SUMMITS HELD ON 2012-13

BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summits

• 4th BRICS Summit 2012 – New Delhi, India
• 5th BRICS Summit 2013 – Durban, South Africa

G-8 Annual Summits
Group of Eight (G8) Countries – France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Russia.

• 37th G8 Meeting 2011 – Deauville, France
• 38th G8 Meeting 2012 – David camp, USA
• 39th G8 Summit 2013 – County Fermanagh, UK
• 40th G8 Summit 2014 – Russia

G-20 Summits

• 7th G 20 Meeting 2012 – Los Cabos, Mexico
• 8th G 20 Meeting 2013 – Saint Petersburg, Russia
• 9th G 20 Meeting 2014 – Brisbane, Australia

SAARC Summits
SAARC – South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

• 17th SAARC Summit 2011– Addu, Maldives
• 18th SAARC Summit 2013 – Kathmandu,Nepal

ASEAN Summits
ASEAN – Association of South East Asian Nation

• 19th ASEAN Summit 2011 (November) – Bali, Indonesia
• 20th ASEAN Summit 2012 (April) – Phnom penh, Cambodia
• 21th ASEAN Summit 2012 (November)– Phnom penh, Cambodia

ASEAN-India Summit

• 9th ASEAN-India Summit 2011 – Bali, Indonesia
• 10th ASEAN-India Summit 2012 – Phnom penh, Cambodia

East Asia Summit (EAS)
EAS meetings are held after annual ASEAN leaders’ meetings.

• 6th East Asia Summit 2011 – Bali, Indonesia
• 7th East Asia Summit 2012 – Phnom penh, Cambodia

IBSA Summits
IBSA Dialogue Forum - India, Brazil, South Africa.

• 5th IBSA Summit 2011 – Pretoria, South Africa
• 6th IBSA Summit 2013 – India

APEC Summits
APEC – Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

• 23rd APEC summit 2011 – Honolulu, USA
• 24th APEC Summit 2012 – Vladivostok,Russia
• 25th APEC Summit 2013 – Medan/Jakarta, Indonesia
• 26th APEC Summit 2014 – China
• 27th APEC Summit 2015 – Philippines
• 28th APEC Summit 2016 – Lima, Peru

OPEC Seminars
OPEC – Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

• 4th OPEC International Seminar 2009 – Vienna, Austria
• 5th OPEC International Seminar 2012 – Vienna, Austria

NAM Summits
NAM – Non-aligned Movement

• 16th NAM Summit 2012 – Tehran, Iran
• 17th NAM Summit 2015 – Caracas,Venezuela

SCO Meetings
SCO – Shanghai Cooperation Organization

• SCO Meeting 2011 – Astana, Kazakhstan
• SCO Meeting 2012 – Beijing, China
• SCO Meeting 2013 – Kyrgyzstan

NATO (North Atlantic treaty organization) international conference on Afghanistan will be held in Chicago (USA)

Asian Development Bank (ADB) Annual Meetings
Annual meeting of the board of governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) held every year.

• ADB Annual Meeting 2012 – Manila, Philippines
• ADB Annual Meeting 2013 – New Delhi, India

WTO Ministerial Conferences

• 8th WTO Ministerial Conferences 2011 – Geneva, Switzerland
• 9th WTO Ministerial Conferences 2013 (Expected) -Bali, Indonesia

Other Important Summits

• United Nations framework convention on Climate, 2011 – Durban, South Africa
• 10th BASIC Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change – New Delhi, India
• Arab summit 2012 – Baghdad, Iraq
• Nuclear security summit 2012 – Seoul, South Korea
• 12th Annual summit of European Union and India – New Delhi, India
• G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting – Mexico City, Mexico
• Friends of Syria Meeting – Istanbul,Turkey
• 5th Ministerial level India-UK Economic Financial Dialogue – New Delhi
• United Nation Conference on Sustainable Development 2012 – Rio de janeiro,Brazil
• 17th National youth Festival – Mangalore, Karnataka
• World Economic Forum – Davos, Switzerland
• World Polio Summit 2012 – New Delhi, India
• India, Russia Inter-Governmental Commission meet 2012 – New Delhi, India
• The sixth conference of the Association of SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians held in Islamabad on 4th November 2012.
• E-9 countries review meeting held in New Delhi on 9th and 10th November 2012.The E-9 countries are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria and Mexico.
• The 8th meeting of the India-UK Joint Working Group (JWG) on counter terrorism was held on 20 November 2012 in New Delhi.
• The 3rd Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit organized by East West Institute, a New York based think-and-do tank, kick-started in the New Delhi on 30th October 2012.
• South Korea will host the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP12) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2014.
• The XI Conference of Parties (CoP-11) on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) being hosted by India at Hyderabad starts on 1st October 2012.
• The 9th World Hindi Conference to be held in Johannesburg ,South Africa from 22-24 September 2012.The first world Hindi Conference was held in Nagapur from 10-12 January 1975.
• The APEC Russia 2012 Summit is the 24th annual gathering of APEC leaders of 21 countries.Leaders from the member economics are currently meeting on Russky Island off the Coast of Vladivostok, Russia from September 2-9 ,2012 .
• The world’s largest meeting on HIV/AIDS opened on 22nd July in Washington.
• The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Summit held in HICC, Novotel Hyderabad. The summit was held between 22 August 2012 to 25 August 2012.
• 7th ASEAN education Ministers meeting on July 4 with the 1st Asean plus three education Minister Meeting and the 1st East Asia Summit Education Minister meeting from July4-5 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
• A One day International conference in Kabul took place on June 14,2012 to discuss ways to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan and boost regional cooperation.
• 101 st session of International Labour Conference organized by International Labour Organization(ILO), concluded on June 14 ,2012 in Geneva.
• The Rio+20 Conference, world leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments took place in Brazil on 20-22 June 2012
• India To Host Alternative International AIDS conference
• World Agriculture Congress mega event will be hosted by the Hyderabad city for the first time in the country.
• The 6th Summit of the Americas was held At Cartagena, Colombia on 14 and 15 April 2012.
• The Russia, India and China (RIC) trilateral conference was held in Mascow on 13 April 2012.
• The seventh meeting of the India-Russia Joint Working Group was held in New Delhi on 11 April 2012.
• Two-days national agricultural conference held at New Delhi.
• The international exhibition-cum conference ” Indian Aviation 2012 held at Hyderabad from 14-18 March 2012.
• The 23rd Arab summit was held on 29 March 2012 Baghdad, half of the Arab world’s 22 heads of states had to meet for the summit in former president Saddam Hussain’s palace, but only few leaders gathered.
• India, the independence accreditation agency organized its 1st world summit on Accreditation from 25 -28 March 2012 in New Delhi.
• The I’st World summit on Accreditation is going to be held in March 2012 at New Delhi.
• A seven days Turkey World Trade Bridge International Business Summit is going to be organized by the confederation of Businessman and Industrialists of Turkey (TUSKON) and the Indo-Turkish Business Association (ITBA) from 3 June to 10 June 2012 in Istanbul.
• AIMA’s second Knowledge summit was held in Bangalore on 7March 2012.
• The 9th three day International conference & exhibition was hosted by the society of Petroleum Geophysicists (SPG),which was inaugurated on 16 feb 2012 in Hyderabad.
• The 44Th session of Indian Labour conference was held on 14 and 15 Feb 2012, under the chairmanship of Shri Mallikajun Kharge, Union minister of Labour and Employment.
• The Association of South East Nations (Asean ) summit had held in New Delhi on 12 Feb 2012 with the theme of India and Asean partners for peace, progress and stability.
• The 12th India – EU summit was held in New Delhi on 10 Feb 2012.
• The 4th ” International Conference on Luminescence and its Application’s” (ICLA) 2012 conference had been organised by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies on 8 Feb2012 in Hyderabad.
• The 15th National conference on e-Governance conference had been inaugurated by the chief minister of Odisha M.Naveen Patnaik on 8 Feb 2012
• The 10th International Kimberlite conference meeting was held from 6 to 11 Feb 2012 at Bangalore (GSI).
• The 58th annual meeting of the Indian Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons (IACTS) was held from 8 to 12 Feb 2012 in Kolkata
• The national conference on Governance’ was held on 29 Jan 2012 at the NCUI auditorium in New Delhi.
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated 15th Global Sanskrit Meetings in New Delhi on 4 January 2012.
• 99th Science Congress Conferences were inaugarated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Bhuvaneswar, Odisha on 3 January 2012. 

