31 December 2013

Ø  After ending the VIP culture in the capital, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government on Monday fulfilled another big promise, announcing 666 litres of free water every day to each household with functional water meters. It amounts to 34 buckets of water per family of five every day. The announcement was made by the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Delhi Jal Board, Vijay Kumar.

Ø  Army Chief General Bikram Singh on Monday took over as the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC). He succeeds IAF chief N.A.K. Browne

Ø  Documents released by the agency’s whistleblower, Edward Snowden. to the German magazine Der Spiegel revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had pirated an underwater digital transmission cable and hacked into the computer networks of 16 companies managing traffic between France, North Africa and Asia.  NSA managed to gain access to the cable SEA-ME-WE 4 linking Southeast Asia and Europe via West Asia, where it linked up with the Orange mobile telephone and data transmission network. Since a massive amount of traffic flows down this cable, such penetration by the NSA allows it to collect a huge amount of metadata. Such data, which appears to be benign because it does not give the conversation transcripts, nevertheless reveals a great deal about internet users and their habits, the French website Mediapart reported.

Ø  The Reserve Bank of India, on Monday, extended the time for issuance of inflation-indexed bonds to March 31, 2014, from the earlier date of December 31, 2013. The RBI in consultation with government earlier this month launched Inflation Indexed National Saving Securities-Cumulative (IINSS-C), which was open for subscription between December 23 and 31.