President of India inaugurates Golden Jubilee Celebrations of India’s first historic climb of Mt. Everest in 1965

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of India’s first historic climb of Mt. Everest in 1965 organized by The Indian Mountaineering Foundation today (May 20, 2015) at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that over the years Indian mountaineers have distinguished themselves not only by scaling the highest peaks but also as brave soldiers of the gallant armed forces which have included the ITBP. Many of them have served with great distinction during the Kargil conflict and continue to defend our highest frontiers with courage and with fortitude. Along with these great achievements, the first Indian conquest of Everest and the conquest by first Indian woman, Bachendri Pal, has found its place in many text books and has inspired several generations over the years.

The President said that the Indian Mountaineering Foundation that sponsored the Expedition in 1965 has come a long way since then and has grown to become an Institution that all adventure lovers look up to for guidance. It has always taken a broad and holistic approach in its mandate. In recent years the Indian Mountaineering Foundation has also been involved in environment protection works in the Himalayas. There is no greater service that it can do to this cause than by working for the preservation of the Himalayan ecology and the environment of the Himalayas. He expressed happiness over the fact that from very early on the mountaineering fraternity has encouraged women to take up this sport.

The President extended his greetings and felicitations to all surviving members of the historic expedition and paid homage to the memory of many courageous mountaineers of that expedition who are no longer with us today. He also paid homage to all those mountaineers who have lost their lives in their valiant attempts to climb Mt. Everest over the years. He wished members of the 1965 Everest Expedition, the Indian Mountaineering Foundation and the entire mountaineering community many years of productive contributions in the service of the nation. He stated that they have an important role to play in instilling in our youth the values and the character that make a good mountaineer and thereby a good citizen of our republic.
Source: pib.nic.in

[Part 2] Useful Image Collection of 2015

Part 1 Link: Click Here

15. Black Money Bill

16. India and China

17. In India Tourism Friendly?

18. Outcomes of Recent Budget Session

19. Child Labour Law

20. India and China the states of play

21. One 'Great Quake' in year, and it hasn't Come yet

22. PM visit China

23. Eye on China

24. RBI plans retail push in T-Bill

25. Creativity is an integral part of everone's life

26. Asia Voice will be stronger in India and China speak in ONE voice

27. Who vs who in Yemen

28. In the Name of Ganga

29. Meaning oney Bill

30. Constitution Amendment

Source: Wiki, Indian Express, The Hindu,BT & Our Teamwork

PM Modi on Three Day Visit to China: In Detail

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China this week to build friendship between the two Asian giants despite a long history of disputes and rivalries, along with some areas of cooperation, especially in the economic sphere.

PM Narendra Modi "believes" that his three-day visit to China will deepen bilateral ties and create a milestone for the relations between developing countries in Asia and around the world.

DAY 1

PM Modi’s first leg of his high-octane China visit in Xian promised a rich harvest of positive optics as Chinese President Xi Jinping went on record as saying that Modi was the first foreign leader whom he had received in his home province Xian. Mr. Modi has been given a traditional welcoming ceremony. It came as a reciprocation of sorts since Xi himself had begun his maiden India trip eight months ago in Ahmedabad, in Modi’s native state Gujarat.

"You received me very warmly in your hometown. I am very glad to receive you in my hometown," Xi told Modi in Chinese. Modi, in Hindi, responded, "This is an honour to 125 crore Indians whom I am representing as Prime Minister."

After their meeting, Xi Jinping accompanied Modi to several ancient sites in Xi'an. He also hosted a banquet for him in a building on the ancient city wall.

DAY 2

On the Day 2 of Modi's visit, India and China signed a record 24 agreements in key sectors, including in railways and education.

Protocol for setting up Consulates-General at Chengdu and Chennai besides an MoU on consultative mechanism for cooperation in trade negotiations were among the 24 agreements signed in the presence of Modi and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang. An action plan between the Indian Railways and China National Railways on enhancing cooperation in the railway sector was also signed.

Here's the complete list:

• Protocols between India and China on the establishment of consulates-general at Chengdu and Chennai and the extension of the consular district of the consulate general of India in Guanzhou to include Jiangxi province.

• MoU between the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship of India and the ministry of human resources and social security of China on cooperation in the field of vocational education and skill development.

• Action plan on cooperation in setting up of the Mahatma Gandhi National Institute for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

• MoU between India and China on consultative mechanism for cooperation in trade negotiations.

• MoU on cooperation between the ministry of external affairs of India and international department of the central committee of the Communist Party of China.

• Action plan between the National Railway Administration of China and the ministry of railways of India on enhancing cooperation in the railway sector. (2015-16).

• MoU on education exchange programme.

• MoU between the ministry of mines of India and the ministry of land and resources of China on the cooperation in the mining and minerals sector.

• Space Cooperation Outline (2015-2020).

• Protocol on health and safety regulations on importing Indian rapeseed meal between the export inspection council, ministry of commerce and industry of India and the general administration of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine.

• MoU between Doordarshan and China Central Television on cooperation in the field of broadcasting.

• Agreement between the ministry of tourism of India and the national tourism administration of China on cooperation in the field of tourism.

• MoU on establishing India-China think-tanks forum.

• MoU between India's Niti Aayog and the Development Research Centre, State Council of China.

• MoU between India's ministry of earth sciences and the China Earthquake Administration concerning cooperation in the field of earthquake science and earthquake engineering.

• MoU between India's ministry of earth sciences and the State Oceanic Administration of China on cooperation in the field of ocean science, ocean technology, climate change, polar science and cryosphere.

• MoU on scientific cooperation between Geological Survey of India, ministry of mines of India and the China Geological Survey, ministry of land and resources of China in geoscience.

• MoU between the ministry of external affairs of India and ministry of foreign affairs of China on establishment of states/provincial leaders' forum.

• Agreement on the establishment of sister-state/province relations between state government of Karnataka and provincial government of Sichuan of China.

• Agreement on establishment of sister-city relations between Chennai and Chongqing of China.

• Agreement on establishment of sister-city relations between Hyderabad and Qingdao of China.

