NOV 4,2014

OCT 30,2014

• Scientist grown miniature human stomachs from stem cells .These stomachs will help in study of gastric disease such as ulcers.
• Pankaj Advani won grand double by clinching the World billiards championship at Leeds(England).He cruised past England's Robert Hall.
• WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton receives 116 million shares of Facebook stock now worth nearly $9 billion.Jan Koum is the 4th largest stockholder in Facebook with the share of  $5.8billion.
• Harley-Davidson launches 3 new motorcycles.Rs..16.28 lakh, 29.70 lakh & 49.24 lakh.
• Gold loan firm Manappuram Finance Ltd. will acquire majority stake in Chennai-based Asirvad Micro-finance Private Ltd.,a firm which Lok Capital has a 24% .
• The Federal Reserve to keep a key interest rate at a record low to support a U.S. job market.
• SunEdison has announced announced that it has won 150 MW of the 500 MW solar power announced by Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd.
• IBM has announced a partnership with Twitter to help shape business decisions using data collected from tweets worldwide.
• Glenworth Estate made a foray into the retail sector with the launch of Glendale's authentic Green Tea in the premium segment.
• Tata AIA Life Insurance Company(Tata AIA Life) announced the appointment of Naveen Tahilyani as its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.
• The Sanmar group is planning to inject additional investment $150 million more into its Egyptian venture Trust Chemicals Industries of Egypt
• New India Assurance, said the company had already made payment 80% claims from flood-affected Jammu & Kashmir and 50% of claims arising out of Hudhud cyclone affected areas of Andhra Pradesh.
• The Reserve Bank of India has raised the limit for urban co-operative banks to sanction loan against gold collateral to Rs.2 lakh from Rs.1 lakh at present.It gives gold loan under bullet repayment scheme.
• Cipla launches low-cost generic respiratory drug.
• British luxury car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover opened a $800-million engine manufacturing centre in western England, creating 1,400 jobs.

OCT 29,2014

• Maradona withdraws theft complaint against girlfriend.
• World's Children's Prize for Malala Yousafzai.
• 627 Indians holding black money account holders in  abroad.
• A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal handed death penalty to Jamaat-e--Islami Chief Motiur Rahman Nizami for crimes,which include the killing of national's leading intellectuals during the country's War of Liberation in 1971.
• Centre relaxes FDI rules in construction sector.The minimum built-up area requirement has been reduced  from 50,000 to 20,000 sq.meters.this meeting chaired by PM & FM.
• Tendulkar in Bradman Hall of Fame.
• JSW-PSA(squash)----Men Winner:Harinder Pal Sandhu.Women Winner:Dipika Pallikal
• The world-famous annual cattle fair will begin at Pushkar town near Ajmer from October 31.
• The Supreme Court referred to it the responsibility to monitor and inspect induatrial units along the Ganga and even cut off water and power  connection if the units are found to be polluting the river.It is a 3 Judge Bench led by Justice T.S.Thakur.
• ISRO calls for 2nd mission i.e., wish or dream, a Mars-2 mission to land on the red planet by 2018.
• India 3rd largest start-up ecosystem in world says National Association of Software and Service Companies(Nasscom) next to U.S and U.k
• White House computer network were breached by hackers, resulting temporary disruption to some services with the Russian govt thought behind the intrusion.
• GSAT-6, the advanced communication satellite that got ISRO's arm Antrix corporation embroiled in a controversy with erstwhile partner Devas Multimedia P Ltd in 2011, is slated for a March 2015 launch.
• 7new from species reported from Western Ghats and Sri lanka.Six of seven species of the Golden-backed.
• Swedish industrial group Sandivik is planning to set up a world-cladd manufacturing at Chakan near pune.In the 1st tranche ,the company will invest $45 million to start development of the site by 2015
• U.K. based security solution provider Oncam Grandeye made a foray into the Indian market with the launch of its products, including a 360-degree camera solution.
• Korean handset maker Samsung said its galaxy range of devices based on KNOX platform had been approved by the U.S. govt to handle the full range of classified information.
• Star India introduced a new transparent tariff structure with cable platform.
• Air Costa enters into Memorandum of Understanding with Vietnam based air line VietJet.
•  Mercedes benz India has launched the GLA45 AMG $MATIC SUV.Price Rs.69.60 lakh.
• Hero Electric launched two new e-cycle-Avior AFX and Aior AMX-priced at Rs.8,990 and Rs.19290.It is powered with 6 gears and Maximum riding speed of 25Km/hr.
• Moody's investors service said its outlook on India's banking system was negative reflecting its view that high leverage in the corporate sector could prevent any meaningful recovery asset quality over next 12-18 months.
• India to sign oil, gas Memorandum of Understanding with Mozambique.
• Germany luxury car makers Audi recalls 382 units of SUV Q7.
• Anti-gay law upheld in Singapore.The court dismissed a constitutional challenge against an archaic law criminalizing sex between men, striking fresh blow to the city'-state's growing gay-rights movement.
• Zambia's President Micheal sata is dead.His nickname was "King Cobra"for his sharp tongue and manner.
• Two of every three persons incarcerated in India have not yet been convicted of any crime, and Muslims are over-represented among such undertrials.
• A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member from Madhya Pradesh has accused the IITs of giving "Kusanskar"or "bad culture"of the West to students through food".It is 'Tamsic' refers to food like meat, onion, garlic and alcohol which are considered dullness-including in Hindu scriptures.

