Current Affairs 22/12/12 to 31/12/12

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1.“NCIPC” ,National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIPC), to implement a 5-Year Project for Cyber Security of Critical Sectors // Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) /The central government has decided to establish five-year project for strengthening the overall cyber security structure of critical sectors of India. This move has come following increase in the number of incidents of cyber attacks as well as security threats. In 2011, India faced around 13000 cyber incidents.

2.Govt extends 2 % interest subsidy for exports for one more year:
The Central Government has announced a number of incentives to control the decline in exports, which will fall short of the $360 billion target set for the current fiscal. It has extended the 2 % interest subsidy scheme offered on exports, which was due to expire in March 2013, for one more year.
As part of the incentive package, the government announced the introduction of a pilot scheme of 2% interest subvention for project exports through EXIM Bank for countries of SAARC region, Africa and Myanmar.

3.Shinzo Abe, the leader of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), has been named as the new Prime Minister of Japan by country’s lower house of Parliament.

4.Commission headed by “Justice Usha Mehra” to opine measures to make Delhi safe for women.
In response to furor and protest against the incidence of the gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi, the Union Cabinet set up a Commission of Inquiry which will be headed by the former Delhi High Court judge, Justice Usha Mehra. It will also suggest steps to make Delhi and the NCR safer for women. to identify lapses and fix responsibility for the incident.The Justice Mehra Commission will be in addition to a three-member panel headed by the former Chief Justice of India, J.S. Verma. The committee will recommend amendments in law to provide for speedier trial and rigorous punishment in “aggravated sexual assault” cases amid demands for death penalty.

5.BJP leader Narendra Modi was sworn in as Gujarat Chief Minister for the fourth time. He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Kamla Beniwal.
Modi came to power to become CM for the first time in 2001 and again in 2002 and 2007.

6.As per astronomers, Earth will witness a rare supercomet, C/2012 S1 (ISON), rushing towards the Sun from the outer solar system and at its peak it may outshine the Moon in November, 2013. This is ISON’s first trip to the inner solar system.

7.Poet and translator Dr Shihab Ghanem has become the first Emirati and Arab to win the Tagore Peace Prize. Ghanem was given the honor in recognition of his creative literary and translation works, both in Arabic and English, and for disseminating human understanding and values of love and peace Tagore had advocated

8.China unveiled service on the world’s longest high-speed railway with trains scheduled to run 2,298 kilometres between Beijing and Guangzhou in about 8 hours. Bullet trains running on the route will travel at an average speed of 300km/hr and would save more than 20 hours of travel-time by conventional trains.

9.Iran will carry out 6-day naval exercise codenamed "Vilayat-91" in the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman to showcase its military capabilities. The strait is an important gas and oil shipping route.

10.Shiva Keshavan of India has won gold medal in luge and has set a new Asian record of 49.590 seconds in the Asian Championship.
What is Luge?
It is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. Luge is one of the most dangerous sports in the Olympic games, and the athletes who race down an icy, high-banked track at up to 90 mph (140 km/h). Luge is also an Olympic sport.

11.India signs military deal with Russia
Vladimir Putin visits to India,$2 billion investment fund,Finalised 10 agreements,Two military contracts, worth about Rs. 20,000 crore,Some issues of disagreement also there,To take the initial steps towards operating a “ranging station” that will help accurately fix the location of satellites,Equity participation through ONGC-OVL.

12.To encourage investments b/w the two nations, India’s State Bank of India (SBI) and Russian sovereign wealth fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) came together to ink an MoU for setting up a $2 billion investment consortium. Both the groups would invest up to $1 billion each in the consortium.

13.The only Hindu temple in Russia- the Iskcon Krishna temple in Moscow is facing the threat of demolition by the Russian authorities.

14.In South Korea, Park Geun-hye gained the victory to become country’s first woman President, daughter of the former military ruler, Park Chung-Hee.

15.With an aim to attract greater foreign expertise in the domain of asset reconstruction, the government has raised the foreign investment ceiling in Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) to 74% from previous 49%.

16.Indian American lasik pioneer to be honored with America’s top inventor award
Indian American Rangaswamy Srinivasan, has been nominated by President Barack Obama for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.The laser produces clean, neat incisions without damaging or burning the untargeted tissues making it safe and efficient to use.


17.Justice Swatanter Kumar has become the first Supreme Court judge to be the chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which was, till now, functioning without a full-time chairperson. He will decide on cases pertaining to environmental protection, and conservation of forests and natural resources.

