THE HINDU REVIEW CURRENT AFFAIRS - JULY 13

1.

RBI kept the indicative policy (repo) rate unchanged

at 7. 25 per cent and the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR)
at 4 per cent in its first quarter review of monetary
policy for 2013-14. RBI revised its growth projection
for the current financial year from 5.7 per cent to
5.5 per cent.
a. Bank Rate 10.25 % (Unchanged)
b. Cash Reserve Ratio 4 % (Unchanged)
c. Statutory Liquidity Ratio 23 % (Unchanged)
d. Repo Rate 7.25 % (Unchanged)
e. Reverse Repo Rate 6.25 % (Unchanged)
f. Marginal Standing Rate - 10.25 % (Unchanged)

President Som Mittal, whose tenure expires in

January 2014.
11. Najeeb Jung, the vice chancellor of Jamia Millia
Islamia University appointed Lt Governor of Delhi.
He replaced Tejendra Khanna.
12. The Forbes declared that Angelina Jolie was the
Hollywoods highest paid actress. She had the
estimated earnings of 33 million US dollar.
13. Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who
exposed the widest US global surveillance
operations, was awarded German Whistleblower
Prize 2013.

2.

Earlier Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked marginal

standing facility (MSF) rate and Bank rate by 2 per
cent. Now MSF rate and Bank rate is 10.25 per cent.
3. Mamnoon Hussain of PML-N Party was elected as
the 12th President of Pakistan against Wajihuddin
Ahmed. He succeeded Asif Ali Zardari.
4. New president of the Institute of Cost Accountants
of India is Suresh Chandra Mohanty.
5. Abdul Rahim Rather, the Finance Minister of
Jammu and Kashmir appointed as the new
Chairman Empowered Committee of States
Finance Ministers on GST. He preceded Sushil
Kumar Modi.
6. Bhim Sain Bassi was appointed as the next Police
Commissioner of Delhi. He succeed Neeraj Kumar.
7. Lt Gen (Retd) AK Singh took over as the new
Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar
Islands.
8. Former Delhi police Chief, KK Paul took over as the
new Governor of Meghalaya.
9. Senior parliamentarian Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil
was appointed as the new governor of Sikkim.
10. NASSCOM appointed R. Chandrasekhar as its
president. He will be succeeding current Nasscom

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14. Salman Khan was charged with Culpabale Homicide

by the High Court of Mumbai in the hit-and-run
case.
15. Nisha Desai Biswal, an Indian-American woman was
nominated for the Post of Assistant Secretary of
State for South and Central Asia by US President
Barack Obama.
16. The new chief Justice of India is Justice Palanisamy
Sathasivam. He succeeded CJI Altamas Kabir.
17. The Supreme Court of India suspended all
proceedings related to fodder scam cases in the
Jharkhand Court against Lalu Yadav.
18. Mohamed ElBaradei was named as Egypt's new
Prime Minister to head a caretaker government.
19. Adli Mansour, the Chief Justice of Egypt's
Constitutional Court sworn in as interim president
of Egypt. Earlier, the first democratically elected
President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi was deposed
from his office in a military coup.

20. Vandana Gandhi became the first ever Indian

woman to receive Dubai Government's coveted
Emirates Woman Award for business excellence.
21. Suresh Kalmadi lost the Asian Athletics
Association's President election to Qatar's Dahlan
Jumaan Al-Hamad.
22. Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh
approved the appointment of Sujata Singh as the
Next Foreign Secretary of India.
23. The Chairman of Aditya Birla Nuvo, Kumar
Mangalam Birla resigned from the Reserve Bank of
Indias Central Board. The resignation is said to
avoid the conflicts because Aditya Birla Nuvo
applied for the bank license to RBI.
24. SN Hanumantha Rao, the former Indian Test umpire
passed away.

