Current Affairs Update – 3 Jan, 2015

Finance/Business/Economy News
1. ICICI Bank launched
Digital Village Project in Akodara Village of Gujarat
  • 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.

Features of Project
  • 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.

2. Gyan Sangam: PM
promises greater state bank autonomy

  • 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.

3. Intel invests
$24.8 million to speed up launch of Google Glass rival

  • 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”.

News Related to India and Indian Polity
4. Union Government
accepted Bezbaruah panel report on safety of North East people

  • 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.

Main recommendations
of the committee
  • 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

Immediate measures:
  • 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.

The new law should include among
others
  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

5. Kiran Bhai
Vadodaria elected as INS president

  • 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.

International News
6. US slaps sanctions
on North Korea in response to Sony cyber attack

  • 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.

7. Jaffna-Kankasanthurai
rail track restored by IRCON in North Sri Lanka inaugurated
  • 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.

Sports News
8. Sri Lanka batsman
Kumar Sangakkara became fastest to score 12000 Test runs
  • 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.

Players in 12000 runs
Club include
  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.

9. Union Govt rejects
Saina Nehwal’s Padma Award appeal

  • 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.

This post was last modified on July 20, 2019 12:11 pm