WHO certified India as Polio Free country

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on 27 March 2014 certified India as a Polio Free Country. This action of WHO made India one of the 11 countries of South-East Region to be free from Polio Virus
The official certificate received by Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Union Health Minister in New Delhi. The Polio was eradicated from the country with the help of technical innovations like indigenous bivalent polio vaccines, close monitoring of polio programme and adequate domestic financial resources
India's victory over polio disease paved the way for polio-free certification for the South East Asia region of the WHO. The achievement has also made the South East Asia Region, fourth WHO region for being certified as polio-free. This certification was given by an independent commission under the WHO certification process. this region is a home for about of world's population. The WHO South East Asia region has 11 member counties namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste

Other regions to be certified as the WHO Polio-Free Region are:

• Region of the Americas - certified as WHO Region in 1994
• Western Pacific Region - certified as WHO Region in 2000
• European Region - certified as WHO Region in 2002

With, this certification to the South-East Asia Region, now about 80% of world's population lives in the Polio-Free regions.

Axis Bank Launched 'Kisan Card'

Over the decade after the state run banks launched Kisan Credit Cards, private sector lender bank, Axis Bank launched an electronic Kisan Card on the Rupay Platform, through which a farmer can withdraw up to Rs. 1 lakh per day from ATMs (Automated Teller Machines)

Electronic Kisan Card:

• Purpose: To facilitate easy agriculture lending to farmers through ATMs
• Will be offer to agrarian customers on their cash credit crop loan accounts
• Helpful for them to reduce the internet burden as the internet payments start after withdrawal of the money
• Provides queue free, 24x7 disbursement facility for farmers
• Allows them to use their loan limit by withdrawing cash up to Rs. 1 Lakh per day, in the required quantum, as and when required, thereby reducing their interest burden and negating the risk of carrying higher volume of cash

Axis Bank - The bank, the third largest from the private sector space in India. It offers financial services to customer segments covering Large and Mid-Cooperates, MSME, Agriculture and Retail Businesses. Axis Bank has its headquarters in Mumbai

3rd Nuclear Security Summit 2014

The third Nuclear Summit was held in The Hauge, Netherlands from 24 to 25 March 2014. The summit was attended by 58 world leaders. The third NSS synegizes previous two summits without their backdrops
At the summit, the leaders agreed to build a robust Nuclear Security Structure. Besides, the summit also saw the agreement on Strengthening Initiative wherein 35 countries agreed to incorporate the guidelines of IAEA into their national legislation to assess the security of nuclear materials.

About Nuclear Summit:

• The first NSS was held in Washington DC in 2010 and the second was held in Seoul in 2012. The United States will host the next Summit in 2016.
• The goal of the Summit is to address the threat of nuclear terrorism by enhancing international cooperation to prevent the illicit acquisition of nuclear material by non-state actors such as terrorist groups and smugglers

Election Trivia

Loksabha Election 2014:

• The largest constituency by area is Ladakh (1.73 Lakh sq-km) and the smallest is Chandani Chowk (10.59 sq-km)
• The most remote polling booth is one in Gujrat's Gir Forest, set up to enable a lone voter, a priest, to cast his vote
• The word candidate comes from the Latin 'candidatus', meanings, 'one clad in white'
• 'Ballot' and 'Bullet' are bothe derived from words for 'balls'. The greeks dropped a white ball when they favored a candidate, and a black one when they were against him 
• Elections in the 1950s were carried out sing different ballot boxes for each candidate, rather than voting on ballot paper. Different coloured boxes represented different parties
• Atal bihari Vajpayee is the only politician who has won from six different constituency: Balarampur in 1957 and 1967; Gawlior in 1971; New Delhi in 1977 and 1980; Vidisha in 1991; Gandhinagar in 1996; Lucknow in 1991, 1996 and 1998

2009's Kangal XI: Candidates with the lowest declared assets in the 2009 LS polls