• Agreement on establishment of sister-city relations between Aurangabad and Dunhuang of China.

• MoU between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Fudan University on the establishment of a centre for Gandhian and Indian studies.

• MoU between Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Yunnan Minzu University on the establishment of a yoga college.

DAY 3

On the third day of his visit to China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met CEOs of top Chinese companies in Shanghai. Taking ties to a new level, 21 Memorandum of Understandings were signed between Indian and Chinese companies.

Modi who interacted with CEOs of 22 companies, invited them to participate in his 'Make in India' campaign and listed the 5F formula. He said, "I have come to say to you Make in India. The 5F Formula - From Farm to Fibre to Fabric to Fashion to Foreign! India and China can together give something to the world."

In a major takeaway, Bharti enterprises and IL&FS signed deals worth $2.5 billion and $3 billion respectively.

"In the three days that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been in China, he has announced a slew of bilateral agreements — ranging from finding a political solution to the border issue, to strengthening cultural ties. We hope that this visit to one of the most powerful country in the world will be fruitful in both political and friendly manner."

[Part 1] Useful Image Collection of 2015

1. PBD (9th January 2015):Major Concentrations of Indian Dispora around the World:

2. National Girl Child Day (24 January 2015):

3. Obama's India visit Some of the key demands from each side:

4. Millennium Development Goals:

5. Rail Budget:

6. Economic Survey 2013-2014

7. The National Judicial Appointments Commission in other Countries:

8. Kyasanur Forest Disease:

9. Earthquake: India Map of Seismiczone

Earthquake Scale

10. 304 Section Apply in Salman case:

11. UK Elections:

12. About larks:

13. Siachin Glacier:

14. New 3 Schemes:

Source: The Hindu,Wiki,ET,AIR,Teamwork

Lee Kuan Yew: Founding Father and 1st Prime Minister of Singapore

Lee Kuan Yew dead at 91

• Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father and first Prime Minister of Singapore who transformed the tiny island into one of the wealthiest and least corrupt countries in Asia, died on Monday morning. He was 91. 

• “The Prime Minister is deeply grieved to announce the passing of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, the  founding Prime Minister of Singapore,” a statement on the PM’s official website said. “Mr. Lee passed away peacefully at the Singapore General Hospital today at 3.18 am.” 

• Mr. Lee was Prime Minister from 1959, when Singapore gained full self-government from the British, until 1990, when he stepped down. Late into his life, he remained the dominant personality and driving force in what he called a First World oasis in a Third World region. The nation reflected the man: efficient, unsentimental, incorrupt, inventive, forward looking and pragmatic. “We are ideology free,” Mr. Lee said in an interview with The New York Times in 2007, stating what had become Singapore’s ideology. “Does it work? If it works, let’s try it. If it’s fine, let’s continue it. If it doesn’t work, toss it out, try another one.” 

• His leadership was criticised for suppressing freedom, but the formula succeeded. Singapore became a business and financial center admired for its efficiency and low level of corruption. 

Strongman who took Singapore to the First World
As an Indian, I wish Lee Kuan Yew had lived to be at least 97. He may then, in 2020, have taken a more positive view of India before finally signing off. In 2007, he endeared himself to Indians when he wrote admiringly about “India’s Peaceful Rise” in a column in Forbes. By 2012 he was writing India off as a “nation of unfulfilled greatness.”

Regrettably, those were his last recorded views on India before ill health slowed him down. He told Robert Blackwill, former United States Ambassador to India and the co-editor of a volume on Mr. Lee’s view of the world, ( Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World by Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill and Ali Wyne, 2013): “Look at the construction industries in India and China, and you will know the difference between one that gets things done and another that does not get things done, but talks about things…” — words that many believe still ring true about India.

Hot and cold on India

• Mr. Lee seems to have come to the conclusion that India, a great civilisation, would never be able to equal China as a modern nation. China was determined to regain its status as the world’s number one power. India, Mr. Lee felt, would do well if it managed to somehow get to number two. But, Mr. Lee wished India well because, as he wrote in Forbes , “Singapore and Southeast Asia, sandwiched between these two behemoths, need China and India to achieve a balanced relationship, one that allows both to grow and prosper, pulling up the rest of Asia-East, Southeast and South with them.”

• Mr. Lee always blew hot and cold about India. India was the country he first reached out to, in the mid-1960s, as he set about liberating Singapore and creating an island Republic. In his own country he was fighting the communists, so he couldn’t reach out to Mao’s China for help. Breaking off from Muslim majority Malaysia, and in an awkward relationship with most of his other neighbours, Mr. Lee saw India as his nation’s natural partner. He even retained the island’s Sanskrit origin name — Simhapura that became Singapore — and actively sought India’s diplomatic recognition and military assistance. 

• In his salad years, as the leader of a new nation, he admired Indira Gandhi’s tough personality. He went out of his way to make Mrs. Gandhi’s first official visit to Singapore a great success. He entered into a defence cooperation agreement with India that has only become stronger with  time. But India’s self-important political and diplomatic leadership, while initially helping him, ended up spurning his entreaties and even his suggestion that India become a founding member of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). 

• Caught in the web of its own Cold War and post-colonial rhetoric, India seemed unable to see the wood for the trees in rising Asia. Rebuffed by an imperious India, Mr. Lee became its critic and shunned it, till Prime Minister Narasimha Rao launched his post-Cold war “Look East” Policy. It was left to Mr. Lee’s successor, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, to revive the relationship with India. Where Mr. Lee and Mrs. Gandhi failed, Mr. Goh and Mr. Rao succeeded, and the credit for the new India-Singapore relationship ought to go to them. 

Rebuilding Singapore

• Mr. Lee was unique. Alone among the developing, post-colonial nations, Mr. Lee made bold to define his nation’s destiny as that of moving, within one generation, from being a Third World country to becoming a First World country. He achieved it. 

• Mr. Lee’s critics will draw attention to his dictatorial tactics and the stifling of dissent and the media. His admirers, however, view him a benign dictator who, in fact, actively sought democratic legitimacy and ensured that he secured it by running a welfare state, in which he sought to instil hope in the future for every citizen. 

