DAILY UPDATED CURRENT AFFAIRS - 12.03.2015 TO 14.03.2015
DAILY UPDATED CURRENT AFFAIRS
National Maharashtra government would be A special CBI Court in New Delhi has developing a new city - 'NAINA' - over an summoned former PM Manmohan Singh as area of 600 sq km around the upcoming an accused in the allocation of Talabira-II Navi Mumbai International Airport. coal block in Odisha in 2005 along with As a part of the smart city mission of the industrialist K.M Birla, ex-coal Secretary Centre, the state government will develop 30 P.C. Parakh and 3 others. towns, focusing on "themes" such as Backed by RJD, Congress and independent education, medical, entertainment, industry, MLA, CM Nitish Kumar won the confidence etc vote in Bihar Assembly. The State also announced that for the The Land Acquisition Bill was passed in the prohibition of slaughter of cows, bulls and Lok Sabha with 294 votes in favour. The bullocks, the Maharashtra Animal govt. conceded the demands like : Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 1995 had . Land for industrial corridor to be been passed by the state legislature, and with acquired up to 1 km on both sides of the President's recent assent, it had now railway lines or roads; employment to at come into force least one member of the affected family. The Union Minister of Chemicals & . Redressal of grievances at the district Fertilizers Shri Ananth Kumar launched level where the land is acquired. „Pharma Jan Samadhan‟ scheme . It is a web . Land for Private Hospitals and enabled system for redressal of consumers‟ Educational Institute not to be acquired. grievances relating to pricing and . Extent of land proposed to be acquired availability of medicines, created by should be bare minimum required for National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority the project Survey of the Wasteland. (NPPA). As per report of govt. of India, India stands Shri Ananth Kumar also released 7th in the world in number of nuclear Compendium of Ceiling Prices of Essential reactors in operation and 14th in terms of net Medicines 2015 prepared by NPPA. installed capacity. Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers Solar Impulse-II world‟s first solar powered Sh. Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and the airplane arrived in India as part of its global Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals tour. Dr. V.K. Subburaj were also present during Punjab has been included in the Green the launch ceremony. Corridor Mission Project by union New & The Supreme Court has said high courts Renewable Energy Ministry for cannot entertain pleas under writ jurisdiction development of Solar Power. against verdicts of the Armed Forces India and Mauritius will work together to Tribunal (AFT) in disputes pertaining to avoid the “abuse” of double taxation armed forces. avoidance convention, Prime Minister Justices SJ Mukhopadhaya and NV Ramana Narendra Modi declared as the two countries said that if a high court entertains a petition agreed to push negotiations for a long under Article 226 of the Constitution against pending revision of the treaty. the order passed by the AFT, it would Modi is on a two day visit to the island bypassing the machinery of statute as nation of Mauritius addressed the National enshrined in the AFT Act, and there is Assembly of Mauritius. likelihood of anomalous situation for the Often corporates have been accused of aggrieved person in praying for relief from laundering money through the "Mauritius this court. route" for channelling FDI in India and the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has signed two governments have been in negotiations a MOU with Indian Railways to provide a to curb this practice. Financial Assistance of Rs 1.5 lakh crore to This is why Prime Minister Modi and Sir Indian Railways for development of its Anerood Jugnauth agreed to push forward various commercially viable infrastructure their negotiations for a long pending revision projects.The MoU was signed by Financial of Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty Commissioner (Railways) Rajalakshmi (DTAT). Ravikumar and LIC Chairman SK Roy in presence of Union Finance Minister Arun
Leading Institute for Banking, Railway & SSC B – 61 A & B, (2nd floor) Janpath, Opp. R.D. Women’s College, Saheed Nagar, Bhubaneswar, 1 Ph. : (0674) 6556677, 8093556677. Web : www.vanik.org, E-mail : [email protected]
