Current Affairs Update – 3rd December, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 3rd December, 2015. These are Important for the upcoming IBPS Clerk Mains and Insurance Exams.

• The Reserve Bank of India on
  Monday, will infuse Rs 10,000 crore to ease a liquidity crunch in the money
  markets by buying government securities, and hold a repo auction for Rs 25,000
  crore on Friday.
• These operations are being
  conducted based on the current assessment of prevailing and evolving liquidity
  conditions, according to the central bank.
• Open Market Operations are market
  operations conducted by RBI by sale or purchase of government securities in
  order to adjust the liquidity conditions in the market. Festival related demand
  for cash in addition to slower government spending has tightened liquidity in
  the money market during the last two months.

• The Asian Development Bank (ADB)
  today kept its economic growth forecast for India unchanged at 7.4 per cent for
  the current financial year and 7.8 per cent for the next fiscal.
• ADB, however, warned of exports
  contracting due to weakness in external demand and the downside risk which the
  economy is facing due to sluggish private investment and weak rural demand.
• “India’s economy faces further
  downside risks from sluggish private investment and rural demand weakened by
  slow wage growth and muted increase in support prices for agricultural
  products,” ADB said in its ‘Outlook 2015 Supplement: Growth Holds Its Own
  in Developing Asia’.
• India is on track to reach the
  Update forecast of 7.4 per cent in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016, as
  growth picked up to 7.4 per cent in the second quarter (July-September) from
  7.0 per cent in the first quarter, ADB said.

• Online commerce giant Flipkart
  has acquired a strategic minority stake in navigation and tracking solutions
  provider MapmyIndia to strengthen its supply chain management.
• With Flipkart’s investment,
  MapmyIndia’s early financial investors, Nexus Venture Partners and Lightbox Ventures,
  would exit the company.
• However, details of the transaction
  were not disclosed.
• The deal will help Flipkart in
  its strategy to strengthen supply chain through technology as it will license
  map data and location technologies from MapmyIndia.
• MapmyIndia would continue to
  independently serve all consumers and enterprises across all industries with
  its full range of products and solutions.

• The Union Cabinet chaired by
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2 December 2015 approved signing and
  ratification of Protocol between India and Japan for amending the Double
  Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) in order to facilitate tax-related
  exchange of information.
• DTAC was signed between the two
  countries in 1989 for avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal
  evasion through a protocol.
• The protocol will facilitate
  exchange of information as per accepted international standards on tax matters,
  including bank information and information without domestic tax interest.

• The cumulative installed capacity
  of solar power in India has crossed the 5 GW mark.
• “While total commissioned utility
  solar capacity in India reaches 4.7 GW; rooftop capacity stands at 525 MW. In
  2015 year to date, close to 2 GW solar capacity has been commissioned,”
  Consultancy firm Bridge To India (BTI) said.
• BTI Managing Director Vinay
  Rustagi said in the statement, “Solar sector has got great momentum with
  capacity addition in 2015 more than doubling up over last year and total
  pipeline of over 15 GW of projects under bidding-cum-development.”
• Encouraged by falling costs and
  growing need for green energy, states like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka,
  Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have all announced substantial policy
  initiatives, he said.
• Rajasthan, Gujarat and MP have
  historically been the front runners, but the four southern Indian states are
  expected to dominate the market over next 2 years.

• The Union Ministry of Environment
  and Forest (MoEF) and climate change department (CCD) has awarded an
  environment clearance to the proposed Dholera airport in Ahmedabad district.
• In its bid to set up a
  world-class greenfield airport at Dholera, the Gujarat government had earlier
  applied for environmental clearance from the central government.
• As per an official statement by
  Gujarat government, a letter approving the airport was recently handed over by
  the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change Department to
  the Dholera International Airport Company.
• The special purpose vehicle
  (SPV), Dholera International Airport Company has been set up to develop the
  project by the state government.

• The government has completed only
  26 per cent of the National Highways construction target, with four months left
  in this financial year, according to a statement by the Roads Ministry.
• It targeted to complete 10,950 km
  of National Highways during 2015-16. Until October 31,2015 about 2,892 km have
  been constructed. Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways and
  Shipping Pon. Radhakrishnan said in a statement to the Rajya Sabha.
• The government has allocated
  Rs.81,114.60 crore through various schemes for the development of highways
  during this financial year, Mr. Radhakrishnan said.

