Current Affairs Update – 16th May, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 16th May 2015. In Major News today, ICICI Bank's first branch in China was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Also, we have witnessed Billion Dollar worth deals between India and Chinese companies which is a huge boost to our Make in India initiative.

MJ Joseph was appointed as Controller General of Accounts. Basically He prepares a critical analysis of expenditures, revenues, borrowings and the deficit for the Finance Minister every month. Which eventually gives him one of the most important position in terms of Finance Sector.

In other news, Gagan Narang booked a quota for India at the Olympics in Rio. Rest news are also important. Go ahead, read and discuss.

• ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank has launched its first branch in China. The Shanghai branch was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• The initiative marks a significant milestone for the Bank's international operations. In March 2003, ICICI Bank had set-up a representative office in Shanghai to develop strong relationships with Chinese banks and corporates for their India linked banking needs.
• The representative office has been upgraded to a branch keeping in mind the rising trade volumes between India and China. With this branch, the Bank aims to provide greater support to Chinese and Indian corporates in their cross-border business interests.
• Ms. Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank said, "Our branch in Shanghai will allow us to play a greater role in the growing trade and investment opportunity between India and China. We foresee a heightened amount of bilateral activity taking place between the two countries in the near future. With the opening of this branch, ICICI Bank is strategically poised to take advantage of the increased opportunities."
• The Shanghai Branch received regulatory approval in March 2015 to commence operations. It will begin with 17 banking professionals spread across different functions including corporate banking, operations, finance and treasury.

• IT training firm NIIT today inked an agreement with Guian New Area in Guizhou, China, to train students from the province in the area of Big Data.
• The agreement was signed by NIIT President China Prakash Menon and Chen Yan, authorised representative from Guizhou Guian New District, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• Big data refers to massive volume of structured and unstructured data across enterprise database as well as in areas like social networks and online.
• Earlier this year, NIIT and Guian New Area in the Guizhou province entered into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to offer new-age IT programmes with special focus on Big Data.
• The agreement brings the MoU into effect with NIIT setting up a centre in Guian New Area to train 50,000 students in five years, NIIT said in a statement.

• Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) Group today entered into memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to facilitate co-operation in the area of infrastructure financing in India.
• Under the MoU, ICBC group will consider providing financial support of up to $1 billion equivalent to the IL&FS group.
• These funds will be directed towards infrastructure development requirements and related investments of the Group, IL&FS said in a statement.
• Further, on Saturday, IL&FS group company IL&FS Energy Development Company Ltd (IEDCL) entered into a MoU with the China Huaneng Group, Huabei branch, to jointly develop, implement and operate a 3960 MW coal-based coastal power project in Kutch district of Gujarat.
• The thermal power project is a part of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) being developed by IL&FS Group, and has achieved a significant level of project development, including acquisition of land, statutory clearances and a recommendation of the Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) for grant of environment clearance.

• Islamic clothing company East Essence on 14 May 2015 tied up with Snapdeal.  The partnership aimed to set up store on their portal. The company will make its debut in June 2015 by launching an online store at e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal.
• East Essence is the world's largest Islamic clothing company. The company plans to turn India into a global centre of Islamic fashion. The US firm has presence in 68 countries and has annual sales of about 256 crore rupees.
• India is the world's second largest Muslim-majority country, with the community representing 14.2% of total population. That's nearly 170 million potential consumers, completely catered by unorganised players at present.

• Doordarshan and China Central Television (CCTV) on 15 May 2015 signed an agreement for exchange of art, culture and development television programmes. The agreement was signed by Prasar Bharathi CEO Jawhar Sircar on behalf of India in Beijing during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China.
• This agreement will enable both Doordarshn and CCTV to share programmes on their networks at free of cost. Under the agreement, Doordarshan will offer programmes pertaining to art, culture and tourism while CCTV in turn will exchange human interest, development programmes and success stories.
• The exchange of programmes will begin by the end 2015 and both networks will also take up co-production works for this initiative.

• Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping on 15 May 2015 launched Road Asset Management System (RAMS) for National Highways. The system will compile information on road assets, condition of the pavements and traffic through use of laser technology.
• The outcome of this integrated data collection system will assist in developing an accurate and scientific maintenance planning mechanism, finalizing road safety measures and development of the National Highways network in India.
• The data collected will be stored and managed through a web based application, which will be hosted in the public domain. The application, when fully developed, can also be accessed by smart phones.

• Union Home Ministry on 15 May 2015 decided to implement the NERS (Nationwide Emergency Response System) to save women in distress. In this regard, the Ministry invited proposals from IT service providers to implement it.
• NERS was the brainchild of the Congress-led UPA government which envisaged it in response to Delhi gang rape case of December 2012.
• The NERS seeks to make the police immediately respond to any call by a woman in distress anywhere in India. It will revolutionalise the existing Police Response systems which are limited to a city and different cities use different systems and only a handful of cities use technology in any form.

• The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J P Nadda on 15 May 2015 launched kayakalp Award Scheme.
• The scheme is intended to encourage and incentivize Public Health Facilities (PHFs) in the country for maintaining the facilities clean and hygienic.

