BRAIN TREE

CIVIL SERVICES EXAMINATION

CURRENT AFFAIRS & GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

May - June, 2008

1. K.V.Kamath, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, ICICI Bank, has been elected President
of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2008-09. He succeeds Sunil Bharti Mittal.
2. Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Industrialist Ratan Tata and PepsiCo Chief Executive Officer
Indra Nooyi have made it to the Time Magazine’s 2008 list of the World’s 100 most influential people
that also included Tibetan Spiritual Leader Dalai Lama and Chinese President Hu Jintao.The list has
been divided into Five categories — Leaders and Revolutionaries, Heroes and Pioneers, Scientists and
Thinkers, Aristes and Entertainers and Builders and Titans — who are perceived to have a made a
profound impact on the world. Ms. Gandhi, is the only Indian politician to have been listed in the
category of Leaders and Revolutionaries while Ms. Nooyi and Mr. Tata figure in the list of Builders
and Titans.
3. The World’s longest sea bridge has been inaugurated in China over the Yangtze river. It connects
Shanghai to Ningbo. Started simultaneously in the cities of Nantong and Suzhou in 2003, the Sutong
Yangtze Road Bridge, linking Nantong and Changshuin Suzhou, runs 32.4 kilometers, with 8,146
meters spanning the Yangtze, China's longest waterway.It has the world's longest span of 1,088
meters, usurping the previous record holder, the Tatara Bridge in Japan, which has a main span of
890 meters.
4. The renowned Gandhian, social activist, writer and Sanskrit scholar Nirmala Deshpande died. Ms.
Deshpande, is a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. A disciple of Vinoba Bhave, she joined his
Bhoodan Yatra in 1952 and walked more than 40,000 km during the Bhoodan Movement, propagating
non-violence. She was conferred the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award in August 2005. In
2006, she was conferred the Padma Vibhushan.
5. Targeting 55 million farmers under its fold, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) announced
a joint venture with telecom major Bharti Airtel to provide a boost to Indian agriculture and rural
economy at large. The joint venture company, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd (IKSL), will harness the
power of telecom to add value to the farm sector and empower the rural farmer by giving him access to
vital information, which will enhance his livelihood and quality of life.
6. G. K. Chadha, former Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and member of the Prime
Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the ambitious
South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) University.
7. India’s credible nuclear deterrence capability received a boost with the successful test-firing of Agni-
III ballistic missile, which is capable of striking targets 3,500 km away, from the Wheeler Island, off
the Orissa coast. The launch propelled India into a select group of countries such as Russia, the U.S.,
France and China with the intermediate-range ballistic missile capability. This is the third flight of
Agni-III. The earlier ones took place on July 9, 2006 and April 12, 2007. The April 2007 flight was
successful. Designed and developed by the Advanced Systems Laboratory, Hyderabad, it is 17 metres
tall and weighs 50 tonnes. It can carry payloads up to 1.5 tonnes.
8. A day after India’s successful Agni-III test, Pakistan test-fired the air-launched cruise missile Hatf-VIII
or Raad. It can carry warheads in a 350-km range.
9. The recently acquired U.S. warship Trenton (now renamed INS Jalashwa) figures in war games with an
International Navy . The Jalashwa, along with guided missile destroyer Ranjit, guided missile corvette
Kirch and the submarine Vagli, will participate in the tenth ‘Varuna’ exercise with the French Navy off
the east coast.
10. Controversial Nihang sect chief Baba Santa Singh died. Baba Santa Singh was excommunicated from
the Sikh community in 1984, along with the then Union Home Minister Buta Singh, for organising
voluntary labour to reconstruct the building of the Akal Takht which was damaged during Operation
Bluestar.
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CURRENT AFFAIRS & GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

