India unveiled the "look East" policy in 1991. East Asia including- China, South Korea Japan and ASEAN is today India's largest trading partner ahead of EU and the US.

India has signed $42 million "Country ProgrammeIndia 2008-2012" with the UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation) to strengtehen the competitiveness and productivity of it's industrial enterprises, with special focus on employment generation and greening of the industry.the five year programme signed in Viena in May 16 will focus on key manufacturing sectors especially SME clusters, in order to enhance employment generation and to ensure a more balanced and inclusive pattern of growth.

Novelist Salman Rushdie has being awarded Knighthood award by the British Empire Queen for his services to the Literature.

Oprah Winfey topped the Forbes list of the '100 Most Powerful Celebrities' for the second consecutive year. She makes yearly earning of $275 million.

World Bank with Robert B. Zoellick as it's President sanctioned a loan of US $944 million to India so that it can strengthen it's rura finance system, vocational trainning and improve it's water Management System.

Indonesia has decided to come out of membership of OPEC.

The book 'Towards Hunger Free World' is written by M.S. Swaminathan.

Jet Airways became the first Indian-based Airlines to operate flight to China.

World's first real sunmersible car is sQuaba.

Central Excise day is celebrated on Feb 24.

Nafisa Ali is the chairperson of the Children's Film Society.

Kerala has the highest monthly per capita in consumer expenditure (MPCE) in both the rural and urban areas. Rural Chhatisgarh ahas recorded the lowest average and Bihar is at the bottom on the urban front. According to the latest statistics on 'Household, Consumer expenditure in India in 2005-06 based on the data of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)' the average national MPCE in rural india was Rs 625 and Rs 1171 in the urban regions.

"People with Disabilities in India: From commitments to outcomes" A World Bank report, according to which Childrens with disability are around four or five times less likely to be in school than the Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe children.

Shiv Shankar Chowrasia from Kolkata emerged on Feburary 10, 2008 as the first Indian sportsperson to recieve the single biggest cheque of $416,660( Rs.1.61 Cr) in India. He achieved this outstanding feet by clinching the title at the Emmar MGF Indian Masters golf Championship held in the New Delhi.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Feburary 13, 2008 announced discovery of gas reserves for the first time in the deep sea block in the Krishna Godavari basin off East Coast. The discovery was made in block KG-DWN-2003/1, lying about 50 km from Manchilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh. the discovery was named Dhirubhai-39

Boeing Company and Tal Manufacturing Solutions Ltd. (TALMSL) entered into an agreement for manufacturing structural components for the American aerospace major's 787 Dreamliner airplane programme.In a report released on Feburary 7, 2008, The World Health Organisation claimed that India has the second largest number of smokers in the world after China.

The Govt. will provide Visa on arrival to citizen of 18 countries from Oct 2009. They will also be allowed to avail multiple visa with 5-years validity at the airports. these countries include US Netherland, Japan, France, Belgium, Newzealand, sweeden, Luxemberg, Finland, South Korea, Vietnam, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and the UK.

The Ministry of Defence has selected Mohali in Punjab as the location for setting up it's prestigious National Defence University.

SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) was established in India on Aprail 12,1992 in accordance with the provision of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act,1992.

The preable of SEBI describes the basic functions of the securities and Exchange Board of India as "... to protect the intrest of incestors in securities and to promote the development of and to regulate the securities market and for matters connected there with or incidental thereto".

Dr. Sainudeen Pattazhy who has carried out pioneer research on 'Red Rain' which occured in Kerala in 2001 now has a minor planet named after him. The minor planet which was earlier called as 5718 CD4 was discovered by US-based space scientist Dr, R. Rajmohan.

Renowned marathi playwritter Vijay Tendulkar passed away in Pune on May 19, 2008. He was a political journalist and a screenplay writter. He is known for Shantata! court chalu ahe', Ghasiram Kotwal (1972) and Shakaram Binder (1972). He also wrote screenplay for Hindi films like 'Ardha Satya"

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna : M.S.Dhoni is only the second cricketer to be be selected for the award after Sachin Tendulkar who recieved the award in 1997.

