Daily News - 6th Dec

Eleventh Meeting of India-Canada JWG on Counter Terrorism held in New Delhi
The 11th meeting of the India-Canada Joint Working Group (JWG) on Counter Terrorism was held in New Delhi on 29 November 2012. The meeting took place within the framework of the enhanced interaction in bilateral relations between India and Canada, and in keeping with the desire of the governments of India and Canada towards greater cooperation in counter terrorism matters. India and Canada shared their respective threat assessments and informed each other of the measures taken by them to strengthen counter terrorism policy and structure. Both nations also discussed the follow-up of the Mumbai terror attack of 26 November 2008. India and Canada also exchanged views on international developments, coordination in international fora and their bilateral cooperation in the area.The next and the 12th meeting of the Joint Working Group will be held in Canada in 2013 on mutually convenient dates. The meeting was co-chaired by Asoke Kumar Mukerji, Special Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, India and Artur Wilczynski, Director General for International Relations, Canada.

Adani Group completed Australia’s Largest Coal Mining Project in a Record Time
Adani Mining, a global integrated infrastructure player on 3 December 2012 announced completion of the largest mining exploration programme inAustralia in a record time of Nine months.For achieving this feat it had deployed a record number of drill rigs to drastically reduce the exploration time frame at the Carmichael mine in the Galillee basin of Queensland in Australia to nine months. The company further announced that as part of the mining exploration it had also completed the most comprehensive geotechnical field investigation to define the coal resource at Carmichael Mine, which at ten billion tones makes this the largest single coal tenement in the world. The Adani Group is thus, now ready to gear up with its $ 10 billion Carmichael Mine project which will include the construction of a world class mine, rail and port infrastructure all benefitting the state of Queensland.Adani is the largest private thermal power producer in India. Its power generation capacity is expected to increase from 5320 MW in 2012 to 10000 MW by the end of 2013.

About Adani Group
The Adani Group is one of India’s leading business houses with revenue of over $8 billion for financial year 2012.Founded in 1988, Adani has grown to become a global integrated infrastructure player with businesses in key industry verticals - resources, logistics and energy. The integrated model is well adapted to the infrastructure challenges of the emerging economies. It multiplies the benefit of synergy and economies of scale both for the Group and for the customers.
Union Government of India cleared Decks for Ambedkar Memorial
Union Government of India on 5 December 2012 cleared the decks for transferring the prime India 12.5 acre United Mill land in Mumbai to the Maharashtra government for building a state-of-the-art memorial to B.R. Ambedkar. The Maharashtra State government is going to bear the entire cost of the memorial project and will henceforth take care of the land. The Union Cabinet will take further decisions on the process. A Bill will have to be passed in Parliament for transfer of the land for the memorial project. Also, a separate authority is going to be set up for the purpose and an architect will be appointed as a consultant to prepare the blueprint for the memorial. The authority is said to comprise seven members, including three from the State government, while the rest will be from the Centre. The memorial is to be modeled on the basis of Mahatma Gandhi’s Samadhi at Rajghat. The Urban Development department of Maharashtra had earlier on 1 December 2012 amended reservation of the mill land from a special industrial zone to Grand Memorial of Bharat Ratna Babasaheb Ambedkar by issuing a notification inviting suggestions and objections.

Sahara Companies Got Two Months Time to Repay Investors’ Money
The Supreme Court of India on 5 December 2012 provided a relief to two Sahara companies when it gave them the time of two months till first week of February 2012. The two Sahara companies- Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHICL) are required to deposit 24000 crore Rupees to the investors. The Apex Court provided breather to the Sahara Companies when it declared that the companies can deposit 24000 crore Rupees, which was collected from the investors, in two installments with SEBI. The court entertained the appeal against Securities Appellate Tribunal, and the Supreme Court allowed the two Sahara companies to deposit the documents with SEBI in which information about the investors was mentioned. However, the Supreme Court also warned these companies by declaring that in case the leniency of the court was not honoured, SEBI would be completely free to start the proceedings for taking their assets. The court mentioned that deadline was extended keeping in mind the interests of crores of investors. The two Sahara companies had brought to the court 5120 crore Rupees in the form of bank draft in order to show their authenticity as managers of the money of their investors. It was declared by the advocate of the two companies that they have returned considerable part of the money to their investors and expressed that outstanding amount would be returned as well.

