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State of India’s Economy
State of India’s Economy
Readers will find this feature useful in their preparations for Civil Services Exam and other similar UPSC and SSC exams. The information provided is also useful for Bank P.O. and Bank Clerk Recruitment exam preparations as also any competitive exam [MBA, NDA, CDS, IFS, IES etc] in which questions on General Awareness or General Knowledge and Current Affairs are asked.
In the second half of 2008-09 there was a significant slowdown in the growth rate, following the financial crisis that hit the world in 2007. The fiscal year 2009-10, thus, began on a difficult note. There was apprehension that the slow-down will continue to affect the economy thus making 2009-10 a difficult year.
However, 2009-10 turned out to be a year of reckoning for the policy makers, who took a calculated risk by providing substantial fiscal expansion to counter the negative fallout of the global slowdown.
The downside of the fiscal stimulus was that India’s fiscal deficit increased, reaching 6.8 per cent of GDP in 2009-10. A sub-normal monsoon added to the overall uncertainty.
Despite all odds the economy, at the end of the financial year, posted a remarkable recovery, not only in terms of overall growth figures but, more importantly, in terms of certain fundamentals, which justify optimism for the Indian economy in the medium to long term.
The real turnaround came in the second quarter of 2009-10 when the economy grew by 7.9 per cent. As per the advance estimates of GDP for 2009-10, released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), the economy is expected to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2009-10, with the industrial and the service sectors growing at 8.2 and 8.7 per cent respectively.
This recovery is impressive for at least three reasons. First, it has come about despite a decline of 0.2 per cent in agricultural output, which was the consequence of sub-normal monsoons. Second, it fore-shadows renewed momentum in the manufacturing sector, which had seen continuous decline in the growth rate for almost eight quarters since 2007-08. Indeed, manufacturing growth has more than doubled from 3.2 per cent in 2008-09 to 8.9 per cent in 2009-10. Third, there has been a recovery in the growth rate of gross fixed capital formation, which had declined significantly in 2008-09 as per the revised National Accounts Statistics (NAS). While the growth rates of private and government final consumption expenditure have dipped in private consumption demand, there has been a pick-up in the growth of private investment demand.
There has also been a turnaround in merchandise export growth in November 2009, which has been sustained in December 2009, after a decline nearly twelve continuous months.
The broad- based nature of the recovery created scope for a gradual rollback, in due course, of some of the measures undertaken to overcome global slowdown effects on Indian economy, so as to put the economy back on to the growth path of 9 per cent per annum.
The emergence of high double-digit food inflation during the second half of the financial year 2009-10 was a major cause of concern. On a year-on-year basis, wholesale price index (WPI) headline inflation in December 2009 was 7.3 per cent, but for food items (primary and manufactured), with a combined weight of 25.4 per cent in the WPI basket, it was 19.8 per cent. A significant part of this inflation was due to supply-side bottle-necks in some of the essential commodities, precipitated by the delayed and sub-normal southwest monsoons.
Overall GDP growth
The CSO has effected a revision in the base year from 1999-2000 to 2004-05. It includes changes on account of certain refinements in definitions of some aggregates, widening of coverage, inclusion of long-term survey results and the normal revision in certain data in respect of 2008-09. While there are no major changes in the overall growth rate of GDP at constant 2004-05 prices, except for 2007-08 where it has been revised upward from 9.0 to 9.2 per cent, there are some changes in growth rates at sectoral level and in the level estimates of GDP.
The contribution of the agriculture sector to the GDP at factor cost in 2004-05 has declined from 17.4 per cent in the old series to 15.9 per cent in the new series. Similarly, while the contribution of registered manufacturing has declined from 10.9 per cent in the old series to 9.9 per cent in the new series, that of unregistered manufacturing has increased from 4.9 to 5.4 per cent.
There is also an increase in the contribution of real estate, ownership of dwellings and business services from 8.2 per cent to 8.9 per cent.
In the case of level estimates of GDP at current prices, the difference ranges from 3.1 per cent in 2004-05 to 6 per cent in 2008-09. As a result, there are also changes in the expenditure estimates of the GDP.
The advance estimate of GDP growth at 7.2 per cent for 2009-10, falls within the range of 7 +/- 0.75 projected nearly a year ago in the Economic Survey 2008-09. With the downside risk to growth due to the delayed and sub-normal monsoons having been contained to a large extent, through the likelihood of a better-than-average rabi agricultural season, the economy responded well to the policy measures undertaken in the wake of the global financial crisis. While the GDP at factor costs at constant 2004-05 prices, is placed at Rs 44,53,064 crore, the GDP at market prices, at constant prices, is estimated at Rs 47, 67,142 crore. The corresponding figures at current prices are Rs 57,91,268 crore and Rs 61, 64,178 crore, respectively.
The recovery in GDP growth for 2009-10 is broad based. Seven out of eight sectors/sub-sectors show a growth rate of 6.5 per cent or higher. The exception is agriculture and allied sectors where the growth rate is estimated to be minus 0.2 per cent over 2008-09. Sectors, including mining and quarrying, manufacturing; and electricity, gas and water supply have significantly improved their growth rates at over 8 per cent in comparison with 2008-09.
The construction sector and trade, hotels, transport and communication have also improved their growth rates over the preceding year, though to a lesser extent. However, the growth rate of community, social and personal services has declined significantly, though it continues to be around its pre-global crisis medium-term trend growth rate.
Financing, insurance, real estate and business services have retained their growth momentum at around 10 per cent in 2009-10.
In terms of sectoral shares, the share of agriculture and allied sectors in GDP at factor cost has declined gradually from 18.9 per cent in 2004-05 to 14.6 per cent in 2009-10. During the same period, the share of industry has remained the same at about 28 per cent, while that of services has gone up from 53.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 57.2 per cent in 2009-10.
Per capita growth
The growth rates in per capita income and consumption, which are gross measures of welfare in general, have declined since 2008. This is a reflection of the slowdown in the overall GDP growth. While the growth in per capita income, measured in terms of GDP at constant market prices, has declined from a high of 8.1 per cent in 2007-08 to 3.7 per cent in 2008-09 and then recovered to 5.3 per cent in 2009-10, per capita consumption growth as captured in the private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) shows a declining trend since 2007-08 with its growth rate in 2009-10 falling to one-third of that in 2007-08. The average growth in per capita consumption over the period 2005-06 to 2009-10 was slower at 6.08 per cent than that in per capita income at 6.52 per cent. These year to year differences in growth rates can be explained by the rising savings rate and also the rise in tax collections that have been observed in some of these years.
Aggregate demand and its composition
The change in the base year, from 1999-2000 to the new base of 2004-05, has brought about significant revision in the expenditure estimates of the GDP for 2008-09. While growth of the PFCE in 2008-09 was revised upward from 2.9 per cent to 6.8 per cent, growth in government final consumption expenditure was revised downwards from over 20 per cent in 2008-09 on the old base to 16.7 per cent on the new base. In 2009-10 a growth of 4.1 per cent is expected in private final expenditure and 8.2 per cent in government final expenditure.
There is a significant decline in the growth of consumption expenditure in 2009-10. However, the overall share of consumption expenditure, both private as well as government in GDP at market prices, at constant 2004-05 prices, has declined only marginally from 70.9 per cent in 2008-09 to 69.6 per cent in 2009-10.
At the same time, the growth rate of gross fixed capital formation in 2008-09 has also undergone a revision. It was revised downward from 8.2 per cent in the earlier base to 4 per cent in the revised base for 2008-09. It is, however, estimated to grow by 5.2 per cent in 2009-10.
With growth in private expenditure on food, beverages and tobacco falling behind the overall growth in private consumption expenditure, the share of expenditure on food items has gradually been declining over the years. As per the CSO data, it was 35.3 per cent in 2008-09 as against 39.6 per cent in 2004-05. At the same time, the growth in expenditure on transport and communication and miscellaneous goods and services has been increasing, though with occasional aberrations, with the result that together they account for nearly the same share in total private consumption as the expenditure on food items.
Agriculture
Total foodgrains production in 2008-09 was estimated at 233.88 million tonnes as against 230.78 million tonnes in 2007-08 and 217.28 million tonnes in 2006-07. In the agricultural season 2009-10, the impact of the delayed and sub-normal monsoon is reflected in the production and acreage data for kharif crops. As per the first advance estimates, covering only the kharif crop, production of foodgrains is estimated at 98.83 million tonnes in 2009-10, as against the fourth advance estimates of 117.70 million tonnes for the kharif crop in 2008-09 and a target of 125.15 million tonnes for 2009-10.
Overall production of kharif cereals in 2009-10 has shown a decline of 18.51 million tonnes over 2008-09.
In terms of acreage, the kharif 2009-10 season saw a decline of nearly 6.5 per cent or 46.18 lakh ha in the area covered under foodgrains. Almost the entire decline in this acreage was confined to the kharif rice crop. Some of this decline in acreage may have been made up by the increased acreage in the rabi season.
Industry and Infrastructure
The cyclical slowdown in the industrial sector, which began in 2007-08 and got compounded by the global commodity price shock and the impact of the global slowdown during the course of 2008, was arrested at the beginning of 2009-10. After the first two months of 2009-10, there were clear signs of recovery. While the CSO’s advance estimates place industrial-sector growth at 8.2 per cent, as against 3.9 per cent in 2008-09, the IIP industrial growth is estimated at 7.7 per cent for the period April-November 2009-10, significantly up from 0.6 per cent during the second half of 2008-09. The manufacturing sector, in particular, has grown at the rate of 8.9 per cent in 2009-10.
Core industries and infrastructure services, led by the robust growth momentum of telecom services and spread across power, coal and other infrastructure like ports, civil aviation and roads, have also shown signs of recovery in 2009-10. In the current fiscal, electricity generation emerged from the lacklustre growth witnessed in the previous year and equalled its performance in 2007-08. That this was achieved despite constraints imposed by the inadequate availability of coal and the dismal hydel generation scenario due to the sub-normal monsoon, attests well to its potential.
The domestic supply of crude oil remained around 34 million metric tonnes (mmt) and natural gas at about 32 billion cubic metric tonnes during the past five years. With 15 new oil and gas discoveries during 2009-10, the domestic availability is expected to improve. During 2009-10, the projected production for crude oil is 36.7 mmt, which is about 11 per cent higher than the actual crude oil production of 33.5 mmt in 2008-09.
In 2009-10, as against the stipulated target of developing about a 3,165 km of national highways under various phases of the National Highway Development Project (NHDP), the achievement up to end November 2009 has been about 1,490 km. Similarly, as against the 2009-10 target of about 9,800 km for awarding projects under various phases of the NHDP, projects totalling a length of about 1,285 km have been awarded up to end November 2009.
The service sector which has been India’s workhorse for well over a decade has continued to grow rapidly. Following the NAS classification, it comprises the sub-sectors trade, hotels, transport and communications; financing, insurance, real estate and business services; and community, social and personal services. As against a growth of 9.8 per cent in 2008-09 it grew at 8.7 per cent in 2009-10.
Savings and investments
Gross domestic savings (GDS) at current prices in 2008-09 were estimated at Rs 18,11,585 crore, amounting to 32.5 per cent of GDP at market prices as against 36.4 per cent in the previous year. The fall in the rate of GDS has mainly been due to the fall in the rates of savings of the public sector (from 5.0 per cent in 2007-08 to 1.4 per cent in 2008-09) and private corporate sector (from 8.7 per cent in 2007-08 to 8.4 per cent in 2008-09).
In respect of the household sector, the rate of saving has remained at the same level of 22.6 per cent in 2007-08 and 2008-09. The rate of GDS on the new series increased from 32.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 36.4 per cent in 2007-08 before declining to 32.5 per cent in 2009-10, as against the old series where it rose from 31.7 per cent in 2004-05 to 37.7 per cent in 2007-08.
Gross domestic capital formation (GDCF) at current prices (adjusted for errors and omissions) increased from Rs18,65,899 crore in 2007-08 to Rs19,44,328 crore in 2008-09 and at constant (2004-05) prices, it decreased from Rs16,22,226 crore in 2007- 08 to Rs15,57,757 crore in 2008-09. The rate of gross capital formation at current prices rose from 32.7 per cent in 2004-05 to 37.7 per cent in 2007-08 before declining to 34.9 per cent in 2008-09.
The sectoral investment rate is a useful indicator of the direction of new investments. While the overall growth of investment in India was in the range of 15 to 16 per cent per annum during the last few years, it plunged to -2.4 per cent in 2008-09 as a result of the external shock-led slowdown. At sectoral level, there has been a welcome rebound in the growth rate of investment in the agricultural sector, which grew at 16.5 per cent and 26.0 per cent in 2007-08 and 2008-09 respectively. This is in contrast to the growth rate of 1.4 per cent recorded in
2006-07.
Prices and Inflation
The year-on-year WPI inflation rate was fairly volatile in 2009-10. It was 1.2 per cent in March 2009 and then declined continuously to become negative during June-August 2009, assisted in part by the large statistical base effect from the previous year. It turned positive in September 2009 and accelerated to 4.8 per cent in November 2009 and further to 7.3 per cent in December 2009. For March to December 2009 period WPI inflation was estimated at 8 per cent.
Year-on-year inflation in the composite food index (with a weight of 25.4 per cent) at 19.8 per cent in December 2009 was significantly higher than 8.6 per cent in previous year. In respect of food articles, inflation on year-on-year basis in December was 19.2 per cent and on fiscal-year basis (i.e. over March 2009) it was 18.3 per cent. At the same time, the composite non-food inflation within the manufactured group of the WPI (with a weight of 53.7 per cent) at 2.4 per cent in December 2009, was lower than the 6.7 per cent recorded in previous year.
A significant part of this inflation can be explained by supply-side bottlenecks in some of the essential commodities, precipitated by the delayed and sub-normal south-west monsoons as well as drought-like conditions in some parts of the country. The delayed and erratic monsoons may also have prevented the seasonal decline in prices, normally seen during the period from October to March for most food articles other than wheat, from setting in. At the same time, it could be argued that excessive hype about kharif crop failure, not taking into account the comfortable situation in respect of food stocks and the possibility of an improved rabi crop, may have exacerbated inflationary expectations encouraging hoarding and resulting in a higher inflation in food items. This is supported by the estimates on shortfall in production/availability of major food items in 2009-10 for rice and wheat, as also for some other items, except pulses. In the case of sugar, delay in the market release of imported raw sugar may have contributed to the overall uncertainty, thereby allowing prices to rise to unacceptably high levels in recent months.
The implicit deflator for GDP at market prices defined as the ratio of GDP at current prices to GDP at constant prices is the most comprehensive measure of inflation on annual basis, Unlike the WPI, the GDP deflator also covers prices in the services sector which now accounts for well over 55 per cent of the GDP. Overall inflation, as measured by the aggregate deflator for GDPMP, increased from 4.7 per cent in 2005-06 to 5.6 per cent in 2006-07 and then declined to 5.3 per cent in 2007-08, before rising again to 7.2 per cent in 2008-09. It has been estimated at 3.6 per cent in 2009-10 as per the advance estimates.
External-sector Developments
The global economy, led by the Asian economies especially China and India, has shown signs of recovery in fiscal 2009-10. While global trade is gradually picking up, the other indicators of economic activity such as capital flows, assets and commodity prices are more buoyant.
As per the latest data for fiscal 2009-10, exports and imports showed substantial decline during April-September (H1) of 2009-10 vis-à-vis the corresponding period in 2008-09. However, there has been improvement in the balance of payments (BoP) situation during H1 of 2009-10 over H1 of 2008-09, reflected in higher net capital inflows and lower trade deficit. The trade deficit was lower at US$ 58.2 billion during H1 (April-September) of 2009 as compared to US$ 64.4 billion in April-September 2008 mainly on account of decline in oil import.
The net invisibles surplus (invisibles receipts minus invisibles payments) stood lower at US$ 39.6 billion during April-September of 2009 as compared to US$ 48.5 billion during April-September 2008. The current account deficit increased to US $ 18.6 billion in April-September 2009, despite a lower trade deficit, as compared to US $ 15.8 billion in April-September 2008, mainly due to the lower net invisibles surplus.
Net capital flows to India at US $ 29.6 billion in April-September 2009 remained higher as compared to US $ 12.0 billion in April-September 2008. All the components, except loans and banking capital that comprise net capital flows, showed improvement during April-September 2009 from the level in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Net inward FDI into India remained buoyant at US$ 21.0 billion during April-September 2009 (US $ 20.7 billion in April-September 2008) reflecting better growth performance of the Indian economy. Due to large inward FDI, the net FDI (inward FDI minus outward FDI) was marginally higher at US$ 14.1 billion in April-September 2009, reflecting better growth performance of the Indian economy.
Portfolio investment mainly comprising foreign institutional investors’ (FIIs) investments and American depository receipts (ADRs)/global depository receipts (GDRs) witnessed large net inflows (US $ 17.9 billion) in April-September 2009 (net outflows of US $ 5.5 billion in April-September 2008) due to large purchases by FIIs in the Indian capital market reflecting revival in growth prospects of the economy and improvement in global investors’ sentiment.
Given the uncertain global context, the government did not fix an export target for 2009-10. Instead, the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2009-14 set the objective of an annual export growth of 15 per cent with an export target of US$ 200 billion by March 2011. With the deepening of the global recession, the beginning of 2009-10 saw acceleration in the fall of export growth rate. The upwardly revised export figures for the first half of 2008-09 also contributed to the faster decline in the growth rate. While the export growth rate was a negative 22.3 per cent in April-November 2008-09, in November 2009, it became a positive 18.2 per cent after a 13-month period of negative growth. This significant turnaround is due to the low base figures in November 2008 (at $11.2 billion compared to $14.1 billion in October 2008 and $13.4 billion in December 2008). The export growth rate in November 2009 over October 2009 was marginally positive at 0.04 per cent. In December 2009 the recovery in export growth has continued with a positive year-on-year growth of 9.3 per cent and a growth of 10.7 per cent over the previous month.
During 2009-10 (April-December) import growth was a negative 23.6 per cent accompanied by a decline in both POL and non-POL imports of 29.8 per cent and 20.7 per cent respectively. Gold and silver imports registered negative growth of 7.3 per cent primarily on account of the volatility in gold prices. The continuous rise in prices of gold also dampened the demand. Non-POL non-bullion imports declined by 22.4 per cent reflecting slowdown in industrial activity and lower demand for exports. Import growth was at a positive 27.2 per cent in December 2009 due partly to the base effect and partly the 42.8 per cent increase in the growth of POL products with the pick-up in oil prices and industrial demand. Non-POL items also registered a significant growth in imports at 22.4 per cent, despite a high negative growth of gold and silver imports.
Trade deficit fell by 28.2 per cent to US$ 76.2 billion (as per customs data) in 2009-10 (April– December) from US$ 106 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year. There have been significant changes in the composition and direction of both exports and imports in this period.
During fiscal 2009-10, foreign exchange reserves increased by US$ 31.5 billion from US$ 252.0 billion in end March 2009 to US$ 283.5 billion in end December 2009. Out of the total accretion of US$ 31.5 billion, US$ 11.2 billion (35.6 per cent) was on BoP basis (i.e excluding valuation effect), because of higher inflows under FDI and portfolio investments, while accretion of US$ 20.3 billion (64.4 per cent) was on account of valuation gain due to weakness of the US dollar against major currencies.
Besides, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) concluded the purchase of 200 metric tonnes of gold from the IMF, under the IMF’s limited gold sales programme at the cost of US$ 6.7 billion in the month of November 2009. Further, a general allocation of SDR 3,082 million (equivalent to US$ 4,821 million) and a special allocation of SDR 214.6 million (equivalent to US$ 340 million) were made to India by the IMF on August 28, 2009 and September 9, 2009, respectively.
Monetary Policy
Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in September 2008, the RBI followed an accommodative monetary policy. In the course of 2009-10, this stance was principally geared towards supporting early recovery of the growth momentum, while facilitating the unprecedented borrowing requirement of the government to fund its fiscal deficit. The fact that the latter was managed well with nearly two-thirds of the borrowing being completed in the first half of the fiscal year not only helped in checking undue pressure on interest rates, but also created the space for the revival of private investment demand in the second half of the year.
The transmission of monetary policy measures continues to be sluggish and differential in its impact across various segments of the financial markets. The downward revisions in policy rates announced by the RBI post-September 2008 got transmitted into the money and G-Sec markets; however, the transmission was slow and lagged the in the case of the credit market. Though lending rates of all categories of banks (public, private and foreign) declined marginally from March 2009 (with benchmark prime lending rates [BPLR] of scheduled commercial banks [SCBs] having declined by 25 to 100 basis points), the decline was not sufficient to accelerate the demand for bank credit. Consequently, while borrowers turned to alternate sources of possibly cheaper finance to meet their funding needs, banks flush with liquidity parked their surplus funds under the reverse repo window.
