Current Affairs Update – 28th October, 2015

• A NITI Aayog panel on Innovation headed by Prof Tarun Khanna
  on 27 October 2015 submitted its report recommending that the private sector
  should help fund research and development, including in research labs at
  universities and startups.

• It recommended improved tax benefits for investments
  equivalent to a percentage of corporate profits in research labs in
  universities and startups.
• It recommended that all contracts with foreign defence
  companies above 5 billion US dollars should include a clause for five percent
  of contract value to be directed to establish research-centric universities
  with strong emphasis on its core product areas.
• It suggested a Make in Universities program which would
  involve setting up 500 tinkering labs, where aspiring entrepreneurs can
  experiment to create products that address local problems, with one 3D printer
  per institute.
• For these labs, the panel recommends utilisation of half of
  the 1000 crore rupees fund that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had set aside for
  the Self Employed and Talent Utilization (SETU) scheme.

• The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 27 October 2015
  launched the e-Sahyog pilot project of the Income-Tax Department to facilitate
  taxpayers by reducing their need to physically appear before tax authorities.
• The e-Sahyog project is aimed at reducing compliance cost,
  especially for small taxpayers.

• The objective of e-Sahyog is to provide an online mechanism
  to resolve mismatches in Income-tax returns of those assesses whose returns
  have been selected for scrutiny, without visiting the Income Tax Office.
• The Income-Tax Department will provide an end to end
  e-service using SMS, e-mails to inform the tax assesses of the mismatch.
• The taxpayers will simply need to visit the e-filing portal
  and log in with their user-ID and password to view mismatch related information
  and submit online response on the issue.
• The responses submitted online by the taxpayers will be
  processed and if the response and other information are found satisfactory as
  per automated closure rules, the issue will be treated as closed.
• The taxpayers can check the updated status by logging in to
  the e-filing portal.

• World Bank on 27 October 2015 announced that India ranked
  130 out of the 189 countries surveyed in terms of ease of doing business for
  domestic firms. It was revealed in the report entitled Doing Business 2016:
  Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency.
• As per the report, India could improve its ranking by 12
  places from the 142nd position of the 2015 report by undertaking significant
  improvements in the regulatory framework for starting new businesses.
• The findings of the report were based on collection of data
  in Mumbai and Delhi between June 2014 and May 2015.
• Starting a business: India was placed at the 155th position
  overall in this segment. However, it is still one of the areas of greatest
  improvement for India, as the number of days to start a business was cut down
  to 29 days in 2015 from much longer 127 days in 2014.
• Dealing with construction permits: India showed very poor
  performance in this segment as it was placed at the 183rd position overall.
• Getting electricity: India ranked overall 70 among the
  surveyed countries as now companies can get connected to the grid and get on
  with their business in 14 days sooner than before in Delhi and Mumbai.
• Registering property: India ranked 138. To improve
  performance in this segment, the report suggested for undertaking digitization
  of land records across the country, taking Karnataka as an example, to make
  records more easily accessible and more open for collaboration with external
  stakeholders.

• Exim Bank announced on 27 October 2015 that it will set up a
  development firm, the Kukuza Project Development Company (KPDC), in Africa to
  facilitate Indian participation in infrastructure projects across the
  continent.
• IL&FS Group, African Development Bank and State Bank of
  India are also the shareholders in KPDC.
• KPDC aims to strengthen every partner, who will complement
  each other in building Indian project exports while simultaneously aiding the
  furtherance of economic and political ties between India and Africa.
• The company is expected to provide specialist project
  development expertise to take the infrastructure project from the concept stage
  to the commissioning stage in the African continent.

• Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) declared on 27 October
  2015 that it signed the revised listing agreement with the Bombay Stock
  Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) as mandated under the newly
  introduced Listing Regulation notified by Securities and Exchange Board of
  India (SEBI).
• With this, RIL became the first listed company to conform to
  SEBI norms.
• Earlier, the Listing Agreement was a bilateral agreement
  between the stock exchange and the company, and SEBI did not have regulations
  on it. Therefore, each company’s agreement with stock exchange could be at
  variance and could lack the full force of SEBI’s rigour.
• On 2 September 2015, SEBI notified the new Listing
  Regulations, which are effective from 1 December 2015.

• Indian Navy and Sri Lankan Navy on 27 October 2015 began the
  4th edition of Sri Lanka-India Exercise (SLINEX) at Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. The
  exercise will go on till 1 November 15. SLINEX 15 is expected to enhance the
  capability of two navies to work together and contribute towards maritime
  security.
• The exercise will commence with a Harbour Phase, during
  which, the participants will engage in professional, cultural and social
  interactions.
• The Harbour Phase will be followed by the Sea Phase, which
  will include complex operations including anti-piracy exercises, gun firings,
  cross-deck helicopter operations and anti-surface exercises.

