Current Affairs Feb 06, 2014

Current Affairs

Feb 06, 2014

National Affairs

1. The government has set up a committee today to suggest suitable and corrective measures to address concerns regarding security of people from North East. The six-member panel will be headed by M P Bezbaruah, a retired bureaucrat. The committee will submit its report within two months after examining the causes behind the attacks, violence and discrimination against the people from the Northeast. The decision was taken in the wake of death of a student from Arunachal Pradesh in New Delhi last week which drew huge protest by North East people living in New Delhi. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi also met Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and MPs from North East to discuss steps to prevent atrocities against people from the North East region.

2. Delhi’s AAP government today directed its Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to probe a number of Commonwealth Games related projects that were implemented during the reign of Sheila Dikshit. The government has particularly asked ACB to probe the alleged irregularities in street light projects in which the Prime Minister-appointed Shunglu Committee had questioned certain decisions made by Dikshit.

3. The Gujarat state government is now considering allocating lignite directly to the small and medium industries through the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) from Rajpardi mines in south Gujarat. While gas-based large industries continue to face fuel shortage, this step will help all the small industries in Gujarat. The state government has also given in-principle approval to the plan, which will ensure cheap fuel for the small industries and also appointed NSIC as nodal agency to distribute lignite among the small units.

4. India has extended the facility of visa-on-arrival for the tourists of 180 countries while barred tourists of eight nations. Currently 11 countries enjoy the benefit which is extended to 180 countries today including Finland, the Philippines, Singapore and Japan. The Minister for State for Planning, Rajeev Shukla said that the facility will be implemented from next tourist season that will begin in October 2014.

The electronic Visa offered to the tourists would be valid for a period of 30 days from the date of their visit to India. The countries have been barred from this visa-on-arrival facility includes Pakistan, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Somalia.

5. Famous Hindi writer Vishwanath Tripathi been selected for the prestigious Vyas Samman for the year 2013. He has been chosen for the annual literary award instituted in 1991 by the K K Birla Foundation for his memoir ‘Vyomkesh Darvesh’, a biolgraphy of noted Hindi scholar Acharya Hazari Prasad Dwivedi. The award carries an amount of Rs 2.5 lakh. It is given to an outstanding literary work in Hindi published during the last 10 years.

6. Sanjeev Kulkarni, an Indian-American professor of electrical engineering and director of the Keller Center, has been appointed as the dean of the prestigious Princeton University Graduate School. With this he joined the long list of Indian-origin academicians assuming leadership roles at renowned global universities. His appointed will effect from 31^st March. He succeeds William Russel, who has served as dean since 2002.

7. The number of poor in the country declined to 27 crore in 2011-12, from 40.74 crore in 2004-05, Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla said.

8. India offers buyer's credit of $ 100mn to Namibia for infra projects

i. India has offered to provide buyer's credit of 100 million dollars to Namibia for infrastructure projects. The offer was made by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma during his recent visit to the country. 

ii. The buyer's credit is in addition to the 100 million dollars line of credit offered during the visit of the President of Namibia to India in 2009. 

iii. Buyer's Credit is an unique programme of Exim Bank, under which the Bank facilitates Indian exports by way of extending credit facility to the overseas buyers for financing their imports from India. 

iv. An official release issued in New Delhi today said, India fully support to Namibia in the priority sectors such as drugs and pharmaceuticals, small and medium industries, agriculture and infrastructure.

9. Gujarat Govt to offer lignite for SMEs via NSIC

i. While gas-based large industries continue to face fuel shortage, the small industries in Gujarat has a reason to cheer.

ii. The state government is considering allocating lignite directly to the small and medium industries through the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) from Rajpardi mines in south Gujarat.

iii. According to top government officials, the state government has given in-principle approval to the plan, which will ensure cheap fuel for the small industries.

iv. The government has appointed NSIC, a government of India enterprise as nodal agency to distribute lignite among the small units.

v. “As per the draft agreement, NSIC will act as the nodal agency, where the units will place their demand and subsequently NSIC will inform GMDC to supply lignite to the concerned unit,” said P K Jha, regional head, NSIC - Ahmedabad.

vi. GMDC will supply about 40,000 metric tonnes of lignite periodically from its Rajpardi mines near Bharuch.

vii. As the financial assistance under its raw material procurement scheme, NSIC will provide weak units a 90-day repayment cycle with interest rate of 11.95 per cent, much below the 14.5 per cent interest rate charged under stock hypothecation by banks, Jha informed.

10. Delhi govt orders probe against Sheila Dikshit on CWG projects

i. In yet another move aimed at needling outside ally Congress, the AAP government today directed its Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to probe a number of Commonwealth Games related projects that were implemented during the reign of Sheila Dikshit.

ii. The government has particularly asked ACB to probe the alleged irregularities in street light projects in which the Prime Minister-appointed Shunglu Committee had questioned certain decisions made by Dikshit.

iii. We will ensure thorough investigation of all cases of corruption in CWG projects,” Law Minister Somnath Bharti said when asked about the government decision.

iv. The Shunglu Committee had found procedural violations by then Delhi Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna and Dikshit for alleged inadequacies in executing certain projects related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Note: In the 70-member Delhi Assembly, eight Congress MLAs are giving outside support to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government which currently has 27 MLAs after expulsion of rebel legislator Vinod Kumar Binny. The government has also been given outside support by a Janata Dal (United) MLA and an Independent.

