25-26 JULY 2016
Moden Indian artist Syed Haider Raza dies
Renowned Indian artist Syed Haider Raza passed away on 23 July 2016 in New Delhi. He was 94.
Raza was world famous for his abstract paintings. His works had very rich use of colour, stocked with icons from Indian cosmology as well as its philosophy.
About S H Raza
•Raza is considered as one of Indian modern art's greatest painters.
•His works are mainly abstracts in oil or acrylic.
•He mostly lived and worked in France from 1950, but maintained strong ties with India.
•In 1959, he married the French artist Janine Mongillat, who died in 2002 of cancer, after which he decided to return to India.
•He was a founder-member of the Progressive Artists' Groupthat wished to break with the revivalist nationalism established by the Bengal school of art.
•He became one of India's priciest modern artist on 10 June 2010 when a seminal work,Saurashtra, was sold for 16.42 crore rupees at a Christie's auction.
•He was awarded the Padma Shriin 1981. In the same year, he was awarded the Fellowship of the Lalit Kala Akademi.
•He was honoured with the Padma Bhushanin 2007, and Padma Vibhushanin 2013.
•On 14 July 2015, he was conferred with the highest French civilian honour, the Commandeur de la Legion d'honneur (Legion of Honour).
Madhav Chitale committee constituted to prepare Guidelines for Desiltation of River Ganga
Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation on 22 July 2016 constituted a committee to prepare guidelines for desiltation of river Ganga.
Madhav Chitale, an Expert Member of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) has been appointed as Chairman of the committee. The tenure of the committee would be for a period of three months.
Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Committee are
• It will provide guidelines for desiltation of river Ganga from Bhimgauda (Uttarakhand) to Farakka (West Bengal).
• It will establish difference between desilting and sand mining in the river.
• It will establish need for desilting for ecology and e-flow of the river Ganga.
The other members of the four-member committee are
• Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
• Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change
• Dr. Mukesh Sinha, Director, Central Water and Power Research Station, Pune
Background
The committee was constituted in the backdrop of Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti’s call to form a committee which will look after desiltation of river Ganga. She announced the plan of constituting the committee while chairing the 6th meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority in New Delhi on 4 July 2016.
Neeraj Chopra becomes first Indian to win gold in World Athletics championships
Neeraj Chopra, the javelin thrower from India, on 23 July 2016 won gold in the IAAF World Under-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. With this, Neeraj, 18, managed to set a new world record (U-20) of 86.48m.
His 86.48m effort also helped India in bringing its first world record as well as the country’s first-ever gold in any World athletics championships.
South African Johan Grobler with 80.59m took the silver and Anderson Peters with 79.65m of Granada the bronze.
Neeraj Efforts for the Gold
• Neeraj began the proceedings with an effort of 79.66m that put him second place after the first round behind Grobler who had touched 80.59m with his opening effort.
• In the second attempt, the Indian came up with his massive throw that measured a new world record distance.
• In the third attempt, he came up with another impressive effort that measured 78.36m.
• His fourth and last attempt ended in a foul.
The previous record of 84.69m was set by Latvia's Zigismunds Sirmais in 2011.
Feliciano Lopez wins 2016 Swiss Open Gstaad
Top-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain on 24 July 2016 defeated Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-4, 7-5 to win the 2016 Swiss Open Gstaad.
It is Lopez’s first title on clay and his fifth overall.
Who is Feliciano Lopez?
•Feliciano Lopez is a professional tennis player on the ATP Tour.
•He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world no. 12 in March 2015.
•He has appeared in more consecutive majors than anyone, dating back to the 2002 French Open.
•In 2005, he was the first male Spanish tennis player to reach the quarterfinals of Wimbledon since 1972. He repeated the feat in 2008 and 2011.
•He was the winner of the 2004 Vienna Open, the 2010 Johannesburg Open and the Eatsbourne open in 2013 and 2014.
