Chitra Ramkrishna to take over as NSE chief

National Stock Exchange is set to have a new chief on April 1, when Chitra Ramkrishna will take over as Managing Director and CEO and join the select league of women leaders at the helm of affairs of leading stock exchanges of the world. The 49-year old Ms Ramkrishna, who was part of the leadership team that helped set up the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in early 90s, would be only the third person to head the bourse in its entire history of about two decades.

 As MD and CEO of the NSE, Ms Ramkrishna succeeds Ravi Narain who would assume the role of non-executive Vice Chairman with effect from April 1, 2013, after serving in various leadership roles at the exchange since its inception. Mr Narain had served as Deputy Managing Director of NSE in its first six years and as MD and CEO thereafter. Mr Narain had succeeded R H Patil, who was the first chief of NSE. In November 2012, the board of directors of NSE decided to elevate Mr Ramkrishna, then its Joint MD, as Managing Director and CEO with effect from April 1, 2013.

Navneet Kaur Dhillon Crowned Pond’s Femina Miss India 2013

Navneet Kaur Dhillon was crowned Pond’s Femina Miss India 2013 on 24 March 2013 in the grand finale of 50th edition of the beauty pageant in Mumbai. 20-year-old Navneet Kaur belongs to Punjab and is a media student at present. Navneet Kaur was also given the title Miss Glowing Skin. 

Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were the first and second runners-up respectively. The trio of Navneet Kaur, Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were selected from a total of 23 finalists from India. 

The judges of the ceremony were choreographer Shiamak Dawar, filmmaker Karan Johar, actors John Abraham, Chitrangda Singh and Asin Thottumkal, cricketer Yuvraj Singh and fashion designer Ritu Kumar. 

Auditions for the beauty pageant were held in Chandigarh, Delhi, Indore, Kolkata, Pune, Goa and Bangalore. 

The semi-finalists were Gail Nicole Da Silva, Navneet Kaur Dhillon, Vijaya Sharma, Zoya Afroz, Apurva Lonkar, Sagarika Chhetri, Srishti Rana, Swati Kain, Anukriti Gusain and Sobhita Dhulipala.
Karan Johar crowned Sobhita Dhulipala as Femina Miss Itimes Digital Diva. She also received 1 Lakh Rupees.

Justice Retd. Mir Hazar Khan Khoso took oath as caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan

Justice Retd. Mir Hazar Khan Khoso took oath as the sixth caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan on 25 March 2013 in Islamabad. The oath was administered by President Asif Ali Zardari at the ceremony which was held at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

Important facts

It is important to note that Justice Retd. Mir Hazar Khan Khoso is the sixth caretaker PM of Pakistan. He will lead Pakistan in the general elections scheduled on 11 May 2013. 

The earlier five caretaker Prime Ministers of Pakistan were- Ghulam Mustafa Khan Jatoi (6 August 1990-6 November 1990), Mir Balakh Sher Mazari (18 April 1993-26 May 1993), Moin Qureshi (8 July 1993-19 October 1993), Malik Meraj Khalid (6 October 1996-17 February 1997) and Muhammad Mian Soomro (16 November 2007-24 March 2008). 

Union Government cleared 1500 crore Rupees Proposal for Pinaka Rockets

The Union government in March 2013 approved a 1500 crore Rupees proposal for production of more than 2000 rockets for the Pinaka multi- barrel weapons system.

The proposal was approved to enhance the Army's firepower. The Indian Army requires more than 2000 of these rockets to equip its 10-12 regiments comprising the Pinaka launchers.

A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which was headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had given its approval to the proposal enthused by the Defence Ministry for upgrading the capabilities of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) for producing these rockets.

According the proposal, the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) under the Department of Defence Production, is going to upgrade facilities at nine of its factories involved in the production of Pinaka rockets.

It was also decided by the defence Ministry to drive in 15000 crore rupees to augment domestic military production with a focus on indigenisation to avoid scams in acquisition of foreign military hardware.

The major plans of OFB include augmentation of production capabilities for T-90 and T-72 tanks, engines for armoured vehicles and setting up of 155mm howitzer production plants.

