June 2012 GK NOTES

[Reaa Mehta]

1) International Criminal Court

> Fatou Bensouda, a Gambian lawyer, has been appointed as the chief prosecutor of ICC.

>was sworn in on 15th june 2012 

> She was elected at the latest session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute (ASP) in December 2011 for a nine-year term.

>Bensouda is the recipient of the ICJ International Jurists Award (2009), which was conferred on her by the former President of India Pratibha Patil.

Background info: >http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC/

>The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an independent international organisation, which has been set up to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression (of which only the first three are operational). The Court is governed by the Rome Statute. The Rome statute was adopted on 17 July 1998 by 120 States for establishing the permanent International Criminal Court. The Rome Stature entered into force on 1st July 2002 after ratification by 60 countries. 

>Member states of the ICC: http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ASP/states+parties/

2) China launches fourth human spaceflight

>Launched from the Jiuquan satellite launch center in north-western Gansu state

>30.3 feet long and 9.1 feet diameter

>will conduct the first manned docking mission and set the foundation for Chinese plans to build a space station by 2020 from governments, international organisations, individuals, corporations and other entities.

>comprise three astronauts including China’s first woman astronaut Liu Yang.

3)Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has decided to get into a merger with Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd

>will help them prepare to meet the increasing demand for diesel vehicles

>Suzuki Powertrain is a 30:70 ratio joint venture

>merger is expected to increase Suzuki’s stake in its Indian subsidiary by 2 percentage points to 56.2

4)World Food Prize:

>Daniel Hillel, an Israeli scientist, has won the World Food Prize for the year 2012

>His work is relevant for agriculture-dominated economies

>applied the method of micro-irrigation, which maximizes output and agricultural efficiency

>This award was recognized by Norman Borlaug in 1987

>Norman Borlaug is a Nobel Prize winner and one of the pioneers of the Green Revolution

>The World Food Prize award is chaired by M.S. Swaminathan, Indian agricultural scientist Professor and the first World Food Prize laureate.

5) Environmental Sustainable Index (ESI)

>ESI 2011 released on 14 June 2012

>regarded five north-eastern states (Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh) and Himachal Pradesh as most environmentally sustainable states in the country

>index was released by Centre for Development Finance (CDF), affiliated to Institute for Financial Management and Research

6)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

>on 13 May 2012 launched Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) on a Pegasus rocket

>The jet was launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands

>NuSTAR will help scientists find the most subtle and energetic black holes, which will enable them to understand the structure of the universe

>project aims to study energetic phenomena such as clusters of galaxies, black holes and the explosions of massive stars

7) Pakistani ghazal maestro Mehdi Hassan passed away in Karachi on 13 June 2012

8)Cuban Boxer Teofilo Stevenson passed away

9)Indian Coast Guard Hovercraft H-187

>commissioned by Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan, the Director General Indian Coast Guard, at Okha in Gujarat

>is the first of the series of twelve Air Cushion Vehicles (ACVs) designed and built by Griffon Hoverwork Limited (GHL), UK

10)Russian Tennis Player Maria Yuryevna Sharapova won the French Open 2012.

11)Rafael Nadal beat Novak Djokovic to claim his Seventh French Open Singles Title

12) Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi won their second Grand Slam title together and first French Open trophy after beating Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Klaudia Jans Ignacik of Poland in the mixed doubles final, in Paris

^^^^^^ French Open  was held at Rolland Garros in Paris. The tournament was run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). President of ITF: Francesco Ricci Bitti. ITF was formed in the year 1913

13)Sachin Tendulkar was awarded the Wisden India Outstanding Achievement award for completing a century of 100 international hundreds, in Dubai

>was presented a crystal trophy at an event organised by Fidelis World

14)emergency in West Myanmar

>Myanmar President, Thein Sein declared emergency in West Myanmar on 10 June 2012

>due to sectarian violence between the Buddhists and Muslims, which left seven people dead and hundreds of properties ravaged in Rakhine state of west Myanmar

15)Saina Nehwal clinched the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold title(badminton)

16)Government of India nominated Vice Admiral Devender Kumar Joshi as the new Navy chief. Joshi will assume the charge after Admiral Nirmal Verma retires on 31 August 2012

17)foreign direct investment from Pakistan

> India has announced that it will allow FDI from Pakistan 

>aimed at strengthening the bilateral economic relations between the two countries. 