Demand for bank credit/non-food credit remained muted during 2009-10. It was only from November 2009 that some signs of pick-up became evident. On financial-year basis (over end March), growth in non-food credit remained negative till June 2009. It picked up thereafter, only to hover between 0.0 to 1.8 per cent till mid-September 2009. Consistent growth in non-food credit was recorded only after November 2009.
Growth in sectoral deployment of gross bank credit on a year-on-year basis (as on November 20, 2010) shows that retail credit has not picked up during 2009-10. While growth in credit to agriculture remained more or less the same as on the corresponding date of the preceding year, for the other broad sectors–industry, personal loans and services—growth in credit decelerated as compared to the corresponding period of the preceding year.
Fiscal Policy Developments
The fiscal expansion undertaken by the Central government as a part of the policy response to counter the impact of the global economic slowdown in 2008-09 was continued in fiscal 2009-10. The expansion took the form of tax relief to boost demand and increased expenditure on public projects to create employment and public assets. The net result was an increase in fiscal deficit from 2.6 per cent in 2007-08 to 5.9 per cent of the revised GDP (new series) in 2008-09 (provisional) and 6.5 per cent in the budget estimates for 2009-10 (as against 6.8 per cent of the GDP on the old series, reported earlier). Thus the fiscal stimulus amounted to 3.3 per cent of the GDP in 2008-09 and 3.9 per cent in 2009-10 from the level of the fiscal deficit in 2007-08.
As part of the fiscal stimulus, the government also enhanced the borrowing limits of the State governments by relaxing the targets by 100 basis points. As a result, the gross fiscal deficit of the States combined rose from 1.4 per cent of the GDP in 2007-08 to 2.6 per cent in 2008-09 (revised estimates [RE]) and was estimated at 3.2 per cent of the GDP in 2009-10 (BE).
The relative success of the fiscal stimulus in supporting effective demand, particularly the consumption demand, in 2008-09 and 2009-10 could be traced to its composition. The approach of the government was to increase the disposable income in the hands of the people, for instance by effecting reductions in indirect taxes (excise and service tax) and by expanding public expenditure on programmes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and on rural infrastructure.
The implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and the debt relief to farmers also contributed to this end. The fact that the approach worked is attested to by the GDP growth rate and more specifically by the growth in private consumption demand in 2008-09 and also in 2009-10 as reflected in the relevant data on the NAS new series. Consumption expenditure, by its very nature, has short lags, and affects demand quickly, with little or no effect on productivity, while productive infrastructure expenditure takes much longer to translate into effective demand. The recovery having taken root now necessitates a review of public spending. It has to be geared towards building medium-term productivity of the economy and making up for the decline in investment growth in certain sectors of the economy.
Social-sector Development
Fiscal 2009-10 saw the strengthening of several public initiatives and programmes with a view to cushioning the impact of the global slowdown on the more vulnerable segments of the population in the country. While some of these programmes were a part of the ongoing interventions to give effect to a more inclusive development strategy, there were some measures that were undertaken as a direct response to the slowdown of growth, especially in the tradable sectors of the economy. Thus emphasis in favour of higher allocation to social-sector development given in recent years continued to be reflected in the allocations under the Union Budget 2009-10. The share of Central government expenditure on social services, including rural development in total expenditure (Plan and non-Plan), increased to 19.46 per cent in 2009-10 (BE) from about 10.46 per cent in 2003-04. Similarly, expenditure on social services by general government (Centre and States combined) as a proportion of total expenditure increased from 19.9 per cent in 2004-05 to 23.8 per cent in 2009-10 (BE).
A major concern was regarding the possibility of a rise in unemployment due to the slowdown of the economy. While comprehensive employment data for the current financial year are not available, some sample surveys conducted by the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment, government of India, indicated job losses in the wake of the global financial crisis, which seemed to reverse in later part of 2009-10. Employment is estimated to have declined by 4.91 lakh during the third quarter (October-December) of 2008; it increased by 2.76 lakh during January-March 2009, followed by a decline of 1.31 lakh during April-June 2009, and then an increase of 4.97 lakh during the second quarter (July-September) 2009.
Under the NREGA, which is a major rural employment initiative, during the year 2009-10, 4.34 crore households were provided employment till December 2009.
Road Ahead
There are some deep changes that have taken place in India, which suggest that the economy’s fundamentals are strong. First, the rates of savings and investment have reached levels that even ten years ago would have been dismissed as a pipedream for India. On this important dimension, India is now completely a part of the world’s fast growing economies.
In 2008-09 gross domestic savings as a percentage of GDP were 32.5 per cent and gross domestic capital formation 34.9 per cent. These figures, which are a little lower than what had been achieved before the fiscal stimulus was put into place, fall comfortably within the range of figures one traditionally associated with the East Asian economies. Since these indicators are some of the strongest correlates of growth and do not fluctuate wildly, they speak very well for India’s medium-term growth prospects. It also has to be kept in mind that as the demographic dividend begins to pay off in India, with the working age-group population rising disproportionately over the next two decades, the savings rate is likely to rise further.
Second, the arrival of India’s corporations in the global market place, and informal indicators of the sophisticated corporate culture that many of these companies exhibit, lends to the optimistic prognosis for the economy in the medium to long run.
In the medium term it is reasonable to expect that the economy will go back to the robust growth path of around 9 per cent that it was on before the global crisis slowed it down in 2008. To begin with, there has been a revival in investment and private consumption demand, though the recovery is yet to attain the pre-2008 momentum. Second, Indian exports have recorded impressive growth in November and December 2009 and early indications of the January 2010 data on exports are also encouraging. Further, infrastructure services, including railway transport, power, telecommunications and, more recently but to a lesser extent, civil aviation, have shown a remarkable turnaround since the second quarter of 2009-10. The favourable capital market conditions with improvement in capital flows and business sentiments, as per the RBI’s business expectations survey, are also encouraging. Finally, the manufacturing sector has been showing a buoyancy in recent months that was rarely seen before. The growth rate of the index of industrial production for December 2009 was a remarkable 16.8 per cent. There is also a substantial pick-up in corporate earnings and profit margins.
Hence, going by simple calculations based on the above-mentioned variables, coupled with the fact that agriculture did have a set-back in 2009 and is only gradually getting back to the projected path, a reasonable forecast for the year 2010-11 is that the economy will improve its GDP growth by around 1 percentage point from that witnessed in 2009-10. Thus, allowing for factors beyond the reach of domestic policy-makers, such as the performance of the monsoon and rate of recovery of the global economy, the Indian GDP can be expected to grow around 8.5, with a full recovery breaching the 9 per cent mark in 2011-12.
Readers will find this feature useful in their preparations for Civil Services Exam and other similar UPSC and SSC exams. The information provided is also useful for Bank P.O. and Bank Clerk Recruitment exam preparations as also any competitive exam [MBA, NDA, CDS, IFS, IES etc] in which questions on General Awareness or General Knowledge and Current Affairs are asked.
In the second half of 2008-09 there was a significant slowdown in the growth rate, following the financial crisis that hit the world in 2007. The fiscal year 2009-10, thus, began on a difficult note. There was apprehension that the slow-down will continue to affect the economy thus making 2009-10 a difficult year.
However, 2009-10 turned out to be a year of reckoning for the policy makers, who took a calculated risk by providing substantial fiscal expansion to counter the negative fallout of the global slowdown.
The downside of the fiscal stimulus was that India’s fiscal deficit increased, reaching 6.8 per cent of GDP in 2009-10. A sub-normal monsoon added to the overall uncertainty.
Despite all odds the economy, at the end of the financial year, posted a remarkable recovery, not only in terms of overall growth figures but, more importantly, in terms of certain fundamentals, which justify optimism for the Indian economy in the medium to long term.
The real turnaround came in the second quarter of 2009-10 when the economy grew by 7.9 per cent. As per the advance estimates of GDP for 2009-10, released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), the economy is expected to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2009-10, with the industrial and the service sectors growing at 8.2 and 8.7 per cent respectively.
This recovery is impressive for at least three reasons. First, it has come about despite a decline of 0.2 per cent in agricultural output, which was the consequence of sub-normal monsoons. Second, it fore-shadows renewed momentum in the manufacturing sector, which had seen continuous decline in the growth rate for almost eight quarters since 2007-08. Indeed, manufacturing growth has more than doubled from 3.2 per cent in 2008-09 to 8.9 per cent in 2009-10. Third, there has been a recovery in the growth rate of gross fixed capital formation, which had declined significantly in 2008-09 as per the revised National Accounts Statistics (NAS). While the growth rates of private and government final consumption expenditure have dipped in private consumption demand, there has been a pick-up in the growth of private investment demand.
There has also been a turnaround in merchandise export growth in November 2009, which has been sustained in December 2009, after a decline nearly twelve continuous months.
The broad- based nature of the recovery created scope for a gradual rollback, in due course, of some of the measures undertaken to overcome global slowdown effects on Indian economy, so as to put the economy back on to the growth path of 9 per cent per annum.
The emergence of high double-digit food inflation during the second half of the financial year 2009-10 was a major cause of concern. On a year-on-year basis, wholesale price index (WPI) headline inflation in December 2009 was 7.3 per cent, but for food items (primary and manufactured), with a combined weight of 25.4 per cent in the WPI basket, it was 19.8 per cent. A significant part of this inflation was due to supply-side bottle-necks in some of the essential commodities, precipitated by the delayed and sub-normal southwest monsoons.
Overall GDP growth
The CSO has effected a revision in the base year from 1999-2000 to 2004-05. It includes changes on account of certain refinements in definitions of some aggregates, widening of coverage, inclusion of long-term survey results and the normal revision in certain data in respect of 2008-09. While there are no major changes in the overall growth rate of GDP at constant 2004-05 prices, except for 2007-08 where it has been revised upward from 9.0 to 9.2 per cent, there are some changes in growth rates at sectoral level and in the level estimates of GDP.
The contribution of the agriculture sector to the GDP at factor cost in 2004-05 has declined from 17.4 per cent in the old series to 15.9 per cent in the new series. Similarly, while the contribution of registered manufacturing has declined from 10.9 per cent in the old series to 9.9 per cent in the new series, that of unregistered manufacturing has increased from 4.9 to 5.4 per cent.
There is also an increase in the contribution of real estate, ownership of dwellings and business services from 8.2 per cent to 8.9 per cent.
In the case of level estimates of GDP at current prices, the difference ranges from 3.1 per cent in 2004-05 to 6 per cent in 2008-09. As a result, there are also changes in the expenditure estimates of the GDP.
The advance estimate of GDP growth at 7.2 per cent for 2009-10, falls within the range of 7 +/- 0.75 projected nearly a year ago in the Economic Survey 2008-09. With the downside risk to growth due to the delayed and sub-normal monsoons having been contained to a large extent, through the likelihood of a better-than-average rabi agricultural season, the economy responded well to the policy measures undertaken in the wake of the global financial crisis. While the GDP at factor costs at constant 2004-05 prices, is placed at Rs 44,53,064 crore, the GDP at market prices, at constant prices, is estimated at Rs 47, 67,142 crore. The corresponding figures at current prices are Rs 57,91,268 crore and Rs 61, 64,178 crore, respectively.
The recovery in GDP growth for 2009-10 is broad based. Seven out of eight sectors/sub-sectors show a growth rate of 6.5 per cent or higher. The exception is agriculture and allied sectors where the growth rate is estimated to be minus 0.2 per cent over 2008-09. Sectors, including mining and quarrying, manufacturing; and electricity, gas and water supply have significantly improved their growth rates at over 8 per cent in comparison with 2008-09.
The construction sector and trade, hotels, transport and communication have also improved their growth rates over the preceding year, though to a lesser extent. However, the growth rate of community, social and personal services has declined significantly, though it continues to be around its pre-global crisis medium-term trend growth rate.
Financing, insurance, real estate and business services have retained their growth momentum at around 10 per cent in 2009-10.
In terms of sectoral shares, the share of agriculture and allied sectors in GDP at factor cost has declined gradually from 18.9 per cent in 2004-05 to 14.6 per cent in 2009-10. During the same period, the share of industry has remained the same at about 28 per cent, while that of services has gone up from 53.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 57.2 per cent in 2009-10.
Per capita growth
The growth rates in per capita income and consumption, which are gross measures of welfare in general, have declined since 2008. This is a reflection of the slowdown in the overall GDP growth. While the growth in per capita income, measured in terms of GDP at constant market prices, has declined from a high of 8.1 per cent in 2007-08 to 3.7 per cent in 2008-09 and then recovered to 5.3 per cent in 2009-10, per capita consumption growth as captured in the private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) shows a declining trend since 2007-08 with its growth rate in 2009-10 falling to one-third of that in 2007-08. The average growth in per capita consumption over the period 2005-06 to 2009-10 was slower at 6.08 per cent than that in per capita income at 6.52 per cent. These year to year differences in growth rates can be explained by the rising savings rate and also the rise in tax collections that have been observed in some of these years.
Aggregate demand and its composition
The change in the base year, from 1999-2000 to the new base of 2004-05, has brought about significant revision in the expenditure estimates of the GDP for 2008-09. While growth of the PFCE in 2008-09 was revised upward from 2.9 per cent to 6.8 per cent, growth in government final consumption expenditure was revised downwards from over 20 per cent in 2008-09 on the old base to 16.7 per cent on the new base. In 2009-10 a growth of 4.1 per cent is expected in private final expenditure and 8.2 per cent in government final expenditure.
There is a significant decline in the growth of consumption expenditure in 2009-10. However, the overall share of consumption expenditure, both private as well as government in GDP at market prices, at constant 2004-05 prices, has declined only marginally from 70.9 per cent in 2008-09 to 69.6 per cent in 2009-10.
At the same time, the growth rate of gross fixed capital formation in 2008-09 has also undergone a revision. It was revised downward from 8.2 per cent in the earlier base to 4 per cent in the revised base for 2008-09. It is, however, estimated to grow by 5.2 per cent in 2009-10.
With growth in private expenditure on food, beverages and tobacco falling behind the overall growth in private consumption expenditure, the share of expenditure on food items has gradually been declining over the years. As per the CSO data, it was 35.3 per cent in 2008-09 as against 39.6 per cent in 2004-05. At the same time, the growth in expenditure on transport and communication and miscellaneous goods and services has been increasing, though with occasional aberrations, with the result that together they account for nearly the same share in total private consumption as the expenditure on food items.
Agriculture
Total foodgrains production in 2008-09 was estimated at 233.88 million tonnes as against 230.78 million tonnes in 2007-08 and 217.28 million tonnes in 2006-07. In the agricultural season 2009-10, the impact of the delayed and sub-normal monsoon is reflected in the production and acreage data for kharif crops. As per the first advance estimates, covering only the kharif crop, production of foodgrains is estimated at 98.83 million tonnes in 2009-10, as against the fourth advance estimates of 117.70 million tonnes for the kharif crop in 2008-09 and a target of 125.15 million tonnes for 2009-10.
Overall production of kharif cereals in 2009-10 has shown a decline of 18.51 million tonnes over 2008-09.
In terms of acreage, the kharif 2009-10 season saw a decline of nearly 6.5 per cent or 46.18 lakh ha in the area covered under foodgrains. Almost the entire decline in this acreage was confined to the kharif rice crop. Some of this decline in acreage may have been made up by the increased acreage in the rabi season.
Industry and Infrastructure
The cyclical slowdown in the industrial sector, which began in 2007-08 and got compounded by the global commodity price shock and the impact of the global slowdown during the course of 2008, was arrested at the beginning of 2009-10. After the first two months of 2009-10, there were clear signs of recovery. While the CSO’s advance estimates place industrial-sector growth at 8.2 per cent, as against 3.9 per cent in 2008-09, the IIP industrial growth is estimated at 7.7 per cent for the period April-November 2009-10, significantly up from 0.6 per cent during the second half of 2008-09. The manufacturing sector, in particular, has grown at the rate of 8.9 per cent in 2009-10.
Core industries and infrastructure services, led by the robust growth momentum of telecom services and spread across power, coal and other infrastructure like ports, civil aviation and roads, have also shown signs of recovery in 2009-10. In the current fiscal, electricity generation emerged from the lacklustre growth witnessed in the previous year and equalled its performance in 2007-08. That this was achieved despite constraints imposed by the inadequate availability of coal and the dismal hydel generation scenario due to the sub-normal monsoon, attests well to its potential.
The domestic supply of crude oil remained around 34 million metric tonnes (mmt) and natural gas at about 32 billion cubic metric tonnes during the past five years. With 15 new oil and gas discoveries during 2009-10, the domestic availability is expected to improve. During 2009-10, the projected production for crude oil is 36.7 mmt, which is about 11 per cent higher than the actual crude oil production of 33.5 mmt in 2008-09.
In 2009-10, as against the stipulated target of developing about a 3,165 km of national highways under various phases of the National Highway Development Project (NHDP), the achievement up to end November 2009 has been about 1,490 km. Similarly, as against the 2009-10 target of about 9,800 km for awarding projects under various phases of the NHDP, projects totalling a length of about 1,285 km have been awarded up to end November 2009.
The service sector which has been India’s workhorse for well over a decade has continued to grow rapidly. Following the NAS classification, it comprises the sub-sectors trade, hotels, transport and communications; financing, insurance, real estate and business services; and community, social and personal services. As against a growth of 9.8 per cent in 2008-09 it grew at 8.7 per cent in 2009-10.
Savings and investments
Gross domestic savings (GDS) at current prices in 2008-09 were estimated at Rs 18,11,585 crore, amounting to 32.5 per cent of GDP at market prices as against 36.4 per cent in the previous year. The fall in the rate of GDS has mainly been due to the fall in the rates of savings of the public sector (from 5.0 per cent in 2007-08 to 1.4 per cent in 2008-09) and private corporate sector (from 8.7 per cent in 2007-08 to 8.4 per cent in 2008-09).
In respect of the household sector, the rate of saving has remained at the same level of 22.6 per cent in 2007-08 and 2008-09. The rate of GDS on the new series increased from 32.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 36.4 per cent in 2007-08 before declining to 32.5 per cent in 2009-10, as against the old series where it rose from 31.7 per cent in 2004-05 to 37.7 per cent in 2007-08.
Gross domestic capital formation (GDCF) at current prices (adjusted for errors and omissions) increased from Rs18,65,899 crore in 2007-08 to Rs19,44,328 crore in 2008-09 and at constant (2004-05) prices, it decreased from Rs16,22,226 crore in 2007- 08 to Rs15,57,757 crore in 2008-09. The rate of gross capital formation at current prices rose from 32.7 per cent in 2004-05 to 37.7 per cent in 2007-08 before declining to 34.9 per cent in 2008-09.
The sectoral investment rate is a useful indicator of the direction of new investments. While the overall growth of investment in India was in the range of 15 to 16 per cent per annum during the last few years, it plunged to -2.4 per cent in 2008-09 as a result of the external shock-led slowdown. At sectoral level, there has been a welcome rebound in the growth rate of investment in the agricultural sector, which grew at 16.5 per cent and 26.0 per cent in 2007-08 and 2008-09 respectively. This is in contrast to the growth rate of 1.4 per cent recorded in
2006-07.
Prices and Inflation
The year-on-year WPI inflation rate was fairly volatile in 2009-10. It was 1.2 per cent in March 2009 and then declined continuously to become negative during June-August 2009, assisted in part by the large statistical base effect from the previous year. It turned positive in September 2009 and accelerated to 4.8 per cent in November 2009 and further to 7.3 per cent in December 2009. For March to December 2009 period WPI inflation was estimated at 8 per cent.
Year-on-year inflation in the composite food index (with a weight of 25.4 per cent) at 19.8 per cent in December 2009 was significantly higher than 8.6 per cent in previous year. In respect of food articles, inflation on year-on-year basis in December was 19.2 per cent and on fiscal-year basis (i.e. over March 2009) it was 18.3 per cent. At the same time, the composite non-food inflation within the manufactured group of the WPI (with a weight of 53.7 per cent) at 2.4 per cent in December 2009, was lower than the 6.7 per cent recorded in previous year.
A significant part of this inflation can be explained by supply-side bottlenecks in some of the essential commodities, precipitated by the delayed and sub-normal south-west monsoons as well as drought-like conditions in some parts of the country. The delayed and erratic monsoons may also have prevented the seasonal decline in prices, normally seen during the period from October to March for most food articles other than wheat, from setting in. At the same time, it could be argued that excessive hype about kharif crop failure, not taking into account the comfortable situation in respect of food stocks and the possibility of an improved rabi crop, may have exacerbated inflationary expectations encouraging hoarding and resulting in a higher inflation in food items. This is supported by the estimates on shortfall in production/availability of major food items in 2009-10 for rice and wheat, as also for some other items, except pulses. In the case of sugar, delay in the market release of imported raw sugar may have contributed to the overall uncertainty, thereby allowing prices to rise to unacceptably high levels in recent months.
