Current Affairs Update – 8th May, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important current affairs of 8th May, 2015.

• The RBI today put in place a new framework to check loan frauds including by way of early warning signals at banks and red flagging of accounts, while swindlers will have no access to further banking finance.
• Besides, the central bank will set up a Central Fraud Registry that can be accessed by all banks to identify borrowers having committed frauds with any bank in the past.
• The CBI and the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) will also share their databases with banks.
• The concept of a Red Flagged Account (RFA) is being introduced in the current framework as an important step in fraud risk control, RBI said in guidelines for banks to deal with loan frauds.

• State Bank of India on 7 May 2015 launched State Bank RuPay Platinum debit card in association with National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).
• Initially, the card will be issued free to customers maintaining a quarterly balance of 50000 rupees. The RuPay card is accepted at all payment channels like ATMs, PoS and eCommerce.

• 5 percent cashback on utility bill payments
• Up to 1 percent fuel surcharge waiver
• Complimentary airport lounge access
• Complimentary concierge services
• Complimentary welcome discount vouchers
• Personal accidental death and permanent total disability insurance cover of 2 lakh rupees

• The term Nuclear Insurance Pool (NIP) was in news in April and May 2015 as the General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) was collecting views from the stakeholders in the Insurance industry and Nuclear Energy sector about the creation of the NIP.
• The NIP is intended to cover the liability of Nuclear Plant operators and Equipment and Material Suppliers under Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages (CLND) Act, 2010 in case of nuclear accidents.
• The creation of the Pool has become necessary due to the reluctance of the foreign nuclear equipment suppliers to participate in the nuclear trade with India as the CNLD Act, 2010 has imposed liability on them in case of nuclear accidents.

• The Union Government and Asian Development Bank (ADB) on 7 May 2015 signed a 31 million US dollars loan agreement to boost water availability in selected river basins in Karnataka and ensure improved water efficiency in irrigation.
• The agreement was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary (Multilateral Institutions), Department of Economic Affairs on behalf of the Union Government and M Teresa Kho, Country Director of ADB in India.
• ADB’s loan of 31 million US dollars will cover about 65 percent of the total project cost of 48 million US dollars with the state government of Karnataka providing the balance of 17 million US dollars.
• The loan is the first tranche of the Karnataka Integrated and Sustainable Water Resources Management Investment Program of 150 million US dollars, approved by ADB in 2014. The program will improve irrigation efficiency in three river basins in the state saving 1700 million cubic meters of water.

• Mid-sized private lender YES Bank has tied up with Payworld to distribute co-branded open loop prepaid cards to customers.
• “Payworld will be distributing the Yes Money Prepaid Cards through its Business Correspondent Agent Network in partnership with Yes Bank,” Payworld said in a statement.
• Open Loop Prepaid Cards can be used at POS (point-of-sale) terminals, eCommerce sites for payments, as well as to withdraw money at ATMs. Strategically, customers who remit money to their families, can now also safeguard their remaining cash through this prepaid card, which is PIN protected.
• The programme also offers a Rs. 1 lakh personal accident insurance and has seen a good response during the test phase, the statement added.

• India today successfully test-fired an advanced version of the BrahMos land-attack cruise missile from the Car Nicobar Islands as it revalidated the weapon's precision strike capability.
• Today's development follows an unsuccessful test on April 9, when the missile had failed to hit the target. However, today's test met all flight parameters, including high-level manoeuvres.
• The supersonic cruise missile hit the designated land- based target with the desired accuracy, said the statement issued by BrahMos.
• The BrahMos missile has been jointly developed by India and Russia.
• The multi-mission missile, having a range of 290-km and a Mach 2.8 speed, is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against sea and land targets.
• The air version BrahMos is being readied for flight trials soon on Indian Air Force's Su-30MKI strike fighter.

• Top Russian and Indian institutions, including IITs, today signed 11 MoUs for higher academic cooperation in the field of scientific research and training.
• The MoUs signed in presence of President Pranab Mukherjee - who is on a five-day visit to Russia - involves cooperation in the areas of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer sciences.
• The agreement will ensure cooperation, coordination and competition for conducting basic and exploratory scientific research carried out by international scientific teams.
• Each side will find research expenses on their respective side and all project proposals will be independently assessed by India's Ministry of Science and Technology and Russian Science Foundation.
• While some MoUs focus on agreement between IIT Bombay and Russia's National Tomsek State University to promote cooperation and encourage direct linkages between their faculty, others involve collaboration with IIT Madras for academic and research partnership.
• A similar agreement involves collaboration with IIT Delhi for academic and research cooperation in areas of mutual interests.
• Indian Statistical Institutes signed a MoU with Higher School of Economics while another agreement was signed by Kolkata's Institution of Engineers and Russian Scientific and Engineering Associations to promote and enlarge the exchange of technical, scientific and professional knowledge in both the countries.

