Current Affairs Update – 27th June, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 27th June, 2015. These are important for the upcoming SBI PO 2015 Mains and RBI Assistant 2015 Exam.

• A ranking of destinations for attractiveness to foreign investors has placed India at the top among 110 countries. China has secured the 65th position and the U.S. is at the 50th. In the 2014 index, India was at the sixth position and Hong Kong was number one.
• The ranking is based on an index for baseline profitability that assumes that three factors affect the ultimate success of a foreign investment: how much the value of an asset grows; the preservation of that value while the asset is owned; and the ease of repatriation of proceeds from selling the asset.
• The index combines measures for each of these factors into a summary statistic that conveys a country’s basic attractiveness for investment.
• A high ranking indicates high returns and improving economic institutions. The index, thus, compares how local policies and conditions affect the same investment in different countries. Or how the value of the principal and the return will change depending only on where the investment is made.
• Local factors can erode profits. These include payment of bribes and kickbacks, the risk of which is compared across countries using the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, a measure for the perceived levels of public-sector corruption worldwide. In 2014, the country was at the 85th position out of 175 countries as compared to its ranking of 94 out of 177 in 2013.
• BPI calculation also uses an index of investor protection compiled by the World Bank. In 2014, the average BPI score across all countries was 0.99; this year it is 1.03 — meaning the expected returns over the next five years are about three-quarters of a per cent higher a year.

• Government is likely to infuse additional USD 1.8 billion (about Rs 11,500 crore) in public sector banks this fiscal over and above USD 1.2 billion earmarked in the Budget, Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said on Friday.
• The government has earmarked Rs 7,940 crore in the Budget for recapitalisation of PSU banks for the current fiscal.  Earlier this month, Mehrishi said the government intends to provide USD 9 billion (about Rs 57,000 crore) to public sector banks towards recapitalisation over the next two fiscals to meet global capital adequacy norms and for growth. 
• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had recently promised more capital infusion into public sector banks, saying there's "merit" in their demand for more funds over and above what was provided in the Budget.
• The government has already started assessment of capital requirement of public sector banks. It has already received presentation of 14 public sector banks.

• India and Thailand will sign a double taxation treaty and an MoU for setting up an Ayurveda Chair in one of the Thai Universities during the three-day visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj beginning today.
• The Minister will also tomorrow be the guest of honour at the inaugural ceremony of the 16th World Sanskrit Conference where she will deliver her speech in Sanskrit. Over 600 scholars from 60 countries will participate in the five-day conference.
• Swaraj will co-chair India-Thailand joint commission meeting during which the two countries will sign a double taxation avoidance treaty and exchange instruments of ratification on the extradition treaty signed between them in 2013.
• A MoU on the establishment of an Ayurveda Chair in one of the Thai Universities will also be signed during her visit.
• Swaraj will also meet Indian business leaders and hold interaction with academicians.
• She will have an audience with Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, a scholar of Sanskrit and Royal Patron of the World Sanskrit Conference. Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani will attend the concluding ceremony of the conference on July 2.

• South African Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene announced on Friday that former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni has been appointed as the non-executive director to the board the Brics New Development Bank (NDB).
• He added that Cabinet had endorsed the nomination of Leslie Maasdorp for vice-president of the NDB. Maasdorp recently parted ways with AdvTech where he was chief executive. He was previously the president of Merrill Lynch for southern Africa.
• The management of the NDBs will be appointed at the board of governors inaugural meeting on July 7‚ Nene said. The NDB is expected to be up and running by the end of the year.

• The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation on 25 June 2015 approved a proposal for setting up a second international airport at Jewar in the National Capital Region. The proposal would soon be sent to the Union Cabinet for approval
• Once the project gets the required approvals, the civil aviation ministry will offer the contract for building and running the proposed Jewar airport in Greater Noida to the GMR Group where the government acquired 2378 acres of land for the project.
• Under RoFR norms, GMR Group has the Right of First Refusal (RoFR) for any airport that is built within a 150-km radius of the existing airport in Delhi. According to the rules, GMR’s bid will be accepted only if it is equal to or less than 10 percent of the bid offered by the lowest bidder. It will be asked to match the lowest bid arrived at after the bidding process for the proposed Jewar airport.

• India and the United States (US) on 25 June 2015 signed a series of agreements on health sector to enhance cooperation in areas such as cancer research, infrastructure development, training, capacity building and better assessment and application of new diagnostic technologies.

1. MoU on cancer research, control, prevention and management.
2. MoU on collaboration in Environmental, occupational Health and Injury Prevention and Control.

1. Prevention of illness related to toxic chemicals and hazardous substances
2. Development and use of improved tools, technologies and methods for enhancing environmental and occupational public health, and injury prevention efforts, including surveillance
3. Focus on public health effects of indoor air pollution including a focus on exposures associated with burning of solid fuels for cooking, prevention of illness and injury related to hazards at the workplace.

• Letter of Intent (LoI) on Anti-microbial Resistance Research: A Letter of Intent (LoI) on anti-microbial resistance research was signed between the ICMR, Department of Biotechnology (MoST) and US's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health and DHHS.

• The United States (US) Supreme Court on 26 June 2015 legalized same-sex marriage across the nation in a closely divided ruling by a 5 to 4 vote. The 28-page ruling was made by Justice Anthony Kennedy and was agreed by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
• With this ruling, now the states cannot deny marriage rights enjoyed for thousands of years by opposite-sex couples to gay men and lesbians. The decision is expected to trigger same-sex marriages in fourteen states that banned the practice.
• The court ratified the Bill of Rights and added the Fourteenth Amendment that states no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
• The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State.

• In what will come as a relief to bowlers, ICC has decided to get rid of catchers in the first ten overs, removed the batting Powerplay and also allowed five fielders outside the 30-yard circle in the last ten overs of an innings in one-dayers.
• The ICC also said that all “no balls” and not just over-stepping by the bowlers will result in a free hit in both ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals. The rule changes will come into effect for series starting on or after July 5.
• The ICC board during its Annual Conference here adopted these recommendations. These were made by the ICC’s cricket committee headed by the former India captain Anil Kumble in Mumbai this May.
• Meanwhile, the ICC Board has also unanimously decided to suspend the membership of the USA Cricket Association (USACA) with immediate effect.
• The decision was made after careful consideration of the findings set out in a recently constituted Review Group report to the ICC Board on the Status and Activities of USACA — a comprehensive document based on input from over 100 stakeholders, including USACA.
• The Review Group had expressed “significant concerns about the governance, finance, reputation and cricketing activities of USACA” and the ICC decided to exercise its power under Article 2.7 of the ICC’s Articles of Association.

Regards



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