Japan - Land of the Rising Sun

Yukio Hatoyama – new PM

Kuril Islands – source of dispute with Russia

World’s second and Asia’s largest economy

Oldest still ruling Royal House in the world

Monarch sits on Chrysanthemum Throne

No standing army

No manufacture, supply or storing of nuclear weapons

China - 3rd Largest by Area

Hu Jintao – President; Wen Jiabao – PM

Is building GWADAR port in Pakistan, also Karakoram Highway to Pakistan

World’s largest FOREX reserves - more than $1 trillion

Built THREE GORGES DAM on Yangtze River, world’s largest hydro-electric dam

Built world’s highest railway – linking Lhasa in Tibet with Golmund; nicknamed Qing-1

Manufacturing hub of world

Third largest economy

Thailand

King Bhumibol Adulyadej completes 60 years in power, world’s longest reigning monarch

Thaksin Shinawatra deposed as PM in a military coup

Abhisit Vejjajiva new PM

Bangkok – capital, Baht - currency

Never colonised

Myanmar - Stratocracy

General Than Shwe – Leader No.1, visited India in 2006

Aung San Suu Kyi – pro-democracy leader under house arrest since 1990

Capital moved from Yangon to Pyinmana (aka Naypyidaw)

32.7% of BPL population

Ruled by army since 1948

Sri Lanka / Bhutan

Mahinda Rajapakse – Prez

Peace talks between SL government and the LTTE were brokered by NORWAY

Bhutan - world’s first no-smoking country

King Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck is the Chief of State since Dec., 2006

First democratic elections held in Bhutan in March 2008

Prime minister Jigme Thinley of Bhutan since April 2008

Pakistan - First Islamic Republic

Asif Ali Zardari – Prez; Yusuf Raza Gilani – PM

Balochistan leader, Akbar Khan Bugti, killed by Pak military

Proposed Iran gas pipeline to India via Pakistan

NWFP – stronghold of al-Qaeda & Taliban

Sri Lankan cricket team attacked

Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai – Prez elect

NATO forces battling resurgent Taliban in the south

Taliban headed by Mullah Omar

Durand Line – boundary line with Pak is source of dispute

Iran

Mahmoud Ahmedinejad – Prez

Ayotallah Khameini – Spiritual Head

Secret nuclear weapons program

World’s 2nd largest gas producer & 4th largest oil exporter

Has developed missiles like HOOT, a torpedo; Shahab, Fajr, and Shaegah series.

Iraq - Mesopotamia

Jalal Talabani – Prez; Nuri al-Maliki – PM

Saddam gets death penalty for Dujail Massacre (1982)

Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Qaeda chief in Iraq, successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Moqtada al-Sadr – head of Mahdi Army, Shiite militia group

Israel - World’s first Jewish State

Tel Aviv – capital; Knesset – parliament

Benjiman Netanyahu – PM

Mossad – secret service

Owns Barak missile system, supplied to India

Is building a Barrier Wall to separate it from Palestinian areas

Lebanon Jordan

Nicknamed Switzerland of the Middle East

Emile Lahoud – Prez; Fuoad Siniora – PM

Beirut – Capital; Nicknamed Paris of the Middle East

Was a French Colony

Hashemite Kingdom

King Abdullah II – HoS

Lost West Bank to Israel in 1967 War

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, slain al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, belonged to Jordan

Syria Turkey

Bashar al-Assad – Prez

Accused of interference in Lebanon & Iraq

Indicted by UN in killing of former Lebanese PM, Rafiq Hariri

Part of new “Axis of Evil”

Recep T Erdogan – PM

Nicknamed Sickman of Europe

Controversy over Armenian Genocide

Occupies part of Cyprus

Kamal Ataturk made Turkey a fiercely secular country

Sought membership of EU

Sudan - Largest African Nation

Prez Omar al-Bashir

Darfur Genocide – 4 lakh dead over 4 years

Janjaweed, Govt-backed Arab Muslim militia against non-Arab Muslims

Civil war in the south between Arab Muslims & Christians – Africa’s oldest still running civil war

South Africa - Rainbow Nation

Jacob Zuma new President

Second largest HIV infected population after India

Desmond Tutu, recipient of Gandhi Peace Prize (’06)

Launched centenary of Gandhiji’s launching of Satyagraha Movement in that country

3 capitals - Pretoria (administrative), Bloemfontein (judicial), and Cape Town (legislative)

Name of Pretoria changed to Tshwane

South Africa is venue for World Cup Soccer 2010

Africa in a nutshell

Africa Union – HQ at Addis Ababa, 53 members

Uganda – Prez is Yoweri Museveni, accused of genocide against Acholi Tribe

Operation Atlanta anti-piracy operation off the coast of Somalia

15th NAM summit in Egypt in July 09

Libya Muammar Gadaffi’s marathon speech in UNO in September 2009.

