WBCS Current Affairs 31/05/2014 to 13/06/2014

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1.In a bid to explore “untapped opportunities”, India and China have together decided to infuse a new momentum in their economic relationship. The steps in this direction include establishing industrial parks to take the bilateral trade beyond current $ 65 billion annually.
With bilateral trade standing close to USD 65 billion, China is India’s biggest trading partner. However, the trade deficit between the two countries is in China’s favor at about $40 billion. The two-side trade also slipped by 1.5%, registering a declining trend for the second consecutive year in 2013. India has consistently been raising the issue of widening trade deficit and seeking greater market access in China to fill the gap. India maintains that one way to tackle the asymmetry is to open up Chinese markets to IT-enabled services, home furnishings and cotton textiles and also in pharmaceuticals.

2.Russia has in principle agreed on Civil Liability Nuclear Damage Act 2010 with India. This paves the way for signing a contract for unit 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in July, 2014. In April, 2014, a General Framework Agreement was inked between India and Russia on unit 3 and 4 after overcoming the initial hurdles of the Civil Liability Nuclear Damage Act 2010.
The agreement which was expected to be signed in October 2013 during the then Indian PM Manmohan Singh’s visit to Russia, as Moscow raised objection over some clauses of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act. India has built Units 1 and 2 of Tamil Nadu-based Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) with the help of Russian assistance at the cost of Rs 17,200 crore. The Unit 1 of the KKNPP has attained 100% capacity of 1000 MW while the second unit should start generating power from this year.
Because of high costs, insuring the nuclear power plants is a challenging task as there is no single governmental insurance company in the country that can insure these installations with such hefty costs. The Department of Atomic Energy has asked the Ministry of Finance to set up a Nuclear Insurance Pool after the General Insurance Company was unable to insure Nuclear Power Plants.

3.Indian cinema’s legendary actor Dilip Kumar’s autobiography ‘The Substance and the Shadow’ that narrates his life since birth was launched. The book is written by author and former journalist Udaya Tara Nayar which chronicles the thespian’s ups and downs in his much-talked about relationships, marriage and movies.

4.Infosys has appointed former SAP AG top executive Vishal Sikka as Chief Executive Officer. It is for the first time the company has not selected one of its founders for the role, as it looks to recapture market share and control the high attrition rate of its staff.

5.The new Government of India has given environmental clearance to Indian Navy’s ambitious naval infrastructure project — Seabird in Karwar (Phase-II).
Project Seabird (Karwar naval base)
The Western Fleet of Indian Navy in Mumbai faced security challenges during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 due to congestion in the shipping lanes from commercial shipping traffic, fishing boats and tourists. To address these concerns several options were mulled over after the war. ​ ​

6.The 290 km-range BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile was successfully test- fired from country’s largest indigenous warship INS Kolkata off the coast of Karwar in Karnataka. The combat ship is yet to be formally inducted into the Indian Navy. The missile was test-fired from INS Kolkata, which is a new ship under Project 15-Alpha series, off the coast of Karwar and all the parameters were met during the test.

7.Member of Air Navigation Services of Airports Authority of India (AAI), Somasundaram, has been conferred upon the esteemed Bharat Ratna JRD Tata Award 2013 instituted by Aeronautical Society of India (ASI). He has made significant contributions not only in improving ANS infrastructure in the country for enhancing safety, efficiency and capacity of the airspace but also towards smooth ATM and global coordination.

8.TRS MLA Sirikonda Madhusudhana Chary (58), who represents Bhupalapally in Warangal district, has been elected unopposed as the first Speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly. Chary is a close aid of K Chandrasekhar Rao even before the latter founded the TRS in 2001.

9.Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a book titled ‘Getting India Back on Track: An Action Agenda For Reform’ edited by Bibek Debroy, Ashley J. Tellis and Reece Trevor. The book’s foreword has been written by Ratan N Tata and it comprises insightful essays by noted academicians and public policy experts.

10.The new government led by PM Narendra Modi has appointed senior Supreme Court advocate Ranjit Kumar as the Solicitor General of India. Kumar, who is considered an expert in Constitutional laws, has earlier defended Gujarat in a number of cases.
A few days back, Mukul Rohatgi was appointed as the Attorney General of India, who thus became the top law officer of the country. The Solicitor General is subordinate to the Attorney General for India.
With this, the new government has made its first appointments of law officers who would be representing it in courts.As a convention, law officers resign with the change of government.

