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| Current Affairs |
Dear Readers,
Welcome to
Mentor for Bank Exams. Here I am posting Daily Current affairs News Updates
about the National and International events were listed here. Candidates those
who are preparing for IBPS/SBI/PO/Clerk exam and all other competitive exams
can use this.
APPOINTMENTS
1) Indonesia names ex-General as Security
Minister
Indonesian President Joko Widodo
pleased market reform advocates on Wednesday by bringing home the World Bank’s managing
director to be finance minister and upset human rights activists by naming a
controversial ex-general as security chief.
The surprise appointments of Sri
Mulyani Indrawati to head the finance ministry and Wiranto as coordinating
minister for politics, law and security were part of a wider-than-expected
cabinet reshuffle in which the trade, energy, transport and industry ministers
were also replaced.
2) Brexit: France's Michel Barnier made
European negotiator with UK
Former French Foreign Minister
Michel Barnier has been appointed by the European Commission to negotiate with
Britain over Brexit.
Announcing the appointment,
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he "wanted an
experienced politician for this difficult job".
Mr Barnier will take up his post
on 1 October. A former EU commissioner, Mr Barnier led the EU's banking reforms
- a move unpopular in London's finance district.
3) Sunil Kant Munjal, Joint MD at Hero
MotoCorp, to step down
Sunil Kant Munjal, Joint Managing
Director of Hero MotoCorp and Chairman Hero Corporate Services will step down
from the Board of Directors of the two-wheeler maker.
In a filing to the Bombay Stock
Exchange (BSE), Hero MotoCorp said, "Keeping with the core values of the
Hero Group as established by the late Dr Brijmohan Lall Munjal, the members of
BML Munjal family have decided realign their businesses to achieve future
growth and expansion."
The statement added Sunil Kant
Munjal has expressed his desire to step down as Joint MD once his tenure comes
to an end on August 16, 2016.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
1) West Bengal to get All India Coordinated
Rice Improvement Project award
This is the first time when the
state would be receiving the award. It may be mentioned that the state had
received Kishi Kamran Puraskar for the three consecutive years. The 51st
committee from the Indira Gandhi Krishi Bikash Kendra has selected the state
for the award.
The state has been selected for
the award for its achievement in four key areas that include scientific
research for seeds. The state government has also bagged the award of the
second position for participating in International Agriculture and Horticulture
Expo. It was held for three days from July 22 to 24 at Pragati Maidan in Delhi.
2) Oldest Elephant in Kerala Set to Enter
Guinness World Records
At 86, Dakshayani shows no signs
of ageing and looks absolutely fit as she gets all set to enter the Guinness
World Records as the oldest living elephant.
The Travancore Devasom Board
(TDB) - the owner of the elephant - has already written to the Guinness
authorities staking claim to Dakshayani being the oldest living elephant in the
world.
Addressing reporters here on
Monday TDB President Prayar Gopalakrishnan said that records available with
them, including of the Kerala Forest Department, show that Dakshayani is the
oldest.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY NEWS
1) India Signs $1 Bn Deal With US Firm For
Four Poseidon-8I Aircraft
India on Wednesday signed an over
USD 1 billion deal with American defence and aerospace major Boeing for
procuring four additional ‘Poseidon-8I’ long-range maritime surveillance and anti-submarine
warfare aircraft.
The contract is a follow-on order
to eight P-81 planes already bought by India in a direct deal with the firm worth
USD 2.1 billion, defence sources said.
The contract was inked during the
ongoing visit of US Under Secretary for Defence on Acquisition Frank Kendall,
and is seen as a sign of growing Indo-US defence ties, they said.
India had last year signed a USD
3 billion contract with the US through Foreign Military Sales route for 22
Apache and 15 Chinook helicopters.
With today’s deal, the total value of defence deals
signed with the US in the last one decade comes to around USD 15 billion.
2) RBI slaps Rs 27 crore penalty on 13
banks for FEMA violations
The Reserve Bank of India has
come down hard on 13 banks and fined them for Rs 27 crore for violation of FEMA
and lapses in know your client (KYC) rules.
