Page 1 of 3 5th July 2013

National: Madhubani artist Mahasundari Devi dead Reputed Madhubani painting artist, the 2011 Padma Shri awardee, Mahasundari Devi (82) is died. Expressing deep sorrow over her death, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in a condolence message said Mahasundari Devi’s death had left a deep void in the world of art, particularly Madhubani paintings. Former Vice Admiral DK Dewan appointed new UPSC member Former Vice Chief of Naval Staff D K Dewan has been appointed a member of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Dewan was appointed for a period of six years or until he attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier, a notification by the Ministry of Personnel said. Dewan is the eighth member in the Commission. Besides him, Prashanta Kumar Mishra, Rajni Razdan, Dr Venkatarami Reddy Y, Alka Sirohi, Prof David R Syiemlieh, Manbir Singh and former CBI director Amar Pratap Singh are other members of the Commission. The Commission, headed by Prof D P Agrawal, still has vacancy of two members. Anita Kaul new Secretary, Justice in Law Ministry Anita Kaul has been appointed as the new Secretary, Justice in the Law Ministry, while Sangita Gairola will be the new Secretary of Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare in the Defence Ministry. Kaul, will replace D K Sikri on his retirement on July 31. As Secretary Justice, Kaul, who is presently in her cadre, will look after the appointment, resignation and removal of judges of the Supreme Court and the 24 high courts. Gairola, is Secretary, Department of Youth Affairs in the Sports Ministry. She will swap her position with Rajiv Gupta who is Secretary, Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare in the Defence Ministry. Provide safe drinking water to prevent fluorosis Concerned at increasing cases of fluorosis, the Union government has asked the States to provide alternative source of drinking water to the people in areas with high concentration of fluorosis in groundwater. Fluorosis in its severe form (skeletal fluorosis) is a crippling disorder that occurs due to excess intake of fluoride, mainly through drinking water. The effects, being permanent and irreversible in nature, are detrimental to the health of the individual and the community, which in turn has an impact on the growth, development, economy and human resource. The permissible fluoride limit, as per BIS is 1 ppm in drinking water. At least 19 States have been identified with fluoride in water level above the safe limit. The best and only way to prevent fluorosis is providing safe drinking water to people. At least 230 districts in 19 States are affected by fluorosis. President gives away youth awards President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the National Youth Award 2011-12 on 27 individuals and a West Bengal-based organisation. This is for the first time that these awards were presented by the President. The annual awards, instituted in 1985, are conferred on those having demonstrated excellence in different fields of youth development and social service. The award carries a silver medal, a certificate and a cash prize of Rs.40,000 in case of an individual awardee and Rs.2 lakh for a voluntary organisation.

International: London to host Islamic economic forum in October London will host the ninth World Islamic Economic Forum in October 2013, organisers have announced, the first time that the event will be held outside of a Muslim country, as the British capital looks to become a global hub for Sharia finance. More than 1,500 delegates, including government and business leaders, as well as scholars, will descend on London for the three-day event which sets out to boost trade partnerships between Islamic and European markets. Britain has the largest Islamic banking sector outside the Middle East and Asia. The World Islamic Economic Forum is organised by the Kuala Lumpur-based WIEF Foundation. Previous forums have been held in Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Malaysia and Pakistan. The ninth edition will be held at London's Excel Centre between October 29 and 31.

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Statue of Liberty reopens on US Independence Day Statue of Liberty, a veritable symbol of America, was reopened to the public for the first time since superstorm Sandy hit the island on October 29, 2012. The reopening of Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island's reopening came up on the occasion of the nation's Independence Day, as the cultural icon saw its restoration in less than nine months after nature ravaged the city. The 'Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World' was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the US, and is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. The monument was dedicated on October 28, 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924 and restored for her centennial on July 04, 1986. Designed by French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, with internal structural elements engineered by Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, the statue stands on a 12-acre island atop the former Fort Wood. Sheets of pure copper hang on a framework of steel 151 feet and one inch high. The pedestal and foundation add another 154 feet.

