CURRENT AFFAIRS OCTOBER 2005

1) Asia's most powerful bizmen: Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, Infosys Technologies CEO Nandan Nilekani, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji and Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani are the four Indians in Asia's 25 most powerful business leaders list by the Fortune magazine.Ratan Tata is ranked 12th most powerful Asian business leader, just ahead of Nandan Nilekani, who has been ranked 13th. Mukesh Ambani has been ranked 17th on the list by the magazine, followed by Azim Premji at 19th

2) The Australian duo of Barry J Marshall and J Robin Warren were Monday awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine.The prize was given for their research on bacteria in gastritis and ulcer disease

3)ICC PLAYER AWARD: England's Andrew Flintoff and South African Jacques Kallis have tied for the International Cricket Council (ICC) player of the year award. Kallis was also named ICC Test player of the year, while Flintoff was runner-up in the one-day category. England batsman Kevin Pietersen won the one-day and emerging player of the year awards at the ceremony in Sydney. English success continued when Flintoff picked up the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award on behalf of the England team.

4) three-day Conference of Director Generals of Police and Inspector Generals of Police CONDUCTED AT Delhi in October.

5)Nobel Economics: Robert J. Aumann of Israel  Thomas C. Schelling of USA

 6)Nobel Peace: IAEA and it s Chairman- Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt is the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations system. He was appointed to the office effective 1 December 1997, and reappointed to a second term in September 2001.

7)Vikram Seth author of Two Leaves faciliatated.

8) The Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index for 2004 had placed India 90th among 146 countries.  India scored 2.9 in 2005 on a 10 to 0 scale of the index indicating the cleanest score and 0 the most corrupt. Among India's neighbouring countries, Berlin-based TI placed China and Sri Lanka at 78th position ranking it least corrupt than India with a score of 3.2 while Afghanistan and Nepal have been jointly placed at 117th with a score of 2.5, Pakistan 144th with a score of 2.1 and Myanmar 155th (1.8). Iceland is the least corrupt country with a score of 9.7 while Bangladesh and Chad have jointly been described as the most corrupt nations in the world ranking 158th (1.7). The United Kingdom has been placed 11th jointly with Netherland (8.6) while United States has been placed at 17th with a score of 7.6 in the index.

9) Jammu and Kashmir Education Minister Ghulam Nabi Lone was killed in a fidayeen (suicide) attack at his Tulsibagh area residence in Srinagar

10) Maharashtra is  still a leader in terms of attracting foreign direct investment.With FDI inflows at $13.5 billion, it surpasses even the combined investment in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

11) Malappuram, India's 1st e-literate district through 500 akshya which are computer labs

12) N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies Ltd, has resigned from the chairmanship of the Bangalore International Airport Limited following a remark made by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda

13) Dr Thakur V Hariprasad of the Institute of Research and Rehabilitation for the Mentally Handicapped in Hyderabad will be conferred the title of 'Ambassador' of Oxford University. Honour of Residency

14)Public Private Partnership Committee set up with Secy Economic Affairs as Chairman and 4 other official as members.

15) The 90th meeting of The Railway Board Rajbhasha Implementation Committee chaired by Shri J.P.Batra, Chairman, Railways Board was held at Delhi on Thursday last to review the efforts being made by the Ministry of Railways for the promotion of Hindi language

16) Olympic silver medallist shooter Lt Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore joined the Sahara India Commercial Corporation Limited as Senior Vice President (Honorary

17) The Reserve Bank of India in its mid-term review of the Monetary & Credit Policy for the year 2005-06 on Tuesday kept the bank rate unchanged at 6 per cent.However, as expected, in view of the current macroeconomic and over all monetary conditions, the reverse repo rate has been increased by 25 basis points with effect from October 26, 2005 to 5.25 per cent from the current level of 5 per cent. The cash reserve ratio (CRR) kept unchanged at 5 per cent. Accordingly, the fixed repo rate under Liquidity Adjustment Facility would be 6.25 per cent with effect from October 26, 2005

18) Sadoun Nasouaf al-Janabi lawyer who was defending an associate of Saddam Hussein has been found dead after being abducted in Baghdad

19) The Vice President of India, Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was today honoured with an honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine by the Yerewan State Medical University at Yerevan, the capital of Armenia

20) Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest IT company, has bagged a 12-year order from Pearl Insurance for £486 million ($847 million).With this, TCS will move into the British life insurance and pensions industry after entering into exclusive discussions with Pearl Group Limited

21) John Banville of Ireland  was named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction with The Sea, published by Picador. Second attempt  won- First in 1989 for The Evidence but not got.