About Swiss Open
•The Swiss Open is a tennis tournament held in Gstaad, Switzerland.
•It is held since 1915.
•The tournament is played on outdoor clay courts.
•The 2016 Swiss Open Gstaad was the 49th edition of the Swiss Open, and a part of the ATP World Tour 250 Series of the 2016 ATP World Tour.
•Austria’s Dominic Thiem was the winner of the 2015 Swiss Open Gstaad.
Bappi Lahiri conferred Mahanayak Samman of West Bengal
Bappi Lahiri, the renowned music director and singer, was conferred with West Bengal’s Mahanayak Samman awards on 24 July 2016 by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Nazrul Mancha.
Bappi Lahiri was awarded for his outstanding performances over the years.
Other awards conferred on the occasion includes
• Best director: Goutam Ghose and Kaushik Ganguly
• Best actor (male) awards: Paran Bandyopadhyay and Jishu Sengupta
• Best actor (female) award: Sohini Sarkar
• Bishesh Sangeet Samman: Dwijen Mukhyopadhyay, Ajoy Chakraborty and Sandhya Mukherjee.
• Maha Sangeet Samman: Shantanu Moitra, Mohammad Aziz, Kumar Bose and Shibaji Chattopadhyay.
• Special Sangeet Samman: Sriradha Bandyopadhyay, Dileep Kumar Bose, Fakir Alamgir, and Nachiketa
• Best Bengali films: Bela sheshe and Shankhachil
Goutam Ghose, a critically-acclaimed filmmaker, is known for helming National Award winning films like Sankhachil and Abar Aranye.
Mahanayak Samman awards
The Mahanayak Samman awards were instituted in 2012 in the memory of Bengali matinee idol Uttam Kumar who is revered in this part of India as "Mahanayak (Great hero)". It is the highest film award given by the West Bengal government for outstanding performance of the artists of Bengali cine-world.
The state government felicitates actors, technicians and music directors at this annual event on the occasion of the death anniversary of Uttam Kumar on July 24.
<td ">Uttam Kumar
- He was an Indian film actor, director, producer, singer and music composer, playback singer who predominantly worked in Indian Cinema.
- He is widely regarded as the greatest actor of Bengali cinema, and also among the greatest actors ever in India.
- Through his career he earned commercial as well as critical success, and he remains as an Indian cultural icon.
- Raj Kapoor said that Uttam Kumar is Smart Modern Hero of India.
- Vyjayanthimala said Uttam lip-synced perfectly"from other hero's.
- Chatterjee was born on 3 September 1926 as Arun Kumar. He died on 24 July 1980.
- He was a recipient of many awards over his lifetime, including National Film Award for Best Actor.
- A Metro Station in Kolkata was renamed in his honour.
National Film Awards
- National Film Award for Best Actor for Chiriyakhana and Antony Firingee in 1968 in 15th National Film Award (he was the first actor to get that).
- He received 1963 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali: Uttar Falguni (as producer).
- In 1955, he got recognition from the Union Government of India for Harano Sur
A Kanyakumari becomes first woman violinist to receive Sangita Kalanidhi Award
The Madras Music Academy on 24 July 2016 announced that it has chosen versatile violinist A. Kanyakumari for its coveted Sangita Kalanidhi Award for the year 2016.
Kanyakumari was unanimously named for the award by the Executive Committee of the Academy.
The violinist is the first woman violinist to get the award in the history of the Music Academy. She will preside over the 90th annual conference of the Academy to be held between 15 December 2016 and 1 January 2017.
The award will be conferred on Kanyakumari at the Sadas on 1 January 2017.
The Sangita Kala Acharya Awardswill go to Rudrapatnam brothers, R.N. Thyagarajan and R.N. Tharanathan and K. Venkataramanan.
TTK awardswill be conferred on vocalist Nirmala Sundararajanand Thevaram singer M. Kodilingam.
