Current Affairs Update – 24th – 25th April, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important Current Affairs of 24th and 25th April, 2016. These are very important for the upcoming SBI Clerk and NABARD Assistant Manager 2016 Exams.

• Capital Small Finance Bank,
  India’s first small finance bank, was launched here on Sunday. It opened 10 new
  branches on its inaugural day.
• The Jalandhar-headquartered bank
  had been operating as Capital Local Area Bank since January 2000 with 47
  branches in five districts of Punjab.
• It is among the 10 entities that
  were given the in-principle approval by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set
  up small finance banks.
• While inaugurating the bank,
  Nirmal Chand, regional director of RBI, Chandigarh, said it was a historic day
  for the banking sector in India as it would be reckoned as a day when small
  finance banks were introduced into the banking system.

• National Bank for Agriculture and
  Rural Development (Nabard) has sanctioned a loan of Rs 1,000 crore to Haryana
  State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC) for purchase of wheat during the ongoing
  rabi marketing season.
• “The (Rs 1,000 crore) loan
  is going to help the corporation for payment of wheat purchased from farmers in
  various mandis/outlets in Haryana, in line with the government’s resolve to pay
  the farmers’ dues at the earliest,” Nabard said in a release issued here.
• The objective of foodgrain
  procurement by the government agencies is to ensure that farmers get
  remunerative price for their produce and do not have to resort to distress sale
  and build buffer stocks, it said.

• The Finance Ministry has approved
  8.7% interest on PF deposits for over 5 crore subscribers of retirement body
  EPFO, lower than 8.8% decided by the Central Board of Trustees (CBT).
• “The (EPFO’s apex decision-making
  body) CBT, at its meeting held in February 2016, has proposed an interim rate
  of interest at 8.8% to be credited to the accounts of Employees’ Provident Fund
  subscribers for 2015-16. The Ministry of Finance has, however, ratified an
  interest rate of 8.7%,” Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said in a
  written reply to the Lok Sabha today.
• This is probably the first time
  that the Finance Ministry has not given concurrence to the rate of interest on
  EPF as decided by CBT, which is headed by the labour minister.
• EPFO had provided 8.75% rate of
  interest in 2013-14 and 2014-15, which was higher than 8.5% in 2012-13 and
  8.25% in 2011-12.
• EPFO’s estimates, which were
  worked out in September, projected that the body can easily pay 8.95% rate of
  interest as it would leave a surplus of Rs 100 crore.
• The EPFO pays rate of return to
  its subscribers on the basis of returns it generates from its investments.

• Cadbury India, part of Mondelez
  International, today inaugurated its $190 million factory in Sri City SEZ, on
  the border of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
• The plant, which was inaugurated
  by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, is the company’s largest
  plant in Asia Pacific.
• The plant will start with making
  Dairy Milk chocolates will have an initial capacity of about 60,000 tonnes a
  year, which will be increased to 250,000 tonnes by 2020.
• The facility is spread over 134
  acres of leased land; the plant will be developed in four phases and is
  scheduled for final completion by 2020. The new facility is a multi-category
  food campus and will create around 1,600 jobs.

• Union government on 22 April 2016
  constituted the inter-ministerial panel to prepare a blueprint for doubling
  farmers’ income by 2022.
• The government’s decision to set
  up the panel follows the budget announcement that set a target of doubling farm
  incomes by 2022.
• The panel will be headed by Ashok
  Dalwai, Additional Secretary at the Union Agriculture Ministry. The other
  members will be officials from Agriculture and Food Ministries as well as
  experts from the Delhi-based National Council of Applied Economic Research and
  National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research.

• The panel will prepare a plan to
  shift farm policies from being production-oriented to income based ones.
• The eight-member panel will
  determine the potential areas of agriculture to investment and also suggests
  different ways to reduce the risk of farming by diversifying to horticulture
  and allied activities like livestock and fisheries to boost income.

• Indian Railways has decided to
  launch the Alternative Train Accommodation scheme for wait-listed passengers on
  five new and busy routes on its network.
• Under the scheme, wait-listed
  passengers are allowed to get confirmed seats on the next alternative train if
  they choose that option while booking tickets online. The scheme, launched on a
  pilot basis in November last year, is currently applicable on the Delhi-Lucknow
  and Delhi-Jammu routes.
• The five new routes include
  Delhi-Howrah, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai, Delhi-Bangalore and
  Delhi-Secundarabad. “The Vikalp (Alternative Train Accommodation System)
  scheme introduced in October 2015 will be expanded to provide choice of
  accommodation in specific trains to wait-listed passengers,” Railways Minister
  Suresh Prabhu had said in his speech for 2016-17 budget.
• As per the latest decision, the
  expanded scheme would provide the option of alternative accommodation
  irrespective of whether the boarding and destination stations of the passenger
  are originating and terminating stations on the route.

• Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N
  Chandrababu Naidu on 25 April 2016 formally inaugurated the state’s interim
  government complex named AP Government Transitional Headquarters at Velagapudi
  village in capital region Amaravati.
• The government is determined to
  begin operations from Amaravati region from 15 June 2016. The construction of
  the government complex has been going on at a brisk pace to meet the deadline.
• A 2000 square feet office space
  was hurriedly readied for use by the state government and Chief Minister
  occupied his office to mark the inauguration. He signed a file relating to
  waiver of loan for horticulture farmers on the occasion.

• The term India Pride Project
  (IPP) was in news in the fourth week of April 2016. It is an initiative by two
  NRIs who seek to bring back the lost artefacts to India.
• Through the initiative, they seek
  to answer that India was looted of more artefacts in the post-colonial era than
  under the British or Mughals.
• The India Pride Project is a
  small, but brave attempt to bring this loot back into the places where they
  belong in India. In simple terms India Pride Project’s mission is to restore
  the Nation’s pride through restoring its culture.
• Vijay Kumar: Co-founder of IPP,
  is an art enthusiast himself and is the general manager of a shipping company.
• Anurag Saxena: He is another co-founder,
  a chartered accountant and Asia-Pacific CEO for the World Education Foundation,
  UK.

• Senior IPS officer Satish Mathur
  has been appointed as the new Director General of the Anti Corruption Bureau
  (ACB) of Maharashtra, a police official said here today.
• The post was earlier held by
  Vijay Kamble, an IPS officer of 1980 batch, who was posted in October last
  year.
• Mathur, who is a 1981 batch IPS
  officer, is the senior-most serving DG-rank officer.
• Mathur, who served as the Pune
  Police Commissioner, was last year promoted to the rank of Director General of
  Police (DGP), the police official said.

• Mouamba Clement, the former
  Congolese Finance Minister, was on 24 April 2016 appointed as the Prime
  Minister of Congo. He was appointed to the post by Congo’s President Denis
  Sassou Nguesso.
• Clement will be responsible for
  forming a government in consultation with the president in accordance with the
  25 October 2015 constitution.
• Also, his major task after being
  appointed as Prime Minister would be to help in creating jobs for the youth, a
  majority of whom are struggling with under unemployment.

• Bollywood actress Radhika Apte on
  22 April 2016 bagged the best actress in an international narrative feature
  honour at Tribeca Film Festival 2016 for her performance in anthology film
  Madly.
• Radhika starred in Clean Shaven,
  which is a segment of Madly.

• The Founders Award for Best
  Narrative Feature – Dean, written and directed by Demteri Martin.
• Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative
  Feature Film –Dominic Rains in The Fixer.
• Best Actress in a U.S. Narrative
  Feature Film – Mackenzie Davis in Always Shine.
• Best Cinematography in a U.S.
  Narrative Feature Film – Cinematography by Michael Ragen for Kicks.
• Best Screenplay in a U.S.
  Narrative Feature Film – Women Who Kill written by Ingrid Jungermann.

• The World Book and Copyright Day
  was celebrated on 23 April 2016 across the world. The events on this day are
  organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
  Organization (UNESCO), to promote reading, publishing and copyright.
• The day was first celebrated on
  23 April 1995.

• Every year, UNESCO and the
  international organizations representing the three major sectors of the book
  industry – publishers, booksellers and libraries, select the World Book Capital
  for a one-year period, effective 23 April each year.

• World Malaria Day (WMD) 2016 was
  observed globally on 25 April 2016. The theme for 2016 is End Malaria For Good.
• This year’s theme reflects the
  vision of a malaria-free world set out in the Global technical strategy for
  malaria 2016-2030. Adopted in May 2015 by the World Health Assembly, the
  strategy aims to dramatically lower the global malaria burden over the next 15
  years.

1. Reducing the rate of new malaria
   cases by at least 90%
2. Reducing malaria death rates by
   at least 90%
3. Eliminating malaria in at least
   35 countries

• World Immunization Week 2016 is
  being organised across the globe between 24 April and 30 April 2016. The week’s
  campaign is ‘Close the Immunization Gap’ and it seeks to achieve global
  vaccination targets by 2020.
• This will be the second year of
  the Close the Immunization Gap campaign. The 2016 campaign additionally
  stresses the need for immunization among adolescents and adults – throughout
  life.
• It also seeks to draw the world’s
  attention to the critical importance of reaching vulnerable people living in
  conflict situations or in the wake of emergencies.

