2013 - February 7 to 15 Current Affairs _ PREPARE GK

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2013 - February 7 to 15 Current Affairs

International Issues

Researchers from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg inthe second week of February 2013 discovered the largest primenumber of the world, beating an earlier record of largest primenumber by more than 4 million digits. The findings of the researcherswere a part of Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS).

GIMPS is a distributed computing project which was specificallyformulated for finding out a certain kind of prime number which wasfirst identified in 17th century. All the prime numbers in the world canbe divided by themselves and 1 only. However there are certain rarekinds of prime numbers called Mersenne primes which have the form 2multiplied by itself p times minus 1, where p denotes a prime number.

The new number now shot to 2 multiplied by itself 57885161 timesminus 1 and this broke the record of finding the new and even largerprimes.

The new largest prime number discovered by the researchers hasmore than 17 million digits and is an only 48th Mersenne prime foundso far. It is the 14th discovery by GIMPS. The earlier record of 2multiplied by itself 43112609 times minus 1 was also discovered byGIMPS back in 2008 and it had just a few less than 13 million digits.GIMPS discovered all the top ten largest Mersenne primes.

The largest saltwater crocodile of the world, named Lolong diedin Philippines on 10 February 2013 just 17 months after it wascaptured and put for tourists on display. Lolong measured 6.17metres or 20.24 feet.

The largest crocodile of the world died because of illness tha t is no tknown. It is believed that Lolong was over 50 years old.

Operation Three Star: Code name given to secret plan for executingJais h-e-Mohammad terrorist Afzal Guru in Tihar Jail o n 9 F ebruar y201 3.

The sanctions-hit Iran on 12 February 2013 called on fordestruction of all atomic weapons of the world. The decisioncame soon after North Korea declared that the country had stagedthe most powerful nuclear test yet available with it.

12 February 2013: World Radio Day was observed to increaseawareness about the importance of radio. World Radio Day wasobserved on 12 February 2013 to raise awareness about theimportance of radio, facilitate access to information through it and

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On the 18th of December, 2012, the United Nations General Assemblyendorsed the 2011 resolution adopted by the UNESCO GeneralConference, proclaiming the 13th of February as World Radio Day, theday United Nations Radio was established in 1946.

The two-day International Conference on Traditional Medicine

for South-East Asian Countries concluded with the Adoption of Delhi Declaration in New Delhi on 13 February 2013. The DelhiDeclaration was made for fostering the development of TraditionalMedicine of the region.

Agenda’s of Delhi Declaration on Traditional Medicine for the South-East Asian Countries:

• For appropriate use of traditional medicines in the health caredelivery system impartial development and promotion of nationalpolicies, strategies and interventions

• Development of institutionalized mechanism for exchange of information, expertise and knowledge with active cooperation withWHO on traditional medicine through workshops, symposia, visit of experts, exchange of literature and more

• To pursue harmonized approach for the education, research,documentation, practice and regulation of traditional medicine alongwith the involvement of practitioners of health services of thetraditional medicine

• Identification of the possible ways for promotion of mutualrecognition of educational qualifications that is awarded byrecognized Universities, monographs, pharmacopoeias and relevantdatabases of traditional medicine

• The declaration included development of a common document forreference on traditional medicines for the south East Asian nations

• To identify and develop the scopes of regional cooperation fortraining and capacity building of traditional medicine experts

• To encourage sustainable development and resource augmentationof medicinal plants in the South East Asian regional countries

• To establish regional centers as required for capacity building andnetworking in the areas of traditional medicine and medicinal plants

• To exchange views, experiences and experts for integration of traditional medicine into national health systems in accordance withnational policies and regulations

The conference was attended by the representatives of South-EastAsian countries namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka,Timor-Leste, DPR Korea, Indonesia, Myanmar, Maldives and Thailand.





National IssuesThe Union Cabinet of India on 6 February 2013 gave its nod tothe proposal of decreasing the headcounts to 100 in habitationsunder the government's flagship programme, Pradhan MantriGram Sadak Yojana, PMGSY. Under this program (PMGSY)habitation with population of 100 tribals and more in eighty-twonaxal-hit would be connected via all weather roads.

