Current Affairs Update – 4th April, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the current affairs update of 4th April, 2015.

• Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Limited on 3 April 2015
  launched Smart Traveller that offers global coverage for students, individuals,
  families and frequent travellers.
• The SmartTraveller Insurance policy offers a choice of two
  major plans catering to Individuals and Families and frequent travelers through
  a variant known as Annual Multi Trip International travel insurance plan.
• Bharti AXA GI offers comprehensive and affordable
  international travel insurance solutions for different segments of travelers.
• The Bharti AXA GI Advantage gives individual and family
  plans for several travel exigencies like medical emergencies, loss of travel
  documents (Passport, tickets etc.), loss of checked-in baggage, compassionate
  visit in case of medical emergency, financial emergency, daily allowance if
  hospitalization is needed, among others.

• Union Minister of Commerce & Industry on 2 April 2015
  unveiled Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-2020. The policy was unveiled by
  Minister of State for Ministry of Commerce & Industry Nirmala Sitharaman at
  Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi.
• The new five year Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-20 provides a
  framework for increasing exports of goods and services as well as generation of
  employment and increasing value addition in the country, in keeping with the
  Make in India vision of Prime Minister.
• The focus of the new policy is to support both the
  manufacturing and services sectors, with a special emphasis on improving the
  ease of doing business.
• The release of Foreign Trade Policy was also accompanied by
  a FTP Statement explaining the vision, goals and objectives underpinning
  India’s Foreign Trade Policy, laying down a road map for India’s global trade
  engagement in the coming years.

• In the new policy FTP2015-20, two new schemes Merchandise
  Exports From India Scheme (MEIS) and Services Exports From India Scheme (SEIS)
  were introduced.
• MEIS is for export of specified goods to specified markets
  and SEIS is for increasing exports of notified services.  Duty credit scripts issued under MEIS and
  SEIS and the goods imported against these scrips are fully transferable. For
  grant of rewards under MEIS, the countries have been categorized into 3 Groups,
  whereas the rates of rewards under MEIS range from 2% to 5%. Under SEIS the
  selected Services would be rewarded at the rates of 3% and 5%.
• Measures have been adopted to nudge procurement of capital
  goods from indigenous manufacturers under the EPCG scheme by reducing specific
  export obligation to 75% of the normal export obligation. This will promote the
  domestic capital goods manufacturing industry. 

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 27 March 2015 launched Give
  it Up campaign. The campaign was launched at the annual energy-focussed summit
  Urja Sangam 2015.
• The campaign seeks to extort the better off sections of
  society to forego their liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) subsidy, which would be
  utilised in providing subsidised LPG connections to the poor.
• The Prime Minister asked companies and banks to encourage
  their employees to give up the subsidy on LPG. Gas cylinders surrendered by
  them would be transferred to the poor who use wood for cooking.
• The Give it Up campaign should be taken up on the lines of
  Swacch Bharat and Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao initiatives.

• The Union Government on 3 April 2015 extended the deadline
  for implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) deadline by six
  months in the states. 
• The deadline has already been extended twice for
  implementing the food law, was ending on April 4. The deadline was extended for
  the third time so that the remaining states adopt and implement the law within
  six months.
• Since passage by Parliament in September 2013, the NFSA has
  been implemented in 11 states and Union Territories (UTs). The rest 25
  states/UTs have not implemented it yet.
• At present, the Union Government allocates foograins to 11
  states/UTs as per the new food law, while the rest are getting foodgrains quota
  as per earlier PDS norms.

• Kochi arachnologists on 3 April 2015 discovered rare spiders
  in Western Ghats. Researchers at Division of Arachnology record the sighting of
  a huntsman and jumping spider in Western Ghats.
• The spiders belong to the Sparassidae and Salticidae
  families. The research team included Dr. Mathew M.J., Fr. Jobi Malamel and
  Pradeep Kumar M.S. and were led by Dr. P.A. Sebastian, director of the Division
  of Arachnology.
• The huntsman spider was sighted at Ponmudi, while the
  researchers found the jumping spider at the Malayattoor and Bhoothathankettu
  reserve forest.

• Mariyam Asif Siddiqui, a 12-year-old Muslim girl in March
  2015 won the first position at the Shrimad Bhagwad Gita Champion League. She
  won the prize for explaining the teachings of the Bhagwad Gita.
• Siddiqui who studies in Class 6 of Cosmopolitan High School
  at Mira Road near Mumbai won the contest from among 4500 students of 195
  schools.
• Mariyam said she learned from Bhagwad Gita that humanity is
  the biggest religion in this world.
• Shrimad Bhagwad Gita Champion League was an inter-school
  competition. It was organised by the International Society for Krishna
  Consciousness (ISKCON) in March 2015.

