30 March 2012

• 4th BRICS Summit : @ New Delhi
• Dilma Rousseff : Brazilian President
• Dmitry Medvedev : Russian President
• Hu Jintao : Chinese President
• Jacob Zuma : South African President
• To sign two pacts for "BRICS Stock Index" & "BRICS Bank"
• Enrica Lexie : Italian vessel detained off Kerala coast in wake of killing of two fishermen by marines on board
• Kerala High Court allowed the vessel to sail out of Indian waters
• Admiral (retd) Giampaolo Di Paola : Italian Defence Minister
• MR Hariharan Nair Commission : Submitted its report on Pulmedu Tragedy that claimed lives of 102 Sabarimala pilgrims in January 2011
• MV Prabhu Daya : Singapore-flagged ship suspected to be in collision with fishing trawler off coast Kerala killing five fishermen
• Lt Commander Abhilash Tomy planning a solo non-stop circumnavigation of the globe onboard Indian Naval Sailing Vessel (INSV) Mhadei
• Amadou Toumani Toure : Disputed President of Mali overthrown by Malian military officer Captain Amadou Sanogo, leader of National Committee for the Reinstatement of Democracy & the Restoration of the State (CNRDRE)
• Robert Zoellick : President of World Bank
• Aung San Suu Kyi : Leader of National League for Democracy (NLD) of Myanmar
• Shashi Kant Sharma : Defence Secretary
• Tatra Sipox (UK) Ltd : Company whose Tatra off-road vehicles are extensively used by Indian Army & is under allegations of bribery
• Sushma Swaraj : Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha
• Gen VK Singh : Indian Army Chief
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• Lt Gen Bikram Singh : Indian Army Chief Designate
• GK Pillai : Chief Adviser ot BRICS Trade & Economic Research Network (BRICS-TERN)
• BRICS intra trade target $500bn by 2015
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia : Planning Commission Deputy Chairman
• Vijay Bahuguna : Uttarakhand CM
• Won a trust vote
• SH Kapadia : Chief Justice
• Jeff Bezos : Founder CEO of Amazon.com
• The billionaire comes up with a find of engine remains of 1969 Saturn V rocket that took the Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon for the first time
• Hugo Chavez : Venezuela President
• Mariano Rajoy : Spain PM
• Baghdad Summit : Summit of 22 member Arab League in the Iraqi Capital address Syria crisis
• Kofi Annan : UN Special Envoy to Syria
• Ban Ki-moon : Secretary General of the United Nations (UN)
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• Russia to provide help for Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project after the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) developed cold feet over assistance
• Sushil Kumar Shinde : Union Power Minister
• Pulok Chatterjee : Principal Secretary to PM
• Core sector posts 6.8% growth in February; 4.4% growth in April-February 2012
• Core Sector : Crude Oil, Petroleum Refinery Products, Natural Gas, Fertilizers, Coal, Electricity, Cement & Finished Steel
• They account for 37.90% in Index of Industrial Production (IIP)
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to auction dated securities of Union Government to raise Rs.18,000 crore
• Hinduja Energy India Ltd in $12-14bn joint-venture with German energy major STEAG's subsidiary STEAG Energy Services (India) Pvt Ltd  for setting up 10,000MW power plants over next 8 years
• Ashok Hinduja : Chairman of Hinduja National Power Corporation Ltd (HNPCL)
• Titan Energy Systems tie up with Spain's Grupo Ortiz's subsidiary Ortiz Energia for setting up renewable energy projects across the country
• Rao SYS Chodagam : MD of Titan Energy

29 March 2012

• Gen VK Singh : Chief of Indian Army
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• Pallam Raju : Minister of State for Defence
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• P Chidambaram : Union Home Minister
• Vayalar Ravi : Union Overseas Affairs Minister
• Sushma Swaraj : Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha
• Dmitry Medvedev : Russian President
• Hu Jintao : Chinese President
• GK Vasan : Union Shipping Minister
• Cancer killed 5,56,400 people across India in 2010
• 71% of this is of age group 30-69
• T Damodaran : Malayalam Script-writer; Passed Away
• Parkash Singh Badal : Punjab CM
• Kofi Annan : UN Special Envoy to Syria
• Sergei Lavrov : Russian Foreign Minister
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• Nabil al-Arabi : Secretary General of 22 member Arab League
• Balwant Singh Rajoana : former Punjab police constable who was sentenced to death in 2010 for being a back-up bomber in the assassination of former Punjab CM Beant Singh
• He was to be hanged on March 30 2012
• Centre stayed the death sentence
• VRS Natarajan : CMD of Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML)
• Harin Raval : Additional Solicitor General
• Meira Kumar : Lok Sabha Speaker
• Kariya Munda : Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker
• Anand Sharma : Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Textiles
• 4th BRICS Summit : @ New Delhi
• Theme : "BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Security and Prosperity"
• Upendra Chivukula : Indo-American Politician & Deputy Speaker of New Jersey State Assembly
• To run for US House of Representatives elections
• Ashfaq Parvez Kayani : Chief of Pakistan Army
• John Allen : Commander of International Security Alliance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan
• Raul Castro : Cuba President
• Hugo Chavez : Venezuela President
• SM Krishna : Union Minister of External Affairs
• Recep Tayyip Erdogan : Turkey PM
• Leon Panetta : US Defence Secretary
• P5+1 Countries : US, Russia, France, Britain, China & Germany
• Mohammad Haleem Khan : Disinvestment Secretary
• S Jaipal Reddy : Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas
• Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry signed Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) for the newly awarded 16 oil & gas blocks under IX round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP)
• Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) emerged the biggest winner with six blocks allocated to it
• GC Chaturvedi : Petroleum Secretary
• Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry seeks Finance Ministry to provide Rs.40,000 crore cash subsidy for current fiscal to compensate oil marketing companies for losses incurred due to subsidies
• A Sakthivel : Chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC)
• Apparel exports up by 19% in April-February this fiscal
• Canada based Research In Motion (RIM) announced steep cut in prices of its Blackberry smartphones
• Income Tax Department seize shares of Unitech Group through which the company held 32.75% stakes in mobile telecom venture Uninor
• Shares were owned by Unitech through their companies Acorus, Cestos & Simpson
• 67.25% stakes in Uninor is held by Norwegian firm Telenor
• NIIT Technologies has implemented an automated content management & delivery system at Singapore Parliament
• Suzlon enters into global strategic partnership agreement with CGN Wind Energy Co, wholly owned subsidiary of China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, to develop 800MW of domestic & international projects over next three years
• Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2012 has raised a record Rs.16.07 crore for charity
• The money will benefit 197 NGOs compared to 131 of last year
• International Airline Emirates to sponsor Indian Premier League (IPL) team Deccan Chargers
• A Sivathanu Pillai : CEO & MD of BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd
• Supersonic Cruise Missile BrahMos successfully flight tested from Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Orissa

