Current Events june'12

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton wins Canadian Grand Prix

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton won the Formula One Canadian Grand Prixbecome the seventh different winner in the first seven races of the season in an unprecedented display of parity on the F1 circuit. Romain Grosjean in a Lotus was second 2.5 seconds behind and Sergio Perez in a Sauber was third, followed by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.

Sachin Tendulkar honoured by Wisden India

Senior Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was presented the Wisden IndiaOutstanding Achievement Award for completing a century of international hundreds.

Legendary Ghazal singer Mehdi Hassan passes away

India-born Pakistani ghazal singing legend Ustad Mehdi Hassan has passed away after a prolonged illness . He was 84. he was bestowed with the title of Shahenshah-e-Ghazal (The King of Ghazal singing).

RBI re-appoints K C Chakrabarty as Deputy Governor

The Central Government re-appointed K. C. Chakrabarty as Deputy Governor ofReserve Bank of India  for a further period of three months beyond June 14, 2012, or until further orders, whichever is earlier . Mr. Chakrabarty was appointed Deputy Governor in 2009 for three years and took charge as Deputy Governor of RBI on June 15, 2009 .

Paddy MSP raised by Rs. 170 per quintal

The Centre raised the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy by Rs. 170 per quintal for the 2012-13 kharif marketing season. This is highest hike  of Rs. 1000 per quintal .

Veteran actor Kaka Radhakrishnan passed away

Actor Kaka Radhakrishnan passed away due to heart attack. Actor Radhakrishnan was  86 years old. He began his career by acting in stage plays at the age of 7. He has acted more than 1000 stage plays. The first film he had acted was Chandrahari. He had acted in more than 400 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi languages. Some of the important Tamil films that he had acted were Manchaca, Mangayarkkarasi, Thevar Magan and Vasool Raja MBBS.

SBI cuts lending rates for SMEs

State Bank of India (SBI)  cut in lending rates between 0.5-3.5 percent, mainly for the small and medium enterprises (SME) and the agriculture sector. This revision is not applicable to personal segment loans, including home and retail, loans sanctioned under specific schemes, export credit.

New Central scheme for women to be launched in Haryana

A new Central scheme, ‘Swadhar Greh’, is being launched in Haryana to protect destitute women, including those suffering from HIV/AIDS, prisoners released from jail and those who are without family so that they could “lead their life with dignity”. It would also cover women who are under social and economic family tension or discord, are made to leave their homes without any means of subsistence and have no special protection from exploitation or facing litigation on account of material disputes. It would also safeguard trafficked women besides girls who are rescued or run away from brothels or other places where they face exploitation.

Saina Nehwal won Indonesia Open Series Title

Saina Nehwal of India defeated 4th seeded Xuerui Li of China in  final match of the women’s singles event, to win the Djarum Indonesia Open 2012 badminton title for the third time in her career.Saina  won the tournament in both 2009 and 2010. The Indonesia Open 2012 Super Series Premier badminton tournament is being held at Jakarta in Indonesia from 12th-17th June 2012. Indonesia’s Simon Santoso defeated Du Pengyu of China and won the men’s singles .

South Korean men`s doubles Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung also defeated the men`s doubles third seeded, Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark .

Alok Misra elected as IBA chairman

The Indian Banks Association declared that the  state-run Bank of India chairman and managing director Alok Misra has been elected as the chairman of the bankers body for the current fiscal. The IBA managing committee elected Misra at its AGM .The heads of Punjab National Bank KR Kamath, JP Dua of Allahabad Bank and Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank have been elected as deputy chairman, while Pratip Chaudhuri of SBI is the honorary secretary of the association for 2012-13.

Former RS member Dipankar Mukherjee passed away

Dipankar Mukherjee, an engineer-turned-trade unionist a former Communist Party of India  (Marxist) Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal  and a senior leader of the CITU passed away.Mukherjee was 69. Mukherjee was first elected to Rajya Sabha in 1994 and was a member of Parliamentary Committees on Energy, Public.

Antonis Samaras sworn in as Greece prime minister

Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy party sworn in as the new prime minister of Greece.Samaras’s New Democracy party won 129 seats of 300 in the June 17 parliamentary elections.Greece, which is in its fifth year of recession, endured about seven weeks of political uncertainty which threatened to spark turmoil throughout the eurozone and beyond. Greece got an initial EU-IMF package worth 110 billion euros (89 billion pounds; $138 billion) in 2010, then a follow-up this year worth 130 billion euros. The country has also had 107 billion euros (86 billion pounds; $135 billion) of debt, held by private investors, written off.

Pakistan supreme court disqualifies PM Yousuf Raza Gilani

Pakistan’s top court disqualified Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in a stunning move.The supreme court on April 26 convicted Gilani for refusing to ask Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari in a highly politicised case. Under the constitution, anyone convicted of defaming or ridiculing the judiciary is barred from being an MP. Yousuf Raza Gilani is disqualified from membership of parliament from April 26, the date of his conviction. He has also ceased to be the prime minister of Pakistan.

Sekhar Basu appointed BARC Director

Senior nuclear scientist Sekhar Basu has been appointed as Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai. Mr Basu joined the BARC Training School in 1974. Then he moved to Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu during 1988 and was responsible for commissioning of Land Based Nuclear Submarine Propulsion Plant. Basu succeeds R K Sinha, who has been elevated as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni appointed Nepal Cricket’s Brand Ambassador

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was appointed the Ambassador of Nepal Cricket. The appointment of Dhoni will help promote Nepal’s tourism industry.

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi Receives Nobel Peace Prize In Oslo

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi Receives Nobel Peace Prize In Oslo .The pro-democracy activist and Myanmar opposition leader  won the peace prize in 1991 but was unable to accept it as she had been placed under house arrest by the military, talked of progress but notably qualified her support for the government’s reform process.

Stuntman Nik Wallenda completes tightrope walk across Niagara Falls

Nik Wallenda, a member of the famed “Flying Wallendas” family of aerialists, completed a historic tightrope crossing through the mist over Niagara Falls Gorge. Wallenda made the walk from the US side of the falls to the Canadian side, a journey of 1,800 feet (550 meters) over treacherous waters and rocks, in a little more than 25 minutes.