Current Affairs Update – 11th March, 2015


        Today’s Topics

   •  Finance/Economy
   •  Business
   •  India
   •  World
   •  Sports
   •  Appointments
   •  Obituaries



Finance/Economy
Railways, LIC sign
MoU to set up projects worth Rs. 1.5 trillion

  • Just within fifteen days of presenting the Railway Budget
    2015-16, the Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu fulfilled yet another
    commitment of his Budget announcement by achieving the highest ever funding of Rs
    1.5 lakh crore for Railways.
  • A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the
    Ministry of Railways and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). Under this MoU, LIC
    will make available to the Ministry of Railways/its entities a Financial
    Assistance with a limit of 1,50,000 crore over the next five years for
    implementing Railway projects. The Financial Assistance will be available from
    the Financial Year 2015-16.
  • In his Budget Speech, Suresh Prabhu had announced his
    intention of meeting a part of the total Plan Budget of Rs 1,00,011 crore for
    the financial year 2015-16, through extra budgetary resources, such as market
    borrowings by tapping low cost long-term funds. The challenge has been
    successfully met in a substantial measure by the signing of this MoU for
    mobilizing resources.
  • There would be a five-year moratorium on interest and loan
    repayment and the rest of the terms would be negotiated while signing the
    finance assistance agreement.

IMF Ups India Growth
Forecast to 7.2% for Current Fiscal

  • Terming Indian economy a “bright spot” on the
    global economic landscape, IMF today raised its growth forecast for the current
    fiscal to 7.2 per cent, even as it called for steps to revitalise the
    investment cycle and accelerate structural reforms in the country.
  • In its annual assessment report for the country, the
    International Monetary Fund (IMF) also said India has emerged as one of the
    fastest-growing big emerging market economies and the growth rate would further
    accelerate to 7.5 per cent in the next fiscal, 2015-16.
  • The new forecasts have taken into account a revised methodology
    adopted by India earlier this year for calculating the GDP figures, about which
    IMF said that the country has “improved the way it measures economic
    output”.
  • The new methodology, however, has been termed as ‘puzzling’
    initially by some including Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and RBI
    Governor Raghuram Rajan. Incidentally, both Subramanian and Rajan have been
    with IMF in the past.
  • Last year, IMF had forecasted a growth rate of 5.6 per cent
    for the current fiscal, and 6.4 per cent for the next.

Business
Union Ministry of
Corporate Affairs released the data of top ten Corporate of 2014
  • Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 10 March 2015 released
    data of top ten Corporate of 2014. The pack of top ten corporate comprises of
    eight public sector undertakings and two private sector undertakings.
  • In term of assets, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is the
    largest corporate with assets worth 3.68 lakh crore rupees. RIL is followed by
    state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) with assets worth 2.52 lakh crore
    rupees and mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) with assets
    worth 2.25 lakh crore rupees.
  • Other entities in the top ten are Power Finance Corporation
    (4), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) (5), Rural Electrification
    Corporation (devil), Power Grid Corporation (7), LIC Housing Finance (music),
    Steel Authority of India Limited (9) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (10).

India
Court summons former
PM as accused in Hindalco coal allocation case

  • Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, industrialist Kumar
    Mangalam Birla, ex-coal secretary P C Parakh and three others were today
    summoned as accused by a special court in a coal scam case pertaining to the
    allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005 and asked to appear
    before it on April 8.
  • Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar summoned the six accused
    on April 8 for the alleged offences punishable under Sections 120-B (criminal
    conspiracy) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker,
    merchant or agent) of the IPC and under the provisions of the Prevention of
    Corruption Act (PCA).
  • The court also summoned Hindalco, its officials Shubhendu
    Amitabh and D Bhattacharya as accused in the case.
  • If convicted, the accused are liable to be sentenced for a
    maximum of life imprisonment.
  • The case pertains to the allocation of Talabira-II coal
    block in Odisha to Hindalco in 2005, when the then Prime Minister Singh was
    holding the coal portfolio.

India, Seychelles
Sign Four Pacts to Boost Security Cooperation

  • Seeking to expand its footprint in the strategic Indian
    Ocean, India today agreed to help Seychelles in mapping its hydrology reserves
    under four agreements signed during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
    who launched a coastal surveillance radar project to boost security cooperation
    with the island nation.
  • The Prime Minister also announced that India will give a
    second Dronier aircraft to Seychelles and provide free of cost visas for three
    months for its citizens and making it available to them on arrival.
  • After one-to-one and delegation-level talks with Seychelles
    President James Alix Michel, Modi, the first Indian Prime Minister to visit
    Seychelles in 34 years, also said they underlined the importance of
    comprehensive cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.

Parliament Nod to
Allow E-Rickshaws in Delhi
  • Parliament today gave nod to a Bill seeking to pave the way
    for plying of e-rickshaws on the roads of the national capital region, with the
    government considering a proposal to provide credit to buy these battery-
    operated vehicles.
  • The Rajya Sabha passed the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill,
    2015 to amend the 1988 Act by a voice vote. The measure was adopted by the Lok
    Sabha on March 3.
  • Replying to the debate on the Motor Vehicles (Amendment)
    Bill, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said not only would
    the poor benefit from it but it would give a boost to ‘Make in India’
    initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the battery-operated vehicle was
    now being manufactured indigenously.
  • The vehicle, which was at one point being shipped in from
    China, would not be imported any longer as a “Pune-based company is now
    manufacturing the vehicles. It will be made in India as part of the ‘Make in
    India’ initiative.”