Source : THE HINDU

Halloween

Halloween is celebrated in many countries around the world. It's most famous today as an evening when children 'trick or treat', knocking on doors in their neighbourhood, dressed in costumes and hoping for treats.It is a Western Christian yearly celebrated that falls on October 31st, also known as the feast of All Saints. Halloween is correctly spelt as Halloweén Halloween is also known by other names     All Hallow Eve     Samhain     All Hallowtide     The Feast of the Dead     The Day of the Dead Halloween in Welsh is 'Nos Calan Gaeaf'. It is though that the colour orange and black became halloween colours because orange is associated with harvest and black is associated with death About 99% of pumpkins sold are used as Jack O'Lanterns at Halloween The biggest pumpkin in the world tipped the scale at a whopping 1,446 pounds.This gigantic gourd was weighted in october 2004 at a pumpkin festival in port Elgin, Ontario, Canada. The record for the fastest pumpkin carver in the world is Jerry Ayers of Baltimore, Ohio.He carved  pumpkin in just 37 seconds

OCT 28,2014

• The World Kabaddi League(WKL) announced that 23 players have reported for anti-doping rule violation in both in and out if competition tests.
• BSE is planning to make a foray into commodity exchange business, now dominated by Multi Commodity Exchange(MCX) and NCDEX.
• The Cabinet decided on relaxing foreign direct investment(FDI) norms in the construction sector.
• India to modernise Vietnam's defence forces.
• Umbrella Movement is now 1 month old in Hong Kong.
• ING Vysya Bank Managing Director and CEO, Shailendra Bhandari has resigned.Meanwhile the new CEO Uday Sareen.
• SoftBank kick-starting its plan to put in about $10billion in India, announced investment in home-grown market place Snapdeal and popular mobile app for cab booking Ola.
• Japanese firm Toshiba Corp, in collaboration with Electronic Corporation of India, has received an order to supply transportable Doppler weather radar system to the India Meteorological Department
  (IMD).
• SunEdison of the U.S., signed an agreement with the rajasthan Govt for setting up 5,000MW of solar power capacity by ways of multiple mega solar projects.Each project will have a capacity of 500MW or more.
• Shadeed Iron & Steel LLC(Jindal Shadeed), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jindal Steel & power Ltd.
• Maruti Suzuki India launched the refreshed version of its popular hatchback Swift with 10% enhanced fuel efficiency,rich equipment list like push start button, a 60:40 split rear seat, electric retractable outside mirrors,reverse parking sensors and priced between Rs.4.42 lakh and Rs.6.95 lakh.
• Pakistan police have arrested 4 men for planning and financing the deadly attack on Karachi international airport in june that left 38 dead.
• Global Aircraft major Airbus Defence and Space and India's Tata Advanced System Limited(TASL) of the Tata group have jointly the Airbus C295 medium transport to replace the Indian Air Force's fleet of 56 Avro aircraft, an Airbus released.
• The green field unit Tube Investment of India(TII) to manufacture large diameter tube at the Tiruttani.Dubbed as 1 of the largest investment by the company in the south, the Rs.250-crore unit would manufacture a wide variety of cold drawn-welded and electric-resistance welding tubes of different diameter and thickness. 
• Wipro said it would strengthen its presence in Romania by increasing the headcount to 750 employees by December, 2015.
• The PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry with Hannover Fairs India for their upcoming annual event. 
• Tunisian party Nida Tunis celebrates their victory in parliamentary elections in Tunis.
• Patrick Nayyar, an Indian citizen residing illegally in the U.S., has been handed down a 15-yr jail term by New York federal court for lending support to the proscribed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
• Myanmar has jailed 7 men for lynching 10 Muslim bus passengers in attack that sparked mass unrest between Buddhists and Muslims in the state of Rakhine 2yrs ago.

