Current Affairs Update – 21st-22nd October, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 21st and 22nd October, 2015. These are very Important for the IBPS Clerk Exam.

• Reliance Capital Asset Management
  (RCAM), a part of Anil Ambani led Reliance Capital, on 21 October 2015 signed
  definitive agreements (DA) to acquire Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s (GSAM)
  onshore business in India.
• RCAM will pay a total sum of 243
  crore rupees (37.5 million US dollar) in cash to acquire all onshore mutual
  fund schemes, including exchange traded funds, of GSAM India.
• With this acquisition, RCAM will
  become the exclusive fund manager for the government’s CPSE ETFs.
• As part of the transaction, RCAM
  will extend offers of employment to substantially all of GSAM India’s employees
  dedicated to supporting the ETF business.

• The Union Cabinet chaired by
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 21 October 2015 approved amendment in the
  Payment of Bonus Act 1965 for the Industrial workers.
• The bonus ceiling under the
  legislation was increased from 3500 rupees to 7000 rupees per month. 
• The wage ceiling for getting
  bonus has also been increased from existing 10000 rupees per month to 21000
  rupees per month.
• The decision will make workers eligible
  for the reward. The amendment bill concerning this will be tabled in the winter
  session of Parliament likely to start in November 2015.

• Western Digital, a maker of hard
  drives for businesses and personal computers, is buying SanDisk in a
  cash-and-stock deal worth about $19 billion as it looks to extend its reach in
  the storage industry.
• The buyout values SanDisk’s stock
  at about $86.50 per share, a 15 per cent premium to Tuesday’s closing price.
• Western Digital and flash-memory
  chip maker SanDisk said that they have complementary product lines, including
  hard disk drives, solid-state drives, cloud data centre storage solutions and
  flash storage solutions.
• If a previously announced
  investment in Western Digital from Unisplendour closes prior to the
  acquisition, Western Digital will pay $85.10 per share in cash and 0.0176
  shares of its stock for each SanDisk share. If not, the price will be $67.50 in
  cash and 0.2387 shares for each share of Milpitas, California-based SanDisk
  Corp.
• In September it was announced
  that Unisplendour, a division of China’s Tsinghua Holdings, was becoming a
  minority shareholder in Western Digital with a $3.78 billion investment.

• The Government has exempted
  services provided by a business facilitator or a business correspondent to a
  banking company with respect to basic savings bank deposit accounts covered by
  Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) from payment of service tax.
• Further, services provided by any
  person as an intermediary to a business facilitator or a business correspondent
  for these services have also been exempted from service tax.
• PMJDY, a national mission on
  financial inclusion, was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his
  Independence Day 2014 speech and was formally launched by him on August 28 the
  same year with the main objective of covering all households with at least one
  bank account per household across the country.
• So far, over 18.7 crore accounts
  have been opened under the scheme.
• As per RBI guidelines, the
  accounts that can be opened under PMJDY are basic savings bank deposit accounts
  (BSBDA) which can be of zero balance.
• Deposit in accounts opened under
  the government’s flagship financial inclusion programme has exceeded Rs. 25,000
  crore.

• The Ministry of Defence on 21
  October 2015 divided the erstwhile Maharashtra and Gujarat Naval Areas into two
  separate headquarters. It was divided into two under Flag Officer Maharashtra
  Area and Flag Officer Gujarat Naval Area.
• This was done with an objective
  to enhance operational and administrative structure of the organisation.
• The charge of Flag Officer
  Maharashtra Area was assumed by Rear Admiral Satish Namdeo Ghormade from Rear
  Admiral Murlidhar Sadashiv Pawar who now will officiate as Flag Officer Gujarat
  Naval Area.

• The Union Cabinet on 21 October
  2015 gave its approval for signing of a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT)
  in Criminal Matters between India and the Maldives. 
• The treaty aims to boost the
  efficiency of both the countries in investigation and prosecution of crime,
  through cooperation and mutual legal assistance in terrorism, transnational
  crime and criminal matters.
• The proposed treaty will offer a
  broad legal framework for bilateral cooperation with Maldives in investigation
  and prosecution of crime as well as in tracing, restraint and confiscation of
  proceeds, and instruments of crime as well as funds meant to finance terrorist
  acts.

