News-1 Jan 13: UK halts further aid to India

NEWS - Jan 2013

UK halts further aid to India:

THE DETAILED FULL STORY: The government yields to domestic pressure. It says all existing commitments until will be honoured.   According to The Hindu sources, succumbing to growing domestic pressure, British government on November 9, 2012 announced halt to further financial aid to India but said that all existing commitments until 2015 would be honoured. The focus will then shift to offering technical assistance and investment in private sector in poverty alleviation projects.

HOME FIRST: TORY

                        The move, which would save Britain over the next three years, follows mounting opposition pressure within the ruling Tory party to continued financial aid to major emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil at a time when Britain itself is facing a deep economic crisis.

                        Last year Britain gave India about £ 200 million in bilateral aid besides £ 29 million in technical cooperation. Announcing the decision, International Development Secretary Justine Greening said it was taken in consultation with the Indian government during her visit to New Delhi earlier.

            “After reviewing he programme and holding discussions with the government of India earlier, we agree that now is the time to move to a relationship focussing on skills sharing rather than aid,” she said pointing out that India was ‘successfully developing’ and it was time to recognise its ‘changing place in the world’.

Fulfilling commitments: “It is of course critical that we have already made and that we continue with those short term projects already under way which are an important part of the U.K. and Government of India’s development programme,” she added.

India has long maintained that it does not need aid and would prefer more trade with Britain. The President Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, when he was Finance Minister, dismissed the money India got from Britain as “a peanut in our total development expenditure”.

 

Premature Aid Agencies: Aid agencies called the decision ‘premature’ saying that despite India’s ‘impressive’ economic growth there were still too many poor people in the country who needed a helping hand.

            “Despite India’s impressive economic progress, 1.6 million children died in India last year---a quarter of all global child deaths,” Kitty Arie, the charity’s director of advocacy, said.

“we agree that in the longer term, aid to India be phased out as the country continues to develop, but we believe that the poorest children will need our ongoing help,” said Save the Children.

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General Awareness 2012

GENERAL AWARENESS UPDATES OF 2012

Month vise updates of general awareness are given below.

Please click on the required links as under:

 

JANUARY 2012	FEBRUARY 2012	MARCH 2012
APRIL 2012	MAY 2012	JUNE 2012
JULY 2012	AUGUST 2012	SEPTEMBER 2012
OCTOBER 2012	NOVEMBER 2012	DECEMBER 2012

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SSC FCI Admit Card 2012-13 FCI

SSC FCI Admit Card 2012-13 / Food Corporation Of India Admit Card Download

SSC Staff Selection Commission will conduct written examination for the post of Assistant Grade-II (General, Accounts, Technical & Depot cadre) on 11 November 2012. All those candidates who applied and filled their form for SSC FCI Combined Recruitment of Assistant Grade III 2012-13 examination have to download admit card which will be available at official website of Staff Selection Commission.

Staff Selection Commission (SSC) has sent admit card / hall ticket to all eligible candidates for FCI Assistant Grade II recruitment written examination by ordinary posts. Candidates who has not received his/her SSC FCI Admit Card 2012 due to postal delay or any other reason, they can download duplicate admit card through given below mentioned link.

Download SSC FCI Admit Card 2012 For Uttar Pradesh and Bihar

Download SSC FCI Admit card 2012 For Rajasthan and Delhi

Download SSC FCI Admit Card 2012 For Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh

Download SSC FCI Admit Card 2012 For West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand

Download SSC FCI Admit Card 2012 For Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim etc

Download SSC FCI Admit Card 2012 For Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu etc

Download SSC FCI Admit Card 2012 Haryana, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh

 

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IBPS RRB Vacancy Details

IBPS EXPECTED CUT OFF MARKS FOR INTERVIEW

Updates regarding Interviews of PO's Nationalized bank and RRB's all vacancies from website administrator of General Awareness...

Frankly speaking

"there are no predictions that can be made on this topic as all the participating banks will declare their schedule of recruitment. But from personal experiences and historical data it can be said that January 2013 will be the month from which the process of recruitment starts. And posting may be given in the New Financial Year"

IBPS PO/MT exam held on 17th June 2012: Common interviews are to be held.

IBPS RRB exam held on 2nd Sep 2012:

IBPS RRB Expected marks to get interview call.

The Thumb Rule to Follow is, that all the participating banks will declare their own cut off depending upon the number of vacancies they have. But due to high amount of e-mails we receive daily regarding the issue of expected cut off marks to get an interview call from the participating banks in IBPS CWE RRB, we are publishing the expected cut offs of RRBs to get the interview call as per our experts of general awareness team.

For Clerical Cadre or Office Assistants,

General : 117

OBC: 112

SC/ST: 103

For Officer Scale I

General: 121

OBC: 120

SC/ST: 109

*the data above is totally provisional and it depends upon the number of applicats applied in IBPS RRB exam and passed. Please dont take this as actual cut offs of the RRB's.