Earlier, under the PMGSY program the tribal areas with a populationgraph of more than 250 people in the naxal-affected reasons werecovered. The decision of dec reasing the head counts in different areacame after it was pointed out by Kishore Chandra Deo, the TribalAffairs Minister that maximum habitations in these areas had apopulation graph of less than 250 people.

NPCA: National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systemsThe Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on 7 February 2013approved the proposal for the merger of National Lake

Conservation Plan (NLCP) and National Wetlands ConservationProgramme (NWCP) to develop a new scheme named NationalPlan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA) .

The estimated cost to bring this plan into operations during the 12thPlan Period is 900 crore rupees. The Government of India and theState Governments would be sharing the costs in a ratio of 70:30 andin case of the North-Eastern states t he ratio is 90:10.

National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA) TheUnion Government of India merged National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA) to develop a new program named

National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA).

The formation of the NPCA was done with the objective of conservingaquatic ecosystems (lakes and wetlands) by implementing sustainableconservation plans. To govern the implementation uniform policy andguidelines will be framed.

The Information and Broadcasting Minister, Manish Tewari on 7February 2013 launched the MyIndia Initiative-A DigitalVolunteer Programme to reach out the people in the socialmedia space. The initiative from the I&B Ministry is aimed towardsdisseminating and delivering the messages of development to thecitizens by registering them as volunteers them on the social mediaplatforms. The initiative is an effort to make the citizen contributepositively towards nation building and this would initiate a principle of participative governance ac ross the nat ion.

The I&B Ministry on 8 February 2013 also tried to reach out thecitizens for the first time via Live Twitter Conference on the eve of 3rd Community Radio Conference. This was the first ever conferenceof such type by any of the Ministry’s of Government of India.Community Radio: Road Travelled & way forward was the topic forcommunity radio conference and it lasted for a period of 30 minutes





from 4 pm to 4:30 pm.

Ministry of Civil Aviation on 8 February 2013 released ShubhYatra, an exclusive monthly bi-lingual (Hindi & English) inflightmagazine of Air India. It covers travel, lifestyle, culture andentertainment in all colour and spice. This is the new name of theinflight magazine.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on 9 February 2013 launchedthe much-awaited Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme inMumbai. The move will encourage new investors to put their moneyin the stock market. The scheme, which was announced in theBudget 2011-12, seeks to provide tax benefits to first-time investorsin stoc k market .

Under the scheme, an individual with an income of less than 10 lakhrupees would get tax incentives for investing up to 50000 rupees inthe stock market.

As per the notification issued by the Securities and Exchange Boardof India on the scheme, there would be a lock-in period of one yearon investments made under the scheme.

The Delhi Declaration of the first South Asian Autism Network(SAAN) for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) conferenceconcluded in New Delhi on 11 February 2013.

The Delhi Declaration is as follows: The members of South AsianAutism Network (SAAN), during New Delhi Declaration took intoconsideration facts like:

• To reiterate the commitment of nations to the concept of all humanbeings being born free and equal in rights and dignity as enshrinedin:a. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948,b. The Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989,c. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2007,d. The Declaration of 2nd April as World Autism Awareness Day bythe United Nations General Assembly 2007e. The Dhaka Declaration on Autism Spectrum Disorders andDevelopmental Disabilities of July 2011

• They reiterated towards its commitment for safeguarding everycitizen from discrimination and social exclusion ensuring their inclusionin all spheres of life

• They noted down their concerns related to the increasedoccurrence of autism and disorders related to it as well as theabsence of population based mechanisms to detect the accessibleinterventions on time

• To develop a community based model for early detection,intervention and care for Autism which can surely improve the





outcome and become a model for different types of developmentaldisabilities

• The concern for making the appropriate services accessible tochildren and their families, making it affordable, and increase thehuman and material costs for communities, families and nationsbecause the scientific evidences for early intervention of the childrenwith autism have increased at a large scale

• To consider the stigma, discrimination as well as social exclusionthat children and their families can face on a daily basis

