Current Affairs Update – 11th April, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 11th April, 2015 including the 17 agreements between India and France.

• India and France today signed 17 agreements, including on
  the stalled nuclear project in Jaitapur in Maharashtra, after Prime
  Minister Narendra Modi held
  wide-ranging talks with French President Francois Hollande.
• An MoU was signed between Larsen and Tubro and AREVA aimed at cost reduction by
  increasing localisation, to improve the financial viability of the Jaitapur project.
• The agreement will also enable transfer of technology and
  development of indigenous nuclear energy industry in India.
• Pre-engineering agreements were inked between NPCIL and Areva which intend to bring clarity on all technical aspects of the
  plant so that all parties (AREVA, Alstom and NPCIL) can firm up their price and
  optimise all provisions for risks still included at this stage in the costs of
  the project.
• After the two leaders held extensive talks, MoU was also
  signed between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) on the Indo–French Megha Tropiques satellite which was launched on board
  the Indian launch vehicle PSLV on October 12, 2011.
• The MoU shall extend by two more years, the joint project
  for sharing and use of data from the satellite.
• Under space cooperation, an agreement was also signed
  between ISRO and CNES. The agreement proposes cooperation in the areas of
  satellite remote sensing, satellite communications and satellite meteorology
  among others.
• An MoU on cooperation between the Ministry of Youth Affairs
  and Sports and French Ministry of Sports, Youth Affairs, Public Education and
  Community Life was also signed that envisages cooperation and exchange of
  experiences in the fields of sports medicine and institutional cooperation.
• The two countries also signed agreements increasing
  bilateral cooperation in the economic sector.
• An MoU on cooperation in the field of renewable energy
  between the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and France’s Ministry
  of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy was signed that will help
  establish the basis for cooperation and relationship to encourage and promote
  technical bilateral cooperation on new and renewable energy issues on the basis
  of mutual benefits and reciprocity.
• A Railway protocol between Indian Ministry of Railways and
  French National Railways (SNCF) was also inked, seeking to establish
  cooperation between Indian and French Railways for semi-high speed rail and station renovation.
• Other agreements signed were in the fields of energy,
  culture, tourism, conservation, Ayurveda, skill development and science and technology.

• The Reserve Bank of India has cautioned members of the
  public that an app (application) with the title ‘All Bank Balance Enquiry No’,
  which purportedly facilitates checking of balance in customers’ bank accounts,
  has not been developed by it.
• Members of the public are, therefore, advised to use the
  application, if at all, at their own risk, the central bank said in a
  statement.
• RBI said an app (application) with its logo and the title
  ‘All Bank Balance Enquiry No’ is doing the rounds on Whatsapp. The app has
  listed several banks with a mobile or a call centre number.

• The NITI Aayog has initiated the mid-term appraisal process
  of the 12th Five Year Plan, an exercise which has long been followed prior to
  establishment of the new body that replaced the Planning Commission.
• Completing its 100 days, the National Institution for
  Transforming India (NITI) Aayog today said the last three months have been
  “tremendous” in the role of its inception as a think thank of the government.
• The erstwhile 50 years old Planning Commission of the
  socialist era was replaced by NITI Aayog earlier this year.
• Its role is to act as a think-thank to the government with
  noted economist Arvind Panagariya as its vice chairman.
• NITI has the role to work with the Centre to forge a model
  of cooperative federalism, whereby the Centre and states forming Team India can
  come together to chart a common course for progress and prosperity, said the
  release.

• Expressing support for the Government’s ‘Make in India’
  initiative, aircraft manufacturer Airbus today said it is ready to manufacture
  in India, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited its facility here.
• Modi took a tour of the facility where planes are
  manufactured. He was given a briefing by officials on the functioning of the
  facility.
• Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders, who received the Indian leader,
  said: “We are honoured to host Prime Minister Modi in Toulouse and convey to
  him our desire to forge a stronger industrial bond with India. India already
  takes a centre-stage role in our international activities and we want to even
  increase its contribution to our products.”
• In India, Airbus Group already operates two engineering
  centres — one focused on civil aviation and the other on defence — besides, a
  research and technology (R&T) centre, which together employ over 400 highly
  qualified people.
• The group’s senior representative conveyed their decision to
  expand these centres so that they can take on comprehensive design
  responsibilities for future Airbus group programmes.

• Commonwealth Games gold medal winning Indian shooter Apurvi
  Chandela today qualified for next year’s Olympic Games after notching up the
  10m air rifle bronze in the ongoing ISSF World Cup (Rifle/Pistol) in Changwon,
  Korea.
• Apurvi shot a total of 185.6 in the finals, to finish behind
  Pejcic Snjezana of Croatia, who won gold, and Ivana Maksimovic of Serbia, who
  clinched the silver medal.
• Pejcic eventually finished with a score of 209.1 to Ivana’s
  207.7 at the end of the gold medal match up. There were three Olympic quota places
  to be bagged in the event.
• Pistol ace Jitu Rai had won India’s first Olympic quota
  place at the World Championships in Granada, Spain last year, when he won silver
  in the 50m Free Pistol event.
• Each country can win a maximum of 30 quota places from a
  total of 15 shooting disciplines (including shotgun events), two each from each
  discipline.

