Current Affairs Update – 1 Jan, 2015

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday cautioned
  investors against multi-level marketing firms that promise high returns and run
  on hefty member susbscription fees, warning such offers could result in direct
  financial losses.
• Multilevel marketing structures work on the principle of
  enrolling more members and a part of the subscription amount is distributed
  among members at the top of the marketing pyramid.
• “Any break in the chain leads to the collapse of the
  pyramid, and the members lower down in the pyramid are the ones that are
  affected the most,” the RBI said in a circular on Thursday.
• The central bank also said accepting money under such
  structures was a cognizable offence under the Prize Chit and Money Circulation
  (Banning) Act of 1978.

• India’s LIC International and Abu Dhabi -based First Gulf
  Bank are planning to introduce a unique co-branded credit card in the United
  Arab Emirates to address concerns of insurance policy holders.
• It is first of its kind payment solution. This is the
  first time that an insurance firm has entered into a strategic alliance with a
  bank in the gulf country.
• Insurance payments, persistency and ad hoc surcharge
  levied by many insurance companies on premium payments through cards have been
  a concern among many policyholders in the UAE.
• Through this programme, the bank will provide a payment
  solution to these issues in addition to developing a loyalty platform for their
  common customers with unique benefits.
• The January 2013 cooperation of both the organisations
  has led to record sales worth USD 75 million for ‘Jeevan Aastha 3’ and to
  obtaining total premium worth USD 100 million in 8 weeks for LIC’s new
  insurance product ‘Jeevan Nivesh’.
• LIC International, established in Bahrain in 1989 by LIC
  of India to facilitate residents in the gulf region, has over 350 million
  policyholders worldwide.
• FGB, established in 1979, offers a full range of
  financial services through its branches spread in many parts of the world.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today modified reporting
  norms for Representative Offices (ROs) of foreign banks in the country and
  asked them provide details of top clients introduced to the parent bank, among
  others.
• Currently, the ROs are required to submit a certificate
  from the auditor to the effect that during the year no income was earned by or
  accrued to the office in India, a certified copy of audited final accounts,
  details of remittances received and an annual report of the work done by the
  office in India.
• “On a review, it has been decided to revamp the existing
  system of reporting…and the same would be effective from the next reporting
  cycle,” the Reserve Bank said in notification.
• Now, ROs would have also to provide details of
  correspondent banking relations with Indian banks, exposure of head office and
  other offices of the bank or group to corporates or banks in India and duties
  and role of staff of ROs in India.
• ROs would have also to provide details of listing in
  stock exchange of group or associate companies and strategic investments, if
  any, made by the bank or group in banking or non-banking sector in India.

• The D K Mittal Committee, formed on December 4 this year
  to suggest ways and means to raise the revenue of Indian Railways, has made out
  a strong case for increasing the highly subsidised and loss-making suburban
  train fares.
• According to the recommendation, the suburban fares need
  to be increased by 2 paise per km every two months till they reach a break-even
  point.
• However, it did not specify the quantum of hike needed to
  be made in long-distance mail/express train services.
• The committee yesterday submitted its report to Railway
  Minister Suresh Prabhu.
• The committee also said the minimum distance of travel in
  passenger train should be increased from existing 10km to 20km and in
  mail/express segment it should be increased from 50km to 100km. 
• Currently, even if a passenger travels less than 10 km he
  is charged for the 10km in a passenger train and 50km in mail/express trains.
• The expert panel has observed that the current suburban
  fares is 60 per cent less than road travel cost and emphasised the need for
  increasing fares in a gradual manner.

• The Planning Commission, which was established in 1950,
  will be called ‘Neeti Ayog’ in its new avatar, months after Prime Minister
  Narendra Modi announced that it will replaced by a new body.
• The decision comes nearly three weeks after Modi held
  consultations with chief ministers at a meeting where most favoured
  restructuring of the Socialist-era body but some Congress Chief Ministers
  opposed disbanding of the existing set-up.
• Modi had announced in his Independence Day speech that
  the Planning Commission would be replaced by a new body which is in sync with the
  contemporary economic world.
• While addressing the Chief Ministers on December 7, he
  had invoked former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had said on April 30 last
  year that the current structure has “no futuristic vision in the post-reform
  period”.
• He had pushed for an effective structure which
  strengthens “cooperative federalism” and the concept of “Team India”.
• There were indications that the new structure will have
  the Prime Minister, some Cabinet ministers and some chief ministers along with
  technocrats and experts in various fields.