It was also decided by Ministry's Department of Defence Production to hike the allocation from 583 crore Rupees during the 11th Plan period to 15000 crore Rupees for modernisation of the production capabilities of OFB during the current Plan.
The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) list includes upgrading of 130mm M46 field artillery guns to 155mm 45 calibre standard, development of 155mm 52 calibre mounted howitzers and integration of the 105mm field guns on BMP combat vehicles.

Asian Business Awards 2013: Kartar Lalvani Declared Healthcare Businessman of the Year

Kartar Lalvani, the NRI entrepreneur was conferred with theHealthcare Businessman of the Year Award 2013 at the Asian Business Awards ceremony in Central London on 23 March 2013. 

The honour was given by UK's Home Secretary Theresa May. On behalf of Kartar Lalvani, founder-chairman of Vitabiotics received this honour. Vitabiotics is the largest supplier of vitamin supplements as well as minerals in UK. 

In the same event, Amit Bhatia, son-in-law of Lakshmi Mittal, was declared as the Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013. The Lifetime Achievement Award 2013 was given to Sudhir Choudhrie, the Indian origin entrepreneur. 

About Asian Business Awards

• Asian Business Awards 2013 were the 16th edition of Asian Business Awards. 
• The event celebrates the acumen, achievement and excellence of the Asian business. 
• The event encapsulates diversity as well as range of Asian businesses in UK. 
• The Asian Business Awards also launched 2013 Asian Rich List which is said to be the definitive index of Asian wealth in UK. This 2013 Asian Rich List highlights achievements of the entrepreneurs over last one year.

Slum Upgradation Index

 Shri Ajay Maken, Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has said that his Ministry will frame “SlumUpgradation Index” City Wise and State Wise for monitoring periodically the Up gradation of Slums in the country. He said for this purpose a Committee will be set-up to suggest the methodology for drafting this index. Shri Maken was speaking at a function of release of report on Housing Stock, Amenities and Assets in Slums based on House listing and Housing Census 2011 here today. Shri Maken released this report in the presence of Shri R.P. N. Singh, Minister of State for at a function organized by the office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Shri Arun Kumar Misra, Secretary Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Shri K. Skandan, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs and Dr. C. Chandramouli, Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India were also present. Such datasets on slum are being brought out for the first time in the country.

            Flagging the important aspects of the Slum Data in the above report,  Shri Maken said his Ministry will not have any distinction between Notified, Recognized and Identified slums while providing Financial assistance to the States under the RajivAwaas Yojana ( RAY) Scheme,  the with  an objective for bringing improvements of Slums. He urged the State Government to convert the notified local bodies into statutory local bodies with provision of municipalities for improving the living conditions in these towns.  Complimenting the efforts of the Census organization in bringing out such important facts, Shri Maken said that this Slum Data will help in redrawing our programmes/Schemes and fix priorities under various Schemes of the Ministry.

   Speaking on the occasion, Shri R.P.N Singh stated that inputs provided in the Report will be of great use to the Central ,State Governments and various stakeholders for improving the conditions in the slums. 

Dr. C. Chandramouli, Registrar General and Census Commissioner, presented the  Highlights from the report. Which  are as indicated below:

• In all 1.73 Crore Census houses have been reported in the Houselisting Blocks categorized as Slums in India, comprising 1.37 Crore slum households.

• There are 19 million plus cities where more than 25 % households live in slums.

• A majority (71%) of these are located in six States namely, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, west Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

• Out of these 19 cities, five cities namely, Vishakhapatnam, Jabalpur, Mumbai, Vijaywada and Meerut have more than 40 % slum households.

• Out of total slum houses, 92.7 % are occupied and 7.3 % are vacant.

• 84.9% Census Houses are used for residence/residence-cum-other use.

• 58.4% residential census houses are in good condition, 37.5 % are liveable and rests are 4.0% are in dilapidated condition.

• 70.2 % Slum households are owned. Rest are mostly rented.

