WBCS Current Affairs 15/11/2014 to 21/11/2014
Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2014 11:43 am1.India and South Korea have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate technical cooperation in Railway sector between the two countries. The MoU was signed in Seoul (South Korea’s Capital) between the Ministry of Railways, Government of India and the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) of the Government of Republic of Korea (South Korea).
2.Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata has been appointed to the board of Interpol Foundation to contribute to its two new global initiatives aimed at combating organised crime and terrorist activities by the international police organisation.
He will be on its board of trustee and contribute to the success of two new global initiatives of Interpol – Protecting Cultural Property and Modernising Channels of International Judicial Cooperation initiatives.
3.Bollywood actor-director Farhan Akhtar has been appointed as UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia. He has become the first male to be appointed as Goodwill Ambassador in UN’s history. As UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia, he will dedicate his efforts towards the empowerment of women and girls and will serve as an advocate for UN Women’s newly launched ‘HeForShe’ campaign in advocating for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
4.Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has decided to replace German as a third language in schools of Kendriya Vidyalaya (KVs) with Sanskrit right away instead of waiting for the new academic session to effect the changes. The decision to discontinue German was taken on 27th October 2014, after the meeting of Board of Governors of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) headed by Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani.
5.Union Finance Ministry has announced that Goa and Kerala became the first states in the country to achieve 100 percent Financial Inclusion under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
Union Finance Ministry also announced that three Union Territories (UTs) namely Chandigarh, Puducherry and Lakshadweep achieved 100 percent financial inclusion under PMJDY.
According to official data available till 5th November, 11.26 lakh bank accounts were opened in Kerala, followed by 77, 485 accounts in Goa, 1.36 lakh accounts in Chandigarh, 69819 accounts in Puducherry and 3588 accounts in Lakshadweep under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
Finance Ministry has declared States of Kerala and Goa, union territories of Chandigarh, Puducherry and Lakshadweep and three districts of Gujarat- Porbandar, Mehasana, Gandhinagar as 100 per cent saturated in terms of coverage of all households with at least one bank account.
According to Finance Ministry
PMJDY so far managed to bring over 5000 crore rupees into the formal banking system as account holders have started depositing cash. A large chunk of this money would have been kept at home in the absence of accounts, with little or no productive use.
According to the initial results, on an average about 80% of the households surveyed have now got at least one bank account.
As in the first week of November 2014, 7.24 crore accounts have been opened under PMJDY of which 4.29 crore in rural and 2.95 crore are in urban areas. RuPay Cards have been issued in case of 3.97 crore accounts.
At the time banks had been given a target of opening 7.5 crore accounts under the scheme.
Each of the accounts come with a debit card, 1 lakh rupees accidental insurance policy and 30000 rupees free medical insurance cover.
About Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
On 28th August 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the scheme with the goal of eradicating financial untouchability of the poor by opening at least one bank account for every family in the country in less than six months.
6.India has successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable Prithvi-II surface-to-surface missile, from Chandipur test range in Odisha.
It was fired from a mobile launcher in salvo mode from launch complex-3 of Integrated Test Range. In the test, missile’s trajectory was tracked by DRDO radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations located along the coast of Odisha.
This test was part of a regular training exercise of Strategic Force Command of Defence (SFC) and monitored by Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO).
The purpose of the test was clearly to indicate India’s operational readiness to meet any eventuality and also establishes the reliability of this deterrent component of India’s Strategic arsenal.
Facts about Prithvi-II Missile
Prithvi-II is indigenously developed nuclear-capable missile. It has a strike range of 350 km. It is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1000 kg of warheads. It is powered by liquid propulsion twin engines. It uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory. It was the first missile to be developed by DRDO under India’s prestigious Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP). Prithvi II was inducted into the SFC in 2003.
The last user trials of Prithvi-II were successfully carried out from the same base on 7th January, 2014 and 28th March, 2014.
7.On 14th November 2014, Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smt. Maneka Gandhi launched the National Bal Swachhta Mission in New Delhi. It was launched on 125th birth anniversary of first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. On this occasion, Minister also released a book on Bal Swachtta Mission prepared by NIPCCD.
About Bal Swachhta Mission
The Bal Swachhta Mission is a part of the nationwide sanitation initiative of ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ launched by the Prime Minister on 2nd October, 2014.
The nationwide Bal Swachhta Mission will have the following six themes:-
Clean Anganwadis .
Clean Surroundings e.g. Playgrounds.
Clean Self (Personal Hygiene/Child Health).
Clean Food.
Clean Drinking Water.
Clean Toilets.
8.Rosetta mission of European Space Agency (ESA) has landed its Philae probe on the surface of Comet 67P/ Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Philae probe landing on Comet 67P made a Space history, as for the first time probe has landed on a comet.
The landing site of Philae probe has been named as Agilkia and is located on the head of the bizarre double-lobed object of Comet. Name Agilkia was chosen by ESA in honour of Agilkia Island, in a public contest.
Philae’s mission:
Philae’s mission is to transmit data about composition of the comet after landing on its surface. It will provide elemental, isotopic, molecular and mineralogical composition of the cometary material.
The lander is named after Philae Island in the Nile River, Egypt where an obelisk (a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument) was found and used, along with the Rosetta stone, to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.
About Spacecraft Rosetta and Comet 67P
67P was first discovered in 1969 by Soviet astronomers Ivanovych Churyumov and Svetlana Ivanova Gerasimenko. It is also known as Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
The spacecraft has been named after the Rosetta Stone, the discovery of which in 1799 provided the key to translating Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Demotic script into Ancient Greek (and thus any other language).
Mission
The 1 billion pound (1.58 billion US dollars) Rosetta mission blasted off from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in March 2004, for a long journey involving loops around the Sun as it aimed to get onto the same orbit as 67P.
Rosetta has traversed over 6 billion n km, passing by Earth three times, Mars once, and flew by two asteroids, using the gravitational pull of those bodies to change velocity and catch up with 67P.It had travelled through the Solar System before reaching at orbit of Comet 67P on 6th August 2014. The mission aims to know mysteries of comets made from ancient material that predates the origin of the solar system.
9.Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma has made history by scoring the highest ODI score of 264 runs. He achieved this distinction during the 4th ODI between India and Sri Lanka played at Kolkata. Rohit surpassed several records including Virender Sehwag’s 219 and his own 209 – scored against Australia in Bangalore in November 2013.
He made this record score in 173 which included 33 fours and 9 sixes. He got to his 50 off 72, 100 off 100, 150 off 125, 200 off 151 and 250 off 166.
He also became only the fifth Indian batsman after Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar to post two or more scores in excess of 150 in ODIs.
Indian cricketer’s to reach Double century milestone:
Sachin Tendulkar was the first Indian cricketer to reach double century landmark against South Africa in 2010. The second one to do so was Virendra Sehwag who scored 219 against West Indies in the year 2011. Third one was Rohit Sharma to score 209 runs against Australia in 2013.
10.Union Government on 20 November 2014 approved launch of Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DUGJY) to provide access of electricity to rural households across the country. A decision in this regard was taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
The Union Cabinet also decided to merge the ongoing Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) with DUGJY scheme.
Components of the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) includes
• To separate agriculture and non agriculture feeders facilitating judicious rostering of supply to agricultural and non-agricultural consumers in rural areas
• Strengthening and augmentation of sub transmission and distribution infrastructure in rural areas, including metering of distribution transformers/feeders/consumers
The two components of the scheme will be implemented at an estimated cost of 43033 crore rupees which includes required budgetary support of 33453 crore rupees from Union Government over the entire implementation period.
Apart from this, the balance work related to rural electrification as per CCEA’s approval of August 2013 with the norms of the ongoing scheme of RGGVY in the 12th and 13th plans will be subsumed in DDUGJY as a distinct component for rural electrification. For this purpose the CCEA has already approved the scheme cost of 39275 crore rupees including budgetary support of 35447 crore rupees.
This outlay will be carried forward to the new scheme of DDUGJY in addition to the outlay of 43033 crore rupees.
The scheme would help in
• Improvement in hours of power supply in rural areas
• Reduction in peak load
• Improvement in billed energy based on metered consumption and
• Providing access to electricity to rural households
As per the cabinet decision, the process of sanction of projects will commence immediately and for execution, the projects will be awarded by States Discoms/Power Departments. The projects shall be completed within 24 months from date of award.
Apart from this, the Cabinet also approved a North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project for six north eastern states for strengthening of the Intra-State Transmission and Distribution System. These states are Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tnpura and Nagaland.
The project will be implemented at an estimated cost of about 5111 crore rupees. The project is a major step towards meeting the national objective of Power to All. It will also increase the per capita power consumption in these States.
11.Infosys co-founders S. Gopalakrishnan and S.D.Shibulal on 19 November 2014 launched Axilor Ventures.
Axilor Ventures is a business incubator which will help entrepreneurs and early-stage firms to succeed in diverse verticals. The first batch of the accelerator programme will commence in the first quarter of 2015.
In its initial launch stage, Axilor will run three programmes — Accelerator, Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Early Stage Funding.
