Current Affairs Update – 25th March, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the current affairs for 25th March, 2015.

RBI
/ Finance / Economy –
Kerala FM K.M.Mani Appointed
Chairman of GST Empowered Committee

  • Kerala Finance Minister K M Mani has been appointed as the
    Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on Goods and
    Services Tax (GST).
  • The GST, an indirect tax regime, is to be rolled out from
    April 2016.
  • Earlier on March 20, the GST Empowered Committee met Union
    Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wherein state Finance Ministers asked him to
    select the new Chairman.
  • Although 14 Ministers from the States and Union Territories
    attended the meeting, a decision could not be taken at that meeting as some
    Ministers could not attend it due to preoccupation with state budgets.
  • The Empowered Committee Chairman’s post fell vacant after
    Abdul Rahim Rather, the former finance minister of Jammu & Kashmir, quit
    following the defeat of National Conference in state elections held in
    December.

RBI rejects Tata
Sons’ proposal to buy NTT DoCoMo’s stake in joint venture
  • The Reserve Bank of India has rejected a proposal made by
    Tata Sons’, the holding company of all Tata group firms, to buy NTT DoCoMo’s
    stake in joint venture Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) for about Rs. 7,250 crore.
  • In April last year, NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s biggest telecom
    operator by subscribers, said it will sell its entire 26.5 per cent stake in
    TTSL, thus exiting India five years after it entered the market. The plans to
    exit came after the Indian company failed to achieve certain performance
    targets specified in the agreement between the two companies.
  • Tata Sons had in November last year applied to the RBI to
    purchase NTT DoCoMo’s stake at Rs. 58.045 per share.
  • The Japanese company had acquired the stake in March 2009
    for $2.7 billion (Rs 13,070 crore at the then exchange rate).

RBI signs $400-mn
currency swap pact with Sri Lanka
  • The RBI today signed a $400-million currency swap agreement
    with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka for three years that will allow the island
    nation to draw the amount in dollars or euros in multiple tranches.
  • The agreement, which will be valid for three years, is
    expected to further economic co-operation between the two countries, it added.
  • The arrangement will also further financial stability in the
    region, RBI said.
  • The swap arrangement is intended to provide a backstop line
    of funding for SAARC member countries to meet any balance of payments and
    liquidity crises till long-term arrangements are made.
  • In May 2012, Reserve Bank of India had announced in the
    SAARCFINANCE Governor’s meeting, held in Nepal, that it would offer swap
    facilities aggregating $2 billion, both in foreign currency and rupee to SAARC
    member countries.
  • The facility is available to all South Asian Association for
    Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries. Besides India, other members of
    SAARC are: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri
    Lanka.

Govt to auction 1,000
new FM radio channels by 2016
  • The Government hopes to auction a total of 1,000 new FM
    radio channels by 2016, with it already giving its nod to partial auctions of
    135 channels in 69 cities in phase three of the process, said JS Mathur,
    Additional Secretary of the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
  • He was speaking at the annual convention of FICCI-Frames, a
    media and entertainment conclave organised by the industry body.
  • Mathur spoke briefly about the media and entertainment
    industry in India, saying that it was “exciting times for the industry,
    with challenges in emerging technology, new platforms,” and new prospects
    in “content and business and revenue models.”
  • He also pointed out the growing prospects in the animation
    and gaming sector.

Business/Deals
Kraft, Heinz merge to
form world’s No.5 food company

  • Kraft Foods Group Inc, the maker of Velveeta cheese and
    Oscar Mayer meats, will merge with ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co, owned by 3G
    Capital and Berkshire Hathaway Inc, to form the world’s fifth-largest food and
    beverage company.
  • Kraft’s shares rose about 17 per cent in pre-market trading
    after the announcement of the deal, which will bring Heinz back to the public
    market following its takeover two years ago.
  • The combined company will have revenue of about $28 billion,
    the companies said in a statement on Wednesday.
  • Kraft shareholders will own a 49 per cent stake in the
    combined company and Heinz shareholders 51 per cent.
  • Kraft shareholders will get one share in the combined
    company, to be called the Kraft Heinz Co, and a special cash dividend of $16.50
    for every share held.

Google Inc appointed
Ruth Porat as Chief Financial Officer
  • Google Inc on 24 March 2015 appointed Ruth Porat as Chief
    Financial Officer (CFO). She will take the charge on 26 May 2015. She will
    report to Google CEO and Co-Founder Larry Page.
  • She succeeded Patrick Pichette who announced his retirement
    on 10 March 2015. Currently, she is working as Chief Financial Officer at
    Morgan Stanley.
  • Ruth joined Morgan Stanley in 1987 and has played several
    key roles at the company, including Vice Chairman of Investment Banking, Global
    Head of the Financial Institutions Group and co-Head of Technology Investment
    Banking.

India
PM Launches PRAGATI
Platform for Redressal of Grievances
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched his ambitious
    multi-purpose and multi-modal platform, PRAGATI, which is aimed at addressing
    the common man’s grievances and monitoring important programmes and projects.
  • Speaking on the occasion, Modi said the step is to ensure
    that governance in India becomes more efficient and responsive as the whole
    world is now observing India keenly.
  • PRAGATI, or Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation,
    is a unique integrative and interactive platform.
  • During the first PRAGATI interaction today, the Prime
    Minister discussed issues related to unseasonal rain and relief to farmers,
    public grievances, project implementation, Swachh Bharat and ‘ease of doing
    business’.
  • Among the issues discussed were two sets of public
    grievances of more than 20 people relating to the payment of Employees
    Provident Fund of private sector and Income Tax refunds, a PMO statement said.