• 74 % households use Tap as the main source of drinking water followed by hand pump/tube well (20.3%)

• Source of drinking water is available to 56.7% of the households within the premises in slums; 31.9% have the source located near (within 100m) the premises and 11.4 % have to travel more than 100 m away to fetch drinking water

• More than 90% slum households use electricity as main of lighting. 8.2% Kerosene and 0.7% households have other source of lighting and 0.5% households have no lighting in the slum areas.

• 66% households are having latrine facility within the premises meaning that every third household (34%) has no latrine facility within the premises. 18.9% slum households defecate in open and 15.1% use public latrine.

• 81% slum households have bathroom or an enclosure without roof. 53.2% households avail banking service in slum areas.

• About 70% slum households have television in their houses for entertainment, 18.7% possess Radio/Transistor.

• Computer/laptop have not made inroads in slums to the desired extent only 10.4% households have computer/laptop in their house, out of which 3.3 % have computer/laptop with internet connection (as against 9.3% in non-slum areas) and 7.1 without internet connection.

• 72.7% slum households have telephone facility out of which 4.4% have land line connection, 63.5% mobile and 4.8 % have both facilities. In non-slum areas this percentage is 83.9.

National Bioscience Award 2012

S. Venkata Mohan of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, here has won the National Bioscience Award for 2012, awarded by the Department of Biotechnology, for scientists below 45.

He has won the prize for his contributions towards developing technologies for production of clean bio-fuels from waste.

Infosys to assist India Post to build Rural Systems Integration (RSI) program

Infosys has partnered with India Post to implement and manage a platform that will transform the latter’s rural operations. Infosys will facilitate India Post’s Rural Systems Integration (RSI) program.

This initiative is likely to penetrate the reach of postal services to the country’s rural population, streamlining the distribution of social benefits.

As a partner to the RSI programme, Infosys will develop a service delivery platform using its solutions such as mConnect, TruSync and Finacle. This will allow more than 130,000 rural post offices to offer online services. Besides, it will also connect and manage more than 130,000 handheld devices used by rural postal workers for distribution of social benefits under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and process electronic money orders.

Infosys is also assisting India Post to transform its financial services operations and end-user experience under the Financial Services System Integration program

National Mission on Teachers and Training to be Launched to Improve Quality of Teachers and Teaching

The Minister of Human Resource Development, Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju  said that a National Mission on Teachers and Training will be launched which will lay down a roadmap to improve the quality of teachers and teaching thereby improving the educational delivery and learning outcomes in higher education institutions and added that a sum of Rs 100 crore has been provided in Annual Plan 2013-14. 

The Minister further added that a major new initiative is the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) of Rashtriya Uchhatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) which will be launched to provide financial assistance to State Instituions. The total outlay for the scheme in the XII Plan is Rs. 25,000 crore of which a sum of Rs 500 crore has been provided in Annual Plan 2013-14. 

Arunachal Pradesh became the First State to Introduce e-GPF

Arunachal Pradesh in the month of March 2013 became the first state to introduce e-GPF or electronic GPF. The state Finance Department facilitated the online access to 34000 GPF accounts through its redesigned Web site, which was launched by Chief Minister of Arunachal Pardesh Nabam Tuki.

United Nations announced 20 March as International Happiness Day

20 March: International Happiness Day

The United Nations on 20 March 2013 declared 20 March as the International Day of Happiness. This was the first edition of the happiness day observed by the world. 20 March was declared as the International Day of Happiness with an aim to acknowledge the importance of happiness and encourage Governments of different nations to consider well-being of its citizens as the common agenda other than focusing on the economic growth only.  All the 193 members of United Nations voted in favour of the International Day of Happiness. 

National Health Bill

The Government has no plans to introduce National Health Bill. In order to provide relief to the common man in the area of healthcare, a countrywide campaign in the name of “Jan Aushadhi Campaign” has been initiated by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, in collaboration with the State Governments, by way of opening up of Jan Aushadhi Generic Stores in the Government Hosptials to supply of generic medicines through Central Pharma Public Sector Undertakings, to make available quality generic medicines at affordable prices to all. So far, 149 Jan Aushadhi Stores have been opened in different States/UTs in the country as on 28.02.2013.

