Today's GK (8-8-13)

CBI on Wednesday arrested the co-owner and promoter of cellphone handset maker Micromax, Rajesh Aggarwal, and another senior executive of the company named ManishTuli, in a case of graft.

They were allegedly bribing four engineers of North Delhi Municipal Corporation and DDA to obtain clearance for making a banquet hall in Wazirpur. The four engineers have been detained along with two beldars, who were reportedly given the task of receiving the kickback.

Delhi's gurdwara management committee president Manjeet Singh GK and other members of a Sikh delegation were not cleared to board a flight from Rome after they refused to take off their turbans at the airport security check Manjeet Singh, who is also Delhi chief of Akali Dal (Badal), told TOI that the delegation had offered to let the staff touch their turbans and run a metal detector over it, but the Italian security insisted on them taking the turbans off

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed the setting up of at least 10 waste-to-energy plants to process 8,000 metric tonnes of garbage generated everyday in the city. It is, however, not clear what the BMC plans to do with the power that is generated.

Additional municipal commissioner Mohan Adtani said each plant will require five to six acres to process at least 1,000 metric tonnes of garbage.

Egypt's government on Wednesday vowed to remove Islamist protest camps after it said foreign mediation had failed, sparking fears of a violent end to the month-old standoff since president Mohamed Morsi's ouster.

"The cabinet affirms that the decision to disperse the Rabaa Adawiya and Nahda sit-ins is a final decision, on which all agree, and there is no going back on it," prime minister Hazem al-Beblawi said on state television.

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni would be seen promoting his second love soccer on STAR Sports after being roped in as the brand ambassador of the upcoming Barclays English Premier League in India.

Indians chasing the American dream have reason to cheer. In 2012, as many as 35,472 Indians with H-1B visas got green cards, up from 6,000 in 2011 — accounting for more than 50% of all green cards issued to H-1B holders for all countries in the year. The data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) comes in the wake of a new Bill that focuses on attracting knowledge workers to the US by providing them citizenship.

Over 300 farmers from Mulashi near Pune, organised under the Abhinav Farmers' club, plan four months in advance who will grow what.

More than 1,300 women, organised in 117 groups, do attractive packaging of organic vegetables, earning Rs 150 a day (for just 4-5 hours' work).

Banks borrowed Rs 239.30 billion ($3.9 billion) from the Reserve Bank of India's marginal standing facility (MSF) window on August 7, sharply higher than Rs 60.80 billion.The RBI had raised the MSF rate by 200 basis points to 10.25 per cent and also imposed restrictions on daily borrowings by banks under its repo window.

Banks usually tap the MSF rate during acute cash tightness.

Indian products have limited market access in China and farm items in particular are facing non-trade barriers, the government There are non-tariff barriers on imports of agricultural products in China as well as limited market access of Indian products," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry D Purandeswari said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

India has a trade deficit of USD 40.77 billion with China in 2012-13.

Farmers body CIFA today opposed the recommendations of the Supreme Court-appointed committee to ban field trials of biotech crops saying such a move would be "anti-national" and against the interest of growers.

The five-member technical expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court has recommended banning research field trials of all biotech crops in the country.

Arise India Ltd, a leading manufacturer in electronic goods on 7 August 2013 opened up a new vista in a television viewing with the launch of its LED television range. These televisions will be available in markets from 15 August 2013.The company has especially targeted the emerging consumers in Tier II and Tier III of the country with this launch. Among the key features of these TVs is Eye Protection Technology (EPT) which safeguards eyes from growing irritation due to longer television viewing.

Arise India Ltd, after servicing the electrical needs of the country over the past 25 years with a trustworthy range of products, the company now looks to redefine its consumer’s television viewing experience with our new LED range.

The company has set a target of selling 1 lakh LEDs in 2013-14 and wants to raise the slab upto 2 lakh in the coming years. The LED range of Arise includes a total of eight models in various television sizes ranging from 16 to 50. The MRP of these televisions will be in the range of 7490 rupees to 79990 rupees.

The warehouses of Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) in Mahabubnagar and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh were linked with the National Commodities Exchange (NCDEX) spot exchange on 5 August 2013.

