Current Affairs Update – 21st January, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 21st January, 2016. These are important for the upcoming Syndicate Bank Manipal Exam and LIC AAO 2016.

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday allowed banks to
  sell gold coins manufactured by MMTC Ltd, through bank branches as the gold
  procured for making the coins are from the domestic market.
• MMTC was authorised by the central government to manufacture
  these gold coins with Ashok Chakra embossed on it for the domestic market. The
  India Gold Coin sale scheme was announced on November 5 last year along with
  gold monetisation and sovereign gold bond schemes.
• Today’s relaxation allowing banks to sell gold coin will be
  significant because so far India gold coins were allowed to be sold only
  through MMTC centers which were hardly 25 in the country.
• Banks cannot sell gold coins other than India Gold Coins
  manufactured by MMTC, because the restrictions put by the RBI on banks not sell
  gold coins continues. Only relaxation given to them is for selling India gold
  coins. Till first half of 2013, banks were very aggressively selling gold
  coins.

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 20
  January 2016 released the first report of the Alternative Investment Policy
  Advisory Committee (AIPAC) for comments from the stakeholders.
• The 21-member committee was constituted by the SEBI in March
  2015 under the chairmanship of N R Narayan Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, to
  suggest measures for development of the alternative investment funds (AIFs) and
  startup eco-system in the country.

• Ease of doing business is important
• Fund managers have the role of “Prudent Men”
• Adopt global best practices, and where necessary, innovate
  the “next” (best) practice

• For creating a favourable tax environment the panel
  recommended that exempted income of AIFs should not suffer tax withholding of
  10 percent.
• Overseas investors in India-centric fund vehicles should not
  be subject to the indirect transfer provisions of the IT Act when they transfer
  their investments in an India-centric vehicle to another investor.

• The Government of India and the World Bank today signed a
  $250 million credit agreement under the Jhelum and Tawi Flood Recovery Project
  for reconstruction and recovery support in flood-affected areas in which public
  infrastructure and livelihoods were impacted severely.
• It will also strengthen the capacity of the state government
  to respond to and better manage natural disasters in the future.
• The credit agreement for the project was signed by Raj
  Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs on behalf of the
  Government of India and Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director, India on behalf
  of the World Bank.

• The Union Government and World Bank on 20 January 2016
  signed the Financing Agreement for World Bank (IDA) assistance of 250 million
  US dollars for Bihar Kosi Basin Development Project.
• The Financing Agreement was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint
  Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Union Government and Onno Ruhl,
  Country Director in India, World Bank.
• It is a loan for an implementation period of 5 years. Bihar
  Government will be the implementing agency.

• Japan-based SoftBank has invested an additional Rs 100 crore
  in Housing.com to drive the growth of the realty portal.
• The company did not disclose the SoftBank’s increase in
  stake after the fresh infusion of Rs 100 crore. SoftBank had over 30 per cent
  stake in the portal.
• Founded in 2012, the portal had raised so far over USD 100
  million in capital from leading investors, including SoftBank, Nexus Ventures,
  Falcon Edge and Helion Ventures.

• The Union Cabinet on 20 January 2016 approved amendments in
  Power Tariff Policy to ensure 24X7 affordable power for all.
• The amendments aim at promoting clean energy, better
  regulation of discoms and faster rollout of investments. The amendments are
  also aimed at achieving the objectives of Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY)
  with the focus on 4 Es: Electricity for all, Efficiency to ensure affordable
  tariffs, Environment for a sustainable future, Ease of doing business to
  attract investments and ensure financial viability.
• For the first time, a holistic view of the power sector has
  been taken and comprehensive amendments have been made in the Tariff policy
  2006.

• 24X7 supply will be ensured to all consumers and State
  Governments and regulators will devise a power supply trajectory to achieve
  this.

• Reduce power cost to consumers through expansion of existing
  power plants.

• Renewable Power Obligation (RPO): In order to promote
  renewable energy and energy security, 8 percent of electricity consumption
  excluding hydro power will be from solar energy by March 2022.
• Renewable Generation Obligation (RGO): New coal/lignite
  based thermal plants after specified date to also establish/procure/purchase
  renewable capacity.