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25. Jagdish Raj, the Bollywood actor who held

the Guinness World Record for being the most
type-cast actor, died.
26. Arun Nehru, the cousin of Rajiv Gandhi as well as
the Minister for Internal Security during his
government, died.
27. Former Union Minister Khurshed Alam Khan died.
He was the father of Union External Affairs Minister
Salman Khurshid.
28. Controversial
Italian
businessman
Ottavio
Quattrocchi, who was a key figure in the Bofors
payoffs scandal, died in Milan, Italy.
29. Amar Gopal Bose, the man behind Bose
Corporation died.
30. The winner of Dadasaheb Phalke Award and a
veteran actor Pran died in Mumbai.
31. Douglas Engelbart, the U.S. inventor who was
known as the father of the computer mouse died.
32. UNESCO announced that the committee in charge
of international book industry named South Korean
city of Incheon as the World Book Capital for the
year 2015.
33. The Union Cabinet of India gave approval to
rename the Bengaluru International Airport as
Kempegowda International Airport.
34. The Union Cabinet of India approved the proposal
for setting up of a National Aviation University
(NAU) in the name of Rajiv Gandhi National
Aviation University at the District of Rae Bareli in
the State of UP as a Central University for providing
aviation training.
35. Planning Commission member Saumitra Chaudhuri
has emerged as the frontrunner for the post of next
Reserve Bank of India governor. The term of
present Governor D Subbarao ends on September
5.
36. PSU banks aim to open more than 8,000 branches
in the current financial year ending in March 2014,
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said. Currently,
more than 40 percent of the 1.2 billion population
is not covered by the banking system.
37. With 26 public and private sector companies
applying for bank licences, Finance Minister P
Chidambaram has said that there was no ceiling on

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the number of entities which can be permitted to

operate a bank.
a. Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd
b. Bajaj Finance Ltd
c. Bandhan Financial Services
d. Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd
e. IDFC Ltd
f. IFCI Ltd
g. Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd
h. India Post
i. India Infoline Ltd
j. INMACS Management Services Ltd
k. Janalakshmi Financial Services
l. JM Financial
m. LIC Housing Finance Ltd
n. L&T Finance Holdings Ltd
o. Magma Fincorp Ltd
p. Muthoot Finance
q. Reliance Capital Ltd
r. Religare Enterprises Ltd
s. Shriram Capital
t. Smart Global Ventures.
u. SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd
v. Suryamani Financing Co Ltd
w. Tourism Finance Corp of India Ltd
x. UAE Exchange India
y. Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd
z. SKS Microfinance Ltd
38. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) penalised 22 banks
by imposing fines for violating Know-YourCustomer (KYC) norms and anti-money laundering
guidelines. The list includes banks such as SBI, Bank
of Baroda and Canara Bank all of whom were fined
Rs.3 crore each.
39. In telecom the FDI limit has been increased from 74
per cent to 100 per cent. Government hiked the
limit under the automatic route to 49 per cent and
49 to 100 per cent under the FIPB route.
40. The 26 per cent FDI cap on defence manufacturing
would now be under the automatic route and
beyond 26 per cent the Cabinet Committee on
Security (CCS) will take a decision on a case-to-case
basis.

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41. In insurance sector government hiked the 26 per

cent FDI limit to 49 per cent under the automatic
approval route.
42. In petroleum and natural gas refining, commodity
exchanges, power exchanges, stock exchanges and
depositories, the cap has gone up to 49 per cent
under the automatic route.
43. For Asset Reconstruction Companies, the 49 per
cent cap has been brought under the automatic
route and from 49 per cent to 100 per cent under
the FIPB route.

44. For credit information companies, the cap under

automatic route has been hiked to 74 per cent.
45. In the case of single-brand retail trading, the 49 per
cent limit has been brought under the automatic
route and from 49 per cent to 100 per cent under
the FIPB route.
46. For courier services, the cap has been hiked to 100
per cent under the automatic route.

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47. Poverty levels across India decreased by 15 per cent

from 37 per cent in 2004-05 to 22 per cent in 201112 as per the latest National Sample Survey
Organisation (NSSO) figures.
48. Chinese Troops on 17 June 2013 intruded into the
Chumar Sector of Ladakh. This is the same area that
sparked off tensions between the two sides in April
2013.
49. The Union government of India planned to launch
Bharat Mobile Scheme under which one member of
every rural household who has completed 100 days
of work under MGNREGA can get free mobile
device. The mobile may be provided per household
preferably to a woman. It will also be customized
for transfer of benefits of different government
programmes like direct cash transfers scheme.
50. The Union Minister of State for Tourism K.
Chiranjeevi launched the Clean India campaign at
world heritage site Taj Mahal, Agra.

54.

55.

56.

57.

58.

51. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas

approved a Free Trade LPG (FTL) Scheme for selling
5 kg LPG cylinders at Non-domestic (commercial
prices) through Company Owned Retail Outlets
(COCO) of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs). A fivekg cylinder will cost between 362 rupees and 375
rupees. The scheme will be launched on a pilot
basis in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and
Bangalore.
52. Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad
announced that the government would provide
free pre-natal health care (Before 45 days from
delivery and infants will be given free treatment at
the hospitals for one year) and ambulance facilities
to pregnant women across the country under the
Janani Suraksha Yojna (JSY) scheme.
53. The Integrated Action Plan data for 2012-13
revealed that violence related to Left-Wing

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59.

60.

61.

extremism decreased in 82 Naxal-affected Districts

due to successful implementation of IAP projects.
As per the ITU (International Telecommunication
Union) survey released on approximately 40
percent of the Global population or 2.7 billion
people are online in 2013. In India it is 13 percent.
In the developing world, 31 per cent of the
population is online in comparison to 77 per cent in
the developed world.
Indias Weather Satellite INSAT-3D was launched
successfully by Ariane-5 (VA214) launch vehicle
from Kourou, French Guiana. ISROs Master Control
Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka took over the
control of INSAT-3D immediately.
Lawmakers of US proposed a Bill in the US Congress
for creation of the Apollo Lunar Landing Sites as
National Historical Park on the Moon.
The two smallest known moons orbiting Pluto were
officially christened by the International
Astronomical Union as Kerberos and Styx.
India successfully launched its first dedicated
navigation satellite, IRNSS-1A (Indian Regional
Navigational Satellite System) using Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C22 from Satish Dhawan
Space Research Center in Sriharikota, Andhra
Pradesh. IRNSS-1A is the first of the seven satellites
constituting the space segment of the Indian
Regional Navigation Satellite System which will be
completed by 2015-16. IRNSS satellites are
designed on the lines of Global Positioning System
(GPS) of United States and Global Orbiting
Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) of Russia.
The HRD Ministry announced setting up a new
committee to look into the quality aspect of the
Mid Day Meal Scheme nationwide.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance
finalised its GST (Goods and Services Tax) report.
The report would be tabled in the parliament
during its Monsoon season.
The Union government of India constituted an
empowered Group of Ministers under the
Chairmanship of Finance Minister P. Chidambaram,
for timely implementation of major projects related
to the North-Eastern region.

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62. Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan was chosen for the
21st Rajiv Gandhi National Sadhbhavna Award. It
will be conferred on Amjad Ali Khan on 20 August
2013, the birth anniversary of former Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
63. Paradip Port was conferred with the Major Port of
the Year award for its excellent performance in the
year 2012-13.
64. The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation
announced the Ramon Magsaysay Awards for the
year 2013 to three individuals and two
organizations for changing their societies for the
better. Afghanistan's first woman governor Habiba
Sarabi and a Myanmar civil society organiser Lahpai
Seng Raw, who both helped families displaced by
conflict in their home nations, are among five
winners.
65. Paul Hewson, popularly known as Bono, the
frontman of the rock band U2 as well as the antipoverty activist was awarded with the Commander
of the Order of Arts and Letters, the highest cultural
award of France for the contribution to music.
66. Zubin Mehta, an Indian-Parsi mestro of western
classical music was named for the second edition
of Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony for the year
2013. The first Tagore Award was conferred on Pt.
Ravi Shankar.
67. Vidya Balan got the Best Actress award at 14th IIFA
(International Indian Film Academy) awards 2013
held in Macau for her film Kahaani while Ranbir
Kapoor was named Best Actor for Barfi. Barfi
bagged 9 awards including Best film.
68. National Youth Award 2011-12 was conferred by
Pranab Mukherjee to 27 individuals and an
organization.
69. Culture Ministry of India entrusted ASI
(Archaeological Survey of India) with the
restoration of the Kedarnath Temple in
Uttarakhand which was damaged due to the recent
floods.
70. Multiple blasts rocked the Mahabodhi Temple in
Bodh Gaya, Bihar on 7 July 2013 one of the holiest
Buddhist shrines.
71. Britain is set to become the first country in the
world to allow doctors to use a controversial IVF

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technique that would lead to the creation of babies

with three parents.
72. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said it would step
in and run the Delhi Airport Metro line after
Reliance Infra refused to operate it beyond June 30.
73. Manmohan Singh government set a target to
unlock and put on offer infrastructure projects
worth Rs.1.14 lakh crore in the next six months in
the rail, power, ports and aviation sectors. The
proposals that will be given a firm shape under the
public-private partnership (PPP) mode include the
Mumbai elevated rail corridor, two international
airports in Bhubaneswar and Imphal and power and
transmission projects.

