WBCS Current Affairs 28/03/2014 TO 03/04/2014

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1.The key highlights of the bi-monthly monetary policy review by RBI are as follows:
Repo Rate (RR) under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) unchanged at 8.0%
Reverse Repo Rate (RRR) under the LAF unchanged at 7.0%
Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate unchanged at 9.0%
Bank Rate unchaged at 9.0%
Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks unchanged at 4.0% of the Net Demand and Time Liability (NDTL);
Increase in liquidity provided under 7-day and 14-day term repos from 0.5% of NDTL to 0.75%
Reduction in liquidity provided under overnight Repos under the LAF from 0.5% of bank-wise NDTL to 0.25% with immediate effect.

2.The astronomers from Niels Bohr Institute discovered a miniature planet “Charkilo” with two rings of ice and pebbles between Saturn and Uranus in the Kuiper Belt.
Miniature planet “Charkilo”
Giant asteroid- a celestial body known as a centaur or minor planet.
Located between Saturn and Uranus.
Originated in the Kuiper belt.
Diameter: 250 km.
Centers of the two rings are 14 km and the gap between them is 9 Km.
Have two rings of ice particles and pebbles.
First time such a small celestial body with rings has been observed.
Rings of the celestial body are not more than few hundred meters thick and are only three and seven kilometer wide.
Kuiper Belt is the collection of thousands of dwarf planets and comets in orbit beyond Neptune on the edge of our solar system.
Note: Till now, rings have only been observed around giant planets viz. Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and especially Saturn.

3.The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a fine of Rs. 1 Crore on Google for failure to comply with the directions given by the Director General (DG) seeking information and documents.
Why CCI imposed a fine of Rs. 1 crore on Google?
The DG (Director general of investigations) was investigating the information’s filed by M/s Matrimony com private limited and Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) against Google for alleged abuse of market power in the relevant markets of online search and search advertising.
Allegation against Google: Misusing its market power in the areas of search advertising and online Search, the Google Search Engine favors platforms it wants to support and hence, it adopts unfair and discriminatory practices.
The investigation team is looking into the Software and the Algorithmic search used by the Google.
But, Google was not cooperating DG, as they required information during the investigation of a complaint against Google.
Thus, CCI imposed a fine of Rs. 1 crore on Google for failure to comply with the directions given by the DG seeking information and documents.

4.The Atlantic Council appointed Mr. Jens Stoltenberg as the next Secretary General of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). He will replace Denmark’s Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen and l take over as leader of the 28-nation military alliance in October 1, 2014. Previously, Mr. Stoltenberg was the Labour Prime Minister of Norway (from 2005-2013).

5.The Election Commission launched an SMS based service “Polling at your fingertips” in Shillong, Meghalaya to help voters to locate their respective polling stations.
To avail the SMS service “Polling at your fingertips”
Voters have to type their Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number and send it to 98560-66666 and within a few minutes, details of electoral roll, timing and date of the election and name and address of the polling station is delivered to the mobile number.
Purpose: To help the voters in locating their polling stations and to reach their actual designated polling stations.
Each SMS will be charged at Rs.3.

6.The Supreme Court of India commuted the death penalty of 1993 Delhi bomb blast case convict Mr. Devinderpal Singh Bhullar to life imprisonment on the ground of delay in deciding his mercy plea and his medical condition.
The Chief Justice P Sathasivam bench granted life to Mr. Bhullar on the grounds of inordinate delay in deciding his mercy petition and his suffering from Schizophrenia.
In January, 2014, the apex court had stopped Bhullar’s execution and had sought a medical report on his mental health. His family has pleaded that the 49-year-old is mentally unfit and thus should not be hanged.

7.The Japanese court release of the World’s longest serving death row inmate (48 YEARS), Mr. Iwao Hakamada (78), as the evidences used against him were probably made up.

8.President Pranab Mukherjee cleared the re-promulgation of the SEBI Ordinance that provides powers for SEBI Chairman to authorize Investigating Authority or any other officer of the regulator to conduct search and seizure under the SEBI Act and crack down on Ponzi schemes.

9.India’s foreign exchange reserves continued their rally for the fourth straight week, increased by $1.35 billion to 298.64 billion dollar on a surge in currency assets even though the reserve position with the IMF slid heavily.
As per the data released by Reserve Bank of India( RBI)
Gold reserves remained unchanged at $ 20.978 billion.
Foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major part of the overall reserves, rose $1.58 billion to $ 271.40 billion.
FCAs expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of the non-US currencies viz. the euro, pound and yen held in its reserves.
The special drawing rights were down by $ 16.9 million to % 4.462 billion, while the country’s reserve position with the IMF was down by a whopping $ 214.7 million to $1.801 billion.