IMPORTANT AWARDS 2012

• Israeli Scientist Daniel Hillel has won World Food Prize 2012 .
• ITC conferred world business & development award 2012.
• Life Time Achievement Award for Ratan Tata by Rockefeller Foundation
• Vijay Kumar conferred Himachal Gaurav award
• Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Puraskar for DR Mehra,
• Ashoke Sen wins Yuri Milner Prize.
• Sachin Tendulkar was presented the Wisden India Outstanding Achievement award.
• Ondaatje Prize 2012 for Rahul Bhattacharya.
• Sudarshan Pattnaik won the Copenhagen Sand Art Championship-2012.
• Binayak Sen and Bulu Imam honored with the International Peace Award by the Gandhi Foundation at the House of Lords.
• Shalini Singh won Prem Bhatia award
• Kulandei Francis won Magsaysay award.
• Miss China Wenxia Yu won the title of Miss World 2012
• Mamta Kalia gets Sita puraskar.
• Shiv Bhatia gets Rashtriya Ekta Puraskar.
• Mr. Baba Kalyani was conferred an honorary ‘Doctor of Science’ (honoris causa) by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee at the 58th Annual Convocation of IIT Kharagpur.
• Paraguay’s Highest Civilisation Award ‘National Order of Merito de Comuneros’ for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
• Lifetime achievement award for Waheeda Rehman at Mumbai Film Festival.
• Bangladesh honours Jagjivan Ram as 1971 war hero.
• Hilary Mantel wins Booker Prize for 2012.
• Gulzar gets Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration 2012.
• C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for Sunil Gavaskar.
• Sharmila Tagore was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by the Edinburgh Napier University.
• Member of Order of Australia – Sachin Tendulkar
• IT giant Infosys founder, N.R. Narayan Murthy honoured with Hoover Medal for promoting science at Global Humanitarian Technology Conference in Washington.
• Aishwarya Rai was honoured with French Civilian Award
• Dr Madhav Chavan has won the WISE Prize, which has been likened to a “Nobel prize for education”.
• Urdu Scholar Gopi Chand Narang Awarded Moortidevi Award for 2010
• Chinese movie ‘11 Flowers’, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai has won the prestigious NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) award at the 18th Kolkata International Film festival (KIFF).
• President of the Republic of Liberia Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf got the Indira Gandhi peace prize for 2012 for her Excellency, Peace,Disarmament and Development.
• “Andhey Ghorey Da Daan” a Punjabi film directed by Gurvinder Singh and produced by National Film Development Cooperation was bagged the Golden Peacock award of the International Film Festival of India, IFFI.

ICC Awards 2012

• Emerging Player of the Year – Sunil Narine
• LG People’s Choice Award – Kumar Sangakkara
• ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year – Virat Kohli
• ICC Test Cricketer of the Year -Kumar Sangakkara
• ICC Cricketer of the Year – Kumar Sangakkara

IIFA Awards 2012

13th IIFA Awards 2012 schedule from 7th Jun to 9th Jun, 2012 as held in the beautiful city of Singapore . The list of winners has just been announced and as expected, Ranbir Kapoor and Vidya Balan have once again won the Best Actor and Best Actress award respectively. The Best movie and director too have been predictable this year, as Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, which swept the IIFA 2012 technical awards, has won in both categories.
Winners of IIFA Awards 2012
Best Actor – Ranbir Kapoor (Rockstar)
Best Actress – Vidya Balan (The Dirty Picture)
Best Movie – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Best Director – Zoya Akhtar (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara)
Best Story – Zoya Akhtar and Reema Katgi (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara)
Best Music – A R Rahman ( Rockstar)

84th Academy Awards

The 84th Academy Awards Ceremony/ Oscars was hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science ( AMPAS). The ceremony which took place at the Hollywood Highland center in Hollywood, California on 26 Feb 2012 honoured the best film and performances of 2011. The ceremony was hosted by Billy Cristal who hosted this ceremony for the ninth time. Best Motion Picture: The Artist ,Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Best Actor : Jean Dujardin, The Artist ,Foreign Language Film : A separation , Original Screenplay: Woody Allen Best Actress : Meryl Streep, Iron Lady , Adapted screenplay:Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash Best Supporting Actor :Christopher Plummer, Beginners, Cinematography : Hugo. Art direction: Hugo Best Supporting Actress :Octavia Spencer, The Help .Original Score : The Artist. Visual Effects: Hugo Film Editing: The girl with the dragon tattoo. Sound mixing:Hugo. Sound Editing: Hugo. Costume Design:The Artist Original Song: Man or Muppet, from Muppets. Make Up: The Iron Lady . Live Action Short Film:The Shore Animated Feature Film: Rango. Animated Short: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Documentary Features: Undefeated. Documentary Short: Saving Face.

