CURRENT AFFAIRS 2009 PART 2

India defeated Syria by 5-4 (penalty shootout) in the finals on August 31, 2009 to win the Nehru Cup International Football Tournament 2009.Goal-keeper Subroto Paul, who saved three penalties to become India’s savior, was awarded the man of the match of the final.
India won this cup two times, 2007 & 2009.

Dr. Madhavan Nair, Chief of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is elected as the new President of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA)

Air Marshal Sumit Mukerjee  is the new Air Officer Commanding –in-Chief of Southern Air Command of India. He is the only pilot in the history of IAF to have commanded units with the Mig-21,Mig-23U, Mig-25, Mig-27 and Mig-29 aircraft

India achieved a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate 6.1% during April-June 2009

Fiji has been expelled from the Commonwealth after failing to announce plans to hold elections in 2010

Irina Bokova, Bulgarian diplomat is the new director of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, (UNESCO)

Ford Figo is the much anticipated small car for India, was unveiled in Delhi by Ford Motor Company

Churchill Brothers won the Durand Cup 2009 by defeating Mohan Bagan in the final.

Yugratna Srivastav, a 13 year old girl addressed the United Nations Climate Change Summit in New York

Yukio Hatoyama will be named the 93rd Prime Minister of Japan

Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina battled back to beat five-times champion Roger Federer 3-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 in the final to win the US Open 2009

Kim Clijsters won the US Open womens trophy. She beat 19-year-old Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, 7-5, 6-3, in the final.She became the first unseeded woman to win the US Open and the first mother to win a major title since 1980.

Pankaj Advani became the second Indian after Geet Sethi to win the World’s Billiards Championship

Churchill Brothers, Goa won their maiden IFA shield Football tournament
.They beating local giant Mohun Bagan 2-0

Transparency International has released their annual corruption index, and has ranked China as 79th and India 84th out of 180 countries. The evaluation of the extent of corruption is based on opinion from country experts – resident and non-residents – and business leaders. The corruption index measures perceived levels of public sector corruption in a country. New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland are the top five least corrupt nations.

Dolphin is now India’s national aquatic animal. The decision was taken following a suggestion by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at a meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said the new status for the dolphin would help save the rare freshwater species from disappearing from the country’s aqua map.

India successfully launched a cluster of six European micro-satellites into low-earth orbit after deploying its 960 kg remote sensing satellite Oceansat-2 in the polar sun-synchronous orbit. Of the six micro-satellites, four are from Germany and one each from Switzerland and Turkey, with a combined weight of 20 kg. The first four tiny spacecraft, named Cubsats, are educational satellites from European universities weighing around 1 kg and developed to perform technology demonstration in space. The other two spacecrafts are named Rubin-9.1 and Rubin-9.2 weighing 8 kg each, are primarily used for the automatic identification system for maritime applications.

The Congress president Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the Bandra Worli sea link in Mumbai. It is India’s first sea bridge.The 5.6 kilometers long cable-stayed bridge has been designed to allow for speedy road travel between Bandra and Worli. It costs Rs. 50 to take a trip on the link, and will cost Rs. 75 for a round trip. It would be nothing compared to the Rs 100 crore per year that the link will save in the vehicle operating cost alone. The link is equipped for traffic monitoring, emergency support and an automated toll system. The construction of the sea link would save people's time

In the Satyam Computers bidding process, three huge companies namely Tech Mahindra, Engineering L&T, and Wilbur Ross had participated. Tech Mahindra has won in the Satyam bid by paying Rs. 1757 crore and now has 31% stake in Satyam. Tech Mahindra will pay Rs 58 per share; L&T had offered to pay of 49 Rs per share and so lost out.

Golden whistle for Indian Hockey umpire (10th Nov 2009) Satinder Kumar has become the first Indian umpire to get the golden whistle from the International Hockey Federation (FIH) for officiating in 100 matches. Satinder is the 29th international umpire to get the honor, Hockey India said in a statement. Satinder umpired in his 100th match at the ongoing World Cup Qualifiers in Invercargill, New Zealand yesterday.

Maradona fined and banned for foul-mouthed tirade (16th Nov 2009)FIFA's disciplinary body has dished out a two month ban to Argentina's coach Diego Maradona, punishing him for the tirade after this team grabbed a spot in the 2010 finals in South Africa. Apart from the ban effective from Nov 15 to Jan 15, 2010, the body also slapped a fine of 25,000 Swiss francs ($24,600) on the football legend

NASA signs agreement with ISRO for use of Indian satellite oceansat-2(19th Nov 2009) US space agency NASA has signed an agreement with ISRO to use data from Indian satellite Oceansat-2, for various American agencies for research activities, including weather forecasting. Launched on September 23, 2009 using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from Sriharikota, Oceansat-2 is designed to provide service continuity for operational users of the Ocean Color Monitor (OCM) instrument on Oceansat-1

Three Americans won 2009 Nobel Prize and one among them is India-born. They are Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath. Ramakrishnan is India-born American and Ada Yonath is Israeli. They were awarded with Nobel Prize in chemistry for mapping ribosome. It is the protein-producing factories within body cells, at the atomic level.

Ariane 5 rocket, the world's largest telescope was launched on May 15 from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana to investigate the origins of the universe. The Herschel telescope was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) at a cost of 1.1 billion euros ($1.49 billion). The main objective of the telescope is to determine how the stars and galaxies are formed in the universe.

Motorola has unveiled a new kind of mobile phone called MOTO W233 Renew which is made from recycled plastic water bottles. According to the handset manufacturing company, MOTO W233 Renew is also a carbon neutral phone. The company is said to have collaborated with Carbonfund.org to manufacture the new mobile phone. Interestingly the container that holds the phone is also made from recycled material.