Current Affairs 16/08/2013-23/08/2013

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1.Seven of the world’s tech giants (Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung) collaborated to launch Internet.org with an aim to make Internet access affordable for people across the globe.The initiative will be headed by Facebook Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

2.The U.S. soldier Bradley Manning was convicted of the biggest disclosure of classified data in the nation’s history by leaking files to WikiLeaks and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

3.The Maharashtra government decided to promulgate an ordinance to enact a long-pending bill to uproot black magic, blind faith and superstitious beliefs. The step has come following the death of anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar . A prime supporter of the law, Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune which led to sparking outrage across the state. The Anti-Superstition Bill was first introduced in 1995 in the state legislature and was redrafted at least 29 times. Its clearance was delayed several times due to stiff opposition from various quarters’ especially Hindu groups which claimed it to be “anti-Hindu”.

4.Ms Nishi Vasudeva has become the first woman to be selected as the head of the Navratna public sector unit, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL). Currently, she is the Director, Marketing, HPCL and will take over as the chairman and managing director of the company. She will replace Subir Roy Choudhury, who will be retiring in February 2014.

5.The government has launched a portal which will facilitate citizens to file
RTI applications online in all central government ministries and departments. The web address of the portal is www.rtionline.gov.in
The portal is a step to provide greater transparency in governance through the Right to Information Act which mandates timely response to citizen’s requests for government information.

6.Currently, the aggregate foreign investment (FDI, FII and NRI) cannot be more than 74% in private sector banks while the limit is at 20% for nationalized banks, State Bank of India and its associate banks.

7.The Reserve Bank of India eased the rules governing portfolio investments such as equity and debt by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to pull in foreign currency.
Under the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS) for NRIs, banks were given a unique code for each branch making it unwieldy for them to administer the scheme.
Now, RBI has allowed banks to do away with the unique code for branches making banks free to administer the PIS scheme for NRI.

8.RBI has decided to take following measures to ease liquidity:
Conduct open market purchase of government bonds of Rs 8,000 crore to inject liquidity. More Open Market Operations (OMO) would be undertaken when required.
Retain the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) which is the portion of total deposits banks are required to park in G-Secs at 24.5 % to help banks reduce Market-to-Market (MTM) losses resulting from abnormal market condition.
Relax SLR requirement by allowing banks to retain SLR holdings in Held To Maturity (HTM) bonds category at 24.5 % until further instructions. Banks have the option of valuing these securities for the purpose of such transfer.

9.The Indian Air Force landed its C-130J Super Hercules transport plane at the world’s highest and recently opened airstrip at Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) in Ladakh that is close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) where Indian and Chinese troops had witnessed a three week stand-off in April 2013.

10.The Election Commission of India has decided to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) for the first time with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in the September, 2013 by-poll to the Noksen Assembly constituency in Nagaland.
The Government of India amended the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 in order to use VVPAT Systems.

11.Global sovereign rating agency Standard & Poor’s said it will maintain negative outlook for the India as currency depreciation is adversely impacting investors’ confidence. They will maintain a negative outlook on India’s BBB sovereign credit ratings. S&P’s statement came when the rupee slid down to a record low of 64.11 to a dollar

12.The Government of India and the World Bank signed a $ 100 million credit agreement for providing assistance to Low Income Housing Finance Project aimed at helping low income households to secure loans to purchase, build or upgrade their dwellings.
The project will be financed by a credit from the International Development Association (IDA) which is the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm which provides interest free loans with 25 years to maturity and a grace period of five years. National Housing Bank (NHB) will be responsible to carry out the project.

13.The State Governments of Delhi, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand have launched the Centre sponsored Food Security Scheme.
The food security scheme aims at ensuring the poor to get essential food commodities such as wheat and rice at affordable prices including Rice at 3 Rs/kg, Wheat at 2 Rs/kg and Coarse grain at 1 Rs/kg.

14.As per an official data, Sikkim is India’s Greenest State with a forest cover 47.3% of its total geographical area and is more than double the national average of 21 %.
The state government has fixed a target of bringing an additional 1,000 hectares of land under forest cover during the 12th Five Year Plan period (2012—17).
A Comparison of Sikkim in Green terms:
The state has 500 sq km area under very dense forests which is 7.05 %.
It has 2,161 sq km area under moderately dense which is 30.45%
698 sq km of its area is under open forests which is 9.84%
The above figures are significantly higher than the national average of 2.54 % very dense forests, 9.76% moderately dense and 8.73 % open forests.

15.The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) cancelled Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) programme after imperfections in its indigenous cryogenic upper stage. The GSLV-D5 mission to launch into orbit the advanced communication satellite GSAT-14 was dropped due to a fuel leak.
The lift that was scheduled for 4.50 p.m. on August 19 from Sriharikota spaceport was just called off an hour before.