The implicit deflator for GDP at market prices defined as the ratio of GDP at current prices to GDP at constant prices is the most comprehensive measure of inflation on annual basis, Unlike the WPI, the GDP deflator also covers prices in the services sector which now accounts for well over 55 per cent of the GDP. Overall inflation, as measured by the aggregate deflator for GDPMP, increased from 4.7 per cent in 2005-06 to 5.6 per cent in 2006-07 and then declined to 5.3 per cent in 2007-08, before rising again to 7.2 per cent in 2008-09. It has been estimated at 3.6 per cent in 2009-10 as per the advance estimates.
External-sector Developments
The global economy, led by the Asian economies especially China and India, has shown signs of recovery in fiscal 2009-10. While global trade is gradually picking up, the other indicators of economic activity such as capital flows, assets and commodity prices are more buoyant.
As per the latest data for fiscal 2009-10, exports and imports showed substantial decline during April-September (H1) of 2009-10 vis-à-vis the corresponding period in 2008-09. However, there has been improvement in the balance of payments (BoP) situation during H1 of 2009-10 over H1 of 2008-09, reflected in higher net capital inflows and lower trade deficit. The trade deficit was lower at US$ 58.2 billion during H1 (April-September) of 2009 as compared to US$ 64.4 billion in April-September 2008 mainly on account of decline in oil import.
The net invisibles surplus (invisibles receipts minus invisibles payments) stood lower at US$ 39.6 billion during April-September of 2009 as compared to US$ 48.5 billion during April-September 2008. The current account deficit increased to US $ 18.6 billion in April-September 2009, despite a lower trade deficit, as compared to US $ 15.8 billion in April-September 2008, mainly due to the lower net invisibles surplus.
Net capital flows to India at US $ 29.6 billion in April-September 2009 remained higher as compared to US $ 12.0 billion in April-September 2008. All the components, except loans and banking capital that comprise net capital flows, showed improvement during April-September 2009 from the level in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Net inward FDI into India remained buoyant at US$ 21.0 billion during April-September 2009 (US $ 20.7 billion in April-September 2008) reflecting better growth performance of the Indian economy. Due to large inward FDI, the net FDI (inward FDI minus outward FDI) was marginally higher at US$ 14.1 billion in April-September 2009, reflecting better growth performance of the Indian economy.
Portfolio investment mainly comprising foreign institutional investors’ (FIIs) investments and American depository receipts (ADRs)/global depository receipts (GDRs) witnessed large net inflows (US $ 17.9 billion) in April-September 2009 (net outflows of US $ 5.5 billion in April-September 2008) due to large purchases by FIIs in the Indian capital market reflecting revival in growth prospects of the economy and improvement in global investors’ sentiment.
Given the uncertain global context, the government did not fix an export target for 2009-10. Instead, the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2009-14 set the objective of an annual export growth of 15 per cent with an export target of US$ 200 billion by March 2011. With the deepening of the global recession, the beginning of 2009-10 saw acceleration in the fall of export growth rate. The upwardly revised export figures for the first half of 2008-09 also contributed to the faster decline in the growth rate. While the export growth rate was a negative 22.3 per cent in April-November 2008-09, in November 2009, it became a positive 18.2 per cent after a 13-month period of negative growth. This significant turnaround is due to the low base figures in November 2008 (at $11.2 billion compared to $14.1 billion in October 2008 and $13.4 billion in December 2008). The export growth rate in November 2009 over October 2009 was marginally positive at 0.04 per cent. In December 2009 the recovery in export growth has continued with a positive year-on-year growth of 9.3 per cent and a growth of 10.7 per cent over the previous month.
During 2009-10 (April-December) import growth was a negative 23.6 per cent accompanied by a decline in both POL and non-POL imports of 29.8 per cent and 20.7 per cent respectively. Gold and silver imports registered negative growth of 7.3 per cent primarily on account of the volatility in gold prices. The continuous rise in prices of gold also dampened the demand. Non-POL non-bullion imports declined by 22.4 per cent reflecting slowdown in industrial activity and lower demand for exports. Import growth was at a positive 27.2 per cent in December 2009 due partly to the base effect and partly the 42.8 per cent increase in the growth of POL products with the pick-up in oil prices and industrial demand. Non-POL items also registered a significant growth in imports at 22.4 per cent, despite a high negative growth of gold and silver imports.
Trade deficit fell by 28.2 per cent to US$ 76.2 billion (as per customs data) in 2009-10 (April– December) from US$ 106 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year. There have been significant changes in the composition and direction of both exports and imports in this period.
During fiscal 2009-10, foreign exchange reserves increased by US$ 31.5 billion from US$ 252.0 billion in end March 2009 to US$ 283.5 billion in end December 2009. Out of the total accretion of US$ 31.5 billion, US$ 11.2 billion (35.6 per cent) was on BoP basis (i.e excluding valuation effect), because of higher inflows under FDI and portfolio investments, while accretion of US$ 20.3 billion (64.4 per cent) was on account of valuation gain due to weakness of the US dollar against major currencies.
Besides, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) concluded the purchase of 200 metric tonnes of gold from the IMF, under the IMF’s limited gold sales programme at the cost of US$ 6.7 billion in the month of November 2009. Further, a general allocation of SDR 3,082 million (equivalent to US$ 4,821 million) and a special allocation of SDR 214.6 million (equivalent to US$ 340 million) were made to India by the IMF on August 28, 2009 and September 9, 2009, respectively.
Monetary Policy
Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in September 2008, the RBI followed an accommodative monetary policy. In the course of 2009-10, this stance was principally geared towards supporting early recovery of the growth momentum, while facilitating the unprecedented borrowing requirement of the government to fund its fiscal deficit. The fact that the latter was managed well with nearly two-thirds of the borrowing being completed in the first half of the fiscal year not only helped in checking undue pressure on interest rates, but also created the space for the revival of private investment demand in the second half of the year.
The transmission of monetary policy measures continues to be sluggish and differential in its impact across various segments of the financial markets. The downward revisions in policy rates announced by the RBI post-September 2008 got transmitted into the money and G-Sec markets; however, the transmission was slow and lagged the in the case of the credit market. Though lending rates of all categories of banks (public, private and foreign) declined marginally from March 2009 (with benchmark prime lending rates [BPLR] of scheduled commercial banks [SCBs] having declined by 25 to 100 basis points), the decline was not sufficient to accelerate the demand for bank credit. Consequently, while borrowers turned to alternate sources of possibly cheaper finance to meet their funding needs, banks flush with liquidity parked their surplus funds under the reverse repo window.
Demand for bank credit/non-food credit remained muted during 2009-10. It was only from November 2009 that some signs of pick-up became evident. On financial-year basis (over end March), growth in non-food credit remained negative till June 2009. It picked up thereafter, only to hover between 0.0 to 1.8 per cent till mid-September 2009. Consistent growth in non-food credit was recorded only after November 2009.
Growth in sectoral deployment of gross bank credit on a year-on-year basis (as on November 20, 2010) shows that retail credit has not picked up during 2009-10. While growth in credit to agriculture remained more or less the same as on the corresponding date of the preceding year, for the other broad sectors–industry, personal loans and services—growth in credit decelerated as compared to the corresponding period of the preceding year.
Fiscal Policy Developments
The fiscal expansion undertaken by the Central government as a part of the policy response to counter the impact of the global economic slowdown in 2008-09 was continued in fiscal 2009-10. The expansion took the form of tax relief to boost demand and increased expenditure on public projects to create employment and public assets. The net result was an increase in fiscal deficit from 2.6 per cent in 2007-08 to 5.9 per cent of the revised GDP (new series) in 2008-09 (provisional) and 6.5 per cent in the budget estimates for 2009-10 (as against 6.8 per cent of the GDP on the old series, reported earlier). Thus the fiscal stimulus amounted to 3.3 per cent of the GDP in 2008-09 and 3.9 per cent in 2009-10 from the level of the fiscal deficit in 2007-08.
As part of the fiscal stimulus, the government also enhanced the borrowing limits of the State governments by relaxing the targets by 100 basis points. As a result, the gross fiscal deficit of the States combined rose from 1.4 per cent of the GDP in 2007-08 to 2.6 per cent in 2008-09 (revised estimates [RE]) and was estimated at 3.2 per cent of the GDP in 2009-10 (BE).
The relative success of the fiscal stimulus in supporting effective demand, particularly the consumption demand, in 2008-09 and 2009-10 could be traced to its composition. The approach of the government was to increase the disposable income in the hands of the people, for instance by effecting reductions in indirect taxes (excise and service tax) and by expanding public expenditure on programmes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and on rural infrastructure.
The implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and the debt relief to farmers also contributed to this end. The fact that the approach worked is attested to by the GDP growth rate and more specifically by the growth in private consumption demand in 2008-09 and also in 2009-10 as reflected in the relevant data on the NAS new series. Consumption expenditure, by its very nature, has short lags, and affects demand quickly, with little or no effect on productivity, while productive infrastructure expenditure takes much longer to translate into effective demand. The recovery having taken root now necessitates a review of public spending. It has to be geared towards building medium-term productivity of the economy and making up for the decline in investment growth in certain sectors of the economy.
Social-sector Development
Fiscal 2009-10 saw the strengthening of several public initiatives and programmes with a view to cushioning the impact of the global slowdown on the more vulnerable segments of the population in the country. While some of these programmes were a part of the ongoing interventions to give effect to a more inclusive development strategy, there were some measures that were undertaken as a direct response to the slowdown of growth, especially in the tradable sectors of the economy. Thus emphasis in favour of higher allocation to social-sector development given in recent years continued to be reflected in the allocations under the Union Budget 2009-10. The share of Central government expenditure on social services, including rural development in total expenditure (Plan and non-Plan), increased to 19.46 per cent in 2009-10 (BE) from about 10.46 per cent in 2003-04. Similarly, expenditure on social services by general government (Centre and States combined) as a proportion of total expenditure increased from 19.9 per cent in 2004-05 to 23.8 per cent in 2009-10 (BE).
A major concern was regarding the possibility of a rise in unemployment due to the slowdown of the economy. While comprehensive employment data for the current financial year are not available, some sample surveys conducted by the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment, government of India, indicated job losses in the wake of the global financial crisis, which seemed to reverse in later part of 2009-10. Employment is estimated to have declined by 4.91 lakh during the third quarter (October-December) of 2008; it increased by 2.76 lakh during January-March 2009, followed by a decline of 1.31 lakh during April-June 2009, and then an increase of 4.97 lakh during the second quarter (July-September) 2009.
Under the NREGA, which is a major rural employment initiative, during the year 2009-10, 4.34 crore households were provided employment till December 2009.
Road Ahead
There are some deep changes that have taken place in India, which suggest that the economy’s fundamentals are strong. First, the rates of savings and investment have reached levels that even ten years ago would have been dismissed as a pipedream for India. On this important dimension, India is now completely a part of the world’s fast growing economies.
In 2008-09 gross domestic savings as a percentage of GDP were 32.5 per cent and gross domestic capital formation 34.9 per cent. These figures, which are a little lower than what had been achieved before the fiscal stimulus was put into place, fall comfortably within the range of figures one traditionally associated with the East Asian economies. Since these indicators are some of the strongest correlates of growth and do not fluctuate wildly, they speak very well for India’s medium-term growth prospects. It also has to be kept in mind that as the demographic dividend begins to pay off in India, with the working age-group population rising disproportionately over the next two decades, the savings rate is likely to rise further.
Second, the arrival of India’s corporations in the global market place, and informal indicators of the sophisticated corporate culture that many of these companies exhibit, lends to the optimistic prognosis for the economy in the medium to long run.
In the medium term it is reasonable to expect that the economy will go back to the robust growth path of around 9 per cent that it was on before the global crisis slowed it down in 2008. To begin with, there has been a revival in investment and private consumption demand, though the recovery is yet to attain the pre-2008 momentum. Second, Indian exports have recorded impressive growth in November and December 2009 and early indications of the January 2010 data on exports are also encouraging. Further, infrastructure services, including railway transport, power, telecommunications and, more recently but to a lesser extent, civil aviation, have shown a remarkable turnaround since the second quarter of 2009-10. The favourable capital market conditions with improvement in capital flows and business sentiments, as per the RBI’s business expectations survey, are also encouraging. Finally, the manufacturing sector has been showing a buoyancy in recent months that was rarely seen before. The growth rate of the index of industrial production for December 2009 was a remarkable 16.8 per cent. There is also a substantial pick-up in corporate earnings and profit margins.
Hence, going by simple calculations based on the above-mentioned variables, coupled with the fact that agriculture did have a set-back in 2009 and is only gradually getting back to the projected path, a reasonable forecast for the year 2010-11 is that the economy will improve its GDP growth by around 1 percentage point from that witnessed in 2009-10. Thus, allowing for factors beyond the reach of domestic policy-makers, such as the performance of the monsoon and rate of recovery of the global economy, the Indian GDP can be expected to grow around 8.5, with a full recovery breaching the 9 per cent mark in 2011-12.
DIARY OF EVENTS 2009
DIARY OF EVENTS 2009
INTERNATIONAL
JANUARY
JAN 1 – Cuba celebrates 50th anniversary of its revolution.
JAN 6 – Shekh Hasina sworn in as Prime Minister in Bangladesh.
JAN 9 – The Srilankan Army captures Elephant Pass, a crucial base of the LTTE at the gateway to Jafna linking peninsula with Wanni.
JAN 11 – British drector Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ based on Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup’s novel ‘Q and A’ emerges big winner at the 66th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calofornia. Composer A.R. Rahman bags best composure honours, the first Indian to win the award.
JAN 20 – Barack Hussain Obama is sworn in the 44th President of US, breaking the colour barrier. Joe Biden takes oath as the 47th Vice-President.
JAN 21 – In a rare do-over, Barack Obama is sworn in for the second time as the US President.
Israel completes troops pull out from the Gaza strip after a three week offensive.
JAN 23 – Japan launches the Greenhouse Gas Observing Satellite, the world’s first satellite dedicated to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions from Tanegashima, a small island.
The US authorities approves the first human trials using embryonic stem cells testing a pioneering therapy for stroke patients.
FEBRUARY
FEB 1 – Johanna Sigurdardottir takes over as Iceland’s first women Prime Minister.
FEB 8 – Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain wins Grammy in the Contemporary World Music category for his collaborative album ‘Global Drum Project’.
FEB 11 – Awami League loyalist Zillur Rahman is elected Bangladesh President.
FEB 14 – King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia appoints for the first time a woman Noura al-Fayez, Deputy Minister for girl’s education
FEB 16 – The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wins referendum on scrapping term limits for elected posts, paving the way for his seeking re-election in 2012 and beyond.
FEB 22 – Slumdog Millionaire, a small budget British film bags eight Oscars at 81st Academy Awards Functions in Hollywood including Best Director (Danny Boyle), Original Music Score and Song(A.R. Rahman, the first Indian to win two Oscars), Sound Mixing (Resul Pookutty of Kerela shares it with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke), Best Picture.
‘Smile Pinki’, the tale of a little girl with cleft lip, Pinki Sonkar, from Uttar Pradesh gets Oscar for Best Documentary (Short).
FEB 25 – Fifty persons are killed as Bangladesh Rifles personnel launched an armed rebelliobn seeking better pay and putting an end to the deputation of Army officers to command paramilitary bodyguards. BDR chief Major General Shakil Ahmad is taken hostage
FEB 27 – Bangladesh security forces discover a mass grave of at least 42 massacred Army officers at the Pilkhana Headquarter of the BDR, including Bangladesh Rifles chief Major General Shakil Ahmad.
MARCH
MAR 1 – Chang’e-1, China’s first lunar probe impacts moon ending its 16 month mission.
MAR 2 – The President of Guinea-Bissau Jao Bernardo Vieira is assassinated by renegade soldiers at his place.
MAR 4 – The International Criminal Court, The Hague, issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Beshir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. It is the first by the court against a sitting head of State.
MAR 9 – Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan (Karuna), former deputy leader of the LTTE, is sworn in Sri Lanka’s Minister of National Integration in Colombo, shortly after joining ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
President Barack Obama lifts curbs on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research.
MAR 12 – The former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff is jailed after he pleads to an epic fraud that robbed investors worldwide of billions of dollars.
An Iraqi Court hands down a three year jail term to journalist Muntazer Al- Zaidi for hurling shoes at then US President George Bush during a globally televised press conference in Baghdad last December.
MAR 16 – The Pakistan Government agrees to restore the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary.
MAR 26 – Charles Simonyi becomes the first person to travel twice to space as a tourist.
Russian-French mathematician Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov is chosen for the Abel Prize for 2009.
MAR 29 – Ninety countries take part in ‘Earth Hour 2009’, a global event in which landmarks and homes go dark to highlight the threat for climate change.
APRIL
APR 1 – Benzamin Netanyahu assumes office as Israeli Prime Minister
APR 2 – The G-20 Summit in London pledges $1.1 trillion to boost global economic growth. Leaders agree on measures to reform the banking system.
APR 3 – Najib Tun Razak is sworn in as Malaysia’s sixth Prime Minister.
APR 4 – France returns to the NATO fold at the 60th anniversary summit of the Organisation at Strausborg. Albania and Croatia become new members. Spanish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is named is named the next Secretary General.
APR 6 – Over 100 people are feared dead and nearly 1200 injured after a powerful earthquake strikes the historic central town of L’Aquila in the mountainous Abruzo region.
APR 13 – Sri Lanka de-recognizes Norway as the official facilitator of Peace talks.
APR 14 – North Korea pulls out of denuclearisation expels IAEA inspectors and US monitors from the Yongbyon nuclear complex.
APR 24 – India and Poland sign agreements on cooperatin in health care and medicine and tourism, in the presence of Presidents Pratibha Patil and Lech Kaczynski.
APR 30 – The six year British Occupation of Iraq ends.
MAY
MAY 1- The British government appoints Scottish Poet Carol Ann Duffy, the country’s first woman Poet Laureate.
MAY 4 – Pushp Kumar Dahal “Prachanda” resigns as Nepal Prime Minister after the President Ram Baran Yadav asks the Army Chief General Rookmangud Katawal to continue in office.
MAY 7 – Patxi Lopez assumes office as the first non-nationalist President of the Basque region( Spain).
MAY 8 – The Pakistam Army launches full scale military action named Operation Rah-e-Rast in the Swat valley to flush out militants.
MAY 9 – Jacob Zuma assumes office as the forth President of the post –aparthied South Africa.
MAY 18 – The LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is killed in an intense battle with Sri Lankan Military at Mullivaikkal in Mullaithivu district bringing an end to the 33 month long Ealem War IV.
MAY 21 – Former British Gorkha soldiers won a major victory after the government accepts their demand to settle in Britain.
Apa Sherpa of Nepal climbs Mt. Everest for the record 19th time.
MAY 23 – The former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun, who was at the center of a multi million dollar corruption probe commits suicide by jumping of a hill .
Horst Koehler, the former head of IMF is re-elected German President.
MAY 25 – Cyclone Aila wreak havoc in Bangladesh.
MAY 27 – Canadian short story writer Alice Munro wins the £ 60,000 Man Booker International Prize.
JUNE
JUN 1 – All 228 passengers on board an Air France aircraft flying from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris are killed as the plane crashes into the Atlantic ocean after being stuck by lightning.
JUN 3 – The Organisation of American States decides to lift a 47 year old ban on Cuba at the OAS General Assembly meeting in Honduras.
JUN 11 – The WHO declares the swine flu pandemic, the first global flu epidemic in 41 years.
JUN 13 – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad secures a landslide victory in presidential polls trounching his nearest rival Mir Hosein Mousavi.
JUN 16 – The first-ever summit of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) at Yekaterinburg, Russia calls for the creation of a “more diversified international monetary system” and a “more democratic and just multipolar world order”.
JUN 19 – Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorses the presidential pole result and awnts protesters to keep off the streets.
JUN 20 – 13 persons killed in crackdown on protesters in Iran.
JUN 25 – Pop King Michael Jackson (50) dies at Los Angeles. His entertainment career hit high water marks with the release of “Thriller” in 1982.
JUN 28 – Honduran Army ousts leftists Presindent Manuel Zelaya and exiles him to Costa Rica in Central Americas first military coup since the cold war, hours before a rogue referendum he had called in defiance of the courts and congress.
JUN 30 – Atleast 152 people on board a Yemeni Airbus jet are killed after the aircraft crashes into the Indian Ocean while trying to land in Comoros Islands.
US forces pull out of Iraqi cities.
JULY
JUL 2 – Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano is elected the new chief of the IAEA.
JUL 6 – Atleast 184 people are killed and 1000 injured following two days of rioting in Urumqi, the capital city of China’s Muslim majority Xingjiang autonomous region.
JUL 7 – Obama and Dmitry Medvedev sign a pact that sets a new limit of 1,675 warheads after the first Russian American summit in 8 years in Moscow.
JUL 9 – The G8 and G5 Leaders call for an ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha Development Round of trade talks through a joint declaration at the G8-G5 Summit at L’Aquila, Italy.
