Current Affairs Update – 22nd May, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important current affairs update of 22nd May, 2015.

• Aiming to attract overseas funds, government today decided
  that non-repatriable investments by NRIs, OCIs and PIOs will be treated as
  domestic investments and will not be subject to foreign direct investment caps.
• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
  had approved amendments, including changes in definition of NRIs, to be incorporated
  in the FDI policy.
• Investments by NRIs under under Schedule 4 of FEMA
  regulations will be deemed to be domestic investment at par with the investment
  made by residents, an official statement said.
• The Cabinet’s decision is expected to result in increased
  investments across sectors and greater inflow of foreign exchange remittance
  leading to economic growth of the country, it added.

• India’s oil ministry has set interim rules that exempt
  state-run upstream companies from giving any discount on crude and refined fuel
  sales if global oil prices average up to $60 a barrel this quarter, two sources
  with direct knowledge of the matter said.
• Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Oil India and GAIL (India) sell
  crude and fuels like cooking gas at discounted rates to partly compensate
  retailers for losses they incur on selling fuels at government-set cheaper
  rates.
• Under the new rules, which are applicable only for the three
  months to June and would need finance ministry approval to be extended,
  upstream firms will not have to pay any subsidy as long as crude prices average
  $60 or less, the sources said.
• For prices between $60 and $100 a barrel, the companies will
  have to give a discount of 85 per cent of the incremental price, said the
  sources who declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to media.

• Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu O Panneerselvam resigned on 21
  May 2015. He tendered his resignation to the Governor Konijeti Rosaiah.
• He resigned minutes after Jayalalithaa was elected as the
  legislature party leader at a meeting in Chennai. With this, his eight months
  long tenure as Chief Minister of the state came to an end.
• He was appointed as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 29
  September 2014 as replacement of former AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa, who
  resigned after being convicted in the 18 year old disproportionate assets case
  of over 66 crore rupees.  She was awarded
  a four year prison term by Bangalore Special Court after it found her guilty of
  amassing unaccounted wealth.

• The Union Cabinet on 21 May 2015 gave its approval for
  setting up of a new Ammonia-Urea Complex at Namrup in Assam. The complex will
  be set up on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode by a joint venture (JV).
• In the proposed JV, PSU Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer
  Corporation Limited (BVFCL), Government of Assam and Oil India Limited (OIL)
  shall have 11 percent, 11 percent and 26 percent equity holding respectively
  and balance 52 percent by private/public sector entity (entities) which would
  be inducted through a competitive bidding process.

• It will be of 8.64 lakh metric tonnes annual capacity and
  will be operationalised with an investment of 4500 crore rupees.
• The plant will be highly energy efficient unit of
  international standard with latest technology and with same amount of natural
  gas available to the existing units, the production of urea from the new unit
  will be more than double that is 3.6 to 8.64 lakh metric tonnes annually.

• The British sports business magazine SportsPro on 20 May
  2015 released the World’s 50 Most Marketable 2015 report. According to
  SportsPro’s listing of the top 50 most marketable athletes in the world for
  2015, Eugenie Bouchard, Tennis player from Canada, topped the list.
• While, FC Barcelona soccer Neymar stood at second place and
  was followed by Golfer Jordan Spieth at the third place.
• Indian Cricketer Virat Kohli was placed at the sixth
  position ahead of United States basketball star Stephen Curry. Another Indian,
  ace shuttler Saina Nehwal was placed at the 44th position.
• On the other hand, Tennis player Novak Djokovic was placed
  at 14th position while Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were at 16th and 22nd
  respectively.
• Athletes across the world were ranked on the basis of
  different criteria including age, home market, charisma, willingness to be
  marketed and crossover appeal. The SportsPro team and external industry experts
  analysed the players for several weeks.

• Department of Science and Technology on 21 May 2015 said
  that India reached sixth position in terms of scientific publications. Earlier,
  India stood at the tenth position in terms of publishing scientific research
  papers in different journals.
• Secretary, Department of Science and Technology Ashutosh
  Sharma gave this information at a function organised by Research Council UK
  (RCUK) in New Delhi to mark the progress between United Kingdom and India in
  the field of scientific research.

• Senior IAS officer G Mohan Kumar was today appointed as new
  Defence Secretary for a two-year term.
• Kumar, a 1979 batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre, is
  presently Secretary in Department of Defence Production.
• The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the
  appointment of Kumar as Defence Secretary for a period of two years from the
  date of taking over the charge of the post, an order issued by Department of
  Personnel and Training said.
• He will take over from Radha Krishna Mathur, a 1977 batch
  Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS officer, who completes his two year tenure on May 28.
• Kumar has served in Commerce Ministry and also worked as
  Additional and Special Secretary in Ministry of Water Resources, River
  Development and Ganga Rejuvenation between 2010 and September 2013.

• The United Nations (UN) observed the International Day for
  Biological Diversity (IBD) on 22 May 2015. The theme for the year 2015 is
  Biodiversity for Sustainable Development.
• This year theme highlights the relevance of biodiversity in
  achieving the goal of sustainable development. It also highlights the
  importance of efforts made to establish a set of Sustainable Development Goals
  (SDGs) as part of the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda (2015-2030).
• The selection of the theme also underlines the adoption of
  the Gangwon Declaration at the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to
  the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in South Korea in 2014.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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