Current Affairs Update – 24 Sept, 2014

Finance
1. ICICI launches SB
account for minors

  • ·
    Private sector bank ICICI Bank on Wednesday
    launched a savings account for minors above 10 years of age.
  • ·
    The account, which will be opened in the name
    of the minor, will offer a personalised cheque book and a debit card with a
    picture of his or her choice, the bank said in a statement.
  • ·
    Minors will be able to undertake various
    banking transactions including issuing cheques, paying bills, recharge mobile
    phones, open fixed deposits and recurring deposits among others.
  • ·
    They will also have access to banking
    channels such as ATM, mobile and Internet banking.

2. ISB alumni win Hult
Prize; $1 million funding from Clinton Global Initiative

  • ·
    A group of five alumni from the Indian School
    of Business (ISB) has won the prestigious Hult Prize and a $1 million funding
    support from the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).
  • ·
    The prize was given away by former US
    president Bill Clinton and Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in New
    York last evening.
  • ·
    The winning team- Nano Health- consisted of
    Aditi Vaish, Ashish Bondia, Manish Ranjan, Pranav Kumar Maranganty, and
    Ramanathan Lakshmanan, all students of the Class of 2014 at the ISB.
  • ·
    The objective of the HULT Prize, the largest
    student business plan competition in the world, is for teams to design a social
    enterprise – an annual challenge set by former US President Bill Clinton.
    “Solving Non-Communicable Diseases in the Urban Slums” was the
    challenge for participants this year. All teams had to propose solutions which
    would impact at least 25 million people in urban and semi urban areas. The ISB
    group competed against teams from the USA, Latin America, the Middle East and
    China.

India
3. India First Country
ever to successfully accomplish Mars Mission in One Attempt

  • ·
    India today created space history by
    successfully placing its low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the Red
    Planet in its very first attempt, catapulting the country into an elite club of
    three nations.
  • ·
    The successful manoeuvres were carried out in
    early hours, watched keenly by Prime Minister Narendra Modhi, his cabinet
    colleagues and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
  • ·
    Watched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ISRO
    scientists successfully ignited the main 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM)
    and eight small thrusters that fired for 24 minutes from 7.17 a.m. and slowed
    down the speed of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft ‘Mangalyaan’ for it to
    slip into a smooth orbit around the Red Planet after almost an year-long
    voyage.
  • ·
    “Today MOM has met Mangal (Mars). Today
    Mangal has got MOM. The time this mission was short named as MOM, I was sure
    that MOM won’t disappoint us,” Modi, who wore a red coloured jacket, said
    annnouncing the Rs. 450-crore mission’s success, after nerve-wracking final
    moments at the command centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
    here.
  • ·
    Scientists broke into wild cheers and
    congratulated each other after the 1,350 kg spacecraft was manoeuvred into its
    designated place, capping a 666 million km journey that began on November 5
    last.
  • ·
    India’s MOM is the cheapest inter-planetary
    mission, costing a tenth of NASA’s Mars mission Maven that entered the Martian
    orbit on September 22.
  • ·
    It aims to study Mars’ surface and mineral
    composition, and scan its atmosphere for methane, a chemical strongly tied to
    life on Earth.
  • ·
    Given the high rate of failures — only 21 of
    the total of 51 missions sent to Mars by various countries being successful,
    the success of MOM has given a boost to India’s global standing in Space.

4. Geetu Mohandas film
Liar’s Dice to be India’s official entry for Oscar Awards 2015

  • ·
    Geethu Mohandas’s Hindi-language feature film
    Liar’s Dice on 23 September 2014 was selected for India’s official entry in the
    2015 Oscars Awards. The 87th Oscar Awards event will take place in the US on 22
    February 2015.
  • ·
    The movie was nominated for the Best Foreign
    Language Film category. Out of 30 entries, this movie was chosen  unanimously by 12-member jury headed by eminent
    filmmaker T. Hariharan.
  • ·
    Liar’s Dice was released in
    Thiruvananthapuram on 19 September2014
    and will open in Pune on 26 September 2014. It will be exhibited across
    the country in November 2014 by PVR Pictures.
  • ·
    The movie stars national award winning actors
    Geetanjali Thapa and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
  • ·
    The movie is set along the Himachal-Tibet
    border. It deals with distress migration.

