Current Affairs Update – 14th April, 2016

• Union Road,
  Transport and Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari and South Korea
  Oceans and Fisheries Minister Kim Young Suk signed a Memorandum of
  Understanding (MoU) on 13 April 2016 in Mumbai.
• This MoU is for
  cooperation and mutual assistance between India and Republic of Korea in port
  related matters and their developments.
• The Union
  Cabinet approved the proposal of the Shipping Ministry for signing of this MoU
  on 6 April 2016.

• It will help
  both countries to encourage and facilitate the development of ports, port
  related industry, and maritime relationship
• It will
  encourage cooperation in the tasks of sharing of technology, experiences in the
  fields of port development and operation.
• It will also
  help in exchange of information on construction, building, engineering and
  related aspects in the field of port development

• A memorandum of
  understanding (MoU) has been signed between MicroSave and NPCI (National
  Payments Corporation of India) to initiate collaboration to support the Jan
  Dhan Yojana, boost digital transactions and to accelerate creation of less-cash
  economy in India through RuPay, IMPS, AePS and UPI.
• NPCI will be
  working with commercial banks and will be supported by MicroSave in this
  programme.
• NPCI has
  transformed digital payments through world class products and services like
  NFS, NACH IMPS, APBS and made them accessible to the common man through RuPay
  and AePB platforms. With UPI, BBPS and other building blocks of the India
  Stack, payments are likely to be further transformed.
• India is well on
  its way to create a proven blueprint for the world for micro payments, nano
  credit and a host of financial services for the masses

• India was the
  world’s largest remittance recipient in 2015 despite experiencing a $1 billion
  drop from the previous year, the first decline in its remittances since 2009,
  the World Bank has said.
• India retained
  its top spot in 2015, attracting about $69 billion in remittances, down from
  $70 billion in 2014, the World Bank said in its annual report ‘Migration and
  Development Brief’.
• Other large
  remittance recipients in 2015 were China, with $64 billion, the Philippines
  ($28 billion), Mexico ($25 billion) and Nigeria ($21 billion).
• “Remittances to
  India, the (South Asian) region’s largest economy and the world’s largest
  remittance recipient, decreased by 2.1% in 2015 to $68.9 billion. This marks
  the first decline in remittances since 2009,” the World Bank report said.
• Officially
  recorded remittances to developing countries amounted to $431.6 billion in
  2015, an increase of 0.4% over $430 billion in 2014. The growth pace in 2015
  was the slowest since the global financial crisis, the report said.

• Oil and Natural
  Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) on 14 April 2016 took over the infrastructure of
  abandoned Tapti gas field in western offshore from its joint venture partners
  Reliance Industries and BG.
• This transfer of
  assets in India is first of its kind.

• It would save
  time for the company and an investment worth up to 4000 crore rupees to bring
  the neighbouring Daman block into production before the schedule.
• ONGC planned to
  advance gas producing to the August-September period with the infrastructure in
  place.
• It also planned
  to lay a pipeline from the Daman field to the Tapti process platform, which is
  connected by a 70-km pipeline to the company’s facility at Hazira.
• It committed an
  investment of over 8600 crore rupees for the Daman and C-26 cluster projects.
• The two projects
  are expected to produce 11 million cubic meters of gas and 11000 barrels of
  condensate per day at their peak.

• The term Brexit,
  made with combination of two words ‘Britain’ and ‘Exit’, was in news in second
  week of April 2016. It came in news after International Monetary Fund (IMF) on
  12 April 2016 warned of risks of Brexit or Britain’s exit from the European
  Union (EU) amidst cutting the global growth forecast.
• IMF said if the
  voters of Britain opt to leave the EU that the referendum could do severe
  regional and global damage by disrupting established trading relations.
• Brexit is a
  political aim of some advocacy groups including individuals and political
  parties like justice secretary, Michael Gove, and London’s mayor Boris Johnson
  in the United Kingdom (UK), who believe that Britain leaving the EU will be in
  favour of them.

• PM Narendra Modi
  on 14 April 2016 launched ‘Gram Uday Se Bharat Uday Abhiyan’ at Mhow, Madhya
  Pradesh. The Abhiyan (campaign) was launched on the 125th birth anniversary of
  Babasaheb Ambedkar at his birthplace to strengthen Panchayati Raj in villages
  and ensure social harmony in villages.
• The campaign
  also seeks to promote rural development and foster farmers’ welfare and
  livelihoods to poor.
• The 11-day
  campaign (from 14 April to 24 April 2016) will focus on generating nationwide
  efforts on promoting the aim of the programme. The campaign will be run jointly
  by the Ministries of Rural Development, Agriculture, Social Justice, Labour and
  Information and Broadcasting along with the States.

