Current Affairs Update - 7-8 Dec, 2014

• ·         Samsung on 7 December 2014 appointed Pranav Mistry as Global Vice-President. He is currently working as the Vice-President of Samsung’s U.S. research unit in the Silicon Valley and heads the Think Tank team of Samsung.
• ·         Mistry, aged 33, hailing from Gujarat, India, is the youngest person to be elevated to head the Samsung Electronics in a recent management reshuffle involving about 350 people.
• ·         Mistry played a big role in launching Samsung's Galaxy Gear in September 2013, its line of wearable technology products, and invented SixthSense, a technology that enables users to use their hands to interact with digital information about the physical world around them.
• ·         Pranav Mistry joined Samsung as the Director of Research in 2012. Earlier, Pranav worked as a UX Researcher with Microsoft.
• ·         The appointment of Mistry who hails from Gujarat in India comes at a time when Samsung is seeing a decline in profits and is looking to turn around its smartphone business.

• ·         Kotak Mahindra Bank on December 8 announced the launch of Grand, a savings bank account tailored exclusively for customers of 55 years and above.
• ·         According to a press release issued by the bank, Grand has been designed keeping in mind their need for hassle-free banking, financial independence and personal attention.
• ·         Grand offers priority service and first aid card which provides essential customer information and emergency contacts details. It also offers queue privileges at the branch. Further, customers will get a health card from Indian Health Organisation (IHO), offering up to 50 per cent discount on treatments, consultation and procedures. Customers also can avail special lifestyle offers from brands, including Lenskart, Zicom, Makemytrip and eBay.
• ·         Grand customers can opt for customised cash delivery at the time of account opening and choose a preferred date to have cash delivered at their home. This customised cash delivery feature does away with any effort on the part of the customer to reach out to the bank every now and then. Instead, the customer contact centre gets in touch with the customer on the pre-selected date to confirm and execute cash delivery. Further, customers can place a request for a call back by simply sending a SMS, which will be responded to within 30 minutes.
• ·         According to the release, customers will earn 6 per cent pa on savings balance of over Rs 1 lakh and 5 per cent on balances up to Rs 1 lakh. To earn higher return on their balances, they can sign up for the Kotak ActivMoney facility, which converts savings account balance above a certain amount into term deposits.

• ·         Country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank has announced a hike in its ATM charges for saving account holders from January 1 next year.
• ·         Under the new method, the number of free transactions in a month is fixed at five using own ATMs, while it has been capped at three for other banks’ machines.
• ·         Customers can enjoy only five free transactions, including financial and non-financial, at the bank’s own automated teller machines (ATM), it said in a post on its website.
• ·         After exceeding the free transaction limits, customers will have to pay Rs 20 per financial transaction excluding service tax and Rs 8.50 for every non-financial transaction, it said.
• ·         For transactions at non-ICICI Bank ATMs, the number of free financial and non-financial transactions have been reduced to three per month at six metros of Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, after which the customer will have to pay Rs 20 for a financial transaction and Rs 8.50 per non-financial transaction.
• ·         In case of usage in non-metro areas, a customer can enjoy five free transactions per month at non-ICICI Bank ATMs, after which the same charges apply, it said.
• ·         The issue of ATM usage has been a very contentious one due to the inter-connect charges a bank has to pay to the other. Additionally, the operating costs have also gone up, following a spate of incidents at the ATMs like the robbery at Bengaluru last year, which started the debate on transaction charges.
• ·         After consultations, the RBI last month started a system under which it allowed banks to charge from the fourth transaction onwards at other banks’ ATMs in metros, and also gave the liberty to banks to charge customers for the sixth transaction onwards at own machines.