12.Supreme Court on 20 November 2014 directed CBI Director Ranjit Sinha to withdraw himself from 2G case and asked CBI chief not to interfere in the ongoing 2G probe.
It further ruled that three senior-most officers in the investigating team of the 2G scam will take over the role of CBI Director in the case.
A bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu said that prima facie it appears that allegations levelled against Sinha were credible and acceptable.
The Supreme Court directed him to do so in light of allegations made against him by the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation. The NGO had alleged that he might have tried to save accused in 2G spectrum scam.
Ranjit Sinha was set to retire from office on 2 December 2014 but the court's directives are going to leave a scar on the CBI chief's credibility.
13.Union Ministry for Food Processing Industries on 18 November 2014 reconstituted the National Food Processing Development Council (NFDPC).
The Ministry appointed ITC Chairman Y Deveshwar and FieldFresh Foods Vice Chairman Rakesh Bharti Mittal as its members.
For the first time, the committee has appointed individual business leaders as its members. Earlier, the industry was represented in this committee by the industry bodies.
The committee comprised of 29 members. Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is the Chairman of the council and Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti is its Vice Chairperson.
14.Online restaurant guide Zomato raised 60 million US dollars of fund from Info Edge, Vy Capital & Sequoia. The fund will be used to accelerate the company's global expansion and new product development.
Zomato has raised a total of 113 million US dollars (about 700 crore rupees) till date.
Zomato claimed to see over 30 million visits across its web and mobile platforms every month and planned to expand to 14 more countries across Europe, South-East Asia, Australia, and the America.
The current valuation of Zomato is more than four times its 150-million US dollars valuation when it raised 37 million US dollars in November 2013 led by Sequoia Capital.
15.At least 10 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) are in serious danger of being lost forever. This was revealed by a study released by the conservation society Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in the second week of November 2014.
The study revealed that the IBAs including famous Flamingo City of Kutch, Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary in Solapur-Ahmednagar of Maharashtra and Sewri-Mahul Creek in Mumbai are among the most threatened habitats in India.
Flamingo City is possibly the only breeding ground of the migratory bird in a great magnitude in Asia.
The Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary is home to the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard. The population of birds at Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary has plummeted from 27 birds in 2006 to 12 in 2012 and a mere three birds in 2013.
The other bird habitats which are in grave danger of losing tree cover include
• Sailana Kharmor Sanctuary in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh
• Tillangchong in Andaman-Nicobar
• Dihaila Jheel and Karera Wildlife Sanctuary in Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh
• Basai in Gurgaon, Haryana
• Sardarpur Florican Sanctuary in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh
• Ranebennur in Haveri, Karnataka
The study also revealed that there are many other IBAs though not on this list but those IBAs are threatened by various types of unsustainable human interference.
According to the study, destruction or disturbance due to infrastructure development, wrong anti-people conservation policies, indiscriminate livestock grazing, industrial and sewage pollution, indiscriminate agricultural expansion including use of pesticides, rapid urbanisation and poaching are some of the major reasons for the loss of biodiversity and habitat.
16.Sri Lanka on 19 November 2014 released five Indian fishermen who were sentenced to death. They were released after President Mahinda Rajapaksa used his executive powers to commute their death penalty.
The five fishermen who hail from Tamil Nadu are Emerson, P Augustus, R Wilson, K Prasath and J Langlet. All these fishermen were handed over to Indian High Commission after their release from Welikada Prison in Colombo.
Presidential pardon was given after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian High Commission and Union and State government made several efforts to get them released and grant them the pardon.
17.Union Ministry of Civil Aviation on 19 November 2014 approved the proposal of Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group’s proposal to sell its Australia-made airplanes named Mahindra Gipps in India.
Mahindra Gipps airplanes are utility planes having seating capacities ranging from 5 to 10 seats.
The proposal of Mahindra Group was approved after Indian regulator Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) accepted the type certification issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the single piston engine aircraft Mahindra Gipps.
18.China and Australia on 18 November 2014 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on bilateral Antarctic cooperation. The MoU was signed in the presence of the President of China Xi Jinping and Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott in Hobart, Australia’s gateway to Antarctica.
President of China Xi Jinping is on three nation tour to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji with Australia being the first leg of his visit.
Details of the MoU
• Both the countries will exchange data and personnel which will further enhance cooperation in scientific research activities.
• Both the countries will be supportive to each other in logistics and emergency and rescue. It also raises the hope on conservation and food security in Antarctica region.
• A platform for Antarctic official and academic exchanges will be established, under which Australia will be a gateway to Antarctica.
• A joint committee to be established by both the countries will meet every two years once and will oversee the cooperation and a mechanism for environmental, policy, scientific and operational collaboration in Antarctica.
China at present has four research stations in Antarctica region including the last research station Taishan that was opened in 2014. It is planning to open the fifth one also. On the other hand Australia has three research stations.
Approximately 30 nations operate permanent research stations in Antarctica, including the US, China, Russia, Australia, Britain, France and Argentina.
19.Assam State Zoo in Guwahati in the third week of November 2014 decided to have the critically endangered pig Pygmy Hog (Porcula salvania). Pygmy Hog is the rarest and smallest wild pig in the world.
With this decision, Assam State Zoo is set to become the first and only zoo of the world to have this critically endangered species of pigs.
The Zoo took the decision to have the Pigmy Hogs as they are on the brink of extinction, and they want to make the zoo a captive breeding centre for the critically endangered mammals.
The Pygmy Hog Research and Breeding Centre at Basistha, Assam will provide the pigs to the Assam zoo.
20.Neel Mukherjee was in news because his book Lives of Others was shortlisted for Costa Book Awards on 19 November 2014.
His book was shortlisted under the Novel Award category. The award will be announced on 5 January 2015 while the overall Costa Book of the Year will be announced on 27 January 2015.
The book is based upon the Naxalite movement of the 1960s and unfolds a family history.
Earlier in 2014, the same novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize but narrowly lost to Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
21.Arun Duggal, chairman of Shriram Capital Limited on 19 November 2014 announced to resign from the chairmanship of the financial service entity of Shriram Group.
He was serving the financial services entities of the Shriram Group - Shriram Capital Limited, Shriram Transport Finance Limited and Shriram City Union Finance Limited from the last 10 years
22.Sutirtha Bhattacharya will be the new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Coal India Limited (CIL). His name was recommended by the Public Enterprises Services Board (PESB) on 19 November 2014.
Bhattacharya is a 1985-batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre. Currently, he is on superannuation and serving as the CMD of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), Hyderabad – the second largest coal mining company after CIL.
23.Rampal Singh Jatin was in news because he was arrested by Haryana Police on 19 November 2014 from his fortified Satlok Ashram in Hisar of Haryana. He is famous as Sant Rampal and is a self-styled Godman.
He was arrested after two weeks of intense attempts by police to arrest him that involved rioting in which scores of persons were injured and around 5 persons were killed.
He was arrested under fresh cases of sedition, criminal conspiracy and rioting. Rampal will be produced in the Haryana and Punjab High Court on 20 November 2014.
24.The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 19 November 2014 was chosen for the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2014. The award will be given to ISRO for its contribution in strengthening international cooperation in peaceful use of outer space.
ISRO was selected for the award by a jury chaired by Vice President Hamid Ansari. The jury in its statement said that ISRO is being awarded in recognition of its path-breaking achievement, culminating in the Mars orbiter mission, its significant contribution in strengthening cooperation in peaceful use of outer space.
It also noted that ISRO’s role in application of advanced technologies in promoting broad-based and sustainable social and economic development and addressing basic needs of the people particularly in remote and rural areas of the country.
The jury also said ISRO has demonstrated that in space technology, India stands shoulder to shoulder with the best in the world.
25.12th ASEAN-India Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar on 12 November 2014. The summit was held on the sidelines of 25th ASEAN Summit.
The summit was attended by the President of Myanmar, Thein Sein, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and by all Heads of State/ Government of ASEAN Member States.
During the summit, ASEAN countries and India reiterated their commitment to reach the trade target of 100 billion US Dollar by 2015. The total trade between ASEAN and India reached 67.9 billion US dollar in 2013.
The leaders appreciated the signing of two milestone agreements; the Agreement on Trade in Services and the Agreement on Investment of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and India.
Along with the other commitments, the ASEAN leaders also underscored the importance of India's cooperation in implementing the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) and the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre).
The Next ASEAN-India Summit will be held in Cambodia in 2015.
India became a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992, which was upgraded to full dialogue partnership in 1996. Since 2002, India had annual Summits with ASEAN. To mark the 20th anniversary of India-ASEAN dialogue-level partnership and the 10th anniversary of India-ASEAN Summit-level partnership with ASEAN, India would host the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit on the theme ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace and Shared Prosperity.
26.International Business Machine Corp on 18 November 2014 launched a new e-mail application known as IBM Verse. The company hopes IBM Verse will eventually replace Window's popular Outlook.
The free initial model will include limited mailbox sizes and file sharing. A paid version with additional features and data allowance will be available in January 2015.
The application is part of IBM's attempt to shift its focus to cloud computing and data analytics from the hardware services.
