1.Microsoft to shut down Windows Live
Messenger Service !
Microsoft in the Month of January 2013
announced plans to shut down its Messenger service from 15 March 2013 which is formerly known by
Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger.
i. The plan would involve enabling users
to move down to Skype from 15 March 2013.
ii. Over 100 million users of the service
were notified by email over short period of time.
NOTE: i.
It will be evident from 15 March 2013 that Messenger users will be unable to
sign into Messenger and use the service. From the proposed date Microsoft
encourage to download Skype from where one can exchange instant-messages and
have chats with your Messenger friends. The only advantage is that one can use
his or her Windows Live login ID for login to Skype.
ii. Skype started testing Windows and Mac releases last year
in the month of September 2012 which allowed users to use their Windows Live
accounts to login to Skype and send and receive instant messages and check if
their friends were online across the whole array of Windows sites such as Xbox,
Outlook, Hotmail, and Messenger.
2.SC
sets aside appointment of Upa Lokayukta in Karnataka
i. The Supreme
Court on Friday set aside the appointment of Justice (retd) Chandrashekaraiah
as Upa Lokayukta of Karnataka on the ground that he was appointed by the
government without consultation with the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court.
ii. A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan
and Madan B Lokur held that the consultation with the chief justice is mandatory
before appointment of Upa Lokayukta and the chief minister did not hold any
"meaningful" consultation with the chief justice.
iii. The bench said the chief minister has
committed error by not consulting the chief justice and held that the
appointment of Upa Lokayukta is void ab initio (to be treated as invalid from
the outset).
NOTE: Bench had also urged the state
government and chief minister to expeditiously start a fresh selection process
as mandated by the Lokayukta Act to find a new Upa Lokayukta as the post cannot
be held vacant for long.
The Karnataka High Court had on 3rd
April last year quashed the appointment of justice Chandrashekaraiah as the Upa
Lokayukta holding that the selection procedure was "not in conformity with
law".
3.GAIL India Commissioned Dabhol
Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal
i. GAIL India announced successful
commissioning of 5 million tonne capacity Dabhol liquefied natural gas (LNG)
terminal on 10 January 2013 at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.
ii. This is the third LNG terminal. The
remaining two are set up at Dahej and Hazira in Gujarat.
iii. With the commissioning of 5 million
tonnes (MT) capacity Dabhol LNG terminal, the overall capacity of India to
manage the imported LNG reached approximately 20 MT per annum.
iv. The Dabhol LNG terminal was set up at
a cost of 4000 crore Rupees. This terminal would play a crucial role in meeting
the demands of the industries in Maharashtra.
v. The Dabhol LNG terminal would act as
entry for natural gas to western as well as southern parts of India including
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Maharashtra.
NOTE: i.
Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private limited (RGPPL) operates the Dabhol LNG
terminal.
ii. RGPPL is the joint venture of NTPC
and GAIL India as the prime shareholders along with the rest of the equity held
by Maharashtra State Electricity Board and financial institutions.
iii. GAIL however is the commercial
operator of this terminal and had started commissioning cargo for it back in
December 2012.
4.RBI: Private Sector of India
registered a Net Profit of 4.3 percent in First Half of 2012-13
i. The data released from the Reserve
Bank of India on 9 January 2013 reported that the Private Corporate Sector of
India registered a net profit of 91800 crore rupees in the first half of
2012-13 (April to September), which is 4.3 percent higher than the one reported
in the first half of the 2011-2012.
ii. The report states that with a net
profit margin of 17 percent, the performance of the Information Technology (IT)
sector was better, when compared with the manufacturing and non-IT service
sectors.
iii. The net profit margin of the non-IT
service sector and manufacturing sector were 4.9 percent and 5.7 percent
respectively.
iv. The manufacturing companies show a
rise in its net profit by 2.4 percent, which is equivalent to 61200 crore
rupees and the non-IT companies dropped down by 3.9 percent, from the one
recorded previous year.
v. The companies involved in computer
and activities related to it show a rise in net profit of 18.6 percent that is
equivalent to 18200 crore rupees.
vi. The financial companies registered a
net profit of 27.3 percent that was equivalent to 8500 crore rupees, when
compared to previous year profit.
NOTE: The details of the report states that
the operating profit (EBITDA) of these companies has gone up by 4.9 percent to
1.88 lakh crore rupees.
5.CJI Altamas Kabir constituted
Special Bench to Hear Crimes against Women
Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir
on 10 January 2013 set up a Special Bench of Justices of A.K. Patnaik and Gyan
Sudha Misra to hear cases of crime against women.