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Jaitley and the Minister of Railways Suresh The Insurance Law (Amendment) Bill 2015 Prabhu. was passed by the Rajya Sabha which will The Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill, 2015 replace the ordinance proclaimed by NDA was passed in the Parliament on 11 March govt. It will allow raising of FDI in 2015. The Bill seeks to amend the Motor insurance from 26% to 49%. It will result in Vehicles Act, 1988 and replace the insurance penetration from 3.8% to 6% in ordinance promulgated in this regard the country. Provision of the bill Highlights : It brings e-carts and e-rickshaws under ambit . The premium paid by the policy holders of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 so they can will not flow out of the country. ply on roads across the country. . The interest of the policy holders will be It defines e-carts and e-rickshaws as special protected. Imprisonment upto 10 yrs for purpose battery powered vehicles with selling policies without registration. power up to 4000 watts and having 3 wheels. . Provision for increased penalty to deter These vehicles can be used for carrying multilevel marketing of insurance. goods or passengers. . 15% of the premium should be invested These vehicles should be manufactured, in building infrastructure. equipped and maintained in accordance with CBI has exposed the biggest ever corporate specifications as prescribed by Union espionage module operating in the Finance government. and Commerce Ministry regarding govt‟s It exempts drivers of e-rickshaw and e-cart foreign investment policies. from the requirement of learner‟s licence to The Law Commission has recommended a drive. slew of changes to the electoral process and It gives powers to Union government to recommended a candidate should contest make Rules on the specifications for e-carts from one constituency only. and e-rickshaws, and the conditions and A consortium of 7 IITs has submitted a manner for issuing driving licenses. report on Ganga River Basin Management Union Minister Human Resource Plan 2015 to the govt. Development (HRD) Smriti Irani in the Lok Central govt. has asked the J & K govt. to Sabha has announced that India‟s literacy challenge the bail of separatist leader Masrat rate has risen to 72.98 per cent in 2011 Alam. compared to 64.84 per cent in 2001. As per India may soon get a General No-1 who will population census 2011, the number of be another 4-state officer in addition to the illiterates have declined to 28.27 crore from Army, Navy & Air force Chief to bring 30.41 crore in 2011 in the country. schemes synergy among the 3 services. like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in 2001-02, A three-day Indian Panorama Film Festival enforcement of the Right of children to Free organised by the Directorate of Film and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 Festivals was inaugurated by Meghalaya and Saakshar Bharat programme has risen Chief Minister Mukul Sangma in Shillong Country‟s literacy rate. The Saakshar Bharat with the screening of the award-winning Scheme‟s objective is to raise the literacy Marathi film Dr. Prakash Baba Amte: The level to 80 per cent and reduce the gender Real Hero.The festival will present a gap by the end of XII Five Year plan i.e. by bouquet of best of contemporary Indian the end of 2017. Cinema produced in different languages. Delhi High Court in its ruling has held that Total of 12 films will be screened in this office of Attorney General of India is a festival. The films to be screened during the public-authority under purview of 'Right-To- festival are Drishyam (Malayalam), Information' (RTI) Act 2005. This ruling December 1 (Kannada), Kuttram Kadithal reversed the previous decision of the Central (Tamil), Ankhon Dekhi (Hindi), Othello Information Commission (CIC) which had (Assamese), Ri (Khasi), Teenkahon held that Attorney General does not come (Bengali) and Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona under RTI Act. The decision was given by (Bengali). Delhi High Court bench headed by Justice The Bombay High Court directed Vibhu Bakhru while hearing on two separate Maharashtra government to frame a policy pleas filed by RTI activists Subhash Chandra and set up redressal mechanism whereby a Agarwal and RK Jain. common man can lodge a complaint about noise levels and prompt action can be taken
Leading Institute for Banking, Railway & SSC B – 61 A & B, (2nd floor) Janpath, Opp. R.D. Women’s College, Saheed Nagar, Bhubaneswar, 2 Ph. : (0674) 6556677, 8093556677. Web : www.vanik.org, E-mail : [email protected]
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by the authorities before the festival gets traditional systems of health and over. The division bench of Justices A S Oka medicine in both countries. It also aims and A S Gadkari on their verdict said that at promotion and popularization of the every citizen has the fundamental right to various Indian traditional systems which silence and to live in peace and comfort and fall under AYUSH. organisers of religious festivals cannot Beside the summit-level talks and exchange violate it. of documents of the MoUs, India also offered a concessional line of credit of 500 Bilateral million US dollars to Mauritius for key India and Mauritius inked 5 Memorandum infrastructure projects. of Understandings (MoUs) to give new India and Sri Lanka has signed four impetus to bilateral co-operation between the agreements, including on cooperation in two nations. The MoUs were signed in Port customs, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi Luis