a website's existence — physical presence, findability and revenue stream are under threat.

In the democratic scheme of things, governments that guarantee free speech through statute should baulk at making domestic copies of the controversial American model to suppress their own citizens. Yet, in the Indian context, there will obviously be keen interest in the two U.S. Bills for their possible replication.

Even now, the Indian Information Technology Act, 2000 contains provisions that would not meet the accepted definition of judicial due process. Orders are issued to technology companies hosting content on websites to remove allegedly offensive or infringing material by officials of the government, circumventing a legal process that involves the courts, as is necessary in the case of traditional media.

There is also a marked preference among some leading politicians, such as Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, for a purge of websites and social media platforms such as Facebook, of content that is deemed “offensive”, instead of ignoring criticism from the fringe. Google has been asked to remove several items on the ground that they criticise the government or individual politicians. That there are ample provisions in existing law to handle the more egregious cases is conveniently ignored. Protections earlier available to Internet Service Providers against liability for third party content are sought to be weakened systematically. There may be a specific case to remove material that is obviously inflammatory and capable of doing harm, but the policy compass clearly points to a lurking desire for censorship. If SOPA and PIPA were to succeed in America, the move towards copycat laws in India can only be a step away.

What makes SOPA and PIPA especially toxic is the threat they pose to all dimensions of a website's existence — physical presence, findability and revenue stream.

(anant@thehindu.co.in)

Logic Behind Numbers

Do you ever wonder how the shape of digits were designed?

What is logic behind numbers?

The numbers we all use (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) are known as “arabic” numbers to distinguish them from the “Roman Numerals” (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, etc). Actually the Arabs popularized these numbers but they were originally used by the early phonecian traders to count and keep track of their trading accounts.

Have you ever thought why …….. 1 means “one”, and 2 means “two”? The roman numerals are easy to understand but what was the logic behind the phonecian numbers?

It’s all about angles !

It’s the number of angles. If one writes the numbers down (see below) on a piece of paper in their older forms, one quickly sees why. Angle are marked with “o”s.No 1 has one angle.No 2 has two angles.No 3 has three angles.etc.and “O” has no angles