5. German Embassy
organised Ehsaas-e-Kashmir concert to raise funds for the Valley
  • ·
    Ehsaas-e-Kashmir: a concert organised by
    German Embassy to raise funds for the Valley
  • ·
    German Embassy of India on 23 September 2014
    organised a concert for Kashmir named Ehsaas-e-Kashmir to show solidarity with
    the people of Kashmir and raise funds for rehabilitation and relief work of
    Kashmir’s who were affected by the floods.
  • ·
    The concert was organsied at the residence of
    German Ambassador to India, Michael Steiner. The performers of the concert were
    Kashmiri musicians Bhajan Sopori and Abhay Sopori along with their team. The
    music presented had Sufi elements and was mixed with a bit of folk.
  • ·
    Apart from this, the German Embassy had given
    25 lakh rupees for basic healthcare in Kashmir in cooperation with German
    doctors, who are working in the region as a part of an NGO. The Embassy has
    also set up a special bank account for those who wish to donate.

6. Govind Mishra
received Saraswati Samman 2013 for novel Dhool Paudhon Par
  • ·
    Govind Mishra, the renowned Hindi author was
    given the Saraswati Samman in New Delhi on 23 September 2014. He was given the
    Samman by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for his novel Dhool Paudhon Par
    that was published in 2008.
  • ·
    Govind Mishra is the second Hindi author to
    be conferred with this honour after Harivansh Rai Bachchan in 1991 for his
    autobiography in four volumes in Hindi.
  • ·
    The KK Birla Foundation has instituted three
    awards in the field of literature. These are Saraswati Samman, Vyas Samman (for
    Hindi) and Bihari Puraskar (for Hindi and Rajasthani writers of Rajasthan).
  • ·
    On 2 August 2013 the Saraswati Samman 2012
    was given to Sugathakumari, the Malayalam poetess for Manalezhuthu (the
    Writings on the Sand), a collection of poems in Malayalam.

7. SC formed 5-member
committee to evaluate damage caused by floods in J&K
  • ·
    The Supreme Court of India on 24 September
    2014 formed a five member committee to evaluate the damage caused by
    devastating floods in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in September 2014.
  • ·
    The 5-member committee will comprise a senior
    Registrar of J & K High Court posted at Srinagar, Secretary of the J&K
    Department of Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, a nominee of the central
    government and the presidents of the bar associations of Sringar and Jammu
    regions.
  • ·
    The committee will assess the ground
    situation in J&K after floods and submit the report to the SC within two
    weeks. The interim report of the committee will also be submitted to the
    J&K High Court
  • ·
    The committee was formed by SC bench headed
    by Chief Justice RM Lodha while hearing the J&K government’s counsel on
    J&K floods.

8. AAI signed MoU with
US Trade & Development Agency
  • ·
    Airports Authority of India (AAI)  on 23 September 2014 signed  a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreement
    with the  US Trade & Development
    Agency (USTDA).
  • ·
    The agreement was signed for the development
    of Aviation Security Equipment Testing and Evaluation Programme. This will
    enable AAI and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) to create clear
    standards, specifications and testing procedures in accordance with the Indian standards
    of aviation security.
  • ·
    The whole procedure will be in alignment with
    international practices for three types of aviation security equipment. These
    three equipment are designed to scan carry-on luggage, checked baggage and
    passengers.

9. Mahendra Mohan Gupta
elected PTI Chairman
  • ·
    Mahendra Mohan Gupta, Managing Editor of
    Hindi daily Jagran, and Hormusji N Cama, Managing Director of Bombay Samachar,
    were today unanimously elected Chairman and Vice-Chairman, respectively of the
    Press Trust of India.
  • ·
    Gupta, who is also the Chairman and Managing
    Director of Jagran Prakashan that publishes 34 editions of the daily besides
    other publications in Hindi, Urdu, English, Gujarati and Punjabi, succeeds K N
    Shanth Kumar of Deccan Herald.
  • ·
    He and Cama, whose daily is the oldest
    continuously published newspaper in India from 1855, were elected unanimously
    at a meeting of the PTI board following the company’s 66th AGM here.
  • ·
    Besides having served a six-year term as a
    member of the Rajya Sabha, Gupta has formerly been President of the Indian
    Newspaper Society (INS), Indian Language Newspapers Association (ILNA) and
    Chairman of the news agency UNI. He has also been a member of the Press Council
    of India.

