Indian Current Affairs: 08.06.2007

Is developed by China. In addition to sun light, the small solar panel on the phone can also be charged by other sources of light including candles.
Reportedly give a talk time of 40 minutes.

Being a person from Andhra Pradesh, I tend to ignore a lot many current developments that otherwise would merit national glance. This is one such issue that I did not cover so far.
Amongst Scheduled Castes, there are two castes – Malas and Madigas. The Madigas have been sour that the Malas have cornered a majority of the benefits meant for SCs. So they have been demanding that there should be categorization amongst the SCs so that the benefits of reservation accrue to all castes more equally. They want the categorization to be done on the population strength of the castes comprising SCs. They are spearheaded in their agitation by one Mr. Krishna Madiga. Recently he has taken up a fast unto death and the government had to talk out the issue with the Centre, which announced the setting up of a Commission headed by Justice Usha Mehra. She is mandated to submit her report in a couple of months’ time.
The problem with categorization is that the Supreme Court has struck down the categorization proposed to be done by the government of AP.
Now the Malas have also taken to the path of agitation. They say that the categorization is nothing but a ploy to drive a wedge between them and other castes comprising the SCs.

You would have heard about this phrase “Open Access” in connection with electricity reforms. Now TRAI has come out with this scheme for all cable landing stations.
To know more about a cable landing station, follow this post.
This can result in up to 20% reduction in bandwidth prices and lower ISD tariffs.

Government is proposing to raise the FDI cap in public sector oil refineries to 49%. So far there is a mandatory clause which says that the foreign investors have to dilute their stake to 26% within 5 years of investment.
In private sector refineries, the FDI limit is 100%.

Government gets about 33% of its total direct taxes collections from TDS – Tax Deducted at Source.
Of the about Rs. 70,000 crores collected through TDS, Government departments accounted for only Rs. 1,500 crores. The Centre wants to correct this. Some education sessions and training programs are being proposed by the IT department to educate the people responsible for affecting TDS.

Sometime back somebody was asking me the composition of our crude basket. Today’s ET has reported this figure. It is 58:42 of Dubai crude and North Sea Brent. At present the crude basket costs $67.40 a barrel.
For beginners, there are two crude benchmarks in the world.

Normally the sales figures of automobiles reported by manufacturers are despatches made to dealers. Usually there is a minor difference of about 1% between this figure and the primary sales i.e., sales to end consumers.
But of late this difference is reported to be around 7%. This means that sales to end consumers have come down.

She violated a 36 month probation for an earlier offence of driving under alcoholic influence, by driving her car at twice the speed allowed through a go-slow zone.

You won’t ask me who is Paris Hilton; will you? She is a celebrity. I like her for what she is and I also like her for her friend. Her friend happens to be the daughter of one of my favourite singers – Lionel Richie. Can a more concocted explanation be ever found? Just kidding. We do need fun at times!!

We have an excellent piece in today’s ET on how effectively we can contribute to reduction of GHGs. This is a burning topic; isn’t it? It is a must read. Do read it here.

To John McEnroe. It is the ITF’s (International Tennis Federation) highest accolade.

Was won by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for her work “Half of a Yellow Sun”.

Indian Current Affairs