• The Union Government on 20 January 2016 granted
  Infrastructure Status to the Shipyard Industry in a bid to ease its financial
  stress.
• With the granting of the infrastructure status, the
  shipyards will be able to avail flexible long-term funding at lower costs.
• With this inclusion, the financial stress on the shipyard
  industry will be eased substantially.
• The shipyards will be able to avail flexible structuring of
  long-term project loans, long-term funding from infrastructure funds at lower
  rates of interest.

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra
  Modi, on 20 January 2016 approved Policy on Promotion of City Compost.
• The policy primarily seeks to promote the use of city
  compost by bringing better coordination among various government departments
  and agencies.

• Under the policy, a provision has been made for market
  development assistance of 1500 rupees per tonne of city compost for scaling up
  production and consumption of the product. Market development assistance would
  lower MRP of city compost for farmers.
• Eco-Mark standard will be specified for city compost that
  would ensure that environment friendly quality product reaches the farmers.
• Fertilizer companies and marketing entities will also
  co-market city compost with chemical fertilizers through their dealers’
  network.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 20
  January 2016 approved development of the six laning of Aurangabad-
  Bihar/Jharkhand Border- BarwaAdda section on National Highway-2 in Bihar and
  Jharkhand.
• The estimated cost of the project is 4918.48 crore rupees
  including cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other
  pre-construction activities.

• It will be done under the National Highways Development
  Project (NHDP) Phase-V.
• The approval was given in BOT (Toll) mode on Design, Build,
  Finance, Operate and Transfer (BOT/DBFOT) basis.
• The total length of the road will be approximately 222 km.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 20
  January 2016 gave its approval for setting up over 5000 MW of Grid-Connected
  Solar PV Power Projects on build, own and operate basis.
• The work will be implemented by Solar Power Developers
  (SPDs) with Viability Gap Funding (VGF) under Batch-lV of Phase-ll of the
  Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). The total investments expected
  under the scheme is about 30000 crore rupees.
• This would help in creating additional 5000 MW capacity of
  Grid-connected solar PV power generation projects in four trenches of each 1250
  MW capacity during four financial years – 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and
  2018-19. It will also help in employment generation of about 30000 people in
  rural and urban areas with reduction of about 8.525 Million T of CO2 emissions
  into environment every year.
• Key highlights of Grid-Connected Solar PV Power Projects
• Installation of 5000 MW Solar PV plants will generate about
  8300 Million units per year, which caters power to almost 2.5 Million
  households.
• The Scheme will be implemented by Solar Energy Corporation
  of India (SECI) as per the guidelines of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
  (MNRE).

• The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Kuwait
  Institute of Scientific Research (KISR) on 20 January 2016 signed a Memorandum
  of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space
  for peaceful purposes.
• It will allow use of data from Indian Remote Sensing (IRS)
  satellites by KISR for initiating a few research and application projects.
• It will also enable Training and Building and launching of
  remote sensing and communication satellites on commercial terms.
• It will provide impetus to explore newer research activities
  and application possibilities in the field of remote sensing; satellite
  communication; satellite navigation and exploration of outer space.

• The Girls First initiative was in news in the third week of
  January 2016 as the results showed that it helped in improving emotional and
  physical well-being of school children in Bihar.
• The initiative is a first of its kind project in the country
  as integrates evidence-based practices from the fields of social-emotional
  rearing, restorative justice, positive psychology and emotional intelligence.
• It is implemented by Corstone India Foundation with the
  support of David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
• Between 2013 and 2014, 3500 maginalized adolescent girls
  were served under the project.
• The initiative helped in reducing school drop outs and early
  marriage and improving their psychosocial health.

• The Union Cabinet on 20 January 2016 gave its ex-post facto
  approval for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and United
  Kingdom on cooperation in governance reforms.
• The MoU, which was signed in November 2015, seeks to extend
  bilateral cooperation in public administration and governance reforms.

• It covers areas of cooperation such as sharing good
  governance practices in public administration, user led service design,
  reducing bureaucracy in service delivery and government process re-engineering.
• It will also cover reforms towards strengthening of social
  security, collaboration between Government and Industry on staff management,
  crisis and disaster Management and digital transformation of government among
  others.

