Current Affairs Update – 21st to 26th September, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here are the important Current Affairs from 21st to 26th September, 2016. These are important for the upcoming IBPS PO VI Mains, RBI Assistant, NIACL AO and Bank of Maharashtra PO Exams.

• The Reserve Bank has given
  approval to Rs 26,000-crore cash credit limit (CCL) for purchasing paddy in
  poll-bound Punjab, which came as a relief for SAD-BJP combine that struggled
  hard in the past for release of funds to buy foodgrain.
• “RBI has given its approval
  for the Rs 26,000 crore of CCL for procuring paddy from Punjab,” Punjab
  Mandi Board Vice-Chairman Ravinder Singh Cheema said on Monday.
• Paddy procurement in Punjab will
  commence from October 1 and the state is expecting procurement of 150 lakh
  tonne of crop from the state.

• State-owned Bank of India (BOI)
  has sold 18 per cent stake in the insurance joint venture (JV) Star Union
  Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company (SUD) to its Japanese partner.
• The shareholding of DILIC will be
  44 per cent up from 26 per cent upon completion of the transaction after
  receiving necessary statutory/regulatory approvals.
• BOI said the transaction was
  completed on Monday.
• With this, the shareholding of
  BOI has come down to 30 per cent from 48 per cent in SUD. While, Union Bank of
  India will continue to hold 26 per cent.
• SUD was incorporated in 2007 as a
  JV among Bank of India, Union Bank of India and DILIC to undertake life
  insurance business in India.

• No-frills carrier AirAsia India
  has partnered with Reliance General Insurance for providing travel insurance to
  its flyers.
• Under the partnership, ‘Reliance
  Inland Travel Care Policy’ will be offered to passengers of AirAsia India.
• The policy will cover “trip
  cancellation and interruption, trip delay, missed flight connection, damage or
  total loss of checked-in baggage and hospitalisation due to accident,” the
  airline said in a release today.
• It will be priced at a premium of
  Rs 149 for 30 days, Rs 279 for 60 days and Rs 399 for 90 days.

• Online aggregator of homestays
  Stayzilla.com has signed an MoU with Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd (TCGL)
  to jointly promote and market homestays and alternate stays in Gujarat.
• Homestay is a stay option wherein
  guests (travellers) can rent a room in the home of a local family (host) or the
  entire house.
• Under this agreement, Stayzilla
  and Gujarat Tourism will share the current base of homestays on each other’s
  digital platforms to bring more awareness on homestays in Gujarat.
• Stayzilla will also aid
  verification procedures and jointly promote the concept of homestays in the
  State. All homestays registered with TCGL will receive technological and
  operational support to run.

• Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has
  landed a 99.7-million dollar (around 660 crore rupees) contract from Vietnam
  Border Guard to design, construct and supply high-speed patrol vessels. The
  contract provides for supply of 12 vessels in next 30 months.
• As per the contract, L&T will
  also transfer design and technology along with supply of equipment and material
  kits for construction of follow-on vessels to a Vietnam shipyard.
• These high-speed patrol vessels
  will be built for controlling and protecting sea security and sovereignty,
  detecting illegal activities such as smuggling, and undertaking search and
  rescue missions.
• Constructed of aluminum alloy,
  these vessels will be about 35 meter long and clock a speed of 35 knots with
  navigation and surveillance equipment and self-defence capabilities on board.

• Indian Oil Corporation Limited
  (IOCL) and GAIL (India) Limited on 21 September 2016 signed a Memorandum of
  Understanding (MoU) with Dhamra LNG Terminal Private Limited (DLTPL) for taking
  equity in the 5 MMTPA capacity LNG Receiving, Storage and Regasification
  Terminal.
• The Dhamra LNG terminal is being
  built by Adani Enterprises Ltd at Dhamra Port, Odisha.

