22 December 2012 Current Affairs
Top U.S. innovation award for Indian-American
A renowned Indian-American inventor at IBM, Rangaswamy Srinivasan, was nominated by U.S. President Barack Obama for the prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation.In 1981, Mr. Srinivasan discovered that an ultraviolet excimer laser could etch living tissues in a precise manner with no thermal damage to the surrounding area. He named the phenomenon Ablative Photo Decomposition (APD). He got this award for the discovery of APD.
Virbhadra Singh to take oath as Chief Minister on December 25
Former Union Minister Virbhadra Singh, who led the Congress to victory in the Himachal Pradesh elections, will be sworn in as Chief Minister for the sixth time in a function at historic Ridge ground,Shimla on 25 December 2012. Governor Urmilla Singh has invited the 78-year-old Congress leader to form government and take oath on December 25. Singh was Chief Minister between 1983 and 85; 1985 and 1990; 1993 and 1998 and 2003 and 2007.
Manavjit, Chain Singh win gold, Bindra gets silver at National Shooting Championship
Olympian Manavjit Singh Sandhu clinched the men trap event gold medal in National Shooting Championship on 22 December 2012 at New Delhi.Sandhu won the gold with a score of 117 + 22 while the silver was won by Birendeep Sodhi of Air India, who shot 116 + 23. The bronze went to Zoravar Singh Sandhu of Air India for scoring 118 + 20.
Sunil Sharma got the additional charges as secretary of Infrastructure and investment (I&I)
civil supplies commissioner Sunil Sharma got the additional charges as secretary of Infrastructure and investment (I&I) on 22 December 2012.
President Napolitano Dissolved Italian Parliament
On 22 December Italian President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament following the resignation of Prime Minister Mario Monti. The Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held on 24-25 February 2013.Italian government under the leadership of Mario Monti brought forward a series of austerity reforms backed by EU and business leaders
‘ Higgs Boson ‘ Tops Journal Science’s 2012 List
The discovery of the Higgs Boson, an invisible particle that explains the mystery of mass, leads a list of the top 10 scientific advances of 2012 released by the US journal Science on 22 December .
The other major advances, according to Science, are:-
– Scientists in Germany used a new technique to sequence the complete genome of an enigmatic group of humans called the Denisovans, based on a tiny sample teased from a finger bone some 80,000 years old found in a cave in Siberia.
– Japanese scientists created viable egg cells using embryonic stem cells from adult mice. The breakthrough raises the possibility that women who are unable to produce eggs naturally could have them created in a test tube from their own cells and then implanted in their body.
– NASA engineers landed the 3.3 ton Mars Curiosity rover on the Red Planet by using an innovative landing system that dangled the vehicle, with its wheels out, at the end of three cables.
– Use of an X-ray laser, which shines one billion times brighter than traditional synchroton sources, allowed scientists to determine the structure of a protein involved in the transmission of African sleeping sickness.
Smita Singh Appointed as member of Global Development Council
On 22 December The Obama administration has appointed Indian-American Smita Singh as member of the president’s Global Development Council.Singh was the Special Advisor for Global Affairs and the founding Director of the Global Development Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she worked from 2001 to 2010.She was the first Program Officer for Higher Education Innovative Projects at the Commission on National and Community Service, now known as the Corporation for National and Community