JUL 13 – Turkey signs an accord with Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria to built the 3,300 km Nabucco pipeline to supply gas to Europe.
JUL 15 – The 15th NAM Summit beging at Sharm- el-Sheikh, Egypt.
160 people killed as an Iranian Airliner en route to Armania catches fire mid air. 10 members of Iran’s national Judo team among dead.
JUL 20 – NASA observes 40th anniversary of first human landing on moon.
Myanmar Leader Dang San Suu Kyi is conferred with the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation at a function in Durban.
JUL 25 – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is re-elected.
AUGUST
AUG 3 – Indian social activist Deep Joshi named among the winners of Ramon Magsaysay Awards for 2009.
AUG 5 – Pakistan’s most wanted man Beithullah Masood leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban killed in USA missile strike in South Waziristan tribal area.
AUG 6 – The new LTTE Chief Selvarasa Pathmanathan is arrested in Malaysia.
AUG 8 – Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in as the US Supreme Courts first Hispanic justice and third female member in the courts 220 year history.
AUG 11 – Typhoon Morakot leaves 600 dead in Taiwan.
AUG 13 – India and ASEAN sign a FTA in Bangkok.
AUG 14 – President Asif Ali Zardari confers the Sitar-e-Imtiaz (Star of excellence), Pakistan’s third highest award posthumously on Indian Parliamentarian Nirmala Deshpandey.
AUG 20 – The Scottish government frees Abdal Basset al-Megrahi, former Libyan agent, serving lifer for his role in December 1998 Lockerabie air crash which killed 270 passengers, mostly American.
AUG 23 – Venezuela’s Stefania Fernandez(18) crowned Miss Universe in Bahamas.
AUG 24 – The publisher of the world’s largest circulated magazine Reader’s Digest files for bankruptcy protection in US.
SEPTEMBER
SEP 1 – Fiji is suspended from the Commonwealth for failing to meet a deadline to make progress towards establishing democracy.
SEP 3 – Iran to have First woman Cabinet Minister after Parliament gives approval for nomination of Marzieh-Vahid Dastjerdi as Heath Minister .
SEP 12 – Lebanon, an Israeli flim bags the Golden Lion at 66th Venice Film Festival.
SEP 16 – Yukio Hatoyama is appointed as Japan’s new Prime Minister.
SEP 21 – The deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returns home and seeks asylum in Brazilian embassy in the capital Tegucigalpa’
The former US President Jimmy Carter is presented the Mahatma Gandhi Global Non Violence Award in Virginia.
SEP 22 – Irina Bokova, Bulgaria’s former Foreign Minister becomes the first woman to head UNESCO.
SEP 24 – World Powers adopt a landmark resolution seeking to rid the planet of nuclear arms at an unprecedented UN Security Council Summit chaired by Obama.
SEP 27 – The German Chancellor Angela Merkel wins a second four year term.
SEP 29 – 150 killed as a Tsunami triggered by an earthquake flattens villages in the South Pacific Islands of Samoa and American Samoa.
SEP 30 – 1,100 killed as earthquake (7.6) hits Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.
Peru’s Supreme Court sentences former President Alberto Fujimori to six years in jail for wire tapping opponents and paying bribes to law makers during his tenure from 1990 to 2000.
OCTOBER
OCT 1 – The people’s Republic of China stages the largest ever military display in its history as a part of its 60th anniversary celebrations.
OCT 2 – Marking the International day of Non-Violence, the United Nations releases a stamp on Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of his 140th birth anniversary.
OCT 3 – Ireland votes ‘Yes’ in a crucial referendum on the contentious Lisbon Treaty designed to streamline the European Union.
David Coleman Headley, a US citizen is held by the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force at O’Hare International Airport for plotting terror attacks in Denmark and India.
OCT 5 – Americans Elizabeth h. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak win the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres – a vital factor in cell ageing. The trio had won the 2006 Lasker Prize for the same work.
The Greek Socialist leader George Papandreou trounces the governing Conservatives and is set to form Government.
OCT 6 – Three Americans Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing fibres-optic cable and the sensor at the heart of digital cameras.
British Novelist Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, a historical novel about the rise of King Henery VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell wins the 2009 Man Booker Prize.
OCT 7 – India born American Venkataraman Ramakrishnan and fellow American Thomas Steitz along with the Israeli Ada Yonath share the 2009 Nobel Chemistry prize for showing how the ribosomes, which produces protein, functions at the atomic level usung X-ray crystallography.
OCT 8 – Herta Mueller, a member of Romania’s ethnic German minority wins the 2009 Nobel Prize for literature.
OCT 9 – Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2009.
OCT 11 – After an 18 hour stand-off, Pakistani Army commandos storm Army Headquarter in Rawalpindi freeing 39 persons taken hostages by militants.
OCT 12 – Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson win the 2009 Economic Nobel for their analyses of economic governance. Ostrom is the first woman to win the Economic Nobel.
OCT 13 – Alyn Ware of New Zealand, Congo’s Rene Ngongo, David Suzuki of Canada and Catharine Hamlin are named the co-winners of the 2009 Right to Livelihood Award, the so called “Alternative Nobel”
OCT 16 – Queen Elizabeth II formally opens the UK’s Supreme Court situated in London’s Parliament Square. It was established on Oct. 1st.
OCT 17 – The Maldivian Cabinet signs a declaration appealing to global leaders to save their atoll nation from being swamped by rising sea water after a under water meeting in Girifushi near the capital Male.
OCT 24 – The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proposes the setting up of an India Asean Round Table at the 7th bilateral Summit on the sidelines of the 17th ASEAN Summit in the Thai resort of Hua Hin.
OCT 27 – India and Nepal signs “a historic”new treaty to control illegal trade across the border.
OCT 28 – Massive bomb blast near the historic Kissa Khwani Bazaar in Peshawar in Pakistan.
OCT 29 – President Pratibha Patil receives the Queen’s Baton from Britain’s Queen at the Buckingham Palace as India formally takes charge of the 2010 XIX Commnwealth Games New Delhi.
Egypt offers to allow India to set up an ‘India Zone’ along the Suez Canal Development Area.
China’s fastest Super Computer Tianhe (Milky Way) is unveiled.
NOVEMBER
NOV 6 – The un General Assembly endorses the 575 page report by South African jurist, Richard Goldstone that focuses on alleged war crimes during this 22 day Gaza conflict early this year.
NOV 10 – Russia honours Mikhail Kalashnikov, father of the world’s most famous gun AK 47 with the country’s highest award , Hero of Russia’
NOV 12 – Sri Lanka’s Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka resigns.
NOV 19 – The Supreme Court of Bangladesh upholds death sentence for the August 15, 1975 assassination of the nation’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Belgian Prime Minister Herman Von Rompuy is elected the first European Council President and Britain’s Catherine Ashton is named the 27 member body’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
NOV 20 – The Big Bang machine or the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest atom smasher, starts operating again 14 months after a technical snag caused one tonne of helium to leak into the 27 km long that houses it.
NOV 24 – India “a rising and responsible global power”, says the US President Barack Obama after the summit meeting with PM Manmohan Singh. Acknowledges India’s status as nuclear power.
NOV 25 – Indian PM and the US President announce the launch of the India-US Counterterrorism Cooperation Iniative.
Dubai World, the fulcrum of the United Arab Emirates’ economy asks for a “standstill” agreement to delay repayment by six months on most of its $59 billion of debt.
NOV 27 – The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting opens in the Trinidad capital Post of Spain.
NOV 28 – The National Reconciliation Order (NRO) under which Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and others got amnesty from corruption charges against them lapses.
NOV 29 – Jose Mujica, the former leftist Tupamaro guirrilla fighter is elected Uruguay President.
NOV 30 – Porfirio “pepe” Lebo is elected Honduras President.
DECEMBER
DEC 7 – India and Russia sign the civil nuclear cooperation pact 3.0 that is free from any curbs on New Delhi and guarantees against restriction in the future. Two sides sign six pacts, including three in the military sphere.
Bolivian President Evo Morales wins landslide victory in general elections seeking second term.
The UN Climate Change Conference 2009 of 194 nations opens at Copenhagen, Denmark.
DEC 8 – British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceshipTwo, a commercial spaceship.
DEC 12 – Gibralter’s Kaiane Aldorino is crowned Miss World 2009 at glittering ceremony in Johannesburg.
DEC 14 – African nations walk out of the UN climate change talks against efforts by rich nations to ”kill Kyoto”.
DEC 15 – Boeing’s revolutionary lightweight passenger jet 787 Dreamliner made mostly of composite materials take to the skies for the first time around Puget Sound and inland Washington state.
DEC 16 – Pakistan Supreme Court declares the National Reconciliation Order null and void and orders reinitiation of proceedings against the accused acquitted under the controversial law.
DEC 24 – Rajiv Shah to be the USAID chief.
DEC 31 – Reena Kaushal is the first Indian woman to ski to the South Pole.
Mota Singh, Britain’s first Asian judge is knighted.
OBITUARY
APRIL 9 – Raja J. Chelliah :Economist
APRIL 9 – Shakti Samant : Noted Hindi Film Maker.
APRIL 21 : Iqbal Bano : India born Pakistani classic and ghazal singer.
MAY 2 - K. Balaji : Tamil actor and producer
MAY 3 - B. Rajam Iyer : Scholar and Misician
MAY 31 - Prakash Mehra :Hindi film producer and director
JUNE 8 - Habib Tanvir - Noted playwriter and Theatre director
JUNE 19 - Ustad Ali Akbar Khan : Siter Maestro
JULY 1 - Tyeb Mehta :Renowned Painter
JULY 8 - Syed Abdullah Bukhari : Former Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid.
JULY 11 – Ji Xianlin : Chinese Indologist
JULY 13 - Nilu Phule : Marathi stage and cinema actor.
JULY 16 – Damal Krishnaswami Pattamal : Indian classical music
JULY 21 - Gangubai Hangal : Hindustani classical music of Kirana Gharana
JULY 29 - Gayatri Devi : Queen Mother of Jaipur, Founder of Swatantra Party.
AUGUST 18 – Kim Dae Jung :Former South Korean President and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2000.
SEPTEMBER 12 – Norman Borlaug : Agriculture scientist and central figure of green revolution.
Jack Kramer : American tennis great of 1940s.
Rajsingh Dungarpur : Former BCCI President and Chairman of selectors.
SEPTEMBER 14 – Patrick Swayze : US actor known for his roles in Dirty Dancing, Ghost
OCTOBER 10 – Stephen Gately :Boyzone singer.
OCTOBER 14 – Krishna Chandra Pal : member of India’s famed 1956 Olympic football team.
OCTOBER 30 – Claude Levi Strauss :Renowned French Anthropologist
NOVEMBER 5 – Prabhash Joshi : Eminent Hindi Journalist and founder editor of Jansatta.
NOVEMBER 10 – Robert Enke :German Goalkeeper, commits suicide.
DECEMBER 6 – Bina Rai : Bollywood Actress.
DECEMBER 10 – Dilip Chitre : Poet and Film Maker.
DECEMBER 13 - Paul Anthony Samuelson : Economist
T.S. Satyan : Renowned Photojournalist
DECEMBER 20 - Brittany Murphy : Hollywood actor
DECEMBER 30 – Vishnuvardhan : Kannada actor
SPORTS
FEBRUARY 1 – Mahesh Bhupati and Sania Mirja became the first Indian pair to win a Grand Slam Mixed Double title when they clinched Australian Open.
MARCH 6 – Honda announces the sale of lts Formula One team to Ross Brawn. The new outfit is called is Brawn GP.
MARCH 11 – Virender Sehwag scores India’s fastest ODI hundred against host New Zealand.
APRIL 7 – Chitra Mgimairaj finishes runner up in the WLBSA World ladies’ billiards championship at Cambridge.
APRIL 10 – Gagan Narang wins the bronze medal in the Men’s 10 m air rifle event of the first ISSF World Cup of the year in Chongwon, Korea.
APRIL 12 – India wins Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament with a 3-1 victory over host Malaysia in the final.
APRIL 23 – French swimmer Alain Bernard breaks the 100 m freestyle world record at the French Championship at Montpellier, setting a new time of 46.94 seconds .
MAY 6 – Wang Ho and ZhangYining of China win the men’s and women’s singles title at the World Table Tennis Championship at Yakohama.
MAY 24 – Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguli wins the Asian Chess Championship at Phillipines.
MAY 25 – Deccan Chargers wins IPL season II at the Wanderers.
MAY 26 – Sayali Gokhale wins the women’s single title at the Spanish Open Badminton Championship in Madrid beating Lianne Tan of Belgium.
MAY 29 – Barcelona beats Manchester United in the final to lift the Champion League Title at Rome.
JUNE 7 – Svetlana Kuznetsova defeats Dinara Safin to win French Open title.
JUNE 8 – Roger Federer wins his first French Open Title.
India’s Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic win the French Open Men’s double title.
JUNE 14 – Boxer Suranjoy Singh wins Gold in Asian Championship in Zhuhai, China.
JUNE 15 – Goa beats Bengal to win 63rd Santosh Trophy in Chennai.
JUNE 21 – Pakistan wins Twenty20 World Cup beating Sri Lanka in final at Lords in London.
Saina Nehwal becomes the first Indian to win a Super Series Tournament with her triumph over Chinese Lin Wang in the Indonesian Open at Jakarta.
Indian women’s hockey team wins the Champion Challenge for women in Kazan, Russia.
JULY 5 – Roger Federer wins record 15th Grand Slam title by winning at Wimbledon. Serena Williams wins the women’s title and along with Venus claims the women’s double crown.
JULY 11 – Squash player Joshna Chinappa wins the third WISPA title of her career in Kuala Lumpur.
JULY 19 – GM Arun Prasad becomes the first Indian to claim the title in the 116 year history of the Scottish Chess Championship in Edinburgh.
JULY 26 – Alberto Contador wraps up his second Tour de France title
GM Parimarjan Negi wins the Politiken Chess title at Copenhagen
JULY 29 – Union Government announces Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awards to Sushil Kumar (Wrestling), Vijender Singh (Boxing) and M.C. Mary Kom (Boxing).
AUGUST 16 – Usain Bolt breaks his world record in the 100 m event as he clocks 9.54s at the World Championship in Berlin.
AUGUST 20 – Usain Bolt breaks the world record, clocking 19.19s in the 200m event in the World Championship.
AUGUST 23 – Bekele becomes the first athlete to win the 5000m and 10000m crowns at the World Championship.
England claims Ashes by defeating Australia.
AUGUST 28 – GM Parimarjan Negi clinches the prestigious Dato Arthur Tan Malaysian Open Chess title in Kuala Lumpur.
AUGUST 30 – Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari wins the Belgian Grand Prix and Force India picks up its first points as Giancarlo Fisichella finishes second.
AUGUST 31 – India defeats Syria to win the Nehru Cup
SEPTEMBER 7 – Pankaj Advani wins his maiden World Professional Billiards title beating Mike Russel in finals at Leeds.
SEPTEMBER 11 – Vijender Singh wins the 75 kg bronze at the World Boxing Championships in Milan, India’s first ever medal at the event.
Leander Paes and Cara Black finish runner up in the US Open Mixed doubles losing to Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrot in the final.
SEPTEMBER 12 – Churchill Brothers beats Mohun Bagan to win its maiden IFA Shield crown in Kolkata
SEPTEMBER 13 – Kim Clijsters wins US Open women’s Single title.
Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy wins the Men’s Doubles of US Open.
SEPTEMBER 14 – Juan Martin Del Potro wins men’s Single Title of US Open.
Venus and Serena Williams win the women’s Doubles of US Open.
SEPTEMBER 20 – India enters the Davis Cup World Group after eleven years beating South Africa in the play off at Johannesburg.
SEPTEMBER 22 Churchill Brothers bags the Durand Cup football title in New Delhi.
SEPTEMBER 30 – Pankaj Advani wins his third straight National Billiards Title at Agra.
OCTOBER 1 – Gautam Gambhir wins the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year Award
Mahendra Singh Dhoni wins the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year award.
Mitchell Johnson is named the Cricketer of the year.
OCTOBER 2 – Rio de Janeiro wins the bid to host 2016 Olympics.
OCTOBER 4 – Pankaj Advani and Meenal Thakur win the Men’s and Women’s titles respectively in the National Snooker Championship in Agra.
OCTOBER 5 – Rest of India lifts the Irani Cup Trophy in Nagpur.
OCTOBER 10 – Karnataka wins the National Aquatics Championship for the 18th consecutive year at Thiruvananthpuram.
OCTOBER 11 – C.Muniyappa wins the Indian Open Golf Tournament at Gurgaon.
OCTOBER 18 – Jenson Button wins the Formula One World Championship in Sao Paulo (Brazil).
OCTOBER 23 – New South Wales Blues wins the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament in Hyderabad.
OCTOBER 29 – Jeev Milkha Singh becomes the first Indian Golfer to tee off at the World Matchplay Championship at Casares (Spain) and defeats world No. 5, Lee Westwood.
DECEMBER 2 – Argentina,s Lionnel Messi wins Golden Ball as well as the FIFA Player of the year award.
DECEMBER 3 – Virender Sehwag scores second fastest double hundred ever in the third and final test against Sri Lanka. It was Sehwag’s sixth double century, the most by an Indian.
DECEMBER – Spain retains Davis Cup defeating Czech Republic in the finals in Barcelona.
DECEMBER 6 – India’s V.Diju and Jwala Gutta loses in the finals of the BWF World Super Series Badminton Tournament in Johor Bahru.
Indian cricket team reaches No. 1 status in ICC Test ranking.
DECEMBER 15 – Boris Gelfand of Israel wins the Chess World in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
DECEMBER 20 – Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal win the Men’s and Women’s singles title in the Jaypee Cup Syed Modi International Grand Prix Badminton tournament in Lucknow.
Saurav Goshal and Joshna Chinappa win the Men’s and Women’s Title in the Kingfisher 57th National Squash Championship in Delhi.
Indian Wrestlers make a clean sweep of all the 7 gold medals in the Men’s Freestyle competition of the Commonwealth wrestling in Jalandhar.
DECEMBER 26 – Ashutosh Singh and Ankita Raina of Gujrat lift the Men’s and Women’s titles of the National Grass Court Tennis Championship in Kolkata.
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Current Affairs & GK
Current Affairs & GK
Economy (National)
Content:
13 finance commission
Budget &survey
Brief Description:
13th Finance Commission's Functions and the Implications of its Moves
What is the role of the commission?
The Constitution provides that certain tax revenues of the Union government be shared between the Centre and the states. President constitutes the finance commission under Article 280 of the Constitution to recommend what percentage of such revenues should go to the states and also how the funds are shared among the states.
Why the resources are shared between the Centre and states?
This is necessary due to the fact that the bulk of taxation powers are with the Centre, but expenditure is in the domain of states. In fact, most federal systems need a mechanism to address the issue of vertical distribution of resources. Canada has a federal system very similar to that of India. There, too, a mechanism is in place to address the issue of vertical imbalance and horizontal equity — how the resources are shared amongst states themselves. Australia is another such federal setup.
What are the other key responsibilities?
Finance commission is also required to lay down the principles governing the grants-in-aid to states out of the consolidated fund of India. It should also suggest measures to augment the resources of states to supplement the resources of panchayats and municipalities. At times the government can also ask the finance commission to make suggestions on specific issues. The Thirteenth Finance Commission was asked to make recommendations on accounting of off budget subsidies.
Are the recommendations of finance commission binding?
The recommendations of the finance commission are not binding on the government. But, the recommendations have the force of precedent and governments generally go by the suggestions. The recommendations relating to distribution of Union taxes and duties and grants-in-aid can be implemented by a presidential order.
When was the First Finance Commission appointed? What is the timeline for recommendations?
The First Finance Commission was constituted on 22 November 1951 under the chairmanship of KC Neogy. Thirteen finance commissions have been appointed so far at five-year intervals. Recommendations are valid for a period of five years. The recommendations of the current finance commission will be for the five year period beginning April 1, 2010.
13 finance commission report
The 13th Finance Commission (TFC), whose report was tabled in Parliament recently, has
broken new ground by building incentives into the transfer mechanism. Most of its key recommendations have been accepted by the government.
The States stand to get a larger share of central taxes than before.
Apart from increasing their share of the divisible pool of tax revenues from 30.5 per cent to 32 per cent, the Commission has proposed an additional 2-2.5 per cent for local bodies. Grants-in-aid to States are projected at Rs.315,581 crore over the next five years. The shared taxes and central grants together will take the overall devolution to States from 37.6 per cent to 39 per cent of the central divisible tax revenues.
The TFC does not want any inconsistency between the amounts released to the States and the percentage share in the net tax revenues recommended by it. The States have been impressed upon to comply with the norms set by the Commission if they are to avail themselves of the full benefit of certain transfers. It has called upon the Centre not to lean heavily on surcharges and cesses since collections under these heads are not shared with the States.