• It is not just phenomenal economic growth and modernisation that marks Mr. Lee’s Singapore out. What truly set him apart was his obsessive social engineering. He rebuilt Singapore virtually brick by brick, tearing down the old, changing social behaviour and creating an ‘air-conditioned’ metropolis in the middle of a green, manicured garden island. As Singapore modernised, it also invested in the arts and in culture, always emphasising the diversity of its cultural roots. 

• Mr. Lee had strong views about how society ought to be organised and how governments ought to function. He had the opportunity and the space to put his thoughts into action and used social engineering to create a plural nation with four official languages and a housing policy that ensured the intermingling of races. 

Minister Mentor

• Having completed his work in Singapore, Mr. Lee straddled Asia and tried to shape China. His advice was not ignored. Inspired by Singapore’s economic success, China’s Great Moderniser, Deng Xiao Peng, invited Mr. Lee to help build a new China. Deng turned Shanghai into a “Manhattan of the East,” learning from Singapore. After he handed power to a new generation and appointed himself as Minister Mentor, Mr. Lee sought to become a teacher of sorts. He educated himself about world history and travelled its length and breadth educating world leaders. The only institution in Singapore that he willingly lent his name to was the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, underscoring the point that he saw good and active public policy as the key to progress and prosperity. 

• His intimate knowledge of China and its leadership made him an important link between a still opaque China and an increasingly curious world. Both Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became his willing disciples in their own effort to understand and deal with China. Each time Mr. Lee visited New Delhi during Dr. Singh’s first term, the two would meet over lunch, where the Minister Mentor would tutor his pupil on how to deal with China’s leadership. 

• Because Singapore’s success has become so closely identified with his personality and politics, even its failures are now attributed to him. Rising income inequality has created an angry under class, and even a frustrated middle class, unable to afford the temptations of a prosperous economy. This anger is now reflected in increasing resentment of expatriates and minorities. 

• The political party Mr. Lee and his compatriots created is losing ground and his critics are finding a new voice. Perhaps, this was the best time for him to leave his paradise on Earth. 

• Given that Singapore was one of the Asian countries that extended its hospitality to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was still Chief Minister of Gujarat, and also given the special relationship between the two countries, it would be a fine gesture on Mr. Modi’s part if he were to attend Mr. Lee’s funeral later this week. 

• (Sanjaya Baru was Visiting Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore, and is presently Honorary Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.) 

What truly set him apart was his obsessive social engineering. He rebuilt Singapore virtually brick by brick… 

For Lee the good of society took precedence over individual rights

• An election in 2011 marked the end of the Lee Kuan Yew era, with a voter revolt against the ruling People’s Action Party. Mr. Lee resigned from the specially created post of minister mentor and stepped into the background as the nation began exploring the possibilities of a more engaged and less autocratic government. 

• Since Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965 — an event Mr. Lee called his “moment of anguish” — he had seen himself in a never- ending struggle to overcome the nation’s lack of natural resources, a potentially hostile international environment and a volatile ethnic mix of Chinese, Malays and Indians. 

• “To understand Singapore and why it is what it is, you’ve got to start off with the fact that it’s not supposed to exist and cannot exist,” he said in the 2007 interview. “To begin with, we don’t have the ingredients of a nation, the elementary factors: a homogeneous population, common language, common culture and common destiny. So, history is a long time. I’ve done my bit.” 

• His “Singapore model,” sometimes criticised as soft authoritarianism, included centralized power, clean government and economic liberalism along with suppression of political opposition and strict limits on free speech and public assembly, which created a climate of caution and self censorship. The model has been admired and studied by leaders in Asia, including in China, and beyond as well as being the subject of countless academic case studies. 

• The commentator Cherian George described Mr. Lee’s leadership as “a unique combination of charisma and fear.” 

• As Mr. Lee’s influence waned, the questions were how much and how fast his model might change in the hands of a new, possibly more liberal generation. Some even asked, as he often had, whether Singapore, a nation of 5.6 million, could survive in a turbulent future. 

• Mr. Lee was a master of “Asian values,” a concept in which the good of society took precedence over the rights of the individual and citizens ceded some autonomy in return for paternalistic rule. Generally passive in political affairs, Singaporeans sometimes chide themselves as being overly preoccupied with a comfortable lifestyle, which they sum up as the “Five C’s” — cash, condo, car, credit card, country club. 

• In recent years, though, a confrontational world of political websites and blogs has given new voice to critics of Mr. Lee and his system. Even among people who knew little of Singapore, Mr. Lee was famous for his national self-improvement campaigns, which urged people to do such things as smile, speak good English and flush the toilet, but never to spit, chew gum or throw garbage off balconies. 

• “They laughed, at us,” he said in the second volume of his memoirs, “From Third World to First: The Singapore Story 1965-2000.” “But I was confident that we would have the last laugh. We would have been a grosser, ruder, cruder society had we not made these efforts.” 

• Mr. Lee developed a distinctive Singaporean mechanism of political control, filing libel suits that sometimes drove his opponents into bankruptcy and doing battle with critics in the foreign press. 

• Several foreign publications, including The International Herald Tribune, which is now called The International New York Times, have apologized and paid fines to settle libel suits. 

• The lawsuits challenged accusations of nepotism — members of Mr. Lee’s family hold influential positions in Singapore — and questions about the independence of the judiciary, which critics have said follows the lead of the executive branch. 

• Mr. Lee denied that the suits had a political purpose, saying they were essential to clearing his name of false accusations. He seemed to genuinely believe that criticisms would gain currency if they were not vigorously disputed. But the lawsuits themselves did as much as anything to diminish his reputation. 

Lee was disappointed with India

• “Lee and Indira Gandhi shared a brutal commitment to power, an almost brutal pragmatism and a fascination with mystic predictions of the future. Both dominated the scene around them. So much so that though lacking the alliterative resonance of the loyalist chant during the Emergency, Indira is India, India is Indira, it might be more accurate to recite Kuan Yew is Singapore, Singapore is Kuan Yew,” said journalist Sunanda K. Datta-Ray. 

