CURRENT AFFAIR PART 6

• Pradeep Kumar Joshi is appointed as a Member of Union Public Service Commission.
• Pradeep Kumar Sinha is appointed as Cabinet Secretary. He succeeded Shri Ajit Seth.
• Prannoy Roy (Executive Co-chairman of NDTV) Redink Lifetime Achievement Award 2015 in Mumbai, awards presented by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. Other Awardees are -
• Journalist of the Year - Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV
• Impact Editor of the Year - Arnab Goswami (Editor-in-Chief of Times Now)
• News Start-Up of the Year - News website Scroll.in
• President Pranab Mukherjee Visited Russia to witness Victory Day parade on 9 May 2015 to mark 70th anniversary of Allied forces victory in the Second World War.
• During this visit, Mukherjee was conferred with honorary Doctorate by the Russian Diplomatic Academy.
• 11 Memorandum of Intent (MoI) were signed between India and Russia to establish Network of Institutions of Higher Education.
• President also inaugurated Namaste Russia festival in Russian capital Moscow.
• President Pranab Mukherjee presented Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil for 2011-12 and 2012-13 -
• Young Scholar Award -
• 2011 - 12 => K Ayyappan, E Ezhil Vasanthan and K Jawahar
• 2012 - 13 => A Sathish, R Venkatesan, B Jaiganesh, M R Devaki and U Alibava
• Kural Peedam Award -
• 2011 - 12 => Eva Maria Wilden (Germany)
• Tholkappiyar Award -
• 2011 - 12 => S V Shanmugam
• 2012 - 13 =>R Krishnamurthi
• President Pranab Mukherjee visited Sweden.
• President of USA Barack Obama entered Guinness Book of World Record of reaching one million followers in 5 hours after joining Social Media Platform Twitter with @POTUS account.
• Private sector's Largest ICICI Bank Launched Voice Password Facility for customers in which they can make transactions by just using their voice without other means of authentication like a password.
• Punjab issued Soil Health Cards to farmers to monitor the soil health of every farm in the state.
• Racer CS Santosh is named as Motorsport Man of the Year 2014 by Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India.
• Railways won 5th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship 2015 defeating Jharkhand.
• Rajasthan Government signed an agreement with National Health Mission (NHM), UNICEF and GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition) to tackle problem of malnourishment in the state.
• Rajya Sabha passed 119th Constitutional Amendment Bill on Land Boundary Bill (LBA) to operationalise Land Boundary Agreement with India and Bangladesh, and exchange of certain enclaves of land between the two countries. Bill will now be introduced in Lok Sabha and will then be sent for President's signatures. As it is the Constitutional Amendment Bill, It would require ratification of at least 50 % of the state legislatures before it comes into effect.
• Bill now includes territories in Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya.
• The bill’s passage will lead to an amendment in the first schedule of the Constitution and give effect to a May 1974 agreement between India and Bangladesh on acquisition and transfer of territories.
• Exchange will see Bangladesh take over 111 enclaves (17160 acres) from India’s possession and India will receive 51 enclaves (7110 acres) from Bangladesh.
• Enclaves are tiny landlocked territories that each country has within the borders of the other nation.
• Rajya Sabha passed Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2014 to amend the Companies Act, 2013. Sixteen amendments about winding up, board resolutions, and utilisation of unclaimed dividends are made into Companies Act to address some issues raised by stakeholders. Lok Sabha passed the bill earlier on 17 December 2014.
• Rate of Service Tax will be increased from 12% to 14 from June 01, 2015 as proposed In Union Budget, 2015.
• Researchers from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of USA discovered worlds first fully warm-blooded fish species named Opah.
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed Tap And Pay without PIN for transactions up to 2000 rupees. For higher than that, customer must provide pin for authentication.
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released report State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2014-15. with theme Fiscal Consolidation: Assessment and Medium Term Prospects. The report is an annual publication that provides data, analysis and an assessment of the finances of state governments. Highlights are -
• Renewed and sustained efforts to be made by states for fiscal consolidation to increase revenues.
• Rapidly growing e-commerce can contribute to states’ own revenue efforts after putting clarity in rules and better compliance.
• Auctioning of natural resources need to be channelised for mineral rich states.
• Transition from indirect tax regime to Goods and Services Tax from 1 April 2016 will create more revenues for centre and states.
• Reserve Bank of India proposed to introduce Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) for Mass Transit System (PPI-MTS). It will Promote electronic payments for moving towards to a less-cash society. Such PPIs will be reloadable instruments subjected to an outstanding limit of 2000 rupees at a time.