How it will work
The app will be for business that integrates social media, file sharing and analytics to learn a user's behavior and predict interactions with coworkers. IBM Verse includes a built-in personal assistant that can learn from a user's behavior and draft responses to e-mails based on similar previous interactions.
It also allow users to transform e-mail content into threads for blogs and social media, view the relationships between different employees in an e-mail, mute a chain and search through attachments.The e-mail's interface pins a user's most frequent contacts, schedule and lists of assignments to a dashboard for easy access.
IBM's enterprise mail service, known as Notes, is used by 25000 companies worldwide and more than 50000 use IBM's social platform for businesses, IBM Connections.
27.9th East Asia Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar on 13 November 2014. The summit was held on the sidelines of the 25th ASEAN Summit. The Summit was chaired by the President of Myanmar, U Thein Sein.
The summit adopted 4 outcome documents namely: (1) East Asia Summit Declaration on Combating Wildlife Trafficking; (2) Statement on EAS Guidelines for Rapid Disaster Response; (3) Joint Statement on Regional Response to the Outbreak of Ebola/Spread of Ebola; and (4) EAS Statement on the Rise of Violence and Brutality Committed by Terrorist/Extremist Organizations in Iraq and Syria.
The leaders of the forum discussed cooperation in areas of common concern, particularly the non-traditional security issues such as wildlife trafficking, trafficking in persons, pandemics, climate change and disaster management.
On regional and international issues, the leaders exchanged views on Korean Peninsula, the rise of violence committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the outbreak of Ebola as well as maritime security especially in the context of the South China Sea.
28.Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced number of measures to strengthen relationships with Pacific Islands. He announced the measures at the Pacific Island Leaders Meeting in Suva, Fiji on 19 November 2014.
Modi announced the measures during his day long visit to Fiji. He is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the Pacific countries after Indira Gandhi who visited in 1981.
The following are the measures announced to strengthen relationships with Pacific Islands:
A Special Adaptation Fund of 1 million US dollars
This fund will be used for Climate change, which is a major issue of concern for Pacific Island Countries.
This fund can also be used to provide technical assistance and training for capacity building to Pacific Island Partners by India.
Pan Pacific Islands Project
He announced Pan Pacific Islands Project for telemedicine and tele-education like pan-Africa Project.
India is also working on a solar energy project with the Pacific Islands at the community level.
The regional hubs will be developed in the pacific Islands
Indian Visa on arrival to all the fourteen Pacific Island Countries
He announced Visa on Arrival for nationals of all the 14 Pacific Island countries. These are Cook Islands, Kingdom of Tonga, Tuvalu, Republic of Nauru, Republic of Kiribati, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Niue, Republic of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Marshall Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
This will facilitate exchanges and promote better understanding between India and pacific countries by reducing the inconvenience in travel due to Visa issues.
29.India and Fiji signed three Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) on 19 November 2014 to strengthen bilateral relations. The agreements were signed during the visit of Prime Minister of Narendra Modi to Fiji.
The MoUs were signed in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Fijian Prime Minister Josiah V Bainimarama in Suva, the capital of Fiji.
30.The Bombay High Court on 18 November 2014 quashed the Income Tax department’s 18000-crore rupees tax order against oil major Shell India.
The ruling in favour of Shell India was passed by a bench of Justice M S Sanklecha and Justice S C Gupte on a petition filed by Shell India Markets.
The High Court held that the legal principle laid down by it in the Vodafone case in October 2014 also applies in the Shell case too and rejected the I-T department’s argument that the facts of the Shell case were different from the Vodafone case.
In the Vodafone case, the High Court had held that in so far as transfer pricing principles are concerned the issuance of shares by an Indian company to its foreign parent is not eligible to transfer pricing provisions as there is no income arising there from.
The Shell India Case
The case pertains to alleged under pricing of shares issued by Shell India to its parent company abroad.
In March 2009 Shell India had issued 870 million shares to its parent company Shell Gas at 10 rupees per share.
However, the IT department contended that the shares were grossly under-priced and it valued them at 180 rupees per share. The IT department also contended that the under-pricing of shares by the Shell India was covered by transfer pricing and hence it was liable to pay tax on the shortfall of premium.
As a result, IT department added the difference of 15000 crore rupees and 3000 crore rupees respectively to the taxable income of Shell India Markets Pvt Ltd for the Financial Year (FY) 2007-08 and FY 2008-09 in two transfer pricing cases.
31.Terry Walsh on 18 November 2014 resigned as Chief Coach of Indian hockey team after his contractual talks with Hockey India (HI) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) broke down. However, a fresh proposal is still being worked out for his consideration.
He was appointed as Hockey India coach in October 2013 by replacing the sacked and fellow Australian Michael Nobbs.
32.25th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar from 12 November 2014 to 13 November 2014.
Summit was held under the theme of Moving forward in Unity to a Peaceful and Prosperous Community.
25th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit
The Heads of State/Government of the ASEAN Group gathered to attend the summit. Along with the member states, the summit was also attended by the Heads of State/Government of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the United States.
Myanmar chaired the ASEAN summit for the first time. Myanmar has chosen the Kha Yay or Star Flower as the logo for ASEAN Summit.
During the Summit, ASEAN members adopted the Nay Pyi Taw Declaration for the ASEAN Community’s Post-2015 Vision. The leaders adopted the ASEAN Joint Statement on Climate Change 2014.
Moreover, the summit also adopted a Declaration on Strengthening the ASEAN Secretariat and Reviewing the ASEAN Organs.
ASEAN was established in 1967 by the five founding fathers, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Later, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia also joined the group.
The first ASEAN Summit was held in Bali, Indonesia in 1976, while the 24th ASEAN Summit was held in Myanmar. Myanmar has been chosen for the chairmanship of ASEAN Summit for the 2014.
The next 26th ASEAN Summit will be held in Cambodia from 26 March 2015 to 28 March 2015.
33.• The G20 Summit 2014 concluded with Brisbane Action Plan
• China to promote travel to countries along Silk Road belt in 2015
• China to host G20 Summit of the emerging economies in 2016
• Klaus Werner Iohannis won Romanian presidential elections 2014
• Modi Express in honour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off in Melbourne, Australia
• Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic won ATP World Tour Finals
34.Indian batsman Suresh Raina on 17 November 2014 became co-owner of Hockey India League (HIL) franchise team, Uttar Pradesh Wizards.
The announcement of his association was made by Abhijit Sarkar of Uttar Pradesh Wizards in an event held at Sahara Shaher in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
With this he became the second Indian cricketer to get associated with HIL. Earlier Team India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni also got associated with the Ranchi franchise team of HIL as its co-owner.
About Hockey India League
Hockey India League is a professional league for field hockey competition in India. It is organised by Hockey India. The tournament was originally contested in the first season among five franchisee-based teams consisting of players from India and around the world.
In 2014, Kalinga Lancers joined as the sixth franchise, based in Bhubaneswar. The entire event takes place on home and away basis culminating into multi-header playoffs. The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has sanctioned the event and also provides a 30-day window at the beginning of a year so that all top players can participate.
It is currently sponsored by two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp, and is therefore officially known as Hero Hockey India League or HHIL.
35.Legendary Japanese actor Ken Takakura died on 10 November 2014 of lymphoma at a hospital in Tokyo. He was 83.
36.She was awarded the prize by Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu the patron of the Dutch children’s rights organization in The Hague, Netherlands.
In 2013, the award was conferred on Malala Yousufzai, who went on to win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
About Neha Gupta
• Neha through her own organization Empower Orphans has helped 25000 vulnerable children by raising over 1.3 million US dollar
• She has also inspired her peers worldwide to contribute to create a better world for children
• She is a citizen of the United States of America, born in New Zealand to Indian parents
• She started working for children of the world at the age of nine
37.Union Government on 17 November 2014 nominated Dr. Hasmukh Adhia as a Director on the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He will replace Gurdial Singh Sandhu.
As per the press release of RBI, his nomination is effective from 11 November 2014.
Hasmukh Adhia is currently working as Secretary in Department of Financial Services, Union Ministry of Finance.
He is a 1981 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer. He had worked with the then Gujarat chief minister and present Prime Minister Narendra Modi from May 2004 to May 2006.
38.Second Edition of Global Slavery Index was released on 17 November 2014 by the Walk Free Foundation. The index aims to end modern slavery in a generation.
The Index ranks 167 countries in terms of the percentage of a national population and the total number of people living in modern slavery – country by country, region by region.
In absolute terms, the index was topped by India followed by China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Russia. Index highlighted that estimated 35.8 million people are in modern slavery globally. Out of this, 61% people are living in top five countries.
The estimated prevalence of people in modern slavery has increased from 2013.
39.Merchandise exports declined by 5 percent to 7-month low of 26 billion US dollars in October 2014 resulting into widening of trade deficit to 13.3 billion US dollars in October 2014.
This was revealed by the India’s Foreign Trade (Merchandise) data released by the Department of Commerce, Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry on 17 November 2014.
The decline in exports occurred mainly on account of fall in shipments of petroleum products, electronics, engineering items, gems & jewellery, and iron ore.
