Current Affairs Update – 22 Jan, 2015

• The Reserve Bank today asked banks to notify the base
  rate, or the minimum lending rate, at least once in every three months based on
  cost of funds, a move seen as a nudge to lenders to pass on changes in policy
  rate to borrowers.
• The direction comes soon after Reserve Bank cut repo rate
  by 0.25 per cent, the first reduction in 20 months, to boost credit and
  economic growth.
• Banks have in the past shown reluctance to pass on
  benefits of rate cut but have been proactive in raising benchmark lending rate
  soon after repo rate (the rate at which RBI lends to banks) is hiked.
• At present, the review of the base rate does not have a
  fixed schedule.
• Further, RBI said it has been decided to allow banks to
  review the Base Rate methodology after three years from date of its
  finalization instead of the current periodicity of five years. This has been
  done to provide banks greater operational flexibility.

• Delhi High Court today asked the manufacturer of Maxx
  Mobile to refrain from selling any product which contained or showed the
  endorsement of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain of the Indian national cricket
  team.
• Justice S Muralidhar said the November 17, 2014 interim
  order restraining Maxx from using Dhoni’s name would remain in force till an
  Arbitral Tribunal was set up to resolve the dispute between them.
• The order was passed after Dhoni’s counsel Gaurav Mitra
  and Pratik Malik informed the court that the company was still selling products
  using the cricketer’s name, which clearly violated its previous order and
  amounted to contempt.
• To this, the judge asked the counsel for the cricketer to
  move an appropriate application in that regard.

• The new Sri Lankan government today said it plans to seek
  assistance from the Reserve Bank of India, the World Bank and the IMF to trace
  billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth allegedly stashed abroad by persons
  close to former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
• The new government is aware that people who held high
  positions had hidden “billions of dollars” in foreign accounts,
  cabinet spokesman and Minister of Health, Rajith Senaratne said today.
• Sri Lanka will seek help from the International Monetary
  Fund, World Bank and the RBI track down the wealth of key persons hidden
  abroad, he said.
• Since Rajapaksa lost the January 8 presidential election
  to his successor Maithripala Sirisena, the former government has faced a string
  of graft accusations.
• Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka has accused Rajapaksa
  and his family, who controlled nearly 70 per cent of the national budget, of
  illegally transferring USD 5.38 billion from the economy.

• Shanta Kumar Committee on 21 January 2015 submitted its
  report on restructuring of Food Corporation of India (FCI) to the Prime
  Minister Narendra Modi.
• The Prime Minister asked the Department of Food and
  Public Distribution to give its comments on the report so that the
  recommendations can be implemented in a time-bound manner.

• FCI procurement should focus on eastern belt, where
  farmers do not get minimum support price.
• FCI should hand over procurement of wheat and rice to six
  States which include Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
• Grain storage needs to be outsourced to private and
  government agencies like state-owned Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC),
  State Warehousing Corporations (SWCs) and private organisations.
• Proposed uniform tax of minimum 3 percent and maximum 4
  percent on wheat and rice and the same to be included in the minimum support
  price (MSP). In Punjab, this tax rate on wheat and rice as of now is 14.5
  percent.

• E-commerce Company Snapdeal signed a 50:50 Joint Venture
  with television distribution company DEN to launch TV Commerce channel DEN
  Snapdeal TV shop. The announcement related to this was made by Snapdeal on 20
  January 2015.
• Through this joint venture, Snapdeal aims to create a
  multi-nodal electronic shopping avenue for customers and it aims to take the
  DEN TV shop to 100 million households across India over the next 12 months.
• Snapdeal through this Channel will target customers
  particularly in the tier I and II cities, who are dogged by limited internet
  access and lack of premium brands in their neighbourhood.
• Every product sold on the channel will have a quality and
  delivery assurance from Snapdeal and an option to pay on delivery.
• DEN Snapdeal TV shop was launched as a pilot project in
  September 2014 in select geographies offering products in primarily the home
  and kitchen, electronics and fashion and lifestyle segments.

• Apple Inc. on 21 January 2015 acquired United Kingdom
  based startup firm Semetric Ltd to add music analytics tool in its devices that
  will measure how fans are following music, TV, games and films.
• As per the deal, Apple will get access to Semetric’s
  Musicmetric Pro dashboard which tracks billions of online interactions
  including on social media.
• In October 2014, Apple acquired Beats Electronics Llc
  that is known for its premium headphones line as well as Beats Music, a
  subscription-based online music streaming service.

• The government has begun re-allocating cancelled coal
  blocks. E-auction, in two phases, of 46 coal mines would begin on February 14.
  While 23 Schedule II mines (those that are producing already) would be
  auctioned between February 14 and March 5, another 23 blocks, falling under
  Schedule III (ready to produce), would be put on offer between February 25 and
  March 5.
• The Coal Ministry would set issue guidelines for those
  companies which already had ve linkages to surrender them. “Such public
  entities that have coal linkages…can surrender [them] and then apply for coal
  blocks… Once the linkage gets surrendered, that much coal will be made
  available to Coal India to be given to other entities [needing coal],” he said.
• In December last, the government promulgated an ordinance
  for re-allocation of 204 coal blocks cancelled by the Supreme Court in August.
• The government hopes to conclude the re-allocation
  process by March 31, Mr. Swarup said.

• Reflecting
  the global popularity of Indian food, a number of Indian words like ‘keema’ and
  ‘papad’ have been accepted in the Oxford English dictionary for the first time.
• The ninth
  edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, released here on Monday,
  has included over 240 words from Indian English. Many of these are words
  commonly used in Indian kitchens, such as ‘keema’ (finely chopped meat),
  ‘papad’ and ‘curry leaf’.
• Over 60
  per cent of the new Indian English words come from Hindi.
• Over the
  years, around 900-1000 Indian words have found its place in the Oxford
  dictionary.
• The ninth
  edition has over 900 new words. About 20 per cent of them are from the online
  world.