As a part of this initiative eight PACS had received the membership certification, which would help the farmers to sell their goods on exchange platform. This is the first of its kind initiative in the country and was initiated by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).

How this Initiative help farmers?
• The initiative will help in providing seamless access of national markets to farmers, whereby they can sell their produce through a computer-linked method.
• The computer-linked trading will ensure that farmers will get the best available price at the national level. The trading will ensure that sale of the commodity at a particular price is at the discretion of farmers helping them get the best price prevailing on the particular day.
• The spot exchange will support the farmers by helping them reach the buyers or processors directly, which will result in better price realization and also help in lowering the supply chain costs in the agricultural commodities gamut.
• This initiative is expected to change dynamics of the trade and supply chain of agricultural commodities with respect to the storage, commodity financing, trade facilitation, and other value added services that could make farmers a key point in entire value chain of agricultural commodities.
• NCDEX Spot platform will also enable the PACS in creating price transparency for farmers.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) joined hands with the Cooperative Central Banks (CCBs) of the two districts, AP State Cooperative Bank and NCDEX to make the linking a reality.

The new facility would ensure speedy payment of money to farmers, through the CCBs with core banking solutions, once the sale was completed.

National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX)
National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) is a nation-level, technology driven on-line commodity Exchange. NCDEX is a public limited company registered under The Companies Act, 1956 with the Registrar of Companies, Maharashtra in Mumbai on 23 April 2003.

Japan on 8 August 2013 pledged huge spending cuts amounting to 83 billion US dollars over two years as it works to bring down its debt. The cuts amounting to an average reduction of more than 4.0 percent of current annual spending comes days after the International Monetary Fund warned again over Tokyo's borrowings. The moves were outlined in the government's mid-term fiscal plan which called for cuts of 83 billion US dollars between April 2014 and March 2016.

Japan's annual budget is about 93 trillion yen, with about 40 percent of that spending coming from borrowing which has created a debt pile that is more than twice as big as Japan's economy, the worst among industrialized nations. India has not faced a public debt crisis like the kind seen across the euro zone, largely because most of its low interest rate debt is held domestically rather than by international creditors.

However, the IMF and others have warned that Japan must follow through on key fiscal and structural reforms to the economy, another key plank of Abe's plan but a difficult sell to many of Japan's cosseted industries.

The US Census Bureau Report released on 6 August 2013 revealed that 6.5 lakh people in the US speak Hindi, while over 8 lakh people speak various regional Indian languages.

The report, titled Language Use in the United States: 2011, details the number of people speaking languages other than English at home and their ability to speak English, by selected social and demographic characteristics.

The report shows South Asian languages have registered a substantial growth rate in the past decade.

• The report revealed that South Asian languages in particular experienced high levels of growth.
• The South Asian languages, Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil grew by 115 per cent, and Hindi grew by 105 per cent.
• Punjabi, Bengali, and Marathi grew by 86 percent. The slowest growing South Asian languages were Gujarati (52 per cent) and Urdu (42 per cent)
• In addition to English and Spanish, there were six languages in 2011 spoken at home by at least one million people. They are Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, German and Korean.
• According to the census, as many as 648983 residents of the United States speak Hindi, with Urdu and Gujarati being spoken by 373851 and 358422 people respectively.
• As many as 815345 Americans speak other Indic languages.
• The data, taken from the American Community Survey, shows that more than half (58 per cent) of US residents older than 5 years who speak a language other than English at home, also speak English very well.
This study provides evidence of the growing role of languages other than English in the US national fabric.

The Companies Bill 2012 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 6 August 2013. The Bill aims at protecting the interest of employees and small investors. Earlier, the Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on 18 December 2012.

