Friday 7 December 2012

Daily News - Dec -7

China Held largest Air Force Drill involving 100 Fighter planes
China held one of its largest- ever airforce drill involving about 100 multi-types fighter planes, amid heightened tensions with Japan over territorial dispute in the East China Sea.The air combat exercises were held under information conditions at an airport in southwest China for 11 days in the month of November 2012 which involved over 100 fighters of over 10 different types and support staff.In recent days, China is holding multi-military exercises involving land, air and naval forces on variety of locations practicing capturing islands and holding on to them. Aircraft which took part in the drill came from 14 separate units and included China’s most modern jet fighters, the J-10 and J-11, along with older models and two-seater Sukhoi Su-30s which was purchased from Russia.The exercises are a clear demonstration of China’s vastly improved military capabilities that have frightened other Asian nations and are encouraging a changed US focus on the region. China’s navy also for the first time launched and recovered aircraft from the country’s first aircraft carrier, a refurbished Ukrainian craft that will be armed with J-15 fighter-bombers, a Chinese adaptation of the Russian Sukhoi Su-33.

Apple Launched i pad mini and fourth-generation iPad in India
Apple, on 7 December 2012 launched iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad in India. This comes less than a week after the company rolled out iTunes Store in the country.The i Pad mini with its 7.9-inch touchscreen, display, FaceTime HD, and iSight cameras came to India at starting price of 21900 rupees for the 16GB Wi-Fi-only version. The 32 and 64GB Wi-Fi-only versions of the device cost 27900 and 33900 rupees respectively in Indian market.The 16, 32 and 64GB Wi-Fi+4G iterations of Apple's mini-tablet have been priced at 29900, 35500 and 41900 rupees respectively.The fourth-generation i pad is Compatible with 4G networks and have 9.7-inch touchscreen with Retina display technology and runs on A6X dual-core processor. The 16, 32 and 64GB Wi-Fi-only variants of the latest iPad are priced at 31900, 37900 and 43900rupees respectively. Similarly, the 16, 32 and 64GB versions of Wi-Fi+4G enabled iPad cost 39900, 45900 and 51900 rupees respectively in Indian Market.Apple declared that the new iPad mini is 23 percent thinner and 53 percent lighter than the third generation iPad.Apple is also set to launch Apple TV in India and is working at its launching.Apple TV in its current avatar is a tiny 99dollars box that brings iTunes to the user’s television as well as enables users to connect their iOS devices wireless to their television and stream content or even play games on the bigger display.

Athens Olympics Athletes Lose Medals over Doping After 8 Years
International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on 5 December 2012 that four 2004 Athens Olympic medalists had their medals taken away because the re-tested samples, which were stored for 8 years, proved positive. The four medalists included shot put champion of Ukraine Yuriy Bilonog, women's shot putter of Russia Svetlana Krivelyova, discus thrower Irina Yatchenko of Belarus and Belarussian hammer thrower Ivan Tsikhan.3-times world champion Tsikhan also had to give away his bronze medal from the 2008 Beijing Games. However, this decision was reversed at Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on the grounds that there were errors in laboratory procedures.IOC declared that the case which involved fifth athlete from Athens Games was pending. The four athletes who had to give their medals had tested positive for the anabolic steroids. Around 100 samples from Athens Games were target tested eight years ago by IOC with the help of modern methods.IOC has a procedure of storing the samples for eight years in order to enable re-testing of newly found substances or those substances for which no tests were available at that time. IOC also declared additionally that respective federations had the responsibility to check whether medals were returned or not.Athens Olympics doping cases tally now stands at 31 after 26 positive tests as of now. This is the maximum in any game. IOC declared that it would like the extension of law of limitation from current 8 years. It was added by IOC that World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was considering this law of limitation to extend to 10 years.

England Cricket Captain Alastair Cook became the youngest Batsman to score 7000 Runs
England Cricket team captain Alastair Cook on 6 December 2012 claimed his place among the cricketing greats when he set an England record for the most Test centuries and became the youngest player in the long history of the game to pass 7000 runs.The 27 years old Alastair Cook scored his 23rd Test hundred to leave England closing in on a rare series win in India.He has ahead of past legends Wally Hammond, Colin Cowdrey and Geoffrey Boycott. Team-mate Kevin Pietersen has also scored 22 tons. Alastair Cook made an unbeaten 136 to put England on 1 for 216 at stumps at Eden Gardens on 6 December 2012 only 100 runs behind India's first innings total of 316.