19 January 2012

• N Ram : Steps Down as Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu Daily & Publisher of The Hindu, Business Line, Frontline & Sportstar
• Siddharth Varadarajan : New Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu
• D Sampathkumar : New Editor of Business Line
• R Vijaya Sankar : New Editor of Frontline
• Nirmal Shekar : New Editor of Sportstar
• K Balaji : MD of Kasturi & Sons Ltd (Owners of The Hindu group of publications)
• New Publisher of The Hindu publications
• RA Mehta : Gujarat Lokayukta
• Kamla Beniwal : Gujarat Governor
• Narendra Modi : Gujarat CM
• Gujarat High Court upheld the appointment of Lokayukta by the Governor bypassing the State Government
• Modi led Gujarat Govt to move to Supreme Court
• Manjula Chellur : Acting Chief Justice of Kerala
• Babu Mathew P Joseph & AV Ramakrishna Pillai : Newly appointed judges of Kerala High Court
• Nicolas Sarkozy : French President
• Recently S&P downgraded France from AAA to AA+
• But Moody's & Fitch maintained the AAA ratings of France
• Jarawa : Tribes of Andaman Islands
• Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) directed Income Tax Department to launch a Two-month Special Initiative against Tax evasions starting from Jan 20
• To trail & verify high value transactions by persons not assessed to tax or those who have not furnished their Permanent Account Number (PAN) during such deals
• KV Balasubramanian : Former Chief Advertisement Manager of Kasturi & Sons Ltd, publishers of The Hindu; PASSED AWAY
• Pankaj Pachauri : NDTV India Senior Editor & Prime Time Anchor
• To be Communications Adviser to PM
• Jst Markandey Katju : Chairman of Press Council of India (PCI)
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• Goa to be the first State in India to have Poll Monitoring System (PMS) implemented during Assembly Elections
• PMS includes computer with web-camera and arrangements to get thumb-prints of every voter to check bogus voting
• China to expand its railway connecting Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) & Nepal
• Lhasa : Capital of TAR
• 5 year development project (2011-15)
• SM Krishna : Union Minister of External Affairs
• Handed over houses to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) from North Sri Lanka in a India-assisted housing project of Sri Lanka
• 1000 house constructed as Pilot-project
• 49000 to be constructed in next phase
• Kankesanthurai (KKS) Harbour : Jaffna, Sri Lanka
• The harbour has been cleared of all shipwrecks  in record time
• Govt of India through Shipping Corporation of India had awarded $19m for removal of shipwrecks at the KKS Harbour to Resolve Salvage & Fire (Asia) Ltd, Singapore
• India to provide further assistance for the next phase of the project in dredging & rehabilitation of pier & port infrastructure
• Sergei Lavrov : Foreign Minister of Russia
• Russia warned the West against military intervention in Iran & Syria and rejected unilateral sanctions against the two nations
• Russia to strengthen ties with Iran
• Aung San Suu Kyi : Myanmar Opposition leader
• Registered her name to stand in upcoming by-elections
• National League for Democracy (NLD) : Her political party
• Meteorite found in Morocco last July claimed to be from Mars
• Its the fifth time such Martian meteorite fall has occurred, which has occurred every 50 years
• First was in 1815 in France, second in 1865 in India, then in 1911 in Egypt, 1962 in Nigeria and now in 2011 in Morocco
• GRAIL-A & -B : NASA's Twin Moon Probe
• The probes were named by conducting a competition among elementary students
• Ebb & Flow : Names selected for the twin probes
• GRAIL MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) : small camera on each GRAILs
• GRAIL is NASA's first planetary mission carrying instruments fully dedicated to education & public outreach
• GDP growth in China slows down in Q4 to 8.9% the slowest in last 10 quarters
• "World Economic Situation & Prospects 2012" : Report by UN
• Projects Indian GDP growth for 2012 & 2013 to 7.7% & 7.9% respectively
• Projection for 2011 lowered by 8.5% to 7%
• South Asian countries to grow slightly over 6.5% in 2011, 6.7% in 2012 & 6.9% in 2013
• Jaipal Reddy : Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas
• Petroleum Ministry conveyed to Commerce Ministry its nod to the proposal of allowing private airlines to import Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) independently
• Earlier, the beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines approached the Ministry with the proposal
• Sriprakash Jaiswal : Union Coal Minister
• A Committee of Secretaries (CoS) has beenset up by the PM to address concerns of Power Sector
• Pulok Chatterji : Principal Secretary to PM to head the CoS
• To look into issues such as shortage of coal & gas, price of imported coal, hike in power tariff & second-generation reforms of the sector
• India-Azerbaijan 4-Match Women's Hockey Test Series
• India defeated Azerbaijan 3rd consecutive time in the series to clinch the series
• Ajay Maken : Union Sports Minister
• Awarded Rs.4.33 lakh to Abhinav Bindra for winning Gold in Air Rifle in Asian Shooting Championship 2012