The RBI fined Bank of Baroda for
Rs 5 crore, Punjab National Bank and Syndicate Bank have been fined Rs 3 crore
each. UCO Bank, HDFC Bank, Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank and IndusInd Bank have
all been fined Rs 2 crore each.
While the regulator did not
impose any fine on SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Union
Bank of India, among others, it advised these banks to ensure strict compliance
of KYC (know your customer) requirements and FEMA provisions on an ongoing
basis.
3) Sun Pharma, Almirall enter pact for
psoriasis novel biologic
Drug major Sun Pharmaceutical and
Spanish firm Almirall have entered into a licensing pact for development and
commercialisation of tildrakizumab used for treatment of psoriasis in Europe.
Sun Pharma will be eligible to
receive development and regulatory milestone payments and additionally sales
milestone payments and royalties on net sales, the terms of which are
confidential, it added.
4) ADB raises Rs 500 crore in rupee-linked
bonds
Multilateral funding agency Asian
Development Bank (ADB) has raised Rs 5 billion, or around Rs 500 crore, by
issuing five-year offshore Indian rupee-linked bonds.
"The Asian Development Bank
(ADB) has raised Rs 5 billion (about USD 74 million) from its issuance of
5-year offshore Indian rupee (INR) linked bonds, " it said in a release
today.
This was, ADB said, its third
bond issue in the offshore rupee-linked market, and the second such issue this
year.
Also, ADB said plans to raise
around USD 20 billion from the capital markets in 2016.
5) Budget 2016: Govt to hike FDI limit in stock exchanges to 15%
The government on Monday said
foreign entities would be allowed to own up to 15% stake in domestic stock
exchanges, a move that would help boost their global competitiveness.
The decision announced in the
2016-17 Budget speech by finance minister Arun Jaitley also comes against the
backdrop of demand from various stakeholders who have been seeking higher foreign
direct investment (FDI) in stock bourses.
6) Sri Lanka Cabinet approves $318 mn
Indian credit for railway projects
Sri Lanka’s railway sector is to
receive a fillip with the Cabinet approving a $318-million line of credit from
the Indian government for the procurement of rolling stock and upgrading two
major railway lines in the country.
With this, the total amount of
assistance from India for the development of the sector in Sri Lanka goes up to
$ 1,284 million.
As part of the rolling stock, six
diesel multiple units with air-conditioned passenger compartments; 160
passenger coaches; 30 oil tank wagons, 10 locomotives and 20 container carrier
wagons will be purchased.
Totalling around 120 km, the two
lines — Anuradhapura to Omanthai and Anuradhapura to Maho — will witness the
rehabilitation of railway tracks and upgrading of the signalling system.
7) Brazil fines Facebook $11.6m over
WhatsApp stand-off
A judge in Brazil on Wednesday
slapped an $11.6 million fine on the local Facebook branch over the company’s refusal
to surrender data from its WhatsApp messenger program to a police
investigation.
The order came from a judge in
the northern state of Amazonas, saying Facebook was failing to meet its legal
obligations.
Facebook Brasil has “shown
tremendous disregard for Brazilian institutions,” prosecutors added.
WhatsApp has been owned by social
media giant Facebook since February 2015.
BANKING NEWS
1) SBI to refinance new entity’s Rs 28,000
crore debt in the RCOM-Aircel merger
State Bank of will refinance debt
of Rs 28,000 crore that will be transferred to the entity emerging from merger
of the wireless business of Reliance Communications and Aircel, expected to be
announced next month, a person familiar with the matter said.
IMPORTANT DAYS TO REMEMBER
1) World Hepatitis Day 2016
World Hepatitis Day is being
celebrated every year on 28th of July aiming to make aware the common people
globally about hepatitis.
It is the world level awareness
program launched as a global public health campaign by the World Health
Organization to make the world a hepatitis free world.
The theme of 2016 would be
“Prevent Hepatitis: It’s up to you”.
2) World Nature Conservation Day – 28th
July
World Nature Conservation Day is
observed on 28th July all over the world with increasing awareness
about the precious natural resources the Earth is bestowed with.
