Current Affairs Update – 11th-12th February, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 11th and 12th February, 2016. These are very Important for the upcoming LIC AAO 2016 Exam.

• The RBI today signed a pact with
  the Central Bank of the UAE to enter into a Currency Swap Agreement, which is
  aimed at strengthening economic ties with the Gulf nation.
• The MoU was signed between RBI
  chief Raghuram Rajan and UAE’s Central Bank Governor Mubarak Rashed Al
  Mansoori.
• India is UAE’s top trading
  partner while the latter is India’s third largest trading partner after the US
  and China.

• The UAE’s national oil company
  Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) on 10 February 2016 agreed to store
  crude oil in India’s maiden strategic petroleum storage. The strategic reserve
  will help guard against global price shocks and supply distribution.
• The decision was taken during the
  state visit of Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the
  UAE Armed Forces Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to India from 10 February
  to 12 February 2016.

• It will take half of the 1.5
  million tonne (MT) Mangalore facility, that is, 0.75 MT (6 million barrels).
  ADNOC will use this facility as a warehouse for trading its oil.
• Out of 0.75 MT, ADNOC agreed to
  give two-third of the oil to India for free, that is, 0.50 MT will belong to
  India, which will be used in cases of emergencies.
• UAE will use to stock oil at
  Mangalore facility when prices are low and supply to its customers when rates
  are good.

• YES Bank on 9 February 2016
  announced its tie-up with Smartbox Ecommerce Solutions for solving challenges
  related to last mile delivery for e-commerce firms.
• The bank will help power the
  payment solutions for Smartbox network of Automated Parcel Delivery Terminals.
• The cash on delivery (COD) model
  continues to account for over 50 per cent of the e-commerce market which is
  expected to reach a size of 100 billion US dollars by 2020.
• YES Bank’s partnership will
  address this challenge and help reduce costs for e-commerce companies while
  offering additional convenience to online shoppers.
• With the association of YES Bank
  and Smartbox, COD will be handled as CSOD (Card Swipe On Delivery) on the
  terminals, which will eventually reduce the burden of handling cash on the
  entire ecosystem.

• Rising for the sixth straight
  month, retail inflation touched a 16-month high of 5.69 per cent in January,
  mainly due to costlier food prices.
• Retail inflation, as measured by
  the Consumer Price Index (CPI), stood at 5.61 per cent in December 2015 and
  5.19 per cent in January 2015.
• The pace of retail price rise in
  January 2016 is the highest since 6.46 per cent in September 2014.
• Food inflation, as measured by
  Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI), quickened to 6.85 per cent in the first month
  of 2016, government data showed on Friday.
• Retail prices of ‘cereals and
  products’ inched up by 2.19 per cent in January, from 2.12 per cent in December
  2015.
• The rate of price rise in meat
  and fish category was 8.23 per cent during the month, while it was 3.96 per
  cent for eggs.
• The substantial price rise in
  these items is mainly attributed to their higher consumption during winter.
• However, prices of seasonal
  fruits witnessed deflation during the month, with a fall of -0.24 per cent.

• Visakhapatnam will be developed
  into one of the finest smart cities in the country with the assistance of the
  US Government and it will give US companies great opportunities to participate
  in the project, according to AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
• The US Trade and Development
  Agency signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Municipal
  Administration on funding for drawing up master plan for Visakhapatnam Smart
  City and a consortium of three US companies, comprising AECOM, KPMG and IBM,
  was given the task by the Government. Taking it forward from the conceptual
  stage to implementation stage, the Chief Minister said there would be set
  milestones and timelines and periodic evaluation of outcomes of the project.
• The MoU was signed by Principal
  Secretary (Municipal Administration) Karikal Velavan and Country Manager of
  USTDA Heather K Lanigan in the presence of Chief Minister and Director of USTDA
  Leocadia I Zak.
• US Ambassador to India Richard R
  Verma, Municipal Administration Minister P Narayana, Panchayati Raj Minister Ch
  Ayyanna Patrudu, HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Chief Secretary SP Tucker,
  Commissioner GVMC Pravin Kumar, MLAs, MLCs and a number of senior officials
  were present on the occasion.