22) Americans Roy J Glauber and John L Hall as well as German Theodor W Haensch won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in the field of optics,

23) Leading NRI physician Ajit Lalvani has won the Scientific Prize of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease for his research into the functioning of vaccines against the ailment-WHO Award.

24) Six Indian companies figure in the BusinessWeek list of Asia's 50 best firms. These are ONGC, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro and Infosys Technologies

Rank

Company

1

PTT

2

PetroChina

3

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

4

S-Oil

5

Tata Steel

6

POSCO

7

Shinhan Financial Group

8

LG Corp

9

Samsung Electronics

10

MISC (Malaysia Intl. Shipping)

16

Reliance Industries

18

Tata Motors

36

Larsen & Toubro

39

Infosys Technologies

25) 125 YEARS OF DISCOVERY OF MALARIA PARASITE-on 6th November, 1880, Charles Alphonse Laveran discovered the Malaria causing parasite

26) The first BIMSTEC Energy Ministers’ Conference is held in New Delhi

27)In pursuance of Section 12 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (22 of 2005), the Central Government has constituted the Central Information Commission consisting of the following :-  Shri Wajahat Habibullah     Chief Information Commissioner   Shri A.N. Tiwari        Shri O.P. Kejariwal      Shri M.M. Ansari Smt. Padma Balasubramanian -       Information Commissioner

28) Daniel Craig, a 37-year-old blond-haired, blue-eyed Englishman was unveiled Friday as the new James Bond, ending months of mystery over who would play the role of the British playboy spy 007.

29) the Union Cabinet had approved the raising of the sectoral cap for FDI in Telecom Sector from 49 per cent to 74 per cent

30) France's Yves Chauvin and Americans Robert H Grubbs and Richard R Schrock have won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.The trio won the award for their development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis.

31) British playwright Harold Pinter, whose juxtaposition of the brutal and the banal dubbed an adjective that bears his name, won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature . His works include The Room, The Birthday Party and The Dumb Waiter and his breakthrough work, The Caretaker

32) The International Congress of Indian Christians Inc (ICICI) 2005 peace award was  presented to CMJayalalithaa for her "dynamic leadership" in implementing  progressive and humanitarian initiatives for the under-privileged

33) India and France on Thursday signed a Rs 15,400 crore ($3.5 billion) deal to manufacture six advanced stealth characteristic Scorpene submarines in Mumbai's Mazagoan Docks.

34) India has the fourth happiest population in the world, even ahead of Britain and Canada, a survey indicated on Wednesday.The survey, carried out across 30 nations, found that only those living in Australia, the United States and Egypt are more upbeat.The most miserable population was the Hungarians

35)Winner of Kabir Purakar: Md. Aynal Hoque of Bilasipara town of Dhubri district of Assam and Grade-III on Shri K. Rajarathnam Issac of Cuddapah, Andhra Pradesh.

36) 36th Chief Justice of India- Y.K. Sabarwal

37) The second national conference of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) will be held in Hyderabad next year

38) LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI AWARD  2004TO C.P. SRIVATSAVA who was earlier PA of Sastri

39)Most polluted cities-Raipur,Jharia Jullandar.Delhi-16   kolkata-21   Mumbai 39 Chennai the Best and last polluted-52

40) Dubai-based Keralite Non-Resident Indian businessman, Aniyan Kutty, will set up an international bank with headquarters in Bahrain.

41) Army today launched large-scale rescue operations, OPERATION ‘IMDAD’ in aid of the earthquake affected in J&K.

42) Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved the establishment of an Early Warning System for mitigation of Oceanogenic Disasters like Tsunami and ‘Storm Surges’ in the Indian Ocean at an estimated cost of Rs.125 crore. CCEA also gave its approval for setting up an Early Warning Centre at Hyderabad

43) The Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK) is hosting the 11th Annual Conference of International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres (IAPTC) at New Delhi

44) INS Satavahana, the submarine training school of Indian Navy undertook basic submarine training for officers of the South African Navy (SAN) on the Type-209 submarine

45) SAIL PAYS HIGHEST EVER DIVIDEND OF RS.1170 CRORE TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

46) World Habitat Day wias celebrated on October 3, 2005. The theme of this year’s celebrations is Millennium Development Goals and the City

47.  Constitutional Referendum in Iraq

       Nationwide, 78 per cent voted ‘yes’ and 21 per cent ‘no’.