Nature provides us with various
indispensable services which has made possible human existence on the planet.
Right from the air we breathe to the raw material required for the development
process, everything is provided by nature.
The rapid development process is
putting pressure on the natural resources like air, water, forests, wildlife,
fossil fuels & minerals. Excessive and unsustainable use of these resources
is causing degradation of nature. Hence the need for ‘Nature Conservation’ is felt all over the world, which is the wise
management & utilisation of natural resources.
INTERNATIONAL
1) India signs $1bn deal for submarine
hunter planes
India signed a contract on
Wednesday to buy four maritime spy planes from Boeing Co for about $1 billion,
defence and industry sources said, aiming to bolster the navy as it tries to
check China’s presence in the Indian Ocean.
India has already deployed eight
of the long-range P-8I aircraft to track submarine movements in the Indian
Ocean and on Wednesday exercised an option for four more, two defence ministry
officials and an industry source told.
2) Cabinet approves Bilateral Investment
Treaty between India and Cambodia to boost investment
The Union Cabinet chaired by the
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT)
between India and Cambodia.
The Treaty seeks to promote and
protect investments from either country in the territory of the other country
with the objective of increasing bilateral investment flows.
The Treaty encourages each
country to create favourable conditions for investors of the other country to
make investments in its territory and to admit investments in accordance with
its laws.
The Treaty is the first Bilateral
Investment Treaty in accordance with the text of the Indian Model BIT, approved
by the Cabinet in December, 2015.
3) China, Russia to hold joint naval
exercises in South China Sea
China and Russia will hold joint
naval exercises in the South China Sea in September, Beijing's defence ministry
said Thursday, after an international tribunal invalidated the Asian giant's
extensive claims in the area.
The drills will be carried out in
the "relevant sea and air of the South China Sea", defence ministry
spokesman Yang Yujun told reporters at a monthly briefing.
With international diplomatic
tensions mounting and Washington regularly sending warships into the
strategically vital area to assert the right to freedom of navigation, the move
could see vessels from several of the world's most powerful militaries in the
same region at the same time.
NATIONAL
1) PM Modi to Hold NITI Aayog Meeting for
15-Year Vision Today
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will
chair a meeting of NITI Aayog today to give concrete shape to a 15-year vision
document for accelerating all round development of the country.
PM Modi, Chairman of NITI Aayog,
will also take stock of the economy and progress over various government
programmes which are monitored by the official think tank.
The meeting will be attended by
NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya and other members.
Besides, the task force on
poverty alleviation will submit its report, and so will the task force on 'future
development of agriculture'.
Both panels were set up during
the first meeting of NITI Aayog on February 8 last year.
2) Lok Sabha nod to ‘diluted’ Lokpal Bill
The Lok Sabha cleared amendments
in the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013 by heavily diluting its section 44 which
deals with disclosure of assets by Central Government employees (public
servant) and NGOs receiving Central funds, by exempting from filing returns by
the due date of July 31.
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas
(Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced and passed within an hour during Zero
Hour.
It seeks to amend section 44 of
the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013 under which it is mandatory for every public
servant and NGOs to file annual returns of assets and liabilities owned by him
or his spouse by July 31 every year.
3) Cabinet approves key changes to GST
bill, drops 1% tax on inter-state sales
The cabinet today cleared changes
in the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill, dropping the 1% manufacturing tax and
and guaranteeing compensation for any revenue losses states may experience in
the first five years of rolling out the proposed indirect tax scheme.
The cabinet, headed by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, decided that the GST Council will adjudicate any
disputes that arise between the Centre and states. To this end, the council
will have representatives from both the Centre and the states.
4) Arunachal Pradesh CM gives go ahead to 3
IT-enabled projects
Emphasizing on e-governance to
ensure good and simplified governance, Chief Minister Pema Khandu gave a
go-ahead to three important Information Technology-enabled projects — Survey
Management System (SMS), Metadata Dashboard and Early Flood Warning Systems.
The survey feature in the SMS
system will allow the user to create, send, and collect responses for basic
surveys quickly and easily; used as crowd sourcing to get inputs from the
common public.