• The US government on Monday
  approved a deal for US firms to sell its close ally Australia $1.22 billion in
  air-to-air missiles and support equipment.
• The main contractor for the major
  shipment will be Arizona-based arms giant Raytheon, which produces the AIM-120D
  medium-range missile.
• Up to 450 of the weapons will arm
  the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) FA-18 Hornet and F-35 Lightning
  fighters and the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jet.

• The Full Pink Moon was seen on 22
  April 2016 in the skies of North America. However, the moon appeared normally
  white and smaller than usual. The April’s full moon is usually referred as Pink
  Moon in North America.
• The moon appeared to be smaller
  than usual because it was at its furthest point from the Earth, or apogee. This
  full moon comes less than one day after reaching lunar apogee, the moon’s
  farthest point in its monthly orbit. It lies around 50 thousand km farther from
  Earth than 2016’s closest full moon.
• The Pink Moon is also called as
  mini-moon and micro-moon. The terms mini-moon and micro-moon originate from
  popular culture. The NASA Astronomy Photo of the Day calls the year’s smallest
  full moon as a micro-moon. In many respects, the micro-moon is the antithesis
  of a Supermoon.

• The Interim Administrative Cell
  of International Solar Alliance (ISA Cell) and the United Nations Development
  Programme (UNDP) on 22 April 2016 declared their intention to promote solar
  energy globally.
• The declaration was made on the
  occasion of the side event on International Solar Alliance at the UN
  Headquarters in New York.

• Development of synergies with
  ongoing UNDP programmes and projects on solar energy in and across ISA member
  countries.
• Creation of complementary
  linkages with ongoing global and regional efforts in the field of solar energy.

• Wrestler Sandeep Tomar on 24
  April 2016 secured an Olympic quota place for India in the men’s 57kg freestyle
  category with a bronze medal finish on the final day of the 1st World Olympic
  qualifying tournament at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
• He secured his berth for Rio
  Olympics by winning the playoff bout after having clinched the bronze medal.
  Only the top three finishers in each weight category are eligible for an
  Olympic berth in this tournament.
• With this, the 25-year-old
  Sandeep became the fourth Indian wrestler after Yogeshwar Dutt (men’s 65kg
  freestyle), Narsingh Yadav (men’s 74kg freestyle), and Hardeep Singh
  (Greco-Roman 98kg) to book a berth for the Rio Games.

• Rafael Nadal on 24 April 2016
  defeated two-time defending champion Kei Nishikori of Japan to win the
  Barcelona Open of tennis 6-4, 7-5.
• This was Nadal’s 9th Barcelona
  Open title, and he has now won his opening 10 matches of the European clay-court
  season.
• With this win, world number five
  and top seed Spaniard also equaled Guillermo Vilas’ decades old record of 49
  clay-court titles. Argentine Guillermo Vilas had bagged 49 clay-court titles in
  1970s and early 1980s.
• Nadal may break that record as he
  will play in Madrid and Rome in May 2016 before the French Open, the second
  Grand Slam of the season, which ends the clay-court season. Nine of Nadal’s 14
  Grand Slams have been at Roland Garros.

• Bob and Mike Bryan on 24 April
  2016 won the Barcelona Open doubles tennis title. The brothers claimed the
  title after defeating Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas and the Spaniard Marcel Granollers
  7-5, 7-5 in one hour and 25 minutes.
• The title is the Bryan brothers’
  second title in 2016, after they won the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in
  Houston, Texas earlier in 2016. The victory is their third in Barcelona, as
  they won the tournament before in 2003 and 2008.

• French pair of Caroline Garcia
  and Kristina Mladenovic on 24 April 2016 won women’s doubles final of the
  Stuttgart Grand Prix tournament.
• In the final held at Stuttgart in
  Germany, the French duo defeated the Indo-Swiss pair of top seeded pair of
  Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis 6-2, 1-6, 6-10.
• On the other hand, the women’s
  singles title was won by Angelique Kerber of Germany. In the final clash, the
  reigning Australian Open champion Kerber defeated her countrywoman Laura
  Siegemund 6-4, 6-0.

• Russian pair Anastasia Bryzgalova
  and Alexander Krushelnitskiy on 23 April 2016 claimed the World Mixed Doubles
  Curling Championship title with a 7-5 victory over China at Karlstad, Sweden.
• China’s Wang Rui and Ba Dexin
  took the silver. The United States, with a 9-7 win over Scotland, secured the
  bronze medal.
• The combined results of the 2016
  and 2017 world mixed doubles events will decide the seven teams who will join
  host South Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Regards

Team ExamPundit