24.02.2008

• Indian Air Force today inducted the Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) Hawk 132 in Bidar.
  British Aerospace Systems (BAe) built Hawk
  Air Chief Fali H Major.
  Ulysses- 1. 1990
  2. transmit useful data on solar winds.
  3. joint European-NASA project
  Philippines – landslide and rain.
  · Brazil and Argentina agreed to develop a nuclear reactor jointly.
  · 7th Session of the South Africa-India Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) in Cape Town,
  · credit-linked capital subsidy scheme (CLCSS) for micro and small enterprises (MSE), for a period of five years that will enable them to avail subsidy of up to Rs 15 lakh on loan of Rs one crore. started by the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises in the Tenth Five Year Plan. The scheme was modified and the ceiling of loan was raised from Rs 40 lakh to Rs one crore in September 2005.
  · Under SLR provisions, banks have to park 25 percent of their deposits in government bonds.
  · Boeing, world's largest maker of commercial jetliners
  
  · North beat West to retain Duleep Trophy; pocket Rs 30 lakh
  · Noted space scientist and former Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman Prof U R Rao has been elected as Fellow of the prestigious World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS).
  · Solicitor-General G.E. Vahanvati
  · HDFC Bank to buy CBoP (Centurian Bank of Punjab)
  · amendment made in 1986, there are a total of 25 Supreme Court judges.
  · 2010 Youth Olympiad
  o Singapore is set to host this first ever Olympiad

world current affairs 2008

• Hundreds Die in Tribal Violence in Kenya
• President of Georgia - Mikhail Saakashvili
• Serbian President - Boris Tadic
• Kosovo Declares Independence

2007 Disasters

PLACE- REASON

Indonesia - plane crash

Florida - tornado

Sumatra, Indonesia - earthquake

Yogyakarta, Indonesia - plane crash

• Ulyanovskaya, Russia- methane explosion
  
• Honiara, Solomon Islands - earthquake





• Doula, Cameroon - plane crash


• Greensburg, Kansas - tornado
• Novokuznetsk, Russia - methane explosion
• Chittagong, Bangladesh and Beijing, China - rain
• Karachi, Pakistan - storm
• West Bengal, India- rain
• Niigata, Japan - earthquake
• Sao Paulo, Brazil - aeroplane skids
• Minneapolis, Minn- bridge collapse
• Benaleka, Congo- train derailed
• North Korea- rain
• Hunan province, China- bridge collapse
• coast of central Peru - earthquake
• Greece- fire
• Sumatra, Indonesia- earthquake
• Phuket, Bangkok ,Thailand - aeroplane skids





• Sudan - flood



• southern Colombia- landslide
• southern Calif- wildfire
• Carribean- Tropical Storm Noel
• Mexico - floods
• southern Russia- storm
• Bangladesh - Cyclone Sidr
• Donetsk, Ukraine- mining explosion
• Antarctica- ship sink
• western Turkey - plane crash
• Omaha, Nebraska- gun fire





• South Korea - oil spill

world current affairs 2007

• Sudan president - Omar al-Bashir


• first snowfall in 89 years - Buenos Aires(argentina)


• murder of some 1.5 million Armenians during World War I - by turkey


• Winter Olympics in 2014 - Sochi, Russia


• Cyclone Sidr - Bangladesh


• Askariya Shrine - Samarra


• The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, massacred between 1 million and 2 million people in what country in the 1970s? - Cambodia


• Ukrainian President - Viktor Yushchenko


• Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative candidate,


• Ségolène Royal, of the Socialist Party


• Earthquake and Tsunami Strike the Solomon Islands


• Rev. Ian Paisley - Northern Ireland executive government.


• Robert Zoellick as the president of the World Bank


• crimes against humanity for supporting rebel troops in Sierra Leone's brutal civil war that claimed the lives of about 300,000 people in the 1990s. - Former Liberian Dictator Charles Taylor


• G8 Conference - Heiligendamm, agree to consider ways to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.new global climate policy by 2009, a potential successor to the Kyoto Protocol.spend $60 billion to treat AIDS and other diseases in the third world.


• Israeli Prime Minister - Ehud Barak


• Chemical Ali - Ali Hassan al-Majid


• Israeli President in Rape Case - Moshe Katsav


• News Corporation - Rupert Murdoch, Wins Approval to Buy Dow Jones ( previously owned by The Bancroft family)


• Xanana Gusmão as prime minister - East Timor


• new constitution - Thailand


• President of Turkey - Abdullah Gul


• Barbara Morgan - former teacher , Endeavour to the International Space Station


• Quake Near Lima, Peru


• Hurricane Dean - Mexico


• Viktor Zubkov - Russian PM


• Yasuo Fukuda - Japanese PM


• Three Earthquakes Strike Indonesia


• Cristina Fernández de Kirchner - president argentine


• Wildfires Devastate Southern California


• Discovery - space shuttle


• President Mikheil Saakashvili - Georgia


• Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch - Khmer Rouge Leader


• Prime Minister Fouad Siniora - Lebanon

21/02/2008

1. Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956.
2. In 1986, the number of judges in the Supreme Court were increased from 18 to 25 plus the Chief Justice.
3. 2007 Sahitya Academi award - Amarkant was awarded in Hindi language

19/02/2008

• Punjab worst in child sex ratio: UNPF in the age group of 0-6 years.


