Today's GK

Gangster Abu Salem will continue to face trial in various cases in India, including the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, with the Supreme Court on Monday turning down his plea for quashing all proceedings after Portugal's apex court terminated his extradition to India.

The Supreme Court held that the verdict of Portugal court is "not binding" on courts here and Salem's extradition to India is still "valid in the eyes of law".

A 5-0 win over a hapless Zimbabwe is hardly a reason to uncork champagne, but this 'smooth operation' by a second-string side, coming on the back of triumphs in the Champions Trophy and the tri-series in the Windies, does point to one fact - regardless of the conditions, India are a formidable force in one-day cricket.Since February this year, they have been the No. 1 ranked ODI team, justifying their tag of being the World Champions. In Tests, India tend to outplay opponents at home on turners, before surrendering on juicy pitches abroad.

In Twenty20, they haven't looked as fresh and dangerous since the inaugural World T20 in 2007. But in one-dayers, they have rather been dominant, winning 38 games out of 59 after the 2011 World Cup, even while losing 10 out of 24 Tests in the same period.

Financial TechnologiesBSE 23.87 % Ltd bounced back over 40 per cent ahead of a news briefing by Chairman and CEO Jignesh Shah scheduled for 1200 India time (0630 GMT).

However, by 11:30 a.m.; Financial Technologies pared some gains, and was trading 27 per cent higher at Rs 188.50.

The stock rallied as much as 45 per cent in intraday trade from its Friday's closing price of Rs 147.50 on the National Stock Exchange.

Soon, solar power will be used to cool air conditioned train coaches. The Integral Coach Factory has kicked off a project in association with IIT Madras to design coaches that will draw power from the sun for interior lighting and cooling.

This is the first time the railways is attempting to tap solar power. Being the world's biggest railway system, it plans to use innovative technology to tap alternative sources of energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuel and the power grid. The railways sees a huge demand for air conditioned coaches in the coming years. And this demand could lead to increased spending on diesel to power the coaches. In other countries, too, it is rare to use solar power on trains.

Airlines are cutting fares like never before to fill up planes in the ongoing lean travel season which will last till early October.

On Saturday, Jet Airways put on sale a whopping 7 lakh domestic travel seats with fares starting at Rs 1,777. The sale will last till next Friday and will be for travel from the day after. Jet is offering fares in three slabs — Rs 1,777 for short slabs; Rs 2,777 for medium and Rs 3,777 for long domestic sectors.

The US economy is recovering from the worst downturn, the White House said today as the latest figures indicated that the unemployment rate has dropped to 7.4 per cent, the lowest level since December 2008.

"While more work remains to be done, today's employment report provides further confirmation that the US economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression," Alan B Krueger, chairman of the council of economic advisers to US President Barack Obama said.

"It is critical that we remain focused on pursuing policies to speed job creation and expand the middle class, as we continue to dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007,"

Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja on Sunday became the first Indian bowler to top the bowlers' chart in the latest ICC ODI Player Rankings after former captain Anil Kumble claimed the pole position way back in 1996.

South Africa defeated Sri Lanka by 22 runs in the second Twenty20 international in wind-swept Hambantota on Sunday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series

Jasjit Singh, Air Commodore (retd.) and one of the leading strategic thinkers of India, died on 4 August 2013. He was 79 years of age. He died after a fight against pneumonia.

Life Sketch of Jasjit Singh

• Jasjit Singh was born 8 July 1934.
• He is known as a passionate professional, who taught flying to various top air force officers.
• He retired as the air commodore in the year 1987.
• He became the head of Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) in the year 1987, for 14 long years. He succeeded K Subrahmanyam.
• After retiring from IDSA, he set up Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS). CAPS carried out a range of useful studies on subjects such as air power strategic issues for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
• He was the author and editor of various books.
• He contributed in an optimistic way towards India's 1998 nuclear explosion.
• For displaying gallantry during the war of 1971, he was also awarded with the Vir Chakra.
• He was conferred with the Padma Bhushan, the second highest civilian award, in the year 2006 by the former president APJ Abdul Kalam.
• He is known as one of the best military analyst of India.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission on 3 August 2013 declared Zanu-PF party has won the Parliamentary Election (Presidential Election). MDC secured 49 seats as compared to 158 seats won by the ZANU-PF party of the total 210 seats.

ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front), the political party of the incumbent President Robert Mugabe on 3 August 2013 won the Presidential election of Zimbabwe that was held on 2 August 2013. The 89 year old Mugabe won 61 percent of the vote against the 34 percent won by the Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. Morgan is the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.

With this win, Mugabe has won his seventh term to the office of the President of Zimbabwe and is heading Zimbabwe, since 1980, the year when the country got its independence. The symbol of the party is a black cockerel that is crowing loud and hard.

The Electoral Process: Zimbabwe Electoral Commission conducts the electoral processes in the country by putting in all the necessary logistics in place to ensure that the process runs smoothly.

A number of seats in the Senate, the National Assembly and the Provincial Councils of the country are allocated on the basis of a party-list system of proportional representation.

Robert Mugabe

• Robert Mugabe is one of the leaders of the guerrilla movements against white-minority rule of Zimbabwe and was elected to power in 1980.
• He served as Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987 and as the first executive head of state since 1987.
• He was born on 21 February 1924
• Mugabe was a political prisoner in Rhodesia for more than 10 years from 1964 and 1974
• He is also the and commander-in-chief of the armed forces

About Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. Zambia lies to the northwest with the Zambezi river and its Victoria Falls forming the border. Mozambique lies to the northeast with its border formed by the Eastern Highlands. Botswana lies to the southwest and South Africa to the south (its border formed by the Limpopo River). Zimbabwe achieved its freedom (de jure sovereignty) from United Kingdom in April 1980. It remained as an unrecognised state under the conservative white minority government of Rhodesia for 14 years from 1965. Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, with English, Shona and Ndebele being most common.

Samantha Power on 2 August 2013 took oath to the office of US ambassador to United Nations. Vice-President, Joe Biden administered her, the oath to the office in a ceremony at the White House. Samantha Power succeeded Susan Rice, now the President Barack Obama’s National Security Adviser.

Earlier, Samantha Power served as the Foreign Policy Adviser to Obama during his 2008 election campaign, and subsequently worked as an adviser in the White House. Samantha Power started her career as a journalist and won a Pulitzer Prize for her book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide in 2003.

Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India on 2 August 2013 inaugurated two projects of PSU BHEL in Thirumayam at Puthukottai district of Tamil Nadu.

The two projects of BHEL are a High Pressure Boiler Plant Unit-II, a Greenfield Initiative and the Power Plant Piping Unit. Both would provide employment to about 8000 people.

High Pressure Boiler Plant (Unit-II) Highlights

• A Greenfield expansion project with combined capacity of 800000 metric tonnes for 20000 MW annual capacities.
• Total shop floor area of around 120000 sq.m
• Total project outlay of over 1000 crore rupees.
• Manufacture of supercritical technology boilers and components upto 1000 mw unit rating
• 5 direct and indirect employments of over 5000 persons with supporting ancillary industries

Power Plant Piping Unit highlights

• The unit is spread over 40 acres of land in Thirumayam, Pudukottai district Tamil Nadu
• Capacity of 80000 metric tonnes per annum
• Investment of 300 crore rupees with annual turnover of 2500 crore rupees
• Piping systems for thermal power plants, steam piping lines for nuclear power plants, and piping systems for process industries.
• Direct and indirect employment of around 3000 persons with support industries to contribute to overall economic development of the region.

With the operationalisation of the two units, BHEL has achieved an annual manufacturing capacity of 20000 MW.

