Current Affairs Update – 24 November, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here are the Important Current Affairs of 24th November, 2016. These are important for the upcoming IBPS Clerk, IPPB Mains and NICL AO Mains Exam 2016.

• India’s largest public sector
  bank State Bank of India has launched its Unified Payments Interface enabled
  app called “SBI Pay”.
• The app is available only on
  Android platform as of now and allows users to pay or collect money from any
  phone number or bank account linked to any UPI app, SBI said in a media
  statement.
• The bank will add the facility to
  make merchant payments and enhance transaction limits on the app in “due
  course.”
• The bank said that the iOS app
  for the same would be rolled out “as and when” National Payments Corporation of
  India issues specifications for the platform. However, private players like
  ICICI Bank Ltd. have managed to integrate UPI into their existing iOS apps.
• With this launch, SBI becomes the
  18th bank in the country to go live with its UPI app, according to the NPCI
  website. The total number of banks accepting UPI payments now stands at 30.
• UPI was launched in August this
  year to allow participating banks, merchants and consumers to transact with
  minimal effort and in real time. The UPI infrastructure allows customers to pay
  or collect money from people or merchants by just putting in their virtual
  payment address, which is linked to a mobile number and a bank account.
• The UPI infrastructure is built
  over the existing Immediate Payments Service or IMPS, which allows real-time
  transfer of money.

• IDBI Bank, as part of its
  continuous initiatives to provide service and convenience to the customers, has
  launched IDBI Bank CASH @POS at the Mumbai Airport on November 20, 2016.
• Under this first of its kind
  facility, air travelers would be able to swipe their Visa/ Rupay Debit Cards
  linked to their Savings Bank Account and the bank officials would hand over the
  cash to them by completing the CASH @POS transaction.
• Presently this facility can only
  be used to withdraw an amount of Rs 2,000 per Debit Card per day as per the
  mandate of RBI for cash withdrawal at POS.
• Travelers who are customers of
  IDBI Bank and select other banks, that are enabled for CASH @POS would be
  benefitting by this service. Through this service IDBI Bank has opened another
  channel to ease the load of cash dispensation at various banking outlets.

• YES Bank, the fifth largest
  private sector bank, on Thursday announced a partnership with Gujarat State
  Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) to digitise payment of bus tickets for its
  customers.
• For this the bank will install
  over 125 points of sale (PoS) terminals to facilitate booking through credit
  and debit cards at all GSRTC bus depots. The bank is already live with 50 terminals
  and will set up the remaining in the next couple of weeks as part of the first
  phase of implementation.
• The initiative will cover all
  municipal corporation locations and multiple cities including Ahmedabad,
  Rajkot, Vadodara and towns including Bhuj, Dahod, Palanpur and Valsad.
• The installation of these
  terminals will support the ‘less-cash’ economy envisaged by the Centre and
  enhance convenience for bus passengers. Over 50 per cent of cash transactions
  are expected to shift to card transactions, thereby reducing cash usage,
  according to a press release.
• Vijay Nehra, VC & MD, GSRTC,
  said YES Bank has waived all transaction charges for customers and was not
  charging rentals to GSRTC as part of its efforts to encourage the transition to
  a cashless economy.

• Uttar Pradesh Electronics Corporation (UPEC),
  an undertaking of UP government’s IT & Electronics department, and Software
  Technology Parks of India (STPI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to
  develop an IT Park in Eastern UP’s Gorakhpur. The MoU was signed in presence of
  UP’s IT and Electronics Minister Manoj Kumar Pandey in Lucknow on Thursday.
• Addressing the gathering on this
  occasion, Pandey said this project aims to generate employment opportunities
  for about 15000 people. He added the IT Park project in Gorakhpur will soon
  attract rural BPOs, Start-ups and entrepreneurs. According to the minister, a
  good space is reserved startups in this park.
• The IT Park in Gorakhpur will be
  developed on 14500 square meter (3.58 acre) land. Gorakhpur Industrial
  Development Authority (GIDA) has provided land for this project. The work on
  this project is supposed to begin within three months.