• Three Mi-25 gunship helicopters supplied by India are to
  officially join the Afghan Air Force today. The gunships, delivered at the end
  of December last year, have been in the assembly process.
• The decision for the delivery of Mi-25 gunship helicopters
  was concluded during the recent visit of Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad
  Hanif Atmar to New Delhi.
• The attack helicopters are designed to take on fortified
  enemy positions and counter heavy ground fire. The Afghanistan Air Force (AAF)
  already operates three Indian Cheetal helicopters.
• The Cheetal helicopters were manufactured by Hindustan
  Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). Subsequently, Afghan pilots and technicians were trained
  to operate them.

• The globally averaged temperature over land and ocean
  surfaces for 2015 was the highest among all years since modern record keeping
  began in 1880.
• It was revealed by the National Aeronautics and Space
  Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  (NOAA) on 20 January 2016 after an independent analysis.

• During 2015, the average temperature across global land and
  ocean surfaces was 1.62°F (0.90°C) above the 20th century average.
• This was the highest among all 136 years in the 1880–2015
  record, surpassing the previous record set in 2014 by 0.29°F (0.16°C) and
  marking the fourth time a global temperature record has been set this century.

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on 7
  January 2016 announced that it had formalized its ongoing program for detecting
  and tracking near-Earth objects (NEOs) as the Planetary Defense Coordination
  Office (PDCO).
• It will remain within NASA’s Planetary Science Division
  under Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
• It will supervise all NASA-funded projects to find and
  characterize asteroids and comets that pass near the orbit of the Earth around
  the sun.

• Noted environmentalist Ravi Chellam on 20 January 2016 took
  charge as the Executive Director of Greenpeace India, a Non-Government
  Organisation (NGO).
• Chellam succeeds former Executive Director Samit Aich, who
  had resigned in June 2015 following an internal review of the organisation’s
  handling of two sexual harassment cases.

• IIT Delhi professor M Jagdeesh Kumar is set to be the next
  Vice Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
• Mr. Kumar’s name has been cleared by President Pranab
  Mukherjee from a panel of four names that were forwarded to him by the Ministry
  of Human Resource Development, officials said.
• A professor of electrical engineering at IIT Delhi, Mr.
  Kumar said his priorities after taking over as the JNU VC would be to
  strengthen collaboration between institutions, streamline recruitment process
  and interact with students to see how the research output can be improved.
• He said institutions like IIT Delhi and JNU are close to
  each other but there is need for more cross-collaboration in various areas than
  is actually happening.

• Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt bade an emotional
  farewell from tennis today after a combustible Australian Open defeat in which
  he was warned for swearing and slammed the umpire as an “idiot”.
• The intensely competitive Australian, roared on by a
  partisan crowd, couldn’t live with Spain’s David Ferrer and he went down 6-2,
  6-4, 6-4 to exit what was his final tournament before retiring.
• Afterwards Hewitt, wearing a shirt decorated with the
  Australian flag, was joined on court by his three children while his wife,
  former soap opera actress Bec, looked on in tears.

• Uttar Pradesh on 20 January 2016 won its maiden Mushtaq Ali
  T20 Trophy with a 38-run win over two- time champions Baroda in the final
  played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
• It was Uttar Pradesh’s ninth straight win in the tournament,
  including five in the preliminary league phase and three more in the super
  league stage.

• The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 20 January 2016 released
  a book titled The Z Factor: My Journey as the Wrong Man at the Right Time in
  New Delhi.
• The book is the autobiography of the promoter of Essel/ Zee
  Group Subhash Chandra.
• It is a candid memoir of a ‘truly desi’ self-made
  businessman who came to Delhi at age twenty with seventeen rupees in his
  pocket.

• Eminent danseuse Mrinalini Sarabhai, wife of the late Dr
  Vikram Sarabhai, father of India’s space programme, passed away here on
  Thursday following age-related health complications.
• She was 97.
• Popularly known as “Amma”, the choreography legend is
  survived by her environmentalist son Kartikeya and daughter Mallika, well-known
  dancer and social activist. The former President, late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam,
  protégé of Dr Sarabhai, was a close family friend.
• Ms Sarabhai, a Padma Bhushan awardee for her contributions
  to Bharatanatyam and other classical dance forms, was hospitalised here on
  Wednesday, Kartikeya, said. Her last rites will be performed at village
  Pethapur in Gandhinagar, which she used to visit frequently due to her keen
  interest in handicrafts, for which the village is well-known.

Regards

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