current affairs ies 2012

[email protected] Page 1

Current Affairs

South Sudan a landlocked country , is bordered by Ethiopia , Kenya, Uganda , the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Central African Republic , and Sudan . Its capital and the largest city is Juba. South Sudan includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd formed by the White Nile, locally called the Bahr al Jabal. South Sudan became independent from Sudan on 9 July 2011. It is a 193rd member of UN. South Sudan is mainly Christian populated while Sudan is mainly Muslim Populated. Major part of the South Sudan is covered by the forest whereas Sudan is Predominantly a Desert area.

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), was passed on September 11, 1958 by the Parliament of India. It conferred special powers upon armed forces in what the language of the act calls "disturbed areas" in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura (It was first applied to the North Eastern states of Assam and Manipur and was amended in 1972 to extend to all the seven states in the north- eastern region of India). It was later extended to Jammu and Kashmir as The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 in July 1990.

Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) was established on Novemeber 16, 1860. CAG together with Indian Audit and Accounts Department is known as Supreme Audit Institution in India (SAI). CAG audits all receipts and expenditure of the Government of India and the state governments, including those of bodies and authorities substantially financed by the government. He also acts as the external auditor of government-owned companies. The reports of the CAG are taken into consideration by the Public Accounts Committees, which are special committees in the Parliament of India and the state legislatures. The CAG of India is also the head of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department. CAG of India is also known as the Sentinel of Indian Exchequer or Friend, Philosopher and Guide of Public Accounts Committee or Guard of Public Money or Indian Financial Watchdog. The Constitution of India [Art.148] provides for an independent office to the CAG of India. The CAG could not be removed from office other than through a procedure of impeachment similar to what is applicable to a Judge of the Supreme Court of India. CAG is appointed by the President of India for 6 years or 65 years of age whichever copletes first. The current CAG of India is Vinod Rai, who was appointed on 7 January 2008. He is the 11th CAG of India. First ever CAG was C V Narhari Rao.

Census 2011

The population of India has increased by more than 181 million during the decade 2001-2011. India is adding more

number of people per year in the Global Population than that of any other country of the world.

Population growth percentage in 2001-2011 is 17.64 (males 17.19 and females 18.12).

2001-2011 is the first decade (with the exception of 1911-1921) which has actually added lesser population compared to the previous decade.

Uttar Pradesh (199.5 million) is the most populous State in the country followed by Maharashtra with 112 million.

The total number of children in the age-group 0-6 is 158.8 million (-5 million since 2001). Uttar Pradesh (29.7 million), Bihar (18.6 million), Maharashtra (12.8 million), Madhya Pradesh (10.5 million) and Rajasthan (10.5 million) constitute 52% children in the age group of 0-6 years. Population (0-6 years) 2001-2011 registered minus (-) 3.08 percent growth with minus (-) 2.42 for males and 3.80 for females. The proportion of Child Population in the age group of 0-6 years to total population is 13.1 % while the corresponding figure in 2001 was 15.9 percent. The decline has been to the extent of 2.8 points.

Overall sex ratio at the national level has increased by 7 points to reach 940 at Census 2011 as against 933 in Census 2001. This is the highest sex ratio recorded since Census 1971 and a little lower than 1961. Increase in sex ratio is observed in 29 States/Union Territories. Three major States (J&K, Bihar & Guj-arat) have shown decline in sex ratio as compared to

Census 2001. Kerala with 1084 has the highest sex ratio followed by Puducherry with 1038; Daman & Diu has the lowest sex ratio of 618.

Overall Child sex ratio (0-6 years) of India is 914. Increasing trend in the child sex ratio (0-6) seen in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and A&N Islands. In all remaining 27 States/UTs, the child sex ratio show decline over Census 2001. Mizoram has the highest child sex ratio (0-6 years) of 971 followed by Meghalaya with 970. Haryana is at the bottom with ratio of 830 followed by Punjab with 846.

Literacy rate has gone up from 64.83 per cent in 2001 to 74.04 per cent in 2011 showing an increase of 9.21 percentage points.

Census 2011 covered:

States/Ut's 35

Districts 640

Towns 8001

Villages 640852

Census 2011 Mascot: A lady Enumerator

Slogan of Census 2011 is "Our Census, Our Future".


Census 2011 is the 15th National Census of the country. The Census is a statutory exercise conducted under the provisions of the Census Act 1948 and Rules made there under. The first ever census took place in 1972 during Mayo but first synchronised census took place in 1881 during Ripon. Iris information was added for all persons aged 15 years and above. First March 2011 was the reference date for Census 2011. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner is the part of Ministry of Home Affairs. Dr. C. Chandramouli is the resent Registrar General & Census Commissioner.

Ranjana Sonawne is the first Indian to get the 12 digit UID (Unique Identification). Tembhli, a tribal village in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra becomes the first village in India to get the Unique Identification Numbers (UIDs) and is declared as an Aadhar' village.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been created as an attached office under the Planning Commission. On 25 June 2009, the Cabinet also created and approved the position of the Chairperson of the UIDAI, and appointed Mr. Nandan Nilekani as the first Chairperson in the rank and status of a Cabinet Minister. The UIDAI is headquartered in Delhi. Aadhaar is the UID brand name and logo.

IMR and MMR

The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in the country has shown a steady decline from 53 per 1000 live births (SRS 2008) to 47 per 1000 live births (SRS 2010). Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in rural area is 51 per 1000 live births whereas in urban area IMR is 31 per 1000 live births. Goa having the Lowest IMR of 10 whereas MP having the Highest IMR of 62 per thousand Live births. Goa (10), Kerala (13), Manipur (14) and Nagaland (23) are the only four states that achieved an IMR below the MDG target so far. The same also holds true for Union territories Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. It remained static in Lakshdweep and Puducherry. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets of 30.

The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) has come down to 212 (2007-09) from 254 in 2004-06 in India. Assam (390) reported the Maximum MMR while Kerala (81), Tamil Nadu (97) and Maharashtra (104) have achieved the MDG Target of 109 well before the stipulated to be achieved by the year 2015. MMR in India have declined from the level of 398 in 1997-1998 to 212 in 2007-2009. EAG states and Assam together have registered the MMR of 308.

NOTE: IMR measures number of infant( < 1 year) deaths per 1000 live births.Maternal Mortality rate (MMR) measures number of women aged 15-49 years dying due to maternal causes per 1,00,000 live births. TFR measures average number of children born to a woman during her entire

reproductive period. The EAG States are Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Rajasthan.

Nuclear Liability law passed in India limits the responsibility of the nuclear operator to 1500 crore. There are total 20 reactors operational in India, Kaiga 4 is the 20

th. Jaitapur

Nuclear reactor is going to be established in Maharashtra with the French Company Areva assistance.

Central Vigilance Commission was established in 1964 on the recommendation of the Committee on the Prevention of the corruptions headed by K Santhanam. Nittor Srinivasu Rau was the First CVC. CBI was established 1963, through a Home Ministry. D P Kohli was the founder director of the CBI.

The Mullaperiyar Dam is a masonry gravity dam on the Periyar River on the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats in Thekkady, Idukki District of Kerala. The dam is controlled and operated by Tamil Nadu. Mullaperiyar is derived from a portmanteau of Mullayar River and Periyar River, at the confluence of which the dam is located below. On 29 October 1886, a lease indenture for 999 years was made between the Maharaja of Travancore, Visakham Thirunal Rama Varma and the British Secretary of State for India for Periyar Irrigation Works.

The Delhi Durbar also known as the Imperial Durbar, it was held three times, in 1877, 1903, and 1911, at the height of the British Empire. The 1911 Durbar was the only one attended by the sovereign, who was George V. Durbar of 1911 in December to commemorate the coronation in Britain a few months earlier of King George V and Queen Mary. The Gateway of India in Mumbai was erected to commemorate the landing of King George V and Queen Mary when they visited India in 1911.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research known as CERN is having its HQs in Geneva. CERN's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research. Numerous experiments have been constructed at CERN by international collaborations to make use of them. It is also the birthplace of the World Wide Web.

The String of Pearls refers to the Chinese sea lines of communication which run through the strategic traffic points like Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb (connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden), Strait of Malacca (between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra), Strait of Hormuz (between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf), and Strait of Lombok (connecting the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean, is located between the islands of Bali and Lombok in Indonesia), as well as other strategic naval interests.

Palestine became the 195th full member of UNESCO with the vote of UNESCOs full membership was 107 to 14, with 52


abstentions. The step will cost the UNESCO one-quarter of its yearly budget the 22 percent contributed by the United States (about $70 million) plus another 3 percent contributed by Israel. UNESCO's headquarters is in Paris and its Director-General is Irina Bokova from Bulgaria. India, as Chair of the Group of 77 and China within UNESCO, played a crucial, contributory yet constructive role in response to a legitimate demand on the part of the Palestinian people said Vinay Sheel Oberoi, India's Permanent Representative to UNESO.

