1. London Olympics 2012: Gagan Narang wins the Bronze medal in the Men’s 10 –meter air rifle
With an impressive overall score of 701.1, Gagan Narang became the first Indian to win an individual medal in the ongoing London Olympics. Narang placed third after Alin George Moldonveanu of Romania, and Niccolo Campriani of Italy, who scored 702.1 and 701.5 respectively. However, compatriot and gold winner at Beijing Olympics, Abhinav Bindra, failed to qualify the preliminary rounds with a score of 594/600.
Following his victory at the Olympics, the Haryana government announced to reward Narang with a cash prize of Rs one crore for bringing laurels to the state and the country. Full story here.
2. Vijay Kumar wins Silver in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol
Taking India’s medal tally to two in the 2012 London Olympics, Vijay Kumar won the Silver in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event. The 26-year-old Commonwealth Games champion, who comes from Himachal Pradesh is an ex-armyman’s son, and he held his nerves in the six-man finale. Full story here.
3. 21 states go dark as three electricity grids collapse in a span of two days
More than 600 million Indians were affected as the North, East and North-Eastern grids tripped causing 21 states, including the capital, to go powerless.
The country’s worst blackout gravely affected the train services in six railway zones, with 300 trains coming to a halt. In Delhi, Metro rails stopped in their tracks inside the underground tunnels or several feet above in the streets due to the tripping of transmission lines, leaving the commuters stranded. Some 300 miners, who got trapped in coal mines in Bengal and Jharkhand as the lifts failed due to power outage, were rescued. The ex-Power Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde blamed the overdrawing of power by some states to be the cause of grid failure.
4. Chidambaram becomes the new Finance Minister, Shinde gets Home ministry
Following Pranab Mukherjee’s election as the new President, PM Manmohan Singh appointed P Chidambaram as the new Finance Minister while the charge of Home Ministry, which was previously held by Chidambaram, was given to Sushil Kumar Shinde, the now former Power Minister. Now, Corporate Affairs Minister M. Veerapa Moily has been given the additional charge of Power Ministry. These new appointments however have not gone down too well with the opposition or the masses. Full story here.
5. Iconoclastic author, Gore Vidal, dies of pneumonia at 86
Celebrated author, playwright, politician and commentator, Gore Vidal, died of complications from pneumonia at his home in Los Angeles. Born as Eugene Luther Vindal Jr. on October 3,1925 in New York, Gore was known for his witticism and his wisdom. Beautifully written novels like, “Burr”, “1876”, “Lincoln” and “The Golden age” earned him the title of being the’ Oscar Wilde of the modern age’. Vidal was also famous for being involved in verbal altercations with many celebrities as he never minced his words in public. He is survived by his half-sister Nina Straight and half brother Tommy Auchincloss. Full story here and here.
6. Michael Phelps creates history by winning the most number of Olympic medals
Phelps became the most decorated Olympian by winning the gold medal in 100 meters butterfly and bagging his 21st Olympic medal which was his 17th gold medal. In the London Olympics, Phelps has managed to break the 48-year record of Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina whose total medal tally was 18 medals. Full story here.
7. Four blasts shake the city of Pune; 1 injured
A series of four well coordinated blasts shook the city of Pune on Wednesday. Fortunately, no damage to the property was reported and only one person was injured as the blasts were of low intensity. The places where the blasts happened were in the heart of the city. While two bombs were placed in cake boxes, the other two were attached to bicycles. A preliminary forensic report stated that the explosive material used in the blasts was ammonium nitrate. Full story here.
8. Hotmail relaunched by Microsoft as Outlook
In a move to counter Google’s extremely popular email service Gmail, Microsoft launched Outlook.com as the newer, better and Facebook-friendly variant of Hotmail. This new version has been given sharp new looks, social networking links and new features for handling junk and mass mail in order to compete with the popular Gmail. This revamped version will also allow the users to make internet calls through Skype. Full story here.
9. India lifts ban on investments from Pakistan.
In a bid to improve the ties with the neighbouring country, the government lifted the ban on investments from Pakistan, which was the only country to face such a restriction. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board of India will review and approve all the proposals by Pakistani companies and individuals. However, investment proposals cannot be made for the sectors of defense, space and atomic energy. Full story here.
10. Blackberry maker Research in Motion ends standoff with Indian government; hands over the encryption key.
Bringing an end to its four year old deadlock with the government over providing encryption keys for its secure corporate emails and popular messenger services, the Blackberry maker Research in Motion(RIM) finally gave in to the government’s demands. The solution, offered by RIM to the government, has been developed by a firm called Verint and is capable of intercepting messages and emails and will make them available in a readable format. With this, India’s major desire of monitoring all communication on Blackberry smartphones on real time basis for security purposes has been satisfied. Full story here.