Musicologist Awardwill go to Rama Kausalyaand Pappa Venkatramaiah Awardwill go to violinist Sikkil Baskaran.
The Nataya Kala Acharaya Awardwill be conferred on Malavika Sarukkaion 3 January 2017.
Who is A Kanyakumari?
•Avasarala Kanyakumari is a violinist from South India who specializes in Carnatic music.
•She is a native of Vijayanagaram, Andhra Pradesh.
•She has been living in Chennai for more than 40 years.
•She had her initial training under Ivaturi Vijayeswara Rao.
•She created seven ragas under the title Saptadri, seven names of Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati.
About Sangita Kalanidhi
•Sangita Kalanidhi is the title awarded yearly to an expert Carnatic Musician by the Madras Music Academy.
•This honour is considered one of the highest awards in Carnatic music.
•In 2015, vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyan was awarded with the title.
Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli resigns ahead of a no-confidence vote
Nepal's Prime Minister, Khadga Prasad Oli, on 24 July 2016 resigned from his office. He resigned ahead of a no-confidence vote.
Oli’s resignation, who was heading Nepal’s eighth government in past 10 years, threw the nation into a fresh political turmoil.
Oli, 64, who became prime minister of Nepal in October 2015, has been facing a no-trust motion after the Maoists withdrew support from the coalition government.
Oli tendered his resignation after two key ruling alliance partners -- Madhesi People's Rights Forum-Democratic and Rastriya Prajatantra Party -- decided to support the no-confidence motion tabled against him by the Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-Maoist Centre led by Prachanda.
The allies of the multi-party coalition deserted his government by accusing him of not honouring the power sharing deals that helped install him as prime minister nine months ago.
Key Highlight of Oli’s government was adoption of the new constitution, which was regarded as the first dawn of the country and would help to bolster Nepal’s transformation to a democratic republic.
The constitution was termed as a democratically-framed constitution because it was conceptualized, developed and adopted by a representative Constituent Assembly.
Scientists decide to launch field trials of oil-degrading bacteria in Kochi
The Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute of Plant Sciences, Kozhikode, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) in July 2016 joined hands to launch field trials oil-degrading bacteria in Kochi.
The scientists will undertake the trail to establish the oil-degrading properties of three new strains of bacteria.
The oil-degrading properties of these bacteria will pave the way for the development of bioremediation agents to clean up petroleum pollutants from the environment.
The oil-degrading bacteria
•The three new strains including two species of Burkholderia and one species of Pseudomonas have been sequenced and submitted to the Genbank database on organisms.
•Scientists at the Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute of Plant Sciences have completed the sequencing of a new species of oil-degrading soil fungi belonging to the Paecilomyces genus.
•They have also isolated 110 dye-yielding and anti-microbial compounds from two species of bryophytes (lower group of plants like mosses and hornworts).
•Besides, 30 anti-bacterial compounds have also been isolated from two species of lichens.
What is bioremediation?
•Bioremediation is the use of either naturally occurring or deliberately introduced microorganisms to consume and break down environmental pollutants. It is done to clean a polluted site.
•It may occur on its own or may only effectively occur through the addition of fertilizers, oxygen, and more. The addition of oxygen, fertilizers etc. help in enhancing the growth of the pollution-eating microbes within the medium, which is known as biostimulation.
•However, not all contaminants are easily treated by bioremediation using microorganisms. For example, cadmium, lead etc.
•There are a number of cost advantages to bioremediation, which can be employed in areas that are inaccessible without excavation. For example, introducing bioremediation at hydrocarbon spills or certain chlorinated solvents, which may contaminate groundwater, may significantly reduce contaminant concentrations.
Wrestler Narsingh Yadav fails Dope Test
Narsingh Yadav, the Indian wrestler qualifier for Rio Olympics, in July 2016 failed a dope test. He was tested positive for a banned substance steroid in an out-of-competition test conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
In the samples collected at the National camp in Sonepat, he was tested positive for the methandienone — a banned anabolic steroid.
