Current Affairs in January 2011

Every human being deserves to be aware of the current affairs in his or her nation. It is one of the essentials to crack any exam. Being aware of your surrounding makes you confident and positive. You need to always have extra knowledge that might make you a sound person. The current affairs in January included many hits and lows. India had to bid farewell to one of the finest classical singer Pandit Bhimsen Joshi who passed away at the age of 88. Globally renowned director, Mario Monicelli too committed suicide after suffering from prostate cancer. Acharya Lokesh Muni was selected for the prestigious National communal harmony award. The much awaited 26^th junior athletics championship was held at Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru. A.R. Rahman was awarded the Crystal award of World Economic Forum for his exceptional talent and charitable work.

Anand Sinha was considered by RBI for its governor’s position. Gautam Gambhir was awarded the layer of the series for his exceptional field job in the ODI series. The SEBI announced U.K.Sinha as its future Chairman. Pervez Musharraf was considering his visit to India but was denied a visa after decisions undertaken by the Home ministry. The 2012 and 2018 football world cup would be hosted by Qatar and Russia. The player who has been voted as best Women in the game of tennis was Kim Clijsters. Katta Subramanya Naidu was asked to resign as the Technological minister of Karnataka for his involvement in an illegal land scam. Japan has been allowed by Google to make use of Google technology to scrutinize and power up the search engine mechanism. Mahendra Singh Dhoni had signed to promote the famous liquor brand (UB group) which was initially refused by master cricketer Sachin tendulkar. January 25^th will now be considered as national voter’s day. India and France have entered an agreement to incorporate and pour in co0operation for an intensive nuclear energy. Somalia has been considered as one of the world’s most corrupt countries. The only effort realized is making the nation transparent from corrupted sectors.

Mark Zuckerberg has recently joined the band wagons of richest people aiming to donate major chunk of their money for charitable occasions. K.C.Lekha has won over 32 points at a boxing championship organized at Lulu International Convention Centre. Bangladesh will have the right to host the 2012 Asia Cricket Cup. The youngest person to be awarded as Person of the year 2010 is Mark Zuckerberg. He is the CEO and president of a social networking site called Facebook.

Facts about Indian Sports

India is country with crazy people who would love sports to the core of their heart. You will typically find every kind of sports to be enjoyed here. Indians find sports to be a great source of inspiration as well as entertainment. There are certain facts about Indian sports that might just surprise you. Indians love the game of cricket however; this game has to a large extent surpassed all the other native games. The local games in India are basically enjoyed by the villagers. You would rarely come across a kid who must have not played cricket or picked a bat.

You will come across great kids who might be brilliant at the local sport. This however never gets highlighted. It is always profitable to sell cricket kits than an indoor game. Majority of Indians prefer outdoor games to indoor. The ancient game called gilli-danda was replaced by cricket during the early British Raj. However, you would still find kids playing this game in U.P, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. The other sport that is quite popular in India would be badminton or tennis. This game was basically introduced in India some 2000 years ago. The other game that is also quite famous would be Kancha which is basically flying kites. This happens only during “Makar Sankranti”.

India won its first medal in boxing during 2008. Vijender Kumar was the one to have made India proud at quarterfinals. India has been lucky to have earned the World cup trophy twice during 1983 and 2011. The other important fact about Indian sports is that cricketers get paid huge sum of money to feature in advertisements as compared to any other nation. The other emerging sport amongst the elite category is golf. This game is surely for the classes and certainly not the masses. There are places across the globe where kayaking is considered as a sport while in India, people consider it as a one time entertainment or recreational activity. The most interesting game of the locals tends to be Kabbadi. This sport requires rustic ground and strong persons to defend and cross the other line. India has been fortunate to grab four gold medals in the Asian games. There are few more games that Indians love to play including volleyball. This game has managed to please the urban as well as the rural crowd. India ranks 5^th in Asia when it comes to volleyball.

Facts about Indian Cinema

There are many interesting facts about Indian cinema which very few are aware of apart from film students. Did you know that the first ever film produced‘Raja Harishchandra’ or made was a silent film? Sound was definitely not introduced in 1913. Satyajit Ray was the first director to ever get recognized and awarded the lifetime achievement Oscar. There are certain films that have been considered as classics including Mother India, Pather Panchali and Mughal-e-Azam. These films have created a cult for themselves by winning million hearts all over the globe. Lagaan was the first film to be ever nominated for an Academy award. There were other films like Devdas, Sholay which have created a place at Cannes, and leading international film screenings.