48.  Red Fort Attack Case  Delhi Court on Oct. 31 convicted Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Mohammad Arif,   a Pakistani, and six others.

49.   India Signs with African Union

India and the 53-nation African Union on Oct. 27 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for launching the Pan-African Network Project.  It willl digitially inter-connect all the 53 African countries.

50.  Red Fort Attack Case

A Delhi Court on Oct. 31 convicted Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Mohammad Arif, a Pakistani, and six others.

51. SC Ruling on Cow Slaughter

A seven-Judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Oct. 26 upheld at Gujarat legislation banning the slaughter of bulls and bullocks (cow and its progeny).

52.  India-Mauritius Sign CECPA Framework

India and Mauritius signed to framework a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA).

53.  Joint Military Exercise

The defence forces of India and Russia held their first-ever joint airborne military exercise in Bikaner on Oct. 16.

54.  Prarambhik Shiksha KoshThe Union Cabinet on Oct. 6 approved the creation of the Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh (PSK) with the money collected from the education cess since the last fiscal.

55.  Mukherjee Commission Report

The Mukherjee Commission probing the alleged disappearance of Subhas LChandra Bose on Oct. 6 failed to find any document in the state archives in Russia pertaining to claims that he had stayed in the Soviet Union after 1945.

56.Jharkhand Signs MoU with Shanghai

57.  E-Procurement System in Delhi

58.  Illiteracy Rates in States

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are in close contest to be the most illiterate State of the Country.  Together the two States account for 61 (40 per cent) of the 150 low literacy districts in the country.  UP with 31 districts and Bihar with 30 districts top the chart.  The rest of the low literacy districts are spread over Jharkhand (13), Rajasthan (11), Orissa (10), Madhya Pradesh (9), Andhra Pradesh and J&K (8 each), Arunachal Pradesh (7), Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and West Bengal (4 each), Assam and Meghalaya (3 each), Gujarat and Nagaland (2 each), and Punjab (1).

59.  Hurricane Slams into Mexico

Hurricane Wilma slammed into the island of Cozumel on Oct. 21 starting a long, grinding march across Mexico’s resort-studded coastline.

60.  New Polish President

Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski of the socially conservative Law and Justice Party came from behind to win Poland’s presidential election.

61.G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting

The Seventh Meeting of the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was held in Zianghe (LChina) on Oct. 16.

62.  USA Becomes top tourist market for India

Tourist arrivals during 2004 have shown that USA has become the largest tourist market for India surpassing the UK, which was the leader so far

1. USA   520531    2. UK     499997 

3. Canada   134902     4. France    133445

63.  Two companies have joined hands for gas distribution project

GAIL and IOC

64.  Recently, BSNL has signed an agreement with   Sri Lanka

65.  Which has won the Green Governance Award for 2005

Tata Chemicals

66.  Lotte, the well-known confectionery company is based  South Korea.

67.  In Oct. 2005, the Union Cabinet has approved the merger of IOC with   IBP.

68.  CII Energy Excellence Award has been awarded to Vizag Steel Plant

69.  Amrita Pritam who died recently was a famous Punjabi writer.

 

70.  The 2005 Jmnalal Bajaj International Award has been awarded to

Daisaku Ikeda.

71.India is the new chief of the Commonwealth House Panel

72.  Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration (2004) to Eminent Bengali writer Mahashweta Devi ;on Oct. 31 for her commitment to social and economic uplift and sensitizing the society towards communal harmony and national integration.

73.  Franchise Award (2005) to T.K. Home, Information and Protocol Officer of the National Institute of Fashion Te chnology on Oct. 28 for excellence in teamwork.

74.  Miss Earth (2005):

Alexandra Braun Waldeck from Venezuela was crowned the Miss Earth.

75.  B.M. Birla Science Prize to Ajay Kumar Parida.

76.  Jamnalal Bajaj LAwards (2005):

International Award for Promoting Gandhian Values Outside India : Dr. Daisaku Ikeda (Japan)

Outstanding Constructive Work: P. Gopinathan Nair Application of Science and Technology for Rural Development: Rajendra Singh

Uploft and Welfare of Women and Children: Arunaben Shankarprasad Desai.

