Economic Survey: Some facts about the courtesy GST

1) Many taxpayers, especially small enterprises which deal with large enterprises, have voluntarily chosen to be a part of the GST regime in order to avail input credits.

2) The GST regime has not affected the tax collections of most states as the distribution of the GST base among states is very closely linked to the size of the state economies.

3) Performance of individual states on the international exports front is strongly correlated to the standard of living in the states.

4) When compared to similar economies, large Indian exporters corner a smaller share of total exports.

5) Internal trade within India contributes 60% to the overall economic growth. This is higher than last year’s Survey estimates of inter-state trade of goods at between 30-50% of GDP.

6) The size of India’s formal sector, non-farm payroll is substantially greater than currently believed.

7) Similarly, the size of the formal sector (defined here as being either in the social security or GST net) is 13 percent of total firms in the private non-agriculture sector but 93 percent of their total turnover.

State Bank Of India: hikes rates on bulk senior citizen deposits by 50-140 bps

Two days ahead of the Union Budget, State Bank of India (SBI) has raised the interest rates offered on bulk deposits above Rs 1 crore by 50-140 basis points, indicating the possibility of a spike in interest rates in the banking system.

While the hike has come a week before the Reserve Bank of India is to announce monetary policy, it has not made any changes in the deposit rates offered to retail investors. The rise in bond yields and the bulk deposit rates has spurred expectations that the Reserve Bank will tighten rates and the government will go for a wider deficit.

The bank would offer 6.25 per cent on bulk deposits for one year, a rise of 100 basis points, with immediate effect. The bank has sharply raised rates for 46-210 days by 140 basis points from 4.85 per cent from 6.25 per cent. With this, bulk deposit rates have been aligned with the retail rates below Rs one crore. It will offer 5.25 per cent for deposits between seven days to 46 days, a hike of 50 basis points. It would offer 6.25 per cent for all deposits in the range of 46 days to 2 years and 6 per cent for deposits between two years to 10 years.

The hike in bulk deposit rates has coincided with the rise in yields of government securities amid fears that the government is likely to breach the fiscal deficit target of 3.2 per cent for FY-18. On Monday, the 6.79 percent 10-year bond yield rose by 15 basis points to 7.63 per cent, while the recently unveiled 7.17 per cent 10-year bond yield was up 13 bps at 7.44 per cent.

January 31 (Today) : Earthquake shakes Afghanistan's Hindu Kush region and North India

नई दिल्ली (भारत):

बुधवार की दोपहर अफगानिस्तान के हिंदू कुश क्षेत्र में 6.1 तीव्रता का एक भूकंप आया।

अमेरिकी (यूएसजीएस) :

भूकंप का केंद्र अफगानिस्तान के जर्म से 35 किमी दक्षिण में स्थित था, जो यूएसजीएस के अनुसार था।

हिंदू कुश क्षेत्र, अफगानिस्तान, पाकिस्तान, पूर्वी उज़बेकिस्तान और भारत में झटके महसूस किए गए थे।

January 31 - There are two kinds of leaders, cowboys and Shepherds. Cowboys drive and Shepherds lead.

On this day, 31 Jan....

1747 - The first clinic specialising in the treatment of venereal diseases was opened at London Dock Hospital.

1839 - Henry Fox Talbot read a paper before the Royal Society, London, to describe his photographic process using solar light, with an exposure time of about 20 minutes.

1893 - The trademark "Coca-Cola" was first registered in the United States Patent Office. (The name refers to two of its original ingredients: kola nuts, a source of caffeine, and coca leaves. The current formula of Coca-Cola remains a trade secret, although a variety of reported recipes and experimental recreations have been published).

1893 - Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for the "Art of Generating Electricity", which described a cell made with positive and negative electrodes in a heated chamber containing dry chemicals which is exhausted to the point that gases generated in the reaction become good conductors of electricity.

1915 - 1st German poison gas attack, against Russians.

