Current Affairs Update – 15-16-17th August, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 15th, 16th and 17th August, 2015. These are Important for the IBPS RRB 2015 Exam.

Finance/Industry
UAE to Raise India
Investment to $75 Billion, Bilateral Trade $100 Billion
  • To boost economic ties, the UAE today agreed to increase
    investments in India to USD 75 billion (about Rs 5 lakh crore) including
    through a dedicated infrastructure fund, while the two nations will raise their
    bilateral trade to nearly USD 100 billion in five years.
  • The two countries also agreed for strategic partnership in
    the energy sector, including through UAE’s participation in petroleum sectors
    in India and tie-ups in the third countries.
  • While deciding to elevate India-UAE relationship to a
    comprehensive strategic partnership, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Crown
    Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed AI Nahyan also agreed to facilitate participation of
    Indian companies in infrastructure development in the UAE.

India, Bangladesh
signed MoU to tackle the menace of fake Indian currency notes

  • India and Bangladesh on 13 August 2015 signed a Memorandum
    of Understanding (MoU) to tackle the menace of fake Indian currency notes
    (FICN) smuggling. The MoU was signed during a maiden meeting of the Joint Task
    Force on Fake Currency Notes (JTFFC) in Dhaka.
  • The MoU was signed by Additional Inspector-General of
    Bangladesh Mohammed Mokhlesur Rahman and Head of National Investigation Agency
    of India IG Sanjeev Kumar Singh.

Highlights of the
MoU
  • Both countries will share intelligence inputs on operatives
    engaged in circulating FICN on real time basis.
  • India will provide Advance note sorting machines to
    Bangladesh to detect FICN circulation at international airports, immigration
    points, integrated crossing points, banks and financial institutions in
    Bangladesh.
  • India will help Bangladesh to set up Forensic Science
    laboratory for examination of fake notes and maintaining a digital depository
    of forensic reports.
  • Both the countries in future will organise capacity building
    training programmes.

Birla Corp to acquire
Lafarge India’s cement units for Rs. 5,000 crore
  • Birla Corporation today said it will acquire two cement
    units from Lafarge India having a capacity of 5.15 million tonnes per annum for
    Rs. 5,000 crore.
  • Birla Corporation said in a BSE filing said ,“It has agreed
    to a transaction with Lafarge India Private Ltd, whereby Birla Corp, either
    directly or through its wholly-owned subsidiary, shall acquire both the
    Jojobera and Sonadih cement businesses (Acquisition business) from Lafarge
    India for an Enterprise Value of Rs 5,000 crore.”
  • Birla said it will acquire the cement business, comprising
    an integrated cement unit at Sonadih (Chhattisgarh), a cement grinding unit at
    Jojobera (Jharkhand), along with Concreto and PSC brands.

IndiGo inks agreement
to buy 250 A320 NEO aircraft valued at $26.5 bn

  • IndiGo has signed an agreement to purchase 250 Airbus 320
    New Engine Option (NEO) aircraft. The aircraft have a book value of $26.5
    billion although it is not uncommon for both Airbus and Boeing to provide
    discounts from the listed price provided the order size is large.
  • IndiGo plans to fund the acquisition through its initial
    public offering. The airline has already filed its draft red herring prospectus
    with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
  • In a statement the airline said the purchase agreement was
    signed on August 15 this year.
  • Earlier, in 2005, IndiGo had placed an order for 100 Airbus
    320s, which have all now been delivered. In 2011, IndiGo became the first
    Indian operator to commit to the A320 NEO, bringing its total to 280 Airbus
    aircraft.
  • With today’s announcement, IndiGo has ordered 530 A320
    family aircraft with Airbus.

Goldman Sachs to
invest $150 million in Piramal Realty
  • Leading global investment bank Goldman Sachs will invest US$
    150 million (Rs 900 crore) for a minority stake in Piramal Realty, the real
    estate development arm of the Piramal Group.
  • Piramal Realty will use the funds to expand its current real
    estate portfolio and acquire prime properties in and around Mumbai, the company
    said in a statement.

Housing.com acquired
Bengaluru-based HomeBuy360
  • Mumbai based Real estate listing portal Housing.com on 16
    August 2015 acquired Bengaluru-based customer relationship management software
    company HomeBuy360 in all cash deal of 2 million US dollars.
  • This deal will help Housing.com to strive for efficiency in
    the Indian real estate sector. This will help in reduction of property prices
    eventually benefitting the consumers. With this acquisition, Housing.com is now
    the only online real estate listing platform to own a developer CRM company.

