Current Affairs Update – 24th May, 2015

• The Reserve Bank has entered into an MoU with the Central
  Bank of Seychelles (CBS) on exchange of information and mutual assistance in the
  banking sector supervision.
• The MoU was inked by C Edmond, First Deputy Governor, CBS
  and SS Mundra, Deputy Governor of the RBI, the central bank said in a statement
  today.
• In March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited the
  Indian Ocean island country.
• The Reserve Bank has been signing the Memorandum of
  Understanding or Exchange of Letters (EoL) with supervisors of other countries
  to promote greater co-operation and sharing of supervisory information among
  the authorities.
• With this, RBI has signed 25 such MoUs, one Letter for Supervisory
  Co-operation and one Statement of Co-operation, with overseas regulators.

• The UK-based payment processing giant Worldpay has partnered
  with IndusInd Bank to offer acquiring services in India.
• The association will assist both the companies in processing
  customers’ payments and marks the first step for Worldpay in entering the
  Indian market-  a result of the growth in
  eCommerce across the country, IndusInd Bank said in a filing to the BSE.
• This partnership will allow each company to benefit from the
  other’s respective expertise in domestic and international payments thereby
  helping in promoting online payment services in India, he added.

• The Cosmos Co-operative Bank- the oldest and tech-savvy
  multi-state scheduled bank has tied-up with New India Assurance for Pradhan
  Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and with Life Insurance Corporation of India for
  the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana informed Krishnakumar Goyal – Chairman
  Cosmos Bank.
• Goyal informed that Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and
  Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana will be available at all the branches of
  Cosmos Bank and customers should take advantage of these facilities.

• The Narendra Modi led government has begun the process of
  having 70 super computers in the country, which will enable high-level research
  in different fields for not only government agencies but also the private
  sector.
• The super computer will help India do research in different
  fields ranging from climate, defence and other areas, which a normal computer
  is ill-equipped for.
• The computer would have a capacity (speed) of half petaflop
  to 20 petaflop, but by the time the project reaches its full peak, the speed of
  the super computers can go up to 50 petaflop. A petaflop is a measure of a
  computer’s processing speed and can be expressed as a thousand trillion
  floating point operations per second.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection committees on
  Saturday discussed the modalities for the appointment of the Chief Vigilance
  Commissioner (CVC) and the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).
• Held at the Prime Minister’s residence, the meetings were
  attended by Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Union Home
  Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and Minister of State
  for Personnel Jitendra Singh.
• Union Minister Jitendra Singh later told the media that more
  information on the applicants should be obtained to begin the process. Once the
  screening is over, the committees would take up names for consideration at
  another meeting next week.
• Sources said the selection committee deliberated upon the
  Supreme Court guidelines on appointment of the CVC and a Vigilance
  Commissioner. It also discussed the procedure to be adopted for the screening
  of candidates and for appointment. Over 130 candidates have applied for the key
  post.

• Although India is set to become water scarce country by 2025
  due to demand-supply mis-match, the water sector is expected to see investment
  of $13 billion from overseas players in the next few years, a new study has
  said. “India’s demand for water is expected to exceed all current sources
  of supply and the country is set to become water scarce country by 2025.
• However, overseas players from Canada, Israel, Germany,
  Italy, United States, China and Belgium sees big investment opportunity worth USD
  13 billion in the domestic water sector. The industry is expected to receive Rs
  18,000 crore in the next three years, the report said.
• The country provides huge opportunities across the spectrum
  in infrastructure development for water supply and wastewater management.
• The industrial market is going to be the big opportunity
  till 2020, with growth in wastewater recycling and industrial water treatment,
  the report said. Maharashtra is emerging as a hub for the water sector. Over 12
  international companies have already set up design and engineering centers in
  Mumbai and Pune. At present, there are more than 1,200 companies dealing in
  water and wastewater treatment in the state, mainly cater to the small &
  medium sector.

• In a huge boost to Indian cinema, debutant director Neeraj
  Ghaywan’s Masaan won the prestigious critics prize in the Un Certain Regard
  category, which runs parallel to the competition for the main prize, Palme
  d’Or, at the 68th Cannes Film Festival, the International Federation of Film
  Critics (FIPRESCI) announced late on Saturday.
• Masaan, a joint production of Manish Mundra, Macassar
  Productions, Arte France Cinema, Sikhya Entertainment & Phantom Films,
  stars newcomers like Vicky Kaushal and Shweta Tripathi, along with Sanjay
  Mishra and Richa Chadda. It received a five-minute standing ovation at the
  festival where it premiered on May 20.
• Hungarian film Son of Saul by László Nemes won the critics
  prize in Official Competition, and Paulina Paulina won the prize in Parallel
  Sections, a FIPRESCI release said. Indian film critic Borborah Bitopan from The
  Assam Tribune was part of the FIPRESCI jury this year.
• Masaan’s narrative is set in Varanasi and its characters
  connected with the Ganga. Ghaywan worked as assistant director to Anurag
  Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, which received acclaim at Cannes in 2012, finding
  new markets for younger film-makers.
• Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox and Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court
  followed, winning critical acclaim and sewing up distribution deals in
  international markets.

