Egypt got country’s first freely elected President

Egypt got country’s first freely elected President, Mohamed Morsy, succeeding Hosni Mubarak who was ousted 16 months ago. Mohamed Morsy was sworn in Saturday before Egypt’s highest court.

New ISAC director appointed

K. Shivakumar, scientist and associate director of the Indian Space Research Organisation Satellite Centre (ISAC) took over as its director, succeeding T. K. Alex.
ISAC at Bangalore is engaged in developing satellite technology and implementation of satellite systems for scientific, technological and application missions.

Current account deficit soars

According to The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Current Account Deficit (CAD) rose to $78.2 billion (4.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP)) in 2011-12 from $ 46 billion (2.7 per cent of GDP) in 2010-11, “largely reflecting higher trade deficit on account of subdued external demand and relatively inelastic imports of oil and gold and silver”.
It also said that foreign exchange reserves declined by $12.8 billion for the year ended March 31, 2012, against an increase of $13.1 billion during the previous year.
“The stress witnessed in India’s Balance of Payments (BoP) in the third quarter continued during the fourth quarter of 2011-12 as well due to large increase in imports,” the RBI said.