Business & Economy: Canara Bank cuts lending, FD rates Canara Bank has slashed base rate or the minimum lending rate by 0.3 percentage pointfrom 10.25 per cent to 9.95 per cent for all loans and advances. It has also reduced the interest rate by up to 0.5 percentage point on fixed deposits with select maturities. The new rates would be effective from July 8. RBI notifies FDI norms, defines term ‘control’ The Reserve Bank of India, has notified foreign direct investment (FDI) guidelines, defining control of a company. The notification of Press Note 2 and 3 of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), which has been pending for the last four years, will be used to ensure that foreign direct investments comply with FDI ceilings and other norms. A company is considered as ‘controlled’ by resident Indian citizens if the power to appoint a majority of the directors on its board is held by Indian companies and citizens. Chandrasekhar set to head Nasscom Former telecom secretary R Chandrasekhar will succeed Som Mittal as president of the $100-billion IT industry's apex body Nasscom. Chandrasekhar, an IAS officer who joined the government in 1975, retired as telecom secretary in March 2013. I-T dept may make date of birth proof mandatory for PAN card As part of its drive against fake Permanent Account Number, the Income Tax department is considering making proof of date-of-birth mandatory for issuance of PAN card. The department might ask for proof of date-of-birth for issuing a PAN card. Ration cards and rent receipts might no longer be accepted as proofs of identity and address for issuance of a PAN card. In most cases of fraud, people have furnished fake ration cards and rent receipts to get PAN card. Recently, the I-T department has found a number of individuals possessing fake PAN cards as identity proof, 170 million people in India have PAN cards, while only 30 million of them file income tax returns. MRPL keen to renew pact with STC Mauritius Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL), a subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and a “mini Ratna”, is in negotiations for exporting a higher quantity of its products to Mauritius. MRPL had signed the current agreement with STC of Mauritius in 2010 to export petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to the island for three years. The quantity of all three exported products put together is 1.1 million tonnes per year. Welspun bags 32-MW solar projects in Punjab Welspun Energy, India's biggest developer of solar projects, said it has been awarded 32 MW of solar projects by Punjab. The projects, awarded by Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) through a single stage competitive bidding, are to be commissioned during the second quarter of 2014. At present, Punjab has an installed solar capacity of 9 MW. With this project, Welspun Energy will be annually feeding 56 million units of clean emission free energy into the Punjab state grid, for subsequent 25 years. About 53,261 tonnes of CO2 emissions will be mitigated by this project on a yearly basis.

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Videocon Mobile Services slashes GPRS rates by 90% Videocon Mobile Services has slashed its GPRS rates by 90% across the telecom circles of Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The telecom firm is now offering data usage at a reduced rate of 1paisa per 10kb from the earlier 10paisa per 10kb. The move enables consumer across the four telecom circles to enjoy greater internet benefits. According to the new tariff, once the subscribers exhaust their free 2G Data Pack quota, they can continue to access high speed mobile internet by just paying 1paise per 10kb. Videocon said that its 2.75G EDGE network should provide better services than 2G and closer to 3G. Singapore set to replace Switzerland as top fin hub Singapore will dethrone Switzerland in the next two years as the world's top centre for managing international funds, as a global tax crackdown and tighter regulation weaken the Alpine nation's appeal to investors. Switzerland, still the world's biggest offshore financial centre with $2 trillion in assets, came ahead of rivals Singapore, London, Hong Kong and New York in the 2013 ranking, compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers as part of its Global Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey. Vodafone offers free incoming calls on roaming at `5 per day Country's second largest telecom player Vodafone has launched Rs 5 per day scheme offering free incoming calls, cheaper outgoing calls and SMS rates during national roaming. The announcement by Vodafone follows the launch of similar schemes by rivals Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular.

Sci. & Tech: World’s first ‘human liver’ created from stem cells In a world first, Japanese scientists have grown human liver tissue from stem cells, paving way for alleviating the critical shortage of donor organs. Takanori Takebe and Hideki Taniguchi at Yokohama City University showed the generation of vascularised and functional human liver from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) by transplantation of in vitro grown liver buds (rudimentary liver). The study demonstrates a proof-of-concept that organ bud transplantation offers an alternative approach for treating organ failure by generating a 3D and vascularised organ. During the early liver organogenesis, liver progenitor cells delaminate from the foregut endodermal sheet and form a three-dimensional liver bud (LB), a condensed tissue mass that is soon vascularised. Such large-scale morphogenetic changes depend on the orchestration of signals between liver, mesenchymal and endothelial progenitors prior to blood perfusion.

Sport: Australian citizenship for Pak-born Fawad Pakistan-born leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed had his bid for Australian citizenship accepted, making him eligible to play in the upcoming Ashes series in England. The former refugee, 31, played for Australia in June 2013 in England and selector John Inverarity has indicated he will be considered for the Ashes squad. The opening Test of the five-match Ashes series starts in Nottingham on July 10, with Nathan Lyon the only spinner in Australia’s 16-man squad.