Current Affairs: February 26, 2014

Current Affairs: February 26, 2014

International Affairs

1. Egypt’s interim Prime Minister resigns

Egypt’s interim PM Hazem-El-Bablawi resigned with his full cabinet and the President Adly Mansour appointed Ibrahim Mahlib as the new interim PM of the nation which is set to face fresh elections after two months.

1. a) Highest Israeli civilian award for Merkel (image)

i. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been awarded Israel's highest civilian honour ,the "Medal of Distinction" yesterday evening for her unwavering commitment to the country.
ii. Israeli President Shimon Peres awarded Merkel the honor at a ceremony in Jerusalem.

2. Nigerian Islamists kill 59 pupils in boarding school attack:
Gunmen from Islamist group Boko Haram shot or burned to death 59 pupils in a boarding school in northeast Nigeria overnight, a hospital official and security forces said onTuesday. “Some of the students’ bodies were burned to ashes,” Police commissioner Sanusi Rufai said of the attack on the Federal Government college of Buni Yadi, asecondary school in Yobe state, near the state’s capital city of Damaturu. Bala Ajiya, an official at the Specialist Hospital Damaturu, told Reuters by phone the death toll had risen to 59.

3. India - Canadian cooperation set for further rise 

i. India and Canada held talks on a range of bilateral and international issues on Monday and decided to expand ties in diverse sectors including health, audio-visual co-production and skill development. 

ii. Canada's Governor General David Johnston held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and discussed ways to further enhance ties between the two countries. 

iii. India is also keen on buying crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Canada on long-term basis to meet its vast and growing energy needs. After his meeting with the Prime Minister, both countries inked three pacts including the India-Canada Audio-Visual Co-production Agreement. 

iv. An MoU between National Skill Development Corporation and Association of Canadian Community Colleges was also inked. 

v. Trade between India and Canada surpassed USD 5.8 billion last year. This represents a 12 per cent increase over 2012 and a 39 per cent increase since 2010.

4. India, Azerbaijan to explore opportunities in energy sector

i. India and Azerbaijan propose to constitute a joint working group in the field of hydrocarbon.

ii. Both the sides agreed to explore opportunities for participation in renewable energy sector, energy efficiency and various upcoming projects in oil and gas, petro-chemicals, pipelines, etc. in Azerbaijan or India or third countries in collaboration or joint venture, an official release said. 

iii. During the meeting, both side reviewed the status of the construction of Gazvin-Rasht-Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) railway route for connecting the railway lines of International North-South Transport Corridor.

iv. India also called for investment in the field of hotel industry tourism and infrastructural development as India allows 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in hospitality sector on automated basis.

v. The total trade between India and Azerbaijan rose from $ 565.98 million in 2011-12 to $ 608.55 million in 2012-13.

National Affairs

5. Taking moral responsibility for the submarine accident off the Mumbai coast, Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi has resigned today. Vice Admiral Robin Dhowan will take over as acting Navy Chief till a new Chief is appointed. He is the first military chief in India to resign before the end of his term.

A fire broke out in the crew accommodation area of the 25-year-old Indian Navy submarine INS Sindhuratna today while left 2 naval officers missing and 7 naval officers injured. All the injured naval officers were air lifted to Navi Mumbai and hospitalized.

6. Dinesh K. Sarraf has been appointed the new head of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, India’s most profitable firm, on 26^th February. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved appointment of Mr. Sarraf, who is now managing director of ONGC Videsh.

This move came after rejection of Oil Minister M. Veerappa Moily’s proposal to give incumbent CMD Sudhir Vasudeva a post-retirement extension of 1 year. Mr. Vasudeva took over as chairman of ONGC on October 3, 2011.

7. Hyderabad has become the world’s most affordable office locations due to rupee depreciation and fall in rentals amid political instability over Telangana, as per the paper published by the global realty consultant DTZ. While Chennai retains its position as the world’s third least expensive office space market, Pune and Bangalore secured fourth and fifth position respectively.

Delhi and Mumbai placed at 49th and 63rd position globally with Delhi is having the costliest office space in India. As per the same list, London West End and Hong Kong are the most expensive office market space in the world.

8. SC issues Non bailable arrest warrant against Sahara Chief

i. The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued non bailable arrest warrant against Sahara Chief Subrata Roy for his failure to appear before it in connection with the case in which his two companies have been directed to refund Rs 20,000 crore to investors.

ii. The court had on February 20 come down heavily on the Sahara group for not refunding Rs 20,000 crore of investors money despite its order and summoned Roy, Ravi Shankar Dubey, Ashok Roy Choudhary and Vandana Bhargava, directors of its firms -- Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd (SIREC) and Sahara India Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHIC) to be personally present before it today.

iii. The bench had said SEBI can put those properties on auction and get the money after the market regulator had said that let the company itself sell the properties and deposit the money.

iv. The apex court in its judgement of August 31, 2012 had directed SEBI to attach properties and recover the money.

v. Sending a clear message that the court is not “helpless” in taking action for flouting its directions, the apex court had on November 21 last year barred Mr. Roy from leaving the country and also restrained the group from selling any of its properties.

9. Ram Vilas Paswan all set to align with BJP again

i. Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP, which left NDA in 2002, is all set to align with BJP in Bihar for Lok Sabha polls, giving a jolt to Congress’ plans to have a “secular” alliance with LJP and RJD.

ii. The alliance between BJP and LJP is likely to be announced in a couple of days as the party’s Parliamentary Board authorised Paswan to take a final decision in this regard and did not hide its bitterness towards Lalu Prasad’s RJD.

iii. The LJP chief said members in the Parliamentary Board were of the opinion that the option of going with BJP should also be kept open.