• In later years, Mr. Lee met with nearly every Prime Minister, particularly Narasimha Rao, and Manmohan Singh, whom he met frequently in New Delhi and Singapore, as he pushed India for the need to “look east” more. But while Mr. Lee had an easy and often warm relationship with Indian leaders, he was caustic in his criticism of how India had developed post-Independence. 

• His view that India was “ not a real country,” but “32 separate nations that happen to be arrayed along the British rail line,” and his scathing criticism of its leadership and bureaucracy that were in his words “feudal” made many see him as anti-India. 

On Indian bureaucrats

• His views on the world, published in a book last year authored among others by the former U.S. Ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, included the following passage: “The average Indian civil servant still sees himself primarily as a regulator and not as a facilitator. The average Indian bureaucrat has not yet accepted that it is not a sin to make profits and become rich. The average Indian bureaucrat has little trust in India’s business community. They view Indian businesspeople as money-grabbing opportunists who do not have the welfare of the country at heart, and all the more so if they are foreign.” (Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World (Belfer Center Studies in International Security) by Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill, Ali Wyne) 

• “Mr. Lee didn’t dislike India, but he was disappointed with India,” former Confederation of Indian Industry chief Tarun Das told The Hindu . “He had seen the potential of India and seen it go what he thought was the wrong way, the socialist way.” 

• Mr. Das was among the first group of industry leaders invited to Singapore after the economy was liberalised in 1993, by Mr. Lee’s successor Goh Chok Tong. “Even then Mr. Lee didn’t think India would make it.” It wasn’t until a decade later that Mr. Lee began to see India realise the potential he had predicted it would have in the 1950s. In 2005, Mr. Lee was invited to deliver the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial lecture in New Delhi. It was here that he finally acknowledged India was on the path to progress, albeit a “slow and faltering” one. “India must make up for much time lost,” Mr. Lee told the Indian audience, “There is in fact already a strong political consensus between India’s two major parties that India needs to liberalise its economy and engage with the dynamic economies of the world...The time has come for India’s next tryst with destiny.” 

China’s rise

• Mr. Lee chose a role in interpreting China’s rise for the world. While he dismissed all comparisons between India and China, he often said that the two economies would “reshape the world order before the end of the 21st century.” 

• He also dismissed Indian concerns of a conflict with China, and the “string of pearls theory” that China seeks to contain India, saying, “China will not go to war with India. It is prepared to take risks; for example, it is in the Niger Delta, risking Chinese lives with Chinese money, but it has decided that it is worth it. This is free-market competition. I do not see it as being, “If you agree to sell to India, I will beat you up, but rather as, ‘Whatever India offers you, I will offer you more.’ It [China] is going to play by the rules of the game and is quite convinced that it can win that way.” 

• Mr. Lee made his peace with India’s style of growth towards the end of his life, and his belief in the “centrality of entrepreneurship and private sector as a driver for economic development in close harness with the government” is perhaps most admired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called him “a far-sighted statesman & a lion among leaders” adding that “Mr. Lee’s life teaches valuable lessons to everyone.” 

• In his own words several years ago, Mr. Lee called India “a nation of unfulfilled greatness.” “Indians will go at a tempo which is decided by their constitution, by their ethnic mix, by their voting patterns, and the resulting coalition governments, which makes for very difficult decision making,” he conceded. 

Source: The Hindu

Today CA : 31/01/2015

1. Union Government releases Commemorative Postage Stamps on Swachh Bharat Mission

Union Government has released set of three Commemorative Postage Stamps on Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission).

This set of 3 stamps was released by Union Ministry for Communications & Information Technology and issued by Department of Posts.

These stamps were released to in order to achieve the vision of Clean and Healthy India.

Department of Posts has selected the design for the stamps through a competition among the children on the theme of Swachh Bharat Mission.

Swachh Bharat Mission

• It was launched by the Prime Minister on the 2nd October, 2014 on the occasion of Birth Anniversary of Father of the Nation- Mahatma Gandhi.

• This mission seeks to achieve Clean India and aims to provide access to toilets to all households in the country.

• It also seeks to provide adequate arrangements for Solid and Liquid Waste Management.

2. Maharashtra government gives nod for GM food trials
Maharashtra government has given nod to confined genetically modified (GM) food trails in state.

In this regard, state government has granted no-objection certificates (NOC) for open field trials of 5 genetically modified (GM) crops. They are rice, chana (chickpeas), maize, brinjal and cotton.

NOC was granted by state government after state-level Committee, headed by Anil Kakodkar had given clearance for field test of these five GM crops.

Based upon the results of these trials, government take further steps.

With this decision, Maharashtra has become the fourth state after Punjab, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh to approve open field trials in GM crops.

Confined trials: It is typically carried out in small plots of one hectare or less. It is primarily meant to collect data on the potential bio-safety impact of the GM crop lines.

Why state governments NOC are required for GM food trails?

• Earlier, Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) under the previous UPA Environment Ministry had permitted field trials of GM food in India.

• But GEAC had inserted mandatory condition of separate NOCs from states for such trials.

• So, states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have banned such research activities.

3. RBI constitutes high level panel on urban cooperative banks (UCB)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted a high-powered panel on urban cooperative banks (UCB).

It will be headed by RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi and comprise of eight member who will be experienced bankers. They will submit its report within three months from the date of its first meeting.

This high-powered panel will re-examine and recommend appropriate set of businesses, size, conversion and licensing terms for the UCB sector.

The Terms of Reference of the high level panel are:

• Businesses: Examine the line of businesses that UCBs may be permitted to undertake and their benchmark in terms of size of business, capital requirement, regulatory regime etc.

• Size of UCB: Suggest the appropriate size up to which a UCB may be able to grow without undue risk to the system.

• Conversion Criteria & licensing terms : Suggest the criteria for allowing voluntary conversion by a UCB and examine whether the time is opportune to give license to new UCBs.

• Determine the modalities of implementing the suggestion of the Malegam Committee. Especially, whether the 50 per cent in value of deposits should be held by voting members. Thus, propose a feasible structure that puts majority voting in the hands of contributors of funds in UCB.

