Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Today's GK(4-9-13)



Raj Kundra wrote a book entitled How Not to Make Money

How Not to Make Money: Raj Kundra
Raj Kundra, the millionaire businessman has written a book titled, How Not to Make Money. This is the first book written by Raj Kundra and it narrates a story of three childhood friends – Jai, Mike and Aziz – who made a decision to get rich quick.

The Book is based on a research of the Missing Trader Fraud, who cheated billions of Euros in the early 2000s, depriving the UK Government and Europe.

The book is being published by Random House India and would be released in October 2013.

Indo-Japan Monorail and Light Rail Transit (LRT) Seminar Held at New Delhi

The Indo-Japan Monorail and Light Rail Transit (LRT) seminar was held at New Delhi on 3 September 2013. The Minister of Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs, Kamal Nath addressed the seminar.
It is important to note that the Japanese Government and the Japanese Companies extended their cooperation in the development of Metro system in India, which will also be extended for to the development of Monorail and LRT system in various cities of India. The Monorail system can be very useful for congested areas of the Indian cities as well as can also prove to be environment friendly. Monorail can be essential to supplement the Metro system.
Development of the Monorail project

The working group on Urban Transport for the 12th Five Year Plan gave its recommendations for the LRT system in India. According to the recommendations, LRT should be provided in all cities with a population of million plus. According to the 2011 census, there are 53 such cities in India.

The State Government of Maharashtra is already constructing two corridors of Monorail in the city of Mumbai. Apart from this, the State Governments of Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have also prepared DPRs for Monorail Project. In Delhi, a Monorail Project is being implemented over a distance of 11 Kms between Shastri Park to Trilok Puri. This project would be completed by the year 2017.

The report of the High powered expert committee which was released in March 2011 revealed that the estimated total expenditure of 39 lakh crore would be incurred on Indian urban infrastructure and services by the year 2031. This report was commissioned by Ministry of Urban Development Government of India. The expenditure on urban transport and roads together will be more than half the total expenditure at 23 lakh crore Rupees.

Golfer Henrik Stenson won the Deutsche Bank Title 2013

Henrik Stenson, the golfer from Sweden on 2 September 2013 won the Deutsche Bank title after shooting a five under 66. This is his first win at any PGA tour in three years, where he finished at 22-under 262 to tie the tournament at the Tournament Players Club (TPC), Boston.
To win the title, he surpassed American Steve Stricker with two shots, who finished second in the tournament. Sergio Garcia of Spain and Graham DeLaet of Canada finished at the thiord position in the tour.
Earlier he had been the runner-up of the two PGA tour in 2013 against Phil Mickelson at a Major and Tiger Woods at a World Golf Championship.

About Henrik Stenson

• Stenson was born in Gothenburg and turned up to be a professional golfer in 1999.
• In 2001, he joined the major European Tour and till date has own seven major European tour events
• In European Order of Merit, he finished under the list of top ten, from 2005 to 2008
• From 2005 to 2008 he finished each year in the top 10 of the European Order of Merit
 
About Deutsche Bank Championship
Deutsche Bank Championship is a golf PGA tour that is held every year over the Labor Day weekend at the Tournament Players Club of Boston in Norton, Massachusetts. The tournament for the first time was held in 2003. The basic difference of this event from other events of the PGA tour is that it is held from Friday to Monday, whereas other events are held from Thursday to Sunday. Its final round is played on Labor Day (first Monday of September is a Labor Day in US).

At present this event is managed by Tiger Woods Foundation

Tommy Morrison, the former Heavy Weight Champion died

Tommy Morrison, the former heavy weight champion, who was diagnosed positive for HIV died at the age of 44, on 1 September 2013 at a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. As a boxer, he was nicknamed as The Duke and in his entire boxing career; he played 52 professional fights and lost only 3 of them.  
Morrison came in limelight in the year 1993 after he defeated George Foreman to win the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Heavyweight Title.  He also gained popularity. He also became famous after being casted as a co-star against Sylvester Stallone in the 1990 boxing movie Rocky V.
Rakesh Sood appointed as Prime Minister’s Special Envoy

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in first week of September 2013 appointed Rakesh Sood as his new Special envoy for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation. Rakesh Sood retired from the Indian Foreign Service in March 2013.
About Rakesh Sood

Rakesh Sood, a 1976 batch IFS officer and he held different positions including, India’s former Ambassador to Nepal, Afghanistan and France and the country’s first Ambassador in charge of Disarmament in Geneva.
Rakesh Sood served in New Delhi for nine years as Joint Secretary DISA (Disarmament and International Security Affairs) from 1992 to 2000. In that post he oversaw the negotiations concerning the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the deliberations on the Fissile Materials Cutoff Treaty (FMCT).