Brazil - 5th largest country by area

Luiz Inacio LULA da Silva is Brazil prez again

Largest ETHANOL producer

Member of BRIC & IBSA

Brasilia – Capital (named after a wood type)

Rio Di Janeiro to host 2016 Olympics

South America in a nutshell

Venezuela reelected Hugo Chavez as prez

Eva Morales is elected Bolivia prez

Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) – Marxist militant group in Peru

Peru’s prez is Alan Garcia

Michelle Bachelet is president of Chile

Alberto Fujimori, former President of Peru, sentenced to jail term on charges of corruption

USA - 300 million pop Democrats win control of H of R & Senate

Barack Obama first Afro-American to be President

Robert Gates is new defence secretary

Hillary Clinton new Secretary of State

Largest exporter & importer – overall; biggest seller of military equipment

Ben Bernanke – new Federal Reserve chief

Refuses to sign Kyoto Protocol & shuns International Criminal Court

Sarbanes-Oxley Act – for corporate governance

Fence built on U.S. border with Mexico to curb illegal immigration & drugs trade

Central America in a nutshell

Panama agrees to a new wider Panama Canal

Felipe Calderon is prez of Mexico

Daniel Ortega, former Marxist leader, prez of Nicaragua

Cuban prez Fidel Castro handed over power to Raul Castro (his brother)

Sugar Bowl of the World

Europe in a nutshell

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, is ranked World’s Most Powerful Woman by Forbes

Hungary PM Gordon Bajnai

Romania & Bulgaria join EU (EU membership - 27)

Silvio Berlusconi is the PM of Italy

Italy hosted G-8 summit in July 09

NATO’s 60 years observed

World Trade Organisation

Successor to the GATT

Established on Jan 1, 1995

WTO HQ – Geneva, Switzerland

DG – Pascal Lamy (France)

WTO has 153 members

Vietnam is 150th member

International - Who’s Who

Ban Ki Moon (S. Korea’s foreign minister) succeeds Kofi Annan (Ghana) as new Secretary General of the UN

Margaret Chan (China) is new DG of WHO

Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

Science fiction writer Arthur Clarke passes away

Deep Joshi wins Magsaysay Award

Indra Nooyi – PepsiCo CEO, also ranked world’s most powerful business woman

Shashi Tharoor – former UN Under Secretary General for Communications & Public Information and now Union Minister of State for External Affairs

Tharoor – author of The Great Indian Novel, Riot – A Novel, India: From Midnight to the Millennium, Bookless in Baghdad, & Show Business

International - Who’s Who

World Bank – HO at Washington, Prez - Robert Zoellick (US)

IMF – HO at Washington, MD – Dominique Strauss Kahn (Germany)

ADB – HO at Manila, Prez – Haruhiko Kuroda (Japan)

European Commission – HO at Brussels

WEF - Founder Chairman Klaus Schwabb (Germany)

International - Who’s Who

Business - Facts & Figures

IOC – India’s largest company by revenue

RIL – India’s largest company by market capitalisation

Toyota – largest auto company

Intel – largest chip-maker

Diageo – largest spirits company (owns Smirnoff, JW)

McDonald’s – largest fast food chain

Vodafone – largest mobile company by revenue

Bharti Airtel – crosses 11 crore subscribers in India

Economy / Business HCL acquires Axon

1.6 million employed in IT in India (2007)

Mobile number portability to be introduced

Provident fund companies can invest 15% of their corpus in shares

New Pension Scheme (NPS) launched in April 2009

Natco and strides Arcolab are permitted to manufacture generic version of Tamiflu

Roche holds patent on Tamiflu

G-20 accounts for 90% of global output

NCDEX largest agricultural commodity exchange by volume

International Finance Reporting Standards to be implemented by companies by April 2011

IMF projects GDP growth of 5.4% for India

Agriculture

India second largest producer of pepper

No.1 in milk production

Among the world top producer of Tea

Largest coconut producer in world is India

Second largest producer of fish

Green Revolution a success in rice and wheat

India lags behind in production of pulses, oil seeds

11th plan aims at 4% GDP growth rate in agriculture

Personalities Nandan Nilekani Chairman of Unique Identification

Authority (UIA)

C. Rangarajan Chairman of Prime Ministers Economic Advisory Council

Angela Markel re-elected Chancellor of Germany

Mohan Bhagwat new chief of RSS

Iran’s President Md. Ahmedinejad denies truth of Holocaust

Col. Gadaffi’s marathon speech in UNO

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela wins referendum

Ramesh Pokhariyal new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand

R. K. Pachauri head of TERI and IGPCC

Awards

Nobel Prize - Chemistry for Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Indian American)

Nobel Literature - Herta Muller (Romania)

Deep Joshi - Magsaysay Award, 2009

2009 Man Booker Prize - Hilary Mantel, (UK)

2009 Man Booker International Prize - Alice Munro (Canada)

Sports Castrol 2009 Cricket of Year - Gautam Gambhir

2016 Olympics - Rio De Janiero

2010 FIFA World Cup - South Africa

2014 FIFA World Cup - Brazil

2012 Olympics - London

2011 World Cup Cricket - India / Sri Lanka / Bangladesh

2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games

2010 Delhi World Cup Hockey

Important Government Programmes National Highway Development Programme (NHDP), largest Highway

Development Programme ever in India

National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) target group the rural poor

Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) proposed by former President Abdul Kalam

Swarna Jayanti Gramin Swarojgar Yojana (SJSY) replaces Integrated Rural Development Programme

Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) 1985 covers Diphteria, Pertusis, Tetanus, Polio,& Tuberculosis

Integrated Child Development Programme (ICDP)

Bharat Nirman - Rural infrastructure

Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) - Urban infrastructure

Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP) big boost to power production