Current Affairs Update – 19th December, 2015

• The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) on 18 December 2015
  approved the purchase of Russian advance S-400 Triumf Air Defence Missile
  Systems from Russia at an estimated cost of 40000 crore rupees. The approval
  was given by Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar during DAC meeting in New
  Delhi.
• India will buy 5 units of the S-400 Triumf air defence
  missile systems. This purchase will give a major boost to the national air
  defence capacity and will make India only the second buyer of this missile
  system after China.
• DAC approval for defence deal comes ahead of Prime Minister
  Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia later in December 2015.

• Impressed with the strides taken by Uttar Pradesh, Ratan
  Tata-led Tata Trusts will enter into an understanding with the state government
  by signing an MoU here on December 21 for community development programmes in
  sectors like education and health.
• The MoU will be signed between the state government and Tata
  Trusts at a function in the presence of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Ratan
  Tata, an official spokesman said today.
• Tata Trusts will cooperate with the state government in its
  attempts for empowering the poor and weaker sections of the society through
  programmes aimed at poverty eradication, employment generation and
  infrastructure generation among others, the spokesman said.
• A steering committee with representatives of the state
  government and Tata Trusts will be set up for the smooth conduct and proper
  monitoring of these programmes, he said.

• Jeff Williams was on 18 December 2015 appointed as the Chief
  Operating Officer (COO) of Apple Inc. The post of COO of the company had been
  lying vacant since Tim Cook’s ascension to position of Chief Executive Officer
  of Apple Inc in 2011.
• Williams has been working with Apple Inc for about 17 years.

• The United States Congress has raised the “outsourcing
  fee” imposed on highly qualified Indian IT professionals to $4,000 from
  $2,000 after it lapsed on September 30 this year.
• The fees will be increased “for applicants that employ
  50 or more employees in the United States if more than 50 percent of the
  applicant’s employees are nonimmigrants…,” the Congress said on
  Wednesday in a spending bill.
• The $2,000 outsourcing fee for H-1B visas and a $2,250 fee
  for some L-1 visas,which are used for intra-company transfers was adopted by
  the United States in August 2010. It was valid for five years, and was not
  renewed by the US Congress after it lapsed in September this year.

• The IMF today approved nearly USD 500 million in its latest
  tranche of financial assistance to Pakistan, bringing the total amount of money
  released to revive the country’s economy to USD 5 billion.
• A decision in this regard was taken by the Indian Monetary
  Fund Executive Board which completed the ninth review of Pakistan’s economic
  performance under a 36-month programme supported by an Extended Fund Facility
  (EFF) arrangement.
• The Executive Board’s decision enables the immediate
  disbursement of an amount equivalent to SDR 360 million (about USD 498.1
  million), bringing total disbursements to SDR 3.6 billion (about USD 4.98
  billion), the IMF said.
• On September 4, 2013, the IMF had approved the three-year
  extended arrangement under the EFF in the amount of SDR 4.393 billion (about
  USD 6.64 billion at the time of approval of the arrangement, or 425 per cent of
  Pakistan’s quota at the IMF).

• British Novelist Peter Dickinson passed away on 16 December
  2015 following a brief illness in Winchester, Hampshire. He was 88. He was a
  prolific novelist for adults and children.
• He had the distinction of being the first author to receive
  twice the prestigious Carnegie medal awarded annually in Britain by librarians
  for the outstanding new children’s book.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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