Round Up Current General Knowledge Jan'09

MASTERPEDIA
Current General
Knowledge
ABBREVIATIONS
ASEM: Asia-Europe Meeting.
ATV: Advanced Technology Vessel.
BMD: Ballistic Missile Defence system.
BOSS: Bharat Operating System
Solutions.
CERN: European Organisation for
Nuclear Research (Pronounced
CERN in French)
CTT: Commodities Transaction Tax.
DST: Daylight Saving Time.
GJM: Gorkha Janamukti Morcha.
IBEX: Interstellar Boundary Explorer Mission.
IEX: Indian Energy Exchange Ltd.
IFRS:
International
Financial
Reporting Standards.
IMS: Infrastructure Management
Services.
IPTV: Internet Protocol Television.
ISTRAC: ISRO Telemetry, Tracking
and Command Network.
ITIRS: Information Technology
Investment Regions.
LAF: Liquidity Adjustment Facility.
LHC: Large Hadron Collider.
LLP: Limited Liability Partnerships.
MIP: Moon Impact Probe.
MVNO: Mobile Virtual Network
Operator.
NADA: (The) National Anti-Doping
Agency.
NATA: National Aptitude Test for
Architecture.
NDRF: National Disaster Response
Force.
NDTL: (The) National Dope Testing
Laboratory.
NeGP: National e-Governance Plan.
NPR: National Population Register.
ODF: Open Document Format.
OXML: Open eXtended Markup
Language.
REMF: Real Estate Mutual Funds.
SLBM: Submarine Launched Ballis-
tic Missile.
SWAN: State Wide Area Network.
TMC: Terrain Mapping Camera.
WADA: World Anti-Doping Agency.
AVIATION
First biofuel-powered flight:
Billed as a green fuel breakthrough in
the aviation sector, the worlds first
flight by a commercial airline partly
powered by biofuel touched down in
Amsterdam on February 24, 2008,
after a three-hour journey from the
Heathrow airport. Virgin Atlantics
Boeing 747 had one of its four
engines connected to an independent biofuel tank that provided 20 per
cent of the engines power. The flight
did not carry passengers.
AWARDS
Arjuna Awards, 2007: Chitra
Soman (Athletics), Anup Sridhar
(Badminton), Johnson Varghese
(Boxing), Harika Dronavalli (Chess),
Arjun Atwal (Golf), Prabhjot Singh
(Hockey), Tombi Devi (Judo),
Bajranglal Takhar (Rowing), Avneet
Kaur Sidhu (Shooting), Alka Tomar
(Wrestling) and Farman Basha (Powerlifting, disabled).
Ashok Chakra, 2008: Major
Dinesh Raghu Raman, brave young
officer who sacrificed his life trying to
save a colleague during a fierce
encounter in Kashmir has been
posthumously awarded the countrys
highest peacetime gallantry award,
the Ashok Chakra.
Three others, Captain Harshan R. of
2 Parachute Regiment, Special
Forces (Posthumous), Naib Subedar
Chunni Lal of 8 J&K Light Infantry
(Posthumous) and Colonel Vasanth
Venugopal of 9 Maratha Light
Abbreviations
Aviation
Awards
Books
Days, Years
Defence
Discovery
Expeditions
Places
Projects
Research
Space
Research
Miscellaneous
Infantry (Posthumous), were awarded Ashoka Chakra on the eve of

Independence Day, 2007.
Best of the Booker award,
2008: Salman Rushdies Midnights
Children, based loosely on Indias
independence, has won the prestigious award after securing approval
of readers from across the globe. The
award celebrates the 40th anniversary of the prestigious Man Booker
Prize for Fiction.
Best Parliamentarian Award,
2007: Information and Broadcasting
Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi was
selected best parliamentarian for
2007. He was chosen by the panel
from a list of 14 claimants. He first
entered the Lok Sabha in 1971 and is
serving his fifth term.
Bharat Ratna, 2008: Indian Classical vocalist Pandit Bhimsen Joshi has
been honoured with Bharat Ratna,
the highest civilian award of India.
Bihari Puruskar, 2007: The
award has been given to Yashwant
Vyas for his novel Comrade Godse.
Comrade Godse is a satire dealing
with the problem of communalism.
Booker Prize, 2008: Debutant
Indian novelist Aravind Adiga has
won the Man Booker Prize, one of the
worlds most prestigious literary
awards, for his novel The White
Tiger. It was only the third time in the
Bookers 40-year history that a firsttime writer had claimed the award,
and, at 33, Adiga is also one of its
youngest winners.
C.K. Nayudu Award, 2007: For-
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ROUND-UP of Last 12 Months
MASTERPEDIA
mer Indian skipper Nari Contractor,
whose Test career was cut short after
he suffered a near-fatal skull injury in
the West Indies in 1962, has been
conferred the Cricket Boards prestigious Award.
Commonwealth Writers Prize,
2008: Canadas Lawrence Hill is winner of the best book award for The
Book of Negroes, a novel about forgotten story of 18th century Africans. Indian-origin writer Indra Sinhas book
Animals People, based on the Bhopal
gas tragedy, was adjudged the best
book in Europe and South Asia.
Bangladeshs Tahmima Anam bagged
the award for best first book, A Golden
Age, a fictionalised account of her
countrys war for independence in
1971.
Dada Saheb Phalke Award,
2006: Eminent film-maker Tapan Sinha for his outstanding contribution to
the field of Indian cinema.
Dhyan Chand Award, 2007:
Hakam Singh (Athletics), Mukhbain
Singh (Hockey) and Gian Singh
(Wrestling) have been given the award
for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and
Games.
E&Y Awards, 2007: B. Ramalinga
Raju, chairman and founder of
Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer
Services was declared Indias Entrepreneur of the Year.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, founder of
Acme Telepower, which provides
power management solutions, was
named the Start-up Entrepreneur of
the year.
The Lifetime Achievement award went
to Keshub Mahindra, patriarch of the
diversified Mahindra group, while Ela
Bhatt of Gujarat-based Self Employed
Womens Association was conferred
the social entrepreneurship award.
Delhis Atul Punj, chairman and managing director of Punj Lloyd Ltd, got
the award for the infrastructure and
construction category, while Cyrus
Poonawalla, chairman of Pune-based
Serum Institute of India Ltd, won the

honour in the healthcare and life
sciences category.
Raghav Bahl won the Business Transformation Entrepreneur award for
growing his small news provider company, Television Eighteen, into Network 18, a diversified media house,
while Shikha Sharma, CEO of ICICI
Prudential Life Insurance, was named
the manager entrepreneur of the year.
Shiv Nadar of the HCL group won the
honour in the services category, while
Sajjan Jindal of JSW Steel took the
award in the manufacturing segment.
Filmfare Awards, 2008: Best
Actor (Male): Shah Rukh Khan, Chak
De! India. Best Actor (Female):
Kareena Kapoor, Jab We Met. Best
Film: Taare Zameen Par. Best Director: Aamir Khan, Taare Zameen Par.
Best Supporting Actor (Female):
Konkana Sen Sharma, Life in a Metro.
Best Supporting Actor (Male): Irrfan
Khan, Life in a Metro. Best Debutant
(Male): Ranbir Kapoor, Saawariya.
Best Debutant (Female): Deepika
Padukone, Om Shanti Om. Best
Music: A.R. Rahman, Guru. Best
Lyrics: Prasoon Joshi, Maa, from
Taare Zameen Par. Best Playback
Singer (Male): Shaan, Jab Se Tere
Naina (Saawariya). Best Playback
Singer (Female): Shreya Ghoshal,
Barso Re (Guru). Lifetime Achievement Award: Rishi Kapoor.
Power Award-2007: Yash ChopraAditya Chopra. R.D. Burman Award:
Monty Sharma, Saawariya. Sony
Head & Shoulders Face of the Year
Award: Deepika Padukone. Best
Action: Rob Miller, Chak De! India.
Best Art Direction: Samir, Chanda,
Guru. Best Background Score: A.R.
Rahman, Guru. Best Choreography:
Saroj Khan, Barso Re (Guru). Best
Cinematography: Sudeep Chatterjee, Chak De! India. Best Costume
Designer: Sujata Sharma Virk, Gandhi
My Father. Best Dialogue: Imtiaaz Ali,
Jab We Met. Best Editing: Amitabh
Shukla, Chak De! India. Best Screenplay: Anurag Basu, Life in a Metro.
Best Sound Design: Dwarak Warrier,

Madhu Apsara and Leslie Fernandes
for Johnny Gaddar. Best Special
Effects: Red Chillies, VFX for Om
Shanti Om. Best Story: Amol Gupte,
Taare Zameen Par. Critics Categories: Best Film: Chak De! India. Best
Actor: Darsheel Safary, Taare Zameen
Par. Best Actress: Tabu, Cheeni Kum.
Golden Globe Awards, 2008:
Best Film (drama): Atonement. Best
Film (comedy or musical): Sweeney
Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet
Street. Best Actor (drama): Daniel
Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood. Best
Actor (comedy or musical): Johny
Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon
Barber of Fleet Street. Best Actress
(drama): Julie Christie, Away From
Her. Best Actress (comedy or musical): Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose.
Best Foreign Language Film: The
Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Best
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No
Country for Old Men. Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, Im not
there. Best Director: Julian Schnabel,
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Best
Screenplay: Ethan Coen and Joel
Coen, No Country for Old Men. Best
Original Score: Dario Marianelli,
Atonement. Best Original Song:
Guaranteed from into the Wild.
Golden
Peacock
National
Award: Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam
(SJVN) has been awarded the prestigious Award for eco-innovation and
environmental management activities
of the 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri power
station being operated by it.
ICC Cricket Awards, 2008: Cricketer of the Year: Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies); Test Player of the
Year: Dale Steyn (South Africa); ODI
Player of the Year: Mahendra Singh
Dhoni (India); Womens Cricketer of
the Year: Charlotte Edwards (England); Emerging Player of the Year:
Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka); Associate ODI Player of the Year: Ryan ten
Doeschate (New Zealand); Twenty20
International Performance of the


