Current Affairs Update – 10th November, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here are the important Current Affairs of 6th and 7th November, 2016. These are important for the upcoming IBPS PO Mains, IBPS Clerk Mains and RRB OS-I Mains exam 2016.

Current Affairs at a Glance – 10th November, 2016

  1. City Union Bank (CUB) plans to deploy
    robots in its branches, becoming the first bank in the country to do so
    .
    Japan’s Soft Bank was the first to use a robot in banking operations. CUB’s
    Managing Director & CEO N Kamakodi said that the ‘CUB-Lakshmi’ humanoid is
    a pilot project to be deployed in the bank’s T Nagar branch in Chennai.
  2. The Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE)
    on 9 November 2016 launched the Pradhan Mantri YUVA Yojana to boost up an ecosystem
    of entrepreneurship for young people
    . The scheme was launched for
    the time period of over five years (2016-17 to 2020-21) with a project cost of
    499.94 crore rupees.
  3. Union Government on 9 November
    2016 announced that cash deposits above 2.5 lakh rupees
    threshold under the 50-day window could attract tax plus a 200 percent penalty
    in case of income mismatch
    . It seems that the decision was taken
    to make sure that people would fail in converting their black money into the
    white one.
  4. India’s
    first Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) driven bus
    was launched on 8
    November 2016 in Kerala.
  5. Twitter India in partnership with non-profit data journalism
    initiative IndiaSpend
    have launched #Breathe,
    an independent and real-time air quality monitoring public service initiative
    on Twitter, the company said in a statement.
  6. Tata Sons Ltd on 9 November 2016 announced the appointment of Ishaat Hussain
    as the Chairman of IT giant, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with
    immediate effect
    .  He will hold the
    position until the name of a new chairman is announced.
  7. California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris on 9 November 2016 became the first Indian-American to win the U.S. Senate seat from the
    state
    .
  8. Pramila Jayapal on 9 November 2016 became the first Indian-American woman to be elected to the U.S. House
    of Representative
    . She won the Senate seat from state of Washington.
  9. The World Science Day for
    Peace and Development 2016 was observed on 10 November 2016.

COLOR CODES:

  • GREY HIGHLIGHTER – Very Important Current Affairs
  • GREEN HIGHLIGHTER – Very Important for STOCK GK 

Banking/Economy –
First Bank in India: City Union Bank’s pilot robot to be deployed first
in Chennai

  • City Union Bank (CUB) plans to
    deploy robots in its branches, becoming the first bank in the country to do so.
    Japan’s Soft Bank was the first to use a robot in banking operations.
  • CUB’s Managing Director & CEO
    N Kamakodi said that the ‘CUB-Lakshmi’ humanoid is a pilot project to be
    deployed in the bank’s T Nagar branch in Chennai.
  • Initially, the robot will answer
    generic banking related questions posed by customers. However, later it will be
    integrated with banking systems enabling transactions.
  • The robot that has cost the bank
    around Rs 7-8 lakhs can save work for 3-4 persons and will be integrated with
    the bank’s automation process as well.
  • In case the pilot project
    succeeds, CUB plans to deploy around 25 robots in its branches by end of this
    year. The robots are customised verisons of models develpoped by a French firm.

Union Government launches Pradhan Mantri Yuva Yojana

  • The Union Ministry of Skill
    Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) on 9 November 2016 launched the Pradhan
    Mantri YUVA Yojana to boost up an ecosystem of entrepreneurship for young
    people.

Highlights of the Yojana
  • The scheme was launched for the
    time period of over five years (2016-17 to 2020-21) with a project cost of
    499.94 crore rupees.
  • It will offer entrepreneurship
    education and training to around 7 lakh students in 5 years through 3050
    Institutes.
  • It will also offer easy access to
    information and mentor network, credit and advocacy to build a way-out for the
    youngsters.
  • The institutes under the Yojana
    include 2200 Institutes of Higher Learning (colleges, universities, and premier
    institutes), 300 schools, 500 ITIs and 50 Entrepreneurship Development Centres.
  • These institutes will carry out
    the training through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Other Launches
  • The Ministry also unveiled  the guidelines for State Engagement under
    Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 2.0 (2016-2020). It allocated around  3000 crore rupees for the States to achieve
    its target of training 10 million people in over 4 years.
  • It also launched the Lab
    Guidelines towards standardisation of lab equipment across skill development
    training centres in India.
  • MSDE announced the
    institutionalisation of National Entrepreneurship awards for first generation
    achievers below 30 years for the very first time. The Entrepreneurship Awards
    will be given on 16 January 2017.

Deposits above Rs 2.5 lakh to face tax, penalty on mismatch

  • Union Government on 9 November
    2016 announced that cash deposits above 2.5 lakh rupees threshold under the
    50-day window could attract tax plus a 200 percent penalty in case of income
    mismatch.
  • It seems that the decision was
    taken to make sure that people would fail in converting their black money into
    the white one.
  • The decision was announced by the
    Revenue Secretary Hashmukh Adhia.

Highlights of the decision
  • The ministry would be getting
    reports of all cash deposited, above a threshold of 2.5 lakh rupees in every
    account, during the period of 10 November to 30 December 2016.
  • The tax department would do
    matching of this with income returns filed by the depositors and suitable
    action may follow.
  • Any mismatch with income declared
    by the account holder will be treated as a case of tax evasion.
  • Earlier, the Union Government on
    8 November 2016 allowed citizens to deposit in old currency of 500 rupees and
    1000 rupee denominations in their bank accounts. These banknotes were declared
    invalid.