WWF, Tata Capital to
help save 3 endangered species

  • ​WWF India and Tata Capital Housing Finance Ltd have
    announced a partnership to support conservation programmes for three critically
    endangered species — the great Indian bustard, greater one-horned rhinoceros,
    and red panda.
  • Both the organisations will jointly raise awareness, conduct
    biological surveys, and work with local communities to reduce their dependence
    on forest resources, Tata Capital said in a release.
  • The target areas include the Desert National Park in
    Jaisalmer and Barmer (Rajasthan) for the great Indian bustard,
    Laokhowa-Borachapori Wildlife Sanctuary (Assam) for the greater one-horned
    rhinoceros and Shergaon (Arunachal Pradesh) for the red panda.​

World
Obama names David
Hale as ambassador to Pakistan

  • U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated veteran diplomat
    David Hale as the next ambassador to Pakistan.
  • A career foreign service official, Mr.Hale is currently the
    U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, a position he has held since 2013.
  • Mr. Obama named him for the post on Tuesday and if confirmed
    by the Senate, Mr. Hale would replace Cameron Munter.
  • Mr. Hale previously served as the Special Envoy for Middle
    East Peace from 2011 to 2013, and as Deputy Special Envoy for Middle East Peace
    from 2009 to 2011.
  • Hale served as U.S. Ambassador to Jordan from 2005 to 2008.

Three
Indian-Americans Win Medals at Intel Science Competition
  • Three Indian-Americans have won medals at the prestigious
    Intel Science Talent Search for the year 2015, and alongside other winners,
    today they will get a chance to meet President Barack Obama at the White House.
  • The trio, Saran Prembabu, Shashwat Kishore and Anvita Gupta
    yesterday won medals at the competition, however none of the three could get
    the top award, which has been dominated in previous years by Indian-Americans.
  • Noah Golowich, Andrew Jin and Michael Hofmann Winer, each
    received the first-place award of USD 150,000 at the Intel science competition,
    a program of Society for Science & the Public, the organisers said.
  • The top winners and other finalists from across the US took
    home awards totalling over USD 1 million.

Visit Britain roped
in Saif Ali Khan to promote Bollywood Britain campaign

  • Visit Britain, the National tourism agency of Britain on 10
    March 2015 roped in Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan to promote an India-centric
    campaign, Bollywood Britain.
  • The agency through this campaign wants to focus on locations
    featured in Hindi films to attract more Indian visitors. It also wants to
    popularise Wales, Scotland and other destinations, which are not so popular
    among Indian tourists.
  • With this, Khan has joined the list of Indian celebrities
    promoting tourist destinations. Other Bollywood actors promoting tourist
    destinations include Amitabh Bachchan (Gujarat), Akshay Kumar (Canada) and Dia
    Mirza (Japan).

Sports
Kumar Sangakkara
created history by scoring four successive centuries in a Cricket World Cup

  • Sri Lanka’s batsman Kumar Sangakkara on 11 March 2015
    entered the record books by scoring four consecutive centuries in a Cricket
    World Cup. He achieved the feat when he scored 124 runs against Scotland in the
    Pool A match of the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Hobart, New Zealand.
  • With this, he became the first cricketer to achieve this
    feat in the One Day Internationals (ODI) history.
  • The 37 year old left-hander’s 124 runs in the match helped
    Sri Lanka to post 364 runs victory target for Scotland.
  • With five World Cup centuries, Sangakarra is second only to
    the record of six centuries held by Sachin Tendulkar.

Appointments
Pramod Kumar Gupta
appointed OSD to MoS textiles
  • Pramod Kumar Gupta has been appointed as Officer on Special
    Duty (OSD) to Minister of State for Textiles, Santosh Kumar Gangwar.
  • Gupta is presently serving as a Senior Manager in Engineers
    India Limited.
  • He has been appointed for a period of about one year and six
    months or on coterminous basis with the minister’s tenure, said an order issued
    by the Department of Personnel and Training.
  • Officer on Special Duty (OSD) is an IAS officer who in on
    central deputation and works in a particular ministry.

1998 Asian Games
gold-medallist Dingko Singh included in National Boxing Selection panel
  • 1998 Asian Games gold-medallist Dingko Singh on 10 March
    2015 was included in National Boxing Selection panel. The goal of the panel
    will be to pick a bunch that can deliver medals at the Olympics.
  • Currently, Dingko Singh is working as a coach at the Imphal
    centre of the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
  • The 10-member selection panel will be headed by Arjuna awardee
    Gopal N Devang and it comprises of few Boxing India officials and all the
    national coaches as additional invitees. The selection panel will remain in
    office till 2016.

Obituaries

Veteran Sports
Journalist K Baskaran Dead
  • Veteran sports journalist K Baskaran, who had carved a niche
    for himself in covering Indian football for four decades, died here today after
    a bout of illness.
  • He was 80 and is survived by his wife, a son and three
    daughters.
  • Baskaran, a dedicated sports scribe, had reported on most
    games in his long career working for Free Press Journal, Indian Express,
    Newsday (defunct) and then the Times of India where he spent the better part of
    his career — lasting more than 25 years — before being superannuated.
  • He also authored a book on football, Wills Book of Football.

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This post was last modified on July 20, 2019 12:10 pm