WBCS Current Affairs 19/04/2014 to 25/04/2014

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1.State Bank of India has now launched a Twitter Handle. Earlier, SBI had launched its accounts on Facebook and Youtube. The aim is to target a huge customer base as well as potential customers. There will be all day round tweets about the SBI’s products, services, new products launched, banking related education to customers, etc.

2.In order to control ‘fixing’ in sports, the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) has established a committed ‘Sport Integrity Unit’ to investigate into cases of fraud, fixing and illegal betting in any sporting event.
Objectives of this Sport Integrity Unit include:
Investigating into matters related to sports fraud
Battling malpractices in sports
Coordinating with sports federations and law enforcement agencies
Engaging with Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports so so as to come up with a law dealing with corruption in sports
‘Sport Integrity Unit’ would make India one of the very few countries in the world to have a committed unit set up as a part of its federal investigative agency to look into sports fraud. Presently, the US FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), Australian Federal Police and some European nations only have a dedicated unit to check sports frauds.

3.C-DAC Mumbai, IIT-Madras, IIIT Hyderabad, IIT Kharagpur, and C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram have jointly developed the “Sandesh Pathak” software application. The application uses TTS (Text-To-Speech) software to help out farmers by reading out loud SMS messages and benefiting those who may have difficulty in reading. Thus, when a farmer receives an SMS message either containing agriculture-related advice or some other thing, the Sandesh Pathak application will read aloud the content.

4.As per a study by the scientists from University of Cambridge, Human stem cells show a bizarre property “Auxeticity” that was never before viewed at the cellular level. Auxeticity has never been seen before at a cellular level.
What is Auxeticity?
Nearly all materials compress when they are elongated, e.g. an elastic band gets thinner when elongated. Now, the reverse is also true i.e. compressing a material expands it e.g., if we compress a tennis ball, the circumference of the ball gets bigger.
Now, “Auxeticity” has the opposite effect: “Compress a material and it will contract, stretch the material and it will expand”. Therefore, Auxetic materials act as fantabulous shock absorbers or sponges, a concept that is being researched for several purposes.

5.NASA has discovered the first Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” of another star. The newfound planet, called “Kepler-186f”, was first spotted by NASA’s Kepler space telescope and circles a dim red dwarf star about 490 light-years from Earth. Kepler-186f is the outermost of 5 planets orbiting the star Kepler-186. Kepler-186f orbits at a distance of 52.4 million km, theoretically within the habitable zone for a red dwarf.

6.LIC, the biggest institutional investor in the stock market, the State-run insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has reduced its stake in Infosys, the country’s second largest software services exporter, to 3.25% in the last quarter. The share sale estimated at over ₹850 crore.
LIC sold shares at a time (during the January-March quarter) when FIIs increased their share in Infosys from 40.65% to 42.10%. Nevertheless, domestic institutional investors reduced their exposure in Infosys from 15.35% to 13.66%.

7.Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram as the new Finance Secretary. Arvind Mayaram, a 1978 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer has been holding charge as the Economic Affairs Secretary since 2012.

8.Documentary “Gulabi Gang” to be screened at the 14th New York Indian Film Festival that will run from May 5 to 10, 2014. Directed by Nishtha Jain, it is based on the life of Sampat Pal Devi, a child bride and former government health worker. In 2006, Sampat Pal Devi formed the Gulabi Gang of pink sari-clad women and it works for rights of women in destitute Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

9.The 2014 edition of Wiesden Cricketers’ Almanack recently published has retired legend Sachin Tendulkar on its cover. This is the 151st edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. Tendulkar also became the first Indian cricketer to feature on the cover of the ‘Almanack’. Earlier Sachin was chosen to feature on the cover of the 2nd edition of the ‘Wisden India Almanack’. The yellow page shows Tendulkar walking out of the Wankhede stadium after playing his last innings against the West Indies in November 2013.

10.Viktor Orban reelected to a third term as Prime Minister of Hungary. He declared victory in Hungary’s parliamentary election, winning a second consecutive term. Orban’s Fidesz party won 44.6% of the vote.

12.HDFC Bank, the second largest private bank of India, has created a new Guinness World Record by its annual blood donation drive it organised in December 2013. This has been recognised as the largest blood donation drive in a single day ever across the world.
On December 6, 2013, at 709 locations all over India, 1,115 blood donation camps were put up where 61,902 people participated. This is the 7th year of campaign run by HDFC Bank.

13.As part of its efforts to end extreme poverty by 2030, the World Bank Group declared that it will almost double yearly lending capacity to emerging nations like Brazil, China, India, etc. from USD 15 billion to USD 28 billion. In next decade, the WB it would be increasing its lending capacity by USD 100 billion to USD 300 billion for middle income nations.
IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) has increased its single borrower limit by $2.5 billion for Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, and Mexico.

14.The multinational confectionery company, Cadbury India Ltd, a subsidiary of Mondelez International Inc, has changed its name to Mondelez India Foods Limited. This is in line with the gradual changeover of the name of all subsidiaries of the Nasdaq-listed $35-billion firm globally.
The company’s popular products include Cadbury Dairy Milk, 5 Star, Gems, Bournville, Perk, Celebrations, Choclairs, Halls, Bournvita, Tang, Oreo, etc. While the Cadbury branding will be retained on the products owing to the strong brand equity and recall it enjoys with customers, the only change consumers will experience is that the new name “Mondelez India Foods Limited” of the company will appear on the back of packaging of products.

