News Calender

1 July: Sweden assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union, The largest commercial satellite ever built – the massive TerreStar-1 – launched into space, riding a European-built rocket into orbit

2 July: In a historic judgment, the Delhi high court decriminalizes homosexuality by striking down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, Noted artist Tyeb Mehta, who holds the record for the highest price an Indian painting has ever sold in a public auction, dies at his residence in Mumbai, Union Cabinet clears the Right to Education Bill, The government approves signing of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with South Korea paving the way for an eventual duty free trade of goods and services between the two countries, Jharkhand is set for the second six-month spell of President’s rule with the union cabinet deciding to recommend its extension beyond 18^th July

3 July: Railway minister Mamata Banerjee presents the rail budget for the year 2009-10

4 July: Defying sanctions imposed by the United Nations, North Korea test-fires up to seven short-range missiles, Roger Federer makes history when he defeats Andy Roddick 5-7, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 16-14 to win a sixth Wimbledon title and claim a record 15^th Grand Slam crown

5 July: Over 150 people are killed, when a few thousand ethnic Uyghurs target local Han Chinese during major rioting in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, Bulgaria goes for a poll, India made amends for their Twenty 20 world cup debacle, winning the ODI series against West Indies 2-1 after torrential rains washes out the fourth and final ODI

6 July: Croatia’s parliament elects Jadranka Kosor as the nation’s first female prime minister

7 July: The 4^th BSF contingent for UN Peace Keeping in Congo flagged off from New Delhi by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram

8 July: The 35^th G8 summit begins in L’Aquila, Italy, Union government approves a total of 10,904 additional posts for the elite National Security Guard (NSG), Indonesia’s voters hand President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono a second five-year term, placing their faith in his firm hand on the economic tiller and his promises to quicken the pace of reform

9 July: A fired up Michael Phelps breaks world record in the 100 meters butterfly at the US Nationals, The US House of Representative authorizes $1.519 billion assistance to Pakistan to effectively fight terrorism and extremist outfits, The G8 countries call upon all countries to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) while deciding to step up efforts for swift implementation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), in a message that seems aimed at India-the only ‘outlier’ country at the summit

10 July: General Motors steers out of bankruptcy, with the promise of launching a fresh lineup of cars under its core brands Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC, Russia resumes sea trials of its Akula class nuclear attack submarine to be leased to the Indian Navy, The 35^th G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy ends

11 July: Nine-time Grand Slam singles champion Monica Seles and three others inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame

12 July: Mark Webber secures his maidan Formula One victory and Australia’s first since 1981 when he leads team-mate Sebastian Vettel home in the German Grand Prix.

13 July: Indra Nooyi, India-born chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo, has been named 2009 CEO of the Year by the Global Supply Chain Leaders Group (GSCLG)

14 July: The government announces its plans to introduce genetically modified (GM) food – tomato, brinjal and cauliflower – in the country within the next three years

15 July: NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour finally lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, India’s Gautam Gambhir becomes to No. 1 test batsman, although for a brief period, replacing Pakistani run-machine Mohammad Yousuf in the ICC test player rankings

16 July: Iceland’s Parliament votes to pursue joining the EU, The longest total solar eclipse of the 21^st century, lasting up to six minutes and 38.8 seconds, occurs over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean; it is figured to be the most widely observed total eclipse in human history.

17 July: Chairman of Tata Motors, Ratan Tata hands over the keys to the first three customers of Nano, The central government clears 16 foreign direct investment proposls worth Rs 892 crore, most of which will be for a hydro power project in Sikkim

18 July: Five cricketing greats- Richie Benaud of Australia, alongside England’s Graham Gooch, Denis Compton, Harold Larwood and Frank Wooley inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame

19 July: US secretary of state Hillary Clinton comes on her first official visit to India on a three-day tour

20 July: Sixteen years after the supreme court ruled that elementary education should be made a fundamental right, the Rajya Sabha passes legislation to provide free and compulsory education to every child in the age group of 6-14 years

21 July: Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso dissolves the powerful lower house of Japan’s Parliament to make way for the national elections in August

22 July: The US announces another $ 165 million in humanitarian aid to Pakistan, taking the total American assistance to nearly half a million ever since its army launched a massive anti-Taliban operation in the country’s restive northwest, The Reserve Bank of India allows cash withdrawals using the swipe machines at retail shops

23 July: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) increases its funding commitment to Avahan – its initiative to reduce the spread of HIV in India – to $338 million or Rs 1,652 crore, The union cabinet approves a draft legislation to establish a National Green Tribunal that would judge disputes related to the environment

24 July: The Comptroller and Auditor General hammers the defence establishment for glaring lapses in the two biggest naval projects – acquisition of Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and indigenous construction of six French Scorpene submarines, India names senior IFS officer S Jaishankar as its new Ambassador to China, and Nalin Surie as the next High Commissioner to UK

25 July: Swedish wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson pens a deal to buy a majority of Nortel Networks’ North American wireless business for $1.13 billion

26 July: India launches its first nuclear-powered submarine – INS Arihant – capable of firing ballistic missiles, completing a nuclear triad encompassing land, air and sea, Alberto Contador wins his second Tour de France title, Formula one world champion Lewis Hamilton wins the Hungarian Grand Prix, Gaganjeet Bhullar of India Indonesia President Invitation 2009 golf tournament

27 July: India’s ace tennis player Sania Mirza upsets top-seed Frenchwoman Julie coin 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to clinch the ITF Lexington Challenger title

28 July: The United states and China continue the first US-China strategic and Economic Dialogue

29 July: The first Indian geomatics or earth information software launched by Antrix Corporation, the business arm of ISRO, and Scanpoint Geomatics, at nearly 40 per cent of the cost of MNC packages

30 July: The UPA government announces that it would build 15,000 km roads this year, revise toll policy and renumber national highways, The union cabinet gives its nod for an ambitious Rs 165 crore plan to allow Doordarshan to upgrade its picture quality to high definition format (HDTV). This will pave the way for DD to telecast the Commonwealth Games 2010 in a superior format, The government introduces a constitutional amendment bill in the Rajya Sabha to extend by another 10 years reservation of seats for SCs, STs and nomination for the Anglo-Indian community in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies

31 July: The shuttle Endeavour descends safely to Earth, ending a successful 16-day assembly mission to the international space station with the final piece of Japan’s Kibo science laboratory, Software giant Infosys in Bangalore becomes the first private establishment to get the security cover of CISF – the paramilitary force which currently provides security to only government establishments.