77.  Knight of the Legion of Honour (Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur)

President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Dhruv Sawhney.

78.  Best Orange Prize to eminent British writer Andrea Levy’s bestselling novel Small Island.

79.  Aditya Award to noted poet Surender Dubey

80.  Foreign Exchange Reserves: $143 billion 

81.  Paris, the capital of France, hosted the General Conference of the UNESCO in Oct. 2005.

82.  Nagpur Airport Renamed:

Nagpur jAirport was renamed Dr. Ambedkar International Airport

83.  Lt. Gen. Anup LSingh Jamwal, is the new Adjutant General.

84.  Lakshmi Mittal, a noted NRI steel tycoon, has been honoured with the 2005 Asian Achievers Award in Oct. 2005.

 

Aligarh Muslim University not a minority institution: SC

Bihar Assembly dissolution held unconstitutional

Life term is for life: Supreme Court : A division bench of Supreme Court, relying upon the earlier constitutional Bench decision has reiterated on 17th September 2005  that lifeImprisonment is not equivalent to imprisonment for 14 or 20 years.  The  Bench held that unless the punishment was commuted or remitted under

The law, a prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment was bound by the law

To serve the entire life term in prison.

Joint Task Forces to Curb Naxalism  On 19th September 2005, administrative heads and senior officials of 12 States includilng Chief Ministers, Home Secretaries and Director Generals Decided to set up an inter-state Joint Task Forces to facilitate coordination  In anti-naxalite operations.

 

India-US engage in submarine warfare exercise: Three phases of India-US naval exercise, Malabar 05, involving aircraft Carriers and submarines ended successfully.  On 4th October 2005, theExercises were held in the Arabian Sea off Goa Coast.

India to build six French submarines

Stealth Technology:  It is a technology that enables the submarines/fighter aircrafts to avoid  Being detected by the radar system of the enemy countries.

Sakhalin-I: An example of Indo-Russia energy cooperation

Sakhalin I: This project includes the Chayvo, odoptu and Arkectun-

Dagi fields.  Period of 40 years 2.3 billion barrels of Oil and17 trillion cubic feets of has is to be produced.  Total  investment for the full development of the fields has been  estimated at more than $12 billion.

 OVL: An overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has

 Purchased 20% stake in Sakhalin-I project for $1.7 billion  In 2001.

 

IAEA Vote It was sponsored by the European Union troika consisting of Britain,

Germany and France supported by the US.  The vote was meant to Refer the question of Iran to the Unilted Nations Security Council for  appropriate sanctions against Iran for non-compliance with non-     proliferation Treaty Obligations.                                                               

Germany will have a coalition government.Angela Market is the Chancellor and has become the first woman Chancellor of Germany.

German electionsThe lower house ‘Budestang’ has a total of 656 seats whose members  are elected through direct election for a term of 4 years.  It follows

  “two ballot system”.  Under thils system every voter has 2 votes of which the first ballot is cast in candidates favour and the second in Party’s favour.  Seats are allotted to the parties on the basis of their  share in the votes polled.  Angela Merkel is the Chancellor and she has become the first woman Chancellor of Germany.

IRA: It is an army of the Catholic Christians of the Northern Ireland who have been discriminated against and feel being treated as the second-class citizens in Ireland.  Its political wing is called Sinn Fien.

Japan privatises postal services

Hurricane Rita hits the American Coast Hurricane Rita first hit Cuba on September 20 and then roared into the oil rich Gulf of Mexico on September 21.  On September 23, Rita slammed into Texas and Louisiana.

The MSP for wheat has been fixed at Rs650, whereas that for barley has been fixed at Rs550.  The MSP for both gram and masur (lentil) has been fixed at Rs1,435 and

Rs1, 535 respectively.

Name of the book that has created much controversy about the influence of CIA and

KGB in India during seventies Mitrokhin files.

Recently, the government has decided to set up a gas plant at Ratnagiri.

The government has recently decided to include disease under immunization scheme Hepatitis B

The name of the Chinese second manned spaceship is Shenzhou VI.

Railways defeated Rest of India in Irani cup.

RAYMOND LAFITTE.  The World Bank appointed Swiss neutral expert isadjudicating on differences between India and Pakistan over the design of the Baglihar dam.

VIKAS SINGH was appointed as Additional Solicitor-General of India in the Supreme Court on September 19, 2005.

Junichiro Koizumi: Reelected as the P.M. of Japan