MASTERPEDIA
Year: Yuvraj Singh (India); Spirit of
Cricket Award: Sri Lanka; Umpire of
the Year Award: Simon Taufel.
Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace,
Disarmament and Development, 2007: The Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation has won the award
for its pioneering and exemplary philanthropic work around the world and in
India in health.
Magsaysay Awards, 2008: For
Community leadership: Indias philanthropist doctor couple, Prakash and
Mandakini Amte, for their contribution
towards improving the lives of tribals in
a remote Maharashtra village. For
Government Service: Grace Padaca
(Philippines). For Public Service:
Therdchai Jivacate (Thailand). For
Promoting Peace and International
Understanding: Ahmad Syafii Maarif
(Indonesia). For Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication
Arts: Akio Ishii (Japan). For Emergent Leadership: Ananda Galappatti
(Sri Lanka).
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna,
2007: Mahendra Singh Dhoni has
been chosen for the countrys highest
sporting honour.
MAKA Trophy, 2006-07: Punjabi
University has won the prestigious
Trophy for 2006-07. The second place
has been bagged by GNDU, Amritsar,
while the third spot has gone to Delhi
University.
Man Asia prize, 2007: A controversial Chinese tale of environmental
destruction, spiritual freedom and the
threat modernity poses to the nomadic
way of life has won the first Man Asia
literary prize. Wolf Totem was written
by a retired professor under the pseudonym Jiang Rong.
National Film Awards

2006:
Best Feature film: Pulijanmam
(Malyalam), directed by Priyanandanan; Best Actor: Bengali actor
Soumitra Chatterjee for his role in

Podokkhepand; Best Actress: Tamil
film star Priyamani for her role in
Paruthi Veeran; Best popular film
providing wholesome entertainment: Lage Raho Munna Bhai, directed by Rajkumar Hirani; Best Director:
Madhur Bhandarakar, for his film Traffic Signal (Hindi); Best music direction: Ashok Patki for Antarnad
(Konkani); Indira Gandhi Award for
the best first film of a director:
Ekantham (Malyalam) and Kabul
Express (Hindi), directed by Madhukaithapuram and Kabir Khan,
respectively, have been awarded jointly; Best film in the non-feature film
category: Bishar Blues by Amitabh
Chakraborty; Best playback singer
(male): Gurdas Mann, for Waris Shah
Ishq Da Waris (Punjabi); Best female
playback singer: Aarti Anklekar
Tikekar, for Antarnad (Konkani); Best
child artist: Divya Chahadakar, for
her role in Antarnad; Best Supporting
actor: Dilip Prabhavalkar, for Lage
Raho Munna Bhai; Best Supporting
actress: Konkana Sen Sharma, for
her role in Omkara (Hindi); Best Cinematography: Goutam Ghosh, for
Yatra (Hindi); Best Screenplay:
Shared by Abhijit Joshi, Raj Kumar
Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra for
Lage Raho Munna Bhai; Special Jury
Award: Vishal Bharadwaj for Omkara;
Best Film on Social Issues: Children
of Nomads by Meenakshi Vinay Rai.
Castrol Asian Cricket awards:
Former captain Sourav Ganguly was
adjudged the Asian Cricketer and
Asian Batsman of the year. Sachin
Tendulkar was named the Best ODI
Batsman, while Gautam Gambhir
grabbed the honour in Twenty20. Sri
Lankan wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara took away the Best Test
Batsman of the year award, while
compatriot Farveez Maharoof was
chosen as the Best ODI bowler. Pakistans Umar Gul was named the Best
Twenty20 bowler. Sri Lankan Muttiah
Muralitharan took away the Best Test
Bowler award. Kamran Akmal of Pakistan was conferred with the Best
Fielder award.
National Sangeet Natak Academy Awards, 2007: Acclaimed theatre scenic designer, director Dr
Mahendra and veteran thespian Dr
N.C. Thakur have been conferred with
the prestigious award.
National Urban Water Award,
2008: Uttaranchal Koop, an innovative device for tapping potable drinking
water in the hills, has bagged the
National Urban Water Award, instituted for the first time with an aim to
honour urban local governments and
water boards that have taken significant steps towards effective water
management and improvement in
service delivery. Uttarakhand Jal
Sansthan chief Harshpati Uniyal has
designed the device.
Nirmal Gram Puruskar: Muutup
Wengmo from a little known Leh village and environmentalist Baba Balbir
Singh Seechewal, recently profiled by
Time magazine, were among nine
State representatives awarded by
President Pratibha Patil for achieving
total sanitation in their villages. Of the
nine State representatives, seven
were women, including Manjula Ben
(Gujarat), Poonam Devi (Haryana),
Lalit Bai (MP), Ram Pyari (Rajasthan),
Leela Devi (Uttarakhand) and Wengmo (Jammu and Kashmir). The other
States whose panchayats were awarded were Punjab, Himachal Pradesh,
Uttar Pradesh.
Nobel Prizes, 2008

For Peace: Former Finnish President
Martti Ahtisaari, for his work on conflict
resolution. He was best known for his
role as a UN official in negotiations on
the independence of Namibia from
South African rule, achieved in 1990.
For Medicine: Harald zur Hausen of
Germany for his work in the cause of
cervical cancer and Francoise BarreSinoussi and Luc Montagnier of
France for their discovery of the virus
that causes AIDS.
For Physics: Yoichiro Nambu, a


MASTERPEDIA
Tokyo-born
American
citizen,
and Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide
Maskawa of Japan, for separate
work that helped explain why the
universe is made up mostly of matter
and not anti-matter via processes
known as broken symmetries. They
helped figure out the existence and
behaviour of the very tiniest particles
known as quarks. Nambu shares half
of the prize money with Kobayashi and
Maskawa.
For Chemistry: Japans Osamu Shimomura and Americans Martin Chalfie
and Roger Tsien shared the prize for
their work on Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP). Researchers now use GFP
to track such processes as the development of brain cells, the growth of
tumours and the spread of cancer cells.
For Literature: French novelist Jean
Marie Gustave le Clezio, whose long
journeys from France to remote outposts of Africa and Latin America produced works dealing with exotic,
endangered cultures. He is the first
writer in French to win the Nobel Prize
since novelist Claude Simon in 1985.
For Economics: US economist Paul
Krugman, a fierce critic of the Bush
administration for policies that he
argues led to the current financial crisis. The award was for Krugmans
work that helps explain why some
countries dominate international trade,
starting with research published nearly
30 years ago.
Oscar Awards, 2008: Best Picture: No country for old men. Best
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan CoenNo
country for old men. Best Actress:
Marion CotillardLa Vie En Rose.
Best Actor: Daniel Day-LewisThere
will be blood. Supporting Actress:
Tilda SwintonMichael Clayton. Supporting Actor: Javier BardemNo
country for old men. Foreign language film: The Counterfeiters (Austria). Documentary: Taxi to the dark
side. Best Animated film: Ratatouille.
Best Costume: Elizabeth (directed by
Shekhar Kapur).
Rajiv Sadbhavana Award, 2007:
Social worker and Gandhian Professor

N. Radhakrishnan, for promoting the
Mahatmas ideals. The award carries a
cash prize of Rs 3 lakh.
Republic Day Awards,

2008
Padma Vibhushan: Asha Bhonsle
(Art), Justice (Dr) A.S. Anand (Public
Affairs), P.N. Dhar (Public Affairs),
Pranab Mukherjee (Public Affairs), E.
Sreedharan (Science and Engineering), Rajendra Kumar Pachauri (Science and Engineering), Edmund
Hillary (Posthumous) (Sports), Sachin
Ramesh
Tendulkar
(Sports),
Viswanathan Anand (Sports), Lakshmi
Narayan Mittal (Trade and Industry),
N.R. Narayana Murthy (Trade and
Industry), P.R.S. Oberoi (Trade and
Industry), Ratan Naval Tata (Trade
and Industry).
Padma
Bhushan:
Prominent
among the winners are: Amarnath
Sehgal (Posthumous) (Art), Ustad
Asad Ali Khan (Art), P. Susheela (Art),
Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar (Art),
Sushil Kumar Saxena (Art), Jasdev
Singh (Commentary and Broadcasting), Brijinder Nath Goswamy (Literature and education), Ji Xianlin (Literature and Education), Kaushik Bose
(Literature and Education), Padma
Desai (Literature and Education),
Ravindra Kelekar (Literature and Education), Shayama Chona (Literature
and Education), Shri Lal Shukla (Literature and Education), Srinivasa S.R.
Varadhan (Literature and Education),
T.K. Oommen (Literature and Education), Jagjit Singh Chopra (Medicine),
Nirmal Kumar Ganguly (Medicine),
Lord Meghnad Desai (Public Affairs),
Asis Datta (Science and Engineering),
Sukh Dev (Science and Engineering),
Sunita Williams (Science and Engineering), Vasant Gowarikar (Science
and Engineering), Dominique Lapierre
(Social Work), K.V. Kamath (Trade
and Industry), Shiv Nadar (Trade and
Industry), Vikram Pandit (Trade and
Industry).
Padma Shri: Prominent among the
winners are: Gangadhar Pradhan
(Art), Pandit Gokulotsavji Maharaj
(Art), Hans Raj Hans (Art), Helen Giri

(Art), Jatin Goswami (Art), Madhuri
Dixit (Art), Manoj Night Shyamalan
(Art), Tom Alter (Art), Barkha Dutt
(Journalism), Rajdeep Dilip Sardesai
(Journalism), Vinod Dua (Journalism),
Surjya Kanta Hazarika (Literature and
Education), Baichung Bhutia (Sports),
Bula
Chowdhury
Chakraborty
(Sports), Amit Mitra (Trade and
Industry).
Right Livelihood Award, 2008:
American Amy Goodman was honoured for her independent political
journalism, while Germanys Monika
Hauser was cited for her work to help
sexually abused women. Somalias
Asha Hagi was awarded for her peace
work and the Indian couple Krishnammal and Sankaralingam Jagannathan
was given the award for their efforts to
promote social justice. The prize was
founded to recognize work that was
ignored by the prestigious Nobel
Prizes.
Saraswati Samman, 2007: A collection of short stories in Urdu, Toos
Chaman ki Myna, by noted litterateur
Dr Naiyer Masud has been named for
the award. Dr Masud has written, edited and published more than 21 books
and about 200 articles in Urdu and
Persian.
Shankar Puruskar, 2007: Professor R.S. Tripathi has been selected for
the honour for his work Baudh
Darshan Prasthan. This award is given
to honour an outstanding work
published in Hindi on Indian
philosophy, culture and art during the
last 10 years.
Tenzing
Norgay
National
Adventure Award: Neel Chand,
Mohinder Singh, Tushar Kanti Rath
and Captain M.S. Kohli. The award is
given with the aim of promoting adventure activities on Land, Air and Water.
These Awards are at par with the Arjuna Awards and carry a cash Award of
Rs 3 lakh, a bronze statue and a scroll
of honour.


