Current Affairs: March-April 2009 | |
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Bharat Nirman programme envisages: 1. A four-year business plan for rural infrastructure. 2. Bring additional one crore hectare of land under assured irrigation. 3. Connect all villages that have a population of 1000 (or 500 in hilly/tribal area) with an all-weather road. 4. Construct 60 lakh additional houses for the poor. 5. Provide drinking water to all habitations. 6. Reach electricity to all villages and offer electricity connection to 2.3 crore households. 7. Give telephone connectivity to all villages.
The policy brief for a Global Green New Deal, developed by economist and the UN ahead of the G-20 meeting of world leaders in London on April 2, 2009, highlights the benefits of investing a significant amount of the $ 3 trillion-worth of global stimulus packages in five areas. The UN Environment Programme said these areas include raising the energy efficiency of old and new buildings, and more emphasis on renewable energy sources. The three other areas are: sustainable transport, including hybrid vehicles, high-speed rail and bus rapid transit systems; the planet's ecological infrastructure, including freshwaters, forests, soils and coral reefs, and sustainable agriculture, including organic production.
The Times of India's Teach India campaign has received the only grand prix at the creative Abby awards at Goafest 2009.
India's first human tooth bank has been set-up at the Government Medical College, Lucknow.
Ordnance Factories Day is observed on March 18.
World Water Day is observed on March 23.
Earth Hour was observed on March 29, 2009.
World Health Day is celebrated on April 7. The WHO set the theme for year 2009 as: "resilience and safety of health facilities and workers who treat those affected in emergencies."
On March 5, 2009, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI announced a 50 basis points reduction in repo and reverse repo rates, from 5.5 per cent to 5 per cent, as part of efforts to moderate the cost of borrowing by a slowing economy.
STD and local calls from cell-phones became 20% cheaper from April 1, 2009, following a directive from the telecom regulator asking mobile service providers to slash the fee they pay each other for moving calls between networks.
With a fortune of US$ 40 billion, software czar Bill Gates has regained his position as the world's wealthiest from his friend and legendary investor Warren Buffett, even as the economic crisis wiped off $ 2 trillion from the wealth of billionaires across the world. Gates, who himself lost US$ 18 billion in the past one year, is followed by Buffett (US$ 37 billion) at the second and Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim (US$ 35 billion) at the third position, as per the world billionaires' list released by the US magazine Forbes. Indian petro-chemicals giant Reliance Industries Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani has been ranked as the richest among all Indians with a net worth of US$ 19.5 billion, followed by NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal (US$ 19.3 billion). Ambani is ranked seventh in the global list (down from fifth last year) and Mittal is at eighth position (fourth in 2008).
The Union government has chosen well-known Chennai-based ad and feature filmmaker Bharatbala to organize the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Bharatbala is famous for making India-centric patriotic films like Vande Mataram-Ma Tujhe Salaam and Jana Gana Mana.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast that India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth will slow dramatically to 6.25% in 2008-09, and to 5.25% in the 2009-10. This is well below the 9% growth in 2007-08 and even lower than the government's prediction of 7.1% growth in 2008-09.
India has slipped 11 positions to be ranked 75th in a list of world's best countries for business, compiled by US publication Forbes, as the country lost ground in areas like trade freedom, technology, corporate tax rate and corruption. The list has been topped for the second year in a row by Denmark. The US has moved up two position to be ranked second on the list. Besides, Canada and Singapore have moved up four spots each to number three and four, respectively. Other countries in the top 10 include New Zealand, UK, Sweden, Australia, Hong Kong and Norway.
The fabled Pearl Carpet of Baroda has become the world's most expensive rug to be auctioned after it fetched $ 5.5 million at an auction in Doha. The rare jewelled master-piece that was once part of Maharaja Khande Rao Gaekwad's collection went under the hammer as part of Sotheby's first international auction series in the Middle East.
Works of three Asia-born authors figure in the long list of 2009's Orange Prize for Fiction, awarded for writings in English by women, but there are no Indians among the 20. The three novels are Pakistan-born Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows, Malaysia-born Preeta Samarasan's Evening is the Whole Day and Sri Lanka-born V.V. Ganeshananthan's Love Marriage. The Orange Prize is UK's only annual book award for fiction written by a woman.
First-ever nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia has come into force with the pact being ratified between the nations in the region. All five Central Asian Nations—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan—have ratified the treaty for a nuclear-weapon-free zone, first formally proposed by Uzbek President Islam Karimov at the General Assembly in 1993.
The Elliott wave theory, created by US market analyst Ralph Elliott in 1938, attempts to predict future price moves by dividing past trends into sections, or waves, and calculating changes in value. Gainesville, Georgia-based Elliott Wave International was founded by Robert Prechter, who was famous for cautioning investors that stocks would slump two weeks before the 1987 stock market crash.
Multi Screen Media, formerly Sony Entertainment Television, and World Sports Group have been signed as the official broadcast partners for the DLF Indian Premier League in a fresh nine-year deal running through to 2017, for a whopping Rs 8,200 crore.
Homai Vyarawala, 96, is the first woman press photographer of India.
Historian Ramachandra Guha has raked in Rs 97 lakh for a seven book deal with Penguin India, which includes a two volume biography of Mahatma Gandhi. Traditionally, big money in India goes to the novelists. Amitav Ghosh's three book deal, the first of which is Sea of Poppies, got the author a reported advance of Rs 18 lakh per book. It's only Nandan Nilekani's Imagining India that got a heftier advance of a reported Rs 25 lakh, that too for a non-fiction book.
The Union government has inked the Rs 10,000 crore project deal with Israel to develop new-generation medium range surface to air missile systems, capable of detecting and destroying hostile aircraft and spy drones at a range of 120 km.
The United Stock Exchange of India, promoted by State-run MMTC and brokerage firm Jaypee Capital, will start trading in currency derivatives by July 2009. This will be the fourth exchange after NSE, BSE and MCX-SX to introduce currency futures. Besides MMTC and Jaypee Capital, the exchange is also promoted by 11 banks, including the Federal Bank.
India spends less than 1.2% of its GDP on health sector. But, it takes enough care while caring for foreign patients. The country ranks second in the world in medical tourism, with Thailand leading the pack. In 2007, Indian hospitals treated 4.5 lakh patients from other countries, compared to 12 lakh by Thailand's.
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam unveiled the inaugural issue of a monthly magazine, India Matters, launched by the Consulate General of India in Dubai. The publication will focus on economic issues and endeavour to promote and strengthen the India-UAE economic partnership
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with warm regards
Harish Sati
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068
(M) + 91 - 9990646343 | (E-mail) Harish.sati@gmail.com
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