The 10th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) was held on 7-9 January, 2012 in Jaipur with the theme of The Global Indian: Inclusive Growth . The first woman Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad Bissessar was the Chief Guest. First PBD took place in 2003 in New Delhi. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) is celebrated on 9th January every year to mark the contribution of Overseas Indian community in the development of India. January 9 was chosen as the day to celebrate this occasion since it was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest Pravasi, returned to India from South Africa

Important Base Years

1. National Income Estimation - 2004 -05 (Estimation By CSO).

2. Inflation (WPI) 2004-05 ( By Office of the Economic Advisor,

ministry of commerce). The WPI Series of Base 2004-05 is

effective from August 2010 and its date of first release is

September 14, 2010. Primary Articles 20.12% (in which food

articles constitute for 14.34% and the Non food articles

Constitute for 4.26% and minerals 1.52%), Fuel and Power

14.91%, Manufactured goods 64.97% (In which food products

9.97%).

3. The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and

Programme Implementation has introduced a new series of

Consumer Price Indices (CPI) on base 2010=100 for all-India

and States/UTs separately for rural, urban and combined with

effect from January, 2011.

4. New series of Index of Industrial Production having a Base

year of 2004-05.

Defence

The Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Gaya is poised to

conduct its maiden Passing Out Parade on June 9, heralding a

new era in the history of Indian Army. Officers Training

Academy, Gaya, better known as OTA Gaya is the third pre-

commissioning military academy in the country. It was raised

on July 18, 2011. At present, there are two such pre-

commissioning military training academies - The Indian

Military Academy in Dehradun and the Officers Training

Academy in Chennai for commissioning in the Indian Army.

Rustom-1 is a medium-altitude and long-endurance

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), developed by the Bangalore-

based Aeronautical Development Establishment.

The world's fastest helicopter has been developed by Sikorsky

Aircraft of US.

DRDO Develops UAV 'Netra' to aid in Antiterrorist Operations

India to Get First Defence University in Binola in Haryana.

India, Russia signed agreement to jointly develop Military

Transport Aircraft.

Tata Group to centre its aerospace and defence operations in

Hyderabad

Sagarika (K-15) is Submarine to surface missile, Range 750km

Akash, Medium range surface to air missile, Range 30km

Nag, Third generation fire and forget anti tank missile

HELINA, Aerial Version of Nag to be launched from ALH/LCH

Nirbhay, a subsonic cruise missile, Range 1000 km

Dhanush, The ship based surface to surface missile, Range

350 km, naval version of Prithvi

Avtaar, reusable rocketplane to place satellite into the near

earth orbit, under development

Tejas, Name given by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, A light Combat

Aircraft, to fitted with kaveri Engine.

Samudra Prahari or Guardian of the Sea is the Pollution

Control Vessel of Indian Coast Guard.

Sharabh: Oldest Commissioned ship

Shardul: landing ship tank

Aridaman: INS Arihant Class Nuclear powered Submarine

Shivalik: India's first indigenously developed stealth frigate

INS Chakra: India have taken on lease for 10 years from

Russia, An Akula II Class nuclear powered submarine.

Important Defence Exercises

Nomadic Elephant India-Mongolia-Military

Varuna India-France-Naval

Indra India-Russia

Indradhanush India-UK- Airforce

Garuda India-France-Air

Konkan India-UK-Naval


Ekuverin India-Maldives-Military

Garuda Shakti India-Indonesia-Military

Malabar India-US

Yudhabhyas India- US

Vajra Prahar India - US

Slinex India- Srilanka Naval

Sampriti India - Bangladesh

Shakti India - France Army

Eastern bridge India - Oman Air Force

Bold Kurukshetra India- Singapore Army

Shoor veer Indian Army and Airforce

Sudarshan Shakti Indian army

Note: Milan is the biennial gathering of Various Navies in the

Indian Ocean.

Important Operation

Operation Atalanta is formally known as European Union

Naval Force Somalia.

Operation Unified Protector was an NATO operation

enforcing United Nations Security Council resolutions 1970

and 1973 concerning the Libyan civil war to implement an

arms embargo, a no-fly zone and to use all means necessary,

short of foreign occupation, to protect Libyan civilians and

civilian populated areas.

Operation Odyssey Dawn was the U.S. code name for the US

part of the international military operation in Libya to enforce

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973. Similar

British operation was Operation Ellamy, the Canadian

participation was Operation Mobile,and the French

participation was Opration Harmattan.

Operation Desert Storm (1991) commonly referred to as

simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a UN-authorized

coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States,

against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of

Kuwait.

Operation Safed Sagar: Indian Airforce operation during

Kargil War

Opeation Polo: (1948) Inclusion of Hyderabad into India.

Operation Meghdoot (1984): Indian Armed Forces operation

During conflict at the Siachen Glacier (Highest battle ground

of the World also known as the 3rd pole). Siachen Glacier is

located in the eastern Karakoram range. The region is home

to rare species like snow leopard, brown bear and ibex. The

major passes on this ridge are, from north to south, Sia La,

Bilafond La, and Gyong La.

Operation Neptune Spear, the May 2011 US operation that

resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad,

Pakistan. Sometime unofficially referred to as op. Geronimo

after the Native American guerilla fighter.

Operation Pawan (1987) Operation by the Indian Peace

Keeping Force to take control of Jaffna from the LTTE

Operation 'Saiyam' Indian Army launched on November

2010 to neutralize around 17000 munitions used in gulf-war.

Organisations And Summits

4th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa)

summit took place in India for the first time in march 2012 in

New Delhi. The theme of the Summit was BRICS Partnership

for Global Stability, Security and Prosperity. The BRICS

nations Agreed on trade in and to set up a development

bank. First BRIC summit took place in 2009 Yekaterinburg,

Russia and in 2011 in Sanya, China. In 2011 S Africa joined

and it became BRICS. Next summit in 2013 will take place in

South Africa.

The 17th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional

Cooperation) Summit held in Addu, Maldives with the theme

of Building Bridges. Here members signed four agreements:

1. SAARC Agreement on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters,

2. SAARC Agreement on Multilateral Arrangement on

Recognition of Conformity Assessment, 3. SAARC Agreement

on Implementation of Regional Standards, 4. SAARC Seed

Bank Agreement. 18th Summit will be held in Nepal in 2012.

SAARC having 8 Members (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,

Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan (latest)

was established in 1985 in Dhaka. Its secretariat is in

Kathmandu, Nepal.

The Ninth BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China)

Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change was held in Beijing,

China. BASIC block was established in 2009 mainly to have a

common position on the global Climate Change Negotiation.

The 12th India-EU Summit was held in New Delhi.

The 6th G20 (Major Economies) summit was held in Cannes,

France in Nov. 2011. Important members of G 20 are

European Union, India, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, China and

South Africa, US, UK, France, Saudi Arab. Nest summit will be

in June 2012 Los Cabos, Mexico.


The second nuclear security summit was held in Seoul,

capital of South Korea. First summit took place in 2010 in

Washington, USA whereas the Third will be in 2014 in

Netherlands.

The sixth East Asia Summit (EAS) took place in Bali,

Indonesia. EAS have 18 countries including ten ASEAN

countries and China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia,

New Zealand, US and Russia.

20th ASEAN summit took place in April in Phnom Penh,

Cambodia. ASEAN was established in 1967 by Singapore.

Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. Its Secretariat

is in Jakarta. It is having 10 members. ASEAN+3 includes

China, Japan and South Korea.

22nd Biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government

Meeting (CHOGM) took place in Perth, Australia, in Oct. 2011

under the theme Building National Resilience, Building

Global Resilience. Indian delegation was led by Hamid Ansari

and the absence of Indian PM was seen as a kind of Indian

protest against Australia's decision of not selling uranium to

India till India do not sign Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.

Canadian PM Stephen Harper did not attended the last day of

summit protesting against Srilanka being declared a host of

CHOGM 2013. Indian Kamlesh Sharma was reappointed for

second term as the Secretary General of Commonwealth for a

four year. Proposal of India was seconded by Pakistan and

was accepted unanimously by everybody.

In the Tshwane Declaration at 5th IBSA Summit in Pretoria

the Leaders noted that the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA)

Dialogue Forum brings together three large pluralistic, multi-

cultural and multiracial

societies from three continents. The IBSA Dialogue Forum

(India, Brazil, South Africa) was established in June 2003.

19th APEC Economic Leaders Summit Meeting took place in

Honolulu, Hawaii Islands. 2012 meeting will be held in 2012

in Vladivostok, Russia. Headquarters of APEC is at Singapore

and have 21 Members. India and Pakistan are not the

members.

The Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in

Davos.

The fifth edition of World Future Energy Summit 2012 will be

held in Abu Dhabi.

India hosted the World Tiger Summit for first time in 2010 in

Ranthambore (Rajasthan). Recently international tiger Forum

took place in Russia.

