Current Affairs Update – 14th March, 2015

• Government is fairly determined and is introducing changes to ease the process of doing business and attract investments in India while trying to rationalise and lower taxes, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said.
• He also said that the GDP growth rate this year would be 7.5 per cent and hopefully higher in the next year.
• Speaking at another function launching the Union Bank of India (UK), a subsidiary of the Union Bank of India, Jaitley noted that India is emerging as one of the fastest growing economies and said that this year the GDP growth rate will be 7.5 per cent and next year hopefully it would be higher.
• He said that since the new government came to power the economy has regained.

• The government has slashed import tariff value on gold to USD 375 per 10 grams and silver to USD 512 per kg following weak global price trends.
• During the first fortnight of the month, the tariff value on imported gold was fixed at USD 393 per 10 grams and on silver at USD 549 per kg.
• The import tariff value is the base price at which customs duty is determined to prevent under-invoicing. It is revised on a fortnightly basis taking into account global prices.
• The decrease in tariff value on imported gold has been notified by the Central Board of Excise and Customs, according to an official statement released late last night.
• Gold in New York, which normally sets price trend on the domestic front, declined from a high of USD 1,162 per ounce and is currently ruling at USD 1,158.60 per ounce.
• Silver too has dropped to USD 15.64 per ounce.

• Olympic medal winning boxer MC Mary Kom is being appointed as the brand ambassador of the Northeast to showcase the potential of the region which offers Rs. 2.4 trillion business opportunities across various sectors.
• An official announcement in this regard would me made soon, Minister of State in the Ministry of Development of North East Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh said.
• Hailing from Manipur, one of the eight northeastern States, Mary Kom is a five—time World Amateur Boxing champion, and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships.

• The Haryana Government has imposed a complete ban on the sale of beef in any form and proposed to provide for 10 years rigorous imprisonment for cow slaughter, but ruled out equating it with murder.
• "The ban also covers canned beef which was legal during the tenure of previous government," according to an official release quoting Animal Husbandry Minister O P Dhankar issued here this evening.
• The move comes days after another BJP-ruled state Maharashtra banned sale and consumption of beef and imposed a five-year jail term for cow slaughter.

• The Times Higher Education on 13 March 2015 released the World Reputation Rankings 2015. This year rankings show that the United Kingdom boasts 12 of the 100 most renowned higher education institutions in the world.
• For the fifth consecutive year, the rankings highlight an elite group of six US and UK universities that hold a significant lead over the rest. The Harvard University ranks at the 1st position followed by Cambridge University at second position and Oxford University on the third.

1. Harvard University (US)
2. University of Cambridge (UK)
3. University of Oxford (UK)
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
5. Stanford University (US)

• In a major development, former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed was tonight sentenced to 13-year imprisonment by a criminal court here under the anti-terrorism laws.
• In a court hearing late tonight, Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected leader who was arrested on February 22 over the detention of a judge in 2012, was charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1990, highly-placed sources told PTI.
• 47-year-old Nasheed resigned as the Maldives' leader in February 2012 after a mutiny by police and troops that followed weeks of protests over the arrest of judge Abdullah Mohamed on corruption charges.
• Nasheed has a constitutional right of appeal to the High Court of Maldives.
• Criminal charges in the country are brought by the Prosecutor General of the Maldives as per the Article 220(a) of the Constitution of Maldives.

• With 10 successive World Cup wins under their belt, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s India on Saturday bettered Clive Lloyd’s fearsome outfit of the late 1970s and 80s in terms of consecutive victories in the quadrennial extravaganza.
• Lloyd’s team, which triumphed in the inaugural 1975 and 1979 World Cups, had accumulated nine straight wins in its kitty.
• Dhoni’s men surpassed them with their six-wicket win against Zimbabwe in the ongoing edition of the mega-event here on Saturday.
• Now, the Men in Blue stand second only to Ricky Ponting’s Australian side that had registered a staggering 24 consecutive victories in the showpiece event.
• The eight-wicket win against Ireland last week was India’s ninth straight win in the World Cup, the run starting with the victory over the West Indies on March 6, 2011, in the tournament's previous edition.
• Dhoni is also credited with most wins (13) by an Indian captain in the World Cups. He has overtaken 1983 World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev (11), Mohammed Azharuddin (10) and Sourav Ganguly (9).

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