10.As per the quarterly report of Ministry of Finance (MoF), India’s external debt was at $ 426 billion – including the government’s debt of $ 76.4 billion in December 2013. The total external debt of $ 426 billion showed an increase of $ 21.1 billion over the March-end level.
Reasons for increase of India’s external debt during the period were
Due to long-term debt particularly NRI deposits.
A sharp increase in NRI deposits reflected the impact of fresh FCNR(B) deposits mobilised under the swap scheme during September-November 2013.

11.In a bid to bring more credibility among tax payers and to streamline income tax procedures, the Union Government has set up a Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC) comprising officials from public and private sector agencies.
About Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC)
Chairman: Dr. Parthasarathi Shome.
Focus: On the rules and features and structural reforms in tax administration.

12.The Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) set up its first branch in Patna, Bihar. The bank would cater to financial inclusion of women of all segments from Self-Help Groups to lower middle class women to High Networth Individuals with a basket of products to ensure inclusive and sustainable growth.

13.The United Nations (UN) General Assembly refused to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and passed a non-binding Resolution 68/262 that declared invalid Crimea’s referendum. In the 193-nation assembly, the resolution
Supported by 100 United Nations member states that declared invalid Crimea’s Moscow-backed referendum.
Eleven nations voted against the resolution viz. Armenia, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, North Korea, Russia,Nicaragua, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
NATO and Western powers voted overwhelmingly in favor.
58 Abstention countries: Afghanistan, China, India and Pakistan, many South American nations, etc.
More than 20 nations didn’t vote viz. Israel, Iran, etc.
The UN General Assembly Resolution 68/262 is a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in response to the 2014 Crimean crisis and entitled “Territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
Note: The resolution was introduced by Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.

14.The private lender bank, Axis Bank launched an electronic Kisan Card on the RuPay platform, through which a farmer can withdraw up to Rs. 1 lakh per day from Automated Teller Machines ( ATMs).

15.The Supreme Court of India appointed batting legend, Mr. Sunil Gavaskar as the Interim BCCI President of BCCI to oversee Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 in place of N Srinivasan and also directed him to relinquish his job as a Cricket Commentator. The other responsibilities of the board would be performed by BCCI vice-president Shivlal Yadav.
The apex court cleared that they have not passed any order preventing any player or any team from participating in the IPL tournament 2014.
They permitted Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals to play IPL matches of season 7 as per the schedule.
Note: The Justice A K Patnaik bench passed interim order in the IPL fixing and betting case and refused to pass any order for allowing former BCCI chief N Srinivasan to participate in the activities of ICC.

16..Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor became the national ambassador of the Earth Hour 2014 that was observed on March 29.
Under the Earth Hour initiative, citizens are asked to switch off all electricity for an hour. This year, it will be observed Saturday from 8.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m.
Earth Hour campaign: “I Will If You Will” (IWIYW) – to encourage positive action for the environment.
Note: Earth Hour is an annual global event at which hundreds of millions of households, businesses and governments around the world turn off their lights for one hour in order to call attention to the need of action on climate change. (Organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)).

17.The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) warned about a currently active Dendroid malware campaign that is spreading across India, targeting Android users.
About Android Malware “Dendroid”
Belongs to deadly ‘Trojan’ family.
Created by modifying the required permissions by any clean APK (Android Application Package) with Dendroid RAT functionality that allows detailed management of the infected devices.
Once activated in our smartphone, could affect and control all applications in our android phone and intercept private SMSes coming in or going out.

18.To combat possible tax evasion by Americans through Indian entities, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) planned to issue the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) compliance norms in the fiscal year 2014-15. For the implementation of the FATCA, the US government is required to sign Inter-Government Agreement (IGA) with various countries, including India, where American individuals and companies may hold accounts and other assets. Till now, the USA has signed IGAs with 22 countries viz. the UK, Switzerland, etc.

19.As per the rating agency, India Ratings (formerly Fitch), the putting off of Basel III by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) till March 2019 would ease pressure on banks. There were industry-wide concerns about the potential stress on asset quality and consequential impact on performance and profitability of banks. Thus, the apex bank extended deadline for banks to implement Basel III capital norms up to March 31, 2019, instead of March 31, 2018.

20.The newly-acquired US-made C-130J Super Hercules Special Operations transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed near Gwalior. All the five members of the crew died in the incident.
Recently, India has inducted six C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, which were bought from the US at the cost of around Rs 6000 crore (USD 1.1 billion) three years ago. The per unit cost of the aircraft comes to around Rs 1,000 crore.