P5 + 1 is five UN Security Council permanent members and

Germany. P5+1 Discussing Irans Nuclear Programme with

Iran.

Six Party Talks is going on to ask North korea to stop their

Nuclear Programme. Six Party countries are US, Russia, China,

Japan, South Korea and North Korea.

G4 is the group of 4 countries (India, France Brazil, and

Germany) seeking permanent membership of security

council. Coffee Club or Uniting for Consensus is the name of

the group of countries opposing G4 proposal which includes

Italy, Pakistan, Mexico, South Korea etc.,.

Important Publications

World Economic Outlook - IMF.

World Investment report - UNCTAD

World Development Report - World Bank

Asian development Outlook - Asian Development Bank

HDR 2011 with the theme of Sustainability and Equity: A

Better Future for All studied 187 countries ( 185 out of 193

UN members and Hongkong and Palestine). India ranks 134

out of 187 countries in 2011 whereas India ranked 119 out of

169 countries in 2010. A steady progress in the countrys

Human Development Index (HDI) value could be gauged from

the 1.51 per cent growth achieved over the 1980-2011 time

period. Albeit Indias Inequality adjusted HDI (IHDI) fell from

0.392 in 2010 to 0.365 in 2011 indicating the loss due to the

rising inequality . Indias Gender Inequality Index value is

0.617 and it ranks 129 out of 146 countries in this measure.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index value is 0.283 for India

and as per this 53.7% population of India is BPL.

Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which featured in the

HDR 2011 and covered 109 developing countries, was

launched on 2 November 2011. MPI was developed in 2010

by Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative and the

UNDP. The MPI identifies deprivations across health,

education and living standards, and shows the number of

people who are multidimensionally poor and the deprivations

that they face at the household level. It uses following ten

indicators across three dimensions.


The Human Development Index (HDI) measures the average

achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of

human development: a long and healthy life (Life Expectancy

at birth) , access to knowledge (Education) and a decent

standard of living (Per Capita Income). These three

dimensions are put on a scale of 0 to 1, where greater is

better.

Some Important Ranks in HDR 2011: 1st Norway, 2nd

Australia, 3rd Netherlands, 4th United States, 66th Russia,

84th Brazil, 97th Sri Lanka, 101 China, 123 South Africa, 124

Indonesia, 134 India, 141 Bhutan, 142 Solomon Islands, 145

Pakistan, 146 Bangladesh, 149 Myanmar, 172 Afghanistan

and 187th Democratic Republic of the Congo.

First ever HDR was published in 1990 by the efforts of

Mehboob Ul haque of Pakistan assisted by Amartya Sen.

Environment, forest and Wildlife

Convention on Biological Diversity meeting (COP 10) in

Nagoya, Japan. Nagoya Protocol to ensure that the benefits

of natural resources and their commercial derivatives are

shared with local communities was signed. 2010 is celebrated

as International Year Of Biodiversity.

The first India Biodiversity Congress 2010 and Indian

Biodiversity expo was held in Thiruvanthapuram.

Important Projects

Project Elephant 1992

Project Tiger Reserve-1973

Project Crocodile 1975

Project Snow Leopard 2009

Chitwan National Park (a World heritage Site) is the first

national park in Nepal.

Great Indian Bustard Wildlife sanctuary, India's largest

among 515 wild life sanctuaries is in Maharashtra.

Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Eastern Goa, India.

It is connected to The Madei Wildlife Sanctuary.

Keibul Lamjo National Park (on Loktak Lake) in Manipur is

the Only Floating National Park of the World.

The Pobitora wildlife sanctuary is in central Assam.

Annamalai National Park in Tamilnadu is known as Top Slip.

Gharial is known as River Guardian.

MEDICINAL PLANTS

India is known for its herbs and spices from ancient times.

Some 2,000 plants have been described in Ayurveda and

atleast 500 are in regular use. The World Conservation

Unions Red list has named 352 medicinal plants of which 52

are critically threatened and 49 endangered.

The commonly used plants in India are:

Sarpagandha : Used to treat blood pressure; it is found only

in India.

Jamun : The juice from ripe fruit is used to prepare vinegar

which is carminative and diuretic, and has digestive

properties. The powder of the seed is used for controlling

diabetes.

Arjun : The fresh juice of leaves is a cure for earache. It is also

used to regulate blood pressure.

Babool : Leaves are used as a cure for eye sores. Its gum is

used as a tonic.

Neem : Has high antibiotic and antibacterial properties.

Tulsi Plant : Is used to cure cough and cold.

Kachnar : Is used to cure asthma and ulcers. The buds and

roots are good for digestive problems.

Important International Territorial Dispute

Kuril Islands dispute between Japan and Russia

Ilemi Triangle Claimed by Kenya and South Sudan

Perejil Island claimed by Spain and Morocco

The Paracel Islands in South China sea controlled by China,

also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.

Shebaa Farms controlled by Israel but also claimed by

Lebanon and Syria


The Spratly Islands are a group of more than 750 reefs, islets,

atolls, cays and islands in the South China Sea Claimed by

Vietnam, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of

China (Taiwan), Malaysia and the Philippines. Brunei has also

claimed an EEZ in the southeastern part of the Spratlys.

Chagos Archipelago Claimed by United Kingdom, Mauritius,

Seychelles. The Chagos Archipelago and later also Oil Islands,

and Phehandweep is a group of seven atolls comprising more

than 60 individual tropical islands in the Indian Ocean. Diego

Garcia is currently the only inhabited island in the Chagos, all

of which comprise the British Indian Ocean Territory, usually

abbreviated as BIOT.

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the

southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the

Mediterranean is also claimed by Spain.

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic

Ocean. The archipelago comprises East Falkland, West

Falkland, and 776 lesser islands. Stanley, the capital and only

city, is on East Falkland. The islands are a self-governing

British Overseas Territory, with the United Kingdom

responsible for their defence and foreign affairs. The islands

continue to be claimed by Argentina.

Important revolutions

Jasmine Tunisia

Buldozer Serbia

Orange Ukraine

Tulip Kyrgyzstan

Purple Iraq

Cedar Lebanon

Lotus Egypt

(18 day Revolution)

Green Iran

MENA is the term used for "Middle East and North Africa"

countries mainly the Muslim populous Arab countries.

Some Important longest serving Monarchs

King Bhumibol Adulyadej (King Rama IX) of Thailand for 65

years

Queen Elizabeth II of UK for UK 60 years

Sultan Qaboos Bin Said of Oman for 41 years

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden for 38 years

Now, there are the six recognised national parties, these are

Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India

(CPI), CPI (M), Bahujan Samaj Party and Nationalist Congress

Party. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), lost recognition. There

are 52 state parties and 1112 registered unrecognised

parties. A party having status of state party in the four states

is recognized as national party.

First PBD was hosted in Delhi in 2003 by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

To commemorate Mother Teresas birth centenary year

government issued a 5 Rupee coin and an exhibition train

named Mother Express from Sealdah station. Mother Teresa

was born in Skopje (Macedonia) in the former Yugoslavia.

Rail Bandhu, a first in-house magazine to be published by the

Railways

The Department of Posts introduced solar-powered postal

delivery rickshaws as pilot programme Soleckshaw which

would run in Ajmer (Rajasthan). Indian postal department is

running project Arrow.

Jal Hans is the first sea Plane service jointly launced by Pawan

Hans Helicopters Limited and the Andaman and Nicobar

administration on an equal profit-sharing basis.

Kolkata Metro Railway became the 17th independent zonal

railway. Indira Gandhi, laid the foundation stone for the

Metro project in 1972.

India will set up Norman Borlaug Institute of South Asia in

Pusa in Bihar. Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.

The Nalanda Mentor Group, chaired by Nobel laureate

Amartya Sen.

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta (US) is the

world's busiest airport as per the overall traffic movement

while London Heathrow Airport is the worlds busiest airport

as per International traffic movements.

National Innovation Council is headed by Sam Pitroda.

Government took decision to observe the current decade

(2010-2020) as the Decade of Innovation.

Schemes

Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls

known as Sabla targeting girls in the age group 11-18.

Swavalamban is a pension scheme for workers in the

unorganised sector who do not have access to the social

security net.


Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY): Promoting Institution delivery

by skilled birth attendant is key to reducing both maternal

and neo-natal mortality.

Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK): launched on 1st

June, 2011, which entitles all pregnant women delivering in

public health institutions to absolutely free and no expense

delivery including caesarean section. The initiative stipulates

free drugs, diagnostics, blood and diet, besides free transport

from home to institution, between facilities in case of a

referral and drop back home. Similar entitlements have been

put in place for all sick newborns accessing public health

institutions for treatment till 30 days after birth.

Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY) is a monetary

scheme for pregnant women and lactating mothers of 19

years of age for first two child. Each pregnant and lactating

woman will receive Rs. 4,000 in three instalments between

the second trimesters of pregnancy until the child is six

months old.

