Current Affairs: February 2013 (1st Week)
Rohinton F Nariman, the Solicitor-General of
India resigned from his office on 4 February 2013. He was appointed at the
second highest law official of India on 23 July 2011 after Gopal Subramanium
resigned from his office on 14 July 2011 following the issues with Government
in context to the 2G Spectrum Allocation Scam.
The
Centre on 08 February 2013 decided to appoint its longest serving additional
solicitor general Mohan Parasaran as the new solicitor general, the second
senior-most law officer in the country after the attorney general. He is the son
of legendary lawyer K K Parasaran who was once attorney general.
Sachin Tendulkar on 8 February 2013 equaled
the record of Sunil Gavaskar of 81 first class hundreds in first class cricket
at Mumbai. He managed to equal Gavaskar’s record after scoring an unbeaten 140
runs in Irani Trophy against Rest of India in the first innings of the
tournament of Mumbai team.
Mohamammed Afzal Guru, the convict of 2001
Parliament attack was hanged on 9 February 2013 at 8 AM in Tihar Jail, New
Delhi. The Supreme Court of India pronounced the death Sentence for Afzal Guru
in 2004 for masterminding the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament on 13
December 2001.
The King and Queen of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar
Namgyel Wangchuck and Jetsun Pema respectively visited India from 23 January to
30 January 2013. King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was invited by
the Indian President to be the Chief Guest for the Republic Day Celebrations of
India.
International Cricket Council, ICC rankings
for test cricket was released on 4 February 2013 in Dubai. South Africa emerged
as the world number one team in the category and is followed by England,
Australia, Pakistan and India.
Mo Yan, the winner of Nobel Prize for
literature, 2012 and Jackie Chan, the movie star were given a political role in
China by being selected as members of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference, one of the houses of Chinese parliament.
Useful for all competitive
Examinations……..
Rohinton F Nariman Solicitor-General
of India resigned from his office
Rohinton F Nariman, the Solicitor-General of
India resigned from his office on 4 February 2013. He was appointed at the
second highest law official of India on 23 July 2011 after Gopal Subramanium
resigned from his office on 14 July 2011 following the issues with Government
in context to the 2G Spectrum Allocation Scam.
Nariman was designated as a senior advocate
at the age of 37, when M.N. Venkatachaliah, the Chief Justice of India amended
the rules and reduced the age from 45 years for designating a lawyer as a
senior advocate.
In the history of last four decades, only
three Solicitor Generals have been successful in completing his five year term
in the office and they are - L N Sinha from 1972-77, Dipankar Gupta from
1992-97 and G E Vahanvati from 2004-09.
Mohan Parasaran to be new
solicitor general
The
Centre on 08 February 2013 decided to appoint its longest serving additional
solicitor general Mohan Parasaran as the new solicitor general, the second
senior-most law officer in the country after the attorney general. He is the son
of legendary lawyer K K Parasaran who was once attorney general.
He was also instrumental in getting a
favourable order for the government in Bombay High Court, which had upheld the
demand of Rs 11,000 crore as tax on Vodafone for acquiring Hutchison Whampoa
Ltd's Indian mobile business in 2007. However, the apex court had set aside the
HC order.
The post of solicitor general fell vacant on
04 February 2013 when Rohinton Nariman resigned after serious differences with
law minister Ashwani Kumar. Parasaran has been serving as additional solicitor
general since UPA came to power in 2004.
Sachin Tendulkar equaled
Sunil Gavaskar’s record of 81 Centuries in First Class Cricket
Sachin Tendulkar on 8 February 2013 equaled
the record of Sunil Gavaskar of 81 first class hundreds in first class cricket
at Mumbai. He managed to equal Gavaskar’s record after scoring an unbeaten 140
runs in Irani Trophy against Rest of India in the first innings of the
tournament of Mumbai team.
Centuries of Sachin in first class cricket
• 51
in Test matches
• 18
in Ranji Trophy
• 2
in Irani Cup
• 3
in Duleep Trophy
• 1
in county cricket for Yorkshire
• 6
in other games
Afzal Guru, the convict of
Parliament Attack 2001 hanged after rejection of Mercy Plea
Mohamammed Afzal Guru, the convict of 2001
Parliament attack was hanged on 9 February 2013 at 8 AM in Tihar Jail, New
Delhi. The Supreme Court of India pronounced the death Sentence for Afzal Guru
in 2004 for masterminding the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament on 13
December 2001.
The decision of hanging him came after the
mercy petition filed was cancelled by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee
on 23 January 2013.
The 2001 Parliament Attack
The terrorist of Lashkar-e-Toiba and
Jaish-e-Mohammad managed to attack on the Parliament of India, leading to the
death of about a dozen of people including the security persons as well as
civilians.
Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram
launched in Thane, Maharashtra
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on 6 February
2013 launched a new health initiative called Rashtriya Bal Sawsthya Karyakram
at Palghar town in Thane district of Maharashtra. The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya
Karyakram, is a part of the National Rural Health Mission of the Union Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare.
The Main
Features of Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram are as following:
• The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram is
aimed at improving overall quality of life of children through early detection
of birth defects, diseases and deficiencies, which are among key factors for
child mortality.
• The new initiative would assure a package
of health services for all children up to 18 years of age. The programme will
also prove economical for poor and marginalized.
• The services will be provided through
dedicated mobile health teams placed in every block. The scheme, which will be
implemented in a phased manner, is expected to benefit approximately 27 crore
children across the country.
Birth defects account for 9.6 per cent of all
new-born deaths and 4 per cent of under-five mortality. According to the
programme, a set of thirty common conditions have been identified for screening
and further management of child health.
