August : Current Affairs

August 1, 2011: Monsoon Session of Parliament commences

• August 1, 2011: The monsoon session of the Parliament commences
• Government decided to introduce 32 new bills including the Lokpal Bill
• Other key bills to be introduced include Land Acquisition Bill, Food Security Bill, the Benami Transactions Bill and the Mines and Minerals Bill

Payment dispute of crude oil resolved b/w Iran and India

• Iran and India resolved the payment disagreement that was bullying to arrest the Iran’s crude exports to India
• As per the National Iranian Oil Company the two sides agreed to settle the bill as soon as possible
• Earlier, Iran had jeopardized to cut off supplies to India in case of payments not made by India till August 1, 2011
• US sanctions on Iran made it hard to send International bank payments
• About 12% of India’s oil demand is met by crude from Iran

Rajan Mathai: New Foreign Secretary of takes charge

• Rajan Mathai: New Foreign Secretary of India took charge
• Mr. Mathai was India’s former ambassador to France
• To hold office for a two-year term
• He succeeds Nirupama Rao, who has been named India’s ambassador to the US
• Mr. Rakesh Sood, India’s ambassador to Nepal, will succeed Mathai as New Delhi’s envoy in Paris
  
  

Export restrictions from cotton lifted by Government

• Government lifted export restrictions on cotton
• Now Cotton is allowed to be shipped under Open General Licences for the rest of the cotton season
• Restrictions lifted as there is ample stock of cotton in the country
• After registering themselves with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Exporters free to export any quantity for the remaining 2 months of the season
• Government placed a cap on cotton exports at 55 Lakh bales in October 2010 in order to check spiralling prices and ensure availability of the raw material for the domestic textiles industry
• As per the Cotton Advisory Board, due to low industry demand over 50 Lakh surplus bales to be available at the end of the current season

    

Country’s Growth forecast 8.2% this fiscal year: PMEAC

• PMEAC (Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council)
• PMEAC lowered country’s growth forecast to 8.2% this fiscal while revising the inflation projection upward to 6.5% till March 2012
• As per PMEAC Chairman Dr C.Rangarajan, Inflation to continue to hover around 9% in July-October period and is expected to moderate only after November, 2011

SEBI: Mandatory for Promoters to Disclose Share Dealings

• SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) decided to make it mandatory for all promoter entities to disclose any considerable purchase or sale of shares by them
• Objective: To rein in insider trading by promoters without investors’ knowledge
• Currently, the Directors and the Top executives of listed companies are needed to make these revelations
• After SEBI’s decision in this regard however, all the promoters and persons who are part of the promoter group of a listed company would also be required to reveal their share dealings
• It would be essential for the promoters to make initial disclosures relating to their shareholding at the time of becoming promoter or part of promoter group
• Continuous disclosures also be required whenever there is a change in their holdings exceeding ` 5 Lakh in value or 25,000 shares or 1% of total shareholding or voting rights, whichever is lower
• At present, alike disclosures are obligatory to be made by the directors and officers of the company

New Air Chief Marshal: Norman Anil Kumar Browne

• New Air Chief Marshal: Mr. Norman Anil Kumar Browne
• He took charge as India’s 23rd Chief of the Air Staff
• He succeeded Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik
• In Air Force Circles, Nick-named: Charlie Browne
• Currently appointed as one of the Honorary Aides De Camp to the President of India
• Built the Indian Defence Wing in Tel Aviv in 1997 and served as the Defence Attache till July 2000
• Param Vishist Seva Medal, Ati Vishist Seva Medal, Vayu Sena Medal bestowed upon him in the past

New Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs: Naved Masood

• Naved Masood took over as the New Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs
• Naved Masood: 1977 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre
• Mr. Masood substituted Mr. D.K.Mittal who was appointed as Secretary Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance

Mitul Desai (An Indian-American) appointed as Senior Adviser in the U.S. State Department

• Mitul Desai (an Indian-American), appointed as Senior Adviser in the U.S. State Department’s South and Central Asia Bureau to strengthen ties with the Diaspora groups
• Mr. Mitul in charge for working out means to facilitate the US Government to put together an alignment of groups to make it comfortable for Indians in the Diaspora as well as other Diaspora communities to make contributions to growth
• Diaspora: “movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland” or “people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location” or “people settled far from their ancestral homelands”

Journalist-turned-Polotician Mr. Inder Jit passed away

• Veteran journalist-turned-politician Mr. Inder Jit passed away
• In 1948, Mr. Inder Jit commenced his career as a journalist with the Hindustan Times and worked with The Times of India, India News, Feature Alliance and even with many Foreign Newspapers including London’s Daily Telegraph and The Times
• In 1988, Mr. Inder Jit was implemental in negotiating the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) agreement b/w the Gorkha National Liberation Front’s Subhash Ghisingh and the Centre
• On August 22, 1988, the agreement was signed in Kolkata
• After inking of the landmark agreement, Mr. Jit was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Darjeeling constituency in West Bengal in 1989 and 1991 on the Congress ticket