February 17,2010

1.Golden Palm, Tri-Medium Expedition Programme undertaken by the Army from Chennai to Visakhapatnam.

2.23 persons died and more than 30 injured when a bus in which they were travelling fell in to Pahuj river in Jhalun district of Uttar Pradesh February 17.

3.Mier Dagan is the head of Mossad, Israel’s Intelligence Service.

4.Pranab Mukherjee, Union Finance Minister and SSN Moorthy, Chairman CBDT participated in an International Seminar on Transfer Pricing in New Delhi on February 17, 2010.

5.During 2009 India was the world’s top consumer of gold (480 tons), followed by China(461.9 tons),USA (263 tons),Germany (133.9 tons), Turkey (107 tons).

6.The Indian Army has postponed the winter trials for procuring 155mm towed howitzers from ST Kinetics, a Singapore –based company.

7.New Delhi’s IGI Airport has been ranked the 4th best airport in the world at the Airports Council International’s (ACI) Annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) awards. Top awards in the worldwide category go to Seoul Incheon International Airport, Singapore Changi Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Beijing Capital International Airport, and Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. All hail from ACI’s Asia-Pacific Region, a reflection of the region’s strong customer service culture, airport management commitment to service delivery and the high quality of modern passenger facilities at each of these airports.

BEST AIRPORT BY SIZE OF AIRPORT
fewer than 5 million passengers

1) Halifax (YHZ)
2) Ottawa (YOW)
3) Portland (PWM)
4) Guayaquil (GYE)
5) Jackson (JAN)

5 – 15 million passengers

1) Hyderabad (HYD)
2) Austin (AUS)
3) Cancun (CUN)
4) Nagoya (NGO)
5) Jacksonville (JAX)

15 – 25 million passengers

1) Baltimore/Washington (BWI)
2) Taipei (TPE)
3) Shenzhen (SZX)
4) New Delhi ( DEL )
5) Salt Lake City (SLC)

25 – 40 million passengers

1) Incheon (ICN)
2) Singapore (SIN)
3) Tokyo Narita (NRT)
4) Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
5) Shanghai Pudong (PVG)

over 40 million

1) Hong Kong (HKG)
2) Beijing (PEK)
3) Denver (DEN)
4) Dallas Fort Worth (DFW)
5) Houston George Bush (IAH)

8. India and USA are likely to sign a MoU to ensure food security in the country soon.

9.A five-member committee headed by retired SC Judge was constituted to settle the long-standing dispute on the Mullaperiyar dam controversy between Tamilnadu and Kerala.

10.US President Barack Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees on February 16, 2010 to build the first US nuclear power plant in nearly three decades, a move designed to help advance climate legislation in Congress.

11.US Automaker Ford will slash 900 jobs at its Michigan plant, that manufactures the Mustang, whose sales declined by 27 % last year.

12.According to the Union Finance Minister, Inflation rose to over a 13-month high of 8.56% in January 2010 from 7.31% a month ago. Food inflation rose and moved closer to 18% in the week ended January 30, 2010.

13.ONGC and its partners IOC and OIL will invest around $2.25 billion initially, for the development of a giant oil project, which they had bagged in Venezuela recently.