Oldest Person of the World, Besse Cooper Died At 116
Besse Cooper, the woman listed as the oldest person of the world died on 4 December 2012 in Georgia nursing home at 116 years of age. Besse Cooper had died peacefully in Monroe. Besse was recently taken ill with the stomach virus. Besse Cooper was declared as the oldest person of the world in January 2011 by the Guinness World Records. She was also the first Georgian who had world record with her. The birth place of Besse was Tennessee and she had moved during the First World War to Georgia. Guinness World Records declared that as of now, merely 8 people have reached the age of 116. Besse Cooper held this title of oldest person of the world since 2011. She explained her secret of living for such a long time, to Guinness World Records. She explained that she didn’t eat junk food.

Who is the world’s oldest person now?
After the death of Besse Cooper, the title of oldest person of the world now goes to Dina Manfredini of Johnston who is aged 115 years of age.
Oldest known person of all times
Jeanne Calment, the French woman is the oldest known person till now. She was aged 122 when she died in 1997.

NASA Announced to send New Rover to Mars in 2020


 
The US space agency NASA, on 4 December 2012 announced plans to send a new robotic explorer to the the Red Planet, Mars in 2020.The announcement came a day after NASA released the results of the first soil tested by the Curiosity rover, which found traces of compounds like water and oxygen that are necessary for life.Some basic guidelines for the mission are already planned. The 2020 rover is going to help NASA in preparing for its eventual goal of bringing samples from Mars back to Earth — an effort most scientists regard as the best way to look for signs of life on the Red Planet.The unmanned rover's chassis and landing system will be based heavily on NASA's 2.5 billion dollar Curiosity rover, which was send on Mars in August 2012. The Curiosity Rover landed on Mars 5 August 2012 and dropped onto the surface by a rocket-powered sky crane. It's now four months into a two-year prime mission to determine if the Red Planet can, or ever could, support microbial life. The 1-ton rover carries 10 different science instruments to aid this quest.The 2020 Curiosity Rover launch would allow NASA to keep contributing to two European-led Mars missions — the Trace Gas Orbiter and the ExoMars rover which is scheduled to lift off in 2016 and 2018, respectively.NASA also plans to send a craft dubbed InSight to dig the planet's depths in 2016 to determine whether the planet's core is solid or liquid like Earth's. The 2020 mission is just another step toward being responsive to high-priority science goals and challenge of sending humans to Mars orbit in the 2030s.

Typhoon Bopha: Death Toll Rises in Philippines

Typhoon Bopha is the strongest ever tropical cyclone which hit Philippines. With the central winds at a speed of 120 kmph and gusts of around 150 kmph Typhoon Bopha swept away the dive spots as well as beach resorts on Palawan Island on 5 December 2012.The worst hit area by Typhoon Bopha was southern island of Mindanao. Bopha had made a landfall here on 4 December 2012. This led to floods as well as landslides along the coast.Typhoon Bopha has left 379 missing and almost 325 dead. The affected areas were cut off due to destroyed roads as well as collapsed bridges. Power cut and communication cut also became a hassle.As of 5 December 2012 evening, Typhoon Bopha was over the South China Sea, which is west of Palawan province. Government forecasters declared that it could head towards Vietnam or southern China now.

Some facts:

•    Typhoon Bopha is also known as Pablo in Philippines and it arrived on 4 December 2012.

•    Typhoon is a tropical cyclone, fully mature and it develops in northwestern parts of Pacific Ocean. The deadliest typhoons have occurred in China.

•    Typhoon Bopha is considered two times deadlier than Hurricane Sandy, the storm which had affected Caribbean and eastern US six weeks ago.

•    Every year, around 20 typhoons as well as storms lash northern and central Philippines. However, these typhoons rarely affect southern Mindanao region.

•    The typhoon would move into South China Sea on 6 December 2012.

