2010- AT A GLANCE PART 2

▪The 8th ASEAN-India Summit was held at Hanoi, Vietnam on October 30, 2010.

▪Malaysia is the second largest trading partner for India within ASEAN, and India is the largest trading partner for Malaysia in South Asia, excluding China. Bilateral trade between the two countries is now estimated at $ 10.5 billion, and this has doubled in the past five years.

▪India and its old military partner Russia will soon ink a deal to jointly develop an advance stealth fighter. 

India and South Korea have struck a deal to finalise an agreement on civil uses of nuclear energy. This was a major success for India during the PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh’s Asia tour.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has appointed a high-level committee headed by a former Comptroller and Auditor General, V.K. Shunglu, to go into allegations of corruption related to the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi in October 2010.

Liberhan Commission submitted report to the Prime Minister : The Justice Liberhan Commission, which probed the sequence of events that led to the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, submitted its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Inflation turns negative for first time since 1977-78 : The annual rate of inflation (wholesale price index) turned negative and stood at -1.61 % for the week ended 6 June 2009.

The first commercial landing of the Airbus A380, the largest aircraft of the world, took place at the newly inaugurated Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

Former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan has been appointed as the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission.He was the first Dalit Chief Justice of India and will be the first Dalit heading NHRC.NHRC was headless for over a year.

India's Export-Import (Exim) Bank has given a loan of $5 million to Burkina Faso to start its first call center with 400 positions. Burkina Faso is also part of India's flagship project - Pan African e-network project. Previously, India also approved the setting up of a tomato processing factory through a line of credit of $15 million in Burkina Faso.

 The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad, Hyderabad was declared the World’s Best Airport under the 5 to 15 million passengers category by Airports Council International (ACI). This is the first time that an Indian airport will be featured among the top airports of the world.

International Conference on Biodiversity in relation to food and human security was held in Chennai.

Anti-government protests broke out in Kyrgyzstan and its President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has reportedly left the country and Prime Minister Usenov resigned, clearing the way for the Opposition to form its own government. A “Cabinet of people’s trust” has been headed by Opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva.

China is building a new airport near Mount Everest, to be called ‘Peace Airport’ in Xigaze prefecture in Tibet.

The Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) was held in Washington 

The President of Poland Lech Kaczynski and a high-level delegation were killed when the president’s Tu-154 passenger jet carrying 97 people crashed as it was approaching a Russian airport in the city of Smolensk.

The annual ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was held in Paris with Economy and Trade Ministers from 40 countries, representing 80 per cent of the world economy attended. India, Russia, Brazil ,China, Indonesia and South Africa have been invited to participate as observers.

The Conservative leader David Cameron took over as Prime Minister and his Liberal Democrat counterpart Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister in the Britain’s first post-war coalition government.

The two-day G-20 summit or the meeting of the heads of the world’s major industrialised powers was held in Toronto, Canada.

Guinea, the West African country is holding in its first free election since independence in 1958.

Julia Gillard was sworn in as Australia’s first woman Prime Minister after Kevin Rudd was toppled as the leader of the ruling Labour party.

Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalise same-sex marriage.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), developed and applied by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative with UNDP support reveals that there are more ‘MPI poor’ people in eight Indian states (421 million in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal) than in the 26 poorest African countries combined (410 million).

 Ms. Rosa Otunbayeva (59), the first woman President in Central Asia was sworn in Kyrgyzstan.

During the sidelines of a summit of the Eurasian Economic Community (Eurasec) in Astana, Kazakhstan, the three countries Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus signed a declaration to launch a customs union as a first step towards forming a broader EU-type economic alliance of former Soviet states.

