November current Affair 2012 pdf

November current Affair 2012 pdf
November current Affair 2012 pdf 

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Why this move by Tatas despite the recent digitization drive across India?

§                                 The Indian DTH market is growing by double-digit % figures and the recent digitization drive across metro cities has added to this growth.

§                                 Still the subscriber acquisition costs and churn rates remain high in this sector.

§                                 There are weak earnings of 5% and lower returns on capital employed in this sector.

China’s new passport map falsely includes AP, Aksai Chin as part of China

Another game by China:

§                                 The watermark on fresh launched e-passports by China falsely depict Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin in J&K as parts of China.

Reaction from India:

§                                 India has registered a strong protest with China

§                                 India has also started imprinting its own map on visas that are issued to Chinese nationals 

China crossing all limits:

§                                 The false depiction is not specific to India alone, but China has started showing disputed islands in the South China Sea as Chinese territory.

§                                 Vietnam and the Philippines have also officially registered their protest with China.

§                                 Earlier, China had triggered a controversy by supplying stapled visas to residents of J&K and denied visas to Indian citizens from Arunachal Pradesh.

Anti-Piracy Scheme in Audio-Visual Sector gets approval by Central Govt

November 29th, 2012

Under the 12th five year plan, the Union government has approved a scheme by Information & Broadcasting Ministry for carrying out an anti-piracy initiative in the audio-visual sector.

The key activities planned include:

§                                 Campaign on piracy through audio-visual, internet and print media

§                                 Dedicated web portal

§                                 Training programmes and workshops to sensitize police, judicial, administrative officials, multiplex and cinema hall owners about the Copyright Act

§                                 Conduct research on effects of piracy and develop public-private strategies to combat piracy

§                                 Production of a film/documentary

§                                 Efforts at inclusion of anti-piracy awareness material in the curriculum of the schools and colleges

§                                 Spreading awareness via road shows/street plays and programme in schools and colleges.

Why this scheme by I&B Ministry?

§                                 Piracy a challenge for the Indian film sector.

§                                 Piracy leads to decline of Home Video market in India.

§                                 Piracy market accounts for 600-700 million unit sales of DVDs each year with more than 10,000 vendors operating in illegitimate DVD market (FICCI-KPMG report for 2011).

§                                 Prices of pirated DVDs are declining as compared to previous years due to increased competition within this sector.

§                                 Illegal download of films available on websites is another major threat as its magnitude is set to increase in the coming years owing to the the expansion and availability of broadband infrastructure.

Maldives cancels GMR’s $511m airport project

Maldives has cancelled a USD 511 million deal with Indian firm GMR.

§                                 Maldives has also ordered Orders GMR to leave the country within 7 days.

§                                 India has warned Maldives to honor the legal contract.

Why was the cancellation of GMR project?

Background:

§                                 The deal b/w Maldives and GMR was inked under former president Mohamed Nasheed’s administration in 2010. This was done via a competitive bidding process conducted by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC).

§                                 As per the contract, GMR had to upgrade and operate the Maldives airport and build a new terminal.

§                                 On February 7, 2012 Mohamed Nasheed was forced for a resignation as President in a coup d’état. Nasheed’s rival Mohammed Waheed Hassan became the president of Maldives.

Now,

§                                 Nasheed’s rivals filed a legal action holding the contract with GMR as invalid because the contract contains a $25 airport development charge per outgoing passenger which was not authorized by the parliament.

§                                  

The cancellation of the GMR contract has raised questions over the future of foreign investment and concerns over investor protection in the Maldives.

Ms Chitra Ramakrishna to be new CEO & MD of NSE

Leading bourse National Stock Exchange (NSE) announced Ms Chitra Ramakrishna as its new MD and CEO with effect from 1 April, 2013.

At present only two of the top 20 bourses globally (South Africa’s Johannesburg Stock Exchange and China’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange) have women CEOs.

200 nations meeting in Doha for talks on global warming

Around 200 nations are meeting in Qatar capital Doha for the annual talks over global warming. The twenty years old talks over reducing greenhouse gas emissions have not yet fulfilled their main purpose.

The negotiators at Doha will focus on extending the Kyoto Protocol which was adopted in 1997, and is set to expire this year.

8th meeting of the India-UK Joint Working Group (JWG) on counter terrorism held in New Delhi

The 8th meeting of the India-UK Joint Working Group (JWG) on counter terrorism was held in New Delhi. Both India and UK shared their respective threat assessments and informed each other of the measures taken by their governments in order to fortify counter terrorism policies and structures. Both sides also discussed the follow up on the Mumbai terror attacks of 26/11.

The next meeting of the India-UK JWG will be held in UK in 2013 on mutually agreed upon dates.

