Current Affairs Update - 30 Sept - 1 Oct, 2014

• ·         As widely expected, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had kept the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 8.0 per cent.
• ·         Also, it has decided to keep the cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks unchanged at 4.0 per cent of net demand and time liabilities (NDTL).
• ·         However, it has reduced the liquidity provided under the export credit refinance (ECR) facility from 32 per cent of eligible export credit outstanding to 15 per cent with effect from October 10.
• ·         The RBI has said that it will continue to provide liquidity under overnight repos at 0.25 per cent of bank-wise NDTL at the LAF repo rate, and liquidity under 7-day and 14-day term repos of up to 0.75 per cent of NDTL of the banking system through auctions.

• ·         The fiscal deficit for the first five months of 2014-15 is 75 per cent of the Government’s Budget estimate.
• ·         This trend is similar to what was seen in the corresponding period of last fiscal.
• ·         According to the latest data of the Controller General of Accounts, fiscal deficit during the April-August period reached Rs. 3.97 lakh crore, nearly 75 per cent of the budget estimate of Rs. 5.31 lakh crore.

• ·         The Reserve Bank today relaxed 'know your customer' norms by allowing self-certification of documents needed for opening bank accounts.
• ·         "With a view to easing difficulties faced by common persons while opening bank accounts and during periodic updating, guidelines on KYC will be further simplified with immediate effect," the central bank said in its monetary policy statement.
• ·         RBI has asked banks to "allow self-certification; accept a certified copy of the document by mail/post" for account opening.
• ·         Banks have also been asked not to seek fresh documents if an existing KYC compliant customer of a bank desires to open another account in the bank.
• ·         For periodic updating of KYC, the RBI told the banks not "insist on physical presence of the customer" and also not seek fresh proof of identity and address in case of no change in status for 'low risk' customers.
• ·         The Reserve Bank further said there is a need for banks to complete KYC for all customers including long standing 'low risk' customers.
• ·         "Banks should complete documentation, while minimising the effort on the part of the customer to what is strictly needed," it said.
• ·         In the event that customers are unable to comply within a reasonable time period, 'partial freezing' may be introduced in respect of KYC non-compliant customers, RBI added.
• ·         This means credits would be allowed in such accounts while debits would not be allowed, with an option to the account holder to close the account and take back the money in the account.

• ·         President Pranab Mukherjee on 30 September 2014 authorised Vigilance Commissioner Rajiv to act as chief of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) until the appointment of the Central Vigilance Commissioner.
• ·         His appointment came with effect from 29 September 2014.

• ·         The new Andhra Pradesh will grow as fast as Google and Visakhapatnam will become a IT hub, according to Chief Minister N Chadrababu Naidu.
• ·         He was speaking at a conclave of CEOs from 400 IT companies across the country after signing MoUs with several of them, including Google India.
• ·         Claiming credit for developing Hyderabad as the foremost IT destination in the country during his tenure as the Chief Minister of an undivided AP, he said he would achieve the same feat in a much quicker time in Visakhapatnam with the co-operation of IT companies.
• ·         He said Visakhapatnam with its natural resources and human resources was ideally suited for the development of IT. Promising co-operation to the IT companies, he invited them to invest in the State and become partners in its progress.
• ·         Rajan Anandan, Country Head, Google India, said his company would strive to develop Telugu fonts to make the internet popular in Telugu. It would also strive to bring online one lakh SMEs in the state. It would be a partner in the programme to digitalise AP.
• ·         Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys, said he had no doubt that Chandrababu Naidu would be as good as his word in developing IT sector in the new Andhra Pradesh.

• ·         India and US have in principle agreed to extend their defence agreement for another 10 years which will take forward the cooperation between the two countries in the crucial area.
• ·         Sources in the Department of Defence said, “we are still negotiating the framework agreement (defence) but have not finished.”
• ·         Pentagon sources said it was “happening“.
• ·         The framework agreement, which will expire next year, was signed here in 2005 by then Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld.
• ·         Earlier, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi here and discussed issues relating to defence cooperation and combating terrorism.
• ·         The pact had laid strong foundations leading to mutually beneficial defence cooperation between the two countries through security dialogue, service-level exchanges, defence exercises and defence trade and technology collaboration.

