International Current Affairs [January 2010]

 Gilgit Baltistan region elected its first Chief Minister Mehdi Shah on the basis of Gilgit Baltistan
Empowerment & Self Governance Order 2009. The new appointed CM declare the Gilgit
Baltistan region as 5th province of Pakistan. The Indian Govt has, however, of the view that the
region was part of J & K, and thus objected to the remarks of CM.
 Venezuela devalued it currency ‘Bolivar’.
 A massive earthquake strike Haiti, the Carribbean nation. Capital of Haiti is Port-au-Prince.
 Mahinda Rajapaksa won a second term as Sri Lanka’s President. He belongs to Sri Lanka
Freedom Party.

National Current Affairs [January 2010]

 Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visit India in Jan 2010. She belongs to Awami League
Party. The two countries signed five agreements – on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters,
on transfer of sentenced persons and on combating international terrorism, organized crime &
illicit drug trafficking besides MOU on cooperation in the power sector and on cultural exchanges.
India give Bangladesh a $ 1 billion line of credit, the biggest it has given to any country so far.
 South Korea President Lee Myung Bak visit India in Jan 2010. The two countries decided to
double the bilateral trade to $ 30 billion by 2014. Four facts were signed between two countries –
cooperation in peaceful use of outer space, IT, science & technology for the year 2010-12 and
transfer of sentenced persons. South Korean President was also the chief guest at 2010 Republic
Day Parade.
 Gujarat Local Authorities Law (amendment) Bill 2009- The Bill makes it the duty of a qualified
voter to vote during elections to local bodies. Voting is compulsory, but the Bill allows voters to
cast their vote in favour of none of the candidates. Election officers will declare those who fail to
vote defaulter, and serve them a notice.
 India and China has decided to start joint military exercise from 2011.
 Najib Razak, Malaysia Prime Minister visit India in Jan 2010.
 Govt launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Key highlights of the mission are :
o To create an enabling policy framework for the deployment of 20,000 MW of solar power
by 2020.
o To create favourable conditions for solar manufacturing capability for indigenous
production and market leadership.
o To promote programmes for off grid applications, reaching 1000 MW by 2017 and 2000
MW by 2022.
o To achieve 15 million sq. meters solar thermal collector area by 2017 and 20 million by
2022.
o To deploy 20 million solar lighting systems for rural areas by 2022.
 New Governors appointed : a) M K Narayanan – West Bengal, b)Shivraj Patil – Punjab, c)
Mohsina Kidwai – Jharkhand, d) Shekhar Dutt – Chhattisgarh, e) E S L Narasimhan – Andhra
Pradesh.
 Govt plans to create a National Gas Highway Development Authority. The present Gas Pipeline
Density in India is 3.29 Km per 1000 Sq.Km.
 Govt plans to set up a National Green Tribunal to control Carbon Emissions and pollution. It will
be responsible for implementing the low carbon roadmap to be set forth in the 12th Five Year
Plan.

Sports Current Affairs [January 2010]

 U-19 World Cup 2010 held in New Zealand from 15 – 30 Jan 2010. Javagal Srinath from India
appointed as one of the match referee for the tournament.
  Australia won the U-19 World Cup for the third time defeating Pakistan. India is placed at 6th
rank. Australia won the cup for the third time.
 Rafael Nadal won the Capitala World Tennis Championsip, held at Abu Dhabi defeating Robin
Soderling.
 Magnus Carlsen becomes the youngest World No.1 chess player at the age of 19 years breaking
the Garry Kasparov’s record when he became the world’s top ranked chess player at the age of
22 years in 1985. Magnus Carlsen is the 5th player after Kasparov, Kramnik, Topalov and
V.Anand (India) to cross the 2800 ELO rating. In the Jan 2010 FIDE ranking, Carlsen stood at 1st
place, Topalov at 2nd place and V Anand at 3rd place.
 Marin Cilic defeated Staniglas Wawrinka to won Men’s singles title of Aircel Chennai Open.
 Pakistan’s cricketer Shahid Afridi was banned for two T20 internationals after he was found guilty
of ball tempering in a ODI against Australia.
 Corus Chess Grandmaster Tournament won by Magnus Carlsen. V.Anand of India ranked at 4th
place. Hopman Cup 2010- Spain defeated Great Britain.
 Australian Open 2010 : Women’s Single- Serena William defeated Justin Henin. It is Serena’s
5th Australian Open title. It is also Serena’s 12th Grand Slam title equaling the record of Billie
Jean King.
 Men’s Single- Roger Federer(Swiss) defeated Andy Murray(Britain). It is Federer’s 4th Australian
Open title. It is Federer’s 16th Grand Slam title.
 Men’s Double- Mike Bryan & Bob Bryan defeated Daniel Nestor & Nenad Zimonjic.
 Women’s Double – Serena Williams & Venus Williams defeated Cara Black & L Huber.
 Mixed Double – Laender Paes (India) & Cara Black (Zimbabwe) defeated Ekterina Makasova &
Jaroslav Levinsky. It is Paes’s 11th Grand Slam title.

Science and Technology Current Affairs [January 2010]

 97th Indian Science Congress held at Tiruvananthapuram in Jan 2010. The theme of this year
congress was ‘ Science & Technology of 21st Century- National Perspective’.
 The longest annular solar eclipse on the third millennium occur on 15 Jan 2010. The next annular
solar eclipse will be visible in year 3043. Annular eclipse is occurred when the sun is visible like a
ring of fire, with the moon darkening its centre. The last annular solar eclipse visible from India
was occurred in 1976. In July 2010 also, a total solar eclipse will be occurred.
 There are three strains of wild Polio virus namely P1, P2 & P3. Type 2 wild Polio virus (P2) was
eliminated from the world in 1999.
 First public hearing on the introduction of Bt Brinjal (First Genetically Modified Food Crop in India)
was held in Kolkatta. Seven such public hearing are being organized by Centre for Environment
Education, for opinion of public in respect of introduction of Bt Brinjal. 2nd hearing was held at
Hyderabad.
 50th anniversary of creation of LASER is being celebrated in 2010. Theodore Maiman
constructed the first LASER in May 1960. LASER stands for Light Amplification for Stimulated
Emission of Radiation. Charles H Townes was father of MASER.

Persons in News [January 2010]

 Billy Arjan Singh, wildlife conservationist and Padma Shri awardee died.
 P D Dinakaran, Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court faces impeachement motion. The process
was initiated in the Parliament. He is the first High Court Chief Justice against whom
impeachment motion have been initiated. Justice V Ramaswami is the only judge to have faced
impeachment proceedings in parliament.
 Justice V S Sirpurkar appointed to head a three member panel to look into allegation of land grab
and misconduct against Chief Justice P D Dinakaran in the wake of impeachment motion initiated
against him in Parliament.
 Fahmida Mirza is the first woman Speaker of Pakistan National Assembly.
  Ricky Ponting, Australian cricket team captain, has been named as ESPN Cricinfo Player of the
Decade for 2000.
 Jyoti Basu, former West Bengal Chief Minister, died.
 Mrinal Pande, appointed as Chairman, Prasar Bharti Board.
 Lee Myung Bak, South Korea President was the Chief Guest at 2010 Republic Day Parade.
 Shiv Shankar Menon is appointed as National Security Advisor.
 Vikram Srivastava appointed as Director General of CRPF(Central Reserve Police Force).
 Ranjit Kumar Bhatia appointed as Director General of ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police).

Books & their Authors [January 2010]

 ‘All that you can’t leave behind’ written by Soumya Bhattacharya.

 ‘We Must Have No Price’ written by Arun Sourie.
 ‘Train to India- Memories of another Bengal’ written by Maloy kumar Dhar.
 ‘Not by Reason alone : The Politics of Change’ written by N K Singh.
 ‘Five Point Someone’ written by Chetan Bhagat.
 ‘Nehru : The invention of India’ written by Shashi Tharoor.
 ‘The Museum of Innocence’ written by Orhan Panuk.
 ‘Thoughts on Linguistic States’ written by B R Ambedkar.

International Current Affairs [February 2010]

 NATO forces carried out Marjah operation (dubbed Moshtarak) against Taliban forces in
Afghanistan.
 European Union summit was held in Brussels. EU & IMF decided to giving support to Greece in
its struggle to bring its ballooning budget deficit under control. EU President is Herman Van
Rompuy.
 Iran’s President Mahmood Ahmedinejad declared that Iran had produced first batch of 20 %
enriched uranium and now Iran became a nuclear state.
 Iran launched ‘Kavoshger -3 rocket’ capable of carrying a satellite. It carried a mouse, worms &
two turtles.

National Current Affairs [February 2010]

 Kirit Parikh committee , set up to review petro pricing regime, submit its recommendation. Its
major recommendation are to deregulate the prices of petrol & diesel as per market prices,
reduce the subsidy on LPG.
 India signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with the UK, which became the 8th country
to enter into such a pact, since the lifting of atomic trade embargo in 2008.
 Govt set up a panel under the Chairmanship of former Justice B N Srikrishna which would
consider the demand for splitting Andhra Pradesh.
 India and Denmark signed a social security pact which will relieve their workers from double
taxation and provide for cooperation in areas of labour market expansion and orderly migration.
 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits Saudi Arabia in Feb 2010. He was the first Indian PM in
28 years to visit the gulf country. Saudi Arabia is India’s largest supplier of crude oil ( 23 %)
followed by Iran ( 17 %) and Nigeria ( 11 %). India is offering upto 10 % equity to Saudi petroleum
firm Saudi Aramco in a refinery being built in Orissa. PM addressed the Shoura council of Saudi
Arabia.
 Constitution 111th Amendment – Proposes to incorporate a new Part ( Part IX B) in the
Constitution so as to provide for legal framework to regulate the functioning of cooperative
societies. A new Article ( Article 43 B) is also proposed to be inserted in Part IV of the
Constitution (Directive Principles of State Policy) for the States to promote voluntary formation,
autonomous functioning of cooperative societies.
  Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2009 commonly known as Nuclear Liability Bill will be
introduced by Govt in Parliament in Winter session 2010. The draft bill aims at limiting the liability
of a nuclear plant operator to Rs. 300 crore in the eventuality of an accident. The bill provides for
the penalty to be paid by the operator and not the supplier companies which would mainly be
American in this case. India has entered into civil nuclear cooperation agreement with eight
countries so far.

Sports Current Affairs [February 2010]

 11th South Asian Games 2010 : Held at Dhaka, Bangladesh from 29 Jan to 8 Feb. Originally
scheduled to take place in 2009, but due to general elections in Bangladesh, the games were
held in 2010. This was the third time that the Dhaka hosted the Games, thus becoming the first
city to hold the games three times. 8 countries participated in the games in 23 different sports,
including T20 cricket, which was introduced for the first time in SAG. The 8 countries included are
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan & Sri Lanka. 1The logo of the
games was ‘Kutumb’, a flying doel , which is the national bird of Bangladesh. The mascot of the
games featured a magpie robin, which was holding the torch to begin the games. The final medal
tally include : India - 1st place with 90 G 55 S 29 B Total 174, Pakistan- 2nd place with 19 G 25 S
36 B Total 80, Bangladesh- 3rd place with 18 G 23 S 56 B Total 97.
 West Zone won Duleep Trophy ( 2009-10) defeating South Zone.
 India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar won the Asian Tour International Trophy 2010. It is his 2nd consecutive
title.
 Euro 2012 to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.
 2010 Winter Olympic Games were held at Vancouver, Canada. Mascot of the game was MIGA (a
sea bear), QUATCHI( a sasquatch) and SUMI (animal guardian spirit). The logo of the games
was Ilnaaq meaning Friend in Inuktut. There were 86 events in 7 sports. The games were held
from 12 Feb to 28 Feb. Final medal tally. Canada- 14 G 7 S 5 B, Germany- 10 G 13 S 7 B, USA-
9 G 15 S 13 B.
 IOC (International Olympic Committee ) has approved ICC (International Cricket Council) bid to
join the Olympic games 2020. The first time cricket was included in the Olympic games was in
Paris Olympic 1900.
 11th World Hockey Cup 2010- To be held in Delhi, India. This is 2nd WHC which India is hosting.
India also hosted the WHC in 1982 at Mumbai. 12 countries participated in the tournament. WHC
is held in the years between two summer Olympics. First WHC was held at Barcelona in 1971.
Pakistan has won the cup four times, Netherland three times, Germany two times, India &
Australia once each. India won the WHC in 1975.
 Sachin Tendulkar became first player in the world to score a double century in ODI (One day
International). He scored 200 (Not out) against South Africa.
 Commonwealth Shooting Championship was held in New Delhi in Feb 2010. India stood at first
place with 35 Gold 25 Silver and 14 Bronze. England stood at 2nd place with 4 gold and Wales
stood at 3rd place.

Science and Technology Current Affairs [February 2010]

 USA Space agency NASA launched Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to discover the causes
of extreme solar activity such as sun spots and solar winds & flares.
 ‘GANGES’- Global Advisory Network Group on environmental sciences. It was created by Govt
for environment research work.
 Agni-III ballistic missile with a range of 3500 Km was successfully launched from Wheeler Island,
Orissa.
 Ht Cotton – Herbicide Tolerant Cotton. The variety of Ht Cotton in MON 1445. The variety can
withstand herbicides (weed killers) for better productivity and is under trail.
 Cervical cancer is caused by HPV- Human Papilloma Virus.
  South Korea has world’s highest average connection speed at 14.6 Mbpd in Internet links. Japan
has 2nd highest average speed.
 Scientist deciphered the genetic blueprint of South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Titu.

Persons in News [February 2010]

 Horst Kochler , Germany President visit India in Feb 2010.