• ·         The government will make it mandatory for all Central public sector undertakings (PSUs) to make 20 per cent of their purchases from medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs) from April 1, 2015. “A penalty provision is also being considered,” said Kalraj Mishra, MSME Minister, in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
• ·         The Centre had, in an order in 2012, issued directions to all Central PSUs to procure a minimum 20 per cent of products and services from MSMEs, 4 per cent of which had to be from enterprises owned by the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs/STs). However, not all PSUs have complied with this order, Mishra said during Question Hour, adding that “it will not be an exaggeration to say that the Railways” has not been following the 20 per cent procurement norm.
• ·         When former MSME Minister KH Muniyappa asked how many purchases had been made from SC/ST-owned enterprises, Mishra said such enterprises had not been identified as yet which was creating hurdles. He said the government was making efforts to meet the 4 per cent procurement target from SC/ST-owned enterprise through various initiatives, such as vendor awareness programmes, stakeholder workshops among others. In a written reply, the Minister said “Communications are being issued from Ministry of MSME to all Central Ministries, departments, CPSUs to comply with all the provision of the Public Procurement Policy for MSE, Order 2012.”

• ·         According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Warren buffet became second richest person in the World. He replaced Carlos Slim, business magnate of Mexico. Bill Gates is the world richest person.
• ·         Buffet chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has a net worth of 73.7 billion US dollars and his annual business profits recorded 19.5 billion US dollars which is up 13 percent. Berkshire reached 52 week high in intraday trading which is closed at 185750 US dollars.
• ·         Slim has net worth of 62.9 billion US dollars. Slim profit has fallen 10.9 billion US dollars since the start of 2014 and his business profits dropped by 14 percent.

• ·         International taxi-booking service Uber was banned in the capital today and the government is considering similar action across the country as outrage grew over the alleged rape of a 27-year-old woman executive by its driver who is stated to be a repeat offender and was jailed before.
• ·         The case had also a new twist over a ‘character certificate’ issued in the name of an Additional DCP of the Delhi Police to the accused driver Shiv Kumar Yadav in August this year with Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi calling it fake and ordering a probe into this and registration of an FIR. This certificate was provided to Uber, police said.
• ·         Investigators probing the rape case have found “criminal negligence” and “abetment” of crime by the US-based cab company whose General Manager (Marketing) Gagan Bhatia was grilled today. Bhatia claims to be the in-charge of the company’s India operations, police said.
• ·         A day after Yadav, 32, was arrested in Mathura, the Delhi government also blacklisted Uber from providing any transport service in the capital even as it emerged that Yadav had spent seven months in jail in a rape case in 2011. Yadav was acquitted in that case.
• ·         Official sources said the Union Home Ministry is planning to ask all state governments and administration of nine union territories, where Uber runs its cab services, to put a ban on it.
• ·         Uber cab services are available in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Pune.

• ·         Armed Forces Flag Day was observed across the nation on 7 December 2014. The Day is named as Armed Forces Flag Day because on this day a fund is collected by issue of special flags.
• ·         On this day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the Indian Armed Forces and appealed to the citizens for generous donations for the welfare of the Armed forces.

• ·         The committee of Defence Minister in 1949 decided that Flag Day will be observed on 7th December each year.
• ·         On this day, donations are collected by distributing token and car flags in return of donation for the welfare and rehabilitation of ex-Servicemen, war widows or disabled and their dependents.
• ·         Token flags and car flags in red, deep blue and light blue colours representing the three Services are distributed to the public through Rajya and Zila Sainik Boards throughout the country by the Kendriya Sainik Board in return for donations.

• ·         Veteran Carnatic vocalist Nedanuri Krishnamurthy died on 8 December 2014 in Visakhapatnam. He was 87. He was undergoing treatment for lung cancer.
• ·         He was born on 10 October 1927 in Kothapalli in the erstwhile Hyderabad State of British India
• ·         He underwent training in Carnatic music (vocal and violin) with Dwaram Narasinga Rao Naidu in Maharaja’s Music College at Vizianagaram in early 1940s
• ·         Later he developed his style of music under guidance of Carnatic vocalist, Sripada Pinakapani
• ·         He was Principal of the Government Music & Dance Colleges in Vijayawada, Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam
• ·         His style was the epitome of elegance with an emphasis on aesthetics and subtle embellishments
• ·         Some of his notable contributions to music include the setting to tune of 108 compositions of the 15th century saint-composer Annamacharya from Andhra Pradesh