Arjuna Award: Avneet Kaur Sidhu (Shooting), Chitra K Soman (Athletics), Johnson Varghese (Boxing), Harika Dronavalli (Chess), Arjun Atwal (Golf), Farman Basha (Power Lifting, Disabled category), Prabhjot Singh (Hockey), Tombi Devi (Judo), Anup Sridhar (Badminton), Bajranglal Takhar (Rowing), Alka Tomar (Wrestling)
Dhyan Chand award:Hakam Singh (Athletics), Mukhbain Singh (Hockey), Gian Singh (Wrestling)
Dronacharya award: Sanjeeva Kumar Singh (Archery), Jagdish Singh (Boxing), G E Sridharan (Volleyball), Jagminder Singh (Wrestling)

The negotiations at World Trade Organisation held at the end of July failed because the US and EU were not willing to scrap huge subsidies that they were giving to their farmers.

Miss Universe 2008 is Dayana Mendoza (Miss Venezuela)

Standard Chartered Private Bank has been named the "Global Best Private Money" by Euromoney for it's performance in 2007. The factors on which Euromoney gave the awards were risk management, focus on growth markets, achievementsin performance, growth in client base and a commitment to client service and advisory as success factors.

Centurion Bank of Punjab merged with HDFC Bank with effect from May 23, 2008

Bharat Nirman Project:
Under this project, every village to be provided electricity: remaining 1, 25,000 villages to be electrified by 2009 as well as connect 2.3 crore households.
Every habitation over 1000 population and above (500 and hilly tribal areas) to be provided in all weather roads: remaining 66,802 villages habitations to be covered by 2009.
Every habitation to have a safe source of drinking water. 55067 uncovered habitations to be covered by 2009. in addition all habitations which have slipped from full coverage to partial coverage due to failure of source and habitations which have water quality problem to be addressed.
Every village to be connected by telephone: remaining 66822 villages to be covered by November 2007.
10 million hectare of additional irrigation capacity to be created by 2009.
60 lakh houses to be constructed for rural poor.
Anne Enright's The Gathering has won the Booker Prize 2007.
The Golden Notebook is written by Doris Lessing, winner of the 2007 Noble Prize for literature.
What are Participatory Notes?
Participatory Notes are instrument used by foreign funds not registered in India, for trading in the domestic market. they are a derivative instrument issued against an underlying security that permits the holders to get a share in the income from the underlying securities.
According to a perort by United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, India ranks 41st in industrial competitiveness. Singapore tops the list.

Science friction writter Arthur C. Clarke died on march 19.

kolkata has been declared as UNESCO's world city of literature.

Oxford university has introduced a new degree i.e. MSc in contemporary India.

who is Samak Sandaravej?

Prime- minister of Thailand

Fehmida Mirza is the first women speaker in it's 60 year long history.HDFC Bank has incorporated 'jitter-enabled' card reders in all it's 1910 ATM's in order to prevent skimming or capturing of card details by fradulents.

The centre on Aug 14, 2008 announced a new employment generation scheme to create more than 37 lakh jobs by merging the existing Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana(PMRY) and the Rural Employment Generation Programme(REGP) . The financial implication of the new scheme to be implemented over a four year period is estimated at Rs. 4485 Crore.

The Govt. on Aug 14 2008 approved more than Rs. 921 Crore for development of infrastructure in the fast growing leather industry during the 11th plan period. The Indian leather industry is estimated to be about Rs. 40,000 crore is growing at a rate of 20%. export is about 15,000 crore and have been growing by 13-15%

State Bank of India has become the second bank in the world to have more than 10,000 branches, after China's ICBC. SBI has opened it's 10,000 branch on 9th March 2008 at Puduvayal a small town 85 Km from Madurai

World Bank has announced creation of two International climate investment funds . one is the Clean Technology Fund designed to accelerate investments in state-of-the-arttechnological solution to help developing countries mitigate the rise in greenhouse gas emission in developing countries. second fund is Strategic Climate Fund which will help more vulnarable countries adapt their development programme to the impacts of climate change while also addressing issues of forest management and access to green energy.

