Current Affairs Update – 31st May, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit. Here are the important Current Affairs of 31st May, 2016. These are important for the upcoming UIIC AO 2016, SBI Clerk & SBI PO Mains 2016 Exams.

Current Affairs at a Glance – 31st May, 2016
  1. Reserve Bank has allowed Axis Bank
    to raise foreign shareholding to up to 62%, from the earlier limit of
    49%.
  2. E-commerce major Flipkart
    on Tuesday introduced “No Cost EMI” option to make online
    shopping affordable for high-end purchases through an attractive financing
    option of equated monthly installments (EMI) where customers will not bear
    additional cost.
  3. For the first time in the country,
    a division of the Indian Railways has introduced an ‘Auto Vision Policy’. The Southern Railway, which caters to
    the ‘Detroit of India’, the Chennai automobile cluster, has introduced the
    policy and also signed memorandums of understanding with two major ports to
    bring down cost to match road transportation.
  4. Surajit Kar Purkayastha on 30 May 2016 was appointed the Director General of
    West Bengal Police
    .
  5. Expenditure secretary Ashok Lavasa appointed as the new finance secretary.
  6. Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba took charge as the new Chief of the Naval Staff
    on Tuesday, as Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral R.K. Dhowan superannuated from
    service.
  7. Ministry of Railways and PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh
    on 30 May 2016 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set up Kalpana Chawla
    Chair on Geospatial Technology for Indian Railways at the University
    .
  8. National football team goalkeeper Gurpreet
    Singh Sandhu
    on 29 May 2016 became
    the first Indian to play top-tier European football league match
    . He
    turned out for Norwegian side Stabaek FC in Norwegian Premier League
    (Tippeligaen) .
  9. England cricket captain Alastair Cook on 30 May 2016 became youngest Cricketer to score 10000 test runs. The previous
    record was held by Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar who reached the landmark
    score against Pakistan at Eden Gardens in 2005.
  10. Real Madrid on 29 May 2016 won the 2015-16 UEFA Champions League title. In the titled clash,
    Real Madrid defeated their city rivals Atletico Madrid via a penalty shoot-out
    following a 1-1 draw.
  11. The World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) 2016 was observed globally on 31 May 2016.
  12. Veteran TV and film actor Suresh Chatwal passed away on 29 May 2016 following a brief
    illness in Mumbai.

Finance/Banking/Industry –
RBI lets Axis Bank raise foreign shareholding to up to 62% from 49%
Axis Bank
  • Reserve Bank has allowed Axis
    Bank to raise foreign shareholding to up to 62%, from the earlier limit of 49%.
  • “Foreign institutional
    investors (FIIs)/registered foreign portfolios investors (RFPIs) can now invest
    from the existing 49% up to 62%of the paid-up capital of Axis Bank under the
    Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS)”, RBI said in a notification.
  • RBI said total foreign investment
    from all sources in the bank shall not exceed 62% of the paid-up capital.
  • The decision was taken after
    passage of resolutions at the level of the board of directors and through a
    special resolution by the shareholders, agreeing to enhancing the limit for
    purchase of its shares and convertible debentures by FIIs/RFPIs.
  • One of the leading private
    lenders, Axis Bank started operations in 1994 and has been promoted by
    financial institutions such as UTI, LIC, GIC and its subsidiaries.

Flipkart introduces online ‘No Cost EMI’ option
Flipkart office building
  • E-commerce major Flipkart on
    Tuesday introduced “No Cost EMI” option to make online shopping
    affordable for high-end purchases through an attractive financing option of
    equated monthly installments (EMI) where customers will not bear additional
    cost.
  • Flipkart’s “No Cost
    EMI” entails zero processing fee, zero down payment and zero interest for
    customers.
  • With the introduction of “No
    Cost EMI” option, Flipkart aims to enable more people to get access to
    products they aspire for.
  • The company has partnered with
    Bajaj Finserv and key brands to create this offering which is available for
    select products and sellers for now. The offering comes with loan tenures
    starting three months up to 12 months.

