NATIONAL FEBRUARY 2011

NATIONAL FEBRUARY 2011

• Government sources indicated that civil servants in Central ministries and departments have signed on to the Results Framework Document (RFD); initiated by the Cabinet Secretariat, will, for the first time, begin receiving performance-related incentives. These annual performance-related incentives will, depend on whether the concerned civil servants have scored well over 70 per cent in the evaluation scheme, and there could be as much as 40 per cent increase of the basic pay for the top scorers. The Fourth Pay Commission first made such a promise 22 years ago. The secretary of that department will have to justify the evaluation before a panel of experts before it is finalised. The RFD's objective is to improve governance, increase efficiency, transparency and accountability — especially the last two, given the spate of financial scandals in the government recently. 
• The Bombay High Court on 22 February upheld the death sentence awarded by the Trial court to the lone surviving gunman, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab in the 26/11 Terror Attack Case. 
• The 2-day Indian Seed Congress (ISC)-2011 has commenced in Hyderabad. 
• The Governing Board of the new Malinda University on 21 February laid down a road map to make the institution functional tentatively by 2013. The University will start with seven schools, primarily in humanities. Goya Saharawi has been appointed as the first Vice-Chancellor of the Malinda University, to be set up just about 10 km away from the historic location of the Malinda University in Bihar. Amartya Sen is the chairperson of the Governing Board. 
• Accepting the “pre-planned conspiracy” theory of the prosecution, A Special Fast Track Court — appointed by the Gujarat High Court on the orders of the Supreme Court — on 22 February convicted 31 accused and acquitted 63 others in the Godhra train burning case. 
• Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh on 22 February announced the government's decision to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to look into the 2G spectrum allocation scam in both the houses of the parliament 
• As a part of the efforts to rescue stranded Indians from turmoil-ridden Libya, Indian Naval Ships INS Jalashwa and INS Mysore set sail from Mumbai on 26 February. INS Jalashwa is a Landing Platform Dock type of amphibious platform, is particularly designed for sea lift missions and is also capable of undertaking humanitarian missions. INS Jalashwa could carry nearly 2,500 people, while the INS Mysore could carry 800-1,000 people. 
• The State government of Andhra Pradesh and Brighton Equipment Corporation of USA on23 February inked a Memorandum of Understanding for Rs.2, 900-crore nuclear power plant at Nakkapally in Visakhapatnam district. The MoU was signed at the Secretariat in the presence of Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. Officials told that about one lakh people would get employment once the plant was completed in five years. They termed it one of the biggest foreign direct investment units in the State in recent times. 
• Sulabh International, a leading Indian NGO working for promotion of environmental sanitation globally, has announced to launch sanitation drive with its innovative cost-effective toilet technology in ASEAN region. Sulabh plans to set up a sanitation centre in the Cambodian Capital at a cost of 500,000 dollars that could be used to showcase its path breaking technology. Sulabh international founder is Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak. 
• Union minister of state for defence M.M.Pallam Raju said, Nizampatnam,Guntur dt. A.P. was identified for setting up Coast Guard Academy. 
• In one of the Biggest Findings of “hidden treasure” from a religious place, Orissa's Endowment Department officials and the police stumbled upon 522 silver slabs weighing about 18 tones from a mutt in Puri .As per the present market price, the value of the metal is estimated to be around Rs. 90 crore. The huge stock of silver was found from four Sinduka (wooden containers) placed inside a room, closed from all sides by brick walls, in the Emar Mutt in front of the Sri Jagannath Temple. 
• Ms. Mamta Benarji has introduced the 2011-12 Railway Budget on 25 February in the parliament. The highlights of the budget are- 
  No hike in passenger fare and freight rates.
  1. Highest ever Plan outlay of Rs. 57, 630 crore proposed for Railways.
  2. Rs. 9,583 crore provided for new lines.
  3. 1300 km new lines, 867 km doubling of lines and 1017 km gauge conversion targeted in 2011-12.
  4. 56 new Express Trains, 3 new Shatabdis and 9 Duronto trains to be introduced.
  5. AC Double Decker services on Jaipur-Delhi and Ahmedabad-Mumbai routes.
  6. New Super AC Class to be introduced.
  7. A new portal for e-ticketing to be launched shortly. Booking charges will be cheaper with a charge of only Rs. 10 for AC classes and Rs.5 for others.
  8. Pan-India multi-purpose smart card "Go India" to be introduced.
  9. 236 more stations to be upgraded as Adarsh Stations.
  10. 47 additional suburban services in Mumbai and 50 new suburban services proposed for Kolkata.
  11. A special package of two new trains and two projects for the States managing trouble free run of trains through out the year.