Global Rajasthan Agritech meet begins in Jaipur
  • Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet
    (GRAM), a three-day international event, began in Jaipur on 9 November 2016.
    The main focus of the meet is to double the income of farmers through suitable
    technologies and agricultural activities.
  • Australia, Netherland and Israel
    will be international partners of the meet. The representatives of these
    countries will share their new technology and agriculture activities with
    state’s farmers. Representatives of industry and foreign delegation are also
    participating in the meet.

India –
India’s first LNG-powered bus launched in Kerala

  • India’s first Liquefied Natural
    Gas (LNG) driven bus was launched on 8 November 2016 in Kerala.
  • Union Petroleum and Natural Gas
    Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan jointly
    flagged off the first pilot run of the eco-friendly bus on the sidelines of the
    fourth meeting of the Group of Ministers, set up by the Ministry of Road Transport
    and Highways.
  • The LNG-driven bus was rolled out
    as part of the Union Government’s plans to use LNG.

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Twitter partners with IndiaSpend to launch #Breathe

  • Twitter India in partnership with
    non-profit data journalism initiative IndiaSpend have launched #Breathe, an
    independent and real-time air quality monitoring public service initiative on
    Twitter, the company said in a statement.
  • Twitter said millions of Indians
    across 17 cities can now monitor the air quality they breathe with a single
    tweet.
  • By tweeting #Breathe , people can
    access air quality levels in Agra, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal,
    Chandigarh, Dehradun, Delhi NCR, Gandhinagar, Kanpur, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pune,
    Patna, Raipur, Ranchi and Varanasi under the initiative.
  • On tweeting, people will get an
    immediate visual auto-response tweet in the form of an infographic card with a
    measurement of the air quality — comprising air quality index, air quality
    levels, reading of particulate matter 2.5 and 10, along with the possible
    impact this air quality will have on health.
  • #Breathe is a public service
    initiative aimed at leveraging technology to provide citizens, institutions,
    media and civil society organizations with real-time data to catalyze
    participative engagement within communities, municipalities, state and central
    government, Twitter added. With this hashtag service, the company aims to
    empower citizens by increasing public awareness about the alarming rise in air
    pollution levels across major cities in India. The pilot phase of this launch
    recorded 100,000 tweets for the month of April 2016.

1st International Agro-biodiversity Congress concluded with adoption of
Delhi Declaration
  • The 1st International
    Agro-biodiversity Congress that was held in New Delhi from 6 November to 9
    November 2016 concluded with adoption of Delhi Declaration on Agro-biodiversity
    Management. The event saw participation of 900 participants from 60 countries.
  • During the Congress, the
    delegates of all countries discussed various aspects of access, conservation
    and use of the agro-biodiversity in 16 technical sessions, four satellites
    sessions, a gene-bank roundtable, a public forum, a farmers’ forum and poster sessions.

Appointments –
Ishaat Hussain appointed as interim Chairman of TCS

  • Tata Sons Ltd on 9 November 2016
    announced the appointment of Ishaat Hussain as the Chairman of IT giant, Tata
    Consultancy Services (TCS) with immediate effect.  He will hold the position until the name of a
    new chairman is announced.
  • The announcement was delivered to
    the company (TCS) through a letter dated 9 November 2016 from Tata Sons Ltd.
    Hussain succeeds Cyrus Mistry, who was ousted from the position on 23 October
    2016 by the board of Tata Sons Ltd. At that time, the board appointed Ratan
    Tata as the Interim Chairman of the group until another suitable candidate was
    chosen.

Kamala Harris becomes first ever Indian-American to win U.S. Senator
seat

  • California’s Attorney General
    Kamala Harris on 9 November 2016 became the first India-American to win the
    U.S. Senate seat from the state.
  • Harris defeated fellow Democrat
    Loretta Sanchez from her own party. She is the first black woman elected to the
    upper chamber in more than two decades. She is also the sixth black individual
    to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
  • Harris will replace Barbara Boxer
    who announced her retirement in 2014 after serving more than two decades in the
    Senate.

Pramila Jayapal becomes first Indian-American woman to be elected to
U.S. House
  • Pramila Jayapal on 9 November
    2016 became the first Indian-American woman to be elected to the U.S. House of
    Representative. She won the Senate seat from state of Washington.
  • Jayapal received 57 per cent of
    the votes from Washington State, leaving behind her rival Brady Walkinshaw who
    secured 43 per cent votes.

Days –
World Science Day for Peace and Development 2016 observed across the
world
  • The World Science Day for Peace
    and Development 2016 was observed on 10 November 2016 across the world. The
    theme for 2016 is Celebrating Science Centres and Science Museums.
  • To mark the day, the United
    Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conducted
    several discussions, special campaigns, visits to science museums for school
    children, etc to raise awareness of benefits of science worldwide.
  • For 2016, the theme Celebrating
    Science Centres and Science Museums is chosen to highlight the importance of
    science centres and museums for capacity building, for advocacy and to send
    strong messages about the importance of science for sustainable development.

Regards

Team ExamPundit