Kedarnath Singh received Jnanpith award 2013

President Pranab Mukherjee on 10 November 2014 conferred the 49th Jnanpith Award on eminent Hindi poet Kedarnath Singh at a function at Balyogi Auditorium, Parliament Library Building in New Delhi.

Kedarnath Singh was conferred with the country's highest literary award for his outstanding contribution towards Indian literature. As a poet, he has offered a rare assimilation of rhymes and lyrical prose, exploring both the realms of reality and fantasy with equal felicity. His poetry presents a collage of meaning, colours and acceptance.

Rafael Nadal Won French Open Title 

• Rafael Nadal (Spain) won the French Open title 2014 for the ninth time on 8 June 2014. He is the first men to win five French Open titles in a row. He won against Novak Djokovic (Yugoslavia) with 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, and 6-4 in the final.

• In women’s singles Maria Sharapova (Russia) won the title against Simona Halep (Romania) in the final. With this win she made fifth Grand Slam title.

Modi Meets Chinese Foreign Minister.

• Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister of China was on a two-day long visit to India from 8 June to 9 June 2014.
• He visited India in the capacity of Special Envoy of the President of China, Xi Jinping.
• The objective of the visit was to establish contact with the new Government of India led by Narendra Modi.
• During his visit, he also met Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi and discussed a wide range of issues related to trade, economy, border and people to people exchanges.

Some Key Points Of Discussions Are:-

• Respect the sensitivities and aspirations of their people as essential for expansion of bilateral relations.
• People to people exchanges like Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and the project about the Encyclopedia of India-China cultural contacts.
• Several issues of regional and international importance.

Kudankulam Became India’s First Nuclear Plant To Generate 1000 Mw Power. 

• Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant became India’s first nuclear plant to generate 1000 MW power. Unit I of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant reached its full capacity.
• With this, the total nuclear energy contribution will increase to 5789 MW. Work on the Unit-first of Kudankulam Plant was completed in 2013.
• Before Kudankulam, Tata Mundra project in Gujarat had the distinction of being the largest single generation unit in operation with 800 MW power capacities.

Important Information’s Related To Kundalkulam Power Plant. 

• Plans for the Kudankulam facility were first drawn up in 1988 with the help of Russia. It was supposed to open in 2011 but it was delayed due to the large public and neighboring country (Sri Lanka) protest.
• The plant is the 20th nuclear power station connected to India’s power grid.
• The Kudankulam nuclear plant project attained criticality in July 2013. Criticality is the point when a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining.
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) are the key regulatory bodies that inspect all these nuclear power plant repeatedly.

Two Patrol Vessles Achook And Agrim Commissioned Into Indian Coastguard.

• Two ships ICGS Achook and ICGS Agrim, the fifth and sixth ships in a series of 20 fast patrol vessels have been inducted into the Indian Coastguard.
• These ships are new generation fast patrol vessels fitted with highly developed communication equipment and will be positioned in Mumbai.
• These fast petrol vessels are being built at Cochin shipyard which is also building India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier (INS Vikrant).

Chandrababu Naidu Takes Oath As Andhra Pradesh CM

• Head of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Nara Chandrababu Naidu (64) has been sworn-in as the first Chief Minister of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh.
• Mr. Naidu was administered the oath of office by Governor E S L Narasimhan.
• Mr. Naidu has served as the CM of (united) Andhra Pradesh for 8 years (from 1995 to May 2004) – the longest tenure for any CM of Andhra.
• He has been elected as an MLA seven times and also holds the record as the longest-serving Leader of Opposition in Andhra Pradesh between 2004 and 2014.
• Post bifurcation, AP’s new geographical expanse is about 1.60 lakh sq km while its population is around 5 crore. Although Andhra Pradesh has been divided into Telangana and residuary Andhra, Hyderabad will remain the common capital for both states for next 10 years.
• He is the first CM of residual Andhra Pradesh post bi-bifurcation.

Ranjit Kumar Assumes Charge As Solicitor General.

• Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar on Monday assumed charge as the Solicitor General (SG), the second highest law officer of India.
• The government has also appointed six additional Solicitor General’s (ASGs).
• They said no final decision has been taken on the appointment of the new Attorney General.