Highlights of the Bill
• The new legislation, which would replace the nearly 50-year-old Companies Act of 1956 and would encourage the companies to undertake social welfare voluntarily instead of imposing the social responsibility.
• The proposed legislation would ensure setting up of special courts for speedy trial and stronger steps for transparent corporate governance practices and curb corporate misdoings.
• The new law would require companies that meet certain set of criteria, to spend at least two percent of their average profits in the last three years towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.
• In case, entities are unable to comply with the CSR rules, they would be needed to give explanations. Otherwise, they would face action, including penalty.
• The amended legislation also limits the number of companies an auditor can serve to 20 besides bringing more clarity on criminal liability of auditors.
India’s first Companies Act was made way back in 1919 in colonial times. After independence, a new Companies Act came into force in 1956. Since then the act has been amended 25 times. The new Companies Bill 2012 was passed by the Lok Sabha in 2012. –

The New International Terminal constructed at Chennai airport started its operation on 7 August 2013. An investment of about 2000 crore rupees was made on the construction of the new terminal.

International departure operations through New International Terminal commenced in a phased manner with the departure of a flight bound for Singapore on 7 August 2013. Now onwards, all international flights of Indigo, Spice Jet, Jet Airways and Air Austral will operate through New International Terminal.

Rakesh Sethi on 5 August 2013 took charge as the Executive Director of the Union Bank of India. Before being appointed as the executive director of the Union Bank of India, Rakesh Sethi was the General Manager with Bank of India and headed the National Banking position in Southern India. He also headed the Retail Banking Division as well as the Marketing Department at its head office.

The Government on 3 August 2013 proposed inclusion of two eminent persons in the six-member Judicial Appointments Commission instead of the two jurists. The decision was made to create a balance and avoid the extra weightage to judiciary in the body.

The decision on the proposed changes was made by the Union Law Ministry in a separate note to the Cabinet Secretariat. The cabinet note says "Constitution uses consultation but interpreting it as concurrence in the face of clear language to establish primacy of the opinion of the Chief Justice of India is contrary to constitutional scheme. Also, in the constitutional scheme there is no hierarchy among consultees”.

As per the new proposal the six members Judicial Appointments Commission would comprise of the Chief Justice of India, two Supreme Court judges, Union Law Minister and two eminent persons, instead of two jurists. The inclusion of the two jurists was proposed earlier. The previous proposal also mentioned that the leader of opposition would not be the member of the commission.

To appoint the two eminent persons for the appointments commission would be done by the collegium that will include the Prime Minister of India, the Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India. The secretary of the Law Ministry will act as the convenor of the Judicial Appointment Commissions but not the member of the commission.

Impact of the changes

• The proposed changes will allow non-jurists to be the part of the judicial appointments commission as its member surpassing the limitation of the membership of the person from judicial background only
• As per the Cabinet note, the Judicial Appointments Commission will be responsible for recommending the name of the Chief Justice of India, Judges of Supreme Court and Chief justices of high courts as well as Judges at other levels.
• Transfer of judges would also be recommended by the Appointments Commission based on the person’s ability integrity and standing in the legal profession.

The UPA Government’s proposal would seek an approval for the amendment of Article 124, 217, 222 and 231 of the Constitution of India. Apart from this, it proposes the insertion of Article 124 (A) in the Constitution. It also seeks introduction of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill in the Parliament.

The decision has been taken to do away the Collegiums System of Appointment of Judges that allows Judges to make their own appointments.

About the Collegiums System of Appointment of Judges

Two judgments of the Supreme Court resulted in the formation of the Collegium System. The Judgment in support of the system was delivered on 6 October 1993 by a nine Judge Bench. Justice M N Venkatachaliah the then Chief Justice of India was not the member of the nine Judge Bench.

The collegium system of appointment of Judges in the Supreme Court and High Courts of the country was introduced by a Judicial Legislation by a majority Judgment in the Second Judges Case. The first judgment interpreted Article 124 of the Constitution in a manner in which consultation process with the judiciary by the President was deemed concurrence.

The Judgment held: in matters relating to appointments in the Supreme Court, the opinion given by the Chief Justice of India in the consultative process has to be formed taking into account the views of the two senior most judges of the Supreme Court.

The system for the first time came into attack, since its formation after, Justice Bhaskara Bhattacharya the Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court (appointed on 21 July 2012) took on the system openly after he was not elevated to the Supreme Court. He alleged that his elevation was barred from elevation because he opposed the elevation of Justice Altamas Kabir’s sister in Calcutta High Court.