In 1998 when India carried out a series of nuclear tests to become a declared nuclear power, Rakesh Sood accompanied then National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra to various world capitals to explain India’s stand on its newly developed nuclear capability.

Rakesh Sood was also participated in the talks on security, non-proliferation, disarmament and related issues between Jaswant Singh, then Minister of External Affairs and Strobe Talbott, President Clinton’s Deputy Secretary of State in 1990s. The talks finally resulted in a waiver that allowed India to have access to civil nuclear technology despite the fact that the country is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Union Cabinet approved the India-Abu Dhabi Bilateral Air Services Agreement

The Union cabinet of India on 3 September 2013 approved the India-Abu Dhabi bilateral air services agreement. Under this agreement the airlines of India and Abu-Dhabi can fly 50000 seats each week, an increase from the present level of 13700.
This increase of 36670 seats will take place in a phased manner spanning over a three-year period. An additional 11000 seats per week would be added to the current 13700 in 2013, another 12800 seats per week would be added in 2014 and 12870 more in 2015.
The bilateral air services agreement between India and Abu Dhabi allows their designated airlines to operate as well as increase or decrease the number of flights operating between them, the number of seats per week and even the type of the aircraft.

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs Approved Proposal for Restructuring SJSRY

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the proposal for restructuring of the centrally sponsored Scheme of Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) in the 12th Plan. The Scheme will now be called National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) with an allocation of approximately 6405 crore Rupees.

About National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM)

• The mission of National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) is reduction of poverty and vulnerability of the urban poor households by enabling them to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities.
• The mission will also aim at providing shelter equipped with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner.
• Apart from this, the mission will also address livelihood concerns of the urban street vendors also by facilitating access to suitable spaces, institutional credit, social security and skills to the urban street vendors for accessing emerging market opportunities.

The primary focus of NULM will be community mobilisation and women empowerment.

• NULM envisages universal mobilisation of urban poor households into thrift and credit-based Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and their federations/collectives. The SHGs will also serve as the support system for the poor, to meet their financial and social need.
• National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) will facilitate establishment of City Livelihood Centres (CLCs) in the Mission cities in order provide the platform whereby the urban poor can market their services and access information on self-employment, skill training and other benefits.

Target of the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM)

• The main target of the NULM is urban poor who are occupationally vulnerable for Employment through Skills Training & Placement (EST&P).
• The mission will focus on providing assistance for development as well as upgrading of the skills of the urban poor so as to enhance their capacity for self-employment and salaried employment.
• NULM intends to provide training to the urban poor as per the skill demand from the market, so that they can set up self-employment ventures or secure salaried employment.
• Through its Self-Employment Programme (SEP), NULM will provide financial assistance to individuals and groups of urban poor to set up gainful self-employment as well as micro-enterprise ventures.
• The Support to Urban Street Vendors (USV) component will cover a socio-economic survey of street vendors, development of pro-vending urban planning and vendors’ markets, credit enablement of vendors, skill development and micro-enterprise development and convergence under various schemes of the Government.
• The aim of NULM is also to provide shelter for the urban homeless equipped with essential services. The shelters should be permanent all-weather 24 x 7 shelters for the urban homeless. Under the scheme, there will be provisions of establishing permanent community shelters for a minimum of one hundred persons, for every one lakh urban population.

Implementation of NULM

• The NULM will be implemented in two phases: Phase I (2013-2017) and Phase II (2017-2022).
• In Phase I, NULM will target all cities with a population of one lakh or more and district headquarter towns with a population of less than one lakh as per Census of India 2011. Funding of this project will be shared between the Centre and the States in the ratio of 75:25.
• For the North Eastern and Special Category States (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand), this ratio will be 90:10.

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