>The decision will also facilitate economic integration in the South Asian region.

>Union Finance Ministry had received a proposal by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) seeking changes in Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to allow FDI from Pakistan.

18)Veeravalli Sundaram Sampath as the 18th Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India replaces S.Y. Quraishi

>Quraishi's term on the CEC of India came to an end on 10th june 2012 

>Chief Election Commissioner is the head of the three-member election commission which is a constitutional entity responsible for conducting free and fair elections in the country.

>Article 324 of the Indian constitution provides for the institution of Election Commission of India.

>commission was set up on 25 January 1950

>Sukumar Sen was the first Election Commissioner of India

>Chief Election Commissioner along with two other Election Commissioners enjoys the official status, salary and perks equivalent to judges of the Supreme Court of India.

>The Chief Election Commissioner can be removed only through impeachment by the Parliament.

>In order of precedence the Chief Election Commissioner stands at 9th position along with the judges of the Supreme Court of India, Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Chief Election Commissioner of India, Chairman of Union Public Service Commission

19)Samsung Electronics named Kwon Oh-hyun as its New Chief Executive Officer.

20)Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) 2012 concluded in Beijing with member states agreeing to further cooperation in a variety of fields

>Chinese President Hu Jin Tao,

 Russian President Vladimir Putin, 

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, 

Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, 

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon  

Uzbek President Islam Karimov, 

Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov  

Afghan President Hamid Karzai

were among the top leaders who attended the summit. 

>SCO adopted 10 agreements on the concluding day of the summit:

the Declaration on Building a Region with Lasting Peace and Common Prosperity, the Strategic Plan for the Medium-Term Development of the SCO, and the SCO Regulations on Political and Diplomatic Measures and Mechanism of Response to Events Jeopardizing Regional Peace, Security and Stability. The SCO also decided to grant Afghanistan observer status and accept Turkey as a dialogue partner

>Chinese President Hu Jintao has offered a 10 billion U.S. dollars loan to the SCO which will be used be used to promote the development of SCO members

>SCO, an intergovernmental mutual security organization, was founded in Shanghai on 15 June 2001

>group has six full time members at present namely China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

>The Central Asian nation Kyrgyzstan will host the 2013 summit of SCO

21)US defence secretary- Leon Panetta

22)The Walt Disney Company has announced that it will ban junk food advertisements on children’s programmes

23)US drone strike in northwest Pakistan has killed al-Qaida's second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi

24)World IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) Launch Day held globally on 6 June 2012

>All the major Internet Service Providers came together on the occasion, to permanently enable IPv6 for their products and services

>Organised by Internet Society

25)Pakistan successfully test-fired the indigenously developed Hatf-VII (Babur) cruise missile

>Hatf-VII is capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads

>missile is a highly accurate Pakistani-developed cruise missile with a range of 700 km

>According to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement, the missile was launched from a multi-tube Missile Launch Vehicle (MLV).

>significantly enhances the targeting and employment options of the Babur weapon system in both the conventional and nuclear modes

26)world community observed the World Environment Day (WED) on 5 June 2012

>host for World Environment Day 2012 was the Federative Republic of Brazil

>Theme for the World Environment Day 2012 is: Green Economy: Does it include you?

27)Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur took the oath as the Supreme Court judge on 4 June 2012

>was serving as the Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court

>joining of Justice Lokur has taken the total number of the apex court judge to 26, which is still five short of the total strength of 31 judges

28)New Zealand beat Argentina 1-0 to win Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament at Ipoh, Malaysia. In a clash for the third spot and bronze medal, India defeated Great Britain

29)Lagos, the largest Nigerian city(situated in the south-west) .....Nigeria’s central capital is Abuja 

30)Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar sworn in as the member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament on 4 June 2012. Sachin along with Hindi film actress Rekha and business woman Anu Aga was nominated by the President of India as Rajya Sabha MP

31)Egyptian court awarded former President Hosni Mubarak with life imprisonment
>former autocrat was convicted given his involvement in the murder of protesters during the uprising which toppled him in 2011.