The Participant nations undertook:• A commitment to themselves to include ASD in all mainstreampolicies and programmes of their nations for addressing the issuesrelated to early childhood development in all spheres of communitylife

• To develop measures for early detection and surveillance servicesat every level •

Evaluation and implementation of the efficacious and effective

programs for addressing the life cycle needs of person with ASD

• The member countries agreed to undertake collaborative researchon all aspects of autism

• To strive to improve Awareness, develop collaborative networks forAdvocacy and Legislation/Policy changes if required, on ASD whichwill also provide a platform for the voices of persons with ASD andtheir families

• Implementation of the Dhaka Declaration on Autism SpectrumDisorders and Developmental Disabilities of 2011, in both letter and

spirit.

Priority Sector Lending (PSL) to Minorities increasedconsiderably from 10.60 percent of total PSL in 2007-2008 to15.01 percent in 2012-2013. Priority Sector Lending (PSL) tominorities belongs to one of the schemes which are covered underthe Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for Welfare of Minorities.

An increase was observed because of lending of 171960.71croreRupees as on September 2012 to the minorities. Self-employmentinitiatives were created and sustained because of bank credit. Theincrease was observed because of sustained efforts of government of India.

The 9th edition of Aero India 2013, a five-day aviation showorganised by the Defence Exhibition Organization of the Ministryof Defence ended at the Air Force Station, Yelahanka, Bangaloreon 10 February 2013 after displaying its magnificent aerobatic skillsand belongings that created a chance of winning potential businesstie-ups and networking.





Defence Minister of India, A K Antony inaugurated the Air Show on 6February 2013. During the inauguration ceremony of the 9th Editionof Aero India show, Aero Space Policy of Karnataka state wasunveiled by the Defence Minister of India, A K Antony.

The State Government of Haryana exempted Value Added Tax(VAT) on Wheat that is given to the beneficiaries of AntyodayaAnna Yojana (AAY) under Public Distribution System (PDS) on

13 February 2013. It’s expected that this exemption would tune upabout 1.50 crore Rupees in a year.

Seventeenth Convocation of the National Institute of MentalHealth and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) was held on 14 February2013 in Bangalore. Chief Guest of the convocation was the UnionMinister of Health & Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad.

National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS)

•National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) isa deemed university, designated as Institute of National Importanceby an Act of Parliament.

•NIMHANS laid its foundation on 14 February 1974.

•Specialty of NIMHANS is in the discipline of Mental Health and NeuroSciences in India.

•NIMHANS in 2012 started free legal aid services called NIMHANSCentre for Well-Being with 15 high-tech laboratories.

Sanskrit Caravan was launched in New Delhi on 14 February2013 by the Minister of State for Human Resource DevelopmentShashi Tharoor for promoting, preserving as well as propagatingIndian languages such as Sanskrit and Urdu.

Sanskrit Caravan was launched as a part of Indian Heritage Caravan,which is actually an initiative of Press Council of India chairman andformer Supreme Court Judge Justice Markandey Katju. IdeaCommunication was the sponsor of the event. Earlier in February2013, Justice Markandey Katju had also inaugurated Urdu Caravanfrom Delhi to Bhopal as well as Mumbai.

Bilateral IssuesThe Health Ministers of India and Bangladesh signed a MoU onHealth in New Delhi on 12 February 2013.

The main areas of cooperation between the two Governments willinclude the following:• Exchange of medical doctors, other health professionals andexperts.• Development of human resources.





• Exchange of information on health.• Medical and health research development.• Regulations of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and cosmetics.• Health promotion and disease prevention.• Fostering cooperation for the development of culturally sensitiveand effective public and professional awareness campaign includingclinical are practices and best practices guidelines for healthcareproviders and caretakers to benefit individuals and families touchedby Autism Spectrum Disorders and Developmental Disabilities

• Any other area of cooperation as may be mutually decided upon.