•    Typhoon Bopha followed the same route like that of Typhoon Washi which had taken over 1300 lives. But Typhoon Bopha is much stronger than Typhoon Washi but because of the early warnings, many lives have been saved now. Washi had come almost a year ago.

Scientists Studying Himalayan Geologic Features Warned Against Major Earthquakes in the Region

Scientists who study the Himalayan geologic features and activities warned that the mountain range which separates Indian subcontinent plains from Tibetan Plateau is prime focus of the major earthquakes. Stanford geophysicists announced that the range of Himalayas was formed and it remained active currently because of the collision activities in Indian and Asian continental plates. For quite some time, it has been known to the scientists that subduction is going on in India under Asia. Subduction is a geological process during which an edge of the crustal plate forces below the edge of the other plate. Scientists had recently started studying difficulties involved in the volatile collision zone like this in detail, especially the fault which is separating the two plates, Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) declared. In the previous observations it was found that comparatively uniform fault plane had sunk a few degrees towards North. In order the get a clear picture about this fault, the geophysics researchers at Stanford analysed data from 20 seismometers which were deployed for around 2 years across Himalayas.

The data produced an image of the thrust which was dipping around 2-4 degrees towards North. But along with that, it also revealed the segment which dipped rather sharply for 20 kilometres. This inclination is being assumed as the nucleation point for the massive earthquakes that might occur in Himalayas.Even though the researchers emphasised that their research was focused on finding out the fault and not on prediction of the earthquake, but they found out that MHT has a history of earthquakes of magnitude 8 to 9 after every several hundred years. The researchers also added that the detection of water as well as magma around MHT showed which segments of thrust might burst when earthquake hits. It is believed that the big thrust vault would perhaps burst southward towards the surface of the Earth. But significant rupture should not be expected towards the North.

Anti Collision Device for Railways developed by Hyderabad Based Firm

Hyderabad Based Company, Hyderabad Batteries Limited (HBL) developed a new anti collision safety device which is path breaking technology in ensuring safe travelling and fewer accidents.The device is based on a combination of railway signalling data with radio communications, global position, radio frequency identification devices, software and logic. It was HBL Power Systems which reacted first to the expression of interest floated by the Research, Design and Standards Organisation of the Indian Railways to develop an anti-collision device in August 2008. The system is designed to automatically bring trains to a halt when collision-like situations arise or when the red signal is violated, for whatever reason.In the Month of September 2012, a train collision avoidance system (TCAS), tested in real time on a track near Tandur, in the South Central Railway demonstrated the viability of the system. During the trials, the effectiveness was demonstrated for prevention of head-on collisions, rear-end collisions, over-speeding of trains and disregard for red signal. The new anti collision device had essential features of both automatic train protection and collision prevention in one solution.

HBL Power Systems had also developed electronic interlocking system, audio frequency track circuits and train management systems.

Delhi Metro suffered 5 Crore Rupees Loss due to Missing Tokens

Delhi metro suffered a loss of over 5 crore rupees due to the lost tokens, which commuters don't deposit at the counter while exiting or lose them during their journey.It was stated by the Union Minister of State for Urban Development Deepa Dasmunsi in Lok Sabha that Delhi Metro suffered losses of 5.6 crore rupees since 2009 due to lost or stolen tickets.Although announcements are made regularly at stations that taking away tokens is a punishable offence, commuters continue to either carry them or lose them during their journey on Delhi Metro.The loss figure is growing drastically over the years. In year 2009-10 Delhi metro suffered a loss of 1.2 crore rupees due to loss of token. The figure grew with 1.6 crore rupees in 2010-11 and in year 2011-2012 it further went up to 1.8 crore rupees.Moreover the losses from April 2012 to September 2012 are 95 lakh, rupees in itself.To prevent loss of money and tokens, the Delhi Metro implemented a new system from 1 March 2012. Delhi Metro is promoting use of smart cards in a big way to reduce the use of token and their consequent loss.