CANDIDATE	CONSTITUENCY	PARTY	EDUCATION	ASSETS
Kumar Rajesh	Nalanda	IND	Graduate	Rs 2
Ajay Pratap Singh	Aonla	IND	Not Given	Rs 31
Ghouse Mohinudclin	Mahnubnagar	IND	Not Given	Rs 40
Bhagauti	Barabanki	AD	5th Pass	Rs 100
Kunjan Pulayan	Thrissur	IND	5th Pass	Rs 220
Chiyar Peethambaran	Idukki	IND	12th Pass	Rs 270
Govindbhai Padhiyar	Jamnagar	IND	Literate	Rs 300
Haynath Waghode	Kalyan	KM	12th Pass	Rs 388
Bankar Milind Ranuji	Aurangabad	IND	8th Pass	Rs 457
Chandrakant Phupane	Palghar	BBM	Literate	Rs 500
Kambale Bansilal	Latur	IND	Literate	Rs 500

Sachin Tendulkar voted Cricketer of the Generation

On 14 March 2014 Sachin Tendulkar was voted as the Cricketers of the Generation by a 50 member jury that comprised current and former cricketers and journalists. To win the award, Sachin defeated his competitors spin legend Shane Warne and all-rounder Jacques Kallis.
Other titles for 2013 in the annual ESPNcricinfo Awards:

• Test bowling title for 2013 - Mitchell Johnson
• ODI bowling award - Shahid Afridi, he won under the same category for 2009
• Test batting award - Shikhar Dhawan for his knocking 187 runs on debut against Australia in Mohali in 2013
• ODI batting performance of the year - Rohit Sharma for his ODI double-century in Bangalore, against Australia
• The debutant of the year (New Category) - Mohammed Shami of India
• Contribution to Cricket award (New Category) - Tarak Sinha, head coach of the Sonnet Cricket Club in India
• Cricket for Good award - Rahul Dravid for mentoring the junior and paralympic athletes in India
• Batsman of the year, Best Test Batsman and Most Consistent Batsman - AB de Villiers
• Bowler of the year and the Best Test Bowler - Dale Steyn

ESPNcricinfo Awards: The ESPNcricinfo Awards recognizes the best individual batting and bowling performances in cricket over the calender year. The nominated players are voted by an independent jury that comprises former cricketers, commentators and ESPNcricinfo's senior writers. This was the seventh edition of the ESPNcricinfo Awards.

The award ceremony was organised in Mumbai, India to honor the most outstanding cricketer between the years 1993 to 2013. This ceremony also marked the 20th anniversary celebrations for the cricket website.

Indian Constitution

The present constitution of India was framed by the Constitution Assembly of India setup under Cabinet Mission plan of 16 May 1946.
Composition of Constituent Assembly:

• The Constituent Assembly consisted of 385 members, of which 292 were elected by he elected members of the Provincial Legislative Assemblies while 93 members were nominated by the Princely States. To these were the to be added a representative each from the four Chief Commissioners Provinces of Delhi, Ajmer-Marwar, Coorg and British Baluchistan.
• Each Province and each Indian State or group of states were allotted the total number of seas proportional to their respective population roughly in the ration of one to a million. 
• B N Rao was appointed the Consitutional Assemly. 
• The first meeting of the Consituent Assembly took place of 9 Dec 1946 with Dr. Sachinanad Sinha as its interim President. Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as its President in 11 Dec 1947.
• The Assembly framing the Constitution had 13 committees.
• The all-important Drafting Committee, which bore the responsibility of drafting the Constitutional documents during the recess of the Constituent Assembly from, July 1947 to September 1948, was formed on 29 August 1947.
• It was finally passed and accepted on 26 Nov 1949. The session of the assembly was held on 24 Jan 1950, which unanimously elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the President of India. In all the 284 members of the Assemlby signed the official copies of the Indian Constitution which came into effect on 26 Jan 1950 known and celebrated as the Republic Day of India.