Moreover, the cooperation between India and Bangladesh in the fieldsof health and medical sciences will be promoted through the followingmeans:

• Exchange of scientific materials and information.• Joint collaboration in the area of research in medical science.• Institution level cooperation in the field of medical treatment,scientific research and training.• Exchange of health specialists and professionals.• Participation of specialists / professionals in seminars, workshops,

conferences and meetings to be organized by both the parties.• Training for doctors and health workers by both the parties in theareas where they have relevant expertise and excellence.• Other areas of cooperation in the fields of health and medicalsciences as mutually agreed upon.”

India and Japan on 12 February 2013 decided to strengthencooperation in tourism sector and explore the new areas andopportunities in the sector by working together in different fieldslike the field of human resource development, investment in thetourism sector, exchange of tour operators and exchange of information related to tourism.

The decision was made during a meet of the Japanese Senior Vice-Minister of Tourism, Hiroshi Kajiyama with the Union Tourism MinisterK Chiranjeevi in India. The two also discussed issues related tosinging of an agreement/MoU. India and Japan had been an importanttourism market for each other in the recent past and Japan accountsto be among the top ten inbound tourist generating market for India.

India and France on 14 February 2013 agreed to strengthencounter terrorism and intelligence cooperation between the twocountries during the visit of French President Francois Holllandeto India. Both nations exchanged views on a number of bi-lateral,regional and multilateral issues.

India and France also reviewed progress on the Jaitapur NuclearPower Project and reiterated our commitment to its earlyimplementation as soon as the commercial and technical negotiations,which have made good progress, are completed.

Both the nations also concluded negotiations on the short rangesurface to Air missile to be co-produced in India. They also agreed onthe need to reinvigorate economic engagement between the two





countries. Moreover, they had in-depth discussion on the defencecooperation issue including submarines and missiles.

Other Important India-France Agreements• Both the nations agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fields of the modernisation of the railway, high speed corridors and networkupgradation of railway stations.

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and France's CNESunder the space cooperation programme, jointly identified the means

to pursue further cooperation.• A pact was changed to increase exchanges between thesportspersons, artists, architects, researchers, teachers, students toimprove people-to-people contacts. • The cooperation betweenvarious Indian and French educational institutions was finalised.• MoU was signed between Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore andFrance's CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)• CFA(Credit Facility Agreement) was signed for the Bangalore MetroRail Project, Phase-1 between Department of Economic Affairs,Ministry of Finance and the French Development Agency(AFD)

Ministry of Railways, Government of India and the SociétéNationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF), the FrenchNational Railways signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) on 14 February 2013 in order to facilitate technicalcooperation in Railways to eac h other. Chairman, Railway Board, Indiaand Chairman and CEO SNCF from the French side signed this MoU.The MoU was signed when the President of France, H.E. FrancoisHollande was present.

There were four main areas which were identified in MoU and thesewere:• Station renovation and operations• High speed and semi-high speed rail• Suburban trains• Modernisation of current operations and infrastructure High SpeedCooperation Programme• A project called High Speed Cooperation Programme was decidedupon as well. The project will be funded by SNCF with assistancefrom French Ministry of Finance.• Under the programme, an operations and development feasibilityproject will be carried out on Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail.

The Memorandum of Understanding remains valid for 5 years. It isextendable by 1 year with the mutual consent. Under this MoU,certain cooperation projects will also be undertaken by India andFrance. The French delegation led by SNCF Chairman also visitedCentral Railway and Western Railway in Mumbai on 15 February 2013.Apart from signing the MoU, the two nations also decided for bettertrade c ooperation.

Banking IssuesYES Bank, the fourth largest private sector Bank of India wasawarded the Financial Institutions Syndicated Deal of the Year





2012 in its Asia Pacific Region. The award was given for 155 millionUS dollar syndicated loan.

The award was given away by Asia Pacific Loan Market Association(APLMA), which is a leading trade association for syndicated loanmarket in this region. The award ceremony was held in Hong Kong.The 155 million US dollar loan which was syndicated by YES bank wasdistributed across 9 different countries from 14 banks.

The Union Cabinet of India on 7 February 2013 approved raise in theauthorized capital of National Bank for Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, Nabard to 20000 crore rupees from 5000 crorerupees.

The authorized capital was increased with the aim to enlarge theoperations and broadening the activities of NABARD.

