Current Affairs Update – 22nd September, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 22nd September, 2015.
These are important for the upcoming IBPS PO V Exam.

• The yearly SBI Composite Index reading for September 2015
  has come in at a four month high at 53.9, suggesting continued pick-up in
  economic momentum going forward. Last month, the index was at 53.4.
• The upturn has been majorly driven by manufacturing, while
  mining and electricity are still acting as a drag on economic activity, SBI
  said in its ‘Ecowrap’ report.
• Besides, the positive trends in capital goods sector suggest
  the possible pick-up in economic momentum. IIP is also driven majorly by
  manufacturing (particularly capital goods) as revealed by higher ex-mining and
  ex-electricity growth.

• The CANBANK Venture Capital Fund Ltd (CVCFL) was on 21
  September 2015 appointed as the implementation agency of the Electronics
  Development Fund (EDF) policy.
• The Electronic Development Fund (EDF) is set up as a Fund of
  Funds to participate in Daughter Funds which in turn will provide risk capital
  to companies developing new technologies in the area of electronics,
  nano-electronics and Information Technology (IT).
• With appointment of CVCFL as the agency to implement EDF,
  the EDF is now operational and will start receiving requests for participation
  from Seed Funds, Angel Funds and Daughter Funds.

1.  The EDF would take
   minority participation in Seed Funds, Angel Funds and Venture Funds.
2.  It will invite
   requests from professionally managed private/public funds for its participation.
3.  EDF participation in
   a fund may vary depending on the nature of the fund and risk involved.
4.  It will support both
   Indian and foreign funds which are registered in India and comply with SEBI and
   other regulations in this regard.

• The Trust Fund for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities,
  under the Department of Empowerment of People with Disabilities (DEPwD),
  Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MOSJ&E), signed a Memorandum of
  Understanding (MoU) with the New India Assurance Company Limited on 21
  September 2015.
• The MoU aims at providing an affordable health insurance,
  Swavlamban Health Insurance Scheme, for the Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).
  It also aims to improve the general health condition & quality of life of
  persons with disabilities.

1.     The insurance
   scheme will provide comprehensive cover to the PwD beneficiary, spouse and two
   children.
2.     The insurance will
   have a single premium across age band.
3.     It can be availed
   by the beneficiary aged between 18 years and 65 years with family income of
   less than 300000 rupees per annum. 
4.     The scheme will
   also provide health insurance cover of up to 200000 rupees per annum as family
   floater. 

• Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on 21 September 2015 commissioned
  two indigenously built ships Apoorva and C-421 at the Naval Dock in Mumbai.
• They were commissioned by Flag Officer Commanding in Chief
  of the Western Naval Command SPS Cheema.
• The induction of the vessels is expected to boost maritime
  security along the Arabian Sea coast.

• It is a 50 meter long Fast Patrol Vessel (FPV).
• It displaces 317 tonnes and can achieve a maximum speed of
  33 knots.

• The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs on Tuesday approved
  the development of four-laning of the Cuttack-Angul section of the National
  Highway NH-42 at a total cost of about Rs. 1,575 crore.
• In a statement, the government said that the main objective
  of the project is to expedite the improvement of infrastructure in Odisha and
  also reduce the time and cost of travel in that section. “Bids have been
  invited on the basis of provisions of the model concession agreement subject to
  such changes as accepted by the PPPAC. Maximum grant from the Government for
  Viability Gap Funding (VGF) would be 40 per cent of the TPC,” the statement
  added.
• Among other key decisions, the Cabinet also approved a joint
  declaration of intent for minor amendments in the earlier signed MoU for
  implementation of the ‘Indo-German Partnerships in Higher Education’.
• The government said these minor amendments will help higher
  educational institutions in both the countries to benefit mutually to enhance
  innovative partnerships in the field of education, research and skill
  development.