18.Government has exempted services of life insurance business provided under Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY) and Janashree Bima Yojana (JBY)from service tax.

19.Congress leader Virbhadra Singh was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh for a record sixth time.

20.Egypt voters approved a constitution drafted by President Mohamed Mursi’s Islamist allies. The new constitution was adopted with 63.8% of the vote which gave Islamists their third consecutive victory at the polls since Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a 2011 revolution.

21.TIME magazine has named US President Barack Obama Person of the Year "For finding and forging a new majority, for turning weakness into opportunity and for seeking, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union". This is the second time that Time has chosen Obama. Previously, the magazine chose him Person of the Year in 2008.

22.India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) finalized the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in services and investments

23.Atlanta based exchange, IntercontinentalExchange Inc., is buying, more than 200 years old, New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for about $8 billion.

24.Blackberry smartphone manufacturer Research-In-Motion (RIM) has appointed Ranbir Kapoor as its brand ambassador in India.

25.Supreme Court appoints three news judges
The apex court elevated Chief Justices of three high courts as judges of the Supreme Court, enhancing the strength of the court to 28.
The three new judges are:
Justice M Yusuf Eqbal
Justice Venkategowda
Justice Vikramjit Sen

26.The Madhya Pradesh Government has set up a “Senior Citizen Commission” to look into the problems of the elderly in the State.

27.SEBI gave its nod to MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX) for going live in new product segments such as equity, wholesale debt (bonds) and interest rate derivatives.

28.Sachin Tendulkar had announced his retirement from One-Day format of cricket. It brings an end to his 23-year career in ODIs. He had made his debut in this format against Pakistan in 1989. In 463 ODIs he played, he piled up a total of 18,426 runs at an average of 44.83. He keeps a record of hitting 49 hundreds in the format, including a double hundred — the first in this form of the game.He will now remain active in only the Test arena. Tendulkar was part of the 2011 World Cup winning Indian team after five previous appearances. He smashed his last ODI hundred in the Asia Cup in Bangladesh which took his tally of international hundreds to unprecedented 100 international tons.

29.India once again successfully test-fired indigenously developed Beyond Virtual Range (BVR) "Astra" missile.

30.One of the legends of hockey who won India three Olympic gold medals, Leslie Claudius, passed away.

31.ASEAN-India car rally reached the Indian capital after travelling nearly 8,000 km through nine countries. It was flagged in by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which also marked the occasion of ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit highlighting 20 years of their partnership.
The rally was started from Indonesia and traversed through the ASEAN to enter India through Assam.

32.Swiss bank UBS has been fined $1.5 billion over the manipulation of Libor benchmark rate.
It is the second biggest fine ever on a global bank after HSBC which was recently fined a record $1.92 billion after being accused by U.S. prosecutors of failing to enforce rules designed to prevent money laundering.

33.Lok Sabha approved the Constitution (118th Amendment) Bill, 2012 which seeks to provide special status to six backward districts in the Hyderabad Karnataka region, with provision for reservation in education and jobs for local people.
The Bill introduces a new Article 371-J to provide special recognition for the six backward districts in north Karnataka: Gulbarga, Yadgir, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal and Bellary.
The Bill provides for creation of a separate development board and equitable allocation of funds for development of the region. In addition to this, it will provide quota in public employment through establishment of local cadres and reservation in education and vocational training institutions for those who belong to the region by birth or domicile.

34.The All India Football Federation (AIFF) formed a ‘one-mancommittee’ of retired Supreme Court judge and chairperson of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission, A.K Ganguly to probe and decide the fate of the abandoned 10th round I-League match between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.

35.The captain of Indian Hockey team, Sardar Singh commanded the best price of $78,000 from the Delhi franchisee as the players were auctioned in the Hockey India League auction.

36.Outgoing chairman of the $100 billion Tata group, Ratan Tata, has been
As chairman emeritus, Tata will not attend Tata Sons board meetings or have any day-to-day responsibility.

37.The All India Football Federation (AIFF), during its annual General meeting, re-elected Praful Patel as its president.

38.Samsung has left Nokia behind to gain the world’s leading top mobile brand for the year 2012. This is the first time in 14 years that Nokia is not on top of the global cellphone business on an annual basis.

39.Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma retained his position as he was re-elected for the presidency of Africa’s ruling African National Congress. He will remain at the position until 2017 if the ANC wins general elections in 2013.