MASTERPEDIA
Tipperary Peace Award, 2007:
Former Pakistan Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto has been posthumously awarded the prestigious Tipperary
International Peace Award for 2007 in
recognition of her struggle for restoration of democracy and peace in her
country.
Devil May Care: Written by Sebastian Faulks, this is the first novel in 40
years to chronicle the adventures of
James Bond. The book has been published to mark the centenary of Bond
creator Ian Flemings birth, and features 007 travelling to Paris, London
and the Middle East during 1967.
poverty and violation of human rights,

the UN has launched a peace campaign through text messages on
mobile phones and websites to mark
the International Peace Day on September 21. Renowned violinist Midori
Goto was appointed UNs messenger
of peace.
V.K. Krishna Menon Award:

Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan has received the first V.K. Krishna
Menon Award for his fearless fight
against corruption in the judicial system and for espousing social causes.
From Kolhapur to Beijing

Freestyle!: In 2005, when Virdhawal
Khade came to Bangalore for the first
time to compete in his maiden senior
national tournament, he was at a loss.
Worse, he injured his leg before the
event and was deemed unfit for the
championship. However, the Kolhapur
boy challenged himself to not only participate in the event but also make a
mark. He ended up winning two gold
medals. These and many such anecdotes of how a boy from a small town
fought all odds to become an
Olympian at the age of 16 are part of
this book.
Mosquito Day: August 20 will be

celebrated as world mosquito day to
commemorate the discovery of malaria cells in August 1867 by Dr Ronald
Ross, a renowned physician. This
research was quite significant
because until then, no one had any
idea of how parasites in the blood of
malarious patients were transmitted
via mosquitoes.
Vachaspati Puruskar, 2007: Noted Sanskrit scholar Mahakavi Swami

Rambhadrachrya has bagged the
award for his work Sribhargavaraghaviyam. The Vachaspati
award is given to accord recognition to
Sanskrit works published during the
last decade.
Vyas Samman, 2007: Eminent
Hindi author Krishna Sobti has been
awarded the Vyas Samman, for her
novel, Samay Sargam. Instituted by
the K.K. Birla Foundation and given to
an outstanding literary work in Hindi,
the award carries a prize of Rs 2.50
lakh.
BOOKS
Around the World in 80 Plates:
A book by Rashmi Uday Singh on vegetarian food, it has bagged the Gourmand World Cookbook awards in the
elite best of the best category. This is
the only Indian book to win the award.
Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: Written by Lebaneseborn Nassim Taleb, the books selling
point is that we are blind to rare events
and fool ourselves into believing we
can predict risks. Taleb argues that
history is littered with high-impact rare
events. He cites the Latin American
debt crisis of 1982, the collapse of
hedge fund firm Long Term Capital
Management in 1998 and the crash of
the US stock market, to name a few.
The White Tiger: Written by

Aravind Adiga, this novel won its
author the Man Booker Prize, 2008. It
follows Balram Halwai, the son of a
richshaw-puller whose dream of
escaping the poverty of his village
takes him on a journey to the bright
lights of Delhi and Bangalore, where
he will do almost anything to get to the
top. The award panel praised the book
for tackling important social and political issues in modern-day India.
Wolf Totem: A controversial Chinese tale of environmental destruction,
spiritual freedom and the threat
modernity poses to the nomadic way
of life, it has won the first Man Asia literary prize. Wolf Totem was written by a
retired professor under the pseudonym Jiang Rong. The novel is based
on the authors experiences as an
intellectual in the inner Mongolian
grasslands during the 1966-78 cultural
revolution.
DEFENCE
Agni-III takes India to IRBM
club: On May 6, 2008, India entered a
select club of nations possessing
Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles
(IRBMs) with a range of up to 3,000
km, when it successfully test-fired surface-to-surface nuclear-capable AgniIII missile. With this, the Indian security establishment acquired the capability to hit targets deep inside China,
including Beijing and Shanghai. The
development was described as
DRDOs golden jubilee gift to the
nation. The success of Agni-III paves
the way for India to build its truly intercontinental range missile, Agni-IV, with
a range of 5000 km, in the near future.
Hawk lands in India: The first two
Hawks, the Advanced Jet Trainer
(AJT) aircraft, landed at the Bidar Air
force station in Karnataka in November 2007, paving the way for the gradual replacement of the flying coffins
the MiG 21s that are right now used for
training young pilots by the Indian Air
Force. The Hawk trainers will impart
stage-III training to the newly commissioned fighter pilots of the IAF at Bidar,
the main operating base, from June
2008.
DAYS; YEARS
International Peace Day: Seeking global efforts against conflict,
IAF lands AN-32 near Siachen

glacier: In an important strategic


MASTERPEDIA
move India, on November 4, 2008, for
the first time ever, landed a fixed-wing
aircraft close to the Siachen glacier at
a location just 2.5 km inside the Line of
Actual Control (LOAC) along China in
eastern Ladakh.
The Indian Air Force pilots landed an
AN-32 transport aircraft at Fukche airfield. In IAF records, this is mentioned
as an advanced landing ground located at an altitude of 13,000 feet. Choppers like the Dhruv, Chetak and the
MI-17 were landed in the past.
This was the first landing of a fixed
wing aircraft andguld facilitate a faster
induction of troops in case of 0exigency and also moving of material. An
AN-32 can carry up to 50 people,
besides much more quantity of equipment than a Chopper.
This is the second high-altitude air
field alongside the Chinese border to
have been either activated or upgraded in 2008. The other one was Daulat
Beg Oldie airstrip, which was set up in
1962 and was not being used since
1965.
India develops K-15 SLBM: For
the first time ever, India has admitted
to having successfully developed
nuclear capable K-15 (submarine
launched ballistic missile), thus
becoming the fifth country in the world
to acquire such a capability. With the
successful development of this missile
system, India has joined a select
group of nations, the US, Russia,
France and China, which possess
such a capability.
Powered by a turbojet, the K-15 missile, earlier known as Sagarika, can
carry a nuclear warhead of 500-kg
from a undersea location, to a range of
700-km. It is 8.5 metre long and about
a metre in diameter.
India on way to joining exclusive BMD club: On December 6,
2007, India unleashed a new interceptor missile to kill an incoming
hostile missile over the Bay of Bengal. During the test, a Prithvi missile,
modified to mimic a hostile ballistic
missile with a 300-1,000 km range,
was first fired from the Balasore interim test range in Orissa. The incoming
missile was then tracked by LongRange Tracking Radars (LRTRs)
developed with Israeli help and is a
part of the automated command and
control network. LRTRs in turn conveyed the threat to the endo (taking
the enemy missile at a 15-20 km altitude above the earth) missile battery in
far away Wheeler Island. Finally, the
interceptor missile blasted off with a
roar to eventually destroy the enemy
missile in fireworks over the Bay of
Bengal.
LRTR has a detection range of 600 km
and is capable of tracking intermediate
range ballistic missiles, with velocities
up to 5000 metre per second. Incidentally, a ballistic missile can be targeted
at all the three points in its parabolic
trajectoryboost or launch phase, mid
course in space or terminal phase
during atmospheric descent.
India tests undersea N-missile:
On February 26, 2008, India successfully test fired its first-ever undersea
nuclear capable ballistic missile off the
eastern coastal city of Vishakhapatnam, catapulting it to the select band
of five countries equipped with the
technology.
The missile, K-15, with a range of 700
km, was test fired from a pontoon
immersed in the sea. This was the first
full-fledged test of the missile, of which
defence scientists had earlier carried
out three to four dry runs.
The test was undertaken from a submerged pontoon as India does not
have a submarine capable to undertake firing of such missiles.
Israeli Spyder for India: The
Indian government has signed an
agreement with Israel to purchase the
advanced surface-to-air mobile missile
system, Spyder. India is to purchase
18 Spyder systems for Rs 1,800 crore.
The Spyder is a truck-mounted system
that carries a combination of shortmedium-range Derby 4 and ultra-agile
short-range fifth generation Python 5
air-to-air missiles. The missiles have
been so designed that they can be

deployed to counter a wide range of
threats.
Permanent Commission for
Women: The Union government has
allowed permanent commission for
women in non-combat streams of the
armed forces. Women will, however,
be kept out of the combat arms and
from duties that could lead to physical
contact with the enemy. The permanent commission has been allowed in
the Judge Advocate General branch,
Army Education Corps, accounts
branch of the Air Force and the Naval
Constructor. More streams may be
opened up for them at a later stage.
Till date women were being taken only
in Short Service Commission for a
period of 14 years.
DISCOVERY
Worlds first bird: A group of scientists, including one of Indian origin,
has discovered worlds first bird that
lived 235 million years ago. In the
landmark study, published by the Paleontological Association, experts
unveiled an extraordinary prehistoric
lizard-like flying reptile. The scientific
community believes that birds
descended from reptiles 50 million
years later making the kuehneosaurs
the worlds first bird. The long extinct
species, which inhabited the warm late
Triassic period from 235 to 200 million
years ago, was first discovered in the
UK. According to experts, the
kuehneosaurs, which grew up to 2
feet, used extensions of their ribs to
form large gliding surfaces on the
sides of their body.
EXPEDITIONS
Indian Navy men conquer
North Pole: April 9, 2008 will be
remembered as a red-letter day in the
history of Indian Navy. For, on this day
at 20:16 hours (IST), a team of 10
navy men, led by Cdr Satyabrata Dam,
did the country proud by successfully
conquering the North Pole, thus
becoming the only organisation in the
world to have conquered all the three


