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1. LALITA KUMARI a young woman from Bihar's Sitamarhi district belonging to the tribal community has featured on the cover of the United Nations Children's Fund. The Report is titled "The State of the World's Children - 2004".

2. Singareni Collieries Limited, launched a 'Group Gratuity Life Assurance Scheme' for settlement of gratuity claims of employees through the Life Insurance Corporation. A trust with both management and employees representatives has been created.

3. The Mashelkar Committee on Drug Control has made some recommendations : They are;
i. Creation of a Centralised Pharmaceutical licensing authority on similar lines of that in the U.S.A.
ii. Certification and Classification of food, diet and health supplement or products that use Indian systems of medicine such as Ayurveda Siddha and Unani.
iii. The maximum penalty for drug related offences to be raised from life imprisonment to capital punishment.

4. The Supreme Court has ruled that foreigners adopting children whose biological parents are alive need not obtain a No-Object Certification ( NOC). The NOC would be necessary only if the child was abandoned, a destitute or was in a social or child welfare centre.

5. The Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal to set up a National Advisory Committee for the orderly development of

DNA technology :
i. The committee shall be headed by a renowned microbiologist.
ii. The functions of the committee shall be to :
Ò Assess Infrastructure requirements for DNA profiling
Ò Evolve uniform methods for quality assurance and testing of samples.
Ò Offer advice towards the direction of Research and Development.
Ò Act as an advisory body in formulating a legislation on various aspects of DNA profiling and crime investigation.
Ò The committee would include representatives from the police force, forensic department, legal fraternity, social activists, bioethics activists and human rights activists.

6. The Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) has proposed that it should have appropriate regulatory powers to satisfy itself that persons proposing to aquire shares of another Banking Company are fit and proper persons. The RBI has also proposed amendments to the Banking Regulation Act catering to the merger of a Non Banking Financial Corporation ( NBFC) and a regular bank.

7. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry has proposed a six point agenda for the development of tourism:
Ò Tourism to be made a part of the concurrent list.
Ò Quick implementation of the announcement about the grant of 18 new International destinations in India for ASEAN ( Association of South East Asian Nations ) tourist arrival.
Ò ASEAN citizens to be provided Visa on arrival on a reciprocal basis.
Ò All private carriers to be allowed to utilise unused traffic rights throughout the world.
Ò Support to 49% Foreign Direct Investment by International participation in domestic aviation.
Ò Establishment of a Southern Region Tourism Board.

8. Jaspal Rana won the 25 metre standard pistol event at the 47th National Shooting Championships in Hyderabad.

9. A Youth Employment Summit ( YES) Academy is to be established, to act as a hub for employment generation, knowledge transfer & training of youth seeking a livelihood. The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, YES Campaign. Boston and the A.P. State government shall jointly establish it.

10. 500 tribal women of the Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) groups have bagged a Rs. 3 crore order to export herbs, medicinal plants and dry tomato from the Khammam district agency areas. 'Androphysis' and 'Satvari' are some of the herbs to be exported.

11. Indian Railways has developed a new locomotive which can reduce long distance journey time by 6%. This is possible due to the usage of new generation diesel / electric locomotives.

12. China shall import 30 metric tonnes of heavy water from India. The deal shall be signed by the Atomic Energy Industry Corporation. The Heavy water shall be utilised by the Third Quisnshan Nuclear Power Company, Shanghai.

13. Pakistan, launched a home made submarine called AGOSTA 90B. It has been constructed with help from the French Naval ship builders DESS CONSTRUCTIONS NAVALES (DCN). It is a diesel electric submarine.

14. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) has decided to line the wings of space shuttles with sensors to detect hits by debris or other objects during flights.

15. A continued weakening of the earth's magnetic field has been noted over the South Atlantic Ocean. This has led to a diminishing of the shielding effect the earth's magnetism has in protecting the earth from natural radiations from space. As a result, 'Satellites' in low earth orbits are left vulnerable to radiations as they pass over the region. This has been called as the 'South Atlantic Anomaly'.

16. Noted Litteratuer, Magsaysay and Gynapeeth Awardee MAHASWETA DEVI has been awarded the Highest French Civilian decoration of the "Officer Des Arts et des letters". Her novel "Hazar Churashir Ma", was translated into French two years ago.

17. Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, care taker Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has been nominated to a sub-committee on the Inter-State Council on good governance. The Council shall headed by the Deputy Prime Minister. The Chief Ministers of M.P., U.P., West Bengal, Assam, Orissa and Gujarat are the other members.

18. The Golden Quadrilateral Project has been extended from the original distance of 14,500 kms to 24,000 kms. The project is being undertaken by the National Highway Authority of India.

19. Austria has offered a 220 million euro loan to Andhra Pradesh for implementing three Godavari based projects at Dummagudem, Singareddy palli and Devadula. Dummagudem and Singareddy palli would be hydel stations and Devadula would be an irrigation project. The first two would support Devadula which would be the largest in Asia.

