Today's GK(5-9-13)

Hat-trick for Mary Ann in National women’s chess championship

Local favourite Mary Ann Gomes pipped Tania Sachdev and Soumya Swaminathan with a better tie-breaking score to clinch a hat-trick of titles in the 40th Women’s National Premier Championship here on Thursday.

It was heartbreak for overnight leader Soumya as the Pune girl lost to Padmini Rout in the final round to slip to third, while top seed Tania Sachdev who had suffered early losses finished second with six points from last seven rounds.

Mary Ann, who was on second spot, settled for a hard-fought draw against Ivana Maria Furtado and the result was enough to earn a third national title in a row.

Mary Ann, Tania and Soumya were locked on 7.5 points but the local girl had a better tie-breaking score (40.5) to pocket a prize purse of INR 1.75 lakh.

Subaraman Vijayalaxmi had won the National women’s title five times in a row (1998-2002), while Rohini Khadilkar had won thrice in 1976, 1977 and 1979 — there was no championship in 1978.

Playing 14-year-old Ivana of Goa, Mary Ann found herself in an inferior position in a King’s Indian attack.

But Ivana was equally nervous as she offered a draw despite being a piece ahead on the 25th move and Mary Ann promptly accepted.

Indian writer Sushmita Banerjee shot dead in Afghanistan

Indian national Sushmita Banerjee, whose memoir about her dramatic escape from the Taliban was turned into a Bollywood film, was shot dead in Afghanistan by militants, police said today.

Banerjee, 49, was killed outside her home in Paktika province. She was married to Afghan businessman Jaanbaz Khan and recently moved back to Afghanistan to live with him.

Taliban militants arrived at her home in the provincial capital of Kharana, tied up her husband and other members of the family, took Banerjee out and shot her, police were quoted as saying by BBC.

The militants dumped Banerjee’s body near a religious school, police said.

A senior police official said Banerjee, also known as Sayed Kamala, was working as a health worker in Paktika and had been filming the lives of local women as part of her work.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Banerjee’s book Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou (A Kabuliwala’s Bengali Wife), about her escape from the Taliban in 1995, became a bestseller in India and was made into the Bollywood film “Escape From Taliban” in 2003.

The memoir focussed on her life in Afghanistan with her husband and her escape from the militants.

The film based on the book starred actor Manisha Koirala and was billed as a “story of a woman who dares (the) Taliban”.

Teacher’s Day Celebrated across India on the Birth Anniversary of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan

5 September: Teacher’s Day

5 September 2013 was designated as the Teacher’s Day in India.  The day is dedicated to the first vice president of India and the second President of India, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was born on this day in South India.

India celebrates the Teacher’s Day on the birth anniversary of this Bharat Ratna Awardee (1954). On this day, the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee also presented the National Awards to meritorious teachers from all over India. These awards were instituted in 1958 in order to give the public recognition to the teachers of the country in primary, middle as well as secondary schools.

Who was Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan?

• Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born on 5 September 2013 1888.
• He was an Indian philosopher and statesman as well as a renowned scholar.
• He was the first Vice President of India (1952–1962).
• He was also the second President of India from 1962 to 1967.
• He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in the year 1954, which is the highest civilian award in India.
• Other honours received by him include the British Knight Bachelor in 1931 and honorary membership of the Order of Merit (1963).

The World Teachers’ Day

It is important to note that every country has its own Teacher’s day, which is celebrated on different dates. But there is also the World Teachers’ day, which is recognised by UNESCO. 5 October is celebrated as the World Teachers’ Day. A different theme is selected for every year to celebrate and honour the teachers of the world.

Indian Railways Developed a Fire and Smoke Detection System for Railway Coaches

Indian Railways developed a fire and smoke detection system on all the coaches for the safety of the passengers.

Primary features of the safety systems

• The system is capable for checking and giving alarm to passenger during initial stages of fire, thereby giving valuable time for shifting to safe areas and evacuation.
• The automatic fire and smoke detection system as tried out is based on Very Early Warning Smoke Detection System (VEWSD) strategy to detect smoke/fire at incipient stage of smoke, fire through continuous multipoint sampling and analysis of coach environment.
• The system is suitable for controlled environment i.e. for AC coaches only.
• There are 4 alarm levels called as Alert, Action, Fire-1 and Fire-2.
• The system as of now is subjected to trials on Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani. During trial period, two actual fire incidences were detected by the system in two coaches of Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani and timely warning saved loss of property and life.
• The system has been installed by the Rail Coach Factory on one more rake of LHB Rajdhani dispatched to Northern Railway, which will be used to run 12454/12453, New Delhi Ranchi Rajdhani train.

Research Design & Standards Organisation (RDSO), a research wing of the Ministry of Railways, based on the feedback, has also made improvements on specification. At the same time, provision of interfacing the system with the air brake system of the coaches has also been made. This would help in the event of Fire-2 alarm; train gets stopped before hooter is sounded.