18 January 2012

• Ajit Singh : Union Civil Aviation Minister
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minster
• Centre to allow foreign airlines acquire 49% stake in Indian carriers
• Francesco Schettino : Captain of Costa Concordia, the Italian luxury cruise liner that wrecked off coast at Italy
• INS Krishna : One of Indian Navy's First Training Squadron since 1995 accorded a farewell from Southern Naval Command
• Heading towards Mumbai for decommissioning
• World Health Organisation's (WHO) list of Endemic Countires : PAIN (Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Nigeria)
• India to be removed from the list after ascertaining that wild polio virus is not circulating in among children in India
• $8.48b Cairn-Vedanta deal red-flagged by Home Ministry to put up before Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for review
• Salman Rushdie : Indian origin author & Booker Prize winner
• His participation in Jaipur Literature Festival 2012 strongly opposed
• Mukarram Khan Atif : Voice of America's journalist
• He was shot dead in Pakistan
• Portugal Supreme Court rejects CBI plea on Abu Salem extradition that the extradition treaty was violated by India by slapping of new cases against the underworld don that attract death penalty
• Wen Jiabao : Chinese PM
• Dai Bingguo : Chinese State Councillor
• Shivshankar Menon : National Security Adviser (NSA) of India
• 15th Meeting of Special Representatives on India-China Border Quest : held @ New Delhi
• Agreement was signed between S Jaishankar (Indian Ambassador to China) & Liu Zhenmin (Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister) to establish "Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs"
• SM Krishna : Union Minister of External Affairs
• GL Peiris : Sri Lankan Minister of External Affairs
• Mahinda Rajapaksa : Sri Lankan President
• SM Krishna-GL Peiris ink MoU for the next phase of housing project being implemented with India's assistance of about $260m
• India extended $382.37m line-of-credit for restoring Northern Railways services in Sri Lanka
• MoU signed by TCA Ranganathan (CMD of EXIM Bank of India) and PB Jayasundera (Sri Lankan Finance & Planning Secretary)
• They also signed a MoU on a Buyer's Credit Agreement of $60.69m for financing Greater Dambulla Water Supply Project
• MoU signed between Ashok K Kantha (Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka) and W Sakalasooriya (Sri Lankan Agriculture Secretary) for cooperation in the field of agriculture
• MoU signed by TRAI & TRCSL to strengthen competency in the field of telecommunication regulation in Sri Lanka
• JS Sharma : Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
• Anusha Palpita : Director General of Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)
• Jimmy Wales : Founder of Wikipedia the online encyclopedia
• Wikipedia to black-out its English language site for 24 hours to seek support against proposed US bills, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) & Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA)
• This will threaten Internet freedom and will harm open sites like Wikipedia
• "The Artist" : film sweeps BAFTA (British Academy of Film & Television Arts) Awards nominations
• Nominated for 12 categories
• Centre through a notification through Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) changed the fixed amounts of excise & customs duties on precious metals to ad-valorem rates with immediate effect
• Import duty of Gold revised to 2% from earlier fixed Rs.300 per 10grams
• Import duty of Silver to 6% from earlier fixed rate of Rs.1500 per kg
• Excise duty of Gold revised to 1.5% from fixed Rs.200 per 10grams
• Excise duty of Silver revised to 4% from fixed Rs.1000 per kg
• This duty structure will fetch an additional Rs.600 Cr in Q4 of this fiscal
• SK Goel : Chairman of CBEC
• RBI decided to permit banks to grant permissions to companies to hedge the price risk of any commodity (except Gold, Silver & Platinum) in the international exchanges/markets
• Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) & Sumitomo Corp to buy Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) Aviation business for $7.3b
• RBS will shrink to its core British retail & commercial banking business
• Chinese Banks lend $1.18b to Reliance Communications to repay overseas convertible bonds
• Standard & Poor's (S&P) downgrades Eurozone's European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) rescue fund from AAA to AA+
• Francois Baroin : French Finance Minister
• Narendra Singh : appointed new Chairman & MD of Bank of Maharashtra with effect from Feb 1 2012
• He was serving as Executive Director of Corporation Bank
• Anup Sankar Bhattacharya : Current CMD of Bank of Maharashtra
• International Shooting Federation ISSF Beijing World Cup scheduled to be held from June 16 to 25 has been cancelled

The Bank of India Recruitment 2012 for 1800 GBO Posts

Online applications from 19.01.2012 to 31.01.2012

Interviews : February /March 2012

Post & Vacancy

General Banking Officer – 1800 posts

This post is same as of Probationary officer with scale I cadre & payscale of Rs.14,500 – Rs.25700

Eligibility

• Age to be minimum 21 yrs & maximum 30 yrs, as on July 1, 2011
• Posses graduation with 60% marks aggregate from a recognized university (55% for SC/ST/OBC/PWD)
• Total weighted score must be 130 marks (Gen) or 117 (SC/ST/OBC) in IBPS common exam.

