Current Affairs Update - 14-15 Dec, 2014

• ·         Declining for the fifth straight month, pace of wholesale inflation dropped to a six-year low of 0 per cent in November. The data reflects falling cost of production in the economy largely on the back of the sharp contraction in global prices of crude and commodities. It also reflects moderating food prices.
• ·         The data, however, shows a larger drop than the actual decline in prices owing to the favourable statistical illusion of a high base: Wholesale inflation growth in November 2013 was 7.5 per cent.
• ·         Wholesale food inflation was down to 0.6 per cent against 19.7 per cent in November 2013 with prices of cereals, rice, wheat, vegetables and onions falling. However, potatoes and milk continued to show high inflation. While potato prices grew at the rate of 34 per cent, the rate of rice in milk prices was 10 per cent. Rice and pulses too rose but at slower pace of 5.6 per cent and 4.4 per cent.
• ·         With global crude prices down nearly 40 per cent since June, wholesale inflation in fuels came in at minus 4.9 per cent against 11.08 per cent in November 2013.
• ·         The dip in producer prices comes days after consumer prices inflation abated to an 8-year low of 4.4 per cent.

• ·         HDFC Securities today announced the launch of its E-Will service, providing facility of writing 'Will' online to its customers.
• ·         HDFC Securities is a subsidiary of HDFC Bank. "Our E-Will service is a first of its kind online service in the country. We will try to associate 5,000 customers with the service by March 2015," HDFC Securities Managing Director Aseem Dhru told reporters here.
• ·         Through the E-Will service, the company will provide HDFC bank customers the facility to write their will in a legal manner, he said.
• ·         The 'Will' will be kept in a totally confidential manner and the company will not keep any details of customer's Will once it is fully prepared, Dhru added.

• ·         Rise in shipments of engineering goods, gems & jewellery, pharmaceuticals and ready-made garments pushed up export growth (year-on-year) by 7.27 per cent to $ 25.96 billion in November 2014.
• ·         A steeper 26.79 per cent rise in imports during the month to $ 42.82 billion due to increase in gold imports, however, widened trade deficit to $16.86 billion.
• ·         Exports in October 2014 had registered a decline of 5.04 per cent to $ 26.09 billion over October 2013.
• ·         Gold imports rose 571.28 per cent to $ 5.6 billion in November 2014 from $ 835 million in the same month last year as the Government relaxed import restrictions.
• ·         Despite exports posting an over-all increase, important items such as electronics, petroleum products and cotton yarn & made-ups declined.
• ·         Exports during April-November 2014-15 were $ 215.75 billion compared to $ 205.43 billion in the same period last year, registering a growth of 5.02 per cent.
• ·         Import for the period April-November 2014-15 was $ 316.37 billion compared to $ 302.32 billion posting a growth of 4.65 per cent.
• ·         Oil imports during November, 2014 were valued at $ 11.71 billion which was 9.7 per cent lower than oil imports at $ 12.97 billion in November 2013. Non-oil imports, on the other hand, were 49.6 per cent higher at $ 31.10 billion compared to the same month last year.
• ·         In April-November 2014-15, oil imports were valued at $106.55 billion which was 1.6 per cent lower than oil imports of $ 108.28 billion in the corresponding period last year.

• ·         Fortune 500 List of Indian companies 2014 was released by the Fortune Magazine on second week of December 2014.
• ·         Among the 500 companies, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) tops the list with an annual revenue of 500973 crore rupees followed by Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) with an annual revenue is 444021 crore rupees.

• ·         IOC, RIL, BPCL and HPCL have retained their 2013 respective ranks.
• ·         There has been 9.5 percent annual growth in total revenues, while in terms of profit it is 4.5 percent.
• ·         The government-owned companies account for 38 percent of the total revenue and have seen a 6.6 percent growth, while private companies with 56.7 percent share with 10.2 percent of revenue growth.
• ·         Foreign-owned companies accounts for 5.3 percent of total revenue with 25.5 percent revenue growth.
• ·         Manufacturing with 298 companies has a 67 percent share of the total revenue, marginally lower than 68.7 percent in 2013.
• ·         The revenue share of services companies around 143 firms has increased to 27.7 per cent from 26.3 percent in 2013.
• ·         The Profits of manufacturing share has fallen to 55.1 percent from 56.6 percent that of services has gone up to 44.1 percent from 40.9 percent.