2010- AT A GLANCE PART 1

• G-15 summit was held at Tehran on 16-17 May.
  * Bangladesh handed over Ranjan Daimary of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland to India. The group was responsible for serial bombing in Assam in 2008.
  * National League for Democracy (NLD) party of Myannmar’s democracy leader Aung San Sui Kyi was abolished after deadline to re-register as a political party was over.
  * EU-IMF provide a $ 1 trillion rescue package to the Greece to resolve its debt crises.
  * Pakistan successfully test fired two short range ballistic missiles, Shaheen I( range 650 Km) and Ghazani (range 290 Km) capable of carrying nuclear war heads and striking Indian cities.
•  Naxalites killed 47 people in a landmine blast between Dantewada and Sukma in Chattisgarh.
  * Test fire of nuclear capable Agni-II missile was successfully carried out from Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa on 17th May. Agni II has a range of 2000Km. It is 20m long two stage solid propelled ballistic missile. It was developed by Advanced System Laboratories alongwith DRDO & Bharat Dynamics Ltd.
  * Supreme Court in a recent judgement upheld a rule that allows the adjustment of reserved category candidate SC/ST/OBC against their quota seats even if they manage to qualify an examination for govt services on merit.
  * National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is the monitoring authority for the Right to Education Act which became effective from April 1, 2
•  England won 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating Australia. The tournament was held at South Africa. Kevin Pieterson of England has been declared as Player of the Tournament.
  * Australia won 2010 Women’s World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating New Zealand.
  * India and South Korea were declared joint winner of 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup, after suspension of the final match due to heavy rains.India’s Sardar Singh has been declared as Best Player of the Tournament. Australia won the Bronze medal. The tournament was held at Ipoh (Malaysia). India had won the tournament earlier in 1985, 1991, 1995 & 2009.
  * China won Thomas Cup ( Men’s Badminton) defeating Indonesia.
  * In the World Youth Boxing Championship, held at Baku, Azerbaijan, India won 1 Gold & 1 Silver. Gold medal was won by Vikas Krishan and Silver medal was won by Shiva Thapa.
  * India won bronze medal in the 2nd Asian Paragliding Championship held at Nishiewa, Japan.
  * World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand retained his title after defeating Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the World Chess Championship 2010. Vandana Shiva has been awarded Sydney Peace Prize 2010 for her work in the field of social justice.
  Gita Gopinath an Indian origin associate professor at Harvard Univ has been appointed a full professor, the first Indian woman in the Institution’s history to ge given this appointment.
  * Former Vice President of India, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat died.
  * Rima Fakih was crowned Miss USA 2010. She became the first ever muslim American Miss USA. She is of Lebanese muslim descent.
  * Singer Christina Aguilera was named Ambassador against hunger by the United Nations World Food Programme.
  * Rushanara Ali became first person of Bangladesh origin to be elected to the British Parliament.
  * David Cameron elected Prime Minister of Britain. Nick Clegg became the Dy Prime Minister. Britain gets first coalition govt since World War-II. It is between Conservative and Liberal Democrats.
  * Justice S H Kapadia sworn as new Chief Justice of India.
  * Hari S Bhartia elected as President of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) for 2010-11.
  * Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail unassisted around the world in a yatch.  Belgium became the Europe’s first country to ban burqa.
  * Pakistan’s National assembly passed a bill that takes away the President’s power to dissolve parliament, dismiss a elected government and appoint the three services Chiefs. Pakistan’s parliament passes 18th amendment which was later signed by Presient cutting President’s powers.
  * USA and Russia signed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty(START) that allowed a maximum of 1550 deployed overheads, about 30% lower than a limit set in 2002. The treaty was signed in the Progue Castle.
  * Emergency was imposed in Thailand.
  * Nuclear Security Summit held at Washington.It was a 47 nation summit wherein P.M. announced setting up of a global nuclear energy centre for conducting research & development of design systems that are secure, proliferation resistant & sustainable.
  * PM visit USA & Brazil, a two nation tour. He attended Nuclear Security Summit in USA & India- Brazil-S.Africa(IBSA) and Brazil-Russia-India-China(BRIC) summit in Brasilia (Brazil).
  * 16th SAARC Summit held in Bhutan in 28-29 April. The summit was held in Bhutan for the first time. It is the silver jubilee summit as SAARC has completed 25 years. The summit central theme was ‘Climate Change’. The summit recommended to declare 2010-2020 as the “Decade of Intra-regional Connectivity in SAARC”. The 17th SAARC summit will be held in Maldives in 2011.
• * Uninque Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) now known as Aadhaar. It’s Chairman is Nandan Nilekani. It will assign 16 digit identification number to all residents in India.