• ·         Sri Tyagaraja Seva Ratnam in 2011
• ·         Sangeetha Kalasikhamani in 2011
• ·         Asthana Vidwan in 2010
• ·         Pratibha Rajiv Puraskar in 2006
• ·         National Eminence Award in 2006
• ·         National Artiste Award in 2004
• ·         Raja Lakshmi Award in 2002
• ·         Teulgu Talli Award in 2000
• ·         Sangeetha Ratnamara, 2000
• ·         Gana Kala Bharathi in 1993
• ·         Sangita Kalanidhi in 1991
• ·         Swar Vilas in 1981
• ·         Sangeetha Choodamani in 1976

• ·         Indian Communication Satellite GSAT-16 was on 7 December 2014 launched successfully from the Kourou space port in French Guiana. It was launched by the European Ariane-5 launch vehicle VA221 of Arianespace.
• ·         Ariane-5 accurately placed the GSAT-16 into the projected Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) after a flight of 32 minutes and 20.4 Seconds duration.
• ·         ISRO's Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka acquired the signal from the satellite and the commanding of the satellite was initiated.
• ·         The satellite will be placed in the Geostationary Orbit by 12 December 2014 and subsequently the satellite's communication transponders will be switched on for in-orbit testing.
• ·         The satellite launch was originally scheduled for 5 December 2014 but was postponed due to bad weather.

• ·         The GSAT-16  satellite was built by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru. It is the 18th satellite launched by Arianespace for ISRO.
• ·         GSAT-16 is an advanced communication satellite weighing 3181.6 kg at lift-off and is inducted into the INSAT/GSAT system.
• ·         GSAT-16 carries a total of 48 communication transponders, the largest by a communication satellite developed by the ISRO so far.

• ·         Ritu Mallya on 4 December 2014 was appointed as Director of Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers (MCF) board. She succeeded Vijay Mallya.
• ·         Vijay Mallya had to quit the board of MCF after State Bank of India advised the company that it will be difficult for them to lend money to MCF with a willful defaulter Mallya on the board.
• ·         She will continue to be director until the next annual general meeting of the company, where the shareholders’ approval will be sought.
• ·         Ritu Mallya is a Bengaluru-based lawyer and was married to late Vittal Mallya, founder of the UB group who died in 1983. Ritu Mallya’s old name was Kailash Advani and ran a garments business at the time of her marriage to Vittal Mallya.

• ·         Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (MCFL) started in 1966 with Dugal Enterprises Private Limited, New Delhi as its first promoters. The name of the company was changed to its present name in August 1971.
• ·         MCFL is the only manufacturer of chemical fertilizers in the state of Karnataka, India.

• ·         A new IBM India study showed that old laptop batteries could power slums in developing countries like India. The concept was tested in the Indian city Bangalore in 2014.
• ·         The findings were published in a paper titled UrJar: A Lighting Solution using Discarded Laptop Batteries in the first week of December 2014.
• ·         Using discarded batteries is cheaper than existing power options. It helps deal with the mounting electronic-waste (e-waste) problem.
• ·         By carrying put the proper research, the team of researchers proposed a low-cost solution called UrJar to solve the problem of unavailable electrical power in developing regions of the world.

• ·         The IBM group, working with a hardware Research and Development firm RadioStudio, opened the discarded laptop battery packaging and extracted individual storage units called cells.
• ·         They tested 35 cells individually to pick out the good ones and recombined them to form refurbished battery packs.
• ·         After adding charging dongles as well as circuitry to prevent overheating, they gave them to five users in Bangalore who lived in slums or operated sidewalk carts.
• ·         After sometime, the users said the battery packs had worked well.