Supersonic Cruise Missile Brahmos Successfully Test-Fired From INS Kolkata.

• India successfully test fired the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos from indigenous INS Kolkata off the coast of Karwar in Karnataka.
• BrahMos missile with a speed of Mach 2.5 to 2.8 is the product of joint collaboration between India and Russia and has a range of 290-km.
• For the first time, the missile was test-fired from an indigenous warship that will be commissioned in Indian Navy in July 2014.
• So far BrahMos missile have been deployed on the Russia-built Rajput-class destroyers and Talwar-class frigates on the Navy.

Israel Chooses Hard-Liner Reuven Rivlin As President.

• Israel’s parliament on Tuesday chose Reuven Rivlin, a veteran nationalist politician and supporter of the Jewish settlement movement, as the country’s next president, putting a man opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state into the ceremonial but influential post.
• A former Speaker of the Knesset (Israel Parliament).
• He will replace Shimon Peres.

EU Hosted G-7 Summit for The First Time.

• The EU hosted the G-7 summit for the first time. As the meeting was due to be held in Sochi, Russia but following the violation of Ukraines Soverginity and territorial integrity which is against the principles of G-7 its members decided to expel the Russia from the group. The meeting was then scheduled to held in Brussels, Belgium.
• This was the 40th summit.
• The host leader of the 2014 summit was Herman Van Rompuy
• 39th Summit was held at Northern Ireland United Kingdom in 2013
• 41st will be hosted by Germany in 2015

Anti-Tobacco Advertisement Was Launched By Union Ministry.

The Price We Pay is the advertisement launched by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the awareness about ill effects of tobacco. It’s a 4 minute video explaining all level effects of tobacco. According to survey it is observed that about 27.5 crore people of India consume tobacco.

 

Kawa Music Group Of Jaipur Is Set To Perform During The 20th Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2014.

Kawa music group of Jaipur, Rajasthan is all set to be performing at 20th CMG scheduled to be held at Glasgow, Scotland from 23 July to 3 August 2014.

Lithuania Will Adopt Euro As Single Currency From 1 January 2015.

According to European Union Commission’s Convergence Report 2014 it is revealed that Lithuania met all criteria to become the 19th country from 1st January 2015 to adopt Euro as single currency.

Sumitra Mahajan Elected 2nd Lady Speaker Of Lok Sabha.

• Sumitra Mahajan is the longest serving and eldest woman member of the house.
• She is MP form Indore and unanimously elected as the speaker of 16th Lok Sabha.
• She was elected after a motion moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was adopted by voice vote called by pro tem Speaker Kamal Nath.

1st Speaker of Lok Sabha                    G.V. Mavalankar
1st woman Speaker of Lok Sabha      Meira Kumar

Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein Is The Next UN High Commissioner For Human Rights.

• Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein of Jorden is appointed by UN General Secretary Ban-Ki-Moon as next UN high commissioner for human right.
• He will replace Navanethem Pillay.

 

Rajiv Gandhi International Airport won Roll of Excellence award of ACI.

• Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Hyderabad won the Roll of Excellence award.
• The award was given by Airport Council International (ACI) in Seoul, South Korea on 27 May 2014.
• RGIA won the award in the recognition of the airport being in the top three of the five airports in the world for five consecutive years in certain categories.

India has been elected to the Intergovernmental Committee for Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage for the next four years (2014-18).

• India won the election to this committee held on 4 June 2014 at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris by 135 votes against a total of 142 votes cast by Member States, who were present in the voting.
• India has got selected in this committee for second time, first time it was member of the committee from 2006 to 2010.

Nitin Gadkari Is The Next Union Minister of Rural Development.

Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari was given additional charge of the Ministries of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation on 4 June 2014.

• The additional charges given to Gadkari were with Gopinath Munde, who died on 3 June 2014 due to a car accident in New Delhi.
• He is also holding the Charge of Ministry of Transport.

Russia Lifted Arms Embargo On Pakistan

• Russia lifted arm embargo on Pakistan for supplying weapons and military hardware to Pakistan showing signs of its changing foreign policy.
• Russia is negotiation the sales of MI-35 helicopters to Pakistan.
• Russia has been India’s largest defence supplier.
• The deal raised controversy over changing Indo-Russia relationships.