MASTERPEDIA
Poles. Standing on top of the world, literally, the feeling was unbelievable for
these men as they sang the national
anthem in what was a freeze frame
moment of their lives. The navy had
earlier scaled Mt Everest, called the
vertical pole, in 2004 and conquered
the South Pole in 2006.
OIL
Jubilee of first oil well of independent India: On October 5,
2008, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation
(ONGC) celebrated the Golden
Jubilee of the first oil well of independent India at Lunej Well No. 1 at Cambay. In the 50 years since ONGC discovered oil in 1958, the corporation
has reported a total of 390 discoveries224 on shore and 121 off shore.
The company has so far developed
5,163 exploratory wells with the help of
3D surveys conducted over 1.44 lakh
sq km. Today, ONGC produces more
than a million barrels of oil equivalent
every day from the six producing
basins it discovered in Independent
India.
Reliance production from KG
basin begins: Six years after
Reliance Industries made the worlds
largest gas find in the Krishna
Godavari (KG) basin in 2002, the company is now set to start raking in the
moolah from its investments sunk in
the deep waters of the Bay of Bengal
by producing the first barrel of oil. At
full production of 40,000 barrels a day,
RIL would earn revenues of an estimated $ 3.5 billion annually from this
field. RIL began producing 20,000 barrels per day from September 21, 2008.
The oil production from RILs MA fields
is a story of several firstswhile this
would be RILs first production from
the KG basin, it also marks the beginning of the oil trading market in the
country where the crude oil producers
can sell the oil at market determined
prices based on an international
benchmarks.
The first batch of oil which will be
priced at a premium, given its superior
quality, was sold to State-run HPCL at
Vizag.
The 7,645 square kilometre D6 block
was awarded to RIL-NIKO combine in
the countrys first bidding round
(NELP-I) in 1999.
PERSONS
Adiga Arvind: His debut novel, The
White Tiger, about the dark heart of
India shining, has won the Man
Booker. The 33-year-old Chennaiborn Mumbaikar has dedicated his win
to the people of Delhi, where he wrote
the book.
Ahtisaari, Martti: Former President of Finland, he has won the Nobel
Peace Prize, 2008 for his work on conflict resolution. He was in the limelight
when he organized talks between
Indonesias government and the Free
Aceh Movement, who signed a peace
deal in August 2005 to end 30 years of
armed struggle. He had also persuaded then Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic to accept NATOs terms for
ending the Kosovo air campaign in
1999. He was, however, best known
for his role as a UN official in negotiations on the independence of Namibia
from South African rule, achieved in
1990.
Amte, Prakash and Mandakini:
Indias philanthropist doctor couple,
Prakash and Mandakini Amte, has
been given the prestigious Ramon
Magsaysay award, 2008, for their
contribution towards improving the
lives of tribals in a remote Maharashtra
village.
Prakash, the son of noted social
activist Baba Amte, and his wife Mandakini have been recognised for
enhancing the capacity of the madia
gonds (tribals) to adapt positively in
todays India, through healing, teaching and other compassionate interventions. The husband-wife duo run a
school and a hospital at Hemalkasa
village in the underprivileged district of
Gadchiroli in Maharashtras Vidarbha
region.
Baba Amte: Born into a family of
jagirdars, he could have had the world

at his feet. But Murlidhar Baba Amte
did everything that was quite unexpected of a man of his stature in life.
Like most Indians from noble families
during the freedom struggle, he was
trained in law. He became a barrister
but then quite suddenly gave up a
lucrative practice in Central India to
take up the cause of freedom fighters.
After independence, he gave up the
comforts of the rich and set up Anandvan, an ashram for leprosy patients.
Betancourt, Ingrid: She had been
held for more than six years by the
revolutionary armed forces of Colombia, or FARC. On July 2, 2008, the
French-Colombian national who was
nabbed while campaigning for the
Presidency was suddenly free when
the military duped the rebels into
releasing her and 14 others.
Bhutto, Benazir: Former Prime
Minister of Pakistan, she was killed in
a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi,
on December 27, 2007.
Benazir Bhutto was born on June 21,
1953, into a wealthy landowning family. Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,
founded the Pakistan Peoples Party
(PPP) and was President and later
Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1971
to 1977. After gaining degrees in politics at Harvard and Oxford universities, she returned to Pakistan in 1977,
just before the military seized power
from her father.
She was imprisoned in April 1979, just
before her father was executed by
Gen Zia-ul-Huq. In 1984, she was
allowed to leave for London for health
reasons, after spending most of her
years in prison in solitary confinement.
She reorganised her fathers Pakistan
Peoples Party (PPP) in London and
took over its leadership.
On December 6, 1988 she became the
first woman Prime Minister of a Muslim
nation after winning parliamentary
elections. But she was sacked in 1990
by the then President, on corruption
charges. She took power again in
1993 after her successor Nawaz


MASTERPEDIA
Sharif was forced to resign after a row
with the President.
In October 2007 Bhutto returned to
Pakistan from eight years of selfimposed exile after Musharraf, with
whom she had been negotiating over
Pakistans transition to civilian-led
democracy, granted her protection
from prosecution in old corruption cases. She was assassinated on December 27 just after she had finished with
an election rally in Rawalpindi.
Chara, Rifleman Abdul Hamid:
A surrendered militant-turned-soldier,
he has been awarded the Shaurya
Chakra (posthumous) for scripting a
gallant tale of valour by killing a top
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) commander
in Kupwara in June 2007. He was from
the 162 Infantry Battalion (Territorial
Army) which is composed of Ikhwanis
or surrendered terrorists. When it was
raised four years ago, no one could
have imagined that the hordes of exmilitant drawn together under an
experiment would rewrite the rules of
fighting terrorism.
Thirty-three-year-old Chara was
named after the legendary 1965 war
hero Havaldar Abdul Hamid. In a life
full of twists and turns, Al-Barq terrorists kidnapped Chara when he was
barely 14. Far away from the picturesque Lo-lab valley where he was
born, Chara soon found himself working on the Kalashnikov rifle in a terrorist training camp. Desperate to reverse
his destiny, he escaped from the camp
and surrendered to the police and was
later inducted as a soldier in Indian
army.
Chopra, Baldev Raj: Veteran filmmaker B.R. Chopra died on November
5, 2008. He was 94. Born in Ludhiana,
Punjab in 1914, the veteran film maker began his career as a film journalist
in Lahore before trying his hand in film
production in the late 1940s. His first
venture in Lahore was left incomplete
due to partition. Many of his notable
films carried a social message as was
the norm in the heady years that followed Indias independence. In all,
Chopra directed 18 movies and produced 28 of them in a career spanning

nearly five decades. His notable productions include Naya Daur, Afsana,
Sadhana, Dhool Ka Phool, Kanoon,
Gumrah, Waqt and Humraaz. The
latter-day productions under the B.R.
films banner included the gritty Insaaf
Ka Taraazu in the 1980s and more
recently Baghbaan, which deals with
the plight of the elderly. He was among
the first mainstream film makers to
embrace television with the epic
Mahabharat in the 1980s.
Clarke, Arthur C.:The famous
science fiction writer, Arthur Charles
Clarke died on March 19, 2008. He
was born into an English farming family in Somerset, England, in 1917. In
the 1930s, he pursued his interest in
space sciences by joining the British
Interplanetary Society and began to
write science fiction.
In 1937, he began writing his first
science fiction novel story of a distant
future, published as Against the fall of
night in 1953. In 1945, he published a
landmark technical paper setting out
the principles of communication using
satellites in geostationary orbitsa
speculative technology realized 25
years later. His work won him several
awards, and the geostationary orbit
36,000 km above the equator was
named Clarke Orbit.
In 1940s, Clarke predicted that
man would reach the Moon by
2000, an idea some dismissed as nonsense. When Neil Armstrong landed
on the Moon in 1969, the US said
Clarke had provided the essential
intellectual drive that led us to the
Moon.
His most famous novel was 2001: A
Space Odyssey, written in collaboration with director Stanley Kubrick, a
collaboration which led also to the film
of the same name.
Deshpande,
Nirmala: Noted
Gandhian and Rajya Sabha MP, Nirmala Deshpande died on May 1, 2008.
She was 79. Popularly called Didi,
Deshpandes small and petite exterior
hid a resolve of steel. Best known for

her efforts to promote the Gandhian
ideology, Deshpande was also deeply
involved in ensuring an end to communal violence and trying to build peace
between India and Pakistan while
dedicating her life to the service of the
deprived and the downtrodden both in
the country and outside. She vowed
never to marry.
Gates, Bill: Sensing the start of a
personal computer revolution, Bill
Gates dropped out of the Harvard University in 1975 to start Microsoft Corp
and pursue a vision of a computer on
every desk and in every home. Three
decades later, he has stepped down
from what is now the worlds largest
software company to work full-time at
the charitable organisation, the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation. The
52-year-old leaves behind a lifes work
developing software to devote energy
to finding new vaccines or to microfinance projects in the developing
world.
Gilani, Syed Yousaf Raza: Syed
Yousaf Raza Gilani is the twenty-sixth
Prime Minister of Pakistan. He is a former Speaker of the National Assembly
of Pakistan (1993-1997) and former
Federal Minister (1985-1986). Born on
June 9, 1952 in Karachi, Pakistan, he
belongs to an influential and renowned
political muslim family of Multan. His
father was a descendant of Syed
Musa Pak, a spiritual figure of the
Qadiri Sufi order. He received early
education at St Marys School and La
Salle High School at Multan. He
graduated with BA in 1970 and MA in
Journalism from University of the
Punjab in 1976.
Hillary, Sir Edmund: Sir Edmund
Percival Hillary, who died on January
11, 2008, was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. On 29 May 1953
at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the
first climbers known to have reached
the summit of Mount Everest. Hillary
was also part of a British reconnais-