 Abdullah Gul, Turkey President visit India in Feb 2010.
 Economist Kokkadan Nandanath Raj, who made a significant contribution in the preparation of
first Five Year Plan(1951-56) died.
 Sharad Chandra Sinha is appointed as Director General of National Investigation Agency(NIA).
 Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President visit India in Feb 2010.
 Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob of Malaysia appointed Chairman, International Atomic Energy
Agency.
 Govt appointed R S Pandey as its mediator for talk with NSCN(IM) in Nagaland to carry forward
the peace process.
 Former Justice P V Reddy will be appointed as Chairman, Law Commission of India.
 Ram Baran Yadav, Nepal President visit India in Feb 2010. It was the first visit by Yadav to any
foreign country after taking over as Nepal’s President. Yadav is the first President of Nepal since
monarchy ended in 2008. India extended $ 250 million soft line of credit to Nepal.
 Rajinder Singh became first non-white and also first Asian member of the right wing British
National Party, after it amended its constitution to allow black and Asian to be its member.
 Amitabh Bachan became the brand ambassador of Gujarat state.
 Amnesty International, the global human right organization has appointed Salid Shetty as its next
Secy General from June 2010. He will be the first Indian to head the organization.
 Shah Rukh Khan & Kajol become the first Indian bollywood actors to ring the opening bell of the
world’s biggest stock exchange’ NASDAQ’.
 Rajiv Satav appointed President, Indian Youth Congress.
 Katrina Kaif awarded with 2009 Excellence in Performing Arts Award established by
ASSOCHAM.
 M H Hussain, famous painter accepted citizenship of Qatar.

Economics [February 2010]

 Planning Commission grant special category status to the Bundelkhand region comprising 9 distt
of Uttar Pradesh and 15 distt of Madhya Pradesh for the irrigation projects. Under special
category status, state govt can seek 90 % grant assistance from the centre and 10 % as loan.
 Govt revises base year for the calculation of National Income from 1999-2000 to 2004-2005. The
GDP for 2009-10 will be Rs. 55,74,449 crore and the fiscal deficit for the corresponding period will
be 6.4 %.
 Capital Control – Foreign capital inflows in the form of loans and equity that are allowed in a
restricted form are said to be controlled. The capital inflows include foreign borrowings by Indian
corporate and businesses, NRI deposits and portfolio flow from institutional investors into the
stock market. Loans to Govt and short term trade credit are also included. India had control on
both capital account transactions as well as on current account with the local currency fixed by
the Central Bank. In 1991, rupee was first made convertible on the current account. In 1994, Govt
allows foreign portfolio investments.
 Govt will replace Benchmark Prime Lending System (BPLR) with Base rate system from 1 April
2010 to make bank lending more transparent. It provided for minimum rate for all types of loans
for banks.

Misc Issues [February 2010]

  Milan 2010, a biennial meeting of navies of Asia Pacific countries held at Port Blair in Feb 2010.
12 countries of Asia Pacific Region participated in it. It is the 7th edition of Milan exercises. It is a
biennial exercise of Asia Pacific maritime navies, hosted by the Indian Navy. First Milan exercise
was held in 1995.
 ‘Vayu-Shakti’ name given to IAF exercise conducted at Pokhran range in the Thar desert in Feb
2010. IAF is the 4th largest air force in the world after USA, Russia and China.
 ‘Bo’ language of Andaman become extinct. Its last speaker died.
 As per Indian Meteorological deptt, 2009 was the warmest year since 1990. The annual mean
temperature for 2009 was 25.55 degree celcius for the country s as a whole.
 Uttarakhand became first state in the country to ban the cultivation of Bt Brinjal ( Country’s first
Genetically Modified food crop). Bt Brijnal is a genetically modified crop which has a special
gene- Cry1AC, inserted to make it poisonous to pests. GM Crops resists pests and give better
yields as well as nutrition. Bt Brinjal is developed in India by Mahyco company. GM foods are
derived from organisms whose DNA has been modified through genetic engineering.
 China ranked 1st in the wind power capacity in the world. India is at 5th place with 10925 MW
capacity. The five top nations in the order of wind power capacity are China, US, Spain, Germany
& India.
 Eurozone is a economic and monetary union of 16 EU member states which have adopted the
euro currency as their sole legal tender. PIIGS countries include Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece &
Spain.
 17 army jawans killed in a avalanche at High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) at Khilanmarg,
J&K.
 West Bengal govt reserved 10 % of govt jobs in the state for poor muslims.
 China will celebrate 2010 as Year of Tiger.
 India has a road network of 33 lakh km and is second largest in the world. It included 200 km of
expressway, 70548 km of national highways, 131899 km of state highways, 467763 km of major
district roads and 26.5 lakh km of rural & other roads. The Golden Quadrilateral joining four metro
cities of Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkatta, has a length of 5846 km.
 Taj Mahotsav organized by UP govt in Feb 2010 with the theme ‘Ek Utsav Prem Ka’.
 Vancouver city, Canada named as the World’s most livable city as per survey conducted by
Economics Intelligence Unit. Delhi is ranked at 113th place and Mumbai at 117th place.
 16th Conference of Parties (COP) will be held in Dec 2010 at Mexico. The 15th COP was held in
Copenhagen in Dec 2009.
 Hyderabad International Airport has been named amongst the world’s five top airports. Other four
airports are Seol, Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing.
 ’1000 faces for 1000 tigers’ campaign was launched in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The campaign
aims to help double the number of wild tigers in Malaysia by 2022.
 Sachin Tendulkar features in BMC’s ‘Save Water Campaign’.
 Indian Navy inducted Russian built MiG 29 K fighters planes.
 Basic Capabilities Index 2009- India received 68 points. The index was published by Social
Watch’s. The highest BCI points was given to Iran having 97 points and lowest points 44 was
given to Chad.
 K R Sridhar, an US based Indian scientist invented Bloom Box- which convert air and virtually any
other fuel source into clean electricity. The box uses solid oxide fuel cells and can generate 100
KW of power.
 Present life expectancy of life at birth in India is 63.4 yrs. The highest expectancy of life is in
Australia of 81.4 yrs, 81 yrs for France and 79.3 yrs for England.
 World Cancer Day – 04 Feb
 International Condom Day – 14 Feb

International Current Affairs [March 2010]

 China will launch in 2011 unmammed space mode ‘ Tiangong I’ for its future space laboratory.
 US internet giant Google close its business in China.
  India’s largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel buy Zain’s Africa operations for an enterprise
value of $ 10.7 billion (Rs 49000 crore). Currently Bharti’s non-India operations include Sri Lanka
& Bangladesh.
 Russia abolished two of its eleven time Zones.

National Current Affairs [March 2010]

 Govt launched National Mission for Empowerment of Women aimed at inter-sectoral

convergence of all pro- women programmes.
 Constitution 108th Amendment Bill 2008 commonly known as women’s reservation bill was
passed by Rajya Sabha by 186 in favour 1 against 39 abstained (Current strength of Rajya
Sabha is 233). The bill seeks to reserve a third of the seats on the Lok Sabha and state
assemblies for 15 years on a rotational basis. It was first introduced in 1996. Sharad Joshi, an
independent MP is the only MP which cast vote against the bill. In the present Lok Sabha, there
are 59 women MPs out of 543 MPs. Total MLAs in 29 state assemblies in India are 4093.
 Yamunanagar (Haryana) and Vishakhapatnam (AP) are choosen for a pilot project on saving
household energy by replacing incandescent lamps with CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps).
 Earth Hour 2010 has been celebrated on 27 March organized by World Wide Fund for Nature,
India. Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru are official Earth Hour Cities among 15 Indian cities.
 Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia visit India in March 2010.
 Supreme Court allowed religion based 4 % reservations in Govt jobs & educational institutes in
Andhra Pradesh. It extended the benefit to 14 OBC in muslims in the state. The matter is further
referred to Constitutional bench of Supreme Court.
 ’Bold Kurushetra’ a joint armour exercise between India and Singapore was held at Jhansi(UP).
 Prohibition of unfair practices in technical, medical educational institutions & universities Bill is
passed by Govt. It provided for 3 year imprisonment and a fine of upto Rs 50 lakh for higher
education providers guilty of misleading students.
 Govt approved Foreign Educational Institution (Regulation of Entry & Operation) Bill 2010. It
provides foreign universities to set up campuses in India.
 Govt amends Anti Hijacking Act 1982. It now provides for death sentence to the hijackers.
 Govt starts the scheme for creation of the National Population Register (NPR) of Indian residents.
The project will cover an estimated 1.2 billion people and total cost of the project will be Rs.
3539.24 crore.
 India became 1st country in the world to have a ‘manoeuvrable’ supersonic cruise missile, when it
successfully test fired 290 km range Brahmos missile.
 Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu visit India in March 2010.

Sports Current Affairs [March 2010]

 Tamil Nadu defeated West Bengal to won Vijay Harare Cricket Trophy.
 Australia won World Hockey Cup 2010 defeating Germany. India ranked at 8th place.
 India won six gold medal in the Commonwealth Boxing Championship held at Delhi.
 Two new IPL teams, Kochi was auctioned for Rs 1533 crore and Pune was auctioned for Rs 1702
crore. Kochi was auctioned to Rendezvous Adventure Sports Ltd. Pune was auctioned to Sahara
Adventure Sports Ltd.

Persons in News [March 2010]

 Rajan Bharti Mittal appointed President FICCI.

 Major Dimple Singla became first women army officer in the country who has been sentenced to
imprisonment for corruption.
 Bhubneshwar Kalita has been choosen as the Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent at
Commonwealth Games 2010.
  Cricketer Kapil Dev has been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
 Former Supreme Court judge P V Reddy appointed as Chairman, Law Commission of India.
 Lt Gen V K Singh appointed as new Army Chief.
 Sonia Gandhi appointed head of National Advisory Council. NAC advice the govt on policy
matters, monitor flagship programmes and prepare the ground for other pro-poor legislatures.
 Lyricist Javed Akhtar, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Dr Ram Dayal Munda, Dr Balchandra Mungekar and
Kannada Actress B Jayashree are among other persons nominated to Rajya Sabha.
 Austrian base jumper Felix Baumgartnar will became the first person to leaps from the edge of
space at a height of 37 km above earth’s surface. He become the first man to break the speed of
sound hitting a top speed of about 11000km/hr. He will jump on 11 April 2010.
 Katie Spotz became the youngest person to complete a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
 Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepal Ex Prime Minister died. He was 5th time Nepal PM.

Awards Current Affairs 2010 [March 2010]

 Oscar Awards 2010

o Best Director- Kathryn Bigelow for The Heart Locker. She became first women to win the
Oscar for best director.
o Best Film- The Heart Locker.
o Best Actor- Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart.
o Best Actress- Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side.
o Best Supporting Actor –Christoph Waltz for Inglorious Basterds.
o Best Supporting Actress –Mo’Nique for Precious.
o Best foreign language film- The Secret in their Eyes, from Argentina.
 Amitabh Bachchhan honoured with lifetime achievement award at 34th Hong Kong International
Film Festival.
 Surjit Pater has been awarded with 19th Saraswati Samman 2009 for ‘Lafzan Di Dargah’.
 Moortidevi Award was given to the Law Minister M Veerappa Moily for his work Shri Ramayan
Mahanveshanam.
 Vyas Samman 2009 was awarded to Amar Kant for his work ‘Inhin Hathiyaron Se’.

Misc Issues [March 2010]

 Brahan Natyanjali 2010 festival was organized to celebrate 1000 years of Tanjavur temple in
Tamil Nadu which was built by Chola emperor Rajaraja Chola in 1010 AD.
 192 year old Presidency College of Kolkatta (India’s oldest college) converted into Presidency
University. It became 18th state university in West Bengal.
 Railways started ‘Maharajas Express’ from Kolkatta to Delhi. It is a tourist train having stoppage
at Gaya, Varanasi, Bandhavgarh, Gwalior, Khajuraho and Agra.
 The book ‘Way to go’ written by Upamanyu Chatterjee.
 The book ‘Wide Angle’ written by cricketer Anil Kumble.
 The book ‘El Sari Rojo’ written by Javier Moro, is on the life of Sonia Gandhi.
 World TB Day celebrated on 24 March.
 Constitution 112th Amendment Bill 2009 seeks to amend following clauses of Article 243T of the
Constitution that provides for reservation of seats for SC & ST and also for women in Urban Local
bodies : a) In clause (2) for the word ‘one third’, the word ‘one half’ shall be substituted, b) In
clause (3) the word ‘one third’ , the word ‘one half shall be substituted.

International Current Affairs [April 2010]

 Belgium became the Europe’s first country to ban burqa.

  Pakistan’s National assembly passed a bill that takes away the President’s power to dissolve
parliament, dismiss a elected government and appoint the three services Chiefs. Pakistan’s
parliament passes 18th amendment which was later signed by Presient cutting President’s
powers.
 USA and Russia signed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty(START) that allowed a maximum of
1550 deployed overheads, about 30% lower than a limit set in 2002. The treaty was signed in the
Progue Castle.
 Emergency was imposed in Thailand.
 Nuclear Security Summit held at Washington.It was a 47 nation summit wherein P.M. announced
setting up of a global nuclear energy centre for conducting research & development of design
systems that are secure, proliferation resistant & sustainable.
 PM visit USA & Brazil, a two nation tour. He attended Nuclear Security Summit in USA & India-
Brazil-S.Africa(IBSA) and Brazil-Russia-India-China(BRIC) summit in Brasilia (Brazil).
 16th SAARC Summit held in Bhutan in 28-29 April. The summit was held in Bhutan for the first
time. It is the silver jubilee summit as SAARC has completed 25 years. The summit central theme
was ‘Climate Change’. The summit recommended to declare 2010-2020 as the “Decade of Intra-
regional Connectivity in SAARC”. The 17th SAARC summit will be held in Maldives in 2011.

National Current Affairs [April 2010]

 Naxals killed about 75 CRPF personal at Chintalnar-Tarmetla village in Dantewada distt

,Chhattisgarh. Government appoint E.N. Rammohan, to probe the incident.
 Uninque Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) now known as Aadhaar. It’s Chairman is Nandan
Nilekani. It will assign 16 digit identification number to all residents in India.
 NTRO- National Technical Research Organisation. The organization came to limelight after
allegation of phone tapping of politicians.
 Indian navy commissioned India’s first indigenously built stealth warship ‘ INS Shivalik’. The other
stealth warship to be built are named as ‘INS Sahyadri’ and INS Satpura’.
 Right To Education Act is notified and will become a legally enforceable from 1 April 2010. Key
features of RTE Act are : All children in 6-14 age group must get free and compulsory eduction;
No child shall be held back,expelled or required to pass a board examination till Class VIII; There
must be 25 % reservation for poor children even in private & minority schools; There must be one
teacher for every 30 students; A child rights commission will look into violations of the RTE law.
 Govt start Census 2011. It is the 15th Census. It is in two phase. The first phase is called –House
listing & Housing Census and the second phase is called decadal headcount which will be held in
Feb 2011. The Registrar General of India is C Chandramouli.