74. As per the law Nitaqat, every firm in the Kingdom,

both private and government, has to reserve 10 per
cent of jobs for the Saudi nationals. Now it has
been extended for four month. The deadline which
was to expire (June 3) will now be November 4.
75. India and United Kingdom have decided to join
hands to develop the signature Bangalore-Mumbai
Economic Corridor (BMEC) project in close
association with private companies from Britain.
76. Government will go ahead with notifying the
setting up of the Coal Regulatory Authority (CRA)
through an executive order and will not wait for
passage of a Bill in Parliament.
77. Arunendra Kumar has been appointed as the
interim chairman of the Railway Board for three
months.
78. Indias first commercial fast breeder reactor the
500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR)
is in an advanced stage of completion at
Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu.
79. Croatia became 28th member of European Union
(EU) on 1 July.
80. Sujatha Singh will be Indias next Foreign Secretary.
81. The Nanavati Commission probing the 2002 riots in
Gujarat has been granted another extension of six

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months till December 31 this year by the Gujarat

government.
82. Himachal Pradesh was declared the first smokefree State in the country in compliance with
Section 4 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco
Products Act (COTPA), 2003. The State has achieved
85.42 per cent compliance with the relevant
parameters.

83. India has ranked 66th in the Global Innovation

Index (GII) 2013.
84. The head of Egypts armed forces issued a
declaration suspending the Constitution and
appointing the head of the constitutional court as
interim head of state. General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
declared the removal of elected Islamist President
Mohamed Morsy.
85. Union Cabinet approved National Food Security Bill
that seeks to give legal rights to 67 per cent (Rural 75% and Urban 50%) of the population over
subsidised grains (Rice 3 Rs, Wheat 2 Rs and Millet
1 Rs). Over 82 crore people will get 5 kg per person
per month food grain.
86. While India inches towards 13 per cent Internet
penetration with roughly 160 million users, nearly
40 per cent of the global population or 2.7 billion
people are already online in 2013, according to the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
87. The Chhattisgarh government has launched
Phulwari, a scheme to curb malnutrition among
children aged 6 months to 3 years.
88. Officials and business delegations from countries of
the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional
Cooperation began a two-day meeting in Mauritius.
Members List:- Australia, Comoros, India,
Indonesia, Seychelles, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar,
Malaysia,
Mauritius,
Mozambique,
Oman,
Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania,
Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.

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89. Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas collected the

European Parliaments Sakharov Prize for Freedom
of Thought.
90. The Chief Justice of Egypts Supreme Constitutional
Court, Adly Mansour was sworn in as the nations
interim President.
91. Young all-rounder Parveez Rasool created history
by becoming the first cricketer from Jammu and
Kashmir to be named in the Indian team.
92. Pakistan has banned screening of Raanjhanaa, a
film depicting the love affair of a Muslim-Hindu
couple on the grounds that it could offend viewers
in the Islamic republic. The film starring Sonam
Kapoor and Dhanush.
93. China and Pakistan signed deals to push forward a
long-discussed economic corridor and to lay a firstof-its-kind fibre optic link from the Chinese border
to Rawalpindi. Both the economic corridor and the
fibre optic link will pass through Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir (PoK).
94. China and Russia kicked off their largest-ever joint
naval drills in the Sea of Japan.
95. Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to
issue tax-free bonds worth Rs.1,000 crore in the
current financial year.
96. The government had decided to set up the 51
airports to enhance air connectivity to small cities.
97. The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has
extended support for construction of an
international cricket stadium in Agartala.

