Current Affairs FEB 08, 2014

Current Affairs

FEB 08, 2014

National Affairs

1. Cabinet clears Telangana bill

i. The Union Cabinet on Friday cleared the Telangana Bill which will be introduced in Parliament on Feb 12. 

ii. The controversial bill will be presented in the Rajya Sabha in the present form and the government will move 32 amendments when it is taken up for consideration.

iii. The proposed legislation does not provide for grant of Union Territory status to Hyderabad despite demands but the government will announce a special package for Rayalaseema and north coastal Andhra to address concerns of the people there.

iv. The Cabinet cleared the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill after a specialmarathon meeting which was followed by a meeting of the Congress Core Group headed by party President Sonia Gandhi.

v. At the Cabinet meeting, NCP chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who had earlier made a strong pitch for Telangana, questioned whether the law and order powers being given to Governor are according to the Constitution.
vi. Although he endorsed the bill, he wanted to know what is being done for the new capital of Seemandhra, sources said. He was told all the cost will be taken care of by the Centre.
vii. Union Minister Pallam Raju, who along with other colleagues from the Seemandhra region, has been opposing division of the state, unsucessfully batted for UT status for Hyderabad.

2. The Justice M B Shah Commission report on illegal mining in Odisha will be tabled on friday in Parliament as the Cabinet has approved making public the first part of the recommendations along with action taken report.

3. India underlined the need for cooperation among South Asian nations to effectively deal with water and energy shortages in a bid to promote development.

4. Kerala government decided in principle to seek a CBI probe into the ‘conspiracy’ behind the murder of RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan, whose wife is on an indefinite fast in front of the secretariat here demanding a probe by the agency in the case.

5. Arunachal Pradesh has raised the first company of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) to avert casualty in times of mishap and disasters.

6. 10 plastic note to be tried out in five cities

i. Plastic notes in the denomination of 10 will be introduced on a pilot basis, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narayan Meena told to the Lok Sabha on Friday.

ii. In a written reply to a question, Meena said about 1billion 10 plastic notes will be introduced on a trial basis in five cities — Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar. The field trial is expected to be launched in the second half of 2014.

International Affairs

7. Global food prices declined for the first time in three months as lower prices for cereals, sugars, oils and meat outstripped gains in dairy products, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported.

8. Arnab De, an Indian scientist working at Columbia University in the US, claims to have found a new biological pathway that holds hope for cancer cure.

9. China’s Yu Zaiqing was elected the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice President.

10. Obama Signed an Agricultural Bill Worth of $ 950 billion. Some of the liberals opposed the bill stating that this bill would reduce aid to 8, 50,000 families.

Banking / Business

11 (a). SEBI head Upendra Kumar Sinha gets 2-year extension as the Chairman of this securities market regulator of India.

11 (b). Economy likely to grow by 4.9% in current fiscal

i. Economic growth in the current fiscal is estimated to rise by 4.9 per cent as compared to the growth rate of 4.5 per cent in 2012-13, with good performance of the farm sector.

ii. According to advanced estimates released by the Central Statistics Office, CSO in New Delhi, the growth rate in the manufacturing and mining sectors continue to remain a cause of concern.
iii. The CSO had earlier lowered growth for 2012-13 fiscal to 4.5 per cent in its revised estimates from the provisional forecast of 5 per cent.
Note: Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council C. Rangarajan described it as encouraging indication that economic slowdown is over.

12. The Reserve Bank has issued ‘certificate of authorisation’ to four non-bank entities, including Tata Communications Payment Solutions and Muthoot Finance, to set up White Label ATMs (WLAs) in the country.

13. RBI panel favours single mobile banking app on all SIMs

i. For greater adoption of mobile banking in the country, a Reserve Bank of India panel has recommended that all mobile network operators (MNOs) load single mobile bankingapplication on all new SIMs (subscriber identification modules), which use encrypted SMS (short messaging service) for transaction processing.

ii. In the case of existing SIMs, the MNOs load the single mobile banking application in SMS encrypted environment and the common mobile banking application can be pushed over-the-air.

iii. Further, the single mobile banking application may be pre-loaded in the handset, with the Government mandating all handset manufacturers / resellers in India. Handset manufacturers should burn the application on all new handsets.

iv. The RBI’s technical committee on mobile banking suggested that the Government of India can explore the options of offering fiscal incentives / economic subventions to the stakeholders in order to ensure participation of various players to offer mobile banking solutions.

v. The process of M-PIN (mobile personal identification number) generation may also be simplified and standardized without necessitating a visit to the bank branch by the customer, so that the customer can be on-boarded in an easy manner and start transacting using mobile payments, and reduce barriers to entry.

vi. To overcome the challenges faced by each bank in tying up with a large number of MNOs, and to facilitate the reach and usage of mobile banking through USSD (unstructured supplementary service data: a protocol used by mobile phones to communicate with the service provider’s computers), there is a need for common USSD gateway for mobile banking.

Note: The committee, headed by B. Sambamurthy, Director, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology, recommended that customers should not be required to visit the bank branch for mobile number registration.

