Current Affairs Updates - 2010

57th National Film Awards 2010:

The 57^th National film awards were announced on 16-09-2010.

Amitabh Bachchan bags his third National Award for his performance in “Paa”, previously he got for the films ‘Agneepath’(1991) and ‘Black’(2001).

List of 2010 Winners:

·        Best Actor – Amitabh Bachchan for ‘Paa’.

·        Best Actress –  Ananya Chatterjee for Abohoman (Bengali).

·        Best Director - Rituparno Ghosh for Abohoman.

·        Best Film - 'Kutty Shrank'(Malayalam).

·        Best Popular Film – ‘3 Idiots’.

·        Best Film on Social Issues - Shyam Benegal's 'Well Done Abba'.

·        Best Film on National Integration - Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's 'Dilli-6'.

·        Best Music Director - Amit Trivedi for Dev D.

·        Best lyrics - Swananad Kirkirey for 3 Idiots.

·        Best Playback Singer (Male) - Rupam Islam.

·        Best Playback Singer (Female) - Niranjana Sarkar (Housefull).

·        Best Sound Engineer - Rasool Pookutty.

·        Best Supporting Actor - Farooq Sheikh for 'Lahore'.

·        Best Supporting Actress - Arundhati Nag for ‘Paa’.

·        Best Choreography - K Shivashankar for film Magadheera.

·        Best Special Effects - Kamalakannan for film Magadheera.

US OPEN 2010:      

The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships is one of the four grand slam tennis tournament held every year.

List of 2010 winners:

S.no		Winners	Runners
1.	Men’s Single	Rafael Nadal(ESP)	Novak Djokovic(SRB)
2.	Women’s Single	Kim Clijsters(BEL)	Vera Zvonareva(RUS)
3.	Mixed Doubles	Liezel Huber, Bob Bryan(US)	Kveta Peschke(CZE), Aisam-Ul-Haq Quereshi(PAK)
4.	Men’s Doubles	Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan(US)	Bopanna(IND), Qureshi(PAK)
5.	Women’s Doubles	N. Petrova(RUS), L Huber(US)	Yung-Jan Chan(TPE), Jie Zheng(CHN)

Latest Current Affairs - 2010

·        India lags behind several developing countries in terms of doing business, but is ahead of China. It is ranked 77th in the Forbes Best Countries for Business list.

·        Movie moghul D. Ramanaidu, a veteran producer with 130 films in a dozen languages in five decades, has been conferred the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2009 for rendering outstanding contribution to the world of Indian cinema.

·        The Planning Commission has finalised a Rs 13,742-crore Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for Naxal-affected districts.The scope of IAP, earlier envisaged to cover 35 Naxal-affected districts, has been widened to cover governance reforms and devolution of power to grassroot institutions in 60 districts over the next three fiscal.

·        Former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman and one of the guiding lights behind India's first nuclear test, Homi Nusserwanji Sethna has died.

·        The International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's concessionary lending arm, has approved a $220 million credit to support rebuilding efforts in areas affected by the 2008 Kosi floods in Bihar. The Bihar Kosi Flood Recovery Project will finance flood recovery efforts through the reconstruction of about 100,000 houses, 90 bridges and 290 kilometres of rural roads.

·        Miss Mexico Jimena Navarrete, 22, was crowned Miss Universe 2010, beating off competition from 82 contestants including Miss India.

·        Japan approved an $ 11 billion stimulus package to tackle deflation and shore up a recovery threatened by the surging yen, as the government heaped pressure on the central bank to do more.

·        After becoming the first state to accord the status of second official language to Sanskrit, Uttarakhand has now finalised a proposal to have signboards of names of places, departments and officials in the language, a move aimed at making it popular among common people.

·        Julia Gillard becomes Australia's first female and 27th prime minister prime minister.

·        China successfully launched its "SinoSat-6" satellite for live radio and television broadcast from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The satellite was carried on the Long March 3B rocket which took the SinoSat-6 into a geostationary transfer orbit 26 minutes after the launch.