Delhi Police Signed Agreement with Mumbai-Based Company for New Building of Delhi Police Headquarter
Commissioner of Police, New Delhi signed an agreement on 6 December 2012 with the Mumbai-based company for construction of state-of-the-art building as the Delhi Police headquarters. The building would be worth 202 crore Rupees. The approval of Archeological Survey of India was taken already for the headquarters. The Delhi Police HQ will be there at Parliament Street in the area of 8.02 acres. The building will house more than 80000 force of Delhi Police. As of now, Delhi Police functions from the part of the PWD headquarters located at ITO. The Commissioner of Police signed this agreement with M/s Unity Infra Projects Ltd, the Mumbai-based company for construction of the HQ, residences as well as other infrastructure and services with the help of public private partnership model on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (the DBFOT) basis. The agreement makes it clear that this project would be completed within 840 days, implying that Delhi Police should be moving to the building by mid-2015. The model of building is a twin tower block which consists of nine storey with interconnecting corridors. The building would also have a helipad. This building would be as per the Green Building Norms. The architecture of the building was designed in order to justify the formal nature of this organisation along with contemporary image. After the construction of the building, all the Delhi Police offices such as vigilance branch, crime record office as well as special branch would be shifted here.




Top Congress Leader and Former Deputy Chief Minister Narhari Amin Joined BJP
Senior party leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Indian National Congress in Gujrat Narhari Amin on 6 December 2012 switched sides and joined the BJP with his supporters.
Narhari  Amin had over 21-year-old association with the Congress, where he worked hard to build and maintain a strong base of party workers. His decision of joining BJP came after he was denied ticket by the party for 2012 Assembly polls. Amin alleged that Union Minister C P Joshi, who was in-charge of screening committee on ticket distribution, had been giving tickets to unknown faces and fixed the polls before voting.Amin resigned from the Congress along with his six supporters. Another 175 of his supporters also had resigned on 5 December 2012 from the primary membership of the party. All of them joined BJP along with him.

Parthasarathi Shome Appointed As the Adviser to Finance Minister of India
The Union government of India appointed Parthasarathi Shome, the tax expert, as the adviser to finance minister P Chidambaram. Shome was appointed with a rank of minister of state and this also indicated his comeback to the Secretariat building after almost 5 years. Shome was also the adviser to P Chidambaram during the UPA-I. He was the working brain behind fringe benefit tax as well as banking cash transaction tax on the withdrawals of the cash. These tax policies were aimed towards keeping a check on black money which was a subject of sharp criticisms apart from the securities transaction tax.For past few months, he was also associated with acquiring back the investor confidence. He was the head of committee on General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) as well as retrospective amendments, the controversial legislative idea which was taken by Pranab Mukherjee in previous budget session.

Parthasarathi Shome’s Profile:
•Parthasarathi Shome was Chief Economist, Revenue & Customs (HMRC), UK from 2008-2011.
•He was the adviser to the Finance Minister of India from 2004-2008.
•From 1983-2004, he also served at International Monetary Fund.
•He also chaired the 9th 5-year plan and 10th Five Year Plan Advisory Groups on Tax Policy and Administration in India.
•Books published by Parthasarathi Shome: Oxford Economic Paper, Public Finance, Journal of Economic Theory, National Tax Journal, Journal of Public Economics, Staff Papers IMF, Public Finance Quarterly apart from other international as well as national journals.
•Awards received by him: National Tax Association of America award for being the excellent student of public finance and taxation.

IOC assured Indian athletes that action on IOA was not against them
After the recent suspension of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) from International Olympic Committee (IOC), IOC assured the Indian athletes that this action was against IOA and not against them. IOC gave assurance to the athletes that they do not need to worry about their future prospects. IOC also declared that the decision was to ensure improvisation in governance of sports in India. IOC additionally said that it was open for discussion with the Indian government or the IOA. It was confirmed by IOC that after suspension on 4 December 2012, neither the Indian government nor the IOA had opened up for dialogue with IOC. The main body of Olympic declared that it was ready for cleaning this hassle with anyone who was interested in doing so. In context with the IOA elections which took place on 5 December 2012, IOC cleared that it did not recognise these elections. IOA had gone ahead with these elections on 5 December 2012 despite the warnings of IOC. In the elections, Abhey Singh Chautala was elected as president of IOA and Lalit Bhanot was elected as secretary.Assuring the Indian athletes, IOC declared that it was the body meant for athletes and any action would not harm their future.

Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi on the List of Top 20 Most Powerful People of the World
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were named in the list of top 20 most powerful people in the world by the Forbes Magazine in annual power rankings which were declared on 5 December 2012. Enjoying the first position for the second year consecutively is the US President Barrack Obama. Prime Minister Manmohan Sign was ranked at number 19. Sonia Gandhi dropped from the rankings of 2011 to number 12 in 2012. Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, the richest business tycoon of India as well as Arcelor Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal also appeared in this list. Ambani is ranked at number 37 and he outranked Mittal by various positions.Forbes Magazine also noted that Rahul Gandhi was next to reign the most popular political dynasty of India. The magazine also described Ambani’s Reliance Industries as the most valued company of India and Mukesh Ambani’s home called Antilia was described as the most expensive private residence of the world. Antilia is the 27-storeyed 400000 sqft private residence of Ambani in Mumbai.