Nobel Prize 2012 Winners

• Nobel Prize in Physics 2012 – Serge Haroche and David Wineland
  
• Nobel Peace Prize for 2012: European Union
  
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012: Robert J Lefkowitz and Brian K Kobilka
• Nobel Prize in Literature 2012: Chinese author Mo Yan
• Nobel Prize in Economy 2012: Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley
• Nobel Prize in Medicine 2012: John Gurdon, Shinya Yamanaka

APPSC NOTIFICATIONS 2013

NDC approves 12th Five Year Plan

Country's apex policy making body NDC has approved the strategy to achieve average growth rate of 8 pc during the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), generate 50 million new jobs and increase investments in infrastructure sector. The document has pegged the aggregate Plan resources at Rs 37.16 lakh crore during the five year period starting 2012-13. Moving away from previous practice of presenting single growth projection, the Planning Commission has come out with three different economic scenarios for 12th Five-Year Plan. As per the "aspirational" scenario one of strong inclusive growth India's economic growth will be average 8 percent in the five years. The document also cautions that in scenario of policy logjam, the GDP growth could slow down to 5-5.5 percent. The document proposes to bring down poverty by 10 percentage points by the end of the 12th Plan. As regard the infrastructure sector, efforts would be made to increase investment in this sector to 9 percent of the GDP by the end of the Plan period. The other targets include increasing green cover by one million hectare every year and adding 30,000 MW of renewable energy generation capacity in the Plan period. It also seeks to reduce emission intensity of the GDP in line with the target of 20-25 reduction by 2020 over 2005 levels. Although the document envisages 6.7 percent growth rate in the current fiscal, it has been projected at 5.7-5.9 percent in 2012-13 by the Finance Ministry. The strategy for the full Plan would aim at raising agriculture output to 4 percent and manufacturing sector growth to 10 percent. It also wants all the states to set higher targets of growth than what was achieved in the 11th Five Year Plan.

13th India-Russia Annual Summit

The President of the Russian Federation, H.E. Mr. Vladmir V.Putin, paid an official visit to India for the Annual Summit between two countries. During the meet the Prime Minister of India and the President of the Russian Federation stressed the importance of further enhancing the special and privileged strategic partnership between the two countries. The two leaders reviewed the progress made in all important areas of cooperation, including in sectors such as energy, trade, high technology and military-technical cooperation. India and Russia moved to strengthen their economic ties by inking a pact on a Kremlin-backed $2 billion investment fund and agreeing to open talks on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that will also involve Belarus and Kazakhstan. Following documents were signed during the meet: a) Protocol on Foreign Office Consultations 2013-14: The Protocol is an instrument to continue the tradition of close political consultations between the two Foreign Offices. The current Protocol outlines seventeen different broad themes for such exchanges. The bi-annual Protocol mechanism enables frequent contacts and promotes broad-based understanding between the various wings of the two Foreign Offices. b) Memorandum on Cooperation in Science & Technology: The Memorandum shall facilitate deepening cooperation in the field of innovation and S&T, through implementation of joint programs or projects involving educational, R&D and industrial institutions. It also stipulates formation of a Working Group to implement the provisions of this MoC. c) Cultural Exchange Programme for the Years 2013 – 15: The document envisages enhancing bilateral cultural contacts through exchanges in performing arts, films, archives, museums and conservation, literature and language and through organization of reciprocal Festivals. It is in continuation to the previous CEP 2009-12. It also aims to preserve and promote the legacy of the Roerich Estate in Kullu (Himachal Pradesh), an important icon of cultural cooperation between the two countries. d) Memorandum of Understanding to Promote Direct Investment between Russia and India: MoU envisages investments upto US$ 2 billion in important bilateral projects or companies, privatization and other opportunities. RDIF is a US$ 10 billion sovereign-backed Russian private equity fund established by the Russian Government to co-invest alongside global institutional investors. Since its inception in 2011, it has led investments totaling US$ 1.5 billion in Russian companies together with some of the largest asset managers in the world. e) Memorandum of Understanding for Satellite based navigation services: The MoU envisages a pilot project to assess the usage of the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS – the Russian equivalent of GPS) using the capabilities of BSNL/MTNL ground infrastructure. Success of the pilot project may provide insights for wider applicability of GLONASS signals in the future in areas such as disaster management, telephony and long-distance communications. f) Contract for Delivery of 71 Mi-17V-5 helicopters: An order for procurement of 59 Mi-17 v5 MLH was agreed to in Feb 2010, which was subsequently increased to 71. The current contract is in context of the order. g) Contract for Delivery of 42 technological kits for SU-30MKI aircraft licensed production: The Protocol-II on licensed manufacturing of additional 42 SU-30MKI aircraft units was signed during Annual Summit 2011. The current contract is a follow up to this Protocol. However, there was no substantial progress on issues of discord-delay in commissioning aircraft carrier Gorshkov, stalemate on clinical trials in Russia, applicability of the Nuclear Limited Liability Act to six new reactors to be put up by Russia at Kudankulam, inability of Russian companies Sistema and Severstal to move ahead with their investment plans in India and the tax imposed on Imperial Energy, an Indian company operating in Russia.

List of APPSC Notifications 2013

List of APPSC Notifications Online submission of Applications has been scheduled 2013

JUNIOR ACCOUNTANTS IN APMASS (Notification No. 08/2012) FINAL KEY

Final Key of Jr.Accountants in Municipal Accts.service:: Paper-1 - G.S. & M.A.

Final Key of Accountants in Municipal Acct, Service :: Paper-2 - COMMERCE

Hostel Welfare Officers Grade-II in A.P. Tribal Welfare Sub Service under Group IV Service (Notification No. 55/2011) FINAL KEY

	Final Answer Key of Hostel Welfare Officers (Group-IV) Paper-1-General Studies.
	Final Answer Key of Hostel Welfare Officers (Group-IV) Paper-2 - Concerned Subject.

ACCOUNTS OFFICER IN A.P. MUNICIPAL ACCOUNTS SUB ORDINATE SERVICE (Notification No. 07/2012) FINAL KEY

	Final Answer Key of Accounts Officer In MPL.ACCTS.Sub-Services:: Paper-2 Series: A 056- COMMERCE-I
	Final Answer Key of Accounts Officer In MPL.ACCTS.Sub-Service :: Paper-3 Series: A-057-COMMERCE-II
	Final Answer Key of Accounts Officer In MPL.ACCTS.Sub-Services:: Paper-1 Series: A-500-G.S. & M.A.

Ilayaraja gets Sangeet Natak Akademi award

Grammy Award-winning percussionist T.H. Vinayakram and veteran playwright Ratan Thiyam are among three personalities chosen for the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowship, while legendary South Indian composer Ilayaraja will receive the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.

N Rajam, violinist who performs Hindustani classical music, T.H. Vinayakram and Ratan Thiyam have been selected for the prestigious the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships.

The Fellowship of the Akademi is restricted to a very limited number at a given time. Presently there are only 40 Fellows of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a purse money of Rs. 3 lakh, while Akademi Awards carry Rs. 1 lakh besides Tamrapatra and Angavastram.

At the General Council meeting on Friday, the Akademi also selected 36 persons from the fields of Music, Dance, Theatre and Puppetry for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards 2012.

Nine eminent artists -- Rajashekhar Mansur and Ajay Pohankar for Hindustani Vocal Music, Sabir Khan (Tabla) and Bahauddin Dagar (Rudra Veena) for Hindustani Instrumental Music, O.S. Thyagarajan for Carnatic Vocal Music, Mysore M Nagaraja (Violin) and K V Prasad (Mridangam) for Carnatic Instrumental Music, Ilayaraja for Creative and Experimental Music and Bhai Balbir Singh Ragi (Gurbani) for Other Major Traditions of Music have been selected for the Award 2012.