National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is an
Indian health program for improving health care delivery across rural India. It
was launched on 12 April 2005 for a period of 7 years.
President of Nepal, Dr. Ram
Baran Yadav visited India
Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, the President of Nepal
was on a visit to India from 24 December to 29 December 2012. During his visit
to India, he attended the Special Convocation of Banaras Hindu University that
marked the concluding ceremony of the Birth Ceremony of Mahamana Pandit Madan
Mohan Malaviya on 25 Dcember 2012.
During his stay in India, he inaugurated the
Maithili Play presented by Nepalese Artists at Sriram Center on 28 December
2012.
He also met with few dignitaries in India
namely:
•
Pranab Mukherjee, the President of Indian Union
•
Hamid Ansari, the Vice-President of Indian Union
•
Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India
•
Salman Khurshid, Minister of External Affairs
•
Ranjan Mathai, Foreign Secretary of India
•
Sushil Kumar Shinde, Minister of Home Affairs
•
A.K. Antony, Minister of Defence
King of Bhutan visited
India as Republic Day function Chief Guest
The King and Queen of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar
Namgyel Wangchuck and Jetsun Pema respectively visited India from 23 January to
30 January 2013. King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was invited by
the Indian President to be the Chief Guest for the Republic Day Celebrations of
India.
The visit of the King of Bhutan and his
acceptance to be the chief guest for the Republic Day celebration would
contribute to further strengthening and expansion of the bilateral relation and
ties between Bhutan and India.
During his visit, the King of Bhutan met with
President of India, the Vice-President, Prime Minister, UPA Chairperson, Leader
of Opposition in Lok sabha, Foreign Secretary, National Security Advisor.
Allan Border Medal 2013:
Michael Clarke Won the Medal Fourth Time
Michael Clarke, the Australian cricket
captain won the fourth Allan Border Medal in Melbourne on 4 February 2013.
31-year old Clarke had won the medal earlier in 2005, 2009 and 2012. Apart from
Clarke, the only other player to win this medal four times is Captain Ricky
Ponting.
Michael Clarke also won the Test cricketer of
the year award for the second consecutive time after he scored 1080 runs in
nine tests from 25 February 2012 to January 28 2013.
South Africa at top in the
latest ICC Test Rankings
International Cricket Council, ICC rankings
for test cricket was released on 4 February 2013 in Dubai. South Africa emerged
as the world number one team in the category and is followed by England,
Australia, Pakistan and India.
In the latest rankings released by the ICC
Hashim Amla, the South African batsman has emerged as the best batsman in the
category and with this he became the first batsman to hold the number one dice
in both Test and One-day format of the game since 2007, before this Ricky Pointing
was the cricketer to hold this position. Michael Clarke, the Australian batsman
was racked at second position in the ranking.
Dale Steyn, the South African bowler holds
the top position in the bowling ranking and is followed by his teammate, Vernan
Philander. South African, Jacques Kallis has retained his position as the
number one test all-rounder with versatile performance.
Pragyan Ojha is the only Indian to feature
among the top ten bowlers in the test rankings released.
World Cancer Day observed
across the world
4 February: World Cancer Day
World cancer day was observed on 4 February
2013 in order to raise awareness about this illness as well as to promote the measures,
early detection, prevention and treatment of the disease. The theme for World
Cancer Day, 2013 was Cancer - Did you know?
The theme focused on dispelling the misconceptions associated with the
disease.
Various functions on the day were organised
by Union for International Cancer Control, which is the leading organisation
for cancer fighting.
Mo Yan and Jackie Chan
Selected As Members of Chinese Parliament
Mo Yan, the winner of Nobel Prize for
literature, 2012 and Jackie Chan, the movie star were given a political role in
China by being selected as members of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference, one of the houses of Chinese parliament.
Mo Yan and Jackie Chan were among 2237 people
selected by China's new leaders led by Xi Jinping as the members of CPPCC
National Committee. Out of 2237 people, 399 are women. Xi Jinping is the new
general secretary of the Communist Party. He will become the President of China
after two Houses of Parliament have meeting in March 2013.
Other important
current affairs in a nutshell…..
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The economic growth of India is estimated to fall to 5 percent in 2012-2013
financial year, which is a lowest figure in 10 years.
*
The Supreme Court of India on 7 February 2013 directed Karnataka to release
2.44 thousand million cubic feet of Cauvery water to TN.
*
Researchers from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg discovered
the largest prime number of the world which is 17 million digits long.
*
Book titled Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Germany by Professor Anita B. Pfaff
was given to Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 6 February 2013.
*
YES Bank, the fourth largest private sector Bank of India was awarded the
Financial Institutions Syndicated Deal of the Year 2012 in its Asia Pacific
Region.
*
Times Television Network tied up with one of the leading distribution companies
MSM Discovery Pvt Ltd. in order to collect subscription revenue of its
channels.
*
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran on 5 February 2013 became the first
Iranian leader to visit Egypt after Tehran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
*
Rajkeswur Purryag, President of Republic of Mauritius visited India from 3 Jan
2013 to 10 Jan 2013. He was honoured with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award.
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Glenn McGrath and Charlie Turner, the renowned fast bowlers were unanimously
chosen to be inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame on 3 February
2013.
*
Thirty Indian software product companies joined hands to form their own new association
called iSpirt, marking a break-up with the IT industry body NASSCOM.
*
300-year old textbooks of Sir Isaac Newton were discovered in the school
physics laboratory of Newcastle-under-Lyme School, Staffordshire in UK.