1928 - Scotch tape 1st marketed by 3-M Company. (Scotch tape was invented by a college dropout named Richard Drew from Minnesota who worked for a small sandpaper company founded in 1902 called Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, later known as 3M. In the 1920s, a two-tone paint job was popular for cars and a headache for automotive painters. The two-tone look was created by painting the car one color, applying a barrier of some sort to the painted portion, and then painting the next section. Many methods were tried unsuccessfully. Drew got the idea to create a new tape that would create a seal so that the paint wouldn’t get through and yet also come off clean without leaving any sticky residue that ruined the paint finish. Thus, what would be called “Scotch” Masking Tape was born in 1925).

1945 - Private Eddie Slovek became the only U.S. soldier since the U.S. Civil War to be executed for desertion.

1948 - Indian cities swept by riots in wake of Gandhi murder.

1958 - The United States entered the space age by launching the first successful orbiting satellite, Explorer-I, four months after the Soviet launch of Sputnik on 4 Oct 1957.

1961 - The U.S. launched a 4-year-old male chimpanzee named Ham on a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket into suborbital flight to test the capabilities of the Mercury capsule. During his 16.5 minute suborbital flight, Ham experienced about 7 minutes of weightlessness, reached an altitude of 108 miles and a speed of 13,000 mph. He was wired to medical sensors to monitor his vital signs. During flight, Ham performed some simple tasks such as pulling levers when a light came on for a reward of banana pellets. Ham was recovered safely 1,425 miles downrange. This was a test flight before risking the lives of human beings. Now, after Ham's successful flight, NASA was ready to launch the first Mercury astronaut, Alan Shepard, into sub-orbital flight three months later.

1960 - Milkha Singh at Lahore sets record for 200m in 20.7s.

1963 - Peacock declared as National Bird of India.

1983 - The wearing of seat belts in cars became compulsory in Britain.

1985 - Under the 52nd Constitutional Amendment, Anti-Defector Bill was passed unanimously in Lok Sabha. This avoided the Representatives of People to switch over political parties.

1985 - The final Jeep rolled off the assembly line at the AMC plant in Ohio. (Willys MB Jeeps went into production in 1941 specifically for the military, arguably making them the oldest four-wheel drive mass-production vehicles now known as SUVs).

1996 - Asia's first Sports University inaugurated in Pune.

1997 - INS Vikrant, Indian Navy's first aircraft carrier, de-commissioned.

2012 - China tightens its control of monasteries following deadly protests in Tibet.

2015 - New Zealand professional golfer Lydia Ko, age 17, becomes the youngest No. 1 ranked golfer in the world, beating the record set by Tiger Woods in 1997 at age 21.

2018 - NASA Scientist's Tips to See the Super Blue Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse

Born

1923 - Major Som Nath Sharma; was the first recipient of the Param Vir Chakra, the highest Indian gallantry award. He was awarded the medal posthumously for his bravery in the Kashmir operations in November 1947.

1975 - Preity Zinta, actor.

RIP

1969 - Saint Meherbaba.

1994 - Milind Desai, 12, the youngest editor in Gujarati journalism.

2000 - K. N. Singh (Krishan Niranjan), actor (1 September 1908 – 31 January 2000).

2009 - Nagesh, Indian comedian actor in Kollywood.

Titbits

1990 - 1st McDonalds in Russia opens in Moscow, world's biggest McDonalds.

You may have known....

The oceans cover some 70 percent of Earth's surface, yet humans have only explored about 5 percent, meaning 95 percent of the planet's vast seas have never been seen.

Economic News

SBI raises bulk  & senior citizen deposit  rates by 50-140bps.

Budgetary support to PM employment scheme may be halved.

IT dept has provisional attached actor Shah rukh khan house in alibagh under Benami act.

Galaxy surfactants IPO subscribed 4 times.

Chief economic adviser assures growth is unlikely to be less than 7% in 2019

Dabur takes Marico to court for Trademark Infringement.