• The cabinet on Tuesday cleared the purchase of Boeing’s
  Apache and Chinook helicopters in a deal worth around $2.5 billion, two
  government sources said, in a boost to defence ties with the United States.
• The deal strengthens the status of the United States as one
  of India’s top military suppliers, along with Israel, dislodging Cold War-era
  ally Russia from its longstanding position as the South Asian nation’s main
  source of weapons.
• The approval for 22 Apache attack and 15 heavy lift Chinook
  helicopters, meant to replace the military’s ageing Soviet-origin choppers,
  came just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to the United States to drum up
  investments into India.
• The deal includes an option for 11 more Apaches and seven
  more Chinooks, an industry source with knowledge of the matter said.
• India was the top foreign buyer of U.S. arms in 2013, says
  defense research firm IHS Janes, and the two governments are now negotiating a
  series of defense collaboration projects.
• The two sides ended negotiations on the helicopters months
  ago, but budget constraints held up the deal. After India’s finance ministry
  gave the green light last week, the cabinet committee on security, headed by
  Modi, gave its approval on Tuesday, the defence ministry source said.

• Search engine Google and Tata Trusts in collaboration with
  Udacity on 21 September 2015 launched a scholarship programme to educate Indian
  students in Android development.
• As a part of the programme, 1000 scholarships will be
  offered to deserving students by Google and Tata Trusts. The students will be
  awarded with Android Developer Nanodegrees.
• The newly announced scholarship programme is aimed at
  transforming India into a hub of high-quality mobile developers for global and
  local applications.
• The Udacity Android Nanodegree programme is an education
  credential designed to help developers learn new skills. It comprises of
  courses developed and taught by experts from the Google Developer Relations
  team.

• Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI) – Electro-Magnetic
  Compatibility (EMC) test facility and Near Field Test Range (NFTR) were on 21
  September 2015 inaugurated at the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL)-Ghaziabad.
• They were inaugurated by the Chairman Chief of Staff
  Committee (COSC) Anup Raha. At present, he is also the Air Chief Marshal and
  the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS).
• These testing facilities will give fillip in developing and
  manufacturing products of superior performance and reliability with capability
  to operate in dense electromagnetic environment in the battlefield.
• Also, these are also part of the transformation process of
  BEL into a major R&D and manufacturing centre of excellence in the critical
  field of electronic systems in the country for the armed forces.

• Vikram Pawah was on 21 September 2015 appointed as the
  Managing Director of India operations of US cult bike maker Harley Davidson
  with immediate effect. Pawah succeeded Anoop Prakash, who was appointed as the
  Managing Director of Harley Davidson Canada.
• Pawah will manage Harley Davidson India’s leadership team
  responsible for in-country sales, dealer network management, marketing, service
  and operations activities to expand the company’s presence in the country.
• Pawah has more than 24 years of experience in the auto
  industry, out of which he spent 21 years with Honda in India and Australia. His
  most recent role was as Assistant Vice President and Operating Head – Sales
  with Honda Cars India Ltd.

• John T Chambers, Executive Chairman of Cisco, has been
  elected as the new chairman of the US India Business Council (USIBC), the apex
  advocacy group for India and American companies in the US.
• A formal announcement in this regard was made at the USIBC’s
  40th Anniversary Leadership Summit that kicked off the US-India Strategic and
  Commercial Dialogue yesterday.
• The transition will come at the end of a four-year term of
  Ajay Banga, president and CEO of MasterCard.
• Banga has been its longest-serving chairman.

• The International Cricket Council (ICC) on 21 September 2015
  announced that former West Indies cricket captain Richie Richardson was
  appointed to the Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees.
• He will replace Sri Lanka’s Roshan Mahanama who stepped down
  from the position in the third week of September 2015.
• Richardson is expected to take over the role at the end of
  his current assignment as the West Indies cricket team manager.
• The last match to be overseen by him as the manager will be
  the Sydney test against Australia on 3 January 2016.