The Government of India and the World Bank on 11 February2013 signed a 60 million US dollars credit agreement for theKarnataka Watershed Development Project II (KWDP II) tofurther improve watershed planning and management in projectareas.

The Project will improve government watershed operations in 930micro-watersheds covering 465000 ha across 7 districts of Karnataka.This project builds on the successful experience of earlier Bank-supported Karnataka Watershed Development Project I, also knownas Sujala, which helped improve t he lives of 230000 farmers byincreasing crop yields by about 25 percent, and raising householdincomes of small and marginal farmers by 40 percent.

KWDP II will focus on improving the performance and results of IWMPby introducing new tools and approaches for integrated watershedplanning, incorporating more information about water resources intothe planning process, facilitating better convergence of IWMP withother government programs such as NREGS, and helping farmersincrease agricultural productivity. The project will cover about465000 ha and 160000 farmer households in 7 districts.

Economic IssuesThe Central Statistics Office (CSO) on 7 February 2013 revealedthat the economic growth of India is estimated to fall to 5percent in 2012-2013 financial year, which is a lowest figure in10 years. A fall in the economic growth is because of the poorperformance of the services, agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) in its advance forecast of thenational income chopped off the gross domestic product (GDP)growth estimate to 5 percent for financial year which will end on 31March 2013. This is much less than the GDP of 6.2 percent in 2011-2012 financial year. This is said to be the worst performance of economy of India since 2002-2003 when the economic growth was 4





percent.

The major share of India’s GDP comes from the services sector. Theservices sector is estimated to record a growth of 5.2 percent in2012-2013 fiscal year against 7 perc ent of 2011-2012 fiscal year. Asfar as the industry sector is concerned, it is expected that thegrowth would decrease to 1.9 percent in 2012-2013 FY.

The farm sector growth will fall down to 1.8 percent. It is important

to note that the official projection of t he economic growth of India ismuch lower than budgetary estimate as well as projections of thecentral bank of India and other organisations. In the union budget forfinancial year 2012-2013 which was presented in March 2012, thegovernment pegged India’s economic growth at 7.6 percent.

Also in the quarterly monetary policy review which took place in thefirst week of February 2013, the Reserve Bank of India projected thegrowth of 5.5 percent for 2012-2013 financial year. In the meanwhile,Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had projected the economic growthof 5.7 percent.

In first half of 2012-2013 FY, the economy of India grew by 5.4percent. However, as per the latest estimate, the growth would bearound 4.6 percent in second half of 2012-2013. Industry bodies inthe meanwhile asked the government to press for the reform processin order to revive the economic growth.

The Union Finance Ministry in second week of February 2013decided to pay an additional cash subsidy of 25000 crore rupeesfor the state owned fuel retailers. The subsidy package is beinggiven to help the retailers in making up of the revenue that they lostwhile selling cooking and auto fuel below cost in the current fiscalyear of April to December 2012.

A comfort letter was issued on 7 February 2013 by the Union FinanceMinistry to the Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd(BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) that sanctionedsanctioning 25,000 crore rupees as the part of the revenue lost bythem on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost or atsubsidized c ost.

The sanctioned subsidy meets about 44 percent of the revenue lostby the three firms of 124854 crore rupees together on the Sale of cooking and auto fuels in a period of April to December in 2012. Asper the latest sanctions reveled IOC, BPCL and HPCL would get13474.56 crore rupees, 5987.25 crore rupees and 5538.19 crorerupees respectively.

MCX-SX, the third bourse on the equities and equity derivativestrading block debuted on 11 February 2013.

It is the third national stock exchange of India after BombayStock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.

MCX-SX started its trading in shared of 1116 listed companies against





1665 companies in National Stock Exchange and 5191 companies inBombay Stock Exchange. MCX-SX Index MCX-SX Index is calledSX40.

This is like Sensex of BSE and Nifty of NSE. SX40 is formulated formeasuring the economic performance through polished presentationof different industries as well as sectors based on ICB, which is aleading international classification from FTSE-100 of Britain.

Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) the stock marketregulator of India on 13 February 2013 ordered freezing of bankaccounts and attachment of properties of two Sahara groupfirms Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd., and SaharaHousing Investment Corporation Ltd. and its Chairman SubrataRoy as well as top executives Vandana Bhargava, Ravi Shanker Dubeyand Ashok Roy Choudhary after it failed to refund more than 24,000crore rupees to investors.

The inflation rate of India dropped down to the three year low inthe chart to 6.62 percent in January 2013 from the 7.18percent, measured in December 2012. The inflation was measuredbased upon monthly Wholesale Price Index.

The official Wholesale Price Index for All Commodities (Base: 2004-05= 100) in January, 2013 rose by 0.4 percent to 169.2 (Provisional)from 168.6 (Provisional) for the previous month. Slowing exports anddecline in investments and low demand in the domestic market havebeen a major factor in slipping down the growth rate of India.

The two factors have affected the manufatruing as well as servicesectors of India. The growth forecast for the running fiscal year thatwould end on 31 March 2013 was lowered by the India’s StatisticalOffice to 5 percent.

The Reserve Bank of India also changed its forecast from 5.8 percentto 5.5 percent. To revive a fresh air in the slowing down economicconditions of India, the Reserve Bank took a major step of loweringthe key interest rate from 8 percent to 7.75 percent; this was thefirst step in nine months. The Policy makers have also taken afreshsteps to revive the slowing economic conditions of the nation.

Business IssuesGAIL (India) Ltd and EDF Trading on 7 February 2013 announcedthat they signed a MoU to jointly get hold of the oil and gasassets in North America.

The MoU will also help in development of these assets. Both thesecompanies will additionally be the partner in trading as well asoptimization of LNG and US gas.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between GAIL (India)Ltd and EDF Trading on 2 February 2013.





Parle-G in February 2013 became the first Indian FMCG brandthat crossed 5000 crore Rupees mark in terms of retail sales inone year. Parle Products were launched in 1939 when the Britishruled India.

Factually, Parle Products in 2012 sold 5010 crore rupees worthglucose biscuits at the retail price, surpassing the domestic sales of

Godrej products and Dabur, while at the same time also selling thricemore products than Maggi.

Twitter on 11 February 2013 launched its first pay-by-tweetservice in partnership with the American Express. The service isdesigned to allow the cardholders to purchase products by tweeting#hashtags.

Twitter and Amex have came together to create an integrated e-commerce payment mechanism in twitter and Amex cardholders wouldhave an access to the offers made on the website by themerchants.

Reckitt Benckiser (RB) on 13 Feb 2013 signed a globalpartnership deal of 8-million US dollars with Save the Childrenfor 2013 to support vulnerable children below the age of five. Itwill be done through large-scale health, hygiene and child protectionprogrammes. It will provide local support in more than 40 countries inthe world.

The global initiative with Save the Children, Healthier Kids, HappierWorld, will organise many national level activities to increase fundsand awareness focusing on big picture programmes that reach themost disadvantaged children across the world including most remoteareas.

PersonsZhuang Zedong, the table tennis legend died in Beijing on 10February 2013 following lengthy fight with cancer. He was aged72 years. Zhuang Zedong is a three-time world table tennischampion. He won a range of events in 1960s. He was renowned forchance meeting with Glenn Cowan, the US table tennis player during31st World Table Tennis Championships in 1971.

Zhuang Zedong and Ping-Pong Diplomacy Zhuang Zedong remained acrucial figure in ping-pong diplomacy of 1971 and is popularly alsocalled the Architect of Ping-Pong Diplomacy. Ping-pong diplomacymeans exchange of the table tennis (ping-pong) players betweenChina and US. This was done to normalise relations between thesetwo countries.





US Marine General Joseph Dunford took over the command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) inAfghanistan at a change over ceremony in Kabul on 10 February2013. He succeeded US Marine General John Allen who became thelongest-serving ISAF commander in the eleven year old war againstterror in Afghanistan by completing 19 months at the office. GeneralDunford previously served in various capacities in the U.S. MarineCorps including as its Assistant Commandant.

