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BRAIN TREE
CIVIL SERVICES / GROUP-I EXAMINATION - 2004
CURRENT AFFAIRS - IV

1. The Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University announced its annual "Dharmanidhi Puraskarams" to prominent persons from various fields. The selected persons are : 1. Creative Literature : Rasaraju 2. Research : K. Malaya Vasini 3. Humour : S. Parthasarathi 4.Biography : P. Sambasiva Rao 5. Writer : Swarupa Rani 6. Actress : Nirmalamma 7. Actor : Ralapalli.

2. The founder & director of the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Gollapalli N. Rao was awarded the prestigious Global Visionary in Opthalamology Award by the American Opthalamology Award California.

3. The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passed a bill reserving 33% seats for women in panchayats in the state.

4. Iran shall sign the additional protocol of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty which shall allow snap inspections by IAEA ( International Atomic Energy Agency ) officials.

5. The Study of Mesenchymal Stem Cells has revealed that stretching Stem Cells can influence whether they turn into fat or bones. Stretched Stem Cells are more prone to become bones whereas huddled Stem Cells tend to become fat cells.

6. The government declared that the bullion market would be given a broader outlook by linking the National Multi Commodity Exchange with International Exchanges in Singapore and U.S.A.

7. India's first shared payment network service that allowed member banks to share Automated Teller Mechines ( ATMs) shall be replaced by Banks ATM Networks & Customer Services (BANCS). It has been started by India Switch Company.

8. The Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal to impose the death sentense on manufacturers of spurious drugs. The penalty on individuals dealing with the sale or supply of these drugs has been made more stringent ( Mashelkar Committee).

9. Hyderabad is set to host the second Asia Information Technology Ministers Summit on the 12th & 13th of January. The first Asia Information Technology ministers Summit was held in Seoul, South Korea in 2002.

10. Trishul, India's most sophisticated short range, surface - to - air missile was successfully test fired from the Integrated Test Range ( ITR ) at Chandrapur ( Orissa). It is a solid- fuel propellant missile with a 9 km Range. It has a triple battlefield role for the Army, Navy & the Airforce.

11. The Rajya Sabha passed the Prevention of Terrorism ( Amendment) Bill, 2003, to amend the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002. The Bill seeks to provide safeguards against the misuse of POTA by making the division of the Central Review Committee binding upon Centre and States.

12. The Rajya Sabha unanimously approved the Citizen ( Amendment ) Bill, 2003 regarding the grant of dual Citizenship to people of Indian Origin ( PIO) in eight countries. It amends the Citizenship Act of 1955. The oversesas citizenship has been granted to PIO's of Australia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom & the USA.

13. The Union Cabinet decided to extent pensionary benefits to all Members of Parliament irrespective of the length of their tenure. Presently only those members who have served for 4 years or more and those who have been elected twice are eligible.

14. India and Iran have decided to setup a Joint Working Group ( JWG) to study issues such as
i) Desertification ii ) Afforestation in Arid and Semi Arid zones and iii) Exchange of plant species.

15. The Samjhauta Express will start re-rolling between India and Pakistan from January 15th. The train shall start operations between Attari and Lahore from January 15th.

16. The Parliament passed a bill to amend the Indian Medicine Central Council to curb the growth of mushromming Ayurvedic colleges in the country.

17. The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passed a bill pertaining to Right to Information. The citizens of the state can now ask for any information from the government records except those details relating to the security of the state or the country.
RIGHT TO INFORMATION
Countries which have passed an Act providing for Freedom of Information
Sweden ( 1766), Finland ( 1951), USA ( 1966), Canada (1983), Japan ( 2001), India (2003)
The Indian Act at the Central level is called as the Freedom of Information Act 2002
States which have passed the Right to Information Act in India
Tamil Nadu ( 1997), Goa ( 1997), Rajasthan (2000), Karnataka ( 2000), Maharashtra (2000),
Delhi (2001), Orissa ( 2002), Jammu and Kashmir (2003).

18. Two federal courts have ruled that the U.S., military cannot indefinitely hold terrorism suspects without access to American courts and lawyers.