Sports Current Affairs [April 2010]

 IPL3 season won by Chennai Super Kings defeating Mumbai Indians.

 Youth Olympics Games 2010 to be held in Singapore in Aug 2010.
 World Youth Championship was held at Baku, Azerbaijan.
 Lawn tennis legend Martina Navratilova diagnosed with Breast Cancer.
 ‘Jumbo’ chosen as 2011 World Cricket Cup Mascot.
 World Kabbadi Cup 2010- India defeated Pakistan to won World Cup Kabbadi 2010 held at
Ludhiana.
 Pankaj Advani won the Asian Billiards Championship defeating Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist for the
consecutive third time.
 Badminton Asia Championship, Delhi :
o Men’s singles – Lin Dan defeated Wang Zhenguing
o Women’s singles-Li Xiurei defeated Liu Xin.

Persons in News [April 2010]

  Shashi Tharoor (born 9 March 1956) is a member of the Indian Parliament from the
Thiruvananthapuram constituency in Kerala. A prolific author, columnist, journalist and human
rights advocate, he has previously served as the United Nations Under-Secretary General for
Communications and Public Information and the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs.
 Lalit Modi (born 29 November, 1963 Delhi, India) is an Indian cricket administrator and
businessman. He is best known for his stint as the Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian
Premier League and the Chairman of the Champions League from 2008 to 2010. He is also the
Vice President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) since 2005 and Vice President
of the Punjab Cricket Association.

Economics & Commerce [April 2010]

 India became the 7th largest shareholder in World Bank. India’s voting rights has gone up to 2.91
%. The USA has highest voting rights of 15.85 % followed by Japan with 6.84 % and Germany
with 4 %.
 Govt proposed that concept of GGDP – Green Gross Domestic Product to be introduced in the
country by 2015. In 2012 India will host the Rio+20 conference on biological diversity.
 Government approved disinvestment of 20% of share in SAIL in this financial year.
 India’s total external debt as on December 2009 is 251 billion.
 India’s Gems & Jewellery export grow by 16% to $28.41 billion in 2009-2010.
 RBI announced the credit policy. The CRR has been raised from 5.75 % to 6 %. The Repo rate
has been raised from 5 % to 5.25 %. The reverse repo rate has been raised from 3.5 % to 3.75
%.

Awards Current Affairs 2010 [April 2010]

 19Th Bihari Puraskar 2009 has been awarded to Hemant Shesh for his collection of poetry
‘Jagah Jaisi Jagah’.
 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the best first Book was awarded to Glenda Guest for the
novel ‘Siddon Rock’. Rana Dasgupta won Commonwealth Writers Prize for best Book 2010 for
book ‘Solo’.
 Carl Zeiss wildlife conservation award was won by Joydip Kundu.
 Amitav Ghosh won the Dan David Prize alongwith Margaret Atwood for ‘Rendition of the 2oth
century’.

Misc Issues [April 2010]

 ‘Decision Points’ memoir of former US President George W Bush.

 A variety of mango has been named after Sachin Tendulkar.
 Scientist create element 117 from calcium & Berkelium.
 International congress of Mathematicians will be hosted by India for the first time in August 2010
at Hyderabad. The congress has been held once every four years since 1897except the breaks
during two world wars.
 Government will opened four new campuses for the IIMC(Indian Institute of Mass
Communication) at Nagpur, Kochi, Jammu and Aizawl.
 Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Derjeeling become first zoo in the country to install
infrared night vision cameras in the enclosures housing endangered snow leopard.
 ‘Hindutva, Sex & Adventure’ written by Mark Tully.
 Gorumara National Park, Jalpaigudi has been declared the best among the 235 national parks &
sanctuaries in the country by the MOEF.
 ‘Gandhi-Naked Ambition’ written by Jad Adams.
 India ranks 5th in the World’s cybercrime ranking for 2009 after US, China, Brazil & Germany.
  India lauched GSLV from Sriharikota on 15 April 2010. However the launch was failed in the third
stage. The launch was important as GSLV-D3 was the third developmental mission of India’s
GSLV during which ISRO’s indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage (CUS) was to be flight
tested. This is the 6th flight of GSLV, but the first one to test Indian made cryogenic upper stage.
GSLV-D3 was to launch the GSAT-4 satellite into an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.
The total flight of the vehicle was planned to be 1022 seconds.
 India likely to complete building its first strategic crude oil storage by Oct 2011. India is building
underground storage at Visakhapatnam in AP and Padur in Karnataka to store about 5.33 million
tones of crude oil which is enough to meet nation’s oil requirement for 13-14 days. India will join
nations like the US, Japan & China that have strategic reserves.

Persons in News [2010]

 Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra was sworn in as Judge of Supreme Court of India. She became the
4th women judge to be elevated to the Supreme Court of India.
 Justice S H Kapadia will be next Chief Justice of India.
 Mukul Sangma shown in as Meghalaya Chief Minister.
 Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski died in a air crash at Moscow.
 Juan Antonia Samaranch, Former President of International Olympic Committee (IOC) died.

International Current Affairs [May 2010]

 G-15 summit was held at Tehran on 16-17 May.

 Bangladesh handed over Ranjan Daimary of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland to India.
The group was responsible for serial bombing in Assam in 2008.
 National League for Democracy (NLD) party of Myannmar’s democracy leader Aung San Sui Kyi
was abolished after deadline to re-register as a political party was over.
 EU-IMF provide a $ 1 trillion rescue package to the Greece to resolve its debt crises.
 Pakistan successfully test fired two short range ballistic missiles, Shaheen I( range 650 Km) and
Ghazani (range 290 Km) capable of carrying nuclear war heads and striking Indian cities.

National Current Affairs [May 2010]

 Naxalites killed 47 people in a landmine blast between Dantewada and Sukma in Chattisgarh.
 Test fire of nuclear capable Agni-II missile was successfully carried out from Wheeler Island off
the coast of Orissa on 17th May. Agni II has a range of 2000Km. It is 20m long two stage solid
propelled ballistic missile. It was developed by Advanced System Laboratories alongwith DRDO
& Bharat Dynamics Ltd.
 Supreme Court in a recent judgement upheld a rule that allows the adjustment of reserved
category candidate SC/ST/OBC against their quota seats even if they manage to qualify an
examination for govt services on merit.
 National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is the monitoring authority for the
Right to Education Act which became effective from April 1, 2010.

Sports Current Affairs [May 2010]

 England won 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating Australia. The tournament
was held at South Africa. Kevin Pieterson of England has been declared as Player of the
Tournament.
 Australia won 2010 Women’s World Twenty20 Cricket tournament defeating New Zealand.
 India and South Korea were declared joint winner of 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup, after
suspension of the final match due to heavy rains.India’s Sardar Singh has been declared as Best
 Player of the Tournament. Australia won the Bronze medal. The tournament was held at Ipoh
(Malaysia). India had won the tournament earlier in 1985, 1991, 1995 & 2009.
 China won Thomas Cup ( Men’s Badminton) defeating Indonesia.
 In the World Youth Boxing Championship, held at Baku, Azerbaijan, India won 1 Gold & 1 Silver.
Gold medal was won by Vikas Krishan and Silver medal was won by Shiva Thapa.
 India won bronze medal in the 2nd Asian Paragliding Championship held at Nishiewa, Japan.
 World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand retained his title after defeating Veselin Topalov of
Bulgaria in the World Chess Championship 2010.

Persons in News [May 2010]

 Gita Gopinath an Indian origin associate professor at Harvard Univ has been appointed a full
professor, the first Indian woman in the Institution’s history to ge given this appointment.
 Former Vice President of India, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat died.
 Rima Fakih was crowned Miss USA 2010. She became the first ever muslim American Miss USA.
She is of Lebanese muslim descent.
 Singer Christina Aguilera was named Ambassador against hunger by the United Nations World
Food Programme.
 Rushanara Ali became first person of Bangladesh origin to be elected to the British Parliament.
 David Cameron elected Prime Minister of Britain. Nick Clegg became the Dy Prime Minister.
Britain gets first coalition govt since World War-II. It is between Conservative and Liberal
Democrats.
 Justice S H Kapadia sworn as new Chief Justice of India.
 Hari S Bhartia elected as President of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) for 2010-11.
 Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail unassisted around the world in a yatch.

Awards Current Affairs 2010 [May 2010]

 Vandana Shiva has been awarded Sydney Peace Prize 2010 for her work in the field of social
justice.

Misc Issues [May 2010]

 International Mosaics Festival was held in Tunisia.

 Aman ki Asha- the name of the Indo Pak Business Meet held at New delhi.
 International Museum Day- 18 May.
 ’Yours Sincerely’ written by Natwar Singh.
 ’The Duel’ written by Tariq Ali.
 ’The Promise :President Obama, Year One’ written by Jonathan Alter.

International Current Affairs [June 2010]

 Julia Gillard become Australia’s first women Prime Minister replacing Kevin Rudd following a
sudden revolt against him.
 No more time for sorrow’ written by Robert Beeman. The author predict that terrorist will set off an
atom bomb in the USA by 2013.
 Tuvalu become 187th member of IMF (International Monetary Fund). The island is located in the
Pacific Ocean.
 Kyrgyzstan voted for a new constitution in a referendum. It is Central Asia’s first parliament
democracy.
 G-20 summit held at Toronto, Canada.
National Current Affairs [June 2010]

 In the Global Peace Index 2010, India ranked at 128.

 2010 Failed State Index- Somalia top the list followed by Zimbabwe, Sudan & Chad. India is
ranked at 87 place out of 177 countries. Norway in ranked at the bottom of the list.
 President Rule imposed in Jharkhand.
 Amar Singh launches a new party ‘Akhil Bhartiya Lok Manch’.
 South African president Jacob Zuma visited India.
 Turkmenistan President Gurbaguly Bardimuhamedov visited India.
 Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited India. India signed 7 pacts with Sri Lanka. India
will assist in building 50000 houses in the northen & eastern provinces of Sri Lanka.
 Bangladesh Govt has requested to rename the train linking West Bengal to Tripura via Banglades
as ‘ Sonar Tori’. Earlier the name of the train as envisaged in the Railway Budget 2010 is ‘Epar
Bangla Opar Bangla’. Sonar Tori is a collection of poems written by Rabindranath Tagore, whose
150th birth anniversary is being celebrated in 2010.
 Maharastra will become first state in the country to have a real estate regulatory authority.
 BWA- Broadband Wireless Access. The BWA spectrum was auctioned by the Govt. BWA
Spectrum is essential for rolling out WiMAX services enabling hand held devices and laptops to
access Intranet. It will allow firms to offer high speed Net, Web telephony & TV Services. The
govt fixed Rs.1750 crore as base rate for BWA license. The auction was held for 117 rounds and
in 16 days. Rs.12848 crore was the pan India BWA license price which was won by Infotel
Broadband services ( in all 22 circles). The Govt auctioned the BWA license for a total of
Rs.38,543 crore. Mumbai had the highest bid of Rs.2293 crore followed by Delhi with Rs.2241
crore respectively.
 India signed Civil Nuclear agreement with Canada. The agreement was signed by Manmohan
Singh and Canada’s PM Stephen Harper. Canada is the 8th nation to enter into such an
agreement with India. Canada served nuclear ties with India in 1974 when India conducted its
first nuclear test at Pokhran in 1974. India’s nuclear power programme is based on the CANDU
( Canada Deuterium Uranium) reactor.
 India become a full fledged member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a 34 member
inter governmental body that devises policies at both national & international levels to combat
money laundering and terrorist financing. FATF membership will enable Indian authorities to
access information on suspect accounts in nations such as Switzerland & UK. India become its
34th member.

Sports Current Affairs [June 2010]

 French Open 2010 :

o Men’s singles – Rafael Nadal defeated Robin Soderling. He is the second person after
Bjorn Borg to win 5th French Open titles.
o Women’s singles- Francesca Schiavone (Italy) defeated Samantha Stosur (Australia).
She became first Italian women to won the French open.
o Men’s Doubles- Daniel Nestor & Nenad Zimonjic defeated Lukas Dlouhy & Leander
Paes.
o Women’s Doubles- Serena Williams & Venus Williams defeated Kveta Peschke &
Katarina Srebotnik.
o Mixed Doubles – Katarina Srebotnik & Nenad Zimonjic defeated Yavoslava Shvedova &
Julian Knowle.
 Saina Nehwal defeated Choo Wong Mew to win women’s single title in Yonex-Sunrise Indian
Open badminton championship. In the Men’s singles Yunus Alamsyah won the title.
 Saina Nehwal defeated Japan’s Sayaka Sato to win women’s singles title in Indonesian Open
Super Series 2010.
 Indian Ronjan Sodhi won the double trap gold medal at ISSF World Cup in Lonato, Italy.
  India defeated Sri Lanka to won Asia Cup(Cricket) 2010. India won the title after 15 years i.e. it
won the cup in 1995.
 Saina Nehwal won the Women’s singles title in Singapore Super Series badminton championship
2010 defeating China’s Tzu Ying Tai. It was her 2nd consecutive title.
 3000th ODI( One day international) cricket match was played between England & Australia.

Persons in News [June 2010]

 Former CJI K G Balakrishnan is appointed as Chairman of National Human Rights Commission.

 O P Bhatt has been elected as Chairman , Indian Banker’s Association for the year 2010-11.
 Tenzin Norzon, a resident of Varanasi crowned as Miss Tibet 2010.
 J G Farrell won the Lost Man Booker Prize for his novel ‘Troubles’.
 Sachin Tendulkar conferred with Indian Air Force’s honorary rank of Group Captain. Till now 21
persons have been granted honorary ranks by the IAF. The first person was Raja of Jawhar- Raja
Yaswant Rao in 1994. Tendulkar is the first sportsperson to be conferred with this honour.
 Sharad Pawar will be 7th President of ICC. He become 2nd Indian after Jagmohan Dalmia to
occupy the position. He succeeded David Morgan.
 Wrestler and 1970’s Asian Games Gold medalist, Chandagi Ram Kaliram died.