• Reserve Bank of India released Guidelines for Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) under Basel III Framework on Liquidity Standards for banks.
• RBI proposed to make NSFR applicable to all banks from 1 January 2018 to ensure that banks maintain a stable funding profile in relation to their assets and off-balance sheet activities to avoid disruptions and failure.
• NSFR - Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) is defined as the amount of available stable funding relative to the amount of required stable funding.
• S Christopher is appointed as Director General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
• SS Ahluwalia appointed as chairman of Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) (Amendment) Bill, 2015.
• Sandeep Jajodia removed as the president of Boxing India (BI).
• Save the Children’s 16th annual State of the World’s Mothers (SOWM) report titled The Urban Disadvantage, released by Union Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla -
• The report's focus is on struggle of poorest mothers and children in rapidly urbanizing world. It presents the Mothers’ Index for 179 countries and show where mothers and children fare best and where they face the greatest hardships.
• Top 10 countries in the Mother Index
• Norway
• Finland
• Iceland
• Denmark
• Swedan
• Netherlands
• Spain
• Germany
• Australia
• Belgium
• Bottom 10 Countries in the Mother Index
• Haiti & Sierra Leone
• Guinea-Bissau
• Chad
• Ivory Coast
• Gambia
• Niger
• Mali
• Central African Republic
• DR Congo
• Somalia
• India is ranked at 140th position in the Mother’s Index on the basis of Risk of maternal death, Under-five mortality rate, Educational status, Economic achievement and Political status.
• Scientists at Tohoku University in Japan discovered a new state of matter called the ‘Jahn-Teller-metal that resembles an insulator, superconductor, metal and magnet all rolled into one.
• Sevilla Football Club won Europa League title defeating Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk football club in Poland.
• Shooter Gagan Narang won bronze in 50m Rifle Event in ISSF World Cup in USA and became third Indian shooter to qualify for 2016 Rio Olympics after Jitu Rai and Apurvi Chandela.
• Siddhivinayak temple of Mumbai received International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001-2008 certification for best quality practices.
• Simplification of Income Tax Return Forms Forms (ITR 1, 2 and 4S) for Assessment Year 2015-16 -
• Individuals having exempt income without any ceiling (other than agricultural income exceeding Rs. 5,000) may file Form ITR 1 (Sahaj). Similar simplification is proposed for individuals/HUF for Form ITR 4S (Sugam).
• Individual or HUF with no capital gains may now file a simplified ITR 2A Form in place of ITR 2 Form as required earier. Number of pages have also been reduced to 3. Bank account details and Foreign travel details also simplified (Passport number only required).
• Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong opened first museum Indian Heritage Centre in Little India dedicated to Indian history.
• Six of worlds biggest banks have been fined 5.7 billion by various concerned authorities in USA and UK for Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates manipulations. These banks are - Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, UBS Group AG and Bank of America Corp.
• Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal received Golden Medal for Merit in Work as top civilian honours of Spain for outstanding performance in any profession.
• State Bank of India (SBI) launched an Online Customer Acquisition Solution (OCAS) that enables customers to apply online for Home Loans, Car Loans, Education Loans and Personal Loans. Customers can check their eligibility and get a personalized quote. If eligible, Bank officials will contact the customer and complete all the loan formalities.
• State Bank of India launched Federal Bank-SBI co-branded credit cards with an aim to issue 1.5 lakh credit cards to its customers in first year.
• State Bank of India launched contact-less credit and debit cards called sbiINTOUCH. These cards are based on near-field technology (NFC) that enables transaction by just waving the card against the reader.
• Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and ArcelorMittal (Luxembourg Based) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set up an steel manufacturing facility in India.
• Super 30 founder and mathematician Anand Kumar has been honoured by Legislature of British Columbia in Canada at Toronto University for his pioneering work in the field of education.
• Surender Singh took over as Director General of CISF (Central Industrial Security Force).
• Swiss player Roger Federer won First Istanbul Open Men's singles title by defeating Pablo Curves of Uruguay.
• Syed Ahmed appointed as 16th Governor of Manipur.
• TP Senkumar appointed as Director General of Police of Kerala.
• Tathagata Roy is appointed as 16th Governor of Tripura.
• Tawfig Fawzan Al Rabiah, Minister of Commerce and Industry of Saudi Arabia Visited India for 11th India- Saudi Arabia Joint Commission Meeting.