Citigroup Planned Cutting Down 11000 Jobs to Save Over 1 Billion Dollar Annual Expenses

In order to save over 1 billion dollar in a year, Citigroup on 5 December 2012 announced that it was planning to cut down 11000 jobs, mainly in the technology and operations segment. This would help tightening expenses over the company. Citigroup, the New York-based bank planned to realise 900 million dollar savings in the year 2013, followed by over 1.1 billion dollar annual savings starting in 2014. The CEO of Citi declared back in October 2012 that the focus would be on the operational efficiency and therefore layoffs should not come as a surprise. The cuts which would go around would result in pre-tax charge amounting to 1 billion dollar in fourth quarter of 2012 as well as 100 million dollar in first six months of 2013. This in turn would equip Citigroup with the flexibility which is required for reinvesting in the profit-generating businesses as well as emerging markets. Maximum cuts or exactly 6200 positions would be from the consumer banking businesses of Citi with around 40 percent layoffs affecting mainly technology and operations. Citi declared that it would either completely sell or considerably scale back the consumer operations in countries like Uruguay, Paraguay, Romania, Turkey and Pakistan. On the other hand, it has planned to enhance its hold in metropolitan areas with a focus on 150 cities that have highest potential of growth. Certain Citi branches would be affected in U.S., Brazil, Hong Kong, Korea and Hungary. However, Citi announced that there would be continuous investment in the franchises in these countries and the service would be finished with over 4000 retail branches across the world.  1900 jobs would be slashed from Citi’s securities as well as banking and also transaction services group. 350 jobs would be cut from Spain and Greece as Citi Holdings decided to bring down its branches in Eurozone areas which are struggling.Citi in the meanwhile also declared that this transformation would restructure client coverage model in the banking sector while also improving the productivity in markets business, mainly in area of equity. The job cuts, Citi announced should affect the annual revenues by less than 300 million dollar. After the announcement, the Citigroup shares reached up to around 4 percent on 5 December 2012 morning to 35.63 dollar.

Dave Brubeck, the Renowned Jazz Pianist and Composer Died At 91

Dave Brubeck, the renowned Jazz pianist died on 5 December 2012 due to heart failure. He was 91 when he died and just a day away from the 92nd birthday.His experiments in style as well as rhythm won him a million jazz fans. Dave Brubeck died at a hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut while visiting cardiologist. He had also won various awards during his career which spanned over six decades. The Library of Congress designated him as the Living Legend. The 1959 album called Time Out was the first million-selling Jazz album of the modern times. 

History of Dave Brubeck

Brubeck took birth on 6 December 1920 in Concord, California.Dave Brubeck was born to the cattle rancher. His mother was classically trained pianist. At the College of the Pacific in Stockton, he studied zoology but eventually, the music department attracted him. On 8 November 1954, he was the first modern jazz pianist who was pictured on Time magazine cover.

Iran Declared Extracting Complete Data from the Captured US Drone

Iran declared on 5 December 2012 that it had extracted data from the US intelligence drone which was caught spying on its military sites as well as oil terminals. Iran had declared on 4 December 2012 that the US spying drone was captured. US however put down the claim on the grounds that there were no evidences to support this assertion. Iran had announced that it had captured the US ScanEagle drone which was found flying over the Gulf waters. The incident further highlighted the tensions in Gulf while Iran and US are attracting attention to the military capabilities in oil exporting regions in an argument over the disputed nuclear programme of Iran.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared that they had extracted the information from the drone completely. IRGC further also mentioned that this drone was spying and gathering the military information on transfer of oil from the petroleum terminals of Iran. The primary expert terminal of Iran is located at Kharg Island.

SBI Announced Expectation of 4000 crore Rupees Equity From the Government

State Bank of India (SBI), the largest lender of India on 5 December 2012 announced about its expectation of infusion of approximately 4000 crore Rupees from the government in 2012-2013 fiscal year. SBI declared that this move would help it in ramping up the capital to more than 13 percent.The Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of SBI declared that they were expecting the government to infuse a capital of around 4000 crore Rupees. What will be the mode of infusion was still under discussion. It was declared that various options for mode of infusion were given to the government but the final decision would be that of the government itself. The government would decide how equity needed to be infused in SBI.