Current Affairs Update – 27th October, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 27th October, 2015. These are Important for the upcoming IBPS Clerk Exam 2015.

Finance/RBI/Economy
India Overtakes
China, Becomes Biggest Gold Consumer: Survey

  • India regained its top position from China as the biggest
    overall consumer of gold in the first nine months this year with a total
    consumption of 642 tonnes, a survey said.
  • China is trailing by just 63 tonnes at total consumption of
    579 tonnes in the first nine months, according to GFMS Gold Survey Q3 2015
    Review and Outlook.
  • In India, jewellery consumption increased by 5 per cent
    year-on-year to an estimated 193 tonnes in Q3 2015, the highest quarterly
    consumption since Q1 2011 and the highest third quarter demand since 2008, the
    report published by Thomson Reuters stated.
  • Retail investment rose 30 per cent year-on-year to 55 tonnes,
    the highest since Q4 2013.
  • The increase in demand in the third quarter is primarily
    attributed to the fall in local gold prices to the lowest since August 2011.
  • The total official gold imports to India in the third
    quarter increased by 23 per cent to 263 tonnes, which is the highest quarterly volume
    year-to-date.

Govt Sets Up Justice
R V Easwar Panel to Simplify Income Tax Laws

  • The government today set up a high-level committee under a
    former Delhi High Court judge to suggest simplification of Income Tax laws, a
    report that could form basis for tinkering with the controversial retrospective
    applicability of tax.
  • The 10-member panel, headed by former Delhi High Court
    Justice R V Easwar, has been asked to submit a preliminary report by January
    31, just in time for incorporating suggestions that need legislative approval
    in the Budget for 2016-17.
  • The committee has been asked “to study and identify the
    provisions/phrases in the (Income Tax) Act which are leading to litigation due
    to different interpretations.”
  • Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the main idea behind
    setting up the panel is to make the I-T Act simpler.

India is World’s
largest remittance recipient: World Bank

  • World Bank on 22 October 2015 announced that India is the
    World’s largest remittance recipient. It was revealed in the Migration and
    Development Brief that conveyed recent trends in remittance flows and migration
    across the world.
  • As per the report, remittances to India are projected to
    increase by 2.5 percent in 2015, well above the 0.6 percent increase in 2014.
  • Stronger remittance growth in India reflects improving
    economic prospects in the United States and continued fiscally-supported
    economic resilience in the GCC countries that contribute 35 percent of
    remittances each.
  • However, on the flip side, Japan-India is one of the three
    high remittance cost corridors that have well above 10 percent. The situation
    is due to low volumes, lack of competition in the remittance markets in some
    sending countries, and policy rigidities that limit competition in some market
    segments.

FIIs/RFPIs can now
invest up to 74 percent in DEN Networks Limited: RBI

  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 26 October 2015 notified that
    the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)/Registered Foreign Portfolios
    Investors (RFPIs) can now invest up to 74 percent of the paid up capital of DEN
    Networks Limited under the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS).
  • DEN Networks Limited has passed resolutions at its Board of
    Directors’ level and a special resolution by the shareholders, agreeing for
    enhancing the limit for the purchase of its equity shares and convertible
    debentures by FIIs/RFPIs.
  • The purchases could be made through primary market and stock
    exchanges. The purchases would be subject to Regulation 5(2) of FEMA
    Notification and other terms and conditions stipulated by the Reserve Bank.
  • The Reserve Bank notified this under Foreign Exchange
    Management Act (FEMA), 1999.

Financial powers of
Health Institutions enhanced to 5 lakh rupees per patient under Rashtriya
Arogya
Nidhi
  • Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 26 October
    2015 enhanced delegated financial powers of designated Central Government
    Hospitals and institutes under the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme.
  • After the enhancement, only cases for financial assistance
    beyond 5 lakh rupees would now be required to be referred to the Ministry from
    the earlier upper limit of 2 lakh rupees per patient.
  • The move is aimed at curtailing procedural delays for
    treatment, which would bring relief to thousands of patients annually.