11. The government granted Navratna status on the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) giving it
Financial and Administrative Autonomy.
BACKGROUNDER
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION CORPORATION
The Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC), was incorporated on July 25, 1969 under the
Companies Act 1956. REC is a wholly owned Government of India Public Sector Enterprise with a
net worth of Rs. 5368 Crore. Its main objective is to finance and promote rural electrification
projects all over the country. It provides financial assistance to State Electricity Boards, State
Government Departments and Rural Electric Cooperatives for rural electrification projects as are
sponsored by them.
WHAT ARE NAVRATNAS ?
The New Industrial Policy announced by the government in 1991, emphasized major measures to
reform the Public Sector Enterprises. One such reform was to grant greater autonomy along with
the commensurate accountability to the Public Sector Enterprises. This reform took the shape of
granting of the Navratna status. In 1997, the government identified 11 big and profit-making Central
Public Sector Enterprises as Navratnas. It was decided that their Boards would be given enhanced
powers to help them become global players. The enterprises were BHEL, BPCL, GAIL, HPCL, IOC,
IPCL, MTNL, NTPC, ONGC, SAIL and VSNL. ( IPCL and VSNL were later privatized ). The
Navratna’s have professional boards, and functional autonomy. The Rural Electrification
Corporation is the 16th enterprise to be granted the Navratna status.

WHY WAS THE NAVRATNA SCHEME INTRODUCED ?

Before the economic liberalisation in 1991, most Central Public Sectors undertakings enjoyed some
kind of monopoly and state patronage. But with the dismantling of the licence raj, sectors reserved for
the public sector were opened to the private sector. Also, foreign investment was allowed in the
reserved sectors.
In this changed scenario, it became imperative for Central Public Sectors undertakings to abandon
their bureaucratic ways and take decisions in real time. The then Industries Minister, Murasoli
Maran, came up with the Navratna scheme to help the Central Public Sectors undertakings become
professional business entities and be able to compete with their counterparts in the private sector.
12. According to a study conducted by the National Geographic, ‘consumers’ in India care the most for the
environment in terms of their day-to-day behaviour. As per a study of 14 countries conducted by
National Geographic Society and the international polling firm GlobeScan, India and Brazil have come
at the top, jointly.
13. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited achieved a technological breakthrough with the
inauguration of the first Helium Extraction Pilot Plant in the country at its Gas Collecting Station at
Kuthalam near Mayiladuturai, Nagapattinam district. Helium has crucial applications in space
technology. Helium is crucial for safe diving operations. Our country needs about 1,80,000 cubic
metres of helium per annum.
14. A leading columnist, social activist and Editor of The Shillong Times, Patricia Mukihm, was presented
the fifth Upendra Nath Brahma Soldier of Humanity Award. The award, instituted by the Upendra Nath
Brahma Trust, is named after Bodofa (Father of Bodo Nationalist Assertion) Upendra Nath Brahma,
who led the Bodo Statehood movement spearheaded by the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU).

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CURRENT AFFAIRS & GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

15. A major earthquake of 7.8 magnitude ripped through southwest China killing more than 12,000 people.
The epicentre of the quake was pinpointed at Wenchuan County, some 100 km northwest of Chengdu,
the capital of Sichuan province and home to over 12 million people. This quake was the deadliest in
China since the 1976 quake that struck Tangshan city, east of Beijing. The quake killed 2,40,000
persons.
BACKGROUNDER
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic
waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph. The moment
magnitude of an earthquake is conventionally reported, or the related and mostly obsolete Richter
magnitude, with magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being mostly imperceptible and magnitude 7
causing serious damage over large areas. Intensity of shaking is measured on the modified Mercalli
scale.
At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by a shaking and sometimes displacement of
the ground. When a large earthquake epicenter is located offshore, the seabed sometimes suffers
sufficient displacement to cause a tsunami. The shaking in earthquakes can also trigger landslides and
occasionally volcanic activity.
In its most generic sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic event—whether a
natural phenomenon or an event caused by humans—that generates seismic waves. Earthquakes are
caused mostly by rupture of geological faults, huge amounts of gas migration, mainly methane deep
within the earth, but also by volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear experiments.
An earthquake's point of initial rupture is called its focus or hypocenter. The term epicenter means the
point at ground level directly above this.
16. Irena Sendler, who saved some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazi Holocaust, smuggling them out
of the Warsaw Ghetto in baskets and trams and hiding them for safekeeping with Catholic families,
convents and orphanages, is dead. She was among the first to be honoured by Israel’s Yad Vashem
Holocaust memorial as a Righteous among Nations for her wartime heroism.
17. Terror struck the Pink City, Jaipur, for the first time as serial blasts killed at least 100 people and
injured more than 250.
18. Sir Anthony O’ Reilly, Chief Executive of the international media and communications group,
Independent News and Media Plc (INM), has been honoured with the Media Person of the Year Award
at the 55th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
19. Jet Airways became the first Indian private airline to launch flights to China, starting a service that will
connect the thriving financial hubs of Mumbai, Shanghai and San Francisco.
20. Renu Challu assumed charge as Managing Director of State Bank of Hyderabad. She is the first
woman to hold the position of MD in State Bank of Hyderabad.
21. The BrahMos Aerospace has signed an agreement with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for
taking up engineering and integration of the space agency’s launch vehicles PSLV and GSLV.
22. Over the last three months, two rock art sites, two caverns with Jaina beds, and dolmens have been
discovered within a radius of 25 km on the hillocks behind the Gingee fort in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram
district. Members of the team that found the sites, said the discovery of Jaina beds confirmed the earlier
view that present-day Villupuram district was once a prominent centre of Jainism. The presence of the
rock art sites and dolmens showed that the area had been under continuous human occupation for 3,000
years, they added. Archeologists found a big cavern with Jaina beds and rock art on a hillock called
Pancha Pandavar Kal, near Vadagal village in Gingee taluk. The hillock, located 15 km behind the
Gingee fort, forms part of a chain of hills in the area.
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CURRENT AFFAIRS & GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