On the other hand, driven by gold imports, total merchandise imports increased 3.16 percent to 39.45 billion US dollars in October 2014. The gold imports surged 280 percent to reach 4.1 billion US Dollar during the month of October 2014.
40.State Bank of India (SBI) on 17 November 2014 approved 1 billion US dollar loan for Adani Mining to develop Carmichael coal mine project near Clermont in Central Queensland, Australia.
The announcement related to the signing of memorandum of understanding between Adani Group and SBI was made in the third week of November 2014.
The announcement comes close on the heels of clearance of the Adani Group’s proposal by the Queensland State of Australia on 17 November 2014. The Adani group plans to build a 7 billion US dollars coal mine project.
Besides, Queensland State also announced a major investment in rail infrastructure to support the coal mine project of the Adani Group.
41.Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) on 18 November 2014 released Global Terrorism Index 2014. The Index 2014 provides ranks for 162 countries and provides a fact-based understanding of terrorism and its impact.
According to the report, terrorism has become a global phenomenon with a 61 percent increase in the number of people killed in terrorist attacks in 2013.
42.Ninth G-20 Summit of major economies was held in Brisbane, Australia from 15 to 16 November 2014. The summit focused on promoting economic growth and set the target of boosting global growth by 2 percent in five years.
G-20 summit 2014was held with following themes as an agenda
• Promoting stronger economic growth and employment outcomes
• Making the global economy more resilient to deal with future shocks
• Strengthening global institutions to ensure they reflect the new realities of the global economy.
A Brisbane Action plan was released as part of the G20 communique and during the summit world leaders fully committed to take decisive actions to return to a job-rich, strong, sustainable and balanced growth path.
Highlights of the G20 Brisbane Action Plan
Growth
• After recovery from the global financial crisis the G20 agreed on the need for bold and coordinated push to generate strong, sustainable economic growth across the bloc.
• It set an ambitious goal to lift G20 growth by more than 2 percent to 2018 and millions of additional jobs.
• It is targeting big target areas like investment, competition, trade and employment alongside macroeconomic policy. Each member has developed a comprehensive growth strategy along these themes.
• G20 member plans to be more coordinated in the ways and ready to use all policy levers to strengthen confidence and the recovery.
• A global infrastructure hub funded by government contributions will be established in Sydney.
Global Economic Conditions
• The Global Economic conditions have improved especially in US, UK and Canada but Europe and Japan are struggling. But the overall pace of global economic conditions has been unsatisfactory.
• Public and private debt levels remain high and growth is uneven and not generating enough jobs.
• Monetary policy has been loosened, resulting in much lower borrowing interest rates. But the world economy is still vulnerable to financial shocks and geopolitical tensions which underline the importance of having clear plan to draw together the appropriate mix of policy responses.
Working Together
• Some 1000 individual countries plans have been submitted. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) if those plans are fully implemented the growth benefit will be 2.1 percent to 2018.
• One quarter of this increase will be a result of positive spillovers from simultaneous implementation.
• These actions will boost non- G20 GDP by over 0.5 per cent by 2018. Actions are focused on fostering infrastructure investment, cutting red tape, boosting trade, streamlining regulation, promoting competition and lifting employment.
• Central banks have committed to carefully calibrate and clearly communicate interest rates announcements.
• There is also mention of a rapid push toward floating exchange rate systems. China currently operates a fixed system.
Employment
• There are more than 200 million people unemployed across the world- 30 more than when the Great Financial Crisis began and among them 75 million are young people.
• The G20 will have country specific plans to boost employment, alongside the growth strategies that include bringing more women into workforces.
• The G20 wants to reduce the gap labour force participation rates between men and women in member countries by 25 percent by 2025.
• This will bring more than 100 million women into the labour force, significantly increase global growth and reduce poverty and inequality.
• For young people, the G20 is renewing its fight against youth unemployment by increasing access to quality education, training and skills development.
• Many G20 members are also looking at issues affecting people with disabilities and the long term jobless, as well as insecure jobs in the informal economy.
Accountability
• The G20 will monitor and hold each other to account for the implementation of our comprehensive growth strategies.
43.Akash surface-to-air missile was test fired by the Indian Air Force (IAF) from Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near Balasore, Odisha on 17 November 2014. It was test fired as part of user trial by the Air Force.
44.The International Buddhist Conference 2014 was held from 15 November to 18 November 2014 in Lumbini, Nepal. It was held with an objective of preserving Buddhist culture and heritage.
The conference was held with a joint initiative of Nepal Theravada Buddhist Academy and Myanmar Sitagu International Buddhist Academy.
The conference was attended by some 400 Buddhist experts and intellectuals and issued a 23 point declaration.
45.The Fourth India-China Joint Training Exercise Hand-in-Hand 2014 began at Aundh Military Station in Pune, Maharashtra on 17 November 2014. The exercise will end on 25 November 2014.
The 12 day Indo-China joint exercise is aimed to acquaint both the armies with each other’s operating procedures in the backdrop of counter terrorism environment.
46.The Union Government on 18 November 2014 relaunched Kisan Vikas Patra scheme (KVP) in New Delhi to encourage the habit of small savings among the citizens.
The scheme will soon be made available through designated branches of nationalized banks across the country.
Highlights of the Kisan Vikas Patra scheme (KVP)
• The scheme will provide facility of unlimited investment by way of purchase of certificate from post office in various denominations.
• The KVP will be available to the investors in the denomination of 1000, 5000, 10000 and 50000 rupees with no upper ceiling on investment.
• The certificates can also be issued in single or joint names and can be transferred from one person to any other person. The investment made in the certificate will double in 100 months.
• The facility of transfer from one post office to another anywhere in India and of nomination will also be available under the scheme.
• Kisan Vikas Patra scheme has unique liquidity feature, where an investor can encash his certificates after the lock-in period of 2 years and 6 months and thereafter in any block of six months on pre-determined maturity value.
• With a maturity period of 8 years 4 months, the collections under the scheme will be available with the Union Government for a fairly long period to be utilized in financing developmental plans of the Centre and State Governments.
Background
Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), a certificate savings scheme was launched by the Union Government on 1 April 1988. The scheme provided facility of unlimited investment by way of purchase of certificates from post offices in various denominations.
47.India and Australia on 18 November 2014 signed five pacts on social security, transfer of sentenced prisoners, combating narcotics trade, tourism, and Arts and Culture.
Highlights of the agreements
Early closure of the Civil Nuclear Agreement
Moreover, India and Australia agreed on early closure of the civil nuclear agreement which will give Australia a chance to participate in one of the most secure and safe nuclear energy programme in the world.
By concluding the civil nuclear pact, uranium trade will be facilitated between the two countries. Australia has about 40 percent of the world's uranium reserves and exports nearly 7000 tonnes of uranium annually.
India and Australia had commenced negotiations for the sale of uranium in early 2012. The two-way trade stands at 15 billion US dollars a year.
48.Veteran classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj was on 17 November 2014 conferred with the Sumitra Charat Ram Award 2014 for Lifetime Achievement.
49.Veteran diplomat Michel Kafando was on 17 November 2014 chosen as interim president of Burkina Faso. Michel Kafando will head the country until November 2015 elections.
A panel of 23 officials chose Kafando after preferring him to the other candidates which included journalist Cherif Sy and sociologist and ex-minister Josephine Ouedraogo. Michel Kafando appointment will now be ratified by the Constitutional Council.
50.Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the US on 6 November 2014 withdrew the previously granted tentative marketing approvals for the Ranbaxy’s anti-ulcer drug Nexium and HIV infection drug Valcyte.
51.Hyderabad-based GVK Bio on 6 November 2014 signed definitive agreement to acquire US-based Vanta Bioscience. The acquisition will enable GVK BIO to offer GLP toxicology services for Pharmaceuticals, Agrochemicals, Nutraceuticals, and Cosmetics
The acquisition is in line with company’s business strategy of being an integrated drug discovery services provider for their customers. The acquisition of Vanta Bioscience further advances the company’s position as it expands its service offering in GLP toxicology.
52.Leading online fashion store Myntra.com in the month of July 2014 named Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut as its brand ambassador.
53.Indian cricket team on 16 November 2014 won 5-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, 5-0. In the fifth and final match of the series played at JSCA Stadium Complex in Ranchi, Jharkhand, India defeated Sri Lanka by 3 wickets.
Starting the innings, Sri Lanka posted 286 for 8 with skipper Angelo Mathews superb innings of 139 not out.
In reply, Indian captain Virat Kohli became the fastest to hit 21 ODI centuries as the hosts overhauled the target with 8 balls to spare. He made a blistering 139 not out.
Virat Kohli was declared Man of the Series.
54.Steel Authority of India (SAIL) Chairman CS Verma was on 14 November 2014 conferred with the IIM- JRD Tata Award for Excellence in Corporate leadership in Metallurgical Industries for the year 2014.
55.The mayor of Sibiu Klaus Werner Iohannis on 16 November 2014 won the 2014 presidential elections in Romania by defeating Prime Minister Victor Ponta of Social Democratic Party (PSD).Klaus Iohannis belongs to Christian Liberal Alliance of Romania. Iohannis got 54.81 percent of the votes compared to only 45.18 percent of the votes for Victor Ponta.