20. The United Nations Children Emergency Fund ( UNICEF ) in its report, "State of the World's Children, 2004", has stated that 120 million children do not have access to education and most of them are girls :
Ò Indicators such as Health, Education, Nutrition, Infant mortality have been examined.
Ò Infant Mortality Rate ( IMR ) has fallen sharply from 242 in 960 to 93 in 2002.
Ò The Primary School Enrolment ( 1997 to 2000 ) has shown 78 boys for every 68 girls.
Ò As far as the Infant Mortality Rate ( 0-5 years ) is concerned. India is ranked 53 out of 193 nations.

21. The University Grants Commission has come-up with a regulatory mechanism to stem the growth of private universities. The UGC regulation incorporates the following provisions:
Ò Each private university shall be established by a separate State Act.
Ò All formal and non-formal courses shall be subject to the regulations.
Ò After the development of the main campuses, the university shall be permitted to open off campus centres, off source centres and study centres.
Ò Admission and fees structures shall be in accordance with the UGC guidelines and regulations.
Ò Every private university shall fullfill the minimum criteria in terms of programmes, faculty, infrastructural facilities, financial viabilities etc. as laid down by the UGC.

22. Mission " Shakti" is an empowerment programme launched in Orissa on 8th March 2001. It works in close coordination with district Administrations, voluntary organisations UN agencies etc. Activities such as Piggery, Pisciculture and Dairy, Social Welfare Programmes such as immunisation, cleaning of villages, roads, ponds, etc. are also taken up.

23. U.S. coalition troops in Iraq, captured the deposed Iraqi dictator. Saddam Hussein in an operation termed operation "Red Dawn". He was captured at Adwar, South of Tikrit. Saddam shall be tried in a tribunal for crimes against humanity.

24. 11 States, including A.P., U.P., T.N., Haryana, Punjab etc. have cut down their financial losses in the power sector during the last two years to the tune of Rs. 8000 crores. 50% of their savings would be compensated through an incentive scheme under the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme.

25. The Ministry of Science and Technology has introduced "Vigyan Rail", a novel science exhibition on rails. Vigyan Rail is a twelve coach train designed to create awareness about India's progress in Science and Technology. This train shall start and end at Delhi covering many stations enroute. The year 2004 has been declared as the Science Awareness Year.

26. The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant ( VSP ) has for the second consecutive year bagged the National Energy Conservation Award for being the lowest energy consumption steel plant in India.

27. The Dr. C. Naryana Reddy Kalapeetam, Palakol, will present its Cinare Literary Award to Mr. Katti Padma Rao, Poet - critic.

28. Zinedine Zidane, French Foot Ball player has been named as the FIFA player of the year for the 3rd time. Birgit Prinz ( Germany ) was named the Female Player of the year. Brazil was named the team of the year.

29. Arjun Atwal won the 2003 Order of Merit Crown on the Asian Professional Golfers Association ( PGA) and was adjudged the number one professional golfer in Asia.

30. The Lok Sabha has passed a Constitution Amendment Bill seeking to contain the size of the Council of Ministers to 15% of the Lower House in the case of the Parliament and the State Legislatures. The Bill also debars a defector* from holding any remunerative* political post for the remaining tenure of the Legislature unless reelected. Once approved by the Rajya Sabha it shall be known as the Constitution ( 91st Amendment Act ) 2003.
* The existing law allows bulk defections and the disqualification provision is not applicable when 1/3rd of party splits from the parent group.
* The law describes a remunerative post as
a) An office where the salary for such an office is paid outof public revenues
b) An office under a body which is wholly or partly owned by the Government of India or Government of a State and the salary or renumeration for such office is paid by such a body.

31. The Lok Sabha has passed the Prevention Of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill. The Bill seeks introduce effective safeguards against the likely misuse of POTA. The purpose of the Bill is two fold:
Ò To make the findings of the review committee binding upon the states
Ò The ensure that the Central Review Committee Findings would prevail if there were to be a conflict between the Central and State Review Committees.

32. The government of Goa has decided to felicitate freedom fighters from others states who took part in the Goa Liberation Movement. Under this programme, Mr. N.B. Srihari of Andhra Pradesh shall be felicitated.

33. 17th December, 2003, marked the centenary of the first powered flight. The Wright Brothers ( Wilbur and Orville Wright ) created history by successfully completing the first powered flight on 17th December, 2003. The Air Craft weighing 340 kgs. was named the 'Wright Flyer' and the flight was conducted at Kitty Hawk on the Atlantic Coast of the United States.

34. The Supreme Court delivered the following judgement on POTA :
*All provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act ( POTA ) are constitutionally valid.
*Terrorism is not a mere law and order problem.
*No immunity to journalists and lawyers who withhold terrorist information.
*Criminal intention and not mere support to banned terrorist organisations is the basis of prosecution under POTA.

35. Researches at the advanced cell technology of Worchester, Massachusetts USA have cloned a human embryo. The embryo has been grown to the 16 cell stage through a process called parthenogenesis.