>Mubarak's former interior minister Habib al-Adly was also awarded the life sentence

32)The United Nations Human Rights Council approved an investigation into the mass killing of civilians at Houla and condemned Syria for the massacre

>UN Human Rights Council in its emergency meeting voted to condemn Syria over the killing of more than 100 civilians

>The 47-nation body approved the resolution with 41 votes in favour and three against it

>Russia, China and Cuba voted against the U.S.-backed resolution

>Two countries abstained and one member did not vote. India also voted in favour of the UN HRC resolution

33)American Stuntman, Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope

34)Fitch, a ratings agency has revised the outlook on India's financial institutions to negative from stable

>The outlook of six government banks, two private banks, two wholly owned government institutions and one infrastructure finance company was lowered by the rating agency

>The financial entities which faced the axe are as follows: Bank of Baroda (BoB) and its overseas subsidiary Bank of Baroda (New Zealand), Canara Bank, IDBI Bank and Axis Bank, Export-Import Bank of India, Hudco, IDFC and Indian Railway Finance Corporation

35)Radha Vinod Raju, the founding director of National Investigation Agency (NIA) passes away, at the age of 62. Raju was also a key member of the special investigation team which investigated the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi

36)Raja Parvez Ashraf, the senior Pakistan People’s Party leader, has been appointed as the 17th Prime Minister of Pakistan

37)India and Israel have inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to expand the bilateral relation in the tourism sector

>Israel, under the MoU, will open a tourism office in Mumbai and increase the frequency of flights to India

>The MoU was signed between Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov and his Indian counterpart Minister Subodh Kant Sahai in Jerusalam in Israel

38)The Calcutta High Court has held the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011 as unconstitutional and void

>The legislation enabled the government to recover the disputed Singur land from Tata Motors, that leased 997 acre of land at Singur in Hooghly district by previous left front government in the state.

>The Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act was passed by the West Bengal state assembly in 2011 when Mamata Banrjee led Trinamool Congress came to power in May 2011

>The legislation which justified the state government’s land re-acquisition drive empowered the government to recover 1000 acres of land at the abandoned Tata Nano factory site in Singur

39)Uttar Pradesh Government has decided to increase the tax on Tobacco Products

>The Govt had decided to increase the tax by 25-35%.

>Uttar Pradesh government planned to make their state as a Tobacco Free State. The UP aims to restrict tobacco from the state

40)Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has been made the new head of Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom

41)US Supreme Court has upheld the US President Barack Obama’s  legislation, the Health Care Law (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act)

>The court verdict came in the favour of legislation, made it mandatory for all American citizens to have health insurance or pay a penalty. The health care legislation mainly aims at covering more than 30 million Americans who have not been insured

42)The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) fined 1.47 crore rupees on HDFC Life Insurance against disobedience of number of regulatory provisions

43) The Haryana Government has decided to develop a Rural Water Policy

44)A US Federal Court absolved Union Carbide Corporation and its former chairman Warren Anderson of the Bhopal gas tragedy case

45)Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg is the first female and eighth member on the Facebook Board of Directors announced by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

46)The International Day against drug abuse and prohibited trafficking was observed all over the world on 26 June 2012, main theme of 2012 was Global Action for the Health, Communities without Drugs

47)Pranab Mukherjee has resigned as the Union Finance Minister

48)seventh G20 summit, held in June 2012, was chaired by Mexico

>The Summit took place in the city of Los Cabos

>it's a twenty member brigade

>Summit includes the following countries - South Africa, Canada, India, Mexico, United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, European Union, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and Australia

49)capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

>made it mandatory for top 500 listed companies to hold e-voting with an objective to widen shareholder participation in key decisions.