• Branded rice, staples and organic
  foods maker LT Foods has inked a 51:49 joint venture with leading Japanese
  snacking firm Kameda Seika, to sell rice-based snacks in India.
• The Rs 2,979-crore listed LT
  Foods, which makes Dawat packaged rice, staples and organic foods, along with
  Kameda Seika, will infuse a consolidated investment of $10 million in the joint
  venture in the first phase, Ashwani Arora, managing director of LT Foods told
  ET.
• The snacks will be available in
  stores by March-April ’17, and will steer clear of entry-level price points of
  Rs 5 and 10. Instead, the plan is to compete at high-margin points and sell in
  SEC-A and B markets.

• The Insolvency and Bankruptcy
  Board (IBBI) of India on 23 November 2016 notified three sets of regulations-
  (Insolvency Professional) Regulations, 2016; Regulations inter alia provide for
  registration, Regulation and oversight of insolvency professionals.
• These regulations were notified
  under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and will come into effect from
  29 November 2016.
• All these regulations provide for
  registration, regulation and oversight of insolvency professionals under the
  Code.

• Advocates, Chartered Accountants,
  Company Secretaries and Cost Accountants with 10 years’ of practice or
  employment.
• A Graduate with 15 years of
  post-qualification managerial experience on passing the Limited Insolvency
  Examination.
• Any individual who has passed the
  National Insolvency Examination.
• However, Advocates, Chartered
  Accountants, Company Secretaries and Cost Accountants with more than 15 years
  of practice experience can register without any examination till 31 December
  2016 and such registration shall be valid for a limited period of six months.
• There will be National Insolvency
  Examination and Limited Insolvency Examination. The syllabus and format of
  these examinations will be published on the website of the Board at least one
  month before the examination.
• A limited liability partnership,
  a registered partnership firm or a company can be recognised as an insolvency
  professional entity if a majority of the partners or a majority of the
  whole-time directors are registered as insolvency professionals under the Code.
• An insolvency professional can
  use the organisational resources of a recognised insolvency professional entity
  subjected to the condition that the entity as well as the insolvency
  professional will be liable for all acts of omission or commission of its
  partners as insolvency professionals.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic
  Affairs (CCEA) on 23 November 2016 approved the setting up of Jawahar Navodaya
  Vidyalaya (JNV) in 62 uncovered districts with an outlay of Rs 2871 crore.
• The expenses for this purpose
  will be Rs 109.53 crore during the 12th Plan with the total outlay of Rs
  2761.56 crore from the year 2017-18 to 2024-25. 
• It is expected that nearly 35000
  students will be benefitted from these JNVs.

• It will provide good quality
  modern education to the talented children notably from rural areas. 
• A full-fledged JNV provides
  employment to 47 people and in view of that, 62 JNVs will provide direct
  permanent employment to 2914 individuals.
• JNVs are residential and
  co-educational in nature, thereby, all the staff and students will reside in
  the Vidyalaya campus.
• Due to its residential nature,
  JNVs will also generate opportunities for the local vendors for supply of food,
  consumables, furniture, teaching material, etc.
• It will also create large
  opportunity for local service providers such as barber, tailor cobbler,
  manpower for housekeeping and security services.

• Union Cabinet on 23 November 2016
  approved the introduction of Merchant Shipping Bill, 2016 in the Parliament.
  Simultaneously, the cabinet also approved repealing of the Merchant Shipping
  Act, 1958 and the Coasting Vessels Act, 1838.
• The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958
  has been amended 17 times between 1966 and 2014 resulting in an increase in the
  number of sections to more than 560 sections. However, these provisions have
  been shortened to 280 sections in the Bill.

• It allows substantially-owned
  vessels and vessels on Bare Boat-cum-Demise (BBCD) to be registered as Indian
  flag vessels.
• It recognises Indian controlled
  tonnage as a separate category.
• It provides for issuing the
  licences to Indian flag vessels for coastal operation and for port clearance by
  the Customs authorities.
• It directs owners of vessels to
  take insurance of crew engaged on vessels including fishing, sailing, etc. This
  applies for the vessels whose net tonnage is less than 15 tons.