Rajasthan (Sriganganager) has become the first state in the

country to launch the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana.

The Mobile Number Portability is operational in India from

Jan 20, 2011. The MNP scheme was first launched in Haryana

in November 2010.

Project Read is launched by The Rajasthan Government and

education NGO Pratham.

The Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) is the

apex monitoring agency for the implementation of National

Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

Antyodaya Anna Yojana covering 2.5 crore poorest of the

poors providing Rice and Wheat at RS. 2 and Rs. 3 per Kg

respectively.

Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary is in Tamil Nadu.

Various Events and Incidents

The Bhopal gas tragedy took place in December

1984.Methylisocyanate gas was leaked out from the Union

Carbide plant. Warren Anderson, was the chairman of Union

Carbide.

Godhara incident took place in 2002.

Kanishka air crash took place in 1985.

UNESCO inscribes 3 Indian performing art forms, Mudiyettu,

ritual theatre of Kerala, the Chaau dance of eastern states,

Kalbelai folk songs and dances of Rajasthan in Representative

list of Intangible Cultural heritage of Humanity in Nairobi.

Bangladesh Govt has requested to rename the train linking

West Bengal to Tripura via Banglades as Sonar Tari. Earlier

the name of the train as envisaged in the Railway Budget

2010 is Epar Bangla Opar Bangla. "Sonar Tari" is one of

Tagore's greatest creation. It is a collection of 19 poems.

Sonar Tari is the first. Rabindranath created it in the year

1894. Tagore wrote the National Anthem of India as well as

of Bangladesh (Amar Sonar Bangla)

South-East Asias biggest desalination plant at Minjur in

Tiruvallur district of Tamilnadu.

Polavaram Project on Godavari river is named as Indira Sagar.

The United Nations has decided to recognize the Mahatma

Gandhi Tanta Mukti Gaon Muhim (Dispute free Village

Scheme) of Maharashtra Government. The government did

not have to spend a single rupee for the implementation of

the scheme. In April 2010, Khairlanji was recognised by the

scheme as a dispute-free village.

START Treaty is a treaty between Russia and US.

Russia and Norway have signed an Arctic border pact.

Change-2 is Chinas lunar probe.

Hot liquid sulfides, are commonly known as black chimneys

17 July 2010(birth day of Nelson Mandela) to observed as the

first international Anti Aparthied day.

As per the Stockholm International Peace research Institute,

India is the worlds largest buyer of Arms.

New Zealand is the most peaceful country as per global peace

index 2010.India ranks 128.

Belgium became the Europes first country to ban burqa.

Russia abolished two of its eleven time Zones.

The social Network film is about facebook founder Mark

Zuckerberg.

The winner of football Asia Cup in 2011 is Japan.

women football world cup 2011 won by Japan in Germany.

Goodluck Jonathan is President of Nigeria.

Arjun Atwal is the first Indian to win PGA tour title of golf.

India has joined the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) project,

the next generation astronomical observatory that will be

located on Mauna Kea, Hawaii and begin operations in 2018.


India and the U.K. decided to constitute a joint CEOs Forum to

be co-chaired by Peter Sands and Ratan Tata and an India-

U.K. Infrastructure Group in order to double bilateral trade in

the next five years.

The Eleventh European Union - India Summit was held in

Brussels on 10 December 2010.

The Government of India had a target for Atomic Energy

installed capacity of 35000 MWe by the year 2022, and

60,000 MWe by 2032.

India and Cuba observed the 50 Years of Friendship.

Severe flooding occurred during the 2011 monsoon season in

Thailand.

Under the proposed food security bill eligible BPL family will

receive 35 kg of subsidised foodgrains (Re. 1 per kg for

millets, Rs. 2 for wheat and Rs. 3 for rice) every month.

List of the Important Car Manufacturer

Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, Porsche, Volkswagen, all

are the German Car Manufacturers. Toyota ( Japan), General

Motors ( United States), Renault-Nissan ( France Japan),

Ford ( United States), Hyundai ( South Korea), Honda (

Japan), Fiat ( Italy), Suzuki ( Japan).

The Term Caste is derived from Portuguese use.

A presidential Ordinance can remain in force for 6 months.

Pituitary gland is situated in the base of the brain.

The exchange of commodities between two countries is

referred to as Balance of Trade.

The only land area antipodal to India is Easter Island, which is

antipodal to the western corner of Rajasthan.

Hardeep Puri, Indias permanent representative in the UN is

elected to chair the key counter-terrorism committee (UNSCR

1373) and international security committee (UNSCR 1566).

India will also chair two other committees on Somalia and

Eritrea.

Justice P. N. Bhagwati and Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer were

among the first judges to admit PILs in the court.

Tunisia, is the northernmost country in Africa.

1.054615 gigajoule is equivalent to 1 MMBTU Natural Gas.

Madhusudan Datta had translated the famous drama Neel

Darpan in English.

The first Official language commission was appointed in 1955

with Sri BG Kher as its chairman.

Venezuela in Italian means "Little Venice"

World's largest lake is Caspian Sea. world's largest freshwater

lake in respect to the volume of water is Lake Baikal.

Michigan-Huron which is a single water body in United States

& Canada is largest Freshwater lake if considered one body by

surface area. However Lake superior in US & Canada is largest

single lake with respect to surface area if Michigan-Huron is

counted as two lakes. In this condition if Michigan & Huron

are third and fourth largest lakes. Lake Baikal is also world's

deepest lake.

World's biggest Landlocked country is Kazakhstan.

Stillwell road connects India with china.

Arun Bajpayee became the youngest Indian to scale Mount

Everest.

Highest Mountain Peaks: Kilimanjaro (Africa), Vinson Massif

(Antarctica), Kosciuszko (Australia), Everest or Sagarmatha or

Chomolungma (Asia), Elbrus or Minghi-Tau (Europe), Mount

McKinley or Denali (North America), Aconcagua (South

America).

BASEL Norms are related with Banking Prudency. At the

summit in Seoul in November 2010, the G20 leaders

endorsed Basel III and pledged to rigorously implement the

framework.

Gramika is the rural tourism brand of Great India Rural Tours.

The Carrefour Group (France) is second largest retail brand

after Wall mart of US.

Singhe Khababs is the festival of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Jarawas having noticeable connection to the extinct

Jangil tribe are one of the adivasi indigenous peoples of the

Andaman Islands in India. The Andamanese people include

the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese, and the

extinct Jangil.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde appointed as the

Chief of International Monetary Fund. Now she is the first

woman Managing Director of an organization whose head

had conventionally always been from Europe. She Replace

Dominique Strauss Kahn who stepped down after facing the

sexual harassment charges.

Meghdoot awards are given to the postal employees in India.

Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme was

launched in 1993-94.

National Knowledge Commission is headed by Sam Pitroda.


Important Books

Losing Control - Stephen King

Luka and the Fire of Life - Salman Rushidie

Makers of Modern India - Ramchandra Guha

The Lost Symbol Dan Brown

The Museum of Innocence - Orhan Pamuk

Harappa Files: Orhan Pamuk

The Masque of Africa - V. S. Naipul

The Rediscovery of India Meghanad Desai

A Journey - Autobiography by Tony Blair

Convenient Action - Narendra Modi

True Colors Adam Gilchrist

Conversations with Myself - Nelson Mandela

The Grand Design - Shephen Hawking

India in Turmoil Ved Marwah

The winner stands alone Paulo Coelho

Listening to grasshoppers Arundhati Roy

River of Smoke Amitav Ghosh

Fierce focus: Greg Chappel

Last man in the tower - Arvind Adiga

My country My life L K Adwani

Indian War of Independence - V D Savarkar

Matters of Discretion: An Autobiography- I K Gujral

Convenient Action : Narendra Modi

Decision Point : George W. Bush

Controversially Yours: Shoaib Akhtar

Fault Lines: Raghuraman Rajan

To the Point: Herschelle Gibbs

The ground beneath her feet: Salman Rushdie

Tale of Two Cities : Charles Dickens

The vault of Shiva: Andy McDermott

Beyond the Invisible hand: Kaushik basu

The Valleys of masks: tarun j Tejpal

Satanic Verses: Salman Rushdie

The Aleph: Paulo Coelho

The Good Muslim: Tahmima Anam

Target 3 Billion: APJ Abdul Kalam and Srijan Pal Singh

Non Stop India : Mark Tully

Two Mother And Other Stories: Khalid Mohamed

The Age of deception: Md. Elbaradei

Sports

30th Olympic Olympics 2012 will be held in London and

2016 in Rio De Jeneiro, Brazil. In 2012 Olympics women

boxing is added while Baseball and Softball removed. Rugby

Seven and Golf are included in the 2016 Olympics. The

London bid was headed by former Olympic champion

Sebastian Coe. London will become the first city to

officially host the modern Olympic Games three times (

Earlier in 1908, 1948). Wenlock and Mandeville are the

official mascots for the 2012 Summer Olympics and

Paralympics respectively being held in London .

