Articles from General Knowledge Today

After Twitter, PMO debuts on Youtube

2012-03-12 01:03:17 puneet

After Twitter, now Prime Minister Office has made its debut on popular video-sharing website Youtube. PMOIndia is now also on Youtube at PMOfficeIndias Channel. The PMO has started foraying into the new media after TV journalist Pankaj Pachauri took over as Communications Adviser to the Prime Minister. The first video uploaded yesterday was about Prime Minister's speech at a conference related to UPA's flagship programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA). This was followed by one today about Singh's visit to Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat on his birthday on October 2, 2011.

Oil Ministry orders diversion of KG gas to Andhra power plants

2012-03-12 01:03:18 puneet

The Oil Ministry for the second time in a year, ordered diversion of natural gas from Reliance Industries' KG-D6 fields to fuel-craved power plants in Andhra Pradesh. The Ministry issued orders that 2.5 million cubic meters per day of gas, which state-owned GAIL India gets from KG-D6 fields, be diverted to Transmission Corp of Andhra Pradesh Ltd. GAIL uses KG-D6 gas for drawing out of LPG and GAIL will make up for the lost volume via imports. In turn the GAIL will charge APTransco the price of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the diverted 2.5 million cubic metres per day from KG-D6. This order of gas swap was given so as to assist electricity generation in Andhra Pradesh Plants which in turn have to pay the actual imported cost of LNG. KG-D6 gas is priced at $4.205 per mmBtu. RIL currently produces about 35 mmcmd of gas from KG-D6 fields.

SM Krishna: World Bank president should not be restricted to Americans

2012-03-12 01:03:34 puneet

Since the current President of the World Bank (WB) Robert Zoellick announced in February 2012 his decision to step down from his post, names of a number of potential successors have been doing the rounds. With the hunt for a new WB Chief picking up, Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna held that the next President of World Bank should be selected on the basis of merit and the choice shouldn't be restricted to US nationals. He asserted that "If in the past US had representatives as head of the World Bank, it is now necessary for other countries to come out with suitable names of candidates who have the wisdom and merit to hold the post". He made the point that India doesn't believe in competition in this issue and solution has to be found via consensus and backroom negotiations and the criteria should be the merit. The nominations for the post of the WB Chief can be filed till March 23, 2012.

Ranjit Ajit to take over as the new Chairman of Securities

Commission Malaysia
2012-03-12 01:03:51 puneet

Datuk Ranjit Ajit Singh to succeed Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar who will retire from the post of Chairman of Securities Commission (SC) of Malaysia. Datuk Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also Finance Minister, has appointed Datuk Ranjit Ajit Singh to succeed Zarinah as chairman and Datuk Dr Nik Ramlah Mahmood (left) as deputy chief executive, and their new appointments take effect from April 1, 2012. Ranjit is recognised internationally for his expertise in securities regulation.

Supreme Court: Courts can't pass general directions to Government

2012-03-12 01:03:58 puneet

A bench of justices R M Lodha and H L Gokhale, in a judgement by the Supreme Court has ruled that Courts cant pass general directions to States and UTs, however well-intended they may be, particularly when it involves huge financial expenditure and inconvenience to the Government. The Supreme Court gave the ruling while upholding an appeal by the Kerala government challenging the state high court's fiat for construction of large number of bus bays and acquisition of land all over the state for setting up special roadside parking zones to prevent recurrent accidents. The Kerala government had appealed in the apex court challenging the High Court's September 17, 2008 order, directing it "to provide sufficient parking space for vehicles on road side, if required, by acquiring land, which should also be done within a time frame, even though we do not fix any specific time for this."