  * NTRO- National Technical Research Organisation. The organization came to limelight after allegation of phone tapping of politicians.
  * Indian navy commissioned India’s first indigenously built stealth warship ‘ INS Shivalik’. The other stealth warship to be built are named as ‘INS Sahyadri’ and INS Satpura’.
  * Right To Education Act is notified and will become a legally enforceable from 1 April 2010. Key features of RTE Act are : All children in 6-14 age group must get free and compulsory eduction; No child shall be held back,expelled or required to pass a board examination till Class VIII; There must be 25 % reservation for poor children even in private & minority schools; There must be one teacher for every 30 students; A child rights commission will look into violations of the RTE law.
  * Govt start Census 2011. It is the 15th Census. It is in two phase. The first phase is called –House listing & Housing Census and the second phase is called decadal headcount which will be held in Feb 2011. The Registrar General of India is C Chandramouli.
   IPL3 season won by Chennai Super Kings defeating Mumbai Indians.
  * Youth Olympics Games 2010 to be held in Singapore in Aug 2010.
  * World Youth Championship was held at Baku, Azerbaijan.
  * Lawn tennis legend Martina Navratilova diagnosed with Breast Cancer.
  * ‘Jumbo’ chosen as 2011 World Cricket Cup Mascot.
  * World Kabbadi Cup 2010- India defeated Pakistan to won World Cup Kabbadi 2010 held at Ludhiana.
  * Pankaj Advani won the Asian Billiards Championship defeating Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist for the consecutive third time.
• India became the 7th largest shareholder in World Bank. 
• * Government approved disinvestment of 20% of share in SAIL in this financial year.
• 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the best first Book was awarded to Glenda Guest for the novel ‘Siddon Rock’. Rana Dasgupta won Commonwealth Writers Prize for best Book 2010 for book ‘Solo’.
  * Carl Zeiss wildlife conservation award was won by Joydip Kundu.
  * Amitav Ghosh won the Dan David Prize alongwith Margaret Atwood for ‘Rendition of the 2oth century’.
• 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the best first Book was awarded to Glenda Guest for the novel ‘Siddon Rock’. Rana Dasgupta won Commonwealth Writers Prize for best Book 2010 for book ‘Solo’.
  * Carl Zeiss wildlife conservation award was won by Joydip Kundu.
  * Amitav Ghosh won the Dan David Prize alongwith Margaret Atwood for ‘Rendition of the 2oth century’.
•  Gorumara National Park, Jalpaigudi has been declared the best among the 235 national parks & sanctuaries in the country by the MOEF.
•  International congress of Mathematicians will be hosted by India for the first time in August 2010 at Hyderabad. The congress has been held once every four years since 1897except the breaks during two world wars.
• * Government will opened four new campuses for the IIMC(Indian Institute of Mass Communication) at Nagpur, Kochi, Jammu and Aizawl.
  * Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Derjeeling become first zoo in the country to install infrared night vision cameras in the enclosures housing endangered snow leopard.
•  Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra was sworn in as Judge of Supreme Court of India. She became the 4th women judge to be elevated to the Supreme Court of India.
  * Justice S H Kapadia will be next Chief Justice of India.
  * Mukul Sangma shown in as Meghalaya Chief Minister
• * Govt launched National Mission for Empowerment of Women aimed at inter-sectoral convergence of all pro- women programmes.
  * Constitution 108th Amendment Bill 2008 commonly known as women’s reservation bill was passed by Rajya Sabha by 186 in favour 1 against 39 abstained (Current strength of Rajya Sabha is 233). The bill seeks to reserve a third of the seats on the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for 15 years on a rotational basis. It was first introduced in 1996. Sharad Joshi, an independent MP is the only MP which cast vote against the bill. In the present Lok Sabha, there are 59 women MPs out of 543 MPs. Total MLAs in 29 state assemblies in India are 4093.
• Govt amends Anti Hijacking Act 1982. It now provides for death sentence to the hijackers.
   India became 1st country in the world to have a ‘manoeuvrable’ supersonic cruise missile, when it successfully test fired 290 km range Brahmos missile.
•  Australia won World Hockey Cup 2010 defeating Germany. India ranked at 8th place.
  * India won six gold medal in the Commonwealth Boxing Championship held at Delhi.
• * Rajan Bharti Mittal appointed President FICCI.
  * Major Dimple Singla became first women army officer in the country who has been sentenced to imprisonment for corruption.
  * Bhubneshwar Kalita has been choosen as the Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent at Commonwealth Games 2010.
  * Cricketer Kapil Dev has been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
  * Former Supreme Court judge P V Reddy appointed as Chairman, Law Commission of India.
  * Lt Gen V K Singh appointed as new Army Chief.
  * Sonia Gandhi appointed head of National Advisory Council. NAC advice the govt on policy matters, monitor flagship programmes and prepare the ground for other pro-poor legislatures.
  * Lyricist Javed Akhtar, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Dr Ram Dayal Munda, Dr Balchandra Mungekar and Kannada Actress B Jayashree are among other persons nominated to Rajya Sabha.