Note:i.  Ram Vilas Paswan had left the NDA and resigned from the Vajpayee government in the wake of the Gujarat riots in 2002.

ii. LJP was part of the Congress-led UPA from 2004 to 2009 with Paswan being a Cabinet Minister at the Centre.

10. MNREGA workdays may be raised to 150 days

i. With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, the government is planning to raise the workdays under its ambitious rural employment guarantee programme MNREGA from 100 to 150 days a year.

ii. A proposal in this regard will be considered by the Union Cabinet on Friday, sources said today.

iii. In the recent years, there have been demands that payments under MNGREGA should be at par with the wages paid under the Minimum Wages Act, which vary from state to state.

Note: Under the MNREGA programme, one member of each rural family is entitled to 100 days of work a year with remuneration of Rs 100 plus amount linked to Consumer Price Index (CPI).

11. Vice President released Commemorative Postage Stamp of Maulana Hasrat Mohani

i. Hamid Ansari, the Vice President of India released a commemorative postage stamp in the honour of Maulana Hasrat Mohani in New Delhi. Mohani was a freedom fighter and an eminent poet. 

ii. Hasrat Mohani alongwith Ali brothers (Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali), Maulana Azad and Hakim Ajmal Khan were the part of the Khilafat Committee formed by Indian National Congress in 1919.

12. Hyderabad tops list of world’s 10 least expensive office markets

i. Hyderabad has become the world's most affordable office locations due to rupee depreciation and fall in rentals amid political instability over Telangana, according to global realty consultant DTZ.

ii. Chennai retains its position as the world’s third least expensive office space market. Pune and Bangalore occupy fourth and fifth position respectively.

iii. Meanwhile, the report also revealed that London West End and Hong Kong are the most expensive occupier markets in our global list, with occupancy costs exceeding USD 20,000 per annum on a workstation basis.

iv. "Mumbai and Delhi are placed at 63rd and 49th position globally. This makes Delhi the costliest office space in India followed by Mumbai," DTZ said.

13. National Centre for Good governance in inaugurated in Mussorie
It will serve as an apex think tank to advise government on good governance. The institute is just the upgradation of the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG).

Banking Awareness

14. ALL RRBs have migrated to core banking solution: NABARD Chief

i. NABARD Chairman H K Bhanwala has said that the process of migrating to the core banking solution has been completed at all the Regional Rural Banks (RRBs). 

ii. Now focus is on installing ATMs at those branches which witness over 100 transactions per day. Barring one bank from Nagaland, Mr. Bhanwala said all the RRBs are now profitable and many of them have their capital adequacy ratios above the RBI-mandated 9 per cent mark. 

iv. He said that all the 57 RRBs, as a whole, will have gross Non-Performing Assets of 6 per cent in this fiscal, just the same as that in March 2013. 

Note: All RRBs have been individually asked to formulate guidelines so as to bring down the gross NPAs under the 5 per cent mark by the end of June.

15. Bimal Jalan committee on banking license submits its report  

The Bimal Jalan committee which was constituted for providing banking licenses to the corporate houses submitted its report to the RBI. The panel scrutinized 25 applications by corporate houses which were initially 27 but Tata and Videocon withdrew their application later.

The committee contains 3 other members RBI Deputy Governor Usha Thorat, former Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman C B Bhave and Nachiket M Mor, Director of the Central Board of Directors of the RBI. As of now, India has 27 public sector banks, 22 privte banks and 56 RRBs. Kotak Mahindra and Yes Bank were the last firms to get banking licenses in 2003-04.

16. Bitcoin bank shuts down after theft

One of the largest exchanges of Bitcoin –Mt Gox, a Tokyo based website which is also known as a Bitcoin Bank shut down after the theft of some 7,44,000 bitcoins over several years and it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

This theft was unnoticed for so many years and it has been brought to the notice of bitcoin enthusiast, the dangers of using unregulated online currency.

Business and economy

17.  Vodafone to launch M-Pesa in south India by March-April

i. Vodafone today said its mobile commerce initiative called M-Pesa will be launched in south India in March-April.

ii. This service allows customers to transfer money to any mobile phone, remit money to any bank account, make utility payments, recharge of mobile, DTH payment and earn interest on deposits.

iii. Vodafone Operations Director south India Suresh Kumar said “We have launched our mobile commerce initiative called M-Pesa...; we have launched it in 15 circles across the country, there is few more to be launched other than the south, and in south we have scheduled it for March-April,"

Science and technology

18. NASA and ISRO to collaborate for missile launch

US space agency NASA is planning to launch water and drought related missile in collaboration with the ISRO. 

In addition to that, it is also planning to launch Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2); Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-on and Surface Water Ocean Topography mission.

Sports

19. Harbhajan can make a comeback to India team: Sourav Ganguly:
Out of favour he might be right nowbut former Indian captain former captain Sourav Ganguly feels seasoned off-spinner Harbhajan Singh can make a comeback if the selectors look beyond those favoured by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.”I think Bhajji can make a comeback to the national side in both form of the game,” Ganguly told a news channelhere last night.Describing Harbhajan as one of the country’s top spinners, the former India captain slammed the selectors for not choosing the Jalandhar man over Dhoni’s choice.”I believe the selectors don’t think much on this (Harbhajan’s selection) and especially when you have captain’s men around,” Ganguly said.

20. Asia Cup cricket: Bangladesh set victory target of 280 runs for India

i. In the Asia Cup cricket match at Fatullah, Bangladesh have set a victory target of 280 runs for India. Put in to bat, the hosts made 279 for seven in the stipulated 50 overs. Skipper Mushfiqur Rahim was the top scorer with a fine 117. 

ii. For India, Mohammed Shami was the most successful bowler with a tally of 4 for 50.

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