4. Serena Williams wins Australian Open 2015 Women’s Singles title
Serena Williams of United States has won Australian Open 2015 Women’s Singles title.

In the finals she defeated Russia’s Maria Sharapova by score of 6-3, 7-6, 7-5.

With this win Serena Williams has won 6th Australian Open title and 19th Grand Slam title.

Serena Williams

• Currently she is ranked No. 1 in women’s singles tennis.

• She also has won 4 Olympic gold medals, 1 in women’s singles and 3 in women’s doubles.

Her 19 singles title includes:

• 6 Australian Open Titles -2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2015.
• 2 French Open Titles- 2002, 2013.
• 5 Wimbledon Titles- 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012.
• 6 US Open Titles- 1999, 2002, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014.

5. First Canister-based Agni-V missile successfully test-fired

For the first time, a canisterised version of Agni-V missile was successfully test-fired on 31 January 2015 from Wheeler Island off Odisha coast.


This was the third successful flight test of the Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and the first canister trial.

Test: The missile was launched from sealed canister, mounted on a TATRA truck. It was carrying dummy payload. Test showed that dummy payload withstand temperatures more than 3,0000 C and hit the target at pre-designated point in the Indian Ocean.

Implication: A canister-launch system of Agni-V missile will give the forces the requisite operational flexibility. With this system, ballistic missile can be transported and can launched from any place.

Agni-V missile

• Agni-V ICBM is indigenously designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

• It is Part of the Agni series of missiles, one of the missile systems under the original Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

• Range: 5,500–5,800 km. It will allow India to strike targets across Asia and into Europe
• It is a 3 stage solid fuelled missile with composite motor casing in the second and third stage.

• It carries Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles (MIRV) payloads. A single MIRV equipped missile, that can deliver multiple warheads at different targets.

• Incorporate advanced technologies involving ring laser gyroscope and accelerometer for navigation and guidance.

First successfully test-fired by DRDO from Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa on April 19, 2012. With this, India joined an “elite nuclear club” that also included China, Russia, France, the US, the UK and possibly Israel.

6. Scientist V K Saraswat joins as full-time member of NITI Aayog
Former DRDO chief Vijay Kumar Saraswat has taken charge as full time-member of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog.

V K Saraswat

• He had played a very significant role in the development of the country’s first Liquid Propulsion Engine, DEVIL.

• He was Project Director of Prithvi and had steered the design, development, production and induction of the first indigenous Surface-to-Surface missile system into the armed forces.

• He was Secretary of Defence (Research & Development) and Director General of Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO).

• Awards: He was conferred the Padma Shri (1998) and Padma Bhusan (2013).

Background

• Earlier on 1 January 2015, Union Government had announced the replacement of 6 decade year old Planning Commission with new age NITI Aayog to function as both a think-tank and a policy forum for government.

• On 5 January 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Chairman of NITI Aayog had appointed V K Saraswat along with eminent economist Bibek Debroy as its full time members and Arvind Panagariya as its first Vice-Chairman.

7. Senior IPS officer Krishna Chaudhary appointed as new ITBP DG
Senior IPS officer Krishna Chaudhary has been appointed the new Director General (DG) of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

His name was announced by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will be in office till June 2017.

Krishna Chaudhary is 1979-batch Bihar cadre officer. Before this appointment he was working as the Director General of the Railway Protection Force.

Background

• The post of ITBP DG has been vacant since 1 January 2015 after the retirement of Subhas Goswami on 31 December 2014.

• Till the vacant time, CRPF DG Prakash Mishra was holding the additional charge of the ITBP chief.

Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)

• It is one of the eight statutory Central Armed Police Forces of India and was established on 24 October 1962, under the CRPF Act, in the wake of India- China War of 1962.

• Later Parliament enacted the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force Act, 1992 to provide full autonomy to ITBP.

• At present ITBP has about 50,000 personnel strong force, to secure the 3,488 km border with China along Tibet Autonomous Region and operates under Ministry of Home Affairs.

• ITBP force also render in a variety of internal security tasks in the country including civil Medical Camp, disaster management, nuclear, biological and chemical disasters and UN peacekeeping missions around the world.

8. CIL sale garners Rs. 22k cr., retail investors lukewarm
The Centre has raised Rs. 22,557.63 crore from the sale of its 10 per cent shareholding in Coal India Ltd. (CIL). It is the largest ever disinvestment.

The issue was however, under-subscribed in the retail investors segment; government-owned insurance companies bought a huge proportion of the shares.

The major highlights of the issue are as under:

• The CIL disinvestment has attracted the largest FII participation in a Government Offer for Sale (OFS).

• Out of the total shares offered for sale, 20% were allocated for Retail Investors i.e. those investors who placed bids for shares of total value of not more than Rs. 2.00 lakh. Rs 1852.55 have been received from the retail investors, the largest in any OFS so far.

• Government of India offered 5% discount to Retail investors on price bid to attract more Retail Investors.

• Government fixed Rs. 358/- floor price for the auction of shares which was 4.5% less than the closing price on 29.2.2015.

• With this divestment, the Government of India’s share in CIL would come down to 79.65%.

• The total receipts accruing to the Government from the CIL disinvestment are Rs 22557.63/-

Disinvestments in India:

• Disinvestment of minority shares in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) has become an important source of raising resource for the Government. The policy of ‘disinvestment’ in CPSEs has evolved over the years. Disinvestment of government equity in CPSEs began in 1991-92 following the Industrial Policy Statement of 1991, which stated that the Government would divest part of its holdings (minority share-holding) in select CPSEs.

• Objective: The main objective of disinvestment is to put national resources and assets to optimal use and in particular to unleash the productive potential inherent in our public sector enterprises.

Current Policy on Disinvestment:

• The current Government policy on disinvestment envisages people’s ownership of CPSEs while ensuring that the Government equity does not fall below 51% and Government retains management control. Keeping this objective in view of disinvestment policy, the Government has adopted the following approach to disinvestment:

• Already listed profitable CPSEs (not meeting mandatory shareholding of 10%) are to be made compliant by ‘Offer for Sale’ (OFS) by Government or by the CPSEs through issue of fresh shares or a combination of both.