Further, under the provisions of the Drugs (Prices & Control) Order, 1995 (DPCO, 1995), the prices of 74 bulk drugs listed in its First Schedule and the formulations containing any of these scheduled drugs are controlled. National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) fixes or revises prices of scheduled drugs/formulations as per the provisions of the DPCO, 1995. In respect of drugs not covered under DPCO, 1995 i.e. non-scheduled drugs, manufacturers fix the prices by themselves without seeking the approval of the Government/NPPA. However, the trend in prices of non-scheduled drugs is monitored and suitable action is taken by NPPA where price increase is more than 10% in a period of one year on moving basis.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy -2012 (NPPP-2012) notified on 07.12.2012 provides all the manufacturers/importers manufacturing / importing the medicines as specified under National List of Essential Medicines 2011(NLEM-2011) shall be under the purview of price control. The objective of NPPP-2012 is to put in place a regulatory framework for pricing of drugs so as to ensure availability of required medicines “essential medicines” at reasonable prices.

The Government is also providing support to the States under the NRHM for providing free Generic Drugs in Public health facilities. States have been encouraged to bring out essentials Drugs lists (EDL) facility wise and Standard Treatment Guidelines to promote safe and efficacious drug use.

Neha Tripathi Won Sixth Leg of Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour 2013

Kolkata’s Neha Tripathi won sixth leg of Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour 2013 in Panchkula on 21 March 2013. This is the third victory of Neha Tripathi in 2013 season. With this victory, Neha Tripathi overtook Smriti Mehra in the Hero Order of Merit 2013.

Earlier, Neha Tripathi had won fifth leg of Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour 2013 on 15 March 2013. She had won the first tournament of Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour 2013 on 31 January 2013.

She returned with score of one under 71 and a total score of 228. Vani Kapoor, on the other hand, finished with a score of three over 75 and had a final score of 229. Ankita Tiwana finished at the third position with a score of four over 76 and a final score of 239.

India becomes 1st country to successfully test fire Brahmos super sonic cruise missile

India on March 20 successfully carried out the maiden test firing of the over 290 km-range submarine-launched version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in the Bay of Bengal, becoming the first country in the world to have this capability. 

Talking to reporters after the test, BrahMos CEO A Sivathanu Pillai said,the submarine-launched version of BrahMos was successfully test fired from an underwater pontoon near Visakhapatnam.

He said,this is the first test firing of an underwater supersonic cruise missile anywhere in the world and the missile travelled its complete range of over 290 kms.He said the performance of the missile during the test launch was perfect.

Ship and ground-launched versions of the missile have been successfully tested and put into service with the Indian Army and the Navy.

The maiden test of the submarine-launched version of BrahMos comes over a week after the indigenously built long-range subsonic cruise missile Nirbhay failed to hit its target in its first test.

Defence Minister A K Antony congratulated DRDO scientists and Russian specialists along with officers of the Indian Navy associated with the project for successful test launch of missile from an underwater platform.

Bangladesh president Zillur Rahman dies in Singapore

Bangladesh President Mohammad Zillur Rahman, a close aide of the country's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, died at a Singapore hospital on March 20.

He was being treated for kidney and respiratory problems, officials said.

"He breathed his last at the Mount Elisabeth Hospital," a Presidential spokesperson informed.

Bangladesh ambassador to Singapore said that doctors proclaimed him dead at 6.47 pm (local time) when his son, daughters and close relatives were present.

Rahman, 85, was admitted to the facility on 10th March, as he was flown to Singapore by an air ambulance for critical lung infection, a day after he was rushed to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) at Dhaka cantonment.

He was made the ceremonial head of the state in 2009 after Awami League was elected in the landmark December, 2008, general elections.

A lawyer by profession, Rahman was a close aide of Bangladesh's founder and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and is regarded as a key figure in consolidating the ruling Awami League's unity at different times after 1975 coup when Sheikh Mujib was killed along with most of his family members.

Bangladesh has announced a three-day state mourning.

"The acting president announced the three-day state mourning for the death of President Zillur Rahman," a presidential spokesman was quoted by a news agency as saying.

Parliamentary speaker Abdul Hamid was made the acting president on March 14 to discharge the functions of President in accordance with the Constitution.