Current Affairs 11/11/12 to 17/11/12

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1.Savita Halappanavar: Persons in News
Savita Halappanavar’s death has led to a widespread protests in Ireland and a call to re-look at the abortion laws.
Under Irish law on abortion, and Offences against the Person Act 1861 abortion is illegal in Ireland.

2.K.C.Pant passes away
India’s former defence minister and Planning Commission deputy chairman Krishna Chandra Pant (81) passed away.

3.Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) to be converted into ATM cards
Finance Minister P.Chidambaram informed that the State-owned banks have been asked to strictly adhere to the March, 2014 time-line for converting all Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) to ATM cards.

4.BP agrees to pay $4.5 billion in penalties for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster\
BP Plc will pay $4.5 billion in penalties and plead guilty to felony misconduct in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which caused the worst US offshore oil spill ever. The settlement includes a $1.256 billion criminal fine, the largest such levy in US history.

5.Fortune Magazine has named Ms Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO of ICICI Bank as the most powerful business woman in Business in India.
She has been named for the same for second time in a row.
The top 3 most Powerful Business woman in India:
Chanda Kochhar of ICICI
Mallika Srinivasan of TAFE
Aruna Jayanthi of Capgemini India

6.Kavery Kalanithi of Sun Tv – India’s top paid Business woman.
As per Fortune Magazine, Ms Kavery Kalanithi of Sun TV group has retained her position as the India’s top paid business woman in 2012.
Pay packages of Top 4 Business women in India:
Kavery Kalanithi, Executive Director, Sun TV Group: Rs 57 Crore
Urvi A. Piramal, Chairperson, Peninsula Land: Rs 7.3 Crore
Preetha Reddy, MD, Apollo Hospital Enterprises: Rs 6.9 Crore
Vinita Singhania, MD, JK Lakshmi Cement: Rs 5.9 Crore

7.Westpac Banking Corporation opens its firsrt branch in Mumbai
Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac Institutional Bank) received its banking licence from RBI on April 16, 2012. Westpac has operated in India since 2007 through its representative office.
Westpac Institutional Bank (WIB):
The Institutional Bank, which contributed 26% of Westpac’s total earnings in 2010, provides advisory and wholesale banking services to Westpac’s corporate and institutional customers. Westpac Banking Corporation Australia’s Oldest Bank.A multinational financial services, one of the Australian "big four" banks and the second-largest bank in New Zealand.
Gail Kelly (CEO and Managing director)

8.Sweden’s Volvo to invest in India
Volvo is a Swedish truck, bus and earth-moving equipment maker. Volvo is the world’s 2nd largest truck maker by revenue.
Volvo declared its plans to invest R s 3,800 Crore in India in next few years. Of this amount, it will be investing Rs 1,800 Crore in a joint venture with Eicher Motors. Volvo and Eicher have a 50:50 joint venture VE Commercial Vehicles which sells Volvo brand of trucks and Eicher brand of trucks and buses.
In India, Volvo has a good presence in Bus segment.
Eicher is a commercial vehicle manufacturer in India.

9.Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 comes into force.
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 – was passed by Parliament in May, 2012 to address the evil of child sexual abuse.
Definition of a child under the Act:
The Act is gender-neutral and defines a child as any person below the age of eighteen years.

10.Madhav Chavan wins WISE Prize ‘The Nobel Prize for education’
Dr Madhav Chavan has won the WISE Prize.
The WISE Prize is considered to be the "Nobel prize for Education".
Prize of $500,000 (£314,000)
In recognition for his education work in the slums of Mumbai. His efforts to provide lessons in literacy and numeracy for disadvantaged children and adults in India.
About Dr. Madhav Chavan and his NGO “PRATHAM”

11.Archduke Joseph diamond’ sold at world record price of $ 21.5 million
‘Archduke Joseph diamond’
A 19th century rare 76 carat diamond Indian diamond.
Named after its first owner Archduke Joseph August of Austria.
Sold at world record price of $ 21.5 million (about Rs. 118 crore) at an auction in Geneva.
The diamond mined from erstwhile Golconda kingdom.

12.“Project Lakshya” launched by the The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry.
Objective:
Reduce waiting time for delivery of LPG cylinders
Track duplicate connections
Preventing fake additional connections for getting more subsidized cylinders, monitor those who consumed less than six [cylinders] in the past, detect and block multiple connections with the three oil companies IOCL, HPCL, BPCL.

13.“Omnishambles” – word of the year by Oxford English Dictionary.
"Omnishambles" has been named word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary.
The meaning of the word ‘Omnishambles’ is – a situation which is shambolic from every possible angle.

