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China
becomes world's largest economy - putting USA in second place for the
first time in 142 years
World
> World’s
Largest Economy > Oct 9
According to figures
from the International Monetary Fund, China has toppled America to
become the biggest economy in the world. The US has been the global
leader since it overtook Britain in 1872, but has now lost its status
as top dog.
The latest IMF figures
show the Chinese economy is worth $17.61 trillion compared with $17.4
trillion for the U.S.
China - whose wealth
has accelerated in recent decades amid rapid industrialization – is
expected to extend its lead, with the IMF estimating its economy will
be worth just under $26.98 trillion in 2019. That would be 20 per
cent bigger than the U.S. economy, which is forecast to be worth
$22.3 trillion by then.
The new IMF analysis is
based on a statistic called 'purchasing power parity' (PPP), which
makes adjustments for the fact that goods are cheaper in China and
other countries relative to the US. Without these cost adjustments
factored in, the Chinese economy is still smaller than that of the
U.S., at $10.3 trillion.
PM
launches blueprint for Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY)
Politics
and government > Saansad
Adarsh Gram Yojana > Oct 11
In keeping with his
announcement on August 15th, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
on Saturday unveiled a blueprint for the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana
(SAGY) on Janata Party founder Jayaprakash Narayan’s birth
anniversary. The scheme encourages Members of Parliament from both
Houses to identify one village from their constituency within a month
and develop it as a model village by 2016, and two more by 2019,
covering over 2,500 villages of the 6 lakh villages country-wide. MPs
can choose any village except their own or their spouse’s. MPs are
expected to facilitate a village development plan, motivate villagers
to take up activities and use the Rs.5-crore MPLAD fund to fill gaps
for funds besides mobilising additional resources especially from CSR
in sewage and water supply schemes. A number of measures are outlined
for better implementation of existing and new schemes such as RTI
Act, National Food Security Act, National Rural Livelihood Mission,
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, while at the same time undertaking
activities to ensure improvement of hygienic behaviour in villages
and ensuring overall social development in villages.
SEBI
bars DLF, its six senior officials from market for three years
Corporate
> DLF > Oct 14
The Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has barred the country’s leading
real estate developer DLF Ltd and its six top officials, including
chairman K P Singh, his son and vice chairman Rajiv Singh and
daughter Pia Singh, who is a whole-time director, from accessing the
capital market for three years for non-disclosure of legal cases
during the company’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2007.
As per SEBI’s rules,
it is mandatory for companies to disclose all legal cases in the IPO
prospectus. However, DLF, which raised Rs 9,187 crore in 2007, failed
to disclose a case involving three of its alleged subsidiaries. SEBI
investigated the case relating to DLF’s dealings with some of its
allegedly related entities following an order from the Delhi High
Court in 2010.
Background:
According to SEBI, a
complaint was filed by a person in 2007 stating that Sudipti Estates
Private Ltd and certain other persons had duped him of Rs 34 crore in
a transaction related to purchase of land. The complainant,
identified as Kimsuk Krishna Sinha, said he had registered an FIR at
the Connaught Place police station in New Delhi against Sudipti and
others. He said Sudipti had only two shareholders - DLF Home
Developers Ltd and DLF Estate Developers Ltd - both companies being
wholly-owned subsidiaries of DLF, holding 5000 equity shares each.
Even after the sale of
entire shareholding in Sudipti, Shalika and Felicite by the
wholly-owned subsidiaries of DLF, there was no change in the
composition of the board of directors of these three companies. The
directors in Sudipti, Shalika and Felicite, who were employees of
DLF, continued to retain their positions even after the sale of
shareholding. These directors were subject to the control of DLF due
to their “employee and employer relationship”.
Due to this
arrangement, DLF was in a position to control the boards of these
three companies. Therefore, it has been alleged that in terms of SAST
regulations, these three companies were under the control of DLF even
after November 29-30, 2006 i.e. after the date of claimed
dissociation. Therefore, Sudipti, Shalika and Felicite were related
parties of DLF in terms of AS-18. It has been alleged that DLF has
failed to disclose its related party transactions.