Members of Consituent Assembly:

• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar 
• N. Gopalswami Ayyar 
• K.M. Munshi 
• Syyed Mohd. Saadulla 
• N. Mahadev Rao 
• D.P. Khaitan (T. Krishnamachari, after Khaitan's death in 1948)

India: At a Glance

• Capital - New Delhi 
• Area - 32,67,263 sq.km
• Area wise in the world - 7th
• Location - India extends between latitudes 8 degree 4 inches North. It is a country of the east with the landmass lying between longitudes 68 degree 7 inches East & 97 degree 25 inches East
• Land frontier - 15,200 km
• Coastline - 7516.5 km
• Neighboring countries - India shares its political borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan on the west and Bangladesh and Myanmar on the east. The northern boundary is made up of the Sinkiang province of China, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. India is separated from Sri Lanka by narrow channel of sea formed by the Palk Strait and Gulf of Manner 
• Physical features - The mainland consists of four well defined regions 1) The great mountain zone 2) The Indo-Gangetic plain 3) The desert region 4) The southern peninsula 
• Rivers - The main rivers of the Himalaya group are the Indus, the Gnaga and the Bramhaputra 
• Climate - There are four seasons which are recognized by the India Metrological department. They are Cold weather, hot weather, rainy season and the season of retreating the south-west monsoon 
• Fauna - Aprrox. 89,451 species 
• National parks - 94 
• Wildlife sanctuaries - 501 
• Official language - Hindi
• Population - 1,220,800,358 (March)
• Populationwise place in the world - 2nd
• Population density - 382
• Sex raito - 940 females per 1000 males
• Literacy - 74.04%
• Male literacy - 82.04%
• Feamale Literacy - 66.04%

India - Political

• Country Name - Republic of India (Bharatiy Ganarajya)
• Government Type - Sovereign Socialist Democratic Republic with a Parliamentary system of Government 
• Capital - New Delhi 
• Official Language - Hindi & English 
• Administrative Division - 28 States & 7 Union Territories 
• Independence - 15 August 1947 (From the British Colonial Rule)
• Constitution - The Constitution of India came into force on 26th January 1950
• Legislature - Sansad 
• Legal System - The Constitution of India is the fountain source of the legal system in the country 
• Executive Branch - The President of India is the head of the state, while Prime Minister is the Head of the government & runs office with the support of Council of Ministers who form the Cabinet Ministry
• Legislative Branch - The Indian Legislative comprises of the Lok Sabha (House of the people) & the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) forming both the houses of the parliament 
• Judicial Branch - The Supreme Court of India is the apex body of the Indian legal system, followed by other High Courts & subordinate Courts.

India - Important facts about India

Geography:

• Area - 3.3 Million sq.km (3,287,590 sq.km)
• Telephone Code - +91
• Coastline - 7516.6 km (encompassing the mainland, Lakshdweep Island & Andaman Nicobar Island)
• High Point - Kanchenjunga (8,598 m)

National Things:

• National Flag - The national flag is the horizontal tricolor of saffron at the top, white in the middle & at the center of white band is a navy blue wheel, which is representation of the Ashoka Chakra at Sarnath, dark green at the bottom in equal proportion.
• National Emblem - The national emblem of India is derived from the time of the Emperor Ashoka. The emblem is a replica of the Lion of Sarnath, near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. 
• National Anthem - The "Jana Gana Mana" is the national anthem of India, composed by the Rabindranath Tagore. It was officially adopted by the constituent Assembly as the Indian anthem on January 24 1950.
• National Song - Bankim Chandra Chatterji's composed song "Vande Mataram" was adopted as the national song. It was equal status with "Jana Gana Mana". It was first sung in the 1986 session of the Indian National Congress.
• National Animal - Tiger is the National Animal of the India. It is symbol of the India's wildlife's wealth. The magnificent tiger, Panthera Tigris, is a striped animal.
• National Bird - The Peacock, Pavo cristatus is the national bird of the India. Emblematic of qualities such as beauty, grace & pride.
• National Fruit - Mango is the national fruit of the India. Described as the "Food of the gods", in the Veads, the fruit is almost grown in all part of India.
• National Flower - Lotus botanically known as Nelumbo Nucifera is the national flower of the India.
• National Tree - Banyan tree is the national tree of the India. This huge tree towers over its neighbors & has the widest reaching roots of all known trees.
• National Calender - The Saka calender is the national calender of India. It is used, alongside Gregorian calender.
• National Days - 26th January (Republic Day) & 15th August (Independence Day)