28 March 2012

• Gen VK Singh : Chief of Indian Army
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani : Pakistan PM
• Asif Ali Zardari : Pakistan President
• Hina Rabbani Khar : Pakistan Foreign Minister
• Ranjan Mathai : Foreign Secretary
• Shivshankar Menon : National Security Adviser
• Vijay Kumar : Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)
• State Bank of Travancore (SBT) hikes interest rate for its SBT FlexiMax Term Deposit for single deposits of Rs.15 lakh and above to180 days from 9% to 9.95%
• KS Radhakrishnan : Chairman of Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC)
• 4th BRICS Summit : @ New Delhi
• India is currently Chairing BRICS
• Dilma Rousseff : Brazilian President
• Dmitry Medvedev : Russian President
• Hu Jintao : Chinese President
• Jacob Zuma : South African President
• Google & Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory gets their $1.25m project to digitally preserve records of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela's life online
• Indian PM Manmohan Singh pledges $1m towards International Atomic Energy Agency's Nuclear Security Fund for 2012-13
• Sriprakash Jaiswal : Union Coal Minister
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• Likely to reconsider tax proposals on unbranded jewellery and to introduce special package for silk weavers
• SH Kapadia : Chief Justice of India
• Goolam Essaji Vahanvati : Attorney General of India
• Kofi Annan : UN Special Envoy to Syria
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• David Cameron : British PM
• India will not reduce Iranian oil imports to get exempted from US sanctions
• "Death Sentences & Execution 2011" : Report by Amnesty International
• With more than thousand executions China tops the list
• At least 20 countries have carried out executions
• Even newest nation, South Sudan is on the list at 12th
• 2nd - Iran
• 3rd - Saudi Arabia
• 4th - Iraq
• 5th - US
• 6th - Yemen
• 7th - North Korea
• 8th - Somalia
• 9th - Sudan
• 10th - Bangladesh
• Though, India imposed 110 death sentences in 2011 no executions were carried out
• R Gopalan : Economic Affairs Secretary
• Centre to borrow Rs.3.79 lakh crore in first half of next fiscal which is over 65% of total planned borrowings next fiscal
• YM Deosthalee : CMD of L&T Finance Holdings
• N Sivaraman : President & Whole-time Director of L&T Finance Holdings
• L&T Finance to acquire mutual fund business of Fidelity AMC (Asset Management Company) in India
• M Veerappa Moily : Union Minister of Corporate Affairs
• Telenor, Norwegian firm holding 67% in Indian joint-venture Uninor, with Unitech
• Partha Chatterjee : appointed Chairman of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL)
• Purnendu Chatterjee : Chairman of The Chatterjee Group (TCG) appointed Deputy-Chairman of HPL
• Vijay Mallya owned cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines suspend operations to several major cities
• Asks 40-50% of about 6,000 staff to stay at home but they would remain on company rolls
• Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 : Baroda beat Punjab to clinch the title
• Surya Prasad Sharma : Indian swimmer banned for 2-year for flunking a dope test
• Sanjay Jagdale : Secretary of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
• N Srinivasan : BCCI President
• Markandey Katju : Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman
• National Press Day : 16 November
• Margaret Hodge : Chairperson of Commons Public Accounts Committee
• Air India to directly import Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) to curb escalating cost
• Muhammad Khurshid Khan : Pakistan Deputy Attorney General

