Current Affairs Update – 12 to 15 November, 2016

Exampundit.in

7 years ago

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here are the important Current Affairs update from 12 to 15 November, 2016. These are important for the upcoming IBPS Clerk Mains, IBPS RRB OS-I and Other Bank and Insurance Exams.

Current Affairs at a Glance – 12 to 15 November, 2016

The State Bank of India (SBI) launched the
first set of newly issued 500 rupee notes in their Bhopal branch on 13 November
2016.
India
and Japan signed ten agreements to boost the bilateral cooperation between the
two nations. The agreements were inked on 11 November 2016 in
presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo
Abe.
As part of its efforts to
continue the global transition to zero-and-low carbon energy sources, the United States (US) has announced two financial
projects worth 95 million US dollars for India. The projects
announced on 14 November 2016 aims at bringing more energy-efficient appliances
to rural sector of the country.
Employees State Insurance Corporation
(ESIC) launched ‘Kahin
Bhi-Kabhi Bhi’ medical facilities
for its beneficiaries of Delhi. Kahin Bhi means any dispensary/Hospital and
Kabhi Bhi means anytime. The order covers all diesel vehicles older than 15
years. Along with barring them from the
roads, the NGT has also banned them from being parked in the capital.
Indian Navy Sailing Vessel (INSV) Mhadei with an all-women crew was flagged off from Goa
to Cape Town, South Africa. The vessel was flagged-off at the Boat Pool of INS
Mandovi on 9 November 2016 by Rear Admiral Monty Khanna, Commandant Naval War
College.
Meng Hongwei, a top-level
Chinese Security Minister was elected as the president of the International
Crime fighting and police cooperation organization (Interpol). Meng will serve
as President until 2020.
Narinder Batra, chief of Hockey
India was elected as the new president of International Hockey Federation (FIH)
on 12 November 2016 at the 45th FIH Congress held in Dubai.
The moon came closer to Earth
than at any other time since 1948. The ‘supermoon’ reached its brightest in Asia on 14
November 2016. The Moon was closest, only 2 lakh 21 thousand 524
miles (356509 km) away at 11:21 GMT.
Indian golfer Aditi Ashok on 13
November 2016 became the first Indian woman to win a Ladies European Tour title
by clinching the Hero Women’s Indian Open.
World Pneumonia Day 2016 was observed on 12 November 2016
The World Diabetes Day 2016 was observed across the world on 14 November

Finance/Banking –

First set of new 500 banknotes rolled out in SBI branches

The State Bank of India (SBI)
launched the first set of newly issued 500 rupee notes in their Bhopal branch
on 13 November 2016.
The new notes are expected to
help control the havoc caused by demonitisation of high-denomination currency
and ease pressure on banks’ cash position.
For SBI, which was only handing
out 100 rupee notes until now, the introduction of new 500s will definitely help
fasten their work process.

Design Elements of the New 500
Rupee Note

Stone grey in colour, the 63mm x
150mm note has Mahatma Gandhi’s image on one side and Red Fort on the other.
It bears a guarantee clause and
the signature of Reserve Bank of India Governor, Urjit Patel.
It has Swachh Bharat logo printed
on the reverse.
Its security thread will change
from green to blue when tilted.
It has Ashoka pillar emblem on
the right.
It also has the numeral value of
500 written in Devnagari script.

India, Japan signed 10 agreements including nuclear deal, space,
agriculture

India and Japan signed ten
agreements to boost the bilateral cooperation between the two nations. The
agreements were inked on 11 November 2016 in presence of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.
Prime Minister was on a three-day
visit (10 November to 12 November 2016) to Japan.

Agreements/MoUs that were
inked and exchanged includes

Agreement for Cooperation in the
Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy: The present Agreement provides for bilateral
cooperation in the field of Nuclear Energy.
Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC)
on the Manufacturing Skill Transfer Promotion Program: The MoC that envisages
to train 30000 Indian youth in the Japanese style manufacturing in the next 10
years was inked between the Union Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan.
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
for Cooperation in the Field of Outer Space: The present MoU inked between ISRO
and JAXA provide for cooperation in satellite navigation, planetary exploration
and space industry promotion.
MoU on Mutual Collaboration in
Marine and Earth Science and Technology: This MoU aims at promoting cooperation
in the areas of joint survey and research.
MoC in the Field of Agriculture
and Food Related Industry: It aims at deepening the bilateral cooperation in
the fields of agriculture and food industries that includes food value chain
networking and protecting Geographical Indication (GI) of agriculture products.
MoU for Transport and Urban
Development: The pact seeks to enable cooperation between National Investment
and Infrastructure Fund Limited and Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment
Corporation.
MoU in the Field of Textiles: The
MoU that aims to improve the quality of Indian Textiles for conformity
assessment for Japanese market was signed between Textiles Committee of Union
Ministry of Textiles and Japan Textiles Products Quality and Technology Centre
(QTEC).
MoC in the Field of Cultural
Exchange: It seeks to provide a framework for bilateral cooperation in the
field of Sports ahead of the forthcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics & Paralympics.
MOU for cooperation in the fields
of academics, business, cultural cooperation, disaster management and
environmental protection: It was signed between the State Government of Gujarat
and Hyogo Prefectural Government, Japan.

