Current Affairs Update – 13-14th June, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 13th and 14th June, 2015. These are important for the upcoming SBI PO 2015 Mains Exam.

• With the government taking steps to improve ease of doing business and attracting investments, FDI inflows into the services sector grew by over 46 per cent to USD 3.25 billion in 2014-15.
• The services sector, which includes banking, insurance, outsourcing, R&D, courier and technology testing, had received foreign direct investment (FDI) worth USD 2.22 billion in 2013-14.
• However, the total foreign inflow in 2014-15 in the services sector was low as compared to 2012-13 when it was USD 4.83 billion, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) data.
• The government has announced a series of steps such as fixing timeliness for approvals to improve the ease of doing business in the country and attracting domestic as well as foreign investments.
• In step with the growth in FDI in important sectors like services, overall foreign inflows in the country too rose by 27 per cent to USD 30.93 billion during the previous fiscal. The amount was USD 24.29 billion in 2013-14.
• Services contribute about 60 per cent to India’s GDP and it receives high foreign inflows in this sector.

• The government has launched an insurance pool to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore which is mandatory under the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLND) in a bid to offset financial burden of foreign nuclear suppliers.
• This was announced by Minister of State in the Department of Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh here today, noting that several projects such as the long-pending Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojna (GHAVP) that were held up in its absence, are now expected to move forward after setting up of the pool.
• Clauses in the CLND Act, which give the operator the Right to Recourse and allow it to sue the suppliers in case of any accident were seen as being a major hindrance to the growth of the nuclear industry. These concerns led to to the formation of the Indian nuclear insurance pool.
• Under the Rs 1,500 crore pool, set up by General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) and 11 other non-life insurers including New India, Oriental Insurance, National Insurance and United India Insurance from the public sector apart from private insurance companies, policies offered will be a nuclear operators liability insurance policy and a nuclear suppliers' special contingency (against right to recourse) insurance policy.

• In move to cut debt at Anil Agarwal group, India's largest private miner Vedanta Ltd will absorb oil firm Cairn India in a USD 2.3 billion all-share deal to create India's largest diversified natural resources company.
• Shareholders in Cairn India, the country's top private oil producer, will get one ordinary share and 7.5 per cent redeemable preference share of Vedanta Ltd with a face value of Rs 10.
• That implies a premium of 7.3 per cent to Cairn's Friday closing price.
• Vedanta will use Rs 16,867 crore cash lying with Cairn to pay off part of its Rs 77,752 crore debt.
• Post-merger, London-listed parent Vedanta Resources Plc's holding in Vedanta Ltd will drop to 50.1 per cent from 62.9 per cent.

• India and Australia will undertake their first joint naval exercise later this year even as the two along with Japan look at the possibility of a trilateral exercise, a move that will likely rile China.
• India, Japan and Australia have decided to deepen their ties in all sectors, especially in the field of maritime security, defence sources said.
• The trio had held their first-ever high-level trilateral dialogue here last week which was attended by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, Japanese vice foreign minister Akitaka Saiki and Australian secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Varghese.
• While they discussed a range of issues, maritime security, including freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and trilateral maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean, topped the agenda.

• Senior IAS officer Devendra Chaudhary has been appointed as Secretary in the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).
• Mr. Chaudhary, a 1981-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, is presently working as Special Secretary in the Power Ministry. He will join DARPG as Special Secretary and take over as Secretary following the superannuation of incumbent Alok Rawat.
• The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the appointment of Mr. Chaudhary as Special Secretary in DARPG through the temporary upgrading of the post of Additional Secretary in the Department, an official order said.
• Mr. Chaudhary will take over as Secretary of DARPG and Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions after Mr. Rawat relinquishes his charge upon superannuation, it said.
• Mr. Rawat, a 1977-batch Sikkim-cadre IAS officer, retires next month-end.

• Retail broking firm HDFC Securities has appointed Dhiraj Relli as its Managing Director and CEO.
• Relli takes over this position from Aseem Dhru, who returns to HDFC Bank as Group Head - Business Banking, Rural, Commodity and Agri-lending businesses.
• Relli has an experience of over two decades in the banking and financial management space. He joined HDFC Bank in 2008, before which he worked with Centurion Bank of Punjab and ICICI Bank.
• HDFC Securities, a subsidiary of HDFC Bank offers both retail and institutional broking with 250 branches and more than 1.5 million customers.

• Sangeet Natak Akademi on 12 June 2015 announced the names of recipients of Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowships (Akademi Ratna) 2014 and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) 2014.

• R. Janakiraman (Musicologist)
• S. Sathyu (film-maker)
• Vijay Kichlu (Classical singer)
• Tulsidas Borkar (Musician)

• In the field of music For Hindustani vocal- Ashwini Bhide Deshpande Nath Narelkar, Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan
• Hindustani instrumental music- Pandit Nayan Ghosh (tabla) and Ronu Majumdar (flute)
• Carnatic instrumental music- Neyveli Santhanagopalan (Carnatic vocal), TA Kaliyamurthy (Thavil), Sukanya Ramgopal (Ghatam) and Dwaram Durga Prasad Rao (violin)
• In the field of dance- Adayar Janardanan, Amusana Devi, Uma Dogra, Sudhakar Sahoo, Vedantam Radhesyam, Jagru Mahto, Anita Sharma, Varanasi Vishnu Namboothiri and Navtej Singh Johar
• In the field of drama- Asgar Wajahat, Surya Mohan Kulshreshtha, Chidambar Rao Jambe, Debshankar Haldar, Ramdas Kamath, Amod Bhatt, Manjunath Bhagwat Hostota and Amardas Manikpuri.
• In the field of Traditional/tribal music/folk/theatre/dance and puppetry- Puran Shah Koti, KKalamandalam Ram Mohan, Kesavasamy, Abdul Rashid Hafiz, Reba Kanta Mohanta, Ramdayal Sharma, K. Shanathoiba Sharma and Thanga Darlong

• Veteran West Indies fast bowler Sir Wesley Winfield Hall was on 12 June 2015 inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. With this, he becomes 80th cricketer to be inducted in the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame and 18th from West Indies itself.
• Sir Wesley Hall had played  a total of 48 Tests in his one decade career spanning from 1958 to 1969. In his Test career, he took 192 wickets which included five wickets in an innings for 9 times and 10 wickets in a match on one occasion.

• Former Union minister Sheila Kaul, a sister-in-law of Jawaharlal Nehru and oldest surviving former Parliamentarian, died after brief illness at a hospital here. She was 101.
• A former Himachal Pradesh Governor, Kaul was unwell for the past few days and was admitted to Yashoda hospital last evening where she breathed her last at 8.00 PM.
• A five-time MP, Kaul was born on February 7, 1915. She was an arts graduate from Lahore Women's College and had a degree in teaching from Sir Ganga Ram Training College, Lahore.
• She was married to renowned botanist Kailash Nath Kaul.
• Kaul is survived by sons Gautam Kaul, a retired IPS officer, and Vikram Kaul, an international sports administrator, besides daughter Deepa Kaul, a former information minister in Uttar Pradesh.

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