• As per the MoU, DLTPL shall be an
  equal Joint Venture of Indian Oil and GAIL on one hand and Adani Group on the
  other.
• Indian Oil and GAIL will acquire
  39 percent and 11 percent equity respectively in DLTPL, with the balance 50
  percent stake being held by Adani group.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic
  Affairs (CCEA) on 21 September 2016 approved the partial capital grant of 5176
  crore rupees to GAIL (India) Limited for development of 2539 km long
  Jagdishpur-Haidia and Bokaro-Dhamra Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL) project.
• This grant is 40 percent of the
  total estimated capital cost of 12940 crore rupees.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic
  Affairs gave its approval for initiating the process of winding up of Hindustan
  Diamond Company Private Limited (HDCPL). HDCPL is 50:50 joint venture of the
  Union Government and De Beers Centenary Mauritius Limited (DBCML).
• The winding up of HDCPL is not
  likely to affect supply of rough diamonds to Indian diamantaires because the
  Indian diamond industry has grown in all these years. At present, India is a
  house of top diamond producers.
• Besides, the Special Notified
  Zone (SNZ) at Bharat Diamond Bourse, Mumbai established in 2015 also enables
  the smaller Indian players to have a direct access to the supply of rough
  diamond.

• The Union Cabinet on 21 September
  2016 approved merger of Rail budget with Union Budget. It also decided to
  advance the date of presentation of the annual budget from the last day of
  February to start of February.
• In addition, it also decided to
  merge the Plan and the Non-Plan classification in the Budget and Accounts. All
  these changes will be put into effect simultaneously from the Budget 2017-18.
• The arrangements for merger of
  Railway budget with the General budget have been approved by the Cabinet with
  the following administrative and financial arrangements-
• The Railways will continue to
  maintain its distinct entity -as a departmentally run commercial undertaking as
  at present
• Railways will retain their
  functional autonomy and delegation of financial powers etc. as per the existing
  guidelines
• The existing financial
  arrangements will continue wherein Railways will meet all their revenue
  expenditure, including ordinary working expenses, pay and allowances and
  pensions etc. from their revenue receipts;
• The Capital at charge of the
  Railways estimated at 2.27 lakh crore rupees on which annual dividend is paid
  by the Railways will be wiped off. Consequently, there will be no dividend
  liability for Railways from 2017-18 and Ministry of Railways will get Gross
  Budgetary support. This will also save Railways from the liability of payment
  of approximately 9700 crore rupees annual dividend to the Government of India.
• The decision scraps over
  nine-decade old tradition of having a separate Railway Budget. The presentation
  of separate Railway budget started in the year 1924, and has continued after
  independence as a convention rather than under Constitutional provisions.

• Transportation app Ola on 20
  September 2016 tied-up with Yatra.Com for Cab Booking Interface Integration. It
  has integrated its application interface on Yatra.com.
• Through this integration, users
  will be able to book a ride directly through Yatra.Com’s app without having the
  Ola application installed on their devices.
• It will also give customers the
  access to availability, booking, estimation and tracking across categories,
  directly on the Yatra app.
• Ola has also opened up its
  Application Programming Interface (API) to other apps like Makemytrip, Oyo
  Rooms and others to extend its mobility offerings to a larger user base.

• India’s Centre for Civil Society
  in collaboration with Canada’s Fraser Institute on 15 September 2016 released
  the Economic Freedom of the World 2016 Annual Report.
• The report is based on data from
  2014 and measures the World Economic Freedom (WEF) Index by analysing the
  policies and institutions of 159 countries and territories.

• Hong Kong topped the index
  followed by Singapore and New Zealand at second and third position.
• The other top 10 countries in the
  Index are Switzerland, Canada, Georgia, Ireland, Mauritius, the UAE, Australia
  and the UK.
• The 10 lowest-ranked countries
  are: Iran, Algeria, Chad, Guinea, Angola, Central African Republic, Argentina,
  Republic of Congo, Libya and lastly Venezuela.
• Other notable countries are- the
  United States (16), Germany (30), Japan (40), France (57) and Russia (102).
• The economic freedom has
  increased throughout the world during the past three decades. Between 1985 and
  2014, economic freedom among high-income countries rose from 6.9 to 7.7 points.

