Currents Affairs February 2013

1. NASA on x marks 10th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia that perished into the atmosphere of the Earth upon its re-entry. Seven astronauts were aboard Columbia which disintegrated across southern United States. The debris of Columbia spread across 200-mile stretch from Texas to Louisiana. NASA decided to mark the anniversary in just the low-key ceremonies in Texas as well as Florida in order to honour the crew members of Columbia along with those who died in the Challenger shuttle explosion on 28 January 1986.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain of the Indian cricket team was appointed as the vice-president of India Cements on 1 February 2013. India Cements is headed by BCCI President N Srinivasan.

The Union Government of India gave the Maharatna status to two PSUs- BHEL and GAIL on 1 February 2013. Granting Maharatna status to BHEL and GAIL will provide them with better functional and financial freedom and will also guarantee them with better valuation of the shares.

Shanu Lahiri, the renowned painter of Bengal School died  following a brief illness at the private hospital in Kolkata. She was 85 years of age.

Bharti Airtel launched an emergency alert service for the subscribers in Odisha, Bengal and Kolkata . The service is directed towards the women primarily and allows them to dial the Airtel helpline number known as 55100 as well as send the messages when there is an emergency.

2. Ayesha Haroon, the renowned Pakistani journalist died  in New York following 4-year long fight with cancer. She was 46 years old.

3. The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee  agreed to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 for sharpening the laws against sexual assault. The President mandated harsher punishment such as death penalty for the offenders in such cases where the victim either dies or lands into the vegetative state. The amended law would come into force almost immediately.

Glenn McGrath and Charlie Turner, the renowned fast bowlers were unanimously chosen to be inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame. Hall of fame chairman David Crow declared that these two pace bowlers were inducted officially at Allan Border Medal ceremonies on 4 February 2013.

4. World cancer day was observed on  in order to raise awareness about this illness as well as to promote the measures, early detection, prevention and treatment of the disease. The theme for World Cancer Day, 2013 was Cancer - Did you know?  The theme focused on dispelling the misconceptions associated with the disease.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting constituted a panel for examining the issues of certification under Cinematographer Act 1952. Shri Mukul Mudgal, the retired Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court was appointed the Chairman of the Panel.

Rohinton F Nariman, the Solicitor-General of India resigned from his office . He was appointed at the second highest law official of India on 23 July 2011 after Gopal Subramanium resigned from his office on 14 July 2011 following the issues with Government in context to the 2G Spectrum Allocation Scam.

Michael Clarke, the Australian cricket captain won the fourth Allan Border Medal in Melbourne . 31-year old Clarke had won the medal earlier in 2005, 2009 and 2012. Apart from Clarke, the only other player to win this medal four times is Captain Ricky Ponting.

The Supreme Court of India  directed the Union Government of India to notify the six-year-old final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal by 20 February 2013. A bench headed by Justice RM Lodha expressed displeasure over the government not notifying the award even after the warring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had agreed before it on 4 January 2013 that they had no objection if the award was notified. The Centre had earlier assured the apex court that it would notify the tribunal’s award by 31 December 2013.

Nepal started a three-month-long census of the tigers. Tigers were declared as the endangered species by International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2010.

Britain-based Rebecca Adlington, the Olympic champion announced retirement from all forms of competitive swimming. Adlington, 23 is from Mansfield. 

5. Manjushree Khaitan, the youngest daughter of Birla group on 5 February 2013 took over as the top executive of the BK Birla flagship, Kesoram Industries which is a 6000 crore Rupees company. Kesoram Industries’ board decided inducting Manjushree as a vice-chairman as well as whole-time director at the company.

India and Austria inked a social security pact at Vienna, under which the Indian professionals working in Austria would be exempted from paying the social security contribution of the country, if such payments are already made in India. Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and Austrian Minister for Labour and Social Security, Rudoulf Hundstorfer signed the pact.

Marussia F1 team unveiled their new Formula 1 car called MR02 . The specialty of this car is that it equips the KERS (the kinetic energy recovery system) power-boost system which is not found in any other existing teams. KERS was legalised since 2011. The benefit of KERS is that enables 0.3 seconds per lap.

6. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi  launched a new health initiative called Rashtriya Bal Sawsthya Karyakram at Palghar town in Thane district of Maharashtra. The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, is a part of the National Rural Health Mission of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Mukund Govind Rajan was appointed as the group spokesperson and brand custodian of TATA Group. Rajan will have the responsibility of looking after the corporate communications as well as the branding activities of the group in India and abroad.

The Union Cabinet of India gave approval to Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for developing an indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) for IAF.

US President Barack Obama nominated Sally Jewell, a retail executive and outdoor enthusiast as the U.S. interior secretary for looking after the huge energy reserves as well as the national parks. Obama while nominating Jewell described her as an expert on climate issues and energy issues.

Russian Formula1 (F1) team Marussia announced that Brazilian Luis Razia is the second driver for the 2013 Formula One Season going to start in Melbourne (Australian Grand Prix) on 17 March 2013. Razia, the runner up of the 2012 GP2 Series would race alongside Max Chilton, the British teammate.

7.  First bionic man of the world called Rex was unveiled at London's Science Museum. The bionic man was created using 1 million US dollar limbs as well as organs. Prosthetic legs and ankle came from MIT, synthetic blood from Sheffield University, spleens, pancreas and artificial kidneys from University College London, retinas from Oxford University and artificial lungs came from Swansea.

The Supreme Court of India directed Karnataka to release 2.44 thousand million cubic feet of Cauvery water to the state of Tamil Nadu with immediate effect. The bench of Justices R M Lodha, J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur gave the order on the basis of report submitted by the committee of Central Water Commission that was appointed on the orders of the Apex Court.

The Information and Broadcasting Minister, Manish Tewari  launched the MyIndia Initiative-A Digital Volunteer Programme to reach out the people in the social media space.

8. The Advocate-General of West Bengal, Anindya Kumar Mitra resigned from his office . Following his resignation, Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal appointed Bimal Chatterjee as the new Advocate General of the state.

The Advocate-General of West Bengal, Anindya Kumar Mitra resigned from his office on 8 February 2013. Following his resignation, Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal appointed Bimal Chatterjee as the new Advocate General of the state.

Ministry of Civil Aviation  released Shubh Yatra, an exclusive monthly bi-lingual (Hindi & English) inflight magazine of Air India. It covers travel, lifestyle, culture and entertainment in all colour and spice.

9. Mohamammed Afzal Guru, the convict of 2001 Parliament attack was hanged  at 8 AM in Tihar Jail, New Delhi. The Supreme Court of India pronounced the death Sentence for Afzal Guru in 2004 for masterminding the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001. Operation Three Star Code name given to secret plan for executing Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist Afzal Guru in Tihar Jail.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram launched the much-awaited Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme in Mumbai. The move will encourage new investors to put their money in the stock market. The scheme, which was announced in the Budget 2011-12, seeks to provide tax benefits to first-time investors in stock market. Under the scheme, an individual with an income of less than 10 lakh rupees would get tax incentives for investing up to 50000 rupees in the stock market.

Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar legend was honoured with the posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy award. His daughter sitarist Anoushka Shankar accepted the award on his behalf  ahead of the Grammy’s show that took place in Los Angeles on 10 February 2013.

10. Zhuang Zedong, the table tennis legend died in Beijing on 10 February 2013 following lengthy fight with cancer. He was aged 72 years. Zhuang Zedong is a three-time world table tennis champion. He won a range of events in 1960s. He was renowned for chance meeting with Glenn Cowan, the US table tennis player during 31st World Table Tennis Championships in 1971.

Lydia Ko, the teenager became youngest winner of a women's European Tour golf event by winning at New Zealand Women's Open in Christchurch on 10 February 2013. This is her third victory of the professional title. She is aged just 15 years, eight months and 17 days.

World No. 73 Horacio Zeballos defeated Rafael Nadal 6-7 (2) 7-6 (6) 6-4 to win his first ATP World Tour trophy in VTR OPEN 2013 on 10 February 2013 in Vina del Mar, Chile in Men’s Singles.

11. Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would resign at the end of the month. He reasoned that he was too infirm to carry on. He is the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision set the stage for the election of a new Pope before the end of March 2013.

