*CURRENT AFFAIRS (04:07:2014)

1. Centre brings onion and potato under the purview of stock holding
limits under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
- This will empower the State Governments to undertake de-hoarding
operations and to control the prices of onions and potatoes.
- The Act provides for the regulation and control of production,
distribution and pricing of commodities, which are declared as
essential for maintaining or increasing supplies or for securing their
equitable distribution and availability at fair prices.
2. NASA launches Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite,
designed to track carbon dioxide (green house gases), into space.
- The satellite was launched aboard Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air
Force Base in California.
- Its predecessor OCO-1 had resulted in a launch-failure in 2009 after
a hardware failure with the Taurus XL rocket plunged it into the ocean
off Antarctica.
3. Direct Rail link to Katra (Vaishno Devi) inaugurated.
4. National Dairy Development Board's report :-
- Indian dairy sector has grown by over 4.2 % annually in in last 10
years as against just 2.2% of world's.
- The per capita availability of milk in the country stands at 296
gram per day which is more than the world's average.
- By 2020 demand of milk is going to touch more than 200 million tonne.
- In next 10 years an increase of 6 million tonne per year is required
to meet the growing demand.
5. Michelle Howard becomes the first women admiral in 236 year old
history of US Navy.
- The four-star admiral in US Navy happens to be the highest rank an
officer can achieve.
6. Swamy Goud is elected as the Chairman of the 40-member Telangana
Vidhan Parishad (Legislative Council).
- The ruling party (TRS) candidate blanked out congressman Farooq
Hussain by 21 votes to zero.
- Vidhan Parishad, a state equivalent of Rajya Sabha, is the upper
house and permanent body that can't be dissolved
- Currently there are seven states with legislative council : Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar
Pradesh and Telangana.
7. The Union, State and Union Territory governments unanimously
resolve to work together to provide housing for all by the year 2022.
- Housing and construction industry supports more than 250 ancillary
industries and contributes 9% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of
the country