25.09.2007

• 58^th International Astronautical Congress
• Is being held in Hyderabad. About 2000 delegates from all over the world are participating in it.
• Its theme is: Touching Humanity: Space for Improving Quality of Life.
• NCPCR
• Chairperson is Shanta Sinha
• Some resistance movements worth noting:
• Otpor (meaning “resistance”) of Serbia. Originated in 1998 against President Slobodan Milosevic. On October 5, 2000 they forced the President to admit defeat in the elections.
• Kmara (meaning “enough”) of Georgia. This was against their President Eduard Shevardnadze. In November 2003, they virtually overthrew the President.
• Pora (meaning “it is time”) of Ukraine. It is also called the “Orange Revolution.” It got Yushchenko declared as President.
• Tennis
• Maria Kirilenko wins the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata by defeating Mariya Koryttseva.
• Moore’s law
• The prediction that the complexity of computing devices like processor chips would double every 12 to 18 months, given out by Gordon Moore, Intel’s co-founder. It was first formulated in an article he wrote in 1965.
• BPCL-Premium Oil team strikes largest onshore gas find
• This consortium has reported discovery of gas at Cachar in Assam. The discovery is believed to be – 8 to 18 TCF.
• Assam already contributes about 12% of India’s crude oil production of about 665,000 barrels per day.
• Methods of assessing radio listenership
• Diary method: It is about distributing a diary to the potential listeners and asking them to record the details of the radio programmes they listened to over a period of time.
• DAR method: Day-after-recall method. It asks the listeners to recall what they have listened to yesterday.
• Our Finance Minister in the race to become Chairman of a key IMF governing body called the IMFC – International Monetary and Financial Committee.
• It is a key committee of the IMF. It monitors the transfer of resources to developing nations. It was established in 1999 by a resolution of the IMF’s board of governors, to replace the interim committee of the board of governors on the international monetary system.
• Dividend stripping
• It is the practice of buying shares of a company or units of a mutual fund just before the record date for declaring dividend, receiving the dividend and then selling the security/unit after the record date.
• This was usually resorted to by companies to record short-term loss in their books. Because the price of the share/unit after the payment of dividend is usually lower than the price at which it would have been bought. They can then set off this loss against the profits made by them elsewhere.
• Some forceful arguments against drug price control
• The cost of medicines in healthcare is only about 15% of the total cost of the healthcare. So focusing on this exclusively is only ignoring the other major issues – like fees relating to treatment centres, consultation and diagnostics.
• The cost of introducing a successful drug includes the costs of several failures that would have preceded it.
• Continued R&D costs should not be ignored.
• Rahul Gandhi is now General Secretary of the Congress Party
• Is it election time? Looks like one.
• Pune Pact
• It was the 1932 agreement between BR Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi on providing political reservations for Dalits.
• International Astronautical Federation
• Its President is James Zimmerman.
• UK farmers face a fresh crisis
• A totally new virus has struck its cows. It is the first case of bluetongue disease.
• This disease does not affect humans. It affects ruminants – sheep, cattle, deer and goats. It can cause high mortality rates and reduce milk yield in cattle.