However the candidates who have qualified for IBPS RRB Exam can apply to the following banks.

· Deccan Grameen Bank First List Out

· Baroda UP Gramin Bank (Closed) First List Out

· Gurgaon Gramin Bank (Closed) First List Out

· South Malabar Gramin Bank (Closed) First List Out

· Wainganga Krishna Gramin Bank (Closed)

· Prathma Bank (Closed)

· Allahabad UP Gramin Bank (Closed)

· Andhra Pradesh Gramin Vikas Bank (Closed)

· Krishna Gramin Bank (Closed)

· Tripura Gramin Bank (Closed)

· Surguja Kshetriya Gramin Bank (Closed)

· Bangiya Gramin Vikash Bank (Closed)

· Baroda Gujarat Gramin Bank (Closed)

· Andhra Pragathi Gramin Bank (Closed)

· Ellaquai Dehati Gramin Bank (Closed)

· Puduvai Bharthiar Gramin Bank (Closed)

· Bangiya Gramin Bank (Closed)

· Aryavart Gramin Bank (Closed)

· Saptagri Gramin Bank

· Pallavan Gramin Bank

· Maharashtra Gramin Bank

· Nagaland Rural Bank

Please feel free to contact us regarding all queries related to general awareness and all competitive exams.

As always, its our pleasure to read your endless emails.
We wish all the aspirants best of luck for their future endeavors.

Kind Regards:

Website Administrator
www.generalawareness.in

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December 2012

National Updates:

·        Group of Ministers said yes for Land Acquisition Bill: A group of ministers has approved the controversial Land Acquisition Bill, with few changes from the version presented to the Union Cabinet in September 2012. Despite sharp divisions over the consent requirements, sources at Group of Ministers indicated that the final draft says only two-thirds of the landowners will have to agree before land can be required for private sector projects as well as joint private-public partnerships.

·        Roads Ministry to Upgrade National Highways in North East: To improve road connectivity in the country’s mountainous North-eastern states, over 10,100 km of national highways in the region will be gradually upgraded, as per a top official who said this on Oct. 13, 2012.

·        Prithvi-II Trial Successful: Sharpening its missile powers, India on October 4, 2012 successfully test fired nuclear capable Prithvi-II ballistic missile from a test range at Balasore as part of a user trial by the Army. Prithvi-II is a surface to surface missile which was test fired from mobile launcher from Integrated Test Range’s launch complex-3at Chandipur. This missile is 9 metres long and 1 metre in diameter with win engine liquid propulsion systems. Prithvi radars and electro-optical systems located along the coast tracked and monitored all the parameters of the missile throughout the flight path.

·        Nuclear Capable ‘Dhanush’ Sucessfully Test-fired: India successfully test fired the nuclear capable Dhanush ballistic missile for its full range of 350 km from a naval ship off the coast of Odisha on October 5, 2012. The single stage liquid propelled Dhanush, already inducted in to Indian Army, is one of the five missiles developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

·        Brahmos Missile Test-Fired Successfully: Enhancing lethality to its firepower the Navy on October 7^th, 2012 successfully test fired a highly manoeuvrable version of the 290 km range Brah-Mos supersonic cruise missile from warp-ship off the Goa coast. The cruise missile was test fired from guided missile frigate INS Teg- the Indian Navy’s latest induction from Russia off the coast of Goa.

·        India Poised for Giant Leap into Space (56% jump in the International Research Collaboration with U.S. France, Russia): According to The Times of India, India may have taken a giant leap into the hallowed club of space research, with leaders like the United States and Russia, increasingly joining hands with the Indian Space scientists in quest for the unknown. Latest data on India’s international collaboration in space sciences has shown an almost 56% increase between 2001-05 and 2006-10.

·        World Must Reflect on Gandhi’s Messages and Work Harder: United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon on October 9^th, 2012, extolled the life experiences of Mahatma Gandhi and said that the world must reflect on his message and work harder in understanding ‘among and within’ religions and communities.

·        Fresh War of Words over Kashmir between India, Pakistan at United Nations:  Just a week after they sparred over Kashmir at the UN General assembly, India and Pakistan got into a fresh wordy duel on the issue after Pakistan made ‘gratuitous’ reference to it at the world body. During the general debate of the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee, Pakistan’s deputy permanent representative Raza Bashir Tarar said the decolonisation agenda of the UN would be “incomplete without resolution of the Kashmir dispute.”

·        Advani says terror is a Key Challenge: United Nations—Terming terrorism as a ‘Frankenstien monster’, senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani said global community cannot afford to adopt ‘selective approaches’ in dealing with terrorist groups and use of terrorism as an instrument of State Policy is short sighted. Advani was among the group of visiting Parliamentarians attending the UN general assembly.

·        Prime Minister of India Promises Affordable Electricity in 5 Years: Asserting the lack of access to energy deprives millions of people of minimum living standards, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on October 9^th, 2012 said that India will ensure affordable electricity to all households in the country in the next five years.