• ·         India on 7 December 2014 set the Guinness Record for largest human formation of a national flag in the world. To set the record around 50000 volunteers from Chennai gathered at YMCA Grounds to form the human Tricolour with Chakra, the National Flag of India.
• ·         The previous world record was in the name of Sports Club of Lahore, Pakistan wherein 28957 people were involved in forming the national flag of Pakistan.
• ·         Guinness official Syeda Subasi-Gemici, adjudicator of Guinness World Records Ltd., presented the certificate validating the attempt.
• ·         The event of forming the human Tricolour was organised by Governor of Rotary 3230 as part of the My Flag My India campaign. The campaign was organised with an aim to infuse patriotism and nationalism in the present generation and next-generation youth.

• ·         Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Mukesh Ambani feature amongst the most searched personalities online this year, according to search engine Yahoo.
• ·         According to the seventh edition of Yahoo India’s ‘Year in Review’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the list of ‘High and Mighty? the Political Top 10’ in 2014, followed by his aides Arun Jaitley (Finance and I&B Minister) and BJP President Amit Shah.
• ·         Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu and BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav have also been named in the list.
• ·         The review is based on users’ daily search habits and an editorial selection of what they read, recommended and shared most on Yahoo in India.

• ·         The Lok Sabha on 3 December 2014 passed the School of Planning and Architecture Bill, 2014. The Bill was passed by a voice vote.
• ·         The Bill intends to declare three existing Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPA) as institutions of national importance to promote education and research in architectural studies. These institutes are located in New Delhi, Bhopal and Vijayawada.
• ·         The new status will empower the institutes to award degrees as in order to confer degrees, an institute has to be made a deemed university by an act of Parliament.

• ·         A Boeing 787 aircraft on 3 December 2014 completed the world's first flight using green diesel as Aviation Biofuel. Green Diesel is a sustainable biofuel made from vegetable oils, waste cooking oil and animal fats. The airplane performed in the same manner as it does with conventional jet fuel.
• ·         The company powered its ecoDemonstrator 787 flight test airplane on 2 December 2014 with a blend of 15 percent green diesel and 85 percent petroleum jet fuel in the left engine.
• ·         The flight test was coordinated with the US Federal Aviation Administration, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney.
• ·         The company will provide data from several ecoDemonstrator flights to support efforts to approve this fuel for commercial aviation and help meet the industry's environmental goals.

• ·         The Beijing-based China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) on 6 December 2014 launched the mega water supply project in Sri Lanka to construct a water supply system in Gampaha district.
• ·         The project was launched with the foundational laying of pipe by Sri Lankan Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa in the town of Mahara. This 230 million US dollars water supply project is the largest ever project undertaken by the Sri Lankan government.
• ·         Once completed, the project will provide clean drinking water to about 600000 people in 42 villages scattered around the region.

• ·         China on 5 December 2014 launched a Nuclear Power Expansion Scheme to expand its large network of nuclear plants. The decision was announced by National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China.
• ·         The NDRC also announced plans to develop offshore nuclear power projects. It assured that all projects will comply with the highest international security standards to overcome the problems which are under construction of third generation reactors in China.
• ·         Actually, third generation rectors of China which are under construction have problems with pumps and valves as well as with its inflexibility of design.  China is on to resolve those problems.
• ·         At present, there are 27 nuclear power plants under construction in China along with new 1000 –MW reactors in association with US based Westinghouse. China is about to build 200 nuclear plants.
• ·         However, nuclear energy contributes less than 2 percent of the power supply of China which is far below the world average of 15 percent. The initiative is expected to give the nuclear power sector a boost, driving high-end equipment production and optimizing power generation in china.
• ·         In 2011, China ceased issuing approvals for nuclear power projects following the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.  China signed a MoU with South Africa in the establishment of partnership in nuclear fuel recycling.