1. 1.     Indian Oil Corp
2. 2.     Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd
3. 3.     Bharat Petroleum
4. 4.     Hindustan Petroleum
5. 5.     Tata Motors
6. 6.     State Bank of India
7. 7.     ONGC
8. 8.     Tata Steel
9. 9.     Essar Oil
10. 10.   Hindalco Industries

• ·         Anil Ambani led Reliance Group has sold its multiplex business to South India-based Carnival Group in the largest ever deal in this space.
• ·         The transaction will reduce Reliance Capital’s overall debt by Rs 700 crore and is part of Reliance Capital’s strategy to exit minority investments.
• ·         The deal will make Carnival the third largest multiplex operator with nationwide presence and over 300 screens, a statement said on Monday.
• ·         The firms did not disclose the exact value of the deal.
• ·         The deal struck between Carnival Cinemas and Reliance MediaWorks, will exclude IMAX Wadala (Mumbai) and some other properties worth Rs 200 crore, the statement added.
• ·         Reliance Capital is the parent firm of Reliance MediaWorks, which operates one of the largest cinema chains, under the brand ‘BIG Cinemas’ with over 250 screens pan-India.

• ·         Netra, the light weight UAV fitted with night vision cameras, will be used by Delhi Police to patrol the streets of the national capital. The device has already been used by security agencies for counter-insurgency activities and search for survivors during the Uttarakhand flash floods that took place last year.
• ·         The UAV, jointly developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)) and IdeaForge, a Mumbai-based private firm, had also appeared in the Amir Khan-starrer '3 Idiots'.
• ·         Delhi Police is soon going to use these drones to patrol dark stretches and crime-prone areas. The project will be launched in north district area by next month. Incidentally, the Uber rape case took place in the same area last Friday.
• ·         Every drone will fly at a height of approximately 200 metres and will cover a hexagonal grid area of three to four kilometres. Technologically it will be ensured that the area covered by two drones does not overlap.

• ·         Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling on 12 December 2014 became longest serving Chief Minister of India. He completed his 20 years in the office on 12 December 2014. He has been chief minister of Sikkim since 12 December 1994.
• ·         Earlier, the longest serving CM was late Communist leader Jyoti Basu who was chief minister of West Bengal.
• ·         Chamling will create an Indian political history record of being 25 years in the office should he complete his present term, his fifth. He has led his Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) party to a record mandate for the fifth time in a row in the assembly elections held in May 2014.
• ·         The ruling SDF has won 22 out of a total 32 seats on the plank of promoting peace, security and development. The party got majority 55 per cent vote share in multi corned contest in the state.
• ·         He was elected as the president of Yangang Gram Panchayat in 1982. In 1985, he was elected to the Sikkim Legislative Assembly for the first time. After being elected for the second time from Damthang constituency, he became the Minister for Industries, Information and Public Relations from 1989 to 1992 in the Nar Bahadur Bhandari cabinet.
• ·         After a series of major political upheavals in Sikkim, Chamling formed the Sikkim Democratic Front in 1993. The Sikkim Democratic Front won the 1994, 1999, 2004 and 2009 State Assembly elections.
• ·         Chamling has launched various flagship programme like Rural Housing Mission to make Sikkim the first Kutcha House-Free State in the country by 2013. So far, 6000 Pakka houses for poor Sikkimese families have been constructed. The objective of the mission is to provide permanent and a safe roof over every family in Sikkim.

• ·         Prime Minister Narendra  Modi on 12 December 2014 launched a book titled Born Again on the Mountain by Arunima Sinha.  She is the first Indian amputee and first female amputee to climb Mount Everest.
• ·         The book is about her unforgettable story of hope, courage and resilience.
• ·         She was a national level volleyball player who was pushed out of a running train by thieves in 2011 as she attempted to fight them off.
• ·         The accident cost her left leg and sporting career, but it never deterred her. Two years later, she retrained as a mountaineer and became the first female amputee to scale Mount Everest.
• ·         Arunima Sinha is now dedicated towards social welfare and she wants to open a free sports academy for the poor and differently-abled persons. She is donating all the financial aids she is getting through awards and seminars for the same cause.