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98. Bolivian President Evo Morales said he would grant

asylum, if requested, to the former U.S. intelligence
agency contractor, Edward Snowden. His offer
came after two other leftist Latin American leaders
Venezuelas Nicolas Maduro and Nicaraguas
Daniel Ortega said they would help the U.S.
fugitive.
99. Actor Hrithik Roshan underwent a surgery to
remove a blood clot in his brain.
100. By September, the number of mobile subscriptions
across the world will equal the global population of
7.1
billion.
According
to
International
Telecommunications Union (ITU), in early 2013, the
world had 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions. Mobile
teledensity in several large countries like China
(85.21%), India (68.72%), Pakistan (68.83%).
101. The Election Commission will hold election in Delhi,
Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and
Mizoram before the end of this year.

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102. Japan announced the first-ever visit to India by its

Emperor and Empress in November.
103. Latvia received the green light from EU to become
the 18th member of the eurozone from January 1
next year.
104. India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives will share
capacities and information to address threats to
maritime security such as piracy, terrorism and
gunrunning in the Indian Ocean.
105. Tightening their noose on loan defaulters, banks
have decided to name and shame the guarantors
of such borrowers as well by publishing their
photographs and other details in newspapers and
at notice boards of bank branches and community
centres.
106. In a move the check the rupee volatility, the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) banned banks from
proprietary trading in domestic currency futures
and options, and the Securities and Exchange Board
of India (SEBI) increased the margin requirement on
domestic dollar-rupee forward trade.
107. The Supreme Court held that charge-sheeted
Members of Parliament and MLAs, on conviction
for the offences, will be immediately disqualified
from holding membership of the House without
being given three months time for appeal, as was
the case before.
108. India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan have
agreed to form a company for execution of the
proposed TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan,
Pakistan and India) pipeline project.
109. The U.S. economy still needs help from the Federal
Reserves low interest rate policies, Chairman Ben
Bernanke said.
110. India has cut off the gas subsidy to Bhutan since a
pact with the country had expired on June 30.
111. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLA Hemant Soren was
sworn in as Jharkhands ninth Chief Minister. Mr.
Hemant Soren had earlier won the support of 43
MLAs, including 18 from the JMM, 13 from the
Congress, five from the RJD and seven from among
smaller parties and Independents.
112. Goa is all set to become the first State to cover all
people under the Aadhaar card registry.

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113. The monsoon session of Parliament will be held

from August 5 to 30 during which the Food Security
ordinance will come up for ratification. The
government also plans to bring in the Land
Acquisition, Insurance, Pension and Companies Bills
and the Direct Taxes Code Bill.
114. A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal sentenced
Ghulam Azam, former chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, to
90 years imprisonment for his role in the 1971
genocide of Bangladeshis who fought the Pakistani
occupation army for independence.
115. Last Telegram messages booked for Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi on 15 July when this service
ended permanently.
116. Minister for Rural Development, approved Chief
Minister Vijay Bahugunas request for a special
relief package under the Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)
scheme. People in disaster-hit villages of
Uttarakhand will now get employment for 150 days
instead of 100 days under the MGNREGA scheme.
117. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav
Launched the Hausla awareness campaign to
improve family health in 75 districts of the State.
118. Seven years after dance bars were banned in
Maharashtra, the Supreme Court upheld a Bombay
High Court ruling that quashed the governments
order. While Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil
made it clear that the State government is firm on
its decision of banning dance bars.
119. M. Ramakrishnayya, founder chairman of Nabard
and former RBI deputy governor, passed away.
120. Considering the significant delay and inability to get
land due to peoples opposition in Gadag, Posco has
decided to scrap its proposed six million tonne per
annum steel plant project in Karnataka.
121. The ambitious direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme
for domestic LPG cylinder, launched in 18 districts
of the country on June 1, has crossed 2.28 million
transactions. Indications are that the scheme will
be rolled out throughout the country by the yearend. Under this scheme, each consumer gets Rs.
435 in his/her bank account when an LPG cylinder is
booked.

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122. Supreme Court-appointed Judicial Commission

headed by former judge Santosh Hegde with
former Chief Election Commission J.M. Lyngdoh and
retired IPS officer A.K. Singh as its members, has
noted that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act
or AFSPA has failed to tackle insurgency and that
the armed forces were indulging in gross violation
of human rights by operating under the shield of
the controversial law.
123. RBI said it would conduct open market operation of
Government Securities for an aggregate amount of
Rs.12,000 crore.
124. Russian President Vladimir Putin firmly defended
his decision to grant asylum to U.S. whistleblower
Edward Snowden.
125. High-level of organic phosphorus content in midday
meal is suspected to have caused the death of 22
children at the Gandaman Primary School in Chapra
in Bihars Saran district, preliminary inquiries
suggest.