>to be implemented in a phased manner

50)Abhishek Manu Singhvi resigned

 >Shanta Ram Naik, Rajya Sabha MP has been appointed as the chairman of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice

51)Union Cabinet approved the proposal for promulgation of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal tribes) Amendment Regulation 2012

>The law is applicable to the entire Andaman & Nicobar Islands and seeks to prevent and restrain photography, hunting, videography, use of alcohol etc within a designated “buffer zone”

52)The Andra Pradesh High Court sends YSR Congress Party Chief Jagan Mohan Reddy to the custody of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for five days

>CBI wants to question Jagan Reddy about the investments that were made into his companies by various firms, including a few firms based in Luxembourg and Mauritius

>CBI alleged that Mr. Reddy has made the investment through hawala channel into his businesses, which is illegal

53)Justice K. Venkatraman of the Madras High Court refuses to quash the petition against Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram

>petition challenges his election to the Lok Sabha

>P. Chidambaram won his election from the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency by a narrow margin of 3300 votes against the AIADMK’s Raja Kannapan in 2009

>. Kannapan has accused the Union Minister of manipulation of votes during the election

54)Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra 

55) A bench of justices Swatanter Kumar and Ranjan Gogoi of the Supreme Court ruled that a sentence lesser than life term cannot be awarded to convicts for heinous offences like dowry death under the Dowry Prohibition Act where the victim is killed in a brutal manner.

56)The Pakistan Supreme Court on Monday constituted a nine-judge bench to be headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to examine the report of a judicial commission that probed a mysterious memo seeking US help to prevent a feared military coup after the killing of Osama bin Laden last year.

57)US President Barack Obama on Monday nominated India-born legal luminary Srikanth Srinivasan to the Federal Court of Appeals, the highest ever judicial appointment of an Indian-American in the U.S.

58)CBI judge T Pattabhirama Rao of Hyderabad has been arrested in the cash-for-bail case. The judge has been charged with granting bail to illegal mining case accused Gali Janardhan Reddy in return for a certain sum of money

59)The annual Trafficking in Persons Report released by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has placed India for the second year among Tier 2 countries. The report recommended that India develop a comprehensive anti-trafficking law or amend anti-trafficking legislation in accordance with the UN Trafficking In Persons Protocol

60)Pakistan's Supreme Court disqualified Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from being a member of the parliament for defaming and ridiculing the judiciary. The Supreme Court had earlier convicted Mr Gilani for refusing to ask Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. Under the constitution, anyone convicted of defaming or ridiculing the judiciary is barred from being a Member of Parliament. Yousuf Raza Gilani is disqualified from membership of parliament and he also ceases to be the prime minister of Pakistan.

62) Rajat Gupta, the Indian - America corporate, managing partner of McKinsey & Co and director at Goldman Sachs Group and Procter & Gamble, has been found guilty of securities fraud and conspiracy by a federal jury in Manhattan of leaking inside information of the company.

63) The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has found 11 cement manufacturers guilty of cartelization and has imposed a penalty at the rate of 0.5 times of their profit for the year 2009-10 and 2010-11 for violation of the Competition Act, 2002. The penalty amounts to more than Rs. 6,306.59 crore (Nearly $1.14 billion).  The CCI also imposed an additional penalty on the Cement Manufacturers Association.

 

64)The Ministry of Finance by a notification dated 20.6.2012 exempted services provided by an individual as an advocate by way of legal services from Service-tax

65)Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya of the Gujarat High Court inaugurated the launching of the pilot project which is an online bail application system, made available to all convicts and under trial prisoners of Sabarmati Central jail. This idea of internet-based bail application is to reduce the processing time it used to take for the grant of bail

66)Shri. K Parasaran has been nominated as Members of Rajya Sabha by the President of India. Shri Parasaran was Advocate General of Tamil Nadu and subsequently the Solicitor General of India. He was also the Attorney General of India between 1983-1989. Shri Parasaran was awarded Padma Vibhushan in the year 2011

67)The Government has rejected Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran’s resignation and has asked him to continue in office. Mohan Parasaran had earlier sent his resignation from the Government’s legal team in the Supreme Court

Bibliography:

CLATgyan GK June 2012 compendium- Soumy Cheedi

LST supplements 

[Amith Anand]

Dear Reaa,
Good work...

Credits to Soumya Cheedi as well is it ?
You should know she is my student from last year.

Anyways, good stuff & i hope others replicate this effort.

Regards,
-AA

[Reaa Mehta]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11809908