40.Miss US, Olivia Culpo was announced winner of the Miss Universe 2012 contest held in Las Vegas.US has won this title after a gap of more than a decade.
Olivia replaced previous winner Leila Lopes of Angola.Miss Philippines Janine Tugonon and Miss Venezuela Irene Sofia Esser Quintero were declared second and third runner up respectively.

41.December 18 was celebrated as Minority Rights Day by the National Commission for Minorities which is headed by Justice Mohammed Shamim.
On this day in 1992 that the United nations adopted the declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic National or and Linguistic Minorities declaring that:
“States shall protect the existence of the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and encourage conditions for the promotions of that identity”.Since then the day is celebrated every year as Minority Rights Day.

42.Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant in the UK has developed a new kind of anti-ballistic steel named Super Bainite which could transform safety of soldiers and security forces fighting terrorists and extremists.Super Bainite is lightweight, super-strength anti-ballistic steel which can be used to armour-plate troop carriers and tanks.

43.Queen Elizabeth-II became the first peacetime British ruler since 1781 to attend a cabinet meeting.
This was the first time a monarch had attended a cabinet meeting since George III did so. George I abandoned chairing cabinet in 1717.

44.Following the pressure from the European court of human rights, which ruled that abortions should be allowed in the republic in cases where a woman’s life was at risk, the Irish government is to introduce legislation permitting abortions in limited circumstances.The abortion ban came into international attention recently after an Indian woman, Savita Halappanavar, died of septicemia in Galway university hospital during a miscarriage after she was denied abortion on the grounds that it was a Catholic country.

45.Boeing delivers first P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft to Indian Navy.
American plane maker Boeing delivered the first of the eight P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft to the Navy as part of deal worth over $2.1 billion signed in 2009 for buying the long-range surveillance aircraft, which are equipped with anti-submarine weaponry.

46.Bhanu Athaiya, the costume designer who won the first Oscar for India at the 55th Annual Academy Awards in 1983 for her work in Lord Richard Attenborough‘s ‘Gandhi’, has decided to return the statuette to the Academy Motion Pictures as she feels that it will be safe and preserved there.

47.Malaysia-based Asia Pacific Brands Foundation honored Bollywood Actor Shah Rukh Khan with the BrandLaureate Legendary Award.

48.Norman Woodland (91), co-inventor of the bar code, passed way.

49.As per a report released by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advocacy organization, India ranked 8thon the list of countries with high black money outflows.
India suffered a black money outflow of $123 billion in 2001-2010. China heads the ranking with $US 2.74 trillion as illicit financial flows.
As per the report titled Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2001-2010, Top 10 countries with the highest measured cumulative illicit financial outflows between 2001 and 2010 were:
China: US$2.74 trillion
Mexico: US$476 billion
Malaysia: US$285 billon
Saudi Arabia: US$210 billion
Russia: US$152 billion
Philippines: US$138 billion
Nigeria: US$129 billion
India: US$123 billion
Indonesia: US$109 billion
United Arab Emirates: US$107 billion

50.Market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has increased the Basic Minimum Capital (BMC) deposit for stock broker and trading members to up to Rs.50 lakh from the earlier maximum of Rs.10 lakh.

51.Lok Sabha cleared Companies Bill, 2011.
As per the new legislation:
It will be compulsory for companies with Rs. 5 crore or more profits in last three years to spend 2% of their average net profit towards Corporate Social Responsibility.
In case companies not comply with this, they would have to give explanation. If the companies are not able to do the same, they have to disclose reasons in their books. Otherwise, they would face action, including penalty.
Special courts to be established for speedy trials regarding investments.
Remuneration of a director of a company should not be more than 5 % of the net profit.
The number of companies an auditor can serve would be limited to 20
Annual ratification of appointment of auditors for five years
A new clause related to offence of falsely inducing banks for obtaining credit.
Companies which are winding up will have to make payment of two years’ salary to employees.

52.India clinched World Cup Kabaddi Tournament 2012 in both Men’s and Women’s category. It was a 3rd consecutive victory of the title in the Men’s category and 2nd consecutive time in the Women’s category. Indian men thwarted arch rival Pakistan, while Indian women defeated Malaysia.

53.India’s Bharat Biotech has developed world’s first vaccine against Japanese Encephalitis (JE) using an Indian strain of the virus.Currently, India imports the vaccine (SA14) from China’s National Biotech Group.