Weightage of diffrent sector in GDP is as follows:

Agriculture -17.8%

Services - 55.6%

Industry - 26.6%

Indian economy grew by 7.9% in the first quarter (Apr-June) of the current Fiscal the slowest in the past three and a half year. the economy had grown by 9.2% in the first quarter of 2007-08.

India has the fifth largest area cultivated under genetically modified crops. According to international Service for the Aquisition of Agribiotech Applications, (ISAAA), the total acerage planted under all GM crops amounted to 114.3 million hectare. of this 57.7mh is under UD followed by 19.1 by Argentina, 15mh by Brazil, 7mh by Canada and India 6.2 mh. in India the entire area is under one Crop i.e. cotton. of the total 114.3 mh global GM area, 58.6 mh was devoted to transgenic soybean. in India, Maharastra has the largest area under GM Crop.

On May 18, 2008 book "Animal's People" of Indian-Origin writter Indra Sinha based on Bhopal gas tragedy was adjudged best book of this year in Europe and South Asia by the Commonwealth.

Manik Sarkar is the Chief Mimister of Tripura.

First Indian women ambassadot to be nominated to Qatar is Padmasree Warior.

Chinese and Russian police starts a three day joint exercise " Cooperation 2007" in the suburbs of Moscow.

Vijay Malya buys a 50% stake in Spykar Formula 1

13 persons have been awarded the Padma Vibhushan Award 2008.

According to data released by National Crime Report Bureau, Maharastra has maximum cases of suicide by farmer.According to Forbes Magazine, Out of the world's 10 wealthiest CEO, 4 positions have been grapped by Indians.

ISB- Indian school of Bussiness hyderabad ranked among the top 20 B-school of the world.

Dakar agreement is signed between Sudan and Chad.

According to umited Nation, globally over 2.1 million kids under 15 have AIDS.

US missile SM-3 hits defunct spy Satellite (USA-193)

Dubai to build longest arched Bridge.

SAARC nations joins to fight illegal trade.

Punjab is the worst state in term of child sex ratio.

UP has the largest number of child labourer.

Reliance mutual Fund has been awarded the fund of the year award 2007.

UNESCO celebrates 2008 as 'year of languages', slogan is Language Matters.

Coca Cola Company has been awarded the golden peacock award for corporate social responsibility.

The Dabur group has entered into the retail sector with it's new venture. the name of new venture is LITE-BITE.

The Server of the computer is also known as Gateway.

The govt. has cleared 20 foreign direct investment that will bring in RS. 1962.05 cr including Rs. 924 cr. by UTV S0ftware Communications.The animated feature film Return of Hanuman has won an award for the best animated feature film at the FICCI frames event in Mumbai.

Indian open badminton Championship held at Gachibowli Stadium in Hydreabad won by Ponsana Boonsak of Thailand by defeating Chetan Anand of India.

Serzh Sarkisyan sworn in as new Armenian President.

Sport News

India clinched their fourth successive women's cricket Asia cup title by thrashing Sri Lanka by a massive 117 runs in the final at the welagendara stadium in kurunegala, Srilanka on may 11.

Brazil's Ferrari Driver Fellipe Massa Won the turkish Grand Prix for the third successive year.

Lewis Hamilton won the Monaco Grand Prix.

Monte Carlo Masters- wom by Rafel Nadal

Hamburg Masters- won by Rafel Nadal

Rome masters- won by Novak Djokovic

National under 9 chess won by Harshal Sahi of Delhi.

English Soccer Player of the year - Cristano Ronaldo

Indian weightlifter Kavita Devi has been baned for two years after failing a Drug test.

Azlan Shah Cup Hockey- won by Argentina, defeated India in the final 1-2.

Mobile service Provider Vodafone Essar has been cjhosen as official telecom Patner for the DLF Indian Premier League for a period of five years.

National Rural Employment Scheme extended to all districts from Aprail 1.

48 indian companies are listed in the Global 2000 list of Billionare Industries who have billion dollar size.

American John Griggs Thompson and Belgian Jacques Tits won the 6 million kroner ($1.2mn) Abel Prize for Mathematics for their contribution to the group theory of Algebra.