May 2013 Current Affairs - I

8/18/2019 May 2013 Current Affairs - I

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MAY – 2013 CURRENT AFFAIRS {Part I}

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murugesansenthi l .b logspot .com


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CONTENTS

# Topic Page No01 Awards / Honours………………………………………. 005-012

02 Committee/Education/Surveys…………………… 013-018

03 Persons in News/Defence…………………………… 019-026

04 Science & Technology………………………………… 027-038

05 Economics / Business…………………………………. 039-04706 India (States scan/Cabinet/Court)……………… 050-094

07 World…………………………………………………………… 095-111

08 Bilateral issues…………………………………………… 112-128

09 Sports…………………………………………………………. 129-138

10 SAARC meet on child labour……………………… 139


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Important Days in the month of May:-

WHO SAID WHAT?

“I have been apolitical all my life and do not see why I should change into apolitical person”

- Mr. Vinod Rai (former CAG)“Sri Lankan issue was at worst an internal strife, while the J&K situation was“external aggression” sponsored by Pakistan and the two were completelydifferent”

- Mr. Y ashwant Sinha (BJ P Leader)“Prime Minister, Dr. M anmohan Singh is a victim of dual-power centre inCongress”

- Mr. Arun Jaitely

(Leader of Opposition, RS)“The Union government’s style of handling the issue of Chinese incursion intoLadakh has pictured India as a weak nation”

- Mr. Arun Jaitely(Leader of Opposition, RS)

“OBCs are foos and Brahmins are intelligent”- Mr. Beni Prasad Verma

(Union Steel Minister)

May 01 International Labourers Day

May 03 World Press Freedom Day

May 04 Coal Miners’ Day

May 08 World Red Cross Day

May 09 World Thalassaemia Day

May 11 National Technology Day

World Hypertension DayMay 12

International Nurses Day

May 15 International Day of the Family

May 17 World Telecommunication Day

May 21 Anti-terrorism Day

May 24 Commonwealth Day

May 25 World Thyroid DayMay 29 International Mount Everest Day (designated by Nepal)

May 31 Anti-Tobacco Day

May First Sunday World Laughter Day

May First Tuesday World Asthma Day

May Second Sunday Mother’s Day


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Books and Authors:

Book Author

Bitter Wormwood Easterine K ireDifficult Pleasures Anjum HasanIndia’s Borderland Disputes – China,Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal

Amma Orton

My Journey – Memories V. ShantaEm and the Big Hoom Jerry PintoRavan and Eddie Kiran Nagarkar


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MAY – 2013 CURRENT AFFAIRS

SECTION – I

Man Booker International Prize 2013

Green Oscar Award

National Technology Award 2013

Cannes Film Festival 2013

AWARDS / HONOURS


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American writer Lydia Davis won the prestigious Man BookerInternational Prize 2013. The New York based writer-translator bagged the£60, 000 prize for her innovative and influential writing which includes worksuch as “The End of the Story ” and “Varieti es of Di sturbances ”

India’s connection in 2013 prize:- Well known Kannada author U. R.Ananthamurthy, was the only Indian to be shortlisted for the Man BookerInternational Prize 2013.Nominees:- U R Ananthamurthy (India) Aharon Appelfeld (Israel) Lydia Davis (USA) Intizar Husain (Pakistan) Yan Lianke (China) Marie NDiaye (France)

J osip Novakovich (Canada) Marilynne Robinson (USA) Vladimir Sorokin (Russia) Peter Stamm (Switzerland)

Marilynne Robinson was the only writer out of the ten nominees who hasbeen nominated for the prize before.About Man Booker International Prize:-

The Man Booker International Prize is a biennial international literaryaward given to a living author of any nationality for a body of work publishedin English or generally available in English translation. The introduction of

the International Prize was announced in J une 2004. The award, which issponsored by the Man Group, complements the Man Booker Prize andrewards one author's continued creativity, development and overallcontribution to fiction on the world stage. Therefore the award is a recognitionof the writer's body of work, rather than any one title. The judges for the yearcompile their own lists of authors and submissions are not invited.

While the Man Booker Prize is only open to writers from theCommonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe, the International Prize is open toall nationalities. The award is worth £60,000 and an author can only winonce. The Man Booker International prize also allows for a separate award for

translation. The winning author can choose a translator of their work intoEnglish to receive a prize sum of £15,000. A similar prize to the Man BookerInternational Prize is the Neustadt International Prize for Literature which islike the Man Booker International Prize awarded biennially. In contrast, theNobel Prize in L iterature, the International Dublin Literary Award, and theFranz Kafka Prize are each awarded annually.

Man Booker International Prize 2013


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Winners so far:-

Year Winner Country Language2005 Ismail Kadare Albania Albanian2007 Chinua Achebe Nigeria English

2009 Alice Munro Canada English2011 Philip Roth USA English2013 Lydia Davis USA English

India's hornbill conservator Aparajita Datta has won a 'Green Oscar':the Whitley award. Princess Royal Anne, daughter of the UK's QueenElizabeth, presented the Whitley award, an international nature conservationprize, to Datta at a ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London in

honour of the latter's work to protect threatened hornbills in the forests ofArunachal Pradesh.

Soon after six hill forts in Rajasthan were nominated for UNESCO’sWorld Heritage List, the architectural heritage of the State received yetanother recognition as the 12th century Ahhichatragarh Fort of Nagaur wasshortlisted for the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

The “rehabilitation project” of the 12th century monument was among

the 20 architectural projects, spread across 16 countries, shortlisted from 800entries for this year’s edition of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture(AKAA), announced at the Palacio das Necessidades (the Ministry of ForeignAffairs) in Lisbon, Portugal.

The shortlist features a wide range of architectural projects — from amodern high-rise apartment block to the revival of traditional buildingtechniques — located in Afghanistan, Austria, China, India, Indonesia, Iran,Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan,Syria, Thailand and Yemen. The US$ 1 million award selects projects not onlyfor their architectural excellence but also for their potential to improve “the

overall quality of life.”According to the AKAA website, the rehabilitation of theAhhichatragarh fort, built by Muslim rulers in the 12th century, has adheredto the principles of minimum intervention. “Materials and constructionmethods of an earlier era were rediscovered, paintings and architecturalfeatures conserved, and the historic pattern of access through seven successivegates re-created,” notes the website. It particularly recognises “the finding andrestoration of the intricate water system” within the fort, observing how “90

Green Oscar Award

Nagaur Fort shortlisted for Aga Khan Award


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fountains are now running in the gardens and buildings, where none werefunctional at the project’s outset.” From housing several government officesand a Border Security Force base, the fort has come a long way to its presentrestored phase.About the award:-

The award was established by Aga Khan IV, an international businessmagnate and the 49th Imam of Nizari Ismailism, in 1977 to “identify andencourage building concepts that successfully address the needs andaspirations of communities in which Muslims have a significant presence.”

The Award recognises examples of architectural excellence in the fields ofcontemporary design, social housing, community improvement anddevelopment, historic preservation, reuse and area conservation, as well aslandscape design and improvement of the environment.

President, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee presented the National TechnologyAward for 2013 to

Messrs Biovet Private Limited, a firm based in Kolar, K arnataka,for the successful commercialisation of vaccines for twoimportant diseases that afflict animals. The technology wasprovided by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute atIzzatnagar, Uttar Pradesh.

The National Award for best technology commercialisation by asmall scale unit went to Pyrodynamics of Bangalore. The second

award in the category went to Messrs Accurate Gauging andInstruments Private Limited of Pune.In addition, the President presented awards to Kongu Engineering

College, Perundurai in Tamil Nadu, K.M. Shankar of K arnataka Veterinary,Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, Bidar, R.K . Vijh and his team fromthe National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources Karnal, and Samir K umarof West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences for theircontribution in the development and commercialisation of various innovativebiotechnology products.

The Hindu MetroPlus Playwright Award 2013 goes to ManjimaChatterjee for her The Mountain of Bones . Instituted by The Hindu in 2008, theannual award carries a prize of Rs. 1 lakh for the best unpublished andunperformed play script in English. The Mountain of Bones was selected fromaround 50 entries received from all over the country.