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126. Worlds largest steelmaker Arcelor Mittal scrapped

its $12-billion steel plant in Odisha over inordinate
delays, problems in acquiring land and securing iron
ore linkages.
127. Filmmaker K. Asifs 1960s epic Mughal-e-Azam has
been crowned the greatest Bollywood film of all
time by a poll celebrating 100 years of Indian
cinema in the U.K. Survey conducted by British
Asian weekly newspaper Eastern Eye.
128. The Cabinet Committee on Security gave its inprinciple approval to the Armys ambitious proposal
to raise a mountain strike corps along the China
border. The proposed strike corps, with about
45,000 soldiers and headquartered at Panagarh in
West Bengal, will also give India the capability to
launch offensive action in Tibet Autonomous
Region (TAR) in the event of a Chinese offensive.
129. Jamaat-e-Islami secretary-general Ali Ahsan
Mohammad Mojaheed has been awarded the
death penalty International Crimes Tribunal of
Bangladesh for crimes against humanity during the
countrys liberation war in 1971.
130. Days after Malala Yousufzai made a passionate
appeal at the U.N. head quarter for the education
of children, the Taliban has asked her to return to
Pakistan and join a madrasa in the restive
northwest.
131. The Supreme Court pulled up the Sahara group for
not refunding Rs.24,000 crore to investors and said
that Sahara chief Subrata Roy and directors of its
two companies would have to appear before it if its
order was not complied with.
132. The UPA government has decided to honour the
commitment it made on December 9, 2009 to carve
out a separate State of Telangana from Andhra
Pradesh.
133. The Supreme Court declared the National Eligibilitycum-Entrance Test (NEET) unconstitutional. The
Medical Council of India (MCI) and the Dental
Council of India (DCI) had introduced the test for
admission to graduate and postgraduate courses.
134. With a view to preventing acid attacks, the
Supreme Court has completely prohibited over-thecounter sale of the chemical unless the seller

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maintains a log/register recording the address and

other details of the buyer, and the quantum.
135. The Human Resource Development Ministry
announced that a new committee would be set up
to review the implementation of mid-day meal
scheme with a view to monitoring the quality of
food and ensuring hygiene standards. The new
committee, likely to be headed by Union Human
Resource Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju
himself, will have 20 members.
136. The Supreme Court directed all States to pay acid
attack victims Rs. 3 lakh towards medical treatment
and aftercare rehabilitation Rs. 1 lakh within 15
days of an incident and the balance within two
months thereafter.
137. India-born former Goldman Sachs Director Rajat
Gupta has been ordered to pay a $13.9-million
penalty and has been permanently barred from
acting as an officer or director of a public company
in a civil case over insider trading in USA.
138. The government gave more powers to market
regulator SEBI to crackdown on ponzi schemes,
access phone call records to check insider trading
and carry out search and seizure operations.
139. The Empowered Group of Ministers headed by
Defence Minister A.K. Antony will take a call on
fresh bidding norms for ultra mega power projects
(UMPPs). Proposed UMPPs are in Chhattisgarh
(Sarguja), Odisha (Bedabahal) and Tamil Nadu
(Cheyyur). The government has so far allotted four
UMPPs, of which three have been bagged by
Reliance Power Sasan (Madhya Pradesh),
Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya
(Jharkhand). Tata Power has already commissioned
the Mundra UMPP in Gujarat.
140. CBI has found that investments made by Wal-Mart
Mauritius Limited in the retail sector through the
FDI route violated RBI guidelines and FEMA
regulations.
141. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance
finalised its report on Goods and Services Tax (GST),
which would be tabled in Parliament in the
monsoon session beginning August 5.
142. Indias foreign exchange reserves is now at $280.19
billion.

