Current Affairs Update – 12th April, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important Current Affairs of 12 April, 2016. These are important for the upcoming SBI Clerk and NABARD Assistant Manager exam 2016.

• Axis Bank, India’s third largest
  private sector lender has reduced its key lending rates by 15 basis points,
  effective from April 18, after Reserve Bank of India reduced repo rate by 25
  basis points last week.
• The lender is the first bank to
  slash its MCLR (Marginal Cost based Lending Rate), benchmark rate used for
  pricing loans across all tenors. Commercial banks moved to new loan pricing regime—MCLR—from
  April 01, 2016.
• Bank, in a statement said, the
  new rate for new overnight loans will be 8.95% as against old rate of 9.1%.
  With this, the overnight MCLR is now at par with State Bank of India and HDFC
  Bank. However, the other large lender ICICI Bank’s overnight MCLR rate still
  stands at 9%.

• India and Maldives on 11 April
  2016 singed six agreements to boost the bilateral relations between the two
  countries.
• The agreements were inked in New
  Delhi during the two-day official visit of Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen
  Abdul Gayoom to India.

• Agreement for Avoidance of Double
  Taxation of income – The Agreement seeks to avoid double taxation of income
  derived from international air transport.
• Agreement for the Exchange of
  Information with respect to Taxes.
• Bilateral Agreement related to
  Orbit Frequency Coordination of “South Asia Satellite” proposed at 48oE.
• MoU for Cooperation in the area
  of conservation and restoration of ancient mosques and joint research and
  exploratory surveys in Maldives.
• MoU on cooperation in the field
  of Tourism.
• Action Plan for Defence
  Cooperation.

• The UAE’s mobile communications
  and technology provider du has partnered with India’s mobility solutions
  provider Mahindra Comviva for its value added services.
• As part of the multi-year deal,
  New Delhi-based Mahindra Comviva will manage du company’s end-to-end VAS (Value
  Added Services) business for premium services offering such as SMS alerts, WAP
  services, mobile Contest, Mobile Games, OTT app aggregation among others.
• Under VAS business management,
  Mahindra Comviva has extended services such as campaign planning, product
  management, roadmap planning, content operations and sourcing and setting up
  innovation lab along with technical assistance and monitoring. This end-to-end
  service management will further help du improve overall customer experience.

• India and the US Tuesday agreed
  “in principle” to a logistics exchange agreement to enable both
  militaries to use each other’s assets and bases for repair and replenishment of
  supplies, an issue which did not find favour with the previous UPA government.
• Ramping up bilateral defence
  ties, both sides agreed to set up a new bilateral Maritime Security Dialogue
  between officials from their respective defence and foreign affairs ministries.
• This came as India and the US
  emphasised on freedom of navigation and need for international based order, in
  an apparent reference to China’s assertiveness in South China Sea.
• Following the delegation-level
  talks at South Block here, both countries also decided to enhance on-going
  navy-to-navy discussions to cover submarine-related issues.
• Both countries will also deepen
  cooperation in maritime domain awareness by finalising a ‘White Shipping’
  agreement in the near future.

• The UNICEF and GITAM University
  signed an MoU to empower the adolescents and to address the adolescents’ issues
  in Visakhapatnam District.
• Visakhapatnam has been selected
  as one of the four districts in India to deal with adolescents’ issues. The
  other districts are Purulia, West Bengal; Sibsahar District in Assam; and East
  Singhbum in Jharkhand.
• The four states have been
  selected based on indicators related to adolescent girls and Visakhapatnam
  district was chosen as it has a high incidence of child marriage of 57.4 per
  cent and a significant number of tribal population, said UNICEF Chief Field
  Officer Ruth Leano.
• Interacting with GITAM University
  Vice-Chancellor M.S. Prasada Rao, she informed that as part of the MoU, the
  UNICEF and the GITAM will identify, develop and sustain the best possible digital
  platforms.

• Delhi government on 12 April 2016
  launched PoochhO Carpool app to help people explore carpooling options during
  the 15-day exercise during the odd-even car-rationing scheme. The second phase
  of the scheme set to begin from 15 April 2015.

• Upon downloading, the users will
  have to register themselves to find carpooling options within a radius of 1 to
  5 kilometers.
• Those having cars would be
  required to give their vehicle number. For instance, someone, who has an
  even-numbered car and wants to carpool on an odd date, can search for
  odd-numbered cars. He will immediately get a list of odd-numbered cars in the
  vicinity.

• Kerala High Court on 12 April
  2016 banned ‘noise-making’ fireworks displays between sunset and sunrise in all
  places of worship in the state. The ban order follows the Puttingal fire
  tragedy that killed more than 100 people.
• The HC also asked the state
  government whether it thinks that ‘anti-nationals’ were involved and whether
  CBI should investigate the Kollam temple tragedy.
• The temple tragedy happened when
  sparks from fireworks fell on a store room where even more firecrackers were
  kept.
• The ban order was given by the
  ‘Devaswom Bench’ comprising Justices Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Anu
  Sivaraman.