• Himmat’, a mobile application of Delhi Police that will
  allow women to send a distress call to Police Control Room and their relatives
  in case of any emergency, was launched here today by Union Home Minister
  Rajnath Singh.
• The app will basically cater to employed women who have
  smartphones and travel alone even late in the night.
• Singh also distributed pepper spray to women and awarded
  girls who had successfully completed Delhi Police self-defence programme.
• He lauded Delhi Police’s efforts to use technology for
  better policing.
• Explaining the work of the app, Delhi Police Commissioner
  B.S Bassi said that after downloading the app, a new user has to register with
  the Delhi Police website by sharing their name, mobile number and that of a minimum
  of two relatives/friends.
• Once the User registers, the user will get a SMS on
  mobile number given at the time of registration with a download link and
  registration key. User has to enter this key in the registration window in the
  application. This is a one-time process.

• India lost 64 tigers due to various reasons in 2014 with
  Tamil Nadu topping the chart with the maximum number of deaths, according to
  National Tiger Conservation Authority.
• Tamil Nadu saw 15 tigers deaths followed by Madhya
  Pradesh, which witnessed 14 deaths, says the data on tigernet.nic.in.
• M.P.’s Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, once densely populated
  with tigers lost seven majestic beasts while Kanha Tiger Reserve reported four
  tiger deaths. Pench Tiger Reserve and Panna Tiger Reserve lost one big cat each
  while as many deaths were reported from Balaghat district’s forested area, it
  said.
• The deaths might have come as a blow to M.P. which is
  trying hard to regain the tiger state status which it lost to Karnataka in the
  last big cats count.
• According to the All India Tiger Estimation Exercise 2010,
  the tiger population dipped to 257 in M.P. from 300 in 2006. On the other hand,
  Karnataka beating M.P. became the numero uno state in tiger population with 300
  counts — 10 up from the census of 2006.
• This time around also, Karnataka has a reason to smile as
  it lost only six tigers since January 1 to December 30.
• According to the 2010 census, India had approximately
  1,706 tigers. The result of the 2014 census is awaited.

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K.
  Radhakrishnan retired on Wednesday. Shailesh Nayak, who is Secretary, Union
  Earth Sciences Ministry, will hold additional and interim charge as Chairman
  for a month or until a regular chief is named, said an order by the Secretary,
  Appointments’ Committee of the Union Cabinet.
• Dr. Radhakrishnan led ISRO in many achievements over the
  past five years after he took over the reins in November 2009. The historic
  Mars Orbiter Mission was launched and guided to an orbit around the red planet
  under his leadership. The partial experimental sub-orbital flight of the GSLV
  Mark-III heavy-lift launch vehicle was another success. The early part of his
  chairmanship was marred by the Antrix-Devas S-band satellite controversy and
  the cancellation of that deal in February 2011.
• Dr. Radhakrishnan took over from G. Madhavan Nair in
  October 2009 as the seventh chief of the space establishment. He made a brief
  farewell speech to the 16,000-strong ISRO around 3.30 p.m.
• No stranger to the Department of Space, Dr. Nayak
  actually began his career at ISRO in 1978. A geology and remote sensing expert,
  he worked at the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, until 2008, when he
  moved to head the Earth Sciences Ministry.

• Over 60 websites and links, including popular online
  tools like Github and Sourceforge used by thousands of programmers have been
  blocked in India, triggering angry protests by Internet users.
• The websites were blocked for hosting content that is pro
  terrorist group ISIS and not cooperating with government investigations,
  officials said.
• Websites like Pastebin don’t host any content but are a
  platform for users to paste text. Popular video networks like Vimeo and
  Dailymotion are among the websites that have been blocked.
• The government has invoked section 69A of the Information
  technology Act (2000) and Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for
  Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules (“Blocking
  Rules”) to ban these websites.