14.Xi Jinping: China’s new leader
Xi Jinping, elected as the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Xi Jinping is the paramount leader of the People’s Republic of China, who holds the positions of:
Vice President of China
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
Chairman of the Central Military Commission
President of the Central Party School
The first member of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee, China’s de facto top power organ.
Who is a paramount leader in China ?
Literally "the highest leader of the party and the state", refers to the political leader of China in modern Chinese political science.
Xi Jinping.
Who is the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China ?
The leader of the Party and the highest ranking position.
Xi Jinping.
Who is the President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) ?
The head of state – ceremonial figurehead since 1982
Hu Jintao
At present:
President of the PRC: Hu Jintao
Vice President of the PRC: Xi Jinping
Who is a Chairman of the Central Military Commission ?
Commander-in-chief of the armed forces
Xi Jinping
Practically the absolute power is held more or less collectively by the members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China with the General Secretary acting as a first among equals figure.

15.Suu Kyi comes to India after almost 40 years.
Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in India after a gap of almost 40 years.
She is here as part of New Delhi’s ongoing engagement with the democratic and multi-party polity in Nay Pyi Taw.
Ms. Suu Kyi spent several years in India during her early days when her mother Daw Khin Yi was Ambassador to India.

16.INDIAEX 2012: The U.S. and Indian navies bilateral exercise.
First time where the compatibility of a U.S. Navy’s Submarine Rescue Diving and Recompression System (SRDRS) with Indian navy submarines will be estimated.

17.2G spectrum auction flops; less than Rs. 10K crore of bids received by Govt.
The 2G mobile phone spectrum auction ended in a flop show with merely Rs. 9,407 crore being collected in the process contrary to the high valuation estimated by the CAG in its criticizing report of the government two years ago. Half of the airwaves on offer remaining unsold and government getting just about one-third of the targeted revenue.
The CAG had earlier estimated Rs. 1.76 lakh crore as the loss to the exchequer in giving away spectrum on first-come-first-serve basis in 2008. To this, the telecom Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal held that, “the facts are before the nation and quite clear.”

18.‘Aakash 2′ launched by President Pranab Mukherjee.
‘Aakash 2′ is the advanced version of Aakash 1 tablet.
Developed under the aegis of IIT Bombay with the active support of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). British company Datawind is rolling out the device.
The price is Rs. 2,263 at which the government purchases the device from Datawind. The government subsidises it by 50%.
Aakash 2
“Aaskash 2” or commercially called “Ubislate 7+”

19.Shanti Gandhi, Gandhiji’s great grandson elected to Kansas State Assembly
Mr. Shanti Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi has been elected to a State Assembly in the United Stated during the general elections held on November 6, 2012.
Mr. Shanti Gandhi is a Republican Party candidate.
Son of late Saraswati Gandhi, wife of Mahatma Gandhi ji’s grandson – the late Kanti Lal.
He was a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon.

20.Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Ms Spivak is amongst the recipients of this year’s Kyoto Prize.
She won the award in the Arts and Philosophy category for her “deep thinking on humanities against intellectual colonialism in relation to globalisation”.

21.Mirabai Chanu wins 3 bronze medals at Asian Jr Weightlifting.
Ms. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu clinched 3 bronze medals for India on the opening day of the 19th Junior Women Asian Weightlifting Championships at Yangon (Myanmar).
Ms Saikhom Mirabai Chanu is associated with Weigh-lifting.

22.U. P. has highest number of prisonersNovember 15th, 2012
Figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that Uttar Pradesh topped:
the list death convicts lodged in various jails in the country in 2011
the list of prisoners who were sentenced to life
the list by having the highest prison inmate population

23.Disinvestment of 10% stake in HAL, approved by govt.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved divestment of 10 per cent equity in HAL out of its holding on 100 per cent through an Initial Public Offer (IPO) in the domestic market as per the SEBI rules and regulations.

24.British Tax authorities probing charges against HSBC.
The British tax authorities launched an investigation into allegations of money laundering against HSBC.
HSBC Bank has been accused of opening offshore bank accounts in Jersey for serious criminals living in Britain.
This move from British Tax authorities came after a whistleblower was secretly provided a detailed list of names, addresses and bank accounts of HSBC’s alleged clients.
These were said to include names of several people with criminal convictions, including gun-runners and drug dealers.

25.Chips made of Carbon Nanotubes to replace silicon chips soon:
Researchers have developed a new technique to mass produce much tinier and faster carbon nanotubes that can replace silicon chips in computers. It could be possible to replace silicon with carbon nanotubes in manufacturing computer chips. It use would make the size of the computing components much smaller.
What are carbon nanotubes? What are the applications of carbon nanotubes?
Carbon nanotubes are allotropes of carbon (like diamond, graphite, grapheme etc.) with a cylindrical nanostructure.
Nanotubes have been constructed with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1, considerably larger than for any other material.
They have unusual properties, which are valuable for nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science and technology.
In particular, owing to their extraordinary thermal conductivity and mechanical and electrical properties, carbon nanotubes find applications as additives to various structural materials. For example, nanotubes form only a tiny part of the material(s) in (primarily carbon fiber) baseball bats, golf clubs, or car components.

