Current Affairs - January 27, 2014

Current Affairs

January 27, 2014

National Affairs

1. Silicon valley of India gets WiFi hotspots

‘Namma WiFi” initiative was launched in Bangalore covering initially 6 hotspots.

WiFi, is a technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data or connect to the internet wirelessly using radio waves  based on the IEEE 802.11 standards.

People will be able to utilise the network upto 50 Mb of data download or for upto three hours with 512 kb bandwidth.

People will be provided with one Time Password once they get themselves registered for the service.

The facility was initiated by the state IT department and the ICT (information and communications technologies) group.

2. LPG Connection Portability Scheme launched: The Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas launched LPG Connection Portability Scheme across the country on 22 January 2014. The scheme covers 480 districts in the country and all possible LPG markets which have multiple LPG distributors.Under the scheme an LPG consumer can switch to the distributor of his or her choice within a cluster of LPG distributors in the vicinity.

3. Padma Vibhushan for B.K.S. Iyengar, R.A. Mashelkar : he list included 2 Padma Vibhushans, 24 Padma Bhushans and 101 Padma Shri awardees.The world famous yoga guru, B.K.S. Iyengar, and the former chief of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), R.A. Mashelkar, have been awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour.Mr. Iyengar (95), who founded the Iyengar school of yoga that has millions of followers across the globe including in China, was once named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential persons in the world.

4. Banks to go ahead with strike in February : Disappointed over the offer made by the Indian Banks Association (IBA) with regard to wage revision, the United Forum of Bank Association (UFBU) on Monday has called for a nation-wide strike on February 10th and 11th, 2014 according to its convenor M.V. Murali.
A bipartite talk was held between IBA and UFBU in Mumbai on wage revision, in which the management improved its offer from 9.5 per cent to 10 per cent. However, the unions rejected it.

5. India Posts to start rolling out ATMs from February: In anticipation of getting a banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India, the Department of Posts will roll out its own ATMs, with the first of them set to be functional on February 5 across three cities. Following which, the postal department is planning to rollout 3,000 ATMs. About 1,000 machines would be introduced in the first year. The remaining 2,000 would be rolled out within six months to one year after the initial phase of rollout.

International Affairs

6. New hope for Constitution in Nepal

Leaders of Nepal’s political parties came to a consensus to draft a constitution within a year.

Except for Kamal Thapa, Chairman of RPP (Nepal), other major and minor political parties have also decided to adopt the agreements reached during last session of the constituent assembly.

Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala will become the next Prime Minister of Nepal.

In the mean while Patients were forced to flee to Indian side as  Nepali doctors are striking in order to press the authorities to address demands of leading orthopaedic surgeon Govinda K C, who is on the fast unto death since January 11.

7. India, Japan agree to enhance security and defence ties : The summit meeting between the Prime Ministers of India and Japan here on Saturday was a continuation of the efforts to forge closer security, political and defence ties by putting in place new building blocks and expanding the horizons of ongoing initiatives. The two countries signed eight pacts, of which half were connected with Japanese aid, thus indicating that soft loans and outright grants will continue to remain an integral component of Tokyo’s strategy of reaching out to New Delhi. Mr. Abe held out the promise of more aid, of which 70 per cent will go for implementing phase-III of the Delhi Metro project.

Business and Economy

8. Fiscal deficit within the redline

Finance minister will report the achieved fiscal deficit at 4.65 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product for the current fiscal when he presents the Vote-on-Account.

Fiscal deficit is the difference between the government’s expenditures and its revenues excluding the money it’s borrowed. Government spending, inflation and lower revenue are some of the main factors that cause Fiscal deficit. A high fiscal deficit could pose an inflation risk, minimize the growth of the economy, doubt the government’s abilities and can also affect the country’s sovereign rating.

Lowering of expenditure on flagship social schemes and a slight improvement in tax collection has helped to contain fiscal deficit within 4.8% line.

The fiscal deficit hit 94 per cent of the government’s target by November last year.

9. Google buys artificial intelligence startup in UK : Google says that it has purchased the British startup DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company founded by a 37-year old former chess prodigy and computer game designer.Artificial intelligence uses computers for tasks normally requiring human intelligence, like speech recognition or language translation. DeepMind says the company, based in London, specializes in algorithms and machine learning.Google, like other tech giants such as Facebook, are anxious to develop systems that work like the human brain.

Sports

11. Saina Nehwal won the women’s singles Grand Prix Badminton title beating P.V.Sindhu.

12. Saina stays superior to Sindhu : At present, Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu are separated by just two places in the current world rankinglist. But put them on a badminton court and even a struggling Saina, ranked ninth, looks much better than a fast-improving Sindhu.Saina reinforced the point before a packed house here by stopping the teenager 21-14, 21-17 to regain the $120,000 India Grand Prix badminton title. The triumph also ended Saina’s title-drought that followed since she claimed the Denmark Open in October 2012.

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