Retired Indian Army Lt General appointed member of UN panel.

• Retired Indian Army Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha has been appointed member of a UN expert panel on peacekeeping that will advice the world body on how to use new technologies and innovations in that field.
• He is part of the five-member panel of experts appointed by Under-Secretaries- General for Peacekeeping Operations.
• The panel is headed by Ms. Jane Holl Lute (United States) and will release its final report by November 2014

Environment Day Celebrated Throughout The World.

• World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated every year on June 5 to raise global awareness to take positive environmental action to protect nature and the planet Earth. It is run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• Theme for World Environment Day will focus on 'Small Islands and Climate Change', the official slogan and theme for the year 2014 was 'Raise Your Voice Not The Sea Level.
• The first Environment day was hosted in 1973.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi sworn in as Egypt's president.

• Former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was sworn in as president of Egypt on Sunday in a ceremony with low-key attendance by Western allies concerned by a crackdown on dissent since he ousted Islamist leader Mohamed Mursi last year.
• Sisi won with 97% of the vote, followed three years of upheaval since a popular uprising ended 30 years of rule by former air force commander Hosni Mubarak.

 Petro Poroshenko sworn in as Ukraine president.

• Western-backed tycoon Petro Poroshenko vowed on Saturday to avert civil war and mend ties with Russia after being sworn in as Ukraine’s fifth post-Soviet president with the nation facing disintegration and economic collapse.
• The 48-year-old candy magnate dubbed the “chocolate king” first asked a packed session of parliament to observe a minute of silence for the 100 people killed in three days of carnage in Kiev.
• He replaced Viktor Yanukovych after being the Ukrainian parliament voted to remove him (Viktor Yanukovych) from his post, on the grounds that he was unable to fulfil his duties.

UN establishes ‘Nelson Mandela Prize’ to honour his achievements.

• The UN General Assembly has established an award in the honour of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela to pay tribute to his achievements and contributions.
• By terms of the resolution, the Assembly asked the Secretary-General, in consultation with the President of the Assembly, to establish within six months of adoption of the text the criteria and procedures for bestowing the prize.
• This is to be adopted by the Assembly no later than November 2014.

Check your gain.

1) Telangana become 29th sate of India on which of the following date
a) 1st June 2014
b) 2nd June 2014
c) 3rd June 2014
d) 4th June 2014

2) Which of the following state does not border Telangana?
a) Maharashtra
b) Karnataka
c) Tamil Nadu
d) Odisha

3) How many districts does Telangana have?
a)10
b) 12
c) 9
d) 11

4) International Wresting Tournament was held at which of the following place?
a) Rome, Italy
b) Naples, Italy
c) Foggia, Italy
d) Sassari, Italy

5) Which of the following effect is mainly responsible for the delayed monsoon in India?
a) La Nina
b) El Nino
c) Coriolis force
d) None of the above

6) Which of the following is appointed as the party leader of Congress in Lok Sabha?
a) Cpt Amrinder singh
b) Shashi Tharoor
c) Malikarjun Kharge
d) Rahul Gandhi

7) Recently, NDRI produces the clone of Murrah buffalo named as.
a) Seema
b) Sushma
c) Lalima
d) Purnima

8) Who is the chairman of the SIT formed on Black Money?
a) Justice Arijit Pasayat
b) Justice MB Shah
c) Justice Swatanter Kumar
d) Justice A.K. Ganguly

9) Which of the following is Union Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA)?
a) Ravi Shankar Parsad
b) Ananth Kumar
c) M Venkaiah Naidu
d) Ram Vilas Paswan

10) Mr. Arun Jaitley recently, appointed as India’s Governor on the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). ADB has it’s headquarter at which of the following place?
a) Manila, Philippines
b) Jakarta, Indonesia
c) Tokyo, Japan
d) Beijing, China

Kamal Nath Sworn as Protem Speaker

• Kamal Nath is an Indian politician and the Ex Minister of Urban Development. He is a member and the Protem Speaker of the current 16th Lok Sabha of India.

• He represents the Chhindwara constituency of Madhya Pradesh and is a member of the Indian National Congress (INC).

• Protem speaker is sworn by President.