• Equal Opportunities Commission - Chairperson N R M Menon .


• Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZ (EPCES).Special Economic Zones have generated employment for 1.46 lakh people in two years, while exports have doubled during the first nine months of this fiscal to touch 10 billion dollars (Rs 40,000 crore).

• Currently 42 SEZs are operational in the country, while 197 zones have been notified and 138 have got in-principle approval.

• EPCES Director-General Lalit Singhal

• Sebi chief - C B Bhave

• Roger Federer has won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award for a fourth straight time while Justine Henin has won the women's award for the first time.

• Lewis Hamilton for the World Breakthrough of the Year award and British marathon runner Paula Radcliffe for the World Comeback of the Year award.

• fifth National Winter Games - Gulmarg

• 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada

• Amy Winehouse - five of 50th Grammy Awards.

• MESSENGER probe - Mercury

• 
  India's Tiger populations dwindles by half, only 1,411 left

• Akshaya Patra Foundation, serving noon meals - The ISKON supported Foundation

• UN to celebrate 2009 as International Year of Astronomy

• India's first ankle replacement surgery performed

The top ten smokers countries

The top ten smokers countries, identified by Forbes magazine include Kenya, Turkey, Namibia, Yemen, Guinea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Mongolia, Nauru and Sao Tome and Principe.

80,000 women die during abortions every year in India

Around 11 million abortions are carried out in India every year and nearly 80,000 women die during the process, according to a research.
A majority of abortions are performed by untrained hands and studies suggest that nearly 80,000 women die due to unsafe abortions, Dr Hema Divakar, Chairperson of Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies in India (FOGSI), said in Bangalore.

Stressing on the need to promote awareness about emergency contraception methods, she said research shows that 78 per cent of pregnancies in the country are unplanned, of which 25 per cent are unwanted, leading to approximately 11 million abortions annually.

"The level of emergency contraception is abysmally low in India," she told reporters on Wednesday quoting from a WHO research, adding that only one out of 100 women were aware of it.

Recent advertisements had created some awareness, but the sale of these contraceptives was yet to pick up, she said.

An Emergency Contraceptive (EC) can prevent pregnancy by over 80 per cent if taken within 72 hours of intercourse.

However, these pills are to be taken only in an emergency and not as a regular form of contraception, she added.

Clearing misconceptions associated with EC, she it was not an abortion pill and cannot abort a foetus once pregnancy is established.

EC acts as an interceptive agent that prevents ovulation, fertilisation or implantation depending on the phase of menstrual cycle, Divakar added.

Proper and timely use of EC pills can bring down the spiralling unsafe abortions, she added.

Dismissing allegations that EC would lead to an increase in sexual activity among youth, Divakar said, "It will only prevent unwanted pregnancies and reduce the number of abortions. In a country like India, where women are not often empowered to take decisions, EC could help in not burdening them with unwanted pregnancies."

Rekha Gogi, Medical Officer, Family Planning Association of India, said promiscuity and sexual activity among youth has always been there. "It is only now that it is coming out in the open."

However, she did agree that pregnancies among unmarried women had been on the rise in the past few years.

"The EC will only help in cutting down the number of unsafe abortions that many of these try to resort to when they are pregnant."

Divakar said that flexible job hours, growing presence of call centres and educational institutions have led to an increase in the sexual activity among the youth in Bangalore.

Teenage smoking may harm brain: study

Smoking can be harmful not only for health but for the development of brain especially when taken during teenage stage.
Brain is particularly vulnerable to the effects of tobacco during adolescence, when it rapidly matures.

Researchers have shown that young smokers, particularly boys are more likely to suffer hearing problems making it harder for them to focus in class.

"The levels of disruption (to hearing) are significant enough that if you were already struggling at school it could tip you towards school failure," said Dr Leslie Jacobsen, a paediatric psychiatrist at Yale University in the United States.

Dr Jacobsen looked at the effect of smoking and brain development in a group of youngsters aged between 14 and 19.

The changes found in the regions responsible for relaying signals to the ear were greatest in the smokers suggesting the brain is at heightened risk while maturing during adolescence, the magazine reports.

The study added to research showing nicotine can affect brain development in the womb, said Dr Richard Todd a child psychiatrist in the US state of Missouri.

"It seems the brain remains vulnerable long into adolescence," he said.

Previous research has shown toddlers whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are up to 12 times more likely to be disruptive, aggressive and withdrawn.

Smoking in pregnancy is also linked to a host of health problems, including still birth and premature birth.

It has also been linked to the risk of cot death.