Current Affairs Update – 24 Dec, 2014

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 23 December 2014
  extended the deadline for exchanging pre-2005 of various denominations by
  another six months till 30 June 2015.
• RBI in a statement said that all such notes will continue
  to remain legal tender and can be exchanged for their full value. It has urged
  public to deposit the old design notes in their bank accounts or exchange them
  at a bank branch convenient to them.
• Earlier, in March 2014, RBI had set the last date for
  public to exchange these notes was 1 January 2015.

• As per RBI, the currency notes which were issued before
  2005 do not have the year of printing on the reverse side, whereas, notes
  issued post 2005 have the year of printing at the bottom of the reverse side.

• According to RBI, the post-2005 notes have added security
  features and will help in curbing the menace of fake currency.

• Senior IAS officer S Bhattacharya on 23 December 2014 was
  appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Coal India Ltd (CIL).
• He succeeded Additional Secretary (Coal) A K Dubey.  Dubey was given the additional charge as CMD
  of CIL on 26 June 2014.
• The CIL was without a full time chief from May 2014 when
  S Narsing Rao had resigned from the post.
• Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) had recommended
  his name in November 2014. His appointment was confirmed by Appointments
  Committee of the Cabinet.
• S Bhattacharya is a 1985 batch IAS officer. Currently, he
  is the CMD of Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL).

• The Government has eased investment rules for the medical
  devices industry by allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investments (FDI)
  under the direct route for both new and existing projects, Finance Minister
  Arun Jaitley announced on Wednesday.
• While 100 per cent FDI was already allowed in the sector,
  foreign investors had to seek permission of the FIPB for investing in or taking
  over existing companies. By allowing both greenfield and brown field
  investments under the direct route, FIPB scrutiny will now not be required even
  for investment in existing projects.
• Foreign investors will, however, continue to go through
  the FIPB route for investing in existing pharmaceutical companies.
• The medical devices industry is governed by the same
  rules as the pharma sector, where 100 per cent FDI in new projects is allowed
  under the automatic route but Government approval is needed for acquiring an
  existing company.

• Government on Wednesday approved promulgation of an
  Ordinance to hike Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap in the insurance sector
  to 49 per cent from 26 per cent, as the legislation could not be passed in the
  Parliament session that ended on Tuesday.
• The Insurance Bill, which has been pending since 2008 in
  the Rajya Sabha, seeks to increase the composite foreign investment limit in
  insurance companies to 49 per cent from current level of 26 per cent.
• The 49 per cent cap would include both FDI and foreign
  portfolio investments.
• The proposed hike in foreign investment limit to 49 per
  cent in the insurance sector has potential to attract up to USD 7-8 billion
  (about Rs 50,000 crore) from overseas investors, giving a major boost to the
  segment.
• The total capital deployed in the private life insurance
  sector is close to Rs 35,000 crore. At FDI at 26 per cent, foreign equity is
  close to Rs 8,700 crore.
• The Insurance Laws Amendment Bill, 2008 could not be
  taken up for discussion despite being approved by the Select Committee of the
  Upper House because of the uproar by opposition parties over the conversion and
  other issues.
• There are 52 insurance companies operating in India, of
  which 24 are in the life insurance business and 28 in general insurance
  business. In addition, GIC is the sole national reinsurer.

• Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpee and freedom
  fighter Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (posthumously) will receive the Bharat
  Ratna. The decision to confer the highest civilian award of the country was
  announced by the Union Government on 24 December 2014.
• Till now 43 people have been honoured with the Bharat
  Ratna. In 2013, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and scientist C N R Rao were awarded
  Bharat Ratna for their contribution in their respective fields.

• He was a freedom fighter and educationist who was part of
  the Indian National Movement
• He was popularly known as Mahamana.
• He was president of Indian National Congress (INC) for
  two terms in 1909 and1918.  He was one of
  the founders of the Hindu Mahasabha.