NOTE: The Bench is going to start its
hearing from 14 January2013 onwards and already a total of 526 cases relating
to rape, dowry and other sexual offences from year 2002 had been listed before
the Bench which is anticipated to take up the matters on day-to-day basis.
Cases of accused languishing in jails
will be given priority and will be taken up first.
6.Union Cabinet approved Higher Funds
for Indira Awaas Yojana
The Union Cabinet on 10 January 2013
approved the Ministry of Rural Development’s proposal to increase the unit cost
under Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY), keeping under consideration the sharp increase
in the cost of materials.
i. As per the approved cost, unit
assistance under the scheme in plain areas had been increased from 45000 to
70000 rupees and for the hilly and difficult areas it had been increase from
48500 to 75000 rupees.
ii. The enhancement of unit assistance
provided for homestead site to rural below poverty line (BPL) had been increased
from 10000 rupees to 20000 rupees. The unit assistance is provided to those
households who have neither agricultural land nor a house site.
NOTE:
Indira
Awas Yojana is a
major scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development which directly aims at
addressing rural housing issues by providing grant for construction and
upgradation of dwelling units of BPL families.
The priority is especially given to
Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, freed bonded labourers and physically
challenged persons with financial assistance.
7.Assembly polls in Tripura on 14th
Feb; Meg’laya, Nagaland on 23rd Feb
i. Assembly elections in Tripura
will be held on 14th Feb and in Meghalaya and Nagaland on 23rd Feb and their
results will be out on 28th Feb, the Election Commission announced on Friday.
ii. The EC also announced bye-elections to nine assembly
constituencies in Mizoram, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Punjab on 23rd
February and in Assam,
Bihar and Maharashtra on 24th
February, but their results will be out together on 28th February.
iii.
Electronic voting machines will be used in elections to the three north-eastern
states as well as in bye- elections in the seven states.
8.Malala Yousafzai Honoured with
France's Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women's Freedom !
i. Malala Yousafzai, 15, the schoolgirl from Pakistan shot
by Taliban for campaigning girls’ education, on 9 January 2013 received
France's Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women's Freedom in Paris.
ii. Malala’s father Ziaudin Yousafzai
received the honour on her behalf.
iii. The award is accompanied with 2.5
million Rupees honorarium.
NOTE: In the first week of January 2013,
Malala Yousafzai got released from the British hospital. She is waiting for the
reconstructive surgery to be performed on the skull. Malala was shot by the
Taliban in her head after her school bus drove through Mingora town of Swat
Valley of Pakistan.
United Nation
Declared November 10 as Malala day.
Malala Yousafzai awarded
with Bravery Award by World Peace and Prosperity Foundation.
9. 37 Year Old Woman Became First
Complete Body Donor of AIIMS
Chandrakanta Rawat, the 37-year-old
Uttrakhand woman became the first complete body donor in January 2013 at the
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
Chandrakanta Rawat was admitted to the
hospital on 2 January 2013 and was declared brain-dead. Rawat’s husband
permitted the doctors to retrieve her organs.’
NOTE:
Heart, two
kidneys as well as liver of the woman were used for the patients in need while
other organs such as bones and cornea were kept to be used in the future. While
the heart of the woman was used for the purpose of transplant at AIIMS, her
kidneys were transported to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and liver was utilised at
the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Vasant Kunj for the purpose of transplant.
10.Manpreet Kaur Won Maiden National
Title in National Weightlifting Championship 2013 !
Manpreet Kaur, 23, of All India Police
claimed the women’s +75kg gold medal in the final day of the National
weightlifting championship at SRM University campus, Uttar Pradesh on 10
January 2013.
Final
Result:
Women
+ 75kg:
i. Manpreet Kaur (AIP) snatch 85kg, clean and jerk 104kg,
total 189kg
ii. Binitha Devi (Kar) snatch 86kg, clean
and jerk 101kg, total 187kg
iii. Amanpreet Kaur (Pun) snatch 84kg ,
clean and jerk 101kg , total 185kg
Mens:
+ 105 Kg:
i. Himanshu Kumar Chang (RSPB) snatch
154kg, clean and jerk 192kg, total 346kg
ii. Sandeep Kumar (SSCB) snatch 135kg,
clean and jerk 193kg, total 328kg
iii. Pardeep Kumar (MP) snatch
139kg, clean and jerk 188kg, total 327kg
ibps ka result agaya hai....
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