Maharashtra govt allowed the promoters to convert the SEZ into an integrated industrial township.

Max life,Birla Sun life,Tata AIA shortlisted to buy a significant stake in IDBI federal life insurance.

Bank of India Rs 3000 cr bad loans in a month by invoking standby letter of credit.

Investors ditch Gold ,as equity market soars.

Institute Of Chartered Accountant Of India: ICAI to carry study on Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

News From Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

"Ministry of Corporate Affairs has sought our opinion on accounting standards and disclosures of cryptocurrency in financial statements of companies," Member of Digital Accounting and Assurance Standard Board of ICAI, Debashis Mitra said.

He said a detailed study would be carried out about virtual currencies, a new phenomenon but importance of which is catching up rapidly globally.

The study was expected to be submitted to the Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA) by March this year. He was speaking at a seminar on corporate governance and Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017, organised by CII. He said, MCA would also take opinions from other expert agencies before taking a view on the subject.

GST data reveals 50% increase in number of Indirect Taxpayers

A preliminary analysis of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) data reveals that there has been a 50 per cent increase in the number of indirect taxpayers, according to the Economic Survey 2017-18 presented on Monday in the Parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Jaitley informed the House that as on December 2017, there were 9.8 million unique GST registrants, slightly more than the total Indirect Tax registrants, under the old system (where many taxpayers were registered under several taxes).

Therefore, adjusting the base for double and triple counting, the GST has increased the number of unique indirect taxpayers by more than 50 per cent –a substantial 3.4 million.

The profile of new filers is interesting of their total turnover, business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions account for only 17 per cent of the total.

It also underlines that the distribution of the GST base among the States is closely linked to the size of their economies, allaying fears of major producing States that the shift to the new system would undermine their tax collections.

January 30 : Small thinking and big dreams seldom co-exist.

On this day, 30 Jan....

1790- The first lifeboat - built specially to rescue people from stormy sea, the Original, was first tested at sea.

1844 - Richard Theodore Greener became the first African American to graduate from Harvard University.

1847 - The town of Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco.

1894 - Charles B. King of Michigan received a patent for the pneumatic hammer. Inside the hammer, a piston in a cylinder was driven by air pressure to hit a striker and tool. (Pneumatic tools had been developed and manufactured as early as 1883).

1911 - The first airplane rescue at sea was made by the destroyer "Terry." Pilot James McCurdy was forced to land in the ocean about 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.

1948 - Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Vinayak Godse. (Prior to his death, there had been five unsuccessful attempts to kill Gandhi, the first occurring in 1934).

1950 - Development of the hydrogen fusion bomb (H-bomb) was ordered by U.S. President Truman. The codename of "Super" for the project reflected the far greater power of this thermonuclear device over the earlier fission bombs used to end WW II.

1957 - An external artificial pacemaker with internal heart electrode was first used. (To maintain a patient's heartbeat rhythm an electrode was sewn to the wall of the heart and connected through the chest to an external desk-top pulse generator). However, such bulky equipment was not a good long-term solution since infection often occurred along the electrode wires, and the device required no interruption in the house electricity. Research was undertaken for use of a small portable external pacemaker for patients with heart block. This ultimately led to the development of the billion-dollar pacemaker industry.

1958 - Yves Saint Laurent, at age 22, held his first major fashion show in Paris.

1958 - The first two-way, moving sidewalk, 1,425 feet long, was put in service at Love Field Air Terminal in Dallas, Texas. It was known not only as a moving sidewalk, but also as a passenger conveyor.

1994 - Peter Leko became the world's youngest-ever grand master in chess.

1994 - Kapil Dev equals Richard Hadlee's world record of 431 Test wkts.

1996 - Mob ransacks Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Bangalore.

1997 - Mahatma Gandhi's ashes immersed in Sangam.