• ·         National Energy Conservation Day was observed  on 14 December 2014. The National Energy Conservation Day was celebrated every year in India by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
• ·         The celebrations was marked by giving out of National Energy Conservation Award by the Ministry of Power, Government of India. The award was given to companies from different industry groups for creating benchmarks in energy conservation.
• ·         India has an act on Energy conservation, The Energy Conservation Act 2001.
• ·         The Energy Conservation Act 2001 is implemented by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). BEE is a statutory body under Government of India. The act  envisages creation of cadre of professionally qualified energy managers and auditors with expertise in energy management, project management, financing and implementation of energy efficiency projects, as well as policy analysis.
• ·         Energy conservation means using less energy and avoiding excessive or wasteful uses. Energy efficiency, on the other hand, means using less energy while getting the same results. Efficiency is therefore a subset of conservation; one way to conserve energy is to use it more efficiently.
• ·         The concept of doing more with less offers an approach that seems both feasible and affordable.

• ·         Several people, including an Indian techie, were taken hostage by an armed man at a popular cafe in Sydney and forced to display an Islamic flag, triggering a security alert in Australia and leading to evacuation of key buildings, including the Indian Consulate here.
• ·         The incident happened at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Martin Place, the heart of Sydney’s business district.
• ·         Authorities sealed off surrounding streets, evacuated people from buildings, and suspended rail services following the siege in the capital of New South Wales (NSW).
• ·         NSW Police have activated Task Force Pioneer, which they use in terrorism related incidents, to handle the pre-Christmas incident.
• ·         Martin Place — a public pedestrian thoroughfare through the heart of Australia’s biggest city, joining its parliamentary, legal and retail districts — Sydney Opera House, State Library, US consulate and all court houses here have been evacuated.
• ·         Andrew Scipione, the commissioner of the New South Wales police, said at a news briefing that an unknown number of hostages were being held in the cafe by at least one gunman.

• ·         Miss World honoured Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on 14 December 2014 for charitable work.  She was honoured with a special award at the Miss World 2014 ceremony in London.
• ·         The prize was announced to applause her charitable work since she crowned Miss World in 1994.
• ·         Aishwarya Rai Bachchan appeared on stage with her husband Abhishek Bachchan, their daughter Aaradhya and her mother Vrinda Rai.
• ·         Aishwarya Rai was the first runner-up of the Miss India pageant. She won the Miss World pageant in   1994. She made her acting debut in the 1997.
• ·         She has received several awards and nominations, including two Filmfare Awards. She was awarded with the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2009, and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France in 2012.

• ·         Miss South Africa, Rolene Strauss on 14 December 2014 was crowned Miss World 2014 at the final of the beauty pageant held in London, UK. Strauss, 22-year-old fourth-year medical student at University of the Free State, was presented with the sash by the outgoing Miss World, Megan Young of the Philippines.
• ·         Rolene Strauss will now travel to the violence-hit Central American nation to build a school named in their honour.
• ·         Miss Hungary, Edina Kulcsar, was the runner-up and Miss United States, Elizabeth Safrit, came third in the 64th annual competition, contested by women from 121 countries.
• ·         India's 21-year-old Jaipur-born Koyal Rana made it to the top 10 but failed to make it to the top five. However, she bagged the sub-title of Best Designer of the world. She also shared the Beauty With A Purpose title with Kenya, Guyana, Brazil and Indonesia.
• ·         Priyanka Chopra was the last Indian winner of the coveted title in 2000.

• ·         The World Nuclear Association has projected that global production of nuclear energy will double from current levels by 2050, especially with new countries actively pursuing their nuclear power programmes.
• ·         It feels that public acceptance of nuclear energy has come back to levels prior to the Fukushima incident, with more stringent adherence to safety standards.
• ·         Angela Rising, Director General of the association, said the Fukushima accident has not slowed down the nuclear power programmes in most countries.  “Baring a couple of countries, the rest of the world was pursuing its new (reactor) building programme.  China is going ahead and so is Russia,” she told media persons on the sidelines of the 25th Annual Conference of the Indian Nuclear Society.
• ·         She said currently about 70 reactors were under construction in various parts of the world, with 30 of them being in China and five each in the USA and Europe.  Presently, nuclear energy has a 11 per cent share in global power production.

• ·         Anerood Jugnauth was appointed as Mauritius Prime Minister by the President Purryag on 14 December 2014. With this, he became the Prime Minister of Mauritius for the sixth time following victory of his alliance in Mauritius elections 2014.
• ·         Jugnauth replaced Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam of Labour Party, who resigned as the Prime Minister on 13 December 2014.
• ·         Jugnauth belongs to the Militant Socialist Movement party and his party made alliance with Lepep in the Mauritius elections 2014. In the elections centre-right Alliance of Jugnauth, Lepep won 47 seats out of 62 seats in the Parliament.  The coalition of the Labour Party and Mau Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) won 13 seats in the election.
• ·         Previously Jugnauth served as President of Mauritius from 2003 to 2012. He has also severed as Prime Minister of Mauritius from 1982 to 1995 and again between 2000 and 2003.

