IAS / IPS STUDIES -2

RAPID GK SERIES

QUESTIONS
1. The Oldest Stock Exchange of India is
2. The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act was passed in this year
3. H1F1 Virus is the causal factor of this disease
4. The first foreign bank of India was
5. This Indian State has the more number of Women
6. Tobogganing is the term used in this Sport event
7. The famous novel ‘Untouchable’ was written by
8. The Capital of Spain is
9. The Oldest Capital of India was
10. The Historic Boston Tea Party was happened in this year

ANSWERS

1. Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) (1875)
2. 1992
3. Swine Flu
4. Charted Bank
5. Kerala
6. Skiing
7. Mulk Raj Anand
8. Madrid
9. Kolkata
10. 1773



Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai dies

Wangari Maathai, the first African woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, died after a long struggle with cancer, the environmental organisation she founded said Monday. She was 71.

One of Kenya’s most recognizable women, Maathai won the Nobel in 2004 for combining environmentalism and social activism. She was the founder of the Green Belt Movement, where over 30 years she mobilized poor women to plant 30 million trees.

Edward Wageni, that group’s deputy executive director, said Maathai died in a Nairobi hospital late Sunday. Maathai was in and out of the hospital since the beginning of the year, he said.

In recognizing Maathai, the Nobel committee said that she had stood up to a former oppressive regime in Kenya and that her “unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to political oppression.”

"Tree a symbol for democratic struggle"

Maathai said during her 2004 acceptance speech that the inspiration for her life work came from her childhood experiences in rural Kenya, where she witnessed forests being cleared and replaced by commercial plantations, which destroyed biodiversity and the capacity of forests to conserve water.

Although the Green Belt Movement’s tree planting campaign did not initially address the issues of peace and democracy, Maathai said it become clear over time that responsible governance of the environment was not possible without democracy.

“Therefore, the tree became a symbol for the democratic struggle in Kenya. Citizens were mobilized to challenge widespread abuses of power, corruption and environmental mismanagement,” Maathai said.

Tributes poured out for Maathai online, including from Kenyans who remember planting trees alongside her as schoolchildren. One popular posting on Twitter noted that Maathai’s knees always seemed to be dirty from showing VIPs how to plant trees. Another poster, noting Nairobi’s cloudy skies Monday, said- “No wonder the sun is not shining today.”

A long time friend and fellow professor at the University of Nairobi, Vertistine Mbaya said that Maathai showed the world how important it is to have and demonstrate courage.

“The values she had for justice and civil liberties and what she believed were the obligations of civil society and government,” Mbaya said. “She also demonstrated the importance of recognizing the contributions that women can make and allowing them the open space to do so.”

A former member of Kenya’s parliament, Maathai was the first woman to earn a doctorate in East Africa in 1971 from the University of Nairobi, where she later was an associate professor in the department of veterinary anatomy. She previously earned degrees from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas and the University of Pittsburgh.

Maathai first latched on to the idea of widespread tree planting while serving as the chairwoman of the National Council of Women in Kenya during the 1980s.

The Green Belt Movement, which was founded in 1977, said on its website that Maathai’s death was a great loss to those who “admired her determination to make the world a more peaceful, healthier and better place.”

Maathai is survived by her three children. Funeral arrangements were to be announced soon, the Green Belt Movement said.



India, China to open up markets

India and China agreed to boost economic cooperation, open up their markets and improve the investment environment for each other's companies during the first-ever Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED), which was held here on Monday.

A particularly promising outcome of the first SED, officials said, was agreement to have closer cooperation between the two countries' railway networks, which could subsequently pave the way for the involvement of Chinese companies in proposed plans to build six high-speed rail corridors in India.

Energy efficiency The two countries also agreed to learn from each other's development experiences to face common challenges, such as improving energy efficiency, tackling water scarcity and combating climate change.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission who led the Indian delegation, described the talks as an important first step of a “knowledge transfer” that could bring substantial benefits to both countries.

“China's economic reforms began a decade and more before those of India,” he told his Chinese counterpart Zhang Ping, who heads the powerful National and Development Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top planning body, at the start of the dialogue. “We in India are deeply impressed by your progress and we believe there are many lessons from your experience that may be valuable to us.”

