Current Affairs Update – 11th May, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important current affairs of 11th May, 2015.

• Eminent banker K V Kamath was today appointed as head of the $50-billion New Development Bank being set up by the five emerging economies of the BRICS grouping.
• Kamath will have a five-year term of the bank, which is likely to be operationalised within one year, Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said. Kamath is the Chairman of the India’s largest private sector bank ICICI.
• Leaders of the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) had last year reached an agreement to establish the New Development Bank, with its headquarters in Shanghai. As per the agreement, India got the right to nominate the first president.
• Kamath has been named the first president of the NDB, Mehrishi said.
• The BRICS nations account for nearly $16 trillion in GDP and 40 per cent of the world’s population.
• The bank will start with an initial paid-in-capital of $50 billion with each BRICS country contributing $10 billion.
• After serving at ICICI for more than a decade, Kamath had moved to Asian Development Bank, Manila, in the private sector department in 1988.

• American Chamber of Commerce in India today appointed Vanitha Narayanan as new Chairperson, the first woman to hold this post since the industry body's inception here in 1992.
• Narayanan, who is the Managing Director of IBM India, holds an MBA in Marketing and Information Systems.
• She has been responsible for taking up multiple challenging assignments for India and several other countries.
• Narayanan is responsible for all of IBM's sales, marketing, services and global delivery operations in the India/South Asia region, including operations in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
• With 27 years of experience, she is also a member of IBM's Growth & Transformation Team, a member of IBM's Global Women's Council and Chairperson of the Board of governors for National Institutes of Technology (NIT) heading NIT-Suratkal.
• Richard Rekhy, CEO of KPMG, India and Gulshan Kumar Sachdev, Managing Director, Quaker Chemical Ltd, have been appointed as the Vice Chairmen of AMCHAM-India.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 10 May 2015 inaugurated the upgraded IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) in Burnpur, West Bengal. The ISP houses the largest blast furnace of India.
• The ISP was modernised by the Union Government at a cost of 16000 crore rupees. After modernisation, the plant's production capacity has increased from 0.85 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 2.9 mtpa.
• The revamped plant in Burnpur is spread across 953 acres. It is the fifth integrated steel plant of SAIL. Also, the new plant is equipped with the latest green technologies with zero emission.
• The revamped plant has already achieved some major milestones, both in production and quality, since 2014. It has started operating the continuous casting plant, and the first batch of 8-mm thermo-mechanical treatment (TMT) bars was produced in January 2015.  The company's reserves of iron ore are the largest in Asia.

• In a major victory for AIADMK, a special bench of the Karnataka High Court on Monday set aside the trial court order convicting former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case.
• Justice C.R Kumaraswamy, who read out the judgment at 11 a.m, said the appeals of all the four accused, including Ms. Jayalalithaa have been allowed and they were being acquitted of all charges.
• With this, a case that had panned out over 18 tortuous years was over within seconds. Jayalalithaa was acquitted by the Karnataka High Court, less than a year after she was sentenced to four years and a fine of Rs. 100 crore in the disproportionate assets case.
• The other three accused – and acquitted - were Jayalalithaa’s close aide Sasikala Natarajan and the latter’s relatives J Elavarasi and V N Sudhakaran.
• Jayalalithaa was not required to be present in court during the judgment – which explained the sparse crowds around the Karnataka High Court. Her residence, in contrast, thronged with ecstatic supporters, even as some other Chennai-ites offered milk to her poster-images.

• China overtook the United States as the world's top importer of crude oil for the first time in April, and its purchases are expected to remain strong despite a slowing economy, with far-reaching consequences for global oil and commodities markets.
• The soaring imports came as a surprise as growth in the world's second-largest economy was sputtering and its oil demand was expected to ease. However, low oil prices and China's series of interest rate cuts — including one over the weekend — in a bid to stoke growth are factors boosting demand.
• China's crude oil imports hit a record of almost 7.4 million barrels a day (bpd) last month, putting it ahead of the United States' estimated imports of 7.2 million bpd for April, Reuters data show.

• Indian tech billionaire Arun Pudur has been ranked as Asia's wealthiest entrepreneur under the age of 40, according to the Wealth-X list released today.
• The global wealth intelligence and prospecting company said Pudur, the owner and president of software firm Celframe, topped the list with a personal fortune of USD 4 billion.
• Pudur, a 37-year-old native of Chennai, founded Celframe in 1998 after graduating from university, and the software firm now produces the world's second most popular word processor after Microsoft.
• He also has assets tied up in diversified businesses in the fields of mining and real estate, Wealth-X said.
• Pudur is followed by Zhou Yahui of China at the second place with a net worth of USD 2.2 billion.

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• Apex industry body ASSOCHAM has proposed a BRICS Under-17 Football Cup in India next year and a Memorandum of Understanding is set to be signed tomorrow with Brazilian representatives here.
• The MoU will be signed by Project Leader and Tournament Organiser, Joao Gilberto Vaz and Secretary General ASSOCHAM, D S Rawat in the presence of Sports Secretary Ajit Sharan.
• All India Football Federation General Secretary Kushal Das will also be present.

• Andy Murray of Britain on 10 May 2015 won the Madrid Open men’s singles title in the final matches held in Madrid, Spain. He beat Rafael Nadalof Spain 6-3, 6-2 to win his second Madrid Open title.
• With the present win, he has become the third player after Switzerland’s Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to win at both the venues of Madrid Open.

• Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic on 9 May 2015 won the Madrid Open women’s singles title in the final matches held in Madrid, Spain.
• She defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6-1, 6-2 to secure the title for the second time. She won her maiden title in 2011.
• With the present win, she equals Serena Williams’ record of two titles in Madrid.

• Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea, the Indo-Romanian pair, on 10 May 2015 won the men’s doubles title of the Madrid Tennis Open.
• In the summit clash played in Madrid, Spain, the duo defeated the Serbian-Polish pair of Nenand Zimonjic and Martin Matkowski  6-2, 6-7(5), 11-9.

• Ace Indian discus thrower Vikas Gowda on 10 May 2015 won Gold at Jamaican International Invitation meet.  The meet was held in Kingston, Jamaica. He came up with an effort of 65.14m to win his event.
• Chad Wright of Jamaica was second with a throw of 61.84m while Jared Schuurmans of United States was third with an effort of 61.62m.
• Gowda, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion and Silver medal winnerof 2014 Asian Games, has thrown the discus over 65m three times in the last three weeks.

• Tata Communications today announced a video network partnership with China Telecom Global to enable and manage media content for customers in China and globally.
• The tie-up enables China Telecom Global to leverage its worldwide reach, along with Tata Communications’ Global Video Network to offer live sporting events in China, a company release said.
• The partnership will cater to a market opportunity of $2.57 billion, the release stated.
• The statement, however, did not quantify the benefits to Tata Communication.
• It recently launched a new media ecosystem that enables cloud-based management of content and supports global media distribution requirements, over-the-top content and mobility applications.

• National Technology Day is celebrated in India on May 11,  to commemorate the first of the five nuclear tests that were initiated by the Indian government led by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on 11 May 1998.
• National Technology day glorifies the importance of science in day-to-day life and individuals & companies are awarded with National Technology Awards for adopting new technologies.

Regards



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