Current Affairs Update – 18th May, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 18th May, 2016. These are important for the upcoming UIIC AO 2016, SBI PO and SBI Clerk 2016 Mains Exams.

• The State Bank of India (SBI) on
  17 May 2016 informed the BSE that it is seeking in-principle sanction of the
  Union Government to enter into negotiation with its 5 subsidiaries and
  Bharatiya Mahila Bank for acquisition.
• Besides, the boards of SBI and
  the subsidiary banks met individually in Mumbai and decided to begin merger
  talks with the parent.

1. State Bank of
   Bikaner and Jaipur
2. State Bank of
   Hyderabad
3. State Bank of
   Mysore
4. State Bank of
   Patiala
5. State Bank of
   Travancore

• All the above six banks are
  Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and among these, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur,
  State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore are listed.
• SBI first merged associate State
  Bank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later, in 2010, State Bank of
  Indore was merged.

• HDFC Bank Ltd. on 16 May 2016
  launched SmartUp solution. It is a first-of-its-kind dedicated platform for
  start-ups to fulfill all their banking needs.
• The SmartUp is tailored to meet
  all the requirements of a start-up, offering banking and payment solutions, along
  with advisory and forex services.
• It was launched in association
  with Zone Startups India, a start-up accelerator in Mumbai.
• Zone Startups India is a
  collaboration between BSE Institute (a subsidiary of the Bombay Stock
  Exchange), Ryerson University’s accelerator Digital Media Zone, Ryerson Futures
  Inc. and Simon Fraser University.

• Enhanced transaction limit with
  no minimum balance requirement for first six months
• Customized Salary Account
  offering coupled with best-in class services and largest suite of product range
• PayZapp for Business – for
  providing invoicing, delivery and collection solutions and secure money
  transfer
• Dedicated Relationship Manager
  for taking care of all banking needs as well as investment advisory

• Mobile app for transportation Ola
  today signed an MoU with National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development
  Corporation (NSKFDC) established under the aegis of the Ministry of Social
  Justice and Empowerment to focus on building a sustainable framework by
  supporting entrepreneurship, skill development training and self-defence
  courses for Safai Karamcharis and Scavengers.
• The Ola–NSKFDC partnership has
  the potential to generate synergies that will result in a better future for
  driver entrepreneurs by creating sustainable careers and livelihoods for them.
• The MoU was signed in the
  presence of Thaawarchand Gehlot, Union Minister for Social Justice and
  Empowerment.
• Aimed at socio-economic
  development of Safai Karamcharis/ Scavengers, the MoU will aim at benefitting
  these people and their dependents by enabling livelihood opportunities,
  especially for women beneficiaries identified by NSKFDC.

• Indian two wheeler manufacturer
  Honda Motorcycle & Scooter has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with
  IndusInd Bank, offering retail finance to its customers on all company models.
• With this Memorandum of
  Understanding coming into effect from Wednesday, Honda’s customers can not only
  buy a Honda two-wheeler at an attractive rate of interest, but can reap
  benefits up to Rs 7,500 through this retail finance scheme.
• Customers can avail loan up to 90
  percent of the product value, with a repayment period of 36 months. Other
  benefits include zero processing fee and quick loan approval in just 1 hour
  through tab based technology used for field inspection and proposal login.

• The Union Government on 17 May
  2016 constituted a five member committee to comprehensively review and give
  recommendations on the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM)
  roadmap for the future.
• The committee will be headed by
  former Revenue and Expenditure Secretary NK Singh. It has been asked to submit
  its report by 31 October 2016.
• Other members of the Committee
  are Sumit Bose, former Finance and Revenue Secretary, Dr. Arvind Subramanian,
  Chief Economic Adviser, Urijit Patel, Deputy Governor, RBI and Rathin Roy,
  Director, National Institute Public Finance and Policy, NIPFP.

• The Union Government on 17 May
  2016 opened up a Tatkal Window to expedite examination of patent applications
  by start-ups as well as entities choosing India for the first filing of patent.
  The move came in the backdrop of 2.37 lakh patent applications pending in the
  country.
• The government is aiming to bring
  down the time period for initial examination of patent applications from the
  present 5-7 years to 18 months by March 2018.
• The move will popularise India as
  a patent filing hub so that more companies file applications in India.

• Under the tatkal-like system,
  applicants can opt for the Expedited Examination Route on the grounds that they
  have chosen India as International Searching Authority or International
  Preliminary Examining Authority.
• The expedited examination route
  is also available to all entities that qualify as a start-up as per the
  definition for start-up provided in the Patent Rules.

• Indian artist Anjali
  Chandrashekar on 3 May 2016 won the third prize in UN Poster for Peace contest
  presented by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA) to raise awareness of
  the need for nuclear disarmament.
• Her poster titled ‘Cutting
  Barriers through Peace’ featured a peace dove slicing through a nuclear weapon.

• The first prize was won by Ivan
  Ciro Palomino Huamani from Peru for his poster titled ‘Spinning Peace’.
• Second prize was won by Michelle
  Li for her poster titled ‘Peace in our Hands’, which had  featured a shadow puppet of a peace dove
  above a broken nuclear weapon.

• Indian-American Syamantak Payra,
  a 15-year-old from Friendswood, Texas, in May 2016 won Intel Foundation Young
  Scientist Awards of 50000 US dollar. He was awarded for developing a low-cost
  electronically aided knee brace that allows an individual with a weakened leg to
  walk more naturally.
• He shared the 50000 US dollars
  award with Kathy Liu of Salt lake City, Utah who was awarded for developing an
  alternative battery component that could significantly improve battery
  performance and safety.

• IndiGo has appointed Rohit Philip
  as its chief financial officer. Philip, who previously worked as corporate
  vice-president and treasurer of Xerox Corporation, replaces Pankaj Madan who is
  leaving the airline to pursue other interests. He will assume charge from July
  18.
• Earlier, Philip had worked at
  United Airlines for 17 years where he was a senior vice-president, corporate
  strategy and business development.
• At United, he also held various
  other senior executive roles including vice-president — financial planning and
  analysis; assistant treasurer — corporate finance; and vice-president — finance
  & CFO, Mileage Plus Holdings.

• Steeplechase athlete Sudha Singh
  on 14 May 2016 set a national record in women’s 3000m steeplechase event to
  finish eighth at the IAAF World Diamond League held at Shanghai.
• Sudha clocked 9 minutes, 26.55
  seconds to finish a eighth in the second leg of the prestigious IAAF Diamond
  League Meet.

• Barcelona FC on 15 May 2016
  retained the Spanish league title La Liga with 3-0 score against Granada in the
  final match.
• Luis Suárez finished as top
  scorer, being the first player apart from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to
  do so since the 2008–09 season.
• The football club finished the
  tournament with 91 points in total. It is Barcelona FC’s fifth straight win and
  eighth league title in 12 seasons.

• Andre Brahic, one of the
  discoverers of Neptune’s rings, died on 15 May 2016 in Paris, France. He was
  73.
• In 1984, Brahic with US
  astronomer William Hubbard launched a program that led to the discovery of the
  rings around the gaseous planet Neptune.

Regards

Team ExamPundit