Southern Railway introduces countries first ‘Auto Vision Policy’
Representation Image of Southern Railway
  • For the first time in the
    country, a division of the Indian Railways has introduced an ‘Auto Vision
    Policy’. The Southern Railway, which caters to the ‘Detroit of India’, the
    Chennai automobile cluster, has introduced the policy and also signed
    memorandums of understanding with two major ports to bring down cost to match
    road transportation.
  • The policy was released at a
    seminar ‘Freight on Southern Railway’ by Vashishta Johri, general manager,
    Southern Railway.
  • The Auto-Vision statement of the
    Southern Railway will extensively leverage on all five levers of growth,
    including competitive pricing, operational effectiveness, capital expenditure,
    rationalisation of management practices and enhancing teamwork within employees
    and pro active outreach towards customers.
  • The vision seeks to generate
    revenues in the auto segment in excess of Rs 500 crore in a 10 year time frame
    and at a compound annual growth rate of 30%.
  • The vision also talked about
    enhancing the railways’ share in the export and coastal ro-ro
    (Roll-on/roll-off) segment to 90%, accruing revenues of Rs 90 crore.
  • The division has set its sight on
    taking the rail share to 50% in the container based export market, accruing
    annual revenues of Rs 60 crore and running two parcel express trains per day of
    maintenance spares and supplementary goods and leveraging on the warehousing
    business to generate revenues in excess of Rs 150 crore.

Tata Motors signs MoU with Automotive Skills Development Council
The MoU signing event
  • In yet another instance of the
    growing industry and academia connect in the country, Tata Motors has signed a
    Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Automotive Skill Development Council
    (ASDC), a government of India-recognised skill council for a collaborative
    skill development program in the automotive sector.
  • This partnership will help Tata
    Motors’ skill development centres across its six plants in India and will
    comply as per competency levels of the NSQF (National Skills Qualification
    Framework).
  • Till date, the ASDC has
    contributed to the development this industry by creating 188 Qualification
    Packs (QPs) comprising of 938 National Occupational Standards (NOS) related to
    the automotive sector. Tata Motors’ partnership with ASDC will further enhance
    the expertise in conducting research, developing training course curriculums
    and certification of trainers and students, in consultation with experts from
    the automotive industry and from academia.

ONGC Videsh signs pact with SOCAR Trading for oil trading

  • ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the
    overseas arm of state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC),
    today announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SOCAR
    Trading SA, the trading arm of Azerbaijan’s government-owned energy firm SOCAR,
    for foraying into oil trading business.
  • The objective of the MoU, signed
    in Geneva on 27 May, is to explore possibilities of joint marketing of OVL’s
    crude oil portfolio by leveraging SOCAR Trading’s experience in oil trading,
    OVL said in a statement.
  • The Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG)
    field is located off the coast of Baku and is said to be the largest oilfield
    in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian basin. OVL had earlier bought a 2.7 per
    cent stake in the field from US-based Hess for $1 billion.

Appointments –
Surajit Kar Purkaystha
Surajit Kar Purkayastha appointed Director General of West Bengal
Police

  • Surajit Kar Purkayastha on 30 May
    2016 was appointed the Director General of West Bengal Police.
  • Purkayastha will replace G.M.P
    Reddy, who retires on 31 May 2016.
  • Director General of Police,
    Intelligence Branch, Raj Kanojia, three years senior to Purkayastha in the
    service, has been shifted to the post of Commandant General and DG Home Guards.

Ashok Lavasa takes over as finance secretary
Ashok Lavasa
  • Expenditure secretary Ashok
    Lavasa is the new finance secretary.
  • The appointments committee of the
    Cabinet has approved the appointment, an official statement said here on
    Tuesday.
  • The post of finance secretary has
    been lying vacant since Ratan Watal retired in April. He was also expenditure
    secretary.
  • The senior most of  the five secretaries in the finance ministry
    becomes finance secretary.
  • The other secretaries in the
    North Block are Shaktikanta Das (economic affairs), Hasmukh Adhia (revenue
    secretary), Anjuly Chhib Duggal (financial services), Neeraj kumar Gupta
    (disinvestment).

Admiral Sunil Lanba takes charge as Chief of Naval Staff
Sunil Lanba
  • Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba took
    charge as the new Chief of the Naval Staff on Tuesday, as Chief of the Naval
    Staff Admiral R.K. Dhowan superannuated from service.
  • Born on 17 July, 1957, Vice
    Admiral Sunil Lanba was commissioned on 1 January, 1978 into the Executive
    Branch of Indian Navy.
  • During his long and distinguished
    service spanning nearly 38 years, he has served in a variety of Command,
    operational and staff appointments.
  • Vice Admiral Lanba’s Sea Command
    includes commanding the minesweeper INS Kakinada, frigate INS Himgiri and
    Executive Officer of INS Viraat, the aircraft carrier.
  • Before taking over as Flag
    Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C), Western Naval Command, he was FOC-in-C,
    Southern Naval Command, Vice Chief of the Naval Staff and Commandant, National
    Defence College.

