Current Affairs- December 2012
Current Affairs December 2012 -First Week
Parliament clears FDI in retail
The UPA government on 7 December 2012 won the
approval of Parliament to its controversial decision of allowing FDI in
multi-brand retail with a motion against it being defeated convincingly in
Rajya Sabha, as BSP voted in favour of UPA. 123 members voted against the
motion while 109 voted in favour after a two-day animated debate during which
the Opposition attacked the proposal to allow 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand
retail, while the government strongly justified it saying it was in the best
interest of the country.
Earlier on 6 December 2012, Lok Sabha gave the
approval to FDI in multi-brand as the opposition motion seeking immediate back
down of the decision was rejected convincingly as BSP and SP walked out. The
House also rejected the motion seeking amendment to the rules notified by the
Reserve Bank under Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) to enable FDI in
multi-brand retail. Members of SP and BSP, strength 22 and 21 respectively, did
not participate in the voting as they walked out alleging that interests of
farmers and small retailers had been ignored.
Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi on the List of Top 20 Most
Powerful People of the World
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress
President Sonia Gandhi have been named among the top 20 most powerful persons
in the world by Forbes magazine in its annual power rankings declared on 5
December 2012 which placed US President Barack Obama as number one for a second
year in a row.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was ranked at
number 19 while Sonia Gandhi dropped one place 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.
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
Cheque books
only in new format will be valid from January 1
Old cheque books will be of no use from January
1, 2013 with the implementation of the new Cheque Truncation System (CTS-2010),
which will eliminate physical movement of cheques for clearing. Instead, only
their electronic images, along with key information, will be captured and
transmitted. It will make the clearing process more efficient, secure and
quicker.
What changes have been made in new cheques?
The features which are new:
Bank logo printed with invisible ink (ultra
voilet)
VOID pantograph
Chequer printer details/CTS-2010
New Rupee symbol
Signature space indicator
IOA
suspended by IOC; India facing ban from Olympics
The International Olympic
Committee (IOC) suspended the India Olympic Association (IOA) on 4 December
2012 and eventually this might also lead to IOA ban from Olympic movement.
IOA
ban from Olympic would result in consequences such as:
·
No funding from IOC
·
No officials from India would be invited by IOC
to any events such as Paralympics and Olympics
·
No India athlete would be allowed competing
under India’s flag; but could be permitted competing under IOC flag
IOC suspended IOA because India
was following the Sports Code of government in the IOA elections, which is
against the Olympic Charter. IOC declared that following of Sports Code of
government is actually the interference of the government in the Olympic
Movement.
Dr. Joseph Murray who performed first kidney transplant passed away
American plastic surgeon Dr Joseph Murray, the
surgeon who operated the first successful kidney transplant and later won a
Nobel Prize for his work, has died at 93. Murray along with his team carried
out the first human organ transplant in 1954, taking a kidney from one
identical twin and giving it to his twin brother. He became a co-winner of the
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1990.
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 century against Indian at
Eden Gardens on 6 December was his 23rd Test Hundred.
Parthasarathi
Shome appointed adviser to Finance Minister
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, co-terminus
with the period of office of the Finance Minister. Shome was also the adviser
to P Chidambaram during the UPA-I.
Union Government cleared Decks for Ambedkar Memorial at Mumbai
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 for constructing a memorial to BR
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.
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.
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.
Nokia Agreed Selling Headquarter Building for 222 Million US
Dollar for improving Business
Nokia,
one of the giant mobile makers agreed to sell the head quarter building in
Espoo, Finland for 222 million US dollar or 170 million Euros on 4 December
2012 for improving its profit. The headquarter building is to be bought by
Exilion, the Finnish real estate company. Nokia would be leasing it back on the
long-term basis.Nokia is continuously trying improvisation of its finances
through certain measures such as job-cuts and it declared that it planned
exiting certain other non-core assets as well.
S.A. Ibrahim to be new
Director of Intelligence Bureau
S A Ibrahim, an Indian Police Service officer of
the Madhya Pradesh cadre, was on 03 December 2012 appointed director of the
Intelligence Bureau.
“The competent authority has approved the
appointment of S.A. Ibrahim, IPS, presently Special Director, Intelligence
Bureau, as Officer on Special Duty in the Intelligence Bureau with effect from
Dec 1, 2012, and as Director, Intelligence Bureau for a period of two years
from the date of assumption of charge or until further orders, whichever is
earlier, vice Shri Nehchal Sandhu, retiring on Dec 31, 2012,” an official release
said.
Ravindra Jadeja Became Only Indian to Score Three Triple Tons in
First-Class Cricket
Ravindra Jadeja became first Indian and only
eighth batsman in the first-class cricket history of world to score three
triple-centuries in the unbeaten 320 runs against Railways in the Ranji Trophy
Group A match on 2 December 2012 in Rajkot.
There are five other Indian batsmen who have
scored two triple centuries in their first-class cricket and these are VVS
Laxman, Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Vijay Hazare and Raman Lamba. With his
triple century, Jadeja has joined the league of seven other non-Indians who
have reached this landmark and these are Mike Hussey, WG Grace, Graeme Hick,
Sir Don Bradman, Wally Hammond, Bill Ponsford and Brian Lara.
Anna Ushenina of Ukraine won the Women’s World Championship
Crown of Chess
Anna Ushenina of Ukraine on 1 December 2012 defeated
Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria to claim the women’s World Championship in
Chess at Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Anna
won the title along with 60000 US dollar for the efforts made by her to win the
Chess championship.
Prepared by: currentaffairs4examz.blogspot.com
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India is a country located in South
Asia. With over 1.2 billion people, India is the most populous democracy in the
world. It is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary
system consisting of 28 states and 7 union territories. All states, as well as
the union territories of Pondicherry and the National Capital Territory of
Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments, both patterned on the
Westminster model. The remaining five union territories are directly ruled by
the centre through appointed administrators. In 1956, under the States Reorganization
Act, states were reorganized on a linguistic basis. Since then, their structure
has remained largely unchanged. Each state or union territory is further
divided into administrative districts.