• With an
  objective to promote innovation in developing security related web
  applications, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will soon launch web portal
  ‘MySecurity.in’, providing a platform to enterprising individuals, companies
  and non-government organisations. The web applications would be made available
  for public use.
• Only those
  applications that pass security audit will be allowed to be hosted on the
  website. The MHA will give priority to the applications aimed at providing
  security in emergency situations to women, children, senior citizens and other
  vulnerable sections of society.

• Denouncing
  the practice of female foeticide, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the
  discrimination against girls reflects “mental illness” and displays a mindset
  worse than that in the 18th century.
• Launching
  ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (save daughter, educate daughter)’ scheme in this
  district of Haryana, a state with one of the poorest sex ratio, Modi also
  slammed doctors indulging in female foeticide, saying their “sin” was a
  “betrayal” against society.
• He also
  launched Sukanya Samridhi Yojna (girl
  child prosperity scheme), under which girl children below 10 years will have
  bank accounts with more interest and income tax benefits.
• A host of
  Union ministers, including Maneka Gandhi, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Smriti Irani and
  J P Nadda, Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki and Chief Minister Manohar Lal
  Khattar joined Modi as he launched the scheme.
• Bollywood
  actress Madhuri Dixit was also there to promote the drive against female
  foeticide.
• The
  campaign will be initially implemented in the 100 districts, including 12 in
  Haryana, across country where sex ratio is rather poor.

• In Other
  Words by Javed Akhtar was launched by Shabana Azmi in Jaipur Literature
  Festival. It is collection of Poetries.
• The book
  has been translated by Ali Hussain Mir.
• Amazon.in,
  India’s largest online store, has partnered with Jaipur Literature Festival
  (JLF) to bring the festival closer to book lovers across India.

• Arise,
  Awake by Rashmi Bansal
• Restart by
  Mihir Sharma
• India
  Shastra by Shashi Tharoor

• China is planning to build a 7,000 km-long high-speed
  railway line, costing $250 billion, between Moscow and Beijing through Central
  Asia to provide a fast transport link between the neighbouring countries.
• The railway line will pass through China, Kazakhstan and
  Russia and cover more than 7,000 km, more than three times the world’s current
  longest high-speed line, from the Chinese capital to the southern city of
  Guangzhou, China News Service quoted Beijing Municipal government as saying.
• The project would cost more than 1.5 trillion yuan, $250
  billion.
• High-speed railways passing across the Korean Peninsula
  in Northeast Asia and linking China with West Asia as well as South Asia, are
  also on the schedule, it said.
• China is banking on rapid expansion of its high speed
  rail technology abroad including India as part of its new economic
  restructuring to deal with its slowing economy which slid to 7.4 per cent last
  year, the lowest in last 24 years.

• Microsoft has taken the wraps off a new version of
  Windows and a new wearable 3D gadget it calls the HoloLens.
• The company showed the new headset, which lets users view
  and interact with three-dimensional images, at an event where it also revealed
  new features coming to the company’s flagship operating software.
• Executives said Windows 10 is designed to embrace the way
  people use computers today, offering a familiar experience as they switch back
  and forth from personal computers to tablets, smartphones and other gadgets
  such as gaming consoles or even holographic projectors .
• While it’s designed to let apps work in similar fashion
  on all those devices, Windows 10 will also come with a new Web browser that
  will be closely integrated with Cortana, the company’s voice-activated answer
  to Siri .

• HoloLens, the wearable enables the user to view
  high-definition holograms with surround sound and understand voice commands and
  hand gestures.
• The premier device for Windows Holographic, Microsoft
  HoloLens is a cordless, self-contained, head-mounted Windows 10 computer that
  uses advanced sensors, a high-definition 3D optical head-mounted display using
  holographic lenses, and spatial sound to allow for augmented reality
  applications, with a natural user interface that the user interacts with
  through gaze, voice, and hand gestures.
• It was Codenamed “Project Baraboo”.
• Applications showcased for Microsoft HoloLens include
  HoloStudio, a 3D modelling application which can produce output for 3D
  printers; Holobuilder, a demonstration inspired by the video game Minecraft; an
  implementation of the Skype telecommunications application; and OnSight, a
  software tool developed in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  (JPL).

• Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri today won the
  $50,000 DSC Prize for Literature, one of South Asia’s top literary awards for
  her book ” The Lowland ” at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival.
• The Prize celebrates writing on the South Asian region
  from writers across the globe and is given to the best novel or translations
  into English of a work on or about the region.
• The Lowland is a tale of Indian brothers who come of age
  in the 1950s in Calcutta. As one of the brothers get involved in the Naxalite
  movement in the late 1960s and the other leaves for the United States, the book
  looks at where their choices lead them. 

• The Hockey India League (HIL) 2015 commenced from January
  22, with the opening match being played at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar –
  the ground that hosted the Champions Trophy 2014 in December.
• This is the third edition of the hockey tournament that
  is modelled on cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL).
• The first edition of the hockey tournament took place in
  2013, with five teams namely Delhi Waveriders, Uttar Pradesh Wizards, Punjab
  Warriors, Ranchi Rhinos and Mumbai Magicians.
• Ranchi Rhinos won the inaugural season beating Delhi
  Waveriders 2-1 in the final but the national capital outfit performed better in
  the subsequent edition to clinch the trophy.
• The second season also saw the addition of Kalinga
  Lancers to the list of teams.
• The Mumbai Magicians and Ranchi Rhinos are now dissolved
  and replaced by Dabang Mumbai and Ranchi Rays.