Others
Eric
Betzig, Stefan Hell, William Moerner win Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Awards
> Noble
Prize - Chemistry > Oct 9
Eric Betzig, Stefan W.
Hell and William E. Moerner shared the 2014 chemistry Nobel for the
development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, which has
enabled the study of single molecules in ongoing chemical reactions
in living cells. Their work has enabled modern chemists to study
molecules and other substances at the nano-scale.
Researchers can now, for example, see how
molecules create junctions between nerve cells in the brain; track
proteins involved in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's
diseases; and can follow individual proteins in fertilized eggs as
they divide into embryos.
Professor Betzig is
Group Leader at Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical
Institute, in Virginia.
Professor Moerner is
based at Stanford University.
Professor Hell is
Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in
Göttingen and Division head at the German Cancer Research Center,
Heidelberg.
Patrick
Modiano wins Nobel Prize in Literature
Awards
> Noble
Prize - Literature > Oct 9
French author Patrick
Modiano, who has examined memory, identity and loss in the post-war
era with elegant and spare prose, has won the 2014 Nobel Prize in
Literature.
Modiano was born in
July 1945 in a Paris suburb during the immediate aftermath of World
War II. He studied at Lycee Henri-IV in Paris where his geometry
teacher was Raymond Queneau, a writer.He has published some 30 books
mainly novels and his storylines usually centre on young men cast
adrift among high-living crooks in 1960s Paris.
Malala
and Kailash Satyarthi win Nobel Peace Prize
Awards
> Noble
Prize - Peace > Oct 9
Pakistani child
education activist Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian
child rights campaigner, have jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Malala is the youngest ever recipient of the prize.
Malala Yousafzai
Yousafzai came to
global attention after she was shot in the head by the Taliban -- two
years ago Thursday -- for her efforts to promote education for girls
in Pakistan. Since then, after recovering from surgery, she has taken
her campaign to the world stage. She is known mainly for human rights
advocacy for education and for women in her native Swat Valley in the
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had
at times banned girls from attending school. Yousafzai's advocacy has
since grown into an international movement. She is also the recipient
of the Sakharov Prize for 2013.
Kailash Satyarthi
Kailash Satyarthi is an
Indian children's rights activist. He founded the Bachpan Bachao
Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) in 1980 and has acted to
protect the rights of more than 83,000 children from 144 countries.
Germany
honours 1989 protesters
World
> Germany > Oct 9
Germany’s President,
Joachim Gauck, on Thursday, at an event, honoured the bravery of
peaceful protesters who stood up to the communist dictatorship in
East Germany 25 years ago, drawing parallels to the student protests
in Hong Kong today. The event was held to commemorate one of the
biggest demonstrations in the city of Leipzig on October 9, 1989,
which called for freedom and democracy. He said that those taking
part in the protests were brave to maintain their stand though none
of them were sure whether the authorities would opt for a “Chinese
solution” and violently crackdown on the protestors as happened on
Beijing’s Tiananmen Square months earlier.
US
approves two technology transfer licenses to India
World
> USA > Oct 10
The US Department of
Defence, Pentagon has approved two previously-stalled technology
transfer licenses to India and in an unprecedented move has set aside
$20 million for strategic cooperative science and technology projects
with India. Frank Kendall, Pentagon's point person for the India-US
Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI), however, did not give
details about the two licenses approved by the US. He said he and his
Indian counterpart Mohan Kumar have agreed to establish a written
framework for DTTI and to meet in person every six months. The two
have also agreed to continue efforts to identify specific
co-development and co-production opportunities and that Acting
Assistant Secretary for Research and Engineering Al Shaffer would
continue to work with Scientific Adviser to the Minister of Defence
to develop specific Science and Technology Projects.