1998 - A new glue, Dermabond, able to replace painful stitches, won the unanimous vote of a medical advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration, US. As claimed the Dermabond could seal off certain wounds quickly, without the need for painful shots, With the use of Dermabond, a wound can be kept closed, sterile and flexible while it is healing. A doctor simply presses the cut's edges together and paints the glue across the top. Proper medical application takes skill and practice, so the glue isn't meant for home use.

2002 - Japan's last coal mine was closed. The closures were due to high production costs and cheap imports.

Born

1889 - Jaishankar Prasad, writer.

1913 - Amrita Sher-Gil, writer.

RIP

1528 - Rana Sanga of Mewar, who had built up an extensive and powerful kingdom over the central and western regions of Northern India.

Titbits

1798 - The first brawl in the U.S. House of Representatives took place. Congressmen Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold fought on the House floor.

You may have known....

Thunder and lightning reveal our planet's fiercer side. A single stroke of lightning can heat the air to around 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit (30,000 degrees Celsius), according to educational website Windows to the Universe, causing the air to expand rapidly. That ballooning air creates a shock wave and ultimately a boom, better known as thunder.

Economic survey reveals the economic growth back on track.

The billionaire singh brother Malvinder and Shivinder has been accused of siphoning off cash.

Sensex witness the biggest pre budget rally in 12 year.

Amazon has infused fresh capital to the tune of Rs 19.5 billion into its india unit.

Nine electoral trusts donated Rs 6.4 billion to parties in 4 years.

HDFC 3rd Qtr net profit jumps to Rs 56.7 billion,which is more than treble.

Taxpayer base up 50% since GST.

The Govt may allow to carry forward of losses for 8 yrs for buyers of insolvent companies.

No buyers for Malaya's villas,USL may have to cut prices.

The Govt may revise incentives and subsidies for the renewable energy sector.

Sebi recommends only certain qualified buyers will be permitted to trade in the security receipts issued by ARC's and Minimum lot size will be Rs 10 lakh.

January 29 : Accountants are in the past, managers are in the present, and leaders are in the future.

On this day, 29 Jan....

1856 - Britain's highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, was founded by Queen Victoria.

1886 - The first successful petrol-driven motorcar, built by Kanrl Benz, was patented. A three-wheeler vehicle with a Benz-designed one-cylinder four-stroke gasoline engine. This patent is recognised as the world's first patent—regarded as the birth certificate—for a practical internal combustion engine powered automobile.

1896 - Émil H. Grubbe, a Chicago researcher, became the first known to administer x-ray radiation treatment for the recurrent breast cancer of a fifty-five-year-old woman. (X-rays had been discovered the previous year in Germany).

1901 - The prolific black American inventor, Granville T. Woods, received one of his patents related to the operation of an electric railway. It applied to the kind of electric trains which take their power from conductors in the road-bed.

1924 - The first U.S. patent for an ice cream cone rolling machine was issued to Carl R. Taylor of Ohio, in which it was described as a “machine for forming thin, freshly baked wafers while still hot into cone shaped containers” for ice-cream.

1960 - An artificial kidney that operates without human monitoring was announced.

1987 - "Physician’s Weekly" announced that the smile on the face of Leonardo DeVinci's Mona Lisa was caused by a... "facial paralysis resulting from a swollen nerve behind the ear."

1992 - India and Israel decide to establish full diplomatic relations.

1993 - A daughter received lung material from both her mother and father to treat the effects of cystic fibrosis. This operation, performed in Los Angeles by Dr. Starnes at USC University Hospital, was the first in the world double-lobar living related transplant.

1998 - For the first time, a top tobacco company executive acknowledged the health risk of tobacco products under oath to US Congress. This testimony by Steven Goldstone, RJR Nabisco chairman and CEO, came at a hearing where industry leaders pushed Congress to enact a $368.5 billion deal giving them partial immunity from future lawsuits. As recently as 1994, seven tobacco industry executives had stood before the House Commerce Committee and sworn nicotine is not addictive.

