The Hindu Simplified

The Hindu Simplified (23 Sep 2015)

India approved $ 3 billion defence deal with US for buying two of the worlds most advanced helicopters 1.       Apache Helicopter 2.       Chinook Helicopter

Rajasthan Assembly passes new quota bills providing 5% reservation to Gujjars & other communities under Special Backward Classes & 14% to economic backward classes of unreserved categories

National Health Profile 2015 released by Union Health Minister J.P Nadda. Key Findings: ·         11000 Patients per government doctor ·         In Bihar 1 bed for 8800 people

West Bengal seeks GI Tag for rassagolla

Odisha girl Lalita Prasida Sripada Srisai won Google Science Fair in California as she develop low cost water purifier.

Ajay Jayaram is a Badminton Player reached Korea Open final last week.

 

The Hindu Simplified (22 Sep 2015)

India calls back its ambassador Ranjit Rae back for consultation in the back drop of violence after the adoption of new Constitution by Nepal.

General Electric (GE) CEO Jeff Immelt is ready to get into India’s Nuclear Energy if India accepts the agreement under the Civil Nuclear Liability.

Ima Keithel (Mother’s Market) is an initiative taken by Manipur women in assistance with Manipur Women Gun Survivor Network (MWGSN) and art historian Kapila Vatsyayan. BPL women from Manipur weave the garments traditionally and gets a market platform to sell their products. Famous products are like : Enaphi (a shoulder shawl), phanek (Wrap), leiroom (a hand woven scarf for ceremonial purpose).

Andhra Pradesh tourism initiated “Heli Tourism” a commercial joy ride to have an aerial view of temple city Tirupati

Bombay High Court refuses to grant stay on cattle slaughter ban as petitioner seeking relaxation on slaughter of cow, bull and bullocks on the eve of Muslim festival, sought complete ban of cow, bull and bullock is violation of freedom of religion (Article 25).

Bain Capital, the U.S based private equity firm acquired 10 per cent stake in L & T Finance.

Migrant Crisis: Hungary’s Parliament and its Prime Minister Viktor Orban gave its army and police new powers to keep refugees out of its border.

 

 

Three New Tiger Reserves in India

Government is setting three new tiger reserves as the tiger census in January showed an overall rise in numbers of Tigers. National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) approved for creation of reserves in Ratapani in Madhya Pradesh, Sunabeda in Odisha and Guru Ghasidas in Chhattisgarh.

About National Tiger Conservation Authority

The National Tiger Conservation Authority was established in December 2005 following a recommendation of the Tiger Task Force, constituted by the Prime Minister of India for reorganized management of Project Tiger and the many Tiger Reserves in India.

Google plans to bring balloon-powered Internet

Recently Facebook announced Internet.org in India, and now Google is also all set to bring its internet project offering connectivity to remote areas here
Google is in talks with the Indian government to introduce its Project Loon, an internet project that uses high-altitude balloons to offer affordable internet across the globe to people without any access.

Project Loon uses balloons that travel 20 km above the earth. Using software algorithms, Loon determines where the balloon needs to go depending upon the wind. It started as a pilot project in New Zealand wherein 30 balloons were launched. Last year in November, Google announced that Project Loon has the ability to launch up to 20 balloons per day.

The balloons can now last up to 10 times longer in the stratosphere, than they did in 2013 and a lot of them have lasted over 100 days – with 130 days being a record, Google had said.

Indian Air Force to acquire 14 Dornier planes from HAL

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has signed a Rs. 1,090-crore contract for supplying 14 Dornier-228 (Do-228) aircraft’s to the Indian Air Force (IAF).

The contract also includes supplying six reserve engines, a flight simulator and associated equipment to IAF.

These 14 aircraft’s will be manufactured by the HAL’s Transport Aircraft Division at Kanpur.

Key facts about Dornier Do-228 aircraft:

• The Dornier Do-228 was designed and developed by Dornier GmbH in the late 1970s.
• The aircraft cockpit allows for two-person operation and can carry 19 passengers in the commuter version.
• It is reliable, multipurpose and fuel efficient aircraft.
• It has special feature to operate from smaller airfields because of its light weight design and a retractable tricycle landing gear.

HAL Dornier-228 production background

• HAL holds the license to locally produce the Do-228 aircraft. Since 1983, HAL has produced more than 125 Do-228 aircraft.
• Earlier, HAL had supplied this aircraft to Indian Armed Forces and also exported them to Indian Ocean nations of Seychelles and Mauritius.
• In 2014, HAL had supplied one Do-228 aircraft to Bangalore-based Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) for testing its new radars on flight.

International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation

February 06 is observed as International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation every year since 2003. The day is being observed to make the world aware of female genital mutilation (FGM) and to promote its eradication.

FGM is a procedure that involves altering or injuring female genitalia. It is the ritual removal of some or all of the external female genitalia using razor blade or knife. FGM is concentrated in 27 African countries and more than 130 million women and girls have experienced FGM in those countries.

This theme for 2015 campaign is “Mobilization and Involvement of Health Personnel to Accelerate Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation”.

Immediate Consequences of FGM – severe bleeding, haemorrhaging, sepsis, tetanus, urine retention, open sores and injury to nearby genital tissue.

Long term consequences – recurrent bladder or urinary tract infections, cysts, infertility, childbirth complications, fatal bleeding and newborn deaths.

Apple records highest quarterly profit in Corporate history - $ 18 Billion

Profit of $18 billion was the biggest ever reported by a public company, worldwide.
The company sold 74.5 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 27, while many analysts had expected fewer than 70 million. Revenue rose to $74.6 billion from $57.6 billion a year earlier.
Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said the Cupertino, California-based company would release its next product, the Apple Watch, in April.