Selection process : Interview for 100 marks.

Qualifying marks for Interview – 50 (Gen) & 45 (SC/ST/OBC)

Applicants shall be ranked in a merit list according to their IBPS scores & those at the top are to be called for personal-interview in the ratio of 1:3

The final list of appointment would be prepared by taking into account your test + interview marks category-wise.

How to apply

Gen & OBC category should pay Rs.200 as application fee in any branch of bank of India, using the

given challan form before January 31, 2012.(No fee for SC/ST/PWD)

On collecting the necessary payment info & challan copy, visit bankofindia.com to fill the online

application.

Enter the required details to submit the registration form, while saving the registration no. & password.

The generated confirmation page must be produced during the interview. So remember to take a print

of that application form.

To refer: Candidates fulfilling the eligibility & are interested to apply for Bank of India PO recruitment 2012 can download the notice from their website here.

Click Here For Challan

Aircel Chennai Open - ATP World Tour 2012

Singles

• Milos Raonic (Canada) bt Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia)

Doubles

• Leander Paes/Janko Tipsarevic (Ind/Serbia) bt Erlich Jonathan/Andy Ram (Israel)

69th Annual Golden Globe Awards 2011

Held at Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, California, US on 15th Jan 2012

• Cecil B. DeMille Award : Morgan Freeman

Cecil B. DeMille Award is a Honorary Golden Globe Award bestowed by Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment

• Best Film-Drama : The Descendants

• Best Film-Musical or Comedy : The Artist

• Best Director : Martin Scorsese (Film : Hugo)

• Best Foreign Language Film : A Separation (Iran)

• Best Animated Feature Film : The Adventures of Tintin

• Best Screenplay : Woody Allen (Film : Midnight in Paris)

• Best Original Song : "Masterpiece" (Film : W.E.) 

Music & Lyrics by Madonna, Julie Frost, Jimmy Harry

• Best Original Score : Ludovic Bource (Film : The Artist)

• Best Actor : George Clooney (Film : The Descendants)

• Best Actress : Meryl Streep (Film : The Iron Lady)

