Current Affairs Update – 3 Jan, 2015

• The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India
  (ICICI) Bank on 2 January 2015 launched Digital Village Project in Akodara
  Village of Gujarat.
• The project was launched in the presence of Prime
  Minister Narendra Modi and ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochar.
• The project aimed to provide services ranging from
  cashless banking to digitised school teaching. The digital village has three
  themes i.e. cashless, comprehensive and connected.
• The project embarked the 60 year celebration of the ICICI
  group’s existence since the erstwhile ICICI Ltd was set up in 1955.

• Providing cash-less banking services to every villager.
• Banking was digitized in all offerings of bank ranging
  from opening an account to sale of goods to purchase of products including milk
  from the vendor or kirana stores.
• At the same time, the school records were digitized
  alongwith the Gujarat syllabus and even teaching methods and tools.
• The project aimed to ensure that all villagers must have
  access to all the required data and information in a digital format.
• The villagers will get SMS in Gujarati for their
  transactions and other digital services.
• Besides ATMs and other digital banking services, the bank
  has set up e-health, e-milk producer group, Wi-Fi connectivity and schools with
  digital black boards in the village, along with a host of other digital
  facilities.
• Earlier, the village named Akodara in Sabarkantha
  district of Gujarat gained fame when the then CM of Gujarat Narendra Modi
  started Gujarat’s first animal hostel in 2011.
• The animal hostel is a concept conceived by Modi. Animal
  Hostel is a place where the cattle of the village are kept and maintained
  together and have all necessary infrastructure facilities to take care of them.

• Addressing a gathering of chiefs of India’s public sector
  banks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed his government would stay away from
  “political interference” that has long been seen as its Achilles Heel but
  called upon them to take steps to strengthen their operations, achieve scale,
  boost financial literacy and inclusion and help in augmenting economic growth
  in the country.
• The PM was speaking at the culmination of Gyan Sangam, a
  first-of-its-kind, two-day summit held in Pune that saw senior banking executives
  and top officials from the government and the Reserve Bank of India gather to
  discuss ways to strength the public banking sector.
• Apart from the prime minister, finance ministers Arun
  Jaitley and Jayant Sinha (MoS), RBI chief Raghuram Rajan and chief economic
  advisor Arvind Subramanian too attended the event.
• Over two days, the event saw banking officials conduct
  various seminars and group discussions on key issues such as ensuring greater
  autonomy for banks, improving risk management practices, their recapitalization
  needs, improve asset quality and curb black money among others.

• Vuzix Corporation said that Intel Corp invested $24.8
  million in the company to speed up the launch of internet-connected eyewear.
• Intel bought preferred stock that is convertible into
  common shares equivalent to 30% of Vuzix, Vuzix said in a press release.
• Rochester, New York-based Vuzix develops computerized,
  internet-connected glasses and other video eyewear aimed at consumers,
  businesses and entertainment.
• Intel officials were not immediately available for
  comment.
• Intel, which was slow to launch chips for smartphones and
  tablets, is striving to be at the forefront of future trends in mobile
  computing and expand into new markets, including smartwatches and other
  internet-connected “wearables”.

• Union Government on 2 January 2014 accepted the
  recommendations of the Bezbaruah committee. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh
  said that the recommendations will be implemented in next 6 months.
• The Bezbaruah committee of five members was set up under
  chairmanship of M P Bezbaruah in February 2014 to look into the concerns of the
  people of the North East living in other parts of the country.
• The committee was constituted after the killing of
  Arunachal Pradesh student Nido Tania in a Delhi market. The report was
  submitted to the Home Ministry in July 2014.

• It has recommended immediate, short term and long term
  measures to be implemented in certain time periods

1. Immediate – to be implemented within 6 months to 1 year
2. Short Term – to be implemented within a period of 1 to
   1.5 years
3. Long Term – to be implemented within a period of 1.5
   years to 3 years

• The committee has recommended amendment of Section 153 of
  the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as the second alternative
• Insertion of a new law in Indian Penal Code to deal with
  the rising against people of this region. 