Criterion of ranking by Forbes magazine:
In order to create these rankings, Forbes editors grade the candidates on the basis of four main criteria for the power. These are:
•Power over a lot of people
•Power in various arenas and spheres
•Active use of the power
•Control of a person over the financial as well as valuable resources
There were certain measures such as power over a lot of people which went in favour of the leaders like Pope even though the richest man of the world, Carlos Slim Hula, the Mexican telecom tycoon had the wealth 72 billion dollars. Carlos Slim Hula was ranked at 11th position because of the power of his wealth. Pope was ranked at number 5 position.

Other powerful people in the list
•Army chief of Pakistan Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ranked at 28th position and the magazine described him as the most powerful person in the unstable country.
•Age-wise, the CEO of social networking site Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is among the youngest people on the list. He is ranked at number 25.
•Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the New York billionaire was ranked at number 16. He scored well in all the areas.
•Francois Hollande, the French President was placed at number 14 position.
•Among business tycoons in the list of top 20, Warren Buffett the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway was at number 15, CEO of Wal-Mart, Michael Duke was at number 17 and co-founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page shared the position at number 20.


Suresh Vaswani, the Former Co-CEO of Wipro Appointed As the Dell Services President
Suresh Vaswani, the former co-CEO of Wipro was appointed as the President of Dell Services, the computer-maker, on 6 December 2012. He replaced Steve Schuckenbrock, the former president of Dell Services. As per the new role, Suresh Vaswani is required to report to the chairman and CEO of Dell Services, Michael Dell. Suresh Vaswani apart from his role would also be responsible for IT delivery of Dell which includes 64 billion dollar Dell’s infrastructure as well as applications across the world. Before being promoted to the position of Dell’s president, Vaswani was also the head of application services as well as BPO segment of Dell. He reported to Schuckenbrock, the former President of Dell. In 2011, Vaswani exited from Wipro where he had spent 25 years. His exit came after Azim Premji, the billionaire promoter had decided to take apart the ineffective co-CEO model which was adopted by Wipro for around 2008.

About Dell
Dell is originally a computer maker and it started its services in 2009 like IBM, after acquiring Perot Systems for 3.9 billion dollar. Ever since that time, the Round Rock, Texas-based company was constantly working to enhance its presence in BPO and global IT services.

Kobe Bryant Became Youngest Player in the History of NBA to Reach 30000 Career Points
Kobe Bryant, 34, achieved the title of youngest ever player to reach the milestone of 30000 career points in NBA (basketball) on 5 December 2012. He achieved the milestone when he took Los Angeles Lakers towards the 103-87 victory over New Orleans Homets. In the second quarter, only 1:16 time was left and within that time period, Bryant took his jump shot, taking his career points to 30001. With that accomplishment, Kobe Bryant joined the elite list of just 5 more players to reach that milestone in the history of NBA. Other four of this elite segment are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38387 points), Karl Malone (36928 points), Michael Jordan (32292) and Wilt Chamberlain (31419).He is the youngest player in NBA history to reach this landmark at the age of 34 years. Chamberlain was aged 35 when he achieved this milestone; Malone and Abdul-Jabbar were 36 years of age while Jordan on the other hand was 38 years old to achieve this landmark. Bryant however was the fifth-fastest NBA player in context to the games played for reaching this milestone. He achieved this milestone in 1179th match. Chamberlain on the other hand achieved it in 941 games only.

India ranked 94th in 2012 Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency Int.
India was ranked 94th out of 176 countries in Transparency International’s 2012 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released on 5 December 2012. In 2011, India was ranked 95 out of 183 countries. Denmark, Switzerland and Finland topped the index with a score of 90 followed by Sweden which scored 88 points. North Korea, Afghanistan and Somalia scored a lowly 8, ranking at the bottom of the index. In fact, two-thirds of the 176 nations scored below than 50 points.India scored a low score of 36 on a scale from 0 to 100 where o means most corrupt and 100 signifies least corrupt. India’s low score was attributed to the scams and incidents of corruption in the public sector which involved government officials, private officials and private companies.What is CPI (Corruption Perception Index) : The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) has been developed since 1995 by Transparency International as a composite indicator that measures perceptions of corruption in the public sector in different countries around the world.The Methodology used by Transparency International: Transparency International does so by aggregating different sources of corruption-related data that are produced by a variety of independent and well known institutions, such as the World Bank, the World Justice Project, the African Development Bank, the Economist Intelligence Unit and other. The measurement of the perceived level of corruption by Transparency International is an evolving project since 1995. Every year, such measurement builds upon previous editions while refined with newly available data. The CPI 2012 is calculated using a simple average of standardized scores.
Transparency International: Transparency International is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation dedicated to fighting corruption.  It is best known for its Corruption Perceptions Index. Its secretariat is located in Berlin, Germany.  The organization is present in more than 100 countries. It came into existence in 1993.

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