The dialogue, said Mr. Zhang, wound enhance trust and promote the “long-term and steady development” of both economies and have a “profound impact” on both the countries. The two countries agreed to initiate the SED dialogue during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India in December. The next round will be held in New Delhi in April 2012.

The SED was set up with the objective of increasing coordination on macro-economic policies and to provide a platform for both countries to leverage common interests and shared developmental experiences. The idea behind the dialogue, officials said, was to look at the larger picture and go beyond trade. A separate Joint Economic Group dialogue, between both Commerce Ministers, has been set up to tackle trade issues, including the widening imbalance in China's favour.

Monday's dialogue featured three specific working groups, on the railways, water, and energy efficiency and the environment.

Officials said the railways held particular potential for cooperation.

India is keen to learn from China's development of its freight network, which was, two decades ago, in a similar position to India's.

Freight traffic Today, China's freight traffic is four times that of India's.

Another area of possible collaboration is on high-speed train technology. China has built the world's biggest high-speed rail network in recent years, and has expressed interest to play a role in proposed plans for a network of six high-speed corridors in India.


Upgraded Tejas to take off in 3 years

An upgraded version of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas will be ready to take off within three years.

The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), along with the Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO), Chandigarh, is working on the project. Tejas' aircraft technology will put India on the fifth spot after the US, France, Russia and UK.

This was disclosed by additional general manager of HAL, Bangalore, K P Singh, who visited the CSIO laboratory on the occasion of the CSIR foundation day on Monday.

Tejas LCA has a HUD (head up display) which was developed at the CSIO at the start of the year. It has unmatchable brightness on the display board. "We will provide HUD for the upgraded version which will have better range accuracy and will be lighter as compared to the existing one. At present, we have HUD weighing 18kg," said Dr Pawan Kapur, director CSIO.

The improvised version is being devised for the Indian Navy. According to official sources, there is a requirement of over 100 such HUDs for Tejas. "Already, we have provided 36 and 90 more are in the production line," said an official at the CSIO.

Talking about the plan, Singh said, "We have been working with CSIO on LCA and intermediate jet trainer aircraft."

Though HAL is the only supplier of Tejas to the Indian defence forces, catching up with the international competitors has not been easy. "We cannot afford to lose time. There are gaps in the system which slows down the pace of technology. Though red tapism has decreased to some extent, it still exists," said Singh.

The CSIO is working on Mark 2 for intermediate jet trainer aircraft where the weight of the HUD will be 11.8kg.


India hopes to achieve WHO’s doctor-people ratio by 2028

India will take at least 17 more years before it can reach the World Health Organization's ( WHO) recommended norm of one doctor per 1,000 people.

The Planning Commission's high-level expert group (HLEG) on universal health coverage (UHC) - headed by Dr K Srinath Reddy - has predicted the availability of one allopathic doctor per 1,000 people by 2028. It has suggested setting up 187 medical colleges in 17 high focus states during the 12th and 13th five-year Plan to achieve the target.

HLEG estimates that the number of allopathic doctors registered with the Medical Council of India (MCI) has increased since 1974 to 6.12 lakhs in 2011 - a ratio of one doctor for 1,953 people or a density of 0.5 doctors per 1,000 people.

The nation has a density of one medical college per 38.41 lakhs. There are 315 medical colleges that are located in 188 of 642 districts.

There is only one medical college for a population of 115 lakhs in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (95 lakhs), Madhya Pradesh (73 lakhs) and Rajasthan (68 lakhs). Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu each have one medical college for a population of 15 lakhs, 16 lakhs and 19 lakhs, respectively.

The HLEG has proposed a phased addition of 187 colleges. It expects that by 2015 under phase A, 59 new medical colleges will admit students in 15 states like Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. By 2017, 13 of these states will have an additional 70 medical colleges, and by 2022, another 58 institutes will be built in two additional phases (2017-2020 and 2020-2022).