National Technology Award-2013

Manjima Chatterjee


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Ms. Chatterjee, who teaches theatre at the Shiv Nadar School atNOIDA near Delhi, has written a number of plays that have been shortlistedand commended in playwriting competitions. In 2010, her play Limbo wasshortlisted for The Hindu MetroPlus Playwright Award. The jury of the BBCInternational Radio Playwriting Competition commended her play The Baby

Shower in 2011 and shortlisted another (Two Men on a Tree) last year.Earlier, a panel of three distinguished judges had longlisted nine plays,

of which three were shortlisted. The other two shortlisted entries wereDeepika Arwind’s Nobody Sleeps Alone and Akash Mohimen’s Under theChestnut Tree .

Indian-American Sathwik Karnik (12) has won the prestigious NationalGeographic Bee contest after getting all five questions right as the children of

community members continue to dominate the geography bee and the spellingbee competitions in the U.S. To clinch the title, Karnik correctly namedChimborazo as the mountain in Ecuador that represents the farthest pointfrom the Earth’s centre.

Karnik, whose parents emigrated to the U.S. as software professionalsfrom Karnataka, got all five questions right in his one-on-one contest withConrad Oberhaus (13), the runner-up. Karnik, a native of Norfolk, south ofBoston, is a 7th grader at King Philip Regional M iddle School.

The national competition this time round turned out to be dominatedby the Indian-Americans even as in the finals held in Washington, eight of the

10 finalists, who competed among the four million participants for thecompetition, were Indian-Americans.

Former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu Mr. N. Ram and veteran author- journalist-activist Kuldip Nayar were honoured with the prestigious RedInkLifetime Achievement Award for 2013 for a career dedicated to good

journalism by the Press Club of Mumbai.Later, in a panel debate, ‘Keeping the media free and fair’, moderated

by television anchor Arnab Goswami, Mr. Ram said the media in India faceda daily threat from a judiciary seeking to encroach on them through laws suchas ‘criminal defamation’ and ‘contempt of court’. Mr. Ram also expressed hisdoubts on the fairness of the media not only in a developing country like Indiabut also in developed western countries like the U.K . and the United States.He said the phenomenon of paid news, coupled with ‘hyper-commercialisation’ and the control that proprietors exerted over content,detracted from a healthy state of affairs within the media. Editorialising in the

Indian-American wins National Geographic Bee

RedInk Lifetime Achievement Award 2013


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guise of news has become a vice not only in the Indian press but also in thepress abroad, and the reporter in the field [is] compelled to editorialise. In theprocess, the standards of journalism have been affected.

An audacious lesbian love story, Blue is the Warmest Colour by French- Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche, won the top prize at the Cannes FilmFestival in a watershed year for gay rights. An all-star jury at cinema’s topshowcase led this year by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg crowned thegraphically erotic coming-of-age story set in France. The award came on theday of a major demonstration in Paris against a new law making France the14th country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.

The 66th annual Cannes Film Festival took place in Cannes, France,from 15 to 26 May 2013.

Steven Spielberg was the head of the jury for the maincompetition.

The New Zealand film director J ane Campion was the head ofthe jury for the Cinéfondation and Short Film sections.

The French actress Audrey Tautou hosted the opening andclosing ceremonies.

The festival opened with The Great Gatsby , directed by Baz Luhrmannand closed with Zulu , directed by Jérôme Salle. The French film Blue Is theWarmest Colour won the Palme d'Or. In an unprecedented move, the Jurydecided to take "the exceptional step" of awarding the film's two main

actresses with the Palme d'Or along with the director.

Awards:-

Award Name Film (titles in English) ProductionCountries

Winner Directed by

Palme d’Or Blue is the warmestcolour

France ------- AbdellatifKechiche

Grandd Prix Inside Llewyn Davis USA ------ Ethan Coen, JoelCoen

Best Director Heli Mexico ------- Amat Escalante

Best Screenplay A touch of Sin China J ia Zhangke J ia ZhangkeBest Actor (M) Nebraska USA Bruce Dern Alexander PayneBest Actor (F) The Past France Berenice Bejo Asghar Farhadi

Jury Prize Like Father, Like Son Japan -------- Kore-edaHirokazu

Cannes Film Festival – 2013; Lesbian love story wins ‘best film’


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In a rare gesture, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented PadmaShri to eminent J apanese Tamil language scholar Noboru Karashima for his

outstanding contribution inthe field of literature andeducation. The 80-year-oldMr. Karashima could not bepresent for the Padmaawards ceremony in NewDelhi on April 5, 2013 due tohealth reasons. The awardswere given by PresidentPranab Mukherjee at

Rashtrapati Bhavan.Mr. Karashima,presently Professor Emeritusat the University of Tokyo,had spent several years inIndia as a research scholar

on South Indian history and epigraphy at the University of Madras. Besidesamazing people with the ease with which he speaks Tamil, Mr. Karashima isalso an acknowledged authority on medieval South Indian inscriptions.

The citation read that Mr. Karashima joined the University of Tokyo

faculty in 1964 and occupied the prestigious Chair of South Asian History atthe university in 1974, which he held for 20 years. The scholar received astanding ovation as he received the award from the Prime Minister.

DRDO Director General V.K . Saraswat and space propulsion veteranA.E. Muthunayagam was conferred the Aryabhatta lifetime awards for 2011and 2010.

PM presents ‘Padma Shri’ to Japanese Scholar

Aryabhatta Award 2011, 2012


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SECTION – II

Arvind Mayaram Committee

Raghuram Rajan Panel

COMMITTEE / EDUCATION /SURVEYS


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The Government has constituted a four-member committee headed byEconomic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram for giving clear definitions toForeign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investment (FII),

with an aim to remove ambiguity over the two types of foreign investments. The DIPP Secretary, an RBI Deputy Governor and a SEBI Whole-timeMember are the other members of the “high power committee.” It will takeabout two-and-a-half months to come out with the report.

Mr. Mayaram told that, there is a lot of confusion in the mind offoreign investors because there is no distinction between FDI and FII … Thecommittee has been constituted pursuant to the budget announcements by theFinance Minister. I t will simplify definition as to what constitutes FII andwhat constitutes FDI. He, however, clarified that the panel would look at thedefinition of FDI and FII and not the foreign investment caps in different

sectors.At present, if an investor has a stake of 10 per cent or less in acompany, the investment is treated as foreign institutional investment. If aninvestor has a stake of more than 10 per cent, it is treated as foreign directinvestment.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in his Budget speech, had proposedto follow the international practice with regard to defining FDI and FII. Thecommittee would be constituted to examine the application of the principleand to work out the details expeditiously.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that a high level sub-committee would be formed soon to revisit the criteria for decidingbackwardness. The sub-committee to be headed by Prime Minister'sEconomic Advisor Raghuram Rajan would be told to submit the report in amonth's time to decide which state qualifies, Chidambaram told reporters.

Asked about the chance of Bihar being on the list, the Union ministersaid, "Bihar will certainly qualify (on the new criteria of backwardness)."Chidambaram, who in his Budget speech had favoured changing criteria fordeciding backwardness of a state for the purpose of giving special status, saidthings are well on the move.

Committee to define FDI and FII

Panel to decide on backwardness of states


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A committee looking into U.S. giant Walmart’s lobbying activities toenter India submitted its report to Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot.Former Chief J ustice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal, whoheaded the panel set up to look into lobbying activities in contravention of any

Indian law and any other matter relevant to this issue by Walmart, submittedthe report to Mr. Pilot. No details of the report were immediately available.

There was political uproar following reports about Walmart’s lobbyingamong the U.S. lawmakers since 2008 for facilitating its entry into the Indianmarket. The government in December, 2012, had assured Parliament to getthe matter probed by a retired judge.

Soon, knowledge of gender sensitive issues may be mandatory for a job

in a university. A 10-member Task Force set up by the University GrantsCommission (UGC) to recommend measures to ensure the safety of womenon campuses in the country will explore varied aspects including evolving newadditional eligibility criteria for teaching and non-teaching job aspirants.

The Task Force headed by UGC Member M eenakshi Gopinath willamong other things “suggest how awareness of gender sensitive issues bemade an essential eligibility criteria in the future recruitment of university staffboth teaching as well as non-teaching.” The Task Force will additional suggesthow gender education and sensitisation can be made an integral part of theuniversity curriculum in all subject domains.

In an official order issued recently, UGC deputy director R C Kanderasaid the Task Force will also analyse and assess the extent to which theexisting arrangements for safety of women, both students and staff, and youthin general, are adequate on the campuses.

The experts will also identify shortcomings in the existing system andsuggest measures to put in place strong safeguards. They will also evaluategrievance redressal mechanism for gender specific concerns and suggestmeasures to strengthen them. Besides, they would suggest academic measuresand action programmes to bring about changes in practices and attitudeswithin society for recognising the fundamental right.