1999 - Paris prosecutors announced the end of the investigation into the accident that killed Britain's Princess Diana.

2013 - For the first time since launching Google Maps, Google extends its data coverage of North Korea, filling in previously blank areas on most of the country with detailed maps that identify landmarks.

Born

1896 - Swami Paranabananda Brahamachari, founder of `Bharat Sevashram Sangha'.

RIP

1597 - Pratap Singh, Maharana of Mewar.

1983 - Piloo Mody, veteran Parliament member and senior leader of Janata Party.

You may have known....

Humans leave our mark on the planet in all sorts of weird ways. For example, nuclear tests in the 1950s threw a dusting of radioactivity into the atmosphere. Those radioactive particles eventually fell as rain and snow, and some of that precipitation got trapped in glaciers, where it forms a little "you are here" layer for scientists trying to date the age of glacial ice.

SEBI likely to tighten the net worth norms ,ease directorship conditions,and introduce

New shareholding rules for stock exchanges,depositories and clearing corp.

Jio to raise up to $2.2bn debt to fund Rcom deal.

Union budget to focus on kick starting investments.

The Govt has asked public sector banks to reduce corporate loan exposure.

Arcelor Mittal and Nippon tied are teaming up to jointly bid for bankrupt Essar steel.

SEBI asked brokers to collect more margin money from clients as stocks climb higher.

Several overseas funds investing in Indian bonds and debt funds through Mauritius route may face IT dept. scrutiny on the ground of beneficial ownership.

As dollar dips,exporters buy Euro and Pound futures.

Leadership changes likely in some PSB's.

January 28 : When eagles are silent, parrots begin to chatter.

On this day, 28 Jan....

1807 - London's Pall Mall became the first street of any city to be illuminated by gaslight.

1846 - Battle of Aliwal, Brits beat Sikhs in Punjab.

1878 - The first commercial telephone exchange in the U.S. was installed at New Haven, Connecticut, and served 21 subscribers connected by a single strand of iron wire. For the first six weeks, the exchange was not operated at night. Instead of "hello," the first experimental shout was "Ahoy, ahoy."

1887 - Work begins on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

1896 - The first speeding fine was handed out to a British motorist Walter Arnold for being caught doing 8 mph in a 2 mph built up zone, and was fined one shilling. That speed limit had been in force since 1865. (The speed limit was raised to 20 mph in 1903, and to 30 mph within built up areas in 1934, which it has remained ever since).

1911 - The famous Hope diamond, once worn by Marie Antoinette, was bought this night for over $300,000 by Ned McLean, son of John McLean. Mrs. McLean wore it as a head ornament, guarded by a former Secret Service man who in turn was guarded by two private detectives. Walnut-sized and exquisitely blue in color, the 44.5-carat stone stems from India. Its owners included Louis XIV, Louis XVI, and a London banker named Hope. A sinister history of ill luck, madness, and violent death clings to the unique gem.

1933 - The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan and is accepted by the Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.

1935 - Iceland became the first country to introduce legalized abortion.

1960 - The first wire photograph transmitted by radio waves bounced off the moon was sent between Hawaii and Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Navy, using 84-ft diameter parabolic antennas.

1998 - Andy Nelson and navigator Bertrand Piccard, in the balloon Breitling Orbiter II set the world record for endurance at nine days and 17 hours - or, to be exact, 233 hours and 55 minutes.

2010 - Five murderers of President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh hanged: Lieutenant Colonel Syed Faruq Rahman, Lieutenant Colonel Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Major AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Major Bazlul Huda and Lieutenant Colonel Mohiuddin Ahmed.

Born

1865 - Lala Lajpat Rai 'Punjab Kesari', great valiant freedom fighter, social reformer, humanitarian and lawyer.

1900 - General (Later Field Marshall) K.M. Cariappa, first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Army.