Kendall refuted the
notion that DTTI is an attempt to sell defence products to India,
saying it is "just one facet of an initiative to build a deeper,
closer, and broader relationship with one of the most important
countries on earth.”
Antarctica’s
ice loss caused a dip in Earth’s gravity field
Science
and Technology > Gravity > Oct 12
The loss of ice from
West Antarctica between 2009 and 2012 has caused a dip in the gravity
field over earth as shown by the European Space Agency (ESA)’s GOCE
satellite. GOCE has spent four years measuring Earth’s gravity in
unprecedented detail and scientists now have access to the most
accurate gravity model ever produced. This is leading to a much
better understanding of many facets of our planet. The planet’s
rotation, positions of mountains and ocean trenches can subtly affect
the strength of gravity at Earth’s surface from place to place.
Changes in the mass of large ice sheets can also cause small local
variations in gravity.
Swiss
drug major Novartis show-caused and fined Rs. 300 crore
Corporate
> Novartis > Oct 13
Swiss pharmaceutical
major Novartis has been show-caused and reportedly fined Rs. 300
crore by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) for
over pricing its painkilling medicine Voveran. Voveran, incidentally,
is one of Novartis' best selling drugs in the country. The NPPA had
put diclofenac, a key ingredient of Voveran, under direct price
control in May 2013 along with 384 other medicines. Under the Drug
Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013, the Government already controls the
prices of 348 drugs listed in the National List of Essential
Medicines (NLEM). Pharmaceutical companies have challenged the NPPA's
authority to fix the prices of drugs outside the list of NLEM. The
Department of Pharmaceuticals has withdrawn the guidelines issued on
29 May that gave the NPPA the powers to fix the prices of drugs that
are not on the essential medicines list. However, medicines like
Voveran have not been affected by the government's order since it
does not affect past orders by the NPPA.
Pakistan’s
efforts to seek UN intervention on Kashmir issue fails to draw new
response from UN
World
> Indo-Pak > Oct 14
Pakistan’s latest
efforts to draw international attention on the Kashmir issue have not
garnered any new response from the United Nations (UN). Sartaj Aziz,
adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on national security
and foreign affairs, had written to U.N. Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon on the recent border tension with India and sought the U.N.’s
intervention. Mr. Ban’s deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told
reporters that the UN chief would like to reiterate that India and
Pakistan should resolve all differences through dialogue and engage
constructively to find a long-term solution for peace and stability
in Kashmir. A heated argument took place in the UN General Assembly
between India and Pakistan over the situation at the LOC where India
said that Pakistan had violated the cease-fire in which 8 people were
killed and several others injured. India made it clear that its armed
forces are “fully ready” to respond to “provocation”.
Powerful
cyclone Hudhud devastates Andhra Pradesh, Odisha; 24 dead
India
> Hudhud > Oct 14
The death toll in the
powerful cyclone Hudhud reached 24 as Andhra Pradesh and Odisha
launched massive rescue efforts to restore communication and power
links and clear roads. Andhra Pradesh was the worst hit with 15
deaths reported from Visakhapatnam district, five in Vizianagaram and
one in Srikakulam. Three deaths were reported from Odisha. Torrential
rains and gale force winds packing a speed of nearly 200 kmph pounded
Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts. Close to 7000
houses were destroyed and thousands of acres of crops were destroyed.
The power sector suffered a loss of around Rs. 1000 crore. The
cyclone moved from coastal AP to Odisha, where it damaged about
50,000 thatched houses, crops, power network and roads, before
heading to Chhattisgarh and weakening into a “deep depression”.
Thousands of people were rendered homeless and more than 7 lakh
people including 5 lakh people in Andhra Pradesh have been evacuated
and put up in relief camps. The AP government has announced 5 lakh ex
gratia to families of the dead and food supplies for the poor. AP
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had asked for the cyclone to be
declared a national calamity and sought ad hoc relief of Rs 2,000
crore from the central government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will
visit Visakhapatnam on Tuesday and undertake an aerial survey.
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