31.10.2009

Politics & the Nation

• Indian American appointed to a key post in US
• Suresh Kumar, who served as a special adviser to the Clinton foundation and was a news anchor in India from 1970 to 1985, has been appointed to a key administration post by President Barack Obama.
• Kumar, known for his expertise of public-private partnership, has been nominated by Obama as Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service in the US Department of Commerce.

Finance & Economy

• Take a peep into lawyers' fees and incomes
• You will surely be startled. You will be left wondering whether you made a wrong choice sometime back.
• How big a hole will the IOC depot fire in Jaipur in the insurance companies' books?
• Estimates are putting the claim to be a full claim. Meaning that the claim will be filed for the entire facility. It is expected to be around Rs. 230 crores. But what is remaining beyond estimations for the present is the collateral property damage that the fire would have caused for others. The extent of such losses will be known only after some time.
• To get a picture of the issue read this story.

Science & Technology

• Anil Kakodkar to demit office
• Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman, Anil Kakodkar, will demit office on 30th November.
• Kakodkar will also retire from the post of Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) on the same day, when his term ends.
• Kakodkar took over as Chairman, AEC from Dr R Chidambaram in November 2000 and was the first chairman to get three extensions in 2003, 2005 and 2007 in the history of India's nuclear programme.

Sport

• Jeev Milkha Sing's record
• Jeev Milkha Singh reaches another golfing milestone in his illustrious career as he becomes the first Indian to tee up at the 16-man World Matchplay Championships in Casares, Spain.
• The reigning Asian Tour No 1 conceded his ankle injury has not healed yet but sounded confident of making it to the semifinal.
• India seeded VI in World Cup T20
• India have been seeded 6th in next year's Twenty20 WC in the West Indies and will open their campaign on 1st May. India got a relatively easy first round as they have been placed in Group C along with South Africa and a qualifying team yet to be decided.
• Defending champions Pakistan have got the top billing in the event followed by Sri Lanka and South Africa.
• Hosts West Indies are seeded fourth, while England occupy the fifth place.

Language lessons

• wallop
• Noun: A forceful consequence; a strong effect; A severe blow
• Verb: Hit hard; Defeat soundly and utterly
• eg: "Modi wallops Dhoni, Sachin on tax charts"
• throw out the baby with the bathwater: Idiom
• to lose the good parts when you get rid of the bad parts of something
• eg: You can't close the airport because one airline has problems - that's just throwing out the baby with the bath water.