India
Taj Mahal becomes ‘first
monument’ to debut on Twitter

  • With the launch of Taj Mahal’s twitter account today, the
    17th century mausoleum became the “first historical monument” to have
    an official handle on the micro-blogging site.
  • Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today launched
    the official twitter account of the monument– @Taj Mahal at his residence in
    the state capital, Director general of UP Tourism Amrit Abhijat said.
  • He said that while visiting the official account, a tourist
    could share his picture on #MyTajMemory, which would be included in the main
    account.
  • After launching the account, the Chief Minister also shared
    a picture with his MP wife Dimple Yadav and son in front of Taj Mahal and hash
    tagged it #MyTajMemory.
  • In fact immediately after its launch the twitteraties
    started hash tagging pictures of their visit to the monument of love.
  • Within an hour of its launch, the Taj Mahal account got more
    than 2000 followers.

PM Narendra Modi
launched a new campaign Start-up India, Stand up India
  • The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 August 2015 launched
    a new campaign Start-up India, Stand up India to promote bank financing for
    start-ups and offer incentives to boost entrepreneurship and job creation.
  • The campaign was launched during the celebrations of 69th
    Independence Day at Red Fort, Delhi. The initiative is aimed at encouraging
    entrepreneurship among the youth of India.
  • As per the initiative, each of the 1.25 lakh bank branches
    should encourage at least one Dalit or tribal entrepreneur and at least one
    woman entrepreneur.
  • Under this initiative, in addition to existing systems to
    facilitate start-ups, loans would also be given to help people. This initiative
    will give a new dimension to entrepreneurship and will help set up a network of
    start-ups in the country.

Other Announcements
  • Union Agriculture Ministry will now be renamed as
    Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Ministry with a view to take care of the
    farming community’s needs as well as the personal problems faced by them.
  • The Prime Minister also announced to replace the current
    practice of interview-based selections for low-skilled government jobs with
    online merit based recruiting.
  • Under the Skill India and Digital India initiative,
    government will now work to provide package of incentives to manufacturing
    units for generating jobs.

India, UAE Denounce
State-Sponsored Terrorism

  • Elevating their ties to a comprehensive strategic
    partnership, India and the UAE today came down heavily on countries sponsoring
    terrorism and asked all states to dismantle terror infrastructure, an oblique
    reference to Pakistan.
  • Denouncing and opposing terrorism in all forms and
    manifestations and asking all states to abandon the use of terrorism against
    other countries, the two sides called for bringing perpetrators of terrorism to
    justice.
  • References to terrorism in all forms including
    state-sponsored were the highlight of a 31-point joint statement issued after
    talks between the UAE Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed AI Nahyan and Narendra
    Modi, the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the strategic Gulf state in 34
    years.
  • Agreeing to boost bilateral cooperation in counter-
    terrorism operations, intelligence-sharing and capacity building, Modi and the
    Crown Prince also decided to coordinate efforts to counter radicalisation and
    misuse of religion by groups and countries for inciting hatred and justifying
    terrorism for pursuing political aims.

Odisha government
approved State Capital Region Improvement of Power System scheme
  • Odisha government on 13 August 2015 approved a 1500 crore
    rupees State Capital Region Improvement of Power System (SCRIPS) scheme. The
    scheme will be implemented in five years that is from 2015-16 to 2019-20.
  • The approvals in this regard were given during the State
    Cabinet meeting that was chaired by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Highlights of
State Capital Region Improvement of Power System (SCRIPS) scheme
  • The scheme aims to provide 24×7 quality power supply to the
    people in and around the state capital of Bhubaneswar.
  • The scheme will be implemented by the Odisha Power
    Transmission Corporation Limited (OPTCL), that has already chalked out broad
    features for SCRIPS for underground cabling, smart grid and others.
  • The project envisages renovation, modernisation and expansion
    of the existing transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Appointments
Union Government
appointed two private sector professionals to head BoB, Canara Bank
  • Union Government on 14 August 2015 appointed private sector
    professionals, namely PS Jayakumar and Rakesh Sharma, as Managing Director (MD)
    and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Canara Bank,
    respectively.
  • This is the first time that private sector professionals
    were appointed to head the Public Sector Banks (PSBs). Earlier, the heads of
    PSBs were selected from among the state-run banks or government officers.
  • The announcements were made along with appointment of MD and
    CEO of Bank of India (BoI), IDBI Bank and Punjab National Bank (PNB).