• India has slipped 10 positions
  and fetched 112th spot among all 159 countries in the Index.
• It ranks behind Bhutan (78),
  Nepal (108) and Sri Lanka (111) but stood higher than China (113), Bangladesh
  (121) and Pakistan (133) in the Index.
• India has fared badly in all
  categories i.e. legal system and property rights (86), sound money (130),
  freedom to trade internationally (144) and regulation (132) except the size of
  the government (8).

• Indian Space Research
  Organization (ISRO) on 26 September 2016 successfully launched eight satellites
  in two different orbits in a single mission. These satellites were launched
  with the PSLV C35 from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre,
  Sriharikotta.
• The satellites that was carried
  into space include the primary payload SCATSAT-1 of India, weighing 371 kg, and
  seven other customer payloads (five foreign and two domestic) together weighing
  304 kg during lift off. The weather satellite SCATSAT-1 will be hurled into a
  polar sun synchronous orbit of 730 kilometer height.

The other seven satellites that
will be injected into a different orbit as compared to the principal payload
are

• Three smaller payloads from
  Algeria: Alsat-1B 103 kg, Alsat-2B 110 kg and Alsat Nano 7 kg. They are meant
  for earth observation, remote sensing and technology demonstration.
• One from US: Pathfinder-1 of 44
  kg. It is a high resolution imaging microsatellite and is owned by BlackSky.
• One from Canada: NLS-19 of 8 kg
  developed at University of Toronto, Canada. It is a nano-satellite to
  experiment reduction of space debris.

• Pratham: A student-satellite
  of the IIT, Bombay. It would estimate the total electron count with a
  resolution of 1km x 1km location grid.
• PISAT (पैसेट): It is developed by a consortium-led by the PES
  University in Bengaluru. It would explore remote sensing applications.

• Visaranai, a Tamil film directed
  by Vetrimaran and produced by Dhanush’s Wunderbar Films, has been selected as
  India’s entry in the Foreign Language Film category for the 89th Academy Awards
  (Oscars) to be held in 2017.
• The national award-winning film
  documents four migrant workers who suffer police brutuality and corruption
  after being jailed on false charges.
• The film is based on true events
  recorded in novel Lock Up written by M Chandrakumar, an auto rickshaw driver
  from Coimbatore.   

• India and France on 23 September
  2016 inked the 7.8-billion Euro deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets. As per the
  deal, the aircraft will be equipped with latest missiles and weapon system like
  Meteor and Scalp.
• The 7.8 billion Euro deal is
  crucial for the Indian Air Force and is expected to give India the dominant
  status in the air. The deal was signed in New Delhi by Defence Minister Manohar
  Parrikar and his French counterpart Jean Yves Le Drian.
• The features that make the Rafale
  a strategic weapon is its Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Meteor air-to-air missile
  with a range in excess of 150 kilometre.
• During the Kargil war, India had
  used a BVR having 50 kilometre range. The delivery of this aircraft will start
  in 36 months and will be completed in 66 months from the date the contract is
  inked.

• Indian Air Force on 23 September
  2016 successfully fired the recently acquired long range air-to-air MICA
  missile on a manoeuvring target from Mirage-2000 Upgrade combat aircraft.
• A Defence Ministry release said
  in New Delhi that the missile achieved a direct hit on a target which was much
  smaller than an actual aircraft and flying at a low altitude.
• The release said, with the
  success of this mission by ‘Tigers’, the first squadron of the force, IAF has
  become one of the few air forces in the world with the capability of such
  beyond visual range air-to-air missile.