• Ending the suspense over filling senior posts, the
  Railways on Wednesday made a record 11 appointments, including Chairman of
  Railway Board and eight General Managers.
• A.K. Mittal was appointed as the new Chairman of Railway
  Board succeeding Arunendra Kumar, who superannuated on December 31.
• Mr. Mittal, the senior-most official, was earlier Member
  Staff in the Railway Board.
• Pradeep Kumar, who was General Manager of the North
  Central Railway holding additional charge of Northern Railway, has become new
  Member Staff succeeding Mr. Mittal.
• The Railways also filled the post of Member Electrical,
  which was lying vacant for more than six months after the retirement of Kulbhushan
  in July 31 this year.
• Navin Tondon, General Manager of South Eastern Central
  Railways, has been appointed Member Electrical.

• The Narendra Modi government undertook a significant step
  in 2014 to make the country free from open defecation under an ambitious plan
  of around Rs. 2 lakh crore.
• The year also saw the government deciding to implement
  the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project for Low Income States (RWSSP-LIS)
  of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh with World Bank assistance over a
  period of six years (from 2013—14 to 2019—20).
• The project is aimed at providing improved piped water
  supply covering approximately 17,400 habitations in 2,150 gram panchayats in 33
  districts of the four States.
• Wielding the broom himself, Mr. Modi launched ‘Clean
  India’ campaign on October 2 and was joined by Chief Ministers, lawmakers,
  prominent personalities from various fields.
• The Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) aims at attaining a
  100 per cent open defecation free India by 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of
  Mahatma Gandhi.
• The main objective of the programme is to bring about an
  improvement in the general quality of life in the rural areas, by promoting
  cleanliness, hygiene and eliminating open defecation and accelerate sanitation
  coverage in rural areas.

• A dazzling show of New Year’s Eve gala using 70,000 LED
  bulbs around the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa here has broken the
  Guinness World Record of the ‘Largest LED-Illuminated Facade’.
• The never-before-seen show of fireworks, Light Emitting
  Diode lights and laser beam displays became one of the world’s most-watched New
  Year’s Eve spectacle with residents and visitors from around the world
  thronging around the 829.8 metres tall skyscraper to watch the display.
• The illumination around Burj Khalifa spanned 32,467
  square metres and it surpassed the existing record held by Mall Taman Anggrek
  in Indonesia. The LED screen area around the skyscraper was nearly 3.75 times
  larger.
• The record-breaking LED display had 70,000 LED bulbs
  placed in position using over 100,000 brackets and linked using 55,000 metres
  of cabling for the perfect visual display.
• The event was also live streamed with four different
  camera angles including aerial views from three drones. Live telecast through
  major international channels reached billions of people worldwide.

• Microsoft will soon be introducing a new web browser. It
  is to be called Spartan and shall be launched soon along with several consumer
  features of the Windows 10.
• The Redmond-based company says that Spartan is not meant
  to replace its Internet Explorer, which once held sway as the king of web
  browsers before Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome dislodged it from its lofty
  spot.
• The Hindustan Times reports that the new Microsoft web
  browser will not be putting the Internet Explorer to the backburner but will
  serve as a more lightweight and user-friendly alternative.
• In attribution of the strength of its competitor
  browsers, the Spartan is reportedly similar to Chrome and Firefox. It’s initial
  advantage thus far, just like the Internet Explorer was, is that it is built in
  to the Windows 10, Microsoft’s upcoming and latest desktop operating system.
• The browser would soon be available on PCs and other
  mobile devices that would be running on Windows 10. It will bank heavily on the
  Chakra JavaScript engine and the Trident rendering engine, which are
  Microsoft’s in-house tech support.

• Athletes convicted of doping will face a minimum
  four-year ban under new rules which came into effect from January 1.
• Changes to the World Anti-Doping Code increased the
  suspension for doping from two years. Other changes include less leniency given
  for missed tests but possible reduced bans for helping investigators.
• The revised code was agreed to by the World Anti-Doping
  Agency (WADA) in November 2014.