Current Affairs Update – 17th April, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important current affairs for 17th April, 2015.

• India and Canada issued Joint Statement title New Vigour, New Steps (नया उत्साह, नए कदम) to elevate their bilateral relations to a strategic partnership. The joint statement was issued on 15 April 2015 during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Canada from 14 April to 16 April 2015. Modi’s visit to Canada is the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 42 years.

• The Institute of Rural Management-Anand (IRMA) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) for training CSR professionals.
• The MoU, which comes in the wake of recent changes in the Companies Act, 2013, was signed by Prof. Jeemol Unni, Director, IRMA, and Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Director- General and CEO, IICA, an institution launched by the Government of India in 2008 to act as a think tank and capacity building hub for corporate regulations and reforms.
• The MoU was signed with the intent of furthering collaboration between the Centre for Rural Infrastructure and Corporate Social Responsibility at IRMA, and IICA, IRMA said in a statement here.

• On the last day of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s six-day China tour, 10 MoUs - five G2B and an equal number of B2B - were signed on Friday.
• While the G2B MoUs mostly related to facilitating direct investment in solar energy sector, majority of the B2B agreements were in connection with facilitating direct investment in Brandix India Apparel City in the field of textiles. Another B2B MoU was between KSEZ (GMR) and Hangzhou Huatong Inc for setting up a toys manufacturing unit at Kakinada SEZ, of GMR.
• Earlier Mr. Naidu held a series of meetings with various companies in Shanghai. The TCL Corporation expressed interest in exploring investment opportunities in A.P. The corporation is a Chinese multinational electronic company that manufactures television sets, mobile phones, air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators and small electrical appliances.
• Mr. Naidu briefed the delegates on the strengths of the state and his plans to make A.P. an electronics manufacturing hub. He assured them of Government providing all necessary resources like land, water and power required for setting up a manufacturing unit.

• Veteran singer S P Balasubramaniam has been selected for this year's prestigious "Harivarasanam" award instituted by the Kerala government.
• Balasubramaniam has been selected for the award in recognition of his great contribution to propagate the spirit of secularism, equanimity and universal brotherhood of Lord Ayappa temple at Sabarimala through the songs he rendered in different languages in the past five decades.
• He was selected by a jury headed by Sabarimala high-power committee chairman K Jayakumar, minister for Heath and Devaswoms V S Sivakumar said here.
• The award carrying a cash prize of Rs one lakh, citation and plaque would be presented to Balasubramaniam at a function to be held at Sabarimala in June.
• Cash prize of the award till last year was Rs 50,000 and it been incresed to Rs one lakh from this year he said.

• Microsoft’s Indian-origin CEO Satya Nadella was honoured with the White House Champions of Change on 16 April 2015. He is one of the 12 local Champions of Change who were honoured for their exemplary leadership.
• Champions of Change honour is given to those who support working families and help make change in their companies or communities.
• Satya Nadella is the first Indian-origin Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft. He was named as one of the Champions of Change for his employee-friendly initiative. For instance, recently Microsoft announced that from 2016 onwards all the suppliers that do business with Microsoft in the US will have to provide at least 15 days of paid leave each year to their employees who handle Microsoft work.

• The East China Normal University (ECNU), one of the prestigious universities in China, announced the appointment of Dr. Vishal Sikka, Chief Executive Officer of Infosys, as Advisory Professor.
• According to a release from the company, Professor Shijun Tong, CCP Secretary of ECNU, formally conferred the Advisory Professorship to Mr Sikka.
• Prof. Shijun Tong, CCP Secretary − ECNU, was joined by Prof. Rongming Wang, Vice President − ECNU, Prof. Qifeng He, academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. Zhenguo Yuan, Dean of Education − ECNU, Mr. Rangarajan Vellamore, Chief Executive Officer – Infosys China, and Mr. Mike Liu, Chief Operating Officer − Infosys China.

• Russia on 13 April 2015 lifted its earlier ban on delivery of S-300 Missile System to Iran. The S-300 Missile System is a surface-to-air missile defense system that can be used against multiple targets including jets and enemy missiles.
• Russia lifted the ban in the back drop of an informal agreement reached on 2 April 2015 between P5+1, the EU and Iran to prepare the final draft of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by 30 June 2015.
• Under the agreement, Iran agreed to stop developing nuclear weapons in return for lifting economic sanctions imposed on it by the international community.
• This was the only sanction imposed by Russia on Iran since Iran had announced its nuclear programme in 2010.
• Russia stayed the execution of 800 million US dollar worth deal after the international community raised apprehensions that the missile system would be used to protect Iran’s nuclear installations from air strikes.

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