Current Affairs Update – 27th June, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 27th June, 2015. These are important for the upcoming SBI PO 2015 Mains and RBI Assistant 2015 Exam.

• A ranking of destinations for attractiveness to foreign
  investors has placed India at the top among 110 countries. China has secured
  the 65th position and the U.S. is at the 50th. In the 2014 index, India was at
  the sixth position and Hong Kong was number one.
• The ranking is based on an index for baseline profitability
  that assumes that three factors affect the ultimate success of a foreign
  investment: how much the value of an asset grows; the preservation of that
  value while the asset is owned; and the ease of repatriation of proceeds from
  selling the asset.
• The index combines measures for each of these factors into a
  summary statistic that conveys a country’s basic attractiveness for investment.
• A high ranking indicates high returns and improving economic
  institutions. The index, thus, compares how local policies and conditions
  affect the same investment in different countries. Or how the value of the
  principal and the return will change depending only on where the investment is
  made.
• Local factors can erode profits. These include payment of
  bribes and kickbacks, the risk of which is compared across countries using the
  Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, a measure for the
  perceived levels of public-sector corruption worldwide. In 2014, the country
  was at the 85th position out of 175 countries as compared to its ranking of 94
  out of 177 in 2013.
• BPI calculation also uses an index of investor protection
  compiled by the World Bank. In 2014, the average BPI score across all countries
  was 0.99; this year it is 1.03 — meaning the expected returns over the next
  five years are about three-quarters of a per cent higher a year.

• Government is likely to infuse additional USD 1.8 billion
  (about Rs 11,500 crore) in public sector banks this fiscal over and above USD
  1.2 billion earmarked in the Budget, Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said on
  Friday.
• The government has earmarked Rs 7,940 crore in the Budget
  for recapitalisation of PSU banks for the current fiscal.  Earlier this month, Mehrishi said the
  government intends to provide USD 9 billion (about Rs 57,000 crore) to public
  sector banks towards recapitalisation over the next two fiscals to meet global
  capital adequacy norms and for growth. 
• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had recently promised more
  capital infusion into public sector banks, saying there’s “merit” in
  their demand for more funds over and above what was provided in the Budget.
• The government has already started assessment of capital
  requirement of public sector banks. It has already received presentation of 14
  public sector banks.

• India and Thailand will sign a double taxation treaty and an
  MoU for setting up an Ayurveda Chair in one of the Thai Universities during the
  three-day visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj beginning today.
• The Minister will also tomorrow be the guest of honour at
  the inaugural ceremony of the 16th World Sanskrit Conference where she will
  deliver her speech in Sanskrit. Over 600 scholars from 60 countries will
  participate in the five-day conference.
• Swaraj will co-chair India-Thailand joint commission meeting
  during which the two countries will sign a double taxation avoidance treaty and
  exchange instruments of ratification on the extradition treaty signed between
  them in 2013.
• A MoU on the establishment of an Ayurveda Chair in one of
  the Thai Universities will also be signed during her visit.
• Swaraj will also meet Indian business leaders and hold
  interaction with academicians.
• She will have an audience with Princess Maha Chakri
  Sirindhorn, a scholar of Sanskrit and Royal Patron of the World Sanskrit
  Conference. Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani will attend the
  concluding ceremony of the conference on July 2.

• South African Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene announced on
  Friday that former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni has been appointed as the
  non-executive director to the board the Brics New Development Bank (NDB).
• He added that Cabinet had endorsed the nomination of Leslie
  Maasdorp for vice-president of the NDB. Maasdorp recently parted ways with
  AdvTech where he was chief executive. He was previously the president of Merrill
  Lynch for southern Africa.
• The management of the NDBs will be appointed at the board of
  governors inaugural meeting on July 7‚ Nene said. The NDB is expected to be up
  and running by the end of the year.

• The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation on 25 June 2015
  approved a proposal for setting up a second international airport at Jewar in
  the National Capital Region. The proposal would soon be sent to the Union
  Cabinet for approval
• Once the project gets the required approvals, the civil
  aviation ministry will offer the contract for building and running the proposed
  Jewar airport in Greater Noida to the GMR Group where the government acquired
  2378 acres of land for the project.
• Under RoFR norms, GMR Group has the Right of First Refusal
  (RoFR) for any airport that is built within a 150-km radius of the existing
  airport in Delhi. According to the rules, GMR’s bid will be accepted only if it
  is equal to or less than 10 percent of the bid offered by the lowest bidder. It
  will be asked to match the lowest bid arrived at after the bidding process for
  the proposed Jewar airport.

• India and the United States (US) on 25 June 2015 signed a
  series of agreements on health sector to enhance cooperation in areas such as
  cancer research, infrastructure development, training, capacity building and
  better assessment and application of new diagnostic technologies.

1. MoU on cancer research, control, prevention and management.
2. MoU on collaboration in Environmental, occupational Health
   and Injury Prevention and Control.

1. Prevention of illness related to toxic chemicals and
   hazardous substances
2. Development and use of improved tools, technologies and
   methods for enhancing environmental and occupational public health, and injury
   prevention efforts, including surveillance
3. Focus on public health effects of indoor air pollution
   including a focus on exposures associated with burning of solid fuels for
   cooking, prevention of illness and injury related to hazards at the workplace.

• Letter of Intent
  (LoI) on Anti-microbial Resistance Research: A Letter of Intent (LoI) on
  anti-microbial resistance research was signed between the ICMR, Department of
  Biotechnology (MoST) and US’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
  Diseases, National Institutes of Health and DHHS.

• The United States (US) Supreme Court on 26 June 2015
  legalized same-sex marriage across the nation in a closely divided ruling by a
  5 to 4 vote. The 28-page ruling was made by Justice Anthony Kennedy and was
  agreed by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and
  Elena Kagan.
• With this ruling, now the states cannot deny marriage rights
  enjoyed for thousands of years by opposite-sex couples to gay men and lesbians.
  The decision is expected to trigger same-sex marriages in fourteen states that
  banned the practice.
• The court ratified the Bill of Rights and added the
  Fourteenth Amendment that states no state shall deprive any person of life,
  liberty, or property, without due process of law.
• The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a
  marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between
  two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and
  performed out-of-State.

• In what will come as a relief to bowlers, ICC has decided to
  get rid of catchers in the first ten overs, removed the batting Powerplay and
  also allowed five fielders outside the 30-yard circle in the last ten overs of
  an innings in one-dayers.
• The ICC also said that all “no balls” and not just
  over-stepping by the bowlers will result in a free hit in both ODIs and
  Twenty20 Internationals. The rule changes will come into effect for series
  starting on or after July 5.
• The ICC board during its Annual Conference here adopted
  these recommendations. These were made by the ICC’s cricket committee headed by
  the former India captain Anil Kumble in Mumbai this May.
• Meanwhile, the ICC Board has also unanimously decided to
  suspend the membership of the USA Cricket Association (USACA) with immediate
  effect.
• The decision was made after careful consideration of the
  findings set out in a recently constituted Review Group report to the ICC Board
  on the Status and Activities of USACA — a comprehensive document based on input
  from over 100 stakeholders, including USACA.
• The Review Group had expressed “significant concerns about
  the governance, finance, reputation and cricketing activities of USACA” and the
  ICC decided to exercise its power under Article 2.7 of the ICC’s Articles of
  Association.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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