1925 - Raja Ramanna, scientist and fourth President of Indian Atomic Energy Commission.

1986 - Shruti Haasan, film actress.

RIP

1984 - Sohrab Meherwanji Modi, famous drama and film producer, director and actor.

Titbits

1887 - In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the world's largest snowflakes are reported, being 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick.

You may have known....

As the climate changes, glaciers are retreating and contributing to rising sea levels. It turns out that one particular glacier range is contributing a whopping 10 percent of all the meltwater in the world. That honour belongs to the Canadian Arctic, which lost a volume equivalent to 75 percent of Lake Erie between 2004 and 2009.

Ministry of Finance conduct performance review of heads of-12 banks

The finance ministry would soon initiate a performance review of heads of public sector banks that are under the RBI's Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) as part of the reform process, official sources said.

So far, the Reserve Bank has put 12 public sector banks (PSBs) under watch in view of lagging on certain performance parameters like unexpected level of high non-performing assets (NPAs), low capital level, low return on assets, etc.

These parameters indicate weak financial health of lending institutions and a need to initiate remedial measures to put them on a right course.

Performance review of the top level management of all such banks would be undertaken soon, official sources said.

During the current fiscal, IDBI Bank has been committed the highest infusion of Rs 10,610 crore, followed by Bank of India, Rs 9,232 crore and UCO Bank (Rs 6,507 crore).

Among other PCA lenders Central Bank of India was committed Rs 5,158 crore, Indian Overseas Bank - Rs 4,694 crore; Oriental Bank of Commerce Rs 3,571 crore; Dena Bank - Rs 3,045 crore; Bank of Maharashtra - Rs 3,173 crore; United Bank of India - Rs 2,634 crore; Corporation Ban Rs 2,187 crore and Allahabad Bank - Rs 1,500 crore by the end of 2017-18.

In a notification issued by RBI that time, the mandatory action that would be taken when a bank breaches the risk threshold includes restriction on dividend payment/remittance of profits, restriction on branch expansion, higher provisions, restriction on management compensation and director's fees.

Budget session of Parliament begins today

The Budget Session of Parliament will commence on Monday with the President's address to a joint sitting of both houses as the Narendra Modi government readies to present its last full Budget before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The first leg of the session will be between 29 January and 9 February during which the government will present the Economic Survey on 29 January, followed by the Union Budget on 1 February.

Following a recess after 9 February, the Parliament will meet again from 5 March to 6 April.The Rajya Sabha will also take up the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which proposes radical changes to the law with high penalties for various traffic offences, reported News18. It also provides for protection of those who come forward to help accident victims.

The Lok Sabha will discuss 28 bills this session:

• Bills referred to Joint Committees
• Bills returned to Lok Sabha
• Bills referred to Standing Committtees
• Bills not referred to Standing Committee
• Bill on which reports presented by Standing Committee

The Rajya Sabha will debate 39 bills this session:

• Bill, as reported by joint committee
• Bills as passed by Lok Sabha
• Bills not referred to Standing Committee
• Bill, as passed by Lok Sabha and as reported by Select Committee
• Bill referred to Select Committee and report presented
• Bills on which report presented by Standing Committee

उत्तर प्रदेश कासगंज: चंदन के अंत‍िम संस्कार के बाद फिर से भड़की हिंसा, दुकानों में आगजनी

लिपट कर तिरंगे में आज चन्दन आते है,

आज हम बड़ा शर्मनाक गणतंत्र मनाते है।

जब जब 26 जनवरी आएगी ।

तुम्हारी याद सभी को आएगी।

बिलख बिलख आज तेरी माता रोती है।

ओ लौट के आजा मेरे लाल

तुझे तेरे मीत बुलाते हैं।

File Photo Late Mr. Chandan Gupta

ॐ शांति शांति शांति ॐ
!! जय श्रीराम !!