5) India, Bangladesh Home Minister level talks on July 28
The fourth Home Minister level
talks between India and Bangladesh will be held on July 28 and would include a
review of the implementation of the Land Boundary Agreement, security and
border management and related issues.
Home Minister of Bangladesh
Asaduzzaman Khan will be leading a high level delegation to India from 27 July
to 30 July.
6) Air Odisha to start inter-state flight service from August 15
The Air Odisha Aviation Pvt. Ltd
(AOAPL) has decided to start an inter-State flight service from August 15.
The company has obtained
permission of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to commence
flights from Bhubaneswar to three cities, Ranchi, Raipur and Nagpur.
As there are no direct flight
services from Bhubaneswar to these three cities, the initiative of the Air
Odisha would come as a big help for the passengers, said its chief Santosh
Pani.
Earlier this year, the State Government
had terminated its Air Services Operation Agreement (AOA) with the Air Odisha
Aviation Pvt. Ltd (AOAPL) for intra-State air service.
7) Stalled 241 infra projects cause cost
overrun of Rs 1.6 lakh crore
As many as 241 infrastructure
projects including those delayed due to land acquisition, forest clearances and
other reasons, have led to cost overrun of Rs 1.59 lakh crore, as per official
data.
The Statistics Ministry monitored
1,076 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or more across sectors
such as power, railways and roads in May, 2016.
It said that out of the 1,076
projects, 4 projects are ahead of schedule, 252 are on schedule, 330 are
delayed, 241 projects reported cost overrun and 70 projects reported both time
and cost overrun with respect to their original project implementation
schedules.
8) Rs. 2333 Crore sanctioned for projects
under Swadesh Darshan and PRASAD in last 18 months
The Ministry of Tourism, in last
18 months, has sanctioned projects worth Rs. 2333 Crore under Swadesh Darshan
and PRASAD, the flagship schemes of the Ministry of Tourism.
These projects envisage world
class infrastructural development of the sites with special emphasis on Tourist
Facilities including Tourist Facilitation Centres, way-side amenities Parking,
Public convenience, Illumination, Sound and Light Shows and Theme Parks.
11 projects in Amravati, Kamakhya
Temple, Patna Sahib, Patna,Vishnupad Gaya, Shri Jaggannath Puri,
Amritsar,Ajmer-Pushkar,,Varanasi,Mathura-Vrindavan, Kedarnath Dham Uttarakhand
for Rs.284.53 have been sanctioned so far under the PRASAD scheme.
They include 2 Projects worth
Rs.36.96 Crore approved for Varanasi River Cruise and Dwarka and 3 Projects viz
Laser show on Ghats of Varanasi and projects of Kanchipuram, and Vellankanni
.are under active consideration of the Ministry.
9) Cabinet approves setting up of new AIIMS
in Bhatinda
The Union Cabinet chaired by the
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the establishment of a new AIIMS
at Bhatinda in Punjab under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana
(PMSSY).
The institution shall have a
hospital with capacity of 750 beds which will include Emergency/Trauma Beds,
AYUSH Beds, Private Beds and ICU Speciality & Super Speciality beds. In
addition, there will be an Administration Block, AYUSH Block, Auditorium, Night
Shelter, Hostels and residential facilities.
The cost of the project for
establishment of the new AIIMS in Bhatinda shall be Rs. 925 crore. The above
cost estimate does not include recurring costs (wages & salaries and
operation & maintenance expenses).
The recurring expenditure will be
met by the respective new AIIMS from their annual budgets through Grant-in-Aid
to them from Plan Budget Head of PMSSY of Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare.
10) Lok Sabha passes extensive check to
check benami transactions
Seeking to check black money, Lok
Sabha on Wednesday upheld a extensive Benami Transactions Amendment Bill, with
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley assuring that genuine eremite trusts will be kept
out of a purview of a legislation.
Moving a Benami Transactions
(Prohibition) Amendment Bill 2015 for a care and passage, a Minister said the
legislation was predominately an anti-black money measure and a purpose is to
seize benami skill and prosecute those indulging in such activities.
