Current Affairs Update – 17th April, 2015

• India and Canada issued Joint Statement title New Vigour,
  New Steps (नया उत्साह, नए कदम)
  to elevate their bilateral relations to a strategic partnership. The joint
  statement was issued on 15 April 2015 during the visit of Prime Minister
  Narendra Modi to Canada from 14 April to 16 April 2015. Modi’s visit to Canada
  is the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 42 years.

• The Institute of Rural Management-Anand (IRMA) on Friday signed
  a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Corporate
  Affairs (IICA) for training CSR professionals.
• The MoU, which comes in the wake of recent changes in the
  Companies Act, 2013, was signed by Prof. Jeemol Unni, Director, IRMA, and Dr.
  Bhaskar Chatterjee, Director- General and CEO, IICA, an institution launched by
  the Government of India in 2008 to act as a think tank and capacity building
  hub for corporate regulations and reforms.
• The MoU was signed with the intent of furthering
  collaboration between the Centre for Rural Infrastructure and Corporate Social
  Responsibility at IRMA, and IICA, IRMA said in a statement here.

• On the last day of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N.
  Chandrababu Naidu’s six-day China tour, 10 MoUs – five G2B and an equal number of
  B2B – were signed on Friday.
• While the G2B MoUs mostly related to facilitating direct
  investment in solar energy sector, majority of the B2B agreements were in
  connection with facilitating direct investment in Brandix India Apparel City in
  the field of textiles. Another B2B MoU was between KSEZ (GMR) and Hangzhou
  Huatong Inc for setting up a toys manufacturing unit at Kakinada SEZ, of GMR.
• Earlier Mr. Naidu held a series of meetings with various
  companies in Shanghai. The TCL Corporation expressed interest in exploring
  investment opportunities in A.P. The corporation is a Chinese multinational
  electronic company that manufactures television sets, mobile phones, air
  conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators and small electrical appliances.
• Mr. Naidu briefed the delegates on the strengths of the
  state and his plans to make A.P. an electronics manufacturing hub. He assured them
  of Government providing all necessary resources like land, water and power
  required for setting up a manufacturing unit.

• Veteran singer S P Balasubramaniam has been selected for
  this year’s prestigious “Harivarasanam” award instituted by the
  Kerala government.
• Balasubramaniam has been selected for the award in
  recognition of his great contribution to propagate the spirit of secularism,
  equanimity and universal brotherhood of Lord Ayappa temple at Sabarimala
  through the songs he rendered in different languages in the past five decades.
• He was selected by a jury headed by Sabarimala high-power
  committee chairman K Jayakumar, minister for Heath and Devaswoms V S Sivakumar
  said here.
• The award carrying a cash prize of Rs one lakh, citation and
  plaque would be presented to Balasubramaniam at a function to be held at
  Sabarimala in June.
• Cash prize of the award till last year was Rs 50,000 and it
  been incresed to Rs one lakh from this year he said.

• Microsoft’s Indian-origin CEO Satya Nadella was honoured
  with the White House Champions of Change on 16 April 2015. He is one of the 12
  local Champions of Change who were honoured for their exemplary leadership.
• Champions of Change honour is given to those who support
  working families and help make change in their companies or communities.
• Satya Nadella is the first Indian-origin Chief Executive
  Officer (CEO) of Microsoft. He was named as one of the Champions of Change for
  his employee-friendly initiative. For instance, recently Microsoft announced
  that from 2016 onwards all the suppliers that do business with Microsoft in the
  US will have to provide at least 15 days of paid leave each year to their
  employees who handle Microsoft work.

• The East China Normal University (ECNU), one of the
  prestigious universities in China, announced the appointment of Dr. Vishal
  Sikka, Chief Executive Officer of Infosys, as Advisory Professor.
• According to a release from the company, Professor Shijun
  Tong, CCP Secretary of ECNU, formally conferred the Advisory Professorship to
  Mr Sikka.
• Prof. Shijun Tong, CCP Secretary − ECNU, was joined by Prof.
  Rongming Wang, Vice President − ECNU, Prof. Qifeng He, academician at the
  Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. Zhenguo Yuan, Dean of Education − ECNU, Mr.
  Rangarajan Vellamore, Chief Executive Officer – Infosys China, and Mr. Mike
  Liu, Chief Operating Officer − Infosys China.

• Russia on 13 April 2015 lifted its earlier ban on delivery
  of S-300 Missile System to Iran. The S-300 Missile System is a surface-to-air
  missile defense system that can be used against multiple targets including jets
  and enemy missiles.
• Russia lifted the ban in the back drop of an informal
  agreement reached on 2 April 2015 between P5+1, the EU and Iran to prepare the
  final draft of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by 30 June 2015.
• Under the agreement, Iran agreed to stop developing nuclear
  weapons in return for lifting economic sanctions imposed on it by the international
  community.
• This was the only sanction imposed by Russia on Iran since
  Iran had announced its nuclear programme in 2010.
• Russia stayed the execution of 800 million US dollar worth
  deal after the international community raised apprehensions that the missile
  system would be used to protect Iran’s nuclear installations from air strikes.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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