Dear Readers, We cover some important news in Current Affairs Today Section, which are not covered in Daily Detailed News, More Current Affairs coverage will help you to Score Good Marks in Competitive Exam.
Indian Affairs
- Government nod for gold bonds, new monetization scheme
- India, Indonesia sign MoU on Cooperation in all Criminal matters
- PM Modi inaugurates 10th Vishwa Hindi Sammelan
- Union Cabinet permits 100% FDI in White Label ATM Operations
- Union Cabinet approves National Offshore Wind Energy Policy
- Manohar Parrikar commissions INS Vajrakosh at Karwar in Karnataka
- Union Cabinet approved constitution of 21st Law Commission of India
- Railway PSU Rites Records 16% Hike in Profit After Tax (PAT) In 2014-15
Rajnath Singh inaugurates South Asian Sub-Regional Drug Focal Point Meeting in New Delhi.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the three day meeting in New Delhi. Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) organized the sub regional Drug Focal Point Meeting and Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) Expert group consultation, South Asia under the Colombo Plan Drug advisory Programme.
40 Representatives from different participating countries namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka. Observer countries, USA and Myanmar participated in the meeting.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) representative from Regional Office for South Asia, New Delhi also participated in this meeting
- Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB) – Headquarters: New Delhi, DG – Rajiv Mehta IPS
- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) – Headquarters: Vienna , Austria
Executive Director: Yuri Fedotov
CCI imposed penalty on Kerala Film Exhibitors Federation for Contravening Competition Law
- Competition Commission of India (CCI) found Kerala Film Exhibitors Federation (KFEF), an association of theatre owners, to be conducting their activities in contravention of Section 3 of the Competition Act, 2002. KFEF was not allowing screening of Malayalam and Tamil films in its theatre since May 2013.
- CCI found that denial of Tamil and Malayalam language movies for screening due to the interference of KFEF was found to be in contravention of section 3(1) read with section 3(3)(b) of the Act.
Penalty :
- Under section 27 of the Act, Penalty of Rs. 82414/– on KFEF calculated at the rate of 10% of its average income and penalty of Rs. 56397/ and Rs. 47778/- calculated at the rate of 10% of their average income is imposed on Mr. P.V. Basheer Ahmed and Mr. M.C. Bobby, respectively.
Mr. P.V. Basheer Ahmed (President, KFEF)
Mr. M.C. Bobby (Secretary, KFEF)
Centre to reduce its share of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan from 65% to 50%
The central government has decided to decrease its shares of funding in the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme which aimed at the universalisation of elementary education from 65% to 50%. This decision was taken by Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The revised Funding Ratio will be 50:50. The ratio of Centre-State funding, 90:10 would remain same for the North – East region. The total resources available for students under this scheme would remain unchanged.
Odisha Education Minister, Debi Prasad Mishra said, “The state is likely to lose Rs 510 crore under SSA. We will strongly object to the decision of the Ministry of Human Resource Development which reduced the Centre’s share from 65 per cent to 50 per cent”.
Railways to invest $140 billion, Japan to modernize station
- Japan has agreed tomodernize railway stations across India while participating in the country’s 140 billion USD investment plan in the Railways over the next five years.
- While agreeing for cooperation on modernisation and upgradation, Japan has agreed to assist the public transporter in achieving its zero-accident mission.
- Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who is in Japan to strengthen cooperation in rail sector, held a series of high-level meetings withJapanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso among other ministers and senior officials.
- In the top level discussion emphasis was laid on participation of Japanese railways and Japanese companies in various areas of Indian Railways with the aim of modernisation and technology upgradation
- A Japanese delegation will soon visit India to study the opportunities for industries in the railway station development plan of railways as Railway Ministry has identified 400 stations to be upgraded in private investment
- Railways research wing – Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO),will sign an MoU with Railway Technical Research Institute of Japan to carry out research work on acquiring modern technology for the Indian Railways as per the finalisation of the action plan.
- Japan will also provide its expertise and technology in solving problems of sanitation including the development of waterless, odourless toilets in trains and at stations
International Affairs
- Indian-Origin Entrepreneur in Fortune’s List of 10 Powerful Women
- Indian-US woman becomes first post master in California
Indian – Origin Boy, Anirudh Kathirvel won Australian Spelling Bee Contest
A nine-year-old, Indian-origin Anirudh Kathirvel, crowned champion of “The Great Australian Spelling Bee Contest”.
About Anirudh Kathirvel:
- He was born in Melbourne, Australia. Sixteen years ago, His parents were migrated to Australia from Tamil Nadu.
- He won 50,000 dollars education scholarship along with 10,000 dollars’ worth goods for his school. In the competition, Anirudh Kathirvel spelled words correctly such as Camaraderie, Continuum, Exorbitant, Guernsey, and Ricochet.
Banking & Finance
OSCB begins ‘Banks on Wheels’ service in remote areas
- Odisha State Cooperative Bank Limited (OSCB) launched ‘Banks of Wheels’ scheme in 20 backward blocks to reach the farmers and other people in remote areas of the state.
- This scheme is launched by Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik and he also also inaugurated the Core Banking Data Management Centre to provide connectivity to all branches.
- 16 districts :Keonjhar, Koraput, Sundergarh, Gajapati, Ganjam, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Mayurbhanj, Sambalpur, Angul, Dhenkanal, Boudh, Malkangiri, Nawrangpur, Rayagada and Nayagarh.
OSBC :
- OSCB become a member of the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and has issued RuPay ATM Debit Cards that are accessible at 1.88 lakh ATMs of all the banks across the country.
BSE has highest number of listed companies in the world: WFE
- Oldest exchange in Asia Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has the highest number of listed companies in the world by World Federation of Exchanges (WEF) report. It was established in 1855
- Total number of 5689 companies were listed with the BSE. In that only one company was a foreign company.The total value of transactions in the BSE was 94 billion US dollars
- The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) had 1750 listed companies by the end of June 2015.
- Shanghai stock exchange of China (1070 companies) was at the top in terms of value of share trading with 30 trillion US dollars.
- BSE MD & CEO : Ashish Chauhan
Awards
Appointments
Ramnganiang Muivah takes charge as Secy of North Eastern Council
- Senior bureaucrat Ramnganing Muivah took charge as secretary of the North Eastern Council ,NSE is expected to give a fillip to the region’s developmental agenda.
- He was the Board of Directors of United Bank of India and Indian Bank during 2001 to 2006
Environmental
World’s Oldest fossil sea turtle discovered
- 25 million years older fossil found in South America.More than six feet long, the turtle, Desmatochelys padillai sp, lived around 120 million years ago.
- The new find represents the oldest confirmed record of sea turtles anywhere in the world by Cardena and study co-author James Parham of California State University, Fullerton.
- This report was published in the journal PaleoBios.
Sports
Usain Bolt’ of tortoises sets new Guinness record
- The ‘Usain Bolt’ of the tortoise Bertie has raced into the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest ever.
- Bertie was 10 years old, covered 18ft (5.48m) in 19.59 seconds – smashing the previous best of 43.7 seconds, which stood since 1977.
Important Days