This system would help that passenger can safely get down without panic. The system of Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani is also planned to be fitted on more rakes in the current year.

Minister of MSME constituted District Level Advisory Committee to monitor PMEGP

The Minister for MSME K H Muniyappa constituted a District Level Advisory Committee on the recent initiatives for enhancing the effectiveness of implementation of Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP).

The conference was held at New Delhi on 4 September 2013 and it explained about the measures taken by the Ministry for improved implementation of its flagship scheme are expected to fight economic slowdown by faster creation of enterprises and jobs in the micro sector.

The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) on 30 August 2013 constituted an Advisory Committee for each district of India for monitoring the progress of Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) with active involvement of Members of Parliament from the district.

Highlights of the District Level Advisory Committee

• It was highlighted that the Ministry of MSME has approved constitution of a District Level Advisory Committee comprising around 30 members which would provide overall guidance and suggestions for the implementation of the programme.
• The District Level Advisory Committee would liaise and coordinate with KVIC, State Government and other agencies including Banks for effective mobilization of young entrepreneurs under PMEGP.
• District Level Advisory Committee’s role would be to make sure that the scheme is implemented in accordance with its guidelines.
Constitution of the District Level Advisory Committee
• This Committee would be chaired by the Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) elected from the District having the largest part of the district under his/ her Parliamentary constituency.
• The other members would include Members of State Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, Chairperson of Zilla Panchayat, representatives of SC/ST, OBC, minority and women and one professional from social work/ social science, representatives of bank and financial institutions.
• District Magistrate/ Collector will be its member-convener.
• The committee will meet quarterly.
• KVIC which is the nodal agency for the scheme at the national level will take the necessary action.

About Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)

Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) is the major credit linked subsidy programme. The Union Government of India released 5251.51 crore Rupees under the scheme since 2008-09

Microsoft Decided to Buy Nokia's Mobile Phone Unit and Services

Microsoft Corporation and Nokia Corporation on 3 September 2013 announced that both companies have decided to enter into a transaction whereby Microsoft will purchase substantially all of Nokia’s Devices & Services business, license Nokia’s patents, and license and use Nokia’s mapping services.

Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will pay 3.79 billion Euros to purchase substantially all of Nokia’s Devices & Services business, and 1.65 billion Euros to license Nokia’s patents, for a total transaction price of 5.44 billion Euros in cash.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014, subject to approval by Nokia’s shareholders, regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.

Under the terms of the agreement, 32000 people of Nokia Company are expected to transfer to Microsoft, including 4700 people in Finland and 18300 employees directly involved in manufacturing, assembling and packaging of products worldwide.

In India, the deal is expected to pave the way for Microsoft to leverage Nokia’s strong distribution and manufacturing base. The factory at Sri Perumbudur near Chennai is one of the biggest factories for Nokia.

Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation, headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki.

Nokia’s principal products are mobile telephones and portable IT devices with 128445 employees in 120 countries, sales in more than 150 countries.

Nokia Timeline

1871: Founded by Fredrik Idestam.  Nokia engaged in making of Paper, tyres, boots and cables for 100 years.
1987: Launched its first phone the Mobira Cityman that weighed almost 1kg.
1992: Sells non-mobile divisions and launches first digital GSM phone, the Nokia 1011.
2003: Basic 1100 phone launched. Goes on to sell 250 million units and become the world's most popular consumer electronic device.
2011: Abandons Symbian mobile phone operating software and switches to the Windows platform instead.
2013: Launched the Lumia 1020 boasting a 41 megapixel camera

HRD Ministry Inaugurated the Sixth Global Skills Summit (GSS) At FICCI

The Human Resource Development Minister Dr M M Pallam Raju on 4 September 2013 inaugurated the sixth Global Skills Summit (GSS) at FICCI. The goal of HRD Ministry was to achieve national skilling 50 crore Indians by 2022. For this purpose, the challenge would be to engage the youth of the country to participate in developing skills without inhibitions.

It is important to note that the programmes have been structured in such a way that the private sector and industry would play a leadership role and an enabling environment would be provided for skill development. There would be inclusion of Industry as partners in setting up schools, skill development centres, polytechnics, community colleges and even provide Skill Programmes in Colleges and Universities. The opportunity for the purpose of promotion of skill development in existing educational institutions is also being explored.

In the recent past, National Skills Development Agency (NSDA) was formed for National Skill Qualification Framework.

About the Global Skills Summit (GSS)

Global Skills Summit (GSS) is the two-day FICCI annual event which is being organised in collaboration with Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Labour and Employment and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). Every year, there is a country partner for this and for 2013 Global Skills Summit; the country partner is New Zealand. The theme of the sixth GSS is Industry Leads.

At the occasion of GSS, the HRD Ministry also released two reports- Industry in driving seat and India New Zealand Partnership on Skills. The report entitled Industry in driving seat, highlights the vocational education and training scenario (VET) of India. It also outlines concrete recommendations that can be taken up by respective State Skill Development/ Employment Missions for perceptible improvement in programme delivery in a time-bound manner.