• The Ministry of road, transport
  and highways has approved 13 national highways projects worth Rs 10,300 crore.
  The total length of the roads is 670 km and will be executed on EPC
  (Engineering, Procurement Construction), BOT (Toll) and hybrid annuity model.
  The projects would be spread across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Andhra
  Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.
• The government is planning to
  award these projects by March this year. The project was approved by the
  Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) meeting which was held under the
  chairmanship of Secretary Road, Transport and Highways, Sanjay Mitra.
• In a bid to fast-track highways
  projects, the government last year empowered Road Transport and Highways Ministry
  to approve projects with civil construction cost up to Rs 1,000 crore. This was
  done by segregating civil construction cost from capital cost of projects.
• Earlier, the ministry has
  approved 18 national highway projects worth Rs 17,000 crore. The total length
  of the road is 982 km and will be executed on EPC (Engineering, Procurement
  Construction), BOT (Toll) and Hybrid annuity model. The project would be spread
  across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh
  etc.
• The government is planning to
  award 10,000 km of National Highway during this fiscal year. Till January, it
  has awarded contracts for 7,000 km of roads.

• The Reserve Bank today said that
  those who have declared unaccounted overseas assets under the black money law
  should file application with its central office for regularisation of declared
  wealth.
• Under the regulation, a person
  resident in India who has declared any asset under the Black Money Act and
  intends to hold them is required to make an application to the RBI within 180
  days of declaration, RBI said in a statement.
• The applications seeking
  regularisation of assets held abroad by a person resident in India and declared
  under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of
  Tax Act, under FEMA will be considered at the RBI’s central office, Mumbai, it
  said.
• Applications in this regard may
  be addressed to Principal Chief General Manager, Foreign Exchange Department
  (Foreign Investment Division, it added.
• The new law, called the Black
  Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015
  came into force with effect from 1 July 2015. The Act provided for a one-time
  compliance window to declare assets held abroad and pay due taxes and penalty on
  the value of assets declared.

• The Ministry of Railways and
  State Government of Telangana on 11 February 2016 inked a Memorandum of
  Understanding (MoU) for the formation of Joint Venture (JV) companies for
  development of railway infrastructure in the state.
• The MoU was signed in the
  backdrop of Railway Minister’s Budget announcement regarding setting up of
  Joint Ventures with States for focused project development, resource
  mobilization, land acquisition, project implementation and monitoring of
  critical rail projects.

• The signing of MoU is going to be
  a stepping stone for formation of JV companies.
• The MoU envisages formation of a
  Joint Venture companies having 51% stakes of the respective State Government
  and 49% stakes of Ministry of Railways. Thus, the JV companies will be fully
  owned by the Government.

• Wipro on 11 February 2016
  announced signing of a definitive agreement to acquire HealthPlan Services from
  Water Street Healthcare Partners.
• Wipro will acquire 100 per cent
  of HealthPlan Services’ shares for a purchase consideration of 460 million US
  dollars. However, the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals
  and is expected to be completed in the next 60-90 days.
• The acquisition will help the
  country’s third largest software services firm strengthen its position in the
  U.S. health insurance market.

• India and United Arab Emirates
  (UAE) on 11 February 2016 signed nine agreements.
• The agreements covered a wide
  range of sectors like the sphere of cyber security, infrastructure, renewable
  energy and finance.
• The pacts were inked after talks
  between visiting Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan
  and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

1. MoU on Technical Cooperation in
   Cyber Space and Combating Cyber Crime
2. MoU on Establishing a Framework
   for Facilitating the Participation of UAE institutional investors in
   Infrastructure Investments in India
3. General Framework Agreement on
   Renewable Energy Cooperation
4. MoU on Cooperation in the
   Exploration and use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes
5. MoU for bilateral cooperation in
   the field of insurance supervision
6. Executive Programme for Cultural
   Cooperation (EPCC) between India and UAE
7. Letter of Intent on Cooperation
   for skill development and recognition of qualifications
8. MoU for exchange of information
   on trade and business opportunities
9. MoU on Indian Rupee (INR)/UAE
   Dirham (AED) Bilateral Currency Swap Arrangement

• Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi
  on 10 February 2016 unveiled a draft document, ‘Vision Assam-2030: Everything
  for Everyone-Achieving inclusive and Sustainable Development’.
• The document was released to
  ensure inclusive and sustainable development of the state.
• The vision document was released
  during the two-day partnership conference in connection with implementation of
  sustainable development goals that began in Guwahati on the same day.
• ‘Vision Assam 2030’ envisions a
  transformed future for the people of Assam free from all forms of deprivation,
  inequities and insecurity within the next 15 years.
• With this, Assam became the first
  state to have a vision document on sustainable development goals.

