Indian Current Affairs: 10.03.2007

It was looking into the education related recommendations of the Sachar Committee report.
A section of the Muslim MPs is seeking a review of Article 341, to facilitate extension of SC reservations to Dalit Muslims in a manner similar to the extension provided for neo-Buddhists and SC Sikhs.

Sealdah-Joydevpur passenger train service. A decision to resume this service was taken by India and Bangladesh from April 14.
India will run the train for 6 months and Bangladesh will run it for the next six months.
This service was functional during the 1950’s.

Iftakar Muhammad Choudhary, the Pak CJ was sacked by President Parvez Musharaff.
In January 2000, Musharaff had dismissed 18 judges, including the then CJ for not taking oaths of office on the provisional constitution issued after he seized power from Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in October 1999.

Raise money from wealthy persons, pension funds, endowments and other sources.
Use this money, plus borrowed funds to buy companies
Have goal of making company more profitable, often by reducing staff, replacing managers, other cost cutting measures
Eventually sell the business or take it public.

India beat Japan in the number of richest people in the Forbes’ list.
India has 36 Indians in this list beating Japan’s 24
Hong Kong and China together account for about 41 people.
The combined worth of the riches Indians in this list is a good $191 bn, which is equal to about 25% of India’s GDP.
The number of billionaires in 2007 is 946; a decent increase over the previous year’s 793. The combined net worth of these people is $3.5 trillion.
Bill Gates tops the list of course as usual for the 13^th successive year.
LN Mittal at number 5 and Mukesh Ambani at number 14 are the riches Indians.

Rehman Rahi (82 years), the eminent Kashmiri poet has won the Jnanpith Award for his contribution to Kashmiri language.

Construction of the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline to transport natural gas from Iran to India is likely to commence by September 2009 and get completed by September 2014.
It is a $7 bn project.

The nuclear power plant in Kaiga, Karnataka has commenced operations. It produces about 220 mw of electricity.

On the lines of ONGC Videsh Limited, the government is thinking of coming up with Coal Videsh Limited. Pending the formation of the company, the government is going ahead and entering into agreements with foreign countries for coal equity.
It entered into an agreement with Mozambique.
In 2005-06 the domestic production of coal was 40.70 crore (407 mn) tonnes and imports were about 3.5 crore (35 mn) tonnes.

The Costa Book Awards were originally established in 1971 by Whitbread Plc.
Costa, the UK's fastest-growing coffee shop chain, announced its takeover of the sponsorship of the UK's most prestigious book prize in 2006, the year both Costa and the Book Awards celebrated their 35th anniversary.
Since 1971, the awards have recognised a wide range of books and authors across all genres, and the Costa Book Awards is the only book prize to use a category system that includes First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book.
The 2006 Book of the Year was won by Stef Penney for “The Tenderness of Wolves.”

It is constituted by the Central Government under Section 32 of the Central Excise Act, 1944 in 1999 for the settlement of disputes relating to both Central Excise and Customs matters. The commission consists of a principal bench at Delhi and one additional bench each at Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai.

Constituted in 1969, its mandate is to provide security to the critical infrastructure of the country. This includes Atomic Energy Installations, Space Establishments, Power Plants, Airports, Sea Ports etc.
It was constituted on 10^th March.
DG of CISF is S.L.S. Ahmed

This is a movie by Rajnesh Domalpalli. This maiden film won the Best First Feature film award in the 57^th Berlin Film Festival held recently.
It also won prizes of the International Centre of Films for Children and Young People and the International Jury at the 17^th Cairo International Film Festival for children.

Central Adoption Resource Agency is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Social worker J.K. Mittal has been appointed Chairperson of this agency.

Enciclomedia, the Mexican project led by the education consultant Raul Medina Mora.
The project digitized the entire curriculum and illustrates and demonstrates its features with photos, artwork, film, sound, and animations in an engaging range of multimedia.
The aim was to bring alive old and new worlds for teachers and pupils.

The satellite is indigenously built and weighs about 3025 kgs. It is expected to function for about 12 years. Has 24 high power communication transponders.
It will be placed in a GTO (Geo-synchronous Transfer Orbit) with a perigee (nearest point to earth) of 250 km and an apogee (farthest point from earth) of 35,886 km.
It was built by ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. The transponders were provided by Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad.
So far 18 INSATs have been launched beginning with INSAT-1A from the US on April 10, 1982.
The last INSAT, INSAT-4A was launched from Kourou on December 22, 2005.
Three INSATs were launched from India – Kalpana, GSAT-2, and Edusat. From the Sriharikota launch pad.

The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for the oddest book title.
It was awarded to “People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves To Unsuspecting Bystanders and What To Do About It”, by Gary Leon Hill.
The prize, founded in 1978, honors bizarre and odd books for their creative and unusual titles. Books can be submitted by publishers, librarians and booksellers.

Indian Current Affairs