About Rashtriya
Arogya Nidhi
  • It was set up in 1997 to provide financial assistance to
    patients, living below poverty line (BPL).
  • Patients suffering from major life threatening diseases
    related to heart, liver, kidney and cancer cases, etc., are covered under the
    scheme.
  • Patients receive medical treatment only at any of the
    designated super specialty Government hospitals / institutes or other
    Government hospitals.
  • Revolving Funds have been set up in 12 Central Government
    hospitals/institutes and amount up to 50 lakh rupees is placed at their
    disposal for providing financial assistance.

Department of Heavy Industries drafted National Policy on
Capital Goods
  • The Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) on 26 October 2015
    came out with draft national policy on capital goods. This is the first time
    that such a policy is being framed after active consultation with industry
    associations.
  • The Policy on Capital Goods is focused on the most critical
    sector for achieving the vision of Make in India and also is envisages
    unlocking the potential for this promising sector and establish India as a
    global manufacturing hub.

Vision
  • To increase the share of capital goods contribution from
    present 12% to 20% of total manufacturing activity by 2025

Mission
  • To raise exports to a significant level of at least 40% of
    total production and thus gain 2.5% share in global exports of capital goods

Objectives
  • Increase total production to achieve total production in
    excess of 5 lakh crore rupees by 2025 from the current 2.2 lakh crore rupees
  • To increase domestic employment from the current 15 lakhs to
    at least 50 lakhs by 2025 thus providing additional employment to over 35 lakhs
    people

India
Indian Immunologicals
Ltd opened 250 crore rupees multi-purpose facility near Hyderabad
  • Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL) on 26 October 2015 announced
    that it operationalised a new multi-purpose facility to produce vaccines
    against infectious diseases of humans and animal health formulations.
  • The facility that is located at the Phase III of the Genome
    Valley on the outskirts of Hyderabad is India’s largest for producing animal
    health formulations.

Features of the
production facility
  • It was developed with an estimated cost of 250 crore rupees.
    facility
  • It is spread across 47 acres and the second manufacturing
    unit of IIL in Hyderabad.
  • The first phase of human vaccine facility can produce 8
    million doses of human rabies vaccine.

Dinesh, Yekona open
cast mine projects of Western Coalfields inaugurated in Nagpur
  • Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New
    Renewable Piyush Goyal on 26 October 2015 inaugurated Dinesh and Yekona open
    cast mine projects.
  • They are run by the Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) and
    located in Umred area of Nagpur district in Maharashtra.
  • The two projects have the combined production capacity of
    6.75 million tonnes that will be utilized to generate 1400 MW of power by
    MAHAGENCO and others.
  • These projects would also provide job opportunities for the
    1773 land oustees and indirect employment opportunities for hundreds of more
    from the local populace.

SC appointed Upamanyu
Hazarika Commission submitted report on illegal migrants from Bangladesh
  • A one-man Commission headed by Upamanyu Hazarika on 5
    October 2015 submitted its report on illegal migrants from Bangladesh into
    Assam.
  • The fact-finding commission was appointed by the Supreme
    Court in May 2015 while hearing the public interest litigation (PIL)-Assam
    Sanmilita Mahasangha Vs Union of India & Gov. of Assam.
  • The commission was appointed by the Supreme Court (SC) to
    find out and report on the ground situation along the India-Bangladesh border
    running through Assam.

Tata Trusts, Harvard
University announce collaboration
  • Tata Trusts and Harvard University South Asia Institute
    (SAI) today announced collaboration on knowledge creation and capacity building
    for social and economic empowerment in India.
  • A key component of the project is the opportunity for
    budding social entrepreneurs and institutions in India to apply for social
    innovation grants totalling Rs. 50 lakh that will spur interventions and scale
    up existing initiatives resulting in greater impact in select geographies.
  • The 18-month research project titled ‘Livelihood Creation in
    India through Social Entrepreneurship and Skill Development’ is the first step
    in this direction, a statement from Tata Trusts said.