27 March 2012

• Gen VK Singh : Chief of Army Staff
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• Charu Khandal : Young animator who won national award for special effects in Ra.One film
• She got into an accident and now is battling for life
• Jens Stoltenberg : Norwegian PM
• GK Vasan : Union Minister of Shipping
• Narendra Modi : Gujarat CM
• 3rd Gujarati to make it to the cover of Time Magazine after Mahatma Gandhi & Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
• Vijay Bahuguna : Uttarakhand CM
• Sriprakash Jaiswal : Union Coal Minister
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• Sushma Swaraj : Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha
• BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) Summit : @ New Delhi to discuss on
• BRICS Exchange Alliance in which major stock exchanges of BRICS countries will offers investors to trade in domestic currency
• BRICS Bank or South-South Bank to serve development needs & aspirations of emerging & developing world
• Mwai Kibaki : President of Kenya
• Oil deposits discovered in Kenya's Turkana region by Anglo-Irish firm Tullow Oil
• Ashfaq Parvez Kayani : Pakistan Army Chief
• Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani : Pakistan PM
• Mamata Banerjee : West Bengal CM
• Parkash Singh Badal : Punjab CM
• Mario Monti : Italian PM
• Chashma Nuclear Power Plant : in Pakistan constructed with China's assistance
• India joins a select band of nations in producing UNS NO8800 U tubes for nuclear plants
• It was successfully manufactured at Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC), Hyderabad making it the fourth entity in the world to manufacture the tubes
• The first consignment was handed over to Larsen & Toubro (L&T)
• SK Jain : CMD of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL)
• Macky Sall : Newly elected President of Senegal
• To take over Abdoulaye Wade
• Wen Jiabao : Chinese Premier (PM)
• Hu Jintao : Chinese President
• Baburam Bhattarai : Nepal PM
• Political party : Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
• BMW : German luxury car maker recalls 1.3 million cars worldwide due to battery problems
• Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL) : New Delhi
• Miniratna company wholly-owned by Government of India has become debt-free repaying the entire amount of loan to Central Government
• Govt of India issued interest free working capital loan of Rs.700 crore to SPMCIL in 2007-08
• SPMCIL repaid the loan as four equal installments of Rs.175 crore from 2008-09 and completed repaying recently
• MS Rana : CMD of SPMCIL
• Lee Myung-Bak : South Korean President
• India-South Korea bilateral trade stood at $20.6bn in 2011
• To push bilateral to $40bn by 2015
• Anand Sharma : Union Minister of Commerce, Industry & Textiles
• John Bryson : US Secretary of Commerce
• Julia Gillard : Australian PM
• Australia blocked Chinese telecom giant Huawei from tendering for its nation-wide $38bn broadband contract due to rising cyber attacks in China
• Interest Rates for Small Saving Schemes increased
• 1yr Time Deposit : increased from 7.7% to 8.2%
• 2yr Time Deposit : increased from 7.8% to 8.3%
• 3yr Time Deposit : increased from 8.0% to 8.4%
• 5yr Time Deposit : increased from 8.3% to 8.5%
• 5yr Recurring Deposit : increased from 8.0% to 8.4%
• 5yr Senior Citizens Savings Scheme : increased from 9.0% to 9.3%
• Reduction in age slab for senior citizen from 65 to 60yrs
• 5yr Monthly Income Scheme : increased from 8.2% to 8.5%
• 5yr National Savings Certificate : increased from 8.4% to 8.6%
• 10yr National Savings Certificate : increased from 8.7% to 8.9%
• Public Provident Fund : increased from 8.6% to 8.8%
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tightens Fair Practices Code (FPC) to be adopted by Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) while doing lending business
• R Sridhar : New MD & CEO of Shriram Capital Ltd
• Centre to infuse Rs.810 crore in IDBI Bank
• Claus Heckerott : New MD of German sportswear maker Adidas Group India
• Sameer Kaul : Appointed head of Citi India's private banking business
• Rolta India to raise $135m through External Commercial Borrowings (ECB)
• Warburg Pincus, global equity firm, exits Kotak Mahindra Bank by selling its 3.6% stake in the bank for Rs.1,400 crore
• Arnold Palmer Invitational Golf : @ Bay Hill Golf Course, Orlando, Florida
• Tiger Woods clinched the title
• International Shooting Championship : Dortmund, Germany
• Abhinav Bindra won Silver
• Are Hansen (Norway) clinched the Gold
• Chris Cairns : Former New Zealand all-round Cricketer was awarded $142,000 after winning a libel action against former Indian Premier League (IPL) Chairman Lalit Modi at London High Court
• Ralph Gonsalves : PM of St. Vincent, a Caribbean Island
• Manik Godghate : Marathi poet & author popularly known as 'Grace' Passed Away fighting cancer
• He was awarded Sahitya Akademi Award in 2011 for his prose  "Varyane halte raan"
• Angry farmers' protests marks 10th Anniversary of introduction of genetically modified (GM) Bt Cotton in India
• James Cameron : Director of Titanic
• Took a 11km deep solo dive in the Challenger Deep Valley of the World's deepest point Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean
• He is the first person to make a solo dive to the Mariana Trench
• Last dive here was made by a two-men team back in 1960
• Roerich Memorial Museum : in memory of painter & thinker Nicholas Roerich in Naggar Valley of Himachal Pradesh
• Alexander Kadakin : Russian Ambassador to India
• Prem Kumar Dhumal : Himachal Pradesh CM