  12. Anti Collision Devise (ACD) sanctioned to cover 8 zonal railways.
  13. GPS Based 'Fog Safe' Device to be deployed.
  14. All India Security Help line on a single number set up.
  15. All state capitals in the North-East except Sikkim to be connected by Rail in next seven years.
  16. A Bridge Factory in J & K and a state-of-art Institute for Tunnel and Bridge Engineering is proposed at Jammu.
  17. A Diesel Locomotive Centre will be set-up in Manipur.
  18. A Centre of Excellence in Software at Darjeeling proposed under the aegis of CRIS.
  19. Rail Industrial Parks at Jellingham and New Bongaigaon proposed.
  20. 700 MW gas-based power plant to be set up at Thakurli in Maharashtra.
  21. A scheme for socially desirable projects, 'Pradhan Mantri Rail Vikas Yojana' with Non-lapsable fund proposed.
  22. 10,000 shelter units proposed for track side dwellers in Mumbai, Sealdah, Siliguri, Tiruchirapalli on pilot basis.
  23. Concession of 50% to press correspondents with family increased to twice a year.
  24. Senior Citizens concession to be hiked from 30 % to 40 %.
  25. Scholarship for Girl child of Group-D railway employees increased to Rs.1200 per month.
  26. Recruitment for 1.75 lakh vacancies of Group 'C' and 'D' including to fill up backlog of SC/ST initiated, 16,000 ex-servicemen to be inducted by March 2011.
  27. A separate sports cadre to be created.
  28. 2011-12 declared 'Year of Green Energy' for Railways.
  29. Freight loading of 993 MT and passenger growth of 6.4 % estimated for 2011-12.
  30. Gross Traffic Receipts at Rs.1, 06,239 crore, exceeding one lakh crore mark for the first time estimated.
  31. Ordinary Working Expenses assessed at Rs. 73,650 crore.
• Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi on for allegedly carrying a huge sum of undeclared foreign currency. 
• A new organisation, Anti-Corruption Citizen's Forum (ACCF), an initiative by a group of concerned citizens including former judges and former IAS officers was formed in Hyderabad on 13 February with the objective of curbing the menace, build pressure groups and urge the government to take action. Among those in the core group that worked to form the ACCF were former Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court A. Lakshmana Rao, former Supreme Court judge B. P. Jeevan Reddy, former High Court Judge Reddappa Reddy and former Lok Ayukta Justice Ramanujam, former IAS officers K. R. Venugopal, K. Padmanabhaiah and C. Umamaheswara Rao. 
• A.P.Chief Minister, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy performed the ‘ground breaking' ceremony for three Tata Group projects in Hyderabad on 14 February promoted Hyderabad onto the global aerospace map.Involving an investment of Rs. 1,000 crore and providing direct and indirect employment to 9,000 persons, the three aerospace manufacturing projects at Adibhatla village in Ranga Reddy district are Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructure, (joint venture between Tata Advanced Systems (TAS) and Lockheed Martin), Tata Aerospace Systems (JV of TAS and Sikorsky Aircraft) and Nova Integrated systems (Tata enterprise). They are expected to go on stream by 2011 end. 
• The A.P State Legislative Assembly has set a record of sorts by becoming the first in the country to digitise video records of all the debates in the House from 1996.The debates, digitised in DVD format, will shortly be uploaded on the Internet. Members can now take a copy of some of the historic debates or the debates in which they took part and upload it on YouTube or any other site on the Net. 
• Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had given the conditional clearance for the 4000-MW Ultra-Mega Power Project (UMPP) at Bedabahal in Orissa. 
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 19 February laid the foundation stones of the country's second National Institute of Design (NID) at Jorhat,Assam and the Assam centre of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT) at Sivasagar.The first National Institute of Design was set up in Ahmedabad 50 years ago. 
• Giving in to opposition demands, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced government’s decision to set up a JPC into the 2G spectrum scam, saying the country could "ill afford" disruption of the crucial Budget session of Parliament. 
• Axis bank has formally launched the first ETM (Enywhere Teller Mechine)service in Vijayawada on15 february with the bank already tying up with over 120 merchants as POS(Point Of Sale) terminals to provide its new service to its customers. The bank has plans to extend this service all over the State by March next year by roping in nearly 500 merchants as POS terminals by that time.ETM service is more convenient as the card holder need not look for a bank' ATM. 
• The expert group of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the task force of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) broadly agreed to settle their turf war over the jurisdiction of medical education. The National Commission for Human Resources in Health (NCHRH) will get to lay down the minimum standards of medical education, while all health-related research will come under the purview of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), promoted by the HRD Ministry. 
• The First Urine Bank in India has started in a village Musiri near Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu. 