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143. Rana Kapoor, Yes Bank Managing Director and CEO

took over as the President of Associated Chambers
of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
144. According to an analysis done by the Association for
Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the National
Election Watch (NEW), 30 per cent of sitting Lok
Sabha MPs and 31 per cent of sitting MLAs have
criminal cases registered against them.
145. SBI opened ultra small branches (USB) at the
village-level.
146. There are over 780 languages and 66 different
scripts in India. Arunachal Pradesh is the richest
among the States with 90 languages.
147. Sikkim had the lowest poverty at 3.6 per cent BPL;
Goa was at 4 per cent, Tamil Nadu stood at 6.3 and
Andhra was 6.2. The data also show that the
steepest decline in poverty was in India's poorer
states. Madhya Pradesh fell from 53.6 per cent
(2004-05) to nearly 36 per cent (2011-12). Bihar
shows a towering reduction from nearly 56 per cent
to 35 per cent. Odisha stands at 36 per cent from
61 per cent.
148. WTO ministerial meeting scheduled at Bali
Indonesia.
149. The worlds first mission to the South Pole of the
Moon to install a permanent telescope on the lunar
surface has been announced. The private enterprise
mission, announced by the International Lunar
Observatory Association and Moon Express, will be
both scientific and commercial, and plans to deliver
the International Lunar Observatory (ILO) aboard a
Moon Express robotic lander.
150. United States Vice President Joe Biden visited India.
151. Those earning up to Rs.5 lakh in salary a year will
have to file IT returns this year as the two-year
exemption has been lifted due to introduction of
online facility.
152. The Delhi Police Crime Branch filed a charge sheet
against late South African skipper Hansie Cronje
and five alleged bookies in the match-fixing scandal
that had rocked the cricketing world 13 years ago.
153. At least 89 people were killed and more than 500
injured after a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck
Chinas northwestern Gansu province morning.

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154. RBI has told banks to necessarily maintain a

minimum daily balance of 99 per cent of the CRR
requirement, up from 70 per cent currently. RBI has
said that each bank would be allowed access to
Liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) up to 0.5 per cent
of its own net demand and time liabilities (NDTL).
155. Total food grains output is 255.36 million tonnes as
against 259.29 million tonnes last year.
156. The Goa government imposed a green cess up to
Rs.1 lakh on all polluting products to net additional
revenue.

157. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry

has recommended the creation of a Retail
Regulatory Authority to not only monitor the entry
of foreign chains through foreign direct investment
(FDI) but to also study the impact of FDI on
medium, small and micro enterprises (MSME).
158. People spending more than Rs 27.2 per day (Rs. 816
per person per month) in villages and Rs 33.3 per
day (Rs. 1,000 per person per month) in cities are
not poor, according to latest data released by
Planning Commission. These estimates are based
on the Tendulkar methodology. Government set up
another committee headed by C Rangarajan to look
at a methodology for determining poverty lines and
estimating poverty.
159. A single-member commission headed Nivedita
P.Haran for studying the impact of computerisation
of the public distribution system, has submitted a
report.
160. Amitabh Bachchan was voted by critics, fans and
the film fraternity as the greatest Bollywood star in
a U.K. survey published by British Asian weekly
newspaper Eastern Eye.
161. In a first, India has offered a $ 100 million credit line
to Vietnam to purchase military equipment.
162. The poverty ratio was highest in Chhattisgarh at
39.93 per cent followed by Jharkhand (36.96 per

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cent), Manipur (36.89 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh

(34.67 per cent) and Bihar (33.47 per cent). Goa
had the least percentage of people living below
poverty line at 5.09 per cent followed by Kerala
(7.05 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (8.06 per cent),
Sikkim (8.19 per cent) and Punjab (8.26 per cent).

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163. The Centre's debt liability as a percentage to the

gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to fall in the
coming years and touch 42.3% by 2015-16 from
45.9% last year.
164. ADB projected India's growth to 5.8% in the 2013
from 6% projected earlier in its Asian Development
Bank (ADB).
165. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said official
amendments to the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) bill will
be introduced towards the end of Monsoon session
of Parliament starting August 5.
166. Whole Sale Price Inflation rose to 4.86 per cent in
June.
167. Union Cabinet decided to replace the Directorate
General of Civil Aviation with an independent
regulator to be called the Civil Aviation Authority or
CAA. Airports will continue to be regulated by the
Airports Economic Regulatory Authority.
168. The (RBI) Reserve Bank of India has directed banks
to do away with stapling of money packets and
issue only clean currency notes to the public.
169. The next time you swipe your debit or credit card at
a point-of-sale terminal, you may be asked for
biometric authentication. This is because your
Aadhaar number will soon be linked to your bank
account to reduce cases of fraud.

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