1 JULY

P. Sathasivam appointed as  40th Chief Justice of India

P. Sathasivam on 29 June 2013 was appointed as the next Chief Justice of India after he justified the Collegiums System of appointment of Judges. The 64 year old Sathasivam will succeed the incumbent Chief Justice of India, Altamas Kabir, who will superannuate on 18 July 2013 from his office.

Sathasivam will be the 40th Chief Justice of India (CJI) and his appointment to the post has been approved by Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India.

About P. Sathasivam
• He was appointed as a Supreme Court judge on 21 August 2007
• As the 40th CJI, he will serve the nation till his 26 April 2014
• In January 1996, he joined Madras high court as a permanent judge
• In April 2007, he was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana high court
• He was born on 27 April 1949
• P. Sathasivam is a B.A., B.L.
• He was enrolled as an advocate on 25 July 1973 at Madras
• He has practiced in all types of Writ, Civil and Criminal matters, Company Petition, Insolvency Petitions, Habeas Corpus Petitions both on Original and Appellate sides of the Madras High Court
• He has served as Government Advocate, Additional Government Pleader, Special Government Pleader in the Madras High Court
• He has also worked as Legal Adviser for several State owned Transport Corporations, Municipalities, Nationalized Banks and more

Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court is the highest court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Indian Constitution and Article 124 to 147 states about the composition of Supreme Court of India. Supreme Court of India consists of one Chief Justice and 31 judges. The bench that comprises 2 or 3 judges is termed as a Division Bench and the one that bench that consists of five or more judges is termed to be a Constitutional Bench.

Tenure and qualification of Judges in Supreme Court
President appoints the judges of the Supreme Court and the retirement age of these judges is 65. For being a judge or chief justice of a Supreme Court one must fulfill the following qualifications:
1. He must be an Indian Citizen
2. Should have served the High Court as its Judge for at least 5 years
3. He should have served the high court as its advocate for a period of 10 years
In case their occurs a vacancy in the CJI office due to any reason, the president appoints the acting Chief Justice as the Chief Justice of India from amongst the judges of the Supreme Court. The salaries and other allowances of the Judges in India are charged from the Consolidated Fund of India.

At present the salary structure
1. Chief Justice of Supreme Court - 1 Lakh rupees
2. Other Judges of SC: Rs 90000

Removal of Judges
The Judge can be removed from India on certain ground that includes incapacity to hold the office or proven misbehavior. They can be removed only after the resolution of both the houses of Indian Parliament that is supported by the majority of two-third of the members voting and present.

The two judges against whom the proceeding was initiated
1. V Ramaswami in 1993 was the first judge against whom the proceedings were initiated
2. Soumitra Sen in 2011 was the second judge against whom these proceedings were initiated

29 june

Pak set to declare Panja Sahib as holy city

The Pakistan government has decided to declare 'Panja Sahib' a holy city and would initiate efforts to sort out all issues related to the welfare of the Sikhs living at the pilgrimage site. Panja Sahib is believed to house a rock having the hand print of Guru Nanak, founder of Sikh religion, and is a popular pilgrimage spot for Sikhs across the world. The Pakistan officials said that the forum would also try to sort out all issues related to the welfare of Sikhs living at Panja Sahib.

Andaman tsunami warning system can alert in 3 minutes

The Early Tsunami Warning System installed at Rangachang in Andaman and Nicobar Islands can predict a tsunami immediately after an earthquake. This system can predict tsunami within 3 minutes after the occurrence of the initial tremors and send alerts The system would assess the impact of waves during the earthquake for the possibility of triggering tsunami and send the alerts.

Vice President of India released the book Ziauddin Barni’s Tarikh-I-Firoz Shahi

 The book entitled Ziauddin Barni’s Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi brought out by Rampur Raza Library; Rampur (UP) under Ministry of Culture was released on 28 June 2013 by the Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari.  Ziauddin Barni belonged to the elite society of medieval India and was able to achieve the status of Secretary (Nadeem) to Sultan Mohammad Bin Tuglaq.

Who is  Ziauddin Barni’s?

 He  was a Muslim historian and political thinker who lived in Delhi Sultanate during Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Firuz Shah's reign. He was best known for composing the Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi, a major historical work on medieval India, which covers the period from the reign of Ghiyas ud din Balban to the first six years of reign of Firuz Shah Tughluq and the Fatwa-i-Jahandari which details the Muslim Caste System in South Asia.

World Bank inked $84 million credit for Bihar Panchayat

World Bank inked $84 million credit for Bihar Panchayat

World Bank inked a USD 84 million credit agreement with the Centre for the Bihar Panchayat Strengthening Project. The agreement was signed by Nilaya Mitash, Joint Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs on behalf of the government and Michael Haney, Operations Advisor of the World Bank on behalf of the World Bank.

"The objective of the project is to support the state government in promoting inclusive, responsive and accountable gram panchayats in six districts- Patna, Nalanda, Bhojpur, Saharsa, Supaul and Madhepura"

Successful experimentation and learning in these six districts can be scaled up to other districts under other government programmes and the project will include development of:

1) Gram Panchayat Sarkar Bhawan, capacity building for gram panchayats;

2) Strengthening the state government capacity to manage a gradual decentralization & empowerment process

3) Panchayat performance grant and project management and coordination.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) finally threw in the towel today. Over the past several days it had been selling dollars in the foreign exchange market and had thus managed to hold back the rupee to under 60 to a dollar.
The RBI tried halting the fall of the rupee by selling dollars today as well. A report on www.livemint.com points out that “The Indian central bank(i.e. the RBI) intervened by selling the dollar at 59.98, earlier in the day, according to currency dealers, who added that a foreign bank had aided RBI by selling dollars in the market.