17 January 2012

• Asif Ali Zardari : President of Pakistan
• Yousuf Raza Gilani : PM of Pakistan
• Gen VK Singh : Indian Army Chief
• On age row
• Manjula Chellur : Acting Chief Justice of Kerala
• HR Bhardwaj : Governor of Karnataka assumed additional charge as Kerala Governor
• MOH Farook : Kerala Governor gone on leave
• US's infamous detention centre at Guantanamo Bay on the island of Cuba marked 10th anniversary
• Kerala High Court asked oil firms to file an affidavit on quality of LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) cylinders seeking explanations for frequent explosions
• The HC also asked Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to submit a report on the proposed LPG terminal at Puthuvyppu in Vypeen Island in Ernakulam
• Dai Bingguo : State Councillor of the People's Republic of China
• Shivshankar Menon : National Security Adviser (NSA) of India
• 15th meet of Special Representatives on India-China boundary quest going on
• Costa Concordia : Italian luxury cruise liner that wrecked off coast Italy on 14th January
• 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards 2011 : held @ Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, California, US
• Cecil B. DeMille Award : Morgan Freeman
• Honorary Golden Globe Award bestowed by Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment
• Best Film-Drama : The Descendants
• Best Film-Musical or Comedy : The Artist
• Best Director : Martin Scorsese (Film : Hugo)
• Best Foreign Language Film : A Separation (Iran)
• Best Animated Feature Film : The Adventures of Tintin
• Best Screenplay : Woody Allen (Film : Midnight in Paris)
• Best Original Song : "Masterpiece" (Film : W.E.) 
• Music & Lyrics by Madonna, Julie Frost, Jimmy Harry
• Best Original Score : Ludovic Bource (Film : The Artist)
• Best Actor : George Clooney (Film : The Descendants)
• Best Actress : Meryl Streep (Film : The Iron Lady)
• Radda : Town in Bayda province; South to Sanaa, Capital of Yemen
• Al-Qaeda militants captured the town
• Ali Abdullah Saleh : President of Yemen
• Nursultan Nazarbayev : President of Kazakhstan
• Nur Otan : Ruling party of Kazakhstan; Party of Nazarbayev
• Won Parliamentary Elections with a huge majority of 80.74%
• Wen Jiabao : Chinese PM
• Visits Saudi Arabia, UAE & Qatar for deeper engagement in oil & gas sector
• Timothy Geithner : Treasury Secretary of US
• SM Krishna : Indian Cabinet Minister of External Affairs
• Mahinda Rajapaksa : Sri Lankan President
• GL Peiris : Sri Lankan Cabinet Minister of External Affairs
• SM Krishna on visit to Sri Lanka to hold talks with Sri Lanka Govt and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to achieve an acceptable political solution for Tamils in Sri Lanka
• "New coal price norms by Coal India Ltd (CIL) will push up cement prices" : Crisil Research
• Suzlon Energy plans Rs.18000Cr 3000MW Wind power project in Andhra Pradesh over next 4 years
• Singapore Govt acquired 1.09% stake in Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) worth Rs.2500Cr
• India invited Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) to invest $90b in Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC)
• Anand Sharma : Union Minister for Commerce & Industry
• Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan : MD of ADIA
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) proposes entry level fee for different types of unified license
• Rs.20Cr for National-Level Unified License
• Rs.2Cr for each Metro & 'A' category
• Rs.1Cr for each 'B' category
• Rs.50lakh for each 'C' category
• Rs.15lakh for each District-Level Unified License
• Unified Access Service License (UASL) will authorise telecom service providers to provide telecom services
• Baroness Catherine Ashton : European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy
• "India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is likely to take some time"
• All-India Jiji Irani Trophy : Kolkata clinched the trophy beating Hyderabad
• Boxing great Muhammad Ali turns 70 years
• 12th Asian Shooting Championships
• Raj Kumari (Ind) clinched Gold in Women 50m Rifle Prone
• Annu Raj Singh clinched bronze in Women Air Pistol
• Google India along with other 20 websites facing criminal case in Delhi High Court for allegedly hosting objectionable material
• NK Kaul : Advocate appearing for Google India
• INS Krishna : one of Indian Navy's First Training Squadron Ships to be de-commissioned
• After 44 years of service for both Indian Navy & Royal Navy
• It was handed over to India by Royal Navy in 1995
• Its then name was HMS Andromeda
• INS Shardul to replace INS Krishna tentatively
• Sudhakar Sharma : Sacked Secretary of Lalit Kala Academy, Reinstated as Secretary
• Ashok Vaypeyi : Outgoing Chairman of Lalit Kala Academy
• All educational institutions affiliated to University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council of Technical Education & National Council for Teachers Education will now require to establish a grievance redressal mechanism

