Current Affairs Update – 26-29th November, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here are the important Current Affairs of 25th November, 2016. These are important for the upcoming IPPB PO Mains, NIACL AO Mains, IBPS Clerk Mains, IBPS RRB OS-I Mains and RBI Assistant Mains 2016-17.

• The Gujarat government signed an
  MoU with China’s Sany Group for the largest ever investment by a single state
  at $2 billion, staggered over the next five years, for infrastructure projects
  which also use those for green energy and for expediting mass housing projects.
• Ahead of the Vibrant Gujarat
  Global Summit 2017, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani met the Chinese delegation led
  by Liang Wengen, Chairman of Sany Group on Monday for nearly an hour. The
  meeting comprised over 10 senior government officials, including chief
  principal secretary K Kailashnathan, ACS PK Taneja, principal secretary S
  Aparna, principal secretary and industries commissioner Mamta Verma.
• As per the MoU, Sany Group will
  invest in five different projects, including development of 1000 MW of wind
  power, 1000 MW of solar and wind power projects, setting up of facility for
  manufacturing of wind turbines beginning next year, developing at least one
  ‘small size’ smart city in line with the Centre’s smart city mission and
  setting up factory for housing through precast concrete for mass housing
  projects other than real estate projects.
• Under this MOU, the Gujarat
  government will provide necessary support to SANY Group in obtaining necessary
  permissions, registrations, approvals, clearance, etc from the concerned
  departments of the state, said a release.

• In an exclusive association,
  e-commerce giant Amazon is going to sell popular Indian dairy brand Amul’s
  products online in the United States.
• The alliance is a part of
  Amazon’s Global Selling Programme, which was launched in India in May 2015. It
  will bring the brand’s products within reach of American consumers.
• Initially, Amazon will only be
  putting up Amul Ghee and Gulab Jamun for sale but more would be following suit.
  Amul Ghee according to the website is one of the top stock units in its ‘butter
  and margarine’ category.
• This would mark the dairy brand’s
  first official entry into the online space in the US. Though it is already
  selling its products there through traditional retail channels for the past 20
  years, this move would expand its reach to a larger audience.

• Radha Mohan Singh, Union
  Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, on 26 November 2016 launched
  e-Pashuhaat portal (www.epashuhaat.gov.in).
• It is for the first time in the
  world that a portal has been specifically developed for connecting breeders and
  farmers regarding availability of bovine germplasm.
• Through the portal breeders and
  farmers can sell and purchase breeding stock, can garner information on all
  forms of germplasm including semen, embryos and live animals with all the
  agencies and stake holders in the country that has been uploaded on the
  portal.
• The portal will also facilitate
  the farmers about the availability of quality disease free bovine germplasm
  with different agencies in the country. The portal will lead to propagation of
  high genetic merit germplasm.

• E-Trading Market portal for
  livestock germplasm and additional related services.
• Connecting farmers with breeders
  – Central, State, Co-operative, Milk Federations, and private agencies.
• Real time authentic certified
  information on availability of germplasm.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
  on 28 November 2016 relaxed the cash withdrawal limit from the bank accounts with
  an aim to spur the deposits.
• The depositors, who have made the
  deposits in the current legal tender notes, can now withdraw that amount over
  and above the weekly limit of Rs 24000.
• This move comes as a relief for
  certain depositors who were hesitating to deposit their monies into bank
  accounts due to the current limits on cash withdrawals from accounts.
• The withdrawals will be available
  in higher denominations bank notes of Rs 2000 and Rs 500. The move will also
  encourage small businesses and shopkeepers to deposit cash in legal tender
  which they can withdraw at the same point of time.

• Amidst the confusion created by
  demonetization, the Indian state of Goa prepares itself to become the first
  state to operate cashless in the country from 31 December 2016.
• This announcement was made by
  Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is also the former Chief Minister of the
  state, during a rally at Sankhali on 25 November 2016. The plan includes making
  even small vendors selling perishable goods accustomed to mobile payment.