• The Union Cabinet on 2 December
  2015 approved setting up of six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in
  Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Goa, Jammu, Kerala and Karnataka.
• The Cabinet also approved the
  operationalisation of these IITs by forming Societies under the Societies
  Registration Act, 1860 in order to give a legal status to them till the
  amendment for their incorporation in The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 is
  enacted.

• Each new IIT will have an initial
  intake of 180 students in its first year from temporary / transit which would
  increase to 450 in the second year and to 928 in the third year of their
  operation.
• The new IITs will be operated
  from their temporary campuses for the initial period of three years before
  shifting into their permanent campuses in the 4th year.
• Each IIT will have a sanctioned
  strength of faculty members with a faculty-student ratio of 1:10.

• The Union Cabinet on 2 December
  2015 approved the signing of the agreement between India and Iran on visa
  facilitation for Diplomatic, Official/Service and Ordinary passport holders.
• As per the agreement, upon
  presentation of an official note by the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs along
  with the visa application, the resident Diplomatic Missions in the host country
  would, within 20 working days, issue a gratis visa valid for 90 days for the
  holders of valid Diplomatic/Official/Service passports, assigned on long-term
  missions to the Diplomatic Missions or the Consulates General.
• Appropriate gratis visas of three
  months’ validity for visiting close family members (blood relations such as
  parents, siblings, adult children as well as in-laws) and visas for other close
  relatives of the assignees, on the payment of visa fees due would be issued.

• Justice Tirath Singh (TS) Thakur
  was on 3 December 2015 sworn in as 43rd Chief Justice of India (CJI) by
  President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. Thakur succeeded
  incumbent Justice H L Dattu who retired on 2 December 2015.
• He will have the tenure as CJI for
  over one year and will retire on 4 January 2017.

• Indian-American Dr Vijay M Rao
  was named as the chairperson of the prestigious Radiological Society of North
  America (RSNA) Board of Directors on 2 December 2015.
• As the chairperson at RSNA, Dr
  Rao brings her expertise in health services and policy matters to bear in a
  shifting healthcare landscape of increasing complexity and declining
  reimbursements.
• At the time of appointment in
  RSNA, Dr Rao was the David C Levin Professor and Chairperson of Radiology at
  Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.

• International Day of Persons with
  Disabilities was observed across the world on 3 December 2015 with the theme
  Inclusion matters: access and empowerment for people of all abilities.
• United Nations estimates say that
  about one billion people are living with disabilities across the world. They
  face barriers of inclusion in many key aspects of society.

• Pulin Kumar, Group Senior Legal
  and Compliance Director of Adidas India, on 26 November 2015 was conferred with
  the Indian National Bar Association’s (INBA) General Counsel of the year 2015 –
  Retail Award in New Delhi.
• Senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani
  presented the award to Kumar on the occasion of INBA’s Annual International
  Conference-66th National Law Day.
• Kumar has been conferred with the
  award for his contribution to the legal field in and outside India for more
  than 21 years.

• UNICEF, UNAIDS and partners on 30
  November 2015 released a report on prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Asia-Pacific
  region. It was entitled Adolescents: Under the Radar in the Asia-Pacific AIDS
  Response and was being released to mark the World AIDS Day observed on 1
  December 2015.
• As per the report, The HIV burden
  among adolescents falls heaviest on ten countries in the region, which together
  account for 98 per cent of adolescents aged 10 to 19 living with HIV in
  Asia-Pacific.
• These are: Cambodia, China,
  India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines,
  Thailand and Viet Nam.

• In 2012, while HIV prevalence in
  the age group younger than 25 years old was 3.5 percent, it was 4.9 percent
  among above 25 years age population.
• In India, 40 per cent of the
  estimated 3 million females in the sex industry are under 18, with 17 per cent
  under 15.
• In 2012, HIV prevalence among sex
  workers (under 25) was 1.7 percent.
• In 2013, HIV prevalence among
  people who inject drugs was 5.3 (under 25 age) and 7.7 (above 25 age).

• Megastar Amitabh Bachchan on
  Thursday became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL)
  team OUE Singapore Slammers.
• Bachchan will make a courtside
  appearance on December 20 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on the final day of
  the season. He will also be interacting with fans during the course of the day.
• The OUE Singapore Slammers,
  co-owned by the UD Group and Bachchan, are one of the five teams competing in
  the second edition of the IPTL. Singapore will host the final leg of the
  competition from December 18-20 to determine who will be the league champion
  for 2015.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

Sponsored

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Books For 2015 Banking/Insurance Exams