August tit bits

“A Journey” is a memoir written by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The N.C. Saxena Committee was set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. It
details the manner in which laws were flagrantly flouted to facilitate the Vedanta
Alumina Ltd project in Orissa. The project is aggressively opposed by the local tribal
groups.

India remained the largest recipient of World Bank loans in 2009-10. The World Bank,
through its lending arms IBRD and IDA, committed $9.3 billion in financial assistance to
India in 2009-10, more than the aid committed by the US and European Union. Next in
line were South Africa ($3.8 billion), Brazil ($3.7 billion) and Turkey ($3.0 billion).

The Indian Parliament has hiked the salary of Members of Parliament to Rs 50,000 per
month. Two key allowances (constituency and office expenses) have also been increased
to Rs 45,000 each.

Airtel has bagged the title sponsorship rights for the India cricket team’s home games for
two-and-half years, at a cost of Rs 3.33 crore per match.

Rajiv Gandhi Akshay Urja Diwas is observed on August 24.

The 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities has ranked Harvard University as
the top University of the world for the eighth year in the annual ranking. Harvard is
followed by University of Cambridge, Yale University, University College London
(UCL), Imperial College London, University of Oxford, University of Chicago, Princeton
University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and California Institute of
Technology (CALTECH).

“Oh yaaron, India ne bula liya”, composed by A.R. Rahman, is the theme song of
Commonwealth Games, 2010. It has been directed by Shyam Benegal and produced by
Bharat Bala.

With his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2010—the seventh—Manmohan

Singh edged past Atal Behari Vajpayee to become the Prime Minister of India who has
addressed the nation on Independence Day the third-highest number of times. Jawaharlal
Nehru addressed the nation 17 times and Mrs Indira Gandhi 16 times.

On September 1, 2010, South-East Asia’s first Sports Injury Centre was opened on the
campus of Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, in partnership between the government and
six private players.

An elephant, named Stumpy, is the official mascot of the 2010 Cricket World Cup.

UNESCO has granted the World Heritage status to Jantar Mantar in Jaipur which is a
celebrated astronomical observatory built in 18th century. This is India’s 28th and
Rajasthan’s second site (after Keoladev National Park) to be given the World Heritage
status.