Current Affairs Update – 17th February, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important Current Affairs of 17th February, 2016. These are important for LIC AAO and other upcoming exams.

• Private sector lender YES Bank
  has partnered UltraCash Technologies to launch payments processing through
  sound waves.
• UltraCash utilises a
  patent-pending technology, through which payment data is securely transferred
  from one device to the other, using unique ultra-high frequency sound waves.
• This partnership will enable
  Ultracash to issue YES Bank-sponsored mobile wallets and employ YES Bank’s
  immediate payment service (IMPS) payments platform to enable processing of instant
  proximity transactions.
• The innovative technology ensures
  that UltraCash’s ‘Tap and Pay’ works on all devices and doesn’t need any
  special hardware to make the payment.
• There is no need of special near
  field communication (NFC) chips.
• UltraCash’s sound wave technology
  enables mobile payments to be done without the need for Internet connectivity
  using any of the options, such as bank accounts and cards.
• Besides, UltraCash will issue YES
  Bank-branded digital wallets to consumers to aid quicker, seamless and
  friction-free payments.

• E-commerce giant Amazon today
  announced the launch of ‘Amazon Tatkal’, an initiative that enables small and
  medium businesses (SMBs) to go online and sell products on Amazon.
• Starting with New Delhi, Amazon
  Tatkal will traverse the country, engaging with thousands of entrepreneurs,
  artisans, manufacturers and sellers and help them sell online on the spot, the
  company said in a statement.
• It said Amazon Tatkal is a
  specially designed studio-on-wheels offering a suite of launch services
  including registration, imaging and cataloguing services, as well as basic seller
  training mechanisms.
• It will enable thousands of
  interested sellers to start selling on Amazon in real time and experience the
  benefits of launching an online business, the statement added.

• The Union Ministry of Finance on
  16 February 2016 announced changes to regulations that govern interest rates on
  various National Saving Schemes (NSSs).
• The changes primarily focused on
  aligning interest rates on NSSs with other comparable saving instruments so
  that the operation of NSSs will become market oriented.
• The changes, which will come into
  effect from 1 April 2016, were announced in the interest of overall economic growth
  of the country, even while protecting their social objectives and promoting
  long term savings.

1. The present interest rate spread
   enjoyed by the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme and
   the Monthly Income Scheme over the G-sec rate of comparable maturity viz., of
   75 basis points (bps), 100 bps and 25 bps respectively were left untouched.
2. The spread of 25 bps that long
   term instruments, such as the 5 yr Term Deposit, 5 year National Saving Certificates
   and Public Provident Fund (PPF) currently enjoy over G-Sec of comparable
   maturity were left untouched. This will help the self-employed professional and
   salaried classes and encourage long term savings.
3. The 25 bps spread that 1 yr.,
   2yr. and 3 yr. term deposits, KVPs and 5 yr Recurring Deposits have over
   comparable tenure Government securities, shall stand removed. This will make
   them closer in interest rates to the similar instruments of the banking sector.
4. The interest rates of all NSSs
   would be recalibrated on a quarterly basis to align the small saving interest
   rates with the market rates of the relevant government securities.
5. The compounding of interest which
   is biannual in the case of 10 yr National Saving Certificate, 5 yr National
   Saving Certificate and Kisan Vikas Patra shall be done on an annual basis.
6. Premature closure of PPF accounts
   shall be permitted in genuine cases, such as cases of serious ailment, higher
   education of children, etc. This shall be permitted with a penalty of 1% reduction
   in interest payable on the whole deposit and only for the accounts having
   completed five years from the date of opening.

• BAE Systems has down-selected
  Mahindra as its business partner for the proposed in-country assembly,
  integration and test (AIT) facility for the M777 ultra lightweight howitzer.
• India and the United States are
  in discussions for a Foreign Military Sale (FMS) of 145 M777A2 LW155 howitzers
  for the Indian Army.
• The facility is a fundamental part
  of the M777 production line.
• A domestic Assembly, Integration
  and Test facility will enable the Indian Army to access maintenance, spares and
  support for the M777 locally.

• In a major boost to Indian
  science research, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to
  establish a state-of-the-art gravitational wave observatory in India in
  collaboration with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory
  (LIGO) in the US.
• The “in-principle”
  approval for the LIGO-India project for research on gravitational waves — a
  discovery that is regarded as the breakthrough of the century — is piloted by
  the department of atomic energy (DAE) and department of science and technology
  (DST), a press release said.
• The project will bring
  unprecedented opportunities for scientists and engineers to dig deeper into the
  realm of gravitational wave and take global leadership in this new astronomical
  frontier.
• The LIGO-India project will also
  bring considerable opportunities in cutting-edge technology for the Indian
  industry which will be engaged in the construction of the 8-km long beam tube
  at ultra-high vacuum on a levelled terrain.