21.The Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) 2014 held at The Hague, Netherlands. In the third edition of nuclear summit, 58 world leaders participated to enhance the global nuclear security structure.
Objective: To prevent nuclear terrorism by reducing the amount of dangerous nuclear material in the world, improving the security of all nuclear material and radioactive sources and improving international cooperation.
Leaders of 35 countries viz. Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Morocco, the Netherlands, Philippines, UAE, the United Kingdom, the United States of America,Vietnam, etc, agreed to adopt the Nuclear Security Guidelines. These guidelines will bind and engage IAEA teams to assess the security of nuclear materials.
Permit international experts to evaluate their security procedures for nuclear material. It guarantees that security will be assessed on the basis of international standards and ensures the effectiveness of the measures taken.

22.The Internet transition from the current Internet Protocol IPv4 to the next-generation Internet protocol IPv6 is set to speed up in 2014 as web addresses under the system IPv4 come to an end. IPv6 addresses are longer and more complex than the familiar 192.168.0.1-style IPv4 addresses.
Why the internet transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is taking place?
With the growth of the Internet, the number of unused IPv4 addresses will eventually run out soon because every device viz. computers, smartphones, game consoles, etc, that connects to the Internet requires an address. IPv4 provides only 4.3 billion addresses i.e. not enough as the Internet continues to grow exponentially. The new Internet addressing system Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is being deployed to fulfill the need for more Internet addresses.
Switchover from IPv4 to IPv6 will bring about many changes viz. No more NAT (Network Address Translation), Auto-configuration, No more private address collisions, Better multicast routing, Simpler header format, Simplified, more efficient routing, True quality of service (QoS), also called “flow labeling”, Built-in authentication and privacy support, Flexible options and extensions, Easier administration, etc.
About Internet protocol (IP)
A protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet.
Each computer (known as a host) on the Internet has at least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers on the Internet.
Current versions of Internet Protocol (IP): IPv4 and IPv6.
IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6)- Latest version of the Internet Protocol (IP)
Provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet.
Address: 128-bit long written in hexadecimal and separated by colons.
More efficient and more secure than IPv4.
Provides for trillions of “IP” numbers or addresses.
Permit automatic setup and quality control.
IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4)
Fourth revision of the Internet Protocol (IP) used to identify devices on a network through an addressing system.
Operates on a best effort delivery model, in that it does not guarantee delivery, nor does it assure proper sequencing or avoidance of duplicate delivery.
Uses a 32-bit address scheme.
Provides only 4.3 billion addresses (i.e. not enough as the Internet continues to grow exponentially.

23.WHO-India launched Indian Rhino Vision (IRV) 2020 programme to protect and increase the population of the one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). IVR 2020 is a partnership among the Government of Assam, the International Rhino Foundation, the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Bodoland Territorial Council, and the U.S. Fish & World Wildlife foundation.
Purpose: To attain a population of 3,000 wild one-horned rhinos in seven of Assam’s protected areas by the year 2020.

24.Jammu and Kashmir became the first state in the country to declare all election booths in the Lok Sabha polls 2014 as no smoking zones. It will be mandatory for all election booths to display the warning ‘No Smoking Area – Smoking here is an offence.”

25.The World Health Organization (WHO) declared South-East Asia region as polio-free region. The certification is being hailed as a historic milestone in the global fight to eradicate the deadly virus. It came after, when WHO certified India officially polio-free after the country went three years with no new cases of the illness.

26.As per the World’s Riskiest Cities 2014 report, Kolkata emerged as the world’s 7th most risky city, the only entry from India, when it comes to being under threat from all types of natural disasters.

27.As per the new estimate of World Health Organization (WHO), Air pollution is the world’s single largest environmental health risk that caused 7 million deaths in 2012, 80% of which were from heart attacks and stroke.
Excerpts of the UN health agency World Health Organization (WHO) report
Air pollution ranges from cooking fires to auto fumes.
Biggest pollution-related killers: heart disease, stroke, pulmonary disease and lung cancer.
Hardest-hit regions: Southeast Asia viz. India and Indonesia, and the Western Pacific, ranging from China and South Korea to Japan and the Philippines.
Indoor air pollution: The global death toll is 4.3 million deaths, caused by cooking over coal, wood and biomass stoves.
Outdoor pollution: The global death toll is 3.7 million, with sources ranging from coal heating fires to diesel engines.
Outdoor air pollution caused by car exhausts, power stations, emissions from agriculture and industry, heating in people’s homes (Group 1 carcinogenic, a cancer causing agent in the same category as tobacco smoke, UV radiation and plutonium).