• All vendors would be given Mobile
  Money Identifier (MMI) codes when they register at the bank.
• Customers would be able to make
  the transaction by dialing *99# and following the instructions that appear on
  the screen.
• The information to be filled by
  them would include their bank account details, the total amount that is to be
  transferred along with the MMI code of the vendor.
• The mobile required to make the
  payment wouldn’t have to be a Smartphone.
• There will be no minimum limit on
  the cashless transfer of money and these transactions will also be immune from
  any sort of fees.
• This way the money will directly
  be debited from the sender’s account and credited to the receiver’s account. It
  will take away the hassle of installing swiping machines, especially in the
  case of small retailers and vendors.
• A drive to educate people on the
  working of the same system has already been initiated in Mapusa and Panaji.

• The Union Government in the last
  week of November 2016 announced the formation of new committee to form a
  strategy to accelerate the process of transforming India into a cashless
  economy.
• The committee will be headed by
  Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. The other members of the committee are the
  Secretary of the Department of Financial Services, Secretary of Department Of
  Industrial Policy & Promotion and Secretary of Department of Investment and
  Public Asset Management, Secretaries of the IT and Rural Development
  Ministries, Managing Director of the National Payments Corporation of India and
  the Chairman of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
• The task of the committee is to
  identify various obstructions affecting access of digital payments.
• The committee was constituted
  following a directive from the Prime Minister’s Office to back up the
  demonetisation move.

• The committee will identify and
  operationalise in the earliest possible time frame user-friendly digital
  payment options in all sectors of the economy.
• It will engage regularly with
  Union ministries, regulators, state governments, district administration, local
  bodies, trade and industry associations to promote adoption of digital payment
  systems.
• It will attempt to establish and
  monitor an implementation framework with strict timelines. This will be done to
  ensure that nearly 80% of the transactions in India moves to the digital-only
  platform.

• To protect domestic manufacturers
  from cheap imports, the Union Government on 24 November 2016 slapped safeguard
  duty on import of certain steel products. Steel products on which the safeguard
  duty was slapped include hot-rolled flat sheets and plates (excluding
  hot-rolled flat products in coil form) of alloy or non-alloy steel.
• As per Revenue Department
  notification, the effective duty rate will be calculated after deducting the
  value of the goods. The anti-dumping duty will become payable when the import price
  is below USD 504 per tonnes on CIF (cost insurance freight) basis.
• The notification also said that
  in the first year, the duty arrived would be 10 percent and will gradually
  reduce to 8 percent in 2018 and 6 percent by 2019. It says, the 10 percent ad-valorem
  minus anti-dumping duty payable will be imposed on imports up to 22 November
  2017. The same will be lowered to 8 percent between 23 November 2017 and 22
  November 2018. Later, it will be reduced to 6 percent between 23 November 2018
  and 22 May 2019.
• Ad-Valorem tax is a tax whose
  amount is based on the value of a transaction or of property. This tax is
  imposed at the time of the transaction in form of sales tax or value-added tax
  (VAT).
• Safeguard Duty is a duty that is
  imposed on any product that is imported into the country in increased
  quantities if it injuries the domestic industry. It is a temporary measure and
  is imposed after conducting an enquiry.

• Akodara village in Sabarkantha
  district of Gujarat recently has earned the title of becoming first digital
  village in India.
• The village, which sustains a
  total population of 1191 people, uses various cashless systems for payments of
  goods and services. All transactions in the village are carried out through
  digital modes like net-banking, SMS or debit cards.

• Akodara, which is located some 90
  km from Ahmedabad, was adopted and developed by the ICICI Foundation as a
  digitised village with a rural branch of the bank.
• In the village, most transactions
  between Rs. 10 and Rs. 5000 are done via SMS. The payment goes directly into
  the shopkeeper’s bank account as the buyer and seller are both connected
  through their accounts in the same bank.
• The village has its own website:
  .
• Its wi-fi with high speed
  broadband connectivity has some 50 subscribers across 200-odd households.