• The Union Cabinet on 21 October
  2015 gave its nod to sign an agreement between India and Egypt on Maritime
  Transport.
• The agreement will be signed on a
  mutually convenient date and venue.
• It will help both the nations to
  encourage and facilitate the development of their maritime relationship.
• It will help both the nations to
  cooperate in the task of enhancing and stimulating steady growth of maritime
  traffic.

• The Ministry of Information and
  Broadcasting on 19 October 2015 reconstituted the Central Press Accreditation
  Committee (CPAC) that issues Press Information Bureau (PIB) cards to
  journalists.
• Post reconstitution, PIB director
  general Frank Noronha will be the ex-officio chairman of the committee.

1. Pramod Kumar of National Union of
   Journalists (India), International Federation of Journalists
2. Surendra Verma of Association of
   Accredited News Cameraman
3. Shyam Babu of Indian Federation
   of Working Journalists
4. Rabi Rath from Association of
   Small and Medium Newspapers of India
5. Meenakshi Pandit from All India
   Journalists Welfare Association

1. Navika Kumar from Times Now
2. Diwakar Asthana from The Times of
   India
3. Coomi Kapoor from Indian Express
4. Jayanto Ghoshal from ABP
5. Amitabh Sinha from IBN-7 TV
6. Akhilesh Sharma from NDTV
7. Kalyan Barua from Assam Tribune
8. Iftikhar Geelani from DNA
9. Nistula Hebbar from The Hindu
10. Shekhar Iyer from Deccan Herald

• India will launch six
  Singapore-made satellites, including a dedicated 400 kg spacecraft for carrying
  out surveillance missions for maritime and border security, in mid-December
  onboard PSLV-C29.
• The six satellites will be
  launched on PSLV-C29 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh on
  December 16, 2015.
• Among them is a 400 kg satellite
  that can conduct surveillance missions for maritime and border security, The
  Strait Times reported.
• The satellites will then hover
  about 550 km above ground for up to five years.
• The December 16 launch comes four
  years after Singapore put its first home-grown micro-satellite in space. Since
  the launch of the fridge-size X-Sat in 2011, smaller satellites have
  subsequently been launched by Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

• The President of India Pranab
  Mukherjee on 19 October 2015 appointed Justice Tinlianthang Vaiphei,
  senior-most Judge of Gauhati High Court, as the acting Chief Justice for the
  Gauhati High Court. The President appointed Vaiphei by exercising the powers
  conferred by article 223 of the Constitution of India.
• Justice Vaiphei will perform the
  duties with effect from 21 October 2015 consequent upon the retirement of
  Justice Karanam Sreedhar Rao, Acting Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court.
• On 15 September 2000, Vaiphei was
  appointed as an additional Advocate General, Mizoram, and was also designated
  as a Senior Advocate on 22 February 2001. He was then elevated to the Bench as
  Additional Judge, Gauhati High Court on 17 July 2003, and was made Permanent
  Judge on 28 February 2005.

• Tyre manufacturing giant MRF
  Limited on 20 October 2015 named South African batsman AB de Villiers as its
  brand ambassador. As per company norms, the association is for a period of
  three years.
• AB de Villiers, the ODI captain
  of South Africa team, in his new role will endorse the company’s products and
  services through advertising campaigns and other such promotional programmes
  during the term of the agreement.

• Former Indian captain and leg
  spinner Anil Kumble on 20 October 2015 was named as the brand ambassador of the
  Raipur Rangers – one of the franchises of Champions Tennis League (CTL).
• Raipur Rangers is co-owned by
  Abhishek Mishra and Chinmay Tiwari and will comprise players like Thomas
  Muster, Alize Cornet and Ramanathan Ramkumar.
• The Balbir Singh Juneja Indoor
  Stadium in Raipur will be the team’s home stadium. The team will also be
  accompanied by two Indian juniors.
• The Champions Tennis League was
  conceptualised by Vijay Amritraj in 2014.

• E-commerce firm Snapdeal on 20
  October 2015 appointed Anup Vikal as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
• Vikal replaced Aakash Moondhra,
  who had quit the company in October 2015.
• Before joining Snapdeal, Vikal
  was working as the CFO of Aircel since January 2013. Before Aircel, he worked
  as the group-CFO & head of strategy and IT with budget carrier IndiGo’s
  parent InterGlobe Enterprises, wherein he handled multiple responsibilities
  like incubating and developing new business, mergers and acquisitions and portfolio
  management. He also served as a part of Bharti Airtel’s finance team for around
  seven years before joining Colt, where he worked for a few years.

