Current Affairs Update – 21-22 Dec, 2014

• Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) on 22 December 2014
  bagged a 16.96 million Euro (approximately 130.8 crore rupees) contract for a
  thermal power project in Turkey. This is BHEL’s maiden entry in the Turkish
  Power Market.
• The contract was placed by Electricity Generation Company
  (EUAS) which is the largest electric power company in Turkey and it aims at
  reducing the emission levels drastically.

• BHEL needs to rehabilitate 3 units of Electrostatic
  Precipitators (ESPs) for the 430 MW Tuncbilek Thermal Power Project in Turkey
  on EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) basis.
• It envisages dismantling, supply, civil works and
  erection & commissioning of the Electrostatic Precipitators
• The Electrostatic Precipitators will be manufactured and
  supplied by BHEL’s Ranipet unit, Motors and other auxiliaries by its Bhopal
  facility and Controls by the BHEL’s Bangalore unit.

• EUAS owned by the Turkish government generates and
  supplies electricity throughout the country. It was founded to generate
  electricity in compliance with the energy and economic policies of the state
  and in accordance with the principles of efficiency and profitability.

• Jyotsna Suri, Chairperson of Bharat Hotels, on 20
  December 2014 was elected as the President of the Federation of Indian Chambers
  of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).
• She was elected as the President at the conclusion of the
  FICCI 87th annual general meeting.
• She succeeded Sidharth Birla, Chairman of Xpro India
  Limited and Digjam Limited.
• Also, Ambuja Neotia group Chairman Harshavardhan Neotia
  was elected Senior Vice President and Zydus Cadila Chairman Pankaj R. Patel as
  Vice President.

• Jyotsana Suri has been the Chairperson of the FICCI
  tourism committee since last five years and is the only Indian member on the
  International Executive Committee of the World Travel and Tourism Council
  (WTTC).
• Under her direction, FICCI introduced The Great India
  Travel Bazaar in the year 2008 and The Great Domestic Tourism Bazaar in the
  year 2011.

• Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from the Warwick
  University, the UK
• World Travel Market Global Award (2011)
• Asia’s Leading Woman in Hospitality Award at the Women in
  Leadership (WIL) Asia Awards 2012

• The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and
  Industry (FICCI) is an association of business organizations in India. The
  organisation was established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by GD
  Birla and Purushottam Das Thakurdas.
• It is the largest, oldest and the apex business
  organisation in India

• State Government of Maharashtra on 18 December 2014
  decided to make e-tendering compulsory for projects over 3 lakh rupees. The
  step was taken to bring transparency and curb irregularities in the state
  administration.
• It will become compulsory from 1 April 2015. Till then,
  people have the choice of using the e-tendering facility or not.
• However, for bids over 10 lakh rupees e-tendering has
  been made compulsory with immediate effect.
• These norms will be applicable to all the departments of
  the state government, urban and rural local self-government bodies like gram
  panchayats and zilla parishads and corporations.

• The e-tendering process has been in Maharashtra since
  2010. The state government started the process after receiving flak for
  corruption in the manual tendering process. But earlier, the process was
  applicable only for schemes and projects of 50 lakh rupees and above. Later, in
  2013, the amount was brought down to 10 lakh rupees.

• Union Government released Calendar for the year 2015 with
  the theme Clean India Green India. The Union Minister of Information and
  Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley launched the calendar and its mobile app on
  17 December 2014.
• The calendar highlights the societal work of the union
  government through the visuals of Swachch Bharat or Clean India Programme with
  picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi wielding the broom on the first page of
  the calendar.
• The calendar also contributes to the union government’s Digital
  India programme with its mobile calendar app.
• The mobile app will display all gazetted and restricted
  holidays and also date-wise events. It will also provide information on Press
  Information Bureau events and releases, the latest five tweets by the Prime
  Minister’s Office, All India Radio news, Doordarshan news, a list of government
  websites and link to the ministry on YouTube.
• At present, the mobile app being developed for Android
  platforms and in future the app will be available on other mobile platforms.