• The Union Ministry of External
  Affairs, Government of India, on 21 November 2016 announced that Antonio Costa,
  the Prime Minister of Portugal, accepted the proposal be the Chief Guest at the
  14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.
• On the other hand, Michael Ashwin
  Satyandre Adhin, Vice President of the Republic of Suriname will be the Special
  Guest at the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.
• The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is
  scheduled to be held from 7 January to 9 January 2017 at Bengaluru in
  Karnataka. The Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas will be held on 7 January 2017.

• UN International
  Telecommunication Union (ITU) released the 2016 edition of the Measuring the
  Information Society Report. The report was launched on 22 November 2016 during
  the World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS).
• WTIS was held in Botswana, South
  Africa from 21 November to 23 November 2016.
• The ITU index prepared after
  surveying 175 economies of the world was topped by the Republic of Korea with
  IDI of 8.84. The Sub-Saharan Africa’s Niger with an IDI of 1.07 ranked lowest.
• India was placed at 138th rank
  with IDI score of 2.69. In 2015, it stood at 135th position with IDI score of
  2.50.

• Indian journalist Malini
  Subramaniam on 23 November 2016 won the International Press Freedom Awards
  given by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) at the Waldorf-Astoria in New
  York City.
• Along with Subramaniam, three
  other journalists won the prestigious award. 
  They are Mahmoud Abou Zeid from Egypt, Can Dündar from Turkey and Oscar
  Martinez from El Salvador.
• The CPJ chose these four
  journalists as “they have risked their freedom – and their lives – to report to
  their societies and the global community about critical news events.”
• Subramaniam reports on buses by
  police and security forces, sexual violence against women, the jailing of
  minors, shutdown of schools, extrajudicial killings, and threats against
  journalists in the Bastar region in Chhattisgarh.

• Donald
  Trump, the President-elect of the United States of America (USA), on 23
  November 2016 named South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as the US Ambassador to
  the United Nations. With this, Haley becomes the first non-white female
  cabinet-level official to be appointed within the Trump administration.
• She will be serving Carolina as
  its Governor until her nomination is not confirmed by the Senate.
• Besides Nikki Haley,
  President-elect Trump also named Betsy DeVos as education secretary of the
  country. DeVos is a billionaire education philanthropist and activist.
• While naming the two, Trump
  praised the two appointees. In a statement he said, ‘Haley was a proven deal
  maker and we look to be making plenty of deals’ and ‘Devos was a brilliant and
  passionate education advocate’.

• Turkey will chair the Energy Club
  of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2017. With this, it became
  the first non full member country to be the chairman of a club in the
  organisation.
• Ankara’s proposal for non-SCO
  member countries to host the term presidency of the Energy Club was accepted in
  a meeting on 22 November 2016.
• The nomination came after
  officials from Russia and China gave green signal to Ankara after the country’s
  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed to the SCO as Turkey’s alternative to
  the European Union.

• The 24th edition of Asia-Pacific
  Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit concluded on 20 November 2016 in Lima, Peru.
  The summit ended with adoption of the 2016 Leaders Declaration.
• The summit also closed with a
  joint pledge to work toward a new free trade agreement that would include all
  21 members as a path to “sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.”
• The theme of the 24th APEC Summit
  was “Quality Growth and Human Development”. The architecture of Caral, an ancient
  city of Peru, served as the inspiration for the official logo of the APEC
  summit.

• China on 22 November 2016
  successfully launched the Tianlian I-04 satellite from the Xichang Satellite
  Launch Centre in Sichuan province of Southwest China.
• This data satellite was launched
  on a Long March-3C carrier rocket. The launch of the Tianlian I-04 marks the
  241st mission of China’s Long March series of rockets.

• Ram Naresh Yadav, former Governor
  of Madhya Pradesh, passed away on 22 November 2016 following a prolonged
  illness at a hospital in Lucknow. He was 90.
• Yadav courted controversy after
  his name cropped up in the Vyapam recruitment scam during investigations. During
  the course of investigation of the Vyapam scam, the MP police’s Special Task
  Force (STF) registered an FIR against Ram Naresh Yadav which was later quashed
  by the High Court.

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Team ExamPundit