In the field of Dance, nine eminent practitioners, namely Priyadarsini Govind (Bharatanatyam), Vijay Shankar (Kathak), Vazhengada Vijayan (Kathakali), Vedantam Ramalinga Sastry (Kuchipudi), Sharmila Biswas (Odissi), Jai Narayan Samal (Chhau), Painkulam Damodara Chakyar (Kutiyattam), Jwala Prasad (Music for Dance) and Aditi Mangaldas (Creative & Experimental Dance) have been selected for the Akademi Award 2012.

In the field of Theatre, eight eminent artists have been selected for Akademi Awards 2012.

They include Arjun Deo Charan for Playwriting, Tripurari Sharma and Waman Kendre for Direction, Parvesh Sethi, Nirmal Rishi and Purisai Kannappa Sambandan for Acting, Murari Roychoudhury for Theatre Music and Ghulam Rasool Bhagat for Major Traditions of Theatre (Bhand Pather).

Goru Channabasappa for Folk Music (Karnataka), Kinaram Nath Oja for Suknani Ojapali (Assam), Prem Singh Dehati for Folk Theatre (Haryana), Sulochana Chavan for Lavani (Maharashtra), Mattannur Sankaran Kutty Marar for Thayambaka (Kerala), Govind Ram Nirmalkar for Nacha (Chhattisgarh), Heera Das Negi for Mask Making (Himachal Pradesh) and Prafulla Karmakar for Traditional Puppetry (West Bengal) have also been chosen.

Nandini Ramani and Arun Kakade will receive the Akademi Award 2012 for Overall Contribution/Scholarship in Performing Arts.

India, Russia sign defence deals worth around $3 bn

Boosting their military ties, India on December 24 inked deals worth around $ 3 billion with Russia to procure 42 new Su-30 MKI combat aircraft and 71 Mi-17V5 medium-lift helicopters.

The contracts for acquiring these weapon systems were signed during the 13th India-Russia Annual Summit after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi.

At the Summit meeting on December 24 a joint venture agreement was also inked between Elcom Systems Private Ltd. and OAO “Vertoleti Rassi” (JSC “Helicopters Russia”), which aims to set up a modern industrial facility for manufacturing Russian Mi and Kamov choppers in India.

Under one contract worth around $2.2 billion for licence production of 42 Su-30MKIs, Russia will deliver technical kits to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to assemble them.

With this contract, the number of Su-30MKIs in the IAF would go up to 272 in next four to five years with 170 of them already at present in the force.

These multi-role frontline aircraft could also be equipped with Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles.

Under the contract for 71 Mi-17V5 choppers, 59 of the machines would be given to the IAF while the remaining 12 would be used by paramilitary forces in their anti-Naxal operations.

These helicopters would be used by the IAF to replace its existing fleet of older versions of Mi-17 and Mi-8 aircraft in its inventory.

This is a follow up order by the IAF for the new ‘V5’ version as it is in the process of inducting 80 such machines for which orders were placed around three years ago.

Already more than 40 of them have been inducted into the force at locations including Bathinda in Punjab, Srinagar and Bagdogra in West Bengal.

Eight Indians in HBR’s 100 best CEO list

Eight Indian CEOs have made it to the list of 100 global chief executives, compiled by Harvard Business Review (HBR), with ITC’s Y C Deveshwar and late Subir Raha of ONGC finding a place in the top 20.

Mr. Deveshwar was first among the Indian CEOs featured in this list, and cornered the seventh place overall.

Under his leadership, ITC delivered industry-adjusted shareholder returns of 1,574 per cent and saw its value increase by $ 45 billion.

The other Indians on the list include late Subir Raha of ONGC, at 13th place, ahead of Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani who was ranked 28th.

Larsen and Toubro’s A M Naik was ranked 32nd, followed by BHEL’s A K Puri (38), Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Bharti Mittal (65), Jindal Steel and Power’s Naveen Jindal (87) and Steel Authority of India’s V S Jain (89).

Meanwhile, the best-performing CEO over the past 17 years globally was Steve Jobs of Apple. From 1997 to 2011, Apple’s market value increased by $ 359 billion, and its shareholder return experienced average compound annual growth of 35 per cent. 

Others in the top 10 include, Samsung Electronics’ Yun Jong-Yong (3rd), followed by Vale’s Roger Agnelli (4), Gilead Sciences’ John C Martin (5), Hyundai Motor Company’s Chung Mong-Koo (6), ITC’s Y C Deveshwar (7), Simon Property Group’s David Simon (8), eBay’s Margaret C Whitman (9) and Cisco Systems John T Chambers (10).

The highest-ranked woman on the list is Meg Whitman, currently the CEO of beleaguered HP, whose performance as the CEO of eBay from 1998 to 2008 earned her the 9th spot.

Interestingly, overall, only 1.9 per cent of all the CEOs studied were women.

The HBR 100 best performing CEOs in the world list assessed the long-term performance of each CEO, from the first day on the job to the last and for CEOs still in office, until August 31, 2012.

The list accessed how much total shareholder returns had changed over the tenure of the respective CEO, and the overall increase in market capitalisation.

Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowships (Akademi Ratna) and Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the Year 2012

The General Council of Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, New Delhi at its meeting held on 21 December 2012 elected three (3) eminent personalities in the field of performing arts, namely N. Rajam, T.H. Vinayakram and Ratan Thiyam as Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellows (Akademi Ratna).  The Fellowship of the Akademi is the most prestigious and rare honour, which is restricted to a very limited number at a given time.  Presently there are only 40 Fellows of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

The General Council of the Akademi also selected thirty six (36) persons from the fields of Music, Dance, Theatre and Puppetry for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2012.

In the field of Music, nine eminent artists, namely Rajashekhar Mansur and  Ajay Pohankar for Hindustani Vocal Music, Sabir Khan (Tabla) and Bahauddin Dagar (Rudra Veena) for Hindustani Instrumental Music, O.S. Thyagarajan for Carnatic Vocal Music, Mysore M. Nagaraja, (Violin) and K.V. Prasad (Mridangam) for Carnatic Instrumental Music, Illayaraja for Creative & Experimental Music and Bhai Balbir Singh Ragi (Gurbani) for Other Major Traditions of Music have been selected for the Akademi Award 2012.

In the field of Dance, nine eminent practitioners, namely  Priyadarsini Govind (Bharatanatyam), Vijay Shankar (Kathak), Vazhengada Vijayan (Kathakali),  Vedantam Ramalinga Sastry (Kuchipudi), Sharmila Biswas (Odissi), Jai Narayan Samal (Chhau), Painkulam Damodara Chakyar (Kutiyattam), Jwala Prasad (Music for Dance) and Aditi Mangaldas (Creative & Experimental Dance) have been selected for the Akademi Award 2012.