A former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist qualified for the Rio Olympics in the 74kg freestyle category ahead of the two-time Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar.
The result means that Narsingh Yadav may miss out on participating in the coming Rio Olympics and if found guilty by the disciplinary panel then he may face a four-year suspension.
Narsingh Yadav failing dope test is a big blow to India in the Olympics as he was an Olympic medal prospect. Also, there are no chances of Sushil Kumar benefitting from the episode as last date for sending Olympic entries, July 18, is well behind them now.
26 July
Lok Sabha passes Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2016
The Lok Sabha on July 25, 2016 passed the Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
The Bill seeks to amend the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, which declares certain Institutes of Technology as institutions of national importance.
Highlights of the Bill
• The Bill seeks to add six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, Palakkad in Kerala, Goa, Dharwar in Karnataka, Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, and Jammu.
• It also seeks to bring the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad within the ambit of the Act. All these institutions will be declared as institutions of national importance.
• The Bill provides for the incorporation of IIT (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad. It states that until the statutes in relation to IIT (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad are made under the Act, the statutes applicable to IIT Roorkee will apply to it.
The Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in Lok Sabha by the Minister of Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar, on 19 July 2016.
Haryana notifies Freight Assistance Scheme for exporting MSMEs
Haryana Government on 25 July 2016 notified the "Freight Assistance Scheme" for the exporting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) located anywhere in the State.
It has given time till September 9 to submit the claim application on the web portal of the Industries and Commerce department for the financial year 2015-16.
The decision was taken in backdrop of the additional cost that is borne by the MSMEs exporting unit located in the state due to large distances from the sea ports. This distance results in making their products non-competitive in comparison to the exporting units located in the coastal area.
In order to enhance competitiveness of exporting units, this scheme would defray the transportation cost.
Under the scheme the freight assistance to the extent of one percent of Free on Board (FOB) value or actual freight excluding government fee and taxes on transportation of goods from place of manufacture to the sea port, whichever is less and maximum up to 20 lakh rupees per annum, would be given for export of goods, manufactured by the exporting MSME set-up anywhere in the state.
The assistance would be admissible only in case of direct export of the goods manufactured by the exporting unit and no amount would be given for export by air.
Buddha Rashmi Mani appointed as Director General of National Museum
Noted archaeologist Buddha Rashmi Mani was on 25 July 2016 appointed as Director General of National Museum for three years or till attaining the age of 70 years. His appointment was approved by Appointments Committee of Cabinet.
He had retired as Additional Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 2015.
About Buddha Rashmi Mani
• Earlier, he had supervised the excavation work in the disputed Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya in 2003.
• During his 30-year stint with the ASI, he led excavations in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
• Mani is also General Secretary of the Indian Archaeological Society where he edits the journal Puratattva.
• A BHU alumnus, Mani did his PhD on the Kushanas.
Background
Mani and his team courted controversy in 2003 when their excavation report stated that features of a 10th-century temple were found beneath the site where the 16th-century Babri Masjid stood until its demolition in 1992.
The Allahabad High Court later directed the ASI to replace Mani as leader of the excavation team.
Solar Impulse 2 completes first round-the-world journey
The first round-the-world solar powered flight by Solar Impulse 2 was completed on 26 July 2016 after the aircraft landed successfully in Abu Dhabi.
The plane has travelled 26744 miles since setting off from Abu Dhabi. The aircraft has racked up 558 hours of flight time.
About Solar Impulse 2
•Construction of Solar Impulse 2 started in 2011.
•The wingspan of Solar Impulse 2 is 71.9 m, slightly less than that of an Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner.
•It is made of carbon-fibre.
•It weighs only about 2.3 tonnes.
•It features a non-pressurized cockpit 3.8 cubic metres in size and advanced avionics, including an autopilot.
•It has 17248 solar cells built into the wings that supply the plane with renewable energy, via four motors.
