Current Affairs Update – 23rd February, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important current affairs of 23rd February, 2016. These are important for the last phase of LIC AAO 2016.

• In order to enhance economic
  cooperation and strengthen financial stability, RBI has extended the $2 billion
  currency swap arrangement to SAARC nations till mid-November 2017.
• The Reserve Bank said in a
  notification on Tuesday that it has decided to extend the SAARC Currency Swap
  Arrangement till November 14, 2017.
• Under the arrangement, RBI is to
  offer swap arrangement up to an overall amount of $2 billion both in foreign
  currency and Indian rupee.
• The SAARC Swap Arrangement was
  offered by the RBI to SAARC nations on November 15, 2012.
• The facility will be available to
  all SAARC member countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal,
  Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
• The swap amount available to
  various member central banks has been arrived at broadly based on two months
  import cover subject to a floor of $100 million and a maximum of $400 million
  per country.

• Union Finance Minister Arun
  Jaitley on 22 February 2016 inaugurated an exhibition on the Coin and Currency
  of India at the Great Hall of North Block in New Delhi. The exhibition would
  help in knowing the history of evolution of currency in the country
• The Department of Expenditure
  (DoE) under Union Finance Ministry organised the exhibition in coordination
  with the RBI, CPWD, CISF, the Indian Army, Staff of DoE, Customs and Excise
  Officers.

• The exhibition depicts how money
  has changed in appearance and substance and evolved from barter to coins to the
  present day bank notes and e-money.
• It also depicts the different
  names of money, some of which are not in use and some are in use in the
  present.

• Standard Chartered reported its
  first annual loss since 1989 as hefty restructuring costs and weak commodity
  prices took their toll on the emerging markets-focused lender.
• The bank slumped to a headline pretax
  loss of $1.5 billion, after accounting for costs from redundancies and
  impairments on bad loans. Underlying profit plunged 84 percent to $800 million,
  missing analysts’ average estimate of $899 million, according to Thomson
  Reuters data.
• The loss shows the scale of the
  task facing new Chief Executive Bill Winters as he attempts to restore revenue
  growth after six successive quarters of decline.
• The bank’s shares fell as much as
  12 percent before recovering slightly to be down 5.4 percent at 0942 GMT.

• The term ‘E-Governance Vision
  2020’ was in news on 23 February 2016. It was in news because Chief Election
  Commissioner (CEC) Dr. Nasim Zaidi during a Seminar on ‘Leveraging Technology
  for Transparent and Credible Elections’ said the Election Commission of India
  is working on it.
• As told by the CEC during his
  keynote address at the Seminar, the ‘E-Governance Vision 2020’ will provide
  inclusive, integrated single window view of services to all stakeholders in all
  phases of the electoral cycle using multiple channel of delivery.

• Gujarat’s Dahej is all set to get
  India’s first roll on-roll off (Ro-Ro) vessel passenger ferry services around
  April 2017. The Rs 550 crore project being executed by the Gujarat Maritime
  Board (GMB) is expected to bring down travel time between Saurashtra region in
  Gujarat with its Southern parts significantly.
• At present travelling from Ghoga
  in Saurashtra to Dahej in South Gujarat takes around 10-12 hours for trucks and
  buses, and even by cars it is not less than 6-8 hours. Once the Ro-Ro ferry
  service commences, this time would be dramatically shortened to one and a half
  hours.

• The Road to Resilience is an
  initiative of the World Bank, under which a team undertook a bus trip along the
  entire Indian coastline. The journey commenced on 10 January 2016 and ended on
  15 February 2016.
• This 10000 kilometer journey
  provided a chance to implement support for six coastal disaster management and
  climate resilience projects covering all ten coastal states of India, which are
  supported by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).
• World Bank report Building
  Resilience for Sustainable Development of the Sundarbans
• Some of those projects aim to
  enhance resilience and mitigate the impact of future disasters, while others
  are intended to help the country recover from previous events such as Cyclone
  Phailin (2013) and Cyclone Hudhud (2014).

• Union Environment Ministry held
  the ninth meeting of the National Steering Committee on Climate Change (NSCCC)
  on 22 February 2016. The meeting was presided by the Secretary of MOEFCC, Ashok
  Lavasa.
• The Committee approved the
  Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) on adaptation submitted by governments of
  Telangana, Mizoram, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh for
  funding, under the National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change (NAFCC) at a
  total cost of approximately 108 crore rupees for implementation in these
  states.
• The project for Telangana with
  objective to enhance the climate resilient agriculture for improving
  livelihoods titled Resilient Agricultural Households through Adaptation to
  Climate Change in Mahbubnagar district, Telangana is at a total cost of 25
  crore rupees for four years.
• It is expected to benefit more
  than 2000 farming households of Mahbubnagar district fo the State.