Source : THE HINDU

OCT 27,2014

• Black money --govt names industrialist --Pradip Burman of Dabur, Rajkot-based bullion trader Pankaj Chimanal Lodhiya and Goa-based mining baron Radha Satish Timblo of Timblo Ltd.
• Insurance Amendment Bills may be cleared in winter session---central.
• Leftist President Dilma Rousseff 66yrs old  re-elected as president of Brazil.
• The Pro-Western winner of Ukraine's parliamentary poll were negotiated the formation of a ruling coalition forces backing president Petro Poroshenko.
• Vietnam PM Nguyen Tan Dung visites India.
• The chairperson if the National Commission for Women(NCW),Lalitha Kumaramangalam. has advocated legalisartion sex work to regulate the trade and ensure better living conditions for women engaged in commercial sex work.Legakisation the trade, she says will bring down trafficking in women and lower the incidence of HIV and other sexully transmitted disease.
• The newly elected Haryana govt led by CM Manohar Lal Khattar decided in principle to probe all land deals, including Robert Vadra.
• The govt decided to clean in situ 144 open drains carrying sewage and industrial effluents into the river Ganga, as part of its plan to clean up the river.At the same time it has been deided not to allow immersion of ashes.Even coconut and flowers offering in theriver shall be trapped through a mesh.Budget allocated for this project is about Rs.2000cr.
•  United India Insurance (UII) is excepted to take a hit of around Rs.1,125 cr due to claim arising out of damages caused by recent floods in Jammu & kashmir as also due to cyclone Hudhud that battered Andhra Pradesh.
• World Media Summit Global Awards for Excellent 2014: P.Sainath , Al Jazeera---India.
• World Bank predicts India's GDP is likely to expand 5.6% this fiscal.And 6.45 in 2016-17.
• Telecom giant SoftBank has pledged an investment of $10b in India's IT and communication from a Japanese firm.It had a plant to invest in e-commerce firm Snapdeal.And also to enter into mobile phone infrastructure.
• South African Foot Ball captain Senzo Meyiwa after the talismanic goalkeeper was shot dead during a home robbery.
• France legend Zinedine Zidane was sanctioned as Real Mdrid's reverse team coach for failing to have the required coaching badge, the Spanish champions announced.
• Saint-Gobainof France inaugurated its Rs.1,000 cr glass manufacturing facility in Bhiwadi in Rajasthan.The fully automated plant, having a capacity to manufacture close too 1000 tonnes of glass a day, is the largest glass manufacturing facility for the firm in the world.
• Third ODI abandoned, South Africa wins the series 2-0.
• Gagan Narang placed 5th in the rifle prone event of the shooting World Cup Final in Gabala,Azerbaijan.Daniel Brodmeier of German took the 1st place.
• Chinese handset maker Xiaomi, trying to assuage consumers fear over security of their data, said it planned to set up data centres in India by 2015 to host services and store data locally. 
• The Air Passengers Association of India(APAI) has asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to put an end to special schemes, offering 'non-existent' low fares by various domestic airlines.
• Fujiflim said it would buy a U.S. vaccine maker as the Japanese form increasing its supply of an experimental Ebola drug to help stem the spread of the virus. 
• Reality firm Emaar MGF has tied up with payment gateway firm Pay U India for providing online payment facility to its customers.
• Death penalty for Ferry captain who killed 300 people, in the month of april mostof them high school children
• Micheal Zehaf-Bibeau, who was shot dead by police in the Parliament in Ottawa after killing a solider, was mentally ill and wanted to die.He released a video of himself just before the attack he made and was inspired by ideological and political motives.
• Executive Director of the Assam Oil division of the Indian Oil Coperation ,Kaushik Bora,who went missing was traced and rescued by the police inside a forest in Tinsukia district of upper Assam.

Source : THE HINDU

Clever Inventions by Indians

Here are some clever inventions that are made by Indians which probably you might have not known.