By 2022, India will have one medical college per 25 lakh population in all states except Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The implementation of HLEG's recommendations will enable the additional availability of 1.2 lakh doctors by 2017, and another 1.9 lakh doctors between 2017 and 2022.

"With this rate of growth, it is expected that the HLEG target of one doctor per 1,000 will be achieved by 2028," the report says.

It recommends that along with establishment of new medical colleges, the admission capacities of existing colleges in the public sector should also be increased. Partnerships with the private sector should be encouraged, with conditional reservation of 50% of seats for local candidates, fixed admission fees and government reimbursement of fees for local candidates. The revised MBBS curriculum proposed by the MCI should be refined to put greater focus on preventive, promotive and rehabilitative healthcare.

"Measures such as a compulsory posting of one year for all MBBS graduates immediately after internship, with 10% extra marks weightage for one year of rural service and 20% extra marks for two years of rural service in the post-graduate entrance examination should be included," the report suggests.

The World Health Statistics Report (2011) says, the density of doctors in India is six for a population of 10,000. India is ranked 52 among 57 countries facing human resource crunch in healthcare.

Between 2001 and 2005, India had a doctor: population ratio of 0.5 per 1,000 population in comparison to 0.3 in Thailand, Sri Lanka (0.4), China (1.6), the UK (5.4), the US (5.5) and Cuba (5.9).

The nation has the largest number of medical colleges in the world, with an annual churning rate of over 30,000 doctors and 18,000 specialists. However, the average annual output is 100 graduates per medical college in comparison to 110 in North America, Central Europe (125), Western Europe (149) and Eastern Europe (220). China, which has 188 colleges, produces 1,75, 000 doctors annually, with an average of 930 graduates per institute.


India to become 2nd largest steel producer by 2015

India is expected to become the world's second largest producer of crude steel by 2015, riding on expansion plans of domestic players like SAIL and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL), the government said today.

Chairing a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee, Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma said annual demand for steel is likely to grow at an average of over 10% in the next five years as compared to 8 per cent growth during 1991-92 and 2010-11.

India slipped one rank to become the fourth largest steel producer in 2010, with 68.3 million tonne (MT) of output. It produced 63.5 MT steel in 2009.

China is the number one producer of steel, followed by Japan and the US at second and third places, respectively.

"India also maintained its lead position as the world’s largest producer of direct reduced iron (DRI) or sponge iron," the official statement said, adding the per capita steel consumption during the last six years has risen from 38 kg in 2005-06 to 55 kg in 2010-11.

The steel sector contributes nearly 2% of the GDP and employs over 5 lakh people.

Expressing concerns over exports of iron ore, a fast depleting resource, Verma said iron ore is a non-renewable natural resource and his Ministry is of the view that it should be conserved for long-term utilisation of domestic steel industry.

"Our policy should, accordingly, aim at value addition of iron ore within the country instead of exporting iron ore," he said. National Steel Vision and strategy paper are being finalised for promoting steel sector, he said.

The Minister also elaborated on expansion plans of PSUs like SAIL, RINL etc.

"The major thrust of the modernisation and expansion plans is to adopt the best modern technology, which in addition to being cost effective should also be energy efficient and environment-friendly," he said.

State-run SAIL has undertaken a massive expansion drive to increase its steel production capacity from current 14 MT to about 24 MT, with an investment of about Rs 70,000 crore.


RBI relaxes overseas borrowing norms for infra companies

The Reserve Bank today relaxed norms for infrastructure companies with direct foreign equity up to 25% to raise fund overseas without government permission.

On a review, it has been decided, to further liberalise the External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) policy in respect of the infrastructure sector, RBI said in a statement.

Direct foreign equity holder (holding minimum 25% of the paid-up capital) and indirect foreign equity holder holding at least 51% of the paid-up capital, will be
permitted to provide credit enhancement for the domestic debt raised by Indian companies engaged exclusively in the development of infrastructure through issue of capital market instruments, it said.

It includes Infrastructure Finance Companies (IFCs) and no prior approval will be required from the Reserve Bank for providing such credit enhancements, it said.

The company fulfilling foreign equity criteria does not require permission for raising ECB up to USD 5 million.