The Beijing Institute of Technology, a government-run researchuniversity known for its work on China’s space programme, signed a first of itskind Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Karnataka-based ManipalUniversity paving the way for closer collaboration on joint research projects.

Panel probing Walmart lobbying submits report

Gender sensitivity may soon be mandatory for univ jobs

Indian, Chinese varsities sign agreement


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The MoU says both universities will take forward exchanges of studentsand faculty, and issue dual degrees. They will also undertake cooperativeresearch and development activities.

Manipal University, also sign an MoU with BIT’s sister university, theNanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in southern J iangsu

province. Both universities have ties to China’s space programme, and alsorun research and development programmes related to defence projects.

BIT has a research budget in the range of $500 million, and is amongthe top five Chinese universities in terms of allocations it receives. Unlikeother universities, it is run by the Ministry of Industry and Information

Technology, and not the Education Ministry.

The number of Fulbright fellowships offered to applicants from India

and scholars from the U.S. coming to the country tripled after the Uniongovernment started funding the programme, Adam J . Grotsky the ExecutiveDirector of the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) said.

In 2008, the government of India became a full partner of theprogramme as a part of a new agreement between the two countries and theFulbright-Nehru fellowships were introduced. The very next year saw adoubling in the size of the programme and later the figures tripled, Mr.Grotsky said on the sidelines of an orientation programme organised forFulbright scholars who will be travelling to the U.S. in the coming academicyear.

In the 2008-09 academic year — the last year that the programme wascompletely funded by the U.S. authorities — 46 applicants from the U.S.travelled to India and 41 Indian scholars had gone there. In the comingacademic session, fellowships were offered to 150 scholars in the U.S. and 131Indians, he added.

FULBRIGHT SLOTS UPAmerican Scholarscoming to India

Indian Scholars going to U.S.

2008-09 46 412009-10 90 712010-11 131 119

2011-12 156 1382012-13 173 1502013-14 150 13147% of grantees in 2013-14 are women14% are form Environmental Studies and Sciences and 7% are fromPublic Health this yearWhile the bulk of Fulbright grantees were from humanities and socialsciences till 2008, 27% of Fulbright-Nehru Fellows, 2013-14, are from ST

Fulbright fellowships tripled after India started funding


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According to the USIEF data, 27 percent of the Fulbright-NehruFellows this year were from Science and Technology, 14 percent fromEnvironmental studies and sciences and seven percent from Public Health.Mr. Grotsky said the organisation was trying to address the issue and startedan outreach programme to create awareness about the scholarships in the tier-

II and tier-III cities in India. USIEF “made a big push in the north-east” aswell as other towns. Of the 131 Fulbright-Nehru fellows from India, five werefrom the north-eastern States.

Students in government schools in Assam study only for two-and-a-halfhours every day at the primary level compared to five-and-a-half to six-and-a-half hours in the rest of the country. Similarly, the total number of workingdays in primary schools each year is 180 in Nagaland and Manipur and a

maximum of 253 in Bihar and Jharkhand with lower than average literacyrates.But in most other States and Union Territories (UT), the working days

are between 201 and 220, a study conducted by the National Council ofEducational Research and Training has revealed. The figures do not changesubstantially at the upper primary and secondary level.

The national study reviewed the implementation of the 10-year schoolcurriculum, looking into the school system of different States and UTfocussing on the structure of different school stages, agencies for curriculumconstruction, nomenclature of different subjects, approaches of teaching them,

periods allotted, time given for annual examination, and mechanism forevaluation of curriculum.

States/ UT Weekly Teaching periodsMadhya Pradesh 19Andaman & NicobarUttarakhandGoa

TripuraHimachal Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

48

Assam kids spend just over 2 hours at primary school


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Research studies needto be conducted to see theeffectiveness of variations interms of number of workingdays, weekly periods, duration

of periods, number of recessperiods on learning outcomesand a research study needs tobe undertaken to know thestatus of co-scholastic areas inactual practice, the studyrecommends.

The nomenclature ofscience is general science infive States/ UTs andenvironmental studies in theremaining 23 States/ UTs.

The integrated approach isfollowed in the teaching ofenvironmental studies in 29

States/ UTs. Periods allottedper week for teaching the“mother tongue” in Class Vis a minimum of three inNagaland and a maximumof 13 in Maharashtra.

English has been introduced in all States/ UTs in Class I with weeklyperiods in Class V being a maximum of eight in Andaman and NicobarIslands, Assam, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and HimachalPradesh and a minimum of three in Uttar Pradesh. The study suggests it

should be ascertained, based on research, in which class English languageshould be introduced for optimal gains.

Weekly periods for teaching mathematics in Class V is the highest at 12in Andhra Pradesh and lowest (5) in Kerala, Meghalaya, M izoram andNagaland. Moral science is taught as a separate subject in all States.

State/ UT Duration of a classArunachal PradeshGoaMaharashtraNagaland

West Bengal

35 minutes

Andhra PradeshBiharKeralaPuducherry

Tamil Nadu Tripura Jharkhand Jammu & KashmirPunjab

45 minutes

State/ UT No of recess periodLakshadweep

Tamil NaduSikkim

2

Andhra PradeshGujaratKerala

MaharashtraDadra & Nagra HaveliMizoramChhattisgarhMadhya PradeshDaman & Diu

3


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SECTION – III

Ruth Praveer Jhabvala

Mukesh Ambani

Shashi Kant Shrama

Srikanth Sriniasan

T. M. Soundarajan

Thanjavur air base

Brahmos

Spy school

ISRO Navigation Centre (INC)

PERSONS IN NEWS / DEFENCE


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For the first time in its 47-year history, the Border Security Force (BSF)has appointed a non-IPS officer as its commander for the eastern theatrewhich guards the Indo-Bangladesh border. The 1975-batch BSF cadre officer,Ravi Kumar Ponoth, has been promoted and appointed as the new Additional

Director General (ADG) for the forces' eastern theatre which is tasked toguard the 4,096-km Indo-Bangladesh border.

The post of ADG is usually occupied by an IPS officer and the cadreofficers of the paramilitary rarely get an opportunity to head this top post. Theincumbent of this post, IPS officer B D Sharma, has been transferred to theBSF headquarters. Ponoth, till now served as Inspector General (IG) of theBSF South Bengal frontier.

German-born screenwriter and novelist Ruth Prawer J habvala, the onlyauthor to win both an Oscar and a Booker prize and lived in Delhi for 25years, died. Ruth(85), married to an Indian Parsi architect, Cyrus H J habvala,had a long association with Merchant Ivory Productions which yielded hertwo Academy Awards for her work on the films 'A Room with a View' and'Howards End', both adapted from Edwardian-era novels by E.M Forster.

Born into a Jewish family in Cologne, she breathed her last at her homein Manhattan after a long illness.

India was the inspiration for many of her stories, including her eighthnovel 'Heat and Dust', which won her the Booker in 1975. Merchant Ivory's

1983 film based on the novel, which starred Shashi Kapoor, marked theirbreakthrough from art-house exclusivity to popular success. Ruth wrote 19novels and short-story collections that reflected the cultures she absorbed onthree continents during her half-century career.

The family fled Adolf Hitler in 1939, when Ruth was 12 and shebecame a British citizen in 1948. She married Jhabvala in 1951 and movedwith him to Delhi.

Amid reports of threat to Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman Mukesh

Ambani from banned terrorist organisation, Indian Mujahideen (IM), theCentre has decided to give the business tycoon ‘Z’ security cover.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recently approved the secondhighest security cover for Mr. Ambani. He will be guarded by the CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF) commandos and escorted by pilot and follow-onvehicles. This is probably the first time that a private person will be givensecurity cover akin to prominent political leaders. In the recent past, Mr.

RaviKumar Ponoth

Ruth Praveer Jhabvala

Mukesh Ambani – Z plus security cover


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Ambani has reportedly received threats from IM for his proximity to GujaratChief Minister Narendra Modi.

“Under the ‘Z’ security cover, Mr. Ambani will be surrounded by over20 commandos and personnel armed with sophisticated weapons. Apart fromthe Mumbai police that had recently done a review of Mr. Ambani’s security

after his office received the threat letter, Central intelligence agencies alsomade an evaluation before deciding to deploy CRPF to guard him.

Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma was named as the newComptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). The 1976 Bihar cadreofficer will succeed Vinod Rai, who superannuates after five and a half years

of eventful tenure as the head of theConstitutional financial watchdog.

The Finance Ministry said in a statementthat, the President of India has appointed ShashiKant Sharma, IAS, as the Comptroller andAuditor General of India, in terms of Article 148(1) of the Constitution of India. Mr. Sharma,who holds a masters degree in political sciencefrom the University of York, will be taking over

charge of the CAG from May 23, 2013. He was administered the oath of officeby President Pranab Mukherjee. L ike Mr. Rai, Mr. Sharma too has served asSecretary in the Department of Financial Services.

The CAG is appointed for a term of six years or till the incumbentattains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. CAG audit reports on 2Gspectrum and coal block allocations during Rai’s tenure triggered a number ofcontroversies and raised the hackles of the government, besides bringing in theconcept of presumptive loss in audit.

Two 21-year-old Indian sisters have made history, becoming the firsttwins ever to conquer Mount Everest. Tashi and Nancy Malik from Dehra

Dun brought off the feat by successfully reaching the world’s highest peak at8,848 metres, an official of Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism and Culture said. Theduo was among the other record-makers, including the first women fromSaudi Arabia and Pakistan who climbed the mountain.

Shashi Kant Sharma

Tashi and Nancy Malik


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Angelina J olie did not start atrend in the United States; probably,she is the most prominent person to

have asked for a double breastremoval after doctors found anabnormal BRCA1 gene in her.Women in that country have done itbefore her.

In India, however, struggling tocope with spreading awareness ofdetecting cancer early, it is quite likelythat the Hollywood star has actuallybrought the concept of preventive

mastectomies into the consciousnessof substantive members of the public.Dr. V. Shanta, chairperson, AdyarCancer Institute said that, BRCA 1and BRCA 2 testing itself is notcommon in the country. Naturally, itfollows that very, very few peopleactually demand protective breastremoval on detection of the mutantgene.

BRCA 1 testing could be partof a genetic counselling package forthose who have a history of cancer inthe family. According to SelviRadhakrishnan, consultantoncoplastic breast surgeon, ChennaiBreast Centre, easily, testing forBRCA 1 and BRCA 2 is done neitherwidely nor systematically, in India.Apart from the Adyar Cancer

Institute, Tata Memorial Hospital inMumbai does a lot of work on theBRCA 1/2 play in breast cancer, saysDr. Selvi.

The absence of anyepidemiological data on BRCA

Angelina Jolie – double mastectomy


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positives means there is no data yet for the country, unlike in the U.S. and theU.K ., where certain populations have been identified as “high risk.” Genetictesting is done rather routinely for them.

If living in the U.S. or U.K ., it is done routinely as part of the packageand is covered under insurance. In India, a single test costs upward of Rs.

50,000, and very few have any awareness of the possibility. The onlyprotective bilateral breast removals Dr. Selvi has done involved patients whoalready had cancer in one breast, and they were pretty young. The otheroption to removing the breast, after an abnormal BRCA gene is found, isperiodic counselling to pick up the disease early and treat it initially.

A general mastectomy, even a double one, poses no risk to life itself,says Dr. Shanta, “unless there is any other complication.” A skilled surgeoncould complete it in about 1.5 hours. Again, only a small per cent of thepopulation which undergoes mastectomies prefers to go for breastreconstruction. The silicone implant Jolie has talked about turns out to be

pretty expensive.

Adventurer Raha Moharrak (25), the first Saudi woman and youngestArab to conquer Everest, has urged women in the conservative Muslimkingdom of the Gulf to “challenge themselves” as she arrived back in theregion. Her group of four, including a Qatari royal, a Palestinian and anIranian, was greeted with cheers on arrival from Nepal. She reached the peakof Everest on May 19, in a first for Saudi Arabia, the only country in the worldwhere women are not allowed to drive and where their sporting activities areseverely restricted. She said she had now achieved her ambition of climbingnine mountains, including in Europe, Tanzania, the South Pole andArgentina. Ms. Moharrak is also the youngest Arab to reach the peak ofEverest.

Arunima Sinha, a former national volleyball player who lost one of herlegs having been thrown off a moving train in 2011, created history by

becoming the first Indian amputee to conquer Mount Everest.

T.M. Soundararajan, the quintessential Tamil playback singer, who wasthe voice of the two mega stars — M.G. Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan— of the Tamil film world, died. TMS, as he was known in the Tamil

Arunima Sinha

T. M. Soundarajan

Raha Moharrak


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speaking world, had been unwell for quite some time and was in and out ofhospital. He was 91. His robust and full-throated singing perfectly suitedMGR and Sivaji, who had their roots in Tamil theatre. A versatile singer, hemodulated his voice to suit the two stars perfectly. A listener could identify thestar in the movie through TMS’ songs, even without watching the film. He

also acted and sang in a few films. He had a voice that could catch thenuances and majesty of the Tamil language, but could not replicate his successin other languages.

Born in a Saurashtra community in Madurai in 1923, ThoguluvaMeenakshi Iyengar Soundararajan languished in poverty and could not afforda formal training in classical music. He left Madurai in search of a career and

joined the Royal Talkies in Coimbatore for a monthly salary of Rs. 50. Only in1950 did opportunity knock at his door. He rendered his first song in the filmKrishna Vijayam. The song was ‘Radhey nee yennai vittu pogathadi’ and themusic director, S.V. Subbaiah Naidu. TMS’ devotional songs — ‘Karpagavalli

nin porpagangal pidithen’ on Karpagambal, the deity of Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore, ‘Mannaanaalum Tiruchenduril mannaven’ and ‘Ullamuruguthayya’ on Lord Muruga — remain popular even today.

Indian-American Srikanth Srinivasan scripted history after he wasconfirmed as the first South Asian judge to America’s second highest court.Described as “trailblazer” by US President Barack Obama, Chandigarh-bornSrinivasan’s nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the District of

Columbia Circuit was unanimously approved by the Senate with 97 voting infavour. With Senate confirmation, 46-year-old Mr. Srinivasan has become thefirst Indian-American to be appointed to the top American court.

He was first nominated by Mr. Obama on June 11, 2012. On J anuary 2,2013, his nomination was returned to the President, due to the sine dieadjournment of the Senate. On J anuary 3, 2013, Obama re-nominated him forthe same office. Mr.Srinivasan was born in Chandigarh, and grew up inLawrence, Kansas.

He received his BA with honours and distinction in 1989 from StanfordUniversity and his JD (Juris Doctor) with distinction in 1995 from StanfordLaw School, where he was elected to Order of the Coif and served as an editorof the Stanford Law Review. He also holds an MBA from the StanfordGraduate School of Business, which he received along with his JD in 1995.Mr. Srinivasan began his legal career by serving as a law clerk for J udge JHarvie Wilkinson on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from1995 to 1996. For his work, he received the Attorney General’s Award forExcellence in Furthering US National Security in 2003 and the Office of theSecretary of Defence Award for Excellence in 2005.

Srikanth Srinivasan


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Noted filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh died of cardiac arrest at his southKolkata residence. He was 49. He is a winner of 12 national and someinternational awards. Ghosh shot to fame with a children’s film directed by

him ‘Hirer Angti ’ in 1994. His film ‘Unishe April ’ won the national award in1995. His other widely acclaimed films include ‘Dahan ’, ’Asukh ’, ‘ChokherBali ’, ‘Raincoat ’, ‘Bariwali ’, ‘Antarmahal ’ and ‘Noukadubi ’.

Many film actors and actresses thronged his residence to pay their lastrespects.

Defence Minister A.K . Antony inaugurated an airbase in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. It will ultimately become home to a Sukhoi squadron in a few

years time. India’s lethal air dominance fighter Sukhoi will get its first base inSouth India with a view to keeping a strategic vigil over the Indian Ocean.Western and Eastern front with Pakistan and China respectively already

boast Sukhoi-30 MKI squadrons. I t would take a few years before requiredinfrastructure such as avionic bays, hangars, fuel dumps and other suchfacilities come up at Thanjavur to make the Sukhoi squadron of 16 to 18fighter jets fully operational.

However, the IAF will keep on flying regular fighter and transportaircraft to Thanjavur, as the runway and other facilities have been spruced upthere. When fully operational, the airbase will help the country gain

dominance over the Bay of Bengal.

