Current Affairs Update – 1st – 2nd May, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 1st and 2nd May, 2016. These are important for the upcoming SBI Clerk and UIIC AO 2016 Exams.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1
  May 2016 launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) at Ballia, Uttar
  Pradesh. It will benefit the poor, especially the women.
• The scheme aims to provide
  cooking gas connections to five crore below-poverty-line beneficiaries over the
  next three years.

• Cabinet Committee on Economic
  Affairs (CCEA) approved 8000 crore rupees for the next 3 years starting from
  financial year 2016-17.
• PM Ujjwala Yojana will provide 5
  crore LPG connections to BPL Families.
• FM had announced about the scheme
  in his 2016-17.Budget Speech with a budgetary provision of 2000 crore rupees.

• LPG spread predominantly in Urban
  and Semi Urban Areas whereas the rural poor have limited access to Clean fuel
  (LPG).
• Use of fossil fuels and
  conventional fuel like cow dung are having serious health implications for
  women and Children.
• According to WHO, 5 Lakhs die
  every year due to heart disease, pulmonary diseases etc.
• Indoor air pollution is also
  responsible for significant number of acute respiratory diseases in young
  children.

• 5 crore LPG connections will be
  provided to BPL families with a support of 1600 rupees.
• Connections will be given in the
  name of Women beneficiaries.
• Identification of BPL families
  will be made in consultation with State Governments and Union territories.
• EMI Facility for meeting the cost
  of Stove and Refill cost.

• Fast-growing Yes Bank and the old
  private sector Federal Bank have been the first ones off the block to hit
  Gujarat International Finance Tech-City (Gift) and are hoping to make the most
  of easy regulations, low operational costs and the opportunity to raise
  dollar-denominated funds.
• In the six months to April, Yes
  Bank has raised and lent $225 million of foreign currency loans to foreign
  subsidiaries of Indian companies and their joint ventures abroad and expects to
  more than double it in the full fiscal year ending March 2017, said Jaideep
  Iyer, group president, financial management, Yes Bank.
• Domestic regulatory require ments
  such as CRR, SLR & prio rity sector lending requirements also don’t apply .
  A bank is allowed to open one branch each with balance sheet in foreign
  currency . Further in January , RBI eased regulations and allowed banks in Gift
  to open foreign currency current accounts for companies and non-resident Indians
  (NRIs) changing an earlier policy that did not allow for any savings or current
  accounts in this centre.

• Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N
  Chandrababu Naidu on 1 May 2016 launched Chandranna Bima Yojana in Vijayawada.
  The Yojna launched on the occasion of May Day is an insurance scheme for the
  working class people.
• The state government scheme will
  cover about 1.5 crore workers of the state.
• Under the scheme any insured
  worker who meets an accidental death and permanent disability will be paid 5
  lakh rupees. That worker who suffers partial disability will be paid a sum of 3
  lakh rupees.

• India and Papua New Guinea on 29
  April 2016 signed four agreements/MoUs to boost the bilateral relations.
• These MoUs were inked during the
  two-day visit (28 to 29 April 2016) of President Pranab Mukhrejee to Papua New
  Guinea. Mukherjee’s visit was the first ever presidential visit from India to
  this country.

• MoU in the Field of Health Care
  and Medical Science: It was inked between the Union Ministry of Health and
  Family Welfare and the Ministry of Health and HIV/AIDS of Papua New Guinea.
• MoU for a USD 100 Million Credit
  Line: It was inked for development of infrastructure in the island-nation
  between the Government of Papua New Guinea and the Export Import Bank of India.
• MoU for cooperation in
  agricultural research: It was inked between the Indian Council of Agricultural
  Research, New Delhi and PNG University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea.
• MoU for establishing of
  India-Papua New Guinea Centre for Excellence in IT.

• India and New Zealand on 1 May
  2016 signed an Air Services Agreement paving the way for introduction of direct
  flights between the two countries.
• The agreement was signed in the
  presence of the President Pranab Mukherjee and the New Zealand Prime Minister
  John Key. Mukherjee was on an official tour to Papua New Guinea (April 28-29,
  2016) and New Zealand (April 30 to May 2, 2016).
• The agreement was signed under
  the Convention of International Civil Aviation opened for signature at Chicago
  on 7 December 1944. It was opened with an aim to promote international air
  services between their respective territories.

• Union Urban Development Minister
  Venkaiah Naidu and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah inaugurated the
  underground corridor of Bangalore Metro Rail on 30 April 2016. Bangalore Metro
  Rail is also known as Namma Metro.
• The newly inaugurated underground
  section of about 5.12 kilometers long from Cubbon Park to City railway station
  completes the 18.10 kilometers long east west corridor which is also called
  Purple Line.
• This makes the Namma Metro or
  Bangalore Metro as the first in South India to have an operational underground
  section of Metro Rail.

• Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar
  Rao on 29 April 2016 launched Adi Praman, a web-based application. With this,
  Maharashtra became the first state to provide caste validity certificates
  online.
• Adi Praman enables Maharashtra’s
  tribal population to get the caste validity certificates online.
• The portal named
  etribalvalidity.mahaonline@gov.in was launched at Raj Bhavan.