Wenlock and Mandeville are animations depicting two

drops of steel from a steelworks in Bolton.

FIFA world Cup 2010- South Africa (first time in Africa, winner

Spain defeated Netherland, Mascot- Zakumi, a leopard),

World cup 2006-Germany, 2014- Brazil, 2018- Russia, 2022-

Qatar.

Jamaican triple jumper Trecia Smith awarded David

Dixon award in the CWG 2010. India won 101 medals

with overall second rank after Australia in CWG 2010

with 38 Gold, 27 Silver and 36 Bronze. India's first Gold

medal in CWG was bagged by 'the Flying Sikh' Milkha

Singh who won the 440 yards track event in the sixth

edition of the Games in 1958 in Cardiff.

F1 Race Flags

Chequered flag : Indicates to drivers that the session

has ended; Yellow flag : Indicates danger; Red flag :The

session has been stopped; Blue flag :Warns a driver that

he is about to be lapped and to let the faster car

overtake; Yellow and red striped flag : Warns drivers of

a slippery track surface, usually due to oil or water;

Black with orange circle flag : warns a driver that he has

a mechanical problem and must return to his pit; Half

black, half white flag : warns of unsporting behaviour;

Black flag : directs a driver to return to his pit and is

most often used to signal to the driver that he has been


excluded from the race; White flag : Warns of a slow

moving vehicle on track.

Argentina women claimed the Women Hockey World Cup.

India finished ninth.

Durand Cup is associated with the game of football.

Sudiraman Cup and Rahamtulla Cup with Badminton

Barcelona's 24-year-old Argentina striker Lionel Messi was

awarded the FIFA Ballon d'Or Award and Homare Sawa

(Japan) was named FIFA Women's World Player of the Year

for 2011. The FIFA Ballon d'Or award started in 2010 after

France Football's Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the

Year award were merged. The winner of the inaugural 2010

FIFA Ballon d'Or was Lionel Messi.

Jamaican sprint icon Usain bolt and Australias Sally Pearson,

the World 100m hurdles champion, were named athletes of

the year by athletics governing body.

ICC awards 2011

Cricketer of the Year: Jonathan Trott (England)

Test player of the year: Alastair Cook (England)

ODI player of the year: Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)

ICC Emerging player of the year: Devendra Bishoo (West

Indies)

Spirit of Cricket award: India

ICC Associate player of the year: Ryan ten Doeschate

(Netherlands)

Umpire of the year: Aleem Dar (Pakistan)

LG peoples choice award: Kumar Sangakkara (SL)

Important BCCI Awards 2010-11:

Col. CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award: Ajit Wadekar

Polly Umrigar Award: Rahul Dravid

Best woman cricketer: Jhulan Goswami

SPORTS CALENDAR

VII Asian Winter Games 2011, Almaty, Kazakhstan

XXXIV National Games 2011, Jharkhand

35th

National Games 2012, Kerala

5th Military World Games 2011, Rio de Janerio

IV Commonwealth Youth Games 2011, Isle of Man

XX Commonwealth games 2014, Glasgow (Scotland)

XXI CWG 2018, Gold Coast, Queensland Australia

I South Asian Beach Games 2011, Hambantota

I Winter Youth Olympic Games 2012, Austria

VII Asian Winter Games 2012, Almaty, Kazakhstan

XXX Olympic Games 2012, London

Olympic Games 2016, Rio de Janeiro

12th

South Asian Games 2012, India

Hockey World Cup 2014, The Hague, Netherlands

Football World 2014, Brazil, 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar.

Note: 29th

August, the Birth Anniversary of Major

Dhyanchand is observed as National Sports Day in India.

13th world athletics championship took place in South Korea.

Nomura Cup is related to golf.

Important Indian Athletes

Athletics: Tintu Luka, Gayathri, Vikas Gowda, Om Prakash

Singh Karhana

Badminton: Saina Nehwal, Guru Sai Dutt, P. Kashyap, Sai

Praneeth, P V Sindhu

Boxing: Mary Kom, Sanjay Kolte, Usha Nagisetty, Nanao

Singh, Suranjoy Singh, Shiva Thapa

Shooting: Gagan Narang, Tejaswini Sawant, Annu, Rakesh

Manpat, Rekha, Sanjeev Rajput, Vijay Kumar, Omkar Singh

Important Buildings/Palaces/Offices:

Writers Building, Kolkata is the name of the Secretariat

building of West Bengal Government.

Panchawati (7RCR), New Delhi : Official Residence of PM of

IndiaUjjayanta Palace, Agartala : Legislative assembly of

Tripura

Matralaya, Mumbai: Administrative Head quarter of

Maharashtra Government In Mumbai

The Elysee Palace: official residence of the President of the

French Republic

Camp David: the country retreat of the President of the

United States and his guests

Kremlin: The complex serves as the official residence of the

President of the Russian Federation.

Economy

Bank Rate : A rate at which RBI provides loans to the

commercial Banks.


Repo Rate : A short term lending by the RBI to the Banks.

Reverse Repo : Parking of Surplus funds by banks with the RBI

or Short term borrowing by the RBI from the commercial

Banks.

CRR : Certain percentage of the bank deposits kept as

reserves by the Banks with the RBI in the form of Cash.

RBI is the apex banking institution of India, established in

1935 as a private shareholders bank under the RBI act

1934.It was nationalized in 1949. Head Quarter is in Mumbai (

Originally it was in Calcutta).

National Housing Bank established in 1988 is the wholly

owned subsidiary of RBI.

Trade in services is also Known as Trade in Invisibles.

Direct Tax code will replace the Existing Income Tax Act from

April 1, 2012.

13th

finance commission was headed by Vijay L Kelkar,

appointed under article 280 of the constitution

recommended 32% of the tax revenue to be given to states

for a duration of 2010-2015. Finance commission

recommends the distribution of tax revenues between centre

and states.

The Rupee Symbol was presented by D Uday Kumar. On

Rupee 1 Note, the Secretary to Finance Ministry puts the

signatures. All notes of rupee 2 and above are printed by RBI

and Rupee 1 by Govt. of India. All coins are designed and

Minted by Government of India.

India is the third largest economy of the world on the basis of

PPP ( Purchasing Power Parity) after US and China.

India becoming the largest single borrower from both the

IBRD and the IDA in 2009-10

The quota share of India in IMF will improve to about 2.75

per cent (from the present level of 2.44 per cent) and Indias

rank will be 8th

from present 11th

.

Sectoral Contribution in India's GDP:

Agriculture and Allied - 13.9%

Industries - 27.0%

Services - 59.0%

International Observations

INTERNATIONAL YEARS

2014 International Year of Family Farming

2013 International Year of Water Cooperation

International Year of Quinoa

2012 International Year of Cooperatives

International Year of Sustainable Energy for All

2011 International Year for People of African Descent

International Year of Chemistry

International Year of Forests

International Year of Youth (12 Aug. 10 - 11 Aug.

2011)

2010 International Year of Youth (12 Aug.10 11 Aug.

2011)

International Year for the Rapprochement of

Cultures

International Year of Biodiversity

International Year of the Seafarer

Year 2011 was observed as the International Year of

Chemistry 2011 under the theme Chemistryour life, our

future. The year 2011 also coincided with the 100th

anniversary of the Nobel Prize awarded to Madame Marie

Curie.

World Water Day 2012 was observed on March 22

with the theme of water and food security. It also marked

the achievement of MDG target 7.c (halving the proportion of

people without sustainable access to safe drinking water)

making it amongst the first MDG targets to be met, well in

advance of the 2015 deadline.

The United Nations General Assembly has declared

2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives with the

theme of Cooperative Enterprises Build a Better World.

The United Nations General Assembly has

proclaimed 2011 as the International Year of Forests with

the Theme: Forests for People.

International Decades

20052015 International Decade for Action, Water for Life

20112020 Third International Decade for the Eradication of

Colonialism, United Nations Decade on Biodiversity, Decade

of Action for Road Safety

Important Awards and Honours

Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was honoured

posthumously with the highest Bangladesh award the

Bangladesh Swadhinata Sammanona (Bangladesh Freedom


Honour) on 25 July 2011. It was received by Sonia Gandhi.

Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman presented the award, the

highest honour for any foreign national after 40 years of

Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan.

Jnanpith Award

1st G Shankar Kurup Malayalam 1965

43rd O.N.V. Kurup Malayalam 2007

44th Akhlaq Khan Shahrayar Urdu 2008

45th Amar Kant and Srilal Shukla Hindi 2009

46th Chandrasekhar kambar kannada 2010

Nobel Prize is given into the 6 categories of which five since

1901 and the Economy Nobel was established in 1968 by

Sweriges Riksbank, Sweden. All Nobel Prizes except Nobel

Peace are given in Sweden, Nobel Peace is Given in Oslo,

Norway.