M.P. Governor’s son,
accused in Vyapam scam, found dead

  • Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav’s son Shailesh, who
    was named as an accused in the multi-crore Vyapam scam, was found dead under
    mysterious circumstances at his father’s official residence here today.
  • Police said the exact cause of his death could not be
    ascertained immediately.
  • Shailesh’s name had cropped up in the multi-crore scam for
    allegedly fixing the recruitment of 10 candidates as Grade III teachers.
  • The Governor, who himself has been named as an accused in
    the scam, has been admitted to a hospital in Bhopal following respiratory
    problems.
  • Yadav, a former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, has also
    challenged in the High Court the inclusion of his name as an accused and had
    sought immunity.

Twitter Samvad
launched for direct communication between Government and Citizens
  • Union Government on 24 March 2015 launched new platform
    named Twitter Samwad that facilitates direct communication between leaders,
    government agencies and citizens. This platform was launched in association
    with social networking service Twitter.
  • Through this, the government bodies can have a direct
    communication with citizens on a daily basis via Tweets and SMS on their mobile
    devices.
  • The service was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
    during his meet with Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo in New Delhi. The
    service is aimed to boost the nation’s e-governance plans.
  • As of now, 16 government offices, including the Prime
    Minister’s Office, Ministry of railways, the Bengaluru Police and the Chief
    Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are
    participating in Twitter Samvad, which is powered by Bengaluru-based ZipDial,
    which was recently acquired by Twitter.

Gujarat Philatelic
Exhibition Gujpex-2015 inaugurated in Ahmedabad

  • The thirteenth state level philatelic exhibition of Gujarat
    postal circle or Gujpex-2015 was inaugurated by the Gujarat Governor O.P. Kohli
    at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial in Ahmedabad on 24 March
    2015.
  • This exhibition will run from 24 March to 27 March 2015 and
    is organized by the Gujarat Postal Circle with the active support of philatelic
    associations of Gujarat.

World
Utah becomes first
U.S. State to reinstate execution by firing squad

  • Utah became the first U.S. State to reinstate execution by
    firing squad amidst a spiralling crisis due to lethal drug shortages faced by
    U.S. prisons, even as the State’s Governor was on the record describing the
    procedure as “a little bit gruesome.”
  • According to Republican Governor Gary Herbert, who signed
    the law approving the use of the firing squad on Monday, the death penalty
    would be administered in this manner when no lethal injection drugs was
    available and the latter would remain the “primary method” of executing
    inmates. Under the law in Utah, inmates would be killed by a firing squad only
    if the State cannot acquire lethal injection drugs 30 days prior to the
    scheduled execution date.
  • Since 2010, U.S. correctional facilities have struggled to
    procure a key drug in the three-drug lethal cocktail administered to death row
    inmates, sedative sodium thiopental, after its sole U.S. producer, Hospira,
    took its production plants offline in the face of anti-death penalty campaigns
    and other obstacles.

Japanese Navy gets
biggest warship IZUMO since WWII

  • Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force on Wednesday took
    delivery of the biggest Japanese warship since World War Two, the Izumo, a
    helicopter carrier as big as the Imperial Navy aircraft carriers that battled
    the United States in the Pacific.
  • The 248-metre-long Izumo resembles U.S. Marine Corp
    amphibious assault carriers in size and design but it is designated as a
    helicopter destroyer, a label that allows Japan to keep within the bounds of a
    constitutional ban on owning the means to wage war.
  • Japan is also adding longer-range patrol aircraft and
    military cargo planes to its defence capability, and buying Lockheed Martin
    F-35 fighter jets, amphibious assault vehicles and Boeing’s Osprey troop
    carrier, which can operate from the Izumo.
  • The Izumo does not have a catapult necessary to launch
    fixed-wing fighters, but a planned vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) variant
    of the F-35 could fly from the Izumo’s flight deck.

Awards
& Honors –
Dolly Shivani
Cherukuri became the youngest Archer to enter India Book of Records

  • Three-year-old archer Dolly Shivani Cherukuri of Andhra
    Pradesh on 24 March 2015 entered the India Book of Records. She entered the
    list of records by scoring 388 points in the recurve segment in two distances,
    seven and five meters, at the Volga Archery Academy in Vijayawada.
  • At the time of entering the India Book of Records, she was
    nine days less than three years.
  • She shot 36 arrows each from five metres and seven metres to
    score 388 points in presence of judges from the India Book of Records and the
    Archery Association of India (AAI).

MP Govt honours Hindi
poet Gopal Das Neeraj with Rashtriya Kavi Pradeep Award

  • The state government conferred Hindi poet Gopal Das Neeraj
    with the first Rashtriya Kavi Pradeep Award for the year 2012-13 on Tuesday.
  • The poet who is now in his early 90s regaled the audience
    with his poetry despite ill health. The award was given by Surendra Patwa,
    Minister for Culture. While giving the award, Patwa applauded Gopal Das Neeraj
    for his immense contribution in the field of literature.

Artist Bharti Kher
conferred with the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France

  • Artist Bharti Kher of India on 23 March 2015 was conferred
    with the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l’Ordre des
    Arts et des Lettres). This is the highest cultural award of France.
  • She was awarded for her contribution in contemporary art
    landscape. Kher’s artworks span several mediums like painting, sculpture and
    installation.
  • Her An Absence of Assignable Cause which is a 14-feet- high
    sculptural interpretation of the heart of the blue sperm whale is among the
    finest works from the experiment.
  • The artist is renowned for her remarkable experimentation
    with bindis that have over time come to be recognised as her signature style.

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This post was last modified on July 20, 2019 12:10 pm