Misc Issues [June 2010]

 India and France held a joint air combat exercise in France called ‘Garuda IV’.
 Cyclone Phet hit Gujarat coast .
 Indigenous developed vaccine ‘Vaxiflu-S’ against swine flu (H1N1) is launched.
 Mars-500 : An experiment to study the effect of long isolation to better understand how a real
space crew should cope with stress and fatigue. The experiment is conducted by Russia, China
and The European Space Agency at Moscow. A total of 520 days are required to travelled to and
back form Mars planet.
 Capital Gate Tower in Abu Dhabi has been certified at world’s furthest leaning manmade tower.
The tower leans at 18 degrees, over four times angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
 World Blood Donor Day- 14 June. Theme of 2010 is ‘Celebrating your gift of blood’.
 World Environment Day – 5 June. Theme of 2010 is ‘Biodiversity : Connecting with Nature’.
 Statistics Day- 29 June. Celebrated in honour of Prof P C Mahalanobis.
 Govt made it mandatory for companies listed on the stock exchange to raise public shareholding
to 25 %.
 Craig Venter created first living cell created synthetically by human being.
 Bharti Airtel acquire Kuwait based Zain Telecom’s African business for $ 10.7 billion or Rs.
48,150 crore. Bharti now become 5th largest telecom company in the world.
 Broadband users in India as on March 2010 was 8.75 million.
 Forbes list 1011 billionaires in the world. It included 14 women, 7 of whom are from China.
 India has 1.27 lakh millionaires in 2009, a rise of 50.9 %. HNWI (high net worth individual) are
defined as those having investible assets of $ 1 million or more. Hongkong topped the global
growth in HNWI followed by India.
 Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace & Sustainable Development is being set up in
New Delhi.

International Current Affairs [July 2010]

 Japan Elections
Democratic Party of Japan suffered a heavy blow in the elections for the upper house of Japan’s
Diet (parliament) when it won ten seats fewer than expected thus loosing its majority. DPJ will
now have to look for new coalition partners to restore its majority in the upper house and enable it
to easily pass laws through the Diet legislature. After breaking the 55 year period of dominance of
 the Liberal Democratic Party and naming Naoto Kan the new prime minister just a month back
the results have baffled the DJP.
 July 15th Summit, Islamabad
Failed talks between Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna and the Pakistani counterpart Mr. Shah
Mehmood Qureshi's have once again proved that whenever efforts were initiated by India to
improve the relations between the two countries. The Pak leaders and officials took deliberate
steps to derail the process conveying a clear message to India that the talks can continue only on
its terms.
 Gulf of Spill
More than three months after the April 20 explosion aboard the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil
platform, which killed 11 workers and sank the rig gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the most
severe US environmental disaster ever is close to coming to an end. In an operation called “static
kill” 2,300 barrels of mud was forced down into the well’s opening overnight pushing the crude
back down to its source. A cap over the wellhead has shut in leaking oil since July 15 and the
static kill — also known as bull heading — probably would not have worked without the cap in
place.
 Genocide
Omar-al-Bashir, President of Sudan has been charged with three counts of genocide over the
Darfur Conflict, he was convicted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague. It is for the
first time that a court has accused anyone of genocide.
 Jacob Lew the new Budget Director
President Barack Obama has chosen Mr. Jacob Lew as his new budget director. This is Mr. Lews
second stint with the federal budget.

National Current Affairs [July 2010]

 Noose tightening for Politicos in Sohrab case

Sohrab case getting murkier with CBI stepping up pressure on top Gujarat IPS Officers
P.C.Pande, O.P.Mathur and Geeta Johri for their suspected involvement in scuttling the probe at
the behest of former Gujarat Minister of State for home Amit Shah. Two Rajasthan BJP leaders
Gulabchand Kataria and Om Mathur are also facing the CBI heat.
Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed in a fake encounter and his wife who was a witness to her
husband’s abduction was also later eliminated. The agency is investigating the police-politico
nexus behind the killings.
 Chidambaram confident of overcoming maoist problem in three years
Addressing a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for the ministry of home
affairs, P Chidambaram informed that in a meeting of chief ministers of seven Naxal-affected
states on July 14, a decision of unified command was agreed to namely in-- West Bengal, Orissa,
Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand -- for anti-Naxal operations. A two-pronged strategy of initiating
development and police action in the affected areas was designed to overcome Maoist problem
after consultations with the Naxal-affected states
 Grooming for a succession?
Noel Tata, chairman Ratan Tata’s brother has been installed as the chairman and CEO of Tata
Investment Corp and the MD in Tata International while relinquishing his executive position in
Trent Ltd within the last two months. There is speculation that these moves are in line with the
group’s succession plan for top job i.e. the Chairmanship of Tata Sons in 2012 when Ratan Tata
steps down.
 Applaud or embarrassment?
According to top sources from Central Vigilance Commission, fake certificates were being
routinely issued to pass substandard work and material to the vendors of Commonwealth Games
2010 leading to huge gains for the contractors and vendors. All these certificates were issued
without ground verification or technical examination. The compromise, herein, in the quality of
materials and workmanship poses a serious threat to the sports personnel from countries all over
the world lending a shameful picture of India and hence jeopardizing our ability to host such
events in the future.
  Valley stir
Following the imposition of curfew in wake of the protest by Syed Ali Geelani demanding the
release of dozens of arrested separatist leaders, violence was triggered in the valley due to a
spate of civilian killings by security personnel leading to an indefinite curfew being clamped in
Srinagar. Educational institutions, shops, post offices, banks, public transport and other business
establishments were closed as a precautionary measure. The protests are part of the separatists'
'Quit Kashmir' programme.

Sports Current Affairs [July 2010]

 Saina Nehwal: A smash hit

The Indian Open Grand Prix Gold, the Singapore Open Super Series and then the Indonesian
Open Super Series at Jakarta have given enough reasons to Saina to celebrate. The World No.3
defeated a fighting Sayaka Sato of Japan 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 in the badminton finals. Just two
notches away from the badminton World No. 1, Saina is now indisputably India's top female
athlete.
 Khel awards
Saina Nehwal to be conferred the country’s top sporting honour-the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna
award. While Jhulan Goswami skipper of womens cricket team, boxer Dinesh Kumar and
Sandeep Singh are tipped to receive the Arjuna Awards in recognition of their outstanding
achievements during the last one year, Footballer Sunil Chhetri and Deepak Mondal have also
been nominated for the award that will be given away in Rashtrapati Bhawan on 29th Aug by
President Pratibha Patil.
 World cup for Spain
In a historic football victory Spain lifted their first-ever World Cup after defeating Netherlands 1-0
in Johannesburg. Andres Iniesta secured the only goal of an enthralling final against the
Netherlands four minutes from the end of extra-time on Sunday leading his team to victory.

Persons in News [July 2010]

 Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro a Cuban revolutionary visited Havana scientific facility; it was his first public
appearance.
The former Cuban President, now 83, who went into seclusion four years back after falling ill
looked healthy said the reports.
 Roman Polanski
The Swiss government rejected US government’s request to extradite Roman Polanski where he
is charged with unlawful sex with a minor on the ground that the US authorities failed to provide
confidential testimony about Polanski's sentencing procedure in 1977-1978. Polanski, who has
been held under house arrest in Switzerland since December, has been declared a free man by
the Swiss authorities. However, the American prosecutors vowed to continue their pursuit of the
film director.

International Current Affairs [August 2010]

 Mission Accomplished
The United States have finally started pulling its troops out of Iraq. President Barack Obama has
confirmed that the US plans to withdraw significant number of combat troops from Iraq stating
that the war was nearing an end. The remaining force of 50,000 soldiers will train Iraqi security
forces and provide security for ongoing US Diplomatic efforts.
 Australia with a hung parliament
Australians failed to elect a new government in the polls held in August and were left with a hung
parliament. The non-result elections between Julia Gillard’s Labor and Abbott’s Liberal party led
 to the first hung parliament in Australia since World War II. Three key Independents are now in
the process of deciding which party to support to form a government.
 Pakistani cricketers tainted
The Game of cricket gets murkier with alleged match-fixer Mazhar Majeed’s claim of having
rigged games played by Pakistan for three years. The British Police recovered cash from hotel
rooms of Pakistani players involved in spot fixing. Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammed
Asif were interviewed and their mobiles confiscated after Majeed’s confession. The Anti-
Corruption Unit of the ICC will probe all 82 international matches played by Pakistan during this
time. The news came as a bolt for the flood-stricken and violence-plagued country where cricket
is the national sport.
 Pakistan Floods
Annual monsoons rains have led to flooding in Pakistan leading to the death of 1500 people and
rendering thousands homeless. In the worst flooding disaster in 80 years the floodwaters have
affected about one-fifth of the country washing away millions of hectares of crops, submerging
villages and destroying roads, bridges, schools, electricity and communication setting back the
infrastructure by many years. Disease is fast spreading in these flood affected areas and there
have been warnings that dams in the south may burst. It is estimated that the floods in Pakistan
have displaced people thrice the number displaced during partition.
 Hike in Visa fee
The Obama Regime has raised H-1B and L1 visa fees to protect its borders from illegal Mexican
immigrants. This additional fee would be used to build operating bases and deploy unmanned
aerial surveillance to beef up U.S.-Mexico border security. The impact of this hike will be
substantial on Indian IT companies that account for approximately 50,000 H1 and L1 visas per
year.
 Mosque near ground Zero
A New York city panel has cleared the way for the construction of a mosque near ground zero
that has been causing a political uproar over religious freedom. The proposed construction of the
mosque near ground zero has sparked debate all around the country. President Barack Obama,
however, supported the right of having a mosque by asserting that Muslims have the same right
to freedom of religion as everyone else in America.
 China to launch space station
Having finished the first module of a planned space station and testing its electronics and other
systems China is all set to launch it into orbit next year. Changes were being made to the rocket
that will carry the 8.5ton Tiangong 1 module into a set orbit. No finishing or manning dates have
been given for the space station. The official Xinhua news agency said that The Shenzhou 8
spacecraft and Shenzhou 9 and 10 spacecraft would dock with it in the second half of 2011 and
2012 respectively.
 Online route
Oxford English Dictionary that has been in print for over a century may never appear in print for
the future generations. The word reference Bible is likely to loose its existence to its online
version. With the digital books becoming popular, the format that the 3rd edition, currently being
worked upon, will take is anybody’s guess.

National Current Affairs [August 2010]

 Nuclear liability bill passed

Nuclear liability bill which was adopted by Rajya Sabha has now been approved by the process of
Voice vote. The session of the Parliament lasted 48 hours extra than the scheduled time so that
the legislation can be easily passed and approved. A total of 18 amendments were introduced in
this bill by Lok Sabha before processing it further. Soon the bill was selected for a considerable
hike in the liability of operator. This liability has now become 3 times then what it was in the past
and now holds a value of rupees 1500 crore’s in total. By virtue of progression of this bill and
significant increase in the liability many overseas companies have shown their interests in setting
up reactors in India. Special accidental care will now be provided for the employees operating in
 the various sections of the nuclear plants. The decision and the passing of the bill had been
strongly opposed by the BJP leaders as they found it insignificant.
 Swiss Bank Access
Swiss Authorities will provide information to India on cases of tax fraud and tax evasion from
January 1,2011under the reworked double tax agreement (DTA) signed by India and Switzerland.
The Indian Authorities can now seek information about the account holders in Swiss banks who
have a case filed against them for tax evasion.
 Government Intervention for CWG
PM and his select team of ministers takeover as CWG supervisors. Indian Prime Minister
Dr.Manmohan Singh took over the reigns of the forthcoming games in the wake of scandals and
unfinished work surrounding the event. Committee of Secretaries, headed by a Cabinet
Secretary, will now supervise the mega event to be held in October overtaking Organizing
Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi.
 Bhopal Case reopened
The Supreme court of India has reopened the Bhopal Gas leak case in response to
Government’s petition for harsher punishment to the guilty for the worst tragedy of its kind in
which at least 7,000 people perished within days of the release of the toxic methyl isocyanate gas
at the Union Carbide pesticide plant on 3 December 1984, and a further 15,000 died later from
exposure to the gas. The tragedy left countless others with lifelong damage to their health.
 CSAT to replace the civil services prelims
The new Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) will replace the existing civil services (preliminary)
examination from 2011. The new scheme will test the candidates for their aptitude for civil
services as well as their ethical and moral dimension of decision-making. There will now be two
common papers with equal weightage in place of one common paper (general awareness) and
one optional paper (any particular subject of choice). The civil services main exam and the
interview will remain the same as of now.
 Rahul creates controversy
Wherein one place Mamta Banerjee is speaking in the favour of naxals and now Rahul Gandhi is
sharing a dias with a suspected Maoist , this is the approach of the government in the fight
against naxals.
 Member Parliament salaries hiked
Parliament recently in Delhi has made a decision to increase the salaries of MPs. A hike of about
rupees 35000 will be introduced in the salary of each MPs thus taking it from figures like 20,000
to 55,000 or so. Because daily allowance has an important role to play hence parliament has also
decided to exactly double the allowances issued daily to each Member of Parliament. Hence daily
allowance of rupees 1000 will now become 2000. This daily allowance will be issued only when
the parliament session is in progress. Other than the daily allowances the official expenses for
every office per month have now been considerably raised and touch a 50,000 amount. That is
not all the travel and conveyance charge issued will now become 4 times which were earlier
around rupees 1,00,000. Retired members will now get a monthly pension of around rupees
20,000 which was around 10,000 in the past times.
 Commonwealth with less green
Approximately 40,000 trees have been either felled or transplanted for Delhi’s preparation of
Commonwealth Games 2010. Apart from the financial burden of creating world class
infrastructure and transport facilities Delhites have to bear the loss of its green cover as the
compensatory plantation cannot in any way compensate for the loss of a fully grown, mature tree.
 Blackberry controversy
Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of Blackberry has finally surrendered to Indian security
agencies’ demand for access to their server. The company has proposed for lawful access to its
services including the messenger as well as the enterprise with immediate effect and the
company would have to set up a server in India if it does not work to the satisfaction of Indian
agencies. The security agencies already had access to voice data, SMS and general emails sent
through Blackberry devices but Blackberry email and messaging services that are highly
encrypted were major concerns for the security agencies. With this understanding in place the
government has decided to serve notices to Google and Skype also to fall in line.
  Direct tax code
The Government deferred the direct tax code(DTC) by yet another year to April 2012 causing yet
another disappointment to the taxpayers. Women taxpayers suffered a bolt as the preferential
treatment meted out to them earlier is now proposed to be withdrawn. Senior citizens, however,
enjoy a higher exemption limit. The bill that replaces the Income Tax Act 1961 seeks an increase
in exemption threshold of individuals from Rs.1.6 lakh currently to Rs.2lakh. The corporate taxes
will be reduced to a flat 30%.
 Leh hit by flood
A cloudburst on the intervening night of August 5 and 6 has led to flash floods and mudslides in
the Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir. The cloudburst and the following floods have claimed
over 175 lives and injured about 400 people, besides causing widespread damage to public and
private property. The worst hit Chuglamsar has just turned into debris all over.
 More rich than poor Indians
National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has estimated in its report, "How India
Earns, Spends and Saves", that despite the economic slowdown of the last three years, the
number of high-income households in India has exceeded the number of low-income households.
Households with high income or earnings have grown by over 3.7% in total and now touch the
mark of around 21%. That is not all also the households with low income sources have fallen by
around 3.2% and gone down to a mark of 18%.
 CWG Anthem
When everything is being prepared for the common wealth coming up in October then how could
Music maestro A R Rahman stay away from it. Yes, the musician has launched the theme song
for the Commonwealth Games 2010 that has the best lyrics covering khelo oh yaaro,,jeeto oh
yaaro. During the launch of this theme song honorable Chief Minister Shiela Dixit, Bhupinder
Singh Hooda and OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi were present in the ceremony.
 CWG breeding mosquitoes
The fingers are already crossed and people fear further delay in the common wealth problems.
When the earlier hurdles are not getting removed and new problems are coming into view. The
sincere attention is being drawn by the mosquitoes breeding in various dumps. Because of heavy
rainfall in the country water is collected in almost every venue and mosquitoes have converted
these venues into their favorite breeding places and are increasing the fear of dengue disease.
 Yet another marine disaster
A foreign cargo ship MV Khalijia-111 which collided with MSC Chitra which was carrying about
1,200 containers with over 266 tonnes of fuel about 10 km off Mumbai harbour has spilled oil into
the Mumbai seas. The collision tilted MSC Chitra vessel causing 300 containers carrying oil to
tumble into the Mumbai waters creating a thick oil slick two to three kms around the vessel Chitra
causing a serious threat to the marine life.
 India’s Independence
August 15th, 2010 India celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its independence.
 IBM Number two employer
IBM is the second largest private sector employer in India after TCS . The company has more
than one lakh people on its rolls.