The Delhi Declaration of the first South Asian Autism Network (SAAN) for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) conference concluded in New Delhi.

Pakistan successfully test fired short range surface-to-surface missile Hatf IX (NASR). The test fire took place with consecutive launches of two missiles from multi-tube launcher. NASR has 60 km range with the capability of in-flight manoeuvring. It also has the capability of carrying nuclear warheads having apt yields, with higher efficiency.

Indian Tennis Players Association (ITPA), a collective body of Indian Tennis players was designed . The ITPA would be responsible to represent the concerns and professional interests of its members. The association is being constituted as there exist no particular structure in tennis to represent or address the issues of the tennis players in India.

MCX-SX, the third bourse on the equities and equity derivatives trading block debuted on 11 February 2013. It is the third national stock exchange of India after Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. MCX-SX started its trading in shared of 1116 listed companies against 1665 companies in National Stock Exchange and 5191 companies in Bombay Stock Exchange.

12. The Health Ministers of India and Bangladesh signed a MoU on Health in New Delhi.The salient features of the MoU between India and Bangladesh.

The sanctions-hit Iran called on for destruction of all atomic weapons of the world. The decision came soon after North Korea declared that the country had staged the most powerful nuclear test yet available with it.

 The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee appointed Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty as the chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi . Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty is the IAS officer of 1970 batch and retired from the designation of Secretary to Government of India.

World Radio Day was observed on 12 February 2013 to raise awareness about the importance of radio, facilitate access to information through it and enhance networking among broadcasters. On the 18th of December, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the 2011 resolution adopted by the UNESCO General Conference, proclaiming the 13th of February as World Radio Day, the day United Nations Radio was established in 1946.

North Korea  announced success of its underground Nuclear Test. The country cleared that the miniaturized nuclear device was detonated successfully and it also announced that the test was an act of self-defence from the US Hostility and also threatened stronger steps in future.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) appointed Subodh Kumar Agrawal as its new President and K. Raghu as its new Vice-President .

13.  Mohan Parasaran, the Additional Solicitor General was appointed as the Solicitor General of India after senior advocate Rohinton Nariman resigned from his designation.

The two-day International Conference on Traditional Medicine for South-East Asian Countries concluded with the Adoption of Delhi Declaration in New Delhi on 13 February 2013. The Delhi Declaration was made for fostering the development of Traditional Medicine of the region.

Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) the stock market regulator of India ordered freezing of bank accounts and attachment of properties of two Sahara group firms Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd., and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd. and its Chairman Subrata Roy as well as top executives Vandana Bhargava, Ravi Shanker Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary after it failed to refund more than 24,000 crore rupees to investors.

Asoke Kumar Mukerji was appointed as the next Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations . Mukerji replaced Hardeep Singh Puri who retired in February 2013 after the tenure of two years.

14. Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lankan all-rounder cricketer was appointed the Captain of the test and one-day cricket team of Sri Lanka for a period of one year. Mathews replaced Mahela Jayawardene, who announced to quit captaincy after Sri Lanka’s tour of Australia.

Seventeenth Convocation of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) was held on  in Bangalore. Chief Guest of the convocation was the Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad.

India and France agreed to strengthen counter terrorism and intelligence cooperation between the two countries during the visit of French President Francois Holllande to India. Both nations exchanged views on a number of bi-lateral, regional and multilateral issues.

15. Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda, the London paralympics silver-medallist and Padma Shri awardee was appointed as the brand ambassador of nutrition company Herbalife .

Pakistan successfully tested the nuclear-capable Hatf-II ballistic missile This was the second test of missile system in just four days by Pakistan. The test was conducted in order to evaluate the capabilities of Strategic Forces.

16. India and Bangladesh held the second Joint Consultative Commission meeting in Dhaka. At the end of the meeting, both countries exchanged one strip map as part of the process of the implementation of the agreement signed to resolve land boundary issues between them.

The Romanian film Child's Pose bagged the coveted Golden Bear prize for best film at the 63rd Berlin film festival. The Romanian drama is about a dominating mother using her social position to try to save her son from jail.