The transfer formula, which emphasises fiscal discipline on the part of the States, has been so worked out that non-Plan revenue grants will be made available to fewer States.The system of incentive-based transfer seeks to reward States that comply with the norms prescribed by the TFC.
The Commission has earmarked Rs.50,000 crore of central grants to compensate States for any revenue shortfall on account of switching to the Goods and Services Tax. The compensation will be available even if there is no shortfall, provided the State concerned adopts the GST model the TFC has prepared. This however is going to prove contentious. The empowered committee of State Finance Ministers has worked out its own model wherein tax rates are higher than in the TFC's version. The States want a much higher share of the divisible tax receipts to be transferred to them. Nor will they be happy that the Commission has remained silent on their long standing demands, namely decision-making powers in respect of centrally-sponsored schemes. The government has accepted its suggestion to put a cap on the combined debt of the Centre and the States at 48 per cent of the GDP that is to be achieved by 2014-15.
Budget &survey
1. The three challenges identified by the finance minister in his recent budget
The first, widely noted and much applauded by corporate India, concerned finding means to cross the ‘double-digit growth barrier’.
The second, less glamorous and hence less discussed, is in harnessing economic growth to make development more inclusive.
The third, which attracted little notice and comment, relates to ‘weaknesses in government systems, structures and institutions’ that he recognised as a ‘bottleneck of our public delivery mechanisms’.
2. Coveted position in forex, gold
In its efforts to improve foreign exchange reserves, India has now become the 10th largest gold-holding nation in the world.
It has also emerged as the fourth-largest foreign exchange reserves holder only after China, Japan and Russia, says the Economic Survey 2009-10.
3. A critical area
By allocating 46 per cent of the total plan expenditure to infrastructure development,
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has clearly shown how imperative this is to return to a higher growth trajectory.
That highways, railways, and power got a lion's share of the allocations for 2010-11 signals a clear priority to connectivity and electricity. Rural roads too got a quantum jump in funding.
No less significant is the government's commitment to involving the private sector all the more in infrastructure development. Witness Mr. Mukherjee's statement: “With development and economic reforms, the focus of economic activity has shifted towards the non-governmental actors, bringing into sharper focus, the role of government as an enabler.” So, the objective seems to be to create an “enabling ethos” for Public Private Partnership (PPP).
Going by the Rs.1,73,552 crore allocation for upgrading both urban and rural infrastructure, it is evident that the government wants to accelerate development of high quality physical infrastructure such as roads, ports, airports, railways and power.
In this mix, the road and energy sectors come in for special attention for two reasons — some of the ongoing programmes are critical and there has been a perpetual shortfall in the achievement of targets over successive Five-Year Plan periods.
The last two years have seen a substantial increase in investment in infrastructure, but as a proportion of the GDP the figure is just around six per cent, three per cent short of the requirement.
The Finance Minister has raised the budget allocation for the road transport sector from Rs.17,520 crore to Rs. 19,894 crore — a 13 per cent increase. The government, notably the Highways, and the Planning Commission have targeted a construction pace of 20 kilometres-a-day of the National Highways.
Though a massive highways upgradation and expansion programme was launched way back in 1999 and subsequently revamped in 2006, the progress has not been satisfying. Litigation and implementation delays continue to hamper the effort.
Similarly, on the power front, there has been a major shortfall in reaching the targets for the 8th, 9th, and 10th Five-year Plans. Even the 11th Plan target is unlikely to be reached. The allocations for the power sector have been doubled for the coming year, and a major impetus given to new and renewable energy.
It is not enough for governments to just allocate funds. Infrastructure projects must be made attractive for private and foreign investors, and the States need to be fully involved in implementing and monitoring them.
4. MSMEs & the budget
Firstly, the outlay for the MSME sector has been enhanced by around Rs 600 crore to Rs 2,400 crore, presumably to implement recommendations of the prime minister’s taskforce.
Secondly, the policy of 2% interest subventions for exports announced last year for MSMEs and certain employment-intensive sectors such as handicrafts, carpets, etc, have been extended for one more year.
Thirdly, it is announced that the Reserve Bank of India is considering more licences to banks including non-banking finance companies. Such a move would eventually benefit MSMEs the most.
Fourthly, an amendment is proposed whereby an eligible small scale industry (SSI) unit can avail cenvat credit against purchase of capital goods in full (100%) in the same financial year of receipt of such capital goods (earlier, it was 50% in the year of receipt and rest was allowed in subsequent year only).
Fifthly, SSIs are allowed to pay the duty on the goods cleared by them once in a quarter instead of the monthly basis.
Finally, the proposed independent evaluation office under the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission might as well bring in the much-needed transparency and result-orientation in promotional policies. Currently, implementation of most of the schemes is in a mess, including those meant for MSMEs.
5. PSUs to buy 20% from small units
The government is reportedly considering a proposal whereby all public sector companies, including railways and entities under the defence ministry, will have to procure 20% of their total requirements from MSEs. The size of public procurement in India is huge and it could provide a fillip to the sector.
The policy will cover a wide range of supplies, services and works required by governments, local authorities and public organizations. According to estimates, MSEs are set to benefit from a Rs 34,000 crore windfall annually once the policy comes into effect.
Currently, there are about 26 million micro, small and medium enterprises in the country, which contribute about 45% of the country’s total manufactured output and about 40% of the export income. The sector employs over 42 million people.
Panel on BSNL submits report
The Sam Pitroda-led high-level committee, formed to suggest the restructuring of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has submitted a detailed report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The report is said to comprise suggestions on BSNL's controversial IPO issue and the 9.3-crore GSM line tender, which has been put on hold following a directive from the Central Vigilance Commission
Kobelco sets up facility at Sri City
Kobelco Construction Equipment India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Kobelco Group of Japan, is setting up an equipment machinery facility at the fast coming up multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) of Sri City at Tada in Andhra Pradesh.
The SEZ with a domestic tariff zone (DTZ) is coming up on 6,000 acres.
the proposed plant will have a local content of 70 per cent. It will import critical items such as engines, hydraulic pumps and the like.
Banks can lend below base rate too
Loans against fixed deposits, loans given by a bank to its own employees, as well as restructured loans, where borrowers get more time and pay lower rates to avert defaults, can be given at interest rates that are below the base rate — the new benchmark rate for pricing loans.
While allowing these exemptions, RBI has also deferred the date for implementation of the base rate by banks to July 1. Earlier, RBI had said the base rate system would come into effect from April 1 — a deadline, which most banks found difficult to meet.
The regulator has, however, ruled out any lending to corporates below the base rate.
For a bank, the base rate will be its minimum cost at which it can lend and the risk premium on a loan would be the mark up over the base rate. The base rate, which will replace the prime lending rate (PLR), is aimed at bringing more transparency in loan pricing. At present, around 70% of the loans are below PLR which ranges between 11.75% and 12.25%.
The base rate should be calculated by banks taking into account the cost of deposits, profit margin and establishment cost among other things.
Jaipur to have country's first low-cost airport
India's first low-cost airport is all set to come up near Jaipur in Rajasthan. The civil aviation ministry has cleared a proposal to set up the airport 60 km off Jaipur. The no-frills facility is expected to cost just Rs 500 crore and have a 7000 ft runway in the first phase.
The proposed airport is only 12 km from National Highway 8, which connects Jaipur to Delhi. The promoter of the airport, Rajasthan Aviation Infrastructure (India), has tied up with Fraport AG of Germany for technical consultancy and is planning to get the airport up and running by 2014.
What is the share of Indian Railways in the country's traffic?
It currently has a low share of 30% of country’s freight market and an insignificant 16-18% of total passenger business.
Government to infuse 35K crore into banks over two years
The central government has reportedly chalked out a two-year plan to infuse around Rs 35,000 crore of capital in public sector banks to enable them to meet the economy’s credit requirement.
Banks’ capital structure consist of Tier-I and Tier-II capital. The major components of Tier-I capital are equity share capital, equity share premium and statutory reserves. It is not just these, there can be innovative forms of Tier I capital too such as perpetual debt instruments, or perpetual non-cumulative preference shares etc.
According to Basel-II requirements, banks need to maintain a CAR of 12%, including Tier-I and Tier-II capital.
Core capital
THIS is the term that is used to describe a bank’s net-owned funds. Each bank is required to have a certain amount of capital in relation to loans and investments that it makes during the course of its business. The extent of capital required is prescribed in the form of a capital adequacy ratio (capital: loans and investments) This capital adequacy can be achieved through a combination of equity and subordinated debt. The equity portion (paid-up capital and reserves) cannot be less than half of the prescribed minimum capital adequacy requirement. Internationally too, after the financial crisis, the focus is shifting from capital requirement to ‘Tangible Common Equity’ which excludes any form of debt.
Business deals beckon firms at Hyderabad civil aviation exhibition
HYDERABAD:
The stage is set for the commencement of India Aviation 2010, the second edition of the international civil aviation exhibition and conference, at the Begumpet airport .
After the success of the first edition in October 2008, India Aviation 2010 will include static and flying display of over 40 aircraft, providing an ideal platform for companies to further their commercial aircraft activities and support services.
Eurocopter, Pawan Hans to form venture
Eurocopter, world's leading helicopter manufacturer announced that it would form ventures with Pawan Hans Helicopters for maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) and training facilities either in Mumbai or Delhi.
The MoUs for the two proposals would be signed during the three-day ‘India Aviation-2010', beginning at the Begumpet Airport here on Wednesday.
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DIARY OF EVENTS 2009
DIARY OF EVENTS 2009
NATIONAL
JANUARY:
JAN 8 – Overseas Indian Citizenship cardholders can practice their professionin India
JAN 11 – The center forms a three member board comprising HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, the former Nasscom president Kiran Karnik and C. Achutan to take charge of Satyam.
Jan 15 – Radha Vinod Raju appointed as the first Director General of the National Investigation Agency
Jan 21 – The Tamil Nadu government decides to launch the Chief Minister’s Insurance Scheme for Life Saving Treatments which will benefit 1 crore families/
JAN 24 – India and Kazakhstan sign a major agreement for supply of uranium and a comprehensive cooperation in civil nuclear energy program. An extradition treaty was also inked.
JAN 28 - Cabinet approves the Rs.14,600 crore Chennai Metro Rail Project.
FEBRUARY
FEB 4 – India signs its first commercial pact with the French nuclear giant Areva for reactors, fuel supply.
FEB 5 – The UN Secretary-General Ban ki- Moon is presented the Sustainable Development Leadership Award 2009 in New Delhi.
FEB 10 – Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, the noted Hindustani vocalist is presented with Bharat Ratna.
FEB 11 – Scientists of National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal (Haryana)announced the cloning of world’s first buffalo
Sumn Sharma became the world’s first woman to fly the MIG –35 fighter jet.
FEB 22 – Tirupur become the 32nd district of Tamil Nadu.
FEB 26 – Supreme Court orders a probe by B. N. Srikrishna, the retired judga of the apex court into the violent incidents on the Madras High Court.
MARCH
MAR 3 – The Howrah –New Delhi Rajdhani Express , the country’s first super fast train completes 40 years of service.
MAR 7 – Manipur Human Right activist Irom Chanu Sharmila on a continued fast for the past nine years demanding complete withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 is freed from judicial custody.
MAR 21 – Mohanrao Bhagwat takes over as the chief of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh.
MAR 24 – Sister Mary Prema is elected the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity in place of ailing Sister Nirmala.
MAR 27 – The Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Mediaperson for 2008is conferred on Nirupama Subramaniam, Islamabad correspondent of The Hindu and Vinita Deshmukh, editor of Intelligent Pune.
APRIL
APR 13 – Tech Mahindra acquires Satyam Computer Serveces.
APR 20 – The PSLV – C12 puts in Orbit Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT–2), a surveillance satellite procured from Israel and Anusat, built by Anna University, Chennai after lift- off from Sriharikota.
APR 21 – Senior Election Commissioner Navin B. Chawla takes over as the 16th Chief Election Commissioner. V. S. Sampath assumes office a the new Election Commissioner.
APR 29 – Four passengers died and 11 other injured after an unidentified person hijacks a suburban train from near the Central Railway Station and drives it at high speed resulting in head on collision with goods train at Vyasarpadi Jiva Railway Station.
India and Israel ink Rs.1200 crore deal to revive ammunition production in Nalanda, Bihar.
India and Kuwait sign three pacts for strengthening cooperation in science and technology, education and culture.
47 Indian companies including SBI and Reliance industries make to the list of 2000 biggest companies of world.
India regained Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament after a gap of 13 years defeating Malaysia in the finals.
MAY
MAY 18 – Sensex gains 2110.79 points. For the first time in the history of the stock market, the market remains closed for 2 hours because of steep climbing.
MAY 25 – Cyclone ‘Aila’ pounds West Bengal
MAY 28 – Rani Abbaka, the Coast Guards’ first inshore patrol vessel is launched atVisakhapatnam.
MAY 31 – Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naiktakes charge as the 19th Chief of Indian Air Force.
JUNE
JUN 3 – Meira Kumar is lected as the first women Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
JUN 6 – Protests continued in the Kashmir against the rape and death of two women Nilofar Ahanger and Asiya jan at Shopian on May 29 night.
Vice Admiral Nirmal Kumar Verma is named the nation’s Chief of Naval Staff.
Indian Scientists announced the birth of world’s second cloned buffalo named ‘Garima’ at the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal.
JUN 8 – Seven times Member of Parliamint Karia Minda is unanimously elected Deputy Speaker, Lok Sabha.
JUN 16 –The Maharashtra Government rejects the indictment of the then Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor by the Ram Pradhan Committee which probed the 26/11 attack.
JUN 18 – Central paramilitary forces and the State Armed Police launched offensive against Maoists and the supporters of the Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities in West Bengal’s Lalgarh area.
JUN 20- The Centre launched a round the clock anti- ragging helplinethat can be accessed at 1800-180-5522
JUN 21 – Satyam Computer Services unveils its new brand identity ‘Mahindra Satyam’.
JUN 23 – Maoists ambush police party and then free Misir Besra, a top ranking leader in Bihar’s Lakhisarai district.
JUN24 – Hans Raj Bharadwaj is appointed Karnataka Governor. Rameshwar Thakur to be Madhya Pradesh Governor and Devanand Konwar is named Governor of Bihar.
JUN 25 – Nandan M. Nilkeni is to be Chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority
Gopal Subramaniam becomes the new Solicitor General of India
JULY
JUL 2 – In a landmark judgment, the Delhi High Court strikes down the provision of Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalized consensual sexual acts of adults in private.
JUL 3 – Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee presents the first Railway budget of the new UPA Govt., highlights being Izzat Pass for unorganized sector,Duronto trains and low cost air-conditioned ‘Yuva ‘ trains.
JUL 9 – The toll in the hooch tragedy in Ahmedabad’s Rakhiyaal area goes up to 105.
JUL 18 – Margaret Alva is appointed Uttarakhand Governor and Jagannath Pahadia to be Haryana Governor and Syed Sibtey Razi is shifted to Assam.
JUL 20 – India and the US finalise 3 agreements – a military end user pact, the Technology Safeguards Agreement and Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement – with the visiting of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The Supreme Court declines to stay the Delhi High Court judgment declaring the Section 377 of IPC unconstitutional and decriminalizing unnatural sex between consenting adults.
JUL 22 – A longest total solar eclipse of the century lasting 6 minutes and 39 seconds sweeps across the narrow swathe of Asia.
JUL 23 The Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Ajad inaugurates the ‘Kalaignar Insurance Scheme for Life saying Treatments for One Crore Poor Families’ in Chennai.
Jul 25 – The President Pratibha Patil presents the Indira Gandhi International prize for Peace Disarmament and development for 2007 to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at Rashtrapati Bhavan
The BSF for the first time inducts 178 women recruits for guarding international borders at the Kharkhan camp, 150 kms from Chandigarh.
Jul 26 – The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launches the nation’s first indigenous nuclear powered submarine INS Arihant for sea trials.
JUL 30 – The Rajasthan Governor Shailendra Kumar approves the Bill which provides for 5% reservation to Gujjars and three other communities , besides 14 % quota to the economically backwards classes.
AUGUST
Aug 3 – Rida Shaikh becomes the first person to die of swine flu in India.
Aug 11 – The agrees to abolish the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council and work for a new set up of the hill district.
AUG 19 – Jaswant Singh is expelled from the BJP for his book- ‘Jinnah:India, Partition Independence.
Eminent Sanskrit poet, author of ‘The Ramayana: A Linguistic Study’, Satya Vrat Shastri is presented the 42nd Jnanpith Award by the Princess of Thailand Maha Chakri Sirindhorn at New Delhi.
AUG 24 – The Prime Minister Council on Climate Change gives “in principle” approval for the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency.
AUG 26 – Supreme Court judges agreed to make their assets public.
The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act gets Presidential assent.
AUG 29 – The Indian Space Research Organisation loses radio contact with Chandrayaan- 1 and the first moon mission ends in ten months instead of its stated life of two years.
SEPTEMBER
SEP 2 – The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy(60) is killed as the helicopter in which he was traveling crashes into Pavurala Gutta, a steep hollock between Atmakur and Rollapenta villages in Kurnool district.
SEP 7 – Class X Board exams in CBSE schools stand cancelled beginning 2011.
‘Kanchivaram’ wins Best Feature Film award Prakash Raj adjudged Best Actor as the 55th National Films Awards 2007 announced. The Best Actress award goes to Kannada actorUmashree for her role in ‘Gulabi Talkies’.
SEP 8 – The National Mission for Female Literacy christened Saakshar Bharat Mission is launched by P.M.
SEP 20 – Top Maoist leader Kobad Gandhi is arrested.
SEP 23 – PSLV puts Oceansat-2 and six other foreign nano satellites into orbit.
SEP 26 – Chhatradhar Mahato, convener of the Maoist backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee is arrested by police near Lalgarh in West Bengal.
SEP 30 – Veteran playback singer Manna Dey is selected for 2007 Dadasahab Phalke award.
More than 32 persons on board a boat killed after it capsizes in the Mullaiperiyar dam in Kerela’s Iduki district.
The International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohammad ElBardei is honoured with the indira Gandhi Prize for Peace and Disarmament and Development 2008.
OCTOBER
OCT 2 – The Union Cabinet renames the National Rural Employment Act after Mahatma Gandhi.
Heavy rains lash Karnataka and the pilgrim center town of Mantralayam lies submerged. The Krishna and its tributaries in Andhra Pradesh reach levels not seen in 100 years and Kurnool lies in neck deep water.
OCT 5 – Ganga Dolphin is declared the National Aquatic Animal at the first meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Athaurity.
OCT 6 – Maoists behead the Jharkhand police inspector Francis Induwar.
OCT 12 – The Rajasthan High Court stays the new law providing 19% reservation for Gujjars and the newly created economically backward class in the state.
OCT 22 – The Centre gives nod to a proposal to enhance the quota for woman in urban local bodies from one-third to 50%.
OCT 24 – K. Radhakrishnanis appointed the ISRO chairman.
OCT 25 – Dorjee Khandu is sworn in as Arunachal Pradesh C.M. for second consecutive term.
OCT 29 – At least 4 persons killed and 150 injured in a massive fire at the Indian Oil Corporation’s fuel depot in the Sitapura industrial area on the outskirts of Jaipur.
OCT 31 – P.S. Veeraraghavan takes over as Diretor, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre,.
NOVEMBER
NOV 11 – Cyclone Phyan kills 4 persons and causes massive damage to property in the coastal districts of Maharashra.
NOV 12 – N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief The Hindu is chosen for the 2009 K.R.Narayanan Award.
NOV 19 – Bangladesh Prime Minister Shekh Hasina is chosen for the 2009 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.
NOV 23 – The Centre launches the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.
NOV 24 – Mumbai gets its brand new anti-terror outfit, Force One with the passing out parade of the first batch.
NOV 25 – President Pratibha Patil becomes the first woman Head if State to fly abroad a SU-30 MKI fighter plane.
NOV 30 – Srikumar Banerjee takes over as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy.
DECEMBER
DEC 1 – Najam Sethi, the former Editor-in-chief of the Friday Times and Daily Times , Pakistan is awarded the “2009 Golden Pen of Freedom”of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), during the 62nd World Newspaper Congress and 16th World Editors’ Forum inaugral in Hyderabad.
DEC 3 – The Cabinet clears the National Green Tribunal Bill.
The Taiwanese film ‘I Can’t Live Without You’ (No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti) directed by Leon Dai bags the prestigious Golden Peacock at the 40th IFFI
Celebrated singer Lata Mangeshkar is presented with the Frances’ highest civilian award Officer of The Legion of Honour.
DEC 4 – Senior All Parties Hurriat Conference leader Fazal Haq Qureshi, critically injured in an assassination attempt.
DEC 10 – The Lok Sabha passes the Essential Commodities (Amendment and Validation) Bill 2009(Suger cane pricing bill).
DEC 14 – The CBI rules out rape, murder of two women in Shopian on May 29, says it is case of drowning in Rambiara, Nallah near Zawoora Bridge.