Ajit Kumar Seth
appointed as Chairman of Public Enterprises Selection Board
  • Former Cabinet secretary Ajit Kumar Seth was on 14 August
    2015 appointed as the Chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board
    (PESB). He was appointed for a period of three years or till he attains 65
    years of age.
  • Seth succeeded Atul Chaturvedi, who has completed his
    tenure. Prior to this appointment, Seth completed his extended tenure of four
    years at the Cabinet secretariat in June 2015.
  • Seth is a 1974-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.

Sports
World Badminton Championship:
Saina became 1st Indian shuttler to win silver medal

  • India’s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal on 16 August 2015 became
    the first Indian to win silver in the World Badminton Championship.
  • She lost the women’s singles summit clash to Spain’s Carolina
    Marin 16-21, 19-21 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
  • Olympic bronze medallist Saina had reached the finals of the
    event on 15 August 2015 by defeating Indonesia’s Lindaweni Fanetri.
  • This was India’s fifth medal at the World Championship.  Following are the Indian medal winners at the
    World Badminton Championships which started in 1977. Legendary shuttler Prakash
    Padukone was the first Indian to win a bronze at the 1983 edition.

Abhishek Verma
clinched gold for India at Archery World Cup
  • India’s Abhishek Verma on 15 August 2015 won the gold medal
    in the compound men’s individual section in the Archery World Cup Stage 3 competition
    at Wroclaw, Poland.
  • The Asian Games silver medalist defeated Esmaeil Ebadi of
    Iran 148 -145. At the Incehon 2014 Asian Games, Ebadi defeated Verma 141-145.
  • Apart from this, India’s recurve mixed pair of Deepika
    Kumari and Mangal Singh Champia won silver at the World Cup stage 3. The duo
    faced defeat by Mexican pair of Aida Roman and Juan Rene Serrano.

Andy Murray won
Rogers Cup Masters tournament
  • Briton Andy Murray on 16 August 2015 won the Rogers Cup
    Masters tournament in Montreal, Canada. In the title clash, Murray defeated
    world number one Novak Djokovic 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. It was Murray’s 11th Masters
    Title.
  • With this win, Murray was successful in ending an eight
    match losing streak against Djokovic. This was his first victory against the
    world number 1 since 2013 Wimbledon final.
  • Djokovic, who lost for just the fourth time in 2015, had won
    12 consecutive Masters Series Finals before this.

Awards
& Honors –
Mustansir Barma won
2015 Gujar Mal Modi award for innovative science and technology
  • Prof. Mustansir Barma on 14 August 2015 won the prestigious
    Gujar Mal Modi Award for Innovative Science and Technology for the year 2015.
    He was awarded for his commendable contribution in the field of Science and
    Technology.
  • He received the award from Vice President of India Hamid
    Ansari at a ceremony in New Delhi.
  • Barma, a distinguished Professor and former Director of Tata
    Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, has made immense contribution in the
    field of Statistical Physics in India.
  • He has published numerous papers on the topic and is one of
    the best recognized names in the discipline internationally. His personal
    initiative helped in expanding the TIFR campus in Hyderabad.

Union Government
announced awardees for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna 2015 and Arjuna Awards 2015
  • The Union Government on 14 August 2015 announced the
    awardees for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and Arjuna Award for the year
    2015.
  • The selection of awardees was based  on the recommendations of the Selection
    Committee headed by Justice VK Bali, former Chief Justice of Kerala High Court
    and consisting of eminent sportspersons and sports administrators.

Rajiv Gandhi Khel
Ranta 2015
  1. Ms. Sania Mirza – Tennis

Arjuna Awards 2015
  1. Name of the sportsperson – Discipline
  2. Naib Subedar Sandeep Kumar – Archery
  3. MR Poovamma – Athletics
  4. Kidambi Srikanth Nammalwar – Badminton
  5. Mandeep Jangra – Boxing
  6. Rohit Sharma – Cricket
  7. Dipa Karmakar – Gymnastic
  8. Sreejesh PR – Hockey
  9. Manjeet Chhillar – Kabaddi
  10. Abhilasha Shashikant Mhatre – Kabaddi
  11. Sawarn Singh – Rowing
  12. Anup Kumar Yama – Roller Skating
  13. Jitu Rai – Shooting
  14. S Sathish Kumar – Weightlifting
  15. Bajrang – Wrestling
  16. Babita Kumari – Wrestling
  17. Yumnam Sanathoi Devi – Wushu
  18. Sharath M Gayakwad  – Para-Swimming

These awardees will receive their awards from the President
of India at a specially organized function at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on 29
August 2015.
 :: Download The Combined PDF ::



Regards

Team ExamPundit

Sponsored

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Books For 2015 Banking/Insurance Exams