• Unlisted CPSEs with no accumulated losses and having earned net profit in three preceding consecutive years are to be listed.

• Follow-on public offers (FPO) would be considered in respect of profitable CPSEs having 10 percent or higher public ownership, taking into consideration the needs for capital investment of CPSE, on a case by case basis and Government could simultaneously or independently offer a portion of its equity shareholding in conjunction.

• Since each CPSE has different equity structure; financial strength; fund requirement; sector of operation etc., factors that do not permit a uniform pattern of disinvestment, disinvestment will be considered on merits and on a case-by-case basis.

• CPSEs are permitted to use their surplus cash to buy-back their shares; one CPSE may buy the shares of other CPSEs from the Government.

• The Department of Disinvestment was set up on December 10, 1999, with the responsibility to deal with all matters relating to disinvestment of Central Government equity in Central Public Sector Undertakings.

• This department now works under the Ministry of Finance.

National Investment Fund:

• The proceeds from disinvestments of Government’s equity in Central Public Sector Enterprises would be channelised into the National Investment Fund (NIF).

• The corpus of NIF will be of a permanent nature.

• NIF would be professionally managed to provide sustainable returns to the Government, without depleting the corpus.

• Selected Public Sector Mutual Funds are to be entrusted with the management of the corpus of NIF.

• 75% of the annual income of NIF will be used to finance selected social sector schemes, which promote education, health and employment. The residual 25% of the annual income of NIF will be used to meet the capital investment requirements of profitable and revivable CPSEs that yield adequate returns, in order to enlarge their capital base to finance expansion/diversification.

Today CA : 30/01/2015 (शाहिद दिन)

1. Gujarat government launches Taluka Planning Atlas project
Gujarat government has launched Taluka Planning Atlas (TPA) project.

It was launched by Chief Minister Anandiben Patel at a function held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

Taluka Planning Atlas (TPA) project:

• This project has been undertaken by the state planning department with the help of director of Economics and Statistics, Gujarat and Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BISAG).

• TPA aims to help the local administration in taking effective decisions about the development in respective regions.

• In this regard, TPA will provide the maps that will give precise information about the current status of various facilities and schemes.

• Under this project, an atlas of 100 maps will be compiled to showcase various facilities as well as government schemes at village level in each taluka.

• It will include precise information about facilities such as number of primary and secondary schools, health centres, dairies, cold storages, post offices, banks, etc.

• It will be implemented in phases. In the first phase, atlas for one taluka each in 33 districts will be prepared and put on state government portal Gswan.

• This atlas has used the information consisting of village profile provided by every village in state as well as taluka panchayat based on various indicators of development since 2010.

2. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe appointed as Chairman of African UnionZimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has been appointed as Chairman of African Union (AU).

He will be 13th Chairman of African Union (AU) and succeed Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz for a one-year term. The position of chairman of the AU is a rotating one on yearly basis and largely ceremonial.

Robert Mugabe: He has ruled Zimbabwe since independence. He is Zimbabwe’s longest serving President and had assumed office in December 1987. Currently, he is also chairman of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community.

African Union (AU)

• It is the successor of Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and came into existence in 2002 at Durban summit in South Africa.

• Headquarters: It is located at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

• Motto: A United and Strong Africa.

• Objective: As pan-African organization, AU aims at promoting unity and cooperation among African nations. It also strives to spread democracy and good governance in the continent.

• Members: At present the African Union has a total of 54 members. Morocco is the only African country which is not the part of the Union.

3. IIT Bombay launches Mass Open Online Courses (MOOC)
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has launchedMass Open Online Courses (MOOC) in three subjects, computer programming, thermodynamics, and signals and systems.

It aims to provide mass online education programme that will provide free online courses by giving access to high quality, IIT-style education to Indian students in Indian language.

Key features of Mass Open Online Courses (MOOC)

• It is launched as part of institute’s IITBombayX platform developed in collaboration with edX, a not-for-profit initiative by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University.

• It will provide 16-week Computer Programming course in two parts aimed at computer programming students.

• The course on Thermodynamics is designed for mechanical engineering students and will last 12 weeks.

• Signals and Systems will be a 16-week course in two parts designed for electrical engineering students.

• The students will get an honour certificate of achievement certifying successful completion of the course after they have qualified in the tests.

• It will also offer training workshops for invited teachers on effective teaching for each of these three subjects under the Train 10,000 Teachers or T10KT programme of the institute.

4. India tops Credit Suisse emerging consumer scorecard 2015
India has topped in the list of Credit Suisse emerging consumer scorecard 2015, among the 9 emerging economies.

This scorecard was prepared by fifth annual Emerging Consumer Survey by the Credit Suisse Research Institute.

Key facts

• The survey had interviewed consumers across nine emerging economies including Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey.

• Ranking of other countries: Brazil (2nd), Indonesia (3rd), Saudi Arabia (4th), China (5th), Turkey (6th), Mexico (7th), Russia (8th) and South Africa (9th).

• This survey had profiled the consumer sentiment and its drivers across the emerging world. Thus, providing insights regarding consumer sentiment and future consumption patterns in emerging economies.

• As per the survey, the formation of a strong government at the centre in India had triggered a major revival of consumer sentiment in 2014.

• It also mentioned that, e-commerce share in India have increased to 32 per cent from 20 per cent in 2013.

• In 2014 survey, India was placed at fourth position.

5. Zomato buys Turkey’s restaurant search company Mekanist
India’s online restaurant search and discovery service provider Zomato has announced the acquisition of Turkey’s restaurant search company Mekanist.

With this acquisition, Zomato has increased its coverage from about 27,500 restaurants in Istanbul and Ankara to more than 50,000 restaurants across Turkey.

Now, Mekanist’s traffic and restaurant-related content will be shifted to Zomato. While, Turkish restaurants now will be able to make use of Zomato’s hyperlocal advertising model to reach out to target customers.

Over the past year, Zomato has acquired five restaurant search players in New Zealand, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy.