Some of the famous filmmakers who have made the India proud are Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth), Yash Chopra, Rakesh Roshan, Mani Ratnam, Amitabh Bachchan, Ramesh Sippy, Farhan Akhtar, Aditya Chopra, Rituparna Sengupta, Karan Johar and many more. These filmmakers have over the years created films that have been well received by most audiences. The Indian cinema has been witness to most promising actors and actresses. Some of the early actresses who created a storm in the industry were Madhubala, Nutan, Asha Parekh, Meena Kumari, Vyjantimala, Waheeda Rahman, Hema Malini, Sharmilla Tagore, Zeenat Aman and followed by Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Kajol, Tabu, Karisma Kapoor to the present Aishwarya rai, Priyanka Chopra. Most Indian actors and actresses are recognized abroad due to the kind of films they do and the brands they endorse. Films initially were rarely scripted.

There was an impromptu dialogue delivery between actors, actresses and co-artists. There were umpteen numbers of rehearsals that took place during every shoot that finally made the shoot very aesthetic. Films were basically funded by third party during the earlier years. Rumors also suggest heavy funding by gangsters. There is a huge difference in the number of days taken to shoot films presently as compared to films shot in the yesteryears. Films took twenty to thirty days at a max while today films take couple of years to get scripted. Also, the money earned by celebrities and actors were far less as compared to present day scenario. Films were mostly shot in sync with music on the location. But today, sound has added numerous benefits and songs need not be played on the sets. Today, films are planned and directed keeping 3D factor in mind and soon new and better ways of depiction will be introduced.

Best Singers of India

India has always presented the greatest artists from each field. If we can boast of having the world’s best singer then we can also present art unmatched by international standards. The nation can easily present the world’s best singers who have created history and earned reputation abroad. The singers have always presented voices that have mellowed down even the unhappy souls. Most of the singers have already made a mark for themselves by singing for most Bollywood films. People in India would swear by most singers and their songs. So attached below is a list of singers who have done wonders to the film industry.

· Mohammed Rafi - This list would have surely not completed without mentioning this famous singer who created melodies and rocked an entire music crazy nation. There is not a single occasion when his songs are not remembered. He has five National awards to his kitty apart from never-ending love from his fans.

· Manna Dev – Today young singers consider him as an ideal inspiration. He has created a cult and mass following for him for 20 years which was very difficult to be broken by his contemporizes. He has also been awarded with national honours and filmfare awards.

· Lata Mangeshkar- She is one amongst the legendary singers. She is certainly one of the most respected singers and keeps rendering magic with her voice. She has sung a thousand songs in every language possible. She has also given her voice and sung songs for many foreign language films as well. Although aged 81, backed by umpteen numbers of trophies and honors, she promises to keep singing all her life for the love of her fans.

· Kishore Kumar – His songs can simply be never missed or forgotten. He was an exceptional singer as well as a talented actor. He was known to give expressions in his songs which would make lives of actors much easier. The songs sung by him can never sound boring. You can just not listen to one. He had again won countless medals both for singing as well as acting.

· Sonu Nigam – He is the most charming singer you can ever come across. He has also sung for many films and won numerous national awards as well as film fare awards. He is a well known singer who can easily imitate different styles in a particular song.

· Mukesh- He is considered as a core singer of the legendary musical singers. People have tried to imitate his style since quite a few years. He has also won countless awards and was known to be every composer’s favorite.

· Asha Bhosale- This list would be a waste if the singer with an attitude is missed. Asha Bhonsle is the younger sister of Lata Mangeshkar and has been honoured with Padma Vibhushan, Filmfare awards, Dadasaheb Phalke award and umpteen filmfare awards. She is quite versatile and can even rock an eight year old man to start dancing.

· Kumar Sanu – He is the only singer to have won awards five times at a stretch. He has also been awarded Padma Shri and has been singing classic melodies since past 20 years. He sung fine melodies with composers like R D Burman, Anu malik, Nadeem-Shravan.

· Sukhwinder Singh – The Oscar award singer composed some of the most rustic yet colloquial songs with A R Rahman. His famous song that captured maximum attention was “Chaiyya Chaiyya” from Dil Se. He was also been awarded the best playback singer award a couple of times.

· Krishnahumar Kunnath – He is a recognized singer known for singing soulful songs that have touched the heart of millions. He has won an equal number of awards for his melodious voice in 2002, 2005 as well as 2009.