Sports Current Affairs [August 2010]

 Sehwag denied century

A deliberate no ball by the Srilankan off-spinner Suraj Randiv to prevent Virendar Sehwag from
completing his century in the tri-series has left a bad taste in the mouth for all cricket lovers.
Indians were just short of 5 runs from destination called victory and the opening batsman VEERU
was just a run away from his ton. At the same time Lankan skipper chose spinner S. Randiv to
come in and bowl. On the third bowl of his spell Virender Sehwag sent the bowl out of the fence
with a huge six but the turning point was that it was a no ball which defended Virender Sehwag
from completing his century. As per the declaration of the match referee it was been found out
that it was an intentional attempt.
  Shooting Gold
Tejaswini Sawant created history by becoming India’s first female shooter to clinch gold at the
World Shooting Championship held in Munich, Germany. The 29-year-old, who shot a score of
597/600 (100, 100, 100, 99, 99, 99), equaling the world record in the process, won the 50m rifle
prone event
 Sri Lanka wins the tri series
The host Sri Lanka’ eight wicket victory over India in Dambulla represents its 25th win in a
tournament final. Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara'who won the toss decided to bat against
India in the tri-series final. The Sri Lankans won the match by 74 runs in this game. With this it
became the second team to win a tournament final on 25 occasions. Australia has won 52
tournament finals.
 First Indian US PGA Tour winner
Arjun Atwal has become the first Indian Golfer to win the US PGA tour. Atwal, who started playing
at the age of fourteen, became one of the leading players on the Asian Tour and the European
tour. He is the the first native East Indian golfer to become a member of, and later win the U.S.
PGA Tour.

Persons in News [July 2010]

 Michael Kirk Douglas diagnosed with throat cancer

Michael Kirk Douglas, winner of three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards, was diagnosed
with throat cancer in August this year. He received the AFI (American Film Institute) Life
Achievement Award in 2009. The 65-year-old actor, a heavy smoker, was informed of his
condition labeled as Stage 4 cancer after his doctor's appointment for an extremely sore throat.
Douglas who is to undergo chemotherapy and radiation is optimistic about his chances for
recovery
 Archie Panjabi
Recently 62nd Emmy awards were held and the best part was to hear about actress Archie
Panjabi from the Indian-origin who has won the award for best supporting actress in the movie
“The Good Wife”. Her performance has been rated to be the best in the international release
recognized as “Bend it like Beckham”. Many others were nominated for the same designation but
because the best performance deserves to be on the top hence the results proved it and Archie
Panjabi took the award.
 Anil Aggarwal to overtake Mukesh Ambani
It was Anil Aggarwal who laid the foundation of Vedanta Resources Corporation, a UK based
corporation and all by the virtue of it that he has been designated as the non-resident Indian
billionaire. By this effort he has become the largest promoter of a corporate house thus overtaking
Mukesh Ambani.
 Pallava Bagla
Pallava Bagla from India has won the David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism
by American Geophysical Union (AGU). Pallav won this award for his articles on the impact of
change in climate on the Himalayan glaciers. Bagla is an author and freelancer for BBC and the
likes. His latest book is "Destination Moon: India's Quest for Moon, Mars and beyond".

International Current Affairs [August 2010]

 Mission Accomplished
The United States have finally started pulling its troops out of Iraq. President Barack Obama has
confirmed that the US plans to withdraw significant number of combat troops from Iraq stating
that the war was nearing an end. The remaining force of 50,000 soldiers will train Iraqi security
forces and provide security for ongoing US Diplomatic efforts.
 Australia with a hung parliament
Australians failed to elect a new government in the polls held in August and were left with a hung
parliament. The non-result elections between Julia Gillard’s Labor and Abbott’s Liberal party led
 to the first hung parliament in Australia since World War II. Three key Independents are now in
the process of deciding which party to support to form a government.
 Pakistani cricketers tainted
The Game of cricket gets murkier with alleged match-fixer Mazhar Majeed’s claim of having
rigged games played by Pakistan for three years. The British Police recovered cash from hotel
rooms of Pakistani players involved in spot fixing. Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammed
Asif were interviewed and their mobiles confiscated after Majeed’s confession. The Anti-
Corruption Unit of the ICC will probe all 82 international matches played by Pakistan during this
time. The news came as a bolt for the flood-stricken and violence-plagued country where cricket
is the national sport.
 Pakistan Floods
Annual monsoons rains have led to flooding in Pakistan leading to the death of 1500 people and
rendering thousands homeless. In the worst flooding disaster in 80 years the floodwaters have
affected about one-fifth of the country washing away millions of hectares of crops, submerging
villages and destroying roads, bridges, schools, electricity and communication setting back the
infrastructure by many years. Disease is fast spreading in these flood affected areas and there
have been warnings that dams in the south may burst. It is estimated that the floods in Pakistan
have displaced people thrice the number displaced during partition.
 Hike in Visa fee
The Obama Regime has raised H-1B and L1 visa fees to protect its borders from illegal Mexican
immigrants. This additional fee would be used to build operating bases and deploy unmanned
aerial surveillance to beef up U.S.-Mexico border security. The impact of this hike will be
substantial on Indian IT companies that account for approximately 50,000 H1 and L1 visas per
year.
 Mosque near ground Zero
A New York city panel has cleared the way for the construction of a mosque near ground zero
that has been causing a political uproar over religious freedom. The proposed construction of the
mosque near ground zero has sparked debate all around the country. President Barack Obama,
however, supported the right of having a mosque by asserting that Muslims have the same right
to freedom of religion as everyone else in America.
 China to launch space station
Having finished the first module of a planned space station and testing its electronics and other
systems China is all set to launch it into orbit next year. Changes were being made to the rocket
that will carry the 8.5ton Tiangong 1 module into a set orbit. No finishing or manning dates have
been given for the space station. The official Xinhua news agency said that The Shenzhou 8
spacecraft and Shenzhou 9 and 10 spacecraft would dock with it in the second half of 2011 and
2012 respectively.
 Online route
Oxford English Dictionary that has been in print for over a century may never appear in print for
the future generations. The word reference Bible is likely to loose its existence to its online
version. With the digital books becoming popular, the format that the 3rd edition, currently being
worked upon, will take is anybody’s guess.

National Current Affairs [August 2010]

 Nuclear liability bill passed

Nuclear liability bill which was adopted by Rajya Sabha has now been approved by the process of
Voice vote. The session of the Parliament lasted 48 hours extra than the scheduled time so that
the legislation can be easily passed and approved. A total of 18 amendments were introduced in
this bill by Lok Sabha before processing it further. Soon the bill was selected for a considerable
hike in the liability of operator. This liability has now become 3 times then what it was in the past
and now holds a value of rupees 1500 crore’s in total. By virtue of progression of this bill and
significant increase in the liability many overseas companies have shown their interests in setting
up reactors in India. Special accidental care will now be provided for the employees operating in
 the various sections of the nuclear plants. The decision and the passing of the bill had been
strongly opposed by the BJP leaders as they found it insignificant.
 Swiss Bank Access
Swiss Authorities will provide information to India on cases of tax fraud and tax evasion from
January 1,2011under the reworked double tax agreement (DTA) signed by India and Switzerland.
The Indian Authorities can now seek information about the account holders in Swiss banks who
have a case filed against them for tax evasion.
 Government Intervention for CWG
PM and his select team of ministers takeover as CWG supervisors. Indian Prime Minister
Dr.Manmohan Singh took over the reigns of the forthcoming games in the wake of scandals and
unfinished work surrounding the event. Committee of Secretaries, headed by a Cabinet
Secretary, will now supervise the mega event to be held in October overtaking Organizing
Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi.
 Bhopal Case reopened
The Supreme court of India has reopened the Bhopal Gas leak case in response to
Government’s petition for harsher punishment to the guilty for the worst tragedy of its kind in
which at least 7,000 people perished within days of the release of the toxic methyl isocyanate gas
at the Union Carbide pesticide plant on 3 December 1984, and a further 15,000 died later from
exposure to the gas. The tragedy left countless others with lifelong damage to their health.
 CSAT to replace the civil services prelims
The new Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) will replace the existing civil services (preliminary)
examination from 2011. The new scheme will test the candidates for their aptitude for civil
services as well as their ethical and moral dimension of decision-making. There will now be two
common papers with equal weightage in place of one common paper (general awareness) and
one optional paper (any particular subject of choice). The civil services main exam and the
interview will remain the same as of now.
 Rahul creates controversy
Wherein one place Mamta Banerjee is speaking in the favour of naxals and now Rahul Gandhi is
sharing a dias with a suspected Maoist , this is the approach of the government in the fight
against naxals.
 Member Parliament salaries hiked
Parliament recently in Delhi has made a decision to increase the salaries of MPs. A hike of about
rupees 35000 will be introduced in the salary of each MPs thus taking it from figures like 20,000
to 55,000 or so. Because daily allowance has an important role to play hence parliament has also
decided to exactly double the allowances issued daily to each Member of Parliament. Hence daily
allowance of rupees 1000 will now become 2000. This daily allowance will be issued only when
the parliament session is in progress. Other than the daily allowances the official expenses for
every office per month have now been considerably raised and touch a 50,000 amount. That is
not all the travel and conveyance charge issued will now become 4 times which were earlier
around rupees 1,00,000. Retired members will now get a monthly pension of around rupees
20,000 which was around 10,000 in the past times.
 Commonwealth with less green
Approximately 40,000 trees have been either felled or transplanted for Delhi’s preparation of
Commonwealth Games 2010. Apart from the financial burden of creating world class
infrastructure and transport facilities Delhites have to bear the loss of its green cover as the
compensatory plantation cannot in any way compensate for the loss of a fully grown, mature tree.
 Blackberry controversy
Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of Blackberry has finally surrendered to Indian security
agencies’ demand for access to their server. The company has proposed for lawful access to its
services including the messenger as well as the enterprise with immediate effect and the
company would have to set up a server in India if it does not work to the satisfaction of Indian
agencies. The security agencies already had access to voice data, SMS and general emails sent
through Blackberry devices but Blackberry email and messaging services that are highly
encrypted were major concerns for the security agencies. With this understanding in place the
government has decided to serve notices to Google and Skype also to fall in line.
  Direct tax code
The Government deferred the direct tax code(DTC) by yet another year to April 2012 causing yet
another disappointment to the taxpayers. Women taxpayers suffered a bolt as the preferential
treatment meted out to them earlier is now proposed to be withdrawn. Senior citizens, however,
enjoy a higher exemption limit. The bill that replaces the Income Tax Act 1961 seeks an increase
in exemption threshold of individuals from Rs.1.6 lakh currently to Rs.2lakh. The corporate taxes
will be reduced to a flat 30%.
 Leh hit by flood
A cloudburst on the intervening night of August 5 and 6 has led to flash floods and mudslides in
the Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir. The cloudburst and the following floods have claimed
over 175 lives and injured about 400 people, besides causing widespread damage to public and
private property. The worst hit Chuglamsar has just turned into debris all over.
 More rich than poor Indians
National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has estimated in its report, "How India
Earns, Spends and Saves", that despite the economic slowdown of the last three years, the
number of high-income households in India has exceeded the number of low-income households.
Households with high income or earnings have grown by over 3.7% in total and now touch the
mark of around 21%. That is not all also the households with low income sources have fallen by
around 3.2% and gone down to a mark of 18%.
 CWG Anthem
When everything is being prepared for the common wealth coming up in October then how could
Music maestro A R Rahman stay away from it. Yes, the musician has launched the theme song
for the Commonwealth Games 2010 that has the best lyrics covering khelo oh yaaro,,jeeto oh
yaaro. During the launch of this theme song honorable Chief Minister Shiela Dixit, Bhupinder
Singh Hooda and OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi were present in the ceremony.
 CWG breeding mosquitoes
The fingers are already crossed and people fear further delay in the common wealth problems.
When the earlier hurdles are not getting removed and new problems are coming into view. The
sincere attention is being drawn by the mosquitoes breeding in various dumps. Because of heavy
rainfall in the country water is collected in almost every venue and mosquitoes have converted
these venues into their favorite breeding places and are increasing the fear of dengue disease.
 Yet another marine disaster
A foreign cargo ship MV Khalijia-111 which collided with MSC Chitra which was carrying about
1,200 containers with over 266 tonnes of fuel about 10 km off Mumbai harbour has spilled oil into
the Mumbai seas. The collision tilted MSC Chitra vessel causing 300 containers carrying oil to
tumble into the Mumbai waters creating a thick oil slick two to three kms around the vessel Chitra
causing a serious threat to the marine life.
 India’s Independence
August 15th, 2010 India celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its independence.
 IBM Number two employer
IBM is the second largest private sector employer in India after TCS . The company has more
than one lakh people on its rolls.