• ·         India and the U.S., after sending their own respective spacecraft into Mars’ orbit, have now agreed to cooperate on future explorations of the Red Planet, which America said will yield “tangible benefits” to both the countries and the world at large.
• ·         The agreement in this regard was signed by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in Toronto on Tuesday on the sidelines of the International Astronautical Congress.
• ·         The two sides signed a charter that establishes a NASA-ISRO Mars Working Group to investigate enhanced cooperation between the two countries in Mars exploration.
• ·         They also signed an international agreement that defines how the two agencies will work together on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, targeted to launch in 2020.
• ·         “The signing of these two documents reflects the strong commitment NASA and ISRO have to advancing science and improving life on Earth,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

• ·         The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) Wednesday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture (JV) company for setting up a 100 MW offshore wind power project off the Gujarat coast.
• ·         The MoU was signed between MNRE, National Institute of Wind Energy and a consortium of partners consisting of NTPC, Power Grid Corp, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, Power Finance Corp, Power Trading Corp and Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd.
• ·         “Considering the country’s 7,600 km coast line, opportunities for scaling up offshore wind power projects are humongous,” said Power and MNRE Minister Piyush Goyal, who was present on the occasion.
• ·         Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message in the US was loud and clear that renewable energy is the way to go, Goyal said.
• ·         “It dovetails the world’s concerns about climate change and it clearly enhances India’s energy security,” he added.
• ·         The minister also suggested building partnerships with defence, coast guard and shipping to ensure seamless and time bound approval process.

• ·         India and the United States issued Vision Statement to boost strategic ties on 29 September 2014. The Vision Statement titled Chalein Saath-Saath: Forward Together We Go was issued after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Barack Obama at the dinner at White House in Washington DC.
• ·         The joint statement sought to expand and deepen the strategic partnership between the largest and oldest democracies in the world for the benefit of not only the two nations but also for the benefit of the world.

• ·         Both the countries would cooperate in security and fight terrorism
• ·         It called for an inclusive rule based global order in which India will assume greater multilateral responsibility, including a reformed United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
• ·         Both the countries also determined to work together to tackle the threat of climate change
• ·         The two countries also committed to cooperate to address the consequences of unchecked pollution through cooperation among governments, science and academic communities of both the nations.
• ·         Both the countries will partner to ensure that they have affordable, clean, reliable, and diverse sources of energy, including efforts to bring American-origin nuclear power technologies to India.
• ·         Two countries would also work to ensure that economic growth brought better livelihoods for all people.
• ·         The vision statement also stressed the importance of open markets and fair and transparent practices to allow trade to flourish.

• ·         Union government on 30 September 2014 accorded in-principle approval for setting up six more Software Technology Parks of India (STPIs) in Odisha. With this the number of such parks in the state will go up to 10.
• ·         These six STPIs will be developed at Jaypore in Koraput district, Sambalpur, Jajpur, Angul, Rayagada and Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi. The four existing STPIs are at Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Brahmapur and Balasore.

• ·         The India-US Combined Military Training Exercise Yudh Abhyas 2014 concluded at Ranikhet in Uttarakhand on 30 September 2014. The Yudh Abhyas 2014 started on 17 September 2014.
• ·         It was the tenth exercise in the Yudh Abhyas series that started in 2004 under US Army Pacific partnership program. Yudh Abhyas 2014, a part of bilateral defence cooperation, aimed at sharing of ideas, concepts and learning from each other’s experiences.
• ·         During the 14-day exercise, the troops of Mountain Brigade of Indian Army and Company and Brigade Headquarter of the US Army cooperated to strengthen and broaden inter-operability and cooperation between armies of  the US and India.
• ·         It also featured training, planning and executing a series of tactical drills by contingents for neutralizing possible threats.  It also focused on counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in mountainous terrain and in United Nations mandated operations.

• ·         Modi promised that that Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) cardholders will get lifetime Indian visa and that American tourists will be given visa on arrival.
• ·         Modi announced the merger of PIO and Overseas Citizens of India schemes to facilitate hassle-free travel to the Indian diaspora.
• ·         He announced that PIO card holders staying in India on long-term basis will no longer have to report to the local police station.

• ·         With their landmark 2005 civil nuclear deal still in limbo, India and the US have established an inter-agency Contact Group to sort out outstanding liability and technical issues to fast-track its full implementation.
• ·         Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama while taking note of the delay reaffirmed their commitment to "implement fully" the US-India civil nuclear cooperation agreement that would facilitate installation of American-origin nuclear reactors in India.
• ·         From the Indian side, the inter-agency Contact Group will have representatives from Department of Atomic Energy, Ministry of External Affairs and Finance Ministry.
• ·         After summit talks with Obama, Modi said both sides are serious about resolving at the earliest issues blocking the implementation of the civil nuclear deal.