• A group of naval divers on board INS Nireekshak, the Navy's only diving support and submarine rescue vessel, set a new national record last week by diving to a depth of 233 metres in the seas off Kochi coast, bettering a record of 218 metres attained by Navy divers in March 2007.INS Nireekshak, a 3,600-tonnes ship that was commissioned into the navy in 1995, is capable of diving up to 300 metres. 
• The Centre on 18 February annulled the controversial deal between the Indian Space Research Organisation's commercial arm Antrix Corporation and Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia.The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, paved the way for annulling the agreement by declaring that the government will not be able to provide the orbit slot in S-Band to Antrix for commercial purposes, including for its existing contractual obligations, in view of strategic requirements. 
• Japan is to extend an aid of Rs.2, 557 crore (Yen 46.401 billion) to India for three projects through its Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) programme. The projects pertain to cleaning the Yamuna in the national capital, crop diversification promotion in Himachal Pradesh and biodiversity conservation and greening in Tamil Nadu. The current aid quantum is part of the 2010 Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) ODA loan package. 
• The 71 st session of the Indian History Congress was held at the Gaur Banga University in Malda,West Bengal. 
• The two day Ministerial Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) was held in New Delhi. 
• The Andhra Pradesh’s 12th annual Nandi Drama Festival got off to a colourful start at Nandyal on19 February. C. Pardhasaradhi, Commissioner, Information and Public Relations and Managing Director of AP State Film, Television and Theatre Development Corporation, formally inaugurated the festival. 
• The Supreme Court has stated in a case that -If a sessions judge passes an erroneous or patently unjustified order, the High Court concerned can suo motu question its correctness by an administrative decision. 
• The Gigantic Industrial exhibition 'win-2011' being organised at Istanbul from feb 3-6. India has been named as "Partner Country" for the exhibition over 44,000 firms and 60 other countries are taking part in the show. 
• The annual Flemingo festival on Feb 15 & 16 would be conducted to mark the arrival of migratory birds for their winter sojourn to Nelapattu Birds Sanctuary near sullurpet. 
• Orissa Cheif Minister Naveen Patnaik has inaugurated the 3-day All-India Telugu conference here Khammam (A.P.) This only district from Andhra Pradesh has been selected for the Central-sponsored 'Bal Bandhu' Scheme. This scheme has been introduced for-protection of children's rights in areas of civil unrest 'through the intervention of the community and enabling the children access education, health, nutrition and safety provisions. 
• The central government has selected 10 dt's across five states for implementing of the scheme. 
• The Union Health Minister inaugurated the newly - constructed Central Days Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) Bhavan in Hyderabad. 
• Prime Minister inaugurated the 5-day Common Wealth Law Conference, largest event of its kind in the common law world in Hyderabad from February 5-9. 
• The one-man justice (Rt) ShivRaj Patil Committee that looked into the processes and procedures followed by the department of telecommunications in the allocation of licenses and spectrum between 2001 and 2009 has identified officially responsible for serious lapses in implementing the telecom policy transparently and fairly. Shivraj Patil submitted the report to the Union Communications Minister Kapil Sibal. 
• The annual Surajkund Mela, that highlights the finest handloom and handicraft traditions of the country has started from February 1st, at surajkund village near South Delhi. Uzbekistan is the partner country of 25th Surajkund Craft Mela-2011. The magic of vibrant Andhra Pradesh is the theme state for this year mela. 
• Magsaysay award winner and activist Sandeep Pandey has decided to return the 'Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) Achievement Award, that was presented to him in 2009, February to the government, as no action has been taken yet in a 2009 incident in which dalit workers were beaten by the husband of a former panchayat leader when the workers had come to inspect the NREGS documents related to their wages.
• A huge amount of foreign currency around Rs 7 cr was seized during the raids at a transit home of 17th Karmapa Ugyen Trinely Dorje at Sidhbari (Dharmasala), Himachal Pradesh.
• The Shunglu Committee submitted its interim-report on irregularities in awarding broadcasting rights during common wealth Games. It strongly indicting the suspended Prasar Bharati CEO, B.S. Lalli and Doordarshan D-G Aruna Sharma for colluding with U.K. based broadcasting firm SIS live during the CWG's-2010, that resulted in a loss of Rs. 135 cr to the Government, and called for strict action against them under IPC and the prevention of corruption Act. 
• United State's renowned Duke University has decided to set up its branch in Andhra Pradesh. 
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the Chief Minsters conference on Internal security in New Delhi and warned that serious challenges and threats to the country's internal security still persist from left-wing extremism, cross-border terrorism and religious fundamentalism and ethnic violence. 
• The central bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 2nd February arrested the former Union communications and Information technology Minister, A. Raja and two officers who had worked under him, for their role in the grant of licenses and allocation of 2G-spectrum during 2008 in violation of establishing guidelines and procedures. 