Gaza Cease-Fire Holds as Hamas Claims Victory

After 8 days of a bloody conflict, cease fire returned to Gaza. This was brought about by negotiated Egypt along with USA. This was the worst cross-border fighting in four years b/w Hamas and the Israel.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group formally claimed victory. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh thanked Egypt, in particular its game-changing President, Mohamed Morsy, for brokering the ceasefire that ascertained that Gaza came out triumphant.

States free to keep Chief Ministers out of Lokayukta: RS Select Committee

The Select Committee’s report on the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill, 2011 was tabled in Rajya Sabha recently.

The report:

§                                 Makes it compulsory for States to enact a Lokayukta law within a year of the notification of the Central Act.

§                                 Gives states the freedom to decide the contours of their legislation.

§                                 Enables the States to use the choice of not including Chief Ministers or legislators within the scope of the Lokayuktas.

OVL to buy ConocoPhillips’ 8.4% stake in Kashagan field

ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL) has finalized agreements for the acquisition of 8.40% Participating Interest (PI) of ConocoPhillips in the North Caspian Sea Production Sharing Agreement (NCSPSA), which included the Kashagan field in Kazakhstan.

Kashagan Field is an offshore oil field located in the northern part of the Caspian Sea close to the city of Atyrau in Kazakhstan. It is the world’s largest current development project.

Why this acquisition is important for OVL and India?

§                                 It will mark OVL’s entry into the largest oil proven North Caspian Sea of Kazakhstan.

§                                 OVL’s biggest acquisition.

§                                 It will contribute towards the India’s energy security.

ISRO planning for a six-tonne ‘K’ band satellite

ISRO is planning to build/import six-tonne ‘K’band satellite.

Objective:

§                                 The K band will allow higher and faster data transmission on the Internet by at least 2-3 times what ISRO satellites offer at present

§                                 It will suit VSAT operators who support this traffic.

§                                 K band transponder can accommodate far more users more efficiently than ISRO’s older Ku band satellites.

2010:

§                                 ISRO sent up GSAT-4 with a K band transponder. However, its homegrown GSLV launcher failed.

§                                 ISRO also built a K-band satellite, called HYLAS-1 (or Highly Advanced Satellite) for a fee for British operator Avanti in a tie-up with Europe’s Astrium.

ECB window to widen

ECB: External Commercial Borrowing

§                                 The government is all set to widen the scope of ECB.

§                                 This will be done via including sectors incorporated in the new definition of infrastructure, approved by the Cabinet committee on infrastructure.

§                                 Objective: This will permit companies involved in various sectors, including education and health, gain an access ECB in order to raise debt.

§                                 A high-level committee on ECB, chaired by Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram will meet on November 30, 2012 in order to clear the proposal, after which the RBI would issue the opt notice.

The ‘NH-4 Bank’ plans to become pan-India player

Which Bank in India is often referred to as the ‘NH-4’ Bank ?

  The Ratnakar Bank is often referred to as  the ‘ NH4 Bank’ in the banking circles, .

§        Reason: As majority of the business of Ratnakar Bank comes from cities in and around the 1,235-km-long National Highway-4 (NH-4) that connects four of the 10 most populous cities in India.

§                                 The Kolhapur based private bank will keep serving the local community of traders, small businessmen and farmers while it now aims to become a pan-India player.

19 RRBs merged into 8; now 71 left

The government has merged 19 Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) into 8 entities. All this happened in spite of reservations by RBI. The Govt plans to merge more RRBs this financial year.

RBI was not happy with this decision as the Finance Ministry didn’t took RBI into loop while making this decision.

At present the numbers are as follows:

§                                 RRBs = 71

§                                 PSBs = 26

PPP in railways allowed

The government has allowed a private investment policy in the railways. The performance of Railways in PPP (Public-Private Partnership) projects has been dismal. Now, the Govt will try 5 different models for inviting private sector participation for last-mile connectivity projects in Railways. With this the government hopes it will be able to have speedier implementation of Railway projects. Public Private Partnership (PPP) models will attract funds for stalled and new projects of Railways.

Tata Sons to offload a part of its 60 per cent stake in direct-to-home Tata Sky Ltd

Tata Sons, a holding company of the Tata Group has 60% stake in the DTH (Direct-To-Home) Tata Sky Ltd.

§                                 DTH (Direct-To-Home) Tata Sky Ltd is loss-making company and thus, Tata Sons plans to sell a part of its share to private equity players and institutional investors and raise funds for the satellite TV company’s growth plans.

§                                 Tata Sky Ltd is a joint venture of Tata Sons (60%), Temasek (10%) and Murdoch’s Network Digital Distribution Services (30%).

§                                 Temasek is exiting the Tata Sky Ltd by selling its 10%  stake.

§                                 Rupert Murdoch’s Network Digital Distribution Services will trim a part of its 30% stake.

§                                 The company will still continue to use the “Tata” brand name.