MASTERPEDIA
sance expedition to Everest in 1951
led by Eric Shipton before joining the
successful British attempt of 1953.
Hillary climbed ten other peaks in the
Himalayas on further visits in 1956,
1960-61 and 1963-65. He also
reached the South Pole as part of the
Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, for which he led the New
Zealand section, on January 4, 1958.
His party was the first to reach the
Pole since Amundsen in 1911 and
Scott in 1912, and the very first that
motor vehicles had ever reached the
Pole. He also led a jetboat expedition,
titled Ocean to Sky, from the mouth
of the Ganges River to its source in
1977.
In 1985 he accompanied Neil Armstrong in a small twin-engined ski
plane over the Arctic Ocean and landed at the North Pole. He thus became
the first man to stand at both poles and
on the summit of Everest.
Various streets, schools and organisations around New Zealand and abroad
are named after him. A few examples
are Hillary College (Otara), Edmund
Hillary Primary School (Papakura) and
the Hillary Commission (now SPARC).
Joshi, Pandit Bhimsen: Indian
Classical vocalist Pandit Bhimsen
Joshi has been honoured with Bharat
Ratna, the highest civilian award of the
country. Joshi, 88, was born in Gadag
district of Karnataka. He was
honoured with Padma Vibhushan in
1999 for his contribution to Indian classical music. He was also awarded with
Padma Bhushan in 1985 and Padma
Shri in 1972.
Kapoor, Mahendra: Noted playback singer whose voice has delighted
music lovers across generations, died
on September 27, 2008. He was 74.
Mahendra Kapoor was born in Amritsar on January 9, 1934, but soon
moved to Mumbai. He was inspired by
Mohammed Rafi and won an all India
singing contest early in his career. His
was the voice of Manoj Bharat Kumar
in movies like Upkar and Purab aur
Paschim, especially in numbers like
Mere Desh Ki Dhartiwhich won him

national award for best male playback
singing and Hai Preet Jahan Ki Reet
Sada.
Kishan Maharaj: Tabla wizard
Pandit Kishan Maharaj died on May 4,
2008. He was 84. He was considered
to be one of the finest players of the
tabla in the country. He had his initial
education in music from his father
Pandit Hari Maharaj and later, after his
fathers premature death, from his
uncle, the great maestro of his time
Pandit Kanthe Maharaj. Under such
an august tutelage Kishan Maharaj
took the Benaras style of tabla vadan
to greater heights. He would be
remembered for his rare ability to play
cross rhythms and produce complex
calculations, particularly in tihai patterns. His Tala Vadya Kacheri with the
Mridangam Vidwan, Palghat Raghu
was truly mesmerising.
Le Clezio, Jean Marie Gustave:
He has won the Nobel prize for Literature for 2008. His long journeys from
France to remote outposts of Africa
and Latin America produced works
dealing with exotic, endangered cultures. Le Clezios first novel,
Le Proces verbal, was published when
he was 23, and his early work in the
1960s and 1970s challenged conventional narrative with its experimentation. The books that followed
described crises such as Fever 1965,
and The Flood 1966.
He was born in Nice in 1940. His
parents had strong ties to the former
French colony of Mauritius. A speaker
of both French and English, the young
author began writing at that early age.
Mahesh Yogi: Indian spiritual guru
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who introduced transcendental meditation to
the West, including the Beatles in
1960s, died on February 6, 2008, at
his home in the Netherlands.
Born in Madhya Pradesh, the
Maharishi, whose real name was
Mahesh Prasad Verma, graduated in
physics from Allahabad University
before devoting himself to spiritual

enlightenment.
Manekshaw, Field Marshal
Sam: Field Marshal Sam Hormusji
Jamshedji Manekshaw, whose military
victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war led
the creation of Bangladesh, died on
June 26, 2008. He was 94. Manekshaw was one of the 40 cadets of the
first batch that passed out from the
IMA in Dehra Dun and earned the
sobriquet Sam Bahadur from soldiers
of the 8th Gorkha Rifles of which he
was Colonel of the Regiment. Born on
April 3, 1914 in Amritsar, to Parsi
parents who migrated to Punjab from
the small town of Valsad on the
Gujarat coast, Manekshaw rose to be
the Eighth Chief of Staff of the Indian
Army in 1969. His distinguished military career spanned for decades from
the British era and through five wars,
including the Second World War.
Nasheed, Mohammed Anni: He
has been elected as the President of
Maldives. Born on May 17, 1967,
Nasheed was educated in Sri Lanka
and the United Kingdom, and obtained
a bachelors degree in maritime studies from Liverpool John Moores University. Popularly known by his nickname Anni, many in his Maldivian
Democratic Party (MDP) refer to him
as their Nelson Mandela, a reference
to the former South African leader who
served decades in jail.
Obama, Barack Hussein: Barack
Obama has created history by becoming the first black in USA to become
US President. From a small-time community worker to the most powerful
man in the world, Barack Obamas victory marked a huge political transformation in a country with a racist past.
The 47-year-old Harvard-educated
lawyer and a Democrat reached the
White House exactly 45 years after the
black civil rights leader Martin Luther
King challenged Americans to
embrace his dream of equality.
Barack Hussein Obama, whose father
was a Kenyan and mother a white


MASTERPEDIA
American, was born on August 4,
1961, in Hawaii. He himself has had
no misgivings on the Herculean task
he faced in getting elected as President because of his race and name.
Undertaking his campaign with a
catchy slogan The Change We Need
Obama presented himself to America
as a fresh face with the knowledge
and mettle needed for the White
House.
Prachanda (Pushpa Kamal
Dahal): He has become republic of
Nepals first Prime Minister. After 25
years underground and a decade of
armed struggle his Maoist party
emerged victorious in the landmark
elections in early 2008, to rebuild
Nepal after a bloody civil war. The former guerrilla, whose nom de guerre
means the fierce one, has reaffirmed
his commitment to democracy.
Born into a high caste but poor farming
family, Prachanda, whose real name is
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, was a brilliant
school student and gained a degree in
agriculture. But the extreme poverty
he witnessed in rural Nepal spurred an
interest in politics and he moved
politically to the left. Married with three
children, his interest grew in communist groups that emerged in the country in the late 1960s after the father of
the current king Gyanendra banned
political parties.
Rossy, Yves: Swiss professional
pilot Yves Rossy is the worlds first
man to fly with fitted jet fuel powered
wings strapped to his back. Rossy flew
into the history books by crossing from
France to Britain on only a jet powered
wing. He touched down in a field on
top of the white cliffs of Dover after
completing the 35-kilometre journey
over one of the worlds busiest
shipping lanes.
Sharma, Inspector M.C.: Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma of Delhi
police died in shoot-out with terrorists
suspected to be involved in Delhi
bomb blasts in September 2008. He
was the first to enter the apartment
where five suspected militants were

holed up. He was shot thrice and fell
unconscious but not before he had
shot dead two of his assailants. He
was one of the most highly decorated
officers in the country with a Presidents Police Medal, and six gallantry
medals including a gold band.
Sinha, Tapan: He is the winner of
the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke
Award for 2006. During his career as a
director he has won 19 national film
awards in various categories, apart
from laurels in international film festivals like those in Berlin, Venice, London, Moscow, San Francisco and
Locarno. He began his film career as a
sound engineer in Kolkatas new Theatre in 1946.
He has directed films in Bengali, Hindi
and Oriya. He made three films based
on Nobel laureate Rabindranath
Tagores worksKabuliwala, Khudito
Pashan and Atithi. Among his other
works are Ankush (1954), Upahar
(1955), Tonsil, (1956), Louhakapat
(1957), Kalomati (1957), Hansuli
Banker Upakatha (1962), Sagina
Mahato (1970), Banchharamer Bagan
(1980), Adalat O Ekti Meye (1982), Ek
Doctor Ki Maut (1991) and Shatabdir
Kanya (2001).
Subbarao, Duvvuri: He has taken
over as the Governor of Reserve Bank
of India. A pragmatist with a close
knowledge of monetary policies, he,
as finance secretary, was the pointperson between the Reserve Bank of
India and the government. An IITKanpur alumnus, he topped the civil
services exam in 1972 and was
assigned the Andhra Pradesh cadre.
He is also a MS in Economics from
Ohio State University (1978) and a
Humphrey Fellow at MIT during 198283. He also has a PhD in economics
from Andhra University.
Tendulakr, Vijay: Iconic Marathi
dramatist, Vijay Tendulkar, who
kicked-off a virtual revolution in Indian
theatre both in terms of content and
style, passed away on May 19, 2008.
Best known for his play Ghasiram Kotwal, a brilliant satire on political violence. Among other plays he is known
for are Shantata! Court Chalu Ahe,
and Sakharam Binder, a satire on
male domination of women.
Tzipi Livni: She has become
Israels first female leader in 34 years.
Livni comes from a well-known ultranationalist family that has endorsed
withdrawal from some occupied lands
as a pragmatic way to preserve
Israels Jewish majority, if not to
achieve a peace agreement. She was
born in Tel Aviv on July 8, 1958 and
got elected to the Knesset as a member of the right-wing Likud party in
1999. She was one of Kadimas founding members alongside then Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon. A former operative with Mossad, Livni had a career as
a lawyer before serving as Justice
Minister under Sharon.
Yadav, Ram Baran: A doctor by
profession, he has been elected as the
first President of Nepal. After serving
as a doctor for the Nepalese government, Yadav joined politics in 1988
and became an important member of
the Dhanusha district committee of the
Nepali Congress. He took active part
against the panchayati system of late
King Birendra and campaigned for
restoration of multi-party system in
Nepal. He was arrested in 1990 and
imprisoned for three months.
PLACES
Akshardham temple, Delhi: The
breath-taking Akshardham Temple in
Delhi has earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the Worlds
Largest Comprehensive Hindu Temple. Spread over 30 acres, the temple
was opened to public two years ago
and now gets over one lakh visitors
every week. Consecrated on November 6, 2005, by Pramukh Swami
Narayanswaroopdas of temple trust
Bochasanwasi Sri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS),
the temple has 234 ornately carved pillars, nine domes and 20 quadrangular


