GKCA Update

3rd to 9th Jan

Starred Articles
04 Kingfisher Airlines loses license to fly
Jan India > Aviation
The troubled Kingfisher Airlines has lost its permit to fly after a deadline to renew its suspendd license expired.
Directorate General of Civil Aviation Arun Mishra said Kingfisher Airlines has failed to provide additional details
on the funding of operations in reference to Kingfisher’s reinstatement plans submitted to the DGCA last
month. Recently, the troubled airline said it was in talks with Etihad Airways and other investors to take a stake
in it. The Vijay Mallya owned Kingfisher airlines has made losses for 5 years in a row and it is $1.4bn in debt
and has been unable to pay staff, airports, tax authorities and its lenders. Meanwhile, 17 member consortium
met in Bangalore to discuss the company’s turnaround plans amidst demands by the staff to sell assets and pay
them their dues.

06 Pre-Trial Proceedings to start for the Delhi Gang - Rape case

Jan India > Crime
A Delhi court today acted on the chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police on the Gang Rape case. Five of the
accused have been booked for murder, attempt to murder, gang rape, unnatural offences, causing hurt in
committing robbery, dacoity, dacoity with murder, destruction of evidence, common intention and dishonestly
receiving stolen property. Two of the accused, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma expressed their wish to become
prosecution witnesses but the police said that they had doubts on the reliability of the accused.
The sixth accused, who is a juvenile, will be tried before a Juvenile Justice Board. He will attain majority in 5
months. With older Juveniles getting away, there is a demand that the Juvenile Justice Act needs to be
amended.
As an answer to the demands from various quarters, the UPA government has decided to implement all the
recommendations of the Justice Malimath Committee and tighten laws on sexual assault in an attempt to make
the criminal justice system more efficient.

08 Hate Speech accused Akbaruddin Owaisi arrested

Jan India > Andhra Pradesh
The Andhra Pradesh Police have arrested hate speech accused Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MLA Akbaruddin
Owaisi. The police have registered four cases against Owaisi, the MLA of Chandrayangutta constituency in
Hyderabad, on charges of promoting enmity between different groups and waging or attempting to wage war
or abetting waging of war against the government of India. Owaisi had allegedly delivered an inflammatory
speech on Dec 22 last year in Nirmal Town of Adilabad district against a particular religious community. He had
been remanded to a 14-day judicial custody by a magistrate court in Nirmal Town. Owaisi had previously been
accused on many occasions of delivering communal speeches against the Hindu community.

08 Arjun Munda recommends dissolution of Jharkhand State Assembly

Jan India > Jharkhand
Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda has recommended the dissolution of the state assembly to Jharkhand
Governor Syed Ahmed. The Shibu Soren led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) met the governor and officially
withdrew support to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Munda government has technically become a minority

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after the JMM withdrew support. With JMM withdrawing support, the BJP-led NDA government has the
support of only 26 MLA’s in the 81 member assembly.
Background:
The political crisis started when JMM chief Shibu Soren wrote to the Chief Minister Arjun Munda on 25th
December asking him to hand over the Chief Minister’s post to JMM as part of a 28 month power sharing deal.
However, Munda denied in writing that any such deal had happened at the time of forming the government
and refused to step down stating that the government has to take a decision keeping the stability of the state in
mind. The BJP had firmly stated its support to Munda and dismissed any such claims of a power sharing deal.

08 Messi wins Player of the Year Award for the 4th consecutive time
Jan Sports > Soccer
Argentine football great Lionel Messi won the FIFA Balon d’or the FIFA Men Player of the year Award for the 4th
consecutive time. This came as an expected achievement for the 25 year old, who had an astounding year with
91 goals for Argentina and Barcelona in 2012. Messi beat Christiano Ronaldo of Spanish champion Real Madrid
and Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta to win the trophy. Messi’s fourth award broke former records of
soccer legends Brazil’s Ronaldo and France’s Zinedine Zidane who had each won the FIFA Player of the Year
award thrice.

09 Train fares to go up from January 21st midnight

Jan India > Railways
Railways Minister Mr. Pawan Kumar Bansal announced today that train fares will go up from January 21st,
Midnight. The increase ranges from 2 paise per kilometre for second class ordinary (suburban) trains to 10
paise per km for AC 1st class trains. Usually the hike in train fare is announced during the Railway Budget.
However the Railway Minister said that this was the need of the hour as fares have not been increased for a
decade and the railways had incurred a loss to the tune of 20000 crores in 2010-11. The fare hike is expected to
contribute 6000 crores to the railways.

