Current Affairs Update – 17th May, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important current affairs of 17th May, 2015. In the major news, PM Narendra Modi visited Mongolia(Capital – Ulan Bator) and became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the country. After that we have Assocham’s Ratings on Union Government’s work in FY 2014-15. So lets discuss and learn.

• India today announced a credit line of $1 billion to
  Mongolia to expand its economic capacity and infrastructure, as they decided to
  upgrade their relationship from Comprehensive to “Strategic
  Partnership”.
• Narendra Modi, the first Indian Prime Minister to visit
  Mongolia, held wide ranging talks with his counterpart Chimed Saikhanbileg here
  following which the two sides inked 14 agreements covering defence, cyber
  security, agriculture, renewable energy and health sector.
• Asserting that Mongolia is an integral part of India’s Act
  East Policy, he said the destinies of the two countries are closely linked with
  the future of Asia Pacific Region.

• The nation’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has
  created a separate company, SBI Foundation, to carry out its massive CSR
  initiatives and hopes to get it “running” from July.
• Incidentally, July 1 is the foundation day of the bank,
  which was started as Bank of Calcutta in June 1806.
• In fiscal 2104, the bank had spent Rs 115 crore on CSR, on a
  profit of Rs 10,891 crore, which was Rs 6 crore more than its 1 per cent
  profit.
• The SBI Foundation has already been registered under Section
  8 of the Companies Act, 2013, which applies to non-profit companies or
  organisations and will be headquartered in Mumbai.
• The bank chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya will be the
  chairman of the foundation and will have a full-time managing director and
  chief executive.
• That apart, SBI has eight foreign banking subsidiaries —
  State Bank of India California, SBI Canada, SBI Mauritius, Nepal SBI Bank,
  State Bank of India Botswana, Bank SBI Indonesia, Bank of Bhutan, and
  Commercial Indo Bank.
• Except the associate banks, all of these subsidiaries will
  have to spend 2 per cent of their profits on CSR as they are governed by the
  Companies Act, he said, adding that the bank has already received approval from
  the Reserve Bank for setting up the company.
• The new Companies Act mandates firms to mandatorily spend or
  set aside 2 per cent of their net profit for CSR. But this is not applicable to
  other commercial banks as they are under the Banking Regulation Act, which does
  not mandate this.

• Bettering its own financial targets, the government has
  contained the fiscal deficit at 4 per cent of GDP for 2014-15 at Rs 5,01,880
  crore.
• The revenue deficit has also been confined to 2.8 per cent,
  beating the budget target of 2.9 per cent for the last fiscal, the Finance
  Ministry said in a statement today.
• The gross tax collection registered a growth of 9 per cent
  in 2014-15 and stood at Rs 12,45,037 crore.
• The fiscal deficit target was set at 4.1 per cent by the the
  UPA government, but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said he was taking it as
  a “challenge” to meet this ambitious and “daunting target”
  set up by his predecessor P Chidambaram.
• Fiscal deficit, the gap between the government’s expenditure
  and revenue, is lower than the downwardly revised estimate of 4.1 per cent
  provided by the Modi government’s first full Budget announced in February.

• Giving the Modi Government 7 out of 10 for its first year’s
  performance, industry body Assocham today said it still needs to cover some
  ground on tax issues and a lot more needs to be done on improving the ease of
  doing business.
• The country’s macro-economic situation has improved in the
  past one year with decline in inflation, stability in currency and attractive financial
  markets, it said.
• “The industry and the commentators must realise that an
  economy of two trillion dollars, well integrated with the world, can’t be
  catapulted into high growth, just with the change of the government.
• “However much the government is sincere, policy tweaking,
  legislative changes and revival of investment appetite need to be followed by
  increase in consumer demand, and would take time of say, 24-30 months.
• “And then, a lot would also depend on the global markets which
  are subdued,” Assocham said.
• The government, it said, has made a good beginning, though
  it now needs to move faster on things like goods and services tax and send a
  new signal of confidence.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said mineral-rich
  Mongolia could benefit from India’s expertise and high growth while praising
  the Buddhist country as the new bright light of democracy in the world.
• Modi, who was given a rare honour by Mongolia to address its
  Parliament on Sunday, a holiday, said: “I bring the greetings of your 1.25
  billion spiritual neighbours. There is no higher form of a relationship; no
  bonds more sacred than this. We in India are honoured that you think of us this
  way.”
• The Prime Minister said India and Mongolia are at important
  juncture because the two countries are celebrating 60 years of diplomatic
  relations and Mongolia is celebrating 25 years of democracy.
• The Prime Minister said the 14 agreements signed between two
  sides today would enhance bilateral cooperation in areas including border
  security and cyber security.
• He said a cyber security centre will be established for
  Mongolia’s defence sector and announced the establishment of ‘India Mongolia
  Joint School’ in Ulan Bator.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi today witnessed horse racing,
  traditional wrestling and archery at a mini Naadam festival here, taking time
  off from his hectic schedule.
• Modi, dressed in traditional Mongolian attire and sporting a
  hat, attended the festival with Premier Chimed Saikhanbileg.
• Prime Minister Modi drove to an open area in Chinggis Khuree
  near the airport here and spent about an hour watching horse racing, traditional
  wrestling and archery. He also tried his hand at archery.
• Mongolian Premier Saikhanbileg also gifted a race horce to
  Prime Minister Modi.
• The Naadam festival is also locally termed “eriin
  gurvan naadam” (the three games of men). The games are Mongolian
  wrestling, horse racing and archery and are held throughout the country during
  midsummer.
• Women have started participating in the archery and girls in
  the horse-racing games, but not in Mongolian wrestling.
• In 2010, Naadam was inscribed on the Representative List of
  the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO.

• People of Indian origin are most likely to be in elite
  professional and managerial roles in Britain, a study based on official census
  figures has found.
• According to a detailed analysis of the 2011 census, Indians
  are the most successful ethnic minority group with 15.4 per cent found in class
  1 of eight occupational groups, comprising higher managerial, administrative
  roles as well as professions like doctors and lawyers.
• They are followed by those of Chinese origin at 12.8
  percent, ‘The Sunday Times’ reported.

• Australia’s wicketkeeper Brad Haddin has decided to make
  March’s World Cup final his last one-day international and announced his retirement
  from the format on Sunday.
• The 37-year-old, who will leave Australia for the two-test
  tour of West Indies and Ashes campaign in England on Monday, played every match
  in the triumphant World Cup campaign earlier this year to take his tally to 126
  ODIs for his country.
• He took 170 catches, 11 stumpings and scored 3,122 runs at
  an average of 31.53 with a top score of 110 against New Zealand in Hamilton in
  2010.

• The Indo-Swiss tennis combine of Sania Mirza and Martina
  Hingis did not live up to expectations as the top seeds were upset by
  Hungarian-French pair of Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets
  in the women’s doubles final of the $2,428,490 Rome Masters here on Sunday.
• The third seeds took just an hour and 13 minutes to come out
  on top with a 6—4, 6—3 win on the outdoor clay courts of Foro Italico in the
  first ever match between the two pairs. This was Sania and Martina’s, ranked
  World No.1 and 2 respectively, fourth final together, having won at Indian
  Wells, Miami and Charleston earlier in the year.
• Within no time, Timea and Kritina had two matchpoints. The
  first was saved by the top seeds but the Hungarian-French pair converted the
  second to earn the vital crown.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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