19. For the first time in 45 months, the SENSITIVE INDEX of the Bombay Stock Exchange rose to the 5500 mark due to sustained buying by local mutual funds and Foreign Institutional Investors.
WHAT IS THE SENSEX?
SENSEX is an abbreviation used in place of SENsitive indEX. It is an index showing the movement of prices in the share market. There are many such Indices in various National and Regional Stock Exchanges, but the term is mostly used for the Bombay Stock Exchange. The purpose of the Sensex is to give an overall picture of the market based on the price movement of selected shares. A market of more than 6300 stocks is represented through a 30 stock composite.
The current rise in the Sensex can be attributed to many factors. Some of them are : Good financial performance of Indian Companies, a good monsoon, an all time high in Foreign Institutional Investment, increased efforts of the government in the direction of Disinvestment, a strong Foreign Exchange reserve etc.

20. The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched on 25th August to view cold / distant objects and has becamed to the earth images of the "Elephant Trunk" Nebula, located in a gas cloud called IC 1396, 2500 light years away.

21. Andhra Pradesh has bagged the prestigious "Bio-State of the year award instituted by Bio-spectrum ( Bangalore ) for its proactive policy initiatives promoting the Bio-Technolgoy sector and for developing world class infrastructure at Genome Valley.

22. Commerce Secretaries of the members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation are to meet on December 23rd and 24th to discuss modalities of the upcoming SAARC Summit in January. Difference on the South Asia Preferential Tade Agreement (SAPTA) and the South Asian Free Trade Agreement ( SAFTA ) draft are to be ironed out.

23. The United Nations Childrens Education Fund ( UNICEF) in its report on the state of the world's children - 2004 has said that 3000 schools operate in Afghanistan and provide education to roughly three million students. This has been possible due to the Back to School Campaign initiated by the Interim Administration in Afghanistan.

24. The Fourth Education International Conference ( Asia Pacific region ) was held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, A 13 member delegation represented India at this conference.

25. The ministerial review meeting of the E-9 countries commenced in Cairo Egypt, and is to discuss the Education for All programme. The E-9 countries consist of India, China, Egypt, Mexico, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Indonesia.

26. The National Readership Survey 2003 has declared the following as the top 10 dailies in terms of readership- i) Dainik Bhaskar ii) Dainik Jagaran iii) Daily Thanthi iv) Eenadu. v) Malayala Manorama vi) Amar Ujala vii) Hindustan viii) Lokmat ix) Mathrubhumi and x) Times of India.

27. The Sudanese government and rebels fighting a 20 year civil war moved a step closer to ending their conflict by agreeing on how to divide the country's oil revenues.

28. Dual Citizenship for persons of Indian Origin ( PIO's) was made possible with the Citizenship (Amendment ) Bill, 2003 being passed by both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the 23rd December, 2003.

29. The Food Corporation of India has agreed to relax norms for the moisture content upto 20% for purchase from farmers in cyclone hit areas. The norms are : i) The Minimum Support Price (MSP) fixation shall be after evaluation of grains. ii) The Seed Subsidy shall be 90%. iii) The Relaxation shall be for a maximum of five acres.

30. Andhra Pradesh - A Progress Report
Ò In an effort to achieve 100 percent literacy by 2005, the State government shall extend financial assistant to 3.6 lakh children who are not enrolled in school.
Ò Under the Integrated Child Development Scheme ( ICDS), 351 projects are running and a sum of Rs. 527 crores have been allocated as of 2003.
Ò The number of beneficiaries under the ICDS have risen to 86,23,403 in 2002-03 as against 48,00, 138 prior to 1995.
Ò The literacy rate has gone up to 72.89% with maximum progress in the background districts.

31. The U.S. has decided to introduce a new entry-exit system from next year onwards. The Biometric identifiers would also be introduced by the 5th January, 2004.

32. The Lok Sabha unanimously passed the Constitution 100th Amendment Bill. This bill seeks to introduce Bodo, Maithili & Santhali languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.

33. The Government will consider a proposal to give a green channel for Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI) barring a short negative list of some items.

34. The Time magazine has declared "The American Soldier" as the person of the year for 2003".

35. In a bid to keep the fiscal deficit under control, the Indian Government has decided to sell off 10% equity in two bloc ship oil companies viz. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Gas Authority of India Limited ( GAIL ). The sale is expected to yield Rs. 12, 366 crores.