• ·         The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN here will restart for its second three-year run in March 2015 that will see the world’s most powerful particle accelerator double its collisional energy.
• ·         The LHC, which is managed by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), is on a two-year break from smashing particles to undergo an upgrade.
• ·         The whole 27-km superconducting machine is now almost cooled to its nominal operating temperature of 1.9 degrees above absolute zero, CERN said.
• ·         All teams are at work to get the LHC back online and the CERN Control Centre is in full swing to carry out all the requested tests before circulating proton beams again in March next year.
• ·         Run 2 of the LHC follows a two-year technical stop that prepared the machine for running at almost double the energy of the LHC’s first run.
• ·         For the first time on December 9, 2014, the magnets of one sector of the LHC, one eighth of the ring, were successfully powered to the level needed for beams to reach 6.5 TeV, the operating energy for run 2.
• ·         The goal for 2015 will be to run with two proton beams in order to produce 13 TeV collisions, an energy never achieved by any accelerator in the past.

• ·         Bangladesh on 13 December 2014 launched an intensified manual campaign to clean up Sunderbans oil spill.
• ·         The forest department had engaged nearly 100 boats to collect the furnace oil spilled from the tanker which sank in the Shela river in the Sundarbans after being hit by a cargo vessel.
• ·         The seepage spread in the Shela and the Pashur rivers and over 20 canals which crisscross the Sundarbans in the past four days while officials found four out of six chambers of the tanker carrying 358000 litres oil damaged.
• ·         Officials said oil spill from the sunken tanker affected seven young saltwater crocodiles at Karamjal Wildlife Reproduction Centre and they were concerned about the fate of dolphins in the region it is their natural abode.
• ·         The authorities have filed a lawsuit against the owners of both ships. Bangladesh is yet to seek any overseas assistance to remove the oil but a London-based team officered its assistance for the clean-up.
• ·         The Sundarbans is the world largest mangrove forest, which covers 26000 square km in India and Bangladesh. It is also the habitat of famous Royal Bengal Tigers.

• ·         Prime Minister of Haiti Laurent Lamothe on 13 December 2014 resigned following anti-government protests over delayed elections and calls for elections. The President Michel Martelly accepted the resignation of Laurent Lamothe.
• ·         Lamothe was appointed as Prime Minister by the President Michel Martelly in 2012 and there is now speculation that Lamothe might seek the presidency in forthcoming elections.
• ·         The violent anti-government protests in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, were denounced by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti and it said that it is investigating the report of excessive use of force.
• ·         President Martelly has repeatedly delayed the elections of Haiti since 2011 that resulted into opposition senators accusing him for returning Haiti to dictatorial rule. Consequent to this, the protestors took on to the streets and have demanded that both Prime Minister Lamothe & President Michel Martelly should step down.
• ·         Haiti has been mired in extreme poverty and instability for years. It is still grappling with the aftermath of a catastrophic 2010 earthquake that killed more than 230000.

• ·         World Diamond Conference was held in New Delhi on 11 December 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin along with Minister for Mineral Resources of South Africa Susan Shabangu attended the inauguration of World Diamond Conference.
• ·         The conference was organized by Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council in association with Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry and in association with the World Diamond Mark Foundation (WDMF).
• ·         The aim of the conference is to increase the global market for diamonds. Major companies’ retailers and diamond cutting industries were participated the conference.
• ·         During the conference, ALROSA- the largest rough diamond supplying company of Russia signed agreements for direct sale of rough diamonds with 12 Indian companies.
• ·         Under these 12 agreements, 2.1 billion US dollars worth of rough diamonds will be supplied to India at the rate of 700 million US dollars per year over the next three years.
• ·         India is the world's largest centre for cutting and polishing diamond and its largest importer of uncut diamond. At present, India exports cut and polished diamond worth 20 billion US dollars.