• ·         Indian Blind Cricket team on 7 December 2014 won the fourth edition of the Blind Cricket World Cup (BCWC) 2014 by defeating defending champions Pakistan. The captain of the Indian team was Shekar Naik.
• ·         In the final held at Wally Wilson Cricket Ground in Cape Town, South Africa, Pakistan batting first scored 389 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 40 over. Chasing a tough target, India managed to reach the target in 39.4 over, losing 5 wickets in the process
• ·         In the semi-finals, Pakistan had defeated England, while India had ousted Sri Lanka.
• ·         The inaugural edition of the Blind Cricket World Cup played in 1998 was won by South Africa.
• ·         Pakistan won the title in 2002 before successfully defending it in 2006.
• ·         The participating countries in the fourth edition of Blind Cricket World Cup were Sri Lanka, Australia, Bangladesh, England and hosts South Africa.

• ·         The International Cricket Council (ICC) on 7 December 2014 suspended Mohammad Hafeez from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect for illegal bowling action. Hafeez is the Pakistani cricket all-rounder who bowls off-spin.
• ·         ICC suspended Hafeez after he failed to pass the bio-mechanic test conducted for his bowling action. The test revealed that all deliveries of Hafeez exceeded permitted 15 degrees level of tolerance (by which the arm is allowed to bend).
• ·         The test was done by the Human Movement Specialists team of ICC on 24 November 2014 at the National Cricket Performance Centre in Loughborough.
• ·         The test was done after his bowling action was reported for an illegal action during the first Test between Pakistan and New Zealand in Abu Dhabi.
• ·         However, Hafeez can apply for re-assessment after he modifies his bowling action in accordance with clause 2.4 of the Regulations for the Review of Bowlers Reported with Suspected Illegal Bowling Actions. 
• ·         Earlier on 9 September 2014, ICC also had suspended other off-spinner of Pakistan Saeed Ajmal for a similar reason.

• ·         The South African cricketer Jacques Kallis on 5 December 2014 was appointed as the mentor and batting consultant for Indian Premier League (IPL) team Kolkata Knight Rider (KKR).
• ·         He renewed his association with KKR for mentoring the team from the 2015 season of IPL.
• ·         He will become part of the KKR support staff which already has Vijay Dahiya, Wasim Akram and Trevor Bayliss.
• ·         Earlier, Kallis spent the last four seasons with Kolkata Knight Riders as a player. During which the franchise won two IPL titles (2012 & 2014) and finished runners-up in the Champions League T20 in 2014.
• ·         During his IPL stint, he amassed 424, 409 and 311 runs in the first three seasons with KKR before bringing an end to his international career in August 2014.
• ·         Kallis began his IPL career with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the inaugural edition in 2008. He moved to Kolkata in 2011.
• ·         He is the only cricketer in the history of the game to score more than 11000 runs and take 250 wickets in both one-day and Test match cricket.

• ·         Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara on 3 December 2014 became the fourth batsman to complete 13000 One-Day Internationals (ODI) runs.
• ·         Sangakkara achieved the feat of crossing 13000 run during the third match of ODI series with England.  He took 386 matches to complete these many runs.
• ·         The all-time list of most-run getters in ODI is led by Sachin Tendulkar of India with 18426 runs from 463 ODIs. He is followed by Ricky Ponting of Australia with 13704 runs from 375 ODIs and Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka with 13430 runs from 445 matches.
• ·         As of August 2014, Kumar Sangakkara is placed at number 1 in ICC Test rankings.

• ·         The youngest Indian to become a rated chess player, seven-year-old Dev Shah, has become the world champion in the Under-7 category in the World Schools Chess Championships that concluded at Juiz de Fora in Brazil on December 4.
• ·         Dev, a trainee of South Mumbai Chess Academy and student of Dhrubhai Ambani School, was among three boys who scored the highest score -- 7.5 points out of 9 -- to tie with Ochirbat Lkhahvajamts of Mongolia and Sindarov Islombek of Uzbekistan.
• ·         The Mumbai boy was ruled the winner on account of a better aggregate score, said a media release today.
• ·         With this championship win, he also qualified to hold the title of Candidate Master awarded by world chess body FIDE, with a current international rating of 1448, the release added.