Current Affairs Update – 20th January, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 20th January, 2016. These are important for the upcoming LIC AAO 2016 and Syndicate Manipal PO Exam.

Current Affairs at a Glance – 20th January, 2016

  1. India has emerged as one of
    the five most promising markets for businesses globally
    as it offers one of
    the best opportunities for both domestic as well as global companies, says a
    survey.
  2. The Cabinet today cleared ex-post
    facto the stand taken by India on food security at the last meeting of the
    World Trade Organisation held in Nairobi
    .
  3. Union Government on 19 January 2016 sanctioned 33000 crore rupees for the development of infrastructure projects in
    Tamilnadu
    .
  4. The Union Ministry of Shipping on 19 January 2016 started Project Green Ports, which will help in
    making the Major Ports across India cleaner and greener.
  5. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 20 January 2016
    successfully launched the Indian
    Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) 1-E satellite
    . The satellite
    will provide navigation, tracking and mapping services to the Indian sub
    continent. The satellite is the fifth of
    the IRNSS constellation
    .
  6. Country’s own fighter aircraft light combat aircraft (LCA), Tejas, will take part in the three-day Bahrain International Airshow starting from Thursday (January
    21 to 23).
  7. The Maharashtra Government and Tata Trust on 19 January 2016 signed
    a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for
    a skill training programme for the youth in the state
    .
  8. The Bihar Cabinet on 19 January 2016 formally approved 35 percent reservation for women in all government jobs in the
    state
    .
  9. Mamta Binani has been elected
    President of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) for 2016
    .
    She took charge on January 19.

Finance/Industry –
India among top 5 most promising markets globally

  • India has emerged as one of the
    five most promising markets for businesses globally as it offers one of the
    best opportunities for both domestic as well as global companies, says a
    survey.
  • According to the annual global
    CEO survey of consultancy giant PwC released here at the WEF Annual Meeting,
    the top five markets considered as most important for overall growth prospects
    by the respondents are USA, China, Germany, the UK and India.
  • As per the findings, CEOs are
    less optimistic about prospects this year and those who think global growth
    would improve over the next 12 months have declined to 27 per cent from 37 per
    cent seen in 2015.
  • Further, those who think the
    situation would worsen have increased to 23 per cent from 17 per cent.

Cabinet Approves India’s Stand on Food Security at WTO

  • The Cabinet today cleared ex-post
    facto the stand taken by India on food security at the last meeting of the
    World Trade Organisation held in Nairobi.
  • The Tenth WTO Ministerial
    Conference concluded in Nairobi in December.
  • India wants a permanent solution
    on the issue of public stock holding for its food security programme.
  • It had proposed either amending
    the formula to calculate the food subsidy cap of 10 per cent, which is based on
    the reference price of 1986-88, or allowing such schemes outside the purview of
    subsidy caps.
  • The food security issue is
    related to several developing nations which provide subsidised foodgrains to
    the poor.

Union Government sanctioned 33000 crore rupees for infrastructure
projects in Tamilnadu

  • Union Government on 19 January
    2016 sanctioned 33000 crore rupees for the development of infrastructure
    projects in Tamilnadu.
  • Union Road Transport, Highways
    and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari announced the sanctioned amount and at his
    discretion, he announced additional 17000 crore rupees. With this, the total
    amount sanctioned was raised to 50000 crore rupees.
  • The infrastructure projects
    include construction of Rail-Over-Bridges, upgradation of state highways into
    National Highways and major bridges in the state.
  • Four-laning of 3 National
    Highways (NH) accounting a length of 105 kilometers and two flyovers in
    Marthandam and Parvathipuram, at an estimated cost of 2766 crore rupees.
  • 39 NH projects for a length of
    1974 kilometers at an estimated cost of 12000 crore rupees, which already are
    under progress.

Ministry of Shipping initiated Project Green Port to make Indian ports
cleaner and greener
  • The Union Ministry of Shipping on
    19 January 2016 started Project Green Ports, which will help in making the
    Major Ports across India cleaner and greener.

Project Green Ports will have two verticals:
  1. Green Ports Initiatives
  2. Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan

Features of Green Port Initiatives
  • It includes twelve initiatives
    which will be implemented under strict time bound fashion in order to achieve
    the targets.

Features of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan
  • The Ministry has identified 20
    activities with certain time-line to promote cleanliness at the port premises.