• UNESCO world heritage site,
  Elephanta Island was in news in the second week of February 2016. It was in
  news because the island, which was dependent upon diesel-powered generators for
  electricity until now, will be completely electrified by Independence Day 2016.
• It will connected to the State
  (Maharashtra) electricity grid and for this Maharashtra Chief Minister has fast
  tracked a 25 crore rupees project to draw undersea power cables network between
  the mainland Mumbai and the island.
• Elephanta Island is a popular
  tourist destination and it houses caves which were designated as a UNESCO World
  Heritage site in 1987.
• Also called the ‘City of Caves’,
  the island is situated in the Sea of Oman close to Bombay.

• Union Health and Family Welfare
  Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda on 11 February 2016 released the National
  Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030 at New Delhi.
• The framework outlines India’s
  strategy for elimination of the disease by 2030.

• Eliminate malaria from all low
  (Category 1) and moderate (Category 2) endemic states/UTs (26) by 2022
• Reduce incidence of malaria to
  less than 1 case per 1000 population in all States/UTs and the districts and
  malaria elimination in 31 states/UTs by 2024

• The 4-day National Arogya Fair
  concluded successfully on 8 February 2016 at Dehradun in Uttarakhand.
• The themes were based on Immune
  system, Homeopathy in Women’s disorders, Treatment in Ayurveda, Yog se Arogya
  and Non-Communicable Diseases management in Siddha System etc.
• It was organized by the Union
  Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and
  Homoeopathy (AYUSH) in collaboration with the State government of Uttarakhand
  and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
• It was aimed to showcase and
  promote the strengths, efficacy and affordability of the AYUSH systems of
  medicines.
• The 8 Free Government (AYUSH)
  clinics served more than 1000 patients in four days. Free medicines were also
  provided to the patients.

• The Marine Museum was inaugurated
  on 3 February 2016 at the Marine Aquarium and Regional Centre (MARC) of
  Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in Digha, West Bengal.
• It was inaugurated along with one
  day National Seminar on Coastal Zone Management and Marine Biodiversity at East
  Medinipur district of West Bengal.
• The newly constructed museum that
  is thrown open to the public contains Fish gallery, Coral gallery, and
  Molluscan gallery with more than 500 marine species display.

• Over 25 Indian and 100 Israeli
  companies will come together later this month for a unique business seminar on defence
  and security in Israel.
• The seminar, organised jointly by
  SIBAT, the Israeli defence ministry, the International Defence Cooperation Directorate
  and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) will take
  place on February 21-25, and will mainly focus on increasing collaborations and
  joint ventures (JVs) between the ministry of micro, small and medium
  enterprises (MSMEs) on both sides.
• The seminar will highlight the
  huge potential to cooperate under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in
  India’ initiative and will deal with the new expected defence procurement
  procedure (DPP) 2016, with a special focus on JVs between industries in Israel
  and India. More than 500 business-to-business meetings are expected to take
  place during the seminar.

• Karnataka’s Mobile One project on
  10 February 2016 won 2016 Best m-Government Service Award at the 4th World
  Government Summit in Dubai, the UAE.
• The project was selected for the
  award in the One Stop App category at the international level.
• To win the award, the Mobile One
  competed with projects from about 64 countries of which the e-governance apps
  of the UK and Kazakhstan were also shortlisted.

• An Indian-American danseuse has
  been nominated for 2016 US Presidential Scholars in the Arts, one of the
  nation’s highest honours for high school students.
• Pavithra Nagarajan from
  California is one of the 60 candidates nominated recently by the National
  YoungArts Foundation in the US in the discipline of Indian classical dance,
  said an official statement.
• YoungArts nominated students who
  were actors, dancers, singers, classical and jazz musicians, photographers,
  filmmakers, visual artists, designers and writers.
• The candidates will be reviewed
  by the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, and will select 20 high
  school seniors to be recognised as US Presidential Scholars in the Arts for
  their academic and artistic accomplishments, leadership responsibilities,
  community service and outreach initiatives, and overall creativity.

• The International Federation of
  the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), international music trade body, on 8 February
  2016 named Adele the Global Recording Artist of 2015 across all music formats.
• The singer is the third recipient
  of the IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year award. The award is a unique
  accolade that reflects an artist’s worldwide popularity across physical formats,
  downloads and streams.
• Of the top 10 artists featuring
  in IFPI’s 2015 global chart, Ed Sheeran took second place and Taylor Swift
  ended up on the third place.