Earlier in January 2015, it had taken over Urbanspoon for about $52 million, which enabled Zomato to enter US and Australian markets.

About Zomato

• It was founded in 2008. Since, then it has expanded to global market on its own. At present it has its presence in India and 21 other countries.

• Zomato’s founder is Deepinder Goyal and he is current CEO. Its Headquarter is in New Delhi.

6. World Bank Report on Himachal Pradesh released
The World Bank has released report Scaling the Heights: Social inclusion and sustainable development on Himachal Pradesh.

It was released by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dhani Ram Shandil in Shimla.

This was first of its kind report prepared by the World Bank for Himachal Pradesh. The report reveals that state has effectively balanced economic growth with social inclusion.

Some facts from report

• Himachal Pradesh has emerged as one of the states with the best human development outcomes in the country.

• The performance in poverty reduction, education, women employment and health sectors was much better as compared to other states in India.

• The state had also taken lead in implementation of various national programmes and had given special emphasis on infrastructural development.

• The state had prepared a plan to mitigate the natural disasters which had been well appreciated by the government of India.

• But female child sex ratio, under-nutrition in children and an ageing population still remain issues of concern in the state.

7. GNLF founder Subhash Ghisingh passes awayGorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) founder Subhash Ghisingh has passed away in New Delhi. He was 78.

He had spearheaded the Gorkhaland movement in the 1980s for a separate state for ethnic Gorkha people living in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.

Subhash Ghisingh

• He was born on 22 June 1936 at Manju Tea Estate in Darjeeling, West Bengal.

• In 1954, he had joined the Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army as a soldier but quit in 1960.

• In 1968, he formed a political organisation called Nilo Jhanda to protect rights of the ethnic Gorkhas. Later, in April 1979, he raised the demand for a separate state for the Nepali-speaking people of the Darjeeling hills.

• In 1980, he had founded GNLF and led the movement, which disrupted the Darjeeling district with massive violence between 1986 and 1988.

• Later in 1988, this issue was resolved and resulted in setting up of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, a semi-autonomous body.

• He was first chairman of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council after winning the first council elections and was its chairman from 1988 to 2008.

Today CA : 29/01/2015

1. SC directs search engines to block sex determination advertisements
Supreme Court (SC) has directed search engines like Google India, Yahoo and Micrsoft’s Bing to block advertisements on sex determination and strictly comply with the laws.

This ruling was given by SC bench comprising of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant on public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Dr. Sabu Mathew George in 2008.

PIL had highlighted that the use of Internet and popular search engines to promote sex determination technologies violates laws.

SC directions to search engines:

• Withdraw advertisements on sex determination as it violates Section 22 of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act,1994.

• Search engines must upload this order on their policy page and also the page containing terms and conditions of service to serve as a warning for persons intending to put up such advertisements.

Background:

• Though sex determination is illegal India, it is still practiced which has a severe effects on male-female ratio.

• As per UN data, India’s child sex ratio has dropped from 964 in 1971 to a low of 918 in 2011.

• While between 2001 and 2011, child sex ratio has declined in more than two-thirds of the districts in the country and this problem is worse in urban areas.

2. Nation pays tributes to Lala Lajpat Rai on his 150th birth anniversaryOn 28 January 2015, nation paid tributes to national martyr of freedom movement, Lala Lajpat Rai on his 150th birth anniversary.

Events marking this day: Various seminars and symposia were organised at many places in Punjab to remember Lala Lajpat Rai. Special programme and sports meet was organised in his ancestral village Dhudi ke of Moga district where thousands of people paid their tributes to national martyr at the memorial. While, intellectual’s apprised young generation about Lala and his sacrifice for the nation.

About Lala Lajpat Rai:

• He was born on 28 January 1865 in Dhudike (now Moga district) of Punjab.

• He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari meaning The Lion of Punjab also known asSher-E- Punjab in Punjabi for his contribution to the freedom movement.

• He was part of the Lal Bal Pal trio i.e. assertive nationalists Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bipin Chandra Pal from 1905 to 1918. Lal Bal Pal trio had advocated the Swadeshi movement involving the boycott of all imported items and the use of Indian-made goods in 1907 during the anti-Partition agitation in Bengal which began in 1905.

• He was lawyer by profession and had practiced his legal profession for few years but later curtailed it to focus on all his efforts to the freedom struggle.

• He was also associated with the foundation of Punjab National Bank in 1895 and laterLakshmi Insurance Company.

• He also had helped to establish the nationalistic Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School and became a follower of Dayanand Saraswati (founder of the Arya Samaj).

• In 1888 and 1889 he was a delegate to the annual sessions of Indian National Congress (INC) and was elected as its President in the Calcutta Special Session of 1920.

• In 1921, he had founded Servants of the People Society, a non-profit welfare organisation, in Lahore, which shifted based to Delhi after partition, and has branches in many parts of India.

• His books: As an author he had written many books which includes The Story of My Deportation (1908), Arya Samaj (1915), The United States of America: A Hindu’s Impression (1916), Unhappy India (1928) etc.

• Death: He died on 17 November 1928 after sustaining serious injuries in lathi charge carried by the police when he leading a non-violent protest against the Simon Commission.

3. Union Government to sell up to 10% stake in Coal India Limited (CIL)
Union government has announced to sell up to 10 per cent stake in state owned Coal India Limited (CIL) on 30 January 2015.

This decision was cleared by high-powered ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

It will help the government to raise revenue of 24,000 crore rupees at the current market price and meet the fiscal deficit.

Government is planning to divest 5 per cent stake in the company via share sale and the remaining 5 per cent through the green-shoe option.

Currently, the government holds 89.65 per cent stake in CIL. As per the minimum shareholding norms for listed companies, the government needs to lower its stake to 75 percent.

Coal India Limited (CIL):

• It is a state-controlled coal mining company, headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal.

• It is the largest coal producer company in the world and contributes around 81% of the coal production in India.

• Union Government of India owns 90% of the shares in CIL and controls the operations of CIL through Ministry of Coal.

