CURRENT AFFAIRS JULY 21, 2011

All India Police Radio Officers Conference

28th All India Police Radio Officers Conference 2011 was inaugurated in New Delhi by

the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr. M. Ramachandran

Conference organized by Directorate of Coordination Police Wireless, MHA

Mr. Ramachandran laid stress on a focused role for the Police Communication

organizations to address various Home land security needs via converged and

collaborative means

Government launches new web portal: www.parivahan,gov.in

Government launched new web portal : www.parivahan.gov.in

A web portal for basic citizen services like driving license and vehicle registration

Minister for Road transport and Highways: Mr. C P Joshi

National Register will create a data bank of all vehicles in the country

The National Register created from the State Registers under the National

Transport Project to act as a central repository of all crucial data

It will provide basic citizen centric services to people anytime and anywhere in the

country

The portal connects 975 regional transport offices of the country

Common Entrance Examination for all medical colleges

Government decided to hold a Common Entrance Examination for admission to all

Medical Colleges across the country from the next academic session

Decision to hold a single Joint Medical Entrance Test taken at a meeting of

Health Ministry Officials, the Board of Governors of the Medical Council of India

and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) held in New Delhi

About 10 Lakh Students take the common medical entrance exam in the country

annually, for admission to 330 medical colleges across the country

India’s Economic Growth Projections for 2011-12 lowered by Government

to 8.6%

Government lowered India’s economic growth projection for 2011-12 to

8.6% from the earlier estimate of about 9%

Government also put that inflation will remain high till December 2011

The Finance Ministry held that there is a perceptible slowdown in the last two

quarters’ growth of Indian economy and the outlook for 2011-12 has to be inferred

from movements of past data

The economy grew by just 8.3% in the third quarter last fiscal and 7.8% in the

January-March period, the lowest in five quarters

Current inflation is being mainly driven by:

Seasonal Effects

Upward Movement in Crude Oil, Manufactured and Administered Fuel

Prices

Due to uncertain economic conditions in Europe, and other western markets and

slowdown in global trade volumes, India’s exports may not sustain their high

growth rate in the coming months

All Rural Development Programmes to be audited by the CAG

The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) to audit all Rural Development

Programmes including MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment

Guarantee Scheme), for their effective and transparent implementation

New Rural Development Minister: Mr. Jairam Ramesh

CAG: Mr. Vinod Rai

A panel of Chartered Accountants in each and every district across the country to

do Financial Audit

As per Mr. Ramesh, action taken on the Audit Report is very significant and his

precedence is to take a stock of the ground reality in the Naxal affected areas; to

have a closer look at their problems

Mr. Ramesh elucidated, funds are no constraint but the actual hitch is lack of

proper Administration

There are many complaints of delayed payment in MGNERGA

President Ms Pratibha Devisingh Patil to visit Korea, Mongolia

The President Ms Pratibha Devisingh Patil to visit Republic of Korea and

Mongolia

Visit aimed at accelerating India’s cooperation with these two countries

In the first stage of her weeklong trip, she will leave New Delhi on the July 24,

2011 for Republic

of Korea on the invitation of President Lee Myung-bak

President Lee Myung-bak

visited India last year as Chief Guest for the Republic Day celebrations

In the second stage, she will visit Mongolia from July 27, 2011 at the invitation of

President Elbegdorj

President Elbegdorj had paid a State Visit to India in September 2009

Ms Patil’s visit to these countries assumes importance in the backdrop of the fact

that they are two important partners of India in North East Asia

Hina Rabbani Khar: New Foreign Minister of Pakistan

• Hina Rabbani Khar, 34, the youngest Foreign Minister in

Pakistan’s History, beating the record of former Prime Minister

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was 35 when he took over the portfolio in

the Mr. Ayub Khan’s regime

9th India-ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna to participate in the 9th India-ASEAN Post

Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia

Mr. Krishna to join discussions in the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers

Consultations and the ASEAN Regional Forum Ministerial Meeting for two days

from July 22, 2011

India-ASEAN Ministerial meet to Review cooperation and deliberate on its future

direction

India-ASEAN commemorative summit to be hosted in New Delhi in

December 2012

The Ministers to swap views on Regional and International issues of interest to

both the sides

India and the member countries adopted a plan of action for 2010-15 during the

eighth ASEAN-India summit held on October 30, 2010 at Hanoi, Vietnam.