• The senior most MP (in terms of no. of years of Membership of the house) is appointed as Pro-tem speaker.

• Function of Protem speaker is to administer oath to all the newly elected MPs on behalf of President.

• He performs duty till the election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House

Dr. Bashar-Al-Assad has been reelected as the President

of Syria.

Dr. Bashar al-assad has been elected as the president of Syria (Capital Damascus) by absolute majority. There is mixed reaction around the world. US Secretary of State Jhon Kerry has termed the election as “a great big zero”. Meanwhile, an international delegation led by allies of Assad praised the elections saying they were democratic and transparent.

Anand Mahindra first Indian to be honoured with Harvard Medal

Anand Mahindra is the Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra & MahindraMr. Mahindra is an alumnus of the University, graduating with Honours (Magna Cum Laude) from Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1977. In 1981, he secured an MBA degree from the Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Arun Jaitley to visit aircraft carrier INS Viraat.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley will visit aircraft carrier INS Viraat in Mumbai on Saturday and review the operational preparedness of the Western Naval Command, which witnessed two major submarine mishaps in the last one year. INS Viraat was till recently the only aircraft carrier in the Indian Navy and the force is working towards keeping it operational for a few more years to meet its requirements. The Defence Minister has been invited by the armed forces to visit far flung bases to show solidarity with the troops and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is believed to have been invited to visit Siachen glacier by the Army and largest warship aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya by the Navy.

Short Note on Aircraft Carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft, that serves as a seagoing airbase. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. It is extremely expensive to build and important to protect. Aircraft carriers have evolved from converted cruisers to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighter planes, strike aircraft, helicopters, missiles and other types of aircraft. 

Aircraft Carrier of India

INS Viraat the oldest carrier in service and one of three aircraft carriers based in the Indian Ocean Region commissioned in 1959

INS Vikramaditya was bought from Russia and entered into service with the Indian Navy in 2013.

INS Vikrant (R11) was a Majestic-class aircraft carrier. She played a key role during Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. India purchased INS Vikrant from the United Kingdom in 1957. She was decommissioned in January 1997. She was preserved as a museum ship in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai, until it was closed in 2012 due to safety concerns. At the end of January 2014, Vikrant was sold through an online auction to an Alang ship-breaker, and is now berthed off Bhavnagar undergoing preparations to be broken up. On May 5, 2014, the Supreme Court of India postponed the decision to scrap the Vikrant

Some Important Telangana Info.

Kalvakuntala Chandrashekar Rao founder president of Telangana Rashtra Samiti was sworn as the First Chief Minister of the new state Telangana by Governor ESL Narasimhan. The newly formed 29th state has 10 districts with Hyderabad as the shared capital with Andhra Pradesh. With the creation of state President’s rule was lifted. Location of Telangana falls between two rivers Krishna and Godavari.

It is bordered by AP, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chattisgarh and Odisha. It is 12th largest state in terms of area and population. Official language of Telangana is Telgu with Urdu as its second official language. It will have bicameral legislation. Its high court will be located at Hyderabad.

Delayed Monsoon likely to hit farmers.

Agriculture sector is expected to be under stress because of less then normal monsoon this year as per IMD (indian meteorological department). The cause of this unusual climatic condition is El Nino effect.

El Nino effect: It is the refers to variations in the temperature of the surface of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean and in air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific. Opposite of its is La Nina.

Developing countries dependent upon agriculture and fishing, particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean, are the most affected. El niño is Spanish for "the boy", and the capitalized term El Niño refers to the Christ child, because periodic warming in the Pacific near South America is usually noticed around Christmas. Warm air rises near Peru, causing rain in the northern Peruvian deserts.

Kharge to Lead Congress in Lok Sabha.

Congress decided Mallikarjun Kharge (former Railway Minister) to lead party in current Lok Sabha season. He represents Gulbarga constituency Karnataka.

NDRI produces the Clone of Murrah buffalo.

National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal have produced female calf clone named Lalima from a high yeilding variety of Murrah buffalo. It earlier produced the clone of a female buffalo ‘Purnima’ from a high-yeilding animal in 2013 but it survived for only 21 days.

SIT members decided roadmap for further process on Black Money.

