Gagan shoots India’s first medal in London olympics

Gagan Narang shot the bronze medal in men’s 10m air rifle to infuse life into the Indian challenge on the fourth day of the Olympics, at the Royal Artillery Barracks in London on Monday. 

HyAlfa

Hydrogen-powered three-wheeler ‘HyAlfa’ makes debut

 New Delhi, Jan 9: 
 The world’s first hydrogen-powered three-wheeler, ‘HyAlfa’, was showcased at the 11th Auto Expo here today.

Part of a development project dubbed ‘DelHy 3w’, a fleet of 15 HyAlfa three-wheelers will run on an experimental basis at Pragati Maidan, where a hydrogen refuelling station has also been set up.

The India Trade Organisation Promotion (ITPO) will use the vehicles on an experimental basis.

HyAlfa has been developed under a joint project by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies (ICHET), Mahindra & Mahindra and IIT-Delhi, with support from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. 

Euro Cup 2012

Spain wins Euro Cup 2012

The tournament was hosted by Poland and Ukraine

Spain becomes the first team to win two consecutive European championships

The golden boot award was given to Fernando Torres of Spain

The official Euro 2012 song is Endless Summer

Captain Lakshmi Sahgal passed away

Captain Lakshmi Sahgal breathed her last at a private hospital in the city on July 23. She was 97

Bollywood actor Rajesh Khanna passes away at 69

He breathed his last on 18-July -2012 in the presence of his ex-wife Dimple Kapadia, daughters Rinkie and Twinkle, son-in-law Akshay Kumar, grand children and close relatives.

Pranab Kumar Mukherjee new President of India

Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, 76, was declared elected the 13th President on 22/07/2012.

Actor Dara Singh passes away

Wrestler-turned-actor Dara Singh passed away on July 12

 The Commonwealth wrestling champion entered the film industry in the 1950s and is known for his roles in King Kong and Faulad. He was last seen in Imtiaz Ali’s Jab We Met in 2007 in which he played Kareena Kapoor’s grandfather.

The veteran actor also played the character of Hanuman in Ramanand Sagar’s epic television series Ramayan. 

Williams Sisters lift the Women’s Doubles crown

Williams Sisters conquer the Czechs to lift the Women’s Doubles crown – Wimbledon Championships 2012

American sisters, Serena and Venus Williams, conquered the Czech duo, Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, in straight sets at the Wimbledon Championships 2012 on Saturday. They formulated a 7-5, 6-4 victory over the sixth seeds to capture their 13^th Grand Slam title at this prestigious grass court tournament held in London, England.

1. World Cancer day ?
     February 4

2. NPA means
    Non performing asset

3. The first space tourist ?
    Dennis Tito

4. Tunisian president ?
   Monsech Marsouki

5. The first woman US ambasidor in India ?
    Nancy Powel

6. Shortest woman in the world ?
    Jyothi amge, 62cm tall

7. Which country will host 2016 Olympics ?
    Brazil

8. SBI formed in ?
   1955

9. Who got World press photo award 2012?
    Samuel Aranda

10. Who is the pak high commissioner in India ?
    Salman Basheer

Paes-Vesnina end runners-up at Wimbledon

Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina pose with the runner up trophy after losing against Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond in the mixed doubles final match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, England, on Sunday.

Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina will have to wait for their first Grand Slam title together as they lost the closely fought Wimbledon mixed doubles summit clash to Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond, on Sunday.

The fourth seeded Indo-Russian pair suffered a 3-6 7-5 4-6 defeat at the hands of second seed Americans after battling for two hours and four minutes.

It is for the second time in this season that Paes and Vesnina have ended runners-up at a tennis Major as they had lost the final of the Australian Open in January to Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Horia Tecau. 

Serena beats Radwanska to win fifth Wimbledon

Serena Williams is back, and she looks almost as good as ever. The 30-year-old American won her fifth Wimbledon title Saturday on Centre Court, beating Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to claim her 14th major championship.

After hitting a backhand winner on match point, she fell onto her back to the grass. She then rose with a grin as big sister Venus — another five-time Wimbledon champion — smiled and applauded, along with the rest of the crowd. 

Federer beats Murray to win 7th Wimbledon title

Federer beats Murray to win 7th Wimbledon title.

Roger Federer won his record-tying seventh Wimbledon title Sunday, beating Andy Murray 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 under a closed roof on Centre Court.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion excelled once the roof was closed early in the third set, giving Murray little chance to end Britain's 76-year wait for a homegrown champion.
Federer is now 17-7 in Grand Slam finals, including 7-1 at Wimbledon. Murray dropped to 0-4 in major finals, with three of those losses coming against Federer.

Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrates with the trophy after winning the men's singles final against Andy Murray of Britain at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon on Sunday.

Sunil Chhetri joins Sporting Lisbon

 Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri has joined Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Announcing this at a press conference here on Friday, Aureliano Neves, club vice-president, said this was the first step towards the club’s initiative to develop football in India.

An emotional Chhetri, who was handed a club jersey, said he would try to make the most of the opportunity. 

“I will never forget this in my lifetime. I am playing for a nation which is ranked 156th and now I will play in a country which is No. 5, and for one of the best clubs in the world,” said the diminutive striker.

“I am not going to lose this opportunity. I will leave no stone unturned. When I will be a 40-year-old, I will be able to say that I gave whatever was humanely possible for me,” said Chhetri.

