General Awareness Updates – March 2010

Miscellaneous-1:

The Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari has constituted a three-member committee to investigate the grounds for impeachment of Karnataka Chief Justice P. D. Dinakaran, whose removal of office has been sought jointly by 75 opposition members in the Rajya Sabha on charges of corruption and land-grabbing. The last such panel was set up in March 2009 for the removal of Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) there were at least 16,196 farmer’s suicides in 2008 bringing the total since 1997 to 1,99,132. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh accounted for 66.6 per cent of the total farm suicides in the country. Maharashtra remains the worst state in this aspect with a total of 3802 suicides.

Violence and vandalism broke out in Malaysia in which churches, a gurudwara and mosques were targeted. The attacks followed outrage among Muslims over a court verdict that allows on-Muslims to use ‘Allah’ as a translation for ‘God’ in the Malay language.

The Union Government announces a five-member committee headed by former Supreme Court judge B. N. Srikrishna to hold wide-ranging consultations with all sections of people and all political parties and groups in Andhra Pradesh. The other members are Professor Ranbir Singh, Chancellor, National Law University Delhi; Dr. Abusaleh Shariff, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute, Delhi; Dr. Ravinder Kaur, Professor, Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Delhi, and Vinod Duggal, former Home Secretary who will function as its Member Secretary. Mr. Duggal is also a member of the Justice Punchi Commission on centre-state relations.

Under the seven-point terms of reference (ToR), the committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice B. N. Srikrishna Committee, constituted on February 3, 2010, will examine the impact of the recent developments in the state on the different sections of the people such as women, children, students, minorities, other backward classes, scheduled castes, and scheduled tribes.

The Committee has also been mandated to review the developments in Andhra Pradesh since its formation and their impact on the progress and development of the different regions of the state. It will “examine the situation in the state of Andhra Pradesh with reference to the demand for a separate state of Telangana as well as the demand for maintaining the present status of a united Andhra Pradesh,” the ToR said. The committee has been asked to submit its report by December 31, 2010, this year.

India ranks 123rd in the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) while Iceland leads the world in addressing pollution control and natural resource management challenges. Among newly industrialized countries, China and India rank 121st and 123rd respectively. Brazil and Russia rank 62nd and 69th. The EPI is produced by a team of environmental experts at Yale and Colombia University. This is the third edition of the EPI which was launched in 2006.

The Chief of the Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor has accepted the advice of Defence Minister A. K. Anthony by ordering court martial proceedings against Military Secretary Lt. Gen. Avadesh Prakash for his alleged involvement in a land scam in Darjeeling.

Iran has launched its satellite carrier Kavoshgaro-3 (explorer) rocket. On board were living organisms – a rat, two turtles and worms. The Iranian Aerospace Organisation (IAO) said that the rocket also carried an experimental capsule that was equipped to send telemetric data, live pictures and flight and environmental analysis data.

A bomb blast ripped through Pune’s popular German Bakery, close to the Osho Ashram and diagonally across from the Jewish Chabad House, recced by 26/11 suspect David Coleman Headley, killing at least 10 people, four of them foreigners, all women. This is the first terror attack since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, 15 months ago. For the last two months, there has been a growing buzz of an imminent terror attack, especially as India and Pakistan were preparing to resume talks that have been suspended since the Mumbai carnage.