16.RBI lowers remittance limit, discourage green card dreams
Taking further measures to reduce the burden on the already weakened rupee, RBI reduced the limit for remittances made by individuals to $75,000 from $200,000 per financial year and banned the purchase of property outside India. The rich Indians with a view to invest in a business or buy property in some foreign countries to gain permanent residency find their dreams crushed with this measure.

17.The Ministry of Finance launched the National Skill Certification and Monetary Reward Scheme that will be implemented on national level. The scheme will motivate the youth to acquire a vocational skill. The scheme is expected to benefit a million people in the first year of its implementation.
The scheme which is promoted by the name STAR (Standard Training Assessment and Reward) envisages for a monetary reward to financially help those who wish to acquire a new skill or upgrade their skills to a higher level.

18.As per the RBI, the limit on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) has been increased to 74% from 49%, another measure to attract capital inflows to support a declining Rupee. The foreign investment limit of 74% in the company will include both FDI and Foreign Institutional Investment (FII) with a single portfolio investor not allowed to exceed 10% of paid-up capital in the ARC.

19.The Government has set up a high level panel to prepare a position paper on the socio-economic, health and educational status of tribals and also recommend policy initiatives as well as effective outcome-oriented measures to improve development indicators and strengthen public service delivery to STs.
India has around 8.6% people belonging to tribal community. The population is concentrated in the north-east, particularly in Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, and in those parts now overrun by Maoists — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and parts of Bihar and Maharashtra.
Who will be the members of the Committee?
Virginius Xaxa, noted tribal expert and eminent sociologist, who was recently appointed member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, will be the head of the Committee.
Other members include Usha Ramanathan, Joseph Bara, K.K. Misra, Abhay Bang and Sunila Basant, all of whom are familiar with the problems of tribals and come from diverse backgrounds — Law, History, Anthropology, Medicine and Administration.

20.The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has granted permission to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) to run its first reactor at 50 % (500 MW) capacity and synchronization of its generator.

21.Athletic Championships being held in Moscow, Russia,cruising through the finish line to win the men’s 200 meters. The 100-meter champion won the race in 19.66 seconds for his third straight world title in the 200. Warren Weir of Jamaica was second in 19.79 and Curtis Mitchell of the United States took bronze in 20.04.
In Marathon, Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda beat two Ethiopian rivals in the final two kilometres to win the world championship marathon.

22.The Indo-Pak political relations hit a new low due to recent border incidents. In a bitter exchange between the Parliaments of the two countries, both Houses of Indian Parliament together passed a stern-worded resolution rejecting and condemning the baseless and unsupported allegations made by Pakistan in its resolution against the Indian Army and the people of India.
What is the issue, why Indian Parliament rejected Pakistan’ resolution against Indian Army?
Recently, tension between the two nations escalated after the incident of unprovoked firing from the side of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) along the Line of Control (LoC) with India that killed 5 Indian soldiers. The incidence further strained the relations between the two nations with parliament of both sides alleging each other of unprovoked aggression. Pakistan passed a resolution in its parliament accusing Indian troops of “unprovoked aggression by Indian military forces“. Pakistan has rejected the involvement of its army in the LoC incident. The resolution by Pakistan also deplored the “unjustified public vilification of Pakistan in the Indian media”.
In retaliation to this, Indian parliament passed a counter-resolution against Pakistan which rejected the resolution passed by Pakistan’s National Assembly as making “absolutely baseless and unfounded allegations against the Indian Army and the people of India”. It counter-alleged Pakistan Army of the unprovoked attack on an Indian Army patrol on the Indian side of the Line of Control. India has reiterated that the “entire state of Jammu and Kashmir including the territory forcibly and illegally occupied by Pakistan is an integral part of India and will always remain so”. The resolution also called upon Pakistan to abide by the 2003 ceasefire in letter and in spirit.

23.The National Waterway (Lakhipur-Bhanga Stretch of the Barak River) Bill, 2013 has been passed by the Rajya Sabha. The Bill aims to develop the 121 km Barak river stretch in Assam as country’s sixth National Waterway that would particularly benefit Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh by facilitating cargo movement there.

24.Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) successfully test fired Pinaka rockets were from a Multi- Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) from a base at Chandipur. The MBRL is capable of acting as a force multiplier and has been developed to supplement artillery guns. Pinaka has undergone several tough tests since 1995 and has already been introduced into the armed forces.
In July, 2013, a more advanced 2nd generation i.e. Pinaka Mark II Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher System had undergone successful firing trials at Chandhan area in Pokhran field firing ranges in western Rajastan and is in development stage.