26 March 2012

• Gen VK Singh : Indian Army Chief
• He was offered a bribe of Rs.14 crore for clearance of purchase of 600 sub-standard vehicles of a particular make
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• Maruti Suzuki increased prices of its cars by up to Rs.17,000 following increase in excise duty proposed in Union Budget
• MV Nair : Head of expert committee on Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple Inventory
• The British Council & UK Government have launched 60 UK scholarships for Indian students with one month internship as a part of Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee celebrations
• KO Ratnakaran : Principal of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya at Chettachal, Thiruvananthapuram
• Selected for National Award for Teachers instituted by Union Human Resource Development Ministry
• Emirates SkyCargo, freighter division of Emirates, to promote e-freight to do cargo processes electronically and eliminate costs of paper printing & processing
• AK Tareen : South Australian Government's Senior Trade Commissioner in India
• Chosen for Indo-Australian Award for Meritorious Service
• Peter Varghese : Australian High Commissioner to India
• Jairam Ramesh : Union Minister for Rural Development
• Indian President Pratibha Patil's foreign trips cost nation a record Rs.205 crore
• Air India incurred over Rs.169 crore on use of chartered aircraft and External Affairs Ministry incurred nearly Rs.36 crore on accommodation, local travel, daily allowance & miscellaneous expenditures
• In her 5-year tenure with four months remaining she had 12 trips covering 22 countries across 4 continents and a South Africa trip is on the anvil
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia : Deputy Chairman Planning Commission
• 55 elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha with the time of withdrawal of nominations
• Polls will be held for the remaining 2 seats in Jharkhand & 1 seat in Uttarakhand
• Nuclear Security Summit 2012 : @ Seoul, Capital of South Korea
• Lee Myung-Bak : South Korean President
• Blue House : Official residence of South Korean President
• Jim Yong Kim : South Korean health expert nominated for World Bank President post by US President Barack Obama
• Hillary Clinton : US Secretary of State
• Yusuf Raza Gilani : Pakistan PM
• Hina Rabbani Khar : Pakistan Foreign Minister
• Mamata Banerjee : West Bengal CM
• Bimal Gurung : President of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM)
• Areas of Terai & Dooars to be included within the jurisdiction of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA)
• Naveen Patnaik : Odisha CM
• Parkash Singh Badal : Punjab CM
• AB Bardhan : Stepped down as General-Secretary of Communist Party of India after 16 years
• Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy : To replace AB Bardhan
• Hu Jintao : Chinese President
• Wen Jiabao : Chinese PM
• Wishtel : Mumbai based company launched android tablet PCs, Ira & Ira Thing, that support 23 Indian languages
• Milind Shah : CEO of Wishtel
• Mike Mullen : US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman
• Aung San Suu Kyi : Myanmar Leader of Opposition & General Secretary of National League for Democracy
• Kofi Annan : UN Special Envoy to Syria
• Dmitry Medvedev : Russian President
• Sergei Lavrov : Russian Foreign Minister
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• David Cameron : British PM
• UK Conservative Party : Britain's ruling party
• Labour Party : Britain's party of opposition
• Leung Chun-ying : Newly elected Chief Executive of Hong Kong, one of the two Special Administrative Regions (SAR) of People's Republic of China (PRC) & the other being Macau
• India is world's largest importer of gold importing gold of $33.8bn in 2010-11
• India's gold import bill could touch $100bn by 2015-16 says World Gold Council (WGC)
• World Boxing Council Light Welter-Weight Title : Danny Garcia (US) bt Erik Morales (Mexico)
• 43rd Boxing Grand Prix : @ Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic
• Shiva Thapa (Ind) won silver after beaten by Vittorio Jahyn Parrinnelo (Italy)
• World Twenty20 Qualifying Tournament : Ireland bt Afghanistan
• Kuwait International Shooting Grand Prix : Gagan Narang won silver medal in Men's 50m Rifle
• Italian Championship 125GP : @ Mugello Circuit, Italy
• Ricardo Moretti (Italy; Mahindra Racing Team) won the season opener
• Real Madrid Foundation of Spanish Football Club Real Madrid to open football school in Kochi
• Indian Discuss Thrower Seema Antil (Haryana) books Olympic Quota in University of California (Irvine) Spring Break Meet at Irvine, US
• Joins Krishna Poonia in the 9 member qualifying team for London Olympics
• Malaysian GP : Fernando Alonso (Spain; Ferrari) won the title
• 2nd : Sergio Perez (Mexico; Sauber)
• 3rd : Lewis Hamilton (Britain; McLaren)
• 6th Asian Women's Boxing Championship : @ Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
• MC Mary Kom (Ind) won gold in 51kg beating Ren Cancan (China)
• Sarita Devi (Ind) won gold in 60kg beating Chorieva Mavzu (Tajikistan)
• With 2 gold, 4 silver & 2 bronze Indian team finished second after China