• Four Indian junior tennis players — Shashank Teertha,
  Sacchitt Sharma, Prinkle Singh and Mahak Jain — sealed their place in the
  England’s national grass court championship by emerging as the finalists of the
  ‘Road to Wimbledon’ event which concluded, here today.
• Sacchitt beat Shashank 6-2 6-4 in the boys final while Mahak
  outplayed Prinkle 6-1 6-1 in the girls final of the Masters event in which 16
  boys and 16 girls competed.
• The Masters event for the Under-14 players was held
  following conclusion of preliminary qualifiers in Kolkata, Chandigarh, Delhi
  and Mumbai.
• The four Indian players will now compete in UK’s
  championship in August 2015 at the All England Club.
• Last year India’s Siddhant Banthia had not only qualified
  for the RTW but also became the singles champion after defeating top seed
  Maxime Trenakhin.
• Siddhant and Adil Kalyanpur had also claimed the doubles
  title while Indian girls Aarja Chakraborty and Shivani Ingle had ended runners-up
  in the girls’ doubles.
• The agreement between the All India Tennis Association
  (AITA) and the Wimbledon Foundation for the ‘Road to Wimbledon’ programme has
  been extended till 2017.

• Young striker Nikkin Thimmaiah scored a hat-trick as India
  produced their best performance of the tournament to stun world champions and
  title holders Australia 4-2 today and secure a place in the third and fourth
  place play-off at the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament here.
• Already out of title race, India played without pressure and
  at last came up with a complete performance that had Australia on the backfoot
  for most part of the match.
• The win gave also gave India’s new chief coach Paul van Ass
  his best moment of a short career with the Indian team.
• India scored a goal each in all the four quarters through VR
  Raghunath (1st minute), Nikkin (23rd, 32nd, 60th), while Australia’s goals came
  from the sticks of Daniel Beale (14th) and Matt Gohdes (53rd).
• By virtue of this win, India finished their league
  engagements with seven points from five game and will now face either Korea or
  New Zealand in the third-fourth place classification match tomorrow.
• The Kookaburras struggled for ball possession throughout the
  match and their defence crumbled when put under pressure by the Indian
  forwards.

• Arun Kumar Jha was appointed as Chief Executive Officer
  (CEO) of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).
• The decision in this regard was taken on 10 April 2015 by
  the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Union Ministry of
  Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
• As the CEO of KVIC, he will oversee the day-to-day
  functioning of the commission and report about its activities to the Union
  Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
• Before this appointment, he had been working as the Director
  General of National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business
  Development (NIESBUD) functioning under the Union Ministry of MSME.
• Jha is a 1985-batch Indian Economics Service (IES) officer.

• Bharat Hari Singhania assumed the presidency of JK
  Organization. The company issued a formal statement on 9 April 2015 in this
  regard.
• He succeeded Gaur Hari Singhania who died on 4 April 2015.
• The JK Group is 125-year-old and has footprint in 100
  countries. It has overseas manufacturing operations in Indonesia, Mexico,
  Romania, Belgium, Portugal and the UAE.

• An asteroid discovered by a US astronomer has been named
  after Pakistan’s teenage education activist and the world youngest Nobel Peace
  Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.
• The more-than-2-mile-wide asteroid—officially now known as
  “316201 Malala”—orbits the sun every five-and-a-half years in the asteroid belt
  between Mars and Jupiter. Amy Mainzer, the NASA astronomer who discovered the
  rock, was the one who named it after Yousafzai.
• Malala became the youngest Noble Peace Laureate last year
  when he was declared winner with Indian child right activist Kailash Satharthi.
• She was attacked by Taliban in 2012 for standing up for the
  right of girls to attend school in her native Swat region which was controlled
  by Taliban from 2007 to 2009 when they were expelled by Pakistan army.

• April 11th is the National Safe Motherhood Day. WRA India
  appealed to the Government of India for a declaration of a National Safe
  Motherhood and subsequently, the government declared 11 April as the National
  Safe Motherhood Day in the year 2003.
• Since then every year a theme is selected by WRA India
  members and year-long campaign is built around the theme.
• The theme for this year is ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ –
  Citizens participation and engagement for improving women’s and children’s
  health.

• Goal is to ensure that all women realise their rights to be
  safe and healthy before, during and after childbirth
• Vision is a world where the right of all women to be safe
  and healthy before, during and after childbirth is upheld
• WRA’s mission is to inspire and convene advocates who
  campaign to uphold the right of all women to be safe and healthy before, during
  and after childbirth

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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