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National:

Named for Pushkin Award

K. Govindan Nair, former Head of the Department of Russian, University of Kerala, has won the PushkinAward of the Russian Federation. The Pushkin Award is given by the Federation to citizens of India foroverall contribution in popularisation of Russian culture, language, and literature. The first Keralite to get aPhD in Russian Literature and the first Indian teacher in the Department of Russian of the Kerala University.

Gandhiji's 40-feet tall bust to be installed at Gandhi Maidan

Mahatma Gandhi's 40-feet tall bust will be installed on January 30,2013 at the historic Gandhi Maidan inPatna on his 65th death anniversary. The bust, which is made of bronze metal and is in three pieces, hasbeen made by a Delhi-based firm. Gandhi's bust was set for installation on his 143rd birth anniversary onOctober 2, 2012, but got delayed due to various reasons.

Gujarat BSF gets MoD nod for women battalion

The Ministry of Defence has given its go-ahead to the Gujarat Frontier of Border Security Force (BSF) toraise a battalion of women personnel to guard the Munabao railway station on the India-Pakistan border inRajasthan. This will be the second such battalion of the BSF after Punjab. The Gujarat Frontier had written tothe Ministry a few months ago requesting to form a women battalion for the Munabao railway station inBarmer district where New Thar Express halts. There will be 100 constable-rank women in the battalion whowill be stationed at all BSF outposts of the Frontier for a small period before being permanently stationed atMunabao.

U.P Govt plans Aadhar-based payment of scholarships in five districts

The Department of Social Welfare is planning to launch Aadhar-based payment of scholarships for studentson a trial basis in five districts of Uttar Pradesh. On the recommendations of the Government of India (GoI),the department is planning to hold special camps in these districts for getting students enrolled for the uniqueidentification (UID) numbers. The trial will cover post-matric scholarship and fee reimbursement schemes forschedule castes and schedule tribes, other backward castes, minorities as well as general categorystudents. Apart from the scheme for general category students, which is funded by the state government, thescholarships of all other categories are partly or fully financed by the GoI. The selected districts are Lucknow,Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar and Agra. The Government of India has decided that in thesecond phase of the Aadhar scheme in Uttar Pradesh, the collection of biometric data for Aadhar number isto be done by the Directorate of Census, rather than the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Gujarat plans Knowledge Cities on lines of S Korea, Taiwan

The Gujarat government is planning to set up Knowledge Cities, hubs of academia, research, technologyand industry, for promoting innovation, on the lines of countries such as South Korea and Taiwan. HshinchuTechnology park of Taiwan and Gwangju Metropolitan City in South Korea are examples of this model.Gujarat currently has around 51 universities and over 1,400 institutes of higher education catering to over 7million students. However, only a few institutes have active tie-ups with international institutes.

MoD clears mega deals for radars, missiles, Navy vessels, AWACS

Defence ministry has cleared proposals to buy several thousand crore worth of military hardware, includingfour hydrographic survey vessels for the Navy for Rs 2,324 crore and two Phalcon airborne warning andcontrol systems (AWACS) for the Air Force for Rs 3,306 crore.Israel, which has emerged as a leading armssupplier to India, will rake in a major chunk of these contracts.

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Wildlife management hits a low in Assam in 2012

Assam, famed for its national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, faced one of its worst years in wildlifemanagement as it lost an estimated 800 animals, including one-horned rhinos, during 2012. Among thepositives in the wildlife sector was a healthy population of Royal Bengal Tiger in Kaziranga National Parkwith 114 animals captured by the camera trapping method. Another major achievement was the successfulshifting of 18 rhinos to Manas National Park, including one which strayed out of the Park, along with others

from Kaziranga and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary. Seventy rhinos died in the Kaziranga Park -- 25 killed bypoachers, 22 dying due to natural causes and 23 drowned in floods.

