1.

NASA on 31 January 2013 launched a new communication satellite TDRS to stay in touch with its
space station astronauts

2.india and the United States inaugurated the first triangular India-US-Africa partnership in
agricultural training at Hyderabad

3.World anti Leprosy Day was observed on 30 January 2013 to focus attention and create awareness
about the air-borne disease.

Known as Hansen’s Disease, leprosy is caused by a type of bacteria (mycobacterium leprae) that
multiplies very slowly. Its incubation period can last up to 20 years and it mainly affects the skin and
peripheral nerves. Contrary to the social stigma, leprosy is not highly contagious, and does not cause
body parts to fall off.
Read more at http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/12/what-causes-
leprosy/#L8CsQgUO2EqJhX0j.99

4.Milos Zeman became Czech Republic’s first directly elected President as per the Czech Republic
Presidential election results declared on 25 January 2013.

5.Scientists from the US in the last week of January 2013 successfully drilled into Lake whillans,
which was buried 1 kilometre beneath the Antarctic Ice.

6.

Tiger Woods on 29 January 2013 won his 75th PGA Tour title in the Farmers Insurance Open at
Torrey Pines.

The UK government announced a ban on the sale of five species of invasive non-native aquatic
plants.

water fern, floating pennywort, water primrose and Australian swamp stonecrop, parrot's feather.

8.Iran on 28 January 2013 announced that it had successfully sent into space a monkey. The first
country to launch the primate into space was US in 1948.

9.

National Science Day was observed on 28 February 2013. The theme of 2013 was Genetically
Modified Crops and Food Security.
10.

India's Economic Survey for 2012-13 pegs the country's growth at 6.1-6.7% and inflation at 6.2-6.6%
for the next fiscal 2013-14 and made a strong call for cutting subsidies.

Economic Survey is presented every year, just before the Union Budget. It is a flagship annual
document of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Economic Survey reviews the
developments in the Indian economy over the previous 12 months. It summarizes the performance
on major development programmes, and highlights the policy initiatives of the government and the
prospects of the economy in the short to medium term.

The economic survey 2012-13 was prepared by a team of economists led by Chief Economic Advisor
Raghuram Rajan, and pitches for speeding up economic reforms to activate a sluggish economy. It
serves as an indicator of what is likely to be contained in the General Budget proposals.

Following are the major Higlhlights of the Economic Survey 2012-13

• GDP growth seen at 6.1-6.7 percent in 2013/14

• Government target for fiscal deficit is 4.8 pct of GDP in 2013/14
• Government target for fiscal deficit is 3 pct of GDP in 2016/17
• Headline WPI inflation may decline to 6.2-6.6 pct by March2013
• Focus on curbing imports, making oil prices more market determined to reign in current account
deficit
• Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) flows need to be targeted towards long-term rupee
instruments
• Prioritisation of expenditure seen as key ingredient of credible medium-term fiscal consolidation
plan
• Raising tax to GDP ratio to more than 11 percent seen as critical for sustaining fiscal consolidation
• Room for accommodative monetary policy with expected fiscal consolidation
• India likely to meet fiscal deficit target of 5.3 pct of GDP in 2012/13, despite significant shortfall in
revenues
• Recommends curbing gold imports to reign in current account deficit
• Room to increase exports in the short run limited
• Industrial output seen growing around 3 pct in 2012/13
• Govt priority to fight inflation by reducing fiscal impetus to demand as well as by focusing on
incentivizing food production.
• More jobs in low productivity construction sector
• Balance of Payments under pressure with net exports decline
• Service sector has shown more resilience despite global slowdown
• Pitches for hike in price of diesel and LPG to cut subsidy burden
• Railway freight grows by 5.1 per cent in 2012-13
• Foreign Exchange reserves remains steady at USD 295.6 Billion at December 2012 end.

11.Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill was
passed by Rajya Sabha on 25 February 2013.
The bill seeks protection for women in all type of organised, unorganized as well as Private Sectors,
including the sexual harassment of domestic help as well as agricultural workers.

The bill had made it mandatory for every organization with 10 or more employees to form an
internal complaint committee to deal with the complaints of sexual offences. The committees should
be disposed of within 90 days and organizations that fails to follow the guidelines, would be
penalized with 50000 rupees. Organisations that repeatedly violate the provisions of the bill would
be penalized to a greater level and the offence may lead to the cancellation of the licenses or
registration of the business conduct.

Under its list of offences, the bill covers sexual remarks, sexual favour demands, any act of
unwelcome touch and physical advance and showing pornography.

The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament in September 2012.

1Researchers from Norway, South Africa, Britain and Germany discovered a small continent called
Mauritia beneath the Indian Ocean.

2.Jelena Jankovic, the former world no. 1 won the WTA Copa Claro Colsanitas Cup 2013 in Bogota,
Colombia on 24 February 2013.

3.The Oscars 2013 or the 85th Academy Awards ceremony took place on 24 February 2013. Best
picture award goes to Argo.

The main winners of the Oscars 2013 were Life of Pi, with four awards(maximum)

;Argo with three awards; Les Miserables with three awards andDjango Unchained, Lincoln,
Skyfall with two awards each. T

4.World No. 1 Serena Williams on 30 March 2013 won Miami masters open Tennis Tournament for
record sixth time in Key Biscayne.

5.An agreement, on the RadioAstron space satellite was signed between the South African National
Space Agency (SANSA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) on the Margins of BRICS
Summit on 26 March 2013 in Durban.

6.South Africa hosted the fifth BRICS Summit from 26 to 28 March 2013 at the Durban International
Convention Centre (ICC).

7.The Herschel observatory, a European space telescope stopped making observations after running
out of liquid coolant

8.Goa Government launched a digital Krishi Card to help farmers in making use of benefits such as
subsidies and loans given by the State Government.

9.In March 2011, Sailendra was named a Guinness World Record holder for travelling the farthest
distance on a zip wire using hair.
10.Yash Chopra and Rajesh Khanna selected for 13th Dada Saheb Phalke Academy Awards to be
conferred on 30 April 2013.

11Asian Development Bank on 27 April 2013 appointed Takehiko Nakao, former Vice Minister of
Finance for International Affairs of Japan as its President.

12AWRT conferred lifetime achievement award on Jai Chandiram, the first Asian President of
Association and former deputy director of Doordarshan

13Delhi will host the final of Thomas(men) and Uber Cup(women) 2014. The BAI and BWF signed the
dates and venue of the finals at Siri Fort Sports Complex, New Delhi. (badminton)

14.World Number Five Nadal defeated Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4 to win
Madrid Open 2013The prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award for life time achievement was
presented to Pran on 10 May 2013

16.The armed gang of poachers, in the month of May 2013, killed an unidentified number of
elephants at Dzanga-Ndoki national park.

17.jnanpith award winner

2012 Ravuri Bharadhwaja[11] Pakudu Rallu (Crawling Stones)

1.2012Hilary MantelBring Up the BodiesHistorical novel United Kingdom

man booker prize

2.

Hamid Ansari, the Vice President of India on 30 April 2013 released a book titled An Ardent Patriot –
Dinesh Goswami, compiled and edited by Kumar Deepak Das, Member of Parliament.

The book is compilation of Parliamentary Speeches of veteran parliamentarian from Assam- Dinesh
Goswami. The book comprises of the Parliamentary speeches made by him in the Parliament during
his tenure of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha from 1971 to 1990.

3.