• Metropolitan Stock Exchange of
  India Limited (MSEI) on 22 February 2016 appointed Udai Kumar as its Managing
  Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The appointment was approved
  by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
• The SEBI’s approval comes after a
  stringent short-listing process and interviews by the selection committee to
  select a suitable candidate for the role.

• An Indian-origin Sikh officer
  Amar Singh was in news in the third week of February 2016 as he was appointed
  as Kuala Lumpur’s commissioner of police. It was the highest police rank achieved
  by a Sikh in Malaysia.
• He succeeded Tajuddin Mohamed,
  who will be moved to federal headquarters as the deputy director of commercial
  CID on 14 March 2016.
• At the time of this appointment,
  Amar Singh was holding the position of deputy director of CID.

• Goverdhan Mehta, a well known
  researcher in Chemical Sciences & former Vice-Chancellor of the University
  of Hyderabad (UoH), has been conferred with Federal Republic of Germany’s
  prestigious `Cross of the Order of Merit’.
• Mehta was the VC during 1994-98
  of the UoH, which is among the top 10 Universities in the country. However, the
  campus got caught recently in the unsavoury events following the suicide of
  Ph.D student, Rohit Vemula and the political fall out.
• Achim Fabig, the German Consul
  General in Chennai, conferred the ‘Bundesverdienstkreuz’ (the Cross of the
  Order of Merit) to Goverdhan Mehta. Instituted in 1951 it is the only honour
  that may be awarded in all fields of endeavour and is the highest tribute the
  Federal Republic of Germany can pay to individuals for achievements in
  political, economic, social or intellectual realm and for all kinds of
  outstanding services to the nation in the field of social, charitable or
  philanthropic work.
• Goverdhan Mehta is at present the
  National Research Professor and Lilly-Jubilant Chair Professor at the University
  of Hyderabad. He served as the Director of the IISc, Bengaluru (1998-2005) and
  was also President of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA).

• Ismail Mahomed, an Indian-origin
  art lover and playwright in South Africa, on 22 February 2016 was conferred
  Knighthood by the French government for his lifelong devotion to the promotion
  of arts.
• Mahomed was bestowed with The
  Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and
  Literature) by French Ambassador Elisabet Barbier in Johannesburg.

• Pakistan Parliament today became
  the first in the world to completely run on solar power, a venture supported by
  China with USD 55 million funding.
• Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a
  simple ceremony switched on solar-powered building of the Parliament in capital
  Islamabad.
• First announced in 2014, the
  venture has been funded by the Chinese government as an act of friendship, with
  the solar power plant costing around USD 55 million.

• The tropical cyclone Winston
  lashed Fiji with winds up to 330 kilometers per hour on 20 February 2016. The
  cyclone that was accompanied with torrential rain and strong winds killed at
  least 29 people.
• The cyclone did a considerable
  damage across the main island Viti Levu and the island of Koro, which were
  directly hit by strong winds.
• The Winston, a category five
  storm, is thought to be the biggest to ever hit the Southern Hemisphere,
  leaving a trail of destruction in its wake while moving west away from Fiji.
  The cyclone left many cities without power and running water. It also destroyed
  homes and flooded the low-lying areas.

• European team FC Dnipro
  Dnipropetrovsk from Ukraine on 21 February 2016 won the Sait Nagjee Trophy in
  Kozhikode, Kerala.
• In the final played at Kozhikode
  Corporation stadium, Dnipro defeated Atletico Paranaense from Brazil 3-0 to
  grab the top place.

• Noted singer Bhubaneswari Mishra
  passed away on 19 February 2016 in New Delhi following a cardiac arrest. She
  was 67.
• The classical singer began her
  career with the song Tiki Mora Naa Ti for the mythological Odia movie Krushna
  Sudama in the 1970s.
• Apart from many awards, the
  veteran singer was also conferred with the Odisha State Film Award for Best
  Playback Singer (female) for two consecutive terms in 1979 and 1980 for the
  movies Srikrushna Rasalila and Jay Ma Mangala respectively.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

Sponsored

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});