DEC 18 – L.K. Advani steps down as the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and becomes chairman of the BJP’s Parliamentary Party. Sushma Swaraj takes his place. Arun Jaitely renominated Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.
The Rajya Sabha post-facto approves the SBI-State Bank of Saurashtra merger.
DEC 19 – The Gujrat Assembly passes the Gujrat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment), 2009 making voting compulsory in elections to all the local bodies in the State.
DEC 21 – A.R. Rehman presented the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year Award by Prime Minister in New Delhi. Life Time Achievement Award goes to sitar maestro Pt. Ravi Shankar.
DEC 22 – India and Bhutan sign four MoUs after a summit with the visiting monarch. New Delhi agrees to fund nearly a quarter of Thimpu’s Tenth Plan outlay of Rs. 14,800 Crore.
DEC 26 – The Andhra Pradesh Governor N.D. Tewari resigns in the wake of TY expose.
DEC 28 – The Chhattisgarh Governor E.S.L. Narsimhan takes charge of Andhra Pradesh.
DEC 30 – Lokmanya Tilak award for The Hindu Editor-in-Chief N. Ram.
INTERNATIONAL
JANUARY
JAN 1 – Cuba celebrates 50th anniversary of its revolution.
JAN 6 – Shekh Hasina sworn in as Prime Minister in Bangladesh.
JAN 9 – The Srilankan Army captures Elephant Pass, a crucial base of the LTTE at the gateway to Jafna linking peninsula with Wanni.
JAN 11 – British drector Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ based on Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup’s novel ‘Q and A’ emerges big winner at the 66th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calofornia. Composer A.R. Rahman bags best composure honours, the first Indian to win the award.
JAN 20 – Barack Hussain Obama is sworn in the 44th President of US, breaking the colour barrier. Joe Biden takes oath as the 47th Vice-President.
JAN 21 – In a rare do-over, Barack Obama is sworn in for the second time as the US President.
Israel completes troops pull out from the Gaza strip after a three week offensive.
JAN 23 – Japan launches the Greenhouse Gas Observing Satellite, the world’s first satellite dedicated to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions from Tanegashima, a small island.
The US authorities approves the first human trials using embryonic stem cells testing a pioneering therapy for stroke patients.
FEBRUARY
FEB 1 – Johanna Sigurdardottir takes over as Iceland’s first women Prime Minister.
FEB 8 – Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain wins Grammy in the Contemporary World Music category for his collaborative album ‘Global Drum Project’.
FEB 11 – Awami League loyalist Zillur Rahman is elected Bangladesh President.
FEB 14 – King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia appoints for the first time a woman Noura al-Fayez, Deputy Minister for girl’s education
FEB 16 – The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wins referendum on scrapping term limits for elected posts, paving the way for his seeking re-election in 2012 and beyond.
FEB 22 – Slumdog Millionaire, a small budget British film bags eight Oscars at 81st Academy Awards Functions in Hollywood including Best Director (Danny Boyle), Original Music Score and Song(A.R. Rahman, the first Indian to win two Oscars), Sound Mixing (Resul Pookutty of Kerela shares it with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke), Best Picture.
‘Smile Pinki’, the tale of a little girl with cleft lip, Pinki Sonkar, from Uttar Pradesh gets Oscar for Best Documentary (Short).
FEB 25 – Fifty persons are killed as Bangladesh Rifles personnel launched an armed rebelliobn seeking better pay and putting an end to the deputation of Army officers to command paramilitary bodyguards. BDR chief Major General Shakil Ahmad is taken hostage
FEB 27 – Bangladesh security forces discover a mass grave of at least 42 massacred Army officers at the Pilkhana Headquarter of the BDR, including Bangladesh Rifles chief Major General Shakil Ahmad.
MARCH
MAR 1 – Chang’e-1, China’s first lunar probe impacts moon ending its 16 month mission.
MAR 2 – The President of Guinea-Bissau Jao Bernardo Vieira is assassinated by renegade soldiers at his place.
MAR 4 – The International Criminal Court, The Hague, issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Beshir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. It is the first by the court against a sitting head of State.
MAR 9 – Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan (Karuna), former deputy leader of the LTTE, is sworn in Sri Lanka’s Minister of National Integration in Colombo, shortly after joining ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
President Barack Obama lifts curbs on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research.
MAR 12 – The former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff is jailed after he pleads to an epic fraud that robbed investors worldwide of billions of dollars.
An Iraqi Court hands down a three year jail term to journalist Muntazer Al- Zaidi for hurling shoes at then US President George Bush during a globally televised press conference in Baghdad last December.
MAR 16 – The Pakistan Government agrees to restore the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary.
MAR 26 – Charles Simonyi becomes the first person to travel twice to space as a tourist.
Russian-French mathematician Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov is chosen for the Abel Prize for 2009.
MAR 29 – Ninety countries take part in ‘Earth Hour 2009’, a global event in which landmarks and homes go dark to highlight the threat for climate change.
APRIL
APR 1 – Benzamin Netanyahu assumes office as Israeli Prime Minister
APR 2 – The G-20 Summit in London pledges $1.1 trillion to boost global economic growth. Leaders agree on measures to reform the banking system.
APR 3 – Najib Tun Razak is sworn in as Malaysia’s sixth Prime Minister.
APR 4 – France returns to the NATO fold at the 60th anniversary summit of the Organisation at Strausborg. Albania and Croatia become new members. Spanish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is named is named the next Secretary General.
APR 6 – Over 100 people are feared dead and nearly 1200 injured after a powerful earthquake strikes the historic central town of L’Aquila in the mountainous Abruzo region.
APR 13 – Sri Lanka de-recognizes Norway as the official facilitator of Peace talks.
APR 14 – North Korea pulls out of denuclearisation expels IAEA inspectors and US monitors from the Yongbyon nuclear complex.
APR 24 – India and Poland sign agreements on cooperatin in health care and medicine and tourism, in the presence of Presidents Pratibha Patil and Lech Kaczynski.
APR 30 – The six year British Occupation of Iraq ends.
MAY
MAY 1- The British government appoints Scottish Poet Carol Ann Duffy, the country’s first woman Poet Laureate.
MAY 4 – Pushp Kumar Dahal “Prachanda” resigns as Nepal Prime Minister after the President Ram Baran Yadav asks the Army Chief General Rookmangud Katawal to continue in office.
MAY 7 – Patxi Lopez assumes office as the first non-nationalist President of the Basque region( Spain).
MAY 8 – The Pakistam Army launches full scale military action named Operation Rah-e-Rast in the Swat valley to flush out militants.
MAY 9 – Jacob Zuma assumes office as the forth President of the post –aparthied South Africa.
MAY 18 – The LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is killed in an intense battle with Sri Lankan Military at Mullivaikkal in Mullaithivu district bringing an end to the 33 month long Ealem War IV.
MAY 21 – Former British Gorkha soldiers won a major victory after the government accepts their demand to settle in Britain.
Apa Sherpa of Nepal climbs Mt. Everest for the record 19th time.
MAY 23 – The former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun, who was at the center of a multi million dollar corruption probe commits suicide by jumping of a hill .
Horst Koehler, the former head of IMF is re-elected German President.
MAY 25 – Cyclone Aila wreak havoc in Bangladesh.
MAY 27 – Canadian short story writer Alice Munro wins the £ 60,000 Man Booker International Prize.
JUNE
JUN 1 – All 228 passengers on board an Air France aircraft flying from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris are killed as the plane crashes into the Atlantic ocean after being stuck by lightning.
JUN 3 – The Organisation of American States decides to lift a 47 year old ban on Cuba at the OAS General Assembly meeting in Honduras.
JUN 11 – The WHO declares the swine flu pandemic, the first global flu epidemic in 41 years.
JUN 13 – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad secures a landslide victory in presidential polls trounching his nearest rival Mir Hosein Mousavi.
JUN 16 – The first-ever summit of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) at Yekaterinburg, Russia calls for the creation of a “more diversified international monetary system” and a “more democratic and just multipolar world order”.
JUN 19 – Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorses the presidential pole result and awnts protesters to keep off the streets.
JUN 20 – 13 persons killed in crackdown on protesters in Iran.
JUN 25 – Pop King Michael Jackson (50) dies at Los Angeles. His entertainment career hit high water marks with the release of “Thriller” in 1982.
JUN 28 – Honduran Army ousts leftists Presindent Manuel Zelaya and exiles him to Costa Rica in Central Americas first military coup since the cold war, hours before a rogue referendum he had called in defiance of the courts and congress.
JUN 30 – Atleast 152 people on board a Yemeni Airbus jet are killed after the aircraft crashes into the Indian Ocean while trying to land in Comoros Islands.
US forces pull out of Iraqi cities.
JULY
JUL 2 – Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano is elected the new chief of the IAEA.
JUL 6 – Atleast 184 people are killed and 1000 injured following two days of rioting in Urumqi, the capital city of China’s Muslim majority Xingjiang autonomous region.
JUL 7 – Obama and Dmitry Medvedev sign a pact that sets a new limit of 1,675 warheads after the first Russian American summit in 8 years in Moscow.
JUL 9 – The G8 and G5 Leaders call for an ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha Development Round of trade talks through a joint declaration at the G8-G5 Summit at L’Aquila, Italy.
JUL 13 – Turkey signs an accord with Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria to built the 3,300 km Nabucco pipeline to supply gas to Europe.
JUL 15 – The 15th NAM Summit beging at Sharm- el-Sheikh, Egypt.
160 people killed as an Iranian Airliner en route to Armania catches fire mid air. 10 members of Iran’s national Judo team among dead.
JUL 20 – NASA observes 40th anniversary of first human landing on moon.
Myanmar Leader Dang San Suu Kyi is conferred with the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation at a function in Durban.
JUL 25 – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is re-elected.
AUGUST
AUG 3 – Indian social activist Deep Joshi named among the winners of Ramon Magsaysay Awards for 2009.
AUG 5 – Pakistan’s most wanted man Beithullah Masood leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban killed in USA missile strike in South Waziristan tribal area.
AUG 6 – The new LTTE Chief Selvarasa Pathmanathan is arrested in Malaysia.
AUG 8 – Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in as the US Supreme Courts first Hispanic justice and third female member in the courts 220 year history.
AUG 11 – Typhoon Morakot leaves 600 dead in Taiwan.
AUG 13 – India and ASEAN sign a FTA in Bangkok.
AUG 14 – President Asif Ali Zardari confers the Sitar-e-Imtiaz (Star of excellence), Pakistan’s third highest award posthumously on Indian Parliamentarian Nirmala Deshpandey.
AUG 20 – The Scottish government frees Abdal Basset al-Megrahi, former Libyan agent, serving lifer for his role in December 1998 Lockerabie air crash which killed 270 passengers, mostly American.
AUG 23 – Venezuela’s Stefania Fernandez(18) crowned Miss Universe in Bahamas.
AUG 24 – The publisher of the world’s largest circulated magazine Reader’s Digest files for bankruptcy protection in US.
SEPTEMBER
SEP 1 – Fiji is suspended from the Commonwealth for failing to meet a deadline to make progress towards establishing democracy.
SEP 3 – Iran to have First woman Cabinet Minister after Parliament gives approval for nomination of Marzieh-Vahid Dastjerdi as Heath Minister .
SEP 12 – Lebanon, an Israeli flim bags the Golden Lion at 66th Venice Film Festival.
SEP 16 – Yukio Hatoyama is appointed as Japan’s new Prime Minister.
SEP 21 – The deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returns home and seeks asylum in Brazilian embassy in the capital Tegucigalpa’
The former US President Jimmy Carter is presented the Mahatma Gandhi Global Non Violence Award in Virginia.
SEP 22 – Irina Bokova, Bulgaria’s former Foreign Minister becomes the first woman to head UNESCO.
SEP 24 – World Powers adopt a landmark resolution seeking to rid the planet of nuclear arms at an unprecedented UN Security Council Summit chaired by Obama.
SEP 27 – The German Chancellor Angela Merkel wins a second four year term.
SEP 29 – 150 killed as a Tsunami triggered by an earthquake flattens villages in the South Pacific Islands of Samoa and American Samoa.
SEP 30 – 1,100 killed as earthquake (7.6) hits Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.
Peru’s Supreme Court sentences former President Alberto Fujimori to six years in jail for wire tapping opponents and paying bribes to law makers during his tenure from 1990 to 2000.
OCTOBER
OCT 1 – The people’s Republic of China stages the largest ever military display in its history as a part of its 60th anniversary celebrations.
OCT 2 – Marking the International day of Non-Violence, the United Nations releases a stamp on Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of his 140th birth anniversary.
OCT 3 – Ireland votes ‘Yes’ in a crucial referendum on the contentious Lisbon Treaty designed to streamline the European Union.
David Coleman Headley, a US citizen is held by the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force at O’Hare International Airport for plotting terror attacks in Denmark and India.
OCT 5 – Americans Elizabeth h. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak win the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres – a vital factor in cell ageing. The trio had won the 2006 Lasker Prize for the same work.
The Greek Socialist leader George Papandreou trounces the governing Conservatives and is set to form Government.
OCT 6 – Three Americans Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing fibres-optic cable and the sensor at the heart of digital cameras.
British Novelist Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, a historical novel about the rise of King Henery VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell wins the 2009 Man Booker Prize.
OCT 7 – India born American Venkataraman Ramakrishnan and fellow American Thomas Steitz along with the Israeli Ada Yonath share the 2009 Nobel Chemistry prize for showing how the ribosomes, which produces protein, functions at the atomic level usung X-ray crystallography.
OCT 8 – Herta Mueller, a member of Romania’s ethnic German minority wins the 2009 Nobel Prize for literature.
OCT 9 – Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2009.
OCT 11 – After an 18 hour stand-off, Pakistani Army commandos storm Army Headquarter in Rawalpindi freeing 39 persons taken hostages by militants.
OCT 12 – Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson win the 2009 Economic Nobel for their analyses of economic governance. Ostrom is the first woman to win the Economic Nobel.
OCT 13 – Alyn Ware of New Zealand, Congo’s Rene Ngongo, David Suzuki of Canada and Catharine Hamlin are named the co-winners of the 2009 Right to Livelihood Award, the so called “Alternative Nobel”
OCT 16 – Queen Elizabeth II formally opens the UK’s Supreme Court situated in London’s Parliament Square. It was established on Oct. 1st.
OCT 17 – The Maldivian Cabinet signs a declaration appealing to global leaders to save their atoll nation from being swamped by rising sea water after a under water meeting in Girifushi near the capital Male.
OCT 24 – The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proposes the setting up of an India Asean Round Table at the 7th bilateral Summit on the sidelines of the 17th ASEAN Summit in the Thai resort of Hua Hin.
OCT 27 – India and Nepal signs “a historic”new treaty to control illegal trade across the border.
OCT 28 – Massive bomb blast near the historic Kissa Khwani Bazaar in Peshawar in Pakistan.
OCT 29 – President Pratibha Patil receives the Queen’s Baton from Britain’s Queen at the Buckingham Palace as India formally takes charge of the 2010 XIX Commnwealth Games New Delhi.
Egypt offers to allow India to set up an ‘India Zone’ along the Suez Canal Development Area.
China’s fastest Super Computer Tianhe (Milky Way) is unveiled.
NOVEMBER
NOV 6 – The un General Assembly endorses the 575 page report by South African jurist, Richard Goldstone that focuses on alleged war crimes during this 22 day Gaza conflict early this year.
NOV 10 – Russia honours Mikhail Kalashnikov, father of the world’s most famous gun AK 47 with the country’s highest award , Hero of Russia’
NOV 12 – Sri Lanka’s Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka resigns.
NOV 19 – The Supreme Court of Bangladesh upholds death sentence for the August 15, 1975 assassination of the nation’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Belgian Prime Minister Herman Von Rompuy is elected the first European Council President and Britain’s Catherine Ashton is named the 27 member body’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
NOV 20 – The Big Bang machine or the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest atom smasher, starts operating again 14 months after a technical snag caused one tonne of helium to leak into the 27 km long that houses it.
NOV 24 – India “a rising and responsible global power”, says the US President Barack Obama after the summit meeting with PM Manmohan Singh. Acknowledges India’s status as nuclear power.
NOV 25 – Indian PM and the US President announce the launch of the India-US Counterterrorism Cooperation Iniative.
Dubai World, the fulcrum of the United Arab Emirates’ economy asks for a “standstill” agreement to delay repayment by six months on most of its $59 billion of debt.
NOV 27 – The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting opens in the Trinidad capital Post of Spain.
NOV 28 – The National Reconciliation Order (NRO) under which Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and others got amnesty from corruption charges against them lapses.
NOV 29 – Jose Mujica, the former leftist Tupamaro guirrilla fighter is elected Uruguay President.
NOV 30 – Porfirio “pepe” Lebo is elected Honduras President.
DECEMBER
DEC 7 – India and Russia sign the civil nuclear cooperation pact 3.0 that is free from any curbs on New Delhi and guarantees against restriction in the future. Two sides sign six pacts, including three in the military sphere.
Bolivian President Evo Morales wins landslide victory in general elections seeking second term.
The UN Climate Change Conference 2009 of 194 nations opens at Copenhagen, Denmark.
DEC 8 – British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceshipTwo, a commercial spaceship.
DEC 12 – Gibralter’s Kaiane Aldorino is crowned Miss World 2009 at glittering ceremony in Johannesburg.
DEC 14 – African nations walk out of the UN climate change talks against efforts by rich nations to ”kill Kyoto”.
DEC 15 – Boeing’s revolutionary lightweight passenger jet 787 Dreamliner made mostly of composite materials take to the skies for the first time around Puget Sound and inland Washington state.
DEC 16 – Pakistan Supreme Court declares the National Reconciliation Order null and void and orders reinitiation of proceedings against the accused acquitted under the controversial law.
DEC 24 – Rajiv Shah to be the USAID chief.
DEC 31 – Reena Kaushal is the first Indian woman to ski to the South Pole.
Mota Singh, Britain’s first Asian judge is knighted.
OBITUARY
APRIL 9 – Raja J. Chelliah :Economist
APRIL 9 – Shakti Samant : Noted Hindi Film Maker.
APRIL 21 : Iqbal Bano : India born Pakistani classic and ghazal singer.
MAY 2 - K. Balaji : Tamil actor and producer
MAY 3 - B. Rajam Iyer : Scholar and Misician
MAY 31 - Prakash Mehra :Hindi film producer and director
JUNE 8 - Habib Tanvir - Noted playwriter and Theatre director
JUNE 19 - Ustad Ali Akbar Khan : Siter Maestro
JULY 1 - Tyeb Mehta :Renowned Painter
JULY 8 - Syed Abdullah Bukhari : Former Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid.
JULY 11 – Ji Xianlin : Chinese Indologist
JULY 13 - Nilu Phule : Marathi stage and cinema actor.
JULY 16 – Damal Krishnaswami Pattamal : Indian classical music
JULY 21 - Gangubai Hangal : Hindustani classical music of Kirana Gharana
JULY 29 - Gayatri Devi : Queen Mother of Jaipur, Founder of Swatantra Party.
AUGUST 18 – Kim Dae Jung :Former South Korean President and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2000.
SEPTEMBER 12 – Norman Borlaug : Agriculture scientist and central figure of green revolution.
Jack Kramer : American tennis great of 1940s.
Rajsingh Dungarpur : Former BCCI President and Chairman of selectors.
SEPTEMBER 14 – Patrick Swayze : US actor known for his roles in Dirty Dancing, Ghost
OCTOBER 10 – Stephen Gately :Boyzone singer.
OCTOBER 14 – Krishna Chandra Pal : member of India’s famed 1956 Olympic football team.
OCTOBER 30 – Claude Levi Strauss :Renowned French Anthropologist
NOVEMBER 5 – Prabhash Joshi : Eminent Hindi Journalist and founder editor of Jansatta.
NOVEMBER 10 – Robert Enke :German Goalkeeper, commits suicide.
DECEMBER 6 – Bina Rai : Bollywood Actress.
DECEMBER 10 – Dilip Chitre : Poet and Film Maker.
DECEMBER 13 - Paul Anthony Samuelson : Economist
T.S. Satyan : Renowned Photojournalist
DECEMBER 20 - Brittany Murphy : Hollywood actor
DECEMBER 30 – Vishnuvardhan : Kannada actor
SPORTS
FEBRUARY 1 – Mahesh Bhupati and Sania Mirja became the first Indian pair to win a Grand Slam Mixed Double title when they clinched Australian Open.
MARCH 6 – Honda announces the sale of lts Formula One team to Ross Brawn. The new outfit is called is Brawn GP.
MARCH 11 – Virender Sehwag scores India’s fastest ODI hundred against host New Zealand.
APRIL 7 – Chitra Mgimairaj finishes runner up in the WLBSA World ladies’ billiards championship at Cambridge.