25 March 2012

• Pulok Chatterji : Principal Secretary to PM
• Jose Prakash : Veteran Malayalam Actor; Passed Away
• He was awarded JC Daniel award very recently
• Mahinda Rajapaksa : Sri Lankan President
• P Nandakumaran : MD of State Bank of Travancore (SBT)
• India-Brazil Education Agreement on the anvil
• Agreement to facilitate Kerala BEd graduates to teach English & Math in Brazil using ICT (Information & Communication Technology) tools
• Dilma Rousseff : Brazilian President
• Commander Dilip Donde : Indian Navy Personnel
• First Indian & 175th person to circumnavigate the globe solo on a sail boat
• He completed the 276-day voyage as part of Navy's 'Sagar Parikrama' Project
• INSV Mhadei : Indian Navy Sailing Vessel built by Ratnakar Dandekar of Aquarius Fiberglass Pvt Ltd, Dewar, Goa in which the feat was achieved
• Nuclear Security Summit 2012 : @ Seoul, South Korea
• Mario Monti : Italian PM
• Jens Stoltenberg : Norwegian PM
• International Court of Justice (ICJ) : Principal judicial organ of UN
• Jst Dalveer Bhandari on race for six-year term judge post in ICJ
• Election to be held in New York under Article 8 of ICJ statute "the General Assembly & the Security Council shall proceed independently of one another to elect a judge of the ICJ"
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• Gohar Ijaz : Chairman of All Pakistan Textiles Mills Association (APTMA)
• APTMA called India for removal of non-tariff barriers to ensure free trade of cotton & textile products
• Jst Markandey Katju : Chairman of Press Council of India (PCI)
• PK Roy : Former Chairman of Press Trust of India & Former President of Indian Newspaper Society (INS); Passed Away
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia : Planning Commission Deputy Chairman
• Royal Diamond 7 : Marshall Island-flagged Korean Chemical Tanker
• Explosion on board the chemical tanker off-coast Mumbai killed one and 6 injured
• Satish Agnihotri : Director General of Shipping
• Amr Moussa : First independent presidential election candidate of Egypt to submit required number of recommendations to election authorities
• Presidential Elections Law says an independent candidate should gather notarised signatures from 30,000 citizens from 15 provinces or get support of 30 MPs to be able to run
• Amr Moussa presented the High Elections Council with 50,000 signature that will make him first independent candidate to run
• Mahinda Rajapaksa : Sri Lankan President
• GL Peiris : Sri Lankan Foreign Minister
• Kofi Annan : UN Special Envoy to Syria
• Joachim Gauck : New President of Germany
• RC Bhargava : Chairman Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL)
• Shinzo Nakanishi : MD & CEO of MSIL
• MSIL to infuse Rs.1,700 crore to set up new diesel engine plant at its Gurgaon complex
• Also to invest Rs.900 crore in its upcoming R&D (research & development) centre at Rohtak in Haryana
• Sigve Brekke : MD of Uninor, a joint venture between Unitech & Telenor
• Telenor the Norwegian group holds 74% in Uninor
• Arvind Uppal : CMD of Whirlpool India
• Whirlpool to invest Rs.100 crore in R&D
• Haroon Lorgat : CEO of ICC (International Cricket Council)
• National Inter-State Tennis Championship : Tamil Nadu bt Maharashtra
• Sriram Balaji (TN) bt Akash Wagh (Mah)
• Vijay Sundar Prashanth (TN) bt Nitten Kirrtane (Mah)
• Uttar Pradesh finished third
• $25,000 QNet ITF Open Women's Tennis Championship
• Donna Vekic (Croatia) bt Andrea Koch-Benvenuto (Chile)
• South Asian Weightlifting Championship : @ Nepalgunj, Nepal
• Indian lifters bagged 10 medals including 8 golds
• Men
• Gold : D Senthamizh Selvan (62kg), S Sathish Kumar (77kg), Jasvant Singh (85kg), VA Christopher (105kg), Himanshu Kumar (Above 105kg)
• Bronze : Ajaydeep Sarang (77kg)
• Women
• Gold : Tikina Gopal (53kg), Minati Sethi (58kg), Seeta Jena (63kg)
• Silver : Rajwant Kaur (63kg)
• K Sankarnarayanan : Governor of Maharashtra
• Jst CS Dharmadhikari : Chairman of Gandhi Research Foundation
• Bhavarlal Hiralal Jain : Founder of Gandhi Research Foundation
• Gandhi Teerth : @ Jain Hills, Jalgaon, Maharashtra

How Child Welfare Service got Bhattacharya kids

- Editorial from The Hindu dtd March 23, 2012

A geophysicist and IT specialist, Anurup Bhattacharya arrives in Norway in 2006. In December 2007, he returns to India to marry Kolkata girl Sagorika Chakraborty.

2008 : The wife returns to Kolkata for the birth of their first child, Abhigyan (born October 12, 2008) and stays on for a year. During this period, the child begins displaying “characteristics of autism.”

2009 : Ms Bhattacharya returns to Norway on December 27, 2009, when Abhigyan is 14 months old.

2010 : Abhigyan's condition worsens. The couple places him in a family kindergarten where one of the parents has to be present on a four-hour, twice weekly basis. The family seeks help for Abhigyan's problem. The father works long hours, and the mother, now pregnant with the couple's second child, is alone with the boy. The kindergarten nurse and the child psychologist send out alerts to the Child Welfare Service (Brnevarnet) about a disconnect between the mother and the child. The father takes the boy to the kindergarten and brings him back. He also attends all the kindergarten meetings on child development, follow up meetings, etc.

November

The Child Protection Service staff reach the Bhattacharya home saying they have received disquieting alerts about Abhigyan and his relationship with his mother. However, they take no action seeing that Ms. Bhattacharya is heavily pregnant.

December

Aishwarya, the couple's second child is born on December 6, 2010. The father sleeps with the son in one room, the mother with the new baby in the other. Abhigyan's condition remains a cause for serious concern.

2011

Late February

The mother is given Marte Meo counselling since she is observed as “being disorganised, unpunctual, lacking in structure and unable to establish a proper daily routine for herself or her family.” The Marte Meo method uses video to film children and their carers, which are then discussed with the counsellors.

