DAILY G.A UPDATE : 18-01-2017
1. British poet Jacob Polley wins the 2016 TS Eliot Prize
British poet Jacob Polley has won the 2016 T.S. Eliot prize for his fourth collection, 'Jackself', a sequence of narrative poems partly inspired by his childhood in Cumbria, media reports said.
One of the judges of the panel, Ruth Padel said 'Jackself' was "a firework of a book; inventive, exciting and outstanding in its imaginative range and depth of feeling", the Guardian reported.
Polley emerged as winner of the UK's richest poetry prize at a ceremony at the Wallace Collection gallery in London. The book was chosen from a 10-strong shortlist including the winner of the 2015 Forward prize, Vahni Capildeo, and previous TS Eliot prize winner Alice Oswald.
Polley is the 23rd winner of the coveted £20,000 ($24,000) award. It was founded by T.S. Eliot's widow Valerie in 1993 and is now run by the TS Eliot Foundation.
Born in Carlisle in 1975, Polley studied Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster, and now teaches at Newcastle University in England.
2. Kapil Dev inducted into Legends Club 'Hall of Fame'
Cricket icon Kapil Dev was inducted into Legends Club 'Hall of Fame' in presence of former India captains Ajit Wadekar, Sunil Gavaskar and Nari Contractor at the Cricket Club of India.
Kapil, who led India to the emphatic World Cup victory in 1983, is considered as the country's greatest all-rounder. He was presented with a citation by former India player and Legends Club president Madhav Apte.
Gavaskar, who was the first batsman to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket, was also presented a citation by Wadekar. He was already inducted into the club's Hall of Fame on July 11, 2013.
3. Minister of Railways Unveils Mission 41k
Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu unveiled Mission 41k during the Roundtable Discussion with External Stakeholders on Energy Initiatives of Indian Railways. Shri Suresh Prabhu said that Ministry of Railways has come up with Mission 41k to save Rs. 41000 crore in the next decade in Railways’ energy costs. To implement this comprehensive strategy with the participation of various stakeholders, we shall take advantage of regulatory frameworks, look at new technologies. He said that this is an opportunity to relook at everything and determine an ideal baseline. All electrification works done in the last decade would be doubled and this would change the energy mix of Indian Railways.
Indian Railways has set a target of 1000 MW of solar power and 200 MW of wind energy.
4. Tajani elected president of European Parliament
Antonio Tajani of the EPP Christian Democrat group has been elected president of the European Parliament in a day-long polling series during which he defeated his socialist opponent.
Before the first round of voting, the EPP, the largest group in the European Union's legislature, and the ALDE liberals, the fourth-largest, announced a coalition that gave Tajani a big early lead over S&D socialist Gianni Pittella.
He maintained the lead through four rounds of voting at the legislature in Strasbourg, France.
The battle among the two Italians was won by Tajani on a vote of 351-282 in the decisive final round, which only the top two candidates could enter.
Tajani's victory gives the Christian Democrat group all the biggest jobs in the EU, with Donald Tusk as Council President and Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission chief.
Tajani, an ally of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, devoted his victory to the victims of August's earthquake in Italy and to all victims of terror.
5. India becomes Associate Member State of CERN
India on 16 January 2017 became an Associate Member State of European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) after the Union Government completed its internal approval procedures for the membership.
Earlier in November 2016, India signed an agreement with the organisation in this regard. The agreement was signed by Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Sekhar Basu and CERN Director General Fabiola Gianotti in Mumbai.
As an Associate member of CERN, India will have full access to all data generated at CERN. Moreover, it can now participate in all the experiments conducted at CERN by paying additional charges. Indian industry will also be entitled to bid for CERN contracts.
From now onwards, India will be required to pay around Rs 40 crore every year as an Associate member.
India-CERN relations
• India-CERN relations date back to 1991 when both the sides signed a Cooperation Agreement setting priorities for scientific and technical cooperation, followed by the signature of several Protocols.
• However, India's Tata Institute of Fundamental Research had already been working with CERN since the 1960s. The physicists of the institute were actively participating in experiments at CERN.
• These physicists were later joined by scientists from the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology in the 1990s.
• These institutes built components for the LEP accelerator and the L3, WA93 and WA89 detectors.
• All these developments by Indian scientists paved the way for the Indian AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) to take part in the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and to contribute to the CMS and ALICE experiments in 1996.
• In recognition of these contributions, India was granted the Observer status to the CERN Council in 2002.
• Indian scientists were also involved in ISOLDE, a high-tech particle detector and electronics research and n-TOF experiments of CERN.