In the field of Theatre, eight eminent artists have been selected for Akademi Awards 2012. They include Arjun Deo Charan for Playwriting, Tripurari Sharma and Waman Kendre for Direction, Parvesh Sethi, Nirmal Rishi and Purisai Kannappa Sambandan for Acting, Murari Roychoudhury for Theatre Music and Ghulam Rasool Bhagat for Major Traditions of Theatre (Bhand Pather).

For their contribution to Other Traditional/Folk/ Tribal Music/ Dance/ Theatre and Puppetry, eight artists have been selected for the Akademi Award. They are Goru Channabasappa for Folk Music (Karnataka), Kinaram Nath Oja for Suknani Ojapali (Assam), Prem Singh Dehati for Folk Theatre (Haryana), Sulochana Chavan for Lavani (Maharashtra), Mattannur Sankaran Kutty Marar for Thayambaka (Kerala), Govind Ram Nirmalkar for Nacha (Chhattisgarh), Heera Das Negi for Mask Making (Himachal Pradesh) and Prafulla Karmakar for Traditional Puppetry (West Bengal).

Nandini Ramani and Arun Kakade will receive the Akademi Award 2012 for Overall Contribution/Scholarship in Performing Arts.

The honour of Akademi Fellow has been conferred since 1954 and Akademi Award since 1952. They not only symbolize the highest standard of excellence and achievements on a national basis, but also recognize sustained individual work and contribution to the practice and appreciation of the arts through performance, teaching and scholarship.  The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a purse money of Rs 3,00,000/- (Rupees three lacs) and Akademi Awards carry Rs 1,00,000/- (Rupees one lac), besides Tamrapatra and Angavastram.

Click here to see List of Awardees.

Chhattisgarh launched first food security law in the nation

The Chhattisgarh Assembly enacted landmark legislation by unanimously passing the Food Security Act, becoming the first state in the country to introduce such a law, covering several deprived sections of society left out by existing welfare programmes. The law also takes a major step to empower women by considering the eldest woman in a household as its head in matters related to the ration card. The Act considers entitlements under both public distribution system (PDS) and non-PDS on a household basis and not per person and places them under the Chhattisgarh Lok Seva Guarantee Act 2011. The Act makes food entitlements a right and its non-compliance has been made an offence. Officials can be penalised if PDS rations are being siphoned. The state government will pay for entitlements not covered by the Centre. While some households mentioned under the Act will get rice at Rs 1 per kg, several categories such as destitutes and disaster-affected persons will get it free. The Act includes all households of landless agricultural labourers, small or marginal farmers, workers in the urban informal sector and construction workers. It also defines a new category of “particularly vulnerable social groups” which includes households headed by terminally ill persons, widows or single women, physically challenged persons, all households headed by a person aged 60 or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support and a person freed from bonded labour. All households of particularly vulnerable social groups shall be designated as Antyodaya households. The law also makes foodgrains mandatory for all students living in hostels or ashrams, meals through dal-bhat centres or take-home rations through panchayats for destitutes and homeless persons, besides making special provisions for emergency or disaster-affected persons. The Act also includes meals for pregnant women and lactating mothers and children from six months to six years through anganwadis, mid-day meal for children of 6-14 years in school and supplementary nutrition for malnourished children. These groups will now have a right to food entitlements and officials will be penalised for any failure. Households paying income tax, households in non-scheduled areas who own more than four hectares of irrigated or eight hectares of non-irrigated land, all households that own a pucca house (concrete roof) of carpet area more than 1,000 sq ft in urban areas and are liable to pay property tax, are among categories excluded.

Union Government of India Constituted a Commission to suggest measures for Safety of Women

The Union Government of India on 23 December 2012 constituted a three-member Commission to be headed by the Former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma for reviewing the laws in existence and the lapses of the police to suggest measures for ensuring safety of women in Delhi as well as across the nation.  It would also look into the matter of the gang rape incident. 
Former Solicitor General of India Gopal Subramaniam and Justice Lalitha Seth are the two other members of the constituted inquiry commission. The commission would submit its report and findings within 30 days to the Government. Senior High Court lawyer Dyan Krishnan was appointed as the Special Prosecutor to ensure speedy trial and enhancement of the punishment in cases of aggravated sexual assault.

Madhya Pradesh Government set up a Senior Citizen Commission

The Madhya Pradesh Government on 21 December 2012 set up a Senior Citizen Commission to look into problems of the elderly in the State. The decision was taken during a Cabinet meeting chaired by State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Senior Citizen Commission would comprise one Chairman and four members. The commission will try to solve the problems of the senior people of the State and providing an ideal platform for old persons’ policy for the welfare and solution of their problems.

Karnataka Announced Safety Measures in Public Transport

On 23 December 2012, Karnataka became the first state that announced some measures for making public transport safer via use of technology. The Karnataka government announced that it would equip taxis as well as autorickshaws with surveillance cameras as well as GPS for providing safety to the women travellers.
All the state transport buses would be equipped with the surveillance cameras. Apart from this, the deputy chief minister R Ashoka who has home department under him also announced establishment of fast-track courts for dealing with all rape cases.

Additionally, the deputy chief minister announced that Karnataka government would push aggressively regarding capital punishment in rarest-of-rare cases.
On 22 December 2012, a meeting of the home department officials discussed about the safety concerns of women.

Sachin Tendulkar announced Retirement from One Day Cricket

Sachin Tendulkar on 23 December 2012 announced retirement form one day cricket which put an end to his 23- year old glorious career.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is an Indian Batsman who is considered one of the greatest batsman of the world after Don Bradman in Test Cricket and the second most successful one day batsman after Viv Richards as per the ranking done by Wisden-the Bible of Cricket. Tendulkar who belongs to Mumbai Maharashtra made his appearance in six world cups for India and was the member of the 2011 World Cup winning squad of the nation.

The major facts related to his one day international career are as follows:

•    Sachin scored 18426 runs in 463 one-day matches at an average of 44.83
•    Tendulkar made his ODI debut on his international tour against Pakistan in 1989 in Gujranwala, where he scored zero runs
•    He scored his first half century in the 9th ODI
•    He made 49 hundreds in the one-day format, including a double hundred which is the first in this form of cricket and 96 half centuries
•    He scored his first century in the 79th ODI against Australia in 1994 at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo in a day-night match-this was the third match of singer world series
•    In the 2003 World Cup in South Africa he finished as the highest run-getter
•    He became the first cricketer to score a double century in the history of One Day international Cricket against South Africa in February 2010
•    He played his last One Day International Match against Pakistan in Asia Cup Dhaka played at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur and scored a half century to help India win the match
•    Tendulkar scored his 100th international century on 16 March 2012 against Bangladesh, where he scored 114 runs

NASA Ruled out Asteroid Collision with Earth in 2040

The Mayan Doomsday predictions about the world ending on 21 December 2012 had failed and additionally NASA ruled out the asteroid collision with Earth in 2040. NASA claimed that the fear of asteroid collision with Earth does not pose a threat to our planet any more. 

NASA declared that doubt about orbit of this asteroid called 2011 AG5 initially enabled that there were less than 1 percent chances of it hitting the planet in February 2040. Initially the scientists had estimated that risk of 140m-diametre asteroid collision with Earth was just one in 500. 