International:

Switzerland freezes $300 m of Mubarak sons assets

Swiss authorities have frozen $300 million sitting in Credit Suisse accounts in Geneva held by the sons ofdeposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The funds are held in accounts belonging to Alaa and GamalMubarak, sons of the ex-president who are currently being held in an Egyptian prison. The brothers areaccused of using their position as scions of Egypts longtime ruler to help themselves to villas, luxury carsand stakes in the countrys key companies. According to the newspaper, the funds were deposited at the

Credit Suisse in 2005, which was after Switzerland tightened rules governing transactions by politicallyexposed depositors.

China tightens law against internet use

China has tightened control over Internet usage making it mandatory for the users to register with their realnames with the service providers, belying expectations of opening up after once-in-a-decade leadershipchange. The Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress (NPC) Chinas Parliament hasapproved the draft stating that it was aimed at protecting personal information. According to China InternetNetwork Information Centre (CINIC), 274 million Chinese people had microblog accounts as of June 2012.

23 Indian-origin figure in Queen's New Year Honours List 2013

Mark Ramprakash, a former English cricketer of Indian descent, is among the 23 people of Indian origin who

figure in the Queen's New Year Honours List 2013. Ramprakash, a right-handed batsman who played forEngland between 1991 and 2001, has been given the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services tosport. Geetha Nagasubramanian, consultant gynaecologist, also gets an MBE for services to women andyoung People. Vina Mayor, also gets the same honour for services to the National Health Service (NHS).

Beijing 14th safest city in China, Lhasa tops the list

China's capital city Beijing is less safe when compared to most of China's other major cities, a recent surveyconducted by the government-owned China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) has revealed. The Tibetancapital of Lhasa has been ranked as the safest followed by Shanghai. Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province,got the lowest marks for safety by its residents. People in coastal cities in east China and municipalities feelmuch safer than those in other regions of the country.Technology:

Bacteria causing UTI infections becoming immune to drugsE coli bacteria, a major cause for urinary tract infections (UTI), is increasingly becoming resistant to the mostprescribed antimicrobial, ciprofloxacin (Cipro) drug used for treating the disease. Indian Journal of MedicalResearch (IJMR), the study also warns that the patients mostly get infected from the pathogens including Ecoli producing UTIs from the hospitals and other sources. The disease is caused by variety of micro-organisms such as E coli, which affects different locations of urinary tract system. E coli accounts for 75 percent to 95 per cent of UTIs. Of the 4,956 culture positives, E coli was the most common (59%) isolate.Seventy three per cent of all Ecoli isolates were found to be resistant to Ciprofloxacin.

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Business & Economy:

Panel to assess if HP can provide 15 lakh laptops

The Uttar Pradesh government is assessing the supplying capacity of Hewlett Packard (HP), which hasquoted the lowest bid for supplying 15 lakh laptops that the government will distribute among students whopassed Class XII in 2012 and are pursuing higher education. The assessment of the supplying capacity hasto be done by a high-level committee formed under Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani. The matter has come tothe table of the chief secretary after a technical committee, formed under the UP Electronics CorporationLimited Managing Director Prabhat Mittal, found that four companies qualified for supplying laptops. HPquoted a price of Rs 19,058, including duty and taxes, for each unit of laptop, HCL quoted Rs 21,983,Lenovo quoted Rs 23,919 while Acer made the highest bid of Rs 25,199.

Sport:

Clarke on top in ICC rankings with career-best points

Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke has reached a career-best 900 points to retain the top spot in the

ICC Test Rankings for batsmen after his sides innings and 201-run win against Sri Lanka in Melbourne. Thewin guaranteed Australia an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Clarke began the Test on 888ratings points and earned 12 ratings points for his knock of 106 to become only the seventh Australianbatsman to achieve the rare distinction as he retained his position at the top of the batting table. DonBradman, Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Doug Walters, Neil Harvey and Mike Hussey are the otherAustralian batsmen to break the 900-point barrier.