• Lt-General A K Bhatt was on 28
  November 2016 appointed as the Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO).
• Lt-Gen Bhatt will succeed
  Lt-General Ranbir Singh, who declared at a press briefing that Army Special
  Forces had conducted surgical strikes against terror launch pads in
  Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir on 29 September 2016.
• While, Lt-Gen Ranbir Singh will
  now head the 1 Corps (headquarters at Mathura), which is one of four strike
  corps among the 14 corps of the 1.3 million strong Army. He will replace Lt-Gen
  Shokin Chauhan, who in turn has been appointed as the director-general of Assam
  Rifles.
• General Dalbir Singh Suhag and
  Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha will retire from their posts on 31 December 2016.

• Former Prime Minister, Francois
  Fillon has won France’s conservative presidential primary, defeating opponent
  Alain Juppe by a landslide.
• He will be up against National
  Front leader Marine Le Pen in the final presidential race, scheduled to be held
  in 2017.  His vote count amounted to
  about 69.5% in comparison to Juppe’s 30.5%.
• While Fillon’s political campaign
  mainly revolved around the promise of radical economic reforms, Juppe was more
  on the moderate side and warned of encroaching populism.

• Former Hockey player Mariamma
  Koshy on 25 November 2016 took charge of Hockey India as its president with
  immediate effect. Hockey India, during its 41st Hockey India Executive Board
  meet, announced that Koshy will head the national body.
• Koshy, 63, succeeds Narinder
  Dhruv Batra, who in recent past was elected as the first ever non-European
  chief of the sport’s governing body International Hockey Federation (FIH).
  Earlier in November 2016, Batra made history by becoming the first Indian and
  fifteenth president of FIH.
• Batra served Hockey India as its
  secretary general from 2010 to 2014. He was serving the organsiation as its
  President since 2014.

• Pink, the Amitabh Bachchan
  starrer Bollywood film, has been invited by the Assistant Secretary-General of
  the United Nations for a special screening at its headquarters in New York,
  USA.
• Directed by Aniruddha Roy
  Chowdhury and written by Ritesh Shah, the film- a modern Indian courtroom
  drama- highlights the issue of gender violence. It is by far being considered
  as one of the best works by the all-time Bollywood superstar- Amitabh Bachchan
  and one of the most successful releases of 2016.
• The film was very well received
  by audience and critics alike from all across India for its extremely realistic
  narrative. It was released on 16 September 2016 under the U/A category with four
  verbal cuts. It was specially screened for the Rajasthan Police, in order to
  train them to become more sensitive towards women’s rights and dignity.
• It completed a 50-day run in the
  theatres on 4 November 2016.

• Bangladesh will honour the
  families of 1668 martyrs of the Indian Army who fought in the 1971
  India-Pakistan war, which resulted in the liberation of East Pakistan
  (Bangladesh), on the event’s 45th anniversary.
• According to the Liberation War
  Affairs Minister A K M Mozammel Huq, families of all the martyred soldiers will
  receive Rs 5 lakh as a mark of respect. The amount would be handed over by the
  Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina during her visit to Delhi between
  18- 20 December 2016.
• The amount in question would be
  given in Indian currency.
• According to Huq, Demonetization
  would not pose a problem to them. First Bangladeshi Taka would be converted
  into dollars and handed over to the Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi, who in
  turn will convert it into Indian currency and hand it over to the Prime
  Minister upon her arrival.

• An aeroplane carrying 81 people
  on board including Brazilian first division soccer team crashed on its way to
  Medellin’s international airport. The Brazilian soccer team was travelling to
  Colombia for a regional tournament final.
• The cause of the incident is yet
  to be ascertained.
• As per reports, about 25 bodies
  have been recovered from the site of the air crash, while five people were
  rescued alive. Three players are among the five survivors.
• According to Medellin’s airport
  officials, the aircraft, which embarked from Bolivia, was transporting the
  Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil, which was scheduled to play the
  Copa Sudamericana finals against Atletico Nacional on 30 November 2016 in
  Medellin.