In case, this asteroid would have collided with Earth, there would have been a release of around 100 megatonnes of energy, which is a lot more than atom bombs used in World War II. Considering the statistics, it was found that a body as huge as this would have created an impact on Earth every 10000 years on an average. 

The observations were made while making use of Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. The observations were very challenging for the team. The scientists were especially surprised about the fact that a telescope could recover faint asteroid in the sky.

NEW APPOINTMENTS

• New President of India- Pranab Mukherjee
• Re-elected Vice President- Hamid Ansari
Secretary in National Commission for Women - Ajit Saran
• New Indian envoy to Israel – Jaideep Sarkar
• New Indian envoy to Canada – Nirmal Kumar Verma
• New MSME secretary - Vivek Rae
• New chairman of ICC Cricket Committee - Anil Kumble
• Junior pistol chief coach - Jaspal Rana
• India’s ambassador to Brazil - Ashok Kumar
• New Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau – Rajiv Mehta
• New FMC (Forward Markets Commission) Chairman – Ramesh Abhishek
• New Director on the Central Board of Directors of the RBI - Y C Deveshwar
• New President of Indian Newspaper Society – Tilak Kumar
• New Secretary Gen of Rajya Sabha – Shumsher K Sheriff
• New Chairman of Audit Bureau of Circulation – Shailesh Gupta
• New President of Indian Boxing Federation – Abhishek Matoria
• New Economic affairs secretary-Arvind Mayaram
• New Chief Economic Advisor- Raghuram Rajan
• New Clearing Corporation of India Ltd (CCIL)Chairperson - Shyamala Gopinath
• Re-appoint Deputy Governer of RBI: K C Chakrabarty
• New CBDT Chairperson- Poonam Kishore Saxena
• New Union Railway Minister- Pawan Kumar Bansal
• New Aviation Secretary- K N Srivastava
• New Election Commissioner- S Nasim Ahmad Zaidi
• New Chief Election Commissioner-VS Sampath
• New secretary to the Prez of India- Omita Paul
• Head of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award Committee - Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore
• New CMD of Oriental Bank of Commerce- SL Bansal
• New Executive Director of PNB- S R Bansal
• New CEO of Prasar Bharti – Jawhar Sircar
•  New Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh- Virabhadra Singh

Barack Obama was named TIME's Person of the Year for 2012

US President Barack Obama was named TIME's Person of the Year for 2012, because of his historic win over the re-election in November 2012  which is being considered as symbol of the nation's changing demographics amid the backdrop of high unemployment and other challenges.
His name was announced by TIME editor Rick Stengel on NBC's Today program on 19 December 2012.

It is the second time Barack Obama is being accorded with this honour. He had also received the honour in 2008, when he was first elected as president.

Obama had won re-election despite a higher unemployment rate than anybody's had to face in basically in 70 years. He's the first Democrat to actually win two consecutive terms with over 50 percent of the vote.

The short list for the honour included Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head for advocating for girls' education, as well as Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Italian physicist Fabiola Giannati.

Time's Person of the Year is the person or thing that has most influenced the culture and the news during the past year for good or for ill. In 2010, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg received the honour.

Last year in 2011 Time honoured "The Protester," citing dissent across the Middle East that spread to Europe and the United States, saying the protesters reshaped global politics.

Other previous winners have included Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Bono and President George W. Bush.

Junior Assistants in Dr. N.T.R. University of Health Sciences (Notification No. 18/2012) Final Key

•	Final Answer Key of Jr.Assts in N.T.R Health University :: Paper-1 - GENERAL STUDIES
•	Final Answer Key of Jr.Assts. in N.T.R. Health University :: Paper-2 - Paper-2
•	Final Answer Key of Jr.Assts.in N.T.R. Health University :: Paper-3 - PAPER-3

Assistant Social Welfare Officer in A.p. Social Welfare Service (Notification No. 50/2011) Final Key

Final Answer Key of Assistant Social Welfare Officer :: Paper-1 - G.S. & M.A. 

Final Answer Key of Assistant Social Welfare Officer ::Paper-2 - COMPULSORY PAPER 

Miss Universe 2012 is Miss USA Olivia Culpo

Olivia Culpo, Miss USA was crowned Miss Universe 2012. Olivia Culpo beat out 88 other beauty queens to take the title from Leila Lopes of Angola during the competition at the Planet Hollywood casino on the Las Vegas Strip.  Miss Philippines held the second spot, followed by Miss Venezuela, Miss Australia and Miss Brazil.
India’s hope of winning the Miss Universe 2012 crown crashed as Shilpa Singh failed to make it to the list of top 10 contestants. Ji Dan Xu, Miss China won the Best National Costume title while Laura Godoy from Guatemala grabbed the Miss Congeniality title. Diana Avdiu from Kosovo became Miss Photogenic of the year 2012. Indian beauty Shilpa Singh could not make it to the Top 10, though she succeeded in making it to the top 16 list.
As Miss Universe, Culpo will receive an undisclosed salary, a wardrobe fit for a queen, a limitless supply of beauty products, and a luxury apartment in New York City.

India won the World Cup Kabaddi Tournament 2012

India on 15 December 2012 won the 3rd World Cup Kabaddi Tournament for the third consecutive time in the Men’s category and second consecutive time in the Women’s category. Indian men defeated arch rival Pakistan with a decisive margin of 37 points whereas, Indian women thrashed Malaysia 72-12. Both the finals were played at the Guru Nanak Dev Stadium in Ludhiana. The Kabaddi world cup was a 15-day tournament. In men's category, third prize went to Canada and in women's category, it was given to Denmark.   

Indian men registered a hat trick by outclassing Pakistan in every aspect of game. At the end of the first half, Indian men squad was leading with a point difference of 34-9. India’s raider and stoppers showed an extraordinary sport in collecting points for their country. Women’s final was virtually a one sided show as Malaysian team was no match against Indian eves.

India Lost the Test Series by 1-2 after Nagpur Test ended as a Draw

The last test match between India and England of the Tournament England Tour to India ended up as a draw and with this India lost the four-test match cricket series against England by 1-2 on 17 December 2012. With this win England succeeded in ending a 28 year long wait of winning a test series on Indian Soil. Before this the English side under the captaincy of David Gower won the test series in India 1984-85.

Minorities Rights Day Celebrated By the National Commission for Minorities

National Commission for Minorities celebrated Minorities Rights Day on 18 December 2012. Minorities Rights Day is celebrated on 18th December every year. The day is celebrated to protect rights of the minorities communities as well as bringing the better understanding among religious minorities in India. 

The participants of the Minorities Rights Day included the Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities as well as Vice Chairman and other Members of the Commission. 

The day is celebrated because on 18th December 1992, United Nations adopted as well as broadcasted Declaration on Rights of Persons who belong to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. The United Nations had declared that cultural, religious, linguistic and national identity of the minorities shall be protected by the states. The rights of these minorities shall be respected within the individual territories.The states shall also encourage the conditions for promotion of cultural, religious, linguistic and national identity.