SIT refers to Special Investigation Team decided the road map and detailed modalities of proceeding further in accordance with the Supreme Court mandate, according to an official release. The Narendra Modi government had constituted the SIT to implement the decision of the apex court to probe large amounts of money stashed abroad by tax evaders. The ambit of the SIT also covers the funds generated through unlawful activities and salted away in overseas havens.

                                                                        SIT:-
                                                                        Chairman:- Justice MB Shah (retd)
                                                                        Vice Chairman:- Justice Arijit Pasayat (retd)
 
 Government committed to the goal “Housing for all by 2012” , Says Venkaiah.

Union Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) M Venkaiah Naidu said that the government was committed to the goal of ‘Housing for all by 2022. 2022 is the 75th year of India’s freedom when the dream of the urban poor for housing needed to be realized. “Housing for all is a challenging task since the ministry has only Rs. 35,000 crore to provide affordable housing and for slum development in the 12th Plan while the requirement is much larger. It is for this reason that the public private partnership and corporate social responsibility are required in this sector,” Naidu said.

Jaitley is appointed as India’s Governor on ADB Board.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been appointed as India’s Governor on the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The appointment is with effect from May 27. The position was earlier held by former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

The Board of Governors is the ADB’s highest policy making body and has one representative from each member country.

ADB, founded in 1966, aims to improve people’s lives in Asia and the Pacific.It approved $21.02 billion in financing in 2013.

World first solar plane makes inaugural flight.

A solar powered plane made successful inaugural flight in Switzerland on Monday. The Single seater aircraft, with which Swiss pioneers Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg are attempting to carry out the first solar-powered flight around the world in 2015, is the first able to fly day and night without fuel or polluting emissions. 

Spain’s King Juan Carlos abdicated his position.

  

Under situations like facing royal scandals amid the nation’s near financial meltdown. Spain’s King Juan Carlos announced today he will abdicate in favour of his son Crown Prince Felipe, making way for a ‘new generation’.

 
India became the second largest exporter of textiles in the world pips Italy, Germany: UN Comtrade.

India lag behind Italy to become the second largest exporter of textiles in the world. China still remains the largest exporter of textiles in the world.

India’s share in Global Textiles has increased by 17.5% from 2012 to 2013. As a result India's share in the global textile exports in 2013 is 5.2%

Currently India exports 40.2 billion US dollars textiles to the world.

Indian textile exports grew by 23%. This is in contrast to global textile growth rate of only 4.7%, and China and Bangladesh growth rate of 11.4% and 15.4% respectively.

This growth in the increase in share of the textiles exports from India is mainly due to the growth in the Apparel and Clothing sector which accounts for almost 43% of the share alone.

RBI announced second Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement.
 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced second Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement on 3 June 2014. RBI in its second bi-monthly monetary policy statement has kept the policy rates unchanged. The current rates are as follow

Repo Rate:- 8.00 percent

Cash Reserve Ratio:- 4.00 percent

Reverse Repo Rate:- 7.0 percent

Marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 9.0 percent.

Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) :- Reduced by 50 basis points from 23 percent to 22.50 percent of their NDTL

Introduce a special term repo facility of 0.25 percent of NDTL to compensate fully for the reduction in access to liquidity under the ECR (Export Credit Refinancing) with immediate effect.

India and France started Garuda V bilateral air exercise at Jodhpur Air Base.
 

The Indian Air Force (IAF) and French Air Force (FAF) commenced the bilateral exercise Garuda V on 2 June 2014 at Jodhpur Air Base. The bilateral air exercise is fifth in the series and will end on 13 June 2014. The aim of the exercise is to enhance operational co-operation and to validate capabilities. The 2014 edition of the exercise will involve the assets of Indian Air Force’s main operational formations like Gandhinagar based South Western Command and Allahabad based Central Air Command.

First Garuda Exercise was undertaken in February 2003 at the Indian Air Base of Gwalior. The last edition of the Garuda exercise, Garuda IV was held in 2010 at Istres, France.

Peter Mutharika sworn-in as President of Malawi.

Peter Mutharika was sworn-in as President of Malawi on 31 May 2014.

He won the presidential election of Malawi by defeating previous President Joyce Banda.

The result was announced by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) on 30 May 2014. The capital of Malawi is Lilongwe.