• Vajpayee is a three time Prime Minister of India who
  served the first term in 1996 for just 13 days. During his second term in
  1998-1999 he served for 13 months.
• In his final and third term he completed the full
  five-year from 1999-2004. Thus, he became the first Prime Minister from outside
  the Indian National Congress party to serve a full five-year term.
• When Janata government collapsed, Vajpayee restarted the
  Jana Sangh as the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980.

• South Indian filmmaker Kailasam Balachander died on 23
  December 2014 following a heart attack. He was 84.
• Born in Thanjavur in 1930, Balachander developed an
  interest for films when he was just nine years old.
• Balachander debuted with his Tamil film Neerkumizhi in
  1965. He has directed films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi and has
  produced more than 100 films.
• It was in his film Apoorva Ragangal, Balachander shaped
  superstar Rajinikanth out of a Bangalore bus conductor Shivaji Rao Gaekwad.
• His  films like
  Bama Vijayam, Sindhubhairavi, Varumayin Niram Sivappu and Thanneer Thanneer are
  some of notable films in the history of Tamil cinema.
• He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1987and is a
  recipient of the ANR National Award and Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest
  award in cinema in 2010.

• Former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh’s statue was
  unveiled at Kisan Chowk of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on 23 December 2014. The
  statue was unveiled by activists of Rashtriya Lok Dal and Jat Sabha to mark Charan
  Singh’s 112nd birth anniversary.
• On this day, rich tributes were paid to Charan Singh by
  the Union government and different political parties.

• Charan Singh was born on 23 December 1902 in a Jat family
  in village Noorpur of Hapur District in Uttar Pradesh
• He was the sixth Prime Minister of India. He served as
  the Prime Minister of India from 28 July 1979 to 14 January 1980
• Charan Singh holds the record of being the sole Prime
  Minister of India who did not faced the Lok Sabha even for a single day during
  his short tenure of just a month
• He entered politics as part of the Independence Movement
  of India
• Kisan Diwas is also celebrtated on the occasion of his
  birthday.

• 29th National Consumers Right Day was observed across
  India on 24 December 2014. The day provides an opportunity to highlight the
  importance of the consumer movement and the need to make every consumer more
  aware of their rights and responsibilities.
• The Consumer Protection and Action Committee (CPAC)
  celebrated the day by distributing complaints forms, information brochures and
  other consumer rights literature freely to the public.
• The CPAC rewarded the 5000 applicant with a sum of Ten
  rupees who with their names, addresses provide the names and addresses of the
  consumer courts in the particular region.
• The CPAC also rewarded with 101 rupees to the aware
  citizen who raises voice against unfair trade practice and also fifty rupees
  cash reward will be for each of the LPG cylinder consumer who will point out
  malpractice rampant in cylinder under filling.
• The day is being observed annually on 24 December, since
  the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was enacted on 24 December1986.

• Congressman Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil was on 23 December
  2014 appointed as Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Maharashtra Legislative
  Assembly, the lower house.
• His appointment was announced by the Maharashtra Assembly
  Speaker Haribhau Bagde in the Lower House.
• Vikhe Patil’s appointment came a day after the
  Nationalist Congress Party member Dhanjay Munde was appointed as Leader of
  Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council, the upper house.

• R. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the Indian Space
  Research Organisation (ISRO) is one of the 2014 top ten scientists chosen by
  the prestigious journal Nature. This is the first time in the recent past that
  the journal has chosen an Indian working in India. He is listed along with
  other people like Andrea Accomazzo, the Rosetta flight operations director,
  European Space Agency.
• The reasons for choosing Dr. Radhakrishnan are pretty
  simple and straightforward.
• When India’s Mangalyaan successfully settled into Mars
  orbit on September 24, 2014, the country became the first and only nation to
  have done so on its maiden attempt. India also became the first Asian country
  to reach Mars.
• The space organisation crossed two other major milestones
  this year. In January, the space organisation achieved spectacular success with
  the spaceflight of an Indian cryogenic engine and stage. India has been
  striving hard for some years to indigenously develop a cryogenic engine to
  improve the reliability of GSLV rockets and to take the rocket to greater
  heights.
• The recent launch of the heaviest and tallest GSLV Mark
  III and the successful re-entry of the unmanned crew module were the other
  landmark achievements.

