1. Lifter Rahul bags first gold for India at Youth Olympics
i. Weightlifter Ragala Venkat Rahul bagged India's first medal of the second Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China on Thursday.
ii. In the 77 kg category, Rahul won the Silver by lifting 141 kgs in Snatch, and 175 kgs in Clean and Jerk to finish with a total of 316 kgs. This was also India's first medal in Weightlifting in Youth Olympics.
iii. India had won eight medals, 6 Silver and 2 Bronze, in the inaugural Youth Olympics in 2010 in Singapore.
2. Karnataka Assembly Passed Essential Services Maintenance (ESMA) Bill 2013
i. The Karnataka state assembly on 4 December 2013 passed the Karnataka Essential Services Maintenance (ESMA) Bill 2013.
ii. According to the new bill, striking work will be a non-bailable offence and police can arrest a striking employee without warrant. The Bill, popularly known as ESMA, is to put an end to employees working in water, power, health, transport and service sectors going on strikes, inconveniencing people.
iii. As per the ESMA Bill 2013, the definition of essential services includes any service connected with the production, generation, storage, transmission, supply or distribution of water or electricity and any transportation service for the carriage of passengers or goods by motor vehicle
iv. The new legislation gives government the power to declare even those services that the State has powers to make laws for under List II of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution, as essential services.
Note: The last time the state government invoked ESMA was in 1996 when KSRTC employees went on strike. But the law lapsed in 2004.
3. Arun Gupta appointed as CMD of Shipping Corporation of India
i. Arun Kumar Gupta took charge as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) by the Union Government on 28 January 2014. The post was vacant for over a year after the retirement of S Hajara.
ii. Before this elevation to the post, Arun Gupta was the director of offshore services at the Mumbai-headquartered shipping line. Since retirement of S Hajara in December 2012, the Shipping Corporation of India has been without a full time head and has reported a net loss of 114.31 crore rupees in last fiscal.
iii. BK Mandal, the director finance of SCI has been acting as a CMD since the retirement of Hajara.
4. Kumar Iyer appointed UKTI India head
i. The British government Thursday appointed Kumar Iyer, an Indian origin official, as director general for UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) in India.
ii. This is a new top level post and has been created to reflect the increasing importance of business ties between the two countries. As UKTI director general, India, Iyer will have overall responsibility for the bilateral commercial and trade relationship.
iii. Iyer will also be British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India. He will take up both positions, based in Mumbai, Aug 5.
iv. Iyer has an MPhil in Economics from Cambridge University where he was a Bank of England scholar and an undergraduate tutor in Microeconomics.
V. He was also a Kennedy Scholar and Teaching Fellow in International Capital Markets at Harvard University.
vi. Since 2008, Iyer has been a high-ranking official at the British Treasury and the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit.
i. Weightlifter Ragala Venkat Rahul bagged India's first medal of the second Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China on Thursday.
ii. In the 77 kg category, Rahul won the Silver by lifting 141 kgs in Snatch, and 175 kgs in Clean and Jerk to finish with a total of 316 kgs. This was also India's first medal in Weightlifting in Youth Olympics.
iii. India had won eight medals, 6 Silver and 2 Bronze, in the inaugural Youth Olympics in 2010 in Singapore.
2. Karnataka Assembly Passed Essential Services Maintenance (ESMA) Bill 2013
i. The Karnataka state assembly on 4 December 2013 passed the Karnataka Essential Services Maintenance (ESMA) Bill 2013.
ii. According to the new bill, striking work will be a non-bailable offence and police can arrest a striking employee without warrant. The Bill, popularly known as ESMA, is to put an end to employees working in water, power, health, transport and service sectors going on strikes, inconveniencing people.
iii. As per the ESMA Bill 2013, the definition of essential services includes any service connected with the production, generation, storage, transmission, supply or distribution of water or electricity and any transportation service for the carriage of passengers or goods by motor vehicle
iv. The new legislation gives government the power to declare even those services that the State has powers to make laws for under List II of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution, as essential services.
Note: The last time the state government invoked ESMA was in 1996 when KSRTC employees went on strike. But the law lapsed in 2004.
3. Arun Gupta appointed as CMD of Shipping Corporation of India
i. Arun Kumar Gupta took charge as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) by the Union Government on 28 January 2014. The post was vacant for over a year after the retirement of S Hajara.
ii. Before this elevation to the post, Arun Gupta was the director of offshore services at the Mumbai-headquartered shipping line. Since retirement of S Hajara in December 2012, the Shipping Corporation of India has been without a full time head and has reported a net loss of 114.31 crore rupees in last fiscal.
iii. BK Mandal, the director finance of SCI has been acting as a CMD since the retirement of Hajara.
4. Kumar Iyer appointed UKTI India head
i. The British government Thursday appointed Kumar Iyer, an Indian origin official, as director general for UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) in India.
ii. This is a new top level post and has been created to reflect the increasing importance of business ties between the two countries. As UKTI director general, India, Iyer will have overall responsibility for the bilateral commercial and trade relationship.
iii. Iyer will also be British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India. He will take up both positions, based in Mumbai, Aug 5.
iv. Iyer has an MPhil in Economics from Cambridge University where he was a Bank of England scholar and an undergraduate tutor in Microeconomics.
V. He was also a Kennedy Scholar and Teaching Fellow in International Capital Markets at Harvard University.
vi. Since 2008, Iyer has been a high-ranking official at the British Treasury and the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit.