Nobel Prizes 2011

Physiology or Medicine: Bruce A. Beutler (US), Jules A.

Hoffmann born in Luxembourg but a naturalised French

citizen), Ralph M. Steinman (Canada)

Contribution: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011

was divided, one half jointly to Bruce A. Beutler and Jules A.

Hoffmann for their discoveries concerning the activation of

innate immunity, our first-line response to pathogens, Mr.

Beutler and Mr. Hoffmann identified receptor proteins that

trigger the molecular cascade which is the innate immune

system. and the other half to Ralph M. Steinman for his

discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive

immunity , or acquired, immunity. Ralph Steinman, died on

September 30, three day before the Nobel Assembly had

announced the 2011 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or

Medicine without knowing of Ralph Steinmans death.

Physics: Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, Adam G. Riess for

the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe

through observations of distant supernovae.

Chemistry : Dan Shechtman (Israel) for The discovery of

quasicrystals, a mosaic like chemical structure that

researchers previously thought was impossible.

Literature : Tomas Gosta Transtromer (Sweden)

Some of the famous works of Transtromer are Windows and

Stones (1966), The Great Enigma (2004).

Peace Prize : Ellen Johnson Sirleaf- (First elected oman

Liberian President), Leymah Gbowee- Liberian peace activist,

Tawakkol Karman-Yemeni journalist

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory

of Alfred Nobel 2011 : Thomas J. Sargent (US), Christopher A.

Sims (US) for their empirical research on cause and effect in

the macroeconomy

Two Indians -Nileema Mishra, a lender to the poor in

Maharashtra and US-trained Indian engineer Harish Hande (a

graduate from IIT Kharagpur) who revolutionized the use of

solar lights were among six people to have received the

Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2011.

Former India striker Shabbir Ali, became the first footballer to

win the prestigious Dhyan Chand award as recognition for

his lifetime achievement in sports. Award was instituted in

2002. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, a statuette,

a ceremonial dress and a scroll of honour.

Eight Indian companies featured in the list of the world's 500

largest companies compiled and released by Fortune

magazine on 11 July 2011. Indian Companies are IOC (Rank

98), RIL (134), SBI (282), BPCL (307), HPCL (354), Tata Steel

(410), ONGC (413) and Tata Motors (442). The list is topped

by retail giant Wal-Mart Stores. Wal-Mart Stores is followed

by Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil at second and third

positions, respectively.

Top 10 Companies of the World:

Rank Company Country Field

1 Wal-Mart Stores US Retail

2 Royal Dutch Shell Netherlands Petroleum

3 Exxon Mobil US Petroleum

4 BP UK Petroleum

5 Sinopec China Petroleum

6 China National Petroleum China Petroleum

7 State Grid China Power

8 Toyota Motor Japan Automobiles

9 Japan Post Holdings Japan Diversified


10 Chevron US Petroleum

Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awards to those entrepreneurs who, through sustainable and continual improvement in the quality of goods and services, have become role models for other Indian industries to emulate. The award has been named after our late Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi. The Award has been designed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in line with international quality awards, like `Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award of USA`, `Deming Prize of Japan` and European Quality Award. BIS is a statutory body under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.

Soumitra Chatterjee (Actor) from West Bengal has been conferred upon with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award for the year 2011. For 2009 it was given to Film producer from Andhra Pradesh, Dr. D. Ramanaidu and for 2010 to Tamil film Director K Balachander for 2010. Dada Saheb Phalke Award is the highest film award in India, first conferred upon Devika Rani in 1969, carries a cash prize of Rupees 10 lakh.

The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, disarmament and Development for 2009 to Ms. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh (2008 Prize was given to Md. El Baradei the former director general of IAEA). Former Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva has been selected for the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2010.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was on 9 May 2011 was chosen for Rupee 1 Crore Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding for 2009 . The jury was chaired by Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari. Award was established in 1965 and is administered by Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

Academy Award, also known as the Oscar, given by the

American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

(AMPAS). These were first awarded in 1929. It is also the

oldest award ceremony in the media; its equivalents, the

Grammy Awards (for music), Emmy Awards (for television),

and Tony Awards (for theatre) are modelled after the

Academy.

The Golden Bear is the highest prize awarded for the best

film at theBerlin International Film Festival. Bears are the

symbol of Berlin.

A Golden Globe Award is an accolade presented by the 93

members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA)

to recognize excellence in film and television, both domestic

and foreign.

The Golden Lion is the highest prize given to a film at the

Venice Film Festival. The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film

festival in the world.

The Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at

the Cannes Film Festival, France and is presented to the

director of the best feature film of the official competition.

Genie Awards are given out to recognize the best of

Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and

Television.

59th National Film Awards

Awarded by Vice President of India

Presented by Directorate of Film Festivals

Best Feature Film-Byari (Beary Language) and Deool (Marathi)

Best Non-Feature Film And We Play On

Misc

The poetry Singhasan Khaali Karo Ke Janata Aaati Hai was

written by Ram Dhari Singh Dinkar.

The Poetry Ho gayi hai peer parwat see pighalni chahiye

was written by Dushyant Kumar.

Shri Charan Singh, on the death of Jayaprakash Narayan

called him, "the conscience of the nation".

The Indian Navy undertook a Passage Exercise (PASSEX) with

the Turkish Navy on 10th and 11th July 2011.

Private sector lender HDFC Bank has launched personal loan

Swift.

Kazi Nazrul Islam was a Bengali poet, musician and revolutionary which earned him the popular title of

Nazrul is officially recognised

as the national poet of Bangladesh.

Gandhiji criticized Industrialisation and western

civilisation in his book Hind Swaraj written in 1909.

UN's International Literacy Day is observed annually on 8

September.

Lukoskin, a herbal product for Leucoderma developed by

DRDO was launched in New Delhi on 7 September 2011

Madhya Pradesh became the First State in the Country to

Offer Air Taxi Services.

Indian swimmer Virdhawal Khade on 27 July 2011 became the

second Indian swimmer to qualify for 2012 London Olympics

after Sharath Gayakwad.


Power Sector Scenario in India:

Thermal Power 66.14% (of which Coal 56.42, Gas 9.11, Oil

0.59), Hydro Power (Renewable) 19.33%, Nuclear Power

2.37%, Renewable Energy 12.15%. Total installed capacity in

india as on April 30, 2012 is 201637MW.

India joined the Financial Action Task Force on Money

Laundering which has its headquarter in Paris.

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis took place in japan on

Honshu Island in March 2011.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) proposes to

develop first bio-cultural park in bhubaneshwar.

The nation's biggest hydropower project in the private sector,

Karcham Wangtoo hydro-electric project in Himachal

Pradesh's Kinnaur district, set up by Jaypee Group.

Kishanganga hydropower project is in J&K.

Gazprom Global LNG is a Russian Company.

Ford India Pvt. Ltd, the local arm of Michigan-based Ford

Motor Co., will set up its second manufacturing facitity either

at Chakan near Pune or Sanand in Gujarat, preferably in

Gujarat.

The Central Government, after a decade, is escalating the

yearly distribution of MPLAD finances as of Rs.2 crore to Rs.5

crore for each MP..

Important agricultural revolutions

Black Revolution - Petroleum production

Blue Revolution - Fish production

Brown Revolution - Leather/non-conventional (India)/Cocoa

production

Golden Revolution - Overall Horticulture

development/Honey Production

Green Revolution - Food grain (Cereals, Wheat &Leguminous

plant) production

Grey Revolution - Fertilizer production

Pink Revolution - Onion production/Pharmaceutical

(India)/Prawn production

Red Revolution - Meat & Tomato production

White Revolution - Milk/Dairy production (In India -

Operation Flood - 1970)

Yellow Revolution - Oil Seeds production

M.S. Swaminathan also known as Father of Green revolution

in India.

Verghese Kurien known as Father of white revolution

(Operation flood).

Person in News

Yingluck Shinawatra is Thailand's first female Prime Minister.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Srilanka (Ceylon) was the first

woman Prime Minister in the World. Julia Gillard is the

first female Prime Minister of Australia. Dilma Vana Rousseff

is the first female president of Brazil.

Har Gobind Khorana, an Indian-born American biochemist

who shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for

research that helped to show how the nucleotides in nucleic

acids, which carry the genetic code of the cell, control the

cells synthesis of proteins, died on 9 November 2011. Har

Gobind Khorana was born of Hindu parents in Raipur, a little

village in Punjab, which is now part of eastern Pakistan. He

became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1966 and

subsequently received the National Medal of Science.

On 30 November 2011, UNICEF appointed of the Padma

Bhushan award-winning actor and producer Aamir Khan, as

its Ambassador promoting nutrition for children. Earlier in the

past Priyanka Chopra, (August 2010) and Sharmila Tagore

(December 2005) had also been appointed as the national

ambassador of UNICEF. Amitabh Bachchan was appointed a

UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador in April 2005.