• Union Ministry of Home Affairs on 23 December 2014 set up
  Mathur committee to examine the possibility of constitution of a Special
  Investigation Team (SIT) for reinvestigation of the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases.
• The Committee will be headed by former Supreme Court
  Judge Justice (retired) G.P. Mathur. It will submit its report till April 2015.
• The committee will also look into the issue of
  implementation of the payment of enhanced compensation of 5 lakh rupees per
  person killed during the riots. The compensation was approved by the Union
  Cabinet on 10 December 2014.
• The committee will also look into various grievances
  relating to the anti-Sikh riots.
• Home Ministry decided to set up the committee after it
  received huge number of complaints from individual entities and associations in
  the matter of anti-Sikh riots.
• Earlier, the Justice Nanavati Commission had recommended
  reopening of only four of 241 cases closed by police but BJP wanted the
  reinvestigation of all the other 237 cases.
• The move assumes significance as 2733 victims of the
  total 3325 victims of anti-Sikh riots belonged to the national capital Delhi.
• Anti-Sikh riots of 1984 had broken out after the
  assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984 by
  her Sikh body guards.

• Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in
  Pasadena, California are developing gecko grippers to grab space debris which
  includes the objects like orbital debris or defunct satellites. Gecko gripper
  is basically an adhesive gripping tool.
• The news related to this was published on the website of
  Jet Propulsion Laboratory on 19 December 2014.
• The gripping system has been developed by Aaron Parness
  who is a JPL robotics researcher and the principal investigator for the
  grippers.
• The system is inspired by geckos, type of lizards
  belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the
  world.

• The Gecko grippers being developed have synthetic hairs
  like tiny hairs in Geckos’ feet. These synthetic hairs also called stalks are
  wedge-shaped and have a slanted, mushroom-shaped cap.
• When the gripping pad lightly touches part of an object,
  only the very tips of the hairs make contact with that surface. The stickiness
  of the grippers can be turned on and off, by changing the direction in which
  you pull the hairs.

• Taiwan on 23 December 2014 launched its largest ever
  missile warship named Tuo Chiang. The 500-tonne corvette missile is the first
  of its kind ever produced by Taiwan.
• The ship is scheduled to be deployed in Taiwan waters
  after further tests in March 2015. The Tuo Chiang’s first captain is Lt.
  Commander Wang Te-chien.
• The ship will boost Taiwan’s defence capabilities against
  China that considers Taiwan as a part of its territory.
• The Tuo Chiang’s launch came shortly after US Congress
  passed a bill authorizing the transfer and sale of up to four Perry-class
  frigates to Taiwan that were decommissioned by the US Navy.

• Taiwan’s Lung Teh Shipbuilding Company started
  construction of the warship in November 2012 and officially handed it over to
  the Taiwan Navy in December 2014.
• The warship costs about 66.2 million US dollars and
  measures about 198 feet long and 46 feet wide. It can carry a crew of 41.
• The ship is armed with 16 missiles including eight
  supersonic Hsiung-feng III (Brave Wind) anti-ship missiles.
• The sleek twin-hulled ship uses stealth technology to
  reduce the reflection of radar waves, making it harder to detect.

• The global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) that lays down
  international rules for the 85 billion US dollars global arms trade came into
  effect on 24 December 2014. The treaty is a new chapter in collective efforts
  to bring responsibility, accountability and transparency to the global arms
  trade.
• It aims to regulate the industry and keep weapons out of
  the hands of human rights violators worldwide.

