July 7 -Tidbits

National

Railway Ministry joins Facebook, Twitter

On the eve of Rail Budget, the Railway Ministry today launched its official Twitter account and Facebook page in a bid to disseminate information quickly. Besides, the national transporter will also have its presence on YouTube.Focusing on IT initiatives, Railways will also launch a new number -- 022-4501555 -- tomorrow where people can dial in and hear the Budget.

Besides railways enquiry number - 139 - will also become toll free soon and all these are slated to be announced in the Rail Budget.

MSME Ministry  on Facebook, Twitter 

Aiming to reach out to the masses through social media, Union Minister Kalraj Mishra today launched the Twitter handle and the Facebook account of MSME Ministry. The accounts can be accessed using the keyword "minmsme" in both Facebook and Twitter.

Eight Indian companies in Fortune 500 list 

Eight Indian companies, led by state-run IOC, have made it to the latest Fortune Global 500 list of world's biggest firms which has been topped by US-based retailer Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has pushed energy giant Royal Dutch Shell to the second position in the 2014 list, followed by Chinese majors -- Sinopec Group and China National Petroleum -- at third and fourths spots, respectively.

IOC is the only Indian company featuring in the top 100 at the 96th position, although down from 88th last year.

There are five state-run and three private sector companies including two from Tata group (Tata Motors and Tata Steel).

Reliance Industries is placed at 114th position, followed by Bharat Petroleum (242), Hindustan Petroleum (284), Tata Motors (287), State Bank of India (303), ONGC (424) and Tata Steel (486).

   Fortune magazine said there were record number of 17 women as CEOs of Fortune Global 500 companies which includes two first timers from India -- HPCL's Nishi Vasudeva and SBI's Arundhati Bhattacharya.

TOP 10 in Fortune 500  LIST:

1. Wal-Mart –United States
2. Royal Dutch Shell-Netherlands & United Kingdom
3. Sinopec Group -China
4. China National Petroleum-China
5. ExxonMobil-United States
6. BP –United Kingdom
7.  State Grid Corporation Of China-China
8.  Volkswagen-Germany
9.  Toyota -Japan
10. Glencore -Switzerland

Rangarajan panel report on poverty

Former Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council(PMEAC) Chairman C Rangarajan on Monday said poverty numbers provided by him are not conservative estimates and they are at par with global standards. The expert group headed by Rangarajan dismissed the Suresh Tendulkar Committee methodology on estimating poverty and estimated that the number of poor in India was much higher in 2011-12 at 29.5 per cent of the population.

Rangarajan Committee’s  estimations:

For every 10 ,3 would be poor in India

In Cities person spending less than  Rs 47/day ( Rs 1,407 a month) would be considered as poor .

In Villages person spending less than Rs 32/day  (Rs 972 a month) would be considered poor.

The number of poor in India stood at 36.3 crore in 2011-12, down from 45.4 crore in 2009-10, as per the Rangarajan panel.

Tendulkar Committee’s estimations :

In Cities person spending less than  Rs 33/day ( Rs 1,000 a month) would be considered as poor .

In Villages person spending less than Rs 27/day (Rs 816 a month) would be considered poor.

Tendulkar Committee, however, had suggested that the number of poor was 35.4 crore in 2009-10 and 26.9 crore in 2011-12.

 International
 

BRICS nations likely to announce setting up of $100-billion fund in Brazil 

The BRICS nations are likely to formally announce the setting up of a $100-billion fund, which will help member countries tide over a current account deficit crisis, at their fifth summit next week in Brazil. 

China will be the largest donor to this fund and is expected to contribute around $41 billion. India, Russia and Brazil will contribute $18 billion each with South Africa bringing in the remaining $5 billion. 

 6th BRICS summit

The 6th BRICS summit will be the sixth annual diplomatic meeting of the BRICS, a grouping of major emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India,China and South Africa. It will be hosted by Brazil, as the first host country of the current five-year summit cycle; the host city will be Fortaleza. Though Brazil hosted a four-member BRIC summit in April 2010, 2014 will mark its first full BRICS summit;

BRICS SUMMIT  & HOST COUNTRY

1. 2009-Russia
2. 2010-Brazil
3. 2011-China
4. 2012-India
5. 2013-South Africa
6. 2014-Brazil
7. 2015-Russia

PIN

 Governors Appointments and Retirement

NDA government on Sunday transferred Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal  to Mizoram, while the Mizoram Governor Vakkom Purushothaman has been shifted and has now been appointed as the Nagaland Governor for the remainder of his term.

Vakkom Purushothaman who has been appointed as Nagaland Governor would continue to hold additional charge as Tripura Governor.

 Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva has been given additional responsibility to discharge the functions of Gujarat Governor as well.

 Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Governor BL Joshi, Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt and Nagaland Governor Ashwani Kumar had stepped down from their respective posts. 

Later, after being quized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials in the VVIP chopper deal, MK Narayanan (West Bengal) and BV Wanchoo (Goa) also had put in their papers.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Governor HR Bhardwaj and Tripura Governor Devanand Konwar retired. 

Rankings After Wimbledon 2014

Sania Mirza enters top-5 for first time in her career

Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza achieved a career-best rank of number five in the world WTA doubles while her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black achieved a tenth position in latest WTA doubles. Sania, who turned a professional in 2003,entered top five chart for the first time in her career.

In the singles rankings, Ankita gained one place to be 285 as country's best player.

Meanwhile in the ATP rankings, Somdev Devvarman dropped 10 places to 135 as his poor run continued unabated.

In the doubles, Leander Paes remained unchanged at number 13 and was the highest ranked player from the country. Rohan Bopanna dropped three places to sit on the edge of top-20.

 WTA Singles Rankings:

1. Serena Williams
2.  Li Na
3.  Simona Halep
4.  Petra Kvitova
5.  Agnieszka Radwanska
6.  Maria Sharapova
7.  Eugenie Bouchard

ATP  Singles  RANKINGS:

1. Novak Djokovic
2. Rafael Nadal  
3. Roger Federer
4. Stanislas Wawrinka
5. Tomas Berdych