Sports Current Affairs [August 2010]

 Sehwag denied century

A deliberate no ball by the Srilankan off-spinner Suraj Randiv to prevent Virendar Sehwag from
completing his century in the tri-series has left a bad taste in the mouth for all cricket lovers.
Indians were just short of 5 runs from destination called victory and the opening batsman VEERU
was just a run away from his ton. At the same time Lankan skipper chose spinner S. Randiv to
come in and bowl. On the third bowl of his spell Virender Sehwag sent the bowl out of the fence
with a huge six but the turning point was that it was a no ball which defended Virender Sehwag
from completing his century. As per the declaration of the match referee it was been found out
that it was an intentional attempt.
  Shooting Gold
Tejaswini Sawant created history by becoming India’s first female shooter to clinch gold at the
World Shooting Championship held in Munich, Germany. The 29-year-old, who shot a score of
597/600 (100, 100, 100, 99, 99, 99), equaling the world record in the process, won the 50m rifle
prone event
 Sri Lanka wins the tri series
The host Sri Lanka’ eight wicket victory over India in Dambulla represents its 25th win in a
tournament final. Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara'who won the toss decided to bat against
India in the tri-series final. The Sri Lankans won the match by 74 runs in this game. With this it
became the second team to win a tournament final on 25 occasions. Australia has won 52
tournament finals.
 First Indian US PGA Tour winner
Arjun Atwal has become the first Indian Golfer to win the US PGA tour. Atwal, who started playing
at the age of fourteen, became one of the leading players on the Asian Tour and the European
tour. He is the the first native East Indian golfer to become a member of, and later win the U.S.
PGA Tour.

Persons in News [July 2010]

 Michael Kirk Douglas diagnosed with throat cancer

Michael Kirk Douglas, winner of three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards, was diagnosed
with throat cancer in August this year. He received the AFI (American Film Institute) Life
Achievement Award in 2009. The 65-year-old actor, a heavy smoker, was informed of his
condition labeled as Stage 4 cancer after his doctor's appointment for an extremely sore throat.
Douglas who is to undergo chemotherapy and radiation is optimistic about his chances for
recovery
 Archie Panjabi
Recently 62nd Emmy awards were held and the best part was to hear about actress Archie
Panjabi from the Indian-origin who has won the award for best supporting actress in the movie
“The Good Wife”. Her performance has been rated to be the best in the international release
recognized as “Bend it like Beckham”. Many others were nominated for the same designation but
because the best performance deserves to be on the top hence the results proved it and Archie
Panjabi took the award.
 Anil Aggarwal to overtake Mukesh Ambani
It was Anil Aggarwal who laid the foundation of Vedanta Resources Corporation, a UK based
corporation and all by the virtue of it that he has been designated as the non-resident Indian
billionaire. By this effort he has become the largest promoter of a corporate house thus overtaking
Mukesh Ambani.
 Pallava Bagla
Pallava Bagla from India has won the David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism
by American Geophysical Union (AGU). Pallav won this award for his articles on the impact of
change in climate on the Himalayan glaciers. Bagla is an author and freelancer for BBC and the
likes. His latest book is "Destination Moon: India's Quest for Moon, Mars and beyond".

International Current Affairs [September 2010]

 Indians freed from Malay traffickers:

Not less than 24 Indian men who were discovered bound up in a residence in a Malaysian
boondocks were successfully freed from the arrest and two Pakistani men supposedly engaged in
a human trafficking guild were detained with immediate effect. "Inquiries into the matter exposed
that those people, age-old amid 20 and 30, were from Uttar Pradesh. If the reports of the media
are to be trusted, the victims landed on to the capital’s intl. airport four months back, afore getting
picked by the accused people who were apparently looking for workers in an industrial unit in
Johor," he said. He further stated that the two men promised the Indian workers appealing wages
 as the bait. It is once again proved that Malaysia is a magnet for wide spread drug peddling and
human trafficking. Unemployed workforce looking out for jobs is brought for added transfers to
other Southeast Asian countries and to Australia.
 Indian to lead FIDE:
Indians have already proved their metal in various sports at the international level. Tennis,
Cricket, Shooting, Boxing and also Chess. After Vishwanathan Anand, another lot of Indians are
about to triumph on the World Chess Podium. D.V. Sundar has been elected has the President of
the world body for the sport of chess, FIDE at Russia. Apart from that, the president for the Asian
Continent was Mr. Dongre and Commonwealth Chess Federation President was revealed in the
name of Mr. B.S. Chahuhan, a press statement by the All India Chess Federation revealed.
 Make way for the new breed:
The new world power calendar for 2010 has once again predicted that New Delhi’s dominance in
the world will see acceleration by 2025. Among the able coalition, the country has been placed at
the fourth position afterwards the US, China and the European Union. ‘The Global Governance
2025’ was together brought out by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) of the US and the
European Union’s Institutes for Security Studies (EUISS). In the current year, the US leads the lot
of able countries/regions, cumulatively for about 22 percent of the worldwide supremacy. The US
is chased by China at 12 percent, European Union at 16 percent and India at eight percent. India
comes next to Japan, Russia and Brazil with beneath than 5 percent apiece. Following these
global statistics, by 2025 the ability of the US, EU, Japan and Russia will cut down although that
of China, India and Brazil will boost but this surge will see the positions unchanged. By 2025, the
United States of America will continue to be the most dominating nation, but it will be possessing
just a bit above 18 percent of the global authority. The US will be carefully trailed by China with
16 percent, European Union with 14 percent and India with 10 percent looking to overleap.

National Current Affairs [September 2010]

 PM and Sonia Gandhi inaugurate UID:

The Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and UPA Arch Sonia Gandhi shaped a record by
accordingly ablution the world's aboriginal ID activity on September 29th 2010 forth with Nilekani,
the arch man of the ministry is acclimated to accommodate Unique Identification Numbers for
India's citizens (cumulatively well in billions), by rendering them the aboriginal collection of twelve
digit figures to ten clannish. The PM as well as the UPA Chief were collectively congratulated in
the presence of former Infosys headman. This ID Card is assumed to be nation’s biggest ever
tech adeptness action alleged 'Aadhaar'(base), that is due to be issued to all Indians to
accommodate them within a lucrative nationally accurate and absolute individual antecedent of
character affidavit through an authenticity vault and that will help to accomplish supply processes
transparent. Biometric following abstracts include fingerprints and an iris browse getting
acclimated for the aboriginal time wherever in the planet.
 Yamuna raises its bar, causes menace:
The baptize akin in the river rose to 206.70 accent recently, 1.87 accent aloft the crisis mark of
204.83 accent and is acceptable to go up added as neighboring Haryana would absolution added
water in the river, a chief official of the flood ascendancy administration said. Waters from the
flood reached into vicinities like of the local areas as well (Yamuna and Sonia Vihar, Usmanpur,
Jaitpur are a few). A large number of localities that reside in the areas forth the banks of the river
were apparent lined up on the footpaths on the ITO arch with whatsoever they had of their
possessions. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had on Friday requested the inhibiters not to get into
agitation and said all basic measures are getting put into abode to accommodated any possible
occurrence. Over 100 cadre from National Disaster Response Force, were soon deployed to
abetment the bounded authorities. The ascent Yamuna has affected the Northern Railways to
abolish 25 trains and absent 36 others. The cancelled train were prominent ones (Kalka and
Brahamaputra Mail, Shalimar, A.A. and G.N. Express, etc). The 90 trains that have to be
detoured included the most heavily commuted ones and this has disrupted the life of the general
public paralyzing their usual movements, a Northern Railway spokesmen stated.
  Ayodha Verdict finally out, Allahabad Bench applauded:
Culminating 60 years of anfractuous proceedings, asserts and counter-claims, optimism and
desolation, Allahabad HC conventions in favor of improvised Ram temple on quarreled site; the
remaining of acreage to be disconnected amid Hindus & Muslims. In what is conceivably the most
of eagerly anticipated judgment in contempt times, a breach adjudication dispensed out by a
three-member bank of Allahabad High Court were in full abounding of the claims of the Hindu
petitioners while acclimation a three-way analysis of the acknowledged land. The cardinal
provided acknowledged permit to the temporary Ram temple that came up afterwards the
annihilation of the acknowledged anatomy in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. The entire panel of
adjudicators – the prominent faces of the country (Justice Agarwal, Khan and Sharma) – was
very much in favor of the acceptance that captivated the acknowledged land was the native land
of the Hindu deity. Mr. Sharma and Mr. Agarwal settled with the long-held affirmation of the
Sangh Parivar and an area of archaeologists that the acknowledged anatomy cannot be advised
as an Islamic place of worship as it came into actuality adjoins the credo of Islam.
 Lights, Camera and Applause:
The 57th Edition of the National Film Award ceremony was concluded for the year 2009 in the
month of September. The awards were given away in three groups namely, finest Feature Motion
Picture Class led by Chairpersonship of Mr. Sippy, Non Feature Motion Picture Group led by
Chairpersonship of Mr. Pandey, and Script on Movies beneath the Chairpersonship of Mr. S.
Bandhopadhyay.
 The following were the recipients of a few awards in various nominations:
a. Motion Picture: Malayalam flick – KuttySrank
b. I.G.A. for the Best first appearance movie : Hindi movie – Lahore for the Direction
c. Box office blockbuster (widespread entertainment): Hindi – 3 Idiots
d. N.D.A. for the Best motion picture on Patriotic Spirit: Hindi – Delhi 6
e. Best motion picture on Society’s Matters: Bollywood - Well Done Abba
f. Motion Picture for Kids: Tied between Keshu (Malayalam) and Putaani Party (Kannada)
g. Direction: Rituparno Ghosh for Abohoman
h. Actor: Amitabh Bachcha for Auro’s role
i. Actress: Ananya Chatterjee
j. Child’s Performance: Tollywood’s Pasanga
k. Male Singer: Rupam Islam in Bengali
l. Female Singer: Neelanjana Sarkar in Bengali

Sports Current Affairs [September 2010]

 Kalmadi and Co. pocket Common man’s Wealth:

The contempt letters of forgery and fraud in Commonwealth Games resulted in an abnormally
affliction of our nation’s picture. The bulk of finances used up on modernizing the venues for
Commonwealth Games accommodate a prima facie affirmation of ample calibration enticement in
the alignment of Commonwealth Games. The abstracts accessible on the Commonwealth Games
website reveals that the amount of refurbishing the JNU stadium was USD 215 million; the IGI
Stadium USD 150 million; the Hockey stadium (named after Dhyan Chand) USD 60 million; and
the Shooting Alleys USD 35 million. An absolute sum of USD 10150 million was spent on
renovations. The costs incurred in the advance of the lone cricket stadium in Delhi were USD 20
million. For the LBS stadium in Hyderabad was USD 18 million, and architecture of a
contemporary and technology studded stadium in the city of oranges amounted USD 19 million. It
is acute that the Central Government anon adjustment a top akin analysis into this arrangement
and the dealings embarked on. It is abominable that such all-embracing abusage of communal
resources has taken abode in the name of the Commonwealth Games. The accusations of
inducement ambit from favoritism in accolade of affairs to big-ticket appoint of accessories for
training and abrupt accretion in the costs of architecture treaties.
 Bridge Collapses; Casualties cross double figures:
Reportedly not less than 27 people were afflicted afterwards an under-construction foot over
bridge burst within the close proximity of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the capital area of the
 Commonwealth Games, bidding the Organizing Committee (OC) to awning up by giving a
statement or in other words a false sense of complacency and assurance that everything is being
taken care of. The arch was to hotlink the amphitheater to parking for delegates and athletes. The
Urban Development Minister, Jaipal Reddy has dismissed the pressures by quoting it is a
negligible incident. The Public Works Department (PWD) has urged for an acoount of the
structure from the builders. Later the aforementioned day, Organizing Committee Secretary
General Lalit Bhanot addressed reporters: "We will put up a great show. He said the venues will
be all set in the days to come and there would be added sprucing to accommodate top notch
standards. However, the mishap is a concern to the CWG organizers, who are already nabbed
amidst accuse of laziness and fraud for the XIX Edition. Previously, Mike Hooper, the main
controller of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), remarked on the condition of hygiene
at the Games Village as “dirty.”
 Chennai are the Super Kings of Twenty20 Cricket:
The Mahendra Singh Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings are the champions of the second edition of
the AirTel Champions League Twenty20 hosted by South Africa from September 10th to
September 26th. Chennai Super Kings defeated their fellow finalists in some fashion by 8 wickets
in the final of the Champions League T20 2010.Warriors had won the toss earlier and decided to
bat first but bootless to account an appropriate target, but only capable to set a minimal total of
mere 128 runs for 7 wickets. Only Davy Jacobs’s denticulate 34 runs were the notable
contribution and was also the best from the entire batting lineup of the Warriors. Muttiah
Muralidaran was the most booming bowler scalping 3 wickets for only 16 runs. Ashwin got a
couple of wickets for 16 runs as well. Chennai Super Kings started off in some style by baking
batting by Murali Vijay who denticulate a 58 run total. Michael Hussey fabricated 42 handy runs to
the total. The Opening brace fabricated 103 runs which fabricated their way of triumph easier
than it ever seemed. With this Murali Vijay became the highest run getter of the second edition of
the Champions League Twenty20. He was facilitated with the Man of the Match Award. With such
great triumph on the world stage, the Indian and CSK captain has silenced his critics and is still in
contention to be the best ever captain in the world today.