09 Pakistani Troops behead and mutilate two Indian soldiers

Jan India > LOC
In a major disruption of the ceasefire agreement that has been in force since 2003, Pakistani troops entered
Indian territory, and beheaded an Indian soldier and mutilated his counterpart before killing him. India has
termed the incident ghastly, inhuman and unacceptable and asked the Pakistani government to immediately
investigate the matter. Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Salman
Bashir and made it clear that such events were unacceptable and Pakistan must uphold the sanctity of the Line
of Control. The attacks are seen as a clear attempt to disrupt diplomatic relations between the two countries
and an already slow moving peace process since the 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

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Others
03 Mid-Sized Technology Outsourcing Companies to cut down on pay hikes and
campus hiring in 2013
Jan Corporate > IT Outsourcing
Slowdown in the US and European markets has forced mid-sized technology outsourcing companies to decide
on lower pay hikes and cut down on campus hiring this year. Since the financial crisis of 2008, the $100 billion
Indian IT industry has been facing slower growth and lower revenues. Software services exporters such as
Infinite Computer Solutions, Mastek, Mahindra Satyam and Infotech Enterprises said the pay hikes could be as
low as 5% this year. Also, IT hiring figures of close to 1.5 lakh students every year, might go down drastically.
In a similar development, India’s 2nd largest software company, Infosys has started to lay off underperforming
employees in an attempt to reduce operational costs and focuss on a more aggressive sales strategy. Infosys is
asking about 5000 of the 1.5 lakh workforce to leave straightaway.

03 Legendary Violinist M S Gopalkrishnan passes away

Jan Others > Arts
Violin maestro Padmabhushan M.S. Gopalkrishnan passed away after a brief illness. He was 82. MSG, as he is
fondly referred to in the business circles, started performing at the age of 8. He has since then went on to
perform with stalwarts before becoming an expert himself on Hindustani and Carnatic systems of classical
music. His amazing quality of interpreting an artist’s musical expressions and complementing it with his unique
sensitivity earned him the Padma Bhushan, the Padma Shri and the ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’ title conferred by the
Music Academy, Chennai. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.

04 US Federal Trade Commission dismisses allegations of unfair practices by

Google
Jan Corporate > Google
In an investigation spanning 19 months, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) declared that they didn’t find
enough evidence to suggest that Google unfairly favors its own services in search results. The judgement came
as a blow to Microsoft Corp. and other Google rivals who had complained against the search major’s business
practices. However, Google will sign an agreement requiring the company to charge "reasonable" prices to
license hundreds of patents for rival mobile devices such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone, Research in Motion Ltd.’s
BlackBerry and smartphones running on a Microsoft Corp's Windows software. Upon request, Google will also
exclude snippets from other websites in its summaries of key information.
Background:
Google gained ownership of the patents when it acquired Motorola Mobility Holdings at $ 12.4 billion in 2012.

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04 Following on US footsteps, India contemplates higher taxes for the
superrich
Jan Economy > Tax
Prominent economists around the country urged the government to bring inflation down to 4-5% at the
earliest. Key economic advisor to the Prime Minister Mr. C Rangarajan had suggested that the government
should impose a marginal tax rate higher than the current 30% on individuals with substantially higher income.
His suggestion came a day after the US Congress approved a rare tax increase on the nation’s wealthiest, the
first time in two decades. Also, there were suggestions for higher investment in health and education sector,
higher capital expenditure on agriculture and also for expanding the Tax base so that that the government’s
revenue could increase significantly.

04 30th Birthday of the Internet

Jan Science and Technology > Internet
One of the greatest inventions of our times, the internet, turned 30 on the 4th of January. On the 1st of
January, 1983, the US Department of Defence commissioned Arpanet Networks, replaced all previous
networking systems and fully switched to the use of the Internet Protocol Suite (IPS) communications system.
The new system was designed to overcome the failures associated with the previous programme. The internet,
has since then, gone on to change the way millions work across the globe.

04 Gold Imports not responsible for growing Current Account Deficit

Jan Economy > Gold
The widely perceived notion that rising Gold imports were responsible for the worsening of the Current
Account Deficit had much less to do in reality with the actual issue. The CAD worsened to a record $22.4 billion
or 5.4% of the GDP in July-September last year. The overall merchandise trade deficit attributable to the
growing difference between Oil imports and exports caused the CAD to widen to such alarming figures.
However, the government increased customs duty twice to curb the import of Gold. Since the increase, gold
imports have come down significantly as compared to last year but the CAD has not decreased much. To
address the issue, ideally the government should increase exports significantly and cut down on unnecessary
imports of some finished goods.

06 Michael Hussey retires from Test Cricket

Jan Sports > Cricket
Michael Hussey, fondly nicknamed Mr.Cricket because of his spectacular performances on the field, bid adieu
to his Test Cricket career on 6th January, 2013. The Australian great announced his retirement on a winning
note after Australia beat Sri Lanka in a 3-0 series whitewash. Hussey, who is 37 years old had an illustrious
career and had been the man behind many of Australia’s wins. Hussey scored 6,235 runs at an average of 51.52
in 79 Tests.

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07 Bank of America to pay billions as mortgage loans to Fannie Mae

Jan Corporate > US Mortgage Loans
Bank of America will pay US Mortgage Agency Fannie Mae $ 10.3 bn as a settlement of claims related to
residential home loans and $1.3 bn as compensation. Fannie Mae had held bank of America responsible for the
losses as it complained that the Bank had sold all its toxic debts. In a related development, 10 big mortgage
providers which include Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo, will provide $8.5 bn as
compensation to individual owners for mistakes in repossessing homes. In October, 2012, the US Government
had sued Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo for alleged mortgage fraud.
Background:
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are two US government Mortgage agencies. Both these agencies buy mortgages
from banks providing them with more funds to lend out. The US Mortgage market collapsed in 2008 after the
housing bubble burst. Both Fannie and Freddie suffered $30 bn because of their investments in the subprime
mortgages. They were later bailed out by the US government.

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