Current Affairs Update – 16th March, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are Current Affairs Update for 16th March, 2015.

• Falling for the fourth straight month, wholesale price inflation showed negative growth of 2.06 per cent in February from a year ago. It had declined -0.39 per cent in January and was 5.03 per cent in February 2014.
• Food prices rose 7.74 per cent, according to official data released here on Monday. Inflation in prices of onions, pulses and protein-rich food items such as egg, meat and fish rose and declined in prices of vegetables, fruits and milk during February.
• The rate of price rice cooled significantly for fuel and power inflation in February with wholesale inflation at -14.72 per cent against -11 per cent in January.
• The fall was also widespread across primary (1.4 per cent against 3.3 per cent in January) and manufactured products (0.3 per cent against 1 per cent in January).
• The Government also revised the December wholesale price inflation rate to -0.5 per cent from 0.1 per cent reported earlier.
• The wholesale price index reflects production data. Last week, separate data on consumer price inflation showed that the rate of retail prices rise accelerated to 5.37 per cent in February from 5.19 per cent in January on the back of higher food and fuel prices.

• India is well prepared to deal with any rate hike by the US Federal Reserve, although a stronger dollar may have a significant impact on financial systems in Indian and other emerging markets, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said today.
• The Fed is widely expected on Wednesday to signal an increase in its low interest rates by June or September, a move that would result in flight of capital from emerging markets, including India.
• Emerging and developing economies could face a triple hit of a stronger US dollar, higher global interest rates, and more volatile capital flows, Lagarde said.

• Social networking giant Facebook on 14 March 2015 acquired the shopping search engine TheFind. With the acquisition, Facebook has moved into the e-commerce.
• Both Facebook and TheFind cast the acquisition as a way to lift the digital advertising business of Facebook.
• The deal aims to improve Facebook ads experience. The Find technology would be integrated into Facebook to make the ads more relevant and better for consumers.

• India's third largest IT services exporter Wipro Ltd. on Monday announced the appointment of appointment of former TCS top executive Mr. Abid Ali Neemuchwala as the Group President and Chief Operating Officer of the company. According to a press release from the company the appointment will be effective from April 1, 2015.
• In his previous role with Tata Consultancy Services, Mr Neemuchwala was heading the Business Process Services globally. Apart from this he was also involved in several leadership roles during his 23-year-long career with TCS.

• L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd has bagged the Chanakya Award in the Innovative Leadership category for 2015 along with other laurels, including Corporate Collateral Awards–2015, from the Public Relations Council of India (PRCI).
• PRCI recognises people and organisations for excellence in their chosen fields. The award is named after Chanakya, the well-known scholar in ancient India.
• The awards were handed over by the Union Tribal Affairs Minister, Jual Oram, at the PRCI 9th Global Communication Conclave held at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on March 13-14, according to a statement.

• The CII Indian Green Building Council inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI) to accelerate Green building movement in the country.
• C. Shekhar Reddy, President, Credai, in a statement said, “This MoU has further consolidated our partnership with IGBC and we will work together in facilitating greener and healthier India.”
• The objective is to increase the Green building cover in the country’s residential sector. Together they plan to reach out all the stakeholders on Green building trends and techniques by jointly organising awareness and training programmes to facilitate capacity building among the members of Credai and IGBC.
• S Raghupathy, Executive Director, CII Godrej GBC, said the partnership would provide great impetus to the green building movement.

• The Supreme Court (SC) on 15 March 2015 upheld the decision of Allahabad High Court (HC) that the development officers working in Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) are not workmen under the Section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), 1947.
• The decision was given by a SC bench comprising of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Prafulla C Pant said that there was no flaw in the judgment rendered by the Allahabad HC.
• The SC bench gave the ruling while hearing an appeal by few development officers of LIC, who had challenged the decision of Allahabad HC.

• The case relates to the reduction of salary of the development officers by the LIC. It reduced the salary after it found that they were allegedly claiming inflated incentive bonus to which they were not entitled.
• This was challenged by few development officers in the Industrial Tribunals-cum-Labour Courts (ITLCs). Before the ITLC, LIC contended that the proceeding before it was not maintainable as the development officers could not be put under the category of workmen under Section 2(s) of the IDA, 1947.

• Agra’s tourist attraction Taj Mahal has emerged as the most popular in Asia for global ‘virtual travellers’, according to Google.
• Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from positions along many streets in the world.
• Though Japan still attracts many of virtual tourists, cultural monuments and temples across the region are also taking centre stage, it said.
• Other top Google Street View destinations in India include Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Agra Fort, Lavasa, Lovely Professional University, Humayun’s Tomb, Shaniwar Wada, Jantar Mantar and IIT Bombay, the Google statement said.

• Facebook restricted access to nearly 6,000 pieces of information on its website in India during July-December 2014 period, the highest for any country, following requests from government and other agencies to act against hate-content on the social media platform.
• In its Global Government Requests Report for the second half of 2014, the social media platform said 5,832 pieces of content was restricted in the country during the period. This number is higher that 4,960 pieces of content restricted during January-June 2014 period.
• The governments usually contact Facebook to restrict access to content on the site that they believe violates their laws.

• China has raced ahead of Germany to become the world's third largest arms exporter, a Stockholm-based think tank said in a report on Monday.
• Exports of major arms from the world's second largest economy grew 143 percent between 2010 and 2014. In the preceding five year period China had ranked ninth globally, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will jointly inaugurate the Hannover Fair in Germany on April 12.
• Over 300 Indian companies ranging from big private and public sector firms to small and medium enterprises are participating in the Hannover Messe 2015, Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) India said in a statement.
• Besides, India is the partner country at the world’s leading trade fair for industrial technology, it added.
• Hindustan Aeronautics Chairman T Suvarna Raju, Bharat Earth Movers Chairman P Dwarakanath, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd CMD B P Rao, JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal, Thermax Ltd CEO & MD M S Unnikrishnan and Kirloskar Pumps CMD Sanjay Kirloskar will be part of the CEOs’ delegation which will interact with global technology leaders at the fair.

• Services on 15 March 2015 won the 69th edition of Santosh Trophy of football which is also called Senior National football championship. In the final played at Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana, Punjab, it defeated hosts Punjab 5-4 via tie-breaker.
• With this, Services won the Santosh trophy for the fourth time. Earlier it had won the trophy in 2013, 2012 and 1961.
• During the tiebreaker all the five players of Services including Captain Anthony, Vibin, Francis Zonuntulnga, Arun Tudu and Rakesh Singh scored goal for the winners.
• Parmjit Singh from Punjab failed to score goal during that crucial juncture, resulting in their defeat.

• The Netherlands' Paul van Ass today resumed duties as Indian men's hockey team's chief coach as the eight-time Olympic champions underwent their first practice session under the Dutchman at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here.
• Van Ass officially joined his new job yesterday but the 54-year-old Dutchman took charge of the team today, supervising a two-hour long practice session of 30 players held in preparation for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup to be held in Ipoh, Malaysia from April 5-12.
• According to a team official, Van Ass was officially introduced to the players during breakfast this morning.

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