2.Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata has been appointed to the board of Interpol Foundation to contribute to its two new global initiatives aimed at combating organised crime and terrorist activities by the international police organisation.
He will be on its board of trustee and contribute to the success of two new global initiatives of Interpol – Protecting Cultural Property and Modernising Channels of International Judicial Cooperation initiatives.
3.Bollywood actor-director Farhan Akhtar has been appointed as UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia. He has become the first male to be appointed as Goodwill Ambassador in UN’s history. As UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia, he will dedicate his efforts towards the empowerment of women and girls and will serve as an advocate for UN Women’s newly launched ‘HeForShe’ campaign in advocating for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
4.Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has decided to replace German as a third language in schools of Kendriya Vidyalaya (KVs) with Sanskrit right away instead of waiting for the new academic session to effect the changes. The decision to discontinue German was taken on 27th October 2014, after the meeting of Board of Governors of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) headed by Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani.
5.Union Finance Ministry has announced that Goa and Kerala became the first states in the country to achieve 100 percent Financial Inclusion under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
Union Finance Ministry also announced that three Union Territories (UTs) namely Chandigarh, Puducherry and Lakshadweep achieved 100 percent financial inclusion under PMJDY.
According to official data available till 5th November, 11.26 lakh bank accounts were opened in Kerala, followed by 77, 485 accounts in Goa, 1.36 lakh accounts in Chandigarh, 69819 accounts in Puducherry and 3588 accounts in Lakshadweep under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
Finance Ministry has declared States of Kerala and Goa, union territories of Chandigarh, Puducherry and Lakshadweep and three districts of Gujarat- Porbandar, Mehasana, Gandhinagar as 100 per cent saturated in terms of coverage of all households with at least one bank account.
According to Finance Ministry
PMJDY so far managed to bring over 5000 crore rupees into the formal banking system as account holders have started depositing cash. A large chunk of this money would have been kept at home in the absence of accounts, with little or no productive use.
According to the initial results, on an average about 80% of the households surveyed have now got at least one bank account.
As in the first week of November 2014, 7.24 crore accounts have been opened under PMJDY of which 4.29 crore in rural and 2.95 crore are in urban areas. RuPay Cards have been issued in case of 3.97 crore accounts.
At the time banks had been given a target of opening 7.5 crore accounts under the scheme.
Each of the accounts come with a debit card, 1 lakh rupees accidental insurance policy and 30000 rupees free medical insurance cover.
About Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
On 28th August 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the scheme with the goal of eradicating financial untouchability of the poor by opening at least one bank account for every family in the country in less than six months.
6.India has successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable Prithvi-II surface-to-surface missile, from Chandipur test range in Odisha.
It was fired from a mobile launcher in salvo mode from launch complex-3 of Integrated Test Range. In the test, missile’s trajectory was tracked by DRDO radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations located along the coast of Odisha.
This test was part of a regular training exercise of Strategic Force Command of Defence (SFC) and monitored by Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO).
The purpose of the test was clearly to indicate India’s operational readiness to meet any eventuality and also establishes the reliability of this deterrent component of India’s Strategic arsenal.
Facts about Prithvi-II Missile
Prithvi-II is indigenously developed nuclear-capable missile. It has a strike range of 350 km. It is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1000 kg of warheads. It is powered by liquid propulsion twin engines. It uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory. It was the first missile to be developed by DRDO under India’s prestigious Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP). Prithvi II was inducted into the SFC in 2003.
The last user trials of Prithvi-II were successfully carried out from the same base on 7th January, 2014 and 28th March, 2014.
7.On 14th November 2014, Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smt. Maneka Gandhi launched the National Bal Swachhta Mission in New Delhi. It was launched on 125th birth anniversary of first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. On this occasion, Minister also released a book on Bal Swachtta Mission prepared by NIPCCD.
About Bal Swachhta Mission
The Bal Swachhta Mission is a part of the nationwide sanitation initiative of ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ launched by the Prime Minister on 2nd October, 2014.
The nationwide Bal Swachhta Mission will have the following six themes:-
Clean Anganwadis .
Clean Surroundings e.g. Playgrounds.
Clean Self (Personal Hygiene/Child Health).
Clean Food.
Clean Drinking Water.
Clean Toilets.
8.Rosetta mission of European Space Agency (ESA) has landed its Philae probe on the surface of Comet 67P/ Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Philae probe landing on Comet 67P made a Space history, as for the first time probe has landed on a comet.
The landing site of Philae probe has been named as Agilkia and is located on the head of the bizarre double-lobed object of Comet. Name Agilkia was chosen by ESA in honour of Agilkia Island, in a public contest.
Philae’s mission:
Philae’s mission is to transmit data about composition of the comet after landing on its surface. It will provide elemental, isotopic, molecular and mineralogical composition of the cometary material.
The lander is named after Philae Island in the Nile River, Egypt where an obelisk (a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument) was found and used, along with the Rosetta stone, to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.
About Spacecraft Rosetta and Comet 67P
67P was first discovered in 1969 by Soviet astronomers Ivanovych Churyumov and Svetlana Ivanova Gerasimenko. It is also known as Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
The spacecraft has been named after the Rosetta Stone, the discovery of which in 1799 provided the key to translating Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Demotic script into Ancient Greek (and thus any other language).
Mission
The 1 billion pound (1.58 billion US dollars) Rosetta mission blasted off from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in March 2004, for a long journey involving loops around the Sun as it aimed to get onto the same orbit as 67P.
Rosetta has traversed over 6 billion n km, passing by Earth three times, Mars once, and flew by two asteroids, using the gravitational pull of those bodies to change velocity and catch up with 67P.It had travelled through the Solar System before reaching at orbit of Comet 67P on 6th August 2014. The mission aims to know mysteries of comets made from ancient material that predates the origin of the solar system.
9.Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma has made history by scoring the highest ODI score of 264 runs. He achieved this distinction during the 4th ODI between India and Sri Lanka played at Kolkata. Rohit surpassed several records including Virender Sehwag’s 219 and his own 209 – scored against Australia in Bangalore in November 2013.
He made this record score in 173 which included 33 fours and 9 sixes. He got to his 50 off 72, 100 off 100, 150 off 125, 200 off 151 and 250 off 166.
He also became only the fifth Indian batsman after Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar to post two or more scores in excess of 150 in ODIs.
Indian cricketer’s to reach Double century milestone:
Sachin Tendulkar was the first Indian cricketer to reach double century landmark against South Africa in 2010. The second one to do so was Virendra Sehwag who scored 219 against West Indies in the year 2011. Third one was Rohit Sharma to score 209 runs against Australia in 2013.
10.Union Government on 20 November 2014 approved launch of Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DUGJY) to provide access of electricity to rural households across the country. A decision in this regard was taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
The Union Cabinet also decided to merge the ongoing Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) with DUGJY scheme.
Components of the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) includes
• To separate agriculture and non agriculture feeders facilitating judicious rostering of supply to agricultural and non-agricultural consumers in rural areas
• Strengthening and augmentation of sub transmission and distribution infrastructure in rural areas, including metering of distribution transformers/feeders/consumers
The two components of the scheme will be implemented at an estimated cost of 43033 crore rupees which includes required budgetary support of 33453 crore rupees from Union Government over the entire implementation period.
Apart from this, the balance work related to rural electrification as per CCEA’s approval of August 2013 with the norms of the ongoing scheme of RGGVY in the 12th and 13th plans will be subsumed in DDUGJY as a distinct component for rural electrification. For this purpose the CCEA has already approved the scheme cost of 39275 crore rupees including budgetary support of 35447 crore rupees.
This outlay will be carried forward to the new scheme of DDUGJY in addition to the outlay of 43033 crore rupees.
The scheme would help in
• Improvement in hours of power supply in rural areas
• Reduction in peak load
• Improvement in billed energy based on metered consumption and
• Providing access to electricity to rural households
As per the cabinet decision, the process of sanction of projects will commence immediately and for execution, the projects will be awarded by States Discoms/Power Departments. The projects shall be completed within 24 months from date of award.
Apart from this, the Cabinet also approved a North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project for six north eastern states for strengthening of the Intra-State Transmission and Distribution System. These states are Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tnpura and Nagaland.
The project will be implemented at an estimated cost of about 5111 crore rupees. The project is a major step towards meeting the national objective of Power to All. It will also increase the per capita power consumption in these States.
11.Infosys co-founders S. Gopalakrishnan and S.D.Shibulal on 19 November 2014 launched Axilor Ventures.
Axilor Ventures is a business incubator which will help entrepreneurs and early-stage firms to succeed in diverse verticals. The first batch of the accelerator programme will commence in the first quarter of 2015.
In its initial launch stage, Axilor will run three programmes — Accelerator, Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Early Stage Funding.
12.Supreme Court on 20 November 2014 directed CBI Director Ranjit Sinha to withdraw himself from 2G case and asked CBI chief not to interfere in the ongoing 2G probe.