India successfully test-fired the 290 km range BrahMos supersoniccruise missile from the Navy’s latest guided missile frigate INS Tarkash off thecoast of Goa. The missile performed the high-level ‘C’ manoeuvre in the pre-determined flight path and successfully hit the target. The missile waslaunched from the Russian-built warship. BrahMos Aerospace chief ASivathanu Pillai said that, the launch was carried out by the Navy as part ofAcceptance Test Firing (ATF) of the ship. INS Tarkash, which is an advanced

Talwar Class frigate, was commissioned on November 9, last year. Thewarship, along with two other frigates of the class - INS Teg and INS Trikand,have been built as part of an over 8,000 crore contract signed between Indiaand Russia in July 2006.

INS Teg was commissioned on April 27, 2012 and the commissioningof INS Trikand is expected soon. The weapons suite of INS Tarkash includes

Thanjavur airbase to have Sukhoi squadron

Brahmos tested successfully

Rituparo Gosh


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surface-to-air and surface-tos-urface missile systems, 100 mm medium-rangegun, close-in weapon system, torpedo tubes and anti-submarine rockets.

All the three ships will be equipped with 8 vertical launched BrahMosmissile systems as the prime strike weapon. The new missile frigates aredesigned to accomplish a wide range of maritime missions, primarily hunting

down and destroying large surface ships and submarines.

In the wake of tough internal security challenges, the Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) has fast-tracked the setting up of a Central Detective TrainingSchool (CDTS) that will help sharpen the intelligence gathering capabilities ofCentral and State agencies. The school was formally opened last year underthe aegis of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) and hasbeen operating from the CBI headquarters. The MHA has sanctioned over

Rs.65 crore for setting up the CDTS, while 9 acres of land had been acquiredat a cost of over Rs. 2 crore in Ghaziabad. Ghaziabad was chosen due to itsproximity to Delhi where all major intelligence and Central security agenciesare based. I t will also help in better coordination with Central departmentsand State governments.

A one-of-its-kind institution in South Asia, the school would imparttraining in latest investigation techniques, lay special focus on equippingtrainees with skills on collecting digital evidence and improving theirproficiency in forensics.

ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said that, the brand new ISRONavigation Centre (INC) at the Indian Deep Space Network will be the nervecentre of the country’s forthcoming navigational satellite constellation.Located at ISRO’s saucer-like Byalalu sprawl near Bangalore, the centre wasceremonially launched by Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’sOffice V. Narayanasamy

Six more navigational spacecraft (named R1B, R1C and so on) willfollow in the next three years to form the IRNSS constellation, which istermed India’s own regional GPS. These satellites will give data on theposition, navigation and time of persons or objects to a range of users.

INC houses a high stability atomic clock to keep precise time andreference, pool and synthesise navigational messages and coordinate 21ground stations across the country. The navigation fleet in space will givepositional accuracy of within 10 metres. Its users will be from aerospace,military, all transport systems, geo information of the Survey of India and toan extent for personal mobility.

Spy school coming up at Ghaziabad

ISRO unveils hub for its navigation


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SECTION – IV

BBG Submarine Cable System

Public cord blood banking

EL Nino Modoki

SARATHI

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY


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Telecom carriers Vodafone Group of the U.K., Telekom Malaysia fromMalaysia, Omantel from Oman, Etisalat from the UAE, Reliance J io

Infocomm and Dialog Axiata

from Sri Lanka have formed aconsortium to set up an 8,000-km-long Bay of Bengal Gateway(BBG) submarine cable systemto link Malaysia and Singaporeto the Middle East, withconnections reaching out toIndia (Mumbai and Chennai)and Sri Lanka.

The construction and

maintenance agreement (C&MA) and the supply contract for BBG weresigned in Kuala Lumpur. The cost of the BBG cable line has not beendisclosed. The cable system is designed to provide upgradable andtransmission facilities by having 100 Gbps capability. This cable system isexpected to carry commercial traffic by the end of 2014.

According to analysts, this new cable system could help end themonopoly of some existing players operating in this region and bring downinfrastructure cost for the consortium members. Tata Communications’formerly VSNL submarine cable system almost passes through the same route.

Reliance J io Infocomm, is believed to have played a key role in this

move as it gears up to launch 4G services by the end of this year. Theconstruction of BBG is planned not only to provide connectivity betweenSoutheast Asia, South Asia and the Middle East, but also to Europe, A fricaand to Far East Asia through inter-connections with other existing and newly-built cable systems landing in India, the Middle East and Far East Asia.

BBG will also serve as an extraordinary opportunity for business growthas it will help support current and future high capacity requirements from thesurrounding areas of the region and next generation Internet applications.

For the first time, the Chennai police have formed a core team toexclusively monitor activity in the social media, particularly Facebook and

Twitter. The team headed by a Joint Commissioner of Police will work incoordination with Central/ State intelligence agencies.

Police will have a Facebook account to interact with users on variousissues. Besides monitoring openly available content, it would use the medium

BBG submarine cable system

Facebook, Twitter come under police scanner


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to disseminate information relevant to the public, including tips on crime-prevention and traffic conditions.

The idea is to have a feel of public perception on Chennai police. Thededicated team will monitor the social media and intervene whenever anysuspicious activity comes to notice. There should be no room in the public

domain for any objectionable material that can disrupt peace or trigger tensionin society.

Commissioner of Police S. George convened a meeting of senior policeofficials to discuss the issue. It was decided that the core team would alsowork on developing and launching a website for the Chennai Police.Monitoring the social media does not mean that the police will intrude intoanybody’s account or access details. The objective is mainly to keep tabs onanti-social elements and prevent the spread of hate campaign or messages thatcan hurt the sentiments of people.

Inspector-General of Police (Internal Security) Abash Kumar said the

social media could be a potential source of information which intelligenceagencies were closely monitoring. There were instances when police warnedusers to delete offensive contents.

The state governmentannounced a grant of Rs 9crore to Chennai's publiccord blood bank. The fund

will be issued over threeyears to Jeevan Blood Bankand Research Centre to helpthe bank host a collection of3,000 cord blood donationsfrom the state, J eevan co-founder Dr P Srinivasan saidin a statement.

At present, the bankhas an inventory of 700 cord

blood units. Public stem cellbanks store stem cells drawnfrom cord blood donated bywomen during child birth,and sell them to patients fora price. The Tamil Nadugovernment has recognised

cord blood banking in the State, arguably the first State to do so.

Public cord blood banking


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Stem cell transplant is the only hope for patients with blood disorders,cancers and thalassemia. But, only two of the more than 1,000 patients whorequested for stem cells from the public bank have got treatment in the pastfour years.

In order to get a transplant, the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) of the

donor and the recipient should match. However, the chances of an Indianfinding a match is less than 10 per cent as the country lacks an inventory. Evenif a match is found, the patient has to pay around Rs 20 lakh to import theblood type.

According to Dr. Srinivasan, but with the help of the grant, J eevan stemcells will be available for free to patients from the state. This is a long awaitedmajor boost to public cord blood banking in India. He said that, he is hopefulthat other states will find some funding in the 12th plan allocation for healthcare and promote cord blood banking in their states. This grant is expected toencourage other states to join in creating a large national inventory, which will

help more Indians find a match and a hope for cure. The public cord blood bank was set up in 2008 by Jeevan Blood Bank

and Research Centre. J eevan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU)with IIT Madras in March for research and development in stem cell biology.

It is a well known climatological fact that during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons in the North Indian Ocean, more cyclones form in the Bayof Bengal compared with the Arabian Sea. Scientists have now discovered

why in some years more cyclones form in the Arabian Sea than usual. Thisis due to a newly discovered Phenomenon (2007) El Nino Modoki — whichcauses warm moist conditions in the Central Pacific and dry cold conditions inEastern and western pacific. A more familiar phenomenon, El Nino, wasfound to suppress cyclone formation in the Arabian Sea.

The reason why El Nino Modoki brings only less number of cyclones inthe Bay of Bengal is because one of the two descending limbs of the WalkerCell is over the western Pacific and Bay of Bengal. The descending limbcauses dry conditions not conducive for cyclone formation. The ascendinglimb of the Walker Cell, on the other hand, brings rain. Also, an El Nino

Modoki creates stronger divergence over the western Pacific and Bay ofBengal compared to El Nino. Divergence (opposite of convergence) meanssurface winds move away from each other and result in low relative vorticity(rotational flow of winds). These conditions are not conducive for cyclones.

This explains why Bay of Bengal region (close to western Pacific) has fewercyclones during an El Nino Modoki.