• ·         Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth' has now been published in Kashmiri and Punjabi languages also and the editions would be released on his birth anniversary tomorrow.
• ·         "Tomorrow on 145th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, we will release Kashmiri and Punjabi versions of his autobiography 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth'," said Vivek Desai, managing trustee of Navjivan Trust, founded by Gandhi in 1929.
• ·         With this, the Father of the Nation's autobiography will be available in 17 major languages of the country. The book is available so far in Gujarati, English, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam, Assamese, Oriya, Manipuri, Sanskrit and Konkani languages.
• ·         On the objective behind releasing the book in two more languages, Desai said the trust wants to make Gandhi's autobiography and his ideas available to more and more people.

• ·         Afghanistan on 30 September 2014 signed Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the US with an aim to allow some US troops to remain in the country till 2015.
• ·         National Security Adviser of Afghanistan Mohammad Hanif Atmar and US Ambassador James Cunningham signed BSA at the presidential palace of Afghanistan in Kabul.
• ·         Signing of the BSA was the first act of the new government in Afghanistan headed by President Ashraf Ghani who was sworn-in on 29 September 2014.

• ·         Google closed the social networking site Orkut permanently on 30 September 2014. Google announced the decision to shut down Orkut in June 2014.
• ·         Old users of Orkut will be able to take backup of their pictures and posts till September 2016 and users can export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google Takeout. But no one will be able to create new IDs on Orkut account.
• ·         Decision of shutting down Orkut was taken as its competitor social networking sites namely Facebook and Twitter were much popular than orkut. Now, Google has moved to a new platform - the Google Plus.
• ·         Orkut started in 2004 was named after its creator, Orkut Buyukkokten, a Google employee.

• ·         The first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. was confirmed on Tuesday in a patient who recently travelled from Liberia to Dallas — a sign of the far-reaching impact of the out-of-control epidemic in West Africa.
• ·         The unidentified man was critically ill and has been in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital since Sunday, federal health officials said. They would not reveal his nationality or age.
• ·         Authorities have begun tracking down family and friends who may have had close contact with him and could be at risk for becoming ill. But officials said there are no other suspected cases in Texas.
• ·         At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Director Tom Frieden said the man left Liberia on September 19, arrived the next day to visit relatives and started feeling ill four or five days later. He said it was not clear how the patient became infected.
• ·         There was no risk to any fellow airline passengers because the man had no symptoms when he was travelling, Mr. Frieden said. Ebola symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding, and can appear as long as 21 days after exposure to the virus. The disease is not contagious until symptoms begin, and it takes close contact with bodily fluids to spread.

• ·         Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will be visiting India this month, and is most likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who himself is an avid user of the social networking site.
• ·         Mr. Zuckerberg, the second high-profile executive from Facebook to visit India after Sheryl Sandberg, will be in India to address the first Internet.org summit taking place on October 9-10 here.
• ·         Facebook had last year announced the launch of Internet.org, a global partnership with six other technology giants- Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung. The project aims to make Internet access available to the next five billion people who are not online yet.
• ·         He is expected to discuss with the Prime Minister ways in which the government and the social networking giant can collaborate on Internet.org.
• ·         One of the youngest billionaires in the world, Mr. Zuckerberg is expected to meet other senior ministers as well.
• ·         Mr. Zuckerberg’s visit to India, the second biggest market for the social networking giant, will mark the third visit by high-profile CEO of U.S.-based corporations to the country in a fortnight, after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

• ·         A huge controversy broke out on Wednesday at the Asian Games when India’s woman boxer Sarita Devi returned her bronze medal, protesting against her controversial loss to a South Korean, inviting a possible suspension for defiance.
• ·         Sarita, who was declared a loser despite dominating the 60kg semifinal bout against home favourite Jina Park, was today inconsolable on the podium and was crying bitterly as she stunned the officials and spectators by refusing to accept the bronze medal, which is now in the custody of organisers.
• ·         The boxer was in disbelief yesterday when she lost to Park, who ended up as the silver-medallist. Sarita was clearly the better of the two pugilists but the judges thought otherwise.
• ·         Left in the lurch by the accompanying IOA officials, she managed to collect $500, including with the help of a journalist and Mary Kom’s husband, to lodge an appeal against the verdict but lost.
• ·         The former Asian and world champion then left the ceremony. Park, visibly rattled by the turn of events, left the medal on the podium and made her exit.

• ·         Legendary Indian boxer MC Mary Kom on 1 October 2014 bagged her first ever Asian Games Gold Medal. She defeated Zhaina Shekerbekova of Kazakhstan in the finals of the women’s flyweight category (48-51kg) at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon.
• ·         She became the first Indian woman boxer to clinch a gold medal at the Asian Games. This is the seventh gold for India at Incheon games.

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