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India –
Railways. PEC sign MoU to set up Kalpana Chawla Chair on geospatial
technology
image of late Kalpana Chawla
  • Ministry of Railways and PEC
    University of Technology, Chandigarh on 30 May 2016 signed a Memorandum of
    Understanding (MoU) to set up Kalpana Chawla Chair on Geospatial Technology for
    Indian Railways at the University.
  • The MoU was signed in the
    backdrop of 2016-17 Railway Minister’s Budget announcement.
  • For the purpose, the Indian
    Railways would provide a corpus of 10 Crore rupees to PEC University of
    Technology, for setting and to meet the running expenses of this chair.

Objective
  • To encourage research activities
    in Geo-spatial Technology.
  • To strengthen Indian Railways
    especially Railway projects where use of remote sensing data, global
    positioning system (GPS) and Geographical information System (GIS) is
    predominant.

Key highlights
  • This academic chair is being
    instituted in fond memory of Late Kalpana Chawla an Indo–American Astronaut and
    Alumnus of PEC during the year 1978-82.
  • To honour her contributions in
    Aerospace Engineering Indian Railways decided to institute the academic chair
    in the area of Geo-spatial Technology in her alma mater.
  • Incidentally, Chawla was the
    first woman of Indian origin in space.

Sports –
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu becomes first Indian to play in Tippeligaen
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
  • National football team goalkeeper
    Gurpreet Singh Sandhu on 29 May 2016 became the first Indian to play top-tier
    European football league match. He turned out for Norwegian side Stabaek FC in
    Norwegian Premier League (Tippeligaen) .

About Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
  • Gurpreet Singh Sandhu signed for
    Stabaek FC in 2014.
  • He played his first Tippeligaen
    (Norwegian Premier League) for Stabaek FC on 29 may 2016 and helped the team to
    claim a dominant 5-0 triumph over IK Start.
  • He made his debut for the Indian
    national team against Turkmenistan in 2013.
  • He was trained in the Tata
    Football Academy and represented India at the Under-19 and Under-23 levels.

Alastair Cook becomes youngest cricketer to score 10000 Test runs
Alastair Cook
  • England cricket captain Alastair
    Cook on 30 May 2016 became youngest Cricketer to score 10000 test runs.
  • Cook, who is 31 years, 5 months,
    5 days old, achieved the fete on the fourth day of the second test against Sri
    Lanka at Chester-le-Street by flicking Nuwan Pradeep to the deep mid wicket
    fence for a boundary. It was his 128th Test.
  • Cook went on to make 47 not out
    as England won the Test by nine wickets.
  • The previous record was held by
    Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar who reached the landmark score against Pakistan
    at Eden Gardens in 2005. He achieved the same at the age of 31 years, 10 months
    and 20 days.

Real Madrid wins 2015-16 UEFA Champions League
  • Real Madrid on 29 May 2016 won
    the 2015-16 UEFA Champions League title. In the titled clash, Real Madrid defeated
    their city rivals Atletico Madrid via a penalty shoot-out following a 1-1 draw.
  • This was Madrid’s 11th European
    Champion title.
  • Cristiano Ronaldo scored the
    winning penalty in a 5-3 shootout victory against Atletico Madrid. Atletico
    earlier lost in their two previous finals appearances.

Days –
World No Tobacco Day 2016 observed across the world

  • The World No Tobacco Day (WNTD)
    2016 was observed globally on 31 May 2016.
  • To mark this occasion, the World
    Health Organisation (WHO) and the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention
    on Tobacco Control called countries to get ready for plain packaging of tobacco
    products.
  • Every year, on 31 May, the WHO
    and its partners in close collaboration with the governmental and non
    governmental agencies organize events, workshops, seminars to raise awareness
    about the ill effects of tobacco processing, trade and usage among the masses
    and the policy makers.

World –
42nd G7 Summit concluded in Japan

  • The 42nd G7 Summit was held at
    Ise-Shima in Japan for 2-days from 26 May to 27 May 2016. During the summit,
    the member countries discussed a wide range of major global economic and
    political challenges and approved the G7 Ise-Shima Leaders’ Declaration.
  • The summit assumed significance
    as it was the first one to be held after the adoption of the 2030 Sustainable
    Development Agenda by the United Nations in September 2015.
  • During the summit, global economy
    and trade, climate change and energy, development, health and quality
    infrastructure investment were discussed by the leaders.

Obituaries –
Veteran TV and film actor Suresh Chatwal passes away

  • Veteran TV and film actor Suresh
    Chatwal passed away on 29 May 2016 following a brief illness in Mumbai.
  • The actor was known for his role
    of Commissioner Suraj Agnihotri in F.I.R .
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This post was last modified on July 19, 2019 2:05 pm