Current Affairs of 29 December 1. Greece facing snap election as lawmakers fail to elect president Greek lawmakers failed to elect a new president in a decisive final round of voting on Monday, leaving the country facing a snap election that could derail the international bailout programme it needs to keep paying its bills. The only candidate in the race, former European Commissioner Stavros Dimas, fell short of the 180 vote supermajority needed to become president. He garnered 168 votes, the same score he achieved in the second round of the vote. Under Greek law, a general election must now be called, leaving financial markets and Greece’s European Union partners facing weeks of uncertainty that could undermine fragile signs of economic recovery. The radical leftist Syriza party, which wants to renegotiate Greece’s bailout agreement with the EU and International Monetary Fund and roll back austerity policies, has held a steady lead in opinion polls for months, although its advantage has narrowed in recent weeks. 2. Big B plans to start campaign for Hepatitis B Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is planning to start a new campaign for infectious disease caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). The 72-year-old actor, who is also a UNICEF Global Ambassador for polio eradication, met doctors recently to strategies the plan. “Wish to start a campaign on awareness of Hepatitis B... 3. Nabard sanctions Rs. 50.99 cr for Haryana National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned a loan of Rs. 50.99 crore to Haryana under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund scheme. The fresh tranche is proposed to be utilised for the construction of 603 Anganwadi Centres” in 19 districts — Ambala, Bhiwani, Faridabad, Fatehabad, Gurgaon, Hisar, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Mewat, Palwal, Panchkula, Panipat, Rewari, Rohtak, Sonepat and Yamunanagar, said DV Deshpande, Chief General Manager, NABARD (Haryana). The project will lead to improved nutrition, health status and education of around 27,000 children and 12,000 pregnant, lactating women and adolescent girls through these centers in 453 villages, he said in a release. With this sanction, the cumulative RIDF assistance sanctioned to the Haryana under RIDF has reached Rs. 4,541.61 crore involving 3,601 projects under various sectors like irrigation, rural connectivity, water supply, anganwadis, girls toilet blocks, veterinary hospitals, dispensaries since inception of RIDF in 1995—96, and an amount of Rs. 3,179.03 crore has been disbursed till date. 4. L&T arm bags Rs. 894 cr offshore contract from ONGC Larsen & Toubro (L&T) today said it has bagged an offshore contract worth Rs. 894 crore from Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for additional development of the Vasai East project. The company’s fully owned subsidiary L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHE) has bagged the contract on complete turnkey basis from ONGC to improve recovery factor of Vasai East field where production started in 2008, and it is scheduled to be completed by April 2016, a release issued here said. “The contract includes total engineering, procurement, construction and installation of two wellhead platforms, subsea pipelines and modification of existing facilities in Heera-Panna-Bassein block of Mumbai offshore,” it said. The Rs. 2,500 crore project will result in incremental oil production of 1.83 million metric tonne (MMT) and incremental gas production of 1.971 billion cubic metres (BCM) by 2030. “This contract reiterates the long term association of ONGC with L&T in the development of offshore fields in India,” the company said. 5. Rajan Devadas admired Indian-American photojournalists passes away Rajan Devadas, Indian-American photojournalists recently passed away in Washington, United States. As photojournalists, his lenses have chronicled most important role in US-India relations for more than half a century. 6. British actor David John Ryall died Veteran British actor David John Ryall died following a brief illness. He was 79. David John Ryall was known for playing the role of Elphias Doge in the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows film. 7. Airtel drops plan to charge extra for Viber, Skype calls Facing flak over its decision to impose higher tariff on internet telephony, Bharti Airtel finally cracked under pressure and decided to defer its decision pending regulatory view on the matter. The company, which last week surprised the market by fixing higher tariff for voice over internet telephony (VoIP) for its pre-paid subscribers, said it will not go ahead with the move for now. In view of the news reports that a consultation paper will be issued shortly by (regulator) TRAI on issues relating to services offered by OTT players including VoIP, we have decided not to implement our proposed launch of VoIP packs, Airtel said. 8. Veerendra Kumar’s party merges with JDU The Socialist Janata (Democratic) party, led by M.P. Veerendra Kumar, has merged with the Janata Dal (United). At the merger meeting held at Thrissur on Sunday afternoon, JDU national president Sharad Yadav called for the reunification of all the splinter groups of the Janata Parivar to fight the `divisive policies’ of the BJP. He noted that the split in the former Janata Party and the socialist movement had led to the emergence of the BJP. Yadav said the BJP was attempting to create a divide in the country and that the party, which was trying to build a statue for Nathuram Godse, who killed Mahatma Gandhi, was a threat to the nation. Former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, JDU national vice-president N. Gowda, general secretaries Arun Kumar Srivastava and Javed Raza were among the senior leaders who attended the merger meeting. Veerendra Kumar said that at a time when the ugly face of Hindutva communalism was becoming dangerously clear, the reunification of socialist groups across the country was extremely necessary.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 11:38:39 +0000