The parents have signed for Marte Meo guidance only for the baby and the counselling does not concern the son. The social worker in this case is an Englishwoman, Ms Middleton, who, the parents claim, is bossy and contemptuous. The couple take a violent dislike to her and see her and the other care worker, Ms Signe, as interfering. From this time on Abhigyan begins attending a thrice-weekly special needs sessions with a specialist called Astrid in a kindergarten located opposite the family group centre where the Bhattacharyas take him.

May 11

Ms Middleton, Ms Signe and a third care worker are in the Bhattacharya home at about Noon. Ms Bhattacharya has left the boy at the kindergarten and returned home for this meeting. A furious argument breaks out between the care workers and Ms Bhattacharya. One of the care workers says she will take the baby out for a walk until the situation cools down. But according to their report (and corroborated by the father) Ms Bhattacharya continues to shout. The care workers telephone the kindergarten and announce to the couple that their children have been taken into care. Clearly, deception has been practised to remove the children.

May 13

The parents are allowed to meet the children at the police station. Ms Bhattacharya is unable to control herself which proves to be another setback for the family.

Throughout the period that the CWS was involved from end-November 2010 (courtesy visit) through February 2011 (when the Marte Meo classes began) to May 11, 2011 when the children were removed, Abhigyan did not receive any medical attention.

Only once was he examined in November 2010 by a child psychologist from the child psychiatry unit and that too because the child was seen to have issues with his mother. Another evaluation took place in March 2011. The tests and assessments took place after the children were removed and the CWS gave the diagnosis of Attachment Disorder. The parents are not aware of when and how the child was examined for psychological or neurological problems.

May 18

The parents appeal the decision of the CWS to remove the children as an “emergency measure.” The County Committee for Social Affairs or the Fylkysnamnda declares there is no emergency and asks that the children be sent back.

At which point the CWS immediately obtains a stay order and keeps the children in its care. The Bhattacharyas appeal this stay order and the Stavanger District Court on July 7, 2011 rules that the stay order will remain in place until the case come up for hearing again. The children's uncle and paternal grandparents are in court to give evidence. Suggestions that custody should be handed to the grandparents or the uncle are turned down by the CWS, which claims it is unsure of the family's unity.

November 28

The hearing by the County Committee on Social Affairs is held in camera and the decision is drastic: The children will be separated from their parents and placed in foster care until they attain majority. The parents will be allowed three visits per year each of an hour's duration. The parents appeal again. The CWS is adamant that the mother should not get custody of the child.

2012

January-March

The case makes headline news in India and Norway. The Bhattacharyas claim it is a clear case of cultural bias — parents sleeping in the same bed as the children or hand feeding, etc. The CWS says there are serious problems with the son, between the mother and son and between the spouses. As the pressure mounts, Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna meets his Norwegian counterpart in Oslo. A compromise is sought. The CWS says it will evaluate the children's paternal uncle to see if he is capable of taking custody of the children. Towards the end of February the CWS announces it has decided to award custody to the uncle. This announcement is followed by Secretary (West) Madhusudan Ganapathi's visit to Oslo and Stavanger where he sees the children who are said to have shown a vast improvement in the foster home.

The parents sign an agreement to hand over custody to the uncle, Arunabhas Bhattacharya, a 27-year-old unmarried dentist. Both he and the CWS want foolproof, legally binding custody documents that will be valid in an Indian court of law. More so since the break-up of the Bhattacharya marriage now seems inevitable, with the likelihood of a very ugly custody battle. The final hearing when the kids are to be handed over to the uncle is set for March 23. But there have been so many ups and downs in this case that a slip between cup and lip should come as no surprise.

Bank of Baroda Clerk Interview 2012

No of Vacancies : 2000 across India

Pay-Scale : Rs. 7200-19300 

Registration / Fee Payment : from 24.03.2012 to 10.04.2012

Interview Date : Shall be intimidated later

Eligibility - as on 01.08.2011

• 18-28 yrs (+3 for OBC & +5yrs for SC/ST)
• Must possess a Degree from a recognized University
• Should have appeared for the exam in a centre within the state you are applying for
• English & state local language proficiency
• Should possess working knowledge of computers
• State-wise & Category-wise TWS (Total Weighted Score) are given in the detailed notification below

Selection

Based on the applications a merit list shall be prepared and those who at the top shall be shortlisted for the interview in the ratio 1:4 (Gen) & 1:5 (Others). The selected candidates will have a Probationary period of 6 months and no bond has to be signed.

How To Apply

The fee of Rs.150 (for Gen/OBC) or Rs.50 (for SC/ST) can be paid online or at any Bank of Baroda branch by downloading the fee payment challan Here. After online payment note the reg no & password for future reference. In case of offline payment, fill the challan neatly in bold letters and after payment retain the counter foil that includes bank branch name, code & transaction id. Use this to register Here.

After registration take printout of application and the fee payment challan should be submitted on interview.

Click Here for full notification and for detailed procedures of applying.

IBPS Common Exam for PO/MT 2012

Last Date of Registration : 30.03.2012

Last Date to Remit Fee (online) : 30.03.2012
Last Date to Remit Fee (offline) : 07.04.2012

Exam Date : 17.06.2012

Eligibility - as on 01.01.2012

• 20-30 yrs (+3yrs for OBC & +5yrs for SC/ST)
• Should possess any Degree from a recognized University

Selection

Written Test of Objective (150 mins/225 marks) & Descriptive (60 mins/25 marks) papers for a total of 250 marks. Descriptive papers of only those who qualify in each Objective test section will be evaluated. Negative marking of 0.25 per wrong answer. Objective test sections include :

1. Reasoning Ability (50 questions/50 marks)
2. English Knowledge (50 questions/25 marks)
3. Quantitative Aptitude (50 questions/50 marks)
4. General Awareness with reference to Banking (50 questions/50 marks)
5. Computer Knowledge (50 questions/50 marks)

Descriptive test will be having Essay, Precis, Letter Writing etc for 25 marks

Have to qualify each sections to get the scorecards.


