Current Affairs 1. A Nobel Prize-winning University of Chicago economist Robert Fogel passed away yesterday after a brief illness . He was 86. He first came to prominence in academic circlesin the 1960s when he concluded that rail roads weren’t as important to the US economy as was widely believed. He wrote 22 books including the last one published in April. 2. The World Bank has lowered its growth forecast for China due to slower global economic growth. It now expects Chinese economy to grow by 7.7% in 2013 compared to its earlier forecast of 8.4%. It has also cut global economic growth forecast to 2.2%from earlier forecast of 2.4%. 3. K. Jayaraman has been appointed as new Director of Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL), a key missile facility in Hyderabad. He took charge as Director of the Defence Research and Development Laboratory from V.G. Sekharan . A post-graduate in AeronauticalEngineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, he joined the DRDO in 1982. As System Manager for Project Agni, he designed and developed Carbon Composite Re-entry Vehicle Structures with “shell-on-shell” technique for Agni III. Jayaraman was also instrumental in developing large size Flex Nozzle Control (FNC) for Agni IV and Agni V, besides that of low density panox/silicone External Thermal Protection System (ETP) for the second stage CRMC of Agni IV. 4. Competition Commission of India member H.C. Gupta, former Coal Secretary who is set to be questioned by CBI, has submitted his resignation to the Government . The resignation came soon after the Corporate Affairs Ministry gave its nod to CBI to question Gupta in connection with the coal blocks allocation scam. He was the Coal Secretary between 2006 and 2009, the period which is under the scanner of CBI for alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks. 5. The Government has hiked the investment limit for foreignportfolio investors in government bonds by USD 5 billion to USD 30 billion to attract more foreign inflow . However, the enhanced limit of USD 5 billion will be available for investments only to foreign central banks, sovereign wealth funds, multilateral agencies, endowment funds, insurance funds and pension funds. 6. The World Bank has forecasted 6.7% growth rate for India by next fiscal year as exports and private investmentare projected to strengthen and provide a boost to growth . In its latest Global Economic Prospects report, the IMF has said that India’s GDP in factor cost terms is projected to grow 5.7% inthe 2013 fiscal and then increase to higher growth of 6.5% and 6.7% in FY2013-14 and FY2014-15,respectively.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 07:57:20 +0000