11.Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin, Knesset member of Likud Party, has been elected 10th President of Israel, following a vote by members of the parliament. Rivlin who has been former speaker of parliament won the ceremonial post in a runoff against Meir Sheetrit. He will replace outgoing president Shimon Peres. * The Knesset is the unicameral national legislature of Israel.

12.As per an announcement made by the Sikkim government, there will be 12% reservation in all state government jobs and posts in public sector undertakings for candidates living Below Poverty Line (BPL). Only those BPL persons who are of Sikkimese origin will be eligible for this 12% “horizontal reservation”. As per the latest data released by the Planning Commission, Sikkim has just about 8% people living below poverty line which is equal to about 55,000 BPL people in the state.

13.Sourav Ganguly, former India cricket team skipper, has been inducted into the Supreme Court appointed Mudgal Panel that has been set up to investigate the IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal including probing the 13 names that are mentioned in the sealed envelope that it had submitted to the court in February 2013.

14.Petro Poroshenko, billionare owner of the Roshen chocolates group, who is also popular as Chocolate King, sworn in as the Ukraine President. Poroshenko offered political concessions to people in the conflict-ridden east and said he did not want war or revenge. Mr Poroshenko made an ardent appeal for the unity of the country.

15.P K Mishra (65), a 1972-batch retired IAS officer of Gujarat cadre and former Agriculture Secretary, has been appointed as the Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr. Mishra had served between 2001 and 2004 as Principal Secretary to Modi when he was Gujarat CM. ​ Mishra’s appointment will be co-terminus with the term of the Prime Minister or till further orders.
Former TRAI Chairman Nripendra Misra, 69, was on May 28, 2014 appointed Principal Secretary to Modi. ​

16.The Uttarakhand Government has given nod to two popular schemes including a pension scheme for farmers and a scheme to air-lift doctors to remote areas of the state.
Pension Scheme for Farmers: Under this scheme for farmers, all those farmers doing farming on 2 hectare piece of land will get a monthly pension of Rs 800.

17.Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) achieved its full power generation potential and thus became India’s first nuclear power plant to generate 1,000 Mega Watt (MW) of electricity. Other nuclear plants in India generally generate only around 540 MW of power while in the case of thermal plants it could increase up to 660 or 680 MW. Thus, in terms of capacity, Kudankulam Unit I is a significant achievement.

18.From July 12, 2014, non-scheduled Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs) will have to keep more of their deposits with the central bank as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has raised the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for these banks by 100 basis points to 4%.

19.Two ships ICGS Achook and ICGS Agrim, the fifth and sixth ships in a series of 20 fast patrol vessels have been inducted into the Indian Coastguard. These ships are new generation fast patrol vessels fitted with highly developed communication equipment and will be positioned in Mumbai.

20.Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi (59), former army chief of Egypt, has been sworn in as the President of the country for a 4-year term. Egypt has been facing political turbulence since 2011 with deadly agitation and economic worries. El-Sissi has took over the highest office less than a year after he toppled the country’s first freely elected president Mohammed Morsi, following days of public protests by Egyptians demanding his resignation.

21.Spaniard Rafael Nadal maintained his dominance in the French Open as he defeated Serbian Novak Djokovic in the final match. French Open 2014 is Nadal’s 14th career Grand Slam title. World no.1 Nadal also became the first man to win five Roland Garros crowns in a row as he took his record at the tournament to 66 wins against just one defeat. With 14 Grand Slams, Nadal has equaled the mark of Pete Sampras. Now, he is just three behind the all-time record of Roger Federer.

22.Maria Sharapova won French Open women’s title after defeating Simona Halep in the final. It was Sharapova’s second French Open title victory. She has now won five Grand Slam titles, taking her to joint-11th on the Open era list alongside Martina Hingis.

23.ICICI Bank has overtaken its competitor HDFC in terms of employee number with addition of over 10,000 jobs in the last fiscal. With this, ICICI has emerged as the biggest employer in the private banking space with more than 72,000 employees.

24.Head of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Nara Chandrababu Naidu (64) has been sworn-in as the first Chief Minister of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Naidu was administered the oath of office by Governor E S L Narasimhan.

25.Vice admiral Anil Chopra, took chanrge as the flag officer commanding-in-chief of the Western Naval Command (WNC). The ceremonial parade was held at INS Shikra, Mumbai. He succeeded Vice admiral Shekhar Sinha who took voluntary retirement on April 21, 2014.

26.The Obama administration showed notable environment directives for clipping carbon pollution from power plants by 30%, stimulating vision for a global agreement to end climate change. The fresh rules, officially declared by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), characterise the first time Barack Obama, or any other President, has been motivated to control carbon pollution from power plants. Power plants are the biggest single source of Carbon dioxide (CO2) discharges that trigger climate change.