• The Union Health Ministry has
  decided to launch Mission Parivar Vikas in 145 High Focus districts in seven
  states for improved family planning services. The Mission will be implemented
  in all the 145 districts at one go.
• Its main objective is to
  accelerate access to high quality family planning choices based on information,
  reliable services and supplies within a rights-based framework.
• These districts having the
  highest total fertility rates are in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
  Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Assam. These states
  constitute 44 percent of the country’s population.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on
  23 September 2016 approved the constitution of two committees for the
  commemoration of the birth centenary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay.
• Modi will head the 149 member
  National Committee while Home Minister Rajnath Singh will chair the 23 member
  Executive Committee.
• Former Prime Ministers Atal
  Bihari Vajpayee and H.D. Deve Gowda, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma
  Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Manohar Parrikar, former Deputy Prime Minister LK
  Advani and BJP President Amit Shah are the members of National Committee.
• Besides, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish
  Kumar, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, Film Director Chandraprakash Dwivedi, former
  Hockey player Dhanraj Pillai, former Chief Justice R C Lahoti and
  Constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap will have also been included in the
  National Committee among others. The committee includes several Governors,
  Chief Ministers, Scientists, Journalists, Academicians, Social Workers and
  Spiritual Leaders.

• The Inland Waterways Authority of
  India (IWAI) on 21 September 2016 signed a contract with M/s DST, Germany to
  design vessels, especially suited to navigate the 1620 km stretch of National
  Waterway-1 (NW-1). Under the contract, DST will develop 150 to 200 low draft
  vessels.
• The contract was signed with an
  aim to provide safe, environment friendly and economical mode of transportation
  through NW-1.
• The objective of IWAI is to go
  along with nature and disturb the river minimally. The specially designed
  vessels will navigate on low drafts and will be of high carrying capacity, and
  most importantly, will be environment friendly.

• The Union Cabinet on 21 September
  2016 approved the provision of a direct communication link through a dedicated
  submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) between Mainland (Chennai) and Andaman and
  Nicobar Islands.
• The project to be completed by
  December 2018 will connect the mainland Chennai with Port Blair & five
  other islands viz. Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Havelock, Kamorta and Great
  Nicobar.
• The estimated cost for
  development of the project is 1102.38 crore rupees including operational
  expenses for 5 years.
• It will equip Andaman &
  Nicobar Islands with appropriate bandwidth and telecom connectivity for
  implementation of e-Governance initiatives and establishment of enterprises
  & e-commerce facilities.

• The National Board for Wildlife
  (NBWL) on 20 September 2016 approved 10000 crore rupees Ken-Betwa project,
  India’s first inter-State river interlinking project.
• With this, India will have a
  river project will be located within a tiger reserve for the first time.

• India’s High Commissioner to
  Britain Navtej Sarna was on Thursday appointed as the next Ambassador to the US
  as that country prepares for a presidential transition.
• He takes charge after Arun Kumar
  Singh retired last month-end. Both Sarna and Singh are former Indian
  ambassadors to Israel, underlying the importance of a posting in Tel Aviv which
  is one of Washington’s closest allies.
• Sarna was moved to London as the
  High Commissioner barely eight months back.
• Sarna has had a previous posting
  in Washington when he was Minister for Press, Information and Culture between
  1998 and 2002.

• Senior IAS officer Arun Goyal has
  been appointed as Additional Secretary in the Goods and Services Tax (GST)
  Council.
• The Council, headed by Finance
  Minister Arun Jaitley, is mandated to decide on tax rate, exempted goods and
  the threshold limit.
• The Appointments Committee of
  Cabinet has approved Goyal’s appointment against the newly created post, an
  order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.

• Justice Girish Chandra Gupta on
  22 September 2016 was sworn in as the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court.
• West Bengal Governor K.N.
  Tripathi administered the oath of office to Justice Gupta at the Raj Bhavan.
• Justice Gupta replaced Manjula
  Chellur, who has taken over as Chief Justice of Bombay High Court.
• Justice Gupta was functioning as
  the acting Chief Justice of the high court since 22 August 2016 after Chellur’s
  transfer.

• Monika Kapil Mohta was on 17
  September 2016 appointed as the India’s Ambassador to Sweden.
• She is presently the Additional
  Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and looks after India’s relations
  with a large part of the Asia-Pacific region.
• Mohta is an 1985 batch Indian
  Foreign Services officer. Previously, she has served as the ambassador of India
  to Poland and Lithuania.

• Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin
  on 25 September 2016 became the fastest Indian and second overall to take 200
  wickets, reaching the milestone in his 37th Test.
• Ashwin trapped New Zealand
  skipper Kane Williamson in front to get to the 200-mark on day four of the
  first Test at the Green Park in Kanpur.
• With this feat, Ashwin left
  behind the likes of Dennis Lillee and Waqar Younis, who took 38 Tests to get to
  200 wickets. South African pacer Dale Steyn took 39 Tests to reach the
  landmark.
• Only leg-spinner Clarrie Grimmett
  got to the double century of wickets faster than Ashwin as the Australian reached
  there in 36 Tests.

• German tennis player Alexander
  Zverev on 25 September 2016 defeated Stan Wawrinka to win his first tour title
  in the St. Petersburg Open final.
• Zverev defeated Wawrinka by 6-2,
  3-6, 7-5 to win the title.
• With this, Zverev becomes the
  first man to beat Wawrinka in a tour final since 2013. The loss also ends a
  10-match unbeaten run for Wawrinka.

• Dominic Inglot and Henri Kontinen
  on 25 September 2016 won the 2016 St Petersburg Open Men’s Doubles title.
• The duo defeated Leander Paes and
  his German partner Andre Begemann to grab the title.
• The Indo-German duo lost 6-4 3-6
  10-12 in a match that lasted an hour and 19 minutes.

• NITI Aayog, the think tank of
  union government, has devised a short –term and medium-to-long term action plan
  to help India achieve 50 medals in 2024 summer Olympics.
• In its action plan for
  revitalising sports in India, Niti Aayog said, India still does not have a
  conducive environment for sports to polish the talent of Indian sports persons
  and make them at par with their global counterparts.

• India’s Sania Mirza and her Czech
  partner Barbora Strycova on 24 September 2016 lifted the women’s doubles title
  in the Toray Pan Pacific Open trophy in Tokyo. In the final clash, the
  Indo-Czech pair defeated the unseeded Chinese pair of Chen Liang and Zhaoxuan
  Yang 6-1, 6-1.
• This is Sania and Strycova’s
  second title in three tournaments since they have paired together.
• This is Sania and Strycova’s
  second title in three tournaments since they have paired together. They won their
  first title in Cincinnati.

• India’s Velavan Senthilkumar on
  24 September 2016 bagged the Under-19 Asian Junior Individual squash
  championship title. In the final clash played in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he
  defeated Jordan’s Mohammad Al-Sarraj 12-14, 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7.
• The Chennai player, who trains at
  the Indian Squash Academy, is the second Indian to win the title after Ravi
  Dixit in 2010.
• From among 31 Indian players in
  various age categories at the tournament, there were two more medal winners in
  Tushar Shahani, who claimed silver in boys’U-17, and Yash Fadte who earned a
  bronze in boys’ U-15 section.

• Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the third
  week of September 2016 was named the captain of the all-time India Test XI
  chosen by cricket magazine Wisden.
• Dhoni has received the honours
  ahead of Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Azharuddin.
• The openers in the team are Sunil
  Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag, followed by Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS
  Laxman, all-rounder Kapil Dev and Dhoni.
• Veteran Indian all-rounder Kapil
  Dev along with Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan have been named as pacers, while
  legendary Bishen Singh Bedi, Harbhajan Singh and Team India coach Anil Kumble
  are the spinners. Azharuddin has been named as the 12th man.

• International Day of Peace was
  observed across the world on 21 September 2016. The 2016 theme for the day is
  The Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks for Peace.
• The day is dedicated to world
  peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence, such as might be
  occasioned by a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone for humanitarian aid
  access.
• The International Day of Peace
  was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. Two decades
  later, in 2001, the General Assembly unanimously voted to designate the Day as
  a period of non-violence and cease-fire.