India –
PSLV-C31 successfully launched 5th navigation satellite IRNSS-1E

  • The Indian Space Research
    Organisation (ISRO) on 20 January 2016 successfully launched the Indian
    Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) 1-E satellite. The satellite
    will provide navigation, tracking and mapping services to the Indian sub
    continent.
  • The satellite is the fifth of the
    IRNSS constellation. It was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre
    (SHAR), Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on-board the PSLV-C31.
  • The Polar Satellite Launch
    Vehicle (PSLV)-C31 was the 32nd consecutively successful mission of the PSLV.
    The ‘XL’ configuration of PSLV was used for this mission.
  • This is the eleventh time ‘XL’
    configuration was flown, earlier ten being PSLV-C11/Chandrayaan-1,
    PSLV-C17/GSAT-12, PSLV-C19/RISAT-1, PSLV-C22/IRNSS-1A, PSLV-C25/Mars Orbiter
    Spacecraft, PSLV-C24/IRNSS-1B, PSLV-C26/IRNSS-1C, PSLV-C27/IRNSS-1D,
    PSLV-C28/DMC-3 and PSLV-C30/ASTROSAT  missions.

Nitin Gadkari to inaugurate 19th National Conference on e-Governance

  • Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will
    inaugurate the 19th National Conference on e-Governance to be held here from
    tomorrow.
  • The two-day conference is being
    jointly organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public
    Grievances (DARPG), Department of Electronics and Information Technology and
    Maharashtra government, an official release said.
  • While Union Shipping and Road
    Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari will inaugurate the conference, Union MoS for
    Personnel and Public Grievances Jitendra Singh will be the guest of honour and
    DAPRG Secretary Devendra Chaudhry will address the inaugural session.
  • The conference will have six
    plenary sessions on topics like Governance with Accountability Transparency and
    Innovation (GATI) for citizen-centric services, financial inclusion – Jan Dhan,
    Aadhaar and Mobile (JAM) and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), urban governance in
    smart cities, the release stated.
  • The other sessions are on ‘Decade
    of e-Governance – Way Ahead’ and technology enabled education and cyber
    security framework for citizen centric services, it added.

Light combat aircraft, Tejas to fly at Bahrain Air Show

  • Country’s own fighter aircraft
    light combat aircraft (LCA), Tejas, will take part in the three-day Bahrain
    International Airshow starting from Thursday (January 21 to 23).
  • Tejas is a single engine, light
    weight, highly agile, multi-role supersonic fighter. The Tejas light combat
    aircraft is a 4.5 generation aircraft with supersonic capability at all
    altitudes.
  • It has the fly by wire, state of
    the art open architecture computer for avionics and better weapon and combat
    capability. With the advanced avionics, the pilot load is also reduced.

Maharashtra Government and Tata Trust signed MoU for skill training of
youth

  • The Maharashtra Government and
    Tata Trust on 19 January 2016 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a
    skill training programme for the youth in the state.
  • The programme has been undertaken
    under the Maharashtra Government’s Kushal Maharashtra, Rojgaryukt Maharashtra
    initiative.

Key highlights of the skill training programme
  • Under the skill training
    programme for the youth, skill development and vocational training centres will
    be set up in 10 districts in Maharashtra.
  • Virtual classrooms will also be
    set up in 100 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in Maharashtra.

Bihar Cabinet approved 35 percent reservation for women in government
jobs

  • The Bihar Cabinet on 19 January
    2016 formally approved 35 percent reservation for women in all government jobs
    in the state.
  • The decision was taken in the
    cabinet meeting presided by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
  • The 35 percent reservation for
    women will be applicable to in all government jobs including reserved and
    unreserved category.
  • The Bihar Government is already
    providing 35 percent reservation for women in recruitment as police constables
    and sub-inspectors and 50 percent reservation as primary school teachers and in
    the Panchayati Raj system.
  • In 2015, during campaigning for
    the Bihar assembly polls, Nitish Kumar, as chief ministerial candidate of the
    Grand Alliance of Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress, had
    promised 35 percent reservation for women in all government jobs if he formed a
    government again.

Appointments –
Mamta Binani elected President of ICSI

  • Mamta Binani has been elected
    President of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) for 2016. She
    took charge on January 19.
  • A commerce and law graduate and a
    fellow member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Binani was the
    all-India topper in the Intermediate examinations of The Institute of Company
    Secretaries of India, amongst all the lady candidates in India and had ranked
    14th on an all-India basis.
  • In the final examinations, she
    stood all-India first in the subject ‘Company Law’. She has been practising as
    a Company Secretary for over 19 years now.

Sports –
Indian driver Jehan Daruvala won Lady Wigram Trophy motor race

  • Sahara Force India Academy racer
    Jehan Daruvala on 16 January 2016 won one of New Zealand’s most prestigious
    events, the Lady Wigram Trophy.
  • It was Daruvala’s maiden victory
    in Formula cars since making the switch from karting in 2015.
  • In August 2015, Daruvala won
    Rookie of the Year at the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC series championships in the
    Netherlands.

Obituaries –
Veteran journalist Aroon Tikekar passed away
  • Senior journalist and scholar
    Aroon Tikekar passed away on 19 January 2016 in Mumbai. He was 72.
  • Tikekar, who has written over 20
    books, passed away due to breathing-related complications.






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