26.McCain Foods appoints Karisma Kapoor as its brand ambassador for India.
McCain Foods India Pvt Ltd, makers of frozen French fries and potato specialty products, has announced Karisma Kapoor as its first brand ambassador in India.

27.U.K. halts further aid to India.
Buckling under mounting domestic pressure, the British government declared stop to additional financial aid to India but all existent commitments until 2015 would be honored.
The move would save Britain over £200 million over the next three years.
Britain’s new focus will be to offer technical help and investment in private sector poverty-alleviation projects
Move consequence to the economic crisis U.K. itself is facing and considering that India is ‘successfully developing’.

28.INS Tarkash commissioned into Navy.
Russia-built multirole stealth frigate INS Tarkash
Tarkash belongs to the second batch of three modified Krivak-III (Talwar) class frigates India ordered from Russia in 2006 under a $1.6-billion contract.

29.ndia set to join talks for creating “RCEP”, the largest trade bloc.
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) = 16 Countries = 10 (ASEAN Countries) + 6 Others (China + Japan + South Korea + Australia + New Zealand + INDIA)
India is set to join talks for creating the world’s largest trade bloc RCEP after a committee headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh endorsed the move.

30.For ‘M-Pesa’ Vodafone partners with ICICI Bank.
Vodafone India has launched its mobile money transfer and payment service ‘M-Pesa’ in India. The telecom giant has inked a partnership with ICICI Bank to extend this service in India.Vodafone will be offering its customers a mobile money account with ICICI Bank and a mobile wallet issued by MCSL (Mobile Commerce Solutions Ltd), via this service.

31.United Nations declares November 10 as ‘Malala Day’.
UN has declared November 10 as ‘Malala Day’ in honor of Ms Malala Yousafzai.

32.Mohammad Azharuddin’s life ban lifted by Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Former India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin’s life ban lifted by a Andhra Pradesh High Court. The High Court struck off the lower court’s order which justified the life ban on Azharuddin in 2000 by BCCI. In 2000, the BCCI conducted an internal inquiry following the publication of the CBI report then and K. Madhavan who led the inquiry concluded that Azharuddin was guilty of match-fixing and the three others had links with bookmakers.

33.50% seat reservation for women in State panchayats in Assam.
The Assam State Election Commission in order to politically empower the womenfolk in the State has announced 50% reservation of seats in the panchayats for women. This verdict of the State Election Commission will come into effect from the upcoming panchayat polls in Assam.
The Panchayat Act has been amended for giving 50% reservation for the women. The Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) women would also enjoy the 50% seat reservation for women in the panchayats.

34.International liquor major Diageo to acquire 53.4% stake in Vijay Mallya-owned United Spirits Ltd. (USL) for Rs.11,166.50 crore. Diageo has entered into agreements with United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd. and USL to acquire 27.4% stake in USL for Rs.5,725 crore at Rs.1,440 a share. As a result of this move, UB Holding and associate companies will sell 19.3% stake to Diageo and a large part of this money will directly go to UB Holdings, which will de-leverage its balance sheet.
After this stake sale, the UB Holdings group’s shareholding in USL will come down to 14.9 per cent. Mr. Mallya will continue as Chairman of USL and UBHL.

35.United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
Nepal along with 17 other countries were elected board members of ECOSOC by the UN General Assembly for a three-year term starting in January 2013.
ECOSOC is a 54 member body and is one of the principal organs of the UN.
ECOSOC coordinates the economic, social and related work of the UN and its specialized agencies and institutions.

36.Rashmi Kumari wins World Carrom Championship.
Rashmi Kumari is an International Carrom Champion from Bihar, India. She won the World Carrom Championship held at Colombo, Srilanka.

37.India and Japan signed an Earths Pact on 16 November 2012 that will enable the latter to import the rare Earth minerals from India. These rare minerals are very important for the Tech-savvy industries of Japan. The pact came as a conclusion despite postponement of India-Japan annual summit.

38.Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer Katherine Boo on 14 November 2012 won the national book award for nonfiction for Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, which sheds light on the lives of India's poor as well as government corruption.

39.Nelson Mandela bank notes launched by South Africa
The South African government had earlier declared the launch of new bank notes on the 22nd anniversary of Mandela’s release from prison after serving 27 years for his opposition to white-minority rule.
The living legend ‘Nelson Mandela’ popularly known by his clan name "Madiba" became South Africa’s first black president in 1994. He rarely appears in public now but is still respected both at home and abroad and held up as a symbol of freedom, human rights and democracy.

40.Ami Bera, 47, California-based, Indian-American has become the only 3rd of the community to win Congressional election, making it to US House of Representatives on 6 November, 2012 by defeating Republican Dan Lungren.


41.Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan paid a state visit to India from 9 November to 13 November 2012 following the invitation of the President of the Republic of India Pranab Mukherjee. On his visit to India he was accompanied by a high-level delegation to India. The Afghani President held delegate level bilateral discussions on various regional and international issues that are relevant for both the nations with the Prime Minister of India.