General awareness Updates - September 2013

Current Affairs

General awareness Updates - September 2013

Persons in News

• Hazem el-Beblawi, a liberal economist and Egypt’s former finance minister, was appointed as the country’s new Prime Minister.
• Susan Rice, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, has joined the White House as the National Security Advisor to the United States President.
• Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Europe’s longest-serving leader, has stepped down over a scandal involving the secret services, who allegedly indulged in a spate of misconduct on his watch.
• China’s former Railways Minister Liu Zhijun was given a suspended death sentence by a court here for corruption and abuse of power.
• Ireland was forced to review its abortion law in cases where the mother’s life is at risk following the death of Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar in a Galway hospital last October after she was denied an abortion.
• Amar Gopal Bose, Indian-American entrepreneur and academic behind the revolutionary sound systems of Bose Corporation, died, aged 83, in Wayland, Massachusetts.
• Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, a top leader of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party was sentenced to death by a special Bangladeshi tribunal for committing ‘crimes against humanity’ during the country’s 1971 liberation war.
• Dilip Trivedi has been named the Director General of the Central Reserve Paramilitary Force (CRPF), India’s largest paramilitary force.
• Russia has granted temporary asylum to Edward Snowden for a year.

Places in News

• The first-ever national Aviation University of the country would come up at Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, to impart complete training to pilots, cabin crew and aircraft engineers.The Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University would be set up on a 26-acre plot of land at the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Academy (IGRUA) at Fursatganj.
• The Union Government also cleared the proposal to set up India’s first university only for women, to be named ‘IndiraGandhi National University for Women’, at Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh with the government on Thursday clearing a proposal in this regard.
• About 79 people have been killed and wounded in a train derailment outside the northern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela.
• Twenty two school children and a cook died due to food poisoning after consuming midday meal at a government primary school in Bihar’s Saran district.

Awards & Honours

• 14th International Indian Film Awards (IIFA)

• Best Film: Barfi!Best Director: Anurag Basu for Barfi!
• Best Actor: Ranbir Kapoor for Barfi!
• Best Female Actor: Vidya Balan for Kahaani
• Best Story: Tani and Anurag Basu for Barfi!
• Best Supporting Actor (Male): Annu Kapoor for Vicky Donor
• Best Supporting Actor (Female): Anushka Sharma for Jab Tak Hai Jaan
• Best Music Director: Pritam for Barfi!
• Best Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya (Mujhme kahin from Agneepath)
• IIFA Forever: Yash Chopra
• Indian International Cinema Outstanding Achievement: Anupam Kher
• Outstanding Contribution to Indian Cinema: Javed Akhtar

• E. Sreedharan, nicknamed ‘Metro Man’, has been selected for the prestigious Lokmanya Tilak award for 2013 for his outstanding contribution to society.
• Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan has been honoured with the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadhbhavna Award for his contribution towards promotion of communal harmony and peace.
• 2013 Magsaysay Awards

• Ernesto Domingo, from the Philippines.  He is being recognized for ”his exemplary embrace of the social mission of medical science and his profession, his steadfast leadership in pursuing ‘health for all’ as a shared moral responsibility of all sectors, and his groundbreaking and successful advocacy for neonatal hepatitis vaccination, thereby saving millions of lives in the Philippines.”
• Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (Corruption Eradication Commission), from Indonesia.  The organization is being recognized for ”its fiercely independent and successful campaign against corruption in Indonesia, combining the uncompromising prosecution of erring powerful officials with farsighted reforms in governance systems and the educative promotion of vigilance, honesty, and active citizenship among all Indonesians.”
• Lahpai Seng Raw, from Myanmar.  She is being recognized for ”her quietly inspiring and inclusive leadership—in the midst of deep ethnic divides and prolonged armed conflict—to regenerate and empower damaged communities and to strengthen local NGOs in promoting a non-violent culture of participation and dialogue as the foundation for Myanmar’s peaceful future.”
• Habiba Sarabi, from Afghanistan.  She is being recognized for ”her bold exercise of leadership to build up a functioning provincial government against great odds—intractable political adversities, a harsh and impoverished environment, and pervasive cultural discrimination—serving her people with a hopeful persistence grounded in her abiding commitment to peace and development in Afghanistan”
• Shakti Samuha (“Power Group”), from Nepal.  The organization’s founders and members are being recognized for”transforming their lives in service to other human trafficking survivors, their passionate dedication towards rooting out a pernicious social evil in Nepal, and the radiant example they have shown the world in reclaiming the human dignity that is the birthright of all abused women and children everywhere.”