in presence of Prime Minister Narendra held talks with Sri Lankan President Modi and his Mauritian counterpart Sir Maithripala Sirisena during his maiden visit Anerood Jugnuth. to the island nation as part of three-nation of The five MoUs which were signed Indian Ocean tour of Mauritius, Seychelles between the two nations include and Sri Lanka. . MoU in the field of Ocean Economy: The four agreements signed are The agreement provides for mutually . Agreement on visa. beneficial cooperation for exploration . Agreement on customs. and capacity development in the field of . Agreement on youth development. marine resources, fisheries, green . Agreement on building memorial of tourism, research and development of Rabindranath Tagore in Sri Lanka. ocean technology, exchange of experts Apart from this signing these agreements and other related activities . Both nations agreed to strengthen the . MoU on Programme for Cultural economic relations between India and Cooperation for the year 2015-18: The Sri Lanka. programme will help to enhance . India to help Sri Lanka to develop a bilateral cooperation and will also petroleum hub at Trincomalee city. enhance greater people-to-people . Fresh Line of Credit (LOC) up to $318 participation between the two countries. million will be provided by India for the . MoU on the Protocol for the importation railways sector in Sri Lanka. of fresh mango from India: The aim of . Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the this Protocol is to facilitate importation Central Bank of Sri Lanka to enter into a of fresh mango fruits from India by Currency Swap Agreement of $1.5 Mauritius to enable the Mauritian to billion in order to keep the Sri Lankan relish the flavor of the world-renowned rupee stable. Indian mangoes. . MoU for the Improvement in Sea and International Air Transportation Facilities at Agalega India & Seychelles signed 4 agreements Island of Mauritius: This will help in during PM Modi‟s visit to that country betterment of the condition of the covering. inhabitants of this remote Island. These 1. Indian help to map hydrology. facilities will enhance the capabilities of 2. Launching of coastal surveillance radar the Mauritian Defence Forces in project to boost security. safeguarding their interests in the Outer 3. India offered Seychelles a 2nd Dronior Island. aircraft. Free of cost visa to its citizens . MoU on Cooperation in the field of to India for 3 months. Traditional System of Medicine and US President Obama nominated David Hale Homeopathy: This MoU will promote as its ambassador to Pakistan. cooperation in the field of traditional Pakistani High Court in Islamabad has system of health and medicine between ordered to release 2008 Mumbai attack the two countries. It envisages exchange master mind LeT Commander Zaki-Ur- of experts, supply of traditional Rehman Lakhvi, which was strong protest medicinal substances, joint research and from India. development and recognition of the
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PM Modi signed 4 agreements with Sri Aditya Birla Retail acquired Bangalore- Lanka during his recent visit covering Visa, based Total Hypermarket owned by Jubilant Customs, Youth Development and Building Retail. Aditya Birla Retail is a part of Aditya Rabindranath Tagore memorial in Sri Lanka. Birla Group. It is the fourth largest ISIS accepts Boko Haram pledge of supermarket retailer in the country. allegiance. 5 sick PSUs including 3 unity of HMT will Japanese scientists from the Japan be shut down and govt. will pay good VRS Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) package to the employers. There are total 65 have successfully transmitted 1.8 kilowatts sick PSUs at present. electric power wirelessly to a pinpoint target NTPC is all set to enter into power which is 55 meters away using microwaves, distribution through NTPC Electric Supply an advance that brings space-based solar Company Ltd. power closer to reality. Reliance Capital sells 2.77% stake to In space-based solar power generation, Japanese Sumetomo Trust. sunlight is gathered in geostationary orbit Dhamra Port in Odisha in PPP paid Rs. and transmitted to a receiver on Earth. 73.48 cr. revenue to the govt. of Odisha. For the implimantion of this project Supreme Court has issued an ultimatum to ,microwave-transmitting solar satellites Shahara Group and its Chief Subrat Roy to would be set up approximately 35,000 pay dues of Rs. 40,000 cr. to investors in a kilometres from Earth. month or face auction of group assets. Reserve Bank of India has agreed for a $1.5- Economy & Banking billion currency swap agreement with the Sri The charges in RBI Act Section 45U & W as Lankan central bank to help the island nation mentioned in the Finance Bill 2015-16 keep its currency stable. Sri Lanka rupee presented by the Finance Minister in has been under pressure since early January Parliament has created confusion in the and fallen around 1.5 per cent so far in 2015 regulating power of RBI over Repo and despite the Sri Lankan central bank's attempt Reverse Repo operation. to defend it by selling dollars. At the current Union Finance Minister declared to allow valuation, one Indian rupee is equivalent to more financial autonomy to banks. 