• Losar, the Buddhists festival of Ladakh region of Jammu
  and Kashmir, started on 22 December 2014. The festival marks the beginning of
  New Year in Ladakh.
• The festival is celebrated by people of the area with
  traditional and religion fervor. The festival begins with illumination of religious
  and residential places.
• Buddhists of Ladakh celebrate Losar as their new year.
  Before the rule of Jamiang Namgyal (1955 to 1610) this day was celebrated on
  the first day of Ladakhi Buddhist Year which is based in the moon and sun
  (quite similar to Hindus). However, the day was advanced by two days after
  Jamiang Namgyal decided to invade Skardu before the New Year.
• Since then, Losar is celebrated on the last two days of
  the 10th Bodhi month that coincides with December of Christian calendar.
• During this, people of Ladakh specially remember
  ancestors of their family. On this day, people visit graveyards of their family
  members and pray for peace of the departed soul. Apart from this, people also
  visit each other houses for exchange of Losar greetings.

• India on 22 December 2014 celebrated National Mathematics
  Day. The day is observed to commemorate the birth anniversary of great Indian
  Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
• The declaration to observe 22 December as National
  Mathematics Day was made by former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on 26
  February 2012 at Madras University on the occasion of 125th birth anniversary
  of Ramanujan.
• It was also declared to observe year 2012 as the National
  Mathematics Year.

• Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22 December 1887 in Erode
  district of Tamil Nadu.
• He died on 26 April 1920
• Ramanujan did wonders in number theory, infinite series,
  mathematical analysis, and making formulas and equations.
• He compiled more than 3900 mathematical results and
  equations, and his discoveries namely Ramanujam Prime and Ramanujam theta
  inspired further research on the subject.
• He along with a British Mathematician Godfrey Harold
  Hardy discovered the smallest number represented as sum of two cubes 1729 which
  came to be known as Hardy-Ramanujan number.
• Ramanujan was said to be a natural genius, in the same
  league as mathematicians such as Euler and Gauss.

• Special Secretary in Research and Analysis Wing or RAW, the
  country’s external intelligence gathering agency, Rajinder Khanna was on Saturday
  appointed as its new chief.
• The Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by Prime
  Minister Narendra Modi cleared Mr Khanna, a 1978 batch RAS cadre, for the post
  of RAW chief for a period of two years from December 31 after incumbent Alok
  Joshi retires.
• Mr Khanna’s batchmate Arvind Saxena been appointed as
  head of Aviation Research Centre.
• Considered as the father of counter-terrorism unit in the
  RAW, Mr Khanna has been in the forefront of seeking cooperation from intelligence
  agencies around the globe.
• During his long stint in RAW, Mr Khanna has served in
  Northeast as well as abroad.

• Special Secretary (Internal Security) in Union Home
  Ministry Prakash Mishra was appointed as head of the Central Reserve Police
  Force or CRPF, the world’s largest paramilitary force with over three lakh
  personnel.
• Mr Mishra, a 1977-batch IPS officer from Odisha cadre,
  was made chief of CRPF, a post lying vacant since Dilip Trivedi retired on
  November 30.
• CRPF is the mainstay for anti-Naxal operations and Mr
  Mishra has himself spearheaded such operations when he was the Director General
  of Police in Odisha.

• Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) is a 0.50
  caliber round bullet that can change direction mid-air to reach its target.
• It was in news recently as it was revealed recently that
  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the US Department of
  Defense concluded the Phase-II of the technology development.
• The phase-II involved testing of design, integration and
  demonstration of aero-actuation controls, power sources, optical guidance
  systems, and sensors.

• It seeks to improve sniper effectiveness and enhance US
  military troop safety by allowing greater shooter standoff range and reduction
  in target engagement timelines.
• To revolutionize rifle accuracy and range by developing
  the first ever guided small-caliber bullet.

• The EXACTO technology uses a combination of manoeuvrable
  bullet and a real-time guidance system to track and deliver the projectile to
  the target. This allows the bullet to change path mid-air to compensate for any
  unexpected factors that may drive it off course.
• The bullet uses optical sighting technology to greatly
  extend the day and nighttime range over current state-of-the-art sniper
  systems.
• The next phase of the program includes a system-level
  live-fire test and technology refinement to enhance and improve performance.