India, US launched USD 95 million clean energy projects

As part of its efforts to
continue the global transition to zero-and-low carbon energy sources, the
United States (US) has announced two financial projects worth 95 million US
dollars for India. The projects announced on 14 November 2016 aims at bringing
more energy-efficient appliances to rural sector of the country.
The White House in its statement
said the US has committed 75 million dollars in Overseas Private Investment
Corporation (OPIC) financing for renewable energy projects in India. The 75
million US dollar OPIC, sponsored by ReNew Power Projects, is for a
utility-scale PV project in Telangana.
Rest 20 million dollars will be
used to launch a partnership with the philanthropic sector to bring more
efficient appliances to Indian villages. It is a part of 250 million facilities
committed by the United States to support India’s 400 MW new solar power
projects in different states of India.
The process, known as the
US-India Clean Energy Finance program (USICEF), will address a key financing
gap in the Indian distributed solar market by funding early-stage project
preparatory work. It is anticipated that the USICEF will unlock up to 400
million US dollars in long-term debt financing from OPIC and private sector
investors.

India –

Union Government launches ‘Kahin Bhi-Kabhi Bhi’ medical facilities for
ESIC beneficiaries of Delhi

Employees State Insurance Corporation
(ESIC) launched ‘Kahin Bhi-Kabhi Bhi’ medical facilities for its beneficiaries
of Delhi. Kahin Bhi means any dispensary/Hospital and Kabhi Bhi means anytime.
The initiative Kahin Bhi-Kabhi
Bhi’ was launched by Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour and
Employment, Bandaru Dattatreya.
With this initiative, all the
network of dispensaries of Delhi has been made accessible to insured persons
and their family members all the time. The initiative aims at saving time of
the beneficiaries as well as the effort that he/she makes to avail the
services.
Besides, Bandaru Dattatreya also
inaugurated the ‘06 bedded Day Care Unit’ of ESI Dispensary in Sector-7, Dwarka
in Delhi. With this, the ESIC Dispensary Dwarka turned up to be a complete unit
in itself with several medical facilities. The facilities available in Dwarka
dispensary includes General OPD Care, Family Welfare Services, full time
Laboratory and X-Ray and Diagnostic care.

2 Lakh diesel vehicles go off road in Delhi

The order covers all diesel
vehicles older than 15 years. Along with
barring them from the roads, the NGT has also banned them from being parked in
the capital.
The transport department has
created a list of deregistered vehicles. The number totals to about 1.91 lakh.
The list has been sent to the
traffic police along with instructions to impound them immediately.

INSV Mhadei Flagged Off with an all-women crew

Indian Navy Sailing Vessel (INSV)
Mhadei with an all-women crew was flagged off from Goa to Cape Town, South
Africa. The vessel was flagged-off at the Boat Pool of INS Mandovi on 9
November 2016 by Rear Admiral Monty Khanna, Commandant Naval War College.
The vessel that will reach Cape
Town on 15 December 2016 will be participating in the “Cape to Rio Race” (Cape
Town to Rio de Janeiro). The race will start from Cape Town on 26 December
2016.

Gujarat government to open generic medicine stores for poor patients

Gujarat government has decided to
start Deendayal generic medicine stores to sell generic medicines. These stores
will remain open 24 hours and sell around 1000 generic drugs to the poor
patients at 40 to 80 percent lower rates.
As per the decision announced on
10 November 2016, in the first phase, 52 stores will be opened in cities and
towns. In a statement, Minister of State for Health, Shankar Chaudhary said,
trained staff will operate these computerised stores.
In the second phase, the number
of drugs will be increased to 2000.
These stores will also be opened
at tehsil level.
The stores will also operate on a
franchise model.
Generic, branded generic,
over-the-counter medicines and surgical implants will be available at stores.
Besides, the state health
minister Shankar Chaudhary also launched a Mobile application named ‘G-Dava’.

Appointments –

Meng Hongwei elected as Interpol President

Meng Hongwei, a top-level Chinese
Security Minister was elected as the president of the International Crime
fighting and police cooperation organization (Interpol). Meng will serve as
President until 2020.
With this appointment, Meng
Hongwei becomes the first official from China to take the post. He has
previously served as the head of Interpol China. At the time of this
appointment, he was holding the position of China’s Vice Minister for public
security.
He was sworn into his new
position on 10 November 2016 at the closing of the organisation’s 85th general
assembly in Bali, Indonesia.

Narinder Batra elected as International Hockey Federation’s President

Narinder Batra, chief of Hockey
India was elected as the new president of International Hockey Federation (FIH)
on 12 November 2016 at the 45th FIH Congress held in Dubai. Amoung 118 voters,
only 110 voted while eight chose not to vote.
With the win, Batra became the
12th president of FIH and the first non-European to take over the post in the
International body’s 92-year-old history.

Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain quits

Twitter on 9 November 2016
announced that Adam Bain, its Chief Operating Officer (COO), plans to leave the
company.
In August 2016, Bain had
celebrated his six-year anniversary at Twitter. Over his time at the company,
he helped build Twitter’s ad efforts from the ground up. He was once considered
a top candidate to be the chief executive of the company before Jack Dorsey got
the job.
After Bain’s decision, Twitter’s
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Anthony Noto will be promoted to the position of
COO.