Major mathematics awards to two Indian origin scientists
I. Two mathematicians of Indian origin, Manjul Bhargava and Subhash Khot, are among the eight winners of the prestigious awards of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) that were announced at the inaugural of the 9-day International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) which began today at Seoul, Republic of Korea.
II. The President of Korea, Park Geun-hye, gave away the awards.
NOTE –
I. The ICM is held every four years and, traditionally, the IMU awards are presented at this quadrennial event.
II. The awards include the Fields Medal, the highest award in mathematics, the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize and the Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize.
Lok Sabha passes Judicial Appointment Bill
I. The National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 was passed by voice vote along with one official amendment.
II. Along with it, the 99th Constitution Amendment Bill, which will give Constitutional status to the proposed Commission, was passed by 367 in favour and nil against.
III. Under the new law where a Commission will decide appointment of judges to Supreme Court and High Courts, seniority along with “ability” and “merit” will be considered for elevation.
Lanco Infratech sells Udupi power plant to Adani Power
I.Lanco Infratech Ltd announced that it has sold its Udupi Power plant to Adani Power Ltd. This is the power business arm of Indian business conglomerate Adani Group.
II.The sale is of 1,200 MW Udupi power plant and the deal is valued at more than Rs. 6,000 crore.
III.The Lanco Udupi Power Plant has already signed with Karnataka Government for further expansion up to 1,320 MW.
IV.The imported coal based thermal power plant of Lanco in Udupi, which supplies 90 per cent of the power generated to Karnataka and 10% to Punjab, is the first independent power project in the country based on 100 per cent import coal with a captive jetty of 4 million tons per annum and an external coal handling system in the new Mangalore Port Trust. The capacity can be, if required, expanded to handle another 4 million ton capacity.
UNHRC appointed members of Commission of Inquiry to probe human rights violations in Gaza
I. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on 12 August 2014 appointed three member to its Commission of Inquiry to probe possible war crimes and human rights violations during a month long conflict in Gaza
II. The panel will also investigate human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including Jerusalem. The conflict on the Gaza strip began on 13 June 2014.
III. The commission will be headed by William Schabas a Canadian international criminal law and human rights professor at Middlesex University in London.
IV. The other two members include Amal Alamuddin of United Kingdom (British-Lebanese lawyer, specialising in international law and human rights) and Doudou Diene of Senegal (was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance from 2002 to 2008).
Federation of Indian Granite & Stone Industry president
I.R Sekar has been elected president of the Federation of Indian Granite and Stone Industry (formerly known as All India Granites and Stone Assocation) for the term 2014-16.
II.The following are the vice presidents: Dr K Subbareddy, S Hanumantha Rao, Ishwinder Singh, S Krishna Prasad, Rakesh Sharma and Jitendra Kothari.
III.General Secretary - N K Aswath Rama and Treasurer is Manoj Kumar Singh.
IV.Joint treasurer –Promood Bhandari and joint secretaries are Mahaveer Singh Rathore, Rakesh Gupta, G M Hegde, Shiva Subramanian and Kishan Agarwal.
Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall dead at 89
I.US actress Lauren Bacall, 89, died of a stroke Tuesday at her home in New York, according to multiple reports.
II.Bacall starred opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946) and Key Largo (1948).
III.Bogart and Bacall were married for 12 years until his death in 1957.
Miroslav Klose of Germany announced retirement from International Football
I. Miroslav Klose of Germany announced his retirement from international football.
II. He was the part of Germany team that won the FIFA World Cup 2014 held in Brazil.
III. During the FIFA World Cup 2014, he scored 2 goals taking his total goals in all the editions of World Cup to 16. With this he became the leading goal scorer in World Cup overtaking 15 goals scored by Ronaldo of Brazil.
NOTE -
I. He also is the all-time top scorer for Germany with 71 goals in 137 appearances.
TRAI proposes ownership curbs, independent regulator for media
II. India’s telecom and media regulator on Tuesday recommended an independent regulator for the media, barring political parties and government departments from entering either broadcasting or TV distribution (through cable and direct-to-home, or DTH, TV), and suggested a formula for calculating “media dominance” that will likely affect at least some media companies in some markets.
III. Trai hasrecommended restrictions on cross-media ownership, but only if a media company has dominance across print and television.
IV. The dominance will be calculated by the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), and be market-specific, which could cause problems for some companies in some markets.
Supreme Court gets four new Judges
Four new judges was sworn-in by the Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha today. The new judges are-
I. Senior advocate Uday Umesh Lalit, who hails from Maharashtra joined the Bar in June 1983 is practising in the apex court since 1986. He will have a tenure of about eight years, including about months as the Chief Justice of India in 2022 after the retirement of Justice N.V. Ramana.
II. Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre, who hails from Madhya Pradesh became a Judge of Madhya Pradesh High Court in 1999. Initially he was appointed Chief Justice of Manipur and later shifted to Gauhati High Court as its Chief Justice. He will have a tenure of over five years.
III. Justice R. Banumathi, who hails from Tamil Nadu was elevated as Judge of the Madras High Court on April 3, 2003 and elevated as Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court in November 2013. She will be first woman judge from Tamil Nadu to occupy the highest judicial office. She will have a tenure of over six years.
IV. Justice Prafull Chandra Pant, who hails from the then undivided Uttar Pradesh became a Judge of Uttarakhand High Court in 2004. He was appointed Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court from September 2013. He will have a brief tenure of little over three years.
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