Peru's Shining Path

The Communist Party of Peru, more commonly known as the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), is a Maoist guerrilla insurgent organization in Peru. When it first launched the internal conflict in Peru in 1980, its stated goal was to replace what it saw as bourgeois democracy with "New Democracy". The Shining Path believed that by imposing a dictatorship of the proletariat, inducing cultural revolution, and eventually sparking world revolution, they could arrive at pure communism. 

Pravasi Friend launched its Operations in Kochi

Pravasi Friend launched its operations in Kochi, Kerala on 1 August 2013. Pravasi Friend will help NRIs and NRKs to complete a large list of mandatory tasks such as legal services, medical services, spiritual needs and government departmental services. 

Under Pravasi Friend, Assistance is given in buying, renting out and maintaining their properties, providing property documentation, investigation, home security services, besides securing admissions for their children in schools and colleges in the state. Getting medical consultations of doctors and undertaking customized healthcare and treatment requests are also taken care of. 

Who:    Pravasi Friend.

Where: Kerala.

What:   launched its operations in Kochi, Kerala.

When:  1 August 2013.

Why:    to provide assistance to NRIs.

The Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS)

• Seeking to improve banking services and ensure speedy redressal of grievances of customers, the Reserve Bank of India has set up a working group to update the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006.

• The working group, to be headed by senior RBI official Suma Varma, will also take into account recommendations of the Damodaran Committee on improvement of customer services in banks (Scheduled Commercial, Regional Rural, Co-operative Banks).

• The BOS covers grievances related with credit card complaints, internet banking, deficiencies in providing the promised services by bank and its sales agents, levying service charges without prior notice to the customers etc.

• In cases where monetary compensation is claimed by customers, the amount prescribed is the actual loss plus some nominal amount. But, in cases where the customer claims compensation for, say, mental harassment, it is being considered how much monetary compensation the Ombdusman can prescribe, the official adds.

Vikas Gowda, the golden boy

India's Vikas Gowda wth the gold medal in the Asian Athletics Championships in Pune.

• Gowda, the US-based discus thrower, was the lone individual gold medalist for the country in the recent Asian Championships in Pune. The other gold medal, expectedly, came through the women’s 4x400m relay team.

• Indian athletics standards have plummeted during the past decade, especially the past two years despite its rare feat of having two athletes in the Olympics finals last year.  There is no one in sight to inspire confidence, as we approach the World Athletics Championships in Moscow (Aug 10 to 18), that a medal could be possible.

• Indian athletics lacks iconic figures like Milkha Singh, P.T. Usha and Anju Bobby George, and is marred by doping scandals today. It will take a miracle to improve national performance at the Moscow World Championships. “We have only one world-class athlete in Vikas Gowda right now”, says Gurbachan Singh Randhawa.

• Long jumper Anju George’s 2003 feat of a bronze in the World Championships in Paris remains India’s solitary athletics medal at the senior level in global-level championships.

Ksheera Bhagya scheme kicks off in schools

• Provides milk thrice a week along with midday meal, was launched in a govt school of Mysore (Karnataka).
• As part of the scheme, 150ml of milk, will be given to students thrice a week -- on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
• Urdu school students will get it on Saturdays as Fridays are holidays for them. 
• The scheme aims at benefitting students studying from Class 1 to 10 in government and aided schools. Skimmed milk will be supplied to anganwadis. 

Mugabe wins seventh term as the President of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, extending a thirty three year reign , has won a seventh term in office, officials say, amid claims of electoral fraud.

Mugabe, 89, who has ruled the former British colony in southern Africa since its independence in 1980, was formally proclaimed re-elected for a five-year term barely an hour after Tsvangirai announced his planned legal challenge.

Sources: BBC, NBC, Reuters

Pench tiger reserve celebrated global tiger day

The Global Tiger Day, also called International Tiger Day celebrated on July 29, is celebrated to create awareness on tiger conservation by promoting a system for protecting the natural habitats of tigers, to raise public awareness and support for tiger conservation issues.

A wildlife awareness rally was also organized by the Satpuda Foundation at the Pench Tiger Reserve.

Pench tiger reserve is one of the key reserves trying to preserve tigers in the sanctuary. The major threats to the tiger remains poaching which is happening around all key tiger reserves across the country.

Max Swine flu cases from Delhi, Max deaths from Gujarat

As per health ministry data on state-wise prevalence of the disease, a total of 610 people have died due to the viral infection this year in the country.

Of this, maximum number of deaths, 196, have been reported from Gujarat, followed by Rajasthan (163), Maharashtra (90), Punjab (42), Haryana (41) and Madhya Pradesh (31). Delhi has reported 1,507 cases of swine flu and 16 deaths since January 1.

India-born Mamnoon Hussain elected as Pakistan's 12th president

• Pakistan has elected businessman Mamnoon Hussain (Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) Party) as its 12th president, replacing unpopular Asif Ali Zardari whose five-year term expires in September.
• Ally of Nawaz Sharif (who made him governor of Sindh in 1999)
• The office of the president is ceremonial in Pakistan but he is still the constitutional chief of the armed forces but cannot order deployments.
• Pakistan so far had 11 presidents, out of which five were military generals. 
• Four of them seized powers through coups.
• The president was indirectly elected by members of both houses of parliament and the four provincial assemblies.
• Under Zardari, the presidency was largely stripped of powers though he enjoyed considerable influence in the previous administration.
• After Nawaz Sharif's thumping election victory on May11, the success of his party's nominee in the presidential race was a foregone conclusion.

CNT-Cu boosted ampacity to 10,000 per cent

What is Ampacity?

Ampacity is the maximum amount of current a conductor can carry before losing its electrical properties. A large ampacity is vital to good performance. 

What's the News?

An Indian scientist from-Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan, has found that when carbon nanotubes are embedded in copper, the resulting new material’s ampacity gets boosted to a massive 10,000 per cent, with an electrical conductivity comparable to copper’s.

Other benefit of reinforcing Carbon Nano Tube into Copper:

Less Dense

(The new material, dubbed CNT-Cu (for carbon nanotubes–copper), consists of 45 per cent CNTs by volume, and is less dense than a pure copper conductor by 42 per cent.)

Problem:

Huge processing cost.

How CNT-Cu helps in attaining higher ampacity:

CNT-Cu achieves higher ampacity by suppressing electromigration that occurs in copper wires, where electrons are scattered off their path by copper atoms. 

In case of CNT-Cu, the negatively charged particles are channeled to move through a continuous mesh-like network formed by the nanotubes, averting scattering.