Indian Current Affairs: 31.12.2006

Ousted Iraqi leader and 69 year old Saddam Hussein was hanged to death early Saturday morning; three years and nine months after America started its war on Iraq.
He is reported as having remained dignified and defiant even at the gallows; the true mark of a leader.
There were contrasting emotions displayed all over the globe about this hanging. Emotions apart, America had no business intervening in Iraq in the first place; leave alone hanging its leader. The court proceedings that delivered the death sentence on the leader also smacked of arbitrariness and were less convincing about their fairness in trial.

The HNI households are pegged at 1.6 million and growing at the rate of 14 to 15%.
There are about 7,11,000 Indians with liquid wealth of $100,000 or more. The number of millionaires in India are reportedly growing at 12.8% annually, with their wealth being projected at around $322 billion by 2009.

In describing its today’s edition, ET said it is “14 pages of La Dolce Vita”. I wondered what it meant. Googling for the phrase “La Dolce Vita” left me ogling at this scene:

This was the famous scene of Anita Ekberg in the Fontana di Trevi. This is one of the most celebrated images in cinema's history. The scene was from the movie “La Dolce Vita” of 1960. It is a film directed by Federico Fellini. It is a vast panel of long, loosely connected scenes that paint a portrait of the high and low life of Rome in the late fifties and early sixties, as seen through the eyes of its main character, a jaded society reporter, Marcello (played by Marcello Mastroianni), in his dealings with various woman characters in his life. Marcello wants to quit his job as a gossip columnist and become a novelist, but he never seems to be able to concentrate long enough to make any progress on his serious writings.
OK ogling apart, let us understand that describing something as “La Dolce Vita” means something like this: unfocused wanderings around. Even in La Dolce Vita, I found something worth learning; don’t you?

The Kanchipuram saree;
Old, architecturally marvelous and spiritually important temples;
The famed 3,500 year old (according to Hindu mythology) mango tree whose branches give four different types of mangoes;
Being a great seat of learning with luminaries like Sri Sankaracharya, Appar, Siruthonder and Bodhidharma having lived and worked there; and
Received international travelers like Yuan Chwang, the great Chinese traveler who visited in the 7^th century.

Some of the world’s best known upper segment music hardware (Speakers, Players) brands:

Ashish Soni, Sabhyasachi, Varun Behl, Anamika Khanna, JJ Valaya, Krishna Mehta, Raghavendra Rathore

The number of bloggers worldwide has touched 200 million. The US tops the list with about 50 million bloggers. India has about 1.2 million bloggers. China has 19.87 million and Japan 10 million of them.

India’s best golfer is now Asia’s Number 1 and is ranked 37 in the world rankings.
He won the Volvo Masters (European Tour), Casio World Open and Golf Nippon Series JT Cup in Japan.
Other prominent golfers from the country include: Gaganjeet Bhullar, Anirban Lahiri, Chiragh Kumar, Joseph Chakola, Jyoti Randhawa, Arjun Atwal, Rahil Gangjee, Shiv Kapur and SSP Chowrasia.

Chinese scientists have successfully bred partially green fluorescent pigs. The mouth, trotters and tongue of the pig are green under ultraviolet light. This was achieved by injecting fluorescent green protein into embryonic pigs.
This is considered an achievement and is expected to boost stem cell research.

An ice chunk of 66 sq km has broken off the Ayles Ice Shelf at Ellesmere Island. It is adrift now and if floats westward, it could wreak havoc in the oil-drilling regions and shipping lanes next summer.
Global warming is suspected to have been the cause of this ecological change.

Indian Current Affairs