1.

50% quota for women in local body polls In Andhra Pradesh there would be 50 per cent reservation for women in the next local body elections in the State. Living up to his promise made during the International Women's Day celebrations recently, the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy observed that legislation to this effect was already under consideration. These reservations will be provided horizontally, which means that for each category of reservation, i.e. SC, ST, BC as also general category, there will be 50% reservation for women. The reservation would apply to all elected positions in gram panchayats, Mandal Praja Parishads and Zilla Praja Parishads, including the indirectly elected posts of sarpanch, president of Mandal Praja Parishad and Chairman Zilla Praja Parishad. 2-Ministry finalises National Health Research Policy To overcome the weaknesses of the publicly funded health structures that restricted research in priority health areas, the Union Health and Family Planning Ministry has finalised the National Health Research Policy. It would maximise the returns on investments in health research through creation of a health research system to prioritise, coordinate and facilitate conduct of effective and ethical research and its translation into products , policies and programmes aimed at improving health especially of the vulnerable population. It proposes to ensure at least two per cent of the national health funding is utilised for research. 3-Parliament panel to review nuclear plants' safety In the wake of growing public demands for a review of nuclear safety following Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident, Parliament's Standing Committee on Science and Technology will meet to examine what India should do to ensure its own civil nuclear energy pr ogramme is safe a review of nuclear safety following Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident, Parliament's Standing Committee on Science and Technology will meet to examine what India should do to ensure its own civil nuclear energy programme is safe. 4-Magnitude 6.7 earthquake strikes off Indonesia Hundreds of residents fled an Indonesian port town for higher ground when an earthquake struck south of Java with a magnitude estimated by US seismologists at 6.7. The epicentre in the Indian Ocean was 24 km miles deep, the US Geological Survey said, after initially estimating it at 10 km underground, and 277 kilometres south of the Javanese coast. Indonesian seismologists put the magnitude at 7.1 and issued a tsunami warning, saying the tremor had the potenti al to cause a killer wave and asking recipients of its public alert SMS to warn others of the danger. 5-U.S. firm offers help to Indian industry in emission cut As Indian industry continues with its growth in the coming years, the U.S.-based Carbon Credi t Capital (CCC) has offered companies and corporations help in cutting down their emissions and improve their efficiency in a unique way.As a leading player in the international carbon credit financing business, CCC plans to popularise its greenhouse gas reduction and risk management solutions to large industrial emitter companies in India. 6-Safest year for Transocean despite Gulf spill Transocean Ltd., the world's largest offshore oil and gas drilling contractor, has given its executives pay raises, bonuses and stock options after the company's best year for safety, despite a deadly oil platform explosion and massive leak in the Gulf of Mexico.Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate, said Transocean in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As measured by these standards, we recorded the best year in safety performance in our company's history, which is a reflection on our commitment to achieving an incident-free environment, all the time, everywhere.

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7-Spices export up 19 per cent Export of spices and spices products from India has registered an increase of 4 per cent in volume and 19 per cent in terms of value during April-February 2010-11. In dollar terms, the rise in exports is 24 per cent.A total of 4,71,165 tonnes of spices and spices products, valued at Rs.6,030.74 crore ($1,323.28 million), was exported from the co untry as against 4,53,495 tonnes valued at Rs.5,058.26 crore ($1,063.44 million) in April-February 2009-10.Export of chilli, ginger, fennel, garlic and other spices such as asafoetida and tamarind has shown an increase both in volume and value during April-February 2010-11 as compared to April-February 2009-10. The export of value-added product spice oils and oleoresin and curry powder/paste has also shown an increase, both in volume and value, as compared to April-February 2009-10. However, in the case of pepper, cardamom (large), turmeric and mint products, the increase is in terms of value only. Other spices such as cardamom (small), coriander, cumin, celery, fenugreek, nutmeg and mace have decreased both in terms of volume and value as compared to last year. 8-Tata Steel tops corporate reputation list India's leading companies Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Wipro and Bharti Airtel have been rated as the top five firms, respectively in terms of corporate reputation as per a latest survey by the Nielsen Company. According to Nielsen's corporate image monitor that measures people's perception of the image of the country's leading firms, largest consumer goods firm by sales, Hindustan Unilever has dropped to the 10th position in 2010, down from the seventh place two years back. Others, including L&T, Bajaj Auto and HDFC, have dropped out of the list of top 10 corporates in the 2010 study, compared to the previous survey of 2008. 9-Godrej elected chairman executive board of ISB Godrej group chief Adi Godrej has been elected as the chairman of the executive board of the Indian School of Business (ISB), following resignation of Rajat Gupta who is embroiled in an insider trading case in the US. In his new role, Adi Godrej will chair the board of ISB that comprises of many respected industrialists and philanthropists. Godrej was unanimously elected as the chairman after a meeting of the executive board, ISB Dean Ajit Rangnekar said. 10-FDI in services sector dips 23% Foreign direct investment in the country's service sector declined by 23 per cent to USD 2.98 billion (Rs 13,652 crore) during April-January 2010-11 over the same period a year ago, according to industry ministry's latest data. The financial and non -financial services sector had attracted FDI worth USD 3.87 billion (Rs 18,588 crore) during April-January 2009-10. According to experts, the global economic recovery is not strong, which is impacting foreign investments in India. 11 -Paes-Bhupathi duo wins title, becomes No. 1 Adding to the joy of India's cricket World Cup triumph, veteran tennis players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won their second title of the season by clinching the Sony Ericsson Open here to become No. 1 in the ATP World Tour doubles team rankings.Third-seeded Bhupathi and Paes rallied to beat the second seeded Belarusian-Canadian pair of Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor 6-7(5), 6 10 -5.Paes had, in fact won -2, the title even last year with Lukas Dlouhy but for Bhupathi it was his first career title at Crandon Park. 12-C. Rly. women take title Central Railway, Mumbai, defeated Secunderabad's South Central Railway 75 -51 and won the women's title in the Nest-Carmel Trophy all-India basketball tournament at the Carmel Stadium, Aluva,.The results: Women's final: Central Railway, Mumbai 75 (Manisha Dange 19, Renjusha Mathew 14, R.K. Smruthy 12, Renu Maurya 10) bt South Central Railway, Secunderabad 51 (Kawaljeet Kaur 15, Dhanya 14, Anusha Anto 10). 13-Djokovic beats Nadal to win Sony Ericsson Open Novak Djokovic won his fourth consecutive tournament beating top-ranked Rafael Nadal 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) in a grueling final at the Sony Ericsson Open. Djokovic has won 26 consecutive matches since December, and his record of 24-0 in 2011 is the best to begin a year since Ivan Lendl started 2 5-0 in 1986. The No. 2-ranked Djokovic was pushed the distance by Nadal on a sunny, hot afternoon. They played for nearly 3 hours, and it was Djokovic who looked fresher at the finish.

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