2.12 Sri Lankan Rupee. 7 Public Sector Banks were allowed to raise fund from the market to meet BASEL-III Person in news norm requirement of Rs. 2.40 lakh cr. Congress legislator and deputy speaker N Govt. has cleared appointment of Executive Shakthan was elected as the new speaker of Directors in 9 state run banks. the Kerala Assembly . IMF projected Indian growth of 7.2% in this It was announced by Pro-tem Speaker fiscal year. Dominic Presentation. Shakthan defeated The Union government has advised PSU CPI (M) candidate P. Aysha Potty by 74 to banks to step up lending to minorities with a 66 votes. view to ensuring that they get loans in N Shakthan will replace G. Karthikeyan who proportion to their population. had died on March 8, 2015. Prior to speaker The decision to increase lending to the election, he had resigned as Deputy Speaker minorities was taken recently at a meeting of the Assembly on 10 March 2015. called by Minority Affairs Secretary Arvind Renowned fantasy author and creator of the Mayaram with bankers. Discworld series Sir Terry Pratchett It was decided to increase the percentage passed away in London, United Kingdom. share of lending to each minority community He was 66 and was being diagnosed with in proportion to their respective share in Alzheimer‟s disease. minority population. In his 44 years long career, Pratchett had In term of population, Muslims constitute written more than 70 books which were the largest community, followed by translated in 37 languages. Christians. Third largest minority group is His debut novel, The Carpet People was that of the Sikhs. published in 1971 and his first Discworld Besides, the RBI circular also mentioned novel, The Colour of Magic was published in Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Jains as 1983. minority communities.
Leading Institute for Banking, Railway & SSC B – 61 A & B, (2nd floor) Janpath, Opp. R.D. Women’s College, Saheed Nagar, Bhubaneswar, 4 Ph. : (0674) 6556677, 8093556677. Web : www.vanik.org, E-mail : [email protected]
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IPS officer M Akhaya has been appointed as The United States (US) President Barack the Chief Vigilance Officer in the Obama nominated veteran diplomat David Department of Telecommunications. Hale as next Ambassador to Pakistan.He will The appointment of the CVO, who acts as succeed Cameron Munter. He has been the distant arm of the Central Vigilance US Ambassador to Lebanon since 2013. Commission to check corruption, comes at a Indian-American Kumar P Barve of time when bidding for spectrum by telecom Democratic Party was in news as he decided companies is underway. to run for US Congress in 2016 elections. He Veteran sports journalist K Baskaran died will contest on for the seat vacated by following a brief illness. He was 80. He is Congressman Chris Van Hollen of survived by his wife, a son and three Republican Party. daughters. Dr. Alka Beotra, Scientific Director, Being a dedicated sports scribe, Baskaran National Dope Testing Laboratory, Ministry had reported on most of the games in his of Youth Affairs & Sports, has been long career working for Free Press Journal, nominated to the Executive Board of Indian Express, Newsday (defunct) and then WAADS (World Association of Anti The Times of India where he spent more Doping Scientists). In the six-member than 25 years. Executive Board of WAADS, Dr. Beotra is Google's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) the only member from Asia and will have Patrick Pichette announced his retirement tenure of 3 years starting from March 2015. from the office citing personal reasons. The Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) Limited, effective date of his retirement was not yet thecountry's top software and services firm finalised.However, Pichette will stay at has appointed Aarthi Subramanian as an Google till the company finds a replacement. Executive Director tothe Board of Directors Pichette joined Google as CFO since August of the company for three years. 2008 when Google was roiled by the economic downturn caused by the financial Sports crisis. Defending champion Karnataka won Ranji The Union Government on 11 March 2014 Trophy for season 2014-2015. appointed nine Executive Directors (EDs) in Karnataka defeated Tamil Nadu by an Public Sector Banks (PSBs) on the basis of innings and 217 runs in the final day of recommendation of selection panel headed match played at the Wankhede stadium in by the Reserve Bank of India Governor Mumbai. With this victory, Karnataka Raghuram Rajan. clinched eight Ranji title. List of appointments The man of the match was Karnataka‟s . Charan Singh – Executive Director of Karun Nair who had scored 338 runs. The UCO Bank captain of Karnataka team was R Vinay . K Venkata Rama Moorthy –Executive