Current Affairs Update – 16th December, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 16th December, 2015. These are very Important for the upcoming IBPS Clerk Mains and LIC AAO 2016 as well as Syndicate Bank Manipal 2016 exam.

• The Supreme Court today held that RBI should take rigid
  action against those banks and financial institutions which have been indulging
  in “disreputable business practices” and said it cannot withhold
  information on defaulters and other issues covered under the RTI Act.
• “We have surmised that many financial institutions have
  resorted to such acts which are neither clean nor transparent. The RBI in
  association with them has been trying to cover up their acts from public
  scrutiny. It is the responsibility of the RBI to take rigid action against
  those banks which have been practicing disreputable business practices,” a
  bench comprising Justices M Y Eqbal and C Nagappan said.
• The apex court clarified that Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
  cannot withhold information under the “guise” of confidence or trust
  with financial institutions and is accountable to provide information sought by
  general public.
• “RBI and the Banks have sidestepped the general
  public’s demand to give the requisite information on the pretext of ‘Fiduciary
  relationship’ and ‘Economic Interest’. This attitude of the RBI will only
  attract more suspicion and disbelief in them. RBI as a regulatory authority
  should work to make the Banks accountable to their actions.
• “Furthermore, the RTI Act under Section 2(f) clearly
  provides that the inspection reports, documents etc fall under the purview of
  ‘Information’ which is obtained by the public authority (RBI) from a private
  body,” the bench said.

• The Union Ministry of Finance on 15 December 2015 raised the
  monetary limit for filing appeals to 10 lakh rupees in Income Tax Appellate
  Tribunal (ITAT) and 20 lakh rupees in High Courts. With this, the ministry
  seeks to reduce tax litigation by about 50 percent.
• The Ministry also decided to withdraw appeals filed by I-T
  department in ITAT and High Courts for cases involving tax effect of below the
  new monetary limit. There are 75000 such cases pending in ITAT and HC.
• However, he added the cases involving substantive question
  of law would be pursued irrespective of the monetary limit.

• The World Bank on 15 December 2015 approved a 1.5 billion US
  dollar loan for the ambitious Clean India Campaign (Swachh Bharat Mission). The
  loan was granted to support the government in its efforts to ensure all
  citizens in rural areas have access to improved sanitation and end the practice
  of open defecation by 2019.
• The loan will be used for Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM)
  Support Operation Project.

• The project will promote behaviour change among rural
  communities and help accelerate results in India’s states by giving them
  performance-based incentives.
• A national sample-survey of rural sanitation will be
  conducted every year by independent third-party agencies.
• Based on the survey findings, the World Bank will release
  funds to the Government of India.  The
  Union Government will in turn pass on the funds to the states, based on their
  performance on certain parameters every year.

• The country’s largest software exporter TCS has been chosen
  by German aviation major Deutsche Lufthansa AG to set up a test factory to
  support its IT transformation initiative in a “multi-million dollar” deal.
• TCS will provide testing services and help improve the
  quality of services of Lufthansa’s technology operations, the Tata Group
  company said in a statement.
• It will pioneer and manage the enterprise testing services
  by setting up a test factory model across Lufthansa to streamline and
  standardise their testing processes, reduce capital expenditure and implement
  next generation services.

• The government has set up a judicial commission headed by
  former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Ajit Prakash Shah to look into the
  findings of the international consultant DeGolyer & MacNaughton in the gas
  dispute between Reliance Industries (RIL) and state-owned Oil and Natural Gas
  Corporation (ONGC).
• The consultant had said 11 billion cubic meter (bcm) of gas
  may have flown from ONGC’s Godavari PML and KG-D5 blocks to RIL’s KG-D6 block
  in the Krishna Godavari basin off the Andhra coast.
• While D&M did not delve into the aspect of financial
  value of the gas migration, the volume of gas belonging to ONGC works out to
  around $1.7 billion (Rs 11,300 crore at current exchange rate) at a gas price
  of $4.2 per million british thermal units (mmbtu).

• Online marketplace Snapdeal.com on 15 December 2015 launched
  its mobile website in Hindi and Telugu language. With this platform, Snapdeal
  will now cater to 270 million users in India.
• The multilingual platform will be made available to users on
  the mobile website only. This platform goes hand in hand with Snaplite
  platform, which allows users to access the mobile website in areas where
  internet connectivity is poor. Snaplite is Snapdeal’s website for mobile
  browser.
• Based on the experience and customer feedback, the company
  will plan to roll the multilingual platform to other platforms such as the
  mobile app as well as its desktop website.

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 16 December
  2015 successfully launched 6 satellites of Singapore into Space. The satellites
  were launched using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C29 from the
  first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikotta in
  Andhra Pradesh.