• It is the first legally-binding multilateral agreement
  that prohibits States from exporting conventional weapons to countries when
  they know those weapons will be used for genocide, crimes against humanity or
  war crimes.
• The treaty established the highest possible common
  international standards for regulating the international trade in conventional
  arms.
• The ATT is a tool for States to prevent the violence and
  insecurity resulting from the flow of arms, and in so doing to fulfill their
  human rights obligations
• It will assist States in regulating non-State entities
  such as private military and security companies –which often carry and use arms
  in their line of work– and ensuring compliance with international law
• ATT is the first major arms accord since the
  Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1996.

• India has not signed the treaty as it was among the 23
  nations that had abstained from voting on the treaty in 2013. According to
  India, draft treaty annexed to the resolution is weak on terrorism and
  non-state actors and these concerns find no mention in the specific
  prohibitions of the Treaty.

• China and Nepal on 23 December 2014 signed an agreement
  to expand the use of their currencies for border trade.
• The agreement was signed between the People’s Bank of
  China (PBOC) and Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). The agreement will boost bilateral
  trade and investment ties between the China and Nepal.
• According to the agreement, the two countries will use
  local currencies (Yuan and Nepal rupee) for settlement in both cross-border
  trade and ordinary trade activities.
• Both the countries also signed memorandum of
  understanding on anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism cooperation.

• The military chiefs of Afghanistan and Pakistan on 23
  December 2014 agreed to co-ordinate on military operations along border of two
  countries.
• Army chief General of Afghanistan Sher Mohammad Karimi
  and General of Pakistan Raheel Sharif agreed to co-operate in the presence of
  US General John Campbell, who heads NATO coalition forces in Afghanistan.
• The two countries also agreed to jointly take effective
  actions against terrorism and extremism.
• Both the countries agreed to meet subordinates
  immediately to discuss operations targeting Pakistani Taliban (TTP) bases along
  the border.
• The decision came in the wake of Taliban militants burst
  into Army Public School in Peshawar shooted the children and staff members on
  16 December 2014.

• Nicaragua on 22 December 2014 launched the construction
  of an inter-oceanic canal linking Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean.
• The project aims to rival Panama’s waterway and
  revitalize the economy of Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the Americas
  after Haiti.  The 50 billion US dollar
  project is backed by China.
• Canal will be 278-km long and will be operational by
  around 2020. It would raise annual economic growth to more than 10 percent.
• Construction of the new waterway will be run by Hong
  Kong-based HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co Ltd (HKND Group), which
  is controlled by Wang Jing, a little-known Chinese telecom mogul well connected
  to China’s political elite.

• Reigning Commonwealth Games gold medallist Apurvi
  Chandela did an encore in the women’s 10m Air Rifle event on the concluding day
  of the 58th National Shooting Championships at the city’s Balewadi Shooting
  Range.
• Having qualified for the eight woman Final in pole
  position with a score of 1168, Apurvi comfortably won gold over second-placed
  Lajja Gauswami of Gujarat, finishing with a final round score of 207.2. Lajja
  could only manage 205.1 while Hema K.C. of Rajasthan won the bronze with an
  effort of 184.4.
• Army marksman Gurpreet Singh also rounded of a successful
  tournament when he bagged his second gold medal of the Championships after
  winning the 25M Centre Fire Pistol event with a final round score of 586.
• Gurpreet had earlier won the Team Gold in the 25M Rapid
  Fire Pistol event. Colleague Pemba Tamang won the Silver shooting a total of
  584 while veteran Samaresh Jung of the CISF came in third with 583.
• In the men’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions event, Satyendra Singh
  of the Army won the Gold with a final round score of 454, while Sanjeev Rajput
  of Haryana won Silver shooting 445.8. Imran Hasan Khan, also of the Army
  marksmanship unit, won the bronze finishing with a score of 435.4.
• In other individual recognitions Sanjeev Rajput was
  crowned Champion of Champions Rifle and was presented with a cash prize of
  Rupees 50,000 for his efforts by the National Rifle Association of India
  (NRAI).