Appointments
Guatemala elected
comedian Jimmy Morales as the President
  • Jimmy Morales, a former TV comedian, on 25 October 2015
    swept to power in Guatemala’s presidential election. He will take the office on
    14 January 2016.
  • In the presidential election, Morales won more than 67
    percent of votes. On the other hand, the ex-first lady Sandra Torres received
    less than 33 percent of votes.
  • In 2015, Morales was nominated as the presidential candidate
    of National Convergence Front (FCN/Nation). Initially, he was considered an
    outsider. However, he finished first in the first round of the election and
    qualified for the runoff.
  • Morales, who identified himself as a nationalist, supported
    death penalty and opposed abortion, came out with a slogan of Neither corrupt
    nor a thief that attracted the masses.

Citi India appoints
Samiran Chakraborty as chief economist
  • Citi India has appointed Samiran Chakraborty as its Chief
    Economist for India.
  • Before joining Citi, Samiran Chakraborty was Managing
    Director and Head of Macro Research for South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank.
  • He has also held prior employments with ICICI Bank as Chief
    Economist and Delhi School of Economics as faculty for mathematical Economics
    and open-economy macroeconomics.

BlackBerry appoints
Narendra Nayak as India MD

  • BlackBerry on Tuesday said it has appointed Narendra Nayak
    as the Managing Director of its India operations to steer the Canadian handset
    maker’s restructuring efforts. He replaces Sunil Lalvani, who had quit the
    organisation in June.
  • Based in New Delhi, Mr. Nayak will be responsible for
    driving BlackBerry’s software and services business through all channels in
    India — direct enterprise customers, network operators, distribution partners,
    the company said in a statement.
  • Mr. Nayak will also be responsible for BlackBerry’s growing
    ecosystem of indirect channels in India that includes Value-Added Reseller
    (VAR), systems integrator and reseller partners, it added.
  • Mr. Nayak joins BlackBerry from venture-funded software
    company Linguanext Technologies, where he was responsible for growing the
    business in India and across South East Asia, Middle East and Africa.

Sajjan Singh Yadav
Appointed Delhi’s VAT Commissioner

  • Amid the confrontation between the AAP government and the
    Centre over the appointment of the VAT commissioner, Lt Governor Najeeb Jung
    has appointed senior IAS officer Sajjan Singh Yadav to the post.
  • The name of Yadav, a 1995 batch IAS officer, who was also
    the CEO of Delhi Jal Board (DJB), was proposed by Chief Minister Arvind
    Kejriwal. IAS officer Keshav Chandra will replace Yadav as the new DJB CEO.
  • Chandra will also have additional charge of Secretary
    (Toursim).
  • The city government had locked horns with the Centre after
    Jung issued a relieving order to former VAT chief Vijay Kumar and asked him to
    join his new assignment in Lakshadweep.
  • The LG’s move had prompted the AAP dispensation to accuse
    the central government of transferring Kumar under “pressure of
    lobbyists” against whom Kumar had taken action for tax evasion.

Awards
& Honors –
Angry Indian
Goddesses bagged People’s Choice Award at Rome Film Festival
  • Director Pan Nalin’s film, Angry Indian Goddesses, on 25
    October 2015 was awarded with BNL People’s Choice Award at the 10th Rome Film
    Festival held in Rome, Italy.
  • The award was presented by the BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas. The
    winner was selected through an online voting system by the audience.
  • The movie also received an eight-minute-long standing
    ovation at the festival.
  • Earlier, the movie was also screened in the Special
    Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, where it
    came second to Lenny Abrahamson’s Room in the voting for the People’s Choice
    Award.
  • Angry Indian Goddesses is a 2015 Hindi drama film, which
    stars Sandhya Mridul, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Sarah-Jane Dias, Anushka
    Manchanda, Amrit Maghera, Rajshri Deshpande and Pavleen Gujral playing lead
    roles with Adil Hussain.

