This World Cup has found a new star. Someone who has messed with Messi and closed the doors on Klose’s face sitting pretty in a glassed enclosure away from the bustling football stadiums of South Africa.

Paul, the oracle octopus has emerged a hero (or a villain, depending on which side you are) accurately predicting (almost) the outcomes of different matches Germany has played. Though the celebrity octopus carried itself with aplomb, it triggered fierce debates on social networking forums.

Indian Railways have carried 887.99 million tonnes of revenue earning freight traffic during fiscal 2009-10. The freight carried shows an increase of 54.68 million tonnes over the freight traffic of 833.31 million tonnes actually carried during the corresponding period last year, registering an increase of 6.56 per cent.

The domestic aviation industry, which suffered a slump in the wake of the global economic slowdown, has been witnessing a revival with 20 per cent increase in air passenger traffic.

“According to information available from State Police sources and the Intelligence Bureau a bomb/explosive blast occurred at the German Bakery in Pune District around 7.30 p.m.on Febrauary 14 2010 evening.  It appears that an unattended package was noticed in the German bakery by one of the waiters who apparently went and attempted to open the package when the blast took place.  As per latest available reports, 8 people are reported dead and 32 injured in the blast.  The State Police, the Maharashtra ATS squad and forensic experts have already reached the scene and are conducting investigations.  A team of forensic specialists from the CBI are being airlifted from Delhi to Pune shortly to assist the State Police in their investigations.

Department of Information Technology (DIT) received a letter vide number IT&C/7119/e-Gov 1/2008 dated 25.03.2009 from Government of Andhra Pradesh regarding inclusion of 2 districts namely Kadapa and Khammam

An amount of Rs. 900.02 lakh was spent on the Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry. The Commission was set up on 16th December, 1992 for the purpose of making an inquiry into the destruction of the Ram Janma Bhoomi-Babri Masjid structure at Ayodhya on 6th December 1992. The Commission was given extension on 49 occasions and its tenure expired on 31.07.2009.

From 1890 to 2007, rich countries contributed nearly 60 percent of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. India has contributed merely 3 percent of these emissions. The United States with just 5 percent of world’s population alone is responsible for nearly 30 percent of the carbon dioxide in the global atmosphere. India’s share in the world’s population is about 17 percent. By 2020 too India shall be responsible for about 4 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. According to the Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme, the average energy consumed by an American is equal to the average energy consumed by two Germans or 27 Chinese  or 33 Indians or 300 Nepalis. As the United States account for the problem of carbon dioxide emissions and thereby global warming, historically, it is therefore the responsibility of the US to bear the burden of cleaning up the Earth’s atmosphere.

The total iron ore reserves in the country is 7.06 billion tonnes and the total resources of iron ore are estimated at 25.25 billion tonnes

        Chandrayan-I mission was launched on October 22, 2008. It completed 312 days in orbit and made more than 3400 orbits around the moon. Significant scientific achievement of Chandrayaan-I are as follow:

One billion polymer bank notes of Rs.10/- are to be introducated shortly. To increase life of the notes, the government has decided to introduce on a trial basis.

Half of all the world’s women in the age group of 20-24 years old, who were married by age 18, live in South Asia. More than one in three women in the world, who were married as children, are from India.

More than 27,000 additional institutions of Higher learning would be required to meet the targeted Gross Enrolment Ratio(GER) of 30% for 2020. This figure includes 14,000 colleges of General Higher Education, 12,775 additional technical and professional institutions and 269 additional universities. This was stated in a presentation made by the Union Ministry for Human Resource Development during the meeting of the Consultative Committee for the HRD Ministry;

The elderly population is on the rise and will soon be of considerable size of the total population. Senior citizens should therefore exert their rights for their due place in the society. The elderly population in India which was 7.7 crore, as per Census 2001, is projected to be around 9.5 crore in 2011.

US job losses fell to their lowest level in a year last month, but the unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high, painting a mixed picture of an economic recovery hindered by weakness in the labour market.

Despite the US economy showing indications of recovery, the global job market remains gloomy, with companies laying of at least 27 employees every hour to cut costs.

India-Urban Poverty Report 2009, a report brought out by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates that, by 2030, the population in the urban areas of the country will be around 575 million, roughly 41 per cent of the total population of the country. The United States census estimates the population of that country to be 400 million by 2039, so the urban population of India alone will exceed the entire population of the U.S.

US intelligence agency CIA outsourced to private security contractors the job of eliminating top-level al Qaida members in 2004, as part of a secret programme, media reports said .

Blackwater USA, the security firm whose operations in Iraq came under intense scrutiny, was given the operational responsibility for targeting top al Qaida leaders, The New York Times and The Washington Post said quoting unnamed government sources.

Irony can’t get bigger than this. Neither can it get more tragic. Even as drought and food scarcity loom large, India’s granary, Punjab, is losing a staggering 18 lakh metric tonnes of wheat to wastage. It’s a quantity that can feed 15 lakh families for 365, or weight of entire wheat produced in Australia in a year.

EVERY five minutes, a woman dies in India while delivering a child, a recent report said. The report released by Centre for Reproductive Rights said that the maternal mortality in the country is 301 per one lakh live births.

The report said, “Every five minutes, roughly one maternal death occurs in India.”

UN special rapporteur on health Anand Grover said that in most cases, such deaths “are avoidable” and called for empowerment of women at the grass-roots level. Maternal mortality rate in India has become unacceptable, which in most cases are avoidable. We, instead of empowering the civil society, must work of empowerment of women at the grass-roots level,” he said.

Legal adviser of the Centre for Reproductive Rights, New York, Melisa Upreti said “It is a matter of shame for the government of India which has failed to provide basic nutrition and health care for women.” Zameen Kaur of Human Right Law Network claimed that out of the total maternal deaths, 25 per cent are from the Dalit community in the country.

— The Asian Age, August 02

THE government may have enhanced allocation for its social sector in the current budget but the net expenditure as percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) is still too low in comparison to some of the developed economies.

The total combined expenditures of central and state governments on social services in 2008-09 was 6.72 per cent of GDP at current prices. This is too low when compared to what some of the western countries spend on their people.

Germany leads others by spending a significant 25 per cent of its GDP on social services that include education, sports, art and culture, medical and public health, family welfare, social security and nutrition. France is a close second with an expenditure of 23 per cent of gross domestic product while UK and US come third and fourth with 13 per cent and 12 per cent respectively, according to data from the IMF……

For instance, expenditure on education as a proportion of total expenditure has increased from 9.5 per cent in 2003-04 to 10.8 per cent in 2008-09. Share of health in the total expenditure has also increased from 4 per cent in 2003-04 to 5 per cent in 2008-09.

However, despite improvement in central allocation, there are still leakages in the system which are preventing the benefits from reaching the intended target group.

— The Times of India, August 02