On the other hand, there is large convergence over the Arabian Seaduring an El Nino Modoki explaining the large number of cyclones in that

El Nino Modoki


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region. A statistical analysis of the El Nino and El Nino Modoki yearsbetween 1979-2004 was conducted. I t was found that there were four El Ninoyears and seven El Nino Modoki years during this period.

The number of cyclones per year show significant differences indicatingthat El Nino Modoki years are conducive for cyclone formation over Arabian

Sea while El Nino is conducive for cyclones over the Bay of Bengal.Only post-monsoon and pre-monsoon periods were chosen for the

study. Cyclones usually do not form during monsoon season. There are a fewreasons for this. Atmospheric parameters — low-level relative vorticity, mid-tropospheric relative humidity, vertical wind shear — are not at valuesconducive for cyclone formation during monsoon. Second, during monsoonthere is strong zonal (latitudinal) wind in the form of a jet at lower levels andthis is not conducive for cyclone formation as the vertical shear between lowerand upper troposphere will not be minimum. Finally, the sea surfacetemperatures are too low for cyclogenesis.

Imagine a device that could talk to your heart and your doctor. Ms. Joyhas one such device that does just that: captures data from the pacemakerimplanted in her and sends it to her doctor. When J oy was discharged fromhospital, she was given an odd-shaped laptop device with a router. Thanks tothis device, all she has to do is to sit comfortably at home, within five metresof the device.

The device picks up data from her pacemaker and transmits it to herdoctor, senior consultant electrophysiologist, at Madras Medical Mission,

Ulhas Pandurangi. Remote monitoring is probably the most innovative andcost-effective modality of heart failure therapy so far, Dr. Pandurangi says. “I tobviates the need for a physical examination – the consequent travel and time

taken for it. Persons who haveundergone surgery might not beup to all this effort.” The minicomputer given to a patient iscapable of transmittinginformation about the heart,and picking up abnormalitieseven before the patient begins tofeel the effects.

The devicecommunicates via a SIM cardwhich picks up the mobileservice available in the area,secures data and sends it to a

server in the Netherlands. This is then sent to Dr. Pandurangi’s office in

CareLink


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Chennai in any form he wishes to receive – mail, text message, alerts via amobile application or voice mail. To ensure that this does not make his workeven more complex than it is, he has a team of personnel working on it. Redalerts, triggered in a crisis, are sent to him for immediate attention.

Patients feel a lot more secure all the time, Dr. Pandurangi adds. The

patient can travel and still be connected to the doctor, if he just carries hisdevice around. A representative of the manufacturer of the device (CareLink),Medtronic, informs that there are about 10 patients in the country withassistive gadget to help read and send data from their implantable device. Thetechnology itself is about 10 years old, but has only just come into the country.

It costs between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 1.5 lakh, depending on the implantthe patient has. The mobile service charges are free for the patient. “At themoment, the constraint is that this gadget can be used only along withMedtronic’s implants. But we hope more manufacturers will come in and thescene becomes competitive, so that the patient benefits.”

Ajit Mullasri, director, Cardiology, MMM, says from the point of viewof scientific research, data from these devices might also indicate the factorsthat might precipitate problems in patients with heart failure.

Google has de facto recognised the state of Palestine by changing itsonline designation from Palestinian territories to Palestine. The web searchgiant introduced the change on May 1 on its main Palestinian portalGoogle.ps, which now has the tagline Palestine rather than the previous

Palestinian territories. The move followed the decision in November by theUnited Nations to give Palestine the status of a non-member observer state, amove bitterly opposed by Israel and the United States.

When the general elections are held in mid-2014, the number of Indianusers of social media networks, largely Facebook, could touch 120 million —equal to the Congress’ popular vote in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Facebook’sQ1 2013 shows that its user numbers are already on a par with the BJP’s 2009popular vote of 78 million.

This data — which politicians are now unwilling to ignore —contributes to a growing debate on whether Internet and social networkingplatforms, such as Facebook, will have a significant role in India’s nextgeneral elections. Many politicians agree that, despite significantly largenumbers, the voting pattern of Internet or social media users is bound to be asunpredictable and diverse as those of the readers of a newspaper or the viewers

Google recognises ‘Palestine’

By next elections, Facebook users in India = Congress’ 2009 vote


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of any TV news channel. The question of who can harness these platformsbest is now top-of-mind for most political parties.

Facebook’s February 2013 filingmade to a U.S. regulatory agency puts itsDecember 2012 active users in India at 71

million, up 54% from Q4 last year. Basedon its 2013 Q1 figure of 78 million — thefigure should have touched 80 milliontoday. Statista — a globally renownedonline statistics portal — has projected 75million social network users in December2012, 106 million by December 2013 and129.3 million by December 2014. So far, itsprojections have been spot on. Considering

Twitter’s estimated 12 million current

Indian users, in spite of an overlap withFacebook, points to roughly 115-120million social network users, just ahead ofthe next general elections in April 2014.

All estimates point to an onlinepopulation of roughly 200 million by April–May, 2014. At the end of June, 2012, Indiahad 137 million Internet users. Accordingto Rajesh Chharia, president of InternetService Providers Association of India, this

figure is now at 160 million.Politicians are clued in to thesetrends. Speaking at a debate on ‘WillInternet and social media be a gamechanger for the next general elections’, I&BMinister Manish Tewari said, “Contentagnostic new media platforms are definitelynot something that any politician orpolitical party can ignore. However,elections are a complex exercise where

voting preferences depend more onlocal/ regional variations. Therefore, onevariable may not be a game changer.”

Admitting that in the BJ P, NarendraModi was ahead of the party, to “fosterdialogue through social media”, RaviShankar Prasad said “the power of socialmedia cannot be denied and political


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leaders will be forced to take the demands of young India into consideration.” Jay Panda of the BJD, who represents a largely rural constituency in

Odisha, and uses social media extensively, believes that, “The number ofsocial media users are significantly serious, already forcing accountability andpersonal engagement, which will result in deepening democracy. However, in

terms of impact on elections, we are one election away from that.”

When a 10-year-old has cancer, the boy’s family and doctors obviouslyhave to do everything under the sun to find a cure for him. That is whatparents and doctors of Vikram (name changed) of Madurai did. The hunt wason to find a 100 per cent matching donor, and when that failed, they foundone that was a half match. Vikram got a bone marrow transplant with a 50 percent match from his mother. He survives to tell the tale today, speaking over a

surgical mask. According to his doctors, he is the ‘first ever recipient of thefirst ever Haploidentical transplant in the country”. The most challengingaspect of bone marrow transplants, believe it or not, is finding matchingdonors.

A 100 per cent match is ideal, but at least 80 per cent is needed beforethe doctors take a risk transplanting the stem cells. Without robust donorregistries within the Indian subcontinent and genetic pool, the chances offinding a donor are rather slim.

The chances of rejection, naturally, are much higher. “This is why weneed to take care of the patient extremely well post procedure. The body is

being tweaked not to reject the donor stem cells by suppressing the naturalimmune system. So while he waits for the donor cells to grow in him, we haveto be careful that he does not pick up infections,” explains Prithvi Mohandas,MIOT Hospitals. Post procedure, the patient is given a special combination ofimmuno suppressant drugs so that his body does not reject the organ, JoydeepChakrabartty, also with the MIOT Institute of Haematology.

Dr. Prithvi added that the procedure can be performed for between Rs.10-15 lakh at MIOT. “It makes a bone marrow transplant accessible to a largenumber of people who otherwise could not afford it. More importantly, a 50per cent donor match, usually possible with parents, opens up possibilities forpatients with a number of blood-related disorders.

The Institute was launched formally by British Prime Minister’s TradeEnvoy Kenneth Clarke. The occasion also served to facilitate the signing of amemorandum of understanding between MIOT and Whittington Hospital,London, on an ante natal screening programme for Thalassemia.

Haploidentical transplantation


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India needs to step up expenditure on research to pursue innovation ina big way, said President Pranab Mukherjee, while expressing concern that thecountry’s innovation bottom line was “not very encouraging.” He urged the

private sector to increase their share of spending to the levels prevailing incountries such as South Korea, J apan and USA.

The President, who was speaking on the occasion of National Technology Day celebrations (May 11), drew attention to the patentapplications filed annually in countries like United States of America andChina, saying the number was nearly 12 times more than that of India.