1 August: Russia signs a deal to open a second military base in Kyrgyzstan at a Collective Security Treaty Organisation summit

2 August: Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev inaugurated for his second term after winning an election that the opposition has dismissed as fraudulent

3 August: Prominent Indian social activist Deep Joshi, who has done pioneering work for ‘development of rural communities’, named along with five others for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2009, considered as Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel prize, Rajya Sabha approves a key constitutional amendment bill paving the way for another 10-year extension for reservation of seats for SCs and STs in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, Bolivia becomes the first country in the history of South America to declare the right of indigenous people to govern themselves.

4 August: The right of children to free and compulsory education bill, 2008, seeking to provide education to children aged between 6 to 14 years, is passed by the Parliament.

5 August: In a major step towards fighting crimes against children, the united nations security council asks the secretary general to further expand the ‘list of shame’ to cover recruitment and use of minors during war

6 August: The Japanese city of Hiroshima marks the 64^th anniversary of the world’s first atomic attack as its mayor call for the total abolition of nuclear weapons in the coming decade

7 August: Asian economic powerhouses South Korea and India sign a pact to scrap or reduce most trade tariffs over the next decade, giving Seoul a lead over its rivals in a market of 1.1 billion people, Arjun Halappa and Dhananjay Mahadik sound the board as India beat Belgium 2-0 in the final test to clinch the three-match hockey series 2-1.

8 August: President Pratibha Patil inaugurates the Armed Forces Tribunal, an exclusive court for nearly 2.5 million serving and retired defence personnel, India relaunches its largest ever auction of oil and gas exploration areas, aiming to attract $3-4 billion investment towards boosting energy security

9 August: More than 5,000 people gather in the Peace Park in Nagasaki to mark the 64^th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of the southwestern Japanese city, Tiger Woods collects his 16^th victory in 30 world golf championship appearances as he wins the $8.5 million WGC-Bridgestone Invitation by four strokes

10 August: Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa is sworn in for a second term, vowing to deepen his socialist ‘revolution’, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal sworn-in as deputy chief minister of Punjab for the second time this year, becoming second in command to his father and chief minister Prakash Singh Badal

11 August: The Darjeeling Hill areas to soon have a new administrative set-up as the Centre on Aug 11 decides to abolish the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) – the body which has been involved in the affairs of the region for the last two decades, The government increases the direct tax target by Rs 30,000 crore for the current fiscal

12 August: US President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honour, to 16 people including Desmond Tutu of South Africa, world renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammed Yunus of Bangladesh

13 August: Ending months of uncertainty, India an the 10-nation association of south east asian nations (ASEAN) sign a crucial trade pact that will break duty barriers in the 1.7 billion consumer market in the region, The president of the International Olympic Committee announces Women’s boxing will be included at the 2012 Olympic Games in London

14 August: Pakistan confer the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, one of its highest civilian honours, on late Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande on the eve of its Independence Day

15 August: The President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil awards different honors to people from different walks of life, including the Gallantry Awards, on Independence day

16 August: Jamaican Usain Bolt adds the world crown to his Olympic title as he scorches to victory in a world record 9.58 seconds in the men’s 100m final at the World Athletics Championships, Charles Coventry equals Saeed Anwar’s record highest individual one-day international score of 194, against Bangladesh at Bulawayo

17 August: Mahesh Bhupathi and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles continue their rampaging form to lift their fourth ATP title together, beating seventh seeds Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram in straight sets in the finals of $3 million Rogers Cup

18 August: Former South Korean President and 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Kim Dae-jung dies of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome

19 August: Sanskrit poet Satya Vrat Shastri conferred the Jnanpith award for his contributions to the enrichment of the language

20 August: The union cabinet approves setting up Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) in Indian missions in 17 countries to meet contingency expenses for welfare of overseas Indian citizens who are in distress

21 August: The Reserve Bank, which made third party ATM transactions free from April, say not more than Rs 10,000 can be withdrawn each time they are used and limited the number of such transactions to five a month, India and the Maldives agree to increase co-operation on matters of defence and security

22 August: India and Nepal sign a trade treaty to allow Nepalese goods duty-free access to India and agree to bolster security along their border to thwart militant attacks

23 August: England reclaim The Ashes with a 2-1 series win over Australia

24 August: Miss Venezuela Stefania Fernandez wins the Miss Universe 2009 crown at the beauty pageant held in Nassau, Bahamas, Prime minister manmohan singh’s council on climate change approves ‘in principle’ the national mission on enhanced energy efficiency which the PM said will enable about Rs 75,000 crore worth of transactions in energy efficiency

25 August: South Korea launches its first space rocket, Naro-1, but fails to put the STSAT-2A satellite into the planned orbit, U.S. President Barack Obama nominates Ben Bernanke for his second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve

26 August: U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving Kennedy brother, dies at age 77, after battling brain cancer

27 August: Judges at the Supreme Court of India agree to make their financial assets public, English youth Michael Perham, aged 17 years, 5 months, becomes the youngest person to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world by sailboat, breaking the previous record by two months.

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