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says - the centre proposes to create a Biometric data base of all workers covered under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. It will be used to authenticate work applications, work site attendance and wage payments. 
• The Pepperdine University of California, U.S.A., Considered one of the top-20 universities in the world has proposed to setup its campus in the Andhra Pradesh state with an investment of $ 1,000 cr. 
• Census-2011 termed as the largest peace time mobilisation in the world, will see the massive exercise of population enumeration across the country simultaneously between February 9 and 28. Registrar-General and Census Commission C.Chandramouli said that the biggest ever census attempted in the history of mankind to enumerate the country's 1.2 billion population would be conducted across 35 states and U.T's. 
• The exercise will mark a mile stone, as the first ever National Population Register (NPR) will also be prepared. 
• The population enumeration has already been done in the snow-based areas of Himachal Pradesh, J&K and some other parts of the country. 
• The IIM-Ahmedabad has been placed 11th in the Financial Times Global MBA ranking 
  of the world's top 100 business schools in 2011. 
• Speaking at the 11th Delhi sustainable development summit, P.M. Manmohan Singh said that - India is set to reduce the emissions intensity of our GDP by 20% etween 2005 and 2020 and India had setup a National Action Plan on Climate change which will have 8 national missions to look into different areas of sustainability and energy efficiency. 
• The department of posts announced a strategic partnership with the unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) for registration and distribution of Unique Identification (UID) cards to the citizens. 
• Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman, Nandan Nilekani who also headed the 'Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects' (TAGUP) submitted the report to the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee. 
• Railway Minister Mamata Benarjee announced the setting up of a wagon component Factory near Nandigram, West Bengal. 
• The Rail coach factory in Kapurtala rolled out 15 coaches of the country's first jerk-free Duranto express train to be run on the Mumbai -Secunderabad section. 
• The United Liberation front of Assam (ULFA) said that its general council had endorsed the resolution of the Central Executive Council (CEC) to sit for talks with the centre without any pre-conditions. 
• The Indian Air Force (IAF) has inducted the tactical aircraft transport C-130J Super Hercules aircraft at the Hindon Air force station, Ghaziabad. 
• If was manufactured by Lockheed Martin, USA and it can be used for troop deployment, special operations, air-to-air refueling & disaster relief etc. 
• Notorious psychopath killer Nalla Nagender Reddy, 29, who had been on the run since May 2009, was shot dead in a police encounter in Benguluru early on (2/1/2011). A native of Subashnager in Nizamabad. 
• An Army helicopter crashed at near Nasik residential area in Maharasta on (2/2/2011), Killing pilot Major 'Bhanu Chandar Gupta' and co-pilot Major 'Atul Garje'. Bhanu native of 'Vijayanagaram' in Andhra Pradesh. Atul Garje native of 'Maharastra'.
• University of Hyderabad singned a MoU with Norway's largest and oldest public institution, University of Oslo. The thrust areas of the association include collaborative research, exchange of scholars and informaion.
• The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board organised a workshop as part of World 'Wetlands Day' It was Inaugurated by A.Surendar Raj, joint chief environment engineer.
• Palamuru University got Guinness World Record, said by VC Gopal Reddy for the 'largest barefoot walk', 2500 people in various age groups participated in university campus. The existing Guinness record involving 1,141 participants was held by Infinitus Company Ltd, China.
• Maa TV launches two new channels named 'Maa Movies' and 'Maa Junior' on Friday at Hyderabad. Film actor Ram Charan was inducted as a Director on the board of the channel network.
• 17th Legal Conference of Common Wealth Nations started at Hi-tec Convenction Center in Hyderabad on 5/2/2011. After 40 years First Legal Conference held in India.
• "Indian School of Business" Ranked 13th Place for Global MBA Ranking-2011.The "Financial Times" has released the Global MBA Rankings. 
• 14 youths, travelling atop Himagiri Express train, were killed when they hit against an over head bridge near the Rosa station in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh 
• Cracker unit blast occurred at 'Shornur' near 'Palakkad' in Kerala on (1/2/2010). 
• Two sisters were killed by Lashkare Terrorists at Sopora, Baramulla District in Kashmir 
• The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been placed 11th in The Financial Times Global MBA Ranking of the world's top 100 business schools in 2011.
• The population enumeration phase of Census 2011 that is to start on February 9 and continue till February 28 will feature several “firsts” in the history of census in India. For publicising the Census 2011, the Union Home Ministry has roped in cricket star 'Sachin Tendulkar' and film actor 'Priyanka Chopra' to campaign free of cost. Deputy General Rigistar Mr. Banerjee said, the UNICEF – partner of Census 2011- has roped in the two personalities and they will be seen in ads with the slogan “You count, so we count”.