He said, India spends only 0.9 per cent of GDP on research anddevelopment, which is much below that of China, UK and Israel. We shouldstep up our expenditure on research to pursue innovation in a big way. Theprivate sector, which contributes one-fourth of our country’s expenditure on

research and development, should also increase their share of spending tolevels prevalent in countries such as Japan, US and South Korea.

The President said, Globalisation, had rewritten the rules of businessand only the most competitive and resilient companies could expect to survivein the fiercely global market. He said, if our systems are strong and robust, theworld will respect us and be willing to work with us.

The President emphasised that in a globally competitive world Indiahad to unleash its innovation potential to increase capacity, productivity,efficiency, and inclusive growth. The spirit of innovation has to permeate allsectors of economy from universities, business and government to people at all

levels.Future prosperity of India in the new knowledge economy, he said,would increasingly depend on its ability to generate new ideas, processes andsolutions, and added that the process of innovation would convert knowledgeinto social good and economic wealth.

The needs and requirements of our democratic polity were differentfrom other nations, Mr. Mukherjee said. The nation’s priorities for innovation,according to him, should be conditioned by our socio-economic realities. “TheIndian innovation strategy, therefore, has to be different. I t should focus ongenerating ideas that promote inclusive growth and benefit people at thebottom of the socio-economic pyramid,” he said.

Very soon, short code 5676714 will become an integral step to kick-startyour travel programme. One has to SMS his or her travel details andSARATHI will book the ticket and deliver it in a flash, through SMS. The firststep to book a mobile ticket is to register oneself with Indian Railway Catering

Spend more on R&D to spur innovation: Pranab

Now, send SMS to book rail ticket


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and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) in a system aimed at easing thepressure on the Internet, whose link gets choked in peak hours, especiallywhile tatkal tickets are being booked.

One has to send in details to the short code, which has been approvedby all mobile service operators, for authentication by SARATHI. SARATHI

will respond by sending a pre-composed message, seeking journey details. Itwill also send details of ticket availability and other information.

The Railways intend to introduce the concept of M-wallet as a paymentoption, besides the Interbank Bank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) thatrequires registration with a bank. M -wallet, a pre-paid instrument, will beavailable at all mobile retail outlets where customers can recharge it as theyrecharge prepaid mobile connections. Even post-paid mobile customers canmake use of this platform. Once the fare is deducted from the bank account,the ticket will be delivered through an SMS. A ll mobile operators have beenroped in, officials say, and their 1.5 lakh retail outlets will sell M-wallet.

This system will come in handy for booking tickets even from anyremote corner of the country, where Internet connections are still scarce. TheRailways also plan to extend the scope of mobile booking with add-onfacilities. It wants to make available cars and hotel rooms on rent. About5,000 hotels have been tied up.

iGATE Corporation, announced the sacking of its President and CEOPhaneesh Murthy for “violating” company policy by

failing to report a “relationship” he had with a fellowemployee. A statement issued by the company’s boardfrom its headquarters at Fremont, California, said theemployee had also filed a complaint alleging “sexualharassment” by Mr. Murthy, who faced a similarcharge a decade ago while at Infosys. However,

iGATE said an investigation by an external legal counsel, did not uncover(ed)any violation of iGATE’s harassment policy.

The company said its “ongoing” investigation into the “facts andcircumstances” of the relationship he had with Araceli Roiz, Head of InvestorRelations at iGATE Corporation, revealed that Mr. Murthy “violatediGATE’s policy as well as Mr. Murthy’s contract”. iGATE, which earnedrevenues of $1.2 billion in 2012, announced that Gerhard Watzinger wouldassume Mr. Murthy’s responsibilities as CEO “on an interim basis.” SunilWadhwani, Co-founder and Co-chairman, iGATE, said the board recognisedMr. Murthy’s “significant contributions” to the company. “However, as aresult of this violation of iGATE policy, we asked Mr. Murthy to step down,”Mr. Wadhwani said.

iGate sacks its CEO on sexual harassment case


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India’s bid for observer status in the Arctic Council was successfulalong with that of fiveother countries — China,Italy, J apan, South Korea

and Singapore — at ameeting in Kiruna,Sweden. Ministry ofExternal Affairs, NewDelhi, welcomed India’sadmission. An MEAspokesperson said Indiawould contribute itsscientific expertise,particularly its polar

research capabilities, tothe work of the ArcticCouncil to support itsobjectives.

However, at thelevel of realpolitik, Indiawill be looking at theopportunities forhydrocarbon explorationoffered in the Arctic circle

by joining hands with oneof the five countriesgearing up for thepurpose — the U.S.,Canada, Norway, Russiaand Denmark. From thepoint of view ofgeographical distance,Russia will be the mostattractive partner.

But for that tohappen, India will haveto take a firm politicalstand on the LomonosovRidge and the MendeleevRidge which Russiaclaims are an extension of

India gets observer status in Arctic Council


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its continental shelf. By supporting Moscow’s position, India could get accessto the rich deposits and also utilise the North Sea Route.

Officially, India maintained that its approach will be solely scientific.Unlike China and South Korea which are going for commercial benefit, ourinterest is purely scientific. Look at the number of scientists India has sent and

the number of articles they have published and we will get an idea aboutIndia’s main interest area.

The rapid melting of Arctic sea ice that reached new lows lastSeptember has caused nations to show intense interest in the region in terms ofnavigation and exploration of its rich natural resources. At the first ArcticSummit in Oslo in March organised by The Economist, though India was notrepresented, scientists, indigenous communities and environmentalistssounded a note of caution on exploring the region’s undiscovered naturalresources. Though India has had a research station there since 2008, Chinahas forged much ahead in navigating the area with a three-month sea voyage

in an ice breaker, the first Asian ship to undertake that journey.China is now eyeing new and shorter sea routes, its Polar Research

Institute having already made projections on container traffic and trade. Therewere concerns that the Arctic Council not being united in its views onexploring natural resources, it may not be able to manage the environment.

For the roughly 4.5 million inhabitants of the region, climate change isa reality and the thinning ice is making transportation and hunting difficult.

The 60,000 Inuits, represented by Aqqaluk Lynge, chair of the InuitCircumpolar Council had appealed to countries like India to be morecircumspect in their desire to drill for oil or minerals and demanded that the

fate of the indigenous people not be jeopardised. Already Greenland had givenout over 100 mining leases which was a cause of concern for local people.


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SECTION – V

Banks in India should be merged - FM

Shale gas exports to India from US

S&P warns rating downgrade for India

RBI revises lending rates

ECONOMICS / BUSINESS


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President Pranab Mukherjee laid the foundation for J indal Steel andPower’s (JSPL) 1,320-MW thermal power plant at Godda district in

Jharkhand. The captive power plant, with an estimated cost of Rs.8,500 crore,

will use coal from the J itpur coal block and water from the Sunder Dam,Gumani and J alhara river. It will be the first mega power project in SanthalPargana region in the state’s eastern region, and is expected to provide directand indirect employment to 20,000 people.

JSPL said that, this power plant, which will be constructed over thenext 3.5 years, will generate more electricity for everyone — farmers, studentsand entrepreneurs.

With Asia still facing many developmental challenges despiteremarkable growth in the past few decades, Asian Development Bank (ADB)president Takehiko Nakao lamented that the region was still home to over 800million people steeped in poverty. He said that, it is disheartening that in aregion of such rapid progress, Asia still has a population of more than 800million people living in absolute poverty. This, along with growing inequality,remains an overarching challenge. Mr. Nakao said in this at a press conferenceat the 46th annual meeting of the ADB Board being held at the Indian ExpoMart at Greater Noida.

At a time when multilateral lending agencies such as the ADB wereexpected to not only extend greater assistance to lift the 800 million out ofabject poverty but also help many Asian “middle income” countries find waysof overcoming the middle income trap, the challenge was all the more greatfor Mr. Nakao, who took over as president of the Manila-based institution latelast month, said. He indicated that the bank’s lending programme may have tobe lowered, simply because its investments were not fetching adequate returns.

The RBI disappointed borrowers and businesses by opting for a 0.25percentage point reduction in the repo rate. CRR is unchanged. The RBI

reduced the indicative policy rate (repo rate) from 7.50 per cent to 7.25 percent. However, it kept the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), the portion of totaldeposits banks are mandated to keep with the central bank, unchanged at 4 percent. The RBI had cut the CRR in the last nearly one-and-half years by 200basis points.