• To promote cleanliness, hygiene and infection control practices in public health care facilities
• To incentivize and recognize such public healthcare facilities that show exemplary performance in adhering to standard protocols of cleanliness and infection control
• To inculcate a culture of ongoing assessment and peer review of performance related to hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation

• Ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, along with more than 100 other defendants, was sentenced to death by an Egyptian court Saturday for his role in a mass prison break in 2011.
• Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, is already serving a 20-year jail sentence in jail for ordering the arrest and torture of protesters while he was president.
• The then-leader of the Muslim Brotherhood movement was elected president in 2012 following the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.
• The Egyptian military deposed Morsi in 2013 following a series of street protests against his rule. In May 2014, Morsi's successor, former military chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who led the coup, won a landslide victory in presidential elections.

• 6th National Conference on Nuclear Energy was held in New Delhi on 15 May 2015. The Conference was organised by ASSOCHAM with the theme Nuclear Energy: a Clean Energy option.
• This conference is unique in many ways as 2015 happens to be the year of diamond jubilee celebrations of the setting up of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
• The conference discussed the issue related to the status of Nuclear Energy in India. India is on course to double its nuclear power generation capacity to more than 10,000 mega watts (MW) over the next five years i.e. 2020.

• Japanese Scientists on 14 May 2015 discovered a new state of matter called the Jahn-Teller-metal. The matter resembles an insulator, superconductor, metal and magnet all rolled into one.
• The study led by Kosmas Prassides, Scientist at Tokohu University made the discovery by studying a superconductor made from carbon-60 molecules or buckyballs.
• The research was described in Science Advances. It involves caesium fulleride (Cs3C60) in a face-centred-cubic lattice with a Cs3C60 molecule at each lattice site. The research could help develop new molecular materials that are superconductors at even higher temperatures.

• MJ Joseph was on 15 May 2015 appointed as the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in the Union Ministry of Finance. He succeeded Jawahar Thakur who has been appointed as OSD (Accounting Reforms) in the Office of CGA.
• Prior to this appointment, Joseph was the Director General of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). He is a 1979 batch Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) officer.
• Previously, Joseph has served in various administrative capacities in the Union Government including the post of Additional Secretary in Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs and as Director in Union Ministry of Defence among others.
• Joseph has also worked with the International Monitory Fund (IMF) as a Public Financial Management Adviser at the IMF’s Regional Technical Assistance centre based at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
• Controller General of Accounts is the principal Accounts Adviser to the Government of India and is responsible for establishing and maintaining a technically sound management accounting system.
• He prepares a critical analysis of expenditures, revenues, borrowings and the deficit for the Finance Minister every month. He also prepares annual Appropriation Accounts (Civil) and Union Finance Accounts for presentation to the Parliament.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 May 2015 announced electronic tourist visa (e-Visa) facility for Chinese nationals.
• The decision was announced in Beijing, China during his three day visit starting from 14 May 2015.
• It is in tune with the Joint Statement issued by Modi and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang after conclusion of bilateral talks during the visit which called for development of tourism sector and increasing people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
• Incidentally, India designated 2015 as Visit India Year in China to augment Chinese tourist arrivals and tourist revenues.

• Anurradha Prasad, the Editor-in-Chief of News 24 Channel, on 15 May 2015 was conferred with the Pt. Haridutt Sharma Award for Journalism, Writing and Social Services.
• He was conferred with the award by Vice- President Hamid Ansari in New Delhi.
• The award is given in the memory of Pt. Haridutt Sharma who was a renowned journalist and eminent writer. The award is given annually in the field of Journalism, Writing and Social Services for the outstanding contribution in their respective field.
• The Award comprises of Cash prize of 51000 rupees, Citation, Trophy, Shawl and Souvenir.

• Star Indian shooter and Olympic bronze medalist Gagan Narang has earned the Olympic quota in men’s 50m Rifle Prone event at ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning in U.S.A. Narang, who had finished at third place in the 10m Air Rifle event at London Olympics three years ago, also grabbed the bronze medal by scoring 185.8 points in the final round.
• Two Olympic quota places were up for grab in this category but Norway’s Bryhn Ole Kristian, who won the silver in this event, had already earned the Olympic quota. Narang and Michael McPhail of U.S.A sealed the quota places for their respective countries.
• Narang is the third Indian shooter to earn the Olympics berth, Apurvi Chandela in women’s 10m Air Rifle and Jitu Rai in men’s 50m Rifle prone have already secured their Olympic berths.
• Surendra Sinh Rathod finished at 14th spot with 624.7 pts; Chain Singh at 24th spot wit 623.9 pts in the Qualification round.

• Franz Wright, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet known for his concise and penetrating style and heartbreaking command of emotions, has died. He was 62.
• Wright died yesterday at his home in Waltham, Massachusetts, of lung cancer, publisher Alfred A. Knopf said today.
• Born in Vienna and raised in California after his parents divorced, Wright was the son of fellow Pulitzer winner James Wright, making them the only father and son to win in the same category. Franz Wright, cited in 2004 for Walking to Martha's Vineyard, inherited his father's talents, and his demons. In interviews and in his work, he confessed to emotional and physical struggles that stemmed at least in part from his parents' breakup.

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