Scorecards of 1 year validity will be sent to qualifying candidates with which you can apply to Banks that advertise their vacancies for Probationary Officers/Management Trainees. Each bank will specify their own eligibility while calling for interview that may include age, test score & degree.

How To Apply

To register Click Here Fill in your details and upload photo and signature.

After registration you can pay it by online for which you will be redirected to the payment page and for offline mode take printout of fee payment challan to remit fee of Rs.450 (others) or Rs.50 (for SC/ST) after two days of registration at any branch of Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of Baroda, Central Bank, Punjab National Bank, United Bank or Bank of India.

Click Here for full notification and for detailed procedures of applying.

24 March 2012

• World Tuberculosis Day : March 24
• GC Chaturvedi : Petroleum Secretary
• Muhammad Ejaz Chaudhry : Pakistan Petroleum & Natural Gas Secretary
• India agreed for an immediate supply of petrol to Pakistan through land route as per Pakistan's request
• 7th Asia Gas Partnership Summit : @ New Delhi organised by GAIL (India) Ltd & Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI)
• Jaipal Reddy : Union Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister
• Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) : programme of Department of Science &Technology to be hosted by University of Kerala
• University of Kerala : Celebrated Platinum Jubilee
• Jose Prakash : Awarded JC Daniel Award
• Nanavati Commission : 2002 Communal Riots of Gujarat
• Mamata Banerjee : West Bengal CM
• Vinod Rai : Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG)
• CAG Coal audit report detailing Rs.10.67 lakh crore loss by direct allocations of coal blocks to commercial entities without auction
• CAG report on 2G Spectrum detailed Rs.1.76 lakh crore loss due to failure to auction 2G spectrum
• Akhilesh Yadav : Uttar Pradesh CM
• Ajit Singh : Union Civil Aviation Minister
• Union Cabinet green nod for Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill 2010
• Give a woman a share in her husband's property after divorce
• Also aims at giving rights to adopted child on a par with biological off-springs in case parents go for a divorce
• Union Cabinet green nod for setting up of credit risk guarantee fund trust to give loans to low-income groups in the country
• Will be set up under Indian Trust Act with an initial corpus of Rs.1,200 crore
• Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation will be settler of the trust
• It would be serviced by National Housing Bank
• Dmitry Medvedev : Russian President
• Roche : World's biggest maker of cancer drugs
• To sell cheaper locally branded versions of its two cancer drugs Herceptin & MabThera under an alliance with India's Emcure Pharmaceuticals
• Uninor : Unitech holds 33% stake and remaining 67% stake held by Norwegian telecom firm Telenor
• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs : Approved awarding of 16 exploration blocks and rejected bids for 10 blocks under the 9th Round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP IX)
• Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) which was formed by restructuring Unit Trust of India (UTI)
• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs decided to wind up SUUTI and create a National Asset Management Company (NAMC)
• SUUTI holds 23.6% in Axis Bank, 11.54% in ITC, 8.3% in L&T valuing at a total of Rs.32,000 crore
• Government to shift these shares to NAMC
• Jim Yong Kim : Korean public health specialist & President of Dartmouth College
• Nominated as next President of the World Bank by US President Barack Obama
• Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala : Nigerian Finance Minister; Also racing for the World Bank President position
• Cardamom exports touched an all-time high of 3,900 tonnes at Rs.308.32 crore during April-January this fiscal
• 4.36 lakh tonnes of spices at Rs.7,849.47 crore were exported in the period
• Suzuki Motorcycle to set up its second two-wheeler manufacturing unit at IMT-Rohtak, Haryana
• Bhupinder Singh Hooda : Haryana CM
• S Nakanishi : MD of Maruti Suzuki
• CESC, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group power company, to sign pact with US Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) to fund a feasibility study for a pilot project implementing smart-grid technologies across the CESC electricity distribution network
• US grant of $618,860
• Adam Gilchrist : Skipper of IPL team Kings XI Punjab given additional responsibility of coaching the team in IPL V
• Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) provides treatment to patients on alternate days instead of a daily treatment
• Directly Observed Treatment (DOT) model implemented by RNTCP