• It will be
  conducted across the country, beginning with the Birth Anniversary of Dr. BR
  Ambedkar on 14 April 2016, culminating in “National Panchayati Raj Day” on 24
  April 2016.
• The aim of this
  campaign is to make nationwide efforts to strengthen Panchayati Raj and through
  it, boost social harmony in the villages, promote rural development and foster
  farmers’ welfare & livelihoods of the poor.
• Prime Minister
  will address all Gram Sabhas on 24 April 2016 and the address will be telecast
  and aired to all villages across the country, and villagers will gather
  together to hear it.
• During the
  campaign, various Panchayat level and national level programmes will be held
  across the country.

• Nuclear capable
  undersea ballistic missile, code named K-4, was successfully test fired on 31
  March 2016 from an undisclosed location in the Bay of Bengal. The test was
  conducted nearly 45 nautical miles away from Vishakhapatnam coast in Andhra
  Pradesh.
• The trial was
  carried out with the support of the personnel of Strategic Forces Command (SFC)
  while the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) provided all
  logistics.
• The missile was
  fired from 20-meter deep and covered more than 700 km before zeroing on the
  target with high accuracy reaching close to zero Circular Error Probability
  (CEP).

• Maharashtra
  Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on 13 April 2016 launched ‘Mission Drinking
  Water.
• The mission was
  launched in the backdrop of recurring droughts and severe water crisis in
  Marathwada and Vidarbha region of the state.

• The government
  has adopted a two-pronged strategy to scale up drought mitigation through
  Mission Drinking Water.
• The mission
  ensures changes in crop pattern to sustain wholistic development, which
  includes greater investments in agriculture and industries.
• Every remote
  village in drought districts had been provided a roadmap and adequate budget.

• Industry body
  Internet and Mobile Association of India, has appointed Paytm founder Vijay
  Shekhar Sharma, chairman of its the newly formed payments banks group.
• Vodafone India
  business head(M-Pesa)Suresh Sethi, will be the vice-chairman of the group.
• IAMAI, which
  includes global companies such as Google, Facebook and LinkedIn as members,
  also counts six out of the ten payments banks’ primary licensees as members.
• The Reserve Bank
  of India had granted payment licences in August last year, to companies
  including Paytm, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.
• The business
  potential from serving millions of unbanked Indians to further the financial
  inclusion initiative of the government and the Reserve Bank had attracted most
  of the top business houses.

• Kalash
  (Kalasha), are a Dardic indigenous people residing in the Chitral District of
  Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
• The community
  considered unique because in Pakistan they are the smallest religious minority
  with a population of around 3000. They speak their own Kalasha language and
  celebrate their gods through music, dance and alcohol.
• According to the
  Kalash Peoples Development Network (KPDN), the Kalash who ruled Chitral
  centuries ago maintained their separate cultural traditions and their language
  Kalasha belongs to the Dardic family of the Indo-Iranian branch.

• New Zealand’s
  Kane Williamson on 13 April 2016 was named the Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in
  the World for the year 2015.
• On the other
  hand, White Ferns captain Suzie Bates was named the Leading Women’s Cricketer
  in the World for 2015.
• For the first
  time two New Zealand players – Williamson and Brendon McCullum – were named
  among the Wisden Almanack’s Five Cricketers of the Year. England’s Ben Stokes
  and Jonny Bairstow, and Australia’s Steve Smith completed the list of Five Cricketers
  of the Year.
• Williamson and
  Bates were chosen by Wisden editor Lawrence Booth for the award, which has been
  handed out in various formats since 1889.

• Renowned British
  playwright Arnold Wesker was died on 14 April 2016 with Parkinson’s disease. He
  was 83.
• He wrote more
  than 40 plays that were translated into 18 languages, first gained prominence
  with a trilogy about the lives of Jewish socialist intellectuals: Chicken Soup
  with Barley (1958), Roots (1959) and I’m Talking about Jerusalem (1960).
• He was known as
  one of the angry young men of the British stage in the 1950s, the others
  writers who got that tag were Osborne and Brendan Behan.

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