MASTERPEDIA
shikhars.
Baikal Lake: Siberias lake Baikal
has warmed faster than global air
temperatures over the past 60 years,
which could put animals unique to the
worlds largest lake in jeopardy. The
lake has warmed 1.21 degrees Celsius since 1946 due to climate
change, almost three times faster than
global air temperatures, according to a
paper published in the journal Global
Change Biology.
Belgaum: The first-ever Sino Indian
military combat exercise on Indian soil
with counter-terrorism as its primary
thrust area are likely to be held at Belgaum towards December 2008 end.
Byalalu: A 32-metre antenna to track
the lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1
through its voyage has been set up at
Byalalu, in Karnataka. The antenna is
providing telemetry, command and science data reception functions for the
Chandrayaan-1 mission and for similar ventures in future. The antenna
was designed and commissioned by
Hyderabad-based Electronics Corporation of India Limited, at a cost of over
Rs 60 crore.
Changu Narayan temple: This
1600-year-old temple in Kathmandu,
considered as the oldest monumental
site of Nepal, is facing a grave threat
to its existence, as the valley surrounding it witnesses continuous soil
erosion and landslide.
Chennai: The 7th Pravasi Bharatiya
Divas (PBD) Convention will be held at
Chennai from January 7, 2009.
garh touched down on the unpaved

airstrip. This was the first time that a
fixed-wing aircraft landed at DBO in 43
years. DBO will give a much-needed
boost to providing logistic support to
troops deployed in the forward regions
in the Aksai Chin Sector. It would also
enable troops to be airlifted out at
regular intervals since roads and communication network in that area is very
poor.
Ekaterinburg: Foreign Ministers of
Brazil, Russia, India and China
(BRIC), three of which are being
directly blamed for increasing food
prices, met on May 15, 2008 in this
Russian town to discuss food security,
energy security and reform of international financial institutions.
A day later, Russia, India and China
held a trilateral meeting in a follow up
to the meeting in Harbin, China, in
2007.
Georgia: Georgia was in news in the
month of August as thousands were
left dead in five days of fighting over
the separatist region of South Ossetia
before the international community
intervened and brokered a ceasefire.
Gulf of Aden: Exactly a month after
Somali pirates hijacked a chemical
tanker with 18 Indians on board, the
government has ordered the Navy to
patrol the dangerous waters off the
east coast of Africa. The Warship
will carry helicopters and marine
commandos.
Colombo: Capital of Sri Lanka, the

city hosted the 15th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) Summit on August 2-3,
2008.
Hoshangabad: India is indigenizing

the production of a special paper to
print the Rs 500 notes, the most frequently counterfeited currency in the
country. The security paper mill at
Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh has
received the nod from the Ministry of
Finance to produce papers on which
the Rs 500 notes could be printed.
Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO): On May

31, 2008, the IAF activated the worlds
highest airfield, Daulat Beg Oldie
(DBO), when an AN-32 from Chandi-
Hyderabad: The worlds largest aircraft Airbus A-380 to Pushpak, the

smallest aircraft, besides several other
classy business jets, fixed-wing air-
craft and choppers were on display in

the Indias first civilian air show to be
held here in October 2008. The event
will now be held once every two years
at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad,
alternating with the Aero India, the
other biennial air show held in Bangalore at Yelahanka Air Force station.
Jantar Mantar: The centuries-old
Jantar Mantar observatory in New
Delhi may soon not be just another
monument on the tourist itinerary as
efforts are on to make it useful for
astronomers to make observations.
The Nehru Planetarium and the
Archaeological Survey of India, as part
of celebration of International Year of
Astronomy in 2009, have embarked on
the work of calibrating the instruments
which could be put to use by
astronomers. A spate of renovations at
Jantar Mantar, built by Maharaja Jai
Singh II about 300 years ago, had
made some instruments inaccurate.
Jeddah: World energy ministers
meeting was held here in June 2008 to
discuss oil-inspired runaway inflation.
Jodhpur: A stampede at Chamunda
Mata temple in Jodhpur on September
30, 2008 took more than 150 lives.
The temple was built by Rao Jodha,
the founder of Jodhpur, after he
brought the deity of his favourite Goddess Chamunda Mata from the old
capital of Mandore to Jodhpur in 1460.
He constructed a temple near Mehrangarh Fort and installed the deity. The
temple is situated near the southern
gate of Mehrangarh Fort on the outskirts of Jodhpur.
Jordan: Archaeologists in Jordan
have claimed to have unearthed the
worlds oldest church dating back
2,000 years. The underground church
was discovered below the ancient
Saint Georgeous Church, which itself
dates back to 230 AD, in Rihab, northern Jordan near the Syrian border.
Kandhamal: Unabated arson and
violence took place at several places


MASTERPEDIA
in Orissas Kandhamal district (formerly Phulbani district) in the first week of
August. Several Christian places of
worship and Christian dominated tribal
villages were targeted by rioters
protesting over the killing of their
leader. At the genesis of this condition
lies the divide between the tribal
Kandhs and Panas (an SC community) in the district. Over the years, a
large number of Panas have
embraced Christianity, while a significant mass of Kandhs has entered the
Hindu fold. And taking advantage of
the religious polarization, the missionaries and the Sangh Parivar have in
the last few decades been playing,
overtly as well as covertly, the politics
of religion.
Maidangarh: Located in Mehrauli
area of New Delhi, this place has been
dedicated by the Union government to
set up the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) University. The university was announced
during the 13th summit of SAARC in
Dhaka.
Masdar City: Welcome to a city that
has no cars, and which will be driven
by the sun. Masdar City, is a nearly
self-contained
mini-municipality
designed for up to 50,000 people, rising from the desert next to Abu Dhabis
international airport and intended as a
hub for academic and corporate
research on non-polluting energy
technologies.
The 4-square-km community, set
behind walls to divert hot desert winds
and airport noise, will be car-free,
according
to
the
design
by
Foster+Partners, the London firm that
has become a leading practitioner of
energy-saving architecture.
Nanded: Nanded in Maharashtra is
the place where the 10th Sikh Guru
Gobind Singh breathed his last. The
tercentenary celebrations of Guru
Granth Sahib were started from here
on October 27, 2008. Nanded district,
also known as Nanded Waghla, is
famous as Hazur Sahib, one of the five
takhts of Sikh religion.
Singh Nagar.
Nepal: Nepal, which had been ruled

by the Shah dynasty for over 240
years, was declared on May 28, 2008
as a democratic Republic State and
bid adieu to King Gyanendra formally.
The reign of the Shah dynasty began
in 1768 after King Prithvi Narayan
Shah conquered Kathmandu, Patna
and Bhadgaon in Kathmandu valley
and united eastern and western kingdoms. In 1846, Jang Bahadur Rana
took over as the Prime Minister and
established the rule of the Ranas,
which lasted 104 years. Shah kings
were reduced to figureheads. In 1951,
King Tribhuvan was restored to the
throne and the monarchy once again
became an important centre of power.
In 1955 Tribhuvan died and was succeeded by Mahendra who banned
political parties in 1960. In 1972,
Mahendra died and was succeeded by
his son Birendra. In 1990 Birendra
turned Nepal into a multi-party
democracy under a constitutional
monarchy. In 2001, Birendra and most
members of the royal family were
killed by crown prince Dipendra, who
also died in shootout. His brother
Gyanendra then took over as the king.
Shillong: Indias seventh IIM has

been inaugurated here.
Puga: The ministry of non-conventional energy sources has cleared a

pilot project to generate 45 megawatt
electricity in Puga, Ladakh, by using
steam generated from hot geysers and
molten rock. This geo-thermal energy
is also being actively considered by
the Indian Army to be used for growing
vegetables in a climatically-controlled
environment at a height of 4,500
metres. The area is know for its
extremely inhospitable living conditions and has fascinated travellers the
world over for its barren beauty.
Rome: In June 2008, leaders from
across the world met here for the
World Food Summit.
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar:
The Nawanshahr district of Punjab has
been re-christened Shaheed Bhagat
Shwedagon Pagoda: India has

decided to contribute $200,000
towards repairs and renovation work
at one of the holiest Buddhist shrines
in Myanmar, the Shwedagon Pagoda
complex in Yangon.
Sichuan province: A powerful
earthquake struck this area in western
China in May 2008, reportedly killing
more than 75,000 people.
Singur: Singur is the place in West
Bengal where the Tatas had been provided land for the Nano car project.
But the acquisition of the land
remained a contentious issue for last
over two years with Trinamool Congress leader Mamta Banerjee fighting
for the cause of higher compensation
for farmers whose land was acquired
for the project. The stalemate has
resulted in shutting down of the plant
by Tatas.
Tehran: The 15th Foreign Ministerial
Conference of the Non-aligned Movement was held in Tehran, capital of
Iran.
Toyako: The G-8 summit was held in
this town of Japan in second week of
July 2008.
PROJECTS
First private mega power plant:
The 1,000 MW O.P. Jindal Super Thermal Power Plant at Tamnar, near
Raigarh in Chattisgarh, being set up
by Jindal Power Limited, is the first private mega power plant to go on
stream. The Rs 4,300-crore power
complex, which has 4 units of 250 MW
each, is already feeding over 800 MW
into the grid. Jindal Power is now
embarking on a massive expansion
programme involving the addition of
another 2,500 MW at Tamnar itself and
an additional 2,500 MW in Dumka in
Jharkhand.