36. HIV prevalence among ante natal cases in Andhra Pradesh is showing a downtrend from 2.44% in 1999 to 1.62% in 2002. HIV transmission through blood transfusion has come down from 4% to 1%.

37. U.S. Researches have carried out the first successful cloning of a white tailed deer in a breakthrough which could help conserve dwindling deer species. This deer has been named as Dewey.

38. India, Myanmar and Thailand have decided that the construction / upgradation of the three nation 1,360 km Morch - Bagan - Mac Sot highway would begin early in 2004. The project has been divided into three phases.

39. The U.S. has reported it's first case of the Mad Cow disease. The Brain and Spinal Column of the cow cause infectivity in human beings.

40. The probe vehicle Beagle-2 failed to confirm that it had landed on Mars. This is Britain's Space Mission to Mars. The state of the Art Beagle - 2 is on a 180 day mission to look for signs of past or present life on Mars.

41. The care taker Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh has announced that the District Development Review Committees ( DDRC's ) shall be replaced by District Planning Committees in accordance with the 74th Constitutional Amendment.

42. Novelist Kamaleshwar and Prafulla Roy have been awarded the Sahitya Academy Awards for their works Kitne Pakistan and Krantikal respectively.

43. 5000 to 6000 people died in a massive earth quake which destroyed Iran's historic port city Bam. The tremor measured 6.3 on the Richter scale. the famous citadel, Arg - e- Bam (UNESCO Registered ) which is 2000 years old was badly damaged.

44. The Intellectual Property Rights Appellate Board ( Headquarters - CHENNAI) created to adjudicate all disputes under Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights ( TRIPS) has become functional. It shall deal with matters relating to the Trade Marks Act 1999 & the Geographical Indication of Goods Act 1999.

45. According to a report brought out by the U.N. Human Settlement Programme, one billion people i.e., half the world's urban population live in slums. This includes 54 million people in developed countries living in slum like conditions.

46. According to a recent Goldmen Sachs Study, Brazil, Russia, India and China ( BRIC ) shall be the fastest growing economics over the next 50 years.

47. The Three day Ijtema concluded in Tongi. It is the world's second largest congregation of Muslims after the Haj and is attended by 20 lakh piligrims from 35 countries.

48. Cochin International Airport Ltd. ( CIAL ), the first Green Field Airport of the country is poised to announce dividends to its shareholders.

49. The "PUNYABHUSHAN" Award was presented to noted Industrialist Rahul Bajaj instituted by Tridal for his outstanding contribution in the industrial field.

50. The 50th National Film Awards have been announced. The recipients are :
i. Ajay Devgan : Best Actor : The legend of Bhagat Singh ii. Konkana Sen Sharma : Best Actress : Mr. & Mrs. Iyer iii. Sanjay Leela Bhansali : Best Director : Devdas ( Hindi) iv. Mani Rathnam : Best Feature film : Kannathil Muthamittal ( Tamil) v. A.R. Rehman : Best Music Director .

51. Zimbabwe has reported its first suspected case of the deadly Ebola virus. It is highly contagious, causes intense fever, internal and external bleeding and organ collapse. There is no known cure.

52. Researchers at the New Delhi based Institute of Gemomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research ( CSIR ) have discovered three new genes of the SARS virus. They have used a novel technique called Gene Decipher.

53. It has been observed that Green Turtles are becoming increasingly scares as they are exploited for food, oil and leather. Green turtles ( Chclonia Mydas ) are found in shallow tropical and subtropical waters. They are present in Malvan ( Maharashtra coast ), Jamnagar ( Gulf of Kutch), Junagadh (Gujarat Coast), Andaman and Nicbar and Lakshadweep Islands.

54. The Centre has decided to offer ten ASEAN ( Association of South East Asian Nations) countries and Sri Lanka unlimited flight facilities to Kochi, Kozhikode and Thirvvanathapuram.

55. India and Pakistan shall exchange a list of Nuclear Installations and facilities as stipulated under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack Against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between India and Pakistan 1988. This is the 13th such exchange the first one being in 1992.