• Al-Shabaab on 2 April 2015 carried out a massacre killing
  147 people in the Garissa University College situated in Garissa County in
  northeastern Kenya.
• In all, 151 people were killed including 142 students, three
  security officers, two university security personnel and four militants who
  were killed by the security forces. The attack left 104 people injured,
  including 19 who are in critical condition.
• The college campus is situated 145 km away from the porous
  Somalia-Kenya border.
• Al-Shabaab is a Somalia-based militant organization and an
  al Qaeda affiliate.
• The group has vowed to retaliate against Kenya for sending
  troops to Somalia under Operation Linda Nchi in 2011 to fight the Al-Shabaab
  militants who had kidnapped foreigners and aid workers inside Kenya.

• Michael Rudenko, a committee member of the Minor Planet
  Center on 1 April 2015 officially named a minor planet as 4538 Vishyanand, to
  honour India’s first chess grandmaster, Vishwanathan Anand.
• The main-belt minor planet was discovered between the orbits
  of Mars and Jupiter by Kenzo Suzuki in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on 10
  October 1988. Since its discovery, the planet remained unnamed.
• With this, Anand joined former world chess champions
  Alexander Alekhine and Anatoly Karpov who have had a similar honour bestowed on
  them. Other sports personalities on whom such honours have been bestowed
  include Donald Bradman, Jesse Owens, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

• A senior Iranian sports official says the country’s
  authorities have partially lifted a ban on women attending men’s sports
  matches.
• Deputy Sports Minister Abdolhamid Ahmadi is quoted by the official
  IRNA news agency today as saying that Iran’s State Security Council has
  approved a plan by his ministry to allow women and families to attend some
  sports events.
• Ahmadi cautioned that not all matches or stadiums would
  allow women, but did not elaborate.
• The announcement comes after FIFA President Sepp Blatter
  urged Iran earlier this year to end the ban on women watching football in
  stadiums.
• Women have been banned from attending men’s sports matches
  since the 1979 revolution that brought hard-line Islamic clerics to power.
  However, Iran has allowed foreign women to attend matches of their national
  teams.

• A grassroot level swimming programme named after the most
  successful swimmer at the Olympic Games, American superstar Michael Phelps, is
  set to be launched in Mumbai first on April 11 before it spreads its wings to
  other parts of the country.
• Cathy Bennett, the childhood coach of Phelps who clinched a
  staggering 18 Olympic gold medals spread across three Games from 2004 to 2012
  and 26 world titles, is the moving force behind the ‘Michael Phelps Swimming
  Programme’ which has been brought to India by ‘Waveline Sports’.
• Phelps is the owner, president and CEO of the programme –
  developed by Bennett – which is taught in over 30 states in the U.S. and in
  over 20 countries across six continents.
• Among the partners for the programme in Mumbai are Ajmera
  Global School, Ryan International Schools, Body Rhythm Club, I Land Sports
  Academy, Matunga Gymkhana and Sports Gurukul.

• On April 2 every year, the global autism community
  celebrates World Autism Awareness Day, which was declared in perpetuity by the
  United Nations in 2007.
• 2015 Theme: Employment: The Autism Advantage
• It is estimated that more than 80% of adults with autism are
  unemployed.

• Malli Mastan Babu, the 40-year-old missing Indian
  mountaineer, was found dead in the Andes mountain ranges in Chile in South
  America by the helicopter search teams, his family sources said here on
  Saturday.
• He went missing in the mountains on March 24 when three
  other members of his expedition returned because of the weather suddenly
  turning hostile with heavy rains and gales.
• He last called his family members on March 21 before
  starting the climb. The Indian Mission in Chile had intervened and intense
  search operations were launched after Babu did not return after several days.
• Mastan Babu had earlier scaled several insurmountable
  mountain peaks and achieved records and accomplishments all over the world. He
  was the first person from Andhra Pradesh to scale Mt. Everest in the Himalayas.
• The family members were saddened at the sudden twist of fate
  as they had been confident of Mastan Babu returning home safely, as in the
  past. He faced similar difficult situations earlier but had overcome them.
• Mastan Babu had the distinction of setting a Guinness Book
  record by surmounting seven peaks in seven continents in 172 days in 2006.

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Regards

Team ExamPundit

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