On Minorities Rights Day, i.e. on 18 December 2012, the National Commission for Minorities also released the special issue of publication called Minorities India. This publication highlights activities as well as functions of the Third Statutory Commission of the National Commission for Minorities.

India lifts World T20 for blind

 Hosts India on December 13 triumphed in the inaugural Blind Cricket Twenty20 World Cup after defeating Pakistan by 29 runs in the title clash in Bangalore.

After Ketan Bhai Patel guided India to 258 with a hurricane knock of 98, the hosts restricted the visitors to 229 for nine in the allotted 20 overs.

Batting first, Prakash Jayaramaiah made useful 42 while vice-captain Ajay Kumar Reddy contributed 25, helping India to post a competitive total.

For Pakistan, Mohammed Jameel scored a quickfire 47, Ali Murthaza struck 38 while Mohammed Akram helped himself to 32 runs.

Having won eight matches on the trot in the group stage, Pakistan could not maintain the winning streak when it mattered most.

India had only lost to Pakistan in the group stage and thrashed Sri Lanka in the semifinal.

Pakistan had spanked England by nine wickets in the semifinals.

The victory is India’s first in a World Cup final after they lost to Pakistan in 2006. 

Junior Accountants in Treasuries and Accounts Subordinate Service and Junior Assistants in APMS Under GROUP IV SERVICE (Notification No. 38/2011) Final Key

GROUP-IV SERVICES (38/2011):Paper-1 - GENERAL STUDIES - Final Key

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Uttarakhand tops in “Environmental Performance Index (EPI)”

Uttarakhand (scored 0.8123) topped the list of best-performing States and Union territories in terms of environmental performance. As per the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) released by Planning Commission:

· Uttarakhand is followed by Himachal Pradesh (0.7316), Chandigarh (0.7270), Sikkim (0.7149), and Andhra Pradesh (0.7147).
· Best states in terms of air quality: Mizoram, Kerala, Goa, Sikkim, Tripura, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar (all with average score of 1)
· Paradoxically, except for Uttarakhand, all the States meet the prescribed national ambient air quality standard in respect of the sulphur dioxide of 20 micrograms per cubic metre.
· More than 10 States do not meet the national standard of 30 microgram per cubic metre for Nitrogen dioxide.
· Except for Goa, Kerala, and Mizoram, no State meets the 60 microgram per cubic metre national standard for particulate matter.
· Himachal Pradesh is the only state with 100 % sewage treatment capacity, in the remaining States it ranges from 0 (13 States) to less than 20 % (8 States) and more than 50 per cent in 4 States.
· Total fecal coliform count is as much as 92 % in most of the States.
· States leading in forest conservation and expansion of green cover are Chandigarh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.
Environmental well-being is one of the considerations for transfer of funds to the States under the Gadgil formula.
Indicators taken under consideration to arrive at water quality:
· Sewage disposal
· water quality of rivers
· dissolved oxygen
· total coliform count
· percentage of water exploitation
The indicators considered for measuring the ambient air quality performance:
· sulphur dioxide
· nitrogen oxide
· particulate matter

Vinod Rai re-elected as chair of UN auditors panel

Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai has been re-elected as chairman of United Nations Panel of External Auditors for 2013.

"CAG Vinod Rai has been re-elected Chair of the (UN) Panel for the year 2013, while the CAG of the United Kingdom, Amyas Morse, has been re-elected the vice-chair of the Panel".

The Panel headed by Vinod Rai discussed the major business transformations currently underway in the United Nations with Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

Some of the major issues that came up for discussion during the meeting include the requirement for optimising the process of deriving benefits from the business transformations currently underway.

The need to put in place a mechanism to govern voluntary contributions which form a major portion of funding that the UN receives and the need for strengthening coordination between the panel and the UN secretariat were other issues discussed during the meet.

The panel of external auditors plays an important role in promoting accountability and strengthening governance mechanisms in the UN organisations.

The panel meets annually to discuss emergent issues in the audit of UN organisations. At present, the panel comprises Canada, China, France, India, Italy, Pakistan, Philippines, Switzerland, Tanzania and the UK. 

Poland to host next round of UN climate talks

Poland will host the next round of UN climate talks in 2013.

The decision to hold the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Warsaw, capital of Poland, in 2013 was adopted by negotiators from over 190 countries here in the capital of Qatar, Doha, at the 18th session of the COP.

Poland was chosen on the basis of geographical rotation as next year marks the turn of East European countries to host the annual UN event.

Poland, which relies on carbon-intensive coal for nearly all its power needs, has already voiced concern that greater action on climate will harm its economy.

At the latest UN climate conference in Doha, negotiators extended the Kyoto Protocol, the only internationally binding treaty on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, to the end of 2020.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialised countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Women and Men in India 2012

     

Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre

The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) established at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Sciences, (INCOIS - ESSO) Hyderabad, autonomous body under Ministry of Earth Sciences, is being upgraded continuously to provide tsunami advisories for the events occurring in the global oceans, though it has been recognized as one of the best systems in the world. The major upgradation work would be Standardization of the Operating Procedures, bulletin formats and terminologies with warning centres operating in other global basins. To achieve this, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC of UNESCO) has set up a task team comprising of experts from tsunami warning centres of all ocean basins, with India as the Chair. The ITEWC encompasses a real-time seismic monitoring network of 17 broadband seismic stations to detect tsunamigenic earthquakes, a network of real-time sea-level sensors with 4 Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPR) in the open ocean and 25 tide gauge stations at different coastal locations monitor tsunamis and a 24 X 7 operational tsunami warning centre to provide timely advisories to vulnerable community. It also receives earthquake data from all other global networks to detect earthquakes of M>6.5. The state-of-the-art early warning centre at INCOIS - ESSO is operational since October 15, 2007 with all the necessary computational and communication infrastructure that enables reception of real-time data from seismic & sea-level sensors, analysis of the data, tsunami modeling, and dissemination of tsunami advisories guided by a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). A host of all available communication technology options have been employed for timely dissemination of advisories to various designated authorities to deal with effective emergency response actions as appropriate. The centre is capable of detecting tsunamigenic earthquakes occurring in the whole of Indian Ocean region as well as in the Global Oceans within 10 minutes of their occurrence and disseminates the advisories to the concerned authorities within 20 minutes through various modes of communication like email, fax, SMS, GTS and website. Since its inception in October 2007 to till date, ITEWC has monitored 339 earthquakes of M > 6.5 out of which 63 are in the Indian Ocean region. ITEWC also acts as one of the Regional Tsunami advisory Service Provider (RTSP) along with Australia & Indonesia for the Indian Ocean region. As the oceans on the earth are interconnected, the tsunami waves generated due to any great earthquakes in the global oceans can affect the Indian Coasts. In order to protect our coasts from tsunamis up-grading the present system is very essential. Up-gradation of ITEWC will also enhance its capability to provide tsunami advisories to the other needy countries in the world. The basic infra-structure and the necessary computational facilities are established while setting up the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre and hence no major hardware upgradations are proposed. The maintenance of the entire early warning system is carried out with a budget allocation of Rs. 17.00 Crores per annum. Model simulations required for global operations would be run as part of this itself. Additional data required for the enhancement of ITEWC for global operations can be obtained by collaborations with centres operating in other countries.