• The website Dictionary.com named
  the word ‘Xenophobia’ as the Word of the Year for 2016.
• According to Dictionary.com,
  there was a massive surge in lookups for the word ‘Xenophobia’ that was larger
  than any of the peaks seen in 2016. This rise in lookups was connected to
  attacks on foreign workers and overall rising xenophobia in South Africa.
• The largest spike in
  Dictionary.com’s data for the word was in the month of June 2016 with a 938 per
  cent increase in lookups.

• The much-popular writer,
  storyteller Ruskin Bond has returned after a long sabbatical with a brand new
  collection of stories titled ‘Death under the Deodars: The Adventures of Miss
  Ripley-Bean’.
• The book consisting of 8 fresh thriller
  stories is set in the popular holiday destination, Mussoorie, in the bygone era
  of 1960-70. Through the stories, the writer narrates a murder mystery featuring
  an elderly woman- Miss Ripley-Bean and her friends.
• It has been published by Penguin India.
  It is, in fact, a product of numerous thoughts and conversation shared between
  Ruskin Bond and Udayan Mitra from Penguin India. Like any other Ruskin Bond
  book, these stories too are replete with humour and unique characters. The
  suspense is such that it can hook the attention of both children and adults
  alike.

• The book titled Conflicts of
  Interest: My Journey through India’s Green Movement was in news in the last
  week of November 2016 as it was acquired by Penguin India.
• The book is Narain’s personal
  account. The book includes an “environmental manifesto” in which she lays out
  an outline for the direction India must take, if it is to deal with the
  exigencies of climate change and environmental degradation.
• In the book, Narain goes on to
  discuss how corporate lobbies and political interests often scuttle effective
  resolution of environmental issues.

• Argentina on 27 November 2016 won
  its maiden Davis Cup title after defeating Croatia in the final.
• In the final match, Argentina’s
  Federico Delbonis defeated Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to give Argentina its
  first title.
• As of 2016, the Argentina Davis
  Cup team has competed in the World Group since 2002 and reached the finals five
  times (1981, 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2016). At present, Argentina is Number 1 on
  the Davis Cup ranking by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

• Indian golfer Aditi Ashok on 27
  November 2016 won the inaugural Qatar Ladies Open in Doha. With this, she
  recorded her second straight victory on the Ladies European Tour.
• Ashok shot a final round of
  three-under 69 to card a total of 15-under. She finished three strokes ahead of
  Lydia Hall and Caroline Hedwall.
• Nanna Koerstz Madsen ended in
  fourth place on 11-under-par. Annabel Dimmock ended in fifth and Nicole Garcia
  in sixth. Georgia Hall and Becky Morgan were joint seventh.

• Sachin Singh on 27 November 2016
  became the third Indian boxer to bag gold medal at the AIBA Youth World
  Championships. In the summit clash at St Petersburg, Russia, Sachin recorded a
  stunning unanimous victory over Cuban national champion Jorge Grinan in the
  49kg weight class.
• Sachin defeated his rival 5-0 to
  record a rare Indian triumph over a Cuban boxer. 16-year-old Sachin has joined
  Thokchom Nanao Singh (2008) and Vikas Krishan (2010) in the Indian youth world
  championships gold club.
• With this, India finished the
  tournament with one gold and a bronze. Naman had settled for a bronze Tanwar in
  the 91 kg after losing in the semifinal. In 2014 edition, India was able to
  secure just a bronze medal.