• ·         Indian film Jal was nominated on 13 December 2014 for Oscar contenders of 2014 in two categories. The two categories are Best Picture and Best Original Score.
• ·         The film which has the backdrop of water scarcity and tells the story of Bakka, a person gifted with a special ability to find water in the desert.
• ·         The film will compete alongside path-breaking films like Interstellar, Exodus and 300 Rise of Empire.
• ·         Apart this, the film's screenplay has also been invited to the Oscar Library for their permanent core collection.
• ·         The film features Purab Kohli, Kirti Kulhari and Tannishtha Chatterjee in prominent roles. The film was directed by Girish Malik.
• ·         The music and background score for the film has been composed by Sonu Nigam and Bickram Ghosh.
• ·         The other Indian film nominated for the Best Original score is Kochadaiiyaan starring Rajnikant. The music composition by A.R. Rahman.
• ·         The final nomination list will be announced on 15 January 2015, while the presentation ceremony will be held on 22 February 2015 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

• ·         Young all-rounder Steve Smith was today named Australia’s captain for the second cricket Test against India, replacing an injury-ravaged Michael Clarke who is unlikely to play in the remaining matches of the ongoing series.
• ·         The 25-year-old, who smashed 162 not out in the first innings and was 52 not out in the second essay of the opening Test which Australia won by 48 runs, thus became the 45th Test captain of the side and one of the youngest ever to take up the role.
• ·         Current vice-captain Brad Haddin, who led the Australian side on the final day of the Adelaide Test, will serve as Smith’s deputy in Brisbane.
• ·         The appointment was recommended by CA’s National Selection Panel and was endorsed by CA’s Board of Directors last night.
• ·         When Clarke returns to the side he will do so as captain with Smith serving as deputy.

• ·         Germany on 14 December 2014 won Hockey’s Champions Trophy for the year 2014. In the final match played at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, Olympic Champions Germany defeated Pakistan by 2-0 margin.
• ·         This was 10th Champions Trophy crown for Germany. It had last won the tournament in 2007.
• ·         This was the fifth Champions Trophy final played between Germany and Pakistan. Last time they had final clash in 1994, when Pakistan defeated Germany through penalty shoot-outs in Lahore, Pakistan.
• ·         Earlier for the third position and bronze medal, world champion Australia defeated India 2-1.
• ·         Till date India had won only a single medal in the Champions Trophy, it won a bronze in the 1982 edition in Amstelveen, the Netherlands. In 2012, India finished at fourth position in the tournament played in Melbourne, Australia. 
• ·         In other play-off match, the Netherlands defeated Argentina 4-1 for the fifth position while England defeated Belgium 3-2 for the seventh position.
• ·         Champions Trophy is an eight-nation tournament of Hockey.

• ·         Japanese teens Mima Ito and Miu Hirano became youngest table tennis champions on 13 December 2014 in table tennis World Grand Finals.
• ·         The Table Tennis World Grand Finals was held in Bangkok.
• ·         Mima Ito and Miu Hirano took the women's doubles title by defeating  Natalia Partyka and Katarzyna Grzybowski of Poland with a score of 11-7, 11-6, 11-4, 11-5.
• ·         Also, they became the youngest ever winners to claim a 40000 US Dollar share of the prize money.
• ·         The Japanese teens had already defeated the Polish women at the German Open in 2014.
• ·         While, Japan's men's pair Kenta Matsudaira and Koki Niwa lost their final against South Korea's Cho Eon-Rae and Seo Hyun-Deok .

• ·         Indian Navy won the fifth edition of Admirals Cup Sailing Regatta on 13 December 2014. The International Sailing Regatta for the Admiral’s Cup was held at Ettikulam Bay, Ezhimala from 11 to 13 December 2014.
• ·         The Regatta witnessed a total of nine races and seventeen International Navies participated in the Admirals Cup 2014. Bahrain Navy and United Kingdom Navy teams came second and third respectively.
• ·         In the individual position of open category, Cadet Ebrahim Bin Sameer Al Shuwaitar of Saudi Arabia stood first. Cadet Ahmed Abdullah of Bahrain and Lieutenant Anke Dahlmann of Germany stood at second and third position respectively.
• ·         In the individual position for women’s category, Lieutenant Anke Dahlmann stood first.
• ·         The seventeen navies that participated in the event includes Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, China, Egypt, France, Fiji, Germany, Mauritius, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, UAE, USA, United Kingdom and India.
• ·         The International Sailing Regatta for the Admiral’s Cup event was introduced in 2010.
• ·         In 2013, the fourth edition of the Admiral’s Cup International Sailing Regatta was won by the United Arab Emirates team. The Indian Navy and Brazil teams stood at second and third respectively.