Economy & Business

• Raghuram Rajan has been appointed the new Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He succeeds Duvvuri Subbarao. He is a former Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• Following concerns raised by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Central Government gave a conditional go ahead to Jet Airways to sell 24 per cent stake to Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways for 2,058 crore after Etihad submitted an amended Shareholders Agreement (SHA) and Commercia.l Cooperation Agreement (CCA).
• Foreign direct investment (FDI) into India increased 25 per cent year-on-year to U.S.$2.32 billion in April, the highest level in the past six months.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved disinvestment of government stake in State Trading Corporation (STC) and ITDC, which would fetch around 30 crore to the exchequer.
• The Central Government raised customs duty on gold, silver and platinum to 10 percent in third revision this year in a bid to curb the surging imports and burgeoning CAD, a decision that will also rake in an additional 4,830 crore to the exchequer. While the duty on gold and platinum was raised from 8 per cent to 10 per cent, the levy on silver was hiked by 4 per cent, according to the notifications tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.
• The Central Government cleared a proposal to replace the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) with a new aviation regulator with full operational and financial autonomy. The new regulatory body would be called the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
• Net direct tax collections in April-June period rose by 6.44 per cent to 89,705 crore compared to 84,247 crore in the same period last fiscal.
• With an aim to help in the Central Government’s efforts to stem fall in rupee value, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has tightened the exposure norms for currency derivatives to check large scale speculations in the market..
• Kickstarting the process of coal blocks allocation, the Central Government has allocated 14 coal mines to Central and state PSUs, including four to NTPC. The allocation of the blocks, having a geological reserve of 8,311 million tonnes (MT), will lead to an investment of more than 1.6 lakh crore in the power sector.
• Public sector banks have been asked to set up Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in all branches by March 2014 to enable customers in rural pockets to do banking round-the-clock, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said.
• India now leads the United States in the purchase of crude oil from Nigeria. Recent statistics showed that India had been buying more of Nigeria’s crude than the U.S. over the last three months.

Miscellaneous

• The Supreme Court directed state governments to pay 3 lakh in compensation to all acid attack victims. The apex court has asked the governments to pay 1 lakh, out of the 3 lakh compensation, within a period of 15 days of the incident being reported to the police.
• India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives have entered into a tripartite agreement on maritime cooperation to secure sea routes in the Indian Ocean region.
• Panama has intercepted and seized a North Korean ship, sailing from Cuba, after inspectors found weapons system parts under sacks of sugar as it sought to cross the Panama Canal on its way to its home country. North Korea is under a United Nations arms embargo.
• The Supreme Court quashed the Medical Council of India’s (MCI) notification for the National Eligibility Entrance Test(NEET), a common entrance test for MBBS, BDS and post-graduate medical courses. A three-judge bench by a 2:1 verdict held that the MCI notification was ultra vires of MCI’s constitution. The apex court, however, made it clear that its verdict will not affect the admissions which have already taken place.
• In a major setback to the Indian Navy, INS Sindhurakshak, a submarine, caught fire after a massive explosion and sank in the dockyard in Mumbai, killing all the 18 personnel on board. The 2,300 tonne submarine, powered by a combination of diesel generators and electric batteries, had returned after a major upgrade programme in Russia 3-4 months ago and was capable of carrying a potent weapons package including the anti-ship ‘Club’ missiles. INS Sindhurakshak was not on active duty at the time of the accident. The incident has come at a time when the Indian Navy is faced with a depleting submarine fleet.
• India launched its first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, joining the elite club of nations with the capability of designing and building a warship of this size and capability. The 37,500-tonne carrier was launched at Kochi shipyard almost four-and-a-half years after its keel was laid. Other nations capable of designing and building a ship of equivalent size are the U.S., the UK, Russia and France.
• In a major step towards completing its nuclear triad, India activated the atomic reactor on-board the indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant paving the way for its operational deployment by the Navy. Nuclear triad is the ability to fire nuclear-tipped missiles from land, air and sea. After the nuclear reactor is activated, the agencies concerned can work towards readying the warship for operational deployments soon.
• Douglas Engelbart, a technologist who conceived of the computer mouse and laid out a vision of an Internet decades before others brought those ideas to the mass market, died, aged 88.