Including the latest one, the RBI has cut the repo rate by 125 basispoints (one basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point) in the last one

J indal Steel power plant in Jharkhand

Poverty amid progress in Asia worries: ADB

RBI revises lending rates


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year. The hefty 50 basis points cut in April 2012 was followed by 25 basispoint cuts each in J anuary and March this year. Repo rate is the rate at whichbanks borrow funds from the central bank.

The market was disappointed with the policy announcement of the RBIas it was expecting a cut in CRR along with a cut in the repo rate. The RBI

Governor said that the decision to further cut the repo rate carried forward themeasures put in place since January last year towards supporting growth in theface of gradual moderation of headline inflation. But he said that it alonecannot revive growth …. It needs to be supplemented by efforts towards easingthe supply bottlenecks, improving governance and stepping up publicinvestment, alongside continuing commitment to fiscal consolidation.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it will provide about $6billion loan to India over the next three years, even as the multilateral lenderstated it is facing the challenge of raising resources. ADB President TakehikoNakao said that, the idea of ADB will maintain its lending level to India,approximately $2 billion over next three years. ADB is now working on the

country partnership strategy and is planning to maintain the level of lending toIndia.India is the biggest borrower of ADB:- The Manila-based multilateral lenderhad extended $2.4 billion loan to India in 2012 across sectors like transport,energy, commerce, industry, trade and finance. Asked about whether ADBhas identified projects, Mr. Nakao said it is too premature to talk about anyspecific ones but ADB team is looking at various concrete projects. He also

ADB to provide $6 billion to India


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said that the bank will continue to lend $10 billion a year across the member-nations despite generating lower return from investments.

Stating that ADB is facing a resource challenge, he said this issue willrequire urgent and careful attention. Actively investing in different kinds ofassets can be one of the options for larger revenue, he said, adding that

“financial safety and return is the key objective while making investment”.ADB’s capital was tripled in 2009. The fund enhancement came after a gap of15 years.

Indians are making to the top positions in best of the companies world-wide.

# Name Company

1 Ivan Menezes Diageo2 Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan AngloGold Ashanti3 Anshu Jain Deutsche Bank4 Indira Nooyi Pepsico5 AjayBanga Mastercard6 Rakesh Kapoor Reckitt7 Shantanu Narayen Adobe8 Arun Sarain* Vodafone9 Sanjay Jha* Motorola10 Vikram Pandit* Citigroup

* Former CEOs

IL&FS Infra Asset Management Limited (IAML), an assetmanagement company (AMC) promoted by IL&FS Financial ServicesLimited to manage the IL&FS Infrastructure Debt Fund (IIDF), inked amemorandum of understanding (MoU) with eight public sector banks (PSBs)for developing take-out finance to facilitate the country’s infrastructure

development. The PSBs which have joined hands with IL&FS for the purposeare: Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India,Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and UCOBank.

Alongside, India Ratings (Ind-Ra), the Indian arm of the global agencyFitch, has assigned the first series of the Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) with atriple A stable rating under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI )

Indians on top

8 Public Sector banks inks MoU with IL&FS


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guidelines to help instil confidence among global investors, and provide athrust to the infrastructure sector.

Releasing the ‘IND AAAidf-mf’’ rating assigned by Ind-Ra to the initialthree MF schemes of IL&FS IDF aggregating Rs 15 billion at a functionorganised at North Block for the MoU signing ceremony, DEA (Department

of Economic Affairs) Secretary Arvind Mayaram said the new product fromIndia Ratings for rating IDFs “is very important because this will giveconfidence to investors, especially from overseas Sovereign Wealth Fund andpension funds and others, for them to be able to assess whether theirinvestments in a particular IDF or another IDF would be able to give the kindof return they expect”.

The IL&FS group-sponsored IDF launched with an initial corpus of $1billion would go up to $5 billion in the medium-term, and its first threeschemes of Rs.500 crore each with ‘IND AAA idf-mf’ rating denotes thehighest strength of credit protection factors embedded in a fund's investment

policies and the quality of the sponsors and investment managers.

AirAsia, named Chennai-born Mittu Chandilyaas the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of its Indianoperations. A irAsia India (Private) Ltd., a joint venturebetween Air Asia, Tata Sons and Telstra, will start a lowcost airline in India by the year-end with Chennai as itshub. Mr. Chandilya will assume office effective June 1,

2013. Mr. Chandilya previously worked at Singapore-based consultancy firm Egon Zehnder. He was headingthe travel and hospitality segment, where his primaryfocus was airlines and aviation.

China’s State Grid Corp. is buying a stake in an Australian electricitynetwork company for about $800 million. SP AusNet, which operates theelectricity network in Australia’s Victoria state and a gas network, said thatState Grid is buying the 19.9 per cent stake from Singapore Power Ltd.

State Grid is the world’s largest utility company with annual revenue of$300 billion. I t has a growing international business with investments inBrazil, Portugal, Australia and the Philippines. Singapore Power will continueto be the largest shareholder in SP AusNet after the sale is completed with a31.1 per cent stake.

Mittu Chandilya is India CEO of Air Asia

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The 824 million Australian dollars ($802 million) deal requiresregulatory approval in China and Australia and must also be cleared by thetop finance official in Australia’s government.

At a time when ‘green shoots’ of the economy are signalling aturnaround and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is scouting forinfrastructure development funds abroad on the strength of India’s fascinatinggrowth story, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) handed down a shocker, threateningto downgrade the country’s sovereign rating to ‘junk’ status if the governmentfailed to keep pace with the global rating agency’s expectation on reforms and

containment of the twindeficits.

More shocking was the

fact that even as thegovernment was lookingforward to an upgradefollowing S&Prepresentatives’ discussionswith Finance Ministryofficials last month, the ratingagency not only reaffirmedIndia’s sovereign rating at thelowest investment grade

‘BBB-’ with a ‘negative’outlook but also warned of atleast a one-in-three likelihoodof a downgrade within thenext 12 months.

Significantly, adowngrade from ‘BBB-’would mean a scale-down to‘speculative’ grade or ‘junk’status which renders alloverseas borrowings by

corporates and other entities costlier. In a statement, S&P not only appearedto set the pace for India’s economic reforms but also went on to provide thereasons for its rating action. At the same time, while pointing to the high fiscaldeficits and a heavy government debt burden which “remain the mostsignificant constraints on our sovereign ratings on India”, S&P credit analyst

Takahira Ogawa also acknowledged the fact that “the government has

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regained control of public finances and embarked on fresh structural reformssince September 2012”.

Not surprising, therefore, that while expressing disappointment over therating agency’s action and warning, the government seemed undaunted andsought to rebut S&P’s reasoning while pointing to the numerous economic

parameters that had not been taken into account. In a statement, ChiefEconomic Advisor Raghuram G. Rajan said: “It is disappointing that S&P hasnot seen it fit to improve its outlook for India, especially given that itacknowledges the important steps taken by the Government in recentmonths.”

Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram said that, India is exploring the

possibility of setting up a London-listed ‘feeder fund’ for Infrastructure DebtFunds (IDFs), and is looking to work with the U.K . on increasing institutionalinvestments in the sector.

Mr. Chidambaram said in a joint statement issued with his Britishcounterpart, George Osborne said that, both countries agreed to pursue jointwork on the common aim of exploring ways to encourage increasedinstitutional investment in infrastructure. This will include exploring thepossibility of establishment of a London-listed ‘feeder fund’ for IndianInfrastructure Debt Funds (IDFs).

A feeder fund makes most of its investments through a ‘master fund’. I t

can obtain better trading and operating costs through the master-feederstructure because of economies of scale. Besides infrastructure, Mr.Chidambaram’s meeting with Mr. Osborne focussed on a range of issues,including financial sector reforms, the importance of increasing foreign directinvestment (FDI) in Indian insurance sector, and support for small andmedium enterprises (SMEs) with plans to “work together to promote tradeand investment between the SME sectors of the two countries”.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, spoke in favour of mergers in the

banking industry so that the country could have two or three global-sizedbanks. He said that, there are other sectors that may well need restructuring...For example, some banks, including some public sector banks among 26public sector banks that we have, may be better off merging. The need for twoor three world sized banks in an economy that is poised to become one amongthe five largest in the world is rather obvious. Mr. Chidambaram further saidthat while restructuring may be needed in some sectors, mergers may reduce

Feeder fund for IDFs under study: Chidambaram

Banks in India should be merged - Chidambaram


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competition in certain segments or geographies substantially and may altercompetition between banks and non—banks. I

May 2013 Current Affairs - I

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