Pallava Bagla from India has won the David Perlman Award

for excellence of Science Journalism by American Geophysical

Union (AGU).

Sachin Tendulkar was conferred the Indian Air Force's (IAF)

honorary rank of Group Captain in a ceremony on September

3, 2010. He is the first sportsperson and the first personality

with no aviation background to be conferred such a rank by

the IAF. Group Captain of IAF is Equivalent in rank to that of

Colonel of Army and Captain of Navy.

Indira Goswami : She was an Assamese editor, poet, professor, scholar and writer also called Mamoni Baideo who died recently. She was the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award,the Jnanpith Award and was also India's first Principal Prince Claus Laureate. She was noted for her novels which include The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker, Pages Stained with Blood and The Man from Chinnamasta.

Ustad Sultan Khan: He was an Indian sarangi player from Jodhpur, Rajasthan who died recently. He was one of the members of the Indian fusion group Tabla Beat Science. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan and many other prizes.


Rosa Otunbayeva, the first woman president in Kyrgyzstan.

Diseases in News

Down syndrome is a genetic condition in which a person has

47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46. Down syndrome

occurs when there is an extra copy of chromosome 21. This

form of Down syndrome is called Trisomy 21. Individuals with

Down syndrome may have some or all of the following

physical characteristics: microgenia (an abnormally small

chin), an unusually round face, macroglossia (protruding or

oversized tongue), poor muscle tone, etc,.

Blue baby syndrome (or simply, blue baby) is a layman's term

used to describe newborns with cyanotic heart lesions. Blue

Baby Syndrome or Methemoglobinemia is caused by

decreased ability of blood to carry oxygen, resulting in oxygen

deficiency in different body parts. Infants are more

susceptible than adults. The disease can be caused by intake

of water and vegetables high in nitrate, exposure to

chemicals containing nitrate, or can even be hereditary.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the

pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body

cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Insulin is a

hormone that regulates blood sugar. Hyperglycaemia, or

raised blood sugar, is a common effect of uncontrolled

diabetes.

There are two main types of diabetes:

Type 1 diabetes : when the insulin-producing cells in the body

have been destroyed and the body is unable to produce any

insulin. It usually starts in childhood or young adulthood, and

is treated with diet control and insulin injections. It was

previously known as insulin-dependent, juvenile or

childhood-onset. The cause of type 1 diabetes is not known

and it is not preventable with current knowledge.

Type 2 diabetes: when the body do not produce enough

insulin. It tends to affect people as they get older and usually

appears after the age of 40, but increasingly is seen in

younger, overweight people. Type 2 diabetes comprises 90%

of people with diabetes around the world, and is largely the

result of excess body weight and physical inactivity. It was

formerly called non-insulin-dependent or adult-onset.

14th Nov. is observed as World Diabetes Day. The World

Diabetes Day (WDD) logo is the blue circle. WDD 2012 has a

slogan of DIABETES: PROTECT OUR FUTURE.

Japanese Encephalitis; Japanese encephalitis is a viral disease

(caused by a flavivirus) that infects animals and humans. It is

transmitted by mosquitoes and in humans causes

inflammation of the membranes around the brain. The virus

causing Japanese encephalitis is transmitted by mosquitoes

belonging to the Culex tritaeniorhynchus and Culex vishnui

groups, which breed particularly in flooded rice fields. The

virus circulates in ardeid birds (herons and egrets). Pigs are

amplifying hosts, in that the virus reproduces in pigs and

infects mosquitoes that take blood meals, but does not cause

disease.

Science and Technology

NASA on November 26, 2011 launched the $2.5 billion

nuclear-powered Mars Science Laboratory, nicknamed

Curiosity. It is the most ambitious and complex robotic rover

built to explore the Red Planet scheduled to land in Gale

Crater approximately on August 6, 2012. The goal of the rover

is to find elements that could prove whether life ever existed

on Mars. An Atlas V rocket hoisted the rover. Curiosity is

about five times larger than the Spirit or Opportunity Mars

exploration rovers. It is designed to explore for at least 687

Earth days (1 Martian year). Mars is the fourth planet from

the Sun, named after the Roman god of war, Mars, it is often

described as the "Red Planet" as the iron oxide prevalent on

its surface gives it a reddish appearance. Phobos Grunt was a

Mars Mission by Russia, which was to reach Martian moon

Phobos, to pick up sample of soil and return to earth.

However the mission failed due to engine failure and it is now

stuck in Low Earth Orbit.

Real Time Train Information System (RTIS) based on

SIMRAN becomes Functional from 19TH October 2011. This

new tracking system is based on Satellite Imaging for Rail

Navigation (SIMRAN) and has been developed jointly by the

Ministry of Railways Research arm namely Research, Design

and Standards Organization (RDSO), Lucknow and noted

engineering institute, IIT, Kanpur.

SAGA-220 is a supercomputer built by the Indian Space

Research Organisation (ISRO). As of May 2011, it is the fastest

supercomputer of India with a maximum theoretical speed of

220 TFlops. The name SAGA-220 stands for Supercomputer

for Aerospace with GPU Architecture-220 teraflops. It is

located at the supercomputing facility named Satish Dhawan

Supercomputing Facility at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre

(VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram.


Gliese 581 g and unofficially Zarmina's World, is an

unconfirmed extrasolar planet of the red dwarf star Gliese

581, 20.5 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Libra.

Gliese 581g has a mass three to four times that of Earth and

orbits its star in just under 37 days. Its mass indicates that it is

probably a rocky planet with a definite surface and enough

gravity to hold on to an atmosphere. It is the sixth planet

discovered in the Gliese 581 planetary system and the fourth

in order of increasing distance from the star.

The Nano Hummingbird or Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) equipped

with a small video camera for surveillance and

reconnaissance purposes, is a tiny, remote controlled aircraft

built to resemble and fly like a hummingbird, developed in

the United States by AeroVironment, Inc.

The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) is an

American lunar science mission in NASA's Discovery Program

which uses high-quality gravitational field mapping of the

Moon to determine its interior structure.

Graphene, a single atomic layer of carbon, is the first two-

dimensional crystalline material that has been identified and

analyzed. Graphene is an ultimately thin, mechanically very

strong, transparent, flexible conductor, and can be used in

touch screens, light panels and solar cells. It is more than 100

times stronger than the strongest steel and is very

stretchable.

Garima-II is a cloned buffalo calf was born at the Carnal-

based National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI).

India's latest supercomputer 'Annapurna' was unveiled at the

Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) in Chennai.

Bharti will be India's third research station of Antarctica first

was Gangotri and Second was Maitri. Himandri a station in

Arctic.

A virus, know as "Stuxnet" highly affected the computer

system in Iran.

MESSENGER (an acronym of MErcury Surface, Space

ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) is a robotic NASA

spacecraft orbiting the planet Mercury, the first spacecraft

ever to do so.

The first Elds deer was born via in vitro fertilization at the

Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand. Eld's Deer also known as

the Thamin or Browantlered Deer is an endangered species of

deer indigenous to southeastern Asia. The Keibul Lamjao

National Park (KLNP) covering marshland called the Phumdis

within the larger Loktak Lake was gazetted in 1977 specifically

to protect the Cervus eldi eldi (one of the species of Elds

deer)or the Sangai in Manipuri language.

International scientists had found signs of the Higgs boson,

an elementary particle believed to have played a vital role in

the creation of the universe after the Big Bang. Scientists at

the CERN physics research centre near Geneva, however,

said they had found no conclusive proof of the existence of

the particle, which, according to prevailing theories of

physics, gives everything in the universe its mass.

PSLV-C17 Launches GSAT - 12 Satellite Indias Polar Satellite

Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C17) successfully launched 1,410

kilogram GSAT-12 communication satellite on July 15, 2011

from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. ISRO

Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC)s ground

station at Biak, Indonesia acquired the signals from GSAT-12

immediately after the injection of the satellite. It is the

second satellite to be placed in GTO using PSLV, the first

being the Kalpana-1 weather satellite. Kalpana-1 was

launched in September 12, 2002 as Metsat-1, before being

renamed after astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who was killed in

the Columbia Shuttle Disaster in 2003.

On October 12, 2011, Main power horse commercial launch

vehicle of ISRO, the PSLV was successfully launched for the

19th consecutive times in its total 20 flights since 1993. On

board of the PSLV C18 were the Indo-French MEGHA-

TROPIQUES Satellite, JUGNU from IIT, Kanpur , SRMSat from

SRM University, Chennai and VesselSat-1 from Luxembourg.

MEGHA-TROPIQUES Satellite, a joint work of ISRO and the

French National Space Agency (CNES), is intended to study

the water cycle and energy exchanges in the tropical region

covering 20 deg on either side of the Equator. There are four

Science instruments in the MEGHA-TROPIQUES Satellite: A

Scanning Microwave Imager MADRAS (developed jointly by

ISRO and CNES), A Scanner ScaRaB (developed by CNES), A

Sounder SAPHIR (developed by CNES) for Atmospheric

Profiling of Humidity in the inter-tropical Region. GPS Radio

Occultation Sensor ROSA(procured by ISRO from

Italy).MEGHA-TROPIQUES is only the second mission of this

kind in the world , next to the Tropical Rainfall Measurement

Mission (TRMM) launched in 1997 by USA and Japan.