उत्तर प्रदेश के कासगंज  में तिरंगा यात्रा के दौरान हुई साम्प्रदायिक झड़प में मारे गए युवक चंदन गुप्ता का शनिवार को कड़ी सुरक्षा के बीच अंतिम संस्कार किया गया. वहीं अंतिम संस्कार के बाद इलाके में फिर से हिंसा भड़क गई, जहां कुछ असामाजिक तत्वों ने दुकान और एक धार्मिक स्थल में आग लगा दी. मौके पर पहुंची पुलिस बल और आरएएफ ने हिंसा करने वाले लोगों को खदेड़ा. इस मामले में यूपी के गृह विभाग ने कासगंज जिला प्रशासन से रिपोर्ट मांगी हैं.

सीएम योगी आदित्यनाथ ने चंदन की मौत पर गहरा शोक जाहिर करते हुए प्रशासन से पीड़ित परिवार की हर संभव मदद करने के निर्देश दिए हैं. साथ ही प्रशासन को उपद्रवी तत्वों से सख्ती से निपटने के निर्देश दिए हैं।

January 27 : If we want different results, we must change the way we do things.

On this day, 27 Jan....

1880 - Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp he invented on 21 Oct 1879. Edison’s invention of the light bulb had a major impact on the electronics and computer industries.

1888 - National Geographic Society was established.

1921- In his address ' Geometry and Expansion ' Albert Einstein, applying certain results of the relativity theory, suggested the possibility of measuring the universe. It startled the audience.

1926 - Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of a true television system in London. Baird's invention was a pictorial transmission machine he called a “televisor,”. Baird's first television programme showed the heads of two ventriloquist dummies, which he operated in front of the camera apparatus out of view of the audience.(The BBC started the first public broadcasts in London in 1936. Regular television broadcasts began in the United States in 1939).

1943 - 1st US air attack on Germany.

1944 - After 872 days of the siege of Leningrad by German forces allowing no food or medical supplies to enter which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Russian lives, The Siege was finally broken.

1948 - 1st tape recorder sold.

1964 - E.I. duPont de Nemours Co. introduced Corfam. This hydrocarbon-based, synthetic substitute for leather was flexible, with tiny pores, for uses such as shoes, handbags, belts and suitcases. Shoes put on sale with Corfam uppers were supposed to give consumers the look, feel and durability of leather. DuPont predicted that by 1984, 25% of America's shoes would be made of Corfam. But synthetic leather was snubbed by customers in droves. After being seven years on the market, the product failed.

1970 - James M. Schlatter received a patent for “Peptide Sweetening Agents”, an invention which eventually led to the marketing of aspartame under the name NutraSweet.

1973 - The Vietnam war formally ended when ministers from the United States, North and South Vietnam and the Viet Cong signed an agreement in Paris.

1987 - P. T. Usha nominated the Asian Athlete of 1986 by the US Sports Academy.

2010 - Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, unveils a new invention, a tablet PC called the iPad, at a press conference in San Francisco.

Born

1922 - Ajit (Khan), actor.

1926 - General Arunkumar Vaidya, former Army Chief.

1967 - Bobby Deol, actor.

1969 - Vikram Bhatt, Screenwriter.

RIP

1972 - V. S. Sarvate (Tatya Saheb), great revolutionary writer.

2009 - R Venkataraman, lawyer, eighth President of India.

Titbits

1984 - Michael Jackson receives serious burns to his head after his hair caught light while singing his hit "Billie Jean" for a Pepsi Cola commercial in Los Angeles when the special effects went wrong.

1985 - Coca Cola starts distribution in the Soviet Union 12 years after Pepsi .

You may have known....

In Cameroon and on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo there are three deadly lakes: Nyos, Monoun and Kivu. All three are crater lakes that sit above volcanic earth. Magma below the surface releases carbon dioxide into the lakes, resulting in a deep, carbon dioxide-rich layer right above the lakebed. That carbon dioxide can be released in an explosion, asphyxiating any passersby.