Welcoming the development, AIFF president Praful Patel said: “it is a milestone for Indian football. Sunil will play with some top players of the world.” 

Pakistan denies state role in 26/11

 India on Thursday made it clear to Pakistan that bringing those guilty in the 2008 Mumbai attacks to justice would be the biggest confidence building measure.

After two days of parleys, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani agreed that the relationship has to be normalised by narrowing divergences and building convergences.

“The Foreign Secretaries are mandated to discuss among other things peace and security, including CBMs. It is in this context that Foreign Secretary Jilani and I discussed all issues that impact peace and security between our two countries, including terrorism.

“I emphasised terrorism is the biggest threat to peace and security in the region and bringing the guilty to justice in Mumbai terror attacks would be the biggest confidence building measure of all,” Mr. Mathai told a joint press conference in New Delhi.

Mr. Jilani, on his part, rejected the role of state agencies in the Mumbai attacks and even expressed willingness for a joint investigations into the 26/11 carnage in which 166 people were killed. 

Amputee Pistorius named for olympics in 4x400 Race

Double amputee Oscar Pistorius is going to the London Olympics after being selected in South Africa’s 4x400 relay team.

Pistorius is set to become the first amputee track athlete ever to compete at the games. South Africa’s Olympic committee picked him on Wednesday.

The selection eased Pistorius’ disappointment at his failure to qualify in the individual 400 meters. The 25-year-old South African, who runs on carbon fiber blades, missed out by less than a quarter of a second at his final qualifying race at the African championships last week.

Pistorius made history last year by qualifying for the world championships, where he won silver in the 4x400. The decision to leave him out of the final race caused controversy.

Pistorius won several medals at the Beijing and Athens Paralympics.

Rolf Heuer, Director-General of CERN

 “We have now found the missing cornerstone of particle physics,” Rolf Heuer, Director of the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN), told scientists amid cheers and standing ovation. “As a layman, I think we did it,” he said. “We’ve a discovery. We’ve observed a new particle that is consistent with a Higgs boson.”

The Higgs boson, which until now was a theoretical particle, is seen as the key to understanding why matter has mass. It is mass that combines with gravity to give an object weight. The idea is much like gravity and Isaac Newton’s discovery of it. Gravity existed even before Newton explained it. But now scientists see something much like the Higgs boson and can put that knowledge to further use. 

God particle

More than 100 Canadian researchers who have been working on an international project into the Higgs boson are eagerly awaiting an announcement that enough evidence has been gathered to say with greater confidence whether or not the long sought after "God particle" exists.

Physicists working at the world’s largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, have already found what they believe are hints pointing to the existence of the last undiscovered particle in the Standard Model of Physics, nicknamed the "God particle" because it is thought to answer fundamental questions about the universe.

But they have so far been unable to prove that the Higgs boson is anything more than a theoretical construct.
That may be about to change, however, as physicists in Australia and Switzerland are expected to announce they have gathered enough data to say with more certainty that the particle exists, though they may stop short of declaring the Higgs boson has been officially "discovered."

Scientists rarely say they are absolutely sure of something, but physicists gathered in Australia for a high-level conference on Wednesday seemed certain that a missing piece in their understanding of all the fundamental particles of nature and their interaction had been found. 

“We’re still a little bit guarded about the full properties of this thing, but the first analysis of the results from the last six months really show that it has all the properties we would expect so far of a Higgs boson,” Mr. Taylor told the national broadcaster ABC. 

The professor has led Australia’s contribution to work at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, where the research was conducted, since 1989.

He explained that the standard model that physicists had worked with for more than 40 years could be confirmed as correct by the Higgs boson. 

Delhi tops crime against women

Women living in Karnataka, especially in Bangalore, have little to cheer about as the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has released the statistics on crimes against women for 2011. While Karnataka ranks 10 in terms of percentage share to the overall national figures of crimes against women, Bangalore is the second highest contributor when cities of the country are compared.

In fact, Bangalore has moved up from position three to position two it occupied in 2010 on this count.

Hyderabad, which ranked second last year, is now in the third place. While Bangalore recorded 1,570 crimes against women in 2010, it has registered 1,890 cases in 2011. 

The only solace is that that Bangalore is still a distant second after Delhi, which has consistently remained on top. The national capital recorded 4,489 crimes against women, up from 3,886 in 2010. In the country as a whole, the year 2011 saw 2,28,650 incidents of crime against women as against 2,13,585 in 2010, recording an increase of 7.1 per cent. In Karnataka, there is a steady increase in the recorded number of crimes over the last three years. While it was 7,852 in 2009 and 8,807 in 2010, 9,594 crimes against women were registered in 2011.

Euro cup 2012 -Poland-Ukraine

Spain  beat  Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 final and with it became the first nation to win three big football titles in a row.

David Silva (14th), Jordi Alba (41st), Fernando Torres (84th) and Juan Mata (88th) were on target as Barcelona midfielders Xavi and Andres Iniesta pulled the strings in midfield in their usual commanding style after some slightly below-par performances earlier in the tournament.

Spain became the first team to get a big event hat-trick following titles at Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup with the biggest winning margin in a final, are the first to win back-to-back Euro titles and matched Germany’s record three continental titles, the first being in 1964.