Kumar and of Tamil Nadu team was Director of Bank of Baroda Abhinav Mukund. . RP Marathe – Executive Director of Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Bank of India Sangakkara became first batsman to score . Harideesh Kumar B – Executive four consecutive one-day international Director, Canara Bank (ODI) centuries in a Cricket World Cup. The . NK Sahoo – Executive Director of prolific 37-year-old reached the landmark by Allahabad Bank hitting 4th century in a match against . Pawan Kumar Bajaj - Executive Scotland in the Pool A of ICC Cricket World Director of Indian Overseas Bank Cup 2015 in Hobart, New Zealand. Quinton . Ravi Shankar Pandey - Executive de Kock (South Africa) has also scored 3 Director of Syndicate Bank consecutive centuries in this World Cup. . Kishore Piraji Kharat - Executive United Arab Emirates (UAE) defeated Iran Director of Union Bank of India Football Federation (IFC) to host Asian . RC Lodha - Executive Director of Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup Central Bank of India 2019 . It will be the second time that the Industrialist Deepak Khaitan vice-Chairman UAE will host the Asian Cup after 1996. of the Williamson Magor Group and the Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal eldest son of BM Khaitan,died after a attained a new high as she climbed to a prolonged spell of illness at the age of 60. career-best second in the latest Badminton
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World Federation (BWF) rankings followed and University of Oxford (UK) are in 2nd by Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China. and 3rd position respectively In the men‟s list, Olympic quarter-finalist Parupalli Kashyap also headed northwards AWARD as he reached a career-high 10th. Ganasen Reddy, an Indian-origin South African educator, was awarded with Miscellaneous KwaZulu-Natal 2015 National Teachers The mass nesting of endangered species Awards at the annual National Teaching Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) sea Awards held in Johannesburg. KwaZulu- turtles started in second week of March 2015 Natal National Teachers Awards is a near river Rushikulya mouth in Ganjam Lifetime Achievement Award for teaching in district of Odisha. South Africa. On the first day of nesting, around 10000 female turtles laid eggs in over 3-km-long Today’s Banking Term sandy beach from Gokharakuda to Account Holder: Any and all persons Podampeta. Wildlife experts anticipated that designated and authorized to transact the unique phenomenon would continue for business on behalf of an account. Each some more days. account holder's signature needs to be on file This mass nesting season of Olive Ridley with the bank. The signature authorizes that was followed by the sporadic nesting in the person to conduct business on behalf of the rookery, which is considered as the second account. largest after Gahiramatha. Also known as variable-rate mortgages. The Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs initial interest rate is usually below that of released data of top ten Corporate of 2014.In conventional fixed-rate loans. The interest the list Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is in rate may change over the life of the loan as the top position with assets worth Rs 3.68 market conditions change. lakh crore followed by state-owned Indian There is typically a maximum (or ceiling) Oil Corporation (IOC) with assets worth and a minimum (or floor) defined in the loan Rs2.52 lakh crore. agreement. If interest rates rise, so does the Entities in the top ten are 3-HDFC,4- Power loan payment. If interest rates fall, the loan Finance Corporation , 5-National Thermal payment may as well. Power Corporation (NTPC) , 6-Rural Electrification Corporation (devil),7-Power Grid Corporation, 8-LIC Housing Finance (music), 9-Steel Authority of India Limited and 10-Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited . Amruta Fadnavis the wife of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis Daily inaugurated a helpline 18002332688 to address the social, physical and Updated psychological issues faced by adolescents. Expert counsellors, one male and one female CURRENT AFFAIRS will be available between 10 am and 6 pm to Visit : www.vanik.org guide adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 on all issues related to exam stress, harmful side-effect of drugs, tobacco and alcohol, reproductive health, pregnancy, contraceptives and sexual harassment. Identity of the callers will be kept secret and thus it will allow them to freely discuss their issues with the counselor in complete confidence. Harvard University of United States (US) retained in top position in World Reputation Rankings 2015 published by Times Higher Education. University of Cambridge (UK)
Leading Institute for Banking, Railway & SSC B – 61 A & B, (2nd floor) Janpath, Opp. R.D. Women’s College, Saheed Nagar, Bhubaneswar, 6 Ph. : (0674) 6556677, 8093556677. Web : www.vanik.org, E-mail : [email protected]