Business And Economy 2010

 A 10 % dip in exports, targets seems unlikely:

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) predicted arrears of
abutting to 10 per cent in exports ambition for accepted budgetary due to arrest in exports
advance rate. This is for the reason that developing countries, like India, are those that are
already going in for budgetary alliance as their economies initiated fractional cycle aback of relief
packages, affect of which will be significantly seen on India’s consign gain in the ongoing fiscal,
said Secretary General, ASSOCHAM, Mr. D.S. Rawat. Approximations acknowledge that abutting
to $US 20 billion of exports’ gain are captivated in countries; including various European
countries in which sprawl in demand and consumption behaviors are getting carefully followed.
As an aftereffect of budgetary consolidation, India’s export transaction that nurtured at the
amount of 32.6 per cent in April 2010, it cut down to 35.1 per cent in the afterward months afore
advancing along to a point of 30.4 per cent in June, which slithered at dreadfully lower akin of
13.2 per cent in July this year and change about trend will abide with a few enhancements round
about in the remainder of the months of this fiscal, cumulatively astringent dip down of exports’
returns reaching at a point $US 180 billion by March 31st, 2011, said the Secretary General of the
body.
 Five Indian States;
Top Investment Magnets: Gujarat has come into view as a baton of the part of 5 apex parts of
India i.e. West (Maharashtra), South-East (Orissa), South (AP and Karnataka), in molding to be
the top preferred investment pit stops and in alluring 52.42 % of cumulative investment of tons of
Indian rupees for 20 States, according to a generalization undertaken by ASSOCHAM. While
making the study public, Chamber Secretary General, Mr. D S Rawat reported that Mahatma
Gandhi’s home state has alone drawn investment proposals of USD 268375 million,
Maharashtra’s also close to a staggering USD 231378 million, Orissa a gigantic USD 220171
 million, AP a mountaineering USD 180794 million, Karnataka a whopping USD 163791 million
and the rest 15 states short listed equal to USD 1377299 million amounting for only proposals.
The heaviest bulk of investment has gone into ( in terms of percentages) electricity sector (40.3),
the service sector (22.6 ), manufacturing industry (22.1 ), realty and property division (9.9), mining
(2.4) and irrigation (2.3).
 India tipped to become vehicle giants:
“India has already accomplished this great landmark well around 6 years advanced of the
decided missions”, quoted by the Secretary for Ministry of Heavy Industry, Mr. B S Meena who
highlighted this while speaking in New Delhi at the Roundtable Conference. Meena added that for
the time span up to August 2010, the achievement of the automobile segment has been acutely
commendable with the assorted manufacturing of cars growing at 32.4% over the same epoch
the previous year. The commuter vehicles, business cars and bike segments have all embarked
on the absorbing advance ante of 32%, 49% and 31% appropriately during this interlude, he
further stated. The Secretary also brought to light that it is anticipated that the measurement of
the Indian commuter cars articulation in 2020 will be abutting to nine million units and two-
wheelers approx. thirty million pieces. Light motor vehicles’ construction in India is probable to
accustom the superlative rate of progress. The achievement of such a degree would place India
as one of the top 5 car creating nations all across the globe by the year 2020 with the local
utilization growing by 4-folds to US 120 billion dollars.

International Current Affairs [October 2010]

 India gets UNSC non-permanent seat:

The biggest news on the international front for India has been its inclusion into the UNSC as a
non-permanent member after a gap of 19 years. Even as India’s acclamation for a non-
permanent bench on the body that includes fifteen members in total was an inevitable cessation
afterwards Kazakhstan back out of the chase for the Asian bench beforehand in early January.
India got an unbelievable 187 of the 191 votes in the UN General Assembly ballot on October
14th 2010. India's previous spell in the Security Council was way back in 1992. Almost
immediately afterwards India's appointment, Indian agent to the United Nations Hardeep Singh
Puri put it straight that New Delhi would make use of this couple of year valid span to build
assurance and accord a feeling of aplomb to the five non changing associates (famously known
as the P-5) - the United States of America, Russia, Britain, France and China. Considering that
Brazil, a running affiliate of the United Nation Security Council, and South Africa and Germany,
which got appointed with India, on October 14th were as well in contention for a permanent
membership, he stated: 'Of course everybody of us will attempt to bring into play the two years
we need to render our allies a feeling of aplomb and formulate trust and faith so that they are at
ease with our role playing in the United Nation Security Council on a continued period of time'.
 India and Mozambique sign 3 agreements:
India and Mozambique came together and signed three agreements and a credit band of 500
million United States dollars has been advanced to that nation state for works regarding the
infrastructure, agronomics and power during a convention that featured President of Mozambique
Armando Guebuza and Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh. Guebuza and Singh, who
captivated entrustment level converses, resolved to actualize an affiliation following the lines of
superior political meeting, deepening of bread-and-butter collaboration, deepening of defense and
aegis collaboration, distinctively to get hold of sea lanes in opposition to piracy and, cooperation
in competence building and human resource (or workforce) development. “Both of us together
accord to the aforementioned Indian Ocean association and we carve up familiar issues. It is in
our alternate absorption to ensure the assurance and aegis of sea lanes of communication in the
Indian Ocean,” Dr. Manmohan Singh said in a collective journalist statement. India will back the
enactment in preparation and setting up organizations in Mozambique to back capacity building in
the coal business and will as well back the ability formation for the defense and patrolling
personnel of that nation state, the Prime Minister alleged. Conveying worry over the assurance
and aegis of sea lanes in Indian Ocean, Guebuza promised India it will accommodate all practical
aid to safeguard them.
National Current Affairs [October 2010]

 Third stage of Bihar polling completed:

Polling was carried out affably in 48 electorates on 28th Oct 2010, estimating in the third
appearance of Bihar Assembly elections, which witnessed an approximated 53% voter
responsive. Electorates like Amnour, Taraya, Ramnagar, Balmikinagar and Patepur (Maoist
followers) account about 45%-52% voting. Voters were carried by boats in the littoral areas of
Raghopur Assembly electorate in Vaishali commune where the popular figure of Rabri Devi was
in the tussle. The better half of RJD spearhead Lalu Prasad Yadav is as well battling from
Sonepur bench in Saran constituency. More than 185 people were held during the balloting,
which saw miniature incidents of affray and fracas. Unlike on a number of occasions before, this
time Bihar polling did not see what it usually it experiences in terms of riots, booth capturing and
other forms of unrest and violence that hampers the true and the honest spirit of competition.
"Apart from this, it was nonviolent and silky," stated by Neelmani (DG of Police). Approximately
sixty cars were as well detained. In excess of one crore voters will adjudge the future of six
ministers (of the state) in the third stage. The following round i.e. stage 4 will be carried out on
Nov. 4 2010.
 UID experiences technical hiccups:
In order to overcome the challenge posed by the huge figure of people (approximately 1.03
billions) in the country, the chief of the dept. stated that the 16 digit long UID numbers will be
released in the next year and half or so. He added that the epicenter of its working will be in the
city of Bangalore. An easy remedy to the obstacles posed by the allotment of different IDs is to
have a bench where every formerly sanctioned UID are kept and a fresh one is given only
afterwards verifying that is actually a unique code. Fundamentally, we charge to break an
extremely tough difficulty in dispersed schemes once we have copies of the bench (for
dependability) and ought to accordingly respond/keep informed the table as questions are asked.
Taking the point in consideration, provided the millions of accretion objects affiliated to the web,
there is no scrutiny if a prime number selected is the similar chosen by somebody else before. If
this is to happen, it is an aegis aperture of the aboriginal order for web; the possibly is,
nevertheless, acutely undersized. Population on another instance has proven to be a major
obstacle in the development and progress course of India. UID which was anticipated to be a
huge success and particularly curb this issue is yet to combat the problem itself to even get kick
started.
 Haryana barricades polythene bags entry:
In another attempt to safeguard the environmental and not add insult to the already injured state
of the planet, like the govt. of Delhi, Haryana govt. has also decided to prohibit polythene bags in
the state. The ban includes a complete no-no of recycling, storage and usage (in any form) within
the state. A suggestion to this aftereffect has been supported by Bhupinder Singh Hooda (the
honorable Chief Minister of the state), an authorized agent said in the capital on Saturday. The
resolution was taken as it was empiric that fractional forbid on use of polythene bags of a clearly
defined array bracket did not crop the needed consequences. There was consistent ambiguity
over the array of poly bags in exercise and it had as well been discovered that nibbling of a great
number of polythene bogs had resulted in deaths of cows on a regular basis, he said. This type of
thinking and resolutions are the only way through which we can combat and better the ailing state
of the plant Earth. If all other cities and states like previously Delhi and now Haryana think about
the hazards the polythene bags can cost, we will be having better standards of health and
hygiene.

Sports Current Affairs [October 2010]

 A century of Medals in CWG 2010:

Thanks to the final in the woman badminton category that India was able to taste the sweet gland
of a century tally of medals for the very first time in any CWG edition. India had tallied 38 gold, 27
silver and 36 bronze medals which cumulatively read 101 medals. Even though India were
shattered to an 8-0 defeat by the Aussies the woman shutters’ heroics steered them to a total of
 medals that read 101. India finished ahead of England (142) and behind Australia (177). The
culminating day (Oct 14th) saw the quest of an unimaginable 2nd place finish thanks to Jwala and
Ashwini. They defeated Singapore’s Sari Shanti Mulia and Yao Lei with some ease and become
the lone pair so far to win gold in women badminton (doubles). But the cherry on the cake was
put by Indian badminton pioneer – Saina Nehwal. The hosts scalped addition one inclusive of a
bronze medal when our table tennis masters Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das won in the
doubles for women bronze medal final round alongside the Australian pair. Tan Zed Vivian and
Peri Campbell-Innes. But the finals for the hockey men were a match to forget as they were
thumped by the Kangaroos scoring 8 past their goal. Going into this match with some resilient
attitude as shown in the semis, the Aussies brought them to ground by outplaying them with
power play.
 Master Blaster’s the Best; ICC admits:
Sachin Tendulkar (quite unsurprisingly) was shortlisted for the most decorated cricketing
accolade in contempt period, an award given to the greatest cricketer for the year that is named
after Sir Garfield Sobers. The Master Blaster turned out to be the second Indian to win the
accolade following the success of Rahul Dravid in the same award six years before. Afterwards
accumulating 1,000 runs in Test match cricket this calendar year more to the point becoming the
aboriginal cricketer to score a double century in LOI cricket playing against South Africa on Feb
24th 2010 in Gwalior, Sachin completed a double of awards at the even by also winning the
famous – LG People’s Choice Award. The Men in Blue had a lot extra to applaud about as their
striking opener, Virender Sehwag, with 1,282 runs in the game’s longer adaptation, was chosen
as the Test Cricketer of the Year and M.S. Dhoni was selected as the captain of a World Test XI.
In the previous, Sehwag’s Delhi team mate as well as opening partner, Gautam Gambhir was
given this privilege. Decorated Indian off-spinner, B.S. Bedi was introduced into the Hall of Fame
(for ICC) forth along with the legendary West Indies’ fast bowlers Garner and Walsh and Rachael
Heyhoe Flint (ex-England women cricketer) The LOI (also known as ODI) Player of the Year was
bagged by the South African cricketer A.B. de Villiers.
 Kangaroos see BLUE in India:
In a highly anticipated and evenly fought cricket competition between two giants of the beautiful
game of cricket between India and Australia, the former proved to be good for the Aussies. The
Australian team over a period of time has seen its main workforce in Gilchrist, Hayden, McGrath
and others retiring had to rely majorly on the young breed of players lacking experience of play in
the Indian subcontinent. India had slipped its rank down a bit from No. 1 and was in a quest to get
it back. That’s what actually transpired. Thanks to the great heroics of Sachin along with the rest
of his teammates India were not only able to beat the Aussies but finish it as a clean sweep which
the team Down Under hadn’t experienced for quite some time. Sachin’s double ton was the
highlight of the series and imperative in order to retain the coveted Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Apart from the Test Series, India also won the ODI series without losing single game (1-0). Two
of the three matches were abandoned due to bad weather conditions while the sole game played,
India convincingly beat the Australians thanks to a solid partnership between Suresh Raina and
Mohit Tiwary. The partnership between the two batsmen helped India to chase down a total just
under 300.