• The 47th International Film
  Festival of India (IFFI), which was inaugurated by noted filmmaker Ramesh Sippy
  on 20 November 2016, came to a close on 28 November in Goa, India.
• The inauguration of the event was
  also attended by the Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting – M
  Venkaiah Naidu and South Korea’s Ambassador to India- Hyun Cho. The focus
  country this time was the Republic of Korea.
• The festival saw the screening of
  over 300 films from as many as 90 countries across the globe and saw
  participation from several young filmmakers. It also hosted a special screening
  of award-winning films from the first-ever BRICS film festival and a series of
  20 award-winning short films based on the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign theme.
• While Poland’s official entry to
  the 89th Academy Awards, ‘Afterimage’ by Andrzej Wajda opened the festival,
  South Korea’s official entry ‘The Age of Shadows’ by Kim Jee-Woon brought the
  curtains down.

• Legendary Korean filmmaker Im
  Kwon-Taek was honoured with ‘The Lifetime Achievement Award’. He has a lot of
  acclaimed pieces of work to his name including films like Chunhyang,
  Chihwaseon, and Mandala.
• Iranian drama film ‘Daughter’
  directed by Reza Mirkarimi beat 21 others to claim the Golden Peacock award for
  ‘Best film’. Along with the trophy, the film also won a cash prize of Rs 40
  lakh.
• The film’s male lead Farhad
  Aslani won the Silver Peacock for the best actor male.
• Best actor female award went to
  Elina Vaska for her role in Latvian film – Mellow Mud.
• Silver Peacock for best director
  went to Soner Caner and Baris Kaya, co-directors of Turkish film- Rauf. They
  also won a cash prize of Rs. 15 lakh.
• Lee Joon-ik, South Korean
  director of film – ‘The Throne’ won the special jury award. He was honoured
  with the Silver Peacock and a cash prize of Rs.15 lakh.
• The ICFT- Unesco Gandhi medal was
  given to the Turkish drama film- ‘Cold of Kalandar’- directed by Mustafa Kara.
  The film was chosen for such a prestigious award for its ethnic values and
  respect for the environment.
• ‘The Apology’ by Toronto-based
  Tiffany Hsiung received a special mention in the Gandhi Medal competition.
• The Centenary award for the ‘Best
  Debut Film of a Director’ went to Pepa San Martin for her Spanish film ‘Rara’
  and the Centenary award for ‘Indian Film Personality of the Year’ went to actor
  and playback singer, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam.

• MC Mary Kom, the Olympic bronze-medal
  winning boxer from India, will receive the ‘Legends Award’ on 20 December 2016.
  She will receive the award from the International Boxing Association (AIBA) on
  its 70th anniversary.
• At present, the Olympian and a
  five-time world champion is a Rajya Sabha MP. President Pranab Mukherjee
  nominated her as a member of the Upper House of the Indian Parliament in April
  2016.
• Mary Kom is also a multiple-time
  Asian champion and was named an AIBA brand ambassador during the 2016 AIBA
  Women’s World Boxing Championships.

• The National Milk Day was on 26
  November 2016 observed across India to mark 95th birth anniversary of Dr
  Verghese Kurien, the Father of the White Revolution.
• To observe the day, the dairy cooperatives
  across India conducted a mega activation in all markets of the country.

• Fidel Castro, the revolutionary
  leader of Cuba, died on 25 November 2016. He was 90. News of his death was
  announced on national television by President Raul Castro.
• The former Cuban President and
  leader of the Communist revolution ruled Cuba as a one-party state for almost
  half a century before handing over the powers to his brother Raul in 2008. His
  supporters praised him as a man who had given Cuba back to the people.

• Anand Yadav, the Sahitya Akademi
  awardee Marathi author, died on 27 November 2016 in Pune. He was 80.
• He won the Sahitya Akademi award
  in 1991 for his autobiography ‘Zombi’. During his illustrious career, Yadav
  faced a major controversy over his book ‘Santsurya Tukaram’, wrote on Sant
  Tukaram, a 17th-century saint poet from Maharashtra.

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Team ExamPundit