11. Govt committee set up to suggest steps to ensure security of NE people

i. The government today set up a committee to suggest suitable remedial measures to address concerns regarding security of people from North East.

ii. The six-member panel to be headed by M P Bezbaruah, a retired bureaucrat, who will submit its report within two months after examining the causes behind the attacks, violence and discrimination against the people from the Northeast.

iii. The decision comes in the wake of death of a student from Arunachal Pradesh in New Delhi last week.

iv. Earlier today, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi met Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and MPs from North East to discuss steps to prevent atrocities against people from the North East region.

v. The delegation led by Member of Parliament and Vice Chairman of North East MPs Forum Khagen Das brought to notice of the Prime Minister on racial discrimination faced by the people from North East region in Delhi. They demanded steps to check the discrimination. Dr Singh assured the delegation members that he will look into their complaints. 

International Affairs

12. Aus keen to sign Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with India

i. Australia today said it was keen to sign the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with India to bring trade and investment ties to the forefront. Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said his country would push for the agreement after the general election in India.

ii. The Minister was speaking at the Australia-India Roundtable, an informal dialogue between the two countries in Melbourne today.

iii. Robb said the Australian government was working on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with India and Indonesia which would be pushed soon after polls are held in both the nations.He told the delegation that India was emerging one of the largest trading partner after China, Japan and South Korea. 

iv. A high-level Indian delegation led by Secretary (East) of the Ministry of External Affairs Anil Wadhwa held talks with several Australian officials in Sydney and Melbourne. The Roundtable was organised by the Australia India Institute in partnership with the Lowy Institute and Indian foreign policy think-tank the Observer Research Foundation.

Awards

13. A Brazilian senator has nominated fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, her office said.

14. Eminent Hindi writer Vishwanath Tripathi been selected for the prestigious Vyas Samman for the year 2013.

Banking Awareness

15. The European Central Bank (ECB) has kept its benchmark interest rate at 0.25% after its latest meeting after reducing the rate in November last year. Eurozone inflation slowed to 0.7% in January from 0.8% in December, which helped ECB to keep interest rate at record low. Also ECB has ruled out any threat of deflation to the euro zone economy.

16. The Bank of England has kept Interest rates unchanged at record low of 0.5%, as per the monetary policy announcement today. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) also left the £375 billion quantitative easing stimulus programme unchanged.

Business and economy

17. With Satya Nadella becoming CEO at software giant Microsoft, 10 Indian origin persons holding top posts at global corporations manage businesses worth about $350 billion.

18. Trustees of Retirement fund body EPFO will decide on amending the scheme to provide a minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000, which will immediately benefit about its 28 lakh pensioners.

19. The government allowed 26 per cent foreign investment in insurance and allied activities.

20. Google Inc executive Susan Wojcicki has been appointed new head of its YouTube video business. Wojcicki will replace Salar Kamangar. This is one of the biggest changes in the recent times as Google wants to make YouTube as a much bigger revenue generator.

21. New Microsoft chief will get $4.8 million this year, $18 m in 2015

i. The winner takes it all. Satya Nadella, who has been appointed as CEO of Microsoft, will earn $4.8 million in the current financial year.

ii. While Nadella gets an annual salary of $1.2 million, he will get three times ($3.6 million) more as a cash award. This will go up to $18 million next year as he becomes eligible for stock awards.

iii. These numbers are small when the performance-linked stock awards that will come his way in the next few years are factored in. Nadella has been taken on the company’s board.

Pat from Bill Gates
i. Bill Gates, in a statement sent to the SEC, said: “During this time of transformation, there is no better person to lead Microsoft than Satya Nadella. He is a proven leader with hard-core engineering skills, business vision and the ability to bring people together.”

ii. Microsoft said Nadella had led major strategy and technical shifts across a portfolio of products and services.

iii. Most notable among are the company's move to the cloud and the development of one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world, supporting Bing, Xbox and Office.

Sports

22. McCullum, Williamson's tons lead Kiwis to 329 on 1st day of 1st Test against India

i. New Zealand has finished on top during the opening day of the first Test against India at Auckland after posting 329 at the loss of four wickets at the close, boosted by centuries from captain Brendon McCullum and Kane Williamson.

ii. Even as Zaheer Khan dismissed Williamson in the final session, the hosts finished on top with McCullum scoring an unbeaten 143 in the company of Corey Anderson.

iii. Meanwhile, Ishant Sharma scored his 150th Test wicket in his 54th Test by removing Hamish Rutherford, and in the process becoming the 11th Indian to take 150 Test wickets.

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