10. Ikea signs agreement
with Telangana govt to open store in Hyderabad
  • ·
    Swedish furniture retailer Ikea has signed up
    with the Telangana Government to set up a retail store in Hyderabad.
  • ·
    The MoU for establishing its store in the
    State was signed by CEO Juvencio Maeztu and Pradeep Chandra, Special Chief
    Secretary Industries, Government of Telangana, today in the presence of Chief
    Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
  • ·
    Ikea is one of the world’s largest
    international furniture, household goods and textiles retail companies
    headquartered in Sweden. It was one of the first companies in India to be
    allowed 100 per cent FDI in retail. It plans to open a number of stores in India
    with the first store in Hyderabad.
  • ·
    The Ikea retail outlets have a standard
    design and each location entails an investment of $100 million (Rs 500-600
    crore). It also promotes backward integration of supplier linkages, seen to
    have tremendous economic impact to the State.
  • ·
    Assuring all necessary support to Ikea, the
    Chief Minister suggested to the Ikea representatives that they tie up with
    artisans in Telangana such as Nirmal, Silver Filigri, Pembarti and so on for
    their furniture as add-on things.


11. Union Government
appointed Debroy Panel to suggest ways for restructuring the Railway Board
  • ·
    The Union government on 23 September 2014
    appointed Debroy Panel to suggest ways for restructuring the Railway Board. The
    Panel has been tasked to suggest measures to reorganize the Railway Board and
    its departments so that policy making is separated from day-to-day operations.
  • ·
    The Panel would submit its report till the
    end of 2015. The seven-member panel will be headed by economist Bibek Debroy.
  • ·
    The other members are former cabinet
    secretary K M Chandrasekhar, Gusharan Das, former CMD of P&G, Ravi Narain,
    former MD of National Stock Exchange and Partha Mukhopadhyay, Senior Fellow of
    Centre for Policy Research, as other members.

International
12. Edward Snowden wins
‘alternative Nobel’

  • ·
    Edward Snowden has been selected among the
    winners of the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “alternative Nobel,”
    for his disclosures of top secret surveillance programs.
  • ·
    The award foundation on Wednesday said the
    former National Security Agency contractor splits the honorary portion of the
    prize with Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger.
  • ·
    The 1.5 million kronor ($210,000) cash award
    is shared by Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir, Basil Fernando of
    the Asian Human Rights Commission and U.S. environmentalist Bill McKibben.
  • ·
    Award foundation director Ole von Uexkull
    said all winners were invited to the December 1 award ceremony in Stockholm,
    though he added it’s unclear whether Mr. Snowden, who remains exiled in Russia,
    can attend.

13. UN Climate Change
Summit 2014 held in New York

  • ·
    UN Climate Change Summit 2014 was held at UN
    headquarters in New York on 23 September 2014 to put the planet on course towards
    reversing global warming.
  • ·
    The purpose of the 2014 Climate Summit was to
    raise political momentum for a meaningful universal climate agreement in Paris
    in 2015. Moreover, it aimed to galvanize transformative action in all countries
    to reduce emissions and build resilience to the adverse impacts of climate
    change.
  • ·
    It is the largest gathering of world leaders
    on climate change after the Copenhagen conference on climate change that ended
    in disarray in 2009. However, absence of leaders of China and India puts the
    cloud over the event.
  • ·
    Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio was also
    present on the UN summit on climate change.
    UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hosted the summit of all 120 leaders.

Sports
14. Sports Bill to be
introduced in Winter session of Parliament

  • ·
    The government on Wednesday said that the
    National Sports Development Bill was “ready” and it will be introduced in
    Parliament in the upcoming winter session of the House.
  • ·
    All the National Sports Federations (NSFs)
    accredited to the government need to comply with the stipulations that office
    bearers retire at the age of 70 years and except for the President who is
    allowed three consecutive terms, none of the other office-bearers would be
    eligible to contest a third term immediately after completing two successive
    terms.
  • ·
    IOA had initially objected to age and tenure
    guidelines even as some NSFs have already implemented them.
  • ·
    Sharan made the statement in presence of
    Sports Minister Sarbanand Sonowal, who through his secretaries, made a
    presentation, listing achievements after completing 100 days in the office and
    policies for future.
  • ·
    The government has decided to felicitate on
    October 22 the men’s hockey team that won gold medal in the Tokyo Olympic Games
    in 1964.
  • ·
    The government also announced that it would
    focus on identifying and supporting potential medal prospects for 2016 and 2020
    Olympic Games through Target Olympic Podium (TOP) Scheme.
  • ·
    Under this initiative, the government would
    focus on seven sports — athletics, archery, badminton, boxing, wrestling,
    weightlifting and shooting.
  • ·
    Athletes will be selected after rigorous
    screening and scientific analysis by a High Level Committee under the
    chairmanship of Anurag Thakur.

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This post was last modified on November 27, 2017 9:04 am