27.Rural Development Minister and senior BJP leader from Maharashtra Gopinath Munde (64) died in a road accident in Delhi, while he was on his way to Delhi airport when his car was rammed by a speeding Indica, leading to his death. Although he didn’t suffer any serious injuries, he seemingly underwent a shock in the shock of accident.

28.The Central Aquaculture Pathology Laboratory of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA), the Research & Development arm of MPEDA (Marine Products Export Development Authority), has now become the first aquaculture pathology laboratory in the India to be accredited by NABL (National Accreditation Board For Testing & Calibration Laboratories).

29.Telangana formally became the country’s 29th state of India and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) took oath as Telangana’s first Chief Minister. Telangana consists of the 10 north-western districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Backgrounder:
In the history of India, it happened for the first time that outside Hindi and Bengali speaking areas, 2 states speaking the same language have been created (Telangana and AP are both Telugu speaking states. In addition to more than one Hindi speaking state, there are two Bengali speaking states: West Bengal and Tripura.

30.Mahindra Group Chairman Anand G Mahindra became the first Indian to be honoured with the prestigious Harvard Medal for his ‘dedication, generosity and service’ to the university. In 1977, Mahindra is an alumnus of the HarvardUniversity. He graduated with Honours (Magna Cum Laude) from Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He completed his MBA from the Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts in 1981.

31.SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya is amongst the 5 Indian women who featured in this year’s Forbes’ 100 most powerful women in the world list. The list was topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Indian women in the list:-

Indra Nooyi (Pepsi Co – 13th) (Indian Born but US Citizen now)
Arundhati Bhattacharya (SBI – 36th)
Chanda Kocchar (ICICI Bank– 43rd)
Padamshree Warrior (Cisco – 71st)
Kiran Mazumdar (Biocon – 92nd) (Indian Born but US Citizen now)
Top 10 Most Powerful Women in the World:

Angela Merkel (Germany – Politics)
Janet Yellen (US – Finance)
Melinda Gates (US – Philanthropy/NGO)
Dilma Rousseff (Brazil – Politics)
Christine Lagarde (France – Philanthropy/NGO)
Hillary Clinton (US - Politics)
Mary Barra (US – Business)
Michelle Obama (US – Politics)
Sheryl Sandberg (US – Technology)
Virginia Rometty (US – Technology)

31.In a key move to authorize the Ministries and Departments, the PM Narendra Modi decided to eliminate all the prevailing 9 Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoMs) and 21 Groups of Ministers (GoMs).
Objective: This would speed up the process of decision-making and bring in more answerability in the system.

32.Sharukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) chased down a huge 200-run target to beat Preity Zinta’s Kings XI Punjab in the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 7. Kolkata Knight Riders beat Kings XI Punjab by 3 wickets.
Orange Cap (Highest Scorer): Robin Uthappa (KKR)
Purple Cap (Highest Wicket Taker): Mohit Sharma (CSK – Chennai Super Kings)
Player of the Tournament: Glenn Maxwell (Kings XI Punjab)

33.Google has launched a service to allow Europeans to ask for personal data to be removed from online search results.

It will now be possible for Europeans to request Google for the removal of their personal data from online search results. The move comes after a landmark European Union court judgment in May 2014, which gave people the “Right to be Forgotten“

34.After being victorious in the recently held presidential polls in Malawi, Peter Mutharika (74) was sworn in as the new President of the southern African country. He will replace outgoing President Joyce Banda.

35.Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej (86) has backed the army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha, who captured power in a coup, to run Thailand.

36.As per RBI, India’s foreign exchange (Forex) reserves jumped by $15.5 billion in the Financial Year (FY) ended March 2014. The reserves stood at $303.67 billion.

37.Lithuania’s incumbent President Dalia Grybauskaite (58) has been declared the winner in the country’s run-off Presidential elections. She got 58% votes whereas her Social Democrat rival Zigmantas Balcytis only 42% votes. The election was held amid rising concerns in the region after Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

38.Senior Congress leader and former union minister Kamal Nath will be the Pro-tem Speaker of the newly elected Lok Sabha. As the Pro-tem Speaker of 16th Lok Sabha, Mr Nath will be responsible to formally start the proceedings to the new Lok Sabha. Among his responsibilities will be to swear-in the newly-elected MPs and help the election of the new Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha.

39.India inked $1006.20 million International Development Assistance (IDA) loan agreement with World Bank for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan III.