It further ruled that three senior-most officers in the investigating team of the 2G scam will take over the role of CBI Director in the case.
A bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu said that prima facie it appears that allegations levelled against Sinha were credible and acceptable.
The Supreme Court directed him to do so in light of allegations made against him by the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation. The NGO had alleged that he might have tried to save accused in 2G spectrum scam.
Ranjit Sinha was set to retire from office on 2 December 2014 but the court's directives are going to leave a scar on the CBI chief's credibility.
13.Union Ministry for Food Processing Industries on 18 November 2014 reconstituted the National Food Processing Development Council (NFDPC).
The Ministry appointed ITC Chairman Y Deveshwar and FieldFresh Foods Vice Chairman Rakesh Bharti Mittal as its members.
For the first time, the committee has appointed individual business leaders as its members. Earlier, the industry was represented in this committee by the industry bodies.
The committee comprised of 29 members. Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is the Chairman of the council and Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti is its Vice Chairperson.
14.Online restaurant guide Zomato raised 60 million US dollars of fund from Info Edge, Vy Capital & Sequoia. The fund will be used to accelerate the company's global expansion and new product development.
Zomato has raised a total of 113 million US dollars (about 700 crore rupees) till date.
Zomato claimed to see over 30 million visits across its web and mobile platforms every month and planned to expand to 14 more countries across Europe, South-East Asia, Australia, and the America.
The current valuation of Zomato is more than four times its 150-million US dollars valuation when it raised 37 million US dollars in November 2013 led by Sequoia Capital.
15.At least 10 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) are in serious danger of being lost forever. This was revealed by a study released by the conservation society Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in the second week of November 2014.
The study revealed that the IBAs including famous Flamingo City of Kutch, Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary in Solapur-Ahmednagar of Maharashtra and Sewri-Mahul Creek in Mumbai are among the most threatened habitats in India.
Flamingo City is possibly the only breeding ground of the migratory bird in a great magnitude in Asia.
The Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary is home to the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard. The population of birds at Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary has plummeted from 27 birds in 2006 to 12 in 2012 and a mere three birds in 2013.
The other bird habitats which are in grave danger of losing tree cover include
• Sailana Kharmor Sanctuary in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh
• Tillangchong in Andaman-Nicobar
• Dihaila Jheel and Karera Wildlife Sanctuary in Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh
• Basai in Gurgaon, Haryana
• Sardarpur Florican Sanctuary in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh
• Ranebennur in Haveri, Karnataka
The study also revealed that there are many other IBAs though not on this list but those IBAs are threatened by various types of unsustainable human interference.
According to the study, destruction or disturbance due to infrastructure development, wrong anti-people conservation policies, indiscriminate livestock grazing, industrial and sewage pollution, indiscriminate agricultural expansion including use of pesticides, rapid urbanisation and poaching are some of the major reasons for the loss of biodiversity and habitat.
16.Sri Lanka on 19 November 2014 released five Indian fishermen who were sentenced to death. They were released after President Mahinda Rajapaksa used his executive powers to commute their death penalty.
The five fishermen who hail from Tamil Nadu are Emerson, P Augustus, R Wilson, K Prasath and J Langlet. All these fishermen were handed over to Indian High Commission after their release from Welikada Prison in Colombo.
Presidential pardon was given after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian High Commission and Union and State government made several efforts to get them released and grant them the pardon.
17.Union Ministry of Civil Aviation on 19 November 2014 approved the proposal of Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group’s proposal to sell its Australia-made airplanes named Mahindra Gipps in India.
Mahindra Gipps airplanes are utility planes having seating capacities ranging from 5 to 10 seats.
The proposal of Mahindra Group was approved after Indian regulator Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) accepted the type certification issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the single piston engine aircraft Mahindra Gipps.
18.China and Australia on 18 November 2014 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on bilateral Antarctic cooperation. The MoU was signed in the presence of the President of China Xi Jinping and Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott in Hobart, Australia’s gateway to Antarctica.
President of China Xi Jinping is on three nation tour to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji with Australia being the first leg of his visit.
Details of the MoU
• Both the countries will exchange data and personnel which will further enhance cooperation in scientific research activities.
• Both the countries will be supportive to each other in logistics and emergency and rescue. It also raises the hope on conservation and food security in Antarctica region.
• A platform for Antarctic official and academic exchanges will be established, under which Australia will be a gateway to Antarctica.
• A joint committee to be established by both the countries will meet every two years once and will oversee the cooperation and a mechanism for environmental, policy, scientific and operational collaboration in Antarctica.
China at present has four research stations in Antarctica region including the last research station Taishan that was opened in 2014. It is planning to open the fifth one also. On the other hand Australia has three research stations.
Approximately 30 nations operate permanent research stations in Antarctica, including the US, China, Russia, Australia, Britain, France and Argentina.
19.Assam State Zoo in Guwahati in the third week of November 2014 decided to have the critically endangered pig Pygmy Hog (Porcula salvania). Pygmy Hog is the rarest and smallest wild pig in the world.
With this decision, Assam State Zoo is set to become the first and only zoo of the world to have this critically endangered species of pigs.
The Zoo took the decision to have the Pigmy Hogs as they are on the brink of extinction, and they want to make the zoo a captive breeding centre for the critically endangered mammals.
The Pygmy Hog Research and Breeding Centre at Basistha, Assam will provide the pigs to the Assam zoo.
20.Neel Mukherjee was in news because his book Lives of Others was shortlisted for Costa Book Awards on 19 November 2014.
His book was shortlisted under the Novel Award category. The award will be announced on 5 January 2015 while the overall Costa Book of the Year will be announced on 27 January 2015.
The book is based upon the Naxalite movement of the 1960s and unfolds a family history.
Earlier in 2014, the same novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize but narrowly lost to Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
21.Arun Duggal, chairman of Shriram Capital Limited on 19 November 2014 announced to resign from the chairmanship of the financial service entity of Shriram Group.
He was serving the financial services entities of the Shriram Group - Shriram Capital Limited, Shriram Transport Finance Limited and Shriram City Union Finance Limited from the last 10 years
22.Sutirtha Bhattacharya will be the new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Coal India Limited (CIL). His name was recommended by the Public Enterprises Services Board (PESB) on 19 November 2014.
Bhattacharya is a 1985-batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre. Currently, he is on superannuation and serving as the CMD of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), Hyderabad – the second largest coal mining company after CIL.
23.Rampal Singh Jatin was in news because he was arrested by Haryana Police on 19 November 2014 from his fortified Satlok Ashram in Hisar of Haryana. He is famous as Sant Rampal and is a self-styled Godman.
He was arrested after two weeks of intense attempts by police to arrest him that involved rioting in which scores of persons were injured and around 5 persons were killed.
He was arrested under fresh cases of sedition, criminal conspiracy and rioting. Rampal will be produced in the Haryana and Punjab High Court on 20 November 2014.
24.The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 19 November 2014 was chosen for the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2014. The award will be given to ISRO for its contribution in strengthening international cooperation in peaceful use of outer space.
ISRO was selected for the award by a jury chaired by Vice President Hamid Ansari. The jury in its statement said that ISRO is being awarded in recognition of its path-breaking achievement, culminating in the Mars orbiter mission, its significant contribution in strengthening cooperation in peaceful use of outer space.
It also noted that ISRO’s role in application of advanced technologies in promoting broad-based and sustainable social and economic development and addressing basic needs of the people particularly in remote and rural areas of the country.
The jury also said ISRO has demonstrated that in space technology, India stands shoulder to shoulder with the best in the world.
25.12th ASEAN-India Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar on 12 November 2014. The summit was held on the sidelines of 25th ASEAN Summit.
The summit was attended by the President of Myanmar, Thein Sein, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and by all Heads of State/ Government of ASEAN Member States.
During the summit, ASEAN countries and India reiterated their commitment to reach the trade target of 100 billion US Dollar by 2015. The total trade between ASEAN and India reached 67.9 billion US dollar in 2013.
The leaders appreciated the signing of two milestone agreements; the Agreement on Trade in Services and the Agreement on Investment of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and India.
Along with the other commitments, the ASEAN leaders also underscored the importance of India's cooperation in implementing the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) and the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre).
The Next ASEAN-India Summit will be held in Cambodia in 2015.
India became a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992, which was upgraded to full dialogue partnership in 1996. Since 2002, India had annual Summits with ASEAN. To mark the 20th anniversary of India-ASEAN dialogue-level partnership and the 10th anniversary of India-ASEAN Summit-level partnership with ASEAN, India would host the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit on the theme ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace and Shared Prosperity.
26.International Business Machine Corp on 18 November 2014 launched a new e-mail application known as IBM Verse. The company hopes IBM Verse will eventually replace Window's popular Outlook.
The free initial model will include limited mailbox sizes and file sharing. A paid version with additional features and data allowance will be available in January 2015.
The application is part of IBM's attempt to shift its focus to cloud computing and data analytics from the hardware services.
How it will work
The app will be for business that integrates social media, file sharing and analytics to learn a user's behavior and predict interactions with coworkers. IBM Verse includes a built-in personal assistant that can learn from a user's behavior and draft responses to e-mails based on similar previous interactions.