  * Austrian base jumper Felix Baumgartnar will became the first person to leaps from the edge of space at a height of 37 km above earth’s surface. He become the first man to break the speed of sound hitting a top speed of about 11000km/hr. He will jump on 11 April 2010.
  * Katie Spotz became the youngest person to complete a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
  * Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepal Ex Prime Minister died. He was 5th time Nepal PM.
  192 year old Presidency College of Kolkatta (India’s oldest college) converted into Presidency University. It became 18th state university in West Bengal.
  * Railways started ‘Maharajas Express’ from Kolkatta to Delhi. It is a tourist train having stoppage at Gaya, Varanasi, Bandhavgarh, Gwalior, Khajuraho and Agra.
•  Constitution 112th Amendment Bill 2009 seeks to amend following clauses of Article 243T of the Constitution that provides for reservation of seats for SC & ST and also for women in Urban Local bodies : a) In clause (2) for the word ‘one third’, the word ‘one half’ shall be substituted, b) In clause (3) the word ‘one third’ , the word ‘one half shall be substituted.
• European Union summit was held in Brussels. EU & IMF decided to giving support to Greece in its struggle to bring its ballooning budget deficit under control. EU President is Herman Van Rompuy.
   Kirit Parikh committee , set up to review petro pricing regime, submit its recommendation. Its major recommendation are to deregulate the prices of petrol & diesel as per market prices, reduce the subsidy on LPG.
  * India signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with the UK, which became the 8th country to enter into such a pact, since the lifting of atomic trade embargo in 2008.
  * Govt set up a panel under the Chairmanship of former Justice B N Srikrishna which would consider the demand for splitting Andhra Pradesh.
  * India and Denmark signed a social security pact which will relieve their workers from double taxation and provide for cooperation in areas of labour market expansion and orderly migration.
•  Constitution 111th Amendment – Proposes to incorporate a new Part ( Part IX B) in the Constitution so as to provide for legal framework to regulate the functioning of cooperative societies. A new Article ( Article 43 B) is also proposed to be inserted in Part IV of the Constitution (Directive Principles of State Policy) for the States to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning of cooperative societies.
  * Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2009 commonly known as Nuclear Liability Bill will be introduced by Govt in Parliament in Winter session 2010. The draft bill aims at limiting the liability of a nuclear plant operator to Rs. 300 crore in the eventuality of an accident. The bill provides for the penalty to be paid by the operator and not the supplier companies which would mainly be American in this case. India has entered into civil nuclear cooperation agreement with eight countries so far.
• 
  * 11th South Asian Games 2010 : Held at Dhaka, Bangladesh from 29 Jan to 8 Feb. Originally scheduled to take place in 2009, but due to general elections in Bangladesh, the games were held in 2010. This was the third time that the Dhaka hosted the Games, thus becoming the first city to hold the games three times. 8 countries participated in the games in 23 different sports, including T20 cricket, which was introduced for the first time in SAG. The 8 countries included are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan & Sri Lanka. 1The logo of the games was ‘Kutumb’, a flying doel , which is the national bird of Bangladesh. The mascot of the games featured a magpie robin, which was holding the torch to begin the games. The final medal tally include : India - 1st place with 90 G 55 S 29 B Total 174, Pakistan- 2nd place with 19 G 25 S 36 B Total 80, Bangladesh- 3rd place with 18 G 23 S 56 B Total 97.
• 11th World Hockey Cup 2010- To be held in Delhi, India. This is 2nd WHC which India is hosting. India also hosted the WHC in 1982 at Mumbai. 12 countries participated in the tournament. WHC is held in the years between two summer Olympics. First WHC was held at Barcelona in 1971. Pakistan has won the cup four times, Netherland three times, Germany two times, India & Australia once each. India won the WHC in 1975.
  * Sachin Tendulkar became first player in the world to score a double century in ODI (One day International). He scored 200 (Not out) against South Africa.
  * Commonwealth Shooting Championship was held in New Delhi in Feb 2010. India stood at first place with 35 Gold 25 Silver.
• * Govt appointed R S Pandey as its mediator for talk with NSCN(IM) in Nagaland to carry forward the peace process.
  * Former Justice P V Reddy will be appointed as Chairman, Law Commission of India.
  * Ram Baran Yadav, Nepal President visit India in Feb 2010. It was the first visit by Yadav to any foreign country after taking over as Nepal’s President. Yadav is the first President of Nepal since monarchy ended in 2008. India extended $ 250 million soft line of credit to Nepal.
  * Rajinder Singh became first non-white and also first Asian member of the right wing British National Party, after it amended its constitution to allow black and Asian to be its member.
  * Amitabh Bachan became the brand ambassador of Gujarat state.