• India’s e-commerce giant Flipkart
  announced the appointment of Samardeep Subandh as its Chief Marketing Officer
  (CMO) on Wednesday.
• In his role as CMO, Samar will be
  the primary custodian of the Flipkart brand. His focus will be on gaining
  deeper customer insights, raising the level of customer centricity and driving
  high level of creativity and quality in all communication, the company said in
  a release.
• He will also be leading the
  social media communication charter for the company, it added.
• He will report to Mukesh Bansal,
  Head of the e-commerce platform, Flipkart.

• Former Water Resources Secretary
  Alok Rawat has been appointed as the first male member of the National
  Commission for Women (NCW), filling the fourth seat in the five-member body.
• Not deterred to voice his
  opinions in a female-dominated body, Mr. Rawat said, “I feel that the presence
  of a male would provide a better understanding to the women’s issues.”

• Noted criminologist K
  Chockalingam was in fourth week of October 2015 conferred with the prestigious
  Paul H Appleby Award given by the Indian Institute of Public Administration
  (IIPA). He was awarded for his distinguished services to public administration
  and IIPA, where he was a member.
• Chockalingam has served as a
  professor and a researcher in criminology in University of Madras and is Vice
  President of World Society of Victimology. He also worked as Chair Professor of
  criminal law at the National Law University (NLU) in Delhi from 2012-14.

• The Department of Economic and
  Social Affairs of the United Nations on 20 October 2015 released a report
  entitled The World’s Women 2015: Trends and Statistics.
• The report provides an update of
  the statistics and indicators on the situation of women and men around the
  world covering gender-specific information on eight key areas-population and
  families, health, education, work, power and decision-making, violence against women,
  environment and poverty.
• There are about 62 million more
  men than women worldwide. In younger age groups, men outnumber women; in older
  age groups, women outnumber men.

• Global Iodine Deficiency
  Disorders (IDD) Prevention Day was observed on 21 October 2015 across the world
  to create awareness of the need to prevent iodine deficiency.
• Almost one-third of world’s
  population is exposed to the risk of iodine deficiency disorders. Iodine
  deficiency is also the world’s single greatest cause of preventable mental
  retardation.
• A diet low in iodine is the main
  cause of iodine deficiency. It usually occurs among populations living in areas
  where the soil has been depleted of iodine because of flooding, heavy rainfall
  or glaciations.

• The Global Maternal Newborn
  Health Conference 2015 was held between 18 October and 21 October 2015 in the
  Mexico City.
• It was a technical meeting
  focused on accelerating progress towards effective and sustainable coverage of
  maternal and newborn interventions at scale.
• It provided a forum to identify,
  understand and respond to the most urgent health needs of mothers and newborns,
  focusing on quality care, integration and equity.
• It was attended by technical
  implementers, policymakers, researchers and practitioners from over 50
  countries including India.

• The book Dreaming Big: My Journey
  to Connect India was launched on 19 October 2015. It is the auto biography of
  Sam Pitroda written with the help of David Chanoff, an American author.
• The book describes the journey of
  Satanarayan Gangaram Pitroda, considered as the ‘father of Indian telecom
  revolution.
• It starts with 1964 when he
  embarked on a long journey to the USA from Titilagarh in Odisha.

• Renowned marine biologist Syed
  Zahoor Qasim died on 20 October 2015 in New Delhi. He was 88.
• He is considered as the founder
  of Polar Biology in India and was part of the first Indian expedition to
  Antarctica in 1981-82.
• After the first expedition, he
  successfully organized and guided the next the seven expeditions till 1988 and
  made pioneering contributions in the field of fisheries biology, mari-culture,
  estuarine ecology and environmental pollution.

• A veteran British left-wing
  Labour party MP and a former minister in Tony Blair’s first government has
  died, the party said today.
• 75-year old Michael Meacher was
  former environment minister and was also transport secretary. He died yesterday
  after a short illness.
• He has represented Oldham
  constituency since 1970.

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