• Indian-origin lawyer Davinder
  Singh in the second week of February 2016 was appointed as a vice-chair of the
  International Chamber of Commerce’s Commission on Corporate Responsibility and
  Anti-corruption.
• With this appointment, Davinder
  Singh, a citizen of Singapore, became one of three vice-chairs of the
  commission. Other two vice-chairs are François Vincke of Belgium and Iohann Le
  Frapper of France.

• Tamar Hahn of Israel was on 10
  February 2016 took the charge as the director of the United Nations Information
  Centre (UNIC) in Buenos Aires that serves Argentina and Uruguay.  She was appointed by United Nations
  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
• Prior to this appointment, Hahn was
  the Regional Adviser for Resource Mobilization and Partnerships at the United
  Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Regional Office for Latin America and the
  Caribbean in Panama City, Panama, since 2013.

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on
  11 February 2016 appointed women ministers to the newly created portfolios for
  happiness and tolerance, and youth affairs.
• Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed
  bin Rashid al-Maktoum named eight women as he revealed his latest cabinet
  line-up of 29 ministers.
• The cabinet that has eight new
  ministers, including five women with an average age 38.
• Ohoud al-Roumi, who had served as
  director of the council of ministers’ office, was appointed Minister of State
  for Happiness. She will also keep her former post. The post of Minister of
  State for Tolerance was created to promote tolerance as a fundamental value in
  UAE society.

• Shamma al-Mazroui (22) was
  appointed minister for youth
• Lubna al-Qassimi – Minister for
  Tolerance, she is a veteran minister of international cooperation and
  development
• Noura al-Kaabi – Minister of
  State for the Federal National Council or Parliament
• Jamila al-Muhairi – Minister of
  State for Education
• Najla al-Awar – Minister of Community
  Development
• Reem al-Hashimi – State Minister
  for International Cooperation Affairs
• Maitha Alshamsi – State Minister

• The North Atlantic Treaty
  Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) on 10 February 2016 signed an
  agreement to improve cooperation in cyber defense.
• The technical agreement signed at
  NATO headquarters at Brussels, Belgium will help the two in countering the modern
  forms of hybrid warfare.
• The deal establishes a framework
  for emergency response teams from the NATO and the EU to exchange information
  and share best practices.
• The new agreement will facilitate
  information-sharing to improve cyber incident prevention, detection and
  response at both the EU and NATO.

• United Nations (UN)
  Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on 9 February 2016 launched a report titled One
  Humanity: Shared Responsibility. The report called for a global campaign to
  prevent the erosion of humanitarian law and protect civilians in conflict.
• The report was launched as part
  of the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit that is scheduled to be held from
  23 May to 24 May 2016 with the theme One Humanity: Shared Responsibility.

1. Global leadership to prevent and
   end conflict
2. Uphold the norms that safeguard
   humanity
3. Leave no one behind
4. Change people’s lives – from
   delivering aid to ending need
5. Invest in humanity

• Soviet football legend Anatoli
  Ilyin passed away on 10 February 2016 in Moscow, Russia. He was 84.
• Ilyin was the scorer of the first
  ever UEFA European Championship qualifying goal and the strike that earned the
  Soviet Union Olympic gold in 1956.
• The legendary footballer won five
  Soviet Top League titles and two Soviet Cups during a club career spent at
  home-town Spartak Moskva. He was the league’s top scorer in 1954 and 1958, and
  in all managed 106 goals during a 13-year playing career.

• Acclaimed film director Aurobindo
  Mukherjee passed away on 10 February 2016 in Kolkata, West Bengal. He was 97.
• Mukherjee was the maker of cult
  Bengali classics like Agniswar, Mouchak and Nishi Padma in the early 1970s.
• Renowned actor Jaya Bhaduri was
  the discovery of Mukherjee. He launched Bhaduri in Dhanyee Meye in 1971.
• Mukherjee’s first film,
  Kichhukhon, got him the President’s Award. His film Nishi Padma, starring Uttam
  Kumar and Sabitri Chatterjee, was remade in Hindi by Shakti Samanta as Amar
  Prem.
• Mukherjee wrote the screenplay
  for the movie, which earned him a Filmfare Award.

• Leslie Bassett, a Pulitzer
  Prize-winning composer, passed away on 4 February 2016 in Oakwood, Georgia. He
  was 93.
• Bassett won the Pulitzer for
  music for Variations for Orchestra, which premiered in Rome in 1963.

Regards

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