Wealthiest Cities of India

India is definitely called a mysterious land. The nation is a mix of different cultures, traditions, castes and religions. India will soon be under the league of developed countries as the per capita income of people in some of the wealthiest cities is much higher than international standards. The following are the list of cities that are considered to be wealthy in terms of per capita income.

· Chandigarh – This city is often considered as the most well planned and wealthiest part of India. The per capita income of every individual is Rs 26710. The infrastructure of this place is to simply die for. There are major international architects handling projects taking off like Albert Mayer, Pierre Jeanneret, Le Corbusier and Mathew Nowicki.

· Panaji – The next city that would remind you of a wealthy city is Panaji. The largest city in Goa accommodates nearly 65000 citizens. This place also accommodates educational institutes; research centre’s namely National Institute of Oceanography.

· Delhi – This is another city to add the wealth feather to the nation. The city will remind you of fashion, luxury, tradition and culture like no other city. The per capita income of a person annually is again Rs 24141. The city is home to some of the best malls, institutes, markets and infrastructure.

· Valparai – This beautiful town is a part of Coimbatore. The annual per capita income of an individual is Rs 23772. This destination is also considered to be tourist’s most favorable attraction. You would hardly come across pollution or would have to bear the horrible traffic of Mumbai or Delhi.

· Greater Mumbai – This part of Mumbai is home to some of the wealthiest people of India. They include majority of film celebrities and industrialists. This makes it one of the reasons to feature in this list.

· Pune- Puneities again has an annual per capita income of Rs 22817. It is considered as the largest city post Mumbai. It is also called as the IT hub or financial hub of India. This city has gained maximum investment opportunities from MNCs and private companies.

· Ludhiana – Ludhiana is definitely not behind any other city when wealth is concerned. The average Indian here has a per capita income of Rs 22178. It is again the major industrial and educational destination. This place is popular for real estate and often considers as Manchester of India.

The last three cities who make it to this list are Chennai, Shimla and Jalandhar. All of them have indivuals with a per capita income of more than Rs 20000 annually. They are again known for infrastructure, industries, educational set-ups and tourism.

Interesting Facts about Indian Economy

India was considered to be a rich land with diverse culture and filled with resources. It was only after the British raj that Indians lost all the resources to them. India was definitely regarded as the richest nation during the 17^th century. One of the interesting facts of India is that the Indian economy stands 4^th in the world. India is a cherished land with bundle of natural resources and beautiful climates that work wonders for the land. The Indian economical GDP stood at $3.60 trillion whereas it positions itself as the 10th largest economy in the world. This growth has increased steadily since 1979 there by averaging at 5.7% every year. The financial year 2004 saw Indian economy to be growing at a rate of 8.2%. This differed a lot from a 5.7% growth in 1994. India has gradually been at the forefront in case of software and outsourcing processes and has enjoyed revenues worth US$ 13 billion approximately in 2004. Major percentage of revenue come through agriculture as it was always considered as the most important occupation. However, there has been a dip in agricultural revenue thanks to unpredictable and bad monsoon sessions. Hence, the need for the day was to undertake and encourage irrigation facilities.

Indian exports had seen an increase and expected to rise from $8 – $46 billion within four years. India had emerged from a slowly developing country and the Indian revenue can easily exceed forex reserves of first world nations including Russia, USA, Germany as well as France. The rupee is now not less than it looks. The year 2005 was a bad year for the Indian economy as the reserve growth money fell to 6.4% from 18.3% in 2004. However, most experts have already predicted according to numerous researches that India and China would eventually rule the world by mid of 21^st century. India is considered to be leading in production of supercomputers after Japan and US. It also has the 2^nd largest paved highways after US. There are eight companies that are listed on the NYSE while three lists on NASDAQ. Indian software developers have shifted base to US in large numbers. The Indian economy and the revenue depend a lot on revenues from the pharmaceutical industry as it stands second in the world. The Indian economy just has great backup but recession does play a major role in decline of revenue.

Presidents of India

India got independent on 15^th August 1947. The very first person to take presidency was Dr Rajendra Prasad. He was born on December,3 1884. He initially was handling the food portfolio. He managed his tenure from 1950 to 1952. He was considered to be very adamant from reforms necessary in agriculture. He died in 1963. The person who managed the presidency position from 1952 to 1962 was Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. He was born in 1888 at Tiruthani. He first emerged as the Vice-chancellor of Hyderabad University in early 1931. He always considered huge importance to education and wanted a nation to follow literacy. It was his love for education that September 5 was considered as Teacher’s Day in India.