• Bengaluru-based Saankhya Labs Pvt Ltd. in the third week of
  October 2015 announced that it developed a chip, named as Pruthvi, to augment
  capacities of White-Fi devices.
• The Pruthvi-based White-Fi devices will be used by Microsoft
  to extend the reach of internet services in remote areas of the country.

• It uses the unused spectrum in frequencies utilised for
  broadcasting of television signals and use it for the internet. In technology
  parlance, these unused spectrum spaces are called White Space and thus it is
  also called TV White Space technology.       

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the 10th most admired
  personality globally, as per a new survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF)
  that has ranked late South African President Nelson Mandela on the top.
• Mahatma Gandhi is ranked fourth most admired leader,
  according to a survey of more than 1,000 millennials. The respondents were
  spread across 285 cities in 125 countries.
• After Mandela, the WEF’s Global Shapers Annual Survey 2015
  found that Pope Francis is the second most admired leader. Others in the list
  are Tesla Motors’ CEO Elon Musk (3rd rank), Microsoft Founder Bill Gates (5),
  U.S. President Barack Obama (6th), Virgin Group Founder Richard Barson (7),
  Apple Founder Steve Jobs (8), Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus (9) and U.S.
  investor Warren Buffett (11).
• Out of the 1,084 respondents, 3 per cent voted for Mr. Modi
  as well as for Mr. Yunus while 20.1 per cent favoured Mandela. As many as 12.4
  per cent of the respondents voted for Gandhiji.

• Bidhya Devi Bhandari was on 28 October 2015 elected as the
  President of Nepal. She is the first women president of Nepal.
• She received 327 votes against her opponent’s 214 in the
  Nepal’s Parliament.
• Election to the post of president became necessary as the
  first democratically-framed constitution was adopted on 20 September 2015 and
  consequently, the then incumbent president Ram Baran Yadav had to resign.

• Senior IAS officer Aruna Sundarajan was on Wednesday
  appointed as Secretary in Ministry of Steel as part of a top-level bureaucratic
  reshuffle effected by the government.
• Ms. Sundarajan, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, is
  presently Administrator, Universal Service Obligation Fund under Department of
  Telecommunications. She has been appointed in place of Rakesh Singh, who
  superannuated on September 30, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training
  said.
• She is among five new Secretaries appointed by the
  government.
• Vijay Shankar Pandey will be new Secretary in Department of
  Chemicals and Fertilisers. Mr. Pandey, a 1979 batch IAS officer, is presently
  posted in his cadre — Uttar Pradesh.

• The Russian Federal Space Agency, commonly called as
  Roscosmos, on 27 October 2015 announced that it plans to launch a manned flight
  to the moon and the lunar landing is planned for 2029.
• It also announced that the Russian scientists are working on
  creating a new spacecraft made of composites specifically designed for moon
  missions.
• Vladimir Solntsev, the head of Roscosmos, made the
  announcement during a space technology conference in Moscow.
• As per the announcement, the spaceship is expected to make
  its first test flight in 2021. It will dock with the International Space
  Station in 2023, and the spaceship will carry out its first unmanned mission to
  the moon in 2025.

• Jammu and Kashmir Minister for Youth Services and Sports
  Molvi Imran Raza Ansari on 27 October 2015 announced that Kashmir Valley will
  host South Asian Rugby 7’S Championship in 2016.
• The decision was made during the 131st Standing Committee
  meeting of J-K State Sports Council, which was chaired by Ansari. As per the
  decision, the championship will be held at Bakhshi Stadium from 18 June to 20
  June 2016.
• The Championship will be participated by eight teams
  consisting of 180 participants from various countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan,
  Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and India.

• World Bank on 29 October 2014 released the Doing Business
  2015: Going Beyond Efficiency Report. The report is 12th in a series of annual
  reports published by World Bank measuring the regulations that enhance business
  activity and those that constrain it.
• In the report, India with a score of 53.97 points has been
  ranked 142 among the 189 countries. In 2014 report, India with a score of 52.78
  was ranked 140.
• Singapore with 88.27 points occupies the top position in the
  ease of doing business followed by New Zealand, Hong Kong, Denmark and South
  Korea respectively. The USA and UK has been ranked seventh and eighth
  respectively.
• In the Doing Business, the lowest five economies are Chad
  (185), South Sudan (186), Central African Republic (187), Libya (188) and
  Eritrea (189).

• One of Britain’s most well-known Indian-origin peers, Lord
  Gulam Noon on 27 October 2015 passed away in London due to liver cancer. He was
  79.
• Known as the Curry King, Noon founded the Noon Products
  business, which is credited with the popularity of chicken tikka masala in
  Britain.
• Lord Gulam Noon was born on 24 January 1936 in Mumbai. He
  travelled to Britain in 1964 and emigrated there permanently in 1972.  He established Noon Products in Britain in
  September 1987 and manufactured chilled and frozen Indian and Thai ready meals,
  mainly for UK supermarkets.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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