It also allow users to transform e-mail content into threads for blogs and social media, view the relationships between different employees in an e-mail, mute a chain and search through attachments.The e-mail's interface pins a user's most frequent contacts, schedule and lists of assignments to a dashboard for easy access.
IBM's enterprise mail service, known as Notes, is used by 25000 companies worldwide and more than 50000 use IBM's social platform for businesses, IBM Connections.
27.9th East Asia Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar on 13 November 2014. The summit was held on the sidelines of the 25th ASEAN Summit. The Summit was chaired by the President of Myanmar, U Thein Sein.
The summit adopted 4 outcome documents namely: (1) East Asia Summit Declaration on Combating Wildlife Trafficking; (2) Statement on EAS Guidelines for Rapid Disaster Response; (3) Joint Statement on Regional Response to the Outbreak of Ebola/Spread of Ebola; and (4) EAS Statement on the Rise of Violence and Brutality Committed by Terrorist/Extremist Organizations in Iraq and Syria.
The leaders of the forum discussed cooperation in areas of common concern, particularly the non-traditional security issues such as wildlife trafficking, trafficking in persons, pandemics, climate change and disaster management.
On regional and international issues, the leaders exchanged views on Korean Peninsula, the rise of violence committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the outbreak of Ebola as well as maritime security especially in the context of the South China Sea.
28.Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced number of measures to strengthen relationships with Pacific Islands. He announced the measures at the Pacific Island Leaders Meeting in Suva, Fiji on 19 November 2014.
Modi announced the measures during his day long visit to Fiji. He is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the Pacific countries after Indira Gandhi who visited in 1981.
The following are the measures announced to strengthen relationships with Pacific Islands:
A Special Adaptation Fund of 1 million US dollars
This fund will be used for Climate change, which is a major issue of concern for Pacific Island Countries.
This fund can also be used to provide technical assistance and training for capacity building to Pacific Island Partners by India.
Pan Pacific Islands Project
He announced Pan Pacific Islands Project for telemedicine and tele-education like pan-Africa Project.
India is also working on a solar energy project with the Pacific Islands at the community level.
The regional hubs will be developed in the pacific Islands
Indian Visa on arrival to all the fourteen Pacific Island Countries
He announced Visa on Arrival for nationals of all the 14 Pacific Island countries. These are Cook Islands, Kingdom of Tonga, Tuvalu, Republic of Nauru, Republic of Kiribati, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Niue, Republic of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Marshall Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
This will facilitate exchanges and promote better understanding between India and pacific countries by reducing the inconvenience in travel due to Visa issues.
29.India and Fiji signed three Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) on 19 November 2014 to strengthen bilateral relations. The agreements were signed during the visit of Prime Minister of Narendra Modi to Fiji.
The MoUs were signed in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Fijian Prime Minister Josiah V Bainimarama in Suva, the capital of Fiji.
30.The Bombay High Court on 18 November 2014 quashed the Income Tax department’s 18000-crore rupees tax order against oil major Shell India.
The ruling in favour of Shell India was passed by a bench of Justice M S Sanklecha and Justice S C Gupte on a petition filed by Shell India Markets.
The High Court held that the legal principle laid down by it in the Vodafone case in October 2014 also applies in the Shell case too and rejected the I-T department’s argument that the facts of the Shell case were different from the Vodafone case.
In the Vodafone case, the High Court had held that in so far as transfer pricing principles are concerned the issuance of shares by an Indian company to its foreign parent is not eligible to transfer pricing provisions as there is no income arising there from.
The Shell India Case
The case pertains to alleged under pricing of shares issued by Shell India to its parent company abroad.
In March 2009 Shell India had issued 870 million shares to its parent company Shell Gas at 10 rupees per share.
However, the IT department contended that the shares were grossly under-priced and it valued them at 180 rupees per share. The IT department also contended that the under-pricing of shares by the Shell India was covered by transfer pricing and hence it was liable to pay tax on the shortfall of premium.
As a result, IT department added the difference of 15000 crore rupees and 3000 crore rupees respectively to the taxable income of Shell India Markets Pvt Ltd for the Financial Year (FY) 2007-08 and FY 2008-09 in two transfer pricing cases.
31.Terry Walsh on 18 November 2014 resigned as Chief Coach of Indian hockey team after his contractual talks with Hockey India (HI) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) broke down. However, a fresh proposal is still being worked out for his consideration.
He was appointed as Hockey India coach in October 2013 by replacing the sacked and fellow Australian Michael Nobbs.
32.25th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar from 12 November 2014 to 13 November 2014.
Summit was held under the theme of Moving forward in Unity to a Peaceful and Prosperous Community.
25th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit
The Heads of State/Government of the ASEAN Group gathered to attend the summit. Along with the member states, the summit was also attended by the Heads of State/Government of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the United States.
Myanmar chaired the ASEAN summit for the first time. Myanmar has chosen the Kha Yay or Star Flower as the logo for ASEAN Summit.
During the Summit, ASEAN members adopted the Nay Pyi Taw Declaration for the ASEAN Community’s Post-2015 Vision. The leaders adopted the ASEAN Joint Statement on Climate Change 2014.
Moreover, the summit also adopted a Declaration on Strengthening the ASEAN Secretariat and Reviewing the ASEAN Organs.
ASEAN was established in 1967 by the five founding fathers, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Later, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia also joined the group.
The first ASEAN Summit was held in Bali, Indonesia in 1976, while the 24th ASEAN Summit was held in Myanmar. Myanmar has been chosen for the chairmanship of ASEAN Summit for the 2014.
The next 26th ASEAN Summit will be held in Cambodia from 26 March 2015 to 28 March 2015.
33.• The G20 Summit 2014 concluded with Brisbane Action Plan
• China to promote travel to countries along Silk Road belt in 2015
• China to host G20 Summit of the emerging economies in 2016
• Klaus Werner Iohannis won Romanian presidential elections 2014
• Modi Express in honour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off in Melbourne, Australia
• Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic won ATP World Tour Finals
34.Indian batsman Suresh Raina on 17 November 2014 became co-owner of Hockey India League (HIL) franchise team, Uttar Pradesh Wizards.
The announcement of his association was made by Abhijit Sarkar of Uttar Pradesh Wizards in an event held at Sahara Shaher in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
With this he became the second Indian cricketer to get associated with HIL. Earlier Team India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni also got associated with the Ranchi franchise team of HIL as its co-owner.
About Hockey India League
Hockey India League is a professional league for field hockey competition in India. It is organised by Hockey India. The tournament was originally contested in the first season among five franchisee-based teams consisting of players from India and around the world.
In 2014, Kalinga Lancers joined as the sixth franchise, based in Bhubaneswar. The entire event takes place on home and away basis culminating into multi-header playoffs. The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has sanctioned the event and also provides a 30-day window at the beginning of a year so that all top players can participate.
It is currently sponsored by two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp, and is therefore officially known as Hero Hockey India League or HHIL.
35.Legendary Japanese actor Ken Takakura died on 10 November 2014 of lymphoma at a hospital in Tokyo. He was 83.
36.She was awarded the prize by Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu the patron of the Dutch children’s rights organization in The Hague, Netherlands.
In 2013, the award was conferred on Malala Yousufzai, who went on to win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
About Neha Gupta
• Neha through her own organization Empower Orphans has helped 25000 vulnerable children by raising over 1.3 million US dollar
• She has also inspired her peers worldwide to contribute to create a better world for children
• She is a citizen of the United States of America, born in New Zealand to Indian parents
• She started working for children of the world at the age of nine
37.Union Government on 17 November 2014 nominated Dr. Hasmukh Adhia as a Director on the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He will replace Gurdial Singh Sandhu.
As per the press release of RBI, his nomination is effective from 11 November 2014.
Hasmukh Adhia is currently working as Secretary in Department of Financial Services, Union Ministry of Finance.
He is a 1981 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer. He had worked with the then Gujarat chief minister and present Prime Minister Narendra Modi from May 2004 to May 2006.
38.Second Edition of Global Slavery Index was released on 17 November 2014 by the Walk Free Foundation. The index aims to end modern slavery in a generation.
The Index ranks 167 countries in terms of the percentage of a national population and the total number of people living in modern slavery – country by country, region by region.
In absolute terms, the index was topped by India followed by China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Russia. Index highlighted that estimated 35.8 million people are in modern slavery globally. Out of this, 61% people are living in top five countries.
The estimated prevalence of people in modern slavery has increased from 2013.
39.Merchandise exports declined by 5 percent to 7-month low of 26 billion US dollars in October 2014 resulting into widening of trade deficit to 13.3 billion US dollars in October 2014.
This was revealed by the India’s Foreign Trade (Merchandise) data released by the Department of Commerce, Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry on 17 November 2014.
The decline in exports occurred mainly on account of fall in shipments of petroleum products, electronics, engineering items, gems & jewellery, and iron ore.
On the other hand, driven by gold imports, total merchandise imports increased 3.16 percent to 39.45 billion US dollars in October 2014. The gold imports surged 280 percent to reach 4.1 billion US Dollar during the month of October 2014.