• TeLEOS-One: It is the major payload and is a remote sensing
  satellite weighing 400 kg. It’s mission life is of five years and It can be put
  to use for disaster monitoring and urban planning for the city state.
• Along with TeLEOS-1, the five co-passenger satellites
  launched are VELOX-CI (123 kg) micro-satellite; VELOX-II (13 kg) 6U-Cubesat
  technology demonstrator; Athenoxat-1, a technology demonstrator nano-satellite;
  Kent Ridge-1 (78 kg), a micro-satellite; and Galassia (3.4 kg ) 2U-Cubesat.
• While the Velox-C1 and Kent Ridge-1 are the microsatellites,
  the remaining four are macro satellites.

• The Supreme Court (SC) on 16 December 2015 banned the
  registration of all diesel SUVs and luxury cars with engine capacity of 2000 cc
  or more in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) region till 31 March 2016. The
  landmark ruling was aimed at curbing the alarming pollution level in Delhi.

• All trucks not bound for the Delhi-NCR region must be
  diverted away to National Highway 8.
• Those carrying goods for Delhi will have to shell out a
  steep environment compensation charge (ECC) that is 2600 rupees for big trucks
  and 1400 rupees for light commercial vehicles.
• It also asked all the private cabs operating in the city to
  ply through Compressed Natural Gas or CNG by 1 March 2016.

• Vijay Diwas was observed across the country on 16 December
  2015. On this day, nation remembers martyrs, who laid down their lives during
  Indo-Pak War of 1971.
• On this occasion, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Army
  Chief D S Suhag, Navy Chief R K Dhowan and Air Chief Arup Raha remembered
  martyrs and paid tributes at Amar Jawan Jyoti in New Delhi.
• On 16 December 1971, General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, Chief
  of Pakistan forces along with 93000 troops had surrendered unconditionally to the
  allied forces after the defeat of Pakistan in the war.

• Four Indian boxers, namely Shiva Thapa, Mandeep Jangra,
  Gaurav Bidhuri and Sumit Sangwan on 15 December 2015 were selected by the
  International Olympics Committee (IOC) for a scholarship.
• Under the scholarship, the boxers will get a sum of 800 US
  dollars (about 53 thousand rupees) every month till August 2016, provided they
  qualify for the Olympic Games. The will also get an additional 5000 US Dollars
  (about 3 lakh 34 thousand rupees) to cover their transportation cost for
  participation in the Olympic qualifying events.
• Shiv Thapa is a World Championships’ bronze-medalist in 56
  kilogram segment and Mandeep Jangra is a Commonwealth Games silver-medalist in
  69 kilogram segment.

• The state-owned Coal India has become the title-sponsor for
  the next three editions of the Hockey India League beginning 2016. Promoted by
  Hockey India, the IPL-styled HIL had three editions in the past beginning 2013.
• The tournament had six franchises teams from Delhi, Uttar
  Pradesh, Mumbai, Ranchi, Odisha and Punjab. Except Delhi and Punjab, the rest
  of the teams are from coal-bearing States.
• According to a CIL release, the company sealed a deal with
  Hockey India to sponsor the 2016 edition of the league at a total consideration
  of Rs. 14.73 crore. This includes Rs. 13 crore sponsorship fee. The rest will
  go to prize money for best goal of the match, most valuable player and others.
• The sponsorship fee will increase to Rs. 14 crore and Rs. 15
  crore respectively for 2017 and 2018. Star Sports has broadcast rights for the
  tournament.

• Green Peace India on 15 December 2015 released a report on
  National Air Quality Index (NAQI) of 17 cities. The report is the first
  analysis of air pollution levels in Indian cities carried out by Green Peace
  using the NAQI system.
• As per the report, Delhi was listed as the most polluted
  city in the world, while 13 Indian cities were figured in the list of 20 most
  polluted cities on the planet. The 13 cities were among the 17 countries
  surveyed by the Green Peace.
• The report is in addition to a World Health Organisation
  (WHO) report that estimated that outdoor air pollution caused 3.7 million
  deaths worldwide in 2012.
• Delhi was most polluted followed by Patna.

• The Supreme Court on 16 December 2015 appointed a retired
  judge Justice Virendra Singh as Uttar Pradesh’s Lokayukta or anti-corruption
  ombudsman. A bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice NV Ramana examined a
  list of five nominees and ordered for the appointment right away.
• It is the first time that the apex court exercised its
  powers to appoint a Lokayutka, after repeated orders to the state that it must
  appoint a new person in the position. 
  The Uttar Pradesh Government had given the present Lokayukta, Justice NK
  Mehrotra, multiple extensions, after his term ended more than a year ago.

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