FreeCharge raises $80 million

Indian firm FreeCharge, inventor of an online mobile phone and utilities bill payment service which is already backed by U.S. venture capital investor Sequoia Capital, said on Friday it has got a further $80 million in fresh funding from investors including Valiant Capital Management & Tybourne Capital Management.

The company, founded in 2010, enables users to recharge pre-paid and post-paid mobile phones online and get rewarded with discount shopping coupons for using its site.

FreeCharge has a user base of more than 20 million and there has been 10 million downloads of the app in the past year

Sewage Killing Fish: An Environmental Threat

Test of Adyar estuary water reveals high metal levels of  Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)
A month after thousands of dead fish were washed ashore on the Urur Kuppam beach, a lab test has confirmed what was suspected all along: sewage pollution in the Adyar estuary.

At 28 mg/litre, the BOD was nearly five times the safe limit for aquatic life to survive, a water sample tested at the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board has revealed.

A BOD reading above 6 mg/l is not suitable for the survival of fish, according to Central Pollution Control Board guidelines.

The higher the sewage pollution, the higher is the proliferation of microorganisms such as algae that deplete oxygen, raising the BOD. The water sample also contained heavy metals including chromium, zinc, copper and iron.

“It had rained quite heavily the previous two days, and it is quite likely that in addition to the regular load of sewage, an additional shock load was discharged when Metrowater let out excess sewage into the river.”

Ever since the fish kill, speculation had been rife about the cause, with suspicions ranging from toxic and biomedical waste to the insurgence of excessive saline water.

Eutrophication

Rajesh Ramesh, an activist with Trust for Environment Monitoring and Action Initiating, who got the water sample tested, said: “What we essentially have here is the eutrophication of the water, which is preventing any life from surviving.”

Anti-Defection Law and its Loopholes

• What is the Anti-Defection Law?

The Tenth Schedule — popularly known as the Anti-Defection Act — was included in the Constitution in 1985 by the Rajiv Gandhi ministry and sets the provisions for disqualification of elected members on the grounds of defection to another political party.

The law was added via the 52nd Amendment Act, 1985, soon after the Rajiv government came to power with a thumping majority in the wake of the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi. The Congress had won 401 seats in the Lok Sabha.

• What are the grounds for disqualification under the Anti-Defection Law's? 

a) If an elected member voluntarily gives up his membership of a political party;

b) If he votes or abstains from voting in such House contrary to any direction issued by his political party or anyone authorised to do so, without obtaining prior permission.

As a pre-condition for his disqualification, his abstention from voting should not be condoned by his party or the authorised person within 15 days of such incident.

• What were the loopholes?

As per the 1985 Act, a 'defection' by one-third of the elected members of a political party was considered a 'merger'. Such defections were not actionable against. The Dinesh Goswami Committee on Electoral Reforms, the Law Commission in its report on "Reform of Electoral Laws" and the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) all recommended the deletion of the Tenth Schedule provision regarding exemption from disqualification in case of a split.

Finally the 91st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003, changed this. So now at least two-thirds of the members of a party have to be in favour of a "merger" for it to have validity in the eyes of the law. "The merger of the original political party or a member of a House shall be deemed to have taken place if, and only if, not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislature party concerned have agreed to such merger," states the Tenth Schedule.

All you need to know about the Bharat Ratna

Front Side

Back Side

Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award instituted in 1954, is given in recognition of exceptional service, performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour. Any person without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex is eligible for this award.

The recommendations for Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President. The number of annual awards is restricted to a maximum of three in a particular year.

On conferment of the award, the recipient receives a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion. The award does not carry any monetary grant. The award cannot be used as a prefix or suffix to the recipient’s name.

A list of Bharat Ratna recipients:

1) C. Rajagopalachari (1954)

2) Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1954)

3) C.V. Raman (1954)

4) Bhagwan Das (1955)

5) Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (1955)

6) Jawaharlal Nehru (1955)

7) Govind Ballabh Pant (1957)

8) Dhondo Keshav Karve (1958)

9) Bidhan Chandra Roy (1961)

10) Purushottam Das Tandon (1961)

11) Rajendra Prasad (1962)

12) Zakir Hussain (1963)

13) Pandurang Vaman Kane (1963)

14) Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966)

15) Indira Gandhi (1971)

16) V.V. Giri (1975)

17) K Kamaraj (1976)

18) Mother Teresa (1980)

19) Acharya Vinoba Bhave (1983)

20) Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987)

21) M.G. Ramachandran (1988)

22) B.R. Ambedkar (1990)

23) Nelson Mandela (1990)

24) Rajiv Gandhi (1991)

25) Vallabhbhai Patel (1991)

26) Morarji Desai (1991)

27) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1992)

28) JRD Tata (1992)

29) Satyajit Ray (1992)

30) Gulzarilal Nanda (1997)

31) Aruna Asaf Ali (1997)

32) APJ Abdul Kalam (1997)

33) M.S. Subbulakshmi (1998)

34) Chidambaram Subramaniam (1998)

35) Jayaprakash Narayan (1999)

36) Amartya Sen (1999)

37) Gopinath Bordoloi (1999)

38) Pandit Ravi Shankar (1999)

39) Lata Mangeshkar 2001)

40) Ustad Bismillah Khan (2001)

41) Bhimsen Joshi (2009)

42) C.N.R Rao (2014)

43) Sachin Tendulkar (2014)