• NASA plans to send solar-powered airships to explore
  Venus’ atmosphere and to eventually establish a permanent human colony in a
  floating cloud city above the Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour.
• Dale Arney and Chris Jones, from the Space Mission
  Analysis Branch of NASA’s Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at Langley
  Research Centre, in Virginia, have proposed that it may make sense to go to
  Venus before we ever send humans to Mars.
• NASA’s High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC)
  mission aims to explore the atmosphere of Venus instead of exploring the
  surface.
• The researchers believe the upper atmosphere of Venus is
  “probably the most Earth-like environment that’s out there”.
• At 50 kilometres above its surface, Venus offers one
  atmosphere of pressure and only slightly lower gravity than Earth.
• Astronauts would also be protected from radiation in
  Venus’s atmosphere, researchers said. The planet’s proximity to the Sun
  provides it 40 per cent more solar power than the Earth gets, and 240 per cent
  more than that seen on Mars.

• Sachin Tendulkar was appointed as the ambassador of
  Cricket World Cup 2015. The decision was announced by the International Cricket
  Council (ICC) on 22 December 2014.
• He was appointed as ambassador of Cricket World Cup of
  ICC for the second successive time. Tendulkar in the role of ambassador will
  promote and support a variety of ICC initiatives to enhance the profile of the
  tournament.
• Cricket World Cup is the third biggest sporting event in
  the world and 2015 World Cup will take place in Australia and New Zealand from
  14 February to 29 March 2015.
• In 2013, Sachin retired from international cricket after
  representing India in 200 Tests, 463 One-Day International and one Twenty20
  International. In his 24 years of career he scored a total of 34357
  international runs and 100 centuries. He is the all-time leading run-getter in
  World Cup history with 2278 runs in 45 matches at an average of 56.95.
• In World Cup 2003, he was awarded player of the
  tournament for his 673 runs in the tournament.

• India on 20 December 2014 won the Men and Women title of
  Kabaddi World Cup 2014. This was the fifth Kabaddi World Cup.
• In Men, India defeated Pakistan while in women, India
  defeated New Zealand to win the title for the fourth consecutive time.
• The final match of the cup was played at Guru Gobind
  Singh Multipurpose Stadium in Jalandhar, Punjab, India.

• Best raiders: Sandeep Surakhpur (India) and Shafiq Ahmad
  Chishti (Pakistan)
• Best stopper: Yadwinder

• Best raiders: Ram Bateri (India), Priyanka (India), Lani
  Perese (New Zealand)
• Best stopper:  Anu
  Rani (India) and Tito (New Zealand)

• Men – 11 teams
• Women – 8 teams

• Mohammed Rafique nodded home the most important goal in
  the Indian Super League as Atletico de Kolkata won the inaugural edition here
  on Saturday evening. The injury-time goal from the substitute broke Kerala
  Blasters’ hearts after a rousing first-half display at the D.Y. Patil stadium.
• KB’s marquee player David James had put his reputation on
  the line by including himself in place of the in-form Sandip Nandy. He reacted
  to the header, coming off a flag-kick, but not fast enough to come anywhere
  near the ball which bounced in sight and continued its onward route into the
  net.

• Shiva Keshavan on 21 December 2014 won Silver at the 17th
  Asian Luge Championships. He clocked 49.934 seconds to cover the 1326 metre
  long ice track in the men’s luge competition at the Spiral Olympic Sliding
  Centre in Nagano, Japan.
• The Gold was won by Japan’s Hidenari Kanayama with a time
  of 49.791 seconds while Kim of Korea bagged the bronze with a timing of 50.178.
  Hidenari had also won gold in 2011 and 2022 Asian Luge Championships.
• However, Keshavan’s Asian records remain intact. He has
  the start record of 3.191 seconds and speed record of 134.3 kmph in the Asian
  Luge Championhips.
• On the other hand, in the Class B of the Asia Cup also
  saw India’s Murlidhar Negi finish ninth.
• In the Ladies’ Class B section, India’s Yuvavanti Negi,
  Nikita Thakur and Jahnavi Rawat finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.