Currently, there are 1800 coastal forecast points covering coastal areas of the entire Indian Ocean region. The necessary actions have been initiated to upgrade the same for covering other the coastal regions.

Reconstitution of Inter-State Council

The Inter-State Council has been reconstituted under the chairmanship of Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister.

The Council will have Chief Minister of all States, Chief Ministers of Union Territories having a Legislative Assembly and Administration of Union Territories not having Legislative Assembly and six Union Ministers Shri Sharad Pawar, Minister of Agriculture & Minister of Food Processing Industries, Shri P.Chidambaram, Minister of Finance, Shri Sushilkumar Shinde, Minister of Home Affairs, Shri M. Veerappa Moily, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Urban Development and Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal, Minister of Railways as members.

Five Union Cabinet Ministers/Minister of State (Independent Charge) namely Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Shri S. Jaipal Reddy, Minister of Science & Technology, Shri C.P.Joshi, Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shri M.K.Alagiri, Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Shri Ashwani Kumar, Minister of Law & Justice are permanent invitees for the Inter-State Council.

Assistant Engineer in Ground Water Dept & Municipal Assistant Engineers in A.P. Municipal Engineering sub service (Notification No. 11/2012,SPECIAL RECRUITMENT FOR SC, ST BACKLOG VACANCIES) Final Key (Exam Held on: 18-11-2012)

Asst.Engineers in PC-05 GW & PC-07 ME (11/2012) :: Paper-1 SERIES: A 600 - G.S. & M.A(Final Key) 

Asst.Engineer in PC-05 GW & PC-07 ME (11/2012) :: Paper-2 SERIES: A 634 - COMMON FOR ALL BRANCHES(Final Key) 

Forest Range Officers in A.P. Forest Service (Notification No. 52/2011) Key

•	Forest Range Officer :: Paper-1 SERIES: A 500 - G.S. & M.A.
•	Forest Range Officer :: Paper-4 ALL OPTIONAL PAPERS

Town Planning Assistants in. A.P. TownPlanning Subordinate Service (Notification No. 46/2011) Final Key

	Town Planning Assistants :: Paper-1 SERIES: A 600 - GENERAL STUDIES - Final Key
	Town Planning Assistants:: Paper-2 SERIES: A 629 - TOWN PLANNING - Final Key

Govt wins FDI vote in Lok Sabha

Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail on December 5 got the approval of the Lok Sabha as the Opposition motion seeking immediate withdrawal of the decision was rejected convincingly as the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party walked out.

218 members voted in favour of the Opposition motion, while 253 voted against it in the House where 471 members participated in the voting. The total strength of the House is 545.
The House also rejected the motion seeking amendment to the rules notified by the Reserve Bank under Foreign Exchange Management Act to enable FDI in multi-brand retail.
Members of SP and BSP, with respective strength of 22 and 21, did not participate in the voting as they walked out alleging that interests of farmers and small retailers had been ignored.

India ranks 94 in list of corrupt nations

India was ranked 94 out of 176 countries surveyed in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2012, with a score of 36 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), the Transparency International India (TII) said.

Last year India ranked 95 out of 183 countries. However, due to an update in the methodology, CPI scores of 2011 cannot be compared with this years' score, S.K. Agarwal, vice-chairman of TII told IANS. He added that India had the same score of 36 in 2011 as well.

"The 2012 index ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption and assigns scores of between one (highly corrupt) and 100 (clean).

While Somalia, North Korea and Afghanistan were the most corrupt countries with a score of eight, Denmark, Finland and New Zealand tied for the first place of the least corrupt with a score of 90.

China had a CPI score of 39, which is better than India, while Pakistan's was 27.

CPI scores and ranks countries based on how corrupt a country's public sector is perceived to be. It is a combination of surveys and assessments of corruption collected by a variety of reputable institutions.

Bangalore better than Delhi, Mumbai in quality of living: Survey

Bangalore ranks better than New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata amongst Indian cities in overall global quality of living index, according to a Mercer 2012 Quality of Living Survey.

Mercer conducts this survey annually to help multinational companies and other organisations compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments. According to the global consulting firm, its Quality of Living index list covers 221 cities, ranked against New York as the base city.

Global ranking by infrastructure

This year’s ranking separately identifies the cities with the best infrastructure based on electricity supply, water availability, telephone and mail services, public transportation, traffic congestion and the range of international flights from local airports, a statement said.

Singapore is at the top of this index, followed by Frankfurt and Munich. Copenhagen (4) and Dusseldorf (5) fill the next two slots, while Hong Kong and London share sixth place. Port-au-Prince (221) ranks at the bottom of the list.

Indian cities

Bangalore’s overall quality of living rank went up from 141 in 2011 to 139 in 2012 and is highest amongst other Indian cities. While New Delhi ranks (143), Mumbai (146), Chennai (150), and Kolkata (151) in overall Quality of living.

Bangalore’s rise in its quality of living ranking can be attributed to positive ratings for international schools which are suitable for expatriates, the survey says.

Mumbai ranks highest on city infrastructure category (134) amongst Indian cities followed by Kolkata (141), New Delhi (153), Chennai (168), and Bangalore (170).

Vienna retains top slot

In a statement issued here, Mercer said, Vienna retains the top spot as the city with the world’s best quality of living. Zurich and Auckland follow in the second and third place, respectively. Munich is in the fourth place, followed by Vancouver, which ranks fifth.

Düsseldorf dropped one spot to rank sixth followed by Frankfurt in seventh, Geneva in eighth, Copenhagen in ninth, and Bern and Sydney tied for the 10th place.

Asia-Pacific cities

Qualifying the Asia-Pacific cities, the survey says that Australian and New Zealand cities rank higher on the index with Sydney (11), Wellington (13), Melbourne (18) and Perth (21) following Auckland (3).

At the bottom

Globally, the cities with the lowest quality of living are Khartoum, Sudan (217); N’Djamena, Chad (218); Port-au-Prince, Haiti (219); and Bangui, Central African Republic (220). Baghdad, Iraq (221) ranks last.

Region-wise

Honolulu (28) is the city in the United States with the highest quality of living, followed by San Francisco (29) and Boston (35). Chicago is at 42 and Washington, DC ranks 43. New York, the base city, ranks 44.

In terms of city infrastructure, Vancouver (9) tops the ranking for the region with Atlanta and Montreal following at 13. In the United States, Dallas ranked 15, followed by Washington, DC (22), Chicago (28) and New York (30).

Europe has 15 cities among the world’s top 25 cities for quality of living. Vienna retains the highest-ranking for both the region and globally. With six cities in the top 10, European cities also fare well in the city infrastructure ranking.