• The Union Cabinet has approved
  signing of Agreement for collaboration in Traditional Medicine between Ministry
  of Ayush and the World Health Organisation.
• Briefing media here,
  Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that this will help in
  improving International acceptability and branding of Ayush systems.
• The Cabinet also approved
  proposal for Notification of Commitments under the Trade Facilitation
  Agreement, TFA, of the World Trade Organisation.
• It also approved ratification of
  Instrument of Acceptance of Protocol of TFA and National Committee on Trade
  Facilitation.

• West Bengal government on 16
  February 2016 launched Utkarsh Bangla Scheme, a welfare scheme for school-dropouts,
  in Kolkata.
• Utkarsha Bangla is aimed at
  giving vocational training to school dropouts. Each youth will get training
  ranging from 400 to 1200 hours. The school-dropouts will be trained free of
  charge in tailoring, driving, repairing television and other electronic equipment
  and beauty courses etc.
• During the inauguration
  programme, the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee said that in the last four
  years, state administration has trained 15 lakh boys and girls in vocational
  streams. Out of which about 10 lakh secured jobs.

• South Korean state of
  Chungcheongbuk and Haryana on 16 February 2016 agreed to enter into a
  sister-statehood relationship for development.
• Haryana Chief Minister Manohar
  Lal Khattar accepted the proposal for such a relationship made by a visiting
  South Korean delegation. The South Korean delegation was led by Section Chief
  of Chungcheongbuk Government Lee Iksoo.
• Besides, Khattar invited South
  Korean businesses and investors to the Happening Haryana Global Investors
  Summit-2016 scheduled to be organized in Gurgaon from 7 to 8 March 2016.

• India’s largest online
  marketplace Flipkart has appointed Fidelity International’s country head Nitin
  Seth in the role of Chief People Officer to head all its human resource
  functions at a time when it is seeing major churn in its leadership team. He
  will report directly to newly appointed CEO Binny Bansal.
• Seth replaces Mekin Maheshwari,
  one of the earliest employees at Flipkart, who left the position in September
  last year to take up an advisory role in the company.
• At Fidelity, Seth was responsible
  for offshore operations across India and Tunisia, leading over 2,600
  professionals in total. Prior to his stint at he worked with McKinsey where he
  was the director of McKC, the company’s knowledge centre in India.
• Seth’s appointment at Flipkart
  comes at a time when there’s a massive churn in the top management.

• Fashion designer Manish Arora on
  16 February 2016 was awarded with the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur (Knight
  of the Legion of Honour), France’s highest civilian honour.
• French Ambassador Francois
  Richier presented the award to Arora for his renowned and critically-acclaimed
  contribution to the fashion world.

• The first train connecting Iran
  and China packed with Chinese goods arrived in Tehran on 15 February 2016. The
  arrival revived the ancient Silk Road trade route and also highlighted the
  economic possibilities for Iran since the lifting of international sanctions.
• The train, also referred to as
  Silk Road train, passed through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Iran, travelling
  a distance of 10399 kilometres. It had left Yiwu city in east China’s Zhejiang
  province on 28 January 2016.
• In 2013, Chinese President Xi
  Jinping proposed the idea of creating a new Silk Road through Russia and the
  Ukraine into Europe. Under the title One Belt, One Road, this plan is China’s
  new national vision to improve its connectivity to Europe, Asia, and Africa.

• Indian Railways on 14 February
  2016 won the 36th National Chess team Championship in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. For
  the Indian Railways team it was the first ever title.
• To win the championship the team
  defeated Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) team in the final.

• The former United Nations
  Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali passed away on 16 February 2016 in
  Cairo, Egypt. He was 93.
• Boutros-Ghali served as UN Chief
  from January 1992 to December 1996 and became the first secretary general to be
  deprived of a second term as he struggled to impose the UN’s writ in a
  post-cold war world. 
• He was the first African to hold the position. He helped secure
  peace deals between Israel and Egypt.

• Noted Malayalam novelist and
  short story writer Akbar Kakkattil passed away at a private hospital here this
  morning.
• He was 62 and is survived by wife
  and two children.
• Kakkattil was undergoing
  treatment for a lung-related ailment for a year and the end came early this
  morning.
• He has 54 books to his credit
  which includes, four novels, 27 short stories, six collections of essays, seven
  novelettes, a play, among others.
• A two-time winner of the
  prestigious Kerala Sahitiya Akademi award, he was also recipient of the
  first-ever award in humour section in 1992 for his ‘School Diary’— an anthology
  of short essays and in the year 2004 his ‘Vadakkuninnoru Kudumba Vrithantham’
  was awarded as the best novel.
• He was the Vice-President of the
  Kerala Sahitya Akademi and Member of Malayalam Advisory Panel of National Book
  Trust and Malayalam Advisory Board of Kerala Government.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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