• Prime Minister David Cameron won an emphatic election victory in Britain, overturning predictions that the vote would be the closest in decades to sweep into office for another five years, with his Labour opponents in tatters.
• The sterling currency and share prices soared on a result that reversed expectations of an inconclusive "hung parliament" with Cameron jockeying for power with Labour rival Ed Miliband. Instead, Cameron was due to meet Queen Elizabeth before noon to accept a swift mandate to form a government.
• But despite the unexpectedly decisive outcome, more uncertainty looms over whether Britain will stay in the European Union - and even hold together as a country.
• Scottish nationalists swept aside Labour, meaning that Scotland, which voted just a year ago to stay in the United Kingdom, will send just three representatives of major British parties to parliament and be all but shut out of the cabinet. That could revive calls for it to leave Britain.
• Cameron's victory also means Britain will face a vote which he has promised on continued membership in the EU. He says he wants to stay in the bloc, but only if he secures changes to its rules in negotiations that have not yet begun.

• Mhairi Black on 7 May 2015 became the youngest lawmaker of Britain at the age of 20. The freshly elected lawmaker is from Scotland.
• She belonged to Paisley and Renfrewshire South, a constituency outside Glasgow.  She defeated Douglas Alexander, Labour's election chief and a former Cabinet minister with 17864 votes.
• She is a member of the Scottish Nationalist Party.
• From a young age, she would march for causes as diverse as support for a Scottish parliament and opposition to the Iraq war.

• President Pranab Mukherjee was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate in Moscow on Friday by the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• The President's office shared the information via twitter.
• Earlier today, President Mukherjee, currently on his four-day official tour to Russia, met Indian Ambassador PS Raghavan in Moscow.
• The President is in Moscow to witness the Victory Day parade on Saturday, which marks the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Allied forces in the Second World War.

• Ace marksman Jitu Rai was on Thursday declared the Sportsperson of the Year' at the Times of India Sports Awards in a glittering ceremony that was graced by the legendary Carl Lewis.
• 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh received the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' from the 'Olympian of the century' and Times Group MD Vineet Jain in a ceremony that was attended by the whose who of India's sporting fraternity.
• Besides Lewis and Milkha, prominent figures from the sporting world included former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, Olympic bronze medallists boxer MC Mary Kom, shuttler Saina Nehwal and CWG gold medallist squash player Dipika Pallikal.

• Achal Kumar Jyoti, the former Chief Secretary of Gujarat, on 7 May 2015 was appointed as the Election Commissioner of India. Jyoti (62) will have tenure of nearly three-years, when he will turn 65, the age at which Election Commissioners demit office under the Constitution of India.
• His tenure will commence from the day he assumes the charge.
• With this, the strength of three-member Election Commission of India has gone up to two. Till this appointment, two posts were vacant in the three-member election commission due to retirement of VS Sampath and HS Brahma.
• At present, Nasim Zaidi, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), is the other member of election commission.

• Arvind Saxena, in-charge of Aviation and Research Centre of external snooping agency RAW, was today appointed as a member of UPSC becoming the first officer of 32-year Research and Analysis Service to be named to the commission.
• After the appointment of Saxena, who was due to retire in August, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is left with only one vacancy. The UPSC is a 10-member body besides a Chairperson.
• According to the order, Saxena's tenure will commence from the date he assumes the office of member, UPSC.
• After formation in 1983 of RAS service, all officers who were with Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) were given option of either going back to their service or joining the newly formed RAS along with their seniority.
• Under the new rule, Saxena was absorbed as an RAS officer of 1978 batch.

• Guy Carawan, whose rendition of the song We Shall Overcome became an anthem of the U.S. civil rights movement, has died at his home in Tennessee, The New York Times reported. He was 87.
• Carawan, a white folk singer, did not write the song, which has a long oral history that can be traced back to a church hymn in the late 19th Century that was taken up as a rally cry among labour activists in the 1940s.
• Carawan first performed We Shall Overcome, to a group of black students in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1960 - and it quickly became the anthem of the civil rights movement, the New York Times said on Thursday.
• It was sung at demonstrations and rallies throughout the 1960s, including the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery led by slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
• In the decades since, it has been performed by Tiananmen Square protesters and at the dismantled Berlin Wall, the Times reported.

Regards



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