17. Australia won the ICC Women’s World Cup Trophy after defeating West-Indies by 114-runs  2013 at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Australia clinched the title for the sixth time in the history of women’s cricket World Cup it last won the title in 2005.

Viswanathan Anand, the World Champion in Chess from India won the Grenke Chess Classic trophy of 2013 after defeating Arkadij Naiditsch from Germany. To secure his win in the Grenke Chess Classic, Anand also defeated Fabiano Caruana from Italy. This was his first title of the year.

Rafael Nadal won the finals of Brazil Open 2013 by defeating Argentinean David Nalbandian in straight sets by 6-2, 6-3 in Sao Paolo. He won the tournament for the second time; he won it for the first time in 2005.

Milos Raonic  won SAP Open 2013 at San Jose defeating Tommy Haas in the championship match. Milos Raonic completed the tournament with 6-4, 6-3 victory over Haas.

18. A group of various banks agreed to loan 937 crore Rupees for 1000-MW NTPL power project. NTPL power project is the joint venture of Tamil Nadu Power Generation and Distribution Corporation as well as Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC). The project will come up at Tuticorin. NLC Director (Finance) as well as the Bank of India Deputy General Manager (Mumbai) signed an agreement. The estimated cost of the project would be 4909.54 crore Rupees having debt-equity ratio of 70:30.

The President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 18 February 2013 conferred 2011 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development Award to Ela Ramesh Bhatt, a renowned Women social worker. The award was given away at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi.

The Court of Arbitration at The Hague allowed India to go ahead with the Construction of the Kishanganga hydro-electric project in Gurez valley near Bandipura in North Kashmir, the court rejected the plea of Pakistan that the construction was a violation of 1960 Indus Water Treaty.

The Afghan government prohibited its security forces from taking any air support from the International Forces during security operations in residential areas of the country. The government also instructed the security forces to respect human rights during the security operations.

19. Radhakishan Malviya, the former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha Member from Madhya Pradesh died  at a private hospital in Indore after suffering from a brief illness. He died at the age of 68.

Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) confirmed the use of goal-line technology during the 2014 FIFA World Cup to be organised in Brazil. It also stated that the technology could be introduced in the next season’s Premier league.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel announced a coalition deal with the rival centrist Hatnua Party Chairwomen and the former Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, at Jerusalem. Under the deal agreement, Livni will serve as the new Justice Minister and will oversee the peace efforts with the Palestinians.

An international treaty that legally binds the nation to limit the use of health hazardous mercury was adopted by 140 nations in the third week of January 2013 at Geneva. The treaty would be signed in Minamata, Japan, in October 2013 to honour the inhabitants of town who have suffered the consequences of serious mercury contamination for decades.

Hamadi Jebali resigned from the office of the Prime Minister of Tunisia after his attempt to end a political standoff by formation of a Government of Technocrats failed. Hamadi Jebali was trying to create coalition because of the political crisis which took birth by killing of Chokri Belaid, the opposition leader.

20. The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) 2013 cleared the proposal of the Power Ministry to set up the North Karanpura Super Thermal Power Plant (NKSTPP) (3 x 660 MW) near Tandwa town in Chatra district of Jharkhand by the National Thermal Power Corporation, NTPC.

21. T. S. Vijayan, the former LIC chief took over as the Chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). Vijayan will succeed J. Hari Narayan. J. Hari Narayan completed the five-year term on 20 February 2013.

The UTTIPEC (Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure Planning and Engineering Centre) started efforts for developing vision as well as strategy for successful implementation of the plans for mass-rapid transport system in Delhi. Already, pilot projects along the four metro corridors as well as Karkardooma have got in-principal approval for first phase of transit-oriented development (TOD).

Ratan Tata, the former head of Tata Group was awarded the life time achievement award 2012 by Ernst & Young . He was given away the award for displaying great role for the Indian businessmen on global business level.

The Union Cabinet of India approved merger of Bharat Heavy Plate & Vessels Ltd. (BHPV) Vishakhapatnam with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). After the merger, BHVP will be a unit of BHEL.

22. The Silk Route Car rally from Kolkata to Kunming organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and supported by the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation (BCIM) was flagged off  from Helipad Ground in Salt Lake Stadium, West Bengal.