Indian Group Chintan
Group Bags UN Climate Solutions Awards
  • An Indian environment group was awarded this year’s UN
    Climate Solutions Awards for their work with waste pickers and e-waste to
    tackle climate change.
  • The prestigious award was bagged by Delhi-based Chintan
    group for its project ‘E-waste: From Toxic to Green’ which revolves around
    preventing greenhouse gas emissions due to mass burning of electronic waste in
    Delhi NCR while promoting green livelihoods for urban waste-pickers.
  • The group’s model to fight climate change was chosen as the
    best among 16 other initiatives presented from across the globe.
  • Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21),
    the Momentum for Change spearheaded by the UNFCCC Secretariat recognizes
    innovative and transformative solutions that address both climate change and
    wider economic, social and environmental challenges.

Shashi Kapoor
Honoured With Retrospective at 2015

  • Veteran actor Shashi Kapoor is being honoured with a
    retrospective at this year’s International Film Festival of India (IFFI), where
    some of his biggest titles like Deewar, Junoon, In Custody, Shakespearwallah
    and Householder will be screened for cinema lovers.
  • The IFFI retrospective follows this year’s Dadasaheb Phalke
    award for the actor.
  • His son Kunal, although, happy with the recognition that is
    being accorded to his father, believes the accolades came a little late for the
    actor.
  • The ‘Retrospective Section’ will open with Benegal’s Junoon
    next month in Goa during the 46th edition of IFFI.

Sports
Deepika Kumari won
silver medal in Archery World Cup Final
  • Indian archer Deepika Kumari on 25 October 2015 bagged the
    silver medal in the Archery World Cup Final held in Mexico City.
  • Kumari went down 2-6 in finale to South Korea’s Chou Misun.
  • Currently ranked World No. 5, Kumari clinched a gold medal
    in the 2010 Commonwealth games in the women’s individual recurve event. She
    also won a gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth games in the women’s team
    recurve event along with Dola Banerjee and Bombayala Devi. In May 2012, she won
    her first World Cup individual stage recurve gold medal at Antalya, Turkey.
  • In 2012, the Ranchi-born archer was honoured by the
    President of India with the prestigious Arjuna Award, India’s second highest
    sporting award. She was also named as the FICCI Sportsperson of the Year Award
    in February 2014.

World
China launched third
mapping satellite of Tianhui-1 series
  • China on 26 October 2015 successfully launched the
    Tianhui-1C mapping satellite into its designated orbit from Jiuquan satellite
    launch centre in the north-western province of Gansu.
  • A Long March-2D carrier rocket carried the Tianhui-1C
    mapping satellite blasts off from the launch pad.
  • The satellite will offer a boost to country’s ability to
    carry out scientific experiments, land resource surveys, mapping, crop yield
    estimation and disaster relief.
  • The Tianhui-1C, which is the third satellite in the
    Tianhui-1 series, was designed by a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science
    and Technology Corp (CASTC).

Report
World Bank released a
report on Arab Spring Revolution
  • World Bank on 21 October 2015 released a report entitled
    Inequality, Uprisings, and Conflict in the Arab World as part of the Middle
    East and North Africa Region (MENA) Economic Monitor series.
  • The report explains widespread inequality in the society
    despite overall growth and development of the nations as a whole as the
    possible answer to Arab inequality puzzle-what drove people to the streets in
    the MENA despite the region making steady progress?

Findings of the
Report
  • Judging by economic data alone, the revolutions of the 2011
    Arab Spring should have never happened.
  • There are ample evidences showing progress toward
    eliminating extreme poverty, boosting shared prosperity, increasing school
    enrollment, etc. in the decades prior to the Arab Spring.

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This post was last modified on July 20, 2019 10:16 am