• In April 2011, CIL was conferred the Maharatna status by Government of India. It is India’s 5th most valuable company in terms of market value.

4. Packaging of foodgrains & sugar in jute material mandatory: CCEAThe Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has made packaging of foodgrains & sugar in jute material mandatory for jute year 2014-15.

In this regard CCEA mentioned that packaging with jute material will be mandatory for minimum 90 per cent of production in case of food grains and 20 per cent in case of sugar production.

With this decision, government is seeking to help the jute sector which generates a lot of livelihoods for farmers and workers.

CCEA also has approved providing financial support to the Jute Corporation of India (JCI). In this regard, government will provide subsidy to JCI on a continuous basis to off-set the losses on account of Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations.

The quantum of subsidy will include the difference between the Purchase and Sale Price of MSP Raw Jute.

5. India to host ICC World Twenty20 in 2016
India is going to host International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 in 2016.

It was announced by ICC Board meeting chaired by Chairman N. Srinivasan held in Dubai. ICC Board meeting also scheduled the ICC events during the period 2015-2019.

Following schedule was announced:

• India will host the World Twenty20 from 11 March to 3 April 2016. While, Ireland and Scotland will host the qualifiers between 6-26 July, 2015.

• England will host three ICC events in the next four-year period.

• In 2017, England will host two events- the Champions Trophy from 1 to 19 June and Women’s World Cup from 4 to 27 August and 2019 ICC World Cup from 30 May to 15 July 2019.

• 2018 Women’s World Twenty20 will be organised in the West Indies between November 2 and 25.

6. Eminent singer Shekhar Sen appointed as Chairman of Sangeet Natak Akademi
Eminent singer, composer, lyricist and actor Shekhar Senhas been appointed as the chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA).

His appointment was announced by Union Ministry of Culture and will have term five years with immediate effect.

This post was vacant since September 2014, after then Chairman Leela Samson had resigned.

About Shekhar Sen

• Since 1983, as a singer, lyricist and composer, he has done many research oriented musical programmes including Dushyant Ne Kaha Tha, Madhya Yugeen Kaavya, Pakistan Ka Hindi Kavya, Meera Se Mahadevi Tak.

• He also has rendered many significant bhajan albums.

• He is famous for his mono act musical plays Tulsi, Kabeer, Vivekananda, Sanmanti, Saahab and Soordas.

• His performances have been acclaimed in India and abroad where he has performed.

• Awards: He has received prestigious awards including the Padma Shri (2015), Safdar Hashmi Puraskaar (2001) by Sangeet Natak Academy of Uttar Pradesh, Shantaram Samman (2008) by Rajya Hindi Sahitya Academy of Maharashtra.

7. US tech giant Apple reports largest quarterly profit in history

US technology giant Apple, has reported the biggest quarterly profit of 18 billion US dollar.

It is the biggest quarterly profit ever made by any public company in World and broke the previous record of ExxonMobil which had earlier topped by making $15.9 billion profit in 2012.

Apple’s revenue had grown to $74.6 billion in 2014 from $57.6 billion in 2013 i.e. reporting 30% increase in profit.

The main reason for Apple’s profit is record sale of iPhones. The company has sold 74.5 million iPhones in quarter ending December 2014 with 39.9% profit per product.

Apple’s impressive profit comes after it shifted towards the massive untapped potential of Chinese market and partnering with China Mobile Limited the largest global mobile carrier.

Company sales in China had hit $16 billion in 2014- a 70% increase from 2013 and almost equalling the $17 billion in sales the company recorded in Europe 2013.

8. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar appointed as new Foreign Secretary
Union Government has appointed Subrahmanyam Jaishankar as the new Secretary of Ministry of External Affairs (i.e. Foreign Secretary).

His name was cleared by Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He will be replacing incumbent Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh whose tenure was curtailed with immediate effect. She had assumed office in August 2013 and was due to retire in August 2015.

About Subrahmanyam Jaishankar

• He was born 9 January 1955 and is son of Indian foreign policy doyen K Subhramanyam.

• He is Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1977 batch and was one of the key officials who negotiated in the India’s nuclear deal with the US in 2009.

• Before this appointment, he was India’s Ambassador to United States and was appointed in September 2013.

• Previously he had served as India’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China from 2009 to 2013. High Commissioner to Singapore from 2007 to 2009 and Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2001 to 2004.

9. Maharashtra government issues Letter of Intent to buy B R Ambedkar’s London house

Maharashtra government has issued Letter of Intent (LoI) to buy Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s London house to the Indian High Commission in United Kingdom(UK).

This is the house where architect of the Indian Constitution Ambedkar had lived in 1920 during his stint with the London School of Economics.

State government is buying this 2050 square feet three-storey house on 10, King Henry Road, NW3 of London and has finalised at a sum of 35 crore rupees.

This house is of cultural and national importance and pride of millions of people of India as Dr. Ambedkar had stayed in it when he was completing higher studies at the London School of Economics in 1920-21.

State government after buying the house will convert it into a memorial-cum-museum and open it to public from 14 April, 2015 i.e. on the 124 birth anniversary of the architect of the Indian constitution.

10. Sri Lanka’s new government reinstates impeached chief justice Shirani BhandaranayakeSri Lanka’s new government led by President Maithiripala Sirisena has reinstated former Chief Justice Shirani Bhandaranayake to her former position.

She was impeached by the previous government of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

With this move, country’s new government is attempting to deliver on election promises assuring independence of the judiciary.
Shirani Bhandaranayake was 43rd and first woman Chief Justice of Sri Lanka appointed in May 2011.

In 2013, she was unceremoniously removed from this post after she was impeached in late 2012.

Earlier in January 2015, Sri Lanka’s new government had reinstated the rank of former army Chief General Sarath Fonseka, who was stripped of all ranks and sentenced to jail by Rajapaksa.

General Sarath Fonseka was Sri Lanka’s only four-star general who had led the Army to defeat the Tamil Tigers in 2009. In 2010, he had fallen out with Rajapaksa and challenged him in the election of 2010. Thereafter Fonseka was arrested, court martialled and jailed for corruption.