The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee appointed KalyanKumar Chakravarty as the chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi on 12February 2013. Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty is the IAS officer of 1970batch and retired from the designation of Secretary to Government of India.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) appointedSubodh Kumar Agrawal as its new President and K. Raghu as itsnew Vice-President on 12 February 2013.

Mohan Parasaran, the Additional Solicitor General was on 13February 2013 appointed as the Solicitor General of India aftersenior advocate Rohinton Nariman resigned from his designation.

SportsThe 2013 Pyeongchang Special Olympics World Winter Gamesfinished on 5 February 2013 after a week of competition amongdifferently-abled athletes. The games took place from 29 January2013 to 5 February 2013. Almost 200000 spectators witnessed thegames in venues- Pyeongchang and Gangneung.

India returned with 46 medals in 2013 Special Olympics World WinterGames at Pyeong Chang, South Korea. The differently-abled athletesof India won 46 medals in all- 13 gold, 17 silver and 16 bronze frommentally-challenged 2200 athletes participating from more than 120nations in the games. The medal tally of India doubled from WorldWinter Games 2009.

These games were completed in eight categories of sports- alpineskiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, figureskating, short track speed skating, floor hockey and floorball. Variouscelebrities participated in the games to support these athletes. Someof the popular faces were former NBA All-Star Yao Ming and Chineseactress Zhang Ziyi. In its closing ceremony, figure skating superstarsKim Yu-na and Michelle Kwan were also present.

Sachin Tendulkar on 8 February 2013 equaled the record of SunilGavaskar of 81 first class hundreds in first class cricket atMumbai. He managed to equal Gavaskar’s record after scoring anunbeaten 140 runs in Irani Trophy against Rest of India in the first





innings of the tournament of Mumbai team.

Lydia Ko, the teenager became youngest winner of a women'sEuropean Tour golf event by winning at New Zealand Women'sOpen in Christchurch on 10 February 2013. This is her third victoryof the professional title.

India maintained their number one spot in the ICC ODIChampionship table in the latest rankings issued in Dubai on 11February 2013. Both India and England have same 119 rating points,but England lags behind on the basis of decimal points. Australia andSouth Africa follow the top two teams closely with 116 and 112points respectively.

ITPA- Indian Tennis Players Association Indian Tennis PlayersAssociation (ITPA), a collective body of Indian Tennis playerswas designed on 11 February 2013. The ITPA would be responsibleto represent the concerns and professional interests of its members.The association is being constituted as there exist no particularstructure in tennis to represent or address the issues of the tennisplayers in India. The modeling of the ITPA is done on the basis of (Association of Tennis Professionals) ATP and will operate on thebasic principle of self governance and consultative dialogue, to arriveat decisions that impact the professional tennis of the c ountry.

ITPA - Indian Tennis Players Association The ITPA is beingconstituted under section 25 company and the membership isopened for all former and current, national and internationaltennis players. The association is being constituted as a non-profitbody and the founding members include Davis Cup winners JaidipMukerjea, Mahesh Bhupathi, Somdev Devvarman, Prahlad Srinath andMustafa Ghouse, Enrico Piperno, Rohan Bopanna, Manisha Malhotra,AITA vice-president Karti P.

Chidambaram and Aditya Sachdeva (High Performance CoachingDirector). Every member of the body have equal voting rights forelection of a general body to identify ITPA’s operations. JaidipMukerjea is elected as the interim President of the body and will beon the post till the formative period of ITPA and until the generalbody and general council meets formally.

World No. 73 Horacio Zeballos defeated Rafael Nadal 6-7 (2) 7-6(6) 6-4 to win his first ATP World Tour trophy in VTR OPEN 2013on 10 February 2013 in Vina del Mar, Chile in Men’s Singles.Horacio Zeballos became the second first-time winner in ATP WorldTour 2013. The first one was Australian Bernard Tomic who won atApia International Sydney.

Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda , the London paralympicssilver-medallist and Padma Shri awardee was appointed as the brandambassador of nutrition company Herbalife on 15 February





2013.

AwardsPandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar legend was honoured with theposthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy award. His daughtersitarist Anoushka Shankar accepted the award on his behalf on 9

February 2013 ahead of the Grammy’s show that took place in LosAngeles on 10 February 2013.

Environmental IssuesResearch conducted by the Durham University and BirdLifeInternational in its finding concluded that change in the climateis causing a threat to the survival of various Asian bird speciesincluding the ones found in India. These species do not just needthe c omplete protec tion of protected and important sites but also themanagement of wider countryside. The research also warned that in

case of extreme situations, these birds would be required to bemoved physically to climatically-suitable areas. A study wasconducted for 370 species of Asian birds.

These are the species where conservation is a prime cause of concern in biodiversity hubs like lower Mekong River basin regions incertain parts of Nepal and India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Bhutanas well as eastern Himalayas. The findings of the study showed thatfor survival of these bird species it was important to properly managethe conservation sites. It was shown that at least 45 percent and upto 88 percent of these 370 bird species would face a decrease in theavailability of suitable habitats, which in turn would lead to change in

the species composition in certain areas. As far as India isconcerned, there are in all 466 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) whichare identified for hosting the different kinds of avian species, most of which also belong to the endangered category.

BirdLife International described that even though the important siteslike these will sustain the bird species but change in the climate willlead to a modification in the site for which the species will besuitable. Therefore there is a need to adapt the conservationmanagement.

The Environment Ministry constituted a committee that willreview better legal protection to elephant reserves as well asthe corridors in India under the green laws which are alreadypresent. The committee was constituted after National Board forWildlife raised concerns about absence of any legal cover for theelephant corridors and reserves.

The central government has already identified two-third elephantreserves which cover 69582 sq km of area. The size of thesereserves varies from 450-6724 sq km. These reserves not just includethe forest patches of various kinds but also the tea plantations,revenue land, agricultural land, villages and t ownships.





DefencePakistan on 11 February 2013 successfully test fired shortrange surface-to-surface missile Hatf IX (NASR). The test firetook place with consecutive launches of two missiles from multi-tubelauncher.

NASR has 60 km range with the capability of in-flight manoeuvring. Italso has the capability of carrying nuclear warheads having aptyields, with higher efficiency.

Science & TechnologyFirst bionic man of the world called Rex was unveiled on 7February 2013 at London's Science Museum. The bionic man wascreated using 1 million US dollar limbs as well as organs. Prostheticlegs and ankle came from MIT, synthetic blood from Sheffield

University, spleens, pancreas and artificial kidneys from UniversityCollege London, retinas from Oxford University and artificial lungscame f rom Swansea.

Rex has a human face with brown eyes and a height of 6.5 feet. Itwas designed jointly with assistance from 18 universities andcompanies. Rex gave a hope that it was possible to replace the bodyparts with the artificial alternatives, for the very first time.

The internal organs of Rex such as artificial lungs, bladder andpancreas were in line of development. It is important to note that itis not possible for certain technology to function without the help of

human input. For example bionic hands require signals from brain andmuscles to work properly. Other parts however, such as pancreasand heart can be designed to work automatically. Rex would remain indisplay at London's Science Museum from 7 February 201 to 11 March2013.

NASA on 9 February 2013 announced that its Mars roverCuriosity drilled into the surface of the planet for first time. Thedrilling was a part of endeavor to learn whether the Martian surface,which has solar system like that of Earth, supports microbial life ornot. The drilling into Martian surface took place for the first time on 8February 2013.

NASA scientists discovered the youngest black hole in ourgalaxy, Milky Way in February 2013. This youngest black hole ismerely 1000 years old and just 26000 light years away from ourplanet.

According to the new data revealed by Chandra X-ray Observatory of NASA, the distorted remains of supernova could contain most recentor the youngest black hole formed in our galaxy. The remains knownas W49B are a result of rare explosion due to which matter ejects at




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thanks a lot

Written by vijender

February 16, 2013 at 10:31 PM

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2013 - February 7 to 15 Current Affairs _ PREPARE GK

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2013 - February 7 to 15 Current Affairs _ PREPARE GK