1. Any offence against them should be made cognizable and
   non-bailable.
2. It also says that the investigation of the FIR should
   be completed in 60 days
3. A Special Prosecutor should be appointed to handle all
   such cases atrocities 
4. The trail should be completed within 90 days

• Kiran Bhai Vadodaria on 2 January 2015 was elected as
  President of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) for 2014-15. He is the Chairman
  and Managing Director of Gujarati newspaper Sambhaav Metro.
• He succeeded Ravindra Kumar of The Statesman. The
  appointment was announced at the 75th annual general meeting of the organization
  in New Delhi.
• PV Chandran of Grihalakshmi was elected Deputy President
  of the INS while Somesh Sharma of Rastradoot was made Vice President.
• Mohit Jain of Economic Times and V Shankaran were
  appointed as Treasurer and Secretary General of INS.
• Among the 41-member Executive Committee, the notable
  members include Mahendra Mohan Gupta (Dainik Jagran), Sanjay Gupta (Dainik
  Jagran), Shailesh Gupta (Mid-Day), Vijay Kumar Chopra (Punjab Kesri), Viveck
  Goenka (The Indian Express, Mumbai), R Lakshmipathy (Dinamalar) and Jayant Mammen
  Mathew (Malayala Manorama).
• The society was founded in 1939. Its headquarter is
  located in New Delhi.
• The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) acts as the central
  organization of the Press of India. It is an independent body authenticating
  circulation figures of newspapers and periodicals in India. It is an
  organization which plays a major role in protecting and promoting the freedom
  of press in India.

• This is in “response” to North Korea’s
  “ongoing provocative, destabilising and repressive actions and policies,
  particularly its destructive and coercive cyber-attack” on Sony Pictures
  Entertainment, the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement.
• In an executive order, Obama authorised the Secretary of
  the Treasury to impose sanctions on individuals and entities associated with
  North Korea.
• The Treasury Department immediately slapped sanctions on
  three entities and 10 North Korean individuals.
• The three organisations are Reconnaissance General Bureau
  (RGB), Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID) and Korea Tangun
  Trading Corporation.
• The US blames North Korea for a cyber attack on Sony
  Pictures that saw the release of a trove of embarrassing emails, scripts and
  other internal communications, including information about salaries and
  employee health records. However, North Korea has denied its involvement in the
  hack.
• The new sanctions escalates financial pressure on North
  Korea, including its agencies, instrumentalities, and controlled entities, by
  authorising targeted sanctions that would deny designated persons access to the
  US financial system and prohibit US persons from engaging in transactions or
  dealings with it.

• 18 kilometer long Jaffna-Kankasanthurai rail track in
  North Sri Lanka was inaugurated on 2 January 2015 by Sri Lanka’s Transport
  Minister Kumara Welgama. To mark the inauguration, famous Yal Devi Express was
  flagged off.
• The restoration work of the commercial rail service
  covering a distance of 18 kilometers has been completed by Indian Railway’s
  construction company (IRCON).
• The track corridor has two crossing stations at Kondavil
  and Chunnakam and five halt stations at Kokuvil, Inuvil, Mallakam, Tellipalai
  and Mavittapuram.
• The rail track that connects Colombo and Kankesanthurai
  passes through the high security zone which was freed from the Tamil Tigers in 2009.

• Kumar Sangakkara, former Sri Lankan cricket captain, on 3
  January 2014 became the fastest cricketer to reach 12000 Test runs. The
  left-handed batsman reached the milestone in his 224th innings played during
  the Sri Lanka’s second Test match against New Zealand played in Wellington.

1. Sachin Tendulkar: 15291 Runs at an average of 53.78 in
   247 innings
2. Ricky Ponting: 13378 Runs at an average of 51.85 in 247
   innings
3. Jacques Kallis: 13289 Runs at an average of 55.37
4. Rahul Dravid: 13288 Runs at an average of 52.31
5. Kumar Sangakkara: 12028 Runs (playing) at an average of
   58.00

• Sangakkara who launched his Test career in Cricket has
  made an impressive average of over 58.00, which include 37 centuries in 130
  tests. His highest score was 319 against Bangladesh.
• Earlier on 3 December 2014, Sangakkara became the fourth
  player to score 13000 runs in ODI cricket. Other three players to score 13000
  runs in ODIs are Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and Sanath Jayasuriya.

• Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal has been left
  disappointed after the Sports Ministry decided to reject her application for
  the prestigious Padma Bhushan award this year, citing norms.
• Badminton Association of India (BAI) had recommended
  Saina’s name for the award to the Sports Ministry in August last year but the
  ministry picked two-time Olympic medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar as it felt he was
  a more deserving candidate.
• The 24-year-old claimed that her application was rejected
  last year also on similar grounds but this year, the ministry decided to
  recommend Sushil’s name even though he has not completed the five—year norm
  after being bestowed with the Padma Shri in 2011.