MASTERPEDIA
HimadriIndias first research
base at North Pole: After Antarctica, India now has a research base in
the Arctic as well. On July 1, 2008,
India commissioned its permanent
research base at North Pole, Himadri,
that will enable scientists to conduct
studies on subjects, including climate
change, in one of the cleanest environments on earth.
Himadri was inaugurated by Science
and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal at
Ny-Alesund, on the west coast of
Spitsbergen, the largest island in the
Svalbard archipelago of Norway. With
the opening of Himadri, India has
become the tenth country to have
established a full-fledged research
station at Ny-Alesund.
Himadri is equipped with state-of-theart facilities and will be carrying out
round-the-year scientific research in
contemporary fields, with special
emphasis on climate change.
Himadri will be managed by the
national centre for Antarctic and
Ocean Research, an autonomous
institute under the ministry of earth
sciences.
Indias largest sea bridge: Once
completed, the Rs 6,000 crore, 22-km
long Mumbai Trans Harbour Link
(MTHL) project, connecting Sewri in
central Mumbai to Nhava in Navi
Mumbai, would become the fourth
longest sea-bridge in the world. While
China has built four sea bridges in five
years, completing the 7.6 km-long
Sutong Bridge in seven months, India
is still struggling to complete its first
sea bridge, the Bandra-Worli project
which is already four years behind
schedule.
Norway plans worlds first ship
tunnel: Norway has drawn up plans
to build the worlds first shipping tunnel
which would save time and money for
vessels passing through a coastal
area known for its dangerous seas.
Strong winds, high waves and powerful currents in the area of Stad on the
southwest coast of Norway cause long
delays while ships wait for calmer
conditions. A recent report from the

Norwegian coastal administration
recommended building the 1700 metre
tunnel and concluded that it would be
cost-effective.
The tunnel, estimated to cost around
$310 million and take five years to
build, would cut through a peninsula,
saving ships the risky journey around
the coastline. The idea to build a shipping passage was first put forward
long ago. Some say the first sketch
was made in 1870, others say plans
started around 1920 with the idea of
building a canal through the peninsula.
OIL to pioneer converting gas
into LNG, earn carbon credits:
In a first attempt of its kind in India,
State-owned Oil India Ltd (OIL) plans
to start a pilot project in Assam to
convert the gas used for flaring into
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The pilot
project hopes to not only reduce
carbon emission levels but, also help
in saving an increasingly scarce
commodity, gas.
Flaring is used to dispose of natural
gas liberated during oil production and
processing. This is often done in
remote areas where there is no infrastructure available on site to make use
of the gas.
Project Roshni: The Rashtrapati
Bhawan is being transformed into a
green, energy-efficient, plastic-free
model township through the project
Roshni, an initiative of President
Pratibha Patil to make the Presidents
estate a model eco-friendly township.
Under the programme, biodegradable
wastes will be composted in the
Presidents estate itself and the organic manure generated will be used in
the estates gardens.
Waterways development: Inland
waterways, once considered a poor
cousin of road and rail transport, are
now being given a new thrust. These
are being developed by the government as an alternative means for
movement of goods instead of the
conventional road and rail option.
The government plans an investment

of Rs 800 crore on Public-Private
Partnership (PPP) to develop three
national waterways on Ganga and
Brahmaputra rivers, and on the west
coast.
The first waterway is planned on the
Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly
rivers,
from Allahabad to Haldia, over a distance of 1,620 km. The second national waterway is planned on the
Brahmaputra, from Dubri to Sadiya,
over a stretch of 891 km. The third
national waterway is planned to connect Kottapuram-Kollam sector on the
west coast with the Champkara and
Udyogmandal canals, over a 205 km
distance. The three waterways are
expected to be fully functional by
March 2010. These will be used for
export of fly ash to Bangladesh and
transport of coal, gypsum, clinker and
cement within the country.
Worlds Largest Tidal Turbine
Successfully Installed: The
worlds largest tidal turbine, weighing
1000 tonnes, has been installed in
Northern Irelands Strangford Lough.
The tidal turbine is rated at 1.2
megawatts, which is enough to power
a thousand local homes. It was built by
Marine Current Turbines, and it will be
the first commercial tidal turbine to
produce energy, when it begins operation later in 2008. The turbine has twin
rotors measuring 16 metres in diameter. The rotors will operate for up to 1820 hours per day to produce enough
clean, green electricity.
RESEARCH
Big Bang test: On September 10,
2008, the Large Hadron Collider, a
17-mile long doughnut-shaped tunnel
of the CERN project was successfully
turned on. The machine has been
built to smash sub-atomic particles
together at nearly the speed of light.
The aim of the 4.4 billion-pound experiment is to recreate the conditions that
existed a fraction of a second after the
Big Bang that resulted in the birth of
the universe, and provide vital clues to
the building blocks of life.


MASTERPEDIA
The European Organisation for
Nuclear Research, known as CERN, is
the worlds largest particle physics
laboratory, situated in the northwest
suburbs of Geneva on the FrancoSwiss border. The organisation has
twenty European member States, and
is currently the workplace of approximately 2600 full-time employees, as
well as some 7931 scientists and engineers (representing 500 universities
and 80 nationalities).
The acronym CERN originally stood,
in French, for Conseil Europen pour
la Recherche Nuclaire (European
Council for Nuclear Research), which
was a provisional council for setting up
the laboratory, established by 11 European governments in 1952.
CERNs main function is to provide the
particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy
physics research. Numerous experiments have been constructed at
CERN by international collaborations
to make use of them. The main site at
Meyrin also has a large computer
centre containing very powerful data
processing facilities primarily for
experimental data analysis, and
because of the need to make them
available to researchers elsewhere,
has historically been (and continues to
be) a major wide area networking hub.
As an international facility, the CERN
sites are officially under neither Swiss
nor French jurisdiction. Member
States contributions to CERN for the
year 2008 totalled US$ 1 billion.
Most of the activities at CERN are
currently directed towards the new
collider, the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) and the experiments for it. The
LHC represents a large-scale,
worldwide scientific cooperation
project.
The LHC tunnel is located 100 metres
underground, in the region between
the Geneva airport and the nearby
Jura mountains. It uses the 27 km circumference circular tunnel. CERNs
existing PS/SPS accelerator complexes will be used to pre-accelerate protons which will then be injected into
the LHC.
Six experiments (CMS, ATLAS, LHCb,

TOTEM, LHC-forward and ALICE)
have been built, and will be running on
the collider; each of them will study
particle collisions under a different
point of view, and with different technologies. Construction for these
experiments required an extraordinary
engineering effort.
This accelerator will generate vast
quantities of computer data, which
CERN will stream to laboratories
around the world for distributed processing (making use of a specialised
GRID infrastructure, the LHC Computing Grid).
The first high-energy collisions are
planned to take place over a period of
time.
Robodog to be latest war
weapon: Modern battlefields may
soon resemble something out of a science fiction flick, thanks to advances
in robotics. And, the latest weapon to
be unveiled is the robodogfourlegged, petrol-powered robots. Scientists have developed the BigDog,
billed as the most advanced
quadruped robot on Earth, which they
claim is able to carry up to four packs
of military equipment on awkward terrain unsuitable for vehicles.
Standing at over 2 ft tall and more than
3 ft long, BigDog comes equipped with
all manner of high-tech gadgets,
including laser gyroscopes, a video
camera sensor system and a sophisticated on-board computer. According
to scientists, who have developed the
robodog for the US Army, the machine
can trot along at up to 10 kmph and
would even stay on its legs when it is
kicked hard in the side.
SPACE RESEARCH
Chandrayaan-1 launched: Indias
first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, was launched from the
spaceport of Sriharikota on October
22, 2008 using the ISRO work-horse
rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV-C11). The PSLV-C11 was an
updated version of ISRO workhorse,
PSLV, but used larger strap-on PSOM-
XL motors capable of lifting higher

payloads. PSLV placed Chandrayaan
on successively higher elliptical orbits
around earth.
Over two years, Chandrayaan will prepare a 3D atlas of the moon and map
the surface for chemicals and metals.
It will also look for water and helium-3,
one of the cleanest known fuels.
The spacecraft carried eleven payloads, five from India and six from the
US, Europe and Bulgaria. Chandrayaan-1 satellite will orbit the moon
at an altitude of 100 km, mapping the
topography and the mineralogical
content of the lunar soil.
Chandrayaan-1 also carried a Moon
Impact Probe payload for demonstrating the technology needed towards
landing on the moons surface.
A 32-metre antenna, installed at
Byalalu in Karnataka, tracked the lunar
spacecraft
On November 7, 2008, Chandrayaan1 successfully entered the lunar orbit.
Putting the spacecraft in the moons
orbit was the trickiest part of the
mission. With the successful manoeuvre India became the fifth country in
the world to send a spacecraft for
scientific exploration of moon.
Chandrayaan-1 is the worlds 88th moon
shot over 49 years, and its cheapest
ever. At 1,380 kg, the spacecraft
weighs a little more than two Maruti
800 cars. The mission costs less than
Rs 400 crore, 1/10th the telecast rights
of the Indian Premiere League.
China becomes third country to
complete space walk: On September 26, 2008, the long March II-F rocket carrying the Shenzhou VII manned
spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan
Satellite Launch Center, Gansu
province. The highlight of the mission
was the successful space walk by
Chinese taikonaut Zhai Zhigang. China thus became only the third nation
after the US and former Soviet Union
to have gone on a successful walk in
space. This was Chinas third manned
mission to space since 2003, and part
of a larger plan to design the countrys
own space lab, a space station and a