• An account of Sri Lanka’s civil war by Indian author Samanth
  Subramanium has been longlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize, one of United
  Kingdom’s most prestigious award for non-fiction.
• Subramanium’s book This Divided Island is among the 12 books
  longlisted for the 20,000 pounds worth prize whose shortlist will be announced
  in October during the London Literature Festival and the winner in November,
  publishers Penguin Random House said in a statement today.
• Driven by curiosity about the scars and legacies of a long
  war, Subramanian moved to Sri Lanka in 2011 and over the next year, he
  travelled across the island, and through Sri Lankan communities living
  overseas, talking to hundreds of people about how their lives were twisted out
  of shape by the war.
• The prize is open to authors of all non-fiction books in
  current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography
  autobiography and the arts.

• Cow was on 20 September 2015 declared as the National Animal
  of Nepal as per the new secular constitution of Nepal unveiled by Nepalese
  President Ram Baran Yadav at a special ceremony held in Parliament at
  Kathmandu.
• Cow is considered as a sacred animal to Hindus and as Nepal
  is a Hindu country, therefore the Nepal’s government have made cow the national
  animal. With this, the animal has constitutional protection and cow slaughter
  has also been banned.

• The United Nations (UN) Broadband Commission on 21 September
  2015 released the State of Broadband Report 2015. As per the report, the global
  broadband growth is slowing down sharply as 4 billion people are still offline.
• The report reveals that 57 percent of the world’s people
  remain offline and unable to take advantage of the enormous economic and social
  benefits the Internet can offer.
• The State of Broadband 2015 is the fourth edition of the
  Commission’s broadband connectivity report.

1. New figures in the report confirm that 3.2 billion people
   are now connected, up from 2.9 billion last year and equating to 43 percent of
   the global population.
2. While access to Internet is approaching saturation levels in
   the developed world, the Net is only accessible to 35 percent of people in
   developing countries.
3. The situation in the 48 UN-designated Least Developed
   Countries is particularly critical, with over 90 percent of people without any
   kind of Internet connectivity.
4. The top ten countries for household Internet penetration are
   all located in Asia or the Middle East.
5. The Republic of Korea continues to have the world’s highest
   household broadband penetration with 98.5 percent of homes connected.

• Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on
  21 September 2015 released NASSCOM’S report on Contributions of India’s Tech
  Industry to the US economy in Washington, the USA.
• It was released on the sidelines of US-India Strategic and
  Commercial Dialogue.
• This report tries to quantify the positive impact of
  investments made by Indian IT BPM companies in the US by way of job creation,
  contribution by way of taxes and more importantly impact of the Corporate
  Social Responsibility (CSR) measures on the US economy.

• The USA is the largest market for Indian IT-BPM (Information
  Technology-Business Process Management) exports.
• At present, Indian IT industry supports 411000 direct and
  indirect jobs in the USA.
• Indian IT companies have invested 2 billion US dollars
  between 2011 and 2013 in the USA.
• They paid around 22.5 billion US dollars in federal, state
  and local taxes between 2011 and 2015.

• Bermuda cricketer Jason Anderson has been slapped with a
  life ban for inciting a hair-raising brawl during a club match in the small
  island nation.
• Anderson, representing Cleveland County Cricket Club,
  launched a brutal assault on Willow Cuts Cricket Club batsman George O’Brien
  while wicket-keeping during the Champion of Champions final at the St David’s Cricket
  Club Ground 10 days ago.
• The fight turned ugly after Anderson remonstrated O’Brien
  between overs with both players wrestling each other to the ground. Anderson
  went as far as kicking the batsman. Fellow players and officials rushed to calm
  them down but the damage was done by then.

• The Indian Wushu team secured 12 medals comprising of one
  gold, four silver and seven bronze medals at the Fifth International Pars Wushu
  Cup held in Tehran. The event was held from 19 September to 20 September 2015.
• India’s L. Budhachandra Singh won the gold medal after
  defeating Masod Ansari of Iran in the final of the 56 kg category on the last
  day of the tournament. On the other hand, Mukesh Choudhary and Rajani Deori
  fetched silvers for the country.
• The Indian team won two silver and three bronze medals in
  the previous edition held at Zenjan, Iran.

Regards

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