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT)
  pulled up the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) today for failure to stop polluting the
  Yamuna River.
• Last year, the DJB had
  established 15 MGD waste water treatment plants at a cost of Rs 204 crore at
  the Delhi Gate Nalla aimed at curbing the problem of highly polluted water from
  areas of Old Delhi being released into the Yamuna.
• The bench also asked the DJB to
  submit details of planned expenditure with regard to the water and sewerage
  sector for the current fiscal year.
• The NGT had earlier taken the DJB
  to task for spending money errantly without prior permission and had directed
  the board not to surrender funds allocated to it for rejuvenation of the Yamuna
  but to use the amounts in the Maili se Nirmal Yamuna Revitalisation Project
  instead.

• D N Narasimha Raju has taken oath
  as Karnataka Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).
• Narasimha Raju, a 1984 batch IAS
  officer, had retired in April. He had served in the chief minister’s office and
  at various departments like finance, company affairs, commerce and industry,
  petroleum and natural gas at the Centre.
• Raju was administered the Oath of
  Office by the Karnataka Governor, Vajubhai Vala, at Banquet Hall, Rajbhavan.

• Former KPMG Director Dilip Tuli
  on 1 May 2016 was appointed the new Senior Vice President – Strategy & New
  Business Initiatives of Housing.com, India’s leading online real estate
  platform.
• Tuli will assist with strategy
  and oversee new business initiatives, such as transaction facilitation and
  fulfilment services.

• Sterling Holiday Resorts Limited
  has announced the appointment of Damian G H Niesel as Chief Operations Officer,
  Resorts.
• Prior to joining Sterling
  Holidays, he has been involved with some of the world’s leading hospitality and
  lifestyle companies including founding Events in the Sky.Asia and holding
  several senior executive positions with Qatar National Hotels, Sofitel Luxury
  Hotels, IHG and Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts. Niesel will help bring
  international best practices to Sterling Holidays.
• Niesel completed his education
  from Cornell University and has more than 30 years of experience in Hospitality
  and Management.

• Physicist Sriram Ramaswamy,
  Director of TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Hyderabad, was elected
  as the Fellow of The Royal Society, as announced on 29 April 2016. His name
  appeared on the list of 50 new fellows and 10 new Foreign Members announced by
  the Royal Society.
• Besides, biochemist Ramanujan
  Hegde, MRC Laboratory of Microbiology, U.K. and applied mathematician
  Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan, Harvard University, are the other two Indian names
  who were also elected as the fellows of the premier scientific academy of the
  U.K. and the Commonwealth.

• An Indian-American journalist,
  Neela Banerjee, was felicitated with a prestigious with Edgar A. Poe award on 1
  May 2016. She was felicitated by US President Barack Obama and First Lady
  Michelle during the annual White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington.
• A Washington based journalist
  Neela Banerjee and three of her colleagues from Inside Climate News – John
  Cushman Jr, David Hasemyer and Lisa Song – were presented with the prestigious
  Edgar A Poe award.

• Indian shooters bagged three gold
  medals and a bronze on the opening day of the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl,
  Germany on 1 May 2016.
• The Indians won a gold each in
  the team events of men’s 25m standard pistol and women’s 50m rifle prone
  competitions. India also earned an individual gold medal in the men’s 25m
  standard pistol competition through Rituraj Singh. Gaayathri Nithyanadam bagged
  a bronze in the women’s 50m rifle prone competition.
• The Indian team of Rituraj Singh,
  Shivam Shukla and Arjun Das walked away with the gold medal in the team event
  of the men’s 25m standard pistol competition, shooting a total of 1661. France
  won the silver medal with 1659 points while Australia had to settle with the
  bronze with 1648 points.

• Indian team on 1 May 2016 bagged
  one silver and two bronze medals at Archery World Cup at the Yuanshen Stadium
  in Shanghai.
• The silver medal was secured by
  Indian women’s team who lost to Chinese Taipei in the final. Women’s team
  comprising Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi Laishram and Laxmirani Majhi lost to
  the lower-ranked Chinese Taipei 2-6 in the recurve team final.
• On the other hand, men’s trio and
  mixed pair won their respective bronze playoffs in the first stage of Archery
  World Cup. The third seeded Indian men’s recurve team of Atanu Das, Jayanta
  Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia thrashed the ninth seed British team 6-0 to
  bag the bronze medal.

• German Formula 1 Mercedes Driver
  Nico Rosberg on 1 May 2016 won 2016 Russian Grand Prix. It is his fourth win in
  a row this season.
• Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of
  United Kingdom stood second and Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen of Finland
  secured 3rd place in the tournament.
• The race, contested over
  fifty-three laps, was held at the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia. The race was
  the fourth round of the 2016 season and marked the fifth running of the Russian
  Grand Prix and the third time as a round of the Formula One World Championship.

• International Labour Day was
  celebrated on 1 May 2016. The theme of the Day of 2016 is Celebrating the
  international labour movement. This is also known as International Worker’s Day
  and May Day.
• The theme assumes further
  significance with economic relationships undergoing rapid change in the
  emerging global economic order.
• Giving due importance to the
  significance of the day about 80 countries across the world declared it as
  national holiday.
• Labour is one of the four key
  factors of production along with Land, Capital and organisation.

Regards

Team ExamPundit