• Book titled Democrats and
  Dissenters authored by Ramachandra Guha was released in September 2016. The
  book is a work of rigorous scholarship on topics of compelling contemporary
  interest, written with elegance and wit.
• Democrats and Dissenters covers a
  wide range of themes: from the varying national projects of India’s neighbours
  to political debates within India itself, from the responsibilities of writers
  to the complex relationship between democracy and violence.
• It has essays critically
  assessing the work of Amartya Sen and Eric Hobsbawm, essays on the tragic
  predicament of tribals in India—who are, as Guha demonstrates, far worse off
  than Dalits or Muslims, yet get a fraction of the attention—and on the peculiar
  absence of a tradition of conservative intellectuals in India.

• Two Indian forest officials,
  Sanjay Dutta and Ritesh Sarothiya, have been selected for the 2016 Clark R.
  Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Awards. Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement
  Awards honours individuals engaging in exemplary law enforcement actions to
  protect wildlife.
• Sanjay Dutta is the range officer
  of Belakoba Forest Range Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and Ritesh Sarothiya is the
  assistant conservator of Madhya Pradesh State Forest.
• The award ceremony will be held
  on 3 October 2016 at the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP) of the Convention
  on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in
  Johannesburg, South Africa.

• The 2016 Right Livelihood Award
  widely referred as the Alternative Nobel Prize was announced on 22 September
  2016 in Stockholm, Sweden. The laureates of this year’s Right Livelihood Award
  include
• Syria Civil Defence (The White
  Helmets)
• Egypt’s Mozn Hassan and Nazra for
  Feminist Studies
• Russia’s Svetlana Gannushkina
• Turkish daily Cumhuriyet
• The laureates will share the
  3.0-million-kronor (350000 dollar) prize.
• The White Helmets of Syria was
  awarded for their outstanding bravery, compassion and humanitarian engagement
  in rescuing civilians from the destruction of the Syrian civil war’. It is the
  first time that a Right Livelihood Award goes to a Laureate from Syria.

• Adi Godrej, the Chairman of
  Mumbai-based Godrej Group, on 19 September 2016 was conferred the 10th Annual
  Clinton Global Citizen Award for leadership in business and philanthropy.
• The award recognises Godrej’s
  leadership in transforming the intersection of business and philanthropy and
  making the Godrej Group a global example of what can be achieved through
  inclusive, sustainable business strategies.
• The award was presented by Hikmet
  Ersek, CEO and President of Western Union, in the presence of former US
  President Bill Clinton.
• Some of the other awardees for
  the year 2016 include Jon Bon Jovi for the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation in the
  US, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Hawa Abdi of Somalia.

• Nobel laureate and Myanmar leader
  Aung San Suu Kyi was on 15 September 2016 honoured as the 2016 Humanitarian of
  the Year by the students and faculty at the Harvard Foundation.
• She gained international
  prominence as the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy in
  Myanmar in 1990.

• The first Druzhba-2016
  (Friendship-2016) Russian-Pakistani joint military exercise commenced on 24
  September 2016 in Cherat, Pakistan. The exercise will conclude on 10 October
  2016.
• The drills are being conducted at
  the Pakistan Army’s High Altitude School at Rattu in Gilgit-Baltistan and at a
  special forces training centre at Cherat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

• China on 25 September 2016
  officially launched the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST)
  in a mountainous region of Guizhou province.
• The telescope was launched to
  hunt for extraterrestrial life and explore space.
• The FAST is a radio telescope
  located in the Dawodang depression, a natural basin in Pingtang County, Guizhou
  Province, southwest China.
• It is the world’s largest filled
  aperture (single dish) radio telescope.

• US golfer Arnold Palmer passed
  away on 25 September 2016 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania due to heart
  complications. He was 87.
• Palmer is generally regarded as
  one of the greatest players in professional golf history.

• Reoti Saran Sharma, the renowned
  Hindi and Urdu writer, playwright and television personality, died in New Delhi
  on 23 September 2016. He was 92 years.
• He was a Pioneer in radio plays
  in All India Radio and was conferred with Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 2007
  for his contribution to theatre (dramatic literature and performance).

Regards

Team ExamPundit