Current Affairs Update – 17 Oct, 2014

• ·        
  The Reserve Bank has signed a pact with Central Bank of Kenya for
  exchange of information and supervisory cooperation.
• ·        
  With this, RBI has signed 22 such MoUs and one Letter for Supervisory
  Co-operation, it added.
• ·        
  The MoU was signed by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and Central Bank of Kenya
  Governor Njuguna Ndung’u.
• ·        
  The RBI has been signing the MoUs and Letter for Supervisory
  Co-operation with supervisors of other countries to promote greater
  co-operation and share supervisory information among the authorities.

• ·        
  The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) will
  commence direct lending to food processing industries in mega food parks and
  designated food parks by end of October. The Bank has set up a fund with a
  corpus of Rs 2,000 crore for this purpose, a top bank official said.
• ·        
  He said the guidelines have been approved and will be released at the
  stakeholders? meeting in Mumbai on October 29, 2014. “Once guidelines are
  released, we will start accepting proposals from the state governments and the
  private companies and issue sanctions thereafter,” he said.
• ·        
  Under the new Fund, Nabard would provide loans for a period of seven
  years at an attractive interest rate of 7.8 per cent to 8 per cent. Nabard
  would provide loans for large food chains and food processing units in a food
  park and also for creation of infrastructure at food parks, he said.
• ·        
  However, he said, considering short period available in the current
  fiscal, disbursals might spill over to the next financial year. The government
  would provide funds every year for this purpose, which will be announced during
  the next budget, Bhanwala said.

• ·        
  Kerala-based Federal Bank has won the IDRBT Banking Technology
  Excellence award for 2013-14 in four out of total five categories in the
  mid-sized lenders segment.
• ·        
  Federal Bank was adjudged as the ‘best bank’ for use of Technology for
  Financial Inclusion, Social Media and Mobile Banking, Business Intelligence
  Initiatives and for Best IT Team, becoming the bank to have won the maximum
  number of awards this year, is said in a statement.
• ·        
  The awards were presented to the winners at a function held in Hyderabad
  on October 1. Shyam Srinivasan, the bank’s Managing Director and CEO, received
  the awards from RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan.
• ·        
  Instituted in 2001, the IDRBT Banking Technology Excellence Awards
  recognise and honour the best innovative use of information technology to
  enhance levels of customer service.

• ·        
  Indian-origin Singaporean poet and writer KTM Iqbal on 15 October 2014
  was named for the 2014 Cultural Medallion, the highest cultural award of
  Singapore. He will be awarded by the Tony Tan, the President of Singapore.
• ·        
  Along with the award, Iqbal will get 80000 Singapore dollar grants, which
  can be used to fund artistic endeavours over their lifetime.
• ·        
  This award will be the highest recognition for the 74-year-old Tamil
  poet. His achievements include more than 200 children’s songs written for Radio
  Singapore in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as seven collections of poetry.
• ·        
  Iqbal is a poet, whose compositions are studied in schools and some of
  them have appeared in the subway stations as part of efforts to bring the arts
  close to the community.

• ·        
  The Union Government on 16 October 2014 decided to import potatoes to
  check rising prices. This is the first time that the potatoes will be imported.
• ·        
  As per the decision, potato will be imported from Pakistan and European
  countries. Imports will be done to ensure sufficient supply till January 2015.
• ·        
  Also, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation will float
  tender in this regard and the tenders will be invited by end of October 2014 so
  that shipments reach India by the end of November 2014.
• ·        
  Apart from this, the government also asked Small Farmers’ Agri-Business
  Consortium to explore possibilities of imports.
• ·        
  India in crop-year 2013-14 produced more than 44 million tonnes of
  potatoes which is 2.3 per cent less than crop-year of 2012-13. As a result,
  potatoes prices in last few weeks have shown a rising trend and in the National
  Capital Delhi, it is being retailed at 35 to 40 rupees per kilogram.

• ·        
  Proving a host of technologies and bridging the critical gap in the
  country’s arsenal, India’s first long range subsonic cruise missile, Nirbhay,
  was successfully test fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, in
  Orissa, for a distance of about 1,000 km on Friday.
• ·        
  This was the second flight trial of the missile as the maiden test had
  to be aborted mid way in March last year when the missile deviated from its
  path. The 6m tall, low altitude flying missile which can evade detection by
  radars was fired from a mobile launcher at 10.05 am.
• ·        
  After blasting off like a rocket to a height of 100m, the booster got
  separated as the missile turned horizontal and the wings got deployed making it
  fly like an aircraft. At the same time, the Turbo Prop engine kicked off and
  provided thrust to the missile which began cruising at 0.7 Mach at an altitude
  of 4.8 km.
• ·        
  The tree-top flying missile, which can carry conventional and nuclear
  war heads then made a series of manoeuvres and navigated `5 way points during a
  flight lasting one hour and 10 minutes. Carrying a dummy payload of n350 kg,
  the4 missile also demonstrated the critical ability to zero in on its target by
  diving towards a pre-designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal.

• ·        
  An eminent Indian scientist Dr Sanjaya Rajaram on 16 October 2014
  received the World Food Prize 2014 for his scientific research that led to a
  prodigious increase in world wheat production by more than 200 million tons
  building upon the successes of the Green Revolution.
• ·        
  Rajaram is credited with developing the Veery lines of wheat in the
  1980s which were used to breed locally adapted high-yielding varieties in
  various wheat-growing countries.
• ·        
  PBW-343, a workhorse wheat variety grown in about 10 million hectares of
  India was based on the Veery material that was bred at the International Maize
  and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) under Rajaram.
• ·        
  The Veery lines resulted from a cross between a Russian winter wheat
  Kavkaz and a Mexican spring wheat Buho. These new lines showed improved
  resistance to stripe and leaf rust pathogens which helped create a second
  generation of high-yielding wheat.

• ·        
  Venezuela, Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand and Spain on 16 October 2014
  were elected as non-permanent members of United Nations Security Council
  (UNSC).
• ·        
  They were elected after member states voted in support of these five
  nations after three rounds of voting. All these five new members received over
  two-thirds of the votes cast in a secret ballot.
• ·        
  The new members of the Security Council will begin their two-year
  appointment on 1 January 2015 and will serve on the Council until 31 December
  2016.
• ·        
  These nations will join five other non-permanent members, namely Chad,
  Chile, Jordan, Lithuania and Nigeria.
• ·        
  On the other hand, Argentina, Luxembourg, South Korea, Australia and
  Rwanda will step down from their seats on 31 December 2014 to make way for the
  newly-elected members.

• ·        
  India’s efforts to encourage greater investment from its diaspora in the
  UK kicked off on Thursday, as Ministry officials pitched the “Make in India”
  programme in London ahead of Britain’s first regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.
• ·        
  The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, which is set to kick off on Friday, is the
  first regional one to be held in the UK. Last year a regional Diaspora day was
  held in Sydney.
• ·        
  The meet aims to identify more specific opportunities for Britain’s 1.5
  million-strong Indian community (with its not insignificant share of high net
  worth individuals, as well as NRIs and Persons of Indian origin) to better
  engage with India. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is set to inaugurate
  the event. “The Overseas Indians must become a part of India’s new development
  agenda.” said Prem Narain, secretary at the Ministry of Overseas Indian
  Affairs, and Chair of the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre, at an event
  organised by the OIFC and the CII. “We have a huge Diaspora from this country who
  had somehow been left out.”
• ·        
  Amitabh Kant, Secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and
  Promotion, and secretaries of other departments, including Upendra Tripathy,
  Secretary in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy outlined the
  opportunities for greater engagement through the drive.