Now onwards the term debt in the debt-equity ratio will be replaced with ECB liability and the ratio will be known as ECB liability-equity ratio to make the term signify true position as other borrowings or debt are not considered in working out this ratio, it said.

Service sector units, in addition to those in hotels, hospitals and software, could also be considered as eligible borrowers if the loan is obtained from foreign equity holders, it said.

This would facilitate borrowing by training institutions, R&D, miscellaneous service companies, etc, it said.

ECB from a group company may also be permitted provided both the borrower and the foreign lender are subsidiaries of the same parent, it added.


SAT upholds Sebi order against Axis Bank

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) today upheld a Sebi order imposing a Rs 2-lakh fine on private lender Axis Bank , saying the same individual cannot be on the board of both the debenture trustee and the issuer.

In 2009, the market regulator had found certain deficiencies in Axis Bank's books and passed an order imposing a fine of Rs 2 lakh on the lender.

The case relates to two separate debenture issues from Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and Noida Toll Bridge in early 2009, in which Axis Bank acted as a debenture trustee. According to Sebi rules, the same individual cannot be on the board of both the debenture trustee and the issuer.

The case came up for hearing before SAT after Axis Bank appealed against the Sebi order. The watchdog had inspected the bank's books and accounts to verify whether it was in compliance with the bench of trustee norms, and also to look into its conduct as a debenture trustee.

SAT upheld Sebi's contention. "This was the case at Axis Bank where the same individual was on the board in two cases - in Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and in Noida Toll Bridge. Therefore, Axis Bank's appeal is thus rejected on these two grounds," SAT Presiding Officer N K Sodhi said.

Also, as per the norms, SAT said Axis Bank, which was the debenture trustee, cannot lend money to issuers of the debentures. It was found that in some cases, money was lent to the issuers at Axis Bank itself.

However, SAT observed there was "no intentional breach of norms" by the bank and therefore the lender would be fined merely Rs 2 lakh. Axis Bank was represented by R S Loona, while the Sebi counsel was Shiraz Rustomjee.


Singur judgement likely on Wednesday

The Calcutta High Court is likely to pass on Wednesay its judgement on Tata Motors Limited 's (TML) challenge of the Singur Land Act by which West Bengal government vested the Singur land leased to the company.

The judgement is scheduled to be passed at 10:30 am by the court of Justice I P Mukerji.

The hearing on TML's challenge of Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, had ended on September 16.

TML was to set up a plant for manufacturing its low-cost Nano car at Singur but it shifted the plant to Sanand in Gujarat on October 7, 2008, citing law and order problem at Singur.

West Bengal government under Mamata Banerjee enacted the Singur Act on June 14 this year and vested 600 acres of land leased to TML.


Bharti Telecom raises stake in Airtel to 45.54%

Telecom major Bharti Airtel today said its promoter Bharti Telecom has bought about 7.2 lakh shares of the company for over 27 crore in different transactions from open market to raise stake to 45.54% in it.

Bharti Telecom purchased 15,000 shares for over Rs 56 lakh at BSE and 6,35,000 shares for close to Rs 23.97 crore on September 22, thus raising its stake marginally in the company to 45.53 from 45.52% on the same day, the company said in a filing to the BSE.

On September 23, Bharti Telecom again purchased 14,000 shares for Rs 50.82 lakh approximately from BSE and 52,000 shares for Rs 2.25 crore from NSE which raised its stake marginally by 0.1% to 45.54%, it added.

Bharti Telecom had been gradually increasing stake in the firm from 45.50 on September 13.

Bharti Telecom purchased 12,000 shares for Rs 45.9 lakh approximately from BSE and 1.47 lakh shares for close to Rs 5.62 crore from NSE on September 13.

Next day, it purchased 20,000 shares for Rs 75.34 lakhs approximately from BSE and over 3.85 lakh shares for Rs 14.47 crores from NSE.

In last two weeks, Bharti Telecom has purchased over 15 lakh shares of Bharti Airtel for close to Rs 57 crore.

Shares of Bharti Airtel closed at Rs 380.4 a piece, up by 1.48% compared to its previous close at BSE today.