  * Amnesty International, the global human right organization has appointed Salid Shetty as its next Secy General from June 2010. He will be the first Indian to head the organization.
  * Shah Rukh Khan & Kajol become the first Indian bollywood actors to ring the opening bell of the world’s biggest stock exchange’ NASDAQ’.
  * Rajiv Satav appointed President, Indian Youth Congress.
  * Katrina Kaif awarded with 2009 Excellence in Performing Arts Award established by ASSOCHAM.
  * M H Hussain, famous painter accepted citizenship of Qatar.
•  Planning Commission grant special category status to the Bundelkhand region comprising 9 distt of Uttar Pradesh and 15 distt of Madhya Pradesh for the irrigation projects. Under special category status, state govt can seek 90 % grant assistance from the centre and 10 % as loan.
  * Govt revises base year for the calculation of National Income from 1999-2000 to 2004-2005. The GDP for 2009-10 will be Rs. 55,74,449 crore and the fiscal deficit for the corresponding period will be 6.4 %.
  * Capital Control – Foreign capital inflows in the form of loans and equity that are allowed in a restricted form are said to be controlled. The capital inflows include foreign borrowings by Indian corporate and businesses, NRI deposits and portfolio flow from institutional investors into the stock market. Loans to Govt and short term trade credit are also included. India had control on both capital account transactions as well as on current account with the local currency fixed by the Central Bank. In 1991, rupee was first made convertible on the current account. In 1994, Govt allows foreign portfolio investments.
  * Govt will replace Benchmark Prime Lending System (BPLR) with Base rate system from 1 April 2010 to make bank lending more transparent. It provided for minimum rate for all types of loans for banks.
• ttarakhand became first state in the country to ban the cultivation of Bt Brinjal ( Country’s first Genetically Modified food crop). Bt Brijnal is a genetically modified crop which has a special gene- Cry1AC, inserted to make it poisonous to pests. GM Crops resists pests and give better yields as well as nutrition. Bt Brinjal is developed in India by Mahyco company. GM foods are derived from organisms whose DNA has been modified through genetic engineering.
• * Present life expectancy of life at birth in India is 63.4 yrs. The highest expectancy of life is in Australia of 81.4 yrs, 81 yrs for France and 79.3 yrs for England.
  * World Cancer Day – 04 Feb
• Australian Open 2010 : Women’s Single- Serena William defeated Justin Henin. It is Serena’s 5th Australian Open title. It is also Serena’s 12th Grand Slam title equaling the record of Billie Jean King. Men’s Single- Roger Federer(Swiss) defeated Andy Murray(Britain). It is Federer’s 4th Australian Open title. It is Federer’s 16th Grand Slam title.  Mixed Double – Laender Paes (India) & Cara Black (Zimbabwe) defeated Ekterina Makasova & Jaroslav Levinsky. It is Paes’s 11th Grand Slam title
• 97th Indian Science Congress held at Tiruvananthapuram in Jan 2010. The theme of this year congress was ‘ Science & Technology of 21st Century- National Perspective’.
•  50th anniversary of creation of LASER is being celebrated in 2010. Theodore Maiman constructed the first LASER in May 1960. LASER stands for Light Amplification for Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Charles H Townes was father of MASER.
   Lee Myung Bak, South Korea President was the Chief Guest at 2010 Republic Day Parade.
• Shiv Shankar Menon is appointed as National Security Advisor.
  * Vikram Srivastava appointed as Director General of CRPF(Central Reserve Police Force).
  * Ranjit Kumar Bhatia appointed as Director General of ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police).

Coming back

Coming back with the blog soon.Stay tuned.

NREGA- AN ASSESSMENT PART 1

Independent India has to acknowledge the critical role the NREGA has played in providing a measure of inclusive growth. It has given people a right to work, to re-establish the dignity of labour, to ensure people’s economic and democratic rights and entitlements, to create labour intensive infrastructure and assets, and to build the human resource base of our country. For the first time, the power elite recognises the people’s right to fight endemic hunger and poverty with dignity, accepting that their labour will be the foundation for infrastructure and economic growth. The entitlements paradigm is still to be established in many States in the country. Second generation issues like the expansion of the categories of permissible works needs to be taken up with labour and the deprived continuing to be the central focus. The improvements must be to strengthen, not divert from these basic tenets. In the midst of the current economic slowdown, there is enough evidence that this kind of commitment can work to help reduce the slowdown.

The political class would do well to understand that the most important solution is an assertion of its will to respond to people’s voices. The many wise, creative, and innovative initiatives emerging from theory and practice have a future only if they are owned by the people and implemented with justice. The NREGA can give people an opportunity to make the entire system truly transparent and accountable. Properly supported, people’s struggles for basic entitlements can, in turn, become the strongest political initiative to strengthen our democratic fabric.