11) International Transgender Arts Festival:
Bangalore
The Indian city of Bengaluru,
known to be a hub of popular music and art festivals is all set to host one of
the most intriguing festivals till date- The International Transgender Arts
Festival (TITAF) at the National Gallery for Modern Arts from July 29 to 31.
The first-of-its-kind performing
arts festival aims to showcase the talent of transgender spread across the
country in various fields such as music, classical dance, poetry, theatre and
film.
12) Cabinet approves Revised Cost Estimate
for NATRIP Project
The Union Cabinet chaired by the
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the revised cost estimate for
Rs. 3727.30 crore for the National Automotive Testing and R&D
Infrastructure Project (NATRIP).
This approval ensures completion
of the projects under NATRIP which is an important Initiative by the Government
of India for the establishment of the global test centres in India.
This will address the R&D
requirements of the automotive industry, full-fledged testing and homologation
centres. T
he places are within the Northern
auto-cluster at ICAT-Manesar, Haryana and Southern auto-cluster at
GARC-Oragadam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu and up-gradation of existing centers at
ARAI- Pune and VRDE-Ahmednagar in Maharashtra for Western auto-cluster.
13) Cabinet approves rescinding the
decision of the Government to set up the Concurrent Evaluation Office in
Ministry of Rural Development
The Union Cabinet chaired by the
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has decided to rescind the earlier decision
of the Government to set up the Concurrent Evaluation Office (CEO) for managing
Concurrent Evaluation Network (CENET) in Ministry of Rural Development.
The CEO was envisaged to undertake
concurrent evaluation of Rural Development programmes in conjunction with
Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the erstwhile Planning Commission.
The decision will pave the way
for a need based strengthening of the Economic and Monitoring Wing of the
Ministry of Rural Development for managing and carrying out evaluation studies
of Rural Development programmes.
14) Manipur becomes fourteenth State to
join ‘UDAY’
Manipur is the 14th state to join
the UDAY. It is also the first North Eastern state to opt for the UDAY for
improving the efficiency of the DISCOM.
Manipur has joined the Ujwal
DISCOM (distribution company) Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme meant for revival
of debt-stressed power distribution utilities and will get benefits of around
Rs 263 crore.
The combined DISCOM debt to be
restructured in respect of these states is around Rs 2.16 lakh crore as on
September 30, 2015.
OBITUARY
1) Eminent writer Mahasweta Devi dies at 90
in Kolkata
Eminent writer
and social activist Mahasweta Devi died on Thursday. She had suffered a major
heart attack on July 23. The 90-year-old was a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi
Award, Padma Vibhushan, Jnanpith and Magsaysay Award, among several others.
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari has
condoled the passing away of acclaimed writer and activist Ms. Mahasweta Devi.
In a message, he said that she will be remembered for her popular stories that
sought to raise awareness about social injustice, discrimination, poverty in
our country.
2) "Father of Hybrid Sorghum" Neelamraju Ganga
Prasada Rao Passes Away
Distinguished agricultural
scientist Dr. Neelamraju Ganga Prasada Rao passed away in Hyderabad, Telangana
following a brief illness. He was 89.
He is famously known as “Father
of Hybrid Sorghum”. He is also famous for his basic and applied research in
breeding and agronomy of several dry land crops.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1) Jupiter's Great Red Spot 'roars with
heat'
Jupiter's Great Red Spot - a hurricane three times bigger than Earth -
is blasting the planet's upper atmosphere with heat, astronomers have found.
Using measurements from an
infrared telescope in Hawaii, a UK and US team found evidence for temperatures
as high as 1,500C - hundreds of degrees warmer than anywhere else on the
planet.
They suggest the hotspot is
created by thunderous soundwaves "breaking" in the thin upper reaches
of the atmosphere.
SPORTS
1) IOC to launch Olympic Channel on August
21
The International Olympic
Committee (IOC) has announced that it will launch the Olympic Channel on 27
July 2016. The channel will be launched on 21 August 2016, at the closing
ceremony of the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
The channels original programming
will include short-form and long-form content, focusing on elite athletes,
their quest for success and sport around the world.