He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1954 and was re-elected as the Vice-president making him the only person to have served the presidency position for such a long tenure. He passed away in 1975. He was born in 1897. He began his career as Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia and was awarded Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna in 1963. He was initially appointed as Vice-President in 1962 followed by Presidency in 1967. Varahagiri Venkatagiri was born on 10^th August, 1894. He was the one to introduce India Trade Union Congress. He also spent a lot of time dedicating towards all India railway man’s federation. He was also the Labour minister and was appointed the governor of Mysore, Kerala and UP. He also served as Vice-President from 1967 to 1969. He immediately took over Presidency in 1969 soon after Zakir Hussain’s death.

Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah was elected as the President in 1979. He was born in Maharashtra and began his career as Chief Justice of India from 1968-1970. He was also considered as the Acting president in 1969 for a very short period followed by presidency in 1979. The other few presidents have been Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, B D Jatti, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Giani Zail Singh, R Venkatraman, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, Kocheri Raman Narayan, A P J abdul Kalam and presently Pratibha Patil. All these presidents have made remarkable progress in respective fields and managed to make reformations. Today, people make very little attempt to realize who the president is and it is sad that most of them belong to the younger generation. There are very few kids who manage to make themselves aware of various social situations and general knowledge.

Prime Ministers of India

Every nation needs a representative to rule their country. In a democratic country, the people appoint a prime minister on the basis of maximum votes and allow him to rule the nation. India had its own share of efficient prime ministers right since the people became independent. Each of the prime ministers has contributed in the development in their own way. There have been times of shortcomings such as inflation but overall the nation has surely developed every year. India had faced a situation of emergency during 1983 and 1987 however, very little could have been done during times of terrorist attacks and riots. The role of a prime minister is to manage a population by sheer power and courage. He or she is responsible for bringing changes in every field and addressing issues and passing judgments accordingly. There are a host of people who are supposed to work under the prime minister and hence it is always a team work. The list of prime ministers who managed control since 1947 are:

1. Jawaharlal Nehru – He is definitely considered the best. He had an attitude and caliber certainly unmatched till now. His efforts prior independence is also one of the strong reasons for India becoming independent. He had a great visualization for a developing India. He had primarily introduced large scale industries to control infrastructure projects. He believed democracy was the perfect way to solve major consumer problems. The growth rate of Indian economy definitely did not increase as it was a slow phase. He also made some terrible mistakes with border issues with respect to Kashmir and China.

2. Lal Bahadur Shastri: He is also considered a great revolutionize. His honesty had made him gain a, lot of respect in the field of politics. It was under his leadership that India won the war against Pakistan in 1965.

3. Indira Gandhi – She was the first lady prime minister that India ever witnessed. She has certainly been the most promising prime minister. India underwent a huge development change under her progression. The 1971 war was also won primarily due to her leadership skills. This had led to Bangladesh coming to existence. The first ever nuclear test was conducted in 1974.

The other prime ministers included Moraji Desai followed by Charan Singh,rajiv Gandhi, V.P.Singh, Chandra sekar, P.V. Narasimha Rao,H.D.Deve Gowda, I.K. Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and presently managed by Manmohan Singh.

Bharat Ratna Award Winners

Bharat Ratna is considered as the highest civilian award ever presented to an Indian. This award can be dedicated only to an Indian. Every Indian might definitely know the importance of this award. This Medal of Honor is dedicated to persons who have made a remarkable progress in their respective fields. Their work must be highly appreciated and must make fellow Indians proud. The respective fields can be art, literary, social, political, science, economic etc. Every development has to be made nationally. However, this honor does not constitute any kind of label or status unlike knighthood. This does not stop them to receive special order of precedence.

This award was also introduced to make people aware of their duties and rights to the society. Every Indian must have an ambition to do something extremely beneficial and developmentery for the nation.Hence, the first President of India Rajendra Prasad introduced this award in 1954. There are many other honors like Padma Sri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. However, Bharat Ratna is way ahead of all as very few make it to that level. The first person to ever receive Bharat Ratna was scientist C V Raman in 1954. He deserved this award for his explanatory research and developments the field of science.

There are many others who have been bestowed with this medal. They are listed below in the descending order of period.

