Current Affairs Update – 22nd May, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important current affairs update of 22nd May, 2015.

• Aiming to attract overseas funds, government today decided that non-repatriable investments by NRIs, OCIs and PIOs will be treated as domestic investments and will not be subject to foreign direct investment caps.
• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had approved amendments, including changes in definition of NRIs, to be incorporated in the FDI policy.
• Investments by NRIs under under Schedule 4 of FEMA regulations will be deemed to be domestic investment at par with the investment made by residents, an official statement said.
• The Cabinet's decision is expected to result in increased investments across sectors and greater inflow of foreign exchange remittance leading to economic growth of the country, it added.

• India's oil ministry has set interim rules that exempt state-run upstream companies from giving any discount on crude and refined fuel sales if global oil prices average up to $60 a barrel this quarter, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
• Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Oil India and GAIL (India) sell crude and fuels like cooking gas at discounted rates to partly compensate retailers for losses they incur on selling fuels at government-set cheaper rates.
• Under the new rules, which are applicable only for the three months to June and would need finance ministry approval to be extended, upstream firms will not have to pay any subsidy as long as crude prices average $60 or less, the sources said.
• For prices between $60 and $100 a barrel, the companies will have to give a discount of 85 per cent of the incremental price, said the sources who declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to media.

• Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu O Panneerselvam resigned on 21 May 2015. He tendered his resignation to the Governor Konijeti Rosaiah.
• He resigned minutes after Jayalalithaa was elected as the legislature party leader at a meeting in Chennai. With this, his eight months long tenure as Chief Minister of the state came to an end.
• He was appointed as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 29 September 2014 as replacement of former AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa, who resigned after being convicted in the 18 year old disproportionate assets case of over 66 crore rupees.  She was awarded a four year prison term by Bangalore Special Court after it found her guilty of amassing unaccounted wealth.

• The Union Cabinet on 21 May 2015 gave its approval for setting up of a new Ammonia-Urea Complex at Namrup in Assam. The complex will be set up on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode by a joint venture (JV).
• In the proposed JV, PSU Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Limited (BVFCL), Government of Assam and Oil India Limited (OIL) shall have 11 percent, 11 percent and 26 percent equity holding respectively and balance 52 percent by private/public sector entity (entities) which would be inducted through a competitive bidding process.

• It will be of 8.64 lakh metric tonnes annual capacity and will be operationalised with an investment of 4500 crore rupees.
• The plant will be highly energy efficient unit of international standard with latest technology and with same amount of natural gas available to the existing units, the production of urea from the new unit will be more than double that is 3.6 to 8.64 lakh metric tonnes annually.

• The British sports business magazine SportsPro on 20 May 2015 released the World’s 50 Most Marketable 2015 report. According to SportsPro's listing of the top 50 most marketable athletes in the world for 2015, Eugenie Bouchard, Tennis player from Canada, topped the list.
• While, FC Barcelona soccer Neymar stood at second place and was followed by Golfer Jordan Spieth at the third place.
• Indian Cricketer Virat Kohli was placed at the sixth position ahead of United States basketball star Stephen Curry. Another Indian, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal was placed at the 44th position.
• On the other hand, Tennis player Novak Djokovic was placed at 14th position while Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were at 16th and 22nd respectively.
• Athletes across the world were ranked on the basis of different criteria including age, home market, charisma, willingness to be marketed and crossover appeal. The SportsPro team and external industry experts analysed the players for several weeks.

• Department of Science and Technology on 21 May 2015 said that India reached sixth position in terms of scientific publications. Earlier, India stood at the tenth position in terms of publishing scientific research papers in different journals.
• Secretary, Department of Science and Technology Ashutosh Sharma gave this information at a function organised by Research Council UK (RCUK) in New Delhi to mark the progress between United Kingdom and India in the field of scientific research.

• Senior IAS officer G Mohan Kumar was today appointed as new Defence Secretary for a two-year term.
• Kumar, a 1979 batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre, is presently Secretary in Department of Defence Production.
• The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the appointment of Kumar as Defence Secretary for a period of two years from the date of taking over the charge of the post, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.
• He will take over from Radha Krishna Mathur, a 1977 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS officer, who completes his two year tenure on May 28.
• Kumar has served in Commerce Ministry and also worked as Additional and Special Secretary in Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation between 2010 and September 2013.

• The United Nations (UN) observed the International Day for Biological Diversity (IBD) on 22 May 2015. The theme for the year 2015 is Biodiversity for Sustainable Development.
• This year theme highlights the relevance of biodiversity in achieving the goal of sustainable development. It also highlights the importance of efforts made to establish a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda (2015-2030).
• The selection of the theme also underlines the adoption of the Gangwon Declaration at the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in South Korea in 2014.

Regards



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