Major News and Events of 15 December 2014

New Delhi requested Malaysia government for extraditing 47-year old Mohammad Hussain Mohammad Sulaiman, a Sri Lankan who is alleged to have hatched terror attacks on Israeli and American consulates located in India. The accused has been deported by Malaysia to Sri Lanka. Sulaiman was arrested in the month of May this year from Kuala Lumpur’s outskirts by Malaysian Police’s Special Unit.

TMC accused BJP-led central government of misusing CBI, and took the arrest issue of Madan Mitra, Transport minister of West Bengal, to the parliament. Today, they staged a protest outside the parliament by wearing black shawls. Trinamool alleges that CBI is working on the behest of BJP and its top leaders such as Amit Shah and Indian PM Narendra Modi. They are expected to raise arrest issue in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Smriti Irani, Union Education Minister, cleared the air that the students don’t have to come to school on Christmas Day for celebrating ‘Good Governance day’, commemorating ex-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birthday. Smriti Irani, through a tweet, said that schools will remain closed on December 25. She called the circulated news mischievous.

87-year old veteran leader of BJP, L K Advani, referred Mahabharata as a great source of knowledge for politics, courage, unity, and morality. Advani said these words while addressing an audience gathered to celebrate centenary year of K Narendra, celebrated journalist and chief of ‘Daily Pratap', Urdu newspaper.

Indian Oil Corporation, the government-run oil behemoth has become the largest company in the Fortune 500’s Indian companies list of 2014, in terms of annual revenue generation. Second and third positions in the list are adorned by Reliance Industries and Bharat Petroleum. Annual revenue of IOC is Rs 5,00,973 crore, followed by Rs 4,44,021 crore of RIL, Rs 4,44,021 crore of BPCL, and Rs 2,36,797 crore OF Hindustan Petroleum.

Reliance Capital, company led by Anil Ambani, is set to sell Carnival Cinemas for shedding some of its accumulated debt. With the sale of this venture, the company is estimating to offload around Rs.700 crore of debt. CEO of Reliance Capital, Sam Ghosh, said that this move of the company is in sync with the objective of concentrating on core financial services only. Reliance MediaWorks’ real estates are not included in this deal.

International Hockey Federation has suspended two Pakistani players after Hockey India complained to the international body regarding obscene gestures of Pakistani players while celebrating their emphatic win over India during semi final of Champion’s Trophy. Shahnaz Sheikh, Hockey Coach of Pakistan has said that the two rivals must play more games against one another for lifting standard of hockey in subcontinent.

S&P BSE Sensex has shed 1,343 points till now this December since it reached a record high on November 28 to 28,694 points. This sharp fall in the benchmark index has been because of IT and Gas/petroleum sector drag. The collective basis point fall of Gail India, ONGC, RIL (Petroleum and Gas sector),  TCS, Wipro, and Infosys (IT sector) is 784 points, which accounts for 58 per cent of benchmark index fall.

Micromax Canvas Nitro A311 is now available in India through ecommerce site at Rs. 13,574. A311 is an improvement over A310 only in terms of 16GB ROM. A310 was available exclusively through Snapdeal at Rs. 12,900. A311 comes with HD IPS screen of 5 inch, Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS,  Octa-Core processor, 2GB RAM, 2500mAh battery, dual camera (13MP primary and 5MP secondary), and multiple connectivity options including 3G and Wi-Fi.

American authorities in an unprecedented move have lauded Intellectual Property Rights of India, just a month before US President Barack Obama pays visit to India. In Special 301 Report of 2014, IPR dialogue has been referred as effective, sustained, and meaningful. Sources say that this sudden U-turn of US authorities on India’s IPR is because of its satisfaction on some of the moves taken by Narendra Modi government.   

External Affairs ministry issued statement that Indian consulate staffs in Sydney are safe and sound and are not affected in any way due to the terror strike near its premises at a cafe. It is reported that an armed person has taken hostage many people inside a Cafe in Sydney’s Martin Place, which is the business district of the city. News agencies also revealed that 5 hostages have been able to escape the Cafe.