23. India's Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie-Mattek Sands won the Dubai Tennis Championship on 23 February 2013. The Indo-American duo defeated the second seeded Russian-Slovenian combination of Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik, 6-4, 2-6, 10-7. Sania bagged her second Doubles title of the season.

Hari Shankar Singhania, the leading industrialist died  at the age of 79 years. Hari Shankar Singhania was a Padma Bhushan awardee (in 2003) and was also involved with JK organisation since 1951.

Marina Erakovic won her first Women's Tennis Association title, US National Indoor Tennis Championship 2013 after beating Germany's Sabine Lisicki in Memphis.

24. Silver Linings Playbook won four awards at the Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica . The movie won best film, best screenplay, best director for David O Russell and best actress for Jennifer Lawrence at the film awards. The awards were presented by Daniel Radcliffe, Salma Hayek and Jeremy Renner.

Nicos Anastasiades, the centre-right DISY (the Democratic Rally) party leader won the presidential elections of Cyprus with 57.5 percent votes.

61st Cavalry defeated IPG 9-5 ½ in the M3M Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup 2013 to lift the trophy. Major Ravi Rathore scored five goals in the Jaipur Polo Ground, New Delhi, thereby giving a comfortable lead to the Cavalry men.

The two-day inaugural Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) 2013 which was aimed to revive creativity and art of Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan, concluded. The LLF 2013 ended with the discussions on literature, celebration of the international and local writers as well as social discourse of past, present and future of the literature.

The Oscars 2013 or the 85th Academy Awards ceremony took place. The annual Academy Awards were presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in order to honour the best films of the previous years, i.e., 2012. The Oscars 2013 ceremony was held at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. The awards were hosted by Seth MacFarlane. This is said to be the most viewed ceremony since Academy Awards 2004.

Jelena Jankovic, the former world no. 1 won the WTA Copa Claro Colsanitas Cup 2013 in Bogota, Colombia . This was her first tour title in three years as well as the 13th of her career. The 27-year old Serbian defeated Argentine Paula Ormaechea 6-1 and 6-2.

25. Six foreign micro and mini spacecrafts as well as the Indo-French oceanographic study satellite, SARAL (Satellite for Argos-3 and Altika) were launched successfully by ISRO's PSLV-C20 rocket from the spaceport at Sriharikota. 

Arun Tadanki, the managing director for Yahoo India and South East Asia quit Yahoo  citing reasons that he wanted to explore fresh opportunities in the world of the Internet. However, Arun Tadanki will remain in Yahoo at his designation till June 2013.

Park Geun-hye sworn-in as the first woman President of South Korea. After swearing-in, she vowed for zero tolerance against nuclearised North Korea as well as economic prosperity of the country.

Vishwaroop, the CEO, NTPC SAIL Power Company (NSPCL) was conferred with the Exemplary Leader Award in Mumbai on. He was conferred with the award for his contribution to Power sector.

26. Delhi became the first state in India to ban the manual scavenging. The Chief Minister of Delhi  banned deployment of the cleaning staff for the purpose of manual sewer cleaning.

The Surrey Space Centre (SSC) of the University of Surrey announced that STRaND-1, a nano-satellite carrying a smartphone was launched successfully into space from India. With this launch, India became the first country to successfully launch the first smartphone of the world.

Sugata Mitra was awarded the million-dollar TED Prize on 26 February 2013 for pursuing his idea for building the schools in the Internet. TED Prize is actually awarded to the extraordinary people who have creative as well as bold ideas for global change.

27. The Government of India announced constitution of Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe into the allegations in the VVIP helicopter deal from Agusta Westland and to identify the role of the middlemen in the purchase of the 12 helicopters.

28. National Science Day was observed. The theme of 2013 was Genetically Modified Crops and Food Security. The day is observed on the 28th of February every year to popularise science and its applications among school and college students. National Science Day is observed in honour of Nobel laureate and physicist CV Raman’s discovery of the Raman Effect, which he announced on this day in 1928.

Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal on 28 February 2013 took over as the twentieth Director General of the Indian Coast Guard. He is the successor of the outgoing Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan.