Today's GK(13-8-2013)

Rafael Nadal beat Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday in the Rogers Cup final, spoiling Raonic's bid to become the first Canadian winner in the event in 55 years. Robert Bedard, the last Canadian to win what was then called the Canadian Open in 1955, was in attendance to see Nadal claim his third Rogers Cup title. The Spanish star also won in 2005 and 2008.

Celebrations have not stopped since Ratchanok Intanon became the new world champion but the Thai shuttler has already set herself the twin targets of becoming world number one and winning the 2016 Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro.

Since her arrival back from China on Sunday night, the 18-year-old has received an award from the royal family, posed for a magazine, attended a talk show and dined with her family as the southeast Asian country celebrated their first ever badminton world champion.

None of these, however, could distract the current world number three from setting her sights on new goals.

Indian shuttler PV Sindhu was awarded the bronze medal at the podium ceremony after the women's singles final at the World Championships.The World No.3 Ratchanok took one hour and five minutes to beat Olympic champion and World No.1 Li Xuerui of China 22-20, 18-21, 21-14 in her own backyard and claim the gold Sunday at the Tianhe Indoor Stadium.


Thai teenager Ratchanok Intanon took the World women's badminton title in Guangzhou on Sunday in a massive upset, beating Chinese Olympic champion Li Xuerui 22-20, 18-21, 21-14.
Ratchanok, 18, becomes the first ever Thai player to win gold at the World Championships after defeating 22-year-old top seed Li, who was gunning for her first World title.

Serena Williams crushed Romania's Sorana Cirstea 6-2 6-0 in the final of the women's Rogers Cup on Sunday to capture her 54th WTA singles title.Williams completely overwhelmed her unseeded opponent to cruise to a one-sided victory in just over an hour and claim the Rogers Cup for the third time. It was the world number one's eighth title this year and put her outright fifth on the all-time list of tournament winners after she had been tied with Monica Seles. Only Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf and Lindsay Davenport have won more WTA singles titles than Williams.

 

Government hiked import duty on refined gold bars for a third time in eight months to 10 per cent from the earlier 8 per cent, the finance ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The government also raised the import duty on silver to 10 per cent from the earlier 6 per cent, and the factory gate duty on gold bars to 9 per cent from 7 per cent.

The government is planning to organise awareness programmes in five cities of the country on business opportunities in CIS countries such as Russia and Belarus in order to boost bilateral trade.
"To fill the information gap, we in the Commerce Ministry are planning outreach programmes in five cities," Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce Ravi Capoor said today.

The new Companies Bill will make acquisitions , mergers and restructuring easier for companies, empower private equity investors to enforce various agreements and check misuse by promoters by increasing transparency,The bill, passed by the Upper House of Parliament last week, is waiting for the President's stamp of approval. It will replace the 50-year-old Companies Act of 1956 with 470 clauses.

Government export promotion bodies and over 200 private and public sector companies from India and the Middle East will be part of an India Trade Fair scheduled to be held here early next month.

Infrastructure, construction, engineering, project exports, oil and gas, power generation, mining and heavy industries will be in focus during the fair, which will be held from September 3 to 5, the organisers announced.

The fair is likely to become an annual event for Indian companies offering their products and services.

Being organised by Muscat-based Silver Star Corporation, the India Trade Fair 2013 is being held with the support of Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, the India Business and Professional Council (IBPC) and various departments of the government of India.

Trap shooter Ronjan Sodhi, the first Indian to win two back-to-back World Cup gold medals, was on Tuesday recommended for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, while star cricketer Virat Kohli was among the 14 sportspersons picked for the Arjuna award by the selection committee.

Rising badminton player PV Sindhu, who became the first Indian woman shuttler to clinch a bronze medal at the recent World Championships, was also in the list of 14 sportspersons picked for the Arjuna award,

The oldest penguin of the world named King Penguin Missy turned 36 years old on 12 August 2013. 36 years old for penguins is equal to 108 years old in humans. King Penguin Missy was brought to Birdland Wildlife Park in Gloucestershire, UK in the year 1982 at the age of 5 years.

The Birdland wildlife park in Gloucestershire’s staff planned to send the penguin’s name to Guinness World Records to prove her title. It is important to note that the King penguins - Aptenodytes patagonicus – are expected to live till 26 years only in captivity.

King Penguin Missy spends her time with the partner named Seth, who is 34 years old and was also a part of the 1992 movie- Batman Returns.

Facts about King Penguins - Aptenodytes Patagonicus

• The King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) is second largest species of Penguin.
• The weight of this penguin is 11 to 16 kg, which is second only to the Emperor Penguin.
• There are two sub-species of the King Penguins- AP Patagonicus and AP Halli. AP Patagonicus are found in the South Atlantic while the AP Halli is found at other places.
• King Penguins rely on small fish, primarily lanternfish as well as squid for their food.
• On their foraging trips, they dive to more than 330 feet and have also been recorded at the depths greater than 980 feet.
• The breeding place of King Penguins is subantarctic islands at the northern reaches of Antarctica, South Georgia as well as other temperate islands of this region.
• King Penguins have the orange patches on either side of their head.
• King Penguin is also the emblem of the Edinburgh Zoo.

Ibrahim Boubacar Keita won Mali's Presidential elections on 12 August 2013 after his opponent Soumalia Cisse conceded defeat before official results were announced. Soumalia Cisse's concession allows Mali to avoid a protracted election fight and to move ahead with establishing a democratically elected government, one of the international community's caveats for unlocking some 4 billion US dollars in promised aid.

Ibrahim Boubacar Keita

Keita had been expected to win easily, having pulled nearly 40 percent of the vote in the first round. Most of the other candidates from the first round also had given their endorsements to Keita, who is a former Prime Minister.

However, earlier some of Cisse's supporters had raised allegations of ballot stuffing against Keita's party, raising the specter of a legal battle. Not long after Cisse's concession became known, the former finance minister tweeted about his decision to concede.

Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is a Malian politician and the country's president-elect. He was Prime Minister of Mali from 1994 to 2000 and President of the National Assembly of Mali from 2002 to 2007. He founded a political party, Rally for Mali (RPM), in 2001 and he has led the party since then. In addition to serving in the National Assembly, Keita was a member of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States.
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is popularly known as IBK.

A team of three Indian-American students defeated teams from 17 other regions to win top honours at the 11th National Geographic World Championship in Russia's St. Petersburg city. The team included Captain Gopi Ramanathan, 15, from Sartell, Minnesota, Asha Jain, 13, from Minocqua, Wisconsin, and Neelam Kaur Sandhu, 14, from Bedford, New Hampshire.

In the biennial competition, teams of the students were asked questions on physical, cultural and economic geography. The Indian-American trio won by correctly identifying a country’s flag which had six small stars representing the mainland and its five offshore islands. The answer was Equatorial Guinea.

Ramanathan, already has won his state geography bee twice. He had finished seventh in the 2012 National Bee in Washington, DC. Students around the world earned the chance to be part of the World Championship competition by winning or being a top finisher in the national competitions of their home regions.

The 15 other teams competing were from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Mexico, Mongolia, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Britain. Indonesia and Mongolia participated for the first time this year.
The competition was sponsored by Google, and presented by the US National Geographic Society in partnership with the Russian Geographical Society.

Zafar Futehally, (93 years) India’s best known naturalist and ornithologist passed away on 11 August 2013 at Kihim in Maharashtra.

Zafar Futehally led the early years of the conservation movement in India and served as a link between conservationists and corporate.

He was founder editor of the Newsletter for Birdwatchers and this publication helped the birdwatchers to document observations at a time when there was no digital documentation and there were few scientific studies on wildlife in the country.

Zafar Futehally was associated for 60 years with the Bombay Natural History Society, of which he was honorary secretary for 16 years. He also served as a member in project Tiger in 1973-83.

Awards
• Padmashri, 1971 (Government of India)
• Order of the Golden Ark, 1981 (Prince of the Netherlands)
• Rajyotseva Award, 1983 (Karnataka)
• Member of Honour World Wildlife Fund, 1994
• Salim Ali International Award for Nature Conservation, 1997

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Government of India on 12 August 2013 signed an agreement for 300 million US dollars in additional loan to upgrade 254 kilometers of severely deteriorated highways in northern and southern Bihar. The additional financing for the Bihar State Highways-II Project, which is already under implementation, will widen existing sections of four highways to two lanes, build and maintain bridges, and strengthen pavement. This should optimize access to the state highway network for beneficiaries living in remote villages.

Better roads built under the project will help more people access social and health services as well as production centres and markets, and therefore will promote better life and inclusive growth for the people of Bihar.

This project will also use a 1 million US dollars grant to prepare a 20-year road master plan for Bihar state. This should help the national and state governments achieve their vision of improving the lives of its people by providing an efficient transport system.

ADB has supported Bihar’s State Highway Development Program through assistance to Bihar State Highways Project-I (420 million US dollars, closed in July, 2012) followed by Project-II (300 million US dollars, signed in December, 2010). Together the projects are rehabilitating 1209 km of state highways.

The project will also focus on improving the road design that will help address future flooding. To offset carbon emissions, the project will plant 10 trees for every individual tree cut for road widening. Solar panels will be used at construction sites to sequester carbon and reduce carbon emissions.Those living near the roads will also receive road safety training. Women will be actively involved.The total cost of the project – due to be completed by October, 2017 – is 375 million US dollars, with the Government of Bihar providing75 million US dollars.

TA 8170-IND: Road Master Plan for Bihar’s State Highway Development is associated to this project. The TA will support the state government’s sector development initiatives, especially for preparing of a 20-year strategic master plan for developing Bihar’s state highways, including long-term vision and goals, an action program, a financing plan, and a monitoring and evaluation system with performance indicators and targets. The TA is closing in December, 2014.