·        Japan said it has detected its first case of an antibiotic-resistant "superbug" that surfaced in South Asia and has triggered a global health alert.

·        India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was nominated as Uttarakhand's first honorary wildlife warden as part of the hill state's tiger conservation campaign.

·        The Punjab government has approved a new media policy providing more facilities to journalists in the state. Under the new policy, 286 accredited journalists will get an insurance cover of Rs five lakh. The state government has also set up Rs 10 crore 'Punjab Chief Minister Relief Fund' for media persons.

·        Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has been ranked second in the list of world's 10 biggest 'sustainable value creators' -- companies that have been successful in creating the most shareholder value over the last decade -- prepared by Boston Consulting Group.

·        Srilanka defeated India to win the Triangular Series 2010 held in Srilanka.

·        Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has been ranked second in the list of world's 10 biggest 'sustainable value creators' -- companies that have been successful in creating the most shareholder value over the last decade -- prepared by Boston Consulting Group.

·        The Parliament of Sri Lanka passes the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka which removes the two-term limit on the presidency and allows him to choose the judges and commissioners monitoring elections, human rights, and other affairs.

Monetary Policy and Current Affairs of August - 2010

First Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2010-11:

Monetary policy is the process by which the government, central bank of a country controls (i) the supply of money, (ii) availability of money, and (iii)cost of money or rate of interest, in order to attain a set of objectives oriented towards the growth and stability of the economy.

As expected, RBI has raised the policy rates in the first quarter review of monetary policy on 27-07-2010. This is the fourth rate hike since March this year raising the Repo by a total of 100 bps and Reverse Repo by 125 bps.

Highlights of the policy:

·        Repo rates hiked by 25 bps to 5.75% with immediate effect.

·        Reverse Repo rates hiked by 50 bps to 4.50% with immediate effect.

·        CRR, SLR and Bank rate kept unchanged at 6%, 25% and 6%, respectively.

·        Estimated for GDP growth for 2010-11 revised to 8.5% from 8%.

·        Inflation projection for March 2010 increased to 6% from 5.5%.

The next mid-quarter review of Monetary Policy for 2010-11 will be announced through a press release on September 16, 2010.

The second quarter review of Monetary Policy 2010-11, including developmental and regulatory policies, is scheduled on November 2, 2010.

August Current Affairs:

·        China has eclipsed Japan as the world's second-biggest economy after three decades of blistering growth that put overtaking the U.S. in reach within 10 years.

·        Former Union Power Secretary Harishankar Brahma has been appointed as the Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India.

·        Britain’s Andy Murray won the 2010 Rogers Cup over Roger Federer 7–5, 7–5 on Sunday in Toronto.

·        The President Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil this evening conferred the prestigious Best Parliamentarian Awards to Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, Mohan Singh and Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi at an impressive function in the Central Hall of Parliament. The Awards were given for the year 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively for their outstanding contributions to parliamentary debates.

·        Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's book, "Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian", which was released by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

·        The Centre cleared for implementation the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls — known as ‘Sabla' — aimed at enhancing their nutritional and economic status. The scheme will be run along with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) project in anganwadi centres in 200 select districts, targeting girls in the age group 11-18.

·        Senior IPS officer R K Medhekar will be the new Director General of elite commando force -- National Security Guard. Medhekar, a 1975 batch officer of Kerala cadre, currently serving as Special Director General of Border Security Force. He will take over from 1972 batch IPS officer N P S Aulakh.

·        Vineet Jain, Managing Director, The Times of India (TOI) Group, has been elected as the new chairman of Press Trust of India (PTI), the leading news agency of India. Jain succeeds Vjiay Kumar Chopra, Editor, Punjab Kesari Group.

·        Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh launched the Green Action for National Dandi Heritage Initiative(GANDHI) project in the historic coastal village in south Gujarat. It was at Dandi that Mahatma Gandhi launched his salt Satyagraha 80 years ago.

·        The postal department released a stamp(of Rs.5) in Visakhapatnam to commemorate the first death anniversary of the former chief minister late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.