16 January 2012

• 64th Army Day Observed on Jan 15th
• Gen KM Cariappa : Took over as the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Independent Indian Army on 15 January 1948
• This day is commemorated as Army Day every year
• HR Bhardwaj : Karnataka Governor
• Would assume additional charge as Governor of Kerala
• MOH Farook : Kerala Governor on leave
• KJ Yesudas : Chosen for the first Harivarasanam Award of Travancore Devaswom Board
• ONV Kurup : Chosen for 2011 S Guptan Nair Foundation Award for teachers who have left an indelible imprint on literature & culture
• Zhang Yan : Chinese Ambassador to India
• Dai Bingguo : State Councillor of People's Republic of China
• Landed in India for the 15th meeting of Special Representatives on India-China boundary quest
• Villagers protest against expansion of 1320MW power plant set up by Lanco Amarkantak in Korba, Chhattisgarh
• Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan : Head of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA)
• United Arab Emirates (UAE) to boost investments in India
• Homai Vyarawala : India's First Woman Photo-Journalist; PASSED AWAY
• Andaman & Nicobar Police seek National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) help in Jarawas case
• Nitish Kumar : Bihar Chief Minister
• "Civil Consequences of Crime" : Website launched by Bihar CM which will provide information about criminal case convicts
• Govt of India owes Rs.110Cr to Air India for its special flight services which ferry VVIPs such as PM, President, Vice-President etc.
• Supreme Court asks Trial Courts to be cautioned while recording conviction of an accused merely on the basis of circumstantial evidence
• RK Raghavan : Head of SIT (Special Investigation Team) probing 2002 Gujarat riots
• Sanjiv Bhatt : Suspended Gujarat-cadre IPS officer
• Bhatt claimed that at the 2002 meeting Gujarat CM Narendra Modi allegedly said Hindus must be allowed to vent their anger against Muslims in wake of Godhra carnage
• The SIT asked Bhatt to produce original of the 2002 fax message
• Bhatt says that the document was provided in 2009
• Bashar Al-Assad : Syrian President
• Offered an amnesty to citizens who have taken up arms against his rule in a 10-month revolt
• Ban Ki-moon : UN Secretary General
• Phobos-Grunt : Russia's doomed Mars probe crashed into the Pacific Ocean
• Kuomintang (KMT) : Party of Taiwan's re-elected President Ma Ying-jeou
• Also known as Nationalist Party of China
• China expressed its willingness to join hands with Taiwan
• Rickie Sehgal : Indian-origin Chairman of British Asian Conservative Link (BACL)
• Boasted to an undercover reporter that they could provide even mobile phone no of British PM David Cameron on a donation of 10000 Pound to BACL
• Later he was sacked & BACL was disbanded
• Its would be replaced by a new body called Conservative Friends of India
• Kazakhs casts votes in parliamentary elections
• Aung San Suu Kyi : Myanmar democracy icon
• Conferred Insignia of the Commander in the National Order of the Legion d'Honneur, in recognition of her long struggle for democracy
• Conferred by Alain Juppe, French Foreign Minister
• SS Bagaria : Chairman of Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA)
• Darjeeling Tea is the first Indian product to be recognised by European Union as a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI)
• The PGI tag will boost Darjeeling Tea exports
• Murali Natrajan : MD & Chief Executive of Development Credit Bank (DCB)
• BK Batra : appointed new Deputy MD of IDBI Bank (Industrial Development Bank of India Ltd)
• Winner of Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2012
• Elite Men : Won by Laban Moiben (Kenya)
• Elite Women : Netsanet Abeyo (Ethiopia)
• Indians Men : Won by Ram Singh Yadav (Ind)
• He also qualified for 2012 London Olympics
• Indians Women : Won by Lalita Babbar (Ind)
• Sydney International Tennis : Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) bt Julien Benneteau (France)
• 12th Asian Shooting Championship : held @ Doha, Qatar
• Navdeep Singh Rathore won Gold in Junior 50m Rifle Prone