• The NMDC (National Mineral Development Corporation) has
  bagged PLATTS Global Metals Award 2015. The corporation is the first Indian
  firm to receive the award for its leadership in the Raw Materials and Mining
  Sector.
• NMDC Chairman and Managing Director Narendra Kothari
  received the award at a function organised in London on May 21.
• PLATTS provides information on energy, petro chemicals and
  metals industries. It is a source of benchmark prices for these industries.
• The corporation produces over 30 million tonnes of iron ore
  annually.

• An Indian-origin cardiologist was today re-elected as
  president of the Singapore’s Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin
  (GOPIO).
• The organisation is planning a wide range of activities for
  the coming two-years, including lectures on businesses, social life-style and
  health matters.
• GOPIO Singapore would also continue to host visiting Indian
  Ministers as well as business leaders at seminars and forums, he added.
• GOPIO was inaugurated in March 2002 as part of the Global
  GOPIO Grouping representing some 31 million Indians living abroad.

• A leading Indian-origin entrepreneur has been elected as the
  head of the Bureau of International Recycling, a global organisation that
  facilitates free and fair trade of recyclables in a sustainable and competitive
  world economy.
• Ranjit Singh Baxi, chairman of J & H Sales
  (International) ltd, will serve a two-year term as president of the Brussels-based
  recycling association.
• The election was held at the association’s World Convention
  & Exhibition in Dubai last Tuesday.
• The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) is a global
  recycling industry, headquartered in Brussels, association representing more
  than 700 companies from the private sector and 40 national trade federations
  from 70 different countries, including India.

• Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) and
  Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have signed a memorandum of
  understanding (MoU) that will see both countries working closely together to
  fight terror, officials have confirmed.
• According to the MoU, ISI will train and equip the NDS in
  its functioning. In addition, Afghanistan and Pakistan will fight terrorism
  jointly and both institutions will investigate the accused behind any terror
  incident within their respective countries, reports TOLOnews.
• The agreement signed in Kabul last week was also officially
  announced by the Pakistani Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) via its social
  network late Monday night.
• The first-of-its-kind deal between the two intelligence
  agencies followed the May 12 visit to Kabul by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz
  Sharif along with army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif and ISI chief Lt. Gen. Rizwan
  Akhtar. The signing of the ISI-NDS agreement was the latest in a series of
  steps that Pakistan and Afghanistan have taken since the installation of the
  National Unity government (NUG) in Kabul.

• A crucial meeting of trade ministers of key WTO member
  countries including India and the US will take place in Paris next month to
  discuss the pending issues of the Doha Round and finalise the agenda for the
  Nairobi ministerial meeting in December.
• It will be held on the sidelines of the Organisation for
  Economic Co-operation and Development meeting in Paris on June 4 or 5, said a
  senior official at the Commerce Ministry.
• India has recently expressed concern over slow progress in
  finalising the agenda for the Nairobi ministerial meeting of WTO members to
  resolve the pending issues of the Doha Round.
• Trade ministers of about 15 countries including India, the
  US, EU, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and China are expected to attend this
  crucial meeting. WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo will also participate in
  the deliberations.
• India will present its views on bringing back issues related
  to the long—stalled Doha Round including agriculture (export subsidies, cotton
  and fishery subsidies), market access and services, the official said.

• Nash, 86, and his 82-year-old wife Alicia were killed when
  their taxi crashed in New Jersey, they said.
• The mathematician is renowned for his work in game theory,
  winning the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994.
• His breakthroughs in maths – and his struggles with
  schizophrenia – were the focus of the 2001 film.
• The Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of
  Technology (MIT) mathematician is best known for his contribution to game
  theory — the study of decision-making — which won him the Nobel economics prize
  in 1994.
• His life story formed the basis of the Oscar-winning 2001
  film “A Beautiful Mind” in which actor Russell Crowe played the
  genius, who struggled with mental illness.
• Earlier this month, Nash and mathematician Louis Nirenberg
  received Norway’s prestigious Abel Prize for their contributions to the theory
  of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) and its applications to
  geometric analysis.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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