Indian Current Affairs: 02.01.2007

ONGC has the largest fleet of drilling rigs in operation. It has 29 rigs in operation. It owns 10 rigs.
Exploration firms are facing problems due to shortage of rigs.
Rentals for drillings rigs have skyrocketed due to scarcity. Reliance for example, is paying $320,000 a day to a deepwater rig called “Deepwater Frontier” that it hired from Transocean.

An agreement was signed by the two countries on December 31, 1988 on the prohibition of attacks against nuclear installations and facilities. As part of this agreement they both agreed to exchange the list of nuclear installations and facilities that are to be prohibited from any attack. They exchange these lists on January 1^st of every year. They were doing so from 1991.

This festival is celebrated by Muslims marking Prophet Ibrahim’s readiness to sacrifice his son Ismael on the orders of God.
After the prayers, the faithful sacrifice animals in line with the tradition set by Prophet Ibrahim and distribute the meat to the poor and needy.

He took over as the 8^th UN Secretary General on 1^st January from the outgoing UN Chief Kofi Annan.
UN is now a 192 member body.
He has named Vijay Nambiar, a retired Indian diplomat as his Chief of Staff.

Usually music system speakers are made of ferrite materials. iPod has revolutionized the speakers by introducing neodymium speakers in a mass scale. Their sound is far better than ferrite speakers.

At present there are stated to be a million households worldwide which use robots.
The world market for robots is expected to touch 121,000 units in 2008.

Private Equity deals have touched an all time high of 299 and were worth $7.5 billion in 2006 in India.

At present when Indian banks raise loans from their overseas branches, they need not pay any tax on the money coming into India. But foreign banks have to pay a withholding tax on funds raised overseas.
Government feels that such a move will help infrastructure funding requirements by making the overseas cost of borrowing a little less than at present.
The move is also expected to bring in equity between foreign banks and Indian banks.

Nearly half the country’s 13,500 MW of gas based power generating capacity is going unutilized for want of gas. There is no adequate availability of gas domestically and the imported gas is proving to be uneconomical with spot prices of LNG hovering around $10 per mmbtu. At this rate, the generated cost of per unit of electricity works out Rs. 4.
In this scenario, the government is thinking of introducing duty and tax waivers, to ensure that production in gas based power plants increases. The measures include duty waivers on LNG, natural gas as well as LNG regassification plants.

Revenue deficit of all the states is projected to decline to 0.1% of GDP in 2006-2007.
The combined gross fiscal deficit is projected to decline to 2.8% of GDP for the same period.
Outstanding liabilities would come down to 31.8% of GDP.
Interest payments are likely to drop sharply to 19.1% of the revenue receipts.

With just one man, 50 wives and over 100 kids, the village of Baktawng in Mizoram is very peculiar.
Religiously also, the family takes pride in nurturing the legacy of “Lalpa Kohhran” (God’s Church) founded by their godfather Chana in 1966.
This sect was formed as a result of their isolation in the 1930’s by the Welsh missionaries, for using the banned ‘khuang’ (Mizo traditional drum) as an instrument of worship.

Hindus believe that bathing in the Ganges during the Kumbh mela cleanses them of sin, speeding the way to the end of reincarnation in this world and the attainment of ‘nirvana’ or the afterlife.
Allahabad is one of the four spots where Garuda, the winged steed of Hindu God Vishnu, is said to have rested during a titanic battle with demons over a pitcher of divine nectar of immortality.
Allahabad is also the site of holy sangam or confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and a third, underground mythical river called Saraswati.

Indian Current Affairs