•It was first publicly displayed on 9 April 2014.
•Its inaugural flight took place on 2 June 2014, piloted by Markus Scherdel.
•The aircraft reached its maximum altitude during a flight on 28 October 2014.
•By the end of May 2015, the plane had traversed Asia.
•It made an unscheduled stop in Japan to await favourable weather over the Pacific.
•The aircraft began the flight from Japan to Hawaii on 28 June 2015.
•Piloted by Andre Borschberg, the plane reached Hawaii on 3 July 2015, setting new records for the world's longest solar-powered flight both by time (117 hours, 52 minutes) and distance (7212 km).
•The plane landed at Moffett Field in California on 23 April 2016.
•With Bertrand Piccard in the cockpit, the aircraft crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Seville, Spain, on 23 June 2016.
•The aircraft next landed in Cairo, Egypt, on 13 July 2016.
•On 23 July 2016, the plane departed Cairo and landed in Abu Dhabi on 26th July 2016.
Sanjiv Puri appointed as Chief Operating Officer of ITC Ltd
Sanjiv Puri was on 25 July 2016 appointed as the Chief Operating Officer of Kolkata-based ITC Ltd. with immediate effect. He will be responsible for running day-to-day operations of the company as COO, a position created for the first time at ITC.
With this appointment, Puri has emerged the front-runner to succeed ITC Chairman YC Deveshwar, who will step down as Executive Chairman of ITC in February 2017. He will continue as Non-Executive Chairman for at least three years thereafter.
About Sanjiv Puri
• A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, Puri joined ITC in 1986 and worked his way through several functions.
• His first major break came in 2001 when he was appointed the managing director of Surya Nepal, a subsidiary of ITC, which became one of the largest private companies in Nepal.
• He led ITC Infotech India Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary, as its Managing Director between May 2006 and August 2009.
• Puri became Divisional Chief Executive of the Tobacco Division of ITC in 2009, handling additionally the charge of ITC’s Trade Marketing and Distribution function.
• In 2014, Puri became the president of the company’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business.
Tetsuya Takano resigns as Chairman of Ricoh India Ltd
Tetsuya Takano on 25 July 2016 resigned as the Chairman and Director of Ricoh India Ltd. Takano was succeeded by Ian Peter Winham with immediate effect.
About Ian Peter Winham
• Winham joined the Ricoh Group in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in 2002 as CFO.
• He was appointed Executive Vice President, CIO and CFO of Ricoh Europe in 2007.
• In 2014, he took on a global role as Head of Global Capital Management.
• In April 2016, he was appointed Corporate Vice President of Ricoh Company Ltd.
Comment
Takano's resignation came following the disclosure of Ricoh India that found its accounts falsified and estimated to incur a loss of 1123 crore rupees for the fiscal year that ended 31 March 2016.
Union Government plans to redraw Red Corridor
Union Government has decided to reduce the number of Maoist-affected districts by about a fifth.
As per reports, about 20 out of 106 districts described as being Maoist-affected and part of the Red Corridor may soon no longer be part of the list.
Dropping of these districts from the list will result in drying of the financial aid given to the districts. The aid was being provided to the tune of 30 crore rupees annually for various developmental work.
Highlights
• The red corridor expands in 106 districts of 10 states of the country. The ten states are Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
• These districts are described as those affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) and constitute the Red Corridor.
• 44 districts of these 106 are said to be the worst affected districts. In total India constitutes of 683 districts.
Features on which districts are termed as LWE includes
• Their violence profile
• Assessment of the kind of logistical and other support that is provided to the Maoist cadres by their sympathizers
In 2006, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred to the Naxalites as "the single biggest internal security challenge" for India. He said that the "deprived and alienated sections of the population" forms the backbone of the Maoist movement in India. Later in 2013, the government declared that, 76 districts in the country were affected by "left wing extremism", with another 106 districts in ideological influence.