14. Marco Lambertini has been appointed as the new Director-General of WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). He will assume charge as such from 1st of May.

Awards

15. General Motors CEO Mary Barra tops the Fortune global list of 50 most powerful women in business.  She, the first woman to run a global automaker, is followed in the list by IBM's Ginni Rometty at 2nd and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi at the 3rd rank. ICICI Bank Managing Director 'Chanda Kochhar' (18th) is the only Indian, apart from Nooyi, to feature in this coveted list.

16. 'AIMA - RK Swamy High Performance Brand Award' for 2013 conferred on Amul.  

State Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Wipro Technologies and Apollo Tyres are the past recipients of the award that recognizes the marketing success of a brand.

All India Management Association (AIMA), the national apex body of management professionals in the country, and RK Swamy BBDO had instituted the Award in 2009.

Science and Technology

17. Agni-5 intercontinental ballistic missile, which has a strike range of more than 5,500 km, is expected to be ready for induction into the armed forces by next year.

18. India’s first indigenous nuclear-powered attack submarine, INS Arihant, should be ready for deterrence patrols from 2015, roughly in about a year’s time from now, its developers say.

Sports

19. Five time world boxing champion and Olympic bronze medalist MC Mary Kom becomes  the  brand ambassador of nation's largest paramilitary force CRPF.

20. Competition set to begin at Sochi after dazzling opening ceremony

i. Opening ceremonies for the 2014 Olympics in Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi have begun, marking the official start of the Sochi Winter Games.
ii. The 40,000 seat Fisht Olympic Stadium, a venue built for the Sochi Games, is hosting the spectacular two-and-a-half hour ceremony.
iii. More than 40 heads of state and leaders from around the world are there, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. U.S. President Barack Obama and some European Union leaders are absent. Russia has faced criticism of its law banning the spread of so-called “gay propaganda” to minors.
iv. Athletes from the 88 nations competing in Sochi are marching into the stadium.
v. Security remained tight Friday in and around the Olympic village, with authorities on guard for possible terrorist attacks.
vi. However, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said it is unfair to single out the Sochi Games as facing a particular security threat. He said terrorist threats were made at other Olympics, including Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004, and Salt Lake City in 2002.

vii. Russian authorities have spent an estimated $2 billion to shore up security in advance of the Sochi Olympics. Analysts have warned of possible attacks against targets such as train stations.

21. Sachin set to lead MCC against Warne’s Rest of World

i. Retired batting icon Sachin Tendulkar will be seen in cricketing gears once again when he leads the MCC team against Shane Warne-led Rest of the World side at the Lord’s in a one-day game on July 5to mark the bicentenary celebrations of the historic club.

ii. Tendulkar, who was awarded Honorary Member of MCC in 2010, will lead a side that will also have another Indian batting great Rahul Dravid in his side.

iii. Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar also played a competitive game after his Test retirement, where he scored a fabulous 188 for Rest of the World against MCC in a bicentenary Test match at Lord’s back in 1987.

iv. The famous Tendulkar vs Warne rivalry will be renewed for a day as the Aussie legend leads a team that will also have former South African captain Shaun Pollock in its ranks.

v. This is the second time Tendulkar will appear at Lord’s in such a fixture, having captained the Rest of the World side – scoring a majestic century in the process – in the Lady Diana Memorial Match in 1998.

vi. “It is an honour to be asked to captain the MCC side in such a prestigious fixture, and I am delighted to accept it,” Tendulkar said in a statement released by the MCC.

vii. Warne, on his part also sounded excited, to be playing the festival fixture. “I always enjoy playing at Lord’s and as an Honourary Life Member of MCC I’m really excited about coming back,” Warne said in the statement.

22. N. Srinivasan to be new Chairman of ICC from July 2104 onwards

i. BCCI President N. Srinivasan will be the new Chairman of the International Cricket Council from July onwards for a period of two years.

ii. The decision was taken at the ICC Board meeting in Singapore today.

iii. A new model of Governance, finance and competition was also approved by voice vote. Pakistan and Sri Lanka abstained from the vote saying they need more time to consult their boards.

iv. N. Srinivasan will head the ICC Board, the apex decision making body of the world cricket.

v. He will be assisted by a new Executive Committee chaired by Wally Edwards from Cricket Australia and the Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee chaired by Giles Clarke from the English cricket Board.

23. Yuki Bhambri enters final of ATP Challenger Tennis event

i. Yuki Bhambri emerged winner in the contest between country’s top two tennis players as he brushed aside the challenge of India number one Somdev Devvarman in straight sets to breeze into the final of the ATP Challenger Tennis event at Chennai today.

ii. Yuki, ranked 71 places below his compatriot at 174, beat top seed Somdev 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 41 minutes in the semifinals of the 50,000 US dollars hard court event.

iii. Yuki will now fight it out with unseeded Russian Alexander Kudryavtsev, who shocked second seed and compatriot Evgeny Donskoy 7-6, 6-3 in the other semifinal.

iv. In the doubles, the second seeded Indo-Kiwi pair will face India’s N Sriram Balaji and Blaz Rola, who defeated Ti Chen and Marek Semjan 6-3, 7-6.

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