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Monday, 17 October 2011

Current Affairs : August 17, 2011


Competition Commission of India imposes heavy Penalty on Real Estate
Giant DLF
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a heavy penalty of
Rs.630 Crore on real estate giant DLF for abusing its leading position
CCI issued a cease and desist order against imposing unfair conditions on the
buyers of its flats
The Commission considered it appropriate to impose penalty at the rate of 7 per
cent (totalling Rs.630.43 crore) of the average of the turnover for the last three
preceding financial years on OP-1 (DLF)
Kendra Sahitya Akademi Awards for Children’s Literature
6 novels, 5 collections of short stories, 7 books of poetry and 1 book of folk tales and
plays in 24 Indian languages were selected for the 2011 Kendra Sahitya Akademi
Awards for Children’s Literature
The awards comprise a prize purse of Rs. 50,000 and a copper plaque
Bala Sahitya Puraskar for lifetime contribution to children’s literature:
Sailen Ghosh (Bengali), Shyam Dutt Parag (Dogri), Ramesh Parekh (Gujarati),
Harikrishna Devsare (Hindi) and Maheswar Mohanty (Oriya)
Poetry:
Gh. Nabi Aatash (Kashmiri), Snehalata Rai (Nepali), Darshan Singh Asht (Punjabi),
Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra (Sanskrit), Nuhum Hembram (Santali), M.L. Thangappa
(Tamil) and Aasil Aseer Dehlavi (Urdu)
Short-Story Writers:
Maheswar Narzary (Bodo), Mayanath Jha (Maithili), Dileep Prabhavalkar (Marathi),
Harish B. Sharma (Rajasthani) and M. Bhoopal Reddy (Telugu)
Novelists:
Bandita Phukan (Assamese), Siddhartha Sarma (English), Hundraj Balwani (Sindhi), N.
D’souza (Kannada), Gajanan Jog (Konkani) and K. Pappootty (Malayalam)
Shantibala Devi (Manipuri) was chosen for her book of folk tales and plays
FITCH ratings sustains AAA status to US
FITCH, a leading International credit rating agency, has
confirmed the AAA status of United States
Fitch Ratings believes that the US dollar’s position as the global reserve currency
means it can tolerate higher debt to GDP levels than other ‘AAA’ rated sovereigns
It means that the wealth and the financial suppleness of US as one of the world’s

most trustworthy borrowers preserves
The move is a reflection of the pivotal role of United States in the global financial
system and the role of dollar as the reserve currency
The FITCH ratings virtually amount to a vote of confidence for Washington’s
Deficit reduction efforts
The agency however, said that it will revisit its decision at the end of the year.
Two weeks ago, Standard and Poor had downgraded US ratings to double AA+
The S&P downgrade of the US had led to volatility in the global stock markets
Earlier, Moody’s Investor Services have confirmed its AAA rating on US but
assigned a negative outlook
Rajya Sabha takes up impeachment proceeding against Justice Soumitra
Sen
Rajya Sabha initiated the impeachment proceedings against Justice
Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court on two grounds of
misconduct
The charges include misappropriation of large sums of money,
which he received in his capacity as receiver appointed by the
Calcutta High Court as a lawyer in 1984 and misrepresentation of
facts before the court
The motion for the removal of Justice Sen was moved in the house by Mr Sitaram
Yechury and Mr Prasanta Chatterjee, both CPIM and Mr Arun Jaitley of the BJP
A total of 58 members from Rajya Sabha had represented for removal of Justice
Sen from his office
A Universal Health Insurance Scheme being devised by the Planning
Commission
The Planning Commission is framing up a blue print for a Universal Health
Insurance Scheme
Scheme to provide a least amount of health cover to everyone in the country
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna -RSBY is at present available for all BPL families
and other additional categories
Under RSBY, below poverty line households are provided health insurance cover,
which entitles them to hospitalisation coverage of up to Rs 30,000
Beneficiaries under RSBY need to pay only Rs 30 rupees as registration fee, while
the central and state governments pay the premium to the insurer
The Commission has also called for increase in public expenditure on health to 2.5% of GDP per annum by the end of 12th Plan (2012-17)
from the present level of 1.4%
In order to impart training to workforce in MSME sector, Govt to set up 50
new Training Centres
Government to set up over 50 new training centres
for upgrading skills of workforce in the micro, small
and medium enterprises, MSME sector
The National Skill Development Corporation set
up by the Government aims to provide skill training to
150 million persons by 2022
Out of the 150 million people, 15 million will be provided skill development
training
At present, 10 training centres are being operated in the states including Kolkata,
Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar and Jamshedpur.
U.S. tobacco companies sue Federal Government over graphic warning
labels
Four major U.S. tobacco companies sued the US Federal Government
The companies alleged that forcing them to put graphic warning labels on
cigarette packages is unconstitutional
As per the companies, the new rules violate their right to free speech

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