Project started to culminate LWE and Red Corridor
Union Government has launched an exercise under which the Maoist-affected districts were identified. They were graded on the basis of their violence profile. The Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) has given the go-ahead for an ambitious road project in the 44 worst-affected districts. Under the project about 5412 kilometer road and 126 bridges will be constructed at an expense of 11725 crore rupees.
Brazilian scientists discover another type of Zika-transmitting mosquito
Brazilian researchers on 21 July 2016 announced that they have found another species of mosquito, which is able to transmit the Zika virus to humans.
The scientists found the presence of the Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito infected by the Zika virus in three out of 80 groups of mosquitoes analysed up until now.
The 80 groups were from the metropolitan area of Recife, Brazil.
Until now, transmission of the virus was only known through the Aedes aegypti mosquitos, which are also responsible for the spread of dengue and chikungunya.
About Culex quinquefasciatus
• The Culex quinquefasciatus is known as domestic mosquito in Brazil.
• It is a medium-sized mosquito found in tropical and subtropical regions of the world.
• It is the vector of Wuchereria bancrofti, avian malaria and arboviruses.
• Its genome was sequenced in 2010, and was shown to have 18883 protein-coding genes.
Second phase of the Feed the Future-India Triangular Training Programme launched
Second phase of the Feed the Future-India Triangular Training Programme was launched on 25 July 2016. The programme was launched in New Delhi by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID).
The programme will provide specialized agriculture training to 1500 agricultural professional across Africa and Asia.
Objectives of Training: To address human and institutional capacity gaps in food & nutritional security in select African and Asian countries.
Key Highlights of the Second Phase
• Under this 32 Training programme of 15 day-duration will be conducted in India and 12 Training programs of 10 days duration will be conducted in selected African and Asian Countries during 2016-20.
• The entire expenditure will be met by USAID and National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), Hyderabad.
• The training areas will be identified based on demand analysis conducted in participating countries.
• The programme covers 17 countries and they are
a) In Asia: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Vietnam
b) In Africa: Kenya, Malawi, Liberia, Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Tanzania, Sudan, Botswana and Ethiopia
Earlier, a team of faculty of MANAGE visited Cambodia and Vietnam in Asia and Tanzania and Mozambique in Africa as part of Demand analysis.
Comment
The programme will help in harnessing the expertise and innovation of the two countries, i.e. India and the US, which in return will unlock new opportunities to address global development challenges. It will also help in bringing closure of the shared objective of eliminating global poverty and hunger.
Background
A new Agriculture Partnership between US and India to achieve Ever Green Revolution to address Global Food Security was announced during the State visit of US President Barak Obama to India in November 2010.
The effort included Triangular Cooperation adapting technological advances and innovative solutions to address Food Security Challenges in Africa. This pilot stage focused on three African Countries i.e., Kenya, Liberia and Malawi with potential to expand throughout the African Continent in future.
Flipkart acquires online fashion portal Jabong
Flipkart Ltd on 26 July 2016 acquired online fashion portal Jabong through its unit Myntra in a move to maintain its position as the market leader. However, the financial details of the deal were not revealed.
This acquisition will strengthen Flipkart Group's position in Fashion and Lifestyle segment to compete with Amazon Fashion in India.
About Jabong
• Jabong was founded in 2012 .
• In September 2014, its investor Rocket Internet merged Jabong with four online fashion retailers in Latin America, Russia, the Middle East, South-east Asia to create Global Fashion Group (GFG).
• It offers more than 1500 international high-street brands, sports labels, Indian ethnic and designer labels and over 150000 styles from over a thousand sellers.
Background
Global Fashion Group has been on the lookout for a buyer of Jabong for the last few months. The company was in touch with Snapdeal as well as Future Group and Amazon, but a deal failed to pass through.
In 2014, Amazon reportedly wanted to acquire Jabong but it couldn't due to the price tag that was a steep 1.2 billion US dollars.