23 March 2012

• Mukul Roy : Union Railway Minister
• Rolled back the proposed rail fare hike for second class suburban (by 2ps/km) & non-suburban (by 3ps/km), sleeper class (by 5ps/km), AC chair car and AC 3-tier (by 10ps/km)
• Proposed hike for First class (by 10ps/km), AC-2 (by 15ps/km), AC-1 (by 30ps/km) left untouched
• Decisions to raise platform ticket to Rs.5 stands
• Both Houses ratified the proposals and passed the Railway Budget
• CK Chandrappan : Communist Party of India (CPI) Kerala State Secretary; Passed Away
• India votes for UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution against Sri Lanka for its alleged rights violations during war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
• With 24 votes for, 15 against & 8 abstentions the UNHRC adopted the resolution
• GL Peiris : Sri Lankan Foreign Minister
• Public Investment Board of the Union Finance Ministry nod for Kochi Metro Rail Project
• Centre to pool 20.26% of total project cost, Rs.1,002.23 crores
• Ajit Singh : Union Civil Aviation Minister
• Kerala to implement automated driver-less Pod-cars linking rail and bus terminals with major work centres in Thiruvananthapuram & Kottayam
• Pod-cars are part of innovative transport mode called Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) System
• On call point-to-point service with 6 persons to an A/C pod of speed 40 km/hr
• Payment using smart cards
• It runs on elevated guideways most probably to share corridors with the proposed Mono Rail
• KM Mani : Kerala Finance Minister allocated Rs.25 lakh in 2012-13 state budget for preliminary work on the PRT System
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to release 100-note bundles of Rs.1,000 denomination that are not numbered in regular sequence to prevent circulation of counterfeit currency
• President Pratibha Patil presented the Padma Awards 2012
• Padma Shri : SN Priyadarsan (Film Director), Hareendran Nair (Founder & MD of Pankajakasthuri Group), Kalamandalam Sivan Namboodiri (Koodiyattom instructor & performer), Suresh Hariram Advani (Oncologist)
• Padma Bhushan : Mira Nair (Film-maker), Murugappa Vellayan Subbiah (Industrialist), Jatin Das (Painter)
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• The New England Journal of Medicine : the oldest continuously published general medical periodical & most prestigious in the world
• Started in January 1812
• Dr Jeffrey M Drazen : Editor-in-Chief
• Liang Guanglie : Chinese Defence Minister
• China voices strong support to Sri Lanka against UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka
• GL Peiris : Sri Lankan Foreign Minister
• Sriprakash Jaiswal : Union Minister of Coal
• Comptroller & Auditor General estimated a loss of Rs.10.67 lakh crore due to failure of government to auction coal blocks
• Mayawati (Bahujan Samaj Party Chief) and four others unanimously elected to the Rajya Sabha as contestants withdrew from the elections on the last day of withdrawal
• Vilasrao Deshmukh (Union Science & Technology Minister)
• Rajeev Shukla (Minister of State of Parliamentary Affairs)
• Mukul Roy (Union Railway Minister)
• Arun Jaitley (Bharatiya Janata Party leader)
• P Chidambaram : Union Home Minister
• SM Krishna : Union External Affairs Minister
• Pawan Kumar Bansal : Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister
• Naveen Patnaik : Odisha CM
• Mulayam Singh : Samajwadi Party Leader & Member of Parliament
• He was honoured with the International Jurists Award 2012 for his contribution to the advancement of the Bar & the Bench
• Supreme Court rejected a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by Ashok Pande, an advocate, seeking recall of Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal and imposed exemplary costs of Rs.1 lakh on the petitioner for wasting the court's time
• Narendra Modi : Gujarat CM
• Jst RA Mehta : Gujarat Lokayukta appointed by the Governor without the CM's consent
• Ashwani Kumar : Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs & Planning
• To set up a technical committee to revise methodology of estimating poverty
• Committee to work under the basis of Hashim Committee report and the upcoming Socio-Economic Caste Census
• Abhijit Sen Committee : Set up in last October jointly by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh to rework on methodology for poverty estimation
• GE Vahanvati : Attorney General
• Section 377 : Criminalises sexual activity against order of nature
• China's People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) conducted first-of-its-kind live-fire air attack drill on Qinghai-Tibet plateau
• PLAAF's J-10 fighters conducted ground attack training
• Kofi Annan : UN Special Envoy to Syria
• Put forward a plan to halt violence and start a political process to end crisis in Syria without asking President Bashar al-Assad to step down
• UN Security Council unanimously backed the plan
• Robert Bales : US Staff Sergeant suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians
• Amadou Toumani Toure : Ousted President of Mali
• Rebel soldiers looted the presidential palace
• Proposed Ennore LNG (liquefied natural gas) Terminal near Chennai
• Joint-venture of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (TIDCO) & other LNG suppliers
• Capacity of 5 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA)
• Estimated cost of Rs.4,320 crore
• IOC-TIDCO signed pact
• RS Butola : IOC Chairman
• N Sundaradevan : MD of TIDCO
• Arup Roy Choudhary : CMD of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)
• Centre asked Central Mine & Planning Design Institute (CMPDI) to hire a consultant for expert advice on methodology to put up coal blocks under competitive bidding process
• Government cleared 16 FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) proposals worth Rs.233 Cr 
• 21 proposals were deferred
• US cuts import of Chinese Solar Panels
• ING Belgium : One of Belgium's leading banks
• Picks Finacle universal banking solution of Infosys to transform its core banking software
• N Srinivasan : President of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
• Sanjay Jagdale : BCCI Secretary
• Pakistan clinched the Asia Cup beating Bangladesh at Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka
• London High Court ordered Force India to pay 846,000 Euros in fees owed to an aerodynamics company Aerolab for development work
• Sourav Ganguly officially named Captain-cum-Mentor of IPL Team, Pune Warriors
• G Asok Kumar : Joint-Secretary of Civil Aviation Ministry
• To chair panel on Rights of Passengers with Disabilities and Reduced Mobility
• Mamata Banerjee : West Bengal CM
• Hatibagan Market : Kolkata
• A devastating fire ravaged large parts of the market, though no casualties were reported
• India has highest number of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cases in South East Asia : World Health Organisation (WHO)
• India is the largest TB burden in the world