APRIL 10 – Gagan Narang wins the bronze medal in the Men’s 10 m air rifle event of the first ISSF World Cup of the year in Chongwon, Korea.
APRIL 12 – India wins Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament with a 3-1 victory over host Malaysia in the final.
APRIL 23 – French swimmer Alain Bernard breaks the 100 m freestyle world record at the French Championship at Montpellier, setting a new time of 46.94 seconds .
MAY 6 – Wang Ho and ZhangYining of China win the men’s and women’s singles title at the World Table Tennis Championship at Yakohama.
MAY 24 – Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguli wins the Asian Chess Championship at Phillipines.
MAY 25 – Deccan Chargers wins IPL season II at the Wanderers.
MAY 26 – Sayali Gokhale wins the women’s single title at the Spanish Open Badminton Championship in Madrid beating Lianne Tan of Belgium.
MAY 29 – Barcelona beats Manchester United in the final to lift the Champion League Title at Rome.
JUNE 7 – Svetlana Kuznetsova defeats Dinara Safin to win French Open title.
JUNE 8 – Roger Federer wins his first French Open Title.
India’s Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic win the French Open Men’s double title.
JUNE 14 – Boxer Suranjoy Singh wins Gold in Asian Championship in Zhuhai, China.
JUNE 15 – Goa beats Bengal to win 63rd Santosh Trophy in Chennai.
JUNE 21 – Pakistan wins Twenty20 World Cup beating Sri Lanka in final at Lords in London.
Saina Nehwal becomes the first Indian to win a Super Series Tournament with her triumph over Chinese Lin Wang in the Indonesian Open at Jakarta.
Indian women’s hockey team wins the Champion Challenge for women in Kazan, Russia.
JULY 5 – Roger Federer wins record 15th Grand Slam title by winning at Wimbledon. Serena Williams wins the women’s title and along with Venus claims the women’s double crown.
JULY 11 – Squash player Joshna Chinappa wins the third WISPA title of her career in Kuala Lumpur.
JULY 19 – GM Arun Prasad becomes the first Indian to claim the title in the 116 year history of the Scottish Chess Championship in Edinburgh.
JULY 26 – Alberto Contador wraps up his second Tour de France title
GM Parimarjan Negi wins the Politiken Chess title at Copenhagen
JULY 29 – Union Government announces Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awards to Sushil Kumar (Wrestling), Vijender Singh (Boxing) and M.C. Mary Kom (Boxing).
AUGUST 16 – Usain Bolt breaks his world record in the 100 m event as he clocks 9.54s at the World Championship in Berlin.
AUGUST 20 – Usain Bolt breaks the world record, clocking 19.19s in the 200m event in the World Championship.
AUGUST 23 – Bekele becomes the first athlete to win the 5000m and 10000m crowns at the World Championship.
England claims Ashes by defeating Australia.
AUGUST 28 – GM Parimarjan Negi clinches the prestigious Dato Arthur Tan Malaysian Open Chess title in Kuala Lumpur.
AUGUST 30 – Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari wins the Belgian Grand Prix and Force India picks up its first points as Giancarlo Fisichella finishes second.
AUGUST 31 – India defeats Syria to win the Nehru Cup
SEPTEMBER 7 – Pankaj Advani wins his maiden World Professional Billiards title beating Mike Russel in finals at Leeds.
SEPTEMBER 11 – Vijender Singh wins the 75 kg bronze at the World Boxing Championships in Milan, India’s first ever medal at the event.
Leander Paes and Cara Black finish runner up in the US Open Mixed doubles losing to Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrot in the final.
SEPTEMBER 12 – Churchill Brothers beats Mohun Bagan to win its maiden IFA Shield crown in Kolkata
SEPTEMBER 13 – Kim Clijsters wins US Open women’s Single title.
Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy wins the Men’s Doubles of US Open.
SEPTEMBER 14 – Juan Martin Del Potro wins men’s Single Title of US Open.
Venus and Serena Williams win the women’s Doubles of US Open.
SEPTEMBER 20 – India enters the Davis Cup World Group after eleven years beating South Africa in the play off at Johannesburg.
SEPTEMBER 22 Churchill Brothers bags the Durand Cup football title in New Delhi.
SEPTEMBER 30 – Pankaj Advani wins his third straight National Billiards Title at Agra.
OCTOBER 1 – Gautam Gambhir wins the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year Award
Mahendra Singh Dhoni wins the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year award.
Mitchell Johnson is named the Cricketer of the year.
OCTOBER 2 – Rio de Janeiro wins the bid to host 2016 Olympics.
OCTOBER 4 – Pankaj Advani and Meenal Thakur win the Men’s and Women’s titles respectively in the National Snooker Championship in Agra.
OCTOBER 5 – Rest of India lifts the Irani Cup Trophy in Nagpur.
OCTOBER 10 – Karnataka wins the National Aquatics Championship for the 18th consecutive year at Thiruvananthpuram.
OCTOBER 11 – C.Muniyappa wins the Indian Open Golf Tournament at Gurgaon.
OCTOBER 18 – Jenson Button wins the Formula One World Championship in Sao Paulo (Brazil).
OCTOBER 23 – New South Wales Blues wins the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament in Hyderabad.
OCTOBER 29 – Jeev Milkha Singh becomes the first Indian Golfer to tee off at the World Matchplay Championship at Casares (Spain) and defeats world No. 5, Lee Westwood.
DECEMBER 2 – Argentina,s Lionnel Messi wins Golden Ball as well as the FIFA Player of the year award.
DECEMBER 3 – Virender Sehwag scores second fastest double hundred ever in the third and final test against Sri Lanka. It was Sehwag’s sixth double century, the most by an Indian.
DECEMBER – Spain retains Davis Cup defeating Czech Republic in the finals in Barcelona.
DECEMBER 6 – India’s V.Diju and Jwala Gutta loses in the finals of the BWF World Super Series Badminton Tournament in Johor Bahru.
Indian cricket team reaches No. 1 status in ICC Test ranking.
DECEMBER 15 – Boris Gelfand of Israel wins the Chess World in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
DECEMBER 20 – Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal win the Men’s and Women’s singles title in the Jaypee Cup Syed Modi International Grand Prix Badminton tournament in Lucknow.
Saurav Goshal and Joshna Chinappa win the Men’s and Women’s Title in the Kingfisher 57th National Squash Championship in Delhi.
Indian Wrestlers make a clean sweep of all the 7 gold medals in the Men’s Freestyle competition of the Commonwealth wrestling in Jalandhar.
DECEMBER 26 – Ashutosh Singh and Ankita Raina of Gujrat lift the Men’s and Women’s titles of the National Grass Court Tennis Championship in Kolkata.
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Current Affairs & GK
Current Affairs & GK
Economy (National)
Content:
13 finance commission
Budget &survey
Brief Description:
13th Finance Commission's Functions and the Implications of its Moves
What is the role of the commission?
The Constitution provides that certain tax revenues of the Union government be shared between the Centre and the states. President constitutes the finance commission under Article 280 of the Constitution to recommend what percentage of such revenues should go to the states and also how the funds are shared among the states.
Why the resources are shared between the Centre and states?
This is necessary due to the fact that the bulk of taxation powers are with the Centre, but expenditure is in the domain of states. In fact, most federal systems need a mechanism to address the issue of vertical distribution of resources. Canada has a federal system very similar to that of India. There, too, a mechanism is in place to address the issue of vertical imbalance and horizontal equity — how the resources are shared amongst states themselves. Australia is another such federal setup.
What are the other key responsibilities?
Finance commission is also required to lay down the principles governing the grants-in-aid to states out of the consolidated fund of India. It should also suggest measures to augment the resources of states to supplement the resources of panchayats and municipalities. At times the government can also ask the finance commission to make suggestions on specific issues. The Thirteenth Finance Commission was asked to make recommendations on accounting of off budget subsidies.
Are the recommendations of finance commission binding?
The recommendations of the finance commission are not binding on the government. But, the recommendations have the force of precedent and governments generally go by the suggestions. The recommendations relating to distribution of Union taxes and duties and grants-in-aid can be implemented by a presidential order.
When was the First Finance Commission appointed? What is the timeline for recommendations?
The First Finance Commission was constituted on 22 November 1951 under the chairmanship of KC Neogy. Thirteen finance commissions have been appointed so far at five-year intervals. Recommendations are valid for a period of five years. The recommendations of the current finance commission will be for the five year period beginning April 1, 2010.
13 finance commission report
The 13th Finance Commission (TFC), whose report was tabled in Parliament recently, has
broken new ground by building incentives into the transfer mechanism. Most of its key recommendations have been accepted by the government.
The States stand to get a larger share of central taxes than before.
Apart from increasing their share of the divisible pool of tax revenues from 30.5 per cent to 32 per cent, the Commission has proposed an additional 2-2.5 per cent for local bodies. Grants-in-aid to States are projected at Rs.315,581 crore over the next five years. The shared taxes and central grants together will take the overall devolution to States from 37.6 per cent to 39 per cent of the central divisible tax revenues.
The TFC does not want any inconsistency between the amounts released to the States and the percentage share in the net tax revenues recommended by it. The States have been impressed upon to comply with the norms set by the Commission if they are to avail themselves of the full benefit of certain transfers. It has called upon the Centre not to lean heavily on surcharges and cesses since collections under these heads are not shared with the States.
The transfer formula, which emphasises fiscal discipline on the part of the States, has been so worked out that non-Plan revenue grants will be made available to fewer States.The system of incentive-based transfer seeks to reward States that comply with the norms prescribed by the TFC.
The Commission has earmarked Rs.50,000 crore of central grants to compensate States for any revenue shortfall on account of switching to the Goods and Services Tax. The compensation will be available even if there is no shortfall, provided the State concerned adopts the GST model the TFC has prepared. This however is going to prove contentious. The empowered committee of State Finance Ministers has worked out its own model wherein tax rates are higher than in the TFC's version. The States want a much higher share of the divisible tax receipts to be transferred to them. Nor will they be happy that the Commission has remained silent on their long standing demands, namely decision-making powers in respect of centrally-sponsored schemes. The government has accepted its suggestion to put a cap on the combined debt of the Centre and the States at 48 per cent of the GDP that is to be achieved by 2014-15.
Budget &survey
1. The three challenges identified by the finance minister in his recent budget
The first, widely noted and much applauded by corporate India, concerned finding means to cross the ‘double-digit growth barrier’.
The second, less glamorous and hence less discussed, is in harnessing economic growth to make development more inclusive.
The third, which attracted little notice and comment, relates to ‘weaknesses in government systems, structures and institutions’ that he recognised as a ‘bottleneck of our public delivery mechanisms’.
2. Coveted position in forex, gold
In its efforts to improve foreign exchange reserves, India has now become the 10th largest gold-holding nation in the world.
It has also emerged as the fourth-largest foreign exchange reserves holder only after China, Japan and Russia, says the Economic Survey 2009-10.
3. A critical area
By allocating 46 per cent of the total plan expenditure to infrastructure development,
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has clearly shown how imperative this is to return to a higher growth trajectory.
That highways, railways, and power got a lion's share of the allocations for 2010-11 signals a clear priority to connectivity and electricity. Rural roads too got a quantum jump in funding.
No less significant is the government's commitment to involving the private sector all the more in infrastructure development. Witness Mr. Mukherjee's statement: “With development and economic reforms, the focus of economic activity has shifted towards the non-governmental actors, bringing into sharper focus, the role of government as an enabler.” So, the objective seems to be to create an “enabling ethos” for Public Private Partnership (PPP).
Going by the Rs.1,73,552 crore allocation for upgrading both urban and rural infrastructure, it is evident that the government wants to accelerate development of high quality physical infrastructure such as roads, ports, airports, railways and power.
In this mix, the road and energy sectors come in for special attention for two reasons — some of the ongoing programmes are critical and there has been a perpetual shortfall in the achievement of targets over successive Five-Year Plan periods.
The last two years have seen a substantial increase in investment in infrastructure, but as a proportion of the GDP the figure is just around six per cent, three per cent short of the requirement.
The Finance Minister has raised the budget allocation for the road transport sector from Rs.17,520 crore to Rs. 19,894 crore — a 13 per cent increase. The government, notably the Highways, and the Planning Commission have targeted a construction pace of 20 kilometres-a-day of the National Highways.
Though a massive highways upgradation and expansion programme was launched way back in 1999 and subsequently revamped in 2006, the progress has not been satisfying. Litigation and implementation delays continue to hamper the effort.
Similarly, on the power front, there has been a major shortfall in reaching the targets for the 8th, 9th, and 10th Five-year Plans. Even the 11th Plan target is unlikely to be reached. The allocations for the power sector have been doubled for the coming year, and a major impetus given to new and renewable energy.
It is not enough for governments to just allocate funds. Infrastructure projects must be made attractive for private and foreign investors, and the States need to be fully involved in implementing and monitoring them.
4. MSMEs & the budget
Firstly, the outlay for the MSME sector has been enhanced by around Rs 600 crore to Rs 2,400 crore, presumably to implement recommendations of the prime minister’s taskforce.
Secondly, the policy of 2% interest subventions for exports announced last year for MSMEs and certain employment-intensive sectors such as handicrafts, carpets, etc, have been extended for one more year.
Thirdly, it is announced that the Reserve Bank of India is considering more licences to banks including non-banking finance companies. Such a move would eventually benefit MSMEs the most.
Fourthly, an amendment is proposed whereby an eligible small scale industry (SSI) unit can avail cenvat credit against purchase of capital goods in full (100%) in the same financial year of receipt of such capital goods (earlier, it was 50% in the year of receipt and rest was allowed in subsequent year only).
Fifthly, SSIs are allowed to pay the duty on the goods cleared by them once in a quarter instead of the monthly basis.
Finally, the proposed independent evaluation office under the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission might as well bring in the much-needed transparency and result-orientation in promotional policies. Currently, implementation of most of the schemes is in a mess, including those meant for MSMEs.
5. PSUs to buy 20% from small units
The government is reportedly considering a proposal whereby all public sector companies, including railways and entities under the defence ministry, will have to procure 20% of their total requirements from MSEs. The size of public procurement in India is huge and it could provide a fillip to the sector.
The policy will cover a wide range of supplies, services and works required by governments, local authorities and public organizations. According to estimates, MSEs are set to benefit from a Rs 34,000 crore windfall annually once the policy comes into effect.
Currently, there are about 26 million micro, small and medium enterprises in the country, which contribute about 45% of the country’s total manufactured output and about 40% of the export income. The sector employs over 42 million people.
Panel on BSNL submits report
The Sam Pitroda-led high-level committee, formed to suggest the restructuring of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has submitted a detailed report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The report is said to comprise suggestions on BSNL's controversial IPO issue and the 9.3-crore GSM line tender, which has been put on hold following a directive from the Central Vigilance Commission
Kobelco sets up facility at Sri City
Kobelco Construction Equipment India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Kobelco Group of Japan, is setting up an equipment machinery facility at the fast coming up multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) of Sri City at Tada in Andhra Pradesh.
The SEZ with a domestic tariff zone (DTZ) is coming up on 6,000 acres.
the proposed plant will have a local content of 70 per cent. It will import critical items such as engines, hydraulic pumps and the like.
Banks can lend below base rate too
Loans against fixed deposits, loans given by a bank to its own employees, as well as restructured loans, where borrowers get more time and pay lower rates to avert defaults, can be given at interest rates that are below the base rate — the new benchmark rate for pricing loans.
While allowing these exemptions, RBI has also deferred the date for implementation of the base rate by banks to July 1. Earlier, RBI had said the base rate system would come into effect from April 1 — a deadline, which most banks found difficult to meet.
The regulator has, however, ruled out any lending to corporates below the base rate.
For a bank, the base rate will be its minimum cost at which it can lend and the risk premium on a loan would be the mark up over the base rate. The base rate, which will replace the prime lending rate (PLR), is aimed at bringing more transparency in loan pricing. At present, around 70% of the loans are below PLR which ranges between 11.75% and 12.25%.
The base rate should be calculated by banks taking into account the cost of deposits, profit margin and establishment cost among other things.
Jaipur to have country's first low-cost airport
India's first low-cost airport is all set to come up near Jaipur in Rajasthan. The civil aviation ministry has cleared a proposal to set up the airport 60 km off Jaipur. The no-frills facility is expected to cost just Rs 500 crore and have a 7000 ft runway in the first phase.
The proposed airport is only 12 km from National Highway 8, which connects Jaipur to Delhi. The promoter of the airport, Rajasthan Aviation Infrastructure (India), has tied up with Fraport AG of Germany for technical consultancy and is planning to get the airport up and running by 2014.
What is the share of Indian Railways in the country's traffic?
It currently has a low share of 30% of country’s freight market and an insignificant 16-18% of total passenger business.
Government to infuse 35K crore into banks over two years
The central government has reportedly chalked out a two-year plan to infuse around Rs 35,000 crore of capital in public sector banks to enable them to meet the economy’s credit requirement.
Banks’ capital structure consist of Tier-I and Tier-II capital. The major components of Tier-I capital are equity share capital, equity share premium and statutory reserves. It is not just these, there can be innovative forms of Tier I capital too such as perpetual debt instruments, or perpetual non-cumulative preference shares etc.
According to Basel-II requirements, banks need to maintain a CAR of 12%, including Tier-I and Tier-II capital.
Core capital
THIS is the term that is used to describe a bank’s net-owned funds. Each bank is required to have a certain amount of capital in relation to loans and investments that it makes during the course of its business. The extent of capital required is prescribed in the form of a capital adequacy ratio (capital: loans and investments) This capital adequacy can be achieved through a combination of equity and subordinated debt. The equity portion (paid-up capital and reserves) cannot be less than half of the prescribed minimum capital adequacy requirement. Internationally too, after the financial crisis, the focus is shifting from capital requirement to ‘Tangible Common Equity’ which excludes any form of debt.
Business deals beckon firms at Hyderabad civil aviation exhibition
HYDERABAD:
The stage is set for the commencement of India Aviation 2010, the second edition of the international civil aviation exhibition and conference, at the Begumpet airport .
After the success of the first edition in October 2008, India Aviation 2010 will include static and flying display of over 40 aircraft, providing an ideal platform for companies to further their commercial aircraft activities and support services.
Eurocopter, Pawan Hans to form venture
Eurocopter, world's leading helicopter manufacturer announced that it would form ventures with Pawan Hans Helicopters for maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) and training facilities either in Mumbai or Delhi.
The MoUs for the two proposals would be signed during the three-day ‘India Aviation-2010', beginning at the Begumpet Airport here on Wednesday.
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DIARY OF EVENTS 2009
DIARY OF EVENTS 2009
NATIONAL
JANUARY:
JAN 8 – Overseas Indian Citizenship cardholders can practice their professionin India
JAN 11 – The center forms a three member board comprising HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, the former Nasscom president Kiran Karnik and C. Achutan to take charge of Satyam.
Jan 15 – Radha Vinod Raju appointed as the first Director General of the National Investigation Agency
Jan 21 – The Tamil Nadu government decides to launch the Chief Minister’s Insurance Scheme for Life Saving Treatments which will benefit 1 crore families/
JAN 24 – India and Kazakhstan sign a major agreement for supply of uranium and a comprehensive cooperation in civil nuclear energy program. An extradition treaty was also inked.
JAN 28 - Cabinet approves the Rs.14,600 crore Chennai Metro Rail Project.
FEBRUARY
FEB 4 – India signs its first commercial pact with the French nuclear giant Areva for reactors, fuel supply.
FEB 5 – The UN Secretary-General Ban ki- Moon is presented the Sustainable Development Leadership Award 2009 in New Delhi.
FEB 10 – Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, the noted Hindustani vocalist is presented with Bharat Ratna.
FEB 11 – Scientists of National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal (Haryana)announced the cloning of world’s first buffalo
Sumn Sharma became the world’s first woman to fly the MIG –35 fighter jet.
FEB 22 – Tirupur become the 32nd district of Tamil Nadu.
FEB 26 – Supreme Court orders a probe by B. N. Srikrishna, the retired judga of the apex court into the violent incidents on the Madras High Court.
MARCH
MAR 3 – The Howrah –New Delhi Rajdhani Express , the country’s first super fast train completes 40 years of service.
MAR 7 – Manipur Human Right activist Irom Chanu Sharmila on a continued fast for the past nine years demanding complete withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 is freed from judicial custody.
MAR 21 – Mohanrao Bhagwat takes over as the chief of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh.
MAR 24 – Sister Mary Prema is elected the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity in place of ailing Sister Nirmala.
MAR 27 – The Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Mediaperson for 2008is conferred on Nirupama Subramaniam, Islamabad correspondent of The Hindu and Vinita Deshmukh, editor of Intelligent Pune.
APRIL
APR 13 – Tech Mahindra acquires Satyam Computer Serveces.
APR 20 – The PSLV – C12 puts in Orbit Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT–2), a surveillance satellite procured from Israel and Anusat, built by Anna University, Chennai after lift- off from Sriharikota.