MASTERPEDIA
Moon landing.
Discovery launched: US space
shuttle Discovery, with a crew of seven
astronauts, was launched on June 1,
2008, carrying a giant Japanese
science laboratory and a toilet pump
for the International Space Station
(ISS). During the mission the crew
installed the $1 billion lab, Kibo, which
means hope in Japanese. The installation of the laboratory, the biggest single piece so far, marked the completion of three quarters of the ISS.
India crosses rocket science
milestone: Indian space scientists
reached a new galaxy in the month of
November 2007, with the successful
test of the indigenous cryogenic stage
which powers the gigantic Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle
(GSLV). Indians have joined an exclusive league of scientistsfrom the US,
Russia and Europewho have the
capability to design and build cryogenic engines which are critical for
hoisting communication satellites as
well as manned missions to space.
India launches Israeli spy
satellite: On January 21, 2008, in a
closely-guarded operation, India successfully launched an Israeli spy satellite from Sriharikota space station in
Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. The
indigenously developed Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C10), carried
the advanced 300-kg satellite
TECSAR or Polaris. The Israeli commercial satellite, believed to be the
most advanced in its category, had a
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that
could take pictures of small targets
under cloudy and foggy conditions
(day and night) and all weather
imaging.
India signs agreement for
lunar exploration: India, along
with seven other countries, has signed
a landmark agreement with the United
States to carry out lunar exploration.
The agreement was signed at NASAs
Ames Research Centre in Silicon
Valley. Apart from India, other countries which signed the pact with the US
are Britain, Canada, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan and South Korea.
ISRO places satellite cluster in
orbit: On April 19, 2008, India created a record of sorts in space history as
scientists of the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully put 10 satellites in orbit in a
single mission launched from Sriharikota.
The 230-tonne PSLV-C9 carried the
heaviest luggage of 824 kg, which
included an Indian mini-satellite and
eight foreign nano satellites and the
CARTOSAT-2A remote sensing satellite. This was PSLVs 12th successful
flight. This was the third time that the
PSLV was launched in the core alone
version, without the six solid propellant
first stage strap-on motors.
The challenge of this mission was that
the fourth stage of the rocket that fired
the 10 satellites into the orbit, one after
the other in a timed sequence, without
any collision.
The two Indian satellites were
CARTOSAT-2A and Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1). CARTOSAT-2A, is a
remote-sensing satellite and its
images will have a resolution of one
metre. The images will be used in vital
defence applications as well as making maps which will provide valuable
information in planning urban infrastructure, rural roads, ring roads and
settlements.
The IMS-1, which weighs 83 kg, is
also a remote-sensing satellite. The
images sent down by its two cameras
can be used to monitor features on the
earth such as its vegetation and water
bodies.
Six of the eight nano satellites were
clustered together and were named
NLS-4.
NASA launches interstellar
explorer mission: On October 21,
2008, the US space agency NASA
launched the Interstellar Boundary
Explorer Mission (IBEX) to image and
map dynamic interactions taking place
in the outer solar system.

Phoenix lands in Mars polar
region: On May 26, 2008, a small US
spacecraft, Phoenix, landed in the
north polar region of Mars to begin a
three-month search for water and
building blocks of life and successfully
sent images of the frozen land within
two hours. The most difficult part, the
scientists said, was to land the spacecraft since it was for the first time that
the probe touched the ground on its
three legs, without using a cushion,
after it entered the Martian atmosphere at over 12,000 miles per hour.
The landers robotic arm started digging trenches into the Martian soil on
June 21, 2008. It then took pictures of
eight bright bits of material the size of
dice inside the hole, which scientists
dubbed Dodo Goldilocks. When the
Lander took new photographs of the
trench four days later, the material had
vanished, settling the debate about
whether it was salt or ice.
Space probe Ulysses reaches
end of odyssey: European and US
scientists bid a fond farewell on July 1,
2008 to the space probe Ulysses,
which has circled the Sun gathering
data for 17 years, almost four times its
expected lifetime.The first major collaboration between NASA and the
European Space Agency (ESA), it was
launched in 1990, and changed forever the way we view the Sun and its
effect on the surrounding space. The
probe is the only satellite to have circled the Suns poles.
MISCELLANEOUS
14 National water projects
named: The Central government has
declared 14 water resources projects,
as National Projects. It is proposed to
provide 90 per cent project cost of
irrigation and drinking water component of the project as Central Grant
after techno-economic appraisal
of the detailed project report and
investment clearance by the Planning
Commission.
The projects are: Teesta Barrage


MASTERPEDIA
(West Bengal), Shahpur Kandi (Punjab), Bursar (Jammu and Kashmir),
2nd Ravi Vyas Link (Punjab), Ujh multipurpose project (Jammu and Kashmir), Gyspa project (Himachal
Pradesh), Lakhvar Vyasi (Uttranchal),
Kishau (Himachal Pradesh/Uttranchal), Renuka (Himachal Pradesh),
Noa Dehang Dam Project (Arunachal
Pradesh), Kulsi Dam Project (Assam),
Upper Siang (Arunachal Pradesh),
Gisikhurd (Maharashtra) and Ken
Betwa (Madhya Pradesh).
Asias first human DNA bank:
Combining biometric, anthropology
and information technology together,
Asias first human DNA bank has been
set up in the Biotech Park of Lucknow,
Uttar Pradesh. The unique bank stores
all information of a person on a sim card,
including fingerprints and other vital details
collected from four drops of blood.
From 2009, 8-digit PIN code:
Remembering your PIN code is set to
become tougher but your letter could
reach you faster. The Union government has moved a proposal to
increase the digits in Postal Index
Number or PIN from the present six to
eight for easy sorting of mail and to
meet international standards.
The proposal, likely to be implemented
in 2009, would make the postmans
job much easier because the last two
digits would identify the beat (specific
mohalla). It will help in speedier
delivery of mail.
Ganga becomes National River:
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has
declared the Ganga as Indias first
national river with a separate river
basin authority to monitor its cleanliness in the States through which it
flows. The move comes more than two
decades after the then Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi set up the Central Ganga
Authority in 1985.
Geographical indication status
for Chamba rumal: After Kangra
tea and Kullu shawl, Chamba rumal
has been registered under the Geo-
graphical Indications (GIs) of Goods

Act of 1999. Chamba rumal a pictorial
craft that represents unique embroidery, originated and flourished in
Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh
in the 17th-18th centuries. Chamba
rumal is embroidered with the technique of double satin stitches or do
rukha tanka, making the embroidery
on either side look alike.
India accepts WADA code: The
National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA)
has approved the World Anti-Doping
Agency (WADA) code for application
in India, a prerequisite to get the
accreditation from the world body.
NADA also approved its own antidoping rules which are to come into
force from October 1, 2008. These
rules will lay down all procedures and
rules for sample collection, testing,
sanction to be imposed and
rights/responsibilities of athletes and
supporting personnel.
The National Dope Testing Laboratory
(NDTL) has now got the accreditation
from the World Anti-Doping Agency
(WADA). With this accreditation India
will now house worlds 34th accredited
anti-doping laboratory.
Nano: Worlds cheapest car:
Reaching out to common people has
always been the drive at the Tata
Group. And in unveiling its eagerly
awaited Peoples Car, Nano, at the
countrys biggest auto show in Delhi,
in January 2008, Tata Motors has
done exactly that. While launching the
car, Tata Group chief Ratan Tata also
assured that the four-wheeler will cost
Rs 1 lakh as promised and meet all
safety and emission norms.
National Disaster Response
Force: National Disaster Response
Force (NDRF) will now combat possible chemical, biological, radiological
and nuclear casualties and pandemics
in the country. Eight battalions, each
consisting of 1158 personnel on deputation for five years from CRPF, ITBP,
BSF and CISF have been trained to
counter any emergency, be it a poison-
ous gas leak or damage due to radiation, in any part of the country. While
one battalion each has already been
put in position at Guwahati, Kolkata,
Bhubaneswar, Anakonam (Chennai),
Pune, Baroda and Chandigarh, the
eighth battalion will soon be stationed
at Greater Noida.
Salary of President, Governors
up: The Union government has
approved the proposal for a 300 per
cent hike in the salaries of the President, Vice President and Governors.
The salary of the President has been
raised to Rs 1.50 lakh per month from
the Rs 50,000 now. The Vice-President will get Rs 1.25 lakh (from Rs
40,000) and the salary of the Governors has been hiked to Rs 1.10 lakh
from Rs 36,000.
SoleckshawThe solar rickshaws: The historic Chandni Chowk
areas of Delhi are now witness to solar
powered cycle rickshaws buzzing past
its crowded arterial roads. Developed
by Durgapur-based Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute
(CMERI), the green rickshaw, named
Soleckshaw, was launched in Chandni
Chowk on October 2, 2008.
The process of delimitation:
Delimitation is the exercise of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha or
Assembly constituencies to maintain
an equitable distribution of population
across constituencies. Article 82 of the
Constitution directs the Parliament to
enact a Delimitation Act after every
census. India has in the past witnessed four such commissions
1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002.
Headed by Justice Kuldip Singh, the
present Delimitation Commission has
proposed redrawing boundaries based
on the 2001 census. It has notified
delimitation in almost all States except
in 19 parliamentary seats in Assam,
Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and
Nagaland where the 2001 census is
under litigation. The latest exercise
has altered 499 Lok Sabha and 3,645
Assembly constituencies.



Round Up Current General Knowledge Jan'09

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Round Up Current General Knowledge Jan'09

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MASTERPEDIA

Infantry (Posthumous), were awarded Ashoka Chakra on the eve of

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The Competition Master.

ROUND-UP of Last 12 Months

Serum Institute of India Ltd, won the

Best Sound Design: Dwarak Warrier,

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National Film Awards

Soumitra Chatterjee for his role in

Nobel Prizes, 2008

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Social worker and Gandhian Professor

Republic Day Awards,

(Art), Hans Raj Hans (Art), Helen Giri

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poverty and violation of human rights,

V.K. Krishna Menon Award:

From Kolhapur to Beijing

Mosquito Day: August 20 will be

Vachaspati Puruskar, 2007: Noted Sanskrit scholar Mahakavi Swami

The White Tiger: Written by

IAF lands AN-32 near Siachen

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been so designed that they can be

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jagirdars, he could have had the world

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Chopra directed 18 movies and produced 28 of them in a career spanning

hid a resolve of steel. Best known for

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Mere Desh Ki Dhartiwhich won him

before devoting himself to spiritual

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where five suspected militants were

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garh touched down on the unpaved

Colombo: Capital of Sri Lanka, the

Hoshangabad: India is indigenizing

Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO): On May

Hyderabad: The worlds largest aircraft Airbus A-380 to Pushpak, the

craft and choppers were on display in

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takhts of Sikh religion.

Nepal: Nepal, which had been ruled

Shillong: Indias seventh IIM has

Puga: The ministry of non-conventional energy sources has cleared a

Shwedagon Pagoda: India has

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conditions. A recent report from the

The government plans an investment