40.State Bank of India (SBI) on 17 November 2014 approved 1 billion US dollar loan for Adani Mining to develop Carmichael coal mine project near Clermont in Central Queensland, Australia.
The announcement related to the signing of memorandum of understanding between Adani Group and SBI was made in the third week of November 2014.
The announcement comes close on the heels of clearance of the Adani Group’s proposal by the Queensland State of Australia on 17 November 2014. The Adani group plans to build a 7 billion US dollars coal mine project.
Besides, Queensland State also announced a major investment in rail infrastructure to support the coal mine project of the Adani Group.
41.Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) on 18 November 2014 released Global Terrorism Index 2014. The Index 2014 provides ranks for 162 countries and provides a fact-based understanding of terrorism and its impact.
According to the report, terrorism has become a global phenomenon with a 61 percent increase in the number of people killed in terrorist attacks in 2013.
42.Ninth G-20 Summit of major economies was held in Brisbane, Australia from 15 to 16 November 2014. The summit focused on promoting economic growth and set the target of boosting global growth by 2 percent in five years.
G-20 summit 2014was held with following themes as an agenda
• Promoting stronger economic growth and employment outcomes
• Making the global economy more resilient to deal with future shocks
• Strengthening global institutions to ensure they reflect the new realities of the global economy.
A Brisbane Action plan was released as part of the G20 communique and during the summit world leaders fully committed to take decisive actions to return to a job-rich, strong, sustainable and balanced growth path.
Highlights of the G20 Brisbane Action Plan
Growth
• After recovery from the global financial crisis the G20 agreed on the need for bold and coordinated push to generate strong, sustainable economic growth across the bloc.
• It set an ambitious goal to lift G20 growth by more than 2 percent to 2018 and millions of additional jobs.
• It is targeting big target areas like investment, competition, trade and employment alongside macroeconomic policy. Each member has developed a comprehensive growth strategy along these themes.
• G20 member plans to be more coordinated in the ways and ready to use all policy levers to strengthen confidence and the recovery.
• A global infrastructure hub funded by government contributions will be established in Sydney.
Global Economic Conditions
• The Global Economic conditions have improved especially in US, UK and Canada but Europe and Japan are struggling. But the overall pace of global economic conditions has been unsatisfactory.
• Public and private debt levels remain high and growth is uneven and not generating enough jobs.
• Monetary policy has been loosened, resulting in much lower borrowing interest rates. But the world economy is still vulnerable to financial shocks and geopolitical tensions which underline the importance of having clear plan to draw together the appropriate mix of policy responses.
Working Together
• Some 1000 individual countries plans have been submitted. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) if those plans are fully implemented the growth benefit will be 2.1 percent to 2018.
• One quarter of this increase will be a result of positive spillovers from simultaneous implementation.
• These actions will boost non- G20 GDP by over 0.5 per cent by 2018. Actions are focused on fostering infrastructure investment, cutting red tape, boosting trade, streamlining regulation, promoting competition and lifting employment.
• Central banks have committed to carefully calibrate and clearly communicate interest rates announcements.
• There is also mention of a rapid push toward floating exchange rate systems. China currently operates a fixed system.
Employment
• There are more than 200 million people unemployed across the world- 30 more than when the Great Financial Crisis began and among them 75 million are young people.
• The G20 will have country specific plans to boost employment, alongside the growth strategies that include bringing more women into workforces.
• The G20 wants to reduce the gap labour force participation rates between men and women in member countries by 25 percent by 2025.
• This will bring more than 100 million women into the labour force, significantly increase global growth and reduce poverty and inequality.
• For young people, the G20 is renewing its fight against youth unemployment by increasing access to quality education, training and skills development.
• Many G20 members are also looking at issues affecting people with disabilities and the long term jobless, as well as insecure jobs in the informal economy.
Accountability
• The G20 will monitor and hold each other to account for the implementation of our comprehensive growth strategies.
43.Akash surface-to-air missile was test fired by the Indian Air Force (IAF) from Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near Balasore, Odisha on 17 November 2014. It was test fired as part of user trial by the Air Force.
44.The International Buddhist Conference 2014 was held from 15 November to 18 November 2014 in Lumbini, Nepal. It was held with an objective of preserving Buddhist culture and heritage.
The conference was held with a joint initiative of Nepal Theravada Buddhist Academy and Myanmar Sitagu International Buddhist Academy.
The conference was attended by some 400 Buddhist experts and intellectuals and issued a 23 point declaration.
45.The Fourth India-China Joint Training Exercise Hand-in-Hand 2014 began at Aundh Military Station in Pune, Maharashtra on 17 November 2014. The exercise will end on 25 November 2014.
The 12 day Indo-China joint exercise is aimed to acquaint both the armies with each other’s operating procedures in the backdrop of counter terrorism environment.
46.The Union Government on 18 November 2014 relaunched Kisan Vikas Patra scheme (KVP) in New Delhi to encourage the habit of small savings among the citizens.
The scheme will soon be made available through designated branches of nationalized banks across the country.
Highlights of the Kisan Vikas Patra scheme (KVP)
• The scheme will provide facility of unlimited investment by way of purchase of certificate from post office in various denominations.
• The KVP will be available to the investors in the denomination of 1000, 5000, 10000 and 50000 rupees with no upper ceiling on investment.
• The certificates can also be issued in single or joint names and can be transferred from one person to any other person. The investment made in the certificate will double in 100 months.
• The facility of transfer from one post office to another anywhere in India and of nomination will also be available under the scheme.
• Kisan Vikas Patra scheme has unique liquidity feature, where an investor can encash his certificates after the lock-in period of 2 years and 6 months and thereafter in any block of six months on pre-determined maturity value.
• With a maturity period of 8 years 4 months, the collections under the scheme will be available with the Union Government for a fairly long period to be utilized in financing developmental plans of the Centre and State Governments.
Background
Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), a certificate savings scheme was launched by the Union Government on 1 April 1988. The scheme provided facility of unlimited investment by way of purchase of certificates from post offices in various denominations.
47.India and Australia on 18 November 2014 signed five pacts on social security, transfer of sentenced prisoners, combating narcotics trade, tourism, and Arts and Culture.
Highlights of the agreements
Early closure of the Civil Nuclear Agreement
Moreover, India and Australia agreed on early closure of the civil nuclear agreement which will give Australia a chance to participate in one of the most secure and safe nuclear energy programme in the world.
By concluding the civil nuclear pact, uranium trade will be facilitated between the two countries. Australia has about 40 percent of the world's uranium reserves and exports nearly 7000 tonnes of uranium annually.
India and Australia had commenced negotiations for the sale of uranium in early 2012. The two-way trade stands at 15 billion US dollars a year.
48.Veteran classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj was on 17 November 2014 conferred with the Sumitra Charat Ram Award 2014 for Lifetime Achievement.
49.Veteran diplomat Michel Kafando was on 17 November 2014 chosen as interim president of Burkina Faso. Michel Kafando will head the country until November 2015 elections.
A panel of 23 officials chose Kafando after preferring him to the other candidates which included journalist Cherif Sy and sociologist and ex-minister Josephine Ouedraogo. Michel Kafando appointment will now be ratified by the Constitutional Council.
50.Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the US on 6 November 2014 withdrew the previously granted tentative marketing approvals for the Ranbaxy’s anti-ulcer drug Nexium and HIV infection drug Valcyte.
51.Hyderabad-based GVK Bio on 6 November 2014 signed definitive agreement to acquire US-based Vanta Bioscience. The acquisition will enable GVK BIO to offer GLP toxicology services for Pharmaceuticals, Agrochemicals, Nutraceuticals, and Cosmetics
The acquisition is in line with company’s business strategy of being an integrated drug discovery services provider for their customers. The acquisition of Vanta Bioscience further advances the company’s position as it expands its service offering in GLP toxicology.
52.Leading online fashion store Myntra.com in the month of July 2014 named Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut as its brand ambassador.
53.Indian cricket team on 16 November 2014 won 5-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, 5-0. In the fifth and final match of the series played at JSCA Stadium Complex in Ranchi, Jharkhand, India defeated Sri Lanka by 3 wickets.
Starting the innings, Sri Lanka posted 286 for 8 with skipper Angelo Mathews superb innings of 139 not out.
In reply, Indian captain Virat Kohli became the fastest to hit 21 ODI centuries as the hosts overhauled the target with 8 balls to spare. He made a blistering 139 not out.
Virat Kohli was declared Man of the Series.
54.Steel Authority of India (SAIL) Chairman CS Verma was on 14 November 2014 conferred with the IIM- JRD Tata Award for Excellence in Corporate leadership in Metallurgical Industries for the year 2014.
55.The mayor of Sibiu Klaus Werner Iohannis on 16 November 2014 won the 2014 presidential elections in Romania by defeating Prime Minister Victor Ponta of Social Democratic Party (PSD).Klaus Iohannis belongs to Christian Liberal Alliance of Romania. Iohannis got 54.81 percent of the votes compared to only 45.18 percent of the votes for Victor Ponta.