• The Information &
  Broadcasting ministry on 11 April 2016 constituted a three-member committee to
  check violations of the Supreme Court guidelines with regard to content in
  government advertising. The committee was formed in compliance with the Supreme
  Court directions dated 13 May 2015.
• The committee is headed by former
  Chief Election Commissioner B B Tandon. Apart from Tandon, the other two
  members of the committee are Rajat Sharma, Editor-in-Chief of India TV, and Piyush
  Pandey, Executive Chairman South Asia, Ogilvy and Mather.

• Union Government in the second
  week of April 2016 signed Sachin Tendulkar to endorse the I Support Skill India
  campaign.
• The step is taken in an attempt
  to reach out to the youth and build awareness on the importance of skill
  development.
• Tendulkar was signed for the
  campaign as he resonates the best with skills. He is a true global icon and
  brand that disrupted the game of cricket through his skill sets and inspired
  generation.

• Bollywood Actress Aishwarya Rai
  Bachchan on 12 April 2016 won the Global Indian of the Year 2016 award at third
  season of NRI of the Year award function held in Mumbai.
• The NRI of the Year Award
  recognises outstanding achievements of the Indian diaspora globally. From 2016
  the awards will be woven together thematically and the debut theme is
  Contemporary Crusoes.
• The awards are conferred to
  salute the spirit of the nimble-footed globetrotting Indians who have resided
  in any of the four regions of America, Asia Pacific, Middle East and UK.

• Former Chief of Army Staff (COAS)
  General (retd) Joginder Jaswant Singh on 12 April 2016 was conferred the
  highest French civilian honour, Officier de l Ordre national de la Legion d
  Honneur (Officer of the Legion of Honour).
• It is the highest civilian award
  given by the French Republic for outstanding service to France, regardless of
  the nationality of the recipients. Singh was conferred the honour by French
  Ambassador to India Francois Richier.
• He was chosen for the honour in
  recognition of his stellar role in modernising the Indian Army. His initiations
  led to robust exchanges between the Indian and French armies, which in turn
  created enduring ties and promotion of mutual understanding between the two
  countries.

• President Pranab Mukherjee
  presented remaining of the Padma Awards on 12 April 2016 at a Civil Investiture
  Ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He conferred 5 Padma Vibhushan, 11 Padma
  Bhushan and 40 Padma Shri awards.
• The Union Government announced
  Padma awards 2016 for 112 eminent persons on 26 January 2016 among them 56
  members received the awards on 28 March 2016 while remaining 56 members who
  received the awards are:

1. Dr Vasudeva Kalkunte Aatre
2. Dr Girija Devi
3. Rajanikanth
4. Ramoji Rao
5. Dr V Shanta

1. Ravindra Chandra Bhargava
2. Robert Dean Blackwill
3. Indu Jain
4. Udit Narayan Jha
5. Heinam Kanhailal
6. Sania Mirza
7. Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad
8. Dayanada Saraswati (Posthumus)
9. Ram Vanji Sutar
10. NS Ramanuja Tatacharya
11. Swami Tejomayananda

1. Priyanka Chopra
2. Salman Khan
3. SS Rajamouli (Director of
   Bahubali)
4. Veena Tandon

• The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and
  the Global Tiger Forum (GTF) on 10 April 2016 announced that after a century of
  constant decline, global wild tiger populations have increased.
• According to the most recent data,
  around 3890 tigers now exist in the wild, which is up by 22 percent from an
  estimated 3200 in 2010.
• This rise in the number of tigers
  can be attributed to increase in tiger population in tiger survey countries,
  namely India, Russia, Nepal, and Bhutan and enhanced protection of the specie
  through use of latest technology.

1. India: 2226
2. Russia: 433
3. Indonesia: 371
4. Malaysia: 250

• Royal Mail of British on 12 April
  2016 honoured playwright William Shakespeare by issuing a set of special
  postage stamps to mark the 400th anniversary of his death. They will be sold at
  8000 post offices across Britain.
• It published ten first class
  stamps featuring famous phrases from the playwright’s repertoire to mark the
  impact of his writing on the present day.
• The stamps are the latest of many
  commemoration items and events to remember Shakespeare who was born in 1564 to
  become an actor, poet and playwright as well as a businessman. Shakespeare is
  believed to have died on his birthday 23 April 1616 in Stratford-upon-Avon.

• Indus Towers, the country’s
  largest telecom tower firm, on 11 April 2016 appointed Hemant Kumar Ruia as its
  Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
• Before joining Indus Towers, Ruia
  worked as CFO at the Reliance Retail Ltd. At Reliance, he played the role of
  business partner across various brands with Reliance Retail – Reliance Fresh,
  Digital, Jewellery, Trends, Footwear and Reliance Markets.
• Ruia started his career with
  Larsen & Toubro and has since worked with ICI India Ltd and Reckitt
  Benkiser India. He also served as the CFO of Agro Tech Food Ltd, a subsidiary
  of ConAgra Foods Inc, for over seven years.

• World Homoeopathy Day was
  observed on 10 April 2016 and it was organised by India. The day commemorates
  the birth anniversary of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, a German Physician.
• Hahnemann discovered the
  principles of Homeopathy two centuries ago and developed it as a gentle healing
  system of medicine.
• The day is observed by the Liga
  Medicorum Homoeopathica Internationalis (LMHI), the international professional
  body of Homeopaths and every year it designates a country to host the day.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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