1. 2008 – Late Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi
2. 2001 – Kumari Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar
3. 2001 – Late Ustad Bismillah Khan – Arts
4. 1999 – Prof. Amartya Sen – Literature & Education
5. 1999 – Lokpriya Gopinath (posth.) Bordoloi – Public Affairs
6. 1999 – Loknayak Jayprakash (Posth.) Narayan – Public Affairs
7. 1999 – Pandit Ravi Shankar – Arts
8. 1998 – Shri Chidambaram Subramaniam – Public Affairs
9. 1998 – Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi – Arts
10. 1997 – Dr APJ Abdul Kalam – Science and Engineering
11. 1997 – Smt. Aruna Asaf (Posth.) Ali – Public Affairs
12. 1997 – Shri Gulzari Lal Nanda – Public Affairs
13. 1992 – Shri JRD Tata – Trade & Industry
14. 1992 – Shri Maulana Abul Kalam Azad – Public Affairs
15. 1992 – Shri Satyajit Ray – Arts
16. 1991 – Shri Morarji Ranchhodji Desai – Public Affairs
17. 1991 – Shri Rajiv Gandhi – Public Affairs
18. 1991 – Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – Public Affairs
19. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedakr – Public Affairs
20. Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela – Public Affairs

1. Shri Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran in 1988 for contribution in Public Affairs : Tamil Nadu

2. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in 1987 for contribution in the field of Social Work : Pakistan

3. Shri Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 1983 for contribution in the field of Social Work : Maharashtra

4. Mother Teresa in 1980 for contribution in the field of Social Work : West Bengal

5. Shri Kumaraswamy Kamraj in 1976 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Tamil Nadu

6. Shri V.V. Giri in 1975 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Orissa

7. Smt. Indira Gandhi in 1971 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Uttar Pradesh

8. Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Uttar Pradesh

9. Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane in 1963 for contribution in the field of Social Work : Maharashtra

10. Dr. Zakir Hussain in 1963 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Andhra Pradesh

11. Dr. Rajendra Prasad in 1962 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Bihar

12. Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy in 1961 for contribution in the Field of Public Affairs: West Bengal

13. Shri Purushottam Tandon in 1961 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Uttar Pradesh

14. Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve in 1958 for contribution in the field of Social Work : Maharashtra

15. Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant in 1957 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Uttar Pradesh

16. Dr. Bhagwan Das in 1955 for contribution in Literature & Education : Uttar Pradesh

17. Shri Jawaharlal Nehru in 1955 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Uttar Pradesh

18. Dr. M. Vishweshwariah in 1955 for contribution in the field of Civil Service : Karnataka

19. Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari in 1954 for contribution in Public Affairs : Tamil Nadu

20. Dr. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman in 1954 in Science & Engineering: Tamil Nadu

21. Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan in 1954 for contribution in Public Affairs : Tamil Nadu

Facts about India

India is rightly called the mysterious country. A diverse nation can definitely bring out something unusual. You must know some really unusual facts about India that might just make you wonder about this nation. India has the second highest population in the world and will overthrow China’s population by 2025. You will be surprised to know that a nation boasting an increasing economic growth rate has nearly 35% of poor population. Indians consider marriage as a grand occasion and will spend lakhs and crores on such occasions. Indians believe in being loyal to their partners and hence only 1.1% of divorce cases are filed every year. The person can be a poor but will make sure he marries off his daughter in a grand way.

The iron pillar at Delhi was built by late king Chandragupta. This piece of architecture is 25 ft tall and is made with just one single rod of iron. The Indians were the first to discover Ayurveda which is now consumed all over the world. The Ayurvedic treatment was introduced way before the revolutionary plastic surgery or caesarean operation. The British surgeons during their rule tried to learn and adapt to rhinoplasty from Indians. Indian great Mathematicians and scholars like Brahmagupta, Bhaskara and Mahavira introduced formulas and logics which never existed until 15^th century or Renaissance period. Aryabhata was the person who discovered the actual value of pi also called 3.1416. If Aryabhata introduced pi, Bhaskara invented infinity in mathematics.

Even Einstein had contributed complimentary words for Indians thanking the great scholars and mathematicians to make new inventions possible. He rightly said that Indians did help us to solve and count numbers and make additional discoveries. Indians have the highest respect for education. Most families will ensure their kids get maximum education as possible. Indians also are god-fearing and great worshippers. Ever year millions of rupees are donated to temples and religious occasions. India is the largest exporters of gems, jewels and spices. The first world nations have accepted India to be a great investment opportunity due to diverse mindset of Indians. Most IT firms prefer to set-up base in India as students have a great educational background and linguist knowledge. Indians would be the first to respect their guests and treat them like the rest. There is a huge importance attached with inviting guests home and making them feel special.