The nanosatellite Jugnu weighing 3 kg is designed and

developed by Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur . The

nanosatellite SRMSat weighing 10.9 kg is developed by the


students and faculty of SRM University attempts to address

the problem of Global warming and pollution levels in the

atmosphere by monitoring Carbon dioxide (CO2) and water

vapour (H2O).

YOUTHSAT is a joint Indo-Russian stellar and atmospheric

satellite mission GSAT-8, a Geo-Stationary Satellite launched

on 21st May, 2011 by Ariane-5 VA-202, Indias advanced

communication satellite, is a high power communication

satellite being inducted in the INSAT system.

Satellite-Based Regional GPS Aided GEO Augmented

Navigation system (GAGAN) also known as Space-Based

Augmentation System (SBAS) is as part of the Satellite-Based

Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS)/Air

Traffic Management (ATM) plan for civil aviation. The first

GAGAN navigation payload was sent onboard of GSAT-8

which was launched on May 21, 2011 by the Ariane 5 from

kouru in French Guyana.

Aditya1 is the First Indian space based Solar Coronagraph to

study solar Corona in visible and near IR bands is planned to

be launched in 2012-13 during the next high solar activity

period (the solar maxima).

Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a

new and powerful telescope used by NASA astronomers for

studying the atmospheres of planets and the formation of

stars.

Juno : NASA launched the billion-dollar solar-powered

spacecraft Juno on a five-year journey to Jupiter on August 5,

2011.

Important Agencies

RBI The Reserve Bank of India was established on April 1,

1935 in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank

of India Act, 1934. It was established on the recommendation

of the Hilton Young Commission. It is an apex Banking

Institution in India.

SEBI - The Securities and Exchange Board of India was

established on April 12, 1992 in accordance with the

provisions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act,

1992.

NABARD Establised in 1982 on the recommendation of the

Committee to Review Arrangements for Institutional Credit

for Agriculture and Rural Development (CRAFICARD) set up by

the RBI under the Chairmanship of Shri B Sivaraman. NABARD

is set up as an apex Development Bank.

RBI, SEBI, IRDA, PFRDA are the statutory bodies.

UIDAI

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been

created as an attached office under the Planning Commission.

On 25 June 2009, the Cabinet also created and approved the

position of the Chairperson of the UIDAI, and appointed Mr.

Nandan Nilekani as the first Chairperson in the rank and

status of a Cabinet Minister. The UIDAI is headquartered in

Delhi. Aadhaar is the UID brand name and logo.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) signed in

Tokyo on October 2011 by Australia, Canada, Japan,

Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the

United States, is a multinational treaty for the purpose of

establishing international standards for intellectual property

rights enforcement. The agreement aims to establish an

international legal framework for targeting counterfeit goods,

generic medicines and copyright infringement on the

Internet, and would create a new governing body outside

existing forums, such as the World Trade Organization, the

World Intellectual Property Organization, or the United

Nations.

Important Committee and Commissions

The Telangana Panel was headed by Justice B. Srikrishna.

V. K. Shunglu Committee for investigation into the CWG 2010

Scam.

Madhava Menon heads university autonomy panel The

Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission on Religious and

Linguistic Minorities

N.K. Singh Committee on FDI

Malegam committee On Microfinance

Narasimhan Committee on Financial and Banking Reforms

Shivraj Patil Committee for agriculture Reforms

Dharmadhikari Committee on integration of employees after

the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines

Shyamala Gopinath Committee For comprehensive review of

the National Small Savings Fund.

C R Sundaramurti Committee suggested a complete overhaul

of government accounting norms

Pratyush Sinha committee To look into Antrix-Devas deal

Pulok Chatterji Committee for Power sector Reforms,

Tourism Sector


Adi Godrej Committee On corporate governance

Mukul Mudgal Committee Athletes facing Doping Charges

Naresh Chandra Task Force on Defence management

19th Law Commission headed by Justice P V Reddy

The Constitution of India

The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution of

any sovereign country in the world, while the United States

Constitution is the shortest written constitution.

India is a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic.

Words Socialist, Secular and Integrity were added by the 42nd

constitution amendment 1976 during Indira Gandhi tenure.

As on March 2011 it consists of a preamble, 24 parts,

containing 450 articles, 12 schedules, 2 appendices and 114

amendments.

The Consitution (114th Amendement) Bill, 2010 seeks to

amend Article 217 and 224 of the Constitution to increase the

retirement age of High Court Judges from 62 years to 65

years.

Important Parts of the Constitution

Parts Part III - Fundamental Rights (Known as Corner stone of

the constitution or Magna Carta of India. Part III and IV

together are known as Conscience of the Constitution.) Rights

under article 15,16 and 19 belong only to the citizens.

Part IV - Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties.

Part IX - Panchayat system

PART IXA The Municipalities

Part XV - Elections

Part XVII Languages

Important Articles of the Constitution

Article 32 Right to Constitutional Remedies (in Supreme

Court) (Ambedkar called it heart and soul of the Indian

Constitution)

Article 72 Pardoning power of the the President

Article 76 Attorney General (First Legal officer of the Govt

of India having right of audience in all courts)

Article 79 Parliament (Consist of President, Lok Sabha and

Rajya Sabha)

Article 143 Power of President to consult Supreme Court

and under art. 143(1) SC may give the opinion whereas under

143(2) SC shall give the opinion.

Article 169 Legislative councils can be abolished or created

by the simple act of the Parliament on the recommendation

of Legislative Assembly.

Article 324 Election Commission

Article 326 Elections to the House of the People and to the

Legislative Assemblies of States to be on the basis of adult

suffrage (not less than 21 yeas

Article 352 National Emergency

Article 356 State Emergency (Presidents Rule)

Article 360 Financial Emergency

Article 368 Amendment to the consitution

Article 370 Special Status of Jammu and Kashmir

Important Schedules of the Constitution

Third Schedule - Forms of Oaths

Fourth Schedule seats in the Rajya Sabha

Seventh Schedule - The union state, and concurrent lists of

responsibilities i.e., the distribution of powers between

centre and the state.

Eighth Schedule - 22 languages, Originally there were 14

languages, Sindhi was the first be added

Ninth Schedule - Articles mentioned here are immune from

judicial review.

Tenth Schedule -"Anti-defection" provisions, inserted by the

52nd

constitution Amendment in 1985.

Eleventh Schedule - Panchayati Raj

Twelfth Schedule - Municipalities

Latest Constitution Amendment Acts

91st Restrict the size of council of ministers to 15 %

of legislative members & to strengthen Anti

Defection laws (Amends articles 75 and 164,

Inserts article 361B.Amends schedule 10)

92nd Enable Levy of Service Tax & Include Bodo, Dogri,

Santhali and Maithali in the eighth schedule (Amends article

270, Inserts article 268A, Amends schedules 7 and 8)

93rd To enable provision of reservation for other

backward classes (O.B.C.) in government as well

as private educational institutions (Amend article 15)

94th To provide for a Minister of Tribal Welfare in

newly created Jharkand and Chattisgarh States

(Amend article 164)


95th To extend the reservation of seats for SCs and

STs in the Lok Sabha and states assemblies from

Sixty years to Seventy years (Amend article 334)

96th Substituted "Odia" for "Oriya" in 8th schedule

97th Added the words "or co-operative societies"

after the word "or unions" in Article 19(l)(c) and

insertion of article 43B i.e, Promotion of Co-

operative Societies and added Part-IXB i.e, THE

CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES

PM is the ex officio chairperson of the following authorities or institutions.

Department of Space

Department of Atomic Energy

Planning Commission

National Development Council

National Population Commission

Indian Board of wild life

National Disaster Management Authority

Nuclear Command Authority

CSIR

National Integration Council

National Ganga River Basin Authority

Important Ministries and Their department

1. Departments of Ministry of Home Affairs

Department of Border Management

Department of Internal Security

Department of J & K Affairs

Department of Home

Department of Official Language

Department of States

2. Departments of Ministry of Finance

Dept. of Economic Affairs

Dept. of Expenditure

Dept. of Revenue

Dept. of Financial Services

Dept. of Disinvestment

3. Depts. Of Ministry of health and Family welfare

Dept. of health and Dept. of family welfare

Dept. of Ayurveda, Yoga Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy

Dept. of Health Research

4. Depts. Of ministry of Rural Development

Dept. of Rural Development

Dept. of Land Resources

Dept. of Drinking water supply

5. Depts. Of Ministry of HRD

Dept. of School Education and Literacy

Dept of Higher Education

Zonal Council : In the light of

current affairs ies 2012

Documents