Business And Economy 2010

 Inflation hits essential commodities:

Prices of seven of the most essential commodities for example that make up the most of our
meals for the day have steeped upwards by a percentage of 18 on an boilerplate for over one
year long period (Aug ’09 – Aug ’10) while per capita earnings of an boilerplate Indian citizen has
seen a surge by 10.4% (these facts have been obtained by a research from ASSOCHAM). At the
same time as prices of all kinds of staple commodities experienced an aciculate boost, alignment
amid 40%, 27%, and 26%, in that order, added necessities for daily meals saw a rising instant in
the ambit of 11%, 10%, 9% and 7% in that order. The per capita earnings of a boilerplate Indian
was seen about Rs. 40,141/- per annum in the previous financial year amplified by about Rs.
4,404/- in the current year, totaling to Rs. 44,345/- each year. The organization includes that the
 acceleration in mandatory commodity prices and per capita income was absolutely uneven. The
values of condiments and spices and condiments belted quite higher from the phase in 2009
August and have seen significantly greater animation in their prices which shot up to the bar of
over 40% amid the year long period specified earlier.
 18.18 people went Mobile:
The telecom companies in India had new 18.18 million user as per records of the quarter just
ended, using the final figure of mobile users in India to 670.60 million, the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (TRAI) alleged. According to facts disclosed by the telecom controller in the
second week of October, the mobile phone subscriber abject shot up from 652.42 crores in the
first quarter than ended for FY 2010, to 670.60 crores by the first month of the second quarter of
FY 2010 that took shape of a shape of 2.79 percent. The cumulative number of phone
subscribers (both wireless and fixed line) in India amplified to 706.37 crores by the last weeks of
late August from 688.38 crores in July, it further stated. With this, the all-embracing telephones
per 100 people or telephone density in India went nearly up to 59.63 percent. The advancement
in the wireless class was led by Vodafone, which has new 2.30 crore new users to yield its
subscriber abject to 113.77 crore subscribers. Just behind chasing Vodafone, PSU (govt. run)
abettor BSNL further had an enormous 2.25 crore users in early 2nd quarter of FY 2010, which
resulted in its entire subscriber abject to 76.03 million. Telecom market baton Bharti Airtel saw
2.03 crore new users, which took its consumer abject to 141.25 million, at the same time as
Aditya Birla Group’s Idea Cellular and Aircel had 1.98 crore new users and 1.61 cores
subscribers, in that order.
 India gets 1% of World’s Auto:
According to a study carried out by FICCI, India stands 22nd in auto exports. Indian auto industry
strives to accomplish consigns ambition of USD 12 billion in the next four years: FICCI strives 3%
allotment in all-around exports in the next six years. Despite the fact that India has coped to be
the seventh largest manufacturer of automobiles all across the globe but it continues to be a
miniature contributor in the all-around market, empiric FICCI Abstraction on Indian Auto Exports.
The share of the country in all-around automobile exports is a bare 1% in the previous year and
our country ranks 22nd in car exports declining abaft countries like Thailand and China (in Asia),
Mexico, Argentina, Brazil (North and Latin America) and Turkey (from Europe), acclaimed FICCI
Study. Regardless of this, Indian vehicle business is assured of accomplishing its consign
ambition of USD 12 billion within the next three to four years, which will be great considering the
fact it will be two years prior to the planned year of 2016 outlined in Automotive Mission Plan
2006-16. At present, India exports USD 4.5 billion of vehicles which cover tractors, commuter
cars, business cars and others like scooters and motor-bikes.

International Current Affairs [November 2010]

 Pakistan’s Initiative against Terrorism

Pakistan has been the victim of international terrorism in the past few months. As a result of this,
a top US official recently said that Islamabad should begin to crack down on terrorists and
terrorist groups operational within the country immediately. Barrack Obama, President of the
United States of America has also agreed to this statement and feels that Pakistan has been one
of the major victims of international terrorism lately. President Obama also said that Pakistan
needs to take strong and immediate steps against all terrorist groups operating on Pakistani soil.
Furthermore, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said that a
number of terrorist groups are operating in a syndicate and working together against American
interests, not just in the US but in other nations such as Afghanistan and India as well. Mr. Blake
also stated that the US has welcomed every step take by Pakistan so far and that it is in full
support of Pakistan as always.
 UN’s terrorism sanctions list
In a recent and sudden move, a US committee took down several names of al-Qaida and Taliban
terrorists off its terrorism sanction lists. The committee said that the reason for such an action
was that several of the names on the sanctions list were probably dead. The committee Chairman
 Thomas Mayr Harting said that following this step, the committee had started investigations into
how many terrorists put on the list were actually dead. This committee was set up in 1999.
 New Government in Iraq
Prolonged warring and quarrels between rival political factions in Iraq had caused over an eight
month deadlock over the issue of forming the next government. Recently, the Iraqi Prime Minister
appealed to these political factions to work together and unite following his acceptance of the
President’s request to form the next government. Senior officials admitted that a Herculean task
now lay before them, that of forming a government comprising of members of all possible political
factions. The task has been made harder by the month long deadline to form the government
which will preside over the country’s affair as US troops move out and power is handed back to
the Iraqi people. The new government is expected to have members from all the political factions
such as the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. Prime Minister Designate al-Maliki called upon al Iraqi
citizens and politicians to help him in this difficult task.
 Friendly neighbor China
Rising concerns over China’s assertive and aggressive attitude in the Asian continent has
prompted China’s President Hu Jintao to assure all nations that China is committed to being a
friendly and helpful neighbor. China has been in the news recently over its spats with neighboring
nations over international borders and territories. The reason for this has been said to be China’s
interests in a group of potentially resource rich islands in the Asian Pacific. Speaking to leaders at
the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Japan, President Hu said that China was
committed to the regional policy of building good neighborliness and friendship.
 Rolls Royce sued by Qantas
Australian flight safety officials have recently warned that manufacturing defects have been found
in the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines. Officials further urged airlines using these engines to carry
extensive checks before using them because defects present in them could lead to catastrophic
failures. In the meanwhile, Qantas began court proceedings against Rolls Royce and was granted
an injunction by the federal court of Australia which ensured that the airline could pursue legal
action against the engine manufacturing giants.
 Myanmar polls called fake
The first democratic polls in Myanmar after several years of military rule were held among
complaints of threats, intimidation and accusations of the polls being a charade. In most
constituencies, the poll was a competition between the Union Solidarity and Development Party
(USDP) and the National Unity Party (NUS). Several accusations were made by opposition
parties against the USDP, claiming that they illegally collected advanced ballots. USA and UK
officials also voiced their concerns about the transparency and fairness of these polls.
 China’s slowest growth
China had its slowest rate of economic growth in a year during the September quarter. In addition
to this, a World Bank report hinted at a further decrease in its economic growth. One of the
reasons for this has been the long term inflation that China has faced for almost two years.
China’s industrial growth has also fallen considerably in recent times. This slow growth in China’s
economy has gotten many people to believe that India might be the next economic superpower to
rise because of its high levels of industrial and economic growth in recent times. Though not
immediately, but experts predicted India’s rate of growth to exceed that of China’s by a
considerable margin in the next five years.

National Current Affairs [November 2010]

 Sensex drops 458 points

The Bombay Stock Exchange recently fell by a total of 458 points. The reasons for the
underperformance of the Indian Equity market have been said to be the series of scams that were
unearthed from mid November. Just last month, CBI officials discovered a bribe for loan scandal
that involved several officials from financial firms and a few state run banks. The 10.8% rise in
industrial growth since last month could not help and several indices ended with huge losses.
Major loses were mainly suffered by PSUs, realty, consumer durables and healthcare.
 Satyam Trial Case
The examination of the first witness in the infamous multi crore Satyam Computer accounting
scam would begin from the first of November Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court. CBI
officials submitted a list of six witnesses to the courts who were officials of a number of different
banks. All ten accused including company founder B Ramalinga Raju were present in court
during the hearing of the case. The DIG of police who operates under the department of CBI said
that the agency requested permission to set up LCD projectors and screens in the court so that
both parties could observe and take notes on all the documents that would be brought up in court.
Since cases in the Supreme Court need to be resolved at the earliest, CBI officials submitted
close to a thousand documents to the court to speed up the prosecution. The bail of the owner of
company and the other 5 individuals associated has been rejected.
 Baba Ramdev Temple under threat
An anonymous letter was received at the Ramdev Baba temple in Jaisalmer that contained
threats to blow up the temple on November 9th. District Collector G S Kushwaha received this
letter by normal post. Following this letter security around the temple and the surrounding
complex was tightened by posting additional number of policeman around the temple complex.
Around 5 million devotees are said to visit the temple every year.
 Ashok Chavan’s fate
Disgraced Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chauhan’s would be decided after the Diwali
holiday season, i.e. after November 8th said the Congress party. Recently Chief Minister Ashok
Chauhan’s name had come in the Adarsh Housing Society scam. Following this allegation, Mr.
Ashok Chauhan immediately offered to resign from his post. No mention of either the Adarsh
Housing Society scam or the commonwealth Games fiasco was made by the Congress in its
AICC session. Also present at the meeting were Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, Common
Wealth Games Organizing Committee Chaiperson Suresh Kalmadi, Heavy Industries Minister
and former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Maharashtra PCC President
Manikrao Thakre.
 Adjournment of Ajmer Dargah blast case
The hearing of the Ajmer Gargah blast case was recently adjourned to November 8 by a sessions
court due to leave taken by the presiding judge. Over an 800 page charge sheet was produced
before the court of the Additional Chief Judge Magistrate on the 22nd of October by the
Rajasthan ATS. The five accused in the case have alleged links with the radical Hindu group
Abhinav Bharat. Only one accused was brought to the court while the other two are being
questioned about the Hyderabad Mecca blast case. The accused have been booked under
various sections of the Indian Penal Code like conspiracy to murder, attempt to murder and
murder. Over one hundred and thirty witnesses have been cited by the prosecution of the case.
 Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s concern
The finance minister of the country Pranab Mukherjee recently raised his fears over the rising of
inflation in the country. Minister Mukherjee said that the Reserve Bank of India would take steps
at its next monetary policy review to check rising prices because of increased inflation. He further
added that rising food prices were solely the reason for this sudden inflation. Inflation for the
month of September was estimated to be close to 8.6% much above the acceptable rate of 5%.
As said by Finance Minister Mukherjee, food prices had the highest amount of inflation which in
Mid October was estimated to be over 13%. Recently, Minister Pranab Mukherjee was in talks
with the Reserve Bank of India Governor over the the possible rate hike action by the Central
Bank. The global financial crisis, which was worsened by the total collapse of financial firm
Lehman Brothers, is being said to be the reason behind the RBI’s recent reversal of its soft
monetary policy that it started back in September 2008. Adding to these has been the sudden
drop in industrial growth from 15.2% to 5.6%. To combat the aforementioned rise in inflation, the
Reserve Bank of India has hiked its key short term lending and borrowing times several times this
year.
 Protest during Obama visit by Bhopal Gas tragedy victims
Victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy are said to be planning to stage a protest at Jantar Mantar on
the 8th of November, during the time of US President Barrack Obama’s visit to the capital.
Several tonnes of the poisonous gas methyl iso-cyanide, leaked from the Union Carbide Plant in
 Bhopal in 1984, killing over 3000 people the same night and causing the deaths of over 25000
people over the subsequent years. Five different voluntary organizations working for the gas
tragedy victims recently held a press conference where they stated that they would be requesting
to President Obama to use his Presidential powers to bring the Union Carbide Corporation to
Indian Courts and be answerable to them. The verdict of this case many years back had found
seven top officials of this corporation to be guilty but as these guilty persons were bailed out
within minutes of the verdict, many people till date question the justice imparted in the case. The
voluntary organizations further added that hundreds of people regularly fall sick and die every
month due to the long term poisonous effects of the leaked gas on the soil and water. They
further plan to ask President Obama for his help as the US government has been largely
unhelpful these last few years. The sit in protest organized by the voluntary organizations is said
to be comprised of over 5000 gas tragedy victims.

Sports Current Affairs [November 2010]

 Chelsea lose third match out of fourth

Birmingham City defeated Chelsea by a score of 1-0 at Birmingham City making this the third
defeat to be suffered by Chelsea in the four matches that it has played so far. This win helped
Manchester United to move up in the English Premier League rankings. Birmingham gained three
points in the rankings thanks to the one and only winning goal scored by its player Lee Bowyer.
Newcastle lost 5-1 to Bolton while West Ham lost 3-0 to Liverpool alongside Blackpool and Stoke
who claimed their respective victories. In their game against Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea let slip
past their initial lead of 2-0, to finally lose the game at a score of 3-2. The game was at a score of
2-0 till half time with Chelsea winning but a combination of lack of concentration in players and
simple bad luck cost Chelsea the match.
 Cricket in 2014 Asian Games
Rumors recently originated that cricket had been removed from the list of proposed sports and
events of the 2014 Asian games. The reason for these rumors has been said to be the decision of
the Olympic Committee of Asia to limit the number of sporting events in the Asian games to a
maximum of 35. However, these fears proved out to be false as the OCA recently confirmed the
inclusion of cricket in the list of sporting events for the Asian games 2014. For the time being
cricket and karate have been confirmed as two out of the seven non Olympic events in these
games while the other five are still to be decided. However, South Korean organizers are said to
not be in support of this decision.
 Nadal and Clijsters
Rafael Nadal continues to hold the top spot in the ATP rankings with his score being close to
11900 points while Roger Federer holds the spot of number two. On the other hand Kim Clijsters
fell to the third position in the WTA rankings released recently followed by Serena Williams on the
fourth position.
 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Following his win in the Korean Grand Prix, third position in Brazil and third position in the
qualifiers of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari looked like the possible
winner. However the title slipped out of his hands, much to his surprise and landed into the hands
of Vettel making him the youngest Formula One champion in the history of F1 racing aged just 23
years.

Persons in News November 2010

 Leslie Nielson passes away

Beloved actor Leslie Nielson best remember as bumbling police detective Lt. Frank Drebin of the
Naked Gun series of movies, passed away recently aged 84 from complications arising as a
result of Pneumonia. He was surrounded on his death bed y his loving wife, friends and long time
agent. Leslie Nielson had over a 60 year long career in motion pictures which started back in the
1950s. He was initially cast as a leading man in serious movies such as The Forbidden Planet
and Poseidon Adventure. The former flopped while the latter was a big success in its time.
 However, Nielson soon found his forte in comedy movies when he first acted in the 1980 comedy
motion picture, Airplane. The movie was a huge hit and Nielson’s popularity as a comedy actor
soared. He then appeared in a number of comedy movies, the most famous of them being the
Naked Gun series, all of which were big hits. Some of these were repossessed, Dracula- dead
and loving it and Spy hard. Leslie was married thrice in his lifetime and has two daughters with
his second wife.
 I-phone versus Google Android
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Inc. recently praised the operating system on Google’s smart
phones. The operating system called Android was further praised by Mr. Wozniak who said that
these phones had more features to offer as compared to the I-phone. He however, further added
that while Google’s smart phones offer people more number of choices, Apple I-phones on the
other hand were much better in terms of quality.