Current Affairs Update – 18th August, 2016

• Union Minister for Railways
  Suresh Prabhu, Deputy Chief minister of Gujarat Nitin Patel and city mayor
  Ashmitaben Shiroya Wednesday signed an MoU for the development of India’s first
  multi-modal transportation hub (MMTH) at Surat railway station. The Rs 5,000-cr
  project would be taken up under the public private partnership model.
• This is a first- of-its-kind
  infrastructure development project, where Indian Railway station Development
  Corporation (IRSDC), Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation Limited (GSRTC)
  and Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) have formed a joint venture in giving
  different modes of facilities to passengers, including train, city bus and long
  distance bus services, auto rickshaws, taxi and private vehicle services, at
  one place.
• The facilities will be given in
  such a way that the passengers will feel international level of travel comfort.
• As per the minister, the Railways
  will also add two to four “Deen Dayalu” coaches to some long-distance trains
  for unreserved travel to enhance the carrying capacity.

• Government has slapped an
  additional penalty of $380 million (around Rs 2,500 crore) on Reliance
  Industries and its partners for producing less than targeted natural gas from
  eastern offshore KG-D6 fields.
• With this, the total penalty,
  which is in form of disallowing recovery of cost incurred, for missing the
  target in five financial years beginning April 1, 2010, now stands at a
  cumulative $2.76 billion.
• The Production Sharing Contract
  (PSC) allows RIL and its partners BP Plc of the UK and Canada’s Niko Resources
  to deduct all capital and operating expenses from the sale of gas before sharing
  profit with the government.
• Disallowing costs will result in
  government’s profit share rising.

• Taking forward the consolidation
  agenda, State Bank of India (SBI) board today approved share swap ratio to
  merge five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with itself.
• The board gave approval for
  scheme of acquisition for five associate banks and BMB, SBI informed stock
  exchanges.  SBI is targeting to
  consolidate operations and balance sheets March 2017.
• Its five associates are State
  Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of
  Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT).
  BMB, started in 2013, is a Delhi-based public sector lender.
• The swap ratio approved are as
  follows. SBI will issue 28 shares (face value of Rs 1) for 10 shares (face
  value of Rs 10) of SBBJ, 22 SBI shares for 10 shares (face value of Rs 10) of
  SBM and SBT each.
• SBI will issue its 44.2 million
  shares for 1,000 million shares of BMB.
• As for two unlisted units – SBP
  and SBH, where the bank holds 99 per cent stake, it would be line by line
  merger, its chief financial officer and deputy managing director Anshukla Kant
  said.

• The Assam Assembly on 13 August
  2016 passed the Assam Amusements and Betting Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
• This bill will reduce the service
  charge of cinema tickets with an aim to boost to the local film industry. The
  government, however, raised the entertainment tax on cinema tickets by up to
  ten percentile points.

• The government proposed to make
  service charge 8 rupees per ticket for the halls without air conditioning
  system and 12 rupees for the halls with air conditioning system with back-up
  generator.
• The government also advised to
  increase the entertainment tax to 20 per cent from 15 per cent at present for
  entry charges between 5 rupees and 20 rupees per ticket.
• There will be no entertainment
  tax if the entry charge is 5 rupees or less.
• It raised the government tax to
  30 percent on service charge from the existing 20 percent.
• It proposes to fix the service
  charge at a maximum of 12 rupees per ticket, which is as high as 40 rupees at present.

• Cricket icon and Rajya Sabha MP
  Sachin Tendulkar has selected Donja village in Osmanabad district for
  development under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna.
• Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana,
  launched in October 2014, is a rural development programme focusing on
  development of villages which include social and cultural development, and
  spread motivation among the people on social mobilisation of the village
  community.
• Osmanabad has been reeling under
  a serve drought over the last few years and has also recorded a steep rise in
  incidents of farmers suicide.
• Donja is a village in Paranda of
  Osmanabad. As per 2011 census 582 families residing there. It has a population
  of 2,863 of which 1,508 are males while 1,355 are females.
• In the village, population in the
  age group of zero to six years is 319 which makes up 11.14 per cent of the
  total population.

• The Uttar Pradesh government on
  Thursday announced to honour Indian wrestler Sakshi Malik who won a bronze at
  the Rio Olympic Games with the prestigious Rani Laxmi Bai Award.
• Ms. Malik (23), who hails from
  Rohtak in Haryana, became only the fourth woman athlete from India to win an
  Olympic medal after she clinched a bronze in the 58-kg category.
• Congratulating her, Uttar Pradesh
  Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said she had made the nation proud, as he decided
  to honour her with the Rani Laxmi Bai Award, meant to signify bravery and outstanding
  achievement of women.
• The award carries a cash prize of
  Rs 3 lakh. The Samajwadi Party government is deeply involved in the promotion
  of sports and has constantly provided various kinds of facilities to
  sportspersons, Mr. Yadav said, at a Raksha Bandhan function at his official
  residence here.
• Girls and women from different
  communities tied rakhi to him on the occasion.

• Indian wrestler Sakshi Malik won
  bronze in women’s wrestling at the Olympic Games in Rio on Wednesday, bringing
  home her country’s first medal of the competition — and she did it in dramatic
  fashion.
• Twenty three-year-old Malik
  defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Aisuluu Tynybekova in the 58-kilogram freestyle in a
  thrilling bout, making a comeback in the final seconds to win 8-5. At one point
  early in the match she trailed 5 points to none.
• After winning, Malik hoisted an
  Indian flag aloft and jogged around the arena before sinking to the mat in joy.
  Tynybekova protested a late call and had to be coaxed to the center of the mat
  to acknowledge the result.

• Power Grid Corp today said K
  Sreekant has been appointed as Director (finance) for five years by the Power
  Ministry.
• “Ministry of Power has vide
  Order dated August 16, 2016 conveyed the appointment of K Sreekant, General
  Manager, NTPC to the post of Director (Finance), POWERGRID for a period of five
  years with effect from the date of his assumption of charge of the post on or
  after September 1, 2016, or till the date of his superannuation, or until
  further orders, whichever is the earliest,” Power Grid Corp said in a BSE
  filing today.

Regards

Team ExamPundit