15.Flight MH370 flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, went missing on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board. It lost contact with air traffic controllers over the South China Sea. The Bluefin-21 robotic submarine (Underwater Autonomous Vehicle) will explore for wreckage of the Flight MH370 in an area defined by 4 ping signals from the flight’s Black Box heard a few days ago.

16.Communications satellite INSAT-3E completed its life even before its expected time and and has become non-operational. Actually, INSAT 3E was built to last 15 years but, as it ran out of on-board oxidizer, it could only last for 10.5 years in orbit. In a short span of time, it will be moved to a graveyard orbit.
The 3rd Generation satellite was launched in September 2003 with 36 transponders out of which 24 C- are band and 12 are extended C- band transponders. Since 2009, only 25 out of 36 transponders were operational.
On-board oxidizer along with fuel, keeps a satellite Earth-locked (or fixed over India) and runs its everyday operations.
INSAT 3E
Defunct communication satellite built by ISRO, 4th satellite in the INSAT-3 series of ISRO.
Mission duration: 10 years, 5 months, 5 days
Launch date: September 27, 2003 from Kourou, French Guyana
Regime: Geostationary (till 2014)
Disposal: Moved to a graveyard orbit
Services provided by INSAT 3E:
Television
VSAT
Communication
Tele-education providing education to the poor and needy
Tele-medicine administering medical services from the metros to villages and remote areas
What is a Graveyard Orbit?
A Graveyard Orbit (Junk orbit or Disposal Orbit), is a super-synchronous orbit that where spacecraft are deliberately positioned at the end of their operational life. A Graveyard Orbit lies considerably over the synchronous orbit. For satellites in geostationary orbit and geosynchronous orbits, the Graveyard Orbit is a few hundred km over the operational orbit.
Why Satellites are moved to the Graveyard Orbit?
Satellites are moved to the Graveyard Orbit in order to lower the probability of their collision with operational space-crafts and of the generation of extra space debris (known as Kessler Syndrome). If the alteration in velocity needed to execute a de-orbit maneuver is too high, then a Graveyard Orbit is utilized.
Actually, De-orbiting a geostationary satellite requires a delta-v of approximately 1,500 m/s (4,900 ft/s), while re-orbiting the satellite to a Graveyard Orbit needs approximately 11 m/s (36 ft/s). So, it is easier to re-orbit a Satellite into Graveyard Orbit than de-orbiting it.

17.Air India is in quest of a ‘Bridge Loan’ of up to $500 Mn to take delivery of 4 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircrafts between May and November 2014 from an on-going order. For this, Air India has invited offers from banks to arrange the bridge financing for a period of 6-12 months. Air India is offering the aircraft as security and will pay back the loan following its conclusion of a sale and lease-back arrangement.
What is a “Bridge Loan”?
Bridge Loan (also called Bridge Finance, Bridging Loan, or Gap Financing) is a short-term (usually less than a year) loan taken to cover the period between the expiry of one loan and the beginning of another loan. Bridge loan is arranged mostly to accomplished a purchase (viz. a new house, aircrafts) before the borrower gets payment from a sale (of the old house, old aircraft), or before a long-term loan is made accessible upon completion of its requirements.
Bridge loans are normally more costly than normal financing, to pay off for the extra risk. The lender also may demand cross-collateralization and a lower loan-to-value ratio. On the other hand Bridge Loans are generally arranged rapidly with comparatively little documentation.

18.President Pranab Mukherjee cleared the nomination of Justice G Rohini (59), the most senior judge of the Andhra Pradesh high court, as the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. Prior to Justice Rohini’s appointment, the Delhi high court had a strength of 40, out of which 9 were women. She will be the 10th woman judge at the Delhi high court.

19.Indian Navy’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant has been sold for mere Rs 60 Crore via an online auction to an Alang ship-breaker. The decommissioned aircraft carrier played an crucial role in the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
The carrier was sold via an online auction to a ship-breaker following the dismissal a PIL (Public-Interest Litigation) filed by Kiran Paigankar (founder of the “Save Vikrant Committee”) by the Bombay High Court. The Court dismissed the PIL stating that the carrier’s tatterdemalion condition did not justify her conservation, also the requisite funds or government support are also not available.

20.RBI has accepted the P. Vijaya Bhaskar Committee’s recommendations relating to Financial Benchmarks. RBI has asked for establishing an independent body for recommending benchmark foreign exchange rate in order to avoid any potential manipulation by the bankers.
The Bhaskar Committee had suggested Indian money and currency markets should move their benchmarks towards transaction-based from poll-based in an attempt to comb out manipulation.

21.RBI fully sold the Rs 200 billion ($3.31 billion) worth of Government bonds on Thursday April 17, 2014, executing the India’s biggest-ever auction. Speculations ran in market that Life Insurance Corporation had bought a major portion of the debt at the auction. On Thursday April 17, 2014, the Benchmark bond yield ended down 11 basis points at 8.85%, the biggest single-day fall since 20 January, 2014.
This was India’s biggest debt auction ever.
What are Government Bonds?
Government bonds or Dated securities are long term Government securities with original maturity of one year or more. These are tradable instruments issued by the Central Government or the State Governments.
The Short term Government securities are called Treasury bills (maturities of less than one year). In India, the Central Government issues both, Treasury Bills and Bonds (Dated Securities) while the State Governments issue only Bonds (Dated Securities). The State Govt Bonds are called the State Development Loans (SDLs). Practically, Government securities carry no risk of default and, for this reason, are called risk-free gilt-edged instruments.