·        United States Offer Stinger Missiles to India: The US is offering  245 stinger missiles to India as a part of weapons package for Apache attack choppers being acquired by the Indian Air Force. The Stinger compliments the advanced performance of the Apache by providing the IAF with critical air-to-air defence capability.

·        Army gets control of attack helicopters: Notwithstanding stiff opposition from the Air Force, government has decided to give the control of attack helicopters to the Army. The Army has been demanding the control over attack and medium lift helicopters saying they are used for its operations and should be under it. The Indian Air Force has been strongly opposing the demand.   

·        President No More ‘His Excellency’: Relegating words like ‘His Excellency to history, President of India Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has approved a new set of protocol to be used in greetings, invitations and addressing VIP’s in the country. This was announced from the President’s office on October 9^th, 2012.

·        Cabinet Clears Proposal to Expand Scope of Indecent Representation of Women Act:  The Union Cabinet on October 11, 2012 cleared a proposal to broaden the scope of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986 and make the punishment prescribed under the law harsher. Penalty under the law may be enhanced to a maximum of three years of imprisonment and a fine between Rs.50,000 and Rs. 100000 for the first conviction. Second time can be awarded a jail of not less than 2 years which may be extended to 7 years and asked to pay a fine between Rs. 100000 and Rs. 500000.

·        India Russia Line up Mega Defence Deals: Despite aircraft career Admiral Gorshkov’s delivery being further delayed to the end of 2013 and India chaffing at Russia’s proclivity to jack up costs and overshoot deadlines the two countries have set the stage for another flurry of bilateral defence projects over the next few months. This came through after Indo-Russian intergovernmental commission on military technical cooperation chaired by Defence Minister A.K.Antony and his counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov on October 10^th, 2012.

·        UN Biodiversity Meet (COP 11)Hyderabad: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on October 16^th, 2012 launched the Hyderabad pledge and announced that India had decided to earmark a sum of $ 50 million during its two year presidency of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to strengthen the institutional mechanism for bio diversity conservation in India.

·        Major United Public Alliance UPA Council of Ministers Reshuffled: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on October 28^th 2012 carried out a major reshuffle of his council of Ministers resigning, a number of faces inducted and changes in the portfolios of some ministers. The list of such changes is given below:

NEW MINISTERS LIST

Ministers of Cabinet

1.    Minority Affairs: K. Rahman Khan.

2.    Mines: Dinsha J Patel.

3.    Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation: Ajay Maken.

4.    Human Resource Development: M.M. Pallam Raju.

5.    Law and Justice: Ashwani Kumar.

6.    Water Resources: Harish Rawat.

7.    Culture: Chandresh Kumari Katoch.

Minister s of State (Independent Charge)

1.    Information and Broadcasting: Manish Tiwari.

2.    Tourism: K. Chiranjeevi.

Ministers of State

1.    Human Resource Development:  Shashi Tharoor.

2.    Labour and Employment: Kodikunnil Suresh.

3.    Agriculture and Food Processing Industries: Tariq Anwar.

4.    Railways: K.J. Surya Prakash Reddy.

5.    Health and Family Welfare: A.H. Khan Choudhary.

6.    Road Transport and Highways: Sarvey Sathyanarayana.

7.    Minority Affairs: Ninong Ering.

8.    Urban Development: Deepa Dasmauni.

9.    Social Justice and Empowerment: Porika Balram Naik.

10. Communication and Information Technology: Kruparani Killi.

11. Defence: Lalchand Kataria.

OLD MINISTER’S CHANGE IN PORTFOLIOS LIST

Ministers of Cabinet

1.    Petroleum and Natural Gas: M. Veerappa Moily.

2.    Science and Technology and Earth Sciences: S. Jaipal Reddy.

3.    Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs: KamalNath.

4.    Overseas Indian Affairs: Vayalar Ravi.

5.    Communication and Information Technology: Kapil Sibbal.

6.    Road Transport and Highways: C.P. Joshi.

7.    Social Justice and Empowerment: Kumari Shailja.

8.    Railways: Pawan Kumar Bansal.

9.    External Affairs: Salman Khursheed.

10. Rural Development:  Jairam Ramesh.

Minister s of State (Independent Charge)

1.    Power: Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia.

2.    Micro Small and Medium Enterprises: K.H. Munniappa.

3.    Drinking Water and Sanitation: Bharatsingh Madhavsingh Solanki.

4.    Corporate Affairs: Sachin Pilot.

5.    Youth Affairs and Sports: Jitendra Singh..

Ministers of State

1.    External Affairs: E. Ahmed.

2.    Commerce and Industry: D. Purandeswari.

3.    Defence and Human Resource Development: Jitin Prasada.

4.    New and Renewable Energy Minister: S. Jagatrakshakan.

5.    Home: R.P.N. Singh.

6.    Civil Aviation: K.C. Venugopal.

7.    Parliamentary Affairs and Planning: Rajeev Shukla.

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