China in the first week of August 2013 blocked the import of milk powder from New Zealand after it discovered bacteria that can lead to botulism in some of its dairy products. Global dairy giant Fonterra revealed that three batches of whey products contained Clostridium botulinum, a toxic bacteria, which can cause Botulism.

Yet the ban on the import of the products was not imposed by China as it has asked New Zealand to take effective measures to prevent products from being supplied to China, which could have an adverse impact on the health of Chinese Consumers. China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has ordered the importers for withdrawal of all types of contaminated products and quarantine officials have been ordered to step-up the inspections of dairy products, which were being imported from New Zealand.

The ban issued from China was termed as an appropriate stand by Tim Groser, the Trade Minister of New Zealand, as some of the exported whey products (also infant formula) available with global dairy giant Fonterra contained bacteria, which could have affected the health and lead to fatal illness.

China is a major market for New Zealand infant formula products.

Botulism

Botulism is a rare but sometimes fatal paralytic illness that is found in human beings. The cause of the illness is a toxin (poison) that is made by a bacterium that is known as Clostridium Botulinum. It occurs naturally in soil. There exist different types of Botulism.

Few of the most common form of botulism are
• Foodborne Botulism: it is caused due to the intake of foods contaminated with the toxin
• Infant Botulism: it happens, when an infant or a baby consumes the bacteria from soil or honey
• Wound Botulism: it is caused, when a wound gets affected with the bacteria and it starts releasing the toxin. It spreads easily among the heroine users

Botulism is a deadly disease and is a form of medical emergency.

Hassan Rouhani on 4 August 2013 took oath as the new President of Iran in the ceremony held at the Iranian Parliament in Tehran. The 64 year old Rouhani, kissed the Quran and took his oath to the office before the countries senior politicians, foreign dignitaries and MPs. The newly elected, Iranian President began his four-year mandate to the office from 3 August 2013 after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme leader certified his victory in the Presidential election that was conducted on 15 June 2013.

Rouhani is the seventh (different) President of Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. He secured a little over 50 percent votes to win the election and has succeeded Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the President.
  
Earlier, he defeated Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf of Islamic Society of Engineers party. The Presidential elections in Iran took place on 14 June 2013.

Vice-President of India, Hamid Ansari attended the swering-in ceremony of Rouhani at Tehran.

About Hassan Rohani

• Hassan Rohani was born on 12 November 1948 and started his political activities during beginning of Iranian Islamic movement by following Ayatollah Khomeini.
• Since 1999, he remained a member of Assembly of Experts also known as Council of Experts. It is the deliberative body of Islamic theologians, also called Mujtahids. The Assembly of Experts is the body that has charge of electing as well as removing Supreme Leader of Iran as well as supervising his activities.
• He also remained a member of Expediency Council since 1991. Expediency Council or Expediency Discernment Council of the System is the administrative assembly which is appointed by Supreme Leader of Iran. Originally, Expediency Council was established to resolve differences between Council of Guardians and the Majlis.
• Apart from this, he was the member of the Supreme National Security Council since 1989.
• In the book titled, National Security and Nuclear Diplomacy, there is an autobiography of Hassan Rohani which describes about his experience as in-charge of Iran's nuclear case as well as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.
• Hassan Rohani has remained the deputy speaker of the 4th and 5th terms of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005.
• He was the head of the Center for Strategic Research since 1992.
• He was the head of former nuclear negotiating team of Iran and was among the top negotiators of Iran with the three nations of European Union namely, Germany, UK and France, on the nuclear program of Iran.
  
Important facts about the Election of President of Iran, according to the Constitution of Iran

• According to Article 117 of the Constitution of Iran, the President is elected by an absolute majority of votes polled by the voters.
• According to Article 115 of the Constitution of Iran, the President must be elected from among religious and political personalities.
• According to Article 114 of the Constitution of Iran, the President is elected for a four-year term by the direct vote of the people. His re-election for a successive term is permissible only once.