15 January 2012

• National Army Day : Jan 15
• Standard & Poor's (S&P) downgrades 9 out of 17 Eurozone countries
• Liv Signe Navarsete : Norwegian Minister of Local Government & Regional Development
• "India has a robust & independent election system"
• Central Supervisory Board under Pre-Conception & Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act
• Approved to ban the portable ultrasound sonography machines to prevent misuse fro sex determination, particularly in rural areas where sex ratio is dipped
• Election Commission bans political speeches/ campaigns on Republic Day in 5 poll-bound states
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asked service providers to shift to hybrid power to run Telecom Towers in order to reduce carbon footprint of the telecom sector
• Telecom sector is the second-largest consumer of diesel in the country
• India-China to hold border talks
• PK Chaudhury : Secretary of Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion
• Farmers' Representatives oppose FDI in multi-brand retail sector
• Maulana Khawaja Altaf Husain : Urdu poet & social reformer
• His 175th birth anniversary observed
• 251th anniversary of Third Battle of Panipat commemorated
• AK Jain : Finance member of Prasar Bharati
• The board asked to remove him alleging misconduct in financial accounts & tax obligations
• Ma Ying-jeou : President of Taiwan; Re-elected for the second term
• Jasmine Revolution of Tunisia marks one-year anniversary
• It ousted former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from his long term dictatorship
• Hamadi Jebali : PM of Tunisia
• Moncef Marzouki : President of Tunisia
• Wen Jiabao : Chinese Premier visit Nepal
• $135m aid to boost Nepal's Infrastructure & Security
• One-time special grant of $20m as well as assistance of 200m RMB(Renminbi) under a 750m RMB 3-year grant
• Also agreed to provide both economic & technical support to strengthen Nepal's police forces
• Costa Concordia : Italian Cruise Liner wrecked off coast of Italy
• 3 dead
• Rescue scenes was just like the Titanic disaster, says paasengers
• S&P downgrades France from AAA to AA+
• Nicolas Sarkozy : French President
• Blow to him as Presidential elections are coming
• GAIL Gas Ltd : wholly owned subsidiary of GAIL (India)
• Andhra Pradesh Gas Distribution Company Ltd (APGDC)
• GAIL Gas & APGDC joint-venture to develop Rs.5000Cr, 3.5-5 million tonnes per annum LNG (liquefied natural gas) Terminal/FSRU (floating storage & re-gasification unit) along the Andhra sea coast by 2013-14
• GAIL Gas & Andhra Pradesh Govt signs Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
• PM Manmohan Singh to meet major power sector leaders to discuss
• rising concerns about continued shortage of coal & gas that has hampered power production
• cut in customs duty on imported coal that has badly impacted the Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPs)
• Ratan Tata : Chairman of Tata Power
• Cyrus Mistry : Deputy-Chairman of Tata Power
• Anil Ambani : Chairman of Reliance Power
• Sajjan Jindal : Chairman of JSW Energy
• Andrew Brandler : Global CEO of CLP group Hong Kong
• L Madhusudan Rao : Chairman of Lanco Infratech
• Gautam Adani : Chairman of Adani Power
• GM Rao : Chairman of GMR Energy
• Naveen Jindal : Chairman of Jindal Power
• Anil Agarwal : Chairman of Sterlite Energy
• Prashant Ruia : Chairman of Essar Power
• Sudhir Mehta : Chairman of Torrent Power
• BK Chaturvedi Committee : To suggest measures to increase coal production and increase its availability to meet the growing needs of power sector
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia : Deputy-Chairman of Planning Commission
• GMR Energy commissioned its first 25MW solar power plant in Patan district, Gujarat
• ATP Heineken Open : @ Auckland (Auckland ATP Title)
• David Ferrer (Spain) bt Olivier Rochus (Belgium)
• WTA Moorilla International : @ Hobart
• Mona Barthel (Germany) bt Yanina Wickmayer (Belgium)
• Kooyong Classic : @ Melbourne
• Bernard Tomic (Australia) bt Mardy Fish (US)
• 17th National Youth Festival : held @ Mangalore
• Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) calling for re-examining existing Mini Ratna status of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs)
• Under performing Public Sector Units (PSUs) such as BSNL, HMT, Hindustan Paper & Hindustan Newsprint may lose their Mini Ratna status
• Ashok Gehlot : CM of Rajasthan
• Offers medical aid to ailing Gazal Singer Mehdi Hassan
• Now voters can cast their votes online in municipal elections no matter where in the globe they are
• Pilot project in Gandhinagar, Gujarat proved successful
• Krishna Chandra Deo : Panchayati Raj Minister