APR 21 – Senior Election Commissioner Navin B. Chawla takes over as the 16th Chief Election Commissioner. V. S. Sampath assumes office a the new Election Commissioner.
APR 29 – Four passengers died and 11 other injured after an unidentified person hijacks a suburban train from near the Central Railway Station and drives it at high speed resulting in head on collision with goods train at Vyasarpadi Jiva Railway Station.
India and Israel ink Rs.1200 crore deal to revive ammunition production in Nalanda, Bihar.
India and Kuwait sign three pacts for strengthening cooperation in science and technology, education and culture.
47 Indian companies including SBI and Reliance industries make to the list of 2000 biggest companies of world.
India regained Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament after a gap of 13 years defeating Malaysia in the finals.
MAY
MAY 18 – Sensex gains 2110.79 points. For the first time in the history of the stock market, the market remains closed for 2 hours because of steep climbing.
MAY 25 – Cyclone ‘Aila’ pounds West Bengal
MAY 28 – Rani Abbaka, the Coast Guards’ first inshore patrol vessel is launched atVisakhapatnam.
MAY 31 – Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naiktakes charge as the 19th Chief of Indian Air Force.
JUNE
JUN 3 – Meira Kumar is lected as the first women Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
JUN 6 – Protests continued in the Kashmir against the rape and death of two women Nilofar Ahanger and Asiya jan at Shopian on May 29 night.
Vice Admiral Nirmal Kumar Verma is named the nation’s Chief of Naval Staff.
Indian Scientists announced the birth of world’s second cloned buffalo named ‘Garima’ at the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal.
JUN 8 – Seven times Member of Parliamint Karia Minda is unanimously elected Deputy Speaker, Lok Sabha.
JUN 16 –The Maharashtra Government rejects the indictment of the then Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor by the Ram Pradhan Committee which probed the 26/11 attack.
JUN 18 – Central paramilitary forces and the State Armed Police launched offensive against Maoists and the supporters of the Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities in West Bengal’s Lalgarh area.
JUN 20- The Centre launched a round the clock anti- ragging helplinethat can be accessed at 1800-180-5522
JUN 21 – Satyam Computer Services unveils its new brand identity ‘Mahindra Satyam’.
JUN 23 – Maoists ambush police party and then free Misir Besra, a top ranking leader in Bihar’s Lakhisarai district.
JUN24 – Hans Raj Bharadwaj is appointed Karnataka Governor. Rameshwar Thakur to be Madhya Pradesh Governor and Devanand Konwar is named Governor of Bihar.
JUN 25 – Nandan M. Nilkeni is to be Chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority
Gopal Subramaniam becomes the new Solicitor General of India
JULY
JUL 2 – In a landmark judgment, the Delhi High Court strikes down the provision of Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalized consensual sexual acts of adults in private.
JUL 3 – Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee presents the first Railway budget of the new UPA Govt., highlights being Izzat Pass for unorganized sector,Duronto trains and low cost air-conditioned ‘Yuva ‘ trains.
JUL 9 – The toll in the hooch tragedy in Ahmedabad’s Rakhiyaal area goes up to 105.
JUL 18 – Margaret Alva is appointed Uttarakhand Governor and Jagannath Pahadia to be Haryana Governor and Syed Sibtey Razi is shifted to Assam.
JUL 20 – India and the US finalise 3 agreements – a military end user pact, the Technology Safeguards Agreement and Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement – with the visiting of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The Supreme Court declines to stay the Delhi High Court judgment declaring the Section 377 of IPC unconstitutional and decriminalizing unnatural sex between consenting adults.
JUL 22 – A longest total solar eclipse of the century lasting 6 minutes and 39 seconds sweeps across the narrow swathe of Asia.
JUL 23 The Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Ajad inaugurates the ‘Kalaignar Insurance Scheme for Life saying Treatments for One Crore Poor Families’ in Chennai.
Jul 25 – The President Pratibha Patil presents the Indira Gandhi International prize for Peace Disarmament and development for 2007 to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at Rashtrapati Bhavan
The BSF for the first time inducts 178 women recruits for guarding international borders at the Kharkhan camp, 150 kms from Chandigarh.
Jul 26 – The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launches the nation’s first indigenous nuclear powered submarine INS Arihant for sea trials.
JUL 30 – The Rajasthan Governor Shailendra Kumar approves the Bill which provides for 5% reservation to Gujjars and three other communities , besides 14 % quota to the economically backwards classes.
AUGUST
Aug 3 – Rida Shaikh becomes the first person to die of swine flu in India.
Aug 11 – The agrees to abolish the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council and work for a new set up of the hill district.
AUG 19 – Jaswant Singh is expelled from the BJP for his book- ‘Jinnah:India, Partition Independence.
Eminent Sanskrit poet, author of ‘The Ramayana: A Linguistic Study’, Satya Vrat Shastri is presented the 42nd Jnanpith Award by the Princess of Thailand Maha Chakri Sirindhorn at New Delhi.
AUG 24 – The Prime Minister Council on Climate Change gives “in principle” approval for the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency.
AUG 26 – Supreme Court judges agreed to make their assets public.
The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act gets Presidential assent.
AUG 29 – The Indian Space Research Organisation loses radio contact with Chandrayaan- 1 and the first moon mission ends in ten months instead of its stated life of two years.
SEPTEMBER
SEP 2 – The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy(60) is killed as the helicopter in which he was traveling crashes into Pavurala Gutta, a steep hollock between Atmakur and Rollapenta villages in Kurnool district.
SEP 7 – Class X Board exams in CBSE schools stand cancelled beginning 2011.
‘Kanchivaram’ wins Best Feature Film award Prakash Raj adjudged Best Actor as the 55th National Films Awards 2007 announced. The Best Actress award goes to Kannada actorUmashree for her role in ‘Gulabi Talkies’.
SEP 8 – The National Mission for Female Literacy christened Saakshar Bharat Mission is launched by P.M.
SEP 20 – Top Maoist leader Kobad Gandhi is arrested.
SEP 23 – PSLV puts Oceansat-2 and six other foreign nano satellites into orbit.
SEP 26 – Chhatradhar Mahato, convener of the Maoist backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee is arrested by police near Lalgarh in West Bengal.
SEP 30 – Veteran playback singer Manna Dey is selected for 2007 Dadasahab Phalke award.
More than 32 persons on board a boat killed after it capsizes in the Mullaiperiyar dam in Kerela’s Iduki district.
The International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohammad ElBardei is honoured with the indira Gandhi Prize for Peace and Disarmament and Development 2008.
OCTOBER
OCT 2 – The Union Cabinet renames the National Rural Employment Act after Mahatma Gandhi.
Heavy rains lash Karnataka and the pilgrim center town of Mantralayam lies submerged. The Krishna and its tributaries in Andhra Pradesh reach levels not seen in 100 years and Kurnool lies in neck deep water.
OCT 5 – Ganga Dolphin is declared the National Aquatic Animal at the first meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Athaurity.
OCT 6 – Maoists behead the Jharkhand police inspector Francis Induwar.
OCT 12 – The Rajasthan High Court stays the new law providing 19% reservation for Gujjars and the newly created economically backward class in the state.
OCT 22 – The Centre gives nod to a proposal to enhance the quota for woman in urban local bodies from one-third to 50%.
OCT 24 – K. Radhakrishnanis appointed the ISRO chairman.
OCT 25 – Dorjee Khandu is sworn in as Arunachal Pradesh C.M. for second consecutive term.
OCT 29 – At least 4 persons killed and 150 injured in a massive fire at the Indian Oil Corporation’s fuel depot in the Sitapura industrial area on the outskirts of Jaipur.
OCT 31 – P.S. Veeraraghavan takes over as Diretor, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre,.
NOVEMBER
NOV 11 – Cyclone Phyan kills 4 persons and causes massive damage to property in the coastal districts of Maharashra.
NOV 12 – N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief The Hindu is chosen for the 2009 K.R.Narayanan Award.
NOV 19 – Bangladesh Prime Minister Shekh Hasina is chosen for the 2009 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.
NOV 23 – The Centre launches the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.
NOV 24 – Mumbai gets its brand new anti-terror outfit, Force One with the passing out parade of the first batch.
NOV 25 – President Pratibha Patil becomes the first woman Head if State to fly abroad a SU-30 MKI fighter plane.
NOV 30 – Srikumar Banerjee takes over as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy.
DECEMBER
DEC 1 – Najam Sethi, the former Editor-in-chief of the Friday Times and Daily Times , Pakistan is awarded the “2009 Golden Pen of Freedom”of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), during the 62nd World Newspaper Congress and 16th World Editors’ Forum inaugral in Hyderabad.
DEC 3 – The Cabinet clears the National Green Tribunal Bill.
The Taiwanese film ‘I Can’t Live Without You’ (No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti) directed by Leon Dai bags the prestigious Golden Peacock at the 40th IFFI
Celebrated singer Lata Mangeshkar is presented with the Frances’ highest civilian award Officer of The Legion of Honour.
DEC 4 – Senior All Parties Hurriat Conference leader Fazal Haq Qureshi, critically injured in an assassination attempt.
DEC 10 – The Lok Sabha passes the Essential Commodities (Amendment and Validation) Bill 2009(Suger cane pricing bill).
DEC 14 – The CBI rules out rape, murder of two women in Shopian on May 29, says it is case of drowning in Rambiara, Nallah near Zawoora Bridge.
DEC 18 – L.K. Advani steps down as the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and becomes chairman of the BJP’s Parliamentary Party. Sushma Swaraj takes his place. Arun Jaitely renominated Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.
The Rajya Sabha post-facto approves the SBI-State Bank of Saurashtra merger.
DEC 19 – The Gujrat Assembly passes the Gujrat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment), 2009 making voting compulsory in elections to all the local bodies in the State.
DEC 21 – A.R. Rehman presented the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year Award by Prime Minister in New Delhi. Life Time Achievement Award goes to sitar maestro Pt. Ravi Shankar.
DEC 22 – India and Bhutan sign four MoUs after a summit with the visiting monarch. New Delhi agrees to fund nearly a quarter of Thimpu’s Tenth Plan outlay of Rs. 14,800 Crore.
DEC 26 – The Andhra Pradesh Governor N.D. Tewari resigns in the wake of TY expose.
DEC 28 – The Chhattisgarh Governor E.S.L. Narsimhan takes charge of Andhra Pradesh.
DEC 30 – Lokmanya Tilak award for The Hindu Editor-in-Chief N. Ram.
INDIAN HISTORY BITS
INDIAN HISTORY BITS
1. The statue of Gomateshwara at Sravanabelagola was built by—
(A) Chandragupta Maurya
(B) Kharvela
(C) Amoghavarsha
(D) Chamundaraya
Ans : (D)
2. ‘Live well, as long as you live. Live well even by borrowings, for once cremated, there is no return’. The rejection of after life is an aphorism of the—
(A) Kapalika sect
(B) Sunyavada of Nagarjun
(C) Ajivikas
(D) Charvakas
Ans : (D)
3. Which one of the following usages was a post-Vedic development ?
(A) Dharma-Artha-Kama-Moksha
(B) Brahmana-Kshatriya-Vaishya-Shudra
(C) Brahmacharya-Grihasthashrama-Vanaprastha-Sanyasa
(D) Indra-Surya-Rudra-Marut
Ans : (C)
4. The capital of the kingdom of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was—
(A) Amritsar
(B) Patiala
(C) Lahore
(D) Kapurthala
Ans : (C)
5. In the Gandhara sculptures the preaching mudra associated with the Buddha's First Sermon at Sarnath is—
(A) Abhaya
(B) Dhyana
(C) Dharmachakra
(D) Bhumisparsa
Ans : (C)
6. The name of the poet Kalidas is mentioned in the—
(A) Allahabad pillar inscription
(B) Aihole inscription
(C) Alapadu grant
(D) Hanumakonda inscription
Ans : (B)
7. Zero was invented by—
(A) Aryabhatta
(B) Varahamihira
(C) Bhaskara I
(D) An unknown Indian
Ans : (D)
8. Which one of the following important trade centres of ancient India was on the trade route connecting Kalyana with Vengi ?
(A) Tagara
(B) Sripura
(C) Tripuri
(D) Tamralipti
Ans : (A)
9. The first Indian ruler who joined the subsidiary Alliance was—
(A) The Nawab of Oudh
(B) The Nizam of Hyderabad
(C) Peshwa Baji Rao II
(D) The king of Travancore
Ans : (B)
10. Vidhushaka, a common character in Sanskrit drama is invariably a—
(A) Brahmana
(B) Kshatriya
(C) Vaishya
(D) Shudra
Ans : (A)
11. Toramana belonged to the ethnic horde of the—
(A) Scythians
(B) Hunas
(C) Yue-chis
(D) Sakas
Ans : (B)
12. Who among the following is said to have witnessed the reigns of eight Delhi Sultans ?
(A) Ziauddin Barani
(B) Shams-i-siraj Afif
(C) Minhaj-us-siraj
(D) Amir Khusrau
Ans : (D)
13. The first Indian ruler to organize Haj pilgrimage at the expense of the state was—
(A) Alauddin Khilji
(B) Feroz Tughlaq
(C) Akbar
(D) Aurangzeb
Ans : (C)
14. Who among the following ladies wrote a historical account during the Mughal period ?
(A) Gulbadan Begum
(B) Noorjahan Begum
(C) Jahanara Begum
(D) Zebun-nissah Begum
Ans : (A)
15. The first to start a joint stock company to trade with India were the—
(A) Portuguese
(B) Dutch
(C) French
(D) Danish
Ans : (B)
16. The caves and rock-cut temples at Ellora are—
(A) Buddhist
(B) Buddhist and Jain
(C) Hindu and Jain
(D) Hindu, Buddhist and Jain
Ans : (D)
17. The significance of the Bengal Regulation of 1793 lies in the fact that—
(A) It provided for the establishment of the Supreme court
(B) It restricted the application of English law to Englishmen only
(C) It accommodated the personal laws of Hindus and Muslims
(D) It provided for the appointment of the Indian Law Commission
Ans : (C)
18. The Mansabdari system introduced by Akbar was borrowed from the system followed in—
(A) Afghanistan
(B) Turkey
(C) Mongolia
(D) Persia
Ans : (C)
19. Which one of the following monuments has a dome which is said to be one of the largest in the world ?
(A) Tomb of Sher Shah, Sasaram
(B) Jama Masjid, Delhi
(C) Tomb of Ghiyas-ud-din Tuglaq, Delhi
(D) Gol Gumbaz, Bijapur
Ans : (D)
20. Ashtapradhan was a Council of Ministers—
(A) In the Gupta administration
(B) In the Chola administration
(C) In the Vijaynagar administration
(D) In the Maratha administration
Ans : (D)
21. The concept of Anuvrata was advocated by—
(A) Mahayana Buddhism
(B) Hinayana Buddhism
(C) Jainism
(D) The Lokayata School
Ans : (C)
22. Which one of the following territories was not affected by the revolt of 1857 ?
(A) Jhansi
(B) Jagdishpur
(C) Lucknow
(D) Chittor
Ans : (D)
23. Which one of the following pairs is correctly matched ?
(A) Battle of Buxar— Mir Jafar Vs Clive
(B) Battle of Wandiwash—French Vs East India Company
(C) Battle of Chelianwala—Dalhousie Vs Marathas
(D) Battle of Kharda—Nizam Vs East India Company
Ans : (B)
24. The word ‘Hindu’ as reference to the people of Hind (India) was first used by—
(A) The Greeks
(B) The Romans
(C) The Chinese
(D) The Arabs
Ans : (A)
25. Hughly was used as a base for piracy in the Bay of Bengal by—
(A) The Portuguese
(B) The French
(C) The Danish
(D) The British
Ans : (A)
1. The statue of Gomateshwara at Sravanabelagola was built by—
(A) Chandragupta Maurya
(B) Kharvela
(C) Amoghavarsha
(D) Chamundaraya
Ans : (D)
2. ‘Live well, as long as you live. Live well even by borrowings, for once cremated, there is no return’. The rejection of after life is an aphorism of the—
(A) Kapalika sect
(B) Sunyavada of Nagarjun
(C) Ajivikas
(D) Charvakas
Ans : (D)
3. Which one of the following usages was a post-Vedic development ?
(A) Dharma-Artha-Kama-Moksha
(B) Brahmana-Kshatriya-Vaishya-Shudra
(C) Brahmacharya-Grihasthashrama-Vanaprastha-Sanyasa
(D) Indra-Surya-Rudra-Marut
Ans : (C)
4. The capital of the kingdom of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was—
(A) Amritsar
(B) Patiala
(C) Lahore
(D) Kapurthala
Ans : (C)
5. In the Gandhara sculptures the preaching mudra associated with the Buddha's First Sermon at Sarnath is—
(A) Abhaya
(B) Dhyana
(C) Dharmachakra
(D) Bhumisparsa
Ans : (C)
6. The name of the poet Kalidas is mentioned in the—
(A) Allahabad pillar inscription
(B) Aihole inscription
(C) Alapadu grant
(D) Hanumakonda inscription
Ans : (B)
7. Zero was invented by—
(A) Aryabhatta
(B) Varahamihira
(C) Bhaskara I
(D) An unknown Indian
Ans : (D)
8. Which one of the following important trade centres of ancient India was on the trade route connecting Kalyana with Vengi ?
(A) Tagara
(B) Sripura
(C) Tripuri
(D) Tamralipti
Ans : (A)
9. The first Indian ruler who joined the subsidiary Alliance was—
(A) The Nawab of Oudh
(B) The Nizam of Hyderabad
(C) Peshwa Baji Rao II
(D) The king of Travancore
Ans : (B)
10. Vidhushaka, a common character in Sanskrit drama is invariably a—
(A) Brahmana
(B) Kshatriya
(C) Vaishya
(D) Shudra
Ans : (A)
11. Toramana belonged to the ethnic horde of the—
(A) Scythians
(B) Hunas
(C) Yue-chis
(D) Sakas
Ans : (B)
12. Who among the following is said to have witnessed the reigns of eight Delhi Sultans ?
(A) Ziauddin Barani
(B) Shams-i-siraj Afif
(C) Minhaj-us-siraj
(D) Amir Khusrau
Ans : (D)
13. The first Indian ruler to organize Haj pilgrimage at the expense of the state was—
(A) Alauddin Khilji
(B) Feroz Tughlaq
(C) Akbar
(D) Aurangzeb
Ans : (C)
14. Who among the following ladies wrote a historical account during the Mughal period ?
(A) Gulbadan Begum
(B) Noorjahan Begum
(C) Jahanara Begum
(D) Zebun-nissah Begum
Ans : (A)
15. The first to start a joint stock company to trade with India were the—
(A) Portuguese
(B) Dutch
(C) French
(D) Danish
Ans : (B)
16. The caves and rock-cut temples at Ellora are—
(A) Buddhist
(B) Buddhist and Jain
(C) Hindu and Jain
(D) Hindu, Buddhist and Jain
Ans : (D)
17. The significance of the Bengal Regulation of 1793 lies in the fact that—
(A) It provided for the establishment of the Supreme court
(B) It restricted the application of English law to Englishmen only
(C) It accommodated the personal laws of Hindus and Muslims
(D) It provided for the appointment of the Indian Law Commission
Ans : (C)
18. The Mansabdari system introduced by Akbar was borrowed from the system followed in—
(A) Afghanistan
(B) Turkey
(C) Mongolia
(D) Persia
Ans : (C)
19. Which one of the following monuments has a dome which is said to be one of the largest in the world ?
(A) Tomb of Sher Shah, Sasaram
(B) Jama Masjid, Delhi
(C) Tomb of Ghiyas-ud-din Tuglaq, Delhi
(D) Gol Gumbaz, Bijapur
Ans : (D)
20. Ashtapradhan was a Council of Ministers—
(A) In the Gupta administration
(B) In the Chola administration
(C) In the Vijaynagar administration
(D) In the Maratha administration
Ans : (D)
21. The concept of Anuvrata was advocated by—
(A) Mahayana Buddhism
(B) Hinayana Buddhism
(C) Jainism
(D) The Lokayata School
Ans : (C)
22. Which one of the following territories was not affected by the revolt of 1857 ?
(A) Jhansi
(B) Jagdishpur
(C) Lucknow
(D) Chittor
Ans : (D)
23. Which one of the following pairs is correctly matched ?
(A) Battle of Buxar— Mir Jafar Vs Clive
(B) Battle of Wandiwash—French Vs East India Company
(C) Battle of Chelianwala—Dalhousie Vs Marathas
(D) Battle of Kharda—Nizam Vs East India Company
Ans : (B)
24. The word ‘Hindu’ as reference to the people of Hind (India) was first used by—
(A) The Greeks
(B) The Romans
(C) The Chinese
(D) The Arabs
Ans : (A)
25. Hughly was used as a base for piracy in the Bay of Bengal by—
(A) The Portuguese
(B) The French
(C) The Danish
(D) The British
Ans : (A)
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