23. The former member of Parliament, Prema Cariappa, took over as Chairperson of the Central Social
Welfare Board.
CENTRAL SOCIAL WELFARE BOARD
BACKGROUNDER
The Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) was conceived as an institution to be instrumental in
bringing the neglected, weak, handicapped and backward sections of society into the national
mainstream. Established in August 1953, the Board initiated several programmes for delivering
welfare services to the most backward, marginalized and deserving sections of society. As a follow
up, the State Social Welfare Advisory Boards were set up with the task of implementing and
monitoring of different programmes of the CSWB. Over the years, the Board has not only widened
the scope of its programmes but has also moved in policy approach from welfare to development to
empowerment. Today it is the pioneering national level organisation in the field of development and
empowerment of women in the country.
The CSWB was also envisaged as an interface between the Government and the voluntary sector for
social development in the country. It has made a signal contribution in encouraging, assisting and
promoting the growth of nearly twenty five thousand voluntary organisations for reaching the
neglected women and children of the country.
24. The government will confer the ‘One Time Award for Life Time Achievement’ on film luminaries
Dilip Kumar, Tapan Sinha, Lata Mangeshkar and Saroja Devi as part of the commemoration of the 60 th
anniversary of India’s independence.
25. ‘Nishant,’ India’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, developed by the DRDO, was successfully flight-tested
near Kolar. Nishant is one of the few UAVs in the world in its weight class capable of being catapult
launched and recovered by using parachute.
26. Gunther Stent, who helped pioneer the field of molecular biology as one of the first scientists to
confirm the structure of DNA, died. The push to unlock the mysteries of human genetics in the years
after World War II was led by the “Phage group,” a small collection of scientists that included Stent,
James Watson and Francis Crick.
27. Laal Juto (Red Shoes), a short-film by the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata,
received the award for the best creative idea at the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival.
28. Steel Secretary R.S. Pandey was presented the prestigious United Nations Public Service Award in
New York to mark the ‘Public Service Day’. The award was bestowed on Mr. Pandey for
conceptualising and implementing a unique programme of communitisation of public institutions and
services in Nagaland during 2002-04 when he was the State Chief Secretary.
29. The Quetzalcoatlus is the largest winged creature ever discovered on Earth. A full-scale replica of the
Quetzalcoatlus is on display at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo.
30. Field Marshal S.H.F.J. Manekshaw passed away. He was considered one of the country’s great war
heroes. The victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war that he masterminded helped create Bangladesh. A
fortnight before his retirement, Manekshaw was made a Field Marshal. He was the second Indian to be
thus decorated after K.M. Cariappa.
DISCLAIMER
The information presented above has been collected from a variety of sources. Brain Tree
exercises due care and caution in collecting the data before publication. Inspite of this, if any
omission, inaccuracy or printing errors occur with regard to the data, Brain Tree will not be held
responsible or liable.

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